The Lord has promised to be with
His people. He has on this occasion appeared
to Moses in a burning bush. It was a bush that never was
consumed by the fire. And the Lord spoke to Moses out
of it. This is to get Moses' attention. And once having got his attention,
the Lord has some very valuable things that He wants to speak
to him. And I'm sure you will agree with me, if the Lord has
anything He wants to say to us, if He wants to speak to us, if
He wants to teach us, He has to get our attention. And I'll
tell you, sometimes it's hard to get our attention. But I promise
you this, if He has something to say to you, and you're one
of His people, if He has something He's going to teach you, He has
something He's going to instruct you about. He will arrest your
attention. He has a multitude of ways of
doing that. He may be through sickness, put
you on your sickbed, you've got time to think. You've got time
to be still. Do you remember the Lord said,
be still and know that I am God. And our problem is we're not
still very often. We're moving. We're going. The
mind is racing. It's over here. It's over there.
We have a multitude of things going on. And he says, be still. Stop. Hear me. And the Lord has stopped
Moses. Stopped him, as the word is,
very tracks. And he goes over to the bush
and he says, I think I'll turn aside and see what this is all
about. He's seen many a thorny bush in the desert, but not one
that was on fire and yet it wasn't burned up. And so then as he
got nearer, a voice told him to take his shoes off. You're in an unusual place, Moses. You're in the place where God
is speaking to you in an audible voice. Take your shoes off. You're standing on holy ground. And the Lord introduced Himself
to Moses. He said, this is who I am. I'm the God of Abraham and of
Isaac and of Jacob. And the Lord says that many times.
And indeed, at the end of the reading tonight, He said it a
couple of times. And this is what Moses is to
say to the children of Israel. When Moses asked, and I'll give
you a little prelude, To the second question, he says, who
shall I say has sent me? The Lord said, first of all,
I am that I am. And then he said, I'm the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I'm the covenant God. Why should
we listen to the voice of God? Why should we listen to the word
of God? None of us will ever hear the
audible voice of God, not in this world. But we do hear His
voice through His Word. The Gospel is His voice. My sheep
hear my voice. And I know them and they follow
me. We hear the voice. We hear the
voice of the Shepherd. He's our Savior. He's the Redeemer. And the Lord
speaks to us through His Word. We won't hear His voice like
Samuel did. when he was just a young lad
in the tabernacle. And the Lord said, Samuel, Samuel,
and he gets up and he runs into Eli, who was an elderly man,
and said, what do you need? I'm here to help you. What do
you want? And he said, I didn't call you
to go back to bed. And that happened a second time,
and it happened a third time. And Samuel goes in to Eli and
he says, why do you keep calling me? And Samuel or Eli perceived
that Samuel was being called by the Lord. The Lord's calling
his name. He does call his sheep by name. Eli said, you go back to bed. When you hear the voice, call
your name again. Say, here am I, Lord. Here I
am. Speak, Lord, for Thy servant
heareth. I'm ready to hear what You have
to say. That's the way we should always come to the Word of God. Lord, I'm ready to hear what
You've got to say. And so Moses is ready. God's
got His attention. And the Lord says in verse 7,
He says several things. Look at verse 7. He said, I have
surely seen the affliction of My people. That's number one.
I've seen. Don't ever, don't ever think
that God doesn't see you. You who are the people of God,
The Lord sees exactly the situation you're in because He put you
there. You're one of His own. I have
surely seen the affliction of my people. You say, I'm afflicted. Do you think the Lord doesn't
see that? Who afflicted you? And then he says, secondly, he
said, I've heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters.
I've heard their cry. I've heard their groans. I've
heard their moans. I've seen, I see, I hear. Every groan you make to God,
He hears. The Lord said, my ears are ever
open unto your cries. You cry to Him. His ears are
not stopped up. He's not deaf. He can hear the least little
whisper. He hears the whisper of your heart. Isn't that good
to know? When you can't even put how you
feel and what you'd like to say to the Lord, when you can't unburden
your heart to the Lord with words, with vocabulary like you would
like to, and you just struggle, you struggle to cry out to God,
He hears those cries. He hears those groanings that
can't be uttered. Romans chapter 8. And thirdly,
he says, I know their sorrows. You think he doesn't know? Do
you think he doesn't care? He's not
an idol. He's not an unfeeling dictator
or tyrant. He's your everlasting God. He's the one who loved you from
all eternity. He wrote your name down in the
Lamb's Book of Life. He gave His Son to be your Savior. I know your sorrows. Sometimes when you have something
that's burdening you or troubling you, and you say, I just, I want
to, I need to talk to somebody. See, you call up a good friend
or it's your husband or your wife, hopefully that's your best
friend, and you talk, you just kind of unburden yourself. I'm
so troubled about this. And after you talk to a person
about it, you know, I feel a little bit better. I went to visit a
lady years ago. It was up in Michigan. husband had passed away. In fact,
I was there just a few hours before he died, just watching
and waiting, praying with him. He wasn't conscious. After he passed away, I went
to see his wife. His wife said, I'm so thankful
the Lord doesn't leave me alone. But you said, Jim, I will have
to be honest with you about this. Sometimes it's good to talk to
somebody that I can actually see. And I said, I understand
what you mean. But I'll tell you what's more
important than you talking to somebody that you can see. God speaks to you through His
Word, though you can't see Him. He's there. Always. And He knows. I know you sorrows. That's what God says. And He
says, fourthly in verse 8, I've come down. I've come down to
do what? To deliver. I've come down to
save. I've come down to rescue. And isn't that why Christ Jesus
came into this world? He came. He's come down. He's come down. Why? To deliver. To save. To rescue His lost,
pitiful people. And then He says, and to bring
them up. I like that. To bring them up. The Lord's
going to bring us up one day. bring us up to everlasting glory,
to a land more glorious than the land of Canaan was to the
Israelites. And so the Lord says in verse
9, now therefore behold the cry of the children of Israel, it's
come unto me. I've also seen the oppression
wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them. Learn this. Number one,
God sees his people and what's going on with his people. But
number two, God sees what the enemy's doing. We may not know what the enemy
is doing, and we don't know what the scheme is, what the devices
of the evil one is, those devices against us. We don't know, but
the Lord knows the oppression of the Egyptians. The Lord knows
the world's attitude toward us. The world knows the attitude
of false religion toward those who believe the gospel of sovereign
grace and effectual redemption and the powerful call of the
Spirit and the everlasting nature of God's salvation. The Lord
knows, He knows who we are and He knows who the enemy is. That
should make us happy. That's all we need to know. And
so God says in verse 10, well you come therefore, I'm going
to send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, bring forth
my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt. Wow! Now this hits
Moses like a ton of bricks. What an awesome responsibility! The Lord has laid on him this
duty this ministry of going to the
children of Israel, telling them who He is and what He's come
to do, and then He's going to go before Pharaoh, and then He's
going to lead the children of Israel, hundreds and hundreds
of thousands of people, all the way to the land of promise. And
Moses said, I'm in trouble here. I'm in over my head. And so he asks the first question. And that's in verse 11. Who am
I? Who am I that I should go to
Pharaoh? I'm nobody. That's what he's
saying. I'm a shepherd. I'm one who's hated by Pharaoh. I'm one who is unwelcomed among
my own people. They know me as a murderer. Who am I? Who am I? I'm unworthy. I'm unfit. I'm in exile in a foreign country. I have no influence. I'm not
respected. Who am I? And certainly, all of God's people
in general raise that question when it comes to salvation. Who
am I? Who am I that God would deal
with me? Who am I that a king would bleed
and die for? Who am I that he should pray,
not my will, thine Lord? The answer, I may never know
why he ever loved me so, but to an old rugged cross he'd go,
for who am I? Don't you find yourself asking
the question, who am I that God would save me? I'm a sinful man by birth, an
alien by nature, opposed to the way of salvation by grace alone,
through Christ alone and His sacrifice alone. I'm no different
than any other son of Adam. Why'd God choose me? Why'd God
set His love on me? Why did He send His Son to be
my Redeemer when others will live and die without a Redeemer? Why did He send this glorious
representative of the covenant of grace into this world to live
for me and then to die for me? I'm so unworthy of the least
of His mercies. I'll echo the words of Jacob
who said that. Why? Why me? Who am I? Who am I? Look over at 1 Corinthians chapter
15, and I was thinking about this verse this morning when
I was working on this message, and surely Every child of God
can, to some degree, identify with the apostle Paul. We can't identify with him as
being an apostle, of course, because there are no more apostles.
But we can identify with him in that he was an enemy to the
gospel of grace, He was all wrapped up in works religion, which is
the religion of every man by nature. Every woman by nature
is a works monger. Because we just naturally think,
the more I do for God, the more God will do for me. God does
for those who do for Him. God takes care of those who take
care of Him. We have this wrong idea that
salvation somehow is to be earned and merited and that it's a reward
for our obedience unto God. That just comes naturally. Don't get opposed. Don't get
upset with people when they say, well, I'm trying to... A lady
told me not too long ago, I'm trying to make God happy. And I knew what she was indicating
or what the implication was. If I make God happy, he'll take
me home. He'll take me to heaven. But
that's the religion of all mankind. It doesn't matter what your religion,
what the denomination is. Nancy and I were talking about
this a while ago. This person, this lady that I
know, she's very nice, very friendly, and she's a Muslim. And I heard she was in the store
and somebody said, give me a pack of cigarettes. She said, I can't
get those. I said, did somebody else have
to? Because that would violate her religion. I was telling Nancy,
I said, she's such a nice lady. And a lot of so-called evangelicals
wouldn't have anything whatsoever to do with her. Let me tell you
something. She's lost, just like the Catholics
are lost, just like the Methodists are lost. Say, yeah, but she
prays to Allah and they pray to God. They don't pray to God.
We need to get on the same page here. You see, false religionists
are all peas in the same pod. They all are. It doesn't matter
what flavor it is. It doesn't matter whether it's
Muslim or Shinto or Shintoism or Baptist or Methodist or whatever
the case may be. All men are false religionists. And when I say men, I mean you
ladies too. All men and women are false religionists
by nature. And it takes the almighty grace
of God to get that out of us and put new life within us. and
then make Christ to be our all in all. We can identify with
the Apostle Paul. Look here in 1 Corinthians 15
verse 10. He says, but by the grace of
God, I am what I am. And His grace which was bestowed
upon me was not in vain, it never is. God's grace is never bestowed
in vain. But I labored more abundantly
than they all. Yet, it wasn't me. It wasn't me. But the grace of God which was
active within me. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. He said, I'm not fit to be an
apostle. I'm the least of all the apostles. He talked about
having persecuted the church, and yet he said, here I am. I'm
an apostle of Jesus Christ. Not because I chose to be, not
because I earned it, not because I deserved it, But by the grace of God, I am
what I am. Don't you feel that way about
yourself and your salvation? But by the grace of God, I am
what I am. I was reading an article that
a preacher wrote, and all of us preachers, we can say things wrong. And he
said something very wrong, but proves he's just a man. He said,
it's like the Bible says, I am what I am by the grace of God.
It's not what it says. We so like that word I. It doesn't begin, I am what I
am by the grace of God. It doesn't start with I. It starts with the grace of God.
By the grace of God, I am what I am. I know a little bit about what
I am by nature. But I'd heap rather talk to you
about what I am by grace. Preacher, I know what I am by
nature. Tell me what I am by grace. I'm
a believing sinner. By the grace of God, I am a believing
sinner. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
don't you? I believe Him. I believe Him. And we have to be careful here. You know, we trust Christ. That's who we trust. Sometimes
in our preaching we'll say, trust the blood of Jesus. You know, you'll never find that
expression in the Bible. It's always trust Him. We'll
sometimes say, and I've said this, just trust the merits of
the Son of God. Doesn't say that. Trust His name. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. What must I do
to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Do you get what I'm saying? It's
believe Him. Call upon the name of the Lord. I'm a believing sinner. I believe
Him. you might not be able to go back
to the exact day, place, time, circumstances when you first
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe your conversion was not
a tremendous act of grace that
you felt it from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet
like Saul of Tarsus did. It may have been your conversion
was, and I think this happens with many people today, almost
kind of slowly. And then you find yourself believing
the gospel. But it's not I know how I believe,
though we do. And it isn't really I know The
Apostle Paul said, he didn't say, I know whom I believe. He
said, I know whom I have believed. It's a whom. It's a whom. Forget
about where. Forget about when. If we're not
careful, we'll make those things an idol. It's all about Him. We believe Him. Life's in Him. Salvation's in Him. I'm a believing
sinner. Number two, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. What am I? I'm a believing sinner. I'm a forgiven sinner of all
of my sins. Number three, I'm a justified
sinner. By the grace of God, I'm a justified
sinner. I am, by God, declared to be
righteous even right now. Jim, you don't seem very righteous
to me. Well, you don't see me like God
sees me. God sees me in His Son. There's a righteous man. You see, I don't really see myself
as God sees me. Because I look within and I see
no good thing. Isn't that what you see when
you look within you? That's what the Apostle said
he saw. He said when I look within I
see no good thing. But when God looks within me,
when God examines me, he sees the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I am accepted in the Beloved.
I'm a justified sinner. By the grace of God, what am
I? Number four, I'm a child of God. Who am I? I'm nobody. I come from nowhere. People said you'll never amount
to anything. And in myself, that's true. But by the grace of God, I'm
a child of God. And by the grace of God, I'm
a saint. I'm sanctified. Don't look very
sanctified to me. What does somebody who's sanctified
look like? I am Saint James. And you're
a saint too. The epistles are written to the
saints of God. To those who are sanctified in
Christ Jesus. Who am I? I'm an heir of eternal
glory. And I am, by the grace of God,
get a hold of this. By the grace of God, I am a sinless
man. God sees no sin in me. Look with
me in Romans chapter 6. Let me show you something here. Romans chapter 6. Look at verse 6. Romans 6, 6, knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of
sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve
sin. For he that is dead is freed
from sin. If you have a sinner column,
it says justify. We're justified from sin. We're
declared by God to be righteous. The very righteousness of God
in Christ. Verse 8. Now if we be dead with
Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Knowing that
Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath
no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died
unto sin once. but in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. God says, reckon yourselves to
be dead to sin. That's how God reckons us to
be, and I reckon He sees things as they really are. We're dead to sin. Oh, how glorious is our position
in Christ. Moses said, Who am I? Who am I? And you know, we'll
go back to that passage and I'll just show you a couple of other
things. He says, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that
I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? Who am I that I should be a preacher? Who am I that I should be a pastor? Who am I? Well, notice the Lord's answer. Remember the subject is questions
and answers. So I'm only going to get really
to the first question and answer tonight. Here's the Lord's answer
to the first question. This is very important. Don't
miss this. And He said, certainly I will be with thee.
That's the answer. That's an unusual answer, isn't
it Jim? Well, actually no. Because you see Moses, he's concerned
about himself. Who am I? But the Lord, in His answer,
He shows us that Moses should have been more occupied with
who is with him. And the Lord says, I'll be with
you. I'll be with you. And I say to all of you who are
the Lord's people, you ask, Who am I in each of you in your
own hearts? Who am I, Lord, that You'd call
me? Who am I to do this work that
You have laid upon my heart to do, that You've opened the door
for me to do? Here's what you need to know.
The Lord is with you. That's all you need to know.
That's all the answer you need. Who am I? Well, I'm with you. And I'll never
leave you. I'll never forsake you. And if
you dwell on that, you'll discover that's a really sweet answer
to the first question. Who am I? And don't worry about that. Don't worry about who you are.
You'd be more concerned with who I am, the Lord says. And
I am with you. Well, let's sing a closing song.