In the first six chapters of
Exodus, the third chapter, you have Moses in the backside of
the desert, God appearing unto him in the burning bush. and
calling him aside and giving Moses a work to do. And we pick
up our reading in the seventh verse, and the Lord said, I have
surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt,
and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know
their sorrows. And I've come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptian and to bring them up out of that
land into a land good and large, into a land flowing with milk
and honey, under the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites,
and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry
of the children of Israel is come up before me, And I have
also seen the oppression whereby the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now, therefore, and I will
send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God,
Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, that I should bring
forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, certainly
I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee that
I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth
a people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. Moses said unto God, behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto
them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you, and they
shall say unto me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. And he said, thou shalt say unto
the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses,
thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord
God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Jacob, the
God of Isaac has sent me unto you. Watch. This is my name forever. This is my memorial unto all
generations. I am that I am, and this is my
name forever. We begin with a little introduction
concerning the vessel of God in this, and that is the man
Moses. Now Moses was after the flesh,
but a common and an ordinary man born out of Israel. But he was to have an uncommon
and an extraordinary part to play in the purpose of God that
had been established with Abraham, reaffirmed in Isaac, and then
again in Jacob. He wants to be like Paul, a special
vessel unto God in a mighty and a wondrous work toward the children
of Israel to deliver them from the captivity of Pharaoh and
bring them into the land flowing with milk and with honey even
into the land of Canaan. Now there are two great things
about Moses that prepared him and spared him for this great
work. Now, the first one was his being
preserved at birth by the providence of God. For as you remember,
all little boy babies were under the sentence of death by the
decree of the Pharaoh, king in the land of Egypt. But the midwives
defied the decree of the king and saved the little boy babies
alive. And when Moses' mother could
no longer hide him, you remember the story, it's in the second
chapter of the book of Exodus that she fashioned a little art
for Moses. and placed him in it, put him
among the reeds and the bulrushes in the river in that particular
place, whereby the providence of God, he was taken into the
house of Pharaoh. by his daughter and raised actually
in the house of Pharaoh as the very daughter of Pharaoh's daughter,
as the very son of Pharaoh's daughter and was called as her
son. Now Moses is an important man
in the scripture. Moses was inspired first to write
the five first books of the Bible are authored by Moses. And in chapter three, we have
our lead in to our text for this particular study of the gray
I am. As I mentioned, in verse one
through six, you have Moses at the burning bush and the call
of God unto him." Now, the second thing that we have here in this
book is the call of God upon Moses to go and deliver the children
of Israel out of the bondage in the land of Egypt. John Owens
reminds us that Moses is the first inspired writer of the
sacred and the Holy Scripture. And in chapter 3, we have the
record of the commission of Moses to be that mediator and to deliver
the children out of the land of Egypt. In fact, the 10th verse
is very clear about that matter. Now beginning at chapter 7 through
verse 10, rather chapter 3 verse 7 through verse 10, God tells
Moses that he will deliver Israel by his hand and under his leadership. Now from verse 11 and forward
Moses does his best that he might recuse himself from this great
task that God has laid upon him. And he does so on the ground
of humility, I guess, or perhaps partly fear, for he tried it
one time and failed to deliver his brethren. But on the grounds
that he was not competent to act in this capacity, he begs,
therefore, to be let off of the great tad. Chapter 3, verse 11,
who am I? that I should do so. Who am I? Moses, a keeper of sheep in the
backside of the desert, that I should do so. He says, Moses,
or rather Israel, is not going to believe me. When I go unto
them, chapter 4 and verse 1, and they will say, the Lord has
not appeared unto you. When I go and tell them, come,
Let's go out of the land." Surely their reply and their thought
will be, God has not spoken to you. God has not sent you. Chapter four and verse 10, Moses
said, I'm not an eloquent man. I'm slow and I'm dull of speech
and am not a good speaker or a good tongue. I'm not eloquent. I'm not fluent in the language. I'm not silver-tongued. And beside
that, he said, you have never spoken unto me before in this
fashion at all. So let's make, if we might, a
quick point about this, that Moses feels inadequate for the
task that God has laid upon him. And in that, he joins others. of the character of the Bible
in having that humility that is not worthy or that is not
competent to work in such a fashion. For example, there is Gideon
that we read about in the book of Judaea, who was sent to deliver
from the Midianites. And in Judaea chapter 6 and verse
15, Gideon says this, wherefore shall I save Israel? My family is poor in Manasseh,
and I am the least in all of my father's house. Well, you
have Jeremiah chapter 1 and verse 8. I cannot speak for I am a
child, he said, as God revealed his purpose unto him. There's
Paul in the New Testament who asks the question, who is sufficient
for these things that you have laid upon me? Finally, Moses
would beg off in another way, chapter 4 and verse 13, seeking
to decline the mission set before him as Jonah had done in Jonah
chapter 1 and verse 3. For in the 11th verse, the Lord,
however, overturns each and every excuse and objection that Moses
brings forth. Who am I that I should command
Pharaoh? The Lord's answer, I will be
with you. I will go. I will care. I will
be with you. Chapter 4, verse 1, Moses said,
they will not believe me, neither will they listen unto me that
I have heard from the Lord. And God says to him, I will endow
you with confirming sign that you are on a mission from God. As credentials of your authority
and as your commission from me, I will enable you to do great
and mighty miracle and signs before Pharaoh and the Egyptian. In chapter 4 and verse 10, Moses
again argued, as we said, I am not an eloquent man. We remember that neither was
Paul. My speech, he said, is not eloquent
or filled with the wisdom of words. And the Lord says to him,
to Moses, who made man's mouth? Who is it that is Lord of the
vocal cords and the tongue and the mouth and the throat and
all of that? And in Exodus chapter 4 and verse
12, I will be with your mouth. I take that to mean I will put
my words, I will put the proper words in your mouth that you
ought to say. I will guide you in what it is
that you ought to say as you perform these great tasks. In chapter 4, verse 13, commentators
are divided here as to exactly what Moses meant by the word. Could he be asking God to send
someone else in his place or Is he now submitted unto the
will and the purpose of God? I'll not use time discussing
the question here this morning at this place. But coming to
our principle or our primary text, in Exodus 3, 13 and 14
concerning the name I Am. Upon hearing the assignment,
Moses poses a question in the 13th verse. Now he said, when
I go to Egypt and when I say, under the children of Israel,
I am sent by the God of your father, and they ask me, what
is his name? In whose name have you come? Moses said, what shall I tell
them? What name shall I use? What name
shall I give them in answer under their question? Now back in verse
6, God had identified himself to Moses as the Lord God of your
father Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as when the Lord appeared unto
Saul of Tarsha. And Saul said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord answered, I am Jesus
of Nazareth, whom you have persecuted. Moses then anticipates them asking,
What is his name? In whose name have you come? In whose authority do you presume
to take this upon you? The one who sent you, literally,
who is it that sent you? Because you see, the name identifies
the person. And the person is identified
by the name. I suppose that Moses has in mind
the question that Israel and even Pharaoh might ask in chapter
5, verse 1 and 2. When Pharaoh heard that, who
is this God of Israel? I know not this God of Israel
that you're talking about. The footnote in the New Geneva
King James Bible has this to say, quote, a personal name. was not merely a form of address,
but it was a description of the character and the personality
of the person who is named, unquote. And that is reflected in the
name that is used here in our text this morning. Now, there
are some of the great names of God that are used in the scripture,
particularly early in the scripture in Moses' great composition in
Genesis. There is the name Elohim, is
a name of God, that is God. Jehovah, or the Lord, El Shaddai,
or the El Almighty One, or then there is the name El Elyon, Most
High God. And these names all describe
something about the character and the being of God. I have
a book by a man named Andrew Jukes, and he goes through all
of the names of God that are used in the Old Testament scripture. And he wrote this, and I quote,
no one name can express his fullness, unquote. So all these names at
one time or another are applied unto God. Different names by
which he is known are a result of the manifold perfection and
the attribute that dwell in him. He is God. He is forever, He's
the Almighty, and so forth. So His names declare Him, and
they match His being, His power, His eternality, His holiness,
His great attribute, and such like. As an example, in the New
Testament, Matthew 1, thou shalt call His name Jesus. for he shall save his people
from their sin. Now the name Jesus is the word
Savior. So he shall be called Jesus,
Jesus Savior, for he shall save his people from their sin. Now, settling in here to verse
13 and 14, and the great name that he is given. We notice here,
what is his name? What shall I say? What shall
I answer? What shall I tell them? And then
the 14th verse, and let's turn aside and hear this, if we might,
like Moses did. God said to Moses, I am that
I am. Notice something about it, whichever
version you have this morning, that it is all in caps in the
English, in the King James, in the Geneva, in the NASB, and
the ASB, all of it in caps. Now concerning God's name or
names as they appear in the scripture, there is a definite connection
between a person and their name in the scripture. And even among
men, the name reflects significant information about the person,
their being, and their character, their life, and such like. God's names are a revelation
of his being. and of his attribute, of his
purpose, and all of those things that we meet with in the scripture. And let us not forget that God
is self-named. No one gave him these names. It is the name that he claims
and accounts unto himself. He is not man-named. These are names that God used. And he put his name among Israel,
and that is important. as to how he wants to be known. And in this case, and from this
time forward, it wants to be this, I am that I am. And again, in our text, when
Moses asked, what name should he use that he might identify
God, he received a clear answer. And I guess we could say that
it has two parts. Number one, God said to Moses
directly, I am that I am. I am who I am. Calvin wrote that the Hebrew
word is in the future tense, yet having present tense, at
one and the same time. Here's what Calvin said, quote,
it designates the perpetual duration of time, unquote. I am that I am. I am what I have
been. I am what I am. I will be what I will be. All of that wrapped up in this
great name. For Moses desires a name that
would be a distinguishing mark of his mission and he got it. I am that I am. Now some have expressed it this
way. This is a very hard scripture
for those of us unskilled to unravel. But some have expressed
it this way. One, I am because I am. Number two, I am who I am. And number three, I will be what
I will be. So, I am that I am is expressed
in those ways. Now, the Lord tells Moses, I
am has sent you. I am has sent me. When they ask,
tell them that. and tell them I am, as down in
verse 15, if you look at it, this is my name forever, a memorial
to all generation. That is, by this name or by this
title, he would be known among them from that time forward in
their history and relation with him. And expositors believe that
it is to be a name best related to the covenant of God with Israel
first made and established in Abraham, the covenant of God. That it was the name, therefore,
most used in their prayer and in their praise. And some say
that it was considered the most holy of all of the names of God
that was revealed and used by the people. And some say that
the Jews considered it even too holy to pronounce. And according
to the Jew, they might substitute the word odone for it, my lord,
my lord, to avoid profaning what they consider to be the most
holy high name of their god that they worship. I'm going to just
a thought here in passing by how irreverently in our day and
in our time the names of God and the name of Jesus Christ
is so irrelevant. so irreverently thrown about
in our day and time. I doubt you go through a day
that you don't hear a hundred times, oh my God, simply because
they saw this or heard that. All day long it has become a
habit, oh my God. And the name Jesus is thrown
about and the name Christ without the slightest thought of its
meaning, of its holiness, and of the person who is known in
the scripture by that name. But let's go and consider the
word or the name I am. And if you look at it here, you
see that we have it three times in our verse in Exodus 3 and
14. Sometimes it is reduced. This
name is to the initials Y-H-W-H. It is a form I read of the verb
hoyah. and it is, if I understand from
the same root as Jehovah, and is most often translated Lord
in the Old Testament Scripture hundreds and hundreds of times,
that is the translation of the word Lord. Three times in the
early verses here in Exodus chapter 3, verse 2, verse 4, verse 7. The same word is rendered Jehovah
in King James, in Exodus 6-3, Psalm 83-18, and Isaiah 12 and
verse 2. The word Am in Exodus chapter
3 and verse 14 means to exist. It means to be. He is not made
by any other. He is not evolved. He did not
even make himself. He never was non-existent. Think about that. I am, to be,
exist. I am and always has. He has no
beginning, He can have no end. Who can have no beginning, can
have no end. In other words, what we're saying
is God is truly eternal. That means He had no beginning. There never was a time, if time
we may call it, when God did not exist. He is the eternal,
the everlasting One. He was before all things, no
matter what things you consider. Before the world, before time,
God existed. I am. In fact, There could be
no time if God had not created the heaven, the earth, and man
to dwell and such like. So God is the everlasting and
eternal one. There's something else that is
interesting in Exodus chapter 6 and verse 2 and 3. And God spake unto Moses and
said unto him, I am the Lord. And I appeared unto Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob by the name of God Almighty. But by my name Jehovah was I
not known unto them. In verse 2, I the Lord. This word or name or title, if
you will, is the same as Jehovah in verse 3. Jehovah and mean
the self-existent one, the eternal one. And as some say, this name
Jehovah became the Jewish national name for God. Lord, so many times in the Old
Testament, the same as I am as I am. But look again at verse
3 of Exodus chapter 6 and what he said, I appeared unto Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my name
Jehovah was I not known unto them. But the verse goes on. I was not known unto them by
Jehovah. Jehovah signifies, therefore,
the existence or being I am that I am. Yea, the first, the beginning,
the fountain of being. Beside me there is none else. Now, it was not that the patriarch
never heard the name Jehovah, but they knew not all that was
signified or that was included by that great name by which God
would be known. So there at Exodus 3 and 14,
A new thing added, as Matthew Henry wrote, quote, God would
now be known by his name Jehovah, unquote. I am that I am. Tell them I am has sent you,
that I am has spoken. Thus, we might say, the light
of revelation to the people of God was increased here through
Moses by the name that is given or that is used. The essential
name of God in the scripture. This is the name God would be
known by and was known by hundreds and hundreds of times in the
Old Testament scripture. Now, pardon the short digression
concerning this name, but the Jews developed what John Gill
called, quote, a false and superstitious notion," unquote, about this
name. Josephus, the historian, said
that it was not lawful for a man to speak it, to speak this name,
that it was so holy, that this is the common notion of the Jew,
wrote Josephus, that it is ineffable and not lawful to be pronounced. I've read that a Jew might be
writing and come across that name and lay aside his pen, wash
his hand before he took up his writing again. Substituted, therefore,
they did Adonai or Elohim for this great Holy, reverent name
by which God has revealed himself. But by using the name I Am or
Jehovah or Lord, as we have said, it designates a perpetual duration
which is synonymous with eternity, that God is everlasting. And this is the exclusive claim
and property of the Almighty God. And he's called Jehovah
because he is eternal and everlasting. Now that means that he has an
independent existence. He's not dependent upon anything
or anyone for his existence as we are. Independent existence
belongs only unto God, so that this attribute is the forerunner
of all other of the great attributes of God. His eternality is the
perfection of his essence, of his Godhead, of his divinity. A psalmist wrote in Psalm 90
and verse 2, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. Now if God had a beginning, he
would not be God because anything that has a beginning is created
and therefore is neither eternal nor divine. If he had a beginning,
he would not be God. And therefore, if he had a beginning,
might have an ending. And this cannot be with our great
and eternal God. Here's something that the Puritan
preacher and expositor Stephen Charnock wrote, one of the best
on the attributes of God, about the eternality of God. He said
this, and I quote, eternity is the choice perfection of God,
yea, the gloss and the luster of all others, unquote. All other attributes. take their
glow and their luster from the eternality of God. Again, Herman
Bevinck said about the same thing, that all other divine attributes
are derived from this one, that is, the eternality of God. Since God is eternal, since he
is from everlasting, that he was not created, He was not born
into any Godhead by any action outside of himself, nor did he
come into being accidentally akin to the explosion, as they
like to say. He did not evolve in any way. He is the eternal, uncreated
God, which means that being eternal He is therefore self-existent,
for that must stand together. And yet, not in the sense of
having caused himself. He didn't cause himself. That
would be an impossibility. Not in the sense that he at some
time became God. He always was. and is what he
is now. But he's being God so that he
is the existing one. I am. Now from this great doctrine
flow some very great attributes of the Almighty God. We'll talk
about some of them, but quickly, such as the aseity of God and
the independence of God, the immensity of God, the infinity
of God, and some interchange infinity and aseity. That by his aseity he exists
in himself. That is, he has life in himself. He does not need to take in energy
from any other source or life from any other source. He has
life in himself. The Lord Jesus said that. The
Father has life in himself, and the Son has life in himself. Now, some speak of the solitariness
of God, that there was a time, if it may be called, when God
dwelt all alone. When there was no earth, when
there were no man, no creature, and such life, that would be
the solitariness of God. When he dwelt all alone in his
great eternality. There must have been. For only
God is absolutely eternal, from everlasting to everlasting. And he predated all that was
made. He lived or had his being before
anything was made. Now, being alone, God was not
lonely. I've heard preachers say that
God was lonely and he wanted somebody to fellowship with,
somebody to talk to. God cannot be lonely. He cannot
have any need that must be met outside of himself. A. W. Prink wrote, God was alone,
self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied, in need of nothing,
unquote, as God's independence makes him both superior and different
from all other beings. For no other being is absolutely
independent of any outside. There is the infinity of God
as an attribute. Psalm 147 and verse 5. God is said to be infinite in
His understanding. And His infinity means that it
is without limits. It doesn't have any bounds. His
infinity is unending and therefore the margin has it there is no
number. No number can reach or count.
Such is true of all of his attributes. He possesses them all to absolute
infinity. There's no number unto them and
the excellence thereof. Then there is the immensity of
God, that he is unmeasurable, he is past finding out. Nobody can find out God unto
perfection. And the acety, and the infinity,
and the immensity of God in regard to time equals eternity, that
he is the eternal God. The Eternal God, Deuteronomy
33, 27. 1 Timothy 1 and verse 17. Infinity and immensity, therefore,
applied to space equals omnipresent. That God is present in every
place. Psalm 139 is very clear about
that. Do not I fill heaven and earth,
Jeremiah 23 and verse 14. He cannot be confined, therefore,
to one place. He can't be confined to a house
or to a church or to a temple. He dwells not in temples made
with hand. He is everywhere. He is everywhere,
God, and yet not in the pantheistic sense that God and matter are
mixed up together, not in that sense at all. Again, God's oceity,
infinity, immensity, and eternality form the basis of the immutability
of the eternal God, that he changes not. And he declares that in
Malachi 3.6, I am the Lord, I change not. Hebrews 13 and 8, Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever. There's something about every
person that's always changing, and something about every person
that they no doubt wish that they could change. And this proves
that they do not view themselves as either perfect or eternal,
are as finished product. Therefore, that which changes
ceases to be what it was before, and God, therefore, changes not. Now, while the immutability of
God is very broad, not only is he immutable in his purpose and
his will and his decree, but immutability extends even unto
his being. that his nature or essence is
unchangeable. You remember, some of you old
enough to remember, the God is Dead movement came among society
quite a few years back. I read this from Herman Bevinck.
His name is being, I am. And this is the unchangeable
name, unquote, my name forever. Exodus 315, Psalm 135, 13. The essence of God has nothing
changeable about it whatsoever, neither before nor after creation,
for God stays the same. Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 12,
neither the creation The fall, the flood, or the incarnation
of the Lord Jesus Christ made any change in the essence, or
being, or will, or purpose of God. And because God is eternal,
have you ever thought he never ages? For he has his being in
one eternal, constant presence. Time does not pass with God so
that he gets older and older. He has present eternality that
he possesses. I am that I am. I am being Jehovah,
the everlasting God, having no beginning. And I want to close
with this one thought. You come to the New Testament,
and what do you find our Lord saying very often? I am. I am. I am the bread of life. I am the resurrection. I am the
light of the world. I'm the bread. I am. Taking up
that great name, I am. And the Jews understood that.
And it offended them that our Lord would claim that equality
with Jehovah God. But the Lord used it several
times in the Gospel in the New Testament. I am. So he too is
the great I am.