For those on the CDs, our subject
is The Great I Am. The text is Exodus chapter 3,
verse 7 and following. You recognize this, of course,
as the call of Moses and the commission of Moses to go and
be the deliverer of the people out of the land of Egypt. And in verse 7 we read, 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 am come down to
deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptian, and to bring
them out of the land unto a land and a large, unto a land flowing
with milk and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites, and
the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and
the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry
of the children of Israel is come up unto me, and I have also
seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress 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." Moses said unto God,
Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and 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 you that
I have sent you, when thou hast brought forth the people out
of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. Moses said
unto God, Behold, When I am come unto the children of Israel,
and I say unto them, The God of your fathers has sent me unto
you, and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall
I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. And he said, thus shall thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. God said moreover unto Moses,
thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your
fathers, The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob has sent me unto you. This is my name forever, and
this is my memorial unto all generations. Verse 14 again,
I am that I am. Thou shalt say unto the children
of Israel, I am has sent me unto you. Now, a study of this great
passage affords us the opportunity to consider one of the most prominent
name and character in all of the Old Testament. one of the
outstanding men of God during that economy. Moses, one of the
greatest displays of the power of our God, was in and through
Moses under the children. He became the deliverer of the
seed and the children and the offspring of Abraham from their
miserable, cruel, violent bondage in the land of Egypt. And all
of this was according to a promise that had been made under Abraham. The life of Moses is a study
in the providence of God. Moses, you remember, was born
under a sentence of death and intended to be put to death by
the authority of the king, Exodus 1 verse 15 and verse 16. Yet he was adopted by none other
than Pharaoh's daughter and raised up in her house, in the house
of Pharaoh, Exodus 1 and verse 10, Acts 7 and verse 21, Hebrews
11 verse 23, through verse 27. And in Acts
7, verse 22, Stephen said, And Moses was learned in all the
wisdom of the Egyptian, and was mighty in word and in deeds. And when Moses was forty years
of age, it came into his heart to visit again the children of
Israel over in the land of Egypt, Acts 7 and verse 23. When he saw there an Egyptian
abusing a Hebrew, Moses killed that Egyptian and buried him
somewhere there in the sand. And he was forced by the wrath
of Pharaoh then to flee out of the country. And he came into
Midian and he married a wife, became a shepherd of his father-in-law's
flock or sheep. And it was in Horeb that Moses
had the experience at the burning bush that we read about. in our
chapter this morning. It was there that a voice called
out unto him. He was called by God. He was
commissioned by God that he might go down into the land of Egypt
and bring out the children of Israel according to the covenant
that was made with Father Abraham, renewed with Isaac, and renewed
again unto Jacob. Now, we read that Moses makes
several, shall we call them protestations, against the call and the commission
of God in his life. He protests, first of all, his
inadequacy, then the unlikelihood of any success with such a mission. Let's look at them very quickly
before we move on. First of all, in Exodus chapter
3 and verse 11. He pleads his insufficiency. Who am I? He says unto the God who is calling
him. Who am I? God tells him, I will
be with you, notwithstanding your inadequacy. I will be with
you. Secondly, we look at the 13th
verse and we notice, who shall I say sent me? What am I going
to tell them? Who am I going to say that I
have come in the authority of? What does God say? Tell them
I am that I am. I am hath sent me. Thirdly, in Exodus chapter 4
and verse 1, Moses said unto the Lord, They're not going to
believe me. They're not going to heed my
words. They're not going to believe
that the Lord has appeared unto me in the manner that it has
occurred. And so God gives him a power
and an ability to work signs and miracles and wonders as his
credentials, that he has come in the name and authority of
God. Then the fourth one is in verse 10, also of chapter 4,
his lack of eloquence and his ability to be a good speaker,
his slow speech and slow tongue, He pleads as a reason why he
should not go. And God says unto him, listen,
have not I made man's mouth? I will teach you what to say. I will inspire you, teach you,
and lead you what to say. And fifthly, we notice chapter
4, verse 13, Moses makes a final plea against his call that God
would send someone else, someone else more qualified and someone
else more eloquent. But let's settle in on our text
in chapter 3 and verse 14, which comes in as the answer to Moses'
second protest, which was, when they asked me, who sent you?
Whose name are you coming in? Who is it that has told you to
come and to lead us out and that the people might be let go? What is his name? What shall
I answer them? Moses asked. Now Moses could
see that this would be a Herculean task that had been laid upon
him to secure the release of the children of Israel from the
despot of Pharaoh and of Egypt. It would mean, first of all,
that he would have to confront Pharaoh. and in some way overpower
him. Now, Pharaoh had put out a death
sentence against Moses, and we read that in chapter 2 and verse
15. Plus, we must remember, in Exodus
2, 13 and 14, some of the Jews in Egypt had reviled Moses when
he made himself a judge between two of them in interfering in
a matter. But he goes on in the name and
the authority of the great I AM. What is his name? We see in verse
14, I AM that I AM. And you notice in most versions
of the scripture, all of those are in caps. am that I am." Then
there's the shortened form, I am, which as we shall later see,
is used by the Lord Jesus Christ on several occasions in the New
Testament. I am. So we have it here in two
forms. Number one, I am that I am. And number two, I am. Just say unto them, I am hath
sent me. This wouldn't have much effect
on Pharaoh, but it sure should and would upon the Jew. Now this is almost mind-boggling
what we have here in this place. I am that I am. I am. First of all, it sets God
apart and it distinguishes him from any and all of gods of the
pagans and the heathens that they might have worshipped. and
from any of the gods of Egypt. He had not come in any of their
name. It sets him apart from many that
are called gods and are called lords. Moses is not sent in the
name of some false or heathen deity for one god or one religion
is not as good as another and as the worship of the God of
heaven. Then to the name or the designation
I am, so say they that are skilled in the Hebrew, is from a root
word that means to be or to exist. These words are named to be or
to exist. In fact, Calvin said that the
verb in the Hebrew designates the perpetual duration of time,
time without beginning or without end. Others note that it declares
both the eternality and the aseity or the self-existence of God. It is an existence and it is
an eternality that is both unique and particular to the one God
of heaven. Only he can claim it, none else
can. There's not another creature
in being that can claim what God is claiming here. And by
reason of that, only God, the God of heaven, only he is worthy
of being called by that name, I Am. Because in applying it
to himself, God is, as Calvin said, quote, that God is declaring
himself alone worthy of that title, unquote. Only God can
wear this title and is profane. This title is profane if, when,
and should it should be given unto any other. None but the
true, uncreated, everlasting God can ever say, I am and it
be so. Now, the Hebrew word or the Hebrew
name Hoya and rendered Lord or Yehovah or Jehovah, this was
to be God's name par excellence, as we might say. God is the eternally
existing one. God has independent. existence, does he not? That
is, he is the self-existent one in that he owes his existence
to none other outside of himself. And he has been of old, called,
quote, I read this this week, the inoriginate, uncaused, ingenerate,
unquote. And as Herman Bevinck used the
following word of speaking of the aseity or the self-existence
of our God, he said that he is the self-luminous, self-excellent,
and so forth, which means that he has his existence wholly and
only of and in himself. Now, we need to really take that
in. Yet at the same time, though
he has his existence in himself, it does not mean that he gave
himself being our existence. He did not cause even himself
to exist. He did not give himself being. Can we take all of that in as
we think about it? Can we fathom it? I think we
might confess that it is all but past our understanding. It is the highest impossibility
for a non-existent one to bring themselves into being. It is an utter impossibility. And God's eternality not only
means that he can have no end, but it means that he had no beginning. He had no beginning. He had no
start. He had no origin. There will
never be a time when he ceases to exist. So there was never
a time, if time we may call it for our understanding, when he
did not exist. Not a time, as we count time,
when God was not in existence. To repeat, God was never non-existent. He never was without being. From everlasting to everlasting. Thou art God, the psalmist said. All of this made me think this
week, years and years ago, of a family that we had in the church. And the man called me up one
day and he said, look, my kids have asked me a question that
stumped me. I can't answer it. I don't know
what to tell them. And I said, well, what's the
question? He said, well, the kids ask me, where did God come
from? And even then I was smart enough
to know God has always been. God was never non-existent. This week I read A.W. Pink in
his book, Gleaning from Exodus, on our text. And A.W. Pink said this, quote, I AM is
the great Jehovistic name of God." And it has been pointed
out that this name, I AM, in our text as it is, contains in
its meaning each tense of the verb to be. It therefore has
the sense. I was, I am, I shall be. Therefore that eternality. Another
way of saying it is what we quoted a moment ago in Psalms 90 and
verse 2. Before the mountains were brought
forth, wherever you had formed the earth or the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. He was when nothing
else was. He existed when there was nothing
else. Therefore, all things owe their
existence unto Him. Without Him to cause it, nothing
could be. Without Him to create, nothing
could have its being. Now, let's say this about the
words in Exodus chapter 3 and verse 14, the words, I am, that
in this is summed up not only the aseity of God, that is, that
God is self-existent, but his timeless existence as well, or
say, eternality. The eternality of God is wrapped
up in this, I am, I was, I am, I will be. So that in the words,
I am that I am, or I will be what I will be, as Herman Bevink
wrote in his book, everything is included, quote, his being
uncreated, eternal, without beginning, is the mother attribute, unquote. Let's think about that for a
moment. In that all of the other divine
attributes are born out of this very one. This is, shall we say
it this way, the necessary attribute. The necessary attribute in that
all other attributes then are but manifestations of His eternality
and of His self-existence. But His eternality comes first,
the existence of God. Because He is uncreated, And
because he has his being in and of himself, because of that,
he is holy. There's another great attribute
he swears by. He is immutable. He cannot change
for the better or for the worse. Because of that, he is sovereign. Because of his eternality, he
is omnipotent. And all else that he is, is related
to his eternality. What's more, he shall forever,
shall forever be. And it bears repeating that this
sets him apart from both the gods of the heathen and also
any and all creatures that he has made by his power. He has given them being. None of them, none of us, can
say truthfully these words, I am, in the sense that God has said
them. Nor could it be said about us
what is said about God, I am that I am. Before we go to the
New Testament, we want to consider how this name, I am, is not used
of men. And I think the Bible, the Scripture,
are very careful to make that distinction. And how the servants
of God, those great men of God, declined to apply this title
to themselves, I am. True, Paul said, I am, but then
he said, what I am by the grace of God. But they declined to
be identified by this same name or title as God, I am. I think one of the best examples
that we could find, and find quickly, is concerning Abraham
in the 22nd chapter of the book of Genesis. And in verse 1, verse
7, and again in verse 11. In each of these verses, in the
English and in the King James, Abraham makes a reply unto God,
saying either, Here I am, in verse 1, or Here I am, verse
7 and 11. And it could be noted that Abraham's
three responses are to three different persons. To God's call,
in verse 1. To him, to the beloved son of
Isaac, in verse 7. And finally, to the angel of
the Lord in verse 11. All three converse with Abraham
and he answers them. And here's the point that I want
to make while we're in Genesis chapter 22, that in each of these
places, The word am is italicized in the King James meaning that
there was no Hebrew word there that answers unto it. In Genesis
22 and verse 1 has it, behold me. We see the same thing in
Exodus 3 and verse 4 with Moses. When God called Moses out of
the burning bush, He answered the same way as Abraham, here
I, the word am is not there, or behold me, also verse 11 and
in verse 10 of Exodus chapter 4, the same thing as neither
Abraham or Moses considered themselves to be self-existent or the self-existent
one like God, I am. You have it again in chapter
4 and verse 10 of Exodus. So let's now transfer our focus
to the 8th chapter of the Gospel of John in our New Testament
and see how this relates unto our blessed Lord and Savior,
where we find the Lord Jesus making the same claim as the
Lord God made in Exodus 3 and verse 14. The Lord Jesus saying
in John chapter 8, I am. Now, it'll take us a little bit
to get to this, but we'll come to it eventually. Again, we must
get our contextual bearings as we switch from Exodus 3 to John
chapter 8. We must set the context also
for the better help of our understanding. This is another of many controversies
between the Lord and the Jews in His time and ministry. The
name of Abraham figures prominently in this discussion in John chapter
8, in this controversy. And it reaches its apex with
the declaration of the Lord saying, I am. We'll get to that in a
bit. But to work our way to that,
we notice that as some Jews had heard the Lord speak of setting
them free of bondage. The Lord said unto them, Hear
my word, believe my word, continue you shall be free. If the Son
make you free, you shall be free indeed. And they took a strong
exception and they took a very strong offense at such a notion
as that plied unto them. And in verse 33, they make a
double claim, John 8, 33, and both of them are misguided. Number one, they said, listen
here, we are Abraham's seed. We are the children of Abraham. We're the descendants. We're
the fleshly offspring of Abraham. And secondly, they said, we were
never in bondage to any man. Talk to us of bondage, will you? We were never in bondage. Now the Lord shows them the folly
of their claim. Yes, they were descendants of
Abraham after the flesh. But Jesus tells them, you are
not the true spiritual children of Abraham. For they had neither
his faith nor his works. Again, they misconstrued the
nature of the bondage. He spoke of the enslaving nature
of sin unto them, and we see their claim. We're real Jews. We're children of Abraham. We're
the circumcision. We're the people of God. We're
the covenant people of God. And in verse 41, we have one
Father even God, claiming to have one God,
one Father. Now this sounds to me, I just
want to make a little detour here, this sounds to me much
like many of the moderns that we have in our day, who say to
all that will listen, listen, we are believers. We have accepted
Jesus. We followed him in baptism. We are in a lively church. We follow Brother Putin's gospel
and his ministry, and yet they live inconsistent lives. They have absolutely no sound
doctrine at all and are open enemies of the biblical way of
salvation, the sovereignty of God and of election. And so they call heresy truth
and vice versa. But be that as it may, Jesus
makes an astonishing statement in the eyes of those Jews here
in John chapter 8 in verse 51. If a man, that is, if anyone,
Keep my saying, he shall never see death." Now think about that
for a moment and think about them. Try to put yourself in
their way of thinking or in their mind. If anyone, keep my saying,
he shall not see death. This is the same as back in verse
31, you shall continue in my word Then are you my disciples
indeed. In verse 52, the Jews in effect
say, Now we are sure of what we suspected for a while. You're mad. You're crazy. You're out of your mind. You
are possessed with an unclean spirit, they tell the Lord. For here you are claiming to
believe, if one believes your saying, they will never taste
of death, and yet our father Abraham is dead." That's what
they reply, dead and buried. Then look at the 53rd verse as
we move along. There are two questions here.
They demand an answer. Number one, are you claiming
to be greater than our father Abraham who died and is buried,
yet you claim to have the power to grant an exemption from death. So the question, are you claiming
to be greater than our father Abraham who is personally dead? Number two, they ask him outright,
who are you? Who do you claim to be? Who are
you making yourself out to be? Verse 54, My Father is the one
that you say is your God. Verse 55, But you don't know
Him. You don't know him, whether he
speaks of the Father or of himself. Verse 56 through verse 59 now,
where verse 56 seems to answer the question back in verse 53,
are you claiming to be greater than our father Abraham? Now, of course, we know that
Abraham was one of the most revered and the most cherished name in
the Old Testament by all of the Jew. They considered him the
father of their race and of their nation. How proud they were to
say, we have Abraham to our father. We are the children of Abraham. We have Abraham to our father. John warned them about that in
Matthew 3 and verse 9. He's the friend of God. He's
the father of Isaac, the promised seed, and the grandfather of
Jacob. And he confirms his superiority,
the Lord does, to Abraham by saying, listen to this, your
father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He desired greatly to
do so. He exulted, they say the word
could be translated, he exulted, he was desirous that he might
see my day, and then he add, and he saw it and was glad. Now we think about what the Hebrew
author wrote In Hebrews 11 and verse 10, by faith he, that is
Abraham, looked for a city that had foundations whose builder
and maker was God. We think about what Paul wrote
in Galatians 3 and verse 8, Abraham had the gospel preached unto
him before him. That is, a thing before it was
revealed was promised and preached even unto Abraham. And as it
was by faith that he looked for a city that had foundation, so
that it was by faith and the promise and the Word of God that
he saw Christ's day and rejoiced, exulted greatly in it. By Christ's day, no doubt he
means something about the appearance of Christ in the flesh, His works,
His death, His ministry, the glorious one sent from God that
dwelt among men. Now in verse 57 of John 8, the
last part of verse 56, gives them occasion to make another
objection unto our Lord. How is it that Christ speaks
of some contact with Abraham or Abraham's contact with him? How is that? How is it possible
when they reason Christ is a man not yet even 50 years old, while
Abraham had been dead and buried for hundreds of years. Gil said more than 2,000 years
Abraham had been passed away. But in verse 58, there is the
blockbuster text of them all. As the Lord makes an amazing
claim, Verily, verily, we know that means literally, truly,
truly, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. Now notice he does not say, before
Abraham was, I was. But he puts it this way, before
Abraham was, I am. We can tell by the reaction of
the Jews in verse 59, in the next verse. that they understood
the claim that the Lord was making. They understood what they heard. They knew the words of Exodus
3 and verse 14, and they took it as blasphemy that our Lord
said that and applied it to himself. Before Abraham was, I am. And I point out again, not I
was, but I am. Now we must remember from our
first text that the name I am is the same name which Moses
said sent him down to be the deliverer of the Jew. I am hath
sent me. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
applied it unto himself, he was, one, he was declaring his own
eternality. The Lord is declaring his eternal
existence, I am. Secondly, he was declaring his
deity. In using that and applying it
to himself, I am, He is eternal and he is very God. And thirdly, he was declaring
his equality, his equalness with the Father. I am. It is known that the Sassanians
teach that Christ did not exist until he was born of the Virgin
Mary. Others have taught and do teach
that Christ is a created being. the first created being of God,
they use some scriptures in the New Testament. But the Lord himself
and the scripture declare the absolute eternality of the Son
of God. Others, as John opens his gospel
with a declaration, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning.
Without Him was not anything made that was made. The I am's
of Christ amounts to this. He existed before he assumed
flesh and dwelt upon the earth. There is ample scripture for
the eternality of our Lord. There's John 1, 1 through 3. There's Colossians 1 and verse
16. There's Hebrews 1, and verse
2. Hebrews 10 and verse 5, he was
before he assumed a body, a body thou hast prepared for me. 1
Corinthians 10 verse 9, it is he that they said was tempted
in the wilderness. In John 1 15, though John was
born after Jesus, John says he was before me." 1 Peter 1 verse
11, the Spirit of Christ did testify through the prophets
in days of yore. John 17 and 5, the glory that
I had with you before the world. Philippians 2 verse 5 and verse
8, he was in the form of God not thinking it robbery to be
equal with God, made himself of no reputation, took upon himself
the form of a servant, being found in the likeness of men,
therefore endured the death of the cross. Having purged our
sin, he then sat down on the right hand of God, exalted yonder
into glory, with that glory that he had with the Father before
the world, ever was. Now the claim of Christ, I Am,
sets Him apart in a proper light as the chosen Son of God, as
the person, as the being, as a member of the Godhead, as a
claim of eternality, and of deity for the Savior. He said in John
10 and verse 30, I and my Father are one. The Jews understood
the magnitude of that claim and attempted to stone him. In him dwelleth all the fullness,
of the Godhead bodily, Colossians 2 and 9. Colossians 1, 19, it
pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. The word Godhead here is the
word deity or divinity, godlike, in Christ even while incarnate. There dwelled all the plenitude
of God, dwelt in this one that God had sent into the world. Lightfoot called it this, the
totality of the divine powers and attributes Unquote. John Eady said, in this idea
of past and continued, residence is present. That he has always
been. In short, Christ is very God. Christ is the great I am. We'll have time to look at them,
but just in passing. But some of the great I am's
of Christ are, I am the light of the world. I am the living
bread. I'm the way, the truth and the
life. I am the resurrection in John chapter 11. I'm the vine
in John chapter 15. Thus Jesus took the same name
as the one that delivered Israel out of the land of Egypt and
the one who died to redeem and to deliver us. the one that God
has sent into the world to deliver his people from their sin is
the Great I Am. I Am, the Eternal Son, the God-Man
as He became, as He took on flesh in this world. The Great I Am
has come. In whose name do we worship and
preach the Great I Am who came and delivered His people from
their sin. Thank God for Him who is the
very image, the very likeness, the very affluence of the Father
according to Hebrews chapter 1. Thank God for our great Deliverer. You know, the average churchgoer
today has little idea as to the true nature of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. They have humanized Him, and
worse, and they do not know, and many preach another Jesus. I am afraid.