Good morning, let's all stand
together and we'll sing hymn number 258, number 258. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, He's a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock, Where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock, That shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, And covers me there with His hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord. He taketh my burdens off. me up and I shall not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love, and covers me there with his hand. and covers me there with His
hand. With numberless blessings each
moment He crowns, and filled with His fullness divine. I sing in my rapture, O glory
to God, For such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock That shadows the dry, thirsty He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, And covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. When clothed in his brightness
transported I rise to meet him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock, That shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love, And covers me there with his hand. Let's sing hymn number 199. 199. Sinners Jesus will receive Sound
this word of grace to all Who the heavenly pathway leave All
who linger, all who fall Sing it o'er Christ, receive a sinful man. Make the message clear and plain. Christ, receive a sinful man. Come and he will give you rest. Trust Him, for His word is plain. He will take the sinful last. Christ, receive a sinful man. Sing it o'er and o'er again. Christ, receive a sinful man. Make the message clear and plain
Christ receive us sinful men Now my heart condemns me not
Pure before the law I stand He who cleansed me from all spot
Satisfied its last demand Sing it o'er and o'er again Christ,
receive a sinful man Make the message clear and plain Christ,
receive us sinful men Christ, receive us sinful men Even me,
with all my sin Purge from every spot and stain Heaven with Him
I enter in Sing it o'er and o'er again Christ, receive a sinful
man Make the message clear and plain Good morning. Let's open God's
word together. I'd like to read Psalm 146. Psalm 146. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the
Lord, O my soul. While I live, will I praise the
Lord. I will sing praises unto my God
while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the Son of Man, in whom there is no help. His breath
goeth forth, he returneth to his earth. In that very day,
his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God,
which made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein
is, which keepeth truth forever, which executeth judgment for
the oppressed, which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth
the prisoners. The Lord openeth the eyes of
the blind. The Lord raises them that are
bowed down. The Lord loveth the righteous.
The Lord preserveth the strangers. He relieveth the followless and
widow, but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. The Lord
shall reign forever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord. Our kind and gracious, merciful
Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight, or this
morning, as needy, helpless, hopeless sinners in need of a
Savior, in need of grace, in need of mercy, in need of your
providing. We acknowledge that You provide
all things. Without you, we can do nothing.
Even the breath we draw at this moment comes from thy hand. Lord, we come to open your word,
and we thank you, Lord, for this pause in our week that's so full
of so many troubling things. We're weary, Lord. And we thank you for this pause
in the week that we can come. We bow our heads and look at
your word. We hear your word preached. We're caused to rejoice
in our hearts that thou art still God. Your word is not changed,
it's eternal. This world is full of change
and decay. full of death and dying and suffering
and pain and sin. But we look to the things that
are eternal through your word, the things which cannot be seen.
And we ask, Lord, that you'd send your spirit and give us
eyes to see, hearts to believe. Give our minds some understanding,
some light, as the word is read and preached. Fetch us once again to your blessed
feet. Help us to. Worship and honor
the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, who alone is worthy of any praise
recognition. Any. All things are do him. He alone
is worthy. We're unworthy. Thank you for
him. Thank you for our dear savior.
Who came. And submitted under the death
of the cross for. For us. Who died for the ungodly? Who
came to save sinners? Oh, we find such hope in that
blessed word that you've given us, given us a measure of understanding
and appreciation for it. Help us as we bask in the glory
of his face this morning. Be with our brother as he leads
us. We thank you for him. Thank you
for the labor. Thank you for enabling him to
come. And we ask you to enable him
as he speaks. Speak through him, speak to us
through him. Remember those that are weak
and frail. We're all weak and frail, but
there are those who are in a very frail, weak place, sick. And Lord, ask that you be with
them. Heal them if it be your will.
Most of all, we pray for the lost, those that we know and
love, our children and our grandchildren. Leave them not to themselves,
their own will, their own way. Intervene in their lives. Stir up their nest. Cause them
to be troubled. Cause them to come to Christ.
Save them by your grace. Lord, we ask you to go through
this service with us. We need you. We look to you.
We trust you'll provide our every need, as you've promised. And
we ask and pray these things in Christ's dear name. Amen. Let's all stand together and
we'll sing the hymn of the bulletin. Our God is love His word is so
clear He gave His Son for those He holds dear Not by attraction
But by His grace, redeeming love, O see His sweet face. He said thy time was the time
of love From everlasting chosen above With courts of love He
draws sinful men He loved them unto the end No
greater act could Jesus come in To show His love He died for
their sin. He'll have compassion on whom
he will. Not one of his will go into hell. When Christ passed by and looked
on their birth Though they were cast out unto the earth He gave
them life and He said thy time was the time
of love. As most of you know, our pastor's
away today, and we're privileged to have Brother Cody Henson with
us once again. I think everyone knows him here,
but he attends where Gabe Stoniker's a pastor in Kingsport, Tennessee. He married one of our girls a
while back, so I guess we've adopted him. Always happy to
hear that he's coming to preach for us. I am. He's been a blessing
to us. I trust the Lord will bless him
to us once again. Brother Cody, come and bring
the message. Good morning. You go ahead and
turn in your Bibles with me to Exodus chapter 3. I think many of you know that
my mom's in the hospital. We recently found out she has
cancer. And then I went with her to her appointment this week
and found out she had a brain mass, which she had to get taken
out about 24 hours after we found out about it. And she's still
in the hospital. She's doing okay. And I've been
thinking, I didn't know if I'd be able to come here or not.
I knew I was planning to come preach here a few weeks ago.
I can't help but think I've been dying to worship our Lord. We
worship Him in our heart constantly as He enables us to. And whether
I'm speaking or not, someone has to. And it's an honor and
joy to do so, but I'm telling you, I just want to worship our
Lord. And if I'm the one up here speaking,
then so be it. The Lord's able to bless us in
spite of me, in spite of us, and in spite of our circumstances.
You know, I truly think he might send his spirit and bless us
today. And I pray he would be pleased
to do so. But thank you. Several of you have reached out or commented
on her post, and I really appreciate it. It means a lot. We know our
Lord cares for us, and we care for one another too, and I'm
grateful for that. You know, in good times and bad,
we should desire to worship our Lord. May he be glorified here
today. Look with me here in Exodus chapter
three. I want to consider the first six
verses this morning. Exodus three, look at verse one. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro
his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock
to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God,
even to Horeb." Here in Exodus chapter 3, Moses is about to
meet God. He's about to meet God. He has
gone from Pharaoh's palaces and all the treasures and riches
of being in Pharaoh's house to residing in the backside of
a desert. And he's been here for 40 years. We're told right
here he's tending to his father-in-law's sheep in Horeb. And Horeb is
Mount Sinai. And we know that's the place
where God would later give his law. Now Moses didn't know it.
God is preparing him. God has been preparing him. He's
been leading sheep. God has been preparing him to
lead his sheep. God's been preparing Moses to
lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. But in order for that
to happen, something wonderful has got to happen for Moses first. I love this. I don't know that
I ever knew this, but Gabe will often tell us what people's names
in the Bible mean, and I hope I remember to do this more often
because this blessed my heart. Moses' name means drawn. Drawn. Drawn out, drawn to. He's about to be drawn. He's about to be drawn. And I
looked into Jethro's name. Jethro means his abundance. Anytime we come to worship God,
anytime we truly enter into God's word, we enter into his abundance,
do we not? God is about to draw Moses to
himself with his abundant goodness, his abundant grace, his abundant
mercy. Moses is in the desert. We must
be drawn out of the desert, because that's where we are. Dead in
our sin, we're in a desert. We're in a dry land. We need
to be delivered from the bondage of our sin. Lord willing, we'll
look at that a little bit more tonight. I mentioned he's at the place
where God gave his law. If we're trying to keep God's
law, that's a hard place to be. That's a place of bondage. That's
where the sheep were. We need to be delivered from
that place. It's not a good place to be. We need green pastures.
We need still waters. We need a quiet, restful place
to to lay our head, put our hope. All right. We need God to do
something for us. like he's about to do right here
for Moses, okay? Look with me at verse two. And
the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out
of the midst of a bush. Moses is out here just minding
his business like he's been doing for years when the angel of the
Lord appeared unto him. He wasn't looking for God. He's
just leading sheep. The angel of the Lord is God
himself. I looked into this meaning too. The Hebrew meaning means,
never heard of this word, theophanic angel. What that theophanic means
is manifestation of God. God manifests in the flesh. The
word, which is Christ, we're told in John 1, was made flesh
and dwelt among us. This is pre-incarnate Jesus Christ,
all right? That's who appeared to Moses,
okay? Who is Jesus Christ? He's the
Lord. He's the true and living God. I mentioned John 1. In the
beginning, he's God who was in the beginning. He said in Revelation,
I am the beginning and the ending. What got me looking at this chapter
was actually verse 14, and I don't plan on even looking at that
today, but he said, I am. We're told, I think in John 8,
he said, before Abraham was, I am. That's who Jesus Christ
is. And that's who appeared right
here to Moses, all right? That's who's about to draw Moses. Oh my, what a blessed occasion. Now, how did he appear unto him?
It tells us right here in a flame of fire, out of the midst of
a bush, a self-sustaining flame of fire, self-existing, okay?
Because that's who God is, all right? There's significance here. There's significance to this
flame. We see God's sovereignty. He just appeared. He appeared
because He chose to do so. That's what God can do. He's
sovereign. He's all-powerful. We want and hope and strive to
do things. God does what He will. He does what He wants to do. He doesn't want anything. He
does what He will. If He wants it, it's done. We see His deity.
We see His glory. I couldn't help but think about
how, on several occasions, the Lord our God rained down fire
Flame of fire, he ran down fire from heaven. Sodom and Gomorrah,
he ran down fire. You remember those prophets of
Baal, he ran down fire. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter four. The flame of fire here and fire
throughout the scriptures represents God's judgment, God's holiness,
his wrath against sin. Look here, Deuteronomy four,
verse 24. Deuteronomy 4.24, I'm sure most
of you have heard this, but perhaps someone hasn't. Deuteronomy 4.24
says, Most people would be ready to tell you that God is love,
and He is. There is no love apart from God. True love comes from God. God is love. Without God, there would be no
love. Most people would be happy to admit God is merciful. God
is gracious. God is forgiving. God is kind. God is tenderhearted. He's patient,
slow to anger, and he is. But here's what most people do
not truly know. God is holy. Jealous here doesn't mean he's
jealous because he doesn't have something that he wants. No.
He has a jealous anger against sin. God is just. God delights
in that which is right. That's what it means to be righteous.
That's what God is. That's who God is. Now, I point
this out to say Moses here is finding out who God is. from
God Himself through this flame of fire and a burning bush. And
if we're going to learn who God is, I believe the first thing
we're going to learn is He's holy. He's holy. We'll see that a few times this
morning. Verse 2 again, back in our text. Exodus 3 verse 2,
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out
of the midst of a bush, and he looked and behold the bush burned
with fire and the bush was not consumed." How in the world was
this bush not consumed? That just doesn't make any sense.
If you go outside and light a bush on fire, it's going to burn.
It's going to burn. But I want to be clear. Many
people in the scriptures who never knew the Lord were fascinated
by miracles he performed. We need to see much more than
just a supernatural event. That'll do us no good if that's
all we see, okay? This burning bush pictures something. Somebody was in that burning
bush. This burning bush shows us Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's who we need to see, and
that's how we need to see him. He is God's sacrifice for sin. There's only one sacrifice for
sin. There's only one righteousness. It's him. It's a person. And
we see this person. We see the sinner's substitute
in this burning bush. And I love this when I saw this. The burning bush. I hope someone
here hasn't heard this. The burning bush was a thorny
bush. It was a thorny bush. Do you
know why thorns exist? I believe it's in Genesis chapter
3. Thorns came as a result of sin. Do you remember what kind
of crown was placed on our Lord's head as he hung on the cross?
It wasn't a crown with jewels or
roses. It was a crown of thorns. Why? Representing the sin for which
he hung on that cross. The sin of his people whom he
came to save. And it's also believed, you look
in the interlinear concordance, it's believed that this bush
was a blackberry bush. And I've picked blackberries
from a blackberry bush, that's a thorny bush. And blackberries
are fruit, one of my favorites. I had studied this recently.
And I saw, especially in Deuteronomy, but in the scriptures on multiple
occasions, God's people are referred to as the fruit of his body. If we're his, if God chose us,
placed us in Christ, Christ came to save us, we're the fruit of
his body. Why is that important? The bush
was not consumed. You think his fruit was? Not
a chance. No, he told us, he said, I've
not lost a single one. Not one of them is lost. He said
concerning his own, he said, they shall never perish. We're
vitally joined to him. We're in him. He suffered and
he died, but here's the thing. By his death, he's satisfied. That's why the grave could not
hold him. Because his death accomplished something. What did it accomplish?
The salvation of all his people. The burning bush was not consumed.
The bush consumed God's wrath. Christ consumed the flame of
God's wrath and his vengeance against sin. He consumed it all. And so he arose. And I'll tell
you this, he did it all by himself. This matter of salvation, we're
going to get no glory in this. Christ did it all. He gets it
all. Look back in our text here at verse 3. Exodus 3 verse 3. And Moses said, I will now turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. I find that verse interesting.
You think when God came to reveal himself to Moses, he could just,
nah. Nothing to see here. Today I'm just going to keep
on going. If God intends to get our attention, He's going to
get our attention. I may not get your attention, but if God
plans to, He's going to get it. I know because that's what He
did for me. That's what He does for all His people. I've talked
to many believers, and we have the same story. In loving kindness, Jesus came,
my soul in mercy to reclaim. He lifted me. I didn't lift myself. He lifted me up. I didn't turn
to him. He came to me. And he caused
me to turn aside and see him. He will appear in his time, according
to his will and his good pleasure. None can stop him. You know,
Saul of Tarsus, he was a very determined, God-hating man. Did that stop God from saving
him? Go home and read Acts 7-9. Tell
me what you find. Galatians 1. Did Paul just... He was on his way arresting God's
saints. And I believe, killing. He killed
Stephen, right? Consented to his death. When God caused light to shine,
the light shines. When God says, let there be light,
there's light. We could sit here all our life with no desire,
no interest in going, no care for our soul, no desire for Christ
and his word. When all of a sudden, what happened? I find myself believing, I find
myself needing Christ and crying unto him for mercy. Well, I think
I'm gonna go to service. I think I need to see this great
sight of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You didn't care before,
I know. But God gave me sight to see.
God gave me eyes to behold Him. And I can't see anything else.
There's nothing else valuable to me anymore. Christ is all.
What'd you do? Nothing. He did it all. When I first looked at verse
three, I didn't really see a whole lot. Oh my soul, I see what God's
done for me. I believe Gabe's preaching this
morning on when the Lord was being led to the cross and someone
referred to him as a king and the people said, we have no king
but Caesar. God will enable us to see our king. God will enable
us to look at the cross and see our Redeemer. Oh, we thought
it was He that was going to redeem Israel. God can enable us to
see that. God can cause us to see Him.
Our Savior. You know, there's there's one
thing needful. There's only one thing we need to see, and that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. and him crucified. He said, if
I be lifted up, I'll draw all to myself, all his people, all
his chosen, all the father gave to him and placed in his hands.
He referred to them as all whom the father hath given to me.
John 17. If God enables us to see him,
we'll say there's nothing like him. There's none like that. I've never heard such good news
in all my life. Verse four, and when the Lord saw that he turned
aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush
and said, Moses, Moses. The Lord knew Moses would turn
aside. God made him willing to do so. And I'll tell you this,
we won't do it on our own. We're not gonna get the glory
for this, all right? And yet, and yet we're told, God watched
to see what he would do. God knows if we're believing
on Him right now. You see, here's two things, all right? God is
sovereign in everything, and we're responsible. We're sinners. We're responsible for our sin
against God. God's word declares the great
commandment to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ alone, to love
Him alone. all our heart, soul, mind, and
strength. That's the commandment. It goes out to everybody. Okay? We're told this gracious fact
in Romans 10. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Let me tell you something. God's
people will call upon the name of the Lord. They will. He said, Whosoever cometh to
me, I'll in no wise cast out. You can take that to the bank.
It's a fact. And if we come to him, if we
call upon his blessed name, God's going to get all the glory for
that. All of it. Because salvation is of the Lord.
It's not of us. It's not, well, he's done his
part. Now it's time for me to do my part. I need to make my
decision and be resolved and get dedicated and all that. That's
foolishness. That's glory in himself. And
God will not have that. He said, my glory, I'm not going
to give to another. I'm not going to share it. It's his. It's his
alone. It's blasphemous to think that
I could get some credit for standing before God accepted. It's not
going to happen. It's not going to happen. Now
notice here, God called Moses by name. He said, Moses, Moses. I love when he would come to
his child and he would say their name twice. I just love it. That's how God does it. That's
how this works. God comes to his child and he
calls his child by name. He calls his child personally.
The Lord knoweth them that are His. He knows them. Their names
are written in heaven. Their names have been recorded
in a book called the Lamb's Book of Life. And they're not going
to be blotted out. Because we're in Christ. We're
with Him. I want to show you a couple verses. Turn to Isaiah
43. Isaiah 43. God knows who will believe. God
knows who will call upon Him. God knows who will be saved.
And here's why. Because He purposed to save them. And He purposed
in time. We just sang a song. Thy time
was the time of love. He purposed the time of love
when He speaks life to them and imparts faith to them, causing
us to see Him and believe on Him. Look away from our vain
selves. Look here, Isaiah 43 verse 1. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee. Now look at this. I have called
thee by thy name. And he didn't stop there. He
said, thou art mine. Does that not bless your heart?
Seriously. Well, now you just need to believe God. Yeah, you
should. But we need Him to come to us. We need Him to call us
by name out of our darkness to Christ the light. Look at chapter
45 right here in Isaiah. Isaiah 45 verse 4. Isaiah 45 verse 4. For Jacob,
my servant's sake, and Israel, mine elect, I have even called
thee by thy name, I have surnamed thee thou hast not known me." He calls us by name, and here's
something glorious. He gives us a new name. He gives
us His name. We're told in Jeremiah, our name,
because of what God has done for us, is the Lord our righteousness. What a name. What a name. My soul. John 10 verse 3 says,
he calleth his own sheep by name, and he leadeth them out. He's
the Lord our shepherd, our good shepherd, our great shepherd,
our chief shepherd, and he'll never let us go. You know, I
love that account where the man had 99 sheep and then one went
off into the wilderness. He went and he finds that sheep
and he brings it home rejoicing. Oh, if God brought a lost sheep
home today, they will be rejoicing in heaven. He tells us this.
What a blessing. And don't worry, brethren, we
can't mess this thing up. Well, God found me. I once was
lost, but now I'm found. But I better keep myself. I better
watch out. I better not sin anymore. Yeah,
we ought not to sin anymore, but we're still sinners. I'm
glad that song we just sang didn't say Christ received sinful men.
No, Christ receiveth sinful men. It just may be we find ourselves
in a dark place. Seems like we've left the heavenly
pathway, as it says. Oh, sing it over and over again,
Christ, receive us, sinful man. You make this message clear and
plain. Couldn't be any plainer, could it? We've gone astray, but our shepherd
will see to it that we've returned unto him, the shepherd and bishop
of our souls for all eternity. He'll see to it. We don't have
to. And know this, too. If God calls
us with that holy calling, we'll answer. We'll hear him. You notice what Moses said there?
Look back in our text. The end of verse 4, God called
Moses, Moses, and he said, here am I. I'm here. Again, in John 10, he's talking
about his sheep. He said, my sheep hear my voice,
not because we gave ourselves ears to hear. He said that the
seeing eye, the hearing ear, the Lord hath made both of them.
We're not going to see, we're not going to hear unless he gives
us the ability to do so. He said, my sheep hear my voice,
I know them. What a blessing to be known of
God, known of the Good Shepherd. And he said, they follow me. Somewhere here in the first 14
verses, he says, the Lord tells Moses, he said, my people are
going to worship me on this mountain. Oh, won't you please just worship
God? God will see to it that if we're his, we do. He's going
to be worshiped. And he'll also see to it that
every knee is gonna bow, every tongue's gonna confess he's Lord,
to his glory, the glory of God the Father. Verse five, and he said, draw
not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for
the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Draw not nigh
hither, stand back, don't come any closer, why? mention holiness. This matter of God's holiness
has got to be dealt with. May God enable me to deal with
this. May God enable us to hear this.
I told you God appeared in a flame of fire, picturing His holiness.
God comes in holiness and now He's addressing the matter. I
thought of Isaiah, remember what Remember what was told to Isaiah,
I believe in chapter six, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory. Are we aware of God's
holiness? Do we know how holy God is? By
nature, we don't know. I venture to say most churches
in this town don't have a clue God is holy and what that means.
Here's what that means. Habakkuk 113, thou art of pure
eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity. That's holiness. You and I don't,
naturally, we don't know anything about that. We just sweep sin
under the rug. We forgive one another. Or we
try. But our forgiveness isn't holy
forgiveness. You turn right around and wrong me again, you better
believe I'm gonna hold that over your head. God is holy. If God forgives,
God forgives. It's done. He's holy. He's holy. Oh God's so holy, we can't approach
unto him. We can't We can't have anything
to do with him. People think God's their buddy.
Oh, me and God got a good thing going. Is that right? Maybe the
God of your imagination, but maybe the God who has no hands
but yours, but not the God who reigneth. You just read it in
the psalm. God reigns. He's God. His name implies the very fact
that he reigneth. God is holy. We are sinful. We
need to acknowledge this. This world needs to acknowledge
this. If we're going to stand before him, oh, I'd hate to leave
this world not knowing that. God hates sin, and that's exactly
what we are. That's exactly what we are. That's all we are. You ever wonder
why hell exists? Everybody will acknowledge hell
exists, right? Why? It's for those who don't straighten
up and fly right, no? Hell exists because of sin. People
who die in their sin, that's where they go. People who die
without a without a sin covering. People who die without a righteousness
before God, that's where they go. That's why there's a place
called hell, OK? And I mentioned fire. It's called
the Lake of Fire. Where the worm dieth not, the worm dieth not. It's God's eternal punishment
for sin. That's what it is. You ever wondered why the Lord
Jesus Christ, right before he bowed his head and gave up the
ghost, you ever wondered why he cried, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? How in the world could he be
forsaken by God? He is God. Here's how. Because God is holy. God is holy. He knew no sin.
There was no guile in his mouth. He only ever did good. And yet,
when he hung on that cross, bearing the sin of his people in his
body on the tree, when God found sin on his son, his only begotten
son, in whom he's well pleased, forsaken. Wrath, fury fell on
him. Because God is holy. He spared not his own son, but
delivered him up for us all, all his people. All who love
him, all who are the called according to his purpose. Spared not his
own son. You see, God will by no means
clear the guilty. We see that at Calvary, don't
we? Oh, we see it clearly, don't we? Trading places with us, and
that's what he did. That's why he came. Not to die
for his own sins, but to die for the sins of his people. Again,
he had no sin. I want to be clear. But trading
places with us, he was made sin. He was made to be guilty. He
was made a curse. He became us. I'm just quoting
scripture to you. And by trading places with us,
he's given us his name. He's made us to be righteous
in him, accepted. Oh. Verse five again. And he said,
draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet. Why did God command Moses to
take his shoes off? That dirt was not holy. I'm telling
you, that dirt was like any other dirt, or sand, or whatever the
ground was. The ground in and of itself was
just ground, okay? I want to be abundantly clear.
So why did he say you're standing on holy ground, take your shoes
off? Oh, if God enables us to see Christ crucified, we'll see
why Moses had to take his shoes off. His shoes represent something,
all right? When we deck ourselves, I'm wearing
what I believe are nice shoes that you gave me. Thank you.
I'm wearing what I deem to be a nice suit, a nice shirt. My
mom bought this tie for me. His shoes represented a covering.
that he put on himself. You see where I'm going? There
is a, it's like in the garden after Adam and Eve ate of that
fruit, when their eyes were opened, they knew they were naked. They
immediately went to cover themselves. Wouldn't you? That's natural
to us, isn't it? That's what we do. But our man-made covering
must be taken off. We can't come to God in a self-righteousness
We all go about to establish our own righteousness, not knowing
Christ, not submitting to Him. I told you there's one righteousness. It's not Him plus us. It's Him
alone. Him alone. We suppose that we're good. We
have some goodness that we think is in us. God says we don't.
Nothing. Wounds, bruises, and putrefying
sores from the bottom to the top. That's all we are. No soundness
in us. Here's how we must come to God.
As we are, in my hand no price I bring, simply to thy cross,
the Christ of the cross, we cling. Any sort of covering we have
conjured up, got to cast it off, cast it out. Empty handed, that's
how we must come to Christ. We can come to God, but only
through Christ, only through the Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
I'm the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the
Father, but by me. But by me. So here's the command. Come to
Christ. Come as you are. But here's one
problem. We won't. and we can't. I thought about not saying that,
but I think you'll see why I'm saying it. Turn to John chapter
5. I usually just say it. I don't
usually turn, but I want us to see it. John chapter 5. Now here's the
point of this, okay? Coming to Christ Being saved from our sin cannot
be the result of our will or our ability. That's why this
is important. All right? Look here, John 5, verse 39. This is our Lord speaking. John 5, verse 39. He said, Search the scriptures,
for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they
which testify of me. And ye will not come to me that
ye might have life. You won't do it. He went on to
say, I don't receive honor from men. He told these people, I
know you, in verse 42, you don't have the love of God in you. Unless God does something for
us, that's all of us. You read through the epistles
that the Apostle Paul wrote, he made sure to always mention,
not by the will of man, not of him that willeth, nor of him
that runneth. It's God that showeth mercy.
It's of his mercy. It's of his mercy. We're talking
about being consumed. You know what the scriptures
say about those who aren't consumed? It's of his mercies that we're
not consumed. That's why the sons of Jacob aren't consumed.
Because his mercies are new every morning, they endure forever.
Turn right here a page to John 6, look at verse 44. We will
not come to Christ. John 6, 44 says, no man can come
to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him, and I will
raise him up at the last day. Look at verse 37. He said, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I'll in no wise cast out. For us to come to Christ, God must draw us. Just from the account that we're
looking at this morning, do you suppose Moses would have ever
come to Christ had God not come to him? Of course he wouldn't. Of course not. No one ever has
and no one ever will. We come to God when God comes
to us. We love him because he first
loved us. How many of his disciples followed him because, well, they
just decided to follow him? No, he came to them and called
them by name and said, follow me. And immediately, they just
dropped everything and followed him. That's who God is. That's
how powerful God is. That's how good God is. How kind,
how gracious. He makes his people willing in
the day of his power. draws us to himself, draws us
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember Moses' name, don't
you? Drawn. Drawn. And know this, brethren. If we're drawn to the Lord Jesus
Christ, the flame of God's wrath against sin, the punishment against
sin that we so rightly deserve, if we're drawn to Christ, that
flame will not come nigh us. It's not going to happen, because
it came to our Savior. It came to Him. It fell on Him. And here's the fact of the matter.
We're in Him. I love how Paul said, I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. Does that not bless your soul
every time you hear it? We were crucified with him. And when
he rose from the grave, we rose in him. You know, Mary supposed
him to be a gardener, and yet she was risen in him. She didn't
know it, but she was going to. Those disciples on the road to
Emmaus, you think, oh, my soul, until he until he showed them
who he was, they didn't have a clue, did they? But now they
live, move and have their being in him. And so do we, if we're
in him. Oh, to be in him, to be one with
him. This burning bush represents
substitution and satisfaction. Christ was not consumed. And
I thought of this verse in John 10. He said, told us that he
laid down his life. He said, I laid down my life
as sheep. He said that I might take it again. Don't you love
that? He laid it down. No man took
it from Him. He laid it down that He might
take it again. And then later in the chapter,
talking about His sheep, whom He knows, who hear His voice,
who follow Him, He said, I give them eternal life. He took that
life again, and He gave that life to His people. And it can
never be lost. It can never be taken away. Never
taken away from us. We're in His hand. He's in the
Father's hand. We're one together. Forever. Back in our text, verse
6. Exodus 3, verse 6. Here, God
reveals Himself to Moses as the God of promise. The covenant God. That's how
he revealed himself. You see, God made a promise to
save a particular people from their sins. Pictured by the children of Israel,
okay? All Israel shall be saved. It's not talking about the nation,
it's talking about God's holy nation, peculiar people chosen
in Christ unto salvation. That's who it's talking about,
all right? But the people that Moses delivered out of Egypt, That's who that picture is, God's
people, okay? Let's consider this real quick
and I'll close. He said, I'm the God of thy father, the God
of Abraham. The God of Abraham. Abraham was an idol-worshiping
God-hater. Did you know that? A liar. Whom God chose from eternity. He chose him to be forever referred
to as the friend of God. You think about that. He had a son, the promised son
of his and his wife's old age, Isaac. Isaac. Like his father, he was a sinful
man. He was. Read about him. Sinful man. Scripture say in Isaac, shall
thy seed be called? Isaac was chosen of God. Isaac
was used for God to refer to him as the God of Isaac. That's
why I want to name my son Isaac. I love that name. I pray he's the God of my Isaac. Jacob, the God of Jacob. I particularly love this one.
Oh my, hmm. That evil brother, that selfish,
greedy brother, that trickster, that no good, vile boy, Jacob. God said, I've loved him. Oh,
I've loved him. Why in the world would you love
him? Because I chose him in Christ. That the purpose of God according
to election might stand not of works, but of him that calleth.
We might be to the praise of the glory of His grace. Oh, Jacob. God came to him and called him
by name, didn't He? Wrestled with him. Jacob wouldn't let
him go, but God wouldn't let him go. Never will. He said,
You're mine. We just read it. We just read
it. Here's what God told Moses. He
said, I'm the God of sinners whom I promised to save and never
let go, chosen and loved in my beloved son. What was Moses' reaction to that?
Look at the end of the verse, verse 6. Moses hid his face, for he
was afraid to look upon God. Now that makes sense to me. I
can enter into that. When God is pleased to reveal
Himself, He reveals His holiness, and
He reveals Himself by revealing His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, God the Son. And He did it here to Moses through
the form of a burning bush that was not consumed. And I'm telling
you, that bush is Christ. That burning bush is Christ,
and he was not consumed. Oh, my soul. If God ever speaks
to us, if God ever reveals Christ to us and in us, fear will lay
hold on us. And this is the kind of fear
I'm talking about, reverence. Oh, a reverential fear to fall
down at his feet, to cry out to him for mercy. You know, when Moses asked God
to show him his glory, he said, I'll make all my goodness pass
before thee. I'll proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.
He told him, he said, I'll be merciful to whom I will.
I'll be gracious. I'll have compassion on whom
I will. That's his glory. That's his
glory. I pray God might reveal Christ
to us today. Christ in the burning bush. God
bless his word. Let's have a word of prayer. God, our Heavenly Father, we
thank you so much for your word, your holy, precious word. Every
word of it is so pure. I pray that you would be pleased
to show us the Lord Jesus Christ in it. If we don't see him, We
don't see anything. There's one great sight, and
it's him. I pray you'd be pleased to reveal him to us today. There
are a lot of people here. Lord, please speak to each soul
here, if it be your will. We thank you for your goodness
to us. You are so good and so kind. Please have mercy on us
and our loved ones. We pray for your will to be done
in all things, and regardless of our circumstances, please
cause us to trust you. It's so easy to fear and be afraid
and to doubt you and your goodness, Lord, forbid us from doing so.
Enable us to trust you at all times. Please save us. Don't let us go. Be with all
the afflicted, I pray. Keep your hand upon us. In Christ's
name we pray, amen. Thank you, Cody. Glad I was here
to hear that. Couldn't help but think during
that message, what a savior. Let's sing that together. Hallelujah,
what a savior. Let's stand in number 127. Man of sorrows, what a name For
the Son of God who came Ruined sinners to reclaim Hallelujah,
what a Savior Bearing shame and scoffing rude In my place condemned
He stood Sealed my pardon with His blood Hallelujah, what a
Savior! Guilty, violent, helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God was He. Full atonement can it be, Hallelujah,
what a Savior! Lifted up was He to die, It is
finished was His cry, Now in heaven exalted high. Hallelujah! What a Savior! When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring, Then anew this song we'll sing,
Hallelujah, what a Savior! We'll meet again tonight at six
o'clock, God willing. You're dismissed.