the priest of Midian, and he
led the flock to the back side of the desert, and came to the
mountain of God, even to Horeb. 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. And Moses said, I will now turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And
when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto
him out of the midst of the bush and says, Moses, Moses. And he
said, here I am. And he said, draw not nigh here.
Don't come too close. Don't come up here. Don't come
into this. Put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou stands is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God
of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he
was afraid to look upon God. 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. Listen what
a statement here. For I know their sorrows. What a line. showing the compassion
of God, the concern of God, and the knowledge of God, I know
their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that
land unto a land, good land, and a large land. Blowing with
milk and honey under the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites
and the Amorites and the parasites and the happy sites Have eyes
and the Jebusites now therefore behold the children of the of
Israel is come unto me the cry of the children of Israel come
unto me and I've also seen the oppression were with the Egyptians
oppressed them come down therefore and and I will send thee unto
Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people the children
of Israel out of Egypt. Now God gives Moses a call here. He calls him. He calls Moses. You all remember
the story of Moses as an infant. He was found by Pharaoh's daughter,
raised by his own mother and then adopted into Pharaoh's family. His sister adopted him, made
him his son by adoption, took him into his family. And he came
and he saw some Egyptians smiting one of his brethren. He decided,
you know, that's not right. He understood that God was going
to deliver Egypt, I mean Israel out of Egypt, but he didn't know
when, didn't know how, but he's going to help him. And so he
slew this Egyptian, but he looked this way and he looked that way.
He had to make sure nobody was watching. He didn't understand
that God was watching. And that's why when you have
to look this way and that way to see if anybody's watching
before you do something, don't do it. Just don't do it because
nobody else may see you, but God sees you. And I love that
about it. We can't hide from it. And so
he had to leave Egypt, went down to Midian, saved some women,
rule had seven daughters and he had a bunch of daughters and
brought him into his home and gave him one of his daughters
to marry they had a child named Gershom and Gershom means stranger
for Moses said I've been a stranger in a strange land but Moses had
taken it up on to himself to deliver Israel from Egypt and
he failed he failed First, he failed because it wasn't God's
time. It was not God's time yet. He told Abraham, said, your children
are going to stay down there 400 and something years before
I bring them up and out of there. And secondly, not only was it
not God's time, but he wasn't prepared. He wasn't made ready. God said, all thy children shall
be taught of God. And he was one of God's children.
He hadn't been taught yet. God hadn't taught him yet. He
took it upon himself to do this thing. And he wasn't taught of
God. And God's got to prepare a man.
God's got to use a man. He's got to be taught of God.
And thank God He teaches His people. You know, He takes it
upon Himself to teach us. He uses men. He uses His Word. But He teaches us. And then the
third reason why he fell was the Hebrews weren't ready to
leave yet. They had to get in more desperate
shape. And so God's got to prepare Moses. His time hadn't come yet and
he got to keep the pressure on Israel or they won't come up
out of Egypt. So that's three things that's
got to happen. But oh, but God, but God. And His mercy was working all
things together for Moses' good. The king's after him, Pharaoh's
after him. He's rejected of his brethren.
Oh yes, all that happened. But God, but God. The Scriptures
tell us that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
That's what Stephen, when he was preaching, he says Moses
was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt. But you know all what
the wisdom of Egypt is? It's foolishness with God. It's still the wisdom of the
world. And the wisdom of the world is
foolishness with God. And the wisdom of the world has
never done anybody any good. It's never saved a soul. It's
never taught us all about God. The wisdom of this world and
all of it's folly and all of it. He read it to woe unto them
that go down to Egypt. Woe unto them that go down there. To all lean on the flesh and
go to Egypt for help. That's going to the world and
using their wisdom. God said, I think out this wisdom
of this world is foolishness. It's foolishness. It never done
me any good. It doesn't do you any good. But
I tell you, who has done us good? God's done us good. God's done
us really, really, really good. God is good to Israel. And I tell you, beloved, and
all this worldly wisdom and all of his Egyptian wisdom that he
learned and all the things that he learned in that court of Pharaoh,
all of it had to be set aside. You know why? That no flesh should
glory in His presence. Oh my! Now God's going to educate
him. God's going to educate this man.
You know, people go off to school to get educated how to preach. and get educated in history and
all these things and get educated in the scriptures and how to
preach and how to outline, how to ask Jesus and how to interpret
scriptures and all those things. And some men it's helped, most
people have to unlearn everything that they learned in school.
A lot of men I've talked to said I had to unlearn what I was taught. And God's going to educate him
now. And if God educates you, you get the best education that
there is in this universe. If God educates you, you're going
to get a really, really good education. And I tell you what,
God's ways are not our ways. When God educates you, He's going
to educate you in a way that's not like this world educates
you. Now look what Moses says in verse 1. Now Moses kept the
flock of Jethro his father-in-law. the priest of Midian and he led
the flock to the back side of the desert and came to the mountain
of God even to Horeb Moses occupation what he done was a shepherd and
you know the shepherds according to the Egyptians that the people
who tended sheep was an abomination to the Egyptians and here goes
Moses he went from Egypt dwelling in the palace to the back side
of the desert He went from being there in that palace to being
in a sheepfold. And what a change from being
up there and being down here. Being somebody, now being a shepherd. Tending all the things of Pharaoh's
court and coming down here now to tend sheep. What a day, what
a change, what a change in a man. And then he says he went to the
back side of the desert. There's another fellow God took
to the back side of the desert. The Apostle Paul. He took him
into the desert of Arabia. Kept him there three years and
educated him in things that people still study and study diligently
about. And when it says he's the backside
of the desert, that means when he got back there, he was alone
with God. And all to be alone with God. That is you and God. Nobody else. Just you and God. To be in a
place where God brings you and it's nobody but you and Him.
And that's the first thing He does in educating a man. He gets
a man to Himself. A man may be sitting in a congregation,
God still gets him alone. He may be in a great big family,
but God's gonna take one and get him alone. And when God gets
a man alone, what a blessed day that is. You remember when Jacob
was laying asleep, and he was laying there asleep, and God
bless you, got a hold of him. But nobody but him and God. And
when you and God are alone, and God gets you alone, something's
gonna happen. Oh, thank God. Oh, to be alone
with God. And one of these days, it's just
going to be us and God alone. Oh, listen. God put him in a
place where there's no outside influence, where all is reality. Not pretend, not fantasy. Everything's
reality. And Moses had been down here
40 years now. 40 years. He left Egypt when he was 40
years old. He had been down here 40 years
and he is 80 years old. Now he had been back there on
the back side of that desert. And God is teaching him something.
And here comes God and God calls him. And before anybody can ever
be sent to do anything, God's got to call him. God's got to
call him. How can he preach the gospel
unless he'd be sent? And then look what this glorious
sight, look what happened now. And he came to the mountain of
God, even to Horeb. And I read that Horeb is a mountain
range, and Sinai is one of the mountains there. And oh, he came
to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. Now watch what happens
now. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him. You know who this angel of the
Lord is? I'm going to show you who he is. Look in Isaiah 63.
Isaiah 63. And you find, you know, we know
that if God ever does and speaks to a man, He speaks to that man
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures tells us that
all things were made by Him and without Him was not anything
made. That He is the Creator. By Him, Christ created everything
in this world. And God, when He does something,
He does it by Son. He does it by Word. and the son
was the word and God speaks to me and even spoke to Moses through
his blessed son the Lord Jesus Christ look what he says in verse
9 of Isaiah 63 in all their affliction he was afflicted and the angel
of his presence saved them Angel of whose presence? God's presence
In His love and in His pity, He redeemed them. And listen
now, and He bared them and carried them all the days of old. So this angel of the Lord is
the Lord Jesus Christ himself. God is only, only, has only ever
manifested himself to men in Christ. When we get through Exodus,
for without that fire is the Lord Jesus Christ. That cloud
and night, everything in this book is about our Lord Jesus
Christ. And all it said here, God only
manifests himself to men in Christ. And then look what it says, he
said, and God, the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire.
In a flame of fire. God's glory here is in a flame
of fire. Oh my, before God ever uses a
man to honor and be used of God, the first thing a man's got to
see is the glory of God. That's the first thing you'll
see. People say they first see their sin and then they see the
Lord. You won't see your sin until you see the Lord. Men have
it just backwards. And when you get a shot, Isaiah
said, When I saw the Lord, I lifted up. When I saw the Lord, I lifted
up. And His glory filled that temple. That's when he said, Woe is me.
I'm undone. Paul, he said, when a light above
the brightness of the sun appeared unto me, I heard a voice from
heaven. And he didn't know he was a sinner
until God put him in the dust and he saw the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ and Christ spoke to him. And oh, we got to see
the glory of God. And then he said, the flame of
fire in the midst of the bush. Flame of fire. What in the world
is this flame of fire in the midst of the bush? One thing
about fire, one thing about fire, it always signifies purity and
holiness. Wherever fire is mentioned, it
means purity and holiness. And our God, he said, our God
is a consuming fire. Fire is always emblematic of
judgment. They had that brazen altar. And
they always had a fire to consume the sacrifice. And God caused
the fire to fall that day and consume the sacrifices, the water
and everything. And the day that Elijah said,
let the God of Elijah speak today. Then he spoke and fire fell and
consumed everything. Manoah is on that rock and the
fire fell and consumed the sacrifice on that rock. And thank God the
fire, the fire of God's judgment didn't fall on us individually,
but it fell on His blessed Son. That's why the Lord said, if
it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Lord, my soul is
exceeding sorrowful unto death. He knew, beloved, that God, God's
fire and His wrath and all that it means is going to come down
on Him. And bless His name, instead of
it consuming us and consuming Him, He consumed it! And He consumed
every drop of it! And God will never, ever come
and get anything from us. And I tell you, not only does
this signify purity and holiness, but it signifies power. Look
what it says, that bush burned with fire. Now how in the world
can a bush burn with fire and not be burned? That's what I'm talking about
with our Lord Jesus Christ. How could the fire of God fall
on Him in such an infinite and eternal way, fall on His blessed
Son? and the Son bear it and consume
it. Oh, the power that was in Christ
shows us the power and the glory and the might that was in the
blessed Son of God. He was able. And the third thing about this
flame of fire in the midst of the bush, it was a mystery. It
was a mystery. It said it was not consumed.
That's so mysterious. It was not consumed. Oh, here's
the gospel. Here's the gospel in these three
things. How can God, who is holy, pure, a consuming fire, how can
God reveal himself without consuming us in judgment and everything
that's contrary to himself? There's only one way. Only one
way. And that's for him to provide
somebody to go between us and him. And it was God's providing. When Abraham went up that mountain
with Isaac, he said, Father, where's the lamb? He said, my
son, God will provide him a lamb. Not only did he provide him a
lamb, but God provided himself a lamb for himself to satisfy
him. And he, the Lord Jesus Christ
said, behold the lamb, which taketh away the sin of the world.
that Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. And so in
God and His holiness, and God and His wrath, and God and His
consuming fire, when we needed somebody to face God's holiness,
face God's purity, face God's fire and wrath, our Lord Jesus
Christ stepped in the way And they come to get him that
night in the garden and he said, if you seek me, let these go. And God said, if you seek me,
our Lord Jesus said, if you seek me, let Donnie Bell go. Let Larry Myers go. Let Pam Hardman go. Let them
go. You can't get me and them at
the same time. Jesus, lover of my soul, cover
of my defenseless head, hangs my helpless soul on faith. And then Moses said, look what
it says now. Verse 3. Moses says, now I'm
going to turn aside. and see this great sight, why
the bush is not burnt." He's standing there watching that
thing go. And he's watching it, it's on
fire, it's flaming. He says, but he was tending his
sheep and whatever he was doing, he said, I've got to stop what
I'm doing. And I've got to see this thing.
I've got to see this thing. Why the bush is not burnt. And
I'll tell you what, he said to see this great sight. Oh my,
what a great sight we see when God turns us aside. We got to
turn aside from ourselves, turn aside from our self-righteousness,
our self-confidence, our morality, our false professions. We got
to turn away from all those things. And boy, when that happens, when
he needed to turn aside, he couldn't do anything else. When God or
the angel of the Lord appears, we've got to turn aside. We've
got to. Whatever else we're doing, when
the Lord makes Himself known, we've got to turn aside. And He turned aside with a purpose.
He said, I've got to see why this bush is not burnt. I got to see why this bush is
burning but it's not consumed. Why it's not consumed? You know what everyone of us
ought to pray right now? God teach me this mystery. Why the
bush is burning and it's not consumed. Teach me this mystery. Teach me this mystery. And when
he turned aside, look what happened. Verse 4, when the Lord saw God
speaks in language to accommodate us. And when the Lord saw that
he turned aside to see, what happened? He turned aside
to see. Whenever God turns us aside,
what happens? God spoke. God said, God called him right out of the
middle of that bush. Not only was the bush burning,
but the bush was talking. And oh, God called unto him out
of the bush. And I want you to notice this,
called unto him. God calls us personally. God calls us, every one of us,
and we become him. It's like that, it's like that,
uh, uh, man, that impotent man in John
chapter 5 peoples everywhere but the Lord said unto him and
God called unto him and God calls unto him or her and oh my oh you turn aside to see you
know what you'll find God will manifest Himself. And when a
man turns aside to see, I'm going to go see what they're saying
up there. I'm going to go see what they're preaching up there.
Well, I tell you what, you turn aside and God, you may, you'll
hear the voice of God. And God called unto him out of
the bush and he said, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses. And I tell you what, and he says
this, when we turn aside, we'll find God will manifest himself,
reveal himself. And he told him, he said, take
off your shoes for the ground you stand is holy. Now, what
in the world is he talking about? He's not talking about us. He
had sandals on. He said, take your sandals off.
But now when he talks about when we turn aside to see God, The walks of our everyday life,
and the shoes of our everyday life, that represents walking. Our everyday lives. It's like
our Lord, He said, you know, except I've washed your feet,
you have no part with Me. And then He says, you wash one
another's feet. How do we wash one another's
feet? With the Word of God. And so, this happens here. When He says, take off your shoes,
He says, you draw near in true worship, In true worship, don't,
don't, you know, when we come here, our everyday walk, God
help us to leave it aside, forget it, and draw near to God. Draw
near to God. Let me show you something in
Revelations. Oh, we never, never use lightness
about God. Never, never. Oh, listen. That's
why God said, here Moses, you're in the presence of God. You're
in my presence. And I tell you what, when you're
in my presence, you're in the presence of pure holiness, pure
righteousness. Look in Revelations 1. And I,
you know, take off your shoes of everyday walk and life and
draw near to God in true worship. Oh my! We don't never want to
use lightness or levity about God. Oh no, people can do that all
they want to. One of the ladies told me this
morning, said we're like Dairy Queen. Our Sundays are great. That's blasphemous. That's blasphemous. That is blasphemous. You've got a whole Bible to put
the only thing God ever promised to use in this world is His Word. His Word. And men put stupid
stuff like that up. Swallow your pride, it won't
give you indigestion. Listen, we all got enough pride
and there ain't no way in the world we can swallow it. Only
way, the only thing we can do about it is prostrate ourselves
before God and say, Lord, save me. Save me from myself. Save me from my pride. Save me
from my self-righteousness. And that's what we're talking
about here. He says, listen, Moses, you're in the presence
of pure holiness. And beloved, we come into, you
know, people can't understand why our services are so quiet.
Steve Dishman's dad used to come here years ago and he'd come
and say, boy, these folks, they listen to what's going on. They
worship the way people ought to worship, quiet and still.
You know what they're doing? They're listening. You can't
listen when you're making a bunch of noise. Can you? That's why he says, Moses, you're
standing on holy ground here. And beloved, we're tonight in
God's presence. And the only way in the world
we can stand in the presence of God is through His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. No other way. He's washed our
feet. He's cleansed our feet. And beloved,
when we come in here, let's leave off our everyday walk in life
and worship God. And worship God. Look what happens
here in Revelation 1 in verse 12. And I turned to see, the voices
spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven
golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed
with a garment down to the foot, and gird about the paps with
a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white
like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes, listen to this,
were as a flame of fire. and his feet like undefined brass
as if they burned in a furnace and his voice as the sound of
many waters and he had in his right hand seven stars and out
of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword and his countenance was
as the sun shineth in his strength now listen to this and when I
saw him When I saw him like he was, I fell at his feet as dead. He's too holy and too glorious
and too mighty. Can you look at the sun directly
into the sun at the brightest it's ever been? The brightest
in the middle of the summer? You can't do that. That's what
John is saying here. That's what God is saying to
him. You can't see that. And oh, John fell down as dead
before him. Oh, there's no life left in me
when I see such glory. And he said, listen to this. And he laid his right hand upon
me. The right arm. My right arm is not slack. Oh, my own arm brought salvation. And he laid his right hand upon
me saying, fear not. I'm the first and I'm the last.
I'm the first to give life. I'm the only one that can give
life. He's the first and the last. Oh my. So okay, back over
here in our text. Oh, listen. Never, never use
lightness about God. And then look what a blessed,
blessed revelation the Lord gave him. A revelation of grace. And it was a revelation by grace. And look what he says to him
down here in verse 6 now. Oh, look what a revelation. But
God gives by His grace. First of all, He reveals His
character. Moreover, He said, I am. I am. I'm the self-existent God. I
am the God. Now listen to this. I am the
God of thy fathers. Thy father. I'm the God of thy
father. Now watch this. I'm the God of Abraham. What
does it mean to be the God of Abraham? When the God of glory
appeared unto our father Abraham when he dwelt in Mesopotamia,
God called him, chose him, elected him, and him alone. He called
him out of Mesopotamia. He's the God of election. He
chose Abraham. And then he's the God of Isaac. What about Isaac? Isaac was the
son of promise. Not only that, but Isaac had
a supernatural birth. His mother was way, way, way,
way, way past having children. But Abraham considered not his
own body now being dead, but believed that God was able to
do that which he promised. Oh, it's a supernatural birth.
That's what happens to us. We get a supernatural birth.
We're children of promise. And then there's Jacob. There's
Jacob. He was chosen of God. He was
faithful to God, long-suffering. God was long-suffering to him
and faithful to Jacob. And this shows you that he makes
a new creature out of us. He took Jacob, changed his name,
and changed his walk. They said, that's the God that
I am. That's the God that I am. And all of these men were chosen,
quickened, and preserved by grace. And then look what it says now.
Then verse 6. And Moses hid his face. He done
like John. He hid his face. He went like
this. He hid his face. He covered up
his face. Why? He was afraid to look upon
God. Oh my, everybody now has got,
they're so familiar with the Lord. They're so familiar with
God. Let's give Jesus a hand clap. Let's stand up and lift our hands
and praise the Lord. Preacher advertised on TV, I
mean on the radio. He said, if you've never been
baptized, give me a call. I don't care who you are, just
come on over, I'll baptize you. Oh my, people just, they just
got this very, such a low, low, low view of God. That's all Armenianism
and the flesh can produce low, low, low, low views of God. The only way you can get a high,
high, high, high, high view of God is for God to reveal himself
to you. And if you ever see him, he is
always the one lifted up and you're the one that's low. And oh, he hid his face. He was
afraid to look upon the face of God. Oh my. And then look what he told him
here now. And look what the Lord said to him now. Not only a revelation
of his character, and all this is by grace. And a revelation,
oh, he revealed to Moses his knowledge and his omniscience
and his faithfulness to his promise and his purpose. And he said,
I have surely, surely seen the affliction of my people. I've
seen the affliction of my people. Ain't you grateful that God says,
I see you. I see your affliction. I see
what you're going through. I see your affliction. And not
only that, but look what he says. Not only have I seen their affliction
of my people which are in Egypt, those that are out in the world,
but I've heard, not only seen them, but I've heard, I've heard
them cry by reason of their taskmasters. Oh my. God knows who we are. He knows where we are. And He
knows how to save us and deliver us. And herein is love. And He
says, for I know their sorrows. Do you remember being in bondage
and Christ saving you from out of that bondage? Oh, I remember. Oh, my goodness. How can I ever
forget? I was lost in religion, lost
in self-righteousness, lost in legalism. Instead of leaving me there, he made himself known to me.
Crossed my path with a preacher. And when he crossed my path with
a preacher, he got my attention. And then look what he says, I
seen and I heard. And now, it's one thing to see
and heard, what's he gonna do about it? If he just looks and
hears, you and I can see something, hear something, a lot of times
we can't do anything about it. But he said, I can, I have come down
to save them. I've come down to save them.
I've come down to save them. Oh my. And that's what He does. And I've come down to deliver.
And you know, 1500 years later, God came down through the womb
of a virgin. And you know what God said? He
told Joseph, He says, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sin. He came down and then it was
a twofold deliverance and he says To bring them up out of
that land. That's the first thing God do
he got to bring them out Got to bring them out of that bond.
He's got to bring them out of that slave We got to bring them
out of that darkness got to bring them out of that darkness really
got to bring them out of the sand and then to bring them out
of that land and then take them in to a land, large land, for
them with milk and honey. So he brings them out in order
to bring them in. He brought us out and then he
turned around and brought us in. And then look what he told Moses
to do. Look what he told Moses to do. Now therefore in verse
nine, now therefore, behold the cry of the children of Israel
is come unto me. Their cry. Oh, you know, he's
touched with the feelings of our infirmity. He hears our cries. He hears
our cries. And come unto me. And I've also seen how oppressed
they are, that the Egyptians oppressed them. And God said
to Moses, come now, therefore. Come. Come now, therefore, and I'm
going to send you unto Pharaoh, that thou best bring forth my
people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. You know when God's
going to send him? After you taught him on the back
side of the desert. After you saw his glory. After
you heard his voice. After being trained by God himself. The time, come now. Come now. Now that you've failed in your
own strength. Now that you've been brought
low by 40 years waiting in the wilderness. That's the time. And you know the purpose I'm
going to send you for? One reason, bring forth my people. My people, they're in bondage,
they're in misery, but they're mine. They belong to me. And
here's the authority he went in. God said, I'll send thee. I'll send thee. He went in his
own name in chapter 2. But now he goes in God's name. And we'll pick up there next
week when Moses said unto God. I got to send you down there
now. And Moses said unto God, who in the world am I? Who am
I? And that's the question we all
ask. I was talking to Bruce Crabtree
here recently. I was in a meeting and every
preacher preached so good. Oh they all preached so good.
And then I had to get up. And when I get around a bunch
of preachers really preaching, the first thing I think of is
what in the world am I doing here? And I was talking to Bruce about
it and I said, Bruce, I hear those fellows and I wonder what
in the world I'm doing. I think I ought to just quit
because I ain't even spitting distance to those fellows. He
said, I thought I was the only one who felt that way. But it
is. It's the most mysterious thing.
You hear somebody one after another here preaching. But here's the
thing. I may not be near as good a preacher
as all those fellows are. But my message is the same. That's
what it is. My message is the same. And that's
all that matters. And oh, God said, I'm going to
send you Moses. And if God sends you, you mark
it down. People going to listen. Ain't
they? They going to listen. Our father, oh, our father. In
the blessed, blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank
you for the day. Thank you for your mercies today.
Thank you for your gospel. Thank you for the truth as it
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for allowing us and
causing us to see your glory and all your glory. Let it be
our lifelong task, our lifelong goal, is to glorify you. To count ourselves to be nothing,
but to win Christ, to be found in Christ, to know Christ, to love Christ,
to honor our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, save you people in this
place. Oh, save you people in this place. For Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.