Well, as we've seen in Exodus
chapter three from last week, the Lord God revealed himself
to Moses in the burning bush. And that obviously, that was
none other than God manifest in the Lord Jesus Christ as the
promised Messiah. That was one of the pre-incarnate,
we call it. You know, the incarnation of
Christ is his actual coming in time and taking into union with
his deity, that sinless humanity. Well, before that happened in
time, he appeared several times to his people in the Old Testament
and here in the burning bush to Moses. The Lord here had commissioned
Moses to go down into Egypt and confront Pharaoh, who at that
time was probably the most powerful king on earth. and to tell him
to let his people go, to deliver the people of Israel. They had been in bondage for
about 400 years by this time. And you remember how Pharaoh
rose up that didn't know Joseph, and he saw them multiplying,
so he put them in bondage, made them slaves. And so here in verse
13, look here, it says, now this is after God commissioned Moses
to go down to Egypt. He said, and Moses said unto
God, verse 13 of Exodus three, behold, when I come unto the
children of Israel and shall say unto them, the God of your
fathers hath sent me unto you and they shall say to me, what
is his name? What shall I say unto them? Now
that may sound like a strange question because think about
this. These were the Hebrews. These were the children of Israel.
Wouldn't they know and recognize his name when Moses said, the
God of your fathers has sent me unto you, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac and Jacob, and even the God of Joseph. Wouldn't
they recognize that? Well, we're really not certain
of the implications of this, but we know, as I said, they'd
been in bondage for 400 years. And if you read through the Old
Testament, the history of Israel, it was pretty prevalent among
that nation that they would forget God, that they would turn to
other gods and idols and all kinds of things. That wasn't
an uncommon thing. Israel, even after they were
delivered from Egypt and they wandered in the wilderness for
40 years and then they were taken into the promised land and once
they got into the promised land, the prophets continually admonished
the people in several ways because they didn't know God. I think
it was the prophet Amos much later on here who made the statement,
God said, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. They don't
know God. And we see as in the Old Testament
and the New, when God compares the old covenant law that the
nation Israel was under and the new covenant, which is his spiritual
nation, spiritual Israel, One of the things he says that's
a difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant
is under the New Covenant, unlike the Old Covenant, they shall
all know me from the least of them to the greatest. You can
read about that in Jeremiah 31 and other places. But anyway,
it wasn't uncommon for the people to forget. the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. So when Moses is anticipating
here, he's saying, well, what am I gonna tell them when they
say, what's his name? And I thought about this. Consider
this. If you think that might be too
far-fetched to say that they would forget God, let me remind
you of this. Think about how many churches,
so-called churches, that we see today that had a good beginning
in the truth, but fell away from it into darkness, into false
gospels. And I thought about this, you
know, when I was a student at Southern Seminary in Louisville,
and I began to listen to the true gospel on tape that my mother
would send me, And I was not hearing that truth at the seminary. And I remember walking across
the campus, what they called the quad, and I looked up at
the library. And I went to the library quite
often, began to check out old books. And the name of the library
was Boyce Memorial Library. And I said, well, who was Boyce?
Well, it was James Pettigrew Boyce, who was one of the founding
fathers of the Southern Baptist Convention. And I went and looked
up Boyce, and I read what he believed, and he was believing
what Pastor Henry Mahan was teaching and preaching on the tapes. And
I thought, well, it looked like the Southern Baptists, as far
as I could see, had a good beginning. But at the seminary, they're
a flagship seminary, was Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
They weren't preaching it now. They were preaching another gospel.
You see, so they fell away. So it shouldn't amaze us that
the people here in Egypt, after 400 years, yeah, they had forgotten
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Moses, and Jacob rather. So understand
that. Paul talked about that in 2 Thessalonians
2, how before Christ comes again, there'll be a great falling away
from the truth. And that's what we see now because
think about this, that what is commonly known in the world now,
not to us, but what is commonly known in the world today as Christianity
is actually false Christianity. And that's why I wrote that book
that I wrote called What is a Christian? What is a Christian according
to the Bible? So understand that. Well, now Moses did in this question
here. Look at it again, verse 13. Moses
said unto God, behold, when I come unto thee, the children of Israel,
and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers. Now the
name for God there is a common name for God. It's in the Hebrew,
it would be Elohim. It's the same name for God as
in Genesis 1.1, in beginning God. And it's a plural. It's
a plural noun. And so what is Moses saying here,
that we have many gods? No, it's the name for God Almighty,
the powerful God, the creator God, and Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, the Trinity, which is not three gods, but one God in
three persons. So Moses did use that name. But
that name of God indicates God Almighty, the creator and the
sovereign of all people and all creation without exception. But
here Moses is going down into Egypt and he says, I'm going
to deliver you out. Well, what is it about God that
makes that even possible? And I thought about this in the
gospel. The name of God that we're going to look at today
and next week is the name of God in salvation, which is revealed
through the glorious person and the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So with that in mind, go on to
verse 14. God said unto Moses, I am that
I am. You've heard that before. He
said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am
hath sent me unto you. Now, the Hebrew words here for
I am are not words that we would equate with a name. But that's
how God's identifying himself. And to understand this, we have
to know this, that a name in the Bible, especially the name
of God, is much more than a mere label. It's not a label for God. It's not like, you know, a lot
of times we see people name their children or their grandchildren
after family names, but sometimes people just get them one of those
baby name books and they go through and they pick out a name they
like. And that's what they do. And we know that all those names
mean something. There's a meaning behind it,
but that name that we give that child or that grandchild or that
our parents gave may not reflect our character. It may not. It may not tell them, but now
the names of God, and there's several names for God, because
one name is not adequate for our God. They speak of who God
is, his very nature. His very essence, and that's
what this speaks of. It's an expression describing
the whole being of God. I am that I am. Not I was what
I was, or I will be what I will be. I am, I was, I am, I will
be, always the same in the nature of His essence. And it describes,
and it's an expression of His whole being, His nature. When
you combine these, and I'm not gonna get into the Hebrew and
all that, but when you combine these, you've heard people call
God Yahweh. You've heard that, haven't you?
Yahweh or Yahuwah or something like that. And again, I mentioned
this last week, originally that would be transliterated into
four letters, Y-H-W-H in our English. There were no vowel
points there. And there was no way to pronounce
it. But see, here's the key. You don't have to know how to
pronounce the name of God. All you need to know is who God
is, what he's like, and his uniqueness. And this name affirms, number
one, God's self-existence. God, he's the great I am. He
has no beginning and no end. He's always been. And secondly,
that means his eternality. He's the eternal God. God is
the only one who is eternal. We're not eternal. Now we gained
eternal life, which means it will never end now because of
Christ and his righteousness. But we had a beginning. But God
didn't have a beginning. Who created God? Nobody. God's always been. I am that
I am. Then it also means his immutability
God does not change now. I'm gonna tell you something
that is mind-boggling a Being who cannot and will not change
doesn't need to change And you know, that's one of the bases
of our salvation Malachi 3 6 I am the Lord I change not therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed you sinners saved by grace and
And that's the basis of God's self-existence, God's eternality,
God's immutability. That's the basis of who he is
and what he does. Not just who he is, but what
he does. Only one self-existent, eternal, immutable being in the
universe, and that's God. Every one of us, we have our
existence from God. God created us. Our salvation
is from God. It's the work of the Lord, and
we're the work of the Lord. The Bible says that our salvation
is not by our works, it's by grace through faith, that not
of ourselves, not of works, lest any man should boast. And then
it says in Ephesians 2 10, we are his workmanship. That's a
believer. That's a sinner saved by grace
through the blood of Jesus Christ. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, not because of, but unto good
works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. So we're his workmanship. He is no one's workmanship. God
is no one's workmanship. The whole creation has its existence
from him while he doesn't have anyone from whom he exists. No
beginning, no end. And here's the key, and this
is what I believe is so appropriate for Moses, and it's appropriate
for Moses in their physical deliverance from Egypt. But it's also appropriate
for us in our spiritual deliverance from our bondage, our Egyptian
bondage, our bondage to sin and the law. And this is what it
is. It's important because this name,
I am that I am, affirms God's faithfulness that flows out of
who he is. God is faithful. He will not
go back on a promise. He will not take it back. And
because he's self-existent and eternal and immutable, he's faithful
to all his promises and he'll keep them all. If he made a promise,
he'll keep them. If the Bible says in 2 Peter
3 and what is it, verse nine, I think, that God is not willing
that any should perish, well, whoever he's talking about in
that verse, they're not gonna perish. Now, if you believe that's everybody
without exception, then you'll have to preach and believe and
witness this fact that you believe that God's gonna save everybody.
One of the men of the church years ago said they were talking
to a fella who said that he believed that even the devil in the end
was gonna be saved. Now, of course, we know that
2 Peter 3 passage is not talking about everybody without exception.
Just like this right here, when God sends Moses into Egypt, What's
he gonna do? He's gonna deliver out a certain
number of people whom God promised to deliver and give them a land
flowing. He's not gonna bring out all
without exception, all the Egyptians and all the others who were there.
He's gonna bring out Israel. And in 2 Peter 3, God's not willing
that any should perish, any who, any of his chosen people. any
of those whom he promised to save to the uttermost through
Christ. All those that he gave to Christ
before the foundation of the world and sent his son to die
for their sins. That's who he's talking about.
Read the whole book of 2 Peter. And that's what it's all about.
And this I am that I am, this promise, I love this passage
over in Hebrews chapter six. Look at this. He's talking about
God's promise, God's faithfulness to keep his promise in Hebrews
six. And look at verse 13. Now this
is appropriate for the I am God. And he says in verse 13, talking
about the promises that God made to Abraham. And he says in verse
three, when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear
by no greater, he swear by himself. God is the guarantor behind this
promise. God's reputation. is at stake
and on the line. That's the way we would see it.
It's not on the line because it's always sure and certain
it's gonna happen. And he says in verse 14, saying, surely blessing
I will bless thee, multiplying I will multiply. It's gonna happen.
Because God swore it by himself. He's the one behind this. There's
no way it could fail. And it's not conditioned on sinners. God's behind this. If he just made a blanket promise
to everybody and said, now it's up to you, it would fail. If
salvation is a matter of God's grace in sending Christ to try
to save everybody, if they'll let him, it's a failure. But God swore by himself. And
verse 15 of Hebrews 6 says, and so after he had patiently endured,
he obtained a promise. That's Abraham. For men barely
swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them an
end of all strife. When men and women make a pact
or an agreement and they wanna support it with an oath, they
swear by something greater than themselves. But what about God? Well, there's nothing greater
than God. So he swore by himself. And look at verse 17, wherein
God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel. His wisdom cannot change. God
never changes his mind. I change mine all the time. You
change yours, but God never changes his mind. It's the immutability
of his wisdom, his counsel, his promise, his knowledge. And he
said he confirmed it by an oath. He swore by himself that by two
immutable things, that's God's oath and God's promise. You see
that? God's oath cannot change because
God cannot change. He's the great I am. And what
he promised cannot change. And he says, it was impossible
for him to lie. God is truth. This is something
about the I am name. It talks about God's characteristics.
God is truth. God is holy. God is good. God
is sovereign. All of it. And he says that we
might have a strong consolation, strong assurance, who have fled
for refuge to lay a hold upon the hope set before us, which
hope we have as an anchor for the soul. both sure and steadfast,
and which entereth into that within the veil." And who's he
talking about here? Verse 20, whether the forerunner
is for us entered, even Jesus made an high priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. All the promises of God in Christ
are yea and amen. Now go back to Exodus 3, now
look at verse 15. And it says, Exodus 3, 15. And
God said, moreover unto Moses, thus shalt thou 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, hath sent
me unto you. This is my name forever, and
this is my memorial unto all generations. Now God gets more
specific, because the theologians say this is God's relational
name, as he relates to the people of his promise. the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. This is his covenant name. The I am. I am who I am, who
is self-existent, eternal, and immutable. He is a covenant God
who made promises. And so when he says, the Lord
God of your fathers, All right, this is God's name in relation
to his covenant people and his promises to them. Now physically
and temporally, this applies to the Hebrew children whom God
promised 400 years before to Abraham that he would bring them
out and give them a land flowing with milk and honey, the land
of promise, and keep them together physically as a nation in some
form I know they were in bondage at some point in time, 10 of
the tribes were scattered, but God kept especially Judah intact
until the Messiah would come, until Christ would come. And
here's the point, none of that was conditioned on Israel, because
if it were, what would have happened? They would have lost it. Read
their history. read their history as a nation.
At any given time, and as far as eternal salvation goes and
looking to Christ to come, in any given generation, there was
only a small remnant of truly saved people. But the rest of
the nation, they were rebellious. There were a few times under
a few kings that the nation worshiped the Lord under the old covenant
in the way they ought to, but it didn't last long. Didn't last
long. And you know, when the kingdom
was divided after Solomon, the Northern kingdom, which consisted
of 10 tribes, every one of their kings were unbelieving evil kings. And down in the southern kingdom,
most of their kings were the same way. They had a few of what
we call good kings who led the people in the worship of the
Lord. But it didn't last. So physically,
that's what it, and temporally, that's what it, but now spiritually
speaking, the Lord God of Abraham, spiritually and eternally, this
applies only to the spiritual nation of Israel, God's elect,
whom he chose in Christ before the foundation of the world,
the spiritual nation made up of sinners saved by grace, Jew
and Gentile, out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation,
who are justified in the sight of God based upon Christ's righteousness
imputed to them. That's who it applies to spiritually. Who is this? It's all whom God
chose and gave to Christ. It's all for whom Christ died.
The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. And it's based
upon what Christ accomplished on Calvary in his obedience unto
death. As I always say, our surety, our substitute, and our redeemer.
Brought to truth, given life from above, and brought to true
faith and true repentance. They are all who will be brought
to eternal glory by the grace and power of God in Christ. And the full significance of
this name, I Am Who I Am, coupled with the God of Abraham, the
full significance of that name is seen only in Jesus Christ
and it's full of sin. God the Father, Philippians 2,
I'm gonna read this over here if you wanna go ahead and find
it, Philippians 2. The Bible says that God the Father
has highly exalted Christ, Jesus, and given him a name above every
name. What does that tell you? Well,
that could only be said of one who is God himself, who is the
I am. The name Jesus, what does it
mean? Well, it literally means Jehovah
saves, or Jehovah is salvation. Now next week, I'm gonna get
into this thing about Jehovah. the Lord God Jehovah, because
I want you to see that. But this is what it said, this
could only be said of one who is God himself. You could say
that about any mere human being. This is the great I am, he is
the great I am, along with the Father and the Spirit. And this
exaltation, God has highly exalted him, applies to his glorious
person as God manifest in the flesh, Matthew 1.23, his name
shall be called Emmanuel. And one in whom dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Colossians two and verse nine.
It also applies to the accomplishment of the redemption of his people
as their surety, substitute and redeemer and their preserver.
Now look at Philippians two, look at verse five. Philippians
two and verse five, he says, let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. If you thought yourself
or if any human being thinks himself to be equal with God,
that's robbery. Trying to rob God of his glory.
But when Christ claimed to be equal with God, and he did, it
wasn't robbery. He's just speaking truth. In
verse seven, he made himself of no reputation and took upon
him the form of a servant. Think about Moses being in the
house of Pharaoh, a prince of Egypt. Now he's a shepherd out
in the backside of the desert, servant of God. and was made
in the likeness of men Christ was. Being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Why did he do that? Because our
sins were imputed to him, charged to him, and he had to pay the
debt. He had to redeem us. Wherefore,
for this reason, God also hath highly exalted him and given
him a name which is above every name. A name above every name? Yes, sir. And he has many names
and one of them is the great I am. Verse 10, that at the name
of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven, things in
earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. You see that? That's amazing,
isn't it? And Christ claimed this name
for himself. It would have been blasphemy
for a mere human being to claim that name. Think about this,
Christ confronted the Pharisees who rejected him as being the
Messiah, but claimed Abraham as their father. In John chapter
eight, he's made this statement. He says, your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. That's John
8, 56. They objected. They said, thou
art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? And he
answered, verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was,
I am. That's John 8, 58. Now think
about that. When the Roman soldiers led by
Judas came to arrest him in the garden, he asked him this question,
whom seek ye? Who do you see? And they answered,
Jesus of Nazareth. And in the King James Version,
It's recorded that he answered, I am he. But the he there in
the King James verse is in italics, which means it wasn't in the
original manuscripts, it was supplied by the translators.
So the he not being there, it really would read this way. He
answered, I am. You remember what happened? They fell backward. Just him
saying I am, they fell backward. In the Gospel of John, it's recorded
that Christ spoke several I am statements. Listen to this. I
am the bread of life. I've got all these in your lesson
with the reference. He said, I'm the bread of life.
I am the light of the world. I am the good shepherd. I am
the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. I am the true vine. And in fact, the use of that
term, I am, that he used it, it's designed by him to cause
those who heard it and were familiar with the scriptures to make that
connection, that he's the one who spoke to Moses out of the
burning bush. He's the great I am. And here's
another very significant verse in John's gospel, where Christ
was speaking to religious unbelievers. Listen to this. This is John
8. Verses 23 through 24. I've got
it listed in your lesson there. He said, you are from beneath.
I am from above. You are of this world. I am not
of this world. I said therefore unto you that
you shall die in your sins for if you believe not that I am. Now again, you see the he there
in the King James Version, but it's in italics. And he says,
for if you believe not that I am, you'll die in your sins. God
manifest in the flesh. Hebrews 11, six, I've got that
listed. It states this, it says, but
without faith, it's impossible to please God. For he that cometh
to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him. It's not just, that's more than
just saying that you got to believe that God exists. There is a God. It's saying that you must believe
that He is who He says He is. He's the great I Am. He's the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's Elohim, the Lord God Almighty. He's the Redeemer. He's a just
God and a Savior. Isaiah identifies Him as a just
God and a Savior. That's who He is. And he says,
look unto me and be ye saved. The gospel of God's grace is
the revelation of the righteousness of who? the righteousness of
God. And that's the merit of Christ's
obedience unto death. That's his righteousness imputed
to his people. And this is how the great I Am
reveals himself. Let me close by just reading
you some scripture. And the reason I don't have these
in your lesson is there's too many of them. Psalm nine and verse 10. If you
want a copy of this, you can look at it and you can write
them down. And they that know thy name will put their trust
in thee. For thou, Lord, hast not forsaken
them that seek thee. Do you know his name? If you
do, you'll put your trust in him. You'll trust Christ. If
you don't know his name, you won't. And he's got to reveal
it to you. Jeremiah 9.23, thus saith the
Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the
mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in
his riches. Verse 24, but let him that glorieth glory in this,
that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, and that
word Lord there is capitalized, that's the Jehovah, we'll get
into that next week. which exercise loving kindness,
judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things
I delight, saith the Lord. John 6, 45, it is written in
the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man
therefore that hath heard, heard his name, heard his gospel, and
hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. John 17, three, this
is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Do you know him? If you
do, you have eternal life. Romans 10, 13, whosoever shall
call upon what? The name of the Lord shall be
saved. How you gonna call upon it if
you haven't heard? How you gonna hear it without a preacher? Somebody
to communicate the gospel to you. And then lastly, 1 John
5, 20. And we know that the Son of God
is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know
him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in
his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and this
is eternal life. Okay.