Let's go to Exodus 3. Last week we saw from just the first two verses how that the burning bush is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was Christ dwelling in that bush that was not consumed. And this morning I want to return to this same chapter here looking at few other verses with it, and I want to look at how the Lord reveals himself to Moses in Christ and in that covenant of grace, that covenant which he promised by which he would receive his people and bless them and teach them and lead them in that covenant of grace. So, let's begin in verse 1, let's read that.

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. Now Just think about this, as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, Moses was highly educated. He received some very good education, some high education in the courts of Egypt. And yet, we see that somehow, perhaps through his maid, his mother, who was his maid and probably had continued relations with him, he identified with the people of Israel.

So that when he came of age, to the age of 40 years old, we're told that he went out to see his brethren and saw the things that were done to them, saw their suffering, and were told by Stephen in Acts 7.25 that he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. Now, from the perspective of Moses in the Old Testament there, which really exposes our sin by nature, really exposes our sin, our shortcomings, our insufficiency to keep the law. Well, looking at Moses here in the Old Testament, It wasn't to be when he was 40 years old at this time. He wasn't going to be the deliverer of Israel at this time.

Moses, from what I could see, was still leaning upon the flesh. He was trusting. He had confidence in the flesh. And Moses was yet trusting in his unique position that he held in Egypt. He was familiar with the courts of Egypt, and yet he identified with the people of Israel. And he saw that and said, you know, there's some unique qualifications here that I have. And he was trusting in those things from what I can see.

But what the Lord shows us in this, in giving us that perspective of Moses there, whatever you think of Moses at this time, what we do see is that he's not dependent on our riches. He's not dependent on our intelligence and our education. He's not dependent on our strength. He doesn't need mighty men. He doesn't need noble men and men of great influence. God is pleased to use foolish things. God is pleased to use weak things. He's pleased to use things that are base and things that are despised to bring to nothing the things that are. He delights to do that because it shows us the glory of God.

And so God sent Moses at that time, when he was 40 years old, off into the wilderness, the wilderness of Midian, away from all the business and the commerce and the wisdom of man that was accumulated there in Egypt at that time. Anything that he could glory in, anything that Moses could trust in, God sent him away from all of that. to humble Moses, to strip him of all those things that he would not trust in himself, but that he would be brought to trust in the true and living God.

Moses was now become a shepherd. Shepherd of Sheep, a pretty base job it would seem from the perspective of man. If there was anything despised by the Egyptians, it was being a shepherd. When Israel was coming out from the land of Canaan to go into the land of Goshen, into Egypt, Joseph was counseling his brethren, five brethren, that he was going to put forth before Pharaoh.

And he told them this. He counseled them to say this. Ye shall say, thy servant's trade hath been about cattle from our youth, even until now, both we and also our fathers. And he told them to say this, that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen. That's where he wanted them to go. It was a good land for a shepherd. It was good grass, good land for raising sheep and cattle. It was good for that. And he tells them, you're going to tell Pharaoh this, and he's going to know this about you, because every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptian.

It's a low class of people. They don't want to be shepherds. That's for the servants. That's for the slaves. That's for people of ill repute. That's for them to do. Yet, this is whom God would send to Moses, a shepherd. A shepherd to deliver God's people out of their bondage, out of their slavery and bondage to Egypt, a picture of this world and what we are in this world, and the darkness and the bondage of Egypt. And so Moses needed God to make him that humble man.

We don't do that ourselves. Even if we think we want that, we don't willingly go into humbling and stripping situations. God must do that. And God does it in a way that only God can do it. Otherwise it would just be manufactured and fake for us. But God knows exactly how to strip his people down in order to make us to have no confidence in the flesh. And so the Lord made Moses to know that he was a humble nobody, nobody, insignificant in the eyes of the world. And so Moses, the way God did it, was Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law. It wasn't even his sheep. He was keeping it for another man. That's a low place to be. That's a low, low place to be.

And Stephen, over in Acts chapter 7, tells us that another 40 years had passed, making Moses an old man now. He's 80 years old. And we don't really see much, except that he was married to Zipporah and had two sons. at that time and that's really all that we're told until we come to here to see and he's a keeper of his father-in-law's sheep. He's a shepherd now.

40 years later and if it were me, I think I might have long been thinking that God by my hand was not going to deliver his people. I'm sure Moses had put that thought out of his mind. He was rejected, he was refused, and that is over. Moses is just going to die on the back side of the desert with a few sheep of his father-in-law. Whatever he trusted in of himself, was expired.

And so verse 2 now says, 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. God did something here that caught Moses' attention. Moses saw a bush burning with fire, and it wasn't going out. And it just kept on burning and burning and burning and was not consumed. It just kept on burning.

And we saw last week how that this bush is a picture of Christ. It is Christ. Christ dwelled in that bush. Right there. That was Christ in the bush. And in seeing this, how Moses was turned aside to behold something, to see something that wasn't normal, that wasn't natural. He saw this thing. And he turned aside to see it.

And I would say that in many churches today, the same thing could be said. Many people have noticed something, something about Christ, and have turned to go in. People go in for many different reasons. They turn into churches to hear what's being said. They open up the Bible to read it. maybe for the first time, or maybe they haven't read it in a long time, they open it up, or they know somebody that's professed to believe Christ, and so they turn to them and they ask them some questions.

And they want to see what's this all about. What's this I hear about the Son of God becoming flesh? What is this all about? And the fleshly mind, that we have is like this bush, this thorny bush. It's what it is. It's a thorny bush. It's a type of bush that the word used for it signifies a thorny bush, just a scrub of a thorny bush.

And what do we know about thorns in the earth? Why do we even have thorns on the earth? Well, the scriptures tell us it's because of the curse. It's because of man's sin and rebellion against God that there are even thorns in the earth, that there's gnats and bugs and diseases and things that destroy and make life difficult and hard upon us. That's why there's thorns in the earth.

In Genesis 3, verses 17 through 19, God spake this unto Adam, And he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, curse it is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. And thou shalt eat the herb of the field, in the sweat of thy face, through hard labor, breaking up the hard ground, and bearing in the heat of the day, and having that stick to your face, and going into your ears, and all the things that happens, and the bitings of the insects, and the thorns, the scratches, the piercing of it, thou shalt eat thy bread. Till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Well, the Son of God came in the likeness of this thorny bush, of this flesh, of this thing that suffers, and is weak, and tried, and afflicted. But when He came, He came in the weakness of this body, but without sin. No sin was in Him. He wasn't born of the corrupt seed of Adam like you and I are. He was formed in the womb of Mary, of the seed of woman, by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost.

And he came in a body as a man that he might suffer, that's why he came as a man, to suffer for his people, to die for his people, and he is God because only God can satisfy. Only God can satisfy the Eternal Holy God to put away our sin forever. Only God can do that. Only God can reconcile us to God. He came as a man like unto us to reconcile us unto the Father. are interested, for various reasons, to know something about this.

And it says in verse 3, Exodus 3, 3, Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. Again, this burning bush is a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it speaks to the accomplished salvation that he would accomplish for his brethren in what he did. And here our Lord is in this thorny bush that isn't consumed by the consuming fire of God, the holy, righteous, all-consuming fire of God, and yet it's not consumed here.

And it gives us, there's a picture of hope in this thing. It says there's a picture of Christ, there's a picture of hope, how that God, how that the Lord Jesus Christ can dwell in the hearts of men, in the hearts of His people, by faith, and not destroy us, not consume us, knowing us inside and out, everything about us, everything we think, do, or say, and yet dwell with us in our hearts by faith. And many are fascinated by the sight that we have of Christ to that day.

And yet for many, if many are even hearing the gospel, there's a lot of places that you can go that look like a church and sound like a church and say they're a church that never preach the gospel, that never declare Christ crucified to their hearers, that never speak of him and what he has done to save his people from their sins. They might tell you a lot about what you can do for God, about what you could do or need to do to save yourself, but they don't speak of Christ who saves. They don't exalt Christ, who said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. I'll do it. You just preach Christ. You be faithful to declare him whom the Father sent to save his people from their sins.

And so for many, if they hear anything at all, that's about as far as it goes. They're just fascinated by the sight of the church. They're fascinated about that we have a book and we sing hymns and whatever it is, whatever form of worship, that's what they're fascinated by, the incense and the robes and all the stuff, the stained glasses and the statues and the stations and various things that people put on and do. Men are fascinated by these things.

And for many, there's no personal experiential knowledge of Christ. There's no fellowship there. There's no reconciliation. There's no knowledge of God. in their hearts, in their souls, no understanding of these things, of God who dwelt in that burning bush and was not consumed, no knowledge of Him.

But for those whom God does save and does set apart for Himself, to know Him, to be reconciled to Him, what God did for Moses here, as we're going to see, Lord willing, He does for all His chosen elect people. There's a picture here of how God deals with those whom He chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, gave to Him, and for whom Christ came for them to lay down His life for them, to redeem them, and to reconcile them, to destroy the works of the devil in them, and to reconcile us unto the Father. And so I want to show you several things here and what our Lord did for Moses that he does in the measure of grace, in the measure of mercy for each one as it pleases him in the Lord Jesus Christ. In this like manner, we see something of this that the Lord does for every one of his people. He does this.

Let me just restart again and say, we are drawn to seek the Lord for many different reasons. Maybe we went to church as a child, and our parents brought us there. And so now as we get older, we start to seek him again. Maybe we've made friends at some point with someone who goes to church, and they invited us, and we go.

Some go back to church. I remember a man telling me this. He had a kid, and he just wanted to give his kid a little religion. Some people go for that reason. Some go to church when they have troubles. Some go to church for the community and the networking that they can get out of it. Some, just for various reasons, just wander in one day to a place, not even knowing why they're going there. And so there's many, many reasons that lead people to seek what this is all about, to come in and just seek what it's all about. They see something, some sight, and they're interested in it.

But understand, that's not salvation. That is not salvation. Just being part of a church, being baptized, taking the Lord's Supper, fellowshipping with his people, reading the book, doing religious things, that's not salvation. That's not what saves us. There's many that go to church who never come under the blood of Christ, who are never put under the blood of Christ, who never have no part in that covenant of God's grace.

But there is an election of grace, whom the Lord loves, and they will hear. They will be called. They will know the Lord. If they are God's child, there will be a personal call of God to them. Now in the preaching of the gospel, like we have here, there's a general call that goes out to all. There's a general call that where we are to consider the things that we are hearing, to consider the true and living God with whom we all have to do. That's a general call. We are to consider ourselves and to consider God and to consider Christ. We are to hear it. We preach for a verdict, trusting that the Lord will make his word profitable in the hearts of God's people.

But will men confess Christ? Will they submit to Christ? Will they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone is the righteousness of God's people? Or will they, like the Jews who heard him and saw his miracles, reject him and crucify him if they could? How's it going to be?

Many get feelings, many have a desire to belong to something, and they seek God for a time, but that in and of itself is not salvation. There will be a personal call of the Spirit of God, of Christ calling you to Himself, and will be stirred up by God and hear that call of the Lord. Many are called. There's a general call, but few are chosen. Few have that personal call, that effectual call, made to their heart. That's what we need, that effectual call, which only God can do and which only God can give in the heart.

Otherwise, we're just taken up with the external form of religion. And now we see this effectual call to Moses in verse four. And when the Lord saw that Moses turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush. Now, Moses didn't start this. The Lord came down in the bush. The Lord came down and dwelt there. When Moses was led for who knows what, but God knows, to the backside of the desert with the flock, And that's where God revealed himself to Moses. And God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. It went to his heart. He heard it. And he said, here am I. God called Moses by name. He knows. His elect saints. He knows His people. He knows that we are but dust and that we cannot save ourselves.

The scriptures speak to this, and here's one where the Lord says, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee. Now, God said that to Jeremiah when he was calling him as a prophet of the Lord. But God's people, every one of them, are sanctified by the Spirit of God.

He set you apart to hear his gospel. He set you apart to hear his effectual call. He set you apart for himself. In 2 Thessalonians 2, in verse 13 through 14, Paul writes it this way. saying, but we are bound to give thanks unto God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. How does he know that you're beloved of the Lord? How does he know that? Because God hath from the beginning chosen you. How do you know that? God hath chosen me unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, separating you from others.

By the Spirit, that's how we're separated. and belief of the truth, which is belief of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the truth. It's by the Spirit and in truth that we worship God. Otherwise, we don't worship him. We're made alive by the Spirit, separated by the Spirit to believe on and trust the Lord Jesus Christ, the truth of God. In spirit and in truth, whereunto he called you, by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He calls his child effectually to the obtaining, to believe in Christ is all. Christ is everything, Lord. Give me Christ. If I have Christ, I have everything. If I have not Christ, I don't have anything. My religion, my works, my thoughts aren't doing But Christ did it, he's everything, and that's what he's bringing us to see.

When he makes us to know our shame and our, how far we fall short of everything concerning God. He makes us to know that. We get stripped down here, undressed here, we get put down, humbled in the dust, but it's for our good that we should believe on the only one who saves, the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't walk out of here with homework. We don't walk out of here thinking that we're something because we're nothing. We walk out of here by the grace of God, in the grace of God, believing and looking to the Lord Jesus Christ who alone saves. That's grace and mercy.

That's the grace and mercy of God who does that for you and for me and for every one of his children. It's made effectual when thousands, millions upon billions of people hear some form of the gospel, even if it's the true gospel, and just reject it and say, well, that's nice. That's good for you, but I don't need that. Or I think I'm good enough. Yeah, they play along with the outward form. While many remain in darkness, God makes his call effectual in your heart to show you the preciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that so many don't count as precious. That's sanctification by the Spirit, separating you unto the salvation of God and Christ.

And so God sent Moses into the wilderness and God called Moses in the wilderness, a man who did nothing for 40 years, as far as we can tell. A man who, yeah, for another 40 years just did nothing and was just stripped down and humbled and laid low. And now God calls him in grace such that he will know God in a peculiar way that many don't know. He was a peculiar man made to know God in a peculiar way and he hears this call of his name and he says, here am I by the power and grace of God to do that for him, giving him that willing heart to hear God. Now, here's what God reveals to the children he calls. Look at verse five.

And he said, the Lord said, draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Now, I briefly touched on this verse last week and said this speaks to us needing a mediator to approach unto God. And I say that, I believe that's what the Lord is teaching here. He's showing us a picture of Christ, that we need a mediator to approach unto God. Otherwise, we can't approach unto him. He's the only one whom the Father has given by whom we approach unto God. And I make this connection because God told Moses, draw not nigh hither, stop before you come any further, before you come any closer, put off thy shoes from off thy feet.

And what I take from that is that those shoes there speak to our natural way. They speak to how we, in our thoughts, in our wisdom, in our strength, would come unto God. We just would approach unto God in what we would do, what we think is right. And a lot of people have a lot of ideas about how to worship God and approach unto God.

And the Lord says, hold up. Before you come any closer, you put off thy shoes from thy feet. And Ephesians 2, 2 describes something of this natural walk, which we Naturally walking as millions today continue to come to God in this natural way as Walking according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience and so It's he's teaching us showing us our way is a way of works Our way is a way of confidence in the flesh and of pride and flesh. It's a carnal way. In the Lord, our walk is, our ways are put off from us. By his grace and power, our way that we would approach unto God according to the flesh is put off from us, is stripped from us, is taken out of the hand. God will do it and he does do it so that we are washed in Christ.

As Christ washed the feet of the disciples, He does that and he told them that were washed in his blood. And he, by his gospel, by his word, he washes our feet. He continues, he strips us of our way in the beginning, and he continues to keep purging that way and stripping that from us. He that is clean, he said to Peter, need not have his feet washed.

Because we are clean in Christ. But he continually teaches us in this world. As we continue in him and grow in him, we're constantly by his grace and power, through the preaching of the gospel and the giving of the Holy Spirit, our feet are washed continually. Because our way, we would go astray. And we do go astray.

And he constantly brings us back into the way Christ and so he makes us new creatures by the giving of a spirit and we are led in the new man by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and he is our way who said to his disciples I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me and so that's what we're learning that's what he's saying there Stop, Moses. Don't come any closer. Put thy shoes off thy feet. Because we need a mediator. We've got to come in another way, another way, which is Christ.

And so that's what he does. So far we're seeing here, God effectually calls his chosen people in the way of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to trust him wholly to look not to self, but to look to the righteousness whom the Father has sent to save us from our sins. believe him. All right. Now, verse six.

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 so God is still speaking here, and he's continuing to reveal himself to Moses in a personal call. He is revealing himself to Moses. And here He reveals himself as the covenant God, as the covenant God, the God who covenanted with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God who covenants with his people, promising.

He promises us salvation, and he's the one who fulfills it in all manner, in all ways. In that covenant, Well, when we were going through Genesis, we saw how that God kept repeating this covenant to Abraham over and over and over again. He kept repeating it. Just as God repeats to you the covenant in the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're constantly hearing how he established this covenant of grace and mercy with us in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the promised seed back in the garden.

And all the way back to there, and God is constantly showing in his covenant of grace that I'm fulfilling, I've fulfilled everything. I've done everything I said I would do for you. And so he reveals himself as the God who does all that we need, everything. And so I'll just take one.

Genesis 17, 7 and 8, the Lord said to Abraham, I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession and I will be their God. And so he's speaking of this land that he's promised to Israel, but that land pictures something far more than just a carnal piece of property in the Middle East there. It's got an eye to that eternal, spiritual, everlasting inheritance prepared for us and by the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, I go to prepare a place for you. And what the Lord is showing us is that it's not a carnal, earthly land that God has in view here, but the promise of eternal life in that promised land prepared for us by the Lord Jesus Christ.

As Hebrews 11.10 tells us, Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker is God, which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And that's what he was looking for. He understood. This is not a carnal land.

This is an eternal inheritance prepared for me by God. in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this covenant is a covenant of grace established by the blood of Christ, the promised seed. And we brethren who believe Christ are, what God is testifying by the faith he gives to his people in Christ, that as Isaac was, we are the children of promise. We are that seed who are born and brought in the seed the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our inheritance. And so it's an eternal promise there.

Hearing God speak, Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Just as Job said, I've heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes see of thee. Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. And so all of God's children, now we see, We receive that effectual call wherein Christ is revealed as the mediator. The only way I'm coming to God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. All other hopes perish. And there's one hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we do so through that covenant of grace established by him, by his blood, by the shedding of his blood. And once our eyes are opened to behold Christ in all His glory, the Lord reveals to us His many blessings in Christ. Saying in verse 7, the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt. and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. The Lord sees your sorrows and afflictions.

He knows that you and I are not able to save ourselves. We are not able to keep the law for righteousness. He knows that. It's very plain and clear to him. And so he undertakes for us all that you and I need to deliver us from eternal death. And he has undertaken, and he's done it, in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Hebrews 6, 19 through 20 says, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, because it isn't depending on you and me. It's sure and certain. If it was depending on you and me, it's certain that it'll fail. But it depends.

It's fixed entirely in Christ, which entereth into, which entereth into that within the veil. Meaning, it pierces through the other side, across that gulf fixed between us, which we cannot cross. Well, Christ has crossed it. He's done it. And that hope is fixed in Him, who went through the veil before us, the veil of death, whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made and high priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. It's eternal.

And look at verse 8, Exodus 3, 8 now, and I am come down. I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and secondly, to bring them up out of the land unto a good land and a large and unto a land flowing with milk and honey. And here's where men stumble unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But those two phrases, when taken spiritually and seen in the light of Christ, they speak to the promise of our eternal salvation in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, I am come down to deliver my people out of the hand of their enemies. out of the bondage and the servitude to death, for which they could not ever be delivered and could not satisfy, and so the Lord Jesus Christ came down. heaven's veil, in the flesh, to fulfill all righteousness for us, to satisfy the justice of God for us by dying in our room instead as our substitute, paying the price as our surety to obtain for us forgiveness of sins, and to give us his spirit that in him we would have life and light and understanding of these things which our God has done for us.

And he says, to bring them up, right? And I kind of just touched on that. To bring us up out of that land, above this flesh, this corrupt, dead hunk of dying, dead, sinful flesh, unto a good land, and a large, and unto a land flowing with milk and honey. That speaks to the new birth. Now, brethren, by which we have a fountain flowing in us, and give glory to God in that new man, that new birth, And it speaks to the very fact and hope that, as Christ promised, when he returns, we shall be raised from the dead to everlasting life in Christ. Raised from the grave, raised from the bondage of this death. And it will not be able to hold us because Christ has conquered and overcome. And then just a few more verses.

He commissions Moses to go to his people and tell them this good news. Saying in verses nine and 10, now therefore behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me. He prepares his people to hear it, to want to hear it, to need this message. It's come unto me and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them.

Think of all your enemies. death, sin, the devil, the law which we cannot keep because of this flesh, all these things which oppress us, by which we cannot because of the infirmity of this flesh and the weakness of this flesh. He says, come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And it's a picture of what Christ has done and how that he commissions the church to preach Christ. to minister the things of Christ to the people of God, because this is how you're saved. This is how God communicates and reveals to you what he has done for you in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, apart from your works and what you've done. It's all his grace and power doing it for you.

And so we proclaim that good news, which was made good news to us, we proclaim it to a world yet in bondage in Egypt. I had a picture of this world's bondage and death. Reading in verses 11 and 12, And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And God said, Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And so here it is, Moses, come in full circle, Moses is now a humbled man before God. He's not the same man that he was back in Egypt, confident in self, looking to what he had in Egypt. When he was ready to run and take things into his own hand, he's not that man anymore. Now he's prepared of God and led of God and willing and wanting, Lord, I need you. Don't leave me, because how am I going to do it? He's saying, Lord, I can't do this, but by you. Hearing the promise of God saying, I will do this for you. And so it is that the Lord does with all his people that because of his grace, We shall hear, we shall be called effectually.

We shall hear of the Lord Jesus Christ and have repeated to us what Christ has done to save his people from their sins and to be given that light and life in the giving of his spirit, in the washing of his blood, to hear and to rejoice in this word and to be delivered from the bondage of Egypt, to be delivered from the bondage of this world, of this flesh, Striving and trying and laboring and spending under the law to free ourselves ain't going to happen.

But in Christ, that's how we are delivered. And we shall worship God in this mountain, Mount Zion, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior whom the Father has sent. Amen. Our dear Lord, we thank you. for your salvation, Lord, that you should reveal yourself to us as you revealed yourself to your servant Moses in the burning bush, that you should call our name, that you should effectually call us out of death and darkness, and that we should hear and believe of that effectual salvation by which you save all your people by the blood and righteousness the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for all his people, that we should come unto God by him and through him. And Lord, we thank you for establishing this covenant of grace with us in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Like Abraham, we slept right through it. And yet you still did it all perfectly, fulfilling every jot and every tittle of the law perfectly to satisfy justice for us and to make us righteous, the righteousness of God in him and by him. And Lord, we thank you for this effectual, sovereign, complete, full, free salvation. by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Help us, Lord, to hear that call and to minister this grace, this good news to others, to minister the Spirit to your people yet in bondage in Egypt, in this world, unable to save themselves. Lord, help us and make us to minister to support this word to support this work and to do all that we can do by your grace and power to lay down ourselves that this word would go forth and free your people in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that you do this to the glory and praise of your name. And Lord, remember us.

You know all that we stand in need of, how insufficient, how broken, how weak we are in this flesh. But Lord, with us, It's impossible, but with you, all things are possible. And so we look to you for all our needs. We look to you for the help that we seek for this body, for this church, for our family, for our children, for our friends. Lord, use us to the glory, praise and honor of your name. It's in Christ's name we pray these things, amen.