Let's turn our Bibles now to
Exodus chapter 3. Exodus the third chapter. We'll begin reading 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, 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 burned. And
when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto
him out of the midst of the bush, and he said, Moses, Moses. And
he said, here am I. And he said, draw not an eye
hither, off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon
thou standest 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, for I know their sorrow. 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 good land, and a large,
unto a land flowing with milk and honey, unto the place of
the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites,
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry
of the children of Israel has come unto me, and I have also
seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them.
Come now, therefore, and I'll send thee unto Pharaoh, that
thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of
Egypt. 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 he 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 Moses said unto God, behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto
them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you, and they
shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am, has sent me unto you. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent is your precious name. And Lord, we come before
you this evening a thankful people. How thankful we are for the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. How thankful we are for this
amazing story that you've given us to tell sinners, that you
sent your own son into this world to save sinners. Father, we're
so thankful. We're thankful for His righteousness. It's His obedience. It's the
only righteousness that we can claim. We're so thankful for
His precious blood. It's the only plea we have of
the forgiveness of our sin and atonement for our sin. Father,
we're so thankful. And Father, we come before you
as a needy people. We need to hear from you this
evening. Father, would you be pleased to speak to our hearts
this evening through your word, through your servant, enable
us to see Christ, strengthen our faith in him, cause us to
believe him more fully, to love him more fully, to understand
more fully that all of salvation is found in Christ and Christ
alone. Cause us to run to him, cause
us to find peace and comfort for our hearts in trusting him. Let the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ be exalted, we pray. And while we pray for ourselves,
Father, we pray for all your people who meet all around this
country tonight. These little groups where we
meet, Father, bless your word for your great namesake and to
the good of your people. And Father, we bring before you
those that you brought into the time of trouble and trial Father,
we freely confess we're the most blessed people on this planet. You've blessed us beyond measure.
But still yet, in this flesh, we're a poor and a needy people.
And Father, we hold our hand up to Thee to provide everything
that is required. Father, for the sick, we pray
for them. We pray that You'd be with Joyce and Andrea. We pray that You'd be with our
brother, Tom Harding, facing these tests coming up. Father,
be with your people. We're so thankful that you are
the great physician and we bring all these cares and cases and
problems to thy feet and leave them there. All these things
we ask in that name which is above every name, the name of
Christ our Savior, amen. I've titled the message this
evening, The Gospel of the Burning Bush. Moses grew up being taught. that he was the deliverer, that
God was gonna use to deliver Israel from bondage in Egypt. Moses apparently believed the
story because when he was a full-grown man, he tried to deliver Israel
in his time, by his power, his strength, and he failed so miserably
he got run out of town and got run clear across the desert.
And there he stayed, clear across the desert. I mean, I don't know
how many miles that is, it's a long way. He stayed there for 40 years,
keeping his father's sheep. Moses had been a shepherd, he'd
been along with those sheep for so long, he'd forgotten everything
he learned in Egypt, all that high education and things, he
forgot it all. Now, all the starch has been
taken out of Moses. Look what he says in verse 11. Moses said unto God, who am I
that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth
the children of Israel of Egypt? At one time Moses said, I'm the
guy Now he's saying, who am I? Who am I to do this great job? All the starch had been taken
out of Moses. All Moses thought of himself
now was very, very little. The strength of his flesh, the
intellect of his mind was gone. Moses had been whittled down
pretty low. And now, now Moses is ready to be used of God. Before
the Lord uses any of us, and I'm not talking about just preachers
or not being a prophet like Moses, before the Lord uses any of us,
I promise you what he's gonna do. He's gonna lay us low, so
the only thing left for us to do is trust the Lord to do everything
for us because we know we can't do anything for ourselves. Once
the Lord brings us to that low point, that realization, now
the Lord, we're finally fit for his use. And now, after Moses
has been whittled down, The Lord's gonna teach Moses the gospel
and he's gonna send him back to Egypt. He's gonna send him
back to preach it. He's gonna send him back to deliver
God's people by the power of the word of God and not by the
power of the arm of the flesh. Moses left Egypt in the strength
of the flesh. That's how he got run out down.
Moses is gonna go back to Egypt with the power of the word of
God and he's gonna set God's people free with it. Now, if
we're going to learn the gospel like Moses did, we're going to
have to start with this. We're going to have to start
learning who God is. We've got to know who God is. And that's
what the Lord teaches Moses here in the gospel of the burning
bush. So number one, the gospel of the burning bush declares
that God's holy. You know, Moses in verse three
said, I will now turn aside and see this great site while the
bush is not burned. 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. And he said, here am I. And he
said, draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. This ground was holy because
God Almighty was there. Now this is God's chief attribute. God is holy. Everything about
God is holy. His very name is holy. Holy and
reverend is His name. God is holy, so everything God
does is holy. David said in Psalm 145 verse
17, God is holy in all His works. Don't you just love scripture?
Now that's the word of the eternal God. Put down in one and two
syllable words. So you and I cannot possibly
mistake what it means. God is holy in all his works. Everything God does is holy. All the attributes of God are
done or expressed, put it that way, in holiness. If you ask,
the average person out there, you know, who God is, they'll
tell you God is love, wouldn't they? Signs and bumper stickers
and it's everywhere. Well, yes, God is love. Now that's
true, God is love, but his love is a holy love. God loves holiness. God is merciful and he shows
his mercy in holiness. God is gracious, but now he does
it in holiness. God is just and he shows his
justice in holiness. God has a hatred of sin, and
that hatred is holy. This word holy here, God says,
Moses, don't come any closer now. Take off your shoes, the
ground we're on, you stay in it, it's holy. That word means
apartness. It means separated. God is set
apart from everything that God isn't. He's set apart from us,
he's set apart from everything, and that makes him glorious.
Look over a few pages of Exodus 15. Exodus 15, verse 11. Who is like unto thee, O Lord,
among the gods, among the idols? God's separate, he's separated
from the idols, isn't he? He's apart from them. Who is
like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders,
God is glorious in His holiness. God is holy. He is sinless. And God will not accept anyone
in their sin. He won't accept anyone unless
they're sinless. And that includes you and me.
I'm not just talking about the world in general. That includes
you and me. The Holy God cannot and He will
not accept us in our sin. must punish sin. His holiness,
his justice demands it. There are no exceptions. God
must punish every sin with death. Now, when the natural man hears
that, the natural man hates it. Hates it. They hate to hear that
God is holy. The natural man just hates. You mean to tell me God will
not accept the best that I can do? You mean the best that I
can do is filled with sin so God won't accept me? He won't
even accept my best? No, God's holy. The natural man
hates that God is holy because that means if God is holy, God
cannot accept me as I am. He cannot do it. God's separate
from me. I am sinful and God is holy and
that puts me and God on opposite sides. We're on opposite sides
of the battle. And I promise you, I know who's
going to lose that one. It's going to be me. God's holy. And the natural man hates that.
Because that means if God is inflexibly holy, if he's holy
in everything that he does and all of his judgments, then God
must send me to hell. He must. Now, the natural man
hates that because nobody wants to be sent to hell, do they?
The natural man hates to hear that God is holy. But do you
know the believer? Those who, by God's grace, know
Christ. They know God. They trust Him.
The believer loves God's holiness. I love it. God is holy, so He
cannot do wrong. He can't do wrong. In all of
God's dealings with me, in all the things that God sends my
way, none of it's wrong, because God can't do wrong. And I'll
tell you what's a whole lot more important than my trials and
my afflictions and my difficulties in this life. Although it is
comforting to know God, he's not doing wrong in those things.
And that's comforting to know. But I'll tell you what's far
more important than that. Since God's holy, God cannot punish
me for my sin. If he already punished Christ
my substitute, he cannot. He cannot condemn me. You talk
about things that God can't do. You say, oh, you know, God can
do everything. Well, God can't damn me if Christ was already
condemned for me because God's holy. If Christ died for me,
when this shoot match is over, God must glorify me together
with Christ. And he's going to do it sooner
or later because God's holy. He can't do wrong. Now that just
thrills my soul. I mean, that just thrills my
soul. God has a people that he's gonna save. Now, in Adam, they're
born in sin. In Adam, by nature, they're unacceptable
to God. But Almighty God is gonna make
those people to be what he loves. He's gonna make those people
holy. He's gonna make them sinless.
He's gonna, remember the word holy means separated? God's gonna
make those people separated unto him so they can never perish. and bring them together to be
with him forever. The gospel of the burning bush
is God's holy and I'm thrilled, aren't you? Right, number two,
the gospel of the burning bush declares the covenant God. Verse
six, moreover, God 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. Now God says
here, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac and of Jacob. What's he
talking about there? He's talking about the covenant
that he made with Abraham and he confirmed it with Isaac and
Jacob. And the word covenant means a promise. Now here at
this time, at this exact moment in history, do you know why God
appeared to Moses when he was out there all along with Mashiach?
Why did he appear to Moses at this particular time? Why didn't
he appear to him 40 years later? Why didn't he appear to him the
next day? Why didn't he appear to him?
Why at this exact moment? Why, after 400 years, is God
finally gonna send the deliverer to bring Israel out of Egypt,
out of bondage in Egypt? You know why? Because that's
exactly what God promised Abraham he'd do. He confirmed that promise
to Isaac and to Jacob, and now here's what God's doing. He's
simply doing what he promised to do from before creation. And he gave Moses a token of
that. He gave him a token of this covenant
so Moses would know this. God is never reacting to things
going on in his creation. We see people in the world do
something wrong, we think, oh, what God's gonna do with them.
God's not reacting to them. God's not reactionary. What God
is doing is what he promised to do from all of eternity. And he tells Moses this. Now,
Moses said, you'll know this. What God is doing is always what
he determined before to be done. It says down there in verse 11,
Moses said unto God, who am I? That I should go unto Pharaoh
and that I should bring forth the children of Israel of Egypt.
And he said, certainly I will be with thee. And this shall
be a token unto thee that I've sent thee. When thou hast brought
forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this
mountain. Now God told Moses, now here's
what I'm gonna do Moses, I'm gonna go with you. I'm gonna
use you to deliver Israel out of Egypt and you're gonna come
back to this place and you're gonna worship God here. It's
foreordained. This is what God's already purposed
to done. This is what God promised to do and he just let Moses in
on it before time. So when they came back, Moses
would know. You know why God's doing this?
You know why God brought us this mountain? Because that's what God promised
he would do. You know why we're here tonight?
Why are we here with this opportunity to hear the gospel? Because before
God created the world, he promised that you and I would be here
tonight. God's just doing what he promised to do before time
began. Now all of this is given to us
as a picture. of God's covenant of grace. God's promise to save
his people from their sin. You know, we keep preaching the
gospel and we see God save his people.
Why'd that happen? Why'd that happen? Because that's
what the Lord promised to do. He promised to save his people
from their sin. In the covenant of grace, the
promise made between God and God for the foundation of the
world, the father, he chose a people and he gave those people to his
son. And he promised his son, those people will be glorified
together as long as you save them, as long as you make them
righteous, as long as you put their sin away. And the son said,
I'll do it. That's a promise made between
God and God. God promised he would save his
sinful people by his grace. through the obedience of his
son, through the bloody sacrifice of his son, who would come, be
made flesh, and suffer and die for the sin of his people. Now
that was the promise of almighty God before he created anything.
Now God made that promise. The promise between God, only
God existed. You know what God did next? He created the world
and he put man in it so he could do what he promised to do. Save
his people from their sin. I'll give you a few examples
of things that have happened in time. God created Adam, put
Adam in a perfect garden, and Adam sinned. An open rebellion
against God. Now, why did God allow him to
do that? God allowed Adam to fall so that there would be sinners
for Christ to come save, because that's what God promised he was
gonna do. Why didn't God just wipe out the whole human race?
After Adam sinned, if God would've just killed Adam, the whole human
race would've been destroyed, wouldn't it? If he just killed
one man. Why didn't God just destroy Adam, destroy the human
race and start over? It's for the very same reason
God didn't destroy all of mankind in the flood of Noah. He destroyed
them all but eight, didn't he? Why did he save those eight?
For the same reason he did not destroy Adam. because there were
sinners who are yet to be born, who had come from Adam's loins,
who had come from Noah's loins, who had come from his son's loins
that God promised to save, and they weren't born yet. They had
to be born. They had to be born in sin so
that Christ could save them from their sin. God lets the whole
human race exist for this reason, there's just one reason, so he
can save the people he promised to save. See, God's just doing
what he promised to do. Will you think about God's son
coming into flesh? Everybody had to admit he did
nothing but good. He performed miracles, he helped
people, he was so gracious and so kind. Why did God allow wicked men
to get their hands on his precious son and do to him whatever it
is their wicked hearts wanted to do? Why? because God promised he'd save
his people by that sacrifice, by the sacrifice of his son.
You think about the angels watching from heaven, watching this happen,
watching the son of God be tortured and beaten and just is slaughtered,
his own creatures, the creatures he gives life and breath to,
they're lying on him, they're just doing the worst things they
can possibly imagine to him. You know those angels were on
tiptoe, just waiting to come down and wipe this place out.
And they had to wonder, why didn't God give them the command? I
mean, we're ready to go. This is what needs to happen
to these people. They need to be destroyed. Why didn't God
give the command? So that God could keep his promise
and have an atonement for the sin of his people. With precious
blood of his son. that had to be shed when he was
sacrificed on Calvary's tree. I mean, you can't take this thing
too far. If you're here tonight, and you believe Christ, you believe
Him, you know Him, you cast your soul upon Him, you worship Him,
you love Him, you trust Him, you have faith in Christ, you
believe Him. You wouldn't compromise for nothing. Why do you believe? Other people
heard the gospel, they left. Why do you hear? Why do you believe? Because that's what God promised
to do for you. He promised it. You think about
that. The father, before he created anything, had your name in his
heart and he promised, he promised, I'm going to save Ralph Brown.
I'm going to make him a trophy in my grave. God promised to
do that. And now he's done it. See, that's the covenant God.
That's what he's promised to do for all of his people. And
this world's going to keep spinning. I don't know how long it's going
to keep spinning, but it's going to keep spinning to all those
people that God promised to save or saved. Because God always
keeps his promise. Now, I love that, don't you? I love that. I love to know that
God's gonna do what he promised to do. Because I know this, if
God had not promised to save me by his grace before he created
this world, I sure would have never done anything to deserve
it. I'm glad God's keeping his promise, that he's gonna save
sinners by his grace. If God promised to save me, I
shall be saved. Oh, that thrills my soul. Don't
you love the gospel of the burning bush? Right, here's the third
thing. The gospel of the burning bush
declares that God always sees his people. In verse seven, the
Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people,
which are in Egypt, and I've heard their cry by reason of
their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. He said, I've
seen them, I've heard them, And I know their sorrows. He knows,
he feels the sorrows of his people. In verse eight, he said, I'm
come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians
and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land, unto a
large, a land flowing with milk and honey, unto the place of
the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites
and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now, therefore, behold, the cry
of the children of Israel is come up to me. And I have also
seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them.
Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that
thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of
Egypt." God tells Moses, I've seen them. I see what's happening. I hear them. I hear their cries.
But I just bet you the children of Israel had just felt completely
forgotten. Don't you reckon that's how they
felt? All those years in bondage and they felt forgotten. They've
been crying and crying and crying to God and they felt forgotten. I bet you they especially felt
forgotten after the Deliverer had been born. You know that
news spread like wildfire through Goshen and through all the places
where the children of Israel lived. The Deliverer has been
born. The Deliverer has been born. And then the deliverer
ran away. And they hadn't seen, hiding
their hair of him for 40 years. For 40 years. You know, many
people who knew Moses when he was a child, they died. There
are many people who are now adults who never met Moses, who only
ever heard of Moses by reputation. And quite honestly, his reputation
wasn't real good, was it? Because he ran away the first
time in trouble. You know, what a deliverer. And in their misery,
they kept crying to the Lord. And not only did things not get
better, they got worse. Things got worse. And they felt
forgotten. They felt like God does not know
or does not care what's going on with us. God hears the cries
of other people, but he don't hear my cries. He don't hear
our cries. That's how they felt. And it's heartbreaking to think
about. If you think about that for very long, you're going to
start crying. I mean, it's just horrible. And we got a pretty good idea
how they felt, because every one of us here felt the very
same way. God's not hearing my cry. I mean, I know God hadn't
forgotten me. I know God sees, but He's not
hearing my cry for whatever reason. But this is what, now that's
just the way we feel. But I'll tell you what God says,
and this is how it really is. God says he sees his people. He always sees his people. And
God hears the cries of his people. And you want me to tell you when
God's gonna do something about those cries? At the very moment
he determined before the creation of the world to do it. God promised
in this trouble, in this trial, I'm gonna come deliver him at
this very moment. And he's just waiting for that moment that
he promised. And then he's coming to do what he promised to do.
God sees, and he's gonna do something about it now. So I encourage
you and me both, keep crying to the Lord. Keep crying to him. All he's doing, he hears, he
sees, he knows, he's just waiting for the time appointed to come
and deliver you. The time he appointed before
the foundation of the world. But you keep crying. Because
this is the way that the Lord has always worked. Now, we already
know this. Before time began, the Lord determined
before everything that's to be done. He declared the end from
the beginning. Every event that's going to happen
in human history was declared to happen before God created
anything. But before God does His eternal
will, He's going to put it in the hearts of His people to pray
for it, to cry out to God for it, and then God's gonna do it.
Now that's just the way God works. Now God's always seen his people.
And because we're talking about the children of Israel here and
this affliction and this horrible bondage, we liken this to a trial,
and certainly we're in the furnace of trial. God sees his people.
We may not see him, but he sees us. But I tell you what is far
more important than than the earthly trials and tribulations
and difficulties that we have to go through in this flesh.
Almighty God has always seen his people. He saw them before
they were created. Before man was created and put
in the garden, the father saw his people in his son, before
the foundation of the world. God has eternally seen his people
as righteous and holy. washed in the blood of Christ,
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God already saw
them as justified. That's why God didn't wipe them
out when Adam sinned. God already saw his people in
Christ. Then God saw his people ruined
in Adam. But as I already said, God didn't
destroy Adam and Adam's race when he fell because those people,
in the eye of the Father, they were already redeemed. Their
sin was already paid for in the blood of the Lamb. And eventually,
Christ came down to save them. The Lord said, here, now I've
come down to deliver my people. Eventually, Christ came down
to save His people from their sin. See, God saw. He saw His
people. He saw their need. He knew their
need. And He sent the Deliverer to
deliver them. As Christ was suffering and dying
on the tree, God saw all of His people in Christ. Christ was made sin for His people
and He made His people the righteousness of God in Him. The Father saw
His people in Christ. You and me, He wouldn't be born
for over 2,000 years. He saw us in Christ, washed and
redeemed, made righteous in Christ. Then God sees His elect as they're
born into the world. in their sin and their spiritual
deadness. Boy, you think about how we react
when a baby's born. I mean, this baby's the cutest,
it's the sweetest, it's the best, and we just see, oh, this just
beautiful, beautiful, beautiful baby. Just gush and gush and
gush about it. God sees it born in sin and spiritual
disease and deadness. And God sees His elect stumble
through the world in their spiritual darkness. Going the wrong way.
He sees his elect miserable in their sin and their failure.
They're miserable in their sin and their failure because God
made them miserable in their sin and failure, didn't he? God
is the one who forces his people to cry for mercy. He makes us
so miserable we'll finally beg for mercy. And when we do, the
Lord always hears those cries. I tell you, you beg for mercy.
God hears the cries of beggars. You go through the four gospels,
you'll never find one time the Lord passing by a beggar. Not
one time, not one time a beggar's crying. Not one time a leper's
crying. Not one time any needy person is crying. The Lord always
hears the cries of a beggar. A scripture I love so well is
as the Lord was leaving Jericho, big crowd with him. There's one
beggar sitting over here, just one. The Lord walking away from
that town, He passed by everybody in that town, Zacchaeus. And
there's one beggar out sitting outside the gate. And that beggar
started crying for mercy from the son of David. And the King
of Glory stopped in his tracks. Oh, I love that. The King of
Glory stopped in his tracks and commanded he be brought to him. He didn't leave that beggar like
he found him, did he? Oh, no. He was blind. The Lord gave him
sight. The Lord gave him health and
strength and he followed Christ. He did not leave Him like He
found Him. And when you and I cry for mercy, the Lord won't leave
you and me like He found us either, will He? No. The Lord put salvation
in the hearts of His people at exactly the moment He promised
to do it before time began. Now, when you feel like the Lord
doesn't see you, and you feel like the Lord doesn't hear you.
Ignore your feelings and remember what God said. God said, I see
my people and I hear their cries, I know it. You just keep crying
to the Lord. You don't even have to put it
into words. Just cry. A newborn baby, it's gonna be
a long time that kid learns to talk, but that kid communicates
real well. Something's wrong, he cries.
Just cry. The Lord knows. The Lord knows. I love what Hagar said. She thought
she was all alone. She thought she was cast out.
She's running away, you know, and just thought she's gonna
die out there in the desert. And God came to her. You know what
she called the name of God that came to her? Thou God seest me. Nobody else may, but you do. He sees his people. And he hears
them, he's gonna come and rescue them. That brings me to the fourth
point. The gospel of the burning bush declares Christ the deliverer. And the Lord showed Moses a picture
here, how it is he's gonna redeem his people from their sin. Delivering
Israel from bondage in Egypt, that's child's play. Tell you
what's the issue. What's the miracle that is so
great the human mind will never comprehend it. Almighty God showed
Moses how it is he's gonna deliver his people from sin. It's in
verse two. 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. Now this angel of the Lord who
appeared unto Moses in this middle of this burning bush is the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ. And Christ appeared to Moses
in this way, to give Moses a picture of redemption that's in him.
I don't know exactly when Moses knew the significance of this,
but he did. He did. Because the Lord said,
Moses wrote of me. Moses knew eventually what this
meant. Christ is gonna deliver his people
by being made sin for them. This bush, The actual word is
a thornbush. It's a thornbush. Thorns are
the curse of sin on this earth. The only time that thorns appeared
is after Adam fell. And God said, thorns and thistles
will the earth bring forth unto you. They're the curse of sin. Well, Christ is showing us and
showing Moses that he would be made sin. for his people. Here's
how he's gonna deliver his people from their sin. He's gonna take
it away from them. And he's gonna make it his. He's
gonna bear the curse of sin for his people. You know, those Roman
soldiers wanted to mock our savior as king. They hated him as king. The Jews hated him as king. The
Romans hated him as king. They all mocked him as king.
You know, they could have made a crown out of anything, I reckon. But why do you think that they
made a crown of thorns and thrust on his head. I know it was because
they were wanting to cause him pain, those thorns going down
at his scalp. But God determined before they
would make a crown of thorns and shove it on our Savior's
head to give you and me a picture, to comfort our hearts, to draw
us to Christ. At Calvary, Christ bore the curse
of sin for his people. So they never have to. And that
bush was burning to show that Christ the substitute would suffer
all of the holy wrath of his father, his holy father, against
the sin of his people. And our Savior suffered absolutely
everything that sin deserved. The father didn't take it easy
on him. You know, if I was gonna punish one of my children, I'd
back off a little. I'd take it a little easy on
him, wouldn't you? The father didn't take it easy on his son.
He didn't say, well, that sin's really not his, so, you know,
we'll just pretend about some of this suffering. No, the sin
was his. He was made sin, it had been
made his, and the father poured out his full fury, his full wrath
against that sin upon his son. He treated his son as sin itself. You know, scripture never says
that Christ was made a sinner. I mean, I've had it up to here
with being accused of saying that Christ is a sinner. Scripture
never says Christ was made a sinner. You know what it does say? Christ
was made sin. He was made sin itself, and that's
exactly how the Father punished him, in the full fiery fury of
God against that sin. Now this bush Moses saw was burned,
but it was not consumed. Now you know that that's a pretty
interesting sight. How is the wood not being consumed
here? Well, it's a picture. The fire of God's wrath did not
consume Christ our Savior on Calvary's tree either. The fire
burned against sin, against all that sin that Christ took in
his body on the tree and the fire burned against him. until
God's justice had been satisfied. When all that sin had been paid
for, the fire went out. And Christ still stood. He still
stood. He was there. The sacrifice had
consumed the fire. I love to think about that. Of
all the sacrifices offered by Aaron and his sons and grandsons,
the fire always consumed the sacrifice. The fire only went
out because the flesh of the sacrifice, anything that was
combustible was gone. Christ consumed the fire of God's
wrath. He took it all. So there's none
left for God's people. Not even a spark, nothing left. The great transaction was complete. So Christ gave up the ghost and
he died. So his people never will have
to. Now God's elect, spiritual Israel,
they've been delivered from bondage to sin by the Lord Jesus Christ,
our great deliverer. Christ delivered his people by
suffering and dying in their place. Moses delivered the children
of Israel from bondage by walking out ahead of them all, didn't
he? Christ didn't do that. He suffered and died to deliver
his people. God's elect have been delivered
from God. I mean, the first thing about
salvation, I need to be saved from God. I need to be delivered
from the wrath of God. And the only reason we're delivered
is Christ our substitute, Christ our deliverer suffered it for
us. So all that's left in God for
his people is mercy and grace and love. That's all that's left.
Now that's who God is. That's how God saves sinners.
Doesn't that thrill your heart? Doesn't that make you want to
run to him? Doesn't it make you want to just follow his feet
and just cling to him? Oh, God saved me for Christ's
sake. I'm telling you this, it sure should. It should make us
run to Christ. It should make us leap for joy.
This is how God saves sinners. All right, let me give you this
last thing quickly. Fifth, the gospel of the burning bush declares
the immutable God. Verse 13, Moses said unto God,
Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, I shall say
unto them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you. And they
shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you. Now I am, that name means that
God is immutable. He's unchanging. This, Name,
I am. I'm not smart enough to know
this. I had to look this up, but I am. I don't think there's
no way an English word can ever do this, but I am is every verb
tense all in one word, all in one name. I was, I am, I shall
be. I will always be who I am. I'll always be who I was. The old timers called this name
the great isness. Isness. God always is. He never changes. He's the same
yesterday, today, and forever. Now that's the savior that we
need. Someone would worry, well, what
if God changes his mind? I mean, Okay, you know, God said
he's going to save me. He said Christ's blood put all
the way in my sin, but my sin is so horrible. I'm so rebellious.
My faith is so weak. My sin is so great. Even after
the Lord revealed himself to me, what if God changes his mind?
He won't. His name is I Am. His nature
is I Am. Change and decay and all around
I see. Oh thou that changest not, abide
with me. And that's what God's gonna do.
He's gonna dwell unchanging with his people. If God saw you as
redeemed in Christ before the foundation of the world, he's
always gonna see you that way. God dwells outside of time. Time doesn't change God. He's
always the same. God's love for his people will
never change. It'll never grow stronger or
weaker. It'll always be perfect. Because I am. You can't do anything to make
God not love you. Why would you even want to try?
But when you fear that you have, your fears are unfounded. I am. I am. His love is always perfect. God's grace for His people will
never change. His grace will always be sufficient. His grace will always be sufficient
for every situation. That's the gospel of the burning
bush. Now that tells us who God is. That tells us who the God
of the Bible is. And that thrills my heart. That
thrills my soul to see his glory that way. I hope it will you
too. All right, let's bow together.
Our Father, how we thank you for the glorious gospel of the
burning bush. How we thank you for Christ our
Savior who came and fulfilled every Old Testament picture and
type and promise. How thankful we are you made
something as enormous as salvation so simple that it's all in one
person, it's all in him. Father, I pray you'd use your
word as it's been preached tonight to show us your glory and cause
each one of us to run to Christ. To find everything that you require
of us in him. Cause us to rest in him. Knowing
he'll never change, he'll never cast us out. Cause us to have
peace of heart in trusting him. Though the world around us may
be going up in flames, that our hearts may find rest and peace
and calmness in trusting Christ our Savior. It's in His name,
for His sake we pray, Amen.