Our Lord Jesus, after his resurrection,
walked with the disciples along the road to Emmaus and hid himself
from them, lest they should know who he was, and spoke to them
about his death and his resurrection as the Messiah. And as he did,
he spoke to them beginning at Moses and in all the prophets,
expounding to them in all the scriptures things concerning
himself. And then he appeared to the disciples
at Jerusalem and showed himself to them, and he opened their
understanding. that they might understand the
scriptures as he showed them how that all the scriptures speak
of him. God help us to understand that
as we read the word of God. This book is all about our blessed
savior. It is all about him. It is not
a book about morality. It is a book about Christ. It
is not a book about law, it's a book about Christ. It is not
a book about history, it's a book about Christ. It's not a book
about prophecy, it's a book about Christ. Far too often when we
read the Word of God, We read it merely with a carnal eye dwelling
too much upon the letter of the word, missing the spirit, that
is, missing the message that God the Holy Spirit has for us
in the word of God. The book is about the Redeemer. There are many times folks read
the scriptures and dwell far too much on the literal things
while missing the spiritual things that are beneficial to our souls.
They dwell too much on the type and miss him of whom the type
speaks. I recognize that all the things in the Old Testament
are types of the Lord Jesus. Everything that happened in some
way or another, as it's recorded in scripture, portrays our Savior. But you don't have to measure
every plank in the ark. The whole ark's talking about
it. And when you get to dwelling too much on the type, you miss
him of whom the type speaks. The word of God is designed to
present to us the person and work of our Redeemer. You don't
have to focus too much in looking up the etymology and meanings
of words and such as that. This will come as a shock to
some folks. God gave us his word, right here it is. You don't have
to know Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, or anything else to understand
it. This is what he said. This is his word. So words have
meanings. They only have meaning as you
use them. And they're used in the book
to speak of the Redeemer. Let us ever seek to know our
Lord Jesus and see Him as is revealed in this book, worshiping
Him as is revealed in this book. It is only when we see Christ
in the book that the Word of God is meaningful to us as God
intended it to be. Let me illustrate it for you. I've told you this before. About
20 years ago, maybe a little more, a little less, A young
man down in Southern California, I don't remember his name, used
to get our tapes and literature, and he started sending them to
his aunt. She lived way up in the northern part of Washington
State. She'd been in church all her life, and she started listing. Her name was Marjo Cherry. She
started listing, and then she started getting everything we
send out, books and tracks and bulletins and tapes, all those
things. And after a while, God was pleased
to save her. And she wrote to me just about
10 years ago as I was preaching through the book of Exodus. And
this is what she said. She'd been in church all her
life. She said, for the first time in my life, I'm seeing Christ
in the Old Testament. The Old Testament has come alive
to me. Thank you for showing me my Savior
so clearly. And then a few years after that,
she got cancer and her sister wanted to do something for her,
wanted to take her across the country, see some things. And
Marjo said, it'd be fine. I'd be happy to do that if you'll
just do one thing. Take me by Danville, Kentucky.
I want to confess Christ in baptism. And I had the privilege of baptizing
her, and she's with the Lord now. What Marjo experienced is
what I want for you. I want you to know Christ. I
don't make any effort to get you to join a church or get baptized
or make a profession of faith or get religious or act religious.
I want you to know the Son of God. I want you to know and worship
our Redeemer. I want you to see Him in the
Word of God and see Him clearly. Trust Him and spend eternity
with Him. Now with that in mind, let's
turn back to Exodus chapter 3. My subject this morning is Christ
the God of Israel. Christ, the God of Israel. Here our Lord Jesus Christ shows
himself as the God of Israel for the comfort and for the security
of mind of his people. He tells us his everlasting name
and shows us it as his memorial. Now, throughout this chapter,
Moses is confronted with the angel of the Lord who speaks
to him out of the bush. And the angel of the Lord is
himself Jesus Christ, God, our Savior. In fact, in verse 14,
he identifies himself as the great I Am. This appearance of
our Savior to Moses was one of the most enlightening and instructive
of his pre-incarnate manifestations of himself in the Old Testament.
Lindsay has been doing a magnificent job dealing with this in the
last several weeks in his Bible classes. Here our blessed Savior,
the Lord Jesus, God, speaks to Moses. Let's begin at verse 15.
Exodus 3, 15. 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. This is my name forever. Remember,
in the scriptures, names mean something. Name means something. Our Lord Jesus is the name whereby
we must be saved. Neither is there any other name
under heaven whereby we must be saved. Men saved by saying
a name? No. Men are saved by believing
Him who is revealed in the name, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, our
Redeemer. He here gives us His name. This
is my name forever. And this is my memorial unto
all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel
together and say unto them, the Lord God of your fathers, the
God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me saying,
I have surely visited you and seen that which is done to you
in Egypt. And I have said, I will bring
you up out of the affliction of Egypt, under the land of the
Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites
and the Hivites and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk
and honey. And they shall hearken to thy
voice. And thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto
the king of Egypt. And ye shall say unto him, The
Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us, and now let us go, we
beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we
may sacrifice to the Lord our God. The psalmist said, thy name,
O Lord, endureth forever, and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout
the generations. The God of our fathers is the
one who commissioned Moses out of the burning bush. He declares
himself to be God in this remarkable way. I am that I am. He calls himself Jehovah, that
is, God our savior. And then lest there be any mistake
about his meaning, he told Moses he is specifically the God of
our fathers. the God of Abraham, and the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now, these three men are held
before us in scripture as the patriarchs of the family of God,
the patriarchs of the family of faith, the patriarchs of God's
church, of God's kingdom. He who is the God-man, our Savior,
is the God of our fathers. He who is the God-man, our Savior,
is the God of our fathers. That means this, what he was
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that's what he is to us. What
he is to us as we make our pilgrimage through this world, that's exactly
what he was to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Christ, our Redeemer,
is the God of Israel. Christ, our Redeemer, is the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Everything
He was to them, He is to us. Everything He did for them, He
does for us. Everything He is to us, He was
to them. Everything He does for us, He
did for them. Now let's look at several portions
of Scripture together, and I want you to see the significance of
this. First, the Scripture declares here, our Savior declares here,
that He is the God of Abraham. Now, you don't need to turn to
Acts chapter 7, but Stephen's giving a history of Israel. And
as he does, he tells us that our Lord Jesus is the God of
glory who appeared to our father Abraham. Jesus of Nazareth is
the God of glory. Jesus of Nazareth is the God
of glory. I was just a young man. I hadn't
been pastoring very long. And I met a fellow who became
a dear friend of mine, much older, up at Anstead, West Virginia,
Brother Watson Duthor. His grandson, Brian, Mark knows
him. He's in the church over at Lexington.
And I've known Brian all his life, his whole family. Watson
was preaching for me one Saturday. We had a meeting between our
churches and he was preaching and he made a statement. And
when he first made the statement, it just kind of shocked me. It
just shocked me. He said, Jesus is God. And I had learned better than
that. That's not how you're supposed to talk. Jesus is the God man. Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus
is the Son of God. But Jesus is God? It shocked
me for just a few seconds, and I realized that's exactly how
it ought to be stated. Jesus, the man, is God. He is God in the totality of
his being God. All that God is, Jesus Christ
is, for he is God. You understand that? In him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The God of glory appeared
to Abraham. Now, obviously, God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit did not appear to Abraham
in his essential glory as God. How do you know, pastor? Because
God's spirit. God's spirit. Now, I know there
are folks who think they have seen a spirit. But they've been
smoking something funny. You don't see a spirit. You don't
talk to a spirit. You don't touch a spirit. God
is spirit. The only way you can know Him
who is spirit is if He makes Himself flesh and shows Himself
to you. Jesus Christ is God. Not just the revealer of God,
God. Not just a representation of
God, God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Let me give
you a very literal translation of that first verse of John chapter
one. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. God was the word. He's not just
a word from God. He is God the word. There's a huge difference. He
is the brightness of the father's glory and the express image of
his person. Our blessed savior, the one we
trust, he who died as our substitute at Calvary is the Lord of glory. And when the God of glory appeared
to Abraham, Abraham believed God. And when the God of glory
appears to you and reveals himself to you in the person of his son,
you too will believe God. Without controversy, Paul says,
great is the mystery of godliness. This is the wonder of wonders. This is the mystery of all true
religion. This is the wonder of all true
godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. God was manifest in the flesh. Oh, what a wonder. God came into
our world and God came into our lives in humanity. And every
revelation of God in the form of a man or as the angel of the
Lord in all the Old Testament scriptures is but a pre-incarnate
revelation of God in the flesh who came in the fullness of time
to redeem us from our sins. Now look back at Genesis chapter
14. Let's look at this one Abraham
met, this one who's the God of Abraham. Here in Genesis 14,
19, we're told that the Christ who appeared to Abraham is the
most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. It is God most high,
the possessor of heaven and earth, who appeared to Abraham and blessed
him. And he blessed him and said,
blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven
and earth. Christ is most high God? Indeed, he is. Christ is possessor
of heaven and earth? Indeed, he is. But pastor, that's
what he earned as a mediator. Indeed, it is. But he is most
high God, possessor of heaven and earth because he's God. He who is God is the creator
of all things and the ruler of all things and the disposer of
all things, possessor of heaven and earth. You are God's possession. I am God's possession. Whether
you know Him or not, you're God's possession. That means God has
the right to do with you whatever He will, and He always does. He's God. But our Lord Jesus
Christ is possessor of heaven and earth in another way as well.
He who is God in our nature, he who is the God-man, our mediator,
by virtue of his obedience under death as our mediator and substitute,
earned the right as a man to be possessor of heaven and earth. And the work was done before
the world was. So that from eternity, when the
father looked on the son as the land slain from the foundation
of the world, he put all things in his hands. Then when our lord
jesus came into this world in time and finished that work committed
to him. He said now father Glorify thy
son with thine own self now listen carefully to what he said With
the glory that I had with thee before the world was what's he
saying? He's saying father make manifest
Make a public declaration of this fact, that I am yours, possessor
of heaven and earth, and I fulfilled all the covenant. I fulfilled
all the stipulations of the covenant, so that now I ask of you, and
you give me the heathen for your inheritance. To this end, Christ
both lived and died, and rose and revived, that he might be
Lord of heaven and of earth. And he must reign till he's put
all his enemies under his feet. We read in John 1, verse 1, what
I quoted just a little bit ago. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And that's
how the Lord Jesus appeared to Abraham. Flip over just one page,
Genesis 15, verse 1. After these things, now watch
carefully, the word of the Lord came unto Abram and said. That's not how it reads, is it?
That's not how it reads. After these things, the word
of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying. The one speaking
is the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord came to
Abram in a vision saying, fear not Abram, I am thy shield. He who is the word says, I am
thy shield. He who is the word who is God
says, I am thy exceeding great reward. The word of God here
refers not to that which God speaks, but to God who is speaking. Christ is the visible word of
whom all the written word speaks. He came to Abraham in a vision,
in a revelation, and made himself known to Abraham as the word
of God. Hold your hands here in Genesis
and turn back to 1 John chapter 1. I want you to say something. What is the Word of God? It is God revealed. The Word of God is God revealed. This is how Christ always comes
to save us. Remember what I said to you earlier.
Whatever He was to Abraham, He is to us. Whatever he did for
Abraham, he does for us. Whatever he is to us, he was
to Abraham. Whatever he does for us, he did
for Abraham. This is what God does in saving
grace every time he saves a sinner. Look at I John chapter 1 and
verse 1. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the
word of life. For the life was manifested and
we've seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the father and was manifested unto us. That
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also
may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with
the father and with his son Jesus Christ. The Word of God, who
appeared to Abram, made himself known to Abram as God, just exactly
as he does to us. He identified himself as Jehovah,
and Abraham acknowledged him as God. Back in chapter 15 of
Genesis, look at verse 7. And he said unto him, I am the
Lord that brought thee up out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give
thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, whereby
shall I know that I shall inherit it? The word came to Abraham
and said, I'm God. I'm the one who's redeemed you.
I'm the one who brought you out of the earth. I'm the one who
gave you this land. And Abraham said, Lord God. He understood. The word speaking to him is the
Lord his God. Is that what happened to Paul,
to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road? He's riding along, going
his merry way to persecute the church, letters in his hand,
going to rid the world of the name of Jesus Christ. He wasn't
seeking the Lord. He wasn't interested in finding
the Lord. He was interested in destroying him. And the Lord
put him on his back and shined out of heaven and spoke. And
he said, Lord, what will you have me to do? That's how God
always saves sinners. He comes and reveals himself
to you and you bow to him as the Lord your God. Look in 2
Corinthians. Hold your hands in Genesis and
look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4. I want you to see this. I'm sure that sometimes even
in this congregation, you wonder why we don't do the junk folks
do in churches by which they try to get folks religious and
get them to make a profession of faith. Why we don't have altar
calls or invitations or psychological manipulation or something to
get folks to make a profession of faith. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. I just called
Eric because I preached the gospel to you since the day you came
into this world and prayed for you and never did anything twist
his arm. Never did anything to manipulate
him, never seized on any tragedy or difficulties and there's a
time to go strike while the iron's hot. No, just preach the gospel
and wait. Because everything else is a
delusion. Now, I know most of you folks
sitting here, sometime or another, have walked out of some church,
met a profession of faith, got saved, some of you two or three
or four times. And it's never took because there
wasn't anything to take. Never made any difference because
there wasn't anything there to make any difference. But if God ever comes to you
in His grace and reveals Himself in you in the person of His darling
Son, things will be different. But what it takes is the revelation
of God. The revelation of God when it
pleased God to reveal His Son in me. And the only person who
can do that is God. Look at II Corinthians chapter
4 verse 3. If our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost,
in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not. Now, you can object if you want to, but I
don't see any reason on this earth why our translators gave
us that word God in lowercase. Almost everybody you read, Because
they read it the way the translators wrote it. They say they're talking
about the devil. Satan is never referred to in
this book as the god of this world. He's never spoken of as
the god. There ain't but one god of this
world. He who is God, our savior, is
possessor of heaven and earth. And our Lord Jesus said, I thank
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes. Some of you are sitting here,
and you do not believe, and that is your responsibility. You choose
not to believe. But I'll tell you why you can't
see. For the very same reason those disciples could not see
that it was the Lord Jesus walking with them because he hid himself
from their eyes. And as long as God hides himself
from you, you'll never see him. And if God hides himself from
you in judgment forever, nobody will cause you to see him. Oh,
but look at this. He blinded their eyes, blinded
the minds of them which believed not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. How is it God saves a sinner?
God commands light to shine out of darkness into our hearts,
giving the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of the crucified Christ. All right, back here in Genesis
15. Be sure you don't miss this.
The Lord Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, here in verse 1,
is referred to as our shield and our exceeding great reward. He became Abraham's shield and
Abraham's reward in the experience of grace when he revealed himself
to Abraham. But he was Abraham's shield and
Abraham's reward long before Abraham experienced it. He was
Abraham's shield and Abraham's reward when he took up Abraham's
cause and stood in Abraham's stead before the world was as
his covenant surety. So he is our shield and our reward
from everlasting. And He comes to be our shield
and our reward in time when He reveals Himself to us in marvelous
saving grace, causing us to trust Him. Listen to the word of the
wise man. He is a shield unto them that
put their trust in Him. Ah, what a shield He is. What
a shield He is. so that the fiery darts of the
wicked one can never reach us. What a shield he is. His gentleness,
his humiliation has made us great. What a shield he is. Always round
about his own, protecting his own, so that he hides us behind
his blood. He robes us in his righteousness. He encompasses us in himself. One of my dear friends in glory,
Brother Elmer Harrell, he was an old man when I was his pastor. He was a deacon in the church
at Lookout. Fine man. And Elmer, he was a
good businessman. He owned a Southern State store.
And by the time I met him, he had sold the store to his son,
and he and his wife were retired. And he was probably pushing 70
when I met him. Old man. That's kind of hard
to believe now, isn't it? He was an old man. But Elmer,
his parents died when he was seven, and he was orphaned. He just moved from pillar to
post and went to work. All the education he had is what
he got before he turned seven years old. He picked cotton here
and there and wound up in West Virginia. And the first time
I called on him to pray, I thought, well, bless his heart. Poor old
man, his lack of education is showing. This is what he said. He said, Lord, encamp round about
us tonight. And I thought, that's a strange
way to talk. Strange way to talk. Not too strange. Not too strange. That evening, I went home and
read the very text Elmer was quoting. The angel of the Lord
encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. He who is God our Savior encamps
round about them that fear him, so nothing Nothing harms them,
nothing injures them, and he delivers them continually. Oh,
he holds us in his hands, carries us in his bosom, intercedes for
us in heaven, and encampeth round about them. And he is our reward,
our exceeding great reward. Abraham forsook all his heathen
gods, all his earthly portions, all his family, all his home,
all his friends, everything. He forsook it all following him
who is his shield, his exceeding great reward. And you know what
he lost? You know what he lost? Nothing.
Not a thing. He was possessor of everything. Nothing. He lost nothing. People
talk about what they give up to serve the Lord. I gave up
hell. That's all. That's all. Our Lord Jesus spoke to his disciples
when they began to think like carnal men think. Lord, we've
forsaken all and thought of you. What should we have there for?
That was Peter talking. And Peter said, The Lord said,
lacked ye anything? Tell me, children of God, you
who have been walking with our Redeemer for a while, what do
you lack? What have you lacked? What is
it you miss? What is it? What is it? He is our exceeding great reward. Christ is our portion. He's our
kinsman redeemer. He's our friend, our brother,
our helper. He's our husband, our God, our
inheritance, our heaven, our exceeding great reward. But still
there's more. Look in chapter 17 of Genesis,
verse 1. The Lord Jesus, our Savior, whom
we trust is El Shaddai. The Almighty God. And when Abram
was 90 years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said
unto him, I am the Almighty God. I am El Shaddai. Now watch this
next word. Walk before me and be thou perfect. Walk before me and be thou perfect. Some folks have the idea that
somehow our translators didn't get that quite right. Well, they
had another chance to get it right. In the Sermon on the Mount,
the Lord Jesus quotes from this passage of Scripture and he says,
walk before me and be perfect. That's what he meant. He appeared
to Abraham. The Lord Jesus did. God in our
nature, the accomplisher of redemption. And he said, now Abraham, my
name is El Shaddai, the Almighty God. Walk before me and be perfect. Well, he couldn't do that. You can't do that. I can't do
that, but God won't accept anything less. He said, walk before me
and be perfect. But the name El Shaddai implies
more than just omnipotence. It also carries with it the idea
of all-sufficiency. It is a name from which we get
the word breast, all-sufficiency, all-supply. So that he who is
God Almighty, God all-sufficient, When he comes and reveals himself
to a sinner, he shows the sinner that he must be perfect. No sin,
no debt, no obligation, no unrighteousness, no transgression, no iniquity. He must be perfectly righteous,
perfectly holy, perfectly having satisfied for all sin, so that
has no corruption. But the one who commands it,
His name is God Almighty, the all-sufficient Savior, and what
He commands, He gives. Oh, what God demands, God gives. What God requires, God performs. He's the only one who can. He who revealed Himself to Abraham,
He who has revealed Himself to me, He who reveals Himself to
you, if you know Him, has made Himself known to you as God Almighty
who demands perfection and gives it. He makes sinners perfect
by the doing and dying of His dear Son, giving us perfect righteousness. complete atonement from sin so
that our sins are purged away. But then we still got this body. He puts in us a new nature, a
new man created in righteousness and in true holiness. But this
body, this body, this body is cursed. It's got to go to the
earth and return to the dust. Yes, bless God, it shall. And
this mortal. Now, I'm talking things I can't
begin to talk about explaining. This mortal. This mortal body. This mortal body that soon shall
go back to the earth from which it came. In the day of resurrection
glory shall be raised immortal. This corruptible. This corruptible. You've all seen the spot on my
head. Shelby didn't hit me. I fell
again. And the reason I fell is because this body is corruptible. It's corrupting with death. Yours
too. It's corruptible. And this dying,
corruptible flesh is going to the grave. But God shall raise
this body up in perfection, for this corruptible shall put on
incorruption." This natural body sown in the earth a natural body
raised a spiritual body so that he who is Christ Almighty God
El Shaddai makes sinners perfect by his righteousness by his redemption
by his regeneration by his resurrection and we will stand before him
in the perfection that is his alone made ours by God himself
look at chapter 18 Chapter 18, verse 25. Now this has been particularly
helpful to me this week. Abraham is praying for Lot down
in Sodom. And he's praying that God won't
destroy the righteous with the wicked. That be far from thee
to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked.
and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far
from thee. Now, I want you to underline
this. I want you to write it down somewhere. Don't forget
it. Don't forget it. In your darkest days, don't forget
it. Don't forget it. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? Shall not the judge Of all the
earth, do right. Sometimes, sometimes, I think
folks, you folks listening to me don't hear a word I say and
make outlandish statements, outlandish statements. If somebody dies
and doesn't know the Lord, say, well, he's better off now, what
did you say? What did you say? Somehow or
another, we've got to find some kind of a false refuge in which
to take security because we refuse the refuge that is ours in Christ
the Lord. You listen to me. The judge of
all the earth always does right. Brother Lindsey so well, so masterfully,
so rightly handled this in the earlier service. You despise his word, reject
his gospel, despise his son, trample his blood under your
feet, say I won't have him, you're going to hell. And it's right. It is right. If you're my son
or my daughter, my brother or my sister, my mother or my father,
my husband or my wife, my grandchild or your grandchild, it doesn't
matter. The judge of all the earth cannot but do right. It'll be right for him to save
you and right for him to damn you. Write for Him to save you
because of the righteousness and blood of His darling Son.
And write for Him to damn you because you shall eat the fruit
of your own ways and be filled with your own devices. I find
no consolation whatsoever. Go to bury relatives and I've
had to do it. Folks I dearly love who didn't
know God. And I would no more attempt to
tell my family things are better for them than I would tell them
that hell's a nice house. Not about to do it. Not about
to do it. But where's your comfort? My
comfort is in my God. He does right. He does right. I recall years ago hearing Brother
Mahan tell, after the boy Robbie was killed in Vietnam, came out
in the papers, one of the local preachers who despised Henry,
despised the gospel of God's grace, called him up and said,
where's your God now? Brother Mahan said, my God's
right where he was when he gave me his son. He's sitting on his
throne. He's sitting on his throne. The judge of all the earth does
right, and he'll do right with you. Whether you're damned or
whether you're saved, it'll be by the right work of God. Look at chapter 21, verse 33. And Abraham planted a grove in
Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord the everlasting
God. He who is Christ our God is the
Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and
the end, the true God and eternal life, the everlasting Father,
that one whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting.
He is God, unchanged, unchanging, unchangeable. Now, I've got to
hurry and give you the last two, and I'll give them to you very
briefly. Genesis 22. The Lord Jesus appeared to Moses,
I'm God of Abraham. And he said, I'm the God of Isaac.
Abraham and Isaac are going up to Mount Moriah, Mount Calvary. And Isaac is now, he's a full
grown young man and Abraham an old man. If Isaac had wanted
to, he could have took the old man. Abraham's an old man, and
Isaac's a young, strapping, full-grown man. And Abraham left their servant
Eliezer down at the foot of the mountain, and he said, I and
the lad are going to go yonder and worship God. And three days
from now, we're going to come right back down here and meet
you. But Abraham's going up there to kill Esau. That's why he's
going up there because God told him to sacrifice his son. Well,
how could he say, we're going to go up there and three days
from now, we're going to come down here and see you again as
we worship God. Because Abraham believed God.
He knew that Isaac was the one through whom Messiah must come,
by whom redemption must come, by whom he himself must be saved. He can't be saved if Isaac doesn't
come down to that mountain with him. Isaac got to be raised from
the dead. And he received him as one raised
from the dead. Well, they're going up the mountain and Isaac
says, Daddy, you've taught me all my life we can't worship
God without a lamb. Where's the lamb? We've got fire,
we've got an altar, we've got wood. Where's the lamb? And Abraham
said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. Abraham said, son, God's coming. God's coming into this world
the seed of a woman. He's coming into this world through
you. God's gonna provide himself a
lamb for a burnt offering for our sins and in verse 14 after
that Lamb has randomly caught in the thicket and sacrificed
Abraham said we'll name this place Jehovah Jireh The Lord
will provide Jesus Christ is the lamb who
provided himself an offering and a sacrifice for sin and The
Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. The Lamb
of God by whom sinners come to know God. And then our Lord here
calls himself the God of Jacob. The God of Jacob. You remember
Jacob. You don't have to turn there.
Jacob. Jacob's that fellow in Genesis
32 who one day the angel of the Lord met him in the way and wrestled
with him. He wrestled with it. When I was
in high school, I was on the wrestling team. And I was a pretty
good wrestler. And I'll tell you what you do
when you're wrestling somebody. You want to pin them down. You want
to pin them down. Get them pinned down so they
can't get up. That's the object. Well, Christ
came to wrestle with Jacob. And when He did, He prevailed
over him. It didn't say Jacob wrestled
with the angel. The angel of the Lord wrestled with Jacob.
It was his object to pin him down. And he got him pinned down. He said, now tell me your name.
Tell me your name. What's your name? He said, my
name is Tricky Cheat. My name is Supplant and Deceive. My name is Corrupt and Crooked. My name's Jacob. Now as soon
as he said that, listen to this, Hosea chapter 12 verse 4 tells
us that Jacob prevailed with the angel. Jacob prevailed with the angel.
The angel has prevailed over Jacob. And Jacob said, my name
is sin. Sinner is my name. Sinner is
what I am. Sin is what I do. That's my name. He's not anymore, your name's
Israel. You've prevailed with God. You've prevailed with God. You're
a prince with God. I'll tell you how sinners prevail
with God. If God ever comes to you in grace
and prevails over you with His grace, Revealing His Son in you,
forcing from you, forcing from you the confession of your sin. You've prevailed with God. If
we confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And now, Jacob is Israel. And Christ, Christ is the God
of Israel. He's the God of Israel. And so
all Israel shall be saved, for there shall come a Deliverer
out of Zion. Oh Christ, God of Israel, come
today out of Zion and prevail over these hearts for your glory. Amen.