If you would turn with me to
Exodus chapter 3. Hold your place there for a moment
or two. Exodus chapter 3. When Moses
was 40 years old, he attempted to deliver the people of Egypt
by his own methods. His efforts produced only problems
for him. He slew an Egyptian soldier. and forced him to flee from Pharaoh
and hide in the wilderness. You see, Moses had to learn like
all God's people have to learn that in himself he was only a
man, that he had no power to deliver his people or himself
unless God gave it to him. So Moses lived in the wilderness
for 40 years, caring for his father-in-law's flock of sheep.
And one day when Moses was 80 years old, Forty years have passed. God appeared to him on a mountainside
called Sinai, and the flames of a burning bush. And the scriptures
say that the bush was on fire, but it didn't burn up. And Moses
saw it and was amazed. As he drew near, he heard the
voice of God saying, I am the God of your forefathers, the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Moses trembled with fear
and did not dare to look. And God said, you take off your
shoes, for the place you're standing on is holy ground. And the Lord went on to say,
I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I've heard
them crying out because of their bondage, so I've come down to
rescue them. So now, go, I'm sending you to
Egypt. Look at verse 7 of chapter 3.
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 sorrows." Friends,
may we never for a moment think that God does not see the affliction
of His people. May we never think that He does
not hear His people's cry and knows their sorrow. Job said,
my, you're talking about somebody that had gone through some things.
I know that thou canst do everything and no thought can be withholden.
from thee." And the writer of Hebrews assures believers that
we have a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin. You have a Savior this morning
that feels the feeling of your infirmities. Never ever forget
that. You can call upon Him. He knows. He hears. And he feels. In Exodus chapter 5, turn over
there with me, verse 1, we see that Moses and Aaron went up
to Pharaoh and told him. Notice verse 1. And afterwards
Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh. They didn't ask him. They didn't say, Mr. Pharaoh,
would you please let us take the people away from here? No,
sir. They told Pharaoh. They didn't
ask. And they said, the Lord God of
Israel said, let my people go. Then in verse two, friends, we
see the depravity of lost men and women's soul. Pharaoh said,
who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel
go? I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go. Now I want you to consider with
me this morning the words of Pharaoh. Who is the Lord that
I should obey His voice? Do you know the Lord? It's very
important for us to understand some things here. God is not
who we think He is. God is who He is. God is who
He says He is. Not who we say He is. Not who
we think He is. I've known people who've never
opened the Bible. I know for a fact. I've known
them all my life. Never opened the Bible and they say things
like, I think God is this and I think God is that. But God
is not who men and women think He is. He is who He is and regardless
of what you and I or anyone else thinks about Him, doesn't change
it. Doesn't change it in the least. I've heard this with my
own ears. I think God trusts man to do
the best that he can. And if we try to do the best
we can, I believe we'll go to heaven. But that's not who God
is. First of all, God doesn't trust in men. Men gotta trust
in God. And I'll tell you this, my best
is not good enough. It ain't near being good enough.
There's none that doeth good. Not a woman. Our best efforts,
as David said, are nothing but vanity. Barely, barely every
man at his best state is altogether vanity. Others say, well, God
is a God of love and he wouldn't send anyone to hell because he
loves everybody. That's not who God is. If that's
the case, why is there a hell? That's not who God is. God is
love, friends, but His love is in and only in His beloved Son. No wonder that David wrote in
Psalm 50, 21, the God of heaven and earth says, Thou thoughtest
that I was altogether such a one as I said. That's people's problems
today. They brought God down to their
level. They've endeavored to. It's impossible. But they think too little of
God. They think that He is one like
unto themselves. And no wonder that God said in
Isaiah 55 verse 8, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and neither
are my ways your ways, saith the Lord. And we know also according
to Proverbs 14 verse 12, there is a way which seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Unbelieving
men and women bow before idols of stone and say, here's my God. Religious people bow before statues
of dead saints and the Virgin Mary and they say, herein is
God. And later on in the book of Exodus,
chapter 32, the people of Israel, after being miraculously delivered
by the mighty hand and sovereign hand of God out of Egypt, they
got impatient waiting on Moses. He had gone up into Mount Sinai,
that same mountain which the Lord had first spoke to him,
and receiving the law of God written by the finger of God. And they got impatient. They
threw all their earrings and their gold and melted it down
and had Aaron fashion it into a golden calf. And you know what
they said? They said, this be the God that
delivered us out of Egypt. That's not who God is. Most men
and women's conception of God stem from their own sinful and
depraved imaginations. You know how I know that? Romans
121 says, Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him
not as God. Neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was dark. Men and women bow before and
worship crosses. They do. A man by the name of
Arthur Blissett, I believe I'm saying that right, B-L-E-S-S-I-T-T,
for 44 years carried a cross for 39,761 miles across and through 319 countries. And he's in the Guinness World
Record book for that. His website says it's all about
Jesus and the cross. That ain't God. That ain't God. There's no salvation in the symbol
of a cross. Salvation is in the person who
hung on that cross, dear friends. If you could find the original
piece of wood that the Lord of Glory was crucified upon, it
would have no spiritual significance. None whatsoever. But men would
make a shrine out of it. They would. But that's not God.
Legalists. Oh my, legalists. Bless their
hearts. They cling to their laws and
statutes, their ordinances, their ceremonies, their standards of
do this and don't do that. And somehow they believe that
being reconciled to God is based upon what they do. That's not
God. That's not God. Then we have
these emotionalists in the world. They trust in their dreams and
their visions. claiming to have seen the Lord,
angels, demons, devils. Their conception of God is merely
emotional, and emotionalism is definitely not God. Theologians,
oh, they take pride in their large libraries of old books,
their old catechisms and man-made doctrines, and they make them
their God. They're men that make doctrine
their god. Others adore the great architectural churches and cathedrals
and perceive that there's some type of spiritual significance
in them as they talk about their multi-million dollar facilities
as if somehow salvation was in them. For years, you could take
a paid tour of Robert Shuler's Crystal Cathedral out in California. You've seen that thing. It's
on TV for years. constructed of 10,000 rectangular
pieces of glass and occupied one of the world's largest pipe
organs. And friends, I don't say it to
be funny. I say it out of sadness. I heard people going about this
building for years as if it was something whole. Have you seen
the Crystal Cathedral? That ain't God. I'm telling you,
that ain't God. And to go a step further now, Even in smaller churches, many
think that somehow God resides at the front of the church, at
a so-called altar. Like the television game show,
The Price is Right, they tell men to come on down. Come on
down for this is where God is. They claim that salvation is
obtained by walking an hour, raising a hand. This is where
God does the work of grace, they say. No, friends, God does the
work of grace in the heart. And it doesn't require any physical
movement. You don't have to move from the
back to the front. They say this somehow represents
God's work of redemption. And men by nature, you know this
to be a fact, men by nature want you to move. They want you to
work. They want you to decide. But
God alone does the moving. God alone does the working. And God alone does the deciding
in the salvation of sinners. You can write it down. So who
is the Lord? Who is the Lord? When asked,
where is thy Father by the self-righteous religious folks in our Lord's
day, our Lord answered in John 18.9, He said, you neither know
me nor my Father. You don't know where my Father
is. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. You don't know
me and you don't know Him. You see friends, people need
a correct knowledge of God. This is the world's biggest problem
today. They don't know who the Lord
is. Do you know God? Knowing God is not worshipping
on Saturday or Sunday or either one. You'd be amazed how many
there have been between people on whether you should worship
on Saturday or Sunday. Let me tell you, God gives His
people a broken heart to worship Him 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week. There's a way to be baptized,
but that's not God. There's a way to observe the
Lord's table, but you can observe that right and go to hell. There
are doctrines that are true. There's truth that is true. Men
know a lot of truthful facts about the Lord Jesus Christ,
but don't know Him. A man can love doctrine, not Christ,
and follow what men call truth, and not know God. That's just
a fact. You see, God is a person. That's
the most beautiful thing that a sinner will ever see. God became
a person. Became a man. And His name is
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's God. And He's a living God. And He's a spirit. And they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And God
is not just a name. You know, that's what men have
just made. It's just a name anymore. It's just the name God. You know,
athletes use it. Movie stars use it. God this,
God that. They don't know God. He's a person. God's not a historical character. He's a living, indwelling spirit
and makes his people's heart throb and their minds rejoice
and their lips to praise him. He's not a fire escape to heaven
out of hell either. He's not a doormat called Jesus. He's not a poor, defeated, frustrated
little man upstairs who can't do what he wants to do. People
don't know God. That's the problem. People don't
know God. But I'll tell you this. He'll
tell you who He is. He'll tell you in this book.
He'll tell you in this book. If you want to know, He'll tell
you. You read this book called the Holy Bible with a desire
to truly know Him, and I'll tell you something. If you do that,
He will reveal Himself more and more to you. Some might say,
well what if I'm not one of God's elect? You're looking at it wrong. You have a desire in your heart
to seek after God. God already put that there. And
you read this book prayerfully and ask God to open your eyes
to it. You can't find anywhere, you
hear me say this all the time, anywhere in this book that God
refused a mercy beggar. Nowhere. Problem is we don't
have many mercy beggars. We don't have people who want
mercy anymore. I'm alright in my own right. I'm doing just
fine myself, people say. Oh my. Who is the Lord that I
should obey Him and let Israel go? Who is the Lord? And though
it's true that Pharaoh did not know God, what he was really
saying was this. He was saying, who is your God? He's nothing to me. That's right. That's what he was saying. He's
nothing to me. Why should I obey his voice? Why should I obey
his commands? Pharaoh told them himself. And
I tell you, friends, natural men and women tell on themselves
by their own confession of God, don't they? And you know that.
People will say, you know within seconds if they know God or not.
They tell on themselves. Pharaoh said, I'm not going to
let Israel go, because your God doesn't mean anything to me.
Who is the Lord that I should obey? Him. And the mass multitudes
of people today, now I'm telling you sadly, don't have a true
knowledge of God, nor do they care to. They're not concerned
with obeying a God with whom they don't care to know. The
knowledge of the true living God must come from Him. It takes a divine revelation.
A divine intervention. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness unto him.
Neither can he know him, because they are spiritually discerned. Unless God gives a man eyes to
see, he'll never see it. Never see it. And this is the
condemnation our Lord said. That lights come into the world
and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. But they, as Pharaoh, will one
day soon find out that it's futile. It's vain and pointless to disobey
God Almighty. Because listen, one day, one
day, every knee is going to bow One day every tongue is going
to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And one day, the day
of judgment, even Pharaoh, even Pharaoh and others will confess
Christ, but it will be too late. Who is the Lord? that I shall
obey him. Now look over at Exodus chapter
6. Exodus 6, this is page over. Verse 1, Then the Lord said unto
Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with
a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall
he drive them out of his land. And God spake unto Moses, and
he said unto him, I am the Lord. Who is the Lord that I should
obey Him? Pharaoh said. And the Lord said to Moses, I
am the Lord. There's no escape from the God
with whom we have to do. Now let me say that again. You
need to know this. Those of you that are still indifferent,
those of you who continue to just put this thing off, you
either bow to Him now or you bow to Him later. It's best to
bow to Him now. You're going to die in your sin
if you don't trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know how
to put any plainer than that. I don't know how to make this
any more of a serious matter. This is life and death. And yet
men won't believe unless God shows it to them. And they'll
say, like Pharaoh, who is God that I should obey His voice?
Now I want to quickly give you five things. And I ask you, so
who is the Lord? Who is the Lord? That you should
obey Him. Number one, He is a sovereign
creator. Genesis 1.1, In the beginning,
God. That ought to tell us right there.
In the beginning, there was God and God alone. God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And He created the heaven and
the earth. And verse 3 says, And God said, Let there be light,
and there was light. John 1, you know these verses.
In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. And the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. In Him was life. Life. And the life was the light of
men. And the light shineth in darkness.
And the darkness comprehended it not. Who is God that I should
obey Him? Listen, we're nothing but darkness
and spiritually dead by nature. We'll never comprehend the light
of God unless He say, unto our dead hearts, let there be light. And if He does, there will be
light. Number two, God is everlasting
and eternal. Psalm 90 verses 1 and 2, Lord,
Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the
mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hast formed the
earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou
art God. God's eternal and everlasting.
Number three, He's holy. Oh, this is where people miss
the boat. What does your Bible say on the
front of it? Does it say the love Bible? No. It says holy
Bible. What are God's angels called?
They're called holy angels. Listen, friends, God is holy. 1 Samuel 6.20 says, Who is able
to stand before this holy Lord God? That's a good question.
Who's able to stand before this holy Lord God? Men preach God
loves everybody without exception. God loves everybody. God loves
you. Smile, God loves you. Smile, God loves you. He'll save
everyone that will let Him have His way. God wants to forgive
you, and He has, but you've got to accept it. You've got to decide
you want it now, and you've got to do your part in it. That ain't
God. God's holy, and who's able to
stand before Him? Isaiah said, I saw the Lord.
Where'd you see Him, Isaiah? I saw Him high and lifted up.
Yes, sir, I saw Him high and lifted up, and His train, His
holiness, His righteousness filled the temple. If you ever truly
see the Lord, you'll see that He is first and foremost holy. And you'll say with Isaiah, woe
is me, woe is me. You remember when God first showed
you He was holy? First thing He says, I'm in trouble. Woe is me, I'm undone, undone! Because I'm a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of people with unclean lips,
for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." God's holy. I'm unholy. God is righteous. I'm unrighteous. God will by
no means clear the guilty. It's God and His supreme holiness
is bound by His justice. God's too holy and too righteous,
and He's sworn that He will not suffer His justice to be altered.
Now, this is the predicament we're in, friends. He's bound
by His own Word, and He will by no means clear the guilty.
The guilty sinner must perish. God's justice demands it. Behold,
all souls are mine, saith the Lord. As the soul of the Father,
so also the soul of the Son is mine. And the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. But the good news is, this is
my fifth and final thing, He's both just and justifier. He's both just and justifier. Look at Isaiah 45 with me. Isaiah chapter 45, verse 21. Isaiah 45 verse 21. Tell ye and
bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? And there's
no God else beside me? And then he tells us who he is. I'm a just God and a Savior. Oh, if he had just said, I'm
a just God, that would have been no good news to me. But he says,
I'm a just God and a Savior. Praise His holy name. He's a
just God and a Savior. There's none beside me. He's
the only one. He's the only one that can save
you from your sin. He's a just God and He's also
a Savior. Paul wrote in Romans 3 to declare,
I say at this time, His righteousness. That's what we preach. The righteousness
of Christ. That He might be just and the
justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. God is just. His justice cannot be compromised. But friend, He's a Savior. Because
He became what I was so that I might be what He is. That's
substitution. That's the gospel. That's the
only thing I want to hear. Tell me the story of Jesus again
and again and again. How He died for a wretch like
me. I know I didn't deserve it. I
know that I didn't even ask for it until He made me willing in
the day of His fire. But I want to hear it again,
and again, and again, and again. Tell me again. His righteousness
and justice demands that He be just. But His righteousness,
who is in Christ alone, justifies those who bow and believe in
His beloved Son. Do you believe in Christ? Do
you trust in Him? Is He your all in all? That's
the best news, let me tell you, that's the best news that you
and I could ever hear. God is both just and justifier. Christ justifies chosen sinners
while still remaining just. It's the only way He could. Only
God could do such a thing. Now do you want to know God?
Know Him by nature. By nature, you don't know Him.
The natural man doesn't know God. The religious man doesn't
know God. He said, you call me the Lord
with your lips, but your heart's far from me. So I ask you again,
do you want to know the living God? You find Him right here
in this book. This is where you find Him. And
you'll find Him in the person of His Son. That's the only place
you'll find Him. And you can memorize this, and
you can quote scriptures until you're blue in the face. And
if you don't see that this book is about Him and Him alone, it'll
do you no good, friends. If you want to know God, you
listen to John 5.22. For the Father judgeth no man. He has committed all judgment
to the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor
the Father. And he that honors not the Son,
honors not the Father that sent him. God has committed all judgment
unto His Son. What do you think of Him? What
does He mean to you? One day he asked his disciples,
he said, who do men say I am? They said, oh, one said you're
John the Baptist, Isaiah. He said, who do you say I am? Who do you say I am? Friends,
who do you say he is? To know Christ is to know God.
To love Christ. Not to claim you love Him, but
to love Him. It's to love God. To honor Christ is to honor God.
And to ignore this book is to ignore the only source, the only
truth that you have in order to know the living God. You want
to know why people don't know Him? It's because they don't
know His Word. That's why people don't know
the Lord. They've got all these strange ideas. I once did too. I bet you did too. All these strange ideas that
have been handed down to them by, sadly, preachers in most
cases. Maybe grandma. Maybe every other
Tom, Dick, and Harry. I don't know, but they don't
know God. And old Ralph Barnard used to say, sinner before you
go to hell, you better go buy you a Bible and find out who
God is. The number one selling book of
all time. And it sits on people's coffee
table and they never open it. They dust it off every now and
then. But they don't read it. These
are the words of life. And they point to a person, God's
Son. And he that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life. If you have
a Bible already, I'm going to tell you, you better prayerfully
read it. For our Lord said in John 5, as we studied a week
or so ago, He said, search the Scriptures. In them you think
you have life. How many people today, today,
think they have life because they've searched the Scriptures,
but they haven't seen the most important thing. The Lord Jesus
said, Scriptures, they are they which testify me.