I'd like for you to turn with
me to Exodus chapter 3. I titled the message tonight,
Why the Bush is Not Burnt. That's what Moses wanted to find
out. Let's read these verses. Exodus
chapter 3, we're going to be looking at the first three verses. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro,
his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock
to the backside of the desert, 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 the 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 burnt. In the second chapter of the
book of Exodus, Moses, who was told by his mother, his sister,
or one of his relatives that he might be the deliverer, whom
God would raise up and deliver his people, rose up in that capacity and
saw some unfairness. He saw an Egyptian slaying a
Hebrew over some fault. And so he killed the Egyptian
and hid him in the bushes. Then the following day, he found
two Hebrews arguing with one another. And he said, this shouldn't
be. And they said, who made you a
ruler? Who put you in charge? Why do you consider yourself
a judge of the people? You going to kill me now like
you killed that Egyptian? And Moses understanding that
this thing was known, he didn't know it was common knowledge.
He knew what would be the end result with Pharaoh. And so now
he finds himself in exile, rejected by his people, and sought after
by Pharaoh to slay him. And he finds himself in the land
of Midian where he finds a friend who takes him in and who gives
him his daughter to wife. Moses was about 40 years old,
the old writers say, when he left Egypt and spent an additional
40 years now in the land of Midian. And so now, I've told you this
before, you have to watch in these early books of the Bible
because they span a great deal of time in one chapter. And that's
the way it is here. They take Moses from his birth
over here in the second chapter, and now he's 80 years old. He's
80 years old. All ideas of being a deliverer,
long gone. All that glory that he had in
Pharaoh's house is now gone. He don't have people following
along behind him like Joseph did, telling everybody to bow
down now. He's just a herder of sheep now. And he's on the back side of
nowhere. All the glory of his education, his position and power
have faded like the leaf. And now he tends the flock, and
they not of his, but his father-in-law Jethro. And in verse 1 of chapter
3, God sets before us the scene. This is what I want you to see.
led the flock of Jethro to the back side of the desert and came
to the mountain of God, even Horeb." Now, one day Moses will
call this same mountain by a different name, Sinai. Same mountain, Sinai. And the picture here is always
the same when God reveals Himself to men. God is as a mountain. And man sprawls out before him
like a wasteland in a desert. That's the picture. That's the
scene that's set before us, just a barren wilderness of man. And
God is a mountain. When a man is shut up to God
and he comes to God, he's being led there of God. I know it says
Moses led the flock of Jethro, but you don't lead a flock through
a desert. This took the providence of God to lead this man to the
backside of the desert and come up to this mountain of God, even
the mountain of God itself. God is as a mountain. He's sovereign. He's eternal. He's everywhere
present. He's unchangeable in His character.
It's an insurpassable barrier. You see these things, we flew
out to San Diego and it was really interesting because we were covering
the whole southern route of the United States going out and it
was a clear day and you could look out there and you could
see these vast Mojave Desert out there and all of a sudden
you come to these mountains and they were green and had stuff
on them and it's just unbelievable how these things are arranged.
You get way up in the air and look down on them, you can see
them. But that's what it is. When a man comes to God, he finds
out that God's not this little God like he thought He was that
could just be reached out and touched any time you want Him.
I'll just call on God, you know, like me and Jesus. They say He's got a good thing
going there on a first-name basis with Him. But you discover that
God is as a mountain. the scope of God, it surpasses
anything that your mind can... He said, to whom will you compare
Me? He said. Isn't that what He said
back there in Isaiah, all through those 40s, the chapter 40s, all
along through there. He just keeps telling them, I'm
God and beside Me there is none other. I'm God. I declare the end from the beginning
And from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying
my counsel will stand and I'll do all my pleasure. I'm God. I do what I will. I'll call a
ravenous bird from the east and feed my prophet. Not a sparrow
falls to the ground without God as a mountain. When you discover
who God is, you'll come down. Won't you? You'll come down.
You'll come down from that high lofty peak that you think you're
on. You'll come down and you'll find yourself standing in the
barren wilderness of human nature and looking up at that mountain.
That's where Moses was. Man lives in a wilderness. Nothing heavenly grows here.
Nothing. Nothing heavenly. Just think
about that for a minute. Nothing heavenly, nothing spiritual
grows here. Nothing. Every good gift, every
perfect gift, where does it come from? It cometh down. Ain't that
what he said? Cometh down from heaven. Cometh down from the Father of
lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance
are not found growing on the desert trees. They are the fruit
of the Spirit of God. He says in Romans chapter 3 that
this is a quotation from back in the Psalms of David. where
God said He looked down on the earth to see if there was any
good, to see if there was any who did seek after God. And He
said there was none. There was none. And Paul goes
on to say there was none good. None good. We used to hear this
phrase when I went to school. He says, one bad apple will ruin
the whole barrel. You remember that little saying
they had? The problem is the one bad apple already ruined
the whole barrel. The whole barrel's rotten now. None good. None good. There's none good,
there's none righteous, there's none that understandeth, and
there's none that seeketh after God. Well, what about all these
people that say they're seeking after God? They're liars. That's
right. They're liars. I seek the Lord. Do you read your Bible? No. Do
you attend church? No. But I'm seeking the Lord. You're a liar. That's right. You're a liar. There's none,
none that seeketh after God. None. And Moses wasn't seeking
after God. I've read a lot of these old
writers and they talked about Moses being saved and Moses doing
that and Moses doing this. I'm going to tell you, Moses
wasn't seeking God. Moses was leading a band of sheep
on the backside of a desert. And God came down to Moses. Did God have a purpose in Moses
when he was born? You bet he did. Did God have
a purpose in Moses when he sent him down and preserved him in
that basket? You bet he did. Was God's hand
on Moses when he was down there in the house of Pharaoh and raising
him up? You bet it was. But there come a time when he
had to meet God. Now God has an elect people.
God has a people that He chose before the foundation of the
world, and they're His. But all that He chose in Christ
before the foundation of the world, He's going to bring to
saving faith in Christ. They're going to hear the gospel.
They're going to hear it. He's going to bring His preacher
and that man, and they're going to cross paths somewhere. They're
going to cross paths, and He's going to hear from God. And he's
going to discover who he is, and he's going to repent of his
sins, and he's going to cling to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
right. Paul said, I thank God for you,
brethren. Now this is the same people he
said, I know your election of God. Then in the second letter
to the Thessalonians, he said, I thank God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Wherefore, he called you by our gospel. You see what I'm
saying? God led Moses up to this mountain. He brought him there. And he
let him stand out there. And these things, I know what
you're thinking. Some of you here, you think,
well, he's on a desert. I don't see how in the world
you get man's nature and all that in there. Because I've been
studying this book for 30 years. And because I know what the experience
of grace is in my heart. And I know when God reveals Himself
to you, He's going to reveal that desert, that wasteland of
a heart that you have. And you're going to find that
there's nothing there to recommend you to God. Nothing. You're going
to stand there in that dry, desolate desert, and you're going to stand
there and look up before God, and He's going to show you who
He is, and He's going to show you who you are. That's where
Moses is. He said in Romans chapter 3,
they're all gone astray. They are together become unprofitable. Destruction and misery are in
their ways and there is no fear of God before their eyes. That's
right. You can't talk to somebody about
God. You start talking to somebody about God and they start counting
ceiling tile, looking for the birds. You know, I went fishing
last week and all that kind of nonsense. They don't want to
talk about that. And sometimes it frightens them
and they just look at you and say, I don't want to talk about
that. I said, I don't want to talk about it. Right. No fear of God before their eyes. That's what it is. They don't
believe God. They don't believe in God. I don't want to hear
it, John. If you believed in God, if you knew who God was,
you'd be down on your knees right now. That's right. Saved or lost,
you'd be down on your knees before Him. John, nobody could doubt
that the Apostle John was a saved man. When he saw the Lord, he
fell down on his face like a dead man. Daniel, there wasn't a more
righteous man in the Bible than Daniel. He prayed three times
a day. If it cost him his life, they
cast him into the lion's den. All of it, there was not a more
righteous man than Daniel. When Daniel saw the Lord, he
said, his cumliness melted into corruption. And he fell down.
Isaiah, the prophet, put his hand on his mouth. He said, I'm
a man of unclean lips. I'm a leper, that's what he was
saying. I'm unclean. On and on and on through the
Scriptures. No fear of God before their eyes. Laugh and tell jokes
about God. My soul. Nothing. Nothing. Man is born
and lives in a wilderness. Nothing heavenly grows there.
Nothing heavenly flows there. If God's sheep are to be watered,
He must send the water down. If God's sheep are to be fed,
He's got to rain manna down from heaven. Nothing heavenly grows
in that barren wilderness. And there's nothing in man, there's
nothing around man but a dry and thirsty wilderness. He's
born into this curse, and listen to me, this curse is born into
Him. That's right. He's born into
this world. It doesn't take too much looking
around to discover the curse of God in this world, all you
got to do is turn your TV on, listen to that mess on there
and see what they're showing. They're putting on there an OK
and before children, things that I wouldn't, I don't even want
my wife to watch it, let alone my children. I know this world's
a curse, but here's the other side of that, the flip side of
that is that curse is born in you. It's born in you. The reason why men and women
aren't crying out for mercy and seeking after God is because
they're one with this cursed earth. And God help us, we don't
see anything wrong with it. There's no greater evidence of
man's total depravity than his satisfaction with himself. He's
happy with himself. That's right. No greater proof
of it. If any man loved the world, John
said, the love of the Father's not in him. Man's nature and
character, his attitude and spirit lay at the feet of God as a great
barren wilderness. And if God's pleased to help
him, if God takes pity on him to show mercy on him, he might
come down to where he is. Because man can't go up to meet
God. God's going to have to come down
and meet him. Have you got the picture? There's Moses. And he's standing before this
great mountain. And he's looking at it and he's considering it
because everybody called it the mountain of God. It dates back,
it has a history back there with Abraham and has a history way
on back with the early patriarch. But God draws this man Moses
to the backside of the desert, to the mountain of God. Great barrier, unchangeable,
high, lofty, towering above the wilderness. And yet in him are
springs of water, lush pastures, trees laden with fruit. He's
everything the desert is not in God. As Moses approaches the
mountain, he sees something that catches his eye. God brings him
around and he just, there he stands before that great mountain.
He's standing out there in that sand and them sheep bawling He's
looking up there at that mountain, and then God's seeing something
and catches his eye. And he looks over here, and there's
a bush. Now, don't even ask me how these old guys knew this.
Generally, if you'll read them long enough, they'll tell you
how they come up with it, but I don't have that kind of time.
But all of them say the same thing, that this bush was a thorn
bush of some kind. Because they say that's the only
thing that grows in that desert. And whatever it is, it has a
short lifespan, and then it dies. And it's kind of like the old
Texas tumbleweed. It's dry, and it kindles, and
you touch it with a flame, and like a piece of paper, it's just
gone. That's the end of it. But this
one, he looked at this thorny bush, whatever it was over there,
And it burned, but it wasn't consumed. It just kept on burning
like a candle. The wick doesn't burn, but what
feeds the wick is burning. And that's the way this was.
And Moses decided to turn aside and see this. He called it a
great wonder that this thing wasn't consumed. It ought to
burn in a second, but it didn't. And yet it did burn, but it wasn't
consumed. And Moses is taken back by this
wonder and he turns aside to see why the bush is not burnt. Now it's the nature of fire to
burn and the nature of dry stubble to be fueled. But in this bush,
neither the fire consumes nor is the bush used up. But they're
both preserved in this bush. What's going on here? Well, he
tells us right here in verse 2. Exodus 3, verse 2. The angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. And
he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush
was not consumed. Now let me just start here with
the angel of the Lord. What is an angel? Have you ever just studied the
Bible to see all the different places where it talks about angels?
An angel, Paul said, is their ministering spirits sent forth
to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. So, to
shorten this whole thing down so I don't have to take 20 minutes
on this subject, just let me say this, that the word angel
means minister. That's what it means. whether
it's talking about those angelic ministers who minister. I don't
even know what they minister. But they came to Lot and guided
him out of that city and they appeared to a lot of people in
different places. Sometimes they appeared as men.
He said, be careful how you entertain strangers because some have entertained
angels unawares. They appeared as men and they
entertained them and never knew that they were angels of God.
And also in the book of Revelations chapter 1, he talks about his
pastors, the seven pastors of the seven churches in Asia, he
calls them angels because they're ministers sent forth to minister
to those who shall be heirs of salvation, same as he's heavenly
been. And sometimes in the scripture
you'll see this word angel and it has to do with Christ. He
is the angel of the covenant. He is the main minister of God
to men, is Christ. This is how all the blessings
of God... You remember in our study in
Ephesians, He said that the Father hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And as those blessings
were charged to Him and given to Him and trusted to Him, so
He ministers those blessings to us. And he ministered those
blessings by becoming a man, coming into this world by his
suffering, by his death, by his ascension, his resurrection into
glory, and by his sending the Holy Spirit to us, and by the
order of the churches and his preservation of the church in
this world. Angel, angel. Most of the time he's called
in the scripture the angel of the covenant. Well, why is this
significant? Just this. The gospel of God
must be ministered to men. Now that's what he's telling
us here. The angel of the Lord, the minister of the Lord appeared
to him. This is Christ Himself in this
specific account. Christ Himself. You can read
Acts chapter 7. You can read it quite a few places.
I'm not just speculating on that, but this was the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. God ministered to Moses in the
burning bush. Now turn with me to Deuteronomy
chapter 33. Let me show you something here. In Deuteronomy chapter 3, Moses
is now old and dying. He went into Egypt and by the
hand of God delivered God's people. And they spent their time in
the wilderness. been taught true worship. Some of them who rebelled, some
of them who resisted, God sent back into the wilderness. And
now they're about to go into the promised land. Deuteronomy
chapter 33 and verse 13. And he's blessing now, Moses
is blessing all the sons of Israel, and he comes to Joseph. And listen
to this. Listen to what he says. And of
Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land for the precious
things of heaven, for the dew and for the deep that coucheth
beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun,
and for the precious things put forth by the moon. Now listen
to this. And for the chief things of the
ancient mountains." Moses reaches back. He reaches back. And he begins to think about
Abraham taking his son up on that mountain, up on Mount Moriah. And he begins to think about
old Jacob on the mountain. And he begins to think about
all the things, all this business that God has conducted And he
thinks about this mountain of Horeb where he saw this bush. And he begins to talk about the
blessings of the ancient things of the mountains. Let me find
my place here. And for the precious thing of
the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth,
and the fullness thereof, now listen to this, and for the good
will of him that dwelt, in the bush. You see how all that ties
back together to where Abraham was. So I'm not just putting
words in his mouth. I'm not trying to draw things
that are not so. I'm trying to show you here how
Moses, this is Moses himself writing here. He wrote the first
five books of the Bible. And as he's writing these things
and describing these things, He's got his experience already,
and the Holy Spirit's revealing these things to him, and he's
writing these things through his own experience. The gospel
has to do with the goodwill of God wherever it's ministered.
It's God coming down to where we are to effect deliverance
and salvation to our soul. Stephen preaching to his kinsmen,
to the high council of Israel, who knew this Old Testament like
the back of their hands. to show them the gospel throughout
their history over in Acts chapter 7. And when he came to Moses,
he talked about Abraham and he talked about Isaac and he just
pretty much went back and recounted the whole history of Israel all
the way up to Jesus Christ. And when he got to Moses, he
said, whom they refused, verse 35, Acts chapter 7. saying, who
made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a
ruler and a deliverer. The same one they questioned.
The same one they brought into a camp. The same one they charged
falsely. Well, who made you a judge and
a ruler? God did. God made him a ruler and a deliverer. Watch it now. By the hand of
the angel that appeared to him in the bush. That's who made
it. Christ. Christ made him a ruler. The God-man. And then finally
in Acts chapter 7 verse 52, Stephen says, Which of the prophets have
not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which
showed before the coming of the just one. That's what's going
on in the books. God's showing him the just one.
Christ, the great angel of the covenant, came to minister the
gospel Himself to Moses. And when Christ was ready to
die, He went up on that mount of transfiguration with a few
of His chosen apostles. He was transfigured before their
eyes, and they saw Him up there, and He was talking to two men.
Do you remember who they were? Moses and Elijah, the Law and
the Prophets, talking to Him about His decease. What is the gospel of the burning
bush? Because that's what was going
on. Well, the gospel is in the fire and it's in the bush. It's in the fire and it's in
the bush. Paul tells us in Hebrews 12,
verse 28, he said, Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which
cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Four, our God is
a consuming fire. You know, folks, I know folks
don't understand, and I talk about, I'm totally opposed to
this thing of so-called public prayer, and I'm talking about
basketball games and praying in restaurants and all that kind
of foolishness. I'll tell you why you do that. You want somebody
else to see you do it. And our Lord told His disciples,
He said, don't you do that. He said, that's why they do it.
They do it to be seen of men. I don't have to open my mouth
and stand up and hold my hands like this to pray. I can pray
without uttering a word, without changing expression. Prayer is
the heart reaching up to God. And you can sit in your seat
in a restaurant and be thankful for the food you're going to
eat without folding your hands. Or everybody holding hands. I
don't want to hold hands with some man. I don't want to do
that. That's silly. That's foolishness.
That's worldly religion. That's what that is. It's foolishness. Just don't do it. You can pray
without doing that. Now we're here and we have public
prayer because this is public worship. I'm going to call on
somebody to pray and I guarantee you, you ask any man in this
church, if you don't believe me, you ask them when I call
on them, if you don't send shivers down their back when they have
to stand up and pray. I can pray on my own in my house when I'm
by myself and in my closet, I can pray. But boy, when I stand up
before men, everything in the world goes in and out of my mind.
Hardest prayer there is, public prayer. With this prayer in restaurants
and all this kind of food, basketball games, and little children who
don't know God. How are you going to call on
Him? Let me read you something over here. I'm getting off my
subject a little bit. This is what's going on in this
burning bush. God coming down and revealing
Himself to Moses, and He's telling him that, I'm not who you think
I am. I'm going to show you who I am. But listen to this. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? How are you going to do that? He tells us by a new and living
way through the blood of Christ, we have the right and privilege
to come into the throne room of the Father. We have that right
and privilege as sons to come into Him. But apart from having
that, apart from knowing that blood and knowing that name and
calling on that name, how are you going to come in there? Huh? How are you going to call on
Him in whom you have not believed? How are you going to believe
in Him of whom you have not heard? How are you going to hear without
a preacher? That's what it says. That's what God said. Why did I get into all that?
Because God is in the fire. Our God is a consuming fire. We rush into His presence. He
said, keep thy foot when thou enterest into the house of the
Lord, and be more ready to hear than to offer the sacrifice of
fools, for they consider not in their much speaking that they
do evil. That's right. What's the gospel of the burning
bush? It's in the fire. Our God is a consuming fire.
You don't run into His presence, you'd be like a moth flying into
a bonfire. Gone. Just like that. God is
holy. He is holy. Nothing unholy. He said, I will by no means clear
the guilty. Not going to have anything to
do with the unholy, the unrighteous. Our sins have separated between
us and our God. There's a division, a separation.
And there is but one way that you can come to Him, and that's
in Christ. Why? Because Christ is our righteousness. He gives me a righteousness.
I don't have one. My righteousnesses, Isaiah said,
were as filthy rags. That's that leper's cloth full
of pus and running sore and holding it over his mouth. That's my
righteousness. I can't come into God's presence
with that. And my sins, David said, my sins
are ever before me. I sin. I sin in my thoughts.
I sin in my heart. I sin in my affections. I sin
every time I think a thought. God said He looked down on man,
not men. I'm talking about men that lived
back in that day. He looked down on man, mankind. And He said every thought, of
their imaginations was only evil continually. Job said, man. He said, I know. I know what you're saying here
about righteousness. But he said, man drinks iniquity
like water. He don't think about it. He just
drinks it down. Drinks it down. How you going
to come in? How you going to call on God?
How you going to run into Fire! That's what He's showing Moses.
Fire! God is a consuming fire. And that bush, that old thorn
bush, that cursed, thorns didn't come along, that was the curse.
Cursed is the ground for thy sake. Thorns and thistles, that's
all that's going to come up. That man, that man, dry, ready
to burn, ready to burn. Christ took upon Himself the
form of a servant and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh.
come down to this world as a man, the God-man. In Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Came down in the person
of a man, a representative man, a substitute, and took our place
before God, just like Adam took our place in the beginning of
all mankind. Christ came down as the head
of God's elect and took our place before God. He took our place
before the law of God. And He obeyed it, never jotting
till. And He took our place before the holy law of God in that He
obeyed it. He honored it. He exalted it.
That's my righteousness. I don't have any other righteousness.
Will God punish sin? He killed His Son. What does
that tell you? Will God spare me in that day?
No. He didn't spare His Son. God spared not His only begotten
Son. You think about that. Henry brought a message one time,
Brother Mahan, on that cry of Christ on the cross, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He said he cried that cry
so I wouldn't have to. That's right. He cried that cry. Why would Christ cry that cry
so I wouldn't have to? That's right. And that's what
it is. You go out and meet God without
that substitute. Christ had to meet God with no
mercy. He had to stand before God with
our sins on Him without mercy, without any hope of mercy, without
any plea. He opened not His mouth. He stood
there guilty before God. God has made him to be sin for
us. They made my sins to be his. And he knew what they were. And
he knew that they were his. And he stood before God. And
as a guilty sinner, he opened not his mouth. And God poured
out his wrath on him. And he cried out, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? So I don't have to cry that cry. That's right. That's exactly
right. Oh, God is fire. He's fire. And here's a man. He'll grow
up, Isaiah said before you, this man, he'll grow up before you
like a root out of dry ground. Ain't that what he said? Huh? Out of dry ground. Dry ground. I'll tell you, I'm not a farmer,
but I've planted a lot of gardens. I'm going to tell you something.
Ain't nothing grows in dry ground. Nothing. But it is. A tender plant. It's in the fire and it's in
the bush. In order for God to minister His goodwill of redemption
and deliverance, He must Himself become one with His elect. They cannot out of their curse
come near to Him, and He cannot out of His holiness approach
such vile creatures as we are. There is but one way for God
to minister to men, and that Christ is the way. And that's
what He's showing him here in this bush. This is God come down
to men. This fire and this bush are one. And the fire don't go out, and
the bush is not consumed. That's Christ. That's the gospel
of the bush. It's in the condescension of
Christ to become a man. Ever with a man, and yet very
God of very God. And it's in that fiery bush.
The fire in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and Deuteronomy chapter 9 are
said to be the results of God's jealousy of His people and of
His own character and glory. He said, I'm going to share my
glory. I'm going to share my glory.
So don't that kind of stop all that hip-hopping up and down
the aisle and all that, I did this for the Lord and all this
kind of, huh? Where's boasting? It's excluded.
That's what Paul said. It's excluded. He's jealous. He's jealous. You remember those
giants, those spies went over into Canaan and they looked over
there and they come back with eyes all big. He said, there
are walled cities over there and giants, the Anakins. Deuteronomy chapter 9, it said,
don't fear the Anakins. He said, because our God's going
before you, and our God is a consuming fire. He's jealous over His people. Made our sins His own. Stood
there in our person. Fuel for the fire. Made our sins His own. You can
read Psalm chapter 40. Isaiah 53, the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. And he burned with the fire of
God, yet he wasn't consumed. You see, God's fire in him was
a preserving fire. That's right. God's fire in him
was a satisfying fire. God's fire in him was a comforting
fire. And God's fire in him was a wondrous
fire. And God's fire in him was a revealing
fire. And that's what Moses found out.
In order for men to minister to men, they must first be ministered
to. And they must see by the grace
of God how God can be just and justify chosen sinners. This
is about God being God and yet saving a man. That's what it's
about. Only God can do that. Man can't
do that. You can't climb up out of this
thing with your so-called free will. You're not going to change
your nature any more than an Ethiopian can change the color
of his skins or a leopard change his spots. Can't do it. They've got to come around and
confront this mountain of God. And there at the foot of that
mountain, see the bush. They must come to see his fiery
character coming down to men to save and not destroy. That justice of God. He said,
I will by no means clear the guilty. It's the same justice
that justifies guilty sinners. And he says, who is he that condemneth?
It is God that justifies. That's what he said. That same
justice that condemns a world of unrighteous men preserves
the righteous. That same holiness that burns
all that touch it. See to it you don't touch that
mountain. That mountain, that holy mountain of Sinai, don't
you touch that mountain. You'll be burnt to a cinder.
And they saw the smoke and the earth shaking and they said,
Moses, you go talk to him. We don't want to talk to him.
You go talk to him. That same holiness that burns
all that touch it is that which makes this useless sinner acceptable
to God. That same unchangeableness of
God that will not compromise or alter His ways is the same
unchangeableness that keeps His promises and covenants to a thousand
generations. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. Why is the bush not consumed?
Because the angel of the Lord took up his abode in it. That's
right. In that man, born in that stable
in Bethlehem, in that manger of the woman Mary, God took up
his abode. You think about that. God. Man. In one person. It's the bush where he communicates
his gospel to Moses. What is this gospel of the burning
bush? It's accomplished redemption,
substitution, representation. Moses had nothing to say to Pharaoh
until he seen the bush. Think about it. He didn't have
anything. That's what got him in trouble when he was down there
killing Egyptians and trying to straighten out the Hebrews.
He didn't have anything to say. God wasn't with him. He didn't
have anything to say to any man until God sent his angel in the
bush and showed him his glory. He said, Moses, he said, I'm
going to put you over here in the cleft of the rock. We'll
get into that maybe next week. Put him in the cleft of the rock
and put his hand over him. He said, you can't look on my
face and live. No man can see God face to face
and live. But he said, I'm going to put
you in the cleft of the rock. I'm going to hold my hand over you.
And I'm going to pass by. And I'm going to lift my hand.
You can see my hinder part. His hinder parts is accomplished
redemption. Accomplished redemption. There
is no way that we can enter in to the suffering of Christ on
the cross. There is no way that you can even begin to enter into
that. How He suffered eternal hell
for every believer. There is no way. No way you can
enter in. All we can do is just stand and wonder at it. So God
puts His hand over us. But what He lets us know is the
accomplished redemption. He lets you see the glory of
accomplished redemption. And He takes His hand and you
see the hinder parts. What's the gospel of the bush?
It's accomplished redemption. My friend, God is a consuming
fire. And I heard some negative comments
on the message Sunday and especially about public prayer and all that
type of thing. God over in Isaiah chapter 1.
Listen to this. I just want to read you a few
verses. I told everybody here to read Isaiah chapter 1 Sunday.
How many read it? Nobody. That's right. Nobody. I knew that. So I'm going
to read it to you tonight. Listen to this. He's talking
to Israel now. This is his people. Listen to
what he tells them. They're all out here and they're
performing the ceremonies and they're bringing the lambs and
they're keeping the holy days and the Sabbath days and they're
keeping the law and they're doing all these things and they're
reading the Word of God and they've got the priesthood and the common
priest and they've got all that stuff going. Listen to what he
says. He's talking to Israel. Isaiah
1, verse 10. He said, Hear the Word of the
Lord, ye rulers of Sodom. Man, what a slap in the face.
Give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. Talking
to Israel. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto Me, saith the Lord? I am full of burnt
offerings of rams and of fed beasts, and I delight not in
the blood of bullocks and lambs and he-goat when ye come to appear
before Me. And that's what we do in prayer,
isn't it? Don't we come before Him? Ain't that what we're doing
gathered here tonight? We're coming before Him. We're
gathered here in His name. That's what we do when we come
here and assemble together. He said, Who hath required this
at your hand to tread my courts? All your ceremonial worship,
your new moons, your Sabbaths, your incense, your vain oblations,
your calling of assemblies, its iniquity, even your solemn meeting,
your feasts trouble me, he said. And when you spread forth your
hands, I'll hide my eyes from you. And when you make many prayers,
now listen, what's that say? I will not hear you. Ain't that
what that says? Why? Because you came without
a righteousness. You came without a substitute.
You came without a sin offering. I'm telling you this, there is
but one way for any man to come into the presence of God. If
we're talking about prayer, if we're talking about salvation,
if you're talking about communicating grace, whatever it is you're
talking about, there's only one way for a sinful man to come
into the presence of God, and that's through Christ. That's
through Christ. No deliverance out of Egypt's
bondage until God sees the blood on the doorpost. Until all your
going out and coming in passes under the blood. That's right.
Whosoever, he said, shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. And I've already read that to
you. You see what's going on here with Moses? He's about to
send Moses down before Pharaoh, who's a picture of Satan himself
in this world. The God of this world. He's going
to send him down into Egypt and he's going to send him down there
with a shepherd's staff. That's all he's got. And his
brother. And God got angry at him over
sending his brother with him. But he sent him down there and
he had the Word of God alone. That's what he had. And the presence
of God going before him. And he went down there and stepped
right up on the palace porch and spoke to the king himself.
and said, God said, let my people go. Huh? Ain't that what preaching
is? That's exactly what it is. God
ministers. He sets them aside. He gives
them. He qualifies them in His providence. He arranges for them to speak.
And they speak to men. They speak to men. And some of
those men that God has chosen, He sets free. And they come to
Him. And they believe in Him. And
they rest in Him. And He gives them assurance and
peace in their heart. And some of them rebel and resist. And they say, I ain't going to
have no part of that. And He buries them in the sea. That's
how it is. That's exactly how it is. God
come down in the bush, told Moses who He was. Now He said, you're
My servant. You're going to do My bidding.
And I'm going to send you down there on behalf of My people.
And I'm going with you. I'm going with you. Our Father,
we thank You for the opportunity, yea, for the privilege to stand
here and preach Your Gospel and read from Your divine Book. Oh,
what a privilege! We have no idea of the gift of
Your grace that's called our minds and eyes and hearts to
Your Word and to Your Son and to the glory of God in redemption,
the glory of God in Christ. Help us to preach it. Bring men
to hear it. We pray for Christ's sake. Amen.