I cannot imagine a better way
to introduce my message for tonight than with that hymn. The believer is called of God
to a life of faith in Christ. In this apostate religious age,
where everything focuses on you and your pleasure. This age where
religion is a religion of nothing but lust, designed to gratify
the lust of the flesh. People tell you that a life of
faith in Christ is a life of health, wealth, prosperity, and
peace. Nothing could be further from
the truth. The believer is called to a life
that is filled with adversity, heartache, and sorrow. Those
who follow the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief must
never expect so long as we live in this world to be free of sorrow,
grief, and woe. Our Savior said in the world,
ye shall have tribulation. We must through much tribulation
enter into the kingdom of God. That's our Savior's word to all
who would follow him. In this context, the Apostle
Paul writes to us in Philippians chapter 1. I want you to turn
there for a moment and read this with me. He begins this marvelous epistle
in Philippians by telling us that he's confident that God,
who began a good work in us, will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ. And he says in verse 27, only
let your conversation Be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. That is, see that you live in
this world like men and women who believe the gospel, who believe
the good news of redemption, grace, and salvation, absolutely
sure by the hand and power and grace of our God. So that whether I come and see
you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you
stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for
the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified. That is, live like folks who
believe God, in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is
to them an evident token of perdition. but to you of salvation and that
of God. Now watch verse 29. For unto
you it is given, not has been given, but is given to you who
believe God. This is God's continual gift,
the bounteous gift of His grace. the infinite gift of His love,
not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake. Why do I suffer the things I
suffer? Because God is gracious to you. Did you hear me, children of
God? But Brother Don, you don't know what I suffer. No, I don't
and don't need to. But God, who gave it to you to
suffer what you presently suffer, has given it to you in infinite
wisdom, goodness, mercy, grace, and love. If we would follow
Christ, we must take up our cross daily and follow Him. We are
in a daily warfare. A warfare that rages without. We see things around us that
cause us great concern. And we face enemies surrounding
us that give us much trouble. But the warfare rages even more
violently within. And it is a warfare that will
never cease so long as we live in this world. In fact, It will
never even diminish. The struggle will only get worse.
The afflictions will only become more severe. The trials will
only be more bitter. The struggles within our souls
will only become harder to deal with so long as we live in this
world. Our daily experience of these
things causes the heaven-born soul to cry out in the language
of Scripture, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall
my enemy be exalted over me? Oh God, how long shall the adversary
reproach? How long shall the land mourn
and the herbs of every field wither? I've come here tonight
specifically to speak to you who mourn in Zion. Who is that? Everybody who's in Zion. Everybody. To speak a word of encouragement
and consolation. In every hour of need, support
is sure for our souls. In every hour of need, support
is sure for our souls. And with that said, turn with
me, if you will, to Exodus chapter 3. And I want you to look at
God's servant Moses and what God, our Savior, declares to
him. Now you think you've got trouble. You think you've got some trials
to face. Moses had been called of God
to go deliver Israel out of Egyptian bondage. And he has some slight apprehension,
and I meant to say some slight apprehension of the difficulties
before him. He knew that he must go face
Pharaoh, who wanted his head. He knew he must go to deliver
a people who were themselves engulfed in the idolatry of the
land of wickedness, who had become so accustomed to their bondage
that they liked the bondage until God and His providence made it
so bitter they couldn't stand it. He didn't know, however,
that when he brought them out of Egypt, he was going to be
faced with a murmuring people. He could never have conceived
that when they had crossed the Red Sea, they would murmur against
him for bringing them out of Egypt. He could never have imagined
that while he was on the mount of God receiving the word of
God, the law God gave him at Mount Sinai, those people for
whom the word of God was given would be found dancing naked
around a golden calf, calling it worshiping God. He could never
have imagined Miriam and Aaron mocking him. because he had married
that woman that they despised. And he could never have imagined
Zipporah calling him a cursed man, a vile man, because he insisted
on obeying God. He could never have imagined
God stopping him in the end and warning him that he's going to
die right here if he doesn't circumcise his son. Moses had
slippery places in which to walk. High, steep, rough mountains
of difficulty which he must cross. Deep valleys through which he
must pass. And as he just had some slight
apprehension of the difficulties that caused him fear, and he
said, Lord, what is your name? What is your name? This is what
the Lord God said to him. Verse 14. And God said to Moses,
I am that I am. It is as though the Lord were
saying to him, it is as though the Lord were saying to you and
to me, I am that I am. Cast on me all the burden of
your soul, all the cares of your heart, all the fears and all
the pains that trouble and perplex you. Cast all on me, I am that
I am. Blessed are those who can lean
on this staff, ever mighty, ever near. Children of God, lean the
whole weight of your immortal souls on Jesus Christ. The whole of your care, cast
it on Him. Oh, may God give us grace that
we may so cast all our care on Him that we may be like Mount
Zion immovable. Humble yourselves, Peter says,
under the mighty hand of God. That's what gave you the burden.
That's what gives you the faith with which you sustain the burden.
Humble yourselves under God's mighty hand. Whatever it is that
you presently experience, whatever difficulty, trial, heartache,
or pain you must endure tomorrow, it comes by the mighty hand of
God. Don't fight it. Humble yourselves
under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due
time. casting all your care on Him. And there's good reason to, for
He careth for you. I am that I am is the voice that
Moses heard out of the burning bush. The one speaking is God
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, our
great Redeemer. And he speaks to establish us
upon this firm rock of comfort, I am that I am. What specks of utter insignificance
is every trouble in this world before him. what specks of utter meaninglessness
is every heartache before Him who says, I am that I am. The limits of our minds can't
begin to imagine such greatness as resides in Him. The arms of
our hearts can't begin to embrace it. The words of our mouths can't
begin to describe it. If we had the wings of eagles
This ever-widening circle of infinite greatness would exhaust
us in trying to comprehend it. Its heights are in heaven, and
no mortal tongue can imagine it. So tonight, I'm just going
to make some plain, clear statements, clearly revealed in Scripture,
and I pray that God the Holy Spirit will graciously apply
them to our hearts. The Lord God says, I am that
I am. No wonder he says so often to
his people, fear not. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 20,
if you will. Deuteronomy 20. As you know, Deuteronomy is the
second giving of the law. And the first time we come with
these words Fear not, given to God's people. It is in the context
of God giving the law that is impossible for us to obey. In
the context of God giving his law, setting before us foes we
can never overcome. And yet he says, fear not. In
the very first chapter, let me give this to you, and we'll come
to chapter 20. He says, Behold, the Lord thy God has set the
land before thee. Go up and possess it, as the
Lord God of thy fathers has said unto thee. God, Rex Bartley,
has set heavenly glory before you. He said, Go possess it. What right? By what power? How? Fear not, neither be discouraged. Look in chapter 20. When thou
goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and
chariots, and people more than thou, be not afraid of them. For the Lord thy God is with
thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. He who
said to Moses, I am that I am, And it shall be when ye come
nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak
unto the people. He will approach as God's high
priest, with God's sacrifice, with God's ark, and shall say
to them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against
your enemies. Let not your hearts faint, fear
not. And do not tremble, neither be
terrified because of them. He says it is the Lord that doth
go before thee in chapter 31. He will be with thee, he will
not fail thee, neither forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed. Why should you and I fear? I didn't say we don't. I've got
better sense than that. We shouldn't. We shouldn't. When something foreboding seems
to be present, let alone that which really is present, the
first thing we do is begin to tremble and bite our nails and
pace the floor. We get infuriated, frustrated. We feel utterly helpless and
nothing is more infuriating and frustrating than a sense of helplessness. And helpless we are in and by
ourselves. But we are not in and by ourselves. We live and move and have our
being in Him who says, I am that I am. Why then should we fear? The riches of his grace fall
like manna from heaven upon our souls constantly. He opens the windows of heaven
every day and pours us out the blessings of his mercy. How can
we be confident that all is well all the time? I am that I am. First thing I see here. When
God says, I am that I am, He declares His eternality. Eternal deity is God our Savior. Now that's not just a doctrine
to defend. That's a blessed revelation of
grace. Moses said, Lord, how under your
heaven do you expect me to go to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians
and to the Israelites and bring your people out of that land.
How on this earth can that be done? He said, Moses, the one
talking to you is your eternal God. That means nothing in time
affects me. Eternal. Our Savior here shows
himself as that one who knows no past and no future. He lives unmoved in one unmoving
present. He stretches through all the
ages, past and future. He is in all his glorious being
in all his infinite goodness, infinite, immeasurable, boundless,
and eternal. Before time was, he says, I am
that I am. And when time shall be no more,
he still shall be, I am that I am. Now, let me see if I can
put some flesh on that. Look down in the ages of time.
to a little insignificant town in an insignificant land called
Judah. The town is Bethlehem. And there
in a cow stable is a little baby, insignificant, born to an insignificant
woman, married to an insignificant man, and that little baby is
he who speaks to Moses and says, I am that I am. The infinite,
eternal God took into union with himself human flesh. He came here into this world,
as Brother Lindsey read a few moments ago, to be born the woman
seen. He who encompasses eternity is
contained in all his fullness in an infant's body. He who never
began, began to be. Now that's a mouthful. He who never began, began to
be. Can that be? Did the great I
Am take our flesh as one born of yesterday? It's so. Indeed
it is. The Lord God promised it, the
prophets foretold it, the types prefigured it, an angel announced
it, and heaven rings with rapture because of it. Faith sees it,
and the redeemed of God rejoice in it. Turn to Isaiah chapter
7. Isaiah 7. Verse 14. The Lord himself shall give you
a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive. Well, that's impossible. It is
with men. A virgin shall conceive and bear
a son and shall call his name Immanuel. That's not God near
us. That is God with us. That's Emmanuel, God with us. But she didn't call him by that
name, did she? Yes, she did. She called his name Jesus. God,
our Savior, come in the flesh. Look at chapter 9, verse 6. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given. Now God's prophet wasn't inspired
simply to write and use different words as we sometimes do. I'll write things and the folks
who publish books will write back and say, use that word too
often. And that's not the case here with Isaiah. Isaiah said
a child is born because as a man, Jesus Christ, God's darling son,
was born in this world in human flesh. But he who is God the
Son could never be born and could never begin. Therefore it is
said unto us, a son is given, given. And the government shall
be upon his shoulder. What government? All government.
And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor. the mighty
God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and of the
increase of His government and peace, there shall be no end
upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it
and establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth
even forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts
will perform this. Oh, great is the mystery of godliness. was manifest in the flesh. But
why this wonder? Why this great wonder? Why does
God assume our nature? Why did the Son of God take on
Himself humanity? Why did God become one with us
in the incarnation of His dear Son? It was simply because this
was the necessity of redemption. There was no possibility otherwise. He who simply said, be, and the
whole universe was created. He who by the mere exercise of
His will does all things, He who rules the world absolutely
so that even the kings of the most heathen nations who have
ever existed and those who exist today do nothing except according
to His sovereign will. But He couldn't redeem and save
our souls just by the exercise of His will. Christ did not die
in vain. There's no other way whereby
God can in justice put away sin. Therefore, I am that I am reveals
himself and came into this world for he alone could redeem and
he alone has redeemed by the sacrifice of himself. Turn to
Romans chapter 5 for a moment. Romans 5. He was made a curse for us, who
was made sin for us. And when He was made a curse
for us, had He been made sin for us, He was slaughtered under
the heavy hand of God's unmitigated wrath and justice. And when He
was slain as the sinner's substitute, as a sacrifice for sin, we were
justified. Look back up in verse 25 of chapter
4. Christ was delivered for our
offenses. He was delivered to the hands
of divine justice because of our offenses made his. And he was raised again because
of our justification. The text really should read exactly
that way. He was not delivered in order
that we have offenses. but he was delivered because
of our offenses. And he was not raised from the
dead in order that we be justified, but he was raised from the dead
because we were justified by the sacrifice of himself. Verse
1, therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access by
faith into this grace, and look at it, wherein we stand. This
is where we are all the time, in this grace, and rejoice in
hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh
not ashamed. How come? Because the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given
unto us. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now what's this next word? Much
more. Much more then, if this is what
He's done for us, much more then, being now justified by His blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. What
self-denial! What self-abasement, what self-emptying,
what infinite greatness of humility is found in this? Jesus Christ,
the Eternal I Am, our great God, took on Himself human flesh. That's not all. He took on Himself
our sin. And just as the Word, the Eternal
God, was made flesh, My God, I can't grasp that. God made flesh and dwelt among
us. Even so, he who is God made flesh
was made sin and made a curse for us. But that's not the end
of the story. He was justified in the Spirit
on the third day. Robert Murray McShane said, he
was laid in the tomb as a guilty sinner. And he came out of the
tomb as a justified man without sin. Now this one who spoke to
Moses and said, I am that I am, is seated on the right hand of
the majesty on high in human flesh. to give eternal life to
as many as the Father has given Him. Here's the second thing. This glorious name, I AM THAT
I AM, sounds with special sweetness in the believer's ear, declaring
the immutability of our Savior. He who is eternal alone cannot
change. When I was a young man, 18 years old, I wrote a real good
doctrinal paper for a theology class out in Springfield, Missouri
on the immutability of Christ. And when I was a young man, 19
and 20 years old, I preached several times on our Lord's immutability. But I didn't know anything at
all about the blessedness of his immutability. I was just
a kid. Just a kid. And you don't know
anything about anything you haven't experienced. All the reading
you can do, all the learning you can get won't teach you anything
of real significance until you experience the thing taught.
I'm 56 years old now. It's been 40 years since God
called me by His grace and snatched me from hell's gaping pit by
His omnipotent mercy. And I'll tell you what I found.
For 40 blessed years, he's never changed. He never changed. He says, I
am the Lord. I change not. Doesn't matter
what things look like. Doesn't matter what things feel
like. Doesn't matter what things seem like. I don't change. I'm unaffected by time. I'm unaffected
by evil. I'm unaffected by that which
is temporal. I change not. Turn to Hebrews
chapter 13. Let me show you the context in
which this matter of our Savior's immutability is declared. Hebrews
13. Verse 5. Let your conversation be without
covetousness, and be content with such things as you have.
O my soul, the happiest, richest man or woman in this world is
that one who is content with God's good providence. For he
hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, that
is, this is the reason God said that. I will never leave thee
nor forsake thee. He told Jacob that. He told Joshua
that. He tells you and me that. So
that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper and I will not fear
what men shall do unto me. Remember them. which have the
rule over you. Remember the man who preaches
the gospel to you, those who teach you the things of God,
who have spoken to you the word of God, whose faith follow. Follow the faith they declare
to you, considering the end of their conversation. What is that?
The end of their lives, the goal of their lives. Jesus Christ,
the one who said, I am that I am, the same yesterday, and today
and forever. Our great Savior is the only constant there is. Everything else is a variable. As surely as He ever lives, so
surely He ever lives the same. He is infinitely of never varying
oneness. He sits in the calm serenity
of his own eternal immutability. Change. That's the one sure defect
of everything in this world. Change. A young man marries a wife, a
young woman marries a husband, and just as sure As their eyes
sparkle with delight saying, I do, their eyes will weep with
bitterness saying goodbye. Change. That's the one defect
of everything here. Immutability. That's the glory
of everything above. On all things here, We must write
these words, transient, fleeting, vanishing. Henry Law wrote, time flaps a
ceaseless wing and from the wings decay and death drop down. I am that I am sits high above
all. He is the same yesterday, today,
and forever. I think it was Sunday morning
we sang, Change and decay all around me I see, O thou who changes
not, abide with me. I am that I am. The unchangeableness
of our God and Savior is the unchangeableness of His person,
of His attributes, of His character, Every divine attribute is unchangeable. Immutable. Constant. Constant. Father, we can't even
begin to think in such terms. There's nothing about us that
can relate to it. But He is I Am. Let me just give you three things
to think about His infinite love is eternally perpetual, unchanging. He loved you in the council halls
of eternity when He took you as His own. He loved you when
He called you by His grace and revealed Himself in you. as that
one who loved you and gave himself for you. And he loves you now
just as he did from eternity. Nothing changes it. We fear the alienation of affection from
every lover on this earth, rightfully so. Because our affections are
so easily alienated. Not His. Not His. You mean, Brother Dodd,
no matter what the circumstances are, He loves me? Don't ever question it. Pay no
attention to Satan's hisses. He says, I am that I am. The Father corrects because he
loves. In tender, attentive care, the
physician deeply probes the wounds that he might heal. And thus
our sweet, sweet Savior makes this world hard and bitter that
he might make heaven sweet and cause us to long for him. He
shows us our vileness that we might cherish his cleansing blood. He allows us to stumble and be
sifted as wheat that he might separate the precious from the
vile and cause us to cling to him. He makes the world emptiness
that we might look to him alone for all. If he appears to change,
it is that we might be changed. If he hides his face, it is that
we might seek him. If he seems silent and refuses
to hear our cries, it is that we might cry the more for him.
His momentary desertions are designed to prevent our desertion
of him. He saves us from hell by sometimes causing us to think
we're in hell. But His compassions fail not.
They're new every morning. All that He does, He does as
the ever-flowing overflowing of His infinite love for our
souls because He's determined to do us good. As His love, like
Himself, is unchangeable, so is His power unchangeable. The power that kept you will
keep you still. The power that upheld you will
uphold you still. Until that is found which can
alter him. You hear me? Until that is found which can
subdue omnipotence. Nothing can tear you from his
heart or from the grip of his grace. Nothing within and nothing
without. His grace. He says, I am that I am. This is what He said to Moses.
This is what He says to you. Every one of you whom He's caused
to trust Him. My grace, unchanging, unchangeable, immutable. That means my grace is sufficient
for you, sufficient to save you, to subdue all your enemies, sufficient
to restore you when you're fallen, sufficient to sustain you in
the midst of trial. My grace, Moses, you can look
at it here in this bush. You see the bush burning? Every
branch, every leaf, red hot with fire. But it's not consumed, because
I'm in this bush. And though you may suffer the
fiery darts of the wicked one, and the fiery trial of your faith,
it will do you no harm. Because I'm in this bush. I am the Lord. I change not. I am that I am. That means everything is alright.
And everything is going to come out exactly as I purposed it. And you shall finish that to
which I sent you. And I will bring you to glory
at last to behold me. I am that I am. Amen.