If one man dares speak to another
authoritatively, especially when his message is not requested,
he will likely be asked, who sent you? By what authority do
you speak to me? Who gave you the right to tell
me what I must do? And such a response is reasonable,
just as reasonable as it is likely. When the Lord Jesus sent Moses
to deliver Israel out of Egypt, Moses anticipated that the children
of Israel would ask him by what authority he came to them. No, God sent him to Pharaoh and
told him plainly that he must go to Pharaoh and told him what
Pharaoh's response would be. Moses was not concerned about
Pharaoh's response. His interest was not in Pharaoh
nor in the Egyptians, but in the glory of God and in the salvation
of Israel. And he was very much concerned
about Israel and their response to him as God's messenger. How could he assure them that
God would indeed deliver them? By what authority could he speak
to them that they might believe God, believe the message God
had given, and trust Him to deliver them? That's the question that
Moses asked and God answered in Exodus chapter 3, verses 13,
14, and 15. The Lord has sent Moses, told
him, I'm sending you to deliver my people, and you shall worship
God in this mountain. I will go with you, and I will
bring my people into their land of promise. In verse 13 he says,
or we read, Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the
children of Israel, And say unto them, The God of your fathers
hath sent me to you, and they shall say unto me, What is his
name? What shall I say to them? And
God said to Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto
you. And 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, and this is my memorial unto all generations. Now this
is the thing that I want you to see, and I want you to see
clearly. This is the thing we must proclaim
in our generation. All who call upon the name of
the Lord shall be saved. That word call does not simply
mean all who cry Jesus save me, or all who say Jesus saves, or
all who give verbal assent to certain truths. The word call
means to worship. All who worship the name of the
Lord, the character of our God, all who worship God as He really
is shall be saved. But none can call on His name. None can worship Him. None can
believe Him who do not know His name. Do you know His name? Let's look at Moses' question,
and then we'll look at God's answer, and then in verse 15,
we'll look at a moreover. First, Moses' question. Moses
said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel,
and shall say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers hath
sent me unto you. And they shall say unto me, What
is his name? What shall I say to them? There
are many who see something evil in Moses raising this question. They look at it as somehow an
apprehensive expression of unbelief. But the Lord didn't seem to look
at it that way. He gives no word of reproof.
He gives no word of indicating displeasure at all, but rather
simply answers Moses' question. Knowing his insufficiency, For
the work God had sent him to do, Moses said in verse 10, who
am I? God, I can't do that. I can't
do that. And the Lord answered him. He
said, I'm not sending you to do it. I'm sending you to deliver Israel,
but I'm not sending you to deliver them. You will just be the instrument
that I have chosen by which I shall deliver Israel and I will be
with you. Now remember the mission upon
which Moses was about to embark. Any man sent on such a mission
must, if he is wise, be personally assured that he goes in the name
of God. Amen. who embarks on the business
of proclaiming God's word to his people, embarks on the business
of proclaiming God's salvation for the deliverance of his people,
must be sure that he goes in the name of God. The Lord had
promised Moses, I will be with thee. But he's going down to
deliver Israel. out of Egyptian bondage with
no visible God to hold before them. No image, no statue, no crucifix,
nothing visible to represent God. No visible God to accompany
him. In so far as others could tell,
Moses would go to the enslaved Israelites and to Pharaoh totally
alone, and yet claiming to be divinely sent. He comes and speaks. He speaks as one sent of God,
but the folks to whom he is sent have no apprehension of that
unless God confirms his message. In other words, Moses is going
in all outward appearance An old man, now 80 years old, and
he's going to deliver Israel from the most powerful king in
the world, and he comes to deliver them, calling for God's people
to stand up against the most powerful enemy imaginable and
follow him just because he said, God sent me. And expects them to do it. He
expects them to do it. He was to tell Israel that the
God of their fathers had promised to set them free. But these people
to whom he sent had been in Egyptian bondage now for 400 years. And the vast majority of them
were engulfed in the idolatries of Egypt. They had embraced the
religion of their captors. Moses knew that they would want
to know, who is this God you're talking about? What's his name? What's he like? You see, in Egypt,
as well as in all the Gentile world, every nation had a god,
if not many gods. And they called their gods by
different names. Now, we were trained in early
days in school, when you started to read about Greek mythology,
they called it mythology to keep from calling it idolatry. That's
all it really was, just pagan idolatry. And they had this God
and that God, and they would call Him by a name that would
signify what they thought He had power over. What they thought
He had power to perform. And so Moses knew when he goes
to Israel, who had embraced the idolatries of Egypt, they would
ask him, who is this God you're talking about? What's his name? What's his character? What power
do you ascribe to this God in order that we should trust him?
So Moses asked God first to tell him his name. Lord, tell me your
name. Add to that the fact that Moses
no doubt had a vivid recollection of what had happened 40 years
earlier. Forty years earlier, he had run without being sent. He knew even then, I'm confident
that he did, that he was that deliverer specifically raised
up and preserved by God, whom God would send to Israel. But
he ran before God sent him. And when he went in his own name
and in his own authority, the Jews looked at him and said,
who are you? Who made you a judge and ruler
over us? And Moses must have had that
clearly in his mind. So it is with God's servants
today and in every age. We are sent to proclaim redemption
and grace in the name of God to people who have never known
Him. With Paul, every faithful gospel preacher, cries from the
depths of his inmost soul that which he knows and is constantly
made aware of. Who is sufficient for these things? I've been preaching the gospel
of God's free grace now most of my life. Most of my life. Since I was 17 years old. I'm more keenly aware that everything
I do, everything we attempt to do as a congregation, no matter
how ardently we labor, no matter how zealously we are committed
to the cause, is utter vanity without the blessing of God's
Spirit. Utter vanity. Some years ago, an old man in
a congregation heard a young man who had come to preach, as
they say, in view of a call. And the young man had studied
well and prepared well and came down to preach, and man, he jumped
up and was ready to go. In those days when they had those
staircases like they do in Europe now and in England, climbing
up high, way up over the congregation, And when he got done, he couldn't
get down quick enough. He was so utterly embarrassed
at his utter inability to communicate anything he had prepared. And
his old deacon in the church spotted him as he went out, and
he said to him, he said, if you'd gone up like you came down, you
might have come down like you went up. No ability in us. Who is sufficient
for these things? And yet at the same time, God
sends us to proclaim his name in this generation, and we know
that our sufficiency is of God, who hath made us able ministers
of the new covenant. And that's how God's servants
preach. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
in Christ's name. We pray you as the mouthpieces
of the incarnate God who sits upon the throne of the universe,
be ye reconciled unto God. Let us never go forth, not your
pasture, not Lindsay, as he teaches here every Sunday morning, these
men who preach, not you, in endeavoring to do anything for Christ. This
new adventure. Pursue nothing until you've first
been at the throne of grace. And let me show you what happens
then. Turn over to Ezekiel chapter 2. Hold your hands here in Exodus
3. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 2. God's prophet Ezekiel is just
utterly overwhelmed before the revelation of his glory and the
mission to which God has sent him. He falls down before him
in utter helplessness. Chapter 2, verse 1. And the Lord
said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet. Stand up on your
feet, and I will speak unto thee. And when God commands you stand
up with backbones stiff and broad, He'll set you up. And the Spirit
entered into me when He spake, when He said to me, Stand upon
your feet. The Spirit entered into me and
set me upon my feet, that I heard Him that spake unto me. Verse
6, And thou, Son of man, thou, Son of man, be not afraid of
them. Neither be afraid of their words,
though briars and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among
scorpions. Be not afraid of their words,
nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious people. And thou shalt speak my words
to them, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear,
for they are most rebellious. All right now, let's go back
and look at God's answer. In verse 15, God reveals himself
to Moses. He reveals himself to you and
to me as he had never before revealed himself. In verse 14,
Moses asks this question. I'm sorry, verse 13. And here
we see the Lord's answer. He reveals himself in his redemptive
character. And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. Thus shalt thou say unto the
children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto thee." Now those
words contain all three tenses of the verb to be. They sound
redundant as we read them in our English language, and indeed
they are redundant in appearance in the original language. But
they contain a message. They contain all three tenses
of the verb to be. It is as though the Lord were
saying, indeed this is exactly what he was saying. I was, I
am, and I shall be. I am now what I always was. And I was then what I am now,
and I shall forever be what I am now, and always have been." What
a declaration! What a declaration! He declares
himself to be the only eternal, self-existent, self-sufficient,
unchanging, unchangeable, unalterable, faithful, God, He says, I am
that I am. I am that I am. This is His name. It represents Him in all His
glorious character. And the one speaking is Jesus
Christ, our Redeemer. He is the one speaking to Moses
out of the bush. God's name, our Savior's name
we use. when we call upon our God in
prayer. What does that mean? Whatsoever
you ask in my name. It means whatever you ask, God
the Father, on the basis of who I am and all I've done, He'll
give it to you. We call upon God's name in faith.
What does that mean? We trust Him as He reveals Himself
in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ in all His
saving power, grace, and glory, in all the accomplishments of
His holy being, and trusting Him, we have life everlasting.
We've come here tonight gathered together in His name. He said,
where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the
midst of them. We come in His name. before God
Almighty trusting Him. When the Lord says, I am that
I am, He is revealing Himself just as He did many days later,
many years later. I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. It is He of whom Paul speaks
when he says, He is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today
and forever. Now hold your hands here again.
Let's look at some passages in the New Testament. John chapter
8. John chapter 8. I want you to see clearly. I'm
not just giving you an interpretation of what's happening in Exodus
3. I'm showing you exactly what God the Holy Spirit declares
happened here. The one speaking here is Jesus
Christ in his pre-incarnate glory, our everlasting covenant surety
and mediator. John chapter 8. Our Lord Jesus
has been speaking to the Jews and they said, who are you? We're
Abraham's children. In verse 58, Jesus said unto
them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I was. That's not what he said. Before
Abraham was, I am. I am. Turn to Revelation chapter 1.
Let me show you again. We'll come right back to John's
Gospel, but look here in Revelation 1. This same John is in the Spirit
on the Lord's day. And the Lord Jesus appears to
him. In verse 8 he says, I am Alpha and Omega. That is A and
Z. The beginning and the end of
the alphabet. But he's not talking about the
alphabet. He's talking about everything. I am the beginning
of everything. And I am the consummation of
everything. The beginning and the ending,
saith the Lord. Now watch what it says. Which
is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. That's our Savior. He who is. Do you hear Him? Seated yonder
on the throne. He who is, was, and He is to
come. The eternal I in verse 17. And
when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his
right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not. No need to be afraid. Just like Moses at the bush.
Moses was terrified to even look on God. John is falling at his
feet. He's before this all-ghost God,
and he's afraid. And the Lord lays his head on
him and says, Don't be afraid. I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead,
and behold, I am alive forevermore. I live. I always did live, yet
I died, and I'm alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of death
and of hell. Have the keys of death and of
hell. You find a large place of business, and
find me the man who carries the keys to every door, and I'm going
to show you the fellow who's in charge. And this is our Savior. He says, I have the keys of death
and of hell. I, because I am He that liveth
and was dead and am alive forevermore, I have the keys of all authority,
and I am your God. Our Lord called Himself the I
Am. In John's Gospel, John was moved
by inspiration to tell us fourteen times, our Lord calling Himself
I Am. Let's look at just eight of them,
and I want to look at them quickly. John chapter 6, verse 35. The Savior says, Jesus said unto
them, I am the bread of life. You've heard about the manna
that fell from heaven? I'm the manna. I am the bread that came down
from heaven. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that
believeth on me shall never thirst. He said ye eat my flesh and drink
my blood and you have life everlasting. And that's not talking about
the Lord's Supper. It has no reference to the Lord's Supper. It's talking
about faith. Faith in Him. to eat his flesh,
to drink his blood, is to believe him, it is to discern the Lord's
body, it is to understand the necessity, the need you have
of a substitute, and the accomplishments of the substitute. He came down
here in human flesh, and by his obedience unto death, giving
up his life in our stead, he accomplished redemption for us
by the sacrifice of himself. Our Lord Jesus over in chapter
8 says, I am, verse 12, I am the light of the world. He that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life. We're called children of the
light. Children of the light. We're not groping about in darkness
anymore. We live in this dark world, but
we walk in the light. We live in the midst of darkness,
but we walk in the light. And walking in the light as He
is in the light, we have fellowship with God and with one another.
Look in chapter 10, verse 7. Then Jesus said unto them again,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. I am the door by which the sheep
enter in and have life everlasting. He said in verse 8, All that
ever came before me, pretending to be doors to the sheep, they
are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door by me if any man
enter in. He shall be saved and shall go
in and out and find pasture. Again, John speaks in Revelation
chapter 4. When he's called up, the Lord
said, come up hither. He said, behold, a door open
in heaven. That's Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.
Look again in chapter 10, verse 11. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd. Who is He? The Good Shepherd
giveth His life for the sheep. That word for might be translated
this way. I give my life to get my sheep
by rents and price. Or I give my life in the room
instead of my sheep. I die in the place of my sheep. Look at verse 14. I'm the good
shepherd and know my sheep. and him known of mine. As the
Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down
my life for the sheep." Everything the Good Shepherd does is for
his sheep. Everything. He lives for his
sheep. He died for his sheep. He seeks
his sheep. He finds his sheep. He brings
his sheep home. He said, other sheep I'll have,
which are not of this old, them also I must bring. Look again
in John chapter 11. The Lord Jesus is speaking to
Martha. Her brother Lazarus had died.
And Martha said to him, said, Lord, if you'd been here, my
brother wouldn't have died. And Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection and the life. He that believeth on me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. Martha told him, said, Lord,
I knew he was going to rise in the resurrection. Oh, I wish we could get over this.
She believed the doctrine of the resurrection, but she didn't
have a clue who the resurrection was. He said, Martha, Believing
the doctrine of the resurrection is of absolutely no value to
you. I am the resurrection standing
in front of you. I am the resurrection. Believing
in the doctrine of the resurrection is not going to help you when
you come to face the grave. And it's not going to help you
when you come to let loose of one of God's saints when they're
taken out of this world dear to you. Oh, if you can get hold
of this. Christ who died for you is the
resurrection and the life. And he that believeth on me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. Believest thou this? I left out part of it. Whosoever
liveth and believeth in me, you see it, shall never die. My dad's fixin' to die. But his son is never gonna die. I'm not gonna die. Brother Don,
what kind of foolishness are you talking? I'm talking absolute
truth. It just looks like I died when
this body dies. And our Lord uses this language
deliberately. Often in the Scriptures, the
Scriptures speak of the death of this body as death. But the
Scriptures repeatedly tell us the believer being absent from
the bodies, present with the Lord, who is the resurrection
and the life. We don't just live by Him, we
live in Him and with Him. Because when He died, we died. When He arose, we arose. And
living in Him, we shall never die. All right, look at verse
6, chapter 14. The Savior speaks, and Thomas
says to Him, Chapter 5, I'm sorry, verse 5 of chapter 14. Lord,
we know not whither thou goest. Should have, you told them enough.
Us too. How can we know the way? And
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. We're not part of This religious
way or that religious way, we have been put in the way, and
the way is Christ. Every other way is a way that
seems right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of
death. He is the way, and this way is
truth and life. Look at chapter 15. Our Lord says in verse 1, I am the vine, my father's the
husband. Verse 5, I am the vine, ye are
the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you
can do nothing. The picture is really not quite
the same as we would have in our imagination with regard to
vine and the various branches of it now. We have a grapevine
in the backyard. And we look at those vines. The
picture is really of the original stalk. And the Lord Jesus says,
I am the vine and you are the branches that have been grafted
into me. Grafted by grace. Now graft,
as you know, requires two cuts. The original tree must be cut,
cut open. And then the vine or the branch
to be grafted into it must be cut and the two bound together. And that's exactly how God saves
His people. Christ was crucified for us and
we're pricked in the heart by His grace and bound to Him by
the power of His Spirit. And now the vine and the branches
are one. And we abide in Him. What a good
word. Abide in Him. But don't ever
imagine that, Brother Paul says, that's your work. If He'd let you go, you'd leave
Him right now. Me too. But we abide in Him because
we are bound to Him. and abiding in Him bring forth
much fruit. And without Him, we can do nothing. Look at chapter 4, John. Our
Lord is speaking to this woman of Samaria for whom the time
of mercy had come. And He uses this name, I Am,
as a declaration to her that He is God come to save. He makes
Himself known to chosen sinners just as He did to this woman
as that one of whom the Scriptures speak. Verse 22, he says to this
Samaritan woman, you worship, you know not what. That's a pretty
good description about everybody I know. They worship and they
don't have a clue what they worship. Don't have a clue what they call
God, much less who God is. We know what we worship. For salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour cometh and now is. When true worshippers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to
worship him. God is spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And the
woman saith to him, You know, it looks like we would learn
just reading the scriptures. If we'd shut up, we might learn something.
But this woman, she says, well, you're not telling me anything
I don't know. She said, I know that Messiah cometh, which is
called the Christ, and when he's come, he'll tell us all things.
And the master said, I just did. Look at it. Jesus saith unto
her, I that speak unto thee, look at the word, am. Not, I am he. The he's in italics
makes it read more smoothly. He says, I that speak unto thee,
I am. I'm the one of whom all the scriptures
speak. I am who spoke to Moses in the
beginning. I make no attempt in preaching
the gospel to prove that he is or to prove anything about him
to any unbelieving person. I often speak to you and give
you reasons to see the basis and foundation and the glory
of the faith that God's given us in Christ Jesus. But to prove
and argue the existence of Christ and the work of Christ to anybody
is utter futility. I've been around long enough
that I've seen a lot of people Try to convince people. Argue
and fuss. And we've all done it. We've
all done it. Argue and fuss. Especially family.
Argue and fuss. Argue and fuss. Argue and fuss. What proof text can I use? Folks
have versitis. Don't ever look at the script.
Did you get me? Proof text. Show you what I'm talking about.
I'll tell you what I've never seen. I have never yet seen anyone
convinced of any truth, are convinced of the gospel of God's grace
by argument and reason and proof text. Never seen it happen. What
do you do? We proclaim Him. We just proclaim
Him. We just proclaim Him. And if
you can see, you can see. And if you can't, you can't.
If you can hear, you can hear. And if you can't, you can't. of the burning bush is God our
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We say with Paul, by the grace
of God, I am what I am. He just says, I am. I am wisdom, righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption. By the grace of God in him, Me
too. But he just says, I am. No wonder,
he says to us, and we won't read it. I've got too much to read.
Read Isaiah, chapter 45, going backwards till you get to chapter
40. Read all of them. No wonder, he says, to whom then
will you liken me? What picture do you have in heaven,
in earth, or beneath the earth? What definition do you have in
your mind? What argument will you use to
compare unto me? I am God. Beside me, there is
none else. I am God, and there is none like
unto me. Now, look at verse 15. Back here
in Exodus chapter 3. Here our great God and Savior
gives us His great moreover. I love the way He uses that word
in the Scripture. In verse 14, He tells us what
He is in Himself. Here He tells us what He is to
us. And 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, and this is my memorial. It is as though the Lord had
said this, I have told you all that I am the only eternal Self-existent,
self-sufficient, unchanging, immutable, constant, faithful
God. Now, let me tell you what I am
to you. He said, I am the Lord and I
change not. Moreover, what a word, moreover, all that
I am is yours. Notice here a threefold declaration
of covenant grace from the three persons of the Trinity. When
you read this sentence, you might automatically think to yourself,
why did he say, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob? He could just as well have said,
I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Oh no, he didn't just
use those extra words to fill up space and time. He used them
for a purpose. He said, I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. And I am the God of Jacob. Because he would have us to understand
that he who is our God His Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all wrapped
up in, revealed in, manifest in, and working in this one great
person, the God-Man, our Mediator and our Redeemer, in whom is
all the fullness of the Godhead. And He would have us to understand
that He is the God who sovereignly chose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. and pledged himself in a covenant
before ever these Jews were born to whom Moses speaks. He pledged
himself in a covenant to redeem and deliver his people. And he
who is the I Am is able to do it, and he will surely do it. Turn to Romans chapter 5. Romans
chapter 5. All that God is, as well as all
that he does for us in and by Christ, is ours because of a
covenant made before the world was. An everlasting covenant
full of divinely glorious sweet moreovers. Romans chapter 5 verse
8, Paul's talking about our free justification in Christ. It tells
us God commendeth His love toward us, and that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Much more. Moreover, then, being
now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
Him. Verse 10. If when we were enemies we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son, if this is what God
did for us before we believed, much more. Being reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life. Verse 14. Nevertheless, death
reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure
of him that was to come. But not as the offense, so also
is the free gift. For if through the offense of
one many be dead, if that's what happened back yonder in the garden,
moreover, the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by
one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded to many. Verse 17. For if by
one man's offense death reigned by one, much more. Moreover,
they which receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Verse 19. For as by one
man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, The law entered that
the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. Grace did more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What does all that mean? Look
at Romans chapter 8 and I'll finish. Verse 29. For whom He did foreknow. Brother
Rex read to us about it in 1 Peter just a little while ago. He also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. This is what God
has done in His eternal purpose, and this is what He's done it
for, for the glory of Jesus Christ, for the glory of the great I
Am, our Redeemer. But that's not all. That's not
all. For His glory, yes, thank God,
His name be praised. But there's a more over. Whom
He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called,
them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us. Who can be against us? I Am has come to deliver us,
and deliverance is sure. Amen.