Let's turn together to Exodus
3, verse 6. Exodus 3, verse 6. God, our Savior, has appeared
to Moses in the burning bush. Moses turns aside to see the
great sight that was before him, and God spoke to him out of the
bush. And when he did, he reveals himself to Moses as he had never
before revealed himself to any human being. He said, I am the
God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob. What do those words mean? is our Savior here teaching us
about Himself. Now, there are several things
that seem to me to be as obvious as they are delightful, sweet,
and comforting. First, the Lord God declared,
I am thee God. He alone is God. There is none
like Him, none to be compared to Him, none sitting beside Him. He alone is God. Now let your estimation, your
understanding of God's character always be determined by what
God reveals about himself in this book. And put aside every
notion about God that is contrary to what is said in this book.
anyone who is set up as God, any idolatrous figment of man's
imagination, even if you call it Jehovah, even if you call
it Jesus, even if you call it the Holy Spirit, any idolatrous
figment of man's imagination that in any way contradicts what
God says about himself in this book is nothing but an idol. And to worship such an idol is
no better than worshiping a stump or worshiping an altar in a Catholic
church or bowing to an image of the Virgin Mary. You might
as well be a heathen in New Guinea and have no idea who God is at
all as to pretend that you worship God when you deny the very character
of God set forth in this book. And as he is set forth in this
book, he declares himself to be the sovereign eternal, unalterable,
immutable, unchanging, self-existent, gloriously holy Lord God Almighty,
who has mercy on whom He will have mercy, and hardens whom
He will harden, who has compassion on whom He will have compassion,
who says, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. who chooses
whom he will save, and he saves them. Doesn't try, he does. How I wish we could get all the
heathen thoughts we have about God in our natural heathen hearts,
out of our minds and hearts. We talk about God trying to do
something. God doesn't try, he does. And a God who tries what he does
not is no God at all. Second thing, the Lord God identifies
himself to Moses as the God of thy father. I am the God of thy
father. The God his father and his mother
trusted. The God his father and mother
taught him to trust. What a great honor the Lord God
put on Moses' parents. The Lord God had made Himself
their God, and Moses had been raised by this man and this woman,
though raised in Pharaoh's household, raised under their constant influence,
under the nurtured admonition of the Lord, because God calls
that man. to be born in a house where God
is known and worshipped and feared. Many of you, like myself, were
raised in a hellhole where God's name was only used for blasphemy. You who have been privileged
as Moses to be raised in a house where God is known and worshipped
and trusted. Oh, what a great privilege. We don't. He says, I am the God
of Abraham. The God of Abraham. What a profound,
delightful thing that is. Abraham is constantly held for
us in the Scriptures as an imminent reminder of God's covenant and
God's covenant faithfulness, God's covenant promises, that
covenant and all its promises, which God Almighty surely, most
absolutely, most certainly will fulfill, though everything appears
to contradict it. What could have been more contradictory
to these men and women who were in Egypt the children of Abraham,
than for somebody to come along and say, now boys, God's just
performing his covenant. The Lord's blessing you. You,
the seed of Abraham, of whom God said, I will bless thee and
make thee a blessing. That's what God's doing for you.
But Moses, don't you understand we've been down here for 400
years? And our chastisements have only increased, and our
affliction and our burdens have only increased? Yes, but don't
forget, God told you from the beginning this is what he was
going to do. And it's been 400 years now. That means the time of deliverance
is at hand. Hear me, children of God. He who is our God, the God of
Abraham, is faithful in keeping his covenant. That is what he
is doing in the execution of his wise, adorable, good providence
every day throughout the universe. He's fulfilling his covenant
right now. He is blessing you and making
you a blessing. And when he gets done, You're
going to know it and rejoice in it. Then he says, I am the
God of Isaac. What do you think of when you
think about Isaac? I'll tell you what I think of.
First thing that comes to my mind whenever I hear or read
the name Isaac, substitution and provision. Isaac is forever
a picture of Christ our Savior as Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord who
will provide. You remember Abraham takes his
son Isaac up to Mount Moriah. God demanded of him that he take
his son with him three days into the wilderness and there sacrifice
him to him, sacrifice his son, his only son Isaac, whom he dearly
loved to him. And Abraham took Isaac up to
the mountain. And he took him up there with
this word given to his servant. He said, you wait here. I and
my boy, we're going yonder, we're going to worship God, and we're
going to come back here just a little while. Just a little
while. And we'll come back down from this mountain. Just as our
Savior died in our stead and was raised again on Mount Moriah,
Isaac was sacrificed by his father Abraham. And Abraham received
him as one raised from the dead. But he didn't really kill him.
Oh yes, he did. He just didn't draw any blood.
He killed him in his heart. God said he received him as one
raised from the dead. Staggering not at the promise
of God. When Isaac was going with his father up to the mountain,
he said, Daddy, we've got the fire, we've got the wood for
a burnt offering, but where is the sacrifice? Abraham had taught
his son, well, you can't worship God without blood. It can't be
done. You can't come to God without
a lamb for a burnt offering. And Abraham responded to his
son, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And when he drew back the knife
to kill his son, the angel of the Lord said, there's a lamb
caught in a thicket. Put him on the altar instead
of your son. And Abraham sacrificed that ram that God had provided
in anticipation of that lamb who is himself God, who would
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering in our stead. And he
sacrificed that lamb in the stead of his son. And he said, Isaac,
as long as you live, remember the name of this place is Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide. And He
who gave His only begotten Son for us, who spared not His Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? My dear wife reminded me again
the other day, driving down the road, how can we question that God
will take care of everything, every need in our lives when
He has sacrificed His Son in our stead. And I say that to you, and I
say it more often to myself, and it's like a dagger in my
heart because I so little believe my God who gave His Son for me. And I love the next word by which
God revealed himself to Moses. He said, I am the God of Jacob. Oh, I like that. He who is God chooses to identify
himself as the God of Jacob. When I think of those words,
I think of grace, pure, free, undeserved grace, the sovereign
grace of eternal electing love, the conquering, omnipotent, irresistible
saving grace of God our Savior, the immutable, indestructible,
preserving grace of God. It was grace that chose Jacob. It was grace that turned not
from Jacob. It was grace that met Jacob in
the wilderness and conquered him, compelling him to acknowledge
and confess who he was. Grace that smote him on the thigh,
causing him to limp all his days as he acknowledged continually
himself to be Jacob. It was grace that kept him in
all his days and grace that brought him at last to glory. I'm the
God of Jacob. And this is what he says to Darwin
Pruitt and Don Fortner. I am the Lord. I change not. And that's the only reason there
is you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Blessed reason. Not because you
don't change. We do. But he changes not. His grace is indestructible. His grace is grace that cannot
be in any way tarnished. His grace is grace that cannot
be in any way hindered. His grace is always blessed,
immutable, saving grace. Now, those are the obvious things. If you will, turn to Luke chapter
20. Luke chapter 20. I want to show you Something
that should be obvious to us now because we have the light
of our Lord's words, but it is astonishing to me how many of
the commentators, good commentators, I have read on this, Exodus chapter
3, that had missed the blessed detail that our Lord Jesus gives
in Luke chapter 20 about this thing that took place in Exodus
3 and verse 6. Our Lord here is dealing with
the Sadducees. You know, the Pharisees, the
Sadducees, and the Herodians had set a trap. They thought
they could trick the Lord of Glory into saying something He
didn't really mean to say. They thought they could trick
Him into making a statement that would in some way either contradict
the doctrine He had plainly taught or would at least give them a
justifiable excuse for having Him put to death. And so they
come to him with questions, questions about paying tribute to Caesar,
and questions about obedience to the law, what we're supposed
to do, what's the great commandment. And the Sadducees. Now the Sadducees
were what we would call the liberals of the day. They didn't believe
in the resurrection. They didn't believe in They didn't
believe man had a spirit. They didn't believe he was a
spirit. They just believed in carnal things. They were very
religious, but they had no perception at all of anything spiritual
or supernatural. So they come to the Lord Jesus,
and they invented a story. Now, how many times have you
been discussing something with somebody in the religious world,
and they want to They just refused to bow to scriptures. You teach
them something about God's sovereignty. Talk about election, for example.
And they said, well, what if somebody believes in Jesus who's
not one of the elect? Wow, that's profound. Or is it? These Sadducees came up with
just that kind of stupid question in their profound brilliance.
They said, suppose that a man takes a wife and he dies. And his brother takes that wife
and he dies. And their brother takes that
wife and he dies. Until seven brothers have all
had the same wife. Now that's a stretch. That's
a stretch. Whose wife will she be in the
resurrection? And you will notice that the
Lord Jesus totally ignored their question. I suggest you do the
same. Oh, but I want to show folks
what's right. Leave them in the darkness. Don't
cast your pearls before a swine. Don't do it. Don't do it. Just
leave them alone. Religious fools will not be convinced
by more folly coming from you and me. It won't happen. Our
Lord rather seize the opportunity to take their folly and teach
us something about what Moses described in Deuteronomy as the
good will. of him that dwelt in the bush.
He tells us in Luke chapter 20, let's begin reading at verse
34, Jesus answering, said unto them,
The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage. But
they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world,
and the resurrection of the dead, neither marry nor are given in
marriage, neither can they die any more. For they are equal
to the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of
the resurrection. Now that the dead are raised,
even Moses showed at the bush, when he caught the Lord God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not
the God of the dead, but of the living." When our Lord says, I am the
God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob, He said, Moses, remember all you heard about
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob? It's not history past altogether. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are
very much alive. They didn't die. They did not
die. Oh, but we buried them. That
doesn't mean they're dead. But their bodies have long since
decayed. That doesn't mean they're dead. I am presently the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. These who live in and by and
with me. I'm not the God of the dead.
I'm the God of the living. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are
mine and they live forever because I am that one who is the life. God, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Remember, He's the one who's
speaking to Moses back here in Exodus 3. And here in Luke 20,
he who spoke the words tells us the meaning of the words. He who is speaking is the life. He is the source of life, the
giver of life, the sustainer of life, and the restorer of
life. And it never takes it away. Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob look like they're dead. I couldn't help but jotting this
down a minute ago. It's a blessed thought that I
hope God put in my mind. Often, it looks like I'm dead to many who see me, and more so to me than to anyone
else. I read the Word. And the local newspaper speaks more to me than the Word
does. I pray. And I talk more earnestly to
my wife's cat than to my God. I sing, and my heart's dead within
me. But let me tell you something.
Though it appears often that I am dead, I am fully alive in
Jesus Christ my Redeemer. Do you hear me? My life does
not in any way depend upon what I am or feel or experience or
do. It is altogether Him, Christ
who is our life. Not just the source of it. He
is our life. Christ who is our life. Oh, God give me grace ever to
realize the blessedness of this union He has created in me and
for me with Jesus Christ, the life. The life. The life. But there's something
else here. Our Lord Jesus is telling us
that he who is God, the living God, is the God who
gives life. And he uses this passage in Exodus
3, 6. to declare to us the blessed
assurance of resurrection glory. Now look at what he tells us
back here in Luke chapter 20. He tells us that God's elect,
all who trust Him, all who are redeemed and called by His grace,
are accounted worthy to obtain the next world of heavenly glory. He hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in life. Imagine that, David
Peterson. When God takes you out of this
world and brings you into that world, He will do so because
you shall be accounted worthy of His glory. Because Christ is your life. Worthy! of God's constant smile
and approval, because Christ is our life. We're one with Him,
one with Him. Not only that, being made by
grace, holy and righteous in Jesus Christ,
our Lord says we are equal to the angels of God. I'll be honest with you, I'm
sure I don't have just an inkling of what that's all about. Equal
to the angels of God. It at least means this much.
No harm shall ever befall us any more than you shall reach
up to God's throne and pull Gabriel out from his place and cast him
down to hell. Equal to the angels of God. At least it means this much,
pure, sinless, and holy. At least that much. But he adds
more. Being made by his grace equal
to the angels of God, we are the children of God. The children of the resurrection. And then, this is what he's saying. It's what I showed Moses at the
bush. And if you knew anything at all about the Scriptures and
the power of God, you'd understand these things. If you had a clue
what the meaning of the Scriptures are, or what the meaning of the
Scriptures is, I should say, and the power of God, the power
of God's saving operations by His Spirit, if you had a clue,
you would understand clearly what I'm talking about. That
which Moses later described as the goodwill of him that dwelt
in the bush is the complete salvation of all God's elect in and by
and with the Lord Jesus Christ in resurrection glory. Turn to
John chapter 11. John chapter 11, let me show
you. Our Lord is at the tomb of Lazarus.
Lazarus is dead. And our Lord Jesus waited three
days after he heard Lazarus was sick because he wanted Lazarus
to die. And he said, this is for the
glory of God. And now he comes and Martha comes
out and said, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother hadn't
died. And the Lord Jesus speaks. Look at verse 41. Then said Martha
unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not
died. And we tend to beat Martha up pretty good for that. But
read on. But I know that even now, whatsoever
thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. And Jesus saith
unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. And Martha spoke too quickly. And she spoke too theoretically,
and she spoke too calculating for a woman who was seeking consolation
in deep trouble. She said unto him, I know that
he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Somehow, there's not much consolation
in that. today. There's not much consolation
in the doctrine of the resurrection today. But the Lord Jesus corrects
that real quick. Verse 25, Jesus said unto her,
Martha, I'm not talking to you about a doctrine. I'm not here to argue with you
or anybody else about the doctrine of the resurrection. I am The
resurrection and the life. Now this is what I want you to
understand. Your brother ain't dead. Now that's a different story.
Your brother not dead. Read on. I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, Yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die." Now, do you believe that? Do you believe
that? Oh, if I believe that, then though
my heart aches, and though I am in horrible pain, and though
I'll miss I'm sure glad my brother's asleep. It's all right. He's asleep. It won't be too
much longer, and you're going to read in the paper, maybe somebody
will bother to put it in, Don Fortner's dead. Don't believe
a word of it. Not for a second. We know that
if our earthly house and this tabernacle were dissolved, We
have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. Now look at Martha's response
to this. I said we beat her up pretty good over what she said
earlier. God give me grace to respond
to my master just this way. She saith unto him, he said,
do you believe this? And now she turns His words from
mere words of doctrine to words of life. She says, Yeah, Lord,
I believe that Thou art the Christ. I believe you're the one who
spoke to Moses back out in the bush. I believe you're Abraham's
seed. I believe you're David's son.
I believe you're the anointed one of God, the Son of God, which
we've been looking for all this time, the Son of God. which should
come into the world. Now, because I have seen the
goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush, because I know and
believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of God,
I live in hope of the resurrection. Paul wrote to the Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians 15, If in this life only we have hope in Christ,
we are of all men most miserable. What did he mean by that? Was
he suggesting somehow if there were no such thing as heaven,
if there were no such thing as the resurrection, if there were
no such thing as eternal life, we would prefer to live some
other way? Oh, no. No, no. He's saying If
there were no eternal life in Christ, no eternal bliss of life
with Christ in glory, no resurrection, then the believer would be the
most miserably frustrated person in the world. Let me take his supposition a
little further. If there were no resurrection,
we would never have that which we most earnestly desire. We
live, as Jude says, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life, but we'd never have it. We would never embrace
our Redeemer or be embraced by Him. We would never see Him face
to face. I can't imagine anything more
horrible than having lived in hope to die like a dog. But that shall not be. That shall
not be. For I know, I know. Now what I'm reading
to you, you can look at it yourself in Job 19 later. These words are written in the
oldest book in the Bible, written by a man by the name of Job,
who lived somewhere about the time of the flood. He said, I
know that my Redeemer, isn't that amazing? That old, old,
old patriarch way back yonder called God our Savior, my Redeemer. I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. He
spoke of Christ's second coming just like Enoch, the seventh
generation from Adam, spoke of his second coming. And though
after my skin worms destroy this body, plant me in the ground,
and my body rots and the worms eat it, and everything Yet, in my flesh shall I see
God. I'm going to rise from the dead,
whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and
not another. I don't know how it's going to
happen. Well, I do, too. I do, too. I know better than
if I could explain it. The trump of God shall sound
and the dead in Christ shall rise. That's what happened. As he spoke and said, let there
be light, and there was light. So when Christ comes again with
the sound of the archangel, with the trump of God, the dead in
Christ shall rise. And when I rise, see these brown eyes, these eyes
that now sag with age. and are dull and can't hardly
see unless you pull things right up close to them. With these
eyes, I'm going to see Him. Me. Me. Me. With these eyes, though my rage
be consumed within me, yes, in sickness I'm calm. because I live in the hope of
the resurrection. In sorrow, I'm peaceful because
I live in the hope of the resurrection. In trial and affliction, I'm
at ease because I live in hope of the resurrection. In bereavement,
I'm confident because I live in hope of the resurrection.
And I hope to die with confident joy looking for the mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life because I live in hope of
the resurrection. And I'll tell you why I do. Because this book tells me that
I have already been raised with Christ and have been made by
God's grace to sit down with Him in heaven itself. before the world began. And in
time, my surety accomplished all things for me, dying in my
stead, fulfilling all righteousness. And at the day when he was justified
in the Spirit as he was raised from the dead, God Almighty sat
him down. He said, Sit thou on my right
hand. Blessed And Bob Pontzer, that's where
he sat, you and me. On his right hand. On his right
hand. One with Christ. And I've experienced the resurrection
already. Revelation 20, verse 6. Blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On
such, the second death The wrath of God, eternal damnation, shall
have no power. The first resurrection is not
what men have imagined. You've got one of those Bibles
that have been messed with. Folks talk to you about a secret
rapture. That would be a rupture in everything. That's not what
it's talking about. The first resurrection is the new birth. Read your Bible. Compare scripture
with scripture. In John chapter 5, our Lord Jesus
speaks of the new birth as a resurrection from the dead. That's how God
saves sinners. I was dead. Dead. He gave me life. You're looking at a man who's
been raised from the dead. I live because He raised me from
the dead. I believe because He raised me
from the dead. I worship Him because He raised
me from the dead. Christ invaded my dead soul,
and in His sovereign mercy gave me life. And I'll tell you when
you will live, when He raises you from the dead. Oh, blessed Savior, send your
Spirit to raise the dead. And when He's raised you from
the dead, you will live looking to Him alone as the resurrection
and the life. You'll quit talking about all
the doctrines and you'll say, Lord, I believe. Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. And believing that, I have
life and live in hope of resurrection glory. And we have confidence
that it shall come to pass, because our Savior says this is the will
of Him that sent me, that I should lose nothing but should raise
it up again at the last day. All that the Father giveth me
cometh unto me, and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise
cast out. All that the Father hath given
me shall come to me, and I will raise him up at the last day. That's it. That's it. We will
be raised in what's described in this book as the resurrection
of the just. Raised to life everlasting. In that great day, when the books
are opened, God Almighty will judge the world according to
the book. either to the record book of
transgression, iniquity, and sin, or the record book of life
of the Lamb written from the world's beginning. And whosoever
is not found written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from
the foundation of the world, shall forever be damned. But
all whose names are written in that book shall enter into that
city where nothing is allowed to enter that makes a lie, or
blasphemes, or deceives, or corrupts, but only that which is without
sin and perfectly holy." because we have been made worthy by the
blood of the Lamb to possess the glory that belongs to those
to whom He gives the power. But you ask Him, number one,
the right and the ability to possess glory as the sons of
God. Oh may He give you that for Christ's
sake. Amen.