When the Lord God sent Moses
to bring Israel out of the land of Egypt, Moses knew that to
get the people of Israel to follow him against the mightiest king
and the mightiest army the world had ever known to that point.
He would have to convince them that they're following him who
speaks for God. And so when he goes to deliver
the children of Israel, before he goes back to Egypt and tells
them, I've come to set you free, he asked God, he said, tell me
who shall I say to them has sent me? They're going to ask me,
by what authority, in whose name do you so speak to us? You'll
remember that when he spoke about going to Pharaoh, he didn't ask
that. He was just going to Pharaoh
to tell Pharaoh what God was going to do. He wasn't calling
for Pharaoh to believe God. He sent to call for the children
of Israel to believe God, to trust their lives. to God. I'm here to call you
and myself to believe God. I have more trouble with that
than with any other thing in this world. Believing God. I know that the
more I know Him, I ought to believe No, I know the more I know him,
the more I will believe him. They that know thy name, the
scripture says, will put their trust in thee. Knowing about
him won't do it. You got to know him. Knowing
facts about him won't do it. You got to know him. And just
in proportion as we know him, by the grace and power of his
spirit, we will believe him. Moses said, whom shall I tell
them sent me? And the Lord God said, I am that
I am. You go tell my people, I am hath
sent me unto thee. And with that, the Lord God distinguishes
himself from all imaginary gods. With that declaration, the triune
Jehovah, speaking by the person of Jesus Christ, our mediator,
the angel of the Lord, distinguishes himself from all the gods that
men make for themselves and says, now believe me. Let's look at
it in Exodus chapter 3 and verse 14. This is the title of my message. I am that I am, the God we trust. I am that I am, the God we trust. God's elect are called to a life
filled with adversity, heartache, and sorrow. If you believe on
the Son of God this hour, you just begin to believe him. Don't
get the idea that now believing on Christ, everything's going
to be smooth and easy. In many ways, life will begin
to be much more difficult, much tougher, much rougher if you
follow him. God's elect are called to a life
filled with adversity, filled with heartache, and filled with
sorrow. Those who follow the man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief must never expect to be free from
sorrow and grief in this world of woe. Our Savior said, in the
world you shall have tribulation. That's our Savior's word to all
who follow him. It is in this context that the
Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Philippians. Just listen
for a moment. Let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of
Christ. Let your life Be such as becomes
one who says he believes God. Let your life be molded by this
fact. Let your conversation be such
as becometh the gospel of Christ. He said, stand fast in one spirit,
with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel,
and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them
an evident token of perdition. but to you salvation and that
of God. For unto you it is given in the
behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer
for his sake. If we would follow the Son of
God, if we would follow Christ, if we would live by faith in
this world, you and I who are gods, must daily take up our
cross and follow Him. We are daily involved in a warfare,
a warfare that rages within and without. It is a warfare from
which there will be no relief, not even a temporary relief,
so long as we live in this world of woe. It's a warfare that becomes
more and more violent day by day. Only those who walk by faith
in the Son of God know the warfare. And only those who walk by faith
in the Son of God will follow Him through the warfare. Our
daily experience of these things causes the heaven-born soul to
cry out, who shall deliver us from the body of this death?
How long shall I take counsel in my mind, having sorrow in
my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted
over me? O God, how long shall the adversary
reproach? Now, I've come here tonight for
three purposes. First, to glorify God my Savior. Oh, I want to honor his name
as I preach to you. And second, to call on you who
do not know my God to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
third, to comfort you who mourn in Zion. To speak a word of encouragement
and consolation to you who are my brothers and sisters in Christ.
In every hour of need, for you who are God's, support is sure. Look at this man Moses set before
us here in Exodus 3. The ground he must tread is slippery
ground. The obstacles he must overcome
are huge. The task is immense beyond measure. The hill of difficulty before
him is rough and steep. The foes opposing him are mighty
in many, but he found a staff of strength. a shield of defense,
a guiding light, a rock in which to hide in the God he served,
in the Christ he followed. Look at verse 14 of Exodus 3.
God said unto 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. Here is infinite help for our
souls. Knowing the apparent impossibilities
before it, Moses asked the Lord, what's your name? It is through,
it is as though the Lord Jesus said to him, I am that I am. Cast all the burden of your soul
on me. All the cares of your heart.
All the fears you have. All the pains that trouble you.
All the difficulties that perplex you. Cast them on me. I am that
I am. Blessed are they who lean upon
this staff. Oh God, teach me to lean upon
you. To lean the whole weight of my
soul. the whole weight of my life,
all that concerns me, to lean it upon you. Children of God,
lean the whole weight of your immortal soul upon Christ. And like Mount Zion, you shall
not be moved. Humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. What a word. Casting all your
care upon him for he careth for you. I know some of your lives
well enough to know you're sitting here now with a world weight
of care. A world weight of care. Cast your care on him, for he
careth for you. What touches you touches him,
who is God our Savior, the God who declares, I am that I am. It's our great Redeemer, our
Savior who speaks. He speaks to establish us upon
the firm rock of comfort. assuring us that all the majesty,
all the supremacy, all the glory of absolute deity are His, and
being His, all the glory and the strength and the majesty
of absolute deity belong to us all the time. Can you grasp that? No, we can't grasp that. Maybe
we can touch it a little bit. cast your care then on him. What specks of insignificance
must our troubles dwindle to become before his greatness? He who is our God is the eternal
I am. If we trust him, who is I am
that I am, we have absolutely nothing to fear, nothing to fear. in this world or in the world
to come. No wonder our Savior says to
us so often in this book, fear not. I've redeemed you, I've called
you, you're mine, fear not, fear not. Turn over to the book of
Deuteronomy for a minute. Hear what God said to the children
of Israel when he was about to bring them into the possession
of the land of Canaan. Deuteronomy chapter 1. We'll
look at three passages here in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 1, verse
21. 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, fear not, neither
be discouraged. But don't you know, Moses, all
the mighty armies we have to overcome? Don't you know the
oppression, oppressive people we'll have to deal with? Don't
you know the barbaric tribes who live in that land? Don't
you remember the report of the giants in that land? He says,
fear not. Don't be discouraged. Don't be
dismayed. Go up and take possession of
that which God promised you. Look in chapter 20, Deuteronomy
chapter 20. Verse 1, When thou goest out to battle
against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a 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.
And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that
the priest shall approach and speak unto the people. And shall
say unto 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. Look at chapter 31. Chapter 31,
verse 6. Deuteronomy 31. Be strong and of good courage.
Fear not, nor be afraid of them, for the Lord thy God, He it is
that doth go with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee. God goes with you. He will not fail you. He will not forsake you. And
Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of
all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage, for thou must
go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn
unto their fathers to give them, and thou shalt cause them to
inherit it. And the Lord, he it is that doth
go before thee. He will be with thee. He will
not fail thee, neither forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed. Shall I then fret and fear? Shall I murmur and complain before
my God? Fret because God is so great? Fear because my Savior is so
immense? Murmur because my Redeemer is
so strong? Complain because His riches are
unsearchable? What folly! What silliness! What unbelief! His treasures
are such that the gold is just dust in his deepest minds. The riches of his grace, like
manna, still fall from heaven at our tent door every day. He
still opens the heavens and floods our souls day by day with mercy,
grace, and love. Shall we then walk before him
in unbelief and in fear? O Spirit of God, come show me
the things of Christ. and show them here to your people.
I am that I am. What an artesian well ever springing
up with grace and life to our souls. The first thing revealed
in this name of our Savior is his eternality. Here the Lord
Jesus robes himself in eternity. He knows no past. He knows no
future. He is living constantly, unmoved
and unmoving in the present. He stretches through the ages
of time and all future ages. He is in all his glorious being. Now understand me, I understand
the humanity of our Lord Jesus began when he came into this
world in our flesh. But He stood as our covenant
surety, the God-man, our mediator, when He stood forth as our surety
in eternity. And here, He who speaks is that
eternal One who is the God-man, our Savior, our surety, and our
substitute. And He describes His indescribable
majesty with these words, I am that I am. Before time was, He
is. When time shall be no more, he
remains forever the same. The Lord Jesus is the eternal
God, our Savior. The eternal God, our Savior. Wish I could somehow convey this
to this generation. Jesus Christ, the man, is God. He is God. The first time I heard these
words, Brother Brian Dufour's grandfather, Watson Dufour, my
dear friend and pastor at Anstead, West Virginia, was preaching
for me one Saturday. And he was preaching from Colossians
chapter 1. And he said, Jesus is God. And
do you know preachers sitting in the congregation seem shocked?
Jesus is God. What? That man? That man, Jesus
of Nazareth, he's God. All the fullness of the triune
Jehovah resides bodily in that man who died in our stead at
Calvary. Look down from eternity to Bethlehem
and the manger there. There lies in a cow stable, in
a manger, a baby, an infant of just a span. and that baby is
himself the eternal God. He who never was born was born
as a man in Bethlehem. He who is eternal, who never
had birth but gives birth to all beings is born the woman
seed just as he was promised. He who encompasses eternity is
contained in the body of a baby. He who never began begins to
be as a man. You see, our God, our Savior,
in the immensity of His being, will not fit in our minds. And He will not fit in our language. And the very things essential
to His being seem to us to be contradictory. He who is eternal
and has no beginning and no end, the same yesterday, today and
forever, came into this world and came into being as a man
at Bethlehem a little over 2,000 years ago. Did the great I am
that I am take our flesh? Is it so? Indeed it is. God promised it. The prophets
foreshadowed or foretold it. And all the types and pictures
of the Old Testament referred to him foreshadowed it and declared
it. When it happened, an angel announced
it. And heaven rang with rapture. This was God's promise. Before
ever he drove Adam and Eve out of the garden, he said, I will
put enmity between thy seed and the woman's seed. And you, speaking
to Satan, the serpent, you will bruise his heels. He will bruise
your head. He will crush you into oblivion. He will crush your head. He who
is the woman, see, and every woman in Israel who believed
God until Mary brought forth her firstborn son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, until she gave birth, until the Virgin Mary gave birth
to our Savior, every believing woman in Israel wanted a man-child
and hoped that her man-child would be that man who is the
woman seen, who would crush the serpent's head. That's the reason
Tamar did what she did. When Eve had her first child,
she thought, I've gotten the man from the Lord, and was excited.
She was sorely disappointed, but every believing woman hoped
that she might be the woman who would give birth to this man
who is the Redeemer, who is God in our flesh. Therefore, the
prophet Isaiah says, the Lord himself shall give you a sign.
Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call
his name Emmanuel. This son, This son born through
the womb of a virgin, this firstborn one, he is Immanuel. God gave a law in Israel, the
law of the firstborn. And this is the way the law reads.
Whether it's man or beast, he that openeth the womb, the firstborn,
is mine. That's the law of the firstborn.
But you fellows who know a little bit about medicine know that
nobody opens the womb in birth. The womb is opened in conception,
not in birth, except once. There was one who by his birth
opened his mother's womb. He is Christ our Savior, God
with us. He came into the world, born
of the Virgin. His name is wonderful, Counselor,
the mighty God, the Prince of Peace. When the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law. Why this
wonder of wonders? Why is eternity's Lord a child
of time? He stoops that he may save poor,
wretched sinners such as we are. Now, folks, ask, was there not
another way? Off the peak in his book on the
atonement has one great flaw in the book. He said God could
have saved sinners another way. Oh no. Oh no. Christ didn't die for nothing.
He didn't die for nothing. God could not simply will the
salvation of his people. He willed the world into being,
but he could not will your salvation in mind. God could not, in his
holy, just being, simply speak a word and save our souls. That
could not be. Justice must be satisfied. Sin must be punished. Righteousness
must be brought in. God cannot save except he be
a just God and a Savior. In order to save us, God, the
great I Am, stepped into time. in our humanity and became all
that we are. He became all that we are by
nature. All that we are, even through
our father Adam, even in our fallen depravity, he was in all
points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin. He could not
sin, he did not sin, he knew no sin. But in order to redeem
and save our souls, in order to be punished for our sins,
he must be made sin for us. And when he was made sin for
us, he was made a curse for us. And God cried, Injustice, awake,
O sword, against the man that is my fellow, against him whose
name is I am that I am, and smite the shepherd. And justice rightly
slew the Son of God, for he was made worthy to die when he was
made to bear our sin in his body on the tree. And now God, in
justice, God in justice. God in justice forgives sinners
for Christ's sake. Oh, wondrous condescension. He
who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. He bear our sin in his own body
on the tree, and he bearing our sin, bear them away so that he
not just Pretends they don't exist. Not just acts like they
don't exist. Not just covers them up. Oh,
no, no, no. A thousand times no. He purged
away our sins. So they're gone. They're gone. Your pastor's told you many times.
We use the word justified and you've heard folks say it. You've
probably heard me say it. Just as if I'd never said. Oh
no, that's not it. That's not it. To be justified
means I never see it. Justified. Paul read it a little bit ago.
God said, Be ye perfect, for I'm perfect. I'm perfect. He won't accept anything less.
He can't accept anything less. Therefore, I am that I am. came into this world, and suffered
in our place, and paid our debt, endured our wrath, and died our
death, that we might live in him. We rejoice in the prospect
of living with him in his glory. But why is there such rapture
in the thought? I have a dear friend, Brother
Bob Duff, been sick for a long time. I got news yesterday he'll
be in glory for the weeks out. And I, last time I sat with him
I prayed for him and his wife, God take him quickly. Please
take him quickly. Pray for a man to die? Oh yeah. That's the beginning of glory.
Why do we so anticipate it? Then we will See Him face to
face with ever-increasing wonder and amazement and sing His praise
with ever-increasing joy and learn of Him with ever-expanding
knowledge who loved us and gave Himself for us. Just before coming
over here this afternoon, I got a call from another young lady. Her father's dying. I've only
seen him once, but he asked me to come see him. I've never had
that happen in my life. I've never had a dying sinner
call for me to come see him. And he wants me to come see him.
I said, I'll be there as soon as I can get there to service
tonight, if he lives that long. And I so much pray that God might
be pleased, have mercy on him. But for him, unless God intervenes,
there's no hope. But for the believer, for the
believer, death is the beginning of life. Death is the beginning
of glory. Death is the beginning of happiness.
Death is the end of woe and the end of sorrow and the end of
pain because I am that I am lived and died for me. I am that I
am speaks of our Lord's immutability. The Lord Jesus is the eternal
I am that means he cannot change he cannot change he cannot be
changed he is forever I am I am the Lord he says therefore you sons of Jacob you
know what you are You know what you are, tricky, conniving, deceiving,
fallen, sinful, corrupt sons of Jacob. But I'm the Lord. I
chose you. I redeemed you. I made you princes
with God. Therefore, I change not. And therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Jesus Christ, our Savior, Is
that one of whom the apostle says, the same yesterday and
today and forever? No variation, no change, always
the same, the eternal I am. Be moderate. Be temperate. Let this cause you to live in
such a way it becomes the gospel of God. He is the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. Nothing you do and nothing I
do changes Him. Nothing. Nothing done by all
the devils of hell changes Him. Nothing done by all the courts
on earth changes him. He is the same, yesterday, today,
and forever. Change is the defect of everything
here. Immutability is the glory of
things above. Immutability is the essence of
perfection. Our brightest mornings may end
with a dark storm. Summer soon gives way to winter
and gloom. The flower soon withers and dies. The friend who smiles today often
becomes a relentless foe tomorrow. Bereavement breaks the hearts,
crushes the heart, breaks the family, crushes the family where
once there was nothing but joy. On all things here, on all things
here, on every relationship, These words ought to be emblazoned. Fleeting. Temporary. Vanishing. Fleeting. Temporary. Vanishing. I see you sit here
every time we're here with your family. Fleeting. Temporary. Vanishing. Everything here. The only thing
that never changes is Him who loved us and gave Himself for
us. Change and decay all around me
I see. O thou who changest not, abide
with me. Now, let me wrap this up by trying
to describe something of our great, infinite, almighty Savior. I can only do so by speaking
of some of his attributes. Let me just mention two or three. His infinite love is infinitely,
eternally, perpetually the same. That's not true of your love
or mine. That's not even true of my wife's love for me or my
love for her. His infinite love is infinitely,
eternally, perpetually the same. He who loved me before the world
was loves me now just as he did then. He who loved me when I sinned
and fell in my father Adam loved me through the fall, notwithstanding
all. He who loved me when he bore
my sin in his own body on the tree, loves me now just as he
did then when he cried, Father, forgive Don Fortner. He doesn't
know what he's doing. He who loved me when first he
came and spoke peace to my soul, giving me faith in himself, Declaring
I'm yours and you're mine forever Loves me today just as he did
then He who loves me now Loves me through all the varying circumstances
of life Evils caused by others and evils caused by me Exactly
the same without variation His love is infinitely, eternally
the same. He will love you, my brother.
He will love you, my sister, intensely in heaven when you
are manifested as his precious purchase, as the object of his
choice. To every doubting question then,
has he loved me? Does he love me? Will he love
me? One reply is given, I am that
I am. The father corrects his child
because he loves his child. Most of you know my daughter.
There were times when she was growing up, if you had seen what
I did to her, you would have thought I hated her because I
insisted that she obey me. I insisted she obeyed me the
first time I spoke. If I had to speak twice, she
got her behind blistered. And I intended to make it hurt.
Why would you do that? You know her. Do you know her? That's the reason. I wanted her
to be what she is. You understand what I'm saying?
Our father, in his matchless love for us, chastens his own. Attentive physicians, sometimes
must deeply probe a sore wound. And thus our sweet Savior, in
his matchless love, makes the world bitter, that we may long
for heaven's blessed rest. He shows us our vileness and
makes us taste it, that we may cherish his precious cleansing
blood. He holds us in his hand as we
stumble and fall, that He may lift us up and cause us to cling
more closely to Him. He sometimes deserts us, as we
read in the Song of Solomon 5, that we may never desert Him. He causes us, He hides Himself
from us, that He might cause us to seek after Him. He appears
to be silent to our cries, that we may cry them more loudly for
Him. Because His compassions fail not, they're new every morning. In His great mercy, He saves
us from hell by putting us through what at the time seems like hell
on this earth because of His infinite goodness.
because of his matchless everlasting love, because he is I am. This one who sent Moses to deliver
Israel is the one who sent Israel into Egypt to start with. And
he sent them into Egypt that they might learn their weakness
and learn his faithfulness and learn his grace, his power. Our blessed Savior's power is
infinite omnipotence. It goes hand in hand with his
infinite everlasting love. It was his mighty voice that
said, to all things be, and they were. His hand framed the universe,
and it is his mighty hand which holds the wheel of providence
and turns it exactly as he will. He still parts the sea. for the objects of his choice.
He still protects his own with angels and can't round about
them. He still causes hurricanes and tempests to be calm. He still
makes straight the crooked path and levels the high mountains.
He still stops the mouths of lions. He still quenches the
fiery darts of the wicked one. And in the face of all the Goliaths
we must face, He cheers us all to sure victory with this word.
I am that I am. What more can I say? I haven't
even touched the hem of the garment. But before I send you home, let
me show you one more thing. His grace, His infinite, eternal
grace is immutable grace. It never changes. Our Savior's
grace, this immutable grace, The grace of Him who is the great
I Am is sufficient grace. The Apostle Paul describes an
experience he had in 1 Corinthians 12. He said, or 2 Corinthians
12, he said, I don't know whether it was in the Spirit or in the
flesh, I don't know, but I was caught up to the third heaven.
And I saw things nobody had ever seen. I heard things nobody had
ever heard. And after this, I had a messenger, Satan, who beat
me down all the time. I have a pretty good hunch what
he's talking about. Whatever it was, he said, every
time I think about this, I'm lifted up with pride. And Satan
comes and beats me in the face. He beats me all the time. And
I prayed, Lord, take this from me. I can't live like this. I
can no longer live in this flesh going through this horrible struggle
in my soul. Satan beating me down all the
time. I asked him three times, take it from me. And the Lord
said to me, live with it. Live with it. By grace, is sufficient
for them. So Paul said, I've learned something
now. I will glory in my infirmities
because His grace is made perfect through my weakness. His grace is manifest in its
perfect power. It's manifest as the grace of
Him whose name is I Am. through my weakness, saw glory
in my infirmities, believing Him. He said, My grace is sufficient
for thee. I can't tell you much that you
don't know, except for you who are a little younger in age and
a little younger in the experience of God's grace. But I'll tell
you what I've discovered. In these past 49 years of God's
great goodness to me, I've learned His grace is sufficient. Sufficient
in life, in health, and sufficient in sickness and in death. Sufficient in joy and sufficient
in sorrow. Sufficient in trouble and sufficient
in peace, sufficient in time and sufficient to eternity. His grace I fully anticipate
to be sufficient. That's not so. That's not so.
I am fully confident shall be sufficient when I stand before
God in judgment. Sufficient, listen now, sufficient
to present me faultless, before the presence of His glory, without
spot, without blemish, without blame, without anything like
infirmity or sin, with exceeding joy. He, Job McSherry soon, He will
present us before the throne of the triune God, to our exceeding
joy, but to his exceeding joy. This is the joy set before him
for which he endured the cross, despising the shame. Oh, may
God give you grace to believe him. Oh, may God give me grace to
believe him, and thus to honor our God, whose name is I Am that
I am the eternal God, our Savior, the God-man, Jesus Christ the
Lord. Amen. Thank you, Pastor Fortner. Go
ahead and take your red books and turn to 268. Let's sing How
Firm a Foundation. Go ahead and please stand. How firm a foundation these saints
of the Lord is laid