As I understand it, Gene Harmon
did very well in his surgery, and Lynn talked to him about
Gene Harmon. Why do I call him that? Gene
Rutledge. There is a Gene Harmon, sorry. Gene Rutledge did great
in his surgery. I'm very thankful, and he's,
as we speak, not in a lot of pain right now, but I guess it's
coming, but I'm very grateful for that. I know you all remember
him. Verse 5 of Exodus chapter 3, And he, God said, speaking to
Moses, Draw not nigh hither, don't come close, put off thy shoes. from off thy
feet, for the place wherein thou standest is holy ground." I've
entitled this message, Holy Ground. Do you know that we are introduced
to the word holy right here? This is the first time this word
is used in all of the Word of God. Right here, when God says
to Moses, take your shoes off. Don't come close. The place you're
standing is holy ground. Holy, holiness. You know, it's
hard for us to define or understand it. I'm a sinful man. And I can know the definition
of holiness. I can give proper ways of defining
it. But being sinful, it's hard for
me to grasp holiness. But I believe that in this passage
of scripture I just read, we probably have as clear a definition
as to what holiness is. right here. And I believe if
the Lord is pleased to bless us, we'll have a glimpse of just
what the holiness of God is. Verse 1, Now Moses kept the
flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And this
is what he'd been doing for the last 40 years. I'm 47 years old. 40 years is a long chunk of time.
And he spent 40 years in the backside of a desert. I like the way the Bible points
out that he was at the backside of the desert. I mean, he was
going nowhere fast. 40 years. And I think of what
all the Lord must have taught him at that time. Now, Moses
kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of
Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert
and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb or Mount Sinai. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. Now, here is where our experience
with God always begins. It's when he appears to us. Not before him. It's when he
appears to us. Now, the angel of the Lord spoken
of in this verse of scripture is not a created angel. This
is the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel of God's presence. This is called a there's a big
word, a theophany, if you ever heard that word. A theophany,
it's a what they call a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He had not yet assumed flesh, but he appeared. There's
a lot of these in the Old Testament. Do you remember when the Lord
came walking toward Adam in the cool of the evening? The scripture
says the voice of God came walking in the cool of the evening. That
was a theophany. That was a pre-incarnate appearance.
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the angel that appeared
to Abraham in the plains of Mamre before the destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah. This is the angel that wrestled with Jacob. This is the angel of the Lord's
presence. Colossians chapter 2 verse 9
says, In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You know, I love thinking about
that scripture. I quote that one a lot, don't
I? In him, in the Lord Jesus Christ, dwells, resides all the
fullness of all that God is in a body. Now, the Lord appeared
to Moses, Revelation. The Lord is only known by Revelation. And if you know him, it's because
he appeared to you. And you know that, don't you?
You know Your experience of the Lord began not with you. It began
with him. I'm just so sure of that. I know
I'd never know him unless he first was pleased to make himself
known to me. And how was it he appeared? Let's
read verse two. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him
in a flame of fire. Out of the midst of a bush. And he looked and behold, The
bush burned with fire. And the bush was not. Consumed. Now, the Lord appears as a flame
of fire in the midst of a bush and not a big tree, not a big
oak tree or a large tree, but actually this is a small bramble
bush, a very small bush. That's what the word actually
means. that should have been quickly
consumed by the fire. It was just a little bush. And
yet Moses looked at this flame continually coming out of that
bush, coming out. And the bush was not consumed. The physical laws of nature were
being broken. This was a miracle. And Moses
knew this. He said, I'm seeing something special. Look what
he says in verse three. And Moses said, I will now turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. Now, you and I both know that's
a miracle. But it's more than a miracle,
because look what God says about this. Verse four, And when the
Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out
of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said,
Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither,
put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place wherein thou
stand is this place where the bush is burnt and not consumed. That place is holy ground, and
this is the very first time in the scriptures the word holy
is used. So this burning bush not being
consumed has something to do with the holiness of God. Fire coming down from heaven,
heating on that bush, and that bush not being consumed. Now,
we have numerous examples of fire coming down from heaven. and consuming those it fell on. You remember the story of Sodom
and Gomorrah. That's a sobering story. You think of that place. Men and women thought like you
and I were. They woke up one morning, business as usual. Had
a lot to do. They had no idea what was getting
ready to take place. And the scripture says fire and
brimstone came down from heaven and killed everybody there. What about Nadab and Abihu in
Leviticus chapter 10? They offer up, the scripture
says, strange fire to the Lord. That doesn't mean weird fire.
They offered up an incense that God never commanded. And the
scripture says fire came down from heaven and devoured them
for doing that. And they died before the Lord.
I suppose what they were thinking was, well, this incense is as
good as another, as long as our heart's right, as long as we're
sincere. It doesn't matter what kind of incense we offer up.
We'll just, this will work. This will work. And they offered
it up. And fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and
they died before the Lord. What about Elijah? He's sitting
up there on a mountain in a company of 50 men come up to see him.
And he says, this is man of God come down. He says, if I'm a
man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume every
one of you. And it did. Killed all 50 of them. And another
delegation of 50 came to him again. And they said the same
thing. He says, I'm a man of God. Let
fire come down from heaven and consume every one of you. It
did. Every single one of them were consumed. Fire from God
came down from heaven. And I think of Mount Carmel when
Elijah is facing the false prophets and he takes the two bullocks
and he douses them with water and he puts them on the altar
and he says, the God that answers by fire, let him be God. And
we read in First Kings 1838 that the fire of the Lord fell and
consumed the burnt sacrifice. and the wood and the stones and
the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. After
that fire fell, there was nothing left. Everything disappeared. They had been looking at the
bullets. They'd been looking at the altar. They'd been looking
at the water. The fire came down and just in an instant, nothing
was left. Everything was consumed. But here we have the fire of
God falling on a small bush. A bramble bush. Kind of like
a tumbleweed. I mean, it just wasn't really
much to this bush. And it was not consumed. And here we have the holiness
of God. As a matter of fact, in Deuteronomy,
turn to Deuteronomy chapter 33, I want you to see this. Deuteronomy 33. Verse 16, And for the precious things of
the earth and the fullness thereof and for the goodwill, for the
goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush. God is said to dwell,
to reside, to live. This is his dwelling place. God
dwells in this bush that was burnt with fire and was not consumed. Now, what that's a reference
to is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus is that
bramble bush. The scripture says he was crucified
through weakness. That's a hard thing to comprehend,
isn't it? That describing the Lord Jesus
Christ, he was crucified through weakness. You know, the scripture
says he was like a root. out of dry ground. A root out of dry ground, like
a blade coming up in the cracks through parched earth. That seems
so weak. The eternal Son of God had all
the limitations and the weakness of the flesh. You know how weak
you are? You're a weak person, aren't you? You're a weak person. You know, the Son of God had
all the physical limitations that you do. There's another
thing that's just amazing to grasp. Are you tired? He knew
something about that. And every limitation that the
flesh has ever known, including, and I say this reverently, I
say this not really understanding, but including the feeling of
guilt and the feeling of being forsaken and the feeling of being
all alone. He knew all about that because
on the cross he was made sin. There isn't anything that you've
ever felt that he hasn't felt actually more acutely than you
felt. That's why he is touched by the
feeling of our infirmities. He is the bramble bush. He, the
one who breathed the breath of life in Adam's nostrils, he quit breathing as an act of
weakness. And they took him down dead. But this bramble bush was not
consumed. The goodwill of him that dwelt
in the bush abides. This is his dwelling place in
the bush that was not consumed. Now, you think about this bush
not being consumed. Can any man stand before the
fire of God? If God's fire came down upon
you and fell, what would happen? You would be consumed. I would
be consumed. We'd be consumed quicker than
a moth hitting the sun. But the fire of God could not
consume the man Christ Jesus. And it has something to do with
God's will. Did you notice when I read that passage in Deuteronomy
33, verse 16, it spoke of the good will of him that dwelt in
the bush. The good will. What did the angel
say at the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ? Peace on Earth,
what? good will toward men. Do you know it's God's will to
save sinners? That's God's will. Do you know
He must be merciful? That's His nature. He must be
gracious. That's His nature. That's His
will. It's His will to save sinners. And the good will of Him is seen
in the bush. This is the same will of which
Christ spoke of when he said, Lo, I come in the volume of the
book. It's written of me. I delight
to do thy will. Oh, God, this is that same will
which we read of in Hebrews chapter 10, where it says by the witch
will, by God's will, we are sanctified. We are declared by God to be
holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. So there are at least two things
that are promised and that are prominent in the bush that was
burned and not consumed, the holiness of God and the will
of God. The holiness of God. He is called
the Holy One of Israel. You know, I love that hymn we
sing, holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, all thy works
shall praise thy name in earth and skies and sea. Only thou
art holy. There is none beside thee, perfect
in power and love and purity. We just read Revelation 15, for
who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For only
thou art holy. Now, what is God's holiness?
We know it's seen in this bush that's not consumed. What is
God's holiness? It's a hard thing to define.
It's His absolute perfection. That's God's holiness, His absolute
perfection. He is entirely free from evil. He's of two pure eyes to behold
iniquity. He's entirely free from evil. You think how natural evil is
for you. He's entirely free from evil. Not only is he free from evil,
he's absolutely pure. He's without sin. He knows no iniquity. There is
one who's absolutely holy, and that's the Lord God Almighty. He's absolutely pure, and holiness
surrounds every single one of his attributes. His justice He's
going to punish sin. You know, when we talk about
Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed, I can remember when I was a kid,
I'd think about that. I'd think, boy, that seems severe.
To kill all those people like that. And, you know, when we
think like that, I don't know whether you ever think like that.
I imagine you do. I've thought of all kinds of things the Lord
does that seem kind of severe. What about Elijah calling fire
down from heaven and killing those 50 people? That seems severe.
But when we think of things like that, it's because we're not
looking at things from God's perspective. God is holy. He's
holy. Whatever he does is right. And
he doesn't do it because it's right. It's right because he
does it. He's of two pure eyes to behold iniquity. When he sees
iniquity, his holiness comes down upon him. His wrath is a
holy wrath. His justice is a holy justice. His sovereignty is a holy sovereignty. His mercy is a holy mercy. His grace is a holy grace. And his love is a holy love. God is holy. His holiness cannot
in any degree be greater. He can't get more holy. And His holiness cannot in any
degree become less. Is it any wonder Moses hid his
face and was afraid to look on the Lord? When I think of the
Lord's holiness, it makes me feel the same way. You want to
cover up? That's our thought, but you know what the seraphims
did as they flew around the throne? Cried, holy, holy, holy. The scripture says they had six
wings. With two, they covered their face. With two, they were
flying, ready to obey His command, but they covered their face.
They said, we can't look. With two, they covered their
feet, ashamed of their walk. You talk about holiness, you
talk about the holiness of God, and all you can feel is your
own sinfulness. That's it. Holy, holy, holy. We see the holiness of God in
this bush that burnt with fire and was not consumed. Now, how
is it that we see his holiness in this bush that burnt with
fire and not consumed? This bush is the Lord Jesus Christ. We see that crucified to weakness,
a root out of dry ground, a tender plant. Sin became His. The sins of God's elect literally,
actually became His. And what did His Father do? The
fire of God's wrath came down upon him. Now, I want you to
think, if you have kids, how many times have your kids done
something where you should have corrected them and you just went
ahead and let it go? You didn't want to go through
the trouble and the difficulty that it would cost you to go
ahead and correct them and you just kind of, kind of, shoved
it under the table and didn't want to go through the pain of
Whatever it was going to have to be that you're going to do
to punish. I'm sure every one of us have been guilty of that. But
the holiness of God is such that when he saw sin, even in his
only begotten son. He showed no mercy. There was no mercy on the cross.
That's how holy God is when sin is found on Christ. God kills
him. We see the holiness of God there.
We see the will of God. We read of the goodwill of him
that dwelt in the bush. And this holy God is also a merciful
God and a gracious God. It's his will to save. And he
determined to send his son to save a vast multitude of Adam's
sinful race. And Christ Jesus came to this
earth and became flesh and lived a holy life. The only man to
ever live a holy life. He worked out a perfect holiness
in the flesh, yet he was nailed to the cross, and that was God's
good will. That was God's good will toward
men. Peace on earth, good will toward men. I see the holiness
of God. I see the good will of God. Christ
came as a representative man according to the will of God.
This is God's will toward man. He could have sent us all to
hell and been just, but He is gracious. He sent His Son. And
the fire of God's wrath and holiness came down upon him. And this
is how holy God is. When sin was found on his son,
he killed him. He's of two pure eyes to behold
iniquity. But such is the holiness of Jesus
Christ, the God-man, that God's wrath could not consume him. That's an awesome thing to think
about. God's wrath could not consume him. Such is the excellency
and the dignity and the glory of his person that he satisfied
the wrath of God. He drank the cups, the cup of
the dregs of the wrath of God completely dry to where there
was nothing left. And God said, I'm satisfied.
Now, the reason hell lasts forever is because my punishment could
never satisfy God. He could never, it would never
satisfy his justice. That's why hell is eternal. Hell's
a horrible thing to think about. It scares me. I don't like thinking
about it, but it's real. It's fueled by the holiness of
God. And when someone is sent to hell,
it's forever because they can never satisfy the justice of
God. But Christ Jesus, He's completely
different. It's because of who He is, because
of the dignity of His person, the greatness of His person,
the holiness of His person. He was able to drink the wrath
of God completely dry, so that there was nothing left. And God
says, there's no fury in me. There's no fury in me. There's
nothing for him to be mad about. Because Christ Jesus drank the
dregs dry. Now, remember when I was talking
about the fire coming down when Elijah put up that sacrifice. He doused it down with water
and the scripture says the fire came down and consumed the sacrifice.
It consumed the altar and the stones and the dust. It licked
up the water and there was nothing left. The fire came down and
there was nothing left. Everything was consumed. But
when the fire of God's wrath came upon Christ Jesus, he swallowed
up the wrath to where there was nothing left. Now, my dear friends, that's
holy ground. This is the one place where sinful
men and women like me and you can actually come into contact
with holiness. Where that bush is burned and
it's not consumed. Moses, don't draw nigh hither
Don't be presumptuous. Put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place wherein thou standest is holy ground. Now, look what verse three says.
And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight,
why the bush is not burned. Now, I'm asking myself this question. Is this a great sight to me or
is this just one of those Old Testament miracles? And when
there's another miracle, or is this a great sight? Do I see
the infinite greatness of this? Do I see God in this? Do I see
the gospel in this? Moses said, I'll turn aside and
see this great sight. And I think this is so interesting
in verse four. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see. God called unto him out of the
midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, here I am,
and this is very interesting. Before the Lord spoke to Moses,
he waited to see if he would turn aside. And he gets that
when the Lord saw that he turned aside, the Lord waited to see
if this was going to interest Moses so much that he was going
to quit whatever it was he was doing and he was going to give
himself to see this great sight. Moses became enamored with this
great sight. How God can be just and justify
the ungodly, how Christ can bear the wrath of God and not be consumed. This isn't just a dry, uninteresting
theological subject. This is the very heart and soul
of the gospel. And he turned aside to see this
great sight. And that's what the Lord was
looking at. And, you know, the Lord looks at that right now. He sees who
is going to turn aside to look upon this great sight. And we
saw that Moses turned aside to look upon this great sight. God
called unto him out of the midst of the bush and he said, Moses,
Moses. Well, I want to hear the Lord
call my name, don't you? Lord, call me. Speak to me. And what was Moses response? Here am I. Not what? Nothing like that. Here am I. Speak, Lord. I serve and hear
it. And he said, Draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from
off thy feet for the place wherein thou standest is holy ground.
Now, that's an awesome thing to think about. Now, I want you
to think about this. Same thing. If the gospel is preached just
like this, the burning bush that was not consumed, Wherever the
gospel is preached, that place is holy ground. That's where the Lord dwells.
That's where the Lord's presence is, and that's such a scary thing. Scary. I want to be in a place
with this holy ground. I do, but it scares me. I understand
Moses covering up his face, and he was afraid to look on the
Lord. Verse 6, Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. You know,
whenever the Lord makes himself known, he makes himself known
as the covenant God. I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob. Look in verse 23 of chapter 2.
And it came to pass in the process of time that the king of Egypt
died and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage
and they cried. And their cry came up unto God
by reason of the bondage, and God heard their groaning, and
God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with
Jacob. When he speaks of mercy and grace,
he always does so as the covenant God. But you know, our Lord quoted
this passage of scripture. Would you turn with me for a
moment to Luke chapter 20? This is where we're going to
end up. Luke chapter 20. Verse. Thirty seven. Now, you remember, the Sadducees
did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. And they asked the
Lord this question, as a matter of fact, let's begin reading
verse 27 of Luke, Chapter 20, then came to him certain of the Sadducees,
which denied that there's any resurrection. And they asked
him, saying, Master Moses wrote unto us, if any man's brother
die having a wife and he died without children. that his brother
should not take his wife, and raise up seed into his brother.
Well, they were therefore seven brethren, and the first took
a wife, and died without children, and the second took her to wife,
and he died childless, and the third took her, and in like manner
the seven also, and they left no children, and died. Last of
all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection,
whose wife of them is she? For seven had her wife. And Jesus
answering seven to them, the children of this world marry,
and are given in marriage, but they which shall be accounted
worthy to obtain that And the resurrection from the dead, neither
Mary nor given in marriage, neither can they die anymore, but they're
equal unto the angels and the children of God being the children
of the resurrection. Now that the dead are raised.
Even Moses showed at the bush. When he called the Lord, the
God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, for
he is not a God of the dead, but of the living for all live
unto him. Now, I want to ask you a question.
Would you have ever used that verse of scripture? I'm the God
of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Would you have used that scripture
to prove the resurrection? I dare say you wouldn't have.
It would have never even entered my mind. Now, this gives us some
glimpse of the depth of Holy Scripture. Everything the Lord
says has such a depth to it. He said that he said Moses proved
that the resurrection when he said concerning God, I am the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He's not
the God of the dead. He's the God of the living. And
look at this last phrase in verse 38, for he's not a God of the
dead, but of the living for all live unto him. Now, that could just as easily
be translated All Him live. All Him live. The union of life. I didn't begin
to live on 9-9-59. I lived way before then. And I'm not going to cease to
live on whatever the day of my death is. All Him, I'm a Him. I'm in Him. I'm united to Him. All Him lives. He is the God of the living. And every believer is living,
united to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Vine and the branches
as the head to the body. Every believer lives, sometimes
they feel alive, sometimes they don't feel so alive. But whether
they feel it or whether they don't feel it, they live unto
him. He is the God of the living. The God of Abraham. The God of
Isaac. The God of Jacob. The God of Todd. You put your
name in there. You put your name in there. He's
the God of the living. All Him live. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we thank You and praise You for the bush that was burnt by Your
wrath, but was not consumed