Bibles today to the book of Exodus
chapter 3. Exodus chapter 3, reading the first 15 verses. 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 Oreb. 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. And Moses said, I will now turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 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 whereon thou standest
is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God
of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he
was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely
seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt. and have
heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know
their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver them out of the
hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land
unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk
and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites
and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, The cry
of the children of Israel is come unto me, and I have also
seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come
now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou
mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of
Egypt.' And Moses said unto God, Who am I? that I should go unto
Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel
out of Egypt. And he said, certainly I will
be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee that I have
sent thee. When thou hast brought forth
the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto
them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you. And they
shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? God said unto Moses, I am that
I am. And he said, or 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,
the God of Jacob, has sent me unto you. This is my name forever,
and this is my memorial unto all generations. In the Old Testament scriptures,
there are two great deliverances, two great deliverances of the
nation of Israel. The first one was from Egypt,
and then years later they were delivered from Babylon. In both
cases, the Israelites were captives, they were in bondage, and both
deliverances serve to picture God's salvation. Men, as we come
into this world, are born into slavery, bondage to sin. And God delivers sinners from
this bondage. And in this chapter, we see God
calling Moses to his work, making Moses a mediator. God will, from
this moment on, God will speak to the nation of Israel through
Moses, and God will be spoken to from the nation of Israel
through Moses. Moses becomes now a type of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the one mediator between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus. There are five things in this
chapter or in these verses that I've just read, these 15 verses
that I want to call our attention to this morning. First of all,
who was in the burning bush. That's quite a sight, I'm sure,
for most of us to see. The backside of the desert, a
bush that was on fire, but the bush wasn't consumed. And you
probably are familiar with these bushes in that desert part of
the world. I mean, a fire immediately just
goes up, it's gone. But not this time. This bush
was burning, but it was not consumed. Who was in the bush, in other
words? Well, notice in verse two, we
read, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out
of the midst of the bush. In the New Testament, in Acts
chapter 7, the first martyr, Stephen, was speaking and he
touched on this and he said this, the same, and that referred to
Moses, the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer
by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. The angel of the Lord. The angel
of the Lord called unto him out of the midst of the bush. Who
was this? Well, you and I, I'm sure, know
that this was the eternal Son of God. The God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ exists in a trinity of persons, we know
that. We believe, not because we understand
it, but because this is revealed to us in the word of God. God
is three persons, not three gods, one God, but he exists in a trinity
of persons. And this is the second person
in the Godhead, the second person in the Trinity, that is the Son. We have the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. And I like to point this out,
never think of the Trinity as the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. because that intimates that the
Father is above the Son and both are above the Holy Spirit. No,
all three persons are co-equal and co-eternal. God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But it is God the Son
here who appeared as the angel of the Lord. And this is not
the only place. There are several places in the
Old Testament where he appeared before he became incarnate, before
he was born of the Virgin Mary as a man, assumed to himself,
his person, that body that was prepared him by God the Holy
Spirit. I want you to keep your places
here, but look back to Genesis chapter 22, just a moment. Genesis chapter 22. This is the
same angel here, angel of the Lord. The word angel means messenger. Remember that, means messenger. And this is the same angel of
the Lord that we see here called to Abraham. Begin reading in
verse 11. And the angel of the Lord called
unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said,
here am I. And he said, lay not thy hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I
know. You know, God, if you look back
in verse one of that chapter, and it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto Abraham, And he
said, behold, here I am. He said, take now thy son, thine
only son. Who told Abraham to do this?
Who tested Abraham? Well, it says God. God tested
him. But now here in the text that
we read there, verse 11, the angel of the Lord called unto
him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here am
I. Lay not thine hand upon the lad. Neither do thou anything unto
him, for now I know, I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou
hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. Abraham lifted up his eyes and
looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by
his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son, And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh,
the Lord will see to it. It was the Lord, the angel of
the Lord that called to him, but it is the angel of the Lord
who told Abraham that he saw and knew his obedience, but it
was God. I'm just saying this to emphasize
this truth that the angel of the Lord here is It's not a created
angel. There are thousands, millions
maybe of created angels. And they're all over around us. I imagine there's angels in this
place here this morning. But they're pure spirits that
we cannot see and they're sent forth to be ministers unto the
heirs of salvation. People say, well, does every
believer have his own special angel? No, not just one angel,
angels. Angels are ministering unto God's
people. But this angel, this angel of
the Lord is not a created angel. This is an appearance rather
of the eternal son of God. This is who called to Moses,
appeared to Moses, in this burning bush, it would be later, later,
almost well over 2,000 years ago now, when he would be born
as a man, as the God-man of the Virgin Mary. The Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, is God. When we worship him, we worship
God. There's only one God. You know,
this has been, through the ages, Satan's attack upon the gospel,
probably more about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ than
any other thing. Yes, there's been heresies around
God the Holy Spirit. differences about the church
and many other things, but especially Satan has attacked the truth
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is very God of very God,
and yet he is man. Man, just like you and I, with
the exception of sin. It was the angel of the Lord
who appeared unto Moses. The second thing is, what is
suggested here by Moses being told, don't draw near. Look at that in verses five and
six. The angel of the Lord said, draw
not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover,
He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he
was afraid to look upon God. Man being a fallen creature,
and we are. We're all, when we come into
this world, we are fallen creatures. Yes, we're all creatures of God.
And in that sense, God is the father of all men, the creator
of all men. But we know that we come into
this world estranged from God, alienated from God. We're not
fit for the presence of God. Why? Because God Almighty is
a thrice holy God. We refer to him as the thrice
holy God because in the vision that Isaiah had recorded in chapter
six of that prophecy, he saw the Lord high and lifted up and
the seraphims, they continually cried, holy, holy, holy. And that's what we see here when
Moses would approach under this bush, that the angel of the Lord
told him, This is holy ground. What made it holy? You know,
I'm sure you're probably like me. You wonder sometimes they
advertise these trips and tours to the holy land to go to Jerusalem
and see where the Lord Jesus Christ walked and sat on the
well of Sychar where he sat. And I'm sure that would be very
impressive. I'm sure it would. But there's
nothing holy about that land. What made it holy was the presence
of the Lord. That's what made this place holy,
when Moses approached unto the bush, or would have approached
unto the bush, and God said, take off your shoes, Moses. You're
in the presence of God. God appeared unto Abraham, the
scripture says, as a God of glory. It seems like bring God down. When we lift up man, and that
seems to be what takes place, the dignity of man, but in lifting
up man from what the scriptures reveal about man, we bring God
down. No, God is a high and holy one
that inhabited the eternity. This is holy ground, Moses. Later,
this is recorded in Exodus 34, but Moses would ask the Lord
to see his glory. And when you think about that,
Moses had already, when he asked to see God's glory, he had already
seen all those plagues. It's saying the water of the
Nile turned to blood. It's saying the frogs fill their
houses and their ovens, the houses of the Egyptians. It's saying
it may be dark, dark as midnight in the houses where the Egyptians
live and light in the land where the Israelites live. God put
a difference between the Egyptians and the Israelites. But after
seeing all those 10 plagues, after seeing all of that, he
said, Lord, show me your glory. And God said, I'll put you in
a cliff of a rock. And I'll pass by, and I'll remove
my hand, and you can just see my back parts. And you know what
happened? Moses had that experience. The
scripture said that he made haste. Just as soon as that happened,
he made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. Worshiped. This was holy ground
now because the Lord was there. The Lord was calling Moses to
this work. But the third thing I'll point
out to us is we see that the Lord, our God, is a compassionate
God. In verses seven through nine,
and the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people,
which are in Egypt. And I've heard their cry by reason
of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. And I've come
down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. You've
heard the phrase that God is without parts or passion, without
bodily parts. Yes, God is a spirit. And yes,
I know he is without passions that we have or like our passions,
but God doesn't present himself in the word of God as being distant
and uncaring to his creatures. He doesn't. You cannot read our
Lord's parable of the prodigal son, and see what he said about
the father who received his son back from death to life, from
being lost to being found, and not see the compassion, the love
that God the father has for his people, that God has for his
people. In Psalm 86, the psalmist said,
but thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion. Satan would have you to believe
that God is some hard, demanding being, but that's not so. He's a just God. Preacher was
preaching one time, and he was preaching on hell, and he had
somebody stand up and object, saying, I don't believe that
my God, who is a God of love, would put anyone or send anyone
to hell. And the preacher said, you're
right. A loving God wouldn't, but a just God will. And he is
just, but he is loving. He's compassionate. Now to God
full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering and plenteous
in mercy and truth. Plenteous in mercy and truth.
When you pray and seek mercy from the Lord, And I trust that
we all do. We all need mercy. His mercies
are due every morning. In your prayer, when you ask
God for mercy, just remind him of these truths that we read
about him in the scripture, that he is a God full of compassion
and that his mercies endure forever. Plenteous in mercy. In fact,
the scripture says, he delighteth in mercy. The judgment is a strange
work for God. In Isaiah 63 and verse nine,
we read this concerning God's people. This is truly amazing
to me. I'm sure it is to you as well.
In all their affliction, he was afflicted. In all your afflictions,
He was afflicted. That's amazing, isn't it? You
go through afflictions as God's children in this world, but you
know this, that in all your afflictions, He's with you. He'll never leave
you nor forsake you. Now the fourth thing that I point
out to us here is that the Lord commissioned Moses for this work,
beginning in verse 10. Come now, therefore, and I will
send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God,
Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring
forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? Moses had attempted this work
once before. You remember that, don't you?
When he was living in the palace, He had been raised as a son of
Pharaoh's daughter, schooled in all the wisdom and education
of the Egyptians. One day he went out and he saw
an Egyptian taking advantage of an Israelite and he just took
matters into his own hands and he killed that Egyptian and tried
to hide his body in the sand. Next day he went out and he saw
two Israelites fighting with each other and he tried to separate
them and they said, who made thee a judge over us? That's
when he had to flee from Egypt and spend 40 years on the backside
of the desert in the school of hard knocks. In the school of
hard knocks out there tending the sheep. God was preparing
him. I've never owned a sheep, I've
never cared for sheep, but from what I've read about sheep, they're
very stubborn. They have a mind of their own.
And a pastor, a shepherd, has to be very assertive in watching
his sheep. God was preparing Moses. Those
40 years, 40 years in the palace, 40 years on the backside of the
desert, and then for 40 years in the wilderness leading these
rebellious people as they turned out to be the Israelites. But God was calling him. Once
before, as I said, he had attempted this to deliver his brethren,
but he completely failed. And I think about what Paul wrote
in the letter of Hebrews concerning the office of a high priest. He said, no man taketh this honor
upon himself, but he that is called of God. And to this work,
God called Moses, God commissioned him to be the deliverer. And he's not going to fail in
this work. I don't know if you noticed that,
but the scripture here says, when, in verse 12, and he said,
certainly I will be with thee and this shall be a token unto
thee that I have sent thee when, not if, God didn't say if you
bring the Israelites out of Egypt, if you bring them here, no, when,
when. When thou hast brought forth
the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain."
We think of the Lord Jesus Christ as a mediator between God and
man. He was called, He was ordained
to this office. God commissioned Him. He told
those people who sought him in John chapter six, this is the
work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. He didn't take this office, this
work of being a savior without being called and anointed to
this office. The same thing was true of Moses. And there's no question. There's
no question when God called Moses, you're going to bring these people
out. You're going to come right back here to this mountain of
Horeb, which is part of Mount Sinai, and here you're going
to worship me. And that's a lesson in itself.
Why did God deliver these people? Why does God save a sinner from
hell? Is it just to prevent him experiencing
the wrath of God? Well, that's certainly part of
it. But more than that, God saves sinners to worship Him, to glorify
Him. And that was the case here with
the Israelites. God would bring them out to worship
Him in this very place. Not a question of if. It's going
to happen. And the Lord Jesus Christ, when
He came into this world as a Savior of sinners. He came to save a
particular people. And that's chapter 53 of Isaiah
that speaks of him as a suffering Savior, the suffering substitute. It tells us that he shall see
of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Every one that
the Father gave unto him and and eternal covenant of grace,
the Lord Jesus Christ saves. He saves. That brings me to my
last point, my fifth point. The Lord is a covenant God. You notice that in verses 13
through 15. Moses said unto God, Behold,
When I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto
them, the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you. And they
shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? And 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. 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, the God of Jacob has sent me
unto you. This is my name forever and this
is my memorial unto all generations. The God of the Bible, the God
and father of our Lord Jesus Christ is a covenant God. This is revealed by his name. Moses said, well, surely when
I come to the elders and tell them, well, God sent me, God
sent me here to deliver you. They're going to ask, first of
all, what's his name? What's his name? And God said,
I am that I am. Now in that name, which is the
name Jehovah, the name that we refer to as Jehovah. Same name
that was there when God stayed Abraham from slaying his son
Isaac and provided that ram to die in the stead of Isaac. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord shall
see to it. This is his name, Jehovah. I
am that I am. And it reveals several things
to us. It reveals, first of all, his
eternality. That he, not I was or I shall
be, but I am. He's always been the same, always
shall be the same. I am. He is an eternal God. And it also reveals his self-existence. But it also reveals his covenant. He is a covenant God. He made
a covenant with Abraham. He renewed that covenant with
Isaac. And he renewed it again with
Jacob. And in that covenant, let me just point these few things
out to you. There are several things that
he promised, but First of all, he would give them the land of
Canaan. Give them that land where all
these ites that we read about, the Jebusites and all those others
there, Canaanites, they were a very wicked people. In fact,
God told Abraham their iniquity was not quite full when Abraham
was alive. As though these nations And you
cannot help but wonder if God doesn't give nations a space
of time. And when the cup of iniquity
is full, then God destroys that nation or that people. And God
promised Abraham the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk
and honey. And you see that in verse 17,
he said, and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction
of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites and all those other
ites unto a land flowing with milk and honey. That was a covenant
promise. Keep your place here, but look
over in Joshua just a moment. And I know this is where these
dispensationalists have a problem, but they're still looking, they're
still believing that God's going to give the nation of Israel
the land of Canaan, but he's already done that. Look here
at Joshua, if you will, chapter 21. Remember, Joshua took Moses'
place to lead them into the land. In verse 43, it says, and the
Lord gave unto Israel all. I hear him say, well, they didn't
have quite all of it. Well, that's not what the scripture
says. That's not what the Bible says. The Lord gave unto Israel
all the land which he swear to give unto their fathers, and
they possessed it and dwelt therein. And the Lord gave them rest round
about, according to all that he swear unto their fathers. And there stood not a man of
all their enemies before them. The Lord delivered all their
enemies into their hand. There failed not ought. of any good thing which the Lord
had spoken unto the house of Israel. All came to pass." God
promised Abraham a great seed, a large posterity. Notice, if
you will, in Exodus chapter 1, back in the book of Exodus chapter
1, Verse seven, we read, and the
children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly and
multiplied and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled
with them. You know how many people went
down into Egypt when the nation, it was just a family, a big family,
a large family, yes, but you know how many souls went down
into Egypt? 70. And now, They fill the land just as God
had promised Abraham, a seed comparable to the sand on the
seashore. Now I know that that refers to
a spiritual seed also, but they've multiplied. And the point I'm
making is that God is a covenant God. He made these promises first
to Abraham, renewed them to Isaac and Jacob, and God fulfilled
his promises, his covenant promises. This reminds us, of course, of
another covenant, a covenant that I hope you are interested
in. I know I am. It's called an everlasting covenant.
It's called a covenant of peace. I'm talking about in the scriptures.
We refer to it most often as a covenant of grace because it
all speaks of grace, wonderful grace of God. But in this covenant,
the eternal God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They compacted,
they covenanted together to do certain things. The Father, we
read out of his infinite grace, he gave an innumerable company
of centers to his Son. Upon this condition, that he
would be manifest in the flesh, that the eternal son would come
into this world as a man, that he would become the surety for
those that the father gave to him. They're called God's elect.
You know, some people have a problem with that word, that term, don't
they? But you can't believe the Bible, you can't believe God,
you can't really have any confidence and assurance in salvation if
you deny the truth of God's sovereign election. God chose a people in Christ
from before the foundation of the world. gave them unto his
son on the condition that he would come into this world in
the fullness of the time made of a woman to be the surety of
this covenant. And as a surety of this covenant,
he would work out a righteousness for each and every one. And he
would be the atoning sacrifice for the sins of all of those
chosen. God, the son, he also coveted. that he would come into this
world, he accepted that to be made a man and to live and to
die for the many sons that he would bring to glory. And then God, the Holy Spirit,
co-equal, co-eternal with the Father and the Son, he covenanted
to breathe life into these people. Men come into this world, you
did, I did, You may be here this morning in this condition, dead
in trespasses and sins. You can't give yourself life.
Preacher can't give you life. The church can't give you life. Our Lord said, barely, barely
I say unto thee, except a man be born again. He cannot see
the kingdom of God. Born of water and of the spirit,
and that's not the water of baptism. That's what false teachers have
taught for years and years. You can be baptized, as one man
said, to your feet, become webbed like a duck's feet, and be lost
and on the way to hell. There's no salvation in baptism. It's God the Holy Spirit's office,
and he uses his word uses the Word of God in calling and saving
and breathing life into sinners. You say, well, how do I know?
There's only one way you may know. Do you believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? That's the only way a
person may know that he was chosen of God, redeemed by God the Son,
and called by God the Holy Spirit. Do you trust in Christ as your
Lord and Savior? If you do, then you have this
assurance, this assurance, not by anything you have done. You
say, well, I made a decision. Yes, you made a decision because
God worked in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Yes. And you love Him. Yes, because
He first loved you. But if you love him this morning,
if you believe in him, just as God was faithful to the Israelites
to keep his covenant, to give them the land, to multiply their
seed, so God is faithful to save and to keep every one of his
chosen people. I pray the Lord would bless these
thoughts.