In this sermon, Jason Dohm discusses God's self-revelation to Moses as depicted in Exodus 3:1-15. The sermon emphasizes how God revealed Himself to Moses both in words and through profound experiences. This revelation was not just about giving Moses instructions but building a foundation of confidence and trust in God's nature. The burning bush incident is highlighted as a key moment where God initiates the revelation, demonstrating His holiness and the distinction between knowing about God and truly knowing Him. The narrative underscores that God's self-revelation is vital for Moses' mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. The sermon also highlights the importance of recognizing God's self-existent nature, as encapsulated in the name "I am who I am," and how this understanding empowers believers to carry out God's work. Additionally, the discussion extends to the broader biblical context, drawing parallels between Moses' experiences and the ultimate revelation of God through Jesus Christ, emphasizing that God desires to be known and invites believers into a deeper relationship with Him.

That'll be Exodus chapter 3 verses 1 through 15. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law the priest of Midian and he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked and behold the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.

So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am. Then he said, do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of your 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 oppression of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from the land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to 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 has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now, therefore I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?

So he said, I will certainly be with you and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.' Then Moses said to God, Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, what is his name what shall I say to them and God said to Moses I am who I am and he said thus you shall say to the children of Israel I am has sent me to you. Moreover God said to Moses, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever and this is my memorial to all generations. Let's pray.

Oh God I thank you for your word. We thank you that you've given it to us. Oh Lord God, the great I am. We come before you now and we pray, we ask that you would help us. Help Jason as he preaches, Help us as we listen.

God, help us not to be distracted, not to go through the motions, but to engage in actively listening and seeking you during this sermon. Lord, please bless this time. I pray that you would bless Jason as he brings your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well the subject for this morning is God's self-revelation to Moses in word and experience.

It's a mouthful. God's self-revelation. God revealed himself to Moses. It was really all part of God raising up Moses for his purposes. To work out the salvation of his people through the actions of a man.

So the man wasn't ready for that. God was making him ready for that. And how did he do that? By revealing himself to Moses. It wasn't just to give him the orders to go do the things.

Moses was going to need bedrock to stand on. The bedrock that he would stand on would be what God revealed himself to be in Moses. It gave him the confidence to go and stick out his neck, because that's what God was requiring him to do. God gave him words. God told Moses who he was and what he was like but then also God gave him these experiences that we marvel at that just proved that all the words were true.

I want to begin here. The God who is is a God who reveals Himself. You know, that's not insignificant. The God who is, He is an invisible God. And If the God who is, is an invisible God, He doesn't have to reveal Himself.

You'd never see Him. He could remain hidden and unknown. He could create and not reveal himself, but that is not who God is. God wants to be known, so He makes Himself known. And that is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by this book.

You got this book in your lap and it proves to you that God is a God who doesn't want to create and then remain invisible but he wants to reveal himself and to be known. It's proven too by the life of Moses. Moses didn't have any claim on God's revelation of himself to him. God just does it. We just see in the burning bush passage that God initiates that.

Moses is not looking for trouble. God is looking for Moses and he reveals himself to Moses. Friends, There is a vast difference between knowing about God, any unbeliever can pick up a Bible, read the contents, knowing God, experientially knowing God, so that the truths in Scripture become real and alive to you. Because God has revealed Himself to you, not just in dry concepts through a book, but the Spirit comes and throws light on that and brings them to life in the life of a believer. God himself undertook Moses' instruction to bring Moses from this starting point, knowing about God, to this end state.

Actually knowing God, having the truths that are in words. Praise God for the truths that are in words, but they need to be made alive and they need to have the light of the Holy Spirit throwing on him. What we're going to see as we go to a few texts is the school of God. Not the school about God, the school where God is the headmaster and the teacher and the instructor and he reveals himself through the words that he gives and the experiences that prove that the words are true. It is good to know about God, but it is essential, necessary to know God in order to be with him forever.

So, the theme of the conference came out of half a verse. The theme of the conference came out of half a verse. The theme of the conference came out of Daniel chapter 11 verse 32. The people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits. To really know God is to be strengthened in the knowledge of God.

It makes you strong to know God. When God reveals Himself to you, it makes you strong. And it makes you ready to do exploits. You're in no condition to do exploits until you have your feet put on this bedrock of who God is and then you're ready. The life of Moses is the poster child for that.

This is just a shepherd in the desert until God revealed himself to this man and he made him strong and able to do exploits. So it may be so of us. May God reveal Himself to us and make us strong and ready to do exploits. Let's pray. God, we have a few minutes before us to consider a subject that used to knock us over and ought to knock us over.

What you're like. And to whatever extent we become cold and dull to who you are and what you're like, first please forgive us. Now occurs to me how wrong it is to be cold and dull to these things. And please, reawaken us to them. I pray that you would use the time to do that.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Before we get started in earnest, I want you to consider who we're talking about. We're talking about Moses. Who is Moses? He's the author of the Pentateuch.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. If you do a page count, in my Bible, it's not a study Bible, just The one I normally use doesn't have study notes at all because I find them too distracting, and I want sort of the unadorned Word of God for normal use. In a Bible like that, those five books that Moses wrote are 17% of all the words that we have. So basically a fifth of your Bible came through one man. Think of all the authors there are in the Bible.

So it is disproportionately slanted, the direct revelation of God is disproportionately slanted towards revelation that came through this one man who God raised up and revealed Himself to. Moses. We know about creation because of God's self-revelation to Moses. We know about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph because of God's self-revelation to Moses. We know about God's deliverance of His people from slavery in Egypt because of Moses.

We have the law of God because of Moses. In fact, in a lot of the Bible, Moses is used synonymously with law. So instead of the writer talking about the law of God, he'll just say Moses. He won't even mention the law. He's not talking about the person.

He's just inserting the word Moses for law. It's because the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The law came through Moses. So I want to make this assertion really a declaration and it's this. Moses was in the school of God for me.

Yes it was for Moses, yes it was so that he would be strong and able to do the exploits of leading the people of God out from the tyranny of Egypt, But it was for more of that. It was to give me 17% of the direct revelation of God. And it was to give that to you also. We should thank God that he revealed himself to Moses and then he compelled him to write these self revelations down so that I can know God and you can know God. It wasn't just for Moses.

It wasn't even just for the people of Israel to bring them out of captivity. It's so that people in a little church in 2022 would know their God because God wants to be known and He's revealed Himself. So the school of God in the life of Moses, God the chief instructor revealing himself to Moses. Here's just a synopsis of that. It's really easy to remember.

40 years, 40 years, 40 years. 40 years in Egypt. He grew up in Pharaoh's house, But he knew who his real people were at 40 years old. He saw an Israelite being abused by an Egyptian. And he looked around and saw that he thought he was alone.

And he killed that Egyptian in defense of the Israelite. And then the next day he knew it was known and so he fled for his life knowing that if this became known to the Egyptians he would forfeit his life. So first 40 years in Egypt, then 40 years in the desert of Midian. Tending sheep. Sounds like sort of a sleepy existence, doesn't it?

40 years tending sheep, not lost years, not wasted years. God was actually going to give him a bigger flock. He was teaching him how to tend sheep. He was about to give him a very big flock, probably a million person flock. And then God appears to them in the text that Tyler just read in Exodus chapter 3.

And the last 40 years are spent God having raised him up to deliver his people from slavery in Egypt and then leading those people unfortunately in the wilderness because of their disobedience. So, four passages this morning. Passage number one is Exodus 3, 1-15. It's what Tyler read as the sermon text. So I'll just go straight into the comments on it.

God draws Moses in with a great sight. That's what the text says. Moses saw a great sight. He saw a bush that's burning but It's not consumed. A bush in the desert of Midian should last long if it's on fire.

It should be consumed in no time, but it's burning and it's burning and it's burning and it's not diminished by the burning. So Moses turns aside to see this great sight. Just know this, Moses didn't initiate this. It isn't Moses stumbling onto the revelation of God. It is God proactively initiating this, drawing him in with this great sight of a bush burning but never being consumed, and then calling out from the bush, Moses, Moses.

Moses isn't seeking God in this moment. He's just doing his work. He's just out tending the sheep. God initiates. The first thing God says is, do not draw near to this place.

Take your sandals off of your feet for the place where you stand is holy ground. The day before, Common ground. The day after, common ground. This day, holy ground. Take off your shoes.

God here reveals Himself to Moses as holy. Holy means separate, utterly different. It literally means other. Not like everything else, a separate category reserved for God because there is no one like Him. There is no one to compare Him to.

He is a category to Himself. He's not like this or like that. He is God, utterly different, other. The point in Exodus 3 is this, wherever the special presence of God is, is holy by association. Ground that was common yesterday and will be common tomorrow is holy today because God is here in a special way.

God is everywhere all the time. There's nowhere where God isn't. Theologians have used this word, special presence of God, because sometimes he comes in a different way to reveal himself. He was always there, but now he is here in an eminent, right here, right now. You discern him.

You understand that his presence is there. And the things that he claims to be present in that special way are holy by association. Everything in your life is common. Not special, not different, like a thousand other things. Until this holy God sets it aside to Himself and for Himself.

You don't have anything that's all that unique, different, special, wonderful. Until God claims you and says, You're mine. I set you apart to me. You are just mine. Now, you used to be common, but now you're not common.

You're mine. And you're for me. To me and for me. So, your purposes from now on are going to be my purposes for you, because I've set you aside to myself. That's what God did to that ground.

That's why Moses needed to take off his footwear. God said, it's mine and it's for my purposes. This is what happens to the people of God. It's actually a very wonderful thing. We're in a kingdom of darkness and he says not anymore you're mine come into my kingdom of light you now are for my purposes you live to me then God tells Moses who he is the God of your father.

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. I know Moses' actual father is in the genealogy somewhere. I don't even remember his name. Nobody remembers his name. It's not important.

It says, great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandfather Abraham. That is the important father here. He's the god of your father. Hundreds of years ago, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, I'm the God of your fathers. I'm the God of your family tree, going back hundreds of years to Abraham, and then Isaac, and then Jacob.

God was revealing Himself to Moses, setting apart Moses to Himself, your mind, and for Himself, my missions for you are now your mission. Because he promised Abraham that he would be the god of his descendants. Why Moses? Why would the great sight come to the eyes of Moses? And the voice from the burning bush called to Moses.

It was because of the promises that God had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would be the God of their descendants. And Moses is their descendant, so Moses is the man. Hundreds and hundreds of years later, When most have forgotten the promises that were made to Abraham, God hasn't forgotten the promises. And God is keeping his promises to be the God of this family line. God was raising up Moses in order to help and deliver and bless Abraham's descendants.

Why? It's 500 years later because he promised. Because he always keeps his promises. Of course, we have the richness of being in the book of Joshua now that we can add to that and say, wow it keeps going after Moses. It wasn't just to bring them out, it was also to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey.

We're seeing that week by week. Promises made to Abraham kept in the generation of Joshua as well. God says that He has seen the oppression of His people and heard the cries of His people and known the sorrows of His people. All that's in Exodus 3 verse 7. God has entered into the oppression of His people.

He saw it. He's entered into the cries of His people. He heard them. He's entered into the sorrows of his people. He knows all about the sorrows of this people.

God is revealing himself that he is not a God far off and uninterested. He sees it. They were oppressed. He saw it. They cried out.

He heard it. They had sorrows. He knew them. He's not far off. He's not uninterested.

David in the future would marvel that that is true. Listen to David in Psalm 8 verses 3 and 4. David says, When I consider your heavens the work of your hands, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him? And the son of man that you visit him." Ever been to the Creation Museum? Go to the Creation Museum, go to the Planetarium.

They show you this wonderful film about, they call them films now, it's not really film, anyway, video. They show you a wonderful video of the universe starting from planet Earth and then backing out to the solar system, backing out to the galaxy, backing out in the universe. And by the time they backed out once or twice, you can't even see planet earth. You don't even see it. You back up a little bit into space from the planet earth and all you see is stars.

You don't even see the planet earth is nowhere to be found. So David is looking from the other direction, from Earth out in the stars, and has a sense of this. God, you made all of that. How is it that me, who am just a speck on a speck, Go to the Creation Museum, go to the Planetarium, you'll become convinced that planet Earth, it looks big from here, but it's just a speck. Okay, so now locate yourself on planet earth.

You are a speck on the speck. So David looks out at the stars, the vastness out there, and he says, how is it that we even come into your thoughts? How is it that you visit us? Oh, but He is mindful of us. He does visit us.

Now think about Christ, God with us. He's mindful of us. When His people are oppressed, He sees it. When they cry, He hears it. When they sorrow, He knows it.

He enters into their sorrows. He's a God not far off. He's a God who's near. He's a God not uninterested. He is a God who is intimately interested in the welfare of his people.

And when they're not well, He'll intervene and make them well. That's God's self-revelation to Moses. Then the text says this, Then the text says this, And Moses hid his face, For he was afraid to look upon God. Brothers and sisters, the holiness of God is more than a theological concept. It is a palpable reality.

Okay, translate. What are you saying? You can feel it. It's a palpable reality to those who God draws near to in that way. He is an invisible God, but there is a sensing of his presence.

And when he comes like this, you're afraid to gaze upon him. You'll hide your face. Peter felt that sometimes in the presence of the Lord Jesus. Peter once fell down before Jesus and said, depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord. He could feel.

You're not common like me. You are uniquely unique. You are utterly different. You are other. Go away!

I'm a sinful man, Lord. I don't belong here with You, Lord. Isaiah felt that in Isaiah chapter 6. The train of the Lord's robe filled the temple. He was there in all of His glory.

Isaiah is brought there in a vision and he says, Woe is me, for I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips, I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King." That's what happens when you enter the special presence of God. And holiness ceases to be a theological concept. And you can feel it and you're undone. That's what's happening to Moses in Exodus chapter 3. Next, Moses understandably felt unequal to the task of standing before Pharaoh the king of Egypt to demand the liberation of God's people.

Okay? He's been a shepherd for 40 years and Now the job is to go demand that a king let his slaves go. Moses felt unequal to that task. I think we understand. Moses isn't even confident that the Israelites will listen to him.

So he asks God, in essence, when I say that the God of your fathers has sent me and they ask in return What is his name? Sure he sent you. What is his name? What can I tell them? God said and I believe this is the most significant self-revelation of God by God in this passage, I am who I am.

Tell them I am sent you. What does that even mean? What kind of a name is that? Any of you ever consider naming your kids that? Please don't.

Please do not. We will have to have an intervention. That is the name of the God who is utterly other. He is holy. This name, I am, is closely associated with the name Yahweh or Jehovah in the Old Testament.

Most Bibles indicate that Hebrew name by all capsing Lord. Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Most Bibles put it that way. So when you see that in the Old Testament, that is the Hebrew word. We're transliterating from Hebrew, Yahweh or Jehovah.

It's the most holy name for God. It's God's name in all of His holiness. And it means the self-existing one. Now you are not self-existing. That helps us to understand self-existence.

You're not self-existing. No food for you, no life. So you're not self-existing. You need all sorts of things outside of yourself to keep living. You need food, but you need the right kind of food.

The wrong kind of food will kill you. You need drink, but you need the right kind of drink. The wrong kind of drink will kill you. You need air, but you need the right kind of air. The wrong kind of air will kill you.

And on and on and on. You need all of these things outside of yourself to keep living and then one day a day is coming when not even that will be enough. You will have eaten the right food, drank the right drink, breathed the right air, you'll die anyway. Because you're not self existing you need all this outside of yourself to keep existing. God is not like that.

He is self existing. He is the transcendent one. He transcends all other things. Meaning He is beyond everything else. As the source of everything else.

So there's the Creator, and then there's everything else. And He's self-existing. That everything else all needs something outside of itself, even stars, will come to a point in time where they don't have what's needed to keep existing. And then astronomers say that's when the fireworks began. But they cease to exist.

Because they're not self existing. God needs nothing outside of himself to exist from eternity past. It's always been that way. Through eternity future, he'll never need anything to exist. He simply exists.

He is. He is dependent on nothing. He doesn't depend on anything. It's all within himself. He is his own internal resources from eternity past through eternity future.

He is limited by nothing. He is infinite. Nothing ever limits Him. There is nothing that He could want to do that He is unable to do because He is unlimited in every category in all directions. God is amazing.

My conscience was pricked so often by the preaching of these men over the last couple of days. Why is that? Because you know, I traffic in these truths all day every day. And I thank God that you buy my hours so that I can do it during daylight hours. I'm using the daylight hours to study these great truths to God and they become common to me.

And I'm ashamed. The things that I'm preaching this morning used to knock us over when we first knew the Lord. And the preaching of these men convinced me that they stopped knocking me over, and I'm ashamed. I want to be knocked over again by these truths because they're not common truths. They're holy truths about a holy God.

May we be reawakened to what this God is like because He's not like anything else and it ought to thrill our souls what he's like. It ought to thrill our souls what he's like. This is our God and he's mindful of us and he visits us and he takes sinners and cleanses them and then brings us and gives us an eternity to know him. Isn't that thrilling? Please tell me you think it's thrilling.

All reality has its being in him. In Him we live and move and have our being. That's how Paul says it in Athens. All reality is defined by Him. He is and so other things can be.

Are you with me? I am. He is. And so it makes the existence of other things possible. No God, no anything else.

All of reality is rooted in him and without him there is... Is there even nothing? I don't know. That's a philosophical question. It doesn't matter because God is.

Moses wrote at least one Psalm. There are a bunch of untitled Psalms, so he might have written more than one, but we know he wrote Psalm 90 because it's headed a prayer of Moses, the man of God. Listen to Psalm 90 verse 2. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. From everlasting, eternity in that direction, to everlasting, eternity in that direction, you are God.

Eternity looking back, you are God, eternity looking forward, you are God, He is. He is. And so the earth was formed. So God revealed Himself to Moses in these words from the burning bush. And then God continued to show and demonstrate to Moses these things about Himself for the next 80 years.

Okay Moses, take the staff. Raise a hand, extend the staff so that the sea will just divide. Okay, you're infinite in every category in every direction. That's how it works. Because he could do anything.

So, God revealed himself to Moses and it made him strong and it made him able to do exploits. Moses is just a shepherd, just a shepherd with a great God. Secondly, Exodus chapter 20, Exodus Exodus chapter 20 verses 1-17. God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.

Shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God." Well, here's self-revelation. God is a jealous God. He doesn't share any of this glory. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, the showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son nor your daughter nor your male servant nor your female servant nor your cattle nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and Hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. The Ten Commandments. Eight don'ts.

Don't kill, don't steal, Don't lie. And some more. Two do's. Do honor God's day. Do honor your parents.

Children, Do honor your parents. So it's a list of do's and don'ts, right? No fundamentally it is not a list of do's and don'ts, though it is comprised of do's and don'ts. Fundamentally it is a self-revelation of God of a perfectly righteous God, a perfectly good God. I love these things.

I hate these things. This is what I am like. To whatever extent we think of the Ten Commandments as a list of do's and don'ts, banish it from your thoughts. It does define how we should conduct ourselves in this life. I thank God that we have them.

But so much more fundamentally than that, it is God revealing Himself to us as a God of perfect goodness. By telling us the things that a perfectly good God loves and what He hates so that we can change because we start reversed. Loving all the wrong things, hating all the wrong things, hating the things that He loves, loving the things that He hates. That is the starting line for the believer because our natures are so bent against him, warped in Genesis chapter 3. The whole race is like that.

You were born like that. You have to be retrained to actually love the right things and hate the right things. That's why we call it conformity to Christ. Who is the only person who ever kept these commandments? Really kept them, wholeheartedly kept them, perfectly kept them, continuously kept them.

It is God in the person of Jesus Christ. Why did He keep the commandments? So he could save us. Yes, that is a correct answer, but that's not the answer. The answer is, because that's who he is, as God, He did what He loved.

As God, He never ever did what He hates. So when you look at him, you see him obeying the commandments, but he's not conscientiously obeying the commandments. He's not thinking, oh I shouldn't lie. He hates lies. He loves the truth.

So his approach to obedience to the commandments is so different than ours. This is just living out who he is, he obeys the commandments. It's what he's like. Jesus is the express image of the invisible God. He is the ultimate revelation of God.

So of course he keeps the commandments. Because that's who God is and that's what God's like. That's ten commandments, Exodus 20. Now Exodus 21, a lot of other commandments. Exodus 22, a lot of other commandments, and on, and on, and on.

Hundreds of commandments. But they all extend from the Ten Commandments as sub-laws. That's how I think of all these other commandments. They are laws that just report to these ten commandments. You can make them ten categories and put all of these other commandments in one of the categories.

They're sub-laws. In those, God reveals Himself as the object of worship. You're worshiping me. You must be worshiped according to his own desires and not according to the desires of the worshiper. As part of God's self-revelation to Moses in the law is, I'm the object of worship and so you should worship me in this way because it pleases me to be worshiped in this way.

It doesn't matter how you like to worship. It matters how I am pleased to be worshiped. God revealed Himself to be. If you don't get that when you read the book of Leviticus, I got no help for you. If you think God doesn't care how he is worshiped after you get done reading the book of Leviticus, you are not paying attention to what you are reading.

Consider the details surrounding every element of worship in the books of Moses. So highly prescribed. Use this, do this, go here. You do it, you don't do it. Consider Leviticus 10, Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron bring worship which God had not commanded.

The text calls it profane fire, which God had not commanded. There was incense to be burned, which was prescribed by God, but they didn't bring that. They wanted to do something else. They brought something else, and God consumed them with fire. The fire fell from heaven to kill them.

God hadn't told them not to do that. He just hadn't commanded them to do it. Do you understand the difference? In our worship, we're to do what God told us to do. Not just bring whatever pleases us and say, well you didn't tell me not to.

That's not how it works. The object of worship says how it pleases Him to be worshiped and we conform to that. That's how God has revealed Himself to be in these laws. Minute laws. Little laws that prescribe things so carefully.

That's what we should learn from those laws that prescribe down to intricate detail. When fire comes from heaven and kills Nadab and Abihu, God says this, by those who come near me I must be regarded as holy. Before all the people I must be glorified. Moses was there for that. Moses recorded that because Moses saw that.

Moses heard God say, by those who draw near to me I must be regarded as holy. In other words, when you say, it pleases me to worship you this way, even though God hasn't said he's pleased to be worshiped that way, you're saying, God you're common. You're not different at all. You're not special at all. You're not other at all.

However, it pleases me to worship you is how I worship you. God says, no, to those who draw near to me, I must be regarded as holy. And before all the people, I must be glorified. Consider the sacrificial system in the law which teaches that the wages of sin is death. What's it teaching you when they're killing those animals?

Sin deserves death. That this God is an all-knowing, Sin deserves death. God is an all-knowing, perfectly righteous judge who could never overlook unrighteousness. He could never just turn away as if that didn't happen, or as if it didn't matter, or as if it wasn't treason that one of his creatures had the audacity to go against his commands. But, that though he is an all-knowing, perfectly righteous judge that he is willing to accept a substitute if the substitute doesn't have any of its own defects to die for itself.

So it would have to be a blameless substitute, a perfectly undefiled substitute, but if one can be found, he'll accept it in place of the sinner, in place of the guilty. He'll accept an innocent substitute in the place of a guilty sinner. You see these two things in the sacrificial system. An unyieldingly righteous God who could never overlook sin. Something must die.

Something must die for that rebellion. But also a judge who will accept a substitute. Oh, if one innocent one can be found to be a substitute in the place of the guilty. I think you know where I'm headed with this. Exodus 20 is the first giving of the Ten Commandments.

There's another listing of the Ten Commandments. It's Deuteronomy chapter 5, right before the people are about to go into the Promised Land. God has Moses re-give the Ten Commandments. It's going to be the constitution for the nation of Israel as they go into the Promised Land. The very next chapter, Deuteronomy chapter 6, Moses is given what Jesus calls the greatest commandment in the law, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

This isn't a new law to be added alongside all the other laws. It is a sum total of all the laws. Paul says that love is the fulfillment of the law. So if you want to summarize the law, you can do it with one word. Can you believe that?

All those laws, hundreds of laws, you can sum it up in one word. Love and love of God is preeminent. Jesus says, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, the second greatest is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. So, love sums up all the law, but the love for God is preeminent. Love for your neighbor actually stems from Love to God.

Understand what this is. To love God with all the heart, all the soul, with all the strength, is not to do God a favor. It is simply to acknowledge the undeniable infinite worth of this incomparable being. If you can ever manage for a minute of time to love God with all of your heart, and all of your soul, and all of your strength, you've not done God any favors, You've simply acknowledged what is undeniable, that He is infinitely beautiful. That He is of infinite worth.

That He is incomparable. There's no one like Him. The only acceptable response to a God like this is to adore. You must adore Him. And there's really no goodness in you to adore him you're acknowledging his beauty how could you deny it you're acknowledging his infinite goodness and and worth and that calls forth a response The only acceptable response to a God like this God is that we would adore him.

So much so that to deny it is a crime. In the end, it is the crime. To refuse to acknowledge that this God is infinitely worthy of the adoration of all my heart and all my soul and all my strength is a crime. God revealed himself to Moses to be this and it made Moses strong and it made him ready to do exploits. Exploits.

Number three, Exodus, the end of Exodus 33, turn there, the end of Exodus 33, In the beginning of Exodus 34. Exodus 33, the people are still at Mount Sinai where the Ten Commandments were given, and God is sending them away. He is sending them into the promised land if only they would obey Him. But He is saying, I am giving you the land, I am sending you into the promised land, I'm keeping my promise, but I'm not going with you because you're stiff-necked. And Moses says, No, God, please, no!

If you won't go with us, then don't send us away from here. Stay with us here. And God considers the intercession of Moses and says, I'll go with you. I will go with you. And that's where we pick up the end of Exodus 33 starting in verse 18 reading through the end of the chapter.

Exodus 33 starting in 18. And he, Moses said, please show me your glory. Then he, God said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." But he said, You cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live. And the Lord said, Here is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock.

So it shall be while my glory passes by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand while I pass by. Then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back but my face you shall not see." Moses makes this very bold request, please show me your glory. God tells Moses that he will show himself, He will make all of His goodness pass before Him. He will proclaim Himself. He will make a proclamation of who He is and describe Himself to Moses.

Then God makes this statement, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. In other words, God is never anyone's debtor acting because he owes and has to. God is revealing this about Himself in saying, I would be gracious to whom I will be gracious and have compassion on whom I will have compassion. He doesn't have to be gracious to anyone. He never owes anyone grace and gives grace because he has to repaying a debt.

It's never the case. He never owes anyone mercy? Repaying a debt? When He gives grace, He gives it freely. Because He loves to.

Because he wants to. It's his good pleasure. When he gives mercy, he gives it freely. It's because he delights in mercy. It's because he's a God of grace and a God of mercy.

That's the only source of His grace and His mercy, just freely given. Out of His nature, out of His essence, out of who He is, never a debt, having to, but wanting to. That makes the dispensation of His grace and His mercy so sweet. He was never backed into a corner to give you His grace and His mercy. He never found Himself constrained to do it.

He was so free. It was because He wanted to. It pleased Him. He took pleasure. All the grace that you've received, God took pleasure in giving it to you.

All the mercy that you've received, God took pleasure in giving it to you. It must be so because He could never owe it. He is God. But God also warns Moses that Moses can't see him head on, that his glory is too much for a person to look on and live. Can you imagine that?

I can't hardly imagine that. The Bible says it's true, so I believe it's true. But What can that be like? A God whose glory is so glorious, the words start to break down. You cannot preach about this.

It's impossible. The English language starts to break down. His glory is so glorious that it's gloriously glorious. It's too good. You can't stand it if he were to show it to you have on?

You couldn't live. God reveals Himself to Moses as so brilliantly glorious that human beings simply can't bear it. Paul says that God alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light. I think he's getting that theology right from our text here. He dwells in unapproachable light.

Don't you try to approach it. Don't do it. You can't live. This is 1 Timothy 6, 16. God dwells in unapproachable light that no one has seen or can see Him.

You just won't survive the experience. You just can't do it. So God tells Moses that he will hide Moses in the crevice of a rock and also shield Moses with his hand while he passes by him and all his goodness. And then having passed by, he will remove his shielding hand so that Moses can see his back. So that Moses can just get a glimpse from the backside of his glory, of all his goodness.

You can stand a glimpse from the backside. I'll shield you, I'll hide you in the crevice of a rock and shield you with my hand. Then when all my goodness is passed by and it's safe to at least get a glimpse from the backside, I'll remove my hand so you can get a glimpse from the backside and live. This is God. Can you understand why I'm saying this is thrilling and mind-bending?

It's hard to understand what's actually being communicated here because our brains are running out of space at this point. Now, this happens in Exodus 34. Look in Exodus 34, just a few verses ahead in verses 5 through 9. Exodus 34, 5 through 9. Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation." So Moses made haste and bowed his head to the earth and worshiped. Then he said, "'If now I have found grace in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as your inheritance. Now we can't know what Moses saw when he got a little glimpse from the backside. We don't even get a description of what he saw. But we can know what he heard.

Because God compelled him to write it down so we have it when God proclaimed himself before Moses. God starts by announcing himself, the Lord, the Lord God, here we are, we're all capsing Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, the self-existent God who is holy, completely and utterly different than anything. And this is his self-proclamation, his description of himself. God, how do you describe yourself? Here it is.

He is full of mercy. He loves to hold back condemnation and destruction, which is well earned, richly deserved. You have earned your condemnation, your guilty verdict, and the penalty, the destruction that comes with it. You have it coming as the wages, as your wages. God loves to hold back that condemnation and destruction.

He is full of grace. God loves to freely give favor and good to people who are completely undeserving. There's no reason on earth to treat you like he treats his perfectly righteous son. Why would he treat me, view me, treat me like he treats his son who spent his whole lifetime in perfect, cheerful, thankful obedience. And here I am, I can't spend a minute and not be proud and selfish.

Not in one minute of my life have I been able to spend not being proud and selfish. But God views me and treats me as if I were His Son who spent every minute with no pride and no selfishness, cheerfully, completely, thankfully obedient. God loves to do it. I didn't earn that grace, and I couldn't earn that grace, and I'm completely undeserving of it, but God loves to give it, and so here it comes. It's wonderful.

He suffers long. He's so patient. The wages of sin is death. By right, he could pay it the nanosecond I sin, but so, so, so, so, so often, he's pleased to give time and more time, opportunity and more opportunity for me to repent. What's he waiting for?

He's waiting because he's long suffering. He could pay the wages right when I earn them. He could send destruction right when I send. But so, so often he gives time and then more time, opportunity and then more time to turn away from that and receive his mercy. And we find him merciful.

He abounds in goodness. Not a little goodness, overflowing goodness. Super abounding goodness. He abounds in truth. He doesn't tell the truth, he is the truth.

1 John 1.5 says that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. God is 100% truth not 99.99999% truth with a change of falsehood 100% unadulterated truth God is 100% good without even the slightest hint at all of corruption. Not the slightest hint at all of corruption. Everything you know is a mixture at best of good, sometimes tinged with a little selfishness, pride, ambition, selfish ambition. Everything we know, touch, experience is mixed.

God's not mixed. He's 100% good, 100% truth without even the slightest hint at all of falsehood and corruption. He forgives the sins of thousands. Thousands live as rebels, and He intervenes. There's nothing that would cause them to repent, only He causes them to repent.

He forgives the sins of thousands. But He also maintains his righteousness, even allowing the reaping of what has been sown down through several generations. He is utterly glorious. In His patience, He is utterly glorious. In His goodness, He is utterly glorious.

In His truth, He is utterly glorious. In His forgiveness, He is utterly glorious. In His justice, He is utterly glorious. Take it all together, it will kill you to look on him. You can't look on him and live.

Moses does what you would do. After seeing just a little from the back, he makes haste, he bows down, he worships. Finally, Deuteronomy 18, 18. This is number four, text number four. Deuteronomy 18, 18.

Just one verse. Wow, I'm already in an hour and five minutes. Good thing I didn't try to do this in Asheville, they would have given me the hook. James is lame, he's on crutches, he can't even get to me. None of the rest of you have the authority to do it.

I'm going to keep going. Number four. This is Deuteronomy, so this is right before the people go into the promised land. Deuteronomy, Moses here in Deuteronomy 18, 18 is relating what the Lord said to him. Deuteronomy 18, 18, God says, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

Moses was a good man, he was a great man, he was raised up by God. God used him to speak, the people didn't listen to him. They are stiff neck people. I know some people like them. One of them lives in my body.

God promised he would send a prophet like Moses and the people would listen to him. This is Jesus. This is fulfilled in Jesus. The Son of God, the Messiah, God Himself, Jesus is God. And it's simply representative.

I picked one verse as a representative for a hundred verses in the books of Moses. Pictures of Jesus. Types of Jesus. Foreshadowings of Jesus. Promises about Jesus in Moses' books.

Jesus is everywhere in Moses' books. So that In Luke 24 after the resurrection, as two disciples are walking to Emmaus, and Jesus falls in with them and falls into their conversation, but they don't recognize him as Jesus because he's hiding himself, the appearance of himself. We read this in Luke 24, 25 through 27. Then Jesus said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken, Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." Jesus could preach Jesus from the Old Testament.

Not a single word of the New Testament had been written at this time. Jesus preaches himself from Moses and the prophets. So that in Acts 28, when Paul is in prison in Rome, but he's at liberty to preach to anyone who will come to him under house arrest. We read this in Acts 28 verse 23. So when they had appointed him a day, Many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets, from morning till evening." Paul could preach a day-long sermon.

A day-long sermon. See this sermon is so short. From morning till evening from the law of Moses and the prophets. That maybe the Pentateuch, maybe preaching Christ from the Pentateuch would take until early afternoon. He's everywhere in these books.

Because Jesus is the ultimate self-revelation of God, God revealed himself to Moses in all the pictures, in the types, in the foreshadowings, and the promises about Jesus. He couldn't reveal himself without revealing Jesus. He was going to send this ultimate self-revelation where you could actually see in flesh the attributes of what God was like because Jesus is God. In conclusion, let me say three things. First, God wants to be known.

Don't let the implications of that be lost on you. God wants to be known. He's not hiding from me. He desires to be known and I have the proof of it. In the life of Moses and in this book, we wouldn't have the book if God didn't want to be known.

His glory is too glorious to be hidden. So he made a world and he made creatures in his own image with the capability and the capacity to understand what he would reveal of himself. He has revealed himself. A second. Moses.

Why the exploits? Why the wonders in Egypt? Why the Red Sea? Why water out of a rock? Why is this one man able to keep a million stiff-necked people together through 40 years in the wilderness?

It's because God revealed himself to Moses so Moses knew him, so Moses was strong, so Moses was ready for exploits. It's as simple as that. Third, finally, Don't pine away from Moses' revelation. Oh, if only God would reveal himself to me like that. Why don't I get a burning bush?

Why don't I get to see the glory, a little bit of the glory from the back? I would probably really love God if I could have His Revelation. No. The prophets longed to see what we see. The prophets longed to see what you see.

Their Bible stopped here. Yours is here. And it's the clearest, fullest revelation of God that it is because it's about Jesus, the ultimate revelation of God. You don't have it worse than Moses. You have it better than Moses.

The things that he saw through a glass darkness you see in technicolor. We come after Jesus, seeing Jesus in the Gospel accounts. We come after Jesus, have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We're after Pentecost. The one who asks, receives.

You want to know God? Ask to know God. You'll receive. The one who seeks finds. You want to know God?

Seek God. You'll find Him. He isn't hiding. He doesn't want to reveal Himself. The door is open to the one who knocks.

Are you knocking? You want to know God more? Then know God more! God's not stopping you. You can have as much of God as you want.

I say that to my shame. This God is thrilling. This God will satisfy you in time and in eternity, in your life and then forevermore. Seek Him. You will find him.

God, thank you for our time this morning. You are so glorious to catch a glimpse. It does make us ashamed that we haven't sought to know you more. I pray that this would just reawaken appetite in us. Give us appetite, Lord, so that we would set aside these inferior things that we chase after in order to ask and seek and knock, knowing that you desire to reveal your glory so that you might be known.

Pray in Jesus' name, Amen.