Encountering the Eternal

0:00 And tonight, Lord willing, we will learn many things together, but chiefly, we will see the nature and some of the attributes of God on full display. And if you have never done a deep dive into the attributes of God and studying the nature of God, I would really challenge you to do so. Everyone should do this at multiple points in their life. go and study the attributes of God specifically. This is something that will benefit your faith in such a tremendous way. And you and I, we should seek to understand the nature and attributes of the God that we get to know and serve. We should know him well. We should know what he's like. and certainly we see the nature and attributes of God on full display as we consider the totality of the scriptures and it is by the scriptures that you and I can even know who he is and what he is like this is important because if we want to think rightly about God we must think biblically about God. It is the only way.

1:15 if we fail to do this, if we develop ideas about God that are not rooted in Scripture, well, then we will have made for ourselves a false God. God would look at the God that we made by doing that and say, that's not me. That's not what I'm like. I've revealed myself in my word. You should go check it out. Now, with that being said, there are certainly some extremely helpful books out there that compile the scriptures about the nature and attributes of God that tell us and show us what it means when God says he is holy or what it means when he reveals himself as omnipotent, all-powerful, and so on and so forth. Some of those books, if this is something that is of interest to you, some of these books that have blessed my life in this area of study would be The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. I would encourage everyone, if you're going to read any of these books, this is the smallest of the bunch, and it will radically bless you.

2:26 The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. There's also Knowing God by J.I. Packer. There's also The Attributes of God, which is kind of an extended version of The Knowledge of the Holy, also written by A.W. Tozer. And then there's The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink. Now, I suppose if your first and middle initial is A.W., well then you're halfway on your way to being a Bible commentator, or you're halfway to making a good root beer. There's no in-between, I guess. That's your calling. But tonight, we're going to be diving into Moses' encounter with the eternal God and learn about what God reveals to Moses about his own nature. And though we're going to talk about Moses and we're going to learn from Moses. The focus of tonight's text, make no mistake, is the Lord himself. He is the focus. And this moment that Moses has with the Lord, this encounter with God Almighty, would have definitely been awesome for him to experience.

3:42 But it can and it should be equally as awesome for us tonight in diving into God's word about this experience if we really see it for what it is. So I'd love for you to stand with me as we read the word together. Exodus 3, we're going to be reading from verse 1 through verse 15. And I'll go ahead and take it. You guys just follow along in your Bibles or on the screens. Verse 1. 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.

4:44 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 that 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.

6:04 Come now, therefore, and 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.

7:11 This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. Let's pray together. Father, we come to you tonight and we know that it is your delight to reveal more of yourself to us as we have your word open. God, I pray that our minds and our hearts would be attuned to your voice as you have spoken through your word. Lord, please show us more of who you are. Take us deeper in our knowledge of you. Take us deeper in our relationship with you. We delight to know you. Lord, this is your time. We dedicate it unto you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.

7:59 If you're taking notes tonight, you can note down our first of four points is what we see in verses 1 through 6, which is an awesome appearing. An awesome appearing. Now, I know we just read these verses, but I believe that repetition is key. This is something I teach the junior hires. We repeat things oftentimes. So let's repeat reading these first six verses. Look back down in your Bibles once more. 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.

9:19 And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And so we pick it up here in this third chapter of Exodus, but there is much that has already taken place leading up to this moment. Here in chapter 3, we find the infamous man of God, Moses, in the land of Midian. But we must ask, what is Moses doing in Midian? Well, Moses has fled to Midian out of fear for his own life. Prior to this season of Moses' life in Midian, he dwelt in Egypt. He was raised in the most powerful household in all of Egypt, the household of Pharaoh. And at some point, Moses came to understand while being in Egypt that he was not himself an Egyptian. He came to understand that he was a Hebrew, just like his brethren that were enduring the brutal slavery and persecution from the Egyptian taskmasters.

10:27 And so it comes to pass that one day, while Moses is out and about, he observes the burdens of his brethren. And he sees a taskmaster abusing a Hebrew slave. And so the text tells us that Moses looks one way, he looks the other way, and then he proceeds to kill the taskmaster and bury him in the sand. And all seemed fine until the next day when Moses goes out and about again and he sees two Hebrew men fighting with each other. And he intervenes. He tries to get them to break it up. And one of the men calls to Moses and says, who made you a prince and judge over us? Do you intend to kill me like you killed the Egyptian yesterday? and upon hearing this, Moses is filled with fear because he knows that what he did is clearly known by others.

11:31 And word about what Moses had done reached the ears of Pharaoh and so the king of Egypt seeks to kill Moses. And so Moses, he flees for his own life and he ends up in Midian. Moses was 40 years old upon his arrival in Midian And he would dwell in Midian for 40 more years Until the Lord visits him here in Exodus 3 And so 80 year old Moses is kind of minding his own business in Midian He's now a married man He's got children He's got a job of shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro But this secluded life was not God's plan for this man. God had much bigger things in mind. While Moses is out one day with Jethro's flock, the angel of the Lord appears to him.

12:33 we must ask though though angels they are certainly far from ordinary creatures was this just an ordinary angel the answer to that question is no well was it some sort of archangel like michael or gabriel the answer to that question is also no this was not simply an angel of the Lord. This was the angel of the Lord. Make no mistake, this is the Lord God himself appearing to Moses in this moment. This is what is commonly referred to as a theophany. A theophany is a manifestation of God in a way that is tangible to human senses. We read about them, throughout the Old Testament. And that's exactly what is happening here at the burning bush. This is God speaking to Moses. And this was a God-orchestrated and God-ordained moment.

13:43 Moses was not necessarily trying to conjure up this moment. He's tending to the flock. It was God-orchestrated. It was God-initiated. And there's something to be said here. Because when God reveals himself, he is the one who initiates it by his own will. And he determines the means as to how he does so. And the gospel is no different. The manifestation of God to this world in the form of a human, the God-man, Christ Jesus, It was initiated by the will of God out of his love for humanity.

14:30 Now, how did God choose to reveal himself to Moses in this moment? Well, it was by the means of a bush that was engulfed in flames, and yet the bush was not being consumed. And this miraculous and awesome sight that Moses sees, he takes note of it and he's intrigued. He goes to check it out. And upon drawing near, the Lord calls out to him by name.

15:05 I think it's important that we recognize God calls out to him by name. I believe that's a significant detail. And I believe that this speaks to God's intimate and acquainted knowledge of us personally. Not only does he know all the stars and call them all by name, the Bible tells us, he knows our name. He knows the number of hairs on our very head, the Bible tells us. He knows us in that personal way. You see, he's not this CEO type of God that speaks to his employees not even knowing their names, but tells them like a grunt, like, hey, do this for me. I don't know who you are, but go do this for me.

16:00 That is not the nature of our God. He knows us personally. He calls to us as the very one who made us and knows us by name. Jeremiah 1.5, such a beloved verse. The Lord tells Jeremiah, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. That's hard to wrap your mind around tonight, good. It's supposed to be. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I ordained you a prophet to the nations. God's intimate knowledge of Jeremiah goes back to the womb.

16:43 And that's hard to wrap our minds around. But this is important, that his knowledge of us, it proceeds and it comes before his using of us. We are his sons and daughters and then his servants. He loves you not because of what you can do for him. he loves you because he loves you. He loves you because he's made you and you're his.

17:20 And so nonetheless, Moses hears his name from the midst of the inflamed bush and Moses has no other words other than, here I am. now as we'll see later this wasn't necessarily Moses expressing this extreme willingness to go and do what God was calling him to do Moses would be very hesitant and even resistant once God gave him his marching orders this was not a here I am like what Isaiah told the Lord in Isaiah 6 8 when God says whom shall I send who's going to go for us and Isaiah says pick me. Here I am. I'm right here. Send me, God. Moses' here I am is not quite like that.

18:11 God responds to Moses and gives him a warning and a command. He tells the shepherd that was just out for a walk with the sheep, he says, don't come any closer. And while you're at it, take off your sandals. Why? Well, because Moses, the ground upon which you stand, it is holy ground. It was sacred. Now, was this ground holy because it was some sort of special dirt or something like that? Was this ground sacred because some California environmentalists had the land protected for an endangered bug or something? No.

19:00 Of course not. The dirt itself was just ordinary dirt. it's funny i was having a conversation with the with a student recently in the junior high room we were just talking and we got to talking about one of the the laws of physics the law of conservation of mass he's a smart kid clearly but the law of conservation of mass tells us that matter cannot be created nor destroyed and so for this reason we got to thinking we got to brainstorm and we said, why don't we start a business? Let's get some jars of dirt, some jars of ocean water, and let's go put them on eBay and advertise them as the same dirt and water that was around when Adam and Eve walked the earth. I think people would buy it. I think there might be something there. No, but in all seriousness, the ground, it was ordinary ground, and yet it had become extraordinary ground because of the presence of the Lord himself being there.

20:08 God who is holy made the ground holy in this moment because he was there. Joshua had a similar experience with the Lord. In Joshua 5 verses 13 through 15, we read here, And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes and looked and behold, a man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, this is a very wise question given the moment, are you for us or for our adversaries? So he said, no, but as the commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant?

21:02 Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take your sandal off of your foot, for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. And so it's at this point that the Lord makes it clear to Moses who exactly he is speaking to. Moses was speaking to none other than the God of his fathers. the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And when Moses is told this, when he realizes that he is speaking to the Lord himself, he rightly hides his face out of fear. But the Lord still had much, he still had much more to say to Moses. Our second point tonight is what we see in verses 7 through 9, which is the attentive almighty, the attentive almighty.

21:59 We see in verse 7, And the Lord said,

22:22 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 oppress them. Here's where the Lord makes Moses aware of how he is aware of the suffering of his people. The word that is used here is the word oppression. And this word oppression, it means affliction. It means misery. It means great suffering and distress.

23:11 And the Lord, in speaking to Moses here, uses three key words to describe his intimate awareness of the suffering of his people, his intimate attentiveness. God tells Moses, I have seen the oppression of my people. I have heard their cry. I know their sorrows. God had seen, he had heard, and he had known what his people were going through. and though his people had been going through this season of brutal enslavement for many years the Lord wanted to make it clear to Moses that he was not distant and far removed and disengaged from the suffering of his people. and it's tempting to at times, but we dare not think that the Lord is inattentive to our problems and our suffering. In the book of Isaiah chapter 40, we see verse 27, this very thing.

24:25 God speaks to them, and he says, why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord and my just claim is passed over by my God. Why aren't you paying attention, Lord? Don't you see? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might, he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

25:20 They shall walk and not faint. He sees, he hears, he knows. and still today God is not disengaged from our lives to where we suffer without him seeing us to where we suffer without him hearing our cries to where we suffer without him knowing what we are going through we call out to a God that is aware and attentive to us and he knows our suffering much more than we give him credit.

26:05 The suffering servant of Isaiah 53, the Messiah, Jesus, the Christ, being prophesied of here, tells us of him that he is despised and rejected by man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Oh, he understands suffering, all right. our Lord even wept at the tomb of Lazarus you ever thought about that? we learn in that text of John 11 that Jesus knew what he was going to do and yet upon arriving at Lazarus' tomb he weeps I believe that that is in the Bible for us to learn that our God knows suffering he knows grief he knows what it's like the book of Hebrews chapter 4 tells us that we do not call out to a high priest that cannot sympathize with us he gets it so when we call upon him in times of distress we are calling to the almighty who is attentive to his beloved psalm 46 verse 1 says god is our refuge and strength a very present help in times of trouble you want to know what it means very present it means abundantly available it means extremely close in proximity. This is God in the midst of our suffering. He is very present.

27:48 He is near. He could not be closer, actually. It's us that need to wake up to this suffering. It clouds our vision. it causes us sometimes to not see things rightly, which is why we must place the word of God above our own feelings and emotions in those moments. And we say, I know I'm feeling this way, but God's word says he's very present in my difficulty. Psalm 145, verses 18 through 19 tell us that the Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear him.

28:44 He will also hear their cry and save them. Now those are some verses that you can desperately cling to in seasons of difficulty for sure. You see, the cries of God's people here in Exodus, they had reached his ears. Exodus 2, verses 23 through 25, just before our text of Exodus 3, the verses immediately preceding, tell us this. Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage and they cried out and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel and God acknowledged them.

29:37 And you know what, what we see here, praise the Lord that he is a covenant keeping God. Praise the Lord that he is faithful to do what he has said he is going to do. If he said it, he's going to do it. That's the bottom line. He's perfectly faithful. He has no instances of unfaithfulness. He is only faithful. He will keep his word. And because he has this perfect track record, he can be trusted. and it's truly it's been my prayer that for those of you who are in need of it tonight that you would just find an abundance of comfort in the fact that your God He is aware and attentive to whatever it is you're facing He knows He hears your cry He sees your struggle and He's with you in it. And so take heart in his presence, which is near to you in the midst of life's fiery trials.

30:51 In the book of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the furnace, and King Nebuchadnezzar is perplexed because he is told there's a fourth. We threw three in the fire, there's four. and it was God standing with his servants, with his sons and he stands with you in the midst of that fiery trial that you are facing God had not abandoned his people in their hardship rather he was with them and he was at work to bring about a grand plan that no mind could conceive except for his and this plan would be for his glory and for their good. 2 Corinthians 4.17 tells us that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, it's just in the grand scheme.

31:53 I know when you're in these seasons, I totally get it. I've gone through them too. We all have, right? It feels like it just drags and that there's no end in sight and yet the word says it's but for a moment. But it is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. God is working it out for his glory. And then Romans 8, 28, one of the most famous verses in the Bible and for good reason, says that we know all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. If you love God and if you are called according to his purpose tonight, then it is God's business to work whatever you're facing, to work it out for your good. He will do it.

32:49 I've told people, I love this verse so much, and it's such a comfort to me. I've told people that there's kind of like three phases to this verse. There's the phase where you're, it's before the trial, where maybe you're not in a trial tonight, you're in phase one. You read that verse, and you're like, that's great, that's good to know. I'm going to need that.

33:19 And then there's phase two. When you're in the fire, you're in the trial. You've got to believe this. You have to. What other choice do you have? To give in to fear and anxiety and let your relationship with the Lord suffer as a result of the suffering that you're facing? You know, your relationship with Him doesn't need to suffer when you're in suffering. In fact, the suffering itself could and should cause you to draw near to him. And so there's the phase two being in the middle of the trial. And then what we love is there's the phase three being on the other side of it and looking back and saying, Wow.

34:15 He did it. He did what he said he was going to do. He worked it out for my good. but God was not just attentive and aware he was on the move the Lord tells Moses in verse 8 that he was coming down to deliver his people from their bondage to deliver them from what they could not deliver themselves from and to bring them into an abundantly blessed land now our minds ought to go to the gospel of Jesus Christ right now that the Lord himself intervened. When it came to our sin situation that we got ourselves in, God himself in the person of Christ came down to fix it.

35:16 It's like the old saying, right? You want a job done right, do it yourself. Maybe that originates with God. probably not obviously but God says hey they're in a situation because of their sin they can't fix it no one else can fix it but me and I'm not going to leave them in it. I'm going to go down, and I'm going to die for them. Yeah, they're unworthy, but I love them.

35:48 God saw us in the pit of our own sin, the pit that we ourselves dug, and he didn't leave us there. He could have, and honestly, he would have been completely just in doing so. But that's not what he did. Instead, he heard our cry, and he responded with merciful deliverance. The book of Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4 through 7 tell us, but God who was rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

36:53 Yes, thank you Lord. While we were at our worst, Christ died for us. What a gospel this is. Our third point tonight, you can note it down, what we see in verses 10 through 12, is a divine dispatching. A divine dispatching. The text goes on to say in verse 10, Come now, therefore, and 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. you can almost imagine Moses up until this point nodding his head in in agreement with what God is saying about this grand plan that God is going to deliver his people because up until now the the Lord hasn't mentioned Moses's part in any of it he's just been told what God's going to do here's where that changes the Lord essentially tells him let's go Mo I am sending you to Pharaoh to deliver my people.

38:15 And you can almost imagine Moses being like, excuse me? I don't think I heard you right. I thought you said you were going to deliver your people, not me. Moses' true response to what God tells us, to what God tells him, excuse me, is actually a question. It's a pretty reasonable question if you ask me. His question is simply, who am I that I should do this? And I'm not sure about you, but I can totally relate to Moses here. I have asked this question to the Lord many times in my life Who am I Lord? And I will likely ask him that question many more times in the future I may have even asked him that question tonight before coming out here Who am I?

39:12 To be standing here teaching you all I don't know about you, but I can tend to feel so unworthy to be used by God. And that's true. I'm not worthy to be used by God, but He chooses to do it anyway. Sometimes I can feel so inadequate to be used by God. And honestly, that happens when I'm in the flesh. when I'm more focused on me than I am on what God can do and what he's capable of.

39:52 There is a humility in asking the question, who am I, that I should, you fill in the blank, whatever it might be that God's calling you to do. There's a humility in that, but there's also a danger in it. and the danger is if you say who am i and you don't move forward when god is calling you to move forward in response to moses's question the lord reassures him says moses i'm going to be with you every step of the way i will certainly be with you and that's it that's really all that Moses needed to hear. It's all the reassurance that we need as well, that the Lord, he goes with us. He goes before us. Matthew 28, verse 18 through 20, the great commission.

40:51 And Jesus came and spoke to them, his disciples, saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all the things that I have commanded you. And praise God it doesn't stop right there. Because if it stopped right there, then we might rightfully feel insecure. But it doesn't. Jesus goes on to say, And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. Even to the end of the world itself, he is with us in what he has called us to do. And now we're not going to get into them in great detail because of the amount of time we have left. But Moses would go on after verse 15.

41:50 The text continues, and he would go on to hear more about what God was going to do. God would give him some more details. And he would go on to give the Lord excuses as to why he couldn't do it and why God should find somebody else.

42:11 Now, Moses here, he had a case, he had a bad case of analysis paralysis when you overanalyze to where you don't move. You're laughing because you probably know what it's like. I know what it's like. When you overanalyze and you just, you stay there and you never take a step of faith. When that's exactly what God is calling you to do. and I would argue that you'll never achieve great things in the kingdom if you overanalyze and you don't move forward God uses those who walk in faith and trust him and he gets glory through that Moses was making the mistake of looking too much at himself and his own insufficiencies when he should have been trusting in the Lord, the Lord who makes the insufficient sufficient.

43:16 The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 3, verses 5 through 6, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. God makes the insufficient sufficient for what he's calling them to do. Maybe you've heard the phrase, God does not call the equip. He equips the called. All Moses needed was the Lord. And the Lord had promised him that. It was God's business to equip him. It was Moses' business to trust and take God at his word that God would be with him through it all. Our fourth and final point tonight you can note down is what we see in verses 13 through 15, which is a self-existent Savior.

44:22 a self-existent savior. We see in verse 13, whoops, we see in verse 13, 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. now we've already so far in our time together we've already said so much about the nature and attributes of God we've mentioned that he is a God who reveals himself we've mentioned that he is a God who is holy that he is faithful to keep his word that he is aware and attentive and that He is present.

45:44 Here is where we see one more key attribute of the Lord on display as it is revealed in His proper name being given to Moses. Contrary to what some might say, God is not His name. It's His title. It's not wrong to refer to Him as God, of course. It's just not His proper personal name. the word God in the Hebrew is Elohim. And it translates to mean the supernatural, divine agent being that originated and rules over the universe.

46:27 And in his hesitation to do what the Lord was calling him to do, Moses, he poses a hypothetical situation, yet somewhat of a likely hypothetical situation. He says, okay, Lord, what if I go to the children of Israel that you're sending me to? What if they ask for your name?

46:51 What do I tell them? And the Lord doesn't rebuke Moses for asking this question, but rather just simply gives him his name. The Lord tells Moses that his name is I am who I am. In the Hebrew, Y-H-W-H. Yahweh or Jehovah. This is what's known as the tetragrammaton.

47:21 You and I might think of it as a bit of an odd name because it doesn't really sound like a name to us. but it is nonetheless the name of our God. His name is Yahweh. This was the name that Moses was to tell the people if and when they asked what the name of God who was sending Moses was. And verse 15 tells us that this has been his name forever and will be his name forever. But the proper name of God, I am who I am, it tells us some key things actually about his very nature. From his name alone, we can understand that he is self-existent, self-sufficient, and eternal. What do we mean when we use terms like that?

48:21 Well, firstly, that God has no origin. He has no beginning. He has always been and He will always be. He is the creator of all things but is Himself uncreated.

48:44 There's never been a moment where He did not exist. And there never will be a moment where He does not exist. he is that's it he is that's what he tells Moses I am he has existed in infinity of that direction from Genesis 1-1 imagine infinity in that direction and over here Revelation 22-21 infinity in that direction he will exist he's eternal he's uncreated this is the God that we know and serve that we get to approach because of the blood of Christ He is completely independent from the boundaries of time. He dwells outside of those limits.

49:40 unlike us and everything that we know he exists within himself this is a mind-blowing thing for us a.w. tozer says in the knowledge of the holy one of those books i recommended at the beginning he says a more positive assertion of selfhood could not be imagined than those words of god to Moses. I am that I am. Everything God is, everything that is God, is set forth in that unqualified declaration of independent being. And as much as the question that some have thought before, who created God? As much as it might feel natural for us to ask that, because everything we no, has had a beginning. It's an improper question to ask because of the fact that God is self-existent, uncreated, and eternal. J.I. Packer, he addresses this in his book, Knowing God, and he says, children sometimes ask. I would throw in adults too sometimes, atheists that think they're God. Sorry. Children sometimes ask, who made God? The clearest answer is that God never needed to be made because He always was there. He exists in a different way from us. We, His creatures, exist in a dependent, derived, finite, fragile way. But our Maker exists in an eternal, self-sustaining, necessary way. Necessary, that is, in the sense that God does not have it in him to go out of existence, just as we do not have it in us to live forever. We necessarily age and die because it is our present nature to do that. God necessarily continues forever unchanged

51:50 because it is his eternal nature to do that. This is one of the many contrasts between creature and creator. God is the unmoved mover. He is the uncaused cause. And what we must know about his self-existent and eternal nature is that it applies to all three persons of the Trinity. It doesn't just apply to the Father, but also to the Son and also to the Spirit.

52:30 Contrary to what cults say, Jesus was not created by the Father. He dwelt in perfect unity with the Father and with the Spirit prior to Genesis 1.1. Perfect unity, uncreated. John 1, verses 1 through 3 tell us, In the beginning was the Word, the Son of God, Jesus the Christ. In the beginning was Jesus. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him. Nothing was made that was made. And John 1.14 goes on to tell us later in that chapter that the Word became flesh. He entered into His own creation to save us.

53:28 Revelation 1.8, this is Jesus speaking to the Apostle John. Jesus says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. That's Jesus, the eternal Christ, the Son of God, uncreated, self-existent.

53:57 And a personal favorite of mine on this topic of Jesus being eternal is John chapter 8, verses 52 through 59, more specifically verse 58. We see here in John 8, Then the Jews said to him, Now we know you have a demon. Abraham is dead, and the prophets. And you say, If anyone keeps my word, he shall never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead? Who do you make yourself out to be? Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my father who honors me. of whom you say that he is your God. Yet you have not known him, but I know him. And if I say I do not know him, I shall be a liar like you. But I do know him and keep his word.

54:57 Your father, get this guys, listen. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Then the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old and have you seen Abraham? And here it is, the mic drop of all mic drops. Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. and in case anyone tries to convince you out of John 8 58 being Jesus claiming to be God look at the next verse look at the reaction of the religious leaders this is how we know it's exactly what it was then they took up stones to throw at him but Jesus hit himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. They reacted this way because they knew what he was claiming. And so as we close tonight, what truly blows my mind when we consider these things about the nature of God is that, yes, he's eternal. He is awesome.

56:22 He's powerful He's holy He's self-existent and self-sufficient And yet He chose to create me And He chose to create you He brought you into existence He gave you life And not only did He choose to create me He knows me in such a deep, personal, and intimate way that I can't wrap my mind around. And frankly, I'm glad I can't.

57:05 Not only does he know me, not only has he made me, he sent his son to save me so that I could dwell in eternity, in eternal joy with him. He didn't need me. Do you realize this?

57:30 He doesn't need you. He didn't need to make or create the worlds. He didn't need to create us. But he did. and then we turn our backs on him by our sin.

57:53 And he didn't need to save us. He didn't need us in heaven with him. but he loves us and he wanted us in heaven with him. And maybe tonight you're here or you're watching and you don't know this God. you don't know this God who knows you perfectly well it is his will and his delight that you would know him personally as great and powerful eternal and self-sufficient as he is he invites us into this relationship with him he invites us to come close and it's been made possible by the blood of Christ.

58:53 It was not possible because of our sin, but by what Jesus has done, our sin can be forgiven, we can be justified, declared righteous, and brought into this experience with the God who made us. He's not distant. he's not far removed The Bible tells us he is near. and you can know him by coming to Christ, by putting your faith in Jesus as the Son of God, by believing that Jesus went to the cross on behalf of our sin, on behalf of your personal sin, and that he shed his own blood when what would have been just was our blood being shed.

59:53 us paying the punishment and yet he steps in as our substitute and sheds his blood so that we could be forgiven of our sin every wrong you've ever committed against God every wrong you will commit against God his blood can cover and you will go to heaven if you put your faith in him. it was his plan all along in the garden we were supposed to dwell in perfect harmony until sin and sin really messed it up but God didn't give up he sent Jesus to restore this grand plan of us being with him forever as we close in prayer I just want to challenge you if you want to be with the God who made you forever if you want to dwell in his presence forever there's one way and it's through putting faith in Jesus.

1:01:13 Let's pray. Lord God, we come to you tonight and Lord, I do ask if there would be anyone hearing these words, hearing your word. they have realized their need to put faith in you. to believe, Jesus, that you died on the cross, you shed your own blood for our atonement, for our forgiveness, and that you rose three days later, proving your power and victory over sin and death. Lord, if anyone needs to believe on the name of Jesus tonight and be saved, I pray that they would just call upon you, that they would call upon the Lord and simply say, oh, it's so much more simple than we make it.

1:02:07 Simply say, I'm a sinner, Lord. Be merciful to me. I'm a sinner. Forgive me. I believe that you went to the cross for me so that I could be with you. You paid the price that I could not pay out of your great love and mercy. Lord, truly, we thank you for the gospel.

1:02:40 And as tonight we examine Moses having an encounter with you, I pray that tonight we too would have encountered you and that we would go out tonight having been changed by you. It's in Jesus' name that we all pray. Amen.