Exodus 3:4–6

0:00 Good evening. All right, so normally on these evening services, they give you one verse to kind of work off of. Maybe if you're more experienced, they'll give you two. Tonight you have the odd privilege, experience, of hearing my first time preaching to any congregation and three whole verses from the Old Testament at that. So let's pray again quickly. God, thank you for your word. Help me be bold and clear, And thank you for always being faithful to us, even through your word.

0:32 It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, I was coming into work, and a friend that I work with was finishing up some homework. And she wanted to ask me a couple questions. And mind you, it's 6 a.m. in the morning. I'm trying to get to work. She needs to leave. But I go, okay, sure. She kept messing up the attributes of God. She was like, let me run them by you real quick. I go, okay. She goes, omnipresent. I go, you know that one. She goes, yeah, God's everywhere. I go, good job. Omnipotent. I go, God's all powerful, potent, powerful.

1:04 She goes, okay, that's good. Omnibenevolent. She didn't really know. I go, that's a fancy way of saying God's all good, morally perfect. Mind you, I'm about to clock in. She's got to go. She goes, one more real quick. I go, okay. She goes, holiness. Kind of pause on that one. I go, that's kind of a hard one, actually. What do they say holiness is? Now, I'm not going to be able to fully answer what holiness is tonight, but I do think our text tonight sheds some light on our God as the holy God and how we should respond.

1:35 So you'll find your text on the front of your bulletins or on page 46 of the Red Pew Bibles in front of you. It's Exodus chapter 3, verses 4 through 6. Exodus chapter 3, verses 4 through 6. Let's read the word. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am. Then he said, Do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

2:09 And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Okay, so there's plenty here. I'm sure some people could spend 45 minutes on it. I won't, don't worry. But I do think that the main idea of this passage, therefore of this sermon is quite simple, and it's this. The holy and covenant-keeping God knows you, and we should respond with obedience and fear. The holy and covenant-keeping God knows you, and we should respond with obedience and fear. I'm going to deviate a little from the main idea, two points, Baptist standard. I'm actually going to look at this passage and this main idea in four sets of couplets, two characters, two names, two attributes, and two responses.

2:51 So let's dive in. Kind of set the context quickly, I'm going to look at the two characters, Moses and God in our passage, and the exodus to this point so far. So Moses, first 40 years, is in Pharaoh's palace, living as a prince and privileged. Gets into the real world, sees that the Hebrews are enslaved and mistreated, and he murders an Egyptian taskmaster and hides the body. The next day when he hears rumors, he's starting to get afraid, and so he spends the next 40 years, fleeing the law as a no-name shepherd in Midian. I say no-name because if you actually look at verse 1 of chapter 3, it makes it clear. It says, now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro. So here's Moses, an 80-year-old man, doesn't even have his own flock of sheep. And that's when God calls him in our verse tonight. I think a quick note here about God's timing is that God's timing is not our timing. Moses is 80 years old in chapter 3 of Exodus. Exodus has 40 chapters, and Moses has 40 more years left to his life. So if you are older,

3:54 I know older for our church is like 45, but if you're older, we appreciate you bringing up our average. God's not done with you. God's not finished with the work that you have to do. I don't think that he's forgotten you in your old age. If you know a family member, a grandparent, who's not a believer, that's not a default. Well, they're never going to be a Christian. are stuck in their ways. Moses was a murderer, was fleeing the law when he was 80 years old, when God called him. They need Jesus just as much as anyone. And if you're younger, maybe feeling like everyone else is getting the opportunities and jobs and marriages that you want, Moses shepherded somebody else's flock for 40 years, faithfully. So let's find us to be faithful wherever the Lord has us. So back to the second character, God, who is in our passage tonight his providence has been throughout the first two chapters clearly from nations and governments to the details of Moses's life but he hasn't spoken yet the first time he speaks is actually in our passage so don't ever let our perceived silence of God equate to God not working

5:00 God is working even when we think he's silent but God does not stay silent which brings us to our second couplet, which is two names. So after 400 years of silence, the first thing God says is simply Moses. Moses. Now this is not like when your parents are trying to get your attention when you're in trouble. You know, trouble. James, Andrew, Clutston, you know. Which doesn't make sense. I didn't know my real name was James until I was 10. Different story. Ask me about it later. God's not doing that. The repetition is indicating intimacy and the magnitude of what God's about to do. There's only seven times in the entire Bible, four in the old, three in the new, that God does this. Surely you're thinking of other ones where Jesus, Martha, Martha. God knows Moses, and God knows who you are. I guess, do you think about what it means that God knows your name? God knows who you are? Look at the end of chapter two of Exodus, the very last verse. What does it say?

5:59 God saw the people of Israel and God knew. See, our main idea was about the holy and covenant-keeping God who knows you. We're going to get to the holy and covenant part here, but I want us to meditate on this idea of God knowing us personally. Does that idea bring comfort? Does it bring fear? Imagine what it brought for Moses. Here he sings, going to live out his days on the farm, in his old age, and then the God of the universe shows up calling his name. I'm sure memories of his murder, of fleeing the law, his fear, all start rushing back.

6:34 See, sometimes we'd rather that God didn't know us because of our sin. You know, I remember my first conscious sin. Not my first sin, I'm sure my parents can attest. But the first one I remember, it was a lie. Don't remember the situation, what I lied about. But I remember the way it felt when my parents called my name that time. Jimmy. It's that weird feeling of condemnation, yet somehow comfort, because they know you and still love you.

7:06 God knows you and your flaws and is still calling you to himself. So reach out. But this brings us to our third couplet, because God actually says a lot more in this passage, and that's two attributes. So if you look back down at your verse, starting in verse 5, it says this. Then he said, do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet. For the place on which you are standing is holy ground. And 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 at God.

7:39 We're going to get to Moses' response last, because I actually think once we know who this God is, who's calling out to Moses, his response makes a lot more sense. So starting in verse 6, we see that God is the covenant-keeping God. See, God has not forgotten his promises he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's what the end of chapter 2 says, right? He remembered his promise to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob. I think as we learned this morning with Alex, you can't outrun his promises. God always keeps his promises because that's the kind of God that he is.

8:12 I actually want us to think on this attribute of God as the covenant-keeping God because it has such immediate and real-world application. See, thinking about the attributes of God is not something to be done in a seminary class somewhere. Now, if you are in seminary, be careful not to just think of God as an object of study. He's a person to be worshipped. Never forget that. But we all should think on the attributes of God because that is what grounds our comfort. See, if we know God is one who always keeps his promises, we can look at the promises of Scripture, and that's how we find hope because that's to God who he is.

8:48 You know, now, does he promise health, wealth, and prosperity? Well, no. but as we just prayed about he does promise eternal life will there be no more sorrow no more cancer no more sin no more death the reason why we can have confidence that that will come true is because God is a covenant keeping God and he's made that promise to his people so you know I think also we can have hope for the future because part of the promise and covenant God made was with the 400 years of enslavement in mind. He didn't like have to work. He knew that was going to happen. Sufferings are going to happen in your life and God knows that. And so how do we know that we're going to make, how can we strive through sufferings, find joy in all trials? How can we do that? It's not by gritting our teeth and our effort, but it's by remembering that God promises to keep us. And so we can rely on him, not ourselves. But in our passage, Moses

9:50 didn't exactly feel all warm and fuzzy at this God. I think the attribute that my friend asked me about, holiness, is the reason why. Now, there's plenty to say about God being the holy God. I've spent a whole sermon on that. But, you know, basic form means God set apart, consecrated to. It also has to be moral perfection, right? I want us to focus on the implication of those things, And I think one of the biggest is that God is unlike us. He is above us. You know, I can play basketball.

10:24 Don't worry, I don't. I'm not very good, as you can tell. But I can. Michael Jordan can also play basketball, but a lot better than me. That is not what God is like. God is not just a better version of ourselves. He's wholly above us. He's wholly unique and unlike us in his holiness. We are not holy. And I think once we understand, oh, he's not just a better me or a little bit, you know, doesn't lie as much. No, he's wholly different.

10:56 The natural response is worship, as we just prayed about. We should worship this holy God. You know, this idea that some might have of Jesus is my boyfriend, God's my bro, this kind of like, you know, lighthearted view of God is not right. Isaac is apathy, which is what we saw with Esau, right? I mean, he's, well, he knows about God, but I got my land, I got my prosperity, and it's whatever. God is holy and cannot stand to be in the presence of sin, which might make more sense why Moses responded the way he did with fear, because he understands the kind of people we are.

11:35 Which brings us to our fourth couplet and final, which is two responses. So if we look again at the text, we see Moses, in the original language, actually only says one word. Here it's translated as, here I am. That's all Moses says in this passage. But he does a lot of actions. He stops coming near, he obeys God's word, takes off his sandals, obeys God's word, hides his faith in fear of seeing God. And see, I think Moses' response is proper, the only proper response of a sinful fallen creature to this holy covenant-keeping God.

12:08 He knows that if he were to see God's face and its full glory, it'd be like trying to look at the sun and give it a hug. You'd burn up before you even get close. And so I think Moses' response to fear is proper and right. And a healthy fear of the Lord is good because we realize we're not worthy to be in his presence. And see, the application for this might sound like it writes itself. Okay, so you should be obedient and you should fear the Lord. The only problem is we can't. right? We're never going to be perfectly obedient. We're never going to fear him perfectly. And so therefore, how are we supposed to know this holy God? We can't. Now, if you're a Christian or even grew up around Christianity, you probably might be thinking, well, sure, that's Old Testament God stuff. You know, Jesus came and changed all that, right? We can, you know, come all who are weary and he fixed that, right? What changed? Well, nothing and everything. Nothing in the fact that Jesus is still the

13:09 holy covenant keeping God who demands obedience and fear. Paul calls him the Lord of glory. See, we don't have the right to come to him or his table even tonight, and Jesus is the same God that Moses hid his faith from there in our passage. Everything changed though, because Jesus was obedient and fearful and humble for us. He came in human flesh, humbled himself in the form of a servant, was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

13:42 And then what happens? He says to those who repent and confess their sins and trust that Jesus is Lord and Savior, he gives his obedience to us. So therefore now, through Jesus, the only mediator, we can come boldly and gladly before this God, but not because of our effort or what we did, it's because Jesus had to do it for us, and we believe in him. So he's still the holy God who can't stand sin, and the cross proves that, but then he gives us his obedience because he loves us, because he's calling out to you. If you're not a Christian, you don't have to hide your face like Moses because of what Jesus did. You can turn to him and know God. And if you are a Christian, We now are able to obey because we have the Holy Spirit.

14:34 So obey, not because of your effort or because, you know, you have to be good enough. You're not. Jesus was. And he gives you his spirit so that you are able to obey and fear God properly. So, if you repent and believe, you can now know there's holy and covenant-keeping God. Let's pray. God, thank you for your promises. Thank you that you are holy and good and that you will not stand for sin. We also thank you so much that you promised the Savior and that the Savior fulfilled his promises and that all who turn to him can know and trust that they will be saved because you said so.

15:17 Not because we earned it or because we have a right, but because you said so. Be with us tonight, Lord. We celebrate the Lord's Supper and remember what you had to do and what you had to go through in order for us to know you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.