and what we're going to focus on. We're going to read the entire chapter, but we focus on especially verses 13 and 14. where you have the revelation of one of the names of God. So I've been preaching in my own congregation a series on some of the names of God. And this is one of the sermons in that series, used as the beginning of that series, Proverbs 18, verse 10, that tells us that the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and is safe. And so with things we may experience in our lives, the things that are going on in this world, we look up to God and know that there is safety that is found in Him. And that's found as we look at some of these names of God. The name of God revealed in this chapter is the outstanding covenant name of God, Jehovah, described or named in verse 14 as I am that I am. And we'll look at the history surrounding that as well. So Exodus chapter three. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. And he said, draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet. For the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face. for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land, and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me. And I've also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And He said, Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee, that I had sent thee, when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. And God said, moreover, unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt. And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt, unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. And they shall hearken to thy voice, and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt. And ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us, and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. I will stretch out My hand and smite Egypt with all My wonders, which I will do in the midst thereof, and after that He will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and it shall come to pass that when you go, you shall not go empty." But every woman shall borrow of her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment, and ye shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters, and ye shall spoil the Egyptians. Thus far we read God's word. The text is verses 13 and 14. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thou shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. In Exodus chapter 3 we read of an amazing revelation of God to Moses and through Moses to the people of Israel and to us today as well. It's important though as we look at this amazing revelation at the burning bush that we understand a bit about the history that was leading up to this. We find Moses at the beginning of Exodus 3 in the desert. And we might ask ourselves, why was Moses in the desert? Remember, that's not where he grew up. He didn't even grow up while he did for a few years among the people of Israel, but after that, remember where he grew up. Kids, you remember where he grew up. It was in the palace of Pharaoh. the king of Egypt. Moses grew up as one of the most important people in all of Egypt. He grew up in wealth and prosperity and having great power. Now he's in the desert as a lowly shepherd. How did he get there? He got there because he ran ahead of God. He thought earlier in his life that it was time for Israel to be delivered from Egypt. And that he thought that was evident by one of his actions. You remember that he came across an Egyptian and an Israelite who were fighting. And then Moses intervened and he fought for the Israelite and killed that Egyptian to show the people of Israel he was with them and he wanted to be their leader and he wanted to lead them out of Egypt. But the word spread about what he had done. And Moses knew that he had to run for his life. And he did because Pharaoh would want to kill him. So that's how Moses ended up in the desert, in the wilderness. He was running for his life. But he needed to be in the desert. That's where God wanted Moses. There in the desert, he was in school. the school of God to learn humility and to learn to trust God so that he would know his dependence upon God. So it's there in the wilderness, in the desert, that he was learning these things. Now as Moses is taking care of his father-in-law's sheep, his father-in-law's Jethro, his wife is Zipporah, as he's taking care of those sheep, He sees a bush that's on fire, it's burning. That's not so unique in a desert, to see a bush that would be on fire. Because in the desert, the plants there are so dry, without rain, that if there's a storm that comes along, and sometimes in a desert you can have these dry storms, where lightning strikes, a bush could start on fire, or there could be a forest fire, even in the desert. And so a bush on fire wasn't so strange, but there was something unique about this bush. And what was unique about it that drew Moses to it was that this bush was on fire, but it wasn't consumed by the fire. It didn't burn up. It didn't turn into a pile of ashes. It simply continued to burn, and the bush wasn't changed by that fire. Moses understands there's something special in this and he comes close. And that's when God speaks to him out of that burning bush and tells Moses, first of all, to remove his sandals because he's standing upon holy ground. And it's not because there is something special in the ground, but Moses there was in the presence of God. That's something that we ought to be deeply aware of, especially when we come together for worship. We're on holy ground in the presence of God. And that's why we conduct ourselves the way we conduct ourselves, even dress the way in which we dress. We understand that we're in the presence of God. But now it's out of this very bush that God reveals himself to Moses in this name, I am that I am. But understand and remember the context here. God's ready to send Moses back to the people of Israel to deliver them out of the bondage of Egypt in fulfillment to the promise that he made that is found in Genesis 15. They would be in Egypt for 400 years, then God would bring them out and back to the promised land of Canaan. Now it is time. Moses had learned humility and dependence upon God, and now Moses is ready to lead the people of Israel. out. So in verses 7 through 10, God's revealing that Moses will be the one to lead them out of the land of Egypt. Now Moses responds, verse 11, who am I? That I should go into Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt. And God says, I will be with you. And then Moses says to God in verse 13, when I come to the children of Israel and they ask, who sent you? And really the idea is, How do we know that God sent you? You tried to lead us out before. How do we know that God's sending you?" And that's when God says, this is what you will say, I am that I am. I am has sent me unto you. And the people will hear that and they will know. So this is the beautiful context of the revelation of this great and glorious name Jehovah, or I Am That I Am. That name is one of the outstanding names of God in Scripture. In the Old Testament, it's found over 6,800 times. That's how prominent this name is in Scripture. In Exodus 3 we do not find the first revelation of that name or the first use of that name. The first use of that name is found in Genesis 2 verse 4. So already back there in Genesis 2 verse 4 you find the first use of this name Jehovah. But what's unique about this passage is you have the first revelation of the meaning of that name Jehovah. So that's why we look at this passage tonight and why I do so in my series on the names of God. So tonight we look at this name of God, I Am. that I am." We notice three things about that name. First of all, it reveals that God is the self-existent One. Secondly, it reveals that He is the covenant-keeping God. And then finally, we look at the fullest revelation of this name, and that's in the New Testament in Jesus Christ Himself. So we want to understand what this name means. Before I get at some of the things that the name means and points out to us about God, we want to look at the name itself. The name in the Hebrew language. It's the name Jehovah, or sometimes pronounced Yahweh. Maybe you've heard it pronounced in that way. It comes from a Hebrew verb which means to be, or become. So it's one of the simplest verbs in all of language that God uses to reveal profound truth about himself. We would say that to be, that verb is kind of a weak verb. It's inactive. And so in the English language, I know English teachers would say, no, you need to come up with better verbs than always using a being verb. But here, this very simple verb is used to explain truth about God. As I said earlier, this is not the first appearance of this name that's in Genesis 2 verse 4, but this is the first revelation or explanation of that name. We know that in a special way from what we read in Exodus chapter 6. If you go to Exodus 6 verses 3 through 5, We read there, and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. So they didn't understand the meaning of that name Jehovah is what he's saying. And then it goes on, and I've also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant." So that tells us that this is the first revelation of that name Jehovah as we read it in Exodus chapter 3. Now it's well known that this name Jehovah was widely considered by the Jews long ago to be too holy and too exalted a name of God to pronounce with their lips. So often that when they were reading the scriptures, when they were reading it in Hebrew, they wouldn't pronounce that name Jehovah or Yahweh. Instead, what they would do is they would substitute another name of God. They would substitute the other name LORD that we find in the Old Testaments, not the name LORD in all capital letters, that's Jehovah, but the other LORD, which in Hebrew is Adonai, so that when they would come across this name Jehovah, they would read in its place Adonai. We don't know why it is that the Jews thought that this name was too holy to pronounce, It may have been because of what we read here in Exodus 3, the revelation of God at the burning bush when He said that Moses would take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground, or some other reason. But the Jews thought it was too holy a name to even speak with their lips. Although we don't carry on that same tradition, we certainly bow before this name, this great name of God. When we come to the meaning of this name, probably the first thing that we think of is, this is the outstanding covenant name of God. And if you're thinking that, you're correct. But there's more to the name than that. We want to see and understand tonight, not only does this reveal something about God's covenant and who He is as the covenant God, but this name also reveals something about the being and the essence of God. This name, I Am That I Am, So it's the verb repeated twice, I am, that, I am, and then simply I am. This tells us that God is the one who is absolutely self-existent. He is the God who is self-sufficient and truly independent. He is I am. That's part of the profound meaning of this name. That it's I Am, not I Was or I Will Be, but always I Am tells us that God was not created. He is the Creator, but He was not created. This name tells us that He is eternal. He is always the I Am, with no beginning and no end. But this name also tells us that He is the self-sufficient and independent One. What exactly does that mean? Well, it means that no one influences God. He does not adapt to anyone else. No one forms God. No one shapes God. No one influences God. No one manipulates God. How amazing that is. There may be times we might try, and there are those who think that they can manipulate God. If they get enough people praying for something, then God will do it, because we'll get Him to do that. No, we don't manipulate God. We don't mold God. We don't shape Him. He's the God who molds and shapes to Himself. That's the greatness of our God. You think about how easily we're influenced. How easily we can switch our positions on something. We hear something and wonder, well, is that right or is that right? And in the world today there's all kinds of information and we wonder anymore, what's true, what's right, what can be believed? But God, as the self-sufficient, independent God, He always knows what is right and good, and He's not shaped and formed by any of these things. Not only that, but this name, I Am That I Am, tells us that He's in need of none other. He's full and complete in Himself. He didn't create us or save us because He needs us. It reminds us that as the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, He's full and complete in Himself. He enjoys perfect love, perfect fellowship, but He created us and saved us, not because He needed us, but for His glory and for His honor. So we consider all of these things. This name shows us that God is self-sufficient, independent, absolutely self-existent. We do feel like Moses there at the burning bush. Very small in the presence of this great God. As we look at this meaning and this aspect of the name Jehovah, we might ask ourselves the question, why did Moses need to know this? And why did Israel need to know this? And why do we need to know this about God today? That He's independent, that He's self-sufficient, and absolutely self-existent. Well, here's why we need to know this. We need to know this because of our propensity to think of ourselves as self-sufficient and independent and in need of none other. You and I are dependent, but sometimes we think we're not. We're kind of like a little 10-year-old, maybe, who might decide he or she is going to run away from home. They're upset by mom and dad. Maybe you read the stories about kids who do that, or your kids read books about that. And the child runs away from home. They pack their bags, and they're going to leave. But soon they return, because they figure out very soon, well, they have to eat, and they have no money. And they have no way of transportation. At least they can't get very far. And then where are they going to stay? and they realize how dependent they are upon mom and dad. But we can be like that in our lives as well. We have a propensity to think we're self-sufficient and independent and in need of none other. Moses needed to know this as he was going to head back and lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. That was his problem earlier in his life, wasn't it? He had his own agenda. He thought his agenda was God's agenda. When he killed that Egyptian and he was ready to lead the people out of Egypt and he was all gung-ho to do that. And to be the leader and the savior of the people. Moses had to learn, no, it wasn't the timing of God. God didn't tell him to do any of those things. He had to learn to trust in God. He had to learn that Jehovah is the I Am, the self-sufficient, self-existent God. He didn't need Moses to tell him when Israel should be delivered from Egypt. Moses must adapt to the will and the rule of God. He had to learn his dependence on the I Am. The people of Israel, They would need to learn that as well. I didn't mention this earlier, but remember what that burning bush was a picture of? It was a picture of Israel itself. The bush was Israel, the fighter was the affliction that they were going through in Egypt, and the reason that they weren't consumed by that affliction in Egypt was the presence of the I Am with them. But as they would leave the land of Egypt, it would not be easy. Even when Moses went back, it wouldn't be easy. It wouldn't be that they would immediately leave the land. But God, through Moses, would demand that Pharaoh let the people go, and he would say no, and that's what's told Moses even here in Exodus 3. And then God's going to work and show great wonders. That's the ten plagues. But some of them would come upon the people of Israel, and there would be times that they would think, what is God doing? And they would complain to God, and they would grumble to Jehovah God. They would question, what was He doing? But in the midst of that, they would have to see and know that Jehovah is the I Am, the God who's in control, the God who is almighty, the God who does not and is not influenced by others. But just as Moses needed to hear that and the people of Israel needed to hear that, so we need to hear that too, don't we? The age-old problem with us and our human natures is we want to be like God. We want to be like God, knowing good and evil. That's what Adam and Eve wanted, Eve especially, when she ate of that forbidden fruit in the garden, she wanted to be like God. And there's so many ways in which that can be true of us. That we want to think that we know, I know, what is right and what is true. We think that we're in control of things, we rule over things, we want others to adapt to us, If we could have our way, we would want Almighty God Himself, the I Am that I Am, to adapt to us and the things that we want in our lives. Just to show that we have a propensity to that, think of how difficult it can be for us at times to listen to others. To think we have it right and therefore we block out anything else anyone would say. Or we block out what it is that God Himself says. Because we think we know what is right. We need to hear tonight that Jehovah, He is the I am that I am. We adapt to Him, not He to us. We need to hear what we heard in Psalm 83 verse 18 tonight when just before we sang Psalter number 224 that this Jehovah is the God most high. We need to know that He is the Most High over all the earth. He is the One who can defeat all the enemies. Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, the Antichrist, and Satan himself, who is described in Scripture as a great red dragon. And thus, this God is the God in whom we trust. In the end, that's what it comes down to. We trust in Him. We depend upon Him. because he is the I am that I am. We must learn to approach God then in the way that Moses did in Exodus 3. We see Moses' humility at the burning bush as he stands there in holy ground and hears this amazing revelation of God. All self-confidence is taken away. That's what we need. All self-confidence taken away. I happened to come across in this past week a speech where a man was talking about, he was speaking to graduates. It's interesting sometimes to listen to different speeches. This man was not a Christian. He was speaking to graduates, and his message to them was this. You need to rely on yourselves. Self-reliance. And the message of God's Word and the message of the Gospel is so different, isn't it? No, don't rely on yourself. but rely on the I Am, the Almighty God, the God who is the Most High. And that's what we learn from this name. Rely on Him, depend upon Him, trust in Him. So first of all, this name, I Am That I Am, reveals that God is the self-existent One. But this name also reveals that God is a covenant-keeping God. I Am That I Am is the outstanding covenant name of God in Scripture. And it reveals that God is unchanging and unfailing in His covenant love. We know that this name is a covenant name of God and it's connected to the covenant from the way in which it's used throughout the entire Old Testament. But you see that in particular in this passage we read tonight, Exodus chapter 3. If you look at a couple of verses there with me, first of all, verse 13. We read there, Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers has sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? Notice that. The God of your fathers. He's speaking there of the God who is faithful in generations. And then verse 15, And God said moreover unto Moses, Thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. Notice that name connected with generations. and the faithfulness of God in generations. That's telling us that this name is connected to God's covenant. Along with that, remember what we read earlier out of our Exodus chapter six. that it's telling us that the name Jehovah is first revealed in its meaning there in Exodus 3. But what it does is it reveals the covenant of God. Verse 4, I've also established my covenant with them to give them the land. The end of verse 5, and I have remembered my covenant. So this name Jehovah is connected to God's covenant. What is God's covenant? Just a quick refresher on that for us tonight. The covenant of God is the relationship or the bond of love and fellowship between God and His people. That bond is the relationship that we have with our God. So it's the kind of relationship that it is that's important. It's a relationship of love. Part of that covenant is this God, the covenant God, does everything to bring us into that relationship. That's part of what's so amazing about it, isn't it? Because the Bible identifies us by nature as enemies. That's not a covenant figure. But the covenant figure is family. We're children. Those who were once enemies are made children. We're part of the family of God. There's the covenant of God. And God does everything to bring us into that relationship. It must be true that He does everything because we are enemies by nature, but also that shows the magnificence of what God does. We don't deserve this at all, and yet God does this. He makes us His children. But there's one other part of God's covenant we mustn't forget. In this covenant, in this relationship of love, God promises to love and save His people. The promise to the people here was the land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey. And the promise that He would deliver them out of Egypt and He would bring them to that promised land. But we see so many promises of God that are found in that. The promise of God to His people. is that He will save them from their sins. He will forgive their sins. He will give them everlasting life. He will send the Savior to do these things, and He will work in us all the blessings of salvation. Here tonight, the promises of this faithful covenant God, these are the things He says, I will do. This name, I Am That I Am, shows that God is a covenant-keeping God, which means He keeps His promises. As a God who brings us into this relationship of love and fellowship with Himself, He always keeps His promises. And at times can be difficult to believe because we've all heard promises that have not been kept, not by God, but by others around us. Because everybody around us is a sinner. They promise to do something and they don't follow through, and we've all done that ourselves. But Jehovah is not that way. He's a covenant-keeping God, a God who keeps His promises. The Scriptures emphasize that in a few passages. First of all, Daniel chapter 9. Daniel 9. This is not the history part of Daniel. Instead, it's the prophecy part of Daniel. Daniel 9, verse 4. In this chapter, Daniel is praying to God. We have the record of that prayer and here's the beginning of that in verse 4 of Daniel 9. And I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments. Think why it is that Daniel's holding on to the reality that God keeps His covenant. Remember where Daniel is. He's in Babylon. And every day he's praying towards Jerusalem with the hope that one day The people of God would be back there in Jerusalem and worshiping God at the temple. And he holds on to the fact that God is a covenant-keeping God. Now Daniel goes on to confess the sins of the people of Israel. He does that as their representative. He does that knowing that he, as part of Israel, is responsible for their sins. So he confesses them but clings to the fact that God is a covenant-keeping God. Why is God a covenant keeping God? Well that's revealed in the book of Malachi. Malachi chapter 3, that last prophecy in the Old Testament. Malachi 3 verse 6. Again, God through Malachi comes to the people of Israel after they return from Babylon and they're walking in great sin. But then there's this beautiful promise after God rebukes them, verse 6, This is why God will not consume them. This is why God will not punish them. This is why they will not suffer in hell for their sin. It's because He's a God who changes not. He is Jehovah. That's part of the meaning of I Am. He's a God who changes not. And then in the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 13 verse 8. And here it's revealed in the name Jesus Christ. We'll come to that in the last point. But Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever, He is the same because God is the same. He is the God who changes not. Remember what we're seeing here. God keeps His promises. He always keeps His promises. And why is it that He keeps His promises? It's not based on what the people of Israel did. And that's what God's coming to Moses and saying. He's saying to Moses, Moses, I'm sending you back because I'm going to keep my promises. I'm going to keep my promise that I gave all the way back in Genesis 15 to deliver this people after they were in Egypt for 400 years. And thus God reveals that He is unchanging in His promises and in His love to His people throughout the generations. This is amazing because God keeps these promises to those who don't deserve that. Let us see and understand then tonight that even for us, Jehovah is a covenant-keeping God. This is demonstrated to Moses here. This is revealed in the sending of Moses back to Egypt to deliver his people. Remember the question. When I go back, what am I going to tell the people about who sent me? I am that I am. And what moves the I Am to send Moses back and deliver His people out of Egypt? What moves Him is His faithfulness. He loves Moses. He loves His people. His love is a burning fire that is never extinguished. That's the love of God for His people. And in His love, He will deliver them from the bondage of Egypt. And He fulfills His promises. This arises out of the deep, deep love of God for His people. And that, beloved, is the importance of this name for us tonight. I am that I am. He changes not in His love for us, and thus He keeps His promises. We might ask the question, how can we be assured of this love of God? In the things that we go through, how can we be assured of this unchanging love of God? It's the question that sometimes is on our souls and then on our minds. It's almost always the question that arises in a time of affliction. Think of the people of Israel in Egypt for 400 years. I was talking to someone this morning and he was pointing out that our country is basically about 400 years old. Not quite. You think about how much changes in 400 years. They were in Egypt 400 years when God had promised, no, you'll have the land of Canaan. And the question arises, is God faithful? Is God going to keep His promise? Does He still love us? How can we be assured of the love of God? And those are the questions that sometimes arise in our hearts when we go through trouble in our lives. And it doesn't have to be for 400 years, does it? Sometimes it's for a year, or for a few years, or even for much of our lives. How can I be assured of this love? And can I really trust in the love of God? And this name tells us we can. We can trust in the love of God because of who He is, because of His very character as revealed in this name. His love for you and I is sure, not because we've earned it, not because we deserve it, not because we're good enough for that love. Neither do we look at the circumstances of our lives, and that's easy to do, too. Oh, things are going pretty smooth. It must mean God blesses me. God loves me. The danger of that thinking, though, is when things aren't smooth. Does He still love me? Does His love change? The psalmist would ask those questions as they were going through suffering in their lives as well. And here's what we come to when it comes to all of that. We believe that He loves us and that His promises are sure because He says so. And the one who says it is the I Am that I Am. Only believers know that. They're given the gift of faith, and they believe these things. Unbelievers don't know that, and they have no assurance of these things. But when believers hear that, it thrills their souls, it comforts them in the depths of their souls. Think of how we sing that. Psalms number 281, Psalm 103, Unchanging is the love of God from age to age the same. Think of that familiar hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, based on Lamentations 3. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever wilt be. Why? Because He is the I Am that I Am. What a great God He is. Psalm 105 verse 8 says this, he hath remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. That's the faithfulness of God, a thousand generations, the idea unending through the generations of his people. And later in that same psalm it speaks of his everlasting covenant and the response at the very end is, praise ye the Lord. This is what is revealed in this name, I Am That I Am. Jehovah is the covenant-keeping God. His love changes not, and He is always faithful in keeping His promises. The fullest revelation of that is found in Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, I said, we read that name Jehovah over 6,800 times. Do we find that name in the New Testament? I've asked kids in catechism that question when we're looking at the names of God and essentials, or sometimes in Heidelberg catechism class I ask that as well. And the answer is, yes, we find the name of Jehovah in the New Testament. But now if you looked in your concordance, or you looked in your Bible program on your computer or on your phone, and you type in the name LORD in all capital letters, and you say, am I going to find that in the New Testament? You won't. Maybe in a quote from the Old Testament, but otherwise you won't. But it's still there. Where is it? Well, first of all, it's in the name Jesus. Remember the meaning of the name Jesus. Jehovah saves. Every time in the New Testament we read the name Jesus, we read the name Jehovah. It tells us who He is. Along with that, remember the I am statements of Jesus. In John 8 verse 58. Jesus there says to those who are listening to Him, and there are unbelieving Pharisees there, and He says, before Abraham was, I am. He's not simply saying that He was eternal, but He's taking that name, this name, the name in Exodus 3 verse 15, I am to Himself, and saying this is who I am. And then he reveals himself in that way and other ways. I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the door of the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth and the life. And I am the true vine. Those seven I am statements of Jesus in the New Testament, all of which point out that God is Jehovah and Jesus, He is Jehovah. He's a covenant keeping God. And here we see the greatness of this God. This God who is self-existent, who is full and complete in Himself. He became flesh and He dwelt among us for our salvation. And not just for our salvation, not just to deliver us from the punishment of sin, but for the sake of His covenant so that we enjoy life and fellowship with Him forevermore. In Jesus, in the revelation of Himself in the New Testament, we see the depths of the love of God for us. He gave His Son, and His Son gave His life. So how sweet it is to know Jesus, because in knowing Jesus, we know Jehovah, and we see that this God is a covenant-keeping God. Because in Jesus Christ, God kept His promises. He promised in Genesis 3 verse 15 to send the seed of the woman. He promised throughout the whole Old Testament to send the Savior, and he has done that so that we might have life and fellowship with him forever. So when we hear this name Jehovah, or I am that I am, it humbles us, not just in the greatness of the God who's self-existent, absolutely, but in the greatness of the God who's faithful because He keeps His covenant and He keeps these promises. When we hear these things, how do we respond? Well, two things very briefly. First of all, we trust then in this unchanging love of Jehovah. Part of the reason that I decided to preach this series in my own congregation is because of everything that's going on in the world, everything that's going on in our lives, the turmoil, the chaos, and all of the rest. And in the midst of that, sometimes we lose sight of who God is. And what better thing to have set before us as the people of God than to know who God is. Because this is the God in whom we trust. And why do we trust Him? It's because of who He is. It's because of His very character, and that's revealed in His names in Scripture. So let us tonight trust in our great God, the I Am that I Am, because He is always faithful, even in the afflictions, the trials and difficulties of His life, know His love that changes not. But along with that, we also respond by praising Him. We trust Him and we praise Him because He is the self-existent God and unchanging in His love. Every Lord's Day, that's what we do in our worship. We stand on holy ground. We're in the presence of this great God, and we glorify and praise Him for what He has done. We do that in response to His Word that is read. We do that in response to His Word that is preached. It must all be about God. It must be theocentric, God-centered. Because He's great and greatly to be praised. So we praise Him for His greatness. But it's not just in worship. It's also in life. We said earlier that God is a God who does not adapt to anyone else. He doesn't. But when we know His love, we adapt to that love. We adapt to that love and thus we praise God when we do so and we do that in our homes, in our families, and in our lives. When you love your wife, when you love your husband, when you love your children, when you love your parents, when you love each other, when you love your friends, when you love someone who's very hard to love, when you do that in the workplace. When we reflect the love of God for us, we praise and glorify this great God who is faithful in His love for us. And we strive to be faithful even when it's hard. then God is glorified and praised in that. And thus we see how, in many ways, how practical it is to know these names of God and the impact that that makes on our everyday lives. So may we reflect the greatness of the God who is the I Am that I Am. Amen. Let us pray. Father, it has been our prayer tonight, show us thy glory. and Thou hast done so again. And we are thankful. May the glory of Thee, our God, as the I Am that I Am, be impressed upon our hearts and souls by the work of the Holy Spirit, so that as we leave here tonight, we are motivated to trust in Thee in all things. May we not think that we can depend just on ourselves. But may we depend always upon Thee, our great God, but also may we live to praise and glorify Thee. As those who have been in Thy presence tonight, may we leave here molded and shaped by the greatness of Thee, our God, and especially by the greatness of Thy love. Help us to reflect it in our lives in this new week. Bless our fellowship together in this night. Guard us and protect us from all sin and evil. We pray all this in the name of Christ, our Savior. Amen. We'll sing psalm number 280. 280, a versification of Psalm 103. Notice here we sing of the love and the compassion of God. We sing that in stanza three, for example. Yea, the Lord is full of mercy and compassion for distress, slow to anger and abundant in his grace and tenderness. He will not be angry all the way, nor will he forever chide, though he oft has sinned against him, still his love and grace abide. That's what's revealed in this name, Jehovah, I am. Let's sing stanzas one, three, and four. We'll omit stanza two. One, three, and four of 280. O my soul, the Son of Jehovah, all will hear me bless His name. Bless Jehovah and forget not all His mercies to proclaim. He forgives all my trespassions, heals my sickness, His love my life sustains. He will adore His love, mercy, and compassion for distress, so to waver and abundance in His praise. and tenderness. He will not be angry, always, nor will he forever chide. Though we all have sinned against him, still his love embraces us. As the plants are high above us, great is love to us that's true. children, willing, ready for their cause, so the Lord is with us today. His creatures at His feet we are gathered adored, and all have breathed praise to Him. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide with you all. Amen.