You will turn with me to Exodus chapter three. Exodus chapter three. Here in Exodus three, I'd like to start reading in verse one. 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. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. And he said, draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Here in Exodus chapter 3, God appears unto Moses. and reveals himself to him. And I love the manner in which our Lord was pleased to do this. He came to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a burning bush. Now, I'll go ahead and tell you, this burning bush that was not consumed is Jesus Christ and him crucified. The flame of fire certainly signifies the fire of God's wrath, the fire of God's judgment, how that God must punish all sin. Now, this bush was a thorny bush. Thorns came as a result of sin. Christ bore our sins in His body on the tree. And here's the thing, He was not consumed. There's one sacrifice for sin, and it's Him. He consumed all of God's wrath for His people. He wasn't consumed. He consumed the wrath. And that's what we see right here, God's holiness. He said, you're standing on holy ground. That's what, where God is, is holy ground. And when we see the cross, what a holy encounter that was. Mercy and truth meeting together, righteousness and peace kissing each other in Christ on the cross. And we know this, but that's our hope, the Christ of the cross. That's it. That's all our hope. Now, I love, too, how it says that Moses turned aside to behold this great sight. God will see to it that if we belong to Him, we're going to turn aside and behold this great sight of our Savior dying in our place, putting our sin away forever by the sacrifice of Himself. And I love, too, where we left off there. It said Moses was afraid to look upon God. If God ever reveals Himself to us in His holiness and reveals what He's done for us, He'll cause us to fear. He'll cause us to fear Him. Hear him, that's what we need. Verse seven, 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. God has a people, a chosen, particular, peculiar people. Did you see it there in verse 7? He said, I've surely seen the affliction of my people, my people. In Jeremiah 24 verse 7, he said, I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return unto me with their whole heart. I don't know if there's anything in the scriptures I enjoy more than seeing the verses that say, I will. And they shall. Won't you accept Him? Won't you follow Him? I will and they shall. It's not up to us. It's up to Him and it's done. It's written. Right here He said, I've seen their affliction. Surely I've seen their affliction. God sees all things, even the secret things. Everything. A child of God, whatever it is, He sees it. I may not see it. I probably don't see it, but he does. Whatever pain, whatever sorrow, whatever heartache, grief that you're enduring, he surely sees it. Surely. And he went on to say, I've heard their cry. If you're crying out to him, he hears your cry. Elihu told Job in Job 34, 28, he said, he heareth the cry of the afflicted. He always does. We don't have to wonder. He always does. I love the end of verse 7. He said, I know their sorrows. We know this. God is omniscient. He knows all things, but that's not what it's saying. He knows our sorrows. How does He know our sorrows? Because He came and traded places with us. He took our sins and our sorrows. He made them His own. He owned them. He's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He felt it. You know the verse in Lamentations 1. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow in the day wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me, in the day of his fierce anger, there's never been sorrow like our Lord endured. Never. Gabe just preached, I think, Wednesday on the suffering of our Lord and how he was scourged for us. We don't have any idea what all that entailed. All I know is I deserved that. In my flesh, I deserve that. Oh, but praise God, he took that for me. He knows our sorrows. And I love the beginning of verse eight too. He said, I am come down to deliver them. Why did Christ come into this world? To make salvation possible for everybody and see what we would do with it? No, he came down to deliver them. who his people came down to deliver them. Psalm 34, 19 says, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. Out of them all. You know, not only did he come to deliver us out of our afflictions, He came to deliver them, it says, out of the hand of the Egyptians. The Egyptians represent our sin. That's what they represent. In Exodus 14, when they saw, they came up upon that Red Sea, right? And they turned around and they see Pharaoh and his army coming. They saw him coming. Moses uttered those wonderful words. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today. Oh, don't fear. This battle isn't ours. It's the Lord's. But here's what I especially love there. He said, the Egyptians whom you have seen today, it's our sin. You shall see them again no more forever. Forever. Why? Because Christ came to deliver us from them. He blotted them out, he put them away, buried them, forever gone. They're all taken away. And I can't help but notice this in verse eight, the end of God's people is certain. It's set. Look what he said here. He said, I've come to deliver them and bring them up out of that land. You know, if you could stay here in this land forever, would you? I used to think, oh, it'd be so great if I could just live here forever. The longer I'm here, the more I realize what a foolish desire. He said, I'm going to bring them up out of that land unto a good land. This ain't the good land. And we live in America. I'm convinced the best place on earth, but this is not the good land. And this isn't the large land. He said a good land and a large. He said, I'm going to bring them onto a land that flows with milk and honey. You're never going to hunger, never going to thirst again. Never. That's what God purposed to do for his people. What a God. Oh, my soul. Praise his name. We have a home not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. No sin, just righteousness, that's all. No sorrow, just everlasting joy, unspeakable. If we have Christ, we have everything. Because Christ is everything. He's all. Verse nine, now therefore behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. As long as we're still here in this life, by God's grace, by God not letting his people go, which he won't, We'll continue to cry out unto him. I pray we never stop needing to cry out to him. You know, crying out unto him is the evidence of life. Just about two months ago, can't believe it's almost been that long, but we had another baby born and he came out and he didn't cry for a little bit. Not gonna lie, it made me a little nervous. Oh, when he cried, joy flooded my heart. It's a good thing to cry out unto the Lord. You know, we get frustrated. Kids like to cry. Well, that's all right. They're alive. If God has given us life in Christ, we're going to cry. Oh, we're going to cry. He'll see to it that we have reason to cry. We ever stop crying, then something's not right. Something's not right. And know this, brethren, God will never stop hearing our cries. Never. Never. He delights to hear our cries. Verse 10, come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Here we see God's purpose for Moses, okay? God's gonna use Moses for something here. He saved him, he came to him, revealed himself to him, and now he said, Moses, I'm gonna send you to be the leader of my people, to lead them out of Egypt. That's what I'm gonna do with you. Now, this man Pharaoh, he said, I'm sending you to Pharaoh. God raised Pharaoh up that he might show his power through him. That his name, the name of God, might be declared throughout all the earth. There's one almighty, and it's not Pharaoh. Pharaoh? The Pharaoh was always a mighty man. Oh, but compared to God, he's nothing. All the inhabitants of the earth, Pharaoh or Pharaoh not. are repeated as nothing. There's one Almighty, and that's God, that's the God of Moses. Now, as the man who was gonna lead them, deliver them out of Egypt, obviously he pictured Christ, okay? It tells us there at the beginning of the chapter, he was shepherding some sheep. Our Lord, the good shepherd. Moses pictured Christ. We know he also pictured the law later, but glorious picture of Christ. And look here at verse 11, this will be our text. 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? Who am I? There are multiple accounts that either say that, or a word is very similar. And every time I see one, I can't help but ask myself that same question. Who am I? You know, naturally, we think we're something. Naturally, we think we're somebody. But here's the fact of the matter. We're not. Our heart's desperately wicked, deceitful, above all things. So don't be surprised when we start feeling good about ourselves. That just manifests our sinful nature, OK? Moses was a sinful man, just like you, just like me. You know, in chapter two, he killed a man. And you read the account, you say, well, he was standing up for his brother. Okay, then why did he look this way and look that way, and all right, I'm clear to go. Sin. Sin. You know why he was in Midian? Because he was afraid that Pharaoh was gonna kill him, so he fled to Midian. And here he's been in this desert for 40 years. I have no doubt Moses used to think highly of himself. Perhaps when he slew that man that slewed one of his Hebrew brothers, perhaps at that time he felt worthy for God to use him. God put him in the back side of a desert. Now it's time. You know, Moses, the Pharaoh at the time, At the time of Moses' birth, the Pharaoh had ordered all male Hebrew babies to be killed. Moses was a male Hebrew baby. God spared him. God spared him physically. God spared him spiritually. And I love this too. Instead of Pharaoh's orders leading to Moses' death, Moses grew up in Pharaoh's house. Isn't that something? Does that not show you who's in control? Does that not show you who has their way? Does that not show you the goodness of God? What was special about Moses? I'll tell you what was special about Moses. It says he was a goodly child. He was chosen in Christ. That's the only good thing about him. God chose him. Christ was in him. Christ was in him and he was in Christ. And it was all by God's work. It was all God's doing. That's what was special about Moses. And if there's going to be something special about you or me, that's it. That's it. That's it. Moses was just out here living his life. thinking he's something when he's nothing, no knowledge of God, no desire for Christ but God. But it pleased God to appear unto him and reveal himself to him. Make himself to reveal his son in him. That's exactly right. Who are we? Sinner. That's it. Nobody, nothing. That's it, nobody. Who am I that God should call me and send me to deliver His people? Who in the world am I? Turn to Ephesians chapter 3. The Apostle Paul had a similar confession. Ephesians 3 verse 7. Ephesians 3 verse 7. Paul writes, Now here's his confession. who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." What he's saying is, who am I that God should be so gracious to me, that his grace should come to me, save me, make me to be a minister, to stand and declare the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ, who am I? Again, he was a man who was very self-righteous, just like us. God came to him, knocked him off, laid him low. That's what I pray God would do for us. It's not a one-time thing. We need that continually, continually. So easy to get lifted up with pride. I'm telling you by experience. Paul said, I've become a fool in glory and here's you a thorn in the flesh. Thank you, Lord. I pray you take it away. My grace is sufficient. You're going to keep looking to me. That's what we need. Now, this resonates with me. I'm standing here trying to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ right now. Please God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. I'm standing here. Pray God is with me, but this matter of who am I, it's not just for preachers. It's for all of us. Let's take this a little further. Who am I that I should come into God's house and worship Him? Who am I that I should be so privileged to be here where God's put His name and given us a true understanding of His Word and someone to hopefully, honestly, and sincerely declare Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Who am I that I should get to partake of that? Who am I that I should get to hear the gospel preached and have faith to believe it? Who am I that I should be enabled to behold this great sight like Moses did? Who am I? Who am I that I should get to be called a child of God? Child of the King, redeemed of the Lord, Who are we? Who am I? Who am I that God should have anything to do with me other than cast me into hell forever? You ponder that. We need to ponder that. Because that is exactly what we deserve. It's exactly what we deserve. I love this verse. David said in 2 Samuel 7, verse 18, he said, I pray we can say the same thing. Oh, it's like David said there at the end. Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered and assured in all things. Who am I that he should be so gracious and merciful to a wretch like me? Who am I? Praise his holy name. Praise his holy name. God doesn't save those who deserve it. Nobody deserves it. Nobody. There's one who's worthy, and that's Christ. That's it. Look back in our text, Exodus 3 verse 11 again. Exodus 3, 11, 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? I love the Lord's response. And he said, certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain. I'm going to end the message just by breaking down this verse. I see four precious promises that God gave to Moses right here in verse 12. I'll briefly mention all four of these. First, he said, certainly I will be with thee. Let me tell you something. Some of you have been in the faith a lot longer than I have. Perhaps most of you. If God is not with us, we will not make it. Has that been your experience? Well, it's time for me to figure this thing out and keep myself. Pray I never get to that place. Moses prayed in Exodus 33 verse 15, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. Lord, if you're not gonna go with me, don't let me go. What a great thing to pray before standing here and trying to do this. Lord, if you're not with me, don't let me get up there. Or don't let a word come out of my mouth. It's true in preaching, but again, it's more than that. This is true for all God's people. We need Him to be with us. Always, every moment, whatever comes our way, know this, child of God, He will be with us. He said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I think this is one of Gabe's thousand favorite verses. It says, For I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand. Saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee. I like to think it gives my children assurance when I hold their hand. I love holding their hand. Brethren, God's holding your hand. And he's holding us in his hand. Second thing right here, he says, I have sent thee. I have sent thee. You're not sending yourself, Moses. God forbid we send ourselves. When I stand to preach, God forbid I send myself. I don't want to dare stand here or anywhere else and open God's word and try to preach from it if I don't feel convinced God has sent me. It's too serious. Here's why. In Jeremiah, there's a verse that says, I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. They sent themselves. That's not what happened here. God said, I've sent you. Rest assured, Moses. Be still. It's me. It's God. I've sent you. I've sent you. Jeremiah, the Lord told him this. In Jeremiah 1, verse 7, thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee. And whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. I can't tell you how much that comforts me. I'm sending you. You're going to go exactly where I send you. You're going to declare the message I give you. And he went on to say, I will hasten my word to perform it. He said, I'll put my word in your mouth, and I'm going to do this. I'm just using you to do it. God's work from start to finish. And know this. When God sends, it's never going to be in vain. He said, my word shall not return unto me void. It's going to accomplish that which I please. It's going to prosper in the thing where to I send it. Because he sent it. It's his word. This is his gospel. By God's grace, we're his people. Look into him. Third, he tells Moses, he said, He said, the people shall be brought out. He said, when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, not if, when, when, not, well, if they cooperate, if they're faithful, were the children of Israel faithful? Are we? Do we now deserve God to do for us what He's done for us? Are we worthy now? God forbid. You ever wonder if you're going to be delivered from your afflictions? You ever begin to doubt? Gabe just preached on this. He is faithful. The Lord who called us, he's faithful. He's faithful. And God promised. And He's faithful that promised. God's the one who called us, and He that called us. Faithful to do it. Faithful to do it. Now, who are we that God should deliver us? That's the message. Who am I that God should deliver me? Who am I that God should be mindful of me? What is man that thou art mindful of him? We're unworthy and we're unfaithful. But Christ is worthy, and He's faithful to do that which He promised to do. Now lastly, at the end of verse 12, He said, here's the token. When all this comes to pass, you shall serve God upon this mountain. You're going to go. I'm sending you. You're going to go to Pharaoh. You're going to deliver my people. He went on to say down here in our text, you're going to tell him Let my people go, and he's gonna say no. But God's gonna see to it that he eventually will, when it's time. And he said, when this is all said and done, Moses, you're gonna come right back, right here on this mountain, and you're gonna worship me. Don't you love that? That that is so, That's so certain to me. That's so, it's not, well, we'll see how this thing goes. No, you're gonna worship me right here. Right here. What a God. What a great, glorious God we've been blessed to know and blessed and privileged to worship. May we never cease to wonder, who am I that God should do this for me? That God should have mercy on me, a sinner. Glory to his name. All right, you're dismissed.