Exodus in the chapter number three, and we're going to commence our reading at the opening verse of the chapter. So it's Exodus, the chapter number three, and beginning at verse one of the chapter. 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 on to 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, but off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Whereover 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. 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 the land onto 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 have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee on to Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. We'll end our reading at the end of the verse 10. And with God's word before us open, let's unite, please, in a word of prayer. Loving Father, we come again to thee in our Savior's holy name. Lord, we confess our great need of thee. We humble ourselves and confess that we are but mortal flesh. requiring, O God, the infilling of thy spirit. Therefore, that which has been asked in private, Lord, I now ask in public that I might be infilled with thy spirit to preach the word. Grant, dear God, enablement by the Holy Ghost. May every heart be touched. May we see our Savior. May we see him in all of his glory and his power. minister to these our waiting souls we cry to thee for we offer prayer in through the saviour's precious and worthy name amen and amen the year was 1583 the place was vitre a northwestern town of france the occasion was the 12th national synod of the fledgling Reformed Church of France. The synod consisted of a small company of Huguenot ministers and elders who gathered together to solidify relationships with neighboring countries and to pass judgment on the questions concerning baptism and marriage that had arisen in particular churches since their previous synod. However, in the midst of their deliberations, those present reached the somewhat curious decision that their church ought to have an official seal, something that might be a fix to their official rulings of their synagogues and thus would serve as a mark of authenticity and authority to those rulings as they were then sent out to the various individual congregations throughout the nation. Now no details are given as to who exactly proposed such a thing or who designed their particular motto or seal, but there are descriptions as to its appearance. At its center, there was a burning bush, depicted here in Genesis chapter 3. In the midst of the bush, there was the word Jehovah engraved in Hebrew letters, and in a circular pattern around the bush, there appeared the Latin phrase, flagor non consumar, I burn, but I am not consumed. Now significantly, the reformed churches in other countries followed the lead off the Huguenots, incorporating the same image of a burning bush in their official seals and emblems. In Scotland, it happened largely by accident. Shortly after Presbyterianism was re-established in 1690, the Church of Scotland tasked an Edinburgh printer by the name of George Monson with the printing of the records of their General Assemblies. Motsam took liberty on the occasion of the very first printing of the Acts of the Assembly to place a circular image of a burning bush complete with the Latin inscription, nec tamann consumbatar, meaning, yet it was not consumed. The Church of Scotland authorities appeared to take no exception to Motsam's application of that particular image. They were familiar with it, as with correspondence from the French Reformed Church in the past, and they seemed it to be deemed appropriate, an appropriate emblem for their church in light of all the sufferings that they had endured. as well as the divine protection that they had enjoyed through their preceding history. Today, the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and her sister denominations in North America and in Nepal continues to use the burning bush as the official symbol of our denomination, with the words, the Latin words, ordens, sed, varens, as its motto. Now contrary to popular belief, those Latin words do not translate to mean burning but not consumed, but rather they translate to mean burning yet flourishing. Burning yet flourishing. And this is what the church of Jesus Christ ought to be. It ought to be burning for God. It ought to be ablaze with love for Christ and for his word. And yet at the same time, though burning, she ought also to be flourishing. She ought to be advancing. She ought to be thriving. She ought to be a fruitful boy. Burning, yet flourishing. Now today I want us to behold the burning bush. as we continue our series in the Beholds of Scripture and see what lessons we can learn from this extraordinary sight that Moses beheld at the backside of the Midian desert. It is the first behold of the chapter number three that I want us to consider. Verse number two, 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. Now as we contemplate this burning bush of Exodus chapter 3, I want us in the first instance to behold the spectacle of it. Behold the spectacle of it. As you know well, a burning bush would have been nothing new for this man, Moses, to behold as he tended the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro. For the last 40 years, Moses had seen similar sights as temperatures would have rocketed in the Midian desert, causing the bush to self-combust in a moment of time. just a blaze, and in a few moments then reduced to mere ashes. And so this burning of a bush, this site would have been a familiar site to Moses. However, there was something different about this bush compared to every other bush that Moses had seen and viewed in the past. You see, what made this bush unique what made it a unique spectacle was the fact that as Exodus 2 verse 3 or 3 verse 2 puts it the bush burned with fire and or the word is but but the bush was not consumed and seeing this With curiosity aroused, we read then that Moses turns aside. Verse 3, and Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. You see, this non-consumed burning bush, in it God had arrested the faculty of wonder within the constitution or the life of Moses. The thought of wonder, this faculty of wonder, God has placed within each of our beings. I suppose at times when we go to somewhere new in the world and we stand before maybe some mountain range or before some waterfall or before some beautiful landscape, whatever it would be, this faculty of wonder has arised in each and every one of us. This is a human trait that is unique to human beings, to be caught up in wonder, to have our attention arrested in such a way that we stand back in amazement. And it is this faculty that God is stirring, appealing to in the life of Moses. You see, as Moses gazed upon this wonder, he would have been prompted to ask certain questions. He would have been prompted to ask the question, what does this mean? What invisible, what supernatural, what extraordinary power is manifesting itself here in this burning bush that is not being consumed? Why is it here? Why is it here at this place and at this time? What mystery is contained within it? Has it a message for me? Is the invisible God trying to communicate something to me as an individual? I'd venture to say that whenever we drive home this afternoon, none of us are going to see burning bushes on the way back home again, and most certainly we're not going to see burning bushes anytime soon in this province. However, there are times when God, as he did here with Moses, arrests our attention. You see, here's a man who was quite happy in the rut in which he had now been found. For 40 years he had spent in the backside of the desert. 40 years previous to this he had been in Egypt, then 40 years in the backside of the desert. And I believe that Moses would have stayed in that very same rut. just tending the flocks of his father-in-law. The thought of leadership with regard to the children of Israel was never a thought in the mind of Moses until this particular juncture in his life. And yet God does something extraordinary. He arrests the attention of his servant in order to move him on into a next chapter in his life. for a new sphere of service. God is going to unsettle the nest. He's going to, as it were, break up the comfort zone that he had been found in, and he's now going to get him to go to a new place, to carry out a new ministry, all for the glory of God. And so at this particular time, God gets his servants' attention. God does that in our lives. There are times when he arrests our attention. In meetings like this, when the challenge comes to the heart, life circumstances seem to be aligning up to what the preacher preaches about, and it seems to be that God is trying to get our attention. Other times He tries through sickness or times when we're in unemployment and it seems to be that we're drawn aside from the normal affairs of life, time to spend alone with God. There are other times when we are closed in with God in prayer or as we get before Him in His Word and God communicates His message to our souls. Many are the ways that God can arrest our attention, but in those times we ought to be asking ourselves, What is God trying to communicate to me? Why is God impressing this matter, this course of action, this new direction within my life, this avenue of ministry? Why is God impressing this upon my heart at this particular time? Has God something for me to do, something more for me to do for Him? And so we ought to be open. When God communicates and speaks to our hearts, James Orr, he said, every man at some point or other in his history has felt thus appealed to by the supernatural. The impression may be made by a book we feel drawn to read or by something we read in it, through a sermon, through some event of life, by a sickness at a deathbed. by the sayings and the doings of fellow men, or in ours a solitude. But originate as it may, there is plainly in it, as in all spatial dealings of God with us, a call to inquire, to question ourselves, to ask whether from the midst of the mystery, God may have some further message to our souls. From the midst of the mystery. God may have some further message to our souls. And maybe in recent days, recent weeks, recent hours, God has been endeavoring to get your attention. You're stuck in the rut. You're stuck doing what you've always done, but God is starting to unsettle you, starting to stir up the nest, trying to get your attention. I listened to my own brother-in-law's testimony concerning his move from Coleraine to Lisbon, and he was quite happy and content to be in Coleraine. They had a great relationship with the congregation there, but it came one prayer meeting night when a brother, I believe it was the late Wesley Graham, spoke about getting out of your comfort zone. God started to deal with God's servants. And it eventually led, over the passing months, for him to take up the call in Lisbon, and now to go to minister there in the will of God. You see, life's events are all preordained by God. And sometimes, God ordains that we're drawn aside from the normal affairs of life, so that God might reveal to us something more of His will for our lives. just as he was about to do in the life of Moses. God was about to open a new chapter in the life of his servant Moses, but God had to get his attention. God had to arrest his attention. I remember whenever God did that in my own life, it took the business that I was working in to be badly damaged by an accidental fire. for God to grab hold of my attention and confront me with a question in my late 20s, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? Are you going to continue in this type of employment? Are you going to continue to work a day-to-day job like many others? Or are you going to obey me with regard to full-time ministry? Are you going to take the step of faith and get out of the comfort that you're in and the rut that you're in? And are you ready to begin the new chapter within your own personal walk with me? I believe that if the fire had never taken place, I would probably still be making garden sheds. Because I'm that type of individual that whenever I get somewhere and whenever I'm placed somewhere, it's very hard to get me shifted again. I like what I know. We're all like that. But it came a moment whenever God had got my attention. A new chapter was being opened. A business was shutting. Were you going to go and get a job somewhere else? Or were you actually going to seek my face for your will in my life? I took the latter course of action. God eventually revealed his will to me and I eventually submitted to it. Don't miss what God is trying to say to you through the events of life. whether they be ordinary events or the extraordinary. Don't miss what God is trying to say to you. Quickly, as we contemplate this burning bush, we want to see, secondly, the suddenness of it. Behold the suddenness of it. One minute, nothing. The next minute, the extraordinary. a bush burning, yet not being consumed. Suddenly Moses is now confronted with the angel of the Lord in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. For the last 40 years of his life in the land of Midian, Moses had shown what sort of man he was in the ordinary experiences of life that come to any one of us, but now he's face to face with the extraordinary experience. It is a sudden experience. This is an unexpected test that's coming now to God's servant. Now, what's he going to do? What's he going to do? What's he going to do with the face-to-face experience, this extraordinary experience that he's experiencing at this time? Is he going to question the validity of it? the truthfulness of it? Is he going to flee in fear? Or is he going to wait and see what God is going to communicate to him? Beloved, this is how God sometimes works in our own lives when we least expect it. When we least expect it, I would say when we probably get most comfortable, it seems to be that God comes and impresses upon our hearts through his word the very next step that he would have us to take in order that we might remain in the center of God's will. You see, for Moses to ignore what he was being taught here by God, and what eventually God will reveal to him in the next number of chapters about his role and leadership in bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt and into the land of promise, Moses, if he had have fled the bush, would have found himself in a place where he was no longer in the center of God's will. His job, was needful. He was being a dutiful son-in-law. No question over his motive, but God had something more for him to do, a new place. a new realm of service, something more for him to do and to reject that and to kick against it and to resist it would have found Moses outside the will of God. And therefore, brethren and sisters, as God speaks to our souls and communicates to us, it is wise for us to simply go with God. to go with His will, to take the next step so that we might remain in the very center of His will. We must not run from His will. We must not flee His will. We must not even question His will. Even when it does not seem to be logical to ourselves, we must go with God. We must. We must. do the good, the acceptable and perfect will of God. These are years of preparation, and they now come abruptly to an end. Forty years, and now a new form of ministry will open up for God's servant. Yes, and it may be so with you. Years of preparation, years of prayer, study of the Word, and then God opens up a new sphere, some new form of ministry in some other locality that you are presently occupying. God just takes you on and takes you forward with Him. Could I say to you, child of God, follow Him. He'll take care of you. Follow Him. He'll supply your need. All the suddenness, it just came out of the blue. But it was God. Behold, thirdly, the sacredness of it, this burning bush, the sacredness of it. As I've said, this bush is just like any other bush in the scrub land of the Midianite desert, with one exception. God had come to dwell in the midst of the bush. In verse 2 we are told that the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. Now to get the precise identity of who the angel of the Lord is, we do not need to speculate All you need to go down is to the verse number four, and we find the identity of the one who has come to take up his residency inside or in the midst of this bush. And when the Lord saw that, he turned aside to see God called onto him out of the midst of the bush. And so this is a pre-incarnation appearance of Jesus Christ. This is an appearance of Christ in the midst of this bush, calling on to his servant, revealing his will unto Moses. Holy God had condescended to dwell in the bush. God had taken residence in, he had come to inhabit the bush. That divine dwelling made not only the bush sacred, but everything connected to it sacred. What do I mean? The very ground out of which the bush sprang out of is now holy ground. Note there the words of verse five, the words of Jehovah. Draw not nigh hither, but off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. You see, every place God chooses to presence himself, becomes holy, and it becomes sacred. And so what can we learn from this, brethren and sisters? Well, we learn firstly that when two or three are gathered together in his name and God is in the midst of them, that makes the assembly place a holy place. It makes it a sacred place. It becomes the very dwelling place of God. And an understanding of that will deal with the irreverence that can mark our behavior and our worldliness whenever we come into the house of God. This is holy ground. Holy ground. Sacred ground. Ground that is set apart for God. for God to dwell among us. How true the words of the hymn writer, Jesus, where'er thy people meet, there they behold thy mercy seat, where they seek thee thou art found, and every place is hallowed ground. Did you tread the courts of God's house today with that thought paramount in your mind? When you decided to get up and get ready for church, did that thought come into your mind, I'm going to the holy place, the sacred place, holy ground I'll stand on. God has said he'll be here in the midst of his people where his name is revered and worshipped and we try to do that. And so this is holy ground. Did it mark how you came into the house of God? How you behaved in these moments before the meeting commenced? Did you bow your head? Did you understand that you were in the presence of the Almighty? Holy ground. Behold the sacredness of it, brethren and sisters. Something else. When God comes to dwell in our lives, And what Paul says, we become the temple of the Holy Ghost. When God comes to dwell in our lives, then our bodies become sacred, and they become holy temples. And therefore, brethren and sisters, nothing that should defile us should enter in, nor that which would defile us ought to be rejected. All sin, all sin, must be fled from. must be rejected if we are to be holy as He is holy, if we are to remain the dwelling place of God. Behold the sacredness of it. Behold the symbolism of it. And really that's the meat of the message. This is the key part of the message, so don't drift off. Many and varied have been the suggestions as what to this burning bush actually symbolizes. Some Bible scholars have suggested the burning bush represents the children of Israel, initially. We think of them, what were they doing at this particular time? They were standing before the fiery furnaces of Egypt, making brick at the brick kilns. And here God is showing to Moses, this is my people. Here they are, standing before the furnace, the fire before them, but yet, as a people, they have not been consumed, nor rather, in the midst of persecution, they are multiplying so much so that the Egyptians become afraid of them, that they've tried, eighty years previous, to kill the children in the river Nile. Such was the threat now of these people, and so many see the children of Israel represented here in this burning bush. Others have suggested that the churches represented in this burning bush, fires of persecution and trouble, yes, surround her and yet she survives. to the surprise of her enemies, but not only does she survive, but rather she flourishes, she advances, she progresses, she gets stronger, she becomes more fruitful in those days of trial and trouble and testing. And so many see the church of Jesus Christ represented here, and then others bring it down to the personal level and they see the child of God. Here's the child of God in the furnace of affliction. passing through the fires of trouble and tribulation. And yet, though the fires around them grow hotter and hotter, the Christian claims that gracious promise. There in Isaiah 43, verse 2, when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the fleeing kindle upon thee. And so there are many ways in which Individuals have saw or viewed this burning bush, but surely this burning bush symbolizes something greater than a nation, something greater than the church, something greater than a Christian. This burning bush is a picture, it is a type, it is a shadow of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. He is the burning bush. He is the burning bush. Christ on the Emmaus road began at Moses and all the prophets and expounded on to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself and I believe on that Emmaus road. Jesus Christ turned to Exodus chapter three, and he spoke to those men about himself through the burning bush. And I want to give you some reasons why I believe that this bush primarily speaks of Jesus Christ. And if it doesn't thrill your heart hearing about Jesus Christ in God's house, then I would question the validity of your profession of faith. Because it's Christ that ought to thrill our souls. It's Christ that ought to take up our attention and our thoughts as we come to the house of God. So what can we say about this bush? Quickly, note firstly the situation of the bush. Where is the bush found? Well, the bush's locality is found are given to us there in the details of verse one. Notice there, 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 the flame afar out of the midst of the bush. It was in the land of Midian. the backside of the desert to a place called Horeb that this bush was located. You may say, well, what can we ever glean from that detail? Dig a little deeper, brother. Dig a little deeper, sister. The name Midian means strife. Yes, and the place Horeb means desolate. And I put it to you, was it not to the world and to a world of strife that Christ came to when he took on flesh and dwelt among us? He came to a world of strife, because that's what sin does. It brings strife. Strife into a family, into a marriage, into a home among parents and children, communities, and into the church itself. Sin causes strife, and it was into the place of strife that the Prince of Peace came, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, not only that, but He came to the desolate place. What a wilderness this world was. What a desert place it was. When he left the splendors of heaven and stepped into a sin-blighted world, he came into a desolate place. He came into a place of want, a place of wilderness, a barren place. And yet, by his presence in this world, he brought with it fruitfulness. His coming brought the wilderness to life. His righteousness was established in the hearts of many and has been since he returned to the glory. Here's his situation. But something else, note the substance of the bush. When I speak of the substance of the bush, I speak of its composition. We are told repeatedly by Moses here that it was a bush, a bush. Now the Hebrew word that appears here, appears only six times in Scripture. And the wonderful thing about this Hebrew word, do you think of it? The only thing about this Hebrew word, used these six times, is that every time it is used, it is spoken only of this event. Only of this event. Think of the uniqueness, therefore, of this very Hebrew word. Now, bushes are spoken of elsewhere in Scripture, but not referring to this. No, it's as if the Holy Spirit, as it were, employs or has created a specific unique word to speak of this event in the life of Moses concerning this unique bush. This isn't any ordinary bush, this is a unique bush, and I'm going to communicate that to you by using a unique Hebrew word. And it's only ever going to be used when this event is spoken of in the life of Moses. Now, what do we see here in this detail? First of all, I see a glimpse of our Savior's humility. This is no cedar. This is no oak. This is no redwood that Moses sees here. Would that not be a good enough symbol? Would that not be a better place for the Prince of Glory to dwell? In the cedar tree, high, in the great redwood, towering above every other tree, reaching hundreds of meters, tens of meters into the sky. Surely the redwood would be a better place for Christ to dwell. Surely not in a little bush. Not in a bush that is so near the ground. No, not this common bush rising only a little from earth's surface. Ah, but in the detail we're being taught that the one who dwells in this bush was the humble servant. He desires not the redwood or the cedar or the oak, but simply a bush. Ah, that which is close to the ground. He humbled himself. Philippians chapter 2, and he took upon himself the form of a servant. The life of Jesus Christ was marked by humility in His incarnation, in His ministry, in His death. He was in that state of humiliation. He would not rise no higher than a servant who came not to be ministered unto, but one who came to minister. And if our Savior be like that, then you and I ought to be humble. I not only see a glimpse of his humility, I get a glimpse of his humanity. This bush sprang out of where? The earth. It sprung out of the earth with its roots plunging deep into her parched soil. The following not prophetically said about the Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 2, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. There he is, the root out of a dry ground. He has no form nor comeliness. There's no beauty in this bush, it's just a bush. Probably a bit like the bushes that I probably try and grow around the house. They never flower. They just look like, well, they need to be ripped out of the ground. Ah, there's no beauty here. No flowers on this bush. No, we're going to see something about what this bush was composed of. Another great lesson, no beauty. Here he is, the root out of a dry ground. Here the Son of God takes on her humanity. He unites it with his deity to be one who is truly God and truly man in the one person with no mixture between the two. God and man in one. And do we not see that in the bush? This which springs out of the earth now becomes a dwelling place of deity. God's in the bush. He's there in all of his fullness, and in the person of Jesus Christ, all the fullness of God, dwelt bodily. Moses speaks of this burning bush event on another occasion. Do you want to turn there? It's only in Deuteronomy. Turn there in Deuteronomy 33. We'll go quickly here. Deuteronomy chapter number 33. See if I can find it. Deuteronomy chapter 33, verse 16. These are the blessings of Jacob with regard, or Moses with regard to the tribes. I want you to see Deuteronomy 33, verse 16. He's speaking here of Joseph. And for the precious things of the earth and fullness are off, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush. Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. I want you to underline in your mind, or if you have a pain, the word dwelt. Because that Hebrew word is the word shekin. From it we get the word shekinah, glory. But this Hebrew word dwelt, it can be translated tabernacled. Let's read the verse in that way. For the good will of him that tabernacled in the bush. Now can you think of another verse in scripture that uses the word dwelt again that can be translated in the exact same way tabernacled? Can you think of it? I'm sure you can. Can you think of it? John chapter 1 verse 14, and the word was made flesh and dwelt, the words tabernacled, dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten. Moses said, the good will of him who dwelt, who tabernacled in the bush. John says that he dwelt among us. Moses is speaking about Christ. This is Christ here. This is Christ. God and flesh tabernacling among us. I see a glimpse of something else, his humility, his humanity. I see a glimpse of his suffering. Matthew, Mark, and John, not Luke, but Matthew, Mark, and John all give the detail as they recount the gospel They give this detail concerning the Savior's journey to the cross. They give the detail that the Son of God was crowned with thorns. Crowned with thorns. Do you know what this word bush translates to mean? I maybe didn't say that. But this word bush, it literally can be translated to mean to prick, or it can be translated to mean a thorny bush. Think of it. Genesis chapter three tells us that thorns are a sign of the curse. And here we have Christ in the midst of the place of the curse. Christ in the place where the curse did its worst on earth. And to the pleas of the curse enters the substitute, the God-man. And what happens among the thorns? Ah, yes, the fierce flames of God's wrath go against sin on His own body. They engulf Him, and yet, though they engulf Him, they do not consume Him. But rather, He endures. He endures. We see him in the midst of the thorny bush in Exodus 3, and then we see him in the midst of the thorns again, with his head crowned with that cruel crown. I see Christ in the bush. Note thirdly, the shining of the bush. Exodus 3, verse 2 tells us that the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, fire. This flame of fire would have caused the bush to shine, to blaze with light, to glow with a radiance that would have dispelled all the darkness, removed every shadow surrounding Moses. And what do we read of Jesus Christ there in John chapter 8 verse 12? He says, I am the light of the world. John says that he was the light. John 1 verse 7, Paul, he spoke about the only pontetent, king of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light, which no man can approach unto. He is the light. Even in the radiance from the bush, I see Christ. He is the light. And he dispels your darkness. And he removes all our shadows when we come into his presence. Oh, the radiance of it all. Ah, I see something else about it, the sustaining of the bush. Yes, the bush burned, but it was not consumed. This bush's existence was somehow being sustained when it should have been extinguished. This shouldn't have happened. This bush should have reduced itself to ashes. And does this not point me to the endurance of the God-man who under the severest form of suffering at the hands of his father in Calvary's darkness, he continues to exist? He lays down his life. No man takes it from him. No, he's in full control of it. He exists with the weight of hell upon his shoulders and upon his body and upon his very soul. Christ is being upheld as he enters the place of no standing. And today he continues to exist, living in the power of an endless life. Fifthly and finally, think of the singularity of the bush. By singularity, I mean its uniqueness. While the bush I said looked like any other bush yet, this bush, being not consumed by the flame of fire, arrested the attention of Moses because of its uniqueness. There's something out of the ordinary. There's something extraordinary about this bush, and this is why Moses turns aside to see the great sight, and is it not the same with our Savior? There's something out of the ordinary about him. Oh, he looks like a man. He talks like a man. He acts like a man. He suffers as a man. Ah, but there's something unique about him. Something that sees him transcended above every other individual. Ah, this is a sinless man. This is a pure man. This is a holy man. This is the one in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. This is the one who speaks with authority. There's none like him. Just like Moses said, there's been nothing like this bush. So when we look at our Savior, we would have to say, there's nothing like Him. And brethren and sisters, does that not cause you to turn aside from the world, to see your Savior? There's none like Him. I tell you, brethren and sisters, He stands apart from every other man. He's fairer than the children of men. He's the chiefest among 10,000. Just as the bush stood apart from every other bush in the vicinity, so Christ stands ahead and shoulders above every other man. And so behold the bush. Because whenever you do, you see Christ in it, in every detail. Oh, may such a sight, a great sight, may it take up our views. May we derive much comfort and instruction as we come to consider him, the bush he burned and yet was not consumed. Oh, may our hearts be thrilled and may we come to behold him and to consider him more and more. Behold the bush.