Open your Bible, if you would, to the book of Exodus, chapter 3. Exodus chapter three, and as you can see from your bulletin, the title of the message is God's revelation of himself at the burning bush. We'll read the first ten verses of 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. And when the Lord saw, 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 wherein 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 have 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 has come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherein the Egyptians oppressed 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. I'd like to share with you this afternoon three ways which God reveals himself at the burning bush. Before that, I have a very brief introduction and a brief few thoughts about some background information. By way of introduction, I think I can say that I believe the commissioning of Moses is a pretty well-known account. You know that he spent 40 years as a prince in the courts of Egypt, and then he spent 40 years in the wilderness, in the desert. keeping his father-in-law's sheep. And at almost 80 years old, Moses, now in Exodus chapter three, is about to be commissioned for this great work of redemption, taking literally millions of people out of Egypt and delivering them into the land that flows with milk and honey, God's land. This account of the burning bush is preparation that engages Moses. It's engages him, it draws him into a life changing encounter with God and sets him on the course that God himself has so designed. But in the broader context, when you step back, we are reminded That history and time itself, time and history is simply the crucible in which God has chosen to reveal himself and to reveal his eternal purposes, his grand and glorious plan of redemption. In other words, the accounts that we read of in the Bible are not random. or incidental accounts. It's not simply material for Sunday school lessons. Rather, the spiritual mind looks at the overall panorama and sees God unfolding who he is, unfolding his plan of redemption that he began in eternity past. Of course, God's ultimate purpose and his ultimate plan is not realized only in the life of Moses. It started before Moses was on the scene. It will continue past Moses. But Exodus three is one of those pivotal junctions where God, in a very tangible way, in a very real way, intersects time and history to set in order a profound series of events, miraculous events, life changing events, events that are going to be deposited in God's eternal word. And we in our pilgrimage often, I think, are like Moses, who when he sees the burning bush, He certainly is engaged and drawn into it, but there is this progression where it starts off with a simple curiosity. And then it progresses to awe and then conviction and then maybe some disbelief and then maybe some mild protesting and then belief and then surrender. But in the end, We could say, as an aside, no matter how Moses would have reacted or been successful or unsuccessful in this charge that God was going to give him in the end. The God who changes not the one with whom there is no variable does need a shadow of turning would accomplish his perfect plan of redemption. He remains constant. He remains unaltered. He remains steadfast. He still owns history and time to reveal himself and to manifest his purpose. Background. What's the background of this account? Well, Moses has taken what probably most people would say was a very sharp dissent From the palace. To the wilderness. From being a prince learned in all the wisdom and knowledge of Egypt to a desert dweller to a simple shepherd. And though Moses through this one event of slaying the Egyptian was fled to the land of Midian. It wasn't simply that one account that moved him there. As a matter of fact, Moses, the man, was not ready to take the people out of his out of Egypt. The people themselves were not ready to be delivered. Some might look at Moses in the land of Egypt. See how he rose to the top. See how he was gifted as a leader. See his qualifications and his skills. And some might say, well, certainly Moses is a leader. Certainly he's qualified. If anybody was qualified, it must be Moses to deliver the people. But the spiritual mind understands that. He had to be spiritually qualified as well. The natural man, to some degree, is set aside. So that the spiritual man can be equipped. Now, Moses was taught. And learned in all the culture and all the wisdom of the Egyptians, he was fundamentally equipped And God used some of that learning, some of that knowledge, that knowledge of the culture and that access to the court and that understanding how the Egyptians thought and how they would process him coming back and how the politics worked and all of that. That was not wasted those 40 years. Sometimes we want to erase that first 40 years and move into the desert. And say, oh, yes, that's when God taught him. And that is the primary teaching that Moses received. But that first 40 years was important as well. It was useful. But now Moses is in the desert and now he's going to be taught in the school of Christ and those 40 years in the desert. were the primary teaching moments that God had for Moses. Forty years every day probably seemed the same. If you've seen one sheep, you've seen them all. Sand in the desert, watering the flock. going home to his wife at night, dealing with his parents-in-law, all the same until he comes, in verse 2 of chapter 3, to the backside of the mountain of Horeb and he sees the burning bush. And nothing will be the same after this. What a great sight! You know from your Bible knowledge that the Egyptian, the magicians in Egypt did many wonderful miracles and trickery and magic, but they could never make a bush on fire with the bush not being consumed. What God was unfolding now at this place would be of profound importance to Moses, To the Israelites and to any of you who have an interest in God's redemption plan. So that's the brief background. And I would like to share with you three manifestations or three ways that God reveals himself at this account of the burning bush. The first one is this God reveals himself as the God of the desert. God reveals himself as the God of the desert. On more than one occasion, God himself appeared to the patriarchs, to the saints of old, to the prophets in the desert. We read in verse one. that Moses led the flock to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. The name Horeb actually means drought or it means desert. Now, if you were listening to the scripture reading from Acts chapter seven, it said God appeared to Moses in Sinai. In fact, the scripture shows, if you study this out, Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai are identical. All the accounts that happened at Mount Sinai, sometimes it says they happened at Mount Horeb. There is one mountain and sometimes God calls it Horeb or the area next to it, the wilderness or desert of Horeb. Sometimes he interchanges the word with a name Sinai. So Mount Horeb is an alternate name for Mount Sinai. It's not another mountain. It's the same place now. Horrible, like any other wilderness. Or any other desert was dry. It was hot. It was desolate. And although there must have been something of a pasture or grasses where he led the sheep to. Generally speaking, the climate and the geography was very difficult. How often have you associated, as the Bible does, a physical desert with a spiritual desert or a spiritual wilderness? We do that very often, I think, because we are given to complaining in our Adamic nature. But times of spiritual dryness or spiritual barrenness, times of loneliness, emptiness, lack of life or flourishing life. Times when we're in the wilderness, where we sense that God is not present or there's something lacking in our relationship to God. Or God seems to be very distant or maybe he's uncaring or he's unavailable. Times in your life where you spiritually can connotate up that imagery of a desert, a desert or wilderness where you are not making any progress. standing still or taking a few steps forward and many steps backwards. You have maybe heard of accounts of people who were lost in the desert and they end up wandering in big circles. It feels like that spiritually. Actually, they've they've done scientific research and they've discovered people don't walk in big circles. Unless they have a landmark like the sun, but they end up taking very unpredictable, chaotic paths. And have you ever been in a place where spiritually speaking? It seems, though, as that is where you are. But the fact is, God is the God of the desert. God owns the desert, God made the desert and God chose the desert to meet Moses at. When we think of a spiritual wilderness or a spiritual desert. We understand that God has not abandoned his people, he's not forsaken them any more than he has forsaken or abandoned Moses, but what God wanted to do was something that would be very deep, very impactful, very lasting, very special. Moses perception might not have initially picked up on this. Think of the imagery of a potter and the clay. When God knocks off big chunks off of you or forms you on the wheel with some radical changes or movement, that's easy to discern. Our perception picks that up, but when there is that very fine burnishing or sanding or polishing. We don't perceive that. And I wonder if these 40 years of Moses. This this finishing, this polishing, this burnishing, if he was able to perceive that, though it seemed to be very incrementally small, yet God was doing something very huge. Alone in the desert. Set aside. Separated. I preached this message up at the Jamestown prison this morning. I was shocked at how many inmates came up to me afterwards and said, I'm in the desert right now. In prison, I don't have the liberty to always open my Bible as I would. I don't have the liberty unless I am signed out with this special system to come to chapel or go to a midweek Bible study. I'm stuck in the middle of a dormitory, if we can use that word, where there is this loud din of music 24-7 and noise. And nobody cares, there are a number, they're pushed through the system. And several of the inmates said they felt they were spiritually in the desert, but they said they knew God was there. In the worst of their environments, they said, God is there. I know he is there. Here's Moses. Moses, who had great attainments in the world that is in Egypt. The dignity, the splendor of being someone of pomp and circumstance in the court of Egypt. Relegated to 40 years of obscurity in the desert. And the spiritual mind can say, can know, I think, if you didn't know the rest of the story, God's going to do something remarkable with this man. Because the 40 years in the desert is not wasted on God. Flesh and blood doesn't perceive that. Sometimes we don't perceive it when we are in the midst of it. The backside of the mountain. Someone who was mighty in word and deed, as we read in Acts chapter seven. Filled with the knowledge of Egypt's school. Forty years worth. And then to the desert. And as proof that that time is not wasted, God brings him to this place. You undoubtedly know what that spiritual wilderness or that spiritual desert is like if you've been a believer for any length of times. Whether or not we stumble out there ourselves, whether or not God orchestrates it like he did with Christ in Matthew 4 and Luke 4 when he underwent the temptation in the wilderness. Regardless, that is a time to be valued, a time when your spiritual compass can be reset, a place where there is no false pretenses. There is no empty pride, a place where God adjusts and recalibrates our spiritual balance. One of the Puritans said. In the desert, the enemy of your soul cannot gild the sand. The enemy can't gold plate the sand and say, oh, isn't this wonderful? In that place, reality takes on reality away from the hustle and bustle of society, away from distractions, away from empty ambitions. That place where, to put it in the vernacular today for probably all of us, there is no 205. or 580 or 680 or 880 to deal with. You can be single focused, single minded. In that place where God's voice can be heard, God's light can be enjoyed, God's thoughts can be received. So they become our thoughts. God's word can become the precious word that we know it already is. He's the God of the desert. He purposes, he overrules, he intersects, he uses. Moses perhaps did not know. At the burning bush. Everything that was about to happen. He did not know that he had been gifted and prepared for such and such a task. But he knew, we assume that he knew, that the blessing that he was receiving at the burning bush was built upon something. If you've ever been in this spiritual wilderness or this spiritual desert, you know that we often want to seek quick deliverance. Get me out of here, Lord. Even as Moses, Moses said, here am I. Send somebody else. It's too difficult, it's too hard. It's too flesh withering. If you've been in the desert, the temptation is to want to resist it or to look for a way out. We try to avoid it because we don't like pain, because we can't often think spiritual thoughts. It's painful to our dignity, it's painful to the flesh. But oftentimes, being in that place is exactly where God intends to bless us in a very particular or special way. He's the God of the desert. God could have appeared to Moses with some miracle in any other place. And he did, at times, in the tabernacle, on a mountaintop, in the tent. God chose to meet him in the desert. If I could change the imagery somewhat, I was talking with my mother-in-law this past week, who was all Hyped up about a song that she had heard. She remembered from 30, 40 years ago, a Christian song called God is the God of the hills and the valleys. And I asked her, I said, well, you know, that's based on scripture, and she did not know that. I knew that was a scripture. I had to look it up exactly. But First Kings 20, 28 says this. It changes the imagery a little bit, but I think it it conveys the idea. In First Kings 2028, the scripture says, and there came a man of God and he spoke to the king of Israel and he said, Thus sayeth the Lord, because the Syrians have said the Lord is the God of the hills, but he is not the God of the valleys. Therefore, will I deliver all this great multitude into thy hand and you shall know that I am the Lord. The Assyrians looked with the eye of flesh, with human natural understanding, thinking God was only the God who blesses wealth, prosperity, good things. God said, I'm the God of the hills and I'm also the God of the valleys. He is the God of the deserts. Secondly, God reveals himself here at the burning bush as the God of fellowship. The God of fellowship. Now, I'd like to remind you of the basis for fellowship, but first I want to just remind you that God himself is a God of fellowship, that is, he desires it. It's not that he needs that he's all sufficient in and of himself, but he has expressed through the scriptures his desire for fellowship. Notice that in verse three and verse four, excuse me, in verse four, the scripture says, When the Lord saw that Moses turned aside to see this great sight, that then God called to him out of the midst. Moses turns aside, Moses draws near, God reciprocates, God calls, God answers. God is a God of fellowship, he desires fellowship, though he is infinite, though he is thrice holy, though he is all powerful, though he is high and lifted up. Though you are a vessel of dust. Sinner saved by grace. Yet he wants to have fellowship with you. You do not have to go any farther than the book of Genesis in the Garden of Eden to see that God walked with man in the garden during the cool of the day. You can go to the Gospels and you can read verses like John 17 and verse 24, when Christ prayed, Father, I will that they also whom thou has given me be with me where I am. That they can behold my glory. You can go to the epistles, first Corinthians one nine, God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Or James for a draw near unto God and he will draw near unto you the book of Revelation that says at the end of time when everything is rolled up. John, here's that voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle, the dwelling place, the living place, the tabernacle of God is. With men, he will dwell with them. They shall be his people and they shall be his. He shall be their God. God is a God of fellowship. As soon as Moses stops, invested himself in this miraculous thing, whatever it was. God engages him. And as you know, there is a subsequent dialogue, sharing, partaking between God and Moses. The new three Greek New Testament words for fellowship illustrates commonality, something in common, communion, partnership or partaking. But what is the basis for fellowship? Of course, in the most elementary way, our basis for fellowship is the fact that we've been purchased, we've been redeemed by the blood of Christ. It is only through the person and work of Christ that we can have fellowship. But Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones makes a couple of key points about our basis for fellowship with God. Two points, he says, number one, We have to begin with God, who he is. That authentic, that is that scriptural revelation of who he is. We do not start with ourselves, we do not start with our felt needs. We start with God as he is revealed in 1st John, chapter one, John says, God is light. And in him is no darkness at all. And if you want to have fellowship with him, he says, you can read verses three, then verse seven, eight and nine. He says, truly, our fellowship is with this one, the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. John does not begin with the hearers felt needs. He doesn't say if you are hurting, then you should approach God. He doesn't say if you want to be successful or this or that or the other thing, he starts with God. God is light. God dwells in light. Immortal, unapproachable. Though he allows us to approach. Lloyd-Jones goes on to say, our problem is our Adamic nature is so self-centered. If you think about it, it really sounds silly. We want to approach God. With our problems. Now, God, in verse seven of Exodus, chapter three and following, God is very much interested in his people's problems. He says, I've heard the cries and the sighs, the people of Egypt, every one of their sorrows. I know I've come down to deliver them. I am going to help them. But Moses and as Lloyd-Jones points out from several different passages. Begins beating God where God is at and who God is. That's the starting point. God, as he defines himself in this account, God was defining himself as he spoke out of that burning bush, clearly a new thing to Moses, clearly something he didn't understand completely. But he was drawn into it. He was quick to hear, first of all, what God had to say. And secondly, the basis is holiness. Moses, draw off your shoes. The place wherein you are approaching is holy ground. Would you discourse with God Himself being profane? Vile? Wicked? No, if you knew you were vile, wicked, profane, empty, you would draw back intuitively, would you not? But the righteous are as bold as a lion. Holiness becomes thy people, O Lord, the prophet says. The prophet who describes in Ezekiel what that tabernacle of God in heaven is like. And he points to the horses and they have bells on them, their decoration, their ornaments. And what is that ornament? It's. Etched unto those holiness unto the Lord. Holiness. Jesus brought this to bear when he ministered upon this earth, remember what he said, the judgment was the judgment was That light has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light. Holiness. We must understand as a basis we meet God on holy ground. If we start with holiness, then there can be no false claims of fellowship. We won't have to ask ourself after we leave that time, was that just me thinking thoughts about God? Or did I really meet God? When you start with holiness, you will not blame God. Why did this happen to me? Why did I just have to spend 40 years in the desert? I deserve better than this. What about that person? What about the other thing? If you understand God's absolute holiness, you will understand you deserve all you really deserve is nothing but God's wrath. And so the application for us, the church, the church is the habitation of God by the spirit. The Holy Spirit inhabits each individual member and that character of holiness. should be at least part and parcel of your nature and your character, but especially when the church assembles together, we should have the sense when we come through these doors that we are on holy ground and expectation of meeting with God, not in a legalistic way, not in a way that is void of joy or happiness or blessing. But this reverential, sober understanding that God is holy, he never ceases to be holy. The place whereon thou standest is holy ground. God is a God of fellowship. As soon as he saw Moses turn aside, God connected him. God engaged him, God revealed to him, God blessed him. And that was such of a tremendous meeting time that it is recounted several times in the rest of Scripture. God desires fellowship. But to have fellowship with God, we have to begin with the reality of who God is. And we have to remember this primary characteristic of holiness. Thirdly, and finally, God reveals himself as the God of glory. God reveals himself as the God of glory. Now, I have. Three sub points under this idea or under this theme. The first one, of course, you already know that God is the God of glory. Perhaps Moses already knew that at this time as well. The psalmist asked the question. Who is the king of glory? And he immediately responds, the Lord, he is the king of glory. The Lord of hosts is the king of glory. But in this account, several things come through where God is emphasizing or revealing this glory. The first distinct way God manifest himself as the king of glory is how he appeared in the bush. Now, Moses and Deuteronomy, chapter 33, years later. Talks about this account. And Moses is dying, and before he dies, he blesses the children of Israel, and when he comes to bless the children of Joseph. He asks that God would bless him and his progeny with, quote, the goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush. Might God bless you, children of Joseph, with the goodwill of the one who dwelt in the bush? He's talking about this account in Exodus, but he uses a very special word for dwelt. He uses the word Shekinah. God Shekinah in the bush. That Shekinah glory. Not in its fullest power, not in its fullest glory, but to some degree that that light, that burning, that fire, The word of God can say that was the Shekinah from which Jehovah God spoke to you out of Moses. So God reveals himself there as the God of glory. The second reason. God manifests himself as the God of glory is because as he inhabits that bush. As this this miracle takes place, this this theophany or this appearance of God we have in this. Reality in this imagery, we have a picture or a type or a shadow. Of the glorious redeemer. This type. This figure is revealing The Redeemer, who would come, who would redeem God's people in the same way that the Israelites had to be brought out of Egypt, out of that servitude, out of that slavery into God's land. As God's people. So God was was prefiguring or pre-shadowing a deliverer, a redeemer. who would get his people out of the slavery of sin, out of that, away from that taskmaster. The bush itself is figurative of. The man. Christ Jesus, that outward vessel. The fire is representative of his divinity, he was fully God and fully man. This bush was an acacia thorn bush. A bush of the desert. Relatively small, not like a seed or tree, not like something large or ornamented. As the Puritans say, this bush had no form nor comeliness about it. It was like a root out of dry ground. It was a thorn bush. It was identified with thorns as just as the curse brought thorns into the world. This bush prefigured the humanity of the Redeemer, the Shekinah, the fire, the power represents his divinity. The fact that he was fully God and fully man He, the man Christ Jesus, would come and redeem his people. In his person, Jesus Christ was fully man. Fully man, but fully God. If you withdraw his Godhead, his blood cannot atone. Without his manhood, He cannot sympathize. He cannot take upon that form of a servant to take your sins upon himself. The wood, the bush, a poor, a feeble, a weak, if you will, product of the earth. The fire. The fire that has the power to burn with light, but not burn with heat. His divinity, the word became flesh. And dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, father full of grace and truth. God heard in the same way that he heard the cry of those Israelites in Egypt. He heard your cry, he knew your sorrows, he knew your inability to rescue yourself. And so he sent his son. Christ Jesus, the Lord. Fully God, fully man to say. It makes sense to me when I read the Scripture. Where it says God spared not the angels that didn't keep their first estate. It makes sense to me when I read the Scripture that says God spared not the old world, but only saved Noah. It makes sense to me when I read that God spared not the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. It makes sense to me when I read that God spared not the natural branches. The mystery to me is when the scripture says that he spared not his own son. But delivered him up for us all. At the burning bush, we see this in conjunction with the verbal pronouncement of God that he will redeem, he will save, he will bring out. In conjunction with that pronounced word, we see in this figure, in this type, a hint. A foreshadowing of how it would be accomplished. Fully God and fully man, the Redeemer who would bring free grace. And thirdly, as I believe a corollary to this, we understand that not only is the Redeemer glorious, God himself glorious, but the gospel And as it is personally applied to individuals, the gospel itself, God's plan itself is glorious. Who is God that he would say, I have seen the affliction of those who are in Egypt. I've heard their cry. I see they have hard taskmasters. I know their sorrow. I hear their groaning. They're in the iron furnace there beneath the iron rod of Pharaoh. This this natural man, this bond slave. God says, I see them. So, too, he sees those who are living thousands of years later who may not be under a physical slavery, a physical. Internment, But slaves, nonetheless. The sorrows of sin, nonetheless, the affliction of the curse, nonetheless. The emptiness of society to help, nonetheless, God looks down as he did in Moses Day. And he pronounces that he will bring deliverance, not because they merited redemption, but because they needed it. He was not attracted by their self-worth. It was not on the ground of their goodness. He knew he was the covenant God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. who would now fulfill his promise at his appointed time. This gospel, the Bible says, is glorious because it reflects something of the glory of God into your heart if you are born again. God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, where in the face of Jesus Christ. And then you are changed from glory to glory. You are getting. Nearer and nearer and nearer the throne every day of your life. And the church. As God inhabits the church as well. The body of Christ and the church are so there's such that duality. That God looks at the church as the body of Christ inhabits it and promises deliverance for it. As well, we've quoted this quote before. I think it was Jonathan Edwards, but he says when God the Father contemplates his son. He cannot contemplate his son without thinking about you. That's how close, that's how intimate you have been brought, that is how near you have been brought to God himself. Well, there is so much more in this passage, I did not want to go too long. But God reveals himself at the burning bush. He reveals himself as the God of the desert. He reveals himself as the God of fellowship. He reveals himself as the God of glory. May God be pleased to reveal himself to us in like manner, even as he already has in the pages of Scripture. But might these truths take on new life and deeper realities for all of us? Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your word, which does so very clearly reveal who you are to us. And your tremendous plan of redemption. And your attributes and your characteristics. We thank you for your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. What he has done for us, we thank you, Lord, as we consider our lives when we were apart from you. Slaves, servants of sin. Sorrowful, afflicted. With no hope. Without God in the world, and yet. In mercy, you redeemed us. Made us your people. Father, we desire that you would continue to reveal yourself to us from the pages of Scripture. We pray the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth would take your word. And open it to us and apply it to our heart. And father, you would get glory for yourself in our individual lives. And in this church, we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.