Israels God & Savior

If you have your Bibles with you, open them to Exodus chapter three, Exodus chapter three, and as we've examined the first two chapters of the Book of Exodus. I don't know about you, but every time I read through Exodus, I'm always struck by the same thing. Whenever we think about Exodus. One thing that I'm struck by is how much I'm influenced by the Cecil B. Demill movie The Ten Commandments. Amen. Amen, somebody we're influenced by that movie. It was just an epic film. And I'm struck by how many times I'm reading through Exodus chapter two and Exodus chapter three and I'm looking for things that were in the movie that were not in the Bible. Amen, and they're just not there. That's one thing I'm struck by. The second thing I'm struck by is how much significance there is in these preliminary matters. When we think about Exus Exodus, we only think about what I would consider the middle passage of Exodus. And the middle passage is that great conflict between God and Pharaoh through the agency of Moses, the deliverance through the Red Sea. I mean that middle passage and maybe even up to the giving of the Law. That's when we say Exodus, that's what we mean, and we sort of forget the last third of it altogether, which is the Tabernacle. You say something to somebody and what is Exodus, About nine times out of ten they're not going to say anything about the tabernacle. And that is the last piece of the puzzle. That's where Exodus ends. Exodus doesn't end on the mountaintop with the tablets of the Law. It ends with the tabernac, God's dwelling place among his people and the instructions about how God's people worship him. That's the culmination of the Exodus. And even before that middle passage where there is this great conflict between God and Pharaoh, through God's Egypt Moses, there is this preliminary matter, and the preliminary matter of how God calls Moses to his task and what happens in Moses's life before he begins this task. In fact, if you think about it in terms of Moses's life, there are three forty year periods, and we've talked about that in the last several weeks. The first forty year period where he is raised in Egypt. That second forty year period where he is in Midian, and then that third forty year period where he is leading the children of Israel in the desert. And quite honestly, words of Moses' life are covered here in this first section. So the part that we're coming to now, Moses is already eighty years old or thereabouts, and he's only got another forty. Years to live. Keep that in mind as we think about these first three chapters and their significance and how much is packed into. These first few chapters. Today we're looking at Chapter three, verses one through twelve, and if I had to title this message today, it's interesting, you know, we look at chapter three and we think about the call of Moses, and this call of Moses that basically happens in three phases, one where God reveals himself, and the second where God commissions Moses, and the third where God where Moses debates with God. There are these three phases of the call to Moses. But if I had to title this, the title really wouldn't have to have anything to do with Moses. I would title this introducing Israel's God and Savior, because really, this part of the Call of Moses has more to do with who God is than it does with what God is calling Moses to do. And in fact, you cannot comprehend Moses's calling fully unless and until you comprehend who this God is who calls Moses, because that's what puts his call in context. That's what makes this call makes sense. It's when you understand who God is that you understand why Moses fits in what God is doing and why God calls Moses the way he does. Several things we see here about God and will take these in turn. There are four. First, Israel's God and Savior is a holy God. We see that there in those first six verses. Look with me, if you will. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father in law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God, and the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the. Midst of a bush. He looked and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight. Why the bush is not burned? When the Lord saw that. He turned aside to see. God called to him out of the bush. Moses Moses, and he said, here I am. Then he said, do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Amen. The burning bush one of the most lasting images in all of the Bible. This idea of the burning bush and the burning bush actually takes up very little of this story. It just kind of passed over when you read it. There's a bush that's burning. It's not explored. It's not explained, just a statement. There it is, Moses saw it. Moses turned, and then he began to interact with God. But we see in this first movement that Moses is dealing with a holy God. Why well, first we see a holy angel. This is the. Angel of the Lord. This is no ordinary angel. The text doesn't say there was an angel. The text says the Angel of the Lord. This angel speaks as God. Notice this, that this angel speaks as God. There is the statement about this angel. And there's this angel in this bush's burning, and the Angel of the Lord is there. And then there is speech, But the speech that comes is the speech of God. This angel communes with man in a way that God does not normally or ordinarily commune with man. There is something different about this angel. Listen to this from Jay a Motyear. He writes. We can put it this way. The angel suffers no reduction or adjustment of his full deity. Yet he is that mode of. Deity whereby the Holy God can keep company with sinner. Bible says, no man has ever seen God and lived. You can't see God and live, you can't take in the fullness of God. And so here is God in this bush, or the Angel of the Lord in this bush? Who is this Angel of the Lord? Again, it's not Gabriel, it's not Michael. It's not some lesser angel. For sure, the Angel of the Lord would be one who would be superior to a Gabriel. Or to a Michael. Who is this Angel of the Lord, This Angel of the Lord who has spoken of in terms of deity, This Angel of the Lord, who not only speaks four but it appears speaks as God Mantnu continues, there is only one other in the Bible who is both identical with and yet distinct from, the Lord, One who, without abandoning the full essence and prerogative of deity or or demising the divine Holiness, is able to accommodate himself to the company of sinners, and who, while affirming the wrath of God, is yet a supreme display of his outreaching mercy. Such, indeed, is the Angel of the Lord, as revealed in the Old Testament, and consequently part and pain rightly does not hesitate to say. These revelations of the unique Angel can be appreciated only when understood as a pre incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ himself. This is the pre incarnate Christ. This is the second person of the Trinity. This is God the sun in the burning bush. The Angel of the Lord is the Lord himself, and yet Christ has no body until the incarnation. This is a unique and perplexing manifestation, as unique and perplexing as a bush that is burning, but is not consumed as unique and perplexing as a voice that comes therefrom that is identified with God, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And yet this is precisely what we see that God has condescended to Moses. That God, as he begins his activity of delivering his people, does so through making himself known in the form of the Angel of the Lord or the person of the pre incarnate Christ, Moses and hunter Jesus. Interestingly enough, Jesus will encounter Moses in his earthly ministry as well on the amount of transfiguration, as things will come full circle. But make no mistake about it, on the mound of transfiguration, it's not the first time that Moses and Jesus meet. Beyond the Holy Angel, there is also this holy fire. Notice what the text says, The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. So there is this holy fire, this unusual fire, this fire that is burning but is not consuming the bush. There are many who have attempted to explain this holy fire, to explain what it says about God's holiness. There are those who say that the explanation lies in Israel, and the fact that Israel is in the midst of the flame of the Egyptian bondage, and yet they are not consumed by it. There are others, however, argue that this is a picture of God himself as a flaming fire who could consume all through his justice, and yet in his mercy, does not do so, Killing Davish Wright. Fire, therefore, regarded as burning and consuming, is a figurative representation of refining affliction and destroying punishment all at the same time. When we read about God as a consuming fire, we read about God as one who brings justice and his fire, and the flame of his fire is one that is a picture of justice. We saw that in Revelation. That Christ, when he stands as judge, is one whose feet are as bronze burned in a fire, and whose eyes are as a flame of fire. It's the judgment of God, but it is also the purifying nature of God. God is purifying his people in this process, and God will also judge those who have oppressed his people in this process. Both are fittingly referred to in terms of fire. But this idea of God presenting himself in flame of fire is an idea that runs throughout Exodus. First, we see it here obviously as God calls the Deliverer. But secondly we see it in the desert as God's presence with his. People, protecting his people by night. In this pillar of fire, it is the presence of God with Israel. Thirdly, on the mountain on Mount Sinai in the giving of the Law, and also in the confirmation of the Covenant. We read, for example, in Exodus nineteen eighteen. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And then again in Exodus twenty four to seventeen, and to the eyes of the sons of Israel, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountain top. Fourthly, at the end of Exodus, we see this fire present in the tabernacle. The last verse of the last chapter of the book of Exodus, Exodus forty thirty eight, the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night. And the sight of all the House of Israel throughout all their journey, the idea of holy fire is one that is consistent throughout the Exodus. It's also consistent throughout redemptive history, this idea of purification and the idea of judgment, and we will see both of those, Make no mistake about it. In the Exodus. God will consume Egypt with fire, he will judge them, and God will. Purify Israel with fire. He will purge them. So it is only fitting that the God who will bring the fire of judgment and the fire of purification when he calls his agent of deliverance, would do so by appearing fire in the midst of a bush, and yet of a bush that is not consumed, meaning that this fire is not a fire that is out of control, but a fire that is completely and utterly in control. As God brings his justice, His justice is never out of control. God knows how and when to bring justice. He's precise in his judgments and in his justice and in his purifying. He purifies his people just enough. And just like with this bush, his fire of purification can burn through us and in us and all around us, and yet not consume us. This is our Holy God seen in this holy fire. We also see him here on Holy Ground Horror referred to as the Mountain of God. This is another reference to Sinai. It is a holy place. But why is it a holy place If it is a holy place, because there is something inherently holy about this particular place. Well, first of all, it be the only place that was inherently holy on all the earth just because it is. It's not. We know this because ultimately, when God, for example, builds his temple, he builds his temple on another mountain range, not this mountain range. We also know that even after God has built his temple, that there is another place that is another temple that is even more holy, and that. Is the dwelling place of God with men. So it's not as though this place is singled out because it has any sort of inherently holy properties. The tabernacle is an example of that. God doesn't say, this is a holy place, so you come out of Egypt and you'll stay right here on this mountain so that you could worship me, or you used to close enough so that you can always come back to this mountain to worship me. He doesn't. There is a tabernacle, and it moves with them. The picture of the presence of God being with his people. Therefore, when God says that this ground is holy, he says it's holy because He chose it as a place to meet Moses. The ground is holy because God is there. Because God is there. The Tabernacle is holy, not because of anything inherently holy in the materials used to make the Tabernacle. It's holy because God is there. The Temple is holy, not because of anything in the materials of the Temple, but because God is there. And the people of God are holy, not because of anything inherent in us, but because. God is there. This is holy ground. Interestingly enough, he tells Moses to take off his sandals because he is on holy ground. We don't know why. This is not a normal practice. It's not a practice that continues in redemptive history. We don't see this happening with Israel when they come, for example, to the Temple or whatever. This is not the practice that we see. But there is one there's one biblical background commentary that shed some light on this that I found very interesting, and that is that in the ancient Near East, and by the way, still in the Middle East today. If you remember, for example, when Iraq fell and the statue of Saddam Hussein was coming down. Do you remember what people did? They hit it at the bottom of their shoes, which is the ultimate insult. When our president was visiting not long after, they threw a shoe at him. It's the ultimate insult. But in the ancient Near East, when you stood, for example, before the king, one of the practices was to take off your shoes. I believe this is another instance of God condescending and communicating with Moses in terms he understood. See, there is no universal practice that says I recognize your holiness. And some cultures people bow their heads, and others people bow at the waist, and others people bow the me and some cultures people take off their shoes, and other cultures people turn their backs and refuse to look. In other cultures, there are different practices in different cultures that would indicate that there is holiness in their presence. What God does here is he calls upon Moses to act in accordance with the practice that was familiar with him, and that is the taking off of his shoes. Again. Throughout the rest of redemptive history, God doesn't say that if something's really holy, you take off your shoes, but here for Moses. That's what happens. Why because God is present, because God is holy, Because Moses has a history of responding in a particular way to individuals who are considered holy, and all of them pale in comparison to the one who burns in a flame of fire in this bush. Again, we don't know for certain. Finally, there is a holy man. This word holy, this Hebrew word kadesh, it means separate, set apart. That's what holy is. And this is what happened. What's happening with Moses. Moses is being set apart. Moses is being separated, Moses is being called out by God. Moses is being declared holy for. This purpose, holy in that he is set apart as God's instrument for delivering his people. Notice there is no mention of Moses' clothing. Why because your clothes can't make you holy. There is no mention of Moses' haircut. Why because there's no haircut that can make you holy. There's no mention of anything that Moses has externally, because that's not what makes him holy. God didn't say I'm seeking a man with a particular kind of clothing or a particular kind of haircut, or a particular kind of shoe, or a particular kind of whatever, because none of those things. Can make one holy. It is God whom makes men holy, and only God who makes men holy. Does this manifest itself? And the way we walk, and in the way we talk, and in the way we dress, and the way. We yes, it does. It does manifest itself in all of those ways. But there is not one particular culture that has a corner on the market of holy and righteous dress. Amen. There are some places that you go and people distinguish themselves as holy men or holy women through the clothing that they wear, so that when you see them, you will recognize them as holy. And more often than not, they're filled with the same kind of hate, deceit, envy, pride, lust, and filth with which everyone else around them is filled. And yet outwardly they bear the marks of something that inwardly they do not possess. This is not holiness. God's people are holy because they are set apart for God. God's people are holy because God calls him, calls them his people. Moses is holy because God sets him apart for no other reason. Not only is Israel's God, a god who is holy. But Israel's God and Savior is a God who speaks. This is an amazing aspect of this text. Look back at verses four two six. When the Lord God saw that he had turned aside to see God called to him out of the bush, Moses Moses, and he said, here I am. Then he said, do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. By the way, another reason, let me just say this, going back to the whole idea of the taking off of the sandals, and why you know, I believe this is a cultural thing that Moses would have understood and not something that you carry throughout redemptive history, is because your feet are no more holy and worthy of the presence of God. Than anything you have on them. Amen. Somebody, my feet are no more holy than the. Cow who died to give the piece of leather that is on the bottom of them. Amen. So again, there's something else here. And he said, I am the God of your Father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God God is speaking to Moses. This is amazing. This is a God who spoke the world into existence, and he is now speaking to Moses as you would speak with another man. I said before, and I'll say again, we brutalize this phrase through the commonality with which we treated. We abuse this phrase by the familiarity that we have come to have with it. We completely and utterly render this phrase useless because of the way we walk around saying God spoke to me. God told me this. God told me that, as though we are equating our inward experience with the idea that God met Moses through a fire and a bush and actually spoke audible words. This is what it means for God to speak with you, and when it happens, you fall on your face like a dead man before a holy God. Amen, Please stop being flippant about that phrase. Please stop using that phrase. God doesn't speak to you like he spoke to Moses. God doesn't speak to anybody like he spoke to Moses. God doesn't speak this way anymore. According to Hebrews chapter two, he has spoken, and his final and ultimate revelation is in the person and work of Jesus Christ. We have God's words spoken to us, So with anything else that God is going to speak to us, He's speaking to us through the scriptures. Please stop using this phrase because it belittles what happened to Moses. For me to have an impression and to say God spoke to me is to belittle what happened here with Moses. God spoke to Moses. He may move me. He may impress me, he may use people to speak into my life, but he doesn't do what he did here. If he does, then our Bible should not be leather bound. We should have him in a three ring binder so that we can continue to add the new speakings of God. Because if he's speaking to me like he's speaking to Moses, it bears this same authority. We need to be careful with that phrase. God speaking is an act of condescension. He condescends to Moses and speaks to him. Unless God speaks, we cannot know him. Unless God speaks. Were just left wandering aimlessly in the dark, hoping that we are right about why the world exists and what that means. Man lives by the very word of God. We don't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Amen. God's speech is precious, and God's speech here is unique. Listen to the first paragraph of the first chapter of our Confession. The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain and infallible rule of saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. Although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom and power of God as to leave men unexcusable, yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and his will which is necessary under salvation. Therefore, it pleads the Lord, at sundry times and in divers manners, to reveal himself and to declare that his will unto his church, and afterward, for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same holy unto writing, which make it the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary. Listen to this. Those former ways of God revealing his will unto his people. Being now ceased. We don't have continued revelation like this, which is why the Bible is so important. We worship the God who speaks, and we have the word of the God who speaks. In fact, when Jesus comes into the world, he comes as the word of God. Amen Israel's God in savior, as a holy God, and he is a God who speaks. It's ironic that we would sort of take this in the way that we take it. You know, he's God who speaks, which means that you know, of course, he has to speak to us today in the same way. Otherwise, you know, we can't know and we can't have the same experience that other people had. You see, when you do that, what you do is you run to the experience of other people. You run to the experience of the Pagans. The pagans whose God is capricious, the pagans who's God has not created the world or revealed himself in such a way that you can know who he is and what he desires of you through his written word that is consistent and always examinable and testable. But the Pagans who always want a personal revelation that you can't question. Irony of ironies. Those who desire to serve a God who continues to speak today in the way that he spoke to Moses, are actually belittling the revelation of God, not inhancing it. Again, this is why God's word is so crucial and critical to us as believers. Thirdly, Israel's God and Savior is a god who delivers his people. We'll see this in verses seven through eleven. Look there, then, the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know they're suffering. And again that word know is this intimate word. He knows intimately. He knows like a man knows his wife. He knows they're suffering. And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizites, the Hittites, and the Jebuzites. And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am I? That I should go. To Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. He reels God as a god who delivers his people, which means that he is intimately aware of the plight of his people. That's what we saw on last week. God knows, He. Knows exactly what his people are going through, exactly what his people are dealing with, and it does not catch him by surprise. In fact, everything that his people are dealing with has come to them from his sovereign hand. God has prepared a people and a place. Isn't it amazing? God doesn't just say, you know, I'm going to deliver them out of this oppression. He says, I have come to notice the word that he uses, the word picture. I've come down to take them up out of Egypt. But not just to take them up out of Egypt. But I'm going to take them up out of Egypt. And I know exactly where I'm going to take them to. Where's he going to take them to the land that he promised to Abraham back in Genesis. He knows exactly where they're going They know exactly where they're going because God has made a promise. So God is prepared to people, and now he has prepared a place. It made no sense whatsoever for all of that land to be given to Abraham. It made no sense whatsoever for all of that land to be given to Isaac and his family. It didn't even make sense for that land to be given to Jacob and his family, although his family was much larger and larger than Abraham's and much larger than Isaac's, they didn't need a nation. However, now hundreds of years later, God has preserved and prepared a people who are now actually a nation. The Egyptians are fearful of them because they are so plentiful, and now it makes sense that God would put them in the land that is broad. Don't you love that terminology? This land is broad? Why did you use that terminology? Because they're outgrowing Egypt so much so that the Egyptians are putting them to death. God says, I'm going to take you to a land that is broad. And not only is it broad, but it is flowing with milk and honey. It is a prosperous land. And notice that God is the only deliverer. It's beautiful here. Please don't be too hard on Moses in verse eleven. Our natural tendency in verse eleven is to say, you know, oh, here's Moses, and Moses is doubting. Moses saw a bust burning Yo cut him a little slack. He hears the voice of God. For forty years he was in Egypt. He understood that he was a Hebrew. He desired to be a deliverer. He wanted the deliverance of his people, and yet when he tried to do something, get backfired on him. Now he's been in the wilderness for forty more years. He's eighty years old. He's an old man. His strength is gone, his popularity in Egypt is gone. They won't even remember him. He doesn't have any plans, he doesn't have an army, he doesn't have any weapons. And God says, you are going to deliver my people out of Egypt. So verse eleven, when viewed in that context, it's not this picture of cowardice and faithlessness. It's a legitimate issue to raise Amen. Look at verse eleven and notice the way that he raises it. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. The answer is your nobody. That's why you've qualified for the job. It took forty years to make you nobody. You see, forty years ago, Moses might not have answered asked that question. Forty years ago, when he's in his prime, in the prime of his physical power and the prime of his grasp of his mental capacities, and the prime of his political power, in the prime of his hubris. Forty years ago. God may have come and Moses would have said, yes, let's go, I can take Pharaoh. But now, as an eighty year old man, and who's been tending sheep for forty years, who probably can't remember the last time he experienced a kind of hand to hand combat, whose language skills absolutely would have diminished by now. Forty years, he hasn't spoken to an Egyptian. And now God says, you're going to deliver the people, that's the right question. Who am I? Because the fact of the matter is Moses is not the deliverer. God is the deliverer, and the reason he chooses Moses and uses him at this phase of his life is so that there will be absolutely no doubt. You're old, you're weak, you're scared, you're perfect. Let's go. Finally, Israel's God is a god who seeks and saves worshippers. Look at verse twelve. I love verse twelve for a number of reasons. But look at verse twelve. This is God, he said. But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. I love that most of this. Who am I to do this? Essentially? God answers this question by saying you're nobody. He says no, no, no, no, no, no, I'll be with you, and he goes here, here's how you know I'm going to give you a sign. Moses, you're afraid I'm going to give you a sign. Oh Lord, thank you so much, because I really want to sign, you know, I would really like to have a sign this bush. That's pretty amazing, that's awesome, that's great, and that's a sign I know. I mean, that's why I hit my face because I know that this is God and that's a sign. But now you're telling me I'm going to go deliver the people out of Israel. You're gonna give me a sign that would be a wonderful thing, so that when I go, I can have confidence because I've seen a sign that's gonna let me know that this is going to happen. What's the sign? The sign is when you come back here and worship me, you'll know that it was me. It's probably a little bit different than than what Moses would have wanted. Obe Obe, how will I know? How can I know? You will know? Because I will do what I said I'm going to do. Several things about this are very important. One we know here that God is actually not just delivering a people who are oppressed, but He is actually calling and collecting a people for his name to worship him. God is not merely alleviating the suffering of an oppressed people. See. That's liberation theology. Liberation theology is built on this idea and this reading of the Exodus that basically says God is always on the side of the oppressed. Liberation theology sees the Exodus and says, this is all about oppression, and this is about what God does for oppressed people all over the world, and they're missing something here. Listen to this statement. One commentator is put it this way. A persistent aspect, especially of modern man, is his belief that the underdog, the minority group, the oppressed, the downtrodden, the persecuted race or nationality is the virtuous one and its superiors and or oppressors are the evil ones. They are unwilling to see evil on both sides and to seek the good in one only God. This proneness of men to identify the good with one so or another leads to the perversion of justice. Justice can only be identified with God. Then all men and all groups of men must be summoned to follow justice and serve it. If we buy into the liberation theology idea that God is just here and God is just listening to Israel because they were oppressed, like no one was ever oppressed, First of all, you don't know history. The ancient Earies was filled with oppressed people. Israel was not the only oppressed people. That is not why God is responding. We're also ignoring what we heard earlier. God says, he hears, and he remembers. What does he remember? He remembered his covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. If we just buy into the liberation theology idea that God is merely acting because these people are oppressed and oppressed people are always good and oppressors are always bad and inherently evil. Then we miss something. And there are several implications of this. Let me give you five. This idea rob's ancient Israel. If it's significant place in redemptive history. If all they brought to the table was being oppressed, then we don't understand redemptive history. God said his love on this people before they were oppressed. Amen. Secondly, this idea reduces salvation to mere deliverance from oppression. That's wrong, folks, that's wrong. God can save you in the midst of your oppression and it's still salvation because this is not our home. Amen. Thirdly, this idea makes worship contingent on and responsive to earthly deliverance. How many of you know this is where a lot of us are. It's hard to worship when things are difficult. It's hard to worship when you're asking God to deliver you from something and you haven't experienced deliverance yet. Why. Because we have this idea that God is worthy to the degree that he delivers us from whatever it is we feel like where we need deliverance from. Listen, God is worthy of worship regardless of your circumstances, and in fact, whatever your circumstances are. It's better than you deserve. Four. This idea negates the idea that of God calling and having a people. That God calls and has a people, that he specifically sets his love on a people. And the beauty of this idea is that even from God's promise to Abraham, we know that it's not one particular ethnic group, and in a New Testament we get an even broader picture of the fact that gentiles are grafted in to this people, and that we become part of this people. He chooses this people in Christ. Fifthly, this idea makes righteousness external and corporate. And not individual. Now all of a sudden, in order to be righteous, all you have to be is part of a particular group of people that's oppressed, and that makes you the righteous one and the holy one just because you're part of that group. It doesn't matter who you are individually. If you're part of that group that's oppressed, you're the righteous. And in order to be not holy in night righteous, all you have to do is be part of a group that is oppressed and other people and there you have it, folks, this is real. This is alive and well to day in America. This is alive and well today. Trying to teach individuals on college campuses this whole idea that there are certain people groups that are oppressed and they are holy and righteous because they are oppressed or because they're poor, and there are another group of people that's wealthy, and because they are wealthy, they are oppressors. And God is automatically on the side of the poor and the oppressed, and automatically against people who are wealthy. This is alive and well in America today. We hear this all around us, and some of us have actually bought into it. It's a lie, people, it's a lie. God calls his people for his own namesake. God calls his people for his glory, and God calls his people so that they might worship him. God is also demonstrating his sovereignty here. I'm gonna give you a sign, Moses, what sign are you going to give? He doesn't say I'm gonna give you a burning in the bosom, as our Mormon friends would like to believe. He doesn't say that. He's going to give him some subjective and intuitive sense so that he can just know that he knows that he knows. God says, you'll know because it will be fulfilled, because it will not fail. I will demonstrate my sovereignty, and then you will know. Until then there's trust. But that's who God is. Isaiah forty six nine to eleven. Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and a times things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed, and I will do it. This is our God. There was no contingency plan. God is sovereign and he's going to save his people. And God says to Moses, you'll know that it was God because it's going to happen, just like I'm telling you it's going to happen. Finally, we see God creating this distinct people to worship him, and it comes together beautifully in John chapter four, when Jesus encounters the woman at the well and she finally says that she perceives that he is a prophet, and then she asks him this question. You know, we worship on this mountain and you people worship on that mountain? Which one is right? And God doesn't say, Oh, that mountain is the one that's right. God says, the hour is coming and is now here with those who worship God. Won't worship him on this mountain or that one. Why? Because the Father is seeking worshippers who will worship him in spirit and in truth. God is calling out a people. And what distinguishes the people whom God calls out? How can you tell this, holy people? This set apart people for God. How do you know what are they marked by? You know what they're marked by? Worship? God sets them apart. God calls them his home, and they cannot help but respond in worship. That, friends, is why we must not end Exodus prematurely in our minds. Exodus does not end with the law. It ends with the tabernacle. Exodus ends with worship. Exodus ends with God in the midst of his people, and God's people responding to God in their midst through worshiping God, through worshiping God in accordance with what in accordance with what God has spoken. Because he is a God who speaks. He is a God who's holy, so their worship is holy. He is a God who speaks, so their worship is in accordance with what he speaks. He is a God who delivers as people, so their worship is an expression of gratitude for their deliverance and salvation. And He is a God who calls together this people of worship and continues to call together this people of worship. This is who we are in Christ. The same one who spoke to Moses from this burning bush is the one who calls us out as a people to worship God. He calls us from the bondage of our sin and frees us and delivers us. Why so that we can go and pursue anything that we want, any weight that we want to know, So that we will be a peculiar people, as Peter says, a royal priesthood, that we might offer sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, that we might worship Him appropriately, and that we might be a people marked out, called out, and distinguished, because we worship him with all that we have and with all that we are. And how much more significant should our worship be when our deliverance does not come from one who goes and stands before Pharaoh with a rod in his hand, but one who dies on a tree and is buried and is resurrected on the third day, one who takes our sins upon himself, one who satisfies the righteous judgment and indignation of a holy God on our behalf, one who has our sin imputed to him and his righteousness imputed to us. One who dies for our sin for our and raises again for our justification. How much more for one who not takes us to a land flowing with milk and honey, but to the new heaven and the new Earth. How much more? How much more for one not who calls us to pack up the tabernacle and take it with us and set it up every time we set up camp, but one who says that his spirit will dwell within us. How much more should we be marked by the worship of this one true God. Interesting as we introduce Israel's God, we meet our own. A God who is holy, a God who has spoken and continues to speak in and through his word, A God who delivers his people. In fact, that's how we become his people, by being delivered from our sin and placing faith in Jesus Christ, and one who delivers and calls out a people to worship him. This is our God, this is whom we worship. This is our Savior, this is our King, This is the very lover of our souls. The one who saw us in the midst of our oppression, came down and delivered us. Oh yes, we still await that land, but we know that the one who promised is faithful, and what he promises will always come to pass. Place your trust in him and in no other, for He indeed is our own lay hope. Let's pray, Faithful, righteous, and redeeming God. We bow before you, acknowledging your holiness, thanking you for having spoken, rejoicing in your deliverance, and embracing the privilege of worship. Grant by your grace that these things might remain in the forefront of our minds. As we continue and come before the Lord's table. Grant this we pray for Christ's sake Amen,