June 20, 2010
Sermon #841
Meeting Him
Exodus 3:1 - 10 (NKJV) 1Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.
3Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn."
4So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!"
And he said, "Here I am."
5Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground."
6Moreover 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 upon God.
7And the Lord said: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
8So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
9Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
10Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
Introduction: What a wonderful account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! You ask the question, "How can this account from the Old Testament be an account of the New Testament?" I'm only too glad to answer that question.
Something happens to arrest your attention.
ILL: Moses is going about the business of tending sheep. He has been doing the same thing for 40 years. Suddenly his attention is arrested by the unusual, a bush that continues to burn!
- It can be an illness
ILL: My mother, who had been a Mormon all her life, was told she had cancer. She came to a meeting at the Cathedral. The guest minister preached, "God wants you to live and not die." She gave her life to Christ.
- It may be a change in your life
My son, Dennis, was born. A local pastor came to visit and told me the message of salvation. The next morning I stopped the car on the way to work and asked Jesus into my life.
- It can be a national or regional calamity
ILL: Sergeant York, the most decorated solder of WWI, was riding a mule when hit by lightning. The shoes were knocked off the mule's hooves.
- It can be a miracle from heaven
Acts 9:1 - 20 (NKJV) 1Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
3As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.
4Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"
5And he said, "Who are You, Lord?"
Then the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads."
6So he, trembling and astonished, said, "Lord, what do You want me to do?"
Then the Lord said to him, "Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
7And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one.
8Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
9And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
10Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision, "Ananias."
And he said, "Here I am, Lord."
11So the Lord said to him, "Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying.
12And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight."
13Then Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem.
14And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name."
15But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.
16For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake."
17And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
18Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized.
19So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.
20Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.
Being curious is not enough
2 Timothy 3:1 - 9 (NKJV) 1But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
4traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
6For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
7always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith;
9but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.
ILL: Jannes and Jambres saw the miracles but resisted accepting the truth.
ILL: Some are always learning about Christ but never coming to Him.
Turning aside by Moses was not enough
Exodus 3:2 - 5 (NKJV) 2And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.
3Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn."
4So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!"
And he said, "Here I am."
5Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground."ILL: He had to change his attitude, forget the investigation, take his shoes off his feet, stay where he was, and submit!
Nicodemus was curious but it was not enough
John 3:1 - 8 (NKJV) 1There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."
3Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
4Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
5Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
8The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."It is a revelation, not an investigation
Job 11:7 - 9 (NKJV) 7"Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty?
8They are higher than heaven—what can you do?
Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?
9Their measure is longer than the earth
And broader than the sea.
This is the story of the entire Bible
- Adam
Genesis 3:8 - 9 (NKJV) 8And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" - Noah
Genesis 6:13 - 14 (NKJV) 13And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. - Abraham
Genesis 12:1 - 3 (NKJV) 1Now the Lord had said to Abram:
"Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father's house,
To a land that I will show you.
2I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." - Samuel
1 Samuel 3:1 - 11 (NKJV) 1Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.
2And it came to pass at that time, while Eli was lying down in his place, and when his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he could not see,
3and before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the Lord where the ark of God was, and while Samuel was lying down,
4that the Lord called Samuel. And he answered, "Here I am!"
5So he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me."
And he said, "I did not call; lie down again." And he went and lay down.
6Then the Lord called yet again, "Samuel!"
So Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." He answered, "I did not call, my son; lie down again."
7(Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him.)
8And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. So he arose and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you did call me."
Then Eli perceived that the Lord had called the boy.
9Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say, 'Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10Now the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, "Samuel! Samuel!"
And Samuel answered, "Speak, for Your servant hears."
11Then the Lord said to Samuel: "Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.
B. It is always a miracle; it is always supernatural
ILL: It is not knowing things about God, it is knowing God
- He is Holy!
Exodus 24:17 - 18 (NKJV) 17The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.
18So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Hebrews 12:22 - 29 (NKJV) 22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,
23to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,
26whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven."
27Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
29For our God is a consuming fire. - He is love, mercy, and compassion
Exodus 3:7 (NKJV) 7And the Lord said: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
Conclusion: The purpose of all revelation
Exodus 3:8 (NKJV) 8So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
- To deliver from the bondage of sin
To bring to a place of prosperity
