(Exodus) Exodus 3:1-2

Now, we come to the third chapter of the book of Exodus. Now, in the third chapter, we have this very arresting story of the burning bush. It's the call of Moses, and the second forty years in Midian now comes to an end.

And this burning bush is the turning point, of course. Now, let me begin reading at verse 1. Now, this is chapter 3 of Exodus. Have you ever noticed the great chapter 3s of the Bible? I've often wanted to run a series on the great third chapters of the Bible, but there's so many things I've never been able to get around to preach on that are in the Word of God.

Genesis 3, John 3, Romans 3, and here is Exodus 3. And it's the burning bush. Now, will you notice? 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. Now, that bush has always, frankly, been considered a picture of the nation Israel.

They've been in the fire of persecution from the very beginning. Here they are in it right now, down in the land of Egypt. And down through the centuries, that's been their experience.

They've been in the fire. But like that burning bush, they've never been consumed. And isn't that interesting? Other great nations that have never gone through the fire as they have, have already disappeared.

By the way, when was the last time you saw a Midianite? He's down in the land of Midian. Have you seen the flag of Midian? Do you know anything about the government of Midian? I must confess that I know nothing about this. It's gone.

It's disappeared, friends. But the burning bush is certainly typical of these people. Now, will you notice, "...and the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush." And here, the angel of the Lord, in my book, in the Old Testament, is none other than the pre-incarnate Christ.

Now, I'm not even prepared to debate that. There are certain convictions that I've come to in my ministry that I just don't go back and debate them anymore. I'm not prepared to debate whether 2 plus 2 equals 4. They told me that at school.

I accepted it. Been working on that supposition now for over half a century, and it's worked out all right. So if you don't think 2 plus 2 equals 4, you go to somebody else to argue it and don't come to me because to me 2 plus 2 equals 4. And the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament is the pre-incarnate Christ.

Now, if you haven't come to that point, then I'm not prepared to argue with you, although I think I could give you my argument. But the important thing is to get the great message that is here. Now, will you notice, And behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

God appeared to Moses at the burning bush, and this burning bush represented, we believe, the nation Israel. And Moses turned aside to see why the bush was burning but was not consumed. And today, one of the greatest proofs of the Word of God is the existence, actually, of the nation Israel.

It was years ago that the emperor of Germany, I think it was Frederick the Great, that asked his chaplain one day when there was a lull in business, he says, what is the greatest proof that the Bible is the Word of God and that proof you will have to locate in my kingdom? What is it? And without a moment's hesitation, the chaplain said, The Jews, sir, he is proof. He's the burning bush that ought to cause the unbeliever to turn aside and take a look. This is amazing that he has existed down through the centuries here for about 3,500 years from the days of Moses down to the present hour.

He's been in existence. The nations have come and gone and he's attended the funeral of all of them, but he is still around. And so Moses turned aside and God spoke to him out of the burning bush.

He had to correct Moses' manners. Although he'd brought up in the court of Pharaoh, he didn't know enough to take off his shoes in the presence of a holy God. And I'm afraid that a great many folk today get familiar with God.

We have today a new approach, we are told. We must learn to identify with this age and adopt a new vocabulary. May I say it's absolute nonsense.

One of these hippies came up to me down in Florida, a cute little girl. In fact, she was beautiful. She had the beads in a burlap bag, it looked like, for a cloak.

And by the way, several of them were attending the service each evening. And she came up and said, well, you communicate. May I say to you, you don't have to adopt their vocabulary.

You can communicate. You can identify by taking your place as a sinner alongside of them. They're sinners and we're sinners and we both need a savior.

And we can all understand that. It's perfect nonsense today. And we have some ministers and trying to identify doing some weird things in order to do it.

And they apparently are not getting the message through. I believe the message can be gotten through. Now, we find here that God has come down to deliver these people.

And he's making it very clear to Moses what he's going to do. And that he's a holy God. And when you and I approach him, we don't approach him with a, hail, fellow, well met approach.

We don't give him that pat on the back. That's not the way you approach God. And if the Lord Jesus came into where you are or where I am right now, glorified Christ, we'd go down on our face before him.

And I don't care who you are, you'd go down on your face before him. Every knee's going to bow to him someday.