In this sermon, the speaker discusses how God brought the people of Israel to a specific place so that He could reveal Himself to them. The speaker emphasizes that God wants to be known and wants people to trust Him. The speaker references Exodus 7:4-5, where God states that He will bring the children of Israel out of Egypt through great judgments so that the Egyptians will know that He is the Lord. The speaker concludes by highlighting the importance of believers revealing God in their lives to others, as it can lead them to trust and know Him.

The God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob this week, and we're going this morning to be thinking about the God of Moses. And I had originally intended that tomorrow perhaps we think about the God of Daniel, but I have changed my mind. I've changed my mind because I want to be real sure you people get the point. We are not just studying to learn things about God. The purpose of this series is to help us to know God, not to know about him. And so tomorrow I'm going to talk about the God of you. The God of you. And perhaps that will focus all that we have been saying through the week and bring it home to us. The God of Abraham was a friend of Abraham. Shall I hide what I'm going to do from Abraham, my friend, he said. It was Abraham's friend. The God of Moses spoke of Moses in these terms that his relationship with Moses wasn't like it was with other men. God said, I talked to Moses face to face. That's a new kind of relationship. It was the relationship of a companion and a friend and a co-worker. To begin today, we're going to go from the book of Genesis into the book of Exodus. Let's turn to Exodus chapter 3. We'll read the first few verses of this chapter and of the sixth 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 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 whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, 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 am 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 turn to chapter 6, verse 1. Then the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do unto Pharaoh. For with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord. And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty. But by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage. And I have remembered my covenant. Wherefore, say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgment. And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God. And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it you for an heritage. I am the Lord." Well, this is quite an introduction to the God of Moses. Now, the book of Genesis is the book that sets forth the fact that there is a relationship between man and God, or between God and man. That's the purpose of the book, that's the theme of the book. And the stories that are in the book of Genesis are to underline this theme, that man is related to God. You come to the book of Exodus, however, and you have a different theme. Naturally, the theme is advancing. And in view of what has been written in Genesis about our relationship to God, the book of Exodus talks about our responsibility to God. Because relationship always leads to responsibility. Now, just for the sake of your thinking and for any research you want to do in this, it's wonderful the way this theme goes on through the Pentateuch. First, responsibility in Genesis, then, I mean, relationship in Genesis, then responsibility in Exodus. And in the book of Exodus, we learn that the responsibility of man to God is to worship him and to serve him. So having established that in the book of Exodus, the book of Leviticus talks about how we are to worship God. We have a responsibility to worship him. Well, how are we going to do this? Well, the book of Exodus tells us how to do it. Also, we're told in Exodus that we have a responsibility to serve God. How are we going to do this? Well, the book of Numbers tells us how we are to serve God. So you can see the structure of the Pentateuch, the way it's been given. To tell us about the Lord, the responsibility that grows out of that relationship, and then how to fulfill the responsibility in its two principal aspects. And then the book of Deuteronomy is the book in which God reveals the fact that all of this is because he loves the people. That's the first time God reveals his love to the people is in the book of Deuteronomy. And he says there that this is the reason for it. They were nothing. He didn't choose them because they were great, but because they were small, and because he loved them and loved their fathers, and therefore he made all this provision. And he's great, the way the Bible gets off to a start like this, a well-organized start. You can really follow it and know what it's about. Now, there are three things in this morning. But before we get into that, I want to comment about this statement in the third verse of the sixth chapter, where God said, I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty. But by my name Jehovah was I not known unto them. In the Old Testament, he was known, I mean in the book of Genesis, as God Almighty, that is Elohim. And it spoke of his essential might, the fact that God was God Almighty, and he was able to do what he proposed to do. That's the God of Genesis. It wasn't just might made available to the people of God. God was Almighty for his people, and he did great things for them. Now we come to the book of a new name. He said, there are people in Genesis. The essential being, that he is God. And so, he introduced himself to Moses at the bush, as I am. That's his name, Jehovah. But not just that he is, but that he becomes all that his people need. You see, these names of God aren't just descriptions of God, they tell us of God's relationship to us, that his names have to do with us. And so now we're going to learn to know him as Jehovah, the Becoming One, the One who is all that his people need him to be. All right, now as I said, in the book of Exodus, there are three principal things in the book of Exodus. They are the Exodus, that is the deliverance of the people of God from Egypt, that's the number one thing, number two is the giving of the law, and number three is the giving of the tabernacle. These are the three great subjects that are dealt with in the book of Exodus. Now, the Gentile concept of God was a concept that was arrived at meditatively from nature or from natural phenomenon. The people looked about them and they saw, and God must be like that. Now this was never meditatively, but also their concept of God came from what God did, his activities from his actions. You remember that verse that says, he made known his ways unto Moses and his . . . Now, the Exodus and the law and the tabernacle were all given to men through Moses. Moses was the executive here. God selected this man in order to use him in these three great things in the book of Exodus. Now, Moses had some intimations of the last night as we were being shown the pictures of Egypt, you remember. The point was made, and made strongly, that Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt. Moses, as he grew up, sensed the fact that he was something special in the mind of God. I love the study of the life of what is said in the word of God about Jacob and his mother, and what she had to do with the teaching of Moses about the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, we're told, and in Josephus' history of those times, he says he was mighty in word and mighty in deed. He was a great man in Egypt, but for all of that, the thing that stayed with him was what his mother told him about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is that I'm saying the tremendous importance of pouring into the ears of the children what God has revealed of himself. Moses was in that, you know, we get afraid to send our students. If you think you've got a problem, all the time were the stories of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that had been sunk deeply into the soul of Moses, and all the priests of Ammon could not at all affect him. Well, anyway, that's not what we're talking about, but this is the kind of a start that Moses got. And he had, as he learned about this God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, his heart went out to God, and he thought, oh, what a God he is, and I want to be lined up with him, even if it means throwing aside everything, every advantage I've gotten, aligning myself with these oppressors. Now, Hebrew is a person with no rights. That word came from Egypt, and he gave up everything, all his rights, everything else to align himself with the people who were the slave people. And he started out to serve God, his own way, his way. He made a great decision that he would not continue as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He had a great idea, he'd like to set these slaves all free, and he had a great heart for these people. But he set about to do it his own way. You remember the stories, how he went out and he killed somebody in the process of delivering him from one of the Egyptians? His way. So often, we start out to serve God, instead of waiting until we get guidance and direction and help from the Lord, and he does his work through us. Moses started out big in Moses' sight, started his way, and so the way things turned out. Forty years, he was while God made his ways known, and he turns aside and God speaks. Now, I have heard the affliction of my people down in Egypt, and I am come down, you know, I am come down to deliver them. And I want you to go to Pharaoh, and I want you to get them out of Egypt. Moses said, Not me! Didn't you hear about what happened? Who am I? And he said that I should go down and deliver them. Well, God purchased it. God said, You are my man. I have chosen you to do this. I want you to go, and I will be with you when you go. Now go back and do it my way. Chapter 7, verses 4 and 5. God says that Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgment. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them. Now, this is great. Why did the Lord want to do it his way? Because the main thing with God was that people get to know him. And he was going to do it in such a way that not only would the Israelites know, that's why God has us. He wants them to know. Now another interesting thing, in chapter 15, on this little point, there is something God says. Well, God doesn't say it. Chapter 15, verse 11. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like unto thee? Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Thou stretchest out thy right hand, the earth swallows them. Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed. Thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. The people shall hear and be afraid. Sorrow shall take hold on the earth. All the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them. By the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone. Till thy people pass over, O Lord, till thy people pass over which thou hast purchased, thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountains of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established, and the Lord shall reign forever and ever." Now, this is the people of God when they have been defects of what he has done. And in this one verse it says, sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Now, look at Joshua, chapter 2, a bit later, some 40 or more years later. In verse 9, Rahab, a woman who lived in Jericho in Palestine, said unto the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side, Jordan, Sion, and Od, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and in the earth beneath." You know, this is great. What they sang about back here, the word was going out all over the earth in those days about how great God was because of what he was doing. And way off in Palestine where they were ultimately to go, they heard about God and they were afraid because they knew God was making himself known, and they shall know. And this is what God is always trying to do. This is what God wants to do. God wants to be known. He wants people to know about him. You know why? If people don't know God, they're not about to trust him. Tell a story about Moody once, he was walking with a friend, some friends were walking along, and they do this at each post they came to. They'll jump when they know who they're jumping to. They'll believe in who they know they can trust. It's so important that in our contact with men in the world, they'll get the idea they can trust. Reveal God, their trust in him, and come to know him. He was able. Now turn to Exodus chapter 18. When Jethro the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, his people, that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt, then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back, and her two sons, of which the name of the one was Gershom, for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land, and the name of the other was Eliezer, for the God of my father said he was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses in the wilderness where he encamped at the mount of God. And he said unto Moses, I, thy father-in-law Jethro, am come unto thee, and thy wife and her two sons with her. And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare, and they came into the tent, and Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the Lord delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Jethro said, Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, he was above them. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sat, and Aaron came. And then came the day when Moses told him that God, I didn't want to go, but I can't escape. And off Moses goes, and Jethro, his father-in-law, is at home, and he's thinking, you know, he's never going to see his son-in-law again, probably. He has really taken himself on a job. Well in the course of time here, he's coming back. And how is he coming back? All by himself? No, he's got over a million people with him, 600,000 adults and their children, and they come out of Egypt, and they've been delivered, and they've come across the Red Sea, and they're here now, back again. He said, Now I know. Now I know. He didn't know before that God was great, and that he was greater than all the gods of the earth. Now he knew it, and he worshipped the Lord. Great, isn't it? This is the way God wants himself. And it says, We reveal God this way, the way Moses did, that we get this kind of result. Now we read here that his first son's name was Gershom. Gershom means the son of the rejected man, really. When Moses ran away from Egypt, he married Zipporah, and in the course of time they had a boy, and they called him Gershom, and revealed in the naming of their son the mental attitude of Moses. That is to say, he was feeling very rejected. He was feeling like he had failed, and now he was an alien in a strange country. Then God called him to do this work. And at the beginning, if you know the story, you'll know this, or you may not be acquainted with the details, that when Moses started, his wife and son went with him. When they started to go to Egypt to deliver the people. And on the way to Egypt, Moses became very sick. There's a great lesson in that, but I'm not going into that now. He became very, very sick, and as a consequence anyway, he sent his wife and son back. He said, you better stay here while I go on, and to deliver the people. And so she went back home. And then she had a child apparently, Moses' son of years, and so when he's coming back with the people, he's with you, and at the beginning he was called failure in life. Now when God sent Moses to get the people of Israel, he said an interesting thing in chapter 3, and verse 10. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, who am I? That I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt. And he said, certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. In other words, what God was saying to Moses was, you go and get those people, go and get them out of Egypt, bring them here to me. And so Moses went, and got the people, and he brought them to the mountain. Now look at chapter 19 and verse 8, going right across all that happened in Moses doing this assignment. Chapter 19, oh, let's begin with verse 1, shall we? In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come into the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness, and there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God. And the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel. Now the point is here, it says Moses went up to God. God said, at this point, go and get the children of Israel and bring them here to me. Moses went and got them and brought them here, and now he's going up to God. I've done the job you gave me to do. And he brought the people back to where God said they should be. And God has greatly revealed himself in the meantime. Now, he's got them there, and the next thing is to talk to them. God brought them there, not just to stand around the mountain, but so that he could talk to them. He wanted to reveal himself to them. Look at 19.9. And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee. We are sorry, but at this point, the conference speaker malfunctioned, and the balance of the message is missing. We thought you would still want this portion of the sermon. We have completed the tape with some recorded organ music.