This sermon delves into the progressive revelation of God's name throughout the Old Testament, culminating in the person of Jesus Christ. Each revelation of God's name signifies a different aspect of His character and provision for His people, from being the provider, healer, banner, sanctifier, peace-giver, shepherd, present help, to our righteousness. The sermon emphasizes the importance of resting on the foundation of who God is, knowing that He will become everything we need in the future.

Well, as Dave mentioned, we're going to be looking at the first four chapters of Exodus tonight, but we're going to draw our passage this morning from the third chapter, Exodus chapter 3, verses 10 through 14. Come now, the Lord speaking, therefore, and 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 that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? So he said, I will certainly be with you and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. Then Moses said to God, indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they say to me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Now, if you think about it, it seems like kind of a strange name. Moses says, what is your name? What am I to tell them? And God says, tell them I am that I am. Now, the Bible gives to us what we would call a progressive revelation of God. By progressive, we mean that God reveals himself over a process of time, incrementally. And so from the beginning, we have an understanding that God is all powerful and we begin to see him in relation to people. But it's through this process of time that God unfolds for us just exactly who he is. And that picture of God that begins to be revealed back in the earliest chapters of the Bible culminates in the incarnation or the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's this process of God revealing himself or another way to look at it, God is revealing his name. Now, the idea behind God revealing himself as I am, and this is the Hebrew, sometimes we would say Jehovah, probably more accurately Yahweh. But God, the idea of God revealing himself as I am is, first of all, it's a statement of his own self-existence. God is the only self-existent being. He has life and existence within himself. Everything else is contingent upon him. Everything else is dependent upon him. He alone possesses life and being within himself. So that's one of the things that he's communicating in his name. But then the other thing is that he is really expressing the fact that he will become for us whatever it is that we might need. In the New Testament, in the book of Revelation, we find the angels proclaiming, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Who was from eternity, who is presently, and who is to come all into eternity future, if you will, but also becoming for us whatever we need. So we sometimes speak of God, and rightfully so, we speak of him as the becoming one. And all throughout the Old Testament, we have these different pictures given to us and these declarations of God becoming for us various things that we need as people. So what I'd like to do is I want to take you through these Old Testament revelations, this progressive revelation, and then we will end with the ultimate manifestation of the name of in the person of Jesus Christ. Now going back to Genesis chapter 22, verse 14, and you don't have to turn in your Bible, but you might want to jot these down just to go back over them later. There the Lord reveals himself to Abraham as Jehovah Jireh, or the Lord who provides. So here we begin to get some insight into God becoming for us. He's the Lord who provides. And in that context there, maybe you remember the story, Abraham is called by God to offer up his son Isaac. And he goes through this process of preparing for the sacrifice, and he's just about to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice. And you know the story, the angel of the Lord stops him. You see, God never intended for Abraham to offer Isaac. Abraham was a prophet, and what he was doing was through his own action, he was demonstrating something prophetically. He was demonstrating the fact that God would later give his only son for the world. But there Abraham makes this declaration, the declaration, the Lord will provide. In the mountain of the Lord it shall be seen, the Lord will provide. And the context here is really, God will provide atonement. God will provide redemption. He will provide reconciliation. He will provide forgiveness or a sacrifice for sin. Our big problem, our number one problem, is separation from God. And what is the cause of separation from God? The cause of separation from God is sin. God said through Isaiah, my ear is not heavy that I can't hear you, my arm's not short that I can't save you, but your sins have separated you from your God. And that's what sin does. It alienates us from God. So what do we need? We need to be reconciled to him. We need to be brought back to him. We need to have that sin taken care of. And that's not anything we can do for ourselves. We can't do that for ourselves. But here's the good news. The Lord has become for us all that we need in that regard. The Lord has provided. And he provides. He provides salvation for us. And then he provides on an ongoing manner, he provides forgiveness of sins, cleansing from sin. So we can live continually in fellowship with him. As we move a little further into the history, actually further here into the book of Exodus, the Lord reveals himself in one place, Exodus 15-26, as Jehovah Rapha, or the translation there would be the Lord who heals. The Lord who heals. And in the context, the children of Israel were there in the wilderness, and they were dying of thirst, and they came upon a pool of water that was contaminated. And they were about to perish, they thought, for lack of water. And the Lord instructed Moses to take a tree and to put this, to cast this tree into the water. And he said the water would be healed. And it was. But then the Lord went on to promise Israel that if they would follow him, he would not allow the diseases of Egypt to inflict them. And he promised to be the Lord who heals them. The Lord who heals, Jehovah Rapha. And in that, of course, we have initially the spiritual element. Remember Isaiah 53 tells us concerning Jesus, by his stripes we are healed. You know, sin doesn't only separate us from God, it doesn't only alienate us from him. But you know what sin also does, it destroys our lives. And if you have lived away from the Lord for many years, if you've lived in sin, you know the devastating effects of sin upon your own life. But here's the wonderful news, the Lord heals. And when a person comes to Christ, what happens is a healing process begins and a restoration process. And we've seen this so many times in a person's life. There's a person, I've shared this before, but there's one person that stands out in my mind who I remember having the privilege of leading them to the Lord probably, well, 27, 28 years ago. And I remember when I first met this person and began to talk with them, you could just see in their countenance the devastating impact of sin. And this person began to be drawn to the Lord. And then one day I had the opportunity to actually sit down and pray with this woman to receive Christ. And I watched over a process of time, this healing take place in her life to where she actually looked like she was getting younger and younger as time went on. When she came and met me, she was relatively young, but because of the devastating impact of sin, she looked old. And through a process of time, I saw the Lord renew her in her youthful beauty. And actually, I just saw her last week. She happened to be at the conference that we were at. And I think she's in her 60s now. And as I was talking to her, just as we were parting ways, I said, you sure look pretty. And I just see that restoration that the Lord has brought because the Lord heals. This is what he does. He heals us of the scars of sin. He heals us of the devastating impact of sin upon our lives. And of course, there's also the possibility included in this of physical healing. And we know that there are times, not every time, because God knows what's best for us. But there are certainly times when God heals miraculously, when the doctors have said, there's nothing else that we can do for you. There's a man who just recently moved back to the East Coast. About 10 years ago, he came to me and told me that he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. And they had pretty much given him, you know, six to eight months kind of a thing to live. And about a year ago, he came to me. So 10 years ago, he came and told me the initial news about the brain tumor. A year ago, he came to me and told me that the Lord's leading him to move back to the East Coast. And so I said, well, you know, what's going on with the tumor? And all he goes, oh, you know, it's there. And the doctors are just completely baffled. They have no idea why I'm alive. And they have no idea why I function as well as I do. But this is what he told me. He said, when I was going through a surgery, the Lord met me right there on the operating table. And he spoke to me and said that I would be okay. The Lord who heals. And so the Lord has touched physically and many, many testimonies of this kind of a thing that we can find. Because this is our God. He's a healing God. But then as we move on, we find that another revelation of God is Jehovah Nissi. And in the 17th chapter of Exodus, just a couple chapters over, as the children of Israel are going out into the wilderness, they have a confrontation with Amalek. And the Amalekites are seeking to oppose them. And Moses refers to the Lord as the Lord, our banner. And these ancient armies, they would go out under the banner of their king or whoever it might be. And that banner was representative of the might and the power of that particular monarch. And so here, the Lord is our banner. We're in a battle. We're in a spiritual battle. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. But thank God that the Lord is with us. And that He's our banner. He's going out before us. And as Paul says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. And so we need strength in this battle. I'm no match for the devil. You're no match for the enemy. You know, sometimes we might get a little prideful and think that we can sort of take on the enemy. And then he comes with a different kind of an attack or something. And you find that his power is strong. And he's ruthless. But praise the Lord that He strengthens us. That He's our banner. That He goes before us. That He fights on our behalf. So we need strength and we need protection in those things in the battle. The Lord is our banner. Then in Leviticus chapter 20 verse 8, we come across this Jehovah Makedesh. And the English is the Lord who sanctifies. I need sanctification. As we said a moment ago, sin is that destructive force in our life. How do I get freed from the power of sin? Anybody who's made an effort to free themselves up from the power of sin, you know the impossibility of that. Paul the apostle wrote about it in the seventh chapter of Romans. That which I will to do, I do not do. That which I don't want to do, I do. The very thing I hate, I find myself doing. And then what does he say? A wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? He's crying out really for deliverance from sin. What is sanctification? Sanctification is separation from sin. It's being set apart from sin. And this is the very thing that God does for us. And perhaps you know that by experience. I know that I do. I know that I remember when I came to Christ, how the Lord just came in and he just pulled me out of all of that. He just set that, he set me apart. Because that's what he does. He is the Lord who sanctifies. I met with a young man this week and he was telling me his testimony. And here's a guy in his mid-30s who grew up in a Christian home but never had any personal faith in Christ. And went out and got himself involved in all kinds of sinful behavior, unimaginably wicked kinds of things. And he was telling me just how deep he was into sin. He actually worked for a company and he was the head over the partying department for the company. So it was his job to just take everybody out and get them stoned and get them wasted and provide you know all kinds of things like that for them. And he was telling me the story about being there in South America. And you know being there with this crew of people and they're out partying. And he says he comes back to his room one night and he's sitting there alone. And he realizes that his life is is empty. That he's miserable. And he gets down he just says God if you're real I want you to come into my life. He picked up a Gideon's Bible. He began to read it and the Lord just began to set him apart. To sanctify him. And now he still works for the same company. He's no longer head over partying. But you know everybody's freaked out. It's like oh here he comes. He's going to talk to us about God now. His life is transformed. This is what sanctification is. It's the setting apart from sin. And this is what God does for us. He becomes our sanctification. But then we read further in the Old Testament. The book of Judges. We come to chapter 6 verse 24. And we find this Jehovah Shalom. You know what that means right? The Lord is our peace. We need peace. People can't live without peace. And not just peace externally. And you know the the misery that's brought upon people by conflict and war and things like that. But of course there's another kind of a peace. And it's inward peace. And things might be relatively okay outwardly. But if you have no inward peace you know that life is very very unpleasant. To be filled with anxiety. To be agitated. To be worried. These are things that make life very very difficult. The Lord is our peace. He is our peace. We can cast our cares upon Him knowing He cares for us. He gives us His peace. But He is our peace. And as we put our minds on Him. As we trust in Him. And this is something the Lord's been helping me to do much over the past few years. By allowing me to be in circumstances that would cause anxiety and depression and worry. But teaching me in this to just keep casting my cares back on Him. This morning when Cheryl and I were parting ways she said oh you know I don't want to bum you out for today but let me tell you this. Great okay. And what she told me was you know rather disturbing. But you know as I drove away I thought Lord this is not my problem. I can't do anything about this anyway. So I'm going to cast this on you and you've already done so many wonderful things in regard to this particular situation. I'm just going to trust you to keep doing it. You know the situation so you just take care of it. And then I was able to come. I was able to come without that anxiety. I was able to obtain that peace. He is our peace as we just put our focus on Him. And then we come further in the progressive revelation. Coming to the Psalms. And David of course writes that great 23rd Psalm Jehovah Rohi the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. And all of the the implications of of God being our shepherd. We don't appreciate that metaphor unless we know a little bit about sheep. And just to put it simply sheep are hopeless and helpless without a shepherd. They're hopeless and helpless without a shepherd. And so the Lord is our shepherd. He takes care of us. And you know as you go through that wonderful 23rd Psalm the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want or I won't be lacking any good thing. And He leads me beside the still waters. And He restores my soul. And He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. And all those wonderful things. He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemy. My cup runs over. Goodness and mercy following me all the days of my life. Why? Because the Lord is my shepherd. We need a shepherd. He has become our shepherd. And then Ezekiel chapter 48 verse 35 Jehovah Shama. The Lord is present. The context there is the the new Jerusalem. The new the city of Jerusalem in the millennial period. The Lord is present there. But that same thing is a reality for us. We need the presence of God in our lives. And what did Jesus say? Lo I am with you always even to the end of the age. The Lord is present with us. I need God's presence to be with me. I need Him to go before me. And this is what He has promised. That He is present. And then one more from the Old Testament Jeremiah 23 6. That great prophecy of the Lord Jesus in the future. His name shall be called. This son of David. This descendant of David. This king that's going to sit up on the throne. His name will be called Jehovah Sidcanu. Which means the Lord our righteousness. The Lord our righteousness. We do not possess righteousness. We are unrighteous by nature. And all of our righteousness as the Lord would say through Isaiah. All of our righteousnesses are as a filthy garment before Him. But God has provided righteousness. He has become. As we're told by Paul in 1 Corinthians. He made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us. That we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So you see how God has been progressively revealing His name throughout history. But as I said this all culminates in the person of Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ the name of God has been fully declared to man. So you see throughout that that whole period of the what we call the Old Testament. There's this progressive revelation. And if you put all of the pieces of the picture together. You get this composite. You see that the Lord He provides. He heals. He's our banner. He sanctifies us. He's our peace. He's our shepherd. He's present with us. He's our righteousness. But all of this culminates in the person of Jesus. And Jesus said this. In speaking to His disciples in John 17. He said this. He said I have manifested your name to the men you gave me. I have manifested your name. You see this goes all the way back to what we're looking at here with Moses. Moses says who do I say sent me. God says say I am that I am. And what are all of the implications of that name. They're all summed up in Jesus Christ. That's the glory. And that's why Jesus said I have I have manifested your name. He's not just saying excuse me. He's not just saying I've told them about you. I've communicated to them or I've taught them things about you. He's saying I have shown them the full significance of the name of Yahweh. I have manifested your name. I have brought it all out into the open. A little bit later on in Exodus we'll come to that point where Moses is saying Lord if I found favor in your sight let me see your face. And the Lord says no man can see my glory and live. He says but I'm going to stick you in the cleft of the rock and my name will pass by you. You see the name is really just the summation of who God is. His character. His nature. And that's why in Hebrews chapter one it says God who at various times and in different ways has spoken in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us. Most translations say by but the word can actually be translated in. And in is probably the better word because you see what in tells us is that Jesus is the message. God has spoken to us in his son. Jesus didn't come with a message from God so much as Jesus came as the revelation of God. It's in him that God has spoken as we see Jesus as we hear Jesus as we understand Jesus the name of God is spelled out to us. And so again Paul in thinking along these lines of Jesus being the great I am because remember in John chapter 8 verse 58 Jesus took the very name that God revealed himself to Moses by he took it to himself. Now remember the Old Testament was written originally in Hebrew but it was translated into Greek in what we call the Septuagint. And the Septuagint version of Exodus 3 14 I am that I am is identical to John 8 58. Now most of the Jews at the time of Christ spoke Greek. So when Jesus said to them that day before Abraham was I am everybody understood clearly that Jesus was identifying himself with the God who revealed himself to Moses by the name I am that I am. And now Paul of course knowing all of this he said this to the Corinthians concerning Christ the great I am he said who became for us you see the becoming one who became for us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption. He became for us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption. All of the things that we need to have a relationship with God to please God to know God to serve God all of these things have come to us through the person of Christ and through our relationship with him and developing our relationship with him. We experience all of these things that we need. He has become for us all that we need just as God said implied in his name. Now in closing I want to say something on a personal note I had fully intended to speak on a different passage this week and I was already set in my mind to speak on something else and when I sat down and read over these chapters in an instant the Lord focused me in on verse 14 and said no that is the text for this Sunday not what you were thinking and I just instantly knew that that is the text but here's the thing that I found interesting last week you remember hopefully the message hopefully it stuck with you for the week but last week you remember we were talking about God our gracious God we're talking about his nature remember we saw God as a blessing God and a gracious God and a smiling God and a keeping God and an attentive God right on down the line we saw that and you know the reason that I was sort of thinking in a bit of a different direction was because I thought well you know we've we've sort of addressed that and now we'll move in a different direction but here's my point I felt like the Lord said no I want you to go back and once again I want to remind my people of who I am because as we enter into these days as we move forward in our walk with the Lord this is what we need to have as a foundation this is the sure foundation knowing our God and understanding that whatever the future holds understanding that he is going to go before us and he is going to become for us all that we need in the weeks and in the months and in the years ahead however long before he returns we can have confidence that he's with us and that his name is sufficient that he is sufficient that who he is is all that we need and that he has and he will become for us everything that's necessary to perfect us and to ultimately bring us before himself and you know somebody reminded me of this passage after last week's message and I thought oh how did I miss that one because that's such a great passage but remember we talked about him being a keeping God well let me just remind you in closing about the one who is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultly before his presence not falling and to present us faultless before his presence with exceeding joy that's our God he's our God who provides he heals he protects he sanctifies he gives peace he shepherds us he's with us he's our righteousness and God wants us resting on that foundation let's pray Lord thank you so much for again another reminder of who you are Lord we so often are hung up because we're looking at ourselves and we're seeing all of our inadequacies and we're seeing all of our failures we're seeing all of our sin all of our wretchedness but Lord thank you that that's not what you're focused on and Lord thank you that that's not what you want us focusing on as you told us Lord to look to Jesus looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith and Lord help us to do that very thing to look to the one who manifested ultimately for us all that is implied in your great name I am that I am and Lord I pray this morning that you would provide and heal and protect and sanctify and give peace and guide and be with all of your people each and every one of us Lord thank you for the fact that we are righteous in Christ we stand perfect before you because of what Jesus did and may we rest in that may we have confidence in your love for us and that in the days to come you will become for us individually and collectively all that we could possibly need we rejoice in that and we thank you in Jesus name amen all right let's stand together the pastors are here up front they're available to pray with you and take advantage of the opportunity maybe you just need some prayer to maybe just to to embrace all that the Lord's been saying to you today to just really lay hold of that come on up and let the pastors pray for you may God bless you and may you go forth this week knowing the great I am knowing that he will become for you whatever it is that you might need