God's Glorious Name

God wants you to know Him. Now, that's not really profound, but in our day and age, that's somewhat provocative because many people doubt, many people question, many people are agnostic about if we can truly know God. Well, the simple truth is that God wants us to know Him. This is the thread that runs throughout Scripture. This is the message, the mission of God. He wants you to know him. Every part of Scripture, the entire reason we have the Scriptures, everything about it is God telling us about him, God wanting us to know who he is. All of his actions are to this end. Every word he declares is to this end. It's a thread that runs throughout Scripture, and that thread points us to Christ, the final and ultimate and perfect revelation of who God is. Our message this morning is this God's mission is for his people to know him. God's mission is for his people to know him. Now, we've been in Exodus for a while, we've been looking at the stories we've been following plot lines, but this morning we don't have a plot. We don't have a storyline as much as we have a dialogue. Hebrew narrative is full of God speaking and speaking with his people. And when this happens, we really want to slow down even more because we want to listen. We want to listen to God speak. We've seen Israel in Egypt, we've seen them treated harshly, we've seen God deliver his deliverer, Moses, we've seen Moses act somewhat foolishly and then run out into the wilderness, and this is where our story Catches us now. But here we have a dialogue. And the dialogue is really emphasized, he said, Moses says four times, God says seven times. That's appropriate. Most of the time when Moses is speaking, he's responding to what God has already said. So God leads the conversation. God dominates the conversation as appropriate. And the conversation really has its high point When God gives his name, I am who I am. But everything up to it is pointing to that name. I am the God of your fathers. I will be with you, he tells Moses. This is. This is what we really focus on. Because this makes Christianity unique. Francis Schaeffer used to talk about the God who speaks. It's simple, but that really makes Christianity unique, God is speaking, he's the God who is there, but he's not just a God who's out there, he's a God who loves us and wants us to know him, and therefore he's speaking to us. Which means we need to be listening. Read with me Genesis. Genesis. I keep getting stuck back in Genesis. Exodus chapter 3. We're going to begin in Exodus chapter 3. And this conversation, this storyline, it's going to be broken between this week and next week, so we'll be finishing this next week. We want to focus on the name. Exodus 3. 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, the God of Jacob and Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 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 their suffering, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the 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 Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. 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 said. But I will be with you. And this shall be a sign for you. I have sent you that I've sent you when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. Then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they ask me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. And thus, I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Father, show yourself to your people. Be exalted. Help us to know you in your name. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen. Our story, our conversation, our dialogue, we broke up into three sections. The first three verses are really still a setting, so we're going to have a setting for this conversation. Verses one through three. The second section is God commissions Moses to fulfill his mission. God commissions Moses to fulfill his mission. This is verses four through 10. And then finally, God reveals his faithfulness in response to Moses's fear. God reveals his faithfulness in response to Moses's fear, and that's what we're picking up in verse 11. First, the setting. Let me read verses one through three again. 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 being consumed. Well, we have here Moses in the wilderness as we we left him. He's watching the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro. Now, in chapter two, Raul was named as a father. And now we have the Jethro named as a father-in-law, and we'll see Jethro really be important as the story goes on. The best understanding of this is Raul must have been the grandfather Jethro, the immediate father of the father-in-law of Moses. He's a priest of Midian. And here we see he's a shepherd. Moses is a shepherd. Moses was raised in Egypt in the house of Pharaoh for 40 years. And so it's somewhat striking that he's a shepherd. It's very un-Egyptian of him. Genesis 4634 tells us this insight. Egyptians see shepherds as an abomination. So we really see Moses not being very Egyptian here. He's in the wilderness, he's tending sheep, and as he's walking by in the desert of sin, it's very important if you do dessert of sin, a whole other line of items pop up on Google. The desert of sin. That happened. He sees a bush burning. And he says to himself, it's interesting, you really get Moses' fault here as if a conversation. It's as if Moses wrote this himself. He says to himself, why is that bush burning but not being consumed? I think I'll go look at this. Well, a couple of items here are very important. The burning bush. fire is the way God presents himself as present with Israel. In the Exodus, God will be a pillar of fire to protect them. God will be a pillar of fire to let them know I am with you. We also will see later on in the Pentateuch that Moses also wrote Deuteronomy 4, God is a consuming fire. And the context of that declaration is that God is jealous for our praise. He is the one true God who is worthy of our praise and he knows that we alone will be happy when we praise him and he is jealous for our praise. Hebrews 12 29 uses the God is consuming fire in the same context. The only acceptable worship to God is in Jesus when we claim him as our Savior as he claims us as his children. If I represent the immediate presence of God, which is holy, where we praise him. Well, now let's get into the commission of God, that's the setting. God uses a burning bush to present himself, and now he's going to begin speaking to Moses. First, for when the Lord 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 in 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. And Moses hid his face and he was afraid to look at God. Now the commission will continue, but I want to take it step by step in the conversation. When the Lord saw that he had turned aside, he calls him and says, Moses, Moses, and Moses responds, Here I am. Now, God is God is starting the conversation. God is beginning this relationship anew, and God doesn't have to ask Moses what his name is. Moses has to ask God what what God's name is. He already knows him. And it's interesting, this This construct is demonstrating that Moses is the prophet. This is how God calls his prophets, Moses, Moses, and the prophet will respond, Here I am. We see it in first Samuel three most distinctly, the calling of Samuel, Samuel, Samuel. And finally, he figures out who's really talking to him and he says, Here I am. This is the formula to present that this is God's prophet. After calling Moses, he starts setting up how the relationship is going to function. He puts parameters around the relationship. He calls his prophet. The prophet says, Here I am. He responds. And then he starts defining how this relationship is going to work. Do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet for the place in which you are standing is holy ground. He's creating some boundaries in the relationship. The boundaries are essential because God is holy and Moses is a sinner. Now, really, the most interesting of all of these boundary statements is the fact that God says, do not come near. One of the most encouraging, one of those powerful declarations in the book of Exodus is that God is near. God is with you. God is personally present with his people, caring for them, watching them. But here he tells Moses, do not come near. He's near to them, he's near to Moses, but there has to be a boundary, and this has everything to do with the fact that God is holy and Moses is a sinner. They do not come near is the same thing God is going to tell the nation of Israel in Exodus 19. Don't come near the mountain. Here's the boundary. If you step across that boundary, you will be consumed by fire while Moses goes near. Says do not come near. This is a tension we must have. God is holy. We're sinners. He wants us to know him, but we can only know him when we are forgiven in Christ. The great boundary, the great problem that keeps us from knowing the holy God as sinners is our sin and our guilt. And here, without Christ, he is not able to come near, as Hebrews declares us to come near, interposing the throne, but interposing the presence of God. He has to stay, not come as near as he would like. Secondly, he commands, take off your shoes. Now, this could be a symbol. Servants would not have worn shoes in some cultures, especially when they approach their master. So this could be symbolizing that he's determining that he is the master and Moses is a servant by saying, take off your shoes. You're the servant. I'm the master. For the place on which you are standing is holy ground. Now, this is one. This is one of the major emphasis of the Pentateuch in that there's this concept. It's sacred space. Sacred space. The Garden of Eden was sacred space. The temple will be sacred space. Right here at the burning bush, sacred space. What makes a certain space sacred is the fact that God is there. God's presence makes a space sacred. We are God's sacred space. We are the temple of God, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 3. More importantly, Jesus says, whenever two or three are gathered, there I am with you. When the church is gathered, we're sacred space. God is with us. A brother just encouraged me. I feel the Holy Spirit among us. Peace be with you. The Spirit is with us because we're gathered. This building isn't sacred space unless we're gathered in it. The church gathered is sacred space because God is with us. We are not holy by nature. We're not holy by our actions. We're not holy by behavior or conversation. No, we're holy because of God's presence. in his declaration. So, God has made the separation. God has set the boundaries. God has defined the relationship. I am the holy God, the master. You are the sinful servant. And then he begins the great declaration. 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 begins to reveal who he is before we get to the name. God is revealing who he is. I am the God of your father. The I am is the same word we're going to see later on in the I am who I am. I am the God of your father. And it's not just your father. It's a father's Abraham. Isaac and Jacob, he's the God who has made the promises and who's going to keep the promise. And there's a Moses responds. With fear. He's been with us, we've been talking about how fear over and over again is a motif. When God is there, there's fear. And really interesting. Moses is afraid to look at his face. I'm not sure if this is sinful fear. This is this is probably a natural fear of sinners in the presence of the holy God. Afraid of God, afraid to look at his face or to be consumed by the holiness. But what's amazing is we watch Moses grow in faith as we see God walk with him and carry him and love him and teach him and rebuke him. Eventually, we're going to get to Exodus 33. When Moses makes the bold request, Let me see your glory. Just a little taste of how this book is going to continue to play out, we see Moses grow as a man of God, as a believer in God. He's afraid to look at God, and then he's actually asked to see his glory, which God makes equivalent with his face. So he declares who he is, and then there's a transition here, and this is important as we looked and ended last week with chapter 2, verses 23 through 25. Let me read that. That's really a narrator pause. During those many days, the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant. With Abraham and Isaac and with Jacob, God saw the people of Israel and God knew. The key action is there, God remembers, God sees, God hears and God knows. We're here in the midst of this conversation after telling Moses, I am the God of your fathers, I am the covenant God who has cared for your people and called out your people. Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people. who were in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings and have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the 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 Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me. And I've also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. God cares for his people. It's repeating from chapter 2, verses 23 and 25. I have seen them. I've heard them. And now I have come down to deliver them out of Egypt and into land, out of slavery and into abundance. Now, let's look at the positive descriptions of this land. It's good and broad. It's a lot of land, and it's abundant land. It's a fruitful land. In case we don't get the fruitfulness, it's flowing with milk and honey. Now, that doesn't mean there's rivers of milk and honey. Really, a better translation would be, it's oozing with milk. It's dripping with honey. Picture the milk. It's oozing. You don't have to work for it. The cows are still abundantly producing milk. You don't have to work for it. It's coming out naturally, abundantly. It's oozing from the otter. Honey is dripping. You don't have to go work and get stung in the beehive. It's dripping from the beehive. It's a land that's rich. It's blessed. You don't have to work for it. You don't have to sweat for it. You don't have to work through the thistles and the thorns for it. Sounds like Eden, doesn't it? And then who's in the land? Well, we look back to Genesis 15 and it's called the land of the Amorites there, but here is just listing the people who are Now in having had inhabitants of it, Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, and Hivites. So that's a bit of a trouble. They're going to be removed. They're in God's land for God's people. And that's that's trouble. But here we're really focusing on how is God going to get Israel out of slavery and we'll worry about how to move these other people out later. Verse nine. And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me. I've also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. You know, so far, I picture Moses nodding. Yeah, this is great news. I love my people. I tried to help them. I couldn't. I'm glad you're going to do something with this, God. I'm glad you're aware of the problem and that you're going to do something about it. And then here's the next line. And his countenance sinks, his head stops nodding. Verse 10. Come. I will send you to Pharaoh. That you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. He's already failed once. He's unwanted by the people of Israel. They didn't want him as a deliverer. He's a wanted man by Pharaoh because he killed an Egyptian. This will bring terror, this will bring fear to Moses. He's already been a failure once and now God is going to send him back to Pharaoh himself. What's amazing here is God's grace. God always uses his people to bring about his plan. God could have done this by himself without Moses, but God chose to use Moses. This goes back to the very nature of the covenant he made with Abraham. I will bless you so that you can be a blessing. That's the very nature of God's covenant with us. He is going to bless us so that we can be a blessing. We are God's people so that we can help spread his name. He lets us know his name so we can talk about his name. God always uses His people for His glory, and that is our blessing. The question is this, is God using you to bless others? Are you proactively seeking to be used by God as His blessing to others? The beauty of God's working in us is that He doesn't need us, but He chooses to use us. He empowers us. He equips us. It's holy labor, and so it's very scary. As we'll see in a moment, it's God who works through us to be a blessing. So that's God's call to Moses. He sets the parameters. I am holy. I'm the master. You are the servant. You're the sinner. The commission is this. We're going to deliver Israel, my people, and we're going to do it because I'm going to send you to Pharaoh. The final section of our dialogue of our conversation. God reveals his faithfulness in response to Moses' fear. So God has given the commission, and now we hear Moses' response. But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? Again, he's already failed. He's got to be full of fear. He questions, who am I? What he's not looking for compliments, he's not begging for God to give him compliments here, he's he's afraid, who am I to do this? Are you kidding me? Do you not know what happened 40 years earlier? Listen, how God responds. He said, but I'll 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 the good on this mountain." The key there is God responds by saying, but I will be with you. Notice what he doesn't do. Oh, no, Moses, you've been educated in Egypt. You're smart. You can do this. Oh, Moses, you've been training for the last 40 years. You're a great shepherd. You're reliable. You can do this, Moses. Trust me, I've watched you. You're a quality God. He doesn't deny Moses' concern. Yeah, who are you? God isn't looking for the most equipped. God's looking for the most faithful. See, the power and the mission isn't that Moses is eloquent or smart or able. It's that I will be with you. God said, I will be with you. God agrees with Moses. You are not worthy of the task, but I am with you. He responds with the greatest assurance. What more could you want? God himself is going to be with you in this task that he has commissioned you with. Now, friends, we look at Moses and I see some people nodding their heads. There's great fear. There's a natural fear of Moses. I think it's actually a good thing. Who am I? He's asking the right questions. Can I actually do this? And God responds, no, and gives him the absolute assurance. You can do it because I'm with you. You can do it because I'm going to do it through you. Now, if you're going to give Moses advice after this, are you going to tell him to do it? Are you going to put doubt in his mind? Are you going to help him understand the beauty of the promise? I am with you. So go do this. It's an important question, because I think we would all be able to look back. Say, friend, be faithful, God's with you. See, the commission of Moses is the same commission we have. It's a little different contextually. But it's the same mission. to make God's name known. Turn with me to Matthew 28. The resurrected Jesus says this to all his children. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. That's a high calling. That's a heavy task, that's a spiritually demanding call as you go proclaim my name that has all authority as you go teach what I have taught. And as we have fear, as we have doubts. It's the same promise of assurance. Behold. I am with you. Always to the end of the age. Friends, our commission is the same as Moses. Make God's name known. It's a scary mission, it's a scary commission from God, it's a it's frightful because the odds are so high to proclaim him. What if I misrepresent him? What if I don't have the words to say? He's with you. He's promised the Holy Spirit is in you and they will get and he will give you the words to say. Fulfilling the Great Commission isn't something we send missionaries out to do. Fulfilling the Great Commission is something we do here. It's our mission. And it's scary, but the assurance that we have to cling to is the fact that God is with us in that mission. Finally, in verse 12, the sign is given, some signs point back. So God gave Abraham the sign of circumcision to remind him of the covenant that was made. This is a sign that points forward. This is an anticipating sign. You will know I have fulfilled my covenant because you will see that this is done. So the sign is not pointing back, but it's pointing forward. There's two different signs that God uses, and they're horrible. That's not Sinai. It's in the desert of sin. It's the same mountain, I believe. So Moses has feared. He's questioned, Who am I? God said, It doesn't matter who you are. I'm with you. And Moses continues to ask questions. And I don't think this question is necessarily a question of fear. Verse 13. If I come to the people of Israel and say to them that God of your fathers has sent me to you and they ask me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? So he's. He's asking his name. God says in this part, and then God's going to respond to him with three things. God said to Moses, I am who I am. Say this, and he said, say this to the people of Israel, I am a sent you have sent me to you. God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me. to you. What we see here is, Moses has a question, when I go to Israel, who am I going to tell them you are? And notice he first says, I am who I am. That's the name given. That's the authoritative name given. And then there's two further instructions that I think help us understand the name. Because Moses' question was asking, what will I say when I go? And notice when God says the second two times, say this to the people of Israel, I am that sent me to you. And God said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, he is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. If you look at this, the whole context helps us understand the name. God gives an answer. His answer is the name of assurance. I am who I am. So what does this name mean? I am who I am. This is really the high point of the story. It's a very important name. Obviously, it's the name that God has given for himself in this mission. I'm going to give us three rules for how we're going to understand the name. OK, it's not it's not simple. So there's three rules for how we understand the name, I am who I am. First, we need to protect the intentional vagueness. Secondly, we need to interpret the name in its context, and third, we'll have to interpret the name in light of Jesus's claim to be the great I am. The first. The vagueness of this name, I am who I am. That needs to be honored. God is greater than our minds could ever comprehend. There's multiple names of God in Scripture. There's multiple ways of understanding who God is. God cannot be comprehended by us. So the vagueness of this name, we don't need to figure out the same as if we can control God with our mind and know him perfectly as he knows himself. We have to realize that his name is actually intentionally given to us vaguely. There's a mystery about the name. There's an awe that it should bring about to us. Now, we're Westerners, so we love encyclopedias. We love being able to wrap our mind around all knowledge. God's not like everything else in this world. We cannot wrap our mind around Him. We cannot master God because we're sinful servants. So when you think about the name, I just want to give us that warning and really the encouragement. Don't try to understand the name as if you're going to understand everything about God. There's an intentional mystery and awe in the name God gives. Secondly, and this is really, I think, the way we're going to flesh out the name the best, and that is it must be interpreted in context. First, this story is great Hebrew literature. Hebrew literature, the high mark of it or one of the key tools in it is repetition. Repetition, repetition, repetition, that's kind of the key to literature, Hebrew literature. That first person pronoun comes up continuously through this conversation. Moses' call, he responds, Here I am in verse four. In verse six, God says, I am the God of your fathers. After the commission, Moses says, Who am I? Verse 12, God says, I will be with you. Verse 13, who will I say you are? Verse 14, I am who I am. Verse 14, I am has sent me to you. In verse 15, the name by which I will be remembered that repetition is fantastically fantastic. It's redundant and repetitious. Some theologians have tried to figure out the name of God, and they've tried to conclude, OK, well, it's saying that God is self-sufficient. He's independent. I don't think that's really saying what the text is wanting to point us to. Yes, God is self-sufficient. He's independent. But the name itself is a covenant name. It's a name by which God is seeking to make himself known as the covenant God of his covenant people. Notice that first he's answering a question. Who will I say you are? I am who I am. Tell them I am. I sent me to you. Tell them that I am the God of their fathers. I am the God who initiated this covenant. And we look bigger. I am the God of your fathers. The I am is actually there in verse six. I will be with you in verse 12. The conclusion I think we can take by looking at all of the context here is that he is the God Yahweh. Who has committed himself to his people for their good? The name tells us about God's character, the name tells us about God's actions, the name tells about God, and the first thing is that he has committed himself to his people. He is the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob. Secondly. I am who I am means he remains steadfast in that covenant. Nothing changes. God. He has made the promise. He is going to keep the promise. He is steadfast in his commitment and his promises to his people. God initiated the covenant. God keeps the covenant. Thirdly, I am who I am, I believe tells us that God is personally present with his people. I am with you. It's a great theme of Exodus, he is with them to deliver them, he is with them in the wilderness, he is with them to make them a nation, he is with them to be worshipped in the temple. He's committed to his covenant, he keeps his covenant. He's personally present in his covenant, he is near his people. Finally, the name is connected to deliverance. I am with you. So you can go to Pharaoh. I am with you. Go and tell my people I'm coming. I've heard their cry. I'm going to take them out of Egypt and into the abundant land. The name Yahweh tells us he's committed to the covenant. He remains steadfast in the covenant. He's personally present to his covenant people and he's going to deliver them. This is the covenant name of God and So it's not just the context that tells us that about God. It's not just the immediate context, the entire book of Exodus is an exposition on the name. The entire book of Exodus is going to tell us all about the character and nature of God, the entire book of Exodus and the entire Bible is meant to tell us more and more and more about the name of God. So we haven't mastered it yet. You've never mastered it. But the immediate context tells us he's steadfast, he's faithful, he's committed. Let me give you one example of the fact that the entire book of Exodus is meant to tell us about the name of God. Exodus 9, verses 14 and 16. For this time, I will send all my plagues on you, yourself and on your servants and your people so that you may know that there is none like me in the earth and all the earth. For by now I could have put up my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose, I have raised you up to show you my power so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." God doesn't need the plagues to deliver Israel. With one mighty declaration, they're free. With one mighty declaration, all of Egypt is gone. But he attacks the different gods. He shows that he's sovereign over creation. He shows he's sovereign over humanity. He shows he's sovereign over every nation. God uses those plagues to proclaim his name. He is about sharing with the world who he is. He wants us to know him. How does this apply for us today? We are God's people, so we know him by name. We are God's people and we are to call him by them. We are his covenant people because we believe in Jesus. So the first thing we ask is how did Christ connect himself with a covenant name? I am. Well, there's seven I am statements in John. There's seven I am statements where I believe Christ is demonstrating that he believed himself to be the fulfillment of God's covenant. And he believed himself to be God himself who made that covenant. He says, I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the gate, the good shepherd. I am the resurrection. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am divine. All of those are divine declarations. That he himself is God and the fulfillment of the covenant. More so, even John 8, 58. Before Abraham was, I am. There's a chronological problem there. Unless he was God in the beginning. He is declaring that he is Yahweh. He is the I am who I am. He is himself God. And that's evident in the text because the people who heard him say that wanted to stone him. We can look at further names of Jesus. Another covenant name, Emmanuel. God with us. Very Exodus language or Jesus name in its Hebrew pronunciation Yahshua Yahweh says. We believe in his name. Means we believe in who he says he was what he told and what he did. Listen to Acts 2 verses 37 and following. This is Peter's sermon. Now, when they had heard when they had a response to Peter's sermon, when they had heard they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent, be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. To be forgiven means you believe in the name of Christ, the authority, the power, the deity, the power he has over sin and death, the fact that he has died in the place of sinners. You believe in his name, you believe in everything he said, everything he did. Philippians 2, the passage Nick read as part of our service. God is a highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. That's divine language. He has a name above every name. There is no name greater because he himself is God. The father sent his son to die for us so that we can have forgiveness of our sins, have life in his resurrection and know the name that gives us assurance. We actually know Yahweh better than Israel. We have a better understanding of who I am, who I am is. Because we see all the promises fulfilled in Christ. We see a covenant fulfilled in Christ, we see that everything we saw that the name meant the presence, the commitment. Jesus Christ is the greatest demonstration of God's covenant because he's been faithful to deliver his people from sin and death. Jesus Christ is the greatest demonstration of God's presence with us. He became like us in every way, but without sin. He pitched his tent among us, he made his dwelling among us as Exodus language. Jesus Christ is God's greatest demonstration of love. The father sent his son to die in our place. We. We know I am who I am better than Exodus, better than the Israelites in Exodus, because we've seen the fullness of his revelation. We've seen how it's been complete in Christ. Further. We have a better name than Yahweh. Now, Yahweh is a great name that God has been known by, but we have a more precise name or rather, I'll say names. We appreciate Yahweh more, but we also have a more distinct way of naming God in that he is father, son and spirit. That God, I am who I am, has now revealed himself more distinctly and precisely to us by saying, I am the father who has sent the son to die for you and I am sent the spirit. We don't call on the I am who I am. We get to call him father. We get to approach him in those most intimate, personal terms. We get to know him as sons and daughters. We get to celebrate. God doesn't say don't draw near. God says come in boldly because you are children. When you believe in the name of Jesus Christ, you're children and you can come into my presence boldly. As God contrasts in Hebrews. We don't go to the mountain with fear. We don't stand far off. We go into his presence. We can see him face to face. First, we have the name better, we know what a name we have a name that's been received from God, that is Jesus Christ. We know him as a father and a son. He sought to make himself known and we know him better even than Moses did. there on the mountain. The name by which he is known as Jesus. If you call on him. If you believe him. You can know God. As we conclude. The name was a major step in the story of Israel. God saying I am who I am was making it clear to Israel. I am committed to you. I will be with you. I am with you always. This is the name by which I will always be known, and it's a holy and glorious name. We know that name has been fulfilled in the sense that God has proven himself over and over again. He is faithful to his covenant. Every promise is now a yes and amen in Jesus Christ, and we rejoice in that. But we're not commanded to call God Yahweh. We're commanded to go to him as father. to worship Him because He has removed our guilt so that we as sinners can now go into His presence and worship Him. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, You are holy and we do not deserve to be in Your presence. You have removed our sin and our guilt and we praise You for that. You removed the curse that kept us from you, you removed our own actions and rebellion against you. And you've done so in Jesus Christ. We praise you. We seek to worship you, our Lord of Lords and our King of Kings, we praise you, who is the great I am. Help us. Help us to see the beauty that you are the bread of life. You are the resurrection, you are the way, the truth and the life. Help us to experience that blessed life that you have meant for us to have in the name of Christ. Amen.