Scripture Alone: God’s Redemptive Word

Exodus 3:1–6 ESV

1 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. 2 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. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 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.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 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.

Hebrews 13:7 ESV

7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

The Reformer we will consider today is…

Ulrich Zwingli

The Reformation that occured in Switzerland spread further than in many other parts of Europe.

Partly due to the way the nation as a whole was set up.

Partly due to the freedom allowed to the Reformers.

Switzerland became a safe haven for those seeking refuge from persecution.

This nation and the Reformers there became obsessed with returning to the original documents.

Their motto of “ad fontes” was an obsession with returning “to the sources”

Zwingli like many of the other Reformers became obsessed with the NT from it’s original sources.

It was said the he had memorized all Paul’s epistles in Greek by 1516.

Pillars of Grace (AD 100–1564) Universities of Vienna and Basel

“Before anyone in the area had ever heard of Luther, I began to preach the gospel of Christ in 1516.… I started preaching the gospel before I had even heard Luther’s name.… Luther, whose name I did not know for at least another two years, had definitely not instructed me. I followed holy Scripture alone.”

One practice that we are committed to here at GLBC is expositional preaching.

But the Catholic church had something they called the “church calendar.”

They would only ever preach from the same texts every week and it was on a rotation every year.

But Zwingli broke from this tradition.

On January 1st, 1519, on the day of his 35th birthday, Zwingli began preaching through the book of Matthew.

He systematically preached through all of Matthew and then on to all the NT.

“When the Word of God shines on the human understanding, it enlightens it in such a way that it understands and confesses the Word and knows the certainty of it.”

Recap from last week.

The People of God Suffer in Captivity.

Exodus 1:6–8 ESV

6 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. 7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. 8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

“Fruitful and multiplying” under oppression.

Israel was FRUITFUL.

They were MULTIPLYING.

Israel is fulfilling what God had commanded them to do in Genesis 1:28.

The land of Egypt was full of this people that God is certainly blessing.

But…

Instead of having dominion, they were being dominated.

In the days of Joseph, he was second in command in Egypt.

But now those days are done.

The favor and influence of Joseph in Pharaoh’s household are gone.

Exodus 1:9–10 ESV

9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”

The people of Israel were many in number with nobody pleading with the king on their behalf.

They were oppressed by tyrants.

Here they are in captivity.

How do we recognize tyrants?

Or maybe, how do we recognize the “seed of the serpent”?

If you want to know what a tyrant looks like, watch what they do with the children.

Or the lack of care for the children.

Watch the way they treat the youngest and most vulnerable.

Their interaction with children will show you the heart of a person.

Faithfulness to the promises of God in defiance of Tyrants.

Exodus 1:15–16 ESV

15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.”

This command is a direct confrontation of God.

The king was ensuring that the people of Israel would be kept under oppression.

They would slowly remove the Israelite influence by destroying the men.

“If we remove the men, we can subdue the women!”

We have glimmers of faithfulness in the midst of captivity.

Exodus 1:17–21 ESV

17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. 18 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 20 So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

By opposing tyrants, these midwives stand as a beacon of obedience to God at cost of their own lives.

They saved the lives of these young boys.

They saved the lives of a generation.

They sought God’s glory in their work.

We need faithfulness like these two midwives in our own generation.

We need a kind of stalwart courage that FEARS God and does not fear the commands of tyrants.

Faithful obedience in the face of sure death brought great freedom.

Keep in mind an important fact…

We don’t know the king of Egypt’s name.

But these women stand as a beacon because their names live on forever to be remembered.

Exodus 1:22 ESV

22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

What’s going to happen to a people who curse Israel?

What’s God going to do to a people who defy His Word?

As we have seen the Lord do before with Noah, and then Abraham.

Here again we see God call out one man from among his brothers.

Like Noah from birth we see God providentially empower one couple to conceive and protect their child.

God Heard–A Deliverer for an Enslaved People.

Exodus 2:1–2 ESV

1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.

Moses’ mother…

Saw the value that God had placed on this child.

Risked her own life.

Protected her son.

Exodus 2:3 (ESV)

3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch…

What do you think faithful Israelites did in the evening before bed?

In a similar way that we will seek entertainment and story telling, they would do the same.

They would have heard the stories of God’s blessing to Abraham.

They would have heard the stories of Noah and the ark.

And here we have a woman that makes a “basket” or literally an “ark.”

Sound familiar?

Moses saved in a “basket” through the waters of death.

She has heard the promises of God.

She believes the promises of God.

Hebrews 11:23 ESV

23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

And with faith in the Word’s that God has spoken.

She entrusts her son to this basket on the river.

Not knowing what would happen but trusting.

Not sure of the outcome but believing that God would deliver this child.

Exodus 2:3–5 (ESV)

3…She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.

4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.

5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it.

God’s Providence

Think about how amazing God’s providence is.

God can literally take something like, “baby fever” in a young woman to accomplish His purposes.

Ladies, you know the feeling when you hold a little baby in your arms.

The desire for another baby.

It’s not something you decide to produce.

It’s something that is God given.

And here again we see the Lord’s providential direction.

He directs the world through things as simple as a young woman having compassion toward a child (i.e. baby fever).

Proverbs 21:1 ESV

1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.

And sometimes God turns the kings heart through a little baby.

In a moment, the kings edict to eradicate the Hebrew children…

Finds an exception through his daughter as she brings Moses into their royal family.

Moses grows up in this royal family though he likely had connections with his birth family (Exodus 2:8).

Moses raised for 40 years in the house of Pharaoh.

When you think of Moses, what comes to your mind?

Maybe a larger than life figure.

Maybe someone standing and booming from Mt. Sinai.

Hebrews tells us later that Moses understood his background.

He understood that he was a Hebrew.

He understood the promises of God to His people.

Growing up in a pagan land with pagan deities all around.

Hebrews 11:24–25 ESV

24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

We see this demonstrated in Moses’ life though.

We see him defend his people when they were poorly treated.

Acts 7:23 ESV

23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.

You can take the child out of Israel.

But you cannot take the promises of God to Israel out of the child.

Moses is a great example of one who was RAISED in a pagan home.

But when he heard the promises of God to his people, he acted.

Exodus 2:11–12 ESV

11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

Moses knew the promises.

He saw the wrong done and tried to defend his people.

Stephen describes what Moses is doing here.

Acts 7:24–25 ESV

24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.

Moses desired to deliver the people of Israel from oppression in his own strength.

Exodus 2:13–15 ESV

13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” 14 He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.

This man’s response shows Israel’s posture toward Moses prior to God’s call upon his life.

Moses is unable to deliver even ONE Israelite from captivity.

Not only that, but we see him here burning every bridge that he had with the people of Egypt.

Have you ever had the experience of burning a relational bridge with someone?

If so, then you know that once a relational bridge is burnt…

It would be more likely that a complete stranger would have favor more than the offender.

Moses didn’t have great connections Egypt.

We need to hear all of Moses’ connections being burnt.

He doesn’t have sway in Egypt anymore.

Moses fleas to the Midianites.

The Midianites were descendants of Abraham and Keturah (Genesis 25:1-6).

From there Moses finds a wife.

And begins to tend sheep from his now father-in-law.

Moses tending sheep for 40 years in the wilderness.

Moses would flea to the wilderness and spend the next 40 years of his life in Midian (Acts 7:30).

Think of Moses tending the sheep of his father-in-law for forty years.

Think of all that went into that.

He cared for sheep that were not his own.

He tended to someone else’s property.

With gentleness and tenacity he needed to tend those sheep.

God was preparing him for the work that He was going to give him.

God was shaping Moses to be the kind of man that would lead His people out of captivity. (Psalm 77:20).

In Egypt, things continued to worsen for the people of God.

Exodus 2:23 ESV

23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.

Notice what Israel is doing with their suffering.

Maybe for some they remembered the promises and were looking forward to deliverance.

But maybe for others they had lost all hope.

But they were crying out to the LORD.

What are you doing with your suffering?

Obviously none of us are being oppressed in the same way were.

But there is something profound in the way they bring their suffering to the LORD.

Notice the active response of the LORD to His people.

Exodus 2:24–25 (ESV)

24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

God Heard.

God remembered.

God saw.

God knew.

God’s promises to Abraham were not forgotten (Genesis 15:13-14).

As a covenant partner, God is getting ready to ACT.

The Revelation of “I AM” and Redemption of His People.

Exodus 3:1 ESV

1 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.

Keep in mind this is the same mountain that Abram earlier made alters to Yahweh and called upon the name of the LORD.

It is here that Yahweh will begin to call his children out of slavery.

Exodus 3:2 ESV

2 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.

It was not abnormal to see a bush burn in the wilderness.

It was typically a burst of flame and then quick extinguished.

However, this bush burned and continued to burn.

Exodus 3:3–5 ESV

3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 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.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

Moses turns aside to see the burning bush.

After Moses has turned aside to examine the burning bush, the first thing God does is warn Moses.

But God warns him.

He warns him because there is something dangerous here.

What is dangerous here?

The warning of God comes to Moses because he is standing on holy ground.

The ground is HOLY because God is dwelling in that place.

“I AM” and the endangerment of Holiness.

God commands Moses to remove his sandals as a sign that this ground is different.

The ground that he is walking on is distinctly different than other places.

Holiness is a dangerous thing.

Holiness is dangerous to those who are NOT HOLY.

Holiness is dangerous to those who are NOT.

Those who are NOT devoted to the Lord, are endangered by Holiness.

And when the Word of Yahweh comes near to Moses, we learn that His Word is HOLY.

God will go on to describe WHO HE is to Moses.

Exodus 3:6 (ESV)

6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

God does not present Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as those who are dead.

He speaks of them as they really are: ALIVE. (Mark 12:27)

They are alive and the promises to them are as much alive as they are.

They are alive with Yahweh and His promises to them are still active.

Moses’ response to Yahweh is the response of a man who knows his unholiness before a HOLY God.

Exodus 3:6 (ESV)

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

The Word of Yahweh comes and strikes fear into Moses.

He is afraid to even look upon Yahweh.

Exodus 3:7–8 (ESV)

7 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 sufferings,

8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land…

Exodus 3:9 ESV

9 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.

It’s the people’s cry that comes to the LORD’s attention.

He notices His people when they suffer and Himself brings the necessary aid through His people.

Exodus 3:10 ESV

10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Yahweh Heard.

Yahweh remembered.

Yahweh saw.

Yahweh knew.

But NOW, Yahweh will act.

He will act on behalf of a people in bondage.

On behalf of an oppressed and imprisoned people.

He acts now as their deliverer.

“I AM” encountering an insecure man.

Exodus 3:11 ESV

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

Remember what we have already seen from Moses.

“A1 – I am not the person you need: unfitness (Exodus 3:12)

B1 – I have not the necessary gift: lack of knowledge (Exodus 3:13)

C – I have not the required effectiveness (Exodus 4:1)

B2 – I have not the necessary gift: eloquence (Exodus 4:10)

A2 – I am not the person you need: unwillingness (Exodus 4:13)”

The reader is meant to be like,

“Yes! Moses is not the guy for this!”

“He’s not a good leader!”

“He has burnt bridges to Pharaoh’s house.”

“He already tried to act as a deliverer for the people of Israel, and failed!”

But here the GOD of His people is CALLING him to act as a deliverer.

Yahweh is commissioning him to do what has already been desired of him many years earlier.

“I AM” reveals Himself as the self-sufficient One.

Exodus 3:12 (ESV)

12 He said, “But I will 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 God on this mountain.”

Much like Abraham before him who doubted the promises.

Moses doubts what God tells him.

He doubts but yet Yahweh assures him.

Exodus 3:13 ESV

13 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?”

Moses wonders…

“WHO ARE YOU?”

“Tell me what you’re like so I can tell these people who sent me to them!”

He will tell Moses WHO HE IS.

Exodus 3:14 (ESV)

14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”

Literally,

English Standard Version

Or I AM WHAT I AM, or I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE

It is both revealing and ambiguous.

The phrase “I AM” is both God’s personal identity and what He is like.

He is the self-existent ONE.

He is the ONE who always has been.

He is the ONE who always will be.

Keep in mind what Moses is looking at as he is listening to Yahweh speak.

A flame that refuses to be extinguished.

A flame that needs no fuel.

A flame that requires NOTHING to burn.

A flame that burns a dry stubble but consumes NOTHING.

A flame that is truly ALIVE.

The LORD both reveals with His Words and His actions and they show His character.

The self-sufficient, self-sustaining, all-sufficient, all-consuming, self-maintaining GOD.

He is the GOD of eternity past.

The GOD of eternity future.

And the GOD who exists of HIMSELF.

Exodus 3:14 ESV

14 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.’ ”

“I AM” as the deliverer of God’s people.

God has called Moses and He will serve as His representative to Pharaoh.

He will reveal what Yahweh is like to all of Israel and ultimately to Egypt itself.

When Moses finally goes to Pharaoh the IRONY is strong when Pharaoh says…

Exodus 5:2 (ESV)

“Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

The story of the Exodus from Egypt will both reveal and display Yahweh’s glory over the nations.

Pharaoh who claims to NOT know Yahweh will soon see Him.

Jesus when He was debating with the religious leaders said

John 8:31–32 (ESV)

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The religious leaders replied…

John 8:33 (ESV)

“We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

John 8:56–58 ESV

56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

The self-sufficient, self-sustaining God fulfills His promises by empowering a deliverer to redeem His people from captivity.