Now please turn with me to the book of Exodus, chapter three. Exodus chapter three, and uh we'll read some verses here, starting at verse one. Exodus three and verse one. Now Moses kept the fleck of, uh, 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 mount 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 burned. 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 thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. Verse nine says, Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them. 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 when I have sent thee, when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am have sent you unto God. And God said, moreover, unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath sent me unto you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. Now, that's all we're going to read, and we know that God always blesses the reading, uh, of his precious word. Now, the first thing I would like to say about this is, of course, that, uh, we sh- in, uh, this way, we should be like Moses. Moses was a man that wanted God to use him. He may not have understood God's ways, uh, with him. You remember how he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. And you and I, I hope, are like that as well. Uh, while we're not, uh, haven't ever lived in a palace, at least I haven't, I- I'm glad that I'm associated with God's people. What a contrast, uh, with the environment that he was in. Uh, but yet he said, I'm willing, that's not the important thing, is God and God's people. And we've been reminded of that in a meeting already here, uh, this morning. So the importance o- of being with God's people. Now, God was going to use this man Moses in a mighty way. Mightier way than he'll ever use you or me, as far as I, me anyhow. Uh, but yet he's going to use him in a mighty way, and what does he do? He takes him away to the back of the desert. Now, I'm not telling you, and I hope you don't tell me, that I had to serve forty years in the back of the desert before God could use me in some little way, otherwise some of us would still be in the back of the desert somewhere, but yet we need to spend time with God, and we need to get to know God. And one of the things that's very important today, and maybe it's lacking, uh, amongst us, at least in some places, and that is reverence. And God was going to teach this man Moses something about reverence. You know, I think we need more reverence a- a- among us, and we're getting to be so casual today, and I think that's not good. It, uh, we act usually the way we're dressed and so on, and we might seem to be very casual, but it's a good thing to have reverence. When, uh, I met George Patterson here, uh, I've known him a while, but one time I met him here and his dear wife Fran. And when Fran was a little girl, that's a long time ago because I was a little boy at the same time, and, uh, she used to come to the gospel hall where my father and mother were in fellowship, the assembly, and we sat back. I didn't know her and she didn't know me, but she said, do you know what I remember about those meetings? It's a place called Ballyhackamore. That may seem strange, but when we were in Ireland, we thought the American names were very strange. But anyhow, she said, in Ballyhackamore, do you know what I, what, what I remember more than anything else? I said, no, but I'm, I'm interested. She said, reverence. There were three hundred people in the, in fellowship most of the time, a- and yet they tiptoed into the meeting. It's good to remind ourselves of that. A- and another thing, maybe they went a little bit overboard, but, you know, when they were passing the emblems, when someone give the emblem to someone, of course, uh, they didn't have to walk around with the emblems because, uh, so many people there. They wouldn't partake of the emblems till the person sat down. They treated things very, very reverently. Maybe that's going a little too far, but maybe we don't go far enough. But anyhow, here he is, and he turns, uh, to see this great sight. You see, God says, I'm going to have you serve me in a great way, but you're never going to be able to serve me in a great way until you see how great a God I am. And that's what I want to speak about, mostly, about the greatness of God. And, and, uh, Moses, he, he, he wasn't very... Well, he was quite shy at this time, uh, and he turned to see this sight, uh, and, uh, he was told, draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet. For he said, the ground whereon thou standest is holy ground. Now, I'm not telling you that, uh, I, I know if you go to Japan, you have to take your shoes off your feet to go into the gospel hall, but I'm not telling you to do that. That's not what I have in my, in in my mind, and and you know, we have a right to stand in God's presence. I know we say that sometimes we're on hallowed ground, and and that is right in one way, but you know, I often think, well, just think here, take thy shoes from off thy feet. Moses, you have no right to stand on this ground. There was a man in the book of Ruth, and he couldn't, uh, redeem, uh, Ruth. He could redeem the land, but he couldn't redeem the woman, so he had to take his sandal or his shoe off his f- foot. He was saying, I have no right to stand in, in this inheritance. I can't redeem it. I think of the Lord, of course, and, uh, he was different. John said to him, I'm not worthy to take your shoe from off your foot, because the Lord had a right to stand here. He had creatorial rights, all things were made by him, and he had redemptive rights. But then when we come to the prodigal, what, what happened to him? Well, he had the robe, robes of righteousness and garments of salvation, the best robe, a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. He had a right to stand in the father's house, and we have a right, not because of what we are. Moses had no right. Didn't matter whether he lived in the palace for all those years or not. He didn't have that right. Take your shoes off, and then God says, now, I, I, I want you to, uh, to go down back into Egypt, and I want you to bring my people up out of the land of Egypt. And you know, the kind of people that God, uh, uses and God serves are, are, are those that, uh, don't think they can really do it. That's the kind, maybe you think I can't serve God, you can't serve God because, uh, I don't have the ability. Well, you know, that's a good start, because God is looking for people that don't have any ability of their own. He's looking for some that he can take up. I'm not saying he can't use a natural ability, but it's not just natural ability. God can do that, and he's going to raise this man Moses up, and Moses said, they're not going to listen to me. How can I do this? I don't have the power to serve thee and to do this great thing. Oh, he said, you know, do you not know who I am? Do we not know who God is? When the children of Israel went into the land, you know, the, the most of them, the spies, they said, did you not see the, how big the giants were? But Caleb and Joshua, they said, do you not see how big God is? That's the important thing. It's that how great God is. We have a great God, and no matter what little way he's going to use you or use me, he's still a great God. I told, I mentioned this the other day. Mr. William Ferguson one time, I was kind of afraid of him. He was one of the old preachers. I hope the young people aren't afraid of the older ones today, but we, we, we had a great reverence for these men, but, you know, he came to the home, and he was great in the home. He was very helpful. And, and, uh, I don't remember what he said. I remember what he wrote in the guest book. God is not only a great God in great things, but God is a great God in little things. And we need to get hold of that. It's not that we need God to help us to do something great. We need God at all times, and Moses was going to have to learn that, and he, he said, God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, you say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent you. I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's why he was dealing with these people. It wasn't because of, of their merit. It was because it was for the sake of another. The promise he made to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, and he said, I'm the great I am. My, that's something. Does that, does that fill us with reverence? Or do we come too, become too familiar, uh, with these things? Because, you know, when we come into the New Testament, we read in the Gospel of John of the I am. That's the gospel of the I am, and then it's speaking about the Lord Jesus. But, but, you know, he's still the same great one, isn't he? Still the same, uh, great person. We shouldn't become familiar with him in that way. I know sometimes you even read it, they call him our, our, the Lord our brother. Don't ever do anything like that. It's, it's, I know we have the same God and the same Father, but it's my God and, and, and your God, my Father and your Father. And when we come into the New Testament, we have this same wonderful person, and, uh, those of us saved here by the grace of God, surely our desire would be to serve him. But we should remember the one that we're serving. We don't serve in a haphazard manner. It's not what we, what way we think we should serve him. It's not for us to concoct ways to try and even reach out or build bridges to others. We do it in a scriptural way, and we've heard that this morning. It's the gospel. That's how assemblies are planted. We heard of God's house. We heard of the greatness of the Lord in a place where they were worshiping angels and so on, and, and, and so s- uh, intelligent in their own minds. They forgot about the greatness of the Lord, and that's what we want to never forget. We should always remember him. Now, the Gospel of John is the gospel of his greatness. You can see that, uh, in the, uh, the woman at the well. She said to the Lord, Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us a well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle? You know the answer to that, don't you? Of course, he's far greater than Jacob. You could study that, you know, and go and see the ways that he's greater than, uh, than Jacob. Was he greater than Abraham? Before Abraham was, I am. There's another I am. Speaking of the person, uh, of of the Lord. Before Abraham. Why they said you're you're not fifty years old? Well, what you see, he he he was there before Abraham was. He didn't say I was, but I am. He's the ever existing one, and he's the only one that was going to be able to help Moses bring the children of Israel out of Egypt, bring them through the wilderness. He's the only one that can help you. He's the only one that can help me. By implication, he was greater than Moses. Of course, he was greater than Moses. You can see that from Exodus three. but in the New Testament, and and we'll go, uh, into John chapter, uh, six, uh, where you have the the the Lord Jesus said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. Here's the great I am, the bread that came down from heaven. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead, but he said, whoever eats of this bread that I shall give him shall never die. So that's where it all began with us. It's the appropriation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amazing, isn't it, how this great I am could be seen in, in, in, in, in, in a manhood, a man that graced manhood with all the attributes of deity. But he was a man born so humbly into this world. But, you know, he was always the Lord. But anyhow, uh, we think of the, the, the Lord, the bread that came from heaven. Are we feeding on the bread? What are we feeding on? But I want to apply this, first of all, uh, uh, to salvation. If you eat of this bread, appropriating the Lord Jesus Christ for ourselves, that's what we did. It's not, it's not got to do with the, with the remembrance of the Lord. Some people have looked at that, and they think that when he said, I am the bread, he really was the bread. Well, he said, I'm the door. He really wasn't a, a door. That is a symbol. The bread is symbolic. The bread and the cup are symbolic of the Lord in his person and in his work. But then, when you come to chapter eight, what does he say? I am the light of the world. That's a wonderful statement, isn't it? What does it mean? Well, I think it means that he brought some of the light of heaven into this dark world. Maybe I could say all of the light of heaven into this dark world. What does Matthew say? To those that sat in the region of the shadow of death is a great light sent. He brought the light of heaven, illumination to your soul and to mine to see, uh, not just what we are, but to see his greatness. The light. He says he's still the light of the world. Well, uh, you know, the, the, the Spirit of God, he's the enlightener today, isn't he? The Lord Jesus is in heaven, but you know, uh, well, think of the, uh, of the, the, the, the p- parable with a woman in Luke fifteen. and, and, and what is she? She has a light, and she has a broom, and she's sweeping away obstacles so she can find that inanimate object, that silver, that piece of silver. That's what the Spirit of God did, uh, for you and for me, to remove the obstacles, and what else? He brought the light. And you say, well, how could a woman be a picture of the Holy Spirit? Well, I'll tell you how I think. Maybe you have other ideas. In, in those, in that parable, in the first part of the parable, you have the shepherd going out after the lost sheep. And that's a, we, we all love to speak from that para- that part of the parable, don't we? But I'm not coming back until he found it. That was the work of Christ really primarily with the nation of Israel. He came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But then in the next part, you have the Spirit of God. In the last part, it's the Father waiting for the Son to come back. The, the, the Trinity's involved in, in our salvation. It's a great salvation, isn't it? Well, I, I think the woman represents maybe the church, and God is using the church today, and, and, and the Spirit of God in the church, and, and bringing to others. But the Spirit of God, of course, himself is a great enlightener. And in Ephesians chapter one, what does Paul pray after he had shown some of the most lofty truth, truths in all the Word of God? What does he say? He says he prays that the eyes of your understanding, or better, the eyes of your heart being enlightened, that ye may know. Yeah, but you say they knew it, they have it here, and we have it in writing. That doesn't mean our hearts have been enlightened by it. Doesn't mean when we come to a conference and we sit, and I'm talking about myself, I come and I sit and I listen. Doesn't mean I'm enlightened, but it should be if I let the word have its effect, and the Spirit of God is here to enlighten people through the, the, the word of God, even though you may know it, but to bring it right through and bring it to heart. So the Lord said, I am the light. I am the door. My, that's a, uh, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. Aren't you glad you entered the door? The door in the ark, there's doors in the scriptures, and I think too of a, another door that was, well, the door of heaven was opened, another door was shut. The day coming when the door is going to be closed, if you're not saved, be be very, very careful. You don't maybe have much time, uh, and the door's going to be shut. When once the master of the house hath risen up and shut to the door, and they're going to begin and say, Lord, Lord, open unto us. Depart from me, I never knew you. But I thought there in Jericho, you know, there was a window with a scarlet thread on it. But sometimes maybe we forget there was a door. They they told Rahab, they said, you put this thread in the window, but you, you shut the door, uh, get them to come in from the city. The door would be on that side of the, of the wall. Get them in, and then shut the door. They're not going to go back into the world again once they come through the door, and that's what God wants for you and he wants for me. So there's a door. I don't want to labor these things. Uh, and then he said, I am the good shepherd. That a lovely statement? The Good Shepherd. Recently, I have been reading, well, because of a Bible reading coming up in Phoenix, on Ephesians chapter four. And, and you know, uh, what it said that the Lord, he, he laid captivity captive, and he gave gifts unto men. And what were the gifts that he gave unto men? Well, some apostles, and then some were prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers, or pastor teachers, if you want to put them, uh, together. You know, the Lord had all those gifts himself. Hebrews three tells us the apo- he's the apostle and high priest of our calling. Was he a prophet? The Lord our God shall raise up a prophet like unto me, and that's quoted again, isn't it, in the book of the Acts. The Lord was a prophet. Was he evangelist? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He appointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He was an evangelist. Was he a, was he a teacher? On the Mount of Transfiguration, he sat down to teach. I think of him there like the king sitting on the throne, and he's teaching him the precepts of the kingdom. What about the shepherd? Was he a shepherd? I am the good shepherd. This is the great one that met Moses up there on the mountain, and yet he's the shepherd of the sheep. But you know what I like about it? It never said he's the, that the Lord was a great apostle. Doesn't say he was a great prophet. It doesn't say he was a great evangelist or a great teacher, but it says he's a great shepherd. Or the good. Maybe I should have said good would be better. It's better looking at it as good, not the good evangelist and good teacher and so on. But he said, I'm the good shepherd, the good shepherd that giveth his life for the sheep. And what's he doing? Well, he said they're going to go in and out and find pasture. Up until that part of the Gospel of John, the Lord is dealing with individuals, with Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the nobleman's son, the man at the pool, the woman, uh, taken in adultery, and the man that was born blind. That's chapter nine. What happens in chapter ten? He brings all these individuals. He said, there's going to be one flock, and there's going to be one shepherd. Aren't you glad that you're part of that flock? And he said, I'm going to take them where they're going to find pasture, they're going to find food to eat. And again, I, I want to ask you and ask myself, what am I feeding on? What is it that interests me in this world? There's lots of things that young people are feeding. I remember Moses was so reverent. How could I be reverent? Could I be feeding at the ballpark, the professional games? And there's lots of young people, and they, they talk about going to the movies. I'll tell you, that's something, isn't it, for a believer? Is that where we're going to find our, our food, in a place like that? Are we going to go to some other place outside of the local assembly to find something to eat? We don't need to. We, we have all that we need. We have a shepherd, and the shepherd has brought us into a place where he's going to feed us with the, with the finest of the wheat. And that's what we're doing here in a, in a, in a meeting like this. When I talk about pastor teachers, if you put that one, you know, that that's not talking about a, a shepherd in the local assembly. There are shepherds in the local assembly, and that's what we need. We need good shepherds in the local assembly. Somebody said we don't need German shepherds. You want to be a little kinder than that, you know, you're going to be a shepherd in the assembly. If you're German, don't take offense, I don't mean it that way. But you see, we need shepherds that are going to help to feed God's people. Did you, did you, can you look back to somebody that helped you when you were young? I'm glad I can look back to people. I needed it, I'll tell you. And I'm glad there were people and they fed us, and they fed us with the basic truths of God's word. They didn't mince words, and they didn't fool around trying to get us things that we wanted to listen to. They taught us the truth of God. That's what we need today, and that's what we've been listening to. We need to be drawn closer to the, the, the shepherd and feeding where his flock feeds. You can find that in the Song of Solomon. Where, where, where do you feed your flock? That's where we want to be, where he's feeding his flock. And if you're a shepherd in the assembly, or if you have that thought in your mind that maybe someday you're going to need to feed the flock. That's what the God's people need. They need to be fed, and they need to be fed from the word of God, not from my ideas or your ideas or your thoughts. There's plenty in the word of God. We'll never exhaust it in our lifetime or even in the eternal ages. We'll never exhaust the word of God, but meanwhile, I'm glad that I'm a sheep of his pasture, and I want to be fed, and I want to grow, I want to make progress in the things of God. Have you made any progress? You ever take inventory or take stock and ask yourself, has there been any progress in my life? Most of us would have to hang our head in shame and say, not very much. I remember when Mr. Paisley was saved forty years, he, he was telling me, Bill, I've been saved forty years. I said, you haven't made much progress, have you? You know what he said? I'm not meet to be called an apostle. Well, I'll tell you, I wish some of us could make progress like men like that. And he's not the only one. There are many men. I feel sorry for some of the younger people here that never knew these men, uh, and and others when they're in their strength. Men that we were privileged to hear when we were younger, that left a great impression upon us through the word of God. Men that studied the word of God. They weren't interested in anything else. The world didn't appeal to them at all. There's so many things today, aren't there, to attract us, and and I can be attracted as well as you, but I would like to have a greater devotion, uh, to the Lord. I asked Mr. McLeod one time, Oswald McLeod, he's another man, maybe you don't know, a very stately man, tall, stately man. I said, if you had to do it all over again, would you do anything different? He said, yes, I would. I said, what would you do? He said, I'd be more devoted to the Lord. I hope we'll have that desire, and I hope this conference will give me that desire and give you that desire. Think of who he is, the great I am, and yet the privilege we have to draw near to him, and we have him as our shepherd. And then he said, I am the resurrection and the life. Someone here mourning the loss of a loved one? Many of us here have had that experience. We wouldn't maybe want to have it again. We don't know what lies ahead, but the Lord, you know, he can comfort the heart. Imagine this one. I am the resurrection and the life, and it says that he wept. My, he had tender compassion. Wouldn't it be great to be like him in this aspect of his life, to have compassion on on others, and things that we have come through, uh, we, I'm talking about us all, there's a reason for them and a purpose for them, so that we can help others that are coming through the same things. Those of us who are older, we've all lost our fathers and mothers. Some have lost brothers and sisters. I still have my sisters and my brother, but my heart goes out to those that, uh, Brother McCullough just lost his brother, the only brother. That touches my heart. But you know, this also touches my heart. I am the resurrection and the life. This isn't the end. The- these things are for the glory of God. Lazarus' death was to bring glory to the Lord, the Lord of resurrection, and what glory there's going to be in the future, when we're all going to hear the shout, perhaps today we'll hear the shout, caught up to meet the Lord in the air, so be forever with the Lord. But meanwhile, he said, I am the way. Well, you say that's a good gospel verse. It is, and I have preached it in the gospel. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man or no one cometh unto the Father but by me. You know, I think there's more to that verse than a gospel verse. The Lord washed the disciples' feet in the previous chapter, and he said to Peter, if I wash thee not, Peter said, you're not going to wash my feet, you remember. He said, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. No part in what? Just in service? Maybe that's included. I think it's in the priesthood. It was a priestly thing that the Lord was doing. And, and, and, you know, I, I think this access is access to the very, to the, the holiest of all. By a new and a living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh. There's a way that we worship in heaven. Where do you worship? Somebody told me they went to one of my father's Bible readings. My dad had Bible classes in the shipyard for years over in Belfast, and the one man said, uh, from a denominational place, he said, uh, brother, where do you worship? Where would you say if somebody asked you where you worship? He said, I worship in the heavenly sanctuary. He wasn't trying to be smart, he was telling the truth. But he knew what the man meant, so he said, but if you mean where do I fellowship? He said, I fellowship where they call upon the Lord out of a pure. But, you know, we worship in the sanctuary. It's not like the disciples, you know, were down here, our Father which art in heaven. I think there was a distance there, you see, they weren't indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and the Lord hadn't gone back into, into heaven. But we have that place of nearness today. I am the way, the direction, instruction. We're going to kind of fellowship with the, uh, with God right in the heavenly sanctuary. We can worship in the heavenly sanctuary. What a marvelous thing that is. People ask you, do you have an altar? I said, yeah, we have an altar. We're off to have no right to eat but serve the tabernacle, but they're talking about something in the building. Do you have a sanctuary? Yeah, we have the heavenly sanctuary. I must close. What's the next one? I am the true vine, and my Father is a husbandman. What does that mean? What does it speak of? Well, I think it speaks of communion. And that's a wonderful thing to have communion, isn't it, to be... I'm, I'm not talking about taking communion as the world says, but really enjoying communion with the Lord Jesus. He's the vine. Without me, you're nothing. We can't brag about anything apart from our association with this wonderful person. Imagine who he is. The great I am. I am hath sent thee. That's all the power of the unchanging one. That's the one that we're associated with. That would give us reverence at all times, wouldn't it? But as well as that, just think that he came into this world, the bread of life, so that we could be satisfied. The world is hungering, and they can't find anything to, to satisfy their hunger or, uh, to sate their thirst. But thank God we have everything. The old hymn used to say about the woman in the garret floor in London, just an attic floor, and the last line said, I have Christ, what want I more? What more do we need, brethren and sisters? May the Lord help us to go in for living our lives to please him. You, you know, we're, we're, we're not being deprived by, by not going in for the things of the world. It's the p- the Christians that are going in for the things of the world. They're the ones that are losing out. They're the ones that are deprived. They're, they're not enjoying these things. And the, I've often said the, the greatest disappointment, could I say it that way, in my life. Maybe that's not the right word, but is that I didn't go in for God's salvation when I was younger, so that I could learn more of this wonderful person. If you're young, don't waste time. Get to know more about him. Get into your word. Get the word into you, and don't be afraid to use the helps. I don't know if there's any place in North America where you get a better selection of books than what you have out here in the corridor. If you can't afford them, ask some of the older brethren, and maybe they'll buy you one. If they can't, come to some of the younger ones like me, and I'll try and help you. But may the Lord help you to go in for the things of God and serve the great I am, serving in his power. The great I am hath sent thee.