We are thankful that we are able to gather again this year. As the brothers have been before the Lord, they have been impressed with this thought of Christ as our vision.
In many ways, that can sound very generic. But I believe the Lord has something very specific that He wants to speak into our hearts and lives as we gather together this weekend.
Let us turn to Colossians 1. This is where the theme verse comes from.
The theme verse is Colossians 1:17, but I am going to start with verse 13, because all of this is speaking of our wonderful Lord. In the New American Standard, there is a little subtitle that says, “The Incomparable Christ.”
For He delivered us from the domain of darkness,
and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.And He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.For by Him all things were created,
both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—
all things have been created through Him and for Him.He is before all things,
and in Him all things hold together.—Colossians 1:13-17
I believe it is upon all of our hearts this weekend, as we come together—and as was presented on the website and in the bulletins we received—that there is a real desire that we see the freshness of Christ in each of our lives.
We have heard much about Him over these years. But as we are living in these last days, there is a great burden for the Lord to reveal His Son to us in a very fresh and real way.
As we are together, Brother Stephen will be sharing on seeing Him, Brother Dana will be sharing on knowing Him, and Brother David will be sharing on following Him. It is a call to all of us in these last days.
We sang this hymn before I came up. I have had it on my heart these past couple of weeks. As you look at the very first line, I am desiring that this would be our testimony at the end of this weekend:
Thou hast made Thyself to me
A living bright reality.
Lord, as we gather together in Your presence, we do come with joyful hearts. Just as the hymn writer wrote, we turn that into a prayer.
Lord, we desire that You would be made reality to each and every one of us; that, in the freshness and anointing of Your Holy Spirit, You would have liberty and freedom to move within all of our hearts and lives, to draw us in a fresh way unto You.
So that we would see You in a greater and greater way, know You in ways we have never known before, and follow You fully all the days of our life. We commit ourselves into Thy hands. In Jesus’ name, amen.
As I was considering this theme and praying, there was a little phrase that came to my heart. The brothers did not give me an assignment, so I have total liberty up here.
But there was a little phrase that came to my heart: “as seeing Him who was invisible.”
That is speaking of Moses in Hebrews. Turn over to Hebrews 11. It is a wonderful testimony of Moses’ life, and it is a real secret within Moses’ life: seeing Him who was invisible.
It is actually the secret of all of our lives. The Lord chose to point it out through Moses.
Let us begin in Hebrews 11:23, where we have the wonderful testimony the Holy Spirit gives concerning Moses’ parents and Moses himself.
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.
By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.
—Hebrews 11:23-27
The New American Standard, and most other translations, says, “as seeing Him who is invisible.”
The Holy Spirit also records for us a snapshot of Moses’ life. When Stephen shared his testimony in Acts 7, we have a beautiful summary of the life of Moses. Most of us are familiar with his life; it is very extensive. Yet, within these verses in Acts 7, we have a wonderful snapshot—an overview, a bird’s-eye view—of his life.
Turn to Acts 7. We will begin reading in verse 17.
But as the time of the promise was approaching which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, until there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph.
It was he who took shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so that they would expose their infants and they would not survive.
It was at this time that Moses was born; and he was lovely in the sight of God. He was nurtured three months in his father’s home.
And after he had been set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son. Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds.
But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian.
And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.
—Acts 7:17-25
Look again at that verse. We are going to touch on it later: “He supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.”
On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, “Men, you are brethren, why do you injure one another?”
But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? You do not mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?”
At this remark, Moses fled and became an alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn bush.
When Moses saw it, he began to marvel at the sight; and as he approached to look more closely, there came the voice of the Lord: “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.”
Moses shook with fear and would not venture to look. But the Lord said to him, “Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. I have certainly seen the oppression of My people in Egypt, and have heard their groans, and have come down to deliver them; come now, and I will send you to Egypt.”
This Moses, whom they disowned, saying, “Who made you a ruler and a judge?” is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.
This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.
—Acts 7:26-36
As I was impressed with this verse about Moses—the governing thing within his life, of enduring as seeing Him who was unseen, or seeing Him who was invisible—I was thinking about it in regard to this conference and its theme.
That is how I would like to approach Moses’ life tonight: Moses seeing the Lord, Moses knowing the Lord, and Moses following the Lord.
As you look at Moses, this was a revolutionary experience for him. It is really a revolutionary experience for each and every one of us. When we have that encounter with the Lord, we are not the same anymore. Something is different.
Within Moses’ life, as he had this encounter with the Lord, his whole life was changed.
When was the first time that Moses saw the Lord? The first time it is recorded that Moses saw the Lord is in Exodus 3, in the story of the burning thorn bush that was not consumed.
That is the first recorded instance. Yet, as you read about Moses, you have a sense within your heart that Moses knew something of the Lord. Moses had seen something of the Lord before that time.
Even as we look in Acts 7:25, we see that Moses had a sensing. As he had this burden, he was going down to be the deliverer for his people. He did not understand why they did not recognize him as the deliverer.
He had this sensing in his heart. He went down to set his people free. It is precious how Moses is described there: Moses went to his brethren. He knew who his family was. He knew who his real people were.
How did Moses have this inner sensing within him? How did he know that one day God was going to deliver the people of Israel? How did Moses have this knowing, this sensing within him?
It is a very simple answer: his mother—his parents. They had put the Word of God within his heart at a young age.
As we read in Hebrews 11, many of the sons of Israel, while they were in captivity in Egypt, had simply given up. They were following the ways of Egypt. They were worshiping the gods of Egypt.
But thank the Lord, in the midst of that, there was a faithful remnant. There was one family in particular: the mother and father of Moses.
They knew from the Word of God, from that promise given to Abraham years before, that after four hundred years God was going to deliver His people from that land. They had that Word in their hearts, and they believed that promise.
They knew the Word of God, and they knew the times in which they were living. They said, “That time is approaching, and we are having a child born. We need to prepare this child for this transition.”
They may not have known whether Moses would be the deliverer, but they knew God was going to raise one up. They knew this was the time God was going to move, and they prepared their child for this.
It was very similar to Daniel. Daniel, as he was in the Word of God, saw that after seventy years God was going to move. Daniel set his heart to pray and prepare for that great return from Babylon to Jerusalem.
We are thankful that when Moses was born, he had his mother and father taking care of him.
We know that Moses was born under a sentence of death. All the children were supposed to be killed. Out of a loving heart, his parents saw this beautiful child and kept him in their home for three months.
When it was no longer possible to keep him, they made an ark. In faith, they entrusted Moses to the living God and put that ark in the water.
We know how Pharaoh’s daughter came down and found the ark, and Moses’ sister just coincidentally happened to be there. When Pharaoh’s daughter found the ark, Moses’ sister said, “Would you like for me to go find a nurse for you?”
Of course, she went and brought Moses’ mother. Pharaoh’s daughter entrusted the child to her, and it says that she nursed him.
We do not know how long she nursed him. If you want to see a variety of opinions, look at all the commentaries concerning how long Moses’ mother cared for him. There is all sorts of speculation. The Bible is quiet, so we do not need to know.
But we know she was with him long enough to implant the Word of God within his heart.
As she was there, she planted that Word of God within him. Even though he was exposed in his life to all the riches and treasures of Egypt, there was a sensing within him that this really was not his home. This really was not where he belonged.
Brother Sparks said that, through the Word of God, Moses had this sense of divine destiny within him. He had this divine destiny that, even though he was in Egypt, he was not of Egypt.
The obvious lesson here is for parents: the value of implanting the Word of God in the heart of a child. That goes without saying.
The precious thing here is that they did it in faith. We do not know whether they ever saw the fruit of their labors on this earth. In heaven, in eternity, they are seeing the fruit of their labors.
We do not know how old they were when all the rest of Moses’ life unfolded. They drop out of sight. But they did it in faith.
Even though you may not see the result or the fruit of your labor, when it is done in faith, that fruit is going to come forth. Praise God, that fruit came forth because of a faithful mother and a faithful father.
Throughout all of this, Moses had this sensing within him, and it held him. We see this over and over in Scripture.
We see it in Joseph’s life. Joseph, when he was a young man, had those two dreams. He did not really understand what the dreams were about. He could not interpret them, and he did not have understanding of them.
But somehow, as the Lord took Joseph through his life, the Lord began to make those dreams clear. Joseph began to have understanding and wisdom concerning the call and destiny upon his life. Those dreams held him.
That sense of divine destiny held Moses. It held Joseph. It held David.
If you look at David’s life, we know that David probably had encounters with the Lord and a sensing and knowing of the Lord as he was a young shepherd boy. Then Samuel came and anointed him as king.
But the circumstances at first certainly did not look like those of a king. He had to flee for his life. He was being persecuted. Saul was trying to kill him. But he was anointed king.
There was, again, that inner sense of divine destiny. It held Moses. It held Joseph. It held David. The Lord wants to hold each one of us.
We may not understand everything, but praise God, there is a sensing within us.
I look back at my own life. About forty years ago, I was reading an article by Brother Bob Mumford. Most of the younger generation may have never even heard of that brother, but there was a dear brother named Bob Mumford.
I read an article concerning how we are living stones. There was something within that which spoke to my heart: we were not merely saved to go to church. We were not saved merely for individual self. God has saved us and put His life within us as living stones to be built together.
That impacted me. I could not explain it. We made some changes in our lives, and people said, “Why are you doing this?”
I could not tell them why, but I had an inner sensing, knowing that this was the way we were supposed to go.
As the Lord captures and touches our hearts, there is this sensing of Him calling us in this hour. It comes down to this divine destiny that He has upon all of our hearts.
Have we had that touch? Do we have that sense of divine destiny within us?
When we speak about seeing Christ and knowing the reality of Him, there is a sense of being captured by Him, called apart unto Him, and able to follow Him.
This is what captured Moses at a young age. As he saw Him who was invisible, it led him to step out in faith in many wonderful ways.
When Moses came of age, he made a choice. He chose the reproach of Christ over all the riches and treasures of Egypt and this world.
Moses was about forty years old. Both Acts and Hebrews tell us this. He was not a naive youth making some flippant choice based merely upon emotional feeling.
No, he had been through some things. He had lived in the palace. He had received the education, training, and learning of Egypt. He was educated in these things, and he was mighty in words.
The Holy Spirit, when He describes Moses, is not merely trying to fluff things up. He is speaking accurately. Moses was a powerful man in words, and he was a great military leader—mighty in deeds.
If you ever read Josephus concerning the life of Moses, there was one military expedition in which Moses won great honor. According to Josephus, he led the troops through unbelievable terrain, defeated the enemy, caught them off guard, and won a great victory for Egypt when it was about to be overwhelmed.
Moses became a national hero. I do not know how much Josephus or Jewish historians may have amplified that, but Josephus is generally referred to as a reliable source, so we take it for what it is worth.
In any case, this shows us the stature Moses had. In many ways, we can say that Moses quite literally had the whole world before him.
He could possibly have become Pharaoh. He was the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. We do not know about the other sons in that line, but he could possibly have become Pharaoh, king of all Egypt.
He literally had everything at his fingertips. There was nothing he wanted that he could not have.
But there was something within him that, in spite of all of that, could not find peace. There was a disquiet within him. He had this divine sense within him that would not allow him to simply go on.
There came a time in his life—God’s appointed time—when he had to make a choice. That implanted Word his mother had put there remained through all the testing and trial.
Moses knew his time had come. Hebrews 11:26 says that he “considered” it. This was a very deliberate choice. Some translations say that he was “esteeming” the reproach of Christ. It was thought out; it was not impulsive.
On the one hand, Moses had all the prestige, position, and everything he could want in Egypt. On the other hand, he had the reproaches of Christ, seeing how all his brethren were being mistreated.
And he said, “This is of more value.”
Using a New Testament term, Moses was a fool for Christ in the eyes of the world. In the eyes of God, he was becoming that servant of God, that man of God.
It was because he saw Him who was invisible, and that vision held him. He did not really know what was before him at that time. He did not know all that was involved or what was going to happen. But he knew there was One who would keep him through it, and he knew he had been called to it.
Praise God, it was a costly choice. It cost Moses his life—his soul life. That dividing of soul and spirit, that work of the cross, is what we begin to see working in Moses.
When that choice came, and Moses went to deliver his people, it did not go quite as he thought it would.
He thought, “I will go down and deliver the people. They will see that I am the ruler, and they will come and vote for me, and we will put this other person out.”
But no.
He went down one day and saw the Egyptian and the Hebrew fighting. In his own might, he killed the Egyptian, hid him away to the side, and went back up to the palace.
The next day, he returned and saw two of his brethren fighting with one another. He was mighty in words, so he tried to bring peace among them.
They said, “Who are you? Who made you ruler? Are you going to kill me as you killed that one?”
Moses trembled. This brave warrior said, “Oh my, I have been found out.” He was terrified of the king and fled immediately into the wilderness of Midian.
His first step in serving the Lord was a total disaster. There are probably some of us in this room who can say, “Amen, we understand what Moses went through.”
Some of those first steps we took, we botched them up pretty good. We thought we were doing God such a great service, and we fell flat on our face.
But praise God, He had a call upon the life of Moses, just as He has a call upon each and every one of us.
It was a total disaster because Moses tried to do everything in his own natural strength. But as he spent forty years in the wilderness, he was unlearning the things of the world and learning the things of the Lord.
Moses made the right choice. He chose God. He simply went about it the wrong way.
It is like the time when David, after becoming king, wanted to bring the ark to Jerusalem. At first, he did it his way, and it cost Uzzah his life. David became offended and upset. But then David inquired of the Lord and found how to do it God’s way.
David was well-intended. Moses was well-intended. So many of our actions can be well-intended, but they are simply done in the uncrucified flesh. They do not bear the fruit that the Lord deserves.
Moses made this choice, and whenever we make a choice, there are always two sides to it. In a choice, you are always saying yes to one thing and no to something else.
Moses was saying no to the world, and he was saying yes to the Lord. No to the things of this world; yes to the things of the Lord.
It was an absolute choice that he made—an absolute choice for the Lord. This is what cost him so much.
Brothers and sisters, when the Lord is calling us into following Him and knowing Him in this greater, fuller way, there is an absoluteness in the call that He has upon our lives.
We are living in days of relativity. We are living in days of political correctness, when you cannot be too absolute about anything.
But the call God has upon us is an absolute call. He can make that absolute call because He says, “Behold My Son upon the cross. Look at the price He has paid and the provision He has made.”
Moses was able to make that absolute choice because he had seen Him who was invisible.
Oftentimes, in these days of relativity, we can make a relative choice. We might say no to the world, but we do not fully say yes to the Lord. There are still some things we want to do.
Or we can do it the other way: we can say yes to the Lord, but not fully no to the world.
We are the only ones we are deceiving. This is what Scripture calls being double-minded, a carnal, fleshly Christian. We are abusing the grace of God and trying to play both sides of the fence.
Instead of there being just two choices—the world and the Lord—we like to add a third choice: both of the above.
Do you not like those multiple-choice questions that say, “All of the above”? You do not know, so you try that one.
But we say, “Yes, we want all of the above. We want to enjoy the things of this world, but we also know that we should follow the Lord.” We just end up making a mess of our lives, and we are only kidding ourselves.
Moses had been touched in such a way that there was an absoluteness in his choice. The love of the Lord had caught him in such a way that he knew he had to say fully no to the world.
Moses knew the power of the world. He had been in it, and he knew the stronghold and strength it had upon him.
Think about what the apostle John wrote in his first epistle when we are called not to love the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
Moses knew what those were. He had the passing pleasures of sin available to him. He saw all those riches—the lust of the eyes. He had prestige and position—the pride of life. Yet he said no to all of that. He said, “This is not the Lord.”
How, in this day and time in which we are living, those same temptations are upon us. As Ecclesiastes says, there is nothing new under the sun.
There are those same things: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
We were driving here, and you see all the billboards from Atlantic City. If you come up from the south, you almost have to put blinders on. You do not want to look over there or look up at all that stuff. It is just drawing you.
It is like turning on the television—if you do that. Forgive me if you are a non-television person; sometimes I turn it on. You almost have to flip past the commercials all the time. You cannot watch that stuff. It is always there.
You pull up your computer, Google something, look at something, and all of a sudden, these ads and everything are trying to push in.
There is an absoluteness called for in this hour, or we suddenly get sucked into it.
We kid ourselves. One of the tragic things is that believers who have walked with the Lord a little while begin to think they can handle a little bit of evil.
“I am a strong enough Christian. This little evil, this little sin—I can handle it. It will not get me.”
Oh, pride goes before the fall. We are just kidding ourselves.
Satan is only looking to get a little one or two percent. He gets that hook in there, and he has a foothold that can grow.
That is why Moses knew he had to make an absolute, clear choice.
In these last days, as we see evil prevailing and growing more and more, we are going to have to make absolute choices that literally make us look like fools in the eyes of this world.
But we cannot compromise anymore. We cannot try to be relative Christians and be everybody’s friend. There is a truth in which we must walk. There is love and truth.
One thing that is popular in the world today is having a bucket list. I am not going to ask how many people in this room have a bucket list, but it is a term that has become popular recently.
It means you have a list of things you would like to do before you die—or kick the bucket.
The bucket list says, “I want to see this. I want to do this. I want to get this. I want to go there. I have not seen this. I have not been over there. I have not seen these waterfalls. I want to be able to do this.”
All the things we want to do.
I may surprise you, but Moses had a bucket list. David had a bucket list. Paul had a bucket list.
Do you know how many things were on that list? One thing.
One thing I desire. One thing I do: I press on that I may know Him.
Moses, even as we read in Hebrews 11:26, was looking to the reward. It is interesting that the Greek word translated “looking” is used only once in the entire New Testament. It means looking at one specific thing, excluding everything else—looking at one thing.
That is what Moses was doing. He was looking at one thing. There was one desire he had.
How many desires do we have? Is the Lord setting us free from them so that, as the psalmist said, we desire nothing but the Lord?
Oh, would we be brought to that place? It is a process. The Lord works it all out, and praise God for that.
Moses made this choice, and he saw that there was that one thing. He was looking for the reward. He was looking for the Lord and all of His precious and magnificent promises.
He was able to do this because he saw Him who was invisible, and that vision held him through it. It held him through forty years in the wilderness.
At the age of eighty, we have the story recorded of Moses’ encounter with the burning bush—the bush burning, yet not consumed.
This was a huge turning point in his life because he had been in the desert by himself, taking care of sheep for forty years. This man who had been the greatest man on earth next to Pharaoh was reduced to a nothing in the eyes of everybody, even in his own eyes.
When he came to that burning bush and had this living encounter with the Lord, this was the culmination—the climax, or, as Brother Kong used the term, the consummation—of forty years of the Lord dealing with him and working in him.
At this point, the Lord revealed Himself fully to Moses. Moses saw the bush, and the Lord said, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Moses was staggered. What he was experiencing was everything he had heard from his mother, everything he had sensed within himself, becoming reality. He saw the living God.
It was like Peter on the Day of Pentecost. People were going around saying, “What is this? What is that?” Peter, speaking of the prophet Joel, said, “This is that.”
Moses had a “this is that” experience. What had been prophesied by Joel became real at that point as they saw what God had done.
All Moses had experienced in the past, all that he had heard, all that his mother had put within him, and all the experiences he had through forty years in the wilderness—there was now a reality to it.
This is what it was about. It was no longer merely the God of his parents. It was his God. He was the living God.
We could go on and on about the lessons and truths seen in the burning bush, the rod, the staff, and the holy ground. But what was the main lesson we see at this point?
The main lesson was the working of the cross in Moses’ life.
In Egypt, Moses had learned all the ways of the world. He had learned to be independent, self-sufficient, self-reliant, and self-confident. He had all the wisdom of the world.
But Moses had to be emptied of all the ways of Egypt, all the ways of the world. That self-reliance and self-confidence had to be dealt with before God could truly use him.
Before God can truly use any of us, there is this working of the cross that must occur within our lives so that He receives the glory and honor due His name.
Moses unlearned all of his self-directed ways. He saw himself as a dried-up old thorn bush.
Praise God, Moses came to that point. He came from self-confidence and self-reliance—“I can be the deliverer of my brethren”—to seeing himself as a nothing, a dried-up old thorn bush.
Then God said, “Ah, now I can use you.”
May we be encouraged as we go along. As the Lord reveals Himself to us, there is purpose in view.
Moses truly learned God’s ways. He learned the all-sufficiency of the Lord and the greatness of the Lord.
There was now a great divide between the old man Moses and the man of God, the servant of God. That great divide was the working of the cross, which brought about such great deliverance for Moses.
This is a great lesson for us also.
People start talking about the cross, and we do not like it. It is not very popular. But actually, the cross is one of the greatest friends we have.
It sets us free from the tyranny of sin. It sets us free from bondage and all the things that are present. It sets us free from ourselves.
Praise God, would we see the cross as our friend in a fuller and greater way?
We have been speaking about Moses seeing the Lord, about absolute surrender and everything. But we have to remember this, because we can become discouraged: all this seeing and vision of the Lord is progressive.
It is not as though Moses had one revelation and that was it.
The tense of the phrase “seeing Him who is invisible” is continual. It is not a one-time seeing. It is continually seeing Him.
Throughout his life, Moses was continually seeing Him. It is progressive.
If we do not see the progressive nature of the Christian life, we can become frustrated. We can say, “Ah, I am never going to get anywhere. I am not going to be able to do this. I cannot do it. How can I do all this stuff?”
The enemy will accuse us in that way too: “Look at you. You have been a Christian so many years, and you are nowhere.”
But there is a progressiveness. There is a going on in the Lord day by day.
There is a wonderful proverb that speaks of this progressive nature:
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.—Proverbs 4:18
That is the path we are on. It shines brighter and brighter, and we see more and more of Him.
The Lord, in the Gospel of Mark, used the illustration of a corn stalk: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. There is a progressiveness in this life. There is growth in this life.
As we give ourselves to the Lord, many of us have probably experienced this. We felt that we gave absolute, total consecration to the Lord. Then a month later, the Lord said, “Oh, how about this?”
We realize, “Oh, I guess I did not realize that.”
We give as much as we know. We yield, but then the Holy Spirit continues His work.
If we really knew how bad we were, it is His mercy and love that He does not show us the full filth of ourselves all at one time. We would have a heart attack and just die.
But He is so gracious to us. Little by little, He works within us so that life can grow and we can experience more and more of Him.
This is why Paul testified, “I see in part.” If Paul saw only in part, when we think of all that he saw, what was he really saying?
He was saying, “I am beginning to see the unsearchableness of Christ, the vastness of Christ, and I just see in part.”
As he saw a little more, he said, “Wow, Christ is so much, but there is still so much more out there.”
That is the thing. We see in part, but there is so much more. There is a divine destiny, a divine calling within us, urging us on to know Him in that fuller and greater way.
After Moses had this encounter with the Lord, he no longer had confidence in himself or an ability in himself upon which to rely. He said, “Okay, I will go back. Who do I say sent me?”
The Lord said, “You shall say, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’”
Moses said, “Whoa, ‘I AM’ sent you.”
If you want to read some hilarious commentaries, look at people trying to describe the I AM. It is something you cannot describe, but in spite of that, man tries to describe it. We have been trying for thousands of years.
When we think of the I AM, we are thinking of that majestic One, that all-comprehensive name of our Lord—that eternal name.
It is eternal, but it is also the ever-present I AM.
The I AM—fill in the blank for whatever situation we are in—the I AM is with us.
Just as the I AM was with Moses, the I AM is not only with us today; the I AM is in us. There is a life within us desiring to come forth and show the excellency of the I AM to this world in this day and time.
Are we allowing it to come forth?
We may begin by knowing that the I AM is the God of salvation. We know the I AM is our salvation, our justification, and our forgiveness.
Every day, as we go on in this Christian life, we discover more and more of the I AM. There is so much more to discover.
Brothers and sisters, if we went around this room and asked each one to share an aspect of the I AM, we could probably do so without even having a duplicate.
He reveals Himself in so many wonderful ways to us, and He desires to do that in an even greater way in these last hours.
As Moses goes back to Egypt, he is no longer going back in self-confidence. He is going back in the confidence of the Lord.
There is one thing about vision, brothers and sisters: vision gives courage.
Moses had courage because it was a brave thing, in faith, to return to Egypt. He knew the power of Pharaoh. Even though the Pharaoh who had wanted to kill him was no longer there, Moses knew the system. He knew the power of the man he was going to confront.
But that vision gave courage.
Vision overcomes fear. Vision overcomes anxiety. Vision overcomes terror.
If we are seeing Him and allowing the I AM to be reality within us, there is a strength we have.
I am sure we have many testimonies here of those who felt totally inadequate in a situation, totally petrified and overwhelmed, but by the grace of God, the I AM came through and met them in that situation.
You look back and say, “Whoa, how did I ever do that?” And you know you cannot take any credit for it.
Sometimes we go through situations, and we are good enough Christians to know not to take credit. We give credit to the Lord, but we phrase it in such a way that we get a little credit. We say, “I was so good that I let the Lord do this.”
No. When you have gone through one of these I AM situations, where He has brought you through something, you are on your knees. You are testifying. You are looking up and worshiping Him.
It is a worshipful testimony of the greatness of Who He is.
This is the cross that had worked within Moses’ life. The Lord had dealt with him so that he was no longer relying upon all his old abilities and natural strengths.
It is a big lesson in life to learn to have even our natural abilities—our God-given abilities—dealt with in life.
Moses did not suddenly unlearn everything he had learned in Egypt. He did not say, “Okay, I am going to forget all the physics. I am going to forget all this and all that.”
No. What he was unlearning was the ways of Egypt.
He had a new process in life: coming through the cross, with the Lord as the processor in his life, not the old man being the CPU directing everything.
There was a new way of processing and a new perspective.
We see many dear brethren whom the Lord has gifted in different ways. We all have to put everything at the foot of the cross.
I know dear ones who, over the years, were very gifted in music before they were saved. Sometimes the Lord says, “No, do not pick that back up.” They may play on their own, but otherwise they do not use it anymore.
Others, after they have laid it down, the Lord says, “Okay, take that back up.” But what you notice is that there is a new tune. There is a new tone to that music.
I do not want to get into the whole Christian music scene. I am not talking about that. I am speaking of those who have genuinely laid it down, and the Lord has raised it back up.
Others can be very eloquent. Sometimes the Lord says, “No, I do not want you to be speaking.” Other times, He says yes, but it comes through the cross.
Moses had an experience of this when he built the tabernacle.
Moses had all the learning of Egypt. One of the things he would have learned was architectural technique. Egypt still has architectural wonders. The pyramids are still standing in a magnificent way, and they display the remarkable design and construction of that civilization.
What did the Lord have Moses build?
A little tent covered with skins—not very appealing, just a little rectangle.
If you ever go to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, there is a scale replica of the tabernacle there. The first time I saw it, I was amazed at how little it was.
This great man Moses did not rely on his natural abilities there. I am sure Moses was human, and perhaps at times he thought, “Maybe we could do this. What if we used this design on the outside? It would be more attractive.”
“Instead of these old porpoise skins, which look so blah, do You not want something attractive so that people will be drawn to You, Lord? We could dress it up. We could put flashing lights around the four corners, have them synchronized, have colors changing, put candles outside for mood and music, and set the atmosphere.”
But the Lord said, “Build it My way.”
The wonderful thing is that it is recorded over and over in Scripture concerning Moses: he built according to the pattern. He was obedient to everything the Lord said to him.
He denied himself and was faithful in everything the Lord had called him to do.
Moses had to go back to Egypt. After the Lord had dealt with him, he went back the second time to confront Pharaoh.
As the Lord performed all those signs and wonders, Moses led the people out. This time, he left not fearing the wrath of the king.
The first time, he fled for his life because he feared the wrath of the king. The second time, in faith, he left not fearing the wrath of the king.
That is where Hebrews says that he endured as seeing Him who was invisible.
As Moses led those people through the wilderness for forty years, this was a great endurance for him. There was great trial: steadfastly and patiently putting up with all the grumbling, complaining, and rebellion.
The people were unhappy about food, unhappy about water, unhappy about this and that—whatever they were complaining about.
It even came to the point where God wanted to destroy them, and Moses said, “No, I know Your heart, Lord. I know You have a purpose for this people.”
Moses interceded for them.
Moses was even able to endure in times of his own failure, when he was told, “No, you cannot go into the promised land.”
He asked the Lord again, “Remember You told me that? Can I go in?”
The answer was, “No. You are not going in.”
He had that desire, but this Moses was incredible. We see all that God did in this man and his wonderful faithfulness.
It was simply because he saw Him who was invisible.
There is power in seeing the Lord. There is power in being captured by Him and knowing Him in this fuller and greater way.
Throughout that time in the wilderness with the people of Israel, Moses had many conversations with the Lord. Scripture says that the Lord would speak with Moses face to face.
But probably the most memorable encounter was that time on the mountain, when Moses went up to the mount.
During that time, two things were revealed to him: the Ten Commandments—or, as it says in the original, the ten words—and the pattern of the tabernacle.
What the Lord was showing Moses was His very heart. He was showing him the heart of His Word, and He was showing him His heart to have a dwelling place among the people of God.
The psalmist records that the Lord made His ways known to Moses. The people saw only the outward acts. Moses saw the ways. Moses saw the heart of God.
In all that the Lord showed Moses, He showed him a fullness of His heart and a fullness of all that He desired.
One way we can relate to this is through what John testifies concerning why he was on the isle of Patmos. John was there because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
What did the Lord show Moses on the mount? He showed Moses the Word of God. He showed Moses the testimony—a testimony that speaks of Christ.
That was the fuller revelation, the coming into seeing more and more of all that God had for him.
The Lord was not holding anything back. Praise God, Moses was so faithful in all the house.
There was this one who had so much natural ability. He went that way, allowed the Lord to bring him to nothing, and then, by the grace of God, responded in obedience. The Lord raised him up to one of the highest positions there is: the servant of God.
Praise God, as I stand here, I look out upon all the servants of God, because He has called each and every one of us.
Moses is not a unique example. Moses is an example for each and every one of us, showing how God desires to work His life of reality within us.
He wants to transform us and conform us into that image, so that we can be the people He has called us to be in this last hour. We can be light in a time of darkness.
Have we seen the Word? Have we seen the reality of the living Word? Have we seen the testimony of Jesus? Has it come into our hearts in a way that encourages us to press on into fullness?
We do not have time tonight, but if you look at the writings of Moses at the end of his life—Deuteronomy 32 and 33, the song and blessings of Moses—there are beautiful descriptions of who the Lord is.
Think about Psalm 90 and Psalm 91: the dwelling, the abiding, the shelter of the Most High. That is Moses. That is the reality of how he knew the Lord.
There is one verse in Deuteronomy 32:4 that really captured my heart, considering everything Moses had been through.
For I proclaim the name of the Lord;
ascribe greatness to our God!The Rock! His work is perfect,
for all His ways are just;
a God of faithfulness and without injustice,
righteous and upright is He.—Deuteronomy 32:3-4
This is the man whom the Lord told, “No, you cannot go into the land.”
Yet his testimony at the end of his life was, “His work is perfect. All His ways are just.”
That is a working of reality. Moses did not say, “Everything is perfect except for me, because He would not let me go in.”
He was not thinking of himself. He realized that the Lord is just. He is a God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.
Moses lived one hundred twenty years. The first eighty years were not necessarily the way you would choose to live if you had a heart for the Lord, but this was the way God had Moses.
He had Moses in Egypt. From his very birth, He gave him parents who loved and cared for him and put the Word in his heart. The Lord kept him through the time in Egypt, through the time in Midian, and through the time in the wilderness.
Moses was able to testify to the greatness of our Lord. We know that in the New Testament Moses finally gets to come into the land on the mount of transfiguration, but we will not go there.
Look at the end of Moses’ life. It is a wonderful testimony of what the Lord writes about him.
Moses was one who had been captured because the reality of the Lord held him, and he continued to press on.
Let us look at Deuteronomy 34, beginning in verse 5.
So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.
And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows his burial place to this day.
Although Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated.
—Deuteronomy 34:5-7
Brothers and sisters, I do not think this is speaking merely of Moses’ physical condition. It may be; his eyes may still have been good and all that.
But I think, even more, the Lord is speaking of his spiritual condition.
Moses had that eye of vision—the vision of the Lord and His purpose—and it had not abated at all.
Remember the story of young Samuel when he was with Eli. It says that Eli’s eyes were dim. The spiritual condition was pretty low.
But here was Moses: his eyes were bright. He still had a clear vision of what was on God’s heart and what God was doing.
His vigor had not abated. He had strength and zeal to accomplish God’s purpose and to be faithful all the way to the end.
What a testimony.
At times, as we get a little older, the world thinks in terms of retirement. We are blessed in Richmond to have a brother who is one hundred one years old. His eye is not dim, and his strength has not abated. He will not let any of us complain about getting old or tired.
Anytime we mention it, he just kind of looks down at us. He will get me after the meeting, do not worry.
Praise God for these examples, these testimonies of those who are still pressing on in clarity—still pressing on, so that we can look to them and see.
We have these ones in Scripture. We have ones who have gone before us. Praise God, this is what we see in Moses.
How was Moses able to endure all the way to the end? Because he saw Him who was invisible, and he was captured by that.
He knew Him. He knew His heart—His heart for His people and for a dwelling place. He followed Him fully and was faithful all his life.
May we be true in our generation. The Lord has us here for such a time as this.
As we look back at Moses’ life, we see that his parents knew the Word of God. They knew the signs of the times. They prepared their child.
There was Daniel. He knew the Word of God. He knew the signs of the times. He made preparation during that time.
Think of John the Baptist. He knew the Word of God. He knew the times. He prepared the way for the Lord.
Today, brothers and sisters, I believe in a general way we can say that we know the Word of God: our Lord is returning. We can see the signs of the times.
The challenge before us is this: are we making preparation?
It is sad that, in the days in which we are living, everything gets so complicated. But that is one of the things I love about this conference.
When we say, “Oh, I have got to get prepared. I have got to do this. I have got to do that,” we need to remember that there is a simplicity that has been lost within Christianity.
How can we prepare? How can we really get ready?
Brothers and sisters, it is very simple. It is the theme we have: Christ our vision—seeing Him, knowing Him, following Him in a fresh reality.
That is why that hymn really touched my heart. It was that prayer, as this brother wrote:
Lord, Thou hast made Thyself to me
A living bright reality;
More present to faith’s vision keen
Than any earthly object seen;
More dear, more intimately nigh
Than even the closest earthly tie.
Lord, make Thyself a living, bright reality to each one of us in these days together. Amen.