<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

Brian Hindman

The Great I Am

Well, our subject this morning, somewhat with our theme overall for today of creation, we're going to be looking at the great I Am.

Well, let's bow our heads and just seek the Lord and then we'll dive into our Bibles.

My Father in Heaven, thank you so much again for the Sabbath.

Thank you for the baptism that we have seen today already.

And we just pray, Lord, that you would come into our hearts and minds through your Word and the agency of the Holy Spirit, that we would receive the word, the message you have for us, and we would be transformed by it.

We don't want to just be informed, but we want to be transformed as you desire each 1 of us to be.

And so bless us now, and we just invite your presence here, and we ask it all in the precious name of Jesus, amen.

In fact, if you go looking, there's a dozen, there's 50, there's 100.

I found 1 website that even said and had listed 950 names for God.

So if you're interested, I can share it with you.

But there's something significant this morning about I am.

Something significant to you and I as we study our Bibles today.

So we're gonna be looking at that particular name and as we dive right in to our Bibles today, I've got lots of verses we'll have most of them on the screen.

But let's go to Revelation chapter 14, a chapter we're familiar with quite a bit as Seventh-day Adventist and verse 1.

And we read there, John says, and I looked and lo, a lamb stood on the Mount Zion.

144, 000 having his father's name written where?

It is the seat of decision-making power, the will, our choices are made in our foreheads, our frontal lobe where I choose and decide whatever I choose.

So the Father's name, and this is the 144, 000, correct?

Now we're going to just skip back a few chapters to Revelation 7 and it's the same group of people the hundred 44000 and Notice this description about them describing the same class hundred 44000 John says and after these things I saw 4 angels standing on the 4 corners of the earth holding the 4 winds of the earth that the wind should not blow on the earth nor on the sea nor on any tree and I saw another angel ascending from the east having what having the seal of the living God and he cried with the loud voice to the 4 angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea and then what did this angel that ascended from the east say hurt not the earth neither the sea nor the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God, where?

Same location as the name of God in Revelation 14, in their foreheads.

And just to be clear, in the context that we're talking about the same class, in verse 4, John says, and I heard the number of them which were sealed, and there were sealed and hundred and forty-four thousand.

And so we read those 2 verses just to make the clear connection that God's name and God's seal are connected together.

You see that there's a connection when you have the name of God in your forehead and then you also have the seal of God in your forehead?

So the 144, 000 have 2 things as described in scripture.

Number 1, the name of God and then also the seal of God.

So if we can accurately determine and understand the name of God, it'll also give us a clear picture of the seal of God, the name and the seal being closely related together.

Now, from Revelation, we jump all the way back to Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus chapter 3 and the story of Moses and the burning bush.

Moses, you recall, grew up the son of Pharaoh's daughter in Egypt after being rescued there from a basket in the bulrushes and after killing an Egyptian and fleeing for his life, he spent 40 years tending sheep out in the wilderness, tending sheep for his father-in-law, Jethro.

And it was while he was tending sheep 1 day as he was walking along that he noticed a bush that was burning and it was not being consumed.

And so, very interesting, of course we know this is none other than God who condescended to meet Moses here in such a humble manner.

Yes, that's an easy question, easy response.

Yes, he is humble when Jesus came to this earth.

He didn't come as a hulking, muscle-bound, great, conquering champion or king.

Outwardly, He came as a suffering servant.

But at any rate, this lowly bush, and it's at this point where God speaks to Moses and tells him that he is to be the deliverer of God's people.

So now we pick up in verse 13 and 14, our scripture reading, where Moses, after being told by God, you are to go and lead out my people Moses was thinking he was trained in the military he was trained as a general I am going to be the head of the armies of Israel I'll organize into companies and and battalions and we'll go out and fight you know military might to military might and And Moses was as a general par excellence.

He was trained as a general, but 40 years of tending sheep, God had another purpose for him to learn something else.

And so Moses asked the question, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, you've called me to go and deliver them, what, you know, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, what is his name?

That is, the children of Israel, as he goes back to rescue them.

Moses is asking God, what shall I say to them?

That name actually is full of meaning and significance we'll find today.

And he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you.

And then he continues on in verse 15, and God said, moreover unto Moses, this is interesting, until reading and studying this week, I had not picked up on this phrase that I have highlighted and underlined, not picked up on this before when I'd read this.

God said, moreover unto Moses, thus Thou shalt 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 has sent me unto you this is my name how long forever and this is my what is the word memorial unto all generations do you see the connection God's name is a memorial as describing it to Moses.

So His name again, I Am That I Am, but I want you to notice that I Am That I Am is really saying I am who I am.

I am who I am, and that actually tells us 2 things, 2 very important things.

Number 1, I am, that tells us God is, that He exists.

And we understand very clearly He has an eternal existence in eternity past, He has an eternal existence in eternity future, eternal existence, but that, brothers and sisters, is not enough information for us to know about God.

This is the name you shall tell unto the children of Israel.

And so, brothers and sisters, I would tell you or submit to you, until we know who he is, we do not really know God.

It's not enough just to know there's an eternal existent being that's out there somewhere in the vast universe that existed from all times.

He is explaining in his name, I want you to know more about me.

And so to be clear, Jesus picks up on this same language in the New Testament.

It's Jesus is speaking to Moses in the burning bush.

And you might say, well, how do you know?

Well, I think it's clear as Jesus picks up this same reference in John 8, he was being brutally questioned and contradicted by the scribes and Pharisees.

And So Jesus reaches a point in discussion with them and he says unto them verily verily I say unto you before Abraham was I Am and this is Jesus speaking to them picking up the name I Am from where it was mentioned previously in Exodus.

And so did they understand what Jesus was saying?

They did because look at verse 59, then took they up stones to cast at him.

Because stoning was the death for blasphemy.

Anyone that would claim to be God in a blasphemous way, but was Jesus God?

Yes, so this is not blasphemy, but nonetheless, he took up that form, that name of I Am, and so we're talking about Jesus today.

Friends, God wants us to believe in more than just His existence.

More than just His existence, and we pick up this same point that God's name carries with it 2 things.

And I hope you're following the thought process this morning because we're actually going somewhere very significant.

Hebrews 11 verse 6 says, picking up the same idea, 2 pieces of the name of God, but without faith it is impossible to please Him, speaking of God, For he or she that comes to God must believe, number 1, that he is, and number 2, that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

What is the reward for those who seek God?

We read about that in Genesis 12, where God said to Abraham, I am thy great and exceeding reward.

Back to Menu

The Great I Am

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Sound Doctrine