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Sermon #2281 Miscellaneous Sermons

Title: “What is His Name?”

Text: Exodus 3:13-18

Subject: The Name of Our God and Savior

Date: Tuesday Evening — August 2, 2016

Readings: Mark Henson and Larry Brown

Introduction:

Throughout the Word of God names were given to children that had special meaning and significance. Sometimes a person’s name would be changed or a name would be ascribed to him, either by God or by someone else, indicating radical change of life. Here are some examples:

Adam means “red earth,” indicating his being created by God from the dust of the earth.
Jacob means “cheat, supplanter;” but God changed his name to Israel, which means “prince with God.”
Moses means “drawn forth.” He was named that because Pharaoh’s daughter drew him out of the water.

In the Bible, the name given to a person said something about that person.

When the Lord Jesus appeared to Moses in the burning bush and sent him to deliver Israel, Moses knew that the children of Israel would require him to tell them exactly who sent him to deliver them, to tell them his name, identifying his distinct character as God. So Moses asked the Lord to show him his distinct name, the name by which he distinguishes himself from all others, by which especially distinguished himself from the gods of the Egyptians (Exodus 3:13).

(Exodus 3:13) “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?”

In verse 14, the Lord Jesus, our great God, identified his distinct character as God, the eternal, self-existent, self-sufficient “I AM.”

(Exodus 3:14) “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”

Then, in verse 15, he told Moses his name.

(Exodus 3:15) “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 for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.”

Once they knew his name, the Lord told Moses, they would trust him and worship him (vv. 16-18).

(Exodus 3:16-18) “Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt: (17) And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. (18) And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.”

The Basis of Faith

The whole basis of our faith in Christ is his name. It is written, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” We call upon people everywhere to trust and worship Christ our God. In all things, I say to you and to myself, trust him. I call upon my own heart and yours, saying, trust Christ. But I know that no one can trust him who they do not know. You cannot trust an unknown God. So, I want to tell you who he is. — “What is his name?” That is the question that our God and Savior answers in Exodus 3:15, that we might trust him.

· First, the Lord Jesus here tells us, “The Lord God” (Jehovah-Elohim — Jehovah-God — Jehovah to be Worshipped — Jehovah who Rules) is my name forever.”

· Second, he identifies himself as our covenant God and Savior, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

· Then, he says, “This is my memorial unto all generations.” That is to say, “This is the name by which I shall be known, worshipped, trusted and remembered forever.”

You might ask, “Bro. Don, How important is it for us to know the Savior’s name?” I am glad you ask. It is only as we know his name that we trust and worship him.

(Psalms 9:10) “And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.”

(Proverbs 18:10) “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.”

My Reasons

I have two reasons for preaching this message. First and foremost, I want to exalt, magnify, extol, honor, praise, and glorify the name of the Lord our God. In the house of God, we must honor God, nothing and no one else.

I have every reason to magnify the name of God before you. With the Psalmist, my heart is resolved — “I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. For great is thy mercy toward me: and Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell” (Psalm 86:12-13).

God’s great mercy toward me compels me to magnify his name alone. As I think of the mercies of the Lord, my heart cries, “not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake” (Psalm 115:1). God’s mercy toward us is great!

Eternal, Covenant Mercy.
Immutable, Electing Mercy.
Redeeming, Saving Mercy.
Preserving, Keeping Mercy.
Daily, Providential Mercy.

Truly, his mercies are great! — “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed” (Lamentations 3:22). Therefore, “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.” And I say, to you who know my God, “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together” (Psalm 34:1-3).

That is my first motive in preaching this message. I want to exalt and magnify the name of our great God. Second, I want you to trust the Lord. The surest way I know to persuade you to trust him is simply to tell you who he is. If, by the power and grace of God the Holy Ghost, I can show you who he is, I am confident that you will trust him. If you knew my God, you would trust him. All who ever knew him trusted him. — “This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). — “They that know thy name will put their trust in thee” (Psalm 9:10).

His Name

Our God reveals himself by many, many names in Holy Scripture. But his most famous name, his redemptive, covenant name is Jehovah. This is the name of the great I Am, the name of him who alone is the necessary and self-existent Being. The name, Jehovah, implies God’s eternality. It comes from a root word which signifies “to be.” Jehovah is, God who is, who was, and who is to come (Revelation 1:4). This is God’s personal, proper, and incommunicable name. — “That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the Most High over all the earth” (Psalm 83:18). Other names of God are sometimes applied to creatures, but Jehovah is used exclusively to speak of the true and living God.

This name, Jehovah, is frequently used as a compound with other words to set forth specific aspects of our Savior’s character and work as our God and our Savior in meeting the needs of his elect. There are fifteen of these Jehovah titles in the Scriptures. Let’s look at each of them briefly.

1. (Genesis 22 :14) — JEHOVAH-JIREH — “The Lord will provide.” — “And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.”

This name by which Abraham taught Isaac to worship God means, “The Lord will see. The Lord will provide. And the Lord will be see in the provision he gives.” Obviously, Abraham was talking about God’s manifold and gracious providential provisions for his elect, by which he shows himself gracious, wise, and good. But it is equally obvious that Abraham’s words of instruction were prophetic, speaking of God great provision of grace in the sacrifice of his darling Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). In the substitutionary, sin-atoning sacrifice of Christ the Lord God shines forth in all his glory as “a just God and a Savior”

2. (Exodus 15:26) — JEHOVAH-RAPHA — “The Lord that healeth thee.” — “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” The Lord Jesus Christ is the Great Physician, the Lord our Healer. — “With his stripes we are healed!” He is the Healer of our sicknesses, the Healer of our troubles, and the Healer of our souls.

3. (Exodus 17:15) — JEHOVAH-NISSI — “The Lord our Banner.” — “And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi.” Our dear Savior is our Ensign, the rallying point of his people, the Banner lifted up for the gathering of his people (Isaiah 11:10).

(Isaiah 11:10) “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.”

4. (Exodus 20:2, 5, 7) — JEHOVAH-ELOHEKA — “The Lord thy God.”

(Exodus 20:2) “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

(Exodus 20:5-7) “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; (6) And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (7) Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”

5. (Exodus 31:13) — JEHOVAH-M’KADDESH — “The Lord which doth sanctify you.” — “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” — “And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the Lord which sanctify you” (Leviticus 20:8).

By the Decree of God our Father (Jude 1:1)
By the Blood of Christ our Redeemer (Hebrews 10:10)
By the Spirit of God our Comforter (1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Thessalonians 2:13)

6. (Judges 6:24) — JEHOVAH-SHALOM — “The Lord our Peace.” — “Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah-shalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites” — Christ is our Peace! He is our peace with God. He is our peace with one another. And he is our peace within.

7. (1 Samuel 1:3) — JEHOVAH-TSEBAHOTH — “The Lord of Hosts” — “And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there.”

(Romans 9:29) “And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.”

(James 5:4) “Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.”

This name is expressive of God’s sovereign dominion and power over all his creatures. The Lord of Hosts has “his way in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, what doest thou?”

“Did we in our own strength confide,

Our striving would be losing,

Were not the right Man on our side,

The Man of God’s own choosing.

Dost ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is He—

Lord Sabaoth His name,

From age to age the same—

And He must win the battle!”

8. (Psalm 7:17) — JEHOVAH-HELEYON — “The Lord Most High.” — “I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.” — “For the Lord Most High is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth” (Psalm 47:2). — “For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods” (Psalm 97:9). — We have every reason to pray and trust our God with complete confidence, for he alone is Governor of the universe.

9. (Psalm 23:1) — JEHOVAH-RA-AH — “The Lord my Shepherd.” — “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

The Good Shepherd who died for us (John 10:11, 15)..
The Great Shepherd who rules for us (Hebrews 13:20).
The Chief Shepherd who is coming for us (1 Peter 5:4).

10.(Psalm 95:6) — JEHOVAH-HOSEENU — “ The Lord our Maker.” — “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.”

He made us.
He made us for himself.
He made us his people.
He made us new in Christ.

11.(Psalm 99:5, 7-8) — JEHOVAH-ELOHEENU — “The Lord our God.” — He who is Jehovah, the self-existent, eternal God of all grace is our God, because he made himself of God and made us his people.

(Psalms 99:5-8) “Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy. (6) Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name; they called upon the LORD, and he answered them. (7) He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them. (8) Thou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.”

12.(Jeremiah 23:6) — JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU — “The Lord our Righteousness.” — “In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

· Christ is our righteousness in justification.

· Christ is our righteousness in sanctification.

· And we are made the righteousness of God in him.

I told you in the beginning of this message that the name Jehovah is always restricted to God, that none are ever called by that name except our great God. But there is an exception in Jeremiah 33:16. Here, all God’s elect are called by the very same name as God our Savior, Jehovah-tsidkenu, The Lord our Righteousness. — Oh, what a wonder! Our union with Christ is mystical; but it is real! We are one with God our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, our God-man Mediator!

(Jeremiah 33:16) “In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.”

13.(Ezekiel 48:35) — JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH — “The Lord is there.” — “It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there” (Ezekiel 48 :35). — Our Savior’s name is Immanuel, God with us!

(Philippians 4:4-6) “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. (5) Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. (6) Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

14.(Zechariah 14:5) — JEHOVAH-ELOHAY — “The Lord my God.” — “And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee”.

Zechariah tells us that this great day of God’s grace, flowing to sinners far exceeds the glory that appeared upon Mount Sinai, at the giving of the law, when the mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs (Psalm 114:6). So terrible was that sight, that Moses said, “I exceedingly fear and quake” (Hebrews 12:21).

The Lord Jesus Christ, our great Josiah, has taken away both the curse of Sinai’s law and the corruptions of his people by his finished work of redemption. By coming to the earth in our nature, obeying all the will of God, dying as our Substitute, and ascending from the Mount, he has split open the mountain where our offenses abounded and created the mighty river of mercy and grace for our souls in “the valley of the mountains!” — Let the sweet tidings of grace vibrate through the earth! Because Christ has come and finished his work, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved!”

Yet, Zechariah’s vision reaches even further. It reaches to that day when our Savior shall appear in his glory, descending again to the earth with all his saints (Acts 1:9-12; Jude 14-15; Job 19:25-27). — This is Jehovah-elohay-The Lord my God!

15.(Matthew 1:21) — Jehovah-Jesus — “The Lord will save.” — “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”

He who is the incarnate God has a people in this world. They were his people long before he came into the world. These people were given to him in eternity by his Father. He came here specifically to save his people; and save them he shall. — Every one of them!

· By Redemption.

· By Regeneration.

· By Resurrection.

God’s glorious redemptive name is “JEHOVAH.” The word “Jehovah” means “Savior” or “Deliverer” (Exodus 6:3). God in Christ is God mighty to save. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal God of salvation, redemption, and deliverance. He is able to save unto the uttermost all who come to God by him.

May God the Holy Spirit give you grace to believe on his name. — “For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” — As many as receive him, to them he has given power to become the sons of God, “even to them that believe on his name.”

If ever you come to know his name, you will sing with us, “Because of the savour of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured forth” (Song of Solomon 1:3). When you are made to know your loathsomeness, and are made to see the greatness, glory, and grace of our Triune God in Christ, his great and glorious name will be to you more fragrant than all the costly perfume of the sanctuary. Then you shall enter into the enjoyment of all the constellation of the names of Jehovah-Jesus by which the prophet Isaiah describes him. — "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace!”

There is infinite fulness in him, whose name is Jehovah!

· All the Fulness of the Godhead

· All the Fulness of Grace

· All the Fulness of All Things

“This glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD” (Deuteronomy 28:58) is not to be taken in vain, used in common speech, or spoken with any levity. — “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who taketh his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7). He who sent redemption to his people and commanded his covenant forever is to be reverenced by us. — “Holy and reverend is his name” (Psalm 111:9). Let us ever extol, honor, praise, and magnify the name of the Lord our God. — “I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell” (Psalm 86:12-13). — “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake” (Psalm 115:1). Soon, all men shall praise his name (Philippians 2:9-11).

(Philippians 2:9-11) "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: (10) That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; (11) And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Amen.

Don Fortner

Pastor Fortner’s