Wholly Holy (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2 verse 5 where the

Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Mike Abendroth here. You know what? And I do not have any

Pete�s Coffee. I don�t have any Monster drinks here, Red Bull. I have a Vitamin Water Zero.

A Kai Blueberry Pomegranate, flavored plus other natural flavors.

And so, remember that old show that talked about natural flavors are made artificially in that plant in New Jersey.

But since it�s apple, it�s a natural flavor, if you could artificially make that. Now, maybe

Vitamin Water people don�t do that, but that�s usually the little con game. This is 2014

Glacieu. I don�t know. It�s made with Truvia. So, see? We are down with Truvia here at No Compromise Radio.

I also have some bottled water here. Unless you�re in a country where there�s bad water.

What a farce all that is. Bottled water. If I only could have come up with that, I would not have to have the beg -a -thon.

We�re $2 .2 million in debt. It�s that time of year again. Isn�t it always that time of year? The crass send me money.

Now, I guess ministries aren�t really a person unless it�s a person.

But I mean, it�d be hard for me to get on the radio and say, �By the way, could you please send me money ?�

Now I will make exceptions probably over time. I could think of exceptions in the future if I had a child and they needed some bone marrow transplant or something and my insurance didn�t cover it.

I ain�t too proud to beg, I believe the temptations said before Mick Jagger did.

Anyway, so what are we doing here on No Compromise Radio? Just a few things. The Romans Commentary is out.

Spiritual Revival for the Soul is the subtitle. Discovering Romans, S. Lewis Johnson, Jr.

I�m on a personal crusade to have S. Lewis Johnson ministry expand, especially with younger folks and the radio audience, because he was raised up by the

Lord and he was determined to be Christ -centered and he was intentional with his biblical preaching, his exposition, just great stuff.

I love Lewis all the more because when you talk to his daughter, for instance, Grace, Grace Monroe, you will find that Lewis, far from a perfect man, tried to live out what he taught and the stories of his godliness that she let me in on in our private conversations are to quote

Englishmen, brilliant. So, pleasure. On No Compromise Radio, today we�re continuing our series about Exodus Chapter 3 and the holiness of God, because how do you grasp sin and its full effects?

Remember the old Carl Menninger book, probably 20, 30, 40 years old, �Whatever Happened to Sin ?�

We have a secular frank even asking the question, �So what�s happened to sin these days ?�

I mean, when you tell someone they�re sinful, there�s going to be trouble.

Who are you to judge? And the list goes on. But you know, the thing is, deep down, we�re all realists. We all know we covet and we have illicit desires and we have pride and we have arrogance and we have, you know, and the list goes on and on and on.

So I don�t know what the big deal is. You know, we�re trying to put makeup on, you know, an amputation, it�s just not going to work.

So to figure out the full force of sin, you need to understand the holiness of God.

And the byproduct will be you understand the holiness of God, but you�ll see sin for what it is and how black and how wicked and how corrupt it is.

And so, if you do a study sometime on your own, how many different words are there for sin?

If you combine the Old Testament and the New, nouns and verbs and all those things, sinning, sinning, sinned against, sin, lawlessness, iniquity, debt, transgression, trespass, miss the mark, perversion,

I mean, the list goes on and on and on. And so, when you understand sin and you understand holiness,

I think your appreciation for the death of Christ will only, will certainly increase.

And when Jesus is told, we are told of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1,

He came to save His people from their sins, you are going to be thankful.

Can you imagine every single sin forgiven? Even though sin is so horrible, even though God�s holiness is so awesome, forgiven by Christ Jesus.

So, I need to clear my throat with a little bit of this vitamin water. What do they put in here? It says, and I can�t find my glasses, of course,

I was filming the other night these NoCo 90s and I didn�t have my glasses and it was awful, it was a tragedy.

We have here, ingredients, colon, and there�s not colon in the ingredients, it�s the part of, not a part of speech, what is it, it�s a period.

I know all these things, apostrophe, what are they? Reverse osmosis water, less than 1 % of ethanol glycol, that�s all

I need to know, oh man. So Exodus chapter 3 verse 1, now

Moses was keeping the flock with his father -in -law Jethro the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God, and the angel of the

Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. He looked and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

And so last Thursday, we looked at this passage and we were saying how God knew about the plight of Israel, he knew about the oppression from the

Egyptians. And it says in chapter 2 verse 25 of Exodus, God saw the people of Israel and God knew.

So they were suffering and God is going to come to the rescue and he is going to do it for lots of reasons.

He�s compassionate, he�s gracious, he�s kind, he�s long -suffering, but he�s also faithful. And he had made a promise to Abraham and he is going to fulfill that promise.

And we have this bush that doesn�t burn and in the midst of the bush, we have God himself. Chapter 3 verse 4 says that Jesus, when he�s talking about it, says

God�s in the bush. And here we have not just any old messenger of the Lord, but we have the messenger of the

Lord, the second person of the Trinity. He is the Lord and he�s a messenger of the Lord. How does that work? Well, the only way that really works, ultimately works, it has to work in a

Trinitarian fashion where the Father can send the Son. And so here we have the pre -incarnate

Messiah. And I don�t usually like to say the word Jesus until after the incarnation, but I understand and so do you if I say the pre -incarnate

Jesus. He is in the midst of the bush. And often, this is where we left last time, you�ll see that fire is indicative of the presence of the holy

God. The holy presence of God is manifested regularly in the

Old Testament as fire. Genesis 15, we looked at that passage and the pot of fire and the flaming torch passed between those pieces for the covenant.

You have the pillar of fire guiding Israel by night. On Sinai, Exodus 19,

Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in what? Fire, the presence of God.

Sometimes he�s even identified as a fire. Deuteronomy 4, for the Lord your God is a what?

Consuming fire, a jealous God. When God shows up, sometimes he shows up with fire before him as a devouring fire,

Psalm 50. Ezekiel, he�s describing God in a way that, you know, how do you describe

God? And I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north and a great cloud and brightness around it and fire flashing forth continually and in the midst of the fire as it were gleaming metal, some fiery shape.

Daniel sees God sitting on the throne of fire, Daniel 7. Daniel 7 says this, �And as I looked, thrones were placed, and the

Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool, and his throne was fiery flames.

Its wheels were burning fire.� John, the apostle

John in the New Testament, regularly in Revelation chapter 1, 2, and 19, his eyes were like the flame, fire.

And even ultimately, the Lord�s judgment will be fire. And so when you see the word fire in this particular context,

I mean, let�s just reread it again. �And the angel of the Lord, second person of the Trinity, appeared to him in the flame of fire out of the midst of the bush.�

And so we have God showing up and he is going to talk to Moses and give

Moses some direction because God cares about the Israelites. And so this is the call of Moses.

And so when you think of fire, don�t forget the presence of God and his holiness in particular.

And so the pre -incarnate ministry of Jesus here, he shows up and he gives the message to Moses.

Now there�s a bush and it�s burning, but it�s not burning. Chapter 3, verse 3, �Moses said, �I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.�

Why is the bush not burning? I mean, I�ve got another question. Here we are out in the desert, desolation, isolation,

Mount Horeb, that�s what that means. That�s another word for Sinai. Why isn�t everything else burning?

Why is everything else should be on fire as well? It only takes a spark.

Now see, you want to sing the song now, don�t you? And this bush is on fire. It just keeps burning, but it�s not burning.

And that word bush, it basically means a small bush, you know, maybe a foot or two in diameter, a thorny bush, some people think it is, some type of shrub, a bamboo bush, some folks have said it is, a blackberry bush,

I mean, it doesn�t really matter. The point is, it was this bush and it keeps burning.

One commentator said, �What did God have to use there in the desert ?� It was either rocks or bushes.

Those were the two things. And the thing just keeps burning and burning and burning. So, what you should probably say to yourself, if fire represents

God regularly and often, the presence of God, what�s the bush? Does the bush represent anything?

Or is it just some way to get Moses� attention, some miraculous sign authenticating the message and the messenger, what�s happening with that?

Well, before we answer the question about the bush, if you�re a liberal, if you are someone who�s not a supernaturalist, and according to J.

Gresham Machen, those are kind of the only two religions, you�re either a liberal or you�re a supernaturalist, you�re an anti -supernaturalist or a supernaturalist.

How would you describe this event if it wasn�t this Christophany, if it wasn�t this theophany, if it wasn�t

God showing up talking from a bush that�s burning, but it�s not burning? How do you explain it? By the way, these are all bogus, these are all weak,

Moses had been 40 years in the wilderness and he would understand every single possible irregular occurrence that would happen, and he would not find it so amazing.

I just think it�s interesting when you don�t believe the Bible is true, when you forget that it�s a human book and a divine book.

If you think it�s only a divine book, or if you only think it�s a human book, you�ve got problems. But the only way to really figure out the

Bible and its meaning, this is a divine book and it is a human book. So some people think it�s kind of the

St. Elmo�s fire kind of stuff, St. Elmo a contraction of St. Erasmus, and he was the patron saint of a lot of sailors around the

Mediterranean, and electricity kind of zaps out a little bit and you get a little glow. So we got the glow bush, glow bush instead of glow worm.

Other people think that, you know, there�s a reflex of light when it comes to these dry lands and you�ve got a lot of storms.

Another writer said it�s a volcanic phenomenon. The bush that burns but doesn�t burn.

Oh yeah, that�s what lava does. Other people think, you know, it�s just a myth. Lots of myths they say, floating around, that something�s burning but it�s not burning, and that�s just a typical myth back in those days.

Others have said it�s a flake of gypsum blown against a twig, and it got blown against the twig so hard, it was like a flint, and it caused a fire.

Some people think it was like just sunlight, so you�ve got a mountain crack or crevice and the light of the sun comes through at the perfect spot, kind of Indiana Jones -like, and you�ve got a light on the bush.

It�s not really fire, it�s just a light. Others said it�s all in Moses� mind, he�d been out in the desert for too long, must not have been hydrated, and it was a psychological thing.

Some think it�s a gas plant, now this isn�t like a gas plant like the

Department of Water and Power, this is the gas plant. I don�t know what a gas plant is, but I guess it�s got gas in it, it could just burst into flames at any old time.

Some people think it�s a blossom of mistletoe twigs, so, see, that�s why when you kiss your wife under the mistletoe, you feel like some, you know, it�s a burning point, your lips are burning.

For a split second, this is true confessions on No Compromise Radio, for a split second, I said to myself, �Am

I on the radio or am I in the pulpit ?� Because in the pulpit, I�m more reserved. I�m not completely reserved, of course, but I�m more reserved, and I try to watch out what

I say all the time, especially since I�ve got a lot of bad things in my mind and a lot of bad words in my mind, and when

I was an unbeliever, you know, they just came out. I mean, I purposely made them come out, but they�re just like, you know, out of the heart, here comes this abundance that flows out, and so I thought to myself, �I�m not going to,

I better not say anything about the mistletoe and my lips burning when I kiss my wife.� Sometimes, well, we actually have mistletoe.

We bought some at Trader Joe�s, and we bought some, don�t tell anybody, we bought some, our elders gifts, we buy the elders and their wives gifts, and they�ve been so supportive in the last year, and so we just give them a variety of Trader Joe�s things, you know, stuff that they normally wouldn�t get,

I don�t know, candy, ginger, something, who knows. And so we were trying to think, and we have like a little budget, and we always go over budget, but this year

I got the calculator out, and so we had a budget for each elder, there are four other elders, and so we�re filling up the thing, and so we need like $2 .99

more, something for the budget, and so they had mistletoe, so we said, �Let�s get some mistletoe for the elders.�

I�m sure there�s some pagan background to mistletoe, but the end result is fun, right, kissing your wife.

So anyway, we got home, and we were divvying up all the different Trader Joe�s treats, and it�s kind of fun, because, you know, these super huge salt rock, dark chocolate caramel stuff,

I mean, it�s just fun, and you�re just kind of tasting it, and thinking about how fun they�ll have eating all this stuff.

I mean, I�d like to get a Trader Joe�s thing, and probably if I begged for $2 .2 million in no -compromise radio, we could get a lot of that, except I don�t think we have a donate button anywhere.

Josh, get that donate button up, come on, drinking some of this cheap vitamin water. So anyway, to get back to the story of the mistletoe, it looked like it was somehow kind of freeze -dried.

I didn�t know if that made any effect for the kissing afterwards, but the freeze -dried mistletoe didn�t seem like it was par for the course for Trader Joe�s, but that�s what the elders got.

I hope they liked it, and lastly, the last thing

I want to say about this burning bush nexus, chapter 3, the scholar John Davis, he�s written some great

Old Testament stuff. When he was in the Middle East, some people showed him some alleged original ashes from the burning bush.

Now, what�s wrong with that? It�s the bush, but the text says it doesn�t burn, so how are you going to get some ashes?

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, come on. These natural explanations, explanations rather.

Of course, Moses is going to see right through these because, no pun intended, there�s nothing extraordinary about them, nothing supernatural about them.

God sees Israel, Israel�s struggling, and he�s going to show up, and he is the light, he is the fire, and I wonder what the bush is.

That�s a good question. What is the bush? Does the bush symbolize anything, or is it just to get

Moses� attention? I think the presence of God and the bush, we�re going to find out.

You�re going to like this. I can�t tell you quite yet. Verse 4, Exodus 3, 4, �When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see,

God called to him out of the bush, �Moses, Moses.� And he said, �Here I am.�

Now, if you read quickly, and you don�t do any study, you miss out some of the great nuances.

Moses, Moses, Absalom, Absalom, Abraham, Abraham.

Remember, David covers his face, cries with a loud voice, �My son, my son,

Absalom, Absalom.� You�ve got this term of endearment. In Hebrew, it�s called repetition of endearment.

Some people call it Abraham, Abraham. Remember, the angel called to him from heaven, �Don�t kill your son,

Isaac.� This is a way to show friendship, to show affection, to show endearment.

And so, when someone says, �Michael, Michael.� If I was back in those days,

I�d think, �You know what? This is going to be good. Whatever they�re going to say after that is going to be good. They�re not whacking me, they�re not punishing me.�

It�s a pattern of speech that says, �I love you, I care for you.�

And so, out of the bush, this term of endearment comes. So, on No Compromise Radio, we�re thinking big picture here about sin, we�re thinking about the holiness of God, and we�re looking at one of the passages that almost everyone knows about, but maybe have not taken the time to look at in detail,

Exodus chapter 3. And what we�re doing on the show today is we�re trying to have you read slowly and with meaning, and understanding the meaning rather, so you can grasp this.

And if I had any sense to me, I�d open up the Message Bible and find out what the

Message Bible says about Exodus chapter 3, but right now I only have the New Testament Proverbs, Psalms, and hardbound.

I have it on my computer, I have it on my Bible, you can send it in to me if you like. So we�ve got the fire represents the divine being, the triune

God. What does the bush signify?

Well, God is here telling Moses that, �I�m going to fulfill my promises.� Remember, Israel is suffering in the wilderness, and God shows up to say, �I know this, and I�m going to help you.�

It says in verse 6, �I�m the God of your father, the

God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.� Moses hit his face. And so he sees what�s going on, he understands, he knows all the afflictions, and he has to go to help them.

He�s going to help them, and so if you want me to just tell you right now, I just saw my daughter was calling me here,

I didn�t answer it. If you want me to tell you now, what�s the bush? I mean, it�s this insignificant little plant, but it doesn�t need to be some special bush, it�s just a bush where God shows up, and that bush is representative of the nation of Israel.

Moses is giving a sign, the Abrahamic covenant will come to fruition, and if you�re suffering, what do you need?

You need the presence of God, and we have the fire, God, and the bush, Israel, and we have

God, a delivering God is going to be in the midst of his people, and he is going to rescue the people.

As Lewis Johnson says, in effect, he says, �I�m going to judge Israel, and I�m going to purify Israel through my purifying mercy.�

They�re going to have to pass through the judgment of them as natural beings, but I�m going to exercise covenant mercy to them and bring them out.

And even though they�re going to go through the midst of the divine fire, they are not going to be touched by it through divine redemption.

In other words, this is a visible picture of the nation, Israel, as that nation which is the object of divine judgment and divine mercy through the mediator, ultimately, the

Lord Jesus Christ. And the bush isn�t consumed. The unconditional promises of God will come to pass.

Unconditional covenant with Abraham. Oh, there�ll be some judgment, there�ll be some purification, but they will not be consumed because there are unconditional promises.

He�s the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so, this is fire and the bush, and it symbolizes the holy presence of God in the nation of Israel, and God will redeem his people.

As Lewis goes on to say, �The

Lord God represented by the fire in the midst of his people in so far as he is bound to accomplishment of his purposes with regard to them.�

God was with the nation, and he would fulfill all his words to them. And so, when you think of the fire in the bush, did you know in some cultures, you would have bushes represent nations, and that�s exactly what is happening here.

Verse 5, �Then he said, �Do not come near. Take off your sandals of your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.�

So, my name is Mike Ebenroth. This is No Compromise Radio. We�re going to have to talk about God�s holiness next. The holy consuming fire we�ve been looking at, and God is there.

He is going to rescue Israel, and he will, with his purifying holiness, protect, cleanse, and he will rescue them, because he knows the plight of Israel, because of the

Egyptians. My name is Mike Ebenroth. No Compromise Radio. Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com, or you can write

Steve, Tuesday Guide, No Compromise Radio, or you can go to the YouTube site, YouTube, NoCone90s.

Those are interesting little one, two, three minute blurbs. Thanks for listening today. No Compromise Radio, with Pastor Mike Ebenroth, is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church, firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God�s Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.