Seeking once more the help of
God, guided by his spirit, I would like you to turn with me to the
chapter that we read, Exodus chapter 3, and the text you'll
find in verses 11 and 12. And Moses said unto God, Who am I
that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth
the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, Certainly
I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee that
I have sent thee, when thou hast brought forth the people out
of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. really seeking
with the Lord's help to combine what we looked at this morning
with the lady with the issue of blood and how her condition
caused her to be ceremonially unclean and separated from temple
worship and caused to be an isolated person and yet, although being
unworthy and unfit to come into the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ, yet she felt that, drawn to him, she felt that he was
her only hope. She had tried the help of man
and proved vain was the help of man in her situation and yet
she had heard of the Lord Jesus Christ and was drawn to him and
came to him and found cleansing and forgiveness. She acknowledged and realized
her uncleanness yet she still understood that Christ was that
founding open for sin and for uncleanness, that she had what
could be cleansed She was in need of cleansing
and so she came to the one who could cleanse her. We don't read
that she made any excuses as to why she couldn't come. No
doubt they were there in her mind but they're not written
there. She was determined. and she pressed through the crowd
until she came to where she needed to be at the feet of the Lord
Jesus Christ and Jesus cleansed her and forgave her and she went
away whole. She went away ceremonially clean
and forgiven and able to enter into society, enter into worship
once again. We see something a bit different
with Moses. Moses, the man of God, we see
that he made excuses as to why he could
not do what God was commanding him to do. He acknowledged that
he was unworthy. He says, who am I that I should
go unto Pharaoh? But the Lord promised him that
he would be with him. And so as the lady pressed towards
the Lord Jesus Christ unworthily, yet Christ, we know, receives
sinners. He receives such. The scripture
tells us that he is the friend of sinners. The righteous don't
need a doctor. The righteous, those who are
whole, don't need to come to the doctor, but the Lord Jesus
Christ is the friend of sinners. And so this lady is drawn to
Christ and she is made well. but Moses makes his excuses as
to why he can't do what God is commanding him to do and so he
says who am I and first of all I want to look at who is Moses
he says who am I You know Moses has a history as you and I all
have a history. What brings us here today is
the here and now but if we look back over our lives there is
a history. Where we were born, where we
grew up, who our mum and dads are, who our grandad and grandmas
are, great grandad and grandmas and we have that, our roots. and those roots and those experiences
that we pass through in life they shape us as to who we are
now at this present day. Some people here may have been
far out in the world. They may have been living lives
of sin and been living lives at enmity with God. And yet God
at a moment in time dealt with them and brought them to the
Lord Jesus Christ and altered the course of their life completely
and sent them on a completely different trajectory to what
they were heading on. And now you are here. And you
can look back over your life and as you say, who am I? You
can look back over your life and you can see how the Lord
has guided you and shaped you and directed you. And even in
situations when you are unconverted, you can look back and see, well,
the Lord preserved me here. the Lord guided this decision
that I made even though I was unconverted and outside of Christ
I can see the Lord's hand upon my life in certain places where
he guided and directed me and to this present point and all
of us can look back we may not have necessarily gone far into
the world about our lives and our life's experiences and the
things that have happened to us. They shape us and mould us
and make us into the people that we are today. The reason why
we are here today is because the Lord has guided and directed
us here and brought us here together and we can look back at the things
that he did to enable us to be here this evening. and Moses
could look back. He could look back at his life
and he could look right back to Abraham and he could see how
the Lord had called Abraham out of idol worship. He could see
Isaac and Jacob. He could look back and he could
see Joseph and he could see the reasons
why the people of Israel were now slaves and captives in the
land of Egypt. If you go back to Genesis 50
we see the confession or the prophecy of Joseph as he believes
the promise that was given to Abraham that the children of
Israel would be prisoners in a land and then they would be
delivered. And Hebrews tells us by faith
Joseph believed. And so Moses can look back to
his roots and see Genesis 15, 22. And Joseph dwelt in Egypt,
he and his father's house. And Joseph lived 110 years, and
Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation, the
children also of Micaiah, the son of Manasseh, were brought
up on Joseph's knees. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I die, and God will surely visit you. and bring you out of this
land unto the land which he swear unto Abraham to Isaac and to
Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the
children of Israel saying God will surely visit you and you
shall carry up my bones from hence. And so Joseph died being
110 years old and they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin
in Egypt. So we see that God is working
all things out, that the promise that he gave to Abraham, Moses,
Joseph believed and trusted in the word of God. And he believed
that a time would come when God would raise up a deliverer to
bring them out from the land of Egypt and to bring them into
the promised land. And so he says, when I die, bury
me but when you leave take my bones with you. And so as Moses looks back and
as he says who am I he sees Joseph but also he can look back at
his own life and see the workings of God which preserved him up
until this very point. You see all the time God is at
work. All the time God is working things
out for his own purposes and although we look at the world
and we may think things are out of control, things are being
governed by unrestrained forces yet the Lord is sovereign and
the Lord is still in control of all events that take place
either he actively moves those events to take place or he permits
those events to take place to unfold his purposes and his will
in the history of this world and even seemingly events that
are insignificant God is able to work those events to bring
about his eternal purposes. And we see that particularly
in the life of Moses. At the time when all the babies
were being killed by Pharaoh, at the time as that new Pharaoh
came who did not know Joseph, and he begins to kill all of
the young boys, Moses' mother hides him in the river. a seemingly desperate situation. Hebrews tells us that it is by
faith that his mother did this. Hebrews 11, it says, and by faith
Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents
because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid
of the king's commandment. So his mother and his parents
hid him for three months and then they placed him into the
ark on the river and they committed him into the hands of the sovereign
God and they trusted that their child would be kept safe. You can sort of imagine them
saying, thy will be done Lord. And as they commit their child
into the crocodile infested Nile, his sister follows afar off upon
the bank to see what would happen. And so this seemingly insignificant
event that is recorded as an act of faith, God preserves the
life of this child. any other person could have come
to the bank of the river and seen this child and killed it. This river was teeming with crocodiles
and yet God directs at this specific time the only person probably
in the whole of the world that would be able to preserve the
life of this little boy. You think of that. The only person
in the whole world that could preserve the life of this little
boy just happens to come down to the river to wash. Not a man
but Pharaoh's daughter. And she sees the basket. She
tells her maids, go and have a look at the basket. And she
realises that it is one of the Hebrew's children. And behold,
the baby wept, the scripture says. Now that's not an insignificant
statement that should just be passed over. To some people,
a baby crying is extremely annoying. But to a woman, a baby crying
is a cry for help. It touches upon their emotion,
it touches upon their motherly instinct, and it affects. And God made little Moses cry
at exactly the right time, as the lid is opened. Pharaoh's
daughter hears the cry and acknowledges that this is one of the Hebrew's
children. Now any of you who have daughters
will know that the daughter has a way of getting
to her dad's heart. So this is Pharaoh's daughter.
The man who had commanded that all of their little children
be killed And yet now in the care, in the presence of his
daughter is one of these children. The only girl that could have
saved his life is directed by God to go and wash in the water. Happens to come across little
Moses who happens to be crying. She is touched. And she cares
for him. But have you noticed this? And Pharaoh's daughter said unto
Sorry, verse 8. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto
her, go. Sorry, verse 7. Then said his sister unto Pharaoh's
daughter, shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew
women that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's
daughter said unto her, go. And the maid went and called
the child's mother. Pharaoh's daughter said unto
her take this child away and nurse it for me and I will give
thee thy wages and the woman took the child and nursed it.
And so as Moses's mother committed her son into the hand of Almighty
God upon the river within a few moments that child is back into
her arms and she is able to nurse it him again Not only is she
enabled to nurse it, that child is under the protection of Pharaoh
himself as his own grandson. Not only does Moses' mother get
to feed the baby, but all her expenses are covered. I will
give thee thy wages. You couldn't make that up. But
it shows us as Moses looks back at his roots, as he looks back
where he came from, he can see that God was intimately acquainted
with every single detail of his life, preserving him to bring
him up to the point where he was. God was in complete control of
everything that took place. God knew that Moses was going
to be raised up to be the leader and so God preserved him in a
remarkable way. And as he grew after he is weaned
from his mother he is taken to be Pharaoh's daughter and the
scripture tells us he is learned in all the wisdom of Egypt. this seemingly insignificant
event with a small child. God raises this baby up to be
the great leader. God is a master of taking nobodies
and making them somebody. David taken from grazing the
sheep to being the king of Israel. Think of the twelve or the eleven
apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ various men but really just normal
not a people fishermen, tax collectors, nobody significant really. Yet
he takes them and he uses them for his honour and for his glory.
As the people said of them, behold ignorant and unlearned men. But they had been with Jesus. God takes the foolish things
of this world to confound the wise. and the weak things of this world
to confound the mighty. And Moses is a prime example
of his meager beginnings and yet watched over by a sovereign
almighty and all-powerful God. preserving him in his mother's
arms, preserving him on the river, giving him back to his mother,
then preserving him again in Pharaoh's palace and then watching
over him in the wilderness for 40 years. As he looks back over
his life, who am I? That is what God made him. and guided him and directed him.
And the experiences that he passed through, God was going to use
for his glory as he led the people of Israel through the wilderness. Moses' palace, learned in all
the wisdom of Egypt, then shepherding in the wilderness for 40 years. I wonder if you can look back
over your life and see the reasons why God allowed certain things
to take place. The reasons why you did this
or you did that. Is it not so that God will be
able to use those experiences for his honour and for his glory
as he leads you and guides you as you are his? Moses said, Who am I that I should
go unto Pharaoh? Seems at this point Moses didn't
think much about himself. God had raised him up. God had
watched over him and guided him and directed him, yet he felt
his own inability. When faced with a task which
he deemed too great for him he felt his own inability. And so he began to make excuses. He made three excuses and then
on the fourth one he refused or he asked God to send somebody
else. First of all, then he says, who
am I? As he looks back over his life,
maybe he notices there are certain things that he did. that deemed
him not worthy to do what God has commanded. Remember he was
chased from Egypt for murdering an Egyptian. So maybe the first
excuse comes from his past life that he doesn't feel that he
is equipped or adequate or worthy to be able to go back into Egypt. Maybe he is afraid of what would
take place. That he says, who am I? I'm completely
unworthy for this task. His past maybe had stopped him
from wanting to go back. Maybe he looked back and he thought
of Egypt as the last place that I want to go. Maybe the Lord
is prompting you. and you've made an excuse and
you've said well that's the last place that I would want to go. There's no way I could go back
there. There's no way I could do that.
Who am I that I should go and do such a thing? Maybe he thought himself as just
a nobody. I'm just a shepherd in the wilderness.
Who am I to go to the great country of Egypt with all its wisdom
and all its riches and to approach Pharaoh? Pharaoh is not going
to listen to me. I'm just a nobody. But he was nobody with a somebody
and that's what makes the difference. Because God said I will be with
thee. Certainly I will be with thee. This world is completely uncertain. Things are constantly changing
all of the time. There is nothing certain about
this world other than death. It is certain that we will die. with God's Word, God's Word is
certain, it is unchangeable, it is eternal, it cannot be altered. And if he promises Moses, and
if he promises you that he certainly will be with you, then he certainly
will be. Nothing is going to alter that,
and nothing is going to change that. No experience that you
pass through will ever cause God to separate from you, for
he has promised that he certainly will be with thee. Though you
may feel like Moses, who am I? I should go and do this and that.
Who am I that I should go into the palace of Pharaoh? God has
promised that he would be with him. And then Moses comes up
with another excuse. In chapter 4 and verse 1, Moses
answered and said, So his second excuse is that no one will believe
what I say. God has promised him that he
would be with him. God has told him that this is
what you are to say, that the great I am, the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob has appeared unto you and he's going to deliver
you. And then he says to him, then
Moses says, they're not going to believe me. I'm just a shepherd
from the wilderness. Nobody is interested what I'm
going to say. Maybe that's how you feel. that
you are just a nobody and nobody is going to be interested in
what you have to say. Maybe you've got a testimony
to tell like the lady we had this morning. She could not be
hid. Jesus declared that she should
speak at the mad gathering. He was told to go and publish
all that Christ had done for him. And maybe you're worried. And you say, well, the people,
they're not going to believe me. They're not going to believe
my testimony. They're not going to believe that the Lord has
appeared unto me and cleansed me from my sin. And God says
to him, show them the proof. And Moses is told to cast the
rod on the ground and it becomes a snake. And then he is told
to put his hand into his bosom and it becomes leprous. And these
were the signs that Moses was to show to Pharaoh, to the people
of, to Pharaoh. And what are the signs that you
have to say? If you're saying that people
won't believe your word, will they believe what has happened? As we said this morning, when
God changes the heart, he also changes the actions. He changes
the motives. He changes the will. He gives
people that desire to follow him and to obey him and to walk
with him. These are the evidences of grace,
godliness and holiness. Moses made an excuse. They won't
listen to what I have to say. But the Lord had promised him.
Certainly I will be with thee. Now he comes up with another
excuse. Not only does he say they won't listen, he now says
that I can't speak. in verse 10. And Moses said unto
the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore
nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of
speech and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who
hath made man's mouth, or who hath made the dumb or deaf, or
the seeing or the blind, have not I the Lord? Now therefore
go, and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt
say. And do you see there that every
excuse that he comes up with the Lord then gives him an answer. I can't do it. I will be with
thee. They won't listen to me. Do these
signs. Well I can't speak. Well I am
going to be your mouth. It's me that gives the ability.
It's me that makes the dumb to speak. Stop giving me your excuses
and just go. Every minister I think has many excuses. Oh I can't
speak. I'm not good enough. The people
won't listen to me. I'm of a slow tongue. But no one is told to go in their
own ability or their own strength. They go in the strength of the
Lord, their God. Moses was not to go in his own
strength. He was not going to go and stand
before Pharaoh by himself. He was going to stand before
Pharaoh with the Lord by his side, telling him and guiding
him as to what he would say. But he still said, I can't do
it. In verse 13 he says, O my Lord,
send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. Send
somebody else. I can't do it. Anybody but me. Jonah ran away from God and brought him and others into
great difficulty. God had commanded him that he
must go to Nineveh yet he ran away and caused great problems. You see, you can't run away from
God. Moses had been raised up for this very purpose, to deliver
the people of Israel out of Egypt. And these excuses show us just
the type of man that he was, just a normal person like you
and me. The other evening, I preached
from David. and David and Goliath and David
as he goes to fight Goliath he picks up five small stones from
the brook just like any shepherd boy would.
It shows us that he's just a normal young man going with his sling
and he picks up some smooth stones that he finds in the brook whether
he thinks he's going to use all of them on Goliath or whether
he thinks I'm going to save some of these for later. But it just
shows us that the Lord is just using simple, ordinary people
to bring about his purposes. They don't go alone. David didn't fight Goliath by
himself. Moses didn't lead the people
of Israel out by himself. David didn't fight Goliath by
himself. The Lord was with them, giving them that strength, that
ability, but they still had to go. Sometimes the Lord fights on
behalf of his people. He moves in situations where
they don't have to do anything. As we see in the Old Testament
with some of the enemies of the people of God. But the common way the Lord works
is that he works through men and women to bring about his
own purposes. He preserved the life of Moses
so that he would raise him up to be that great deliverer and
we see in these excuses that he's just a normal man. But which shows us of the patience
of God The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And
he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can
speak well. And also behold, he cometh forth
to meet thee. And when he seeth thee, his heart
will be God. You see, God had already made preparations to help Moses. Help was already
on the way. His brother was going to come
alongside and help him and speak on his behalf. You see, the Lord
understands our weakness. He understands our frame, our
inability. But he is able to work through
that inability for his own honor and for his own glory. And so
he says to Moses, certainly I will be with thee. What Moses should have said was
not, who am I? But he should have asked the
question to himself, who is God? If you turn over to chapter five,
Pharaoh asks this question. Moses and Aaron went in and told
Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people
go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And
Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice
to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go. And so Pharaoh asked the right
question, but in the wrong context, with the wrong motive. He says
who is the Lord? Why should I have anything to
do with God? I don't know him. Moses had been guided and directed
by the Lord. The Lord had appeared to him
in the midst of a burning bush and revealed himself to him as
the great I am. I am the God of thy father, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Moses was
afraid to look upon God instead of saying who am I. He should have thought within
his mind who is God. The great I am. You see if we go back to our
roots we come to God. The scripture
tells us that it is God who formed us in our mother's womb, who
knitted us together, the God who gives life. Many people ask that question
don't they today? Who am I? What is the meaning
and purpose of life? What is the point in living?
What is the purpose of me being here? Where am I going to go? What happens to you when you
die and the answer to that question is who is God? God is the eternal
creator self-existent being who is completely independent and
dependent independent and upon nobody as Moses is dependent
upon God God is the self-existent being. He has all power and all
authority. The sovereign ruler of the skies. He is the I am. The Jehovah. And if Moses asks that question
to himself, well who is God? This God who is calling me to
go to Pharaoh, to deliver the people
of Israel, who is this God? Oh, he's the creator of heaven
and earth. He's the God who brought Abraham
out of idol worship, the one who led him and directed him
through the wilderness. He's the God who was with Isaac
and Jacob, the God who was with Joseph and the God who had preserved
me my whole life. If he has commissioned me to
go and he will be with me. If Moses had a high view of God
If he had a theology that was deep and rooted in the character
and nature of God, he wouldn't have come up with all manner
of excuses. He would have said, well, if
God is telling me to go, then I'm going to go because I know
that he'll be with me. I know that he'll give me the
strength and the ability. I know that he can do all manner
of things. Nothing is too hard for him.
As the scripture tells us, nobody can stop his hand or say to him,
what are you doing? Heaven and earth are under his
control and under his power. Then if he is commissioning me
to do something, then he's going to give me and be with me and
provide for me all that I need. You would ask him the question,
who is the one that is calling? Who is the one that is going
to lead me? Who is the one that is going to be with me? Well
it is the great I am. How often we lose sight of the
greatness of God. We look at ourselves and we say
well I can't. I can't do this, I can't do that.
That if the Lord has called you to do something then he is going
to give you everything that you need to do the thing that he
has commanded you to do and he was even preparing you from the
moment you were born to do the task that he has set you to do. Never say, I can't. Because God, maybe that's wrong.
You can't, but God can. And God will. He will provide. He will help. He will guide.
He will give the strength and the sustaining grace that is
needed. He says, I will because he is
the I am, the ever-present friend in times of trouble. Moses said unto God who am I
that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth
the children of Israel out of Egypt and he said God said certainly
I will be with thee and this shall be a token unto thee that
I have sent thee when thou hast brought forth the people out
of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain. And we know
as the Lord led Moses and was with Moses, that word was tried
and tested as he went through all of the plagues and the opposition,
even amongst his own people as the things were made harder and
harder. Yet he was able to witness the goodness of God. God led
him and guided him. God gave him the strength. He
divided the sea. He provided everything that they
needed. Water came out of the rock. And then he comes to the
mountain upon which Sinai, as the Lord has promised, and there
the Lord speaks to him again and gives him that covenant as
they enter into that covenant and they give them the law. And
so Moses was able to look back As he finished his life, look
back right to the beginning. The Lord was with me there when
I was in my mother's arms. The Lord was with me when I was
on the River Nile. The Lord was with me when I was
in Pharaoh's house. And the Lord was with me all
the days of my life because he said, certainly. I will be with
thee. That is the sure promise that
the Lord gives to each of his dear people. Heaven and earth
will pass away but my word will not pass away. Certainly I will
be with thee. May the Lord bless these few
remarks. I was just going to read actually
sorry the poem that was written by
Corrie Ten Boom part of it about the Lord's weave. You know our lives are completely
mysterious. God is working his purposes out
and he's doing things now which will have effect upon the future. He's able to do something now
which will bring about his purposes in years to come. We may never know the reasons
why. But in Corrie's poem, she says, not till the loom is silent
and the shuttles cease to fly will God unroll the canvas and
explain the reasons why. The dark threads are as needful
in the weaver's skillful hands as the threads of gold and silver. in the pattern he has planned
and so our lives to us they are mysterious Moses's life is completely
mysterious until you read back over it and you see every detail
of how God was at work and our lives are just lived day by day
and God is working out his purposes in our lives to bring about his
own glory that he is with his people every single moment of
every single day and he is watching over them and working out his
plans even in the tiny details of things that we don't understand. Little acts of faith like putting
Moses upon the river committing him to the Lord and seeing how
the Lord will protect him and preserve him and within a few
moments there he is in the arms of Pharaoh's daughter and God's
purposes are revealed. May the Lord bless these words. Amen. Let's sing in conclusion from
Gatsby's 329 to the tune 375. 329. How firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
What more can he say than to you he has said, you who unto
Jesus for refuge have fled? Fear not, I am with thee. Be
not dismayed, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid. I'll
strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand. Upheld by
my righteous, omnipotent hand. 329. of the Lord is great for your
faith in his excellent word. What more can he say than to
you he has said, you who are to Jesus for refuge ? In sickness, in health ? ? In
poverty, fear, or abounding in wealth ? ? Let her o'er our footstool
be led, O Mercy ? ? And when we die, O Lord, shall thy strength
ever be ? Thy eye and Thy covenant will
still give Thee aid. Ah, strengthen Thee, help Thee,
and cause Thee to stand. Up, help Thine eye, righteous,
of liberty. The rivers of water love Thee
overflow, For I will be with Thee, Thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to Thee Thy deepest tears. ? Thy power shall lie ? ? Thy grace,
O sufficient ? ? Shall be thy supply ? ? The flame shall more
than be ? ? Thy only desire ? ? Thy trust to consume ? ? And thy
goal to win ? ? To old age all my people shall
prove ? ? My sovereign eternal unchangeable love ? ? And when
all the earth shall their temples adore ? ? Like lamps they shall
stand in my way ? I will not, I will not desert
to its foes. That's all the world should endeavor
to shake. Oh never, no never, no never, Almighty God and loving Heavenly
Father, we thank Thee for the certainty of Thy Holy Word. We thank Thee for the certainty
of Thy promises. We thank Thee that we can trust
in Thee and in Thy presence for time and for eternity. We pray that Thou dismiss us
with Thy blessing. Do take us home in peace and
in safety. And we ask that Thou help us
to meditate upon Thy Word, that it may bear fruit within our
lives and now may the grace of the lord jesus christ and the
love of god the father with the fellowship and communion of the
holy spirit to be with you all now and forevermore amen amen