I titled this message, THE MAKING
OF THE DELIVERER. Last week it was THE BIRTH OF
THE DELIVERER, now we have THE MAKING OF THE DELIVERER. Moses has gone from birth to
the river, back to his mother. BACK TO PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER, TO
40 YEARS BEING RAISED IN THE WAYS OF EGYPT, OR I CAN SAY THE
WAYS OF THE WORLD, BECAUSE EGYPT REPRESENTED THE WORLD. THIS WAS
HIS FIRST 40 YEARS, WE DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT IT. WE DON'T
KNOW MUCH ABOUT HIS SECOND 40 YEARS IN THE DESERT, WE DON'T
KNOW A LOT ABOUT IT. BUT HERE'S HIS FIRST 40, WAS IN EGYPT. He grew up rich, increased with
goods, and in need of nothing. Yet God's hand was on him. God's hand was on him. He is
the Deliverer in the making. First he was educated in Egypt,
the ways of the world, and now God's going to take him to the
backside of a desert. that's going to deliver Israel
is going to be the Moses that believes God. You see, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the one who came into this world, this wilderness
to deliver us, believed God as a man. He believed God PERFECTLY. And this Moses He's gonna have
to learn some things. You know, if God's gonna use
a man in the ministry, he's gonna instruct that man, he's gonna
teach that man, he's gonna strip that man, he's gonna strip him,
he's gonna humble him, and he's gonna know the salvations of
the Lord. And every time God saves someone
under his ministry, he knows that salvation is of the Lord. You'll see here as I go along
that Moses, when he slew that Egyptian, he thought they would
understand that how by his hand God would deliver them. But what
he doesn't understand is God's gonna make him understand that
though he's an instrument, he's an instrument in God's hand and
deliverance, salvation is of the Lord. If the Lord is pleased
to save anyone here this morning, it'll be him. I'm just an instrument
in God's hand. I'm just a means of delivering
the gospel, the salvation of the Lord. Now in verse 11, It
came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went
out unto his brethren, and he looked on their burdens. inspired
an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. Now to have
a little better insight in this timeframe, let me read to you
out of the book of Acts. I have it here in front of me.
It's in Acts chapter 7 and Stephen gives this account and this gives
us a little more insight as to what was going on in Moses mind
and heart. Stephen said in Moses verse 22
of chapter 7, and Moses was learned, educated in all the wisdom of
the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. You know what's interesting?
He said to the Lord, I can't talk. But here Stephen said he
was mighty in words and deeds. He was very educated. Kind of
reminds me of the Apostle Paul. WHO WAS VERY EDUCATED, BUT GOD
HAD TO STRIP HIM DOWN AND MAKE HIM UNDERSTAND SALVATIONS OF
THE LORD. AS PAUL SAID, IT IS NOT BY WISDOM OF WORDS, IT IS
NOT BY WISDOM OF WORDS, IT IS BY THE POWER OF GOD THAT SINNERS
ARE SAVED. In verse 23, AND WHEN HE WAS
FORTY YEARS OLD, It came into his heart to visit
his brethren, the children of Israel. See, we have a little
more insight of God when Moses was 40 years old. At that age,
God began to work with Moses. He began to show himself to Moses. Now, he's got a lot more to learn,
a lot more to learn. But it came into his heart. God's
working in his heart now. And God made known to him in
some way that he's going to be the deliverer. But it's not going
to be by the way Moses thought. The children of Israel, they
thought God was going to save them one way, but we found out
and we find out through the scriptures that God saves by another way,
the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in Hebrews 11, 24-26,
By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Forty years old, living in luxury,
pampered, I have no doubt, pampered, and now he refuses to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter. choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of
sin for a season. You see, we have a little more
insight of God at work in the heart of Moses at his age of
40. Esteeming, in Hebrews 11 and
26, esteeming the reproach of Christ This is IDENTIFICATION. This
is IDENTIFICATION. Esteeming the reproach, not reproach
for Christ, but the reproach of Christ and all their afflictions,
it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all their afflictions, He
was afflicted, He identified with it. That is His IDENTIFICATION
with us. He became bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh. And here Moses is not just being
identified identified the reproach for Christ, but of Christ, it's
identification. He's identifying Himself with
the people of Christ. He KNEW their suffering. He knew
the way they were being treated, and He looked at the pleasures
of Egypt and His lifestyle, and He looked at the Hebrews, and
He chose to suffer afflictions with them. He chose to suffer affliction
with them, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than
the treasures of Egypt." This is when a real conversion,
this is when a sinner will come to a pastor and say, I want you
to baptize me. I would rather be identified
with the Lord's people than be identified with the world. When
you see Christ, when God makes known to you the Lord Jesus Christ,
you will much rather be identified with Him and the reproach that
falls on Him falls on you. You would rather be identified
with that than with all the pleasures of this world, all the pleasures.
That's so, that's so. And that's when you'll say, Pastor,
would you baptize me? I want to be identified with
Christ, I want to be identified with His people. I don't want
to be identified with the world no more, no more. Esteeming the reproach of Christ,
greater riches and treasures of Egypt, for He had respect
unto the recompense of the reward. But now we go on here, we go
back to verse 12 in Exodus. Acts gave us a little more insight
into what was going on in his heart and life at that time.
And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there
was no man, he slew the Egyptian, he killed him, and hid him in
the sand. Now Acts 7, 24 and 25 sheds a
little more light on this. You see verse 12, he sees an
Egyptian beating up on one of the Hebrew brethren, and he goes
over and kills that Egyptian. But Stephen gives us a little
more insight. And seeing one of them suffer
wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote
the Egyptian. For he supposed his brethren
would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver
them, but they understood not. This tells me that God was working
with Moses and He had revealed to him that He's going to use
him to deliver the children of Israel. We get this insight out
of the book of Acts. But it's not going to be the
way Moses thinks. It's not going to be the way
that he thinks. But you go back and look at verse 12, He looked
this way and that way. You know why you do that? You
know something's wrong. He looked this way and that way
to see if anybody was looking. He knew what he was about to
do in his heart was not right. Our Lord never looked this way
and that way. He always looked straight on. Remember, He set
His face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. He didn't look around
at the Pharisees or see who was looking before Him. That's when you know something's
wrong. You see, Moses, he's killed that Egyptian supposing they
would understand that God's going to use him to deliver them. But he knew what he was doing
was wrong. See, at this point, he's walking by sight. He's walking
by sight, not by faith. God's going to teach him to walk
by faith. He's got a lot to learn. He's got a lot to unlearn. You know I found that out and
when God saves someone out of false religion they have a lot
to UNLEARN. There's a lot of grave clothes
that's got to come off. Listen to Proverbs 4.25 LET THINE
EYES LOOK RIGHT ON. LET THINE EYELIDS LOOK STRAIGHT
BEFORE THEY. If you are walking by faith you
don't have to look this way or that way like Moses did. Moses here I believe was going
to move the process along like Sarah and Abraham did. What did
they do? They ended up with Ishmael. God has a time frame for everything
He literally has a time frame right down to the split second
in the fullness of time what happened? God sent forth His
Son in the fullness when it was time when it was time God's appointed
time God sent forth His Son God has a time frame and He has a
time frame for everything in my life You know, I look back
and you can look back at the things you have experienced,
things that came along with certain periods of my life. God purposed
those things at that time. Now if I live to be another ten
years, twenty years, and it ain't going to be much past that if
it is, but if I live, all those things are appointed. They have
a time, it's like a They have a time to happen. There's a time
for every purpose under heaven. And for them to be delivered
at this time was not time. 80 years old, when Moses was 80
years old, when he said, I can't talk, I'm too old, send somebody
else. Now, now he's ready. Now he's
ready. We cannot. And here's something
else that jumped out at me. He slew the Egyptian, hit him
in the sand. We can't hide our sins. We can't
hide our sins. You can't bear your sins. What
does the Word of God say? He that covers his sins shall
not prosper. He hit him because he didn't
want anybody to find out. He knew he was in trouble. He
knew he was in trouble. And then we see in verse 13 how
He is rejected by His brethren just as the Lord Jesus Christ
was rejected by His brethren, the Jews. He was rejected. In verse 13, And when He went
out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together,
and He said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou
thy fellow? Why do you all fight your brothers,
your brethren? And he said, Who made thee a
prince and a judge over us? Who made thee a prince and a
judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me as thou killed the
Egyptians? And Moses feared and said, Sure, this thing is known.
But who made thee a prince and a judge over us? You know why
they said that? They were jealous. They were
envious of Moses who had lived such a cushioned life and he
had everything that you could ever want and they were jealous.
They envied him! Isn't it not said that they envied
the Lord Jesus Christ because so many people were following
Him and they rejected Him? Out of envy they hated Him? Listen to Acts 7 again, 735.
This Moses whom they refused saying, Who made thee a ruler
and judge? The same did God send to be a
ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared
to him in the bush. That is what they said, We will
not have this man reign over us. They said that concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, but God made Him a Prince and a Savior,
didn't He? God made Him the Ruler and Judge over all of us. And this thing it says, Will
not He, there in verse 15, When Pharaoh heard this thing, they
told it, they told on him, they told on him. He sought to slay
Moses. Boy, here's the providence of
God, especially going through this, the providence of God is
so glaring in the life of Moses. But it's the same in our life,
it's the exact same in our life. If we could just see it from
where God sits, we could just see the providence of God working
for us. Here this thing is known, it's
not hid, but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and he dwelt
in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. He feared, but you know what's
strange? Many of the Old Testament saints, their sins are so open, God makes them so clear
it doesn't. He doesn't hide. He lets us see their sins. David,
adultery, committing murder. Lot, going down into Sodom. But
you know in the New Testament, you know what it says about Moses? That he didn't fear the wrath
of the king. You go over here and read it and it says He FEARED
and RAN. But over in the New Testament
it says He DIDN'T FEAR THE WRATH OF THE KING. What about Lot? You know what
it says about Lot? It calls him JUST. It calls him
JUST. It doesn't say anything else
about him. He is RIGHTEOUS. He VEXED HIS RIGHTEOUS SOUL.
He left Abraham and went down and lived with those homosexuals.
and raised his family there. And God had to drag him, God
DRUG him out of that place. He sent his angels and he was
dragged out of there. Him and his wife and his two
daughters. The wife looked back, of course,
and God killed her, turned her to a pillar of salt. Oh, in Christ, in Christ, our
sins are gone. In Christ our sins are gone.
Aren't you glad he doesn't reveal our sins? Over here it doesn't
say Moses feared the king, it says Moses didn't fear the king. He didn't fear. When Pharaoh heard this thing,
he sought to slay Moses. Moses fled. GOD USED THIS TO
DRIVE MOSES TO THE BACK SIDE OF THAT DESERT. HERE'S THE PROVIDENCE
OF GOD AT WORK. YOU SEE, GOD USES WHAT HE WILL
TO MOVE YOU IN THE DIRECTION HE'S GOING TO HAVE YOU TO GO.
YOU KNOW, I CAN LOOK BACK NOW, WHAT'S THE OLD SAYING, HIGH SIGHTS
20-20? I CAN LOOK BACK NOW AND I CAN
SEE THE HAND OF GOD BRINGING THINGS INTO MY LIFE AND TAKING
THINGS OUT OF MY LIFE AND IT'S BROUGHT ME RIGHT HERE. brought
me to this place. God uses what He will. Listen
to Exodus 23, 28. God said, And I will send hornets
before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite,
and the Hittite from before thee. I'll send hornets! And those
hornets came in and started stinging those people and DROVE THEM OUT! HORNETS! God has a vast military He may
use frogs, one of the ten plagues of Egypt, look what he did. Moses has got to learn, as we
have to learn, that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
it's not going to be from his education, it's not going to
be from his influence with Pharaoh, it's going to be by the hand
of God. and he's going to learn that the weapon of our warfare
is not carnal but spiritual. Now the scene changes. Now he goes to the back side
of the desert and we have the second forty years. You see the
first forty he learned the ways of the world and now he's going
to learn God's way. He's going to learn God's way. God's going
to humble him. He's going to strip him. When
Moses was forty years old he was strong. HE WAS EDUCATED,
SMART, INTELLIGENT, I MEAN HE HAD THE EAR OF PHARAOH, BUT GOD'S
GONNA WAIT FOR ANOTHER 40 YEARS, 80 YEARS, 80 YEARS, AND HE'S GONNA SCHOOL HIM. NOW,
I'M NOT COMPARING MYSELF TO MOSES. But I can identify a little bit
here. I began preaching as a young
man, 23 years of age. I went to that preacher school
for two years. And then I traveled a lot of places, all over the
place to preach. And I thought I was going to be a pastor when
I was a young man. I did. I thought when I was in
my twenties I was going to be a pastor. I was going to be in the Lord's
work. But not so, not so. I sat under Henry for about another
40 years, close to 40 years I sat there. And I was at the place,
I was at the place where I was very content. I was very content
doing what I was doing. I traveled, preached, but I was
very content. Henry sat down and asked me twice
about it. I said, If the Lord will, I will.
If not, I won't. I said, I'm very content. Just leave me alone. Doing what I'm doing. And when
I was content to do what I was doing, then the Lord put me in
a ministry. Then He put me in the ministry.
When I thought I was too old I came here when I was 60. I
don't know in my lifetime of anybody that the Lord's put in
the ministry when they're 60. You know, we gave everything
up, you know, 60. You don't do that. You don't
do that. So when I thought I was too old,
And I was settled and I was content. God put me in the ministry. And
I am so thankful that I sat for 40 years under my pastor. I wouldn't take those 40 years
and change it for nothing. Moses goes from being a stepson
of Pharaoh They've been out there on the backside of a desert with
sheep. Out there on the backside of a desert with sheep. How beautiful
is the providence of God? You know, if God has a ministry
for a man in a pulpit, age means nothing. Age means nothing. Jeremy was talking to me about
a year ago, and he was talking about He was talking about sitting
under, moving somewhere where the ministry was. He said, he
said, he said, man, he said, dad, all of you, all of you are
old. All of you are old. I said, I
would rather, and I told him, I said, I would rather sit under
a seasoned pastor for four or five years than sit under a young
man and have to go through all that ups and downs and all his
learning. I said, I learned that. Henry
was 52 years old when I sat under him and he told me, he said,
John, I didn't become a pastor until I was 50. And he was a
pastor when he was 25, 26. He said, but I didn't become
a pastor until I was 50. God gave him a heart to be a
pastor. And here Moses has got to be
whittled down. He's got to be whittled down
because he's going to be a shepherd. HE'S GONNA BE THE SHEPHERD DELIVERER,
JUST LIKE OUR LORD, THE LORD'S MY SHEPHERD. God sets up this situation for
Moses by using him to deliver him, and listen, and here God
sends him to the back side of this desert, and in the back
side of this desert, what does he do? He finds his wife, a Gentile. Isn't that a beautiful picture?
Christ coming into this world, rejected by His brethren. He
goes out into this world, and He's gathering together a multitude
of Gentiles that's making up His Bride, along with Jews, but
He's gathered us Gentiles in. The Gospel's going out into the
wilderness of this world, rejected by His brethren. But it's interesting,
and I think there's still something going to happen over there in
Israel, just like Moses goes out in the back side of the desert,
finds his wife, and what does he do? He goes back and gets
Israel. But I'm not getting into that.
That's over my head. Verse 16, let me wind this down.
Now the priest of Midian, a priest or he could be called a prince,
had seven daughters, and they came and drew water, and he filled
the troughs to water their father's flock. And the shepherds came
and drove them away." Isn't that bad? I thought when I read this, I
don't write down everything I thought or think, it would be endless. But I thought of how the gospel,
how the gospel Wherever it goes, wherever the gospel goes, you
will find that the standard of living is better. You'll find
the way people treat each other is better, where the gospel is
in power. Here they drove those ladies
away. They had no respect for them
at all. But Moses stood up and helped
them and watered their flock. And
when they came to rule their father, he said, how is it you
came so soon today? He's used to them always being
late because those stinking shepherds were always driving them away
and making them wait until they got done. And they said, an Egyptian delivered
us out of the hand of the shepherds and also drew water enough for
us and watered the flock. Oh, this is our, this is our
Lord. It's a picture of our Lord taking care of his flock. Isn't
it? It's a picture of Christ taking
care of His flock, watering His flock. He's doing that this morning,
right now. Right now. He's watering His
flock. And He drew water for us, enough
for us, and watered the flock. Moses, here's something interesting. Moses was dressed like an Egyptian,
but underneath he was a Hebrew. He was dressed like, they said
he's an Egyptian. HE LOOKED LIKE ONE, TALKED LIKE ONE, BUT UNDERNEATH
ALL THAT GARB HE'S A HEBREW. CHRIST CAME IN THE LIKENESS OF
SINFUL FLESH, BUT HE KNEW NO SIN. AND UNDERNEATH THAT FLESH
IS GOD. GOD MANIFESTED IN THE FLESH. AN EGYPTIAN DELIVERED US. NO,
NO, NO, A HEBREW DELIVERED YOU. A man delivered you? No, the
God-man delivered us, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said to
his daughters, Where is he? Why is it that you have left
the man? Call him that we may eat bread. And Moses, and this is where
I said I was content, and Moses was content to dwell with the
man Moses was content to stay right there. I've heard this, and you've got
to be careful when somebody prominent says something that you don't
turn around and make it a doctrine out of it, or necessarily make
truth out of it. But I've heard this when I was
young, not from Henry, but I heard from somebody else, They said, if you can be content
doing anything else, then do it. If you can be content doing
anything else other than the ministry, other than preaching,
then do it. And that statement, I'm serious, that statement has
always troubled me. You ought to be content with
where God has put you, doing that until He puts you somewhere
else, doing something else. Elisha, I believe, was content
plowing with those 12 yoke of oxen. I believe he was. I just don't think discontentment
is a sign you're called to the ministry. A discontent person
ought to stay out of the ministry. That statement has always just
troubled me. And she bared him a son. It says
there that he gave Moses Ziphora, his daughter, and he bared him
a son. And he called his name Gershom,
for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land. Gershom means
stranger here. All God's children are strangers here. We are strangers. And I feel
that more now than ever before in my life. I could walk into
a place just like the place I used to work. One of the places I
worked is just the men there, I felt like a fish out of water.
I did, I felt like a fish out of water. Stranger, Peter writes to the
stranger scattered abroad. Do you understand what this stranger
means? I'm not a part of it no more.
Christ said, You are not of the world. You're not of the world. You're strangers. And it came
to pass in the process of time that the king of Egypt died,
and the children of Israel sighed by the reason of bondage. And
they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the
bondage. The king of Egypt dies. Everything
dies. Everything has to die. God by
His providence has brought everything to this point. The king of old Pharaoh dies,
but another Pharaoh takes his place, there's no difference
in them. But God hears the sighing of
His children. God hears your sighs, He hears
your cries, He heard them in bondage. They sighed, they cried,
they groaned. Their pain was very real. And
God heard it. And God heard their groaning.
And I'm going to close. And God remembered. This is beautiful. I can make the whole sermon on
this one. God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. GOD REMEMBERS HIS COVENANT WITH
HIS SON JESUS CHRIST CONCERNING EVERY ONE OF HIS CHILDREN, AND
WHEN IT'S TIME, HE'LL CALL THEM. HE'LL GIVE THEM A REAL INTEREST
IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THEY'LL COME. THEY WILL COME,
AND HE WILL DELIVER THEM OUT OF BONDAGE. SLAVES TO SATAN,
SIN, AND THE LAW, HE'LL DELIVER THEM. GOD HEARD, GOD REMEMBERED,
GOD LOOKED, AND GOD HAD RESPECT. Everything God does for us, He
does in reference to that covenant made with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And God looked upon the children of Israel and God had respect
unto them. He didn't have respect to Egypt,
but He did for them. They're His. God has respect
to you who believe. His children, He has respect.
He watches over you 24-7. not a split second goes by and
his eye is not upon you all right