For you who haven't met them,
the couple sitting back there in front of Merle and Charlotte's,
Ken and Leah Van Sweeten, they just moved in from New Jersey
last week while I was gone, and we welcome you here. Let's open
our Bibles this morning to Exodus chapter three. Exodus chapter
three. Like the prophets of old, gospel
preachers, are men chosen, called, gifted, and sent of God to deliver
his people. They're chosen, called, and sent
of God for the deliverance of his people. Now I want to show
you something about this great work and the men God uses to
do it. So let's read together Exodus
3, verses 10, 11, and 12. The Lord Jesus is speaking to
Moses out of the burning bush. Come now therefore and I will
send thee unto Pharaoh That thou mayest bring forth my people
the children of Israel out of Egypt and Moses said unto God
Who am I? That I should go to 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
the 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. Now let's first look at the context
in which this text is found. That man who is called of God,
that man who is sent of God to preach the gospel, whether you're
talking about a prophet, an apostle, or a gospel preacher, is one
who has learned and experienced the very things that God taught
Moses in this chapter. In verses 1 through 5, Christ
revealed himself to Moses. And the man who is sent of God
to preach the gospel, The man who is called and gifted of God
to preach the gospel is one to whom the Lord Jesus has been
revealed in his saving power, grace, and efficacy as God our
Savior. No man, no man is called of God. No man is sent to preach the
gospel except that man to whom and in whom Christ has been revealed
as God our Savior. glorious in holiness and determined
to save and mighty to save. When Moses saw Christ in his
glory, Then he understood what he later calls the goodwill of
him that dwelt in the bush. That is, he understood God's
purpose and grace in the saving of his people. Then in verses
6, 7, and 8, we see that God reminded Moses of his covenant
relationship with his elect. He said, I'm the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. That man who is sent
of God, that man who speaks for God, is one who knows God's purpose
of grace, his determination to save his people. The man who
preaches the gospel by the gift, anointing, and power of God,
the man who is called and gifted of God, understands that God
Almighty is a God of purpose, that His purpose is the salvation
of His people. I don't mean to say by that that
he immediately understands all the intricacies of that purpose.
The fact is we are ever learning of that purpose. But he understands
that God is God indeed and that he's a God of purpose. God's
purpose is the salvation of his people. He knows something of
the Savior's love and care and his compassion for his own. Look
at verse 7. The Lord said, I've surely seen
the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt, and have
heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know
their sorrows. He who is God, determined to
save his people, knows his people, and has compassion upon them.
And he knows that the Lord Jesus Christ will assuredly save his
own. He said, I've come down to deliver
them, verse 8, out of the hand of the Egyptians, to bring them
out of that land unto a good land, a large land flowing with
milk and honey. That man who's sent of God to
preach the gospel, like Moses, knows that he is sent on an errand
of mercy that is sure to succeed, sent to do a work that cannot
fail. I said to you Tuesday night,
and it's worth repeating, God never sent a man to do anything
at which he failed. God never sent a man to do anything
at which he failed. Moses was here called of God
to preach the gospel, knowing that he was sent on an errand
that was sure to succeed, an errand that could not fail. The
gospel of Christ cannot be preached and is not preached with uncertainty.
The trumpet of God does not give an uncertain sound, but a certain
sound. God says, behold, I will save
my people. The Lord Jesus shall save his
people from their sins. He says, I am come down to deliver
them and deliver them he will. He'll do it exactly as he is
ordained by the preaching of the gospel. Isaiah 55 11 is a
very familiar text. It needs ever to be born in mind.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall
not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which
I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."
God's servants, God's church is given the commission of God
to preach the gospel to every creature with this clear understanding. God will bless the work exactly
as he has ordained for the saving of his people. Failure is not
a possibility with God's church and God's preachers. They are
sent forth to carry the word into the four corners of the
earth for the saving of God's elect. We don't know how. We don't know when, we don't
know where God will make the work effectual, but by whatever
means he gives us, it's our privilege and responsibility to proclaim
the gospel in our generation. Would to God that every preacher
and every congregation where the gospel of God's grace is
known would give themselves utterly to this blessed work and wait
for God to work. We don't manipulate people. We
dare not try to persuade people by psychological manipulation
and emotionalism and such stuff to make a profession of faith.
That's of no avail to anyone, but only does harm. We simply
proclaim the gospel and wait for God to work. In this place,
we've seen, by God's grace and mercy, many, many tokens of the
success of the work. Back, what was it, Larry? 2005,
2006, someone there, he started a free grace radio thing on the
internet. I can't tell you the number of people we've heard
from over the years who heard the gospel of God's grace by
that means. People around the world we never see, but there
are people who hear the word and God calls out his elect by
the word of the gospel. In a word, that man who's called
and sent of God to deliver his people. is a man who knows who
Christ is, why he came into this world, and what he accomplished. This was clearly revealed to
Moses as he stood before the Lord Jesus at the burning bush. Who can fail to see that the
picture given here is a clear prophetic picture of our blessed
Savior, the Lord Jesus? Because he saw the affliction
of his people, By reason of sin and death, in due time, the Lord
Jesus came down here to bring us up to heavenly glory. He says,
the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed
is come. He says to us, let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself,
that where I am, there you may be also. The Lord Jesus said
to Moses, I am come down. And 1500 years later, Jehovah
Jesus came down from his father's house on high, came down into
this world of sin and sorrow as one of us. He came here in
our nature to redeem and save his spiritual Israel out of the
hand of their enemies. The purpose for which he came
was to deliver his people. To bring them up out of that
land to seek and to save that which was lost to seek and save
his sheep To bring all that the father gave him in eternal love
with him into heavenly glory Our blessed savior came down
here To bring us into a good land and large onto a land flowing
with milk and honey to bring us by resurrection Into that
boundless land of grace and glory where we shall forever enjoy
Everything that is designed of God and needful for us to the
everlasting satisfaction and delight of our souls Shelby and
I went over to see Bob and Mary Lou Friday and Bob is a Not long
for here, I hope, and pray. He's just sleeping. We didn't get to talk to him,
but soon, soon. The Lord Jesus will bring him
into that good and large land. And as we talk to Mary Lou, that's
not a thing to be dreaded, but rather a thing to be desired.
Not a thing to be feared, but a thing to be anticipated. And
he does this by resurrection. First, by spiritual resurrection,
called the first resurrection. He raises us from death to life
by the power of his grace. I remember back in August of
19, or 2006, I got a call one Saturday from Brother Bob. He
called and said, God has laid me flat on my back and I haven't
been able to do anything but listen to you on television on
Sunday mornings when the folks there are broadcasting. He said,
I've taught Sunday school in these religious places around
this part of the country for 25 years. And I wonder if it
would be all right if I come out and sit down and maybe God
will teach me something about the gospel. And Sunday morning
he's sitting right there. and been right there ever since
until he came bed fast. And God taught him the gospel
of his grace. Raising him from the dead. That's what the new birth is.
And there is another resurrection. The resurrection of these bodies
of which our physical death is but the anticipation. It's called
the redemption of the body. Mary Lou was asking me about
it Friday. What does the Bible say about
cremation? And I talked to her a good bit. The scriptures do
not forbid it, but I don't encourage it. You see, our Lord Jesus didn't
just redeem our souls. He redeemed us. And these bodies
shall be raised from the dead. These very bodies raised in immortality,
raised in incorruption to the glory of God. bury our dead in
anticipation of the resurrection. Then in verse 10, the Lord Jesus
sends Moses to deliver his people and teaches us that that man
who is used of God for the deliverance of his people is one who has
been sent of God, sent by the Lord Jesus Christ himself for
that purpose. Come now, therefore, and I will
send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Moses was commissioned
by God to be his prophet, a man sent for the salvation of God's
Israel, God's typical covenant people in the Old Testament,
sent to deliver them from the physical bondage in Egypt. In
precisely the same way, turn over to Matthew chapter 28, Matthew
28. In precisely the same way, the
Lord Jesus commissions gospel preachers at his church To be
his messengers for the salvation of his Israel his elect to deliver
them from their spiritual bondage Matthew 28 verse 18 and Jesus
came and spake unto them saying All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth all authority and all might Go ye therefore,
since I possess all authority and all might in heaven and in
earth, go ye therefore and teach all nations. Teach them the gospel. Teach them the gospel, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost. He doesn't say go baptize them
and teach them. He says teach them and baptize
them. Because those who are baptized
in the name of Christ must first know Christ. Baptism is the believer's
public confession of faith in the Lord Jesus. And having taught
them, he says in verse 20, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you all way,
even unto the end of the world." Christ's people, the Church of
God, God's preachers, are sent to proclaim the gospel of His
grace throughout the world. But Moses was sent specifically
to deliver Israel, only Israel. I know sometimes people get the
idea that our object is the salvation of everybody. That is not the
case. That is not the case. Our object
is the salvation of God's elect. The Lord Jesus sends us specifically
to save his people from their sins. He sends us to proclaim
the gospel for the saving of his people. I will send thee
unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children
of Israel. There were other slaves in bondage
in Egypt besides the Israelites. But God did not deliver those
other slaves in Egypt. He didn't have intention of delivering
those other slaves in Egypt. He sent Moses to deliver Israel
and only Israel. He was sent for the salvation
of God's chosen people. He calls them, my people, the
children of Israel. They became his people as a nation
by a covenant he made with Abraham back in Genesis chapter 15. So
today the Lord God our Savior sends gospel preachers specifically
to deliver his elect. No, preachers are not saviors. You and I don't save anyone. The church of God doesn't save
anyone. But we are, by God's grace, by
the gospel we preach, the instruments by which God saves his elect. God saves his people only by
the instrumentality of gospel preaching. Now that needs stressing
in our day, and it needs stressing in our minds. Yes, God is sovereign. Yes, God has predestinated the
salvation of his people and all those God chose in eternity and
predestined to everlasting life shall be saved. But they will
be saved in precisely the method God has ordained. You see, God
never gets in a pinch. God's never in a bind. He controls
everything. You and I plan things. We're
going to do this, this, and this. And then suddenly something comes
up and you get in a bind and you have to change plans. God
is never in a bind. God ordained the salvation of
His elect. by the instrumentality of gospel
preaching. That's the reason we spend our
resources, our energies, the preacher spends his life, missionaries
are sent to the foreign field to preach the gospel of God's
grace because God has ordained by the foolishness of preaching
that he would save them that believe. Once knew a fellow who
was involved in missionary work and his business was to Fly over
different places and just drop out gospel of John booklets.
Just drop them out. That's not missionary work That's
not missionary work Missionary work is the preaching of the
gospel Gathering together chosen redeemed sinners by the gospel
Establishing gospel churches and training men to preach the
gospel. That's what missionary work is.
That's what evangelism is God has ordained this as the means
by which he'll save his people Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God I know that if God determined to do so, He
could save sinners by speaking to them through a donkey. He
did with Balaam, he spoke to Balaam that way, but he had to
ordain that. He could save sinners by sending
an angel to tell him about salvation, or he could save them without
any instrumentality at all. But he has ordained the salvation
of his elect by the preaching of the gospel. Our Savior sent
Moses to the place where his people were, to the place of
their bondage. He said, I will send thee unto
Pharaoh. So the Lord Jesus sends his preachers
with his message to the place where his people are found in
bondage. Though chosen by grace and redeemed
by his blood, God's elect by nature are in bondage just like
all other men. Since this bondage is universal,
God sends his preachers, his servants into all the world,
even to the ends of the earth. And yet by his spirit, by his
wise, orderly disposition of providence, in due time, at the
appointed time of love, he sends them to each of his elect. He
sends his word and heals them. He says, as David did to Mephibosheth's
servant, fetch it, fetch it. God sends his servants by the
arrangement of providence, by the power of his spirit, precisely
to his chosen where they're found at the time of love. Oh, how
he arranges things. Brother Bobby, I just caught
his eye, has said to me many times, God's method for causing
him to hear the gospel was sending Judy Montgomery to be his wife. And God arranges things just
at his time. He sent Paul to Philippi just
when Lydia was there selling purple. Paul was arrested at
Philippi just by that Philippian jailer who put him in jail that
the jailer might hear the gospel. Onesimus was brought to bonds
at Rome just when Paul was there to preach the gospel. So it is
to this day. God at the appointed time of
love sends his messenger to his chosen to call them by his grace. The Lord Jesus sent Moses to
deliver his people from oppression and to overthrow their oppressors.
In verses 16 through 20 of this third chapter of Exodus, the
Lord assured Moses that he would overthrow Pharaoh and the Egyptians
and all those who possess the land into which he would bring
them and the land that he would give them for their own possession
and their own inheritance. You see, the oppressors must
be defeated if the oppressed are to be delivered. So it is
that our blessed Savior sends his servants out to proclaim
the gospel, assuring us of God's boundless free grace, and by
that grace assuring us that he will foil our enemies, every
one of them, sin, death, hell, and the devil himself. We are
sent forth to preach the gospel with this assurance, the gates
of hell shall not prevail against us. Oh, what a word. The gates of hell will never
prevail against God's church. It is our business constantly
to assault the gates of hell, not by marching in the streets
and protest and rallies and all the whoopee stuff that people
do and get themselves excited about in a political or civil
sense. No, no, no. You don't find any
of that in this book. You don't find any of that in
this book. How then do we assault the gates of hell? Preach the
gospel. Preach the gospel. Preach the
gospel. Preach the gospel. But that's
not working. It is working, and it will work,
and nothing else does. We proclaim the gospel of God's
grace, and the Lord Jesus promises us that as Janes and Jambres
withstood Moses to the face. Evil men, seducers, waxing worse
and worse will oppose us. No problem. All they can do is
oppose. All they can do is oppose. All
the political world can do is oppose. All the religious world
can do is oppose. All the civil magistrates can
do is oppose. They cannot prevail over God's
church. It can't be done. Years ago,
after the Iron Curtain, were brought down, the Soviet Union
broke up. Brother Bill Clark went to Russia
and they established a distribution center there for books. And as
they were getting on the train, everybody was just, the thing
that I'm told by folks who visited, everybody just look away from
me, everybody's suspicious of everybody. But somehow word got
out these were preachers. And getting on a train to get
ready to leave Russia, someone slipped Bill a note. I just slipped
him a note and walked away. And Bill sat down and read the
note. And the note read, there are
believers here. There are believers here. The
gates of hell shall not prevail by any means against the gospel
of God's free grace in Christ Jesus the Lord. Now, be sure
you don't fail to observe the word now. Come now and I will
send thee. God always sends his servants
to his chosen at the appointed time of deliverance. 40 years
earlier, Moses took it on himself to deliver Israel. And you know
how that turned out. That didn't work so well. He
decided to take matters into his own hands. What a horrible
mistake. But now, After 400 years of servitude
and affliction appointed by God had run their course. Now 40
years after Moses first stood to defend Israel, the time of
divine intervention had come. Now the hour of grace had arrived. Now God would prepare his people
to receive his word. The pleasant pastors of Goshen
were made bitter to them. That's always the way God works. He abases before he exalts. He strips before he clothes.
He wounds before he heals. He kills before he makes a life.
God will not be rushed. His grace is always exactly on
time. Now, one more thing. Look at
Moses' response to God's call. Verse 11, 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? At 80, he wasn't
so eager as he was at 40. Experience had sobered him. Keeping
sheep had tamed him. He saw himself now as one completely
inadequate, totally insufficient for this great work. That's always
the response of men who are called of God to preach the gospel.
Who am I? Who am I that God should send
me to this work? When men act by their own appointment
and put themselves, as it were, into this service, When they
act by their own will, they're completely confident in themselves.
They may have a pretense of humility, but they're completely confident
in themselves. The man who is called of God
has no confidence in the flesh. And I repeat, that man who is
sent of God is sent forth with a confident assurance that his
work as God's messenger shall not be in vain. Let us labor earnestly and zealously,
preaching the gospel of God's grace, knowing that our labor
is not in vain in the Lord. Our labor is not in vain in the
Lord. We know very little about those
whose lives are affected by the ministry of just this one congregation,
let alone others. And it's best that we know little
about it, lest we should be lifted up with pride and arrogance and
haughtiness. But this be assured of, nothing
done for Christ, nothing done for the saving of God's elect,
nothing done for the furtherance of the gospel is done in vain. So shall my word be. It shall
not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please. It shall prosper in the thing
whereto I send it. Amen.