Let's turn in our Bibles to Exodus
chapter 4. Our subject this morning is lessons
for believers. Lessons for believers. Now after
God persuaded Moses that he was to be God's minister, We come
to this passage that teaches us several valuable lessons. And here is the chief lesson
in everything we see here. If we would honor Christ and
do everything for Christ's glory, then in everything we do and
say, we must honor Christ. In everything we do and say,
we must honor Christ. Our goal must be to honor Christ. Now, first of all, when God calls
us, when He calls us, when He calls a believer, calling you
to be a witness, and part of being a witness means that we
honor, we are even more zealous to honor our daily responsibilities. You understand? When He calls
you to faith in Christ, He gives His child a zeal in that new
heart to honor Christ by fulfilling our daily responsibilities. Look at Exodus 4.18. And Moses went and returned to
Jethro his father-in-law. and said unto him, Let me go,
I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt,
and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go
in peace. At this point, Moses knows God
has called him to serve the Lord. He knows this full well. But
God's call does not excuse us from our responsibilities in
life. And so Moses goes here to set
his house in order. He goes here to speak with his
father-in-law, Jethro, not so much to ask his permission as
much as to show him courtesy. You see, Jethro had given him
a daughter to wife. Jethro had given him a daughter
to wife. It would have been very unbecoming
to the gospel of Christ if Moses would have just taken that daughter
and his grandchildren and left without even talking to his father-in-law. Jethro had provided him land
and a home for 40 years while he was in exile. And he was tending
to Jethro's sheep. He had the responsibility of
tending to his sheep. It would have been unbecoming
to the gospel to just leave and leave those sheep uncared for
and leave Jethro hanging trying to find somebody to take care
of his sheep. So Moses went to take care of that business. Nobody
ever was called to serve God like the Lord Jesus Christ. Our
Redeemer came forth as a servant, serving God. And everything He
did in this life, He honored those to whom honor was due.
He fulfilled all His daily responsibilities in life. To Mary and Joseph,
who raised Him as their son, He fulfilled all his duties to
rulers. Remember that time when they
came and said, ìThereís a tax required.î He said, ìPay it.
Pay it. Give to Caesar that which his
Caesars do.î He took care of his responsibilities in all his
work that he had to do as a man. And anybody that needed anything
from him, he provided it for them. Can you imagine the Lord
Jesus Christ working as a carpenter? Can you imagine what a faithful
employee He was? There had never been a faithful
employee like Him. In all cases, He fulfilled God's
will, He preached God's Word, He redeemed God's people, and
He fulfilled all His earthly responsibilities. It didn't relieve
Him. That heavenly work didn't relieve
Him of His daily responsibilities. And so, brethren, God's power
and grace doesn't excuse us either. It makes us more willing to honor
our responsibilities. Christ said, All things whatsoever
you would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. For this is the law and the prophets.
That's the sum and substance of the law and the prophets.
Whatever you would that men do to you, you do the same to them. Turn to Titus 2. I want you to
read this with me real quick. Titus 2. Right before the book of Hebrews.
Titus 2, verse 9. Exhort servants to be obedient
unto their... Titus 2.9, Exhort servants to
be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all
things, not answering again, not talking back, not purloining,
not trying to make the job last a long time so that you don't
have to do anything else the rest of the day, but showing
all good fidelity, showing good faithfulness to your employee.
Why? That they may adorn the doctrine
of God our Savior in all things. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, to all God's people that
he's called, and he's taught us this, that denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and
godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ
who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity
and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. Zealous of good works. So that's
the first thing. Our calling by God does not excuse
us from our daily responsibilities. It actually makes us more zealous
to honor those responsibilities, to honor Christ. Now secondly,
we get our timing and our comfort only from God. We get our timing
in what we should do, when we should do it, and we get all
our comfort in that which we do only from God. Look now at Exodus 4.19. And the Lord said unto Moses
in Midian, Go, return into Egypt, for all the men are dead which
sought thy life. Now the Lord tells Moses, now
is the time to go. It's time to go to Egypt. This
is God's time and that's the right time. God's time is the
right time. From eternity, our sovereign
God predestinated everything that He brings to pass. And He
predestinated the time in which He would bring it to pass. You
recall that He told Abraham that the saints would be in Egypt
for 400 years and then He would deliver them. Now is the time. It wasn't time back there when
Moses was trying to do it of his own will in his time, but
now is the time. It wasn't even the time back
when God was calling him and Moses was giving him those objections. It wasn't time to actually go
yet. But now, he has his house in order and it's time for him
to go. God does everything in the right
time. Listen to this. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law. And because ye
are sons, when the time came, God sent forth the Spirit of
His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. God does everything
in the right time. No man could harm Christ when
He walked this earth because Scripture says His time had not
yet come. But when that predestinated time
came, Scripture says, when we were yet without strength, in
due time, Christ died for the ungodly. He did it right on time.
Our Savior hung on that cross until the predestinated time,
until He had satisfied divine justice and purged all His people
of our sin. And not a minute or a second
before, but when it was done, He said, it is finished. See,
God's time is the right time. Three days later, it was the
appointed time. It was the time set by God. Three
days later, He came out of the grave. Forty days later, it was
the appointed time. He arose to the right hand of
the Father and sat down, and we in Him. You see what I'm saying? When He predestinated the season
for us to know Christ, for Christ to be revealed in us, He sent
a preacher and according to 1 Timothy 2.6, He testified in due time. He testified in due time. God
gave Christ to give His life for His people and redeem His
people to be testified to each of those for whom He died in
due time. And that's what He did when the
time was right. And so God sent forth the Spirit and regenerated
us. And the Scripture says that in Christ we've obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works
all things after the counsel of His own will. So brethren,
God's time is the right time. When He calls us and says go,
that's when we go. Not before. and not after. When He says go, He'll make it
known. And that's when you go. My times
are in Thy hand, the psalmist said. Can we say that? It's true. If we're His, my times are in
Thy hand. Deliver me from the hand of my
enemies and from them that persecute me. Here's what we'll find. We'll
find not only is the Lord's time the right time, we'll find when
the Lord calls us at His time, He will also comfort us. When
the Lord called him, He said, all the men which are dead would
salt your life. They are all dead. We don't know
how much time passed between when the Lord began calling Moses
back there when he appeared in that burning bush. We don't know
how much time passed. We don't know how much time passed
for him to go back to Jethro and set his house in order. We
don't know how much time passed. But we do know this, at the time
when the Lord said go, at that time all those that sought His
life had now died in Egypt. And He gave Moses that comfort
that they are all dead. What we see there is what we
read in Psalm 27 14. Wait on the Lord, be of good
courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. And that's what
He did to Moses. His time is the best time. So
we get all our timing and all our comfort only from the Lord. Don't look at things, don't look
at providence, don't look at how you're being treated, good
or bad. Look at the Lord and trust the Lord and wait on the
Lord. He'll make it evident. Here's
the third lesson. Nothing can have our hearts but
Christ and His gospel. Nothing can have our hearts but
Christ and His gospel. Look at Exodus 4.20. Exodus 4.20. And Moses took his
wife and his sons. set them upon an ass, and he
returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God
in his hand. Now you picture this. Moses starts
out for Egypt. He's got two things with him.
Two things. He's got his family, and he's
got the rod of God. He's got his family, his wife,
his sons, and he's got the rod of God. Two things he's carrying
with him. But God saw to it We're going
to see this in the next passage we come to over when he's at
the inn. But God saw to it that Zipporah
became angry with Moses and she turned her back and she went
back to her father's house with her two sons. And so whenever
Moses comes into Egypt, it's just Moses and the rod of God. That's all. What do we learn
from that? Well, go to Matthew 10. We are
to love our loved ones. We are to provide for our loved
ones. But nothing can come between God's servant and Christ. Nothing
can come between God's servant and the preaching of the gospel.
Nothing. Christ said, Matthew 10, verse
36, And a man's foes shall be they
of his own household. And whether it seems like that
with your loved ones or not, in your heart sometimes it will
seem like that. It will seem like that if you're
trying to serve the Lord and have nothing come between you
and God. Look at this. This is Christ
speaking. He that loveth father or mother
more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that loveth son or
daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh
not his cross and follows after Me is not worthy of Me. Now let's
look to the Lord Jesus Christ. He honored and provided for all
His loved ones. All those God the Father gave
Him from eternity, He honored them and provided for them fully. He provided for us fully in every
way. Even those who He dealt with
on a daily basis, He provided for them. in temporal ways. But He let nothing, absolutely
nothing come between Him and His Father. He let nothing come
between Him and the work the Father gave Him to do. You remember
whenever Mary and Joseph came and they, you know, they forgot
Him and they came back and they realized that they had left Him
and He's twelve years old and He's in the temple and He's disputing
with the doctors of religion. He's doing the work of the Father.
And they came back and rebuked Him. And our Lord answered them
and He said, How is it you sought Me? Wished you not that I be
about My Father's business? He said, I'm about My Father's
business. He didn't let anything come between Him and His Father's
business. One time Mary came while He was preaching. This
is... the one who raised Him, who gave birth to Him. And she
comes while He is preaching. And the Scripture says, they
said to Him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without
desiring to speak with thee. Me, like my mother, standing
out here with some of my brethren, sent a message in here and said,
your mother and your brethren want you to come outside and
talk to them. Listen to what Christ said. But He answered
and said unto him that told Him, Who is my mother? And who are
my brethren? And he stretched forth his hands
toward his disciples. And he said, Behold my mother
and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will
of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister
and mother. He pointed it out that that was
his mother and his father. His sister and his brother. His
disciples came to Him one time and they said, Lord, why don't
you eat? Master, eat. And He said, I have
meat to eat you know not of. And they didn't understand what
He was talking about. And the Lord said, My meat is
to do the will of Him that sent Me and to finish His work. And then He gave us this word.
Now here's what all this means. Here's the point of all this.
Christ said, ìSay youíre not there yet four months and then
come at the harvest.î ìOh, I got all week to work on a message. Iíll get to it later.î ìToday
I need to work on my house.î ìOh, I got a month or two before
I have to get to that. That work for the Lord, Iíll
work on my business right now.î Say not, there is yet four months
and then comes the harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift
up your eyes and look on the fields. They are white already
to harvest. What is He saying to us? He is
saying that when we serve our Lord, we are not allowed to pick
and choose in which ways we will serve Him and in which ways He
will be our Lord and we will be His servant. He is saying
we must absolutely surrender to Him. And He is saying this,
He is saying what what the Apostle Paul said, we must let nothing
come between us and the Lord and this business of spreading
His Gospel and doing whatever He has given us to do for His
cause. Paul said this, Brethren, the time is short, and it remaineth
that both they that have wives be as though they had none, and
they that weep as though they wept not, And they that rejoice
as though they rejoice not, and they that buy as though they
possess not. And they that use this world is not abusing it,
for the fashion of this world passes away. None of those things
are important. What's important is believing
Christ, following Christ, and spreading His gospel. That's
what's important. That's the point. Nothing can
come between us and Christ and His work that He's given us to
do. Now here's the fourth thing. As we go forth to serve our Lord,
to bear witness of Him, we should expect many to reject our witness. As we go forth to declare Christ,
we should expect that many shall reject our witness. Let's look
at Exodus 4.21. The Lord said unto Moses, When
thou goest to return unto Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders
before Pharaoh which I have put in thine hand. But I will harden
his heart that he shall not let the people go. God commanded
Moses to see to it that when he got there that he showed Pharaoh
all those signs that the Lord had given him into his hand.
And you'll recall that rod of God and those signs are a picture
of Christ in Him crucified. It's a picture of preaching Christ
in Him crucified. And so this is the Lord saying
to His ministers, to His witnesses, to me and to you, when you go
forth, it doesn't matter who you're in front of, whether they
be the most powerful men in the world, you preach Christ in Him
crucified. Preach Christ in Him crucified.
But, God said, I will harden his heart that he will not let
the people go. You know, usually when we think
about bearing witness of Christ or, you know, a young person
thinks of going and preaching the gospel and being called to
the ministry or something like that, we think about the good
case of God giving His people life and regenerating them and
bringing them to faith in Christ. We think about those things that
God will do through the preaching. And those are pleasant things
to think about. That's my goal. But we seldom think about the
fact that as we preach, this very message we declare
shall also be used to harden the hearts of many. That's a
serious thought. That's a serious thing to remember. But we should expect it because
God said He would do it. God said He would do it. When
things like that happen and men are going to oppose you, especially
if they're men who have a reputation as being believers of the truth
even, they're definitely going to oppose you. They're not just
going to leave quietly. They're going to oppose you.
But don't get upset and don't think that God's left you or
that the work's going south or anything like that. Expect it
to happen. Because God said it would happen.
And know this, as it's happening, God's doing it justly. He's doing
it justly. Go to Romans 1 and see this. Romans chapter 1. God hardens
men justly because of the work of the man that He hardens. Look here at Romans chapter 1
and look at verse 22. professing themselves to be wise,
this is when they knew God, professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an
image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed
beasts and creeping things. That's what Pharaoh had done
before Moses ever got there. Wherefore, wherefore, because
of this, God also gave them up. They gave up God, God also gave
them up. To uncleanness through the lusts
of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves
who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and
served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever.
Amen. Look at verse 28. Even as they
did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them
over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.
Why is the world gone so insane. Why has this country gone so
insane in the things that men are doing and allowing and even
rejoicing in? They didn't like to retain God
in their knowledge and God gave them over to a reprobate mind
to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. You can read
the rest of that chapter and it sounds like God is describing
our nation. But it's just. God does this just thing. We
should expect it. And then we should remember this.
God's working His will for the good of His people and the glory
of His name. Remember what He said about Pharaoh?
For this very reason have I raised you up, that my name might be
declared, that my power might be made known, that I might manifest
my mercy on those vessels that I've prepared before unto glory.
So He's always working His will in it. to glorify His name, to
make His power known and to show His mercy to His children. And
then we should remember this, when we see men reprobate and
forsaking the Word we preach and hating the Gospel we preach,
you ought to know this, the Word of God has not been made of none
effect by those that do not believe. It wasn't meant for them. When men want to argue with me
and want to call me names and this and that, you know, and
I just think, well, this wasn't meant for you. Wasn't meant for
you. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth, God said. It shall not return to me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereunto I send it. His word has not returned
void ever. Not ever. Now here's the last
thing. We're to believe and to preach
God's Word. We're to believe God's Word and
we're to preach God's Word even though we don't understand and
cannot speak of many of the intricate workings of God. We're to believe
God and declare the Word even though we don't understand a
lot of the intricate workings of God. Faith is not you being
able to explain everything about God and declare everything about
God. That would make you God. We don't
know everything there is to know about God. Actually, we don't
even know the tip of the iceberg. Now listen to this, Exodus 4.22,
God said, Thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord,
Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And I say unto thee, Let my son
go, that he may serve me. And if thou refuse to let him
go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. Now as we
go through Exodus, you know what we are going to see? We're going
to see God fill in a whole lot of details that He left out in
that word to Moses right there. We're going to watch God work
a whole lot of things that He didn't tell Moses about right
there. Moses at this point don't know any of those things that
are going to come to pass. This is all he knows. This is
what God told him to declare and that's all he knows. He don't
know what God's going to do and how He's going to bring all that
to pass. But he's to preach what he knows. That's what he's to
preach. God didn't tell him to delve
into things he didn't know yet. He told him to preach what he
knows. He was to preach the message of sovereign electing grace.
Israel is my son. That's what we're to preach.
We know that. We see that. We behold that. God saves by
choosing whom He will. It's discriminating grace. God
discriminates. He calls His people and He doesn't
call everybody else. Israel is my son. He's preaching
a message of judgment. If you will not believe, if you
will not let my son go, God said, I will slay thy son, even thy
firstborn. It's a message of judgment. And
it's a message of redemption. We're to declare, God said through
all this, back up in I think the 11th verse, He said, I shall
deliver Israel. I shall deliver them. And that's
our message. Christ has come and by His work
He has redeemed His people. I tell you what, those three
subjects right there, the electing grace of God, the judgment of
God, and the redemption by Christ Jesus the Lord, if you just had
one of those to preach, you couldn't exhaust it. Why do men want to delve into
things that aren't revealed? Listen to the Scripture. The
secret things belong unto the Lord our God. When He's ready
to make it clear, He'll make it known. But until then, it's
secret. Secret things belong unto the
Lord our God. But those things which are revealed
belong unto us and to our children forever that we may do all the
words of God's Word, of His Law, obeying Him. So we preach what
we know. Christ in Him crucified. Now
those are some lessons for believers. I hope God will bless that. Let's
stand together. Our Lord and our Father, we thank
You for Christ, our Redeemer. We thank You for bringing us
here today and assembling Your people. We thank You for giving
us a word, for blessing it to our hearts. We thank You, Father,
that You've done this for Your honor and Your glory. And we
ask You now that You'd bless these lessons to our heart. Make
us honor You in all of these things that we just saw. Make
us do it from one motive and that is constrained by the love
of Christ. Make us do it for honor to Him
and Him only. Don't let us boast, don't let
us look to ourselves, don't let us glory in anything we've done. Let us only glory in our Lord
Jesus Christ, your darling Son. In doing so, Father, we'll give
you all the honor and praise and glory Forgive us, Lord, of
our sins and our unfaithfulness. Thank You, Lord, for keeping
us because of the blood of Christ. We pray these things in His precious
name. Amen.