After four, Teresa and I had
a very enjoyable trip to Crossfield, enjoyed the people, and they
were very gracious and kind and accommodating, and we are glad
to be home. Thankful for Larry and Gene. I heard the messages were good.
I've got to listen to Larry's, not Gene's yet. I'm planning
on doing that first thing in the morning. But a lot of comments
from folks on how blessed they were by the messages and what
a blessing it is to have someone to preach for you when you're
not able to be here. And I'm sure thankful for those two men. Okay, Exodus chapter 4. Let me say in way of introduction
that the heart of fallen man always supposes that God in some
way is dependent on him. Ever since Adam fell, the first
thing Adam and Eve did was clothe themselves with fig leaf righteousness. They immediately felt as though
they had to cover themselves. But God wouldn't have any part
of it. Why? Because blood must be shed. There must be the shedding of
blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. And we'll see very clearly again
in our study tonight then Moses assumes that he has to provide
something of himself in order to be used of God. Now look at
verse 10. Verse 10. And Moses said unto
the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent. If you have a marginal
Bible, you may see to the side there, that means I'm not a man
of words. Neither heretofore, nor since
thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of
a slow tongue. Now a sinner who's dead in sin
cannot cannot be quickened, made alive by the enticing words of
man's wisdom. Don't ever forget that Moses
was flesh and blood, just like you and I are. All of God's saints
were flesh and blood, just like we are. A sinner who is dead
in sin cannot be quickened, made alive by the words of another
man who's dead in sin. We need a divine intervention
from God. We need God to intervene. We
need God to interrupt. We need God to butt in. That's
okay if God butts in. Because He knows what's best.
And He always does what's right. And it goes the same with Moses. The same it was with the Apostle
Paul. Now go ahead and stick your marker
here. I want to turn to one scripture
here in the beginning. 1 Corinthians. Chapter 4, if
you would. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 4. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 1. Paul said, and I, brethren, when
I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom
declaring unto you the testimony of God. In other words, the gospel. Verse two, for I determined not
to know anything among you save or except Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. Now, Paul could have said, I
determined not to know anything among you except whether you
believe the gospel. It's the same thing, same question
when you really get down to it. Christ and Him crucified is the
gospel. We've said that so many times. So let me ask you a question
with saying that. If there was but one thing for
us to concern ourselves with, what would it be? That's a soul-searching
question. For Paul, it would be, who is
Jesus Christ to you? He said, I'm determined not to
know anything except this. concerning you. Do you know Jesus
Christ? Who is He to you? What did Jesus
Christ do for His people? And in the end, we'll only have
one thing to concern ourselves with. It seems like our whole
life to figure that out. But in the end, we'll only have
one thing to concern ourselves with. We'll only have one person
to concern ourselves with, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
What think ye of Christ? What happened to him? Well, he
was crucified. Why was he crucified? Because
he must have died the just for the unjust. Have you seen that
you're unjust? In the eyes of God and in the
eyes of God's law, has God shown you that you're a sinner, that
you're unjust. Well, He died the just one for
the unjust, that He might bring us to God. That's the only way
we have of being saved. He was crucified in the elect's
place. All your sin, all my sin, all
the sin of all God's elect throughout all time, now that's a lot of
sin, was put on Him and He paid the penalty of sin's wages. He
paid the debt of sin for us. Well how was this accomplished?
Is it accomplished by the preacher? Not according to Paul. Moses
is going to prove the same thing. Now look in verse 3. Paul says,
And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling,
and my speech and my preaching." He's very specific here. My speech
and my preaching was not with enticing words. And that word
enticing there means persuasive. Now we persuade men to come to
Christ. Those whom God has called to
preach, we persuade men to come to Christ. But there's not much
persuasion in our words. Not unless God backs it up with
his power and with his mind. My speech, my preaching was not
within persuasive words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power. That's exactly what I'm endeavoring
to say. God's got to back it up with
his power, or our words will never be effectual to anyone.
I wish preachers could learn that. I wish I could learn it,
like I ought to know And that's what we have to learn. Have you
ever persuaded someone dead to do anything? We can't persuade
someone who's dead to do anything. Man has no gift or skill that
he can give life. Salvation comes by the Spirit
of power, the power of God. God uses what? The foolishness
of preaching to save them to believe. And by that preaching,
He demonstrates the power of His Spirit. God uses the preaching
of His Word to save them that believe. That's what the Scripture
says. By the foolishness of preaching, God saves those who believe. Salvation has never been about
anything that man contributes in collaboration with God. And
if that's not right, I'll be honest with you, I've missed
the Gospel. I have, I've missed it completely. And that's what
Paul is saying here in verse 5. He said, that your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now,
that's where I can lay my head and rest, knowing that I'm not
saved by a work of righteousness that I do. Because, and we've
said this very often, but if I can be saved by a work of righteousness
that I can do, then I can be lost by a work of unrighteousness
that I do. You see that, don't you? But
we're saved by the power of God, by the grace of God, through
and by the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't do anything to merit
my salvation. I love to think about this, and
I can't do anything to lose it, because my salvation's in Christ. It's the faith of God that saves
me, not faith in God. It's the faith of Christ that
saves a sinner, not their faith in Christ. Back in Exodus chapter
4 verse 10, I just wanted to show you that. Same with Paul
as it is with Moses. But here in Exodus chapter 4
verse 10, Moses says, I'm not eloquent. I'm not a man of words. I'm slow of speech, and I have
a slow tongue. And if you remember back in chapter
3 verse 18, God said, they shall hearken to your voice. And here
in chapter 4 verse 1, Moses said, they will not hearken to my voice.
Is God a liar? Well, the scripture says that
he's not, and God's not a man that he should lie or son of
man that he should repent or change his mind. Moses was making
God out to be a liar. God said they will hearken to
your voice, and Moses said they won't. Whenever we don't believe
God, now listen, this is so true. Whenever we don't believe God,
that's exactly what we're doing. We're making God out to be, we're
calling God a liar. We're saying that we don't believe
him, we're saying that we don't trust him, and we're saying he
cannot do what he promised. Last week, we saw three signs
that the Lord gave Moses to show the people of Israel that they
might believe. Do you remember what they were?
First was the rod and the serpent. Christ is the rod of God's strength
and God's authority. That rod was made into a serpent,
and then that serpent was made back into a rod. Christ our Redeemer
was made sin for us, and He put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself. By the hand of God in all power
and authority as the perfect sacrifice and substitute for
sin, Christ now sits at the right hand of God, forever making intercession
for us. In the eyes of God, we have no
sin. There's no sin on us, and there's
no sin on Christ. It's gone forever, and that's
what that sign pictures. Then we had the sign of the leprous
hand of Moses. God told Moses to put his hand
to his bosom, close to his heart, and that clean hand was made
leprous. What a picture that shows us
of our hearts that are deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. These pictures are deceitfully
wicked hearts. Man, Adam, was created without
sin, but he fell into sin by disobedience to God. Then Moses
put that leprous hand back in and pulled it back out and it
revealed that God had done a work, a work of grace in the sinner's
heart in the new birth. That hand that was leprous was
made clean again. A picture of regeneration by
the Holy Spirit, born again, born above, a new creation in
Christ Jesus. And then God here in verse 8
says, And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee,
neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they
will believe the voice of the latter sign. And it shall come
to pass, If they will not believe also these two signs, neither
hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take out of the water
of the river and pour it upon the dry land, and the water which
thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry
land." And that was the third sign, the water that was made
blood, Christ, the pure water of life. He was poured out into
death. And as his blood poured out on
the ground, sinners were made clean. And the children of Israel,
believing Moses had nothing to do with the ability, with his
ability of being eloquent in speech, slow in speech or a slow
tongue, they believed only because of the signs. that God gave them
by Moses. Christ being made sin, that's
what the first sign represents. Life given by a new birth, that's
what the second one pictures. And then thirdly, the shed blood
of a perfect Savior. And that's the gospel. Moses'
will and ability had nothing to do with it. And that's the
point I wanna make to you tonight. I think we see that very clearly
here. And neither does ours. Our will and our ability has
nothing to do with our salvation. Absolutely nothing. Whether you
speak well or not, it has no bearing on life being given to
one who's dead and trespasses in sin. And what a picture of
us, by nature, trusting in the arm of the flesh. It just comes
so natural to us. We, by nature, want to do something
that we might call ourselves saved. Regardless of how many
talents a man or a woman might have, he doesn't have the power
to make another alive in order to believe we must first be given
life ourselves. We don't have the power to give
life. We don't have the power to receive life. And we don't
have the power to sustain life. So we have to conclude then that
our ability has nothing to do with our salvation. I want to
be a good speaker. I want to be a good preacher. I really do. But my ability or
my inability has nothing at all to do with the Lord making his
word effective. How are we born again? Well,
we're spiritually born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man. And I love those three words,
but of God. That's how we're born from above,
of God, born of God. That is what God says here in
verse 11. Look at it with me. And the Lord
said unto Moses, who's made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb,
or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? And isn't it amazing? I was thinking
about this. It's amazing how the Lord here
dealt with Moses. No rebuke for his unbelief. He
just keeps teaching him. Isn't that the way the Lord is
with us? He just keeps teaching us. We
keep growing in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord.
But God does quickly remind Moses here of his sovereignty. You
see, God is the creator of all things. When he asked who made
man's mouth, he goes on to say, who made the dumb to speak? Who
made the deaf to hear and the blind to see? If not I, the Lord. Now, we can't have it both ways. We can't speak out of both sides
of our mouth. Either God is God, or He isn't
God. It's got to be one or the other. Either He's the Lord that kills
and makes alive, or He's a sham and a liar. He's either the God
who brings down to the grave, and He's the God who brings up,
or He's no God at all. He's either the God who works
all things after the counsel of His own will, or He's a deceiver
and He's an imposter, and I've put my trust in a liar. He's
either the Lord that makes poor and makes rich, the Lord that
brings low and lifts up, or He's a figment of my imagination.
But we know that God is God. He's the first cause of all things. Do you know what that means?
Just what it says. The Lord is in control of everything. He's the first cause of all things.
He's in control of all physical things. And the Lord is in control
of all spiritual and eternal things. Now in the physical,
if I can use the terminology, the physical realm, if a man
can't speak, if a man is dumb and he can't talk, can't say
a word, it's God that made him that way. Now if God is God,
we have to conclude that. In the spiritual realm, if a
man can't or doesn't speak the truth of God's word, God is the
cause of it. It has to be that way. It can't
be both ways. Over and over again in the four
Gospels, our Lord said, he that hath ear to hear, let him hear.
If you're a believer, you know what it is to hear but not hear,
don't you? Well, I'll tell you, for years
I heard audibly, outwardly, but I didn't hear inwardly. I didn't
hear with the heart. In the spiritual realm, if a
man can't hear the beauty of the gospel of Christ, it's the
Lord that made him that way. It's just that simple. God is
either God or He's not. If a sinner can't see, if he's
blind, we know that God made him blind. And in the spiritual
realm, it's the same. If we can't see the unsearchable
riches of Christ in the gospel, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. Had not I done this, he said.
This is why we pray for our loved ones, isn't it? I mean, this
is why we pray for those that we love that are lost, because
only God can give them eyes. Only God can give them ears.
Only God can give us speech that we may preach the gospel to.
Now, I want you to look at verse 12 and think about This, the
Lord says, now therefore go, and I will be your mouth, and
I'll teach thee what you shall say. Now here is where we see
that Moses is a sinner just like we are. Full of unbelief, full
of doubt, trust issues. My, that's a, it pictures me
so well. You know the only perfect person
that was ever born of woman was the Lord Jesus Christ. The rest
of us are in the same boat, we're the same lump. that Paul talks
about that's fashioned one into a vessel of honor and another
into dishonor by the sovereign potter. After all God's assurances
and all God's promises, God says here, I'll be your mouth. Don't
worry about how you talk. Don't worry about your, I'm convinced
Moses had a speech impediment of some kind. He said, don't
worry about it. He says, you go, I'll be your
mouth, and I'll teach you, I'll show you, I'll direct you in
what to say. And after all these assurances
and these promises, and then this final one, that I'll be
your mouth, Moses still doubts. I'm reminded of what our Lord
said in Matthew 10. He said, when they deliver you
up, take no thought of how or what you shall speak, for it
shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak. I
wish I could learn that in preaching. I wish I could trust the Lord
in my preaching. Sometimes I wish I could just
throw away my notes. Tonight's one of them. Wish I
could just throw them away. And trust God for every word.
Now I want you to consider Moses' answer here. God said, go, I'll
be your mouth, I'll teach you what to say. And then in verse
13, Moses said, oh my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him
whom thou wilt. Now again, in my margin, it says
should. In other words, I pray thee by
the hand of him whom thou should send. What Moses is saying is
this, you should send someone else who speaks better than I
do. At first glance, I admit that
this seems to be an act of humility on Moses' part, but I can assure
you that it's not. It's unbelief. It's an act of
rebellion on Moses' part when you really think about what's
being said. Now here's what Moses is saying.
God, you need better help than I can provide. You need to send
someone who speaks well. And as I said, God had just told
him that he'd made the mouth of man. God had made the mouth
capable of speaking. God had made the mouth to utter
and to communicate. And the deliverance of God's
people out of bondage had nothing to do with God needing help from
anyone. God can make a stuttering man
to be heard effectively. God can make deaf ears to hear
a stuttering man. And he's going to have to if
that man is ever to hear. God can remove all impediments
of speech. Salvation has nothing to do with
the ability of man. Well, you say that a lot. It's
important to know. Because many of your family and
friends are doing just that. They're trying to work their
way into God's kingdom. All of the evils that we commit,
I suppose unbelief has to be at the top of the list. Not believing
that God can do what He says He can. What unbelief that is. Unbelief is the only sin. We
say this all the time. The only sin that can keep you
from being saved. It's the only sin that can keep
you from being forgiven. It's the only sin that can keep
you away from the perfect righteousness of God in Christ. Unbelief. There's no other sin that can
keep you from it. Unbelief is the only sin that will keep you
out of eternity and heaven's glory. If there ever was a sin
that we need to be rid of, it would be the sin of unbelief.
Lord, give us faith. Help thou our unbelief. Thank
God that it's, as I said a moment ago, the faith of Christ, not
faith in Christ that saves us. Now in verse 14, we read, and
the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And he said, is
not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he could speak with.
And also behold, he cometh forth to meet thee, and when he seeth
thee, he will be glad in his heart. Now do you see what God
is teaching He is showing Moses that salvation, redemption, and
deliverance is not by man's might, not by man's power, but by His
Spirit. That's what we just read in 1
Corinthians 2. By My Spirit saith the Lord of
hosts. That's the only way any sinner
will ever be saved. But that does not change God's
ordained means of salvation by the preaching of the gospel.
That will never change. That's what God's ordained by
the foolishness of preaching. God saves those who believe.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. But you
know, this anger, I thought about this a lot today. This anger
is not wrath. This anger is more, Disappointment. This anger is
frustration. This anger is the kind that leads
to chastening. The kind of anger that a parent
has for a child when they're disappointed in them. And there's
always some consequence to sin. Moses lost the honor that he
would have had in speaking to Israel. The privilege of speaking
for God was given to Aaron, but God still speaks through a man. Don't ever forget that. That's
God's ordained means. How then shall they call on him
in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? Moses
was sent of God and he must go. I heard an old preacher say one
time that if you can do anything in this life but preach, do it. Do it. But if you're sin of God,
you won't be able to do anything else. That is so true. Verse 15, and thou shalt speak
unto him and put words in his mouth and I'll be with thy mouth
and with his mouth and will teach you what ye shall do. That's
what God told Moses. I'm gonna put words in Aaron's
mouth and your mouth and I'm gonna teach you what you should
do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people and he shall
be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth and thou shalt
be to him instead of God. So God gives Moses a voice and
it's his brother Aaron. And Aaron's gonna be his mouthpiece.
And it says Moses will be unto Aaron a God. And in all this,
God still speaks by man, but that man is only an instrument
and a voice. Man cannot attribute it all to
the salvation and deliverance of another. Only God gets that
glory, that credit. So we're right back to where
we started, that salvation is of the Lord. So what is the good
news in all of this? Where is the gospel in our verses
tonight? Well, look at verse 17. And thou
shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do
signs. We're back to this rod again.
Beloved, it's the rod that shall do the work of deliverance. Look
over a few pages to Exodus chapter seven with me. Look at verse
10. And Moses and Aaron went in unto
Pharaoh. And they did so as the Lord had
commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before
Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then
Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, now the
magicians of Egypt, and they also did in like manner with
their enchantments. For they cast down every man
his rod, and they became serpents, and Aaron's rod swallowed up
their rods. And he, God, hardened Pharaoh's
heart that he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had said. And
the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses
to let the people go. And God says, get thee unto Pharaoh
in the morning. Lo, he goeth out unto the water,
and thou shalt stand by the river's brink, against he come, and the
rod, which was turned to a serpent, shall thou take in thy hand.
And thou shalt say unto him, the Lord God of the Hebrews hath
sent me unto thee, saying, let my people go, that they may serve
me in the wilderness, and behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear. And thus saith the Lord in this,
thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will smite with
the rod, that is in mine hand upon the waters, and are in the
river, and they shall be turned to blood. And the fish that's
in the river shall die, and the river shall stink, and the Egyptians
shall loathe to drink of this water of the river. And the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying to Aaron, take thy rod and stretch out
thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon
their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools
of water, that they may become blood, and that there may be
blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of
wood and in vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did so as
the Lord commanded, and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters
that were in the river, and the sight of Pharaoh, and the sight
of his servants, and all the waters that were in the river
were turned to blood." Christ is the rod of God's strength
and authority. Look at the next chapter, Exodus
8 verse 5. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying to Aaron, stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over
the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause
frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. And Aaron stretched
out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came
up and covered the land of Egypt. Now look at verse 7. And the
magicians did so with their enchantments. and brought up frogs upon the
land of Egypt." I was thinking to myself as I read those verses,
Satan is a good counterfeit, isn't he? Good counterfeit. So much so that the elect of
God would be deceived, but it's impossible for them to be deceived. Look at And besides that, that
was a pretty dumb thing. There was enough frogs already.
I don't know why the magicians of Pharaoh brought more on. Look at chapter 9, verse 23. And Moses stretched forth his
rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail. And the
fire ran long upon the ground, and the Lord rained hail. upon
the land of Egypt. And we could go on in Exodus
chapter 10 verse 12, Moses stretched forth his rod and locusts covered
the land. In chapter 14 verse six, the
rod was stretched over the sea and it divided the Red Sea and
the children of Israel went across on dry ground. In Exodus chapter
17, Moses took that rod and he struck that rock and water came
flowing out of it. Friends, that rod is Christ. And in that same chapter 17,
Amalek came to fight. And as long as Moses held that
rod up, Israel prevailed. But when his hands grew heavy
and dropped down, Amalek prevailed. But, so what'd they do? They
scooted up a rock or something that had Moses set on it, and
Aaron and a man by the name of Hur held his hands up. And as long as he did so, they
won. What a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ! What a picture
of the rod of God's authority and strength to whom we must
constantly look. As long as they looked to that
rod. As long as they looked to Christ.
They prevail. Lord, you're the rod of salvation. Lord, you're the rod of judgment.
You're the rod of justice. You're the rod of comfort. Thy
rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Oh, don't you find comfort
in Christ? What would we do without Christ? What would we do? Well, I know
what we'd do. We would perish in our sin. Verse 29, I'll close. And Moses
and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children
of Israel. And Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had
spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.
And what happened? And the people believed. And
when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel
and that he had looked upon their affliction, what did they do?
Then they bowed their heads and worshiped. This is the result
every time that a chosen sinner believes. They bow their hearts
in submission and they worship God. God enable me to worship
you in spirit and in truth.