All right, let's be returning, let's return to Exodus 2. Exodus 2. So I mentioned in the last hour that this chapter has two main divisions, the first being the birth of Moses, or really Moses as a child. And the second half, this next division, is Moses as a man. And so we've seen now this picture, right? Well, Moses is born, and now Moses becomes a man, right? And the same thing with the child of God, we are born again, we are spiritually born, redeemed by Christ, and now we live, right? Delivered from the law and made alive unto God in and by the precious, prevailing, wondrous blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, what happens after our birth? We walk. We walk by faith. We walk by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what we're going to see here, how the Lord instructs his child, how the Lord shepherds his people, how the Lord provides for his people whom he has given birth and life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when we see something of what that walk of faith looks like here. So Moses as a man is going to be our focus now for this hour.

And this, so Moses, when the Lord brought Moses out, we're told in the scriptures, in Hebrews 11, 25, that he chose to suffer, to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, which he was set up to do as a son of Pharaoh's daughter, being adopted by her. He chose rather, nope, I'm going to suffer affliction with the people of God. God gave him that heart. God gave him that spirit. And so this view begins here in verse 11, Exodus 2, 11 and 12. It came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens. and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. He's looking at the burdens that his people are suffering, and he sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren, one whom he called brother. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

And Stephen, again, in Acts 7, when he's preaching the gospel to the Jews, says Moses was now full 40 years old. He's 40 years old now. And he added that he supposed Moses supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. And so this is what is going to set up God's purpose for Moses and how the Lord would train up Moses, how the Lord was going to conform Moses to the image of Christ, to the image of his son, to the image of what he had purposed Moses to be. And not just Moses, but even for the brethren, because the brethren weren't ready for this either. They weren't prepared yet.

And when you look at what Moses has done here, you think, and you'd rightly understand, this is not the way of godliness, what he did here. This was not right. This was sin, what he had done. Moses understood correctly. that God had a purpose for him, but the manner in which he went about trying to implement that purpose was wrong. It was sinful. It was the way of flesh. And Moses knew it was wrong, because the scriptures tell us he looked this way and that way. He wanted to make sure that no one's around. And then after he did the deed and slew the man, he buried him. He knew this was wrong, that this isn't the way to handle this. And so what he did here, he knew the will of God, and yet he went about implementing, trying to manifest and work that will of God in the flesh. It was fleshly. We're told, Paul says that, that the works of the flesh are murders. That is, no murderer will see the kingdom of God. No murderer will enter the kingdom of God. It's a picture that that's not what the Lord calls his people to do. That's not what he calls us to do, to bring about the will of God in this manner, turning to the flesh. That's the point here.

And so what the Lord would do is is that he would humble Moses. He's going to bring Moses low. He's going to strip Moses, knock Moses down a whole bunch of levels for how Moses sees himself. He's going to bring Moses low in himself, and it's good. Man is not gonna work the works of God by the works of the flesh. God is gonna do it. It's gonna be a miracle in which men know God has done this, not man, not man. And so the way the Lord does it is he humbles his servants. He humbles his people so that it's clear that you can't do it, God has done this.

And so this is a picture here where Moses is turned to the works of the flesh, and it yields what? No fruit. It didn't do anything to advance that purpose which God did have for Moses. And it ultimately resulted in Moses having to fear and run away. He had to flee away into the wilderness in shame. And what it shows us there is that that we, by our works, our strength, our ideas, our ways, do not bring about the will of God in that sense, in that purpose.

All things work together for good. And it is God's purpose to humble Moses, to use Moses. And this is how he brings it about. But that's because man does sin, and yet God brings good out of sin. But that doesn't excuse us sinning. That doesn't say that we should, therefore, do these things. But he's making us to know, yeah, we fail. We come short. But God is glorified in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.

So don't turn to the flesh. Paul told the Colossians. But now ye also put off all these anger, wrath. malice. To the Galatians, he added, strife and seditions. Don't do these things. These are works of the flesh. This is what this world does. This is what your flesh lusts to do. This is how we think we solve problems and how we get what we want done. But it's all fleshly, and they are not useful nor necessary for the kingdom of God. They're not needed. their counter to the kingdom of God.

James tells us that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. You're not bringing about what you think you're bringing about and what you're doing. It takes God to deliver us from that. And so Moses wasn't wrong in understanding what God's will was for him. He was right. He just went about a fleshly way to try and bring it to pass, to try and implement it. It was all carnal and fleshly, and God rejected it. And yet, as we'll see, God didn't leave Moses. He had a purpose, and he brought about good out of this, because only God can do that. He can bring even good out of sin. And he does so through humblings, and strippings, and trials, and putting Moses in the wilderness for a time, for a time to teach him, to prepare him for that work.

And then this begins now to unfold here in the next verse 13. Look at 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? Now, Moses is still thinking, all right, I did step one. yesterday. Step one, I stood up with my brethren, being smitten by the evil Egyptians, and they were persecuting them, and I stood with my brother. Step one, I took him out, and now he thinks he's going to engage his brethren now. He's going to deal with them a little differently, so he thinks. And while he does try to do that, they look at him as a wicked man. They don't see it. They don't see what Moses, by his flesh, was trying to bring to pass. They charge him with sin, because they saw his fleshly works. They don't see it. They don't recognize what God's glorious, eternal purpose is for Moses. They see, God, you're a sinner. You murdered a man. You're going to murder me? You're going to do what you did to him, to me? Is that what you're going to do? Is that how you're going to deal with this thing? And seeing that being rejected by them and being exposed for sin, he fled. from them for fear of his life.

Saying in verse 13, or we read in verse 14 rather, he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me as thou killest the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known.

All right, so Moses here had been walking by sight, not by faith. It's very common when the Lord saves us, we go about trying to do things and affect things and thinking we're doing good. And in our fleshly ways, which we're all guilty of and all very capable of, we do much more harm than we do good, because we do it by the works of the flesh. We're not mature. We haven't been trained and led. But the Lord does that to humble us, to deliver us from our pride and arrogance and thinking we're something when we're nothing. And it's good to be humbled. We all have to be humbled. We all are. Every one of us can reflect on how the Lord has humbled us. And it is good. It is good. It's painful, but it is necessary. And it is how we learn. And Moses is learning that.

To learn to minister the spirit to your brethren rather than the ministration of death and condemnation, which is pictured in what Moses did to that Egyptian. And what the Hebrews, therefore, then expected him to do to them. And so they rejected him. They refused him. And it's a reality that shows us that in this flesh, it is yet a corrupt, sinful, dead thing. And it's only by the grace of God, as he grows us in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, not that this flesh is improved. It doesn't. But sometimes by the grace of God, we can see those lusts and say, Lord, help me. Stop me from going down what I would do here. And cause me to walk graciously in the spirit. Cause me to walk in faith in this thing. And it's a part of suffering. It is. You're going to see that in the rest of this chapter. It's a suffering. It's a suffering that as you're walking in godliness, and bearing with the weaknesses of your brethren, and rather than turning to the flesh to satisfy that lust that rises up, it's a suffering to bear it in Christ. Trusting the Lord to bring good. Trusting the Lord to accomplish His will, rather than you trying to accomplish His will by a fleshly thing, a fleshly deed.

So having said that, Notice something very precious in what Moses said when he asked, wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And when Stephen was speaking of this in Acts 7, he said, sirs, as if for Moses, sirs, ye are brethren. You're brethren. Why do ye wrong one to another? And so the sense for us here. It reminds us, it puts us in perspective as we suffer, as we've been born again in Christ, as we saw in the first hour, Moses as a child, we've been born in Christ. And now we're suffering. We are fellow sufferers. Be mindful of that and how you speak to one another and how you labor in love toward one another, how you walk in faith with one another, how you are patient in hope toward one another, being fellow sufferers, sharing in this same plight, born under the same sentence of death, and delivered mightily by the grace and power of God, and now walking in faith where we're learning, it's not by the flesh, it's by the Spirit, where we're seeing our sin, it rises up and manifests, and we're humbled, and just as the Lord does it to me, I know he does it to his people. as it pleases him, and so were fellow sufferers.

We're children of God, being taught of him, being trained and made disciples of him who suffered for us. Jesus Christ suffered too, right? He suffered before us. And so we know that this is how the Lord does it. This is how the Lord trains up his people and strips us so that we don't think and go about in pride and arrogance and think too highly of ourselves. We're stripped in this same manner. So be mindful. Your brethren, too, are being taught. They will sin against you. They will offend. There will be offenses. Be mindful of that and suffer it. Suffer it. That doesn't mean that you don't talk to them, but you bear it. You love them. You speak to them in love. In love, you suffer that.

My fellow sufferers, my fellows, my brothers, Paul said, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy and hateful and hating one another. That's what the natural man is. That's what he is. Yet, among these fallen creatures, dwelling in these weak bodies and with lusts and passions and a bent toward the flesh, and fixing things in the flesh, and doing things in a fleshly manner, there's a child of God who's been born again in Christ. And as you see them suffering, you let the bowels of compassion be felt as the Lord deals graciously with you, deal graciously with your brethren in that same manner.

Titus 3, 4 through 6, but after that the kindness and love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done. We don't bring it about. We don't make ourselves righteous. We don't sanctify ourselves. God sanctifies us unto Christ. by Christ, and He's our righteousness, and He's our walk, and He's our faith, our light, and our hope, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

And so the sense is that these peculiar persons of the Lord's people in his church were sanctified by the Spirit. or set apart by the Spirit unto this salvation, to hear the gospel, to be humbled, to be chastened, to be stripped down, to make us to see my need and to cause me to cry out, Lord, have mercy on me. And that he does that to your brethren and your fellow sufferers in that. You're fellows in that. You're in that fellowship with God's people, united in union to them as you are to Christ, in the blood of Christ. We're made one with him who was persecuted by this world and suffered it in order to save his people. And you, brethren, as you walk in faith, hope, and love, you will suffer. You will suffer bearing it, and you are fellows in that suffering. That's the godliness that he reveals to us. And so when you meet a fellow sufferer, treat them as such, and live with one another, bear with one another, minister to one another in a spirit of love, in grace, in mercy, as the Lord has been gracious to you. for you and is merciful to you. So seek to do that in your walk of faith. Turn over to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 13, that chapter of love. And you ever wonder, well, love your brethren, Christ said, as I have loved you. And we might get stopped at, well, he loved us by laying down his life for us on a violent, bloody death, on a cruel instrument of death on the cross. Well, we're not all called to that. We're not all called to love our brethren and lay our lives down in that manner, but this chapter here, 1 Corinthians 13, does teach us that love revealed in suffering. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4, love suffereth long. Well, if we're called to do that, it's because Christ suffered for us. He suffered long for us and is kind Love envieth not. Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Very contrary to the flesh which is proud and arrogant and likes to show off and hurt people in putting others down. Do not, doth not love, doth not behave itself unseemly. Seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, and thinketh no evil. our Lord's grace and mercy toward us, how he dealt with us. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, that Christ has put away our sin. It's not that we're rejoicing in sin, but we do walk and love one another graciously and lovingly because Christ has put away our sin. That's the truth. We're saved by grace, not by the law, not by works, not by us making it happen. but you can love your brethren. You can walk in the truth that Christ has put away their sin. Let me be patient and bear with their folly, just as the Lord is patient and bears with my folly, and as they bear patiently with me and my folly, right? It's a shared thing. We walk together in that light. Love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth. The works of the flesh, they only fail. But this grace, this fruit of the Spirit, only succeeds. Only succeeds, against which there is no law. In other words, there's nothing to say against it. You ain't going to go wrong doing that. bearing and loving your brethren as Christ loved you. And these things aren't to be looked at and studied to know how others are to treat me. Now I can tell you, hey, wait a minute. You're not bearing with me. No, this is to teach me how I am to love you. It's to teach me how to treat you, even if you don't treat me this way. It's to say, you know what? As my Savior laid down his rights and what he deserved, which he didn't get in this world, in the flesh, as he laid it down and bore it, that's what I'm called to do, to suffer with Christ. That's suffering, right? Bearing it as he did and walking in faith with your fellow sufferers who are bearing it too. You see that? That's a sweet picture. We are fellow sufferers. We're in this fellowship together by the grace of our God. All right now. Even this failure between Moses and his brethren we see is ordained of God. Providentially, he brought this to pass to drive Moses out where? Out to the wilderness. Get out of there, Moses. It's not time. You're not prepared for this yet, and your brethren aren't ready for this yet either. Go out to the wilderness where I will train you. I will teach you. And he began teaching them by that rejection narrative. So verse 15, when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. And at this time, Midian doesn't have any problem with Israel. They're not a people of strife yet. They will be a people of strife, but they're not yet. That's coming later. In verse 16 and 17, now, the priest of Midian had seven daughters. And they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. And the shepherds came. These are wicked shepherds. These are evil shepherds who think only of themselves and fill their own bellies. They're just focused on them. and their carnal lusts and pleasures, living in pleasures for themselves, and they drove these seven daughters, right? A picture of God's people there, right? God's perfect, his number, his number of people, the people whom he's called there. They drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them and watered the flock. He watered their flock there. And so here's Moses driven out of Egypt, and yet we see this spirit which the Lord has given to Moses to stand with them who are persecuted, to stand with them who suffer and are cast out there. And them being persecuted, he stood with them. He stood with the Hebrew who was beaten by the Egyptian. He stood with these girls, these daughters, who were mistreated by these wicked shepherds, evil shepherds who cared only for themselves. And we know that he'll return to Egypt as a meek man who stands with the people of God. It's a trait which the Lord has given. It's a gift which the Lord has given to Moses. And it's a picture of what he gives to his people because Christians are a persecuted people. If you're going to bear with the infirmities of people, you're going to suffer. You're going to suffer, and you're going to bear, you're going to stand with them who suffer. We're called to suffer in Christ. Paul said it this way, all who will live godly in this present world, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And when you're bearing in love with someone, it's a form of suffering and persecution. You're bearing that. Rather than standing up for my rights and how dare you treat me like that, you're bearing it. You're trusting the Lord to accomplish His marvelous purpose, His eternal purpose in them who don't see it, and lay stripes upon you for it. Paul told Timothy, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And so these trials and difficulties and afflictions that the Lord calls his people to go and leads them through, because he's leading Moses through this, yet it requires faith. It requires a dependence on him. It requires his spirit and help, because our way of doing it is what Moses did. Just put him to death. Cut him down, verbally or physically, whatever you gotta do, just tear it up. I'll show you, I'll get back at you, that's the flesh. That's not working the purposes of God, though. And so he does it. We're patiently waiting for God to accomplish his will in our brethren just as he works it in us and bears patiently with us. All right, verse 18 and 19. And when they came to Ruel, their father, he said, how is it that ye are come so soon today? 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. Isn't that a beautiful picture of what Christ does for his people, right? To provide for us, to take us out from, there's religion all over this world. And there's a lot of not just the Muslims and the Jews and all the other varieties of false religions that are out there. There's a lot of so-called Christian religion full of wicked shepherds who feed their own bellies, who beat the flock, who fleece the flock, and just take for themselves and only care for themselves. But our Lord comes for his people. and delivers his people from those false shepherds who only feed you with the husks of dead religion to nourish you. And he draws water out of this word, not fleshly things. He draws the spirit out of this word and nourishes you, waters you, and quenches your thirst for righteousness, which is in Christ. All right, you see it's all of him. He watered that flock. And so we see that beautiful picture there. And the Lord tells us in Hebrews 13, 3, remember them which are in bonds as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body. See, that's what I'm saying. Christ suffered for us, and so you're going to suffer in him. Remember your fellows, your fellow sufferers, as being partakers with them in the body of Christ. bearing with them in that love and fellowship. We see it in Moses, and we see it in the body. The Lord trains us and teaches us this in the body. Verse 20, and he said unto his daughters, where is he? Where is this fellow who helped you? Why is it that ye have left the man? Call him that he may eat bread. constrain this fellow. We want to know this fellow who provides for you, who saves you and delivers you from cruelty and wickedness and does everything you need. Turn over. There's a picture here, as I was saying, in Christ in Luke 24. Luke 24, where do we see this constraining? 24 verse 25, on the road to Emmaus, those disciples are walking, sad and defeated because Christ was dead. So they thought. They were weak and unbelieving. And it says there, verse 25, our Lord responds, saying unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. This is the promise of God to save you. You don't save yourselves, it's the promise of God. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things? There it is, him suffering to suffer these things and to enter into his glory. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village whither they went, and he made as though he would have gone further, but they constrained him, constrained him, saying, abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them." A beautiful picture, right? The day is far spent. I've destroyed my life. I'm a sinner. I'm ruined. Lord, don't leave me. Abide with me. Stay with me, Lord. And feed me. Nourish me. Don't leave me to the hands of those wicked shepherds that are cruel, mocking, and beating, trying to squeeze blood from a rock, which can't be done. But Lord, you've provided everything. You've done the miracle of grace. Stay with me, Lord. Stay with me. And their hearts burned within them. They rejoiced in Christ once he departed from them. And they knew, because he left them with a blessing, they knew him. And he vanished out of their sight. And they said, they looked at one another. Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us, by the way, and while he opened unto us the scriptures?

Me opening the scriptures is nothing, but if Christ attend that word and open them to your heart, what a mercy, what a blessing if he does it and gives you that sight of him.

All right, now. Verse 21 and 22, and Moses was content, oh, and before that, we see another picture there, right? Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware.

All right, and Moses was sent of God. He is a messenger of God, and he was sent of God, and they entertained him. And Moses, right, and even these fellows here on the road to Emmaus. the Lord Jesus Christ they entertained, and he blessed them.

And so Moses, verse 21, was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter, and she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.

I'm sure Moses was trying to process everything that had gone down. What is going on, I thought. I thought that they would understand and that God had raised me up. I had this position of power that I could have done much good for the people of Egypt. And I thought they'd see that and I could do much good. But it wasn't going to be by carnal means and by the strength of man and the position of man in high places.

No, the Lord knocked Moses all the way down. He's trying to process what is going on. How did this happen here that I had to flee Egypt, go into the wilderness, and in that, that's where Moses is fruitful, if you will. That's where he brings forth fruit. And that son, Gershom, by which he knows I'm a stranger.

I thought this way, I thought I could do this and effect great change and great outcomes and great things in the world by doing it this way, and yet God stripped me down and now he's made fruitful. Now he has a son. Now he's made fruitful in humility and being put down. Here he's producing fruit out of sight from everybody.

It's the way the Lord does it, isn't it? We think it's going to go this way, and the Lord humbles us and brings us low in ourselves, and there is where you bear fruit of the Spirit rather than of the flesh. And that's what the Lord does. He humbles us, makes us content in him and what he's done and what he purposes.

We're made content in that. And therewith we find that truth, godliness with contentment is great gain. And so Moses' name suggests, son's name, Gershom, says Moses now was being reconciled to God's will. I'm a stranger. I'm a stranger and a pilgrim in this world. I'm not great. I'm not a mighty man in the world. I'm a stranger and a fellow sufferer with those whom the Lord draws near.

Let the Lord do it, right? The Lord does it and the Lord's in control. And so it's a picture here for us that We are strangers and pilgrims in this world. We don't go about accomplishing the things of the kingdom of God the way the world raises up kingdoms. It's not a fleshly thing. It's a spiritual work. It's a work of the spirit of God, which he accomplishes through various trials, through various strippings, through various chastenings and humblings and sufferings, because it is for a people born from above.

where only God can touch their heart and bring these things forth to the glory, praise, and honor of his name. Not my honor, not my praise, the praise and glory of Christ. And when we're his, we love that. Yes, Lord, that's exactly what is necessary and needed.

So then in closing here, it just says, verse 23, It came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.

Now they're beginning to suffer. Now they're being prepared of the Lord, being burdened and suffering themselves because the Lord has sanctified it to be so. to prepare them to be ready for when he does send Moses back, and they'll go out with him. Now they'll understand that the Lord had always purposed for Moses to deliver them. Now they'll see it, because now they begin to suffer and cry out to the Lord, sighing and crying out.

And it comes up before God because it's sanctified in the offering of the body of Christ. As it says in Revelation, the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. He hears it.

In verse 24 and 25, God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, and God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them. And so that's what we see there, brethren. We don't bring it to pass, the Lord does. And he does it in making us partakers in the sufferings of Christ and in the sufferings with his people.

And he then, out of that, brings glorious fruit to the praise, honor of his name. He gets all the glory in it. So I pray the Lord bless that to our hearts.