Exodus chapter 4, title of the
message, A LESSON IN SERVICE. A LESSON IN SERVICE. We have in these verses, MOSES'
RELUCTANCE TO GO. to SERVE the LORD. Everyone whom God saves is a
SERVANT. Every person in this room whom
the Lord has saved, you are a SERVANT. And here in the Scripture, SERVANT
means BONDSLAVE, a WILLING BONDSLAVE of Jesus Christ. And I am a SERVANT
of God, and you are too. Paul in Romans 1.1 and Titus
1.1 called himself a SERVANT of Jesus Christ. Then he identified
himself as an Apostle, but he put the name SERVANT first. Peter
and James identified themselves as servants of God and of Christ. We are His servants, and I'm
glad that we are. WE SERVED SOMEONE. WE SERVED
SOMEONE, I PROMISE YOU, WE SERVED SOMEONE. WE SERVED OURSELF, WE
SERVED SIN, AND WE SERVED SATAN AT ONE TIME. BUT GOD DELIVERED
US, HE TRANSLATED US OUT OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS INTO THE
KINGDOM OF HIS DEAR SON, AND WE BECAME SERVANTS OF GOD, WILLING
BONESLAYERS. NO ONE HAD TO DRAG ME TO CHRIST.
THE HOLY SPIRIT brought me to Him, and I became His servant. And all whom the Lord saves are
His servants. And listen, wherever He has placed
you, wherever He's placed you, there you are to serve Him. Don't
think that the only ones who serve Him are the ones who have
a An office in the church, like me, as a pastor, pastors, deacons,
you know, all are. Wherever God's put you, you are
there to serve Him. That's why you're there, is to
serve Him. And when we see this to be our
calling, it sheds a new light on the workplace. Years ago,
I took a job at a place, and when I went my first day of work
there, I just wanted to cry. I mean, I thought, Why in the
world am I here? I'd never worked with so many
drunks. I'd never worked with so many womanizers in my life. Now, why am I here? And at first,
for the first probably month or so, I was just so depressed
when I went to work. And one day it dawned on me,
you're here because God put you here. I'M A SERVANT OF THE LORD,
I'M HERE BECAUSE THIS IS WHERE GOD PUT ME, AND IT CHANGED MY
ATTITUDE THE REST OF THE TIME. I HAD NO PROBLEM, I HAD NO DISTRESS
GOING INTO WORK NO MORE BECAUSE I REALIZED, AND IT'S SO, GOD
PUT ME HERE AND THIS IS WHERE I'M TO SERVE HIM. YOU ARE THE
LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Was all the light needed to be
gathered in one building? No, it's to be scattered just
like He scattered the stars all over heaven. He has scattered
His people who are the light of the world all over this world.
Now you take THEM out of it and you want to see corruption? You're
really going to see corruption if God took His people out of
this world, took the gospel out of this world. You're the light
of the world, you're His servants where He's put you. And the Lord
Jesus Christ put the highest honor on being a servant when
HE became a servant. The Son of God who didn't make
a reputation for Himself, but He became a servant. He said,
I didn't come to be ministered unto, but to minister and to
give my life a ransom for many. I came to minister. It says in Isaiah 42, Behold
My servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul delights,
behold, MY SERVANT! And God says, whom MY SOUL delights, I put MY SPIRIT upon
him. He says in Isaiah 52 verse 3,
Behold, MY SERVANT shall deal prudently HE SHALL BE EXALTED
AND EXTOLLED AND BE VERY HIGH. HE IS MY SERVANT, JESUS CHRIST,
LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, BECAME A SERVANT." Now, the disciple
is not greater than his Lord, is he? I know every believer
here is glad to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know
that. I know that. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
serve. You remember when He washed the
disciples' feet? Turn over to John chapter 13,
John 13. In John 13, let me read you a
little bit of that, give you a little light on His attitude and conduct. Now that whole chapter has a
lot to do with what He did in washing their feet, but look
at verse 13. Now after He washed their feet,
He said, You call Me Master and Lord, and you say, Well, for
so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master,
have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet.
You ought to serve one another. That's what He's saying. He's
saying you ought to serve one another. FOR I HAVE GIVEN YOU
AN EXAMPLE IN SERVICE THAT YOU SHOULD DO AS I HAVE DONE TO YOU.
VERILY, VERILY, I SAY TO YOU, THIS SERVANT IS NOT GREATER THAN
HIS LORD, NEITHER IS HE SENT GREATER THAN HIM THAT SENT HIM.
If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. If you
know this, if you know this example that I've just given you, happy
are you if you do them. Our Lord was a servant. Now we
go to verse 10. and Moses said unto the Lord,
O my Lord, I am not eloquent. Neither here to or say, I'm not
eloquent now and I haven't been eloquent since I've been talking
to you. Nothing has changed. Well, God's not looking for eloquent.
He's not looking for eloquent preachers. If so, He would not
have called the Apostle Paul, would He? They wrote this about Paul. Paul
mentions this. This is what was written about
Paul in 2 Corinthians 10. They say his letters, for his
letters say they are weighty and powerful. You read the epistles
Paul wrote, they are powerful, aren't they? But his bodily presence is weak. It's weak and his speech contemptible. He's not a good speaker. Paul,
you know, we think of Paul being so powerful, but they say when
he comes into town his presence is weak, his bodily presence
is weak, and when he opens his mouth it's just contemptible,
his speech is contemptible. You see, God uses men who must
rely on HIM, rely on HIS ability to preach the unsearchable riches
of Christ. No amount of eloquence will enable
a man to preach the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. God enables
us to do that. It's God who, as Paul said in
2 Corinthians 3, that God has made us able ministers of the
New Testament. God has done that, not of the
letter of the law but of the Spirit. He says in 2 Corinthians
2, We are unto God a sweet saver of Christ, in them that are saved,
and in them that perish. To the one we are the saver of
death unto death, and to the other saver of life unto life.
Who is sufficient for these things? I am not sufficient for these
things. Ben, you are not sufficient. Tommy, you are not sufficient
to stand up here. God is our sufficiency. If God
does not speak this morning, nothing is going to happen. NOTHING
SPIRITUALLY, NOTHING GOOD IS GOING TO HAPPEN IF GOD DOESN'T
SPEAK. HE'S GOT TO SPEAK. MOSES IS USING
CARNAL REASONING. REALLY THIS IS SAD. You know
over in the New Testament it says Moses was faithful in all
his house. When you get to the New Testament, we don't read
the sins of these prophets of the Old Testament. We read them
in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, they're not
mentioned. It just says He's faithful in all His house. He
doesn't even want to go. The man doesn't want to go. He
says, Send somebody else. Send somebody else. I'm not eloquent. That's no excuse. He's using carnal reasoning and
he's not listening to what God is saying. Listen here, the I
AM is sufficient to meet all his needs. The I AM is sufficient
to meet all our needs, all of them. And Moses is yet to learn
what Paul learned and he will learn it just as every child
of God will learn this and everyone whom God calls a preacher will
learn this. My grace is sufficient for you. You say, you know, Paul,
when God told him that, Paul prayed three times earnestly
that God would remove the thorn in the flesh, whatever it was,
a messenger of Satan to buffet him. And God said to him, My
grace is sufficient for you. Whatever God sends your way,
His grace is sufficient to carry you through. We have that in
God's Word. His grace is sufficient. And
Paul says this, for my strength, he's quoting the Lord, my strength
is made perfect in weakness. Your weakness, not God. There's
no weakness in God. And he says here, most gladly,
and this is an attitude we should have, most gladly therefore will
I rather glory in my infirmities. You have an infirmity? You have
one? Glory in it. Here's why. Therefore
I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities. I don't complain about them.
He said I take pleasure in them. And here's why. In reproaches,
necessities, persecution, distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I
am weak, then am I strong in Christ. Then is my witness strong. God's grace is sufficient. And
let us never be guilty of placing more confidence in an eloquent
tongue than in God who made the tongue. God made the tongue. And then
He calls upon Moses to THINK. Think Moses, I want you to use
your mind here a little bit. Who made? And this is an astounding
verse in verse 11, don't let it go over your head or my head.
And the Lord said to him, who made man's mouth? Who made your
mouth? Now listen, this might be tough for some to take. Who
maketh the dumb that mute? Who makes the person mute? Can't
speak. Who makes them deaf? Or the seeing, who gives sight? Who enabled you to see me standing
here this morning? Or the blind? That's a powerful word. God said,
I made the mute. I made him deaf. I made him blind. And I made
him see. Spiritually this is so because
if we see Christ this morning, God gave us eyes to see, didn't
he? But I tell you this, He judicially
blinded Israel. They are blind right now to this
day because God blinded them judicially and they can't see.
I believe someday they will, but not right now. God blinded
them. He tells us that in Romans. This
is who God is. We don't hide this part of God.
This is who He is. Who made? You know, your tongue
is not a problem to me. Your lack of ability to preach
is not a problem to me. And then God promises to be with
Moses' mouth. Look at this. Let me read something here before
I go on. I wrote this down on a side note in this matter of
speaking. And he's talking about I'm not
eloquent. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2.1, And our brethren, when I
came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, man's
wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. I didn't come
to you that way. God doesn't use that. BUT LISTEN
HERE, NOW THEREFORE GO, GOD SAYS TO HIM, GO, AND I WILL, THAT
SHOULD HAVE BEEN ENOUGH, THAT SHOULD BE ENOUGH, I WILL
BE WITH THY MOUTH, AND TEACH THEE WHAT THOU SHALT SAY, SO
GO, GO, AND THAT'S ENOUGH. HE SAID I'LL
BE WITH YOU, I'LL TEACH YOU WHAT TO SAY. And Moses, you know what
one of the things Moses does here, he forfeits the privilege
of being able to go as the sole spokesman for God. He forfeited
that privilege and his brother went with him. I'll be with your
mouth. You see, the message is of God
and the power to deliver the message is of God. I recognize
this every time I come out here. I ask the Lord to send forth
His Word in power, I always do. I recognize if God doesn't speak,
we're in trouble, if He doesn't speak. But I also recognize this,
what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.20, Now then we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead. speaking in the place
of Christ. This is the voice of God. God
uses men to preach, He uses their voices. John said, I'm just a
voice crying in the wilderness, but I am a voice. And I'm a voice
God's using. And I'm an ambassador of Christ,
representative of Christ, speaking on His behalf. That's what our
ambassadors do, don't they? They represent the United States
when they go out. They speak on behalf of the United States.
I speak on behalf of Christ. That's what Paul said. We are
a God's mouthpiece, so to speak. But the message and power is
of God. Speaking gracefully is not the
same as speaking powerfully. WORLD OF DIFFERENCE! WORLD OF
DIFFERENCE! There's a lot of people who are
good orators. I listen to them. I listen to,
usually every week, I listen to great speakers. I bring it
up on the internet, great speakers. I like to listen to them. But that's not going to do anything
for us. That's not going to do a thing for us. Speaking gracefully is not the
same as powerfully, and we must be careful not to hone the life
out of our message. I was more guilty of that, I
think, when I was a young preacher. You know, you're trying to just You need a lot more concern about
your delivery than the message. I'm speaking from experience.
The Lord teaches His preachers. God said to Ezekiel, prophesy,
preach, son of man. And I ask you this, how much
eloquence is needed to make those dry bones live? No amount of
eloquence in the world could do that. God has to speak. He said, You prophesy. And you
know when He began to preach, you know what happened? The bones
began to live. He began to watch these bones
come together. You know when He said, Ezekiel,
can these dry bones live? And it's evident Ezekiel was
taught of God because you know what He said? Lord thou knowest
Most of the preachers today would say, Absolutely, just give me
an opportunity here. But he said, Lord, you know,
I don't know. The Lord knoweth them that are His. Almighty God put the greatest
honor on preaching when He anointed His Son to be a preacher. Isaiah
61 the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath
anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek preaching is to be
anointed by the Holy Spirit and you know how a preacher is anointed
by the Holy Spirit you know he preaches Christ that's the spirit
of prophecy the scripture says when he preaches Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That's the spirit of prophecy.
Not telling you about or talking to you about Armageddon and what's
going to happen here and what's going to happen there. No, it's
preaching Christ. That's how you know the Holy
Spirit is present when Jesus Christ is getting the honor.
That's how you know He's present. When He's anointed by the Holy
Spirit. I don't just call, I don't call any man that stands in the
pulpit a preacher. I don't. That's a different level,
that LITERALLY is a different level. There are some who are able,
you know, Ben and Tommy are able speakers here, they're able teachers,
you know, stand here and handle the Word of God, but preachers? Not yet, not yet. You know, I've learned, forget
it, and he said, Oh my Lord, send I pray thee by the hand
of him whom thou wilt send. He's still arguing with God.
Send somebody else that you should send, but not me, not me. And I want you to understand
something here. Godly humility is very desirable, is very desirable. It's the best dress one can be
clothed with is true humility. However, to refuse to take one's
place when God has called him to it is not humility. This has turned into rebellion.
He's now rebelling against God. He's rebelling, that's what he's
doing. And how do I know, how do I know that Moses' humility
here is not true humility? It's easy, it's easy to know.
The next verse, God was angry with him. God's not angry with
true humility. God was angry with Moses because
that's not true humility. It's rebellion. Send somebody
else. Send somebody else. You see,
Moses' problem was not slow of speech, but slow of heart to
believe God. That's a sad situation to be in. HOW MUCH ELOQUENCE DOES IT TAKE
TO MAKE US SUFFICIENT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL? ABSOLUTELY NONE,
IT JUST TAKES GOD. And here's God's providence we
see here already at work, and we see God's grace and God's
patience with Moses. And I tell you, we live long
enough, we see God's grace and patience with us. AND THE ANGER
OF THE LORD WAS KINDLED AGAINST MOSES, BUT HE SAID, IS NOT AARON
THE LEVITE THY BROTHER? I KNOW HE CAN SPEAK WELL, AND
ALSO HE IS COMING TO MEET THEE. AND WHEN HE SEES YOU HE WILL
BE GLAD IN HEART, AND YOU WILL SPEAK TO HIM, AND YOU WILL PUT
WORDS IN HIS MOUTH, AND I WILL BE WITH THY MOUTH, AND WITH HIS
MOUTH, AND I WILL TEACH YOU WHAT YOU SHALL DO. HE SHALL BE THY
SPOKESMAN TO THE PEOPLE, EVEN HE SHALL BE TO THEE INSTEAD OF
A MOUTH, AND THOU SHALT BE TO HIM INSTEAD OF GOD." You know
Moses, if he had just believed God and went, it may be that
God would have corrected his speech, you know that? I thought
about that, I thought if Moses would have just believed God
and went, God could correct it. He said, WHO MAKES YOUR MOUTH?
Who makes a man dumb and who makes him able to speak? Who
makes a man blind and able to see? I do that. I can correct
your speech, but he didn't believe God. Standing there talking to
a burning bush. Isn't that amazing? The bush
is not burning, the voice is coming out of it, and he doesn't
believe. That's sad. Faith is the gift
of God. It truly is the gift of God.
But I like here, and thou shalt, verse 17, thou shalt take this
rod in thine hand wherewith thou shalt do sign. Here's the, here's all the signs, all the plagues
that Moses did, he did by this rod. As I said
last week, that rod's Christ. Moses, you're worried about,
you're worried about your speaking ability. But the power is in
the rod, the power is in Christ. There's the power in the Lord
Jesus Christ. But it's sad, Moses was, and
here's what's sad, here's what's sad. God said, Go, I'll be with
you, I'll be with your mouth. And he said, No, I can't go,
I'm not eloquent, send somebody else. And he said, and God says,
I'm gonna send your brother with you, Aaron. He speaks well. And
Moses was ready to go. He's ready to go. He's ready
to go when God said he'd send Aaron, his brother. Moses was
more ready to trust in the arm of the flesh than the word of
God. Isn't that sad? Aaron's gonna
go. Now I'm ready to go. Good. Aaron's
gonna go with me. Well, you know what Aaron ended
up proving to be? A PAIN! You know what he did? He made
a GOLDEN CALF! He made a GOLDEN CALF! There goes your TRUST, you TRUST
with Aaron doing the speaking for you, HE'S GONNA MAKE A GOLDEN
CALF! And cause you a lot of headaches
over that. Someone said so often, The very
ones we have confidence in turn out to be the very ones that
cause us the greatest sorrow. I have seen that, I've seen it,
more than once, I've seen it. But listen, if all forsake us,
is not the Lord with us? Is He not on our side? Is He
not on our side? I like what Paul wrote in 2 Timothy. Paul said in chapter 4, 16-17,
At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men, he said, forsook
me. I pray God it may not be laid to their charge. notwithstanding
the Lord stood with me everybody else left me but the Lord stood
with me and he strengthened me he strengthened me that by me
the preaching might be fully known and that all the gentiles
might hear and i was delivered out of the mouth of the lion
the lord stood with me everybody else took tail and run they did
It's like they did when the Lord, they came to crucify the Lord,
all the sheep scattered. They all ran. We're a bunch of
chickens, aren't we? We really are. Unless the Lord gives us
a backbone, we don't have one. We don't have it. Not unless
He strengthens us. Like, oh, will I just stand against
all those 400 prophets? Then Jezebel says, I'm going
to kill him, and then did he get out of town. He was scared
to death. Took off running. Jezebel is
going to kill me. I'm going to take my head off.
I'm the only one left. The Lord said, You're not the
only one left. There are 7,000 men I have reserved who do not bow
their knee to Baal. It's not hard for us to unman
ourselves. It's just not hard. And then Moses returns to Egypt,
and I'm going to close here. And Moses went and returned to
Jethro, his father-in-law, after God said, I'll send Aaron with
you. He said, okay. He heads back to Jethro and tells
him, he said, let me go. I'll pray thee. I'm going to
go back to Egypt, see if my brothers are alive. And Jethro said, go
in peace. A lot different than Jacob when
he tried to leave. And old Abel chased him. He wouldn
t let Jacob go because he knew the Lord blessed him because
Jacob was there, but the Lord gave Moses favor with his brother-in-law. And the Lord said to Moses in
Midian, Go, returning to Egypt, for all the men are dead which
sought thy life. God KILLED EVERY ONE OF THEM! Is that too hard? EVERY PERSON WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE
GOD, SOONER OR LATER GOD IS GOING TO KILL THEM. THAT'S THE TRUTH. THAT'S WHO GOD IS. THAT'S THE
GOD PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT. THAT'S WHO HE IS. HE THAT
BELIEVES NOT IS WHAT? CONDEMNED ALREADY. CONDEMNED
ALREADY. And Moses took his wife and his
sons, and set them upon an ass, and returned to the land of Egypt,
And then Moses took the rod of God in his hand, and he went
to Egypt with a message of death to Pharaoh in Egypt, but a message
of life to Israel. This Gospel now, I'm telling
you, the good news of the Gospel is a Savior of life unto life
to some, and a Savior of death unto death to some. That's the
TRUTH! It's the TRUTH! The Lord said to Moses, when
you go to Egypt, you do all these wonders before Pharaoh, When
I'm going to harden his heart, we are told that Pharaoh hardened
his heart and God hardened his heart. God left him alone. That's
all he has to do is harden your heart and leave you alone. He'll
say to Pharaoh, let my son Israel go. And I say to thee, he said, let my
son go that he may serve me. And if he refused, let him go.
I'm going to kill his firstborn. He said, I'm going to slay. I'm
telling you. GOD SAID I KILL AND I MAKE A
LIFE, I WOUND AND I HEAL. I THE LORD DO ALL THESE THINGS,
I DO ALL THESE THINGS. WILL GOD KEEP HIS WORD? WILL GOD KEEP HIS WORD? TO THE UNBELIEVING WORLD IT'S
A MESSAGE OF JUDGEMENT AND DEATH BUT AT THE SAME TIME WE HAVE
A MESSAGE OF HOPE, A MESSAGE OF GRACE, message of life to
sinners. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved from the wrath of God that's coming
on this world. All right, Lord willing, we'll
look next week at Moses learns another lesson in obedience. It says in verse 24, It came
to pass, by the way, in the end the Lord met him, and God sought
to kill Moses. God sought to kill him. And it has to do with circumcision. Lord willing, we'll look at that
next week.