All right, brethren, we go back
to Exodus 6 this morning. Exodus 6. Now, we saw last night how that
Moses was sent with the gospel to the children of Israel to
declare to them the good news of God's name and God's covenant
and God's works. In verse 9 is where we pick up
now, and it says, And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel.
He went and told them everything God told him to preach. But they
hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel
bondage. There's a lot of people in this
world that like to, religious people, who like to boast about
their will and their works, about their faithfulness. Talk about
their faith, at least I got my faith, and my faith this, my
faith that. Well, that's not what the children
of Israel could boast in, and we can't boast in it. Verse 10,
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Go in, speak unto Pharaoh
king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of
his land. And Moses spake before the Lord, saying, Behold, the
children of Israel have not hearkened to me. How then shall Pharaoh
hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips? We're working preachers. They
like to boast, and they're converts, they like to boast about being
able to do many wonderful works, about being able to preach and
convert sinners and plant churches and all that stuff. Moses couldn't
make that boast. And God's true preachers and
his true people can't make that boast either. Okay, make that
boast at all. It's by the unchanging faithfulness
and the irresistible works of Christ toward His people that
sinners like us are saved. It's by the faithfulness of Christ,
by the works of Christ that He saves sinners like you and me. I want to look today at Christ's
faith and works. Christ's faith and works. Now, first of all, it's not our
faith that saves us. Now, let me make a statement
because I know you won't object, but folks who hear this will
say, well, Christ said to some people before, thy faith saved
thee. He did that on multiple occasions.
He did. He said, thy faith saved thee. But they knew, and we know,
that it was the object of their faith that saved them. That's
why He said, Thy faith has saved thee. Faith lays hold of Christ,
rests in Christ, and Christ is the one who works the works.
It's by His faithfulness. And without question now, faith
is important. I'm not saying faith is not necessary.
Scripture says without faith it's impossible to please God. He that comes to God must believe
that He is and that He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him. Faith is necessary, absolutely necessary. But when you believe,
God will make it clear to you that it's by grace, through the
gift of faith, lest we boast. He did it. He gave it. Because
we see here now the children of Israel right here, they represent
believers at this point. The gospel came to them back
in chapter 4. Moses came and preached the gospel
to them and chapter 31 says, and the people believed. When
they heard the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that
He had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads in
worship. And they believed this gospel so much that they went
into Pharaoh, like God said, the elders of Israel went with
Moses and Aaron into Pharaoh and said, let the children of
Israel go. That's what God told them. He
said, go tell Pharaoh this, and they did. But the only thing
Pharaoh did after that was make their life more bitter with hard
bondage. He made them start making bricks
without straw, made them go out and look for their own straw,
and made them make the same amount of bricks. And then the taskmasters
were beating them because they weren't making enough bricks.
So they were under cruel bondage. Now we saw last night the message
Moses preached to them. He came declaring God's name.
He came declaring Jehovah, God Almighty, El Shaddai. That name
manifest in the Lord Jesus Christ, the existing one, God all sufficient
to save his people. He came preaching the covenant
of God. He came preaching that God saves
His elect through a promise, not through our works. He chose
Christ and He entrusted everything into Christ's hand and He entered
into covenant with Himself. God entered covenant with God
to do all the work to save His people. He entered into that
covenant before the foundation of the world. And God saves us
by teaching us that He has done it all and we're saved by His
covenant promise. You know, a covenant's a promise. That's God promising us that
He has given us life and we shall have eternal life. He saves by
promise. Moses preached that, preached
his name, preached his covenant, and then he preached his works.
All those works that God said, He said, here's my promises.
And they were all the works that Christ fulfilled. Redemption,
deliverance, calling you to myself and being a God unto you. And
God said, bringing you out from under this people and making
you to know I'm the Lord your God. providing for you and preserving
you and bringing you into that promised land that God promised.
All this is the work God works. He promised it and then He does
it. He said through Isaiah, who is
a god like unto this God that tells you from the beginning
what He's going to do and then does it exactly like He said
He'd do it? I used to have a man, you know, he was trying to say
that you didn't have to ever hear the gospel as long as you
was elect, you know. And he said, what about, you
know, somebody out on a deserted island? I said, well God said
from the beginning all through the scriptures this is how he's
going to say it. And then God works everything
in this world using Hell-bound sinners and wickedness and everything,
He works it all together to bring to pass everything He said He
would do. Doesn't that declare God's sovereignty
more than anything? If I told you how I'm going to
do something and didn't did it that way, you'd say, man, that's
something. That's a whole lot better than
us not knowing what He's going to do and in Him doing it, He
told us beforehand. And he comes and works them.
He preached the works. God the Father chose his people
in Christ, blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places. He made us accepted in Christ right then. The gospel
is not will you accept Jesus. The gospel is will God accept
you. And He's accepted His people in Christ from the foundation
of the world. God the Son, when He entered that covenant, became
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God never ever
looked to you or me since Christ entered that covenant. He's looked
to His Son. And even now He looks to His
Son. That's why He didn't destroy the world without sin in the
garden. That's why He hadn't destroyed it now. He's looking
to Christ and Christ still has a people and He's going to call
them out. And God the Holy Spirit calls them out. Like we saw this
morning, Christ sends the Holy Spirit. He said, I'll pray the
Father and He'll send the Holy Spirit. And He'll quicken you. The word I speak, He'll make
it life in you, put a new spirit in you, and teach you in that
new spirit. This is the work of God. That's
what we preach, salvation. You hear somebody preaching about
the works of men, they're not preaching the work. They're not
preaching the gospel. The gospel is the name, the covenant,
and the works of God. But while He preached that, While
Moses preached that, that gospel was going forth and the children
of Israel could not hear the gospel. It says because of all
that cruel bondage. While the gospel was going forth,
all they could think about was where am I going to get straw
to make these bricks? You know, they believed, when
they heard the gospel in the beginning, they believed God.
But what they thought was, is they thought God was going to
deliver them immediately and take them out of that bondage
immediately. And when they went in and talked
to Pharaoh, and God didn't deliver them out of Pharaoh's bondage,
but the bondage got worse. That's when Moses came the second
time with this gospel and they couldn't hear him. They were
anguished as spiritists to be is to be angry and impatient. That's what it is. Instead of
waiting on God to work His will, is to become angry because He
had worked it in your time or my time and become impatient.
That's anguish of spirit. And so they couldn't hear the
gospel. They just couldn't hear it. That old man of flesh that
was in them had overcome them. He'd overcome them. He had taken
them into bondage. You know, when the Lord called
me and quickened me and made me believe the gospel, I thought
that was going to happen. I thought the Lord was going
to immediately make it so I'm not going to sin like I used
to sin. He's going to deliver me out of this bondage right
now. And I won't be the sinner I was before. And it wasn't just
a little while, I overcame with my sin, a new spirit was overcome
by the old man. And I found myself right where
the children of Israel were. You ever found yourself there?
Not able to believe, not even knowing if you are a believer,
struggling, and just overcome. What's going to happen? How are
we going to get out of that? Who's going to deliver us out
of that? Look at Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7. Apostle Paul knew what it was
about. He experienced this. Romans 7, 20. He said, now if
I do that, I would not. If I do what I don't want to
do, in my new man, I do not want to do this. If I do what I would
not, it's no more I that do it. It's not the new me, but sin
that dwelleth in me. It's the old man. I find them
law. This is a rule right here. It's
always the case that when I would do good, evil is present with
me. I thought about this when I read
that. When the Apostle Paul was being used of God to write the
Scriptures, wouldn't you consider that to be doing good? Being
used of God to write the inspired Word of God. When he was doing
that good work, Evil was present with him. Sin was present with
him. Paul couldn't look to the fact
that he wrote the Holy Scriptures and take any confidence in it
for salvation. Not at all. Because sin was mixed
with that. Watch this. He says, I delight
in the law of God after the inward man. That's that spirit we looked
at this morning. That's that new man. He said,
but I see another law in my members, in that old sinful man, warring
against the law of my mind and bringing me, the new me, into
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Anybody here
been to jail? When you go to jail and they
shut the door, you ain't getting out of there. You're captive. You ain't getting out. unless
somebody unlocks it and lets you out. And somebody else got
to do that. You ain't getting out of there.
That's what happens when we come into this captivity of our old
man. He's brought us into captivity. You ain't getting out of there.
Well, how am I going to get out then? Verse 24, O wretched man
that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's who's going to deliver
me, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's what we see here in
our text. We're not saved by our faithfulness.
We're saved by Christ who quickeneth us. And that's ongoing. I ended
the message this morning saying it's not just He quickens us
in the first hour. He quickens us continually. Our
outward man perishes and the inward man is renewed day by
day. Remember Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ and now
I live, but it's not me that lives. I don't give myself this
life and I don't keep this life sustained. The life I now live,
the only way I live and do anything that's remotely honorable to
God is Christ living in me. Who is Christ? He's Spirit. He's the life. He's the truth. He's righteousness. He's holiness. He's everything we need. And
when Christ is in you, you have everything you need. And that's
the only way we know it. We know He is the life. He's
the sustainer of it. He said, My grace is sufficient
for thee, for My strength. Christ said, my strength is made
perfect. You're made to see clearly my
strength through your weakness. Through your weakness. Why did
I tell you that God left Israel there and didn't deliver them
immediately out of that bondage? He left them there to teach them
not to trust themselves, but to only trust the Lord. Why did
He leave me and you in this body of death? Why did He leave us
in this Egypt? To teach us the same thing. Not
ever to look to yourself, to look only to Him. Men, I've been
accused lately of, you know, when I'm telling you about the
New Spirit and men are saying, well, you're teaching sinners
to look within. No, I'm not. In fact, the only time you'll
look without is when he's done this work within. Until then,
you'll be putting confidence in something that you did. That's
the only time we look out is when he's done this work within
us and we don't trust ourselves. The second thing we see in our
text is not only is it not our faith that saves us, it's not
our works that save us. And again, let me be clear, I
understand that Scripture says faith without works is dead.
Wherever God's given faith, He's going to create some good works. You know why? Because Ephesians
2 says, those works were ordained before by God that we shall walk
in them. That means from the foundation
of the world, God ordained the good works His people are going
to walk in. And He's going to work in them both to will and
due of His pleasure so that they do every work He ordained for
them to do. And it begins with faith, repentance,
perseverance, and anything, loving your brethren, believe in Christ,
everything. That's what he ordained before
and he works that in his people. So you and I don't have to worry
if you're going to miss out on doing a good work for the Lord.
If he ordained it, you're going to do it. I trust you. Trust
me. He's going to bring you to it and make you do it. I'm not
saying that at all. I'm not saying works are not
important. They are, and they will be in God's people. Here's what I'm saying. Moses,
this most eminent of God's saints, God did not change. God said
there in verse 11, go in and speak unto Pharaoh. God don't
change. He's immutable. But Moses changed,
didn't he? Whenever the children of Israel
didn't hearken to his word, Moses said, Behold, the children of
Israel hadn't hearkened unto my word. How's Pharaoh gonna
hearken to me? I'm a man of unclean lips. You
know where he's at? You know where Moses is at when
he said that? He's right back where he was in the beginning
when Christ appeared to him in the burning bush. Remember Moses'
objection? I can't go speak to Pharaoh.
I got a speech impediment. I'm a stammering lips. I can't
talk to him. He's right back there now. Right back there now. God's true preacher finds out
real quick that he's altogether powerless to make himself believe,
much less make anybody else believe. That's what God's going to teach
his preacher before he uses his preacher. You can't make yourself
believe, much less anybody else believe. Moses hadn't delivered
anybody yet. Because Moses got to be taught
this himself. You can't make these people believe. Although
I'm telling you to go deliver them, you're not the one delivering
them, Moses. I am, God said. And he taught Moses that. He
taught him that. Now how often is this not our
case too, brethren? A little rejection. A little
rejection in the work God's put in your hand to do and we turn
from it as though, you know, and think, well, this is not
God's will. I want to tell you something
that will help you. Don't ever judge what God's doing. Do not judge it by providence. Don't do it. Don't look at stuff
around you. Remember, Elimelech did that.
He looked at the famine there in Israel and he said, well,
look down there. Look down at Moab. There's plenty
down there. It must be God's will for me
to move down there. And he did. And God killed him
and his sons. and brought his elect wife back
to Israel. Don't judge what God's doing
by providence, but that's what we do. We look at things going
on around us and we say, well, it must not be God's will. Was
it, if Moses looked here, that's what he was doing, he was looking
at the children of Israel. They didn't hear. Pharaoh didn't
hear the first time. He's looking at what God worked
providentially. And he's looking at it and he's
saying, well God's not in this. How am I going to, why do I speak?
God's not in this. But God's telling him, yes I
am in this. I'm the one that made him not listen to you. To
bring you where you are right now, to teach you, I'm the one
doing this work. That's what we have to be taught,
isn't it? We're saved by His faith and we're saved by His
words. Paul said, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think anything of ourselves. Anything covers it all, don't
it? I can't think anything is coming of me or from me. I can't
think that. And you can't either. Where's
our sufficiency then? He said, our sufficiency is God. Not God gives us sufficiency,
although He does, our sufficiency is God. That's right. So here's the third
thing. We're saved by Christ's faithfulness and Christ's works. We're saved by Christ's faithfulness
and Christ's works. First of all, Christ shows us
His faithfulness. Now this is going to equate to
the children of Israel. They couldn't hearken, they couldn't
believe the gospel. They fell into unbelief, unfaithfulness. So the first thing He does is
He's going to show His faithfulness. He's going to show His faithfulness.
And in verse 14, Exodus 6, 14, Well, first of all, let's see
here. In verse 12 and 13, he told him
to go on. In verse 13, he told him to go
to Pharaoh and to go to the children of Israel and preach the gospel.
He gave him the same charge. And then he did this. He gave
a list of names. He gave a list of names. He's
teaching something here. Watch this now. He said concerning
the children of Israel that he was going to deliver out of Egypt.
He said, these be the heads of their fathers' houses. Now he's
just listing the heads here. The heads are the 12 sons of
Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons and they're
the 12 heads of Israel, the 12 tribes of Israel named after
him. And he's talking about them now. But look what he said. The
sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel. And then he lists
a bunch of names there that are all the sons of Reuben. that
live in Israel right now that he's going to deliver. Remember
he said, I've made my covenant to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And I've remembered my covenant. I'm going to deliver these children
out of Egypt. Teaching us the spiritual way. He remembers his
everlasting covenant. He's going to deliver his people.
And he said right here, Reuben, he's got some sons right here
in Egypt. I'm bringing them out. bringing them out. Then he said
this, and the sons of Simeon, and then he lists all, he lists
Simeon's children, his sons, and he said, I promise I'm about
to deliver them out. They're there in Egypt, I'm about
to deliver them out. Then he says this in verse 16,
and these are the names of the sons of Levi according to their
generations. He lists all the names of those
sons, including Moses and Aaron. They're both the sons of Levi. Though our faith is mixed with
unbelief, and though we often fall into unbelief so badly that
we don't even have faith to believe God. We can't even hearken to
the Gospel of God. God knows who His people are
because He wrote our names in the Lamb's Book of Life before
the world began. He knows exactly who He shall
deliver. And get this now, Christ, since
He entered that covenant, like I said, He does not look to us.
He's looking to Christ. Christ has satisfied divine justice. He has declared God just and
the justifier. And for that reason, justice
demands He calls out His people and lose not one of them. Because
the law would be diminished if he did that. And he came to declare
God's righteousness, to declare to us that God does right. And
he's going to make certain the world knows God does right. Everybody
God purposed from eternity to save, he saved them. Everyone
of them. And he knows who they are. But
I want you to notice this too. Why did he only list the first
three sons of Jacob? Jacob had more sons than that.
There were twelve sons, but he didn't list but three sons. Why? Those three boys that he listed,
do you remember whenever Jacob came, Israel came and he was
dying and he blessed his sons before he died? When he blessed
those boys before he died, those first three boys, he told those
first three boys, you're unfaithful, And your works
are sinful. And you're cursed. That's what
he told them. You're cursed. Nevertheless,
he's telling us right here, in spite of that, and now we see
their children here. Their children are those three
boys. We're the ones sitting there saying, we can't listen
to God. We don't believe God. Don't preach the gospel to us.
We don't believe Him. They were unfaithful too, and their works
were sinful too. And yet God's saying, I remember
my covenant, and I'm going to deliver them out. What's that
teaching us? That's teaching you and me that
our works and our unfaithfulness, no matter how sinful, how unbelieving,
no matter how we turn from God, it does not in any way change
God's grace. God chose His people by grace. That means He didn't look at
you and me and see anything good in us or anything evil in us.
He didn't base it on anything in us. And so nothing in us is
going to change that grace. He entered into an everlasting
covenant, so he will remember his covenant. That's what he
told Moses. Remember last night? I'll remember my covenant. That's
why I'm bringing them out. And that's why he listed only
the first three names of those boys. Those three boys were the
most sinful and the most unbelieving of all of them. Remember what
he said to Reuben? Reuben's sitting there thinking,
Daddy's fixing to bless me and give me a big ole inheritance.
He said, Reuben, my firstborn, my strength, my glory, boy, you're
unstable as water. That's what he told him. You're
unstable as water. And he told Simon and Levi, I
told you not to do it, but you went up there to those fellows
that raped your sister and you tricked them and you killed them.
And I told you not to do it because it would bring reproach on my
name. And you did it anyway. And for that, God's cursed you.
And yet, God still took the tribe of Levi and made them priests
unto God. You see grace in that? Here we are. You know what we
are? You know what every child of God is? We all are the chief
of sinners. Every one of us. And yet, even
though we're the chief of sinners, God's the chief of grace and
the chief of salvation. And our sin don't change that.
And He gonna save His people. He gonna save His people. That's
what we learn there. See, it's by God's faithfulness.
Listen to this, if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. I love your pastor dearly. I
love him dearly. He's been a big help to me, big
encouragement to me, especially the past 10 years. He may not know you and he may
not know the Lord but the Lord knows him. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? And that's what
matters. That's what matters. He listed
some men's names right there when he was talking to Timothy
and he said these men have erred from the faith and they're leading
people away from the faith. He said, nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
that are his. He said, he's saying nobody's
going to be able to lead away his people. God's not going to
allow it. And then He said, let them that
are His, let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from
iniquity. And you know what? That's how
they're not going to be led astray. Because Christ's going to speak
that word in their heart. Just like we saw this morning.
He's going to tell them, depart from iniquity! And they're going
to turn from it. If you're a believer, I can guarantee
you this, you cannot sit against God and it not break your heart.
I'm not talking about why you do it. You can be overcome with
sin and do it but then afterward he's going to make you come to
yourself and he's going to break your heart if he is. And he's
going to tell you to turn from it and you're going to turn from
it. For a little while anyway. I guarantee it, because you don't
want to disgrace his name. He said, let him that names the
name of God. His name's on you, and you know.
Man, I used to get in trouble. I had a good daddy. My daddy
worked his, he worked hard. Seven days a week, cutting meat
for a grocery store. And worked hard. Cold. One time he came home and had
dropped some boxes on his foot and broke every toe on his foot.
And worked hard. And the thing that hurt me more
than anything when I would do something and get in trouble,
and I did that pretty often, but the thing that hurt me was
it dishonored my daddy. And that's the thing that hurts
God's people. It dishonors our Heavenly Father.
If that's not motive enough, something's wrong. Because that's
the motive. That's the love that you're constrained
by. Right there. And then look here now. So we
see now that He's going to save us by His faithfulness. You remember
He said, when any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father.
Jesus Christ the righteous and He is the propitiation for our
sins. He's the mercy for our sins. Christ is. That's why God will
forgive you. Keep you. He's faithful. Now
secondly, He's going to use Moses now. He's going to show us that
we're not saved by our works. Watch this. Now he's talking
about a preacher here. And he's talking about a preacher.
And this is true for the preacher. But you and I, we're all saved
the same way. And there's nobody, a preacher's
not above you, and you're not above a preacher. We're all worms,
is what we are, saved by grace. And you all are witnesses. If
you're born of God, you're a witness of Christ, just like the preachers
are witnesses of Christ. So this applies to all of us.
But we're not going to be saved by those works. Their whole thing
is talking about witnessing and how they witness and what they
do and all this. All their praying and all the
things they do. Do you realize that's what Christ
said, don't do before men? Christ said do not let men see
your prayer or your almsgiving or any of your work. Don't do
it before men to be seen of men. And you go on the websites of
religion and you know what you're going to see advertised? What
all we're doing. Why? Why did Christ say don't
do that? So that men won't be attracted
to come and hear what you're preaching because of what you're
doing. You want them to come because of what Christ is doing.
That's why. So we're not going to be saved
by our works. Watch this now. We see Moses. He's in total unbelief
too. He's turned from his work that
God put in his hand to go preach. How's he going to be made to
do it? Watch this, verse 28. It says, It came to pass on that
same day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt,
Verse 29, that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I am the
Lord, speak thou unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say
unto thee. And Moses said before the Lord, behold, I am of uncircumcised
lip, how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me? He said in that same
day, on that same occasion, he said not only did he give that
list of names, he said he also did this. He did this right here,
verse 1, chapter 7, verse 1. The Lord said to Moses, See,
I have made thee a God to Pharaoh. And Aaron thy brother shall be
thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command
thee. He said unto Aaron. He said,
I'm going to command you what to speak and you're going to
speak it unto Aaron. And Aaron thy brother shall speak unto
Pharaoh that he send the children of Israel out of his land. He's
giving us a picture here. How we're going to be strengthened.
Christ came to Moses. Moses couldn't go to him. Moses
was in unbelief. He turned from his work. Christ
came to him. That's Christ's work. He came
to Moses and he spoke to Moses and he said, Moses, I have made
you my ambassador to Pharaoh. That's what he meant by I've
made you a God. When you read the scripture, it talks about
being made a God. That's the name used for civil
magistrates and people in power and authority. He said, I've
given you authority from me to go preach to Pharaoh. And what
he's saying to Moses is, Moses, Pharaoh shall hear you and you
shall not fail because I'm the authority that's doing this work.
That's what he's telling him. Now do you think that would put
a little tiptoe in Moses' step? I reckon it would. And that's
the thing that will encourage you and strengthen you is when
Christ comes and shows you this work's not being done by you.
I'm the power and authority doing this work. I'm sending you under
my power and under my authority. Well, so you get the message
now. He's given you the message. He's
told you what you're going to preach. He made you to come to
that place, Paul, where he said, most gladly therefore, since
I see that His strength is made to be seen in my weakness, most
gladly therefore now, I'm not going to complain about my infirmities
anymore, I'm not going to complain about my sin anymore, I want
glory in my infirmities. Because I want the power of Christ
resting on me. I want the power of Christ resting
on me. So now he's brought Moses to that place and given him the
message. Now what's going to happen? He's got to go preach
it now. How's it going to be made effectual? Moses still don't
have power to make it effectual. Let me tell you what's happened
week after week after week since the Lord used me to preach. On Sunday evening, you get a
little bit of, we don't have Sunday night services, so on
Sunday evening I get a little bit of relaxation. The pressure is off for just
a little while. By Monday morning, I'm usually
right back in unbelief. How am I going to get a message?
Where am I going to get a message? What's going to happen? And the
Lord gives the message. And then, when he gives the message,
you get ready to go preach the message Thursday night, you know
what you do? You start praying to the Lord. Thank you, Lord,
for giving me this message. Now, Lord, will you take these
words and bless these words to the hearts of your people? Make
it effectual in your people. Meet with us now and make this
word real and make it effectual. Make us hear it. Make us bow
to you. Will you do that, Lord? See,
you take the word He's given you and you give it right back
to Him and ask Him to do with it what He will. And then after
Thursday night, go right back to doing the same thing again.
Next week, do the same thing again. And it's just over and
over and over, asking the Lord constantly because you can't
do it. And when you get to feeling like you can do it, He puts you
right there where He put Moses to show you, no, you can't do
it. And it gets you right back on your face again, praying,
Lord, will you give me the message? And then praying, Lord, here's
the word you gave, but now will you bless them? You see, that's
what he told Moses. He said, Moses, I'm going to
give you the words. And then look, he said, verse 2, And thou
shalt speak all that I have commanded you to preach unto Aaron. And
Aaron thy elder brother shall speak unto Pharaoh that he send
the children of Israel out of his land. He said, Aaron will
be a prophet unto you. You know who Aaron pictures?
Aaron pictures Christ. Christ is the firstborn among
many brethren. He's the elder brother and he's
the prophet and he gives the word. If he brings you, if he's
going to use you to speak to somebody, like I said, you don't
have to worry if he's going to do that and you're going to bear
witness to somebody. You know what he's going to do? He's going
to give you the word to speak. You know what you're going to
do? You're going to give the word right back to him. And you're
going to say, Lord, will you bless it? Will you speak it?
Will you make it effectual? And that's what his preacher's
going to do. We're witnesses of him. That's what we're going
to do. That's what he's picturing there. I'm giving you the word, and
you give it to your elder brother, the prophet, and he's going to
speak it. That's a picture giving it to Christ so He is speaking.
So He's showing there brethren that it's not by our faith, it's
by His faithfulness. He saves us even when we don't
believe and it's not by our words. He comes and strengthens us and
sends us forth and He works in His people what He's pleased
to do, making it effectual. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that
wonderful that it's not up to us? The thing that made us so
mad when we was lost is the thing that makes us so glad now, isn't
it? Because it's not in our hands. Robert Hawker, I read what he
wrote on that verse. He said, you cannot trust yourself
too little and you cannot trust God too much. That's the message. Amen. um