Good morning, everybody. If you
will, let's turn to Exodus chapter four. Exodus chapter four. There's a wonderful picture here
of Aaron meeting Moses in the wilderness and a picture of Christ
meeting and satisfying that law of God in the wilderness of this
earth. But I couldn't stop seeing two
brothers meeting in wilderness. Aaron and Moses were brothers
and God gathered them and they met out in the woods on the mountain
of God. And I thought especially this,
we have some brothers in here today. We have some brethren
meeting from another continent and they're brothers and some
other brothers that's carnally related. And my brother come
to visit here soon, or today. Been expecting him for a while,
and I just couldn't stop thinking of that. And you know, I couldn't
have planned this. If I had six months notice of, and everything's
gonna work out right, that we'd end up here in Exodus 4, when
my brethren's gathered here in this wilderness of Hamul. So
I think Lord's gonna bless us today, and I pray he does. Also,
like I said, this is a picture of Christ beating that law for
us, every jot and tittle. But I don't always want to focus
solely on the spiritual aspects of things. I don't want to apply
a systematic theology to a text and extract a logical comparison
of the gospel to what's being said. I want us to apply this. The applications need it too.
Because we live in this world. And if the Lord will apply this
to us, and we learn here in the classroom, when we go out into
the wilderness, we'll remember these things, and then we'll
have a better appreciation for the Lord's providence. And I
think it'll bless, we'll see more of Him in our daily lives,
and not just check the box, I went to church twice this week. That's
what I want. And that's needed. You know,
Paul gave there in Ephesians 5, he was talking about husbands
and wives, how they conduct themselves. And he said, this is like Christ
in the body. He's the head, we're the bride, we're the body. And
he said, this is a great mystery. He talks for quite a while about
this. And he said, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
The Lord gave us marriage to show us him and his bride. And
we said, oh, well, now I don't have to be nice to Kimberly.
I'll just have to see Christ in this. He said, no, nevertheless,
I'm talking about this gospel, but nevertheless, let every one
of you, in particular, so love his wife. That's the only way
we can love. So there in Ephesians 5.33 is the exact same so in
John 3.16, after like manner. If we see how Christ loves his
bride and how we love him, now husbands and wives, it's gonna
be a sweeter relationship in the home. So we have to, the
Lord has to apply that to us. But God gave Moses these signs.
He said, you got a rod, you throw it down, turn into a serpent,
take it back up, be a rod again. If they won't listen to that,
if they won't hear Christ made sin, you take your hand and put
it on your bosom, on your heart, where the problem is, and you
show people, I'm a leper. I'm telling you the truth, I
don't have any gain out of this. I'm a sinner just like you are. I
know you're a sinner because you're just like me." And he put it
back, we can be made whole. And if they won't hear that,
you go down to that river and you take the water out, throw
it on the ground, on the earth, and it'll be blood. If they don't
hear that, he'll require it of them. But he gave them three
good messages to preach to them, didn't he? And Moses kept giving
excuses. In Exodus 4, verse 14, the anger
of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron
the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well.
And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee. And when he seeth
thee, he will be glad in his heart. That's what we're gonna
see in our text. The timeline here in Exodus 4,
we're getting pieces of the story, not in chronological order, but
the Lord's telling the story and he tells it the best way,
so we're gonna learn it that way. Verse 15, and thou shalt
speak unto him and put in his mouth, put words in his mouth,
and I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth and will teach
you what ye shall do. and he shall be thy spokesman
unto the people, and he shall be to thee instead of a mouth,
and thou shalt be to him instead of God, and thou shalt take the
rod in thy hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. You're gonna
do everything I told you to do, but Aaron's gonna do the talking.
Verse 27. Here's where I want us to look at. And Lord said
to Aaron, go into the wilderness and meet Moses. And he told Moses,
he said, Aaron's on his way. So what time Moses is out there
in the wilderness, the Lord's also speaking to Aaron. And he
says, you go meet Moses in the wilderness. And this is so profound. I'll get to it in a minute, but
if we just really take slowly, take sentences at a time of what
the Lord says, it's amazing. The Lord said to Aaron, go into
the wilderness and meet Moses. And he went. It's fascinating
to me. and met him in a mountain of
God and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the
Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded
him. 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 inside
of the people. And the people believed. And
when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel,
and that he looked upon their afflictions, they bowed their
heads and worshipped." Now, who is this talking about? Who is
this concerning? Well, it's Moses and Aaron. That's who this portion
of text is about. Verse 27, the Lord said unto
Aaron, Go into the wilderness and meet Moses. And he went and
met him in the mount of God and kissed him. These were physical
brothers. They had the same mother and
the same father. And they're about to be spiritual
brothers. They had this carnal relationship, but they're about
to have the same heavenly father. A new creation's gonna be in
Aaron. It just showed up in Moses. The Lord just revealed himself
to Moses. He's about to reveal himself
to Aaron. And I thought, you know, maybe
some of you here, you've heard the gospel, or somebody listening
in, and you had a close relative, a brother or a sister, a real
good relationship with a friend of yours, and the Lord used that
to make them hear the gospel. Or maybe that's what's gonna
happen. That's what we've been looking
at in Acts, isn't it? So they continued daily with one accord
in the temple and breaking bread house to house. They went out
to eat together. And they did eat their meat with
gladness and singleness of heart. They was happy to be together.
They were family. And they were praising God. And
they had favor with all the people. They went out fighting nobody
and taking up causes. The Lord saved us. It's time
to be happy. That's the context. The Lord
added to the church daily, such as should be saved. Maybe that's
what the Lord, there's a good relationship between Aaron and
Moses. Aaron was happy to see him. He's happy to see his little
brother out there. They were close. I thought of this too.
Where was this at? We'll get there. We'll get to
the where, but it's in the wilderness. Aaron moved to the desert. Moses
was out there in the desert and Aaron moved out there. He carnally
went to where his family was. We get that, don't we? Well,
where are you going to move? Well, I got some family out there.
I can move out there. The unregenerate understands
that. You're going to be around the ones you're related to, the
ones you have things in common, the ones you love, don't you?
Aaron got that. He's about to spend the rest
of his life moving with the family of God, wherever they go. I know that might be controversial,
that's what the word of the Lord says. Ruth said, wherever you
go, I go. Wherever you're eating, I'm eating. Wherever you're buried,
I'm buried. Your God's my God, we're family. Aaron got that
carnally, but he's about to get it spiritually too, isn't he?
What was the attitude that was taking place? Was it bitterness
and hostility and all that? No, it says, the Lord said to
Aaron, go into the wilderness and meet Moses. And he went and
met him in the Mount of God and kissed him. Kissed him. He was
happy to see him. He was happy to see him. I haven't
seen my brother in several months and I hugged him good. I didn't
kiss him on the mouth. There's a group of people in
this nation that think that's some kind of, and you tell by
looking at them, they don't like doing it. That's not an emotional kiss,
like between a husband and a wife. What's that? Paul spoke that
in first Thessalonians. He said, greet the brethren with
a holy kiss. Well, let's compare scripture with scripture. What
you talking about, Paul? Well, he told them at Rome, he
said, salute one another with a holy kiss. Salute one another. I don't mean you go up and you
have to kiss. Sometimes you just get excited, kiss them on the forehead
or something. You can't wait to see them. But it's not some
kind of pageantry or something. This is the motions that we,
the protocol we go through when we greet one another. Hello,
I will now greet you with a holy kiss. Ah, that's robotic. Ugh.
If there's love in the heart, you kiss them. That doesn't mean
you, the word kiss there's translated to touch, to cling to, and to
equip with weapons. I thought about that a long time.
How do we equip one another's weapons with what we say? Grace
is on our lips. The Lord did this. The Lord brought
us together. That made me happy. Look at all
the things the Lord's done. And then you'll remember that. I'll
remember things you've said. I'll say, you know what so-and-so
told me when they come to visit? We're equipped with those things. That's
what Psalm 45 says. Grace is poured into live lips.
And there's happiness with that. There's happiness. Not begrudging,
you know, like this is what we got to do. Oh, I guess we got
to go. It's time to get ready. And they
were happy to be there. Glad to be in the Lord's house
that day. Glad to be around brethren. And where is this taking place?
That's the attitude. It's in the wilderness, Mount
of God, where the Lord was with them. where the Lord was with
him. Stephen was preaching there in Acts 7, and I look forward
to getting that on Wednesdays, but he said, that Moses, which
said unto the children of Israel, a prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me, him ye
shall hear. Speaking of Christ, and this is he which was in the
church in the wilderness with the angel, which spake to him
on Mount Sinai, our fathers, who received the lively oracles
to give unto us. This was a church in the wilderness,
but the Lord's church has always been in the wilderness. One,
we're in this world. That's a rare thing and thankfully
a temporary thing, but it's an uncommonly place. It's not something
that's attractive. That ark that Noah built, it
was pitched with him without, people have these beautiful oak
boats or something they've dreamed up. It looked like a big black
coffin. It was unappealing. The tabernacle's
covered in badger skin. It's unappealing. Mankind wouldn't
think that that's impressive. And the Lord's gatherings now,
just a little spot here in Hamo. Wow, that's, y'all up there?
Y'all out there in the county? Yeah. We're not in downtown,
are we? We are the church in the wilderness.
It's not downtown. It's not big, fancy buildings.
It's not arenas, sold out arenas. Nothing's changed. It's always
been the same. And we're surrounded by things
in this wilderness that's dangerous and deadly. We ought to have
caution around. And we're surrounded by things
in this wilderness that occupy our thoughts and hearts more
than they should. And this is where the Lord was
gonna meet us. And he's brought us to the place on his mountain
where he's high and exalted. We come up to Jerusalem, don't
we? We come up to the upper room,
like we was looking at there in Acts. The Lord's brought us
there. And we said in Acts 7, 38, we
received the lively oracles. This is where we go for the preaching
of the gospel. Peter said, if any man speak,
let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man speaks, you don't
have critiques, and here's what I think about it, and open it
up for any questions, comments, or concerns. Uh, no. It's declared,
it's not debated and discussed. I mean, we talk about the messages
after, but it's laid out, isn't it? What does that, or who does
that? Who does the meeting? Who founded
the church? A lot of founders, you talk to
people, oh, we started this and that, we've planted 25 churches.
Oh, that's a shame, isn't it? It says in verse 27, the Lord
said to Aaron, the Lord said, go, and he went. The Lord spoke. Aram was out minding his own
business. He wasn't looking to liberate Israel out of Egypt
or take up a big cause and start making converts and all this
stuff. The Lord spoke and he went. That's it. I was being
cameras in Kansas one time at a church and a visitor came in
to preach and I thought he was being sarcastic, but he got up,
he was saying, aren't you thankful that Abraham chose and decided
and obeyed and he chose to go up that mountain? I thought he
was being sarcastic. What? He was serious, wasn't
he? What a shame. I pray in this
life that that fella, bless his heart, he's gonna find out one
day that the God of this Bible, when he says something and commands
it, that's what happens. He's a sovereign God. He's an
omnipotent God. All-powerful, all-knowing. And
if He commands it, it's going to happen. It's going to happen. He doesn't suggest things or
He'd be pretty pleased if you did it. He's God. That's His
name. He does what He wants in everything,
in heaven and earth and below the earth and seas and everywhere.
Obey Him. He's the ruler. The Lord said,
no man, John 6, 44, no man can come to me except the father
which hath sent me draw him, and I'll raise him up the last
day." He said, it's written in the prophets, they shall all
be taught of God. Every one of his children that's
his, not those that aren't his children, but those are children
without fail, don't worry, they shall be taught of God. And he
said, everyone that may have heard and he's learned of my
father, he comes to me. It's commanded. He said, I will
lose none. All that the Father gave me,
I'll lose none. I will willingly lay down my life for these people.
That's the cost of purchase, prized possession, expensive
possession. And he said, and they shall come
to me. He said, not that any man seen the Father, save he
which is God has seen the Father. How are they going to be taught
of this man they've never seen? How are they going to be taught of
this God they've never witnessed with their physical eyes? A man's
going to have to tell them. God's gonna have to send a man
to preach to them. What's gonna take place in this
place in the wilderness where these brothers are gathered,
between these physical brothers in the wilderness? And they're
happy about it, they're happy to be there. Are they gonna sing
songs? Maybe. Are they gonna read some
scripture? Moses hadn't wrote this scripture
yet, but they'd talk about the word of the Lord, wouldn't they?
Are they gonna talk about their week? What else happened in their lives?
Yeah, of course they will. Are they gonna plan some activities
together? We're gonna go over to so-and-so's house and have
a cookout next week. Yeah, that'd be great. We got some crops to
bring in or a stubborn sheep keeps giving me problems all
week. Yeah, they talk about their lives, don't they? But that wasn't
the important part. This wasn't just a social event
in the wilderness. The gospel's gonna be preached.
The Lord said there in John 6, no man seen the father. Well,
how are we going to know about him? How are we going to hear
about him we've never heard and never seen? Somebody's going
to preach to him. Look at verse 28, Exodus 4, 28. And Moses told
Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him and all the
signs which he commanded him to do. What did Moses tell Aaron?
All the words of the Lord. Who had sent him? Who'd sent
who? Both of them. Moses and Aaron, didn't they?
Look back at chapter three. He's told him about that burning
bush, I'm sure. He said, I was just out here tending sheep.
I wasn't looking for God. And all of a sudden I saw a bush
burning and it wasn't consumed. And I thought, I'm going to go
look at that. Why? It's not going away. This is intriguing. I want to know what this means. And it said, verse five, the
Lord spoke to Moses, and Moses looking at this bush, he said,
draw not nigh hither. Don't you come close. You put
off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest
is holy ground. Aaron, let me tell you something. The Lord's speaking to us, and
he's holy. You better get that first. What
he does is right. He doesn't do what's right. What
he does is right. If he did it, it's right. I don't
understand it. We don't have to. He does what's
right, and he's holy, and something unholy can't be in his presence.
That's first and foremost. God's on his throne, and he's
holy. So much so, Moses hid his face. The Lord spoke to Moses,
it was effectual, and he stuck his head down, because he knew
what he was. That happens with Moses, and that happened with
the prophet, and that happened with everybody else. Holy, holy,
holy. When we see that he's truly holy,
he's high, lifted up, we're decreased. When he's increased, we're decreased.
That's gonna happen. Look here in verse 7. Exodus
3, 7. And the Lord said, I have surely
seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt. And I've
heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters. I sent a taskmasters
and their lives were miserable and they cried out. And I heard
them for I know their sorrows. Could you imagine that? Aaron's
out in this wilderness and here's his brother that he loves. And
he said, God spoke to me. He's holy, and He's looked upon
us and our people, our brothers and sisters. And He sent those
taskmasters just so we forgot Him. We had life on Easy Street.
We don't cry out to God when everything's going smooth. He
made them cry out to Him, and He's heard them, and He knows
our sorrows. He's remembered His covenant
towards us. We clean forgot it till the trials
come. And the Lord sent that, and He's remembered us. God looks
upon man. Who are we? Verse eight, the
Lord's still speaking, and I am come down to deliver them out
of the hand of the Egyptians. The Lord's will come down, Aaron.
He's will come to this earth and be made a man like us and
live for us and die for us and be risen for us and then intercede
for us so we can come out of this Egypt. Just like Jacob said,
don't you bury me down in Egypt, you get me out of there, you
take me back home. And to bring them up out of that land, unto
a good and large, unto a land full of milk and honey. He's
looked upon us, who's been at war with him, and wasn't looking
for him, and all we was doing was bellyaching, and the Lord
remembered his covenant for us, and he's come down, and he's
gonna bring us up, Out. He ain't gonna leave us there.
We ain't gonna have one foot in Egypt and one foot in heaven.
He's gonna bring us out of there to a good land full of milk and
honey. Sweet things. Sweet things. The sincere milk
of his word. This is what the Lord's doing
this here. We didn't have enough good sense to ask him to. He
said, I'm gonna do it. You'll thank me for it. This
is the I am. This is the Lord of hosts. He's
going to be with us. He said, you're going to go down,
you're going to do this, and I'm going to be with you. We ain't going to
have to go this alone, Aaron. The Lord's with us. He's gathered
us. He's gave us this gospel. We're
supposed to gather all the elders of Israel and tell them about
it, and the Lord's going to smite Egypt. And he's going to smite them
so hard to the point where our women are going to ask to borrow
the jewelry of their women, and they're going to gladly give
it to them just so they'll say, here, go build you a tabernacle.
Take my earrings. Go. He said, now you're going
to do the talking. But here's what we're going to
talk about. He's still telling him all the words of the Lord,
isn't he? That rod to a serpent back to a rod. The Lord says
he's gonna come down, his son's gonna come, and he's gonna be
made sin, because that's what we are, the feminine noun, not
the verb, the noun, me. He's gonna be made me, and I'm
gonna be made the righteousness of God in him, and then we're
all gonna be brought back up together. That rod of Jesse's
gonna do this. The hand of the heart's withered.
We're all lepers. The Lord's gonna make us clean,
make us whole. Why? How? How could this be?
Because that water's turned into blood. That word came down and
bled for us. And then from his wounded side,
that water and blood flowed. And we're purchased and we're
washed. And we can't, we're the holy nature, just like him, can't
see it. Well, I don't know if they had
mirrors back then, but if you look in the mirror, you won't
think so. But God says so. And that's who he is. And you
believe him because he said it. That's it. Why would Aaron, I thought Aaron's
at least probably 15 years older than Moses. He wasn't just his
older brother, he was his way older brother. I have some way
older brothers. They don't listen to a word I say. Why would Aaron do these things
for Moses? Moses is telling him all this
stuff, he said, you're going to do the talking. Well, the elder shall serve the younger.
Isn't that so? I thought of that and I thought,
this is a picture of Christ. This is a picture of Christ.
He come down, he was our servant. When we go to glory, we're gonna
sit down at that wedding feast for the bride, and he's gonna
serve us. Come around and say, here's a cup of wine, you wanna
roll? That's unimaginable. But he'd be doing this under
the Lord, wouldn't he? Aaron had a love for the Lord.
the one that saved him, the one that called him, the one that's
going to keep him. And so he's just serving the
Lord. Well, it's a privilege. We'll see us next hour with Naomi. He gets to, you're going to let
me do this? That's wonderful. It's not, oh,
well, I guess I got called to do this. I get to, he gets to,
he had love for the Lord and he loved his brother before.
He moved out there to the wilderness with him. He loved his brother.
Now he loves his pastor. That's a heart relationship,
just like a true marriage of love. The Lord binds people's
hearts together. And Moses preached the gospel
to him. Now, it was his younger brother. And he said, yeah, you
asked me to do it. You said that's what the Lord
said. We're doing it, buddy. Let's go. We'll go hand in hand, arm
in arm. Do whatever the Lord says, whatever pleases him. That's
what we'll do. We'll do it together. And he's going to be with us.
Oh brother, that's what, the Lord asked the Pharisees, if
David, if Christ is David's offspring, how did he say, the Lord said
to my Lord, how can he call him Lord? And they were just bum-fuzzled,
because they understood this, elders, and if you're a day older,
well you're more important, you had to shut up and listen to
them, and whatever, it was a hierarchy due to age, and respect your
elders, and it's how could that be possible? So yeah, that's
just carnal, is the thing. He's my Lord, he's Lamb slain
for the foundation of the world. This is the eternal God. He's
before me. David could call him Lord. Brother
Henry moved down to Rocky Mount and sat underneath his son, Paul
Mahan, and he was preaching. He said, our pastor taught us
these things. He said, we need to listen to our pastor. I thought,
how in the world could, Henry's got 60 years of experience. The Lord has to do that. How
could Aaron submit his way younger brother? The Lord used it. He
preached the gospel to him. He said, yeah, brother, whatever.
We'll do whatever you need to. What are they going to do now?
Are they just going to hang out until they die and sit out there
in the wilderness, and they're just going to talk about things? Are they
going to talk about spreading the gospel? Are they going to
plan about planning paralysis, people call it? You just plan
so much, you never do anything? Or are they going to spread the
gospel? Are they going to want to do
it, or are they going to do it? Paul said, you purpose these things
the Lord's put in your heart, do it. See to it. Get after it,
right? Verse 28. And Moses told Aaron
all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs
which he had commanded him. 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 to Moses,
and did the signs in the sight of the people." He didn't tell
his opinion on things, his theories, his ideas, his thoughts. He just
preached the Word of God. And that was the same thing that
Moses told him. Man got a hold of me one time
and asked me some advice. And I said, well, the word says
this. And he said, oh, you probably
don't know him. He said, but a man named Gabe Stoniker and another fellow named
Clay Curtis told me the same thing you told me. I said, one's
my good friend, the other one's my pastor. We're of one accord,
ain't we? I'll tell you the same thing,
Gabe, tell you Dawn, tell you Henry, Gil, Spurgeon, Philpot,
Hawker, Simon, Peter, Elijah. It's just what the Lord said. There it is, it's in black and
white. That's it. What's the result of Aaron's
obedience? He was obedient. How was he obedient?
He was made willing. The Lord said go and he went,
right? What's the result of that? What's the result of only preaching
what the Lord gives you to preach? Verse 31, and the people believed. And when they heard that the
Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he looked
upon their afflictions." They heard the same thing Aaron heard. Then they bowed their heads and
worshipped. Then. Then. When they heard that. They'd
been worshipping, quote unquote, for 35 years, but they didn't
hear the gospel. They'd been playing church and
they'd been pagans and idols and everything else underneath
the sun. But when Christ was preached,
when the gospel was preached, and they heard, they was given
ears to hear, they bowed their heads and they worshiped. Who
does that? They said the people. What people?
The sons of Jacob. Sorry, sons of Jacob. Israel,
that's who it is, sinners. Because the Lord changes not,
he said, your sons of Jacob are consumed. Because he's steadfast. Go tell them that. Go tell them
that. And they bowed. They were humbled
by it. There's a whole new attitude.
It wouldn't have, I know something, and I'm going to go behind your
back and tell somebody else something else, or whatever. I'll get a
gathering to myself. And nope, they bowed their head,
and they worshipped. They worshipped. They praised
God. God got the glory. Because he deserves it. I pray, Lord, meet us in this
wilderness. Make us happy to be here and bless us as he promised
he would. Everything he's promised, I fully
expect him to do. So let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word.
Lord, thank you for gathering us and this church in the wilderness
and being with us and giving us this old, old story. of your thoughts towards your
people and your sin in Christ our Lord to us and his blood
shed and his intercession for us and Lord, thank you. Thank you. Bow our heads and make us worship. What a gospel you've given us.
Lord, thank you for our brethren. Thank you for those. You've been
with us, but you gave us brethren in this world, brothers and sisters
that Christ has revealed himself to and they find him precious. Thank you for that, Lord. It's
a precious thing. It's a wonderful thing. Forgive us for what we
are. Forgive us our sin and be with us because of Christ. Amen.
All right, we'll meet back at 1030.