Exodus chapter 6. There are many
scriptures that are full of names, and this one is. But don't ever
want to just skip over any passage of scripture as if it were not
important. So we're going to read these
names, okay? Look at verse 14 through verse
20. Let's read these names. Let me just remind you that every
name here is significant and there's a story. If I read these
names like, now these be the heads of the houses, this John
Sheasley, Ron Fannin, Joseph Parks, Ed Berry, would you be
listening carefully? Mike Anderson married to Karen. Would you listen carefully? Well,
your names, God's people's names, are written in the Lamb's Book
of Life before the world began. And back then, these men, their
names were written. He's very thankful they were. Alright, verse 14, These be the
heads of their fathers' houses, the sons of Reuben, the firstborn
of Israel. Notice, these are all sons of
Jacob. This is who God writes in his
book, Israel. The sons of Reuben, the firstborn
of Israel, Hanukkah, and Palu, and Hezron, and Carmine, and
as I've said so many times, I'm glad we've got names like Ron,
Joe, John. But these names, you know these
names, they have deep meaning. So many have the name of God
in their name. The sons of Simeon, Jemuel, and
Jaman, and Hohad, and Jachan, and Zohar, and Sheol, and son
of a Canaanite woman. These are the families of Simeon.
These are the names of the sons of Levi. This is important, we'll
see in a minute. According to their generations,
Gershon, and Hohath, and Mirai, the years of the life of Levi
were 137 years. sons of Gershon, Libnai, and
Shemai, according to their family, sons of Kohath, Amram, Azhar,
Hebron, Uzziah, and the years of the life of Kohath were 133
years. Sons of Merari, Mahala, Mushai,
these are the families of Levi, according to their generation.
And Amram took him, Jacobet, his father's sister. Yes, that's
his aunt. He married his aunt. And that's
significant. And she bared him Aaron and Moses. That was Moses' mother. And the
years of the life of Amram were a hundred and thirty-seven years. Sons of Isaac, Isaacorah, and
Korah. and Nephig and Zechariah, the
sons of Uzziel and Machiel, and Elzaphan and Zithriah. And Aaron took him Elisheba,
daughter of Amenadab, sister of Naashom, the wife. She buried
him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Korah. That name is throughout the Old
Testament, Korah. Asser and Elkanah, Abiaseph,
these are the families of the Korites. Eleazar, Aaron's son,
took him, one of the daughters of Putil, his wife, and she buried
him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers
of the Levites, according to their family. These are Aaron
and Moses. whom the Lord said, bring out
the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, according to their
families. Read on. These are they which
spake to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring out the children of
Israel from Egypt. These are that Moses Now, the
Lord is very careful, very clear to declare these names, all right? These were the names of the heads
of the homes, and I've entitled this message, These Are The Names.
There's nothing written, as I said, nothing written for information.
No person, place, thing in scriptures is insignificant. It's all in
the purpose, the predetermined purpose of God before the world
began. The names of God's people, God's
chosen people, are in the Lamb's Book of Life. When was that book
written? Somebody tell me. Before the
world began. That's what it says. And sealed. These names right here are in
this book and you can't get them out. That's good news. God's people. Fifty-four names, if I counted
correctly. Fifty-four names. Exactly fifty-four
names. And He gave the years of some
of them, like 137 years, 133 years. Here's the point. Here's
the point. Everyone and everything is divinely
ordained by God. God has His people numbered. Every single one. One time, the
Lord had the disciples cast a net on the right side of the boat,
remember? They'd been fishing on the wrong side all night.
He cast it on the right side, and they caught a net full, and
they brought them into the boat, and it says there were, what,
153? Was that it? What difference does it make? 152? 150? But if
you're one, it does. God had a number. Fish! He said,
your hairs are. Your hairs. That's our God. That's the Bible. That's the
God of the Bible. And that's our hope. If my name
is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, nobody can take it out. Not even me. How to make you laugh. Smile. And I want you to see who these
people were. Sinners. I'll go ahead and tell
you. Just a bunch of sinners. Moses and Aaron, their mother
was their aunt. Look at verse 9. Here is where we begin. Moses spake so unto the children
of Israel, and they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of
spirit, for cruel bondage. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Go in and 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
unto thee. How then shall Pharaoh hear me,
who am of uncircumcised link? He mentioned three times the
children of Israel, the children of Israel, the children of Israel.
Even though they were all sinners, even though at first they didn't
hearken unto Moses, eventually they did. Didn't they? They all did. They all went out
as a picture, as a type. All history is going to be saved.
They all went out. How? God's Word. The Lord did it. So the children
of Israel, the sons of Jacob. Our Lord said this. Nothing clearer
in Scripture than this. Jacob have I loved. The world
says, I hate that. Then you must be Esau. Jacob have I loved. Fear not,
thou worm, Jacob. I am the God of Jacob, he said. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help." So we read carefully and clearly
of an elect people whose names are called and written and put
in this book, and they're all the sons of Jacob. Son of Jacob. Moses' name is 255 times in the
book of Exodus. Aaron 103 times. Verse 16 talks
about the sons of Levi. Levi. And he talks about the
sons of Levi all the way down to Moses and Aaron. Sons of Levi,
Levi was chosen by God to be the priest, the high priest,
wasn't he? Levi, nobody else. Levi didn't
apply for the job. Levi didn't say, make me the
priest. Oh, no. Paul wrote about that in Hebrew.
No man takes this unto himself, but he's called. Chosen by God to be the high
priest, The spokesman of God to God's people, right? That's
right. Now, verse 20 says, Amron and
Jacobean, they were the parents of Moses. Hebrews 11 mentions
them, doesn't it? It's the parents of Moses. I
love that story. But here's the point. Did you
notice he said twice, these are that Moses and Aaron. He said it twice. He made it
very plain. These are that Moses and Aaron. This is who I'm talking about,
the Lord said. These are the ones that God raised up to be
his spokesmen. Nobody else. Not Korah. And Korah rose up
against Moses and his sons, and God opened the earth and swallowed
them up. That's generally what happens
to people who apostatize and leave and turn against the truth
and God's preacher and the world swallows them up. That's what
happened. The world was in them all the
time. But the Lord makes it very plain
and very careful to tell us who his preachers are. Why? Because there's so many false
ones out there. That's why. There's so many. And you need to know, the children
of Israel needed to know, these are the men that God chose. Our Lord Himself said many false
prophets are called out in the world. There were many sorcerers
in Egypt. Look at chapter 7, verse 11.
Pharaoh called the wise men. Egypt thought they were wise
men. Chapter 7, verse 11. Egypt thought they were wise
men. They were fools, sorcerers, magicians. There were many, as
there were many gods. But in truth, there was one God,
and God had among two million people. I don't
believe that. Those are the only preachers. It's just so. It's always been
that way. Noah, there's no way that you're the only one preaching
the truth to death out of all these people on earth. Is it
so? It's so. You know, it's just, it's always
uncomfortable for me to deal with this subject because you're
thinking about me right now. But scriptures, you know, John
said, try the spirits. Try them, put them to the test. Don't believe everything they
say. Don't call them preachers or pastor or whatever until you
know that they are. Don't do it, because many, he
said, many false prophets are gone out of the world. Evil men
and seducers wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
And many follow after their pernicious ways. You know, epistles are
full of verses like that. Just full of verses like that,
because there's so many. As Brother Bell said, the woods
are full of them. Every man and his brother and
his mother is a preacher. And we need to know. We can know,
and here's the point. Here's what we're going to see.
How is the man of God known? And like I said, it's uncomfortable
for me to deal with it, because now I'm under real close scrutiny
and examination. Does anybody in here want to
stand up here and be under close examination? Do you want to be
tried for everything you've said for the last 35 years? Everybody
you've offended, everything you've said, anybody, I want to be an
example in faith and word and conduct and conversation, because
if anybody would like to take my place, I would gladly give
it to you. And I didn't want this. Like Moses, he said, Lord, don't
send me. I can't stand up under such scrutiny. Isn't it? But somebody's got
to. Don't they? Somebody's got to
stand it. And the Lord chose Moses. And
who was Moses? Moses had sinners. Sinners. I'll get to that more
in a minute. But here's how the man of God's
known. His message. Number one. It's his message.
This is the number one thing. The Word of the Lord. What did
Moses and Aaron say to the people? Exactly what God said to say. Nothing more, nothing less. They didn't add one word to what
God said. God said, you go speak to my
people and you speak to Aaron and this is what you say. Don't
add to it. Don't interpret it. Declare it. Preaching is not interpreting.
Well, this is what God said, but that's not what he meant.
That's what Satan said. It began in the garden. Error
began in the garden. Satan and his ministers do the
same thing. But Satan said, now, hath God
said that ye shall not eat of the tree? Eve was talking to him. He deceived her. That's
significant. Man's hell. Well, then Satan
flat out denied it. You won't die. I know it says
that, but it doesn't mean that. I know it says elect, but it
doesn't mean that. I know it says predestination,
but he doesn't mean that. I know it says that Jacob ever
loved Esau, ever hated, but no, he just loves him less. Moses went in and told Pharaoh
and told the children just exactly what God said. That's it. He didn't add his opinion. He
didn't look up the commentaries. Let's see what so-and-so says
about this. In seeking a message from the Lord, if there's something
I'm stumped, the first place I turn, if it's the epistle,
is to my pastor. I had a faithful pastor who was
faithful to the Word of God. But not until I'm just totally
stumped. Before that, I had, Lord, show
me from your Word. Martin used to say, the Word
of God is the best commentary on the Word of God. You have
these center references in your Bible. Before you go to what
man says about God's Word, go to see what God says about God's
Word. Turn to the, there's some men by God's grace that have
done so much work for us. Invariably, Sister Sally, invariably
I turn to these scriptures and it's exactly what I needed to
use to affirm something else that God said. Exactly. It's
been so many times I've been reading the scripture and dealing
with a verse, and I say, well, no, it says somewhere this and
that, and I look, it's the next verse. God reveals himself to his people
through his word. So it's the message, it's the
message. Isaiah 8, Brother John and I
quote this, John Davis and I quote this all the time. You need to
know where it is and you need to be able to quote it. Isaiah
8, in order to try these familiar spirits, you need to know scriptures
like this. You need to turn to them, give
every man a reason. Isaiah 8, you have it? Isaiah
8. Look at verse 18. My, my. This is John 17, too, is what
this is. Behold, I and the children whom
the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from
the Lord of hosts which dwelleth in Mount Zion. Right there is
election, isn't it? That's God's people. Read on.
Now when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have
familiar spirits. Isaiah 8 and 19. I've got to go on, I can't dwell
here. We'll talk about it later. Wizards
that peep, that mutter. Should not a people
seek unto their God? You go to the living, to the
dead, should the living people of God go to these dead men?
Dead people. Here it is, verse 20. To the
law. Every true preacher preaches
the law of God, doesn't he? You can't know the gospel without
the law. You can't know God without the law. To the law and to the
testimony. That's the gospel. If they speak
not according to this word, there's no light in them. Blind leaders of the blind. So don't follow them. That's
Isaiah 8. Now go back to Exodus 6. So you know them by their message.
God gave Moses a charge, an Aaron, a charge. Look at chapter 6,
verse 13. The Lord spake unto Moses and
Aaron and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel.
unto Pharaoh the king, and bring out Israel out of the land of
Egypt. This charge is what's going to
bring them out. Have you ever heard that word
anywhere? Charge. I give you a charge.
2 Timothy. Go to 2 Timothy 2. All right? 2 Timothy 2. You know, if you listen to men
who God has really called, you'll hear scripture and scripture
and scripture and scripture and scripture. John Chapman's scripture
and scripture. Tom Hardy has a better understanding
and knowledge of scripture than any man I know. Scripture and
scripture and scripture and scripture. If you know the scripture, you'll
hear scripture. Isn't that right? Look at 2 Timothy 2. Now he said,
These are the men I gave charge to, to bring my people out. to Pharaoh, charged to Pharaoh
to bring my people out. Are you with me? 2 Timothy 2, verse 24. The servant of the Lord must
not strive, but be gentle in all, apt to teach, patient in
meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. If God, for
adventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth,
that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil,
who are taken captive by him at his will." See, men are captives
to Satan, and it's one thing that brings them out. One thing
is the power of God to bring people out. What is that one
thing? The word of God, the gospel. The power of God himself brings
them out. Chapter 4, 2 Timothy 4, verse
1, I charge thee, therefore, to young Timothy, I charge you. We just read, I gave Moses a
charge. Before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead in his appearing
in his kingdom, preach the word. So there you have it. That's the message, the word
of God, and more specifically, the word of truth, the gospel, which is Christ, Christ crucified. Anyone who does any other thing
is a sorcerer, a deceiver, a con artist, and a clown. Now, here's the manner of his
people. And you know, Timothy and Titus
both speak of the preachers and the qualifications and their
manner, their message, their manner. Go back to the text. Chapter 4, Exodus 4. The manner of the man is meekness,
humility. Meekness is not weakness. Moses
was anything but weak. He went in before, in front of
the most powerful man on earth. And here's the sovereignty of
God, and the protection of God, and the salvation of God. He's
standing before man. All that man had to say was,
kill him. That's all Pharaoh had to say. How did he do that? He got mad
at Moses. Why didn't he just kill him?
He couldn't. He couldn't touch him. And Moses went in and said, Thus
saith the Lord. I can see him pointing his finger
at him. The law of God's Word points its finger at us, doesn't
it? What do you need for them to do that? Strike fear in us.
Strike fear in us. Look at Exodus 4, verse 10. You remember this. The Lord called
Moses, and Moses said, I'm not eloquent. I can't speak. He said, since
you've called me, I'm not eloquent. Since the day you called me,
I can't speak. I'm not eloquent. He kept saying
I'm of uncircumcised lips. He said that twice, didn't he? You know what the Scripture says
who God will speak to through? Them of stammering lips. Meaning, I stumble, I stammer,
I stutter, I can't get my words together, I can't speak. Anybody
feel that way? You try to witness to people.
Anybody feel that way? Try it. Right, Johnny? I can't do this. What did Paul
say? Who is sufficient in these things? I'm not fit. The Lord called
Paul and said, I'm not fit. Moses said, I'm not fit. Don't
call me, call Aaron. He can speak real well. I'm not eloquent. I can't speak. Listen to Paul over in 1 Corinthians
2. Listen. Brethren, when I came
to you, I came not with excellence of speech or wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. I'm determined not to know anything
among you. How do you know Paul was sent?
He said, I'm determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he said, but I was with you
in weakness. He said, who's weak and I'm not
weak? In fear. And in much trembling. And my
speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom. Meekness, humility, insufficiency,
inability, unfitness. That's what Moses thought and
that's what every single man God calls things. I can't do
this. But somebody must. That's what
he called it. You know, Mindy and I went into
a... I could spot preachers a mile
away. I could smell them coming. You go in a restaurant, you can
hear them. They come in, you know he's a preacher. Invariably,
I tell Mindy, that's a preacher. The way they act. Loud and proud. And everybody in that place knows
they're a preacher. The other day we went, after Sunday service,
we went to that Sub place down there. What's
the name of the Subway? Subway! What's the name of that
Sub place? Sub, Sub. Subway! We went down there, okay.
We were sitting there and a fellow walked in. I knew it. I'd never
seen him in my life. I said, that's a preacher. And of course he was. He fooled
himself. And Mindy said, that's the preacher
at Methodist Place. I said, I knew it. I knew it. I hope when I walk in a place,
nobody has any clue that I'm a preacher. One time somebody
said to my mother, you don't look like a preacher's wife.
She said, thank you. Thank you. I don't want to necessarily look
like a preacher, but I want to be one. I don't want to look
like anything. They didn't know the Lord Jesus
Christ from anybody else did. He was a man just like everybody
else. They saw no beauty in Him that they should desire. Paul,
they said, who's this vain factor? His appearance is, he's a nobody. No, he's God's man, and you better
listen. You better listen. I didn't say
that for my sake, I said it for Moses' sake and all these men
that God raised up. Notice with me, these were the
heads, these were the priests, these were the preachers that
God had declared the Word unto God's people. The heads, God
made them head over these people. None of them wanted to be the
head, they felt like they were the tail. Sons of Simeon. What about Reuben? You know anything
about Reuben? His dad said it. Jacob said of
Reuben, he's unstable as water. You know that? Simeon and Levi,
you know what Jacob said about it? Instruments of cruelty. They're no good. Their dad said
that about them. Where did Moses come from? Who
was Moses? He was in Egypt, next to Pharaoh. He's a worldling, full of the
world. But what did God do to him? He brought him down. Where? At the burning bush. and gave
him a charge, gave him a call and sent him out. Now he used
to be a somebody in the world. Now he's a nobody. He's somebody
to God's people. And God sent him. And when he
went back to Egypt, he was a nobody to Egypt. A nobody. But he's God's man. Sons of Jacob,
all of them. Sons of Abraham. Who was Abraham?
Abraham's the father of the faith. Who was Abraham? An idolater. I called him out of error of
the cow, and he's 75 years old. He was a Methodist for 75 years.
Catholic for 75 years. He's lost. He's an idolater. He's a blasphemer, injurious,
persecutor. But God chose Abraham. Abraham. Jacob, son of Abraham,
grandson. They're all sinners. You see,
you know who God calls, you know who God has written in his Lamb
Book of Life? Sinners. Everyone. You know who
God's preachers are? Sinners! Because only sinners
can tell other sinners the gospel. Angels weren't sent to preach
the gospel. They don't know anything about mercy. Angels don't know
anything about sin. Angels don't know anything about
grace. They don't. But a sinner can tell another sinner about
mercy, about grace, right? Somebody said a preacher, a witness,
is just one beggar telling another beggar where he got food. One
sinner telling another sinner what the Lord had done for him. That's preaching. So he says in our text, and you
know This is the sum and substance of what he's saying here, the
message of these men. And you know, Moses and Aaron,
you remember the message on the feast and the sacrifice? They
kept saying, Pharaoh, why should I let these people go? Because
we're going to go offer a sacrifice. It's all about sacrifice. about a feast, a lamb. This is how we're going to be
brought out, blood of the lamb. This is the message of all of
God's men. And it specifically, clearly
carefully in great detail lists all these men, and he says, Now
this out of all these, this is that Moses, this is that Aaron
whom I called to speak the gospel. Make no mistake about it. This
is the man. These are the men. These are they, the ones God
called to bring the people out. Israel was blessed to have them. Blessed have I. I'm so thankful for the man God
raised up to bring me the Gospel. So thankful. And don't you know
Moses was amazed. He went, remember the first time
he went, he and Aaron preached the Word to God's people, and
they believed him. They believed him. Don't you
know that? They believed me. And they bowed
and they worshiped. There were times they didn't
believe. But Moses was amazed. Try to think about Simon and
Andrew, fishermen. James and John, fishermen. They sat for hours and days on
end in a boat, not talking to anybody. Fishermen don't talk
to each other very much. You're not supposed to. You scare
the fish. And that's all they'd done, all
their life. Now the Lord called him to go out and speak to thousands.
See? So Simon Peter went out, okay. And they believed him. He was amazed. You know what
he thought? That's not me. I had nothing to do with that.
This really is the power of God. They are listening to me. They believe in me. They follow
me. Oh, my. Oh, amazed. Moses was amazed. Some heard and believed. Many
did not. But he was amazed that some did.
Bless God. He was amazed and so thankful
that men like Joshua and Caleb were faithful to him all their
lives. In spite of the fact they were
nothing but men, sinners. And those two men followed them
faithfully to the day they died. I know they never got over that.
And such are some of you. And I'm thankful for you. Thankful. Joshua. Caleb. Thank you. Okay.