Okay, Exodus chapter 4. Sometimes
I wonder what the difference between preaching and teaching
is. Perhaps teaching involves a little
more in-depth study. of the word and words, a careful
study, more than just a declaration of the gospel, but maybe involves
our head a little more. I don't know. It's hard to distinguish
the difference. This study, though, may show
the difference. It's a very difficult portion.
If you read it, if you know it, it's It's a difficult portion
to deal with. And only this morning, I believe,
did I really get some real light on it. Different commentators
differed on this, and Christ has got to be in it. So, the
thing about God's Word is it's written to us, and it's like
the Psalms. David is talking, or Moses, throughout
the Psalms. And yet, at times, many times,
if not most times, it could be our Lord speaking it. Spurgeon
said it's hard to discern the difference between our Lord speaking
and His people speaking. But the fact is, as He is, so
are we. So this involves Moses, who's
just a man, and yet Moses represents our Lord. Look at verse 18. Moses went and returned to Jethro,
his father-in-law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee,
and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, see whether they
be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go,
go in peace. Later on, the Lord gave Moses
ten commandments, along with the rest of the law. The fifth
commandment, which is the first commandment regarding man, the
first four are unto God. You know, I shall have no other
gods before me. Don't take his name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath. The fifth commandment is the
first one to man's, and it begins, honor thy father and thy mother. That's the first commandment
that He gives us. Honor thy father and thy mother. Paul brought that up in Ephesians
6. He said, children obey your parents
and the Lord. This is the first promise, the
first commandment with promise. He says it may be well with you
at the length of day. That's what the command says. And Paul even emphasized that. Moses is an 80-year-old man. You don't answer your parents
at 80 years old. Yes, he did, didn't he? He honored his father-in-law.
He went to him and asked leave of him to go and see about his
brethren. He respected his elders, didn't
he? He respected his elders. The
last days are described in 2 Timothy 3 this way, disobedient to parents. There's never been a generation
of children with less regard for, no regard for authority. In fact, they're taught and even
encouraged to act up, disobey, question authority, rebel. Right? Don't you? Don't teach your children that.
I know you don't. What about Christ here? Didn't
Christ with the Father in a covenant before the world began say that
God the Father was going to send Christ the Son to see about His
brethren like David was sent to see about His brethren, to
see if they'd be alive. No, they weren't alive when Christ
came. They're all dead. He came to give life to them.
So that's a picture, and it says in verse 18, Rejethro said to
Moses, go in peace. God sent Christ to make peace. Now, but surely this is also
a picture of every man and woman or young person, for that matter,
who has heard Christ's voice and follow Him, they will leave
their father and their mother and their home and their family
for Christ to be with. their brethren, their family. That's what our Lord did. He
said, who is my mother? Who are my brethren? This is
my family. That's who I came for. I read
the last article in our book, second to last article. Christ
and his people are synonymous. You can't love Christ and not
love his people. You can't be joined to Christ and not be joined
to his people, right? He's the head, we're the body.
And that's how you know Christ said, by this shall all men know
you're my disciple. Moses chose to go. He didn't. God sent him, but
he chose. Which happened first? Well, you
know what happened first. Moses didn't even know God, did
he? He met him at the burning bush,
but then when he met the Lord, he was I'll go see about my brother."
He was concerned about his brother. By faith, Moses, when he was
come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing, rather, to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach
of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. He'd
rather be called a son of God than a son of Pharaoh. How about
you? And he went to see about his
brethren. I'm glad to see you this morning. You OK? Good. We're not too OK. But you're
OK, aren't you? We're here, aren't we? You glad
to see me? I hope so. Moses was glad. Look down at verse 14. The Lord said to Moses, when
Aaron sees you, he comes forth to meet you. When he sees you,
he's going to be glad. He's going to be glad to see
you. Well, haven't they seen each
other recently? Well, not too recently. Didn't I just see you
Wednesday night? Yeah, but... How long can you go without seeing
your loved one? Huh? How long? Verse 19, the Lord said unto
Moses, Go, return into Egypt, for all
the men are dead which sought thy life." Was Moses afraid? You remember the first time he
was, someone saw him kill that Egyptian
and he fled. Was he afraid to go? The Lord
was sending him to let his people go, to speak to all these people.
They rejected him the first time. Is he afraid? Am I afraid to come and stand
before you? You're my brethren. You better not approach this
without some fear. No man should approach this heavy, weighty
task without fear. You have no confidence in the
flesh. I've been doing this a long time now. If any man thinks he knows anything,
If Paul said we preach in part, we know in part. Where's that
leaving me? So Moses was afraid, and the Lord is encouraging him.
The Lord encourages him. The Lord knows our fears. I'm so glad, I'm so thankful
that the Lord exposed the fears of Abraham. Abraham had a beautiful wife
and he was always afraid somebody was going to take her. I've got a beautiful wife. But
seriously, he denied her twice. He was afraid. David. Yeah, I'm so glad that the Lord
wrote those things down, because I'm fearful. Sometimes I'm a
coward. Anybody? Everybody. So David said, what time I'm
afraid? So the Lord is encouraging Moses. You know the thing our Lord said
to his disciples more than any other? He said, fear not. He was constantly telling them,
fear not. Surely after two or three years,
of seeing his power and seeing his protective care and the faith
he gave them and the abilities he gave them, surely they'd be
courageous and bold. Ask Simon Peter. He denied the Lord three times,
twice before a young girl. So the Lord is encouraging. I remember reading when I was
a young believer and just starting to preach a little. I thought
I was preaching. I read Isaiah 51 where he says,
Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall
die? The Son of Man is grass. Who
are you to be afraid of a man? And forget the Lord thy maker.
I've never forgotten that. I've never forgotten that, Isaiah
51. Well, verse 20, Moses took his
wife and his son, set them upon an ass, and he returned to the
land of Egypt. They didn't go with him. And
understand, this is difficult, the Old Testament was written
in Hebrew. The Old Testament Hebrew, and I've got an interlinear
Bible that's written in Hebrew. It's exactly, the word is exactly
the way it was written. You can't hardly read it. It's
so, those of you who have one know what I'm talking about.
You read from right to left in Hebrew. It's so totally different
from the English language. Okay? And sometimes it seems
disjointed to us. It's not to God, but it seems
that way to us. Okay? Later on, something happened
in the inn. Well, I believe it was when he's
taking his wife and sons back to Jethro to leave them with
Jethro and then he goes to Egypt because they were not with him
when they took the Passover. It says that Jethro brought them
to Moses after they left Egypt, okay, so they were staying with
his father-in-law. So he took his wife and his son,
set them on ash, and returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took
the rod of God in his hand. The Lord gave him this rod. It
was a shepherd's staff because he kept the flock of Jethro. It was the staff that he had
when he was being a shepherd. That's fitting. He said, he took
that rod in his hand. Now, God's word is this rod. God's word is staff, shepherd's
staff. Thy rod, David. David knew a
lot about a rod and a staff. He had one. All of God's men
had one. But Moses had one and he gave
it to Aaron. You know, Aaron's the one that
took the staff. And he said, stretch out the rod, Aaron. He's
the one. But, because he's the high priest.
But Moses took this rod in his hand. The rod is God's Word.
The staff, the shepherd's staff, it's his power. It's God's power.
All things. Moses did everything he did by
this rod, with this rod. And so does our Lord. He upholds
all things. He created all things by His
Word. He upholds all things by His Word. He smites the enemy
by His Word. He parts the Red Sea by His Word. He smites a
rock. He gives bread from heaven. It's
all by the Word of God. God doesn't have to literally
do anything, just speak the Word. Now that's sovereignty. That's
power. That's power. So he took this
rod. Christ came, the rod. He is the rod, the Word of God.
He came with God's Word. Our Lord was armed with one thing. The Word of God. Like a sharp
two-edged sword out of his mouth. Slew his enemies and slew his
people and healed them at the same time. So he came. Now Moses, if he had stayed in Egypt, he would have
been the next Pharaoh. Pharaoh's daughter, son of Pharaoh's
daughter. He was in line to be the next
Pharaoh. We read that all of Egypt, he was skilled in wisdom
and knowledge and languages of Egypt, schooled in the best schools.
If he had stayed there, he would have been on the throne in Egypt
and he would have had a scepter, wouldn't he? He'd have had a
scepter, some little stick. some little stick that he'd held
and done this, in pretense of power. And isn't that man? There have been rulers all over
the world that have had scepters. King, I dub thee. Man thinks
he wields some power. Man has his little scepters.
And man has his power, he thinks, like a pilot. Don't you know
I have power over you? Christ is the power of God. The
Word is God's power. He upholds all things. Man has
no power at all over anything or anyone. Do you understand?
Fear not. I will not fear, David said,
what man can do unto me. Whatever man does to me, God
sent him to do it. He's God's sword. So Moses would rather have had
the rod of God than the scepter of Pharaoh. How about you? How about you? He chose to be
poor. He could have been rich. He could
have been rich. What a picture that is of our
Lord, who was rich, yet for our sake. Moses did this for God's
people's sake, and so did our Lord. Now surely Moses is going
to meet with someone that he knew in Egypt, someone he grew
up with. You reckon? Sure he did. Sure it did. We went back to Ashland for my
40th reunion, and I hadn't been there since my 10th. It's 30
years. And I saw some people I hadn't
seen in 30 years. And one woman, one lady said
to me, I can't believe you're a preacher. I said, I can't either. But don't you know there's some
people that knew Moses when he was there and thought, Moses,
why? Why did you leave all of this? Are you a fool, Moses, for leaving? Look, this is Egypt, man. Why would you leave all of this
to wander in the wilderness with these bunch of slaves? Huh? That's the grace of God,
isn't it? God's going to smite Egypt, isn't
He? He's going to smite Egypt. His
people are going to live. They're going to live. Moses
knew that. The Lord showed him. The Lord
spared him. So, you know, Peter said this. Peter said, The time past of
our lives sufficed us to have wrought the will of the Gentile.
We walked in lasciviousness and lust and excess of wine and revelings
and banquets and abominable idolatry. Some of my old cronies that I
grew up with, we got into everything together, my buddies, you know.
They saw me after 30 years. And this is what Peter said,
they think it's strange that you run not with them but the
same excess of rags, speaking evil of you. He's crazy. He's
a fool. He's a fool, yeah? Paul said
we're fools for Christ's sake. But who's a fool? Who's a real
fool? So what a blessing to be taken
out of Egypt and be content, ye choose rather, to wander with
a bunch of nobodies. Be rich in faith. Verse 21, the
Lord said to Moses, when thou goest to return into Egypt, see
that thou do all these wonders before Pharaoh, which I have
put in thine hand. But I will harden his heart,
and he shall not let the people go. See that thou do all these
wonders. What was it? Three things. He
told him to do it. See that you do these three things.
Show these three signs. Didn't it? What was it? The rod
made a serpent. What are we to do? What am I
to do every time I stand up here? Hmm? One thing. As Moses lifted
up the serpent that withered, even so must Christ be lifted
up. And I must lift him up. He said,
if I be lifted up, I will draw men to you. I want you to be
drawn to Christ. I want you to come to Christ.
Well, how's that going to happen? Preach the gospel. Preach the
gospel. The leper's hand. That's Christ
being made sin. The water turned to blood. We
better find the blood in here. Wherever you read, whatever you
read, whatever you see, there's some blood in it. Bring it out,
preacher. Bring it out. I told these fellas,
if you don't feel like you have any liberty, just holler, blood. Blood. Do all these wonders. What if
Moses thought, well, that's fine, but if I had a big spaghetti
dinner, it'd all come. You know, just slip it in on
them. If I had a bake sale or a spaghetti dinner, you know,
bring them all together and they'd see that I'm a good old boy and
we love them and all that. And then tell them the truth.
See that you do all these things. See that you do one thing. One
thing. Go. Speak. Preach. Thus saith
the Lord. Verse 22, Thou shalt say unto
Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord. That's what we do, isn't it?
Thus saith the Lord. Preach the Word, Timothy. In
season, out of season. It's out of season now. The Word, the Gospels, the power
of God still is. Always has been. Always will
be. Thus saith the Lord. Here's what he said in verse
22. Or verse 22. Israel's my son. My firstborn. He told him that Pharaoh would
harden his heart, didn't he? Go do these wonders, but I'll
harden his heart. Then what's the use? What's the
use of preaching? Doesn't the Scripture say that
God blinds men's minds and hardens their heart, doesn't it? Lest
they should see? Isaiah 6 says that, doesn't it? What's the use of preaching?
If only the elect will be saved. You know only the elect are going
to be saved. That's right. So what's the use of preaching?
Men are hard and they're not going to hear you. Now, what's
the use? Well, number one, God said to. Didn't He? Go Moses, show these
signs. He's not going to believe you,
but do it anyway. Somebody's going to do it, but
he's not. And number two, the reason we
preach the gospel in spite of man's unbelief and all that,
is we preach the truth so that all people are accountable for
it. Paul said, have they not all heard? Yes, verily. Well,
does that make the Word of God of no effect? You see, we preach the gospel,
we preach the truth, all people hear it. Romans 1 said the things
of God are clearly seen and everybody's without excuse. It says they're
all accountable, they're all without excuse, things are clearly
seen. He's the eternal power and He's
Godhead, the invisible thing. And when they knew God, when
they see something of the hand of God, the creative power of
God, something of the glory of God, it says they weren't They
glorified him not as God. They were not thankful. They
became vain in their imagination. Their foolish hearts were darkened.
They professed themselves to be wise and became foolish, changed
the glory of God and went on from worse to worse. They're
accountable. They see clearly. They see clearly. So man is totally accountable
to his Creator. Nobody can say, it's not my fault. Nobody can say, well, I didn't
know. Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did. See that Bible that's sitting
on your shelf with all that dust all over it? It's going to rise
up in the judgment against you. So we, you know, we need to lay
the blame squarely on our own shoulders, don't we? That's how
we need to come to God. And that's how we do come to
God. When God comes to us, that's how we come to God. Guilty. I've
lived all my life without giving God a thought. I'm guilty. I
wasn't thankful. How foolish in my imagination.
Oh God, have mercy on me. And he does. He does. So he says in verse 22, Israel
is my firstborn. I like this. Israel is my son,
my firstborn. Oh, the sovereignty and the sovereign
love of God. Nothing can change it, and I'm
glad. Egypt doesn't like it. Israel does. The world doesn't
like it. God's people do. Esau didn't
like it. Boy, Jacob did. He said, Jacob
have I loved. If you're not Jacob, don't worry.
You're mine. Don't you love God's sovereign
electing grace and love? Love it. Love it. He's my firstborn. Hold on now. Jacob wasn't born
first. He's so what? God said, he's
my firstborn. Abraham, take thy son, thine
only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and offer him. Wait a minute.
He had another son. Ishmael. God said, nope. Not
my son. Son of promises is his son. Son
of elections is his son. All people aren't his sons. His
chosen people are his sons. Our Lord said one time, those
Pharisees, you're of your father the devil. He said, if God were
your father, you'd let me in. But he's not. He said, he's my
firstborn. Israel's my firstborn. Yes. Every
single child of God has to be born again. born again. As many as received him, they
did so because they were born of God. Jacob, Israel, is my
son. Why? Because I made him my son. He wasn't naturally my son. I
made him my son. You see that? The world doesn't
see that. God's people do. All God's people
see that. I was a child of wrath, even
as others. Born in sin, and sin did my mother
conceive me. Came forth from the womb speaking
lies. Child of wrath, a rebel against
God, a hater of God by nature. Didn't say it with my mouth,
but my life illustrated. But God. Born of God. Thank God. Now, first of all,
Jacob didn't accept God. God accepted Jacob. Jacob didn't
decide. God had already decided before
he was born. Jacob was dead. God gave him life. God gave my
firstborn. Isn't Christ the firstborn of
many brethren? Yes, He is. And as He is, so
are we. Verse 23. He said, I say unto thee, let
my son go, that he may serve me. And if thou refuse to let
him go, behold, I will slay thy son. This is what he told Pharaoh. Let my son go. This is why Christ
came, to let his people go, who were captives to the God of this
world. Unless a stronger than he binds a strong man, takes
his goods, they'll remain. We'll remain a captive to Satan. Christ came. Through His power
and His Word, He delivers us. Let my people go. And He said
to him, to Pharaoh, tell Pharaoh, you refuse and I'll slay your
son. Your firstborn. Now, this is what Moses was told
to tell Pharaoh. I'm going to kill your son. God
says, I'm going to kill your son. That's the God of the Bible.
That's how you go to this world. God kills. God makes it lie. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Right? Don't go, God loves you
so much. Go tell Pharaoh God loves you
and has a wonderful plan for your life, Pharaoh. And Moses came in strength, came
in power, came in authority, and said, God said, let my people
go. If you don't, I'm going to kill your son. To the most powerful
man on earth, he told this. His shepherd, this nobody from
nowhere, said, God said, he's going to kill your son. And the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom. How many times did Moses go and
warn Pharaoh? How many times did he tell him
that? How many times? How many times does God have
to warn mankind? How many times? How many sons
has he taken? How many daughters? How many
people has the Lord slain yet man? The wrath of God revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness, Romans 1.18. Every day, day in
and day out, the wrath of God. Egypt doesn't see it that way.
It's just a strange plague we're having right now. It'll go away.
Let's find a vaccine and it'll go away. No, he'll send another
one. It's God to kill. It's God to
send. I will. Tell him this. Let my people go. Look at verses... I'm out of time. I'm going to
deal with this later. It's too important. OK? We'll deal with this next time.
Again, with verse 24. OK.