Turn with me this morning in
our Gospel According to Numbers to the chapter 27, chapter 27
of the book of Numbers. We spent the first part of this
chapter looking at those five sisters that they came requesting,
they came petitioning, and the matter was brought to Moses,
and he brought it before the Lord, and they were going to
be granted an inheritance in the promised land. And then we
come to a very solemn time in this chapter, if we look at it
incorrectly, but a very glorious time in the scripture too. Moses
is spoken to by the Lord in this manner. And the Lord said, verse
12 of Numbers chapter 27, and the Lord said unto Moses, get
thee up into this mountain, Abram. and see the land which I have
given unto the children of Israel. And when thou hast seen it, thou
also shalt be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother
was gathered. For ye rebelled against my commandment
in the desert of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to
sanctify me at the water before their eyes, that is the water
of Meribah, in Kadish, in the wilderness of Zin. Now this is
Moses' response to that statement by the Lord. You're going to
be taken up into this. Go up in the mountain. I'm going to
show you the promised land, but you're going to die there. And
this is Moses's request. Now, you know, people, I've been
around people, give me another year. Give me another five years.
Lord, extend my life, so forth. Moses's concern was the people
of God and a new leader. He says here, and Moses spake
unto the Lord, saying, let the Lord, the God of the spirits
of all flesh, set a man over the congregation. which may go out before them,
and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out,
and which may bring them in, that the congregation of the
Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd." That is an interesting
request that Moses makes upon the time the Lord says, your
death is close. Take care of the people of God.
You know, as we look at this, we find, and I've entitled my
message this morning, Brother Moses, or truly from the cradle
to the grave. We watch over Moses, we find
that he was a blessed, blessed person. He is a hymn writer. You know, God granted him the
privilege of writing hymns in a very special way, in the sense
they're recorded in the Word of God. Now, I have some favorite
hymn writers, and I'm sure you do too. that were blessed by
God, and they take the Word of God and put it into poetry, and
that poetry can be mentioned while I'm shopping, and nobody
gives me a problem about it. Now, if you go into a store and
start talking to yourself, you're probably gonna have people look
at you, but if you're there humming an old hymn, probably, oh, he's
just old. Anyway, if you look with me to
the book of Exodus, chapter 15, for just a moment, we find that
Moses was used by God to record a great hymn in the book of Exodus,
chapter 15, and beginning with verse 1, after God had taken
care of all the enemies from Egypt. They look back over there,
and you know what? There's not one of them left.
Nobody is going to be following. There's not going to have to
be anybody watching their back as they go out into the wilderness
there, because all the enemies of Egypt are taken care of at
one time, and nobody survives what God did for Israel. It tells
us there in chapter 15 and verse 1, Then sang Moses and the children
of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will
sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. And what a statement about Christ
at the cross. The church from all time has
been able to celebrate and rejoice in the work and the finished
work of Jesus Christ. It's no wonder that it mentions
that He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
because all the saints have been able to enjoy and rejoice in
His work. It will be a completed work.
It will be a finished work. And He will overcome all the
enemies of the church. And He did. So God gave him this
great song to sing. You know, traverse clear across
the Bible into the book of Revelation, if you would. In the book of
Revelation, it was interesting to find out that Moses' name
is mentioned once again, as he is truly a great person in God's
eyes. Here in the book of Revelation
chapter 15, we read these words, verse 3, Now, I would encourage
you to read that whole chapter, chapter 15, verses 1-19, because
that whole song, that whole section is a song of rejoicing in the
victory of God Almighty. And here in the book of Revelation,
and they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God. What are
they singing here? A song of victory. The people
of God sing a song of victory. It is a victory that we enjoy
that was given to us and accomplished by someone else, and yet he is
the captain of our salvation. He is the apostle and high priest
of our profession. He is the one that is in charge
of all things, and we get to enjoy the blessings of his victory. They sing the song of Moses,
the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, great and
marvelous are thy works. Lord God Almighty, just and true
are thy ways, thou King of saints. What a statement is mentioned
here that lets us be reminded of what Moses sang about over
in the book of Exodus. You know, as we follow Moses,
we find he had to be one of those fellows that is written about
in the New Testament, a holy man of God. Now, it wasn't his
holiness. It's holiness that has been given
to him. It wasn't his righteousness. It's righteousness that's been
given to him. He was a holy man of God who spake as he was moved
by the Holy Spirit. God moved him. Now, it was God's
Word. I had to agree so much with what
Mike said this morning. He didn't try to start and write
off and God had to correct him. God came upon him in such a powerful
way, and it was moved upon him to write the Word of God. Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and the book of Deuteronomy, the
first five books of the Bible, are called the books of Moses.
The Torah, as the Jews call it. But it is the writings that God
gave this secretary, Moses, to write. In the beginning was God,
and God created the heavens and the earth. That's Moses writing
as secretary. And then he concludes with the
book of Deuteronomy, and the book of Deuteronomy concludes
with the death of Moses. We find that it was the Lord
appeared unto Moses face to face. Deuteronomy chapter 34 and verse
18. Would you join me there? Deuteronomy
chapter 34 And verse 10, excuse me. And there arose not a prophet,
Deuteronomy 34 verse 10. And there arose not a prophet,
since in Israel likened to Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. You know he was called the friend
of God? He got to go up on the mount, and He came down shining
so much that even Joshua said, ìWe got to cover you up. Your
skin shines so greatly.î And we look over there, and Paul
was drawn to use that passage of Scripture in the New Testament
to the Corinthians and say, ìYou know, the covering is on in the
preaching of the law, but when Christ is preached, The veil
is taken away. The law never had anything that
we could enjoy or appreciate. It always has condemnation. We find out Moses, the first
time that they were in trouble about water, he is called on
to strike that rock. strike the rock, and I'll give
you water." You know, we find out that's all the law can do
is strike the rock. The second time, God says, speak
to the rock. And you know what? Of all the
things that Moses might have wanted to do, his hand reached
out and struck it twice. No, we're going to find out that
Moses is typical of the law. He's a picture of the law. And
the law can do nothing but strike. There is no mercy in the law.
There is no grace in the law. There is nothing in the law that
we should have to adorn ourselves because it declares the holiness
of God. And once we've seen the holiness of God, we pray we see
the holiness of Jesus Christ imputed to us. My goodness. As we see this, the prayer of
Moses we heard there in Psalm 90, that's the prayer of Moses.
And it's so brought out in the scriptures. You know, Moses was
born in Egypt. Where were you born? We're born in Egypt. We're born
down in a place that there's no bread. We�re born in a place
where there�s nothing. We�re born in a place by nature
that we have nothing, and yet we find out that Moses�turn with
me to the book of Hebrews chapter 11�as we think about the birth
of Moses, he was born in Egypt, and he�s born in Egypt 80 years
before the children of Israel leave. So, if we take the Word
of God to Abraham, and he said they�re going to be down there
400 years, and we back up enough, we find out the approximate time
that Moses was born, compared to the 400 years. But here in
the book of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews is given to us to
help us so much enjoy and appreciate what is said in the Old Testament.
And here in the book of Hebrews chapter 11, and there in verse
23, we read these words about Moses' parents. They're both
Levites. They're of the Levitical side
of the family, the children of Levi. Moses is a child of Levi,
grandchild or so forth. It says, by faith Moses, when
he was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw
he was a proper child and that they not afraid of the king's
commandment. The king's commandment had been
throw all the male children into the river Nile. They're getting
too many of them. They'll overthrow us. Well, God
put it in the heart of this parent, by faith, this is a special child. By faith, this is a special child.
And they hid him for three months, and then, do you know what they
did? They threw him in the river, in an ark. And he is found a
Pharaoh's daughter. and he�s raised in Pharaoh�s
household. We find out that Moses is brought
up with the education to be a Pharaoh. He has learned the language.
He knows all of the social duties to perform and that sort of thing.
And if you�ll turn with me back to the book of Acts chapter 7,
in the book of Acts chapter 7, our friend Stephen brings us
a lot of information about what was going on in the Old Testament.
In the book of Acts chapter 7 beginning with verse 20, Stephen brings
this up. Now remember he has a bunch of
people there that don't like him very much because he keeps
reminding them that in the Old Testament there was nobody that
followed God unless they had a new heart. They were stiff-necked. Well,
in verse 20, in which time Moses was born and was exceeding fair
and nourished up in his father's house three months. And you know,
I could just hear those people that are there that have rocks
in their hands say, yeah, that's okay. I'll take that. And when
he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him
for her own son. And Moses was learned in all
the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was full 40 years
old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children
of Israel. By faith, God had given him faith
to understand where he was really from. by faith, God-given faith. He understood these were his
brethren. He's out of place over here.
See, in one of them, suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him
that was oppressed and smote the Egyptian. And he was supposed
his brethren, notice this, he thought that his brethren would
understand how that God by his hand would deliver them, but
they understood not. Why? God hadn't revealed it to
them. The same thing happens to us
in our life. God has all this declaration
through all the scriptures about the gospel and how important
it is to individuals, and yet we perceive it not. We can't
understand it. We can't comprehend it. We can't
believe that Jesus Christ would be the Savior of our soul. We
are in charge of our own salvation for years, it seems. We have
it all figured out. We have it diagrammed. We can
talk about it. We can persuade other men of
our own religious persuasion. But you know, once God saves
us, we realize we can't persuade anybody of the truth of the gospel. That is God that does that. So
he thought that they would understand. And they did not. And it says,
In the next day he showed himself unto one that they strove, and
would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye be brethren,
why do you wrong one another? And he said, Did this his neighbor
wrong? thrust him away, saying, Who
made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as
thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? And Moses fled. Travel back over
to the book of Hebrews, if you would, to chapter 11 of the book
of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 11. Now notice this, by faith, Moses,
You know, in the Old Testament, we see some errors that people
have, just like they can see that in us. They can see our
errors. They can see our inconsistencies.
They can see the things that we have done wrong. And yet,
under the blood of the everlasting covenant, we see what God said
Moses had. By faith, Moses, when he has
come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. choosing rather to suffer the
affliction with the people of Gog and to enjoy pleasures of
sin for a season." What the blood does for us, how it cleanses,
how it sifts out, how it puts aside all those thoughts that
we had. Moses said, I thought they'd
understand. God said this as He looks at
it. He said, He's choosing rather to suffer the affliction of God,
of the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ. You know what? Moses believed Christ. Moses
believed the Messiah. Moses believed about the promised
one by faith, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than
the treasures in Egypt. You know, I've had people say
that Moses trusted the law. No, no, no. Moses didn't trust
the law. Moses trusted Christ. Why? Because Christ had been revealed
to him as the Savior. Here he says, As we read in the
Old Testament, I think he was looking over his shoulder all the way
he ran. As we look at under the everlasting
covenant, we find God directed every step He took, took Him
out into the wilderness. You know where He took Him? Sinai. You know where He took Him? The
Arabian Peninsula. That s exactly where He s going
to be 40 years later, carrying the children of Israel. Through
faith, we read this, This is in Exodus chapter 12. Through
faith he kept the Passover, and sprinkling the blood, lest he
that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. What a statement
about Moses. You know, as we read in the scriptures,
we find out that Jesus said about Moses in Matthew, excuse me,
John chapter five. Turn there with me if you would.
I love this passage of scripture because it helped me so much
to understand the book of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy. Because here in the book of John
chapter 5, the Lord Jesus Christ is in a discussion with some
people that had some incorrect ideas. They thought they were
trusting, they said, we have Moses, we have Abraham. And here
in the book of John chapter 5, the Lord Jesus says this, do
not, verse 45, do not think that I will accuse you to the Father.
There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom you trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye
would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings,
how shall ye believe my words? What a statement the Lord Jesus
brought up to these people that said they believed the Word of
God. You say that you're trusting Moses, but you don't. If you
had, you'd believe me. And this continues to go on.
We read over in the book of Luke chapter 16. You know, when I
was growing up, this passage of scripture was probably preached
on about once a month. trying to scare you out of hell
into heaven. This is the account of the rich
man and Lazarus. And here in the book of Luke
chapter 16 we read these words, verse 29. We have Abraham Speaking these words as Jesus
records them and Abraham saith unto him This is the rich man
who lifted up his eyes in hell being in torment He said Abraham
said unto him now. What was the request that this
man had requested of Abraham? Send somebody back to my brothers. I so they can hear and not come
here. Warn them about hell. And Abraham
said unto him, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear
them. And he said, no, father Abraham, but if one went into
them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him,
if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be
persuaded though one rose from the dead. If they will not hear
the word of God, if God does not reveal the word of God to
them, they will not believe even though one rose from the dead.
And you know what? This one that is speaking here
did rise from the dead and they still won't believe. It takes
that wonderful grace of God, the calling of God to call us
out of darkness to his marvelous light. And that's exactly what
happened to Moses. He didn't grow up as a Christian. I appreciate what Brother Ralph
Barnard said to that lady, said she was always been a Christian.
He said, that's just too long. That's just too long. We are
not always Christians. You know what we find out is
that God had his eye on us from eternity, that God had the purpose
to save us from eternity, but we are dead in trespasses and
sin because of the fall of Adam, and we're born into that condition,
and it takes the grace of God sometime during our life to bring
us out of that. sometime. Now, there's not a
definite time in our mind, but there is a definite time in God's
mind, in the fullness of time, at the right time, God does that
very thing. So, if they'll not hear Moses,
in John chapter 1, turn there with me if you would, as we think
about our brother Moses. John chapter 1, verse 45. There's
a wonderful account here. Moses is brought up again. He
s a pretty interesting individual. Five books of the Old Testament,
mentioned in the Psalms several times, mentioned throughout the
Old Testament, mentioned many times in the New Testament, mentioned
in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 as being one that had faith
granted to him. Here in the book of John chapter
1 verse 45, Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found
him. Well, who are you talking about?
I didn't know it was lost. We found him of whom Moses in
the law and in the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of God, excuse me, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said
unto him, can there be any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip
saith unto him, come and see. And Jesus saw Nathanael coming
to him, and saith unto him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, whom is
no guile. What a statement that Philip
makes to Nathanael. We have found him. How did he
know that? By revelation of Jesus Christ. Christ had been revealed to him,
and he understood that Moses had been writing about him. You
know what? They didn't have Matthew to revelation. They had the Old Testament, and
the Old Testament declares Jesus Christ. So we have found Him
that Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write. He wrote
all about Him. All of those sacrifices were
a type and a shadow and a picture of our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. But they were not salvation. There were only a type and a
picture. And Moses understood that. By faith, he brought the
Passover. He was given the order for the
Passover and he brought it, but he had no trust in that whatsoever. It was a cooked lamb and lamb's
blood on the outside of the door. What we need is the body and
blood of Jesus Christ on our behalf, not that. And he understood
that. Turn with me, if you would. to
John chapter 3. We read these words as Jesus
Christ spoke. There is a necessity, a necessity,
it says here, and as Moses, not too long ago we read about that
in the book of Numbers, that Moses was called on to produce
a brazen serpent Now, many people had already been bitten and died,
and it s brought to Moses s attention, and he brings it before the Lord,
and the Lord says, Make a serpent of brass, a symbol of that, because
that is a symbol of sin. And you put that brass serpent
up on a pole, And those I intend to be healed, I will put my finger
under their chin and I'll raise them up so they can stare at
it. And by the grace of God, those
were healed. Everybody else that kept their
face on the ground and moaned about having this problem died
in their sin. You know who looked? Those who
God gave an interest in looking. That is our hope, that God would
grant an interest to our children and our grandchildren, to our
friends and our neighbors, that God would do something for them
and put His fingers under their chin and cause them to look up
to the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. Moses lift up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted
up. He said, that's a beautiful type
and shadow of me and I shall be lifted up. And you know what?
Every time we preach Christ, we hope to lift him up. He must
be lifted up. He must be declared. He is the
center. The core is all the gospel contained
in himself. The Lord Jesus after his resurrection
from the dead he brought up Moses again He tells us there in Luke
chapter 24 and beginning at Moses and the prophets he declared
all the things in the scriptures about himself Moses wrote of
him and Moses appears alive in the New Testament You know who
Peter and the other disciples that were with him on the Mount
of Transfiguration? You know who they saw? Moses and Elijah. Moses was there, Elijah was there,
and you know what they talked about? His deceased. They understood
that the only hope for them and for all of God's elect was that
this deceased take place. They were their faithful witnesses. Elijah was a faithful witness
of all the prophets and said, you have fulfilled every prophecy
about the Messiah. And Moses was there and said,
and you have fulfilled the law. Nobody could do what you've done.
As best as we could live, we could never fulfill the law,
and Jesus Christ fulfilled every jot and every till. He came to
fulfill it, and He did exactly that. And there on that mount,
and Peter, like us, said, well, let's build a tabernacle to Moses,
and a tabernacle to Elisha, and a tabernacle to you. What's that?
Let's put you on equal plane, and there's a voice from heaven,
that rang out and says, This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him. And the other two disappeared. Turn with me back to the book
of Numbers chapter 27 if you would. Numbers chapter 27. And the Lord, verse 12, and the
Lord said unto Moses, get thee up into this mount, Abram, and
see the land which I have given unto thee, unto the children
of Israel. Again, the Lord mentions that
this was his promise to Abraham. They shall have this property.
But you know, those who understood something about the gospel understood
that they were looking for a city whose builder and maker was God.
That this was not it, this was just a picture of it. This was
a shadow of it. And he said, go up and take a
look. We find in the book of Deuteronomy
that he looked to the north, to the south, to the east, and
to the west. What a vision, God opens his mind up to see all
of the inheritance of the children of Israel from Dan to Beersheba.
You can't see it all from that mountain. You have to be given
special insight by God Almighty to see all the inheritance of
the children of Israel, but he was given that and then he was
drawn up and and was buried, died and was buried in a grave
that no man knows about. Oh my, there are people even
today that would give millions of dollars for one finger bone
out of Moses. So they'd have something to worship.
You know, the brazen serpent for 400 years was worshiped by
the children of Israel until the king said, this is no, we're
not going to do this anymore and ground it up. A finger bone
of Moses would be worth millions of dollars. But God put him away
in such a way that no man ever found him. There was a contention
over the body of Moses. And one said to the other, get
thee behind. And when thou hast seen it, thou
shalt be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother was gathered."
What a statement. He just didn't say you're going
to die and rot there. He said, you've been gathered to your
people. That's exactly what he said to Abraham. You're going
to be gathered to your people. Who is the people of Moses? It's
not just the Jews. It's the church that he's gathered
to. He is gathered to the body of
Christ around the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it tells
us you're not going to go in because you rebelled. You know,
there is a passage of scripture We're going to go to Deuteronomy
after this verse in John chapter 1. Now, this is why we find that
Moses was not permitted to go into the land. Why? He did what
he did. And, you know, as the Lord brought
that out to him, he said, well, I didn't mean to do that. You
know, my stick just got away from me. All the excuses he could
have given, he just simply said, would you raise up somebody to
take care of the people? He didn't argue with God. He
understood. And this is why John chapter
1 verse 17, for the law was given by Moses. The law was given by
Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. God was so gracious to us. Moses was a type himself of the
law which he had commission to deliver. And for as he's not
permitted to enter the promised land, so he represents that the
law could not bring God's people into Canaan or into a co-equal
to heaven. It is Jesus alone that can do
this. The law has nothing to do with
our salvation. The law has nothing to do with
our deliverance. And the law has nothing to do
with our life. We are the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which he hath before ordained that we should
walk in them. I hope you don't wake up in the morning and you
check over the 10 Commandments and say, well, I'm going to see
how I can do on this today, because you're going to fail miserably.
We did that in religion, and we failed miserably. We couldn't
get one of them taken care of before the next one. People say,
well, I've got them almost all down. I've got one or two more.
You know what? The Apostle Paul said, I'm the
chiefest of sinners. What is he admitting? I cannot
keep it. I cannot keep it. But I have
someone who did. I plead the mercy of that one,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Going over to the book of Deuteronomy
chapter 34. Would you look there with me?
Deuteronomy. And this is that passage of Scripture where
we find the end of Moses. Deuteronomy 34 and verse 1, And
Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of
Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And
the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all of
Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land
of Judah unto the uttermost sea, the south, and the plain of the
valley of Jericho, the city of the palms of Zoar unto Zoar.
And the Lord said unto him, this is the land which I swear unto
Abraham, and unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give
it unto thy seed. I have cause thee to see it with
thine eyes, but thou shalt not go. over thither. So Moses, the
servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab according
to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley
in the land of Moab over against Beth Peor. But no man knoweth
his sepulcher unto this day. And Moses was a hundred and twenty
years old when he died. His eyes were not dim. He didn't
need glasses. nor his natural force abated.
He walked upright, erect, didn't stumble. He went through the
40 years of the wilderness without physical effect. And yet when
it was the time that God had appointed, and we read about
that in the book of Hebrews, it is appointed unto each one
of us to die. And after that, to meet the Lord,
either in welcome or depart. Moses, our brother, is given
the information that he is going to go up onto that mountain and
he�s going to pass away while he�s there. and his concern,
and that will be the next time after the next two Sundays. The next time we'll look at that,
and we find out God has already had someone selected to take
over, and his name is Joshua. And Joshua and Jesus is the same
word, same name, one's in Hebrew, one's in Greek, and they both
mean Savior. and they shall call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And Joshua
was used to demonstrate that, and he took the people over the
Jordan River, and he took them up against Jericho, and understood. That's what that fella in John
chapter three didn't understand. You being a minister of the law,
and you don't understand this? Joshua understand that that man
didn't, that everything that took place in the promised land
was provided by God. He won every battle for him.
He defeated every enemy for him. Oh yes, they put their swords
on and their helmets and so forth, but the record shares with us,
there is no one that's buried in the ground as a victim of
a war, except those at Ai. The rest went out and they came
back. Sweaty, yes. Probably bloody,
yes. But they didn't face death. Joshua is the leader of his people
as Jesus Christ is the leader of the church. In him we live
and move and have our being.