What a redeemer we have. I cannot stress to you enough
how vitally important it is to hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Chapter 10, Paul says, faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Our Lord Jesus often emphasized
the necessity of hearing the word of the Lord. He often said something like
this, he that hath an ear, let him hear. In Revelation chapters
two and three, he would say, he that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit said to the churches. Lots of people heard our Lord
speak, but they only heard with these ears. You see, there is physical hearing,
and that's necessary. Do you remember the old time,
especially Bunyan stressed this, that the ear is the ear gate. That's what he called it, the
ear gate. Most of the time, that's how
the gospel first comes to us. I know there's the exception
of people who are deaf. But most everybody, when they're
first when they first become acquainted with the way the God
of the Bible saves sinners, it's through the hearing of these
ears. That's the way the message first comes. But it's got to come to us, though
that way, it's got to come to us in a spiritual way. So there's
physical hearing and then there's spiritual hearing. There were many people on our
Lord's day who heard him speak with these ears, but they didn't
hear what he had to say with spiritual ears because they had
no spiritual ability to hear. As the scripture says, the seeing
eye and the hearing ear, they both come from God. And unless God gives to you and
me, spiritual hearing and spiritual sight so that we see the glories
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will never hear the power
and the glory and the grace of His voice, and we'll never see
the supremacy of His person. Oh God, give me eyes to see. Give me ears to hear. Lord, tune
my ear. to His voice. You know, the Savior
said in John 10, He said, a stranger will the sheep not hear. They
won't hear another voice. He said, My sheep hear My voice. You know what the voice of our
Lord Jesus Christ is? It's His gospel. That's what
His voice is. And it comes home to us by the
power of and the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Never underestimate the necessity
of the work of God the Father, who chose a people unto salvation
in Christ before the world began. Without that election of grace,
there is no salvation. Without God choosing a Savior,
Remember, the Lord said in Isaiah 42, Behold mine elect, in whom
my soul delighteth. Unless God had chosen a savior
and then chosen a people in him, none of us would be children
of God. We're his people by divine election. He predestinated us into the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself. I read that
to you from Ephesians 1. Don't ever underestimate the
necessity of the work of the Father. And don't ever underestimate
the work of God the Son. We were in debt, somebody had
to pay it. God's justice demanded satisfaction. Somebody had to satisfy justice.
And the only one who could do both was one who was equal with
God in every way, and yet bone of our bone and flesh of our
flesh. Thus our Lord Jesus was made flesh and dwelt among us.
Hebrews chapter two says that he had a body of flesh so that
he could suffer. Because God can't suffer, God
can't bleed, God can't die. God can't know the awfulness
of his own anger and justice. God could never feel that, but
the God-man did. When he turned up the cup of
damnation and drank it dry for all of his people, he knew by
experience in his soul, the holiness of God and the wretchedness of
our own sin that deserved that wrath. Don't ever underestimate the
work of Christ. We're redeemed by that bloody
death of the Lord Jesus. Debt paid in full. And don't
ever underestimate the necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit
either. Because if you've been given
ears to hear this gospel and rejoice in it, The Spirit of
God gave you those ears. If you've been given eyes to
see the beauties of Christ and the glory of His person, if you've
been given eyes to see something of your own depravity and how
your sins deserve death, but a substitute, a suitable substitute,
one who was chosen by God stood in your place, and died your
death and suffered your hell. If you see that, if you hear
the sweetness of his voice, that's due to the power of the Holy
Spirit. And you can't do away with the
work of the Father or the Son or the Spirit without destroying
salvation. Do you know that? Thank God he has quickened us.
He's quickened us. There are a lot of people in
our Lord today who heard Him speak. Turn over to John 6. They heard Him speak, but they
only heard Him with the natural ears. Look at John 6. I'm just gonna
show you a few verses here real quick. Look at John 6, 45. Now here are people Our Lord had
said in verse 44, John 6, 44, you there? Okay, let me read
this. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. And we call that the
effectual call of grace. Jim, what does effectual mean?
It gets the job done. except the Father draw him. And
Christ says, and I will raise him up at the last day. Now look
at verse 45. It is written in the prophets
and they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard. Boy, a lot of people have heard the
Savior preaching. But not everybody who heard with
these ears came to him. But everybody that the Spirit
gives spiritual hearing to, they will hear, and he says, and hath
learned of the Father, cometh to me. I tell you, the Father's
a good teacher. You see, nobody teaches the children
like the Father does. and he teaches us of our Lord
Jesus Christ. All right, he said that. Now
look a little further down in chapter six and look at verse
60. Now many therefore of his disciples,
when they heard this, they heard the same thing everybody else
heard. These people who believed and learned of the Father, there's
another group of people there, they heard the same thing everybody
else heard. Here they heard the same sermon.
Christ said, I'm the true bread that came down from heaven. And
thousands of people, they all heard the same master, the same
teacher, the same message. And some really heard by the
power of the Spirit and were taught by the Father and they
came to Christ. But here's another group. When they heard, they said, this
is a hard thing. This is intolerable. This is an offensive message.
Who can hear it? Who can hear this? Well, I'll
tell you who can hear it and who will hear it. Those who are
given ears to hear it. They wouldn't hear it because
they didn't have ears to hear. And here's the sovereignty of
effectual grace, of regenerating grace. If you hear the message
of salvation by grace through a glorious substitute and His
work upon the cross of Calvary that was successful, if you hear,
you've been taught of God. Ain't that something? You're
a living, breathing, walking miracle. That's what you are. But these others, Lord left them alone. Look down at verse 66. From that
time, many of his disciples, what does disciples mean? You
know what that means? Pupils, students. who sat at his feet, and they
said, we're his disciples. They went back. We're not gonna
walk with him anymore. And Jesus said to the 12, will
you also go away? Right there's a door you wanna
go to. Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. Some left Him. Most all of them
left Him. Apparently, He didn't know how
to win friends and influence people. He never read that book. But all of His people stayed. Thousands of people. And there's
nobody left but the 11. And one who really wasn't a disciple
himself. He was a devil. They didn't like
what Christ was saying. But some do delight to hear. Our Lord often spoke about hearing
his voice. His voice is the gospel of grace,
the gospel of substitution and satisfaction, the good news of
salvation by God from beginning to end. Look at John 8, 43. I think this probably will help
to emphasize the point I'm trying to make. John 8, 43. Our Lord Jesus said, why do you
not understand my speech, my language, my dialect? You know,
we speak a language that's altogether different from the religions
of the world. It's altogether different. They
said, well, they'll use grace and Jesus. They'll even mention
the blood every once in a while. But we speak a different language. He said, why don't you understand
my speech, my dialect, my language? Even because, watch it, you cannot
hear my word. When I wake, they had ears. And
they heard him, they heard the words that he used, but they
couldn't hear because they weren't given ears to hear. And our Lord is sovereign in
the dispensing of his mercies. If you hear and you rejoice and
you believe, thank God for it. you wouldn't have by nature. Understand this, faith hears
things that the natural man can't hear. And faith sees things that the
natural man can't see. That's right. You see, when we
hear the gospel of God's redeeming grace, we hear in our hearts,
and we hear of what God through Christ Jesus has done for us,
and our hearts are moved to rejoice. But others aren't. Others don't
rejoice in this. And we see by faith We see invisible
things. You know, give you an illustration. In Acts chapter 9, when Saul
of Tarsus was on the Damascus road, and he had some men with
him. The voice said, there was a voice
that he heard, Saul of Tarsus heard, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? The men who were with him, they
heard a voice, but they couldn't make heads nor tails out of what
was said. Because the voice wasn't speaking
to them. And Saul got a glimpse of the
glory of Christ. And the men who were with him,
they knew something was going on, but they didn't see anything. He saw and he heard glorious
things that he never got over. He saw by faith. He saw invisible
things because I remind you, these eyes were blinded for a
while, weren't they? Yeah. But he still saw. He saw with the eyes that God
gave him. Thank God we see and we hear glorious things. Now that'll introduce you to
my subject over here in Exodus chapter 18. And the first thing we're told
about Jethro was, look at it, chapter 18 verse one, when Jethro
the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, when he heard,
He heard what God had done. He heard how God had brought
Israel out of Egyptian bondage by way of the blood of the Passover
lamb. He heard that and wouldn't know
more. You see, this is the way it begins.
The Spirit of God gives you the ability to hear spiritually. And you hear and you say, I want
to hear more. That's the way it was with Jethro.
When Jethro the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law heard of
all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, his people, and
that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt, then he goes to
Moses to tell him more. I want to know more. I want to
know more. Be sure you know this, where
God creates an interest, that interest will never die. He who hath begun a good work
in you will finish it to the day of Jesus Christ. I remember back in Bible college,
They taught us, you know, in preacher school to get people
all bothered by hell and torment and get them all stirred up and
then strike while the iron's hot and get them down the aisle. I'll tell you what, if God starts
to work in you, it's not gonna cool off. And I'd just be getting in the
way. That's what preaches. God help us to get out of the
way. To get out of the way. I call you to come to Christ.
I call all of you. You who are watching by way of
the internet, I call you to come to Christ. Oh, that the Spirit
of God would draw you. Not to me. Not to our church. We're just a bunch of sinners
who need God's mercy. And we're going to find that
mercy the same place you're going to find it. Same place you folks
are going to find it in Christ Jesus. That's right, isn't it?
Yeah, I know it's right. You see, Jethro said, we've heard
what God had done. Look there in the middle. Of
all that God had done, he heard, they heard, Jethro heard what the Lord had
done for Israel. Not so much what he is doing
or what he was going to do, but what he had done. And that's what true preachers
of the gospel, we don't know much about what's gonna happen.
I know the Lord's coming back, I know that. And I think it's
gonna wrap up the whole shooting match. When the last of God's
elect are drawn into the fold of salvation, the last sheep
has been sought and found by the great shepherd and put upon
his sheep. He's carrying it all the way
home. I think that's when the end is gonna come, but we don't
know many details about it. I'll tell you something else.
We don't really know what God's doing now. I know he's working
all things together for the good of his people. I do know he's
doing that. But when you look at this world
that we live in, you don't know what God's doing.
except to say, I know He's fulfilling His purpose. And I know He's
working all things for good to them who love God and to those
who are called according to His purpose. I know He's doing that. So you see, our message is not
really so much what God's gonna do or what God is doing, it's
what God has done. The message of the gospel is the message of what God has
already accomplished through Jesus Christ, our Lord. It's
a report. It's a report of an action that
our God has already completed. He finished it. And I just stand
up here and give the report. And that's what every preacher
of the gospel does. We just give the report of what God's done.
And Jethro, he said, I've heard what God's done. He redeemed
you. He delivered you. He rescued
you. He said, I've heard that. I've
come to hear more. I've come to hear more. Well, Moses goes out to meet
him. And then look at verse seven. It says that Moses went out to
meet his father-in-law, did obeisance, he kissed him, they asked each
other, well, how are you doing? Then they came into the tent.
This is a tent where according to the end of verse five, where
Moses encamped. This is like, I'll call it a
pre-tabernacle. It's almost like the preacher's
study. This is where he, this was his
tent, and the Jews called it the Tent of Doctrine. And I think
that's a good name for it. Moses said, let's go out here
and talk, we're going to the Tent of Doctrine. That's where
he studied, thought about the things of God, perhaps where
the Lord gave him some of the scripture to write. So they go in the tent. Look
at verse eight. And Moses told his father-in-law
all that the Lord, watch it now, had done. See, it's a message
of telling people what God's done. That's what the gospel
is. I'm not a prognosticator and
tell you what's going to happen at Gog and Magog and all. There are prophecy majors who
they'll sucker you in and put their charts up and all of that. And they'll talk about what God's
going to do. The message is not what God's
going to do and not really what God is doing, though He is fulfilling
His purpose. The gospel is the record of what
God through Christ has already finished. It's a completed work. And I'm only a faithful news
reporter if I report to you what's already happened. The blood has
been shed. It's been sprinkled on the heavenly
mercy seat. And all is well. That's what
the message is. The message is what God through
Christ has already done. And then you get down here to
verse, starting with verse nine, several things Jethro did. I
just got time to touch on it. Watch this. And by the way, let
me back up to verse eight. Moses told his father-in-law
all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians
for Israel's sake and all the travail that had come upon them
by the way and how the Lord delivered them. Up in verse one, Jethro had heard
how the Lord delivered them. So then he goes to talk to Moses
and Moses said, I'll tell you what God's done. He's delivered
us. You see, the gospel is a continual repetition of what God in Christ
has done. That's all we do. That's what
we're supposed to do, isn't it? Not to come up with something
new. I'm not up here to try to run your business. try to give
you rules and laws to live by? Every time we come in here, every
time you folks who are regular viewers of our podcast or our
broadcast, every time, I'm telling you what God has done. That's
my job. Jethro said, I've heard what
God has done. Moses, I want to talk to you
about it. Moses said, well, let me tell you something. Let me
tell you what God's done. just repeating the message. And that's
you men who speak for me. When you get up, it's just tell
what God has done. That's all I want you to do.
Tell what God has done. Don't tell me what your thoughts
are, what your ideas are. Try to keep yourself out of the
way as much as you can. Just tell us what God through
Christ has done. It's an accomplished reconciliation. And so number one, Jethro rejoiced
for all the goodness of the Lord. Why, he is happy to hear it.
He's happy to hear it again. He had already heard that the
Lord had delivered him. And Moses said, let me tell you
how the Lord delivered us from Egyptian bondage and so on. And
Jethro said, I just rejoice in this. And he had already heard
it. You see, there are some people They wanna hear something more
than Christ. I hate when people say something
to me like that. There's more than Christ to preach. No, there isn't. There is not. You need to read your Bible.
Our Lord said to those Jews in John 5, search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life. These are they
that testify of me. See, if we read these 12 verses
right here and we don't see the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,
we've gone down swinging. We're like a batter who swung
three times, three pitches, we just struck out. You gotta look
for Christ always. Search the scriptures, yeah,
but not trying to find something that'll back up what you already
believe. Search the scriptures for Him.
By the way, there in John 5, 39, when it says search the scriptures,
the word search means dig. He was saying you dig down like
somebody digging for gold. But you're looking for eternal
life. He ought to be looking for me. That's what he said.
He ought to be looking for me. Jethro rejoiced. And look at verse 10. Jethro
blessed the name of the Lord. You know what the word blessed
means there in verse 10? He utilized God. He bragged on
God. I like to hear somebody brag
on God, don't y'all? I'll listen to somebody who'll
brag on God. But if he starts bragging on
self or starts bragging on the preacher, I'm not interested
a bit. Because that's bragging on a
worm. He said, blessed be the Lord
who delivered you. I want to hear somebody preach
how God saves sinners. Used to do quite a bit of speaking
when I was a teenager and then went to church camp where Nancy
and I met. And I'd have testimony meetings,
campfire service, and I'd say, I want you to be standing up
like popcorn popping. Had to get up. I used to be a
real hell raiser. But I gave my heart to Jesus.
I, I, I, I. Jethro said, blessed be the Lord.
He bragged on, he eulogized God. And then he says, look at verse
11. He acknowledged the fact that
God is Lord indeed. Now I know that the Lord is greater
than all gods, for in the thing wherein they dwelt proudly, he
was above them. That is in their religion. You
can put that in the margin, in the thing in their religion, what they're so proud of. God's
above them. He's a sovereign God, does his
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest
thou? And then I tell you what Jethro
did in verse 12. He took a burnt offering and
sacrifices for God. He said, I'm gonna offer a sacrifice. You know, the burnt offering,
that's the very basis of worship. Our Lord Jesus is signified in
that. The burnt offering. But the difference
was, those animals were burned up. Because they couldn't stand
the fire that typified the wrath of God. But the fire of God's
wrath didn't destroy Christ. He absorbed all of it. And then one other thing. Jethro
and Moses and Aaron and all the elders, they sat down to eat. but they didn't eat just anything.
Look at it. And Aaron came and all the elders
of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God. What did they eat? Bread. Where'd that bread come from?
It was made from the manna, from the manna. And you see, Christ
is our manna. And you know, one of the reasons
that God gave them the water and then gave them the manna
was to prove Israel. And most of them failed the test
because they got tired of the manna. That's people who get
tired of hearing of Christ Jesus, our Lord. And they say, we want
something else. We don't got anything else. We don't have anything else. Somebody said, what are we going
to have for breakfast? Bread. What are we going to have
for lunch? Bread. What are we going to have
for supper? We're going to have quail and
bread. Same thing every meal? That's correct. And I've had people through my
years in the ministry, and other preachers have as well, Folks
come and listen. I said, we need a little something
else. Can't you give us some rules
to live by? No. You mean I got to hear about
bread again? Is that all you serve here in
this house? That's it. That's it. And I'll tell you what, if the
day ever comes when I stop serving the bread, you can lock me up,
because I've done lost my mind. I don't have much left as it
is. But I know this. It's the bread
who's come down from heaven. You see, in Christ, we can fellowship
together. These men sat down for a meal. And that which was served was
bread made from the honey or made from the manna, and it tasted
like honey grams, honey wafers, all made from coriander seed
size. That's what the manna was. When you come back Sunday, nothing new on the menu. Same bread. But it's always fresh,
isn't it? It's always healthy. It'll always
do us good. Well, let's sing the song. We'll
close here. Sing 205 once for all.