In Exodus, the second chapter,
and you can go back over there if you would, to the eyes of
the natural man, Moses in Egypt, Moses in the house of Pharaoh's
daughter, he had an enviable position, a position of envy
before the eyes of the natural man. He had it made. He had everything that a man
could possibly desire. But Moses, you see, he looked
at things in a different way than the man of the world does. The Scripture says in Hebrews
chapter 11, by faith Moses, when he would come to years, what does that mean? And I was
looking at that today. What does it mean when the Scripture
says, in Moses, when he was come to years? Or something happened
to Moses. That expression, when he was
come to years, means when he came to knowledge, when he came
to wisdom. There's something that unusual
that the Spirit of God doesn't go into deeply at all. But when Moses was come to years,
he came by the grace of God, he came to have real understanding
of the way things truly are. And his eyes were opened. His
eyes were opened, that is, the eyes of his understanding, the
eyes of his perception. Have you ever noticed in the
Old Testament, and pretty much in the New Testament as well,
we don't know much about the conversion experiences of the
prophets of God, of this man by the name of Moses. We know
he's a believer. He was used of the Spirit of
God to write the first five books of the Bible. He wrote Psalm
90 and perhaps a few other passages of scripture that would be debatable,
but this is a man mightily used of God, but in order to be mightily
used of God in the way of grace, in the way of revealing to us
the very truth of God as He was inspired to write by the Spirit
of Grace, He had to have the wisdom and the knowledge that
only God could give. And I would venture to say, and
I wouldn't go out on a limb here, but it seems to me like where
we read in Hebrews 11 and Moses when he was come to years, I
believe that was his conversion. I believe that's when God gave
him wisdom. He's 40 years of age. It was
then that he really saw his neediness, And he saw the Lord Jesus, the
Christ of God. Because we read there in Hebrews
11 that he was willing to suffer the reproach with the people
of God, the afflictions of the people of God, and suffer the
reproach of Christ. I believe that's when he saw
Christ. By faith. A revelation of grace. Know this. Nobody in the Old
Testament naturally believed on the Son of God, the Messiah. It's always been a work of grace. You go all the way back to Abel. Abel, who offered the blood sacrifice
to God. Who gave him faith? Who gave
him understanding? Who gave him wisdom? Well, the
Lord had to. And here's Moses. Moses in the
house of Pharaoh's daughter. And all of a sudden, it's like
Moses reaches a verdict in his own heart. The Scripture says
he chose to suffer the affliction with the people of God. And he
turned away from. He turned away from power. He turned away from a position. He turned away from wealth. He turned away from those things.
You know what that is to me? That's repentance. That's what
repentance is, is turning away from those things. Now there's
nothing sinful about power if it's used correctly. There's
nothing sinful about wealth if it's used in a way to honor God. But to Moses, to continue with
the power and with the wealth of Egypt, that was to him the
pleasures of sin for a season. And he said, that's not the direction
I want to go. I want to follow the Lord. The
God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob? This is who I want to
follow. Well, what has happened to Moses
to give him such insight into the Lord Jesus? Look at John
5. I read from John 4. Let me have
you go to John 5. Let me show you our Savior's
words. Moses willingly gave up. He willingly gave up power, position,
which to him were pleasures, but for him they were pleasures
of sin. That wasn't what his life, all
of a sudden, was about. The man of the world, that's
what his life is about. authority perhaps, and certainly
about power or wealth, I should say. What's on the minds of men
and women as they get older? Do I have enough stashed away
for retirement? Am I going to be okay? Have I got my investments and
all of these things? And there's nothing wrong with
that. But to Moses, those sorts of things were now suddenly unimportant. And all that mattered to him
was the cause of God and truth, and his afflicted people, and
he made a conscious, conscious choice. I'm going with those
folks. They're the people I want to
be with. the despised people of God. You see, the Lord taught him.
He had to teach him. He didn't get this on his own.
Now I'm sure that Amram and Jochebed did some teaching to him as he
no doubt, and I'm certainly reading between the lines here, that
I suspect that he had opportunities to visit his real mom and dad
and talk with them. But listen, though moms and dads
talk with the children about the things of God, Moms and dads
can't give knowledge, they can't give wisdom, they can't give
life. That's an impossibility. We have
a responsibility to teach, to set an example, But there is
no way that any parent, no matter how much they love the gospel
of God's free grace and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, there
is just no way that they can impart to their children faith
in the Son of God. That's an impossibility. It may be that your children, This is true of our grandchildren
as well. It may be that they'll have to
get out in the world and learn that they're sinners. You say,
I want to shelter my children. I don't want that. And my grandchildren,
I don't want them to get out there. Listen, you can only shelter
them so much. Only God can teach them the gospel
of how He saved sinners by grace alone and through Christ Jesus
alone. The blood redemption alone and
imputed righteousness alone. Only God can teach that. And
you see, Moses, something happened to him when he came of age. To
me, this is a work of grace. that God did in his heart. Look,
our Lord Jesus said this. He's talking to the Jews, and
these are the Jewish leaders, the who's who in Judaism. He says this, verse 43, John
5. He said, I'm coming in my Father's
name, and ye receive me not. If another shall come in his
own name, him you will receive." And then he says, how can you
believe? Which receive honor one of another
and seek not the honor that cometh from God only. And then watch
this. Do not think that I will accuse
you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you,
even Moses, in whom you trust." Now, by Moses, he means the law
of Moses, right? The statutes that Moses gave
that he received on Mount Sinai. But now watch this, verse 46,
"'For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, For He wrote of me. He knew who I was. He believed
me. My Spirit did a work of sovereign
effectual grace in his heart. He was the object of arresting
grace, of revealing grace, of regenerating grace, of quickening
grace. Something happened to Moses,
and all of a sudden, he's looking to the Christ of God. No man
looks to the Christ of God by nature. That takes a work of
the Lord. His eye of faith now is upon
the Son of God. And he gave up. He turned his
back on all the power, all the prestige, and the wealth of Egypt. I mean, he was an aristocrat. I mean, he's somebody. Remember,
this is the most powerful nation in the world, in the known world
back then. And Moses is way up here. And he went from way up here
being somebody to going out in the wilderness and being in the
eyes of men a nobody. but I want to show you something.
Go over here, go back to Exodus 2 now, and I want to show you
a verse. I want to show you this. Verse 21, this is where I get
my title from. Exodus chapter 2 and verse 21.
And Moses was content. to dwell with the man, the man
is Reuel, or Jethro, and he gave Moses, Zipporah, his daughter. Moses, wow, I guess people would
look at him and say, when he left Egypt, he turned his back
on everything there, and he goes to Midian, And all of a sudden,
he's kind of a nobody. I bet you people would have said,
boy, he's really climbing down the ladder of success. That man's going the wrong direction.
He was up here, now he's way down here. But the Scripture
says, now he's content. How can you be contented, Moses?
You don't have the power anymore. You don't have the prestige anymore. You don't have the wealth anymore.
You are in many ways a hunted man. Even your own people turned
their backs on you, the Israelites. How can you be contented? He had the Christ of God with
Him. He had the grace of God with Him. Listen folks, no matter
what your station is in life, no matter what your situation
is, and I certainly wouldn't say it doesn't matter, it does
matter, but whatever it is, it's better to have Christ with
you than to have all the joys and luxuries that the world can
afford, and you'd be Christless. And I want you to know that Moses,
the Scripture says, and I wouldn't ask you to turn to this, but
let me just read it to you. In Hebrews 11 again, I quoted
a little bit of it. The Scripture says, "...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." He made a conscious choice. He made a conscious choice. The Lord's people. and the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. That's my God. Not the son, Ra,
that the Egyptians worshipped. Not the crocodiles, not all the
other things that the Egyptians worshipped. No, he worshipped the Lord. He
made a conscious choice. It is a shame that Armenians
have hijacked biblical words like choice, choosing, and they now present it as it's
easy, you just have to exercise your will. But I'll tell you this, and Barnard
used to stress this, we do preach for a verdict. It's not a shallow,
okay, just make an easy decision here. Moses made a very conscious decision, having all the facts, God did
a work in his heart, And God made him willing, and
Moses said, I choose to go this direction. See, the Lord, when we talk about
effectual grace, the irresistible call of the Lord, it doesn't
mean He picks us up by the nap of the neck and says, you're
going into the Kingdom of God whether you want to go in or
not. I'm just throwing you in. It's like Noah and the ark. The
Lord didn't say, whether you want to go in or not, here you
go, buddy. We'll throw you in there. Oh, no. No. God called
him to come in. And the Scripture says in Psalm
110 verse 3, Thy people, they shall be willing in the day of
thy power. And Moses is now willing. Who made him willing? That's
the question. Who made him choose the affliction
with the people of God rather than all that he had in the palace
of the king? God did a work in him. See, that's
the basis of all of it. So we don't say, congratulations
Moses, you finally came to your senses. No, we say, thank you Lord for
what you did for Moses. And if you have in your heart
turned your back on the religion of this world, works religion,
Legalistic religion. If you have turned your back
on the religion of this world, and you've turned to the religion
of God, which is Christ only, grace only, blood only, righteousness
of Christ only, if you have consciously turned to the Lord, you have
chosen the direction of the narrow way that leads to life everlasting,
I know why you did it. And you don't get any credit
at all. That's of the Lord. It's of God only. You know, when Israel had worship,
they were worshiping the golden calf, and you remember, was it
Exodus 32, when Moses came down from the mountain and he heard
the sound of celebration, Joshua said, it sounds like a war to
me. And Moses said, no, no, that's
festivities there. He came down and he saw what
was going on, dancing around the golden calf, threw the law
down and broke it. He got those people in front
of him and he said, who is on the Lord's side? It's time for
a verdict. Come over here. Identify with
His servant. Identify with His gospel. Identify
with the very truth of God. Come over here! Who is on the
Lord's side? Are you? Are you? Who's on the
Lord's side? That's calling for a verdict,
Ron. That's what that is. That's not
an easy decisionism. That's not that. You weigh this
in your mind and in your heart. Will you worship God? Will you
bow to God's way of salvation? Through the Son of God and His
substitutionary sacrifice only? Or are you just going to follow
in the way of the world? Joshua, you remember he said
this, choose you this day whom you'll serve, the gods on this
side of the river or the gods on the other side. That's what
he said. And if the choice is left to
you, you'll choose the gods on this side of the river or you'll
choose the gods on that side of the river. That's your choices.
Because that's the way you go naturally. He said, I don't know
about the rest of you, but for me and my house, we're going
to serve God. We're going to worship God. Moses, he made a conscious choice. Don't tell me men don't make
a choice, women don't make a choice. We do. But we'll always choose
wrong. unless God does a work of grace
in the heart. That's why I know something happened
to Moses. When he was come to years, and
that means when he got wisdom. Who gave him wisdom? Him who
is wisdom. Christ is our wisdom. He's been
made of God to be our wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Who gave him understanding? The
Spirit of God. And so Moses winds up in Midian. It's no vacation for Moses. From
the castle to the wilderness. From sleeping on a nice soft
bed and eating food prepared by bakers and butlers. What do you want to eat tonight,
Moses? We'll fix it for you. Oh boy,
you're kissing all that goodbye, Moses. You realize that? He said,
that's fine with me. He goes out in the wilderness,
sleeps under the stars, He kills a lizard or something and eats
that. Whatever he ate out there. I
don't know. But he said, I'll tell you this,
the Spirit of God tells us this. He was content. We don't read that he was content
in the palace of the king. But now that the Lord has brought
him to himself, And he's there in Midian, in Gentile territory? He's a contented man. Do you have Christ the Lord of
glory? Do you have God's treasure, God's
salvation? God will help you if you're not
contented. You have the Son of God and a
lot of other things besides. And you're not sleeping under
the stars at night, although that's not a bad thing. You can
sleep under the stars, but you have a house, you have food,
you have all of these other things. But mainly you have Christ. You
have Christ. Moses is a picture in many ways
of the Lord Jesus. Moses gave up riches to be associated
with and perform the necessary work for an enslaved people. That's what our Lord Jesus did.
He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. But made himself
of no reputation, took upon himself the form of a servant. And humbled
himself. became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Our Lord left heaven's glories.
I tell you what, the palace of Pharaoh is nothing to heaven's
glories. All the angels of God worshipped
Him, adored Him, their Creator, and He left all of that. And
our Lord Jesus came down here to this wilderness. I'll tell you something else,
Moses was rejected by his brethren. Our Lord Jesus was rejected by
this world, rejected by His own. He came unto His own and His
own received Him not. But here's what Moses did. He
went among the Gentiles. That woman that I read to you
about there in John 4, she's a Samaritan. She's just
surprised. What are you out here having
something to do with Samaritans for? The Jews don't have anything
to do with us. Our Lord came to save the sinful. In fact, James says in Acts chapter
14, he declared, God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take
out of them a people for His name. Where does Moses go? He goes
among the Gentiles. And he's sat down by a well.
You see this here in chapter 2 verse 15? It says, now when
Pharaoh heard this thing, that Moses had killed an Egyptian, he sought
to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face
of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by
a well. That passage I read you in John
chapter 4, unless my memory is failing me, that's the only passage
where we read of our Lord Jesus sitting down until He got to
glory. He sat down in glory because
He had finished the work of redemption. But other than that occasion,
He was weary, He sat down at Jacob's well, and there He sat. Like Moses sat at Jacob's well. And our Lord sat there to minister to a woman. A woman whom He would make her
to realize she was needy. In verse 16 it says, now the priest
of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water and
filled the troughs to water their father's flock. Here's what I see. To me, we have a gospel picture
here. Ruel, the priest of Midian, to
me is a picture of God the Father. The seven daughters, seven being
the number of completion, is a picture of all of the people
of God. And Moses, verse 17, who stood
up and helped them, he's a picture of the Savior. Look at verse
17, the shepherds came and drove the women away. What is it false shepherds, what
is it that they want to keep people from? The well of truth. The well of life. You see, Satan will lead and
does lead people to pits wherein there is no water. Our Lord Jesus is both the well
of water and He's the water itself. And so here's what happened.
In verse 17, Moses stood up and helped the women. He drove the enemy away. That's
our Lord Jesus. He drives the enemy away. He
drives the false shepherds away. If you're one of the seven daughters
of the Lord, if you're one of the Lord's people, the Lord will
drive the false shepherds away and provide you somebody to tell
you about the well of water, Christ Himself being the water
of life. And He'll drive the false shepherds
away. And you get down to verse 18,
when they came to their father, he said, how is it that you've
come home so soon today? You sure did finish your chores
quick. They said, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand
of the shepherds and also drew water enough for us and watered
the flock. He took care of the flock. That's
what the Lord Jesus does. Savior like a shepherd lead us. He feeds us. He gives us water, the water
of life to drink. And rule says, well, where is
this man in verse 20? Invite him for supper. And Moses was content to dwell
with the man. Oh, contentedness. That's a rare
jewel, isn't it? And let's all of us be honest. By nature, we're not a contented
people. I don't exactly like the way
things are, I'll tell you that. Really. Well, has God arranged
the circumstances you're in? Well, yes. Has He put you where
you are in His infinite wisdom? Well, yes. Has He promised to
be with you to the very end of the world? Well, yes. Tell me
then why you aren't content. Shame on all of us. We all have
to say that about ourselves. Lord, help us. Make us to be a contented people.
And look at verse 21, and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. Moses married a Gentile bride. And I'll tell you, the bride
of our Lord Jesus Christ sure is made up of a lot of Gentiles.
And Gentiles, we are, to the Jews, as it was back then, dogs. I'm thankful to be his dog, aren't
you? I preached one time a message
on Caleb. God's faithful dog. I preached
that in one of the men in the congregation. His wife soon thereafter
was expecting and when a little boy was born, they said, we're
going to name him Caleb. Caleb. God's faithful dog. Oh Lord, make me to be Your dog.
And brush some crumbs off to this dog, Lord. Feed me with the bread of life. And then she buried my son, verse
22, called his name Gershom. He said, I've been a stranger
in a strange land. Okay, now, verse 23. And it came
to pass in the process of time, the king of Egypt died. But things didn't get any better
for them. He was just as mean and hateful and God-despising
as was his predecessor. And the children of Israel, they
sighed, they groaned, they mourned by reason of the bondage, and
they cried. Oh, watch this, their cry came
up unto God by reason of the bondage. Why'd God put him through all
of this? You're not going to cry unto
God till the going gets tough. Boy, when things are smooth, we'll just stay right here in
the land of Goshen. Boy, it's a nice place to live,
isn't it? The Lord said, now wait a minute. There's a land
out there waiting for you, a land of milk and honey. We're happy here. It's the best
place for us. Man, we've got everything here."
Well, then the streams started drying up. Life got difficult. And it got so bad. They said,
oh, God help us. Yeah, that's why those things
happen. To put that cry in your heart. Because it's really the Lord
who put the cry in your heart, and when He puts the cry in the
heart, He's going to hear the cry. And He's going to answer. And I love this verse 24. Look
what God did. Number one, God heard. He's a prayer-hearing God. Don't you ever forget that. Don't
belittle prayer. That's very important. Somehow,
mysteriously, God works His will using prayer. And I really believe
prayer has got lots to do with the will of God. God heard their groaning. God
remembered. What did He remember? His covenant. God always deals with people
in the Bible through a covenant. Always. And this was the Abrahamic
covenant, which was in many ways a picture of a much greater covenant. That's the everlasting covenant
of grace. God always remembers His covenant.
And all of His providence is working things out in such a
way to fulfill everything written in the covenant of grace written
before the world began. Providence is just bringing all
of it to pass. God remembered His covenant. Number 3, verse 25, And God looked
upon the children of Israel. He saw them. That's a sad bunch of people. God looked down from heaven. Oh God, look down on us tonight. See us in our neediness. And number four, God had respect
unto them. Not because of what they had
done. Not because of the good deeds
that they had performed. See, God is no respecter of people
on the basis of what people are in and of themselves. He showed
these people respect because they were His people. He takes notice of His people.
And you may be sure of this, you're one of the Lord's people.
You're never out from under His eyesight, His care, His providence. And you're never out from His
presence. He hears you. He sees you. You may say, well, I'm all by
myself. You're a child of God? You're
never by yourself. He's always there with you. Well,
next Wednesday night we'll go into chapter 3. That's certainly
a powerful passage of Scripture there. Let's sing closing song.
210. Saved by the blood of the crucified one.