I was thinking again today about
the the rescue of Moses, how he had been born in a troublesome
time, when Pharaoh was out for the lives of all the male babies,
and how a little ark was prepared for him. And all of you Sunday
school teachers know you've taught this many times, that as Jochebed
hid this ark in the bulrushes, and
she committed him to the care of God. She did her best to hide him
for three months, she and Amram, his father. And then it became
obvious that they should cast their burden
upon the Lord. And indeed they did that, and
they put little Moses, who had not yet been given the name of
Moses, that was the name the Egyptian, the daughter of Pharaoh
gave him, committed him to the ark of bulrushes. And he was
seen, Moses was seen by one of the royal family who saved him
from death. Two points. Number one, Moses
did not put himself in the ark. Somebody else put him in the
ark. He had no ability. He wasn't obeying the command.
He couldn't do that. He's just a wee little boy. There
was another who put him in the ark of bulrushes. And in this,
Moses is a picture of you and me who are the people of God.
Our Lord put us in a place of safety, and really, that was
even before the world began. Because He put us in Christ,
the ark of our salvation. God put us in Christ. And we've
always been in Him. We've always been united to Him. Indeed, when He entered into
this world, we were in Him when He was born. We were in Him when
He lived. When He obeyed God's law, we
obeyed God's law. When He lived up to every command
of God, we lived up to every command of God. And then when
He laid down His life, when He died, when our Savior died for
us upon the cross of Calvary, we died in Him. Therefore, we
died in Him to sin. We died in Him to Satan. We died in Him to all the penalty
of God's law. God's law has no authority over
us. It has no voice that speaks out
loudly against the people of God. Why not? Because it doesn't
speak out against our Savior in whom we abide forever by God's
electing sovereign grace. There's no accusation that can
be raised against God's elect. Our Savior has died for our sins. And like I said, when He died,
we died. That was it. Justice can't come
after us again. Justice has already been satisfied
because we died in Christ Jesus. We're justified by His death
and by His blood. The law has no argument with
us. The law has nothing to do with us. Because the law wasn't
made for a righteous man. And as our Lord Jesus is no longer
under God's law, neither are we. Neither are we. God put us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. And He put us in Christ in another
sense at conversion. When the Spirit of Grace caused
us to hear the gospel of good news of the redemptive work of
our Lord Jesus Christ, He put us in Christ again, as
it were. And then I think about when Moses was pulled out of
the ark. That wasn't his doing either.
He didn't put himself in the ark. He didn't get himself out
of the ark. Somebody else did that. He's
in the place of what appeared to be certain death. There appeared
to be no hope. I mean, you hear crocodiles and
all manner of beasts there by the river. Well, what's to become
of him? Well, I'll tell you what will
become of him. One of the royal family will pull him out. And that's exactly what happened
to us. One who is royal. One who is not the daughter of
the king, but who is the king himself. He pulled us out of
a certain death and He saved us by His grace. Oh, the grace of God. Oh, the
wisdom of God in devising such a means of salvation. How can
mercy and truth come together? How can righteousness and peace
kiss each other? which is another way of asking
how can God, who's just and holy, ever have any dealings by way
of mercy and grace with folks like us? Oh, the divine mind
did what nobody else could ever do. Not all the angels of God
together could ever come up with this purpose. Our substitute
would die in our place and he was the suitable substitute,
suitable and satisfying to God, and suitable to us. And then he comes and he, by
his spirit, he pulls us out of what appears to be certain death. He found us in our lost estate. Aren't you thankful for finding
grace? He found us. And we weren't looking
for Him. But He was looking for us. His
eye has always been upon His sheep. And in the designated
time, that time appointed in old eternity, He draws us out. I know many would have a part
in this salvation But as Moses had no part in the removal of
him from that which appeared to be a dangerous situation,
he had nothing to do with that. He didn't have anything to do
with his safety. He didn't have anything to do
with his deliverance. It was another who kindly, with
arms of love and compassion, pulled him out of that ark. and
brought Him to Pharaoh's daughter. And the Lord pulled us up. I
don't know where He found you. He may have found you in false
religion. That's where He found me. He
found me in false religion. He may have found you in open
wickedness. I don't know. And that's really
in any of our business. I only know this. I once was
lost. but I'm not lost anymore. I've
been found. The shepherd came seeking for
me." Well, that's what he said when they fussed at him about
going to the house of Zacchaeus, that wee little man who climbed
up in a tree to see the Savior. Then he said, I'm going to your
house today because this day salvation has come to your house.
He is salvation. He said, I'm coming to your house.
And the Jews said, oh, you're going to the house of Zacchaeus?
Man, he's chief of the publicans. He's the biggest tax collector
of all of them. Our Savior said, for the Son
of Man, He's come. I'm come to seek and to save
that which was lost. And little did Pharaoh's daughter
know, God directed her steps that day to exactly, exactly
that point where Moses lay in an ark of bulrushes. Because
there's one of God's elect right there. He's going to be a preacher. He's going to be a prophet. He's
going to be a priest. And in a sense, he's going to
be a king because he's going to rule over Israel. He can't
die. He can't die until his work is
finished. It's like Brother Doug's home
going this morning. He couldn't die until his work
was finished. And when his work was finished, and when your work
is finished, and my work is finished, that's when we'll go home. That's
when the Lord will take us. Moses was drawn out of the ark
of bulrushes. In loving kindness, Jesus came. We just sang that. My soul in
mercy to reclaim. And from the depths of sin and
shame, through grace, what did He do? He lifted me. He lifted them. And there's no
sinner too big. There's no sinner too great.
But what? He can't lift them. If that's
His will. Because He said Himself, He's
mighty to save. He's the Almighty God. The Father
said of Him in Psalm 89, I have laid help upon one who is mighty. Ours is a mighty Savior. I don't
want to hear anything about a pitiful, weak Jesus. That's not the Jesus
of the Bible, and that's not the Jesus I need. I need a Jesus
who's almighty to save, and ours is. Now, so he's rescued. Well, then we get down to verse
7. Sister says to Pharaoh's daughter,
Ah, you mean go call an Israelite nurse to take care of him?" He
said, yeah. And Miriam goes and gets Moses'
mother, her mother and Moses' mother. Do you know what, in
Isaiah chapter 66 and also in Revelation chapter 12, The word
mother is used, and you know who it refers to? The church
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And here's what the Lord does.
The Lord, He saves us by His grace, and He entrusts us to
a local church to nourish, to assist, to encourage, to be a
blessing to, that one who has been rescued by grace. We should
all be nourishers of each other. We should be. We should encourage
one another. We should rejoice in one another's
company. I love it when I get to the vestibule
and a few folks leave, I greet all them. Then I look and y'all
are down here talking. I love that. Because it's nourishing
to every believer to speak and visit with other believers. That's
a wonderful thing. And if you're not in the practice
or in the habit of doing that, as the fellow said, you ought
to. That's a good thing to do. Because the Lord entrusts each
of us to a body of believers. And we want to nourish one another.
We want to grow together. To love one another. To appreciate
one another. To seek God's face in prayer
for one another. And we need one another. We do. We need one another. I need you. What's a preacher without a congregation? I need you. And I rather believe
that you need me too, because what's a congregation without
a preacher? So the Lord He pictures this, Moses entrusted to his
mother as one, the picture is of a new believer who's entrusted
to a body of believers. And we take care of one another.
All right, then we get to verse 10 and 11, and I'll say this,
and I mentioned it last week, between verses 10 and 11, 40
years go by. I know years go by fast, but
that's 40 years that goes just like that. That the Lord doesn't
seem, well, He doesn't see fit to record all that happened during
Moses' upbringing, though we do have a little information
from other passages of Scripture. You see, Moses, he needed an
education. He needed instruction, and God
is going to give him that instruction from an unusual source, from
the house of Pharaoh. Look with me in Acts chapter
7. Stephen, in his message, Stephen, one of the deacons, he had a
tremendous message. He was a deacon and a preacher.
And he has quite a bit to say about Israel. And of course,
he goes through, he kind of gives us a brief history of Israel. But he especially deals with
Moses because Moses is such a central figure of Israel's history. In fact, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
and Deuteronomy, practically all of them are about Moses.
He kind of hits the list of everybody. There's no one spoken of in the
Word of God more, there's no one who's spoken more of than
Moses with the exception of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look here
at Stephen's message, and I don't have time to read it all. Chapter
7 of Acts. Look at verse 27. And when the
time of promise, Acts 7, 27, verse 17. 17. But when the time of the promise
drew nigh, that God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and
multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose which knew not Joseph. And we've read that before back
in chapter 1. of Exodus. The same dealt subtly
with our kindred and evil entreated our fathers so that they cast
out their young children to the end that they might not live. In which time Moses was born
and was exceeding fair and nourished up in his father's house three
months. 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. and seeing one of them suffer
wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote
the Egyptian. For he supposed his brethren
would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver
them, but they understood not." You see, Moses, he is the deliverer. But I entitled the message, I
told Ron earlier today, I said, I'm wrestling with a title for
this message. I finally came up with this title,
Moses the Unknown Deliverer. He knew he was the deliverer.
Say, how did he know? God taught him. God taught him. He's the instrument God would
use in bringing forth Israel out of Egyptian bondage by price,
the Passover lamb, and by power, going through the Red Sea. He's
God's man for the hour, as it were. He's God's appointed servant. And he thought that the Israelites
knew that. but they didn't know that. Oh,
he is the deliverer, all right, but he is the unknown deliverer. But during this time in Pharaoh's
house, he learned quite a bit. You see, he wasn't really ready
to lead them, and they weren't really ready to be led, right? He wasn't ready to be a deliverer.
He had much to learn. He was anxious. He went forth,
he saw one of his brethren, an Egyptian was beating up on him,
while Moses just killed him, buried him in the sand. And then
the next day, he sees two Israelite men skirmishing together, fighting
together. And the one who started it all,
he says to Moses, what did you come back today for? You come
to kill me like you killed the Egyptian? And Moses thought, these guys
know who I am. I'm the deliverer. He knew he was the deliverer.
God appointed him to be the deliverer. But Israel didn't know He was
the Deliverer. And in that sense, He's a picture
of our Lord Jesus, by the way. The Scripture says, He came unto
His own, and His own received Him not. Our Lord Jesus was the
appointed Deliverer. There never has been another
Savior. The Law was never meant to be a Savior. It wasn't given
for that purpose. It was given to show us our guilt.
To drive us to Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus is the Deliverer. That's why He came. But when
He came to this world, you know what? He was the unknown Deliverer. In fact, John chapter 1 says
He came unto His own and His own received Him not. 1 John
says the world knows us not because it knew Him not. Our Lord Jesus
was unrecognized in John chapter 8. He said, I am the light of
the world. A little further down in the
conversation with the Jewish leaders, they ask Him this, Who
are you? Who are you? Well, He knew who He was. There's been a couple of movies
out where they portray Jesus as not exactly sure why He was
down here. Oh, what heresy. He's known from
forever who He was, who He is, and why He would come into this
world. He knew what His mission was. It was a mission of mercy. His name is Jesus. Call Him Jesus.
He'll save His people from their sins. He knew why He came. But the world didn't. And you
know what? You and I who believe him, we
didn't really know why he came either. He was to us the unknown
deliverer until, watch this, by his grace he introduced himself
to us. Through the preaching of the
gospel. Just like what I'm doing right now. He introduces Himself
to sinners who are lost, who are hopeless, who are cast out,
as it were, upon the river of life to die. We didn't know who
He was. But then He caused our paths
to cross with somebody who knew how God saves sinners. And you
heard the good news. Christ is the Savior. And everything
a holy God demanded, He has fully satisfied. He's the substitute
for the guilty. The Spirit of God convinced you
and you said, I'm guilty. I'm guilty. This is the kind
of Savior I need. Moses knew who he was, but the
people didn't know. Notice in verse 25 there in Acts,
it said, For he supposed his brethren would understand how
that God by His hand would deliver them. He supposed. That's a dangerous thing to do.
You see, Moses is going to deliver, but right here he's 40 years
too early. He needs an education first.
He's got to have some instruction, much needed instruction. You
know, if you take a concordance, strong, young, crudence are the
best ones. If you don't have one, I would
recommend you get one. You can borrow one out of the
church library. You don't even have to buy it
if you want to. But look up the word supposed in the Bible. What does the word supposed mean? When you suppose something, you're
making an educated guess. That's what a supposition is.
It's to hold an opinion. And Moses had an opinion. He
made an educated guess. They know who I am. And they
know why God has sent me. As you go through the Bible,
you look up the word supposed. Almost every time it's used,
it's in a bad connotation, it's in a bad setting. See, when it comes to the things
of God, we don't suppose anything. Faith makes no supposition. Faith is not a mere wish, a hope,
Well, I'm making an educated guess. That's not what faith
is. And people say, well, faith is blind. That's not right. Faith sees, not with these eyes,
but sees the promises of God and rests on what the Lord has
said. We don't suppose anything. We
have assurances. God gives us assurances in His
Word. I say, Moses, he supposed that
all of Israel knew what he knew, but they didn't. They didn't know who he was and
they didn't know what he intended to do. And in that, again, I say Moses
was a picture of the promised Messiah, set forth in promise,
picture, prophecy throughout the Old Testament. But when He
came, He was unrecognized, unwanted, unknown. No one knew who Christ was except for a very few people
who looked for redemption in Israel. Simeon knew what the
Spirit of God taught him there in Acts chapter 2. Mine eyes
have seen thy salvation. Anna knew Acts chapter 2. She spoke of redemption to all
who looked for Him. All who prayed for His coming. Moses used of the Lord in a mighty
way. In a mighty way. Look at verse... Look at verse
25 here in Acts 7 again just real quickly. And He supposed
His brethren would have understood how that God by His hand would
deliver them, but they understood not. And the next day He showed
Himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one
again, saying, Sirs, you're brethren, why do you wrong one another? And then of course comes Response,
but he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying,
Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill us as
thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? And then fled Moses at this saying." Let me just say this and I'll
close. It's a dangerous thing to suppose
that people know what you're talking about. And I have a word
of advice, a word of counsel for anybody who talks to others
about the things of the Lord, a word of counsel to those who
would speak from here, some school teachers that are here, Don't
ever suppose that people know what you're talking about. That
they are knowledgeable of this subject of the Gospel of Grace. I fear, and I've had 47 years
in the pastorate, I fear as I listen to men preach for a long time,
when I was young and as I've gradually got older and kind
of moved to the upper ranks of age, anyway. Lots of times, preachers preach,
and I want to say to them, I wish you'd lower it down a little
bit. Because everybody doesn't know
what you're talking about. And I would say to the Sun School
teachers, I'm not saying water the message down. But don't just
take for granted everybody knows who and what you're talking about.
And don't be fearful of presenting the Word of God and the things
of God in a very elementary way. I think, be careful what I say
here, I think sometimes when I hear
people talk, it's sometimes heartbreaking.
It's true with every preacher. And you think, have they heard
anything I've said? I'm thinking of a dear lady,
loved me, Love the preaching of the Gospel. Not here. Somewhere
else. And her sister died. And she
was greeting people at the casket as family members typically do. And she said, I'll tell you,
if there's ever anybody in heaven, she is. Sweetest woman I ever
knew. Never turned anybody away. Start
talking like that. In my soul, I was weeping. I thought she knew better than
that supposition. I supposed that she knew. And I was reminded right then and
there, and I believe the Lord taught me, and I prayed, Lord,
help me to speak in such a way People can understand what I'm
saying. Don't talk over people's heads.
Say, well, they've heard this old Gospel many times before. Let me tell you something. People
who know and love the Gospel, they'd love to hear it again. You can't get too elementary
for the people of God. And I'm always reminded of something
I read by Martin Luther. And I read it years ago when
I was going through his works. And he said, somebody asked him
one time, said, why do you speak so simply? He said, you know
we have doctors and lawyers in our congregation? And he said, well, if I speak
on the level of children, I'm sure the good doctors and lawyers
can understand me, too. I like that. Several years ago, I had a very well-known physician in
the community came to hear me, and everybody loved him. Some
of these doctors, especially years ago, they'd even make house
calls. They'd become friends of the
family, And this guy came, and I hadn't noticed him, and somebody
said, Brother Jim, do you see so-and-so's here? I said, well,
it's good to have him. He said, you might want to recognize him.
It's good to have Dr. So-and-so here. I said, no, I
won't do that. Because in here, he's just another
sinner to whom I'm going to preach the gospel, give it clear. And that's what I say to all
of us who speak from this pulpit or in your Sunday school classes.
Don't suppose everybody knows what you're talking about. That's
a big mistake. The reason I know is because
I've done that. I know that by experience. Lower
it down. Had a brother told me not long
ago, I was talking to him on the telephone, One of the members
of his family has mental issues. And he said, you know, he likes
to watch you. He can understand you. He said,
I hope you don't take that wrong. I said, thank you. See, Moses supposed they knew
what he knew. but they didn't know what he
knew. And he was so itching, so anxious,
to just jump right in the ballgame, so to speak. But that wasn't the time. Hey,
give it another 40 years. Then you'll get the call into
the ministry. I don't know why I'm thinking
of these stories. I'll give you one more. At the church that
I was working at in Salem, Virginia, when I was just a young man,
19 years old, when the preacher left, he had been a friend of
mine. Some of them in the church wanted me to pastor, 19 years
old. I did have enough sense to know
this, because somebody said, well, Spurgeon started pastor
when he was like 17 years old. My name's not Charles Spurgeon,
it's Jim Burton. That's another man you're talking
about there. But there were some who wanted
me. And in a way, I did. It wasn't the time. It wasn't the
place. Moses, just be patient. You've
got to go to the backside of the desert. And you're going
to get an education out there that you've never dreamed of. You're going to learn to be a
shepherd. A position which the Egyptians
despised. He's going to watch over some
flocks. He's going to see what it is to tend the sheep. The Lord's sheep, that's who
He's going to tend to. Well, I'll quit. Hope you have
a good Thanksgiving tomorrow. I know some of the ladies have
been cooking for a couple of days or so, and you'll enjoy
things tomorrow. Let's sing a good song for Thanksgiving.