Okay, well this week we're back again in Exodus chapter 4, and I want to look at the verses from 27 down to the end of the chapter. We did read them last week, but I'll just read them again now. And the Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness to meet Moses.

And he went and met him in the mount of God and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him. And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. And Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.

This book of Exodus is history that happened. I have no doubt about it. God says it, it's in his word. I don't care what archaeologists or worldly historians might do or say to contradict that, but it's history that happened. Real slaves, Hebrew slaves, in bondage, in cruel bondage, in Egypt for 400 years after Joseph had gone, a new pharaoh came and put them into bondage. they were liberated from Egypt. And it was in accordance with God's promise that he'd made to Abraham 400 years and more before that. We've seen that before. And so you might say, so what? Yes, okay, it's history that happened.

The fact is that this is given by God to picture, to picture, for any with the eyes to see how God takes his beloved multitude from sin's bondage, from the curse of sin, and qualifies them for his glorious kingdom. For this national Israel to be freed, certain things had to happen.

God, in pure grace, must order every step of the way. It's God's doing. God must send someone to reveal the message. He must have a prophet to reveal the message. He must appoint a priest to mediate between God and man. He must appoint a priest, for he is holy. He dwells in unapproachable light. And here are sinners. He must have a priest.

Satisfaction must be made to the justice of God. God's justice, which is offended by sin, must be satisfied. But the way of God that that is done must be proclaimed, must be proclaimed. And when it's proclaimed, the people don't just shrug their shoulders, they believe God. God's people must believe, and God must work out his will.

In this way, God accomplishes the plan of the salvation of his elect from sin in this world. Just as he took Israel, out the Hebrews, out of Egypt's slavery, It pictures how God takes his beloved people who are sinners in this world, condemned to a lost eternity, how he qualifies them for his eternal kingdom. He accomplishes the plan of salvation for his elect. Moses was raised up as a prophet, the prophet of God, the one to deliver the message of God. He says that in Deuteronomy 18. He says that God is going to send another prophet, who will be like me, to him you shall hear. He's speaking of Christ who reveals the full will of God. That's Deuteronomy 18 verse 15.

But Moses was raised up as a prophet and as we've seen in these chapters with the burning bush and the message of God to Moses in that situation, he's commissioned by God. He's commissioned to go and tell the people to come out of Egypt and to tell Pharaoh to let the people go. But he's not just commissioned, he's equipped. He's given the message he's got to speak and he's given miracles. The miracle with the rod of God, that rod which became a serpent. He's given the miracle of his hand becoming leprous and then cured to show that all of this is the doing of God who upholds all things. by the word of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's assured of support and success in this mission. And so off he goes on this mission, and then, shock, shock, as we saw last time, he's found under God's sentence of death. The man commissioned to go and do the very thing God's told him to do, God tries to kill him, it says there. God sought to kill him. Why? Why would God seek to kill one that he's just commissioned to go and do his work? You could say, why not? Why would God not seek to kill him?

Because you see, in sinful flesh, and Moses was a sinner in the flesh, in sinful flesh, in the flesh that we inhabit, we are all under the sentence of death. And again, we won't look it up now, but we saw it last time. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 9, we all have the sentence of death in us. Why? The soul that sins, it shall die. In the day you eat thereof, said God to Adam and Eve in the garden, in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. We all have the sentence of death in our flesh. So what must happen?

Our sinful flesh, which would bar us from the kingdom of God, must be cut off. before the entrance to the kingdom of God is possible. How's that going to be portrayed in these Exodus days? Answer, the right that was given to Abraham. to picture, as a sign, as a picture, circumcision. Circumcision, physically flesh was cut off, to picture that which is fulfilled in the crucifixion of Christ.

We saw it last week, but I think it's worth underlining. So turn with me to Colossians chapter 2 again. Let's just look, just for a moment, let's just remind you. We looked at it last time, but let's look at it again here. Verses 11 to 14, he's talking about Christ, you're complete in him, the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him, you're complete in him. Verse 11, in him, in Christ also, you are circumcised. with a circumcision that's required by God.

How has that happened? It's not circumcision made with hands. You know, when Zipporah circumcised that uncircumcised son to fulfill the requirements of God so that Moses, he could let Moses go, That was done with hands. This is a circumcision made without hands. How? In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. How was that accomplished? We're not talking about Christ being circumcised as a baby.

We're talking about this spiritual circumcision. where the sinful flesh of his people was cut off in him when he died on the cross, buried with him, union with him, buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the dead, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you see that? he hath quickened, he is made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, and blotted out the handwriting of ordinances, the law that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he took it out of the way, and how did he do it? He nailed it to his cross. In his death on the cross, Christ fulfilled everything that the right of circumcision given to Abraham pictured. So when Moses insisted that his wife, Zipporah, his unbelieving wife, Zipporah, circumcised that son who hadn't been circumcised, verse 26, God let him go. God let Moses go.

Why am I repeating this? Why am I... You say, well, he keeps repeating himself. Why am I repeating this? It's because it's the way into the kingdom of God. The way into the kingdom of God is that sinful flesh must be cut off. How do we do it? We don't go out and chop limbs off one another. No, absolutely not. We don't do it that way. It's through Christ and his crucifixion that we have our sinful flesh dealt with under the justice of the law. He said, you know the way. And Thomas said, we don't know the way. Show us the way. And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the Father but by me. Unless sinful flesh is cut off by virtue of your being crucified with Christ, you've heard that verse before, haven't you? Paul says in Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me. We're not crucified with him. Divine justice bars us from heaven. Divine justice cannot let us into heaven. How do you know if you were crucified with Christ? There's only one way you know, and it's this. And it sounds too simple, but it's true.

It's this, you believe and rest in him. You believe the gospel because he said again and again that eternal life is in believing in him. You rest in him, you put the weight of your immortal soul on him and all that he has done. For these Israelites, these Hebrews, the liberty of the promised land was the goal. And that pictured, and it's only a picture, and it was a very poor picture, but nevertheless it pictured, it pictured the bliss of the new heavens and the new earth, which is the hope of all the believing people of God. that what we're in now, this veil of tears, this valley of the shadow of death, this fearful place with Satan in his little season, doing all he can to keep the people of God out of heaven, there's a new heavens and a new earth.

There's a glorious kingdom. There's an inheritance. Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. What's it going to be like? It's going to be absolutely glorious. It's indescribably glorious. Anything that you've seen in this world that makes a thrill go down your spine when you look at the view, it's going to be surpassed infinitely, infinitely.

Can you see it with the eye of faith? You can't see it with physical eyes. We can't see these things with physical eyes and hear them with physical, it's got to be by faith, the gift of God, of the spirit of God. Can you see it so that you hope for it?

Yes, that's what I aspire to. Do you desire it with your affections set above where Christ is? Or is this world all that you can aspire to? Is the thing, are the baubles and the trinkets and the experiences of this world the only thing that excites your desires? Is it just the things of this world?

You see, we may be a tiny minority who believe the gospel of grace, But don't look at the multitudes that go on the broad way to destruction, whilst we struggle up the narrow way to eternal life, because why, God is for us. And if God be for us, who can be against us? So then, How does Exodus assure God's people of the truth of his salvation, of his kingdom? By pictures of saving grace. We have here the gospel in an allegory, a story that tells the truth. And the first point is this. The Lord sends Aaron. Look at verse 27. And the Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went and met him in the mount of God and kissed him.

Aaron would be made the high priest of Israel in the giving of the law. Aaron would be the high priest, flawed man. We know, we see so many ways in which Aaron was a weak and a flawed man, but nevertheless, in the hands of God, he was to be the priest. And Moses, his younger brother, three years younger, Moses would receive from God his revelation of the righteousness and justice of the law on Mount Sinai. God sent Aaron into the wilderness to meet Moses.

God sent his son into this fallen world to meet the demands of righteousness and justice for his people, and only for them. He did it for Israel. For we read in Exodus chapter 11 and verse 7 that the Lord makes a difference between Israel and Egypt. He makes a difference. God makes a difference between the people of this world. There are those whom he loved from before the beginning of time, a multitude that no man can number from every race and tongue and kindred. He loved them. And he, how can I put it? He accomplished, I'll just say that, he accomplished the satisfaction of his offended justice that they might be qualified to enter that eternal kingdom.

God sent his servant. God sent Aaron, his servant. Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. God sent his servant, who is God himself, his son. Isaiah 42, verse one. God says, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. That's Christ who came down from his glory. God sent his servant into the wilderness of this world.

And he said in Psalm 40 verse 7, Behold, I come. God sent him. Behold, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. He came, what was the will? What was the will that he came to do? To obey the law? He obeyed the law, but that wasn't the will of God that he was sent to do.

The will of God that he was sent to do, he told us, was that of all the people that were given to Christ, that were put in union with Christ, before the foundation of the world, should be saved from their sins, and should be qualified for glory, and should be taken there. That none, none would lose that inheritance. It's to save all his people.

And he went and he met Moses in the Mount of God. He went and he met him. He did what God told him and he went and he met Moses in the Mount of God. In the Mount of God. There is one mediator. There's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. There is one mediator and he pictured that one mediator.

Christ met the demands of God's righteousness and justice in the Mount of God for his people. In the Mount of God, they were in the Mount of God, this was Sinai, where the law would be given to Moses on their wilderness travelings. He met him there in that mount. It was to save them from the curse of that broken law. That mount of God in the gospel is the cross of Christ. The mount of God is the cross.

The law demands death for sin. God cannot be just and let sinners go free. They must die. Justice must be served on them. But how can they die and then be welcomed into heaven? only by the mediator, the substitute, bearing their sin, paying their debt to the law in their place, exactly as the word of God testifies.

First Peter, chapter 2, verse 24, the apostle Peter, he, Christ, bore our sins in his own body. on the cursed tree. The tree, the wooden cross of Calvary. He bore our sins. He who knew no sin. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. He who knew no sin. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. He was sinless, but God made him the sin of his people. Why? That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Just turn to Isaiah 53. I know you know these verses, but Just remind yourself of them. This is 800 years before he came and accomplished it.

In verse four, surely he, the one that would come, the branch out of a dry ground, surely he, Christ, hath borne our griefs. He's borne the grief. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He has carried our sorrows. It's our sin that gives us our sorrows. He has carried our sorrows. Yes, we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.

Why did God smite his well-beloved son? Because he was loaded with the sins of his people, and the justice of God demanded it. Verse 5, he was wounded. Why was he wounded? He who did no sin. Why was he wounded? for the transgressions of his people, for our transgressions, for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace, the chastisement that satisfies justice to make peace with the broken law of God. he bore it, he paid for it. With his stripes we are healed. Verse six, all we, like sheep, have gone astray. There's none of us righteous. We have turned everyone to his own way. And all of that sin, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Not everybody that ever lived, but all of his people, surely in the context, in the whole Message of scripture, the Lord makes a difference between Egypt and Israel. It's the iniquity of his Israel, the Israel of God. Jews and Gentiles alike, people from every tribe and tongue and kindred.

Verse eight, he was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? He was cut off out of the land of the living. He died for the transgression. Why did he die? For the transgressions of everybody? Could it be clearer? for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Verse 10, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise. Why did it please?

Is the Lord vindictive? Is the Lord a sadist in bruising his own son? It pleased the Lord. Why did it please the Lord to bruise him? He hath put him to grief. Why it pleased the Lord was because it satisfied his justice. That's the reason why. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul, the work of his soul, and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant, that's Christ, justify many. Why? For he shall bear their iniquities. He shall pay for their iniquities.

If you aspire to life eternal, if you have an inkling Anybody living in this world listening to this, and you think there must be more to life than just this mundane cycle of things with the occasional flash of happiness amongst other people, but you know there must be something more. If you aspire to life eternal, what must you do?

Go and find the gospel. Go and hear the gospel. Find somebody that will preach the biblical gospel to you and hear it and submit to it. They don't want your money, they don't want to get you doing any silly religious nonsense, not at all. We just want you to hear the words of eternal life. As Peter said, when Jesus said, will you also go away to the disciples? Where shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Seek out the gospel, hear it, Keep going until you've had enough of it and you'll find you've never had enough of the gospel.

You see, God, who became man in our Lord Jesus Christ, has met the law. Aaron went and he met Moses, the law. Aaron, picturing our Lord Jesus Christ, went and met the law in the place of his beloved people. And he has propitiated the wrath of God. What do I mean by that? I mean he has satisfied, he has appeased, he has poured soothing ointment on the wrath of God for sin for all of that multitude whom he represented. He has satisfied God's just demand of death for sin and thus he has justified his elect multitude. The one believing in Him. Do you believe in Him this morning?

Then, we haven't sung it for a while, but there's that hymn. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more. Why do I bear it no more? Because He bore it in my place on the cross of Calvary, and He paid it.

And in the justice of God, We know we're sinners. We say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But in the justice of God, in the reckoning of God, regarding, you know, the world has this baseless idea that to get into heaven, you arrive at the pearly gates and Saint Peter is there checking up whether you've been good enough or you've done this or you've done that. Nothing of the sort is not in this book. The one thing that guarantees that getting in to the kingdom of God is that you bear no sin, and in the justice of God, if you are his believing people, he has borne it for you.

Aaron met Moses in the mount of God in this world, and so God's son, the Lord Jesus Christ, God made flesh, met the law in all its terror, in all its terror. You know, it does tell us, you know, we can be flippant about the righteousness and justice of God, But we are told it's appointed to man to die once and then the judgment. We're told that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. We're told that our God is a consuming fire. On the cross, Christ was united with his people and there he paid their debt. Aaron kissed Moses, it says there, look at that. In the end of verse 27, he met him and he kissed him. Aaron kissed Moses.

What a beautiful poetic allusion to the accomplishment of grace. You know what we read right at the very start in Psalm 85 and verse 10. Mercy and truth are met together. The mercy of God and the truth of God. are met together. You know, you would think that they would contradict each other. The truth of God says sin must be punished, but the mercy of God met there on the cross of Calvary. Righteousness, the righteousness of God has met the peace of God, for the righteousness of God would condemn sin, but he's made peace for his people.

They have kissed each other. Aaron kissed Moses in the mount of God. Is this not a beautiful picture of the gospel of grace? As Aaron kissed Moses, Christ Jesus, in redemption, kissed the justice of God and made satisfaction. So then next, Moses tells Aaron God's word. In verse 28, Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him and all the signs which he had commanded him. and this picture's Christ, who must come and fulfill all the words, all the righteousness of God.

He said he came to fulfill. In Matthew chapter five, in the Sermon on the Mount, in verse 17, he says to them, he says, don't think that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. Don't think that I'm come to negate the Old Testament scriptures, to make them of no relevance, no. I'm not come to destroy, I'm come to fulfill. He came to fulfill all of these things. He came to fulfill it all.

By fulfilling it, God's righteousness is established. Look in Romans chapter three, verse 21. But now, you see, by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. That's what tells me I am a sinner. And in verse 21, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, is shown, is made known.

How are we going to be righteous with God under the righteousness of God if we don't keep his commandments, if we don't keep them perfectly? It's made clear, it's witnessed by the law and the prophets, the scriptures have told about it all the way down the line, even the righteousness of God, which is, how is it accomplished? By the faith of Jesus Christ. by the faith of, by the works that Christ accomplished, in his obedience to the law.

What was the pinnacle of his obedience to the law? The soul that sins, it shall die. He obeyed that on the cross. When he bore his people's sins, the law vented its requirements out on him there on the cross. the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Unto all and upon... Who's it for? All them that believe. All them that believe. It couldn't be clearer, could it? This is the word of God to us. So God's righteousness without his people's law works is manifested, just as all the word of God, the law and the prophets of God has said.

And the risen Christ showed it to his disciples, and I'll refer you to Luke 24 again. And verse 27, on the Emmaus road with those two sorrowful disciples, and the risen Lord Jesus Christ having accomplished, having finished, having accomplished the work of redemption, beginning at Moses. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Pentateuch, the words written by Moses, given by God, beginning at Moses in the scriptures, and all the prophets, everything else, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself, how he, God, should come and redeem his people from the curse of the law. And in verse 44, he's there with them in that room with all the disciples there. And he said to them, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things that are written in the scriptures must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me, because it all speaks of him. These are they that speak of me.

Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. And he said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. Oh, that he would open yours and my understanding, to understand the Scriptures. He came and fulfilled it all, All the words that his people can never keep in the flesh.

All the religious legalists that we're surrounded by in this world of religion around us, they impose laws on their people who have no hope of keeping them. They do, all the time. You could go to any number of churches within 20 miles of here, and you will hear people preaching law, that you ought to do this, and you ought to do that, and you're a poor example, and you haven't done this, that and the other, and they forget this. that it's by Christ and him alone. Acts 13, 39.

And by him, by Christ, all that believe are justified from all things, all their sins, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Why? Because Christ is the end of the law, the fulfillment of the law. the end of it as a burden on his people. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.

That law, as we read earlier in Galatians 3, that law was our schoolmaster. It says to bring us unto. It's not the law that brings us to Christ. It's the Spirit of God that brings us to Christ. Those words in italics there, you should scrub out. It's the law that was there until Christ is what it really means. Until Christ is revealed to your spirit and your soul to show you. You see, in those who believed in the Old Testament, Christ was revealed to them.

They saw and they believed. So then, here is the path from Egypt to Canaan mapped out. This is the way. And it's picturing the journey from this veil of tears, this valley of the shadow of death, to the paradise of God. And despite the cruel slavery that Israel experienced in Egypt, this is why it's like us in so many ways. You see, they were under cruel slavery, but they actually loved aspects of Egypt, you know? They were the people of God to be brought out and taken to the promised land. And they'd been underslaved, but they actually loved aspects of Egypt.

It says in Numbers 11 and verse 5, when they moaned about things not going their way, they said to Moses, oh, we've got this manor and we've got these quails and we're tired and we're sick of it all. Oh, we long for Egypt with its fish. They had endless fish out of the river and its fruit and its vegetables and all those wonderful things. Is that not so much like the flesh?

We see set before the eye of faith, the glorious kingdom of God. And yet there are things of this world that still entice and entice. Do the things of this world blind your eyes to the glories that are prepared for them that love God? Eye has not seen, it hasn't entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those that love him.

So then, finally, finally and quickly, verses 29 to 31. Moses and Aaron went and gathered together. all the elders of the children of Israel. They went and did that. Moses and Aaron preach to call God's people. God's people, the Israelites, the Hebrews, must hear the message from God, and they must believe the truth, and they must bow before the Lord. But it's Aaron that speaks to God's people, not Moses. Aaron's the spokesperson. Moses said, I'm a poor speaker, I can't do it. God said, I know Aaron, he's a good speaker. It's Aaron that spoke to the people.

You know, it says in John 1 verse 17, it says this, the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. I won't look up the references, but in John 6 and John 10, Jesus said, the words that I speak to you, you know, they're life, the words that I speak to you.

Christ tells his friends his heavenly secrets. Christ tells his friends his heavenly secrets. In John 15 and verse 15, it's the words that he speaks to them. He says, everything that I've heard of my father in heaven, I have told you. He said, I've told you. He reveals the mystery of the gospel of grace to his people.

And if they truly are his people and his sheep, they will hear. and they will follow. I know my sheep, they hear my voice and they follow me. What does it say here? Verse 31, well, Aaron spake, verse 30, Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people to authenticate that these words were God's words and the people believed. The people believed and worshipped. They bowed their heads and worshipped. The people believe, why?

Because Psalm 110 verse 3, the Lord makes his people willing in the day of his power. Old Testament Israel was the only nation on earth to whom God spoke. There were proselytes from other nations, I know, but they were the only nation. They pictured the Israel of God. They pictured the seed, the children of Abraham by faith.

Do you know, you and I, if you're believers today, we're the children of Abraham. You say, we're not Jews. Not physically, no. But the scripture's clear. We're children of Abraham by faith. Down history to today, Ask yourself, are we numbered with them? Are we numbered with them?

There's another psalm just quickly to look at, Psalm 89, just a page or two on from Psalm 85. Psalm 89. Whereabouts is it? Psalm 89, there we go. Psalm 89 and... Verse 14, justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face. You see, we've seen those things in Psalm 85. Now listen to this. Do you know this?

Blessed is the people. Favoured with heavenly favour is the people that know the joyful sound. What's the joyful sound? It's the sound of gospel grace. It's the sound of the wrath of God being propitiated by the blood of Christ. It's to know that in your soul, that that, as J.C. Philpott used to put it, that it drops down into your soul and gives such comfort They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. For thou... That's it. Just to there. Just to there. You know, it's what it says in Philippians 3, verse 3.

We are the true circumcision. You see, the Jews were the physical circumcision of God, picturing the people of God. But he said, by faith, we are the true circumcision of God because We worship God in the spirit. We worship God. They bowed their heads and worshiped. We worship God. We thank God for his saving grace. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. He is all our rejoicing. What is your rejoicing? That my sanctification is improving.

Know that Christ has accomplished all things and we have no confidence in the flesh. Does this historical picture Does it not clearly underline the salvation of God's beloved multitude by the grace of God in the gospel of his son? Have you heard it? Have you believed it? Or do you neglect it? Or do you turn away? Or is it, was it Agrippa? Or was it Festus? I can't remember which one.

When I have a convenient time, I'll listen to you. When it's convenient for me. Have you neglected it? Hebrews 2 verse 3 says this, how shall we escape divine condemnation? How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Do you know, it's the most immense privilege to experience in this life is to sit under the sound of the gospel faithfully preached from the word of God. Don't turn a blind eye to it. Don't treat it as you can take it or leave it. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Amen.