All right, if you would, let's
open our Bibles now to Exodus chapter four. Exodus chapter four. I thought as we were singing
that song, I sure hope I have a message tonight that will make
us turn our eyes on Jesus. Let's begin reading in verse
18 of Exodus chapter four. And Moses went and returned to
Jethro, his father-in-law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray
thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether
they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go
in peace. And the Lord said unto Moses
in Midian, Go, return into Egypt, for all the men are dead which
sought thy life. And Moses took his wife and his
sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of
Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand, And the Lord
said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that
thou do all these wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in
thine hand. But I will harden his heart,
and he shall not let the people go. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh,
Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And
I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me. And if
thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy
firstborn. And it came to pass by the way
in the inn that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him.
Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her
son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband
art thou to me. So he let him go. Then she said,
A bloody husband thou art because of the circumcision. 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 afflictions, They bowed their head in worship. Thank God for His Word. Let's
us bow together. Our Father, we bow before You
tonight, a grateful and a thankful people. Oh, how we thank You
for Your mercy and grace to Your people because of the doing and
dying of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, how we thank
You righteousness in him, how we thank you for the forgiveness
of our sins in him, how we thank you that we're accepted in him,
that it's all in him, Father, how we thank you. We thank you
for this and other opportunity to meet together, to worship
you, to open your word, to read it and study it, to have Christ
proclaim to us out of it. Father, we thank you. We pray
that you not allow this blessed opportunity to pass us by, that
Father, tonight you might be pleased to speak through your
word to the hearts of your people, to each one gathered together
here this evening. Father, show us your glory, we
pray. Father, we thank you for the
many blessings of this life. How richly you blessed us is
beyond measure. And Father, we ask your forgiveness
for the At times we murmur and complain and find fault after
all the good that you've done for us. You've done all things
well. Forgive us for ever murmuring
and complaining. Father, we pray for our country
at this time. We pray that you would be with
our leaders. We pray that you would lead and
guide and direct this country in a way of peace and prosperity. We pray for the many who are
suffering because of this storm and flooding. Father, I pray
that you'd be pleased to deliver. Pray for Mom in these upcoming
tests and that you'd give the doctors and nurses some understanding
of a way to relieve her pain and suffering. Father, all these
things we ask in that name which is above every name, the name
of Christ our Savior, amen. Now, I've titled the message
this evening, The Chain of Election, or The Chain of Salvation, excuse
me, The Chain of Salvation. Now I know that the very first
link in the chain of salvation is God's electing love. That's
where it had to start, isn't it? The whole of salvation springs
from the covenant of God's grace. When the father elected a people
unto salvation, he gave them to his son to save, and the son
promised that he'd save those people. Now that's the first
chain in the whole chain, or the first link in the whole chain
of salvation. But now God's elect. They're born in this world, they
don't know anything about the covenant of grace. They don't
know anything about the father electing a people into salvation.
We can't know anything about that, can we? Until the Lord
sends us a man to preach it and tell us. So in our experience,
in our experience, the chain of salvation begins when the
Lord sends a man to come preach to us. And he comes and preaches.
In our experience, that's the first link. And that's what I
wanna talk about this evening. I want us to look at six identifying
marks of the message of God's preacher, and then I want to
show you the results of that message. Now, number one is this. God's preacher, if he's God's
preacher, he preaches a mysterious gospel. In verse 21, the Lord
said unto Moses, when thou goest to return into Egypt, see that
thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I put in thine
hand. But I will harden his heart,
that he shall not let the people go. Now, when I say God's preacher
preaches a mysterious gospel, what I mean is it takes God-given
faith to believe this message. If you can just understand it
and he can talk you into doing something, that's not the gospel. The gospel is called a mystery.
It's the mystery. And God has to give us faith
to believe it. Now, the gospel is plain. I mean,
it's plain and simple, simple enough for a child to understand.
But it takes God-given faith to believe it, to believe it. That's why the Lord told Moses,
now, you get to Egypt, you see, you do all these wonders that
I showed you. You do them before Pharaoh. Now,
these miracles are undeniable. Moses is gonna cast his rod down,
it's become a serpent, and he's gonna pick it up by the tail,
and it's a rod again. He's gonna stick his hand into
his bosom and pull it out. It's gonna be white as leprosy
just made it all white. Put it back again and pull it
out. It's all healthy again. He's gonna take water and pour
it out. It's gonna be blood poured out upon the land. Those miracles
are undeniable. But nobody can believe God by
seeing those miracles until God gives them faith to believe.
Now, the same thing's true of God's gospel. Somebody doesn't
believe the gospel today because they see us work a miracle. It's
the gospel preached that saves. It's the gospel preached that
gives faith. Now, the words and the concepts, you know, of the
gospel, grace and substitution and all those things are very
easy to understand, but they're impossible to believe unless
God gives us faith in Christ. You know, the gospel says, Man
is totally depraved. All we can do is sin. We can't
do anything else. We can't do anything but sin.
We've rebelled against God. Our sin is offensive to God,
and we need a Savior to save us from our sin. We need somebody
to save us from God's wrath. Now, that's easy to understand,
but without faith, this is what we all think by nature. Well,
I'm not that bad. I mean, I'm not bad as old so-and-so
down there, you know. I can do something good. Unless
God gives us faith, that's what we'll think. The gospel says
all men, without exception, are under the wrath of God because
we've broken God's law. And God's law demands death in
hell. Your best is not gonna be good enough to escape God's
wrath and God's justice. But Christ came as the representative
of his people and he obeyed the law as the representative of
his elect. And when he obeyed the law, he
made all of his people righteous, because they obeyed it in him.
See, Adam, he's the one that made us sinners. We didn't become
sinners first time we told our mama why. We became sinners when
Adam disobeyed God. We were in Adam. And Christ came,
the second Adam, and he made his people righteous by his obedience
to the law for them. Christ came and he broke the
power of the law. to condemn his people because
he obeyed the law for them, made them righteous, made them innocent
before the law. Now God's law is holy and just,
that law will never want to condemn an innocent man. And that's what
Christ has made his people, he made them innocent. He broke
the power of the law to condemn. Christ also broke the power of
the law by suffering and dying for the sin of his people. When
Christ died as a substitute for his people, The power of the
law to condemn them was broken because justice was satisfied.
We already died in Christ our representative. So now when God's
law looks at God's people, it's satisfied. Death has already
been punished. Our sins already been punished
in the death of our substitute. God's law, holy and just. It
will never want to punish two people for the same sin. The
law is satisfied in the death of Christ. Now, if God's given
us faith, we say, amen. That's the way God saved me.
But without faith, we say, that doesn't make any sense at all.
I can do some of this myself. I can get the ball started rolling.
Christ can do the rest. I can do something. Without faith,
that's what we'll always think. The message of the gospel tells
us who God is. God is holy and just, inflexibly
holy. God doesn't just look on us and
smile and think how cute we are that we're trying to do our best.
God must punish every sin with death without exception. God
cannot and he will not accept us as we are. He cannot, he's
holy. See what the father did for his
people? He punished his son for the sin of his elect so that
justice would be satisfied. God found a way to make it right. I shouldn't say found a way,
He provided the way, that's a better way to say it. He provided the
way to make it right for him to show mercy to his people.
Their sin is gone. There's no reason God would punish
them now, is there? God is both just and justifier. He's just in punishing Christ
for the sins of his people, and he's right to justify them. Now,
if God's given you faith in Christ, you say amen. That's exactly,
that's the God I worship. But without faith, you say that's
utter foolishness. That makes no sense whatsoever.
Of course God just, you know, he loves us and he wants to,
you know, of course, God's love. God loves everybody. That's the
only thing I've ever heard. Without faith, that's the whole
thing. The message of the gospel is, oh, here's something mysterious.
You want a mystery, the mystery of the new birth. the Holy Spirit
must give us life in the new birth. And this life that is
born in the new birth, born from above, is a brand new nature
that never existed before. That nature is holy and righteous. That nature can never sin. It
can never put us back under condemnation again because it cannot sin.
Adam, he didn't have a righteous nature, he had an innocent nature.
Adam could see him, couldn't he? And he did. What God gives
his people is something better than he gave Adam. He didn't
give us an innocent nature, now it's up to us to keep it innocent,
you know, till we get to glory. God gives his people a righteous
nature that can never sin, that can never put us under condemnation
again. So the believer is made truly,
actually righteous. Righteous, completely righteous.
Not someday, not someday when we awake in glory, right now. That's what the Bible says. May
the righteousness of God in him, in Christ. Now I know when you
look at me, all you see is a sinner. When I look at me, all I see
is a sinner. And that's true. But this is also true. I'm perfectly
righteous. There is a Frank who is nothing
but sin, nothing but depravity. And there is a Frank, he's perfectly
righteous. If God's given you faith, you
say, amen. That's the two natures that are
in me, that's those two natures that are struggling me. I know
I've been born again, because I've got a nature that believes
Christ, that loves God, that looks to Christ, that wants to
pray, that wants to worship, that feeds on God's word. Of
course I've been born again. I wasn't always that way. I am
now, because God gave me a new nature. But without faith, A
person will think that is utterly foolish. You're telling me that
you're two people? I mean, I can see it. You're
one person. You're not two people. Maybe
we better have you committed for a mental check here, you
know, if you think you're two people. Without faith, that's
what we'll think. See, that gospel is a mystery
to the natural man. And the Lord has to give us faith
in Christ before we can believe. For we never believe Christ,
God's got to give us faith. Now, where does that leave you
and me? Begging God to give us faith. That's where it leaves
us. All right, number two, God's preacher. Every last one of them
preaches a God who's sovereign. See that at the end of verse
21. You perform these wonders before
Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand, but I will harden
his heart and he will not let the people go. Now the message
of every single one of God's preachers is this, God's sovereign
in salvation. God chooses who he will save
and passes everybody else by. God chooses who he will show
mercy to and he passes everybody else by. Salvation is all of
the Lord's doing from its beginning to its ultimate end. Salvation
is all of the Lord's doing. Salvation is of the Lord's purpose.
It's of the Lord's purchase. It's of the Lord's application,
and it's of the Lord's perfecting. Salvation is of the Lord. You
and I can't do one thing to save ourselves. We are completely
dependent upon God to save us. That's what we see in our text.
The Lord sent Moses to Egypt with a message, a message from
God. And before Moses ever preached
it, the Lord told him, this is what the result's gonna be. Moses
is real, he's gonna hear you. and they're gonna believe God.
They're gonna hear, they're gonna worship, they're gonna hear,
and Israel will be delivered. Moses, that's what's gonna happen
to Israel when you go to Egypt. Moses said, boy, that's gonna
be a joy. I mean, that's gonna be a joy. But flip side of the coin is
this. Pharaoh will not believe God. The Egyptians will not believe
God. Pharaoh's gonna hear you. Pharaoh's
gonna see the miracles, but he will refuse to let Israel go. He will not believe. Why won't
Pharaoh believe? Why won't he? God said, he will
harden Pharaoh's heart. God said he'd do it. Now I know
several times in scripture, it says that Pharaoh hardened his
heart and would not let the people go. And that's true, Pharaoh
did harden his heart. You know why he hardened his
heart? Because that was God's will for him to do it. Pharaoh
hardened his heart simply because God left him alone. But there
came a day when God wasn't just leaving Pharaoh by himself, God
hardened Pharaoh's heart. Then he was destroyed. God did
that. Now the message of grace. The
message of grace. Moses came preaching a message
of grace and deliverance, didn't he? That message of grace, it
softens the hearts of God's people. The message of grace breaks the
believer's heart and makes us cling to Christ. I mean, doesn't
it just soften your heart to hear that old, old story? Christ
suffered and died for you. He suffered and died so that
you would be saved from your sin. I know He suffered and died
for an elect, a people no man can number, but He did it specifically
for you. Doesn't that soften your heart?
Doesn't it just melt you? Doesn't it just melt you in love
and thanksgiving? Doesn't it just soften your heart
to hear of God's undeserved love? and grace for sinners, His mercy
that cannot be exhausted. No matter how much we sin, He'll
never quit being merciful. He'll never quit being gracious.
He'll never quit loving His people. A people like us, oh, doesn't
that soften your heart? Doesn't that just melt you? He
didn't have to, but He did. But you know that message that
softens one heart, at the very same time will harden another.
And I'll tell you why God does that. It's so His redemptive
glory will be seen. Look at Romans chapter 9. Romans
chapter 9. If you put one softened heart
next to a hardened heart, I'll tell you what you're going to
see. You're going to see the redemptive glory of God in saving
one hell-deserving sinner and passing the other one by. That's
what you're going to see. Romans nine, verse 15. For he said to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
Now here's the example. This is where Moses is going
to preach to Pharaoh. This is the example that God uses to
show he'll have compassion on whom he will have compassion.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy, unto whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Now that will say then unto me,
those without faith, those who don't know Christ, those who
don't trust Christ, those whom Christ has not been revealed,
Well say, why did the yet find fault? For who hath resisted
his will? If I'm just doing God's will.
Nay, but O man, who art thou that replies against God? Who
do you think you are to talk back to God? Shall the thing
form, say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?
Hath not the potter power over the clay? Of the same lump to
make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? What if
God willing to show his wrath and to make his power known endured
with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,
and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the
vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto glory, even
us, even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also
of the Gentiles. As he saith in Hosea, I will
call them my people, which were not my people. I am going to
call her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to
pass that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are
not my people, there shall they be called the children of the
living God. That's what God does for his
people. He shows mercy on whom he will
show mercy and he makes them his children. The most unexpected
lot you can imagine. God has mercy on them and makes
them his children. God's elect are saying, Simply
for this reason, God's pleased to show mercy on them. And the
unbeliever will be damned because God left them alone. God will
eventually harden their hearts so that they believe the lie.
That's all there are to it. I don't have to try to feel any
compulsion to try to explain that. That's just what God says. Salvation's of the Lord. That's
our message. 3. God is a preacher. He preaches
salvation through union with Christ. Back in our text, Exodus
4, verse 22, And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the
Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And I say unto
thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me. And if thou refuse
to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. Now this is very interesting.
I was reading this this week. The Lord did not call Israel
his elect nation. He didn't call Israel the people
which I've chosen for myself. He didn't call them the children
of Israel. He didn't call them the descendants of Abraham. I
promised Abraham I'd bring his descendants out of Egypt. He
didn't call them the descendants of Abraham. He called Israel
my son. My son, even my firstborn. Now you be mighty careful taking
that name on yourself. That's the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's only begotten son. The one who from eternity is
the delight of his father. He's the only son. Then why on
earth would the father call that sinful people down there in bondage
in Egypt, Israel, why would he call them his son? That's because
salvation. is accomplished through union
with Christ. This thing of union, you can't
understand the gospel until you understand this truth of union. All of Adam's race became sinners
through union with Adam. We had union with Adam because
we were in Adam. We're in his loins. So when Adam
sinned, all of us sinned. We all sinned too. We actually
sinned. It's not like God charged us
with Adam's sin even though we weren't there and really didn't
do it. He just charged us, you know, to our account anyway,
you know. That wouldn't be holy. That wouldn't be just. That wouldn't
be fair. You know why God charged us with Adam's sin? Because we
were there and we did sin in Adam. We did what Adam did. Romans
5 verse 12 says, in whom all sinned. In Adam, all sinned. For by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners." We were made sinners through union with
Adam. We were made unrighteous through
union with Adam, because when Adam disobeyed, so did you and
me. Well, God's elect are made righteous
the very same way, through union with Christ. God's elect did
everything that the Lord Jesus did as a man on this earth. Whatever
he did, God's elect did too, because they were in him. God's
elect obeyed the law when Christ obeyed the law. God's elect died
to the law when Christ was crucified for their sin. We're crucified
together with Christ. That's how we died to the law.
Now the father doesn't say that his elect obeyed the law even
though they didn't. That'd be a lie. God can't do
that. God's elect actually did obey
the law. in Christ, our representative,
because we have union with Christ. That's how we're made righteous.
You know, the father can't say, well, God's elect have already
had their sin debt paid, even though they didn't really die,
because that would be a lie. God can't tell a lie. God's elect
actually did obey the law. They actually did die to the
law, because we're crucified together with Christ, our representative. And I'll tell you what that means.
Now God's justice is satisfied. Now the justice of God actually
demands eternal life for everyone for whom Christ died. If Christ
died for you, God's justice says you must go free. You must go
free. And that union with Christ is
so real. This is not just some highfalutin
doctrinal thing that's up there in the clouds nobody can understand.
This union with Christ is so real. Then when God looks at
his people, he only sees his son. That's why he called Israel
my son. You're the father. I love to
think about this. I have to remind myself of this
often. The father does not grudgingly
accept me because he has to, because I'm his son. Here comes
this rebel again. Here comes this filthy sinner
again. Here comes this one. He's always
riding on the coattails of my son. I just, I gotta accept him. The father does not grudgingly
accept any of his people. The father does not accept you
and his son. The father accepts one, his son. That's all he sees. when the
Father looks at you. If you're one of His, if He chose
you unto salvation, the Father, whenever He's looked at you,
has always seen His Son. Now that is such glorious good
news. That gives just complete confidence
in trusting Christ. A dear lady told me one time,
she feels like coming to God in prayer, You know, just ready
for God to smack her down. You know, here she comes again,
you know. We don't come to God like that
if we come in His Son. See, that gives us confidence. Confidence to believe Christ.
Confidence to come to God in prayer. Confidence to rest in
Christ. When the Father sees me, all
He sees is His Son. Alright, number four. God's preacher
preaches the Savior. who demands obedience. I almost
brought a whole message on this, but I promise I'll shorten it
a lot here. Verse 24. It came to pass, by
the way, in the end, that the Lord met him and sought to kill
him. He's going to kill Moses. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone
and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at his feet and
said, surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he God let
him go. Then she said, a bloody husband.
thou art because of the circumcision. Now, it's obvious here that,
you know, we don't have a lot of background written in scripture
about this, but it's obvious Moses knew his sons were to be
circumcised. He knew that. He knew all about
God's commandment to Abraham, that all his sons were supposed
to be circumcised as a token of God's covenant. And Moses
had his first son. His name was Gershom. He had
Gershom circumcised. And we know that has to be so
because God's issue with Moses here is only with the second
son. Eleazar. So it sounds like Moses circumcised
his first son. But Zipporah, Moses' wife, was
horrified at this. Now you've got to remember, circumcise
was not a custom to her like it was to the Jews. She descended
from Ishmael. This is not something she ever
saw done before. So when Moses circumcised her,
I mean, this is her firstborn, her baby boy, her first baby
boy, And Moses circumcised that boy. She threw a fit. Well, it
came time for the second son to be circumcised. She threw
a fit again, and Moses said, shoot, it's not worth it. All
right, we won't circumcise him. And Moses had to think, it can't
be that big a deal. I mean, it's just a token. I
mean, it's not really the covenant. It's just a token. Let me tell
you, obedience to God's a big deal. Obedience is always a big
deal. How important was this to God?
God sent Moses. Moses! This is Moses we're talking
about. To go to Egypt and set God's
people free from Egypt, I mean to tell you that, I mean, this
man, he's a giant, isn't he? Dale Simpson used to talk about
people are giants. Moses is a giant. And Lord's
gonna kill him. for not circumcising his son.
Now it could be, I'm not exactly sure what happened here, but
the writers seem to think that Moses, he was sick, he was lying
on his bed at the inn, he was so sick he couldn't get up, and
the Lord's gonna kill him. So Zipporah circumcised Eleazar
to keep the Lord from killing Moses. And maybe Moses told her
to do it, I don't know, but somehow they both knew what was going
on, that God's gonna kill Moses. That boy was not circumcised,
so Zipporah took the knife and she circumcised him to keep the
Lord from killing Moses. All right. She did that, Moses'
life was saved. I have to tell you, I kind of
like old Zipporah. I mean, I know she, you know,
she's a feisty lady. She did what it took to save
Moses' life, but she's upset. I mean, she's upset. She did
not like seeing her baby boy hurt, much less her having to
be the one to do it. And she took that bloody foreskin and
threw it at Moses, called him a bloody husband. Now, the only
reason Moses lived to write this story is he was finally obedient
to God's command. God's gonna kill him if he didn't.
Obedience is important, isn't it? Now, circumcision. All it was was an outward token
or a picture of salvation that God's elect have in Christ. That's
what it is, it's a token, it's a picture. Circumcision was a
picture of the sin of God's people being cut out and taken away
by the sacrifice of Christ. Look at Romans chapter two. Circumcision
is also a picture of the cutting out of the old heart and being
given a new heart of faith in the new birth. It's cutting out
that old heart. Romans chapter two. Verse 28. Well, he's not a Jew, which is one
outwardly. It doesn't make you as part of
spiritual Israel Jew that have the outward circumcision in the
flesh. Neither is that circumcision. This one that's so important,
outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew. He's one of
spiritual Israel. He's one of God's children, which
is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart. It's the giving of a new heart.
It's cutting away that old heart, and it's the giving of a new
heart in the Spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of men, but of God. So that token, it's mighty important,
wasn't it? It's a picture of the new birth.
It's a picture of the cutting away of our sin because of the
death of Christ. That's important, and it was a commandment of God.
I mean, even if I don't understand why it was important, this is
all I have to understand. It was a commandment of God.
So it's important. That's the whole gospel we preach.
The whole gospel that we preach is a commandment of God. Believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Now we're not to say that begging somebody trying to make a decision.
It's a commandment. Right now where you sit, you
believe. Believe on the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And if you don't believe,
if you don't believe God's commandment, He's gonna send you to hell. Now that's serious business.
That's serious business. And I tell you what that, where
that leaves you and me, to bow. We're to bow at the commandment
of Almighty God. Salvation is not by our works,
it's by faith in Christ. That's God's commandment. But
listen, God's commandments don't stop there. You're the second
half towards the end of every one of the epistles. They give
us commandments for the believers. It's not a map. It's not a guideline. It's not a suggestion. It's not
like, you know, your life will go better if you do this. They're
commandments. Christ's commandment to his people
is this. See that you love one another. See that you do it.
Don't just say, see that you do it. That's a commandment of
our Savior. God commands husbands to love
their wives as Christ loved the church. It's a commandment. God's
commandment to wives are to be obedient to their husbands as
unto the Lord. God commands children to be obedient
to their parents. God commands his children to
be good employees, to be good bosses. He commands his children
to give an offering. He commands his children to lead
a quiet, peaceable, hardworking, honest life. He commands that.
Let me show you 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians 3. Beginning in verse 10. For even
when we were with you, this we commanded you, You know, this
wasn't just a good idea. This is how the church ought
to operate. You ought to try to do this as much as you can.
This we commanded you, Paul says, that if any would not work, neither
should ye. For we hear that are some which walk among you disorderly,
working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such, we command
and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness, quietness,
peacefulness, calmness, they work and eat their own bread.
But ye, brethren, be not weary while doing. If any man obey
not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company
with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy,
but admonish him as a brother." We're to do that because God's
commanded us to live a quiet, peaceful life, go to work, earn
your paycheck, and use it to buy food and enjoy it with your
family. That's God's commandment. I mean,
I'm telling you, that's the best way to live your life. But it's
not a suggestion. This is God's commandment. See,
these commandments are not optional. Any more than our faith without
trying to have salvation by works without faith. That's not optional,
is it? It's a commandment of God. These
commandments are not optional either. And I tell you, just
don't expect God to bless you when you refuse to live like
He's commanded us to live. Now, you're not gonna lose your
salvation over it. I understand that. Just like
Moses didn't lose his salvation. But if he hadn't been obedient,
buddy, there'd have been a price to pay, wouldn't there? And if
you're truly a believer, God's put this in you. I talked about
the new birth. He's put this in you, a desire to live pleasing
your heavenly Father. out of love. Not because you're
trying to get him to not kill you or not kill one of your children,
you know. You're not trying to get something
from him. Serve him out of love. Serve him out of love. My mother
told me one time when I was a baby, I was born in January, dead of
winter in Michigan. I mean, you know, starting in
June, it starts snowing up to here, you know, in Michigan.
And she said, boy, after you were born, we did not miss a
single service because we're afraid God would kill you, you
know, if we did. Don't worship God like that. God gives his
people off. Do it because you love him. Do
it because you want to bow at his feet. Do it because the best
place for you is at his feet. See what I'm saying? Then fifth,
God's preacher. He preaches a bloody savior.
Zipporah threw that foreskin at her husband. She said, you're
a bloody husband to me. Well, that's what she said. And
maybe that didn't please her too much. But the bride of Christ
loves to hear that. We have a bloody husband. A husband
who bloodied himself with his own blood when he sacrificed
it for the sin of his people. And without that blood, without
that blood of Christ, there's no gospel. There's no good news
for us to preach. Listen to a few scriptures. Tell
you how important this thing is. Leviticus 17 verse 11, it's
the blood It's the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul. It's not us trying to do better
and straighten up and flying right. It's the blood. Hebrews
9 verse 22. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission. And that word remission means
forgiveness. There is no forgiveness of our sin. The Father cannot
forgive our sin without the blood of Christ. What did God say? Here are a
few chapters after all the plagues and getting ready for the last
plague, what did God say? When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. Not when I see you selected the
lamb. Not when I see that you went in and closed the door and
you're eating the lamb all roasted and all the head and its legs
and it's purting its throat. You're eating it with unleavened
bread. You're eating it with the bitter
herbs. Not when I see that. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. By His blood, the Lord Jesus
Christ obtained eternal redemption for us. We have a bloody husband. What a Savior we have, who would
willingly shed His life's blood, have it tortured out of Him,
to atone for the sins of His bride. Oh, what a Savior. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. That's
right. You see? Then last, God's preacher
declares Christ our great high priest. Verse 27, and the Lord
said unto Aaron, go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And
he went and he 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. Now just think
about this. Here's Aaron down there in Egypt.
There's Moses over here, a Midian. And the Lord told Aaron, just
start walking out there in the wilderness. Go find your brother. Go find Moses. You know, Jan
and I are Sands. We got to call each other to
find out where we're at. Much less this wilderness. And
lo and behold, they met up. That's something. You just get
that for free. That's what Sandy says. Now here
comes Aaron. Aaron's going to be the first
high priest He's going to be the one to offer the sacrifices.
He's going to be the one to be the picture of Christ, our great
high priest. And this is what Aaron pictures.
All of salvation. It's accomplished and it's applied
by Christ, our great high priest. Aaron offered sacrifices. Christ,
our great high priest, offered one. Himself. He offered himself to God. Priests were to make intercession
for the sins of the people. Christ makes intercession for
the sins of his people by pleading his own blood, by pleading his
sacrifice. And that high priest, Aaron,
he only represented Israel. When he went in there on the
Day of Atonement and the Holy of Holies, his breastplate had
the names of the tribes of Israel. Not the Philistines, not the
Amalekites, not the Amorites, Israel. Christ, our great high
priest, represents His elect. I want you to think about this
if you believe Christ. At this very moment, Christ,
our great high priest, has passed into the heavens and He's making
intercession for you. At this very moment, while we
sit here in the worship service, we've committed enough sin to
damn us to a million eternities in hell, but Christ, our great
high priest, is making intercession for you. That's our confidence
that we'll be accepted of the Father. That's our Savior. That's
the message God's given his preachers to preach. And you know what
the result of this preaching is? God's going to send a believing
people. God sends a preacher with message
and then God sends a believing people. Look at verse 29. 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, they bowed their heads and worshiped. Now many of us here tonight,
we believe this gospel, we believe. I venture to say that you're
probably here in the middle of the week on a Wednesday because
you believe this gospel. We trust the Savior. We trust Christ who's declared
in this gospel, don't we? But the only reason you and I
hear and believe this gospel is God the Holy Spirit made us
believe. He gave us faith in Christ. He
made us believe. So we don't have the option.
I can't do anything but believe. When I hear Christ, I believe
Him. I can't help it. Because that's the nature that
Christ has given us. The Holy Spirit makes people
believers in the very same way, by the very same power, by the
very same calling power that He makes men preachers. You know, we often pray that
the Lord will raise up more preachers. I worry about the future. Is
the Lord gonna raise up any more preachers? But tell you what,
the other thing we need to be praying for, the Lord raises
up more believers. He raises up believers by the
same calling power that he raises up a preacher. And I'm thankful,
aren't you? I'm thankful. Because without
it, none of us would believe. And if we do, thank God for it,
huh? All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for this gospel that you have sent to us, the gospel of your
Son, the gospel of your free and sovereign grace. And Father,
how we thank you that you raised up a people who believe it. How
we thank you for the gift of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you for your saving,
calling, redeeming, regenerating, keeping grace. And Father, we
pray that you would always and only see us in our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's for his sake and his glory
we pray. Amen. All right, Sean.