Well, good evening. If you would,
open your Bibles with me to John chapter 20. I'd like to begin
our service reading a portion of John chapter 20, beginning
in verse 24. But Thomas, one of the 12, called
Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples
therefore said unto him, we've seen the Lord. But he said unto
them, except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails,
and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand
into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his
disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the
doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be
unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach
hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy
hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said
unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas,
because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they
that have not seen me, and yet have believed. And we'll end
our reading there. All right, Sean. If you would, turn in your hand
notes to song number 298, God Leads Us Along. In shady green pastures so rich
and so sweet, God leads his dear children along. Where the water's cool flow bays
the weary one's feet, God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood, some through the fire, but all through his
blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all in the night season and all the day long. Sometimes on the mount where
the sun shines so bright, God leads his dear children along. Sometimes in the valley, in darkest
of night, God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood, Some through the fire, but all through his
blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all. in the night season and all the
day long. Though sorrows befall us and
Satan oppose, God leads his dear children along. Through grace we can conquer,
defeat all our foes. God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through his blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all. In the night season and all the
day long. Away from the myrrh and away
from the clay, God leads his dear children along. A way up in glory, eternity's
day, God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters,
some through the flood, Some through the fire, but all through
his blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all. In the night season and all the
day long. Okay. If you would now turn to
number 216. Look to the Lamb of God. If you from sin are longing to
be free, look to the Lamb of God. He to redeem you died on
Calvary, look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save
you. Look to the Lamb of God. When Satan tempts and doubts
and fears assail, look to the Lamb of God. You in His strength shall over
all prevail, look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save
you. Look to the Lamb of God. Are you a weary? Does the way seem long? Look to the Lamb of God. His love will cheer and fill
your heart with song. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For he alone is able to save
you. Look to the Lamb of God. Fear not when shadows on your
pathway fall. Look to the Lamb of God. His love, your sorrow, Christ
is all in all. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save
you. Look to the Lamb of God. Let's open our Bibles now, if
you would, to Exodus chapter 4. Exodus, the fourth chapter. I'd like to begin reading in
verse 10, read down through verse 17. And Moses said unto the Lord, O my
Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since that I have
spoken unto thy servant, But I am slow of speech and of a
slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who
hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf,
or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now therefore
go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt
say. And he said, O my Lord, send,
I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. And the
anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And he said, is
not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well.
And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee. And when he seeth
thee, he will be glad in his heart. And thou shalt speak unto
him, and put words in his mouth. And I will be with thy mouth,
and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do.
And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people, and he shall
be And he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth,
and thou shalt be to him instead of God. And thou shalt take this
rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. We'll end
our reading there. Let's bow together in prayer. Our great God, Father, how thankful
we are that you've given us another opportunity to meet together
with our brothers and sisters. and Father, to worship thee.
And how I beg of you that you'd send your spirit upon us and
give us a true hour of worship. As your word is open to us, Father,
I pray that you would be our teacher, that you would speak
through thy servant, speak to the hearts of your people, and
reveal to us the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we would
not be unbelieving, but believing, that we might leave here this
evening, each one of us, believing on and trusting on Christ and
Christ alone. Father, I thank you for a place
that you've given to us where we can meet and a family of believers
that you've called together. Father, I pray that you would
bless each home with your presence, with your leadership, that you
give each one of us wisdom and grace to strive together to keep
the unity of the spirit here, that we might, with one accord,
always worship our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would be preeminent
in all things that we do. Enable us, Father, to do this
for his namesake, for the glory of Christ, and not for our own
recognition or credit, but, Father, that Christ might be exalted
in this place, and that people in our community may hear and
come that you might reveal to them by your mercy and grace,
our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, what we pray for ourselves
this evening, we pray for your people wherever they're meeting
together this evening. Father, bless for your great
namesake. Father, we pray for our country at this time and
such a difficult time, we pray that you would Be with our leaders
that you turn their heart to a way that is good, that you
would use them for instruments of peace, that you would continue
to preserve and protect the freedoms that we have so long enjoyed
in this country. How we beg of you that you do
not give us what we deserve. Father, for those that are hurting
and who are sick, they're heartbroken, they're in deep, deep waters,
Father, we pray you'd comfort their hearts with your presence.
Father, we do pray for your hand of healing and deliverance, but
above all, we pray for your presence in the hearts of your people
that are suffering and need you especially, until such time as
you're pleased to deliver. All these things we ask and we
give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. I've titled the Message this
evening, salvation even from unbelief. Even from unbelief. I just bet you that that caught
the ear of every believer. Something that we struggle with
constantly, isn't it? Unbelief. As Brother Henry said, let's
start with what we know. Here's what we know. We know that God
has saved his people from all of their sins. We know that,
and the heart of a sinner is comforted every time that we
hear the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. You cannot remind
a sinner of that once too often, that our sin is forgiven in the
Lord Jesus Christ. You just can't tell me that often
enough, can you? And just think about our sin,
all of the sin, the horrible, filthy corruption that the Lord
has cleansed his people from. Just think how the Lord has forgiven
all of the sin, all of the sin of all of his people, a number
that no man can number. He's forgiven all of them. He's
cleansed all of that sin by the blood of one sacrifice, the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm so thankful. I just love
hearing my sin is forgiven in the blood of Christ. Now, I also
know this. I know that we cannot categorize
sin. All sin is equally vile to God to offend Him at one point
instead of being guilty of it all. I know that. But there is
a sin that I would call the worst in this way. It's the only sin
that will damn somebody. It's the sin of unbelief. Not
believing Christ, that's the only sin that'll send a sinner
to hell. It's the only one. I don't care whatever other sins
that we've committed, which by the way is all of them, all of
those sins are forgiven through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, that is not to say that God's elect do not suffer from
unbelief because we do, don't we? We do. In this flesh, there's
no excuse for it. I'm not making allowances for
it, but it's just a fact. As long as we're in this flesh,
we're going to struggle with this thing of unbelief. But salvation
is by God's grace. It's not, you know, mostly by
his grace and something we do to deserve it. Salvation is all
by God's grace. Salvation is something that God
does for his people. is so gracious that he forgives
even their sin of unbelief now while that sin is forgiven
our unbelief grieves the lord it makes the lord angry and it
should too i mean i see why it should unbelief is saying god's
liar if i hear christ preached and I do not trust him, what
I'm doing is I'm calling God a liar, saying, no, he won't
save me if I come to him. No, he won't, he doesn't save
sinners, so I won't believe him. If I hear the gospel and do not
trust Christ, what I'm doing is I'm calling God a liar. Now,
of course that makes God angry. It doesn't make you feel, so
it may cause you a liar. Imagine what the holy God, how
offended he is at that. And when God's children, they
truly believe Christ, They're loved eternally. Now they're
loved eternally, they're not gonna be cast off, but when we
display times of unbelief, the father is grieved. And he should
be, he should be. And unbelief grieves the believer
too. This is the thing that grieves
us so much when we see unbelief in ourselves, we hate it. We
hate it, we know better, we hate it. And one of the things it
does to us, at least if you're like me, it makes us afraid,
God's gonna be finally done with me. I mean, finally done with
me. This is the straw that broke
the camel's back. God's gonna cast me off. And I tell you why
I think that. Because I think that's what I'd
do if I was God. Aren't we thankful God's not
like us? No, God's not like us. As horrible as the sin of unbelief
is, God forgives even that sin in the blood of Christ. And that's
why I want us to see in our text tonight. Now you remember what's
led up to what's happened here in our text that I just read.
The Lord had called Moses to go preach in Egypt. He called
Moses to go down and deliver Israel from bondage from the
most powerful nation on earth. Look back at chapter three, verse
11. Moses just could not believe he was the man for the job. Exodus
three, verse 11. And Moses said unto God, who
am I? that I should go unto Pharaoh,
and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of
Egypt. Moses just, you know, he said, I'm not the man for
the job. Now, he used to think he was. He used to think he could
deliver Israel from Egypt, but he don't think that anymore,
because now he's been whittled down, I mean, just enough. You
know, being left all alone on the backside of a desert with
some sheep for 40 years, they'll tend to do that to a man. Moses
is whittled down. And he said, Lord, I'm not the
man for the job. And Lord said, yes, you are.
He said, Moses, I'll go with you. Verse 12, and he said, certainly,
I will be with thee. Moses, certainly, without any
doubt, I will be with you when you go to Egypt. Now, we would
think that's all Moses has got to hear to start walking to Egypt. The Lord certainly will be with
us, and I'm on my way, right? You'd think that would be all
it took to put away Moses' unbelief. But it wasn't. Look at chapter
four, verse one. And Moses answered and said,
but behold, they will not believe me or hearken unto my voice,
for they will say the Lord hath not appeared unto thee. Now that
is an awful thing for Moses to say, that they will not believe
me, because back in chapter three, In verse 18, the Lord said, they
shall hearken to thy voice. The Lord said, they're going
to hearken to your voice. They're going to hear you, and they're
going to believe you. And Moses said, no, they won't. No, they're
not going to believe me. Well, then the Lord gave Moses
those three signs that we looked at last week, the three pictures
of God's work of redemption for his people. And after Moses saw
those three signs, he saw his rod turn into poisonous serpent,
and he picked it up by its tail. It became a rod again. Moses
put his hand in on his bosom and pulled it out, and it was
white as snow with leprosy. He put it back in and pulled
it out again. His skin was just like all the other skins, a picture
of the new birth, the regeneration in life that the Holy Spirit
gives. And then he took the water and poured it out on the ground.
It became blood, a picture of God's justice. Now you'd think
after Moses saw those miracles, surely now, now he's gonna start
walking to Egypt, but no. Verse 10, here's where our text
picks up. And Moses said unto the Lord, oh my Lord, I'm not
eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto
thy servant, but I'm slow of speech and of a slow tongue.
Some people think that this means Moses had some sort of speech
impediment, maybe he did. Well, I know he's telling the
Lord, I can't speak too well. People don't like hearing me
talk. They don't like the sound of my voice. They don't like
I got this speech impediment. They don't like hearing me talk,
so nobody's gonna listen to me. Now, you know what that is? All
you can call it is unbelief. That's all you can call it. And
unbelief is unfortunately still in every believer, just like
it is in Moses here. And our Lord is so patient with
his erring people, Moses said, nobody's gonna listen to me,
nobody likes hearing me talk. In verse 11, the Lord said unto
him, now Moses, who hath made man's mouth? For who maketh the
dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the
Lord? Now therefore go, and I will
be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. I'm
gonna teach you what you should say, I'm gonna be with your mouth
and enable you to say it. Surely that's enough. And surely
that's enough confidence for Moses to start going. Look at
Proverbs chapter 16. I've looked at this today or
yesterday one, whenever I was looking at it. And it's just
such a, such a comforting thought that the Lord would say this
to his preachers. Solomon's saying here the same
thing that the Lord said unto Moses, Proverbs 16 verse one. The preparations of the heart
in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Solomon's saying the same thing
what the Lord told Moses back there, the Lord's gonna put it
in your heart what you ought to say. You're not gonna be left
up to yourself to decide what you should say, the Lord's gonna
put it in your heart what you ought to say and then he's gonna
enable your mouth to say it. Now you just open your mouth
And you say what God's given you to say. And the Lord says,
people are going to believe you. My people will believe you. Now, surely Moses is going to
start walking now. I mean, surely he's going with
such confidence. He's going to go to Egypt. He's
going to set God's people free. But no. Verse 13, back in our
text. And he said, oh my Lord, send,
I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. Now this
is what Moses is saying, Lord, somebody's got to go. Somebody's
got to go to Egypt and set your people free. I see that. Somebody's
got to go, but I don't want it to be me. Send somebody else. Just send somebody else to do
this job that's not for me. Now again, I'm telling you, all
you can call that's unbelief. That's all you can call it. Now
any man who's chomping at the bit to go preach, he's chomping
at the bit to go pastor, is not qualified for the job. That's
just a fact of the matter. That's why Moses didn't lead
the children of Israel out of Egypt 40 years ago. He was chomping
at the bit to do it himself. He was gonna do it by his power
and by his might. Surely everybody could see, he
can do this by his might. It's just as much unbelief to
go, to go preach, to go do whatever it is when the Lord has not sent
you, as it is to not go when the Lord has sent you. Both are
unbelief. No man is sufficient for these
things. I mean, you won't find not one preacher of God's grace
that God has called and equipped and put in the pulpit. You won't
find one of them that tells you, I can do this. Not one of them.
But yet, we go when God sends us. You still have to go when
God sends you. And we go with this confidence,
the Lord's gonna be the one to make it effectual, not me. Now
what Moses is saying here, you know, Lord, I'm slow to speech,
I can't go, nobody wants to listen to me, nobody will believe me.
I know that kind of sounds like, on first blush, humility, doesn't
it? But it's not humility. Actually,
it's pride. This pride is what it is. Moses
does not believe God because Moses is looking at his own weakness.
In pride, he's looking at himself saying, I can't do this. Instead
of looking at God and trusting him and believing him. When God
said, you go and I'll be with you and I'll tell you what to
say and I'll enable you to say it. Listen to this verse, Zechariah
four, verse six. This is the word of the Lord,
undesirable saying, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,
saith the Lord of hosts. This is how God's will is going
to be accomplished. It's not by our might. It's not by our
power. It's by God's spirit. He's the
one that's going to make it happen. And the Lord never accomplishes
his will by our power. So when he tells us to go, let's
go. I mean, we say, well, I'm going
to wait for an open door. Very wise. But when the Lord
opens the door, you go through it. Go through it. See, unbelief
is not humility, it's pride. That's exactly what it is. And
here's why unbelief is so heinous. When God speaks and I refuse
to believe, I'm calling God a liar. When God says, trust my son,
trust the Lord Jesus Christ, and I don't trust him, I'm saying
Christ alone is not enough to save me. That's awful unbelief. And that unbelief drew the Lord's
anger. Look at verse 14. And the anger
of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And he said, it's not
Aaron the Levite thy brother. I know that he can speak well.
And also behold, he cometh forth to meet thee. And when he seeth
thee, he will be glad in his heart. Now the Lord has forgiven
the sin of his people. Repeating what I already said,
the Lord's forgiven the sin of his people. but he's still angry
with our sin. Even though it's paid for, the
Lord's still angry with our sin. Christ has redeemed his people
from the curse of the law, so we will not be cursed. We will
not be condemned for our sin, because our substitute has already
been condemned for us. But the holy God is still angry
with our sin, and there still will be consequences for it. See what I'm saying? You can't
think, well, all my sin's forgiven, so it doesn't matter what I do.
Oh, yes, it does matter what we do. and while that sin is
forgiven, there'll be consequences for it. Let me show you a real
good example of that in 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 11. You know the whole story of David
and Bathsheba and Uriah. And after David had his dear
friend Uriah killed in battle in verse 26 of 2 Samuel, 11. And when the wife of Uriah heard
that Uriah, her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.
And when the morning was passed, David sent and fester into his
house and she became his wife and she buried him a son. Looks like David's gotten away
with this thing, doesn't he? Looks like he's got away. Nobody is
the wiser. They probably are, everybody
can count to nine, everybody can count nine months and know
this child, but nobody's gonna say it publicly. Certainly nobody's
gonna say it to King David, right? David's gotten away with it.
See the end of that verse 27? But the thing that David had
done displeased the Lord. David is the man after God's
own heart. David is the sweet psalmist of Israel. But the thing
that David did still displeased lord now look down 2nd samuel
12 verse 13 this is after nathan had come and he exposed david
in his sin 2nd samuel 12 verse 13 and david said unto nathan
i've sinned against the lord and nathan said unto david the
lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die how be it
because by this deed thou has given great occasion to the enemies
of the lord to blaspheme The child also that is born unto
thee shall surely die. Now the Lord didn't kill David
for his sin, did he? No, he didn't cast off David
for his sin, because Christ, the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, he'd already been slain. He'd already been cast
off for David's sins. David didn't lose his salvation
because of his sin, even though that sin displeased the Lord,
but there were consequences for it, weren't there? There were
consequences. That child died. And David had
strife and the rest of his life with his family. There are consequences
for his sin, even though he didn't lose his salvation. All right,
that's really what the Lord showed Moses in all his dealings with
Moses in this matter of his unbelief, not wanting to go to Egypt. Moses
is acting and talking in unbelief. And even though the anger of
the Lord was kindled against Moses, the Lord was still patient with
him. verse 15 and thou shalt speak unto him and put words
in his mouth Aaron and I'll be with thy mouth and with his mouth
and I'll teach you what you shall do and he shall be thy spokesman
unto the people and he shall be even he shall be to thee instead
of a mouth and thou shalt be to him instead of God you're
going to be in the place of God you're going to tell him what
to say and he's going to say what you say he's going to be
speaking for you So you don't have to worry about this speech
impediment. So Moses, now there's no more
backtalk. This thing is done, there's no
more questioning God. Now you go where I've sent you.
You do what I've told you to do, no more objecting to it.
He said, take your rod and go. Now it's time to go. Verse 17,
thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do
signs. Now the Lord was patient with
Moses. The Lord gave Moses help. He
gave him his brother Aaron to help him. And I know that Moses
greatly, greatly appreciated the help that his brother Aaron
gave him. But it's like David. There's still consequences for
this thing. That help that Aaron gave his brother Moses wasn't
as great as what it seemed like at the very first. Now look over
Ecclesiastes chapter four. Ecclesiastes chapter four. Ecclesiastes chapter four, verse
nine. Two are better than one because
they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the
one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him that is alone
when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up. Again,
if two lie together, then they shall have he. But how can he
be warm alone? And if one prevail against him,
two shall withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly
broken. Now, Solomon's telling us something
that's very wise here. Two's better than one. I mean,
that's why the Lord sent his disciples out two by two. We
need each other. You know the old saying, no man's
an island. Well, that's especially true for the believer. No. God's
people are sheep. You find sheep flocking together.
You don't find sheep out there trying to be alone. That's what
a wolf does. A lone wolf, but not sheep. No, you find them together. We
need each other. And two are better than one.
Absolutely, that's true. But do you know, in this case,
Moses gave up some dignity by saying, you know, I won't go.
And the Lord gave him some help, gave him his brother to help
him. But Moses gave up some dignity because of his unbelief. If Moses
had just done what the Lord told him to do, the only voice anybody
ever would have heard in Egypt was the voice of Moses saying,
thus sayeth the Lord. Now they heard Moses and Aaron
because Moses, you know, was not alone. And like I said, I'm
very confident Moses was so glad to have his brother Aaron by
his side. It's made him feel better. Two's
better than one. I know he was thinking that.
But you know what? Nothing more was accomplished
because Aaron went with Moses. Nothing more was accomplished.
And nothing less would have been accomplished if Moses had gone
by himself and just done what the Lord said and gone by himself
and he'd gone alone, Israel would have been delivered in the exact
same time, in the exact same way that they were delivered. Nothing more would have been
accomplished because Aaron went with him. What was accomplished
was accomplished because that was the world war. And it would
have happened whether Moses went alone or with Aaron. So Moses
gave up something there. And I don't know exactly what else
to say about that, but let's just be careful that we don't
forfeit something by our unbelief too. And we can forfeit a lot. I mean, I'm not saying we're
gonna glory, but by our unbelief, we forfeit peace of heart. We
forfeit peace of conscience. By our unbelief, we forfeit peace
with each other. Unbelief causes such turmoil. We forfeit a lot when we don't
believe God. And God gave Aaron a help, because
it seemed like that's what Moses was wanting. But, and he was
a help. But you know, Aaron was also
a heartache to Moses too. Have you ever thought of that?
Moses was stabbed in his back by his own brother, brother and
sister, because he married that Ethiopian woman. Aaron joined
Miriam in speaking against Moses for marrying the Ethiopian woman.
His own brother stabbed him in the back. Maybe that wouldn't
have happened if Aaron wasn't in that place of authority. Maybe
not. And while Moses was up there
on the mountain, I mean, can you imagine Moses on that mountain
talking to God face to face, getting the law of God written
on those two tables of stones, written by the finger of God
himself, and when Moses came down from that mountain, what
did he find? He found the people dancing around a golden calf,
an idol, naked, that was made by his brother Aaron. Aaron made
that golden calf and then told the people, this is the God that
brought you out of Egypt. Aaron did that. Moses was so
angry. I can understand. I mean, he
shouldn't have took those tablets and thrown them down and busted
them to pieces, but that's what he did because he was so angry.
Maybe that wouldn't have happened if Aaron hadn't been in a position
of authority, if Moses had just done what God told him to do
the first time. I mean, what I'm pointing out here is, you
know, the Lord didn't cast Moses off, but now there were consequences
to this thing. And, you know, don't, don't you
feel bad for Moses? He was up there on the, on the
mountain. I mean, you talk about a mountaintop
experience. Moses was with God, talking with,
God was talking to him. God was giving him the law. God
was doing all these, giving him the, the sacrifices and the tabernacle
and the priesthood and all these things and Moses comes down from
that mountaintop experience and I've been telling you just emotionally
and spiritually he went to the bottom of the pit, didn't he?
Because of what Aaron did. Just what a heartache that was
caused by his helper. The only thing I got to say about
that is this. I don't want to be that guy. I don't want to
be that guy. I want to be a help to you. I
don't want to be that guy. All right. Every one of us here
can recognize that same unbelief in our hearts. We can all recognize
it. We think about things we've done
and said that display the very same unbelief Moses did here. And Lord's angry. Lord's angry
with unbelief of his people, but he is still forgiving. He
is still forgiving. The Lord knoweth our firmness.
He remembereth that we're dust. Where sin abounds, God's grace
still much more abounds, always. Now, so far, I would have to say,
the message tonight's been kind of a downer, hasn't it? It's
been kind of depressing, talking about our unbelief. All true,
all true, hope we've learned something, you know, about what
unbelief is and how, but I'm gonna give you some good news.
How can the Lord save me from my unbelief? When I have unbelief
like Moses does here, how can the Lord not cast me off? How
can he not condemn me? Well, let me give you two ways
that are found in our text. Number one is this. Even the
sin of unbelief is put away by Christ the high priest who's
coming. Did you notice that in verse
14? The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses And he
said, is not Aaron the Levi thy brother? I know that he can speak
well. And also, behold, he cometh.
He cometh forth to meet thee, and when he seeth thee, he will
be glad in his heart. Now the Lord says, I'm going
to give you Aaron, your brother, that you're near Kinsley. I'm
going to give him to help you. And Moses, he's already coming.
He's already on his way to meet you. He's already come out looking
for you. He's coming to meet you. Now Aaron is going to be
the first high priest in Israel. Aaron is going to serve as that
picture of Christ, the great high priest. Now the whole Old
Testament tells us someone's coming. When my wife, Janet,
used to teach the little ones, three, four, and five year olds,
she always tell them, this is what the Old Testament says.
It's like a train. Someone's coming. Someone's coming.
Someone's coming. Someone's coming. Someone's coming. Someone's coming
to redeem. Someone's coming to make his
people righteous. Someone's coming to save. Someone's
coming to offer the one sacrifice for sin forever that will put
away the sin of God's people. And that someone is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's our great high priest. Now
at this time when Moses was alive, Christ was coming, wasn't he?
He hadn't come incarnate yet. He hadn't been born of Mary yet.
He was coming to redeem his people. Moses was looking forward to
that. That's why our Lord said, Moses wrote of me. Moses saw
my day and was glad. Moses was looking forward to
that one who's coming. And that's what Aaron is a picture of. Aaron
is a picture of Christ, our high priest. Aaron would wear those
high priest garments, the white, the holiness of Christ. He would
wear all those colors that show off the glory of Christ. He'd
wear that high priest turban that had a gold plate on the
front of it that said, holiness to the Lord. Christ is coming
to make his people holy. Aaron just went through a ceremony.
Christ is gonna make his people holy. Aaron would offer thousands
and thousands and thousands of animal sacrifices as pictures
of how sin's gonna be put away. The only effect that that blood,
the blood of those animals had, they never put away any sin.
It just kept telling us someone's coming. Someone's coming. Someone's coming with blood that
we'll put away sin. After all those sacrifices Aaron
and his sons and his grandsons offered, they died. and replaced
by somebody else had to do the same thing. And then Christ came
and he offered one sacrifice for sin, just one. And then he
sat down on the right hand of God because the one sacrifice
of Christ is all it takes to put away all the sin of his people
because it's the sacrifice of Christ offered by Christ, the
great high priest. Then one of the jobs Aaron had
would be to put incense. They would make that incense
and that special formula that they would make it. It couldn't
be strange incense. It had to be the incense the
way God told him to make it. And he'd take that incense, beat
and small, and he'd put it on those coals on the golden altar.
It would rise that smoke. The scripture tells us it's a
picture of Christ's intercession for his people. Now that was
just a picture. Brethren, we have the real thing.
Christ is coming. He's gonna shed his blood that
will enable him to make intercession for his people. Intercession
that his father will always accept. He's coming. In the fullness
of time, Christ came. Everything Moses was looking
forward to was fulfilled when Christ came with him. Christ
came and he accomplished the redemption of his people By fulfilling
all those pictures of the high priest that we see in Aaron,
he come. Let me tell you something kind of
exciting. That's still true. Let me show you that in Revelation
chapter one. Revelation chapter one. Verse seven. Behold he cometh with clouds
and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and
all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him even so amen. Behold he cometh. Now that's in the present tense.
He didn't say behold he's coming one day. Behold he cometh. Right now. Right now, Christ
is coming. Christ is coming. Now, it's not
like he's coming and, well, I mean, I hope it's so, but, you know,
in the next two or three seconds, he's gonna suddenly appear, but
the Savior is coming. He cometh in this sense. He's
working every event of human time to work together to accomplish
his will, to bring every, just like the gears of a clock, just
all working together and ticking, till it gets to be just the right
time when he's gonna come again. He'll appear the second time
and gather his people to himself. He's coming. Right at this moment,
he's coming to gather his people because he's already offered
the sacrifice as their great high priest that will put their
sin away. Behold, he cometh. And that one we're looking for.
is gonna come just as surely as he came the first time when
Moses was looking for, just as surely. All right, here's the
second thing. Even the sin of unbelief is put
away by the power of Christ our Savior. Back in our text, Exodus
4, verse 17, the Lord told Moses, and thou shalt take this rod
in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. Now Moses' rod,
I covered this some last week, represents power of God. You know, Moses stretched out
that rod and performed so many miracles and wonders all through
Egypt. That rod pictures the power of
God and that's the power that every believer depends on. You know, when we preach the sovereignty
of God, That's not just a doctrinal stance
that we have that's different from false religion out in the
world. When we talk about the sovereign power of our God, that's
the comfort. That's the assurance of salvation
that's in the heart of every one of God's people, the power
of God. And I'm telling you, we lean
on the power of God, just like a tired hiker just leans on that
hiking stick or walking stick that he has, and he needs a little
rest, he leans on that stick. We lean on the power of God. We depend upon the power of God. If we here had to accomplish
something by our power, I'd shut the doors and go on vacation.
I mean, I really would. But we're not going to do anything
here by our power. It's by the power of God. There
can't be any salvation without the power of God. There can't
be any, can there? So we depend upon him. We depend
on the power of our God to love a sinful people who've sinned
against him. We depend on the power of God,
his power to pay the redemption price for our sins. We depend
upon, I mean, I love this. I love to be reminded of this.
I love to think about this. I love to depend upon the power
of God to go find his lost sheep and bring him all the way back
to the fold. I love depending upon the power
of God to give faith to the unbelieving. I don't think that there's anything
in this world that I want more than for you to believe on Christ. There's nothing I want more than
that. I have to refrain myself from trying to reach out and
grab you. Do you hear? But that wouldn't do any good,
would it? Oh, but if we depend on the power
of God to give faith to the unbelieving, they're gonna believe. We depend
on the power of God to break that stony heart and give a new
heart. Oh, I love this one. We depend
on the power of God to save us and to keep us saved. Oh, that's
so good to be able to depend on his power. While we live in
this body of sin, isn't it good to depend on his power? He gonna
keep us saved, to keep his people saved. We depend on the power
of the blood of Christ to keep forgiving our sin. It's the blood
of Christ that's still making intercession for his people that
keeps forgiving the sin of his people. It's the power of the
blood of Christ that enables him to make intercession for
the sins of his people. Oh, I love depending on the power
of God. That's the power that's going
to accomplish the salvation of his people. And I'm telling you,
if we'll learn from Moses' mistake here and depend on the Lord's
power, we cannot fail. We cannot fail. Now let's not
run ahead of the Lord, not run ahead of him. But when he sends
us, we're going to go. We're gonna go. What is it the
Lord's called us to do? Well, he's called us to meet
here and preach the gospel. And I'm gonna depend on the Lord
for that gospel to find his lost sheep and save them. I'm gonna
depend on that gospel to reach your hearts, to edify you, to
comfort you, to keep feeding you, to keep pointing you to
Christ. If we're depending on his power to accomplish that,
we can't fail. Can't fail. All right, I hope
the Lord will bless that too. Let's bow together. our father how we thank you for
this instruction that we find in your word father we're so
humiliated and embarrassed because of our unbelief after all that
you've done for us after all that you've showed us after all
that you revealed of yourself to us from your word and father
all we can do is beg your forgiveness and how thankful we are to hear
one more time that there is forgiveness of our sins in the Lord Jesus
Christ, in his sacrifice, and by his power. Father, how we
thank you. How we thank you that none of
this depends upon us, but it's all dependent upon Christ our
Savior. Father, we thank you. I pray that you'd use the message
that has been preached tonight to bring glory to the name of
your son. For it's in his name, for his sake we pray, amen. All right, Sean.