Turn to Exodus 4. It sure is
wonderful to meet with the Lord's people. What a blessing. We were
in the back, and I watched Brother Gene run through there without
that walker, and I thought he was getting ready for the Bluegrass
10K. That was a real blessing. I'd like to read verse 14 of
Exodus chapter 4. And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Moses. I've entitled this message, The
Anger of the Lord was Kindled Against Moses. That ought to
be enough to arouse our interest. What took place? Why was the
anger of the Lord kindled against Moses? Now, I may get mad at
you. And my reason for being angry
could certainly be totally unjustified because I don't really know the
facts. I know that I have become upset
with people because I didn't know the facts or the circumstances. And you've done the same, but
this is the Lord. the one who knows all. And he was angry with Moses. Moses, the servant of God. Moses, a very special man favored
by the Lord. And the scripture says regarding
Moses that he was faithful in his house as a servant. That's
what Hebrews 35 says about him. He was a faithful, faithful man. And I think it's really glorious
how In the New Testament, whenever the New Testament is talking
about the Old Testament characters, do you know it never brings up
their faults? Isn't that wonderful? It never
brings up their faults. Now, Moses was a very faulty
man. The Old Testament gives us many examples of his faults,
just like any other man is, any other man, beginning here. But
here it says the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. What did Moses do? that would
make the anger of the Lord kindled against him. I need to say a
few things by way of introduction. The believer is perfect before
God. Aren't you happy about that?
Before God, every believer has no sin. When God looks at me,
he looks at somebody without sin because of what the Lord
has done for me. He put away my sin, his righteousness,
is mine, and every believer is holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in his sight. And let me say this, he sees
things as they really are. If I'm holy and unblameable and
unreprovable in his sight, I am holy, and I am unblameable, and
I am unreprovable. If he sees me that way, that's
only because that's the way I am. The Lord doesn't see as men see.
And he sees things as they really are. Really, actually, literally,
justified before God and not guilty. Now, that's truth. No ifs, ands, and buts. That
being said, that doesn't take away from the fact that when
we sin, it displeases the Lord. When we sin, it displeases the
Lord. Let me show you that from the
Scripture. Turn with me to 2 Samuel. Chapter 11. David was a man after God's own
heart. That's a high combination, isn't
it? A man after God's own heart. Look what this verse says in
verse 27 of 2 Samuel, chapter 11. And when the morning was
past, David sent and fetched her Bathsheba to his house and
she became his wife. You know the story. And Barry,
my son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. It displeased the Lord. Turn
with me to Matthew, Chapter 16. Now, the Lord had just made this
commendation of Peter and said, Thou art Peter. And upon this
rock, this confession you've made of me, I'll build my church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Peter was
a very special man, wasn't he? Very special man. But look in
verse 21 of Matthew chapter 16, from that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. Then
Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee,
Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said
unto Peter, Get thee behind me Satan. Can you imagine the Lord
saying that to you? Get thee behind me, Satan, for
thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those things
that be of men. Now, he said that to Peter. Now,
Moses was the servant of the Lord and highly commended. Moses
barely was faithful in all his house as a servant, but Moses
was a man like you and I, and his actions And his attitude
at this time were very evil and very sinful. And the Lord's anger
was kindled against Moses. Now, look back in Exodus chapter
3, verse 18. Now, the Lord has appeared to
Moses, and he gives him this assurance in verse 18, and they
shall hearken to thy voice. Now, if the Lord said they'll
hearken to his voice, will they hearken to his voice? Is there
any question about that? He said they shall hearken to
your voice. The Lord didn't say if or maybe. He said they'll do it. And thou
shalt come down, the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt,
and you shall say to him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath
met with us. Now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey
into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our
God. Now he said they shall hearken to your voice. OK, chapter four,
verse one. And Moses answered and said,
But behold, they'll not believe me. nor hearken unto my voice. For they'll say the Lord hath
not appeared unto thee. And the Lord gave him at this
time three signs as to why they would hearken to his voice. You remember those signs. We
looked at that last week. The first sign of the rod of
God being turned into a serpent and then him picking it up by
the tail and it becoming the rod of God again. And that represents
Lord Jesus Christ, he is God's rod. He is the rod out of the
stem of Jesse. He was made a serpent. He was
made sin. And he came back to where he
was. The sin was put away. And then there's the miracle
of the leprous hand going into his bosom. It was clean. It went
into his bosom. He pulled it back out. It was
leprous. He put it back in, it comes back out, it's clean. That's
a reference to what the Lord does in a sinner's heart. First,
we see our leprosy and our sinfulness, and then he gives a holy nature
and makes it clean and pure. And he said, if they won't believe
those two signs, you pour blood on the ground and they'll believe.
And they did. And they did. Those are the signs
that God So Moses had every reason to have complete assurance. The
Lord had given him these signs. It didn't have anything to do
with Moses. It was the signs that they would believe. It wasn't
because Moses was a good speaker or was able to talk somebody
into something. It was the signs, the signs of the gospel. So look
in verse 10 of Exodus chapter 4. And Moses said unto the Lord,
after the Lord had given him all these assurances and had
given him these signs, And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord,
I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto
thy servant, but I am of slow speech and of a slow tongue."
Now evidently Moses had a speech impediment. I don't know what
it was. Perhaps he stuttered. Perhaps he couldn't pronounce
his words properly and perhaps listening to him speak might
have been very difficult. And if someone had a speech impediment,
it would be difficult to be a public speaker. Can you imagine trying
to get up and give a public speech when you had an impediment like
this? And I'm sure it was a humiliation to him. And he said, I couldn't
speak before I met you. And now that I've met you and
you've made yourself known to me, I still can't speak. I'm
a slow tongue. As if that made a difference.
Moses, if you could speak well, would that make them more likely
to believe? That's utterly fleshly, isn't it? He was leaning on the
arm of the flesh. Moses was way out of line. And
we know that because the anger of the Lord was kindled against
him. Remember, it's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit,
saith the Lord. So look how the Lord answers
him at this time. Moses still does not want to
go. You know, it's amazing at the
first of Exodus. He when he's 40 years before
this took place, he wanted to be the man he thought they understood
that God would, by his hand, deliver them. And they didn't
understand. But now that God has put his hand upon him, he
doesn't want the job. He's scared. He feels totally
unqualified. Now, this is a mixture of humility,
but it's also a mixture of flesh because he's saying in this,
If I could speak well, I would be more qualified. Now, look
how the Lord answers him in verse 11. 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, this is true regarding all
things. God is the first cause. He doesn't simply allow things
to happen. He doesn't simply permit things
to happen. He controls. If somebody's blind,
why are they blind? The Lord made them that way.
If somebody's deaf, why are they deaf? The Lord made them that
way. If somebody can see, why can
they see? The Lord made them that way.
If someone can't speak, why can't they speak? The Lord made them
that way. You see, God is God and He's
in control of everything. He's the first cause behind everything. He said, I am the Lord and there's
none beside me. I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace. I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Now, it's so true physically. Who makes the dumb or the deaf
or the seeing or the blind? Have I, not I, the Lord? But
you know, this is also true spiritually. The man who cannot speak spiritually,
why can't he? The Lord's in control of that. What about a man who can't hear?
He can't hear the Gospel. He can't understand. He can't
discern. Well, the Lord said, He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Not everybody has ears to hear.
If you have ears to hear the Gospel and you understand and
you believe, what a joy that is. And you know, if you're a
believer, you know what it is to hear without being able to
hear. You know what it is to hear the Gospel preached and
you know the truth is preached and you know it's not speaking
to you who feel like you can't hear. That's a horrible state
to be in. Where'd you get that way? The
Lord's shut up your ears in his own wise and sovereign purposes.
He's in control. That's just the ability to hear
the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit. You know, that's
the gift of God. The only way you can truly hear is if God
enables you to hear. And if you if it ceases to ring
your bell, you know that. The Lord's withdrawn his hand
from you. And that's one of the things,
there's nothing to me that is more frightening than to hear
the gospel preached. And it doesn't seem to be speaking
to me. If you have ears to hear, you know the Lord gave them to
you. What about being blind? Who blinds people? Turn with
me to John chapter 12 for just a moment. Hold your finger there
in Exodus 4. I love this first scripture. John 12. Though he had done so many miracles
before then, yet they believed not on him, that the saying of
Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath
believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been
revealed? Therefore they could not believe. They lacked the
ability to believe because Isaiah said, He hath blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts. The Lord did. That they should
not see with their eyes and understand with their heart and be converted,
and I should heal them. These things said Isaiah when he saw
His glory and spake of Him. He blinded them. What about somebody
that sees? Where did you get the grace that
you see the beauty of Christ? You see the sufficiency of Jesus
Christ and you see that He's all you need. You see His shed
blood makes you perfect before God. You rejoice in Him. Who
gave you the grace to see that? Who gave you the grace to see
that you were blind? You've never started seeing until you're blind.
Once you find out you're blind, that's when you begin to see.
Who gave you the grace to see that? Everything is of the Lord. I love the Lord's reply to Moses. Moses, what does your speech
have to do with? Who made you the way you are? You have a speech
impediment. OK, who made you have one? Who's in control of
it? Not I, the Lord. Now back to our text. Verse 12. Now, therefore, go and I'll be
with thy mouth. And teach thee what thou shalt
say. Now, what more assurance could you need? You go, I'll
be with your mouth. You don't need to worry about
your ability to speak. I'll teach you everything you should say.
What assurance He gives. And you can't help but think
of what the Lord sent His disciples. Lo, I'm with you. Always. Even
to the end of the world. Now, look what Moses says. Even
after all this assurance, the Lord says, you go, I'll be with
you. And he said, O my Lord, send somebody else. Send somebody
else. I do not want to go. Now, was Moses exercising humility
here? Not at all. What this is is unbelief
and disobedience and wretched pride. Moses is saying, if I'm
not able to speak well, I don't want to go. Now, what he says
by this is if I were able to speak well, then I'd be qualified. And that's a denial of the very
essence of the gospel. If you carry that out, He's saying
it takes eloquent speaking and not the power and grace of God.
What he was saying was filled with pride and unbelief and disobedience. God said, go, I'll be with you.
And he couldn't trust God. You know, unbelief, not trusting
the Lord is the most sinful thing that you or I can do. You know
what's amazing about that? I don't think we much believe
it. We say we do. But if I said, I occasionally
shoplift, And I occasionally abuse drugs, or I occasionally
get off into all kinds of evil, ungodly sins and so on. I bet you, if you thought I was
doing stuff like it, you wouldn't listen to me preach. And you
shouldn't. You shouldn't. But when I say I'm guilty of
unbelief, well, you know. You know, that's the fact. The
sky's blue, isn't it, everybody? You know, and no unbelief is
the sin. To fail to trust the living God
after all he's said, after all he's done, that is the sin of
sins. And that's why that the Lord's
anger was kindled against Moses. 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." Okay, Aaron will speak
for you. Now, I'll tell you what to say, and you tell him what
to say. Let's read verses 14 and 15 together. Verse 15, And
thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth, and I
will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and I will teach you
what you shall do. Now Aaron will speak for you.
I'll tell you what to say. You'll tell him what to say,
and he'll be your spokesman. And now in this, I want you to
think about this. Moses lost the honor that he
would have had, but nothing was different. God was still speaking
through a man. He doesn't speak through Moses
now. He speaks through Aaron. God's still speaking through
a man. Nothing is different. But Moses lost the honor that
he would have had as God's spokesman in that sense. So verse 16. It
says, he shall be thy spokesman. The Lord, you know, the Lord
will give you what you want. That's a scary thing, isn't it? The
Lord will give you what you want. 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 a God. Now, here's what's going to happen.
He'll be your mouth. The words that I give you will
be delivered through his mouth and he will be to you a mouth
and you'll be to him. of God. That's strong language.
These words that I give you shall be given to him, and that'll
be God speaking to him. You'll be to him instead of God. Now, we see what that means on
the surface, but you know, I couldn't help but think, you know, he
says he'll be to you a mouth. I thought, well, Christ is something
to me. He is something. Just as Moses was God to Aaron,
that's what the Lord said. That's the language he used.
And just as Aaron's mouth was Moses' mouth. He was a mouthy.
Well, Christ has made some things to them. He's made them in the
wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
I couldn't help it thinking that, but let's go on reading. Verse
17. And thou shalt take this rod
in thy hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. Now, what is it that's
going to do the work? Aaron's eloquent speech? No,
it's the rod that shall do the work and how awesome this rod
is. Now let's look at some scriptures
regarding this rod. Turn with me to Exodus 7, verse 10. And Moses and Aaron went in unto
Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron
cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before the servants. Then
he became a serpent Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and
the sorcerers out of the magicians of Egypt. They also did in like
manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man
his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron's rod swallowed up
their rods, and he hardened Pharaoh's heart that he hearken not unto
them, as the Lord hath said, look in verse fourteen, And the
Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses
to let the people go. Get thee unto Pharaoh in the
morning. Lo, he goeth out into the water, and thou shalt stand
by the river's brink. Against he come, and the rod,
which was turned to a serpent, shalt thou take in thy hand,
and thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath
sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve
me in the wilderness. And, behold, hitherto thou wouldst
not hear. Thus saith the Lord, In this
thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will smite with
the rod. that's in mine hand upon the
waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood."
And that's exactly what took place. Look in verse 20. And
Moses and Aaron did so as the Lord commanded. He lifted up
the rod and smoked the waters that were in the river, and the
sight of Pharaoh and the sight of his servants and the waters
that were in the river were turned to blood. Look in chapter 8,
verse 5. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying to Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over
the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and caused
frogs to come up out of Egypt. Look in verse 16. And the Lord
said unto Moses, saying to Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite
the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all
the land of Egypt. And they did so. For Aaron stretched
out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth,
and it became lice In man and beast, all the dust of the land
became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And the magician
did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they
could not. So there were lice upon man and
beast. Look in chapter 9, verse 22.
And the Lord said unto Moses, stretched forth thine hand toward
heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon
man and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field throughout
the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his
rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the
fire ran along upon the ground, and the Lord rained hail upon
the land of Egypt." Look in chapter 10, verse 12. And the Lord said
unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt,
for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt,
and upon every herb of the land, even all the hell that's left.
And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt. And
the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and
all that night. And it was morning, the east
wind left. Look in chapter 14, verse 16. I want us to see the honor the
Lord puts upon this rod. This is when he stood before
the Red Sea, but lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine
hand over the sea, and divide us, and the children of Israel
shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. Can you
imagine that sight when the waters parted, when he lifted up his
rod? Look in chapter 17. Verse 5, And the Lord said unto
Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders,
and thy rod, wherewith thou smitest the river, take it in thy hand,
and go. Behold, I will stand before thee upon the rock in
Oreb, and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water
out of it, that people may drink. And Moses did so, and the sight
of the elders of Israel. He took that rod and hit the
rock, and waters came out. Look at verse 8, chapter 17.
Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel, and wrecked them.
And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out and fight
with the Amalek. Tomorrow I'll stand on the top
of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. And you remember,
he lifted up the rod, and when the rod was lifted up with his
hands, Israel won. When his hands grew weary and
he put him down, Israel lost. And that's when Aaron and Hur
lifted up his hands to enable him to hold up the rod. We see
the honor that God puts upon this rod. Now let's go back to
our text, Exodus chapter 4. And thou shalt take this rod
in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs.' 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 and Midian, Go, return
unto Egypt, for all the men are dead which sought thy life. And
Moses took his wife and his sons, and he set them upon an ash.
And he returned to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the rod
of God in his hand. Now, we talked about the Lord
becoming angry with Moses, and the Lord did become angry with
Moses. And listen to me, when I sin against him, he becomes
angry with me. When you sin against the Lord,
he becomes angry with you. Well, what about the blood? You're
perfect in God's sight. Can both of those be true? Yes,
yes. You can't sin without consequence. Now, understand that. The anger
of the Lord was kindled. These things right, I mean, that
you sin not. May God give us grace to sin
no more. To never sin. Wouldn't it be
wonderful to never sin again? One of these days I'm going to
experience that. But you know, this anger of the Lord is not
His wrath. He loved Moses. And Moses was
perfect in His sight. And He still blessed him. He
still used him. But it wasn't Moses' speaking.
It wasn't Aaron speaking. It was the rod of God that the
Lord used. Now I want to close by looking
at a few more scriptures regarding this rod. Would you turn with
me to Isaiah chapter 11? Isaiah chapter 11, verse 1. And therefore come forth a rod
out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his
roots. You know this is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and shall
make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. And
he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove
after the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness shall
he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meat of the
earth, and he shall smite the earth, with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. He
himself is the rod of God." Now, this is the rod that budded In
Numbers chapter 17, this rod was dead in and of itself. It
didn't have any life. But in Numbers 17, when God was
proving who the true priests were, he said, you take Aaron's
rod, you put it with the other fellows and you see which one
comes to life. And this rod actually budded miraculously. And what
this is a reference to, it's a reminder to us that Christ
Jesus is our life. I hope I can say this the way
it ought to be said. Christ doesn't so much give me life, although
he does. Christ is my life. For me to live is what? Christ. And to die is gain. It's a promotion. It's the best
thing. If you're a believer, the best
day of your life is the day you die. Isn't that wonderful? What
a hope a believer has, because Christ is my life. He's that
rod that budded. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. He's also the rod of salvation.
Look over and flip back a few pages to Psalm 110. Verse 2,
let's begin reading verse 1. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou in my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Now
that's the Lord Jesus. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.
In the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning, thou
hast the dew of thy youth. The Lord is sworn and will not
repent. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. Oh, what a, this rod. The rod
of God's strength. This is my salvation. He's the
one who makes me willing by His power. You know, to make somebody
willing, that takes omnipotence. I can't make you willing. You
can't make me willing. I mean, I might do what you force
me to do, and I might try to act like I like it, but you can't
make me willing. But God can actually make His
people willing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Willing to be saved by
Him. And He's the great Melchizedek. This rod is my great high priest,
the one who represents me before the Father. What a priest we
have. And he's the rod of judgment.
He's the rod of iron that breaks the Lord's enemies in Psalm 2,
verse 9. But let's end up over here in
Psalm 23, Psalm 23. David says in verse one, the
Lord is my shepherd and because my shepherd is the Lord, I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down. in green pastures. He leads me
beside still waters, waters of quietness and peace. He restores
my soul. He leads me in the path of righteousness
for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadowed dead, I'll fear no evil for thine.
Thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."
Now, I believe the rod and the staff is the same thing. His
rod is the Lord Jesus. The staff, the shepherd's crook,
They comfort me. Now, what comforts you? It's
not a piece of wood. What comforts me is Jesus Christ
himself as my salvation before God. That's what comforts me. My life is in heaven right now. My life before God is already
seated at the right hand of the Father, and that is my life. His life is my life. Yes, He's
given me life. Don't misunderstand me. I have
spiritual life that I didn't have. I mean, something's happened
in me. Something's happened to me. There's no doubt about that.
But my life before God is not what I feel, what I think. My
life before God is that man who's in glory right now. That's my
life before God. And that's what comforts me.
Nothing else comforts me. If I have to look to my life
within, I don't really get any comfort out of that. What comforts
me is that Jesus Christ the Lord is my life before God. His rod and his staff truly comfort
me. Now Moses, you know, Moses, the
anger of the Lord was kindled against him. But you know, his
anger endureth but for a moment. It endures but for a moment.
And one of the glorious things about being a servant of the
Lord and knowing the Lord, His yoke. And you know, there's something
about a yoke that's not very pleasant. Wouldn't you agree?
Thought of it being yoked. We think that way. A yoke, I
mean. But His yoke is easy. And His
burden is light. You know why? Because He bears
all the weight of the yoke. And it's really an easy yoke.
And because salvation is all of grace. Even when we talk about
the Lord being displeased, It's telling you you're getting it.
Oh, you're grieved over your sin and you don't want to sin
anymore against Him. But aren't you thankful that
that sin is put away and that you're perfect in God's sight?
Moses, it's not your speech. Aaron, it's not your eloquence.
Moses, it's not your lack of ability to speak. It's the rod
of God that delivers the children of Israel. The Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's pray together.