Turn to Exodus 4, and 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 fourteen of Exodus, chapter
four. And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Moses. I've entitled this message, The
Anger of the Lord was Kindled Against Moses. Now, 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. 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 wholly 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 true. 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 commendation, isn't
it? A man after God's own heart. Verse says in verse 27 of 2 Samuel
chapter 11. And when the morning was passed,
David sent and fetched her by Sheba 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 has just made this
commendation of Peter. He 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? A very special man.
Look in verse 21 of Matthew, chapter 16. From that time forward
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 savourest 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 verily 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 simple. 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,
Amen, the Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Now, let us
go with the 63 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 has 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
the 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 gave. 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 have
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, right? 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 dome? Or death? Or the sin? Or the blight? 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'm 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. And 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 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. Beginning in verse 37. Though he had done so many miracles
before them, 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. Who did? 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
him. What about somebody that sees? Where did you get the grace?
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? And 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 said to his disciples. Lo, I'm with you. Always. even to the end of the world. And look what Moses says, even
after all this assurance, the Lord says, you go, I'll be with
you. And he said, oh, 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 elephant speaking and not the power of 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 that the.
Not trusting the Lord is the most sinful thing that you or
I can do. You know what's amazing about
that is I don't think we must 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 that you wouldn't listen to me, French. And you
should. You should. But when I say I'm
guilty of unbelief, well, you know. You know, that's not bad. 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'll
be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and I'll 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. 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. That's God's
spokesman in that sense. So, verse 16, it says, He shall
be thy spokesman. 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 a God. Now, 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, 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 mouth. Well, Christ has made
some things to the believer. He's made them in the wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. I couldn't help
but think of 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 to Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded,
and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before the servants,
and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the
wise man and the sorcerers, now 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 hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had said."
Look in verse 14, "...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 my 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 side of Pharaoh and the
side 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 thy hand with thy rod over the
streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause 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 at chapter 9, verse 22. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Stretch 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 that 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 it, 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 decided
the elders of Israel. He took that rod and hit the
rock, and waters came out. Look in verse 8, chapter 17.
Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel, and And Moses said
unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out and fight with them,
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 them down, Israel lost. And that's when Aaron and Herod
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. And thou shalt take this rod
in mine 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 crave 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 ass.
And he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod
of God in his hand. Now, we've 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 see it without consequence. Now, understand that the anger
of the Lord was kindled against it. These things right under
you, 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." Now 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 meek 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 work. 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 two, let's begin reading
verse one. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
down at 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 to do of thy youth. The Lord is sworn and will not
repent. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. Oh, what this rod. The rod of
God's strength. This is my salvation. He's the
one who makes me willing by His power. That's the rod. 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 shadow of death, I fear no
evil, for 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 had 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 a feel, what a 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. But
we think that was 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 still an easy yoke, isn't 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.