Exodus chapter 3 beginning with
verse 10. These are the words of God speaking
to Moses out of the bush that burned but was not consumed.
Come now therefore and I will send thee unto Pharaoh. that
thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of
Egypt. 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? And he said, Certainly
I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee that
I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth
the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto
them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you, and they
shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you. And
God said moreover unto Moses, thus shalt thou say unto the
children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me
unto you. This is my name forever, and
this is my memorial unto all generations. Go, and gather the
elders of Israel together, and say unto them, the Lord God of
your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared
unto me, saying, I have surely visited you and seen that which
is done to you in Egypt. And I have said, I will bring
you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites,
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk
and honey. And they shall hearken to thy
voice, and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto
the king of Egypt. And you shall say unto him, the
Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us, and now let us go. We beseech thee, three days'
journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the
Lord our God. And I am sure that the king of
Egypt will not let you go, no. not by a mighty hand. And I will
stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders, which
I will do in the midst thereof. And after that, he will let you
go. And I will give this people favor
in the sight of the Egyptians, and it shall come to pass that
when you go, you shall not go empty. But every woman shall
borrow of her neighbor and of her that sojourneth in her house
jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment, and you shall
put them upon your sons and upon your daughters, and you shall
spoil the Egyptians. If nothing else, in looking at
this chapter and the next chapter where God is calling Moses We
see God's patience. God's patience. Patience is an
attribute of God that we usually don't think about. You very seldom
would see a chapter, if you had a book on the attributes of God
or in a theology book on the attributes of God, most likely
you wouldn't see a chapter devoted to the patience of God. patience
and his forbearance would probably be under long-suffering, the
long-suffering of God. But no matter what name we give
to it, patience, forbearance, long-suffering, it is always a display of God's
mercy, God's mercy. When I began Preparing the notes
for the message tonight. I had just before that read Psalm
118. If you want to flip over here
to Psalm 118 with me just a moment. First few verses here in this
Psalm, David said, Oh, give thanks unto the Lord. for he is good,
because his mercy endureth forever. Let Israel now say that his mercy
endureth forever. Let the house of Aaron now say
that his mercy endureth forever. Let them now that fear the Lord
say that his mercy endureth forever. I called upon the Lord in distress,
The Lord answered me and set me in a Lord's place. As I read
these words three times, the psalmist admonishes us to give
thanks unto the Lord for his mercy endureth forever. I just
had to bow my head and thank God that his mercy endures forever. Aren't you thankful tonight?
that his mercy endures forever. And under that mercy, we see
his patience and his forbearance and his long suffering. We can
see that easily as we look at God dealing with Moses, calling
him to the work that he called him to. But as you look back
over your life, as I look back over my life, I see how God has
been so patient and so long-suffering and so merciful to me. Let the
house of Israel, let those that fear the Lord, let the house
of Aaron say, His mercy endureth forever. There are three things
I want to point out to us tonight back in Exodus chapter 3. First of all, God's purpose is
declared here in verse 10. And God's purpose is that He
would bring His people out of Israel. He would bring forth
my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. This event had
been prophesied, had been promised over 400 years before this. If you want to turn back with
me, it's found in Genesis chapter 15, when God was speaking to
Abraham, and Abraham was the only Israelite at that time. And God promised him that in
400 years, he would bring his descendants out of the land where
they would be strangers. In Genesis chapter 15 and beginning
with verse 12, and when the sun was going down, A deep sleep fell upon Abram,
and lo and horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto
Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger
in a land that is not theirs, that's Egypt, and shall serve
them. They were now captives. Remember,
when they went into Egypt, they were welcomed. The best of the
land was theirs. But a new king, a new Pharaoh
who did not know Joseph was now on the throne and they were slaves,
they were captives. They shall serve them and they
shall afflict them 400 years. And also that nation whom they
shall serve will I judge and afterwards shall they come out
with great substance. So God's purpose is declared
here when God is speaking to Moses, and his purpose is that
his people, the children of Israel, would come out of Egypt. When we think of the fact that
it was God's purpose to bring his people out of Egypt, then
We know that nothing, we cannot imagine that anything could possibly
hinder God's purpose from being fulfilled. God never fails, never
has failed, never will fail. He is God, and beside him, the
nations of the earth are considered, the scripture says, like a drop
in a bucket, like grasshoppers, mankind. No, God's purpose here
was revealed and there was no way that God's purpose was not
going to be fulfilled. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Maybe you have something in your
life, something that you're facing, some difficulty you're going
through. Is anything too hard for the Lord? No, no. You know, after they came out
of Egypt and were in the wilderness for 40 years, there came a time
when even Moses, Moses doubted God's power. God told Moses he
was going to do something and Moses thought that, that, no
way. Let's read about that, if you
will, in Numbers chapter 11. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Numbers chapter 11, beginning
in verse 18. God speaking to Moses, and say
thou unto the people, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow and
you shall eat flesh, meat. God says, I'm going to feed you
with meat. You're going to eat flesh. You've been begging. You've
been crying. You've been murmuring about this
manna. You want flesh? God said, I'm
going to feed you with flesh. For you have wept in the ears
of the Lord, saying, who shall give us flesh to eat? For it
was well with us in Egypt. Wherefore, the Lord will give
you flesh, and you shall eat. You shall not eat one day, nor
two days, nor five days, neither 10 days, nor 20 days, but even
a whole month until it come out at your nostrils and it be loathsome
unto you, because that you have despised the Lord which is among
you and have wept before him saying, why came we forth out
of Egypt? And Moses said, the people among
whom I am are 600,000 footmen. Now that doesn't count the women
and the children. And you say you're going to feed
us, not five days, not 10 days, but for a month, you're going
to feed us meat, flesh. And thou has said, I will give
them flesh that they may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks
and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? Or shall all
the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice
them? And the Lord said unto Moses..."
You see, Moses doubted, doubted the power of God, the ability
of God to feed these people for a month with flesh. He said,
if we sacrifice, if we slaughter all our herds, all the cattle
that we have with us, That won't suffice. And the Lord said unto Moses,
is the Lord's hand waxed short? Thou shalt see now whether my
word shall come to pass unto thee or not. Look down to verse
31. And there went forth a wind from
the Lord and brought quails from the sea and let them fall by
the camp. as it were a day's journey on
this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round
about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face
of the earth. And the people stood up all that
day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered
the quails. He that gathered least gathered
10 homers, and they spread them all abroad for themselves round
about the camp. And I'll tell you something about
the quails that God supplied them. They didn't have any buck
shots in them. Someone gave me some quail, and
I'm thankful. But I tell you what, I bit down
on a piece of quail and a buck shot. Oh, my. Now these quail, they didn't
have any buck shots in them. But Moses. Question the Lord. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Think about that. Whatever your problem is, whatever
your difficulty is, whatever our difficulty is as a church,
is there anything too hard for the Lord? And we know the question,
I mean the answer, no. What God purposes to do, He will
do. And I think sometimes we're guilty
of doubting God's power to save. Sometimes we doubt God's power
to save ourselves. We think, we get to thinking
about our past life and the sins that we're guilty of and we think,
well, how could God save us? Is anything too difficult for
the Lord? Or we have some friend or some
relative we're praying for and we think, well, that'll never
happen. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? God's purpose, God's purpose will be accomplished. He revealed
his purpose here to Moses. He told him, you're going to
bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. You know there's a verse in the
New Testament, I believe it's in the Gospel of Mark, where
the people, where the Lord Jesus Christ had taught and and healed
people. It says the people said, he hath
done all things well. I love that, don't you? He hath
done all things well. I know by faith that one day
when my life is over, when your life is over, if you're a child
of God, you'll be able to look back over your life things that
you didn't understand, things that you wish had been different,
and you too will be able to say, he had done all things well. He makes no mistakes. God's purpose,
it will be accomplished. The second thing, God would use
Moses to accomplish his purpose. We see that also in verse 10.
I will send thee unto Pharaoh. that thou mayest bring forth
my people. You know, I learned a long time
ago that the question should never be what God can do, but
rather what God has chosen to do. We should never ask, well,
can God do that? That's not the question. The
question is, has God chosen to do that? calls Moses and tells him, I'm
sending you, notice that, come now therefore and I will send
thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children
of Israel out of Egypt. God could have sent an angel.
He could have sent an angel to destroy Pharaoh and his army.
We all remember in the history of the nation, the history of
Judah, when Hezekiah was king, how the Sennacherib, the king
of Assyria, came up and compassed about the city. And they were
bragging about what they were going to do and how he was going
to take the city and all the different countries and different
gods that he had destroyed and conquered. And don't let Hezekiah
deceive you, he told the people. In their language, remember,
spoke in the Jewish language so all the people would hear
what he was saying. Don't let Hezekiah deceive you
and make you believe that your God is going to deliver you.
These other gods have not delivered their people. And remember, Hezekiah,
I know you have read this, he took that letter, the king wrote
a letter and sent it in to Hezekiah, and he took that letter in, and
opened it up, spread it out before the Lord, and prayed unto God. And part of his prayer, I have
it here. Now therefore, O Lord God, I
beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms
of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only. He prayed and asked that God
would save him and save his country, save Jerusalem. And the reason,
the purpose was, he said, that all the nations of the earth
might know that the Lord is God. Praying for God's glory, right?
We should always, we do pray, not my will, but thy will be
done, just like our Lord prayed. And we pray that way. We must. And you know what happened. God
sent one angel out and he killed 185,000 that night of the army
of the Assyrians. And the king, Sennacherib, went
back to his place and someone killed him in his temple. Yes. God's chosen to use men. That's
my point. God chose to use Moses. We know
it's the same in delivering God's people from the bondage of sin. He's chosen men to preach the
gospel. And I have no doubt in my mind
the reason he has chosen men is, as Paul said, that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of man. the excellency of the power in
saving a sinner and giving life. It's not in the power of the
preacher. It's not in his ability to speak or anything about it. Our Lord said, without me, you
can do nothing. No, the excellency of the power
may be of God. Takes a weak vessel, a weak man,
and gives him the gospel and sends him out to preach And he
uses that message, uses that man. We have the message the
scripture says in a clay pot, a treasure, the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's all a preacher is, a clay
pot. That's all all of us are. When Cornelius in the New Testament,
the first Time the gospel was preached in the New Testament
church to a Gentile, remember Peter said, God hath chosen by
me. That's what Peter said. And he
has reference to the time he took the gospel to the house
of Cornelius. Cornelius was a Roman centurion. And he was a just man, the scripture
says. And God sent an angel to him.
But the angel didn't preach the gospel to him. The angel told
him, you send over to Joppa and look for a man by the name of
Simon. And he'll come and he'll preach
the gospel to you. God's chosen to use man. And
God chose to use this man, Moses. God promised to be with him.
If you notice in verse 12, he says, certainly I will be with
thee. Now we know that Moses had attempted 40 years before
this, he had attempted in his own strength to deliver the children
of Israel out of Egypt, but God wasn't with him. And I like the
way Stephen spoke this in the New Testament, it's recorded
in Acts 7. It says this, that Moses, that
first time, remember when he killed that Egyptian, and then
the next day he tried to separate those two Jews from fighting
each other, and who made thee a judge among us? But Stephen
tells us, he supposed, Moses, he supposed his brethren would
have understood, now that God by his hand would deliver them
but they understood not. They understood not. This is
a promise that the Lord has given to his church to go into all
the world and preach the gospel. And lo, I'm with thee always,
even unto the end of the world or to the end of the age. And
that's what God promised Moses here. God assured Moses, notice,
that the elders of Israel, now Moses, he's got one reason after
another he's going to bring forth as to why he wasn't the right
man. First of all, he says, you know,
when I go there, they're gonna ask me, what's the name of the
God who sent you? You tell us, the elders speaking
to Moses, you tell us God appeared to you and sent you here, what's
his name? What am I going to tell them?
And God said, you tell them I am that I am. The other day when,
I think the night before I went to Mexico, one of the church
here sent me a text and said, you go tell them I am, I sent
you. That's who we represent. That's
who we represent as preachers of the gospel, Jehovah. Not I
was, not I shall be, but I am. Always, eternally the same. Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. The third thing we see is God's
purpose. God's purpose was to deliver
the children of Israel out of Egypt. And God's purpose was
to use Moses in this work. But the third thing we see is
God's purpose would be opposed by man. We see that in verse
19. God told Moses, and I'm sure
that the king of Egypt will not let you go. Not, no, not by a
mighty hand. You know, they were to ask permission.
And they did. They went in to Pharaoh and they
asked permission. They didn't demand that he let
them go. God told them what they were
to say. Let's see that in verse 18. God told Moses that you tell
the elders, I am a censure and they'll hearken unto you. And
they shall hearken. Hearken to thy voice, and thou
shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt,
and you shall say unto him, the Lord God of the Hebrews hath
met with us, and now let us go. Give us permission to go. They
asked nicely, didn't they? They didn't go in there demanding. They were not, the king of Egypt didn't own
them. They'd come to visit in his country, and they'd stayed
there, and now they want to go and worship their God. They asked
in a very polite way, the Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with
us, and now let us go. We beseech thee. We beg of thee. Let us go. Let us go three days
journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord
our God. And God told Moses, and I'm sure
that the king of Egypt will not let you go. No, not by a mighty
hand. When they went in and asked the
king to let them go as God had told them to do, You remember
what Pharaoh said? Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord
that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not
the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. Well, you know he
would soon get a crash course in who God is. 10 signs that God, miracles that
God would work, and then they would let them go. He would learn
who Jehovah is. And notice the Lord gave Moses
three assurances here that he would bring this to pass. Number one, in verse 20, we read, And I will stretch out my hand
and smite Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in the midst
thereof. And after that, he will let you go. God assures him,
number one, by his word. He will let you go. God gave
him his word. And think about this. This is
so important. God's word must always be the
foundation of our faith. The foundation of our faith is
not our feelings. No, the foundation of our faith
is thus saith the Lord. God said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Remember one of the things
that Balaam, the false prophet said, and he said this because
God put these words in his mouth. God is not a man that he should
lie. No, our faith must be based upon
the word of God. And God gave Moses his word. Second thing, God told him that
Israel would serve God upon Mount Horeb. As a sign, God told Moses,
that I've sent you, you're going to come. Here he was at this
mount, Mount Horeb, and God said, you're going to come here and
worship me on this mountain. Now, Mount Horeb, my Bible dictionary
says this about Mount Horeb. It is geographically indistinguishable
from Mount Sinai. Some say Sinai was a mountain
range or Horb was a mountain range, but in other words, God
promised them that they would come there to that mountain,
and we know they did. That's where God gave the law.
God came down, remember, on Mount Sinai and gave his law. The third thing, Israel would
spoil the Egyptians, in verse 22. They would spoil the Egyptians. See how the Lord would give favor. The heart of the king is in the
hand of the Lord, like rivers of water, he turneth it with
us, so ever he will. And not only is the heart of
the king in the hand of the Lord, but everyone else's heart is
in the hand of the king. And these Egyptians, they would
ask, the Israelites would ask their neighbors, oh, that's a
beautiful, beautiful necklace you have there. Could I borrow
that? That's a beautiful dress, the
clothes that you have there. Think I could wear that? And
God gave them favor in the sight of the Egyptians and they gave
them. their jewelry, the best of their clothes, they spoiled
the nation of Israel. When they got out into the wilderness,
we know, and God set up the tabernacle, they'd need some of that gold.
Every vessel in the tabernacle was made of incorruptible wood
overlaid with gold. And think about those precious
stones, 12 stones on the breastplate of the high priest on his heart,
showing us that our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, his love
for you, his love for me, his people. And those same 12 names,
six on one shoulder, six on the other shoulder, showing us that
Christ, our high priest, he is our strength. He is our strength. The Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my
life. May the Lord bless his word to
us here this evening.