Well, it's good to see all of
you out. Where's Stan and Teresa? Are
they still out of town? Oh, that's right, he doesn't.
Okay. All right. She is sick, isn't she? Bless
her heart. Well, I remember those who requested prayer. I have
to add to your prayer list. McCoy's family. She died, she
was what, 29? 29 years old. Remember her to the Lord and
seek the Lord's help for her. We'll begin our worship service
tonight with hymn number 51, Praise the Savior, Ye Who Know
Him. Praise the Savior, ye who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render
to Him all we are and have. Jesus is a name that charms us. He for conflict fits and arms
us. Nothing moves and nothing harms
us while we trust in Him. Trust in Him, ye saints. Neither force nor God can sever
those he loves from him. ♪ Keep us, Lord, oh, keep us
cleaving ♪ ♪ To thyself and still believing ♪ ♪ Till the hour of
our receiving ♪ ♪ Promise joys with thee ♪ ♪ Then we shall be
where we would be ♪ ♪ Then we shall be what we should be ♪
♪ Things that are now nor could be soon shall be ♪ Also, Sharon called. She's down
in Murphy tonight. She called and said, I believe
it was Patsy Ledford had radiation on her brain yesterday, or today.
Some type of targeted radiation to calm a nerve that's causing
her a lot of pain. She had that outpatient this
morning at Asheville, and she's back home, I understand. So remember
her in your prayers also. No word on Dee Parks today. or
Tracy Wright, but continue to remember them in your prayers,
if you will. Hymn number 15, Brethren, We Have Met to Worship.
♪ Brethren, we have met to worship
♪ And adore the Lord our God ♪ Will you pray with all your
power All is vain unless the spirit
of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, pray at holy manna. We'll be showered all around. Brethren, see poor sinners round. on the brink of war. Death is coming, hell is moving,
can you bear to let them go? See our fathers and our mothers
and our children, Holy manna will be showered all
around. Sisters, will you join and help
us? Moses' sister aided him. Will you help the trembling mourners
who are struggling? Tell them all about the Savior. Tell them that He will be found. Sisters, pray and holy manna
will be showered. all around. Let us love our God supremely. Let us love each other too. Let us love and pray for sinners
till our God makes all things new. Now if your Bible's turning me
to Exodus 18th chapter, You can read verses 13 through
27 tonight. The title of my message is Jethro's
Council. Beginning with verse 13, And
it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people,
and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.
And when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people,
he said, What is this thing? that thou doest to the people.
Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee
from morning to evening? Moses said unto his father-in-law,
Because the people come unto me to inquire of God, and when
they have a matter, they come unto me, and I judge between
one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God
and his laws. And Moses, father-in-law, said
unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good, Thou wilt
surely wear away both thou and this people that is with thee,
for this thing is too heavy for thee. Thou art not able to perform
it thyself alone. Hearken now unto my voice, I
will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee. Be thou for
the people to Godward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto
God. And thou shalt teach them ordinances
and laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk,
and the work that they must do. Moreover, thou shalt provide
out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth,
hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of
thousands, and rulers of hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers
of tens. And let them judge the people all the seasons, and it
shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee. But
every small matter they shall judge, so shall it be easier
for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. Thou shalt
do this thing, and God commanded thee so, and thou shalt be able
to endure, and all the people shall go to their place in peace.
So Moses hearkened unto the voice of his father-in-law, and did
all that he said. And Moses chose able men out
of Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands,
rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifty, and rulers of ten. And
they judged the people at all seasons, the hard causes they
brought to Moses. but every small matter they judged
themselves. And Moses let his father-in-law
depart, and he went his way into his own land. Let us pray. Our
Father, we thank you for your word, for the clarity of it,
the beauty of it, for the fact that it tells us the story of
salvation, rich and free. It tells us the way you do things,
it reveals to us your ways, and we are so thankful for that.
We are thankful that you didn't leave yourself without a witness,
but you sent the written word into this world by the living
word, the Lord Jesus Christ, and have taught your people and
continue to do so. You've written your law in their
heart, your word in their heart, And they know, Father, when they
read this book, that it's true and infallible and beautiful. Father, we pray for those who
are sick, those who are going through trials. Remember the
McCoy family that lost this loved one. Remember also Patsy Ledford,
Dee Park, Tracy Wright, the others who requested prayer. Lord, we
ask your help for them, for those who've lost loved ones, for those
who are going through trial. Continue to remember Brother
Fred that you'd bring him up to a good measure of health.
Remember our Shuddy and Wayne and Ethel and the others who are unable to
be here for whatever reason. We ask Lord you'd be pleased
to help us tonight as we've gathered here that you might be pleased
to open your word to us and teach us your ways. Cause us to understand
your statutes and your judgments and help us to see what you have
for us in this passage. Teach us, we pray, O Lord, in
Christ's name. Amen. Now this passage is the record
of Jethro, that's Moses' father-in-law, seeking to ease his burden and
judging the people. Now there's no doubt that judging
in civil matters was a time-consuming situation. It's said here that
the people stood with Moses from morning to evening, it was an
all day job judging the people. And what that simply means is
they brought a problem or an issue to him and then he decided
on it. Later on, and after the law was
given on Sinai, the priesthood was set up. The high priest would
carry two rocks in his chest piece. There was the Urim and
the Thummim. And one was a black rock, one
was a white rock. And all decisions and matters
would be brought to the priest, the high priest, and he would
decide by plucking one of the rocks out of his chest. And that
was the way things were answered yes or no. And that was what
the Urim and Thummim was all about. But here Moses and the
people are in the wilderness and they come to him with their
problems. And it says the people stood before Moses from morning
to evening. Generally this involves civil
matters such as disputes over various and sundry issues. And the immediate thing to remember
is that as we've seen thus far in our studies and will continue throughout
the history of this people, is that they were complainers and
murmurers, so Moses was probably kept pretty busy in this situation. It's probably made for a multiplicity
of useless complaints to which the people required Moses to
seek a word from the Lord. Knowing something of the pickiness
of the human creature, I'm sure that there were times when Moses
probably felt like pulling his hair out. I've been told stories
by preachers of people coming before them to judge in matters
that were utterly silly and were actually kind of a veiled effort
to justify something they had done or they were planning on
doing. In Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron spoke to Moses
about taking too much on himself. Now in this passage, we find
Jethro doing that, saying you take too much on yourself. But
in Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron wanted to share the office of
prophet. They said you take too much on
yourself. God also speaks through us and
therefore we ought to be able to prophesy in this situation
and help you in leading the people. Moses is the leader of the people. He is the one whom God called
and sent and sent Aaron as a mouthpiece for Moses, because Moses was
not a great speaker. But Moses is the one whom God
has designated to lead the people. As I said, Miriam and Aaron were
a part of that. And he caved, he himself caved
under the burden of this people. If you look over at Numbers 11,
just for a moment, Moses himself asked that some people be added
to help him because of the murmuring of the people. In chapter 11
of Numbers, in verse 14, Moses says, I'm not able to bear all
this people alone because it's too heavy for me and if thou
deal thus with me just kill me I pray thee out of the hand and
I if I have found favor in thy sight and let not let me not
see my wretchedness not see how weak and frail I am and unable
to do this job just kill me Lord well the Lord didn't kill him
but the Lord gave him his desire But that too did not turn out
well with Moses like every other human being chosen of God Every
one of us all would forget that he's never alone He's never alone
you remember Elisha when he said I'm the last one and nobody lived
And that woman Jezebel's out to kill me the Lord says you're
not alone. He said I got 5,000 if not need to bow their knee
to bail and I am with you always even to the end of the earth
and We forget sometimes that we are not alone, never alone,
and the result of anything has never and never will depend on
our limited human strength to accomplish it. This is God's
business. This is God's world. He's running
the show. Jethro wanted to help Moses. Moses, as we saw in Numbers 11,
he wanted help for himself. Moses is not asking for help
now. Miriam and Aaron wanted to help Moses, but they had an
ulterior motive in doing so. Jethro, he just wants to help
Moses. And Jethro was right. The burden
was too great for Moses, but it was never actually his burden
anyway. With God, all things are possible, and he seeks no
help from anyone. Our Lord doesn't seek help from
anyone. In Psalm 50, in verse 12, he says, If I were hungry,
I would not tell you. Well, the world is mine in the
fullness thereof. The Lord doesn't need help. I
remember many years ago that I was driving into Asheville
and I had my radio tuned to some station, maybe Kiss FM or something,
anyway, one of the newscasts was talking about Ridgecrest
and how the people were talking about how God needed the Southern
Baptist Convention. God doesn't need anything. And
you're never alone. And I'm never alone. I know sometimes
we feel like they are. But God's in charge, and His
shoulders are big enough to carry the weight. Trust me. Now, Jethro
had true concern for Moses, and when he asked Moses about what
he had seen, and that had taken place all day, this judging,
Moses told him that when the people had a matter, some dispute,
they came to him to decide the matter. Moses further told Jethro
that he would decide the matter according to God's law, and God's
statutes and the giving of the law to the people is yet in their
future. They don't have the law yet.
Moses doesn't have the law handed down from Sinai yet as far as
being written on tables of stone. They will gather at the foot
of Sinai in the next chapter and they will begin there. God
will begin that great time when He calls Moses up to that mount.
Yet it is apparent that Moses was privy to the statutes and
the laws of God. they were already evidently written
in his heart as a child of God. Now perhaps this is what David
meant in Psalm 103 when he said he made his ways known to Moses,
his acts to the children of Israel. The children of Israel saw what
the Lord did. Moses understood why God did
it. God revealed it to him. So Moses
knows the laws and the statutes and he says to Jethro, I teach
them the laws and the statutes of God. It is important to note
that Moses made his decisions ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF GOD.
He says that in verse 16 of our text. He says this, When they
have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between one and another,
and I do make them know the statutes of God. and his laws. This is how Moses made his judgments. He was a man of prayer. He was
a man whom God spoke to face-to-face. He was the meekest man on earth.
We know that. God spoke to him like nobody
else in the scriptures. He spoke to him face-to-face.
This is a good example to follow if we're faced with many matters
in this world. Where should we go? Go to the
Word of God. This is where we should go. What
does the scripture say should always be the first thing we
ask? What does the scripture say about this? Does the scripture
address our situation? Now Jethro having observed the
magnitude of the task and hearing to Moses response said this thing
thou doest is not good. This thing thou doest is not
good. Now he's not making a moral judgment but a practical one
in consideration of Moses health. Moses is now 80 years old. Because he's going to be 120
when he finishes this journey in the wilderness. He's 80 years
old. And Jethro's worried about his son-in-law's health. In verse 18 it says, Thou wilt
surely wear away Both thou and this people that is with thee,
for this thing is too heavy for thee, thou art not able to perform
it thyself alone. So he's worried about Moses.
He tells Moses to limit his judgment to spiritual matters. He said,
this is what you need to do. Limit your judgment to spiritual
matters, things that have to do with what God has commanded
or required of this people. He tells Moses to teach the people
God's ordinances and laws and instruct them in matters of their
walk before God. It is important to note that
Moses did not ask for this advice. There is no indication that he
was troubled by this burden. It was just a matter of him doing
his duty as the leader of the people, going about doing what
the Lord had appointed him to do, and this matter of judging
in these situations, he didn't feel it was too great a burden,
but Jethro did. Also, there is no indication
that Jethro's advice was given with an ulterior motive, not
like Miriam and Aaron who wanted to be prophets or even like Moses
who wanted some help and God did assign him seventy men as
we studied in Numbers several years ago. Jethro is not looking to take
part in Moses judging. He's not looking to be a part
of this at all. He spoke out of a genuine concern
for the welfare of his son-in-law. Now his advice was to appoint
men. He said, You take care of the
spiritual things. If they come to a problem, a
question about God, a question about what God is doing or what
God has done, then you tell it, take them to the law and the
ordinances and you teach them what God has done. This is what
you do. He said, but this other stuff,
these matters of maybe a dispute about land or a dispute about
this or that or some dispute that's not has to do with the
Bible. appoint some men to take care
of that sort of thing. To appoint men, he said, wise
men, men of good report, men who were not covetous men, able
men to adjudicate in matters that were civil and not spiritual. And we see kind of a picture
of the church here, but that's spoken in verse 21 and 22. He
says, Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men,
such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place
such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds,
rulers of fifties, and rulers of ten. Let them judge the people
in all seasons, and it shall be that every great matter, that
is a matter that has to do with God must decide this, they shall
bring to thee, but every small matter they shall judge, so shall
it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with
thee. That was Jethro's idea here,
his counsel. These men would act as magistrates
of sort and their work would be to ease Moses from matters
that attend normal everyday life. Civil matters would be the extent
in the realm of their influence. They would not be approached
with matters that had to do with God, but stuff that had to do
with everyday life. Also, and perhaps most important,
Jethro told Moses to seek the Lord in this matter And if the
Lord approved, the people would live in peace and health. He
said that in verse 23. He said, Thou shalt do this thing,
and God command thee so. Then thou shalt be able to endure,
and all the people shall go to their place in peace. Now these
men did not hold the position that the 70 chosen in the book
of Numbers. These men in Numbers formed a
kind of judicial bureaucracy. as in every case where such a
group exists, it does not end well. The difference is this. In the case of our context, Moses
was not giving up his place as the man that God had chosen to
lead his people. He was not asking for help in
doing that. In the case of the men chosen
in numbers, Moses asked the Lord to have others share in his leadership
of the people. He asked the Lord to do that
or kill him. or the other. This effectively
took the Word of God out of the picture and made spiritual decisions
based on consensus. It had to be 70 men to agree,
71 counting Moses, to agree on something before it was done.
And you know this, you can't get two people to agree on anything,
but when you get 70 involved, it's really going to be a problem.
But they would have to decide it by a vote. A vote would ultimately
be required and the vote at its core is a declaration of division. That's designed to divide. It's designed to see who's for
and who's against. That's the idea. Now the burden
of the leader of the people actually rested on the broad shoulders
of who? Who did the real burden rest upon? It rested upon God.
he's the one who does the fighting for you, he's the one who runs
here, he's the one who runs the show. Moses is a chosen leader
but he is not God, he is not God. He had chose one man to
lead the people according to his will and this is generally
the way it happens through scripture, it happens today. Many years
ago I talked with a pastor down in Georgia who had a small church,
had about ten members I think He told me he had a plurality
of elders. I met a fella in Winston-Salem
that said the same thing. He had a plurality of elders.
That means he had a whole lot of preachers running the show.
And I told the fella in Winston-Salem, and I told that fella down in
Georgia, something that Henry May had told me many years ago.
He says, five men may sit on the horse. One of them's gonna
hold the reins. That's how it's gonna be. The
Lord chooses one man to do a job. He chooses one man to lead His
people. In the case of the prophets,
most of them were prophets for a general period of time, and
then another prophet was raised up, but God dealt with one man.
When Elijah was a prophet, that was the one man that God dealt
with. He died, and then He raised up
Elisha to replace him. God deals with one man. He had
one man to rule His people, and that man was named Moses. God
gave Moses His desire in numbers, but it served to be a trial for
him. Here, in our text, these men
were added to help Moses and there was no problem. There's
no indication that anything went wrong in this situation. These
men appointed to be over thousands and hundreds and tens and fifties,
there's no indication anywhere in scripture that this ever caused
a problem because it was generally to help Moses enhance his leadership,
pull away from him things that would hinder him from leading
the people and make it easier for him in his life. Now, what
might we glean from this passage of scripture? What might we as
children of God? First, we must never be afraid
to hear the advice of elders. People who've lived life have
experienced things and if they have something to say, we ought
to at least listen to them. Especially if they speak out
of true concern, their advice may well be beneficial. That don't mean old age automatically
makes you wise. But if you've lived a life and
you have some advice for me, I'll probably listen to it even
if I don't agree with it. I'll probably listen to it out
of respect for the fact that you're an elder. One of the marks of
a rebellious people according to Isaiah chapter 3 and verse
5 is that the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient. Jethro was an older man. He was
Moses' father-in-law, and he gave him some advice, and Moses
listened. So that is a lesson we can learn from this passage.
Secondly, the leader that God has assigned for the people has
authority in matters pertaining to spiritual things, but matters
that pertain to civil things are best dealt with in the realms
of the brethren. The brethren relieve the burden
of the pastor by taking care of the stuff that does not involve
the care of the souls. I don't know whether, well, there's
only two here that were that day when y'all called me to be
pastor of this church, but here's what you two and the other eight
or so told me. You preach the gospel to us. That's what we want you. You
pray for us. You preach the gospel and you teach us. We'll take
care of the rest. And you've done that for these
45 years. That is what is happening here. The burden is being lifted
from Moses. He is the leader of the people.
So he can take care of things that have to do with God. And
that is the way our Lord has set it up. Now the pastors said
to do three things to the people of God. First of all, he is their
servant. He is called Paul. Paul talked about pastors being
the servants of the people. Paul also said that the pastors
belong to the church. They belong to them. I belong
to you. I serve you and I belong to you.
But thirdly, the pastor said to rule. To rule. Now he doesn't rule with an iron
fist. He doesn't rule with some type of dictator. He rules in one arena. One arena
only. And that is the arena of those
things that have to do with your souls. Because he's one who has
to give account for it. Over in Hebrews chapter 13, Our Lord said this concerning
those that have rule over you in spiritual matters. He said
this, verse 17 of chapter 13 of Hebrews, ìObey them that have
rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls,î
thatís their job, watching for your souls, ìas they must give
account for watching for your souls and the only way they can
do that properly is to continually preach the gospel and you submit
yourself to them so it will be for them a joy and not a grief
for if it's a grief it'll be unprofitable to you. So the second thing we learn
is that the leader that God has assigned for the people has authority
in matters pertaining to spiritual things but matters that pertain
to civil things are best dealt with in the realms of the children
of God. Thirdly, the Word of God must be the authority. When
Moses talked to his people in matters, he used the Word of
God. Now, we know that Moses hadn't
written the Word of God yet. Somewhere down the line, he'll
write the first five books of the Bible. He'll be God's inspiration. He'll historically record and
set forth Christ in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy. That was the books he wrote. He also wrote some
Psalms that are published in the Psalms, but he wrote the
first five books called the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the
Bible. Now, he did that as one whom God had taught. God taught
Moses. He showed him his ways. And so,
when we do anything, we're to seek the Word of God as our rule
and our doctrine and practice. This is where we go to. We don't
go to a church covenant. We don't go to a bylaws and covenants
of some church. We don't go to Robert's Rules
of Order. We look to the Bible. What does the Bible say? Because
the Bible does teach everything that pertains to godliness in
life. Everything. Nothing is left out. So that's
the third thing. The Word of God must be the authority
as it was with Moses. Excuse me, the Father has appointed
pastors for the people, but the leader of the people is one man,
one leader, and that man is Christ Jesus. He is the leader of the
people. He is the one whom all the results
of what goes on is laid upon. His words are said to be spirit,
and they are life. All the promises of God are in
Him, yea, and in Him, amen. The father said of him, this
is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. He is Lord over all. He is in
fact the living word who is the entire subject of the written
word. His people are never alone. He said, I will never leave you
nor forsake you. i will be with you all the way
even unto the end of the earth and he doesn't change it is the
same yesterday today and forever his people are never alone never
alone moses was not alone he may have felt alone and Jethro
may have said being just one man some things were too much
for him to bear but he was never alone scripture says cast your
burdens upon the lord for he careth for you. That only means
he has an affection for you which he does. It means he's the one
that takes care of you. He takes care of you in this
world. These are the lessons we learn here. Father bless us
to understand and pray in Christ's name.