The windstorms are unusual, aren't
they? We don't usually have high winds
like this. Our neighbor has a big row of
pine trees that are huge. And one of the neighbors told
me, they said, if it gets windy, all pine trees will go out. It's
not all these pine trees. They had to fix a tree out here
across the road today. It broke off. So they've been
busy. Well, it's good to see all of
you out, sir. There's a huge crowd. I have to call the sheriff
out for crowd control. Let's just sing one hymn tonight. Let's sing 52. Oh yeah, 242, that one goes with
the message. Hymn number 242, Jesus I Come.
? Out of my bondage song when I
? Jesus I come, Jesus I come ? Into thy freedom, gladness
and light ? Jesus I come to thee Out of my sickness into thy health. Out of my woe and into thy wealth. Out of my sin and into thy self. Jesus, I come to thee. Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come
into thy glorious gain of thy cross. Jesus, I come to thee
out of earth's sorrows, Out of distress to jubilant song,
Jesus, I come to Thee. Jesus I come, Jesus I come into
thy blessed will to abide. Jesus I come to thee out of myself
to dwell in thy love. Jesus, I come to Thee Out of
the fear and dread of the tomb Jesus, I come Jesus, I come Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of the depths of ruin untold,
into the peace of Thy sheltering fold. Jesus, I come to Thee. Turn your Bibles, please, to
Exodus 18. And while you're doing that, remember those who requested
prayer. D. Parks is now in hospice, so
continue to remember him and his family. And also those who've
lost loved ones. Bobby Wright's daughter, Patsy,
not Patsy, Tracy, has, they've not really found out, she doesn't
have cancer of the, what is it? ovarian cancer is what they thought
she had, but she doesn't have that. But she's having a problem
with her lungs gathering fluid. She had to go back to the hospital
again. And they took out another couple of liters of fluid. That's
a lot of fluid in your lungs. That's a Coke bottle is a liter,
so. Two liter Coke bottle of fluid. So remember her. They don't know what's causing
that. They just know that it's happening. And she has to still go for a
spot on her lung to get that assay. So remember her in your
prayer. That's Bobby Wright's daughter. And the others who
requested prayer too, the Tramper family. Leroy Tramper's son died
this week. Remember that family of prayers.
Patsy Lefford and Jasper Queen and Sophie Cagle and Herschel
Hynde. These folks asked to be remembered in prayer, so do so
if you will. Turn in your Bibles to Exodus
18. I'm gonna read verses 1 through 12. Title of my message tonight is
When Men Hear. Verse 1 says, When Jethro, the
priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done
for Moses and for Israel, his people, and that the Lord had
brought Israel out of Egypt, then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law,
took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back, and her
two sons, of which name the one was Gershom, for he said, I have
been an alien in a strange land, And the name of the other was
Eliezer, for the God of my father said he was mine help and delivered
me from the sword of Pharaoh. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law,
came with his sons and his wife unto Moses in the wilderness
where he had encamped at the Mount of God. And he said to
Moses, Thy father-in-law Jethro come unto thee and thy wife and
her two sons with thee. Moses went out to meet his father-in-law
and did obeisance and kissed him. They asked each other their
welfare and they came into the tent. Moses told his father-in-law
all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians
for Israel's sake and all the travail that had come upon them
by the way and how the Lord delivered them. Jethro rejoiced for all
the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel whom he had delivered
out of the hand of the Egyptians And Jethro said, Blessed be the
Lord, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered his people
from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater
than all gods. For in this thing wherein they
dealt proudly, he was above them. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law,
took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. and Aaron came, and
all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses, father-in-law
before God. Let us pray. Our Father, we come in the name of Jesus
Christ the Lord, of whom this passage speaks, of whom all the
Bible speaks, for even He said all the Scriptures testify of
Him. He is indeed the Word, who was
made flesh and dwelt among us, We beheld his glory as the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We thank
you, Father, that we can approach to your throne boldly. We do
so with full confidence, not because of ourselves or what
we are, but because of who Jesus Christ is and how he has pleased
and propitiated and satisfied you for our sins. He has been
made to be our righteousness, our justification and our sanctification
and our wisdom. And we thank you, Father, that
we can come into your presence and speak to you as our Father
and not as a stranger. Father, we ask for your help
tonight as we look at your words. You'd open it to us and open
our hearts and minds to receive it and believe it. Pray for those
who have lost loved ones or pray for those who are sick and afflicted,
especially member D as he's in hospice now. It seems the end
is near, but thou knowest these things. He's in your hands, as
he has been since before the foundation of the world. And
we know that if his days are done here, it's not too short,
but he has fulfilled his purpose. And what a grand thing for a
man who's born of Adam to say, having been born again, that
God has a purpose for him, and he has fulfilled it, and now
it's time to go home. We pray, Father, for that family. It's a hard thing. It's a hard
thing for us to lose our loved ones. So we pray for them and
pray for their strength. We pray also for Tracy Wright. We ask Lord you'd be with her
and be with Bobby as he ministers to her. I pray that they'd be
able to find out what's wrong with her. Remember Inez, she's
fading. We ask Lord you'd be with her
and be with Alita and Harley as they minister to her. the
others who requested prayer, continue to pray for Fred, for
his healing, and to bring him back to a good measure of health.
For all the others who requested prayer, Lord, we ask your help
for them. Now know us, all these people, in all their hearts,
and I pray that you would bring them all to Jesus Christ. Help
us now to worship you as we consider your word. We pray in Christ's
name. Amen. Now our Lord, in his ministry
on the earth, said a great deal about hearing. The old writer
spoke of the ear gate as the place where the first entrance
of the gospel is made and the place where it resides for the
life of the believer. We know faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. Our Lord warned his hearers to
take heed to what they hear and often ended a particular truth
that he set forth with he that hath ears to hear let him hear.
Scripture declares that it is God who gives the hearing ear
and the seeing eye, and specifically addresses the ear and the eye
of faith. When he talks about the seeing
eye and the hearing ear, he's not talking about what we're
naturally born with, but what we receive by grace through the
regeneration by the Spirit through the Gospel. The ear of faith
hears what cannot be heard by the natural ear. Our Lord said
to the Pharisees who were very religious men who believed that
they were children of God, He says, You don't understand my
words because you can't hear me. Now He was speaking to them
and they were hearing Him audibly with their natural ears, but
they could not hear the truth. They could not hear because it
was spiritual. And the eye of faith sees what cannot be seen.
For Paul says, We look on things that are not seen. We see things. Faith sees things that are not
seen. It sees the invisible, which is what is in control of
all the universe. The eye of faith sees what cannot
be seen. And when men and women hear the
gospel with these God-given graces, these ears bestowed with grace
and these eyes bestowed with grace, they are drawn to Christ
when they hear the gospel with what God has given them. And
the wonderful mystery of men's response to the gospel is that
when they hear the gospel, they come to Christ. Now a person
may sit under the preaching of the gospel for many, many years
and not hear it. And then all of a sudden they
hear it. I spoke with a young man while
I was at this meeting. He said he sat under the gospel
for years and years and didn't hear. And then one day he heard.
He heard he was from a strict, legalistic, Calvinistic, Netherland
uh... reformed church up in iowa whole
lot of them netherland reformed a fair lot of them still speak
dutch but he was born in that and raised in that raised in
legalism and he sat under the gospel sat under drew and listened
to drew and uh... listened to him on the radio
or through the telephone and uh... and he said for years i
heard it and then god woke me up and god let me hear the gospel
saved his soul. When men and women hear the gospel
by these graces that God gives, this hearing ear and this seeing
eye, they respond by coming. They come to Christ. The promise
of the just God and the Savior that we looked at Sunday morning
is that when they hear, they will come. Our Lord said that
men will come to Christ. All that the Father gave to the
Son will come to Christ. All who are taught of the Father
shall come to Christ. All who are drawn by the Spirit
will come to Christ, and that's all through the preaching of
the Gospel. All who are dead and buried in sin will come alive
and then come to Christ when they hear the voice of Christ,
it says in John 5.25. All His sheep will come when
they hear His voice, and His voice is this Word. The scriptures
are replete with those who HEAR and then COME to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, in this passage that I just
read to you in these twelve verses, when Jethro, Moses' father-in-law,
heard of the Lord and what He had done on behalf of Israel,
He took Moses' wife and his two sons, and he came to Moses where
he was encamped at the foot of Sinai. That's what it says in
verses one through five. Now what he had heard moved him
to find out more. And if you're one of the Lords,
that's what happens when you hear the Gospel, you want to
find out more about Him. Our Lord, when He told the laboring
and heavy laden to come to Him and they would find rest, He
bid them to take His yoke upon them and learn of Him. This is the vocation and the
avocation of every believer to learn of Christ, spend his days
finding Christ, looking for Christ in the scriptures. Our Lord said
His yoke is easy and His burden is light, and the reason His
burden is light is because the weight of the law is removed
from it. It was wrong or against the law,
according to Deuteronomy 22.10, it was against the law to yoke
an ass and an ox together to plow. These are two different
natured characters and they're not to be yoked together. Now
that, people will say, well that's silly, but that's not what it's
talking about. It's talking about if you're
yoked together with someone, there must be an equality in
that. There must be a a relationship
in that. There must be a facsimile in
that. That's why Paul said to the Corinthian
church, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. The
yoke don't fit if you're a believer. It's like putting an ass and
an ox together trying to plow a field. It's not going to work.
Christ said my yoke is easy. Why? Because the law, that law
has been satisfied by Christ. And when you're yoked, you're
yoked together with Him. You're yoked together with your
elder brother. You're yoked together with one who sticks closer than
a brother. You're yoked together with one
who is your brother and also your father. So when Jethro came,
Moses went out to meet him. He came to Moses because he had
heard something. What he'd heard? He'd heard that
God did some wondrous things in Egypt. wondrous things, and
he wanted to hear more about it. And it says they went into
Moses' tent, and one Hebrew scholar interpreted these words as they
went into the tabernacle of the house of doctrine. Sounds reasonable
to me because of what Moses then told him. So it was, as we see
Moses rehearse what the Lord had done in verse 8, and Moses
told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh
and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake and all the travail that
had come upon them in the way that is in their journey in the
wilderness and how the Lord had delivered them out each time
they've had trial after trial after trial because our Lord
would prove them this multitude that he took out of Egypt and
only those above twenty years of age or below twenty years
of age when they came out only those will actually enter into
the promised land except for Caleb and Joshua. Boy, it's tough
getting old, forgetting names like that. But everybody else
who came out of Egypt, they died in the wilderness because they
died in unbelief. They died in unbelief. And Moses
said, this is for Israel's sake, and he delivered them out of
the hands of Egypt, out of the hand of Egypt. Now, what's he
talking about? He's talking about the subject
of Scripture. He's talking about what we deal with every time
we stand in the pulpit and every time we deal with folks in this
life. This is the heart of gospel preaching,
having heard what the Lord has done. He goes to the place and
hears what? What the Lord has done. He's
heard what the Lord has done, and he sits before Moses in the
tent of the tabernacle of doctrine, and Moses teaches him what the
Lord has done. The gospel is the redundant rehearsal
of what the Lord has done. We don't talk about what the
Lord is doing because we don't KNOW what the Lord is doing.
If we look at the morass that is called humanity today and
the things that are going on, we can't IMAGINE what the Lord
is doing. he's doing, and he's working
all things together for good to them that love God, and to
them are called according to His purpose. But we know what
we know in the Gospel, the good news. You see, the news is something
that's happened and is reported. It's not something that's going
to happen or something that might happen, but it's news. It's good
news. It's happened and it's being
reported, so that's what we do. We report what has happened,
and that is what it is to preach the Gospel. Moses delighted to
tell Jethro of the great salvation that God had wrought, culminating
in the deliverance by the blood of the Paschal Lamb. This story,
this is the story, the old, old story that enamors the believer
and is the thing he longs to hear. Now, some mock the singularity
of the Gospel message, asserting that there is more to preach
than Christ. I've heard that all my life. I've heard it from
people who said they believe the Gospel. Well, there's more
to preach than Christ. If you don't preach Christ, you're
not preaching. You're getting up talking about stuff, you can
do that, but you're not preaching if you don't preach Christ and
Him crucified. That's the truth. These folks have difficulty with
those who want to hear nothing but Christ and nothing but the
Gospel and what Christ has done. This is what I do every Sunday
and every Wednesday night. They are thus proved to be not
satisfied with the manna from heaven and the water from the
rock, and they are proved. Remember, our Lord said, I give
that to prove them. I took you out in the wilderness
to prove you. I gave you manna to prove you. I gave you the
water from the rock to prove you. And He proved them. He proved
them. And that is why the gospel in
its singularity, you will find out whether or not you are satisfied
with what God gives, whether or not you believe the gospel.
The gospel is what God has given and nothing else. They are thus
proved not to be satisfied with the manna from heaven or the
water from the rock. The believer knows that the only comfort and
the only consolation and motivation is a constant reminder of what
God has done by the efficacious substitutionary work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We are reminded of that over
and over again. Why? Because you and I know that when we hear
of Christ and what He has done for us and what He has accomplished
in that work He performed, That gives us peace. That gives us
comfort. Now, I may preach about adultery
and miss the whole gang in here, and every one of us is going
to start feeling like, well, I'm better than the one that
practices adultery. I'm not doing that, so I must
be all right, preacher. I can preach about all kinds
of things, but it is only Christ that will convict, comfort, and
console the child of God and motivate him, and he's motivated
to hear more of the Lord Jesus Christ. The response of the believer
to hearing the gospel is set forth in three ways in this passage.
They are set forth in verses 9 through 11. It says in verse
9, Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done
to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. The response of the believer
to hearing the gospel is set forth in rejoicing. the believer
rejoices and is rejoicing in God's glory. Remember when Moses
later on in this book asked the Lord to show him glory, the first
thing he says, I will make my goodness to pass before you. God is good. Everything he does
is good. He's always good. He's never
bad. He's always good. And the believer rejoices in
his goodness. What is that goodness? This goodness
is set forth in line and in conjunction with the salvation of the elect,
the salvation of God's people. That's His goodness. It's the
goodness of God that leads men to repentance. We can preach
about hell all day long, and men may get scared and come down
front, but they'll never repent under the message of the justice
and wrath of God, unless they see the justice and wrath satisfied
in Jesus Christ. It's the goodness of God that
leads men to repentance. It's the goodness of God that
sends a man to preach the gospel. It's the goodness of God that
gives you ears to hear and eyes to see. it's the goodness of
God and we rejoice in that. We rejoice in that. This rejoicing
is not general. It is specific here. It is precise. Jethro rejoices in God's goodness
that he had done for his elect, for Israel's sake. And the rejoicing
is based upon the fact that God in his goodness has delivered
them out of the hands of the Egyptians. That's what he's rejoicing
in. In his goodness he's delivered
them out of the hands of the Egyptians. Look at Hannah's prayer
in 1 Samuel chapter 2. In 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 1, Hannah prayed and said,
My heart rejoiceth in the Lord. mine horn is exalted in the Lord,
my mouth is enlarged over mine energies, because I rejoice in
what? Thy salvation. I rejoice in Thy
salvation. Look at Psalm 40. Psalm 40 verse 16 says, Let all
those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such
as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. Paul described the children of
God who were the true circumcision in Philippians chapter 3 as those
who worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. That is the first response to
the Gospel. A man hears these things and wants to hear more,
and when he hears what God has done, he rejoices. Second, upon
hearing the Gospel, a believer glorifies God. Look back at our
text in verse 10. And Jethro blessed the Lord.
That word blessed means to eulogize or say something great about
God. He blessed the Lord who had delivered you out of the
land." There he goes again. Why did he bless him? Because
he delivered Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians, out of
the hand of Pharaoh, and had delivered the people from under
the hand of the Egyptians. Again, the rejoicing is in salvation,
and the rejoicing in God's glory is in the salvation of God's
people. He glorifies God for the salvation
of His people. That's what David did over in
Psalm 103. when he said, Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth
all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth
thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness
and tender mercies, who satisfies thy mouth with good things, so
that thy youth is renewed like the eagles, The Lord executeth
righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made
known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither
will He keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward
them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us like as
a father pitieth his children our lord pitieth them that fear
him for he knows our frame and he remembers that we are dust
that's all about the blessing god for our salvation he knows
our frame knows what we are loves us anyway and he knows that we're
just dust we're just dust there is glory this is where the glory
of god resides we may glorify him in creation because creation
is the story of salvation. It is the story of salvation.
Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 through 10. You're familiar with this.
For by grace are you saved through faith of that knowledge of yourself.
This is a gift of God and not of works, lest any man should
boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God has foreordained that we should walk in them.
Galatians chapter 6 verse 14-15. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory saving the cross of Christ, by whom the world
is crucified unto me, and I am crucified unto the world. Therefore,
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything but a new creation.
When you look at Genesis chapter 1, look at it as the creation
of the new man, because that's the picture that is set forth
in that passage of Scripture. Thirdly, the believer exalts
the sovereignty of God. Look back at our text. Verse
11, it says, Now I know that the Lord is greater than all
gods. For in the thing wherein Egypt,
that is they, dwelt proudly, He was above them. He was greater
than them. I think it was Job who said in
Job 33, God is greater than man. God is greater than man. And
the salvation of His people, the destruction of the enemy
is part and parcel with it. the proud are abased, and the
humble are exalted." Why? Because God is in charge. The
first message of the Gospel, the primary message of the Gospel,
according to Isaiah 52-7, that speaks of how beautiful upon
the mountains are the feet that brim good tidings, that publishes
peace, that publishes salvation. The first message is, saying
unto Zion, the church, thy God reigneth. This is it. This is
where it all begins. All we talk about salvation,
the work of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, the preaching
of the gospel, none of that matters unless God is sovereign. and
sees to it that what he has ordained must come to pass. We may glorify
him in providence, knowing that all things work together for
good. We glorify him in providence. Providence sometimes is hard.
Sometimes it breaks our hearts. Sometimes it breaks us. Sometimes
it puts us down in the dust where we actually belong. Sometimes the hardest thing in
the world is to be shut up to the grace of God. It's always
the best thing, but sometimes it's the hardest thing. But the
providence of God, what is it? God working all of human history,
using every man, woman, and child, and every beast, and things that
rise and wriggle upon the face of the earth, every grain of
sand, and every moonbeam, everything that is in this universe, He
is using and working for your good and for His glory. Human
history. is about God doing for His people,
and that is salvation. That is salvation. Finally, Jethro
and Moses offer a burnt offering. What is the burnt offering? The
burnt offering was the first offering to be offered, where
the offering was completely consumed, and it's a picture of the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is for the sweet-smelling
savor unto God, wherein He saved His people. They sat down in
peace, because of the work of salvation was done this is what
they rehearse how god delivered him how he destroyed the enemies
how he put the enemies out of business how he saved his people
and delivered them they're at peace the fifth work is done
they haven't done anything they're just traveling along as god did
they didn't raise a sword they didn't lift a finger to deliver
themselves god did it all so they sit down in peace because
of the work of salvation it's done and they eat bread that's
what it says in verse twelve And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law,
took a burnt offering and sacrificed it for God. And Aaron came and
all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law,
and they did it before God. They ate bread. And what bread
did they eat? They ate bread made from that
thing found on the ground when the dew lifted, shaped like a
coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with
honey. Amen. Because that's what the Lord
has provided. That's God's provided sustenance. And all we can say
is with Jethro, bless the Lord. Bless the Lord for he's done
great things. Father, bless us to understand and pray in Christ's
name. Amen.