All right. Well, it's good to
see you out this evening. I remember those who requested
prayer. I don't think there's anybody new been added to the
prayer list, except this Woodard family. This fellow got killed
in forestry today. Yesterday. He was 40 years old,
and a limb fell off a tree and hit him on top of his hard hat
and killed him. Oh, the Zephyr family. Who? Oh my goodness. Kane Ross? Okay, remember that family that's
got to be a heartbreak Let's begin our worship service to
him number 475 redeemed how I love to proclaim Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb His child and forever I am. Redeemed, redeemed. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed. His child and forever I am Redeemed
and so happy in Jesus No language my rapture can tell I know that
the light of His presence With me doth continually dwell Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb Redeemed, Redeemed His child and forever I am I think of my
blessed Redeemer all the day long. I sing for I cannot be silent. His love is the theme of my song. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed His child
and forever I am I know I shall see in His beauty The King in
whose law I delight Who lovingly guardeth my footsteps And giveth
me songs in the night Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child
and forever I am. you Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing My great Redeemer's praise The glories of my God and King
The triumphs of His grace My gracious Master and my God Assist
me to proclaim Oh, the earth abroad, the honors of thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our
fears, that bids our sorrows cease. Tis music in the sinner's
ears, tis life and health and peace. breaks the power of canceled
sin he sets the prisoner free his blood can make the me. Hear him ye deaf, his praise
ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ. Ye blind behold your
Savior come, and leap ye lame for joy. Glory to God, If you have your
Bibles, turn with me, please, to Exodus, the third chapter. I'm going to read verse 1 tonight.
The title of my message is Preparation. Exodus chapter 3 and verse 1.
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest
of Midian. And he led the flock to the back
side of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to
Horeb, let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, We praise
you and thank you for who you are and what you have done for
your children, all of whom could never do anything for themselves
that pertain to godliness and life, that pertain to anything
having to do with the spirit. We know what we are, for you
have told us clearly in your book how we are born into this
world, without hope and without help in ourselves. That nothing
and no one here can change our situation, can make us better,
can cure our horrible disease, can change our wretched heart.
We also know, and we thank you that we do, that your grace was
shed abroad in the hearts of your people and saved them. all because of the shed blood
of Jesus Christ. We thank you that you have made
him to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
You have caused us to have a heart for him and for your word, a
love for you and for one another. In a world gone mad, we know
that in reality there's nothing new under the sun. We thank you, Father, that you
have saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to your own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Jesus Christ before the world began. When we ponder it and think upon
it, it's too wonderful for us, beyond our comprehension and
imagination. We thank you for faith to believe
it. Pray for those who are sick, those who've lost loved ones,
Pray for this family that's lost this young person. Pray, Father,
for the family of those young men who died in the logging accident. Pray for every man who stands
tonight to proclaim the glories of your grace. Help me, Lord,
as I endeavor to speak right things concerning thee. Teach
us, O Lord. Turn us, and we will be turned.
Heal us, and we will be healed. help us and we will be helped. We ask these things in the name
of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen. Now you are familiar with the
story of the children of Israel and the exodus from Egypt and
we have studied the years they spent In the wilderness, we studied
when they reached the promised land. We studied all the way
through the book of Judges and Ruth, these first elements of
Israel as it ventured forth. And the main character in all
of those books, all the way through the end of Deuteronomy, is Moses. And Moses has a great task in
his future. Now at the time this is written,
or the occasion this is written, that hasn't happened, but it's
just about to start to take place. It is at this time unknown to
him, but in his 80 years of existence thus far, he's been in preparatory
school, and the Lord has been his instructor, and his syllabus
is Divine Providence. Forty years he spent in the embrace
of Egypt, being educated in the ways of that advanced nation,
the ways of engineering and astronomy and mathematics and military
arts. All those things were being taught
to him in Egypt. Egypt was a very advanced nation.
If you study anything about the building of the pyramids, they
were built on pi, which is 3.14. If you know anything about math,
they were built on pi. I didn't know pi even existed
until I was in the 7th or 8th grade. I thought pi was something
that had apples in it. You put ice cream on top, but
the pyramids were built on pi. They all had a function in reference
to the sun, which is one of the gods they worship. He was considered, Moses, the
son of Pharaoh's daughter, a former Pharaoh. Hence, he was Pharaoh's
grandson, so he had a place there. He had a qualification, if you
will. Though he was a Hebrew and a
descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he walked among the
pantheon of idols in this pagan land. and these strange man-made
ersatz deities he found would be no help to him when he slays
the Egyptian and must flee for his life. If nothing else, the
lesson that he has been infused squarely in his heart as he fled
from Egypt is that there's nothing in this world, whether wealth
or prestige or station in life, or the idols and the icons of
man's religion, none of those things is of any saving value
whatsoever because he had to flee for his life. If he is to live, these all must be disowned, they
must be disallowed, they must be left behind. Moses fled and
left his former world behind him, everything that he knew.
And I'm sure everything he loved, everything he enjoyed, he left
behind. But that's what it takes. And
that's what happens when a person comes to know Christ. One man
said, when the Lord saved me, I found that all those years
I spent in false religion was time spent learning what not
to believe. Bill Carver said that many years
ago. I found in the years I've been preaching the gospel that
people will give you just about anything. If they say they believe
the gospel, they'll do anything for you. But one thing many of
them have difficulty ever giving up is that false profession they
made under false teaching. I've had people leave this church.
who came here because I preach the gospel of God's grace and
leave because I wouldn't give them any confidence in that profession
they made when they was 12 years old when they said they believed
in Jesus who couldn't save them. Because that's not Jesus. That's
not the one in the Bible. Donny Bell said people will give
you their wife or they'll give up that old profession. That's
about the truth. Moses had to leave it all. That's
a lesson learned. in his preparation for the task
that is set before him. For the next 40 years, Moses
spends his days in the deserts and mountains of the wilderness.
Here is the prep school for the task of leading the people of
God to the promised land. How will such preparation take
place? Will he receive swords and spears, a battle bow, or
be schooled in the art of war? No, he'll be issued a shepherd's
staff. A shepherd's staff. He will be in charge of his father-in-law's
flock to lead them in the desert place to the mountains where
there's green pastures. And being a shepherd, he is immediately
cast in the eyes of Egypt as the bottom rung on the long ladder
of humanity. Shepherds were the worst of the
lot. Over in Genesis chapter 46, when it talks about settling
the people of Israel in Goshen, it says this in verse 34, of
chapter 46. They shall say, Thy servant's
trade hath been about cattle from their youth even until now,
both we and also our fathers, that ye may dwell in the land
of Goshen. Now you say that you're cattle keepers because for every
shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. Everybody that
kept sheep and was a shepherd of a flock, was an abomination
to the Egyptians. They would not eat with them
and would not allow them to sit at the same table where an Egyptian
was eating. They had to sit in the cheap
seats, if you will, because they were despised. They were an abomination
to the Egyptians. So he has left being Pharaoh's
daughter's son, he's left the glories and the shininess and
glitter of Egypt, and become that which Egypt most despises. He's a shepherd. Conversely,
Scripture says that which is highly esteemed of men is an
abomination to God. The shepherd holds a prominent
place in the economy of God. Moses, intending Jethro's flock,
held a prominent and important place. The shepherd was not low
in the economy of Israel. A shepherd was a high place because
the sheep relied on the shepherd protecting them and feeding them
and making sure that they were safe. There would later be another
shepherd who would rule over God's flock as king of Israel.
He was the son of Jesse, and though disregarded by his own
family, David would be anointed king of Israel. And it is said
that Christ, when he came, would sit on David's throne. on David's
throne. The shepherd, that shepherd,
was the apple of God's eye. He was a man after God's own
heart. And he will serve as a prophetic type of the greatest shepherd
of all, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord was a
shepherd. He said he was. He called himself
the chief shepherd, the great shepherd, and the Good Shepherd. He is the Great Shepherd and
Bishop of our souls is how Paul referred to Him. He is the Good
Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep and every sheep for
whom He died will be and must be brought into the fold. That
is His words as according to the command of His Father. Moses
was a shepherd in a desert place. That is how it is described here
in this very place, in the backside of the desert, a desert place,
a wasteland. He was a shepherd in a wasteland,
and he's the one who must find pasture for his sheep. Around
Sinai, it's mostly desert. Around Horeb, it's mostly desert.
But there are mountains that are green, and that's where he
took the sheep to be fed. It is recorded that Moses led
the flock to the mountain of God, to Horeb. Horeb is Sinai. He is familiar with this place.
Remember, he is writing about this many years later. He is
familiar with this, so he calls it the Mountain of God. Here
he will receive the Law of God. In about the 20th chapter of
this book, he will receive it on tables of stone. here where
he's feeding the sheep the Lord makes a conditional covenant
conditioned on man's obedience which in fact was a condemnation
was a condemnation to the disobedience already ensuing at the base of
the mountain while God was giving out the the law on the tables
of stone at the base of that mountain the people were building
a golden calf They were building a golden calf, which was one
of the gods of Egypt. They didn't call him a god of
Egypt. They called him Jehovah Elohim. In the thirty-third chapter
of this book, they call him Jehovah Elohim. What does that mean? That's the name of God, the true
God. They're looking at a calf that
was probably molded out of clay and covered in gold. They're looking at that calf
that they've just made. And now remember, they've just been
delivered out of the land of Egypt by great power. They have walked through the
Red Sea on dry land. They have been delivered. They
have sang the song saying, Our God is a God of war. They sang
the song of the Lord being the Deliverer, that He's cast the
army of Egypt down to the bottom of the Red Sea, and they went
to the bottom and sank like a stone, He said. They praised God. Now, just a while later and a
few miles down the road, they're worshipping a golden calf. They're
worshipping a golden calf. What do you do about that? Is
there any law about that in God's Word? No, there's no law. So
no sin can be imputed where there is no law. So God makes a law. God makes a law. And what does
the law say first off? While they're worshiping that
false thing that they just made? Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Thou shalt not make any graven
image of anything. What are they doing? Breaking
the law. breaking the law. So when the law was given on
Mount Sinai, it was just not a general law. It was given to
make what they were doing illegal and to make it a transgression.
For when the law was entered in, then that was a transgression. Scripture says that. The covenant
was designed for that. The law, Scripture says, was
added because of transgression. It was added because of transgression. What was the transgression? What
they were doing at the bottom of that mountain. It entered
that sin might abound. The law entered so what you could
see what they were doing was EXCESSIVE sin. They were worshipping
a false god. That covenant that was given
there on Sinai which created a religion for a people. The
Jews are not a race. They are Arabic. They're from
Arabia, like the rest of the Arabians. The Jews are a religion
started at Sinai. They weren't even called Jews
until about a hundred years later. They were called Hebrews. They
weren't called Jews until hundreds of years later, or a hundred
years later. The covenant, however, had a design in it. It had a
design to fail. That covenant would falter and
disappear as it is spoken of in the book of Hebrews. Why?
Because it was designed to show something, to reveal something.
It was designed to reveal that man, when given a rule to obey
in order to get the blessing of God, cannot do it. That was
the design of the law. Read the book of Hebrews and
it will show that. But that law was a condemnation. That's what Paul, who was studied
at the feet of Gamaliel, who was a man who knew the law and
was a lawyer himself and understood the law, was so able to talk
about the law in Galatians and Colossians and Hebrews and teach
what it really meant. He said this in 2 Corinthians
3, making a comparison between the law that was given at Sinai
and the spirit that was given by the Holy Ghost in Christ.
He said this, He said speaking of him being a minister. He says
who is it made an able minister of the New Testament or the New
Covenant? Not of the letter that's the
law But of the spirit because the letter killeth That's what it does that's all
it can do it can't get past that the spirit of gives life. That's the difference between
the two. Now, why in the world would anybody who has life in
Jesus Christ apply to the law? I can't imagine! But he says,
but if the ministration of death, he calls the law the administration
or the ministration, the giving of death, written and engraven
in stones, if that was indeed glorious at the time, so that
the children of Israel could not steadfastly look on the face
of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was
done away." Was done away. How shall not the ministration
of the Spirit be rather glorious or more glorious? For if the
ministration of condemnation be glory, much more the ministration
of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made
glorious had no glory in this respect by the reason of the
glory that excelleth. that which looked glorious and
was glorious in its own right and for its own use and for its
own purpose doesn't even shine at all in light of the glory
that excelleth it's the difference between the sun and the stars
you can go out at noon and all the stars are out they're all
in the sky every one of them are just where they're supposed
to be but you can't see them "'cause there's a bright star
in the sky "'that outshines them all.'" He said that's the law. The law is the stars, but you
can only see it in darkness. You can't see it in the light.
You can't see it in the light. And he says, "'For that which
is done away,' the law is done away, "'was glorious, much more
that which remaineth "'is glorious, more glorious.'" And that's how
he described, that's what was going on on Sinai. Now, Moses
is right around there now, he's right around the whole river
Sinai feeding his sheep. That condemned and condemning
and killing and ministration of death, the warped mind of men made it
a way of salvation, and they still do today. They still do
today. under which no sin was ever remitted,
all those laws that involve not only the Ten Commandments that
came with the Ten Words, the Decalogue that came down from
Sinai, but all the laws given here in Exodus having to do with
the priesthood and the ceremonies of the rites, all those laws,
all those laws, never in all the Lamb's slain and the bullets,
and the kids, and the turtledoves, and all the blood that was shed
for ages upon ages a veritable river of coagulant never ever
once put away one sin. Why? Because it was never meant
to do that. It was meant to condemn sin.
It was meant to reveal sin. It was added because of transgression. The Law was given to REVEAL SIN. So the Scripture declares, By
the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified. This place
is so called that Moses is at the BACKSIDE of the DESERT! The
BACKSIDE of the DESERT! And that is where Moses meets
God! Later down here he will be in
a BUSH that is BURNING, but he is NOT CONSUMED! Moses will look
at that thing and say, I'm going to go see what that is. That's
strange. And he goes over to see what it is. And a voice comes
out of that bush. The Lord's voice. Jesus Christ's
voice comes out of that bush. And Jesus says, you take off
your shoes for the ground whereon you stand is holy ground. And
I've heard the cry of my people, and you're going to go deliver
them. Me? You're going to go deliver them. when I go to him,
who shall I say sent me? He says you tell him I am that
I am. The eternal isness. You are and I am. I exist because
he is. He is the great. I am. Moses
is going to see him but he's going to see him on the back
side of the desert. that is where he is going to
see it. He is alone and here is a great lesson. He is the
shepherd and there is the sheep but there is nobody else around.
He did not meet God in the glorious halls of Egypt among the dignitaries
of Pharaoh's household. He is out here alone in the desert.
I thought of Paul the Apostle. Paul did not meet God at the
feet of Gamaliel or in the legislative halls of the Sanhedrin. He did
not meet God save on a trip to destroy the name of Christ. He
met Him on the road, but there he was blinded and could not
see. Paul would later say, God showed
me His Son and Christ was found in me. He said, and when that
happened, I conferred not with flesh and blood. I didn't talk,
I didn't go to Jerusalem to ask the Lord if I could be a preacher.
I didn't go to the seminary. I didn't go to the prophet's
school. I went out, where? To the back side of the desert.
And for three and a half years, Christ taught me the gospel.
I was taught by God on the back side of the desert, conferring
not with flesh and blood. He was alone with Christ when
he was prepared for the task that was before him. John the
Baptist spent years in the desert wearing camel skins and eating
wild locusts in preparation for a ministry that spanned six short
months. Our Lord spent thirty years in
the carpenter's shop and walking the hills of Galilee and among
the elders of the temple before He began to preach the kingdom.
Scripture says He learned obedience through the things He suffered.
He's God, he knows all things, but as a man he learned. He learned. He was prepared. Being prepared
for that time on earth. As I read these words and thought
about Moses and the preparation that he's getting here for the
time to go forward in his life, a question came to my mind as
I was laying on my pillow last night getting ready to doze off. What has been your life? What
has been my life but preparation for the day that we meet God?
The day that we meet God and begin a new life with Him. God's
sovereign providence has brought Moses to the place where he is
called to be a servant of the Most High God. There is no eternal
life apart from knowing God, even Jesus Christ, whom he has
sent. I thought about my life, thought
about me being here, in Cherokee, in this great nation. I thought
about how I loved being here the first time I was here and
how I was loved. It's still amazing to me, still
amazing to me. What prepared me for this? I
had an interesting life, been to a lot of countries, Spent
some time in service with some Mayan Indians from Mexico. And
a crazy Indian named Jimmy Billy Do, Blackfoot from the hills
of South Dakota or North Dakota. Spent time in so many places. Was a businessman. Was a radio
announcer. All that was preparation somehow. What a thing. Moses, you're going
to lead these people in the wilderness for 40 years. And they're going
to be a gainsaying, stiff-necked, unrepentant group. They're going
to be like a bunch of sheep. And you're going to have to have
your shepherd staff to lead them. So for 40 years, He tends the sheep for the next
40 years of tending the sheep. Finally, the preparation consummates
with Moses being alone with God. Ain't nobody else on that mountain
but him and that bush. This is how life begins. In the
years that I've preached the gospel, I've thought about this,
not one person has ever asked me What must I do to be saved? Not one person has ever asked
me that. People go around saying, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and that's
true. At least it was true for one fellow in Scripture. But
I know this, if anyone, like the Philippians, Hitler, he was
the one person that asked that question in all of Scripture.
And if anyone ever asks me that question, I will know precisely
how to answer it. I will say, if somebody says
that, what must I do to be saved? I'll say, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. However, several over the years
have asked me or told me that they were in trouble with God. Thinking about those times, I
realize that I always gave the same answer. I would say, I can't
help you. You must get alone with God.
That's what Moses did. He was alone with God. You see,
this is the place of learning. This is where all knowledge and
understanding resides in Jesus Christ, nowhere else. Egypt is bright and shiny. The
world is a desert wasteland. And if you are His, He will reveal
Himself to you. what you will have undergone,
what you will have suffered, or what you will have enjoyed
to bring you to this place is God's prep school. If you are
His and you come to know Him by His grace, you've been taught
of Him because your life was His prep school. He was preparing
you all your days for this. all we can say is to Him be glory
forever and forever. Amen. Father bless us to our
understanding. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.
All right.