Cunningham family lost their
loved one. My family lost my mom and the
others who requested prayer also seek the Lord's help for them.
Good to see y'all out this evening. Good to see y'all period. Good to see you. Hymn number
15, Brethren We Are Meant to Worship. Brethren, we have met to worship
and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray with all your power
while we drive to preach the word. All is vain unless the
spirit of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, pray and holy
manna will be showered all around. ? Brethren see poor sinners round
you slumbering ? On the brink of woe ? Death is coming, hell
is moving ? Can you bear to let them go? ? See our fathers and
our mothers and our children and pray and holy manna will
be showered all around. Sisters, will you join and help
us? Moses' sister aided him. Will you hold the trembling martyrs
who 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. ? This table we'll sit down ? Christ
will gird himself and serve us ? With sweet manna all around
Hymn number 255, Blessed Assurance. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of
God. Born of His Spirit, washed in
His blood This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior
all the day long This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior
all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight Angels descending
bring from above Echoes of mercy, whispers of love This is my story,
this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long This is my story,
this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at
rest I in my Savior am happy and blessed Watching and waiting,
looking above Filled with His goodness, lost in His love This
is my story, this is my song Raising my Savior all the day
long. This is my story. This is my song. Raising my Savior
all the day long. If you have your Bibles, turn with
me, please, to Exodus chapter 2. I'm going to read verses 16 through
22. We'll read it in conjunction with the
last phrase of verse 15, speaking of Moses. And he sat down by
a well. Now the priest of Midian had
seven daughters. They came and drew water and
filled the troughs of water to water their father's flock. And
the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up
and helped them and watered their flock. And when they came to
Ruel, their father, he said, how is it that you come so soon
today? And they said, an Egyptian delivered
us out of the hand of the shepherds and also drew water enough for
us to water the flock. And he said unto his daughters,
and where is he? Why is it that he left the man, called him,
that he may eat bread? And Moses was content to dwell
with the man. And he gave Moses Zipporah his
daughter. And she bare him a son, and he
called his name Gershom. For he said, I have been a stranger
in a strange land. Let us pray. Our Father, bless
you and thank you for grace and mercy that is renewed every day. We thank you that You have loved
your people with an everlasting love, and because you have, you
have drawn them to yourself through teaching them of Jesus Christ.
For we know that all that are taught of the Father and all
that have learned of the Father come to Christ. We are thankful,
Father, that you have brought your children to Him and are
still doing so through the preaching of the gospel. We thank you,
Father, that You have saved us by your grace, delivered us out
of the hands of self and Satan and sin and death, freed us,
made us your free men, saved us with the liberty wherewith
Christ has made us free, removed us from the yoke of bondage.
We are thankful that you've given us peace and hope and assurance
in Jesus Christ. Father, we pray for those who
are sick, those who are going through trials, pray for our
shut-ins. Pray also for those who've lost
loved ones. We ask, Lord, your help for them
and strength for them and comfort for them. And help us, Lord,
as we gather here tonight, as we look at your blessed word.
Teach us thy ways, cause us to walk in your statutes. And let
us look to Christ in all things and trust him. for he indeed
is our salvation. There is nothing about us, in
us, from us, that attributed anything to us being brought
into faith to Jesus Christ. We lay all the crowns upon His
head. He is the King of kings and Lord
of lords and our great and merciful Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. Thank you, Father, for showing
us Him for showing us who he is and what he's done. We praise
you in Christ's name. Amen. Now you know the story, thus
far Moses has departed from Egypt and he's departed with a death
warrant issued on his head by Pharaoh himself. We find him
sitting by a well in the land of Midian. He's a man alone. despised and rejected by both
the world he grew up in and his own people. There's no indication
that he was despondent, but it's not far-fetched to assume that
he would be if he was all alone sitting by a well in a strange
land. He's in the territory of the priest, and that word can
also mean prince or royalty, of the land of Midian and his
name is Ruel. Anytime you see the word El at
the end of a word, it has something to do with God. Gabriel, Israel,
these all have to do with the name of God and generally speaking,
it speaks as God is the instigator in that situation. His name was
Ruel. He's also known as Jethro, who
became the father-in-law of of Moses. Now, Ruel means friend
of God. Friend of God. He was a descendant
of Abraham. Some historians assert that he
was from Esau. Others say he was from the tribe
of Gad or the tribe of Benjamin, but nobody really knows for sure.
Regardless, Moses was kin to him. He was his kin. and was the one whom God spoke
to as a friend face-to-face. Now, he's called a friend of
God, but it was Moses whom God said was his friend, and he spoke
to him as a friend face-to-face. We'll see that later on in this
book. Now, as Moses set by the well, seven daughters of Reuel
came to the well to draw water to put in troughs to feed their
flocks. We find that in verse 16 of our
text. It says, Now the priest of Midian
had seven daughters, and they came and drew water, and filled
the troughs to water their father's flock. Now as they were doing
so, some shepherds decided to water their own flock with the
water that the women had drawn, and drove the women away. And the record states that Moses
stood up and helped the daughters, and watered the daughters' flock.
That's how it's written here in the text. This is one of those
grand and glorious understatements that Scripture often makes. It says, And the shepherds came
and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them, and
watered their flock. Now, the Lawdaughters later define
this seemingly innocuous description of the actions of Moses. They spoke of it as a deliverance.
They actually said Moses saved them. saved them. The words used to indicate that
Moses stood up meant that he stood up in a military
sense or in a martial sense. We find him once again defending
the helpless. Remember the first time he did
that he killed an Egyptian and buried him in the sand and now
he's defending these defenseless daughters of Ruel. when the daughters
returned home earlier than usual because they probably would have
had to spend more time feeding the flock or watering the flock.
They were confronted by their father and asked how come they
come home so early? How come they come home so early?
And they told them of the heroism of this one man, this Egypt man,
that's the way they said it. It's actually two words in the
original, this Egypt man. And here's what they said in
verse 18, And when they came to rule their father, he said,
How is it that ye have come so soon this day? And they said,
An Egyptian delivered us, delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds,
and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock. He
delivered us out of the hand. Now, having heard of this man's
heroic acts and kind exploits, Ruel wanted to know him and to
thank him and to have him dwell with him and fellowship with
him, which is signified by wanting to invite him to the table to
have bread. In the East, fellowship still
means we're going to eat together. It still means that. He says
that in verse 20, and he said unto his daughters, Where is
he? this fellow that did this for you, where is he? Why is
it that she left the man? How come he did not bring him
home? Call him that he may eat bread. Now, it is evident that
Moses was happy in that household and he dwelt there continually
to the point that he was given a wife named Zipporah. We find
that in verse 21. Now the timeline is not given,
but some say that Moses labored for his wife ten years, just
like Jacob labored for Rachel. That was a common practice in
those days, that if a man wanted a wife, and there's no indication
that Moses did this, because it simply says that Reuel gave
him Zipporah to wife, but some of the Jewish writers said he
labored ten years for him, and other Jewish writers said Moses
was approximately seventy years old. at the time he was given
his wife. Well, that's only five years
younger than me. And I'm thinking, 70 must have been a lot stronger
back then than it is today, because I'm not sure I could have stood
up and scared the shepherds off, but Moses did. Moses did. The marriage was fruitful. He
bore a son named Gershom, and his son's name means a stranger. And the reason he named him that
because Moses knew that he himself was a stranger in a strange land. That doesn't mean he didn't like
where he was. He said he dwelt happily, or he was contented
to dwell there in Reuel's household. But he knew that his home, as
every man who was a Hebrew and a descendant of Abraham knew,
he knew that his home was the land that God had promised Abraham
the land of Canaan. So no matter where he was, if
he wasn't in Canaan, he was in a land that was a strange land.
Now one does not need to employ his imagination to see plainly
that this is a story about salvation. That's the language that the
Daughters use. He delivered us from the hand of the shepherd. It is the old, old story that
pictures the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now no type in
the Old Testament picture is a, no Old Testament picture is
a perfect, is perfect representation of the truth. We have types and
pictures shrouded in mystery to set forth a Messiah, and we
don't see the true meaning of those things until we open up
the New Testament, and we see how the preachers of the gospel
use these Old Testament passages to teach Christ, and then that
perks our attention. We started looking at the Old
Testament to find Christ, too, but that's what it was. That's
what it was, but no Old Testament type, and there were plenty.
Abraham was a type of Christ. Noah was a type of Christ. Moses
is a type of Christ. Every lamb slain was a type of
Christ. All the sacrifices, picture the Lord Jesus Christ. The priesthood
and the high priesthood was a type of Christ. All those things were
typical of Christ, but they weren't the full and complete substance
of Christ as Paul sets forth in Hebrews, telling them that
there was indeed a high priest back then, but that priesthood
didn't last because those priests died. But we have an eternal
high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, who ever lived, so that's the
difference. So the picture was there of Jesus
Christ as the High Priest, and the qualifications for the High
Priest pictured the Lord Jesus Christ, but it wasn't a perfect
representation because those priests died, so it's not perfect. And even though this is a good
representation and a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's
not perfect, but there are certain elements accurately depict the
Messiah and His great work. Moses is revealed in a particular
capacity. When the daughters described
what He had done for them, He is revealed as a Savior or a
Deliverer, and we know that that title belongs to only one, and
it is a title born of accomplishment not of something that he wants
to do or is yet to do or tries to do. When we call him the Savior,
we call him the Savior because he has saved. We call him Redeemer
because he has redeemed. He's not making a job application
for these jobs. He has these jobs and he's accomplished
these jobs. Moses has been revealed as a
deliverer. First he slew the Egyptian and
buried him in the sand to save a fellow Hebrew. We know that
happened, which ultimately was the reason he's in Midian anyway,
because it was found out that he did it. And he now saves Reuel's
daughter from the hand of the shepherd. They used that language. He saved us from the hand of
the shepherds. Now, whether there was a physical
confrontation or not, the daughters believed that they were in the
hands of the shepherd. They believed they were held
captive, which means that they were in a situation from which
they were unable to free themselves. And such is the case of every
one of God's elect. They possess neither ability,
strength, nor wherewithal to deliver themselves without being
asked. A hero arises to save them, a
man alone. by himself and voluntarily engages
the enemy. These girls didn't ask him to
do that. They didn't even know he was there until he stood up.
There he was. And here the Savior rises. He
alone is the Savior and Deliverer this day. And He did it voluntarily. Our Lord Jesus Christ was not
compelled to come to this world except by His own love for His
people. He came voluntarily. He said, I gave my back to the
smiters. I gave my face to them that pluck
off their hair. I gave my face to spitting. He gave Himself for us. He gave
Himself. This is what love does. And this
is the language used to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he did it by himself. Moses was alone. How many shepherds
were there? I don't know. But they must have
been scared because the girls thought that they were captive
by them, that they were in trouble. But He did this by Himself. That's
the language used of our Lord Jesus Christ throughout the New
Testament. What He did, He did by Himself,
as a man alone. The world didn't help Christ.
God the Father turned His back on Him when He was hung on the
cross and was made to be sin for us. He by Himself, it says
in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 3, after He had by Himself purged
our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Father. That
kind of language is used throughout Scripture. He alone is our salvation. He alone is our hero. He alone stood up. He alone. In order to save the daughters,
he did a specific thing which is a theme throughout the Old
Testament and the New. The daughters are in the hand
of the enemies. That's how they describe themselves. And before
they can be delivered, what has to happen? The enemy has to be
dealt with. That's the first thing. in salvation. It's not just making a trip down
an aisle or making a decision. Somehow, if you're going to be
saved, you have to be delivered. And if you're going to be delivered,
does that mean you're in a situation where you can't deliver yourself?
Because if you delivered yourself, you wouldn't need a Savior. You
wouldn't need a Savior. This theme is prevalent. The
enemy must be destroyed in order for these girls to be delivered
as it is with every one of the elect. This theme is prevalent
throughout the Word of God. Religion has reduced the Gospel
to nothing more than an offer from a Savior who made salvation
possible but actually accomplished nothing. The language of their
savior is made up of pleas and solicitous whining of ersatz
puppeteers at the behest of a defeated savior who can't save you unless
you do something which makes you actually the savior of your
own soul. Salvation has been relegated
to the dung heap of entitlement. just as these shepherds felt
entitled to what was not theirs for the taking because the girls
had drawn the water into these troughs and they said, we're
running you off or we're holding you captive while we feed our
flocks into place. And the Savior, the Savior arose. That's the language used here.
In verse 17, back in verse 17, this little word that I've talked
about for 44 years, one of the strongest and most powerful words
in all of scripture, this little conjunction BUT. This little
conjunction BUT. And the shepherds came and drove
them away, but Moses stood up, BUT. Moses stood up. Moses stood up and helped them
and watered their flocks. This little conjunction reveals
that Moses' plans for that day were opposite of those who held
the daughters captive. It was a different plan he's
got. The Savior rose and sent them packing. You see, salvation
at its heart is a martial art. Salvation is militant. It's militant. It's a militant engagement wherein
the enemy is defeated And if he's not defeated, the captives
are not delivered. Moses stood up. He stood up and
helped or saved them. That's the language used of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sin. That's why you
call him that. He shall save. Now that's never
in doubt. It's never been in doubt. The only ones who cast
doubt upon it are those who believe they have something to do with
their own salvation. They're the ones who come up
with walking down an aisle that started about 125 years ago.
They're the ones who talk about the universal love of God, which
also started under the ministry of a man named Charles Finney,
which they hold in high esteem. All these things were started
because men refused to believe what the Bible says about the
hero, about the captain of our salvation, about our hero, the
one who alone, by himself, engaged the enemy on our behalf. And
our Lord said, if I, by the Spirit of God, cast out devils, the
first thing I have to do, He said, is go into the strongman's
house. I got to go into Satan's domain. I got to go in his palace where
his goods are at peace. I've got to go confront him,
and not only that, if I'm going to take from him those whom he
holds captive, I have to bind him. Bind him, because I'm stronger
than he is, and take that which belongs, which he's held captive. That's the only way it happens.
That speaks of a confrontation. It's not that namby-pamby nobody,
this whiny little Jesus that people talk about. It's just
a hero. Like David confronted Goliath. The whole of Israel
were armed. They had armor. They had bows. They had knives. They had swords.
They had spears. Not one of them went out. And
the whole army was afraid to go out. They all were shivering
in their armor. David wouldn't even wear the
armor. It was too much for him. He was just a little guy. He
went out there against this giant Goliath with a sling and five
stones and threw a stone at that guy right in the forehead and
killed him. Then took his own huge sword, which was bigger
than David, and cut off Goliath's head. Alone. Alone. That's how our Lord did
it. That's how Moses did it. Moses
did it alone. Our Lord overcame Our enemies
are sin. He overcame sin. He put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. Our enemy is self. He gave us
a new life, a spiritual life that subdues self. Our enemy
is death. He conquered death when he rose
from the grave alone. He did it alone. And what did he do after he delivered
the girls? He fed the flock. He watered
the flock. The Gospels just have a word
in Scripture. Our Lord said this on the great day of the feast,
and that was the Feast of the Tabernacles. In an eight-day
period, close to 900 lambs were slain. In an eight-day period. And all
that blood poured out on that altar, not one sin was remitted. Not one sin. And the story goes,
the way the history reads about that particular week of sacrifices,
the tabernacles, the priest's tabernacle, is at the end of
the day, end of the feast, the priest took water in buckets
or vials and brought it up and poured it on the alter to wash
the blood they said the blood ran down into a pool and as they were pouring the
water our Lord stood up one man and all that crowd of
religious folks had been spending a whole week making sacrifices
one man stood up said y'all been over here a whole week now eight
days I want to know something Is anybody out there thirsty? Come to me and drink, and out
of your bellies shall flow rivers of living water." He fed the
flock. He watered the flock. And Ruel's
daughters came home to tell their father about what he had done,
what this huge man had done. And when he heard of Moses, oh,
faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. When he heard
of his heroism, he desired to know him. He wanted to fellowship
with him. He wanted to thank him. He wanted
to praise him. And if you ever know the one
who did it for you, that's what you'll do too. You'll want to
know him. You'll want to fellowship with him. You'll want to thank
him and you'll want to praise him. This is a picture of the
gospel preacher preaching with the Holy Ghost come down from
heaven as the Spirit of the Lord takes the things of Christ and
reveals them to His people. I don't know when and how the
Lord begins to work in a man. I know this, but when God gives
him ears to hear that gospel, the report of Jesus Christ is
such a glowing report, such a wondrous report that if indeed God has
given him ears to hear and eyes to see, all he wants to do is
know Him. for the rest of his life. All
he wants to do is know Him. The Holy Spirit, wonder of wonders,
through the preaching of the gospel, He creates in the elect
a hunger and a thirst that can only be slaked by eating heaven's
manna and drinking the water of life. That's the only thing
that will do it. And they never get over that. I've told this
story many times. The illustration was that this
man was in Rome during the days of the Colosseum when Christians
were being fed to the lions. That actually happened, believe
it or not. Those Christians back then didn't have flower beds
of ease. They didn't have it as good as
we did. Or we do. And this one man, this one Christian
was cast out into the Colosseum and the lion was let loose. And
he was laying there. Sitting there in absolute terror
as this huge lion began to approach to him. And he got right up next
to him, the lion opened his huge maw and was headed right toward
his head and the man passed out. Out of fear, just passed out.
A few minutes later he woke up. There beside him was the lion,
his head was crushed. And he looks up and there was
a man walking out of the Coliseum with blood on his heel. And that man said, no matter
what it takes, I must spend my life knowing who that is so I
can thank him for what he did. Jesus Christ, the Lion of the
tribe of Judah, the Lamb slain, bruised the serpent's head. and
those for whom the serpent's head was bruised lived their
life just to know him. That was the language that Paul
said in Philippians chapter 3 after preaching the gospel for years
and years and years. After being a persecutor of the
church and being redeemed and bought and stopped on the road
to Damascus and blinded by the light of Christ and the scales
were moved from his eyes when Ananias preached the gospel.
This man went out He was beaten. He was enslaved. He was in prison. Wrote most of his epistles from
prison. He was a man who gave it all for Jesus Christ. And
after all that time, he wrote to the Philippian church, all
I want to do is know Him. He said, everything that's happened
thus far, and he was talking about his former life before
he knew Christ, and everything that happened up to this point,
he said, it don't mean anything. This is what means that I may
know Him and be found in His righteousness, not mine own,
which is of the law. I want to know Him. Moses, winning
the victory, got Him a bride. You remember Othniel in Numbers? Othniel of old, having defeated
the king's enemies, he won the hand of the king's daughter.
Our Lord came to this earth to save His people, and His people
are called His bride. That's why He came. And as a
result of that union of Christ and His bride, children are born. They're born from above. It's
a strange thing, a strange story. It's an amazing and wondrous
strange story, but these children born are born into a strange
land. They're born into a strange land. Wondrously, this relationship
between the church and the living and written word produce a multitude
of children all born alive all born alive and born from above
and born into a new kingdom, a kingdom that is not of this
world. Peter said, We are born not of
corruptible seed, but incorruptible seed, even the Word of God, which
liveth and abideth forever. And this is the Word of God,
which by the gospel is preached unto you. This is how we're born
in this world. Amazingly, wondrously, you know,
I've tried, you know, as a preacher of the gospel, you try to come
up with a way to explain some things, but some of these things
just ain't explainable. And that's one of the things that ain't
explainable. Preaching this word. Setting forth this word. Preacher's
nothing. He's nobody. He's a mouth. He's
a voice crying in the wilderness. That's all he is. But he stands
up and tells people things, and somehow God uses that to give
life to people. That's the most wondrous things.
Paul said, I'm not sufficient for these things, and I'm not
either. No man is. It's a wonder of wonders. Born
of God. Born from above. Born alive. And born into a new kingdom.
And they, these children born, they are of the world. Or they
are in the world, but they're not of the world. They are strangers
in a strange land. Peter calls them in 1 Peter chapter
1 and 2, strangers and sojourners. Strangers and sojourners. Why? Because they're looking
for something else. This is the mark of the child
of God. He's looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.
A city that's not in this world. A city whom he hasn't seen, but
he knows it's there because God has written it down in his word.
Abraham never saw the city. But he believed God. He believed
God. Every one of the child of God.
Not looking to this world. Because this world is going to
pass away. It's going to melt with the fervent heat. There's
nothing here that's going to last. Nothing. But we got a city. We got a city in another country
in another kingdom that's not of this world. And so we are
as Gershom was. strangers in a strange land. We sang it a while ago. This
is our story. This is our song. Praising our
Savior all the day long. Father, bless us to our understanding.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen.