[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the preaching ministry of the Agopic Baptist Church in George, South Africa.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good morning church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please turn with me to Exodus chapter three as we continue our study through this second book of the Bible, Exodus chapter three.
[SPEAKER_01]: So right now Moses is in Horab on the mountain of Sinai.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the mountain of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he has been a shepherd in the wilderness now for 40 years.
[SPEAKER_01]: He started off as one of the princes of Egypt for 40 years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he murdered an Egyptian and had to flee Egypt and he has now been a shepherd, and nobody really in,
[SPEAKER_01]: the wilderness for 40 years.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it seems like he's kind of become content with this his law in life.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's 80 years old now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's a shepherd.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he approaches horror, the mountain of God, Sinai is another name for this mountain.
[SPEAKER_01]: But as he approaches it, the angel of the Lord appears in a bush.
[SPEAKER_01]: This bush is nothing special.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just a dried out bush on the mountain top in the desert.
[SPEAKER_01]: But God is there.
[SPEAKER_01]: The angel of the Lord appears to him calling out to Moses, Moses, Moses.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Moses responds, here I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now this response is something we see in Scripture over and over when the Lord appears, the Lord appeared to Abram,
[SPEAKER_01]: to Jacob and Jacob responded here I am and he will appear to Samuel and Samuel will say here I am Lord, speak.
[SPEAKER_01]: He also appears to Isaiah, Isaiah says, here I am, here I am I.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how this conversation begins with Moses and humility saying here I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then as the Lord
[SPEAKER_01]: what he wants Moses to do, how he is going to sin Moses to Egypt to go and confront Pharaoh about letting Israel go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moses starts being concerned as you can sympathize, I think.
[SPEAKER_01]: And his response to God after God commissions him is who am I?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who am I to go to Pharaoh?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who am I to go to the elders of Israel?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who am I?
[SPEAKER_01]: I am just an 80 year old man who's been a shepherd.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've just been wandering around with sheep for 40 years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who am I to go do this?
[SPEAKER_01]: The God responds by saying it doesn't matter who you are Moses because I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then Moses asked the question in his concern about this commission.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, Lord, when I go, or if I go, he says, if I go to Egypt and start speaking to Israelites and say, your God has sent me to you, how am I supposed to introduce you?
[SPEAKER_01]: What is your name?
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Lord answers,
[SPEAKER_01]: I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell them that I am has sent you to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he goes on to say, tell them that the Lord, Yahweh, the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that he has sent you.
[SPEAKER_01]: What we will see is that in our passage today is that the Lord is going to continue this speech now, and He's going to pile on promises of His provision, of His going with Moses, promises that He's going to grant Moses success in this mission.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the more promises God gives, the more Moses's fear and doubt seem to grow.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is because Moses is battling within himself as to whether he is going to trust God and obey.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the battle we're seeing here.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a back and forth between Moses and God and in Moses's heart there's a battle raging.
[SPEAKER_01]: God has promised much to him but he has yet to decide to choose to trust and obey God's promises.
[SPEAKER_01]: And while battling within himself, Moses will raise three objections to the promises and commands of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And finally, he will end by simply saying, Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where this conversation is headed in our passage today.
[SPEAKER_01]: He begins with, here I am, and he ends with, Lord, please send someone else.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's our passage this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord has honor, blessing, and joy for Moses on this path to Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Moses is resisting because he fears the difficulty of the path.
[SPEAKER_01]: God isn't saying this path isn't going to be difficult, but God is promising that in this path and through this path there will be honor, blessing, and joy for you, Moses.
[SPEAKER_01]: but Moses fears, he is full of fear.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Moses offers objections or obstacles as another way of saying it, obstacles to try and avoid the pain of obedience.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what's happening in our passage.
[SPEAKER_01]: And for us this morning, I want you to see the three obstacles that Moses throws up
[SPEAKER_01]: or puts out there in front of this path that God is calling Him to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moses is going to offer three obstacles to His own joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm hoping that all of us sitting here this morning will see that these are three obstacles to our joy, to your joy, that many of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: frequently put out in front of our path, obstacles to our joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And those three obstacles are given to you right at the beginning are unbelief, second excuses, and third, obstinance.
[SPEAKER_01]: unbelief excuses and obstinance.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look here at Exodus 3 and we'll beginning reading in verse 16.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be a long passage.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to finish in chapter 4 of verse 17, but I think the narrative as a whole is going to help us contemplate these obstacles, Moses is throwing out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exodus 3, 16.
[SPEAKER_01]: the Lord says to Moses, on Mount Sinai, go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob has appeared to me saying, I have observed you in what has been done to you in Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I promise that I will bring you about of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Parasites, the Hivites, and the Jewy sites,
[SPEAKER_01]: and then he turns the Moses and says, and they will listen to your voice.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you and the elders of Israel shall go to the King of Egypt and say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now, please, let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord, our God.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I know that the King of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by mighty hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: After that, he will let you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I will give this people favor in the side of the Egyptians.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you go, you shall not go out empty.
[SPEAKER_01]: But each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house for silver and gold, jewelry and for clothing, you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters so you shall plunder the Egyptians.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now Moses is first objection.
[SPEAKER_01]: Chapter 4 of verse 1.
[SPEAKER_01]: then Moses answered, but behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice.
[SPEAKER_01]: For they will say, the Lord did not appear to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord said to him, what is that in your hand?
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, a staff, and he said, throw it on the ground.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he threw it on the ground and it became a serpent and Moses ran from it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the Lord said to Moses, put out your hand and catch it by the tail.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, the Lord said to him, put your hand inside your cloak, and he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leporous like snow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then God said, put your hand back inside your cloak.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.
[SPEAKER_01]: If they will not believe you, God said, or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.
[SPEAKER_01]: If they will not believe even these two signs are listened to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile, import on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moses's second objection.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Moses said to the Lord, oh my Lord, I am not eloquent.
[SPEAKER_01]: Either in the past, or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow as speech enough tongue.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then the Lord said to him, who has made man's mouth, who makes him mute, or deaf, or seen, or blind?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it not I, the Lord?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moses's third objection, verse 13, but he said, oh, my Lord, please sin someone else.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is there not Aaron your brother, the Levite?
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that he can speak well, behold, he is coming out to meet you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: You shall speak to him, and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you both what to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: and take in your hand this step with which she shall do the signs until there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's pray together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heavenly Father, I thank you for the record of your written word and that these things that have transpired in the past as they were for your glory and the good of your people that they continue to be for the good of your people and that these things were recorded for our good, for our benefit,
[SPEAKER_01]: that you are faithful, you are all mighty and sovereign, that though we be weak, if we are people of faith, then we will be strong in the Lord, that you will be our might, you will be our eloquence, you will be our strength.
[SPEAKER_01]: and you will grant great success to the one who trusts in you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Though it seems impossible and even though we can't explain how you're going to do it, Lord, we do trust as your people, as we look at your word, that you are faithful to do good to those who love you, who are called according to your purpose.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Lord, would that be entrenched in our hearts today?
[SPEAKER_01]: where we be entrenched in trusting the Lord and looking to you for good.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Jesus' name, Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our passage this morning that we just read begins with five promises from God.
[SPEAKER_01]: God says, I promise to bring you out of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: I promise to give you the coveted land of Canaan.
[SPEAKER_01]: I promise the elders of Israel will listen to you and go with you to the King of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: I promise Pharaoh will not let Israel go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Until I compel him with my mighty hand, then he will let them go.
[SPEAKER_01]: and fifth, I promise to give Israel favor with the Egyptians and the women of Israel will plunder Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: That, to my knowledge, had never happened before in history.
[SPEAKER_01]: that the women of a society went in plunder their enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's always through the might of the military invasion, conquering that the men go and plunder their adversaries, but God says, I'm going to win this battle with Pharaoh and Egypt to the point that even though the women of Israel are going to go in plunder the Egyptians and close your sons and daughters, emperors and gold and silver and jewels.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is saying to Moses, here's the path he must follow now go, and I promise to go with you and grant you success.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Moses' heart is not yet heading in the right direction.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moses is entirely focused on the pain of the past and the fear of what future outcomes might happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Focusing on the fear of the past,
[SPEAKER_01]: We must realize that Egypt represents nothing but pain for Moses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just think about this for a second.
[SPEAKER_01]: For 40 years, he battled the temptations to sin amongst the royal court of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every temptation was offered to him, and he fought for 40 years to not take the name of Pharaoh's daughter, not to be known as one of the princes of Egypt who enjoyed all of the temptations and sins of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what the New Testament tells us.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's a painful road to walk, to live in the midst of vanity fair and daily wake up and say, no, no, no, I believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I cannot walk this path of an Egyptian.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is painful.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is difficult.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, it was an Egypt when he was 40 years old that he took matters in his own hands.
[SPEAKER_01]: He thought he was going to be able to deliver Israel with the might of his own hands, and he murdered an Egyptian.
[SPEAKER_01]: He murdered him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, if he returns to Egypt, he will be put to death.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what he's thinking.
[SPEAKER_01]: And on top of all of this, the people he hoped to rescue the Hebrews, the Israelites, they rejected him as their savior.
[SPEAKER_01]: as the Redeemer, they rejected him and then betrayed him to the Egyptians.
[SPEAKER_01]: They said, are you going to murder me like you murdered that Egyptian the other day?
[SPEAKER_01]: And they said it in such a way that the other Egyptian standing around the other Egyptian guards heard it and took the report back to Pharaoh, this is a betrayal.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I were Moses, and I had had 40 years just to nod on that in the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know what I would be tempted to feel and think.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would be tempted to bitterly think they can stay in the hell of Egypt for all I care.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is nothing that could compel me to go back to Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I would be tempted to think at least for 40 years and just let that bitterness just know away of my heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just to plant itself like a massive oak tree with its roots going deeper and deeper into my heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't know the heart of Moses at this point, but we do know he does not want to go back to Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: The emotions of bitterness towards betrayal and pain are common to men.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Moses has had 40 years to cement whatever he's feeling in his heart, and to determine in his heart never to go back.
[SPEAKER_01]: But now the Lord appears to him and commands him to go, to Egypt, go.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is why Moses raises his first objection.
[SPEAKER_01]: the moment the Lord finishes His promises.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the Lord's been giving promise after promise after promise.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the whole time the Lord's speaking, Moses and his heart is saying, I don't want to.
[SPEAKER_01]: I promise I wouldn't.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have no intention.
[SPEAKER_01]: There has to be a way out of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look with me at chapter 4 verse 1.
[SPEAKER_01]: then Moses answered.
[SPEAKER_01]: But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice.
[SPEAKER_01]: For they will say, the Lord did not appear to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now at first glance, this might seem like Moses is simply asking for some sides.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you help me out?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because when I go, I'm gonna need some help to convince them.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're gonna be hard to convince.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you might think of it that way or might seem that we would first read it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then, not look back with me to only a few moments before.
[SPEAKER_01]: In chapter 3 verse 18, the Lord has just finished saying in a promise and they will listen to your voice.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what God had just promised.
[SPEAKER_01]: They will listen to your voice.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Moses' response here is first objection is evidence of unbelief.
[SPEAKER_01]: God has promised and Moses has said, no, they won't.
[SPEAKER_01]: They will not listen to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is so afraid of going back to Egypt that he directly contradicts God, arguing with God that God's understanding of the facts is mistaken.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the first and greatest obstacle to human joy, unbelief.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is what I would argue, the greatest joy, the greatest obstacle to your joy, unbelief.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can describe unbelief in a couple different ways.
[SPEAKER_01]: Two ways you could describe it is either believing a lie.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's saying in one way you're believing a lie, or you're not believing the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: You could say it either way, believing a lie or not believing in the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they really go hand in hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't really separate those two things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because to believe a lie is to disregard the revelation of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to disregard the revelation of God and saying, eh, is to believe the lie that something else is better, smarter, wiser, or more satisfying.
[SPEAKER_01]: They really go hand in hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're believing a lie, you're disregarding God.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're disregarding God.
[SPEAKER_01]: You believe something else is better.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have all been tempted to doubt the wisdom of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: as you come across a new command of God, and you start to be convinced in your soul that this is actually truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a struggle there, especially if it means sacrificing something you love, or you think it's bringing you life.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is difficulty there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we have all been tempted to doubt the wisdom of God to look at his commands and say, that can't be right.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of that going on in George today.
[SPEAKER_01]: That as you bring the word of God to somebody, they're like, well, that doesn't feel right in my heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: That can't be right.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not what I've been taught my whole life or what's so-and-so said or what's so-and-so things.
[SPEAKER_01]: That can't be right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or that's not going to bring me happiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's gonna hurt.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or God, you're asking far too much.
[SPEAKER_01]: When a child dishonors their parent and disabase them behind their back.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we've all done that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when a child disobeyes their parents in, and sends against them behind their backs, that child is disregarding the revelation of God, and believing the lie that their freedom to do as they please is the greatest joy in life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Freedom to do as you please is not the greatest joy in life.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are some grown-ups who still struggle with that lie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or when a woman despises marriage and mocks the idea of raising children common in our day, despising marriage, mocking the idea of raising children, that woman is disregarding the revelation of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: and believing the lie that the corporate ladder or just having multiple relationships or whatever it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's believing in a lie that something else is wiser, smarter, more satisfying.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to satisfy the longing of her soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not what God says.
[SPEAKER_01]: God says, hold, hold, marriage in honor.
[SPEAKER_01]: and a woman who raises children who desires that at the very least desires to raise children to love God, fear God, serve Him, that that woman is a gift from God to have that ministry on the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is a gift and will bring honor to that woman and will satisfy the desires of her soul and this earth if she does it in the name of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: When a man decides to divorce his wife because they have fallen out of love, he is disregarding the revelation of God and believing the lie that a new wife or a younger wife or a nicer wife is going to satisfy his lusts.
[SPEAKER_01]: If a Christian forsakes the gathering of the saints, they are disregarding the revelation of God and believing the lie that they can enter into eternal life without sacrificially loving Jesus' body that is here on the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus says, don't say to me that you love God if you do not love your brothers and sisters, here on earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus says that the Christian body, the household of God, it is Jesus's body here on earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as you treat one another, that is how you treat Jesus, a comparison is constantly made.
[SPEAKER_01]: But so many believe the lie that they can have Christianity on their own in the woods somewhere that they can love God and they can say the rest of the world can just,
[SPEAKER_01]: figure it out on their own, take care of themselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are all daily tempted and various ways, and I'm even hesitant to give examples like these, because you might be sitting here today and saying, I dodged all of those, that's not what I'm specifically struggling with today, so I'm good, but we are all tempted daily.
[SPEAKER_01]: To disregard the words of God, the revelation that God has given us and to believe lies of Satan, that something else is better, wiser, smarter or more relevant in today's culture.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of us are tempted.
[SPEAKER_01]: to doubt the wisdom of God in this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you want to be a Christian who is experiencing in ever increasing amounts, the eternal joys of God, if you want to be that kind of Christian, then you must confess all forms of unbelief.
[SPEAKER_01]: You must confess unbelief and entrust your joy to the good and wise God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the only way to walk in the eternal kinds of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now and forever is to entrust your joy to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moses has contradicted and argued with God in a way that most of us wouldn't even let our children argue with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: God has said, they will listen to your voice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moses says, no, they won't.
[SPEAKER_01]: They won't listen.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know how stubborn they are.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I tried to help them.
[SPEAKER_01]: They will not listen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Most parents wouldn't even accept that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But God sees the fear in Moses's heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is merciful and he shows more grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: God gives Moses three signs to show to the elders of Israel to prove Moses has been sent by God.
[SPEAKER_01]: First, it's a staff that turns into a snake and then he says, pick it up by the tail.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know that's a bad idea to pick snakes up by the tail.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're just giving them like almost like a ladder to climb onto to come around and bite you.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what you're doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're just giving something that hang onto you.
[SPEAKER_01]: They'll come back and bite you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's the point.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pick it up by the tail.
[SPEAKER_01]: and it turns back into a staff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then a second sign, his hand that turns lepros, when he brings it out of his coat, cloak, or coat, and then when he puts it back in a second time, it's healed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Third, water that turns to blood, three signs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, God has said they will listen to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we know that these signs aren't necessary.
[SPEAKER_01]: God can go before Moses and before he even steps into the land of Egypt, God could have gone and worked in the elders of Israel to as soon as Moses shows up, they say, we've been waiting.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he has done that many times in history.
[SPEAKER_01]: but God being merciful to Moses gives him these signs.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's as a mercy for Moses.
[SPEAKER_01]: And my friends, prior to Moses and contrary God on the mountain, he was expected to believe in the one truth God without ever having seen him, never seen a miracle.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't even know that there was a single thing written about this God.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have anything right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: written at this point when Moses is alive all he had was the verbally passed down testimony of this God that came from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and through his ancestors.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verbal telling, verbal testimony, it's all he had and we know because of this that it is not necessary to have signs or have not seen a miracle
[SPEAKER_01]: or having seen God, it's not necessary for belief.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not even necessary to have a written record to believe.
[SPEAKER_01]: All that's necessary for faith is that you hear about the one true God, about his faithfulness, his power to save.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all that's necessary.
[SPEAKER_01]: and he sees our doubts and our fears and our difficulty to believe in his grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what he has given us?
[SPEAKER_01]: The sign he has given us?
[SPEAKER_01]: He has given us his word, his completed word, what sign?
[SPEAKER_01]: What amazing signs of His goodness is faithfulness, page after page, testimony after testimony, story after story, command and proverb and song of the good and faithful God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, on top of that, when Christ leaves, He says, I'm going to send you the helper.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Holy Spirit has come on all those who believe, and He vindicates these signs and our hearts.
[SPEAKER_01]: He vindicates the Word in our hearts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Telling us when we come to God's Word, this is truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is food, this is life, this is light to my path.
[SPEAKER_01]: God has been so gracious to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: seeing us, seeing us in our unbelief, in our doubts, doing all that is necessary to grant us what we need to believe, to follow Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: God has responded to our frailty with the written record of His faithfulness and with the validating presence of His Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: So in our passage, Moses sees these signs, he knows God is right.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows that the elders of Israel are gonna believe he was sent by God when he shows the sign of the snake and of the leprosy and of the blood.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows, but his fear is so strong that he is still looking for a way out.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Moses turns to making excuses, making excuses, look with me in chapter four of us tin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moses says, Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whether this was a legitimate disability or not, it doesn't really matter.
[SPEAKER_01]: When we have decided in our hearts that we're not going to do something, my friends, I think we've all felt that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to lock this thing up that I'm not going to do, and no matter what you say, no matter what happens, I'm just not going to let go of this, I'm not doing it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when we feel that way, we are experts, all of us become really eloquent, very quickly, but making excuses, turning molecules into mountains, exaggerating, finding faults, wherever we need to, making it look like an impossible path, possible impossibility, but when called,
[SPEAKER_01]: into joy by the commands of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And please understand, that's what every command of God is for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every single command of God is not a pointless law that's supposed to restrict your joy and happiness in this world.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, my friends.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every command of God to His people is a call to joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: We just don't believe it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: Problems not with the commands.
[SPEAKER_01]: The problem is with our unbelief.
[SPEAKER_01]: When God calls you into joy by His commands, then making excuses is like weaving a web of obstacles across your path to joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please, consider this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know this is not what the world tells us about religion but when it comes to faith in the God of Christianity, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, when he commands you, if you make excuses, you are blabbering your way to joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: When combat engineers want to stop enemy tanks from coming down a road,
[SPEAKER_01]: One obstacle that is very effective and can be quickly established is an abitus, abitus.
[SPEAKER_01]: A handful of soldiers can stop an entire column of tanks by simply finding a constricted area in some forested terrain.
[SPEAKER_01]: So where the road gets tight, there's no real way around it, trees on either side of the road.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then what they do is they go and they wrap,
[SPEAKER_01]: explosives around the base of the tree.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one by one they get out of there.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have a line that runs to the tree.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one by one they will drop trees across that road.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they drop them in such a way that they fall across the road and kind of like a 45 degree angle.
[SPEAKER_01]: They drop one and then they drop another one across it and then another one and another one.
[SPEAKER_01]: of these trees that have just been in a lattice frame or dropped one on top of the other.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when the tanks come, I mean, they've got support vehicles they have to bring with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: If the tank runs out of fuel, it's just a paperweight, that's all it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they have to not just get the tanks across, they have to get all the support vehicles that have to align several miles along behind them.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what they start to do is they start to try and push the trees.
[SPEAKER_01]: That does their work, it makes it denser.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then they try and pull the tree, but all of those branches and leaves and the weight of all the trees on top of each other, compounds to the point that you just start dragging the whole thing down the road.
[SPEAKER_01]: The only way to really get at it is probably to bring out your own engineers and start blowing things up and trying to get it out of the way, and that can take hours and days giving your forces time and regroup and to prepare for the attack.
[SPEAKER_01]: is a lot like our compounded excuses.
[SPEAKER_01]: When we have determined that we don't want to do something, we can quickly drop one excuse after another compounding them, just keep dropping them as thick and heavy as quickly as we can.
[SPEAKER_01]: overlapping them and intertwining them to the point that any sane person who came to you to talk about whatever is you're making excuses about, any sane person would feel hopeless trying to entangle all those excuses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Most people even pastors will sometimes walk away discouraged at the seemingly impossible
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, this might buy you some time to stay entrenched in your position, whatever it is you're holding on to.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the sad reality is that while protecting your position behind your excuses, you have, in fact, barred yourself from the joy God has planned for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are making excuses when called to joy by the commands of God, then your joy, blessing, and good is on the other side of your excuses, it's on the other side.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the only way to experience the joy which the Lord has for you is to break down each
[SPEAKER_01]: and clear the past so you can follow the Lord down the path to joy he has called you, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if we will not confess our excuses as sin, then we would refuse to follow the Lord, then you will be like the Jews who were invited to the banquet of the Lord that made excuses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus teaches us about this in a parable in Luke 14, verse 16.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are the words of the Lord, Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: A man once gave a banquet, a great banquet, an invited mini, and at the time for the banquet he sent his servants to say to those who had been invited, come for everything is now ready, but they all alike began to make excuses.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first said to him, I have bought a field and I must go out and see it, please have me excused.
[SPEAKER_01]: And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I go to examine them, please, have me excused.
[SPEAKER_01]: And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the servant came and reported these things to this master.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the master of the house became angry, and said to his servant, go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the servant said, sir, what you have commanded has been done.
[SPEAKER_01]: and still there is room.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled for I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my bank.
[SPEAKER_01]: They, those who made excuses will not taste my joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: when God calls you to follow Him, to come to Him, to delight in His kinds of eternal joys, do not endanger your soul by making excuses.
[SPEAKER_01]: God chooses in our narrative to again show mercy and grace to Moses.
[SPEAKER_01]: First, he shows his mercy and grace by rebuking his unbelief,
[SPEAKER_01]: and he rebukes his excuse-making.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look with me at chapter 4 of verse 11.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then the Lord said to him, who has made men's mouth, who makes him mute or deaf or seen or blind, is it not I, the Lord?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.
[SPEAKER_01]: these words of rebuke are an incredible gift to the people of God, such a great gift that sermons and books have been written and still should be written about this passage, but I will simply do time crack open the lid of this passage just a little bit so that you can have time later to consider this treasure God has given us.
[SPEAKER_01]: first consider what he says that the Lord made your mouth and the implication is that the Lord made every single part of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every single part he has made.
[SPEAKER_01]: Second the Lord makes mute.
[SPEAKER_01]: That means that when a child is born mute, the Lord said, it was my will to make it such.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it is the Lord who takes speech away from the young, if they lose their speech.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord makes children mute and the womb and the Lord takes speech away from the young, even.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord makes death.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if a child comes out of the womb, death, the Lord said, it was my will to make them
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord makes seeing children in the womb and causes blindness as He wills.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the repeated testimony of all of Scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord gives and the Lord takes away blessed be the name of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is the testimony of Job as He sat in ashes scratching at Boyle's
[SPEAKER_01]: to relieve the pressure in his skin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord gives the Lord takes away the lust, be the name of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is good.
[SPEAKER_01]: I trust in Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Though the loss of good things like sight, hearing, and speech terrifies us, it does.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though it does,
[SPEAKER_01]: faith, hopes in the goodness of God, though we cannot see or yet feel the good that he has planned for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though we cannot explain how God's going to turn this for good in his glory, and even though I can't even imagine how this terrible thing of a child being born blind, how God's going to be honored in this, how can good come from this?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's unwise to even try and explain that to a parent.
[SPEAKER_01]: We just have a child, blind or deaf.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though we can't explain it, faith says, though I don't know, why?
[SPEAKER_01]: I do know that God is good, and that He works all things for the good of those who love Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: For those who are called according to His purpose, that is faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've only cracked open the lid of the treasure box of this passage and passages like it throughout scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: But my hope is that you will begin a deep dive into this confident hope that God provides for those who love Him in the midst of a broken, cursed, wicked, evil world.
[SPEAKER_01]: But evil and brokenness is all around this.
[SPEAKER_01]: God says, though you can explain it and you don't know how I'm going to do it, I will work this for your good and my glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: One resource, because I love to hand resources to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: One resource that you can use in your deep dive is the book called Providence by John Piper.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a massive work.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you might need to use it as just a little bit at a time.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it is a free work online.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get nothing for recommending this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never met them in.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Providence, by John Piper, if you want to dig around in the treasures of Scripture, when it comes to the Providence of God, his scene to it that all things work for the good of his people, for his glory, even though we can't see how he's going to do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Providence by John Piper, I recommend it wholeheartedly to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: In conclusion, Moses knows God is right.
[SPEAKER_01]: The signs are undeniable and his excuses have been instantly and decisively decimated by the sovereign goodness of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where we're at.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has nothing left except his own obstinence.
[SPEAKER_01]: Chapter 4 of verse 13, Oh, my Lord, please, since someone else.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got nothing left.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't really bring anything else to this discussion.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just please, don't make me do this.
[SPEAKER_01]: The dictionary defines obstinate as stubbornly adhering to an opinion, purpose or cause, usually with implied unreasonableness.
[SPEAKER_01]: due to unreasonableness.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have no doubt that there are some sitting here today who are obstinately resisting the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: This church is not a place for perfect people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heaven is where perfect people are.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's where the one perfect person is, the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is where all those are who he has made righteous through his blood,
[SPEAKER_01]: forgiveness and his sanctification and glorification.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has made them perfect.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this church is not a place full of perfect people.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's not a single perfect person here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you cannot reach perfection in this life.
[SPEAKER_01]: This life is for sanctification, the journey to become
[SPEAKER_01]: to resist the Lord due to our own obstinence, stubbornness in the face of promises, the goodness of God, and really having nothing else except for, I will not.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I have no doubt that there are some sitting here this morning that are currently obstinately resisting the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: No one else might know about your struggle with the Lord, but you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what God says, you're convicted in your own heart, and you know your own excuses are paper thin, they could be blown away by the wind.
[SPEAKER_01]: that this path God is calling you to might bring.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that fear drives you to stubbornly and trinch yourself in your resistance to the commands of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: If that is you, then I plead with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: To hear the words of King has a chia from Second Chronicles.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, do not be stiff-necked.
[SPEAKER_01]: as your fathers were, but yield yourself to the Lord, and come to His sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord your God that His fierce anger may turn away from you, I plead with you, to hear the review of Stephen before he was stoned to death for his faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: He cries out, you stiff-necked people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uncircum-sized and hard, and hears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't resist the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: I plead with you to hear the review of the Lord Jesus Christ that He spoke to Saul, as Saul resisted the gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus says to him, in Acts 26, it is hard for you to kick against the goats, so Jesus is saying that Saul, who we now call Paul, was like a stubborn cow kicking against the pointy stick that the farmer is pressing into his backside to get him to go forward, get out of the ditch.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to die, cow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get out of the ditch.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the cow is like, no, it's quite comfortable here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, the mud is supporting my weight.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's quite nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's relaxing.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is comfortable.
[SPEAKER_01]: Climbing the other bank is going to be difficult.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think I'll stay where I'm at.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus says to Paul,
[SPEAKER_01]: to stop being like a cow, stuck in a ditch that keeps kicking out the stick.
[SPEAKER_01]: As if the stick is the problem, the stick that the farmer has in his hand is what is prodding him onto life.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is hard for you to kick against the goats.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's actually harder to live and unbelief than to yield yourself to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: and Paul was fighting against the Holy Spirit, resisting the Holy Spirit's prodding of his heart to believe the gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was stiff-necked.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wouldn't turn and look at Jesus on the cross.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying, no, I will not believe though the Holy Spirit was prodding him in his heart to repent and believe in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have no doubt that Moses Paul and all of us have experienced fear when it came to obeying the command of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of us have experienced fear.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the Lord calls each one of us to follow Him into eternal joy, trusting that He is good, and that He is working all things for the good of those who love Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know that Moses and Paul both yielded themselves to the Lord and I guarantee you that they do not regret their decision now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guarantee it.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no doubt in my mind that they are rejoicing at the mercy of God that they didn't give up on them and kept prodding them painfully to follow him into joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the only regret they possibly could have
[SPEAKER_01]: is that they took so long to yield themselves to the Lord in the first place.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I hope for none of us, that that will be the regret of our lives that we took so long and wasted so much time kicking against the prodding of the Lord, refusing to follow Him into the path of joy He has set before us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's pray together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heavenly Father, may your word,
[SPEAKER_01]: do its work in your people through the power of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: The words of men are nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yet Lord, I entrust that your word will work in your people's hearts as it's worked in mine all week long.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I pray, Lord, that each one here would go out and continue this journey of considering your commands which are calling them to joy, and that they will dive deeply into the treasure of your Word to see how you are the good God who works all things for the good of His people, even though we can't explain it, even though the path may have pain and difficulty tears and sorrows.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we believe Lord, then those things are merely momentary and light afflictions compared to the joys you have promised us.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love you, please help us, Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.