Good morning. It's nice to be with you here again at Park of the Palms. I want to bring my family's greetings. They're not with me this time, but they send greetings, my wife, Ruth, and my children. And also I'd like to bring greetings from the Christians in Connecticut. I've been accused of bringing this rain along with me. If that's true, looking at your lake, I should make some more trips. I want to publicly thank the Lord for the platform here at Park of the Palms. Many years ago, I received some of my Christian education in the Lord right in this chapel, sitting and hearing godly men open the Word of God and going verse by verse. And I look back to that as a time when God blessed my life, and I consider it an honor and a privilege to stand here where those men have stood. We all know that we're living in difficult days. It seems like the adversary is attacking the people of God and his church on every hand. The house of God is under siege, as it were, in the world today. I've been thinking a good deal about a servant who is said to have been faithful in all God's house. Now, you know who that was. That's said in Hebrews. Stephen, in his address before he died, devoted fully half of his words to speak about this man's life. And, of course, I'm referring to God's servant, Moses. So this week, in the evening, Sunday and in the evenings, God willing, I'd like to have us think about the life of God's servant, God's faithful servant, Moses. He is also a lovely picture of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. We know he was born into a hostile environment. He too was rejected by his brethren and took a Gentile bride, or is in the process, I should say, of taking a Gentile bride. He confronted the adversary and faced the claims of the law, and he displayed in his own person God's desire to dwell or to tabernacle among men. I'd like to say just a quick word about my goals for this week. I think we should set goals as students of Scripture. We're going to remain in the book of Exodus. And I want to speak to you very simply and not be complicated. I hope to whet your appetite for further study in the book of Exodus. My prayer is that by the time we finish this week together, you will have a better appreciation for Moses, the man of God, and the book of Exodus. And so I encourage you, if you would, to read that book during this week. Maybe that could be a little homework assignment. Hope to share a few. thoughts from some writers that I enjoyed. So if you'll turn in your Bible this morning to Exodus chapter two, we'll begin to think this morning about Moses' call. Tonight I'll be speaking or saying a few words about the morning messages Tuesday through Friday. So let's read in Exodus chapter two and beginning at verse one, please. And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi, and the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw him that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. When she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bull rushes, and dobed it with slime and with pitch, and he put the child therein. And she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sisters stood afar off to see what would be done to him." and the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river. And her maidens walked along by the river's side, and when she saw the ark among the flags she sent her maid to fetch it. When she had opened it she saw the child, and behold the babe wept. And she had compassion on him and said, This is one of the Hebrew's children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed him, and the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, and she said, Because I drew him out of the water. And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens. And he observed an Egyptian smiting in Hebrew one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together. And he said unto him that did the wrong, Wherefore smiteest thou thy fellow? And he said, Who may thee a prince and a judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me as thou didst kill the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known. Now when Pharaoh heard this thing he sought to slay Moses, but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. Now chapter three and verse one, please. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the west side of the desert, and he came to the mountain of God even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a large and good land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Verse ten, Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh. that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Shall we just look to the Lord? Our Father, we thank thee from the bottom of our hearts for calling us into thy family. Thou hast asked us and told us in thy word to walk in a manner that is worthy of our calling. And we ask that through our study of thy word together we may be encouraged and instructed as to how we should walk and please thee. We ask for thy help as we study together and we give thanks in the worthy name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. I think it would be well for us just quickly to say a few words about the background of this book. You know that Genesis gives us the account of creation. Exodus tells us about redemption. In Genesis, God selected a man, Abraham, and we saw from Abraham came those who would become God's chosen people, Israel. I was thinking about God's sovereign work in history, and it occurred to me as I went through this book and studied that Everything we're going to read and study here this week from a human point of view all stemmed back to that sin that was committed by Joseph's brethren when they sold him to Egypt. And it's amazing, you know, how God works in his sovereign way in history. He makes the wrath of man to praise him. They didn't know what they were doing and they really didn't care who bought Joseph or where he would end up. And yet God had his hand on that and guided that whole situation. And here now the people of God have grown to a mighty nation in the land of their oppression. When they came into Egypt, they were just a handful, so to speak, about seventy souls. And now four hundred years later, they've become probably over two million souls. You know, when they first came to Egypt, they were glad to come. What is it that would make them glad to leave? We could answer that in one word, couldn't we? Affliction. God knew that. And so he allowed affliction to happen. And I think that happens to us sometimes too, doesn't it? We maybe get a little bit too attached to this world and its things. And the Lord knows he has to get us ready to leave. And there's some affliction. And he wants to take our eyes off of this scene and put them to the place that he's called us to go. Well, I'm sure that you know that Egypt is a picture of The world and Pharaoh is a picture of the God of this world. And here is the people of God. And they are down there in Egypt. And what is going to be done to save them from their plight? Well, we want to speak this week about three periods in the life of Moses. And we're going to look briefly this morning at two of them and then spend the rest of the time at the last period. Now, Moses' life divides into three forty-year times. The first forty years he spent in Egypt in the palace, and the second forty years he spent in Midian in the desert, and then the third forty years he spent leading God's people. So if you look at chapter two and verse one, we'll think first of all about that first forty-year period in Moses' life. And this was a dark hour for Israel, for the Hebrews. They were, by this time, simply a race of oppressed foreign slaves. And they cried out to God in their bondage. And God began to prepare a deliverer. The king made a decree that all the male children should be destroyed. And God used that decree, didn't he, to prepare a deliverer. God loves to prepare deliverers. And he does it even in our day that we might remember his son, the greatest deliverer. Well, I want to say a word about Moses' home. We don't know a great deal about Moses' home life, but we know that he probably had godly parents from the tribe of Levi. Their names were Amram and Jacobin. He had a sister, Miriam, would be fifteen years old, and a big brother, Aaron, three years old, when he was born. Joshua, in his book, the last chapter, makes an interesting comment that the children of Israel served idols in Egypt. Now, that's all he says, and we don't know any more than that. But I suppose living in an idolatrous land in Egypt, the people of Moses perhaps were participating in the feasts and festivals, the pagan rites and rituals, some of them were. of the land of that day. And perhaps Moses' family was mocked because they were separated and stayed apart from that sort of thing. We don't know. But anyway, it seems that Moses was raised in a godly home. And perhaps he grew up hearing stories about his great-great, ever-so-great grandfather, Abraham. I'm sure he heard the story recorded in Genesis, about how God came to Abraham and called him and spoke to him and made certain promises to him that in four hundred years or so his descendants would come out of the land where they would be. So I believe then that Moses was well grounded in a fear of God. That's important. We have a Christian school up our way and that's one of the things we're encouraging parents to do. Pay special attention to those first few years of life of their children. I want to say a word about Moses' mother. Truly a woman of faith. As you know, she took care of the baby three months, and when she couldn't hide him any longer, she had an idea. She knew, I'm sure she knew, how that God had once before in history brought salvation through a little ark and saved people through an ark, and so she made her own little ark. And she put baby Moses in that ark. And then she did something very... strange but showed her face. She took it down to the river and she floated that little ark right in the very place of where humanly would be the greatest danger in all the world, the place where Pharaoh's daughter would come. And we know the story how Pharaoh's daughter found that ark and opened it up. The suggestion was made by Moses' big sister, shall I go and call someone for you, the nurse's child. And I think it's one of the most touching scenes in the Old Testament. If you can picture, it's not described in detail here, but if you could just picture that mother whose heart was so wrapped up in that little baby and she loved and prayed and cried out to God that God would spare her child, and can you imagine Moses' mother as she is now being handed her own son and told to take him home and raise him and she would receive wages for it. Must have thrilled her heart how she must have praised God as she went home with her baby in her arms and realized that God had not only heard her prayer but answered above what she could have ever asked. And so we see Moses then taken... back home, and we don't know how many years he spent at home to be raised as a child, but eventually he was taken back to the palace, and there he became Pharaoh's daughter's son. Now, there's not a great deal said about Moses' years as a young man. Stephen tells us in Acts chapter seven that Moses was learned in all the wisdom and lore of the Egyptians. Josephus, the historian, if he can be believed, tells us that by age forty, Moses had become a successful military warrior and had several successful military campaigns. We don't know. One thing we could say for sure, and that is that the wisest men of Egypt and all of the instructors could not counteract the training that Moses had received in his early years at home, could they? And so again, Stephen tells us, that when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren. Someone has made the comment that if Moses had only acted upon what he saw with his physical eyes, he would never have left Pharaoh's palace. But something came into his heart. He'd been thinking. We often think of the call of Moses as occurring at the burning bush, and I'm sure in a public way it was. But we know that God was working in his heart. and it came into his heart to go out and look on his brethren and see. And so he did that. And that brings us to the next part of Moses' life, the second forty years. By the way, before we go into that, let me just draw one brief conclusion for you about that first forty-year period, because I think it's important that we pause along the way in our study and learn some lessons. And one lesson that I would underscore is, as I mentioned earlier, Whenever God's people are in hardship or difficulty or suffering, we may be sure that God is preparing a deliverer. God delights in pictures of His Son, and He raises up all through history people who will be deliverers, saviors in the lesser sense of the word, doors, open doors of blessing that He can use. And whenever God has such a person, I believe it warms the heart of God as he looks at a person and sees a little picture of his son. I wonder if any of us are in situations in our families or in our local assemblies or in our business, young people in school, where there is in some way discouragement and oppression and difficulty. Have we ever asked God to allow us to be? Now you know what I mean when I say that. It's the Lord who delivers. But if we ever ask God that He might use us in some way to work by grace through us for the relief of others who suffer, I'm sure you've been involved in that and there'll be rich blessings here in the life of Moses as we trace His life through the coming week. Well, we want to spend some time now and look at the period in His life, the second period from age forty to eighty. And that begins in verse eleven. When Moses was grown, he went out and looked on the burdens of his brethren, and you know what happened. We read it. He saw an Egyptian who was oppressing one of the Hebrews, and so he killed him, and he hid his body in the sand. And the next day as he went out, and he saw two of the Hebrews striving together, he tried to set them right, and they made a very stinging comment to Moses' Are you going to kill us as you did the Egyptian yesterday? And Moses knew that what he had done was now public knowledge and he had to flee. There's a great deal that could be said in criticism of Moses' action here. I want to think first about what we might commend. Certainly we can say that he was developing a strong spirit. able to stand upon his convictions. He certainly was a man of conviction when he did what he did. He saw what was wrong being done and he tried to intervene. We can also say that he didn't rationalize and say, well, you know, I didn't ask to be born in Pharaoh's palace. God had me born there. And so why should I complain and go out here and get tangled up in the affairs of these people? Why should I not rather just stay and enjoy the ease in Pharaoh's palace And perhaps I can use some of the influence I have being Pharaoh's son to try to lighten the load for my people. No, he didn't do that at all. In fact, again, from a human point of view, when he left the palace, he severed the last human link with power and influence of this world, didn't he? Well, I want to point out some problems with this incident in Moses' life because we're going to see reminders of it. as we go through the study. Let me suggest four things that we might take note of as Moses here tried in his own strength to deliver the people. First of all, we noticed that what he did was motivated by human emotion, wasn't it? The emotions of anger and sympathy for his Hebrew brother rose up in his breast, and he really was acting in his own human emotion. strengths. And then secondly, what he did was premature. Israel was not ready. The Hebrew nation as it was was not ready at this time to be delivered. And we know that Canaan was not ready yet to be entered. And Moses was certainly not ready. He was not at all a leader prepared and fit to lead a nation yet. And certainly God was not ready, and God's timing is all important, isn't it? We can also say that Moses did not act in the power of the Holy Spirit. He didn't act in God's power. He just simply acted in the strength of his own flesh. And we know what happened. To say it bluntly, it was murder. We also can say that when we read in the text that Moses looked this way and that way, verse twelve, He was afraid of man. The fear of man brings a snare, says the Proverbs. So what was the outcome? Moses flees for his life. Just pause and reflect on something here. What about our service for God? What about the place where God has called you to serve as a Christian? Are you motivated in your service by human emotion or by godly deal. Do you wait for God's timing or do you do it in your time? Do we serve in our own strength or do we wait on the power of the Spirit of God? Do we look this way and that way? Do we serve wondering what men will think of us or do we care really most of all for what God thinks of our service? These are questions we should face as Christians. If we're going to be servants that are a tribute to our Lord. Well, as I said, beginning of verse sixteen, we see Moses, and off he goes into the desert. Someone has called the desert the place where disappointed servants flee and retire when facing rejection. The place where disappointed servants flee and retire when facing rejection. You know, one good thing about the desert from Moses' point of view, there wasn't a lot of people in it, and people caused problems. And Moses just said, I can see it now. I've had enough trouble trying to be a deliverer. Can you picture him running away as he goes east and day after day he's running for his life? And I know I've been there with the feelings I'm sure Moses had. Can't you just picture what he was saying? What got into my mind that I ever thought that I was going to be the deliverer? What a crazy idea. Forget it. I don't want to deliver anybody. I just want to get away. and have some peace and rest. Me, a deliverer? No. And he comes to the land of Midian, and he sits down by a well. And what happens there? Well, there's some young ladies who come out to draw water, and they're being chased from the water by the shepherds of the land. And instinctively, Moses rises up, and he goes, and he becomes what? The deliverer. And he helps them out. And I'm glad for that scene because I think there God was saying to Moses and he says to us, there's nothing wrong in your desire Moses to deliver. It's from me. You're just not ready and it's just not the time. So we know what happened. Moses settles down. He receives a wife from the family that he had helped and eventually he has children. And he gave them names that like gave his testimony. Gershom means banishment. And Eliezer means banishment. God will help. And you put those together and Moses gave his testimony in the names of his children. I have been banished from my land, but I know that God will help me. Somehow God will help. It's beautiful to see how Moses was helpless, wasn't he, at this point. And yet God had it all under control. And so he settled down to care for sheep. Kind of a humble... pastime for a man who thought that he would be a mighty deliverer. From the palace of Egypt, the riches and the splendor of being Pharaoh's son, to a lowly shepherd in the desert. He had no idea, had he, that he had just entered God's school for deliverers. He had no idea. We don't know, do we? How seldom do we realize that the experiences that we pass through have us exactly where God wants us in His school. Perhaps I hear someone saying, well, you know, at my age, older in years, I'm coming very quickly to the end of my life. How can I be in God's school? How can God be preparing me for anything? I'm nearly at the end of my years. I think sometime of that hymn that we sing that has a line in it, Thou soon shall be fitted for service above. We forget that, don't we? Some people have the idea, I know none of us do, but some people think that heaven is going to be sitting on a cloud playing a harp. Nothing could be further from the truth. The scripture says his servants shall see his faith. His servants shall serve him and they shall see his faith. I think God is going to have a busy. I'm glad for that. Thou soon shall be fitted for service above. And Moses had no idea that he was in God's school. and that every lesson that he was going to learn was preparing him for a great work that lay ahead in his life. The Lord Jesus said, Be thou faithful in a few things, and I will make thee ruler over many things. Let's go to chapter three and just spend the last few minutes that we have looking at the lessons that Moses learned when he came to the eightieth year of his life. Suppose one day that he went out to care for his sheep, or perhaps he was already out in the desert and he turned some corner or he lifted his eyes and he saw a strange sight, something he'd never seen before. He saw a bush, we're told quite likely some kind of a thorn bush that grows in the wilderness in the desert, and there was a fire in the bush. And the fire burned, but the bush was not consumed. Many have seen pictures in that communication of God to Moses. I think it presents a picture of the nation of Israel, that bush in which the fire of God's chastening was burning, and yet it wouldn't destroy the nation. Of course, it's a picture to us of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the human body with the divine glory dwelling within and yet not consuming the body of the Lord Jesus, able to dwell or tabernacle among us. But I think there is more to it in the lesson of the bush. Moses knew very well that when God spoke to his father, Abraham, about the coming deliverance, and that's what it was, he appeared to him in a smoking furnace and a burning lamp. You could read about that in Genesis fifteen. And I believe that appearing in this fiery manifestation, God was saying to Moses, Moses, You have meditated long on the experience of your Father Abraham, and I am the same God that appeared to him, and now I have work for you to do. Let's think about some of the lessons that God spoke to Moses on this occasion here. As far as I can tell from the Scripture, this is the very first encounter that Moses had with God. Now that's surprising, isn't it? I wouldn't be dogmatic about that, but I'm not aware of any other scripture where God appeared to him in the first eighty years of his life. And so we can say at this time, perhaps that Moses was living on the testimony of his parents. The relationship that he had with God was pretty much what he had learned from his parents. And now the day comes when Moses is out in the desert and, as we said, God calls him and says, Moses, Moses. And Moses has his own personal encounter with God. Notice some of the things. In verse five, Moses is told by God to not to draw near but to take off his shoes the place in which he is standing as holy ground. The lesson God would teach his servant here is that he is a holy God. And this is going to make a decision or mean a decision for Moses. It's going to mean separation, isn't it? At this point, very simply, the separation of taking your shoes off. That which speaks of defilement. Moses, if you're going to have communion with me, it's going to separate you. It's going to mean separation from some things. Right now, it's just your shoes. But it's the first lesson that God is a holy God, and you approach him in holiness. And then secondly, in verse six, we see... that he speaks about Moses' ancestors. I am the God of thy father, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. I had a relationship, Moses, with your family. And he might have added, and they are here with me very well now. And I'm sure it warmed Moses' heart as he thought. The God who led my fathers is speaking to me. In verse seven, the Lord says, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I've heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. He spoke this morning, we're thinking together about the man of sorrows. And I was delighted as I remembered that word in this verse. God says, I know the sorrows of my people. God cares about the afflictions of his people, doesn't he? And he wants Moses to know that. He's a holy God. He's had a relationship with those who went before. And he cares about the afflictions and the sorrows of his people. But there's more. In verse eight, I love this. He says, I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. Moses, I am the deliverer. Not you. I'm the deliverer. Don't forget that. Finally, in the tenth verse, Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh. That was kind of the call of Moses. Come, Moses, and I will send thee to Pharaoh. God is sovereign in the choice of the instruments. through which he works, isn't he? God is sovereign as he points to a man here or a woman there to do his work. Now we know the response of Moses, and it's interesting. In this chapter in verse six and verse eleven, we see what Moses' initial response was, fear and excuses. Fear and excuses. So that shows us that God had more work to do to get Moses to the place where he really needed him to be. We're going to see in the days ahead, Lord willing, what a tremendous relationship develops between this man, Moses, and God Almighty. What a relationship, what a deep and loving and tender and intimate relationship develops. But at this point, Moses is afraid, and he makes some excuses about why he's too feeble to go. As I thought about the experience that Moses had here at the burning bush, a scripture came to my mind, I know that it's used in the Bible in very other different contexts, in the hour in which ye think not, I will come. But I thought of that scripture just as it might apply here. And I wonder about we ourselves as Christians and especially about our children, if we might have children. I have young children at home and this is very much on my heart. Do I really believe that in the hour in which I think not, the Lord may come? Now, of course, at any time he may come from glory. The trumpet may sound and he may return, but I'm not speaking right now about that. I'm speaking about that time when we turn a corner or we're on our knees in prayer or we're in the middle of a trial and suddenly we are conscious that God is before us and He wants to speak to us. I wonder if we're prepared for that. And he comes and he says, I know what's happening in your family that you're so distressed about, or I know what's happening in your life with your health or your children or whatever it is, and I'd like to use you. Come now and I will send you. Have you got the faith to receive that? Are you willing to go? There may be some who have never even come the first time when he has called. And I ask myself, why is it that we as people are so reluctant and hesitant to come when He calls, either come the first time and be saved or come as Christians and do His will? Why is it that we, like Moses, hide our face and make excuses about how unworthy we are? I think there's a lot of reasons, but I think one reason that's been on my mind is I have studied in this book in the past weeks, and it's expressed in one little word, separation. Because you see, when God calls us to serve Him in some way, it's going to mean that we're going to have to separate from some other things, doesn't it? And that's very difficult for us. I'd like to ask you if you would turn just in closing to Deuteronomy chapter thirty-three. I want to read a verse that I came upon. It is a verse that happened at the... death of Moses when he was, just before he died, when he was blessing the tribes. Deuteronomy chapter thirty-three, and sometime you could read all the different words of blessing that Moses places on the different tribes of Israel. But when he comes to Joseph, beginning of verse thirteen, he just pours out his heart in a kind of a psalm of blessing on Joseph. And you could tell that Moses has thought long and hard about the experience that Joseph went through as he was rejected by his brethren and sold down into Egypt. And he speaks this wonderful blessing on Joseph. But I want you to notice, beginning in verse sixteen, just that one verse, what he says, it's interesting, he says, and for the precious things of the earth and the fullness thereof, and for the good will of him who dwelt in the bush. I think that's a reference to the burning bush, don't you? The good will of him who dwelt in the bush. Now listen to what he says about Joseph. Let blessing come upon the head of Joseph and upon the top of the head of him who was separated from his brethren. Moses says, as I have thought about Joseph, my ancestor, and the pain and the sorrow that he went through being cut off from his family, and how God was able to use him and make him into a mighty deliverer, he was willing and he was able because Joseph was separated from his brethren. He was alone. He stood alone. And Moses looks back over his life now and he said, when I met God in the bush, I had no idea what it took to have His favor and His goodwill. But I see now that it's wrapped up in that word separation. I just want to leave that with our hearts this morning. Perhaps God calls you to be His servant in some way. Perhaps He calls you to come to Him for the first time in your life. What is it that you may use to hold back fear and excuses? Are you willing to be separated from what is comfortable and stand out and take a step and be His servant? Well, I pray that God would strengthen us and encourage us to take that step and experience the goodwill of Him who dwelt in the bush. Shall we pray? Our Father, we thank You for Thy Word, which encourages us through those great heroes of our faith of the past. We thank thee, our Father, for thy servant, Moses, who was faithful in all thy house. We desire so much to be those who are faithful in God's house. And, Lord, we tend to cling to what is comfortable. We all do. There is something within us that is afraid to step out and just trust thee. And yet, Lord, we know that that's the path of blessing. And we ask that thou help us each one to lay aside those things that make us fear, that make us make excuses, and make us hold back. Let us be willing to separate from them and enter into a relationship, perhaps a new relationship, with the one who dwells in the bush. We ask thy help together as we would seek to be humble and useful servants for thy glory. We ask it giving thee our thanks in the worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. you