God so loved the world. Aren't you glad? He sent his son to die for us, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Thank you so much to our choir, to Ben, and to our musicians today. This morning we're going to continue our study in the book of Exodus chapter 4. In Exodus 4, I want to talk about God's aid for our inadequacies. In Exodus chapter 4, in verse 10, we see Moses' final responses to God's commission. how God responds to each of Moses' objections. So in Exodus 4 and verse 10, we start with this one of Moses' objections. Moses said unto the Lord, Exodus 4 and verse 10, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant. But I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, who hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb or deaf, or the seeing or the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth. Teach thee what thou shalt see. And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And he said, is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also behold, he cometh forth to meet thee. And when he seeth thee, ye will be glad in his heart. Thou shalt speak unto him and put words in his mouth. And I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth and will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people. He shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth. Thou shalt be to him instead of God. Thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time that you have given us to look into your precious word. Lord, we need wisdom and illumination from on high. We pray that we would be obedient to your word and to your commands. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Our title for today's sermon is God's Aid for Our Inadequacies. Truly, all of us are inadequate. In 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 27, the Bible says that God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. Kevin DeYoung tells the story of one of our most beloved hymn writers, Fannie Jane Crosby. She was born in Putnam County, New York in 1820. She developed a serious illness as soon as she was born and her parents took her to a doctor and this doctor turned out to be a quack. He did not know what he was doing. He prescribed a hot mustard concoction to be placed on the young child's eyes. It really had nothing to do with her illness, but she did get better from the illness. But this ill-advised treatment left her blind for the rest of her life. A few months later, Fanny's father died, and her mother went to find work as a maid. Fanny was raised mostly by her Christian grandmother. She was a child prodigy in many ways. She wrote her first poem at age eight. Here's what she said. Oh, what a happy soul am I, although I cannot see. I am resolved that in this world, contempted I will be. How many blessings I enjoy that other people don't. To weep and sigh because I'm blind, I cannot and won't." Years later, when a pastor told her what a pity it was that she had been blind all these years, she replied that she was thankful for it because it meant that the first sight she would ever see would be her Lord and Savior and all His splendor and glory. She even wrote a hymn about that. She was an extremely bright child. She memorized much of the Bible. Even as a young girl, she had the first four books of the Old Testament and the four gospels memorized. Around the age of 18, she went to the newly founded New York Institute for the Blind, where she would stay for 23 years, first as a student, then as a teacher. In 1844, she published her first book, The Blind Girl, and other poems. Soon, she was one of the most well-connected, well-respected American poets and hymn writers of the entire age. She was under contract to submit three hymns a week to her publisher. Can you imagine trying to write three hymns, three quality hymns a week? But for her, that was no big deal because she often wrote six or seven hymns a day. Although she could play several instruments, most of the tunes came from other musicians. Some from her pastor, Robert Lowry. Several from the great evangelist, Dwight L. Moody. Some from Moody's song leader, Ira Sankey. When some of her words were put to Ira Sankey's music, and of course, Moody's revivals were exploding at that time, her fame grew even more. All told, listen to this, she wrote more than 9,000 hymns, including some of the best known of the last 150 years. Blessed assurance, Jesus, keep me near the cross. Rescue the perishing. To God be the glory. One of our human tendencies is to think of every reason why we can't serve God. We think of a thousand reasons why we can't witness to that lost family member or coworker. We know that God wants us to serve Him in some capacity, but we can't seem to get past our inadequacies. There are other men who have felt this, in particular, the Apostle Paul. And God told him in 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 9, in a passage that would have been perfect for Moses, my grace is sufficient. or thee, for my strength is made perfect in," what? Weakness. That's when God is most glorified. My friend, any gift that you have, whether it is wealth or intellect or fame or whatever it is, It's been given to you by God. Ultimately, it belongs to Him. But did you know that He has also given us our weaknesses as well? Many times, that's exactly how He gets our attention. Because with our sinful human pride, many times we think we're the ones who are responsible for our gifts. We become puffed up and we become self-sufficient. And it's the weaknesses that God uses to teach us our reliance upon Him. That's what's going to happen throughout this narrative. This is a story about a nation for sure, but it's also a story about a man. Remember, one man wrote the first five books of the Bible under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. You can find his autobiography throughout. What a story it is of salvation and redemption and service. Service, despite the inadequacies and despite human frailty. Notice number one, the human inadequacy that Moses presents to the Lord. In Exodus 4 and verse 10, Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent. The Hebrew literally says, Lord, I'm not a man of words. I am not a trained orator. Just like in these days, if you were to appear before an important individual in those days, you had better be trained how to speak. Ironically, Moses was learned and skilled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, but yet he still felt inadequate. Perhaps it was 40 years in the wilderness. Perhaps he did have a genuine speech impediment. And at one time, he probably thought himself fit to be the deliverer of Israel, but at some point that changed, and now all he can think about is his inadequacies, his stumbling speech, as he puts it in verse 10. Slow of speech and of a slow tongue. And all of this adds up to what is his anxious appeal. It's really a way of saying, Lord, I can't do this. You see, when God told Moses to return to Egypt and to tell Pharaoh to let his people go, Moses responded with five different objections. First of all, and we've already gone over some of these, first of all, he says, who am I? Chapter three, verse 11. Who am I to go in front of an important person like Pharaoh? And then God responds, I'll be with you. Then there's a second objection, and he says, who are you, God? Now, he's not meaning this in an irreverent way, but he says, Lord, what is your name? What should I tell them? How will they know that this is real? God responds with, I am that I am. Tell them, Jehovah sent you, Yahweh, the great I Am, the only true and living God. Then in Exodus 4.1, he comes up with another objection, and he says, well, what about my people? By the way, this is legitimate. You know, you can't take it for granted that God's people are gonna listen to you as his spokesman. If you look in the Old Testament, how many prophets were rejected by Israel? As we're going to see as this narrative unfolds, the elders of Israel can be very fickle. One moment they're saying, yes, but boy, when the pressure's on, they change their minds. Every messenger for God has to deal with this. Lord, what about this? What about the people? God responds, they'll listen to you, at least at first. And here are some signs. Remember, God gives him the signs, the three signs in chapter four, verses two through nine. And also understand that the 10 plagues were as much for the people of Israel as they were for the Egyptians. And that's another thing that we'll see. In fact, the first few plagues affected the Israelites. as well as the Egyptians. But God says, I'll convince them by the time this is over, both Israelites and Egyptians will know that this is going to happen, that this is my power. Well, now Moses comes with the final two objections. Notice verse 10. We can put it this way. I can't. We want to boil it down to just two words. I can't. I'm just not an eloquent spokesman. J.A. Montier writes how patient the Lord is. As soon as he replied to Moses on one point, Moses continued working his way down the shopping list. Have you ever done the same? God moves upon your heart to serve Him, you say, Lord, I can think of a thousand reasons why I can't. And here's one, and here's another, and you keep going down the list. Has God spoken to you about service to Him? Are you serving God? Are you busy for Him? So, Motyer says, even after the demonstration of divine abilities and the three signs, we come to Moses' last objection, and that is, I am slow of speech. and of tongue. Actually, it's the next to last objection, that I am slow of speech and of tongue. Moses says, I am humanly inadequate. Well, God responds. Let's look more at that response, number two, the divine assurance. This is in verses 11 and 12. We see letter A, the creator's guidance. This is what God assures him of. I'm in control. I'm the one who will guide things to their conclusion. In Exodus 4.11, and the Lord said unto him, who hath made man's mouth, or who hath maketh the dumb, the person who cannot speak, is what it's saying, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind. Have not I, the Lord? We know God is not the author of sin, and neither is He to blame for the results of the fall. But even so, He's in control of all things, and that includes our inadequacies, and they're all part of His plan. Our inadequacies do not frustrate God. God is the one who can overcome them. And all of us have some form of inadequacy. And some of them are more, what should I say, important than others. When I was a youngster, I believed that my red hair was an inadequacy. From the time I was born, my hair was fire engine red. You wouldn't believe how many nicknames I had. And on top of that, I had Pale skin, you know, very fair skin with freckles. And boy, I got teased mercilessly for that. And I often said, Lord, why did you make me with red hair? I mean, there are all kinds of jokes. Remember the redheaded stepchild? And this especially got bad in my teenage years. One of my, of course, my quintessential heroes, Don Johnson, Miami Vice in the 80s. He had this golden brown tan that contrasted so well with that white suit and those pastels that he wore. And I wanted to be Don Johnson, okay? So I went out and bought a white suit, and I bought pastels. So here I am with this fire engine red hair and pale face and freckles. And instead of an ultra cool Miami vice cop, I look more like Casper the Friendly Ghost. Lord, why did you make me thus? Now, in the grand scheme of things, that means very, very little. And I understand that today. But there are many other inadequacies that we have that are much more profound. There are people who are blind. There are people who grow up with difficult deficiencies. One of the questions that we often ask of God is, why? Why me? Why this? Why are you allowing me to go through this circumstance? And my friends, it comes to the most spiritual of us because we are human. There's a time when we're gonna be in the presence of God, and I really believe this, and all of these questions of why are going to fade into insignificance. But from our perspective, they are real. They are profound. And I want to tell you, there are some great books out there that you can read. Some of them are more complicated than others if you want to work through them. There's one by John Flavel, one of the great old Puritans, The Mystery of Providence. It talks about how God brings these things into our lives. You know, people back then were the same as us. By the way, they went through a lot more than we do today with our padded pews and our air conditioning and our buildings with plumbing. These people had to deal with death and disease on a daily basis. Most children never made it to adulthood in John Flavel's age. They knew what hardship and suffering we're all about. You can profit from this. The mystery of providence is what it's called. Another great book, it's simpler, but it is a great one, and that is Jerry Bridges, Trusting God, where he goes through the scriptures. Both of these are very, very biblical. Jerry Bridges has a great book on the providence of God, how God uses these things. My professor, Leighton Talbert, has a book, and we actually put this out on our table, and we're probably going to put that out again on the providence of God. But then there's another one, and this is one of the ones that Dr. Talbert recommended, and it's one by Johnny Erickson Tada. Has anyone heard of her? Became a paraplegic, and she talks about her experiences. The book that she wrote is called, When God Weeps, Why Our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty. She gives a profound perspective based on the things that she has suffered in her life. And my friends, there are many of God's people through the ages who have asked the same questions that maybe some of you are asking. Lord, why? Why do you allow trouble into our lives? Why do you allow me to have these inadequacies and I cannot seem to overcome them? Why this particular problem? Moses asked this as well. But you know, sometimes the conversation is only one-sided. We're not really listening to God. And my friends, that's my problem sometimes. Yes, as a pastor who has studied the Word of God for years, because sometimes I have the tendency to read these things so many times that they become overly familiar. Oh, yes, the Lord will be with you. Oh, yeah, yeah, I've heard that. Well, really? Have you really meditated upon that? that God is going to lead you through the difficulties of life as well as through the easy times, and that actually God has brought the difficulties into your life for a reason. It is not thwarting His plan. You're not derailing Him. He is in control. There are a lot of people here today, and I understand this feeling, but you are anxious about the election. You are eaten up inside over this. Let me say, I can understand. I can understand this. We're fearful for our nation. Like I said before, you ought to be. Sin ought to bother you. But the good news is we have a God who is in control. And we have to remind ourselves of that over and over again. By the way, the day after the election, we may not know the results of this. I mean, it may be a while before we know the results. But I already know that King Jesus is coming back to this earth to rule and to reign. I know that He got the victory at the cross and at the empty tomb. My hope and my trust is in Him. It's not going to be up to the voters. It's not going to be up to a public opinion poll. He is the owner of all things because He created us and He loves us. He gave His precious blood for us on the cross. My friend, if you're lost here today, He wants to be your Savior. This is the divine promise, letter B in verse 12. Exodus 4.12, now therefore go, I will be thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. Here's a principle also that we need to get a hold of, and that is that the Lord provides, but He does not relinquish His rights. When He says go, we need to go. We need to be obedient to Him. That is a great responsibility that we have. We have the promise though of His personal presence and help. Always understand His truth and His direction remain unchanged. He will be the victor. Number one, we see the human inadequacy answered by number two, the divine assurance. And then I want to lead you to one more point in this chapter, and that is divine power and also human assistance. Of course, God doesn't need our help. That's what He has ordained to do. He uses us as His instruments. So in letter A, we see help from God's people. In this case, it was Aaron, the brother of Moses. God uses human instruments to reveal his word and his will to his people. So you have this great passage, and we'll talk about it some more as we go, because it mentions it again in the book of Exodus. But in chapter 4, he talks about the role of the prophet as the spokesman for God. And he says that God will raise up a prophet. And what he's talking about is a line of prophets, first of all. And we see that throughout the Old Testament. But then we also see Jesus Christ as the Prophet, capital P, who reveals the Father because Jesus is God. He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And this is repeated, you want to write this verse down, in Deuteronomy 18.15. Deuteronomy 18, 15, as Moses is now giving his last sermon to the people, to the new generation, and he reminds them of this. He says, the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, in the sense that he will be a spokesman for God. Unto him shall ye hearken. And there were prophets that would follow from that time on. But then God sent the ultimate prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts chapter 3 verse 20, if you'll turn with me there, Acts chapter 3 and verse 20, this is the preaching of Peter as he is preaching to the Jewish people. And he's going to mention this prophecy. In Jesus's earthly ministry, there were people who caught on to this, and they would say, is this the prophet that would come? Is this Messiah? And yes, it certainly was. But in Acts 3.20, Peter says, and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things. which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me. And he's quoting Deuteronomy 18. Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. Now let me read on here. Because this is also from Deuteronomy, verse 23, and it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. In the Bible, if you did not listen to the prophets that God sent, the wrath of God would come upon you. God's judgment would come upon the nation and upon individuals who refused the Word of the Lord. How much greater a sin is it to ignore, to rebel, to disobey the ultimate prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ? Because if you reject Him as your Lord and Savior, there is no remedy. There is no salvation outside of Him. The Bible says the wrath of God abides upon you. Yes, in that great passage, John 3, at the very end, the wrath of God abideth on him. In Acts 7.37, Stephen drew attention to Moses also as a type of Christ. He was the ultimate prophet. Well, we see letter B that God was the one who was the ultimate source of this. He was the one putting words into the mouths of His prophets. Their responsibility was not to give their own opinions, but to speak what God has said. That was their job. Say what God has said. One commentator put it this way, God doesn't need an orator, He wants a reporter. You're not a great orator, that's fine. God can use great orators, but on the other hand, what He needs are just people who will be faithful to proclaim His Word. And friends, that is not easy in the world that you live in. That is going to earn you a lot of opposition. When you say that Jesus is the only way to heaven, people are gonna oppose you. When you call out the sin in your society, people are going to oppose you. It is not easy to speak for God, but that's what we've been called to do. And that marks out a person who is truly a part of God's family. that one who is faithful and obedient to God. Now, remember all the other objections that Moses had given to the Lord. And I want to come back to this, okay? Because this is in verse 13. There's one final objection that Moses gives. And if you'll go back to Exodus 4, in verse 13, Notice what Moses says, and he said, this is his final objection. Oh my Lord, send I pray thee by the hand of whom thou wilt send. Now let me repeat these again. Kevin D. Young puts it this way. Who am I? That's the first objection. Number two, who are you? He's talking to God. Number three, what about them? Talking about the Jewish elders. Number four, I can't. Number five, I won't. Pretty bold, isn't it? Now, to be fair to Moses, he's not exactly saying it that way. He's not saying it in an irreverent manner. So, to be charitable as I can, to be as charitable as I can with Moses, because the Lord himself is long-suffering, we could put it this way, Lord, please send someone else. You wanna know how God responds? He gets angry. You say, oh, that's just a figure of speech. No, it's not. It's what the Bible says. Now in Hebrew, it says that his nose, many times the Hebrew expression to become angry is that your nose waxes hot. Your nose becomes hot. We say your face turns red. It's an idiom. It's a special way of saying something. That's how the Hebrews say it. Now, we know that God, as a spiritual being, doesn't have a nose. But God does get angry. Now, when the Bible talks about God using Human traits, when it talks in that sense of what we think, many times we misunderstand. It does not mean that God has the flaws and limits that we as sinful human beings have. God is holy, perfect, unchanging. His anger is not like ours, but He does get angry. You know, Calvin pointed this out over and over again in his commentaries. He said, the Bible is full of these references. It says it over and over again. You can't deny it. J.I. Packer puts it this way. God's love, as the Bible views it, never leads him to foolish, impulsive, immoral actions in the way that its human counterpart often leads us to. And in the same way, God's wrath in the Bible is never the capricious or fickle, unpredictable, erratic, impulsive anger that we often think of when we hear the term wrath. God does not lose His temper. God does not fly off the handle. He is not a mean, angry God who takes pleasure in pain or suffering. The Bible says He's not willing that any should perish. that all should come to repentance. He says in Ezekiel, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God's wrath is not self-indulgent or irritable. It's not morally corrupt or debased in character. God is not like the pagan gods of antiquity. My friends, it is anger. It is wrath. It is perfect anger. It is perfect wrath. It is righteous indignation. It is the right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil. The Bible says God is angry at sin. John 3.36, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. You go up just a few verses above, you have that marvelous verse. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But then John 3.36, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. But then it goes on and it says, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. That's the testimony of Scripture. My friend, if you're here today without Christ, if you have rejected Him, the wrath of God is upon you. You say, what do I do about it? Well, there's no way that you can escape from it, and there's no way that you yourself can make things right. The good news is that's why Jesus came, to take the penalty that we deserve, to die in our place. He took the wrath that we deserved. Moses said no, but Jesus never said no. He said, thy will be done. And he went to the cross. He paid the ultimate price and he was the only one who could ever do it. My friends, for such a savior, is there too much we could do for him? Annie Crosby died in 1915 and one of her most famous hymns is one of my favorites. It's all the way my Savior leads me. It's a hymn that has blessed many, many people. It's a hymn that Moses could have used. And here's what it says. All the way my Savior leads me. What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt his tender mercy, who through life has been my guide? heavenly peace, divinest comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell. For I know whatever befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. All the way my Savior leads me, cheers each winding path I tread, gives me grace for every trial, feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter, my soul a thirst may be. Gushing from the rock before me, notice the Exodus imagery, lo, a spring of joy I see. Are you serving Him today? Are you going in His power and not your own? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time. Lord, deal in our hearts. We know that you have a mission for each of us. Lord, there are tasks that we can do that you have designed for us specifically, a particular person to witness to, perhaps a particular job in our local church or at home or at work, designed to bring you glory. I pray that we would not focus upon our inadequacies, but upon your power and your strength, because your strength is made perfect in our weakness. Thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. As I said earlier, if there is a person here and you are not assured of salvation, You say, if I died today, the wrath of God would be upon me. I would have to suffer eternal punishment in the lake of fire. If that's you, I want you to get that settled today. I'll be right down here at the front. I'll also be in the back. But please make that decision today.