We've been considering over the last couple of weeks Moses the Protestant. He's been making protest after protest to God and against God's commissioning, trying to get out of a job which clearly he's being recruited to perform. This Moses the Protestant has been Moses the Prepared now for 40 years in Midian, and God's continuing to prepare and equip him today, giving this Protestant-become-prophet a mouthpiece in our text. But before we get to that and the conclusion of this episode, this paradigm for commissioning or ordination or installation into service in Christ's Church, we need to consider maybe one last tactic of Moses to try to get out of this calling which God has put on him and put before him. And this is the tactic of false humility, a very common tactic for getting out of something you don't want to do. Here are a couple of other examples in case you're unfamiliar with this yourself. Oh, surely you couldn't possibly mean me for this great and difficult service. Surely you're looking for somebody more qualified than me, this great and noble service of, say, taking out the garbage, or sweeping the front steps, or raking the leaves, or cleaning the bathrooms. In fact, I've heard protests sort of like that in my own household from those who claim incompetence. in these unpleasant chores? Surely you want an older brother or sister to take care of those tasks. Or here's one that maybe you might hear me employ in some Sunday school class one day. Well, that's a great question, and I'm sure that Dr. Piper or Elder Danes or Elder Long could give you a far better answer than I could. What's really going on in these sorts of deflections? It's a false humility in which the speaker, the protester in this case, doesn't want to do or answer whatever it is that's being requested of him or her. In fact, it's just a tactic of evasion, of trying to get out of something. and Moses is guilty of it. We might say, riffing on Shakespeare, et tu, Moses, you too are gonna employ this common tactic of old, and yes, he does. But what we see in our text as God responds to this tactic with glory and with anger and yet with grace is simply this. that the Lord our Maker equips those He calls, and so it is our task to trust and obey Him. The Lord our Maker equips those He calls, and so it is our task to trust and obey Him. namely in our various and sundry callings, in our particular callings as sons and daughters in a household, or as ministers in Christ's church, as elders, as deacons, or in our day-to-day work and employments, and even in those unique opportunities that we have to use our gifts, to invest our talents, to bring forth a gospel return in Christ's service. and the Lord our Maker equips us for these things. We'll consider this under two headings this evening. Verses 10 to 12, our Maker equips those He calls. And then verses 13 through 17, our task is to trust and obey. So in the first place, our maker equips those he calls, we see this in verses 10 to 12, and before I read them, just wanna ask a basic question. Would a good and effective commanding officer in an army or in a military force send his troops into battle without adequate provisions, protective gear and equipment and arms? Of course not. An effective commanding officer, a good general, or colonel or major or whatever, would not send his troops into fire without being as equipped as they could possibly be fit for the task at hand and for the mission. But Moses effectively accuses God of doing just that, of sending him into battle without the appropriate armaments. without the right equipment for the job that he has to do. Look at verses 10 through 12 with me. Moses said to the Lord, and remember, wherever we see Lord with all caps like that, it's the covenant name of God, his memorial name. Moses said to Jehovah, said to Yahweh, please Adonai. So he doesn't address him with the name that he's been given. He addresses him with the more generic, please sir, please master, please Lord, Adonai, I have never been eloquent. I don't have what it takes to do what you're telling me to do. Never in the past, neither recently, nor in time past, nor even since you have spoken, that is called to me, to your servant. Moses understands his position, and yet he contradicts that God has given to him what he needs, either in times past or even in this particular commissioning moment. For I am slow of speech and slow or heavy of tongue. What Moses is really getting at here is describing his inability for whatever reason. Some have speculated that perhaps he had a stutter, or a stammer, a speech impediment, or a thick tongue that made it difficult to speak clearly. Some have also speculated that perhaps Moses was unsure of his linguistic abilities anymore. He's been speaking some Semitic tongue among the Midianites, but maybe he's forgotten his native Hebrew, or he can't speak the language of the court of his day. How can I speak to Pharaoh? I don't really remember the language. Perhaps that's part of his protest. We don't really know, but the point is that Moses is saying, I am incompetent. I'm ill-equipped. You have the wrong man. In other words, you haven't given me what I need. So how can I possibly do what you're telling me to do? And God responds to this self-centered objection. He responds with a theological answer. He says in verse 11, the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then, go, and I, even I myself, will be with your mouth, and I shall teach you what you are to say." That word, teach, is the same word from which we get the word Torah, or instruction. And God promises His presence to Moses, God makes known to Moses His power over all things as His maker, and presses upon Him this great theological truth that God is God and we are not. that God himself will be present with for the equipping and instruction of his servant. Moses, you recognize you're my servant? Do you recognize that I'm your maker? That's what God's saying. It's a rhetorical, a series of rhetorical questions, very similar, in fact, to another Theophany episode, which we've considered somewhat recently here at Antioch, and that's at the end of Job, in Job chapters 38 through 42, as God speaks out of the whirlwind to Job, his servant, What does he do? He, you might say, bombards Job with rhetorical question after rhetorical question to reframe Job's perspective, to take his thinking off of his situation, of his suffering, of his misery, and to orient his mind to God, his maker. And that makes all the difference in the world. And so though this is not quite as protracted, it's just a couple of verses rather than a couple of chapters, yet the same tactic is being employed by God out of the burning bush, as was employed by God out of the raging whirlwind. And Moses hears what God says, but he doesn't respond with the noble response of Job, now does he? No, rather, he responds with another protest. Before we get there, there's something that we ought to really grapple with for ourselves out of this interaction. the penultimate back and forth between God and Moses at the burning bush. When circumstances are overwhelming and when you feel inadequate to fulfill your duty or your calling or whatever it is that God has set before you, Well, then what you need to do in that sense of inadequacy and in that sense of incompetence and inability and even frustration with God for putting you in that position, you need to reorient your focus from yourself and your situation, your circumstances, your own failures, and even sins. Reorient your focus from that, from self, to God. to the starting point of all things. Reorient from man to maker. because that's what God is having Moses do here, and that's what God had Job do, that's what God always has his servants to do, to shift their focus, to redirect it, to move from that incrovatus in se, that inward curve upon the self, to outward, looking away to God in Christ Jesus. We confessed Westminster Confession of Faith 16.3, and it speaks of this very dynamic. We confessed, there, that is, Christians' ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from the Spirit of Christ, and so on. It is God in Christ by His Spirit who enables us to do that which God calls us to do. Besides even the graces we've received in the past, which Moses downplays here, he actually influences us in the moment to do that which we are called, even required, to do. It's the Holy Spirit who makes our hearts, his temple, his workshop, who refashions and reforms us according to the Word, to be fruitful and productive citizens of the kingdom, and children around His table, like so many olive plants around the table of the Lord, to work in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure. But what we see Moses doing is resisting and denying that. And we mustn't follow Moses in that resistance, that denial, that false humility, that self-centeredness. Rather, we are to, in the words of the Confession, be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them. Okay, Lord, you're calling me to do this? then help me Lord. How do we do that? How do we stir up those graces? How do we pursue with earnestness and zeal the good works which God has called us to do as members of the church, as members of families, as neighbors in our neighborhood, as employees in our places of employment, wherever he calls us to go, he calls us to go as his servants. How do we stir up the grace of God in us and the Spirit of God working in us. In the first place, search the Scriptures. You want to look away to Jesus, look into His Word. That's where you will find Him. That's where you will see Him. Attend to the means of grace where Christ week by week in corporate worship is placarded before you that is held aloft through the preaching of the word. This is the essence of gospel ministry is to show Jesus Christ to his people. Search the scriptures, attend to the means of grace. Here you will see Jesus Christ very simply put, but also more personally and devotionally commune with God in prayer. God speaks to us through his word but he also meets with us in prayer and turn over the word to him in prayer pleading the words of the psalmist even pleading The protests, the sanctified, approved protests of the Psalms to God, as you face your inadequacy head on and say, Lord, who is adequate for these things? And then he speaks to you through his word and impresses upon you by his spirit, meeting with you in prayer, my grace is sufficient for you. Power is perfected in weakness. Raise up a song. Sing the Psalms to God. This is the anatomy of the soul for a reason, giving us words to speak when we have no words, when we are inadequate to the task. And of course, meditate on what you know about God in Christ. He who called forth light out of darkness can therefore call you to do that which He has ordained for you to do and send you forth with every equipment and every possible tool you may need, every resource at His disposal as our Father with the cattle on a thousand hills, but especially meditate upon His attributes and His works. You're imperfect? Yes, you are. But He is altogether perfect. And His perfections are heaped up like so much treasure and so many armaments at your disposal. He is perfectly just. He's perfectly holy. He's perfectly good. He's perfectly merciful. He's perfectly enduring. He's perfect in His perseverance. And we can go on and on, whatever you lack, He has. And all of that is brought to bear in every one of our callings in this life. And He is not only able, but willing to do it. He makes His willingness known to us in Christ Jesus. Just as He made His willingness known to the Old Covenant Church in the Exodus, and in their successful conquest of the Promised Land, and in their return from exile. Consider what it is He has done, and what it is He is doing today. dwell richly on Christ, your Savior, our Redeemer, who leads you forth as your captain and not merely as the general hold up in a tent issuing orders, but goes forth ahead of you, comes forth behind you as you're protecting and as your rear guard and who is ever and always at your right hand, even carrying you into the fight. For who made you, O man? You did not make yourself. It's not about what you can muster, but He made you. It's about what He has and what He has done. And who saved you? Oh man, you did not save yourself. You did not deliver yourself out of the trials and snares of the evil one, but He's ever and always been active in your life, preparing you and bringing you to the moment of calling. And who calls you in that moment? We grow up. in our culture and we have guidance counselors and friends and well-meaning relatives who say, what do you want to be when you grow up? It doesn't matter what you want to be. What does God want you to be when you grow up? What does God want you to be right now? What is God calling you to be? How are you to glorify and enjoy your God, your maker? in the life that he's given to you. He is the one calling you into service now. Now he does this not just through inward impulses, mind you. You men preparing for ministry, we speak about this a lot, the outward approbation of the church. that is members of the church and particularly elders of the church and one day hopefully a search committee and a congregation encourage and even call you to enter into particular service and so too we recognize that that's God working through means to put us where he would have us to be. But so too in our secular or worldly employments, in the jobs that we take, in the places where we live. So too God orders all things in the affairs of our lives to put us where He would send us and to call us to where He would have us to be and recognizing always and ever it's in service to His glory for the advancement of His gospel, the extension of His kingdom, for the for the glory of his name in corporate worship. And these are our North Star guides, so to speak. And he who calls you into service now, this God whom we serve, whom we love, who has saved us, he promises to equip and, as he said to Moses, to instruct. He gives us his word of instruction that we would know what it is is required of us, and how it is we are to prosecute the task and fulfill the callings He's given to us. Christ Himself indeed has preserved this Word by His Spirit, not with any help of the church or any man, but has preserved it even miraculously, supernaturally and given it to us in a language which we can understand so that we would then be instructed. And furthermore, he's given to us pastors and elders and apostles and evangelists and teachers and even scribes, new covenant and old over countless ages so that we would know his will for our salvation and for our service of worship to Him. Our Maker equips those He calls. Not only that, men, our task is to trust and obey Him, which is a bit different than what Moses seems to do in our passage this evening. Look at verse 13. But Moses said, Please Adonai, now send the message by whomever you will. He quite literally says, send anyone you want. That's a polite way of saying, send anyone but me. Not me, anyone else. And we know that's the sense of what Moses says because of how God now in mysterious fashion in this theophany responds to Moses or counters Moses, you might say. The anger of the Lord burned against Moses. This is the first time in the Bible that the anger of the Lord is mentioned. And these first time occurrences are rather important. Even in Genesis, you have the sorrow of God, the grief of God, the regret of God, which we're not gonna get into this evening, but not the anger of the Lord. And we'll see as we work through Exodus that God gets angry at Moses at several points. Now this getting angry is not God losing his temper. God doesn't lose His temper. No, it's God righteously and in a holy fashion revealing His displeasure at what is a sinful response to His revelation. And He said to Moses, Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite? Where's he going with this? I know that he speaks fluently, and moreover, behold, he's coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. Where is God going with this? Is Aaron going to replace Moses? No, we know that's not what's happening. He says, you are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do. Okay, so God, God's not pleased with Moses's response and yet God addresses Moses's concern. Graciously has already been working to bring a helper to Moses, a partner in ministry. One who will suffer with Moses. One who will triumph with Moses on occasion. One who even is already close to Moses. One who Moses has probably missed for some decades at this point. Moreover, he shall speak for you to the people and he will be as a mouth for you and you will be as God to him. And you shall take in your hand the staff with which you shall perform the signs." And so God, even though he's right and holy in his displeasure with Moses, yet makes a gracious provision. equips his servant with that which is needful for the service to which he's called." Now, you might be able, as a child, perhaps, you boys and girls, you might be able to please your parents by telling them what they want to hear, even when you don't really intend to do what they want you to do. I know of two brothers when their mother was dying, the one who had a difficult relationship with his mom said to her, I know that mom, I know we've had a difficult relationship over the years, but I love you more than I can describe. And she said to him, Oh, my son, I love you more than you know. And I always have. We've butt heads over and over again, but only because you would always say no to me. Why couldn't you have been like your brother, who would say yes even though he had no intention of actually doing what I wanted him to do? And you see that sad kind of dynamic, but God doesn't operate that way. He's not looking for mere lip service. He's looking for wholehearted devotion. God demands sincerity of heart. You can't fool him, just like Moses can't fool God here with his, send anyone you want, Lord. God knows what's going on. And his anger burns against that distrust That disbelief, that obstinate disobedience, that's what's going on in Moses' heart. He doesn't believe that God his maker equips those he calls, and therefore he does not trust God, and so he does not obey God. That's the object of God's ire, of his holy anger here. polite deference, like we see in verse 13, it's too often the whitewashed plaster covering over disobedience and distrust. But God, who's sovereign, an omniscient who sees all things, even the hearts of men, is also gracious in provision of all that is needed, including Aaron for Moses as a partner, even a mouthpiece to the prophet, an encourager, a son of encouragement, even a brother in arms. And what God is calling for in this passage and throughout all of the Pentateuch and all of the Bible, the great application of the scriptures, what it means to glorify God and to enjoy Him, what God is calling for from us, whatever our various and sundry callings are, is wholehearted devotion, sincerity of heart in our service to God. He's not asking for a show of humility, that false humility that says, no, God, you mustn't call me, I'm not good enough, surely there's somebody better. That's not what God's looking for when he's looking for humility of heart. What he's looking for is that humble submission to his clear will. Yes, Lord, take all that I am, all that I have, all that I've been, all that I ever will be, I lay at your altar, I give to you. burn it up, if you will, or send it forth to the far ends of the earth, to high or to low, whatever comforts I have, I cast aside to serve you, you only, this is my chief delight. That's what God's looking for. That's what Moses lacked here. Because in order to say that, to give your all to God, you need to trust that he can take and to carry and to carry all the way home. And that's really the essence of obedience in all of its manifestations and all of its various expressions is a trust. You know, you children, when you disobey your parents, what you're communicating to us, and you mothers and fathers know this, what you're communicating to us is that you do not trust us. When we say, come here now, and you refuse, that shows us that you do not trust that we have your best good in mind. that we have the best idea of what is good for you in mind. When we withhold from you the cell phone, or the video game, or the book you want to read, or when we hold off on sending you to that camp, or enrolling you in that program, or on that sports team, or whatever the case may be, it's because we have a reason that has your good in mind. Do you trust us when God sends us high or low, near or far, east or west, north or south? Do we trust that He has our good and Christ's glory in mind? Oh, for the glory of Christ, for His service, to serve Him, this is the Christian's chief delight. For what has Christ done for you? Is not Christ worthy of your devotion, of the devotion of a wholehearted obedience? Has he not earned it? He who laid down his life for you and for his church, he who set aside his glory in heavenly places, the outward manifestation of it, and took to himself a frail and weak human nature and labored and suffered and bled and died, In this cruel world, He who volunteered to be our substitute, to suffer in our place that we might then enjoy the glories of heaven in His, He's worthy of that devotion, is He not? Do you believe that? And do you trust Him and His Father who calls us by His Spirit according to His Word to give this wholehearted devotion to God is to be our aim and our desire, yes. It's also to be our request, because it's not something, again, that we can conjure up on our own. We need the resources of heaven for this. And so, therefore, ask God to purge out the stain of insincerity from your heart and to grant to you true devotion in its place, that the Spirit of God would take up residence in your heart, that Christ would sit on the throne of your heart, and that The joy of the Father would be ever and always your end goal, your destination. your chief desire. Don't fake your religion. Martin Luther used to say, sin boldly, not to encourage us to sin, but rather to be true in all of our endeavors in religious observance, even when they're imperfect. But earnestly pursue true Christian heart religion, even if you don't feel like it, pursue it. I've said this before, sometimes on Wednesday nights, I don't feel like going to prayer meeting. But when I leave prayer meeting, I never regret that I went. And so even if I go out of duty or obligation, even if you attend upon the means of grace, because just simply you know it's the right thing to do, the result should be the fruit of not just satisfaction in yourself by no means, but delight in having met with God and yielded to him some fruitful service according to his word. and receive from Him that sovereign gift of repentance and new obedience by faith in our gracious Provider, God." Consider what God provides to His church today for these things. In chapter 25 of the Confession of Faith, which deals with the church, we read this, unto this Catholic visible church, the universal church in all places and times, Christ has given the ministry, the oracles, that is his word and ordinances, that is his law, his requirements, his directions, his instructions of God for the gathering and perfecting of the saints in this life to the end of the world. And does by his own presence, even as he promised Moses, I will be with you, I will be with your mouth. His presence and spirit, according to his promise, make them effectual thereunto. He's continuing to do this today. He himself will guarantee the results. And so as we earnestly pursue it, we don't do that expecting that we will have success in our own power, but rather expecting with faith and hope, expectant hope, that God will deliver according to the means he's appointed. For he is worthy and trustworthy. He is faithful and we must therefore trust and obey. And, lest we forget, his anger is just. He's slow to anger. It's but for a moment on those who rebel against him and then repent. But his anger is just. And it burns, not with a smoldering burn, but with a great all-consuming fire, as we will see. And those who persist in their disbelief, distrust, and disobedience, well, where is their final destination then? It's not the Father's joy, but the Father's righteous and holy anger. His judgment, it's hellfire. And so be forewarned, you who are growing up under the oracles and the ordinances which God has provided, you boys and girls and each and every one of us, we are to be forewarned that insofar as we persist in disobedience and distrust, we are inviting condemnation upon ourselves. And he is just to visit that condemnation on us. But look at how gracious he is. Gracious to Moses, gracious to us. Our God, He loves humility, but He hates falsehood, for He's a holy God. He cannot tolerate the sin of false humility. When He calls, He demands and deserves a wholehearted response of obedience. No false humility allowed. No evasion, no deflection allowed. The Lord, our Maker, equips those He calls, and so it's our task to trust and to obey Him. And He is so gracious to provide and to equip us with all that we need, even when His anger is kindled, as it were, yet His grace shines forth, even as in our text this evening. Later on, in the Pentateuch, when Moses preaches to that generation that enters into the Promised Land, he says to them, he gives them a promise from God in Deuteronomy 18, that a prophet like Moses will come to them. That prophet is not Muhammad, certainly isn't Buddha, or Richard Dawkins, or any of these, or Charles Darwin, or anything. No, that prophet is Jesus Christ, and Christ alone. That's the prophet. whom Moses spoke and predicted, but he's far superior to Moses. Unlike Moses, Christ is The everlasting prophet who makes known to us the will of God for our salvation never wavered. Unlike Moses, Christ never hesitated. Unlike Moses, Christ never protested, though he raised up an unparalleled cry of lamentation in the garden of Gethsemane. To the point of our passage today, unlike Moses, Christ never sought to evade or dodge the draft. He never sought to deflect the commission and God's calling on his life as the anointed prophet, priest, and king appointed to accomplish salvation for Israel. By the grace of God, he resolutely saved his people from their sins at the cost of his own life shed on the cross. And in His perfect humanity, He joyfully trusted that He was laying down His life as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God in His sin-atoning death on the cross. that his teaching would make known the will of God for our salvation and that his ministry was indeed driving back, even tearing down the works of the devil and the powers of darkness in this world. As a sinner in need of salvation, as one who is prone to distrust and disobedience, who is prone to call forth the anger of God, you, must believe and trust Christ through resting on him, that is believing his gospel, this good news of his salvation, and turning away from the folly of falsehood, even false humility, and looking to him in new obedience to follow after him. We are to trust and obey. if we are to glorify and enjoy our God. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we bless your name this evening, and we thank you for this, your word. We thank you, God, that you give to us Christ, that he has come, that he has lived and laid down his life, and we thank you, oh God, for the resurrection. that he was raised again for our justification, that we might stand before you righteous in your sight and fit for service. in the power of Christ and by his Holy Spirit. Oh Lord, we plead with you according to this promise that you would go with us, that your power would be made known even in our weakness. Lord, grant to us the great joy and privilege of service in your kingdom. And toward that end, we dedicate ourselves to you in a portion of that which we've received. We pray that as we go forth from this place this week, we would go forth consecrated in your service. set apart to praise your name in our workplaces, in our homes, in your church, in all our society, that you would be glorified and your excellence and even your perfections and your great and mighty deeds of deliverance would be made known. In Christ's name we pray, amen.