message regarding a man who I think we all know and love so well. Has anybody here ever heard of Moses? Anybody here never heard of Moses? All right. Well, in Exodus chapter four, we're going to go forward and we've already spoken of two objections of Moses. And these objections, I think, are very profound because I think that we all have been there in some form of our Christian life with objections and questions that we may have. But as we move forward, we see how at this point Moses's rod had been turned into a serpent, his hand is leprous, and he departs from Jethro and basically the Lord is giving him signs. So we're going to pick up here in Exodus chapter 4 and we are going to read verses 9 through 17. All right, as we open up, just keep in mind these words mean that there is no doubt that this is happening. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, thou shalt take of the water of the river and pour it upon the dry land. And the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land. And Moses said unto the Lord, 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? hath not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say.' 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, he will be glad in his heart. And 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, and he shall be even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God. And thou shalt take this rod in thy hand wherewith thou shalt do signs. Anybody catch that? The word mouth is used quite a bit in this little passage and it just shows how important our mouth is and what we need to use it for. Well, We saw all other objections of Moses. Remember the first one, the objections of Moses back in chapter three, he says, who am I? Who am I to go out there? And already Moses is trying to tell the Lord something. There's got to be somebody better than me that can do this. Who am I? What am I? I love the humility. But he says, how can I do this? And then he asks, how are they ever going to believe me? How am I going to tell them that I was out in the wilderness? I spoke to a burning bush. The burning bush told me to deliver Israel. How am I going to explain this to them? And then he comes back, the third objection, how are they going to believe? He says, who am I? How are they going to believe who you are, Lord? And how are they going to believe me? So he pretty much covered the whole correspondence right there between, are they going to believe you, Lord? Are they going to believe me? Well, it's our jobs as Christians to make sure that those that we witness to when we use our mouth believe us and that we have the truth. So here we see in verse nine, he says, Moses writes, and it shall come to pass if they will not believe also these two signs, the Lord says to Moses, I'm sorry, these two, neither hearken unto thy voice that thou shalt take of the water of the river. Now the Lord is really stepping this up. Last time we were going through this and I had the honor of preaching here, we spoke about the serpent and we spoke about what happened physically to Moses. Here, God had answered Moses already with great and awesome His name, and He empowers Moses with three signs. The last time we were here, we spoke about how the rod was cast down, and it becomes a serpent, and Moses takes hold of it, and it's turned back into the rod. This sign of God will be given to Moses, to make the people know that God's Word is sure. His power is real. This is truly the God of their fathers who always keeps His covenants. And then what we see here is Moses, then he places his hand in his bosom, and all of a sudden, here's a medical aspect of the Word of God. Many times the Lord used medical, physical deformities and weaknesses to prove to people who He is. We see that all throughout the New Testament when Jesus Christ, how many people did He heal? It says in the end of John, there's so many people that He healed and so many miracles, we're only getting a compendium of it in Scripture. And if actually this book was written with every miracle that the Lord did, the earth couldn't even hold it. It'd be too big. That's how perfect He is. And so I say this morning, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. We should believe in the Lord. But here, the Lord does not just say to Moses, I am going to give you signs and wonders, and then he backpedals and never gives him any real physical proof of it. He actually shows him. He takes his rod, and that rod was a very, very close item to Moses' heart. It went everywhere with him. It was like his safety blanket. And he had that rod wherever he went to hold him up. Does anybody remember at this point, and this is what I really believe is one many of endless, incredible teachings of this text here in the book of Exodus, how old was Moses now? About? Yes. 80 years old. He was 80. At 80 years old, Moses was just getting started in his ministry in a great way. 80 years old. At this point, at 80 years old, Moses had seen an awful lot. He was out in the wilderness with Jethro. And I can stand here and I can tell you from my heart, I really pray if I'm still around at 80 years old, I hope I'm just getting started like Moses did. Because he starts at 80. How many more years did Moses live from 80? Anybody remember? Right? 120 years old, he died. 40 more years. Look what he accomplishes in his life. This is why I have a problem with religious leaders retiring. Moses did not turn in his paperwork for severance and for his money from his ministry. He was just getting started at 80 years old, and look what he does. The first part is he has this conference with God, personally talking to the Lord, which is incredible. And the first that starts out, he has five objections to the Lord, and what's going to happen from here, he's going to go meet his brother Aaron, they're going to have this little tete-a-tete out near the wilderness, and they're going to start talking about what's going to happen to the people of Israel. And the Lord is going to speak through them. Eighty years old. Moses is 80 years old and he's going to go in and he's going to face Pharaoh face-to-face, a man that had the power to grind him into powder, a man that had power to kill him, and he would go in and face him. But it didn't come out, it did not start without a little bit of fear, maybe a lot of fear. We see that Moses, the medical side of this, Moses places his hand, he goes, the Lord says, I'm going to give you another sign. You place your hand inside of your cloak and in one second pull it out. He pulls it out and it's just dripping with leprosy. There's not too many more horrible illnesses that you can have than leprosy. Basically what leprosy does, and there's all these big medical terms for it, it basically rots your skin off and it basically has your body parts falling off eventually. And you die a horrible death. And he says, place your hand, that's the second sign, into your cloak. He pulls it out. It's white with leprosy. Then he puts it back in and the Lord heals it immediately. His hand is whole again. And what that does, as we learned the last time, that it shows us the true loathsome nature of sin and how only God can cleanse it. Both of these first two signs were personal regarding Moses. His rod, his staff, and his hand showed that Moses would be the leader of this deliverance, and the Lord made it very clear. These were messages of restoration, and they were a defense for Israel. And it moves to show us what's so important about this that we don't want to miss. When we speak and we were reading about the mouth of Moses, Moses' job was not to save Israelites, and to bring them, and to have the power himself to save them. His job was to speak to them, and whatever happened from there was of the Lord. His job was to use his mouth, and to do exactly what the Lord said, and give that statement of salvation the rest of his life, and whatever happened to the Israelites, the Lord would deal with that. And what's important about that is that we find out that a great number of Israelites would totally not listen to him. And for the next several years, one of the greatest horrific tragedies to Moses that probably hit him more than anything else was watching his people defy God, worship false idols, mock and blaspheme the Lord and then complain unmercifully to Moses on how they wish they were back at the flesh pots and the cucumbers, the leeks, and the onions and all back in Egypt. This is what he had to deal with. But the Lord was giving him a training ground here. We see that already we've seen two signs, and there's another plague that he was going to show him. And this is like here, the Lord is having, it's almost like Moses is like a movie star, and he's at a private showing of the new movie coming out, which he's starring in. Nobody else gets to see it. It's very exclusive. So the Lord pulls him by himself, and he gives him these little displays of what's about to come. The first time with Moses, when he takes the rod, he's by himself with the Lord. The second time, he's by himself when he puts his hand in. And then the third time, look what happens here. I think this is incredible. It's almost like a big showing of a movie, like I said. except it's just for the actors, the actresses, the directors, and the producers. And Moses is like all of these in one. And he gets this private consult with the Lord. If they will not believe these two signs of deliverance we see here in verses 9 and 10, this next one will get their attention because their unbelief will be rendered inexcusable. The Lord thundered out his miracle so that Moses would not just hear God's teaching but feel it through the rod, the leper's hand. Now's the third one. The Lord's now going to mess with their water. He's going to go after their water supply, and that's going to be tough. Let us not make light here of the enormous mercy and love that God bestows by giving his people chance after chance to be opened up to his divine protection. He's even doing this to the Egyptians. He's giving them chance after chance. You know, he didn't just bring one plague to the Egyptians and wipe them out. There were 10 plagues. Each one of these were manipulatives. They were learning tools to show them, you don't mess with me. He gives up, we see here, three signs. John Calvin writes, it was then a wonderful exercise of long-suffering still to persevere in arresting their dullness. What a word. Look at that word that John Calvin uses. And he speaks, he's speaking of himself also. He knew he wasn't perfect. But he says the Lord is persevering and he's trying to, he's waking up their dullness. Isn't that how we can be as Christians? We can just be dullness of thought and dullness of understanding. And it really comes at the expense of basically not opening our Bibles. And I maintain here, if you want to sharpen, we can become very dull when we're not in Scripture, but how does the Lord say in the book of Proverbs, how iron sharpeneth iron, and that is through the reading of the Word of God. See how important the Word of God is here? Here, God himself is speaking audibly and training Moses, and he's listening to the very Word of God. James 5.11 we read, Behold, we count them happy, which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. And that is the Lord that we serve. He's very merciful towards us, and He's very patient. And He's patient enough to give all of these tools to Moses to be able to go to these people and to show them. He didn't have to do that. Moses comes back and he says, but I am slow of speech and of slow tongue. He's still trying to get out of it. See, our Lord has pity for his people. The Lord would have been just to only give Israel one sign, maybe just that of the rod. If they would not hear Moses, the Lord could have left them right where they were and just left them annihilated. But we see, as we read in the response of reading this morning in Psalm 145, verses 8 and 9, Our Lord, the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. He's slow to anger and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are good over all His works. So, we see a third sign. The Lord is merciful to give another teaching lesson. God empowers Moses with a third sign. He gives him a sample. He allows Moses to go down to the Nile River and to take a water sample and to pour it out. And when he pours it out, it becomes red. It becomes his blood. This could be very devastating. Consider the Conowingo Dam or the Loch Raven Reservoir. What would you do if you woke up and it was total blood contaminated and no water? No one could use any of the water from the Susquehanna or any of these big water, these waterways. We see and we observe how in this verse Moses narrates what shall happen if Israel does not hearken. And what happens is I call the Nile River. If you think about it and you think of the first plague when the Nile River actually really is turned to blood and it's coming very soon in the latter chapters, you want to know one of the reasons I believe that the Lord started with the Nile River? This is my opinion. It was basically the Egyptian abortion clinic. That's where the babies, brand new, little, beautiful babies were thrown one after the other. The male babies were thrown into the Nile River and they were destroyed. And that was an edict from Pharaoh that the very, because he said that the women are so fertile, there's so many babies coming, we got to start doing a little bit of crowd control. Have you ever seen the bumper sticker, six billion miracles are enough? Well, that's basically what Pharaoh was saying for the Hebrew nation. And he said, well, we're going to slow them down because we're going to take the males and we're just going to start murdering them. And the midwives were told at the end of Exodus 1, you take those babies and throw them into the river. What a horrible thing to do to a baby. You don't mess with God's creation. We do not mess with God's creation. You don't touch a little hair, not one hair on a baby's head. You don't hurt them. And I believe that basically that is where he started, because that was their abortion clinic. The river was Egypt's lifeblood until it became blood. The sign for Israel to see would render their disbelief unforgivable. The Lord is saying, they will see my power, and when they see it, if they reject it, it will be required of them. And that has never changed, all down through the ages, that if we reject Jesus Christ, it will be required of us. And Moses said unto them in verse 10, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since that I have 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? Well, Moses is still in the grip of ambivalence over this. We see that the consequences of Israel rejecting Moses would be devastating, and Moses just doesn't see that quite yet. But you know something, going back to this river of blood? I read two commentaries, and I thought they're very brilliant. Matthew Henry and John Calvin both said these are manifestations of the lake of fire, of hell. The color of that river was condemnation, and it's a manifestation of the wrath of God and of hell. Hell is real. Moses is here the first mediator, and the Lord is preparing him. Pharaoh is the enemy. Then we see later in Scripture, Christ is our second mediator, and Satan is the enemy. You know, many times reading about Moses, he has been called a type of a Christ. He is a messenger. He is a mediator. But He's not the Christ. He was an usher. Just like John the Baptist had the job of being the herald of the coming of the Messiah, Moses was a herald of the coming Messiah. And he was supposed to be preparing the way, just as John the Baptist, by leading these people out of Egypt, as the Lord said that He would. The Lord said, if they reject my word, this is what I'm going to do to them. Moses is the first mediator. Here's an example of rejecting God's Word. The sign of the water turning into blood is to show Israel the wages of sin and the rejection of God's Word. 1 Samuel 15, 23, we read, For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. These were the words given to Saul. These were the words that were given to those that rejected him. King Saul was told to destroy Amalek, all of them and their wealth, but he did not listen. He spared their cattle, he spared their goods, and the Lord's response was, he hath rejected me, I will reject him. That's the worst thing you want to do on this earth, in this life, is to reject Jesus Christ. There is nothing worse you can do than that, is to reject him. There are many examples of rejecting God's Son. We see the Pharisees, which are an extension of the Jews and the Israelites, rejected and rebuked Christ many times. In Matthew 15 they ask, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. Jesus replied, Why do you pretend to keep the commandments, but you do not honor your mother and father? And this happened over and over and over and over again, even to the point where they said, You are performing these wonderful miracles. They didn't call them wonderful. I'm calling them wonderful. You are performing these miracles by the power of Satan. And that's when Christ came back and said, you have just denied me and you have just blasphemed the Holy Spirit, which is an unforgivable sin. Jesus proceeded on in his teachings, not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man, but that which cometh out of the mouth that defileth the man. See how important in these words the mouth is. We have to watch our mouths. Disciples replied that the Pharisees were offended. What is Jesus' response to these rejecters of him? Matthew chapter 15, verses 13 and 14, and Christ said, it says, but he answered and said, every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Let them alone. They be blind leaders of the blind. This is one of my favorite sayings of Christ. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. I think that's very important to remember about many so-called religious establishments today. If they're not preaching the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you're following people that are leading into a very big ditch that's not going upward. It's a big ditch called hell. And that's very, very sad. As we move forward, we see this fourth rejection of Moses. Right now, the third sign has been given. There will be a sample of water drawn out of the river. It will be turned into blood. This is what's going to happen if they don't listen. And the conversation continues on. And boy, would I love to be a fly on that wall to see this conversation. Boy, I can't imagine what it must have looked like. But this fourth rejection, you know, just like we can be very easily, Moses is still worried. He's still questioning the Lord. Moses is now concerned about what he will say, not just about what he will say, but how he will say it. How he will say the words to convince the Israelites. It's not by eloquence or manner of speech. A preacher of the gospel caters to the congregation's linguistic sensitivities. It brings a lost soul to Christ. Remember that. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit may the heart of the king be changed and a lost soul have new life breathed into it for salvation. It's not about the eloquence of the speaker. It's about what words that he's actually saying. Is he speaking the truth? The gift of oratory is not a prerequisite for effective ministry. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2, verses 1 through 4, he wrote, and I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power." And you have to remember that Paul the Apostle had to take his eloquence and his brilliance and put it on the shelf. Because that all came from the training of Gamaliel from the Pharisees. And when he became a Christian and he went to teach and preach, he was personally trained by Christ himself, which made him an apostle, And he said, I had to leave all that on the shelf. My eloquence came from the word of Jesus Christ, not from my presence. not from who I am. What do you see today? How many of you can sit there, you can say that you've seen on television, these orders there that you get on, you turn on a station with some kind of religious wrangling and there's guitars, there's lights, it looks like a rock show, some great big entertainment center, and the guy gets up and he's got beautiful white teeth, big thick black hair, six foot one, he's got a beautiful Versace suit, it's all about presence, it's all about showmanship and eloquence. but nothing comes out of His mouth that makes any sense to cure us of our guilt and to show us where we are to go with our sin. If there's no sin being talked about, there's no hell being talked about, and no guilt, and what we need to do as Christians to follow Jesus Christ, it's eloquent, but it's not truth. As we're learning in the Wednesday night prayer meeting, the next one coming up Wednesday night is a big one. We're going to be answering the question, the pilot asked the question, three words. What is truth? Do you want to know what truth is or do you enjoy being lied to? I don't know why people love to be lied to, but they do. They love to be lied to. Being told that you're going to be okay and that there's no impending danger of God's wrath is being lied to. And the Lord is preparing Moses to preach and to teach this. Paul says, these are not my words but Christ's words demonstrated by the Holy Spirit. Moses felt that he was not a man of words. He thought he was heavy in mouth. He was unable to articulate his thoughts in fluent flowing speech and he had forgotten who was directing the words. Can you imagine the fear that Moses may have had afterwards when he just started thinking, no, I was pretty emotional when I spoke to God, but I kind of forgot something. He's the one that created my mouth. He's the one that puts the breath of life inside of me and gives me all these heartbeats every day. I think he has the power to speak through me. Look at the so-called great orders of today speaking eloquently with nothing of eternal value to say they have big education, smooth silk words, Barack Obama said, we need change. Hillary Clinton says, we must go forward. Nancy Pelosi says, we must have national health care reform. Al Gore, my favorite, we must stop global warming. Well, I'll give him this. It's coming. There is global warming coming. It's called a fervent heat. How about Joe Allsting? He says, life is like a rainy day. You are controlling your car and how you set your windshield wipers is how you let God direct you. Elegant words of prosperity. You set the white windshield wipers. Well, he forgets to say about the windshield wipers, who's the one that brings the rain? God is pleased to choose His messenger, and many have been slow to speech all throughout Scripture, maybe not so eloquent until the Holy Spirit cleansed and directed their mouths. Does anybody remember in the Old Testament who had a real problem with their mouth and the Lord had to do something about it? He had a real problem with his mouth. I can relate to that. Isaiah. How was his speech prepared by the Holy Spirit? In Isaiah chapter 6, and we read verses 6 and 7. then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hands, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged." And we see another situation where the Lord was preparing a very humble, weak man to go out and use his mouth to give the oracles of God and to give the... Wonderful words of life. And Ezekiel, his response was, Here am I, Lord. Use me. Take me and use me. Well, John 14, 26. You ever worried about talking about Christ? You worried about witnessing? To the point where you just say to yourself, I'm not going to do it? Well, let me tell you something. John 14, 26 we read, "...but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." The Lord promises that He will give us the words to say if we trust in Him. And He does. You know, we have a relationship with Christ. The only way you're going to have this power of having the Holy Spirit speaking through you is to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I had a question this morning. Do you carry that glorious power? Do you have that? Are you sure and are you sure in your heart that Jesus Christ is in your heart? Have you repented of your sins and asked Him to come into your heart? If you have, it's a manifestation that He has called you. Not that you have decided to follow Jesus on some whim. That's, you know that He has called you and He loves you. Remember how Ezekiel ate the Word of God, and he ingested it. It tasted as sweet as honey, and it would come out of him to the people of Israel as directed by God. And we read in these verses, Moses said unto the Lord in 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, and teach thee, and thou shalt say. And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. And we see two more objections. I cannot speak well, and Moses just flat out gets scared, and he says, Please send somebody else. With all of this, and the Lord showing him who's in charge, he says, please send someone else. Jeremiah said, but I am a child. Lord, I can't do this in Jeremiah 1. Peter and Andrew were fishermen. Were they eloquent? Well, only when they were directed by the Holy Spirit. Moses had been tending sheep 40 years. He was trained to be eloquent and mighty in speech in Egypt, but for 40 years, he probably forgot a few things. And he's asking the Lord here, he's saying, Lord, let me off the hook. So what is God's response here? He's now angered at Moses at this fourth objection. Moses knew God created all things. He narrates creation, but he forgets God also creates the mouth. And he says, I will speak through thee. And I think we can't look at this enough and we can't be reminded of this enough, how important our mouths are and what comes out of our mouths really affects other people. And it's very important that we're careful. I mean, James, book of James, James says our mouth is like a rudder of a ship. That's how powerful it can be. So what is God's response? We see here it is God that creates the mouth. It's the one who gives us our words to speak. Isaiah chapter 50, verse 4. The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning. He wakeneth my ear to hear as the learned. The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned, here Isaiah says. Here God's anger is kindled against his servant Moses. And I think what happens here is a beautiful, another sign of God's merciful love. Now after five objections, God is furious. His anger is kindled against Moses. And normally that is something in the Bible that we can see really bad things happen when the Lord's anger is kindled. Look what happened to Achan and his family when the Lord was furious with Achan and the ground opened up. I mean, Achan was actually executed. Look at the Korahites who had defied Moses and the ground literally opened up and swallowed them up. But in this situation, does the Lord turn around and he destroy Moses? No, He hangs right there with them and He will you. He will stay with you no matter how hard it gets. Illnesses, family in the hospital, financial problems, problems maybe with children, problems with jobs, problems with your own health, the Lord will guide you all the way through it to the end. He promises that. He doesn't turn on Moses here and turn and say, I'm tired of you rejecting me. I'm tired of all of your whining and complaining. I'm done. You're done. I'm done with you. I will forget about you and I will find somebody else. He says in verse 13, Moses says, I pray, basically says it's a neglect of duty we read here that he wants to stop. And here in verse 14, 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, he will be glad in his heart, and now shall 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. He turns around and he gives him his brother. The Lord turns around and he gives him a friend. And his brother was his friend. He and Aaron were like this. And he said, you guys go out and you just talk and you sit down and while you're calming yourself down Moses, I will create an opportunity and I will basically tell Aaron myself to get over here to sit down and talk with you and he will comfort you. And not only will I comfort you but your brother will and you will tell him the things that he needs to speak and he will help you because he is an eloquent speaker. And the funny thing about this is, as you read on with the story, basically it's Moses that winds up doing most of the talking. That's what happens from this point forward. But there, God sends a comfort to Moses. Instead of punishing him, he sends Aaron. And now you're going to be reading through the next several chapters, five, six, seven, and on. There's Aaron right there with him when he goes and he faces Darth Vader. Pharaoh. He's got to walk all the way down that long way. He's got to go back into Egypt looking over his shoulder because they wanted to kill him at one point. And he's got to go face Pharaoh and look at him face to face and say, I want my people. I want them out of here. And that's what I want. But now he's going to have Aaron standing next to him. He's going to have his rod. He's going to have his hand. He's going to have God. And now Aaron. And look at all the blessings that the Lord gives. Moses had kindled God's wrath. Remember Job. Nobody in Scripture, always remember this, nobody in Scripture ever had bad enough things happen to them that ever floored God and called and had the Lord God Almighty bow down and worship them with sympathy because they had had it so rough. The Lord never could be upended from anybody's personal situation because He was always there perfectly strong enough to be there to help. Job is the one that I think of the most. See here how the Lord is speaking to Moses. God speaks fervently to Job and gives him an answer of his providence also. In Job's life, we know what happened. He lost his family, he lost his cattle, he lost his house, he lost everything but his nagging wife that kept telling him to curse God's name. His wife kept telling him, curse his name, get it over with and he will destroy you and you will finally be happy. And Job said, no. But when we go on in Job chapter 38, we read these verses. The Lord comes back and He says in chapter 38, verses 34 to 36, He asked the question, Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee? Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, Here we are? Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who hath given understanding to the heart? And here the Lord is giving rhetorical questions Who gave you your mouth? Who gave you your body? Who gave you your family? Who has given you everything? So why is it that we can't worship the Lord if we know that He created? What do you think here? Does anybody think here that you came from some 10 billion years of primordial slime that blew up out of nowhere in the heavens somewhere up in the sky? Where is the help and where is the faith in that? You have to have real blind faith to believe in evolution. Here we just read words that proves that God says who he says he was. I don't read anything about evolution here. I don't read anything about Charles Darwin or anything in here. Everything is centered on God. Moses knows it. Isaiah knows it. Jeremiah knew it. Ezekiel knows it. God himself knows it. And he gave us all the words to learn it. But yet there are millions of people out there that believe God is just some kind of fairy tale like the Easter bunny. And he has no power whatsoever. Defanged, nothing at all to add, and people actually live their lives in that utter lie and horror. Well, we just read what the Lord said to Job, Whenever you look up to the clouds, think of God. Moses is now at the point of despair. He decides he desires to concede his ambassadorship. Does God cast him down and rent him his angriest kindle? Of course not. He says, and he asked him another question. Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? And out of nowhere, the Lord responds to Moses and the sign, and he shows it to him. And just as God speaks through Moses, he will now speak through Aaron. He will give him the merciful words of Himself, and his older brother will be with him. And I love, all throughout Scripture, many times there have been these wonderful little friendships that have encouraged those that were in utter terror. And you will have that. You go to the Lord and you're feeling alone. The Lord will give you. He will give you someone to encourage you. Many times in Scripture, God has sent aides to those who He chooses. Remember Jonathan to David in 1 Samuel 18, verse 1. The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. What about when Elijah had been fed up and the Lord said, there are 7,000 that have not turned their knee to Baal, and eventually Elijah stays, the Lord uses him, and he goes up to heaven in a chariot of fire? 1 Kings 19.16 we read, And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. What about Saul when he's converted? There was a man named Ananias. And Ananias said to the Lord, this guy's public enemy number one. We don't need him looking inside of our little circle of Christians. He's going to expose us to the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin and they'll kill us all. Acts 9.10, And there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here. Verse 11, And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he prayeth." Paul, now Saul becomes Paul, he prayeth. And the Lord changed his heart and saved him. Remember how Saul said, Lord, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Have you ever said that in your life to the Lord? How do you expect the Lord to ever help you and open up the heavens to you and help you if you can't even say to Him, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? What do you want me to do, Lord? And you may have these five objections before you get to that point. It's a work in progress because we're all very slow learners when it comes to Christ. In fact, many of us are very kickers and screamers. But we need to get to the point where we are like Saul. Lord, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And even the Lord might come back to me and say, like he said to Paul, you know, Saul, thou hast kicked against the pricks. In essence, he was calling him as dumb as an ox, but I'm going to speak through you, and I'm going to use you, and you will see things that you have never imagined. And I love in John 1, verse 52, when he tells Nathanael and Philip, You don't underestimate me, as Nathanael had just said, as anything good come out of Nazareth. And he says, I'm going to show you the angels ascending and descending from heaven. That's power. And it's real. And I'm here to tell you that it's true. Well, here we have Aaron, here we have Moses, and we've always seen in Scripture, when two get together, it's always better than one. Ecclesiastes 4.9 says, two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up. God will have two witnesses. Deuteronomy 17.6, God uses two witnesses for the conviction of slaying of idolaters. In chapter 17, verse 6 in Deuteronomy, we read, at the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be put to death. Two witnesses were sent by God in Revelations 11.3, and I will give power unto my two witnesses. Two by two. And we see here as we go forward in verse 16, "...and how He shall be thy spokesman unto the people, and even He shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to Him instead of God. And thou shalt take this rod in thy hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs." And God bids Moses to take the rod of support. It will be his staff of authority. It will be Moses' word and his scepter. For it is God who takes the humble shepherd's crook and ordains it with great power. And it shows how Moses is nothing more, nothing less than a beautiful shepherd. And this is where it all starts. This is a massive, massive learning and an understanding of redemption. And it's shown through the gospel of Jesus Christ where Moses is speaking to the people. He will go, he will carry that rod beyond 80 years old, and he will take Aaron with him. And what happens next? Let's finish up by reading a little bit more. This is a great story. Verse 17, And thou shalt take this rod in thy hand wherewith thou shalt do signs. And Moses, verse 18, went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. And the Lord said unto Moses and Midian, Go, return into Egypt, for all the men are dead which sought thy life. Look at that. Look at all the things the Lord does for a five-part complaining Moses with all of his objections. What he does is he says, don't worry, I'll give you signs. I'll let you have miracles. Throw the rod down, it'll turn into a snake. Have you ever seen anybody do that yet? Has someone ever come up to you and thrown like a baseball bat down and it became a snake? I have never seen that. I'd like to see that. Well, he did it. And he says, take your hand, put it in your cloak. I'm going to show you the power of cleansing. It's leprous and then it's healed. And then he shows him the water, gives him Aaron. And then when it's all said and done, you go into two more verses. I have taken the lives of everyone that would hurt a hair on your head. I've already killed them. And I've cleared the way so that you can go in and do your job. Nobody's going to hurt you. And I can guarantee this, when the Lord said nobody would hurt him, He could have went up and punched Pharaoh in the face, and nothing would have happened to him. Not that he would do that. But the Lord said, you go in, I have cleared the way. Nobody's going to touch you. And I can promise you this, I don't know what's going to happen in all of our lives from this day forward, but when the Lord says He'll be with you, you can count on that. You can count on it, and the only way you're going to be encouraged and reminded of it every day is to be in the Word of God and to remember He is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. You wonder why you're getting older? You wonder why you're getting sicker? You wonder why it gets hard? Those are the effects of sin. But the Lord says, it's a short time. I mean, this is all, all of eternity. It goes around and around. You've got 70, 80 years, tiny years on this earth. Trust in Jesus Christ. When you leave this earth, you will have perfect health, perfect fellowship, everything you can't even begin to imagine on this earth. So why do we sit around and we whine about having, oh, I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I want to be here as long as possible. You know, people are spending millions of dollars to try to be younger. Nothing wrong with that. It's nothing wrong with a good quality of living. I don't know about Botox and all kinds of facial stuff and all. I don't know. I'm not going there. But you know, one of these days. You're basically in the stage of like a cocoon, like a butterfly. What is it? Egg, larva, pupa, and all that, and adult, whatever. You're in those three stages. It's the fourth one you want with God because that adult stage is getting out of this and going up with Him and having anything you can imagine. But the greatest thing that I can't wait is I want to see Jesus Christ. I can't wait to see Him. Because the only thing He's going to show me from this world is the holes in His hands and the lacerations on His body that He shed His blood on the cross for me. that I might be with him when I never deserved it. And that is what this story is all about. It's the opening of redemption, and it's so much more. And we'll get into that, Lord willing, next. Let's close with prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we just thank Thee for the drama. the real, perfect, non-manipulative, truthful drama of what happened here in this wonderful passage where we saw a man at 80 years old being groomed for the ministry, answering that call because Thou put it in his heart and spared over 2 million people and brought them out of horrible enslavement in Egypt and went on, and many of them A very, actually a small amount of them, but many, went to the promised land. Moses never saw the promised land. But Lord, we read here, when his time was done on this earth at the age of 120 years old on the mountain, he had a personal burial by thee and the angels. And it's incredible to see how Thou treatest Thy people. We thank Thee that we could be associated, that we know Thy Word, and we thank Thee, Lord, that we can read. 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. In the name of Jesus Christ, we thank Thee. Amen.