God educates individuals for service in a threefold manner, as exemplified by Moses' life. His early education occurred in the home, followed by formal schooling in Egypt, and culminating in practical training as a shepherd in the wilderness. This multi-faceted preparation, though not always formal or conventional, is essential for effective service to God. The sermon emphasizes that while worldly knowledge and academic achievement can be consecrated to God, they are secondary to spiritual formation and a divine commission. Ultimately, true readiness for service comes from a manifestation of God, a mission from God, and a message from God, as seen in Moses' later ministry.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
I'd like us to read tonight Exodus chapter 2. Now, personally, I think this clock is fast, and I think I'm sure that I'm so sure that I'm going to totally disregard it, and I'm going to go by my watch. Exodus chapter 2 verse 1 And there went a man of the house of Levi And took to wife a daughter of Levi And a woman conceived and bare a son And when she saw him that he was a goodly child She hid him three months And when she could not longer hide him She took for him an ark of bulrushes And dot with slime and a pit And put the child therein and the flags by the river's brink, and the sisters stood afar off to wit what would be done to him.
And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked along by the river's side. And when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' guilden. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages.
And the woman took the child and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh. Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses. And she said, because I drew him out of the water. Now that's all I'm going to read, although I would like to be able to cover more than those verses. But here we have brought before us a whole that I believe could be an example to all of us. I have been saying how important it is for us in these difficult days to have a happy assembly life, a place where we can come together and enjoy fellowship together.
That's very necessary in these days. Now, I believe another thing that needs to be increasingly strengthened as the days become more dark and difficult, and that is our home life. You know, it's a wonderful thing to have a Christian hope, and I believe that we should be willing to put into it everything we possibly can of time and strength and whatever else may be needed to strengthen the Christian character of our hope. I believe that that is the safest place for us if we have a good, strong Christian hope good strong Christian assembly.
Now, I believe those two will keep up, no matter how dark the days may become. I want to talk to you tonight a little about the education of one who is to serve the Lord. We have been looking at the land of Egypt as illustrating this world. We've been looking at its leader as illustrating Satan, the God and Prince of this world. Now God raised up a liberator for those who were in bondage in Egypt, a man by the name of Moses, whose name occurs over 900 times in our Bible.
So you can see that what we will say about him, even if we devote two studies to this, in comparison with all that God has to say about him in his word. He's one of the outstanding characters of our Bible. And the more I read and study about this man, Moses, the more I realize the tremendous number of practical lessons that are interwoven in his life, as we have it recorded in the Scripture. Sunday morning, possibly, I speak. pointing out what a beautiful picture of Christ is, but I'm thinking of him tonight more as an illustration of a Christian, a believer, whom God would use in service for him.
Now, God only uses educated men and women. I want that to sink in. God only uses educated men and But before you dash right out now and take some evening studies to get your BA and your PhD, let me tell you that God educates in a threefold way, at least not the way that of Moses. Now sometimes the first one is mythic. I believe it would be God's desire that it should not be mythic.
But we find here this man, Moses, being educated in the home as a son. Then we have him being educated in the schools of Egypt as a scholar. And then we have him educated in the wilderness of Midian as a shepherd. Now, I believe that those three things, although they be different, of course, in the life of each of us, but if we want to serve the Lord, I believe we have a pattern here.
Now, we were reading about this whole. In which Moses, or whatever his name was, have you ever wondered what Moses' mother called him? You know, he didn't have a name until he was taken back to Pharaoh's daughter and we don't know what age he was, but he certainly wasn't a baby. And, but whatever his name was to begin with, we were reading about the home in which he received his early training. And I am convinced that that was the formative training.
He received this other training, and I believe it was all necessary, and God used it all. But here, in those earliest years, I believe the pattern of Moses' life was set, and it was set in the home. Now that's what a Christian home can do, and that's what a Christian home should do. all are not privileged to be born in and reared in a Christian home. It's a great privilege. We don't realize it at the time. I certainly did not appreciate my Christian home when I was a boy or a young teenager.
I was hurt by the restraints that were placed upon me, and I did not appreciate it. But after I was raised, And later when I had a home of my own, and to this present day, I can look back with real appreciation on my Christian hope. So much could be said about these verses we read, and about this hope. You may remember that some time ago, in one of our studies on Hebrews 11, we were looking at these parents of Moses. Their actions were dictated by faith.
Now I'd like to point out to you from this chapter here a few things or areas we might say in which their faith was a parent and in which that faith was operative. In Exodus chapter 2 it would seem until the mother took the leave When you get to Hebrews 11 and verse 23, you find that the parents were united in this. Now that's the way it should be. Sometimes, and very often, in connection with the rearing of the family, the mother has to take the lead.
Certainly she is the one who gives birth to the child. who, certainly in the earliest years of the life, is more connected with the rearing of that child and the father, so that the mother's influence on a child is tremendous, and that is as it should be. But nevertheless, God intends that the parents, both father and mother, should be united in this. faith working together, that is referred to in Hebrews 11 and verse 23, so that you Christian mothers have a great privilege and a great responsibility.
And you Christian fathers have a great responsibility of cooperating with your wife in the reeling of the family and Now, I would suggest that, first of all, there was faith for conception. If you have been at our studies on the condition that existed in Egypt, at that time you remember, But Pharaoh had commanded that all of the male children should be cast into the river Nile.
He had commanded that the midwives should end the life of the boy baby in Egypt. Now when you think of that, you can understand how people would say, no time to bring children into the world. If it's God's will for a child to be born, don't you get in the way of that child not being born. Or you'll answer to God. Think of what would have been lacking.
Think of what would have missed if these parents, now they had It doesn't come out in Exodus chapter 2, but it's very evident. Well, it does come out about Miriam. They had a boy and a girl, and it would have been so easy under these circumstances when all the children, the boy children, were condemned to death of the river Nile to have said, well, we're not going to take a chance on having a boy. born into our family to be fed to the crocodile. Listen, if God wants Moses to be born, Moses won't be eaten by the crocodiles, you can be sure of that.
Many years ago, a beloved brother in the Lord said to my wife, that you know I'd be afraid to have killed him for fear they would die and go to hell. she looked at him and said, the Lord's not going to give me and each of them to go to hell. They're all going to be saved. Now that is the faith that's gone on. And they had faith for conception. And although they had Aaron and Miriam, yet this boy is born under these conditions.
And not only have they faith for conception, they had faith for concealment when the mother saw and the father saw this was a goodly child and the margin of Stephen's account in Acts chapter 7 is very delightful fair unto God I think that's a lovely way to look at a babe when born into the world I heard of a couple of Calvinists recently read And they went into a home where the little baby had been born. And you know what they said to the mother?
I hope it's only a length for it to go to head. Isn't that a wicked thing to do? Isn't that an awful thing to say? Some have wondered that I have spoken out so straight from the shoulder of a lady against that doctrine. My intent is to make sense. my blood curse. But think of that. Think of a mother looking into the face of her little babe, a Christian mother, and wondering if that's one of their life. Listen, mother, if you rear that babe for God, God will save it, and it'll likely be a blessing.
And if it doesn't turn out to be one of their life, God will forgive you. It'll be quite all right like him some non-elects get to heaven as long as they trust and trust. Yes, she thought was fair unto God. And so she concealed against the king's command. She concealed. And now right there, I haven't tried to pursue it. Some of you young Bible students, follow this up. One of Moses' characteristics from all to his wife what he was a hidden man. He's hidden in the home here.
Then when they couldn't do that do you know how a three-month-old baby can cry? Well, apparently Moses had a pretty good pair of lungs. Because by the time he got three months old, everybody in the neighborhood knew there was a baby down there in Amram's house. And so she hit him in the ark, that little ark that blew up. And later, God hit him in the rock. Remember, God said, there is a cleft in the rock, and God put Moses and put his hand over him.
That's what God will do. If you and I hide them as it were in our home, hide them from those to hide them in the ark of our faith when we have to see them go out into the world God will hide them in the rock then you remember that on the month of transfiguration Moses was hidden in the cloud and last of all he was hidden in an unmarked grave no man knows that sepulchre. The old poem says that we have to learn in two.
No man knows that sepulchre and no man saw it. The angels of God have turned aside and laid the dead man down. Yes, God hid him in the grave with his own hand when his life of service was in. There was not only then, faith for concealment, but there was faith for committal. And so I said the time came when they couldn't keep the little one in the house any longer. And so she had to commit it to an ark, a bull rush.
Now that wouldn't be easy, would it, Mother? Even though you made that ark as carefully as you could, even though you lined it, and made it waterproof it wouldn't be easy would it to take your little three month faith and put it in that ark and put it out in the river and not that wouldn't be easy wouldn't it but they had faith to believe that God would take care of that ark and the little one end but I want you to notice they were practical about it too they used common sense.
Now faith believes God. Faith believes that God will do what we can't do. But faith does everything that it can do. You see, there's nothing lazy about faith. It isn't just holding your eye and saying, well, if God wants it, He'll arrange it, not a bit of it. Notice what they did. They did something very, very practical. It says in verse 4, his sisters stood afar off to wit what would be done to him, the first babysitter in the Bible. Yes, faith launched the little one out, trusting in God.
And faith put the older sister to watch what would happen. And she was right there at the right time, you see. When the daughter of Carol wonders what to do with this little one, of course there are all sorts of traditions that have been built up around this that I'm not even going to bother to go into. But she's there to suggest or to ask if the princess would like her to go and get one of the Hebrew women. not she will have got the mother and so the mother here has given her baby back again and gets paid for taking care of her own baby now it's a pretty good setup isn't it you'll always find that God will do more for you than you expect just honor him and he'll do more for you than you ever thought he was so there was faith here for commitment But I think before we leave that, there was space
for the culmination of the whole thing. How will this all turn us? She cares for the baby. We don't know how at age she had to take him back. What she takes him back, wisdom to the princess. He's weird in the palace. But I believe the faith of Anne. Ram and Jochabed followed Moses, and the happy culmination of it, I believe, was because of their faith. It says when Moses would come to years, he was 40 years of age, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
But now let's move on just in close. He's in the palace now. He's there as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, whom, if we can trust the records of Egypt, herself became the ruler of the country upon the death of her father. Stephen tells us what is not recorded here in the Acts. Stephen tells us in his great message recorded in Acts chapter 7, that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt.
And he was mighty in words and indeed. So that was the second phase of his education. He undoubtedly would receive the finest education that it was possible. Now at that time, Egypt was the leading world power, and they came from far and near to sit at the feet of the great teachers of Egypt, even from groups with all of its knowledge. They came from there to sit at the feet of the world-renowned teachers of Egypt.
Now, Moses would have the very final education there and I shall not take time to deal with the various disciplines that were taught in what we would call the colleges and universities of Egypt at that time but there's no doubt about it that Moses had the advantage of all of it and there's no doubt about it that God used this in a coming day Now, just as all are not privileged to be born and reared in a Christian home, so don't get that education, all are not privileged to attend college and university, they don't have that opportunity for education.
But, although these two can be used by God, They are not absolutely necessary. Many a man, many a woman that has not had a Christian home as a background has turned out to be a great saint of God, and a great servant of God. And many a person who has never gone to college or to university has turned out to be a most fruitful servant of the Lord. Do you remember it was said Peter and John when they saw that they were ignorant and unlearned men that's in Acts chapter 4 now that doesn't mean what we attribute to ignorant and unlearned it doesn't signify that at all the Greek word signify unlettered and untouched that is they saw that things were not men who had attended the schools of the day.
They had not gone through the rabbinical schools to learn the religious lore taught in those schools either. In contrast to that, Paul had been to both. I think there's every reason to believe that Paul came from a wealthy family, and he undoubtedly had a good, what we would call, secular education. He fought at the feet of the leading Jewish teacher of the day, Gamaliel, and so he was the opposite. Now, God used John and Peter, and God used Paul, you see, and God used Moses.
So, whether of this formal education or not, that does not in itself determine whether a person is going to be used of God. But if there is the acquiring of knowledge in this sense, that can be consecrated to God. And scholarship can assist spirituality but it can never be a substitute for it. If there are scholarship, good.
We wouldn't have had this English Bible if there hadn't been scholars, great Christian scholars. We would not have had many of the helps that we have today in our Christian life if it were not for Christian scholars. But their scholarship was never permitted to supplant their spirituality. And so now that Moses has graduated from the very final schooling in Egypt, he has to take a postgraduate course.
And it's a very interesting story here. Read the rest of the chapter, and read chapter 3. And you'll see that his postgraduate course was in the wilderness of Nibbion. Now he's the son in the family, in the hope. He's the scholar in the schools, but he was a shepherd in the wilderness. In the schools of Egypt, he learned the wisdom of the world. In the wilderness, he learned the wisdom of the world. ways of God. And for 40 years, 40 years, what a waste of time, some would say.
You know, we're in such a hurry. You know, the whole world's going to go to hell if we don't get out after them as soon as we graduate from high school. Now, that isn't God's way. There are far too many on the mission field today because we're sending novices out there that haven't learned the ways of God and you check with any missionary society and the number of those who go for one term and come back and never go back again is staggering. Why?
We're sending novices. What would you say? They graduate from a nest. That doesn't mean a thing, if that's all they've done. It can be used for God, but that in itself does not fit a person to serve the Lord. I tell you, when we started in May as years ago, half of the faculty there were preachers who came out of busy lives to give a month or two to the students. And we came off the battlefield, the battlefield of the Lord, to give them some practical instruction that we had learned for ourselves in the spiritual warfare.
And from the very beginning, we drilled into them, Emmaus is not a preacher factory. You didn't come here to become a preacher. You didn't come here to become a missionary. You came here to learn how to study the word of God. And what I said for Amaz goes for every school in the whole world. God sent his only son into this world to save this world. And he sent him as obeying. And then after he'd grown to manhood, he kept him for 30 years in obscurity.
before the Son of God went out and preached. Yes, you know, if we get back to God's life, when God gets an instrument sharpened the way he wants it, he can do more with them in one week and could be accomplished in the lifetime if that man or woman hasn't been prepared by God. kept this man for 40 years in the wilderness and down there in Egypt they're groaning and moaning and weeping and crying and dying and that God appointed the livers back in the wilderness looking after a bunch of sheep.
That's not man's way, but that's God's way. And then when the man gets went. After he had served his postgraduate course there in the wilderness of Middy, God sent him up. And what did he do? He brought out possibly three or three and a half million slaves. Wasn't that worth waiting 40 years to be able to do? He prided on his own. After he'd been through the schools of Egypt if we had read on this chapter, he went out and he saw an Egyptian taskmaster beating one of his brother one Israel and he rolled up his sleeves and he hit him and the man dropped dead.
Did that deliver Israel? No. Moses had to run for his long You see, that's trying to do with fleshly energy and ability what it isn't God's time to do. But when he came back, after 40 years in the wilderness, he didn't have to roll up his sleeves. For out there in the wilderness, and I leave this with you, read chapter 3 of Exodus, and you'll find that he got three things in the wilderness. He got a manifestation of God. That's the only thing that fits a man or a woman, his service partner.
God revealed himself to you. He got a mission from God. And the only person that ought to go in the Lord's service that Homer brought is one who's got their mission from the Lord. And he got a message. for the Lord. And when he went down to Egypt, he said, Errol, I'd like to have a little dialogue with you. I don't think that you're treating these people right. He didn't say that at all. That's not the way men of God taught. He walked into the palace of the mightiest monarch in the world, and he said, Dostoevsky over, let my people go.
Israel is my son, and if thou wilt not let my son go, I'll kill thy son. Imagine telling a man who could have just motioned with his finger, and a guard would have taken the head off both Moses and Aaron. But these were men of God. Say he had had a manifestation of God to him. He'd been sent on a mission by God. and yet a message from God that is what will do the church and the work good in these days that we pray Father in heaven we pray that thou wilt make each one of us here tonight just what thou wouldst have us to do each one of us is a little different all our background is different our character is different our abilities are different but we pray that thou would take each one of us young and old mold us, make us what thou have us for thee and then use us
to thy blood oh what thou hast done in the past what thou art doing today to those who are yielded to thee granted may be true of all of us In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.