Appreciate your prayers for Betty tonight. She's not well. And Jack is over in Ireland, so she has a lot of responsibility on her. So we'll appreciate your prayers. And I have a long distance call from the Midwest today. Some of you who have been in the assembly for some years, remember our brother Henry Peterson. He was with us on a number of occasions, very tall brother, and gave us some very excellent ministry. He is facing quite major surgery, and like myself, he's not as young as he once was, so prayer will be appreciated for him. Now we're going to read in Exodus chapter 4 tonight. Why do you are praying? Would you just ask the Lord to teach me to say no? I've been saying yes to invitations for almost 50 years now, and very difficult for me to say no to the requests that we get from all over the country for meetings. They were wanting me to fly out to the Midwest. and take over there in the emergency situation. But I just have to realize that what I did in the 40s and 50s and early 60s, I'm just not able to do in the late 60s. So the better part of wisdom is not to attempt it. We'll read from the first verse of Exodus 4 tonight. I'd like to read the first 26 verses because this chapter may not be as well known to you some of them, and just that you might get the good out of our reading, we are going to read of the objections to the call of Moses. And as we read down, if you keep that in mind, you will get the story here unfolding before us. And Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my what they will say. The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, Arad. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, rod in his hand, that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom. And when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous of snow. And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again, and plucked it out of his bosom, and behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice the first sign, but they will believe the voice of the latter sign. And shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and poured upon the dry land, and the water which thou takeest 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 hitherto, 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 man, or the seeing, or the blind. Have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mother, and teach thee what thou shalt say. And he said, O my Lord, send thy prae thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. And the anger the Lord has kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know also that he can speak well, and also behold he come forth to meet thee, and when he see of 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 thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do sign. And Moses went and returned to Jephthah his father-in-law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return to the my brethren which are in Egypt, and see where they be yet alive. And Jephthahah said to Moses, Go in peace. And the Lord said unto Moses and Midian, Go, return unto Egypt, for all the men are dead, which stop thy life. Moses took his wife and his son, and set them upon an ass. And he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand. And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all these wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand. But I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. Thy say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me. And if thou refuse to let him go, I will behold, I will slay thy son, even my firstborn. And the king hath passed by the way in the inn, but the Lord met him and sought to kill him. Then Sapphora took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it Satan said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go. Then she said, A bloody husband art because of the circumcision. Last Wednesday night we're looking at the education of this man Moses. Have God prepared him for this great work to be done in delivering Israel out of Egypt? We saw him educated in the home. in the universities of Egypt, and then that postgraduate course for 40 years in the backside of the desert of Midian, so that from 40 years of age, a man in his time, until he was an old man of 80, he is tending sheep in the backside of the desert, surely a terrible waste of time if we were to look at, according to him, human standard. And yet God was preparing this man. And we saw that apparently toward the end of that 40 years and millions, he received three things. He received a manifestation of God. Now, I would not imagine that that was the only time, by any means, that God revealed himself to Moses and spoke to him during those 40 years. But this is the climax of it where he's now being called and commissioned to this great work of delivering Israel. So he received a manifestation of God. He was sent on a mission for God. And he received a message from God. Now there's been no question whatsoever, as you read chapter 3, Moses was certainly called of God. Everything would prove that. And yet, the chapter we have been reading here, chapter 4, is filled with objections to his carrying out that call. Now two of those objections were by Moses himself. Two of them were by God. And there seemed so strange in contrast to what we have in chapter 3 that are undoubtedly are important lessons for us to learn from the record of this chapter. The first objection that Moses raises is the unbelief of the people. He says, They will not believe me, neither hearken to my voice, for they will say, The the Lord hath not appeared unto thee. Now God's answer is very instructive. You notice, first of all, the Lord says to him in verse 2, What's that in my hand? He said that's a rod. Undoubtedly, the shepherd's staff that he had carried as he cared for the sheep of his father-in-law. Just an ordinary shepherd's staff. staff, the tool of his trade, as it were. And yet, this ordinary staff becomes the means of authenticating his mission. And not only that, as we trace the story on, from this time on, it's the rod of God. And this rod is used in a marvelous way down there in Egypt. Very often it was employed in bringing the plagues on Egypt from God. What is that in my hand? I believe God is saying that to every one of us tonight. What's in your hand? When you say there isn't much there? Well, it wasn't much in Moses' hand, just an ordinary stick, just an ordinary staff. But because he was willing to use what was in his hand, according to the command of God, that which was an ordinary shepherd's staff became the rod of God. Now what God has put in your hand, although it may seem small and quite unimportant, important, if you will use it for God, God alone knows the possibility of it. If you carefully read through your Bible, you'll read again and again of God taking up some small, insignificant, ordinary thing and using it to His glory. down on the margin of my Bible, eight of these little things. Now there are many more. But I'll just give these to you. We begin with Moses' rod here. I don't need to say anything more about that. We go to Judges, Chapter 3, and we read about a man who does not go. Now that was simply the rod pointed at the end with a metal tip that they gilded the ox on. We, just as we would use a whip on a horse, they had an ox go. And yet through the ox goad of Shambhar, there was a victory won for God. We go to Judges chapter 7, and you remember the story of Gideon. He had lamps. He and his men had lamps. Just ordinary lamps. And pictures over those lamps, which were broken at the proper moment. And a great victory was won for God. We go to Judges chapter 15. We see a man by the name of Thompson. And with enemies all around him, he picks up the jawbone of an ass. An ass had died there. It's carcass has not been stripped of all the flesh by the wild birds and beef, and he picks up the jawbone of it, and he wins a great victory for God. We've all been familiar from our earliest days with the story of David and Goliath, and And we know it was a sinful shepherd's slain with a stone out of the brook that was used of God in the hands of David to bring down that mighty giant. And then we go to 1st King 17, David's record is in 1st Samuel 17. We go to 1st King chapter 17, and you remember the widow, the widow to whom Elijah you the prophet was sent and when she got when the prophet got there he finds a widow in the time of famine a widow was just a handful of meal in a barrel and just enough oil left in the cruise to moisten it to make a cake out of it and yet god provided for not a little widow and her son but for the prophet for many days by a barrel of meal that wasted not, and the cruise of oil that did not fail. We go into the New Testament, John chapter 6, and you remember those thousands of people that had followed the Lord all day, and they were hungry, and the Lord said to his disciples, Give you them to eat. Why, they said, We haven't anything. Now there is a little lab here. He's got his lunch along with him. five loaves, and two small fishes. But what are they amongst so many? Well, that which had been in the hand of the lad was put in the hand of the Lord, and he fed the five thousand men, beside women and children, and there was all baskets left over. Our Lord, according to Luke chapter 21, was standing in the temple one day. And as they passed by, the worshippers coming in, as they passed by the castes that were sent there to receive their offerings, he saw many casting in a lot. And he didn't say a thing about them. But then there's a woman came in, a widow woman, and he noted that she cast in two mites. which make a farthing. Now, the Bible very definitely tells us she didn't have a farthing. She had a farthing. But it was in two mites. That was just like having a dime. Ten trance. But you've got it in the form of two nickels. Now, you see, you could keep one for yourself and give the other one. percent for the Lord you'd like to have to get a new hat that weekend it wouldn't fit on your head well I gave forty percent but she didn't keep one of the months she passed in all that she had and the Lord commended her and men have been preaching about her ever since and I'm quite sure when I say that in all probability millions of dollars have been given to the Lord's work to the example of that little woman who gave the two mites that she had. So you see it is the question of having a full lot. People say if I had a million dollars I give half of it the Lord's work. I doubt it. I doubt it. If you had a million dollars you'd be figuring out how you you get too many. It isn't what you'd give if you had it. It's what you'd give out of what you do have. That's what it can be. It isn't if you'll have some big thing in your hand. It's what you have in your hand if you'll allow the Lord to use it. Then, like this rod in the hand of Moses, it can be used to the glory wrong just because you haven't a lot don't think you can't do anything and so he says now cast this rod down and he casts it down and it becomes a serpent and uh moses the queen is from it now he says take it up for the text and he catches hold the tail and lo and behold it becomes a rod again in his hand. Now, surely that was a manifestation. I do there are many lessons in that, but we can't linger over each of these details. But surely that was a manifestation of the power of God. If I were to cast a rod down the floor here, will it be a rod down there? And when I picked it up again, there'll still be a rod. But here's the power of God. Now, what's Moses being told? He's being told this. Moses, you are hesitating and unbelief because you say the people won't believe you. They won't follow you. Now look, I'm giving you my power and you'll be able to demonstrate that you have the power of God with you. Now, who is it that we God's people are to follow? leaders. We are to follow those who manifestly have the power of God with them. What's with the Lord now? Put your hand in your bosom, and he puts it in. Now bring it out. And there's a hand white with a laparole. You can imagine how startled Moses was. Now put it back in again. And he puts it in. sin again, and he brings it out again, and it's recovered just the same. What is God teaching you? In the first sign, it's the power of God. In the second sign, it's the purity of God. You see, Moses, like all men, including you and me, had a heart that was leprous with sin. But people can't see what's in the heart. But they can't see what's in the hand. And what the hand does is just the manifestation of what's in the heart. And when he put his hand on his reckless heart, as it were, I'm speaking figuratively, when that hand became that much. When you and I have a sinful heart, it's going to manifest itself in sinful actions. but God is able to give purity he puts his hand back in the heart again because when God is going to purify us he begins in the heart not in the hand not in the head but in the heart and he puts his hand back over the heart again brings it out and is restored whole again who are we to follow as leaders in our Christian life the man who has the power of God with him and the man who's been purified by God whose hand his action his activities, his works manifested in a work in his heart by God then the third sign if they wouldn't believe either one of these was to take some water and pour it on the land and that which had been water would become blood now this became the first plague in Egypt when Moses went down there the first plague that fell on Egypt was the turning of the water into blood in the river Nile so there was death and only death. We looked at that on Sunday morning. And so you have the three signs that God gave to prove, as it were, to Moses that the people would believe him, that he'd be able to demonstrate that God had met him and God had commissioned him to deliver that. Power, punishment, these were the authenticating signs of the man who was sent by God. But Moses' objections aren't over yet, if the unbelief of the people has been answered by God. Now he's going to object by his own unfitness, but he said, Lord, I'm not an eloquent man. verse 10, unslow a speech, and of a slow tongue. Now what a difference that was. If you read in Acts chapter 7, you'll read that when he was 40 years of age, after he finished his university career, it says he was mighty in word and in deed. It's literally the amount 40 years in the desert with God, and he learned that talk didn't amount to him. And he's willing to say now, I'm not eloquent, Lord, I'm slow of speech, but he has to realize that while it's well for him to realize his limitations, it wasn't a question of eloquence that's going to be needed down there in Egypt. It's a question of God being with him. Now that is what is needed. God can use eloquence. Some of God's servants for the years have been eloquent orators, but eloquence in itself is of absolutely no use in the service of God. The thing is, whether a person's eloquent or whether slow speech Moses said he was, is for God to be using their mouths. Now if God takes the lips of any man and fills them with his message, that's going to be a blessing to those who are privileged to listen to. You could listen to a most eloquent sermon that might spur you emotionally, carry off your feet and you'd go out gasping at the greatness of the preacher and that wouldn't do you near as much good as a dozen words that came from the stammering lips of someone who had a message from God and so God says no I made your money Moses and I'll be with you but even then Moses hesitated you see this flesh that we've got in us that we have to contend with all the time this flesh is either impulsive it wants to run ahead of God or it wants to lag behind we are told in Psalm 137 I believe it is be not of the horse or as the mule, whose mouth must be held in with biff and bridle. Now a horse, you've got to hold it in. If it's a good horse, a spirited horse, you need a biff and bridle, and you've got to hold it in, or to run away and cause all kinds of trouble, and also like a flesh. This flesh that we've got in us, it would run ahead of God and everybody else if it were not controlled. But then, not on the horse, but the mule. Now, you don't have too much trouble with a mule running away. You have a lot of trouble to get around the talk. And that's like the flesh, you see. We either want to run ahead of God and just jump into things with fleshly energy and all that and say, let's get something done. Never mind what we're doing, let's get it done. If we had time, we went to 2 Samuel chapter 18. There's a man there by the name of Ahimians. Now Ahimians was one of those men. He wanted to preach. You know, some people get the platform each. They're just not happy unless they're on the platform. Well, my advice to all such is get over that age. You can make a bigger fool of yourself in five minutes on the platform. Then you can in 50 years if you stay on. But some have got a platform each. They've got to get up. They've got to hear themselves preaching. Ahimia's was like that. They'd have a battle. And he didn't know what had gone on at all. But it comes to the king to the cat number of hosts. And let me run with a tidings of it. Or what are you going to say? Well, I don't know anything to say. Just let me run anyway. here. And back he comes again. Let me run. Let me run. What he's going to say? Well, I don't know anything to say, but just let me run anyway. And at last, the captain let him run. And when he appeared before the king, he didn't have a finger's right. Now, how good, how stiff. It reminds me of the young fellow, young preacher, got up in a Quaker meeting, an And he got up quite confident, you know. He had just graduated, and of course he was bowed down with a weight of all of his knowledge, and he got up there as though he was a world conqueror. And when he looked out over the congregation, he forgot even his own name. And he tried half a dozen times to get going, and it just wouldn't come. And at last he slumped off down like a milliator from the platform. And an old Quaker brother got him after he said, If thou hadst gone up the way thou cameest down, thou wouldst have come down the way thou wentest up. Well, there's a whole lot of good psalm philosophy in that, I'll tell you. But we have to guard against the forwardness of flesh and the backwardness of flesh. Now here's this man of God, Moses, in spite of all that God has done for him, him and he's trying he still doesn't want to go and he says oh Lord send thy praise ye by the hand of him whom thou wilt stand and the anger the Lord is kindled against alright he said Moses I'll give you your brother to do it he can talk and so Aaron goes along with him now Moses didn't get anything God said I'll tell you Moses what to say, and you tell Aaron what to say. And Aaron will say it for you. Now, what does that answer go around the mulberry bush? If he just would like God to speak to him, and then he'd say it. But he's ready to go now. Isn't that like that? You know, if we just have some arm of flesh to lean on, we'll do it. Do you remember the other man and the judges. He wouldn't go until he got a woman, Deborah, to go along with him. What are you, a brave state? But we're like that, you see. The flesh is like that. We don't like to lock doubt in faith ourselves. But give us somebody to lean on a little, and we'll go ahead. And Aaron, you remember, was more of a curse than a blessing. I say that advantageous. remember he's the one who made the golden calf at Sanyan good numbers chapter 12 and you find him finding fault along the sister of Moses and his wife interfering in their family affair which is a dangerous thing to do and so while this crutch that Moses got enabled him to go ahead yet the crutch was really no used to him whatsoever. But now, just one or two more things. You'll notice in verse 20, I was in joy that. Somebody called it God's expeditionary force. Now here's God sending out his army to deliver about 3 million slaves. What's the army? A man, his wife, two little boys and an ass. What an arm. And yet that's what's going down to Egypt to challenge the mightiest power in the world. A man, his wife, two little thongs, and an ass. Wait a minute, I left something up. It says in the end of verse 20, and Moses took the rod of God and the rod of the earth. his hand. That means they're all ready. You see? It's not a shepherd's snap any longer. It's the rod of God. And to look at the... Suppose you'd met that little company, go, where are you going? Oh, say, we're going down to deliver the Israelites. You're, what? We're going down to deliver them? The Israelites. You mean to say that you and your wife and the two little boys are going to deliver? No, the rod of God is going The rod of God is on us. And that's what we're looking at Sunday morning. The marvelous outpouring of God's power in judgment on Egypt, breaking the back of this proud monarch and delivering God to you. But I know you're wondering about those verses 24 and 25 and 26. After all, this has taken place. we're reading in those verses that when Moses stopped at an inn on the way from Midian to Egypt the Lord stopped to kill him. Oh, isn't that true? Isn't that most unexpected? Here's a man God has called, here's a man God has equipped, here's a man that finally has overcome his reluctance and is going to carry out the will of God and God meets them and tries to kill him. Now, it's very brief, you'll notice, the record, so there's a lot of questions that can't be answered. We don't know how this took place. We don't know whether it was a sudden sickness that struck him down or whether it was a blow in the dark from God himself. We don't know. But Moses here is on the verge of dying. He's so helpless, so thick and helpless, that his wife has to do what he normally would do. Now it was the responsibility of the father in an Israelite family to see that his sons were circumcised. That was the sign of the covenant that God had entered into with Israel. And in Genesis chapter 17 and verse 14, we are definitely told that the male child that was not circumcised was to be cut off from Israel. What you see, it was the father's responsibility. Now it becomes quite apparent from the reading of these verses that Moses' son had not been circumcised. the Lord met him and brought him to the very point of death and I think the few verses that we have here indicate very clearly the reason the child had not been circumcised was because the mother objected to it now remember she was a Midianite she was the daughter of a priest of Midian she was not an Israelite at all and I think this points out the danger that's inherent in a mixed marriage have you ever wondered why amongst all the mighty men of Israel you never read of Moses' son Gershom and Eliezer have no place prominent place place in all that transpired after this in Israel. And yet Aaron's son did. Aaron, I might say, wasn't half a man that Moses was, but Aaron's son became the high priest. And Aaron's family They had a prominent place in Israel, but not the family of Moses, great man though he was. No, I think it's very evident that the reason why Moses was brought to the point of death here was because he had not obeyed God. His wife undoubtedly had objected. You get that from her word. She did not like this. of circumcision, but when she saw her husband about to die, it must have been that he commanded her to circumcise the child because she does it. It wasn't the mother's place to come, but he's lying the point of death. But he undoubtedly pointed out to her that he had disobeyed God. And the child had to be circumcised. And she did it. And she said to Moses, A bloody husband, Harkal to me. He just didn't like this at all. But it wasn't a question of whether she liked it or not. It was a question of God's word. What a tragedy. But the wife of this great man of God, instead of being a helpless, him was a hindrance and almost caused him to die before he even got back to egypt a wife can be a tremendous help and blessing to her husband in his service for the lord but tragically she can be a hindrance a terrible hindrance if she objects with a carry note of the word of God. And I'm quite sure that in my lifetime I have seen men who have been turned aside from the path of God's will for them because they listen to their wise objection. On the other hand, I've seen many a man. He's been encouraged, he's been helped, he's been strengthened in the things of God by his wife being a true help with him. The wise, you can be a tremendous help or you can be a tragic one of those. The poor on desolate was an ingress too. But she went ahead and the child is circumcised. Now I want you to notice it says cut off the foreskin of her son, verse 25. Now she had two. Apparently one of been circumcised, but the other hadn't. Now I'm wondering, and all I can do is wonder, the verses ahead of this have said, Israel is my firstborn. This is to be spoken to Pharaoh. If thou wilt not let my son go, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. Now Moses is going down to deliver the firstborn of Egypt, of Israel, and to bring judgment under God on the firstborn in Egypt. And yet it seems as though his own firstborn wasn't marked with a sign of the covenant. How could he go down to Pharaoh and say, if you don't obey God, God's going to slay your son? If Pharaoh had known the ways of God, he said, Moses, is your son of obeyed the word of God? Have you obeyed God in connection with your son? Is he circumcised? You see? There has to be things put right in the family before this man could be used of God. I believe that's the lesson that God will have us to learn from this. God cannot use us in public if we are not right Christ. And just as soon as there's obedience here, then Moses recovers. He goes on down to Egypt. We meet with Brother Aaron. He goes on down to Egypt, and he's used of God in a mighty way. May God help us to put some of these practical lessons into effect in our own they're done and that is right Father in heaven we kindly that we've been able to remember tonight many who are in need of our prayers come sick come sorrow come with other circumstances in their life or in their home that calls for our sympathy and for our publication on their behalf we pray for him we ask our blessings on the law and we pray lord the five words may find a place in our heart and in our life in our hope provide you in our savior's precious