The Deliverer Departs, Part 1

Turn with me in your Bible, if you would, to Exodus chapter 4. Exodus chapter 4. We're almost done with chapter 4. We'll finish it next week. And as we continue our verse-by-ver study of the book of Exodus and the life of Moses, we know that Moses was the predetermined deliverer of Israel. And God had a plan. He had a perfect plan. It involved a man. And he had quite a conversation with Moses in Exodus chapter 3, in the first part of chapter 4.

And now Moses is ready to do what God has asked him to do. God has wiped away every excuse that Moses had. And God had promised His presence and power and provision to take care of Moses as he would fulfill the plan of God in his life. And now it's time for the deliverer, Moses, to depart and do the work of the Lord. But today, the deliverer departs. And we're going to look at number one: the request of Moses, and number two, the return of Moses.

Exodus chapter 4, we pick up the narrative in verse number 18. Then Moses departed and returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, Please let me go that I may return to my brethren who are in Egypt.

And see if they are still alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. Now the LORD said to Moses and Midian, Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life. So Moses took his wife and his sons and mounted them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also took the staff of God in his hand. And the LORD said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power. but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.

Then you will say to Pharaoh, Thus says the LORD Israel is my son, my firstborn. So I said to you, Let my son go, that he may serve me. But you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn. In these few verses in Exodus chapter 4, we learn much about how we are to live. Today. We're going to look first of all at the request from Moses.

Three things I want you to notice about this request. Number one is the explanation. Number two is the endorsement.

Number three is the encouragement. The first thing Moses does is go back to his father-in-law Jethro and ask permission.

He was demonstrating his submission to his God-given authority on earth. Now, Moses is not 18. Moses is 80. So Moses has a command from God: go. So, why does he go back to Jethro and say, please let me go?

What if Jethro said, no, you can't go? What would Moses have done? Now, that's not the story. In fact, you get, number two, the endorsement from Jethro.

Jethro says, Go in peace, Moses. Go in peace. Now, remember, Moses had married Zipporah, his daughter, had a couple of boys, so he's going to take his daughter and his grandsons away from him. And in the Jewish culture, family is a big thing. Living together as a family is a big deal in Jewish culture. Now listen, to be a great leader in anything, you must understand sub to authority. If you can 't follow, you cannot lead. You must know how to follow. And Moses was a man who knew how to follow. You know, today we live in a world where authority is a problem for every.

Nobody likes to follow rules. No one likes to be under authority. We love our autonomy. We love our independence. We love to be by ourselves. We don't want anybody telling us what to do. And yet, the Bible is very clear about. The order of authority in the family, and how children are to honor their mother and father. Maybe you learn from his example. I mean, remember, Moses is the greatest leader Israel ever had. The greatest? God said so. And so, therefore, we must learn this lesson of submission to authority and respect and honor.

To our parents and to our father-in-law and to our mother-in-law. Very important. Then comes the encouragement. The encouragement. God says to Moses the fourth time, Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are what?

They're dead. Now, to Moses, that had to be great encouragement. Because you see, God was sending him back to the place where they wanted to take his life. So God would know about those internal fears. God would know about all the problems Moses would be wrestling with on the inside. Moses had tried to explain everything on the outside, but maybe inside. He was still wondering, what about those people who wanted to kill me? How am I going to face them? What will I say to them? And God, having already gone ahead of Moses.

Preparing the way, smoothing the path as only God can do, says, Moses, let me give you a word of encouragement here.

All those guys who wanted to kill you, guess what? They're all dead. They're all gone. There's going to be other people who want to kill you. He didn't tell them that. But he did say they're all dead. So Moses would have great encouragement, would give him great delight in serving his God. You know, God wants you to have delight in serving him. You know, God doesn't want you to be miserable in your service for the king. God gifts you in such a way that you're going to love to do what He's gifted you to do.

See, God didn't gift me to serve in the nursery because I don't want to do that. I mean, I love my kids, but I don't want to change the diapers of other people's kids. I mean, that's just not me. I'm not gifted that way. I don't want to do that. And so God didn't gift me that way. He didn't put me in that kind of capacity. He gave me enough children of my own to do that with. I don't have to do with anybody else's kids. But you see, when God gives you a ministry in the church, it's something you want to do.

When God gifts you, He gifts you in order to be used of Him in a great and mighty way. And to enjoy doing it. Listen, if you're in some kind of ministry that you don't enjoy doing, get out of it. Get out of there because you're going to hurt the people that are in that ministry. So Moses begins the journey back to Egypt by going and making a request to his father-in-law, Jethro. And Jethro. Giving him that great endorsement, go in peace. And God giving him that great encouragement: don't worry, all the people who wanted to kill you, they're already dead.

You just go to Egypt, Moses. Point number two: the return. Two things I want you to notice about the return.

The possessions he was to take and the precepts he was to trust. The possessions he was to take, and the precepts he was to trust. It says in verse number 20: So Moses took his wife. and his sons, and mounted them on a donkey, and they returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also took the staff of God in his hand. Two prominent things. Number one, were the significant relationships he had with his family, his wife, and his kids.

And then he takes with him that supernatural rod, that rod that will symbolize the presence and power of God. It's called the staff of God. It's a good reminder to us that the things that we have are truly God's, and once committed to God, God will use them in a supernatural way. He will use them in a great way for his glory and for his honor. The second thing I want you to notice are not only his possessions, but the precepts.

And we're going to spend the rest of our time right here. Because what God has to say to Moses is very important for us to understand today. He says in verse number 21: when you go back to Egypt, Moses, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power, and I will harden his heart. So that he will not let the people go. God gives Two precepts to Moses. One centers around the miracles of God, the other one centers around the message of God. First, it's around the miracles.

God tells him very clearly, Moses, when you go back to Egypt, you need to perform before Pharaoh all the supernatural miracles. But I want to let you know something. I'm going to harden his heart. Now, that's a phrase that has become a major problem for a lot of people. If God is a loving God, A car God, a merciful God, why would He ever harden someone's heart? This is the first time that God begins to explain to Moses the difficulty that He is going to have with Pharaoh.

But No, somewhere around 20 different times between now and the time that Pharaoh lets the people go, it says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart or. Pharaoh hardened his own heart, or Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Three different ways it states it. Three different Hebrew words, but all coming around to mean that there's a callousness that takes place. There's a coldness that takes place. There's a resistance and a rebellion against the revelation of God. And God tells Moses: listen, this is what you got to do.

You got to make sure you do all the miracles. You show the power of Almighty God, Moses. And when you do, what's going to happen is I'm going to harden Pharaoh's heart. You say, well, why would God want to do that? Please understand the balance. The balance. That man, when he rebels against God and turns his heart against God, the more he does it, the more God hardens his heart. The two work together. The more you hear the word of God and rebel against it and say no to it, the harder your heart becomes, the more calloused it becomes, and the more your heart is callous.

And harden to the things of God, the more God will say to you, You know what? I'm going to harden your heart even further. Got to be careful about that. The book of Hebrews has all kinds of warnings against that. But it's not just the miracles, it's the message. And you need to get the message. Because the message that God gives to Moses, that Moses is to deliver to Pharaoh. Listen.

Has the elements of the same message we are to give today. And you need to understand them. And you'll have to notice that Moses poses no argument here.

This is amazing to me. For God says to Moses these words: He says, You're going to say to Pharaoh, this is verse number 22, Thus says the Lord.

Okay, I can say that. Israel is my son, my firstborn. Okay, I can say that. So I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me. I can do that. But you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn. Whoa. I mean, is that the kind of message you're supposed to give to the ruler of the world? God says, let his people go.

If you don't, he's going to kill your firstborn son. Is that the way to win the world? Is that the way to win the ruler of the world? By threatening him with death? Judgment and wrath. So God says, notice that God gives the last plague to Moses, the tenth one.

He doesn't give the first nine, he just gives the tenth one. Because you see, this is God's mercy and grace. God gives them the easy ones, one through nine, the simple ones, compared to number ten. But he goes with the end result. If you don't let my people go, God's firstborn, God's pre one, God's special son, Israel. Then, your special son, your firstborn, your preeminent one will be killed. Let me look with you for a moment at that message.

It's so important you understand it. Five things I want you to see about the message. Number one is the source of the message.

The source of the message. Thus saith the Lord. This is the source. God's the source. God said it. And if God said it, we got to repeat it. So when Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 4, verse number 2, Timothy, preach the word. He wants Timothy to understand the significance of what it means to live in the church and preach the word. That is so important. And yet, we have churches across our country that don't want to preach the word, they want to preach something else. They want to give you self-help ideas.

They want to give you self-est ego-stroking sermons. But they don't want to preach the word. You see, Moses was given a message. Moses, you tell Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord. When we go out and tell people about Jesus Christ, we've got to give them the message. We've got to preach the word. Thus saith the Lord. This is what God has said. Because you see, that erases all personal opinions. It gets rid of my own personal agenda and my own ideas. All I can say is: well, it's not my idea, it's God's idea.

I didn't come up with it. God came up with it. He is the creator. I'm the created. So I do what the creator says. And this is what he said. And this is our response to what he says. And this is what needs to happen in our lives. Because God is the source. That's the source of the message. Number two is the significance of the message.

The significance of the message. Thus saith the Lord: if he's king and he's ruler, Then the significance of it, by the way, this is the first time it's mentioned in the Bible.

Thus saith the Lord. And it will be reiterated over and over again from here on out. But God is saying it. That's the message. And you've got to give the message: the source, the significance. And the third thing I want you to see about the message is the salvation in the message.

Remember, Exodus is about redemption. Exodus is about emancipation. Exodus is about the freeing of God's people from the bondage of slavery. To be set free to honor and serve their God. And that is the salvation of the message. When we go out and we preach to people, we preach to them that there is no. Other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. We preach the salvation message of God because God wants his people freed from sin. He wants them freed from the enslavement to sin that they might better serve him.

And that's the salvation in the message. We are to preach the gospel that people will understand the truth. Of Jesus Christ, His saving grace, His wonderful mercy. And then comes the service in the message. That's point number four: the service in the message. Let my people go. Why? Why does Pharaoh have to let God's people go? So they can just wander around the wilderness doing whatever they want to do? No. So they will. Serve me. That's a service in the message. Listen, why does God save somebody?

So they'll serve Him. You see, before salvation, who are they serving? Satan. Paul would say these words over in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Verse number 9. For they themselves report about us what kind of reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true. God, to serve a living and true God. You see, what a salvation. It's turning from idol worship to serve the true and living God and to honor Him. And then lastly, the sentencing in the message. The sentencing in the message.

Pharaoh, if you don't do this, I'm going to slay your firstborn. The sentencing in the message. This is where most gospel presentations miss it. We miss it because we don't want to scare people off. We miss it because we don't want to tell them about the wrath of God. We miss it because we don't want to tell them about the judgment of God. And yet, we have to. We have to. People tend to think that in the Old Testament God was a God of wrath, but in the New Testament, God is a God of love and grace and mercy.

Let me tell you something. The New Testament talks more about the wrath of God than the Old Testament does. And the New Testament has a different. Slay it to the judgment of God. While the Old Testament focused primarily on the temporal judgment of God, the New Testament focuses in on the eternal judgment of God. Also, our Lord, when he spoke, he spoke more about hell than he did heaven and love combined. Why? Because he truly loved the people he spoke to. You see, if you truly love the people you speak to, what do you do?

You save them. You save them from the fire. When a fireman sees the fire, what does he do? He puts it out. He rescues those who are in danger, right? That's what firemen do. And we praise God for them. As winners of souls, when we see those close to the flame, what do we do? We snatch them out. For those who are far from the flame, we warn them of impending judgment. Because that's the truth. You see, we've missed the boat here, and I'm afraid that when we miss the boat here, what happens is that we give, listen, an inappropriate gospel.

We give people something other than the true gospel. And we need to be able to present the entire truth. Because if we don't, we're in trouble. They're going to receive the wrong message. I was sharing with our leaders on Monday night about the fact that we are to preach the word and tell people about the Lord God. And I used an illustration I told them I was going to share with you this morning. And I share it with you because it adds credence to the point of what we're trying to make when Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, Look, this is the way it's going to be.

This is what you've got to do. If not, this is what's going to happen. Because that's the way our Lord God presented the gospel. Matthews 5, 6, and 7. How did the Lord close his sermon? He closed it by saying, straight is the way and narrow is the gate and few there be that find it. But wide is the way and huge is the gate. Of those people going the wrong way. He tells them, he warns them that if they're not bearing fruit, they're going be burned with an unquenchable fire. He leaves his sermon by saying: if you don't obey the words that are given, You're going to build your house upon a sand.

It's going to come crumbling down and you'll perish forever. So you've got to build on the rock. You want to know something? When it was all said and done, the Bible records no conversions. At the end of the Serm on the Mount. The Bible records the fact that people were astonished by what he said. They were amazed that this man spoke with such great. Authority. But the Bible records no conversions at the end of the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher who ever lived. How can that be?

And yet there are sermons today that are given, and people make professions of faith. But yet the gospel that's given is an erroneous gospel. Let me give you an illustration of that.

It's a book that's been written, it deals with 40 days of the purpose-driven life. I set out on a journey to read the book because I didn't have it in my possession. I began to read the book and search for the gospel, and I finally found it.

And I'm going to share with you the gospel presentation in this book. It'll help explain why it's number one on the bestsellers list.

While everybody in government's reading it, all the churches are involved in it. Here's the gospel. I quote the author: First, believe.

Believe God. Believe God loves you and made you for His purposes. Believe you're not an accident. Believe you are made to last forever. Believe God has chosen you to have a relationship with Jesus, who died on the cross for you. Believe that no matter what you've done, God wants to forgive you. What's missing? No repentance. None. Just believe. God has a purpose for your life. Let me tell you something.

Every Roman Catholic I know believes that. Every Mormon I know believes that. Every J I know and confronted at my door believes that. Then he says this. Second, receive.

There is no confrontation of sin. There is no accurate presentation of Jesus Christ. And that's why the fear factor needs to be presented in the gospel. It needs to be the judgment of God upon your sin. You see, that's why He died on the cross. He took your penalty upon Himself so you didn't have to pay the penalty. That's the judgment of God. That's the wrath of God. Poured out upon his own son, so you wouldn't have to bear that judgment and that penalty. He paid the ransom to his father in heaven to buy you back from the slave market of sin.

And man needs to realize that salvation is what? Being saved from eternal damnation. And that's what salvation is. And that's why God says to Moses: Moses, when you go, you tell him that if he doesn't do what I say, Here is what's going to happen.

When we present the gospel, we say, if you don't do what God says, let me tell you what's going to happen.

Listen to John chapter 12, verse number 48. Christ said, He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him. The word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. Over in the book of Acts, the 17th chapter, it says there, verse number 30: Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he Has appointed having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead.

Paul says there's coming a judgment day. You got to repent of your sins because God is going to come and judge the world in righteousness. That's what's going to happen. And if you don't give your life to Christ, you will burn in hell forever. Be eternally separated from the Lord God of the universe. You see, we have left that out of our gospel presentation because we don't want to offend anybody. We don't want to hurt anybody. We don want to turn anybody off. We really want to get someone to believe in my message.

But that's the problem. It's not my message, it's God's message. And God needs to do the work in their lives. That is the sentencing in the message. May God help us to present the true message. Let's pray.