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In Exodus, chapter number 4, the Bible reads in verse 1, And Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice, for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee. So in chapter 4, we're jumping into the middle here of the burning bush conversation. We started the conversation last week with the Lord speaking to Moses out of the burning bush. And in chapter 4, verse 1, Moses begins to bring these objections about why he can't do the job that God is calling him to do. And what I want to do tonight with this sermon is I want to tie this in with soul winning, okay, because in the New Testament, God is telling us, Go work today in my vineyard. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even under the end of the world. And so we have these New Testament commands telling us to go out into the highways and hedges and preach the gospel to the lost, get people saved. And really, that's similar to what Moses was doing here. And in fact, what Moses is doing pictures that or symbolizes that because the children of Israel are in bondage in Egypt, and he's going to get them out of there and get them to the promised land. And so he's saving them in a sense, not from hell, but he's saving them from their current condition, from slavery, from Egypt, et cetera. So let's tie this in with some of the excuses that people make about why they can't preach the gospel, why they can't witness to a loved one or someone at work, or why they can't knock a door and preach the gospel, do soul winning. It says in verse one, Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice, for they will say the Lord had not appeared unto thee. So this is the fear of rejection that a lot of people have. They're afraid to go out and knock doors and preach the gospel because they're afraid of people rejecting them. Well, let me just explain something to you. People are going to reject you. There's a ton of rejection involved when you go soul winning. You're going to be rejected and rejected and rejected and rejected. So if that's what you're afraid of, well, guess what? It's going to happen. But the Bible said of Jesus Christ in Isaiah 53, he's despised and rejected a man of sorrows and equated with grief. And we hit, as it were, our faces from him. And there are still people today hiding their faces from him. He's still despised by many. He's still rejected by many. And in fact, Moses, when he gets to the promised land, is going to be rejected. Not just by Pharaoh, not just by the Egyptians. But there are times when even the elders of the Children of Israel reject Moses and even speak of killing Moses because he's bringing so much heat down on them from Pharaoh. So this is the same type of excuse that people will make today, the fear of rejection. But was it worth it for Moses to get rejected, to be attacked, for Pharaoh to rebuke him and for the Israelites to rebuke him and everything? Look, he ended up leading millions of people out of Egypt. He's a hero. He's one of the greatest characters in the Bible. He's one of the greatest figures in the history of mankind. So if you're going to let that fear of rejection stop you, then you're going to accomplish nothing. You're going to be nobody. Or you can get over that and be Moses. But just like Moses felt that way, you might feel that way. So if you feel that way, oh, I just don't want to go and have people slam the door in my face or reject me. Nobody's going to listen. Nobody's going to believe me. It doesn't make you a bad person because Moses felt the same way. But just like Moses got over that, you need to get over that, okay? And just take it to the bank. I'm going to be rejected. But Christ was rejected and I'm okay with being rejected. Also you could tie this in with people who have an attitude that says, oh, well, soul winning doesn't work. Like it says here, you know, they're not going to harken to my voice. They'll say the Lord has not appeared under thee. And we see today a lot of people who have this attitude that says that soul winning doesn't work. But soul winning actually does work sometimes and some places it works better than others. Obviously today in America, especially with the economy doing so well, all the prosperity, people are not often in America in a mode where they're seeking the Lord right now. And so you'll knock on a lot of cold doors right now. And so sure, soul winning is harder sometimes than others. You know, when we go to the Apache reservation this weekend, God willing, we're probably going to get a lot of people saved, a lot more than when we go soul winning in a middle class area in Phoenix. So different places it works better than others, different times it works better than others. But even in the coldest places, you will still eventually get people saved. I mean, we were soul winning down there in Awatukee today and had an extremely cold reception. But yet with a van full of 15 people, one person got saved in the time there. So you know, it does work. Somebody gets saved. Somebody is going to respond. It's worth it to go through all those doors of people not getting saved to get to that one person who wants to listen. That's what makes it worth it. Even in places like Netherlands and Sweden and Ireland, just in the last seven days, we've seen people saved. Now you say, well, how do you know anybody got saved in Sweden? You haven't got the results yet. I know somebody must have got saved in Sweden because there were a whole bunch of people that went out soul winning and I guarantee you that God blessed with at least one salvation. You know, I'm just going to step out in faith and say that I'm sure somebody got saved. If even the Netherlands produced seven salvations on the day of the event and that's a cold place. What's that? You got the results? Okay. So yeah. Do you have any other details? Oh cool. So there you go. So they had six souls saved at the soul winning event in Sweden. They had three people baptized and they're going to go out for another round of soul winning tomorrow with some of the locals there, you know, training the locals to go soul winning in Sweden. Okay. Of all places. And you want to talk about a place that is spiritually bankrupt. It's Sweden. If anywhere is a place where you, where you'd say, oh, it can't be done here. And there are always those missionaries that, that say, oh, well you can't do soul winning here. It just doesn't work here. You know, you gotta, you gotta take them out to dinner and kind of get to know them and build a friendship over six months. And then that's when you bring up Romans three 10, you know, that you wait about another six months. Then you roll out Romans three 23 folks. I've been hearing that my whole life from missionaries talking about how it can't be done in their certain area. Well, you know, they have an intercom so it doesn't work because there's, well guess what? We've been buzzing intercoms all day today down in Ahwatukee. But guess what? I went soul winning in Germany. I buzzed the intercoms. You know what? Eventually you'll still get somebody saved. You'll still find somebody who will answer the door. There's always an excuse of, oh, they're not going to listen. It's not going to work. I don't want all the rejection. Well, you know what? Just be like Christ, be Christian, follow Christ and endure the, the, the reproach and endure the rejection because rejection is part of the soul winning process. All right, look at verse number two. The Lord said unto him, what is that in thine hand? And he said, a rod. Notice the Lord is drawing attention to what he has. See he's talking about what he doesn't have, right? Oh, I don't have the ability. Well, what do you have? He has the rod in his hand. God's going to show him how he can use what he has, even if it's something as humble as just a stick. Basically he's a shepherd with a stick in his hand, but God's going to use that stick to do great wonders. He's going to use that stick to part the red sea. He's going to use that stick to turn the water into blood. He's going to turn that stick into a serpent. Whatever's in his hand. God's going to use it. It reminds me of the lady who tells Elijah, you know, I don't have anything. He asked her, what do you have in the house? I don't have anything. Well, except I do have this little bit of meal and this little bit of oil. We always have something. I don't have anything to bring to the table. Are you sure? Well, you know, I mean, we've got these five loaves and two fishes, but what are these among so many? See, over and over again in the Bible, people are saying, I don't have anything and they always have something. And God can take those five loaves and two fishes and feed 5,000 people. God can take that barrel of meal and that little cruise of oil and get the whole family through the whole famine. God can take that stick and free millions of people and bring down the most powerful nation in the world to its knees with a stick, right? So what is in your hand? What do you have? God just wants you to bring what you have to the table. Don't worry about what you have. Just worry about using what you have. Bringing what you have. Well, I don't have the talent. But what talent do you have? Can you go soul winning? Anybody can go soul winning. I mean, I've seen the most unlikely people go soul winning. I've seen somebody with down syndrome go soul winning and actually be helpful out soul winning. In our church, someone with down syndrome. I've seen the shyest, most timid people used by God. And in fact, God loves to use people like that because then he gets all the glory. It doesn't go down as, oh, look how suave he is. Look how sharp he is. Look at the great personality, the people skills, the intelligence. Oh, man, whatever they throw at him, he's got the answer for everything. Wrong. He uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. He uses the weak to defeat the strong that no flesh will glory in his presence, right? Because he gets all the glory. So he has the rod in his hand. He said, cast it on the ground. He cast it on the ground and it became a serpent. And Moses fled from before it. This doesn't seem like the man who is ready to take on the most powerful empire in the world at this time, you know, fleeing before the snake that he just made, right, by throwing down his stick and it became a serpent. But you know, God uses meek, humble people. And Moses was a godly man and he's going to be greatly used by God. He 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 and caught it and it became a rod in his hand that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath appeared unto thee. You say, well, you know, if I had a stick that would turn into a serpent, you know, then people would listen to me. Except guess what? He's going to throw it down on the ground and they're not going to listen to him. We have something more powerful than being able to throw a rod on the ground and turn it into a serpent. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have the, we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which Moses would have loved to have a copy of that book. We have something better than Moses had because we have the four gospels. We have the book of Romans. That's more powerful of a tool, if anything. So we can do great works for God with that. He said, the Lord said further more into him, put now thine hand into thy bosom and he put his hand into his bosom. When we took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow and he said, put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again, Illuminati confirmed and pulled it out and behold, it was turned again as his other flesh and it shall come to pass if they will not heart, will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign that they will believe the voice of the ladder sign and it should 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 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 to the Lord, Oh my Lord, I'm not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou has spoken unto thy servant. They haven't been talking very long. So I feel like Moses is almost being a little bit of a smart aleck here saying, you know, Hey, I wasn't eloquent when you started talking to me and I'm still not eloquent now that you've shown me how to turn my rod into a serpent and how to make my hand have leprosy and all these things. You know, I'm not eloquent. He said, I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. And this is a lot of people's excuse why they don't go so any, Hey, that's just not my gift. I'm not a gifted speaker. I'm an introvert or I'm not a talented with meeting people. I'm not charismatic, but this is the same excuse and God doesn't like this excuse and God tells him who made man's mouth or who make it the dumb or the death or the seeing or the blind have not I the Lord now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. And isn't that exactly what he tells us in Matthew when he gives us the great commission that says, lo, I'm with you always, even in the end of the world, right? The book of Matthew starts out in chapter one by saying, Hey, she's going to bring forth a sign and his name should be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. And then the book ends. Jesus is with us. Amen. And he's with us under the end of the world. He'll be with your mouth. He's the one who created the mouth. He can help you to preach and to give the gospel and to be effective. Now it's debatable whether Moses is telling the truth here because the book of Acts chapter seven describes Moses as a man mighty in words and deeds in Egypt. That sounds like he's a pretty good speaker if he's mighty in words. Okay. But maybe he's out of practice since he's been living on the desert for 40 years. But either way, whether this is true or not true, God doesn't accept it as an excuse. God tells him, look, I made your mouth. I'll be with your mouth. I'll help you. I'll give you the ability to do it. And the Holy Spirit is going to guide him and help him to be a great preacher. And then he says in verse 13, and this is where Moses just stops making excuses and pretty much just says, just send someone else because every time he pulls out an excuse, God shuts him down. So then finally he just says, oh my Lord, send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou will send. Basically, he's saying, God, send whoever you want. It's not me though. But just pick someone else. Send whoever you want. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. Let me ask you something. Do you think that God's anger is kindled at a church that refuses to evangelize? I mean, if God founded the church, instituted the church, he gives us the great commission, go preach the gospel to every creature, and then he gives us the book of Acts to kind of show us a pattern of people going out and preaching and the soul winning that's going on and all the different ways of soul winning where they knocked doors, they went into common areas and talked to the people, they go down to the river where the women are washing clothes and they preach to the women down at the riverside. I mean, they're giving the gospel all these different ways and doing all this soul winning. And then a church in 2019 just has no soul winning program. I guarantee you the anger of the Lord is going to be kindled. It's like when God told Moses, go to Egypt, pull them out of there. God's telling us, go preach the gospel, son, go work today in my vineyard. It's not optional, right? God commands us. He's committed unto us or trusted us with the ministry of reconciliation. He is relying on us to get it done. And so we don't want God's anger to be kindled when we whine about all the reasons why we can't win souls, we can't preach the gospel. And look, let's face it, in America, it's not going to get any easier. It's only going to get more difficult. I mean, I've been soul winning now consistently in the United States here for 20 years, week in, week out. And I'll tell you something, it has gotten less receptive over the last 20 years. People are less receptive. Soul winning used to be easier than it is now. And if you talk to people who went out soul winning in the 60s and the 70s, you know, from what you hear, it sounds like it was easier back then, you know. And if you want to experience a taste of that, you don't have to get in a time machine. You can go to other countries and other places in the world that aren't as far down the decline that America is on spiritually and you can experience that kind of soul winning. If you want to know what it's like to go soul winning where, you know, people are more receptive, go to the Apache reservation, go down to Guyana, go down to Jamaica, go to these countries in Africa, go to Uganda. And I'm sure that you'll have an experience that's similar to what people had 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago right here in the United States. Look, it's not going to get any easier, but we're not going to stop doing it. You know, and if we have to go soul winning for the same amount of time and get half as many people saved, we're just going to keep doing it. Now obviously we want to take as many trips to places like the Apache reservation, Guyana, Africa or whatever, you know, where we can get more souls saved. But here in town, we're not going to stop because it's worth it for that one soul. It's worth it for those two souls. You got to just keep doing it and not make excuses. Just get out there and do it. Now look what God says to this final objection that basically just says, I'm not going to do it. You know, just send whom you will send. This is actually my favorite part of the story. I love what God tells him here. The anger of the Lord was kindred against Moses and he said, is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well and also behold, he coming forth to meet thee and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. You know, he's basically telling Moses, you be the silent partner, Moses. You're going to go soul winning Moses and you're going to be the silent partner since you're not eloquent, since you can't speak, since you don't want to do it. Okay. Aaron is a guy who's a talker, right? He is a soul winning talker. He knows how to preach the gospel. So all you have to do, Moses is just go with Aaron and Aaron will do the talking boy. That's like when we tell people, look, get out soul winning and be a silent partner. You don't have to say a word, just tag along. You know how I started soul winning by being a silent partner. You know, I just, I showed up to one of the church soul winning times and I got paired up with a guy by the name of Daniel Dion. It was the pastor's brother-in-law and I spent like two and a half hours soul winning with this guy, brother Dion, and we went out soul winning and I saw him get people saved. That first time he got one or two people saved. I don't remember exactly, but I remember a few things from it just because when it's your first time out soul winning, things stick out in your mind. I remember we were talking to this group of black guys in an apartment complex and I know at least one of them got saved. Maybe two of them got saved and after he had all finished, you know, giving this guy the gospel and getting him saved, he was, he was kind of talking to him about coming to church and things and I just remember him asking the guy, he said, you know, so what do you think are some of the things that you should do now that you're saved? You know, some things now that you're saved, what do you think you should do to, to serve God or follow Christ or you know what? And the guy was, you know, listed some things, you know, read the Bible, pray. And I just remember the guy thinking and he said, probably go to church three times a month, at least three times a month. And I always, that's took out to me how he wanted to save that one weekend for himself. You know what I mean? He didn't want to say go to church every Sunday, you know, cause he, you know, he's got to have a weekend for himself in there. So I just remember him thinking and being like, yeah, probably go to church like three times a month. So you know, I went out so many, that's how I learned and I watched him do it and I went out a couple times as a silent partner and then I started going out and doing the talking. And at first I wasn't good at it, right? You got to learn, you got to practice, you got to grow into it, but you learn by getting out there as a silent partner. Now some people are going to be a silent partner for a few weeks. Some people are going to be a silent partner for a few months. Some people are going to be a silent partner for a few years. And let me explain to you my philosophy on this. I think that being a silent partner is great and there's no rush to be a talker. There's no rush. We have no shortage of talkers here. Okay. We have plenty. It's not like we show up at a sowing time and everybody's a silent partner. We show up and virtually everybody's a talker. Okay. So therefore don't ever feel like you need to pressure people to be a talker. I never pressure people to be a talker. You know, I'm, I, I, I'm fine with you being a silent partner until Jesus comes. And let me explain to you why that's my philosophy. I don't push people to be a talker. I don't, I don't think it matters how long somebody continues to be a silent partner. And here's why that's my philosophy. Because if you're out there doing it, you're part of the team. You know, you got the talker, you got the silent partner, they're both praying. They're both going out there agreeing together, working together. And I believe that God's going to bless both for the effort. It's a team effort. It's not like, oh, uh, you weren't doing the talking, no rewards for you. You know, you're out there, you're participating, you're supporting, you know, you're part of that team. And I think we should emphasize the team. Number two, the reason that's my philosophy is because, you know, I just want to get people started soul winning. And I know that the best way to get started is to be a silent partner. And so I don't want people to feel like there's pressure because then they feel like, oh man, you know, I don't want to go soul winning because I'm going to be put on the spot to talk. You know, I want people to know, hey, you can show up and be a silent partner and nobody's going to force you to talk. Nobody's going to make you talk if you don't want to talk and you can show up and be a silent partner. But here's what's interesting about this. When Moses gets signed up as a silent partner, who ends up doing most of the talking? So here's, here's the way I look at this. If you can get somebody to go as a silent partner, eventually they're going to do the talking. Just like Moses, you know, if we can get Moses to be Aaron silent partner, once he gets there, you know, Aaron's going to do some talking, but then Moses is going to be like, Hey, all right, I got the next door. I got the next Pharaoh confrontation or, you know, I got the next confrontation with the Israelites or whatever. So the point is, if you can get people to be a silent partner, eventually they're going to want to be a talker. I mean, if you're just out soul winning as a silent partner all the time, eventually you're going to get to the point where you're tired of being on the sidelines and you're going to say, Hey, let me get the next door. Or you'll get paired up with a talker. That's such a bozo. You're going to be like, all right, step aside. I got the next door. I've never even done this and I can do better than that. All right. So anyway, the point is you're going to eventually be a talker if you can just get out there as a silent partner. So there's no pressure, you know? That's what I love about this story because that's what it makes me think of. Just getting Moses to just be there with the rod. He's got, he's got his talent, whatever he has, even if it's just a stick and he's willing, he's part of the team, he's a blessing to Aaron. And I love what it says at the end of verse 14. And when he, Aaron, seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. And you know what? When a silent partner shows up to go soul winning, the talkers are glad in their heart. You know, they love to see new people going out soul winning. They love to take somebody out and show them the ropes. And so it's a blessing when we see the silent partner show up. Like in the Netherlands, they had a whole bunch of silent partners because over there it was a thing where they had to multiply silent partners. And some of the soul winning events we've done, we've had to triple up the silent partners, quadruple up the silent partners, but not here at home. I mean, here in Phoenix, we have plenty of talkers and you know, we go on the trips to the Apache reservation, we got plenty of talkers. And so we're glad in our heart when we see the silent partner coming. Verse 16, 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 shall be to him instead of God. And thou shall take this rod in thine hand wherewith thou shalt do signs. And Moses 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 in Midian, go return into Egypt for all the men are dead which sought thy life. And of course this has an echo in the statements that are made to Joseph in Matthew chapter two, where he tells him, hey, they are dead, which sought the young child's life. You can go back into Israel now. You can come back in the land of Israel because if you remember Joseph and Mary had to flee with baby Jesus down into Egypt, and then that statement is made. So this is a foreshadowing of that. And there's a little bit more foreshadowing of that in fact, when it says in verse number 20, and Moses took his wife and his sons 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 remember now it's the rod of God. I mean, this is just basically a stick that he had all, it was just something that he was using as a shepherd. There wasn't anything special. It wasn't like this rod descended down with an angel and angel handed it to him. It's just a rod. It became the rod of God simply because God's using it. All right. And so he takes 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 those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand. But I will harden his heart that he shall not let the people go. So he's already telling him, expect rejection, expect opposition, expect there to be a battle. Don't expect it to be easy. He's letting them know that going. It's the same thing with soul winning. You know, when you go out soul winning, you got to expect some opposition. You got to expect problems. You got to expect things to go wrong. Don't go into it thinking everything's going to be perfect because then you're going to get discouraged really fast when something goes wrong. Someone's going to criticize you. Someone's going to, you know, tell you off or whatever, but it doesn't matter because it's part of God's plan. Okay. God is going to be with you. God's going to guide you. The Bible says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. So if I'm walking in the will of God, whatever comes my way, that those are the things that God has allowed to come into my path. And the Bible says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. So I trust that God's directing my paths if I acknowledge him and pray to him and ask him to guide me. So are bad things going to happen? Am I going to run into people that try to discourage me or get me down or run into opposition or obstacles? Sure. But that's all part of the plan. That's all part of the program. Just like here, he's telling Moses there are going to be problems. It's like in the church at Corinth where Paul was told he had a great door that was open unto him and effectual, but there are many adversaries and Paul's being persecuted and then God comes and tells him, look, fear not Paul, I have much people in this city. You know, there are a bunch of people that are going to get saved. Just stay with it. Don't let those things stop you. So he says, I'll harden his heart that he shall not let the people go at the end of verse 21 and thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And again, this is echoed in Matthew chapter two when it says out of Egypt, have I called my son, Jesus Christ, obviously being the son of God called out of Egypt and then literally down in Egypt as a child. And then here we have the foreshadowing with the whole nation of Israel representing Jesus, right? We call that Israel's my son out of Egypt. I'm calling my son. Isn't it interesting how today Israel is a substitute son of God for some people, if you notice that, you know, what is the fulfillment of Bible prophecy when he says in these shall all nations of the earth be blessed when God says to Abraham and these shall all nations of the earth be blessed. Is that the nation state of Israel or is that Jesus Christ? Because those are your two choices. You know, what, what is the fulfillment of that prophecy? There are a lot of Christians today, unfortunately, that want to make an idol out of the state of Israel and worship the state of Israel and, and take all of these wonderful prophecies about Jesus and apply them to the state of Israel, apply them to Christ rejecting Israel. And it makes no sense. Israel back then pictured the son of God that's come, but there were other things that pictured the son of God too. Like what about the brazen serpent that was held up on a pole? And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. But what happens when you start worshiping the brazen serpent? You're an idolater at that point, right? So don't worship the symbol. There were bulls and goats representing Jesus Christ. But does that mean they're supposed to worship the golden calf? Absolutely not. There were animals that were sacrificed, but were not to worship an animal. Every animal sacrifice pointed to Jesus. The brazen serpent pointed to Jesus. The nation of Israel pointed to Jesus. Don't worship the nation of Israel. Worship Jesus Christ, okay? And understand the difference between the symbol and the reality. So Israel's my son, even my firstborn. Verse 23, and I say unto thee, let my son go that he may serve me. And if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. So right from the get-go, God is already threatening not only to harden Pharaoh's heart, not only is he going to plague Pharaoh, not only is he going to do all these signs and wonders, but he actually sees the entire picture because the very final tenth plague is the death of the firstborn, right? Because there are ten plagues brought upon Egypt. The tenth and final plague is the death of the firstborn. God already has that in view because God knows the end from the beginning, and he's already sharing this with Moses and saying, look, this is what's going to happen. And it's going to culminate with the death of Pharaoh's own son and the death of all of the Egyptians' firstborn son. And so he knows that going in. And you know what? We have the Bible here, and it warns us about all kinds of things that are going to happen. So don't be surprised when they happen. I like what it says in the Epistle of Peter where he says, you know, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you. Like, oh, what in the world? This is crazy. I can't believe this. What? He said it was going to happen. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. You shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. And so there are all these predictions about problems that are going to happen, conflict that we're going to go through. Don't be shocked when it happens. It's all been predicted. That's why the whole chapter, John chapter 16, where he says, look, they're going to throw you out of the synagogues. You know, it shall come to pass that whoso killeth you will think that he doeth God's service. These things will they do unto you because they haven't known me, they haven't known my father. Right? And then he says, in verse 33, these things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. So we're to expect tribulation, but we're to be of good cheer because God has overcome the world. And so we see here that everything's predicted, Pharaoh's heart being hardened, him refusing to let the people go, all the way down to the death of the firstborn. He says, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. So that's a warning that comes right away. Now verse 24 is very abrupt here. There's like an abrupt shift here. And sometimes this story confuses people because of this just abrupt shift here. And people will say, oh, something's missing here. You know, unfortunately we're missing something here. Well, I don't believe that for one second because I believe that the Bible is written by God. It's inspired by God and it's preserved by God. Jesus said one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law until all be fulfilled. So if something's missing here, then Jesus was not telling the truth when he said that nothing would pass from the law. It's all there. God will preserve his word. We need to believe in the preservation of God's word. What good is inspiration without preservation? Oh, God inspired a book a long time ago, but don't you wish you could have read it back then? You know, now we have this Swiss cheese of what's left of it wrong. We have what God has written here. We have the word of God. It's perfect. It's right. God puts things in the Bible that are difficult on purpose. The Bible flat out says in second Peter three that in Paul's epistles are some things hard to be understood. Jesus frankly said that some of the things that he taught were difficult to be understood on purpose. Dark sayings, parables, things that are hard to understand. Why? Because if the Bible were super easy to understand, you'd be bored with it too fast. You know, it'd be great for new believers, man. They could just understand everything. Try reading it for five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. You know, the Bible has lots of depth, difficult passages, layers and layers of meaning because it's a book that you take with you for your whole life. You read it when you're 20, when you're 30, when you're 40, when you're 50 and you keep peeling back more layers and understanding more. People that aren't even saved, they struggle to understand it and then they act like, oh well, something's missing. I'll tell you what's missing. The Holy Spirit inside of you is what's missing. Why? You struggle. Okay. But even if you are saved, you're not going to get the full meaning. You know, if you're saved, you know, you see men as trees walking, right? But it doesn't mean that you see everything crystal clear. That's what a whole lifetime of Bible study is for, to clarify the vision and help you see more. So this is not, this is the way it is supposed to read. It's cryptic on purpose. There are many things that are cryptic in the Bible on purpose. Okay. But let's just, let's just read it together. The abrupt thing is that God's talking to Moses at the burning bush and there's no nice little conclusion of like, so God stopped talking to Moses and Moses walked away and went home and packed or something, you know? So it's basically, it just tells what God said. And then all of a sudden, boom, we're on the road to Egypt. And it says in verse 24, and it came to pass by the way, in the end that the Lord met him and sought to kill him. Now this is odd, right? Because he just finished telling Moses, you're going to do all these great things and you know, you're going to do signs and wonders. You're going to go confront Pharaoh. Now all of a sudden the next verse, God is ready to kill Moses. Well, it shouldn't really shock us too much because God's already had his wrath kindled against Moses just a few verses ago. You remember that? When he says, Oh, send by the hand of him who not with sin and God's wrath is kindled. Okay. God can get mad at a guy like Moses for sure. But not only that, God can sometimes end up, you know, offering something to somebody and then he has to offer that to someone else because they blew their chance or they blew their opportunity. Okay. And so we see here that the Lord sought to kill Moses. Now what is the end? Well, obviously this isn't like the Holiday Inn because hotel chains as we know them did not exist back then. This is just a place where they're staying. You know, so whatever the little like, like for example, Jesus, it said there's no room in the inn. So it's, it's obviously just some kind of a place that's designated for strangers to lodge there. Just some kind of a place where people can stop and be refreshed. Well, when Moses is there, the Bible says that the Lord sought to kill him. It doesn't say why. But then in the next verse it says, then Zipporah, this is Moses' wife, took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at his feet and said, surely a bloody husband thou art to me. So he let him go. So the Lord let Moses go. Sometimes with these he's and him's, it's hard to tell who's the he, who's the him. It's saying here that, that, you know, the Lord sought to kill Moses when Zipporah cast the foreskin at his feet. Then he let him go. The Lord let Moses go forward and proceed with the journey. So he let him go. Then she said, a bloody husband thou art because of the circumcision. And the Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went and met him in the mountain. And then the story picks up. It's like, what in the world are these three verses doing here in the middle of the story? I mean, if you took out verses 24 through 26, you know, we, we would just read through it and just blah, da, da, da, da. It's what, where is this coming from? Verses 24 through 26. What's happening in the story here? Well, obviously what's going on here is that Moses had not circumcised his son. And this is a commandment that goes all the way back to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. This is one of the signs of being a Hebrew is that you're circumcised, right? Well here's the thing. Moses is going to be the great law giver. I mean, Moses is the guy who's bringing down the tablets from the mount and teaching the law of God to the people. The law was given by Moses, it says in John chapter one. So how is he going to lead if he can't rule his own house? Now we have to infer things because the story is not telling us explicitly. Here's why God's mad. Here's why Zipporah did what she did. Here's why Moses did. We have to read between the lines because God is giving us very little information here. So we have to kind of just use logic and use what we know about the rest of the Bible to fill in the blanks here. And it's not really hard to fill in the blanks here. Okay. What can we, what can we start with? Because it's like an algebra problem, right? You start with what you know and then you solve for what you don't know, okay? So let's isolate our variables here and let's figure out what our constants are, okay? We know right here that Moses' son is not circumcised, right? We know that that's a big problem. We know that Moses is going to be the future law giver. We know that it would be just completely hypocritical and bizarre for the guy who's giving the law to have disobeyed one of the most fundamental laws of the nation of Israel by not having circumcised his son. This isn't going to work. This would be like if the pastor gets up and says, hey, go soul winning and he doesn't do any soul winning. Hey, read your Bible. He doesn't read the Bible, right? It wouldn't make any sense. Hey, get baptized. He's never been baptized. It wouldn't make sense, would it? So therefore he has to do the right things himself. Now obviously Moses' wife is a bit of a piece of work here, okay? And Moses, the Bible says, the meekest man on the face of the earth. Well when you have a good attribute, sometimes it's coupled with a bad attribute. So meekness is a great attribute. Humility is a great attribute. But you know what the problem with meekness and humility is? That sometimes you can be too weak or let people push you around or not be assertive enough. So God has to teach Moses here this lesson and basically make this happen because he can't let Moses head down to Egypt and his house isn't in order. His wife's not in subjection. His kid is not circumcised. And so Zipporah seems to have been an intactivist, all right? For those of you who know what that means. But anyway, you'll get these people today, and let me be clear about this. In the New Testament, we don't practice circumcision in the New Testament. We do not practice circumcision. The Bible's very clear on that, okay? Galatians is crystal clear on that. Other scriptures are clear on that. That's another sermon. We don't practice it. But when I see the things that sometimes people say about circumcision, they are blasphemous. Like oh, circumcision's barbaric. It's a mutilation. Well, you know what you're basically saying, that God was barbaric, God mutilated. If you say circumcision's wicked, then you're saying God was wicked. See what I'm saying? So I've seen people that are so into the intact movement that basically they're actually blaspheming God, okay? And you know what it reminds me of? It's the same people who say, oh, the Muslims are so wicked because they believe in stoning adulterers and they believe in stoning sodomites. Have you read Leviticus 20? Are you saying that God's wicked? That's Sharia law. Well, it's in Leviticus. So if you're gonna sit there and say, oh, it's so wicked, it's so bad. Oh, really? So you're saying God was bad and wicked when he did that exact thing in Leviticus 20? See what I mean? So you can't sit there and say, oh, circumcision's barbaric and evil. Okay, look, if God had them doing it for 2,000 years, then it must not be barbaric and evil, is it? Now, we shouldn't do it because we're Christians, we're in Christ, we're not under the old covenant, we're under the new covenant, we're circumcised without hands, we have the circumcision of the heart and of the spirit. And I'm not saying that we should circumcise, but be careful not to be blasphemous when you're explaining the new covenant versus the old covenant. Don't become one of these blasphemous intactivists. Now there is some sick perverted thing called female circumcision or something, whatever that bizarre thing. That is weird and barbaric, but see, I can say that's weird and barbaric because God didn't do that. So that's not blasphemous to blaspheme Islam and Mohammed, piss me upon him. But the point is, I'm not going to say anything negative about God's commands because if they used to be in place and God's a righteous God, then they must not have been bad things. So be careful with your doctrine on that. Yes, be against circumcision, but be against circumcision because you're in Christ, not against circumcision because it's bad. It's not bad. It wasn't bad, okay? Otherwise God wouldn't have had them do it. Okay, so we're starting to kind of unravel the story a little bit, right? So we're kind of unraveling the different layers of these three verses. So here are some other things. There's more here that we can see. We see that it's Zipporah who does the circumcising, which teaches us a few things there that we could kind of infer from that like that she knew how to do it. She knew how to do it. She was aware of how it's done because she's the one that does it. So that makes it seem like circumcision could have been a thing over in Midian where they came from for her to be familiar with it enough to do it, okay? But not only that, we see that Zipporah doing it means that Moses is not doing it, which probably indicates that Moses is probably, and this is a little bit of speculation. Everything I've said up to this point I think is certainty, okay? But a little bit of speculation here. It almost seems like Moses is incapacitated from doing it. She does it and throws it at his feet. It would make more sense that he did it. It's possible that he is very sick or dying or whatever because we don't really know what it means exactly when it says the Lord sought to kill him. How exactly does that work? Could it be that God struck him with an illness or something and he's very ill. He's in bed. He's got a fever. He's dying and his wife just, okay, fine, she circumcises, throws the bloody foreskin. She's angry about it but she does it. And then he gets well and he can go. Or is the sought to kill him more like the story with Balaam where the angel of the Lord shows up with the sword drawn and he's just ready to kill him? I don't know. But it seems like there's not a lot of detail given. So we don't really know. This is just a quick little anecdote here. And here's my philosophy on scriptures like this that leave out information is that the information that's left out must not be important. It must not matter. So what we should do is walk away with what he wants us to have here. Here's what I walk away with for sure without having to speculate or wonder. I walk away saying, you know what? There are people that are against circumcision for the wrong reasons. That's one thing I can learn from this. Number two, I can learn the importance of having your house in order, that you can't lead the church if you can't rule your own house. Okay. I see the importance of practicing what you preach. And so there are a lot of lessons that you can take from this, what's just right here on the surface. How exactly did the Lord seek to kill him? Did he come down with some horrible sickness and God's plaguing him? Or is it a sword in the hand type thing? We don't really know. But we know that Moses and Zipporah both know why this is happening and they know that circumcising the son is the problem. And when they get that done, it's fixed. And look how bitter she is. And another thing you can learn from this when you see the bitterness of Zipporah like, oh, you're a bloody husband. You're a bloody husband. Did Moses come up with this idea? Who's she really mad at? So when you're rebelling and mouthing off at your husband, you know what? Who's the one who told you to obey your husband? When you're mouthing off and angry at your parents, who's the one who told you children obey your parents? You're mouthing off against God in many cases. And that's who she's really mad at is God, but then she takes it out on her husband and she even repeats it, or the Bible at least repeats it. If she didn't repeat it, the Bible repeats it. She said, you're a bloody husband, you're a bloody husband. It's uncalled for. But you know what? Do Moses and his wife have a wonderful marriage after this? The Bible doesn't really talk about his marriage, but you see her at one point getting sent home. She obviously wasn't helping because she eventually gets sent home. And then when he gets reunited with her again, he goes and hangs out with his father-in-law more than he hangs out with her. So if you read between the lines, you can see a little bit of tension here. So here's another great lesson is that, let's say you have marriage problems, let's say you have these kind of problems in your personal life, you can still be used by God. Because Moses had marriage problems, Moses had issues in his life, but yet he still did a great work for God. So again, this goes back to what we talked about earlier in the sermon. Don't make excuses. Oh, I'm not eloquent, God. I can't go. Well, be a silent partner. Well, but you don't understand, my wife, she gets angry, she throws bloody foreskins around. You know what? Just so long as you get her under control and get out soul winning. Amen? So, you know, the bottom line is the people in the Bible aren't perfect. Their lives certainly aren't perfect. Moses is not perfect. I mean, he whines and argues and makes excuses, and his wife's wearing the pants in the family, and he's not circumcising his son. I mean, this guy's making some mistakes and we're just getting started. Okay. So God uses people that aren't perfect. And that should encourage us to think, you know what? If Moses had these problems, if everybody in the Bible had problems, then you know what? I can get out there in spite of my problems, in spite of issues going on in my life, in spite of my shortcomings, in spite of the fact that I can't speak well. I can still get out there and do something for God to be used by God. So that's encouraging, right? So I don't spend time worrying about what the Bible doesn't say. I just worry about what the Bible does say. And I don't worry about the details that are left out. I worry about the things that I can understand. And I think some things in the Bible are purposely not meant to be fully understood or are hidden on purpose. For example, thinking about the four gospels recently, so many people have sat down and tried to synchronize the four gospels, especially the last week of Christ's life. They sit down with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and they try to get that timeline. And then they try to line it up with the Old Testament Passover, and they line up the crucifixion. Was He crucified on the 13th, the 14th, the 15th? Was it Wednesday? Was it Thursday? Was it Friday? These are the issues that people struggle with when they sit down and try to make it all line up. But you know what I think that is really going on there is that God doesn't want us to line it up. Because anybody who's sat down and done that, which I've sat down and done that many times, lots of other preachers have sat down and done that. I'm sure many people in this... Who has sat down and tried to figure that out before and just tried to just... And you're like, you know what? I'm getting to the bottom of this. I'm going to get to the bottom of this, and I'm going to have a definitive answer. That's how you feel going in. You go into that Bible study like a lion, and you end up coming out like a lamb. Because you walk away saying, okay, this is the way I think it is. You can't really be dogmatic though, I don't think. Because there are a few... Like there are certain scriptures that it just kind of depends on which scriptures you're going to kind of latch onto and say, hey, this is what I'm going with. And it doesn't contradict, but it's just a little hazy. It's a little foggy when you try to make it all fit. It definitely fits, but it's hard to know exactly how it fits. It's hard to understand it fully. I think it's that way on purpose. Because how can it be that everybody who approaches that has the same struggle and ends up beating their head against the wall? I'll tell you exactly why it's like that. Because God doesn't want us observing times and days and months and years. And if you could figure out exactly what the day is, then you know what everybody would be doing? They'd be getting out their Hebrew calendar, and they'd be looking at the moon, and they'd be figuring it out and saying, all right, we got to do this on the right day and stuff. You know what, God, I think the most important lesson is not to figure out exactly what day of the week He died on or exactly what date it was on the Jewish calendar or in relation to the Passover. I think the most important lesson is, hey, the date isn't the important thing or God would have made it clearer. It's not about the days, the months, and the years. It's about the fact that Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. And we keep the feast as often as we do it in remembrance of Him. And we don't do it on a set schedule. We don't look at the moon and the sun and the calendar to figure out when to do it. That's what I take away from it. You know, God doesn't want us to obsess over these things. Because if He did, He would have made them clear, OK? Now, you know, I have my belief on it and I think that I'm right. But I can't really be dogmatic because there are certain scriptures that kind of, you know, lean the other way. So, you know, there are different ways. You know, I know that the Catholics don't have it right with their little day and a half in the grave or whatever. I don't believe in that. And look, the way I believe in it, the way I believe in it is that Jesus Christ died on the cross and He was dead for three days and three nights and then He rose again. And that the three days and three nights that He was dead were all three Jewish holidays or days when no work would be done. You know, I think that the first two days were days when no work would be done. And then there's the Saturday, the Sabbath. So I think it was the 14th day, no work, 15th day, no work, Sabbath, no work. Here's why I think that because of the fact that, you know, when they take Jesus down from the cross, they're in a hurry to get Him down from the cross because the Sabbath is coming. I'm sorry, but it wasn't the Sabbath Sabbath. They said that Sabbath was a high day as the Passover is coming. So they're like, oh, we've got to get Him down from the cross for the Passover. What do they do? They wrap Him in a linen sheet and they throw Him in the tomb, right? And then they say, okay, three days later, they show up to do what? What did they show up early on the first day of the week? When those women find the empty tomb, what were they coming to do? They're coming to embalm Him. So here's the thing. Why didn't they embalm Him sooner? Why wait three days to embalm Him? You know why? Because they can't. Because they have to just take Him down, wrap Him in a linen sheet, throw Him in the tomb, and they have to rest. And I think the picture there is that the three days that Jesus was dead is showing that He's doing all the work for us to be saved. We don't do any work. While He's paying for our sins, we don't do the work. He does it all. And that's what I believe. But I can't really be dogmatic about that because of the fact that it becomes convoluted when you try to put it all together and everything. But you know what? I'm going to go home tonight and I'm going to sleep like a baby because I don't care at the end of the day about trying to synthesize every verse in the Bible and make every timeline and get all the reigns of the kings lined up and the judges lined up. And look, those can be edifying Bible studies. I'm not against those Bible studies. They can be edifying. But at the end of the day, though, that's not really where my faith rests in being able to scientifically analyze all that stuff. You know, it could be interesting. It can be profitable. But at the end of the day, once I've gone through it and looked at it, I just walk away saying, you know what? He died on the cross and he was buried and three days later he rose again. And that's why we're going to heaven because we're trusting in him. Isn't that the thing that's clear? So you know, when I read any scripture in the Bible, whether it's this scripture or other things that are not clear, OK, I walk away saying, you know what? Here's what I understood. Here's what's clear. I'm going to apply that. And this stuff that's not clear, I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not God. I'm not trying to be God. I can't understand everything. Maybe next year I'll understand it. Ten years from now, I'll understand it. Worry about what you understand. And you know, this is why a lot of people get derailed in their Bible study. Because they'll start reading the Bible. They'll get about five verses in and they'll be like, oh, I wonder what this means, Google. Oh, I wonder what this means. Get out the commentary. Oh, I wonder what this means. And then they go off on a rabbit trail for two hours. You know, you know what? Try to discipline yourself to just read the Bible. And if you're going to set out to, you know, as Brother Barron said, read your Bible for 15 minutes, you know, read the Bible for 15 minutes. What if I get to something I don't understand? Just keep going. Just keep moving. Right? Just don't get hung up. Because then when you start looking at something with a microscope and you've never even read the Bible cover to cover one time, it's like these people who go to sit down to take a test and they spend the whole hour on the first question. When questions two, three, four, five, and six were super easy. Question one's the hard question. In fact, the answer to question one is embedded in question five, but they got stuck on one. Look, everybody knows that when you take a test, you make a few passes through that test. You know, I remember I used to have to take tests for my contractor's license all the time. The first pass, I would just do everything that's easy. That was pass number one. Pass number two was everything that was hard, but I'm like, I'm pretty sure I can figure this out. That's the second pass. And then once you've done that, then the third pass is where you're like, okay, now I'm going to answer every single question. And then the fourth pass is when there's 45 seconds left and you're just like, B, B, B, B, B, B, B. So that, I mean, that's what I did. And I passed, I would pass the test most of the time. You know, but you got, that was my four stage process for taking a test. So look, that's the way it is when you read the Bible. You know, you're on that, if it's your first time reading the Bible, you're on that first pass, right? Just do the easy stuff. Just, okay, I know what's going on. All right, Jesus healed somebody. He got on a boat. He's preaching. Okay. I'm supposed to do this. I'm not supposed to do that. He's dying on the cross. He rises again. You know, get the basics, get the big picture, get the whole story. Then the second time through, a little more detail. Third time through, a little more detail, right? Fourth time through, you don't get to that stage with the Bible where you just start guessing. All right. Skip that stage. But anyway, every illustration breaks down eventually. So you want to make sure that, that you don't get stuck when you're reading. Don't get stuck on stuff like this. This is not the most important thing in the Bible. It's three verses in Exodus. It really doesn't affect the story that much. It's interesting. It's edifying. But you know what, if it bothers you, just keep reading and don't get hung up. And the people who can keep reading, they're the ones who are actually going to learn the Bible, you know, because they're going to read it and read it. And it's like this with any textbook, multiple readings, multiple passes. You know, any book that's worth reading once is worth reading twice. And the Bible is worth reading a hundred times. Amen. All right. And I have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. And we thank you for this story about Moses, because it's relatable to us, Lord, where we feel inadequate. We don't have the eloquence. We don't have the ability. Maybe we have problems at home, problems financially, health problems. We don't have a lot of talent, whatever it is, Lord, help us just to be encouraged that if you could use Moses, you could use us. And just to be, have an attitude that says, here am I, send me, Lord. I pray that some people that are just kind of on the sidelines in their Christian life would get in the fight and get out there, soul winning, put themselves out there and show up, be a silent partner, and just see what you can do in their lives. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.