Exposing the Faults of a Man

[0:00] Thanks for coming this morning. I'm glad you're here. If you weren't here, I'd be talking to other people, not you. Talking to you. If you have a Bible, find Exodus chapter 4.

[0:14] Exodus chapter 4. We're going to continue on and finish this chapter this morning. Oh, no we won't. We'll get close though.

[0:24] So, making our way through the book of Exodus one chunk at a time.

[0:36] And I need to remind you, we are still in this meeting of the burning bush of Moses speaking to God, as God's speaking to him out of the burning bush.

[0:50] While that was kind of the beginning of chapter 3, it carries through all the way here into chapter number 4. And so, sadly, Moses is not through with objecting and pushing back on the Lord's plan to use him.

[1:08] And I'll review a little bit of that in a few moments, but for now let's just read where we stopped. We stopped at verse 9, so let's pick it up in verse 10, and we'll read to verse 28.

[1:20] So the Bible says, Exodus 4, verse 10, And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither here to for, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant.

[1:31] But I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord?

[1:42] Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.

[1:54] And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee.

[2:07] And when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth. And I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people.

[2:22] And he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth. And thou shalt be to him instead of God. And thou shalt take this rod in thy hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. 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.

[2:40] And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. And the Lord said unto Moses and Midian, Go return into Egypt, for all the men are dead which sought thy life. And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass.

[2:53] 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 those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in thine hand.

[3:06] 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.

[3:17] 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.

[3:28] And it came to pass by the way in the inn that the Lord met him and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.

[3:43] So he let him go. And 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 mount of God and kissed him.

[3:53] And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him and all the signs which he had commanded him. Now we're going to make sense of all of this, I promise you.

[4:06] We've already studied in this book the making of a man and saw those two 40-year increments and those specific qualities that Moses had garnished and gained over those years.

[4:21] and the experiences that he had leading up to this moment to where God appeared to him. And we've learned and saw plainly, obviously, that God was behind this making of a man because it matched the calling, just so beautifully, perfectly matched.

[4:40] And we've already discussed all of that. I hope you remember. Now, God intended to use Moses in a very specific way. And he possessed many strengths. And he was very educated.

[4:52] He had the experience. He had the leadership skills. But interwoven into the fabric of the man was more than just those skills and those qualities.

[5:04] But as we see plainly inside of this man and in his character is weakness and fear and doubt and insecurity.

[5:18] In Moses, you talk about Moses, fast forward into the time of Jesus Christ and those Jews were loving Moses.

[5:31] But Moses was a weak man. From this chapter, I'm going to show you five things this morning that God exposes in the text about the man Moses.

[5:45] I'm going to call this exposing the faults of a man, the shortcomings of Moses in this chapter. It's not in any way picking on him. And it's definitely not pretending to be a better man than Moses to say, Moses, look at you.

[6:01] No. But God insisted upon recording these truths, these qualities that Moses possessed. And he did it at Moses' own hand, mind you.

[6:14] And so how's that for Moses to have to write and tell the world about himself? To tell on himself of his faults and his weaknesses. And because God retained it in the book, whereas Moses surely would have overlooked and just bypassed some of this material.

[6:32] God made him write it. And therefore, I think we do well to understand and consider it. When you tell a story about yourself, do you tell about all your flaws?

[6:43] Or do you not tend to lean toward the good side? Do you not tell of the victories more than you tell of the mistakes? And even if you've made a few mistakes and you want to talk about how you were afraid, you probably just do it to tell everybody how bold you were to overcome your fear and complete the task.

[7:03] Well, the truth is, human nature is to overlook these things. And so what we're going to see in Moses is God doesn't let him excuse the low points or minimize them, but he exposes them and he exposes the faults of this man.

[7:19] Now, in chapter 3, when this thing all started, Moses interrupted God two times as he was telling him what I want you to do. And the first time he said, who am I?

[7:29] Who am I to go into Pharaoh? And Lord's like, no, I'll be with you. And the next time he's like, well, what name am I, you know, when they ask me what's his name, what am I going to tell them? And God, he answers that one.

[7:41] And so he interrupts God and just reveals his doubts. And then in chapter 4, verse 1, as we read last week, Moses answered and said, but behold, they will not believe me. Although God just said earlier that they will hearken to thy voice.

[7:56] And so now Moses is displaying more doubt by countering the word of God and saying they won't believe me. It's showing that he doesn't believe what God said to him. And God obliged his concerns and showed him those supernatural signs with the rod and the hand and mentioned the thing about the blood, the water, the blood.

[8:19] And these supernatural signs, as we studied last Sunday, was to convince him, to convince him to obey. Those were powerful signs. And they were enough to convince the Jews.

[8:32] But apparently, they wasn't enough to convince Moses. Because Moses is still looking for a way out. He's afraid. And so next, where we began this morning in verse 10, he makes his fourth objection.

[8:47] I'm not saying that the signs weren't sufficient to convince him. I should maybe redact that thought. But rather, they weren't sufficient for him to make the choice that this is the best thing for me to do.

[9:01] This is what's right. And so Moses, it shows me, I guess, that he's not really interested in being convinced. He's interested in not obeying what God says at all.

[9:11] He's afraid. And he's looking for a way out. And so, I'm going to show you five things about Moses in this chapter here that we just read that are exposing the faults of Moses.

[9:24] The first thing we see in verse 10, Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent. I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.

[9:36] And I can just see God stopping and saying, or thinking, eloquent? Who said anything about being eloquent? When did I ask you to be eloquent?

[9:49] That wasn't even on the table. That wasn't on the conversation. I said, I'll send you to Pharaoh. And now you're coming up with some reason that this isn't going to work? You're telling me that you don't have the skills?

[10:04] You don't have the traits needed to be that guy that I'm calling you to be? What I want to say first is Moses declares deficiency. I'm not suitable to do this.

[10:16] I'm just not the guy. Not cut out for this. What's he saying? I can't. And he fabricates this excuse of lacking eloquence as if that was a necessary trait for God to use the man.

[10:35] Actually, we've already studied Moses is absolutely cut out for this in so many ways that he doesn't want to admit to. I don't think there's anybody better suited for this job.

[10:48] And God's not making a mistake and God's not desperate. This is actually his design. It's been quite apparent to us. He's been setting this stage for the last 80 years.

[10:58] But Moses says, God, I can't. I am deficient. Did you ever use that lame excuse? Did you ever use that lame excuse?

[11:12] God, I can't. I have. I've used it. Guilty. I bet you are too. Telling God you can't do something when he lays it on your heart to do it.

[11:27] Oh God, I'm not eloquent. Okay. Then do it anyway without eloquence. But Moses said, I can't.

[11:39] I'm not qualified. And you know, when I tell God I can't, I'm wrong every time. You know what the Bible says, right? Do you need the reference?

[11:52] Philippians chapter 4. If you know it, you don't need to turn. If you don't know it, you need to turn. Philippians chapter 4. And verse 13.

[12:13] I can do all things. Through Christ. That should be underlined. Which strengtheneth me.

[12:27] So Moses said, I'm deficient. God said, No, you're not. As a matter of fact, you want to see something else? I've got to point this out.

[12:37] I can't let it go. It wasn't in my notes, but look at Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32. You want to talk about eloquent? Let's find out if Moses is eloquent or not.

[12:51] You don't have to be a literary professor or a genius to draw something, just how remarkable Moses' words are.

[13:14] Deuteronomy 32. You can see in the verse prior, verse 30, it says, Moses spake in the ear all the words of this song. And so Moses is a poet.

[13:27] And he's going to write a song. He spake in the ears this song. In verse 1, Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak. And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

[13:39] Boy, he's already like three steps ahead of me in eloquence. Verse 2, My doctrine shall drop as the rain.

[13:50] He's using similitudes here. My speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain. That's a mist. Very tender and soft upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass.

[14:04] Because I will publish the name of the Lord. Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. And I'm not going to read the whole thing here. But he gives it.

[14:15] And he talks about, he brings in so many examples in his writing. I see the word apple. I see desert.

[14:26] I see wilderness. I see an eagle. And the wings. and the honey. And a rock. And he's describing natural things and putting some flowery language to it.

[14:43] There's one in here. Oh, I won't be able to find it. Where does he talk about the arrows? I forget where it's at.

[14:58] It's worth it. Oh, 42. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood. Now you'd have to think on that.

[15:09] If you get literature, you get words, that's pretty good. A dry arrow is a, it's a miss. An arrow that has blood on it.

[15:21] I've hunted deer and when I find, shoot an arrow and I go look for that arrow, if I see good blood on it, I know I made a good hit. And an arrow that has so much blood that it's, quote, unquote, the picture is a drunk arrow.

[15:36] It's got all the blood it can handle. That's a picture of an arrow. It's just, don't tell me you're not eloquent, Moses. You're eloquent, all right. You've got more skills inside of you than you want to admit.

[15:48] The truth is, Moses doesn't want to obey God. Come back to Exodus 4, where we are. Moses, number one, declares deficiency. I can't do it.

[15:59] I'm not qualified and it really just makes me uncomfortable. I wonder how many times you've used that excuse in your Christian life when God puts something on your heart and you just say, it's not for me. I can't do it.

[16:11] But the truth is, you can do it. You don't want to do it. Or you're afraid to do it. It's easier not to do it. And so Moses, he's got a flaw.

[16:23] He's got a fault here and God exposes it for all of Israel, for all of their history to know what Moses really said back there in the wilderness. You know when he showed up and Moses and Aaron, at the end of this chapter, they spake all the words which the Lord, they told all the people they believed him.

[16:41] I bet you he didn't talk about how he argued with God. But then God made him write it down and they got to see what the real man was about. Come back to chapter 4 and look at verses 11 and 12.

[16:52] We saw this where God, he shot him down, his objection, and he just reinstates in verse 12, now therefore go. I'm not listening to you, Moses.

[17:03] This line about not being eloquent, being deficient, it's not working with me. Now therefore go. And I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. So the Lord pushes him further.

[17:15] And now verse 13, the second thing, when Moses realizes he's not getting around this, secondly, he displays disinterest.

[17:27] In verse 13, he said, Oh my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of whom thou wilt send. What's he saying? He's saying, just send somebody else, God. Just get somebody else, not me.

[17:40] Surely somebody else can do this, but I already told you, I'm not your guy. He's displaying disinterest. This reminds me of Jonah, not interested.

[17:54] God gave him a calling and a duty, and he said, No. I have my reasons and I don't want to do that. It reminds me of Jonah, and sad to say, it reminds me of myself.

[18:07] The truth is, Moses said, I don't want to go. I don't want to go. Find somebody else. And send him. I'm just content to dwell with this priest of Midian.

[18:23] I want to live my life the way I want to live it. And this whole Egypt thing, delivering the people, that sounds like a lot of heartache to me.

[18:34] That sounds like a fight. That sounds like a battle with a big army. That sounds like a lot of people to lead and to care for and to provide for and to answer their questions.

[18:47] I'm just, you know, I'm not interested. I'd rather not go. That's what Moses is telling God. He displays disinterest.

[18:59] I wonder if that reply is at all indicative of the way you reply to God today. Just find someone else. God says, you can do it.

[19:11] You say, I'd rather not. I would rather do this with my life than do what you're calling me to do. I would rather pursue this goal or I've worked so long and hard for this and I just want to keep after that until I get it.

[19:30] And God says, it's time to use that over here. And some would just display their disinterest. But what's interesting to me of all of this, the all-knowing Lord is a step ahead of Moses and he knows Moses and he knows Moses better than Moses knows Moses and God has already got Aaron on the way.

[19:52] And he says it in verse 14 in the middle of the verse is not I know that he can speak where he says, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee. That's present tense.

[20:03] He's on his way to meet you. And so the chapter that we read here is not given chronologically. And so look later at verse 27 again where it says, the Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness to meet Moses and he went and notice it says he met him in the mount of God.

[20:23] That's where Moses and the burning bush are according to chapter 3 in verse 1. And verse 12, the mount of God. So what the timing of this is that God has already stirred up Aaron back in Egypt to go find his brother, go find Moses.

[20:43] And so Aaron obeys God. How about that? I wonder if Aaron argued with God. But Aaron obeyed God and showed up out here way back on the backside of the desert in Midian at the mount of God and there's Moses.

[20:56] I can't tell you if the fire's still burning. I kind of assume that that's settled on and Moses, but he's there at the mount. He's still in the same location when Aaron walks up. So Moses had to say, okay, that's not a coincidence that here I am arguing and contending with God about this calling.

[21:16] And then he says, Aaron's on his way and then Aaron shows up and Aaron kisses him and then in verse 28, Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord which he had sent, who had sent him and all the signs which he had commanded him.

[21:30] So the Lord anticipated this reaction in Moses. How about that? And the Lord was prepared to counter it and he brought a familiar face, a friendly face, one that would comfort him and encourage him and this meeting immediately connected Moses with his family, with his kin, his older brother.

[21:54] Immediately his heart's back in Egypt with his people. Whereas he's been 40 years away, just completely divorced from that life, the Jews aren't coming out to check on him and just like that, it all comes back.

[22:08] Just seeing his brother's face, he's linked again, connected through blood to this calling that God has for him. The Lord anticipated this reaction.

[22:23] And so, you can learn on this, it's easy to resist God's will when you're alone and when you're isolated and when you're away from others, but here the appearance of Aaron made the difference.

[22:37] It wasn't the word of God that came out of the fiery bush, was it? It wasn't the signs that convinced him like it could have, but it was his brother.

[22:49] How about that? His brother. Seeing that face connected him back to his people and to the calling of God on him and realizing those people are crying because of afflictions to their God to deliver them.

[23:08] and now he sees one of them. This thing is, now it's transforming him. Now it's getting into his heart a little bit more. And the Lord did that on purpose.

[23:20] The Bible says, church, that we're to, by love, serve one another and that we're to provoke one another to love and good works and we're to edify and we're to lift up one another in our most holy faith.

[23:34] And sometimes people in this church need it more than others. And sometimes there's people that are out there that are supposed to be in here that need it more than others.

[23:46] You know what they need? They need to see a face of a brother. The farther they stay away and the longer they stay away, the less likely they are to come back. The more numb they are to returning.

[23:59] The more they don't want to obey the voice of God that's calling them and telling them to come. But the face of a brother, that could make up a difference there.

[24:11] It could make up a difference. If the Lord is putting that on your heart or even putting somebody in your mind that you should be chasing after, then chase after them. Reach out to them. Do what you can do as a brother.

[24:23] A little bit later, this brother is going to be holding that, one of those arms of Moses up while there's a mighty battle being fought against the Malachites. That brother turns out that he's got a role of a helper.

[24:36] And right here, he's helping to get this leader to submit to what God has for him. And so the Lord anticipated Moses displaying disinterest and he got him going by sending his brother.

[24:51] And look at now at verse number 17. I want to see a third flaw or fault in the man that God exposes to us. The third thing is he demonstrates dishonesty.

[25:02] In verse 17, Thou shalt 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.

[25:22] Is that why you're wanting to go to Egypt, Moses? Is that really what your intentions are?

[25:32] I just want to go see if they're doing okay? Check on them? We know better. Your brother just showed up. You've already discussed how mom and dad are or how Miriam their sister is.

[25:45] You've already discussed the family stuff. You already know all of those details. Why are you lying to your father-in-law? Why are you deceiving him and being dishonest?

[25:57] Do you suppose that Jethro would have loved to hear what God's intentions were over Egypt? You remember we read this a few weeks ago in chapter 18 when they got out and he met with Jethro and he told him everything that God did?

[26:11] Jethro rejoiced? Jethro sacrificed? He held a feast and called them all to glorify God for what he did? Do you think Jethro this priest would not have been excited and interested to hear what you're really doing Moses?

[26:28] I think he would have been excited. You know it says he took that rod in his hand in verse 17? This priest don't you think he would have been excited to hear what God did with that rod?

[26:39] In verse 20 it's called the rod of God. He didn't forget to take that with him back to Egypt did he? But he sure forgot to mention that to his father-in-law about what the Lord had shown him he told it to Aaron all the signs which he had commanded him he told Aaron but he sure didn't tell anything to Jethro keeping some details hidden for some reason he's just not being genuine he's not being upright he's not being forthcoming and he's actually deceiving him telling him I want to go see how my family's doing sound like a good leader to you somebody who will lie be dishonest and be deceitful but there's something else there's something else he doesn't just demonstrate dishonesty he also in the in the message God gave him he deletes details and what we read and I'll look at it again in verse 21 the Lord gave Moses a message to say unto Pharaoh let's read that message again verse 21 the Lord said unto

[27:44] Moses when thou goest to return into Egypt see that they'll do all those wonders before Pharaoh check did that which I have put in on hand which I'll harden his heart verse 20 and thou shalt say unto Pharaoh quote thus saith the Lord Israel is my son even my firstborn and I say unto thee let my son go that he may serve me and if thou refuse to let him go behold I God the Lord thus saith the Lord I will slay thy son even thy firstborn there's no record of Moses ever delivering this message in its entirety or even close look at chapter 5 and verse 1 and afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh thus saith the Lord

[28:47] God of Israel let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness what Pharaoh responds who's the Lord what are you talking about I'm not letting people and in verse 3 and they said the God of the Hebrews hath met with us let us go we pray the three days journey into the desert and sacrifice unto the Lord our God lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword what is that even close to the message Israel's my son even my firstborn let my son go that he may serve me no mention of feasting no mention of sacrifice and no mention of pestilence and sword upon his own children the threat was against

[29:53] Pharaoh I'm the Lord do what I say or I'm going to kill your firstborn son and Moses deletes those details doesn't he it's not a very threatening statement that Moses makes upon Pharaoh at all but it was supposed to be and so Pharaoh naturally says what are you talking about what do I care wah wah wah get out of here get back to your work is what he tells him to do because Moses was supposed to go straight up and be straight forward and preach a negative message what the Lord had said but instead he conspired with Aaron and said you know I think we ought to take out the negative details of God's word and deliver a more positive sounding message about you know what's the difference if he lets us go he lets us go the difference is

[30:58] God told him what to say and he wasn't faithful in saying it and I'm not sure where all that came from but I imagine that it didn't stepping to the king and threatening the life of his son probably didn't feel like the most diplomatic approach to Moses and Aaron and so they disobeyed God and came up with their own way they felt it would be better to approach in a softer tone and make it look like we don't want God to hurt us so would you please let us go and so Moses turns out to be one of those positive preachers after all twisting the word of God eliminating the negative and not pointing the finger the way God told him to point the finger and declare the truth he's soft because he's scared because he's intimidated one of the things that has always been a blessing to me and an encouragement because I know that in my flesh is the same guy that doesn't like to be confrontational and doesn't you know you want people to like you it's just the truth nobody honestly just desires you to hate or to get mad or to get frustrated with you just it's so much better to be nice it feels like it anyway but one of the things these bible characters the lord has helped me with or shown to me is Elijah and John the baptist those two guys the lord has just made them stand out to me and shine a spotlight in the scripture on them to encourage me because Elijah went to

[32:41] Ahab that perverse wicked king and just preached as in God said this no you're the troubler of Israel and he just told him the truth to the king that would be happy to take his head off same with John the baptist who did get his head taken off and as you know your bible those two are kind of one the same spirit and it's not about being gruff or mean but it's rather just preaching the truth and saying what God thus saith the lord and whatever it is you put it out there and allow God to do the work with his word that he's trying to accomplish instead of tiptoeing and conferring with yourself of how this might come out better and sound a little bit softer and maybe they'll receive it a little bit nicer turns out Pharaoh didn't receive nothing of this did he as a matter of fact I noticed something here in this chapter 5 that with their first meeting what God had said is I'm going to harden his heart and perform my wonders but there was no mention of

[33:48] God hardening Pharaoh's heart after this first interaction you know why because he never heard the threat of his firstborn son that the God was going to slay his son and if he would have thought on that and said I better then the Lord would have to harden his heart to accomplish his will down the road later on when he starts doing these plagues upon Pharaoh and he starts to see that I'm outmatched here the Lord hardens his heart but he didn't have to harden it after this one why because Moses didn't do his job he deleted the details of the message you think that's a good idea to glaze over the negative less palatable statements in the scriptures do you think it's a good idea to just brush kind of sidestep hell and just talk about God's love just talk about heaven but you don't have to talk about hell you think it's a good idea to talk about God's gifts and forgiveness and mercy and not talk about his judgment and his holiness and his wrath you'd be wrong you'd be dead wrong

[34:52] God puts that stuff in here too why would you just focus on one side of it why do preachers today focus on one side only I know why because they're soft and they're scared and Moses is too he's deleting the details people need to fear God God God deserves to be feared he needs to be feared everybody needs to fear God they don't need to just think he's happy with them they need to be afraid of hell like that's a real real good motivation to seek and escape out of hell is the fear that it's real why would anybody need Jesus if they don't know that they're going to be damned in hell if I don't know anything about that and anything about judgment what do I care I'm fine the way I am that's the mentality of people responding to that positive preaching and so there's

[35:53] Moses and there's Aaron even deleting the details that was number four and finally number five this one's an awkward peculiar thing to insert into the narrative verse 24 through 26 but it discloses disobedience in Moses' life in verse 24 the Lord was going to kill his son Gershom it's an awkward thing here we've read it already I'm not going to park on it too long but it allows us to learn something about Moses Moses was not rearing his children to be Hebrews he was not bringing them up in what we'd call the nurture and admonition of the Lord Moses when those when his wife first laid eyes on him she thought he was an

[36:59] Egyptian that's back in chapter 3 verse 19 she called him an Egyptian he raised his family in Midian with a priest of Midian but he never he never brought him into the covenant of promise that God had for his people I'll show you what this is come back to Genesis 17 you do well to be aware of it Genesis 17 there's no evidence that Moses is governing his life according to the way of his people back in Egypt and this thing of circumcision was a token of the Abrahamic covenant without it you're not part of God's people you're out and so

[37:59] Genesis 17 this is I understand what we're talking about here and it's just it's part of it right now and so just just follow along and understand the significance of this verse 9 God said unto Abraham thou shalt keep my covenant therefore thou and thy seed after thee in their generations this is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee every man child among you shall be circumcised and he shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you and he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you every man child in your generations he that is born in the house or bought with money of any stranger which is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money must needs be circumcised and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant and the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his people he that soul hath broken my covenant so

[39:19] God doesn't recognize him he's not of the people of promise without that token in his flesh and Moses isn't raising his children to be in that promise to be it's almost as if he's out there in the wilderness and just said forget about all of it God's going to raise up a deliverer God's going to bring them out they're going to bring Joseph's bones out of Egypt yada yada yada give Abraham to his seed the land yada yada yada I'm just not raising my family that way apparently this discloses to us God does Moses his disobedience because all the males were to be circumcised and enter into that covenant as people of promise so Moses is deficient he's disinterested he's dishonest he deletes those details and that message is soft and he's disobedient and all of that adds up and mounts up to one thing for me to say praise the

[40:33] Lord I know that sounds odd but praise the Lord because until this event we were looking at quite the candidate to be this mighty deliverer this educated and experienced man this spiritual man miracles in his rod in his hand he can do so much God is with him but after learning a little bit more about Moses we come to understand that even despite his faults that God exposes God's interested in using this man and he's interested in giving this man favor in the eyes of all of his people favor in the eyes of Pharaoh down the road and he's going to use him to do this bring him out with mighty acts and terrible acts and so praise the Lord that we get to see who Moses really is and yet still understand that God wants to use him and wants to get glory out of using him and he's not deterred by his dishonesty and his fear and his his uneloquent tongue and all of these things that he threw back

[41:41] God's not deterred by any of that it's nice when when God will get somebody when he says that not many wise or not many mighty not many noble are called but he'll use the base and he'll use the weak to confound the wise we'd expect God to get a noble man an honest man a man of integrity and faith and I guess in the end there really isn't too many of them to draw from is there and so God uses this man why would God use this man because God will get the glory that he deserves when he uses a man like this I can see Moses penning this book I can see him pausing to discuss with God are you sure we need to put this you know I mean there's so much stuff that we never talked about you remember all that happened on that trip back to

[42:45] Egypt with Aaron and the things we saw and the people we met why can't I put that in here you remember there's weeks and months there's even years of time where you're silent and there's so much that happened remember what happened with the people here and the times over here and you're going to make me sit and write this about me come on Lord come on and the Lord says Moses yes right but God your full power was on display and you brought out your people with a mighty arm and a mighty hand and terrible acts and let's just add to that because you really didn't say a whole lot just a few quick chapters of all of that and he says no Moses right because Moses these people are going to see you as a God these people are going to see you as their leader their champion in a couple matter of fact down the road these people are going to reject my son and instead of taking him they're going to exalt you and Moses say no they never do that oh no you can read it in John chapter 9 they don't want to know anything they said

[44:11] Jesus Christ was a sinner and they said but we be Moses' disciples elevated Moses over the Lord Jesus Christ so no Moses your faults and your shortcomings they stay I'm going to expose who you really are what's really inside of your heart it's true isn't it yes it's all true well they need to know this part too and church unless your name is Jesus you've got some flaws too you've got some shortcomings too we're kind of trying to point out some of these in Sunday school to perfect that which is lacking in you but these flaws and these shortcomings these are not stopping God from loving you they're not stopping God from speaking to you and from calling you to him they're not stopping you from wanting to use you because if he'll use a weak vessel he gets the glory and he deserves the glory he deserves all the glory and God can work with marred clay he's been doing it for a very very long time best I can see that's all he has to work with and he's interested in working with it and so the

[45:44] Lord desires to use you and he wants your heart and he wants your obedience and he wants your submission and you say oh but I'm not eloquent we've already covered that you can do all things through Christ even if you're dishonest even if you tend to delete the details and want to take the easy road and be soft even if you haven't been living for Jesus Christ the way you know from the word of God that you ought to be even if you're just straight up disinterested like Moses was God still deserves credit and he deserves glory and he deserves to have the opportunity to do what he wants with you because he bought you so this morning we're exposing the faults of a man and this reveals to us more than just the faults of Moses which can kind of be comforting to us in a way but it also reveals to us the mercy and the patience of God it reveals his long suffering and his loving tenderness his wisdom it reveals he knows the end from the beginning sending

[46:58] Aaron before this ever took place to get to this timing God's fully capable so how about you this morning as we dismiss you have flaws maybe you have some of these five flaws that Moses had don't allow your flaws to excuse you from serving God this thing is going to be wrapped up before you know it this life is going to be done before you know it you think you're just getting started you're going to find yourself saying wow that was fast and the old statement says only what's done for Christ will last you got flaws don't let them excuse you from serving God you have fears I'm sure you do I do too but don't let them hinder you from trusting God and surrendering to him trusting his ability trusting his care and don't let those things hinder you from

[48:00] God getting what he deserves out of your life if it's an opportunity to say something for him say something for him because he deserves your tongue to say something for him if it's an opportunity to witness to someone or to hand a track or to seek a lost soul then seek them because God wants to save them and he'll use a sinner like you to do it oh but I didn't read my Bible yet today I can't go witness to them or hand them a track yes you can stop the excuses Moses and learn how to submit because God will use marred clay amen I don't know what else to say after that that's just the dead on bottom line he's using Moses and Moses has got more problems than you thought this chapter exposes them God exposed them he's a disobedient man a fearful flawed man even passing on the will of God and I'm guilty all over this chapter and the

[49:08] Lord still uses them in a way that has been written in history that's never been duplicated that doesn't have to be your goal to be somebody and get your name recorded but let your goal be that God gets something out of your life let God get something out of your life he saved your soul make sure it's worth it to him let's be dismissed let's pray if you bow your heads and you're not gonna call on any invitation time or ask you to raise your hands or do anything like that but we've been exposing the faults of a man and I'll bet you I'll bet you of those five things that you're probably guilty of more than one I bet you those were those faults were just exposing your life in some way or another so what are you gonna do about it are you gonna let that be your excuse for why you can't because you know that's wrong you know that's wrong are you gonna let those fears inside of you cripple you and keep

[50:19] God from getting something out of you you know that's wrong and I might as well add you're gonna give account for that stuff and you don't have to you you could be obedient and be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might let's pray father lord thank you for retaining this material I'm sure Moses isn't proud of it and I guess if my faults were displayed to this congregation I wouldn't be proud of it either nobody wants anybody else to know where they fall and where their shortcomings are we're too full of pride and have some reputation in our minds built up bigger than it truly is yet Lord as we saw this and studied it I pray that you use it and that you'd convey to us our shortcomings are not too short for you to use us and in truth as much as we ought to be perfecting ourselves in

[51:23] Christ and sanctifying ourselves I don't suppose that's ever going to be a full reality until you do the work and change us and make us like you and come and take us out of here and transform us and conform us to the image of your son and so Lord help us to keep fighting and to keep pursuing that goal and I pray Lord that you'd use us and let us know let each one here know what it's like to be used experience that victory and get a taste for that joy instead of that defeat Lord I pray we'd take away this from Moses and learn from it and we pray these things in Christ's name Amen amen do to him he'll be him