Joseph Carroll emphasizes God's method of training Moses, illustrating how God prepares individuals for His purposes through trials and challenges. He highlights Moses' initial reluctance and excuses when called to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, showcasing the importance of surrendering to God's will despite personal insecurities. Carroll warns against becoming immune to the truth and encourages believers to embrace their identity as God's chosen people, willing to endure stigma for the sake of Christ. He also discusses the necessity of faith and obedience in responding to God's call, reminding the congregation that God often uses difficult circumstances to mold and prepare His servants.

Shall we pray? Father, we do thank Thee that we are not ignorant of the days in which we live. You've given us your word, you've revealed to us in your word very clearly and distinctly and unmistakably what was going to happen in the last days. We see men's hearts failing them for fear. We see countries being bankrupted throughout the Western world because of the condition of the economies. And we know that all of these factors combine to warn us. And yet, Father, bowed in your presence, there could be those who have heard the word for so long and rejected it for so long that they have become immune. They have become immune to the receiving of the truth. They are tranquilized against truth. And we ask for such tonight. Oh, Lord, open their eyes, open their hearts, save them. Be merciful to them, we pray. And we pray for those in authority in this land, that you'll give them wisdom and courage to cease being political and become statesmen-like and serve this country and not themselves. We trust Thee for this, if it would be pleasing to Thee. In Jesus' name, Amen. Now, shall we turn together to Exodus chapter 3? Exodus chapter 3, reading from verse 1. Now, Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abram, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land, and a large unto a land flowing with milk and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Aborites, and the Perizzites, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? Then there follows a number of questions and answers, until finally in chapter 4 and verse 12. 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. So the Lord appears to Moses, and he gives him his instructions, and every time Moses has an excuse. Can't do this, can't do that, who am I, that I should go? And then he finally says here, Lord, get somebody else. Get somebody else to do the job. Send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. 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 to meet thee, and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart, and so on. Shall we turn across to Hebrews chapter 11, keeping a finger there, in Exodus. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 23. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw him as a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. People sometimes ask me, why do people smuggle Bibles into these lands behind the iron curtains? Because it's the will of God, but they break the law, so did Moses' parents. They broke the law. The time when you break the law. See the point? The king said, Slay! They said, No. Not going to obey you. And had they obeyed him, we wouldn't have had Moses, and we wouldn't be reading about him tonight. So there are times when the law of land is to be disobeyed, if it comes into conflict with the will of God. And I'm all for smuggling Bibles into lands behind the iron curtain and breaking the law. Well, people in Germany during the Second World War hid Jews. That was breaking the law. They broke the law and saved the Jews. Praise God. Why not? That doesn't mean the students here can break the rules. They can try. Right. Hebrews 11. By faith, verse 23, Moses, when he was born, was hid three months. His parents, because they saw he was a proper child. They were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for seasons. There is pleasure in sin. Don't let anybody tell you there isn't. There is pleasure in sin, but it's only for a season and the wages of sin is death. It's then that you pay the bill. But don't let anybody ever tell you there is not pleasure in sin. There is pleasure in sin. Yes, there is. But there's a price to pay and the price to pay is eternal death, eternal separation from the presence of God. Moses saw that, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. For he had respect under the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. For he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Now, when Moses made his choice to be identified with the downtrodden race of slaves, he had nothing to look forward to but privation and danger and scorn and suffering. That's what he chose. From all the pleasures and all the allumance and all the sensual satisfactions that he could have had in a court, he chose that. Privation, identifying with the downtrodden despised race of slaves, danger, scorn and suffering. Why did he do it? Because he regarded the stigma that rests on God's anointed greater treasures than the wealth of Egypt. And we need to be careful that we understand that. We need to be careful we understand his choice. Here are the riches of Egypt on one hand and all that that would mean and possibly the throne of Egypt. Here it is. It can be his. All he has to say is yes. Or over here is what? Stigma. Stigma. The offence of the cross. The offence of Christ identified with God. So he said, I'll choose that. There's no comparison. Are you willing to be branded as different? Are you? Peculiar? The stigma of the cross the stigma of being a true Christian I mean the real thing. The early Christians were considered to be the offscouring of society. They were despised. They were hated. And all men that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. You live a godly life. I mean a godly life. And stand against the devil and stand against the world. You'll be persecuted. Moses saw this and he chose what? Stigma. As one of God's chosen separated anointed. And what others would have shunned he ended into as a prize to be eagerly sought. He embraced it as a great prize. So why did he embrace it? He considered the issues of time in the balances of eternity. Think on that. He considered the issues of time. How long do you have here? Three years quarantine more or less. Eternity. Eternity. What does it matter what you are here? It's what you're going to be there that counts. Why be all taken up with what's here when the word of God says set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. That's a command. In other words, don't be all taken up with the things of earth. Set your affection on the things above. The eternal things. The eternal things. Moses set his affection on the eternal things. That's why he made his choice. Shunned everything that he could have had in this world. What could he have had? A temporal alleviation of desires that would satisfy Moses. So his heart renunciation of Egypt with all Egypt had to offer was the essential act of faith. He renounced it. Well we know that Egypt is the type of the world and Pharaoh is the type of the devil and the true Christian is one who has accepted crucifixion to the world and opposition to the devil. That's the true Christian. You don't have to be taught that. If you're born again of the Spirit of God the Spirit of God will reveal it to you. You don't have to go to a hundred conferences to know that. The Spirit of God will reveal to you that you no longer belong to this world. You belong to that world which is to come. Your citizenship is in Heaven. It's no longer here. You're a pilgrim and you're a stranger. Moses knew that. Moses saw it and Moses embraced it. And then we saw that he identified himself with the need of his people. His motive was perfect. He was compassionate. He was longing that they might be delivered but one big flaw. He identified himself with a need. He related himself to a need and that's where he failed. God did not tell him to go down and do what he did. He did it because he felt it was the right thing to do but the right thing can be done in the wrong time. And that means it's contrary to the will of God. But his error was what? He related himself to a problem. A very serious problem. A very serious condition. What can Moses do about it? I can do this. I can be delivered and so on. Well he finishes up in a wilderness for forty years. And then we saw last week that God speaks to him and he speaks to him out of a bush that was burning but was not consumed. And he said I'll turn aside and see this great sight why the bush is not consumed. Now it was just an ordinary little desert bush. Millions of them out there. Just a little bush. But it's different to all the other bushes because it's burning but it isn't being consumed. It's a different bush. No it's not a different bush. There's something in it that makes it different. It's the fire. So Moses said it's a great sight. I'll turn aside and see what's going on here. So he turned aside and God speaks to him out of the bush. You know God continually does that. You see a little bush a little office girl a little carpenter over here a little humble workman over here. Just like millions of other workmen but he's different. Why? Because he's a burning and shining light. And God speaks to him. People come into a factory and they look around and ah somebody's standing out there and he looks different to everybody else. Sure that's God's little bush out there. He's going to speak through that bush. I wonder what kind of bush you are where God places you out in the wilderness of the world. What kind of bush are you? Are you a bush that burns? Shines? Bush through which God speaks to others? As a dear man of God I was preaching actually I was having a meeting for preachers of a certain denomination and there was one man there and he just stood out. He was different. And I found out he wasn't a preacher but he was different. He just stood out to see the Lord in the man. And after the first message I have in the morning he said how is Anna? I said what do you mean how is Anna? He said well I've prayed for Anna for years. How's she doing? And I thought for grace of God here is this dear man and you've been praying for Anna for years just a burning and a shining servant of the Lord. And then I heard a story about this man he was in charge the engineer in charge of the functioning of machinery in this great mill. And they brought in a piece of machinery from Germany that was very complicated and suddenly the thing wouldn't work. So they got the engineers to work and they couldn't find out what was wrong so they sent an engineer from Germany. And he looked at the thing and went over and he couldn't find out what was wrong either. And so there they were all standing together about half a dozen of these big shots these big engineers and the man from Germany and this dear man of God was there and the Lord said to him why don't you kneel down and pray? Why don't you kneel down and pray? Ask God to show you what's wrong. So he did. Can't you imagine how those other fellows looked at it? So he knelt down and when he knelt down to pray he saw what was wrong from the height that he was kneeling. He knelt down to pray, prayed lifted up his head and right on target that's what's wrong. I think God spoke through that little burning bush that there. You see God wants to speak to you but you've got to be burning and shining you've got to be more than a mouth. God still works the same way today our Lord said John was a burning and shining light a burning and shining light he rejoiced in John. What am I where God has placed me? Am I burning and shining? In other words am I filled with the spirit? Spirit of fire spirit of burning spirit of illumination. And so God spoke to him out of the bush and he told him he knew all about the children of Israel he knew all about their sufferings he knew what they had been through and he knew what they were going through and it was his time to deliver them. He'd come down to deliver them and Moses and he said come now therefore and I'll send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. He says come now I'm going to send you that you might bring them forth he said I'm going to do it but you will bring them forth you'll bring them forth in other words I'm going to use you as my instrument I've chosen you and what did Moses say who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh now he's changed before he said here I am in Egypt here I am I'm the man I can do the job I can be your deliverer why at that very moment he could have aroused the people to rebel and revolt against the Egyptians powerful man here am I I'm Moses now he says who am I quite a difference who am I well Moses you're the fellow mighty in words and deeds trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians that's who you are forget it he says I can't do anything you've got the wrong man that's what he said forget somebody else I can't speak can't do this can't do that in Egypt he's all taken up with what he can do now he's all taken up with what he cannot do he hasn't learned his lesson in Egypt he's going clockwise around self what he can do now he's reversed and he's going anti-clockwise around self what he can't do what's God trying to say to him he's trying to reveal to him what he can do takes God a long time to get that across to us it's not what he can do or it's not what he cannot do but it's what the Lord can do and what the Lord is waiting to do and he's told him exactly what he is going to do so he says no Lord you've got to get somebody else I can't do anything I can't do anything well God didn't ask him what he could do or what he couldn't do he told him what he was going to do what does it mean to live a life of faith it means simply to do what God's telling you to do now he was Moses back in Egypt he made that tremendous decision to turn from everything that Egypt had to offer him but now after 40 years and that's a long time to be out there in a wilderness with a difficult wife oh yes a long time and evidently an unsympathetic father-in-law because he put him in charge of sheep maybe he didn't have anything else for him to do this is the great Moses God has brought him down into the dust why do you think he brought him down into the dust because he was worth it he was worth it he was worth bringing into the dust that he might raise him have you ever noticed how God deals with men who he's going to use and he brings them down and then he lifts them up yes he does he brings them down he lifts them up Moses was material that God was going to use so he has to bring him down now he's going to lift him up even though he doesn't want to go he's going to go because God is God and God is something this great leader Moses had to be brought down before he could be lifted up the way up is first down and then he finally said get somebody else he said well Lord can't do it get somebody else and God was angry with him and his anger was kindled against Moses it's not wise to keep adopting an attitude that's going to make God angry with you God has possibly been speaking to you for years about something that you should do and you put it off and you put it off and you put it off well I don't want to do it because it's going to cost me something because it will cost you a lot more if you don't cost you a lot more if you don't you're sitting here tonight and you know very well God has been speaking to you about some relationship that you should break off or some relationship that you should do something about and it's still there that's a dangerous attitude to have some pursuit that you're pursuing some activity you're engaged in you know you shouldn't be identified with it but you've let it go on year after year and God has been merciful to you but there's going to come a time when if unless you stop tempting God he's going to get angry because God is angry with the wicked every day and that's just what you're doing you're being a wicked man or a wicked woman in God's sight yes you are but somehow we feel in this evangelical world of our day that God is so good he really won't punish yes he will punish the wrath of God is constantly at work dealing with men and women and nations throughout the world it's a present reality the wrath of God is not something that is to come it will come but it's active now in the world it's a present reality and you're inviting the wrath of God in your life that's not very wise God was angry with Moses he said alright you're going and I'm going to send Aaron with you but you're going and then we know what happened when he went God trained him and he used Pharaoh to train him he used Pharaoh to train him how did he use Pharaoh to train him? well he always uses the devil to train his best servants I made a statement from time to time it takes a little explaining that the devil is the lord sergeant major on the barrack square of grace in other words the barrack square is that square where soldiers are trained where soldiers are drilled I remember my first day in the Australian army in January 1940 we went out to this hot military camp that had just been put together very rapidly for the influx of soldiers and here was this big fellow neck about 18 inches voiced like a falcon he was the regimental sergeant major and he was going to put us through our paces and he did out there on the barrack square hot sometimes 110, 112, 115 degrees and there you were marching full kept full kept all the time hour after hour he was a taskmaster the regimental sergeant major but he made soldiers out of it he put us through our paces on that barrack square he made soldiers out of those boys you see the devil is the lord sergeant major on the barrack square of grace a great preacher once said that he lets the devil put you through your paces and he doesn't realise it but he's making a soldier of Jesus Christ and he doesn't even know it you see that so God used Pharaoh to train Moses in the life of faith and obedience he used him we're not going to go through all the experiences you know what happened the frogs, the lice and so on but he confronted Moses with an impossible situation so that Moses had to go back and he had to cry to the lord for the lord's answer and the lord would give him the answer but then he'd say you lift up your rod you exercise faith and you say what I'm telling you to say and then I'll work and he did that's what happened again and again and again until Moses was trained he was trained by Pharaoh God would not permit Pharaoh to let the people go until he trained Moses so what did he train him, how did he train him he put him in situations where he had no alternative but to cry to God because it was an impossible situation to man and every time he cried to God God said alright this is my answer to it this is what you must do you must say what I tell you to say and you must do what I tell you to do and I'll act now that's how God trains a man that's how he trains him puts him into a situation which he can't handle now he's very very foolish if he tries to handle it because he's relating it to himself he's very foolish God made no mistake he doesn't make mistakes when it comes to handling his children he doesn't make mistakes at any time we know that but here's the point he trained Moses by putting him in situations where he had to cry to him for his answer and that to obey him in faith and sometimes to do something to look absolutely ridiculous and God always answered and that's the way he trains a man he trains you to pray and to cry to him and to wait upon him until he speaks to you and what he says you do and when you do it the power of God is manifest that's the way he trains men that's what he's done for us here again and again here he put us in impossible situations so we had to cry to the Lord and say Lord what are you going to do about it and he says you do this and I'll do this and we did that and he did that and that's why we're here tonight is that how he's worked in your life? is it? is it? a Christian walks on two feet surrender and faith surrender and faith and he used Pharaoh to do it there was a very interesting man in the city of Memphis he lived there for many many years he graduated medical doctor and he never practiced fabulously wealthy man he never practiced and he became a recluse married, had three or four daughters and I met one of the daughters in a certain church in Memphis she said to me oh I wish you'd come and speak to my daddy so I said well tell me about him he said he won't listen to anybody really but he might listen to you because you're from another country and you know a few things about the world where you've travelled and so on and you'd be different and perhaps he'd listen to you I said well tell me about him she said well he never goes out of the house the only thing he's really interested in is his garden I said well I'll speak to him so I went along and had quite a pleasant time with him and didn't get very far as far as witnessing to him he just had a big defence out there but the next time I was in Memphis I used to go back each year during those years to speak in this church and each year I'd go and visit him so one day I was just asking the Lord Lord just give me a word for this man I can't get anywhere with him well all he was interested in really was his garden so I said Doctor you realise that God made compost out of Pharaoh you know what do you mean I said well he made compost out of him what do you do with something that's not bearing fruit and resists everything that you're doing to try and make it bear fruit what do you do? well you cut it down and you grind it up and you put it back on the ground you make compost out of it don't you so that something else will grow well that's what God did with Pharaoh he made compost out of him oh he said that's it because he'd always had this question that nobody could answer why did God harden Pharaoh's heart well God hardened Pharaoh's heart after Pharaoh hardened his heart against God and then he made compost out of him if you harden your heart against God even in the most subtle way God is not mocked not mocked he'll use you and you won't even know it to bring his will to pass even against your will he's a sovereign God he's a God to be feared and he's a God to be loved with all your heart shall we pray Father we thank thee for the day when that dear doctor came to the Lord and then two weeks after you took him to be with yourself what a strange illustration to use to bring light to his heart if that's what you're doing all the time we want to thank you tonight Father everything that's happening in this world is happening because you have predetermined it should happen and you have a purpose in it give us to understand your ways not to be foolish and blind and ignorant and stubborn and give us grace to respond to your will give us grace Father not to relate ourselves to situations where their own puny, puerile, foolish little plans but to trust you to do that which is worthy of your great name and oh Father we pray for any tonight bowed in your presence who perchance have begun the hardening of their heart against you because they want their own will for their own life and their own way and their own plans to be fulfilled and they've hardened their heart oh Lord be merciful to such we pray in Jesus name Amen