Moses: His Provisioning

Exodus chapter 3 please, that's where we'll take our reading just this afternoon. Look at verse number 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 the 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 to see this great sight why the bush is not burnt and when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and he 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 were on thou standest is holy ground moreover he said I am the God of thy father the God of Abraham 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 Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hevites and the Jebusites now therefore behold the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me and I have also seen the oppression were with you Egyptians oppress 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 on to Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt and he said certainly I will be with thee and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt ye shall serve God upon this mountain and Moses said unto God behold when I am come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them the God of your fathers has sent me unto you and they shall say unto me what is his name what shall I say unto them and God said unto Moses I am that I am and he said thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel I am hath sent me unto you and God said moreover unto Moses thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel the Lord God of your fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has sent me unto you this is my name forever and this is my memorial unto all generations and God blessed to us that reading from the sacred scriptures many of you will know that I introduced the subject of Moses life just yesterday and I I did make it known to those who were here that I was hoping just to speak upon the early years of Moses life and of course that came with a caveat and the caveat is this that when we read we read Exodus chapter 1 and we read Exodus chapter 2 and where I have read here in Exodus chapter 3 the early years of Moses life where we have started reading today in Exodus 3 verse number 1 Moses now is 80 years of age so we will keep that in our minds I almost should apologize for using that the early years of Moses life and yet here we are and we're stepping back into the study of Moses of course yesterday we started with the protection of Moses life that was the first subject that we saw that is raised in the book of Exodus and then we move from the protection of Moses life and we saw not only the protection of his life but we looked at that boy and we saw that boy there in the land of Egypt and we noticed together some of the details of his life that followed on as God is preparing the man right there in Egypt and that's bringing me now to this subject which by which I have before me it's not so much the protection of his life and all of those things I want you to think now with me of the provisioning of his life and here is a man now as I say he's 80 years of age I want you to think with me now of the man when he was born just after his birth he was placed back into his family home from the family home there came a moment when he was taken from that home and he was taken to the palace for approximately 40 years or thereabouts or a good portion of 40 years he has been in the palace from the palace he leaves and he goes to the backside of the wilderness and he's in the backside of the wilderness for 40 years and he's 80 years of age now now he made a move for God you and I know when he was come to years when he was full 40 years old he made a move for God and it was just the wrong timing one of the things I do or I am encouraged with that would be bad English if I use the former sentence one of the things that I am encouraged with is this that we look at the record in the book of Exodus and we see the man and he's smiting the Egyptian and we see the man intervening between his own brethren and we see the man and the thing is known to Pharaoh and this man Moses he flees the land of Egypt did you notice in Hebrews chapter 11 there's no record of failure in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 it says by faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king when Moses left Egypt if we only had the record of the book of Exodus we would say he he acted in haste he moved when he shouldn't have moved he did something he shouldn't have done there was things that were done that never should have been done Hebrews 11 says this when the man made that move it was an act of faith by faith Moses he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king my beloved brethren and sisters what I want to drive out is this there has been a man for 40 years in the backside of the desert and the man is looking after the sheep maybe I'll come back to that he's looking after his father-in-law's sheep he's been there in the wilderness for 40 years a man in the wilderness and he's not sure about the pathway and he's wondering about the things of God and he's thinking to himself did I make a mistake and he's wondering in his mind what about the years and he's thinking those were wasted years is there someone like that in the audience today let me just stop now for a moment and look over this audience of people because all of us face things like that there are times in our lives periods of reflection and in those periods of reflection we begin to think and we begin to ruminate this man at 40 years and he's in the backside of the desert and he's wondering I thought God wanted me to do something for him I thought there was a task that God had appointed for me I thought there was a work that God is for me to do listen maybe I'm speaking to someone that's 80 years of age today listen my beloved brother God still is a work for you to do one of the things that we face along with my beloved brethren we get the privilege of traveling amongst God's beloved people I was in a certain area quite recently and I gave some ministry and after the ministry meeting there was a dear sister waited behind and when everyone else was moving away she come up and shook my hand and she started to cry and I wasn't sure I thought to myself I wonder what's going on here and that sister said something like this to me she said you know John I can't do now what I used to do she says the things that I used to be able to do to help God's people I can't do it now she says one of the things that I'm questioning is this why has the Lord left me here just now when I can't do the work and I looked at that sister and I said to that sister what I'm telling you this afternoon my beloved brother my beloved sister God still has a work for you to do and there is something that God has given into our hands and here's a man and he's looking back and he's reflecting and he's wondering and he's ruminating and it's all going on in his mind and he's looking after the flock of sheep maybe we just have to leave the sheep just for the sake of time he's looking after Jethro sheep the Lord has his eye on the children of Israel they're not saved in fact I didn't read the end of chapter 2 but at the end of chapter 2 it says God looked upon the children of Israel and God had respect unto them we read in this chapter just what God saw he saw their sorrows he saw the reflection he saw their need he knew they needed to be delivered just before I go any further and I need to go further but before I go any further maybe there's someone here this afternoon and you've got a family member that is not saved here were these people and one of the things in the minds of these people is this that there were family members and they needed to be delivered listen my beloved brother you might be thinking what about my family God has moved in this person's family and he saved their family God has moved in this family and he has saved their family what about my family can I just tell you you see where we have introduced ourselves in Exodus 3 God is about to take the field and you see when the Lord takes the field and you see when the Lord moves into the circumstances and you see when the Lord takes up the case everything changes beloved Saints I was in an area having gospel meetings this is two years ago David Hurley high and I were having a series of gospel meetings together and in that particular location the brethren he had an unsaved daughter and I had an unsaved daughter and every night in those prayer meetings those dear men as they prayed for their own families they prayed for our two girls and sitting there there's a heart of unbelief in every one of us sitting there I thought to myself I wouldn't be surprised that we'll hear that David's daughter gets saved soon that's what I was thinking oh he of unbelief and those men prayed every night prayed for the two girls we left that gospel series and I still had those thoughts in my mind his daughter within three months my daughter was saved talk about a rebuke listen my beloved my beloved brethren my beloved sisters there's a man is going to stand at a bush and I'm going to come back to that in a moment but here is a man and God is about through him to take the field and there are people that need to be delivered and I say to this audience today and I don't know everyone here I know some here I don't know everyone here but I say to this audience today this is not the hour to lose heart beloved Saints this is not the time to give up this is the time beloved Saints to seek the face of God because he is still the same God there's still unchanging eternal immutable God he hasn't changed he will never change and he's about to take the field and so Moses he's looking after the sheep he happens to notice as he's looking after the sheep in the backside of the wilderness he happens to glance and as he's glancing just in the wilderness itself he sees a bush and it burned if I'm reading the context right and the circumstances right I'm not sure that this was something that wouldn't have been seen I think I think and there there are other instances of this there are instances of just some of those bushes going up with spontaneous combustion just the heat of the desert and some circumstances and some of those little bushes would just spontaneously combust Moses had likely seen it before a bush that was burning and then it was extinguished the thing about this bush Moses saw the flame and the fire in the bush and as Moses looked at the flame and the fire in the bush Moses saw the bush was burning and it burned and it kept burning and it was not consumed there are three instances this is another sidebar I shouldn't really do this but oh well every preacher soon as they say you shouldn't do it you know what they're gonna do we're gonna do it anyway but there are three instances in Scripture I'm gonna give you young people a little bit of homework three instances in Scripture where you'll read that little expression not consumed not consumed not consumed it's a lovely study and this is one of them you only have to look for two now I've done I've done one third of the work for you you only have to look for two of them not consumed and Moses looks at this bush and the thing that Moses drew his attention to it was this I shall now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush is burning and it's not consumed and as he drew near to the bush from the bush that was burning the Lord unto Moses out of the bush now again that's a subject in the book in the book you know in the book of Exodus the Lord called unto Moses out of the bush when you get to chapter 19 the Lord called unto Moses from the mountaintop Exodus 24 the Lord called unto Moses out of the cloud by the time you get to Leviticus chapter 1 and verse number 1 it says on the Lord called unto Moses out of the tabernacle and there's the link it started in the bush and then it moved to the mountaintop and then it went to the cloud and now it's in the tabernacle and the Lord is calling and he's calling Moses out of the book and Moses says I draw aside and see this great sight I want to think of lessons lessons from the bush God preparing and provisioning his man and here we are with Moses at the bush the first lesson I think we can learn lessons that Moses learned and lessons that we can learn I think the first lesson that I learn is this I learned the lesson of reverence the Lord said to Moses take off your shoes from off your feet for the ground were on your standing it's holy ground and Moses takes off his shoes and we're learning the lesson of reverence and as we learn the lesson of reverence what we learn is this God's purity now I have to say beloved Saints I don't think I don't think that this ministry is required here I look around I was here yesterday I was at the breaking of bread this morning one of the things that I found very reverent was just how those things the interactions of our brethren took place this morning at the breaking of bread may I encourage you beloved Saints God bless you as you seek to be reverent serving the Lord and the great thing that Moses learned was this he learned the lesson of reverence God's purity mind you beloved Saints God is holy and the thing that is being impressed on Moses here is this God is pure and God is holy we are living in a very impure world beloved Saints a very impure world we take a drive down the highway and there's a billboard and an advertisement and as soon as we see it it actually contaminates us because it's an impure world we have things in our pockets I think my brother touched this yesterday but I keep an Instagram account please don't look for me it's private the only reason I keep the Instagram account well that's not true I was gonna say the only reason I keep the Instagram account is to keep tabs on my daughters that's part of the reason I do have some interests in life some interests you would hardly believe I better not tell you my interests or or you'll say Megan it's time for you to leave but but I do keep an Instagram account but I do know this that even in some of the sites that I follow it's just a click and I'm exposed to things that would actually contaminate me for the glory and the honor of God and the work of Christ and there are times just sitting with God's people sitting on my own I have to bow my heart and I have to get down on my knees and I have to spend time with God and I have to tell the Lord Lord there was that thing that come up on that feet today and Lord it's contaminating because God is holy beloved Saints we are living in an impure world and the world will tell you that those sites don't matter and the world will tell you it's for your sensual pleasure and the world will tell you that you are young and you can do whatever you want here's a man and one of the things that's impressed upon Moses is this take off my shoes from off my feet because the ground on which you are standing is holy ground you know what Paul wrote to Timothy you remember that beloved Saints keep thyself pure there's another thing with the shoes I gotta leave this one one of the great things about Moses taking off his shoes when Moses did that Moses was signifying this I have no ability no ability in myself God is going to send Moses into Egypt God is going to use Moses in a mighty way and before he ever does that he says to Moses Moses now take off your sandals you remember in the book of Ruth that the man who couldn't redeem he was told take off your shoes one of the things that Moses is learning the lesson of reverence and God's purity is that Moses had no ability in himself to accomplish the work of God and that's a vital lesson you see in gospel work we bring men there are men here who preach there are brethren here who do the work I know that one of the things in gospel work that we learn and we have to relearn and we learn it again it's just this that you and I essentially in ourselves have no ability to do the work the work is God's take off thy shoes from off thy feet the ground on which you are standing is holy ground the lesson of reverence and God's purity the second lesson that I want to learn at the booth is not only the lesson of reverence and God's purity I want you to notice the lesson of reality and God's person the bush is burning did you ever think of what that that bush symbolizes Moses looks at the flame and he sees the flame in the bush God was actually using that as a visual representation to Moses and you say what's the visual representation I think there could be a number of aspects I don't think that we narrow it down and have to say it's one thing I think the flame in the bush could represent a number of things and you say what could it represent I think it represented the people of Israel in Egypt you remember in Egypt the people of Israel they were in the fire of trial we heard about that today our brother Marvin has just read from first Peter the trial of your faith though it be tried by fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ the trial of their faith the fire in the bush it speaks about God's people in the fiery trial you know beloved Saints one of the things that Moses was learning with the fire in the bush was this that even though those people were in trial the Lord was still with them did you catch that in the midst of the trial of the bush in the midst of the trial of Egypt the Lord's presence was still there he hadn't gone it was my friend my friend mr. Bentley he used to tell a story when he was in Malaysia he used to tell a story about his children he used to take his children to the park two little girls and when he took his children to the park he used to let them run ahead of him in the park and as they were running ahead of him in the park he used to find a large tree and when he found that tree and the girls were running ahead and had lost sight of him he used to step behind the tree out of sight of the children and he used to watch he used to peek behind the tree just to watch the reaction of the girls and eventually the girls would turn round and they started to search for him started to look for him and then the consternation would dawn where's dad you know sometimes beloved Saints sometimes in fiery trial it's not the trial that's the problem now I'll give you time to think about that when it comes to the trial of Saints it's not the trial itself that is the problem it's not so much the fire that is the problem and you say boys I've never heard ministry like that before you know one of the bigger problems for God's people where is God why is God allowed this why is it that I'm in the circumstances where is God in me in the emergency situation in life you remember what Job says Job says in his book he says I go forward and he's not there he says I turn to the left hand where he's working and I cannot perceive him he says I go to the right hand and I know I know he's at work and I cannot see him and then Job says this but he knoweth the way that I take and when he has tried me he'll bring me forth like gold you know beloved Saints here in this bush in the fire is the picture of God's people in the midst of the trial and I say to everyone here this afternoon the Lord thank God thank God beloved Saints no matter those sleepless nights no matter those things you're enduring no matter the health problems no matter what you're going through the Lord hasn't left you he'll never leave us alone the bush the lesson of the bush is the the lesson of reality and God's person now I almost got to leave that that clock's murdered Marv wasn't kidding that clock is murder I saw someone come up here this morning and they took it down there I have a good mind to go down there and take it and put it over there and if I put it under the curtain you wouldn't see it and we could all pretend we could oh I won't do that will you say if if this speaks of God's presence God's person is there anything else the fire in the bush could speak of I think it also speaks of God's Word that is linked to the person of God because from the bush God spoke to Moses you know beloved Saints God's Word we have it in our hands it's a wonderful book oh I think we take it for granted man died 500 years you say what 500 years ago this year you should all get a copy of it by the way in the month of April 1526 the first copies of the New Testament in England in English began to be distributed in London England by a man it was translated by a man called William Tyndale you young man if you want to read a book you read a biography of William Tyndale he is one of my Christian heroes and they persecuted him and they they went after him over hill and down into valley and the reason why they were persecuting him is this he was trying to get God's Word to the people in a language that they would understand he went to the Bishop of London and he said to the Bishop he asked and requested from the Bishop of London he asked permission to translate from Greek and then Hebrew God's Word into English and the Bishop of London he refused him said no no I won't allow permission and William Tyndale he looked at that man and he said this he said sir I will see to it that the day will come that the very plow boy that is plowing a field I will make sure that he knows more of the Bible in the English language than you know and within a number of years he had it done 500 years brethren and sisters to this year is when William Tyndale published his first edition in 1526 you can get it on Amazon the first edition there's there's no no no not one of the originals now yeah there's only three they originally thought there were only two there's only three in existence they found another one in Germany but you can get a facsimile copy on Amazon I I'm a personal friend of Jeff Bezos hope you all know that and I have a book I've actually a book that's arrived in in Iowa since I've been here delivered by Amazon and I think Jeff is my personal friend and if you go on to Amazon you'll get a copy of Tyndale's 1526 edition only a few only a few dollars and you can keep it in pride of place and here the bush is burning they've tried to do away with God's Word they've tried to banish it they've tried to burn it and we are standing here today and we have the privilege today of reading from the inscripturated Word of God the bush is still burning brethren and sisters take off thy shoes from off thy feet the ground on which you are standing is holy ground the lesson of reverence God's purity the lesson of reality God's person what about the lesson of revelation God's permanence Moses of course he wants to know one of the big problems that Moses is faced with Moses is faced with this when I go into Egypt who will I tell them has sent me when I start going to these people in Egypt and I start telling them about God who will I tell them has sent me and the Lord said you go and you tell them I am that I am has sent you in fact it means this it comes from a Hebrew verb the Hebrew verb is hava it means it simply means to be in English it would be poor English but we could call it the being one now if I called God the being one you brethren and sisters would likely say you were telling us about reverence a few moments ago what about reverence well it really means that in its essence I am that I am or perhaps better I will be I will be and Moses learns the lesson and the lesson Moses is learning is this go as far back into the past as far as you can go into the past and it was true then I will be what I will be go as far into the future and as you go as far into the future every step into the future Moses I will be what I will be I will never cease to be and you say what was the lesson that Moses learned Moses learned this lesson I have to leave I'm gonna have to leave the bush and when I leave the bush I'm going to stick take a step away and what Moses learned was this as he was leaving that bush he left in the consciousness of a God that would never cease to be a God whose presence would be with him every step of the way now you're gonna have to leave you can't sit here we're gonna have to leave this afternoon and the bush is still burning and Moses has his shoes off and you and I in the presence of God we do the same thing take off my shoes from off my feet we've got to leave to Brethren and sisters and you will have to go back to college tomorrow and there's some dear Christians here and they'll go back to the workplace and there's some Christians here and they'll go back into an atmosphere where people are cursing and taking the name of the Lord Jesus in vain all of those things never forget now as you and I leave we leave in the consciousness of this of the eternal abiding presence of the eternal God I was going to link it to John's Gospel you're gonna just have to do it yourself sorry you know the seven great I am statements of John's Gospel I am the bread of life I am the Good Shepherd you can go through those seven Jehovah's Testaments you know them all there's actually another seven contexts in John's Gospel which is really worth pursuing another seven contexts where the Lord reveals himself in that context again without any additional statement not now I am the bread of life simply I am and you'll get the seven contexts it's worth pursuing them now because like Moses at the booth the lesson of revelation and God's permanence I want you to think of the lesson of reassurance and God's program Moses likely thought well sure sure huh Israel's God's national people Israel's God's people and God's forgotten about them is that true I I look for some reaction I did hey I got some reaction it's a great thing as a preacher you know to get some reaction I knew where to look as well so it's okay but God's people Israel oh you say they're doing quite well they're in the land since 1948 they've been in the lab that's true one of the problems we face brethren and sisters right now is that ethically and morally we cannot agree with everything that Israel is doing now in the land we have to admit that there are things that Israel is doing in the land now and we look at it and we say to ourselves we cannot agree with all this ethically and morally as Christians we are pro-life and we can't agree with this and you say well do they have a future there are people that tell me you know that the promises the unilateral promises that were made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob well they don't have to be fulfilled now you see you see they've been spiritually transferred to the church what do you think of that oh good good I got it I got a I saw a sister shake her head there I'll tell you what I think about it rubbish is that maybe maybe I shouldn't do that I'm glad this is not being zoomed but I can tell you this it's not biblical beloved Saints when you read of Israel in the Bible now you young people particularly when you read of Israel in the Bible Israel is Israel is Israel is Israel ad infinitum Israel will always be Israel and you see the promises that have been made through that unilateral eternal covenant God will see to it that those promises will be fulfilled and there will be a day to come when the great prophetic program of God there will be a man that will return from heaven blessed be his name the Prince of Peace and his feet shall touch the Mount of Olives on the east side of Jerusalem and he is going to introduce peace into a world that needs peace that has never known peace since Adam sinned beloved brethren and sisters the program it's running right on time oh you say we don't see it no no we don't see it yet we don't see it all being fulfilled in our generation we don't see it yet beloved Saints but God has said about the Lord Jesus yet yet have I set my king on my holy hill of Zion and the lesson that is being learned it's the lesson of reassurance I have seen I have heard I know their sorrows I am come down I will deliver God will see to it that his program is fulfilled the last thing in light of the time it's not just the lesson of reverence and it's not only the lesson of reality it's not only the lesson of revelation and the lesson of reassurance I want you to think with me here at the book Moses learned the lesson of resurrection hmm God's power will you say now now you're making it up now do you ever hear a preacher I'm sure you don't you get good pretty well apart from myself I was gonna say you get good preachers in Iowa but apart from myself we the present speaker we leave him out of it but did you ever hear um you ever hear a preacher and they're going through a passage and you think boys is that there in the passage if it's not there we have a great ability to put it there but we leave that for the afternoon anyway and my beloved brother he will speak after the break you say God's power resurrection where would you ever get the lesson of resurrection from Exodus chapter 3 well the Lord Jesus got it you remember in Matthew 22 they came to the Lord Jesus the Sadducees they came to the Lord Jesus and I think it's a hypothetical situation they said to the Lord Jesus they said well there was a man married and he died the lover right married and he said they gave his bride to the second brother so that there would be a family and he died and they gave the bride they gave the lady to the third man and he died and they gave it to the fourth right through to the seventh and they all died and then she died all I can say beloved saints is the poor lady that's all I can say God help the lady but we leave that thought for the afternoon and the Sadducees didn't believe in resurrection and the Lord Jesus he said to them he said don't you know the Scriptures the Lord Jesus challenged them on two grounds he says don't you know the Scriptures he says you don't know my word number one and he says neither the power of God number two and he says have you never read that when Moses was standing at the bush God said to Moses present tense I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob those men are still living and the Sadducees looked at him he'd built it all on a tent he had built resurrection and the power of God and the fact that there are men and they are still living even though they have died they are still living and resurrection is assured I'm looking at dear people today and some of them have lost loved ones some of them have stood at graves some of them have felt hot tears rolling down their face some of them as they've stood at that grave they've thought to themselves life is so different now I am the resurrection and the life it's still true beloved Saints because he is the God that dwelt in the bush he's provisioning Moses I've got to stop he's provisioning Moses I think Moses left that bush and Moses said to himself I can trust God I can put my confidence in Jehovah the ever-existing God my beloved brethren and sisters you can do exactly the same you can trust in the eternal God let's pray