I'll give you a moment to find that so that you can read along as you hear this read. This is the same passage that we looked at last week which means that you should be very thankful to me that I didn't lay out everything all at once last week who had been in here until five o'clock or something like that. That was one of those fortunate weeks where the study and preparation I had done for this passage ended up being two sermons and if you can cut that down some but the same passage as last week the account that we have of Moses, what he did after seeing God in the burying bush and speaking with God on that holy ground we pick up from there in verse 18 of Exodus chapter 4 as to what Moses did and how he first arrived in Egypt to rescue God's people. Exodus chapter 4 began in verse 18 this is God's word, eternally true. Then Moses went back to Jezero's father-in-law and said to him, let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive. The pastor said, go and I wish you well. The Lord had said Moses in medium, go back to Egypt for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead. So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt and he took the staff of God in his hand. The Lord said to Moses, when you return to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all wonders I have given you the power to do but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says Israel is my first born son and I told you let my son go so that he may worship me but you refuse to let him go so I will kill your first born son. In a lodging place on the way the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him but Zippura took a front knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me, she said, so the Lord let him alone. At that time she said bridegroom of blood referring to circumcision. The Lord said to Aaron, go into the desert to meet Moses so he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform. Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people and they believed and when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery they bowed down and worshiped. Here ends our reading for this morning we have you see here in your bulletin underneath our gospel lesson text a response of thankfulness that we do each week telling the Lord that we are thankful to him for sending us this word. The word of the Lord, let's pray. For God and our Father we are thankful to you for your word and ask that by your spirit that you would give us understanding of this text, of these words that you have written for us through Moses, Jesus by this your word preached to us to our hearts, exercise your authority over us as our king, tell us what to do, tell us who you are that we might love you more and glorify you more by our attitudes, by our actions with our hearts, with our words, with our minds, with our feet, with our hands. We ask that you do this, Jesus, through you and for your sake and for the sake of your kingdom and your glory in this world. Amen. When we think of Moses, we think of the term deliverer as Moses for somebody who delivered his people. The question is whether Moses was a good deliverer or whether he was a bad deliverer. I recently had a change in postman at the church office, not that the church office has moved but I have different postman now than I used to or a different post person. I think it's a man who comes around 10, 30 or 11 o'clock every morning and one thing that's happened since I have a new postman, I'm up in an office that now has I think six different offices up in a second floor and it's just a bunch of mailboxes that are down by a door on the street. In the door on the street you just open it and there's a stairway that goes up to these offices and so as we've gotten a new post person, we've all gotten each other's mail quite a bit. I'm getting mail for the trophy shop down on the street, I'm getting mail for the Edward Jones investments. It's right below me. I'm getting mail for the guys who work on bridges right beside me upstairs. I'm getting mail for about everybody, mail for the direct TV people that are up there too and so we get each other's mail and then we go and we deliver it because right now our deliverer is not so good. He's gotten better over time, fortunately and that's been a good thing but the question is here as we look at this passage and a question that God's people had of Moses was did they have a good deliverer and we see throughout the history that that was the question they had. They rejected his leadership time and time again as we look at Moses this morning and the people's response to him. This is a reflection for us of our deliverer Jesus and what our response to him is to be. The gospel for us this morning as we look at this text and if you like to follow along in your bulletins you can do so there blanks you can fill out if you want to you don't have to do this you can leave that to the side and just listen that's okay but if you'd like to fill out blanks here you go God says you this morning here's the gospel we reject we reject God's deliverer. We reject God's deliverer. So be humble. We reject God's deliverer so be humble. What we see here in this passage is actually the good side of this. Moses comes back and it's with them to show the miracles and everybody's like hey Moses up with Moses he's great look at these miracles he comes up to deliver us go Moses everybody's fine with them. They respond to him appropriately they receive God's appointed deliverer and that's a message for us here in fact that was a that was your former point one that I that I locked off of this sermon because we've talked about this before in some more passages in our way up here but clearly that's what God says to us here that we should receive Jesus and the words and directions of Jesus which he gives to us in his word the Bible in this way just like God's people did under Moses we see that Jesus was a miracle worker Jesus was one that came and said hey I'm here to deliver you and we're to be people who receive him as our deliverer but also to be people who receive his direction for us if he tells us to go out in the wilderness we go if he tells us to cross the red sea we go he tells us to go here we go there if he tells us to go there we go there Jesus tells us these kind of things in his word in the Bible we get instructions from God as to where we should go and we should receive these instructions as if it were Moses as he comes here in this passage arriving in front of us and speaking to us that's what God's word the Bible is to us Jesus is God's choice he's our brother he's related to us he's we're told earlier in this passage that that's a Moses and Aaron our brothers and Aaron is somebody that's endured slavery with God's people and Aaron's presence with Moses gave Moses credibility among the people because they could look at Aaron and say here's somebody who's endured slavery with us who says Moses is the man and so God's people at that time could say okay I can handle that Moses is our brother Moses has gone to bat forest he even killed an Egyptian forest 40 years ago so we read about him in Exodus 2 we even read in this passage in an imperfect sense Moses had kept the law now his wife had to do it for him his son wasn't circumcised and but God sees to Moses being a lawkeeper prior to his coming to his people so God's people could say Moses is like us his son is circumcised like our sons are circumcised and so they could follow his direction that's a a blank for for you where to receive Jesus and follow his direction as he leads us by his word but this passage as we read it should not cause us to pat ourselves on the back and convince ourselves of how great we are oh I followed Jesus a minister church I'm not great aren't I wonderful this should not be our attitude with each other it should not be our attitude with those outside the church because those that were reading the book of Exodus were also painfully aware should have been of their rejection of God's deliverer the whole reason Moses had been in MIDI and for 40 years was because God's people had rejected him God had or Moses had seen a fellow Hebrew of being beaten by an Egyptian slave master and he had struck that slave master and the guy died the Egyptian died there's an act of deliverance on the part of Moses but the next day Moses is out and he experiences the rejection of his own people and his people say to him this man says to him who made you judge and deliverer over us judge and leader ruler over us and Moses has to run and because he fears for his life then later God's people reject Moses over and over again even in the midst of the 10 plagues are coming to Moses and they're whining and moaning at him and that's what we do with our leadership given to us in the form of Jesus Jesus stands before us in Moses shoes that's a blank for you Jesus stands in Moses shoes as our deliverer as our director as the one who tells us what to do and when to do it but in addition we stand in the shoes of the Israelites that's your other blank there on that line we stand in the shoes of the Israelites in Egypt none of us have innocence none of us have innocence in regard to this none of us have innocence none of us can say I've always followed God none of us can say even today when I am in a situation and I know God's word tells me to do X that we do X we disobey God willingly knowledgeably and sometimes unknowledgeably so none of us can speak with innocence in terms of our response to the leader that God has sent to us I came to submit to Christ in the 8th grade but up to that point I was mastered my own domain doing whatever I wanted to do
I was self-reliant proud unwilling to receive the fact that I was a slave to sin
I in essence was saying to God during those years prior to 8th grade and since that time who made you God judge and ruler over me and we can all say that there's not a person on the earth that hasn't said that to the Lord in their hearts no person has innocence before God in this we are self-reliant we're proud we're unwilling to admit that we are slaves to sin we want to say instead you know I'm a pretty good person I do things pretty well I treat people pretty well I obey the law mostly and when we're in situations we're constantly justifying ourselves in our own behavior well I treated that person poorly but they did this to me first and they deserved it okay we're sinning and then justifying ourselves in it this is true for those who are outside the church that's true for those who are inside the church God's deliverer Jesus leads us today by his word the Bible we come into situations today and day after and the day after and the day after and we fail to follow his leadership just like the Israelites so what's our response to this failure so this reminder that we're not always like these people in this passage that say excellent Jesus tell me whatever you want me to do and I'll do it at all times now I have a good attitude and doing it and I'll love my enemies and I won't seek to avenge things that people have done that have brought me harm what's our response to knowing that we don't follow as we should our response is humility that's your blanket humility when I was playing soccer growing up my
one of the years later in high school I was I was the captain of the soccer team and I remember we were leading practices there was a certain point which the coach could come in during the summer and start leading practices but he couldn't come in any earlier than that point it was something like August 1st but but the team could meet and as long as the coach wasn't there and so the captains would organize scrimmages in the summer and practices in the summer and we come and practice and I remember at the end of this one practice I was a junior at the time and and and there was a guy his name was Mike and that Mike was in my my grade and and I'd always kind of heard Mike in the background kind of behind my back just heard half of things he was saying that convinced me that Mike didn't really like me that much he didn't like where I was he didn't like the fact that I was captain and and he wasn't all this stuff and one time we had finished practice we had just ended the scrimmage and we were going off the field and I forget what he said to me but some smart Alec remarks it was only him behind me on this side of the field and I was about a half field and we were all walking that way and Mike was over there and I was standing right here and I had it and I heard him say something under his breath and I went and I got in his face and I said what'd you say Mike it's nothing I said I heard what you said and I confronted him with the fact that I was his leader appointed by the the team and the coach amongst three guys or three of us who were captains and I got in his face about that I was his leader and that he was an rebellion to me and it is comments and his attitude didn't help the team and if he was going to you know cause people to have that attitude toward us we were headed nowhere fast well Mike's credit because I'm so strong and such a big guy and he was so fearful
Mike responded with humility and he didn't say anything right there just kind of shut out but from that on he was one of my biggest supporters and one of the best attitudes of anybody on the team toward me that year and the year after and in fact we became friends and he died he's sitting somewhere in class I think I had English class with him and he'd come in and actually sit right behind me by choice no sign seats by choice he'd sit right there and we'd laugh together we became good friends he had the right response humility he was rebellious toward my leadership he was rebellious toward what I represented just like we are towards God but he had the right response humility repentance in his heart and he reflected that humility toward me and the way he acted and that's how we should act before God and before others before others at all times the gospel declares to us this that we are rebels to the sovereign leadership of our God who saved us he's done everything for us that's what the gospel declares to us you're sinful not just before you came to faith in Christ but now you're sinful and you're in need of the intercession the the mediation the saving of Jesus gospel declares that our whole hearted obedience to God is embarrassing we have an embarrassing record of this all of us do and so we're humble we're humble toward each other in the church and we're humble toward those outside the church because we realize I haven't quit sinning since I entered the church and so I can't look at somebody else who's still sinning who's not in the church with any sense of pride so we're humble here your blanks we're humble before God and we're humble before our fellow man the gospel of Jesus doesn't allow us to be proud it says rather live in humility so first God says to us the gospel is this we reject God's deliverer so we're to be humble secondly the gospel says to us this morning and God speaks to us this morning it says God loves you and will punish those who harm you God loves you and will punish those who harm you when I think of this I think of my father when I was growing up if there were anyone that was there's anyone that was harming me my dad came to the rescue and that was fun I remember some of you've heard some of these stories before there's a guy named Jim Faviano guys just call him fabs like he was fabulous and he was great he's good soccer player he's on a select team he's the best of the best he played left wing red bright red hair and a tough kid kind of a bullying kind of kid and he played on the left wing left forward and I played on the right forward and and we both would pass balls into this guy in the center named Sean who who could score like crazy but the one day we were in we were we traveled to Maryland and we're in a tournament there in rockville around that area and we were all just shooting before the game started you know I'm basketball guys just are out there in their shooting well that's what we did in soccer we just all had our balls and as soon as we had the goalings attention they'd say okay you and we'd shoot and he tried to stop it we're doing that kind of thing and all of us got involved in kicking each other's ball so you'd be lined up like a field goal kicker behind your ball about five seven yards and when it was your turn someone else would come and they'd kick your ball before he could get to it we're all doing this to each other and and I did this to Jim Faviano and he wasn't too happy with it and so I did it again and after I did it again I kicked the ball and you know you run a little bit after you've kicked it just in your follow-through and I turned around and he was coming after me and he was a sick he was a sick guy and he was coming right at me and I kind of did this this dodge thing and and bobbed around him and my dad was there and my dad ran out on the field and he got Jim's face and I tell you nothing happened to me I remember one time when I was waiting for the bus the second day of school first day of school I had waited for the bus and it came I lived right on a state route and so the bus would stop right in front of my driveway I didn't live in a neighborhood would stop it from my driveway but it didn't stop the first day of school it blew right by me so I went up and I was upset about this now you're a little kid third grade and you feel rejected if I felt like the bus driver was doing that as she went by and so my mom called the school she confirmed that this bus number was my bus number and they said okay we'll tell the bus driver you know be sure to stop it at 526 pits for mended road and and pick John up some standing out there the second day there's my bus bus number 16 on by me and I was upset that little guy and and I travel back up the driveway we had this real long driveway and and my dad comes down in his car he's going to work and and he says what's going on John I said I said my chin's quiver and I said the bus left me behind and he said get in he said to the bus just pass I said yes it's right up there you know we can still see it country roads we can still see your buses he said get in so I got in and he zooms out of the driveway onto this route and he chases down the bus and he hogs hogs hogs and the bus goes off to the side and he says come on and he and we went along to the side of the bus and he says get on John and so I get on the bus and and he tells the bus driver this my son he's on your route he passed him by the last two days so I got picked up every day there after
if somebody was mistreating me my dad made sure it didn't happen he went after it he protected me why did my dad do these things because he was a mean guy now my dad wasn't a mean guy no one knew my dad would say that of him except maybe that bus driver no he was always nice to people he wanted his man inside because my dad loved me he cared about when I got mistreated and he wanted to make it right he didn't want his son being in this world unprotected I was a little guy out there and and and it wasn't right for adults or for for guys that were bigger than me to come after me well it was Jim's right but I deserved it but my dad protected me anyway but that's what we see here in this passage that's what's revealed to us that's the gospel truth in this passage that God loves his people he protects his people and he says the Pharaoh he says the Moses he Moses tell Pharaoh that is real my people they are my firstborn son and I will protect them and you've been abusing them you've been mistreating them you let them go but he tells Moses Pharaoh won't let your people go time after time we'll do all these things too many won't let you go so as a result say to Pharaoh you won't treat my firstborn right I will take your firstborn that's what we see in the tenth plague God kills the first born of Egypt the first born of Pharaoh and the first born of all the families of Egypt God loves us we're his firstborn and he punishes those who mistreats his firstborn today we the church are the people of God we are Israel we are God's firstborn son we are in Christ we are in God's only begotten God visits the Egyptians during the days of Moses those who have mistreated his people he visits them in judgment that's your blank he visits them in judgment God judges those who harm his people we read about that in 2nd Thessalonians 1 this morning
Moses comes back to Egypt and he doesn't tell the people his people that it was up to them to judge Pharaoh he tells him it's not up to you to earn your own deliverance not up to you to fight your way out of slavery God tells his people that he would visit the Egyptians in judgment he would kill Pharaoh's firstborn God people wouldn't have to do this they wouldn't have to sneak into Pharaoh's palace and kill Pharaoh's firstborn God himself would accomplish that got accomplishes God himself would punish those who had harmed his people this was God's work not theirs how does this apply to us today well we read in 2nd Thessalonians how it applies to us today 2nd Thessalonians points out that it's not ours to judge Jesus said at this when the sermon on the mountain he said judge not 2nd Thessalonians 1 we read that Jesus will come back in the future when he returns he will come back and trouble those who have troubled us
just like the Israelites in Egypt we are leave the task of judgment the task of retribution to God that's your blank we leave the task of judgment and a retribution to God Jesus says judge not this is our response to the fact that God loves us and will punish those who have harmed us we do not judge that's another blank for you we're to hear this this morning we're to hear this we do not judge we do not deal out retribution why not why does this make sense well two reasons two reasons why we don't judge besides the fact that Jesus said judge not one we're the wrong judge Jesus is the judge not us that's your blank Jesus is the judge not us it's the job of Jesus the judge it's the job of Jesus to deal out retribution to pay back that's not our job father's handed all judgment to Jesus and not to us this is a good thing for we misjudge that's another blank we misjudge because we don't know all the facts you ever done that you ever judge somebody or assume somebody did something for a certain reason then your mad Adam and they say well the reason I did that was because you're about to get run over by a truck and because I did that you didn't there's something like that you realize they were being kind to you and here you are being a jerk to them and you feel ashamed because you've misjudged you didn't know all the facts Jesus is the right and true judge he knows all the facts he knows everything that's ever happened he has every motivation that went into a certain event happening so somebody has wronged you Jesus does exactly all the motivations all the circumstances that went in to that act and he can judge and he will judge appropriately perfectly he will punish perfectly give out the exact perfect sentence for that act for that trouble that has been put on us so we don't judge because we're the wrong judge Jesus is the judge but secondly we don't judge because it's the wrong time we don't judge because it's the wrong time Jesus will judge future tense he will judge when he returns Moses came into Egypt and and Ferris still had some time there didn't he he had nine flags worth of time before his firstborn was killed but then judgment finally does come but for us today now is not the time of judgment it's the time of salvation this is what we read from Jesus in John three we read that most famous verse of scripture John 3 16 forgot to love the world that it gives only to handsome that whoever believes in it should not perish but should have eternal life and he goes on and says for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him what is Jesus communicating he saying now brothers and sisters is not the day of judgment that'll come I'll return and I will distribute judgment distribute condemnation I will trouble those who've troubled you but now is that the time now I've come into the world to save the world that's what the great commission is talking about that's what Jesus is saying here in chapter 17 of John three now it's the day of salvation everybody can come in to the church through faith
we are not to be people who worry about dealing out retribution about paying people back rather we're to be concerned with fulfilling the great commission preaching the gospel by our words and by our deeds that there is a gracious merciful God who shows this favor on all who have faith in him is the day of salvation today we live in the era of the gospel in which God threw his people us God through us is saving people from their slavery to sin and from their fear of death we don't live in the era of judgment and we're not the judges so we must be careful to reflect that our lives reflect that's a blank for you we must be careful that our lives reflect this this fact that God does not send our king he did not send Jesus into the world and his incarnation to judge the world he did not send our king into the world that we through our condemning looks our condemning thoughts our condemning actions toward non-believers might judge them our lives rather should reflect the grace the mercy the patience and the forbearance that Jesus himself showed when he was here on earth Jesus lived out this statement he said in John 3 17 I've come not into the world to condemn the world therefore when he saw prostitute we saw task collector when he saw center he extended his forgiving hands to them didn't he that's the mode that's the example for us in this age in this day of salvation in which his kingdom is being ever expanded as people come to believe in him through the gospel Jesus life reflected the gospel that God was merciful and allowed in anybody regardless of their past Jesus life and our lives should be about showing people God's mercy and patience and forbearance and forgiveness and patience God's people under Moses didn't need to find a sword to kill Pharaoh's firstborn son it wasn't their job it was God's job to enact punishment in his timing we're to do the same maybe you've been in a situation like I've heard from many of you where you've had people gang up on yet one of one of my own daughters had some kids kind of gang up honor recently and and I mean to her and that's tough that's tough when people are are like that especially when they've kind of gotten together and done a unified front which was the case in her case but what's the be her response to deal out retribution that hope evil on them to hope that all gets smacked around too as she figured figuratively has gotten smacked around well no of course not she's not to take retribution in her own hands but the trust that God will take care of her he'll work it out it's not it's not her job it's his what does this make sense that we don't condemn and judge and deal out retributions to things one's a practical reason if everybody we're dealing out retributions for things done against them we'd have mutually assured destruction that's your blank destruction mutually assured destruction that is we've all not been treated well and so if we pay back everything we're going to get it paid back to us and we're just going to destroy each other in the process so from a practical aspect this is very intelligent and very wise a very wise commandment that God gives to us not to judge Jesus said judge not let's you be judged okay if you if you put the screws to somebody for not treating you that well guess what someone's going to put the screws to you because you're not treating everybody that well either but secondly from a gospel motivated standpoint we don't deal out punishment to others because in the gospel God has not dealt out punishment to us that's the truth that we have come to realize as God's people we rebel against God we didn't treat him well we still don't treat him well we still rebel against him and God doesn't distribute judgment on us he doesn't deal out retribution to us he doesn't treat us as our sins deserve as David said in the Psalms so we of all people understanding how God has treated us in the gospel are to treat other people in this way in our sins we've wronged God we deserve God's punishment but he has not given it to us he punished Jesus for our sins and treated us with kindness that's the gospel so the result we act in this way we don't seek to hurt those who have hurt us because we seek to show our fellow man what the gospel is by the way we act when we treat with kindness those who have hurt us they see the gospel in front of their eyes they say this guy this woman is a Christian and I did something really nasty to him and he treated with me with kindness and he spoke about me well he complimented me even once I heard about it I wasn't even around and he talked about something that I do well and I was nasty to him and that person experiences that person he's treated you badly experiences the gospel they start to understand what it means to be a Christian they get a glimpse of what the gospel is a God who does not treat us as we deserve in the end will God be perfectly just yes he will come Jesus will come and he will dull out judgments and punishments perfectly we take comfort in this during this time and this enables us to refrain from taking it out on people right now someone does us wrong we say well I'm going to wish refrain right now from doing wrong to them because Jesus calls me to it that's how I act in the gospel but also maybe this person will become a brother's sister in Christ so I don't want to harm her but even if this person doesn't become a brother's sister in Christ Jesus will take care of that person's punishment when he comes again so I don't have to take over Jesus's job I don't have to usurp his judgment seat he'll do that he'll take care of it and he'll do it much better than I God says to us treat others as I have treated you in the gospel forgive God loves you and will punish those who harm you therefore don't worry about punishment it's God's business God says you forgive you be patient you before bearing this is the good news of Jesus this is how we reflect our God close pray our God and their father at our best moments we have been like the people that we see here under Moses when it comes back and he shows the miracles at our best points we have received you and followed your word but this your word from Exodus 4 also recalls to us a rejection of you Jesus both before we we came to know you in salvation and also our rejection of you as we have not followed your ways as believers in you so cause us to be humble people before you and before each other and before those outside the church but God we also give you great thanks for your love to us and we rejoice in your justice we rejoice that your justice against us was was carried out upon Jesus and not us cause that to make us merciful toward those who don't know you who will bear their own punishment for their own sins cause us to refrain from doing things that would in some shape or form would be a way of getting back at people who have harmed us cause us to treat with kindness those who have treated us poorly and have done us harm cause us to pray even for those who persecute us as you have called us to do Jesus and cause us in this in this understanding of your gospel to love you more as we come to see how rebellious we are and how loving you are of us in spite of it through Jesus Amen