Address—G. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
General Meetings, Montreal, October 1973. Addressed by Gordon Hayhoe.
#18 and the appendix.
And is it so? I shall be like Thy Son. Is this the grace which He for me has won? Father of glory, thought beyond all thoughts in glory to His own blessed likeness brought him #18 in the appendix.
00:05:02
I'd like to turn this afternoon, first of all, the Second Chronicles Chapter 9.
Second Chronicles, Chapter 9.
Beginning at the first verse.
And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great company, and camels that bear spices and gold in abundance, and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.
And Solomon told her all her questions, and there was nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not.
Now in the 18th son, Psalm 18.
And the 28th verse.
For thou wilt light my candle. The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
For by thee I have run through a troop, and by my God have I leaped over a wall. As for God, His way is perfect. The word of the Lord is tried. He is a Butler to all those that trust in him. For who is God save the Lord, and who is a rock save our God.
It is God that girdeth me with strength and maketh my way perfect. He maketh my feet like Hinds feet, and setteth me upon my high places.
Now could we turn to the 7th chapter of Acts?
I'd like to read a little about the life of Moses here as it's recorded in the 7th chapter of Acts.
Beginning at the 17th verse.
But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children to the end they might not live. In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months.
And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds. And when he was full 40 years old, it came into his heart to deliver his brethren the children of Israel, And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian.
For he supposed his brother would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strolled, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, your brethren, why do we wrong one to another? And he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee A ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?
Then flared Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Median, where he begat two sons, and when 40 years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an Angel of the Lord in the flame of fire in a Bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight, and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, I am the God of thy Father's, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold, then said the Lord to him.
Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground. I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. This Moses, whom they refuse saying, Who made thee A ruler and a judge. The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel which appeared to him.
00:10:17
At the Bush he brought them out. After that he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness 40 years.
The 39th verse To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turn back again into Egypt, saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us. For As for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we want not what has become of him.
How could we turn also to Hebrews Chapter 11?
Hebrews, Chapter 11.
The 23rd verse. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and 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 a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ.
Greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
My faith He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
And justice.
One more passage.
In First Corinthians chapter 13.
First Corinthians, chapter 13.
Verse 12.
For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known?
What was on my heart, dear young people, to talk this afternoon about those 3 periods of 40 years in the life of Moses. The 1St 40 years he spent, we might say, in the school of Egypt. The last 2-40 years he spent in the school of God. And I was thinking of how this is the way our life is normally divided if we go on for the Lord. And I was thinking of the Queen of Sheba.
Came up to see a King Solomon. There were many hard questions, Questions in that land where she lived that she could not find the answer to truly. She had plenty of wealth. She had riches in abundance. As you read the passage there in Second Chronicles 9, you can see something of the wealth and glory of the Kingdom where she came from. What did all this wealth give her? The answer to these hard questions?
And supposing, dear young people, that you were to make a success of life, that you were to get together the treasures of this world, and that you were able to enjoy them in a natural sense, I'm sure there would still remain in your life a great many questions unanswered.
Persons for which there is no answer in the wisdom of this world. Questions for which there is no answer at all.
In all that man can give you. But oh, how wonderful that God has a plan in connection with your life and mine, and that He is seeking to work out that plan. It may seem as though it's behind the scenes, and so it is, but nevertheless, if we are willing to commit our lives to the Lord, if we are willing to seek to go on for Him, He will teach us.
That which he would have us learn so that we might become good.
And useful in his things. So I think of the Queen of Sheba there.
And when she made this long journey all the way up to Jerusalem to get an answer to her questions. For it says the price of wisdom is far above rubies. And all dear young people, I beseech of you not to be satisfied with success in this world, not to be satisfied with just getting those things that satisfy for the present, because the pleasures of sin are for a season. But how to find in the word of God?
00:15:29
And in the Lord Jesus Christ now the answer to life and one in life is really all about, so that you might receive something at least of the blessing that God has for you in all that he may pass you through. So in that passage that we read in the 18th Psalm, let us turn to it for a moment.
It says there in the 28th verse, for thou will light my candle, the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. And that is God can bring light into your pathway. He has an answer to all those questions that may be perplexing you right now and if you will bring him in, maybe those things that seem so hard and difficult to understand.
And you will already find some of the answers in the light and wisdom of His precious Word. But one thing we have to settle before we'll get the answers, and that is confidence in God. And so it tells us here. By thee I have run through a troop, and by my God have I leaped over a wall. As for God, His way is perfect.
He is a buckler to the word of the Lord is tried. He is a buckler to all laws that trust in Him.
Older young people, let me say this and that whatever God may allow in your life and mine, As for God, His way is perfect.
He knows exactly what he's doing, He is doing every good and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, and there's not a trial or a difficulty in your life or mine, but is allowed of the Lord.
In His schooling with us to teach us some needed lesson, we can brush it aside. We can try and get through the difficulty without turning to the Lord. But that's not the solution. It's to turn to Him. But I say again to turn to Him with that confidence that As for God, His way is perfect and also His Word. Is that what you and I need to sustain us in all that we pass through?
As it says in the 16th Psalm, the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yay. I have a goodly heritage, and if you and I find the word of God coming home to our souls, it'll make a blessing out of every situation.
Then it tells us to.
In the 33rd verse, He maketh my feet like Heinz feet and setteth me upon my high places. You notice this in connection with that verse. By my God, I have leaped over a wall. You know, there's a sort of a feeling in us now that God has to remove the difficulty or we can't go on. But that isn't always God's way. Sometimes it's His way to enable us to rise above the difficulty.
Sometimes it's his way to show us that the difficulty has been placed there by him in order to teach us dependence upon Him. And so the troop wasn't removed, but the man of faith ran through the troop.
Now the wall wasn't removed. How about the little hind coming to the wall could spring up and jump over it and know how good it is to know that a little God may not remove some of those problems and difficulties in your life. That He is able to help you to run through the troop. He's able to help you to spring up and go over the wall. And then as you notice the verse speaks about walking on my high places.
Made this comment, perhaps you heard me say it before, but I do enjoy it in my own soul because I've often watched a little hind come to the fence and jump over the fence, but then it comes down on the other side, comes down to the same level on the other side of the fence. But the Lord is telling us.
00:20:11
He not only will give us the Hinds feet that can rise and jump over the wall, but He says He makes us to walk on our high places. That is, we don't need to come down on the other side with a thud. Now the Lord is able to lift us up and keep us up in the sense that He gives us the strength.
To rise above the difficulties and to go on with him, because He's always above them. He's above every situation. He's upon the throne, as it says in the second chapter of Hebrews. We see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. And what is our position now? Well, we read in Ephesians chapter 2.
And that we're already seated with him in the heavenlies, that is, we're above the difficulties of the way. Just as the children of Israel when he entered the promised land. The man has ceased. Why did the man have cease? Well, Amanda speaks of the comfort that the Lord gives us.
Along the way, he's the true brand that came down from hell to heaven and helps us in our difficulties. But when they entered the land, then they didn't need comfort because they were in the end of the.
Portion that God had given to them. And so when we're in difficulties, we often need comfort, but God can enable us to rise above the difficulties so that we're already in the enjoyment of our heavenly portion before we get there.
And that's what He brings before us. I believe in that 18th Psalm. But I want to say again, and I want to impress upon your heart and mind those words. As for God, His way is perfect. Oh dear, young people, remember this. Some of you have had some real sorrows and disappointments. Some of you perhaps have come to the point where you're just about said, well, I give up, but it's because you lost faith.
It's because you didn't have the sense in your soul that As for God.
His way is perfect and that absolutely nothing happens by chance.
In the 8th chapter of Romans it says we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Perhaps when you've read that verse and you've looked at some problem in your life, you have said, well I just can't see how any good could ever come out of this. Perhaps that's what you have wondered. And that was because the shield of faith was down, the wall was in front of you and it just seemed that you couldn't rise above it.
You thought God must remove this difficulty, but not so. He may intend that you should have those Hinds feet that could rise up and go over them. And I've often pointed out and enjoyed it, and that in the next verse of the 8th of Romans, I might say that in order to get the thought, I believe we have to read verses 28 and 9 together. The 29th verse says For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate.
To be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first born.
Among many brethren, why does that next verse come in? Well, God knew just exactly how we'd feel.
In some of these situations where we couldn't see any good coming from them at all. And so the next verse is a little explanation, if I might speak in that way, for whom he did foreknow, that is, did you question how it was going to work for good? Well, I often illustrate it like this. Did you ever pick up a storybook? And then you came to a sad chapter in that storybook. Even the tears came to your eyes and you just saw.
Difficulty, a situation, there didn't seem to be any solution to it. And you couldn't wait any longer. And so you turned over to the end of the book and when you saw how the story ended, and then you went back and you read that sad chapter with perfect confidence. Why? Oh, you said, I know how the story ends. It's all going to work out because I've read the end of the story. Now, dear young people, that's just what God tells you in the 28th, 29th verse.
He says, you're wondering how it's going to work for good. So he said, I'm going to turn over the page and tell you the end of the story. And what is the end of the life story? That we should be conformed to the image of his Son. And then we might say, oh, but my life story hasn't yet been written. I haven't lived out my life yet. God says, oh, but I'll tell you more and read the 30th verse. And then he goes back into a constant eternity.
00:25:27
And tells us that we were chosen in Christ long before whom he did predestinate.
Then he also called, and he carries us into a coming eternity and says whom he called them he also justified, and whom he justified them He also glorified. He said, I have more to tell you. Your life story has been written. I know everything that's going to happen in your life and in my purposes you're already glorified. Oh dear young people, if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
You could not be more richly blessed. The heart of God could not tell itself out in a fuller and more wonderful way than it has been told out in the gift of His Son and through redemption. And now to bring us into all His counsels and purposes. He has unfolded these things to encourage us because He knows the way that we take. He knows all about the pathway.
And as my father used to so often say, he has an individual schooling for each one of us. And that's why I read a little bit about the life of Moses. I just like to go over these things in the life of Moses with a little bit of detail because God not only tells us some of these things in a doctrinal way in his Word, but he actually takes men and women of like passions with ourselves.
And shows us how they lived in situations very similar to our own and how God passed them through the very things that we're passing through. And he shows us how their life began. He shows us in what measure they learned these lessons and then shows us how their lives ended. And I think this is all very blessed. Someone has spoken of the Old Testament as God's picture book because God brings before us in the lives of men and women.
Those things that are taught to us doctrinally in other parts of the Word. And so the life of Moses is a lovely example of this. I think we're all aware that there are quite a few periods in the Bible of 40 days and 40 years because.
40 days or 40 years bring before us the period of testing in our lives. The Lord Jesus was tempted 40 days of the devil. The children of Israel were 40 years in the wilderness. Moses was on the mount 40 days with God. Over and over again in the Scripture we read about these 40 days and 40 years. And so in the life of Moses we have an example brought before us of a man whom God used.
And how those 3 periods took place in his life. And now you know dear young people, it would have been very easy for Moses at the end of the 1St 40 years to have thrown up his hands and said I give up. Did you ever feel like that?
Perhaps because you just came to the end of the 1St 40 years, you felt like throwing up your hands. But oh, what a loss it would have been to Moses. What a loss to the people of God if he had given up at the end of the 1St 40 years. That 40 years was necessary in the ways of God. It was 40 years spent in the schools of Egypt. For it tells us that he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
And was mighty in words and deeds. But I wanted to begin where we started here in the 17th verse, when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham long before, about 400 years before. God had made a promise that He was going to bring His people into that good land, that land flowing with milk and honey, and He was going to bless the minute and give them possession of it.
Well, you know, this was a difficulty, a difficult time for Israel. Here it tells us when the time of the promise drew nigh, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt. But then there was another king of Rose, and this king was a very.
00:30:11
Unkind man, it tells us. Here. He dealt subtly with our kindred and evil entreated our fathers.
Well, this was a difficult time, wasn't it? The pressure was all against the people of God. And doesn't that perhaps correspond to the time in which we live? There's strong pressure against the people of God. There are real difficulties for those who would seek to walk in the path of faith. And so we find this difficulty, this hard time for the people of God. It says that.
They dealt subtly with our kindred and evil entreated our fathers.
And perhaps you say, well, it is a very hard time and I don't think it's possible to really live for the Lord.
In such a time as this, because everything is against you, notice these words here.
In the 20th verse, in which time Moses was born, in which time Moses was born, and dear young people, you have been born in a very difficult time of the world's history. You have, you have come into this world at a time when the course of things in the world, especially in Christendom, is turning more and more against the Word of God, against the path of faith. Truly the words of the second Psalm.
Are characteristic of this day.
It says in the second song that the kings of the earth said let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. This is a day of casting off restraint. This is a day when people say, well, how do you know it's wrong?
Only wrong when you think it's wrong. But everybody's idea of what is evil is different and you can never really be sure. If you think it's wrong, don't do it. But ideas are changing. Well, this is the time in which you live. Is there a path for faith in such a day as this? You have been born in this time. Was there a path for a faith for Moses parents?
Unless they throw up their hands and say.
Well, it's just too difficult in this day. We can't expect our children to go on for the Lord.
In such a day as this, but Moses parents Amram and Jacob Ed. They had three children and those three children grew up and loved the Lord. They weren't perfect, but they did grow up and love the Lord and became useful people among the people of God. But they were born in a very difficult time. They were born in the time when I say the whole time.
How the world was against them and.
And it tells us here that Moses was born and he was exceeding fair and nourished up in his father's house three months. Now that is as long as possible. His parents took care of him, sheltered him. But there came a time when they couldn't do it any longer. They had to commit him to the they had to commit him to the Lord. And so they made that little ark and they put him in the ark.
And we know how that God overruled. I've often thought of Moses parents. It says that Miriam stood there to see what would become of this boy. But it tells us in the 12Th chapter of Hebrews and that his parents were not afraid of the King's commandment. I just pass on this little word as an encouragement to young parents. Why, when you look at your child in a day like this, I'm sure you've often said.
What's going to become of them? That's exactly the way that Moses parents felt, and little Miriam watched to see what would become of that boy. But in another sense, they had confidence in God, and they were not afraid of the King's commandment. And so these mixed feelings in their hearts cast them thoroughly upon the Lord, and they had to allow their boy to be taken to the court of peril.
They had to allow him to get all higher learning of Egypt and all. How they must have trembled. Only atheism, all the idolatry, all the superstition, everything that was contrary to what they wanted and desired for their boy, was pushed into his little mind.
00:35:08
And there he grew up, and they saw him become a successful.
In the world, in Egypt, it says he was mighty in words and deeds. Perhaps he got the finest diplomas, perhaps he was making all the progress and it was applauded as the one who might be the next pharaoh of Egypt. Now this was what the world had to offer to him.
And dear young people, the world is a vast system of things. And so we have often said that the 1St 40 years of Moses life, he was learning to be somebody, He was learning to be important in this world. And the whole system of the world's education is to make you somebody very important in your country, in your society, in your school, in your business, in your community.
It's to urge you on in this and sometimes you can get caught in the current, perhaps moles as well as to I think it's quite notable that the Spirit of God makes no comment about what Moses thought or did in these first 40 years. Perhaps he got carried away with it himself. Perhaps he himself became so occupied with success and getting along in Egypt.
That for the time being.
He forgot that he truly was one of the people of God now that he was raised up not to be a great man in Egypt, which was under judgment, but instead God had caused him to be born in that very time for a specific purpose, and that was that he might.
Suffer affliction with the people of God, and that He might lead them out of the land of Egypt altogether. But the 1St 40 years seemed a contradiction of this. And dear young people, as I look at you and I see you getting along in school, perhaps you have made a success, perhaps you have good grades, perhaps you have a good education. But I beseech you to remember this, that all this that is making you great in this world.
Can be used of the enemy to cause you to settle down in this world and you can have a wasted life. You can have a wasted life. Oh how many dear young people with great ability because they have done so well in this world, it has been a wasted life. They have as it were stopped at the end of the 1St 40 years and they have said well now I've got what I want, I'm just going to settle down.
I do believe honestly in my heart that all this time Moses was a true believer, a true child of faith. But he had got along in this world so much that it appears now that the real calling for which he had been raised up seemed to have been forgotten. But God had his eye upon him. God had his eye upon that boy.
And I want to encourage you, dear young people, not to get.
Too involved in what's going on in this world, because now this world with all its glory is going to pass away. It's under the judgment of God. And all the schooling of this world will only occupy you with your own importance, with the importance of this world. And you'll never see the world as God presents it to you in His Word as a place.
Where God's Son was rejected, where Christ is cast out, and where it's under the judgment of God. But something wonderful happened at at the end of 40 years, after he had been well educated, after he had come to a position where he could have made his mark in this world. It says it came into his heart to deliver his people. It came into his heart, we're told in Hebrews 11.
To identify himself with a despised people of God. And dear young people, I do desire for you that if it's never really come into your heart before, that it'll come into your heart today to cast in your lot with the despised people of God.
All you say, but you don't know what things are like. The people of God aren't going on with the Lord like they should in the little meeting where I am. It's not so easy as you think, Brother Hajo. It's very difficult. Was it easy for Moses? Did his people appreciate what he tried to do for them? Not a bit. They thrust him away. They wouldn't have him. And perhaps you say, I've tried, I've tried and I've been thrust away too.
00:40:22
And did you give up? Did you give up? Was the 1St 40 years in the wisdom of this world all that you attained in your life? And so you just threw up your hands and said, I tried and I give up. What a loss it would have been to Moses. What a loss to the people of God if Moses had given up at this point. Well, you say, well, he didn't act very nicely. Perhaps he did act in the flesh.
And sometimes we can do right thing in the wrong way. I'm sure many of us have tried to do the right thing. It came into his heart to deliver his people, the children of Israel. And he saw them striving. He saw them fighting. He didn't see them going on nicely. He saw them fighting. But that's the kind of people he identified with, the people that were fighting, the people that were having these troubles and difficulties. He identified himself with these people.
And he thought, well, I'm going to try and set things right, but it wasn't appreciated. He went about it in the wrong way, that's true. But he did intend to be a help to the people of God. And it says they thrust him away. And he had noticed what he said in the 26th verse. He said, Sir, ye are brethren, why do we wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee A ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?
Yes, because he had failed in the way he had done this. Now he fled. He gave up because they said, Who made thee A ruler and a judge over the people of God? But God had further purposes for him. He had graduated from the school of Egypt, but he hadn't taken his first lesson in the school of God. This was going to be a new experience for him.
And you know, dear young people, when we graduate from the schools of this world, we may not have taken our lessons in the school of God. And you know, it's in our schools today. The class periods perhaps vary from 20 minutes to 3/4 of an hour or an hour.
Perhaps there's a semester, or perhaps there's a year's course, But strangely enough, Moses had a long, long session.
To learn just one lesson.
A long, long session.
Just to learn one lesson. And why did it take so long for him to learn that all? Because he had to be emptied of all that self importance. He had to be emptied of all that. It isn't that God took away the desire to deliver his people. I'm sure that that desire often came up in his mind as he thought of the people whom he had left behind, like back in Egypt.
He'd run away from them. He'd said, I give up, I'm through, I can't do anything, and they don't want me to do anything. And so he had fled. But I'm quite sure that many times his heart went back and he thought of those people and he knew that they were in slavery and he longed for their deliverance. But I say he was learning something in the school of God. And what was he learning in the school of God?
We say it was learning how to keep sheep. Oh, that was his occupation, but that wasn't what God was teaching him. And you and I may be involved in some very menial occupation, or we may be involved in some very important occupation.
We read of those whom God called who looked after sheep. One was a gatherer of Sycamore fruit, another was in the very highest position in Babylon. They were man whom God used. But all these men whom God used had to learn the same lesson.
They had to learn the same lesson. And what was the lesson that they had to learn? They had to learn that they were nothing. And whether it was minding sheep, whether it was gathering Sycamore fruit, or whether it was a person with a very high civil service position like Daniel in the court of a court of Nebuchadnezzar, he had to They all had to learn the same lesson. They had to learn that they were nothing.
00:45:21
They had to learn that the Lord alone.
Must be exalted. And here young people, this is a very, very difficult lesson for any of us to learn that we are nothing. But it's a wonderful thing. It's an important thing to realize that the scripture says the flesh prophetess nothing.
Someone asked Mr. Darby. He said I'd like to study the word of God.
And saw that I would get some knowledge something like you have. And Mr. Darby said study well, 4 words, the flash prophetess, nothing. All this is a lesson that's hard for us to learn. It took Moses 40 years before he learned this even in some measure. And may the Lord grant that we'll realize that we are nothing and that when we come to this, when we realize this.
Then it tells us in the 30th verse. And when 40 years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Sina an Angel of the Lord, in the flame of fire in a Bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered the sight. And as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, I am the God of thy Father's, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Oh, what a wonderful thing. God hadn't forgotten his servant in those forty years in the backside of the desert.
Seemed to be a long time, didn't it? 40 years before he had tried to help them. 40 years they had suffered under this hard ******* and nothing had happened. It had got worse instead of better. And the person whom God was going to use.
Was on the backside of the desert keeping sheep. What a strange thing. Could you understand it naturally? No, dear friends. But As for God, his way is perfect. If God was going to use a man as his messenger, it wouldn't be one who was puffed up over his knowledge. Because he was the the most educated person perhaps in the whole of Egypt, mighty in words and deeds.
He could talk well, but after he had been in the school of God for 40 years, he had been so emptied of himself that when the Lord appeared to him, you know what he said? He said, I can't talk. He said I'm just like a child. Well, you say, what a pity.
What a pity. He could have been so useful 40 years before and now he's no use. He spent 40 years in isolation and now he's no use. Oh God was going to use him. He was useful now. When he thought he could talk, he said and did the wrong thing. But when he found out he couldn't talk. He had to rely totally and completely upon the Lord. He had to look to him for every word because he might say a word out of turn.
He might do the wrong thing because he had tried to do it in the energy of the flesh, and now God is going to use him. And I think it's lovely what the Lord says to him in this.
In this 34th verse I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people, which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning and I'm come down.
To deliver them 40 years before Moses had tried to do this.
As though God didn't see it and God didn't know it. Not at the end of 40 years. The Lord said, Moses, I understand the situation perfectly. I know all about it. I know just what my people are going through. You thought I I didn't know because surely I would have delivered them long ago if I had known what was going on. But he said, Moses, I do know. I know just exactly what they're passing through.
And he said, I've come down to deliver them. Moses thought that by his hand the Lord would deliver him. Now the Lord said, I am come down to deliver them. And now how beautiful. And now come, I will send thee under Pharaoh. Now the Lord says, Moses, I can use you now.
00:50:26
You think you can't talk, You're evil, You're even afraid in my presence.
You have learned something of your own nothingness, and now he said, I can use you in blessing.
I ask you, dear young people, where those 40 years wasted?
Say I don't seem to be able to do anything. I like to feel like an accomplished something and it doesn't seem that anything is happening.
Where those 40 years wasted? No, that was part of God's schooling. That was what God was passing Moses through. It was very far from what took place in Egypt, because in Egypt he learned his own importance, but now he learns that he's nothing at all. And the Lord says.
I'll be with thy mouth, and I'll teach thee what to say. Oh, don't we need this? There never was a day when we needed so much to have the Lord with our mouths. It's so easy to say the wrong thing. It's so easy to do the wrong thing. How about the Lord can be with us and the Lord can help us?
And he said in the 33rd verse, Sin said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from my feet, for the place where thou standest.
His holy ground, although he was going to be used of the Lord, he had to realize his own nothingness. He had to stand there, as we might say, with nothing under him. Stand there and bare feet with nothing under him at all. And the Lord said, Come now and I'll send thee. Oh dear young people, the Lord has something for you to do. If He leaves us here, I believe that He really wants to use you.
As we look back over the history of the church, we see how often God has used young people, but he has always had to pass us through these three things. All those whom God has used have had to go through that. These three stages that we speak of in the life of Moses, we find it with the we find it with Paul. When Paul was first saved, he went and spent three years in Arabia. Why didn't God use him right away?
All I had to go back for three years into Arabia and then God sent him out and God used him and constantly we find moles us with his forty years on the backside of the desert and over and over again we find this that God has to teach us this needed lesson. But now let us see here what it says in the 35th verse this Moses who they refuse saying.
Who made thee A ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel which appeared to him in the Bush? Well, notice this, when he tried to do it in the energy of the flesh, it says that he was a ruler and a judge. But when God had taught him in his school, then it says that the same Moses, yes, the very same person.
But what a change here. It says the Lord sent him to be a ruler and a deliverer and all. It's easy to be a ruler and a judge, I suppose many of us. I can look back to my younger days and it's very easy to be a judge.
That's very easy to take the critical place. But you know, as we go on in life, the Lord teaches us that we're nothing. He teaches us that we have failures of our own. He lets us see that we've made many mistakes. He lets us see that in ourselves were nothing. And when we have learned that we're nothing, but then we find the Lord said that this very same Moses was not a ruler and a judge. Now he was a ruler and a deliverer. It's a tremendous difference, isn't it?
A deliverer, a helper in a difficult situation, not, not in the position of judging because we're no better than others. In the 6th chapter of Galatians, when it's talking about helping someone, it says considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
00:55:02
When we have learned what we are in ourselves by, then the Lord could send him to be a ruler and a deliverer, this same Moses, this same Moses. And now he goes, Was he appreciated? Now at this point did all his brethren throw their arms out and say, Oh wonderful, God's going to use Moses?
Now when he tried at the end of the 1St 40 years, they thrust him away.
When he was sent back at the end of the 40 years in the school of God, he had the sense that the Lord was with him. For the Lord said, certainly I will be with thee, certainly I will be with thee. But what he did wasn't always appreciated.
Thought he had learned that he was nothing. And he had learned one of the most wonderful lessons. He had learned that God loved his people in spite of all their failures and shortcomings. He loved his people. Not that God ever lowers his standard of holiness. Never.
He never will lower his standard of holiness. His standard of holiness in 1973 is no less than it was in AD 73.
Young people might think it's changed. No, it hasn't. Dear young people, God thinks just as seriously of sin today as he did before. But in spite of all that, the people of God are. He loves them still, and he wants to bless them. And Moses needed to learn that God was everything and that he was going to accomplish his own purposes in connection with his people. And so Moses then went.
And it tells us that when Moses went first, why they wouldn't listen to him for bitterness of soul, they didn't appreciate it. But Moses went on why all he'd been in the presence of God. He had learned that he was nothing. But now he was coming to see that God loved his people and that God had a promise and that he was going to fulfill that promise. Supposing Moses had given up at the end of the 2nd 40 years.
Have you given up at the end of the 1St 40 years? What a loss it would have been. But if he'd given up at the end of the 2nd 40 years, what a loss it would have been to truly learned his own nothingness. But it's a miserable thing to learn your own nothingness and not to learn that God is all sufficient. That's this horrible thing to have to learn you're nothing, if not at the same time learning that God is everything and that He can and does delight to bless His people.
And so Moses then was used of God, and he led the people out through the Red Sea. First, of course, as we know, they had to be sheltered under the blood.
The Passover lamb, and then they were let out and then it says 40 years. He suffered their murmurings in the wilderness. How could he take it the first time that they thrust him away? He said I'm through.
But now, 40 years, he put up with it. Why? All because he learned he was nothing himself. He was just the same as they were, a poor failing thing himself. But God loved his people. God wanted to bless them. God was going to deliver them and take them out. And he had the privilege of being the one who would tell them what was in the heart of God toward them. And so, in spite of all their murmurings, we see him going on in the Bible says he was the meekest man in all the earth.
I know, dear young people, again, I say, as I look into your faces and I see you growing up in the different meetings. I know how easy it is to be discouraged. I know how easy it is to say it's no use. I know how easy it is to say, well, I don't feel as if I am accomplishing anything.
But remember, God is passing us through these things in his school, and the important thing in your life and mine is to do His will. And as a little song says, and when we've learned our lessons, our work in suffering done, our ever loving Father will welcome everyone. And so here Moses went on, and during those last 40 years, he failed once.
At least that's what's recorded. And what was his failure? What was the one failure that's recorded about Moses in those last 40 years?
He lost his patience with the people of God. Didn't they provoke him? You say, I wouldn't blame him. The way they acted just once, just once. I'm ashamed. But when I think of a man serving the Lord for 40 years, not only getting impatient the way they acted once. Did you ever get impatient about the way things were done and said she just got impatient once and said, must we fetch you water out of this rocky rebels?
01:00:28
And God said, Moses, you can't lead my people into the land. You haven't properly represented me. You lost your patience with them, but I didn't lose my patience with them. I still loved them. I still wanted to bless them. And if you were going to be my representative, you needed to have my heart toward them. You needed to love them just the same. And so Moses, wonderful servant though he was, he wasn't able to lead the people.
Into the land. But I love to finish the story that when we come over to the Gospel of Luke, we find Moses in the land. Grace brought him in, and there he was on the Mount of Transfiguration. And what was he talking about? What a fine servant he had been.
Now he was talking about the deceased that the Lord Jesus would accomplish at Jerusalem. He was talking about the work of Christ. And so that's why I read that last verse.
Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Then shall we know, even as also we are known.
And all dear young people, I want to say in closing, are there a lot of hard questions in your life?
Are there a lot of things that you find so difficult and hard to understand? But just think about these three 40s. Perhaps you're in the 1St 40 years and you say I'm getting along. I think I'm going to make a success. I think I'm going to get somewhere in the world and then perhaps I can be a help. Well, if Moses had given up at the end of the 1St 40 years, what a loss it would have been.
And when he had learned that he was nothing, if he had given up them, what a loss it would have been. And then at the end of the 3rd 40 years, when he lost his patience once and God said you can't enter the land, he might have given up them. But what did he do? Oh, I think it's lovely.
He said, well, if I can't lead the men, somebody else can because God is going to lead the men. And he went to Joshua and he said, Joshua, you can lead the people in because God wants to bless them. God wants to give them their portion and you're going to have the privilege of leading them in. Oh, may the Lord grant that we lay hold in some little measure of these lessons. And dear young people, God is working this plan in your life and mine.
He wants us to have these three things in our lives. When we learn that we think that we have got somewhere, He wants to show us that in ourselves we're really nothing. But He doesn't want us to stop there. He wants us to realize that He's everything, that He loves His people, and that He can use us. If we exalt Christ, if we give Him the honor that's due to Him, He'll bless them. And if we have failed along the way, let's still not give up.
Because the Lord is going to bless his people, may He keep us so that in little, in some little measure, we'll be a little blessing in the assembly where we are. And if you feel discouraged at this time, just think about Moses. Just think about what he passed through and think about that glorious mount of transfiguration. For Moses is there talking to Jesus and talking about those promises that God had made.
And how they are going to be fulfilled through that. Blessed that glorious work of Christ. Oh may the Lord bless you, dear young people, and make you a blessing.
Could we sing 256?
Praise the Savior, ye who know Him, who can tell how much we owe Him gladly Let us render to Him all we have and our 256.
Praise the Savior.