I'd invite you to turn in the Bible this morning to the second book of the Bible, the book of Exodus, as we return to our study in this book. And this morning we come to Exodus 4, verses 18 to the end of the chapter. We are still at the burning bush and now this is the last section here toward the end of this that Moses will now embark and head finally to Egypt to do what he is called to do. Let's give our attention this morning to the word of the Lord, Exodus chapter 4, beginning at verse 18. This is God's word. Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they're still alive. And Jethro said to Moses, go in peace. And the Lord said to Moses and Midian, go back to Egypt for all the men who were seeking your life are dead. So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand. And the Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power, but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son. And I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son. At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched moses's feet with it and said surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me so he let him alone it was then that she said a bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision the lord said to aaron go into the wilderness to meet moses so he went and met him at the mountain of god and kissed him and moses told aaron all the words of the lord with which he had sent him to speak and all the signs that he had commanded him to do then moses and aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of israel aaron spoke all the words that the lord had spoken to moses and did the signs in the sight of the people and the people believed and when they heard that the lord had visited the people of israel and that he had seen their affliction they bowed their heads and worshiped may the lord bless the hearing of his word that's a remarkable verse at the very end there verse 31 that the people believed it is a great work of god that we believe in him jesus said that i quoted from john 6 earlier this is the work of god that you believe in him whom he has sent. We really don't know how prevalent unbelief is in our lives. We don't know how prevalent that problem is, what it looks like, what shape it takes. I raise that because Moses has in front of us a problem. When we think about unbelief, I'm reminded of that man's problem in the Gospels when he came to our Lord and he said, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. You ever pray that? It's a common prayer in the heart of a Christian. Moses has a problem in Exodus 3 and 4 that is terribly exposed. He is not believing. And I aim to show this morning what unbelief looks like, how it shows up in our lives, that we would not be unbelieving but believing. I mean, that's the goal of this sermon, that we would end up at the end of verse 31, the people believed. And here's what the Lord is dealing with in Moses this morning. God was sending Moses to go get out of Egypt his firstborn son. Did you notice that God called him that? His firstborn son, Israel. Go get him, Moses. God had made a promise to Abraham years ago. Remember our study in the book of Genesis. God had made a promise to Abraham in the covenant of grace that he would do this. He explained this in Genesis chapter 15. But I've been maintaining and helping us to see that for any leader, any pastor, any servant to effectively ever be in God's service and work, he has to believe himself in what God is doing. Moses had to believe this. Moses had to accept this. Moses had to understand that this need was for him too. And so must you. So must you. In fact, I find this immensely encouraging this morning that as the Lord continues to work in his great prophet here, how persistent the Lord is to train up his servants. And this is a never-ending. As long as you're living, he's not done with you. I don't care how old you are, how young you are. he is ever persistent to train his servants to believe the very gospel. In this case, Moses is going to bring to the children of Israel and Egypt. What we have in front of us this morning is the conclusion to what I believe is the training session of Moses out at the burning bush. If you get that, if you understand that, that this is a giant training session, Chapter four will help to make sense in what is some very disturbing language and challenging language as we read that. If we keep that in front of us, you'll better understand what the Lord is doing in this fascinating, pivotal text in the life of Moses moment. There's still something wrong. Here's the attitude of Moses. Have you caught it? Come now, Moses, I'm sending you to go to the children of Israel. you're doing what lord who am i who am i i'm a mess i'll be with you who are you you you know what am i going to say to them that that somebody has a god has appeared to me in the bush out of the backside of a mountain and who are you what am i going to tell them you think they're going to believe that? Remember what the Lord said, Moses, I am who I am. You go tell them, I am has sent you. And let me assure you all along the way, Moses, this mission is going to succeed. That has been really amazing to study. This mission is going to succeed. You will prosper. It's going to be blessed. You will bring them out. The victory is certain. And then in verse 18, remember what the Lord said in chapter 3, they will listen to your voice. That was so crucial. Everyone should circle that. They will listen to your voice. But Moses' third objection was, they will not. That was chapter 4, verse 1. And you have to set those side by side. They will, Moses says, they will not. God says, okay, I'll give you three signs. The rod and the leprous hand and the water to blood. And you will do those signs. They will believe. Lord, I'm not eloquent. I can't speak. And you know what? You really haven't fixed that problem since we've been here starting out a few days ago at the bush. You haven't fixed my major problem that I'm not an eloquent man. I don't speak well. I'll be with your mouth. i'll teach you what you should say i'll guide your words i'll give you what you need i'll teach you as you go you don't have to worry moses it's all mapped out for you i've mapped the whole thing out for you you just go and you speak just as i command you to speak that's all you really have to do i'll take care of the rest you just speak speak my word and then came something shocking Lord send someone else ah there it is you just don't want to go you don't want to do it you don't want to be a servant and you'll notice here we end or ended last time with the Lord's anger kindled against Moses which was enough there was no belief here And that's when you meet up against the anger of the Lord. Well, he's going. Moses is going. That's the picture here. He's up on the donkey. He's riding off to Egypt with his wife and his sons. But my question this morning as we launch and finish chapter 4 is, he's going to do this great work of the Lord, but does he himself yet believe it? does he himself yet believe in the Lord does he believe in what he needs does he understand what God is doing and you see that is presented to us in the opening verses here as we open up in the section that we're considering this morning in verse 18 look at verse 18 Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive and Jethro said to Moses go in peace now I asked my kids the other night at the table when I read that what troubles you about that guys and one of them says to see whether they're still alive are you serious I mean I don't believe that means Moses just wants to go check on their well being I want to go see whether these people are really alive. Now, he could have told Jethro something else. He could have told him God's plan. But he doesn't. I need to go see whether my brethren are still alive. God just told them they were alive. God just told them you need to go get them. God had been telling them, come now, I'm sending you to go get them out and bring them out alive, save. Faithless. faithless Moses and then to compound it if you were really to study and compare Abraham and Moses you have a striking parallel here if you were to go back to Abraham's original calling when he was called out of Ur of the Chaldeans remember Abraham started out and he got part of the way and he stopped in Haran for a period of time with dad and the Lord had to come again and say it's time to go Abraham it's time to go get up and get going same thing happens here he goes to his father-in-law and he says this and the Lord has to come again he's lingering go over remember what he said gather the elders and say this is what the Lord says in verse 3 return go return to Egypt God has to tell him the people are dead who sought his life which was a marker. It's time, Moses. The exodus has begun. Time has come. You need to go. Now, with all of this, this is a lot of unbelief. It's fighting. I've drawn the conclusion. My first conclusion here is you have a prophet not believing what God has said. What kind of heart does Moses have towards this mission? I think that question drives this section. What kind of heart, I want you to focus in on the word heart, what kind of heart does Moses have toward God's work and deliverance? Moses has a heart problem. Moses has a belief problem. He's bitter, makes every excuse in the world to be absent from the work of the Lord. If I were to judge somebody like this, I would say these are classic evidences of somebody who's not been regenerated. That's what I would say. And I say this morning, I was struggling with my very title. I wanted to say, but I felt it may have been so radical to say it. Moses, you need to be born again. But I used Old Testament language to do it. You need a circumcised heart. And look at how God's working here. Look at how God is training His servant. He's learning about the human heart. He's learning of God's power over the heart. But my question is, does he see his own heart? Not yet. You know how hard the human heart is? Do we have any concept of the hardness of the human heart toward the Lord? You understand, when Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, and just before that scene where he says to Nicodemus, you must be born again, there was a scene about the heart, and the Lord said he had no need of anyone to tell him what was in man for he knew what was in man. The heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. Who can know it? And it was in that context, it was in that context that Jesus looked at Nicodemus and didn't tell him to do anything. He said, you need a new heart and I've got to wash it. I've got to give life to you. Do you know you do? Do you know you do? Without this new circumcised heart, you'll never believe. You'll just never get there. Everything here that we have seen in the life of Moses, evidences, he needs to learn this, he needs to understand this. We have to be born again, life has to be given to us. God has to take a heart that's dead in trespasses and sins and implant life there so that we are able to believe. Regeneration always precedes faith. How can it happen? The Lord has to come down and bring Israel out. How's this even possible? In other words, does Moses understand the gospel? That's a crucial question to this text. Does Moses understand the gospel? This may be the very section where Moses' heart is opened up. Listen to the language of verse 22. god's training moses here then you shall say to pharaoh thus says the lord israel is my firstborn son israel is my firstborn son you shall say let him go that he may serve me you know when we back up and look at verse 21 he says that and then he said just preceding that how does god deal with Moses' heart. When you go back to Egypt, I want you to do all these wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in your hand. But here's what I'm going to do to his heart. I'm going to harden it so that he will not let the people go. Now, I think you're used to that. I think you're used to hearing that you're reformed you should believe that do you know what a shock that is this god out in the desert shrub just said he controls every single human heart throughout history and the hearts of the rulers of the most powerful nations on the face of the earth he holds Moses must have stood there and said what you're gonna harden a heart that's how powerful he is he has that much power over people he has that much power in people's lives he hardens the hearts of humans he softens the hearts of humans that much sovereignty that much control that much strength you know some 22 times in the book of exodus i think it is it says that god here shows control over pharaoh's heart i believe we read about pharaoh's hardened heart and you think oh poor poor guy he just didn't stand a chance you know the guy didn't stand a chance not at all when you read this he god hardened his heart god was teaching moses something about the heart pharaoh's heart was not soft pharaoh's heart was hard god would take an already hard heart and god would then harden it in the direction that he wanted it to go it was already inclined and desperately wanted to go in a certain direction and that's the irony here a far greater thing would be to have to do what soft in a heart oh you don't think about that one as much the amazement is not that god hardens a heart the amazement is that god softens a heart that's already hard when god hardens a heart he just merely turns it to do what it wants to do exodus will make clear numerous times pharaoh hardened his own heart it says god hardened pharaoh's heart pharaoh hardened his own heart you had a dual team action on that one but here's the question what's moses been doing this whole time hardening his own heart one of the greatest things that moses needed to learn and i i believe this is so crucial for his training because he's capturing israel's struggle in the wilderness believing hardness of heart you how many times this is all over the scriptures warning about the hardening of the heart and not believing and this so much impacted Moses that later he would have a lot of teaching to Israel about the human heart and what was the necessity of God to do in the human heart do you remember what God would say through Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 30 about what was needed for the children of israel out in the wilderness from moses own lips here it is the lord your god will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the lord your god with all of your heart and with all of your soul that you may live you can't do that because god told them circumcise your hearts and this is what it looked like with moses oh it's a great work it is such a marvelous work when god takes a heart and he gives life to it human heart does he see his own do you see your own evidence of no life in the heart is everything that we have seen so far from moses no corresponding desire to be a servant no corresponding desire to listen and what is true faith well when god says in verse 18 they will listen and moses says they will not true faith is not only a certain knowledge that everything god has revealed in his word is true it's a deep rooted assurance created in your hearts by the holy spirit out of the gospel this is a knowledge and assurance that God's Word is true and I believe it. That's the first problem. And that leads us to the second problem that Moses was not understanding. Here are God's people in bondage over here. Moses is the servant God has trained and raised up to go get them. God loves these people. God's going to get these people. They can do absolutely nothing to get out of their predicament. They're helpless. How can it happen? Well, the Lord has to come and bring them out. Does Moses understand any of this? Well, that now leads us to verse 22. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn. You go to Pharaoh and you say to him, Moses, Let my son go, that he may serve me. If you refuse, Pharaoh, I'm going to kill your firstborn son. I love my son. I love Israel. Let him go. Here's the penalty if you do not. Now, he just said he's going to harden Pharaoh's heart, so you know that penalty is going to happen. On the night of the death of the firstborn son, what happened to Israel? On the night when the angel, destroyer angel, came through Egypt and remember blood was put up on the doorposts, what happened to Pharaoh's firstborn son? He was killed. And it was immediately then the Lord came down and says, time to go, time to get out. What would Moses later teach about the firstborn son? I want everyone to turn ahead just a few chapters to Exodus chapter 13. It's so important that you see this because it really does define and help us understand what Moses is being trained with right now. If you look at verse 2 of Exodus chapter 13, this is what we come up with. The Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whoever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and beast, is mine. So whatever firstborn came out, the Lord wanted that specifically consecrated to him. And then look down at verse 12. You shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord. Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem did you catch that you shall buy them back god established a principle of the firstborn god established this principle the firstborn that every son that came out of the womb of the firstborn was specifically consecrated to the lord and could be bought back to symbolize they belong to Yahweh usually five shekels what did it mean it meant this verse 14 it says and when in time to come your son asks you what does this mean your son comes up to you and says mom and dad I don't get what you're doing here you know you're taking all these firstborns and your animals you're sacrificing but why did you take me your firstborn and pay a price They would answer, son, God delivered us from bondage. And he killed all the firstborn of Egypt. But he saved us. He had mercy on us. He bought us back. And by his might, he delivered us as his sons, buying us back, which is what the blood of the Passover lamb spoke to. God substituted a lamb. who is that lamb you know that lamb it was the substitution of god's son god's true and eternal eternal firstborn son jesus is the true israel jesus is god's firstborn eternal son if you will the promise and what is said here is fulfilled in him all over the gospels the father kept telling us when jesus was there walking on this earth ah there's my son in whom i'm well pleased the one who knew no sin what did he do became sin for us that we should become the righteousness of god in him what what is god doing god tells moses all of israel's my firstborn son all of them you go say to pharaoh i am hardening his heart but you tell him he's holding my son and israel's my firstborn son and god was making it very clear the cost for the lord to say to israel that they are his firstborn there was a redemption price that was needed all reflected in their need to be freed from bondage. That they would have the right to become sons of God is because He would deliver His Son. He would shed His blood in their place and release them that very night on the Passover as judgment fell on Pharaoh's son. They were taught the Gospel right there. They were taught it right there. Now, I want you to put this together with me for a minute. Moses has just learned about the human heart. It needs to be circumcised. He has just heard about the judgment that will fall on Pharaoh's firstborn son. Here's the problem this morning. Moses has evidenced no faith. Where have you seen it? I haven't found it. That's the problem. As a pastor, I just don't see any faith at all in this. When somebody is born again by the Spirit, what's the great thing that happens? The great thing that happens is all of a sudden in conversion, there is an understanding that you are a great sinner with a hard heart and that you're so humbled and thankful that God rescued you and gave you a Savior and pulled you out. That gospel plan, that announcement overtakes the human heart and it's the thing that drives the rest of your life. I mean it. It is the gospel that drives the rest of your life. When it's not there, there's no excitement for it. It just doesn't seem to set in. If you're here today and you can say you've been born again, it'll be evidenced in an understanding of how greatness your sin and misery are and how wonderful the Lord has been to redeem you as a son. There's a confession. I'm a mess. I'm a prodigal. I'm no better than anyone else. It's not my law keeping that will ever satisfy the demands. I'm a wreck. And I see so sensitively now what this heart is like. I barely give him any devotion. I barely give him any devotion. Moses understand? In what follows, you have one of the most confusing passages in the Old Testament. Writers can't seem to figure out what's going on. I read a lot of them this week. But I believe if you follow the flow of what I just outlined, if you stayed with me and you followed the flow of a hard heart that needs circumcised and if you followed the flow of here understanding the gospel of redemption of the firstborn, you see, you'll get what follows. Verse 24. And it came to pass on the way at the encampment. And as you read that there in verse 24, at the lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said, Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me. You almost got us put out. So he let him alone. The Lord relented, if you will. A bridegroom of blood because of, ready? The circumcision. What an amazing passage. They're all camping there. And I don't know what this must have been like, but the Lord showed up in a terrifying theophanic revelation of Himself that was death to Moses and his sons and his wife. And it says the Lord sought to kill him. And you all stand back and you say, what in the world? This is what makes some people read the Old Testament. See, God, the Old Testament's mean. The God of the New Testament's nice. No, no, no, hold up. What does this mean? Kill who? Who does the Lord want to kill? You can answer that by seeing where his wrath was appeased. Zipporah, daughter of Jethro, takes a knife. Understood something. observing what has just happened to Moses, which I believe he had just been physically restrained in some kind of way, she grabs the knife and God is about ready to kill Moses' firstborn. Probably Gershom. And she grabs the knife and she circumcises him right away and throws it at his feet. Remember, feet burning bush. What was circumcision? Circumcision was the sign of the covenant of grace that God made with Abraham. Remember? It was the sign. Paul would later explain it and say it's a sign and a seal of the righteousness that comes by faith. Faith, you put your sign on your children, Moses. Listen, this is so important. Abraham, all of your offspring needs to put the sign on the children. You need to put it on your children. I want the sign on your children. When the new covenant came, God didn't say, I'm going to exclude those little kids because they're just so bad. They are bad. God said, it's still for you and your children. Peter said that in the Gospel, in Acts, still for you and your children. You still put the sign on the children. You don't need blood anymore, but you do need water. You put it on. God commanded it. No one was to trifle. No one was to say, you know, I just, I don't know. What did you just learn about Moses? He had just refused to put his sign on his child. I don't know why. Maybe they cut a deal with Jethro. I don't know. God now marks out his firstborn. You see the illustration here? You're connecting the dots here? It was a test. This is Moses' Abraham and Isaac moment up on the mountain. God says, take your firstborn, your only son whom you love, and you sacrifice him. Abraham takes him up and he lays him on the altar, that circumcised son, and he grazes up the flint knife and the Lord says, stop! There's a ram. Take your son off the altar and put the ram there and put the fire on it. And what does the Scripture commend about Father Abraham in the New Testament? What does the Lord commend about Father Abraham about that moment being the great test of his life? It says, by faith, he offered his son. He believed that he would rise from the dead because he believed the gospel promise. Now, was Moses believing? The refusal to circumcise his son was willful unbelief. God was dealing with his prophet's unbelief once and for all right here. This is an amazing passage. It was time for Moses not to be unbelieving, but believing in God's power to save he and his children, his firstborn son. And you see, this is why you get all over the Gospels. You could go to Psalm 95 where it rehearses all the wonderful beauties and it says, take heed, don't have a heart of unbelief in the wilderness. Or take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. but exhort one another every day as long as it's called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. As the knife cut away the foreskin, what was the Lord teaching that those people and their children for generation after generation after generation, Moses learned it right then and there. What did he teach him? You have to believe that it's the Lord that has the power to circumcise the foreskins of your heart to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You can't do it. And if you're ever going to share in this buyback program of his son, you have to believe this. You have to trust the Lord. You have to understand this. If you don't believe, how are you any different than Pharaoh and his children? Because God's going to take out his firstborn son. who had no sign on him, by the way. Who had no sign on him. You don't want to get this wrong. I agree that it's not the act of baptism or the act of circumcision that saves, but it teaches us very clearly. It's the Lord who saves. Someone asked me the other day, we've seen all this unbelief from Moses. When do you think he was born again? I can't imagine this wouldn't have caused it, you know? Right then and there, he had an illustration of the gospel and the terror of the Lord apart from a covering. Aaron meets Moses. They come to the mountain. They go to Israel. The scene ends really remarkably. They go to Israel. Everything that Moses had not believed happened. He did the signs, and the text ends with, they all believed and worshipped. I close with this today. You must believe. And we have to have some kind of grasp of the human heart. People are bitter by nature to any authority structure of God in their lives. And you see what the Lord must do here. His gospel has to get into the heart. He gave his son so that you would be set free to worship him and enjoy him. And when God hands you a baby, which every child is a gift from the Lord, when God hands you a baby, do you understand why he's telling you to put the sign on your helpless child? Do you have some kind of grasp of why he's telling you to put the sign on your helpless child? Your child can't make the choice. He doesn't have the heart to do it. He's absolutely helpless no matter what age he is. People teach an age of accountability. I'm going to tell you that age of accountability ushers in more unbelief is what it ushers in. Your children are helpless because, same thing, you're helpless. If your heart can be this hard as an adult, your infant reflects the problem of your own inability. And the Lord wants you to believe and to trust His power to save you and your children. Isn't he wonderful? He wants you to believe and trust that he has the ability and power to save us and bring us out of Egypt. It's a visual for you when the sign is put on. It's a visual for you when the sacrament's given of the Lord's Supper, of the Gospel. To deny it is gross sin. Your children need this deliverance too. I need this deliverance because your pastor's heart is remarkably hard. And if we're ever going to be effective in His service and do it with any kind of cheerful heart, if we're ever going to be effective in the work of Christ, we have to believe Him. We have to trust what He did for us. Unbelief produces excuses. You want to know what it sounds like? Master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid and I went and I hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours, but his master answered, you wicked and slothful servant. Faith produces something different. Here's what faith brings about consequently. And he who had received five talents came forward bringing five talents more. Notice the excitement here. Master, you gave me five talents. I've delivered you five more. I've made five more talents. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. What does this all say today? Don't be unbelieving, but believing. Come with a believing heart. God has loved you. He's come to get you. And he's come to rest you, not just you, but your children. Do you believe that? He's given you a place in his kingdom. He surrounds you with gospel peace. and he gave up his only begotten son on the cross and shed his blood so that you would be free to do what? What is the purpose of Exodus? That they would come out and worship. That's how this text ends. They come out and notice what happens. They're already anticipating the worship that is going to happen when they come out into the wilderness. I pray that overwhelms you today to be about his will And to go in his service in true and lasting peace as his special people, you and your children, who has brought you out of darkness into this marvelous light and given you life in your hearts. What a reason to praise this God, isn't it? You're alive today. You're living. And his grace hovers all around you and enters in your hearts and saves you. Let's praise Him. Heavenly Father, may we never be so unbelieving but believing. Trusting Your Word. Trusting Your Gospel promise. Realizing that if circumcision was a sign and a seal of the righteousness that comes by faith, well then baptism is that same wonderful sign of your powerful working in our hearts to wash our hearts from all the filth that is in them with pure water, the washing of water by the blood of Christ. And we need that. Without you, we can't do it. Thank you for training your servants so many years ago to deliver. Thank you for sending your son to give us life. Give us excitement about your gospel and your promises. And thank you for not letting our little ones just fend for themselves, But thank you for teaching us that our infants reflect the problem of our own inability and that we need you to save all of us. And to that we gladly submit to your gospel ordinances and promises. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.