First, I want to warn you that I may be scratching my side today. I was stung by a bee while cutting the grass yesterday. It is not my poor monkey imitation, by the way. It has spread around—and it has room to spread, as you might notice. It is itching, so I will try not to be too obvious when I scratch.
But if you have a little Benadryl, it might be good as well. Now, I am only kidding.
Turn in the Old Testament to Deuteronomy 33. We will be looking today at Moses, the man of God. Deuteronomy 33:1:
And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.
Then turn to Ezra 3:2:
Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.
Then Psalm 90. Many of you know this. I will just read the title:
A Prayer of Moses the man of God.
Now turn to Acts 7:22–23. You probably know this story as well:
And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; and he was mighty in his words and works.
But when he was well-nigh forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.
Then, back in another of Moses’ books, Exodus 3. You remember this story: the story of the burning bush. We will look at the first six verses.
Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, unto Horeb.
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
And Moses said, I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
And He said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
Moreover He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
There is another thing said of Moses. At the close of Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy 34:5–7:
So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.
And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.
And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
Lastly, from the New Testament, Revelation 15. This is the last mention of Moses in the Bible, by the way. Revelation 15:3:
And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God.
Now, Lord, we come to You again, leaning upon You, that You would help us to take in and understand what is in Your Word. We tell You, You alone have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go?
Would You speak to us today? Would You not allow us merely to hear thoughts and ideas and outlines and stories, but to hear what is in Your heart? Open Your Word to us, Lord. Only You can do that, and we depend upon it. In Jesus’ precious name, amen.
Well, I think many of you already know the burden that the Lord put upon my heart: the man God chooses and uses for His purpose. We have already heard this morning about the blessedness of being chosen—what a blessing that is.
When we read the Word of God from Genesis right through Revelation, we discover that it is the unveiling of God’s great purpose. The God of all creation had a very great purpose in mind.
When we read Ephesians 1:10, we find that glorious phrase, “having made known.” Is that not beautiful? This God of purpose did not hide His purpose from man, but made known the mystery of His will. Essentially, it says that in the end He will sum up all things in Christ. That is His great purpose.
God’s great purpose has everything to do with His Son. But the glory of it is that God’s great purpose includes us. He has chosen us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, and He wants to use us to fulfill and complete His purpose.
We are just days from the conference, and John said that we will be praying tonight for the conference. The burden the Lord laid upon our hearts, and specifically gave as a word to Jerry, was this issue of a link. God is looking for a link: someone who knows what is in His heart, someone He can choose, and, in the end, someone He can use to fulfill His purpose.
That is the essence of the burden. Specifically, I believe that link is the church. When you look into Ephesians, you discover this great thing that is in the heart of God. Then, in Ephesians 3, you discover the vehicle for the revelation of that great thing: “through the assembly might be made known.”
I always like to tell people, “Read those words carefully.” When it speaks of the Lord Jesus, it says, “having been made known.” There is no doubt: He did all the will of God, perfectly fulfilled everything God was after, and unveiled the very thing that was in the heart of God.
But when it comes to the church, the word changes. When the apostle wrote about the mystery of Christ, he said that it might be made known to the principalities and authorities, the all-various wisdom of God. This is the great purpose behind His choosing.
We looked at Abraham last week. I had two thoughts, two initial impressions. First, we cannot give a full rendering of any of these characters. They are so vast. How God chose these men and how God used these men is so great that, at best, we can draw from their lives some elements of character—something that could be true in us also.
If that thing is found in us, then God can choose us and use us as He did these men.
We looked at Abraham. Who can doubt how he was chosen? In fact, I think Abraham is the first real move of God in the Old Testament. God was about to recover His heart and His purpose, and He called this idol worshiper, Abraham, out of Mesopotamia to the land that He would show him. He called him from his people.
So we said that the first thing about Abraham is that he represents God’s calling. All of us are called. Romans 8:28 says that we are called according to purpose—that great purpose. That is our destiny.
We also considered Abraham in Hebrews. There is one phrase that really spoke to my heart: “By faith Abraham, being called, obeyed.” I believe that is Hebrews 11:8. Maybe my memory is not so good with all the itching, but that is a tremendous thing: being called, he obeyed.
Sometimes we think obedience is such a hard word that we cannot even bear it. I know brothers and sisters who will not sing a certain hymn because it talks about obeying the Lord. But Abraham—listen to those words, how tremendous they are—being called, he obeyed.
Now, it is simple to me. None of us can really obey the Lord in fullness. You have to admit that. But all of us can respond to the Lord with a willingness. At least you can do that. When He begins to call, when He begins to speak to your heart, when He begins to move on you by the Holy Spirit, all He wants you to do is simply respond to Him.
That Abraham did, and for that God chose him and used him. We took from Romans that phrase, “the obedience of faith.” I think that phrase is very important if you can understand the book of Romans. It begins with it, and it ends with it.
Then we looked at the testing of faith. Who can doubt that Abraham was tested to such a degree? You cannot read Genesis 22, when he was called to offer up his only son, without feeling the force of those explicit words: “thine only son, whom thou lovest.” What a test.
The Word of God says that God tested Abraham. Every believer who is going to be a man of faith like Abraham will be tested. Brothers and sisters, that testing is not to destroy us. First Peter 1:7 speaks of the proving of our faith, or the testing of our faith, as more precious than gold that perishes.
Finally, we ended with the testimony of faith. At the end of Abraham’s life, when his dear Sarah passed, he was moved and he wept. He told the sons of Heth, “I am a stranger and a sojourner with you.”
If we are going to be used, we will have to be sojourners. If you read the record of Abraham, it says over and over that he sojourned here and sojourned there. Even Abimelech referred to him as a sojourner. Over and over, we discover Abraham’s great secret: “I am a sojourner, a pilgrim.”
This is not our home. We are looking for that city which hath foundations, whose builder and architect is God. That is how we walk in this pilgrim way.
That was Abraham. I am sure there are many things you could say more clearly and more thoroughly, things you have discovered. But those are some of the things that stick out to me. I believe with all my heart that if these things are found in us—these New Testament people of God whom He has chosen and wants to use as the link to complete His purpose—then He will be able to use us as well.
Well, we must press on. Today we will look at Moses, the man of God. It is hard to overestimate the contribution of Moses. I know some of you think I am given to exaggeration—my wife most of all—but listen carefully: it is hard to overestimate the contribution of Moses.
In fact, you might almost put it this way: Moses is the Old Testament; Moses is Israel. Perhaps it is not right to put it that way, but there is no character in the Old Testament who contributed more than Moses did. He was truly a man of God, greatly chosen and used by God.
Remember John the apostle. In John 1:17, he said:
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
That is something of the contribution of Moses. God sees these two realms: the Old Testament period, when He moved greatly because He found a vessel He could use—and that Old Testament period is Moses. But then, when we come to the New Testament, we discover the Man of His real choosing, the Man He used so greatly: the Lord Jesus. In Him we discover grace and truth.
It is hard to overestimate Moses’ contribution. He is mentioned more in the New Testament than any other Old Testament character. I think it is about eighty times; my memory may be slipping me. We know that he wrote the first five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, as well as that great prayer in Psalm 90. His contribution is tremendous.
But listen to this word from Deuteronomy 34:10:
And there hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.
Listen to that emphasis: there arose no prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. That was how well Moses was known.
When you read those five books of Moses, notice the recurring phrase. It is everywhere. You cannot miss it if you read carefully: “And God spoke to Moses.” Face to face. He even said that He had not spoken to Moses as He spoke to other men, but face to face—not in parables, but face to face.
Surely it is hard to overestimate the contribution of Moses. I think of David’s comment in Psalm 103:7:
He made known His ways unto Moses,
His acts unto the children of Israel.
I remember in our early days here, when the Lord was first gathering us to meet, what that verse meant to us. We often made it our prayer: “Lord, would You make known to us Your ways? Do not just show us Your mighty acts, but make known to us Your ways.”
This is the significance of this Old Testament character. In messianic prophecy, God Himself said to Moses, “I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee.” We know who that other Prophet is: the Lord Jesus.
But, brothers and sisters, as I thought about Moses’ life and considered the things that came to my heart, this description—the man of God—touched me the deepest. I thought, “Wow. Can you imagine if God could say that of us?”
“Glenn, the man of God.” Can you imagine? “Jerry, the man of God.” Jerry, no implication by that, dear brother. I did not mean anything ugly. I am sorry if you took it that way.
What a significant contribution Moses made. I have often been to funerals. As I get older, you tend to go to funerals, and I hope this itching will not bring me to a sooner one. But when you go to a funeral, you hear the stories people tell about the person.
Sometimes those stories are a little too grand to believe. You think, “That was Uncle Ed? Really?” But just think: if the summary of your life, the eulogy of your life, spoken by God Himself, was, “Moses, the man of God”—how great is that?
That is the thought that touched my heart more than anything. I think it is among the most important things that can be said of someone.
Now, let us look at three things—just three things—because when you take a character like Moses, whose expanse and contribution are so great, it is hard to take in all that there is. The first thing that comes to me when I look at Moses is that he represents the salvation of the man of God.
That is why we sang that hymn, “Full Salvation.” Moses represents salvation. It is the first and prominent thing in his life. You remember the story of his birth.
Pharaoh was agitated. The king of Egypt was all bent out of shape about the children of Israel because they were stronger than the Egyptians, and he was afraid of them. His grand plan was to exact great burdens and heavy labor upon them.
When that did not work, he appealed to the Hebrew midwives and said, “Why do you not just get rid of all the boys? Keep the girls.” But, thank God, the Word of God records carefully that the Hebrew midwives feared God and did not do that.
Would to God that many would fear God like that today. Would to God.
Then we read how Moses’ parents thought he was a lovely child. Acts 7 says that he was “exceeding fair.” I cannot say that about all my children, and they certainly do not say that about me. But he was so special that they could not throw him into the river. They put him in the ark.
As he drifted down the river, his sister followed. You remember the story: Pharaoh’s daughter came out to bathe in the river, saw this little ark, and sent someone to get it.
I think Moses is a picture of sovereign salvation. If we are to be men of God, we must first be saved men. Moses was saved from destruction.
Miriam even followed Pharaoh’s daughter to the court and made that grand suggestion that she get a Hebrew nurse. Moses’ very mother became his nurse. Until he was presented as a son to Pharaoh’s daughter, this one sovereignly saved from destruction was nursed by his mother.
So the first thing we must notice about Moses is that he represents the salvation of the man of God. He was sovereignly saved from destruction.
Do you know that this is God’s will for every one of us? Every one of us. He is not willing that any should perish. He does not want any to perish.
When you read Peter’s letter, he says that God is not willing that any should perish. When you read John’s Gospel, God gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. In the end, He will appear unto salvation to those who look for Him.
Those of us who were destined to die and then face judgment—He is not willing that any should perish. That is Moses: saved from personal destruction. That is the sovereignty of God.
Of course, God saved Moses because He had an intention to use him. We know that. Nevertheless, he was saved. But, brothers and sisters, personal salvation is more than merely escaping divine punishment.
Sometimes we say, “Whew! I am saved. That is it,” and then live however we want for the rest of our days. But for Moses, this was only the beginning. He was saved from personal destruction, but God had something else in mind beyond personal salvation.
God intended for Moses to come into a full salvation—to understand the depth of his salvation—so that, in the end, God could use him in the way He wanted to use him.
Let me explain it this way. Moses’ life was one hundred and twenty years long. We read that at the end of Deuteronomy. Then he had that great funeral where God Himself buried him, and we do not know his sepulchre to this day.
The first forty years were a discovery of the great salvation, the full salvation, that is in Christ Jesus. It was not a partial salvation—not merely being saved from destruction—but being saved for God. That was the difference: saved so that he could be a link, so that God could use him to bring about His purpose through this great man of God.
Then came the second forty years. We read in Acts 7 that Moses was forty years old when God put something in his heart. He tried to deliver his Hebrew brethren. Then, in the backwoods of Midian, Moses discovered the secret of the man of God. Something great happened in Midian, where God could make this man usable.
Finally, the last forty years of Moses’ life were a period of great service as the man of God. In that period, he was given another title: the servant of God.
That is what God has in mind for every one of us: saved from destruction, but saved to the uttermost; saved with a full understanding, so that we know what is in His heart. Then we discover that there is a way to live before Him—a secret—and we are called, young and old alike, to be servants of God.
To me, that is the story of Moses.
At the end of the first forty years, Acts 7 says that Moses “was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; and he was mighty in his words and works.” Think of that. The Egyptians were the most advanced culture of that day.
Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of Egypt. He was destined to be on the throne of Egypt. Pharaoh had no son, and Pharaoh’s daughter had no son. This son who had been rescued from destruction was destined to be the next ruler of Egypt—mighty in words and deeds, with tremendous accomplishments and victories.
That is the description we have in Acts 7. But there is something else Moses discovered about salvation. Turn with me to Hebrews 11. I believe this will help us understand full salvation.
Hebrews 11:24–26:
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward.
Now, you must notice these three words. If you do not notice these three words, you will not understand the full salvation represented in this man of God: refused, choosing, and esteeming.
First, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Salvation is not merely being saved from destruction, receiving eternal life, and having your card punched so that you no longer need to taste the second death. It is refusing the world.
Egypt represents the world in all of its wisdom and learning. Moses came to the place, when he became great, where he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Brothers and sisters, have you refused this world?
That is the first thing we need to understand. Full salvation goes beyond being saved from personal destruction. It includes refusing this world. Many Christians do not seem to understand that.
But the second word is equally important: he chose. He chose, rather, to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the temporary pleasure of sin. He chose Christ. That was what made the difference with Moses.
He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and then he chose Christ Jesus. That is full salvation. Do you understand? Has it come into your heart, as Acts 7 says, “It came into his heart”?
When it came into his heart, he did exactly what we read in Hebrews 11. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and he chose, rather, to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the temporary pleasure of sin.
There is something very important in the life of Moses about choosing. Not only did God choose him, but Moses chose the Lord. What a difference.
I remember a story about Dr. Livingstone, the famous African explorer. You remember Dr. Livingstone, I presume? Stanley found Dr. Livingstone in Africa. One of my employees is named Stanley, and I greeted him the other day with, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” He had no idea what I was talking about, so I had to explain the whole story. Well, never mind.
The point is that Dr. Livingstone was such a man of God, so greatly used of God, that when he died in England, his funeral was so grand that they said there had been nothing like it in all of Britain. The funeral procession was so great that people came out in droves to see it.
One old, shabbily dressed man fought his way up to the rope line—to the edge of the street—just to see the casket of this great man of God passing. The crowd was rather brutal to him and asked, “What are you thinking, coming up here and forcing your way?”
This old man said, “I knew him better than all of you.” They said, “What on earth do you mean?” He said, “Well, we were in Sunday school together. We were in Sunday school together. He decided for Christ, and I decided against Him.”
Do you understand the importance of choosing the Lord? Brothers and sisters, I often think the gospel comes down to a choice. Moses wrote to the children of Israel, “Life and death are set before you. Choose life.”
There is pleasure in sin for a season, no doubt, or we would not have such calamities in the house of God if that were not true. But here was one who chose Christ, and that is the reason God could use him.
I do not think the gospel is that complicated after all. I used to think it was, but I have discovered it is not. There are two choices. I will lay them out as simply as I know how, and I will leave you with these two choices.
First, Romans 12:2 says you can choose to be conformed to this world. You can aspire to be Moses with all the wisdom of Egypt, mighty in words and deeds. You can be great in the eyes of the world.
Or you can refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Like Romans 8 says, we can make a different choice: we can choose to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus. That is what Moses did.
He chose to suffer with the people of God rather than enjoy the temporary pleasure of sin. Then he did another thing: he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.
Make no doubt about it: Egypt had treasures. I do not know whether any of you, like me, enjoy the Smithsonian Channel, but I think it is the coolest thing when they go in and discover those treasures. They are still discovering the treasures of Egypt. How tremendous.
But Moses had a different value system. He esteemed the riches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. I think that gives us an understanding of full salvation.
But that is not all. When you read Acts 7, what came into Moses’ heart was a concern for his brethren. That is what the Word of God says came into his heart.
You remember the story. When this came into his heart, he was still in Egypt and saw one of his Hebrew brethren being mistreated. He slew the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.
You would think the Hebrew brethren would appreciate what he did. But the next day he went out and saw two Hebrew brothers quarreling among themselves. He tried his best, because he knew it had come into his heart that God wanted to use him, that he was to be the deliverer of Israel from the bondage of Egypt.
But one of them said, “What are you going to do? Are you going to kill us the way you killed the Egyptian?” Moses fled. Boy, Moses fled in fear. We say down here in the South that he fled like a jackrabbit. He fled to the desert of Midian because he knew Pharaoh was ready to slay him.
In those backwoods of Midian, he discovered Jethro, his future father-in-law, and Zipporah, his future wife. There in Midian, the dream of deliverance died.
Brothers and sisters, I think this is the second forty years of Moses. God wants to use us, but He cannot use us the way we think He wants to use us.
We think, “My gosh, if I just have all the wisdom of Egypt, He can use me. If I just have a few initials behind my name, He can use me. If I understand this, He can use me.” But the lesson Moses learned in Midian, on the mountain of God, is that God does not choose Egypt’s way.
That was the lesson discovered in those second forty years. The dream seemed to be lost. The idea of deliverance for Israel seemed to be gone. Moses began to be reduced from this great man in Egypt, who had all the wisdom of Egypt and was mighty in word and deed, to a shepherd with his father-in-law.
I am not sure if that depresses you, but it must have depressed Moses, following Jethro around those mountains. Yet one day something happened—something tremendous.
I do not think those forty years were a loss. I think they were probably the most important forty years in Moses’ life, because there, on the mountain of God, the man of God was made.
There, on the mountain of God, the man of God discovered the secret of God. Sometimes the Lord wants to bring us to a place where He can give us revelation and show us Himself. We are reduced, and we realize that the great estimation we have of our own usefulness is not so great after all.
But God still chooses and uses Moses. This is the story of the burning bush. I like to put it this way: there, on the mountain of God, the man of God met the God of man.
Moses was reduced. The dream came to an end, and he learned the secret of God on that mountain. You know the story: it was a burning bush.
Moses said, if you read the story carefully, “I will turn aside now, and see this great sight.” That was his own description. He turned aside to see this great sight. How could this old bush burn with fire and not be consumed? He did not understand it. It was beyond his comprehension.
It was an ordinary occurrence in Midian. I imagine he saw many a bramble bush rolling by like a torch. I grew up in the fifties and sixties, when cowboy movies were big—Rawhide, Gunsmoke, things like that. They always had these bushes rolling by behind a shootout.
An old, beat-up, lifeless, dead thorn bush with no usefulness whatsoever—that is the story of the burning bush.
Then, in the middle of that, God spoke to Moses out of the bush. He showed him the greatest secret we can know as believers. The secret was not in all his learning or knowledge. It was not in his ability or lack of ability. It was not in his mighty deeds or actions.
It was only in the fire inside the bush. That is the secret.
God said, “Moses, take your shoes off. The place where you stand is holy ground.” As Moses looked at that great sight and tried to take it in, God spoke out of that bush and said, “I AM THAT I AM.” That is the secret.
The secret of a man of God is not in what he knows or what he does. The secret is in the fire that is in the bush. That is the story of the burning bush.
I remember when I was newly saved. Of course, that was years ago—1972. I was reading the Word and came upon Philippians 1:21, where Paul said:
For to me to live is Christ.
I cannot tell you the revolution that sent through me. I remember the impact. This is the secret. It is not me living.
I often heard people say, “Boy, it is a Christian life.” We were all young Jesus people, just trying to make it—trying to live, trying to witness, trying to walk and serve God the best we knew. We often tried, and I do not know about you, but we often failed.
Where we thought God had called us to great usefulness, we soon discovered that we were not of much use. But I remember when I saw that verse.
People tell me, “You know, the Christian life is difficult.” The one thing I have learned from that verse is that the Christian life is not difficult. The Christian life is impossible.
You cannot live the Christian life. You may be the most select specimen from the human race. I think some of you may be. Moses was certainly the most select specimen of the human race: mighty in word and deed, with all the wisdom of Egypt, destined to be Pharaoh, ruler of the world.
Surely this great man was the best specimen. He reminds me of Nicodemus. Nicodemus was the best specimen when he came to the Lord Jesus at night. He began to talk to the Lord, and the Lord said, “Nicodemus, you do not get it. You must be born again.”
You need a new source of life. You need to be born from above. The Christian life—living in the kingdom, entering the kingdom, seeing the kingdom—comes when the fire comes in you and there is a new source of life within.
This was the secret Moses learned in the desert. This is the secret that led the man all the way. God said to Moses, “I will be with you.” Is that not tremendous?
How often I have heard the comfort of those words from Psalm 23:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
for Thou art with me.
Why does it say, “I will fear no evil”? Because it says, “Thou art with me.” Is that not tremendous? That is the secret. That is the secret of the man of God.
That is what God wanted to show Moses. That is why He began to reduce him. He began to say, “Moses, it is not you.”
You remember how Moses’ whole attitude changed. “I am not very eloquent. Send someone else.” “I do not know what to say.” But the Lord said, “I AM is with you. Tell them, ‘I AM hath sent me unto you.’”
“Go back with a staff and a word, but go back with the fire within.” That is the secret of the Christian life.
I cannot tell you how that spoke to me when I first discovered it. This is the secret of the burning bush. Praise the Lord, there is a secret. This is the secret that changed the course of a man, and this is the secret of usefulness.
Let me finish with the last point about Moses. Moses was given another description. It occurs more than once, so you can look it up if you would like. It says, “Moses, the servant of God.”
That is who Moses was. Not only was he the man of God, but in the end he was Moses, the servant of God. We have already read some of those verses about Moses, the servant of God.
The Lord even said to Joshua, “Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise.” Over and over, at the end of the Book, Revelation 15:3, they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God.
Here is the story: every one of us is to be a servant of God. We have the wrong impression. I often hear people say, “Well, you know, Stephen, he is a servant of God.” And he is; do not get me wrong. I do not mean any slight by that.
They may say, “Brother, you are a servant of God,” but they might not say that of me. Do you know that God’s calling is that every one of us would be a servant of God?
Do you know that this was the word Moses took back to Pharaoh? Over and over, the word he gave Pharaoh—when he did those great miracles and works of power—was:
Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
Every one of us is to be a servant of God. Every one of us.
We do not serve in the power of our own life. We serve, as we have already said, by the fire within—the resurrection life. His life and His power are the secret of service.
You remember that in the prayer of Moses, Psalm 90, he said that a man’s life is threescore years and ten, and if by reason of strength, fourscore years. For those of you who do not understand higher math, that is eighty.
Yet our life is vanity, and we soon fly away. That was his estimation of life. Eighty years was the best he thought. Do you know that Moses’ service to God, to the house of God, and to the people of God began at eighty years old?
That was when God took him back to Egypt. He had spent those years in Midian, perhaps learning the secret. Then, when he was supposed to be done—poof, an old thorn bush—that was when God said, “Go back and give Pharaoh this word: ‘Let My people go, that they may serve Me.’”
That was the beginning of service. All of us are called to serve. Every one of us is called to serve.
Not just Moses, the servant of God. Joshua 1:2 says, “My servant Moses is dead; now therefore arise.” Joshua was to be the servant of God. Everyone is to be a servant of God.
This is the thing I want to leave with you. If I can make one impression and you can remember it, remember this: there is one thing required of a servant. Only one thing. Do not make it more complicated than it is.
There is only one thing required of a servant: that a servant be faithful. That is the one thing.
It says something extraordinary about Moses in Hebrews 3:2:
Who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also was Moses in all His house.
It comes from Numbers 12:7–8:
My servant Moses is not so; he is faithful in all My house:
with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches;
and the form of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?
That was said to Miriam and Aaron, if you remember. Brothers and sisters, Moses was faithful in all His house. One thing is required of a servant: one thing.
You remember the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. It speaks of the household of one who went out of the country. He gave one servant five talents, another two talents, and another one talent. He did not give them all the same.
While he was away, they were simply to be faithful with the things the lord had given them. When he returned, he asked for an accounting. The one who had been given five talents had made five more. The one who had been given two talents had made two more. The one who had been given one talent had no more—just one—because he buried his talent in the earth and gave it back to the master whom he thought was a hard taskmaster.
But the end of that story is that each of those servants was only supposed to be faithful. It does not say faithful in great things. If you read it carefully, it says faithful in little things.
At the end, when he speaks to the servant who made five talents and to the servant who made two talents, he says the same thing:
Well done, good and faithful servant;
thou hast been faithful over a few things,
I will set thee over many things:
enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
Can you imagine how full the Word of God is? You were faithful over a few things, but I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord.
Every servant wants to hear that. You can kid me if you want, but at the end, I think that is the only word you want to hear: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” That will be enough.
That is the one thing He requires of a servant. That is the one thing He said of Moses: “He was faithful in all My house.”
Brothers and sisters, when I think about myself, I wonder, “Am I faithful to what God has given me?” I wonder for you: are you faithful? Are you faithful?
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:2:
Here, moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
Are we faithful like Moses in serving God Himself, or are we serving ourselves? Are we faithful like Moses in serving the people of God? Are we faithful, in the end, like Moses, who served the house of God?
I think that is the question at the end: were you faithful? If you were faithful in a few things, that encourages me so much. He will give you rule over many things.
Well done. Well done. Faithful.
I wonder, as the people of God, are we faithful? Sometimes I wonder whether we have grown weary and service has become a burden rather than a joy.
I wonder whether we put the burden of service on a few, and they carry everything and are responsible, while the rest of us are not doing our little thing. I wonder.
May the Lord be able to say of us, as He said of Moses in the end, “He was faithful in all My house.” That is the man God chooses. That is the man God uses for His purpose: Moses, the servant of God.
Many people have gone out west to see Yellowstone Park. There is a geyser at Yellowstone National Park. Maybe you have made the trek yourself. It is called Old Faithful—Old Faithful.
Now, notice I said geyser. I did not say geezer. Some people call me that, by the way: geezer.
But this thing, like clockwork, every sixty-five minutes goes off one hundred and seventy feet into the air. Maybe they have changed that time period, but that is what I read. Glenn, Dr. Miller is there with a puzzled look on his face. He is going to check me; I know he is going to check me out.
Faithful. Faithful. Are you faithful?
Will the Lord be able to say to you at the end, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things”?
Or will He be provoked to say, as He said to the one who buried his talent, “Wicked and slothful servant”?
To me, this is the story of Moses. It is a discovery of the salvation of God.
It is a discovery of the secret—that secret resource to live and to do the impossible. Moses was called to do the impossible: to go back to Egypt, confront Egypt with all its might and wisdom, and set the people of God free.
But the end was that those people could be God’s servants. They would be His testimony in the land of Israel. They would be His peculiar possession.
Moses was told, “Say to the children of Israel this word: ‘You will be My possession.’” We often remember the law and think that is what he was told to say. But on that mountain, God said, “Say to them this word.” Servants—that is what we are to be.
Well, this is the burden that is on my heart. I pray the Lord would really help us to respond in some way, in some fashion. If there is no change, what was the use of sharing? If there is no effect, no response, why do we waste the time?
But, brothers and sisters, I believe the Word of God stands, and we should respond to the Word of God. That is the key to usefulness.
Lord, we commit these thoughts to You. We pray that You would quicken them. We pray in the name of Jesus that we would be among those who discover this great salvation, full and free.
We pray that we would know what it means to be saved to the uttermost. We pray that we could begin to apprehend the depth of what You have done and that, having apprehended that depth, we could discover You as our very life.
Lord, we pray that in the end You will find in us servants who serve the purpose of God in our generation. Lord, help us to be those who simply respond.
We want You to be able to say of us at the end, as You said of Moses and of those with the talents:
Well done, good and faithful servant;
enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
Amen.