A Shadow of Christ

When God commanded Moses to go to Pharaoh and release the Israelites. Moses was a little skeptical. How am I ever going to convince anybody. The people of Israel and Pharaoh that I am speaking your work. How can I prove that this message is not something I dreamed up in the heat of the afternoon in the desert. Moses experienced several filtering events that day in the wilderness.

First he encountered God in the burning bush, something that would drink any of us to our core then God commanded Moses to do the impossible. Free the Israelite slaves from the most powerful nation in the world today on Renewing Your Mind, Dr. RC Sproul shows that Moses really had nothing to worry about.

I think it's safe to say that the greatest mission ever accomplished in the history of the world is the mission that was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ and the redemption of his people from sin, but I have to say that the second most important act of redemption ever accomplished in history and the second most difficult mission ever given by God to human thing is the mission God gave to Moses to perform me were so familiar with the story that I don't think that we catch the flavor of the existential agony that Moses had to go through in his own person as the enormity of the task that God set before him struck his consciousness into his heart. Again we go back to that interchange from the burning bush, where after God reveals his sacred name to Moses, saying, this is my name forever. This is my memorial to all generations were still in chapter 3 of Exodus God then said go and gather the elders of Israel together and saying to them, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and Jacob appeared to me saying I have surely visited you in seeing what is done to you in Egypt and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites, the Amorites, the parasites, the Hittites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.

Then I will heed your voice and you shall calm you in the elders of Israel to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him. The Lord God of the Hebrews is met with us. And now, please let us go three days journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, not God is still speaking to Moses he says, I'm sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, not even by a mighty and so I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in its midst.

And after that he will let you go and I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, it shall be that when you go that you will not go empty-handed, but every woman shall ask of her neighbor, namely of her who dwells near her house. Articles of silver articles of gold clothing so that you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters so you shall plunder the Egyptians know if I'm standing there hearing this message out of the burning bush was going through my mind is that all I have to do's telling me that I'm going to go and tell these people that you appeared to me in this burning bush and that they're supposed to fall on the on the largest wildcat strike in the history of the world against the most powerful carrying on the face of the globe and learn to follow me. That's what I'm thinking and I don't think it's that far from what Moses was thinking, even after God gave his assurance. I know that Pharaoh was not going to let you go. I know he's going to resist you all the way but I will reveal my power against Pharaoh till the point that he will let you go so that you can come out to the mountain and worship me. There not again that Mrs. but the point of the Exodus was not simply to redeem people from oppression but to redeem them, not just from something, but to something from slavery to worship and that's true in an even higher manner in the redemptive work of Christ in the New Testament we are not saved simply out of God's grace for our needs, but we are is called one's to worship him. That's the goal that's the point of your salvation is to worship the Lord your God is why, for example, the author of Hebrews says we ought never to neglect the assembling together of the saints, and yet the statistics tell us that on any given Sunday.

One quarter of the people of God will not be in church. Why will come the church just to have our attendance taken. We come to church because he has redeemed us and the people of the Lord are supposed to say so and we come with our hearts filled with reverence and adoration coming into the corporate assembling of the people of God to worship, but Moses hears, and he struggles with it as we see the beginning of chapter 4. Listen to what we read.

Then Moses answered and said, but suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice. Suppose they say the Lord has not appear to you what an interrogation. This is, is that Moses is asking God to consider some possibilities that maybe he hadn't thought about up to this point. Just suppose God that these people won't listen to me and Megan wasn't sure Moses would've you been smoking there in the Midianite world and in Moses, a singer, when Mike and I'm supposed to go to these people and say were leaving the Egyptians were going to a marvelous land of milk and honey. No more slavery were going to be free and then to say how do you know that when I sell tell you this and then I'm supposed to go to Pharaoh and knock on the door of his palace and when the chamber person comes and said that who are you, a voice of my name is Moses said, I don't know you except that her story about a fugitive by that name still on the loose human appointments. No, what makes you think you can come in here and talk to Pharaoh while you see, I was talking this bush out of the Moses is trying to deal with all of this and he says to God, think about this. Suppose the people won't believe me or listen to my voice. Suppose they say the Lord has not appear to you know this is the question that Moses hence, how am I ever going to convince anybody.

The people of Israel and Pharaoh that I am speaking your work. How can I prove that this message is not something I dreamed up in the heat of the afternoon in the desert but that I am speaking the unvarnished truth that you gave to me how addressing is Moses supposed to say to the people.

Well that's an experience I had you fellows have to just take it by faith or Pharaoh you may not believe this but others can take deep breaths and jump into the darkness in the abyss and a leap of faith and maybe you'll come to the conclusion that indeed the Lord God omnipotent is the author of this message. That's not what God told Moses to I is very important for us to understand how God answered this question that Moses had listen to in verse two, and so the Lord said to him, what is that in your hand, and he sent a raw and God said, will cast it on the ground so Moses cast it on the ground and became a serpent and Moses saw the transformation of this rod into a snake and he fled as fast as he got away from that snake and the Lord said to Moses, reach out your hand and take it by the tail. What God that's poisonous snake you are to pick up that's that's what I said reach out your hand/ran come up close to that snake grab it by the tail, so I reset his hand and caught it.

Once again, it became a rod in his hand, and God said that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has appear to. I'm giving you this ability to turn this stick into a snake so that these people might believe that you are truly communicating my ward. You know what I hear all the time.

Among people that they say if I could just see a miracle them. That would prove to me that God exists no miracles in the Bible are not given to persuade people of the existence of God.

The existence of God is already established long before there's any kind of episodes of the miraculous. The purpose of the miracle in the Bible is not to prove the existence of God, but it is to prove the legitimacy and the validity of an agent of Revelation of someone whom God's commission to speak his word. The purpose of the miracle is the verify the messenger of the word of God. Watch that in Scripture throughout you know we have a tendency to read the Bible as if miracles were occurring behind every bush and every other day by everybody in history but actually if you look at the appearance of miracles in the Bible there clustered all these miracles that attend Moses and his mediatorial office and then very little miraculous activity takes place first century until one but Jesus Elijah that's the next redemptive historical. That is a cluster of miracles is not interesting that God verifies the law and then the prophets through the giving of miraculous powers. Many don't hear about miracles from Joan Urbach at that they performed door Ezekiel of and the other prophets of the Old Testament until again. The world becomes a blaze of articles with the appearance of Jesus and so notice that that there is a special focal point for the clustering of miracles in biblical history all surrounding the issue of the word of God and so after this miracle that God gives Moses he adds this. Furthermore not put your hand in your bosom as I put his hand in his bosom, like the Polian and's one. He took it out again. Behold his hand was covered with leprosy like snow and God said, put your hand in your bosom again just doesn't and when he did it this time and drew it out of his bosom, behold, it was restored.

Like the other flesh then it will be if they do not believe you nor heed the message of the first sign that they may believe the message of the letter signed and it shall be if they do not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice and you shall take water from the river port on the dry land in the water.

What you take from the river will become blood on the dry land. This is exactly what happened with a series of plagues that fall upon the Egyptians designed to demonstrate to Pharaoh that Moses is not some dreamer with a poppycock vision but that Moses is speaking the words of the Lord God omnipotent come to the New Testament where the greatest blaze of miracles ever in recorded history takes place during the ministry of Jesus and the purpose of Jesus ministries is not to prove the existence of God. On the contrary, and who really understood why Jesus than the miracles he did principal reason's fella came ammonites, whose name was Nicodemus, and a subscript teacher, we know that you are a teacher sent from God or else you would not be able to do these things now. At that point, the theology of Nicodemus, at least at that point later on, it gets pretty suspect that at that point is theology was absolutely silent so much more sound than the enemies of Jesus.

Like the Pharisees who didn't deny the miracles of Christ, but they came perilously close to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit when they attributed the power of Jesus miracles, not to God but to say is if Satan would work against site one of the discussions I get in all of time with people is whether Satan can actually perform miracles I say no no no house times now Satan never performed a miracle is life because the Bible warns us against the signs that Satan will perform deceiving possible, even the elect, but how are those times described lying signs and wonders.

That doesn't mean that they are true miracles performed either in the surplus of satanic purposes.

Now they are not true signs used for a bad reason there.

Signs false work tricks more astonishing than the best magicians you can find in this world, but still tricks because this is something we can never ever forget Satan is not God. Satan cannot do the things that God can do a real miracle that God uses to authenticate his messengers and authenticate agents of Revelation are acts that only God can do, like bringing something out of nothing like raising people from the dead. Satan can't do that Satan can create something out of nothing. Satan can't make an act won't Satan can't control the laws of nature is just a magician, a good one. The wicked one is good at his craft, but his craft is altogether evil and we seem to have taken place in the confrontation that Moses has with the magicians of Pharaoh's court. What happens Moses takes that rod that God gave him frozen on the grounds targeted under a snake and magicians of Pharaoh just yawn that the best you can do so that all through their specs on the floor and they all became snakes. They do it oldest trick in the history of flight in the these guys all had their specs and inside each stick was a spike.

Snakes were there all the time. That in turn sticks and this makes they let thanks collapse so that the snakes them are already in their could come out and I thought, that's all. Moses was doing that they had this night hidden inside that brought no Moses real. They bring their snakes. Moses throws his bound dismay keeps up. All this makes Nancy and again there were no match for Moses because there were no match for God in all trickery and the machinations that the court magicians of Pharaoh head could not really turn the now and the blood bring about the place, and certainly did not have the power of the past and so we see these miracles in the New Testament that have an immediate purpose of healing people who are sick raising people from the dead, ministering to suffering and all of those things that are acts of compassion, but in the final analysis, those miracle authenticate and vindicate the geniuses is the word of God that Jesus speaks the truth that no demon can possibly duplicate so that we see in this burning bush, the revelation of the person of the revelation of the power revelation of the terminology of the revelation of the compassion of God revelation of the redemption of God, not finding the revelation of that you drive us to our knees in praise of God.

You're listening to Renewing Your Mind on this Friday. Thank you for joining us timely web. We have been featuring Dr. RC Sproul series Moses in the burning bush.

This encounters one of the most important events in the Bible so we need to study it carefully and with that in my let me commend Dr. Sproul series to you. There are 10 messages on two DVDs and we like to send them to you for your donation of any amount to leader ministries can make a request online and Renewing Your Mind.org or you can simply call us at 800-435-4343 today is the last opportunity to make a request.

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I hope you join us next week were going to feature the series aren't saying by Dr. Sproul, who help us make sense of some of those challenging passages that we read in Scripture, we hope you'll join us.

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