GOD IS KEEPING HIS PROMISES
BY SOVEREIGN POWER
Exodus 6:28—7:7

INTRODUCTION

How many of you think the Christian life is a difficult life to live? Raise your hands if you think it is hard to live like a Christian in this world. I have good news and I have bad news for you. First the bad news. The Christian life is not a hard life to live; it is an impossible life to live. The life that God commands us to live is beyond the ability of any human being. The good news is that one man has lived a perfect Christian life for you, Jesus Christ. And that same Jesus continues to live the Christian life today through you, if you are a Christian. We are able to live as Christians, not perfectly, but increasingly, because of his dying, rising, interceding and sending of the Holy Spirit for us. This morning we are going to see, in the life of Moses, how it is that God enables us to do his impossible to do will. But first I want us to clearly see how beyond us the will of God is.

First, let’s consider that most basic of commands that the God who made you and who keeps you breathing every moment of your life gives to you: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” This is to be the preoccupation of our lives every moment of every day. This is the purpose for which God made you and the only reason you are taking up space on planet earth. Let me remind you of what it means to love God. Think with me of what it means when someone says “I love fishing.” Here is a person who is happiest when they are fishing. There is bumper sticker on their truck that says, “I’d rather be fishing.” The thought of fishing fills them with joy and anticipation. When they are not fishing they are full of yearning to go fishing. They organize their life around opportunities to fish. They get up early in the morning to go fishing. They endure all manner of bad weather in order to fish. Neither heat, nor cold, nor snow, nor rain will keep them from fishing. They love to hang out with others who love to fish and share fishing stories. They love to read about fishing and to learn about fishing from those more experienced at fishing. When they can’t fish, they watch TV shows about fishing. They spend money, lots of it, on fishing. They buy boats and poles and sonar and ice augers and cottages on lakes. They plan fishing vacations that take them away from all the comforts of home and cost more money. They do not consider any of these “costs” to be burdensome but they delight in the fishing so much that they will do anything to enjoy what they love.

This is exactly what we are commanded by God to do in relation to him. We are to be full of delight in God at all times. We are to plan our days around being with God. We are to be most happy when we are “with” God. We are to long for and desire above all other things to enjoy his presence. Those who love God arrange their lives to be with him as much as possible. They love to read the Bible, to pray, to go to church and to talk with others who love God. For a person who loves God, missing church is like missing out on a long planned for fishing trip. They will give anything in exchange for knowing God better and enjoying him more. They love to give away money in order to know God better. The “costs” of knowing God are not burdensome because the joy they have in God far outweighs the cost. These costs seem as nothing to them. Now, if you think that you, on your own, are able to have this kind of delight in God accompanied by a lifestyle that shows forth this delight, you are sadly out of touch with who you really are. By nature we are all enemies of God and even after we’ve been given new hearts we daily feel the remaining effects of sin in our lives pulling us away from loving God. Loving God is our highest duty and it is plainly something that is impossible for us to do on our own.

Let’s just consider the second greatest command from God, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Again, when we apply what we know about love to this command we cannot help but know how impossible it is for us to obey it. Not a person in here is indifferent to his or her own happiness and yet all of us are usually indifferent to the happiness of our neighbors. We all spend lots of time thinking about and planning for ways to make sure our needs are met, yet seldom spend any time thinking about whether our neighbors needs are met. My mind is preoccupied with the things that concern me, my job, my house, my vacations, not the things that concern my neighbor. We spend large quantities of time and money meeting out needs and wants, yet spend little time and even less money meeting the needs of others. Even most of what appears to be kindness towards others isn’t motivated out of a delight in them as people but in order that they will reciprocate our kindness. We are social creatures and one of our needs is to be loved by others and so usually our loving acts are designed to motivate others to love us back. We know this is true because of what happens to us when others don’t reciprocate or how we treat those who have treated us bad. We get mad when people don’t return the kindness or at least say thank you and when people treat us bad we at the minimum ignore them. It is not our joy to serve others and make sure the needs of others are met because we are so delighted with others.

Moses, at the end of chapter 6, knows what all of us need to know. He cannot do what God wants him to do. He has tried to do God’s will. He spoke to Pharaoh, telling him to let the people of Israel go from their slavery and all that happened is Pharaoh increased the suffering of God’s people and the people turned against him. He has tried to tell the Israelites that they should be hopeful because God is going to save them and they have refused to listen to him. God has commanded him to be a prophet and to speak to others so they will listen and nobody has paid any attention to him. He has, as he literally says in v. 30, “uncircumcised lips.” This is an admission that he has no power to do what God commands. It’s not only that he has no ability to do what God tells him to do but he has no right to expect any help from God. That was the point of the genealogy. Moses has no ancestral claim upon God. He has never done a thing to earn God’s favor. There is nothing in him or any of his ancestors that would indicate that God would have favor on him and help him.

In v. 30 he asks the question that everyone who knows what God wants them to do asks. In his case God has told him to go talk to Pharaoh and so Moses asks, “How will Pharaoh listen to me?” In our case, God wants us to ask, “How will I ever be able to love God? How will I ever love my neighbor as myself? How will I ever believe that giving money away is a surer way to be happy than in buying new clothes or a new car or a new computer?” As we’ve seen in previous weeks, God is the one who has put Moses in this position. God is working to put you and I in the same situation. Until you are where Moses is at in v. 30, you will never be where Moses is at in v. 6. Here is another paradox of our life with God, until we know that we have no ability to do God’s will we will never be able to do God’s will. We are going to see how it is that God enables a person who cannot do his will to do his will.

MAIN POINT

God enables us to do his impossible to do will by giving us…

I. Authority (vv. 1-2)

Verse 1 is another of those amazing verses in the Bible. It’s more amazing in the original than in most of the English translations. God literally says to Moses, “I appoint you God to Pharaoh.” He doesn’t say, “like God”. He says, “I appoint you God to Pharaoh.” Pharaoh is the most powerful man on earth at this time in world history. The only being greater than Pharaoh is Yahweh, himself. Yahweh, the Creator, Ruler and Sustainer of this world and all the peoples who live in this world appoints Moses God to Pharaoh. He places him above Pharaoh. Not only does he make Moses God to Pharaoh but he places him in authority over his older brother Aaron, the future high priest of Israel. Moses is God to the pagan king and to the chosen people. He is in charge, not Pharaoh. He has ultimate authority and power, not Pharaoh, not his older brother the high priest of God.

This authority is clearly a delegated authority, not based upon Moses’ qualifications. In other words, Moses does not have this authority by right or by his own effort. God makes this clear when he says, “I appoint you God” and “…everything I tell you, you will tell to Aaron, who will then tell Pharaoh.” Yahweh, who holds all the authority in the universe gives his authority to Moses so that Moses can do his will. Moses here represents the Son of God who became man. Jesus was not a man whom God appointed as God but he is God become man and lived as God in the flesh. He, by his death has gained the highest place in the universe. He “has all authority in heaven and on earth.” After raising him from the dead, God “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in this present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body.” (Eph. 1:20-23) Our Lord Jesus Christ is king over all things and he upholds all things by the word of his power. There is no authority or power in the universe greater than his authority and power. Not Satan, not sin, not any President or Prime Minister or king or general or terrorist. He rules over all things for the purpose of accomplishing God’s purposes in the world.

If you are a Christian then you have been united to Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit. You are in Christ and Christ is in you. You have been raised with him and are now seated with him in the heavenly realm in Christ Jesus. You have authority over all the powers of this world that are opposed to God. Listen to some of the ways this is expressed in the NT. “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy, nothing will harm you.” (Luke 10:19) “He who does what is sinful is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin but the one who was born of God keeps him safe and the evil one cannot harm him.” (1 John 3:8 and 5:18) “For sin shall not be your master because you are not under law, but under grace. You have been set free from sin…” (Romans 6:14 & 18)

By virtue of our union with Christ we share in Christ’s authority over the powers of this world. We cannot be harmed in any way that matters. Additionally, we have the authority we need to do what God wants us to do. The enemies of God cannot stop us from doing the will of God. There is no authority on this earth that can prevent us from doing what God wants. Nothing can successfully resist us when we are doing God’s will. Now let me be quick to say that doesn’t mean you will not suffer in this life. Jesus warned his disciples that some of them, as they did his will, would be killed but “not a hair on their head would perish.” Satan and sin may rage against us and resist for a time but eventually we will overcome because nothing can successfully resist our doing God’s will. We have been made partakers of the divine nature by God’s grace and so should expect that the enemies of God would obey us.

Outside of Christ, sin and Satan are our masters, but once we have been united to Christ by the Holy Spirit, through faith, we are masters over Satan and sin. We are “more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Again, contrary to what many false teachers say, this doesn’t mean that we will never suffer sickness or poverty or some other hardship. The very context of Paul’s statement that we are more than conquerors is the context of suffering. The point is that all who are in Christ cannot be harmed by anything that opposes us on earth. Nothing can take what matters most from us, being loved by God through Christ. We cannot be harmed. Just as Pharaoh cannot harm Moses and must eventually obey him, so Satan and all of us schemes cannot harm us and eventually we will crush him under our feet as we join with Christ in ruling over his creation.

I can’t say this too strongly. The authority we have been given is for the purpose of doing God’s will. Moses was made God to Pharaoh in order to deliver Israel out of bondage. Christ is given authority to deliver us out of our bondage to sin and death. We share in his authority for the purpose of doing his will. We have power, in Christ, by faith to overcome all the power of the enemy that is marshaled against us to keep us from doing God’s will which is to love God and people. God has made us partakers in the authority of Jesus so that we can love God and others. We can take the risks that love requires because we cannot be harmed.

God enables us to do his impossible to do will by giving us…

• Authority
• And by giving us…

II. Assurance (vv. 3-5)

God has made it clear that Moses is in charge and Pharaoh is going to obey him eventually but in the meantime, God himself is going to harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will not listen to what Moses has to say. Verses 3 & 4 sound like God is schizophrenic. He tells Pharaoh, through Moses and Aaron, to let Israel go but he hardens Pharaoh’s heart so that he won’t listen. The way that the Bible handles the relationship between God’s will and human will is completely different from how human reason would solve the “problem.” Human reasoning concludes that if God hardens Pharaoh’s heart then Pharaoh isn’t truly free and can’t be held accountable. Therefore, many people seek to explain away these verses by denying they say what they plainly say. Human reason would say, either humans are completely free and this verse cannot mean what it says or humans are mere automations with no real choices. However, that is not how the Bible presents the facts. God is sovereign, even over human choice. He hardens Pharaoh’s heart so that Pharaoh will not listen to Moses telling him to let Israel go. And, Pharaoh’s not listening is a real choice and he will be justly punished for not listening. He chooses to madly refuse God’s clear word and brings enormous suffering to himself and his people. Yet his choice to not listen is exactly what God wants. Do not be deceived by those who deny that God is sovereign over human choice by arguing that if he is then people have no real choices. That is not what the Bible teaches, even though that line of thought appears logical. One of the reasons you know that this book is God’s word is that the way it resolves these highly complex issues is not the way human reason solves things. We make real choices with real consequences and we will be held accountable and yet God is ultimately in control of those choices.

Why does God tell Moses this? He wants Moses to know that even the opposition of Pharaoh, even his sinful, willful rebellion against God’s own command is God’s will. Pharaoh’s resistance is futile. God has willed his resistance for a purpose. The purpose is so that he can multiply his signs and wonders against Egypt. He will bring out his people from the midst of Egypt by mighty acts of judgment. He is going to do this so that the Egyptians will know that he is Yahweh. The ultimate end to which God is working is to make himself, in all of his glory, known to human beings. In chapter six God said his aim was to work so that Israel would know that he is Yahweh and here he says that he is hardening Pharaoh’s heart so that the Egyptians will know he is Yahweh as a result of the powerful signs he performs and his bringing Israel out of its captivity.

Most people when they hear that God does all that he does for the glory of his own name, don’t think that is very good news. In fact, they presume that God plays by a double standard. If a person spends all of his time and energy seeking to impress others in order to make others think he is the greatest person around, we all know that is wrong. If I told you this morning that the main reason I am a pastor is so that you would think that I was a great person, you would never come back again. Self-promoters are everywhere condemned, even by God himself. Yet this is what God repeatedly says in the Bible. His ultimate goal is to make himself known, to glorify himself. So how is it a good thing if God’s ultimate purpose is to make his name known, his glory manifest?

There are two answers to this. First, the reason it is wrong for a human being to seek his own glory is because we are not glorious. We are creatures, not Creators. We exist to image forth the glory of God, not our own glory. A human promoting himself is like the chauffer of the presidential limousine in a parade getting out and standing on top of the limousine and waving and acting as if all the applause and military salutes and the band playing is for him. What would happen to him if he were to pull the President out of the back seat, put him in the driver’s seat, and then take his place in the back seat? It would be wrong for the chauffer to act as though he is worthy of the same treatment as the President. The reason it is right for God to seek his own glory is because he alone is worthy of it. If God preferred someone above himself, he would be an idolater. The second reason it is a good thing for God to seek his own glory is that it would be very bad for us if God had no interest in his glory being known. If God were indifferent as to whether or not we humans knew him, then he would have no reason to save anyone. If God were not committed to showing forth the glory of his power and mercy and love, then what possible reason would he have for being kind to wicked rebels like us? We’ve done nothing except disobey him and so deserve his wrath. If he didn’t care if anyone knew his glorious love, then why would he care to save? If God were not motivated to love us out of a desire to glorify his love, then what possible reason would he have to love us? He doesn’t love us because we are valuable because we are not. We are rebels. All we have ever done is give God reasons to hate us and destroy us. You may have heard some preacher say something like this, “You are so valuable to God that he gave the most precious and valuable being in the universe for you, the person of his own Son. You are so valuable that if you were the only person living on earth God would have sent his son for you.” That is a lie. We are told over and over again in the NT that Christ came to glorify his Father. He came to display the justice of God in forgiving sinners. He came first and foremost for the sake of his own name, not because we are valuable.

God tells Moses and he tells us as we contemplate doing his impossible will that we should rest assured that as we do his will, no matter what happens to us, he is in control. He is ruling over all the evil in the world and working out all things so that all of humanity knows that he alone is Lord. There is no need for fear. We need not lose heart. No matter what is happening, no matter how bad things seem to be, God is at work making sure that the entire universe knows that he is the Creator, Ruler and Sustainer of all things. I can take risks. I can seek to do impossible things because I cannot be harmed. God will make sure that all things work out for my eternal welfare because he is committed to displaying his glorious power and love in my salvation.

God enables us to do his impossible to do will by giving us…

• Authority
• Assurance
• And by giving us…

III. Ability (vv. 6-7)

In these last two verses in our text today we are told that Moses and Aaron did everything the Lord told them to do. In spite of who they were and in spite of past failure and in spite of insurmountable odds they obeyed God and went to Pharaoh. They went from unbelieving, demoralized men to believing, encouraged and obedient men. Then Moses adds this odd little bit of trivia. Moses was 80 when they obeyed God and Aaron was 83. What is the point here? It seems to me that God is reminding us that the obedience of Moses and Aaron is not due to youthful idealism and strength. These are old men and they are going to accomplish amazing things. Old men are not those who normally make a mark on the world. The U.S. military is not out recruiting eighty year olds for their special forces. Eighty year olds are writing their memoirs or sitting on the porch in a rocking chair, not rescuing nations from slavery. The obedience of Moses and Aaron cannot be explained by any human strength but has come from God himself. He has overcome all resistance in Moses and Aaron and he has given them the strength, the ability to carry out his will, in spite of the fact that they are very old men. Again, don’t you see that this glorifies the Lord? Only the Lord could be the cause of two eighty year old men rescuing over a million slaves from their slavery.

However, just as the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart does not mean that Pharaoh does not harden his own heart and choose to not listen to Moses, so the obedience that God gives to Moses and Aaron is not independent from their faith. That is the difference between Moses in v. 28 and Moses in v. 6. He is sunk in unbelief in v. 28 and he is full of faith in God’s promises in v. 6. This is the means God uses to give his ability to his people. We appropriate the power of God by believing the promises of God. It is the nature of faith to obey and obedience always arises out of faith in God’s promises. Moses believes that God will do as he has said and that what God is promising is better than going back to Midian and living out his life as a sheperd. I want to use an acronym I learned from John Piper to summarize how Moses went from not doing the will of God to doing the will of God. The acronym is APTAT. This is how God gives his ability to us.

Let’s say that you want to love God as he commands you to do. One of the things that loving God requires is growing in your knowledge of him through reading his word, the Bible. Therefore, you determine that God wants you to get up ½ hour early each day to read the Bible. You have tried numerous times to begin this habit and have always failed. What will you do? First, you will Admit that you cannot do it. The power to get up and read God’s word on a daily basis and to know God better through it is not in you. So first you Admit you cannot do it, you have no ability of your own. Second, you find a Promise of God’s enabling power or of some benefit that will come to you by obeying this command. You might take Psalm 1:1-3 which says, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the path of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”

Third, you Trust the promise. You pray to God something like this. “Father, you sent Christ to suffer and die that I might know you. I do want to know you. I want to be like that tree planted by streams of water always bearing fruit for you, always manifesting your divine life in my life. I know that the only way that can happen is if I am meditating upon your word. Therefore I aim to get up tomorrow morning at 6am to read and meditate upon your word. Won’t you help me by your Spirit to do this? Grant to me faith that your promise to be a flourishing tree in the desert of the world by meditating on your word is better than ½ hour of extra sleep. Amen.” Fourth, you Act. You go to bed at 10pm instead of 10:30pm. You decide what you are going to read before you get up. You make a plan for reading. You put your Bible out on the kitchen table, opened to the place you will begin. You set your alarm to go off at 6am. Maybe you turn your coffeemaker to go brew coffee at 5:45am. You tell yourself as you go to bed that you are going to get up at 6am. Then, when the alarm goes off you get up, turn it off, pull on the clothes you had sitting out and go into the kitchen to read. Finally, you Thank God for enabling you to get up and to read his word. You realize that the only reason you got up and read is the grace of God towards you. Just like Moses will know that the only reason Pharaoh let Israel go was the sovereign grace of God, so we know that whenever we obey, it is a work of sovereign grace.

God enables us to do his impossible to do will by giving us…

• Authority
• Assurance
• Ability

© Copyright 2004 John Swanson.
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