|
||||
Christ Sends His Minister
Exodus 3:10
Good News From The Redeemer
Sermon by Pastor Daniel Parks
Radio Message #311 ~ March 18, 2000
Christ commissioned Moses to be His minister for the salvation of His Old Covenant people from physical bondage (Exodus 3:10-12). Christ commissions gospel preachers to be His ministers for the salvation of His New Covenant people from spiritual bondage (e.g. Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-18; John 20:19-23; Acts 1:8). We will here observe that the former is a type of the latter.
Christ sent Moses to be His minister (v.10): "I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." Note:
1. Christ sent Moses for the benefit of His chosen people. He calls them "My people, the children of Israel." They became His people in a national and temporal sense when God entered into a covenant with them at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:1-8). He then told them that "if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (vv.5f; cp. Deuteronomy 7:6). (Their covenant with God was indeed temporal. It was conditional, and they broke it, and God has replaced it with a new covenant [Jeremiah 31:31-33ff; Hebrews 8:7-13].)
2. Christ sent Moses to the place in which His people were in bondage. He says "I will send you to Pharaoh," in whose land they were enslaved (Exodus 1:8-14ff).
3. Christ sent Moses in order to deliver His people from oppression and to overthrow their oppressors: "I will send you … that you may bring My people … out of Egypt." The oppressed cannot be saved unless their oppressors are defeated. Christ therefore assures Moses that "I am sure that the king of Eqypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand. 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" (vv.16-20).
What we here observe in the type is true also in the antitype (that which is foreshadowed by the type).
Christ sends His gospel ministers. As He said to Moses "I will send you," He says to them "I … send you" (John 20:21) and "Go" (Mark 16:15).
1 Christ sends His gospel ministers for the benefit of His chosen people. We here speak of His New Covenant people, who are His in a spiritual and eternal sense. They are assured that "[God the Father] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:4f). They are "the Israel of God" (Galatians 6:15f): "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, … the people of God" (1 Peter 2:9f).
2. Christ sends His gospel ministers to the place in which His people are in bondage. They are indeed in bondage because they are, in their native condition, in "the snare of the devil, having been captive by him to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:26). Since this bondage is universal, Christ sends His gospel ministers "into all the world" (Mark 16:15), even "to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
3. Christ sends His gospel ministers in order to deliver His people from oppression and to damn those who side with the oppressor. "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:16). (Faith is necessary for actually receiving salvation [Ephesians 2:8f]. Baptism is necessary for figuratively confessing salvation [1 Peter 3:21].) "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain them, they are retained" (John 20:21-23). (The actual power to forgive sins belongs to God alone [Mark 2:7-12]. His ministers exercise only a declarative power, asserting that if you believe the gospel, your sins are forgiven and you will be saved; but if you do not believe, your sins are not forgiven and you will be damned.)
Christ will judge every one of us according to our response to the gospel His commissioned ministers preach. Trust in Christ through believing their gospel, and you will be saved. Reject Christ by disbelieving their gospel, and you will be damned. There is no middle ground! Have you obeyed Christ's ministers?
Your servant for Jesus' sake.
Address all questions to pastor
Daniel E. Parks (2 Corinthians 4:5) e-mail RedeemerBC@aol.com
Pastor, Redeemer Baptist Church
2801 Cleveland Boulevard, Louisville, KY 40206 / 502.899-9205
 |
| Gregory Ickes - WebMaster |
|---|
| www.norwich.net/surety |
| Sherburne, NY |
| Chenango County |
