The Exodus Family Part 4 "A Prisoner"
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11 And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.
12 And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
13 And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?
14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.
15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.
Introduction
Introduction
Volunteer meeting on Sunday.
Communion Sunday afternoon.
David Morse meetings this week
Gabe
It must have seemed strange to Moses, when his human effort to deliver the people only resulted in a dead body in the sand.
Moses was the deliverer. he had been taught that by his mother, he understood that he had been trained and protected for this role.
He also knew that this was the time, the 400 years was up, the cup of the iniquity of the Amorites was full, everything was ready.
He had made a choice to be identified with believers, he knew he wanted to be follower of Jehovah, yet He had never met God for himself or been commissioned for the work.
Our churches are filled with folks who have had experiences and made choices and know they are Bride, but how many are prisoners to Christ?
Moses was not yet a prisoner to the will of God for his life.
Paul describes himself as a prisoner three times.
1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
1 Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer,
9 yet for love’s sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
Not a prisoner of the Roman state, but a prisoner of Christ.
He had an experience, that is the first thing, then he spent three and a half years, tying his experience in with the scripture.
15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
17 Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.
No wonder he could say, “if any man preaches another doctrine, let him be accursed”.
He was a prisoner to the Word.
22 And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:
23 Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Moses had instruction, he had made his choice, but he wasn’t a prisoner yet.
A man has to surrender every ambition he’s got, everything that he is, every thing, his life, soul, body, will, ambitions, and everything else, and become a complete, a prisoner to Christ, Who is the Word, to serve God.
Now, Moses knowed that he was born the deliverer. He knew that. And did you notice, with the ambition that Moses had; knowing his mother had told him over there, as she was his nursemaid.
(Sometimes God has to remove the ambition from us to use us. You can’t do much with someone who has ambition.)
(Bro. Branham dramatizes it as she told Moses about his birth)
And, Moses, the doors are all shut. Honey, you’re sixteen years old now, and you’re going to be Pharaoh’s son. And someday you’re going to be the deliverer that’s going to take the people out of here.”
Moses’ ambitions begin to grow. “I’ll study, mother. I’ll study everything I can. You know what I’ll do? I’ll study how to be a military man, and I’ll know how to take these people out of here. I’ll be a great general, bishop, till I know how it’s done. And I’ll take it out. I’ll get my Ph.D or LL. I’ll do it.”
So then notice this, that Moses got all the training. Because, he knew. He was so smart, so educated, so intellectual! Till, there’s nobody…He could even teach the Egyptians. Till, he could teach their psychologists. He could teach their generals what military might was.
He was a great man. And people feared Moses, because of his greatness. Oh, such a scholarship! My! He was an archbishop, or maybe like a pope. He was a great fellow. And he was a mighty man. And he knowed that he was born to do this, and had trained, with great ambition, to do it.
Now we find out, that, when, Moses, in all his training, and today, with all the training, making big bishops and so forth, the great, high ambition, what will we do? Our ambitions become just about like what Moses’ was.
God, before He could get the man in His hand, He had to strip him of his ambition. He had to strip him of all of his training.
He did go out, and he delivered; he killed one Egyptian. And he, and when he did, he found out that he was in the wrong. He couldn’t do that. It wasn’t that way. And God had to take him out into the wilderness, into the desert, a desert place.
(Prophets go to the desert)
And Moses’ time, He took him out in the desert. Kept him out there for forty years, and stripped him of all of his theology and all his ambition. Oh, what a time, that he could look back and see his failure. And how we, tonight, ought to do the same thing, when we see our ambition.
Look at the healing campaign, and see if the Lord did something a few years ago, to start restoring healing to the sick, and so forth.
Everybody, every organization, is because It didn’t come into their organization, they had to get them a healer. And what have we done? Let’s look at it just a moment. We have done the same thing that Moses did. We’ve went out and tried so hard to manufacture some kind of a miracle. “I smelt a disease. I got blood in my hand,” and manufacture a miracle.
And what have we got? Some of the men in such hard strains, that’s broke up and become regular drunkards, neurotic, and got their minds, and they switched all the way back, the order from the pentecostal objective, back to making organizations and things again.
What have we done? Slew about one Egyptian. That’s right. And we’ve tried. We’ve strained. We’ve paid. We’ve labored, go all night long in prayer meetings, till we had no voice. And try to manufacture something, and soup-up something, and all these type of things, and find it to be a total failure.
We need a going-back to the desert. Right. Yes, sir. Crackings and struggles. Why not just give up? That’s what you ought to do, see, go back and give up. Why, we done the same thing they did, same thing Moses did. It doesn’t do any good. After forty years, he found himself a prisoner to the Word of God. What do we try to do?
When, the great Blessing come out, and the manifestation of all these great things that God has told us about: how that we must be born again; and how we must receive the Holy Ghost; the baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ; and all these things here.
You see, people, instead of staying to that Word, harnessed to It, what do they do? They started with their own denominational theory, which had already failed, and try to manufacture something to look like the Truth.
What have we got, tonight? but a nation full of organized people: who deny the Scriptures of God; who would call the Life of the Holy Spirit, that, “It was a mental telepathy”; who would refuse such to come into their church; and they wouldn’t permit you to mention one Word of serpent’s seed, Eternal security, and the things that the Holy Spirit has revealed and proved to be the Word.
What have they got? The same thing that Luther had, the rest of them, see, slew an Egyptian. What was it? Maybe he made some man stop stealing, or maybe live true to his wife. But what did you make him out of that? A church member. “Come and join our group.”
That stinking dead man was only thing he could point his fingers to, of his success, of forty years of training; a stinking Egyptian laying there, rotten and dead.
That’s about the way it is tonight. The only thing we can point, to this revival that’s crossed over (so-called), is a stinking bunch of church members that knows no more about God than a Hottentot would know about a Egyptian night. Right.
That, would tell them about the Word of God, they say, “I don’t believe That.” Say, “I don’t care what you say, I don’t believe It.” That’s an awful thing to have to point back to, for all the strains and struggles and everything we got.
Maybe we could point to a big school, but it’s dead. We could point to an organization, but it’s dead. It’s stinking. It’s just like the first thing that we pulled out of. “Like a hog going to its wallow, and a dog to its vomit,” when we turn back. One dead Egyptian.
(Everyone may have questioned Moses in the wilderness)
“Well, why ain’t you out, over, doing this? And why ain’t you out here, trying this? And why don’t you go on with the rest of them?”
Moses was out there getting stripped, until he had an experience at the burning bush, that declared the Word. “I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I remember My promise. And I’ve come down to deliver them. I’m sending you to do it.” That was it.
He seen the Word, not the ambition of the people or the desires of the people. Then what did he become? He did not want to face the Egyptians any more. He didn’t want to face this thing any more. But he become a prisoner. Amen.
Forty years of running, stripping down, but then he become a prisoner, at the burning bush, the mighty Moses with all of his intellect. The Bible saying that Moses was a mighty man in word or in deed, down in Egypt.
But watch what the mighty theologian did in the Presence of the burning bush. He only confessed his inability. When he seen the genuine purpose of God, he confessed that he was inability to do it. Yet, he was trained in all the theology that they could give him, trained in their best school.
But, yet, what could he do when he…that Pillar of Fire hanging there in the bush? Said, “I can’t even talk. Um-hum. Lord, who am I, that I should go?” See?
“Get your shoes off, Moses. I want to talk to you. Strip yourself down, even your shoes. You’re flat on the ground again. I want to talk to you.”
Couldn’t even talk. Finally, a elected prisoner, a elected prophet, just like that Paul was elected. Moses was elected, deliverer. And then, finally, God had His elected subject a prisoner to Him. Oh, hallelujah! He could only move as the Word of God moved him.
(Who shall I say sent me)
He goes against his better thinking. Now, he had been trained to command an army. “Swords, up! About-face!” Trained to go, “Chariots, all in order! Spears, forward! Charge!” That’s how he’s going to take it over. That was his training. But he said, “What am I going to use?” Said, “What you got in your hand?”
“A stick.” God does things so ridiculous sometimes, to the human mind. See? Got a stick in his hand. Whiskers hanging down. Eighty years old. His wife on a mule; kid setting on her hip. Little, old flabby arms hanging down; a stick. Just his head stood up, for he had THUS SAITH THE LORD. Why? He had finally got anchored.
He was a prisoner. “I’ll only move when the Word moves me. I’ll only speak where the Word speaks.” “Where you going?” “I got one commission: stand before Pharaoh and show him, by this stick, that God sent me.” Amen. “What you going to do after that?” “He’ll provide the next thing, after I do this.”
There you are. You’ve only got one thing to do, the first step, tonight: surrender, become a prisoner. Don’t think of yourself or something else. Become a prisoner.
Moses become a prisoner, confessed he couldn’t even talk. Finally, when God got him in His hand, where he could only move where God moved him. Where, He told him the Word. He knowed it was the Word, then he submitted hisself to the Word. And the Holy Spirit there, God, harnessed Moses to the will of God. 63-0717 — A Prisoner
Conclusion
Conclusion
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
(Big and small ox)