Moses went down and faced Pharaoh,
him and Aaron, and things got worse. It didn't get better,
it got worse. And when God sits on a man's
trail, things gonna get worse before it gets better. And the Lord, and this is the
book of redemption, that's what it's about. And God don't go
on the same timetable that other people do. But let's put ourselves
in these two men's place. Here they are, they're called
to be ambassadors for God. To stand before the mightiest
man in the world at this time. The mightiest man in the world
at this time. They gotta stand up before Him. And they're required to meet
Him face to face. And this man, this king, this
had turned all the nation of Israel into a nation of slaves. They weren't even a nation now.
They were just, all of them, he turned them all into slaves.
He hated these people. He despised these people. And
he made them all into slaves. Didn't make any difference to
him. He didn't know anything about mercy. Didn't know anything
about kindness. And the message that they were
to deliver wouldn't sit well with him. When they went down
there and said, God's the Lord said, let my people go. That
wouldn't go sit well with him. The Lord had already told them
and already told Moses that he would harden Pharaoh's heart
and he wouldn't let them go. He'd already told them that.
He told Moses, he said, when you go down there, I'm going
to harden his heart and he ain't going to let your people go so
that I can show my high hand in bringing Israel out of Egypt. In spite of all this, here's
these two men, Moses and Aaron, flesh, flesh, It says there in
verse 1 that they went in and told Pharaoh. They went in and
told Pharaoh. Now you're talking about the
flesh being opposed to going in and doing this. Remember how
many excuses Moses made not to go? Now he's there. And he goes in and meets Pharaoh.
And you know what? His flesh opposed this and Aaron's
flesh opposed this. And this shows you how God's
grace, how powerful God's grace is and God's power to overcome
the flesh. And to give grace and to show
that His strength is made perfect in their weakness as they stand
here before Pharaoh. Now here's what's said. Afterward Moses and Aaron went
in and told Pharaoh This was God this was the the Lord's command
And this is what he said and this this is this is this is
it right here thus saith the Lord God the Lord God of Israel
this saith the Lord God of Israel This is Jehovah's demand and
those what he says let my people. They're my people They belong
to me They don't belong to you. They belong to me. Everything
about them belongs to me. They're all mine. Israel's my
firstborn. And there was nobody that had
claim against them or claim against Pharaoh other than God himself.
And old Pharaoh, he thought, no, these people are my people.
And I'm not going to let them go. I'm not going to let them
go. And he thought these people are
mine and I'm going to deal with them like I want to deal with
them. And this is an awful, awful conflict over the destiny of
a race, a chosen race. Was Israel going to go on being
a slave or a holy nation? Are they going to be in bondage
in Egypt? Or are they going to be set apart
to the glory of God and brought up out of Egypt? And there's
a war going on here. And you know what? As old Scott
Richardson used to say, when you get in war with God, I tell
you one thing, you're going to lose. You cannot win this war. It can't be done. Just stack
your arms and give it up. And that's what happened in here.
And I'll tell you this, God said these are my people. Let my people
go. God was speaking to him in grace. God sent these two men in there
to speak to him in grace. Giving him the opportunity to
obey God himself. Before he deals in wrath, he
always acts in mercy. God said his ranger is a strange
work. His anger is a strange word.
And you look through the scriptures, Noah preached for 120 years. God in grace. 120 years he preached righteousness. 120 years God spoke to that generation
of people. That's how patient, that's how
longsuffering, that's how merciful God is. 120 years. And then he says, my spirit shall
not always strive with man. And how many prophets did he
send? How many prophets did he send?
And they stoned them, or they killed them. And he said, I sent
you prophet after prophet. And I, Lord Jesus Christ, said,
yes, I sent you prophets, and your fathers testified. And then
all the apostles. How did they treat the apostles?
They sent the apostles to preach. Every single one of them but
one. All of them died a martyr's death. The only one who didn't
die a martyr's death was John the Revelator. John of James'
brother. And he died in exile over on
the Isle of Patmos. 95, 96 years old. But they was
all hated. They was all despised. But God
sent them. And Paul said, God is long suffering
to you. He said, I stretched forth my
hand all day long. All day long, he said, I stretched
forth my hands. Unto a disobedience and a gainsaying
people. And that's what he's doing with
Pharaoh. These two men come in there. They're not wanting to
fight. They're not wanting to argue.
They're not wanting to debate. They just come in there and they
said, thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, let my people
go." God said, they're my people. My people. A fellow told me one
time, he said, all you talk about is like you're always talking
about the Lord's people, my people, God's people. I said, that's
what God calls them. He calls them His people, His
children, His vessels of mercy, His sheep. God always speaks
to His people in a peculiar and a special way. And He said, let
My people go, that they may hold a feast unto Me in the wilderness.
It's what I want to do. It's what I want them to do.
Listen to what old Pharaoh says now. Pharaoh said, can you hear
the arrogance in his voice? Can you hear the hatred in his
voice? The meanness in his voice? The high-minded in his voice?
Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord? That I should obey his voice.
I don't know who in the world y'all talking about. Who is the
Lord that I should obey his voice? Who is the Lord that I should
let Israel go? And listen to this, I know not
the Lord, and neither will I let Israel go. Oh, Pharaoh's response. This is his
response to God's grace. And this king's character is
fully revealed. And he said, who is the Lord?
I don't know the Lord. And since he didn't know the
Lord, he said, I won't let them go. And this is the way of the
natural man, whenever they hear, thus saith the Lord. And every
prophet, God said, he says, you go and say, thus saith the Lord.
Moses, God said, Moses, you go say this. I'll put my words in
your mouth. And men, they don't care what
the Baptist says, or the preacher says, or the denomination says,
or the organization says, or what the deacons say, and what
the committee says, but when you say, thus saith the Lord,
it's God speaking now. The natural man don't like that
when they hear, thus saith the Lord. They don't like it. They want to be left to their
own opinion. They want to be left to their own reasoning.
But there's three absolutes. Three absolutes in this blessed
book. And see if you don't agree with
me. God is an absolute sovereign. Absolutely so. No rivals. No rivals. God's absolutely sovereign. He does whom He will. Whom He will, He'll say. And
whom He will, He'll are. Second thing is, Christ is an
absolute Savior. Nobody else, nobody else in this
universe can save a sinner but Jesus Christ, the absolute Savior. Absolute Savior. He absolutely
saved His people. And if you get saved, you've
got to be saved absolutely by Christ alone. And here's the
third absolute. Man is an absolute sinner. From the top of his head to the
sole of his foot, from the inside of his heart to the outside of
his skin. There's not a spot on him that
God can look on with favor apart from Christ. And boy, when you
say thus saith the Lord about those things, oh, listen, they
don't like that. But the gospel, the gospel's
not an invitation. The gospel's not an invitation.
No, no, the gospel is a declaration. You go and you find in the scriptures,
the Bible starts with God. In the beginning, God. And they said, and when God hath
chosen us, The gospel starts with God. It's
a declaration. It's not an invitation. It's
a declaration. And every time that our Lord
Jesus Christ spoke to somebody about coming, He always had a
qualifying thing before it. If you're thirsty, come to me. If you're hungry, I'm the bread
of life. If you're lost, I'm the shepherd. If you're dead, I'm the resurrection. He didn't just willy-nilly say,
everybody wants to come, come on to me. He always put a qualifying
before it. And I tell you, beloved, the
gospel is not an invitation. It's a declaration. Oh, it's
a declaration. The scriptures plainly tell us
that God's not begging men to come. A sovereign don't beg and
a sovereign doesn't bow. A sovereign doesn't beg and plead. A sovereign commands. Even when
our Lord said, come unto me, who was he talking about? The
weak and the heavy laden. If a man's not weak, if a man's
not heavy laden, if a man ain't got a burden, he's not coming
to Christ. And the gospel's not an invitation,
it's a declaration. And this is what God, this is
the witness of God. And the record that God hath
given us. And He says this, this is the commandment of God. 1
John 3, 23. The commandment of God is that
you believe on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the command. And then old Pharaoh said, I
don't know him not. I don't know him. I don't know
him not. And he's content to stay ignorant. There's so many
people content to stay ignorant. And the apostle, how many times
he said, brethren, I would not have you to be ignorant. I would
not have you to be ignorant. But men are willing to stay ignorant.
God will turn on the light and they'll look in there and they'll
say, oh I don't like that light and just back up. And they'll
go over here and say, oh I like this light over here. I like
this free will light. I like this works light. I like
this doing the best I can light. I like this working for Jesus
light. I like this shouting hallelujah for Jesus light. I like this,
I can come to Jesus when I want to. I like this, I'm backslidden
and I can come to Christ again. I like that life. The Lord will
come to the light. Come to Christ. And everything
will be laid out and be exposed. God has to do that. Oh my. And he said, I don't know him
not. And he was content to stay ignorant. And God's going to
judge men for this. You know what he said? He said,
when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. And He also said
over in 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, He said, He'll come in flaming
fire, taking vengeance on them that obey not the gospel. Huh? And then He said over in
another place, it says they received not the love and the truth, but
changed the truth of God into a lie. So what does he do? Sends him a strong delusion.
And that's what he did with Pharaoh. Just kept sending him a delusion. And Moses goes on and says down
here in verse 3. Old Pharaoh said, I ain't gonna
let him go. I don't know the Lord. He don't mean nothing to
me. Absolutely means nothing. I'll tell you something. Maybe
you all saw this the other day. There's a woman, and I feel sorry
for her. I really do. One of her kids
got killed. And she got out in front of all
these people and she said, I don't want another thought. I don't
want another prayer. Please don't send me another
prayer. I don't want another prayer.
I don't want no prayer. I tell
you what, I wouldn't pray for her. You don't want me to pray
for you? I ain't going to do it. oh my
that Moses said here in verse 3 and they said the God of the
Hebrews now he went and said oh thus
saith the Lord now he says the God of the Hebrews has met with
us me and Aaron he's met with us let us go we pray thee three
days journey into the desert and sacrifice unto the Lord our
God lest he fall upon us with pestilence a sword You know there
in verse 1 it says, let them go, may hold a feast unto the
Lord. God says, I want them to have
a feast unto me. But before you can have a feast
before the Lord, you know what you got to have? You got to have
sacrifice. You got to have sacrifice. God
wants men to have a feast before him and rejoice before him. That's
what feasting rejoices. Come, the supper's ready. Everybody
come and eat with us. The feast speaks of rejoicing.
The sacrifice, let us go and offer sacrifice. That's what
it takes to make feasting possible. You can't feast without a sacrifice.
You got God's sacrifice, then you have rejoicing. Then we feast
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And Moses tell the Hebrews here,
Moses tells why these Hebrews and tells Pharaoh why these Hebrews
need a sacrifice. And he says, lest he fall upon
us with pestilence or with sword. You know the only people in the
world that need a sacrifice is guilty people. If you're not guilty, you don't
need a sacrifice. But if you're guilty, And you
know how holy God is and how righteous God is and what He
requires. We got to go sacrifice. We got
to sacrifice. And oh my, guilty people need
an atonement. People with sin need a sacrifice. Men without any hope in themselves
need a sacrifice. And then it says that we may
go three days journey into the desert. Now three days, there's
three things, there's a trinity, and then there's three days from
the day that our Lord Jesus was crucified until he rose from
the dead. And so they can go out three
days journey, going out there and offer sacrifice. They went
out there and it's like, it's like it's on resurrection ground. Death is when they leave in there
and they go out there and offer that sacrifice and they face
God on resurrection ground where we face him at on the resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then Pharaoh, look what he
says now. Verse four and five. Listen to what old Pharaoh says.
Oh, give us a sacrifice. God's gave us a sacrifice. Oh,
He gave us a sacrifice. Oh, what a sacrifice He gave
us. Oh my, our conscience, when Christ, your conscience is satisfied
with what God gave it, it does not never ask for any more. When
a perfect sacrifice meets your conscience, your conscience does
not ask for any more. God gave us a perfect sacrifice
in His Son. Now look what old Pharaoh says.
And the king of Egypt said unto them, talking to Moses and Aaron,
Wherefore do you, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works?
Oh, you all went out there and told these people to quit working.
You thought I was going to let them go, didn't you? You thought
I was going to let these people go. And you told them, you know,
we're going to go out here three days journey and said, Oh, listen,
you let the people from their works. You get you under your
burdens. You go back out there and start
doing what you're supposed to do. And Pharaoh said, behold,
the people of the land are now many. And listen to what he said. You make them rest from their
burdens. Oh, God, make us rest from our burdens. But here's
what he said. He just makes it hard on us.
And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people
and their officers say, You shall no more, no more give the people
straw to make brick as to hear the poor. Let them go and gather
straw for themselves. Now ain't that what preachers
are telling people that's trying to tell them to go work for the
salvation? You got to make bricks, but you got to get straw for
yourself. Go get your own straw. You know, God wants you to, God's
done everything, but if you're going to make any bricks, you've
got to go get your own straw. And that's religion, the best
it can do. You can go ahead and work, but you've got to get your
own straw. And the tale of the bricks, the number of the bricks
which they did make here toward you shall not diminish all of
them. Because they're idle, because
I tell you what, they're idle. You know how I know they're idle?
They're crying, saying, let us go and sacrifice to our God.
They want to quit work and go sacrifice to God. And oh, listen
to what he says. Let therefore more work be laid
upon the men that they may labor therein. And listen to this.
And let them not regard vain words. Uh-huh. Let them not regard vain words. Oh my. You make these men rest
from their labors. But he says, listen. You lay
more work on them and don't let them listen to vain words from
Moses and Aaron. Oh, vain words. This is the effect. This is the effect of rejecting
God's testimony and rejecting God's Word. To resist the light
means increased darkness. To be turned from the truth,
the more you'll be turned unto lies. And one who refuses to
repent becomes harder and harder and harder. He called God's word
vain words. Vain words. Empty words. Useless words. Pharaoh's unbelief here is plain.
Let them not regard vain words. And when God isn't known, where
God isn't known, His word is as idle tales. Just idle tales. You know, it's an amazing thing.
It's an amazing thing. And I'm very thankful for this.
Bruce Crabtree and I was talking about it yesterday. How that,
how far out we were in religion and how thankful we were that
God crossed our paths with somebody with the truth. Somebody crossed
our path. And instead of being hard and
mean and critical to us and judging us, and called us heretics they
were kind and they were gracious and they were very very gracious
to us and they bore with us and bore our burdens and we said
some of the dumbest things some of the stupidest things but they
patiently waited and waited but you know how many people
regard God's word as vain words vain words. I'll tell you some
vain words that men regard and the way they preach it is vain.
Whenever you tell a man, whenever you tell a man or a woman that
God loves you and Jesus died for you and all you've got to
do is accept Him. Just like I take off this watch
and said you know that God I'll give you this watch if you come
up here and get it. They said that's what God does. He's got
everything up here you need. You just come up here and get
it. That's vain words. That's vain words. You start
telling five or six year old children that they can be baptized
and be saved when they ain't never been sinners. They don't
know nothing about sin. That's vain words. And I tell you something, whatever
you do, whatever you do, whatever we do in this world, I may lose
my mind, I may lose my mind, but there's not a vain word in
this book. Men take it and twist it and
pervert it and they make it become vain words. And when you make
this word become, our Lord Jesus said, oh, if the light in thee
be darkness, how great is that darkness? What light you have,
if it's darkness, how great is that darkness? How great is thy darkness? And
oh my, oh, and then you know, and here's the thing, here's
what Pharaoh was thinking. You know, he said these are vain
words for him to talk about going off to sacrifice God and making
a feast before the Lord. Sacrificing to God and having
to sacrifice to God and needing a sacrifice. That's foolishness
to this world. That's foolishness to them. I
don't need a sacrifice. I tell you, the only sacrifice
God wants for me is what I give to Him. I pay my tithes. I give Him my time. You know, preachers use that
thing of robbing God. Don't rob Him of your time. Don't rob Him of your love. Don't
rob Him of your consecration. Don't rob Him of your attention.
Don't give Him, you know, all the time, give, give, give, give,
give, do, do, do, do. And the only sacrifice that God's
ever accepted is his blessed son and that's why he says these
people are going to come out here and worship me they got
to come out with a sacrifice and that's what he told Pharaoh
let us go sacrifice to our God Pharaoh said that's vain that's
vain but the holy scriptures are disregarded
and replaced by reason and opinion oh my I hear a lot of vain words in
this community. Every once in a while I think
about if I ever run across a couple of preachers, if I ever have
the opportunity to meet them. We're going to have a Tuesday
for conversation. I'm telling y'all. There's this
one, he says, you know, we got to be a witness of great. Jesus
has done a work for us. And I mean, he's, you know, and
we're committed to him and we got to show Jesus in the community. And then he says, so then we'll
become everything that God dreams for us to be. I long to meet that man. I hope
I run across him one of these days. And then another one, he
don't even mention Christ. He just says, come try out God. Come try out the service. Come
and try it out. Don't never mention sacrifice.
Don't never mention sin. Don't never mention a need. Oh my. But when God starts dealing with
a man, look what happens down here in verse 10. And oh my, don't let them regard vain
words, just put more work on them. Don't let them pay any
attention to Moses and them, don't let them listen to them
again. And the Tasmacus of the people went out and offered spake
to the people, thus says Pharaoh. They don't care what God says,
it's what Pharaoh says. I'm not going to give you no
straw. You go get your own straw when you find it. And your work
ain't going to stop. You got to keep on making just
everything that you did. And the people went all throughout
the land of Egypt together. Straw and all they got was stubble.
That's all a man can get when he's out trying to make it on
his own. Stubble, that's all he can get. Wood hands, stubble.
And the taskmasters hastened, saying, fulfill your works, your
daily task is when there is no struggle. And the officers of
the children of Israel which Pharaoh's taskmasters sent over
them, the officers now, these are the leaders, were beaten. They started beating them and
demanding. You're not making all the bricks you're supposed
to. You're not. You're falling down on your work. And look what happens down here
through verse 15. Oh my. And oh the way, severe
way Pharaoh dealt with Israel shows how hard Satan works to
keep on in bondage. When God's grace begins to work,
God deals with the soul. It gets worse before it gets
better. And then the officers came. them officers that they'd
beaten, them officers that they mistreated. The officers of the
children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, why have
you dealt us with your servants? Why are you dealing with us like
this? There's no straw given unto your servants that they
say, let us make brick. And then we're beaten. He said,
I don't think you know what's going on. I don't understand.
I don't think you know what your men's doing out here to us. But
the false in your own people. You're the one who started this. They come up there and they thought,
well, Pharaoh may not know what his people's doing out here.
There's a false in your own people. But you know what old Pharaoh
says? And this is true to human nature. And listen to what they
did. They did not go to God. They did not go to Moses. They
did not go to the Lord. Instead of crying to the Lord,
they went and cried out to Pharaoh, cried unto Pharaoh. They wanted
to go to the worst place in the world for relief. They hoped
to appeal to his pity, hoped to appeal to his sense of justice. They thought they could show
him how unreasonable his demands were. And this is a fact, a natural
man would rather lean on the arm of flesh than trust the invisible
God. And you know what most people
think? God's the last resort. God's the last resort. Oh, what grace that He bears
with us like we are. Then look at verse 17 and 18.
But this is what old Pharaoh says to them now. He said, you
just idle, you're loafing, you're loafing, you're loafing. You're loafing. Therefore you
say, let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord. That's being idle. I don't want you idle. You ain't
got time to go sacrifice to the Lord. You got work to do. And
I'm going to break you of that, what he's saying. Go therefore
now and work. That's all I'm interested in,
work. For there's no straw going to be given you, yet you're going
to deliver the natural. You're going to deliver everything
that you're supposed to. But oh my, you don't want to work, you want
to go sacrifice unto God as an excuse. Sacrifice unto God as
an excuse. Oh my. And look at the officers
of the children of Israel. Deceived that they were in an
evil case. That I mean things were bad.
It was bad before, but it's really got bad now. And after it was said, you shall
not diminish aught of the bricks of your daily task. And as they
was leaving there, Moses and Aaron, they were standing outside,
standing there on their way back out. As they came out from the
presence of Pharaoh. And this is what they said. Now
remember, in the last verse of chapter 4, it says, God remembered
their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshipped. Now
here's the same people, listen to what they say now. And they
said unto them, unto Moses and Aaron, the Lord look on you and
judge. Because you've made our savor,
our fragrance, our lives, everything about us to be abhorred in the
eyes of Pharaoh. They were already abhorred in
the eyes of Pharaoh. and in the eyes of his servants
to put a sword in his hand and he is going to kill us. You have
done that to us Moses. You have done that. You and I
have done this. You are responsible for this.
God judged you for that. Oh my, you imagine putting, you
go down there and you tell them the Lord is going to deliver
them. And all of a sudden they come back to you and say, boy,
I wish you would have never showed up here. I wish you would have
never said anything at all about this gospel. I wish you would
have never said anything about it. Because all you've done is
just made our burdens that much heavier. I remember somebody
got under conviction one time and somebody said, are you going
to go talk to them? I said, no, no, no, I'm going
to keep my hands off. If God started it, He'll finish
it. I'm not gonna tell nobody anything.
If they got anything to say, let them tell me and let them
tell the Lord. But oh my, Pharaoh insulted these people. And then
Moses. You remember our Lord Jesus Christ
was hated of his brethren. Joseph was hated of his brethren.
And he is prepared for Pharaoh to act the way he did. He is
prepared for that. But for his brethren to turn
against him? For his brethren to come out and tell him, you
know, said, listen, you're responsible for getting us in this condition.
We're going to die. You know that because of what
you said and done? Oh, what a test. What a trial. To be criticized by Pharaoh,
that wouldn't amount to nothing. but for your brethren to come
out here. These people that worshipped and now they turn around and
turn on you. He goes down there to help them
and encourage them and tell them what God said. How the Lord looked
on them and he looked on their affliction and looked on their
sorrow. Now look what Moses does. Moses returned unto the Lord. He left down there and he returned
unto the Lord. Evidently there's some place
that he had to go. He returned unto the Lord and
said, Lord, Lord. Now I think here, I think that
Moses, here's a posher striving with the, if a posher strives
with the posher, then boy, he's striving with God here. And it's
not good. He's striving with God. He's
a reverend here in the presence of God. And Moses said, Lord,
wherefore hast thou so evil and treated this people? God didn't
mistreat this people. Pharaoh mistreated these people. Why did you send me down here
to start with? knowing that this was going to
happen. That's what Jonah said, you know. He said, I know everybody's
going to repent. He sat down under a gourd vine
and said, Lord, let me die. Because he said, oh my. He's so irreverent to speak to
God the way he does, a worm of the earth, to dispute with the
Almighty. And oh, he says, oh, since I
came to speak in thy name, he's done evil to this people. And
listen to this, and you ain't delivered your people yet. I
thought you was gonna save your people. But these things are recorded
for our admonition, for our warning. And I know this, God doesn't
move on Moses or Israel's time and on their schedule. He moves
on his schedule. Moves on his schedule. and Pharaoh
is a perfect perfect example in Romans chapter 9 where it
says God's long-suffering endures God endures with much
long-suffering the vessels of wrath and that's what he is Pharaoh's
a vessel of wrath with much long-suffering he waits for the vessels of wrath
fitted for destruction he's long-suffering to Pharaoh long-suffering to
Pharaoh. But I tell you what, when God
says they're my people, He's gonna get them. If He has to
kill Pharaoh and a whole bunch of people down there, He's gonna
get His people. He's gonna get His people. And ain't that what
we love about the gospel? God's gonna get His people. He
got Zacchaeus, He got Lazarus, and Lazarus was dead four days,
but He got Lazarus. Alright, I'll hush.