That was good singing, I enjoyed
that. If you would open your Bibles with me to Exodus chapter
three. Exodus the third chapter. Begin our reading in verse 10. Come now therefore and I will
send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people,
the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God,
who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh? and that I should bring
forth the children of Israel out of Egypt. And he said, certainly
I will be with thee, and there shall be a token unto thee that
I have sent thee, and thou hast brought forth the people out
of Egypt. Ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses
said unto God, behold, when I am come unto the children of Israel,
and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers has sent
me unto you, and they shall say to me, what is his name? What
shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am, has sent me unto you. And
God said moreover unto Moses, thus shalt thou say unto the
children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has sent
me unto you. This is my name forever. And
this is my memorial unto all generations. 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 of Jacob appeared
unto me saying, I have surely visited you and seen that which
is done to you in Egypt. And I've said, I will bring you
up out of the affliction of Egypt under the land of the Canaanites
and the Hittites and the Amorites and the parasites and the Hivites
and the Jebusites unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
and they shall hearken to thy voice. And thou shalt come, thou
and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and you shall
say unto him, the Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us,
now let us go, we beseech thee, three days journey into the wilderness,
that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. And I'm sure that
the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand
and smite Egypt, with all my wonders, which I will do in the
midst thereof. And after that, he will let you go. And I will
give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And it
shall come to pass that when you go, you should not go empty,
but every woman shall borrow of her neighbor. And I've heard
that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver and jewels of
gold and raiment, and you should put them upon your sons and upon
your daughters, and ye shall spoil the Egyptians. without
firing a shot, just like an army comes in and spoils the land.
You're gonna spoil Egypt without ever firing a shot. All right,
let's bow together. Our Father, we've met here together
this evening. We've gathered together out of
the midst of being out in the world for this week, and we've
gathered together in the middle of the week. Father, to hear
a word from Thee, to hear your message that you would have your
people here in this hour. We've gathered together, Father,
to have a refreshing from your word. And Father, I pray that
you would be with us this evening. If you would give us your presence
while the word is being preached, our hearts will be refreshed
and thrilled that you'd send the power of your spirit upon
us to enable us to hear, enable us to worship you from the heart. Give us the eyes of faith to
see our Lord Jesus Christ and let our hearts be thrilled at
the sight of Him. Let us go home this evening with
our hearts thrilled at the thought of our dear Savior, who has fully
and completely saved His people from all of their sin by His
great compassion for them, by His great sacrifice for them.
Father, thrill us with that bloody, bloody sacrifice. of our Lord
Jesus Christ that has cleansed us from all of our sin. Father,
I beseech you that you would be with me in this hour, that
you would enable me to speak in the power of thy spirit, not
in the weakness of human intellect and reasoning, but in the power
of thy spirit. And Father, give your people
a hearing ear. And while we pray for ourselves,
we pray for all of your people, wherever they might be meeting
together tonight, Father, bless your word for your great namesake
and bless your people because you promised that you'd bless
your word. And Father, we dare not forget to pray for those
who are going through difficult, difficult times. There are so
many right now, Father, we hold them up to thee. We pray for
our sister Andrea that she's going through this difficult
time and treatments. Father, that you'd be with her
mighty and special way, that you'd be at the Sparks family,
that you'd be with our brother Tom Hardings. He's awaiting these
trials, these tests, and finding out what treatments he have.
Father, be with your people. Father, show this world there's
a God in Israel who cares for his people, that you'd be pleased,
Father, to comfort our hearts until it's such time as you see
pleased to deliver. All these things we ask in that
great name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's for his sake and his glory we pray, amen. I've titled the message tonight,
God Sends His Preacher. What happens when God sends his
preacher? Our text begins in verse 10,
the Lord says to Moses, come now therefore and I will send
thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children
of Israel, out of Egypt. Now, the Lord tells Moses he's
sending him to, what he's doing is to preach, to go tell the
people in Egypt, both the Egyptians and the Israelites, you tell
them what I said. That's what preaching is. And the Lord told
Moses, now when you go, this is exactly what's gonna happen.
I'm telling you beforehand what's gonna happen. So you won't be
surprised when it happens. When it happens, you'll know
this is the Lord doing this. This is the Lord, this is his
will being accomplished in this thing. One of the things that
the Lord says is gonna happen when Moses goes preaching is
God's people are gonna believe. You know, we ought to preach
expecting God to save his people. We ought to expect, I expect
you to believe this gospel. I just, for the life of me, I
can't see why somebody wouldn't believe it. I mean, I know why
they don't, because our dead nature, but I expect somebody
to believe this is the truth, that God sent us to preach, that
God sent us to declare. But the Lord also told Moses
about those who will not believe. They just, I mean, no matter
what happens, they will not believe. And the Lord told Moses that's
gonna happen. So when it happened, Moses wouldn't get discouraged
and he wouldn't give up. Moses is gonna think, well, this
is not a surprise to me, because this is exactly what God told
me was gonna happen. So when Lord calls Moses, he tells him,
now you go out and you preach this message in Egypt that I've
sent you to preach. God sent Moses. I would imagine
at this point in Moses' life, after 40 years on the backside
of the mountain here in the desert along with the sheep, Moses got
pretty comfortable, don't you reckon? I mean, he's 80 years
old. He's not thinking about taking up a new occupation. But
the Lord didn't let him stay there. The Lord sent him. The
Lord sent him to Egypt. Moses didn't get to pick where
he's gonna go. God sent him there. And it's the same thing with
all of God's servants. You can only go preach and have
any hope of it being successful at all when God sends you. God's gotta send somebody to
go preach the gospel. And isn't it a blessing to think
that Almighty God on purpose sent a preacher to you. Sent
one of his servants to preach to you. That's what God sent
Moses to go to Egypt to do. And God told Moses what you're
going to do. You're going to go and you're going to deliver my
people from Egypt. And the first thing that a man
says when God tells him to go preach is the same thing that
Moses said. I can't do it. Don't send me.
I can't do that. Look at verse 11. And Moses said
unto God, who am I? that I should go unto Pharaoh,
and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of
Egypt. You know, Moses' immediate reaction was, I am not qualified
to do this. Now, one time Moses thought he
was qualified to do it, didn't he? But God willed on him for
40 years. So now Moses is nothing but a
nub. Now Moses is ready to be used. But Moses thinks, there's
got to be somebody better than me to do this job. Look over
at chapter four, verse 10. And Moses said unto the Lord,
oh my Lord, I'm not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since
thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I'm slow of speech and slow
of tongue. Moses said, I can't even talk
right. I stumble, I bumble, I never think of the right words to say
at the right time. Nobody's gonna listen to me,
my stammering and stuttering and using the wrong words all
the time. Nobody's gonna listen to me.
There's got to be somebody better than me who can sin. And you
know, every true servant of God thinks the exact same thing.
There's got to be somebody better than me to do this. Even the
Apostle Paul, who was blessed beyond measure. Paul asked, who
is sufficient for these things? Even Paul knew he wasn't sufficient
for this. And this is why I covet your prayers so much. I hope
you don't get tired of me asking for your prayers. I hope you
always remember to pray for me, because what man is sufficient
for these things? And on a selfish note, it'd be
mighty good for you to pray, Lord, give me a message so I
could preach it and you could hear it, wouldn't it? Oh, we
need to pray that God would bless his message and give us his message,
enable us to hear it, because the servant feels unqualified. But we can go forth the same
way Moses did with the same confidence Moses had. We're not going forth
in our power, in our skills, in our interpersonal skills,
in our skills that draw people to us. We go with this confidence. The Lord said, I will surely
be with thee. See, he says in verse 12, and
he said, certainly, I will be with thee. Well, if the Lord's
going with me, let me go. I mean, just let me at it. If
the Lord's going with me, we can go preach with confidence,
can't we? Moses is gonna go preach, and here's, let me give you four
things that happens when God's servant goes forth to preach.
This is how you can identify God's servant. Number one, you
know a man is God's preacher when he says what God says. Look
over at verse 15. And God said moreover unto Moses,
thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord
God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob has sent me unto you. This is my name
forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. Now Moses,
that's what you go say. You go and gather the elders
of Israel together, and this is what you tell them. The Lord
God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of
Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and
seen that which is done to you in Egypt. And I have said, I
will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt, under the
land of the Canaanites and the Hittites, and the Amorites and
the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites unto a land
flowing with milk and honey. Now this is exactly what God
told Moses a little earlier in the chapter, almost word for
word in verses six through 10. That's what the Lord told Moses.
And Moses went to Egypt and he didn't have to wonder now, what
am I going to tell these folks? How am I going to tell them?
How should I start? What should be in the middle? What should
be at the ending? He didn't have to wonder. God told me, Moses, you say this. We preach the gospel and we preach
the gospel. You know what we do? We just
say what God has already said. We just take God's words and
this is what God says. We preach the gospel. We tell
sinners who God says he is and how God says he saves sinners.
That's what we're telling folks. Now, the God we preach, the God
who saves, He's the covenant God. He's the God that does what
he promises. The covenant just means a promise.
God does what he promises. I mean, how many times in scripture
does the Lord identify himself as the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? You know why he does that? Because
the Lord made a promise to Abraham that the Messiah will come through
his loins. The Messiah is gonna come as
a descendant of Abraham. And he confirmed that promise
to Isaac and to Jacob. You see, the true and living
God is the covenant God who is always doing what He promised
to do. Do you know why the Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem coming
through the seed of Abraham through David? You know why that is?
Because that's what God promised He was gonna do. See, God's just
doing what He promised He was gonna do. At this time in history,
God's come to deliver Israel from Egypt after they've been
in bondage for four centuries, 400 years. You know why he's coming now?
Instead of earlier, instead of later? Because this is exactly
when God promised Abraham that he would come and deliver his
descendants from Egypt after 400 years of bondage. And the
Lord's gonna come, he's gonna bring them out. He's gonna bring
them into the land of Canaan. He's gonna give that whole land
to them. You know why he's gonna do that? Because that's what
He promised Abraham and Isaac and Jacob He was going to do.
He was going to give this land to their descendants. And God
did that as a picture of His covenant of grace. The covenant
of grace for His people. Before God created anything,
God promised that He would give His elect, He would give spiritual
Israel rest. He'd give them rest from the
law. He'd give them rest from having
to obey the law, the bondage of trying to keep the law. He'd
give them rest from fear of the law, being afraid of judgment
and condemnation. God promised his people rest
in Christ. And they're going to have it.
They're going to have rest from the law in Christ because Christ
is coming to obey the law for his people. That's what God promised
he was going to do. You don't have to worry. If you
trust Christ, you don't have to worry now about ever suffering
the penalty of the law and God getting you because you broke
the law because Christ has already suffered the penalty of the law
as a substitute for his people to set his people free to rest,
to rest in him. Now salvation is of the Lord. God saves his people because
that's what he promised that he was going to do. And when
it come time to save His people, God personally came where they're
at to come save them. You know, when God created the
world, He spoke it into existence, didn't He? When God sent the flood, He just
willed it. He just willed the rain and the
fountains of the earth. But when it came time for God
to save His people, He got off His throne and He came down to
earth where they were. I came down. to save them. That's what he says in verse
eight. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand
of the Egyptians and to bring them up unto a good land and
a large, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am come down
to where they're at to bring them up. You know, we often call
Moses the deliverer, don't we? But really, Moses is just the
voice that God decided to use. God's the deliverer. And the
same thing is true when it comes to the salvation of God's people.
When it came time to save His people, Christ came down. I mean, how far down did the
Son of God come to take on Him flesh and become a man just like
you and me? Oh, He came down. He came down. The King of glory came down to
be made under His own law. to have to obey his own law so
that he could make his people the righteousness of God in him.
The holy son of God came down, down, down, down, down, down,
down. How far down did he come to be made sin for his people? He willingly was made sin for
his people. He took the sin of his people
away from them so that he could make them holy and righteous. Christ came down. Christ the
life giver. Christ the creator. He came down
to suffer and die for the sin of his people. Life himself died. Now figure that one out. Life
died. He came down so far that he died
so that his people would have eternal life. Now this is God. God, the one who we've sinned
against. He did that, he came down like that for his people
so he could bring them all the way back up to glory. God's elect,
they fell as low as they could fall in Adam. I mean, when Adam
fell, we fell in him and we couldn't have fallen any lower, could
we? We fell into death, we fell into spiritual darkness and ignorance
and unbelief. We could not have fallen any
further than we fell in Adam. But Christ the second Adam, brings
his people up so high they can't go any higher. If Christ suffered
and died for your sin, you remember this, especially you remember
this next time you're feeling kind of low, Christ has already brought
you up so high, you can't go any higher. You're already seated
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You can't go higher than
that. You can't go any higher. That's
how God delivers his people. And that's the message every
last one of God's servants preaches. This is the message. This is
what God says about Himself. This is who He is and how He
saves sinners. And this message that we preach,
it's a memorial. See that at the end of verse
15? This is my name forever, and this is a memorial unto all
generations. We just keep telling this memorial,
this gospel, over and over and over. The same story. The same
gospel. The same Savior. from different
texts, but it's the same gospel over and over and over again.
That's the message God's servant preaches. What a message. What a message
God's given us to preach. What a message God's given us
to hear, to believe. I mean, what a blessing this
is. You can't find better news for a sinner than this. This
is how God saves sinners. He's going to do it. I don't
care how sinful we are, how rotten we are, how far we want to run
away. If God's promised to save you,
He's going to do it. And He's going to do it not by
your works, but by the doing and the dying of His Son. God
loves sinners so much. He sent his son to suffer and
die for so they could have life. How can it ever get better than
that? I mean, what a gospel we have. And somebody's going to
believe it, aren't they? That's my second point. God's
elect, spiritual Israel. They're going to believe on Christ
when they hear him preached. Look at verse 18. He told Moses,
now you take the elders and you go tell the children of Israel
this. and they shall hearken to thy voice. And thou shalt
come, you and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye
shall say, the Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Now
let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness,
that we may sacrifice unto our Lord. Now you tell the children
of Israel, this is what I said, and they're gonna believe you
when they hear you. They're gonna believe me when they hear you.
See, before Moses went preaching this message that God had given
him to preach, the Lord already told Moses who's going to believe.
Who's going to believe him? Israel. The children of Israel
are going to believe. Now you think about that statement
for a minute. The Lord God Almighty has blessed Israel more than
human tongue can tell. But these people, now they're
blessed above all people on the face of the earth. But right
now, they're in absolute misery. They're groaning and crying to
the Lord because how cruel their taskmasters are to them. And
it's gonna get worse yet. Before it gets better, it's gonna
get worse. And somebody might think, wait a minute, wait a
minute. I thought you said these people were blessed. It doesn't
sound to me like they're blessed if they're in such misery that
they're just, all they can do is groan and cry. That doesn't
sound to me like God's blessed them too much. Well, do you know what? If God
makes you to groan to where all you can do is groan, do you know
that's a blessing? It's a blessing because the Lord
always hears the groans and the cries of his people. God sent
misery to his people so that misery would squeeze those groans
out of their hearts so that he'd hear them and he'd come and deliver. That's how God operates. That's
how He works. Those people are blessed, aren't they? Now Israel,
they're groaning right now. But you know, it wasn't always
that way, was it? No, one time they were very happy in Egypt.
Remember when the whole world was starving to death and Joseph
brought them to Egypt? And he gave them the land of
Goshen to live in. It's the best land in all of
Egypt. The most fertile land, the most beautiful land. He gave
them that land to live in. And they still live there. The
children of Israel were very prosperous in Egypt. Everybody's
happy when they're prosperous. They're making lots of money.
They got lots of herds. They're respected of the Egyptians.
I'm sure they assimilated into Egyptian society. They ran in
some pretty good circles as far as society goes. I mean, they
just had to be about as happy as can be. They'd just look at
each other and say, can you believe we're not back there in Canaan?
living in tents, starving after death, but we're here and got
all the riches of all the land of Egypt. I mean, can you believe
that? How good is this? They were so happy. But now,
God has made them to hate what they once loved. They still lived
in Goshen. The view out the window, the
scenery is the same. They used to love it, now they
hated it. They hate the sight of it. The very thing that at
one time brought them so much pleasure, now is what's bringing
them so much misery. They used to be happy in Egypt,
but now everything in Egypt makes them so miserable that the only
thing they want to do is get out of that place. Now, before the Lord ever shows
mercy to any of his people, this is what he does for them. He
makes them miserable. He makes them so miserable because
of their sin. That misery squeezes the cry
for mercy out of our hearts. And then God hears it. But first,
He's going to make us miserable. He's going to make us hate what
we once loved. You know, all of us were born
in sin. We were born loving sin. And
let's just face it, sin was sweet to us. Dear Wife talks about feeling
sorry for children and young people in this world. They just
they just haven't really learned yet. And she says sin so sweet
to him. Of course, I tell her sin's so sweet to me too. I mean,
that's just the nature. Our nature loves sin. But the
Lord has made you hate what you once loved, didn't he? He made
you hate your sin so you cry out for forgiveness. Didn't he
do that for you? We were born, I mean, this is what we loved
when we were born. The nature that we're in, this
is what we love. We love to establish our own
righteousness by our own works of the law. We love that more
than anything in this earth. Oh, we love it. Because we can
get some credit for it. We can get some glory for it.
But the Lord showed you that the law is spiritual. The law
is not outward, the law is inward. It's in your heart and obeying
the law comes from the heart. Now you see what the law says,
and now you hate it. The Lord has now made you hate
what you used to love, because now he showed you what the law
is, and you see you can't keep it. And you hate to hear what
the law says to you. You used to love the religion
of law keeping, because you get some credit for this thing. You
get some glory for this thing. You make the A honor roll, you
know, of whatever morality police, you know, that are out there
giving out report cards. You used to love that religion. And
now you hate it. Now it makes you groan in misery.
The burden of that, the burden of the demands of the law that
you can't keep. You hate it now. That's why the gospel is such
good news to sinners. Christ has come down to set his
people free from the condemning power of sin. If Christ was condemned
for you, the law cannot condemn you anymore. It can't do it.
And to think, this is the gospel that God sent to you. He sends
it to his people and they believe it. They believe it when they
hear it. Christ came down, he set his people free from the
cruel taskmaster of the law. The law always requires more,
more, more, more, more, more, more. I don't care how much you've
done, the law is never satisfied. It requires perfection till you
take your very last breath. The law always demands more than
we can produce. You talk about making bricks
without straw. The law demands more than we
can produce. We're not even capable of doing it. But Christ came. And He set His people free from
all those demands of the law. From every demand of the law. Because He kept it for His people.
So you're free. Free from the law. Oh, happy
condition. You're free. Now trust Him. You're free. Now that's the message
of grace. Every believer, they all believe
it. They all love it. The people that God chose to
save, those that he loved enough to make his own, they're going
to believe that gospel sooner or later. Now they may not believe
it the very first time they hear it, but you just keep preaching
it to them. I mean, it's as simple as that.
They're going to believe the gospel sooner or later because
God promised they would, because God's going to give them faith
in Christ in his time. All we gotta do is just keep
saying, thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. Thus saith
the Lord. Here's Christ. Here's Christ. Here's Christ,
do you see? Do you believe him? If you're
Christ, one day you will. One day you'll say. I believe, I believe. I don't
know when that happened, but I believe. I know that happened
to me one day. I mean, I wish I had a nickel
for every time I heard the gospel preach growing up. I didn't believe
it no more than I believed anything else. And one day, I believe Christ. I can't tell
you when that happened. All I know is right now I believe
Him. That's all I can tell you. It's a gift of God. That's the
only explanation for it. Those people, they're all going
to believe Christ. And you know, since those people, they all
believe, they all love, they all trust in the same Savior,
you know they're all gonna go worship together. Did you notice
that at the end of verse 18? They said, now this is what you're
gonna say to Pharaoh, we beseech thee, let us go three days journey
into the wilderness that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God. You find God's people, you get
them together, they're gonna worship together, they just will.
They're gonna worship around the sacrifice of Christ because
they believe him and they can't help it. They can't not believe
him anymore. Those people will believe. But here's the third thing that's
so sad. Many will not believe what you preach. Verse 19, the
Lord says, I'm sure that the king of Egypt will not let you
go. No, not by a mighty hand. Now Moses was sent with a message.
He was sent to tell both Israel and Pharaoh, God said, let my
people go. So Pharaoh, you let them go,
and Israel, you start packing to leave. That's the message. God says, I promise to give my
people freedom. So Pharaoh, it's time for you
to let them go. I let you have those 400 years,
but now it's time for you to let my people go. And Moses came
with that message and Israel was so thrilled. I mean, this
is the best news they've ever heard. We're gonna be set free
from this horrible bondage. Thank the Lord. But you know
who hated that message? The Egyptians. I mean, they hated
it. Now remember, Egypt represents bondage to the law. Those people
who love the law, they love their works of the flesh, they deluded
themselves into thinking they can keep God's law well enough
to make themselves righteous, they will not believe the gospel.
As long as you're believing that works religion, you will not
believe the gospel. Not only will you not believe
it, you'll hate it. I mean, you'll hate it. And you know what? Nobody, nobody
can believe the gospel unless the Lord is pleased to give them
faith in Christ. Look over John chapter 10. John
chapter 10. You know, when somebody refuses
to believe the gospel, all they're doing is they're giving evidence
that God never chose to save them. John chapter 10. Verse
23. And Jesus walked to the temple
in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, how long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you,
and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not because you're
not of my sheep, as I said unto you. You notice the Lord didn't
say you're not my sheep, so you don't believe so you're not my
sheep, He says, you don't believe because you're not my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I
give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither
should any man pluck them out of my hand. Now the Lord did
tell the Pharisees plainly who he was. He told them he was the
Christ. He said, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your
ears. He's the Christ. And the miracles they saw him
perform That fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies of the
Messiah. The Old Testament told us this is what Christ is gonna
do. This is what the Savior's gonna do when he comes. And Christ
did it. He fulfilled all those Old Testament
prophecies. There is absolutely no doubt
Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. Then why didn't they believe?
They saw the miracle, same way Pharaoh's gonna see all the miracles.
Why didn't they believe? Because they're not God's sheep.
Because God did not choose them He did not elect them unto salvation. God just left them alone. Well,
then why do the sheep believe? Why do they believe Christ? Because
the Lord knows them by name. He knows them by name. He knows
where they're at and he's not going to leave them alone. No,
he's going to go find them. They're lost, but he's going
to go find them. They're dead, but he's going to give them life.
They don't believe, but he's going to give them faith. When
they hear Christ preached, they're going to believe. See, the great
shepherd of the sheep, he goes where the sheep are and he finds
them and he brings them into his fold. We can only believe
if the Holy Spirit gives us faith to believe. He gives that faith
to his elect. The goats, he just lets alone.
Look back at John chapter six. See, the Lord knows his people.
He knows who's gonna believe and who won't believe. John chapter
six. Verse 63. It's the spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit, they are life. But there are some
of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not and who should betray him. And
he said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto
me except it were given unto him of my father. The Lord knew
who would believe on him and who wouldn't, because he's the
one who chose the people he's gonna save. He knew, he's the
one that did the choosing. He knew who would come to him
and believe on him because he chose to save them. And he's
the one that's gonna draw them to him, he knows. Just like when
Moses was sent to Egypt, the Lord knew the Egyptians are not
gonna believe Moses. And they're not gonna believe
Moses for the same reason rebels refuse to believe the gospel
today. It's because the Lord's left them to their own sinful
will. That's why they don't believe.
He's left them to their own sinful, self-righteous desires. That's
why they don't believe. The Lord's just left them alone.
Now Moses knew this too. This was not a surprise to Moses.
The Egyptians aren't gonna believe you. Moses knew the Egyptians
well, didn't he? I mean, he was raised as one
of them. He knew they were not gonna believe
not one thing he had to say. Moses already knew the Egyptians.
They're not gonna let their slaves go free just because God told
them to. They're not gonna let those slaves go free. This is
their livelihood. This is free labor for them, you know. Moses
knew the Egyptians weren't gonna believe. But the thing that really
puzzled Moses was this. Why is anybody gonna believe
what I've got to say? Lord, you give me this message
to preach, but why is anybody gonna believe it when I preach
it? Moses wasn't worried about the Egyptians. He already knew
they weren't gonna believe. What Moses was worried about is, are
the Israelites gonna believe me? Why would the Israelites
believe me? See, Moses knew the Israelites
too, didn't he? Because he was one of them too.
He knew their hearts of stone. He knew that left to themselves,
the children of Israel are not gonna believe in me. Nobody's
gonna believe him if the Lord leaves him alone. Nobody's gonna
believe Christ unless the Lord reaches down and lays hold on
him. and brings them up, gives them faith and life. And he's
going to do it by the preaching of the gospel. My personality is pretty intense. I'm pretty intense by the way. And I try to tone myself down
a little bit when I'm preaching. I get wound up about it. Now listen, this is a matter
of life and death. It's a matter of life and death
that we believe on Christ. On the Christ that we hear preached
in the gospel. And what a sweet promise of God
to his people. He's gonna give them here in
years. He's gonna give them believing hearts. Doesn't that discomfort
you? I learned this by experience. I could not make myself believe
Christ, and you can't either. But the promise of God is He's
going to give His people ears to hear, and a heart that can't
do anything but believe. And that faith, how does it come?
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Now
the Lord's going to save His people. I think we'd do well
to pray that the Lord would save. Save us? Save our loved ones
that don't know the Lord. Save people in our community.
Lord, save them and make them here because you're the only
one that can. You're the only one that can. But if he's gonna
do it, he's gonna do it by the preaching of the gospel. And
I'm just determined that you and me are gonna stay faithful
to it. This is gonna be a place where a sinner can come and hear
the good news of freedom in Christ. Alright, here's the fourth thing,
and I love this. I just love this. When God does
save his people, he's gonna do it through the law. Not by going
around the law, but by going through it. Verse 20. But every woman shall borrow
of her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels
of silver and jewels of gold, raiment, and you shall put them
upon your sons and upon your daughters, and ye shall spoil
Egypt. Now the Lord tells Moses, you're
gonna go, you're gonna meet with all this opposition, but Moses,
you just wait. I'm gonna stretch out my mighty
arm, and I'm gonna set Israel free. And the Lord says, when
I set Israel free, I'm going to give them favor in the sight
of the Egyptians. Those Egyptians who hated them
for generations, they're going to have favor. They're going
to look favorably upon my people. The Lord is going to act in such
power that the Egyptians, they don't want to let their slaves
go. They don't want to let this free labor force go free, you
know, but the Lord is going to act in such power that the Egyptians
are going to be glad Israel's leaving. They're going to be
as glad Israel's leaving as Israel's glad they're leaving. They're
going to be glad they're going. Just get them out of here. And
they're going to tell all those Israelites, look, here's all
my gold. Here's all my jewelry. Here's
all my silver. Here's these bolts of cloth and
fabric that we use to trade all around the world and enrich our
nation. Here, we're just going to give it to you for free. If
we give it to you for free, will you leave faster? Just take this
and get out. Just get out. Take whatever you
want and get out. Now that's a picture of salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's complete salvation. God said He's gonna come down
and deliver His people. And when He comes, He's going
to fully and completely save His people, deliver His people
from the demands of the law. That law that's always been against
us. That law that's always requires
more than we can produce. God's gonna give his people favor
in the sight of law. So that God's holy law, the law
that was against us, now we find favor in that law. You see, God
saves his people through the law, through the law, by Christ
satisfying the law for us, by Christ satisfying the demands
of the law by obeying it fully, by Christ satisfying the condemnation
of the law by suffering condemnation for his people. The law is satisfied. There's been death for sin. The
law has been fully obeyed. The law is satisfied in every
way. So when God saves his people, not only does God say his people
are saved, his law says they're saved too. The law says they're
saved. When Christ saves his people,
the law says, you're free to go. And here, take all these
riches with you as you go. The law says, take righteousness
with you. It's yours now. It's the law
of God that declares God's people are righteous. Christ made them
righteous by His obedience law. Christ made them righteous by
His sacrifice. The law says, here, take this
righteousness. It's yours for free. The law says, don't stop
there. Take justification with you.
It's yours. It's the law of God that declares
God's elect are justified, that they don't have any sin. The
law says you're justified because the blood of Christ paid for
your sin. Take justification with you. What a rich blessing
of God. Take it with you. It's yours
for free. And the law says, take all the riches of God's mercy
and grace. It's the law of God that says
God's elect are entitled to all the riches of God's mercy, all
the riches of his grace. The law says you deserve it because
Christ bought it for you fair and square. Now you take it for
free. Take it with you. And take the
cup of salvation. And drink it. Drink it dry. Drink
it freely. Here's comfort. It's the law
that says, take the cup of salvation. You're saved. The law says you
are. So the law is not looking to
condemn you. The law is not chasing after
you anymore. You've been saved from all the demands of the law. And it's the law that tells you.
Take the cup of salvation. It's yours. Christ bought it
for you. The law says you're entitled
to drink it. Now that's joy. Isn't that joy
in trusting Christ? No, you trust Him and you just
barely get by. You just barely escape God's
wrath. Everything about God says take all these riches with you.
They're yours. You're not going out empty. You're
going out having satisfied the law in Christ. And all these
riches, all this gold and silver and linen and the tools and the
sewing needles and everything, everything there was, you know,
that the Egyptians gave to the Israelites to make them leave
faster. You know what they used all that for? They used it to build the tabernacle
and all the furniture in it. The silver, they used for those
silver sockets, the foundation of the walls. The gold they used
to cover the mercy seat make the whole Ark of the Covenant,
the Mercy Seat solid gold, the Ark was covered with gold, all
those things covered with gold, all those things with pure gold,
where'd they get all that gold that they were gonna use in the
worship of God? The Egyptians gave it to them for free. That's
where they got it all. In the same way, God provides
salvation and He provides the ability to worship Him and to
come to Him accepted through the law. Through the law. Not by going around it, but through
it. Because Christ satisfied God's
law for us. Now that's the message that saves. That's the message that tells
us how God saves sinners and how rich and full and free it
is. God help us to believe it. Alright, let's bow together.
Our Father, how we thank You for this blessed portion of Your
Word that shows us redemption. fullness of it, the freeness
of it, the riches of it, the blessedness of it, in Christ
our Savior. Father, how we thank you. Cause
this, your word, as it's been preached, to thrill the hearts
of your people. Father, I pray that you would
give each of us, as we leave here tonight, that you'd give
us, that you'd be pleased in your mercy and grace to give
us faith in each heart in the Lord Jesus Christ. cause us to
trust him and him alone. Of course, in Christ's name,
for his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen. All right, Sean.