May the Lord help us in turning
to his word. In Exodus chapter three, verse
seven and eight, the last clause in verse seven and the first
in verse eight. Exodus chapter three, the last
clause in verse seven, and the first clause in verse 8. I'll
read the whole of the verses. And the Lord said, I have surely
seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt, and have
heard their task, their cry, by reason of their taskmasters. For I know their sorrows, and
I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large
unto a land flowing with milk and honey unto the place of the
Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites
and the Hivites and the Jebusites. So these words have laid upon
me for I know their sorrows and I am come down to deliver them
out of the hand of the Egyptians, for I know their sorrows. And friends, I read so much compassion
of the Lord Jesus in these words. The Lord said, I know, I know
their sorrows. And when we think of the children
of Israel, and there they were in Egyptian bondage. We have
little idea of just how difficult it would have been for them and
I think as we read the word we consider earlier in Exodus, just
how God was favoring them. We read in Exodus 1, the children
of Israel, in verse 7, the children of Israel were fruitful and increased
abundantly and multiplied, and they waxed exceeding mighty. The land was filled with them. And so it was that Pharaoh had
such a concern that they would overcome. They would overcome
the Egyptians. And he feared the strength and
the growth of the Israelites. And remarkably, later on in that
chapter, the king of Egypt or Pharaoh spoke to the midwives.
And he told the midwives to destroy the men children alive. And we
read that they did not do it. And they ignored the instruction
that came from Pharaoh because they feared God. And so what
they did then was they said and made the excuse that the women
were lively and the children were delivered of before the
midwives came in unto them. And so therefore there was a
continuance of a growth of the Israelites and the numbers and
the strength of them. It's against this backlog that
there is this concern for Pharaoh and so he felt the only way he
could hold them back was, of course, to destroy all the firstborn
men children. And, of course, we have that
wonderful example of Moses being delivered and becoming the son
of Pharaoh's daughter and so on. And now Moses has had to,
having killed an Egyptian and being noticed in that, He had
to escape and he's come to live with Jephro and married his daughter. And he's in the backside of the
desert. And as he comes to the mountain
here, the Lord appears to him in such a way, which is so remarkable
in the bush that had a fire on it and yet did not burn. So this
is the background really to our world. And at this time, Moses
would have been well aware of the people of his fellow Israelites
that had been struggling under the Egyptians, who were real
oppressors and they were like slaves to them. So as they went
around their work, they were cruel to them and beat them and
demanded more of them. And we do realise that this is
the, as it were, one of the last generations in the 430 years
that the children of Israel were in the land of Egypt. And so things really were in
a sense coming to a head and they were crying out to the Lord
by reason of their task Masters, those in Egypt that wanted to
control them and wanted to ensure that they were kept under. Friends,
there's so much spirituality in this. You know, I feel there's
so much for those that desire the spiritual Israel, then walking
on in the journey of life. So many things to oppose them,
those that would put them down As it were, we have a pharaoh
in the enemy, we have a pharaoh in our own hearts, also putting
down our own religion because the flesh does fight against
the spirit. We have the pharaohs in terms
of so many things that we have dealings with in our daily lives. and those that come up against
it, us. And we realise all these things
are opposition to, at the fear of God, opposition to belief
in him and the taskmasters that are around. But oh, it's so beautiful,
this last clause. And friends, what really led
me to this was as I was reflecting upon the way the Lord has led
us these, well, it's three years now in the ministry, and we went
back to a letter that a friend wrote to us two years ago, and
they put this word in there, I know their sorrows, I know
their sorrows. They were walking in a sorrowful
path at the time, and oh, they felt that the Lord knew their
sorrows. Friends, he knows our sorrows, whatever we have this
morning, whatever we have that burden us, that drag us down. The same as he knew the sorrows
of the children of Israel in the land of Egypt, he knows the
sorrows of the children of God in the land, the lands of the
earth that we are called to walk in. He knows in the earthly lands
then, exactly what our sorrows are and oh it's so beautiful
the hymn writer puts it like this our sorrows in the scale
he weighs and he measures out our pains
and oh we're not going to have more than we can cope with friends. I know we feel at times that
we can't cope with our sorrows and I know we feel we can't cope
with the way but we won't have more than what we are given grace
and strength to cope with. He measures them out. You think
of those heavenly scales. And what is so beautiful that
in one side of the scales, which is the sorrows, what is in the
other side, friends, it has to be God's love to balance with
those sorrows. Oh, and I know we're in the depths
of them, we don't see that love. And I know that when we feel
the sorrows surrounding us, we can't feel that there is a set
of scales and that it's balanced. We cannot feel the day of prosperity
that is over the day of adversity but friends it is so for the
dear Lord's people and it would be so for the children of Israel
in due course as Moses would be brought to to lead them forth
over the Red Sea and out of the land of Egypt. Despite even then
the Egyptians pursuing them so A way was made for I know, I
know their sorrows. I have full, complete knowledge
of every aspect of their sorrowing. I know that they sorrow for different
things. I will have all of my children
to sorrow for sin. Friends, what a sorrow that is,
to have sorrow over the sins of our heart and to realise we
have a fallen nature. And he does bring us into those
times of sorrow over sin, to feel sad, to feel cast down on
account of our propensity to sin, over our lack of faith,
over our weakness in the pathway, and those sins of thought, word,
and deed, and those sins of omission, and those sins of commission.
Yes, and indeed it is so. And we believe this. We read
that Hannah was a woman of a sorrowful spirit, and we know it was in
things in Providence, but we believe also that it was in things,
in matters of her never-dying soul, a woman of a sorrowful
spirit. Ah, perhaps there were those
then that feel to be sorrowful. What a mercy that the Lord knows. He knoweth the way that I take,
but, actually the word says beautiful beginning to that, but he knoweth
the way that I take, and when he hath tried me, I shall come
forth as God. Now here were the children of
Israel being very much tried, but in it you see they obviously
cried. I've heard, I've surely seen,
now this is beautiful because the Hebrew of I have surely seen
says I have seen and seen, in other words I've doubly seen,
it doubles the verb, that's beautiful friends because it shows the
Lord is really observant, doubly observant. of the affliction
that they're passing through. Now friends it's no different
for you and I than what it was for the children of Israel. He
has doubly seen, he's watching and seeing the afflictions, the
troubles. You know in the Psalms it speaks
of this. Psalm 107 which we will know
something of in our spiritual experience I do believe. It talks
of of three things. It says they are minished and
brought low and perhaps that's where we are through these things,
through oppression, affliction and sorrow. Yes, minished and
brought low through oppression, affliction and sorrow. And so
it is for the Lord's dear people. And so it was for his chosen
race, the Israelites, back in the land of Egypt, in the land
of their taskmasters. For I know, I know their sorrows. I know because I've seen the
affliction. Or as I say, the Hebrew rendering
I've doubly seen. In fact, there's a beautiful
example of that in the Acts, friends, where it quotes it twice. And I believe, if I can find
that, that this, yes, Stephen here, he's recounting the history
of Israel as he answers the charges against him. a dear man that
was stoned for his belief. But he says, he quotes this,
he said, the Lord says to Moses, put thy shoes off thy feet, the
place whereon thou standest is holy ground. But he then says
this, I have seen, and repeats it, I have seen the affliction
of my people, which is in Egypt. I have seen, I have seen. Well
friends, and that He's surrendering really that he's in this word. I have surely seen, I have seen,
I have seen. Oh friends, what a confidence there
is in this that the Lord truly has seen. He's seen it twice.
In other words, he fully knows all that we are going through.
He fully knows what our sorrows are at this time. You know, It's
a solemn thing if we don't have any sorrows. We might not view
it like that in the natural man, but what a solemn thing to have
no sorrows. But oh, that we have got those
sorrows over sin then was one of the sorrows that we mentioned.
Sorrowful over sin. And then we have those sorrows
in the pathway, perhaps in the family. Perhaps in the church,
perhaps in the things that we walk in, in our employment, in
our people we have to do with, in the circles that we move.
But sorrows, those things that come upon us, they drag us down,
they bring us low. We don't like it in nature, friends,
do we? But oh, how beautiful it is.
We have to acknowledge I was brought low and he helped me.
But it's being brought low. Oh, nature doesn't want to hear
these things. Nature doesn't want to know about
sorrows in the way, and nature doesn't want to know about difficulties.
But when we're in them and we're walking it through, for I know,
I, yes, I am that I am that we read of on the next page. In
my Bible, it may be on the same one in yours, but I am that I
am. In capital letters, beautiful.
This is the I here. It's the same I that knows their
sorrows. Almighty God with all his power
and all his might and all his strength. He knows what you're
going through. He knows what I'm going through.
And as I say, the sorrows are weighed in the scales and he
gives us no more than what will be counterbalanced. Yes, it won't
be counterbalanced with your skills and your ways of getting
you out of those sorrows. It's not counterbalanced with
anything that you can do. It's not counterbalanced with
the natural religion that you and I accrue. It's counterbalanced
with tokens of his love, friends. It's counterbalanced with the
mercy that he gives us from time to time. Oh, yes. sorrow. I know their sorrows. So whatever the sorrows in the
way are, and we sang that hymn amidst the sorrows of the way,
there is that hiding place, that hiding place. Friends, we know
what our sorrows are this morning, but oh that we might realise
the Lord knows them, has a full knowledge of every aspect of
them. Yes, the minute detail of our
sorrows, soul or providence. We need him to make us feel and
truly believe that that is the case. Why and how does he know
all these things? Friends, we have a brother. He is born through adversity
and it is so beautiful because he was a man of sorrows. He understands his people's sorrows
because he had a sorrowful pathway himself. Oh, there's so much
beauty in the gospel and the gospel is here in Exodus. Oh
friends, it's lovely. It's amazing, isn't it, when
we see it. Yes, I know their sorrows. Why? Because God above should send
his own son who should know what it was to be sorrowful. Yea, sorrowful, yea unto death. Man of sorrows. What a name. for the son of God who came,
ruin sinners to reclaim. Oh friend, beautiful language
in that hymn, ruin sinners to reclaim. And then he ends up with this, hallelujah,
what a saviour. Oh friends, yes, but it starts
off, doesn't it, man of sorrows. What a name, man of sorrows. Yes, as we read in Isaiah, a
man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And he's acquainted
with it, therefore he knows it for himself. And oh, therefore
he knows the grief that his dear tempted People get into, as he
did the children of Israel, he knew all about them because of
their cry. Yes. We hid, as it were, our
faces from him. He was despised. We esteemed
him not. Solemn, really, friends. But
this beautiful verse, you know, it reflects this. Surely he had
borne our griefs. Friends these four words really
they sum up our text and carried our sorrows. Oh friends you're
carrying your sorrow this morning. I believe perhaps if you come
up to the house of God or listening in and watching that you know
you've got those sorrows and you're carrying them. You're
carrying them. Oh to lay them upon the Lord
to beg that he would carry them for you. Surely you've borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows. Oh, yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted, which he was, for his dear people
that he should be wounded for their transgressions. That's
why we'll have sorrow over sin when we see what its cause, our
dear Lord and Savior. Oh, friends, I read a lovely
obituary. A lady, Ruth Greenhill, I think
her name was. She died in 1955. She was a member
in a couple of our chapels. But it so struck me in the early
words that she was a woman who was sorrowful over sin. Oh, as we read it, sorrowful
over sin. And then it went on to say that
she had many sorrows in the way. And I felt, yes, that's what
it is for the children of God. She had a mother and two sisters
that were in hospital with diphtheria. And she was greatly, greatly
troubled at that time. She went into the house of God
and she got late to the service because of all the care at that
time for them and coming back from hospital she went into the
chapel and she said they were singing that verse in hymn 332
bound by, if I can come to mind, bound by his at word, he will display a strength
proportioned to our day. And when united trials meet,
we'll show a path of safe retreat. And friends, oh, what a blessing
it was to her soul. But you read right through that
obituary, she sorrowed here and she sorrowed there. And friends,
You know, and yet there were those times of great blessing
and often in the midst of her sorrows. And that's the thing
that the Lord would come and gave her a touch like he did
in that hymn that day. Friends, what a kind, gracious
God we have. I know, I know their sorrows. I know their sorrows. Yes. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
he was sorrowful. We read, he says to his disciples,
or we read in Matthew, he said unto them, my soul is exceeding
sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry ye here, he said to them,
watch with me. And he went a little further
and he fell on his face and he prayed, Father, if it be possible,
Yes, and let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. But we read earlier as well that
he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began
to be sorrowful. Yes, he knew the cup that he
would have to drink right up. Oh, the sorrows. And of course,
in our first hymn, 232, we were able to sing, you see, How bitter
that cup no heart can conceive, which he drank quite up, that
sinners might live. His way was much rougher and
darker than mine. Did Christ my Lord suffer? Yes,
he did, and shall I repine, but it's because he knew the way
of sorrowing, to make a way, a way of escape for poor sinners,
to make a way of escape for those that are so wretched, lost and
fallen, to make a way of escape for those who sorrow over sin. Yes. And it's because of this
that he knows their sorrows. You know, To truly have knowledge
of something, friends, we need to have walked in the Y. We need
to have experienced it for ourselves. And so that is, in this wonderful
case, we feel the Lord Jesus Christ, God in heaven. There was that experience through
his son of those things. And when he took on mortal flesh,
experienced then the trying of the way and in the pathway and
the sorrows that oppressed him. down. So he knows, he knows yours
and he knows mine and ever will know our sorrows. And I am come down. I'm come
down. You know from Genesis God came
down. Not necessarily always in deliverance
where you have to go on it says I am come down to deliver but
just thinking of the coming down. He came down when they built
the Tower of Babel. And we don't often consider these
things. There was man building a tower. And the tower would
be higher and would be built, and it's man's strength. Go,
make one brick, and so on, and set it all up. The whole earth
was of one language and one speech. But we read this, and the Lord
came down to see the city and the tower which the children
of men built it. And he said that nothing will
be restrained from them. So there was a time in a way,
a sense of, to a degree of judgment, that God scattered them and confounded
their language. And he scattered them abroad
across the face of the earth. Now this is the Lord coming down
to a degree of judgment. We know he also came down in
judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, and our lands of the earth stand
no better than they did with all that we allow and have on
our statute books, how solemn. But he came down. He also came
down in times, even in Genesis, of favour and mercy. And we read of a deliverance of Israel, Jacob that was, when
he'd seen the wagons coming to collect him, and yet still was
anxious of going down into Egypt. And yet the Lord said to him,
I am the Lord, the God of thy father, fear not to go down,
for I will there make of thee a great nation. And he says this,
I will go down with thee. Yes, I will go down. So how the
Lord has, as it were, come down, come down in deliverance and
in judgment. And here I am come down to deliver
them, specifically to deliver the Israelites out of the hand
of the Egyptians. I am come down. But of course,
there was that coming down of the Lord Jesus Christ to save
each of his people from their sins. And that was a coming down
that he should, as it were, become lower than the angels, that he
should be one of no reputation. and indeed one who the world
reviled and we would indeed if not shown otherwise friends.
And yet that lowly one came into Jerusalem riding upon an ass
and yes he came there to suffer, to bleed and to die. A beautiful
hymn you know friends, it's been on my mind a bit of late. Alas
and did my saviour Friends, you know, if we know something of
these things, it's going to be because we're walking in, it
says above the hymn, godly sorrow arising from the sufferings of
Christ. Alas, and did my saviour bleed
and did my sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? Was it for crimes that I had
done? He groaned upon the tree, amazing
pity, grace unknown, and laugh beyond decree. Well, friends, you see, there
it is. It's the sorrows, but I'm come
down to deliver them. I'm not going to leave them in
those sorrows. And it's an important message
for you and I this morning. I'm not going to leave you in
the sorrows. Yes, I will bring you out of
the sorrows. I will show you my delivering
hand. You will yet see the time of
rejoicing. Oh, we spoke of Hannah. You will
come to the place of Hannah that mine horn is exalted in the Lord. A horn was a headpiece that the
ladies would, in those days, hold on their head and those
that had families would hold them up higher. And so she held
her horn higher because she'd been granted a child as promised
of the Lord. Yes, my horn is exhorted, she
says. Oh, that beautiful Samuel chapter
two and the prayer of praise. But you see, that's what comes
forth from her sorrow. And so it will for you and I.
I know our true time of praise will be in the heavenly Canaan.
When like the children of Israel, he brings us to the Canaan, but
the heavenly Canaan, where we will drink endless pleasures
in. But friends, there will also be those times of deliverance
here below. The time when the Lord comes,
when we will see that he hath deliver, and yet doth, and will
yet deliver. Yes, he has delivered, he doth
deliver and will yet deliver. What a beautiful text that is.
The past, the present and the future. Oh, a text to give us
a little confidence to go on, a text to give us a little confidence
in the Lord to help us to continue in the journey, friends. You
know, I may have told you before, but the beautiful obituary I
read some months ago of a Mrs Hutchinson that was a godly lady
that died in 1982 and went to Grove Road Chapel, Eastbourne.
And talk about sorrows in the pathway. Her husband died in
the very early years of marriage and then she was enabled to,
after a few years of sorrowing, to marry again. And she married
a man of the world, but he came into chapel, which was a remarkable
thing. But then he took on a business,
lost his job, but took on a business for himself, set up his own business.
The business failed. Oh, what a time of sorrowing.
But he got worse, friends. He became mentally disturbed
and he left her. He'd gone. She didn't know where
he was. And she's praying and pleading, but nothing in it.
He'd gone for many years. And you know, the lady became
suicidal yet was saved from it. But you know, the time came when
the Lord spoke these words, I have seen his ways and will heal him. Heal him from his mental depression,
heal him from his need of a saviour. Oh, and yet, you see, deliverance
for her seemed to be utterly, totally impossible. And so the time came, you know,
she said this, Lord, if thou art to do this, do bring one
of thy servants with that word as a text. I have seen his ways
and will heal him. And, you know, there it was.
A few months after that, Mr. R.J. Morris of Clifton came down
to Eastbourne and when he announced his text, he said her heart leapt
within her. The Lord will come. He will come
down and deliver me. Oh, friends, and you know, it
was a few years later, her husband came home, came back to chapel
with her. They had 12 years of complete
happiness together before the Lord took him home. And she said
he made a good end. You see, friends, deliverance,
even in matters, and it may be we have a matter that we are
concerned about in Providence. I am come down to deliver them,
to deliver them. Oh, When thou canst no deliverance
see, Yet still this man thy peace shall be, And he was for the
children of Israel. Come down to deliver them out
of the hand of the Egyptians. In other words, out of those
that oppose you. I'm going to deliver you out
of the hand of the enemy, perhaps, who's besieging you at this time.
This matter will never come to pass. You will never find a way
of salvation. The Lord will not work in this
way. Well, you know his insinuations. You know his taunts. If you're
a true child of God, you will know what it is to be fighting
the enemy. You can't fight him alone, you
know. But you see, I will deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.
I will get thee behind me, Satan, it will be. Oh, friends, to think
that the dear Lord Jesus, when we're so besieged and when the
enemy is shouting in our ear and we ourselves, are with him,
almost. I had to say the other Sunday,
and I felt it to be so, how often we walk hand in hand with the
enemy, friends, and there it is, walking down the street with
him, opposing our God, and yet there is that within us that
desires to walk with our God and not against him. Well, friends,
we will prove, we will prove, as we will sing, in our last
hymn that the righteous shall hold on his way. Why? Because of the delivering hand
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It must ever be so. You know,
this coming down. There's such a desire in Isaiah.
And I believe this is in the heart of a poor believer. Oh, that thou wouldest rend the
heavens. Oh, that thou wouldest come down. Come down to my case. Come down and meet my case. That
the mountains of opposition might flow down at thy presence. Yes. Oh, that thou wouldest rend the
heavens. and truly come down for me with thy delivering hand
that I will prove the deliverance in six troubles and yea a seventh
shall not come upon us. And again my thoughts go back
to the psalmist in Psalm 91. He shall call upon me. Yes, there
they are, the children of Israel calling upon me. And I will answer
him or them as it was in their case. I will be with him in trouble,
but this I will deliver him. I will deliver him and honour
him. And all that deliverance from
the last enemy, the last enemy of death that we must face. He
will carry us over that Jordan. shouting the triumphs of the
King. I do believe it, friends, although many of us I know are
troubled about the standing of our religion when we come to
that final, I was going to say acid test, because that's what
it is, that final test of our religion in that trying day. But you see, I know their sorrows. I've come down to deliver them. out of the hand of the Egyptians. And you know, there's a double
blessing here. I'm not just going to deliver them, but I'm going
to take them to a land of plenty. I'm going to take them to a land
of beauty. I'm going to take them to a land
flowing with milk and honey. Oh, and friends, that's so spiritually. You know, friends, that final
deliverance of the saints, when we will be delivered from all
the pain and all the sorrow and all the anxiety. And we will
be in glory forever, where congregations never break up, where Sabbaths
have no end, where we will sing the praises of God on high. Oh,
how beautiful. How glorious it will be to be
there. What must it be like? We can
only imagine. And yet, oh, God shall wipe away all tears
from your eyes. Yes. And we shall walk with him
in white, for we are worthy. Well, we're not worthy in ourselves,
but only through the deliverance granted through the dear dying
son of man, oh, the man of sorrows, acquainted, knowledgeable of
our griefs, who made a way, made a way when he bled and died,
a way of salvation for the unrighteous to be made, even those righteous
that we have, as we will sing, eternal redemption through blood. therefore we cannot but hold
on our way. And the Lord said, I've surely
seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard
their cry by reason of their taskmasters for I know their
sorrows and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand
of the Egyptians.