Exodus chapter 7. I think both the messages today
will complement each other. And I kind of debated which one
to preach first, but I think this might be the one to go first.
Now what we are going to see here as we look at this is that
God has power to work His will according to His purpose, using
all His creation. God is never frustrated. He never is made to not accomplish
His will by His creation. Everything that comes to pass
is God working His will and accomplishing His purpose. And because that's
the case, Everything that comes to pass is accomplishing God's
purpose of glorifying His name in the salvation of His people.
Everything that comes to pass, it's by God's will, it's fulfilling
God's purpose. And that purpose is to glorify
His name in the salvation of His people. Now we're going to
see that in our text. I'm just going to take this a
few verses at a time. The first thing that we're going
to see here now, and let me remind you, this is Christ, a pre-incarnate
Christ speaking to Moses. And He says here, He's making
and He's speaking through His preacher. That's what Christ
does in everything. Nothing frustrates Him from doing
this. He speaks through and He works through His preacher. Verse 1 says, And the Lord said
unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron
thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command
thee, and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send
the children of Israel out of his land. Now when Christ said,
I have made thee, When He said, ìI have made theeî, it means
Christ sanctified and sent Moses to speak Christís Word. He made
him an able minister. He made him His preacher. He sanctified him and He sent
him to speak His Word. Look at John 10 and verse 33. John 10, 33. The Jews answered him, saying,
For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and because
that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Now listen to what
Christ says to these men. Jesus answered them, Is it not
written in your law, in your word, that I said, Ye are gods? This is an example in our text.
Christ said to Moses, I have made thee a God unto Pharaoh. Look at what he says now. If
he called them gods unto whom the Word of God came and the
Scripture cannot be broken. He is saying Moses was called
a God because Christ, the Word of God. He is the Word of God
that came to Moses. And He called Him a God because
the Word of God came to Moses. Christ came to Moses and sanctified
Him and sent Him. And the Scripture can't lie.
Christ did that. And now watch what Christ said.
We know He's talking about sanctifying and sending Moses by what He
says next. He said, if He called Moses a God unto whom the Word
of God came, say ye of Him whom the Father had sanctified and
sent into the world, thou blasphemous, because I said I am the Son of
God. You see, He's saying, I'm the one that called Moses. I'm
the word that came to Moses. I'm the one who called Him a
God. I sanctified Him and sent Him into the world. Now, if you
see that in your scripture of a mere sinner, are you going
to say, I'm blaspheming when God the Father sanctified and
sent me? You see the point there? Now,
that tells us that the relationship between Christ and His preacher,
is patterned after the relationship between God the Father and His
Son, the Lord Jesus, whenever Christ came to this earth to
accomplish His earthly ministry. That relationship of Christ and
His preacher is patterned after the relationship
of God the Father and His Son, Christ Jesus. God the Father
sanctified and sent Christ into the world to accomplish His Father's
will, the Father's will. And Christ took the form of a
servant. He is God, but He took the form
of a servant in serving God the Father, as God the Father's ambassador,
as His anointed, as His Christ. And so when He walked this earth,
God was in Christ and Christ was in the Father. And He was
doing what the Father sent Him to do. He spoke what the Father
sent Him to speak and trusted the Father to work through Him. Remember, He said, My doctrine
is not Mine, but His that sent Me. Well, Christ sends forth
his preacher, and his preacher says that, my doctrine is not
mine, it's his that sent me. You see the pattern, his pattern
after Christ and the Father. He said, no man can come to me,
no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him. And I'll raise Him up again at
the last day. They shall be all taught of God.
That's what the Scripture says. He said they shall be all taught
of God. He preached the Scripture. And He glorified the Father.
And that's what He makes His preacher to do. That's the pattern
of God the Father and Christ His Son. When Christ walked this
earth and accomplished His earthly ministry, that pattern is used
to make Christ and His minister. patterned after God the Father
and Christ. And so Christ was to be heard. He was to be heard
and believed because the Father sent Him. He said, if I do not
the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you
believe not me, believe the works that you may know and believe
that the Father is in me and I in Him. He is saying that because
the Father sent Him, sanctified Him and sent Him, the Father
was His authority and His power And everything He said and did,
and He said, and therefore, you better hear and obey Me and believe
Me. Well, it pleased God to save
through preaching in order to glorify Christ. That's why He
saves through preaching, to glorify Christ, even in the pattern between
Christ and His preacher. Even in that pattern. In that
relationship, Christ sanctifies and sends His preacher to preach
Christ's person and Christ's words. It's like Christ came
forth and preached the Father's word and His word. And Christ
is the manifestation of God. He's the message of His preacher. It's like the Father and His
Son was the message Christ preached. That's the message of Christ's
preacher. Christ is the salvation God has provided for His people. He is everything His people need
to be saved. Everything. People want to talk
about the gospel being too complicated and not be able to understand
it. Christ is all. If you have Christ, you have
all. If you don't, you've got nothing. That's the message of
the Gospel. And since Christ sanctified and
sends His preacher, His preacher is preaching Christ's Word and
Christ's works. And therefore, Christ's preacher
is to be heard. And His Word is to be obeyed
because it is the Word of Christ Himself. That's what Christ said. He said, the Word I'm speaking
is the Word of Him that sent me. And the Word of Moses that
He's going to preach when He goes to Pharaoh is Christ's Word
who sent Moses. And the Word of Christ's preachers
today that He sends is Christ's Word who sent Him. That means
we should hear the Gospel and obey the Gospel because it's
Christ speaking. If Christ was preaching somewhere
in this earth today, If you heard Christ was preaching somewhere
in this earth today, and men refused to hear Him, would there
be any justification for despising Christ like that? Any at all? Well, everywhere Christ's preacher
is preaching today, His true preacher, Christ is preaching. He's preaching. I don't know if we understand
that and grasp that as we ought to. It's just that real. Paul said, we are ambassadors
for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
in Christ's stead be you reconciled to God. He's saying we're speaking
for God. And you remember whenever the people rejected Samuel? He
was sent by the Lord. Do you remember? So when they
rejected Samuel, who did they reject? Samuel said, they've
not rejected thee, but they've rejected me that I should not
reign over them. They rejected the Lord. He said
in Luke 10, 16, when he sent those 70 out to preach, this
is what he said to them, and this applies to all Christ's
preachers, because it's Christ preaching. It's Christ speaking. And listen, he said, he that
heareth you, Heareth me. And he that despiseth you, despiseth
me. And he that despiseth me, despiseth
him that sent me. That's pretty serious, isn't
it? This thing up here in the Gospel
is serious. Well, when the Lord said to Moses, I have made thee
a God, what does that mean? That word in the context means
one who is set over men by God. to whom men are to obey. That's what it means. It's used
for civil rulers in the Scriptures. Remember Romans 13. Let every
soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there's no power
but of God. He's talking about everybody
in authority. God put them there. And he said,
The powers that be are ordained of God, and whoso therefore resisteth
the power resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist
shall receive to themselves damnation, because they are Christ's ministers,
he said. Well, that's what it means here.
He made Moses his minister and set him over men. Over what men? Well, when He
said, I've made thee a God unto Pharaoh, it tells us what meant. Who was Pharaoh at that time?
He was the most powerful man in the world. And Christ said, I've set you
over the most powerful man in the world. You have more authority
and more power than Pharaoh has. He's to obey you, not you obey
him. That's what Christ was telling
him. The same is true of all Christ's preachers. You remember
what He said to Jeremiah? Then the Lord put forth His hand
and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold,
I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee
over the nations and over the kingdoms. That means over every
ruler, the most powerful ruler in every nation and the most
powerful king in every kingdom. He said, Jeremiah, you are my
preacher. I will put you over all of them.
For what reason? To root out, and to pull down,
and to destroy, and to throw down, and to build, and to plant. That's why. But Jeremiah didn't
have power to do that. Moses didn't have power to do
that. None of Christ's preachers has power to do that. They really do. They really do. Not in themselves, but Christ
is the power and the authority of His preacher. He is the power
and the authority. Christ makes His minister have
more power and more authority over the strongest rulers in
the world. Because Christ is the authority
and the power over the strongest rulers in the world. We have
this thing mixed up in our day. the president, and then you go
all the way down the list, and you get down, all the way down
to the preacher who is a babysitter. Christ's preacher represents
Christ, and preaches Christ's Word, and Christ has sent him
and sanctified him, and he is over the most powerful in the
world. Because Christ is preaching.
Christ is speaking. But Moses had a problem. He couldn't
get the message himself. He didn't know what to preach.
He didn't know what to say. Well, Christ alone gives His
preacher the word to speak. Who came to Moses here and said,
Thou shalt speak all that I command thee? Christ did. He told him
what to preach. You see, none of this is to glorify
the preacher. The preacher is an earthen vessel
that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of the
preacher. Christ gave him the message to
preach. He said, you preach all I command you. But Moses had
a speech problem, a speech impediment. And so do all God's preachers.
We can't make God's Word effectual. That's a problem. That's a speech
impediment. We can't make it effectual and
make anybody bow and believe. We can't accomplish God's will
through it. So he said this, he said, you're going to speak
what I command you unto Aaron. He is a prophet to you, your
elder brother. And verse 2, And Aaron thy brother
shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel
out of his land. Aaron is a picture of Christ, our elder brother,
our high priest, our prophet, priest and king. Christ gives
the message to His preacher and He preaches it and Christ is
the one who goes forth and preaches that word in the heart of His
people to make it effectual. And so Christ's glory, you see,
is the reason that God chose by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. Christ gets all the glory in
this. Christ makes His minister. Christ sanctifies Him and sends
Him forth. Christ gives Him the Word to
speak. Christ speaks the Word and makes
it effectual. Christ is the subject of the
message. Everything about it glorifies
Christ. That's why this thing of preaching is serious business.
What we're seeing God do right here with Moses is what God's
doing right now, this morning, with every single chosen, redeemed
child who's in bondage. Just like He did with the whole
host of Israel right there. He's sending forth His messenger
to bring His child out of bondage. And He's doing something else.
He's working something else. Here's the second thing we see.
Through His Word, God's working His sovereign will. He's working
His sovereign will through the Word. If you notice this, everything
that has taken place here in Egypt has been through the Word. Moses declaring God's Word. And
everything, God's saying everything that's about to take place is
going to happen through the Word, through Moses speaking the Word.
Every bit of this. What's he going to do? Well,
first of all, through his Word he hardens some. He says there
in verse 3, I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and
my wonders in the land of Egypt. The first time Moses went to
preach, the Lord had told him this, but he went and preached
and Moses hardened his own heart, the Scripture said. This time,
the Lord hardened his heart. Pharaoh. Pharaoh hardened his
own heart the first time. And this time, the Lord hardened
Pharaoh's heart. You know, somebody will say,
but how could He harden Pharaoh's heart and do that justly whenever
we can't believe except it be by God's grace? Inability does
not negate responsibility. You know that. I've told you
this before. You have a mortgage on your house and if you end
up and you can't pay that mortgage on your house, does that mean
the bank is just going to say, oh well, then you don't have
the ability so we won't hold you responsible. No, you're still
responsible. And that's true. And so, everything
God does, He does it justly. It was just for God to harden
Pharaoh's heart as the reward for Pharaoh hardening his own
heart. Look at Romans 1 with me real quick. Romans chapter
1. Romans 1.21 says, because... You know what that word means.
That word means this happened for a reason. It happened in
regard to something that took place. It's because of this.
Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish heart was darkened. Pharaoh heard the gospel the
first time, he said, who is the Lord that I should believe on
Him? Tell the people not to believe these vain words. So this time
when the Lord sent the gospel to him, verse 24, wherefore God
also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own
hearts. who changed the truth of God
into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than
the Creator, who is blessed forever, amen, and for this cause God
gave them up unto vile affection. Now that truth right there, that's
declaring God's just to turn men over to reprobation. The
person who comes and hears the gospel week in and week out,
and week in and week out refuses to bow to Christ and confess
Christ, is hardening his heart. Every week He is hardening His
heart more and more and more and more. And God is just, if
God makes it, hardens His heart so that He can't ever believe
again. That's a serious warning and hearing that ought to make
us just flee to Christ immediately and cast our care on Him and
confess Him. The fact that we can hear that
and still not do so is evidence that it takes God effectually,
irresistibly drawing us to Christ. Isn't it? But even in the rebellious,
even in those that rebel, God is accomplishing His purpose.
Look here in verse 3. He said, I'm going to harden
Pharaoh's heart. that I might multiply my signs and my wonders
in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken
unto you, even when I multiply my signs and my wonders." He
won't hearken to you, but that's not frustrating God's purpose
and God's will. He said, He's not going to hearken
unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine
armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of
Egypt by great judgment. See, Pharaoh's rejection didn't
frustrate God's purpose. He sent Moses forth preaching
the Word, and Pharaoh regarded Moses as just nobody, because
he judged according to the flesh, and that's how the flesh judges.
Judged him as nobody. And judging him as nobody, he
judged Christ as nobody, and called Christ vanity by doing
so. But even that rebellion, the
Lord was using that. to work His signs and His wonders
in Egypt, to show forth His signs and His wonders in Egypt. Pharaoh's
rejection didn't frustrate God's purpose. None of the rebellion you see
going on in the world frustrates God's purpose. Every bit of it
is worked together by God to accomplish God's purpose. All
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are called according to purpose. Everything according to God's
purpose. Did the rejection of the Pharisees
when they rejected Christ, did that frustrate God's purpose
in any way? No, it made it so Christ could
just work more signs and more wonders, showing how powerless
the Pharisees were and how powerful God is to accomplish His will.
It opened the door for Him to do more. That's how God used
it. And it worked so that He might
work the greatest judgment of all when all His enemies rebelled
against Him so that they nailed Him to the cross. Did that frustrate
God's purpose at all? The single event in the history
of time, which all time revolves around, all the calendars are
dated around this event. And was that frustrating God's
will? when men took the Son of God
and nailed His hands and His feet to a cross and beat Him
and stripped Him and spit upon Him and did all the things they
did, did that at all frustrate God's will? Acts 4.26 says, The
kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together
against the Lord and against His Christ. You see, when they
were against Christ, they were against the Lord. They rose up
against the Lord and against His Christ. They weren't touching
God in heaven, but they were when they touched His Son, His
anointed. And it says, ìFor of a truth
against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou has anointed, both
Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of
Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done.î Acts 13.27 says,
ìThey that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers, because they
knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read
every Sabbath day. They have fulfilled them in condemning
Him." Always searching the Word of God, saying, I just want to
know what the will of God is so I can do the will of God.
These men didn't know the will of God. They didn't even know
what the Scripture said. And they fulfilled every word
God wrote. It sure did. It says, "...by
condemning him. And though they found no cause
of death in him, yet they desired they Pilate that he should be
slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him,
they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher."
And that was written too. Every bit of it. Everything happening
in the world right now. Everything you see happening
right now, rebellion against God, and that's what it all is.
It doesn't matter which side you're on. It's all rebellion
against God. And all of it in this world right
now is being worked together by God's sovereign will according
to God's purpose and it's accomplishing His eternal purpose. Every bit
of it. He said, Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee, and
the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain. If you see it
and it's against God, it's praising God. Guarantee it. And if it
don't, praise God, God won't let it happen. It's just how
it is. Believer, we can rejoice in that.
That ought to make us say, I know everything is running right on
track. And if you're a rebel, I'm going to tell you what you
ought to do. You ought to bow and submit to Christ and confess
Him because you ain't going to win. You just not. You just are
not. Now lastly, let me show you this.
In all of this, God is going to accomplish His twofold purpose.
He will accomplish this in everything He's doing. Verse 5, And the
Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth
My hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from
among them. Everything God does in this earth, everything that
comes to pass, shall declare the glory of God's name. He says, the Egyptians shall
know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth my hand upon
Egypt. When those enemies nailed Him to the cross and Satan was
ruling his seed and thought he was really accomplishing something
and really destroying Christ, and then when they nailed Him
to the cross, the religious folks thought they got Him out of the
way, they could get back to their charade of religion now and that's
done and over with. And God used Satan and his seed
to put Christ on the cross so Christ could crush Satan's head
and defeat all his enemies. That's what was taking place.
I guarantee you this, if we try to reject Christ, our rejection
of Christ is going to be the crushing of our own head. You
can't win. You can't win against the sovereign
God. You can't win against Him. But what His enemies did to Christ,
God had caused His name to be declared by that. You think about this. What Satan
and all the enemies of Christ did to Christ, did it snuff out
God's name? That's the very thing we've been
declaring for thousands of years. That very thing. Declaring His
name. In what Christ, how He declared
God just and the justifier. How He redeemed His people by
His blood and satisfied the law and honored it, magnified it.
We've been declaring His name for thousands of years. Just
like what Pharaoh did. All it resulted in is us sitting
here right now preaching God's name and what He did to Pharaoh.
He said, and for this purpose I have raised thee up that I
might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. The enemies that are raised up
and they really seem powerful and they really going to be a
danger to God's people and what have you in God's name, God raised
them up. to declare His power in His name. Remember that. God raised Him
up. And the second great purpose
in everything God's working is to save His elect. He said, when
I stretch forth My hand upon Egypt, bring out the children
of Israel from among them. I'm bringing them out, He said.
God used His enemies to put Christ on the cross. And there Christ
declared God just. He honored the law. And what
men thought was defeating God and was defeating His people
was Christ honoring the law of God, establishing it in every
jot and tittle, everything that magnified it for God and for
His people. That was Christ declaring God
the Justifier as Christ justified His people from our sins, right
there on the cross. Taking our sins away as the scapegoat
and as the Lamb of Atonement, making perfect atonement with
God and making us the righteousness of God in Him. And He fully accomplished it.
He fully accomplished the redemption of His people. So every hateful
word and every hateful deed, least to the greatest, is serving
this purpose. Everything is serving, it's declaring
God's name and it's saving His people. God's bringing it to
pass through His Word. He said He would. And He sends
the Gospel forth and has the Gospel preached. and raises up
enemies through the preaching of the gospel simply to show
forth His name and His power and to save His people from their
sin. Everything. In the end, every rebel is going
to confess to God that He is the Lord. He is the great I Am,
the Lord. Every one of us. And every child
that God chose in eternity in Christ Jesus will be saved. Every one of them will be saved
by Christ and not one will be lost. And when we are all delivered
before our Redeemer, both His enemies and His people, Scripture
says, at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue
shall confess that Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. Everybody is going to confess,
bow the knee and confess that He is Lord. He is Lord. Now, here is the application.
Look at this application in verse 6 and 7. And Moses and Aaron
did as the Lord commanded them, so did they. And Moses was four
score years old, that's 80 years old, and Aaron was four score
and three years old, 83 years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.
It's almost comical to picture this. You know what? Here's these
two old men, these two old fellas, they go walking up to Pharaoh,
the most powerful man in the world, and tell him what's about
to take place, what God's about to do. It's almost comical, isn't
it? Well, by their age and by their
prior falls, they knew not to trust themselves. And they looked
away from themselves. They didn't look to themselves
in this anymore. Moses looked to himself before and he fell
in unbelief. Now, he's not looking to himself
anymore. He's too old to be looking to
himself. And by God's grace, they believed God's Word and
they faithfully obeyed God. They declared His Word. And that's
all they did. That's all God told them to do. Declare My Word. They declared
His Word. The signs that Moses did work
was just a picture of His Word. That's what it pictured. But
they declared His Word. And by Christ, how did they accomplish
this? How did they accomplish this
great feat of bringing a whole nation out from under the most
powerful ruler and nation in the whole world? How did they
do that? Two old men. How did they accomplish that?
Christ made them stronger than the most powerful man on the
earth. That's how. Christ. the power and wisdom of God.
And so when they saw Pharaoh harden his heart and get all
in a huff like he'll do, we're going to see this. They didn't
judge after the flesh. They didn't look at the flesh.
They judged after the Spirit. They judged according to God's
Word. They didn't look to themselves. They said this is what the Lord
said would happen right here. This is what He said would happen.
They continued to believe the Lord, continued to preach His
Word. So let's follow that example. Look away from ourselves. Totally
away from ourselves. Believe on Christ. Trust Christ. Rest in Christ. And trust God
to do as He promised He'll do. Everything He's doing is to glorify
His name and to save His people. And what has He given us to do?
To preach His Word. To declare His Word. That's what
He's given us to do. That's it. And Christ will make
us stronger than the most powerful. That's what He does. Because
He is stronger than the most powerful. Amen. Let's stand together,
brethren. Father, we thank You for Your
Word. Make us realize how true this is. and how real this is. Wherever Your Word is proclaimed,
that's You speaking. Make us believe You and trust
You and bow to You. Lord, manifest Your great name,
and save Your people, we ask You. For Christ's honor, to glorify
Him, to give Him preeminence in all things. It's in His name
we ask it. Amen.