As it may please God to bless
us together this evening I will speak to you from the book of
the Exodus chapter 6 and reading verses 6 to 9. Exodus chapter
6 and reading verses 6 to 9. Wherefore say unto the children
of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under
the burdens of the Egyptians and I will rid you out of their
bondage and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and
with great judgments and I will take you to me for a people and
I will be to you a God and you shall know that I am the Lord
your God which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the
Egyptians and I will bring you into the land concerning the
witch I did swear to give it to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob
and I will give it to you for an heritage I am the Lord and
Moses spake so unto the children of Israel but they hearkened
not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage. I am sure to some extent we are
familiar with the accounts of the journeyings of the children
of Israel and also the situation which develops to bring them
down into Egypt and also the promises which are given to Abraham
and to Isaac and to Jacob and the words that God has spoken
were to be fulfilled but they were being fulfilled in a way
which was so different no doubt to what the Israelites expected And we have this as an account
in the Word of God to encourage us in our earthly journey. Because our earthly journey takes
a similar pattern. And we should not therefore think
that we are exempt from following the pattern laid down in the
Word of God. Our nature automatically assumes
that our life will be different and our life will be easier and
we won't have to endure the situations which Israel did well we shall
learn as we journey on that we have such an account to encourage
us so that we don't give up and so that we don't fail and that
we realize that the Lord has said and he will bring it to
pass In these verses, in the 6th chapter,
verses 6 to 8, the words of the Lord commence with this statement,
I am the Lord. And it concludes with this statement,
I am the Lord. And it's a great blessing if
we realise that we today still have the same God who is over
all our little lives in every detail as he was with the Israelites. Now, just for a moment, consider
the condition of the Israelites. Moses had been 40 years in the
back side of the desert. God was teaching, God was instructing,
God was preparing him to come and to lead his people out of
Egypt. it had taken 40 years to do that
to compliment the 40 years that he enjoyed in Pharaoh's palace
learning all the rules of the royal state and now God had equipped
him 40 years later than he anticipated but nonetheless the appointed
time had arisen and he comes therefore to the Israelites and
tells them of what has occurred and God's words to him and to
Israel and of course how encouraged they were what do they think
deliverance was at hand deliverance was perhaps to be immediate they
would be able to leave the situation which they were in that burdensome
position well They would be able to leave
but not before they had to be brought a lot lower and suffer
a great deal more. Pharaoh's attitude to let Israel
go was not at all a happy event for Israel. He was utterly against letting
those slaves depart, those who were producing all those bricks
for their building work. He wasn't going to let them go.
And therefore, what did he do? He made their burden much heavier,
much heavier. And Israel thought, well, is
this the way of deliverance? Here our burden is so much more
difficult. No straw provided to bind the
bricks together. And only not any reasonable straw,
they had to go and pick up the stubble. I'm sure most of us
know what stubble is like when the corn is carted. Not laying
there, it's got to be carted or pulled off. It's a very laborious
process. And then they had to come and
bring it back and then make the bricks. And they were not allowed
to make any less bricks that had been made previously. Well
naturally we can add an impossibility. And so they weren't able to keep
the task that they were supposed to do. And their leaders were
beaten because they hadn't produced the result that Pharaoh wanted. What a trying time it was. The
very opposite was it not to what Israel would have anticipated.
And we know what occurred. And they met Moses and Aaron
who stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh. And
they said unto them, The Lord look upon you and judge because
ye have made our savour to be a board in the eyes of Pharaoh
and in the eyes of his servants. They have a sword in their hand
to slay us. What hard words they were for
Moses to hear. But that's how it appeared. And
it was all the path that God had determined for Israel of
old. And it is true today that God
has determined a path for us which may be much more difficult
than we thought at one time. And we may have complained about
it. Well, Moses, what did he do? What could he do? He came and we read, and Moses
returned unto the Lord. It's a good place to go, isn't
it? In our lives, may we be found coming and returning unto the
Lord when all natural help has disappeared. But we know that
we have a God who is the same yesterday and today and forever. I am the Lord, I change not.
Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. And so that Moses
came and returned unto the Lord and said, Wherefore hast thou
so even entreated this people? Why is it that thou sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to
speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people, neither
hast thou delivered thy people at all." No sign of any favour,
no sign of any freedom. Well, that was what Moses came
and spoke to the Lord. Was the Lord silent? No, the
Lord wasn't silent. The Lord knew what He was doing.
The Lord knew what He would do. And in so doing, He would get
greater honour and glory to His great and holy name. So at the end, there was a total
and a complete deliverance Israel came forth with a high hand,
but there were many things to learn and much blessing to be
enjoyed. And the Lord spoke to Moses and
told him these words, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh,
for with a strong hand shall he let them go. and with a strong
hand shall he drive them out of his land and God spake unto
Moses and said unto him I am the Lord and I appeared unto Abraham unto
Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty but by my name
Jehovah was I not known to them And I have also established my
covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land
of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And I have
also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the
Egyptians keep in bondage. And I have remembered my covenant."
Boy, that was a great statement, was it not? To Moses, to encourage
him, But God wasn't backtracking on His promises. And God does
not backtrack on His promises. What He has said comes to pass.
We read so often in the Word of God. Bless God for it. And it came to pass. And it came to pass. Yes, God's
ways come to pass. And all that Pharaoh could do
would not hinder the grace and glorious work of God because
He had promised. He had said that Israel would
be delivered from that land of Egypt and they would come into
that promised land, the land of Canaan, the land flowing with
milk and honey. And that was that promise which
Israel were depending on. They were there for 400 years
in that captivity. The years got worse, to begin
with they were easy, but gradually got worse and worse and worse. And so it is sometimes in our
lives, it may begin in an easy way, but it then gets worse and worse
and worse. And we then wonder, Whether it
will ever come to pass what God has declared, what is being done. Faith is
being tested. Faith is being tried. It always
has been. It always will be. And your faith
and my faith will be tried today. And so we have read here what
the Lord said to Moses. And then he speaks these encouraging
words to say to Israel. Now, they are very wonderful
words. Let's just read them. I am the
Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the
Egyptians. And I will rid you out of their
bondage. And I will redeem you with a
stretched out arm and with great judgments. and I will take you
to me for a people, and I will be to you a God, and ye shall
know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from
under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will bring you into the
land concerning of which I did swear to give it to Abraham,
to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you for an heritage. I am the Lord." Well, that was
a tremendous statement, wasn't it? that Moses was able to declare
the Word of God to Israel. And we might think, well now,
surely they should settle back and realize there would be a
wonderful deliverance, but what's the result? And Moses spake so
unto the children of Israel, but they hearkened not unto Moses
for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage. And we might think,
well, that's a very strange thing. Well, it's not really. Because
the truth is that God brings us into these situations where
we have to recognise that it is totally the Spirit's work
to convince us of his word. We cannot, in and of ourselves,
take to ourselves the promises of God. The promises in the word
of God are so many. And people may say, well, there's
a promise which is suitable for you, and there's a promise which
will encourage and help you. Unless the Lord comes and applies
that word, it will not be a promise to you. It will not have any
effect in your heart and it will leave you in a cold condition. See why we have such a statement
here in the Word of God to encourage us in our spiritual life. I remember quite a few years
ago I visited a godly lady and we were speaking about the promises
of God and she was a very gracious lady and she said you know Stephen
I can't lay hold on those promises I can't lay hold on them and I was able to say to her
the time will come when you will be able to lay hold on the truth of God the time came when she was near
her end and when she spoke those words there was no evidence that
she was near her end and it was some time later and she said
to me Steve and I can now claim those promises So we should not expect to always
be able to claim a promise and take it to ourselves, however
applicable it may be. Surely these words were so applicable
to Israel, we would think they would jump at them and rejoice
in them, take them to their heart, bless God for them. But they couldn't because of
the anguish of spirit, and for the cruel bondage. It may be therefore, you see,
God brings us into these times of anguish of spirit, which is
really between our soul and God. And it may be, you have this
expression, cruel bondage. Yes, for Israel were under bondage
in the Egyptians, and Egyptians weren't going to let them go
and God's people are under the bondage of Satan and my friend
Satan is not going to let us go but Satan won't be allowed to keep
us Satan won't be allowed to because God's promises will be
fulfilled and so here in these verses we know that the Lord
God did appear and those things which were spoken in these verses
did come to pass and he told them and I will in these three
verses there are seven occasions when the Lord says I will and
although perhaps we may feel We cannot lay hold of such promises
at the moment, which apply to our spiritual life, yet to be able to believe that
there will be a deliverance. And so the Lord said, and I will
bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And that's a very tough time,
to be under the burden of the Egyptians. They had no time really
to meditate, no time to do what they wanted to do. They were
under cruel taskmasters. My friends, you and I are under
cruel taskmaster, the devil himself. He will not give us any opportunity
to do those things which are right. He will bring everything
into our lives. He will crowd things in. so that we're not able to give
diligent time to the things of God. And I will bring you out from
under the burdens of the Egyptians. Well, we may be under a burden. The Lord knows what burdens He
places us under. We don't all have the same burdens. But God does give us burdens. And those burdens we have to
bear. And because of the weight of those burdens, we perhaps
cannot believe there will ever be a time of deliverance. The situation seems too hard,
too difficult. Nothing is impossible with our
God. The wonderful word is have faith
in God. I will bring you out from under
the burdens of the Egyptians. So whatever burden you may be
under and you may have had a promise that you would be delivered and
there seems no way now to be encouraged by such a statement
as this. As the Lord says, He will, I
will. Man won't be able to. Don't look
to man. He won't be able to deliver you
from this burden. There was Moses and Aaron. They
did their best, didn't they? It wasn't successful. It made
it worse. And if we look to man, the situation
may get worse may not get better but here we have this statement
I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians
and I will rid you out of their bondage that means that that
bondage won't return you may have thought perhaps
But the condition, the burden we were under was being removed. And then it may come back with
a greater power. That's what Israel were in. Moses
and Aaron turned, they thought the bondage was going to be lifted.
But instead of that, it came back worse. But when the Lord works, the
work is done. and I will rid you out of their
bondage." What a blessing, isn't it, to know that? The burdens
which are upon us, we will be rid of by the grace of God, in
His time and in His way. There's still some time to go,
there's still some great tests, but nonetheless, God's promise
was fulfilled, and I will redeem you with a
stretched out arm and with great judgments. Redeemed. It's a lovely word, isn't it?
Redemption. It's a gospel word. Redemption. Under bondage. Brought out. Redeemed. The price paid. But we could not pay to free
ourselves. These Israelites, they couldn't pay to be released. But God came, and my friends,
God redeemed them. And of course, we have the beautiful
picture of that redemption in this book of Exodus, when after
all those miracles, Pharaoh would still not let the people go,
although sometimes he relented for a little while and then got
back on his word. And so Israel was still in bondage. But my friends, the time was
arriving. The time was arriving when they
would be freed. And that time of freedom would
be a wonderful occasion because not only would they be freed
physically, they would have set before them the glorious picture
of the redemption of their soul, which of course was so exceedingly
precious. What a picture it was then on
that night, that never to forgotten night, which we know as the Passover
night, when Almighty God in his great love and sovereignty to
his church instituted that great Passover and there figuratively was so
clearly set before the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ and how
the deliverance was only to be achieved by the death of that
Lamb that land was the first year as perfect as possible it
was slain and the blood was taken and the blood was shed was placed
upon the door post and the lintels and what did they signify without
shedding of blood there is no remission there is no forgiveness
try and picture Israel in their bondage in that land under oppression
and now being now having set before them this great plan of
deliverance and they were to all take a lamb
every household take a lamb and just say it at the right time
they all joined together surely now There was hope. Hope in the blood of the Lamb. Hope for us today in the blood
of the Lamb. I will redeem you with a stretched
out arm and with great judgments. Nothing can resist the power
of God. And so Pharaoh had done all he
could. He thought he was so great and powerful that God was going
to show him what he would do. And so we know that on that Passover
night, there was only that safety for those who were inside the
dwellings who passed under the blood. My friends today, if we're
in bondage, there's only one place of safety. So we enter
in to the household of faith through the shed blood of the
Saviour. That's the only way of entrance.
We'll bless God for it. And so we have this grace and
important statement, and I will redeem you with a stretched out
arm and with great judgments. There wasn't any doubt. I will,
said the Lord. Every interlight, I will. and I will take you to me for
a people and I will be to you a God. Well perhaps that's been
our real cry, our real concern that we might be numbered amongst
the church of God amongst the household of faith and yet we
weren't able to take hold of these promises ourselves We found
ourselves like the Israelites here. They hearkened not unto
Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage. But the time
came. God fulfilled his promise. I
will redeem you with a stretched out arm of great judgment and
I will take you to me for a people and I will be to you a God. Well, how vital that is. to be blessed with that knowledge
that the Almighty God was going to deliver Israel. The Almighty
God is the only one that can deliver us and is the only one
who can say, and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.
Because man cannot apply this word to the soul of the believer. It is the Spirit of God which
does it. And because it's the Spirit of God which does it,
we give honour and glory to His great and holy name. And ye shall
know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from
under the burdens of the Egyptians. See, here is a very clear evidence,
is it not, of deliverance. No doubt about it, was there?
They'll be able to now look back and realise, yes, God has appeared. God has been faithful. He has
brought apart his promises. And we do know this truth, that
I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the
burdens of the Egyptians. We are brought out by God. We couldn't bring ourselves out. Couldn't do anything ourselves.
But God did it. Do you know it was a wonderful
deliverance, wasn't it? The people went and they took all the goods of
the Egyptians, they loaded them with goods and gifts and jewelry.
They went out with a high hand in a very different way to what
perhaps they anticipated. They may have anticipated creeping
out as it were at night, but no, God went with them. And it
went out in a high hand. You see, God blesses. My friends,
God doesn't bless by halves. When God works, His work is done. And there's a clear evidence
that it is His work. Because it's a work which Israel
couldn't do. And it would be a work that you
and I cannot do. That is a work which God does. And therefore, he will have the
honour and the glory. I am the Lord, your God, which
brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. Now, to and from Israel. The
Lord doesn't stop there and say, well, now you've got out of Egypt,
I'm going to leave you there. The Lord is with His people. And He tells them, and I will
bring you unto the land concerning the witch. I did swear to give
it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And I will give it
to you for heritage, for I am the Lord. Now Israel would have
been familiar with the promises of God. You've been familiar
with what the Lord has spoken to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And there was their hope. Their hope was on those truths
which had been set before them. And yet how sorely tried and
tested had been those promises in their eyes. What a test of
faith it had been. It virtually turned their back
upon God because of the anguish of spirit and for the cruel bondage. But, you see, the Lord gave them
this word, and I will bring you in unto the land concerning the
which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.
What a blessing to have a word like that. The Lord says, I will
bring you. You see, it has a broad scope
and it has a small scope has a broad scope to all the household
of faith has a small scope which directs the word clearly to us
as individuals because we do need our individual faith to
be encouraged and strengthened to know that the Lord is with
us and perhaps concur with the lines of the hymn he who has
helped us hitherto, yes by God's grace I can say that, will help
us all our journey through and give us daily cause to raise
new Ebenezers to his praise, new stones of thankfulness to
remind us of God's promises which he was fulfilling and I will
bring you in unto the land concerning which I did swear to give it
to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob What you see here was a statement
they could now go back to. And they could plead these promises
as God had come and delivered them and brought them out of
Egypt. And they realized now the Lord had performed these
things. They were able then to go back and to plead the Lord
would indeed be gracious and merciful to them in these things,
which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob, I will give it to you for an heritage. Yes, a heritage. That which is incorruptible and
that which is undefiled. And that which is reserved for
us. It was reserved for Israel of
old, that place in Canaan. My friends, God has gone to prepare
a place for His children today. I go to repair a place for you,
and if I go to repair a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. It's a wonderful truth, isn't
it? And may we not be found under
this anguish of spirit and cruel bondage that we cannot take such
a word as that to our heart. But may the Lord indeed come
and show us He has delivered us from that place of bondage,
and therefore this promise will be fulfilled. I will give it
to you for an heritage. Yes, that land which is very
far off, that place of glory, where the Church of God will
be at last bound together in that bundle of life, around that
throne of God in heaven, singing the praises of our Saviour. forever and forever. So as we're
thankful the Lord graciously finalized these words with this
great promise. So may we be able to consider
these words of promise to us today. And Lord may we not be
found in this situation rejecting God's word. Although perhaps
we may be under anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage Yet may
God give us that faith to stretch out and believe the great truths
which God spake to ancient Israel and God speaks to you and to
me today. Wherefore, say unto the children
of Israel, I am the Lord. Remember that, I am the Lord.
And I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians
and I will rid you out of their bondage. and I will redeem you
with a stretched out arm and with great judgments and I will
take you to me for a people and I will be to you a God and ye
shall know that I am the Lord your God which bringeth you out
from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will bring you
in unto the land concerning the which I did swear to give it
to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob and I will give it you For an
heritage I am the Lord. Amen.