Let's open back up to Exodus
5. Exodus chapter 5. And let's read verse 1. It says, Moses and Aaron went
in and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, the Lord God of Israel, Let my
people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. Now let's think about this for
just a second. Moses and Aaron are Hebrew. And as far as Pharaoh is concerned,
they're slaves. That's what he thinks of them. Okay? Moses said to the Lord
back in chapter 3, verse 11, look at this. He said, Who am
I that I should go unto Pharaoh? and that I should bring forth
the children of Israel out of Egypt." Who am I? And then in chapter 4 verse 10,
he said, Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore
nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant, but I am slow of
speech and of a slow tongue. I know that feeling. I understand what he's talking
about. Who am I? But do you know what God's promise
is to His servants and to every single one of His people? When you are weak, that's when
you're strong. We're all weak, aren't we? Religion is strong. They're so
strong? We're all so weak? When you are
weak, then you are strong. Look at chapter 5 verse 1, And
afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith
the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold
a feast unto me in the wilderness. Can you imagine the grace that
had to be given to them to have the courage to walk into Pharaoh's
palace with all his guards and all his army and point their
fingers in Pharaoh's face and say, Thus saith the Lord. God was with them. I couldn't
do that. These men were God's true messengers. And they had God's true message. They didn't have words to just
pacify Pharaoh like everybody else was doing. They didn't just tell him what
they thought he wanted to hear. Now let's not make him mad. They said, Thus saith the Lord. They didn't say, now Pharaoh,
God loves you. And He has a wonderful plan for
your life. But, no, he didn't say that. They didn't say, Pharaoh, if
you will let Him, God wants to ask you to let His people go. They said, Pharaoh, thus saith
the Lord God of Israel, let my people go. You have no choice in this matter. That's a wonderful message, isn't
it? They are going to hold a feast
unto Me in bewilderment." That's going to happen. Do you know that that is still
God's message today? It is still the same message. The message has not changed. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
Let my people go. He didn't say all people. Let my people go free, that they
may hold a feast, a joyful, happy celebration unto Me in the wilderness. What a message that is. I'm so
thankful God's called me to be a true gospel preacher and not
a false preacher. I'd hate that message. I really
would. It's a message of good news. I get to tell people good news
every time I stand up here. When I was really young, my dad
pastored a church, you know, And I learned at a very early
age there's a difference. And in what we believe and what
they believe. What my dad preaches and what
my friend's dad preaches. There's a difference. And there
was a time when I was a young kid that I thought our message
is all bad news. And they're all happy and good
news. I was wrong. Our message is the Good News. Now the fact is, I'm bound. But
the message is, you're going to go free. Thus saith the Lord. Look at
chapter 10, verse 9. Exodus chapter 10, verse 9. I love this verse. And Moses said, We will go with
our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters,
with our flocks and with our herds will we go, for we must
hold a feast unto the Lord. We must, and everybody's going. We're not leaving one person
or one thing behind. We must go. The message of God's truth is
a message of authority. I want to show you that in Acts
17. Turn over with me to Acts chapter 17. Acts 17, look at verse 22. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in
all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld
your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the
unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare,
I unto you, God that made the world and all things therein,
seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples
made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands as though He
needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life and breath and all
things. And hath made of one blood all
nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth. And
hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their
habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they
might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from
every one of us. For in Him we live and move and
have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said,
for we are also His offspring. For as much then, as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
likened to gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's
device, and the times of this ignorance God winked at, but
now commanded all men, everywhere, to repent. Because He hath appointed a day
in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that
Man, whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto
all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead. Commandeth. That is the message. Commandeth. The message is not, won't you
give your heart to Jesus? It is a commandment to repent. Don't turn. Just listen to 1
John 3.23. It says, And this is His commandment. that we should believe on the
name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave
us commandment." Commandment. We are commanded to repent. We
are commanded to believe. Commanded. We have no choice
in this matter. No choice. The ball is not in
our court. It's not. We have no choice. Now listen to this. We believe
in TULIP, right? The I stands for Irresistible
Grace. That means when God says, Believe,
you don't have a choice. That's the commandment. It's
irresistible. I cannot resist Him. Thanks be
to God, or I would. I would. God's message of truth
is not an invitation. We will not give an invitation
at the end of the service. No one is invited. Nobody. God's message of truth is not
an invitation. It is a declaration. And that's all it is. It's a declaration of what God
demands from sinners and what Christ has done for sinners. That's all it is. That's all
it is. Now the reason Lucifer was cast
out of heaven is because he was an unbeliever. He was the very first free willer. Free will began with Lucifer. He did not believe that God was
who He said He was. He did not believe His Word. And this is the exact same response
that every unbeliever has when they hear the Word of the Lord.
Turn back with me to Exodus 5. This is the exact same response
that every unbeliever has when they hear the Word of the Lord.
Every unbeliever. Look at verse 2. Pharaoh said,
Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel
go? I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go. Who is the Lord that I should
obey His voice? What he's saying is, who does
he think he is? The pride of a man causes him
to stiffen his neck and harden his heart and he says, I will
not bow. I will not. Who is the Lord that I should
obey His voice? Oh, we're all going to find out. Mercy is finding out in the 3
score and 10 that He has given us on this earth. Judgment is
finding out after that. But we are all going to find
out. Turn with me over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. 2 Thessalonians 1. Verse 1 says, Paul and Silvanus
and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians, in God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you. in peace. You've had grace given
to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet,
because that your faith, and faith is believing God, your
faith groweth exceedingly. And the charity, that means the
love, of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth.
That's grace and peace from God. That's what that is. Verse 4,
so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for
your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations
that you endure. Which is a manifest token of
the righteous judgment of God. that you may be counted worthy
of the kingdom of God for which you suffer." What he's saying
is, all these trials and these tribulations, they ought to be
a token to you that you're one of the Lord's because you're
suffering for Christ's sake. Verse 6, seeing it is a righteous
thing with God, watch this, to recompense tribulation to them
that trouble you. And to you who are troubled,
rest with us, or rest in this. When the Lord, when the Lord
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels
in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He shall come
to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them
that believe. Because our testimony among you
was believed in that day. Wherefore also we pray always
for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and
fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work
of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
may be glorified in you and you in Him according to the grace
of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." What he's saying is,
grace and peace be unto you because you believe. God's shown mercy
to you because you believe. And He's saying the sad truth
is all who don't will, but it's going to be too late. We look
for His coming. The clouds be rolled back as
a scroll. The trump shall resound and the
Lord shall descend. Even so, it's well with my soul. But with that coming, Oh, judgment's
coming. Right after that, the fire of
God and the judgment of God is coming. Who is the Lord? He said, Vengeance is mine, saith
the Lord. That's who the Lord is. Who is
the Lord? You don't have to turn, but Philippians
2 says, there's going to come a day when every knee will bow. Don't want to. Forced down. And every tongue will confess.
Don't want to. Jerk it out. That Jesus Christ is Lord. That means He's God. That means
He's my Judge. That means He's the Savior. And
it means He's the King. Who is the Lord? Our text back
in Exodus chapter 5, Verse 2, Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord
that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not
the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. Verse 3, And Moses and Aaron
said, They said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray thee, three
days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our
God, watch this, lest He fall on us with pestilence or with
the sword." They knew who the Lord was, didn't they? That was
the mercy of God to them. While they were on this earth,
they feared God. They knew who the Lord was. Now
notice the two different things that Moses tells Pharaoh. In
verse 1 he said, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people
go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And
in verse 3 he said, Let us go, we pray thee. three days journey into the desert
and sacrifice unto the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with
pestilence or with sword." First He said, I'm speaking on the
behalf of God. And then He said, I'm speaking
on behalf of us. God says and we say. First he says, this is what God's
blessed heart has purposed. And then he says, this is what
our sinful heart needs. Deliverance. Deliverance. We're bound to sin. And if we
don't know that, I really pray that God would reveal that to
us. You hear a man say that and it's kind of in one ear and out
the other. Maybe you believe it, maybe you don't. Maybe it
gets a hold of you, maybe it doesn't. But if it hasn't, if we don't really know that,
may God reveal the truth to us. But look at this, in verse 1,
Moses told Pharaoh, God says, we're going to have a feast.
That's what God said. We're going to be happy. There's going to be a wonderful
time of rejoicing. Why? In verse 3 He said there's
going to be a sacrifice. That's why. Something is going
to die. Something is going to die in
my place. Something is going to die for
me, instead of me. A believer's only happiness is
in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. Once a sinner understands everything
in this life condemns me to hell. Once a sinner understands that,
my walk condemns me to hell. It's not good enough. My thoughts, let's get honest
about those. That's the one thing we really
have to get honest with ourselves about is our thoughts. I've said
it before and I'll say it again. I'm just so thankful that I don't
see people actually do the things that I think. My thoughts condemn
me to hell. My words condemn me to hell. I wish I could take back almost
everything that comes out of my mouth. My love, and here's
why, it's a selfish love. It's a selfish love. It condemns
me to hell. My religion condemns me to hell. I am a condemned man. Everything
I do is wrong. But Christ, Everything he did in this life
commends me to God. Everything. His walk. Tonight we're going to look at
baptism tonight because we're going through John and it's next.
And it just hit me. He went into a town and I thought,
of all the times that the Lord chose to come into this world,
He could have come into a time of luxury, air conditioning,
cars and planes. He chose to come here and walk.
He just walked. His walk commends me to God. His thoughts, all of His thoughts,
while He was continually in communication with the Father, they commend
me to God. His words commend me to God. His love,
His unconditional, unselfish, true love, it commends me to
God. His religion, His worship, His
praise commends me to God, and then in the garden of Gethsemane..."
You know what happened in the garden of Gethsemane? He became me and I became Him. That's what happened. Turn over
to Mark 14. We're about to read two passages
of Scripture. This is the holy Scripture, but
this is most holy. Mark 14 verse 32 says, And they came to a place which
was named Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples,
Sit ye here while I shall pray. And he taketh with him Peter
and James and John, and began to be sore amazed." Now I had
the privilege of thinking about that all week long. And you all
have just heard it now for the first time. So I pray the Lord
will let you enter into this. He began to be sore amazed. What that means is astonished
utterly. He taketh with him Peter and
James and John, and he began to be astonished utterly. and to be very heavy. And saith unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful unto death. Tarry ye here, and watch. And
he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed
that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And
He said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee. Take
away this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not what I will,
but what Thou wilt. As He went there, and as He began
to be sore amazed, at that moment, Not only did He know my sin,
He felt it. That's holy. He took three men with Him, and
He went to pray to God the Father. And as He was walking there,
He became astonished, utterly. He said, I'm so heavy. Not only did He know my sin,
He felt it. Now let's read the same account
in Luke 22. Verse 39 says, And He came out
and went as He was wont to the Mount of Olives, and His disciples
also followed Him. And when He was at the place,
He said unto them, Pray that you enter not into temptation.
And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled
down and prayed, saying, If thou be willing, remove this cup from
me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine be done. And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. God the Father was giving
him dying grace. That's what He was doing. He
was giving His Son dying grace. Sent an angel to strengthen Him.
Verse 44, And being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly, and
His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to
the ground. And when He rose up from prayer
and was come to His disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow,
and said unto them, Why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest you enter
into temptation. That was substitution. All of their sin went into Him. And as soon as that happened,
they were all able to just rest. They all fell asleep. Their sin
left them, lifted me. He said, I'm heavy. They were
lightened. And it all flowed into Him. A believer's only real happiness
is in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses told Pharaoh
in verse 3 of our text, without this sacrifice, God is going
to fall upon us with pestilence or with sword. But thanks be
to God. The Lord Jesus Christ went three
days journey into the desert. and sacrificed unto the Lord
our God for us. Actually, He did it as us. If a sinner ever gets a hold
of that, you talk about a feast. Listen to this, don't turn. Hebrews
7.26 says, He became us. Now if I'm a murderer, and a
judge sentences me to die, and somebody says, I'll die for
him, and they kill that man, justice has not been served. I was a murderer, not him. I might do it again. Christ didn't just die for me. He died as me. That's the good news. We call
it the gospel. Gabe Stoniker was judged by God. in the person of Jesus Christ. When God judged Him, God judged
me. And because of that, Romans 8
verse 1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. I died in Him. Paul said, I am
crucified with Him. That's what it means. A real
substitution took place. He became me and I died. And therefore, I became Him. Adopted into the family of God.
A son of God. Thus saith the Lord, This is
the declaration of the Lord. And hearing this declaration
causes one of two results. As the gospel goes forth, one
of two things takes place. A sinful heart will either be
broken by that, broken by their sin, broken by what Christ did
on that cross, and they'll receive the love of the truth. I love the truth. I acknowledge
that it's all true. Everything that says about me
is true, true, true. A sinful heart will either be
broken and receive the love of the truth, or it will hate it
with every fiber of its being. And it will reject the very Word
of God Himself. Look in our text, Exodus 5, verse
4 says, and the king of Egypt said unto
them, Wherefore do you, Moses and Aaron, let the people from
their works get you unto your burdens? And Pharaoh said, Behold,
the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest
from their burdens? And Pharaoh commanded the same
day the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, You
shall no more give the people straw to make brick as heretofore. Let them go and gather straw
for themselves. And the tail of the bricks which
they did make heretofore, you shall lay upon them, you shall
not diminish aught thereof for they are idle. Therefore they
cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let there more work
be laid upon the men, that they may labor therein, and let them
not regard vain words." Moses said, Thus saith the Lord. Pharaoh said, They're just vain
words. Listen to this quote. The same
sun that melts the wax hardens the clay. Lord, melt me. Break me. Give me a love of the
truth. Cause me to receive it. Cause
me to believe it. Cause me to confess it. Let me
be one of the people at your feast. I want to be. The joyful marriage supper of
the Lamb. Do you remember Wanting to date
somebody. You're not dating them yet, but
you want to. Do you remember that? High school
or middle school or whatever. You talk to somebody who knows
them. Well, what did she say? What did he say? How did she
say it? What was the tone of how she
said it? What do you think she meant by that? My sister moved to Rocky Mount
before I did. She got married. And right before
I moved, I was interested in Hannah. And I called Monday morning,
Thursday morning. I knew she saw her at church
the day before. Hannah got to a place where she said, do you
ever just want to talk to me? Just want to know anything about
me? Not really, not right now. Every now and then Hannah would
actually talk to Hannah. And she'd say, yeah, I talked
to her and this is what she said. All ears. God's people love and live to
hear. Thus saith the Lord. It's my life. It's my life. What did He say? How did He say
it? What do you think He meant by
that? That's why we're gathered together
right now. What does He have to say? Let's close with an example of
that. I'm closing with this. I want you to go to Nehemiah
chapter 8. It's two books before Job. Nehemiah chapter 8. I think this will forever be one
of my favorite chapters in the Bible. Does everybody have it? Nehemiah
chapter 8. Verse 1 says, And all the people gathered themselves
together as one man into the street that was before the water
gate. And they spake unto Ezra the
scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord
had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the
law before the congregation, both of men and women. and all
that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh
month. And he read therein before the
street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday,
before the men and the women and those that could understand,
and the years of all the people were attentive unto the book
of the law." Verse 5 says, And Ezra opened the book in the sight
of all the people. For he was above all the people. And when he opened it, all the
people stood up. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the
great God. And all the people answered,
Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads
and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Verse
8 says, So they read in the book, in the law of God distinctly,
and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.
And Nehemiah, which is the Tershithah, that means governor, and Ezra
the priest, the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people,
said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord your
God. Mourn not, nor weep, for all
the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Then He
said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet. and send portions unto them for
whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy unto our
Lord. Neither be ye sorry, for the
joy of the Lord is your strength." Isn't that wonderful? Thus saith the Lord. Lord, speak to me, speak to me,
speak to my heart. All right, may the Lord bless
His word. Let's stand together.