Exodus chapter 5. Title is who is the Lord? That I should obey him. What
a bold statement. And yet. A good question. A good question. Who is the Lord? That I should
obey him. You cannot obey someone you don't
know. And we know that Pharaoh did
not know the Lord. We know that. You know, two statements
made in this chapter that stood out to me when I read it, and
I'm sure it stood out to you. In verse one, let my people go. That's a command, not a request. Let my people go. And the second
is who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel
go. The first statement, let my people
go, tells us, and I believe I put my introduction in the bulletin,
but God has a people. that He is saving out of this
world. God did not create this earth
and this world in vain. He said He created it to be inhabited,
not to be void like it was in the beginning, and darkness was
upon the face of the deep. God created everything with a
purpose, an eternal purpose. and that eternal purpose has
everything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. He has purposed
everything in His Son. His Son is going to get the glory
out of everything created, out of everything that exists, and
He is going to have a people. Now it is just so, He is going
to have a people. LET MY PEOPLE GO! God is the God of election. That's a beautiful doctrine to
me that God chose me. Years ago I spoke to a man, we
were talking about the gospel when the doctrine of election
came up and it upset him, it upset him
and I thought it was interesting Here is what I thought was interesting. He has no problem with Israel
being called God's elect. He has no problem with that.
He has no problem with the elect angels. God elected a multitude
of angels not to fall, and He let a multitude of angels fall.
He has no problem with that. BUT NOW GOD ELECTING OUT OF THE
GENTILES, HE HAD A PROBLEM WITH IT. HE HAD A PROBLEM WITH GOD
HAVING MERCY ON WHOM HE WILL HAVE MERCY, AND WHOM HE WILL
HE'LL HARDEN. HE HAD A PROBLEM WITH THAT. AND
IT TOOK ME SOME TIME AND SOME YEARS GONE BY AND I REALIZED
WHY HE HAD A PROBLEM WITH IT. BECAUSE GOD ELECTING ISRAEL,
HAVING A PEOPLE CALLED ISRAEL, THAT NATION OVER THERE ISRAEL,
DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH HIS HOUSE. GOD ELECTED THE ANGELS
AND KEEPING THEM IN THEIR FIRST ESTATE. IT HAD NOTHING TO DO
WITH HIS HOUSE, HIS WILL AND HIS PROPERTY AND HIS FAMILY. BUT NOW WHEN IT COMES TO GOD
ELECTING A PEOPLE NOW, IT'S LIKE THAT'S NOW, YOU'RE
TALKING ABOUT MY HOUSE. You know, I want to be the sovereign
of my house. I want to make that choice. I
want to have a free will. I want to have a free will. As
I was talking to another man about the same time, same doctrine. And I said, God will have mercy
on whom He will have mercy and whom He will harden. He says,
and he said to me, you mean God might save one of my children
and not the other? I said, yes. He said, No, I can't have that.
I said, You know, both your children hate God, don't you? Both your children hate God.
Neither one of them want to be saved. NO HUMAN BEING HAS EVER
WANTED TO BE SAVED UNTIL GOD SAVED THEM. GOD HAS TO SAVE YOU
BEFORE YOU WILL WANT TO BE SAVED. The reason people have trouble
with election is God's exercising His sovereign will. Now we have a natural enmity
in us, it's just in us to want to be gods. We all want to be
gods, now that's the truth. That's why Adam took of the tree
in the garden of good and evil. HE WANTED TO BE LIKE GOD, HE
DIDN'T WANT TO BE UNDERNEATH GOD, HE WANTED TO BE LIKE GOD,
HE WANTED TO BE GOD. NOW THERE'S NOTHING WRONG IF
YOU WANT TO BE LIKE GOD IN HOLINESS, IN LOVE, KINDNESS, TENDER MERCIES,
THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT, BUT WANTING TO BE GOD, TO WANT TO BE WORSHIPED, THAT
ONLY BELONGS TO GOD. That only belongs to God, but
here God has a people He's going to save out of this world. He
chose them. He's redeemed them. They're His
by power and blood. Paul said, You've been bought
with a price. Every one of you who believe, you've been bought
with a price. The blood of the Son of God,
you've been bought. You're not your own, Paul said,
you're His. HE CHOSE THEM, REDEEMED THEM,
THEY ARE HIS, THESE PEOPLE HAVE I FORMED FOR MYSELF, THEY WILL
SHOW FORTH MY PRAISE. BUT SOMETHING ELSE ABOUT GOD'S
PEOPLE. GOD'S PEOPLE ARE UNDER BONDAGE,
THEY COME INTO THIS WORLD UNDER BONDAGE. NOW A LOT OF THEM DON'T
KNOW IT, NONE OF THEM KNOW IT, THEY REALLY DON'T KNOW THEY ARE
UNDER BONDAGE UNTIL GOD SAVES THEM. UNDER THE BONDAGE OF SIN,
THEIR OWN SIN NATURE JUST ABSOLUTELY CONTROLS THEM. THEY'RE UNDER THE BONDAGE OF
SATAN, THEY'RE UNDER THE SPIRIT OF DARKNESS. EVERY PERSON, NOT
JUST THE BAD ONES, THE WORST ONES ARE THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS
ONES. THAT'S THE SPIRIT OF SATAN. HE TRANSFORMS HIMSELF AND HIS
MINISTERS, IT SAYS, IN CORINTHIANS, INTO ANGELS OF LIGHT, MINISTERS
OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS. You noticed, I don't know if
you've noticed, well, I told you this last time, how popular
this thing of Jesus is getting, not the Lord Jesus, but Jesus,
how popular He's getting. And it just makes people FEEL
GOOD ABOUT THEMSELVES. THIS BRAND OF RELIGION MAKES
THEM FEEL GOOD ABOUT THEMSELVES! YOU KNOW WHAT I WANT TO FEEL
GOOD ABOUT? GOD! I WANT TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT THE
LORD JESUS CHRIST! I WANT TO LOVE HIM! I WANT TO
KNOW HIM! FORGETTING MYSELF! FORGET MYSELF! THAT WE'RE UNDER BONDAGE TO THESE
THINGS IN THE LAW! BUT I TELL YOU THIS! God's going
to have His people, is He? God's going to have His people,
and there's nothing or no one can stop Him. And as I wrote
in that article, pity the man or country that tries to stand
in God's way, that tries to stand between God and His people. Listen
to this scripture, Isaiah 43. 3 For I am the LORD thy God,
the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt FOR THEE. I GAVE EGYPT FOR THY RANSOM,
ETHIOPIA AND SHEBA FOR THEE. I CRUSHED THESE NATIONS FOR YOU. I GAVE THEM FOR YOU. IN A SENSE,
I SACRIFICED THEM FOR YOU. YOU DON'T STAND IN THE WAY OF
GOD HAVING HIS PEOPLE. NOW MOSES AND AARON, THEY GO
TO PHARAOH. And they say to Pharaoh, and this is the basis upon which
we do anything, establish anything. Thus saith the Lord. It doesn't matter what I believe
and what you believe. What does God say? What does God say? and they say
to pharaoh they didn't just go in there and said let israel
go we talked to god and he said let him go no they said come
in they went in before his presence and they stood in before this
greatest king on earth right at that time greatest king and
i and i have no doubt they say with boldness thus saith the
lord capital l-o-r-d the self-existing one he didn't know this one BUT
THE SELF-EXISTING GOD, THE ONLY GOD THERE IS, THE GOD OF ISRAEL,
LET MY PEOPLE GO. THEY BELONG TO ME, THEY'RE NOT
YOURS. We know from the scriptures God
put them there for 400 years. He said exactly how long they'd
be there, exactly how long they'd be there. Now it's time to bring
them out. Our God is exact. I tell you this, our God is dogmatic,
isn't He? There's no bargaining going on
here. We're not going to sit down and bargain. God's not going
to bargain with anybody. You know what you do at a sovereign
throne? You worship. A.W. Pink said, You worship at
a sovereign throne, all others you bargain with. You bargain
with GOD DEMANDS FULL DELIVERANCE! It s not let 100,000 of them
go. No, it s 100 sheep. If there
s 99 sheep and there s one lost, He s going to go get that one.
God s not going to lose not one sheep. That s what the Lord said.
I ll not lose one. He s not going to lose one. he lost one sheep he would not
be God, he could not be God, God can't lose and be God. He demands full deliverance and
that's good news because we have full deliverance from Satan and
the law, we have full deliverance. NOTHING CAN SATISFY GOD BUT THE
FULL EMANCIPATION OF HIS ELECT. NOTHING CAN SATISFY HIM. Now
we know that the children of Israel are going to leave Egypt
and they're going to go through the wilderness and they're going
to head to Canaan and they're going to go there and they're
going to worship God, they're going to worship God. But why
did Moses ask THAT THEY LEAVE AND GO FOR A THREE DAYS' JOURNEY
KNOWING THEY ARE NOT COMING BACK. Why did He ask this? Well, I
think He asked to show the unreasonableness of Pharaoh. He was not willing to let them
go and worship God, not even for three days. No, they're MINE! They're MINE! And this is why the Old Testament
is so instructive after you understand the New Testament, after you
understand after God has saved you, and then you understand
what's going on. You can SEE, you can SEE BEYOND
just what's written right here on just these pages here, you
can see the SPIRITUAL APPLICATION of what's going on. Let me make a spiritual application
here. Pharaoh says, No, I'm not going
to let you go. I'm not letting them go. In fact,
I'm going to make life even more hard on them, more difficult. What this shows here is how much
Satan fights. Satan that you can't see, he's
a spirit. But how much he fights to keep God's children from worshiping
God. HOW MUCH HE FIGHTS TO LISTEN,
NOT TO LOSE HIS PREY! THAT ONE TIME I WAS A PREY OF
SATAN! HE HAD ME, I WAS IN HIS CLUTCHES! Listen to Mark chapter 1 verse
25-26, And Jesus rebuked him, an evil spirit, a demon, SAYING,
HOLD THY PEACE AND COME OUT OF HIM. And when the unclean spirit had
torn him, and cried with a loud voice,
he came out of him. But after he had torn him, he
doesn't let go of his prey easy, and not easily. I did not find coming to Christ
easy, did you? I didn't find it easy. I found
it to be a real struggle, a lot of doubts, a lot of fears. I
found it to be tough. But here's a question that Pharaoh
asked that we all must ask, and be thankful that many of
you know the answer to. And Pharaoh said, Who's the Lord?
and I shall obey His voice to let Israel go. But who's the
LORD? Here we see Pharaoh's condition. It was one of IGNORANCE. IGNORANCE. Who's the LORD? I don't know
who you're talking about. Never heard of Him. Never heard
of Him. And because of his ignorance,
here's his conduct. Disobedience. I'm not going to
let him go. I'm not going to let them go. They're mine. I don't know who this Lord person
is, but they're mine. These, these Israelites are mine. They're my slaves. Pharaoh didn't
know the Lord God of Israel and no one knows God apart from a
revelation of God. No one knows him. No one. As a woman wrote Henry a letter
once, she said, You and Jimmy Swaggart are my two favorite
preachers. You couldn't be more poles apart
than those two men, but she couldn't tell the difference
between the Lord Henry was preaching and the person Swaggart was preaching. They're not the same! As I told
the man that I was talking to about the election, I said, you
and I, this is how our conversation ended. You and I don't believe
the same gospel. We don't believe the same God.
They're not the same. They're different. And I told
him, I said, one of us is right, one of us is wrong, and the day
of judgment will determine who, who's right and who's wrong.
And I'll stand, I'll stand on the gospel I preach. I stand
on the gospel I believe. I stand on the gospel of God's
glory. All my salvation is of God. I'll stand on that. I'll
go right to the throne of God with that. The Lord God can't be known apart
from a revelation. Who by searching can find out
God? No man knows the Father save the Son, and He to Whomsoever
the Son will reveal Him. GOD HAS TO MAKE HIMSELF KNOWN.
YOU CAN'T KNOW ANYBODY UNTIL THEY MAKE THEIRSELF KNOWN TO
YOU. YOU CAN'T KNOW THEM UNTIL THEY
MAKE THEMSELVES KNOWN TO YOU. You see, the knowledge of God
was lost in the fall IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG BEFORE THEY STARTED
WORSHIPING ALL KINDS OF FOUR-FOOTED BEASTS AND CREATURES AND MAKING
ALL KINDS OF IDOLS AND IMAGES. THAT DIDN'T TAKE LONG. IT DIDN'T
TAKE LONG AFTER THE FALL. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD WAS LOST. YOU KNOW THE EGYPTIANS WORSHIPED
OVER EIGHTY GODS. THEY WORSHIPED OVER EIGHTY GODS.
AND HERE'S WHAT PHARAOH SAID. WHO IS THE LORD THAT I SHOULD
OBEY HIM? HE'S NOT WRITTEN AMONG THESE GODS, I KNOW WHO ALL THESE
EIGHTY GODS ARE, AND HIS NAME'S NOT AMONG THEM. SO WHO'S THE
LORD THAT I SHOULD OBEY HIM, BECAUSE HE'S NOT REGISTERED WITH
OUR GODS. That's what he's saying. But I'll tell you something else
about Pharaoh here, he's not only ignorant of God, he's ignorant
of himself. dead spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins that's exactly how we are you know before God saved
us we think we're alive and then when he saved us we realized
we didn't have life this natural life but this natural life is
not even better different than an animal life so Solomon said
he says the same thing happens to the beast it's going to happen
to me we're both going to die We're both going to die. Pharaoh was ignorant of his spiritual
deadness. He didn't know God. That's why
he said, who's the Lord I should obey? Listen, even as enlightened
as people are in this day, they still don't know God. I watch
this one man. He's a, he's a, he's a therapist. He's real. He brilliant man.
Brilliant man. When all of a sudden now he's
gotten religious. He's gotten religious, and to listen to him,
he was trying to explain the Sermon on the Mount the other
day, and I was telling Vicki, I said, this man is so BRILLIANT,
and yet so IGNORANT, and I said, and God has taken this simple
man, right here, me, and I understand the Sermon on the Mount. I mean,
he'd give this long, stupid explanation, OF ALL THESE DIFFERENT VERSES
ON THE SUMMIT OF THE MOUNTAIN AND HE JUST COMPLETELY MISSED
IT BECAUSE HE DOESN'T KNOW GOD. HE JUST GOT IN RELIGION. AND YET I THOUGHT HERE I AM JUST
AN AVERAGE PERSON AND GOD'S GIVEN ME UNDERSTANDING AND HE'S GIVEN
YOU UNDERSTANDING. I told someone the other day,
I said, I'm glad I'm not more intelligent than I am. I'd be
a mess. I would, I'd be a mess. But no matter how enlightened
people are, they still don't know God. No amount of education
can bring you to a true knowledge of God. No amount of education. THERE'S GOT TO BE TWO THINGS,
THERE'S GOT TO BE A NEW BIRTH BECAUSE YOU DON'T PUT NEW WINE
INTO OLD WINE SKINS, THAT'S WHAT HE SAID. THAT OLD NATURE CANNOT
TAKE THIS, THE NATURAL MAN RECEIVES NOT THE THINGS OF GOD. THERE'S
GOT TO BE A NEW BIRTH AND THEN WHEN THAT HAPPENS, THEN GOD REVEALS
HIMSELF. THERE'S SOMETHING FOR HIM TO
BE PUT IN, THAT NEW MAN. THAT NEW MAN. UNTIL THEN YOU
DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO RECEIVE HIM IN. There's got to be a new
man, a new birth, a new nature, a new spirit, not just spiritual,
but that which is born of the Spirit is SPIRIT! Now you're in another realm! You're actually in another realm!
God is in a realm that naturally we have nothing to do with, God's
SPIRIT! what He says, God is SPIRIT and
they who worship Him must worship Him in SPIRIT and in TRUTH. But here's the question, Who's
the Lord? Well, He's the self-existent
One, He's the Creator, He's the Sovereign. Nebuchadnezzar found
that out, He found that out, God put Him out to pasture. UNTIL
HE LEARNED THAT THE MOST HIGH GOD RULES IN HEAVEN AND EARTH,
IN THE ARMIES OF HEAVEN, AMONG THE HABITATS OF THIS EARTH, AND
NONE CAN STAY HIS HAND OR SAY UNTO HIM, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
NONE CAN DO THAT! HE'S THE SOVEREIGN AND HE'S THE
SAVIOR! GOD'S OUR SAVIOR, YOU KNOW THAT?
GOD'S OUR SAVIOR! NOW IF GOD'S MY SAVIOR, I CAN'T
BE LOST! IF GOD'S MY SAVIOR, I'M GONNA BE SAVED! IF GOD'S
MY SAVIOR! Now if he's done all he can do
and the rest is up to me, I'm going to perish. I'm going to
perish and everyone else who believes that. But God's my Savior. God is. And there's something
else here and I'm not going to go much longer on this. I made more notes than I knew
I wasn't going to preach through all this. But it helps me to
just study that much. I have to study a lot to get
a little. That's the way I am. I just have to study a lot to
get a little. But here is Pharaoh. And he says, I'm not going to
give you any straw. In this sense, he represents
the law because right now he is the law over them. What he
says goes. NOT GOING TO GIVE YOU ANY STRAW,
BUT THE TAIL OF BRICKS IS NOT GOING TO DIMINISH." And when I read that, it just
jumped out at me. The law demands perfection, but
it won't provide it. The law demands perfection. THE
TAIL OF BRICKS IS NOT GOING TO DIMINISH AT ALL. AND WHEN IT DID, THEY WERE WHAT? BEATEN. TWICE, IT SAYS IN VERSE
14 AND 16, THEY WERE BEATEN. THEY WERE BEATEN, I'M SURE, WITH
MANY STRIPES. AND THEY COMPLAINED ABOUT IT. AND WHEN THEY COMPLAINED
ABOUT IT, PHARAOH JUST MADE IT EVEN HARDER. YOU KNOW, YOU CAN
COMPLAIN TO THE LAW, AND THE LAW IS THE LAW. IT AIN'T GONNA
GET ANY EASIER, IT'S NOT GONNA GET ANY BETTER, IT'S NOT GONNA
LET UP. THAT'S GOD'S LAW. IT DEMANDS PERFECTION BUT IT
WON'T PROVIDE IT. And they're beating for it. He
says in verse 18, GO THEREFORE NOW AND WORK. That's what the
law is, WORK. That's what false religion does,
WORK. YOU KNOW WHAT GRACE DOES? IT SAYS BELIEVE! BELIEVE ON THE
LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED! JUST BELIEVE! BUT IS THERE HOPE FOR SUCH A
PEOPLE THAT'S IN SUCH BONDAGE? WE LOOKED AT THE QUESTION WHO
IS THE LORD THAT I SHOULD OBEY HIM? He's the self-existing one. He's the sovereign. He's the
creator. He's the savior. He's the redeemer. He's got our savior. That's who
he is. Those who know him, that's who
he is. And then we see that the law demands, but it won't, it
doesn't provide what it demands. He said, no, you, you still,
you still have to produce the same amount of work when I'm
not going to help you. You see, grace provides what
the law demands. The Lord Jesus Christ, by His
obedience, provided what the law demanded. I mean, through
the jot and tittle. But is there hope for such a
people in bondage? 400 years! Long time, isn't it?
Long time. Brethren, I was born in bondage.
You were born in bondage. You know, there's some people
whom the Lord doesn't save. Usually it's rare, but He doesn't
save them until they're old, been in bondage for many years. But there's hope because the
Lord said this, let my people go, let them go. I found a ransom. And we're going
to see that in chapter 12. I found a ransom. I see the blood
when I see the blood I'll pass over you you're gonna let my
people go Pharaoh you're gonna let him go you know the people
got real upset and chatted Moses and Moses went and went and he
spoke to God and he said why have you done this evil of this
people and he says in verse 6 I'm not gonna go far here but then
the Lord said to Moses now shalt thou see what I'll do to Pharaoh
WITH A STRONG HAND SHALL HE LET THEM GO, AND WITH A STRONG HAND
SHALL HE DRIVE THEM OUT OF HIS LAND. NOW YOU'RE ABOUT TO SEE
WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. ONE OF THESE DAYS, ONE OF THESE
DAYS, AND IT WON'T BE LONG, WE'RE GOING TO SEE, WE'RE GOING TO
SEE THE GLORY OF THE LORD, WE'RE GOING TO SEE THE STRONG HAND
OF THE LORD, AREN'T WE? right now we hear about it and
we do by faith we see we see it some of them you know we know
in part we preach in part but one day we're gonna see how great
our deliverance is out of bondage all right