Amen. Thank you. Exodus chapter
10. There's so much here, and we've
got to cover some verses. Read verse 24 through 26 with
me. Exodus 10. Pharaoh called unto
Moses and said, Go ye, serve the Lord, and only let your flocks
and your herds be stayed. Let your little ones also go
with you. Moses said, Thou must give us
also sacrifice and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the
Lord our God. Our cattle also shall go with
us. There shall not an hoof be left
behind. For thereof must we take to serve
the Lord our God. We know not with what we must
serve the Lord until we come hither. We do not know. He's
going to instruct us. But there's so much here. Pharaoh
kept hardening his heart, didn't he? The Lord hardened his heart.
Pharaoh hardened his heart. In spite of God's clear judgment,
what a picture He is of mankind. In spite of God's clear judgments
and warnings and providences, He hardens His heart, so God
hardens His heart. The Lord is the one who only
can break the heart, open the deaf ear, the blind eye. He must
do it. This man is so obstinate. God, in justice, leaves him alone. And that hardens, that man hardens
his heart. Pharaoh, he's a picture of Satan. How foolish to fight against
your Creator. And no one has fought against
him more than Satan. That makes him the biggest—and
I say this carefully, fearfully—but surely he's the greatest fool
of all. He knows. He knows who God is. He's seen his power. He's seen
him take the angels captive. But how foolish to fight against
our Creator. He said in verse 24, go serve
the Lord, just let your flocks and herds be stayed. Your little
ones can go with you. Satan doesn't mind religion. He doesn't mind religion. Preaching
doesn't bother him. Preachers don't bother him. It
doesn't bother mankind. Most of the preaching that goes
on today doesn't bother anybody. It's not offensive. There's no
power in it. So he doesn't mind. He doesn't
mind a bit. In fact, his seat over in Revelation
is talking about Satan's seat right in the middle of religion.
That's where he does his chief work. He doesn't mind religion,
just don't, just leave off the burnt offering. Don't be talking
about this burnt offering. Don't be talking about the blood
sacrificed. Don't be preaching Christ crucified. He knows the fire of God. He
does. He's seen God use that power
to take people from him. He knows. So his chief work,
the thing he desires more than anything else and tries to do
is keep people from hearing the gospel, which is the power of
God, which frees men from Satan's captive. So he doesn't mind. Go. Just don't offer sacrifice. But Moses says we must. We must. Thou must give us sacrifices
and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God.
Moses knew. All of God's people know. We
don't approach God but by a burnt offering, by a sacrifice, by
a blood atonement. Isaac, young Isaac, going up
that mountain with his father, he knew. Our children know. Here's
the wood, here's the fire, where's the lamb for what? Burnt offering. We've got to have a land. We've
got to have a burnt offering. Burnt offering, mind you. Chapter 12, we're going to look
at the Passover and the land that was roast with fire. I kept
saying that. Don't sod it with water, roast
it with fire. What is this all a picture of? Our God is a consuming fire.
Our God will punish sin. He will by no means clear the
guilty. God is holy in just more than anything else. Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord God. The God who answers by fire is
God. He lights us in. That's the God
of the Bible. We haven't changed. We cannot
approach this God who is a consuming fire. We cannot enter into the
fire. We cannot come near him except by a burnt offering. See, that burnt offering is a
substitute for us. It's what Christ did on Calvary. He went through the fires of
hell, the fiery wrath of God for our people. The fire of God
was extinguished on that sacrifice, on Christ, and now there's no
fire for us. That's how we come to God. That's
the faith we bring, that we believe. We know that. Our children know
that, at least in their head. The world doesn't know that. We don't need to burn it off.
God's not like that. That holy God loves us. He loves
us all just like we are. Okay? And if you're just loving
and kind and do the best you can, you're sincere, it doesn't
matter, your religion doesn't matter, none of that matters.
We're all going to get to God. Just love one another. You've
got to have a burn off. You've got to have a burn off. So the God of this world, Satan,
his one thing that he endeavors to do is keep people from hearing
the gospel. Go, but just don't take these lambs with those that
know we've got to. This is how we glorify God. This is how we sacrifice to God. You know, if it's true that all
this doesn't matter, then Christ died in vain. Christ is the lamb. Christ is the one who came, our
burnt offering. If we don't need one, then Christ
died in vain. I like the way, I look at verse
26, our cattle shall go with us, there shall not a hoof be
left behind. That's how we serve the Lord,
his glory, his honor. I like the way Brother David
Edmondson approached this. Are you listening, Brother David?
What a good message. He preached on this and you can
listen to that after you hear me preach it. But it was such
a good, you need to listen to it, outstanding. And his whole
focus was no compromise. You're not going to compromise
a trip. Pharaoh kept trying to get Moses
to concede something, to compromise. And David said, we must stand
our ground. We must not, it's a military
term, we must not give an inch. Like Martin Luther, here I stand,
I can do no other. Though you stand alone, you stand
for the truth. Back in chapter 8, Pharaoh said,
you can sacrifice, but just stay here. Remember? Stay here in
Egypt with us. If you can sacrifice, don't go
anywhere. No, no, Moses said, we've got to go without the camp. Come ye out from among them.
Moses said, what we do is an abomination to the Egyptians.
It is. The gospel is an abomination
to the world. It is. We can't worship with
the world. We can't meet together with the
world. Their county-wide prayer meetings and tent meetings can't
do it. What we do is an abomination
to them, and what they do is an abomination to us. No, no,
we've got to go out to camp. He said, stay here. No, we're
leaving. Then Pharaoh said, well, go. Chapter 8 said, go, but don't
go too far. That's what he said. Don't go
too far. And Brother David said, people
think we take this gospel too far. You're taking this too far. This doctrine. Too far. You're
too dogmatic. You're too narrow. Who said narrow? Who said straight is the gate
and narrow is the way, and few there be that find? Who said
that? Jesus Christ. You're too narrow, you're too
dogmatic. The truth is dogmatic. There's no gray area in the truth.
It's black, it's white. Dead, alive. Lost, found. God, man, poles apart. We cannot, we will not compromise
one word of truth, one doctrine. of God's grace, of God's truth,
of God's gospel. Not one. You know that there's
an acrostic that stands for the gospel. Somebody, I don't know
who, came up with it. Tulip, T-U-L-I-P. My dad, when
he taught the preacher's class, the first thing he said to all
the preachers was, Tulip or terminate. In other words, you preach this
or you're out of here. Not four points. All of them,
because it all stands together. You compromise on one point and
it all falls. And it starts with total depravity.
If man didn't die in the garden and you don't need, Christ didn't
need to come, you don't need the Holy Spirit, you don't need
a sacrifice, you don't need any of these things. He died. What
happened in the garden? He died. What's that mean? It
means he's dead. So can he do anything? Can he
save himself? Can he come to God? No. Well,
who is then? Unconditional election. Nobody would come to God if God
didn't choose them, to give them life, to reveal the gospel to
them, to bring them, to call them. All that the Father giveth
me, Christ said, chose before the world began, wrote their
names in the Lamb Book of Life. They're the only ones that'll
come, and they wouldn't come if God hadn't chosen them. Unconditional
election. That means He didn't choose you,
condition on anything you are or ever will be or do. Aren't
you glad? Why did He do it? Why did He
choose you? Because He did. The good pleasure of His will.
Isn't our God good? Limits of atonement, that means
particular redemption. That's the one they always hedge
on. That's the one. Just leave that off. Jesus died
for everybody. Just leave that off. We'll accept
the rest, you know, we're sinners, and God elects you, whatever
that means, but just leave off this. He didn't. He died for
everybody. No, he didn't. Because what is
it that puts away our sin? Well, it's the blood in our faith.
No, it isn't! Faith's the result of the bloodshed! No, no, no,
no, no. It's the blood that makes the
atonement for the sin. And we don't apply it, and we
don't accept it, and we don't make it affectionate with our
faith? God sends it and says, put that on the level of the
doorbell. Put that in their heart, put
that in their mind, put that there. It's God's work. Particular redemption. When the
high priest went in, I've got to move on. I was afraid of this. This is the gospel. When the
high priest went in to the Holy of Holies to offer up that blood
atonement, who did he do it for? The world? No sir. He had names
on his breastplate and on his shoulders. And Christ said the
names of his people are engraved on the palms of his hands, and
that's who he died for. And every single person that
God chose and gave to Christ and Christ came here to die for
will be saved. Christ did it all. That's good
news to me. And then there's irresistible
grace or power, the Holy Spirit. The modern world thinks the Holy
Spirit does nothing but make you talk like an idiot and act
like a fool. No, no, no, no, no. The Holy
Spirit takes the things of Christ and shows them unto you. The
Holy Spirit's the one that gives you new birth. You won't be born
again except by the Spirit, by the Word, in perseverance of
the same. Or as Brother Crabtree calls
it, perseverance of the same. Saints will all be in glory. They will persevere in the faith.
Why? Because that faith is God-given. It's not of yourselves. They're preserved and they will
persevere. So, Moses said, and I say, and
every true preacher says, no, we won't give an inch. No, we're
not going to compromise one doctor, not one jot or tittle, not one
home. Can't do it. Not a hoof left behind. Not a
doctrine left off. We preach the truth, all of it.
The only way to serve God's glory. You see, he said, this is the
only way we can serve God's glory. This is the only gospel that
really gives God all the glory. You know that? This gospel, Alec
Calvinism, whatever you will, Tulum, it's the only gospel that
gives God A-double-L the glory. All of it. Gives Christ all the
glory. Gives the center only hope in Jesus Christ. Boy, that's
good hope. That's a good hope. That's the
only hope there is. All right, verse 27. But the Lord hardened
Pharaoh's heart. You know, if the truth doesn't
break you, it'll harden you. You know, people come in to hear
the gospel, and I'm glad, because people come, first time I believe
they've probably ever heard it, and I'm glad, but I have mixed
emotions. I really do. Because if they
don't believe this and bow to it, it'd be better if they never
heard. You know that? It's true. And if a man doesn't bow, you
know what he'll do? He'll boast. If a man doesn't bow, he'll perish.
He'll perish. Sarah will harden his heart.
I was going to read Romans 9, that talks about whom he will,
he hardens. For this purpose he raised up
Pharaoh to show his power, to show that salvation is of the
Lord. Completely of the Lord. Not of
him that willeth or him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. Whom he will, he hearteneth. So, oh, may the Lord cause us to
bow. Verse 28, Pharaoh said, from me. Take heed of yourself. See my face no more. And the
day thou seest my face, thou shalt die." And Moses said, you've
spoken well. I'll see thy face again no more. You know, man rages against the
truth and then he makes all his boast of his religion and his
idle threats. And the fact is, the divine irony
of this, Pharaoh said, I don't want to see your face again.
You see my face, and you'll die. The opposite is true. The opposite is true. Listen
to this. The divinarity of this. It says
the whole world someday, the kings of the earth, And the great
men, the rich men, the captains and the mighty men, every bondman,
every free man, hid themselves in dens and rocks of the mountains
and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us
from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath
of the Lamb. I don't want to hear this gospel
anymore. I don't want to hear this truth anymore. I don't want
to see all this talk about the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. I don't want to see that anymore. Okay? But you will. You will. And you'll be crying
to hide from the face, and you can't be hidden. But bless God,
we're hidden. And we love his face. We want
to see his face, don't we? And when we see his face, we're
not going to die. We're going to live. That's life,
to see his face. To see his glory. One more plague. God said in chapter 11, the Lord
said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one more plague upon Pharaoh
and upon Egypt. Afterwards he will let you go.
When he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you. One
more plague and surely you're going out of here. No ifs, ands,
buts, or maybes about it. Surely. Surely. Now, surely the
Lord has sent all these plagues upon this generation that we
live in. Hasn't he? We've been looking at such clear,
clear pictures of all that goes on in our modern world. Surely,
right now, surely, the plague right before death of Egypt and
life for the Israelites, darkness. Surely, darkness covers this
land, doesn't it? It's no doubt about it. You can
feel it. It's thick, dark, surely. But bless God, we have light
in our dwelling. We have light in our dwelling.
And surely, when our Lord said, when you see all these things
come to pass, lift up your heads. Why? Your redemption draweth
nigh. Surely our Lord is coming, and
surely we're going. Sure. Why is this so sure? Why are you so sure? Because
Jesus Christ is our surety. Because his word will not fail. He said heaven and earth will
pass away, but not one word of mine shall fail. Surely he cometh. Yea, come quickly, Lord Jesus. And he said to speak this in
the ears of the people, verse 2. Tell everybody. Tell my people.
Tell them. It's soon now. It's almost over. One more plague. Speak. Tell everybody. Get ready. He says, now borrow of his neighbor,
every man his neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold.
They're leaving. Why did he tell them to borrow?
He kept saying that. He kept saying that. You'll borrow
this and borrow that. They're going on a little journey,
which is a picture of our journey through this world. But they
don't own anything. We don't own anything. Do we? We just borrow. From who? The
earth is the Lord's and it pulled us there. Nobody owns anything.
God owns it all. He said, don't take these cattle.
Who do the cattle belong to? Cattle on a thousand hills here.
All the gold and the silver in the mine here. Religion, false
religion. God needs your money. It's not
my money. God doesn't need it. It's His
money. It's His cattle. It's His. It's
all His. We're just returning. We're just borrowing it. Because there's come a time we're
not going to need it. We're not going to have it. We don't need it. He said in
verse 3, God gave them favor in the sight of the Egyptians.
You know, we live in the land of Goshen, don't we? We really
do. As the Lord blessed you in your
lifetime, can you not count your blessings one by one and see
what great things your God has done? Oh, all your life? All your life? All my life? We've been so blessed. God has given us favor. It's
not that the world loves us because Egyptians, when they're leaving,
they're going to thrust them out. Get out. You're our problem. You know, the whole world would
like to completely wipe out Christianity. Get rid of this. It bothers us,
our conscience, and all this Bible talk. It bothers us. Get
rid of it. But God has given us favor in
the sight of Jesus. Our enemies, in the presence
of our enemies. He made us a table in the presence
of our enemy. Why don't they come in and kill
us? God won't let them. Listen to this. The Lord said,
I gave Egypt for your ransom. Ethiopia and Saba for the youth.
They serve you. Everything in this world serves
God's people until the last elect is brought in. Then there's no
more need. The job you give, the job you
obtain, some Egyptian gave you that job. No, no, no, no, no. Promotion comes from the Lord.
He raises up and casts down. You make it rich, you make it
poor. You've got that job because God told that man to give her
that job. Why? So you can spread the gospel.
That's right. So you can serve your brethren.
That's it. So you can have some food and rain. And the rest of
it is for the glory of God. Right? There's no other reason.
The Egyptians served themselves. Egyptians are all about pleasure
and riches and money and fame and fortune. How can we make
ourselves happy? But God's people, how can we
glorify God? How can we serve our brethren?
So he gave them favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Look
at verse 3. Even Moses was great in the land
of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants. Moses. Egypt thought
highly of Moses. Look at that song. They still
do. They don't like what he said.
You know that? They won't do what he said. They
bragged on the prophet, didn't they? The Pharisees bragged on
Moses. He says, if you love Moses, you
love me. He loves me. People talk about
Jesus. Well, It's ironic, isn't it? But God did that because God's
men are respectable men, men of integrity, men that command
respect. You know that? They're not fools
like these preachers are. They're not. And the world recognizes
that. He doesn't act a fool, he doesn't
preach a fool. The people that go there aren't
fools. I meet people from other places. And there's a marked
difference between those that sit under the gospel and the
truth than people out there in false religion. Do you see it? There's christianism away. People
that are called christian talk about luck. A whole lot of prayer
and a lot of luck. Seriously. You don't know God. That's not the language of God's
people. God's people are serious. God's people are sober. God's
people are devoted. God's people are set apart in
the gospel. God's people are faithful. God's
people are true. God's people are men and women
of integrity. Lydia, Lama, keep going, Paul,
James, aren't they? They're not fools. My dad was quite a preacher. The Lord blessed him and used
him mightily, like Moses. There was a lawyer who came to
hear him preach, a lawyer. Now, lawyers are about the most
dishonest. Next to false preachers, they're
the most dishonest people on earth. I went golfing with a man, Clyde
Perdue, and he was a lawyer. I liked him, he liked me, and
we went golfing. I said, I said, Clyde, do you
realize that you and I, he said, there's two professions I hate
and despise, lawyers and preachers. Preachers and lawyers in that
order. But anyway, this lawyer came to hear my dad preach. And
he met him at the door afterward. And he said to him, he said,
if I believed In my case, if I argued my case like you believe,
like you prayed, I'd never lose a case. You mean it. You're serious. You believe what
you're saying. It's not put on. It's not fake.
It's not phony. It's not hypocrisy. This is real. You believe this, don't you?
It was Benjamin Franklin that went to hear George Whitefield
all the time. Benjamin Franklin. had like eleven or twelve illegitimate
children. People call these men our fathers.
Not mine. Anyway, he would go to hear George
Whitefield preach the gospel. And somebody said to Benjamin
Franklin, why do you go hear Whitefield preach? You don't
believe what he preaches. He said, no, but he does. He does. And I had an impression
of him. So Moses was given favor in the
sight of the Egyptian. He wasn't a fool, was he? He
wasn't a coward, Kelly. He stood before that man and
said, Thus saith the Lord. Didn't back down, didn't compromise. He wouldn't give an inch. That's the way all God's preachers
are. Man, her dad, like my dad, he's just as staunch and just
as faithful and true to the Word now as he was when he was a young,
fiery, All right, I want you to look at
this this way with me. Moses said to the people, verse
4, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight I will go out in the
midst of Egypt. The Lord said, I'm coming in the midst of Egypt.
All the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. The firstborn
of Pharaoh is sitting upon the throne. The firstborn of the
maidservant is behind the mill. And all the firstborn of the
beast And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of
Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it
any more. Didn't our Lord say, who cannot
lie, the soul that sinneth shall surely die? Didn't he? And religion quotes that and
they use that as some kind of scare tactic, but it's true.
They really don't believe that, and religion really doesn't believe
that. We do, George. But now listen to this. He says
in verse 7, "...against any of the children of Israel shall
not a dog move his tongue." When he's going out, It will not one dog bark at one
of my people. You're going to know, that you
may know, that the Lord God doth put a difference between the
Egyptians and the Egyptians. Now look at this, this way, this
is such a blessing to think about this. He said over in chapter
10, and not a hoof be left behind. And in chapter 11, he says, and
it won't a dog bark at them. They're all going. Not one of
them will be missing. Not one of my chosen people.
Not one for whom the blood was shed. Not one. Not one that trusts
in him, David said, shall be left out. Not one. Not a hoof left behind. But look at it. We don't need
him. Not one. Not one for whom Christ
died can possibly be left behind. Can't do it? That means the blood
of Jesus Christ was not one. Right? What if one of those Israelites
that had blood on his door went out and he died, huh? What would
happen? And the blood's worthless. God's promise is worthless. He's
in the house. He believes in God. His whole
hope is in the blood. He can't perish it. God's word
wouldn't be true with it. God's promise wouldn't be faithful.
See, this is all our hope. It's not in us, it's Him. It's
his promises. We're standing on the promises.
We're standing on the rock of Christ Jesus. I'm here to tell
you. I'm sent to tell you that he
that stands on the rock shall not fall. He that stands in the
rock, when a scourge comes by him, will not come out again.
He that is under the blood of the Lord. Not one hoof shall
be left behind. Why does he say hoof? What does
sheep have? Hooves. You know, in the ark, when God
told Noah to go out and round up all the animals as clean animals.
They have two characteristics of clean animals. No unclean
animals had this. He said that they must part the
hoof and chew on the cud. Didn't they? All the clean animals. Seven
of them. That's perfection. Not one of them would lose their
maiden, and one would die, and the other one would live. Seven.
Christ is that seven. Anyway, he said the clean animals
will part the hooves and chew the cud. Matthew Henry said that. All of God's people. They part
with the world. They part with their sin. And
they chew on the gospel. Clean animals, they eat grass. What do sheep eat? One thing. Grass. Cows. Some of you have
had cows. I love to watch cows in the field,
don't you? Sheep, I love to watch them.
They'll eat that grass, eat that grass. You think, don't you?
Ain't you got enough? Ain't you got enough? Oh, eat that grass,
eat that grass. They've got, what, three stomachs?
And then after they've gotten so much grass, then they'll stand
there and Bounce up what they've already eaten and chew it some
more. You say, that's grub. No, that's meat. Is that you? You see, we can't take all this
in right now. It's just wonderful that we're
eating and eating. This is good, this is good, this is so good.
It's so good, but you can't take it all. You're going to leave
here and the Lord's going to bring it back to your mind and
you're going to chew on it some more. Because you haven't gotten
all out of it that you need. And all I love is chewing a cud,
chewing a cud. Is that all you all do? Is that
all you eat? It is. And then he said in chapter 11,
when they're leaving, I'm not going to let a dog bark
at them. Not one dog will be barking at
my people when they're going out there. You see, all our lives
we live amongst barking dogs and roaring lions. Don't we? Satan is a roaring lion, seeketh
whom he may devour. In Psalm 22, the psalm of the
cross, our Lord came down here as a man, as our substitute,
and he said, Dogs have encompassed me. He said, the wicked have enclosed
me. He said, deliver my soul from the sword, my darling, from
the power of the dog. And we say that. In Isaiah 54,
the Lord talks about these, 56, He talks about these dumb dogs,
greedy dogs, devoured, can't have enough. That's preachers,
false preachers. They're everywhere. Everywhere. Barking. And they're
barking. You ever have a dog in the neighborhood
that barks a lot and wakes you up? I'm hard of hearing, but
we've got dogs. Our neighbor's got like five
or six dogs. You know, you laugh at me for
having two cats in the house. All those dogs are in that house. Plus two or three cats. But they
let them out, and... And brothers and sisters, does
not everything you hear vex you? Does not what people are saying,
what preachers are saying, what they're writing on these bulletin
boards and all that about our God? God said this, God said
that. No, He didn't. Barking dog. Barking
dog. I'm tired of it. Well, one of
these days, no more barking dog. No more
roaring lion. No more temptations. No more
snares. No more pets. Enemies. No more evil thought. No more nothing barking at us. That's too good to be true. And
I'll remind you, somebody hasn't heard this surely, but I have
many times and I want to hear it again. Virgie Jones. Your sister Virgie sat right
over there for many, many years. Most of you knew her. Oh, how
she loved the gospel. That's what she called the gospel.
And everybody she ran into, her family, everybody said, that
ain't no gospel down there. You need to come to our church.
That's how she said it, didn't she, David? Our church. You hear
the gospel. That ain't no gospel. Well, the
Lord gave her a heart attack when she was in the ICU and we
went to see her. Me and I both went to see her.
And she was in there and the family was outside. We went in
to see her. And she was concerned about one
thing. She said, they're going to want to put me in a nursing
home. She said, I don't want to go to no nursing home. She
said, I'll have to listen to all that bad preaching. Honestly. That's the only thing. I don't know if there were barking
dogs. You know the Lord took her the
next morning. No more barking down, no more
bad preaching. The next preacher she heard was
Jesus Christ. That's what happened.