Exodus chapter 6, chapter 5. I've entitled this message, I Am, I Have, I Will. This is just a declaration. God
just declares who He is, what He has done, and what He will
do. In no uncertain terms. No uncertain terms. This goes
with John 15. As I said, hatred of the world
for God, for His people. This began long before the New
Testament. In fact, it began in Genesis
chapter 3. When the Lord said to Satan,
He said, I'm going to put enmity between your seed and her seed. Didn't He? I'm going to put enmity
between Those who are under the God of this world and those who
are under the God of heaven and earth. There's going to be an
end to it. End of it. In chapter 6, verse 1, the Lord
said to Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh.
With a strong hand shall he let them go. Whose hand? God's hand. It says they came out with a
high hand. Strong hand. See, our God has
hands. And we're in them. Everything
in everyone. You're going to see the glaring
difference between God who is God and the God that's world.
All through here, God says, I am, I have, I will, he shall, he
shall, I have, he shall. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
No questions asked. If only he would, no, no, God
said, if only he will. I will. I have, because I am. And I will. Before we can rest
about that. Chapter 12, it says that the
Egyptians were urgent. to send the people out. Pharaoh
shall drive them out, he said. Why? Why? Why does Pharaoh want
them gone? Why does Egypt want them gone?
Why do people hate God's people? The world hates God. Why? Different
God. Egypt had their gods. Lots of
gods. And all of Egypt got along together.
Right? We've got this God over here.
We've got this God. We worship Buddha. We worship Confucius.
We worship Mohammed. We worship Mary. We worship... All get along just fine. And
we say there's one God. Holy, holy, holy. The one true
God. Every other God is an idol. They
like that. They like that. Not their God, so we're not their
people. In Egypt? Not of Egypt. Same
with God's people today, always. Always been the case. Our Lord,
as I pointed out this morning, kept telling His disciples, you're
not of this world. When He prayed, we're coming
to John 17. You need to be here. And our
Lord said in His prayer to God, they're not of this world as
I'm not of the world. He said, I don't pray for the
world. I'm not praying for the world. But I'm praying for them
that thou hast given me. And there are others, he said,
I pray for who shall come, not of this foe, them also I must
bring. They're not of the world. They're
in it for a while, but I bring them out of it, he said. And
God made His people different, didn't He? They are different. God's people
are different. Our sinners, saved by grace, they still have this
old man, you know, just like the people of the world. But
there's a new man. He's different. Like Christ. As He is, so are
we in this world. If you said they hated me, they'll
hate you. It's that new man they don't like. I remember a man
years ago who, the Lord, he was religious for a while and he
worked at the steel mill and he was a little bit religious,
you know, and everybody is. And he was, but he didn't know
God. And he still ran around and kind of caroused around and
all that and go to church on Sundays, maybe Catholic or Methodist
or something. But the Lord revealed Himself
to him. He heard the gospel. He heard
Henry Mahan preach the gospel, the truth, and the Lord saved
him. I mean, the Lord revealed Himself
to him. And you know, his old friends told him, the fellas
at the steel mill, you know what they said? We liked you better
before. There's a difference. This change began. See, God makes us to differ.
He does. He does. Now this change in the
children of Israel began when the Lord put them in bondage
and laid heavy burdens on them. They began to groan. That's when they're going to
know God and they're coming out. Are you with me? The change began in their hearts
and minds to make them not of Egypt. When God put these heavy
burdens and trials and hard taskmasters on them, they began to cry out
and groan and moan. For a while they were in the
land of Goshen. Everything's wonderful. We love Egypt. But God, you see, in rich in
mercy, God rich in mercy sent misery. You're contradicting yourself,
Richard. The greatest thing God can do
to a son of Adam is to make him miserable in this earth. Make him realize he's in bondage.
Put him under a burden called sin. A burden he cannot get himself
out of. One of the old writers, one of
the old preachers one time said, And he was a religious fellow
before, like so many are. False preacher. Zealous, like
Saul. But he said when he heard the
truth, he realized, he heard that God demands a holiness and
a righteousness that I don't have. That God will only accept me.
He won't accept anything I've ever done. Only what Christ had
done. And he said, God, this righteousness
of God that He demands of me, I can't produce it, and He can
only give it, and it's up to Him totally. He said, it made
me mad. He was honest. He said, it made me mad. He thought all his life, you know,
it was all a man's decision, a man's will. If only you just
let God. If you let God, He wants to,
and He can. But if you'll just let Him, everything's
just wonderful. You've got it all backwards.
If you'll let me. It's completely up to Him. His choice. Only He'll
let me. And man doesn't like that. I
heard someone told me that one of our loved ones who'd been
hearing this said that, I don't think I believe that. That's sad, isn't it? It's truth. Isn't it? Is that the truth? Is this what
God said? Do you see God anywhere saying,
well, go tell Israel, please accept me. Go tell Pharaoh, please
won't you let my people. Huh? Is that the God of the Bible?
Oh, God wants so badly to bring Israel out, but He can't. They
won't let Him. He's going to bring them out. Who? He keeps
saying, I will. I will. I will. Salvation is
by His will. There you go yelling again. Yes,
open the windows. Somebody needs to hear this.
They ain't going to, but we do. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad salvation is
by the will of God? Everything's under the absolute
will of God. Aren't you glad? If that wasn't
so, I'd be in the mountains somewhere stockpiling guns and food. Because, buddy, this society
is going to hell in a handbasket. Isn't it? And our God reigns. He always
has and always will. They were in Egypt, and they
were under bondage. And there was nothing but trouble
all around them, like a lot was inside them, vexed with everything
around them. Who's running this show? Who's
reigning? Pharaoh? Oh, no. God says, you're going to see.
Didn't He? Now you'll see. And you'll know
who's reigning and who's ruling. And you'll be so glad. The Lord sent this. The Lord
sent bondage and burdens and hard taskmasters like the Lord
sends people and makes them realize they're under the law. Under
the law, strict taskmaster, makes them realize the weight of sin,
bondage to the law, can't keep it, like a priest, I can't keep
it. Makes it a heavy burden. The Lord puts them in a world
that's tempted by the flesh, and the devil, and the world,
and bound by sin, and bound by the flesh, and can't do anything
but sin. And they begin to cry. They begin
to be under this burden And then so God sends a gospel. He sends
a preacher. God sent two preachers to all
these people. Is that all there were? Is that all the preachers
there were in Egypt? Yes! Yes! How many people were
in Egypt? How many? Millions? Two million
Jews? How many preachers were there?
Two! If the people hear from God,
who are they going to hear from? Two million. Surely there's more. No, there wasn't. It's always
been that way, sister. Hadn't it? All of Egypt said, Moses, you
think you're right? You're God's only God there is?
Aaron, you think you're God's only God there is? Well, we're
smart people. They're in the world. And they heard all this, like
we do. You see, it was God's mercy to send misery. Before
there's mercy, there's misery. And it was God's mercy to send
misery. It's like all those men that
came to David in that cave. Everybody heard that. You want
to hear that? 1 Samuel 22. It says they were all in debt. See,
David was down in the cave, David, by himself. And 400 men came out of Saul's
army or reign, out from under his reign, came to David in that
cleft of the rock. And this is not my message, but
it is my message. They came to David and it says
they were in debt. They were in distress and they
were discontent. And that's exactly what God does
to every single person He brings to Christ. Makes you realize
you're under a debt you can't pay in God's love. You're debted
to God. You've never given Him a thanks.
You've come far short of the glory of God. You're in distress. What am I going to do? What am
I going to do? And you're discontent. I've got
to get out of this religion. It's not doing me any good. I'm
worse. Not doing better, I'm worse. So they came to David. What David did. I know what he
did. Absolved all their debt. No condemnation. So God sends mercy before, I
mean, misery before mercy. It's God's mercy to send misery.
There's groanings before grace. There's conviction before comfort.
There's sadness and weeping and sorrow before joy comes in the
morning, before gladness. Look at chapter 5. Here's what
happened. One, they met, the people met
Moses, they heard the truth. Remember back there, it says
they all heard that the Lord had, and they believed and they
heard the Lord had visited them, they looked upon them and they
bowed their heads in worship. They all thought, tomorrow, we're
going down tomorrow. No. How long did all these plagues
last? We don't know. It could have
been years. They wandered through the wilderness,
how long? 40 years. When they left Egypt,
they thought, yee-haw, they're all yee-haw. Yeah, they're all
yee-haw. We're there, we're out of here,
we're gone. But no, the Lord sent them the
long way, roundabout way, through troubles and trials and temptations
in the world and all that, nothing but trouble. They met with nothing
but trouble for 40 years in the wilderness. Why? Prove Him. Prove Himself. Well, they confronted Moses and
Aaron. They said, verse 21, The Lord look upon you and judge.
You have made our savor to be abhorred, to stink in the eyes
of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servant, put a sword in their
hand to slay us. In other words, you and your
preaching have caused us nothing but trouble. You and your preaching. We were
fine until we started listening to you. That's what they said. Now before they bowed their heads
and they worshipped, thank God for him. Now they're saying,
we went to work and we tell them about the Lord and they don't
want to hear it. We had friends before, they're
not our friends anymore. Caused us nothing but trouble.
Made us hated. We were coexisting. We were fine. Not anymore. Remember our Lord said this and
he said it to Moses several times because the people turned on
him. All he ever did, all Moses ever did was just tell him what
God said. His whole life is all he did was tell him what God
said. This is what the Lord said. Every now and then they'd turn
on him. It's your fault. All this trouble in the church and
the wilderness is your fault, Moses. I said, this is your fault. And our Lord came to Moses in
private and said, it's not you they hate, Moses, it's me. And here's the thing, if you
talk to someone plainly about God, about the true God, the
hatred of God will come out. It will come out. It will. This is just like the previous
study. So they complained to Moses and
Aaron. Verse 22, Moses returned unto
the Lord and said, Lord, why? Why have you brought all this
evil, evil and treated this people? And why have you sent me? I didn't
ask for this. I tried to get out of it. And
Moses, many times, thought, I don't want this job anymore. Well, Lord, why? Why all this trouble? Why have you sent all this trouble?
Since I started preaching, these people got nothing but trouble. And like I said, I want you to
laugh with me. I want you to rejoice with me,
OK? We need to realize that every single trouble we receive in
this world, we receive it from God's hand and it's good. It's
His goodness. Every single trial, tribulation,
affliction, persecution, trouble, fiery trials, weighty trials,
bad things, evil things, God's in it and it's good. Everything
that God was doing was according to His will and His purpose to
Israel to bring them out. God meant them nothing but good,
no evil. He can't do them evil. He sent
His love upon these people. And every single thing the Egyptians
and the world did to them, God sent it. And it was good. All things were working together
for their good. That's not just Romans 8, 28.
It's truth. It's who God is and what God
does. He's too wise to err. He's too good to do evil. He
loves his people too much to ever hurt them needlessly. It's all good. If you just hang
on, wait. That's why the scriptures keep
saying, wait. I say, wait. Oh, but this is
awful. The children of Israel, this
is terrible. I can't go on anymore. Wait. You're going to be shouting soon.
Shouting for joy. Wondering, how could I doubt
God? Every one of you is going to
be thinking, how could we have doubted our all-wise and wonderful,
loving Lord? How? Why? How and why would I
have wanted to go back to that slime pit? What's wrong with
me? Every single one of you, for a while. You see, deliverance has begun.
They said in verse 23, you haven't delivered your people at all.
Hang on now. Hang on. Oh yeah, deliverance
has begun. Deliverance of the heart and
the mind from complete captivity of the God of this world, that
is deliverance. You know that? As I said earlier, To take a young person that's
so immersed in this world, it's just this world has a tight hold
of them. All they can think about is this
world. I know I was there. I sat in the pew and heard message
after message after message. I'm the preacher's kid. I heard
so many messages. I was tired of hearing messages.
And I thought, as soon as this is over, bud, when I'm 17, when
I'm graduating, I am gone. I'm out of here. Not realizing. I didn't have a clear That was mercy and the grace
of God for me sitting in that pew. Because shortly thereafter,
I was in the hog pen. And I should have destroyed myself. I tried. But God began to make me miserable. and brought this prodigal back. There's nothing any wild child
in this earth has done that I haven't done. And I hate to admit that.
I hate to admit that. But there's nothing. And such were some of you. But
God. Salvation is It's a miracle. Deliverance begins when God begins
to put in the mind and the heart of a hell-bound sinner, captive
to the God of this world. You're captive. He begins to
show them, you're captive. You're in this world. You can't
get out. You've got sin in you. You can't get that out. You're
bound. You're not free. You're not your
own man. You're doing what everybody else is doing. You're blind following
the blind. You're just cowing to peer pressure. And
you're going to go over in the ditch and over the cliff just
like everybody else if God didn't do something for you. See, brother, deliverance has
begun. That's where it began. And they
all began to groan and cry out. It has begun. has begun. You know, well, I told you what happened
to me. And here I am 40 years later. They went through the
wilderness 40 years. Here I am 45 years later. Well, he hasn't delivered me
yet. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he has. You know, deliverance
has begun, but we're just waiting for the redemption of our what?
Bodies. We have been delivered from this
world. Yes, we have. You're sitting in the pew now.
I did and I left and I'm back. I'm back where I belong. Clothed, sitting and clothed
in my right mind, the mind of Christ. Worshipping the Lord. Nobody ever thought they'd see
that again. And 45 years later, here I am. Deliverance has begun, you
see. In fact, we've been quickened. We've already been quickened
again. Scripture keeps talking about being raised again. Raised
again. What do you mean raised again? Well, you who were dead
in trespass have been quickened. And all we're waiting on is to
literally, physically get out of Egypt. for him to raise these
vile bodies. And we groan, don't we? We groan. It's real sad. Real sad. Deliverance has begun now. It
has begun. Now listen to the gospel here
in these verses, and I'm going to close. It's only been 22 minutes.
22 minutes. Look at chapter 6. They said,
God hasn't delivered His people at all. Oh, yes, He has. They're
still here, but they're delivered. They're delivered. He's made us, you know, we're
not in heaven yet, but we're sitting at a heavenly place,
aren't we? Not hearing His voice yet, but
we are hearing His voice. Then the Lord said to Moses,
Now shalt thou say what I will do to Pharaoh. With a strong
hand shall he let them go. With a strong hand shall he drive
them out. And God spake unto Moses and
said, here he begins the gospel, the truth. He says, I am. It
begins and ends that way, doesn't it? He said, I am. Verse 8 begins,
I'm going to give it to you because I am. I am. What is it that he is? The first, the last, the beginning,
the end, all things, everything in between, he's all. It's God. Side in, there's none in. I am
the Lord. Not Satan, not you, not man,
not anybody. I am the Lord. You know that. You know that. He said, I appeared
unto Abraham. Who was Abraham? An idolater,
75 years old. He didn't know God, wasn't seeking
God, wasn't calling on God. Such were some of you. You might
not have been 75, but you may have been 45. Right? 35, 45, whatever. But
God came and told you, I am. Came and told you, I am your
God. As with time, he wasn't your God. You didn't think he
was your God. He said, that's not my God. I don't believe that.
I don't believe that God. And God says, yes, you do. He
said, I do. I am. I appeared unto Abraham,
unto Isaac, and unto Jacob. Brother Kelly, God calls himself
by the God of Jacob more than anything else. Oh, that makes
me happy. Why? Because I'm Jacob, just
like him. Oh, he said, I'm the God of Jacob. Fear not. Happy is he that the
God of Jacob is heaven. He said, I appeared unto Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob by the name of God Almighty. Who is he? God
Almighty. Who is? How much power does God
have? All power. What about Jesus Christ? All power, given in heaven and
earth. Power over what? All flesh. That
He should do what? Give eternal life to as many
as God gave Him. You know, people are just blind.
They can read the Bible and they're willy-nilly ignorant. Read on,
he said, but by my name Jehovah, that's I am, was I not known
to them? I am. Verse four, I have also
established my covenant with them. God came and reminds Moses
and all the children of Israel, I made a covenant concerning
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, long before they were ever around,
long before they were born. I purposed, I decided, to choose
a people, and Abraham was the first in his lineage. I chose
a people, elected a people before the world began, and I purposed
to make them my people and make a kingdom of people like them. I chose them. I loved them. I sent my son down here, the
son of David, to die for them to fulfill that covenant. They
are mine. I made this covenant. Didn't
ask anybody. I just made it. David said, you know what David
said? This is all my salvation. It's not up to them. It's not
up to anybody. It's not even up to me. Who was
it that said to one of the preachers recently said, you mean that
God purposed all this? It's all according to his will
and purpose. And he said, and I can't mess
it up. He said, that's right. Jacob, that didn't begin with
that man. It began with Jacob. Jacob would
say, you know, I tried to mess it up. Covenant's good. Covenant's wonderful. Ordered in all things and what?
Sure. David said, this is all my salvation.
My house doesn't believe this, he said. Boy, but I do. I do. He said, I've established this
covenant. It's confirmed. It's written. It's sealed. To
give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage,
wherein they were strained. The Lord's purpose is to bring
His people to be with Him forever. And if we trust Christ, we're
in Him. That means us. Man. He says, I've heard their groaning,
verse 5, the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians
keep in bondage. They're still in bondage. They
were still in some bondage, weren't they? As long as we're in this
world, we're in some bondage to the flesh, aren't we? What
we don't want to do, that's what we do. What we want to do, we
can't do. So with the flesh we serve. Right? And we've grown because of it.
You say, I've heard them. They're in bondage. But I've
remembered my covenant. I'll never forget. You say, I
can't. Gail, you want me to bring that
message again entitled, What We Can't Remember, God Can't
Forget. And what God can't forget, we
can't remember. We can't get over our sin. Our sin is ever before us. God's
people. You ever think back on all the
things, some of the things you've done? It just brings you shame. David said, Lord, remember not
the sins of my youth. Well, you know what God said
about them? Their sins and iniquities I remember
no more. Yeah, but Satan's the accuser
of the brethren. But he did this, God said. It's
not there. I don't remember. Isn't that something? He's remembered
his covenant. Verse 6, he remembers his son.
Verse 6, he says, Say unto the children of Israel, I am the
Lord, I will. Now he said, I am and I have.
This is what I have done. And now he says, this is what
I will do. Because what he has done, covenant,
is what he will do. He said, I will bring you out
from under the burdens of Egyptians. I will rid you out of their bondage.
I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, with a great judgment. What is that arm? Stretched out
arm and judgment. How does He redeem His people?
One way, the precious blood of the Lamb. When they brought the
Son of God to Calvary, they stretched out His arms and nailed Him to
the cross. And in nailing Him to the cross,
He nailed all of the handwriting of ordinances against us to his
crown. And we were redeemed, not with
a corruptible thing, but with one thing, the precious blood
of Christ. He said, I will redeem you. I
will. And great judgment. There's no
judgment. There's no condemnation. There's
no judgment for God's people. We're not going to stand in the
judgment to be judged by God. Why? Because Christ was judged. Is there anything more wonderful
you can think of? If you fear the judgment, there's
nothing more wonderful. He said, I will. I will take
you, verse 7, to me for a people. I will be to you a God, and you
shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you
out from the burdens of Egypt. And I will bring you into the
land. You know, it does not yet appear what we shall be, does
it? And I hadn't heard, say in a year, hadn't heard, neither
really have fully entered into the hearts of them whom God loves,
the things God has prepared for them. Hasn't. If it had, if we fully realized
more, you couldn't sit in this pew. You'd be singing louder
than anybody in here. I wouldn't. I will bring you into the land
concerning which I did swear. See, his oath, his covenant,
his blood. When God could swear by no greater, the scripture
says, I could swear by no greater than he swore by himself. You know, we go and swear in
a court of law, tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but
the truth, and they make us put our hands on the Bible as if
that will make us tell the truth. Right? How many people put their
hands on the Bible, the written truth, and told a lie? Well, Christ is the Bible. God who cannot lie. He is the
truth. He has promised us eternal life.
But what? But I'm a sinner. That's who
He said He came for. But I'm no good. Yeah, that's
what He told you. But I have no hope in myself.
Good. That's what He said. My only
hope, my only plea is that when Christ died, He died for me.
Heaven bound. Come on in. Is that what you
believe? Is that your hope? Yes. Come on in. Come on in. I will give it to them for inheritance,
because I am the Lord. And he started out by saying,
you're going to see. You're going to see. Let's fast
forward real quickly to chapter 14. I can't wait. This might
be three months away. Chapter 14. Go over there real
quickly. Chapter 14. We might not get
to that. I hope we don't. But look at
Chapter 14. And you know, they sang the Song
of Moses when they were delivered, didn't they? What's it about?
What God, how God brought them out and delivered them. They
sang that for 40 years. And you know what it says in
the Revelation? They're doing it right now, Sister Janette,
they're singing the song, Mama, deliver us. And I love this,
chapter 14. It says the Lord say, verse 30,
Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians
dead upon the seashore. Very intimate. And Israel saw,
Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians. And the people feared the Lord
and believed the Lord. And finally, they believed the
Lord and they believed Moses. Everything you said, Moses, is
true. How could we have doubted? Why would we doubt God? One of
the old writers said, unbelief is its own punishment. It's its own punishment. If you
don't believe, you won't be established. Why not believe and be full of
joy instead of misery? Okay, let's start to say, John,
come lead us. I wish you was here to lead us. God will keep him in perfect
peace whose mind has stayed on Him. Who? Jehovah. I am. Stand with me.