Exodus chapter 5. Both messages today, I couldn't
get very far. The first three verses here in
Exodus, and one verse in John 15. I hope it will be a blessing. I believe it will be. These three
verses, these struck me, just a praise here. Look at verses
1 through 3. Exodus 5, 1 through 3, afterward,
that is, after Moses and Aaron met with the people and told
them the good news, how the Lord was bringing them out, they bowed
their heads and worshiped. After that worship service, it
says, 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. 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. And 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, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the
sword. I was struck by this line, verse
1. It says, let my people go that
they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. Verse 3 says,
let us go that we may enter the desert and sacrifice unto the
Lord. Now, the sacrifice is the lamb. They're going to very shortly
know that it's the blood of a lamb that's going to bring them out.
The feast that they're going to hold is the Passover feast,
the lamb and the unleavened bread, okay? God is bringing His people
out to wander in the wilderness and worship. That's all they're
going to do for 40 years. Are you with me? They're going
to wander and they're going to worship. So is that it? That's it. Let my people go that we may
hold a feast. That's why God's going to let
them go? He sure is. That's why he's bringing them
out. Is that all they're going to do? All their lives? Yay and amen. Now who wants to
go? Huh? If we want out of these
slime pits, just wander a little while and worship our Lord who
brought us here. That's the life of every believer.
You know that? The Lord chose the people to
bring them out of this world to the praise of the glory of
His grace. And He did it by the blood of
the Lamb. Now there's the message. The
whole message. All right, this is going to be
a very plain message. That's Will, the second message.
We're going to look at three things. We're going to look at
the sovereign God, we're going to look at his chosen people,
and we're going to look at how they're redeemed by blood. That's
the message. That's the message of Scripture.
Now, there were many gods in Egypt. God said that he was going
to come down hard on the gods. of Egypt will destroy them. There
were many gods in Egypt. Egypt represents the world, always
has represented the world in the Scripture. There are many
gods in this world today, aren't there? Small g. Do you know that
there are 4,000 religions in the world? They say there are 2 billion
Christians in the world. That is just not so. Crime would
practically be non-existent if that were so. It's just not so. There are 45,000 Christian denominations
in the world. 45,000 denominations. That is
sects, s-e-c-t-s, sects, divisions. We believe this way. We're all
Christian, but we believe In the U.S. there are 200 denominations. So many that call themselves
by Christian, Mormon, Catholicism, Jehovah's Witnesses. They are
not all Jews that are of Israel, and they are not all Christians
who use the name. Scripture says there's one Lord.
Scripture says there's one faith, one God and one Father. of his
people. He's not the father of all, Romans
9 clearly tells you, is he? And our Lord said in John 6,
45, they shall all be taught of God. All of God's people are
taught of the same one God. And every single one of them
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is their denominator. Denominate means that's what
divides us. God's people are not divided. They're one. They're one. They're all taught of Him. They
all believe. They all worship one way. Verse 1 says, Thus saith
the Lord. One. A definite article. The Lord God of Israel. And Moses
and Aaron said, He's met with us. This God, this one true God,
has met with us. Don't you know Pharaoh and whoever
was in that court today laughed and mocked? You think you're
God's only one and He's met with you and not us? You know they
thought that. Who do you think you are, Moses
and Aaron, to say that God's met with you and He doesn't meet
with us? That's what God said. That's
what they said. He, in verse 3, he said, the
God of the Hebrews, the God of the Hebrews, the Lord our God,
that's our God, the God of the Hebrews. All right, now in these
three verses, as I said, we have the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth. The truth of who God is, a true
and sovereign God. The truth of who His people are.
They're His chosen elect people. You can't read a chapter in this
book and not see that God chose a people. And those are the ones
He's going to save. And we're going to see the blood
of a lamb. Now this is the Gospel story.
This is the story of all Scripture. The Bible is you can pretty much
divide it up in three sections. You've got the Law and the Prophets,
the Old Testament. And then you've got the Gospels,
and then you've got the Epistles. Well, these three have one thing
to say. Note that. One truth. God is
sovereign. God has an elect people. They're
all saved by the blood of Christ. And this is the truth, the one
truth. This is the Gospel. Any other
Gospel, any other The doctrine is false. Alright, let's look
at these three things and then we'll go line by line, verse
by verse through these three verses. The one true sovereign
God. He said in verse 1, Thus saith
the LORD, LORD capital, whenever you see the word LORD capitalized,
the name, capital letter, that's Jehovah. That's Jehovah. His name means self-existent,
self-sufficient, eternal, unchanging, having need of nothing and no
one. Before the worlds, before anything,
God says, I am. You know, I'm talking a little
bit about false religion today, and I hate it, The Scriptures
does, denounces it over and over throughout the prophets and the
gospels. Our Lord did, often did. But there's one Lord. Men say things like this, God
needs you, God believes in you. That's another God. When you meet the God of Scriptures,
when you're born of God, and God opens your blind eyes, What
you find out is I believed another God. That wasn't God at all. I didn't know God. That's what
Saul of Tarsus found out. I was zealous for God, but I
didn't know God. I was lost. Religious, but lost. Knew the law, but lost. He's the Lord. Lord of lords. He's a king, and nobody voted
him in. Kings don't get voted in. They're
born that way. That's God's Son, isn't it? Long before Christ walked this
earth, He said, I've set my King on my holy hill of Zion. Now
kiss the Son. Every person in the Old and New
Testament bow at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's King.
Whether you know Him or not, He's your King. They say things
like, let go, let God. Let God what? Is there anything on earth that
God must They must let God do anything. God said in Isaiah
43, I will work and who shall let it? Did He say to the sun,
won't you let me let you shine? Psalm 115, go over there, Psalm
115. You know, David made fun of the
gods of his day and don't you love 1 Kings 18 where Elijah
got up on Mount Carmel and he mocked the gods of his day. He
said, cry louder. Just like they were meeting together
like a Pentecostal meeting, you know, jumping and shouting and
cutting themselves and dancing all over the place. And he said,
isn't God hearing you? He said, cry louder. He must
be hard of hearing. He made fun of him, didn't he?
He said, maybe he's indisposed. That's what they think. God's
like us. Look at Psalm 115. Not unto us, O Lord. And this
is quoted twice. Not unto us, O Lord. Not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy. Everything's by
the mercy of God. And thy truth say. The truth
of who? For telling us the truth. Revealing the true God to us. And Christ the truth. Why do
the heathens say, where is now their God? Our God. This is the
God who is God, capital G. Our God is in the heavens, and
he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. That's the God who is God. Any
other God is an Now he goes on to describe their
gods. Their idols, that is, their man-made
images. The word imagination comes from
image. This is the way they imagine
God to be. He has no hands but your hands.
Where in the Bible does it say that? Every line, every page
talks about His hands. His feet shall stand on Mount
Zion that day. This is God. Salvation is to
know this God. That's what Christ said. This
is life eternal. They might know Thee. The only
true God and His Son He sent with a mission to accomplish
and He accomplished it. If He didn't, you're a goner.
If it's up to you, forget it. If it's up to Jesus Christ, yay. Look at verse 4. Their idols
are silver and gold. That is, idols that they make
and fashion and the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but
they can't speak. Eyes have they. They see not. Ears, they hear
not. Noses have they. They smell not. They have hands,
but they can't do anything with them. Feet have they. They can't
go anywhere. He said they have to carry Him
everywhere. Isaiah 46, they carry their God around. Their God's
on their dashboard. Their God's on their mantle.
They can pick Him up and carry Him wherever they want to. In
Isaiah 46, God says about His people, I carry you. I've carried
you from the cradle and I'll carry you all the way to the
grave. Two sets of footprints in the sand? No. There's always
been one. Always. Look at verse 8. They that make them are just
like them. What's that mean? Dead. Dead. They have no eyes. They can't
see. They have no ears. They can't hear His voice. They're
dead. Unless God opens their blind
eyes and deaf ears, they will never know the living and true
God. Isaiah 14. Turn over there real
quick. Isaiah 14. Oh, these verses. Commit them to memory or mark
them. Have them where you can give
every man a reason for why you believe who God is. Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14, you have it? Look
at verse 12. It talks about Lucifer. Oh, you
haven't fallen, Lucifer, son of the morning. Cut down to the
ground. Who did this? Over in Revelation,
it says an angel came down and grabbed the serpent and cast
him out. Who's that? Jesus Christ. You said, verse 13, now this
is a powerful, angelic creature. This is Lucifer. This is Satan.
A powerful, angelic creature. And he said, verse 13, I will
ascend unto heaven. I will exalt my throne. I will
sit on the mount of the congregation. Verse 14, I will ascend above
the height of the cloud. I will be like the Most High.
That's what Satan said. And that's what man says. We
have free will. We will do whatever we will. What does the scripture say?
What did God say to Satan? Look at verse 15. Yet thou shalt
be brought down to hell. God is the only creature The
only being in all the universe who has free will. Do you understand that? To have free will means you can
do whatever you will. God says, I will. Scripture says, He worketh all
things unto the counsel of God. His will. It is God that worketh
in us both to will and do of His good pleasure. This gives
God all the glory. This is the truth. Look at verse
24, Isaiah 14. The Lord of hosts hath purposed
it, saying, Surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to
pass. As I have purposed it, so shall it stand. Let's hear
one human being say, this is what I will do, and let's see
if it happens. God said, who can declare the
things? Who can do them? Verse 27, the Lord of hosts hath
purposed it, and who shall disannoy it? His hand is stretched out. Who's going to stop him? Oh, I had Isaiah 45 or Isaiah
46. This is the sovereign, eternal
God. And this sovereign, eternal,
all-powerful God who is God, He's the Creator. You know, if
you make something, that means you own it, don't you? If you
make something, you make it however you will. God's the potter. That's
what he said. I'm the potter. You're the clay.
I make you exactly what I want to. A vessel on the honor, a
vessel on the dishonor. Isn't that what he said? He's the creator. He's the owner. If you create
something, you're the owner. You can do with it whatever you
will. That's what God does. Not if
you will, but He will. He's the ruler. He's the sovereign. He's the judge. of all the earth. He decides, decided everything
before it ever happened. So I don't believe that. Well,
then throw this book away. He's the owner. He's the controller.
He's the provider. If anybody gets anything, anybody
does anything, God did it. That's right. We saw that. Christ said, without me, you
can do nothing. Nothing. Without me, you could
do nothing. All power is given unto me in
heaven and earth, Christ said. Power over all flesh. He's the provider, he's the life
giver, he's the life taker, he's the absolute God over all things. That's the God of the Bible,
and that's the God who is God. Okay. This sovereign God elected
a people. He chose a people before the
world began to be His people. Look at it. Exodus 5. Go back
to our text. Exodus chapter 5, verse 1. It says, Thus saith the Lord
God of who? Egypt. No. He didn't say that. He is the God of Egypt. But they
don't know Him and He didn't choose them. He didn't choose
them. Israel. All through the Bible. God of Israel. I'm the God of
Israel. Verse 2. Who is the Lord God? Pharaoh said. I should obey His
voice and let Israel go. Verse 3. The God of the Hebrews. And Moses said, that's our God. The Lord, our God. The God of Israel. The God of
the Hebrews. Alright, turn quickly with me
to Genesis 10. Genesis chapter 10. You know
where the name Hebrew came from, the term Hebrew? It comes from
a man named Eber, Eber, one of the sons of Seth, Shem. But you remember in Exodus how
Exodus started, it talked about the Hebrew children? Remember
that? Exodus is all about the Hebrew
children, the Hebrew midwives. Moses was called one of the Hebrew
children. Hebrews, Hebrews, Hebrews. Adam,
you have Adam in the garden. You have his son Seth, as mentioned
later on. He's the one. Seth, from Seth's
son, is the lion. Enoch, Methuselah. Noah came
from Seth. Alright? From Noah came a man
named Shem. And look at chapter 10, verse
21. And to Shem also, the father
of all the children of Eber. Eber. That's the word Hebrew.
Okay. Eber. What does Eber mean? It means, his name means, on
the other side. Are you with me? You know what
sanctification is, John. It's for God to take you out
of the world and put you on the Lord's side. God said in the very beginning
in the Garden, He said, I'm going to put enmity between the serpent
seed and the seed of the woman. This is God's people. Those people
are all against Him. On the other side, separated,
sanctified, a chosen people. In Genesis 14, go over there,
Genesis 14, you know that he said, I'm the God of Abraham,
isn't he? I'm the God of Abraham. Isaac,
Jacob. Romans 9, Paul went into detail
about that. He said he didn't choose the
angels, but the seed of Abraham. He said God chose Abraham, an
idolater. That's who God chose. Abram was
his name. Look at verse, chapter 14, verse
10. It says the veil of Sidon was
full of slime pits. The world's always been a slime
pit. Whether it's Sodom and Gomorrah
or Egypt or whatever, it's a slime pit. They took, verse 11, the goods
of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their victuals, and they took
Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, Abram, and his
goods and departed. And there came one that escaped
and told Abram, the Hebrew, they've got your son, Lot. He said, I'm
going to get him. And he armed himself and his
men. Verse 15, he divided himself
against them. Are you with me? He said, that's
my son. He's in that flying pit. And
I'm going to get him out. Did he? He showed up and did.
Abram the Hebrew. On the other side, people come
out from among them. Be separate. They're God's people.
Though they live in the world, they're not of the world. Though
they're amongst the people with many gods, they have one God.
Everybody believes this and that and the other. Many faiths. God's
people have one faith. One faith. How? How'd they get that way? God
chose them. God chose them. Romans 9, Paul went into detail. As I said, he talked about Abraham,
didn't he? Abraham. Most of the world hates
that. They hate Zionism. They hate
all this talk about God being the God of the Jews only. Our Lord said that, salvation
of the Jews. And Paul went on to say he's
the God of Isaac, not Ishmael. The whole Arab world owns Israel
as their father. You know that? No, he said, I'm
the God of Abraham, Isaac, son of promise. You see, Abraham
and Sarah got together. They willed to have a son. And they had a son named Ishmael.
The product of them two getting together, they made them a son.
And God said, he's not my son. My son's a miracle son. My son
is born of God. My son is son of promise. My
son is son of my making. Born of God. Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob. I'm the God of Jacob, he said. Now what'd he say about Esau? What'd he say? And this is what
people hate. Everybody hates that, but Jacob. The son of Jacob. Everybody believes
differently, but. See, everybody's on one side.
against those who believe the truth, the Hebrews. All of Egypt
hated the Hebrews. And today, even all the world
hates Jews. But more specifically, the whole
religious world, all 4,000 religions, hates the truth. It's still the
truth. God is God. God chose a people. Who loves the fact, the truth,
that God chose a people? Who believes the sovereign election
of a people? Who does? Who loves that? The
elect do. Ask Jacob. Jacob, did you choose... Abraham, did
you choose God or did He choose you? Abraham would look at you
like you're an idiot. He said, I'm 75 years old in
the land of Ur, the Chaldeans, and I adored you. I didn't know
God wasn't seeking God. But God said to me, you're mine. Come here. I didn't know him.
Isaac, Jacob, Jacob. Why do you know God and love
God, Jacob, when your brother Esau doesn't? Because he first
loved me. Because he chose me. I'm sure
thankful. He asked Jacob, he said, I'm
so thankful for God's sovereign electing love and grace. Hey, Jacob was running. He's
running, wasn't he? Somebody found him. Somebody
got him down on the ground. Who was that? Jesus Christ. It
made him to know who he was. who Christ is, what He was, and
what He was going to do with it. Why He came. That's the gospel
in it. An elect people. An elect people. All right? He's the God of elect
people, all of which were redeemed by blood. They're all redeemed
by blood. They're chosen to know God, to
worship God, and chosen to behold the Lamb of God. Every one of
God's people. No, like all of the Jews in Egypt
knew, they were brought out of the slime pits, out of Egypt,
by the blood of the Lamb. By the blood of the Lamb. They
all knew that. They all knew. And so God said, let my people go. They're coming
out into the wilderness to worship me for what I've done for them. And worship me. And they passed
through. Egypt passed through a world of people, didn't they?
They went and wandered in the wilderness of sin. They passed
through the Habites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Syrians,
the Malachites, and on and on. And none of them believed the
truth. None of them believed this God. And they're all against
them. What did they do to those people?
Nothing. They just believed God. And our
Lord said that. They're going to hate you because
they hate me. Our Lord said, if God were your Father, to the
Pharisees, if God were your Father, you'd love me. But you don't. So they wandered for 40 years. And what they did about every
day or two was stop. and sacrifice a lamb. That's
all we did. Eat, drink, and worship. Eat, drink. Does that sound good
to you? You know, that's all we're going to do in glory. If
you don't enjoy it now, you won't be there then, and you'll be
glad because you wouldn't enjoy it. And Revelation 5 and 7, John
asked the question, who are these people? Where did they come from?
Our Lord told him. They've been washed in the blood
of the Lamb. And they were before His throne
day and night singing His praises. That's all they did. That's all
they did. What do God's people do right
now on the Lord's Day? What are God's people doing?
Worshipping the Lamb. Beholding the Lamb. Alright,
look at these verses real quickly. It said Moses and Aaron went
in and told Pharaoh. Pharaoh represents Satan, the
God of this world. Now here's what the Word of God
was to him. Let my people go. He didn't say,
would you please. Did he? Won't you please let my people
go? He said, let my people go. Salvation is by command. Salvation
is not an invitation. Salvation is not an invitation.
Nowhere in the Bible does God say He invites anybody. Nowhere.
Nowhere. The word bid means a proclamation. All right. Nowhere does it say
God offers you salvation. God offers you Christ. God offers
you this opportunity. God invites you nowhere. Salvation is by command. David said that, didn't he? Thou
hast given commandment to save me. Almighty love, arrest that
man. He won't come. Pick him up. Bring him. They're drawn, the
scripture says, with cords. Cords! You're coming. I'm so glad. I'm so glad that he lassoed me. Aren't you? Roped and tied. So glad. Branded mine. Elect people redeemed by blood. And he said, let my people go. Let my people go. And whatever
God, you read it with me, he said, I purposed it. That's what
I would do. That's what I would do. Verse
two, Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice
to let people go, Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go. I'm not going to do it. Get it? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I will not. I know not. I will
not. You will know. You will know. And you will do exactly as he
said. It's too late. Every knee will bow. And every
tongue will confess that he's Lord. I don't know him, they
say now. I don't believe him. Who is this
God? Well, you're going to find out. You see how salvation is by sovereign
mercy and electing grace. He came and made himself known
to you, not your siblings. Not your parents. Huh? He came to you. Like he did Abraham,
said, John, she's not chosen you, that you might know me that
is true. Sovereign electing grace doesn't
exclude anybody. It's the only thing that would
include anybody. The whole world dead and trespassing
sin, we were, but chose. Thank God. The Word of God comes
and Satan will not let him go unless a stronger than he comes
and binds a strong man. Verse 3, the Lord, they said,
the God of the Hebrews hath met with us, hath revealed himself
to us, hath spoken to us. As said, you know Egypt and Pharaoh
and all of them laughed and scoffed. And look what it says. They said,
we must go out into the desert and sacrifice unto the Lord lest
He fall upon us. Unless He fall on us with a pestilence
and a sword. He'll kill us if we don't sacrifice
His lamb. The whole world says this is
a bloody, archaic, barbaric religion of a holy and righteous God who
by no means cleared the guilty and he demands a blood sacrifice.
Who said that? God said that. All through this
book, from the beginning to the end, without the shade of blood,
there's no remission of sin. When I see the blood, I'll pass
it on to you. It's the blood of a sacrifice. Now what you
do, it's nothing you do. It's this blood of the sacrifice.
The world says, I don't like that. Well, it's true. Let God
be true. Never be a liar. All of God's
people say, Oh, I like it. I love it. I love it. And so in my hand, no price I
bring. Simply to the Christ on the cross
I claim. It's the blood. It's the blood.
It's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all my hope. It's
all my plea. God says, I pass over you in
mercy. If not, sword's coming down on
you. Not too hard. It's just truth. It's just truth. Okay.