Let's go back to the book of
Exodus where, as you know, we're studying in the book of Exodus
and tonight I'm going to begin to get into chapter number 9
of Exodus. And I could have read any number
of verses really to introduce the message because here's the
title of the message. It is quite simply, God said,
let my people go. Let my people go. The one I selected is the next
one we're coming to here in chapter nine because we'll begin studying
more thoroughly next Wednesday night But look at verse 1 of
Exodus chapter 9. Then the Lord said unto Moses,
Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the Lord God
of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. He would have Moses and Aaron
once again say to the king of Egypt, that God has a people. He identified these people as
being his own property. He says, let my people go. Now be it known to each of you
and to those of you who are watching that the God of the Bible is
a God of divine election, divine election. The Bible does teach
the doctrine of electing grace. And we're all familiar with an
election. I mean, I got some advertisements
in my mailbox today about the election of governors here in
the state of Kentucky that's going to happen in November.
So we're very familiar with what an election is. It's a choice,
it's exercise. And this year for governor, either
choose the Democrat or the Republican, which is your preference according
to your knowledge, your study of them, which one has the morals
that would more closely identify with those things that are set
forth in the word of God. And there will be an election. There will be a choice. Well, that which men are very
protective of electing whoever we want. Well, our God elected
whoever He wanted to in various situations. And let me give you
four situations where we see the election of God. Number one,
God chose a Savior. Did you know that? God chose
a Savior. Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 1
says that. God says, behold my servant. That's Christ. That's the Son
of God. Behold my servant in whom my
soul delights. God delights in the Son of God. He's well pleased with the Son
of God. In fact, the Father said that
when our Lord Jesus was on this earth. He said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased. God chose His Son to be the Savior. Behold My servant, in whom My
soul delighteth. And then God says, He's my elect,
mine elect. You see, before the world began,
when God was purposing, and I know all the purposes of God are eternal. I understand that. I say I understand
it. I know that for a fact, but I
can't understand the eternal purpose of God. So we kind of
put them in order. though there was no order, because
that which God chose to do, He chose eternally, because the
purpose of God is as old as God Himself. But for the sake of
enabling those of us who have just a poor, feeble intelligence,
the Lord sets it forth this way, that God, first of all, He chose
to save and He chose the Savior. There's only one who could be
the Savior, and that's one who's equal with God, even the Son
of God. And the Son of God, being God's
elect to be the Redeemer, to be the Savior of sinners, the
Son of God then agreed to come into this to this earth, to come
into this world, and take upon himself our nature, the nature
of man, so that God was made manifest in the flesh. John 1.14 says, And the Word
was made flesh, and dwelt among us, John said. And they saw Him. They held Him. They embraced
Him. They talked to Him. They listened to Him. He was
a real man Christ Jesus, but He was not only the man Christ
Jesus, He's the Son of God. So He's identified as the Son
of God and the Son of Man. And God said, He's mine elect. God chose Him. There is no other
Savior. There could be no other Savior
except Christ Jesus, our Lord. He's the only one who is suitable
and capable of doing the job. Because in order to save us,
the one who is the Savior has got to be God over all, blessed
forever. He's got to be almighty. He's
got to be able to fulfill His will. And yet he must suffer
and bleed and die, therefore he was made flesh and dwelt among
us. God can't suffer, God can't bleed,
God can't die, man can't satisfy, man can't endure the wrath of
God without crumbling underneath it and so God was made flesh
so that He would satisfy all the demands of God and yet as
a man suffer the full penalty of the Law of God, which is the
penalty of death, and that's what our Lord Jesus Christ did.
He's God's elect, so when you start listing election, that's
who you start with. You start with the Son of God.
Isaiah 42, 1, God says, He's mine elect. Secondly, God chose
a multitude of individuals to be the recipients of His free
grace and His sovereign mercy through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. In fact, Paul referred to this
election in Romans 11 in verse 5 as the election of grace. God chose a people in Christ
before the foundation of the world that we should be holy
and without blame before Him in love. God chose. I have no problem with that.
I wouldn't dare argue with God over that. That's His right.
It's His grace. It's His salvation. It's His
mercy. He can show it to whomever He
wills and not show it to others. He didn't have to show it to
me. He didn't have to show it to you. But one thing is for
certain, if God has shown you saving grace through the Lord
Jesus Christ, or if He shows you sovereign saving grace through
the Lord Jesus Christ, it's because He chose you unto salvation before
the world ever began. Without taking into consideration
anything you would ever do, But He chose you just because He
would, because it pleased Him to do so. And then, when we're
talking about election, we start with the Son of God. He was chosen. We then go to the multitude that
our Lord Jesus died for. That's the chosen multitude,
a chosen number of people. Here's the third thing. God chose
certain angels. Certain angels. who would remain
faithful to him, to be obedient to him, and to become ministers
of those who shall be the heirs of salvation. Hebrews chapter
1, the last verse of the chapter, tells us about that. As to the
reference about elect angels, 1 Timothy 5 and 21 certainly
sets that forth. As we read in Revelation chapter
12, it seems from that passage in verse 3 that one-third of
the angels fell in Lucifer's transgression. So what can we
conclude? They were not chosen. They were
not kept by the Lord from falling. God chose two-thirds of the angels
and said these won't fall. They can't fall. Who prevents
them from ever falling? God does. God has decreed that
they will remain in the state in which they were created. And
then God ordained that one third of the angels would be cast away
and he would use them, Lucifer and that one third who followed
him, he would use them to fulfill his mysterious purpose. The only reason that the other
two-thirds of the angels didn't fall is because God chose them.
God chose them. And then here's the fourth listing of election. God chose
the Savior. God chose the people to save.
God chose some angels. And fourthly, God chose a nation,
a nation to whom he would give his word, to whom He would give
His gospel, and through whom He would give His Son, send His
Son into this world. God chose the nation of Israel.
He didn't choose any other nation through whom He would work except
the nation of Israel. And God says, they're My people. And we know now that the Israelites
have been in bonded, they've been in Egypt now for 400 years. We don't know how many of those
years that they've actually been in captivity and bondage, but
they've had to put up with cruelty for the better part of the last
100 years of their sojourn in the land of Goshen in Egypt. And there they are. But God says,
they're my people. That doesn't mean that they're
all His spiritual family. It means that's the nation that
God has ordained that He would give the gospel to them. He would
give the prophets to them. He would give them the Levitical
laws pertaining to sacrifices and offerings and sin offerings
and that sort of thing, and then God would teach them the truth,
and he would protect the truth for many years, for hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds of years, and then through them,
the Messiah would come into the world. And the Lord says, they're
my people. They're my people. Now, nine
times, In the book of Exodus, the Lord has Aaron and Moses
say to Pharaoh, let my people go. And two times they will say to
Pharaoh, let us go. So 11 times. 11 times, the Lord will send a message
to this vile tyrant, this monarch, this wicked, wicked king, and
God will say through His messengers, let My people go. They are My
people, I chose them. I chose them. I read there chapter 9 and verse
1. I want you to look at two passages
with me. And one of them is in Deuteronomy
chapter 14. I want you to get there. Deuteronomy
chapter 14. You got that? And then hold your
finger there and I want you to turn to 1 Peter chapter 2. I'm
going to read the Deuteronomy passage first, but then I want
to flip right over and read 1 Peter chapter 2. So that's the work
for you to do right now. So find, first of all, Deuteronomy
chapter 14. That's the fifth book of the Bible.
And then locate 1 Peter, toward the end of the New Testament,
chapter 2. First of all, I want to read
Deuteronomy chapter 14 and verse 2. This is what the Lord says
to Israel. Deuteronomy 14 verse 2. He says
to them, for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. Thou art a holy people, a people
set apart or a people sanctified. This is a nation that was set
apart for God. And the Lord hath chosen thee,
Moses is relating the word of God to them, and Moses says,
the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself,
a valued treasure, literally a purchased treasure, because
we're going to see, as we continue our study in the book of Exodus,
that the Lord is going to redeem Israel by the blood of the Passover
lamb. They will be purchased. And so the Lord says, you're
a holy people, I've set you apart unto Myself. Moses is I'm quoting
the Lord now. "'And the Lord hath chosen thee,'
Moses says, "'to be a peculiar people unto himself, "'a valued
treasure or a valued possession "'above all the nations that
are upon the earth.'" Now, as such, Israel stands as a picture
of another nation, a spiritual nation. Now go over here to 1
Peter 2. And this is what the Lord says
to His people. 1 Peter 2 and verse 9. He says, but you are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a nation set
apart for God, a peculiar people, or, and in the center column
of my Bible it says purchased. We're already purchased people.
Because you see, even as Israel of old was purchased out of Egyptian
bondage by the blood of the Passover lamb, the Lord's true chosen
people, spiritual Israel, we are a people that are peculiar
or purchased by the Lord through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are a valued possession or
treasure unto the Lord. Read on, that ye should show
forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light. And I'll show you something here.
Here's the work of the Father, here's the work of the Son, and
here's the work of the Spirit. Look at it again. A chosen generation. There's the work of the Father.
And I know the Son and the Spirit were involved in this choice,
but generally we attribute this to the Father, a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, a purchased people. There
is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who redeemed us? Who
purchased us? Who bought us? Who paid our debt? The Lord Jesus did. that ye should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light. There's the work of the Holy
Spirit. And so he continues, which in time past were not a
people. You couldn't say you were the
people of God, but are now the people of God, which had not
obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. So Israel of
old, those people that God said, let my people go, they stand
as a picture of us. Of all of the church of our Lord
Jesus Christ of all ages. Now, go back to the book of Exodus
and I'm gonna give you three things in this message that I
want you to remember. And they're very, very important. I want you to go back to Exodus,
the third chapter, first of all. Exodus, the third chapter. Look at verse 18. This is the
Lord Jesus who's speaking to Moses out of the bush that burned
but was not consumed. And the Lord is speaking to him,
and he says to him in chapter 3 and verse 18, And they shall
hearken to thy voice, that is, the children of Israel. And thou
shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt,
and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath
met with us. And now let us go, we beseech
thee, three days journey. By the way, three in the Bible
is a number of resurrection. And that's something worth remembering. Three is a number of resurrection. We beseech thee, let us go three
days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice unto the
Lord our God. Let my people go that they may
sacrifice unto me. Here's the second passage, chapter
four and verse 23. Verse 22 says, chapter four,
verse 22. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh,
Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And I say unto
thee, let my son go, that he may serve me. And if thou refuse
to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. And now one more reference, chapter
5 and verse 1. And afterwards 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."
See if you got this. Did you pick up on this? Here
are three different things that will be said to Pharaoh. Let
my people go that they may, number one, sacrifice to me. That's what God says. That's
number one, because that's the foundation of everything. There's
no approaching God apart from a sacrifice. Let my people go
that they may sacrifice unto me, number two. Let my people
go that they may serve me. You cannot serve God apart from
the sacrifice having been offered. And then here's the third thing,
let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And this is the order of God's
directions to His servants to say to Pharaoh, and this is very
significant, because it starts with sacrifice. You see, feasting
is wonderful. Feasting is celebration. But
there's no feasting unless you're serving the Lord. Unless you're
doing what He told you to do. And there's no serving the Lord
apart from a sacrifice. Everything is predicated upon,
founded upon, set upon, built upon the sacrifice. So God starts
with the sacrifice. Let them go that they can sacrifice.
And then let them go that they may serve me. And then let them
go that they may feast, hold a feast unto me, a time of celebration. Let me get the first one. Let
my people go, but they may offer sacrifice to me. Here's the vital
importance of the sacrifice. There can be no acceptable service
unto our God, and there can't be any fellowship, no true fellowship,
among brethren, and there can't be any fellowship with God apart
from sacrifice. In Genesis chapter 3, we see
the importance of the sacrifice. There could be no covering for
Adam and Eve apart from the sacrifice. It's the Son of God who spoke
to them after they fell. who talked about the seed of
the woman, that's the Son of God speaking to them about His
virgin birth that would happen thousands of years in the future,
4,000 years in the future. He speaks of His own entrance
into this world, the seed of the woman, that's Christ our
Lord. And then He talks about the necessity
of Him being bruised. of His heel being bruised or
crushed, wounded. And that's His death upon the
cross of Calvary. But in the course of being wounded
for our transgressions, He will crush the head of the enemy of
the church, even Satan himself. And then, the Son of God illustrated
what He would come and do. Offer a sacrifice to God. See,
what is the penalty for sin? It's death, isn't it? It's death.
We know that. The soul that sinneth shall die.
Well, how come you and I are not going to die eternally? I
know we're going to die physically unless the Lord comes back soon,
and I hope He does. I pray that He does. But if He
doesn't come back, I mean, saints of God have been dying for 6,000
years or so, and we're going to die. But we're
not going to die forever. There's not going to be eternal
death for any of us for whom Christ died and to whom the Spirit
of God directs our heart's faith to the Son of God. You see, the blood of an innocent
victim had to be shed, like for Adam and Eve, and the Lord clothed
them, the blood of an innocent victim had to be shed. Otherwise,
there would be no approaching for those, for our fallen parents,
to the Tree of Life. To the Son of God, who is the
Tree of Life. And our Lord Jesus came to offer
Himself a sacrifice to God. Think of it this way. Between us and a holy God, there
has to be blood. Right? There has to be blood. But it can't be the blood of
an animal. That's not going to bring us to God. And it can't
be the blood of the finest man or woman in this world because
the finest man or woman in this world is like all the rest of
us, we're all sinners. It's got to be the blood of a
perfect sacrifice, a perfect man. And that's the God-man Christ
Jesus. That's why He died. To offer
Himself a sacrifice to God to appease God's wrath. and appease God's wrath he did
when he died. Blood must come between a holy
God and an offending people. Abel understood that in Genesis
chapter four. He offered a sacrifice to God. So get this, here's the first
thing. This is the first thing that Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh. The Lord said, let my people
go that we may go three days out in the wilderness and offer
a sacrifice to God, because that's the only way we can approach
God. That's the only way we can worship God. You say, well, what
about people who are trying to worship God apart from the Lord
Jesus Christ? It's false worship. It's useless
worship. You cannot come to God for anything,
for anything except in, through, and by the Lord Jesus Christ
and His sacrifice. So here's the second thing. So
we've got the sacrifice down, right? You understand that? This
is where it all starts. This is the first thing I told
him. And the second thing I told him was, let my people go that
they may serve me. You see, to serve the Lord is
to labor for him. He's our master. He's our Lord. We're his servants to do his
revealed will. I read there in Psalm 100, serve
the Lord with, what does he say? Gladness, gladness. We're glad to serve the Lord.
Paul said in Acts 27-23, there stood by me this night the angel
of God, whose I am and whom I serve. You see, true service for the
Lord is based upon the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, so-and-so does
so much for their church and so much for the people in the
community. Well, is their service based
upon the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, they don't much talk about
the blood at that church over there. Well, it's not service
to God then. It's not a service God's gonna
accept, because he's not gonna accept anything except it be
upon the basis of the bloody death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We serve him. How do we serve
the Lord? Well, I'll give you several ways.
We serve Him by going into the waters of baptism and confessing
Him that we believe Him, we follow Him. That is, we submit to believers'
baptism. We identify with the Savior.
Baptism pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord
Jesus. We serve Him by partaking of the Lord's Supper. We serve
Him by being faithful to the place of worship. We serve Him
by helping our brothers and sisters in Christ. And the service of
the Lord is not burdensome. It's delightful service. We're
honored to be laborers in God's vineyard. We're His willing servants. We're honored to serve Him. I
know that everybody, though the vast majority unaware of the
fact that Everybody is serving the Lord according to His purpose. But the redeemed of the Lord,
we want to serve Him. Use me, Lord. Use me to be a
blessing to the people around me. Here's what Paul said in Romans
12.1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice unto God,
which is your reasonable service. God gave you a tongue. He gave
you a mouth. Use it in the service of God
to speak good things of our Lord, to encourage people, to cheer
people up. God gave you hands, hands to
help, to help your brethren and sisters in Christ, to help those
who are down, to help them up, as it were, those who are fallen.
You are the servants of the Lord. He has given you feet, use your
feet in the service of the Lord to bring you to the house of
worship. God gave you arms. Use them.
Use them in hugging somebody. Use your voice. Use your arms
to encourage and hug and embrace those who need a hug. Sometimes
everybody needs a little word of encouragement. Don't you agree?
That's serving the Lord. Serving with our whole self. Use your money to support the
gospel. Use your valuable time. You say, well, I just don't have
much time. You better be careful how you say it. God will take
time away from you. Use your time to help others. And then the Lord says, let my
people go that they may sacrifice unto me, that they may serve
me. And number three, that they may
hold a feast for me. And that involves fellowship
with the Lord and then fellowship with others. If you look up the
word feast, it presents the idea of a joyful celebration. Well,
just a few Sundays ago, you know, we have, we, well, last week
we had a picnic, we all ate together, we had good turnout, 70 or 80
people came out, I suppose it was, and we all had a good time,
a feast, a celebration. It was a celebration of our unity
in the Lord Jesus Christ, of our mutual love for the gospel
and our love for one another, a time to encourage one another.
A feast is a celebration, and for the Jews, God gave them seven
feasts. seven feasts which were times
of celebration of the mercy and the grace and the goodness of
God to them. And they fellowshiped with God
and they laughed and danced and sang one with another rejoicing
in the goodness of God. And three specific feasts He
gave them, the Feast of Passover, that celebrated the death of
our Lord Jesus Christ, Passover, it indicated or portrayed
redemption by the blood of the Lamb. And then the second most
important feast was Pentecost, 50 days after Passover. The Lord gave the Holy Spirit
50 days after our Lord Jesus, the true Passover Lamb, 50 days
after He died, He sent His Holy Spirit. And Pentecost, you see,
was the very beginning of the barley harvest. And it was right
after the giving of the Holy Spirit, 50 days after Passover. Remember, the sacrifice is the
most important thing. That's Passover. Fifty days after
Passover was the Pentecost, and the Spirit of God was given,
and thousands of people were brought into the fold of salvation. And then the third most important
feast to the Jews was Feast of Tabernacles at the end of the
growing season, when all the crops had been gathered
in. And that pictures what's going
to happen at the very end of this era, when our Lord has gathered
in all of his crop, when he harvests all of his people, takes us home
to glory. Resurrection bodies will be in
store for all of us when our bodies will be joined back together
with the soul. Time of celebration. You know,
really, isn't that a great deal of what heaven is going to be
about? Number one, the sacrifice, that's what we're going to sing
about the sacrifice. We're going to serve Him in heaven, right?
So the servants will serve Him. I don't know exactly how we're
going to serve Him. What service does it need from
us? We'll be praising His name and singing to Him and bowing
at His feet and listening to what He has to say. We'll be
serving Him, but it will be the marriage supper of the Lamb,
which is a feast. And you know how long that feast
is going to last? Forever. Forever it will be a
time of celebration and glory. You going to be there? I'll be
there by the grace of God. So the Lord says, through Moses
and Aaron, to Pharaoh, let my people go, that they may offer
a sacrifice, that they may serve me, and that they may have feasts,
celebrating my goodness, celebrating the sovereign grace of God, celebrating
the saving covenant of grace. Well, I hope that'll help you.
Let's sing a final song.