Well, we're making our way through
the book of Exodus, and so we're up to chapter 8 this evening.
And next Wednesday night, the Lord willing, I'll talk to you
about the frogs, because the greater part of chapter 8 is
about the frogs that the Lord sends into the homes, into the
rivers, ponds and so forth of the Egyptians. But this evening
I want to read just the first five verses and then I'll announce
my subject and I think you'll understand why I read the passage
of scripture in Matthew 13 that I did. So are you there? Exodus
chapter 8 verse 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
going to Pharaoh, and saying to him, Thus saith the Lord,
Let my people go, that they may serve me. And if thou refuse
to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs. And the rivers shall bring forth
frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house,
and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house
of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens,
and into thy kneading troughs. And the frog shall come up both
on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants. And
the Lord spake unto Moses, saying to Aaron, Stretch forth thine
hand, with the rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the
ponds, and caused frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. I'll stop my reading there. Now
here's my subject for tonight. Two kinds of people. Two kinds
of people. There's a very clear distinction
that the Spirit of God draws in this conflict that existed,
that was going on between the Lord God of glory and King Pharaoh. Obviously, there's no match in
power or authority. I mean, Pharaoh is a, he's a
dunghill god because he was a god to all of the Egyptians. But
there's no comparison between that man, though he had so much
power over the Egyptians and over the known world at that
time, there's no comparison to the power of God Almighty. God
has revealed His power. He made it known in creation.
All things were made by Him in Exodus 20 verse 11. In six days
the Lord made the heavens and the earth and all that in them
is. All of creation is the work of God and then the work of divine
providence. Providence is God directing everything
to the end that he ordained before the world began. It used to be
the old fathers of our country. And we, history teacher, got
several teachers in here, retired teachers, this evening. As you've
read historical documents, our founding fathers often spoke
about the providence of God. And though they didn't have,
that I can perceive, a clear understanding of the gospel of
God's grace, they at least attributed to God all things that happen
knowing that His will is being worked out in everything. So
He has all authority in creation, He has all authority in providence,
and He has all authority in salvation. Jonah said, Salvation is of the
Lord. This is Jonah's doctrine. Would
to God that more preachers would go to the seminary that Jonah
went to in the belly of the great fish. He understood what most
people, most preachers even, don't understand, that salvation,
the deliverance of a sinner from sin, from Satan, from self-ruin,
that salvation is all of God. It's all of God in its purpose,
it's all of God in its purchase, and it's all of God in its power.
So there is no comparison here, but here are the two conflicting
parties, as it were. The Lord God of glory and Pharaoh. And then to go down a notch,
it's the conflict between the children of God and the children
of the evil one. But they're identified this way
in those few verses that I read to you. Notice how God identifies
the people that He's going to save. He says in verse 1, Thus
saith the Lord, Let My people go. This is My people. These are My people. But then
He says in verse number 3 to Pharaoh, He says, the river shall bring
forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine
house and into thy bedchamber, upon thy bed and upon the house
of thy servants and upon thy people. They're the two kinds
of people. God says, my people and thy people. And let me tell you something,
that's all there are in the world. Our Lord breaks down all of humanity,
of which the children of Israel picture the true people of God,
the true children of God, and God says they're my people. When
the angel came to Mary, to inform her that she was going to give
birth to the Messiah. And then later the angel of the
Lord came to Joseph to tell him that don't fear to take Mary
to be your wife. Because that which is going to
be born of her is born of the Holy Ghost. The angel said to
Joseph, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His
people. He has a people. And God says
here in Exodus chapter 8 and verse 1, God says, They are My
people. And God issues this demand. This is a command from God. Let
my people go. And you may rest assured you
can write it down. May it be burned into our minds
and into our hearts. Because God said, let my people
go, they will be let go. They will be liberated. On the
other hand, there's another group of people, and they're identified
as being thy people. That is the people of Pharaoh.
Now, who is Pharaoh a picture of? Let me say, first of all,
Egypt is a picture of the world. Egypt is a picture of the world.
People who don't know God. People who are opposed. to the
gospel of the grace of God, people who are not chosen unto salvation
before the world began. And these are said to be Moses
delivers God's word. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul
says, we are ambassadors for Christ as though our Lord, as
though Christ did beseech you by us. We say, be ye reconciled
to God. Moses is God's spokesman, therefore
Moses spoke with the authority of God. And I would never say
no preacher is inspired today. But I will say this, when one
of God's preachers speaks the word of God, he is speaking as
the mouthpiece of God. He is speaking with the authority
of God. And Moses says, the Lord says,
let my people go and I'm going to bring another plague upon
thy people. So in this vast world, the Lord
always has his people whom he calls my people. And they're
always the others, thy people. You remember in John chapter
8 when our Lord is talking with the Pharisees, and they said,
we're of our father Abraham. He said, no you're not. He said, you're of your father,
what did he say? The devil. You're the children
of the evil one. Now, think about that parable
that I read to you from Matthew chapter 13. The good seed are
the children of God. Who sows those in this world? The Son of God Himself. They're
His people. He sows the good seed. Indeed,
earlier in Matthew chapter 13, the seed is the word of the Lord. It's the gospel of Christ. And
some falls upon hard ground, some falls upon stony ground,
some falls upon ground that grows weeds, and others falls upon
ground that's been dug up. It's prepared for the seed. That's
the gospel of the Lord Jesus that's being set forth in that
parable. But in the parable I read to
you, the good seed, that's the very wheat. Those are the children
of God. And who are the tares? The children
of the evil one. And we need to understand that
in this vast world, our God breaks it down into such a way that
even with our puny little finite brains, we can understand this. There are just two groups of
people in this world. God says, there are my people
and there are thy people, Satan. And of God's people, he says,
my people will be delivered. As for your people, they'll perish. And that's the way it is. Don't
be confused. Preachers are bad about confusing
people. We want to lay it out as clearly
as we can possibly lay it. God has his children chosen in
grace before the world began. You see, Israel is a picture
of the true people of God, and I'll show you that in a minute.
And then the rest, The rest, the remainder, children of the
evil one. And so Christ says to those in
John 8, year of your father the devil. So there's God the father
who has his children, and there's the devil who has his children.
And never the twain shall meet. Because you see, the children
of the devil don't ever become the children of God. And the children of God don't
ever become the children of the devil. The elect have always been the
elect. They've always been the people
of God. The non-elect have always been the rest. The rest. That's the reason we read in
Romans, Paul talks about the remnant that God has saved, and
then there's the rest. There's the rest. There are those
to whom God says, I will be merciful, to whom I will be merciful, and
whom I will, I'll harden. That's the rest. And what the
Scripture says to all of us is, we are not deserving of the least
of the mercies of God. And if He doesn't show us any
mercy, that's His business. But we ask Him, we beg of Him,
we're mercy beggars. That's what we are. We're mercy
beggars and we say, Lord, like that leper. When the Lord Jesus
came down the mountain, the leper said, Lord, if Thou wilt. Thou canst make me clean. You
can make me whole. You see, it's not dependent upon
you. It's dependent upon our Lord. In Hebrews chapter 2, Christ
speaks about his brethren. He's not ashamed to be made after
the seed of Abraham. We're called the children of
God. and we've always been his children. So understand this, the reason
for God's intervention into Egypt, and Egypt is a picture of the
world, and the Egyptians are a picture of the worldlings.
The reason our Lord has put himself, the reason he came into this
world Christ himself 2,000 years ago. About everybody believes
that, at least to some degree, that 2,000 years ago there was
born in Bethlehem a little baby who called him Jesus of Nazareth.
But the reason he came into this world, he stated himself, to
seek and to save that which was lost. He came to save, and to
use this, my people. That's why Christ came. He came
to save His people. What about the rest? He didn't
come to save them. Picture Israel as being a picture
of the Lord's church, the Lord's true people. The reason Christ
Jesus came into the world was to save His people. The reason
the Lord injected Himself into the situation in Egypt, it wasn't
for the Egyptians. He didn't come to do anything
for the Egyptians, did he? He didn't come to do anything
for the Egyptians. Well, even as we get to the end of how these
ten plagues wind up, because there are three sets of threes,
and then the last one, which is the death of the firstborn,
the Egyptians weren't told, take a lamb, your lamb's got to be
spotless, without blemish, a picture of the Lamb of God, The Lamb
of God who came to this world, John the Baptist said, Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. It was
the Israelites who were taught about the necessity of the death
of the Lamb, but not the Egyptians. The reason our Lord came to the
situation in Egypt was not for the benefit of the Egyptians.
It was for the benefit of the Israelites who stood as a picture
of the true children of God. Now certainly the Lord had been
merciful to the Egyptians. In this he provided sunshine
for them. He provided the Nile River for
them and the Nile River provided irrigation, water for drinking,
for bathing, for irrigating their crops, and they were known for
having wonderful harvests. And all of that came from God
because all literal mercies come from God, correct? They all come
from God. But He showed Egypt, get this,
He showed Egypt no grace. He did not show them any grace.
He did not come into this world to save the Egyptians. He came,
He said, I've come to deliver My people. And you may rest assured of this,
if God Almighty came down to Egypt to save My people, He said,
they will be and they must be delivered from Egyptian bondage. I'll even give you three things
real quick. Number one, these Israelites were a chosen people. A chosen people. I want to show
you a few references in the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter
number 10. Deuteronomy chapter 10. And I'm going to stay in the
book of Deuteronomy looking at these references. Deuteronomy
chapter 10, verses 14 and 15. Deuteronomy 10, 14. Behold, the heaven and the heaven
of heavens is the Lord thy God. The earth also with all that
therein is. Only the Lord had a delight in
thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them,
even you, above all people, above the Egyptians, above the people of the surrounding
nations, He chose their seat after them, even you, above all
people, as it is this day. Back up in Deuteronomy. Go back
to chapter 4. Chapter 4, 36 and 37. Chapter 4, 36. Out of heaven,
He made thee, the Israelites, to hear His voice. that he might instruct thee.
And upon earth he showed thee his great fire, and thou heardest
his words out of the midst of the fire. and because he loved
thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought
thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt." Who
brought them out of Egypt? The Israelites didn't bring themselves
out. There were people in bondage.
And you see, that pictures us in the bondage of sin, in the
bondage of Satan. We could not rescue or deliver
ourselves out of that bondage. Only an Almighty Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, could do that. He's the one who said after He
satisfied justice, putting away our sins, by His bloody death
upon the cross of Calvary, was buried and rose again the third
day, and before He left to heaven, He said, all power is given unto
Me, not to the devil, not to man's so-called free will. All
power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel." It was His mighty power. Who
in the world would be foolish enough to say the Israelites
could have delivered themselves out of Egyptian bondage? They
couldn't do that. They cried unto the Lord in their
misery. The Lord put the cry in their
heart. And He granted the cry that they had in their hearts.
Because you see, all things are of God. He's the first cause
of everything. If He puts it in our hearts to
cry out for mercy and grace and forgiveness and righteousness
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you may rest assured, He will answer
that prayer. Because He gave you the prayer
to begin with. One other reference, chapter
7. of Deuteronomy, chapter 7 of Deuteronomy, verses 7 and 8. In fact, I'll back up to verse
6. Deuteronomy 7, 6, for thou art
unholy people. The word holy comes from a word
sanctified people, which means set apart. You're a people set
apart. Set apart. Who'd Christ die for?
Those who were sanctified. Those who were set apart in the
purpose of God. For thou art unholy people unto
the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee. Hath chosen thee to be a special
people. Watch it, unto himself. above all people that are upon
the face of the earth. Look at verse 7, the Lord did
not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more
in number than any people for ye were in fact the fewest of
all people but because the Lord loved you And because he would
keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord
brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of
the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt."
Who did it? God did it. Why did He do it? To fulfill His covenant. Who
did He make the covenant with? Abraham. Abraham. And the Lord told Abraham, thy
seed shall inherit the land that they will not have entered into
when they leave to go to it, but it's their land. The Lord entered into a covenant
with Abraham, and I was telling one of the men that I talked
to at the hospital over the weekend, God only deals with people through
a covenant. It's several covenants mentioned
in the scriptures, but the greatest two, the two that you need to
remember are the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. God entered into a covenant,
a legal binding agreement with Adam. Adam, who is the representative
of all of the human race, and basically admitted to this, obey
if you obey, you live. If you disobey, you die. That's
covenant of works. And the other one is a covenant
of grace. Now, while the covenant of works was the first one revealed,
the first one that was purposed or originated in old eternity
was the covenant of grace. And in that, God made a covenant
with Himself. See, man's not going to keep
a covenant. Somebody said to me the other day, well, so-and-so
lied. Guess what? All men are liars. That's what
the Bible says. Don't come to me and say, oh,
somebody lied about something. All men are liars. You've lied
yourself. Well, I don't lie on purpose.
Come on now. You kind of twist the truth a
little your way. Covenant of grace. Covenant of
grace. God promised Abraham what he
would do, and let God be true in every man liar. God's true
to his covenant. And you see, the reason Israel
is going to be delivered out of Egyptian bondage is not because
of who the Israelites are in and of themselves. It's because
who they belong to. And the reason all of God's elect
are going to be saved through the glory of, the grace of, and
through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ is because
who God's people belong to. He said, they're my people. They're
my people. And he said to Pharaoh, let my
people go. And so, our Lord says to Satan,
who holds all men captive at his will, 2 Timothy 2, verses
24 and 25 say that, our Lord says to Satan, let my people
go. And I know preachers say all
you got to do is put your mind to it and exercise your will
and liberate yourself. That's an impossibility. Israel
couldn't do that. How do you think you could do
that? Why would you ever imagine you could free yourself? They
say, well, why will anybody ever believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Psalm 110 verse 3. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. That's when people will follow
Christ Jesus, when God, as it were, rolls up the sleeve on
His arm of redemption and salvation, and He brings us to life and
liberty and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So salvation's
all of God. They were a chosen people. You
remember when the 70, our Lord sent the 70 out two by two, right? Sent them out two by two. There's
35 twin groups, two-man groups going out evangelizing. And they
come back and they performed all kind of miracles. even cast demons out of people,
and they said, they came back and they're kind of high-fiving
one another, and they said, boy, we were really successful. And
the Lord said, I saw Satan fall from the sky, like a star. He said, I know you had power,
but in this, rejoice not. That's nothing to rejoice about.
But rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
What's that all about? Before the world began, the Lord
wrote the names of his people, those that he calls my people.
He wrote our names down in the Lamb's Book of Life. Rejoice
in that. And I'll tell you, if you're
a believer, if you've cast your soul with all of its sins, with
all of its neediness upon the Lord Jesus Christ, It's because your name was written
down in the Lamb's Book of Life before the world began. And you
can't get any credit for that. You can't get any glory for that.
These were a chosen people. Now, they were a people treated
cruelly. You know, when Israel went into
Egypt, Do you know how it was that they
came to enter in? By invitation only. Pharaoh said
to Joseph, bring your dad on in my land. That's the invitation. It's like you get an invitation
to a wedding reception or something like that. By invitation only.
Pharaoh said, bring your folks in. Bring your family in. And 70 people entered in. The
invitation, such kindness, mercy, give you the land of Goshen,
one of the richest parts of Egypt, that's yours. But then years
went by and something happened. A cruel Pharaoh came in and then
life got miserable for the Israelites. I see that as a picture of God
created Adam and Eve. Boy, they had it made in the
shade. I mean, everything was wonderful. It was wonderful.
And then something happened. Something called sin entered
in. Satan entered into the garden. That great cruel Pharaoh. And all of a sudden, man who
had been free He becomes a slave. Your people say we're free, we're
all free. Nobody's free. Because we're slaves to our sins,
aren't we? I'd love to be done with my sins,
wouldn't you? I look forward to the day when
I will be. When I never sin again. That every thought is brought
in conformity to the perfect will of God. I look forward to
that day. I look forward to the day when every motive that I
had, the reason for doing what I do, where every motive is purely
for the glory of Christ Jesus, ain't gonna happen in this life. Because sin is still within me. Nobody's free. Certainly not
before conversion. We have to be delivered. We have
to be delivered. Like the Israelites had to be
delivered. And I'll tell you how they're
gonna be delivered and then I'll quit. They're gonna have to be delivered
by price. But you know, they can't come
up with a price themselves. Boy, they're a bunch of poor
people. They got nothing. I mean, the Egyptians run roughshod
over them. They're tormenting them. They're
afflicting them. Pharaoh said, make bricks, gather
your own stubble. We're not going to help you anymore. Give us a few days to go out
in the wilderness to worship. No. What do you want? Time off?
You think I'm going to give you a vacation? You think servants,
you think slaves get a vacation day? You think you're going to
get a holiday? Work harder. Work harder. That's the cruelty of sin and
of Satan. Cruel taskmasters. And Israel can't extricate themselves
from the situation that we're in. But they're gonna be bought. They couldn't pay the price.
Just like you can't pay the price for your redemption. That's why
Christ came. He came to pay a debt he didn't
owe. He came to pay a debt we owed
but couldn't pay. And he said, Father, put that on
my account. Put all the sins of thy people,
thy people, put all the sins of thy people upon me. And then punish me in their stead.
And that's exactly what happened 2,000 years ago. Calvary wasn't
an effort. It wasn't an endeavor. It was
a successful work rendered to God's justice by Jesus Christ
our Savior. What He set out to do, He did. He cannot fail. He never can
fail. Our Savior is no failure. He paid the price. Does He have the power to deliver
Israel? Oh yes, He does. He got the power. And even when Pharaoh, and we'll
see this over the next few, several weeks, even when Pharaoh lets
them go after the death of the firstborn, they all get out of town. Israelites
are rejoicing. The Egyptians have given them
their silver and their gold and their diamonds and said, here,
take it all, just go away. You're the reason we've had all
these troubles. Get out of town. Go. Goodbye.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out. We're through with
you. And they all got out of town and Pharaoh said, I'm such
a fool. I got rid of my slaves. I released
the slaves. I'm going to go get them. Uh-huh. They're delivered by
price, blood of the Passover lamb, and my power. He goes after God's people. He
doesn't realize, the Lord says, those are my people. And when
you go after my people, you're coming after me. You don't want
to come after God. And the Lord tells Moses, put
the rod out, split the Red Sea open, I know people today who
don't believe the word of God say, well, he was just ankle
deep. Well, he's deep enough to drown the whole army, horses
included. And all of Israel goes through
on dry ground. Think about that, dry ground. They get over to the other side.
And Pharaoh says, pursue, pursue, pursue. Didn't know who he was fooling
with, did he? He's still ignorant of it. Who is the Lord that I
should fear him and release him? He's still ignorant. And in they
go. And you know the rest of the
story. Redeemed by price and by power. God says, let my people go. And if in your heart of hearts
you can say, I'm one of God's people, you can only attribute that to
the free and sovereign grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to you. That's the only reason. We say we sing a closing song,
okay? Let's go to, 267, all things
work out for good. 267, let's stand together.