Back to the book of Exodus. And
I'm going to go back to as far as the third chapter and read
just a few verses to you. I want to talk to you tonight
about the mighty hand of the Lord. The mighty hand of the
Lord. First of all, Exodus chapter
3, verses 19 and 20. Exodus chapter 3, verses 19 and
20. The Lord is speaking to Moses. He has appeared to Moses in the
burning bush. There's no question about the
fact this is the great I Am, Christ the Savior, who so often
in the book of John identified himself as I Am. He told the
Jews in John 8, before Abraham was, I am. And here in Exodus chapter three,
he has identified himself to Moses as being I am. When Moses
said, who shall I say has sent me to deliver these people out
of Israel, the Israelites asked that question. He said, what
shall I say to them? And the Redeemer, the Son of
God said, tell them I am that I am, has sent you. So this is the Son of God speaking
to him. And he says in verse 19, and
I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not
by mighty hand, that is not by the mighty hand that I will manifest
in the first nine destructive plagues that I'm going to send
upon the Egyptians. And then he says in verse 20,
and I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders
which I will do in the midst thereof and after that After
that, He will let you go. There will be nine plagues to
begin with. And every time Pharaoh's heart
is hardened, either the Lord hardened his heart or Pharaoh
then would harden his own heart. And I'll break down these more
next week. There are three sets of threes. Each of the three becoming more
and more severe until at last there is that 10th one, the death
of the firstborn. And in the firstborn is the idea
of that firstborn son, not daughter, but the firstborn son to whom
the rule of the family would belong, even among the Egyptians. The one upon whom the continuation
of the family rested. The one who, that firstborn,
the one who was most important as to the offspring of that particular
family. Especially a Pharaoh. The death
of the firstborn son. Because he was the very glory
of the family. And God is going to smite the
firstborn son of every Egyptian family from Pharaoh, who's all
the way at the top, to the person who works in the mill, the lowest
of the low, the maidens. Their firstborn son would be
smitten by the hand of God in judgment. God said he's going
to make bare his mighty arm, his mighty hand of judgment.
And he does that because I want you to look over in chapter 13.
Chapter 13 in verse 30. That's not the verse I want.
Chapter 13 in verse 3. I give chapter 13
verse 3. And Moses said unto the people,
to the Israelites, remember this day, remember this day, and may I just say that we remember
the day when God, the time when God opened our eyes to the gospel
and made us know about redeeming grace. We may not be able to
go back to the specific hour or even the specific day, but
we remember that God, He taught us the gospel. He taught us that
the way He redeemed us was by the shedding of the blood of
the Lamb of God. When Moses gave instructions
to the children of Israel regarding the placement of blood on the
outside of the doorposts and over the head of the door, he
gave instructions pertaining to the lamb. A lamb, he said,
and then the lamb, and then he says, your lamb. And of course,
that was the picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, without spot and
without blemish. He said, kill your lamb. You
shed the blood of that lamb. That blood, have it drain into
a bowl. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip
it into that bowl of blood. that warm life's blood, the life
of the flesh is in the blood. Dip it in the blood, Dad, and
go outside. If you would spare your son,
if you would spare your firstborn, go outside. Put that blood over
the doorpost and on both sides, and then go back inside, because
I'm passing through Egypt, the Lord said. And I'm passing through
Goshen also. He said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Remember this day. And I'll tell
you a day that's even more important, a time that was even more important
than when the Lord came to you in saving grace. That's the day
the lamb died. Because that's when the issue
is settled. Our faith doesn't settle it.
Our faith is necessary, but our faith is a gift of God. Our repentance
is a gift of God. Our repentance and our faith
don't put sin away. There's not enough power in our
faith and repentance to remove even one sin, much less remove
all of them. But there was a day when the
Son of God sacrificed Himself. He laid down His life. And by
His own death, He washed us from our sins. What can wash away
my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That was the day of all days.
All eternity past, look to that day. Eternity future looks back
to that day. The saints of God in the Old
Testament, they look forward to that day. Those of us during
this gospel age who have been brought to faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we look back to that grand occurrence when our
debts, which were innumerable, were all settled by the Son of
God. Moses said to the people, remember
this day. It's a day like no other day. In which as a result of the blood
of the Passover lamb, you came out from Egypt, out of the house
of bondage. And how was that? How did that come to pass? He
says, for by the strength of the hand of the Lord brought
you out from this place and there shall no leavened bread be eaten. This day came ye out in the month
of Abib. This is a day of all days. When
God, God raised up his hand And you see, when God raises up His
hand, His hand will be to some people a hand of grace, a hand
of mercy, a hand of salvation, a hand of deliverance. But to the Egyptians, it was
a hand of judgment. It was a hand of wrath. It was
a hand of vengeance. Hold your place here, go over
to the book of Zechariah. Of course, I've been preaching
from Zechariah quite a bit on Sunday mornings. Look at Zechariah
chapter 13. Oh, the hand of God. You see, the hand of God is really
upon everybody. And we're in the hand of God.
Even the kings are. That's what the scripture says.
The heart of the king is in what? What does it say? The Lord's
hand. It's in the Lord's hand. President
Biden, his heart, where is it? It's in the Lord's hand. Prime
minister of other countries. Where are their hearts? In the
hand of the Lord. The evil men of this world, vile,
cruel, wicked, ungodly, perverse, where are their hearts? In the
hand of the Lord. You who are the people of God,
here, those watching, those all over the world, where are our
hearts? In whose hands are we? In the
Lord's hands. That old song. He's got the whole
world. He's got the whole world in His
hands. He's got you and me, brother.
He's got you and me, sister. He's got the little bitty baby.
He's got the feeble aged saints of God. He's got all of us in
His hand. That's the hand of God. To some, it's a hand of judgment. To others, it's a hand of mercy. I wanna show you this verse right
here. Zechariah chapter 13, verse seven. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd. Let me ask you something. Whose
hand is that sword in? whose hand held that sword of
vengeance, that sword of wrath. That's the hand of the Lord. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
the one I chose to be the shepherd of my sheep, that I entrusted
to him from all eternity. And against the man who is my fellow, my associate, saith the Lord of hosts. And what did that sword do in
the hand of the Lord? Smite the shepherd. I was thinking about it today.
Think of all of the vengeance of God concentrated Never has all the vengeance of
God against sin ever been concentrated and focused on one man. But it was focused on Christ. He spared not his own son, but
delivered him up for us all. He wasn't merciful to his son. He didn't pour out his wrath
upon his son just in a little bit of an increment of it. The
full force, we can't comprehend this. But we believe this, we
know it's true, the full force of the wrath and the vengeance
of God was concentrated in that sword of justice in the hand
of God the Father and he plunged it into the soul of the Son of
God. Nobody's ever suffered like he
did. Nobody. And you can't and I can't
and all of the theologians who have studied this, we cannot
comprehend the full extent of how much the Lord Jesus Christ
suffered when he was sacrificed upon the cross of Calvary. Smite the shepherd. Whose hand
did that? Well, he said, well, Pilate.
Well, he was certainly active in this, and Herod, and the Jews,
and the Gentiles, the Roman soldiers, but that sword's in God's hand. You see, none of those others
could make him to be the Savior. None of those others was satisfying
divine justice. If God is going to save us, and
He was going to save us, in fact, He did save us before the foundation
of the world. The Lamb of God who was smitten
in the covenant of grace was actually smitten at the hand
of God Himself. And I'm telling you, if you die
without Christ, the hand of God, the sword of God. It's not gonna
come to you in the fullness of the vengeance of God, because
you couldn't stand that, you couldn't bear that. But that wrath of God will be,
it'll be spread out. How long? There's no way to measure. You can't measure eternity. He says, and the sheep will be
scattered. Boy, look at his sheep scatter
when the Lord Jesus was suffering, bleeding, and dying. There they
go. But while the hand of God was
against his Son, watch this, and I will turn mine hand, not against, Not against the
little ones. He turned his hand against our
substitute. But he's gonna turn his hand
upon the little ones. I like the way he describes us.
We're little ones. It's like he just picks us up
in his hand and says, there is therefore now no condemnation.
You're in Christ Jesus. How long have we been in Christ
Jesus? They say ever since conversion.
Gotta go back further than that. You gotta go back into the eternal
council chambers of God. When we were joined to Christ
Jesus, wedded to him, him the head, we're the body, we're in
him. In the hand of God. And you who worry, who fret, who murmur like we
all tend to do sometimes. It is needless anxiety because we're in the hand of
our Lord. And it's not a hand of vengeance
to us. It's not a hand of wrath to us. It's not a hand of judgment to
us. It's a Father's hand. It's the Savior's hand. And if
you look real close, that hand that you're in, it's a nail-scarred
hand because he redeemed you. You see, here's the amazing grace
of God. Israel was no better than the
Egyptians. They were also idolaters, as
the Egyptians were. But the Lord disturbed them,
the Israelites, he disturbed them in their ease and in their
comfort. And he made them miserable. And that was really a good thing.
And nobody enjoys misery. But it was a good thing he made
them miserable. Because they got way too comfortable
in Goshen. He disturbed them. And I would
kind of liken that to conviction of sin. The Lord gets us disturbed. You
know why people don't flee to Christ Jesus? They don't need
him. They don't need him. They've never been disturbed
about their sin, about their guilt, about their own wickedness. They're
comfortable. And then the Spirit of God, using
the Word of God, makes us uncomfortable. Something wrong with me. That which is wrong is sin. The
Bible says the soul that sinneth shall die. And you start getting uncomfortable. That land of Goshen don't look
quite so nice now. The Egyptians make life miserable. But you see, the Egyptians in
making life miserable for the Israelites and Pharaoh. who was
making life miserable for the Israelites, they were not acting
out of the eternal purpose of God, but within the eternal purpose
of God. Because the Lord said, and I
read it to begin with, for this same purpose have I raised thee
up. It was no accident that a cruel,
wicked, vile king sat upon the throne in Egypt. And the Israelites probably concluded,
this is all working against us. Well, that's because you can't
see the end from the beginning. But it's really going to work
together for your good. But we're so miserable. And now
we're making bricks and we have to go get our own straw. I don't
think things could be worse. And these cruel taskmasters. They're so mean. They're so awful
to us. You mean to tell me, preacher,
this is of God? Yes. This is of God. Because the Lord is loosening
the grips of the Israelites upon the land of Goshen. And the reason the Lord is going
to liberate them from Egypt, even though it's going to be
painful in the process, is because of a covenant that
he entered into with Abraham. A covenant which they most likely
had forgot about. And maybe the children didn't
even know anything about it. But God told Abraham, I'm gonna
give you that land flowing with milk and honey. But your people are gonna be
in a foreign land for 400 years. And then I'm gonna bring them
out. and I'm going to bring them out
myself." You see, they're in a predicament. They're now enslaved by a cruel
monarch and a powerful Egyptian army. They cannot save themselves. They cannot deliver themselves. And now they're in misery, they're
in agony, And in that terrible condition, they cry out to God. And the Lord heard them. Because
you see, the Lord put that cry in their hearts. And that's the
way it is with us when the Lord convinces us of our sinfulness,
of our guilt, that we need a Savior, that we need the mercy of God.
He puts a cry in our hearts like that poor publican in the temple
who smoked upon his breast and said, God, God, be merciful to
me. Be propitious to me. Be the sacrifice,
sacrifice for me. I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. He wasn't like
the Pharisee who just went right up front, praying in front of
everybody like he's the holiest man that ever lived. He just stayed in the background. I kind of worry about people
who like to be seen. Tell you what, the Lord shows
you what you are, You'll say, I ain't fit to be seen. I'm nobody. I'm nobody, come from nowhere,
going nowhere except hell, unless God's merciful to me. God put a cry in his heart, and
God put a cry in the hearts of the Israelites. They cried out
to God in their agony, and the Lord heard them. He hears the
cry of those who are in agony, Am I talking to somebody right
now? And you say, well, I tell you,
preacher, I'm a sinner for sure. And I do need the Savior. I now
realize I need the Savior. I tell you what, if you've really
been made to know that you're a sinful creature and you need
the mercy of God that's found only in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you'll know who to cry to. You won't come crying to me.
You won't say, oh preacher, I need you to talk to me and see if
you can help me. I'm helping you all I can right
now. This is the extent of my help. But I'll tell you what the psalmist
said. My help cometh from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. That's the one you call on. And whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord, You know what? They shall be saved. That's what it says, doesn't
it, Terry? They shall be saved. Israel called on the name of
the Lord. And poor old Moses, let me just give you this. The
Lord told Moses, said, you go tell Pharaoh, let my people go. And Moses said, I can't talk. I'm no preacher. I don't have any power, I don't
have any ability, I don't have any gifts. You're right, Moses, you can't
do it. You can't bring them out. You
can't lead them to freedom. You can't lead them to liberty
unless I enable you. But remember this, Moses, that
which I call you to do I will equip you to do. And you'll go forth in my power.
In fact, you remember, turn back to Exodus. Let me show you this.
You remember, look at Exodus chapter six, verse 30. And I'll
hurry up here, wrap this up. But chapter six and verse 30,
Moses said before the Lord, he talking about a humble man, Behold,
I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken to
me? He's not gonna listen to what I have to say. Have you ever thought about this?
Wonder why Pharaoh didn't just kill him? I mean, he's like a
fly on the wall to Pharaoh, just hit him with a flyswatter. That'd
be it for Moses. But you see, God's gonna do something. Because look at the very next
verse, chapter seven, verse one. And the Lord said to Moses, see,
now listen up, Moses. You're right, you don't have
any ability. All these gifts of leadership
and so forth and so on, the Lord knows. But I've made thee a god
to Pharaoh. He not gonna kill you? Because
I put within him a bit of a fear of you. And when you go to speak to him,
you're going with my authority. It's true, you don't have any
strength of your own. But you go in my power. And I'll
tell you what I liken this to, to a preacher of the gospel. We all know, every preacher knows, doesn't
have any real abilities without the Lord. Whatever gifts we have, God gave
them to us. But by nature, I'm like Moses. I'm a man of uncircumcised lips. Why should anybody listen to
me? But the Lord gives to his servants some respect before his people. And he calls his people to listen
to him. I mean, who am I? They're highly educated people
in here, probably got more education than I've got. And in some ways,
more gifted in some areas than I am. Why should you listen to
me? And that's what a lot of people
say. Why should we even listen to you? Well, I've got God's message.
Why should Pharaoh listen to Moses? Well, he's God's man. He heard what he said, but he
didn't believe him. And you see, Israel will be delivered
out of Egyptian bondage, but don't give the credit to Moses.
You can't do that. The Lord said, I'll bring them
out. He just uses Moses as a servant. And Moses, he's kind of like
the apostle Paul. who said, and let me give you
this last reference. Turn over to 1 Corinthians. 1
Corinthians chapter two. 1 Corinthians chapter two. You know, there's a difference
between being confident in the Lord and cocky in the flesh. When you read what the apostle
Paul has to say, He realized without the Spirit of grace,
he was nothing. And he was fearful. Look here what he says, 1 Corinthians
2. And I, brethren, when I came to you to the church at Corinth,
came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto
you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And
I was with you. Now listen to this apostle. You think preachers are just
so anxious, gotta get behind the pull, I gotta preach, I gotta
preach. Well, there is that burden that the Lord puts within us.
But have you ever stopped to think that I'm talking to people
who are eternity bound? I feel the pressure of that.
I feel the weightiness of that. And you men who speak for me,
you must feel that. You need to feel that when you
come up here and you won't be so cocksure that, oh, I got it
tonight. You got nothing unless the Lord
speaks through you. Isn't that right, Ron? Nothing. So I got the ability. You got
no ability unless God gives it to you. Don't ever come up here without
praying. I don't want to hear any man
preach who hadn't talked to God first before he talks to me from
the pulpit. He said, I was with you in weakness,
and in fear, and in much trembling. That's Moses. That's the way
Moses was. He said, my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, not because you heard me preach and I kind
of talked you into something. No. It's got to be in the power
of God. See, here it is. I've done everything
tonight I can do for you already. That's all I can do is tell the
truth, be honest with folks, sow the seed. Paul said, I planted,
Apollos watered. That's all Paul could do. That's
all Apollos could do. God gives the increase. Isn't
that right, Ron? God gives the increase. I pray
God will cause his word, his seed, the seed of the gospel
to germinate in your heart. I tell you, if the Lord gets
on your trail, he's not gonna get off your trail. He'll stay
with you. Because his is the hand of salvation. And his is the hand of judgment.
You're in God's hand. He's not in your hand. Remember that? I know Marty remembers
this from years ago. What will you do with Jesus,
that song? Pilate, Jesus is standing in
Pilate's hall, forsaken by all. What will you do with Jesus?
That is not the question. The question is, what's the Lord
Jesus gonna do with you? Because you're in his hand. I'm
in his hand. And it's his sovereign hand.
He can save, he can damn. He can give mercy. He can give
what I justly deserve. And I say, oh, God, show me mercy
for Christ's sake. Reckon He'll hear me? He will
hear me, won't He? I say, show me mercy, won't He,
Brandon? Show me mercy for Christ's sake.
That's true, isn't it, Bill? That's the way it is. I'm in
His hand. Oh, what a hand to be in. the
hand of the Lord. Well, let's sing a closing song. Get that black folder back out.
Tell you what, for the