When the exodus is over, when
the Lord has delivered his people out of the jaws of Egypt, when
the firstborn of the unbelieving Egyptians have died, and when
this portion of God's word is read today and forever, Everyone
is going to know who it is that liberated the captives. They
didn't free themselves. The Israelites were a ragtag
gang of people who had no orderly conduct among themselves. They weren't capable of overpowering
the Egyptian army that was the most powerful military upon the
face of the earth. They were no match for the power
of Pharaoh, the mighty monarch of Egypt. They could not get
themselves out of the jam that they were in. And the Lord is going to make
sure before this is over, that both the Israelites and the Egyptians
know of a certainty that the great work of releasing the captives
was the work of the Lord God of Israel alone. You see, the
Lord, first of all, He's going to make sure that Israel knows
who is going to release them from their captivity. Let me
read a few verses to you if you care to follow. Look back in
chapter 6. Back in chapter 6 in verse 7.
Verse 6 of chapter 6 says this, 6 and 6. Wherefore, saying to the children
of Israel, he's talking to Moses, I am the Lord, and I will bring
you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will
rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a
stretched out arm and with great judgments, and I will take you
to me for a people, and I will be to you a God, and ye shall
know Ye shall know. God's going to
teach them something. Ye shall know. You're going to
know who I am. That I am the Lord. I am the great Jehovah. I am
that I am. I am the ever-existent God. I am the ruler. I am the governor. I am the sovereign. I am the
Lord. Your God. your God, which bringeth you
out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. You shall know
God's going to make sure there are two groups of people. God's
going to make sure that they know who is bringing about this
great deliverance from the captivity of the Egyptians, of the Israelites
by the Egyptians. And first of all, he's going
to make sure that the Israelites know. Drop down to verse 12,
chapter No, go to chapter 16. Let me just go to chapter 16. Chapter 16 and verse 6. You remember when they began
to be hungry, the Israelites, at this juncture, they've already
been, they've left Egypt, they've crossed the Red Sea, and now
their things appear to be really good, and the sun is shining,
and all is well, but then they run into a difficulty, they don't
have any food. And they become hungry, and they
said to Moses, would to God we had died back in Egypt, at least
we had plenty to eat. In fact, we had buffets back
then. We ate high on the hog, so to
speak. Look at verse four of chapter
16. Then the Lord said unto Moses, behold, I will reign, not wrath
from heaven, not fury from heaven, not judgments from heaven, but
I will reign bread from heaven for you. He didn't give them
what they deserved. He gave them what they needed. He gave them bread, just as he
gave us Christ Jesus. He gave us that which we needed,
though we did not know our need of him. He gave us Christ who
is the bread of life. And he says, and the people shall
go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them
whether they will walk in my law or no. And it shall come
to pass that on the sixth day that they shall prepare that
which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gathered
daily. And Moses and Aaron said unto
all the children of Israel, and even then you shall know that
the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt. Again,
the Lord is teaching them. This is to reinforce in their
memories and in their hearts just who it was who brought them
out of Egyptian captivity. And He did not bring them out
to die in the wilderness. He did not bring them out that
they might starve to death. This is the Lord, the Lord who
saw to it that Joseph went to Egypt and then Jacob and his
seed went into Egypt and that they would remain there some
400 years as the Lord said to Abraham that they would. And
it's the Lord himself who has brought them out of Egyptian
bondage and captivity, teaching them all along the way who it
is who has provided for them. who has delivered them, who has
saved them, who has met every need that they have, the Lord
says, I'm teaching you who I am. And really, throughout our pilgrim
journey, all through life, is He not continually teaching us
who He is? It's certainly in regeneration,
in revelation, the Lord revealed Himself to us. He revealed the
Son of God to us, like He said to Peter when Peter made that
great confession of faith, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God. He said to Peter, flesh and blood
didn't teach you that. My Father revealed that to you. And it's the Father, by His Spirit,
who reveals to us who Christ is. And he's continually reminding
us, you're not made of yourself. You're not a self-made person. I liberated you. I delivered
the captives. You were bound in sin. You were
bound by the chains of wickedness. I broke the chains, God says. I'm the one who delivered you.
I'm the one who saved you. And he's continually teaching
us and reminding us lest we forget. He's the one. He's the one who
saved us. He's the one who delivered us. Look what he says down, drop
down in chapter 16 and verse 12. The Lord says, I have heard
the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speaking to them,
saying, at evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning
you shall be filled with bread, and ye shall know that I am the
Lord your God. His teaching will continue. It
will continue. And look with me, go all the
way over to chapter 29. Look at chapter 29. Here the Lord has set before
them the necessity of the sacrifices, actually toward the end of this
28th chapter. Toward the end of the 28th chapter.
He's talking about the, or excuse me, the end of the 29th chapter.
He's talking about the necessity of these sacrifices. And in chapter
29, he talks about the morning sacrifice and the evening sacrifice. And the Lord says, that's where
I'm going to meet you. And we know the Lord meets his
people at the sacrifice. He meets his people where the
blood has been poured out. Where a life, an innocent life
has been forfeited instead of the guilty. And every morning
a lamb died, and every evening another lamb died, and this went
on and on and on and on. And we know every lamb that died
on Jewish altars, every one of them pictured and typified our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who was crucified, buried,
and risen again in order to save His people from their sins. And
God says this in chapter 29 and verse 43. Verse 42 even, this shall be
a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door
of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, where I will
meet you to speak there unto thee, that is these sacrifices,
one in the morning, one in the evening, verse 43, and there
I will meet with the children of Israel and the tabernacle
shall be sanctified by my glory. And I will sanctify the tabernacle
of the congregation and the altar. I will sanctify also both Aaron
and his sons to minister to me in the priest's office. And I
will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God,
and they shall know And they shall know that I am the Lord
their God that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that
I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. They're
learning this. They must learn this. I brought
them out that I may dwell among them. And I'll tell you, the
Lord brought us out of captivity. The Lord has saved us by his
grace that he may dwell with us. and He's our God, and we're
His people. And like the Israelites, we must
never, we must never take any glory for ourselves. Not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for
thy truth's sake. No glory to us, all glory to
the Lord. We love reading the first chapter
of the book of Ephesians and three times in the first chapter. It talks about for the glory
of the grace of God, for the glory of the grace of God, for
His glory. Our salvation, our deliverance
from captivity, a captivity from which we could never deliver
ourselves. The removal of the bondage of
our sins, we couldn't do that. The work of grace in our hearts
by the Spirit of truth, we couldn't do that. The drawing of us by
effectual grace to the Lord Jesus, the only Savior of sinners, we
couldn't do that. We had to be drawn. We had to
be made willing. And in the end, it will be seen
that our journey through grace, by the very power of God, has
been solely to the glory of God who chose us, who redeemed us,
who called us, who preserves us, who will perfect us in Christ
Jesus in glory. It's all to the praise of the
glory of His grace, as He says there in Ephesians chapter 1. The Lord is going to make sure
that Israel knows this is God's work. Who freed the captives? The Lord did. But there's another
group that's going to learn who freed the captives, and that's
the Egyptians. Go back to chapter 7 of Exodus. Go back to chapter 7. And I read this to you a while
ago. Look at verse three again. God
said, I will harden Pharaoh's heart. And 19 times in these
first few chapters, it talks about Pharaoh's heart being hardened. And most of the time, God hardens
his heart. Sometimes it says, Pharaoh hardened
his own heart. But most of the time, it's God
who hardened his heart. He says, and I will harden Pharaoh's
heart. Now mind you of this, Moses has
just said, the last verse of chapter six,
behold, look Lord. Lord, listen. I'm a man of uncircumcised
lips. I'm nobody. I can't talk. I'm not a leader. I'm not qualified
for this. And how shall Pharaoh hearken
to me? Why will he even listen to what
I have to say? The Lord said, well, I'm doing
something you don't understand, Moses. I'm making you to be an
authority to Pharaoh. You'll be to him like a God. Like somebody who has power. And I'm going to use you and
you're going to speak my word. And he says, and Aaron will be
your prophet. And you'll speak everything I
command you. And then he says in verse three,
and I will harden Pharaoh's heart. I'll multiply my signs and my
wonders in the land of Egypt. But God says, Pharaoh shall not
hearken unto you. He's not going to listen to you. You don't have any power in your
voice. You don't have the ability to
change his heart. to make him willing to release
my people. He's not gonna hearken to you,
and he's not gonna hearken to you because I'm gonna do some
things to him. I'm gonna lay my hand upon Egypt,
upon him and his people. and bring forth mine armies and
my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt, and
I'll do it by great judgment." He has no idea. Pharaoh has no
idea what he's in store for. He has no concept of the greatness
of who I am. He has said, when I first sent
you to him, he has said, who is the Lord that I should obey
his voice? I don't know your God. Well,
look at verse five. And the Egyptians, they shall
know that I am the Lord. When are they going to know this?
Look at the next word. The Egyptians shall know that
I am the Lord when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt and
bring out the children of Israel from among them." They're going
to find out. I'm going to make sure not only
that you know that you know who is going to release you, I'm
going to make sure the enemy knows that you didn't free yourself,
Because the Egyptians know you don't have any ability. And it's
just like Satan knows we have no ability to release ourselves
from captivity. If we said, get away from us,
Satan, he just laughs at us. We're nobody to him. But like Pharaoh, Satan in that
day When God exercised his sovereign saving power in the hearts of
his people, Satan found out who released the captives, who set
us free. You remember the Savior said
in John, if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. He has to make us free, doesn't
he? This is an exertion of the Lord. It's not your will. I wrote for
you a article that I hope will be a blessing to you and instructive
to everybody who reads it on free willism for this coming
Sunday's bulletin. You can exercise your so-called
free will from now till doomsday if you want to. Satan's not afraid
of your will. Your will's not gonna accomplish
anything. But if God, if God himself by
his sovereign authority and power releases you from the captivity
of the evil one, even Satan will know God did it. God did it. And is it not true there in Genesis
chapter three that when the Lord talked about the seed of the
woman coming to crush the head of the serpent, Isn't it true
that those words were spoken directly to the serpent, to Satan
himself? That one who created him, that one whose position Lucifer
sought to take, the Son of God, he came And by
his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary, he crushed the head
of the serpent. I'll talk more about that next
week. Pharaoh's gonna find out. He's gonna know. And all of the
Egyptians are gonna know who freed the captives. Look over
in chapter 11. I believe it is chapter 11. This is when Moses is telling
Pharaoh about the death of the firstborn. The other, the previous
nine plagues, they were tough, they were difficult. But still,
Pharaoh remained stubborn. Moses says, God's gonna send
one more plague. You will release the captive
then. He says in verse six, there shall be a great cry, chapter
11, verse six, there shall be a great cry throughout all the
land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall it
shall be like it anymore, but against the children of Israel
shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast, that ye
may know, that ye may know how that the
Lord doth put a difference God has made a marked out distinction. He made a distinction in old
eternity. And he ordained that his people
would be liberated and the rest of mankind will
perish. That everybody may know this
is what the Lord has done. And the Egyptians are gonna find
out. God's made a difference here.
This is something the Lord has done. He's made a difference. Look at chapter 14. Chapter 14
and verse four. Chapter 14. This is after the exodus out
of the bondage, but just before the children of Israel will cross
the Red Sea on dry land. The Egyptians are in mad pursuit. And it seems to the Israelites,
as will be revealed as we study this passage of Scripture further
a little later, it seemed to them that all hope was lost. The Lord says, however, to Moses
in verse 3, chapter 14, verse 3, for Pharaoh will save the
children of Israel. They are entangled in the land. They are confused and perplexed. They don't know what to do. The wilderness has shut them
in. And Pharaoh was saying, I've
got them now. And God says, and I will harden
Pharaoh's heart that he shall follow after them. And I will
be honored upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts that the Egyptians
may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. Pharaoh said, I don't know who
the Lord is. God said, he's gonna find out.
He's gonna find out. And I'm telling you, everybody's
gonna find out. sooner or later who the Lord
is. If we don't find out in this
life, we'll find out at the judgment, when God makes a revelation of
the distinction he made before the world began. See, God made
a difference before the foundation of the world. And He ordained
that some of Adam's race would be saved as trophies of His grace,
as monuments of His loving kindness and tender mercies. They would be brought into God's
family, washed in the blood of the Son of God, robed in the
garments of righteousness. God made a distinction. God made a difference. Those
are His people. And then the rest, He left. to
their own natural inclinations and ways. And in the end, when
all is said and done, when the Lord sets his sheep on the right
hand and the goats on the left hand, then everyone will know
that he is the Lord. See, people may argue about,
fuss about salvations of the Lord now. But in the end, in the end, when
that final difference is made manifest before all of creation,
the sheep who've been bathed in the bloody sacrifice of Christ,
saved by the grace of God, and the goats who were left to themselves,
in that day, both the sheep and the goats will know who made
the difference. And then every knee is going
to bow, and every tongue's going to confess that Jesus of Nazareth,
the despised Galilean, that he's the Lord, to the glory of God
the Father. You see, it will be seen by the
Egyptians at last and by the Israelites as well, that when
the children of Israel are delivered, when they're rescued from the
cruelty of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, God had to do the work. And that's
certainly true of spiritual deliverance. Who delivers the captives? Well,
we don't deliver ourselves. Let the Armenians, let the free
wheelers brag on how they're the ones who make the difference.
But those of us who've been saved, who are being saved by the grace
of God, we know better. It's the Lord who is saving us
by his grace. Moses, he deserves no glory. He's just a vessel in the master's
hand. All the glory goes to the Lord. And no preacher deserves any
glory, any recognition or acclaim. Because we know if people are
blessed by the word of God, it's the Lord who does it. And we
have to find that out. And we will. And we're still
learning, aren't we? We really are. The Lord, he brings
this to pass in our lives and something else to pass in our
lives. He says, Lord, what are you teaching me? I'm teaching
you that I'm the Lord. To bow before me. To acknowledge
my sovereign right to do what I will with my own. And we'll acknowledge that. And
we'll say, It is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good
in his sight. Let's sing a closing song, shall
we? Get our psalm books again. Let's
turn to 196.