Let's go back to the book of
Exodus. We'll resume our studies in the book of Exodus this evening. And I'll read three verses of
scripture to you out of Exodus chapter 5 and seek to bring you
a message on who is the Lord. That's a question that Pharaoh
asked. Exodus chapter 5, verses 1, 2,
and 3. after God had given instructions
to Moses and Aaron as to what they should say, and after Moses
and Aaron met with all of the elders of Israel and told them
what the Lord had said to them, afterward, Moses and Aaron went
in, went into the palace of the king, and they told Pharaoh this. Thus
said the Lord God of Israel, let my people go, that they may
hold a feast, a festival, a wonderful time of worship unto me in the
wilderness. And in his arrogance, this rebel 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, 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. Now the task of Moses and Aaron
has been well defined by the Lord. They didn't choose their
message. They didn't choose their ministry.
God chose them. It was Moses that God set apart
to be the prophet, to be the leader of Israel. It was Aaron
that God has set apart to assist Moses and then later to become
the high priest of Israel. They didn't choose their ministry.
They didn't choose their message. And even so, preachers today
don't preach their message or don't originate or establish
their own message. We don't decide what we're going
to preach. That's decided for us by the
Lord himself. God has given us a mandate. We preach Christ and him crucified. We have a message. We have a
message from the Lord and we dare not deviate from that message. Moses and Aaron did not have
any permission to weaken the message or lessen the severity
of it. very exact and direct words. These are the words of God. And
they're brief. They're brief words to Him. God
said, let my people go, that they may serve me, that they
worship me. There's no wiggle room in that
message. They didn't water it down. They
didn't take the offense away from it. They said, God said
this. Now, the Lord had said, go back
to chapter four in verse 22. Here the Lord gave them their
message. The Lord, thou shalt say unto
Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, 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. Here's a
declaration, let my people go or else, or else judgment is
going to come upon your family. Let my people go. God's preachers
still today have the message that God has set forth for us. And even though people are opposed
to the message of grace, sovereignty, and election, and predestination,
and definite redemption by the work of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the necessity of the new birth, the sovereign mercy and
grace of God, we do not take into consideration the any of
the opinions of men, our job is to just set forth the Word
of God in its clarity. I know the world wants a watered-down
message. And I also understand that even
many of the Lord's people seem to, for whatever reason, get
a little weary of hearing the gospel all the time. And they will suggest things
like, I think we need a little more preaching on Christian living. And they become somewhat dissatisfied. And what I have picked up on,
some preachers are therefore caving in a little bit. And they're
kind of toning down the message and making it more palatable
to a wider range of people. We must not do that. We must
not do that as a congregation. We must not do that as a church.
And I must not do that as your minister, as the preacher of
the gospel. We absolutely denounce universal
redemption, we denounce universal love of God, we denounce that
the Spirit of God's trying to save everybody, that's error. And our message is somebody and
what somebody has accomplished. And we must not get away from
that message, not one iota. Because to veer away from the
pure gospel of God's free and sovereign grace is to get on
a road that will lead us way out of town, as it were. We'll
be way off base. Moses and Aaron, put yourself
in their shoes. They're going before the most
powerful leader in the world. And they go forth with a message
that is very clear, very concise. God said, let my people go. And when you think about the
man that they're standing before, you would be understanding if
their knees were smiting together, if they were nervous about that.
But there's no indication on that. Listen, when we have God's
message, when we have the very Word of the Lord, we must not
and we need not fear the disapproval of men. In Galatians, the first chapter,
Paul says, if I preach to please men, I'm not the servant of God.
We're not trying to win a bunch of friends. We're not trying
to get a big following. If it says predestination, we
say predestination. If it says condemnation, we preach
condemnation. If it says salvation by grace
alone, we preach salvation by grace alone. We must not water
down the message. That's dishonoring to God. Moses and Aaron go forth to speak
to this man who really, as far as Pharaoh was concerned, he
controls whether they live or die. I mean, he's like the Roman
emperors. He can say they live or they
die. And yet here's Moses and Aaron,
they go in before this man who, at least in theory, controls
their very lives. And they speak directly to him
in words that he can understand. And they're entering into the
presence of a man they knew he hated God. He worshipped over 80 idols. The Egyptians worshipped over
80 idols. Idols created out of the vain
imaginations of men. And he goes forth preaching,
these men go forth preaching one God, one Lord over all. The Lord said, the Lord God of Israel. The Lord
God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. He says, let my people
go. He's not asking. He's not making
a request. God gives a direct command to
Pharaoh through the lips of Moses and Aaron, let my people go. Turn them loose. That's what
God says. And we know they will go into freedom. And we know
that Pharaoh's firstborn will die. But not now. Not yet. Because you see, the Lord, before
He sends judgment, and I'll Try to word this best I can. He gives opportunity for repentance. I wouldn't use the word chance
at all. But God, when he speaks to men
about judgment, there's first of all an opportunity given to
repent and go a different direction. You see, the Lord's not gonna
judge Pharaoh yet. He gives warnings. He gives warnings
before he sends judgment. With Noah, Noah was a preacher
of righteousness. He preached and built 120 years. Judgment is coming upon this
godless world. The wrath of God's gonna come
pouring out of the ground and out of the heavens too. And judgment did come, but not
for 120 years. And you take the very prophets
of God. Over and over again, they warned
Israel. They warned Israel, you're going
to go into captivity unless You obey the Lord and worship Him
from the heart by means of a blood sacrifice, looking by faith to
His Son who will come into this world. And prophet after prophet
after prophet spoke to the Israelites, if you don't repent, God's gonna
send you into captivity. Because that's the way the Lord
does. Judgment will come. But warnings
first. Now I know, and you know, that
this man, Pharaoh, he had no ability to repent. He had no ability to believe
the word of God. Because both repentance and faith
are gifts of God, correct? We all agree on that. But he
has a responsibility too. Don't ever, don't ever even indicate
that you don't believe in man's responsibility. I tell you what,
God is sovereign and we're responsible to this sovereign God. You're
responsible to do what he tells you to do. Well, Jim, man doesn't
have the ability. That's another subject. We don't have the ability, that
is a fact, but we have the responsibility to obey God. The fact of the
matter is we lost the ability in Adam's transgression. But still, the Lord sends two
preachers to Pharaoh, and he says to them, or they say to
him, God said, let my people go. And if you don't, judgment's
going to follow. And I'll remind you of this.
Go back to chapter four and look at verse 21. And the Lord said unto Moses,
now pay attention to exactly what the Lord said. When thou
goest to return unto Egypt, See that thou do all those wonders
before Pharaoh which I put in thine hand. But I will harden
his heart that he shall not let the people go. I'm sending you on a mission
to tell this man to let my people go, but make sure you understand
this. He's not going to let my people
go because I'm going to harden his heart. What does God have to do to harden
a man's heart? Really just leave him alone.
Just leave him to his own will. If He leaves you alone, your heart will get harder and
harder. If He leaves you to yourself, and our desire ought to be yours
and mine and all who are watching, our desire should be, Lord, don't
leave me to myself, to my own will. Because my natural inclination
is not to draw near to God, but to wander further and further
away from the Lord. That's what we'll all do by nature.
And the Lord tells these two preachers, here's your mission. Here's what you're to say. But understand this, he's not
going to let my people go, because I'm going to harden his heart.
You say, well, what did the Lord do that for? You see, the Lord
sees the whole picture. And what he's going to do, Pharaoh
says, who is the Lord? Who is the Lord? Well, after
14 chapters, he's going to find out who the Lord is. And the
Lord is pleased in his infinite wisdom to stretch this out in
order to show not only Pharaoh who the Lord is, but to show
Israel who the Lord is. Because the Lord could have smitten
Pharaoh and his army right then, right? Of course he could have.
He didn't have to take him to the Red Sea. But Israel needs,
they need to learn some lessons themselves about who the Lord
is. And further, the Lord is going
to manifest the way that He frees captive sinners by the death
of the Passover lamb. That's what this is heading toward. The reason that the Lord did
not immediately jerk Pharaoh off his throne and put him in
the ground, send his soul to hell and conquer all of his army
is because the Lord is going to teach Israel the way of salvation. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. That's what God is teaching.
It's what he's going to teach Israel. He's going to teach them
when they get to the Red Sea that it's the Lord who must make
a way through the sea. It's the Lord who makes the way
of salvation. And the same Lord who saves Israel
damns the Egyptians. And there's his sovereignty right
there. Someone might say, what's the
use of issuing this command to Pharaoh? And somebody might say to us,
to me, what's the use of preaching the gospel if it's all been decided? If it's all been decreed, and
it has. God's not making any new decisions. God doesn't make neat jerk reactions. God acts and we react, but His
decrees are like Himself, from everlasting. Had someone emailed
me not too long ago about justification. Is it from eternity or is it
something that just happens in time? Well, all the decrees of
God concerning salvation, that is, election and the predestination
of His people, of the justification of His people, the salvation
of His people, those are all eternal decrees because they're
in the heart of the eternal God. So somebody might ask, well,
why do you preach the gospel then? What's the use in preaching? If it's all been determined,
who's going to be saved and who's going to be left? Who's going
to be glorified and who's going to be condemned? Who's going
to be righteous and who's going to remain wicked? What's the
use of preaching the gospel every time we gather together? Well,
I'll tell you why. Number one, because preaching
the gospel glorifies God. I know that all of you, at least
I think, I can't read anybody's heart, but I believe that all
of you believe the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace.
But understand this, if nobody in here believed the gospel,
and those of you who are watching, if none of you believe the gospel,
I would still preach the gospel because it glorifies the name
of God. That's what we're supposed to
be doing. I'll brag on his son. That honors
God. God honors those who honor his
son. Oh, that we could get that in
our minds and in our hearts. Preacher, do you want God to
honor your message and your ministry? Honor his son. If you don't honor
his son, you needn't expect that he would honor your message. It glorifies God. You parents, when somebody praises one of your children, well, they've endeared themselves
to you immediately, right? Sure. Yeah, I tell you, your
son is just out, your daughter, oh boy. Yeah, that's right. Keep on talking. We're buddies
now. Well, that's a pitiful illustration
of how God is so pleased when our souls make our boast in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It pleases God. It honors God. And if nobody believes, it honors
God. Three, I've told Sunday school
teachers through the years, if you have one or two students,
say, well, it's not worth it if I'll just have that many.
Really? There were several times over
on our trip that I had the opportunity to speak to one person. about
the things of God. Just brag on Christ Jesus. Tell
Him who He is and what He did and the reason He did it and
where He is now and what He's doing now and what He's going
to do. You say, well, what if they don't believe? Well, the
believing part is totally out of my hands and really it's out
of their hands too. It's up to the Lord to reveal
the truth. But our business is to tell people
of the glories of King Jesus. I'll tell you why we preach,
too, because it pleases God by the foolishness of preaching
to save people. That's why we preach. The second
reason for preaching, preaching the power of God into
salvation, preaching the gospel, I know the natural reasoning
of people is, listen, if people don't have the ability to believe
and they don't have the ability to repent, why are you preaching
belief on the Lord Jesus Christ? Why are you preaching repentance
from dead works? Repentance from idolatry? Why
are you preaching the need of righteousness? Why do you preach
that Christ, by His obedience unto death, established righteousness
for the people of God, if men don't have the ability
to believe? Well, first of all, that's what
God told me to preach. And secondly, this is God's chosen
means to inform His people of the truth. How shall they hear
without a preacher? It pleases God to use preaching
to magnify the riches of His grace. Let me make it as simple
as I can. I'm just one beggar telling other
beggars where they can find a good meal at the banquet table of
God's sovereign grace to sinners in Christ. And I say to you, if you're hungry,
come and dine. If you're thirsty, come and drink.
You say, well, I'm not gonna believe that. Well, you're not
thirsty, okay? I'm not gonna swallow what
you're preaching. Well, you're not hungry. Oh,
that God would give you an appetite. And we preach to leave all men
without excuse. Here's Pharaoh. I tell you, after all the things
that's going to happen to him, he is without excuse. In fact,
Moses is gonna tell him, for this same purpose, God raised
you up to make his power known. God's making a name for himself,
Mr. Pharaoh. Still didn't believe. Still didn't believe. Moses and Aaron are
full of boldness, faithful to declare God's message. After all, it's required of stewards
that a man be found faithful. and they're faithful to deliver
God's truth to this child of the devil because that's what
he is. Is that right? That's exactly who Pharaoh is,
a child of the devil. See, everybody's either a child
of God or a child of the devil, an offspring of the Lord or an
offspring of the old serpent. So, they go in before Pharaoh, this
idol worshiper. When I think about all these
gods that they'd worshipped, it kind of puts me in mind of
passage in Acts chapter 17 where Paul is at Athens and he sees
all these statutes and indications of religious superstition. In
fact, he says to them, I perceive this is a very superstitious
group of people here. You're a bunch of religious people,
that's for sure. I saw all these monuments to
various gods. You even had one that says, to
the unknown god, in case we left one out. He said, that's what
I'm gonna preach to you about. The one you don't know. And Pharaoh,
he knew about his 80 some-odd gods. But the one God he didn't know
anything about is the Lord God of glory, who inhabits eternity. He didn't know him. And he says,
who is the Lord that I should obey him? Who is he? Well, the
very The question indicates his own ignorance. His ignorance. In fact, Pharaoh is ignorant
of two tremendous truths. He's ignorant of who God is.
Who is the Lord? Do you know? Do you know who
He is? He was ignorant. He had all the
education. He had all the schooling that
a man could possibly receive from the Egyptians who were known
for their wisdom, according to Acts chapter 7. Stephen said
that in his sermon. He had all the man-made education,
but he didn't know God. And you'll never know God apart
from a divine revelation. You can be the smartest person
on earth. You can have the highest IQ that
anybody's got. Your IQ may be off the scale. But every man is absolutely ignorant
of God apart from a divine revelation. He didn't know the Lord. I'll
tell you something else he didn't know. He didn't know himself. He reminds me, you got a couple
of minutes, look over here at Revelation chapter three. He reminds me of the people of
Laodicea. And the Lord speaks to the angel
of the church, to the preacher, the pastor of the church. And he says this in chapter 3
of Revelation verse 17. He says, Because thou sayest,
I'm rich and increased with goods. Revelation 3, 17. And have need of nothing. That's
Pharaoh. I don't need you, you fellas. This is my kingdom. Kind of like
Nebuchadnezzar. He said, this is great Babylon
that I built. This is my city. I'm the man
in charge. I own everything. As far as the
eye can see, this is my Babylon, he said. The layout of sin said,
we're rich. We got everything we need. The Lord said, and knowest not
that thou art Wretched, you're an afflicted people. You're afflicted
with sin. And miserable, you're a people
to be pitied. And poor, you're a spiritual
beggar in debt to God. In debt with an indebtedness
that you can't possibly pay. And blind, You can't even see
how bad off you are. And naked, you got your self-righteous
rags that you pull up tight around yourself. You're naked. You need everything and you got
nothing. Pharaoh, you're ignorant. You're
ignorant of who the Lord is and you're ignorant of what you are.
Who is the Lord? Well, I'll tell you this. He's
the creator of all things. He made all things. Who is the
Lord? He's the king of the universe. Who is the Lord? He's the giver
of all mercies. Who is the Lord? He's the only
savior of sinners. He's the only one who can help
you. He's the only one who can do anything for you. Who is the
Lord? And notice he says this, who
is the Lord that I should obey his voice? His voice is certainly heard
in creation. Turn to Psalm 19 real quick. Look at Psalm 19. You know, creation, it preached
to Pharaoh every day. And creation preaches a message
to all the world every day. Look at Psalm 19. Who is the
Lord that I should obey? His voice, he said. Psalm 19, verse 1. The heavens
declared the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech. Night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language
where their voice is not heard. Who is the Lord that I should
obey his voice? Well, Pharaoh, the Lord's voice
is loudly proclaimed throughout all of creation. You're just
not listening. And that's the way it is with
everybody. People don't listen. The heavens, they shout out the
glory of God. Oh, the glory of the wisdom of
the one who made us. Oh, the glory of the might, the
power, the omnipotence of the one who spoke us into existence. The voice of creation is preaching
every single day and people aren't listening. Nobody's listening
to that sermon. His voice is heard in the works
of providence. The Bible talks about the Lord
does all things. You think about the most wicked
thing that men have ever done in this universe. They killed
the sovereign Christ, the Savior, the only Lord of glory who came
down here. They killed Him. They hated Him.
They despised Him. They nailed Him to a cross. And
yet God was working out His purpose of redemption in the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. If there hadn't been a death
of the Son of God, there'd be no salvation for us. I tell you, the death of the
Son of God shouts out loudly. It's got a voice. It says, God
must punish sin. That's what Calvary cries out.
Anybody listen to that voice? I can hear that voice, can't
you? I can hear that voice. God speaks loudly from Mount
Calvary. where our Lord Jesus bore our
sins. He endured all the hell that
we would have suffered forever, forever. All the iniquities of
God's people were met upon Him. The wrath of God fell on Him,
and His substitutionary sacrifice cries out loudly, God will punish
sin! But nobody's listening to that
voice. Oh God, give us ears to hear.
No wonder the Savior spoke to his disciples, said, blessed
are your eyes, for they see. Blessed are your ears, for they
hear. See, we hear what other men don't hear. We hear what
other women don't hear. We hear the voice of creation
saying, behold the omnipotence of my creator. We hear the voice
of divine providence. God works all things after the
counsel of his own will. We hear the voice, others don't. And then, the voice of the Lord is heard
in the gospel. Remember in John 10, what did
the Savior say? My sheep hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow
me. The voice of the Lord is loudly
proclaimed and heard in the death of Christ. The voice says God is satisfied. The voice says God has put away
the sins of all those in whose stead Christ died. I'll tell you, God's voice is
heard in his works of judgment. Behold what happened to those
who refused to hear the word of the Lord. How did Pharaoh
fare? How did it come out for him?
How did it work out? Who is the Lord that I should
obey his voice? He found out. He found out, and I think about
that rich man over in Luke, was it chapter 18? He learned the
truth in hell. And he said, Abraham, send Lazarus
back to tell my brothers, don't come to this place. And Abraham
said, nope, that's not gonna happen. Nope, they won't believe
even if one rose from the dead. because Christ would rise from
the dead. He said, they have the scriptures. They have the
scriptures. Things didn't work out too good
for Pharaoh. He died a hater of God. And he's been in hell a long,
long time. But that long, long time is just
a drop in the bucket. So how did Moses and Aaron answer? And I'll quit with this, because
I'm going to enlarge upon this next week. And they said, remember
the question is, who is the Lord? And I just want you to notice
the first few words of verse three. And they said, the God
of the Hebrews. That's who He is. You all know
who the Lord is? He's the God of the Hebrews. See, there's one nation that
has always been dominant in the purpose of God. There's one nation
through all of the Old Testament that is the very center of God's
decree of salvation. There is one nation throughout
all of the Word of God that is the very root of God's purpose
of grace. One nation. Only one nation God's
interested in. And it isn't the nationality
of Israel. See, most people think that.
No, and it isn't the United States of America. It's the Israel of God that is
true spiritual Israel, a chosen nation. That's God's nation,
that's God's people. Who is the Lord? He's the God
of the Hebrews. And if you're a child of God,
you're one of the Hebrews. You're one of the Jews. He is
a Jew who is one, not outwardly, but inwardly. We're the children
of Abraham. And we're the children of God,
by God's magnificent, free, and sovereign grace. Who is the Lord? He's our God. That's who He is. He's our God. He's our Father. We can speak to Him and say,
Abba, Abba, Father. And He's always there to hear
our cry. And only His people can say that. Who is the Lord that I should
obey His voice? Very powerful scripture, and
I'm gonna bring some more on this next week. But I'll quit
for now. Let's get our psalm books and
turn to hymn number 10.