Exodus chapter 13, I will not
read verses 1 through 16 But the immediate context of my message
this morning is Exodus 13 verses 1 through 16 But I do want to
read you four verses from that passage of that part of this
scripture Verse three, and Moses said unto the people, remember
this day in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house
of bondage. Now look at this. For by strength
of hand, the Lord brought you out from this place. Do you see
that? Also now look at verse nine.
And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for
a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord's law may be in
thy mouth. For with a strong hand hath the
Lord brought thee out of Egypt. Very similar thing is said in
verse 14. And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to
come, saying, what is this? that thou shalt say unto him,
look at it, by strength of hand, the Lord brought us out from
Egypt from the house of bondage. And we see the very similar thing
again in verse 16. And it shall be a token upon
thine hand and for frontlets between thine eyes, for by strength
of hand, the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt. My title, although I'm not going
to deal with that subject itself as the whole, my title is this,
with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out. Do you remember where you used
to be before God brought you out? I can say it this way, my bondage
was the fault of another. but my bondage was also my fault
as well. I loved it so. I was conceived and I was born
in iniquity. And that doesn't mean my mom
and dad did something wrong when they conceived me and I was born.
That means they passed down to me what Adam passed down to all
of us when he sinned in that garden. Now chapters 13 verses one through
16, most of you should have got my text. If you read this, you'll
see this. These verses, verses one through
16, kind of intrude into the historical narrative. It starts
where we left off last week, and it came to pass, verse 51
of 12. and it came to pass the same day that the Lord did bring
the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.
Then it continues with the historical narrative in verse 17, and it
came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go. Do you see
it? This is kind of like an interlude. It kind of intrudes into the
historical narrative. Now, don't get me wrong. God's
book is never just a historical narrative. It's far more than
a historical narrative, but it's historical narrative is exactly
accurate. And it's there for a reason as
well. So you see, this is kind of stuck
in there. This screams to me, when I read
this, and I try to read, I've read the whole book, of course,
but we've all, when we were kids, probably were told to read through
the Bible, but you read this, you kind of read ahead, you try
to find the immediate context, the surrounding prior context,
and the coming context, and you try to put all this together,
and you think about these things, but when I read this, this screamed
to me, listen! Take heed! Of course, right here
in the midst of this historical narrative, God tells Moses to
stop and give the people some words. Does he not? This screams listen. It screams
listen even to us. Right here in Crow, West Virginia,
this day of, what is it, June the 2nd, 2019, right around 10
minutes till 12, it screams to us, listen! Listen. How do I know that? I'm not making
that up. That's not my opinion. Paul told
us these words, Romans 15 verse four, by inspiration of the Spirit
of God. Now we know, if you don't know this, that's your trouble.
Part of your trouble anyway. Now we know that whatsoever things,
that means all of them. And we know that whatsoever things
were written before, and he talked about God's Old Testament, the
book, the Bible, were written for our learning. That we through patience and
comfort of the scripture might have hope. So it screams to us,
listen, it also screams the gospel. And somebody says, well, that's
not the gospel. Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus,
Deuteronomy, that's not the gospel. Oh, yes, it is. Oh, yes, it is. And it's not that gospel, it
is the gospel. There's never and ever, never,
ever will be any other but one eternal gospel. How do I know
that? That's not my opinion. The epistle
to the Hebrews chapter four in verse one and two says, talking
about these very people and this very event, this very time frame,
that the gospel was preached to them as well as unto us. Now thus saith the Lord. So that's,
Mason, that's just the way it is. It screams the gospel. That's all I'm gonna say. That's
not an incomplete sentence. That's all I meant to say. It
screams the gospel. It also screams this, don't ever,
ever, ever soft pedal or compromise God's truth. We are so prone to do that because
we live in a world that is so religious that they either hate
overtly the gospel we preach or they're so oblivious to truth
reality of the reality of God's truth. They think everything
you say is fine and have no idea what you're talking about. There
are both kinds of people out there. Some of them hear the
gospel and say, I don't believe that. Like the guy told Henry,
your God's a monster. Other people can hear, a different
person can hear me preach the same message. Boy, that was a
good message, pastor. but wouldn't dare darken these
doors to hear me preach every Sunday, goes down to some place
that believes in some man-centered free will gospel. Something's
wrong somewhere. Something's wrong somewhere.
It screams to us, don't soft pedal or compromise God's gospel. You would be a whole lot more
comfortable in this world if you did. You could make it further
in your job if you did. but that's not what we ought
to do. Think, think about it now, think.
Why? And look, okay, you have this
historical narrative going on, it's teaching us what happened
when God brought them out of Egypt with a strong hand, and
all of a sudden we have this interjected here, all the firstborn
are to be set apart. Seven days of unleavened bread,
why? First sling of asses. What's that got to do with anything?
You understand what I'm saying? At just first reading, you say,
this is odd. This is odd. Now, it's not really
odd. But firstly, why? Why first born beast to be sacrificed
and all first born males are to be redeemed? Why? What's this
all about? I'm telling you, it's the gospel.
It's all the gospel. Here's the gospel, God Almighty,
when he saves somebody, he does it with a strong hand. If God
sets his heart, and I'm talking about end time, if God sets his
heart on an individual soul, male or female, rich or poor,
black or white, it doesn't matter, God will save that person. God
has never done all he could do. God is always doing exactly what
He determined before the world to be done, and He does it with
strength of hand. Our Lord Jesus Christ is no pushover. He is God Almighty manifest in
the flesh. Why? The one constant, though,
in this text is what? That phrase, the Lord's strong
hand. Now here at least six thoughts
we should deeply ponder. Now there are more. But if I
go through this as we're going through this and I tried to stop
and look at everything that even I see from it, we'd never get
anywhere. Well, maybe we would if that's
what God purposed for me to do. But I'm just trying to hit some
high spots here. Six thoughts that we should deeply
ponder. Look at verse one and two. The
Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Sanctify unto me all the firstborn. Whatsoever openeth the womb among
the children of Israel, both of man and of beast, those next
three words, it is mine. Do you see it? Now anybody here wanna know what
my first point is? God has the right to sovereign choice. This book's for it. God's got
the right to choose what he wants and who he wants. He said the
firstborn is mine. You set him or it apart. If it's
a beast, set it apart. If it's a person, a human being,
they're mine. I own them. Why? Because God
said so. And Paul tells us clearly. You
can read it sometime. Everyone here is familiar with
that. Even these babies are familiar with that. They just don't know
they're familiar with it yet. One of these days it'll leak
out on them, just like one of them the other day got in the
car going home and the mama told her mama that the child said
something like, we all need the Lord. Wasn't it something like
that? Yeah. It sticks in here, folks. It sticks in here. Romans chapter
nine, God Almighty tells us there were two individuals, one called
Jacob, one called Esau. God said, I love Jacob, I hate
Esau. And there is no unrighteousness
with God in it. And then he refers to the very
event we're looking at here in scripture concerning Pharaoh
and Israel. God put a difference between
the Egyptians and the Israelites, and God's always done that. At
the get-go, he put a difference between Cain and Abel. Did he not? And even before that,
he put a difference between the seed of the serpent and the seed
of the woman. God has the right to sovereign
choice. What he wants is not, no, see,
it ain't God wants anything. God says it's mine. Now, you
and I ought to listen to that and bow down to that. And folks,
that covers not just salvation. Now, when we talk about God's
sovereignty, the first and foremost thing ought to be in the salvation
of the souls of men and women. Sadly, today, men will talk about
God's sovereignty till it gets to the salvation of the souls
of men and women. and say God's sovereignty doesn't apply there.
That's a lie from hell. That is anti-Christ religion. If God wants to choose a Nebuchadnezzar,
he'll choose a Nebuchadnezzar to go and chastise his people,
bring them into bondage for 70 years. And if God wants to save an old
whore coming to a well, to draw some water. Woman been married,
what was it, five, six, seven times, and she was shacking up
with the one she's with then. And she was a religious woman.
God Almighty saved her soul, you know why? Because God the
Father determined that the son do it before the world began.
Number two, number two. Verses three through seven. Moses
said unto the people, remember this day in which ye came out
from Egypt out of the house of bondage, for by strong strength
of hand the Lord brought you out from this place. There shall
no leavened bread be eaten. This day come ye out in the month
of Abib, and it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into
the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites,
and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee,
a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this
service in this month. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened
bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast unto the Lord.
Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and there shall be
no leavened bread be seen with thee. Neither shall there be
leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters. It's not even to
be close to you. You want to know what point number
two is? Truth and error cannot mix. Truth and error cannot mix. There
are thousands today that really don't care what you preach, just
as long as you preach from the Bible and you're moral. Balaam preached the truth of
God. Twice. Two of the greatest messages
I've ever read in the book of God. And Peter and Jude, I think,
is it? Call him apostate. A whale without
water. That scares me. Balaam was in it for the money.
How many in today are in it for the money? Let me tell you, there's
some preachers, they ain't gonna move to Crow, West Virginia if
they gotta go get a job, work. You either take care of me completely
or I won't be there. Now that's just a little tidbit
for, look out there. Truth and error cannot mix, and
Paul says so. 1 Corinthians 5, you can look
at it, 6 through 8. And this means from the doctrine
we believe about God and about ourselves to our actual conduct
in this world. because go back and look at the
context of 1 Corinthians 5, 6-8, and Paul said, let us keep the
feast, not this Old Testament feast, but the feast of feeding
upon Jesus Christ, our Passover, which is sacrifice for us. He
said, let us do it with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Now that is, you preach the right
doctrine, you mean it, You don't preach it faintly. You don't
say it just because, well, that's what I'm supposed to say. Mason,
I believe what I'm preaching to you. I believe what I'm preaching
to you. But he also said, you've got
a man that's called a brother, and he's a forticator or a drunk
or whatever. You know what he says, Doc? You
don't even eat with him. Isn't that what he says? That's what
the book says. Truth and error cannot mix. Thirdly, Look at verse eight,
nine and 10. Exodus 13, eight, nine, and 10.
Thou shalt shew thy son in that day. Say, that is every year
when you start doing this. This is done because of that
which the Lord did unto me. Notice how personal God tells
Moses to tell the people to make it. Not just for us. You tell
your son, God did this for what? Me. I like that. This is done
because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth
out of Egypt and it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine
hand and for memorial between thine eyes that the Lord's law
may be in thy mouth for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought
thee out of Egypt. Thou shalt therefore keep this
ordinance in his season from year to year. Number three is
this. Passing on the gospel to others
is paramount. It's paramount. David Wright,
them babies, you bring them up, not just taking them to the assembly,
but bring them up at your home singing about the gospel, reading
to them about the gospel, and preaching to them about the gospel.
Put them under the sound of the gospel as much as lies possible
within you. God will honor his means. One way or the other. One way
or the other. It's not gonna guarantee the
salvation of your children, but they ain't gonna have it without
the gospel. But I'll tell you this, God always calls us to
triumph when we're preaching the gospel. One way or the other.
Isn't that what Paul said? One way or the other. Gospel
is tell your son this. Recall the Lord's strong hand
and what he did when he converted you by his gospel. Isn't that
what he's saying here with these symbols and these memorials and
this illustration? Now here's fourthly, eight, nine,
and 10 again. We'll read it again. Here's the
fourth thing. There is no open door to my way of religion here.
Will I worship the way I see fit? No. You read it, right? You've read it. You don't worship
according to your own conscience because sometimes your conscience
is wrong. We'll lead you in the wrong direction.
Well, my conscience ain't bothering you. Maybe you got a seared conscience.
You know? There is no open door to my way
of religion. You'll see that in verse eight,
nine, and 10. And then verse 16, it says this. And it shall
be for a token upon thine hand and for frontless between thine
eyes. For by strength of hand, the Lord brought us forth out
of Egypt. Three quick things here in number
four. There's no open door to my way of religion. The Passover
is the token. You'll see that again. 1 Corinthians
5 verse 7. Christ is this token. This ain't
about, let me tell you, you're a literalist? You read the Old
Testament and you believe it's literal? I believe it is too,
but you better be careful. Because this ain't talking about
what the Pharisees did, put a little thing of written scripture in
a little thing over your head here and tie it there, or make
your phylacteries really broad with the scriptures all around.
That ain't what he's talking about here. In other words, have
Jesus Christ, the truth of his personal work in your hands and
in your mind. That's what we're talking about.
Have him right here, up against you. Lay hold on eternal life. That's the lay hold of Christ.
That's the lay hold of Christ. He is the token. You see, God's
way at God's time is paramount. See, if God says, worship me
this way, then we are to worship him that way and no other. Don't
take away from it and don't add to it. Now, if there are, if,
there's a case of argument, if you will. A little, hopefully,
scriptural logic. If God's word shows us certain
things and God ordained it to be done and used, was ordained
of God, and yet we find out that men then mistreated those things,
misused those things, misapplied those things, and God Almighty
was wroth with it? How much more if we add into
God's worship things that we think we ought to be doing? Now
is that not sound logic? Do you remember the manna? We're
gonna read about it later. You remember the manna? It was
a gift from God. You didn't have to go out and
toil the ground, pull the weeds, carry water to it. Just woke
up in the morning, Mason, and there it was laying on the ground. God said, gather this much. You've
got your allotted amount to gather. Don't gather up anymore. Every
morning, though, you gotta go out and gather it. God lays it
there, but go out and gather it. But you know what happened to
some of those folks? They got greedy. They gathered up too much. You
know what happened to that manna? That gift of God, that miracle? You know what happened to that
manna? The next morning when I got up, the extra stank. It
rotted. And it stunk. That was the manna. So then I want to add on my little
cross or my crucifix. Watch out. Watch out. You know what happened? On Sunday,
the seventh day, on the sixth day, God said, gather up twice
the amount, because on Sunday, you're not going out together.
Isn't that what he told them about the manna? What happened? On the Sabbath, some folks had
not gathered up the double portion, and they went hungry that next
day. Did they not? You don't play games with God's
ordained way. Do it God's way. Here's just one more example.
You remember the brazen serpent? God Almighty ordained that thing
to show a picture of Jesus Christ. Even Christ said so to Nicodemus,
did he not? And it had a, Jack Mannes, it
had a real purpose. This book says that those who
were bitten and they were dying from the poisonous snake bites
could just look at that serpent and they'd live. The poison,
Max, somehow would be gone from their system. That was an honorable,
that was a God-ordained thing, was it not? But somebody stuck
that thing in their trunk. They were no longer being bitten
by serpents, but they still, somebody kept it. Did they not? Because many years later, we
find out the children of God were beginning to worship that
thing. That thing. I had a fellow tell
me the other day, we were just talking, we were at work, And
it said, of course, tobacco is contraband where I work, so you
can't have it there. One of them was just so appalled
that another one of his fellows had ripped one of the pages out
of God's book and rolled him up a roll-up cigarette with it.
I know there'll be people, if this does make it to air and
they get this part, they'll say, well, that preacher thinks you
ought to use Bible pages to make roll-up cigarettes. That's not
what I said. But God doesn't say you gotta keep all the dust
off your Bible, don't lay another book on top of your Bible. We
are mad in religion. God has given us a way to worship.
Now he didn't say whether you have to stand or whether you
have to sit. I like sitting. If I had to sit and listen to
somebody like me, I would rather sit than have to stand the whole
time. But that don't matter, does it? But I'll tell you what
does matter. He said you preach the gospel.
You sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and you pray, and you
give, and you support one another. That's basically what he tells
us to do, isn't it? And that's all we need to do. That's all. We don't have to have anything
else. And yet today, churches, what
we call churches, are filled with plays and programs. There's
one out here that's got high-powered soccer. I don't even know what
that is. I mean, if I play, whatever kind of soccer I play, it has
to be high-powered. I mean, it's gonna be above me. I understand,
but I don't understand. These people say they believe
in the living God, but they got to have high-powered soccer to
get people to come. If you don't love the Lord Jesus Christ, you
might as well be somewhere else. Go fishing. You better enjoy
what you can in this life, because if you miss Jesus Christ, once
your last breath gone, that's it. That's it. All right, that's only number
four. Number five, the unclean must
be redeemed or slaughtered. That's the old nasty ass. And
I remember what Scott Richardson said one time, I heard him preach
it. He said, unclean ass has to be redeemed and that's what
you are, unclean ass. And he said, you can take that
any way you want. Now that's the way the kind of preachers
I know preach. They quit playing games with people. We are all
by nature unclean asses. And if God don't redeem us by,
if he didn't redeem us by his son, God's gonna break our neck. You don't redeem them all and
then break the neck of those that are stubborn because all
asses are stubborn by nature. It's an ass. Why did you just
pick out an ass, Mason? because asses are known for their
being stubborn, hard-headed, stiff-necked, and uncircumcised
in heart and ears. Ain't that us? So either Jesus
Christ died for you and you'll be saved, or he did not and you'll
be damned for your stiff-neckedness, and your hardness, and your rebellion,
and your obstinacy. And that, folks, is the gospel,
and there ain't no other gospel. The unclean must be redeemed,
but it's gotta be slaughtered. break its neck. Number six, we,
we, this is what this tells me, we need constant reminding. Even
before they, God, if you've read it, I'm sure some of you've read
on ahead, God says I didn't send them this way by the land of
the Philistines because I knew it'd be trouble for them. Wait
a minute, didn't God know the other way's gonna be trouble too? Come on
now. Yeah he did, but he had a lesson
to teach these folks. Did he not? He gon' teach them
how bad they really are. And he gon' give them a law that's
gon' prove it. You ever read that? Sometimes God has a sense
of humor, doesn't he? I didn't send him up that way.
I know that word would discourage him. Didn't I? Did you read that?
So he sent him what? To the Mount of Sinai. Why? Because
God gon' teach these folks some lessons. And every one of us
has got a path to travel by God. And as Earl used to say, he gonna
take you down that path and he gonna bring you back if you're
his. And he wasn't talking about this
place. He talked about back down in
here. God's got a lesson he gonna teach you. He gonna take you
there and he gonna bring you back. You'll be okay, but you
ain't gonna feel like you're okay when the lesson's going
on. We see God's people need constant reminding. Think about
the whole context and then look forward. They're just about,
I mean, they're leaving. I'm sure they're happy. The Egyptians
are giving them gold and silver and beasts and whatever. They're
being spoiled. They are spoiling the Egyptians'
goods. And they're going out with a
high hand. But they don't know Pharaoh's heart is going to be
hardened by God within moments. And they're not gonna get but
just a couple days journey and Pharaoh's gonna wake up and say,
what in the world have I done? and Pharaoh and his Egyptian
hordes will be on their heels and they will be stuck against
the rock in the hard place of the Red Sea in Pharaoh's army.
And what's the first thing they do? First thing I usually do. Murmur. God had just delivered
them from Egypt. Come on. That's how quick we
forget. That's how quick we forget. Think about it. The bitter water's
coming. And what's the first thing we
do? If we don't say it out here, we are, the flesh is always doing
it in here. Like you said Joe, we gotta battle
against that. Battle against that. The waters
then are made sweet, what? By a tree. By a tree, casting
that tree. Then they become hungry. What's
the first thing we do? Murmur. If we don't do it out
here, we do it down in here. And yet God gives them bread
in the morning and quail in the evening. What was the result of all this?
In spite of Israel's falls, God was faithful to his covenant.
Was he not? Now we're gonna see all of us
murmur and complain, but when we do, we may bring the chastening
rod of God upon us. But also, there are times when
God will bring you to the ultimatum. You enter the land now. Enter
the land now. And what did some do? They said,
we will not enter in. We can't do this. They were right,
they couldn't do it. But God, look what they'd come
through. But they did that in unbelief. I mean, rank unbelief. And God
said, well, you ain't going in. You ain't going in. You gonna
go back out into the wilderness and everybody over 20 years old,
I'm gonna kill them right there in the wilderness. You know what
they said? Well, we will go in. You see, unbelief is, as Joe
mentioned, unbelief is not the absence of all belief, it is
just wrong belief. And when God said, go in and
conquer, they said, we can't do it, ain't gonna do it. God
said, well, I'm gonna kill you in the wilderness. Well, we'll
go in. God said, no, you're gonna die in the wilderness. And they
stood up on that mountain and went to a little battle and many
of them, what happened? Slaughtered. And then the rest
of them went back out into that wilderness and everybody above
20 years old died in the wilderness. Does that know what this book
teaches? But in spite of Israel's falls,
folks, God was faithful to his covenant. In spite of Israel's
murmurings, God was gracious. Was he not? There at the Red
Sea, he could have just wiped them all out. Complaining. They went to complaining against
Moses. One time they going to kill Moses
and Aaron, wasn't they? God was gracious, but let me
tell you something. Do not presume, though, on God's
grace. Because here's the thing. Are
you actually counted with those who may have murmured, but yet believed God in spite
of themselves? Or are you counted with those
that maybe didn't even murmur that much, but were in unbelief
and refused to enter the land? Which group you in, that's the
question. So don't presume, well I'll just do what I want, everything
will be okay. Maybe it will. But maybe it won't. Don't presume
on God. Don't, let us never think God
owes me individually something. He don't owe me individually
anything unless he chose me in Christ before the world began.
And then he does that only for his name's honor and glory. And
I'll tell you what. Our poor choices? We will suffer
for them. God don't just wipe them out.
The debt before his holy law and his holy justice is canceled.
But the consequences of those choices is not. God's elect suffer for our poor
choices. Now here's the thing. Lord, I
believe. And may God ever help us to see
this. Help thou mine unbelief, because I can't deal with it
myself. The other night I stayed awake
and didn't get to bed till 4.30 in the morning, sitting up and
worried in my mind. Prayed and prayed, God make this
quit, and he didn't make it quit until I was so totally exhausted
I couldn't help but fall asleep. Couldn't even go to work the
next day. Why? Complaining about the circumstances. Oh God, help thou mine unbelief. God, teach us these lessons.
And we know that they're not just classroom lessons, they
are life experience lessons, but we know that all things work
together for good. To them that love God, to those
who are called according to your purpose, help us, Lord. Strengthen
us, strengthen everyone here this day and others who couldn't
make it today. Oh God, keep our eyes fixed on
Christ in his name, amen. Let's stand and sing number five.