You know, I've mentioned before,
whenever we have and hold forth doctrines, of course, the word
doctrine just basically means teaching. A lot of people say,
you know, you have doctrinal teaching, you have experiential
teaching, you have, what do they call it, application, teaching
and everything like that. Actually, I mean, all teaching
is doctrine. I mean, that's basically what
the word means, is doctrine. But usually whenever we say doctrine,
we usually mean some sort of a theological topic, you know,
like the doctrine of justification, which would be the teaching of
justification, or the doctrine of the resurrection, or something
to that effect, you know. Whenever we look at the doctrine
or the teaching of who God is, or how God works, or the teaching
of salvation, or the teaching of the nature of man. We never
get those by outward observation necessarily. Can we understand
things by looking at observation of what we see with our eyes,
hear with our ears, those senses and everything? Yeah, we can. I look around the world and I
see there is no good person Even the best of person on their very
best day has issues, right? So I can look with my eyes and
I can hear and I can know that there is no good in man. But yet, what we know and what
we are to understand as far as it is in truth, we have to get
that from the word of God. Because this is the only thing
that is truth. And I know I say that often,
and I don't know if I can say it too much. This is the only
place that God has given us where we can find truth. This is the
only truth. This is truth. Not that there
is things that maybe the Bible doesn't talk about, and there's
truth out there. I mean, it's true that, you know,
my car has four wheels. That's a truth and that's not
found in the scripture. I'm not talking about stuff like
that, people getting up off on semantics and different things
like that. What I'm talking about is what we know about God, what
we know of God and His salvation and us as people and as His creation. Those things are bound up in
this book and the truth of who God is and how He's revealed
Himself to the extent that He has revealed Himself. It can
only be found here. Is there more to God than what's
found in here? Absolutely. Even the Bible said about Jesus
that if everything had been written about everything about Jesus,
that none of the books could contain Him. I mean, they couldn't
have written it all down. I mean, going through, you know,
Larry's been reading through the Gospels and reading through
that, you see a lot of miraculous works, a lot of things that Jesus
did and said and prophecies that was fulfilled, but yet That did
not contain everything he did. I would have liked to have seen
the record of everything that he at least did here. That would
have been awesome to see that. But God didn't choose to record
it all for us. Didn't choose to have men write
it down. So we have to take what God has
revealed about himself and about all these other issues, we have
to take that because this is the only truth. I can take my
feelings, I can take my emotions, I can take You know, psychology,
I can take what's going on out there and I can try to apply
that and I can mold my doctrine according to that, but I wouldn't
have truth. Now, what happens is the word
of God has to mold our thinking and our understanding of what
the issue at hand is, whatever it is we're looking at about
God and about these things. It has to mold us because that
is truth, right? So, I got to thinking about that. And I got to thinking, why would,
and I know, my mind's going a thousand direction on this. I know that
sometimes we would rather live in the lie than to know truth,
right? Sometimes people would rather,
you know, hey, don't just let me go in my blindness. I'd rather
go in my blindness. I'd rather not know. Just don't
let me know, right? You know, there's sometimes in,
uh, in business that, you know, businessmen do business dealings
and I don't particularly like how they do business. It doesn't
work with my convictions, right? And so whenever I'm having to
do business with men who are doing business dealings that
I just like, you know what? You just don't tell me anything. Here's, here's what I'll do.
This is how I'll do it. And then whatever you do on your
end, you just keep that to yourself rather than I know. Why? I want
to keep myself blinded to that thing. I don't want to know if
you're doing something underhanded, shady, not completely the truth
or what. I don't want to know that. Just
you go do your thing and leave me in the dark and I'll do mine
and I'll hold to my, you know, try to hold in some integrity
as far as I'm concerned. hand of your integrity, however
you see fit. But anyway, so those things that
I'm talking about, whenever it comes to the word of God, and
especially whenever we're looking at God, we can't let our feelings
and our emotions, we can't let traditions, we can't let the
whim of the world mold our mind about what is being said. Right now, in this country, give
or take one to four hours. There are churches spotted almost
on every corner. And there are men standing in
pulpits and they are declaring a Jesus and declaring a gospel
that is not according to the word of God. It is one that has
been dictated by the natural man's reasoning and understanding. It is a Jesus and a gospel that
has been dictated to them by theologians, by universities,
by creeds and confessions. And I know this is a thing that
I harp on all the time, but brethren, it's because it's so prevalent
and we are inundated with it. And I pray for the sheep. Of
course, Christ is the good shepherd. He will watch after his sheep
and they will hear his voice and they will follow him. I don't
doubt that at all, but as a pastor, I think of the sheep and I think
of all the things that are out there and the inundation that
we receive on a daily basis from everybody, from friends and from
family and just from society in general, your neighborhood,
your community that you live in, the pressures to accept a
Jesus and a God that is not part of Scripture. And by nature,
we are people who like to be accepted. I like to be liked.
I say all the time to my kids, hey, if they don't like me, I'm
sorry, that's who I am. If they come and they don't like
what I'm preaching, if they don't like the doctrine that I'm holding
and everything, Sorry, you know, this is what
it is, you know. And I don't mean that in a harsh
way, I don't mean that in a bad way, I'm just saying, you know,
it doesn't bother me if people want to walk away and not friend
me on Facebook anymore, okay? It's what I'm preaching as far
as truth is concerned. Now, as far as me being as a
person, I like people to like me. I don't want people to not
like me and hate me and talk bad about me and all that kind
of stuff, right? Not include me in things if,
you know, I don't like that, but if it's for the sake of the
gospel, I don't care about that. That is not my main goal. And
so whenever, as a pastor thinking about the sheep and about the
inundation that the world has on all of us and everything,
it just seems to me that every now
and then we need to remind ourselves that the truth that we have and
the truth that has been given to the elect of God especially
what's found here, but even more importantly, what's been taught
in here by the Holy Spirit himself, that sometimes we're looking
even in this, you know, we can look in this and get wrong conclusions,
right? I used to preach out of this
for several years and preach a wrong gospel. See, the ultimate
teaching isn't me reading these black and white words because
these black and white words don't mean anything. until the Spirit
reveals and teaches what the meaning of this is in the inward
man, to the spiritual man. See, the fleshly man can look
at these and say, ah, that fits my theology right there, and
I'm just gonna twist these words, pull these things out. You know,
as a preacher, that's what I used to do. I was a topical preacher,
and I'm not against topical preaching, but as a topical preacher who
would pluck verses here and there and there to fit my topic, and
most of the time they were all out of context. So what am I
getting at? I'm getting at is whenever we
look at what's being taught on the majority, we have to remember
that we are on the narrow road. We are under a hated gospel. We are a people who are despised
and rejected Now that isn't something we just should be going out and
looking for. I'm not out there going to look
for it. But the fact remains that if
we preach, because Jesus said that if we follow in his doctrine,
if we teach what he teaches, if we are his disciples, that
we are going to experience the same thing he did. He experienced
hatred by the religious leaders. He experienced hatred by the
religious people. And so do we. Listen, the churches
around this town, they hate what we preach here. They hate what
we teach here. We're not gonna be the first of their list to
be on the community, you know, hey, come preach to our community,
would ya? No, they're gonna find the most
ecumenical, the most watered down, the most soft preaching,
lovely, lovey messenger that they can find in town to come
and preach to people's consciences. that everything is lovely, and
God loves everybody, and everything's good, and we're all God's children,
but they don't want nobody that comes and preaches what the Bible
teaches. So, as the people of God, we need to remember that
we have a message that is only revealed by God, and is only
loved by the people of God, and is gonna be rejected by the crowds.
One of those things, and Larry has wrote a book about it, And
it's a great book. The free will of man is a fallacy. That is one of the things that
we see being taught everywhere is the free will of man. And
whenever we look at what does the Bible say, because everyone
goes to this default position, they go to a reasoning position
that, well, we have to have free will Because, number one, God
is a gentleman and He wouldn't force anything on us. I've heard
Adrian Rogers and men like that say that over and over and over
again until I'm sick. God is a gentleman and He will
not force His will upon you. The Apostle Paul might say something
different. Job might say something different,
right? I'll go all through the Scriptures. Go through. Every
one of those men may say, I beg to differ. I beg to differ. Listen,
Lot didn't want to leave his home. He didn't want to leave
that home. He went, but he didn't want to
leave. God controls the will. The second thing that men will
say is, well, if there is no free will, then there is no culpability,
no responsibility. then men are not responsible
for their actions because God controls everything. Well, brethren,
here again is where we have to let the Bible be our teacher.
Let the Spirit be the teacher here. If the Bible says that
we will be held accountable before God, and it says that He controls
all things, including the will, then those two things are not
antithetical to each other. Your understanding of those things
are antithetical, but His saying it is not in opposition of each
other. If God says, I will hold men
accountable for their sins, and then someone says, well, how
can you hold me accountable for my sins if you control the will,
if you predestined all things? How can you hold me accountable
to that? And Paul in Romans chapter 9 says, who art thou, O man,
who replies back to God, why hast thou made me thus? See,
that there is the answer to the question. God is not unjust in
saying I can do everything according to my purpose that I want to
do, and I can also hold you accountable for doing that thing that I'm
holding you accountable for. Why? Because God is judging the
sin. And He created a people for the
judgment of sin. That's why the Bible says that
He created some. He ordained some to condemnation. He ordained them that way. He
predestinated them for the purpose of condemning them for sin. That's a principle. That's a
matter of fact. It's not a conditional thing
that He will judge them If they commit these sins, it is a principle
of fact. God created vessels of destruction,
vessels of dishonor, vessels of reprobation, vessels given
to condemnation. He created the wicked for the
day of evil and the evil shall be judged. That's not a conditional
thing. That's not a thing to throw up
in the air and say, well, then God's unjust if He does that
because they have an excuse on why they did it. No, they have
no excuse because God created them for that purpose. There
is no excuse because they are what they are. They were sinners.
They sinned. They couldn't help but sin. And
they can't say, God, why did you make me this way? Because
God is going to always come back and say, I'm the potter, you're
the clay, I made you that way, you don't have no say-so about
it. Now I know when we say that, I'm not trying to say that cavalier,
and I'm not trying to say that as God is saying that to some,
you know, ogre-y type person, but we got to remember, brethren,
and here's where the disconnect sometimes comes, we are the creation,
and He's the creator. We like to make ourselves equal
to God and raise ourselves up on His level and say, hey, who
are you? Why did you make me this way?
How can you do that? And then to turn around and say
that I can't even question this? See, we're putting ourselves
exactly what Romans 1 says. We are now bringing God down. We are suppressing the truth.
And now we are making ourselves to be as God. That's the whole
lie, all the way back to the Garden of Eden. You don't want
to eat, or you want to eat that because if you eat that, God
doesn't want you to eat that, but if you eat that, you'll be
as God. You'll be like God. See, all of us, it goes back
to the thing, we want to be as God. We want to be as Him. We want to have control of our
own destiny. We want to have the say-so. We want our wills
to be the superior. We want to be in control of everything. We don't want to be subservient.
We don't want to be submissive. We don't want to be the worshipper.
We want to be worshipped. And that's where we see today
in so many pulpits the preaching of free will. is because if free
will does not exist, then that leaves every man, every woman,
every child bare and naked before their Maker. I am what I am. Paul said, who is it that makes
me to differ? What I am, I am because of who
God is and what He has made me. The only thing that has made
me to differ from the wicked I was loved before the foundation
of the world. So, brethren, we are beholden
to God and most people don't want the God of the Scriptures.
Now, with that being said, many are going to say, well, preacher,
I just think you're off on that. There's too many verses in the
Bible that talks about us having free will. There's too many verses
in there that says, choose you this day whom you will serve
and if you will do this or if you will do that You know, it
just talks about will all over the place. Whosoever will may
come. And all those verses, we believe every one of those verses.
Do you disbelieve any of those verses? You've been preaching
on these a long time, brother. Do you believe those? I believe
them too. The problem is, is people don't believe them according
to the Scriptures. The whosoever wills, well, who
are they? The Bible tells us who they are.
It's not just the willy nillies who make up a decision to come.
No, it's the ones who are given by God to do so. It doesn't say,
choose you this day whom you will serve between God and whatever. No. He was saying, choose you
among all your gods down here that are not real whom you're
going to serve. Because that's who you're going
to serve because you're not God's people. Otherwise, you'd be worshipping
God. See, it wasn't a choice to choose
God today or accept Jesus into your heart or anything like that.
That verse didn't have nothing to do with that. Matter of fact,
all the Old Testament things talking about choosing and obeying
and all these conditional things under a conditional type covenant,
so to speak. Those things were temporal, do
and die. And that went along with all
the righteous, even as much as it was to the wicked. You remember,
he said, if the righteous forsake their righteousness and turn
and do wicked, they will die. Does that mean we lose our salvation?
If that's talked about salvation, we're losing our salvation. No, it was talking about a temporal
thing. God said, if you turn and you do this, even if the
righteous, if my people, if they turn and they do wrong and don't
follow what I told them to do, they will die. And they did.
So there is no free will. Some will say, well, I just disagree
with what you're saying. Well, turn with me. Keep your
hands in Exodus, but turn to Proverbs chapter 21. Now this is an exhaustive list,
so I wrote down, typed up a couple of verses that we're going to
look at here in Exodus in a minute, but there are several verses,
and again, I implore you, if you don't have Larry's book,
to contact him and get his book, because he deals with that all
through his book. And this is one of the ones,
I'm sure, that most people are aware of, but let's look at it.
It says in chapter 21, verse 1 of Proverbs, it says, the king's
heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. Now, just one observation that
I'd like to make about that. If the Lord can do that with
the king's heart and it doesn't necessarily say which king, I'm thinking
that since Solomon was writing this, he was thinking about himself.
But just because it says the king's heart is in his hand,
he can turn it withersoever he wills. The implication there
is not just for kings, but for anybody. If God can do it with
the king, he can do it with anybody. The proof or the point that was
being made here is Solomon being the king over everyone, the highest
level, the highest order, the one with all the authority in
the kingdom, that if God can turn His heart
and do whatever He wants with that, you don't think He can
do that with the subjects below Him? See, the point is, is there
is no one outside the scope of God's control. God controls everyone
from kings all the way down to serfs. It doesn't matter who
you are, what your background is, what your nationality is,
what your gender is, and there's only two by the way. It doesn't
matter. God controls it all. The heart is in the hand. You
can even, and I'm not saying cut out stuff in the Bible, but
I'm just saying you can say the heart is in the hand of the Lord
and He can turn it whithersoever He wills. Now if God can do that,
then who can say we have free will? Because God can turn the
heart whithersoever He wills, whenever He wills. He doesn't
turn the heart whenever we let Him turn the heart. If you'll
just let God have control, if you'll just give God control
of your life, brethren, is there ever a time that God is not in
control of anything? If there's ever a time that God
is not in control of something, then He is no longer sovereign. Because sovereign, the word sovereign,
look it up in any dictionary, no matter how far you go back,
The word sovereign means absolute control, total authority, right? And not only is He sovereign,
He is almighty, meaning that He has all power. So He has all
the power to carry out everything that He wants to control. This
is the God of the Bible. He turns the heart whether so
ever He wills. So if He wants to turn your heart
to Him, He can do it anytime He wants. So all the people out
here begging people to give their heart to Jesus and turn to Christ
and to take the object of their faith from here and move it over
to here. Listen, God has the right and has the power and can
do that to whomever He wills. And if He doesn't do it to some,
then that's His choice also. Is there an example where God
ever did this in the scriptures? Well, I think there's lots of
them. Again, I refer you to Paul and to Job and to, you know,
several men in the Bible, Nebuchadnezzar. But the one that Paul uses and
the one that I'd like to use this morning is probably the
greatest because it says the most exact, and that's back in
Exodus. Back in Exodus, and we're gonna
start in Exodus chapter four. Now, brother, we're gonna cover
chapters four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13,
and 14. We're not gonna read all of them, but we're gonna
check in on some verses throughout this in the point that we're
looking at here. Exodus chapter four. Now, we
know that Paul in Romans chapter nine, whenever he speaks of God's
election of some and not others, And again, that Romans 9 is about
personal, individual election, not national, right? It's not
talking about national election. It's talking about individual
election. I grew up being taught and hearing other preachers say,
oh, I'll preach on Romans 9. That is about election, but it's
not about individual election. It's about national election.
Well, that doesn't remove the issue at hand, that God elects
some and not others because if he elects nations to salvation
and others not, he's still electing people for salvation and others
not. It doesn't remove God off the quote-unquote hook that they
think he's on. But brethren, that is about individual
election. That's why God broke it down
so fine of a point to say the boys, having not yet been neither
have done anything good or bad that the purpose of God according
to election might stand. Jacob I loved, Esau I hate."
Why? Nothing good or bad because he
chose this one, he didn't choose this one. They didn't fit themselves
for that destruction. They didn't choose or not choose. They didn't do a certain amount
of righteousness. No, it was before they were even
born, before they had done anything good or bad. While they were
still in the womb, there was no difference between them. They
were twins. They was sharing the same womb
at the same time and came out in like fashion, one holding
the other one's foot as if it was one child. Now there is some
spiritual foreshadowing there. I believe that's talking about
the natural man and the spiritual man being one person. But anyway,
that's another day. But we see they came out at the
same time from the same mother, from the same womb, and they
both were born of Adam. But yet God loved one and hated
the other for no particular reason other than He said His love upon
Jacob and not upon Esau. It wasn't about what happened
later in life because Esau and Jacob was equally unrighteous. So Paul uses that point to say
God chooses some and not others. And he gets down to the point
where he uses Pharaoh as an example of how God has the right to choose
some and not others. And the reason that he chooses
the others, the Esau's, the Pharaoh's, is so that he might show his
power. And I've heard it. I know what's
being said about that statement. You mean to tell me that God
would create people and make it where they could never be
saved, make it where they had no excuse, which that ain't true. Or that is true, but they think
that they have an excuse. that God would make these people
just to damn these people and to send them to hell, just to
show forth His glory. Now to the natural mind, that
is egregious. I'll be honest with you, I struggle with that
sometimes, even today. In the natural man, I struggle
with that. But again, it comes down to what
does this word say? If that's what the word says
about God, then what my feelings, what my emotions, and what society
says doesn't make a difference. It's what does this say? Because
this is the truth, and this is what's going to be standing the
test of time at the end. God's word is going to be true,
and every man is going to be a liar. Okay? They're saying that is a horrible
God, that just for His glory He would condemn Millions of
people to hell. That's because millions of people
have not been given spiritual insight and the weight of the
holiness of who God is. They are sinful people and deserve
everything God gives them as far as condemnation is concerned.
They may say, well, he didn't have to make them at all. But he did. We don't change that. And again, we don't have the
right to say, why then did you make me in that camp and not
in this camp? You're not going to be able to
have that thing. So, does God raise people up for condemnation,
for that purpose? Well, let's look in Exodus chapter
4, and look with me if you would. Now, you know the story here.
This is where God has called Moses. And he's told Moses to
go to Pharaoh. And he said, go to Pharaoh and
tell him to let my people go out and so they can worship and
sacrifice to me in the wilderness. OK, and so this is where it begins,
the interaction. Now, remember, Moses was was
born and and well, he was born a Hebrew, but He grew up in the
palace of Pharaoh. Remember his mom hit him in the
basket and floated him down the river to save him from being
killed whenever the Pharaoh was having everybody killed. And Pharaoh's daughter found him,
raised him up as her own. So he was raised as one of Pharaoh's
own in the deal. But then we find that he, killed
a man, was out on the back side of the desert for 40 years, came
back, and now God had called him to lead his people. And so
God is calling him now to go to Pharaoh and to tell him, you
need to let my people go. And so if we look in chapter
4 and verse 21, though, we won't deal with all the other details.
Hopefully that generalization was enough. In verse 21 it says
this, and the Lord said unto Moses, when thou goest to return. It didn't say if, did it? If
thou goest. It said when thou goest. Why
did God say when thou goest? Because he knew exactly what
was about to happen, and he didn't know it because he looked down
the corridor of time and saw that Moses would obey with his
will and follow. No, because God had predetermined
for the foundation of the world that Moses would do this very
thing. See, God never gives us ifs.
God's never waiting to see what will happen. God is not a reactor. God does not react. He only acts. He is always the actor, the active
person in that. He is never a passive person. All things happen because of
His purpose. But anyway, it says, And the Lord said unto Moses,
When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those
wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in thine hand. Now,
make note here. But I will harden his heart that
he shall not let the people go. So here is God saying, I am going
to harden Pharaoh's heart so that, for the purpose of, him
not letting the people go. I'm going to tell him to let
them go. He's not going to let them go. And the reason he's
not going to let them go is because I'm going to harden his heart. Now, brethren, I don't care what
theological degrees you have, how many years you've been on
the road. I don't care how many times you've read through the
Bible. I don't care about your Greek or Hebrew or your Latin
or anything else. That right there says God was
going to harden. That means make his heart obstinate. Make his heart cold. Make his
heart unwilling to do what God said. Now, what happens when
we don't do what God says? What is that called? Anybody? That's called sin, isn't it? Moses said, God said to let my
people go and Pharaoh said no. Was that sin? Absolutely it was. But who made Pharaoh say no? God hardened his heart so that
he would not let Pharaoh go. Not only does that cover the
fact that God is sovereign over all things, not only does that
show the fact that God controls the will, but it also shows you
that God, in His purposes, in His predestination, has predestinated
that this man would sin. Therefore, sin and evil is part
of God's predestinated work. If you will, God is the author
of sin in that regard. Not making God a sinner. Not
making God tempt. He didn't tempt Pharaoh. He hardened
his heart. Why? Because Pharaoh was a child
of reformation. Pharaoh was a vessel of dishonor. He wasn't tempting Pharaoh. He
was using Pharaoh as the instrument for which Pharaoh was created. He was created as an instrument
in which God would show forth his power and receive glory through
it. That was his purpose. It might dig a little bit, but
it's not going to dig good. If I try to take a screw out
of something in my car, it's not going to do it. Why? Because
it wasn't created for that purpose. But this thing was created for
the purpose of turning on this TV and changing the channels
and turning the volume up and down. It has a purpose. Pharaoh
has a purpose. Every one of God's creation has
a purpose. Now, we hear the prosperity people
all the time talking about, oh, God's made you with purpose.
Well, they're actually right about that. How they use that
is not right. But they're actually right. Every
person has a purpose. And when we look at the macro
view of everything, God has a purpose with the elect and the non-elect.
Glory in salvation and righteousness and holiness and grace and mercy
In the elect, wrath, judgment, and anomaly, he has a purpose. He's created all things for himself,
the wicked and the righteous. So he says here, and thou shalt
say unto Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even
my firstborn. Now look, if you would, now over
at chapter six. So we see here, that's the, I
surely, I just talked about universities and things like that, and I'm
gonna drop back and probably say something that come from
one of them. You guys have always heard that
there is, in looking and studying the Bible and interpreting the
Bible, that we always wanna look at the, what do they call it,
the principle of first occurrences, go and look where something is
mentioned first, and see how it's stated there, and that kind
of gives us an idea about the meaning of something, right?
Okay? I don't know if that works all the way through or not, but
here we have the first occurrence where God tells Moses, I'm gonna
harden Pharaoh's heart. So whenever it's dealing with
Pharaoh letting Moses, or letting the people go, according to Moses'
command, or God's command, God says, I'm going to harden his
heart so that he won't let him go. So that's the principle that
God set down with Moses. Here's the plan. You're going
to go say it. He's not going to listen to it.
He's not going to let him go. And then I've got 10 plagues
that I'm going to lay upon him. It's going to happen every time
you do a plague. I'm going to continue to harden his heart.
He's not going to let him go. But I will deliver my people,
OK? So there wasn't an if, and, or
but about anything in there. There wasn't a chance that Pharaoh,
in the midst of all this, said, alright, alright, alright, I'm
just going to let them go, and let them go, and the last five
plagues wasn't going to ever happen. That was never going
to happen. God had every plague ordained. Every purpose of God will be
completed. And the very last plague, of
God killing all the firstborn and instituting a type and foreshadow
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Passover was His purpose. The deliverance of His people
to come out was for a purpose, to show forth the deliverance
of God's elect people through the Lord Jesus Christ. The going
through the Red Sea was God's purpose. See, all these things
were for a purpose and they were not just happenstance. Look,
if you would, at chapter 6 and verse 1. Then the Lord said unto Moses,
Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh. See, God's going
to put on display for His people what He is going to do to this
man who He created for this purpose. He said, For with a strong hand
shall He let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive
him out of his land. And God spake unto Moses and
said unto him, I am the Lord." Now, here God is saying, listen,
it's going to happen exactly as I said because I am the Lord.
What does that mean? Sometimes we read over these
things and don't think about what does that mean? It means
it's going to happen exactly the way that I said it's going
to happen because I'm God and it's going to do what I tell
it to do. It's going to happen exactly the way I planned for
it to happen. So he says here that he is going to do this to
Pharaoh. Now, again, Moses hasn't even went
down and said anything yet, right? God is establishing some things
to Moses. I'm doing this. I'm going to
do this. With a strong hand, he is going
to send you out because of what I am doing. So, a couple of things. Not only are you going to see
my sovereignty, but listen. Whenever you're seeing all these
things happen, take heart. All these plagues that's going
through, take heart. I am still the Lord. I'm still in control
of everything. When all the hail, when all the flies, when all
the lice, when all the frogs, when all the blood in the water,
when all the dead people and the dead animals and the boils
and all that stuff starts happening, whenever you see all this stuff
happening, remember, I am the Lord. Verse 1 says, And the Lord said
unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron
thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command
thee, and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh that he send
the children of Israel out of his land. Here it is again. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart
and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken
unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine
armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of
Egypt by great judgments." Drop down to verse 13. I'm sorry, drop down to verse...
8 And the LORD spake unto Moses
and unto Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh shall speak unto you,
saying, Show a miracle for you, then thou shalt say unto Aaron,
Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become
a serpent. 9 And Moses and Aaron went unto Pharaoh, and they did
so as the LORD had commanded. 10 And Aaron cast out his rod
before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.
Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, now
the magicians of Egypt. They also did in like manner
with their enchantments. For they cast down every man
his rod and they became serpents. But Aaron's rod swallowed up
their rods. And he hardened Pharaoh's heart
that he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said." So who
hardened his heart? God hardened his heart. How did
God harden his heart? As the Lord had said. What does
he mean by that? And mark that phrase, as the
Lord had said, because we want to see that. How many of y'all
have ever heard in this account people say, well, it says that
Pharaoh hardened his own heart. God hardened Pharaoh's heart
because Pharaoh had first hardened his own heart. Well, that don't
make any sense, does it? Right? It don't make any sense.
God hardened it because Pharaoh hardened it. Well, if it was
already hardened by Pharaoh, then why did God need to harden it?
No. Pharaoh hardened his heart. Is
God hardening Pharaoh's heart? It said Pharaoh hardened his
heart, but as you'll see, just as God had said. Well, how did
God say? That's the key issue. That's
why I wanted you to make note of that phrase. Because we're
going to see that in every place where we read about Pharaoh hardening
his heart, it goes back to the first occurrence. Where did we
first hear about Pharaoh's heart being hardened? It was God telling
Moses in advance that God was going to harden it. Pharaoh would
not let him go, thus his heart was hardened. So Pharaoh would
harden his heart and will not let my people go. That was God. So whatever it
says, as God had said, or as the Lord had said, it is always
pointing you back to what did God say? What did God say? Remember what God said? Remember
in all this, God isn't, Pharaoh isn't some puffed up God, as
they claimed he was, who's defying the Hebrew God. I'm gonna raise
myself up and I'm gonna defy the Hebrew God and no, they will
not let him go. That's how it looked on the outward,
and that's probably how the Egyptians took it, and that's probably
how Pharaoh spun it. That Hebrew guy came in and told
me their Hebrew God said to let them go, and I told them no.
Even amongst all that stuff that they did, I told them no. Well,
your heart was hardened, as the Lord had said, because his purpose
was that you would not let them go at that time. He says, Verse 14, and the Lord said unto
Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people
go. But how was it hardened? Again,
as the Lord had said, right? Look at chapter eight. Now, we're skipping over all
the coming in and the plague starting. And remember, every
time he would do a plague, it would happen and for a little
while they would sustain it or that they would endure it. And
then after they've endured it for a little bit, then Pharaoh
was like, all right, all right, all right, just turn it off. You know, if you'll turn it off,
I'll let him go. And then he would turn it off. And then as
soon as he turned it off, Pharaoh's heart would harden. Remember,
that's kind of the sequence. Plagues, begging for help, getting
the help, hardening the heart, next plague, right? Okay, so
if you'll look there in chapter eight, verse 15, it says, but
when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, He hardened his heart
and hearkened not unto them. So there it said, aha. And remember,
I was saying a while ago, people say that Pharaoh hardened his
own heart. I've also heard it where they've actually counted
it out. Well, there was this many times it said God hardened
his heart. There was this many times that it said Pharaoh hardened
his own heart. And there was more times that
it showed that Pharaoh hardened his own heart than God hardened
his heart. So therefore, Pharaoh was the
one doing the hardening and God was the one who hardened it all
now. But I was serious about that.
I preached that one time, comparing the two hardenings. But what does it say here? Yes, when Pharaoh saw that there
was respite, he hardened his heart and he harkened not unto
them, but here it is, as the Lord had said. Look at verse 19. Then the magician said unto Pharaoh,
This is the finger of God. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened,
and he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said. Same chapter, drop down to verse
32. And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither
would he let the people Wait, it doesn't say, as the Lord had
said there. So that means, forget all of
what you heard earlier, Pharaoh's the one hardened his own heart.
Pharaoh fitted himself for destruction. Pharaoh had free will. Brethren, just because it didn't
say it in that verse doesn't mean the other verses are now
removed. Remember, why has Pharaoh hardened
his heart? He's heartening it just as the
Lord had said. But just in case you think it
stops there, look in chapter 9 because the Lord picks right
back up with the same verbiage. Again, chapter 9, look at verse
12. And the Lord heartened the heart
of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had
spoken unto Moses. So here, let me make a note.
Just in case you thought me taking the phrase, as the Lord has said,
meant what God told Moses earlier. And I've had some people say,
well, he's just talking about that, that he would not let the
people go. That's what the Lord was saying.
That he would not, he would hearken, not hearken to the Lord and wouldn't
let the people go as the Lord had said. He won't let my people
go. No, no, no, no, no. Now here
we see the Lord makes it even clearer that he hardened the
heart of Pharaoh and he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had
spoken unto Moses. So now it makes it very clear
that as the Lord had said was exactly what he had said to Moses. I will harden his heart. They
will not be let go. The purpose for hardening the
heart is so that he would not let them go. He wasn't just hardening
Pharaoh's heart so that Pharaoh would be obstinate for no reason.
He was hardening it so that he would not let the people go so
that the very next round of plagues would come in. There was a purpose
for it. There was a reason for it. God
raised him up for a specific purpose. Look at verse 16. And
in the very deed for this cause, now this is God talking through
Moses to Pharaoh. As a matter of fact, let's just
go ahead and read it. And the Lord said in verse 13,
rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and
say unto him, thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, let
my people go that they may serve me. For I will at this time send
all my plagues upon thine heart and upon my servants and upon
thy people, that thou mayest know that there is none like
me in all the earth. For now I will stretch out my
hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence, and
thou shalt be cut off from the earth. And in very deed for this
cause have I raised thee up." This is what God is telling Moses
to tell Pharaoh that God said. So Moses is saying, hey, this
is what God is saying about you. I have raised thee up for to
show in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout
all the earth. Now, allow me to sidetrack here
just a minute. How many of y'all have seen the
Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston? Y'all ever seen that? Let my people go. Okay. Pretty much everybody on
the planet has probably seen the Ten Commandments or Charlton
Heston. If they haven't, probably just about everybody on the planet
has heard of Moses. And probably just about everybody
on the planet knows about the Ten Plagues. Right. And probably just about
everybody on the planet knows that God parted the Red Sea.
Even if you're religious or not, probably most people have heard
that story. And how God brought the waters down and killed all
of the Egyptians. Now whether that come from a
secular story being told, a movie that was shown on TV, some sort
of a children's book, or a children's story, or a cartoon, or word
of mouth, wherever that came from, guess what? God's power and His name is being
declared through that. See, if you don't think God had
a purpose in that, His purpose is still ongoing in Pharaoh. Pharaoh was raised up and Pharaoh
has perished, but yet the power and the name of God is still
being declared in all the world through what He did with Pharaoh.
Pharaoh himself is long gone and not to be thought of again.
But God, who still lives, by the way, who still is in control,
by the way, who still controls the king's heart and everybody
else's, is in control and he is being glorified, maybe not
by everybody, but by his people, he surely is. And it was for
that purpose that he raised up Pharaoh. And he told him directly,
listen, this whole exercise that we're going through right here
is so that God's power in his name might be praised throughout
all the world. And guess what? You're the instrument
that He's using to do it. You don't think God doesn't use
evil? I've heard so many people say, well, God wouldn't use sin
and evil for His purposes. God wouldn't use sin and evil
for His glory. Right there in plain black and
white is God using sin and evil to show forth His name. Let's stop with the theological
debates and say, Thus saith the Lord, and that's what it is. He says in verse 18, Behold,
tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain. Oh, I'm sorry,
not 18, verse 35, down to verse 36. Four plagues of hell and fire
came, and here we see in verse 35, the heart of Pharaoh was
hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go as
the Lord had spoken by Moses. Chapter 10, verse 20. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart so that he would not let the children of Israel go. The Lord. Verse 27, But the Lord
hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. Haven't you seen the pattern
here? Chapter 11, verse 9, And the
Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that
my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. And Moses
and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord
pardoned Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the children
of Israel go out of his land. Now, look in chapter 14. I want
to skip a few. Chapter 14 and verse 4. I'll start reading verse 1. And the
Lord spake unto Moses saying, Speak unto the children of Israel
that they turn and encamp before Oh, my. Hi, Harry. Hi, Ra. Between me, doll and the sea
over against Baal Zephon before it shall eat in camp by the sea
for Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, they are entangled
in the land. The wilderness has shut them
in. Here it is. One last army. And
I will harden Pharaoh's heart. This is after Pharaoh. Let him
go, by the way. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart. that he shall
follow after them." Now, here you go, for those speculators that are saying, would God do
all that just to show His glory? "...And I will harden Pharaoh's
heart, and 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. And it was told the king
of Egypt that the people fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and
his servants was turned. The heart of the king is in the
Lord's hands. He turns it, whithersoever he
wills. The heart of the Pharaoh and
his servants was turned against the people and they said, why
have we done this? That we have let Israel go from
serving us. And he made ready his chariot
and took his people with him and he took 600 chosen chariots
and all the chariots of Egypt and captains over every one of
them. Here it is, verse 8. And the Lord hardened the heart
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children
of Israel. And the children of Israel went
out with a high hand. But the Egyptians pursued after
them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and
his army, and overtook them in camping by the sea beside Piharath,
before Baal Zepharon. And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the
children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians
marched after them, And they were sore afraid, and the children
of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And they said unto Moses,
Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us
away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt us
with us to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word
that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we
may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us
to serve the Egyptians than we should die in the wilderness."
Just a side note here. as it pertains to the spiritual
aspect of this. You see, the people didn't even
want to leave Egypt. God said, these are my people and I'm taking
them out of Egypt. And these people are saying,
we want to stay in Egypt. Is that not the natural man right
there? The natural man wants to stay in Egypt. The natural
man loves the things of the world. He loves his nature. He loves
his free will. He should have just left us in
Egypt. We were fine where we were. We liked it there. They
didn't even want to go. But God, in His, if you would,
irresistible grace, brought them out of Egypt. They didn't know
the blessing that was to come. They didn't know the greatness
that was to be shown to them. They didn't know all the provisions
of grace that the Lord was given and the inheritance that was
set forth for them. They didn't want to go. But God
brought them out. Anyway, he didn't ask them if
they wanted to come. Did God ever once say, hey Moses,
could you go down and take a poll to see how many people want to
go out of Egypt? If there's more that want to go than not want
to go, then we'll go. If most of them want to stay, then I'm
just going to forget it and go to something else. No, God didn't
ever say that. Here again we see the picture
of God's sovereign grace in saving His people. We have no in our
nature have no spiritual inclination towards God and the God of the
Bible especially, but towards God and salvation. But yet God
saves us without asking us. And sometimes we may not like
it right at first. It may battle with us. It may
cause problems in our families. It may cause problems with our
jobs. It may cause all kinds of issues.
But God saves us and then the inheritance at the end. We really
don't see that until we see the fullness of it. They didn't see
it until they saw the fullness of it, right? And he says, For it had been better for us
to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.
Verse 13, And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand
still, see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you
today. For the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall
see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you,
and ye shall hold your peace. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel,
that they go forward. But lift up thy rod, and stretch
out thine hand over the sea, and divide it. And the children
of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea."
They didn't even go across those muddy grounds. It wasn't muddy. It
was dry. And I, behold I, will harden
the hearts of the Egyptians. Behold I, And I will harden the
hearts of the Egyptians, that they shall follow them. And I
will get me honor upon Pharaoh and upon his host, upon his chariots
and upon his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know
that I am the Lord, when I have gotten me honor upon Pharaoh
and upon his chariots and upon his horsemen. And the angel of
God which went before the camp of Israel removed and went behind
them. of the cloud went from before
their face." Now, if you'll look and see later on in Scripture,
you'll find out that's the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ is in the pillar and in the cloud. And it came between
the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and it was
a cloud of darkness to them, but He gave light by night to
these, so that no one came, neither other. And Moses stretched out
his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back
by a strong east wind, all that night and made the sea dry land,
and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went
to the midst of the sea and upon the dry ground, and the waters
were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left.
And the Egyptians pursued and went in after them to the midst
of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his
horsemen. And it came to pass that in the morning, watch, the
Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar
of the fire." Now notice, the Lord looked through the pillar
of the fire. You remember I said a while ago
that Jesus was in the pillar and in the cloud? And he said
that the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through
the pillar of the fire and of the cloud, because he was in
it. And troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their
chariot wheels, that they draved them heavily, so that the Egyptians
said, let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighted
for them against the Egyptians. And the Lord said to Moses, stretch
out thy hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon
the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And
Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned
to its strength when the morning appeared. And the Egyptians fled
against it. And the Lord overthrew the Egyptians
in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned and covered
the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that
came into the sea after them. There remained not so much as
one of them. But the children of Israel walked
upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were
a wall unto them on their right and on their left hand. Thus
the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians.
And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. And Israel
saw the great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians.
And the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his
servants. And then what pursued after that?
A song of praise for what God had done. He got honored upon
Pharaoh and upon his chariots and upon his horses. How did
he do that? By ten times God hardened his
heart. By ten times God sending plagues
and removing plagues. By God killing most of their
animals, most of their people, And then in the ultimate end,
God completely destroyed the whole entire army of Pharaoh
and Pharaoh himself. God raised him up for that condemnation. Now brethren, did Pharaoh have
free will? No. If God can turn the heart
of Pharaoh and harden it, He can harden anybody's heart. He
can turn anybody's heart towards Him that He wants to. That's
the good thing about sovereign grace. You don't have to preach
to them so much. You don't have to beg them so
much. You don't have to have 95 verses of Just As I Am being
sung, begging them to come to an altar somewhere. You don't
have to do that. And listen, it doesn't matter how bad the
person is, how evil or wicked the person is, that God by sovereign
grace can turn the heart whithersoever He will. So we praise Him for being the
God of the Bible. Listen, I don't know about you,
and I can't say this about myself in the past, but I can surely
at least, I hope I can say this about myself now. I praise the
God that controls all things. I am thankful to have a God that
has predestinated all things, but not only did He just predestinate
them and turn them loose, He predestinates it and then by
His sovereign almighty hand, He controls everything to make
sure that everything, the very minutest thing, all makes it
down to its very specific purpose for which He created and brought
it forth. That way, the Lord guarantees
the end from the beginning. Aren't you glad we have a God
that doesn't bow to other gods or other men that can't be manipulated? He said that I am that I am.
I am self-existent. Nobody tells me what to do. Nobody
controls me. I take counsel from nobody. I am self-existent. Every decision,
every action, everything that ever takes place is because I
chose for it to do that. I am in control of it. And it
is not because I felt sorry for somebody and then changed my
mind or, as we talked about last Sunday, repent of that and turn
from it because it was a bad idea. No, I am God. There is none like me, declaring
the end from the beginning and all things that have not yet
been done, saying, my counsel shall stand. I will do all my
pleasure. Anything you'd like to add to
that or comment? Corrections or reviews? I used to not like this kind
of God, brother. I fought against that. I fought
against it. I spent, I don't know how many
years, I can't remember exactly when I began preaching and teaching
in Normanian churches, but around 2005-ish area, whenever
the Lord began to show me doctrines of grace. And even at that, I
still wasn't happy about everything that I was seeing. But as the
Lord begins to teach us, and we begin to behold Him in His
Word as He is revealed, and seeing the fallacies of the traditions
that's been indoctrinated into us, He becomes beautiful. To the
children of grace, He is the Savior of life unto life. But
God's purpose, God's grace, God's salvation, God's message, God
Himself is the Savior of death unto death to those who are not
His. So they're going to hate Him. They're enemies against
God. They're in enmity. Their sin
is still there before them. And there's enmity there. And
there will always be enmity. Anybody got anything you'd like
to share? Father, again, we come to you
and we thank you for who you are. We thank you for being the
God that the Scriptures declare you to be. Without your sovereignty,
without your control, things would just be in chaos. Wicked
and evil man, could never control this earth. They try. They think
they can bring utopia here on earth through their governing
powers, through their legislations. They think that they can bring
some sort of a utopia by their socialism and things like that. But Father, we know that the
heart is wicked above all things and who can know it? We know
that men are quick to shed blood and that the love of God is not
in them. and that every motive, everything
that they do to bring such so-said utopia would be for personal
gain, would be for personal means, and could be tainted. But Lord,
we know that in Your kingdom, there is one who rules and reigns,
and that He is the governor over all things, and that He rules
in righteousness and holiness, Father, those who are His servants,
those who are His children, His sheep, they hear His voice and
they follow Him. They gladly bow down as the footstool
of Christ. And Lord, we just thank You for
the salvation that we have in and through the Lord Jesus. Lord,
we know that in and of ourselves that we are no different than
the rest of mankind. But Lord, we know that as far
as spiritual things are concerned, that we have been united with
Christ before the foundation of the world with an eternal
love that can never be stopped, an eternal love that can never
be hindered, an eternal love that will never turn. And Lord,
we are so grateful that in the manifestation of time, you brought
forth that Son that you have set up from the foundation of
the world to be our substitute, to be our surety, and you brought
him forth and he lived according to the law perfectly on our behalf. And that substitution of obedience
was laid to our account. Although we in ourselves have
sinned egregiously against you, yet that obedience is laid to
our names. the penalty of sin, the wrath
of God on our behalf, so that as our substitute once again,
that everything that we owed, every debt that we were to pay,
He paid fully. So that now there is declared
over us not only justification, but forgiveness of sins, access
to God, sanctification. All the blessings of God are
yea and amen in Christ Jesus. And Father, we look forward to
today and the consummation of all things, whatever we shall
be with him. And we look forward to that day.
We pray, come quickly, Lord Jesus. So I ask now, Lord, that as these
leave today, we ask that you would be with them, that you
guide them, direct them, Lord, that you would give them safety.
We pray for Mike, Lord, we're thankful for him being with us
today and allowing us to fellowship together. back home whenever he goes. And
Lord, we're just so grateful that we had the opportunity to
fellowship and meet with him today. Thank you, Father, for
all that you do for all of us. And we just ask that you'll be
with the Phillips and them as they go home. Thank you for keeping
them safe on their way here with the high waters from the rains. And Lord, we pray that you give
them safety as they go back home. We ask all these things, Christ,
preciously.