Morning. Turn with me to Exodus chapter three, Exodus three. Now, in the close of this third chapter, there's a very nice outline that's given to us here in which our Lord sovereignly declares the deliverance of his people. He declares everything that's going to come to pass. When he sends Moses down into Egypt, he lays out everything for Moses exactly as it's going to happen, exactly as the Lord says that it shall happen. And so what we're gonna see here in verses 14 and 15 is that God declares to Moses who he is, who God is in and of himself, And then in verse 15, he reveals himself as he is to the children of Israel, who he is to his people.

And then he makes things very personal to his people. He tells them, I've visited you, I've drawn near to you and I've seen your affliction. I've looked and I've seen your affliction in Egypt. And then in verse 17, he tells them what he's going to do for them. He tells them, I'm going to deliver you. I'm going to give you an inheritance in a blessed land, in a fruitful land. I'm going to do that for you. And then in verse 18, he tells Moses, when you go to them and you tell them this, they're going to hear you.

There's going to be a hearing among my people. And that Moses would then declare that deliverance of God's people to the world, to all the world, pictured in his going to Pharaoh. When he speaks to Pharaoh, he's speaking to the world there. And he tells them, the whole world, God's going to deliver his people.

Let my people go. But the world, in verse 19, represented by Pharaoh there, is not going to hear. They're not going to hear. It's not going to be good news for them. It's good news for the people of God. When they hear it, they rejoice in it. But for the world, it's not good news to them at all.

But instead, the Lord is going to use that difference to display his glories and wonders and the manifold blessings of God for his people. And that very fact that the world opposes God and opposes his people, it just reveals how glorious, how wonderful the salvation of our Lord really is. And then verse 20 says that their deliverance shall be witnessed in many wonders against the enemies of God's people. And then in the closing of this chapter, verses 21 and 22, there shall be a great reconciliation of all things, resulting in the manifold blessings of God's people.

That's the outline that's given to us here in the close of this chapter. So I want you to understand that what happened to Israel thousands of years ago here in Egypt with their bondage and their deliverance here is a picture of the salvation of God according to His promises for you, that this day hear and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for all your righteousness." This is a picture, it's just an outline, what the Lord does for all His people. Egypt, when you read of this in the scripture, in your own private time and worship, understand Egypt is a picture of the world. They are, with all of its glories and treasures and things going on in it, the busyness of it.

That's just a picture of this world in which we live. who are, by nature, born into bondage, born into slavery, to sin and to death, and no matter what we do, we cannot free ourselves, we cannot deliver ourselves. And the Prince of the Power of the Air, who sits over us because of our fallen atom, when refused God and rebelled against God, and listen to that voice of the wicked one. We're in bondage to that voice by nature. And we can't free ourselves, and he ain't letting us go. And so it takes the power of almighty, sovereign God to deliver us with a mighty salvation, a mighty deliverance.

And this is what he does. This is the outline of what our Lord does for his people, you that believe what he's done for you, and it's a rejoicing, a joy for us to hear what our Lord has done for us, according to his word of promise, that it's all in his hand. He's not saying, but only if you, only if you. No, this is what the Lord does for his people, what he's accomplished in Christ, and therefore all these blessings follow. And so that's what we see pictured here in the remaining verses of this chapter, and throughout all of scripture. It's just repeated, repeated, repeated, and repeated again, the promises of God.

So, let's look at this in verse 14 and 15, God declares who he is, saying, and God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. And so the Lord here tells Moses who is sending him to speak to his people Israel.

He gives him his name. He says, you're gonna go in my name. When Moses was living in Egypt 40 years earlier, He thought that the children of Israel would hear him, that they would follow him. He thought that they would understand that God by his hand would deliver them. They didn't receive him. They said, who made you a judge over us? Who made you a ruler over us? And Moses had nothing to say to them. He didn't know. He didn't have a name to give them.

Now God has said, you tell them I am hath sent me. You tell them that the God of their fathers hath sent you. That's who you're going to say sent you this time. I am that I am. That is, he that will be what he will be. And the beauty of that. What our Lord is saying, I am that I am, he's saying everything that I am and was to Abraham when he was on the earth here, everything that I am to this day, continuing, because God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, everything that I am to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, that's what I am to my people, world without end, throughout all ages, then, now, and forevermore, that's who I am to my people.

And what saith the scripture? How is God toward his people? What saith the scripture? Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. The God who blessed Abraham and received Abraham in faith is the same God today who receives his people by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're trusting and believing him. That's who this God is. What he was then is what he is today and what he shall be forevermore. He does not change. He does not change. Therefore, we're not consumed and destroyed. He does not change. He keeps his word of promise.

And so it pleases our God to reveal himself to his people, just as it pleased him here to go and deliver this ragtag bunch of people, the embonded slaves, embondage in Israel. It pleases him to save his people, though we are weak and few and poor and base and nothing special in and of ourselves, sinners. In fact, it pleases him to save us by the Lord Jesus Christ, to make himself known unto us by Christ, who said, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. Now, having revealed who he is and who God is to his people, God reveals himself further as the God who sees the affliction of his people. And he sees the affliction of his people.

He says in verse 16, go and gather the elders of Israel together and say unto them, the Lord of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob appeared unto me saying, I have surely visited you. I've already been there and I've seen that which is done to you in Egypt." And so the Lord is telling his people, I'm the God who is near. I've drawn near. I've visited you. I've seen your affliction. I've seen your trouble. I see what they are doing to you in Egypt.

And what were they doing to Israel and Egypt? Well, in Exodus 1, verses 13 and 14, we're told that the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. It was hard labor, hard, burdensome, troublesome work that they had to do. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage. And what we're told here is that it was in mortar and in brick and in all manner of service in the field. All their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor. What is it about bricks? What was it about bricks with the Tower of Babel? They were baking bricks. They weren't taking rocks that God had made. They were baking bricks with their own hands. A picture of man's works, right?

To build a tower to get up to God. right, to come to God and worship him in the Tower of Babel. And that's what they're doing here with Israel. They're saying, work, work, make bricks, put them together. You work, you serve. And that's what is a picture of what it is for us in religion, working under the law, trying to make a righteousness for ourselves to come unto God. It's just baking bricks. All your works, all your special clothes, all your form, all your catechisms, all your efforts and spending and striving and laboring under the law is works. It's just baking bricks and hard labor, hard labor under a yoke of bondage, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear, Peter said. It's just works. And so understand God sees your affliction. He sees your trouble. He knows.

It's impossible for you to bake your way out of this making bricks unto God. You cannot make a righteousness for yourselves. You cannot justify yourselves. You cannot free yourselves of this bondage and death that we are in by nature. And Adam, you and I cannot do it. I can't tell you anything. You can't tell me anything. We can't help each other.

We're dead in trespasses and sins in bondage, under the yoke of bondage in nature, sold out to Satan for nothing. for nothing and we cannot free ourselves. And so the Lord is showing us that by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all men have sinned. We're all sinners, all trying to bake bricks now and pay down our debts and get ourselves free, and it isn't working. Nothing we do is freeing us of this. Well, the Lord knows it. The Lord knows it. He knows that you cannot free yourselves.

That's why he tells us in the scriptures that that's not why the law was given. It wasn't given to you to set yourself free. It wasn't given to you to make yourselves righteous. The law was given to show you and me our bondage. our sin, what sinners we are, and the debt we owe unto God of a perfect righteousness which we cannot give. And so the Lord made provision. He provided for us instead.

Look at verse 17. And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. And so the Lord's speaking here of what he shall do for the children of Israel. Remember, they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.

He is a Jew, which is one inwardly. And that circumcision is not the circumcision of the flesh made with hands, but that circumcision of the heart, which God alone does. When he removes that veil of flesh, that filthy flesh, That's on our heart that keeps us blind and dead in trespasses and sins. He removes that. He gives light and life and liberty in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And all who believe Christ are, as Isaac was, children of promise. You that believe Christ are the children of promise. It's a wonder. And so the Lord is saying here to his people in Israel there. They are a type and a picture of the true church. And some of them were, the true church in there, and they picture the true church, and he's saying, I'm gonna take you out of your bondage, I'm gonna bring you up out of Egypt, I'm gonna, and you're gonna wander in the wilderness for 40 years, whereby I strip all that dead flesh, I strip away all those that hated and fought against God and did not believe, picturing how the Lord strips away and subdues, not that it changes, but puts down this flesh, this old man of flesh, puts him in his place, puts him in the dirt, and brings up that which is his creation, his work. What Christ has done and wrought in us through grace and power by his spirit and by his blood, And so after all they perish there, that's when the Lord brings them into the land of promise and drives out all those nations, which picture what? Just like we see with the Philistines, a picture of sin, right?

He promises to you that For Christ's sake, what he has done, the redemption he has accomplished, he, there's coming a day when this flesh will fall off in the wilderness. It'll die in the way. It'll go down and be buried in the grave. But that which is the Lord's shall rise up to the Lord. And when the Lord comes again, he says, I will speak and your bodies will rise up out of the graves and you shall live forever. with no more sin, no more picture what those nations pictured, no more sin in the land.

You'll be free, free of that to serve your God in spirit and in truth to the uttermost, to the uttermost. I mean, beyond what we can even put into words or imagine, but he promises it. And so it's picturing here what the Lord saying is, I shall do for you what you cannot do for yourselves, and I will give you my spirit. I will give you all these precious tokens of my love and grace for you in sending my son, that you would see him and hear his voice and follow him. I shall give you my spirit, whereby you believe. You receive Christ and believe and follow him. And you'll walk with that light and understanding of the mind of God, knowing the mystery of God. which man doesn't know, except God reveal it to him by his grace and power.

And so the Lord made provision for a people, just like he's revealing here in the picture of Israel, there's a people whom God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1.4.

And Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, Revelation 13.8.

Everything is done and accomplished. The works are finished. Christ has prepared the place for us in his own body. We are his body. It's all done. And so it's all referring, God's hearkening us back to that promise which he made in the garden when Adam fell, saying, I'll bring a seed, the seed of woman.

He is called the Lord Jesus Christ, who will crush your head. who will crush the head of our enemy and destroy the works of the devil in you and in me so that we can hear and do believe and do live unto God and have fellowship with him in light and understanding, in peace and joy. And so what we're seeing here is that our Lord Jesus Christ must do everything, and he does do everything, otherwise we perish. This is sovereign God speaking. This is almighty God speaking to his people.

And so for this cause, Christ came into the world, bearing the flesh of his people, yet without sin, perfectly fulfilling all the righteous law of God, every jot and every tittle. He did everything for his people. And because there's not a law that could cleanse us, Christ had to come. I think the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ declares that's just how messed up, how sinful, how ruined, how bankrupt, how wrecked we are. It tells us that. But thank the Lord, thank God for what he's done in sending Christ.

Hebrews 2, 14 and 15 says, for as much them as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. before the Lord gave you a hope in Christ, you were in bondage.

You might have been very religious. You might have been trying and striving and paying and sacrificing. and it did nothing. You were still in bondage. Every day, you would see it. And so, and then the land again, he promises, I'll deliver you from your sin. Just, I've put it away. Though you still see these members in your body, in the land, you keep looking to me.

You keep looking to Christ. because we don't see what we shall see. We don't see what we think we should see in and of ourselves, but there's coming a day when he shall appear and we shall be made like unto him, for we shall see him as he is, brethren. Next, we read that there's a division. There is a division that grace reveals in the declaration of this gospel.

There's a people who hear this word and rejoice in Christ Jesus and thank him for doing everything, realizing, I can't do it. Thank you. You paid the debt that I cannot satisfy. Thank you, Lord. And then there's a people who say, no, no, no, no, no. Nope, nope. You ain't going to do that. I'm going to add something. I'm going to add some portion of my righteousness to this work. And they don't rejoice in this gospel. It's not good news to them. So there's a division in the preaching of this word that reveals those who are the Lord's and those who are not the Lord's. Verse 18.

And they, the children of Israel, they shall hearken to thy voice. They'll hear you. And thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt. And ye shall say unto him, the Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us, and now let us go. We beseech thee, three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. And so Moses being sent to the Lord, going to the elders of Israel, the people of God, they will hear. They shall hearken to Moses's voice. They're going to hear this word and rejoice in it. And then they're going to carry this word up to Pharaoh.

There's two pictures there. There's a picture of him representing the world, Because we preach this word to all the world, and also there's a sense there in which we might think at first that it's going to be this easy, wonderful thing. When we go up to the mountaintops, how many times have you been up on the mountaintop, and you have this glorious sight of Christ, and everything's wonderful and beautiful, and you think it's never going to change? It's always going to be this beautiful vista. I can just look out on the valley and it's just so beautiful and wonderful. And then you crash. Then you go down into the valley and you're suffering. You're in darkness. You're troubled. You're weary. You're afraid. You think it's all done and over with.

Because the enemy This flesh is still weak and easily fooled and troubled by many things. We're subjected to the weaknesses and infirmities of this flesh. We still see sin in our members. The Hivites and the Jebusites and the Parasites and the Hittites and Canaanites, they're all still there. They're still there in the land. moving about, and so it ever keeps us dependent on the Lord.

And so the Lord says that in verse 19, I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. And the margin says, he'll not let you go except by a mighty hand. It's gonna take the grace of God. That's why when you strove and labored in your strength, and in your new hearing, in whatever religion you were in, and you thought, this is it, I'm gonna overcome all my weaknesses and faults. No, I didn't, and you didn't either. I know you that are the Lord's, you fell on your face too, many times, just like me, and still do. We see that we cannot deliver ourselves, because you ain't gonna let it go, because it takes the almighty grace and power of God to deliver his people. Except the Lord do the work, we labor in vain.

We cannot free ourselves. And so what we see here in this is a picture of the gospel being declared in every age. And we go forth preaching this gospel to the masses. We don't know who are the lords. We judge wrong all the time. And we think this person will hear it, and surely they'll rejoice in it, and they don't want to hear it. And the person we think, I don't even know if I want to open my mouth and say anything to them, that's who the Lord reveals his grace in them.

And they hear, and they come. People you, I mean, when you think of yourself, and you look back in amazement, I'm just amazed that even I, that I hear. It's because it's the grace of God. It's not you and me. It's not what we bring. It's the Lord. only the Lord, and that's what he's shown us. And so we preach it, and there will be a hearing in some and not a hearing in others. And that's because we're all in bondage, and it takes the grace of God to pluck us out of that death and deafness and darkness and bondage.

In 2 Corinthians 2, Verses 14 through 17, Paul speaks of it in this manner, saying, now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. He's talking about preaching. We go forth preaching this gospel word, and it reveals a savor, it sends forth a scent of God's Christ, of the one whom he sent, the one who pleases God well. And that goes forth and he says, for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ. ministering the Spirit unto you, meaning by the preaching of this gospel.

That's how we minister the Spirit. Rather than telling you, you better do, you better fix this, and you better get this right. That's not ministering the Spirit. That's the law. And the law doesn't work, Grace. It doesn't minister the Spirit to you. The preaching of Christ does. The preaching of Christ ministers Christ to his people by the Spirit.

For we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ, and them that are saved, and in them that perish." Because God's word is being done. He's going to accomplish what he sent forth his word to do. To the one, we are the saver of death unto death. This is how it manifests itself in the hearing of the people. Death unto death in some, and to the other, the saver of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? In one sense, it amazes us and causes us to wonder how the Lord does it. And in the other sense, it's not me that's doing it. I'm not sufficient to work this or choose this or decide how this works or unfolds. God's the one that makes the difference in his people. He's the one that separates them out unto himself.

The scriptures call it sanctification. The spirit sanctifies, sets you apart for his own use and purpose, to reveal Christ in you, to carry forth that savor, that sweet savor of Christ. For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. So by God's grace, by God helping me, it's not about laws and works and forms of religion. It's preaching Christ, knowing that the Lord takes the things of Christ and gives them unto you severally as he will. He ministers that faith in your hearts that looks to Christ.

And then the way God delivers his people from their bondage is by his grace and spiritual life wrought in them, by the grace of God destroying the works of the devil in you. Verse 20, I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in the midst thereof, And after that, he will let you go." And it speaks to what Christ accomplished in his redemption on the cross. It speaks to the shedding of his blood, his faithfulness in sacrificing himself under the Father to put away the sin of his people forever. and to obtain eternal redemption and life for us, the giving of his Holy Spirit, whereby the works of the devil are crushed in us, destroyed in us.

And there's a hearing ear given to hear Christ, and to believe him, and to receive him, and to follow him, to forsake all and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he declares in verse 21 and 22, and I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and it shall come to pass that when ye go, ye shall not go empty.

For every woman shall borrow of her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment, and ye shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters, and ye shall spoil the Egyptians. And so the Lord's saying to his people Israel there in Egypt, you're not going to go out empty handed. They're going to beg you to take these things. They're going to beg you to take these things. You're not going out empty handed.

The Lord's going to reconcile and make right all things that were done. And so it is with the Lord who promises us who trust him. ye shall receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come eternal life. You that have forsaken the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord gives us all these blessings.

I'm gonna read these from Matthew 5, verses 3 through 12. That's the Beatitudes, what we call the Beatitudes, where our Lord says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's yours. He's given you the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. That's what's being pictured there in all these treasures being given to you. The world doesn't receive them. The world doesn't need them. They're nothing to the world. and they'll beg you to take it. And the Lord is pleased to give you all those manifold blessings in and by the Lord, Jesus Christ. And so we see here a picture of God's sovereignty.

He's telling Moses, this is what's gonna be. He's telling you, this is what is. This is what I've done, and this is what shall be evermore. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will. according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. And so, brethren, this is all accomplished in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Amen.