The title of the message is this, A Sermon for the Troubled
and Tried. If we could, if we could, we
would never have trouble, would we? We would never have trouble. We would always live in the sunshine
state. That's where we live. We'd always
live in the sunshine state. But we live in a sinful world. Trouble always, I'll tell you
this about trouble. It always brings us back to reality,
doesn't it? It brings us back to reality. We live in a sinful world. We
have a sinful nature which always causes us trouble. That's why I read over here in
Psalm 25, he said over here in Psalm 25, look upon my affliction
and my pain, and my pain, and forgive all my sins which have
caused these afflictions and my pain. We have a sinful nature that
we just cannot get rid of. You can't run from trouble because
wherever you go, there you are. It's with you. It's with you. And you just take it with you.
But the trouble, the trouble that God sends our way is divinely
ordered. It is divinely arranged, and
it's for His people, and it's for a reason, and it has a purpose
in it. The believer does not have misfortune. How many times have I heard that?
Well, that's just a misfortune. No, it's not. No, it's not. A
believer does not have misfortune, nor does he or she have a run
of bad luck. You know, God foretold this 400
years before it happened. The trials of every one of God's
children are sent like soldiers, like troops, ordered, marshaled
to his people. They are sent from our heavenly
Father. And they are instructive. They are instructive. And they
are in the hands, listen, of the Holy Spirit. And in His hands they become
our greatest teachers. I heard Henry say this. I was
listening to him on the Internet the other day. This was a few
weeks ago. You really don't believe what you haven't experienced.
You only believe what you've really experienced. What you've
really experienced, that's what you believe. And trouble, boy, what a teacher. In the hands of the Holy Spirit,
what a teacher. Now let me read you these portions
of scriptures that we're going to look at. In Exodus 3, starting
in verse 6, moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses
hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord
said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which
are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their
taskmasters. For I know their sorrows. I have seen, I have heard, and
I know. I have seen their afflictions,
I have heard their cry, and I know their sorrows. And I have come down to do something about it. I have come down to deliver them
out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that
land unto a good land and a large, where I thought they had a good
land, Goshen. It was the best land, was it
not? It was the best land in Egypt. Joseph gave them the best
land. But I tell you this, it's not
to be compared to the land that God gives, that land that flowed
with milk and honey. This world is not to be compared
to that world is coming. To where he's taking us, there's
no comparison. No comparison. He said, I'm going
to bring them up out of that land into a good land and large
into a land flowing with milk and honey, into the place of
the Canaanites and the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites,
the Hivites, and the Jebusites. This was the promised land. This
is Canaan. This was a prepared land. God used them to prepare
this land for his people. God never takes his people to
where he hasn't already prepared it. Christ said, I go and prepare
a place for you. Now, therefore, behold, the cry
of the children of Israel is come unto me, and I have also
seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them.
Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that
thou mayest bring forth My people." He keeps using that phrase, My
people. I've heard the cry of My people.
I'm going to deliver My people, the children of Israel, out of
Egypt. Now, as we looked at last week in these first six verses,
God appeared to Moses in the burning bush. A bush that was
set ablaze, but it was not consumed. And we looked at how it was a
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. But something caught my attention
here as I started looking at verse 7, but verse 6 caught my
attention. God appears as the God, he says
here in verse 6, moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now, I know we could properly
say of thy fathers, but he doesn't say of thy grandfathers, thy
ancestries. He said of thy father, starting
with Abraham, the one to whom the promise was made, and then
Isaac and then Jacob. They had been gone for several
hundred years now. Listen to Galatians 3.7. Know
ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the
children of Abraham." Moses was not only a child of
Abraham by blood, but more importantly, he was a child, he's called a
son of Abraham by faith, spiritually. spiritual child. We are the children
of Abraham by faith. Our name could be put in here
if we believe the gospel. The God of thy father, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. Blood relations will be cut off.
They'll be cut off. But faith relations Faith relations
will last forever. They'll never be cut off. Never. But listen here. He said, I am
the God of thy father Abraham. The God of election. God chose
Abraham. And God called Abraham to leave
his family and his country and go to a place that the Lord said
He would show him. God of Abraham is the God of
election. He said, I'm the God of Isaac.
That's the God of redemption. Isaac said, where's the lamb?
He said, son, God will provide himself a lamb. There's the God of redemption.
And then he said, I'm the God of Jacob. That's the God of regeneration. He said, thy name shall not be
called Jacob any more, but Israel. For as a prince hath thou power
with God. I am the God of thy father, Abraham
Isaac Jacob. I am the God of election, the
God of redemption, the God of regeneration. And God appeared to him as a
God of covenant mercies. Moses understood God when he
said this. He understood that God made a
covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He understood that
God is the God of covenant. He's a covenant God. God had
not forgotten His covenant that He made with Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. In fact, the Scripture teaches
us He's ever mindful of His covenant. Listen to these scriptures. I'll
just read them to you. In Exodus 2, 24, and God heard
their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham. It's not that He
forgot it. God, it's not that He forgot it. We wouldn't think
that. But He's telling us here that
He's a covenant God. He keeps His word. He keeps His
covenant. God remembered His covenant with
Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. In Psalm 105 verse 8,
He hath remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded
to a thousand generations. It says in Psalm 111 verse 5,
He hath given meat unto them that fear Him. He will ever be
mindful of His covenant. Now you and I ought to be mindful
of it. If God was ever mindful of it, you and I ought to be
ever mindful of that covenant, that covenant of grace that He
made with His Son. Listen to 1 Chronicles 16, 15.
Be ye mindful always of His covenant. Be ye mindful, He says, always. of His covenant, the word which
He commanded to a thousand generations. If we would be mindful, if we
would be mindful always of His covenant that He made with His
Son, it would give us, it would promote assurance, peace, and
it would enable us to give unto Him the glory do unto His name. If we would ever be mindful of
His covenant, He's ever mindful of it. He's ever mindful of it. We are instructed here out of
1 Chronicles, be ye always mindful of it. You be mindful of it.
God never forgets. But now here, listen, in verse
7. This is the verse we want to come to here. The Lord said,
Jehovah, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I have surely
seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt. It can be
read like this. In seeing, I have seen. In seeing, I have seen. I am keenly, now this is the
Lord speaking here. I am keenly aware of my people's
afflictions. Do you have any afflictions?
God's children, he's keenly aware of it. That's why he's saying,
I am keenly aware of it. Hagar, sitting there crying in
the wilderness. Sarah ran her off. And there
in Genesis 16, and she called the name of the Lord that spake
unto her, Thou God, seest me. keenly aware of my affliction,
your afflictions, whether it be physical, emotional, whatever
it is. He's keenly aware of it. You remember this, as I already
mentioned. God told Abraham that his seed would go to a strange
land and they would be afflicted for 400 years. That was foretold. They didn't just They didn't
just happen to fall into these afflictions. They didn't just
happen to fall into this trouble. Four hundred and some years before
it happened, God said, this is going to happen to your people.
They're going to be afflicted. Oh, I tell you, if our life could
be written, if it could be written on the pages of this book, everything
that's happened to us would be written. Everything that's already
happened would be right in the pages of this book, just like
what happened to the children of Israel. Everything that happened
to them was already foretold and written, and then it happened.
It happened. Listen, we learn far more through
afflictions than we do through ease. Listen to these scriptures. In Psalm 119, verse 71, it is
good for me that I have been afflicted. I'm sure when David said that,
it was after it was all over with. Going through it, it's difficult. But looking back, you can see
the hand of the Lord in it, and you can say, it's good for me.
It was good for me that I went through that. It was good for
me that I, he said, it is good for me that I have been afflicted
that I might learn thy statutes. Afflictions do not run God's
children away. They bring the children to Him. They bring us to Him. In verse
75 of 119, I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right. And
that thou in what? In faithfulness. Thou hast in faithfulness afflicted
me." Now, if God sends us our afflictions, if He does it, then
He sees them. He sees them. And here's a real
comfort. The Lord said, I have surely
seen the affliction of my people. How special is that? How special
are your children to you? How special are they to you?
Well, just multiply that by an infinite number. That's how special
we are to God. My people. My people. Don't think that because a person
is going through some hard times, or that that person is lost because
of it, or that person has done something bad because of it.
God's people are a tried people. They are a tried people. And
I'm telling you, they are a tried people all the way to the grave. And I've seen, I have seen that
in God's people, that their hardest years have been their last ones. It's been their last years. But he says, I have surely seen
the affliction of my people. He says in Isaiah 48.10, Behold,
I have refined thee, but not with silver. I have chosen thee
in the furnace of affliction. I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction. And God sees the distress of
his people, he says here, which are in Egypt. Egypt is a type
of the world. I told you that a couple of weeks
ago or so. It's a type of the world. God
sees our afflictions while we are in this sinful world. He
sees them. He knows just where we are at
all times, in all situations. He said, I have surely seen the
affliction of my people which are in this world of sin. This depraved world. I see their
affliction. I've seen it. And I see it. His
eye is ever upon his children. I wish we could get a hold of
how keenly our Lord looks upon us and is with us. Now, if we
could just get a hold of that. He sees our distress. And he
says, you have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters.
He not only hears our cry, but he sees the cause of it. He sees the cause of it. You know, when your kids are
little, they come in the house, they've scraped their knee or
they've done something, they come in the house crying, you're going,
what happened? What did you do? Did you fall
down? Show me. God never has to ask us what
happened. Did you fall down? Oh, he said, and I've heard their
cry by reason of their taskmasters. He sees the cause of it. He knows
what a taskmaster sin is. He knows what a taskmaster it
is. Even after regeneration, even
after regeneration, it still tries to master us. He knows
what it is. For I know, he says here, I know
their sorrows. I have seen their afflictions.
I've heard their cry. And I know their sorrows. Now
he's telling this to Moses. The children of Israel don't
have any idea of this going on, this conversation going on. Just
like there was a time you and I had no idea of the gospel.
I never even knew anything. I did not know anything about
the covenant of grace or anything of that matter. The children
of Israel are still down there crying. They're still down there
in bondage. They are still in Egypt. But here over here, In
the desert, God is speaking to the deliverer. And He's telling
them, I've seen their affliction, I've heard their cry, and I know
their sorrow. And I'm going to send you down
there to deliver them. Well, they don't know that yet. Oh, I tell you, the Lord has
taken care of all these things, and we didn't even know it. He
prepared it, and we didn't even know it. We do now. But there
was a time we didn't. I know their sorrows. Listen
here in Isaiah 63 now. In all their affliction, he was
afflicted. And the angel of his presence
saved them. In his love and in his pity,
he redeemed them. And He bared them, and He carried
them all the days of old. Who's been carrying you? Who's
been carrying me? The Lord. The Lord has. And He gives us
your promise of deliverance here. In verse 8, And I am come down,
I have seen their affliction, I have heard their cry, I know
their sorrow, and I am come down, the time to deliver is come. There was a set time for them
to be in Egypt, to be under those afflictions, to be under those
taskmasters. There was a set time for that
to happen and to run its course, but now it's time to deliver.
Time to deliver. And I have come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians." Oh, could there be a better deliverer?
God said, I have come down. Can you imagine the God of creation? The God of all power, wisdom, knowledge? I mean, we can't even begin to
scratch the surface. He said, I have come down to
deliver my people. My people. Salvation, the Scripture says,
is of the Lord. Israel was held captive. They
were in bondage to the Egyptians. Just as we were held captive by sin, Satan,
the world, None of us, none of us could free ourselves from
these taskmasters. Couldn't do it. Could not do
it. God must deliver us. He must
deliver us from the guilt of sin. He must deliver us from the reigning
power of sin. He must deliver us from the clutches
of Satan. He must deliver us from ourselves. God must do it. God must do it. These things are too powerful
for us. He says here, I am come down. The great I am. Moses said, who shall I say sent
me? And he says over in verse 14,
and God said unto Moses, I am that I am. That's who you tell him sent
you. That is who has come down. That's who's come down. I am. I am come down." He has come
down to save his people from their sins. Listen to I Timothy
3.16, and without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God, the great I Am, was manifest
in the flesh. justified in the Spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory. I am come down. Behold, a virgin
shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall
call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted as God with
us. I am come down to deliver. Now listen, He says, I have come
down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to
bring them up, to bring them up out of that
land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk
and honey. He's not only come down to save
us, but He's going to bring us up. He's going to take us to
glory. He's going to take us to paradise.
This is not a fairy tale. This is real. He's going to take us to a prepared
place. You see, He said He's going to take them, the typical
Israel, to a land flowing with milk and honey and to the place
of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites,
the Hivites, and the Jebusites. God had blessed that land. And I have no doubt he blessed
the work of their hands. It was a prosperous place, very prosperous. But it was the promised land
to Israel. It's their land. And God said,
I'm giving it to them. What is the scripture that says,
when the Lord says, enter into the kingdom that your Father
has prepared for you? from the beginning. There is a kingdom, a world that
God has prepared for his people, and he has come down in the person
of his Son, in the flesh, to redeem, to save, to make righteous
this people. My people. He keeps saying that.
My people. Not just a people he felt sorry
for. But my people. And Christ came
into this world to save His people and take them to that land. That
promised land. Paradise. Paradise. Where's that? God's presence,
that's all I know. God's presence. He came that he might bring us
to glory, a people made by God and for God in the furnace of affliction. Now therefore, behold, he says
to Moses, behold, give attention to this Moses. The cry of the
children of Israel has come unto me. I hear their cry. God hears our cry. He hears our
moans. He hears our groans. He hears
them. And I have seen the oppression
wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them. He not only sees our oppressions,
but He sees the oppressor. He says in Deuteronomy 32, to
me belongeth vengeance and recompense. He says over in Romans 12, 19,
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath
where it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith
the Lord. He not only sees our oppression,
he sees the oppressor. And he's going to take care of
it in his time. In his time. He'll take care
of that which is oppressing us. Come now, and I'll close here
in verse 10. Come now, therefore, and I will
send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt. God calls the deliverer. He calls the deliverer, Moses,
and he sends him. First God says, I have come down
to deliver my people. Then he says to Moses, now come
and I'm going to send you. I'm going to send you to deliver
my people. Now, we know that Moses is the
type of Christ whom God called and God sent into this world
to save His people from their sins and bring them out of this
world to the promised land that flows with milk and honey. God
used a man. God said, I have come down to
deliver My people. But He's going to do it through
a man, Moses. He's going to use Moses. God's
going to do it, but He's going to use Moses to deliver His people
of old. God used a man, the God-man,
but no less a man. He used a man to deliver his
people, his true Israel, forever. Never, ever to be under bondage,
never to be molested by sin, no more. You see, Moses went
down and delivered them out of Egypt, but they wandered into
wilderness for forty years. Because of unbelief. But now God's people, who are
saved by this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, they believe. They believe God. And they are
not going to wander around in the wilderness. He's going to
take them to glory. Every one of them. Every one
of them. Here's the purpose, that thou
mayest bring forth My people, the children of Israel, out of
Egypt. God is bringing His people out
of this world. Not one of them is going to be
left. You know, when Israel left Egypt, not a hoof, not even one
of their animals was left there. He brought them completely out.
Completely out. And I'm going to deliver them
out of Egypt. Never forget this, never forget
this, listen, until then, until then, he sees our afflictions,
he hears our cries, he knows our sorrows, he knows it, and
he's promised, he has promised that he will bring us out, that
he might take us up. Alright, bye.