I'm going to look at one or two
verses. Exodus 11. And the Lord said to Moses, yet
will I bring one more plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards, he will let you go
hence. When he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you
out hence altogether. Speak now in the ears of the
people, and let every man borrow of his neighbor and every woman
of her neighbor, silver, jewels of gold. And the Lord gave the
people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the
man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of
Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people. And Moses
said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the
midst of Egypt, And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die,
from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne,
even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the
mill, and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a
great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there
was none like it, nor shall be like it any more." But against
any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue,
against man or beast, that you may know how the Lord doth put
a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these thy
servants shall come down unto me, and shall bow themselves
unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow
thee. And after that I will go out." And went out from Pharaoh
in a great anger. 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 hardened Pharaoh's
heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out
of his land." Now, the title of this message is, How Secure
Are His Saints? How Secure Are His Saints? How
sovereign is our God? Two question marks. How secure
are His saints? But yet, how sovereign is our
God? Look with me. Well, let's first look at chapter
12. Go to chapter 12. So you can
kind of get what's going on. Because it looks like he told
Pharaoh the last plague The firstborn of all of Egypt is going to die.
And then it looks like there was a little bit of time. We
don't know that. But my point is that when this
happens, Pharaoh says, get out. So they immediately, once the
firstborn start dying, Pharaoh realizes what's going on. Anyway,
in chapter 12, look with me at verses 29-31. And it came to
pass that at midnight, the Lord smote all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt. from the firstborn of Pharaoh
that sat on the throne, the firstborn of the Captive that was in the
dungeon, and all the firstborn of Canaan. And Pharaoh rose up
in the night." So this is going on. "...and all his servants,
and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in
Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron,
by night, in the middle of the night, this is going on, and
said, rise up, get you forth from among My people, both you
and the children of Israel, go serve the Lord as you have said. Now look with me at verse 36
and 37, the same chapter. And the Lord gave the people
favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such
things as they required. And they, that is the children
of Israel, spoiled the Egyptians." They spoiled the Egyptians. Now, back to our text in chapter 11, Verse 6, "...there shall be a
great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it,
nor shall be like it any more." How secure are His saints? Verse
7, "...but against any of the children of Israel, shall not
a dog move his tongue, or bark, that's what dogs do, against
a man or beast, that you may know how that the Lord doth put
a difference between the Egyptians and the Israelites." I've been looking at this passage
for a number of weeks. Maybe it's what this country
is going through. I don't know. I have fears just like you do.
But you look at what's going on here. The Egyptians are masters
over the Israelites. And in one evening, it's flipped
around. The Israelites are no longer
bond servants, but are free. Now the Egyptians, at this time,
Pharaoh was probably the most dominating country in the world. He says he'll put a difference
between the Egyptians and Israel, and the difference is blood.
because the Lord had respect to the blood and the sacrifice
of the Israelites, and He did not. There was no blood sacrifice
for the Egyptians. We're going to just look at three
or four points. The first point, we see God's control over all
things. Now this amazes me, and those
who own dogs or like dogs can understand this. God's control
over all things. As the Israelites were leaving,
as they were told to leave, to get out quickly after this last plague. I can't remember where it's at.
Okay, it's in Exodus 12. In verse 37, there's about 600,000
on foot, men besides children. 600,000. are leaving in the middle of
the night. God's control over all things.
They're leaving with everything that they needed for their journey
that was given to them, nay, forced upon them by the Egyptians. And with all the noise of just
600,000 feet. Take that, this is in the middle
of the night, according to our text, And there's a cry of weeping
and wailing like has never been heard before. But not a single dog barked or
bit or harassed God's people. Is God sovereign or not? Yes, people today will give God,
give Him supremacy over the winds, the elements, non-living things,
but never over men, women, children, and even animals. But this is
nothing new with God. Daniel in the lion's den, he
shut the mouths. And last night, we were in bed,
and I'm thinking, another thought came to me, Jonah, you don't
have to turn there, Jonah chapter 7, the Lord says, He prepared
a gourd, and then He prepared a worm to destroy the gourd. Now that word prepared, I got
up in the middle and looked that up. And that's a point. God's control, says Arthur Pink,
not even a fly lands upon the elect's shoulder without permission
from God Almighty. And we forget that. Because we
look at the big picture. We look at the trouble that's
going on. All these different things. But we know, turn to
Daniel chapter 4. I love this passage. Turn with
me to Daniel chapter 4. We know this. Daniel chapter 4 and verse 34. After the end of days, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
who He was humiliated, He was humbled, and saw the grace of
God, was lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and my understanding
returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised
and honored Him that lives forever, whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation."
Oh, and incidentally, verse 35, "...and all the inhabitants of
the earth are reputed as nothing. And He does according to His
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. And none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What are
you doing?" So the first thing I think we see in this passage
in Exodus, it just still blows my mind. Dogs bark. They bark. but not against God's people
when God says no. So the first thing I think we
see is obviously God's control over all things. The second thing
we see is God's dominion, which we just read out of Daniel 4. The second thought is God's dominion
is for His people. It's for His people. You don't
have to turn there, but Joshua 10 and verse 21 This is exactly what he's saying,
that not even people, they're not going to do any harm to God's
people. These dogs are not barking at
the Israelites. It didn't say anything about
the Egyptians. They couldn't bark against the Israelites.
It's for His people. This is the picture of His Israelites,
the picture of His people, His bride, His beloved ones. And
you know the story in Genesis chapter 50, Jacob is now dead,
and Joseph's brothers thought, our dad's dead, he can't protect
us against Joseph, because remember what they did to Joseph. They thought Joseph was going
to exact revenge. But Joseph said, no, it's true,
you meant it for evil. You meant all this, you sold
me to slavery. And I got put in Potiphar, I got all these
different things that happened in my life and now we're back
together and you're afraid because I'm the second in command in
Egypt. You're afraid of me." But he said, don't be. Don't
be. You meant it for evil, but God
meant it for good. And turn here, turn to Genesis
50. This is the part I want us to
see. God's dominion is specifically for His people. specifically
for his people. And this is found in Genesis
50 and verse 20, but as for you, you thought evil against me,
he said, Joseph, but God bent it unto good to bring to pass
as it is this day, to save much people alive. I looked at a word
study, as it is this day, and that's basically exactly as God
has said. And that's what He does for His people, as it is
this day. And we don't know about tomorrow,
but when we get there, we'll look and we'll say, as it is
this day. This is how God has planned it. And He's planned
it for me. But look at verse 21. This is what our gracious
God, through the mediator The Lord Jesus Christ does to us
and for us. Look at verse 21. Now therefore,
fear not. This is Joseph, a type of Christ,
speaking to his brethren. Okay? I'm speaking to you as
God's ambassador. Be reconciled to God. If you're
reconciled to God this morning, this is what God's Word says
through Christ to you. Don't fear. Do not fear. The next, I will nourish you.
But I don't know. Yes, if you don't work, you don't
eat. This doesn't contradict different
parts of the Scripture. I'm just saying, what do we have
to fear? I will nourish you and your little
ones. And He comforted them. Joseph
comforted his brethren, the elect. and spake kindly unto them."
Now that word on the margin, kindly, is what we talked about
last week. He spoke to their heart. God
will have our heart. And that's how He speaks to His
people. Through His Word, through His
preachers, through His elders, through one another. We're all
brethren. We understand the grace of God. And only He can, and only He
can, and most assuredly does, and this is all based upon the
accomplishments of Emmanuel. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin, and sin's got to be dealt with.
It was dealt with head-on on our Mediator, our Joseph. And this is since He's redeemed
His people from their sins. And I know we still struggle
with sin because we still struggle with fear. Why does He say, Fear
not, because we fear. Why does He say nourish? Because
we think we've got a wrong ability. We can nourish ourselves and
our children. And He comforts us. Where? Out
of the preaching. When we gather together, it's
comfort. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Not fleece the
sheep. Not whip them. But comfort ye,
comfort ye His people. And speak. I can only speak to
the ears. God takes these words and will
speak to the heart. Oh, He does it, and it's all
based upon what Christ has done for His people. The third thing
we see in this passage in Exodus is God's discriminating, or as
it is in the original, He put a difference. That means to distinguish and
to set apart God's discriminating grace. It is not unto us, says the Word,
but unto God give glory. All praise and all honor. He
has put a difference. He has put a distinguish, a mark,
set us apart between those who fear Him and those who fear Him
not. As Spurgeon or somebody said,
I like how this is worded, and I wrote it down. Upon one, there's
always a benediction. Upon the other, a malediction. Gospels savor of life unto life
or death unto death. Upon one he led them out by a
fiery cloudy pillar by day so they could see and the others
they're trying to follow and they're trying to follow the
Israelites and they were unsuccessful. Upon one they crossed the Red
Sea over the Red Sea as upon dry ground. The others were swallowed
up in death. He puts a difference between
these two people, these two groups, in time, in judgment, and in
eternity. And we saw He does it by the
blood. When He sees the blood, He passes
it over. But that's the beauty, the Old
Testament, there's a beautiful picture, but the New Testament,
not only did He pass this over, but I need to have a positive
righteousness. I've said it my way. I don't
know how else to phrase it. I've said this for years. Salvation
includes the presence of the positive, lack of the negative,
but a presence of the positive. We can't have sin, but we've
got to have His righteousness. And that's what Christ has done.
He's done it always and only for His people. One will hear
the gospel of the grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ and
believe in the others the seed falls on stony ground. I don't
know who those are, but that's the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous
in our eyes. Those who believe are as undeserving
of salvation as any, and these are as sinful or more so than
any. It simply has to do with God
Himself making the gospel hearing effectual unto life everlasting. So I say cry, cry unto the Sovereign
King, the Supreme Monarch, for mercy, not justice, mercy full
and free, that mercy without price and without money. Call
upon Him. He hears the cry for mercy. Now,
this is where it got tough for me, but I'm going to ask you,
I want you to concentrate. This is the fourth point. Listen to me, please. I ask each
of us this day, back in our text, I ask everyone here this morning,
what is your and what is my dog? What is our dog? Maybe you think you're too sinful
for God to save. Maybe you think God cannot save
such a one as myself or yourself. Maybe your dog is worry about
age. You may not reach 31 years old,
right? Claire Heller, she's 30 years
old. We don't know. Maybe we're worried about death. Scripture says, death, where's
your sting? Maybe we're worried about the
bills, money, disease. Riots. Maybe we're worried about life. Maybe we're worried about our
children. We become helicopter parents. And that word, that
phrase is now, but there's been helicopter parents making sure
every little Johnny doesn't bump his toe, do this or do that,
and you're doing worse than, you're to train the child, not
let them train themselves. But I worry, is that dog barking? This verse in verse 7, if you
haven't noticed, is a promise. Promise in Christ. It doesn't
make any difference if it's a Genesis 1 1 or revelations 21. It's Yes,
and amen Take it own it as Spurgeon says put it in your pocket And
when you need it pull it out and spin it cash it cash it in
with God But against any of the children of Israel God's elect
shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast That you
may know that we may know that Who knows? The unbelievers, they
don't have a clue. We may know. Are we boastful? No, we didn't have anything to
do with it. Who's sufficient for these things? Who's put a difference? It's
God's grace that we may know that there's a difference between
the Egyptians and the Israelites. What causes us to stumble? What
causes us to walk in unbelief? I woke up this morning, And I
had, I mean, I woke up, looked at the clock. It's like, well,
it's a little early for me. Tried to go back to sleep. I
was worried. This very morning, this morning, before I gather
again, I'm going to preach this message to you. I was worried
about foolish things. And it's all in the mind. It's
all in the mind. You say, well, this is going
on. Yes, it's going on. This is going on. Is it going on here? No. Is it going on? Is it going on
in Tilsit? No. I asked the Lord, I said, may
I take this thought and bring it captive to the obedience of
Christ? Because all these things, what if, what if, what if, what
if, should have, could have, would have, it should not be in our
vocabulary. Why? Because not a single dog
is barking, 600,000 plus, wailing, crying. It was chaos. I remind myself and I remind
you that no real harm shall come your way eternally. This is a
promise. He has said, no dog shall bark
or bite. And that tells me that no everlasting
harm shall overtake you and me. And as one writer said, if He
permits it, we'll just be ushered to glory. And then we'll see
Him whom our souls adore face to face. We won't worry about
who we're leaving behind. We won't worry about the money
we left behind. We won't worry about any of that. It's selfish. Well, then call a believer selfish
if he wants to be with the one he loves. That's my question for me and
that's my question for you. What is your dog? What causes
you to stumble? And I could really go off on
this but I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna say, you know,
I know you all and this is your problem and this is my problem
because when I do that, you know, I got all these fingers pointing
back at me. I'm just saying, I read the news and that governor
out in California, he's not going to allow singing in worship.
Now, he'll allow protests. You know what? If they do that
in Missouri, they'll put us in jail. And like Rodney said, then
we'll have a prison ministry. There's a certain point at which
the believer says, I'm going to walk by faith and not by fear.
I'm going to see what this book says. And he says, not a dog's
going to bark. He's not going to bark. As for me and my house, we're
going to serve the Lord. We are a peculiar people. And
boy, in this day and age, in this country, in this town, in
this community, you see it. We are peculiar. But enough is enough. My point,
what effect should these truths have upon us? And I can read
one scripture, we're going to read one for sure, because I
love this passage. Psalms 127. Psalms 127. And verse 2. I laugh when I read this because,
oh how guilty we are of worrying. Worrying, making stuff up in
our mind that is not there. What did Paul, you know, he had
a real problem. Some say whatever his infirmity
in the flesh, he prayed to God three times to get rid of it.
And God said, my grace is sufficient. So what do you do? You keep worrying
about it? No, you leave it go. And you look heavenward, and
you say, this is not my home. And you may do a few things less,
less than this, less than that, because again, We can't take
anything with us and we don't want to take anything with us.
But what effect should these truths have upon us? Knowing
that God is absolutely sovereign, His dominion is an everlasting
dominion, and His dominion is for His people. Psalms 127 and
verse 2. It is vain or useless for me
and you to rise up early and to sit up late to eat the bread
of sorrows for so God, in the person of Jesus Christ, by the
enabling of the Holy Spirit, gives His beloved sleep. I thought, well, I couldn't have
said it any better, and I was kind of looking, and oh, there
it is right there. Right there in the Word. He gives His beloved
sleep. It's vain. You're worried. We worry. It causes you to rise
up early, it causes you to stay up late, it causes you to wring
your hands, it causes you to lose your hair, your teeth, whatever. Don't eat the bread of sorrows.
He's a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Cast your cares upon
Him. For He gives His beloved sleep. Beloved sleep. That tells me
peace, sleep, real lasting comfort. Secondly, what this truth should
do for us elect, give us joy and thanksgiving. Thirdly, praise. Fourthly, and ultimately, give
glory to our kind and compassionate God. Now I refer you, I'm going to
read out of Jeremiah 39, but I'm going to refer you to Spurgeon's
Faith's checkbook this morning, because I read them every morning
or try to, and this was the passage. See what he says about this.
Jeremiah 39 and verse 17. This is God, but I will deliver
thee in that day, sayeth the Lord, and thou shalt not be given
into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid. Why? He's got the dog's tongue. But
also, we know that all things work together for good to them
who believe and are the called according to His purpose. So
sleep, or as Donnie Bell would say, now that's a big pillow.
I can lay my head on that and sleep. Bruce, would you close
us please?