general rule when I'm traveling,
I'm away preaching in other places, I try to use what time I can
working on commentaries I'm working on at the time. And as you know
I've been working on Exodus for a good while now. And I realized
that there were a few passages of Scripture that I just didn't
give much attention to, or enough attention to, and I want to look
at one of them tonight, Exodus chapter 11. Exodus chapter 11. I know Brother Lindsey will be
getting to this chapter soon, and I promise I won't incur upon
his territory the things he's going to be teaching on Sunday
mornings. But I want us to look at this chapter this evening,
particularly at one statement in the chapter. Exodus chapter
11, let's begin reading at verse 1, And the Lord said unto Moses,
Yet will I bring one 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. I want to fix it
so that when this man who's refused to let you go, he's going to
say, get out of my land. He's going to push you out of
the country. Speak now in the ears of the people and let every
man borrow of his neighbor. and every woman of her neighbor
of silver and jewels of gold." Now this wasn't something God
told Israel, go be deceitful and steal from them. Borrow and
give are used interchangeably throughout the Old Testament.
Lending and giving used the same way. You'll remember that Hannah
lent Samuel to the Lord. That is she gave him to the Lord.
God told Israel to go ask folks, let me have your silver and your
gold. And they said, okay, take it. Verse three, and the Lord
gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. These
Egyptians who had been beating them, scourging them, harassing
them, tormenting them day and night for 400 years. The Lord
gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And moreover,
the man Moses was great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of
Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people. This man
Moses had been a wanted man, but now he's great in the sight
of Pharaoh's servants and the sight of all, not the Israelites,
the Egyptians. Verse four, and Moses said to
Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, about midnight, I will go out
into the midst of Egypt. You hear folks talk about the
death angel. Not any talk about a death angel. God said, I'm
going out in the midst of Egypt. I'm the one that's going to come
and smite the firstborn in all of Egypt. Verse five. 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 beast, everything in Egypt, the firstborn in every house,
the firstborn of every stock, the firstborn everywhere in Egypt,
shall be put to death. 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 anymore. Now watch verse seven. But against
any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue." Against any of the children of
Israel, I won't even allow an Egyptian dog to growl, not at
you or at your beast. Read on. That ye may know how
that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these thy servants, Moses
says, shall come down unto me and bow down themselves unto
me. All of Pharaoh and his house and his servants, they're gonna
come to me, they're gonna bow down to me, and they're gonna
say to me, get thee out and all thy people that follow thee.
And after that, I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh
in great anger. that is Moses walked out of the
palace stomping his feet, slamming the door mad as a hornet. Verse
9, and the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto
you. And here's the reason, that my
wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. And Moses
and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, Lord hardened
Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the children of Israel
go out of his land. The Lord God did all that He
did to Pharaoh, all that He did to the Egyptians, and all that
He did to and for Israel for one specific purpose. We read
in the last part of verse 7, that ye may know how that the
Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. I wanna talk to you tonight about
the difference. It is my purpose in preaching
this message that you may know how the Lord doth put a difference
between the Egyptians and Israel. I want you to know, understand,
delight in, rejoice in this fact. that the Lord God Almighty has
made whatever differences there are between you and me, between
his people and the reprobate, between believers and unbelievers,
and he alone has made the difference. I stress this and I deal with
it often because of a problem we have. It's called pride. That which is most obnoxious
to God, that which is most obnoxious to God, you and I cherish, nurture,
cling to and promote in ourselves and in our children and in others
around us all the time. This original sin of the universe,
This persistent sin of our race is the most abominable of all
things before God. And it is that with which I have
to do business, constantly battling every day and every hour all
the time. This is the struggle we have
continually. I am fully convinced that when
Paul spoke in 2 Corinthians, or 1 Corinthians 12, excuse me,
2 Corinthians 12, of his thorn in the flesh, That thorn in the
flesh, that messenger Satan that God sent to buffet him was this
matter of pride, just constantly beating him down, just constantly
beating him down. And it certainly ought to beat
us down. Pride was the original sin of
Lucifer in the beginning. Pride was the problem that Adam
had in the garden. Pride arises like a ugly, monstrous,
multi-headed serpent in our hearts, and as soon as you cut one of
the heads off, a dozen reappear in its place. As soon as we think
we've overcome some aspect of this thing of pride, it only
increases. And every man's pretense of humility
is just another expression of pride exposing itself, calling
attention to itself in a pretense and show of humility. The fact
is, there is no such thing as a humble man. There's no such
thing as a humble woman, not in the sense the scriptures use
those terms. It is pride and only pride that
hardens the heart and keeps sinners from coming to Christ. Why is
it that men and women won't trust Christ? The wicked, through the
pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. That's the
only reason. That's the only reason. Nothing
but pride causes a person to reject the Word of God. Jeremiah
said the proud man rejected God's Word. And the root, the cause
of all division, whispering, backbiting, and slander is pride. It's pride. Pride showing itself
in jealousy, and envy, and malice. You see pride all the time. Pride
showing itself in terms of righteousness and truth and all those things.
It's just pride. It's just pride. I sadly was
confronted with a situation just recently. Discussed it a little
bit with Shelby coming home Sunday afternoon. Folks get together
and they get upset. And they can't be content to
just, well, all right, I'll just do this. I'll go here, I'll go
there, I'll do that. If Bill gets upset with me, he's got
to get Bobby, and Bobby, and then he's got to get Mark and
Merle. Everybody listens to him. So
let's gang up and do what we can. It's just pride. It's just
pride. I've seen it happen over and
over and over again. Nothing but pride. I see folks
divide God's churches, cause difficulty, where there's no
need, no need except man's pride. Pride is the deceiver of men. It makes men and women behave
in cruel, mean-spirited self-righteousness, and to do it under the guise
of doing God's service. Be warned, O my soul, pride goeth
before destruction, and a haughty spirit before the fall. O Spirit of God, teach me. me what I am, that I may truly
walk humbly with my God, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ, bowing
to Him in all things." Now, turn if you will to a very, very familiar
text of Scripture, 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7. You can all
quote it. I know you can. It's one of those
passages that I quote with great regularity. and preach from frequently,
and I do so deliberately, because its lessons are quickly forgotten and they need to be constantly
remembered. The lessons here are quickly
forgotten and they need to be constantly remembered. Lots of
folks like to talk about what they call practical godliness
and practical holiness and practical religion. Well, if you want to
do so, I suggest you take a copy of this message and you can tell
my pastor preached to us Tuesday night on the most practical,
the most practical of all things. And you'll find it right here
in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? These
three questions raised by the inspired Word of God may be applied
to and should be applied to every aspect of life. So that whatever
differences we have, whether they're natural or spiritual
differences, whatever they are, whatever they are, every difference
is made by God. God makes men rich and God makes
men poor. God makes some folks brilliant
and he makes some folks a little slow. God does it, God does it. God makes some folks just as
pretty and handsome and tall and strong and everything just
exactly like they ought to be, men or women. And he makes some
look like this. God does it, God does it. It's
God who gives a man a thick head of hair or God who gives him
a bald head. It's God that does it. Some preachers, that's silly,
everybody knows that. Not to hear them talk, you wouldn't
think so. Not to see them behave, you wouldn't think so. Physical,
moral, mental differences, God makes them. Preachers. Preachers
have differences. I'm talking about faithful preachers.
Some have greater gifts and abilities. Some have lesser. Some have greater
avenues of usefulness. Some have less usefulness. Some
are given a place of prominence, some a place of insignificance.
God puts them where he will, and God uses them as he will. And if they're God's, if this
man talking to you is God's servant, I'm in the place where God has
put me. And I have the opportunity to
do what God gives me the opportunity to do. We as a congregation have
the opportunity to do what God gives us opportunity to do. And
that's our responsibility, nothing else and nothing less. Believers
and unbelievers are also distinct. And the difference is a distinction
made by God and only by God. questions. I'll spend the bulk
of my time on the first one and I'll conclude the message with
the latter two. Who maketh thee to differ from another? Now there
are three obvious things here. I'll be very brief, I promise
you. First, there is obviously a sense in which God's elect
do not differ from other people at all. all know it. Every saved sinner knows it.
One of the first things a believer learns early in his life as a
believer, he'll learn it, and he'll keep on learning it, is
that there's a real sense in which nothing has changed. The
most shocking thing I believe I've ever discovered since God
saved shortly after God saved me, I realized one day that though
I was chosen of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, born
again by God's Spirit, God's grace in me had not in any way
changed my old nature. Not only was my old endemic nature
not eradicated, it wasn't even changed. No improvement made
at all. I was out in Springfield, Missouri
this past week. Most of you know I went to school
out there for nine months. And I, when I went to school
out in Springfield, I had, I had been taught the gospel of God's
grace and taught the gospel of God's grace clearly, and I talked
to folks about things of God in coffee shop or in the book
room or in the library, wherever we get together. And I had been
on campus but a week, a little bit less than a week, just a
little bit less than a week. And I got called in by the theology
professor, Dick Melton, into the president's office. Bill
Downing was president. And they were gonna kick me out
of school. They were gonna kick me out of school for being a
hyper-Calvinist. And I said, what? All I had heard
about Calvinism, I hadn't been saved very long, but all I'd
heard about Calvinism is those are folks who don't believe in
witnessing and maybe go to hell. It's the kind of lies folks tell
all the time to try to get you not to believe something. And
I said, what are you talking about? And then they told me
what they was talking about. I said, you don't believe those
things? And it was rough from then on. I got called in every
month for nine months. Folks threatened to kick me out
of school. But anyway, to make a long story short, word got
around, and folks wanted to argue and fuss and argue and fuss and
argue and fuss. And I was standing out on the
dormitory porch one night, several fellas talking, one of them a
little more showy than the other, and I just got tired of listening
to him. And I said to him, if you open
your mouth again, I'm gonna throw you off this porch. And he opened
his mouth, I don't even know what he said. And without thinking,
I had grabbed that fella and literally picked him up and threw
him off the porch. It scared me to death, I thought
I might have killed him. Man, it's almost two stories high.
If he hadn't fallen into a bush, I would have killed him. I looked
down there and looked at him and I apologized. I didn't think
I had it in me. I didn't know it was still there.
the same evil, proud, horribly, hellish, mean nature with which
I was born. You too. You too. That old nature doesn't change. Thank God grace rules that nature. Grace subdues that nature. And grace will soon destroy that
nature. But as long as we live in this
world, God's people are just like everybody else by nature. Don't ever think otherwise. Our righteousnesses, Isaiah 64,
Brother Merle read chapter 63 a minute ago. Read Isaiah 64
and hear what the prophet says about our righteousness. Our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We are all an unclean thing.
Filthy rags. The language used there, what
is talking about such things you just don't discuss in public.
Filthy, vile, smelly, nauseating rags. So that the best we do, the best
we think, the best we imagine, Our best deeds in and of themselves
are just filthy, just filthy, polluted by our hands. The believer by nature is exactly
what he always was. That means that sin is mixed
with everything we do. Our very best deeds, our very
best deeds, our very best thoughts, our very best imaginations are
all made filthy by reason of the person doing them. Out of
our heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, covetousness,
fornications, lasciviousness, variance, emulation, wrath, strife,
sedition. These things, Mark, Daniel, they constantly
bubble up in your heart and mine too. That's what we are by nature. Let me see if I can make this
clear. Before God saved you, did you
ever imagine it'd be so hard to read this book and rejoice
in it as you find it to be? Before God saved you, did you
ever imagine it could be so hard for a believer to pray? as it
is for us to pray. I say this a lot, and I don't
mean to say anything that would in any
way disincline you to give yourself to prayer. But prayer lends its
most difficult thing on this earth for me. I find myself all
the time using vain repetitions. I find myself all the time seeking
things for God. I find myself all the time, all
the time, as I give myself to prayer, whether it's my wife
and I before a meal, or in the morning, or in the evening, or
privately, all the time, just consumed with self. I never dreamed
it could be so. Did you ever imagine, before
God saved you, that a child of God could love the world so much
and love God so little. That's just the way it is. In
a very real sense, God's people in this world are no different
at all from anyone else. Yet our texts clearly and distinctly
suggest saints indeed are different from others. We are sinners still,
but we are saved sinners, men and women with a new nature,
a new nature that's born of God, created in us by the Spirit of
God. When the Scriptures tell us the Lord doth put a difference
between the Egyptians and Israel, and the Scriptures raise the
question, who maketh thee to differ? things would be redundant
if there were no difference. Come back to over just a couple
of pages to I Corinthians chapter 6. God's people, God's people have
undergone a change, a real, radical, marvelous change. Look at verse
9, I know you not that the unrighteous shall shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. You know that. Be not deceived,
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of themselves of mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit
the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But,
isn't that a wonderful word? But, you're washed. sanctified, you're justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
We have been washed, washed. The Lord Jesus by His blood has
washed away our sins, washed away our guilt. I can't say that
clearly enough. God Almighty, by the blood of
Jesus Christ, has blotted out our transgressions. Altogether,
completely gone. He's put them away by the sacrifice
of Himself. And we are sanctified. The Lord God has given us a new
nature. Christ in you the hope of glory
so that we now have in us Jesus Christ himself sanctified and
justified. Justified by God's free grace.
Now justification is put last because it's known last. You
can't know anything about being justified, being redeemed until
you've experienced sanctification, being given life and faith in
Christ. But the point is grace changes a person's life. Indeed,
you may know the way of life without grace, and you may change
the way you behave without grace, but you cannot experience the
grace of God that brings salvation without experiencing a change
caused by that grace. Brother Mahan used to tell a
story about a little boy, I ask his daddy, One day after being
in Sunday school, he said, Daddy, how big is Jesus? And Daddy said,
I don't know, son. Said nobody ever had a picture
of him. I guess he was about the size
of me. Why do you ask? And the little boy looked up
at him and said, well, if Jesus was in me, wouldn't he stick
out? If he's in you, he'll stick out.
He'll stick out. God's people, are made new creatures
in Christ. Every child of God is. We have
a new master. We have a new motive. We have
a new will. Our master is Christ. Our motive
is his glory. Our will is his will, bowing
to him in all things. Every person in this world who
is born again by God the Holy Ghost, is taught by God the Holy
Ghost, by that grace of God that brings salvation, to deny ungodliness
and worldly lust, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present evil world. Now I stress this because it
needs stressing. It needs stressing. We live in
a generation of folks who somehow have gotten the crazy, insane
religious idea that character and conduct don't matter as long
as you believe the right doctrine. Everywhere I go, everywhere I
go, literally everywhere I go, a few exceptions, but most everywhere
I go, I've run into folks in churches, not married, women
have two, three, four babies, and mamas and granddaddies, and
everybody, well, that's just fine. That's just, it's good. No, it's not good. No, it's not
good. It's ungodly. It's vile. It's reprehensible. It must never,
never be approved, not by God's church, not by God's people.
Does that mean you treat folks meanly? No, it means you deal
with things honestly. And you mamas and daddies need
to press on your children the importance of that which is right,
just what's right, honoring to God, honoring to our Redeemer.
and press it upon one another. Believers not only are taught
to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world,
being taught to trust Christ, they're taught to walk in love
one with another. So that believers are men and
women who love each other. God's given them a new nature.
They're not mean, malicious, cruel, but rather they're gracious,
merciful, kind, and forgiving. Believers are a people taught
of God to walk with God in a way that honors Him. Let's look at
Ephesians 4. I'll be back there in just a
little bit in Ephesians 5 in a week or two, but I want you
to look back at this passage we looked at just recently, Ephesians
chapter 4. This I say therefore, verse 17,
and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk. How do they live? In the vanity
of their mind. How do they live? Having the
understanding darkened. Being alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that's in them because of the
blindness of their heart. being past feeling have given
themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with
greediness." Now watch verse 20. Have you got it? But you have not so learned Christ. Not if you're in Him. be that
you have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth
is in Jesus, that you put off concerning the former conversation
of the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust,
and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put
on the new man, put on that new man, which after God is created
in righteousness and in true holiness. Now, Those are the
facts. But the question is, who maketh
thee to differ? And the apostle Paul answers
that for us. He says, it is God which worketh in you, both to
will and to do of his good pleasure. God makes the difference. God
chose us. God redeemed us. God called us
by his grace. God preserves and keeps us. God
gives us faith in Christ. God holds us in His hands and
will not let us go. And in the day of the resurrection,
at the last day in judgment, the Lord God Almighty, He says
there'll be a resurrection of the just and of the unjust. And all who stand before God
in their own merit, in their own worth, shall be judged according
to their works and forever cast into hell. And all who stand
before God on his right hand, the sheep gathered out of all
the nations of the earth, will stand there accepted in Christ
Jesus the Lord, judged of God according to their works, according
to the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ the Lord, and
accepted of Him in everlasting glory. And in heaven's glory,
God's people will repeat what we continually are taught to
repeat on this earth, not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, unto
thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. This is God's doing. and it is
marvelous in our eyes. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. The Lord God graciously in his
providence arranges things for us that ought to be constantly
kept in mind. As God calls children of Israel
in Egypt to find favor with the Egyptians who hated them. So
that those Egyptians pulled off their gold and silver earrings
and necklaces and chains and said, here take them with you.
And the Egyptians provided them with everything they needed to
walk through the wilderness for 40 years and serve God all that
time. As God fixed it so that not even
a dog in Egypt would growl against one of His people, and as God
fixed it so that Pharaoh and the Egyptians thrust them out
of Egypt, so the Lord God in His providence continually makes
a difference between the Egyptians and Israel, and He causes the
earth to open up and help His people. Read the 12th chapter
of Revelation. By the grace of God, we are what
we are. Noah had learned this, and David. Peter had learned it, and Paul.
And one way or another, you and I must learn it now. What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? Nothing, nothing, nothing. If I have life, God gave it.
faith, God gave it. If I have righteousness, God
gave it. If I'm useful to anybody in any area for anything good,
it's God's doing. Now, if you've received it, why
do you glory as if you've not received it? Pride, envy, and
jealousy are totally contrary to the grace of God. and they
have no room in the house of grace. Oh, pride, pride, pride,
pride of race and pride of place and pride of face and pride of
grace, how abominable they are. None of us has any reason to
ever be proud of anything. None of us, none of us. desires to have us, that He may
sift us as wheat. And the Lord Jesus sometimes
runs us through His sieve. And it's no accident that He
does. Turn to John chapter 13, I'll wrap this up. John chapter
13, Our Savior sometimes runs us
through the sin to separate the precious from the vile and thereby
to teach us to trust Him. In John 13, verse 36, Simon Peter
said to the Lord Jesus, Lord, Whither goest thou? Jesus answered
him, Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou wilt
follow me afterwards. And Peter said unto him, Lord,
why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for thy
sake. And Jesus answered him, will
you now? Wilt thou lay down thy life for
my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
the cock shall not crow. thou hast denied me thrice."
He said, Peter, before the sun rises tomorrow, you're going
to deny me three times. Peter said, not me, not me, not
me, not me. And you know the story. Peter
denied the Master and the Lord looked at him and Peter walked
out to that place in tears. He was convinced everything would
go. I'm just certain of it. He said to the disciples, I'm
going fishing. That didn't mean I'm going to
go fishing this morning. I'm going to see you this afternoon. He's saying, I'm going
back to where I was when this all started. There's nothing
to what I've said, nothing to what I've professed. Men could
act like I do who knows God. And the Lord Jesus said to him,
his very next word, let not your heart be troubled. I didn't see that connection
for so many years. The very next word to the Savior
said, Peter, before the sun rises tomorrow, you're gonna deny me.
Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. And after the master was risen
from the dead, the women went to the tomb to look for him.
And the angel met them and said, he's not here, he's risen. Go
tell his disciples, he'll meet them in Galilee, just like he
said he would. And Peter. Be sure you tell Peter, nothing
has changed. Everything's all right. And oh,
how good it was for Peter that the Lord ran him through the
sea of and raised him up by his grace and taught him, you believe
in God, believe also in me. Who makes you to differ from
another? The difference is God's doing,
only God's. I've done all that I had done,
the Lord says, to all the world, to all the Egyptians, and all
that I've done to you, in you, and for you, so that everybody
will know how that I put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. Lindsay, let's stand together
and sing on this center. I think it's 474. We'll be dismissed
with that. Not have I gotten, but what I
received, grace hath bestowed it since I have believed.