Sadly, the vast majority of people
in this world who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
I think sadly the vast majority of people in this world who genuinely
believe on the Lord Jesus because of the horrible influence, the
horribly evil influence of false doctrine and of works religion
upon us, the vast majority of people, even those who believe,
somehow have a pause, a hesitancy, an anticipation that somehow
when we enter into heaven, we're going to still have something
to answer for. Hear me, children of God. More
important than that, infinitely. Hear the teaching of this book. So infinitely meritorious is
the obedience and death of the Lord Jesus Christ as our substitute,
that every sinner who trusts Christ shall enter into heaven's
glory triumphantly. Triumphantly. Not conquered,
but conquering. Not defeated, but defeated. Not losing anything, but winning
everything. Our subject this evening, Ye
shall not go empty. Our text will be Exodus chapter
3, verses 21 and 22. Ye shall not go empty. In this third chapter of Exodus,
beginning at verse 16, the Lord God gives us a detailed account
of the whole history of his controversy with Pharaoh and the Egyptians
and of the final redemption of his people before ever it took
place. Now the whole thing, I remind
you again, is a picture, a type. Egypt representing all the world. Israel, all God's elect. Israel, every vessel of wrath. Or Egypt, every vessel of wrath.
Excuse me. And Israel, every vessel of mercy. Egypt representing all the reprobate
Israel representing all the elect and the Lord gives Moses a Detailed
account of the whole controversy he has with the Egyptians and
with Pharaoh With the world and with Satan the Lord was about
to visit Israel in grace But he told Moses he had already
visited them look at verse 16 The Lord God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, appeared unto me
saying, I have surely visited you. He was about to visit them,
but he tells Moses, I have surely visited you. Because he had visited
them in his purpose of grace. He was sure to visit them in
the mighty operations and experience of his grace. Moses was sent
to Israel and commanded by God to announce to his people that
their deliverance was accomplished, that their redemption was done,
and that redemption accomplished is redemption sure. Now, this
is exactly what God's servants are sent in every age to proclaim
to his people. Read the 24th chapter of Luke's
gospel as our Lord sends out his disciples. He tells them
to go and preach beginning at Jerusalem and in all Judea and
to the nations of the world repentance and remission of sins. He did
not say go and tell people to perform repentance and to earn
remission. He said, go preach repentance
and preach the remission of sins. Go proclaim a turning of a people
to God, not by what they do, but by what I have done. Proclaim
to people the free forgiveness of sin accomplished for them,
not by something they do, but what I've done for them. Redemption
done is redemption sure. The Lord God says, comfort ye,
comfort ye my people. Speak ye comfortably to the heart
of Jerusalem. Declare to her that her warfare
is accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned. She hath received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. This we're sent to proclaim to
men and women everywhere. And the word is given to everyone
who believes on the Son of God. Believe Him right now and you
enter into the blessed, sweet experience of grace. But your
experience of grace is but the reflection of what God has already
done for you in His purpose and in the accomplishments of His
darling Son. Then in verse 18, the Lord God
assured His servant Moses that His people would hear and believe
His message. And they shall hearken to thy
voice. Moses, I'm gonna send you down
to bring my people out of Egypt. You're gonna be my spokesman.
You've got my message and my people will hear your voice. God never sends any man on a
useless errand. God never sends anyone to do
anything he doesn't accomplish. God has given us his word. He's
committed to our trust, this rich treasure of his grace. He's
given to this assembly, to this assembly. Would to God we could
understand these things as if we were the only ones of whom
this was true. In this sense, that it is our
great honor, our great privilege, our great responsibility, God
has given to us The light of the gospel and say he said take
it into all the world And my people will hear your voice My
people will hear your voice. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth It shall accomplish that which I please
it shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it God says my
word shall not return to me void And next, the Lord told Moses
to go with the elders of Israel and ask permission of Pharaoh. He said, you go ask permission
of Pharaoh that the Egyptians might let you go three days journey
into the wilderness to worship the Lord our God. Look at it,
verse 18. Thou shalt come, thou and the
elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and shall say unto
him, the Lord God of the Hebrew, has 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. He said, Moses,
you take the elders of Israel and you go into Pharaoh and ask
the king of Egypt to let you go three days journey into the
wilderness to worship the Lord. And then the Lord plainly told
Moses that Pharaoh would not let Israel go. but that he would
harden Pharaoh's heart in verse 19. I'll harden his heart. I'll harden his heart. Now this
was not accidental. I've read to you a number of
times in the last few weeks, the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. It was God, the scripture tells
us, who turned Pharaoh to hate his people. It was God, the scripture
tells us, and tells us in these exact words who caused the Egyptians
to deal subtly with his people. Now, people like to attribute
things to second causes and blame second causes. And that's, I
guess, reasonable. But don't get too concerned about
second causes. whatever comes to pass in this
world. God brought it to pass by his
purpose for his glory and our good. And when you get terribly
upset with it, your anger is at God and nothing else and no
one else. I say that to Don Fortner and
I say that to Merle Hart and everybody will hear me. God rules
this world. Our lot is to walk before him
with faith and with contentment and with expectation. Then the
Lord told Moses, I'll harden Pharaoh's heart and still assured
his servant that he would, by the performance of his wonders
in Egypt, compel Pharaoh to let Israel go. is I'm going to harden
Pharaoh's heart for this purpose, that I may perform my wonders
in Egypt. All these things are written
to assure us that all things move according to the eternal
purpose of our great God. He who declares the end from
the beginning performs all his pleasure all the time. What a
sweet, blessed, blessed consolation this ought to be to our hearts.
We shall never meet a difficulty or an enemy, neither in this
world nor in our hearts, that was not purposed by our God. We shall never face a foe that
he will not conquer. And we will never endure a trial
from which he does not deliver us. Shelby and I were talking
at breakfast this morning, or last night after supper. Whenever
it was, we'd seen some more news. Sometimes I want to shoot the
television set. News is rotten. And I said to her, or she to me,
I don't really remember which, of 360 million people in this
country. It looks like we could have had
something better running for president than to we got. Why this? God did this. God did this in judgment upon
the nation, in judgment upon the world, and for the good of
his people. Let us view all things in just
that light. What a great consolation. We
will never meet with any enemy, not in the world and not even
in our hearts. We will never face any foe, not
in the world, not even in our hearts, from which God will not
deliver us and cause us to triumph over. And we will never endure
a trial from which he does not deliver us. The Lord God knew
beforehand what Pharaoh would do. He knew it beforehand because
he purposed it. He predetermined it. I know that
almost everybody likes to talk about God's omniscience, but
they talk about God's omniscience as if it's somehow something
that is sort of an attribute of God that he just can't help. He just knows everything. He
knows everything that is and everything that was and everything
that shall be. He's omniscient God. And by that,
they mean to imply God doesn't really control anything. He doesn't
really cause anything. He just knows it. God knew that
Pharaoh's heart would be hardened because God purposed to harden
his heart. God knew that he would bring
great judgment upon Egypt because he purposed to bring it upon
Egypt. God knew he would perform his wonders in Egypt because
he created Egypt for the purpose of performing his wonders there
and delivering his people. So the Lord God Almighty knew
that by these things, he would accomplish Israel salvation because
he had purposed by these things to do so. So it is with every
trial, Every foe and every hardship that is marked for us in the
path through which God directs us through this world. Everything
has been prearranged in view of our final triumph
and our victorious exit from this scene of woe. Everything
arranged by our God to bring us at last out of Egypt into
Canaan's glory land triumphantly and victoriously through the
means God has ordained. And the means God has ordained
is everything He's ordained. Everything in His providence.
Everything in his grace everything in his word Everything had been
prearranged To deliver deliver us in victory from this scene
of woe through the accomplishment of our redemption by Christ Therefore
we read faithful is he that calleth you Who also will do it now? Let's look at verses 21 and 22
Exodus chapter 3. I And I will give this people favor
in the sight of the Egyptians. And it shall come to pass that
when you go, you shall not go empty. You're not leaving here
empty handed. But 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 you shall put
them upon your sons and upon your daughters. and ye shall
spoil the Egyptians. That was God's promise to Moses
and Israel. When you go, you shall not go
in death, and you shall spoil the Egyptians. We don't much
use that word spoil in our day, We use it only really in a negative
sense most of the time. Well, he sure spoils his children.
She sure spoils her children. Or more commonly, if mama has
several children, she spoiled that one. Or if daddy has several
children, he spoiled that one. That's usually the way the children
who think they weren't spoiled look at things. We look at it
in a negative way. But the word spoil, as it is
used here, is talking about the spoils of war. To the victor
go the spoils. The children of Israel went to
war and they either destroyed everything or they took things
according to God's purpose. Things that would be useful to
them and beneficial to them. Everything else was destroyed.
Bill Raleigh, that means just this. When we leave here, everything
that has been harmful to you everything that might hurt you
will be destroyed everything else you take with you to glory
to the praise of his grace understand that everything everything Oh,
you shall not go empty. You shall spoil the Egyptians,
not by what you do, not by your power, not by your goodness,
not by your merit, but through the merit and blood and power
and grace of God, our savior. And the very first thing I think
of when I read God's promise to his chosen in verses 21 and
22 is this. I'd write it down somewhere if
I were you. Blessed bondage. Blessed bondage. Blessed bondage. What a blessed bondage that is
by which people are enriched and made better, made happier,
enriched, made better, and made happier than they could otherwise
be. We must not forget as we read
the book of Exodus, the whole thing is a picture of our redemption,
our salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. He ordained our bondage
as well as our deliverance that he might display and make known
to us and in us the greatness of his grace in our deliverance. Blessed is that bondage. by which
our Savior displays the glory of his grace. Three times in
the first 14 chapters or first 14 verses of Ephesians chapter
1, three times. The triune God says the reason
for all of this, the reason for all his blessings of grace, election,
predestination, adoption, redemption, forgiveness, all his providence. All the mystery of his will Regeneration
by the power of his spirit the call of his grace by the preaching
of the word the seal of the spirit in our hearts Sending his covenant
to us three times. He says I've done this to the
praise of my glory Three times it's for the praise of his glory
who first trusted in Christ to the praise of the glory of his
grace How is it that it's better, better for us that we fail in
our father Adam? Had there been no fall, there
would never have been redemption from the fall. Had we never been
in captivity, we would never have been set free. Had the first
Adam not sinned, the last Adam would never have been revealed.
The Lord Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. Had we never been lost, we would
never have been saved. Had we never known judgment,
we could never have known grace. Had we never known wrath, we
could never have known mercy. The same thing is true with regard
to our present trials, even our present thoughts. And
I make no excuse, not for my sins or your sins or Adam's sin. No excuse. I offer no excuse. What I have done and what I do
and what I am doing in all my sins, is not to be blamed on
my mother, or my daddy, or my ancestor, or my rearing, or my
environment, or my neighborhood, my doing. I make no excuse, none
whatever, for my sin or for your sin. And I make no excuse for
Adam's sin, Adam's transgression, and Adam's fall. But I do want
you to understand this, I assert and assert with delight that
our God has ordained the falls of his people that he might show
more fully in us the glory of his grace and enrich our lives
even by our falls. Pastor, can you demonstrate that
from the scriptures? Indeed, I can. Do you remember
Samson's riddle in Judges 14? Samson went down to Timnath and
on the way to Timnath he saw a lion and he slew the lion. And coming back out of Timnath
he stopped by to see where he had slain that lion and bees
had come and made a hive in the lion and there was honey in the
carcass of the lion. And he got handfuls of honey.
He reached in there and got both hands full of honey and ate that
honey, the sweetest honey he'd ever tasted. And he took some
to his mother and his daddy. He didn't tell him where he got
it. He said, taste this honey. You never tasted anything like
this. And this is the riddle he gave. Out of the eater came
forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. What is
sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion? Our God, Christ Jesus, the Lord,
conquered Satan on our behalf overthrew hell on our behalf
and by this Brings the sweetest honey you ever tasted the honey
of redemption and grace. I Fully agree with Spurgeon.
He said Oh happy fault Which is dust made manifest the abounding
mercy of God Looked at in one aspect all sin is an unutterable
calamity, but as it has had the effect of displaying still more
of the matchless mercy of God in the person of Jesus Christ,
we see how God brings forth good out of evil. Peter. Oh, what a man Peter was. What
a remarkable man he was. But he had a problem, just like
you and I do. And when the Lord Jesus warned
him that all would forsake him, all of them, all of them, Peter
said, not me, not me. And he was telling the truth
so far as he knew it, so far as he could perceive it. because
Peter at last died with the Savior, died for his cause. But Peter
was saying, Lord, these other fellows might. I
can't speak for them, but not me, not me. And that same Peter,
that same Peter, that evening, took out his sword. Now that
wasn't really a sword like you see on television. That was just
a bit of a knife, what was commonly carried by fishermen in the day.
And that man proved his faithfulness to Christ. He was fixing to attack
a band of Roman soldiers single-handedly. Cut off the high priest's servant's
ear, defend the master. But the Lord Jesus said, Peter,
Satan's desired to have you. that he may sift you as wheat,
but I prayed for you that your faith fail not." And Peter found
out that early morning what the Savior meant. But had he not gone through the
sifting process, when you get to Acts chapter 4 and you see
Peter and James and Peter and John it was, and they've healed
a man. And they're called before the
Sanhedrin. John, these are the same folks
who just crucified the Lord Jesus. They're called before these elders
of the Jewish church. And they said, in whose name,
by what authority did you dare heal this man on the Sabbath
day? Peter could have said this. This
is what he could have said. He could have said, brethren,
we did this by the name and in the authority of the Lord Jehovah,
the triune God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And they would have
said, well, bless your heart, boys, tell us about it. And they
would have been telling the truth. But in doing so, they would have
been compromising everything. Sometimes you can tell the truth
and compromise. The intent of compromise is to
take off the offense. Peter would have been telling
the truth, but it would have been a compromise. Instead, that man who had denied
the Lord Jesus three times and cursed and denied Him before
the little girl, terrified, that terrified, shaking man, is the
same one who looks these men square in the eye and said, in
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, this man
stands before you whole. How did he get such courage?
He had been sifted and preserved and restored. God Almighty would have no difficulty
arranging for Don Fortner to live in this world right now with perfect holiness, with no
sin, with no act of evil, no thought of evil, no word of it.
God can do that. He's purposed otherwise. Because
it is best for us to be brought low and cry, my strength and
my hope is perished from the Lord. And yet lifting our eyes
to heaven and acknowledge his mercy endureth forever. His mercy endureth forever. His mercy endureth forever. It's good for a man. to bear
the yoke of his youth. It's good for a man to hope and
quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It's good for a
man to sit alone and keep silence, bearing his yoke upon him, putting
his mouth in the dust before God all the time. It's good for
us to know constantly our need of Christ, of His righteousness,
of His redemption, of His intercession, of His grace. The Lord God tells us in verse
21 that when Israel left Egypt, He would cause the Egyptians
to favor his people and give them all that they required. And what he promised he performed.
Turn over just a few pages to chapter 11. Chapter 11, verse
3. The Lord gave the people favor
in the sight of the Egyptians. Chapter 12, verse 36. And the Lord gave the people
favor in the sight of the Egyptians. So that they meant, watch this
now, such things as they required, and they spoiled the Egyptians. And what he has done for Israel
in Egypt, he does for us in this world. The earth opens, and swallows
up the flood, the dragon breathes out against God's church. The
Lord promised Israel, when you go, you shall not go empty. But how were they going to get
all these things from the Egyptians? How were they going to spoil
the Egyptians? How were they going to obtain all that they
needed to go 40 years in the wilderness and worship God and
offer the hundreds, the thousands of sacrifices that had to be
made in the worship of God every year. How were they going to
get the gold and the brass and the silver with which to make
all the glorious furnishings inside the tabernacle? Where
were they going to get those things? Where would they find
those things? The Lord God said, I will cause
the Egyptians to give you everything you need to serve me. I'll cause the Egyptians to give
to you all their gold and silver and jewels and say, please take
them and leave here. Please take it all and leave
here. And that's exactly what he did. So that the children
of Israel spoiled the Egyptians. They borrowed from the Egyptian
women. Now the word borrow here is not
as we would commonly speak of it. The word translated borrow
means to seek, to ask, or to desire a favor. It's the same
thing that, exactly the same word that was used by Hannah
when Hannah prayed in 1 Samuel chapter 1 that the Lord would
give her a son. And when she came and brought
her son to Eli in the temple and lent him to the Lord, the
same word is again used, that's used to them, lending to the
children of Israel. It wasn't alone. Samuel brought,
or Hannah brought Samuel to Eli and gave him as an unconditional
gift forever to the Lord. because she had begged him of
the Lord, and the Lord had given her the son. And these women
begged of the Egyptian women, let me have your gold, your silver,
your jewels. And they said, here, take it.
We're glad for you to have it if you just get out of here.
And they gave it, lent it to them. That is, gave it to them
completely, without condition, with no strings attached, to
take it and leave Egypt. That's how the Lord calls them
to go out with a high hand enriched by the Egyptians. And the scripture
tells us, Egypt was glad when they departed. The Lord God made the Egyptians
happy for Israel to take everything they needed from them. Oh, how
that ought to instruct me. How that ought to teach you.
Do you reckon he'll let you go naked or homeless or hungry?
Do you reckon he'll leave you unprotected? Do you reckon he'll
not provide for you everything you require? Do you reckon he won't provide for
his church everything she needs? For his servants everything they
need? I have made it a determined practice. I don't ever beg for
anything from man. Never. I don't even act like
I need something from man. Ever. Not ever. You too proud? No. No, no, no. I'm plenty proud. I don't mean to deny that. That's
not the issue. Bobby, God's glory is at stake.
I'm his child. I'm his servant, this is his
congregation. If God doesn't supply the need, it just won't
be supplied. You reckon God's not gonna supply the need of
his people, of his servants, in this world or in the world
to come? What foolishness. He gave his son for us. He gave
his son for us. We go about seeking to serve
him. And I'll tell you what I've experienced
as a believer. I have never yet looked at something
and said, boy, I feel inclined to get engaged in it, but I can't
do that. I don't see any way to do that.
I look at those things and I was right, there was no way to do
it. But I'll tell you what else I've done. I have never come
up against a wall or a locked door or a mountain where there
was a need and the cause of God's glory and his people and knew
God was in this thing. What I didn't just push and it
would go. It would go. I've never come up to the Red
Sea yet and seen God's rod stretched out and the sea not part. Never. Never. Not in all these years
and I don't expect to see it again. He that spared not his
own son. but delivered him up for our
sins to the hands of divine justice and death. How shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? This was God's promise to Moses
in Israel. Ye shall not go empty. Ye shall spoil the Egyptians. And all of that would be as meaningful
or as meaningless to us as any other piece of history except
for this one thing. This is God's promise to you
and to me. This is God's promise to every
believing sinner. If you care to read the 35th
chapter of Exodus, you'll see all the riches Israel brought
with them out of Egypt. were used to make all the instruments
of worship in the service of the tabernacle and the service
of God for a perpetual celebration of redemption. It was a covenant
promise God made to Israel in their father Abraham, just as
the blessings of his grace are covenant promises made for us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. With regard to God's true
Israel, This is a promise of universal application. Turn to
Job, Job 27. Let's just look at a couple of
scriptures. Job 27. Verse 13. This is the portion of a wicked
man with God. And the heritage of oppressors
which they shall receive of the Almighty. Now watch this, verse
14, Job 27, If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword,
and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. Those that
remain of him shall be buried in death, and his widows shall
not weep. Verse 16, Though he heap up silver
as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay, he may prepare it. But the just shall put it on,
and the innocent shall divide the silver. The wise man says
in Proverbs 13, 22, The wealth of the sinner is laid up for
the just. All things are yours, for you're
Christ, and Christ is God's. All things are yours. God made
all things for you. God made all things for your
benefit. God made all things for your
salvation and he uses them to accomplish that purpose. The
scriptures are so abundantly clear. How is it that God will
cause us to spoil the Egyptians? Let me give you just a few things
here and I'll wrap this up. First, we're told in Exodus 12
that when Israel went out of Egypt, There were numerous Egyptians
who were delivered with them. They went out as a mixed multitude
because it has always been God's purpose to save his elect out
of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. He saves his elect
not just among the Jewish people, but out of all the nations of
the world. And so he orders history and
arranges things in providence. and sends his word from this
nation to that and from that to the other and calls out his
elect. God sent his word down to Ethiopia.
I suppose there'd been more money sent from around the world with
missionary works in Africa than any other place in the world.
Let me tell you something. Do you know that once Africa
was the place from which the gospel was spread through all
the world? God raises up nations and puts
down nations for the spreading of his word. Every nation in
the world, including this nation, exists just for the saving of
God's elect and the glory of God's name. No other purpose. Here's the second thing. When
the Lord Jesus redeemed us by His blood, He spoiled the Prince
of Darkness. And the evil represented by Pharaoh
in Egypt set forth in that Prince of Darkness, blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us. and was contrary
to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross,
and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them in his cross. The Lord Jesus,
by his obedience unto death, spoiled Satan in principalities
and powers. I don't have any idea what all
that's talking about. That's talking about everything opposed
to us. And made a show of them openly
in his resurrection and his ascension to the angels of God. And they
await anxiously that which we ought to wait just as anxiously
the coming day when he will make a show of those things publicly.
Third, when the Lord God comes in the power of his saving grace,
to set captive sinners free. He causes his ransomed ones to
spoil Egypt. For the Lord will plead their
cause and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them. They shall
spoil those that spoiled them and rob those that robbed them,
saith the Lord God. Read Isaiah 33. We won't try
to read them tonight for the sake of time. Isaiah 33, Jeremiah
30, and then the 40th chapter of Isaiah. And understand that
when God comes in grace, and all those things that you thought
all your life were sure enough going to take you to hell, would
sure enough destroy you, you see how God used it all? Wonderful, wonderful grace of
Jesus. Used it all to bring the object of His love
to the appointed time of love when He would reveal His Son
in Him. And by providence, and experience
and his word and the grace of his spirit calls you to hear
his voice and delight to hear it. Calls you to hear his word
and rejoice to believe it. In Leviticus chapter 5 and chapter
16, God gave us a law of restitution. If a man suffered the loss of
anything because of a crime, even an accident performed by
another man, the fellow who did the injury was required to pay
back that which was destroyed or that which was taken. And
he was required to pay it back and add to it 5%. Now why do you reckon that was
so? Now, to be honest, that's pretty good law. That's pretty
good law. That beats putting a fellow in prison. You go down
here and rob a fellow at the local service station, and you
take $100 from him, and when you get caught, you got to pay
back $120. That'll help a lot. That's pretty good law. But that's
not the reason God gave the law. God gave the law to teach us
something. When our Lord Jesus came into this world, by His
blood and by His obedience and by His grace and by His power,
He restored that which He took not away. He gave us in Him all
that we lost in our father Adam and indescribably more. indescribably more so that we
are bettered. We are made better. We are enriched. We are made
happier because of the fall. and deliverance from it than
we could ever have been had there been no fall. We know redemption,
grace, and salvation. But the principal one injured
in the fall, the principal one injured by the fall of Lucifer,
the principal one injured by the entrance of sin into this
world was not us, but God. And when God gets done, with
all creation by the ransom of our souls from the hand of the enemy and
from sin and death and hell. If I can use such language, and
I use it only because I can't find the proper language, God
is bettered for it. His glory is displayed in the
saving of such things as we are in such a way as it could not
otherwise be displayed to the praise of the glory of His grace. So that when you go out You shall not go out empty, but
shall carry with you to the throne of God all the gold and silver and jewels
of Egypt and lay them down at the Savior's feet and cry, worthy
is the Lamb. Amen. Amen.