Last week, we talked about God's
delaying of His deliverance. He came down, Moses did, and
Aaron, by the commandment of God, had seen and talked with
God in the bush, received His message and His calling directly
from God, Directed by God, he came and met with his brother
Aaron. And they came down to Egypt.
And they went to the elders of Israel as God had instructed
them. And he gave them the words of
God and did before them the signs that God gave him to do. And
the people rejoiced. They bowed their heads. They
worshiped God. They rejoiced in their heart
and rejoiced in their souls. Moses and Aaron said, now we
go to Pharaoh's house. And those elders jumped up, many
of them probably overseers over the children of Israel for Egypt. And they ran along behind Moses
and Aaron as they went to the palace of Pharaoh. And they stood
outside and they watched. I just know by the way they received
that message and followed him over there to the palace that
they expected a quick deliverance. They expected when he went into
the palace of that king, the king was going to say, all right,
all right. You're free to go. You're free
to go. I believe you. I believe you. But that's not
what happened. What happened is that God hardened
Pharaoh's heart. God damn. Look back there at
chapter 4, verse 21. Exodus 4, verse 21, And the Lord
said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that
thou do all these wonders before Pharaoh, which I put in thine
hand. But I will harden his heart that
he shall not let the people go. Now he told this to Moses before
he went down there. But Moses wasn't expecting a
good reception from Israel and he got one. And he got excited
in himself, and he thought, well, this is going to be a piece of
cake. I'm going to go down here, and
God's going to get hold of this man and bring him down. I'm standing
in the power of God. And he went down there to Pharaoh's
house, and man, just the opposite happened. Just the opposite. Why would God send his messenger
to a people he determined to save, and then purposefully delay
his deliverance and make their condition worse than before. Why would he do that? Well, in Romans chapter 9, in
talking about Pharaoh and talking about Jacob and his children,
here's what he says. He gives us three or four reasons.
Number one, it's to prove, verse 16, that this salvation is of
the Lord. Isn't that what he said? It is
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. For he saith unto Pharaoh, for
this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my
power in you, and declare my name throughout all earth. That's right. For this purpose. Secondly, in verse 22 of Romans
chapter 9, he said it's to show his wrath and make his power
known upon the vessels of wrath who were fitted for destruction.
That's all they're fit for. He endures these vessels with
much long suffering. He endures them and uses them
to accomplish his purpose, just like he used favor. It says in
the Scriptures, the wrath of man shall praise the Lord, and
the rest of that wrath will God restrain. And this whole creation,
Paul said, was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by
reason of him who subjected the same in hope. And then thirdly,
in Romans chapter 9, he delays his deliverance, verse 23, that
he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of
mercy that he had aforeprepared unto glory. That's the third
reason he did it. Salvation will ultimately glorify
God. That's going to be the end of
it. It's going to glorify God. Anything else is not of God. The quickest way to know if a
man's preaching a false doctrine is to sit back and listen to
see where the glory is laid. See to whom the credit is given.
And you hear a man start talking about God has no feet but your
feet, and he's got no mouth but your mouth, and no ears but your
ears, and all that kind of stuff. He's a glorifying man. He's not
glorifying God. I find out that the direct opposite
is true. I'm the one that ain't got ears
to hear and eyes to see. I'm the one who has no understanding,
not God. Salvation will ultimately glorify
God. every attribute of his character,
every detail of his decrees, every vessel created by his hand. God delayed his deliverance to
convince his people of their utter inability to deliver themselves. He exposed the weakness of the
people. He exposed the weakness of his
preacher. And he exposed the power and
unwillingness of the God of this world to let them go. And the
people were upset. And this man that they joyfully
followed over there, who was their friend, and he was God's
messenger, he was God's man, he preached to them and caused
them to worship God, they threw the blame right in his face and
walked away. And Moses took his complaint
to God. He took it to God. And he said,
why? Why? Why would you so evil entreat
this people? Why would you humiliate your
ambassador? Why would you even bother to
send me in the first place? If you didn't intend to deliver
this people, if you intended to make their bondage worse and
their oppression worse, why'd you even send me? Exodus 5.23. Moses said, For since I came
to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people.
Neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. Exodus 6, 1. Then, then, the
Lord said. That's what Moses said. That's
what the people said. Now hear what the Lord said.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Now, Now shalt thou see what
I will do unto Pharaoh. I've showed you what you can
do to him. I've showed you what the people are able to do against
him. And I've showed you what he's
able to do. Now I'm going to show you what
I can do. That's why he delayed his coming. Now shalt thou see what I will
do. Let me tell you something, seeing
what he will do is what saving faith is all about. That's what
it is. That's what it is to come to
believe, to see what God will do. I know I can't do nothing.
Every believer, he's going to bring to that place where he
proves to you beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can't do
anything. He's going to prove that to you. You'd never call
on him if he didn't prove that to you. Seeing what God will do is what
brings peace and rest and confidence and rejoicing. Isaiah prophesied
and said this from the Lord, Look unto me and be ye saved,
all ye ends of the earth, for I am God. I am God. Look unto me. It's seeing what
He will do. Seeing what He will do. Now shalt
thou see what I will do unto Pharaoh, for with a strong hand
shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive
them out of his land." I showed to you and to all that believe
what you can do. Now let me show you what I can
do. Exodus 6, verse 2. And God spake
unto Moses and said, I am the Lord. I'm Jehovah. I am Jehovah. Beginning in verse
3 through verse 8, God brings seven blessed revelations of
His covenant promises to His elect. These are the promises
of which David in his dying breath referred to as all his salvation
and all his desire. God, He said, had made with me
an everlasting covenant. There is an everlasting covenant.
God made an everlasting covenant, but David said, He brought it
to me. And He made it with me. And that's all my hope and all
my salvation. Right there. It's ordered in
all things and sure. This is that covenant Paul speaks
of over in Hebrews chapter 13, saying, Now the God of peace
that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd
of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working
in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. To this defeated, despondent,
confused child of God, the Lord gives seven blessed promises
secured in Christ by an everlasting covenant of grace. And these
are the things we see demonstrated and accomplished by God our Savior. And these are the things which
bring peace and assurance to our hearts. These are the things
to which God Himself has penned His name. You think on that. They're just words to us most
of the time. God penned His name on these
things. He penned His name on these things. and swore by himself. He told old Abraham, here's this
old idolater, he didn't deserve anything. He's down there whittling
out idols in the back room of his daddy's idol shop. He's back
there with a little boker back there whittling out owls or something
or whatever it is they bowed down to. And God came and called
him out of that mess. And he said, Abraham out there,
and he said because he could swear by no greater, he swore
by himself. for by Himself, as sure as I
am God." This is going to come to pass. This is going to come
to pass. He tells us in Exodus 6-3 that
He appeared unto Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty,
Elohim. But by My name Jehovah was I
not known unto them. It's Jehovah, God our Savior,
God our Deliverer that He's going to make known to the captive.
And crying out in their bondage and oppression, God hears their
cries, verse 5, and here's what He tells them. He said, I have
remembered my covenant. Boy, ain't you glad He does.
There was nothing in Him to cause Him to remember. I remember. You didn't remember.
But he did. He did. Now let's look at these
promises. I don't know if I can get through
all these tonight, but we'll look at them. They're seven.
And Don makes this point in one of the books I was reading by
him. He says the number seven, we don't want to get too much
into numerical stuff, but the number seven stands for completion
and perfection. And so when God, when David said
it's ordered in all things and sure, David's saying it's complete.
It's complete. It's sufficient in itself. And so He reveals them, seven
of these blessed promises. And here's the first one. Look
down here in Exodus 6, 6. Deliverance. Wherefore say ye
unto the children of Israel. Now remember what's going on
here. The people throwed in the towel.
Moses threw in the towel. And he carries his complaint
to God. And he's despondent and confused. He doesn't understand what's
going on. And God reminds him and gives him these seven blessed
promises. And the first one here, he said,
say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring
you out from under the burdens of Egypt. This thing of deliverance
doesn't mean anything to that proud, arrogant, satisfied sinner
whose belly's full, whose lusts are being fed, and whose life
is fitted to contentment with gain. And he's fat and sassy,
and he ain't in trouble. And what's he need God for? What's he need God for? We got
everything a man could want. He don't need God. He's not in
trouble. He's not an outlaw. He ain't
out here robbing banks. What's he need God for? Deliverance
is for captives. It's for captives. And this thing
of deliverance doesn't mean anything to that proud, arrogant, satisfied
sinner. It don't mean anything to him.
But to the man who's under the taskmaster's whip, it means a
lot. Yeah, it does. It means a lot.
And this is why God calls them to appear in Egypt. and for Pharaoh
to have the upper hand to cause them to seek the Lord. I read
this and I read again Acts chapter 17 and it took on a whole new
light. He tells those philosophers on
Mars Hill that God made of one blood all nations of men for
to dwell on all the face of the earth. Now listen, and hath determined
the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation."
Why would he do that? That they might seek the Lord. That they might seek the Lord.
That's why those appointments. That's what all these raising
and tearing down of kingdoms. And that's why all this trouble
and disasters and all of these things come into our lives. All
this confusion and things comes into your life. Well, why now?
Why me? Why is this? Why is that? That's what Israel
was saying. Why? Why? God said here's why. I'm going to deliver you. I'm
going to deliver you. Men and women in our day are
being told that they've got a free will. I was told that every day
I went to church. I guess every message they ever
preached, they told me that. You have a free will. It's all
up to you. All up to you. God's done all
he can do. Boy, you're in trouble if he
has. You're in trouble. They're being told they have
a free will. They've got a right to choose their own destiny. They write off disasters to freaks
of nature. That's just a freak of nature.
Bad luck. Untimely circumstances. Man not
free, he's in bondage. He's bound. He just don't know
it. He don't know it. God has to
do something. He's got to break that cycle
of life with something to bring him down to where he can speak
to us. He's not free. He's in bondage.
He's in spiritual bondage. He's in bondage to sin. Sin is
in his nature. Sin dictates his thoughts and
the intents of his heart. Sin reigns in his nature under
death. Religious or heathen, Paul said,
makes no difference. I don't care if you carry a Bible
or a Bible. It don't make a bitty difference
in this thing of coming to God because he said, we before proved
you're all under sin. You all understand. It doesn't
matter what you're doing. It doesn't matter where you're
from. It doesn't matter what color you are. It doesn't matter if
you're female or male. None of that makes any difference.
Here's the thing you all understand. You can carry a Bible, but if
your thoughts are corrupt, what are you going to do with it?
You're going to twist it and distort it. That's what you're
going to do. You're going to find in there a false righteousness.
It tends in His nature and it dictates His thoughts and the
intent of His heart. And it reigns unto death. Paul
said there is none righteous. None righteous. None good. None that understandeth. None
that seeketh after God. All gone astray. All together
become unprofitable. You say, Preacher, don't man
have a conscience? Yes, he has a conscience. Isn't
man surrounded by creation? That's what it says over in Romans
chapter 1. Yes, man has preachers and teachers
and books and CDs, but his mind is enmity against God. Enmity against God. Moses was
a preacher. Did you know that? You knew he
was a prophet. Did you know he was a preacher?
Isn't that what it says over in Hebrews chapter 3? Unto them
the gospel was preached. Ain't that what it said? Sure
he was. And he went down there and preached.
And God went with him. Nothing happened. Now how can that be? How can
that be? Because what happened he couldn't
see. He couldn't see. Man's mind is enmity against
God. Out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, murders, adultery, fornications, thefts, false witnesses,
blasphemies, and these are the things that defile a man. Man
comes in here to hear the gospel and he sits down. Until God gives
that man a revelation, you're just going to have to look over
him because there ain't nothing you can do about it. Ain't nothing I
can do about it. That's why I don't go back there
and put my arm around him and say, Listen, let me and you go
outside here where it's quiet, and I'm going to sit down and
explain this. You can't explain this thing to an unregenerate
man. At the best, at the best, he's
just going to sit there and go like this, and then go on back
to doing whatever he was doing. Ain't that been your experience?
That's mine. That's mine. God has to do this work. A man's
bound in his nature and he's bound under the law. Romans 5.18,
it said, Therefore, by the offense of one, judgment came. Judgment
came upon all men. Not just on Adam. On all his
posterity, judgment came. Why don't all men believe? Why
don't men believe? Now, we've got a Bible inspired
by God, God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit's in this
world to reveal it. And he's revealed the truth to
us. We know the truth. If I don't know the truth, I'm
100% deceived. I believe I know the truth. And
I find it throughout this book. I can find it in Genesis and
Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. I can find it. I can keep on going all the way
through here and show you the Gospel in these books. I know
the Gospel. And I've got at least enough
education to put a few words together to communicate a few
things and a few illustrations that I can sit down and talk
to people. Why won't they believe? Why won't they hear us, Glenn?
Why don't all men believe? The Redeemer came and by infallible
evidence proved himself to be the Christ. He obeyed the law
in perfect obedience, satisfied justice by his suffering and
death. God raised him from the dead and showed him to hundreds
and hundreds, 500 people at one time, chosen witnesses of God. And then he said to us, the Holy
Spirit of God is proof beyond all doubt that the sovereign
King of glory is seated at the right hand of God, seated on
the throne of glory. Boy, that's a lot of advantage,
isn't it? Why won't all men believe? Why is that? I'm going to tell
you why. Number one. That judgment of
God has not been satisfied for all men. It's been satisfied
for His elect. And until that judgment is satisfied,
that man is never going to hear. Hearing is a benefit of justification. That's what it is. It's a benefit
of it. It's a benefit of your sins being
put away, of that enmity. God was in Christ. Reconciling
the world unto himself, not charging their trespasses unto them. Who's
he talking about? All men? No, he's talking about
his elect. Talking about his chosen people.
Deliverance is promise in assurity. And we're delivered as we see
and believe on him who is God our Savior. All right, here's
the second blessed promise. Liberty. Liberty. Boy, you need to get a hold of
that. Liberty. Exodus 6.6, I'll rid you of their
bondage. I'm going to take it away. I'm
going to take it away. There wasn't a first taskmaster
in Israel, was there? Not one. They didn't need them.
Didn't need them. Why? Because they weren't in
bondage. God delivered In our blessed
surety and representative, we have what God demands, a perfect
sacrifice and a perfect righteousness. By His perfect obedience, perfect
love, perfect submission, perfect walk, our representative exalted
and honored God's law as high as it can be exalted. You can't
exalt it any higher. And what happens when we begin
to try to do these things on our own, It's like you've got this, like
one of the great masters would come in here and paint something
up here on the wall. And this was one of a kind. This was the master. One of those
big Dutch masters come in here and painted this big scene up
here on the wall. And then he leaves and I go get
a brush and I said, let me tune that up a little bit. That's
what you do. That's what we do when we start
looking to our own righteousness and looking to our own walk and
looking to that type of thing for favor with God. We're taking
out our brush and saying, let me tune that up a little bit.
God said, get rid of your brush. Get rid of your brush. Any attempt by me to do it again
can only result in taking away this honor and glory. Religious
men and women are going about, Paul said, to establish their
own righteousness because they're ignorant of the righteousness
of God. If you know something, anything
at all about that righteousness of God, you'd be satisfied with
it. Huh? What did Jesus Christ ever do
that you were dissatisfied in? Even those that hated Him. Pilate. He said, I find no fault in this
just man. There's nothing in him to despise. Even those who despised him couldn't
deny his righteousness. He was a righteous man. A righteous
man. And it said Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. He's the end or goal of the law
being the very character and the one of which the law is modeled
after. He's both the giver of the law
and he alone who obeys it, honors it, exalts it. and brought it
to an end. And Christ is the end of the
law as He has fulfilled the law. And by the imputation of faith,
I have all the righteousness God demands. Abraham believed
God. And God charged it to him for
righteousness. The Spirit of the living God
convinces us of righteousness. Now listen, of righteousness. How is He going to do that? How's God going to convince me
of righteousness? This righteousness of His, this
righteousness brought out by Christ. How's He going to convince
me of that? Tells you over in John 16, because
Christ goes to the Father and don't come back. He appeared
as our representative as a man. Read Philippians chapter 2. He
who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, made himself
of no reputation, and took on him the form of a servant, was
made in the likeness of men, and obeyed that law all the way
to the cross, even the death of the cross. Obeyed that law.
That's it. That's it. He's the end of the
law as he fulfilled it. The Spirit of living God convinces
us of righteousness because He goes to the Father. We don't
see Him again. And the believer is set free
from the law, having all that it demands of him being met and
received by faith. In Romans 8, verse 2, it said,
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made
me free. He's talking here about walking
with the mind of Christ. Seeing that righteousness by
faith, seeing that atonement by faith, the law, the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and
death. I'm free. Free. And the believer is free from
condemnation, having a substitute who died in his place. That's
liberty. And then thirdly, here's the third promise of that covenant,
redemption. Redemption is the price by which
all that believe are restored to their rightful inheritance.
Exodus 6.6, look at this. He said, I will redeem you with
a stretched out arm and with great judgments. God's arm was
stretched out in Egypt, but not against Israel. Huh? God poured His judgments out
in Egypt. But not against Israel. They
sat over in Goshen. And the frogs were climbing into
the bedchamber of Pharaoh. But they didn't come into Goshen.
And them locusts ate everything in Egypt, but they didn't go
into Goshen. Deliverance and liberty are gifts
of grace freely bestowed, but they came at a tremendous price.
Christ died for our sins, it said, according to the Scriptures.
All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus
Christ, and showed to us how God was in Christ, reconciling
us, not imputing our trespasses unto us, but charging all our
crimes to this, our great Substitute and Redeemer. Isaiah said, He hath laid on
Him the iniquity of us all. Peter said this to the believer.
He said, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. And
that word fear has to do with reverential respect. That's what
he's talking about there. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold,
and I could give you a list like a serious catalog of stuff that
religion sets out in the place of those things. And Peter said,
you've received that from the vain traditions of your fathers.
Your religious fathers, your superstitious fathers come down
here talking about washing pots and being redeemed by silver
and gold and so much this, so much that. He said, you're not
redeemed with those things, 1 Peter 1.19. But with the precious blood
of Christ as of a lamb without blemish or spot, who barely was
foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God
that raised him from the dead and gave him glory, that your
faith and hope might be in God. And then fourthly, God tells
us this doubting, defeated preacher that He is, by divine decree,
accepted of God. Can you imagine such a thing,
Winston Wharton? You're accepted in the beloved. Accepted. My soul. Listen to this, Exodus 6, 7.
He said, and I will take you To me, four people. To me, in a loving embrace. To me, in a living union. To me, in a binding agreement. You think about it. I'll take
you, whenever I read, I read that today and to me that just
says this. I'll take you to me. to me. You can talk about election until
the cows come home. And it'll have no impact on you
or anybody else. Have no impact on your heart
whatsoever until God comes in the power of his spirit and embraces
that sinner in his arms. Then that election will mean
everything. I'll take you to me. To me. I'll tell you doctrines, just
doctrines. until you experience this thing and this thing of
grace. It's just words. We take on these words. I said
one time, religious phraseology sticks on us like flies on flypaper. We just pick it up. A man comes
in out of the bar, and he's been running in the world a while,
and he comes into church, and he settles down. He ain't in
there three weeks, and his whole vocabulary changes. He's got
a whole new vocabulary now. That's all these doctrines are
until this experience of grace. Until you by experience have
God unfold them arms and you see yourself where you're at.
I tell you, he let those Egyptians, he turned the heat up, didn't
he? Later on, them prophets called it the Iron Furnace. That's what
they called Egypt. God turned up the flames, boy.
He turned up the flames. I tell you, when God throwed
his arms open, they ready. They ready. When I think of this, I think
about old Gomer, the harlot wife of the prophet Hosea, down on
the auction block. used up and dirty and dressed
in rags and penniless and filthy. And Hosea went down with a great
condescension and in a great humiliation, bought his wife
off the auction block. Bought her. Nobody else wanted
her. This was the prophet of God.
And he goes down to the auction block where the old harlot women
sold themselves until they're just virtually worthless. And
then they auction them off for whatever servitude they could
finish out their lives with. And Hosea goes down there, and
in this great humiliation, I can't imagine such a thing. And he
buys his wife off the auction block. But he does more than
that. He takes her to himself. You
see what I'm talking about? God said, I'll take you unto
Me. Unto Me. Listen to this, Romans
9, verse 26. And it shall come to pass that
in a place where it was said unto them, ye are not My people. Boy, if ever there was a place
you could say that, it was in Egypt, wasn't it? In a place where they shall say,
You are not my people. There shall they be called the
children of God. He told Pharaoh, he said, you
go down there and tell Pharaoh, you have my son, my firstborn. You better turn him up. You better
turn him up. Israel's my son, even my firstborn. The old prodigal, he didn't feel
much like a son. Daddy. He'd been down in the
hog pen. He smelled of the hogs. Mud on
him and husk on him and filthy and dirty and unshowered. Boy, he said, this is a mess. He said,
I tell you, those people used to work for my daddy. They didn't
live like this. They didn't live like this. I
tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to go back there and
I'm going to tell him, got this little speech already. He's going
to go back there and tell his daddy, now you don't have to
treat me like a son anymore. I've shamed you. I've shamed
you. I don't deserve to be called a son. I don't deserve to be
your son. And I won't bring shame on your
house. You don't have to tell anybody
I'm your son. Just let me come back, and I'll go out here with
the servants, and I'll live out here. I don't even have to be
a chief servant. Just let me go out here with
the servants. I'll find me a little place out there. He didn't know
anything at all about this thing until his father come running
out to it. Probably thought he was going
to hit him or run him off. And the father came out to him,
old Scott said, and hugged his neck and smothered him in kisses. And put his robe on. Took his
robe and put on him. And took the seal. Put it on
his finger. See what he's saying? I'll take
you to myself. To myself. Brethren, this thing of acceptance
is more than just a legal release from sin and judgment. It's God
taking us to His breast and pulling us to Himself. He said, I told
him this Sunday morning, how wilt thou manifest thyself to
us and not to the world? That's what Jude wanted to know
over in John 14. How you going to do that? How's
God going to come down and Everybody says, I'm of God, don't they?
We have God to our fathers. That's what the Jews said. He
said, you don't know me or my father. How you going to manifest
this thing, Jews say? Listen to what the Lord told
him. Jesus said unto him, if a man love me and keep my words,
words of redemption and words of reconciliation and words of
forgiveness and pardon Words of deliverance and justification.
My Father will love Him, and we'll come and take up our abode
with Him. I'll take Him to myself. He takes
us to Himself like He took flesh to Himself. And we become one. Alright, here's the fifth thing.
Knowledge. Knowledge. Exodus chapter 6 verse
7. I will be to you a God, and you shall know that I am the
Lord your God." Paul said, I know whom I have believed. He didn't
say, I know what I believe. He said, I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded that He's
able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that
day. Knowing God. Now, I want you to hear me. This
is important. If you don't remember any of
these other things I said, you remember this. This thing of
knowing God is eternal life. That's what it is, Glenn. Then talk about the high life
and Christian life and spiritual life and all these other things.
Here's what life is, is to know God. It's to know God. That life given by faith through
regeneration is to know God in the experience of grace. Well, what is it exactly that
the believer knows that sets him apart from everybody? He
knows God. He knows God. Listen to this. 1 John 5, verse 20. You go through this book of 1
John, John will just keep saying it. And we know. We know. We
know. And we know that the Son of God
has come and given to us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Yeah, but what's that mean? What's
that mean? Well, let me ask you something. Will God take a sinful man, filthy,
diseased, demon-possessed man, a man full of darkness and full
of ignorance and full of sin and unbelief, and embrace Him? Christ did. Didn't He? Christ did. Will God take one
who all His life has rebelled against Him and ignored Him and
disregarded His Word and show mercy to Him and forgive Him
and heal Him cleanse him and cure his illnesses? Will God
do that? Christ did. Will God call one out of darkness
and deadness and idolatry and rebellion? Zacchaeus? Come down. Lazarus? Come forth. Will God give life to the dead?
Will God, can God love such an enemy that he would give himself
for him? Christ did. Philip said, show
us the Father. Show us God. That's what Philip
was saying. Show us God. Philip, if you've been so long
time with me, haven't you seen God? My God. Huh? Isn't that what that disciple
said? He's my God. Everything a man needs to know
about God can be known in Christ. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself. God was in Christ, teaching,
forgiving, comforting, consoling, and embracing. This is eternal
life, he said. that they might know thee the
only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou sent. And to know God
is to see his mercy and grace and kindness and love freely,
freely extended to needy sinners, and that not by a compromise
of nature, but by the perfect satisfaction of righteousness,
justice, and holiness. That's what it means to know
God. No, God. We complicate this thing. I'm
telling you, we make it so complicated, we can't even explain it. Christ
didn't do that. He told those kids, they said,
get out of here. The Master's trying to talk.
The Master's trying to teach us something. You get out. He
said, hang on a minute. He said, unless you become as
one of these little ones, you're in no way even going to enter
into the kingdom of God, let alone learn anything. I tried. It's to know God. It's to know
Him in the experience of grace. It's to see myself the sinner.
How on earth can a sinner know I'll be accepted of God? All
you've got to do is read about this man. There wasn't one sinner
that came to him that he didn't throw open his arms and embrace.
Not one. How do I know God will accept
man? Look to Christ. I tell you, Paul was so persuaded
of this thing, he said, our gospel ain't any nay in it. It's all
yay and amen. The nay's in you. It's not in
him. He ready. He willing. I'll tell
you what the problem is right here. This is the problem. And then sixthly, here's that
sixth covenant promise, rest. Exodus 6, verse 7, and you shall
know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from
under the burdens of the Egyptians. These very people in Egypt, Paul
speaks in Hebrews 4 too, saying that unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them. But the word preached did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard
it. How do you know that? For we
which have believed do enter into rest. They took out that
whole outfit and said, let's go. Old Caleb said, this is like
a story already told. Let's go in there. Let's go. And there's a rest pictured in
Canaan, and a rest declared in the Sabbath of the law, and a
rest declared of God after he created the world. And all of
these former rests point forward to the person and work of Christ.
Hebrews chapter 4 verse 10, having stated all these things, He said,
For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from
his labors as God did from His. God didn't try to tune up creation
after He created it, did He? It was sufficient. I tell you,
once you see this thing of righteousness and pardon in Christ, it's sufficient.
I don't need to add anything to it. I just rest. Come unto Me, he said, all you
that are weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. And then the last word of the
covenant is inheritance. Exodus 6 verse 8, I'll bring
you into the land concerning the which I swear to give it
to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and I'll give it to you for inheritance. I am Jehovah. All of the glory of heaven complete
and perfect restoration, eternal rest and peace, security, safety,
and everlasting happiness is sworn to be ours by God's eternal
decree, sealed, sealed by the blood of Christ, guaranteed by
the King who sits on the throne. God, Paul said, hath saved us
and called us with a holy calling. not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace given to us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. And for one of these promises
to fail, God would have to cease to be God because He penned His
name on it. He swore by Himself all His promises. Now He told Israel, you sit over
in Goshen and I'm going to show you what I can do. I'm going
to show you what I can do. This is what God tells us in
the Gospel. We look to Christ, and we sit
back, Walter, and we sit back, and God said, just sit right
here. I'm going to show you what I can do. I'm going to show you how I can
deliver you from the power of sin. I'm going to show you right
before your eyes, evident, I'm going to show you. how you walk
by faith. I'm going to show you the mysteries
of God. I'm going to show you the power
of my outstretched arm. I'm going to show it to you.
I'm going to show it to you. Ain't that what Paul prayed over
at Ephesians 1? He said, Lord, he said, let their
eyes, the eyes of their understanding being opened, that they can see
the exceeding greatness of your power toward us who believe. That power that you demonstrated
in your own resurrection from the dead. God's going to demonstrate
it. Now he said, let me show you
what I can do.