I want to begin tonight with
a little refresher course on the name of God and show you
just a little bit of the progression of the revelation of that name
in the history of man. When we're talking about the
name of Christ and we're looking at these things like we're going
to look at this deliverance here in the book of Exodus, keep in
mind that I'm using these things as typical things. Don't ever try to make natural
Israel out to be spiritual Israel. They're not. But they did many
things of which they're typical, and they were typical as a nation
of spiritual Israel and their gathering out of the world. But
I was asked some questions last week, and there was some little
bit of confusion about this name that I mentioned of God. And
it's, I think you can find it in Exodus chapter 6, where he
said that he revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
as God Almighty. But now his name Jehovah, he
said, is the name that he's going to be. That doesn't mean that
God was not acting as Jehovah. the Lord our Savior, the God
our Savior. That doesn't mean that he didn't
act like that from the very beginning. But this is a great manifestation
of that to a people gathered out of the world. And I hope
I can show you that. But after the fall of man in
the garden, God came to him and slayed an animal, most likely
a lamb. I see no other reason why Abel
would bring a lamb, except that his father had instructed him
to do it. And he slayed that animal, and
he took its skin and covered their naked bodies. And in the
light of this substitutionary sacrifice, he gave to them the
promise of a coming Redeemer. The only way you're going to
understand that when you read Genesis chapter 3 is to study
the rest of this book. and for God to give you some
light on that substitutionary work of Christ. And then when
you go back and read this book again and you read through Genesis,
things change and you begin to be able to read between the lines.
But I know that this is so because it's taught throughout the scriptures
and references back to it. But in his judgment of the serpent,
God declares his final victory over Satan. from the very beginning. He said, you're going to bruise
his heel, but he's going to crush your head. God declares after the judgment,
or in this judgment of the serpent, God declares his final victory
over Satan by the woman's seed. And this way of reconciliation
was established, and Adam taught it to his two sons. on the altar
of Abel, this way of righteousness, by imputation. A righteousness
charged to us and received by us by faith is manifested first
by the hand of God. Well, how do I know that? Because
that's what it says over in Hebrews chapter 11. Listen to this. By faith, by faith, Abel offered
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it, he being
dead yet speaking. It's still so today. What God
established on the altar of Abel is still true today. Why? Because it was true to his name.
It was true to God's character. And there's no righteousness
apart from faith in this coming Redeemer and this substitutionary
work that he would accomplish. In Abel, he showed what the sacrifice
was and established the basis of all reconciliation and worship. Clear back yonder on the altar
of Abel. Enoch. God established the walk
of faith and its sufficiency to please God and to preserve
us in perfect fellowship with God and deliver us from the curse
of eternal death. He did this in Enoch. Now we're
going way back, way back. But God reveals His name and
His name. Listen to this. This is coming
from that faith chapter of Hebrew. By faith Enoch was translated
that he should not see death and was not found because God
translated him. For before his translation he
had this testimony. He pleased God. Talking about
his walk. Talking about his life. He pleased God. But Hebrews 11,
6, without faith, it is impossible to please God. You see how God
establishes His name here? And it's a progression. It's
not that He changes anything. He's just adding to this revelation
as the history of men goes on. The victory of the coming Redeemer
is the focal point and way of all true worship. And this way
is sufficient to preserve us and keep us and deliver us into
heaven's glory. Here comes Noah. In Noah, God
shows to us that this way of redemption in Christ is sufficient
to deliver us from the judgment of this world. This world has
been condemned of God. The wrath of God. 120 years Noah
preached. He preached and preached and
preached. When did the wrath of God fall on this world? Long
before he started preaching. There'd be no need of preaching
if the wrath of God wasn't on the world. If the world wasn't
condemned, what is he preaching for? You see what I'm saying? In Noah, God shows to us this
way of redemption in Christ is sufficient to deliver us from
the judgment of this world and the sure end of all mankind apart
from this redeeming. And then a new age began. God
began this age with a covenant promise to never again destroy
the world until the great and final day of judgment, and then
by fire, not by water. That is, the person and work
of the coming Redeemer was sufficient for God to restrain his wrath. Now think about this. We're still
talking about the woman seed and God's progressively revealing
About this seed. Revealing Himself through this
seed. And this person and work of this
coming Redeemer was sufficient for God to restrain His wrath
and in kindness and long-suffering wait until all of His elect are
gathered in. Now isn't that what He says over
there in 2 Peter? And to show His faithfulness
to this covenant, promises, He hung His bow in the sky. He said,
here's my bow. This is a sign. This is my seal,
my covenant that I made with you. Never again destroy this
world by water. During these early days after
the flood, Satan stirred up the hearts of fallen men to organize
themselves into a single mass and to take by their own power
and wisdom and will the very kingdom and glory of God. And
so they set about to build a tower. They're going to build a tower
up into heaven and everybody got together and they all held
hands and they all brought in their power tools or whatever
it was they had and they started building this tower and laying
the bricks and good brother this and good brother that and they
was all together and everybody's happy and they're building this
big tower going up to heaven. A very big tower. Build a tower
into heaven. Well, that's ridiculous, isn't
it? no more than organized religion of our day who hope to accomplish
this same impossible task by their own works and will. Ain't
that what they're doing? All of them holding hands, all
of them on the same page, all of them engaged together to take
what's absolutely impossible for any man to take. So in Bible
first, Men began to make an organized effort to establish their own
way into heaven. And even after God sent them
a confusion of language, a great city was erected on that same
spot which is called Babylon. I like to call it baby land because
that's all it is. But Babylon. Babylon. That's the great city of false
religion. And to this day, Babylon is used
in the scriptures to identify all worldly works and religion. And in the midst of this idolatry
and in the midst of this organized paganism, God called out a man
named Abraham. And He makes not just a promise
concerning him, but He makes a promise concerning him and
a people. God is going to separate this
man in a different way than He did Abel, in a different way
than He did Noah, And He's going to reveal something totally different.
And from this point on, God identifies Himself as the God of Abraham,
doesn't He? Some of you men have read through
the Old Testament many times. Ain't that the first thing He
tells us? I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. called out of this world which
is now organized itself into groups, worshiping other gods. God brings this man Abraham into
a separate and immediate union with himself and makes with him
great and precious covenant promises based on God's free and sovereign
grace and concerning not just himself, but a people that's
going to be like the stars in the sky and the sands of the
seashore. You see the difference in how
God is revealing His name to us? The world is organized off
into little units. God is going to separate His
people into a unit. Galatians chapter 3, verse 16,
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not
unto seeds as of many, but as one, unto thy seed which is Christ. And so Abraham becomes the father
of all those that believe. That's what he tells us over
in the book of Romans. The God of glory became his God and God
sent him by an effectual calling of grace in a special and particular
place from all the rest of the world. And so he identifies himself. You never hear him talk about
being the God of Adam, although he was. You never hear him. He never tells anybody, I'm the
God of Abel. He doesn't say that. What he
does say is, I'm the God of Abraham. And when God clothed himself
in human flesh, he took not on him the nature of angels, but
the seed of who? Abraham. I'm telling you, from this point
on, God identifies himself with Abraham as woman. I'm his God. I'm his God. If you want to research these
things, you can find them over there. And you can find these
things concerning not just Abraham, but Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In these three men, you have the father of the faithful, the
son of the promise, and the election of grace. You've got all three
right here in these three men. You can find that in Romans 4
and Romans 9. Abraham is the root of all those
who shall be heirs of faith. Christ came into this world.
That's how He identified Himself. In Isaac He said, "...shall thy
seed be called, that is, they which are the children of the
flesh." These are not the children of God, but the children of the
promise. Isaac was the promised son. They're counted for the
seed. And then in Jacob He says, "...for
the children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. God said to their
mother, the elder is going to serve the younger. You see how
his whole church now is beginning to be represented in Abraham.
In Abraham, he is going to separate a people He's going to call these
people by His name, and He's going to reveal Himself to them
in a very special way. In these three men, God establishes
this effectual calling of His elect. Moses is to go with this name
Jehovah. Jehovah. He's to take this name
Jehovah on his lips and go down into Egypt, God our Savior. What's different now than at
any other time is that added to all that's been before revealed
is now about to be coupled with the power and presence of God
in their deliverance, in their effectual calling. That's what
this deliverance is all about coming out of Egypt. God's going
to send a man down into Egypt and by his testimony that God
gives him and by God's presence and power alone, he's going to
deliver that whole outfit out of Egypt without raising the
hand, without raising the sword. Effectual calling. and deliverance
of God's elect. And it's from the curse and condemnation
of sin. They're in a curse down there.
He calls Egypt the iron furnace. We thought it was hot outside
today. He called Egypt the iron furnace. And this almighty, unchangeable,
all-sufficient God will now go into Egypt with His ambassador
and by His testimony alone bring out His people out from under
that curse. Here in Exodus 3, verses 15 through
22, God gives us three things that's going to come to pass.
And I just want to touch on these three things tonight and just
kind of see if God won't spark an interest there for you. And
you can go home and look into these things and see what the
Scripture has to say about them. But the first thing I want you
to see is, as I study this text, is that God is thoroughly acquainted
with their situation. God knows what's going on. I
don't know what's going on half the time, but He knows what's
going on. He knew what was going on before He went down there.
He knew what was going on way back yonder in Genesis chapter
15. We're over in Exodus chapter 3. Way back yonder in Genesis
chapter 15 when when he commanded Moses to lay out the sacrifices
and cause a deep sleep to fall on Abraham and he moved through
those pieces of that sacrifice and he told Abraham exactly what
was going to happen. His children, unborn as yet,
his children were going to go down there and they were going
to be in bondage for 400 years and at the end of that time he
was going to go down and deliver them. Way back yonder in Genesis
chapter 15. God knows the situation. Religion
has a God who's limited in His knowledge as well as in His power. He doesn't know anything. He's
always surprised. He don't know if you're going
to accept Him or reject Him. He don't know if you're going
to walk with Him all the way through the end or quit halfway. He don't
know what's going on. You just sit and listen to Him
talk about their God. I'm telling you the truth. I
sat and listened to it for 15 years and I know what I'm talking
about. He's held in check by future
circumstances and unforeseen events, and he's often forced
to say, you know, to back up, to change his mind, and to change
his ways. That's what a fellow told me.
God wasn't getting anywhere under that Old Testament law, so he
didn't have any choice. He had to back up and start over
again, so he sent his son. That's just religious nonsense,
all that is. The God of the Bible never changes.
He's never taken by surprise. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. Salvation is in any way or any
sense dependent on the flesh or owing to any way to the will
of man or the works of man. It cannot be of God because it
declares something contrary to His name. I just listen to men
talk. And when they start talking contrary
to God's name, I just turn them off. Turn them off. It didn't say God is wise. It
said He's all wise. He knows all. He knows all. With the Father of grace, Jesus
tells us there's no bearableness. Think about that. Neither shadow
of turning. There ain't even a hint. God
doesn't give you a hint anywhere in the Scripture that He intends
to change or turn. But over and over and over, He
just keeps telling us, I'm God, I change not. He's almighty. Listen to how
the Scripture is. I read this to a fellow one night.
He stuttered and stammered around. He just didn't know. He said,
I am God. I declare the end from the beginning
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying
my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. I said, does
that sound like a God who's going to change his mind? God is thoroughly acquainted
with all things, all events, all obstacles, all resistance,
even the very thoughts and intents of the heart. Listen to this,
Exodus 3, 19. He said, and I am sure, that's
what God said, that the king of Egypt is not going to let
you go. He's not going to let you go. Now Kelsey asked her
daddy a question about sin in heaven. I thought this was a
good question. And I know I'm opening Pandora's
box right now, I know that. But if there is no sin in heaven,
then how did it first get into the heart of Satan? And if sin
did get into heaven and cause the fall of not one, but a multitude
of otherwise perfect beings, isn't it possible that sin might
again enter into heaven and cause us to fall, even though we've
been made perfect and washed from our sins? Here we are. We've got glorified bodies, and
we're in heaven. So was Satan. What's going to keep that sin
from dragging us down? Number one, the Bible doesn't
say that there wasn't any sin in heaven. That's the first thing.
Only that sin is not tolerated in heaven. Sin was in heaven
or it couldn't have entered into his heart. Number two, we must
be careful when we interpret the Word of God not to go beyond
revelation. But in Isaiah chapter 45 verse
7, in declaring himself to be God alone in the beginning. Nobody there to counsel him.
Nobody there. He said, I didn't ask of you.
Who was my counselor? I'm God. You're answerable to
me alone. I'm God. Take that and leave
it at that. But here's what he says. In declaring
himself to be God alone, the Lord says this about himself.
He said, I form the light and create darkness. I make peace
and create evil. That is what he said. I am not
suggesting here that God is the author of sin, but He is the
source of all things and sin is something that has to be in
order for Him to reveal the glory of His own name. Are you with
me? There is no way He can reveal
the glory of His grace and the glory of His mercy and the glory
of His love unless somebody falls. There has to be a falling creature
to do this too. To Adam in his perfection in
the garden, God could never reveal His mercy. No way. The angel,
that's why the angels don't know anything at all about this. They
look on and they desire to know, but they can't enter into it.
They can't understand it because they've never sinned. They don't
understand this thing of sin and redemption. All they've seen
is God's curse on sin. They saw the angels fall. They
saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. As near as I can tell, in the
Scriptures, with an overall view of the Scriptures, God created
evil only in the sense that He made beings capable of doing
such things. And he put them on a conditional
footing so as to be responsible for their actions. Now, that's
what it tells us. For example, he says of Satan
that he was a murderer from the beginning and a bode not in the
truth. He was in the truth. He heard
the truth, but he didn't stay in it. He's not only a liar,
Christ said, but he's the father of liars. When he speaketh a
lie, he said he speaketh of himself. In the book of Jude, it talks
about angels who kept not their first estate, but left their
habitation. And then in Romans chapter 5,
it tells us that by one man's sin entered into the world. Now, there's only one thing original
with man, and that's his sin. That's the one thing man can
say is mine, is his sin. It's his. What's going to keep us from
falling? Our standing is not based on our sinless perfection,
but on His sinless perfection. You see what I'm saying? And
if He hadn't allowed us to fall in Adam, I'm going to put it
different than that. If He hadn't ordained us to fall
in Adam, we might yet fall. Huh? That's right. Your question
would have been exactly right. If all God did for us was send
His Spirit into this world and cause us to do things and cause
us to keep the law and give us a sinless perfection like some
folks preach, if we had that, we might get Paul. But we can't
follow Christ. You see what I'm saying? Because
Christ is God. And while sin might penetrate
heaven, it ain't going to penetrate God. It just ain't going to do
it. Our standing is not based on our sinless perfection, but
by virtue of Christ in whom we stand. And I don't know how else
to say this, but he talks about elect angels. And so I'm going
to say both elect angels and elect men and women have their
standing in Christ alone. God is fully aware of sin. He
knows its poison effect on all that it touches. He knows the
nature of it, the power of it, the presence of it, and the results
of it. He knows. Satan, like the evil
king in Exodus chapter 3, is not going to let you go. No,
not by a mighty hand. So you can stand up like the
Pentecostal say and tell the devil to get on back into hell.
It ain't going to do you a bit of good because he ain't letting
you go. He ain't going to let you go. All right, here's the second
thing. God knows the situation. He understands original sin. He understands our predicament.
He knows exactly what we are, where we are, and in what kind
of danger we're in. He knew exactly where Israel
was in Egypt. All aware. All right, here's
the second thing He tells Moses. Exodus 3, verse 20. He said, now He's not going to
let you go. But he said, I'm going to stretch
out my hand. And I'm going to smite Egypt
with all my wonders, which I'll do in the midst thereof. And
after that, he will let you go. He ain't going to let you go
when you go down there and talk to him. But when you talk to
him and I accompany what you say with power, he's going to
turn you loose. He's going to turn you loose.
God tells His servant Moses that He has the power, the wisdom
to overcome all the powers that be, and even the doubts of those
that He intends to redeem. He's not limited to time and
circumstance, but He uses time and circumstance as means to
an end. And we know, Paul said, that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are called according to His purpose. How do we know
that? Because God proved it over and over and over throughout
the Old Testament. That's how we know it. God said, this is
what I'm going to do, and that's what He did. Like Peter talks about over in
Acts chapter 4, when all's said and done, God does what His hand
and His counsel determines before to be done. His providence brings
a curse on some, while blessings to the others. That's just the
way it is. And to some, His gospel's a saver
of life under life, while to others, it's a saver of death
under death. God uses both king and kingdom in Egypt to accomplish
their deliverance. I don't even pretend to understand
all the workings of God's providence except to say that, that God
works these things together for our good. It's God Himself who
stretches forth His hand in the calling out of His elect, both
to make them willing to leave and the king willing to let them
go. God's outstretched hand. I don't want to get too deeply
into this tonight, but the firstborn is the heir. Now just hear me
for a minute. It's the future progenitor of
the name, the firstborn. It's the glory of the Father.
Christ is the firstborn of the church. You understand what I'm
saying? These believers are identified in Him. He's the firstborn. He's the hope of Israel. And
as Christ is the firstborn, and therefore the hope of Israel,
so is the firstborn of Egypt. When God comes in power to call
out His sons, He will destroy the firstborn of Egypt and force
the evil king to let them go. What's He saying here? He's saying
He's going to kill their hope. He's going to kill the firstborn.
He's going to kill their Jesus. That's what he's going to do.
He's going to drop him down. He's going to take Pharaoh's
son. He's going to lie in the darkness. And so every other
firstborn in Egypt. Because that firstborn was their
hope. That was their God. Was Pharaoh not a God in Egypt?
So his son was the one who was going to sit on his throne. God
come through and killed all the firstborn. When all the firstborn
of Egypt lie dead in the darkness, then is the power of His kingdom
broken and Israel is free to leave. So God first tells His
servant that the King is not going to willingly let you go.
And then He says, I'm going to stretch out My hand and smite
it. And when I'm done, they're going
to let you go. They're going to be glad you left. You can
see that killing of the firstborn. You take a man in an Armenian
church. He's over here in a Freewill
Works religious atmosphere and he's in there and he hears the
gospel on the internet or he hears the gospel at some Bible
conference somewhere and he goes back there and the Lord's done
a work on him. I tell you, them people in there,
he start talking to them, them people in there will ruin him
off. They want him out of there. Get out. Why? Because he'll kill
every firstborn son in the place, won't he? That's exactly right.
They're willing to let him go. Satan does not want any part
of him anymore. He is a threat to him now because
of who he is and who his hope is. And then thirdly, God tells
him that Israel is not going to go away empty. I love this. Exodus chapter 3 verse 21. He
said, I 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. But every woman shall borrow
of her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth with her in her house,
jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and raiment, and ye shall
put them upon your sons and upon your daughters, and ye shall
spoil the Egyptians." Now listen to me. God's people are heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ. What's that mean? That means
everything in this world belongs to them. That's what that means.
You know what Paul said? He said, you're over here arguing
about which preacher you heard and was baptized by. He said,
all these Paul, Cephas, all these apostles, this is all yours.
And the world is yours. And all things are yours. You're
heirs of God. Heirs of God. What is Christ
entitled to? Is there something he's not entitled
to? It's his, isn't it? We're joint
heirs with him. Because I read this and read
that, and I thought, now how is that right? How in the world
is that right? They're going to borrow stuff
from these neighbors, and they ain't going to give it back.
They're going to walk off with it. How is that right? Because
it was theirs. That's right. It was theirs.
Their heirs. Their joint heirs with Christ.
And all things is theirs by an inheritance. It's theirs by the
eternal decree of God. And when and where He will, He'll
give even their enemies. Now listen to this. This is God
talking. I'm going with you, Moses. Moses
said, Who am I? He said, Surely I go with you.
Now let me tell you who I am. I'm God. And when and where he
will, he'll give even their enemies a generous spirit. Isn't that
what he says here? I'll cause them... I'm going
to tell you a story about myself. I was puttering along making
a living, not a real good living, but making a living, getting
by. And a fella I'd done some work for years before, he came
by. And he said, what are you doing
down here? I said, well, I'm working on my own down here.
I don't work for that fellow I used to work for. I'm just
working on my own. Well, he said, I'm getting ready
to build a house, and my brother's going to build a house, and his
father-in-law's going to build a house. We'll just hire you
to build a house. He said, I love the work you did on my first
one. OK, I didn't really understand.
I mean, he didn't get along with the guy I worked for at all.
They fought the whole time. But he liked me, for some reason. So he hired me, and later on,
I went to work for him. And he took me into his company,
and he's a commercial roofer. I don't know anything at all
about commercial roofing. And he took me and put me up
with people who'd been with him for 40 years. Put me up on the
same level, the same pay grade, same authority and everything.
God gives them paper. Why? Why? Because you're an heir. That's
why. And if it hadn't been for the favor that he gave that man
and the change in my income and the things and benefits that
he paid me, I couldn't be here today preaching for you. Now,
no way. You see what God's doing here
in Egypt? That's exactly right. And you can go back over your
own life and you can count this a thousand times. Why in the
world did this guy like me? He just did. Why? Because God
gave him favor. That's why. I'm going to cause
them to have favor on you. Even your enemies. A generous
spirit to give to them what was theirs to make provision for
his sons. And it's yours by right of God's
eternal decree and it's yours by right of redemption. The accomplished
redemption of Christ restores those held in bondage. Here's
these Israelites. They didn't have nothing. They
were slaves. I used the word here a few weeks ago, they were
institutionalized. Institutionalized. And we'll
get into that in this next chapter. He uses words real similar to
that. He said they were broken. They
were a broken people. It's like a prisoner been in
prison for 50 years, you don't know anything else. These people
were generational slaves. This is like third, fourth generation,
400 years in bondage. Don't know anything else. Well, this redemption of Christ
restores those held in bondage to the full and glorious liberty
of sons. They had a greater inheritance
than the king before whom they stood. Everything that that king
had was theirs. And God said, you're not going
to have to fight for it. so sufficient with this sacrifice
that he declared and its victory that he declared over Satan way
back yonder in the garden, that all of these things, this full
inheritance is already counted as theirs. And he begins to give
it to them. It's theirs by right of redemption
and it's theirs by the promise of God. God said, here, here,
I'm going to make them do this. I'm going to make them willing.
What a blessed thought that the Lord of glory has the power and
right to use even our enemies and their possessions to supply
our every need. And he does it on a daily basis.
I look back over my life and I think about this and how God
calls certain ones. It's just mind-boggling to me. And then when I view this thing
in the light of the spiritual benefits, I'm just absolutely
overwhelmed by the blessings of God. Those He calls, He sends
away with full benefits, Winston. Free, complete justification. Justified before God. Called you out of darkness, brought
you into this marvelous light, and said you're justified. Woo! Justified before God. Redeemed. Full recompense. Full restoration. He sends us away not empty. He sends us away full. Fullness
of wisdom. We understand what even the princes
of this world could not understand. Righteousness. God said of Lot. Think about who Lot was. He talked
about that righteous man. full reward, full righteousness,
sanctification, redemption, justification, reconciliation, full and complete
restoration. The sufficiency of this promised
Redeemer is so certain and so victorious and so glorious and
so honoring to the name of God that the full benefits are dispensed
2,000 years before Christ even appears on this earth. You want
to read about it, you can read about it over in Romans chapter
3. He set forth this sacrifice in such a way, this propitiation
of God through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness
for remission of sins that are past. Talking about those Old
Testament saints. Talking about Moses. Talking
about Abel. Talking about all these Old Testament
saints. So glorious was this promised
Redeemer that all of these things, All of these things, all with
full benefits dispensed 2,000 years before He appeared on earth.
And if you want to know the truth of it, it was settled in eternity. The calling out of God's elect
is the surest thing in this world. I was reading to Don these 10
things that Henry gave me years ago. And the 10th thing that
every God called preacher ought to think about before he stands
up here to preach, expect men to believe. We don't half expect
men believe, do we? But I'm telling you, the calling
out of God's elect is the surest thing in this world. Ain't anything
any more sure than that. For so much as one of these to
perish or not to hear his gospel and not to be ushered into the
full blessings of his inheritance would require God to cease to
be God. That's what would have to happen.
God is fully aware of the situation in Egypt. He knows the obstinacy
of Pharaoh, of his heart. And He knows something of the
weakness and unbelief of Israel. So He leaves nothing to chance,
but He goes Himself with His servant. And because our great
God comes to us in the power of His own name, He will send
none empty away. He said, My sheep hear My voice. They hear My voice. And I give
unto them eternal life, and they'll never perish. Neither shall any
man pluck them out of My hand. And they're in His Father's hand,
too. And He said, I and the Father are one. We both got hold of
them. They're not going anywhere. What
a glorious thing. Can you see the picture of this?
Moses going down into Egypt, scared to death. Carried to death,
already been a failure. I think being a failure is a
prerequisite to being a preacher. I think God has to take the sand
out of you. Old Kent Clark said one time
when he got up, he said, you're going to lose that strut before
you get to glory. You're going to lose it. And he was right.
He was right. You're going to lose it. But
I tell you, God says, I'm going with you. And I got the heart
of the kings in the hand of the Lord, he turneth it with him
so ever he will. And they're going to give you all their gold,
and they're going to give you all their silver, and they're going to,
and then he's going to, he's going to destroy them out here
in the sea, and all their weapons are going to wash up, and they're
going to have already supplied army before they ever even get
into the wilderness, before they're anywhere near Canaan. God supplied
every need they had. And they didn't, it wasn't oh
and one, I owed it to the flesh. all to His great name, Jehovah. Father, bless the preaching of
Your Gospel, the study of Your Word. We desire to know, but
we desire not to know in the abstract. We don't want to just
know facts and things. We want an experiential knowledge. We want these things born out
of desire and need. We need to know these things. Take these things and apply them
to our heart in such a way as to cause us to rejoice in them,
and to live by them, and to look forward to them. We ask it for
Christ's sake. Amen.