Now, the first chapter of Exodus
sets before us a very clear picture of the church as they're born
into this world. Now, I'm not talking about them
being born again. I'm talking about their birth,
their natural birth into this world. Egypt is a picture of
this world. And the evil king here that's
being raised up, God said, I raised him up. He did. God did. raised him up to show in him
my power. This evil king that's over Egypt
is a very clear picture of Satan's influence and power over this
world. That's why God raised him up.
So in this day, when preachers stand and preach the gospel to
you and tell men and women about their condition, they can go
back and they can say, here it is illustrated. That's what these
Old Testament types and pictures are. They're the foundation in
picture and figure and so on. We go through the book of Hebrews
and that's all you see. You go through the book of Acts,
Peter stood up at Pentecost. First thing he did, took the
Old Testament scriptures and began to preach Christ to them.
Paul comes along, called of God to preach. What does he do? He
preaches the Old Testament scriptures. And he tells us in Romans chapter
16, toward the end of the chapter, he said, by the commandment of
God, I'm to take these scriptures and preach the gospel unto you. Egypt is a very clear picture,
this world, and that evil king, a very clear picture of Satan's
influence and power over it. Now, I know when I preach this,
I preach this Sunday morning and I looked around. I just,
I look for reactions sometimes and I looked around and I got
reactions. I got reactions like where in
the world did you come up with that? Well, I'm going to show
you. Egypt is a picture of this. John
tells us in Revelation chapter 9, talking about Satan, talking
about his power, talking about his influence over this world.
He tells us in chapter 9 that Satan fell from heaven onto earth. He calls him a star. What's so
significant about that? Well, he tells us in Revelation
chapter 1 that these stars are ministers. That's what angels
are. They're ministers sent forth
to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. He created
Satan as a minister to a man. And Satan said, oh, no. Oh, no. God revealed to them that a man
was going to sit on the throne, that redemption had to do with
a man. God's glory is going to be revealed
in a man. And he fell from heaven. He said,
no. He said, that's not going to
do. He said, I'll sit in that seat, not a man. I'll sit there. I'll demonstrate. Look at me.
I'm the, what do they call him, the son of the morning? Oh, he's
so beautiful and powerful. and such a creature. And God
passed by him, God passed by the angels to demonstrate his
glory and took upon himself the seed of Abraham. Now here in
Revelation chapter 9, it talks about Satan falling from heaven,
this falling star, unto the earth. And that to this falling minister,
to this fallen minister has been given the key to the bottomless
pit." Isn't that what it says, Russell? I saw you looking at
it. The key to the bottomless pit is in his hand. He sits on
the throne of power. His power is over all those whose
names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. He has power
over them. That power is given him of God. And even Michael, when disputing
over the body of the man that we're going to talk about tonight,
Moses, he was disputing over this body of Moses, knowing that
Satan held this power and authority by the decree of God, would not
argue with Satan, would not dispute with him, because he knew who
gave him his power. And he said, the Lord rebuke
thee. The Lord rebuke thee. In Revelation chapter 13, verse
7, It says, power was given him over, now listen, all kindreds
and tongues and nations. And all that dwell upon the face
of the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in
the book of the Lamb, the book of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Not only does he usurp the power
over them, But He causes them through His influence and power
to worship Him. And He is the object of their
worship. This power is given unto Him
knowing that He'll make war with the saints. It goes on to tell
us in the book of Revelation. It's given to Him to make war
with the saints. And in this war, God will manifest
the glory of His grace in the deliverance of His people out
of Satan's kingdom and into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Now
that's what's being demonstrated here in the book of Exodus. He's
called the God of this world because that's how he makes himself
known and that's how he deceives his people and how he keeps his
goods at peace. In 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 4,
talking about this man of sin, talking about this evil influence
that rules over this world, talking about Satan, says that he promotes
himself as one who opposes and exalts himself. above all that's
called God or worshiped. And he does so by sitting in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Now, that temple
has a twofold meaning. First of all, that temple has
to do with a man. It has to do with his body. His
body is the temple of God. This is the place where God comes
and sets up his abode, and this is the place where God enters
in with him and causes him to work. Paul said, don't you know
your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? This has to do with
Satan reigning in the hearts of men as individuals. And it
has reference to them. And that's where he sits. He sits on the throne. of men's
hearts and minds convincing them that they are God. It is this
convincing. They don't know that Satan sits
in their hearts. You won't get one of them to
admit that. But what reveals Satan to sit on that throne is
what they do and what they say. Satan sits on the throne of their
hearts and minds convincing them that they're like God. It's their
will that's preeminent in their religion and in their lives.
It's their works that make the sacrifice complete and acceptable. And it's their wisdom that interprets
the scriptures. It's their feelings and reasoning
that make truth acceptable. Well, that just don't sound right.
You mean to tell me that a man, a fallen man, Tells you right
here that he's fallen, that he's ignorant, that he knows nothing,
none that understand it. He's going to set judgment on
the Word of God and tell me what it means? Huh? Is that not satanic? That's Satan's
power. That's the power of his delusion. He's subtle. It's in the concept
of them being God, and that's what causes men and women to
believe that they can preserve the earth. Why in the world would
a man or a woman feel like there's something he could do to preserve
this earth? He didn't create it. He's got
no control over its weather. He has no control over its laws
and its rules and gravity and how fast it spins and where it's
located in space. It's just totally ridiculous.
And yet men and women run around in a panic all the time because
they think they can control this world and preserve it and keep
it. clean it, whatever else it is. It's this concept of being
God that causes men and women to believe that. And it's this
concept of being like God that causes men and women to believe
that they can prevent providential catastrophes, early warning. We can prevent these things.
Well, you can't prevent them. We can't even diagnose them.
We don't even know what brings them about. And it's this same
thing that brings men to believe that they can control governments.
You can't control governments. These are the ministers of God.
That's what he said. The powers that be are of God.
Now, if they're of God, they're out of my control. Is that right? That's absolutely right. Satan
sits on the throne of man's heart and his lying wonders and subtle
ways, and he shows himself to be God. And then secondly, that
word temple is in reference to worship. And it's got to do with
who God is and what His intention is and God's will and His ways
and means and all that's called God and worship. Satan sits in
that temple and he dictates those things like he's God. Now you
just listen to what they preach. I'm telling you the truth. Listen
to what they preach. The preeminent thing in their
preaching is man. Man. That's right. It's all man. It's all man's
glory and man's will and man's end and man's this and man's
that. But either way, either way you
want to interpret this verse, I believe it says both things.
I called Don to see what he thought. He said he believed the same
thing. It has reference to both these things. But either way,
Satan sits on the throne as though he were God and exalts himself
above all that's called God and worships and sits in the temple
showing himself to be God. Egypt is the land of idolatry,
and lust, and pride, and self-glory. And Pharaoh sat in that temple
and said, I'm God. Now, I've watched enough of the
History Channel about these Pharaohs to know that they commanded men
and women to worship them as God. They believed they were
deities. And all those under his influence are engaged in
building for him monuments to the glory of his kingdom and
rule. And his own people were engaged in it because they were
the taskmasters out there cracking the whip, and the children of
God were involved in it because they were the ones out there
as slaves building those treasure cities to favor. God's people are born under this
influence and power. And God's people are slaves to
the evil king. And they cannot, apart from divine
intervention, break free from his rule. He rules over men. It wasn't a decision. You look
at this picture as we go through it. It wasn't a decision that
brought deliverance to Israel. It was the hand of God. What
could they do if they did decide? Huh? What are they going to do?
They aren't going to do anything. Not going to do anything. It
was not a reformation of doctrine that led them out. It was the
presence and power of God. And it was not good works that
brought the favor of God to them, but His own purpose and grace,
which He made known to Abraham hundreds of years before He ever
brought them down into Egypt and told Jacob the same thing.
Everything in connection with salvation is brought to pass
according to the good pleasure of the will of God and according
to the riches of His grace. Now in this picture, I want to
call your attention to the special providence of God as I read through
all of these things. The mother's sympathy for the
child and his sister's sympathy toward the mother and the child.
And the maidens, how come Pharaoh's daughter just to be walking down
that path that day? How come her maidens to spot
this bastion? How come the mother to even conceive
the idea of taking those flags and putting them together and
putting a little slime on there and a little pitch on there and
a lid and putting the baby in there and laying him down there
in the flag? Who put that on her mind? Who resolved these
things? There's so many things coming
together here. And the children of Israel, here
they are out here. And we've skipped a lot of space
here and a lot of things. But I recommend that you go back
and read these things. And read it time and again. I
don't want you to miss any of the detail. But here are these
people under here, under this slavish rule and despised and
hated of the evil king and everything opposed to him. And yet their
strength has increased, their childbearing has increased, the
multitude has increased, and they're perfectly healthy. And
Egyptians die. on every hand. And they're trying
to have babies and can't. All these things are going on.
What I'm trying to say to you is we're in this world, but we're
not of this world. And God preserves, God rules
and arranges His providence. And His people have a special
providence of grace that attends them long before they ever hear
the gospel. God's people are immortal until
He takes them out of this world. Now, that's just the truth. Somebody
was, well, in fact, it's my daughter. I'll just tell you who it was.
I want to know why I wouldn't go somewhere. Why don't you go
somewhere and get out of them storms? And what I was thinking,
I didn't say this. I bit my tongue and didn't say
it. But it's impossible for me to stand up here and talk to
you about a sovereign God who's showing you favor and showing
me favor and calling me aside as an ambassador for him. calling
me into the ministry of God and sending me here for me to preach
to you that I'm here on God's behalf and then run and stick
my head in a hole because the clouds come out. It's absolute
foolishness. Now either this thing is so,
either God reigns and sits on the throne or He don't. One or
the other. Ain't that the truth? Does God
send these storms? They just come about by accident.
Now here's Moses. I'm telling you, look at God's
providence in this thing. Pharaoh made the decree, when
you see one of them children, you take him and throw him in
the river. You drown him. Feed him to the crocodiles. He
commanded those maid servants over there, those midwives, he
said, when you see a son, you kill it. You kill it. But they didn't kill it. They
couldn't do it. They feared God. Who put that
fear in their heart? You see what I'm saying? Either
God works in all things. He all things worked together
for good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. And that's what I'm seeing in
this story. I'm seeing the providence of God working on everything
before he ever gets over here and before there's ever a burning
bush and before God ever settles down on men with his presence
and power and begins to show them something about his character
and his wisdom and his grace and all of those things. Before
this ever happened, here's God's hand down in Egypt arranging
things and arranging his providence around his children. Do they
suffer? Sure they do. They suffered the
hand of those taskmasters. They called it working in the
iron furnace. And we'll come to see that. They
made them serve with rigor. Yes, they did. But he maintained
them, and he gave them health, and they were stronger than the
Egyptians. And the more they drove them, and whipped them,
and worked them, the stronger they got. The stronger they got. Why? Because God attended them
with a special property. You can just write it down just
like these Wednesdays when I wasn't able to come here. That's God's
hand. That's God's hand. Did I want to be here? You bet
I did. I made up my mind that second Wednesday I was coming
down here no matter what. But you're not going to come
down here no matter what. God will open this door, and
I'm going to tell you something. He can take it away as quick
as he gave it. So quick it'll make your head spin. That desire
in your heart to come here, that can be taken away just so fast
you won't even know it happened. I tell you, we need to be careful
when we come into His presence, and we need to be prepared. Not
treat this casually. Oh, I just see so much in His
providence here. And God's people, though He exposes
them to the rule of this evil king, yet He hedges them about
by divine acts of providence. And he gives them good health,
and he blesses them in childbearing, and he makes his midwives afraid,
and he does all of these things. He discovers. He takes the man
who swore to kill him. He's going to kill the son. I'll
kill all the sons to make sure I get the right one. I'm going
to kill him. No, you're going to raise him.
That's what you're going to do. You're going to raise him. And
he made Pharaoh raise the deliverer in his own house. You think about
that. That's God's property. Oh, all this compassion and feelings
and all the little details of God's providence was at work.
Old Moses, he wasn't any different than any other son of Jacob,
except by the grace of God. God set Moses aside as a preacher. And he's going to be a preacher's
preacher. This preacher, unlike some of the other ones, this
preacher here is going to come down into Egypt. He's going to
put him right down into the heart of the house of Satan. He's going
to put him right out here in the middle of nowhere, and he's
not going to have a sword. He's going to have a shepherd's
staff. And he's not going to have an army. He's going to have
his brother because he can't talk clearly. And he said, God,
if you're not going with me, I ain't going. This man's going
to be a preacher. And God's training him. That's
why he's over here in Midian. He's not ready to be the deliverer
just yet. God's still training him, and
we're going to look at that. But what I want you to see in
this is as you're reading this story, and as this thing develops
in these messages to come, I want you to see God's hand and providence
in these things. It's not just a preacher and
people being willing. It's God. Paul said, you work
out your own salvation. He had no fear whatsoever to
tell men and women that. I'm scared to death to tell somebody
that. He wasn't. Work out your own salvation in
fear and trembling, for it's God that worketh in you. And
if He's not, it ain't going to come to anything anyway. Even
those enemies of God knew that. They said, if it ain't of God,
it ain't going to amount to anything anyway. Paul asked the church this question. He said, who maketh thee to differ
from another? Huh? Who made Moses to differ? Moses. Now you think about who
I'm talking about. God raised this man up. I'm telling
you, led a nation out of Egypt, defeated a king, and embarrassed
him right in the heart of his own house. God embarrassed him
by sending a man. That's what God... Why in the
world would God use a man to preach the gospel? Because he's
going to embarrass that evil king. That's why. And he goes
right down to the heart of his house, right into the place where
he rules and reigns, right into the place where he distributes
his glory and sells his lives. And with a man, this little weak
creature, God's presence comes with him. And without the first
weapon, he tells them the will of God. And he turns the people
loose. That's what preaching is. That's
exactly what preaching is. And that's what he shows us in
his servant Moses. Oh, who makes us to differ? God has chosen to save a people
for the glory of his name. And though they're born in Egypt,
they're not of it in the purpose of God. God set them apart for
a higher purpose. And he's attended their way with
special grace. And God, in spite of all who
oppose it, will deliver his people and bring them into their promised
possession. And that's exactly what he does. Exactly what he
does. It's grace on top of grace. God
chooses a man to accomplish his will and purpose and he attends
his way with his facial care. He's doomed. That man's doomed
by the decree of Pharaoh to be cast into the river and drown
and be eaten by crocodiles. But God was with him. There wasn't a crocodile in that
river that was even hungry that day. God attended that boy. God attended him. How many times
in my life can I look back and wonder how did I live through
that? Ignorant young boy decided to
go out to Los Angeles with a bunch of boys, just teenage boys, unmarried,
unruly, went out to this big city. Walked down through there
with all those gangs and killings and drive-by shootings and all
that, and we walked around as ignorant as who knows what, didn't
know what we were doing, where we were at, whose bounds we were
crossing, or anything else. And God preserved me through
that. I look back on that, I ought to be dead. Cars barely missed
me. Storms barely missed me. I couldn't
tell you how many times the hand of God, I can look back and see
His providence on me. And I tell you, it does us good
to go back and look at those things. Lying in a basket, sealed with
God's redemptive purpose. Do you know that's what pitch
means? It's K-4, it has to do with atonement. Same word used
for atonement. Used twice in the Bible, once
where he pitched the ark, and once where he pitched this ark
of the bulrushes for Moses. Put that pitch on there. It means
atonement. Moses was sealed in God's box. He's sealed in God's basket.
Sealed inside of it by the providential purpose of God. And he rested
in the flags. And somebody said, uh-oh, what
rotten luck. What rotten luck. Pharaoh's daughter
saw the child. It was her daddy. that swore
that if any of them seen a male child, cast it into the river
and let it die. And this is the daughter of the
man who made the decree, what rotten luck, but God was with
him. And the little baby wept, and
she had compassion. But even though his life spared,
he'd be raised in that idolatry and ignorance of Egypt Be raised
in that place where man's lusts and ways run free. But God was
with him. And Miriam stepped out of the
shadows and said, do you need a nurse? And Pharaoh's daughter
said, uh-huh. Said, well, I know one. And got
his mama. And his mama come down there
and taught him the things of God, taught him the ways of God
in Pharaoh's own house. His own mother and sister was
with him to tell him the truth. And then by the providence of
God, this man who was so despised, this man who so despised the
people of God was raised to raise up the deliverer in his own house.
Is that not the way of God in this world? That this world gives
what's necessary to the children of God at God's arrangement and
at God's hand. He told his disciples when they
went out to preach, he said, don't even take an extra coat
with you. You go into that town, if all's not furnished you what
you need, you shake the dust off your feet, and you go over
here where it is. You're my servants, and I'll
take care of my hands on you. God's hands on his church. Don't
ever forget that. God's hands on his people, and
he specially has his hand on his preachers. Oh, that's the way of God in
this world. This world gives what's necessary to preserve
and protect and prepare God's servants for the offices that
He called them to. Paul tells the church at Corinth,
he said, all things are yours. You're over here fretting over
this one and that one, and who heard this, and who heard that,
and who's the best teacher, and all that stuff. He said, don't
you know that whether you're talking about an apostle Paul,
or the preacher Apollos, or Peter, or the world, or life, or death,
or things present, or things to come, it's all yours. You're children of God. And that's
what I want you to see in this. This thing finally gets down
to the end of this chapter, and it said, and God looked on the
children, His children. When did He start looking? Huh? Before the world. Read about
it over in Proverbs. Before the mountains were ever
created, before the seas were given their command, His heart
was with the people. He looked on His people. He saw
His people and He loved His people. And they're there under the purpose
of God. And He sees them. He sees them. And He sees the hands against
them. Oh, all things are good. Well,
God looked on His people. This thing of salvation is according
to the eternal purpose of God who worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will. Some people hear the doctrine
of God's predestination and they go sit down and they say, well,
whatever will be, will be. Let me tell you something. If God has abandoned His people,
if they're left down there in Egypt and He's not looking after
them and He's not arranging things for them, then you might as well
go sit down because there's no hope for them. There's no hope
for them. But if I see the wheels of God's
purpose turning, and His interaction and intervention. If I can see
divinity at work, if I can see the hand of God in this thing,
I'm telling you, it's predestination. It's the absolute, sovereign
predestination of God that's the heart of evangelism. If I
didn't believe God could sovereignly save a soul and call him out
of sin, I wouldn't waste my time. I can't convince anybody of anything. I can't convince myself of anything.
And I tell you, if God's in it, they can be convinced. This is
the heart of evangelism. And every great missionary that
I've ever read about in the history of the church, every last one
of them believed and preached these things. I wouldn't give
you $0.50 for a preacher who stands up and tries to avoid
the doctrine of predestination or the doctrine of election.
These are beloved doctrines, and they're the very foundation
and soul of evangelism. God's absolute sovereign hand,
and that's what He shows down in Egypt. I'm God! I'll tell
you how I'm going to prove it. I'm going to take a little snibly,
weak man, and I'm going to send him down here where Satan reigns,
and I'm going to embarrass him in his own house. Egypt might be fearful in the
eyes of men, but it's just a canvas and a brush in the hands of the
Master to set before His people the glory of His grace, and He's
going to paint us a picture. Salvation begins and ends with
the purpose of God. In Ephesians 1, verse 9, He speaks
of the revelation of the mystery of the will of God, which will
is to save a people for His glory in Christ. And so He chose them
in Him. And He predestinated them in
Him. And He made them accepted in Him. And they redeemed them
in Him. And in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He'll
gather together all things in Him, heavenly things and earthly
things. And in this man, He said, we
have obtained and inherited into this one whom God has trusted
His predestination, His election, His eternal purposes and decree,
His own character and glory. We have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. And the preparations
of the heart of man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
And feelings and affections and providential arrangements. You remember what Jacob said
to his brethren? He said, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. He says in the Bible, by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And that this
sin reigns unto death. And that light, he shows his
condemnation by sending light into the world. And men love
darkness rather than light. None that understandeth, none
that seeketh after God. Destruction and misery are in
their way. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. There's only one hope then, isn't
there? God be for us. Ain't that what Paul said? If
God be for us. And God being for them, He presses
their bondage hard upon them and they begin to see themselves
bound in Egyptian, under this Egyptian authority and bound
in Egyptian service and bound in Egyptian purpose. And they
found themselves totally and completely at the mercy of a
sovereign God. That's where we're at. I tell you this, salvation begins
with a sigh. They were sighing down there
under His power and authority. They were sighing under that
sin and bondage. In the purpose of God, He allowed
the Egyptians to be satisfied with that king and to side with
him and to be sympathetic with his rule, but not Israel. He
made them sick of it. He made them sick of it. He made
them to suffer under it. And when they'd suffered under
it and seen it for what it was, they'd begin to cry unto God.
And I tell you, until God intervenes and begins to disturb His people
from the rest and reveal something about their bondage to Him and
reveal that evil hand of the evil king, they're not going
to cry out to God. They're going to come down here and go away
with the same old thing. Same old thing. I've heard this
all before. But I tell you this, even before
they were made to feel their bondage, God was already at work
raising up their delivery. Huh? Oh, what grace. What grace. Let me say this and I'll bring
this thing to a close. God could have delivered Israel
out of Egypt without Moses. Just like somebody said, well,
we'd be children of Abraham. And Christ said, God's able them
rocks to raise up children to Abraham. He didn't need Moses,
and he didn't need us. He didn't need Abraham. But I
find this to be very important and very instructive. It was
the will of God in this great picture of deliverance to do
so through a man. And this deliverance pictures
the work of God's grace in this world through the preaching of
the gospel. And he's going to raise up a man and reveal to
him his sovereign purpose and grace and glory and reveal to
him his very name. And then he's going to send him
down into the heart of occupied Egypt and command the release
of his people. And he's going to show them what
this thing's all about. He's going to show them the blood.
He's going to show them all these things. But I want you to listen
to this. And what he's going to do, I've
seen this as I study, and this is so clear to me, and I know
I've already said this, but he's going to shame Satan in his own
house. He's going to embarrass him.
Listen to this, Psalm chapter 40. This is Christ calling out
to the Father. And he said, let them be ashamed
and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy. Let them be delivered backward.
and put to shame that life. Let them be desolate for the
reward of their shame. Everything He does, it brings
them to shame. It brings them to shame. It's
to put old Satan to an open shame and show his authority over him
to sin to man. And I don't want to get into
it too much tonight, but it's the work of God alone that can
equip a man to do this. It's the work of God, and if
God doesn't attend our ministry, it's doomed to be overthrown.
I tell you, Moses got to thinking about it. He was raised in Pharaoh's
house. He knew something about Pharaoh,
and so do we. We're born into this world and
God regenerates us and gives us a new heart and gives us the
will to seek His face and reveals what we were and what this world
is and who Satan is and what his power is. You're not going
to run into his heart and tell him anything unless you're dead
positive God's with you and attends that ministry. And if He ain't,
it's doomed to failure. Absolutely doomed to failure.
But if God be for us, look out. Look out. He's going to make
this thing come to pass. And if a sea stands in the way,
He'll split it. If a mountain's there, He'll
move it. If there's a wilderness there, He'll fill it full of
fruit. If God's hand in this thing, He's going to make it
happen. Our Father, we thank You. Thank
You for these blessed pictures. And we thank You for Your Spirit
that's opened our hearts and minds and eyes to see these things.
And oh, how we pray that you take these things and not just
make them things that we know, like numbers and science and
history and all these things that are going to come to nothing,
but take these things and cause us to apply them to our everyday
life. Cause us to see the hand of God
in our lives. That we're children of God. We're sons of God. Heirs together
with Christ. Immortal on this earth till you
take us home. And what are we to fear in death
but an open door into glory? Oh God, make these things real
to our hearts and allow us to live as believers for Christ's
sake.