Now, if you'll take your Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Exodus, I encourage you, over the next
several weeks, to read all the way through the book of Exodus.
There's 40 chapters. And just read all the way through.
It'll get you a working knowledge of this book, of these things,
so you can be thinking about them and have them fresh on your
mind. A lot of these chapters are long and it's just impossible
for me to come in here and read all of these things to you and
then try to preach on those things too. So if you've got a kind
of, but we'll read the verses that concern our text and we'll
be referring to them. But if you've got a working knowledge
of this book, you're going to get so much more out of it than
if you just come in here without reading it at all. And so I encourage
you to do that. And if you'll just mark your
place there in the first chapter of the book of Exodus, I want
to talk to you for just a little bit about the book itself. The
author of the book is Moses. Moses wrote the first five books
of the Bible called the Pentateuch. And so he's the author of these
things. And there can be no doubt about
the book of Exodus as to its being a spiritually inspired
book. or book that belongs in the canon
of scripture because all of the prophets refer back to Exodus. Joshua refers to them and you
just go through the Old Testament. All the prophets quoted from
it as a foundation for what they preached and the apostles quoted
from it. And to nail down what they preached
and Christ himself referred to it. So I think we can pretty
much say the book of Exodus is inspired of God. And then it
has 40 chapters, and it deals with about 140 years of history. It's going to cover about 140
years of time. Now, we just came out of the
book of beginnings, out of the book of Genesis, and I guarantee
you that book covered a lot more than 140 years. But that's how
scripture is. Sometimes God will just pause
and take an entire life of a prophet and just talk about one thing,
one event. and just talk about it from one
end to the other like he does in the book of Ruth and Esther
and different ones. These books just take one thing,
focus on one thing. And then sometimes he'll take
a book and he'll deal on thousands of years and then sometimes like
he does here in Exodus, he's just going to spend a short amount
of time because he's focusing in on one particular thing. Now
we've been looking at the book of beginnings, the book of Genesis. Now we're coming into the book
of Exodus. And the book of Exodus has to
do with bringing out. It's a going out. And so we're
beginning a new phase. But this thing, just keep that
in mind. We're dealing with 140 years of the history of the children
of Israel from the death of Joseph. That's where we're going to begin
tonight. From the death of Joseph. And it goes all the way to the
threshold of Canaan. That's what this book does. Well,
what's this book about? It's about the children of Israel
under the reign of an evil king in Egypt. And how these people,
these children of Israel, how they cried unto the Lord for
deliverance and how God sent them a man right into the midst
of Egypt without an army, just him and his brother, him and
Him and the priest of God, or who would be the priest of God,
came into Egypt and by the Word of God alone demanded that the
children of Israel be let go. And they were. And they were. And God accompanied them with
His presence and power and led them out. And it deals with ten
plagues. We're going to be talking about
the plagues when we get to them. God sent plagues. Pharaoh said,
I ain't going to let them go. God said, we'll see. And he sent
10 plagues on the Egyptians. And each time, Pharaoh would
repent. But then when it come right down to turn them loose,
he'd say, no. And God said, OK, get ready. And he hit him again.
And that's the way it went until he finally did let them go. But
the book of, and it has to do with their, they passed through
the sea. They left out of Egypt. Pharaoh,
the longer he thought about the matter he got, and he got his
armies together and he chased them out there. And God, through
his servant Moses, took that staff and told that whole house
of Israel, probably most of the most conservative estimates say
there was two million people. And God said, stand still, through
his servant Moses. You stand still, and I'll show
you the salvation of the Lord." He held out that staff, and God
split that sea. I remember hearing this fellow
preaching one time, and a guy told him, he said, well, we've
done some scientific studies and things, and that sea was
nearly dry. And he said it was only two inches
deep. And the whole evangelist said,
well, praise the Lord. He said he drowned Pharaoh and
all his army in two inches of water. Completely buried them. He said, I didn't realize how
great a miracle it was until you told me that. But he takes them through the
sea. And then he takes them through
a wilderness. Nothing out there to support life, give life. No
water, no food, no nothing. And all they had was the clothes
on their back. But the clothes didn't wear out. And the shoes
didn't wear out. And they drank water from a smitten
rock. A cloud gave them shade by day
and heat and light by night. God preserved them all through
that desert. And then while they were out
there, God taught them how to worship. Gave them the figure
of the tabernacle. And we're going to look at all
those things as we go through this book. And in all these things,
And I believe this is the most important thing that you can
learn when we're studying the Old Testament scripture, is that
all of these books have to do with figures and types of the
Lord Jesus Christ, of his church, and especially this book of Exodus.
Now, we've looked at some just phenomenal things going through
the book of Genesis, but you ain't seen nothing yet. We go
through the book of Exodus. There's so much in here you could
just preach on this book from now on. And Paul wrote practically
the whole book of Hebrews based on the book of Genesis. It's
just unbelievable, I mean on the book of Exodus. It's just
unbelievable how many types and things that there is as we go
through this book. But that's the most important
thing to see, these types and figures of Christ and his offices
and his sacrifice and his church and his ordinances. and his deliverance
of his people and all of these things, and I want to try to
focus in on these things. And then there's one more thing
that I want to say. You know, we're going to look
at these pictures, and I want you to, I want to go into the
New Testament, and I want to show you that I'm not just making
these things up, and I haven't went in here with this preconceived
notion and just picking things at random and holding them. I
want to show you in the New Testament scriptures that these are the
things that the apostles preached to the early church after the
ascension of Christ back into heaven, and he took these things
from the book of Exodus, and that's how they preached the
gospel to their generation. I want you to see that. And this
Old Testament will begin to come alive to you if God will show
you these pictures. And you begin to understand this
preaching. You know, doctrine hurts my head
sometimes. I sit and I listen and these
guys, and it's important. I'm not trying to belittle doctrine. You have to understand doctrine.
There's no doing away with doctrine. There has to be an understanding.
But it's just difficult to understand when things are put in a a mechanical
way. They're just difficult to understand.
But, boys, if you can just see a picture of it, here it is.
Then you understand it. Now you can go back to the mechanics
and you can talk about the mechanics and have some understanding.
And I believe that's why God did all these things is so that
we can preach with those things. I know that he did because Christ
did and the apostles did and all the prophets did. But the
book of Exodus also has practical lessons and warnings. I want
you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. The book of Exodus,
because it deals with the actual deliverance of Israel out of
bondage, and their last journey to Canaan's rest, gives us both
warnings and examples of those who began the journey, but did
not finish, and tells us why. The whole history of Israel being
a type of the church is just full of instructions concerning
God's deliverance and the walk of faith under that promised
rest. Now look at this. I'm going to
read for you several verses of Scripture here. 1 Corinthians
10. Let's just start with verse 1.
Moreover, brethren, I would not that you be ignorant how that
all our fathers were under the cloud all passed through the
sea and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the
sea and did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink
the same spiritual drink for the drink of that spiritual rock
that followed them. Everywhere they went, this rock
was there. Moses would smite the rock and
enough water would come out to feed two million people and all
their cattle and all their children, and all this. It's unbelievable,
isn't it? It's just this rock pile of them
everywhere they went. But with many of them, God was
not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things were examples to the intent that we should
not lust after the evil things as they also lusted. Don't do
like they did. That's what you tell Neither
be ye idolaters. Some of them were. They made
gold and cash, and they took up idols. As it is written, the
people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither
let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell
in one day three and 20,000 men. Now, this fornication we'll look at
when we get to it, but it had to do with mixing the daughters
of Moab. It had to do with fornication
with the daughters of Moab and leading these men with this strategy
of Balaam. That's the incident he's talking
about where Balaam tempted them with these daughters of Moab
and brought them into idolatry knowing what God would do when
they got there. And so it wasn't just physical
fornication he's talking about, he's talking about spiritual
fornication. Verse 9, neither let us tempt Christ as some of
them were tempted and were destroyed of the serpents. Neither murmur
ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer.
Now all these things happened unto them for examples and they
were written for our admonition. Now, I'm going to be a school
teacher for just a minute. What's that word admonition mean? I thought I knew what it meant.
Do you really know what it means? It means cautionary advice. All these things were written
as cautionary advice. Be careful. That's what Paul's
telling them. See, these Corinthians, they
were They were used to loose living and they were used to,
fornication was an acceptable thing in their day. It was just,
it's unbelievable what type of morality was just commonplace
in the days of the Greeks and the Romans. And so Paul is cautioning
them here and he said, I'm going to give you some cautionary advice.
Go back here and read about these men because here's the type,
here's the picture, and a bunch of them. that left out of Egypt
didn't go into Canaan. And God overthrew them in the
wilderness. And some of them were tempted with idolatry and
some of them through fornication and some of them tempted Christ
and so on. But he said, these things are
written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are
come. Now that's talking about the
end of the world in one sense, yes. Yes, we're living in the
last days. There's not going to be another
dispensation. This is it. These are the last days before
judgment. So we're living in the last days,
but that's not what this is saying. This is talking about the ends
for which the world was created. This is talking about the ends
for which Israel stood as a type. This is talking about the ends,
the design The end design, the fulfillment of all things. We're living in those days. Living
in the day of the greatest light. And he said, I'm going to give
you some cautionary advice. And so, I'm going to try as we
go through this book, Lord willing, to give you that advice where
I see it. And caution all of us to be cautious. Now with these
things in mind, let me give you three fundamental basic things
tonight to kind of kick off our study here in the book of Exodus.
And the first thing, and we've gone through this in these last
chapters of the book of Genesis, but I want to remind us, I want
you to see here that Egypt is a picture of this world. That's
what it is. It's a picture of this world.
We have to be delivered from This present evil world. That's what Christ said. This
present evil world. And Egypt stands as a picture
of this world. And the book of Exodus clearly
tells us that Joseph and all his brethren and all that whole
generation had died. Those of the children of Israel
who were now under this evil tyrant were born under his rule. Just like we are. Born into this
world. A man's born into it. He's born
under its curse and under the authority of its principalities
and powers. He's raised under its government,
under its tutorage, and under its influence. His skin color
can be different. It can be. His national citizenship
might be a little different. His habits and outward behavior
might vary just a little bit. And his lifestyle might vary
just a little bit. You know, some live in societies
that have great freedoms like we do in this country. Some don't.
Some live under absolute dictators like they do over in North Korea. And, you know, we enjoy these
things here in America and have for several hundred years. But
some are born under dictatorships and they have only whatever the
king's willing to give them. But all are alike in some respects. All of them. They're all cursed
in their father, Adam, and in this nature, sin. All of us are. In Ephesians 2, 3, it said, we
all had our behavior in times past in the lust of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Now that's what
it says. It says that if I'm black, it says that if I'm white,
it says that if I'm yellow, it says that if I'm red. All of these things happen to
do, and there's so many variables. I mean, you know, we live in
a country here and we just expect that everybody lives like we
do. Everybody don't. Man, I was never
so happy in my life to get back into this country as I was when
I went to Yucatan, Mexico. I looked out the window of that
plane, and I saw all that Bougainville vining and flowers, and man,
it looked so pretty, and I stepped off that plane, and the smell
hit me. I had thrown my clothes away. I couldn't get it out of
my clothes. I bought some trinkets and toys for the kids. We bleached
them. We done everything in the world
to them. You never could get rid of that smell that was in there.
They live in that. You can't drink anything that's
not sealed. I mean, it's just unbelievable.
Everybody don't live like we live here. They don't live like
we do here. But we all share these things.
We're all sinners by nature. They're sinners down there by
nature, same as we are. They have the same problems we
have. They're all cursed in their Father Adam with the nature of
sin. And destruction and misery, Paul said, are in their way,
whether you're Jew or Gentile. That's what he said in Romans
chapter 3. It makes no difference because you're all under sin.
And then he went on to explain what that meant. None righteous,
none good. He said, destruction and misery
are in their ways, in their nature. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. They don't know God. Their throat, he said, is an
open grave, and it gives vent to the corruption that's within.
He said, your throat is like an open grave, an open sepulcher. Well, that's the first thing
I know about this bondage. I'm bound in chains of darkness."
Bound in chains of darkness. In Matthew chapter 6, the Lord
likens the mind to a candle set in the middle of a room. A single
source of light. The only source of light. And
He said, if that candle, if that one window, if that one source
of light be evil, and the light that you thought you had was
all darkness. Now He's talking about the mind
is what He's talking about. The mind and the heart of man.
If that's all darkness, if everything you process through this mind
is darkness, how great is that darkness? You see what I'm saying? We're bound in chains of darkness
through the fall. None that understandeth, none
that seeketh after God. And then the second part of this
bondage is this evil king who believes himself to be a god.
The pharaohs thought they were gods. They thought they were
deity. This evil king that ran the place
thought he was a god. He had everybody bow to him as
a god. He had everybody obey him like he was god. Build shrines
to him and they're still over there, those big pyramids. Build
monuments to him. That's what I want you to see,
this evil king. That's Satan, isn't it? If Egypt
is a picture of this world and an evil king rules it, then we're
talking about Satan. Oh, you say, that's going out
on limb, is it? Listen to this over in Isaiah
chapter 14. How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground which did weaken the nations? Isaiah 14, 13. For thou hast
said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God. The stars of God are His ministers,
whether angelic or human. It makes no difference. That's
His stars. He said, I'll sit also on the
mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. Mount
Sinai lay to the north of Jerusalem. That's what He's talking about.
God said in Psalm 2, He said, I put my king on that mount.
Satan said, I'm going to sit on the mount. I'm going to sit
on the mount. I'm going to sit in the place
of Christ. I'm going to sit on the mount. Psalm 48, 1 and 2
is even clearer, if you doubt what I'm saying there. And then
in verse 14, he said, I'll ascend up above the heights of the clouds.
I'll be like the Most High. Satan believes he's a god. That's
what he said in his heart. I'm going to be God. I'm going
to be God. A man is not going to sit on
the throne. Look at me. Look at my glory. Look at my power. Look at my
wisdom. A man is not going to sit on
that throne. I'm going to sit on that throne.
He don't deserve to be there, and I do. God said, you're out
of here. He cast him out. Cast him out. And I don't want to shock you,
but God gave Satan this power and this reign in the earth.
God gave it to him just like he gave it to Pharaoh down in
Egypt. And men say, well, God didn't
give Pharaoh that power. That ain't what God said. He
said, for this purpose have I raised thee up. We're going to get into
that. God gave him this power. In the
book of Jude, if you go over there and study those verses
where he's talking about men not bowing to a to the authority
that God sets in place. He tells you that the angel,
Michael, when disputing over the body of Moses, he wouldn't
bring a rattling accusation against Satan because he recognized God's
authority in him. He didn't say one word to him.
He said, the Lord rebuked thee. Michael didn't tangle with it.
He didn't tangle with it. Why? Because he didn't think
he could whoop him? No, that wasn't it. That wasn't
it. He knew God had him there and had him there for a purpose.
And he bowed to the authority of Christ. For this same purpose have I
raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Old Pharaoh dictated
in Egypt with no regard for Joseph. That's what it says. He says,
a new king arose over Egypt who knew not Joseph. Had no regard
to Joseph whatsoever. No regard to his station, to
what he did for Egypt. Had no regard to him. Now you
remember who Joseph was. This was the type of the glorified
Christ. Satan had no regard to him. None
whatsoever. He dictated the morality and
pleasures and citizenships and religion and what was and was
not acceptable. And there was all kinds of secondary
things and priests and teachers and counselors and senators and
so on, but at the top was Pharaoh. And he told you what was acceptable
and what wasn't. Satan dictates this world just
that way. Just that way. So much so that
in the book of Revelations it says that in that day when Christ
takes him away, that the nations and the kings will mourn over
him. And all the vendors that were rich through him, they're
going to mourn over him because God took him out of the way.
Exposed him for what he was and judged him. In the scripture,
Satan's called the god of this world. First, because he has
this usurped authority over him. And he takes men, the scripture
says, unregenerate men captive at his will. And secondly, because
of man's nature and his total inability to discern his lies. He's wiser than men. He's more
deceitful than you can possibly imagine. He took down one of
the cheapest of the apostles in a heartbeat. He took down
a man that God himself said there's no other man on earth like Job.
He took him down in a heartbeat. We're no match for him. Satan
rules by means of this antichrist religion, which no doubt is larger
and stronger and more influential in our day than it has been in
any day preceding. He rules by setting before men
every kind of wanton pleasure his evil heart could desire,
material, spiritual, sexual, monetary, you name it. Whatever
it is you want, he'll give it to you. He'll give it to you.
Satan rules this world by appearing to have man's good in mind and
his welfare at heart. And he rules thirdly by setting
the people of God in such a light that they appear to be enemies
of men and God. And you read through this first
chapter here in the book of Exodus, and that's the first thing old
Pharaoh, who said it? Pharaoh did. He got over there
and he said, look at them. They're more powerful than we
are. They've been there for how many years? This book only deals
with 140, and I know that they were in Egypt for 400. So we're
talking over 200 and some years, and they never did one thing
to harm anybody in Egypt. Everything they did was a benefit
to Egypt. But here's old Pharaoh, and he's
putting them over here in the light, and he said, I'm telling
you, the first guy that tries war against Egypt, all two million
of them are going to run over there and join his army. What
are we going to do about it? We're going to put them to work.
That's what we're going to do. And he put taskmasters out there.
Taskmasters. Oh, and it says, and they built
treasure cities for him. Treasure cities. What is the
Vatican in Rome if it ain't a treasure city for their god king, huh?
That's exactly what it is. What are these big monuments?
I go up there to Washington, D.C., and they got a National
Cathedral. Who ever heard of such a thing?
How many religions is there in this country? But we've got a
National Cathedral up there, and it's Catholic. Huh? How come that to be? How come
the name of this nation to be on that? There's all kind of
other churches, but none of them say National Cathedral on it.
Treasure cities for their god kings. And that's what all these
big cathedrals of religion, what are they if they're not treasure
cities for their god king? That's all they are. All else. Paul said in Galatians 1 verse
13, for you've heard of my conversation in times past in the Jews' religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted
it. How did he do that? He did that under the Jewish
religion. That's how he did it. That's
Antichrist religion. And that's what I'm saying. Satan
uses this Antichrist religion, whether it be Jewish or Catholic
or Baptist or Methodist or whatever it is. He knows how to use it. He knows how to use it. And it
always sets the people of God to be enemies. And if they can't
prove them to be enemies, then he'll make them suspect to be
enemies, because preaching what they preach, sooner or later
they're going to cause trouble. Well, it's only been preached
for 2,000 years. But all of a sudden, now it's
going to be trouble. It's going to be trouble. And I don't care
who he is, any man in any religion, where Christ is not the single
and utmost object of their ministry, he's Antichrist. Well, he is. And he's doing harm to the people
of God. Egypt being a type and picture of this world. And then
secondly, there was a people who in the providence of God
were born in Egypt, but they were not of it. How come them
not to be of it? They were born there. Because
God, before the foundation of the world, chose a people and
set these men apart. And he came and he met with their
great, great, great, great, great grandfather, Abraham, and told
Abraham, be of the sacrifice. And he took him out there, and
a darkness fell on him. And Abraham, he saw these things. And God told him, he said, here's
what your people are going to do generations from now. They're
going to go down in here, and they're going to live in a nation
that's not their nation. And they're going to be under
bondage. And they're going to be truly, cruelly treated down
there. And he said, after 400 years,
I'm going to bring them out. And I'm going to take them into
this land that I promised you. I'd say that was a covenant of
grace, wouldn't you? God made it before they were
ever born, before they ever appeared in Egypt. He made this covenant,
and now He's fulfilling this covenant. They've been covenanted
for and made provision for by God before they were ever born
in Egypt. You can read about it back in
Genesis chapter 15. And the children of Israel, as they're set before
us, they're a typical people. They represent the true Israel
of God. And I'm going to get into that
a little bit more as we go on, but I want to get into my third
and final point before I run out of time. And that is that
Egypt was brought into power and glory for no other reason
than for God to demonstrate His saving grace in the delivery
of Israel out of it. Egypt was was what it was for
the glory of God. I mean, they're still singing
praise of ancient Egypt, ain't they? You go to any kind of an
art gallery, any kind of a museum, and there's a big thing there
when they advertise that we're having all this stuff that was
taken out of this Pharaoh's pyramid or this Pharaoh's pyramid. We're
going to have it here. Man, that place is packed out
wall to wall. God raised that place up and
gave that place a glory. out of this world for no other
reason than to put them down and to show His grace in His
deliverance of Israel out of their midst. It was brought into
power and glory by the man Joseph whom God sent before to save
and preserve His brethren. The Egyptians didn't do anything
to earn that glory. Joseph did it. Now you go out
and read about it. It was Joseph making the deals
with the corn, wasn't it? And they came and they said,
we don't have any more money. He said, you got cattle? They
said, we got cattle. All right, I'll take your cattle.
I'll take your goats. I'll take your labor. I'll take
your hire. Egypt, at the end of that drought,
was the most glorious, richest nation on the face of the earth.
But none of it owing to the Egyptians. All of it owing to Joseph. And
there's a lot of glory. I'm telling you, when you look
around and you think that man, as a created creature, can split
an atom, can think up a way to build a vessel and put a man
in it and take him all the way to the moon and bring him back. Or to build a space station and
stick it out there in outer space somewhere and go up there and
live for weeks and months at a time and then come back. or
just the everyday appliances that we use, electricity, and
all of these things. I mean, these are things that
nobody's ever enjoyed in all of these things. There's some
glory associated to this world. But who gave it and why did he
give it? See, that's what I'm saying about Egypt, and that's
what I'm saying about this world. These things were all brought
here by our Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ, and for one purpose.
God at the end of time, there's not going to be any glory about
splitting atoms. Splitting atoms is going to be
like chopping kindling compared to what He's going to show in
that day. He's going to show His glory
and His grace. But this world in all of its
present glory, it's not being preserved for its own glory. Nor is Satan allowed to occupy
his throne for his glory, but both are present and both are
being used because God, having glorified his son, is in the
process of bringing out everything he was glorified for. That's
right. This world enjoys only as much
power and authority as God sees fit to accomplish his end. Old Pharaoh down in Egypt looked
like a mad dog. Unchained mad dog. Doing anything
he wanted to do. I tell a man go and he goes.
I tell a man come and he comes. I'm Pharaoh. I'm Pharaoh. Looked like an unchained dog,
but God had him on a rope. And when he ran as far as God
wanted him to go, he'd run out of rope. And God said, that's
the end. And buried him in the sea. That's what I'm saying about
today. I look at these religious organizations and they're mammoth.
They're mammoth. And I look at the grace churches
and you can count them on two hands nearly. And I look around
and I don't, I'm telling you, I look around at principalities
and powers and I look around at Satan and his power and his
influence and how that he's influenced and deceived the whole world.
John said, we know where of God and the whole world lies in wickedness. Man, how do we stand against
them kind of odds? Because God got them on the rope.
And He lets them go as far as He wants them to go. And then
He pulls them back. He pulls them back. It only enjoys
as much power and authority as God sees fit to accomplish His
end. And as we study this book, let
me warn you of this. There's all kind of powerful
forces at work in this world, principalities and powers, spirits
of wickedness in high places, and we're no match for that power. You and I and every other believer
on earth are not sufficient to defeat these powers. We're not. Nothing less than a divine intervention
is going to do, just like it was down in Egypt. They outnumbered
the Egyptians. outnumbered them. But they couldn't
resist that power, that power and force. Another thing, because
God's providence wouldn't let them, wouldn't let them. God
had something else in mind, didn't He? They didn't have any weapons. They didn't have any armies.
They didn't even have any will. Moses said, I thought they would
understand. We're going to get into that.
Old Moses, he stood up and slayed that Egyptian. And they got angry
at him. The people he was trying to save
got mad at him. He said, well, I thought they'd
understand. They don't have a will. God has to make you willing. And he didn't make them willing
until he came back the second time. The only thing that Israel had
was a knowledge of the true and living God. And so in their affliction,
that passed down to them from Jacob. Passed down to them from
these men of God who witnessed to them. That's all they had.
That's all they had. And when they're down there and
begin to hurt, begin to be in pain, begin to suffer, begin
to realize what oppression really was, they begin to call out to
Him. Because He's the only one able
to deliver them. And God heard their cry. So as I close this first study,
and I want to point out here that these first five verses
of this book list the names of certain individuals. And this
tells me that God has a people, a particular people. That's what
he tells. Every time he gives us a genealogy
before he tells us something, that's what he's doing. He's
telling you that This involves a particular people. He tells
you their names. He tells you who their fathers
were. He tells you where they come from. God has a people. He has a people. Out of every
nation, kindred, and tribe on the heavens, a particular people.
Not just a number. He don't go over here and write
144,000 on the wall, and then he's just saving whoever led
him. And then when he gets to 144,000,
he's going to close the whole thing out. That's not what he
does. God chose a particular people. He said, not only does
He know His sheep, but He said, I call them by name. Didn't He? And He said, when they hear me,
they know who I am. And they come out. Everybody
don't come out, just His sheep. And they follow Him. God has
a people. Quietly, And without notice,
they're multiplied in the earth just like the children of Israel
were in Egypt. Just quietly. Nobody knew what
was going on. They come down there. What was
there, 70 of them when they first come down? It wasn't many. Pharaoh
sent out a few wagons and hauled the whole outfit down, everything
down, brought them down into Egypt. And quietly and continuously,
God multiplied them in the earth. And when his time come to call
them out, he sent his messenger down and he said, come out. And
they come out. And the old evil king resisted.
But God overcame that evil king with his word, with his presence,
and with his power. Not the first weapon was raised.
Not the first weapon. Just a rod. Just a rod. And that's the way it is today.
That's what's being pictured in this book. I hope and pray
God will give me some liberty to preach it to you.