God will enable me. I want you
to turn to Exodus chapter 8, and I want to preach to you about
our God, the great divider of men. God, the great divider of men. When the Lord God sent Moses
and Aaron to Pharaoh, He commanded Moses to tell Pharaoh that he
would divide his people from the Egyptians, that he would
do so in a demonstrably clear, unmistakable, and undeniable
way, in such a way that it would be apparent even to the rebel
king of Egypt that he is God alone in the midst of the earth. Exodus chapter 8, verse 22. And I will sever in that day
the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms
of flies shall be there. To the end that thou mayest know
that I am the Lord in the midst of the And I will put a division
between my people and thy people. Tomorrow shall this sign be."
And the Lord did so. God has always put a division
between men. He has, from everlasting, put
a difference between Israel and Egypt. He has maintained that
division throughout the ages of time, and He will continue
to maintain that division throughout the ages of time. He will maintain
it forever. He always puts a distinction. In everything He does, He puts
a distinction between Israel and Egypt. Every time the Lord
God sent Moses to Pharaoh, He told Pharaoh, My people shall
be distinct from thy people. My people I have divided from
thy people. And he always owned Israel as
my people. And he always referred to Egypt
as thy people. The Lord God said, I will put
a division between my people and thy people. and blessed be
his name, the Lord did so. There is a continual and eternal
distinction observed in the word of God between the chosen seed
of promise and the world, between God's elect and the reprobate
of this world, between that which is called the seed of Christ
and the seed of the serpent. It is a distinction that is made
by God and maintained by God all the time. Who can trace out
the wonders of God's distinguishing grace? What a vast distinction
God has made and daily makes between the sons of men, between
his people and the rest of Adam's fallen race. how vast the difference
is now, and how vast it shall be in the world to come. We ought
to always have this before our mind's eye when we awake in the
morning, when we walk through the day, and when we lay down
at night. The Lord God puts a division
between His people and the world. He has done so today. He has
done so this hour, He has done so from eternity, and He will
do so tomorrow. Our God says concerning His people,
Against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his
tongue. Against man or beast, that you
may know that the Lord God doth put a difference between the
Egyptians and Israel. God's object, His purpose in
everything He did with Egypt, in everything He did with Pharaoh
and the Egyptians under Him, was the deliverance of His people
out of Egypt for their everlasting good and the glory of His own
name. Egypt was raised up as a nation. Egypt was raised up as a nation,
and Pharaoh as ruler in that nation so that God's people,
the people of his choice, might be nurtured and protected and
provided for and caused to increase for 400 years until they came
forth as a mighty nation out of Egypt. Did you hear what I
said? God raised up Egypt and raised
up Pharaoh only that they might be a place where he would nurture
and care for and raise up and protect and provide for Israel,
the seed of Abraham, that he might fulfill the covenant that
he made with Abraham 400 years earlier. Do you mean, pastor,
that There was no mercy intended for Egypt. I challenge you to
find anywhere in the history of Egypt anything written in
the book of God that indicates there was any mercy intended
for Egypt. No, sir. Egypt was raised up
because God intended mercy for Israel. You mean there were no
blessings bestowed upon Egypt? Oh, countless things that men
would look upon as blessings. In Egypt, there was plenty of
corn. In Egypt, there was plenty of
rain. In Egypt, there was plenty of cattle. In Egypt, there was
plenty of everything. But it was a curse to the Egyptians. The bounty was for Israel. And
Israel suffered no harm. Israel suffered no harm, but
only good. for having been in Egypt for
400 years. Watch them when they come out.
They came out in a far superior position to what they were when
they went in. They came out far richer than
when they went in. They came out a mightier people
than when they went in. They came out more numerous than
when they went in. And so it is to this day. That is exactly what God is doing
with the world in which we live now. He is gathering out His
elect, gathering us out of the nations of the earth, just as
He gathered Israel out of the midst of Egypt. He is separating
the precious from the vile. He is separating the wheat, His
wheat, from the tares, gathering His wheat into His barn, and
the tares He is binding in bundles for the burning. Egypt will always
be Egypt, the world will always be the world, and God's elect
will always be a people He has divided from Egypt and the world
unto Himself. Between the two, between Egypt
and Israel, God has made and constantly makes a division. Now just in case You haven't
already made the connection. Let me make it very clear. Between
the world and his church, between the world and his elect, the
Lord God has made, is making, and shall continually make a
division. And that division is for the
good of his people. Now, God's favor to the chosen. is never obvious until the time
of deliverance comes. It is never obvious. If you go
back and read the history of what we've seen so far in the
nation of Israel while they were in the land of Egypt, The division
was made between Israel and Egypt long before Israel ever came
down to Egypt. And God's favor was upon them
all the while. They went down to Egypt because
God was favorable to Abraham and to his seed. They were preserved
in Egypt because God was favorable to Abraham and to his seed. But
all the while they were in Egypt, it looked like all blessedness
And all divine favor and all goodness was upon Egypt. And God was frowning upon Israel. That's the way it always looks,
by divine design. Egypt had the whip. Israel felt the lash. Egypt owned
everything. The Israelites performed all
the work. The sons of Jacob made bricks
and built houses, and the Egyptians lived in them. The Egyptians
drank wine from golden goblets and ate off of silver platters,
while the children of Israel drank from earthen vessels and
ate from what they could, all because God was gracious to Israel. You see, there is a people in
this world of whom the Lord God speaks in the book of Ecclesiastes,
and He says this concerning them. Oh, I pray you're not numbered
among them. The Lord God has set the earth
in their hearts so that they cannot find out God. That's what he did with the Egyptians.
He gave them everything heart could desire and sent them blindness
and death and destruction. But all that changed in a heartbeat. God turned the tables one night. And even before he brought Israel
out of Egypt, he made it obvious that Egypt was marked for destruction
and Israel was divinely protected. When the Lord God brought His
plagues in Egypt, the land of Goshen was spared. He sent thick
darkness, darkness that was felt, darkness that that was felt inside
a man over all the land of Egypt. But in Israel, there was clear
light. Why? Somebody says, that's impossible. It is until you start considering
the fact that God did it. He sent darkness all around the
land of Goshen. Right up to the edge of that
one section in Egypt. Darkness, thick darkness. But
in Goshen, when the sun rose in the morning, shined bright.
When the stars shined at night, they shined only on the land
of Goshen, giving light to God's people. The Lord God sent swarms
of flies and lice. He turned the dust of the earth
into lice. Filthy swarms of flies filthy
lice everywhere in Egypt. Everywhere. Everywhere. Pharaoh
hardened his heart and rebelled against God and would not bow
to God and would not seek His mercy when God turned the water
into blood and the Lord God takes flies. Flies. And brings judgment upon him.
Lice. He brings judgment upon the mightiest
armies in the world. But in the land of Goshen, nobody
needed a fly's water. There were no lice. Everything
was exactly as they would have it to be with regard to the flies
and the lice. None were there. When God sent
hail and murrain upon the cattle of the Egyptians, the cattle
of the children of Israel were spared. On their fields there
fell no desolating shower from heaven. And then at last, when
God sent the destroying angel and he unsheathed his glittering
sword to smite in the last decisive blow upon the Egyptians, every
house in Egypt, from Pharaoh, the king in his palace, down
to the poorest common man in the land, In every house in Egypt,
oh, the screams of grief that went up that night for the firstborn
son in every house, God killed him. But no one died in Israel. Not one. Not one. God provided
a sacrifice for Israel. The Israelites had blood upon
their doors, and a lamb feeding upon it within the doors. And
God spared all the sons of Israel, for whom a lamb and a sacrifice
was provided. And there was no sacrifice provided
and none given to the children of Egypt." Well, Brother Don,
if indeed, as we have always heard, portrays the world and
Israel, God's people, then it appears that God never intended
anything for Egypt except destruction and used Egypt for the saving
of Israel. You've got that exactly right. Exactly right. Exactly right. The Lord God led the chosen nation
out of Egypt like a huge flock of sheep. And when they came
to the Red Sea, He divided the sea before them and made a path
for His chosen so that they walked through the Red Sea just as though
they were walking on pavement. The walls of the sea stood. The walls of the sea! What a
strange way to talk! The walls of the sea! stood like
an erect barrier to protect Israel while they walked through. And
when Egypt was saved to pursue them to the other side, they
would drown in the flood of God's wrath. And Israel stands on the
other side and sings God's praise as one great triumphant symphony
in everything, giving blessedness to the God of Israel. Because
in everything, God blessed Israel, and in everything, God cursed
the Egyptians. So it has been, so it is, and
so it shall forever be. When this world is done and time
is no more, when our God wraps everything up, and I know there's
lots of Yik-yak and debate about the global warming or coming
ice age. The fools don't have any idea
which way we're going. That's because God doesn't give
them any idea. This world will stand exactly as long as God
Almighty ordained it to stand. I don't care how much aerosol
hairspray you ladies use, you're not going to hurt it. It ain't
going to happen. Oh, we're going to run out of
this. You're not going to run out of anything until you run
out of time in this world. That's all there is to it. God
has ordained it and established it and uses it for the saving
of His people. And when His people are saved,
He'll wrap it up. And that's all it was made for
to start with. So we needn't get too excited if we lose the
bug here and there along the way. God made this earth for
the saving of His people. But there is a division. And
what a division it is. God said, I will put a division
between My people and thy people." And then we read in verse 24,
ìAnd the Lord did so.î Blessed be His name. The Lord
did so. Before the world was, He made
a division between men. Itís called the blessed election
of grace. God Almighty Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit made a covenant. Now, I realize, I realize, I
hope you do, when we talk about God making a covenant, God doing
this, that, and the other, we're talking in human language because
we're talking about something infinitely beyond us. And the
Lord God condescends to express His eternal goodness to His own
in terms that somehow we can get a little handle on it. We're
talking about that which God did from eternity, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, by which God Almighty not only arranged, but
performed the salvation of His people in Christ our surety,
so that He is declared to be the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, and we're declared to be justified, sanctified,
and glorified in that Lamb from the foundation of the world.
When the Lord Jesus Christ came here in time, He came here to
fulfill righteousness by the sacrifice of Himself, by laying
down His life as our substitute, dying in our room instead at
Calvary. And when Jesus Christ died at
Calvary, He made a division between men. God did not choose all,
He chose His Israel. And Christ did not die for all,
He is the Lamb, the Passover sacrifice for God's Israel. And He makes a very clear division.
A very clear division. In John chapter 10, the Jews,
hearing Him talk about Himself laying down His life for the
sheep, got upset and said, we don't like that. He said, it
infects you too. You're not my sheep. You believe not because
you're not of my sheep. Somebody says, well, that means
that the Jews prove that they're not his sheep because they don't
believe. That's right, they did. And the
reason why is because they're not his sheep. You believe not
because you're not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. There stands upon Calvary Three
crosses. And God the Son, our Passover,
hangs between two men. For one, He makes intercession,
not the other. For one, He makes atonement,
not the other. To one, He gives promise of life,
not the other. What did He do with that one?
Left Him right where He was. But what made the difference?
Christ made the difference. And what is it that makes the
difference between you and me? Jesus Christ and Christ alone. And those for whom he has made
a division, for whom he made a division by his purpose and
by his blood, he makes a division in time by the exercise of his
grace. God makes this division, and
it's a vital one. It's a vital one. This is one
of the things that distinguishes Us from multitudes of religious
people, we recognize that the division God makes between his
people is not only outward, it's inward. It's a vital distinction
of nature, a vital division of nature that he makes for his
own by his omnipotent mercy and his free, sovereign, saving grace,
giving us life and faith in his Son. This division is described
in Revelation chapter 21. Revelation 21 and verse 27. Turn
there if you will. In 1 Corinthians 15, the scripture
says, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. What does that
mean? That means, Alvin, you can't go to heaven the way you
came into this world. That's exactly what that means.
We cannot carry that nature to glory that God expelled from
the garden when Adam sinned in the garden. Something else must
be done to us. Not only God's choice, not only
Christ's blood shed for us, but there must be a nature put in
us that is meet to inherit heavenly glory. Look here in Revelation
21, verse 27. There shall in no wise enter into it anything
that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh
a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."
These who are made partakers of the first resurrection, Revelation
20 verse 6. These who are born of God, they
are made new creatures in Christ. There are some people in this
world, Brother David Burge mentioned it a little bit ago in his prayer, some people in this world who
will hear his voice and who will bow to God's Son. There are some
people in this world to whom and of whom the Lord Jesus Christ
makes this blessed statement. Ye must be born again. You must be born again. Not should be, ought to be, might
be. Must be born again. You must
be born again if God wrote your name in the book of life of the
Lamb before the world was you. You must be born again if Jesus
Christ died in your room instead at Calvary. You must be born
again if you would enter into glory, because you cannot enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven except you be born again. No man can
see nor enter into the Kingdom of God except to be born again.
God makes this division among men, this great distinction by
His grace, and He makes this division continually every day
in His providence. Oh, to the naked eye of flesh. It appears that all things happen
to all men alike. We all get sick and we all suffer. and we all have trouble, and
we all have heartache, and we all die at God's appointed time. Those things are common to all
men. But hear me, hear me, God help you to hear me. For God's
elect to His chosen, every provident And I thought about that a good
while when I wrote it down today. Every providence? Yeah. Because
everything is by God's special providence
for His own. Everything. Larry Brown, take
a breath. That's a providence. Every providence. That's right. That's a providence.
Let the devil himself in hell wiggle and squeal. That's a providence. Now listen. Every providence
for God's chosen is a blessing. God's blessing is wrapped up
in all that which appears to be cursed upon us. And in all
our crosses, God sends His mercy. is sometimes bitter. But that bitter cup, Bob, is
mixed by our great Physician, and it is always full of health.
Always. Our woe is itself our will, and
we are never losers by our losses. But we grow rich toward God most
rich toward God. When the Lord God makes us poor
in this world with difficulty and trial, God's providence is
always a blessing to you who are His. Always. When it hurts and when it feels
good, it's all the same blessing. When it causes you to weep, And
when it causes you to leap with joy, it's all the same blessing. When you can see with clearness
that God's doing you good, and when it appears that all things
are against you, He's still doing you good. We know. Now, do you or don't you? We
know that all things work together for good to them that love God. to them who are the called according
to His purpose. I often think about those men and women in the Scriptures who were born with this ailment
or that, or came to this difficulty or that. That woman with an issue
of blood, she's about to die. That man who was born blind.
that man who had the dropsy, the lame, the deaf. Much as they surely complained
about those things in the days of their agony, how they must
have rejoiced that in God's providence He put them in a position where
they were compelled to seek the mercy of His Son. Not only for
the healing of their bodies, but for the healing of their
souls. Oh, bless God for whatever it is that He uses to bring me
to His side. And bless God for whatever it
is He uses to bring you to His side. Other folks are like the Egyptians. Prosperous. Rich. Not just physically, but in themselves. Our Lord said, blessed are the
poor in spirit. I wonder why he didn't say the
spiritually poor, because not everybody is poor in spirit,
though all are spiritually poor. Multitudes lived their lives
rich in their souls, in their own estimation, like the Egyptians
were. And never knowing a thing of
poverty of soul and poverty of spirit, the Egyptians were full
of blessings and wealth. But the Lord God and mixed their
cup, their sweet, sweet cup, with poison to destroy them. They bloomed like beautiful flowers
in the field because God was determined to mow them down.
Turn to Psalm 92, I'll show you. Psalm 92. In Psalm 57, the psalmist said,
ìI will cry unto God Most High, unto God that performeth all
things for me.î He said in Psalm 73, ìSurely thou didst set them
in slippery places. Thou castest them down into destruction.î
Now look here at Psalm 92, verse 5. ìO Lord, how great are thy
works! and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man knoweth not, neither
doth a fool understand this. When the wicked spring as the
grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, look
at it now, don't just listen to me, read it, it is that they
shall be destroyed forever. But God's put a division between
Israel and Egypt, a division which He makes manifest when the day appointed for deliverance
comes to his own. The Lord said to Abraham, 400
years, I'm going to visit my people, bring them out of Egypt. 400 years. He says to you, behold,
thy time was the time of love, and that God's appointed time
He brings His own out of the land of bondage and darkness
and death into the glorious liberty of His free grace in Jesus Christ
and makes manifest the division He made from eternity, dividing
His own from the rest of the world. In fact, the very word
that is used, sanctifying them, is the word to divide, to separate. He comes in saving grace and
separates his own from the rest of the world. And he does it
in remarkable ways. Two men come to the house of
God. Come to the house of God because
it's the appointed time to worship, and one of them marches right
up front. He's just happy with himself.
prays thus with himself, and he goes home and goes to hell. Another one comes in, and he's
somehow made to know something about what he is. He wants so
much as to lift his eyes toward heaven, and he beats on his breast,
acknowledging that his heart is the root of all evil, and
cries, God be merciful to me, the sinner. And he goes down
to his house justified. with peace in his soul, forgiven
of all sin, because God speaks peace to his soul through the
blood of Christ. One time, George Whitefield was
preaching. I read this the other day in Top Lady's Works, one
day this week. It must have been yesterday.
It was one day this week. Yeah. And he told about a man
who came in. Whitefield was scheduled to preach.
And this fellow had filled his pocket full of rocks. I mean, he had his pockets full
of rocks. He was determined to stone Whitefield
with every rock he had. But God was determined to be
gracious to him. And on his way home that night,
he pulled the rocks out of his pocket and dropped them along
the road, giving thanks to God for his free grace. For God called
him by the voice of the man he had determined to hurt badly. One time Whitefield was preaching
And some boys were out, decided to just step into the church
building. They had clocks in the churches. These boys wanted
to see what time it was. They stepped in, and all of them
stepped out, but one, one of them heard God speak. And the time for the distinction
had come. And God called him by His grace.
Last week I was reminded by Brother David Pledger, one of the men
in his church, Brother Fred Evans. Fred's a little older than I
am. First time I preached in Houston, Faith was, I think,
13 years old. The only time she and I ever
took a trip together, just the two of us. I was preaching down there,
and Brother Evans came to hear me preach. And he got mad. Oh, he got mad. Stormed out that
night, got in the car, told his wife, I'm not going back here
ever again. Next night she talked him into coming. And he got madder.
I mean, he got mad. And I'm not going back anymore. That's it. That's it. You can
go if you want to. But the next night he came and
sat outside. Wouldn't even come in the building. Sat right outside the door. And
he tried not to hear, but if God calls you, you're going to
hear. Next night, he was there before I was, and I was staying
right back in the building. And he'd been right in the house
of God ever since. How come? Because God said, I'll
show you to Pharaoh, I put a difference, a division between your people
and my people. And the Lord did it. And the
Lord did it. Oh, God do it again. for Christ's
sake. Amen.