We recognize and we rejoice in
the fact that salvation is of the Lord. That cannot be stated
too frequently, too fully, or too dogmatically. Salvation from
start to finish in its entirety is God's work. It is not in any
way dependent upon anything in us or anything done by us. It is in no way conditioned upon
anything that any man can do or must do. Salvation is altogether
God's work. This is the language of Scripture.
None can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a
ransom for him, and none can keep alive his own soul. No man can save himself or make
himself a likely candidate for salvation or contribute anything
to his salvation. Sinners are dead, dead, spiritually
dead. Now, sometimes people talk about
deadness as if it were a comparative thing. Either you're dead or
you ain't. That's all there is to it. Sinners are dead in trespasses
and in sins. Absolutely dead. Now, when a
dead man can will something, or do something, or choose something
to bring himself to life, or to make it possible for somebody
else to bring him to life, I want you to let me know. Men are dead
in trespasses and in sins. And as they can do nothing to
save themselves, You and I can do nothing to make folks saved
or savable. We pray earnestly for the fruit
of our loins. I pray for your children as the
children of this congregation as my own. We pray God have mercy
on them. I labor for their souls and for
yours as I labor for my own. I preach and I seek from God
a message for your soul as theirs every time I stand before you
to speak His word. But I can't do one thing to change
the condition of any lost sinner. That's not possible. Let me show
you a couple of scriptures. I'll get to my text in just a
little while, but I've got some things I want to say. My text
is going to be Exodus chapter 6, verse 1. But turn with me,
if you will, to John chapter 1. Election is God's work. Redemption is God's work. Regeneration,
the new birth, is God's work. Preservation is God's work. He
who called us keeps us. It's God who worketh in you both
to will and due of his good pleasure. And our final glorification at
last with Christ is altogether God's work. We contribute nothing
to it. Here in John chapter 1, verse 12, Our Lord, we're told,
came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many
as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of
God." Yes, we do receive him, and we don't just receive him
passively. In the new birth, we receive
him just like this glass received water. The glass didn't do anything
to get it, it was poured into it. And in the new birth, we
receive life completely passively. But by faith in Christ, we receive
Him just like I'm fixing to receive some water, because we've been
born of God. Now, to as many as received Him,
just as I received that water, to as many as by faith reach
out and take the Son of God, to them gave He power, that is,
the authority, the right, and the ability to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name. Now, how did this
come? which were born not of blood."
I was shocked when I was 17 years old. I was sitting discussing
the matter of God's grace and the experience of grace with
a man who claimed to believe in free grace. And this fellow,
he said, well, you know, I think perhaps my son may have an advantage
over others after all. He's my son. I'm going to teach
him right. I'm going to raise him right.
Not on your life. Being kin to me or being blood
kin to the Son of God himself gives nobody any advantage before
God. God is no respecter of persons. Born not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh. Man, we're told everywhere has
a free will. Free to everything except God. Free to everything except righteousness. Free to everything except life. No. Free will is the greatest
myth that's ever been concocted and pulled over the eyes of men.
Man is free. What foolishness. What idiot
could ever imagine thinking such a thing, except in the context
of religion. Men are bound by tons of things. and never more bound than by
their nature, nor of the will of man. Folks aren't born again
because they're akin to you, and they're not born again because
they choose to be born again, and they're not born again because
you choose for them to be born again, but of God. Is that plain enough? So then,
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. We know that salvation is of
the Lord, entirely of the Lord, and we know this too. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Turn
to Romans chapter 1. In his infinite sovereignty,
the God of heaven condescends to use saved sinners to save
lost sinners, to use the preaching of the gospel as the instrument
by which he saves his elect. Romans 1, verse 14. Paul said,
I'm a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to
the wise and to the unwise. How? How is he a debtor to folks
he never knew? How is he a debtor? If a man
has within his hand the ability to save life and he doesn't do
it, that man has robbed people of that which he owes them. Paul
says, I'm a debtor to all men, not because he has any ability
in his hand, but because that which he holds in his hand is
the source of life to dead sinners. Read it. So as much as in me
is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome
also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth." I've told you many times, if
you haven't written it down somewhere yet, write it down now. That
word power, if you were to transliterate the word rather than translate
it, you'd spell it dynamite. That's the word. It is the dynamite
of God to salvation. The explosive power of God. The gospel of God's grace. It
needs no adornment. It needs no assistance. It needs
no protection. It doesn't need me to do anything
with it except just preach it. That's all. The gospel, the power
of God's salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
And this is the reason it is. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. Christ, the righteousness of
God. the obedience and death of the Son of God from my faith
to your faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith."
Romans 10, 13. Now the point that I'm making,
and I want it to be made crystal clear here and to everyone who
hears the message that I'm preaching to you tonight, gospel preaching
is not an optional extra that you can get along with or get
along without. Gospel preaching is vital to
the salvation of a man's soul, and it is vital to your edification
in the knowledge of Christ. It is vital to the worship of
God. It is vital to every aspect of
our lives spiritually. Romans 10, 13. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then some
questions are raised. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? You can't worship him. if you
don't trust him? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they've not heard? You can't trust him if you've
never heard him. And how shall they hear? Without
a preacher." Wait a minute. Did he really intend to say that?
Did he really intend to say that? How shall they hear without a
preacher? Well, I believe the Lord just taught me this because
I was reading the Bible one day and studied real good. He ain't
never taught you any such thing. Never. Never. He teaches you
through the reading of his word as the word is expanded to you
by somebody else who understands his word. Not apart from your
own reading of the word. Not apart from your own responsibility
to study and make yourself, show yourself approved unto God. But
in conjunction with the preaching of the gospel, God teaches his
people. How shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach? except they be sent. I'm more convinced of this right
now after being engaged in this business of preaching for 40
years than I've ever been in my life. I can't speak to your
heart right now unless God has sent me this hour to speak to
your heart. It can't be done. I can't concoct
and study up and prepare a message by which to reach your heart
can't be done. As it is written, O how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring
glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath
believed thy report? Now watch this. So then, faith
cometh Only one way. Faith doesn't come any other
way. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. Brother Don, are you saying that
it's absolutely necessary that men and women hear the gospel
of God's grace preached in order to believe on Christ? I wouldn't
say that for the world. God said that. God said that. Look at 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. Verse 23, We are born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word
of God which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as
grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of
the Lord endures forever. And this is the word. You're
holding it in your lap. This is the word, Genesis to
Revelation, which by the gospel is preached unto you. Oh. Now, come back to Exodus chapter
6. We're going to backtrack a little
bit. I've been planning to backtrack since I first started studying
this passage. We have here a clear, beautiful,
instructive picture of God's use of human instrumentality
in the salvation of His elect. Now, I keep repeating because
I want you always to read the book of Exodus in just this light.
This book is a picture of God's gracious operations toward and
in His people by which chosen redeemed sinners are made to
experience God's saving grace. Here in Exodus chapter 6, I want
us to begin here and show you the picture. I'm going to talk
to you tonight about the way God saves His people. The title
of my message is, God's Work and the Means by Which He Performs
It. Exodus 6, verse 1. Then the Lord
said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh. My work, not yours. My work,
not yours. Now you're going to see what
I'm going to do to Pharaoh, and this is what I'm going to do.
For with a strong hand, not yours, mine, shall he let them go. And with a strong hand, not yours,
mine, shall he drive them out of his land. Now shalt thou see
what I will do." The Lord God had a people in Egypt. They were
the people of his choice. They were enslaved in Egypt. They were horribly oppressed
by Pharaoh, yet they were his people. And God's purpose in
sending Moses back to Egypt after 40 years on the back side of
the desert was to bring Israel out of Egypt, to bring them absolutely
clean out of Egypt, to establish them a people separated from
all the nations of the earth unto himself as his peculiar
people. And that which God did for Israel
in the land of Ham, is exactly what God is doing today throughout
the world by the preaching of the gospel. I don't hesitate
to ask you to give and give generously to the support of the gospel
ministry around the world. These missionaries, God allows
us the privilege of supporting. I don't hesitate to ask you to
make any sacrifice needed to keep them where they are. I'm
talking to a dear friend. He's considering the very possibility
now of resigning as pastorate and going to preach the gospel
in a foreign land. And I said to him, if God's told
you to go, go. Somehow or another, we'll keep
bread and butter on the table. We'll see to it things are taken
care of. And we will. How come? Because
this is how God saves his people. This is how he does it. We wouldn't
waste our time, energy, and money if we thought it did it some
other way. This is how God saves sinners. Sometimes folks ask
me, well, do y'all missionaries preach the same thing you do?
I'm usually nice and smile and say, well, of course. I really
want to knock them down and say, you idiot, why dare you ask me
such a thing? I wouldn't support somebody who
didn't. I wouldn't think about it. But those who preach the
gospel of God's grace, by all means, That which God did for
Israel is what God is doing today. There are people in this world
who are God's people, not people who shall be God's people, people
who are God's people. When our Lord Jesus came into
the world, he came not to save folks who would be his people,
but to save his people from their sin. God didn't send Moses down
to Egypt to see if he could find somebody willing to be his people.
He sent Moses to fetch out his people. They were his people.
Though enslaved in Egyptian darkness and bondage, they were his people.
And the Lord sent Moses to bring them out. It is written, Lo,
the people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among
the nations, and so it shall be. just as the Lord God sent
Moses to deliver Israel out of Egypt. Though the deliverance
was altogether His work, and His work alone, so He sends His
servants to deliver His elect out from under sin and death
and condemnation by the preaching of the gospel, and the deliverance
is His work alone. Now let me show you three things,
and I won't be very long showing you. First, I want you to see
God's voice in this work. And then I want to show you how
God uses a man's voice. And then I want to cap it off
by emphasizing the power is God's power, not a man's. First, let's
look here at Exodus chapter 4. Turn back to Exodus 4. I want
you to see and see clearly the salvation of God's elect is by
God's voice alone. It is not accomplished by eloquence. It is not accomplished by telling
stories. It is not accomplished by tear-jerking
songs. It is not accomplished by mentally
massaging folks and getting them to make a profession of faith.
It is accomplished by the omnipotent voice of the omnipotent God. Now let's look here and see what
God says. In Exodus 4, verse 22, God's speaking to Moses and
says, And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. You're going
down to preach in Madisonville Sunday? If you can go with, Thus
saith the Lord, you go with power. If you go with, Thus saith my
pastor, or Dr. Gill, or Mr. Spurgeon, or Thus
saith Larry, you've got nothing to say. Nothing. Doesn't matter
how brilliant, how well trained. Thus saith the Lord, he that
hath my word, let him declare my word faithfully. Moses go
to Pharaoh and say, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even
my firstborn. And I say unto thee, Let my son
go, that he may serve me. And if thou wilt refuse to let
him go, behold, I will slay thy son. even thy firstborn." And
read the rest of the chapter, he said, you may as well tell
him, even then he's still going to let my son go. Tell him, let
my son go. It is not the voice of the gospel
preacher that brings sinners dead and trespasses and sins
to life, but rather it is the voice of God's own Son speaking
to sinners by His Spirit. Hold your hands here in Exodus
and turn to John chapter 5. John chapter 5, verse 25, ìVerily, verily, I
say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live.î Now in the next couple of verses he talks about the
day when the dead who are in the grave hearing his voice and
coming forth in resurrection. But notice specifically what
it says. The hour is coming, and right now is, when the dead
shall hear his voice." He's talking about another resurrection. He's
talking about what John calls in Revelation 20, the first resurrection. The first resurrection is the
new birth. That's what it takes to save
a sinner. It is a resurrection from the
dead. And it takes something more than your decision or mine,
your persuasion or mine. It takes the voice of the Son
of God, who said, Lazarus, come forth! And the dead came forth. Well, if I tell a dead man to
come forth, he can't come forth. He can if God speaks. Look in
John chapter 6, verse 63. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh poppeth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit, and they are life. O son of God, speak through
this worthless, dirty, empty, broken pipe words of spirit and
life. Chapter 10, verse 16. Other sheep
I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring,
as ye are going to bring them, and they shall hear my voice. Verse 27. My sheep, my sheep. The Pharisees caught to his teaching
and they said, we just don't believe that. He said, didn't
expect you to. Verse 26. He said, I told you, you believe
not because you're not of my sheep. Verse 27. My sheep, on
the other hand, my sheep, every one of them hear my voice and
I know them and they follow me. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians,
he said, we know your election of God. We know your election
of God because our gospel came to you, not just as the word
of a man, not as the word of man only, but in the demonstration
and in the power of God the Holy Spirit, causing you to believe. And you followed the Lord. Back
here in Exodus chapter 4. It is the power of God's voice
that brings His people out of Egypt. And here are three specific
things uttered by God himself, by which he brought Israel out
of Egypt, three mighty words of grace which forced Pharaoh
to drive them out. And I love the way he speaks. Pharaoh will drive you out by
a mighty hand. Now he's not talking about Pharaoh's
mighty hand. His mighty hand had been reduced to nothing.
He's talking about God's mighty hand. He said, I'm going to force
Pharaoh to drive you out. And here's his first word. He
said to Pharaoh, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. I may come back to that sometime,
but let me say it now in case I drop dead and you don't get
to hear me say it. He's talking here about our union with Christ.
Christ is his firstborn. Christ is his firstborn. But
he says here, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And in the
law of the firstborn, God made this declaration. He said it
doesn't matter whether you're talking about the firstborn of
a lamb or of an ox or of a man or of an ass, you either redeem
it or break its neck. You either redeem it to me because
it's mine or you break its neck. And he says here, Israel is my
son, even my firstborn. This is the people I have redeemed.
It is written, the Lord knoweth them that are His. And the Lord
God claims His inalienable right to His people because they are
His people. As He claims this inalienable
right, His right to possess them, He asserts His unfailing, everlasting,
immutable interest in their welfare. Israel is my son, even my firstborn. They were slaves in Egypt. Yes,
they were. But they were in bondage. Yes,
they were. But they had become idolaters
like the Egyptians. Yes, they had. They were fallen
to great debauchery. Yes, they were. They were up
to their necks in mud making bricks for Pharaoh. Yes, they
were. They knew not God. They didn't even know His name,
Jehovah. They had long since lost any
knowledge of God as a nation and a people. That's all true.
But God says still. Israel is. Isn't that a good
word? Israel is my son. Not shall be is. Oh, they shall
be in the experience of grace. But Israel is my son. My son. They had no thought of
liberty. They didn't hear God's servant
when he came preaching to them. They did not believe God had
sent him. They pursued the Lord, but they
were His all the while, and He never relinquished His claim
on them. So it is with God's elect in this world. Yes, we
sinned in our father Adam, and when we did, we were plunged
into death, spiritual death. We were born spiritually dead,
not in innocence, spiritually dead, not on probation, spiritually
dead, born lost sinners who went astray from the womb speaking
lies. I don't know why we have such
difficulty with that. I can't think of anything on this earth,
Oscar Bailey, which you and I are more quickly adept at than lying. It's the easiest thing to our
nature there is. That's just the way we are. That's our fallen nature. David
said the wicked are estranged from the womb. They go forth
from the womb speaking lies. No mama, no daddy ever had to
tell a son or daughter how to lie. It's as natural as breathing. That's because we're fallen people.
You might say, oh, he's an honest man. Well, I hate to disappoint
you. There ain't no such thing. There
ain't no such thing. Try to live honestly and walk
honestly before God. And believing men and women,
behave in honesty and speak truth. But every believing man knows
his nature. Every believing woman knows her
nature. Deceit is what our heart is by
nature. That's it. Yes, we lived in this
world, born with hearts full of enmity against God. Full of
is not accurate, Rex. Our hearts are enmity against
God. Isn't that amazing? Hard to realize. Our hearts, not just have enmity,
not just filled with enmity, our hearts are enmity against
God. That's the heart of all natural
men. We lived all the days of our
lives. With our fists shoved square
in God's face, and if we could have got hold of him, we'd have
killed him. You and me. My grandchildren and yours. That's
our nature. That's our nature. But all the
while, God says they're mine. They're mine. He never relinquishes
his claim of his own. Blessed be his name even when
we would have nothing to do with him, the Son of God was not ashamed
to call us brethren before his Father. And because he claimed
us as his brethren, Brethren, made his brethren by eternal
union with him in covenant grace, he came in the fullness of time
and took on himself our nature and redeemed us from the curse
of the law when we were yet enemies against him. Reconciled us to
God when we despised him and would have nothing to do with
him. Israel is my son. And this title is given us because
of a covenant. God called Israel his son. Because
God made a covenant with Israel in the person of their father
Abraham 400 years before they ever heard Moses speak a word. 400 years earlier. He said, I'll
be their God and they shall be my people. And before the world
was made, God Almighty made a covenant. And he said, I will be their
God and they shall be my people. Well, now that's talking about
the future. Well, it is sort of. told him about our experience
of grace. The time comes when he experientially
makes himself our God and makes us his people so that we're made
willing in the day of his power to acknowledge him God, happy
to have him as God, and acknowledge rejoicing that we're his people.
But when he said, I will be their God, he was our God. When he
said, they shall be my people, he wrote our names in a book
called the Lamb's Book of Life. the book of life of the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world and said, they're my
people. And everything he did from the beginning of time, he
did for his people. Well, surely you wouldn't call
people the sons and daughters of God before they're born again,
before they exercise faith in Christ. I wouldn't attempt to
tell anybody they are. But I'm here to tell you that
God does. Turn to Galatians chapter 4. Ignorant people, and I mean
ignorant. I don't care whether they've
got collars on backwards or whether they graduated from the finest
seminaries in the world. Ignorant people. I hear it and
read it all the time. Ignorant people tell people,
well, God never calls anyone his son until he believes. We
become the sons of God by our faith in Christ. utter nonsense,
and that's a compliment. It's really blasphemy. No, no,
you don't become one of God's by something you do. You do what
you do, exercising faith in Christ, because God said, Israel is my
son. Look here in Galatians chapter
4. And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of
his Son into your hearts, crying, Not in order that you might become
sons, but because you are sons. Who would ever dream of suggesting
or thinking that a newborn baby lives because he breathes? No. He breathes because he lives. It's not the other way around.
And God's people believe Christ. calling God our Father because
they'd been born of God, not the other way around. He said
to Pharaoh, Israel is my son. You may call him your slave,
but he's my son. He was mine before he was yours.
You may say, no, he's mine, but he's my son. And though he's
fallen under your yoke, you're going to let him go. The long
and short of it is just this. The Lord God claims us by covenant
mercy, by sovereign right, as His firstborn. And the Lord Jesus
will not allow those He has made to be His own in everlasting
love and ransomed with the price of His precious blood to perish. Not anything about them shall
perish. We've made our covenant with
death, yes, but His word is your covenant with death. shall be
disannulled." Now look at the second thing. Back here in Exodus
4.22. With the bare assertion of his
absolute right, with the bare assertion of his absolute right,
God demands the unconditional release, freedom, and liberty
of his children. Thus saith the Lord Israel, as
my son, even my firstborn. And I say unto thee, let my son
go." How could Pharaoh be persuaded of such a thing? By an edict
of absolute sovereignty. God said, let there be light. Well, there was nothing but darkness.
Not even darkness. He made that. There was nothing.
And God said, let there be light. And light became. What did it
take? How do you rationalize that?
How do you explain that? How do you put that in some kind
of a logical, reasonable term? With this one word, God. That's all. God said, let there
be light. And if God said it was, when
God speaks to the sinner, and God commands the sinner to live,
and God commands Satan to let his people go, when God commands
their release, They're released. It's just His sovereign edict.
The law held us under its curse, but God said, let my son go.
Satan, the God of this world, claimed us as his own subjects,
but God said, let my son go. Death held us in its cold, hard,
firm grip until God said, let my son go. And when God said,
let my son go, out we go. Just that way. In due time, our
Redeemer appeared, identified Himself with us, and set us free
by the blood of His covenant. The law of Satan, death, hell,
and sin released the ransomed sons of God by the voice of God
our Savior, by the voice of His shed blood. Hell may grasp us
in its clutches, but God said, Let my son go, and released we
must be. That same omnipotent voice which
first set us free is the voice that continually brings us liberty
now and tomorrow and until we leave this world. Satan spreads
his snares and we're taken and fall. And God says, let my son
go. We're crushed down with trouble
and heartache and difficulties. And we stay crushed down with
trouble, heartache, and difficulty until God says, let my son go.
We get ensnared with all kinds of difficulties in this world
until God says, let my son go. And one of these days, soon,
these bodies shall drop into the earth as God has ordained. This tabernacle is going to be
dissolved. This tent. Wax is old, going
to fold it up and put it in the ground. Dust returning to dust
and ashes to ashes. But soon, the Son of God will
come in His glory and He will say to death and the grave, let
my son go. And not so much as the knuckle
of that finger is going to be left behind. He said, not a hoof shall be
left behind. Brother Mahan one time, I was with him up in Ashland,
and he was preaching on television. I went down to the television
broadcast on Huntington, and fellows were, they didn't pay
any attention most of the time when he was preaching. They were
just taping it and talking about this, that, and the other. And
somebody turned to Brother Charlie Payne, Henry was preaching on
the resurrection. He said, nobody but a fool would
believe that. And Charlie said, you're right. A fool or a Christian,
that's all. He's going to bring us out of
the grave by the mere power of His voice. Here's the third thing. That same omnipotent voice, the
eternal unalterable voice of the Almighty, is that which calls
Israel and causes us to know and worship our God by faith
in Christ. Look at verse 23. Let my Son
go that He may serve me. We live in this day when folks
talk about serving the Lord. Well, I'm going to serve the
Lord. I get letters all the time, folks wanting to come here. The
Lord's given me a service, and I want to share it with you.
Of course, it's going to cost you some money, but I want to
share it with you. He's given us some talents. We have this
thing that goes around singing and testifying. I'm going to
do this and do that. Call it serving God. Let me tell
you how you serve God. Believe Him. You to whom I speak
this hour, who walk before God by faith, are his servants."
How did Israel serve him? They walked in the wilderness
for 40 years by faith. You say, well, boy, their faith
wasn't very strong. It's kind of like yours and mine.
But I'll tell you what they did by faith. They never went a day
hungry. They were fed with manna from
heaven. Their camp, every day when the sun would rise, was
well shaded so it was comfortable and cool. Every night when the
sun went down, it was lit up by the hand of God. All those
40 years, there was a rock that followed them in the desert and
gushed out fountains of water to refresh their thirsty souls. They didn't have any tailors
among them, as far as I can tell, and not one of them went naked.
Never wore out. They didn't have a cobbler amongst
them, but every one of them was well shod. The children of Israel
walked in the desert, possessing nothing, but possessing all things. That's what it is to worship
and serve God. They had what nobody else in
the world had. They ate the Passover. They fed
on Christ. Nobody else did. Do you know
God never gave any other nation a Sabbath of rest? Nowhere. Nowhere. He never commanded any
Gentile nation to keep the Sabbath day. He gave Israel a Sabbath
of rest, picturing our blessed rest in Christ, our Passover,
whose sacrifice for us, our blessed Sabbath. Israel alone was given
God's Word. They alone. Imagine that. What
a privilege. What a privilege. Now, let me
show you one more thing. There are two more things. I'll
speak very quick. God delivered Israel by His voice, but He didn't
do it without a man's voice. God's voice spoke their deliverance
by Moses' mouth. Thou shalt say unto Pharaoh,
thus saith the Lord, let my people go. Verse 17 of chapter 4. Why
do you reckon he did that? Was it something that compelled
it? No. I rather suspect that he who
said, let there be light, and light became, could say, let
my people go and his people go. I just got a hunch that's so.
As a matter of fact, I got more than a hunch because he came
one day in the flesh at the tomb of a dead man and said, Lazarus,
come forth. And the dead man came out of
that tomb full of life. Well, why do you reckon? He told
Moses, Moses, you, Moses, you who made such a mess of things
40 years ago, you, you poured out of the river, you, you go
to Pharaoh. I said, Israel is my son, my
firstborn. Let my son go. Why did he tell Moses that? Why
did he say that? Because nothing could have been
more contemptible in Pharaoh's eyes than for God to send Moses
and command Israel's deliverance. Moses, he wasn't on the list
of the top ten most wanted. He was the top ten most wanted.
I mean, Pharaoh wanted his head. He wanted him dead. But here's
Moses, this worthless, A cast-off, old man who had never done anything
in his life except follow sheep. This man who had never accomplished
anything in his life except get in trouble. This man who had
never performed anything significant in his life. He still lived on
the charity of his father-in-law. God sent Moses, a shepherd, and
not even a shepherd of his own sheep, back to Pharaoh who despised
shepherds and hated Moses and said, let my people go, that
the work might be all the more manifest. This is God's work. This is God's work. And so it
is this day. Our God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things
of the world to confound the things that are mighty And based
things and things that are not, hath God chosen to bring to naught
the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But he that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord." Moses. When the Lord first appeared
to him, he repeatedly said, not me, not me, not me. He argued with God so much, God
finally was angry at him. He turned against him as one
who was cramming at him and said, Moses, you're going. Why did
Moses refuse to go? I see, folks, men just chomping
at the bit to be preachers, chomping at the bit to be a pastor. I'll
tell you what I've observed. I've never seen one who just,
oh, I've got to preach. I've never seen one who didn't
fall flat on his face. Made a mess of what he tried
to do. I've never seen it happen. Moses said, God, I'm a stuttering
man. I can't talk. All I've ever done
is ten sheep. I can't do this. And finally,
the Lord said, I'll give you a mouth, and you're going. And
when Moses was convinced God had sent him, he went to Pharaoh. and took the beard of the lion
in his own den and brought him down, bold, unfetching, relentless. And he stated his work. Oh, Israel
murmured and complained, he'd just take it to God. Pharaoh
in an Egyptian's custom, he'd take it to God. What next? Send some lice on the land. They
didn't pay attention to that, Lord, what next? Send some frogs.
But pay no attention to that. What? Send disease and pestilence. Fill the land with flies and
locusts. Send death. And Moses stayed
right with it. How come? God sent me. And I'm going to bring you out. He did it with confidence. He never doubted for a second
for what he'd bring in Israel out of Egypt. He knew they were
coming out, just waiting God's time. So it is with every man
sent of God to preach the gospel. Now let me show you one more
thing. Let us never forget, without
the power of God, the voice of that man Moses would have been
an utter failure. I'll prove it to you. Forty years
earlier, Moses knew that he was the man chosen to deliver Israel.
He knew that. I don't have any question that
he did. Hebrews 11 makes that crystal
clear. He saw an Egyptian fighting one of his brethren, and he said,
well, time's come. God's going to bring Israel out.
And he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand, but he
wasn't real sure God was in it. He looked this way, and that
stuck together in a hole. Thought he was going to get by
with it. The next day he saw two of his brethren fighting,
two of the Israelites. And he started to separate them
and said, who made you God over us? You going to kill me like you
did the Egyptians yesterday? And Moses was horrified. He was
horrified because he attempted to run without being sent. He
got a horrible mess as a result. But now, he comes with, thus
saith the Lord, Pharaoh, God said, Israel is my son, my firstborn. Let my son go. And he told me,
I'm going to see it. So I just sat back and watched.