How very often God's providence
appears to contradict His promise. Though His determination is our
salvation, He often appears determined to destroy. Though He has promised
never to turn away from us to do us good, it often seems that
He does us evil. In such times, when everything
around us seems to contradict God's promised blessing upon
us, We would be wise to reason with our souls, as Benjamin Dedham
taught us in one of his hymns. Wake, O my soul, thy maker's
will. Tumultuous passions, all be still. Nor let a murmuring thought arise. His ways are just, his counsels
wise. He in thickest darkness dwells. Performs his work, the cause
conceals, but though his methods are unknown, judgment and truth
support his throne. In heaven and earth, and air
and seas, he executes his wise decrees, and by his saints it
stands confessed that what he does is ever best. Wait then,
my soul, submissive wait, prostrate before his awful and, amidst
the terrors of his rod, trust a wise and gracious God. Oh, God teach me so to trust
Him. If you'll turn with me to Exodus
chapter 5, you will see in these 23 verses a vivid picture of
God's providence when it appears to contradict His promise. Now,
while you're turning, let me bring you up to this chapter.
The Lord Jesus had appeared to Moses in the burning bush and
said, I have seen the affliction of my people and I am come down
to deliver them. I will send thee to Pharaoh that
thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of
Egypt. Then he promised Moses in no
uncertain terms that Pharaoh would let his people go and that
Israel would spoil the Egyptians and go out of Egypt with a high
hand, even the high hand of God's omnipotent grace. Armed with
nothing but God's promise, Moses went back to Israel with his
brother Aaron. They gathered together the elders
of Israel and delivered God's message of deliverance to the
children of Israel. The message of redemption and
salvation by the hand of God. Look at chapter 4, verse 31.
and the people believed. And when they heard that the
Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked
upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped."
Things were looking pretty good. Moses was on his pastoral honeymoon. It often happens with preachers
when they go to a church. They move in and everything is
just Sweet as it can be for a year or two. That's the reason most
Baptist churches and preachers don't last but a year or two.
The honeymoon is over in a hurry. Well, it was quicker than that
with Moses. Everything seemed to be promising, but that was
all about to change. In chapter 5, he and Aaron go
in and tell Pharaoh God's demands. The chapter is full of instruction. God, the Holy Spirit, that which
he here reveals. The first thing that's obvious
in verse 1 is this. God's prophets, all prophets
of God, are men sent of God with a message that must be delivered. And afterward Moses and Aaron
went in and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. The gospel preacher is a man,
and though it needs not be emphasized in this congregation, it needs
desperately to be emphasized in this day of religious nonsense. Never a woman, never a woman. I know that this message is sent
out from various media that God has opened the door for it. I'm
going to get a letter, or I'm going to get a phone call. Or
what about my dear sister who's been a missionary in Africa for
50 years? A man, never a woman. God Almighty never sent a woman
to be a preacher or a missionary or anything like that. God's
prophets are men. Men sent of God, called, gifted
of God, and equipped by God for the work to which he sends them.
God never called any man to the work of the ministry whom he
didn't put in the work and whom he didn't equip for the work
he had for that man to do. And that man who is called, gifted,
and sent of God as a preacher of the gospel, as God's ambassador
to the souls of men, as God's messenger to his people, is a
man sent from God Almighty with a message. A message that must
be delivered. That's how Moses came to Israel. And that's how he came to Pharaoh.
And his message to Israel and his message to Pharaoh were precisely
the same. Exactly the same. He said, God
has come to deliver his people. And they're going out of here. His message was to Israel A wondrous
word of grace, a savor of life unto life, but it was to Pharaoh
a savor of death unto death. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter
52 for a moment, if you will. Hold your hands here. The message
God's servant proclaims is always the message of redemption, deliverance,
salvation, grace, and life. in Jesus Christ the Lord, by
his blood and his righteousness. That's the message Moses declares. We know that's the message he
declares, for the whole book of Exodus is the picture of that
message. And the message is that which
was declared by God's prophets of old, as well as those in the
New Testament. Isaiah 52, verse 4. Thus saith
the Lord God, My people went down aforetime, into Egypt, to
sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now therefore what have I here,
saith the Lord, that my people is taken away for naught? They
that rule over them make them to howl, saith the Lord, and
my name continually every day is blasphemed. Therefore my people
shall know my name. Therefore shall they know in
that day that I am he that doth speak. Behold, it is I. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation,
not offers salvation, not presents the possibility of salvation,
but publishes salvation. How is that? That saith unto
Zion, Thy God reigneth, thy watchman shall lift up the voice. With
the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye
to eye when the Lord shall bring against Zion, break forth into
joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem. For the
Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy
arm in the eyes of all nations, and all the ends of the earth
shall see. the salvation of our God. But
look at verse 2, Exodus chapter 5. We are by the gospel we preach,
that is the message we preach is, to some a savor of life unto
life, to others it's a savor of death unto death. Some who
hear believe, others believe not, exactly according to the
purpose of God Almighty. To those who believe, The preaching
of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. How does God save his people? By the preaching of the gospel. Oh, God make his word to be to
you his word this hour. That's how God ministers to his
people. That's how God delivers his people,
both in the initial experience of grace and in every time of
trouble in their hearts. It is the power of God and the
salvation. It is not my ability as a preacher. It is not my discipline in study
as your pastor. It is not some telling story
or my ability to communicate the message I have to declare,
or my lack of it. that is the power of God to your
soul. No, no. It's not what we do as
a church, it's not the functions or activities of the church,
but rather it is the preaching of the gospel that is the power
of God unto salvation. But to those who believe not
is just foolishness. You wonder why folks have to
have something besides preaching? You wonder why churches have
Every kind of foolish activities you wouldn't expect kindergarten
children to come up with. Every kind of nonsense in the
world to entertain folks because preaching is to them foolishness. It's more spiritual to stand
up at Christmas time and grow old men and form a Christmas
tree and hold a little candle and say, this little light of
mine, I'm going to let it shine. That's wisdom, because the preaching
of the gospel is to such foolishness. So it was with Pharaoh. Pharaoh
said, who is the Lord that I shall obey his voice to let Israel
go? I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go. What a dreadful state. To know
Christ is life eternal. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee. the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. Not to know him is death. No matter what else you know
or don't know, not to know him is death. Yet it is this lack
of knowledge in all the fallen sons and daughters of Adam that
is the cause of all sin and all the content people have for him
throughout the earth and throughout the ages. Hold your hands here
and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 7. We preach the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of
this world knew. For had they known it, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. Oh, God take away ignorance. If he doesn't, you will perish
in ignorance. Now, back in Exodus 5 again.
I want you to notice here how Moses describes the believer's
worship of God. In verse 23, the Lord Jesus calls
it serving him. Here in Exodus 5, Moses calls
it keeping the feast. We worship our God and serve
him when we feed upon Christ our Savior by faith. This is
the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent. Our Savior speaks of our faith
in Him as eating His flesh and drinking His blood. That is,
taking to ourselves all that He has accomplished in His glorious
person and work, trusting Him, taking His blood and His righteousness,
His atonement and His obedience for ourselves. He says, He that
eats my flesh and drinks my blood hath everlasting life. We feast
upon our Savior, and that's how we worship and serve God. There
is no serving God apart from believing on the Son of God.
There is no working for God apart from believing His Son. There
is no doing good apart from faith in His Son. We worship and serve
our God as we feast upon our sin-atoning sacrifice, the Lord
Jesus. Now, look at verse 3 of chapter
5. The next thing we see here is the fact that the Lord God
of heaven and earth, the triune Jehovah, is distinctly and specially
the God of his people, the God of the Hebrews. And Moses and
Aaron said, the God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go,
we pray thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, or into
the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God, lest he fall
upon us with pestilence or with the sword." Well, I thought he
was everybody's God. You thought wrong. He is God
over all creation. He is God over all men, and that
means that He's the potter and you're the clay. And He can do
with you and will do with you exactly as He pleases, both in
time and in eternity. You are His property, but He
is distinctly and particularly the God of the Hebrews. He's attached Himself. He's attached
himself to you by his own will. In his everlasting love, in his
everlasting covenant, he has attached himself to you as your
God. And he says, they shall be my
people. He is our God. I think I told
you sometime back, the one word that is used more often in Scripture
than any other side-by-side with God is a little two-letter, one-syllable
personal pronoun, my. He is more often spoken of by
his people as my God than he is as the holy God or the mighty
God or the righteous God or the just God. Great as those things
are, this is what makes them all distinctly precious to Don
and Alvin. He's my God. He's my God. He made himself my portion forever
and made me his portion forever. What does that mean? When it
says he is the God of the Hebrews, I can't find anyone who can give
a specific meaning to the word translated Hebrew in the scriptures,
but it conveys the idea of one who is from beyond, or one who
passes over, or one who lives beyond. That's a pretty good
description of God's people. They are from beyond. And we are just passing over
this world of time and sense. I am in this world a pilgrim
and a stranger passing through it. God give me wisdom and grace
to live like a stranger and pilgrim passing through here. And they
are a people who are going beyond soon. We will cross our allotment
of time in this world and be beyond the reach of all harm
in heaven's everlasting glory. He is called the God of these
people who are from beyond, who are passing over, who are going
beyond, so as to distinguish him from all the gods of men. The Egyptians worshipped all
kinds of gods. They were the original environmentalists. They worshipped frogs and flies
and birds and lions. They worshipped everything. Everything
they could think of that had some kind of a semblance of power
or wisdom or grace, they called it a God and worshipped it as
God. Moses said, Pharaoh, I'm not
here to talk to you about your frogs and your lice and your
flies and your cows that you call God. I'm here in the name
of Him who alone is God, the God of the Hebrews. He says,
let my people go. That means you're going to let
us go. That means we shall go out of this place. Now, look
at verses 4 through 9. And you see here a vivid example
of the fact that as the children of Israel were falsely accused
and slandered by Pharaoh, God's people in this world are constantly
falsely accused of evil and slandered by those who despise God. Exodus
chapter 5 verse 4. The king of Egypt said unto them,
Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people, or keep the people,
from their works? get you to your burdens. And
Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land are now many, and
you make them rest from their burdens. And Pharaoh commanded
the same day the taskmasters of the people and their officers,
saying, You shall no more give the people straw to make brick,
as heretofore let them go gather straw for themselves, and the
tailed bricks which they did make heretofore you shall lay
upon them. You shall not diminish ought
thereof, for they be idle." Now, hold your hands there and turn
back to chapter 1. Turn back to chapter 1. Was there any justification
for this? Had the children of Israel after
400 years become so comfortable in Egypt that they were dolts
and do-nothings and idling, living on the welfare of Egypt? Not
at all. And Pharaoh knew it. Look at
verse 11. He knew his accusation against
God and his people was baseless and completely false. For they
built for Pharaoh treasure cities of python and rhamies. Yet he said they'd be idle. So
it is to this day. God's saints in this world have
many faults. And people are quick to point
them out. Let us not be numbered among them. God's saints in this
world have many faults, and they readily acknowledge and confess
their faults and their sin before God and before one another and
before the world. We take our place in the dust.
That's where we belong. But God's people are falsely
accused of doing evil when they have done none. They are slandered
by people who know their accusations are false. In the early days
of the church, when the believers would sit down and take the Lord's
table, just as we do now, and they would speak of that as being
a symbol, a picture, of eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Do you know what rumors were
spread? Well, those Christians are cannibals. They talk about
eating their God. And that's not an exaggeration.
I'm telling you exactly what was said. And the people who
spread the slanders knew better, just as Pharaoh did. It is often
slanderously reported, Paul tells us, that we say, let us do evil
that good may come. Because we preach God's total
sovereignty in all things, we are often accused of living licentiously. Because we preach salvation by
free grace alone, we are slandered as promoters of wickedness. Because
we declare the believer's total freedom from the law, asserting,
as the scriptures plainly do, that Christ is the end of the
law, that you are not under the law but under grace, we are accused
of being people who are opposed to the law to promote wickedness. And those who would do us evil
frequently, if not most of the time, are people who assert that
they are our brethren. Look at verse 10. And the taskmasters
of the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the
people. You can read on down through
verse 14. My point here is this. Those
taskmasters were Egyptians, but the officers under them, those
who enforced Pharaoh's And those who made the children of Israel
do Pharaoh's bidding, the officers, they were Jews. They were Israelites. Just like the publicans in our
Lord's day who were tax collectors for Rome, they were Jews who
served Rome to oppress their brethren. And these officers
among the children of Israel were Hebrews themselves who oppressed
their brethren. in order to gain favor with Pharaoh
and the Egyptians. Painful as it is to put up with
such, we are wise to leave them alone, never to retaliate, just
wait. Just wait. Let me show you a
few scriptures. Turn to Isaiah chapter 10. Woe unto them that
decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness they
have prescribed. Now let me give you a good paraphrase. Woe unto them who declare that
which is false and those who say amen to it. God will take
care of these things. Paul said, it is a small thing
to me that I be judged of you. There's a day coming when all
things will be made manifest. Everything will be set in its
clear light. So I refuse I refuse to stoop to the level of my accusers."
Let us be patient, James said. Establish your hearts. Just wait. Just wait. God will avenge his
own elect. He will do it in this world,
and he will do it in the world to come. But Pastor, is it reasonable
that we should do that? Is it reasonable that we should
put up with slander and accusations from men when we and they know
their slanders and accusations are false? Isn't it right for
us to correct man's opinion? Isn't it right for us to answer
their slanders? Never. Never. Under no circumstances. Under no circumstances. And we
have a tremendous example for it. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 2. It is written of our Savior,
he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
God teach me. to be like him. God teach me
to be like him. I know this will come as a shock
to you, but not everyone loves and honors your pastor like you
do. I have on one or two occasions had folks attempt to speak evil
about me. And I have on one or two occasions
defended myself. And I've never done it Rex that
I didn't regret it. Never once. Never once. Because
in defending myself against the accusations of men, I put myself
on the level of the accuser. Our Savior didn't, and he didn't
teach us such. 1 Peter 2, verse 21. For even here unto were you called,
because Christ also has suffered for us, now watch this, leaving
us an example that you should follow his steps. who did no
sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he was
reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously."
If I commit myself to him, Oscar, I don't have to defend myself
to anybody. If I commit myself to him, I
don't have to take care of myself. Read on. who his own self bear
our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to
sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed."
The fact is, we must, through much tribulation, enter into
the kingdom of God, and much of that tribulation is caused
by those people who are officers for Pharaoh, but are among God's
people. But that's all right. I love
what John Trapp wrote. He said, things commonly go backward
with the saints before they come forward, but deliverance is right
next door. When things are at their worst,
they will mend and trouble will soon be over. Who are these who
are robed in white? Who are they? These are they
which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Back in our text
in Exodus 5, look at verse 15-19. Here we see the officers of the
children of Israel praying as you might expect them to pray,
praying to Pharaoh. Then the officers of the children
of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest
thou thus with thy servants? There is no straw given unto
thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick, and behold, thy
servants are beaten, but the fault is in thine own people.
But he said, You are idle, therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice
to the Lord. Go therefore now and work, for
there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the
tale of bricks. And the officers of the children
of Israel did see that they were in evil case after it was said,
Ye shall not minish aught from your bricks of your daily task. What a foolish mistake. This
was a presumptuous attempt by these men to take the matter
of their deliverance into their own hands. Moses came and said,
The Lord has come down to deliver you. And Moses went to Pharaoh. and told Pharaoh, God sent me
to bring Israel out and command you to let them go. But instead
of their furnace being delivered from their furnace, their furnace
just got hotter. Instead of being set free, their
chains were just tied up. Instead of being eased of their
afflictions, their afflictions just got worse. And these people
now, they decided, well, since God hasn't performed his work,
he hasn't performed his promise, it must be that he wants us to
perform the work. And so they take it in their
own hands. They decided to help. Ignoring Moses and Aaron, God's
messengers, They hope to reason with Pharaoh. Now experience
tells me that they probably thought like this. Moses and Aaron are
unreasonable. We know Moses is a hard man and
Aaron is just his yes boy. He demands too much. He's hard. He's unbending. He's unwilling
to compromise. And they were ready in their
foolish pride to modify God's word, seeking compromise with
the very man who held them in bondage. Hear me, children of
God. Christ is our deliverer. I don't mean by that, David,
only that Christ is the one who redeemed us, that Christ is the
one who saved us by his grace. In every trial, in every heartache,
in every trouble, in everything that holds your soul in bondage,
in everything that seems hard and oppressive, everything that
seems to oppose, Christ is our deliverer. And we will be wise
to wait for his deliverance. But don't you think we ought
to? No, I don't. But don't you think we have some
responsibility to deliver ourselves? No, I don't. But don't you think
that we must somehow work things out for ourselves? Never! Wait
on Him. We read it in Lamentations chapter
3. The Lord is good to them that wait for Him, to the soul that
seeketh Him. It's good for a man that he should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It's
good for him to bear the yoke of his youth, to sit alone and
keep silence, to put his face in the dust. They that wait on
the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Teach me, oh, teach me, Lord,
to wait. You recall back in Genesis 34,
Jacob blamed Simeon and Levi, who had defended the honor of
their sister, saying, Ye have troubled me to make me stink
among the inhabitants of the land, and I shall be destroyed. In verses 20 and 21, we see the
sons of Jacob blaming God's messenger for the trouble they were in.
And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way as they
came forth from Pharaoh, and they said unto them, The Lord
look upon you and judge you. The Lord look upon you and damn
you. That's exactly what they're saying.
Because you have made our savor, you've made us to stink, to be
abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants,
to put a sword in their hand to slay us. What a heart-piercing
accusation that must have been. Remember, Moses and Aaron were
just God's messengers. Painful as this must have been
to these two men, they weren't really blaming Moses and Aaron.
They were blaming God and thought they were right to do it. But
before we're too hard on them, how much like them we are. The Lord came to Jonah and asked
him, he said, doest thou well to be angry? And Jonah said,
yes, sir. Yes, sir. It's right for me to
be mad at you because you've taken away my gourd. These same
people, remember, had believed God's promise of deliverance.
When they heard that God had sent Moses and was going to deliver
them, they believed Him, bowed before Him, and worshipped Him.
Here we see them not only relinquishing their confidence, but murmuring
against God, blaming Him and His messengers. Their faith had
brought them trouble, and now they're willing to give it up.
How much like in times of darkness, in times when providence displeases
us, we murmur and complain. May God give us confident, abiding
faith in Jesus Christ. ever causing us to look steadfastly
upon him, that we stagger not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but trust him. Now, look at the last two verses.
How brokenhearted Moses must have been. Here he goes to God
in prayer and unburdens his heavy heart to his God. And Moses,
Return to the Lord. That's just right. That's just
right. Oh, let me go see the doctor
and see if he'll give me a pill. Well, you can if you want to,
but I'd suggest you return to the Lord. Let me go see somebody
and see if they can work this thing out. You can if you want
to. I suggest you return to the Lord. Let me set up a session
of counseling with the pastor. You can if you want to. But I
suggest you return to the Lord and say, Lord, wherefore hast
thou so evil entreated this people? It looks like Moses had the same
unbelief as the people. I don't doubt that Moses was
affected with unbelief just as the people were. But he comes
to God with honesty. Oh, God, teach me to do that.
Lord, why have you done this to these, your people? Why is
it that thou hast sent me? He puts him in remembrance. Lord,
you sent me down here and you told me to come and proclaim
this message and you said you would deliver your people. And
the Lord said, put me in remembrance that you may be justified. And
now he puts him in remembrance. For since I came to Pharaoh to
speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people, neither
hast thou delivered thy people at all. In all our troubles,
distresses, heartaches, and woes. Let us return to the Lord and
trust Him. Cast your care on Him who alone
truly careth for you. Cast all your care on Him for
He cares for you. But, Pastor, it seems so many
times that God's promises clash with His providence. It seems
impossible that he will perform that which he said he would perform.
How prone we are, like Israel, rather than believe in God, to
take counsel with flesh and blood. How quickly unbelief engulfs
us. The lust, which is just a proper
name for our flesh and our unbelief, The lusts we thought were completely
subdued suddenly break out fresh in full force in our souls, and
we find ourselves, like Peter, sinking beneath the tempestuous
sea. And as we do, the Lord Jesus
stretches out his omnipotent hand and catches us and raises
us up. My soul, have you not experienced
such grace often enough, constantly enough to teach you great is
his faithfulness. He promised to deliver us, to
keep us, to uphold us with the right hand of his righteousness,
to allow no harm to come to us. No harm. No harm. He didn't say, No pain, no harm. Pain is not necessarily harmful.
No harm, no hurt. Not even a dog can open its mouth
and bark against his children without his decree. No harm,
no harm. He promised to keep us in his
grace. He promised to bring us at last
into his glory. Let me tell you something. It
is always right to expect Him to do exactly what He promised. It is always right to expect
God to do us good. Always right to expect Him to
bless with both hands. It is always right to expect
Him to preserve and keep. And when we walk in the midst
of darkness, yet to cause us to walk in the light of his countenance. It's always right to live in
the confident expectation of eternal life, trusting his wise
and good providence. God moves in a mysterious way
his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the
sea and rides upon the storm. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage
take. The clouds you so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour. The bud, oh, it often has a bitter
taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure
to err and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter, and
he will make it plain. For we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Amen. In number 267,