I've entitled the message for
tonight, Forsaking Egypt. Now this is the third of four
by faith or through faith we read with regard to Moses. By faith Moses, verse 23, when
he was born. Verse 24, by faith Moses, when
he was come to years. Verse 27, by faith he forsook
Egypt. Not fearing the wrath of the
king, for he endured, is seeing him who is invisible. 28, through
faith he kept the Passover. Now each one of these, by faith
or through faith, give us some different aspect of this thing
of faith. By faith, he forsook Egypt. Now that word forsook is the
word that is also used for this cause shall a man leave his father
and mother and cleave unto his wife. This word forsake is the
word used of Matthew when the Lord said, and I love this passage
of scripture, Matthew, follow me. And he left all, there's the
word. He left all, arose, and followed
the Lord Jesus Christ. He left something. He left Egypt. Now when you come
to Christ, there's something you leave. There's no coming
to Christ and not leaving something. You leave. You utterly leave
salvation by works. when you come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He forsook Egypt and the scripture
says he didn't fear the wrath of the king. He didn't fear Pharaoh's
wrath in doing so. And he endured or persevered
in doing something that was seemingly impossible. He endured seeing
him who is invisible. We walk by faith, not by sight. He endured, he persevered as
seeing him who is invisible. Now, this is when Moses came
to Pharaoh with God's command, let my people go. Moses gave this command from
God and here's Pharaoh's Reply, who is the Lord that I should
obey him? I know not the Lord, neither
will I let his people go. Now, one of those statements
was very true. When he said, I know not the
Lord, he was telling the truth. He didn't know the Lord. And
one statement was very false. When he said, neither will I
let thy people go. Yes, you will Pharaoh. It's going
to take place and you're going to know this in no uncertain
terms. God would overwhelm Egypt with
the plagues. And then when there was respite,
God would harden. Pharaoh's heart. Is that what
it says in the Bible? Yes, it is. There are a few times it
says Pharaoh hardened his own heart. And if my heart's hardened,
it's because I hardened it. But more often, as a matter of
fact, much more often, it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart. And I want to remind you of this.
All God has to do to harden my heart or to harden your heart
is nothing. Just leave me alone and my heart
will become hard. I won't be able to see. That
is what took place with Pharaoh. Pharaoh went on to say, after
the plague of hell scared him to death, he said, I've sinned
this time. No, Pharaoh, you sin all the
time. Pharaoh said, I sin this time. The Lord is righteous and
I and my people are wicked. And as soon as the thundering
and the hail ceased, he hardened his heart again. It's scary,
isn't it? How all these things could be
done to him and yet he would harden his heart and God would
harden his heart. Now, Pharaoh didn't want Israel
to leave because Israel was a nation of slaves to them. They were
building the pyramids. You've seen pictures of the pyramids.
Maybe you've been to Egypt, I don't know. I mean, there are these
vast, huge structures with gigantic stones cut and placed on top. And this was before there were
cranes. This was before there was machinery that could help
in something like this. Can you imagine the manual labor
that was involved in building these pyramids? having these
stones up to a height and so on. He didn't want to let the
children of Israel go because they were building the pyramids. He wanted them in bondage. And Egypt represents salvation
by works. Building bricks without straw. Bondage, labor, effort. And the scripture says Moses
didn't fear Pharaoh's wrath, and that's because there's one
he infallibly feared more. He feared the king of kings.
He feared the Lord of glory. And he saw Pharaoh for what he
was, God's puppet doing God's will. Now you know the plagues
the Lord brought on Egypt. Let me go over them. He turned
their rivers. their drinking water, their fresh
water into blood. And it killed all the fish. You've
smelled stinking fish. The scripture says the land stank
with the smell of those fishes and people were out digging holes
trying to look for fresh water because they couldn't drink the
river from the water. And then there was the plague
of frogs In your bedroom, in your kitchen, in your bathroom,
everywhere you went, there were frogs. When you went to sleep
at night, frogs were in your bed. Can you imagine how miserable
that would be? This plague of frogs. And then
there was the plague of lice, lice covering you. Oh, Pharaoh said, Take the lice
away. You couldn't stand it. Pharaoh
couldn't stand it. Everybody covered with lice.
As soon as the lice were gone, Pharaoh hardened his heart. The
fourth plague was the plague of flies. I hate one fly. Can you imagine swarms of flies
covering you, covering your skin on you, on your food, in your
bed, everywhere you went, there was a swarm of flies. That would
drive me crazy. Like Pharaoh, I would say, take
it away and we'll give in. Well, the Lord took it away.
And Pharaoh hardened his heart once again. And then there was
the plague of the livestock. All their cattle died. And Pharaoh
sent somebody to the land of Goshen, where the children of
Israel was. There wasn't one cattle, one cow that had died. All their livestock was preserved,
but all of the livestock of Egypt died. They now didn't have any
meat. After that, there was the plague
of boils and blains covering all the Egyptian from Pharaoh
to the lowest maid. Everyone was covered with these
boils and blains and horrendous looking running sores. Then the plague of hail with
fire coming down with it, thundering from heaven. breaking the trees,
breaking, anybody that was out in the hail was killed. The Lord
said, you get, get your cattle protected. You get in a house,
you'll be okay. But anybody who's left in the
field was killed by that hail coming down. And that's where
Pharaoh made that confession. I've sinned, ask him to take
this away. And he hardened his heart again.
And after the, Hail, locusts, covering the land. Nothing left in the land that
was green. They had no meat, they had no
vegetables, nothing was left. And then there was darkness for
three days. And the scripture says it was
a darkness that might be felt and no man would even rise up.
They wouldn't leave their place. They were afraid of what was
going to take place. Utter and complete darkness. And you know, the last plague
we're going to consider that Lord willing next week, the firstborn
being put to death. Pharaoh's firstborn died. Any
animals firstborn died everywhere where there was someone outside
of a house with the blood. God judged that place and the
people said, please leave. Get out. Our land is destroyed.
Our land is devastated. And they even gave them all their
money. They gave them gold and silver to leave the land. Pharaoh, you're going to let
the people go and you're going to be glad they leave. They said,
you know, the Egyptians said, our land is ruined. Get them
out of here. Now, during this time, during
these 10 plagues, Pharaoh sought to negotiate four times. I don't know if I've ever seen
this as clearly as I have this time, but number one, God doesn't
negotiate. God doesn't negotiate with sinners.
God doesn't compromise. Why should he? He's God. He's
all powerful. He doesn't need to compromise
anything. But Pharaoh sought four compromises. First, he said,
you can go and sacrifice, but you got to do it here. You can't
leave. Second, he said, okay, you can
go ahead and sacrifice, but don't go very far away. The Lord told him to go three
days, which I think has something to do with the resurrection and
the complete deliverance. But Pharaoh said, no, stay close. Moses said, no, God didn't compromise. God didn't negotiate it. And
then thirdly, he said, well, you can go just as far as you
want and go sacrifice three days away, but leave your children
here. Moses said, no, we're not going to leave our children here.
We're going to go just as God said for us to. And his fourth
attempt at compromise was you can go, you and your children,
but leave your livestock here. Leave us your cattle. And Moses
said, we won't leave a hoof behind. We're going to go three days
and sacrifice to the Lord, our God. Now, Let's consider briefly
these four compromises. You can believe what you want.
Just don't leave us. Don't leave our church. Don't
leave our assembly. I'm okay. You're okay. We can
believe different, but we can be in the same place and the
same thing and everything's okay. Just don't leave our church. Come out from among them and
be ye separate, saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing. God's not going to compromise.
I'm not to stay in that which is corrupt in disobedience to
him." Pharaoh thought it could be done, but it could not be
done. Then he said, well, you can sacrifice,
but stay close. Don't go the three days distance.
Stay close. You can still use our methods.
You can still sing our songs. We're not that different. You
believe your way and we'll believe our way, but we're going to stay
close. No, we're not going to stay close. How many times have you heard,
what do y'all got for the kids? You can leave, but keep your
children here. We've got things for the kids.
We've got youth groups. We've got all kinds of things to keep the
kids interested and keep them in the right way. We can really
do things to help the children. You leave your children here.
What do y'all got for children? The gospel. That's enough, isn't
it? The gospel. And then finally,
he said, all right. You can go, your kids can go,
leave, do what you want, but leave us something to eat. Leave
us something to live on. Give us some hope of being alive. Leave your livestock so we'll
have something to eat. That's the only way we can live.
If you take that away, we're done. Moses said, not a hoof
shall be left behind. Charles Spurgeon prints the message
on not a hoof shall be left behind if you can find it anywhere and
read it. It was about Christ's effectual atonement for the elect.
Not a hoof will be left behind. The Lord put it this way. Of
all which he has given me, I'll lose nothing. I'll lose nothing. I won't lose one of them, but
raise it up again at the last day. God does not negotiate. God does not compromise. God's word is absolute. He never compromises his word. Now, if he says something, that's
it. That's it. There is no going
back. Well, Moses forsook all of that.
He made a clean break from all of that. He didn't fear the wrath
of the king. You know, he wasn't afraid at
all. I don't think, maybe his flesh was, I don't want to say
that, but he knew God was acting for him. And he did not fear
the wrath of the king. He feared the king of kings.
But he didn't fear the wrath of the king. Every time one of
these plagues happened to Pharaoh, I don't have any doubt that Moses
said, Pharaoh, you don't know what you're dealing with. You
have no idea of what you're bringing on yourself. He understood Pharaoh was God's
pawn doing God's purpose. God said this to Pharaoh, For
this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my
power. in you, and that my name might
be declared throughout all the earth." God is God, and whatever
he does is right, and everything he does is good, and is perfect,
and is just, and is holy, and is true, and we love everything
he does because we trust his character. That's so important.
I don't understand everything he does, but I love everything
he does because I know he's bringing good out of it all for his glory.
God is God. Pharaoh found that out. And you know, he still hardened
his heart. Even when the Lord opened up the Red Sea and the
children of Israel marched through on dry land, Pharaoh's heart
was hardened once again, and he went after him. And God had
the Red Sea drown him and all of his chariots and all of his
horsemen to end it. Now back to our texts anymore,
maybe we haven't left it. Hebrews chapter 11 by faith,
believing God, what is faith? Faith is believing who he is. It's knowing who he is. It's
believing what he said. It's trusting what he did. You know, when Drew asked us
to change from more about Jesus to more
of Jesus, I wonder if anybody's thinking, why did he do that?
Well, for one thing, I think that's the way it ought to be
saying, but think of the words of the Lord. Take my yoke upon you and
learn about me. No, learn of. There's an infinite difference
between learning about the Lord Jesus Christ and learning of
him. I want to learn of him, don't
you? I want to take his yoke upon
me and learn of him. Him who is meek. and lowly in
heart." The Son of God meek and lowly in heart. Well, Moses knew
him and he didn't fear the wrath of the king. Now look what it
says next in verse 27. By faith he forsook Egypt not
fearing the wrath of the king. Pharaoh was mad Pharaoh was mad. I love that passage of scripture.
He said, you're not going to see my face anymore. Moses said,
you said, well, you won't see my face anymore. You're right
about that. And scripture says at that time,
he went out in a great heat. Moses did. Pharaoh was mad, but
I think maybe Moses was madder. I'm tired of dealing with this
guy is what he was saying. But at any rate, through faith, by
faith, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king,
for he endured. as seeing him who is invisible. He endured. The word is he persevered. He persevered. How did he persevere? By seeing him who is invisible. If you continue in my word, then,
Are you my disciples? Indeed, only if you continue. He that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved. Listen to this scripture. We
are made, this is found in Hebrews 3, we are made partakers of Christ.
Well, I want to be made a partaker of Christ, don't you? We are
made partakers of Christ if we hold. the beginning of our confidence. What's the beginning of your
confidence? I know what the beginning of
my confidence is. Christ only. Christ is all. Christ alone. That's the beginning of my confidence.
You know, when I first looked to Christ, whenever that was,
I can't tell you when it was, but whenever it was, I didn't
have anything else to look to. He's all I had. And it hadn't
changed. And I don't want it to change.
Perseverance is persevering and looking to Christ only. It's not remaining religious.
You may remain religious all the way to the end and be lost
as a goose. It's persevering, looking to Christ, resting in
Him, feeding on Him, walking with Him all the way to the end. We believe what has been called
the doctrine of grace and notice I didn't use the word doctrines
of grace. Every time the word doctrines
is used in the scripture in the plural every time without exception
it's a reference to false doctrine. We believe the doctrine of grace. Now somebody says, why do you
believe that? Well, you got to begin with the scripture. It's what
the Bible teaches. to the law and to the testimony
if they speak not according to this word. It's because there's
no light in them. And I'm going to give what are
known as the five points, if you will, of the one doctrine
of grace. And it's all found by Christ in one single message
in John chapter six. We looked at this recently. All
five of those points which make up the one doctrine of grace
is in the Bible. The doctrine of grace. God is
sovereign. He's God. That's all that means.
The Bible is the Word of God. God is as the Bible presents
it. We can't know God apart from
this book. All we've got is my opinion and
your opinion. That's no good. I've got to have
the scriptures to tell me who God is. Now when we talk about
the doctrine of grace, You've all heard of the, quote, five
points. Some people have called it the
five points of Calvinism, and I find that offensive. These
are not the five points of Calvinism. I don't even know if Calvin believed
them. They were given those names after
he was already dead, but it's known as total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and the perseverance
of the saints. Now, total depravity means that
men are dead in sins. What can a dead man do to raise
himself from the dead? Can't do it, can he? He's dead. Graveyard dead. Men are spiritually
dead. If God doesn't give me life,
I won't live. When we speak of total depravity,
it doesn't mean everyone is ax murderers and bank robbers. It means every characteristic
I have is under the dominion of sin. My will, my affections,
my understanding, it's all under the dominion of sin. That's what
total depravity means. Now somebody said, you know,
you could be the bank robber or whatever horrible crime you
want to think, it's in you. And you will be that way apart
from God's grace, but total depravity. He's not talking about people
going out as ax murderers and robbing banks. That means every
faculty, the will, the conscience. It's no good. It's defiled. It
doesn't work right. Nothing about man works. He's totally depraved. Therefore,
being totally depraved, we're totally dependent upon the unconditional
election of God. What is that? Before time began,
God, by his grace, Ephesians 1, 4, according as he hath chosen
us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him. Unconditional election. The only way you'll be saved
and I'll be saved is if God elected me before time began. Do you
have any problem with that? You know, the fact of the matter
is the only way I'll be saved is if He elected me. Election
doesn't damn people who would have been saved. Election saves
people who would have been damned if there were not electing grace. Thank God for God's electing
grace. El, limited atonement, in the acrostic of TULIP, limited
atonement. Some people don't like that term,
and I can understand that, because people think, well, it's limited
in its power, but that's not what that means. It means it
was limited to the elect. Jesus Christ died for the elect. Particular redemption, definite
atonement, call it what you want, it means that a real substitution
took place, and Christ actually paid for the sins of his people.
They're gone. I, invincible, irresistible grace. This is talking about the work
of God, the Holy Spirit. He gives life to all those the
father elected and all those Christ died for. He gives life
irresistibly and invincibly. He says, live and you live. Now, what is the evidence that
God elected you? Christ died for you, and God
the Holy Spirit gives you life. What we read of in our text,
He endured. He persevered all the way to
the end. He persevered looking to Christ. Now that's what perseverance
is. It's looking to Christ. That means relying on Him only.
You look to Him. You don't look to your works.
You don't look to anything else. You look to Him only all the
way to the end. Now these five points, if you
want to call them that, they all go together. They stand or
fall together. You can't believe one of them
and not believe the other four. You can't believe four and not
believe the fifth. I've heard of people who claim to be one-pointers
and two-pointers. That's pointless. That's what
Tim James said. That's pointless. You believe grace, the doctrine
of grace, and you persevere all the way to the end. I continue to looking to Christ
only. That's what perseverance is.
It's not just staying religious. It's continuing to believe the
gospel all the way to the end. If my last step into heaven is
dependent on anything I have to do, I'll miss heaven and go
to hell. You believe that? Your last step. We're totally dependent upon
him at all times. The wayside here never began. The stony ground here fell away.
The thorn choked here, bore no fruit. It was the good ground
here that endured. And that's what caused this perseverance,
this enduring until the end. Now, in our text, by faith, he
forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured. as seeing him who is invisible. How did he endure? Seeing him
who is invisible. Now how in the world do you do
that? By faith. We walk by faith. I can't see
the Lord Jesus Christ. I've never seen him physically.
But I've seen him who is invisible. I've seen him in his word. I've
seen him in the preaching of the gospel. I've seen him in
his people. He endured as seeing him who is invisible. Now the
people who do not endure, who do not persevere, it's because
they have never seen him that is invisible. That's why they
can leave. They've never really seen Him who is invisible. They've never seen that one who
is the express image of the invisible God. They've never beheld the
glory of Jesus Christ. They know nothing of the joy
and the peace of believing. They've never rested in Christ.
They're a stranger to Christ is all that's meaningless to
them. They might be able to quote it and kind of, uh, um, Say it
out loud, but it doesn't really mean anything to them. They just
know to say it. It's cliche to them. They don't
really understand the glory of Colossians 2.10. In him dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead and aboddee, and you are complete
in him. You ever see that? You'll persevere. You won't have anywhere else
to go. You won't have anywhere else to look. You will persevere
all the way to the end if you have seen him. Now, I've seen
people leave the gospel, and the only way you can do that
is if you never believed in the first place. Here's what John
said in 1 John 2, verse 19. He said, they went out from us,
but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, They
would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that
they might be made manifest that they are not all of us. Now it says, he endured as seeing
him who is invisible. And you know, the word actually
is stared at. stared at him who is invisible. They persevered in staring at
him who is invisible whom having not seen you love though now
you seem not yet believing. You rejoice with joy unspeakable,
full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation
of your souls. Now to see means to discern. You perceive him. You discern him. You have some
understanding. Let's put it this way. When you
hear someone described in preaching that's not him, you know it because
you know him. You know all things. You have an unction from the
Holy One and know all things. You know Him enough to when you
hear something that's contrary to His character and violates
His character, you know it and you won't have it because you
know Him. You see Him who is invisible. He is the visible
image of the invisible God. Faith is believing Him whom you
don't see. It is believing what you do not
see. Now, I believe right now while I'm talking to
you, I stand before God having never sinned. Well, how can you say that when
you have? Because Jesus Christ put away my sin, made it not
to be, and gave his righteousness to me. I can't see that. Somebody says, you don't look
like that to me. I can't see it either, but I believe it. I believe what I cannot see. I can't see that I stand perfect
before God. I can't examine my life in the
last 24 hours and say, well, that was pretty good. No, I don't
see this in any form. I'm aware of it. I'm aware of
it. I'm aware of the new man. Do
I see a new man that's without sin? No, but I'm aware of it.
The reason I believe, the reason I love Christ, The reason I rejoice
in him is because of this new man he's given me. But we believe,
we endure, we persevere seeing him who is invisible. Persevere by believing what we
cannot see. I love the scripture I just quoted.
whom, having not seen, you love. I've never seen him. I love him. I can say with Peter, and you
can too, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love your person. Do I feel like I love you enough?
No, I love you infinitely more than I do. If I loved you the
way I should love you, I'd never sin again. I'd be without sin. And that's not the case. So I
don't trust my love for you as what it ought to be, but I admire,
I adore, I see as glorious your person. I trust your salvation. Moses endured, he persevered
as seeing him who is invisible. Now, like Moses, every believer,
we forsake Egypt. We forsake Egypt, not fearing
the wrath of the king, men. We persevere as seeing him who
is invisible. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would give us the supernatural grace to forsake Egypt not fearing
the wrath of the king, but enduring and persevering, seeing Him who
is invisible. Lord, how we thank you for him,
and while we don't see him, we believe him, and we rest in this,
that he is our savior, that he is our redeemer, sitting at your
right hand, making intercession for us, making us perfect before
you, and we give thanks for him. In his name we pray, amen.