Exodus 10, verse 26, Moses says, Our cattle
also shall go with us. There shall not an hoof be left
behind. I've entitled this message, No
Compromise. I think you can see where I got
that title. No Compromise. I looked the word compromise
up in Webster's dictionary and he defined it like this. A compromise is a settlement. By mutual concession. to settle by compromise, and
then the third meaning is to expose to risk. Now, our text
is the last of the four compromises that Pharaoh sought. The first
is found in Exodus 8. Would you turn with me there?
Exodus chapter 8. Verse 25, And Pharaoh called
for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your
God in the land, in Egypt. Don't leave. Sacrifice in Egypt. And then the second is found
in verse 28. And Pharaoh said, I'll let you
go that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness,
only you shall not go very far away. You're not to go very far. The
third is found in Exodus chapter 10. Verse eight. And Moses and Aaron were brought
again unto Pharaoh, and he said unto them, Go serve the Lord
your God, but who are they that shall go? And Moses said, We
will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with
our daughters. With our flocks and with our
herds will we go, for we must hold a feast to the Lord. And
he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you, and I'll let
you go. And your little ones look to it for evils before you.
Not so. Your children can't go. Go now,
you that are men, and serve the Lord. For that ye did desire,
and they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. And then
the one we just read about where he said, you can all go except
for your flocks and herds, they can't go. And Moses said, not
a hoof. I love that. Not a hoof will
be left behind. We cannot live in this world
without compromise. Somebody that has not learned
to compromise will have to live as a hermit. Because to get along with any
other human being, we have to learn to compromise. Haven't you found that so in
your marriage? Sure you have. You find that in the church. There are different personalities.
People are so different. There are people who have different
convictions about certain things that maybe the Bible doesn't
speak real clearly about. You feel strongly about something.
They feel strongly about something. And you have to get along with
those people. To refuse to compromise in some
areas is nothing more than a sign of lack of grace and great pride. If I do not learn to compromise,
I will not have any friends. Isn't that so? If I do not learn to compromise,
I will not get along with anybody. And if I'm one of these people
who say I'll never compromise anything, If I remain consistent
with my convictions, I'm not going to be able to get along
with myself. If I remain consistent, I'm going to have to kick myself
out of the house, aren't I? There has never been a son of
Adam who has not found a need at some point to compromise. And how many times have you found
that you've had to compromise in order to get along with somebody? Compromise can be a good thing.
Compromise can be a gracious thing. Compromise can be a loving
thing. So not all compromise is bad. Compromise can also be a great
evil. The second definition of compromise
is to expose to risk. When you compromise something,
you're exposing yourself There are some areas in which
if I compromise, I expose myself to a great risk, and the compromise
is treacherous and evil and cowardly and will lead to my ruin. You
know, it's in the middle of the road where the head-on collisions
occur. Now, there is one person. who
has never compromised. Only one. You know who that is,
don't you? God Himself. The Lord Jesus Christ. He has no reason to. He never
needs to make a concession. He's God. Why would He concede? He's all-powerful. Whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that did He in earth and sea and all deep
places. He has no need. to compromise. If he could compromise, he'd
no longer be God. God never compromises. And we wouldn't have a sure salvation
if he could compromise. But bless his holy name, he never
compromises. He's the faithful God. We can
count on that. He is not going to make any concessions. But Satan is always seeking compromises
from us, concessions from us, because he knows that if we make
any concession, we're defeated. We'll end up falling away. A little leaven leavens the whole
lump. What a warning from Scripture
that is. Just a little leaven. It's going to work its way through
the whole batch of dough. Compromise is death. In many, many areas. For instance,
salvation by grace. Let's take the doctrine of grace.
Total depravity. Unconditional election. Limited
atonement. Irresistible grace. Perseverance of the saints. Which
one can you compromise? Which one is it OK to loosen up on? Which one is it OK to not believe? You can't compromise any of God's
truth. You can't compromise any of God's
word. Now, let's examine each of these
four areas where Pharaoh sought a compromise and see what we
can learn from it. Turn back to Exodus chapter eight.
Now, the Lord had Corrupted the land by flies. And can you imagine
how miserable Pharaoh and all the people of Egypt must have
been with flies covering everything? I can't even imagine how miserable
that must have been. So Pharaoh seeks a compromise. Look in verse 25. And Pharaoh
called for Moses and for Aaron. This is with the flies swarming. And he said, go ye. Sacrifice
to your God. I'll make a concession. I can't
handle these flies anymore. I'll make a concession. Go and
sacrifice to your God in the land. You can only offer up sacrifices
to Jehovah in Egypt. Do not leave. Don't separate
yourself from this land. We still want you to be under
our influence. I'll concede something. You go and sacrifice. I'll concede. Go have this feast to the Lord.
I'll concede that. But you need to concede, too. You can't leave Egypt. You're
to stay here in Egypt. You can believe whatever you
want to believe. And practice whatever you want
to practice, but you need not separate from Egypt. You need
not separate from the world. Don't leave the world. Don't
leave this world religion. Stay in Egypt. Now, this compromise takes so
many forms and it goes under so many names, making concessions
with the world. Now, here's a concession to make. You can believe everything you
want to believe. I got no problems with what you believe. You can
believe everything you want to believe as long as you don't
condemn our beliefs. As long as you believe we're still saved,
it doesn't matter what you believe. The trouble begins when it becomes
a salvation issue. That's when the trouble begins.
What does a man have to believe and bow to? Everything God says. And if there's anything where
a man or a woman refuses to bow, they will not be saved. Now, that's how serious this
is. It sometimes goes under other
names like Reformation. Reformation. You ever thought
when we talk about Reformed doctrine? Reformation, Reformed doctrine,
and so on. We believe Reformed doctrine.
Now, wait a minute. Reformed for what? Does the truth need
to be reformed? Reformed? Well, when I think
of reform, I mean, you know, people will be in a corrupt church
and say, we're going to reform the church. No, the message of
the scripture is come out from among them and be ye separate,
sayeth the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. Not reform,
but come out. Well, we know we're going to
stay in Egypt. We're going to reform this Egyptian church. We're going
to reform this church. We're going to get it back on
track. No, you won't. No, you won't. It sometimes seeks
to use worldly wisdom and man-made methods in order to market and
package the gospel to make it more appealing to the flesh.
But, beloved, we're not seeking to appeal to the flesh. As God is my witness, I'm not
concerned about keeping the flesh happy. My only desire is to tell
the truth of God. And I look to Him to take care
of the results. I'm not trying to package the gospel. I'm not
trying to present it in such a way as to make it appealing
to the flesh. I don't care about the flesh. I want to tell the
truth. You know, this whole idea of
contemporary worship, it's an attempt at packaging the gospel
and make it more appealing and make it so it's easier to believe
and easier to receive. That is compromise. It's sometimes
goes under the name of toleration, under the guise of love. Live
and let live. You believe your way, I believe
my way. We'll all end up in the same place. We tolerate. That's
what the church at Pergamos did. But what it is in reality is
a complete lack of love for God and for His truth. That's all
that amounts to. And you know, when we compromise
God's truth, all we prove is we really don't love the men
that we say we love. That's all we demonstrate. Now,
I love Moses's answer in verse 26. I think this is interesting.
Exodus 8, 26. And Pharaoh called for Moses
and for Aaron and said, go, you sacrifice to your God in the
land. You stay in Egypt and do it. And Moses said, it is not
meet so to do. For we shall sacrifice the abomination
of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. Lo, shall we sacrifice
the abominations of the Egyptians before their eyes? And will they
not stone us? We will go three days' journey
into the wilderness. Not in Egypt. We're going to
go into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he shall
command us. Now, two significant things I
see in that passage of Scripture. Where are you going to hear from
God? in the wilderness. Not in the world. Not in the
land. In the wilderness. If you were
going to hear from God when John the Baptist was preaching, you
didn't go to the temple, did you? You had to go out into the
wilderness where he was preaching. You heard from God in the wilderness.
Not in man's religion. In the wilderness. And I think
there's a lot of significance to the fact that he says, go
three days' journey. Our Lord was in a grave For three
days, you take it that far. That's how far you're to go away.
Three days journey into the wilderness. So Pharaoh makes another attempt
at a concession in verse 28. And Pharaoh said, I'll let you
go, I'll make a concession. I'll let you go that you may
sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness. OK, you don't
have to stay in the land, only you shall not go very far away. Intrigue for me, pray for me,
get rid of these fly for me, but you're just not to go very
far away. Don't take this thing too far. Don't take this thing too far. Don't take your doctrine too
far. I mean, this could go in so many different directions.
Don't take your doctrine too far. We talk about the sovereignty
of God. God is absolutely sovereign.
Now, don't take it too far. I believe God is sovereign. Now,
I agree. God is sovereign. The Bible teaches that. God is
sovereign. But don't take it too far. How can you take God's sovereignty
too far? He says, I form the light and I create darkness.
I make peace and I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. He's the first cause of everything. Can I take that too far? God
is absolutely sovereign. Okay, God's sovereign. I'll grant
that. That seems very inconsistent with man's responsibility. How
can God be sovereign and man be responsible at the same time?
I mean, if God's ordained everything, if God's decreed everything,
how can I be held responsible if God's determined everything
and everything's predetermined? There's nothing I can do about
it. If there's predetermination, how can I be held responsible?
I realize God may hold me responsible because He's God. I realize that,
but How can I actually be held responsible for what God's already
determined? You can't take this thing of
responsibility too far. Yeah, you can. You and I are completely responsible. Yes, God's totally sovereign,
and we're completely responsible. Now, do I understand how those
two things come together? No. I don't have any idea how
both of those things are true. And I realize some people say,
well, they can't both be true. Yeah, they are. We believe what
God says. We're totally responsible. Salvation is by grace. I believe
everybody would say, I believe salvation is by grace. By grace
are you saved? Through faith. But let's don't
take that too far. I mean, if you can preach grace
to the extent that people say it doesn't matter how I live.
What about good works? I mean, if you say it's all of
grace and my works have nothing to do with anything, it's all
a work of grace. And you take that too far because
you can make people think it doesn't matter how they live.
It doesn't matter whether they give or whether they don't give. It doesn't matter
whether they have good works or they don't have good works.
It just doesn't matter. If you preach grace too freely
and take it too far, that's going to be the result. Don't take
it too far. And somebody else will turn around and say, well,
don't. Salvation is by grace. Therefore, you can't put too
much emphasis on faith. Don't take that too far. Salvation
is all of grace. Then don't say hearing the truth
or believing the truth is absolutely necessary because you're making
a work out of it. That's making it work. No, don't take that
too far. Listen, by grace are you saved
through faith. That's what the Bible says. By
grace are you saved through faith. That and out of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. You can't take anything in God's
Word too far. You know, when you seek to try
to balance everything out, you deny all of it. That's what you
end up doing. Here's another example. I think of that passage of scripture
in 1 John chapter 4, verse 17. As he is, I reckon you probably
figured out this is one of my favorite scriptures. As he is,
so are we in this world right now. As he is, So are we in this
now? Wait a minute. You take that
too far. I mean, he's God. Are you trying to make yourself
into a God? You can take that too far. He's the only begotten
son. Yes, that's true. He is the only
begotten son. And we're begotten sons also. As he is, so are we. He's holy. He is without sin. He is perfectly accepted before
God. He's in heaven right now. So
are we. Can you take that too far? As
He is, so are we in this world. Well, that's how God views us.
God views us exactly as we are. I'm the very righteousness of
God in Him. Can you take that too far? I
know it goes beyond human understanding. You know, a natural man will
get confused by this. He'll think it's inconsistent
and contradictory and so on. And I can't keep a natural man
happy, and I'm not trying to. But believers rejoice in this. This is the gospel. As he is,
so are we in this world. Don't take devotion to Christ
too far. Don't become a fanatic. Listen to me. Anything less than
absolute fanaticism, being a fanatic regarding the Lord Jesus Christ,
being an out and out disciple and follower of Jesus Christ,
anything less than being an absolute fanatic is compromise. Anything less than complete consecration
to Jesus Christ is compromise. Christ. If he is true, he's all. If he's not true, he's nothing.
But he's nothing in between, is he? He's either all or he's
nothing at all, and there's no in between. Verse 8, And Moses and Aaron
were brought again unto Pharaoh. This is before the plague of
the locusts. And he said to them, Go serve
the Lord your God, but who are they that shall go? Who's going
to go? I mean, OK, go into the wilderness, go three days, do
whatever you want, but who's going to go? And Moses said,
We'll go with our young and with our old. With our sons and with
our daughters. With our flocks and with our
herds will we go, for we must hold the feast to the Lord. And
he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you as I let you go,
and your little ones. Look to it for evils before you.
Now, we don't want your little ones going. You know, that kind
of reminds me of the biggest complaint we have, it seems like,
regarding churches where the gospel is preached. Well, what
do you got for kids? What have you got for kids? Oh, we've got
the gospel. What else do you want? We have the truth. What else do you want? Your kids. What does he say? Not so. Verse
11. Go now, ye that are men, and serve the Lord. For that
ye do desire. You can't take your children.
You men can go, but not your children. And they were driven
out from Pharaoh's presence. Who's going, Moses? I'm conceding,
who's going? He says, everybody. Our men and
our women, our little boys and our little girls, our flocks
and our herds, everybody is going. Beloved, it's all or nothing. To leave their children would
have been remarkably wicked. Could you imagine leaving your
kids? Well, I'm going to go. But I'm going to leave my kids
behind. Boy, you'd demonstrate a whole lot about yourself in
doing that, wouldn't you? Christ. Jesus Christ. Is either all to me. Or is nothing
at all. There's no in between. Salvation. is either all of grace or it's
not grace at all. There is no in between. Every
aspect of my life is under his reign. He's either Lord of all
or he's not Lord at all. You know, people talk about,
well, I'm going to follow Christ everywhere but here. I'm going to fall across
everywhere but this one area. I mean, that's my weakness. I'm
going to fall across everywhere, but I can't. Wait a minute. That's like somebody saying,
well, I'm going to give up adultery and I'm going to give up shoplifting,
but I'm going to keep murdering. It doesn't work that way, does
it? Not at all. He said we're to
give up. We're taking everything. And
then in chapter 10, verse 24, this is right after the plague
of darkness. Can you imagine what it must
have been like with three days of darkness that was so thick
it would be felt and they were in utter darkness, nobody had
seen anything, and that would be terrifying. I mean, there
was no light at all. Utter, complete darkness. Everybody
just sat there in the dark. And now he's going to make another
concession. Look at verse 24. And Pharaoh called unto Moses and
said, Go ye, serve the Lord. Only let your flocks and your
herds be stayed. All you, the kids can go. The adults can go. You all go
out and go as far as you want. Take the three days journey into
the wilderness. Go away. Only keep your flocks and your
herds here. Now, this is so subtle. How are
you going to offer up a sacrifice without the flocks and herds? It can't be done. This is so
you all can go, but let's let's let's tone down this thing of
sacrifice, leave the herds and animals behind. This is seeking
to remove what they were there leaving for in the first place
to sacrifice to their God. And you can't sacrifice without
these flocks and herds. You see, the gospel is the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't what gives you comfort
right now? Isn't what is good news to you
right now that Christ Jesus by His death on the cross actually
accomplished your salvation and is totally out of your hands?
He did it all. And you're complete in Him. Do
you find that to be gospel? Is that good news to you? You
don't want that water, Dad. You don't want that with Him.
I love Moses' answer. He said, leave the flocks behind. He said, there won't be a hoof
left behind. No compromise. No compromise. No compromise. Now I'm not saying this in a
March away. I'm going to stand for you. You
won't get me to back down. I'm not trying to do that. I
hope I'm not. But beloved, there's no compromise
right here. The Bible is the Word of God. It is our only rule of faith
and practice. If the Bible doesn't declare
it, we don't believe it. If the Bible declares it, we
bow to it, don't we? No compromise. Won't give in
an inch there by His grace. The Lord Jesus Christ is all
in salvation. I love thinking about that. If
He's all, everything else is nothing, and I like it that way.
I'm so satisfied to be saved by Jesus Christ where He does
everything and I simply rest in Him. I'm satisfied with that.
He's all in my assurance. I don't get assurance because
I'm a preacher. I don't get assurance because I read the Bible. I don't
get assurance because of anything, the knowledge that I've accrued.
I get assurance from this, who Christ is, and what He did is
everything in my salvation. I don't need anything else. That's
where my assurance comes from. I'm not going to budge an inch
from that. Don't tell me to look anywhere else. Salvation is all of grace, and
we're not going to budge an inch from that. From election to glorification,
when I finally stand before God, accepted, you know what the shouting
is going to be? Grace, grace unto it. Every aspect
of salvation is by the free grace of God, and we won't budge an
inch from that. Why would I? I mean, there isn't
a good reason to, is there? You have to not believe to give
up anything. The reason I believe that I'm
kept right now, the reason I believe that I'm going to stand before
glory, before God perfectly accepted, is because I believe that salvation
is all of His grace. I'm not going to give in an inch. We believe. Faith alone. Salvation comes simply by resting
in the Lord Jesus Christ, not by doing, but by believing. And we won't give in an inch
there, will we? Faith alone. And beloved, we really believe
that the glory of God alone is the only acceptable motive. We really believe that. And anything
that is not for His glory is going to be destroyed. And this
is the only motive for service. No compromise. Now, like I said at the first
of this message, there are areas where we're always going to have
to compromise. You know that. I know that. As far as getting
along with people. But regarding God's Word, how He saves sinners,
who Jesus Christ is, the Word of God, There is absolutely no
compromise. Oh, that God will give us all
this holy boldness to not compromise His gospel. There shall not a
hoof be left behind. Let's pray together.