Fight your attention back to
Exodus chapter 5 and verse 19. This is the beginning of a story
that began in Genesis chapter 15 or 14 when our Lord sent Abraham into a trance, as
it were, and showed him that his people, which would come
from his loins, which would later be the sons of Jacob in Israel,
would go into captivity into a strange land for 430 years. Now this has come to pass. For
a while they had it good. They had it real good. They were given the finest land. They prospered greatly. Joseph
was second to the pharaoh and made sure they had plenty to
eat in the seven years of famine. And then when Joseph died, a
new king arose, a new pharaoh, and didn't know Joseph, and brought
him to abject slavery. They were making bricks to build,
I suspect, the pyramids by taking straw and stomping the straw
down in mud and forming bricks And this is what they did in
slavery. And all of this was a picture of the salvation that
is wrought by Jesus Christ, and that deliverance is always the
same. It's from religion. It's from religion. Egypt, in all its glory and menace,
represents the carnal religion that the world stands wholly
in opposition of the truth of the salvation by grace. In the
last book of the Bible, the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, when
it talks about destroying Babylon. Babylon is also called Egypt
and Sodom. Egypt and Sodom. Religion is
Egypt and Sodom. And I'm talking about religion
without Jesus Christ. Religion without Christ. And
this carnal natural religion envelops any and all practice
that embraces the works of man for salvation or righteousness
or justification that embraces the will of man or the deeds
of the law for righteousness before God. All of that is religion
without Christ. Paul said it's dead religion. It produces dead works from dead
men. Paul said we're dead to it as
believers. We don't have anything to do
with that religion. Paul said, I would not give them
space of an hour. Wouldn't give them time. I wish
they were cut off or castrated. Paul was tough in the book of
Galatians and Colossians concerning these things. Such religion lives
and thrives on its ability to enslave and control the lives
and minds of men. And they do that basically by
bondage and controlling their behavior. Whether by the threat
of wrath, or by the promise of reward, the idea is to govern
men rather than to set them free. The gospel, the good news of
salvation by grace alone, that good news sets men free. He shall know the truth, and
the truth shall not bind you up. The truth shall not bring
you into bondage. The truth shall set you free. False religion disdains freedom. It fears freedom and rather opts
for that which enslaves and incites and engenders bondage. Paul said
in the Galatian church, they do this to make a fair show in
the flesh. They exhibit you as their trophies
by holding you in bondage. Now this fact is clearly seen
in this portion of scripture here. in Pharaoh's reaction to
the command of God voiced by Moses and Aaron. Aaron said to
Moses, or Aaron and Moses said to Pharaoh that Pharaoh must
let the people go into the wilderness and have a feast. You must let
my people go into the wilderness, three days into the wilderness,
and have a feast. This first reaction of Pharaoh
is always the first reaction to acknowledge that the people
of God will not worship in a strange and false and pagan religion.
There cannot be and never will be an amalgamation of the false
and the true for the people of God. All you have to do is read
the book everywhere and anywhere. God said there ain't gonna be
no mixture. There ain't gonna be no mixture of idols with God,
sons of Belial with the sons of God, with self-righteousness
and righteousness. There's not gonna be any mixture.
With grace and law, there's never gonna be a mixture. God says
he forbids it. Well, here in this chapter, you
find this principle set forth. The people of God say they must
vacate Egypt. They must vacate Egypt and go
out into the wilderness They must vacate false religion. They
cannot praise and thank God in the midst of false religion.
Religion, however, cannot abide this kind of separation and will
immediately respond that such a God is not their God. When
Pharaoh was told, well, you must let my people go out into the
wilderness on a three days journey and have a feast and sacrifice
unto our God, he said, I don't know your God. Who is your God? Not my God. I can't tell you
the number of times when I've told people the truth about the
salvation of the elect by the grace and mercy of Almighty God
alone that they've said, that's not my God. That's not my God. Part and parcel with their reaction
is that they cannot understand the concept of thanksgiving and
praise for something that they have no part in. That's difficult, that's difficult
for religion. The word feast here literally
means to dance and sing and reel to and fro. So this was the request
or rather the command from God to take the people out three
days in the desert, sacrifice unto me and dance and sing and
reel to and fro. Now all these things suggest
unbridled joy in the Lord, a concept that is foreign to religion.
When Moses and Aaron said again that they must go into the wilderness
to worship and sacrifice because God had commanded them, they
added that if they did not, that God would send pestilence and
a sword upon Egypt. The concept that joy and worship
without a record of work and labor and guilt could actually
be called the religion of insanity. This is clearly seen in Pharaoh's
response. False religion cannot imagine
cannot imagine worship that does not involve and count something
as work, something as burden. You hear
people talk about it all the time. These clowns get on TV. Stan was talking about it the
other day. He said he heard a preacher was looking for a house over
in Hawaii, wasn't it? Pretty good place to retire.
They'd given him a budget for $600,000 for his house. Stan said, I'm in the wrong business.
Religion is big business. It's the biggest business there
is. But you listen to them talk.
They talk about these burdens that they have for people. These
burdens they have for people. Because religion operates on
that. I used to think that way myself when I first started preaching
before I knew Christ. I was always talking about the
burden of the pulpit. Have a burden for souls. And
I found out the Bible don't talk in such ways except in false
religion, except in false religion. Pharaoh's response is found in
verse four. They said, let my people go dance
and sing and reel to and fro and offer a sacrifice unto God
of praise and thanksgiving. And the king of Egypt said unto
them, wherefore do you, Moses and Aaron, let the people from
their works, from their works get you unto your burdens? This
is what religion's reaction is. The gospel says, cease ye from
labor and trust in the Lord. Lay your burdens upon the Lord.
Cast your cares upon the Lord, for he cares for you. False religion
cannot imagine that concept. They can't imagine the concept
of rest. I like resting. We worked hard
yesterday, us guys did, busting wood and hauling wood. wore ourselves
out pretty good, I did anyway. I'd come back, I was sitting
there aching and paining, I said, told Debbie I'm gonna go take
a hot shower, see if I can loosen up some of these muscles that
I've tightened up today. And I'd come back in and sit down
and I was watching a show on TV and two hours later I was
watching the third episode. I don't even remember what happened
in the first or second episode. Slept like a baby, I like rest.
Rest is necessary. But for the people of God, your
rest doesn't come from labor. Your rest doesn't come from your
work. Your rest doesn't come from your burden. Your rest comes
because there's no work to be done. The work has been finished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel declares that the
work is finished and all that's left is for rest. All that's
left is to rest in Jesus Christ. False religion sees the rest
that belongs to the people of God, the worship of God who has
finished the work, they see it as idleness. I've actually been
called someone who's idle because I refuse to bow to those who
would bring me back under the law. Look at verse eight. It says, and this is Pharaoh,
the tale of bricks which they did make hitherto, you shall
lay upon them, you shall not diminish all thereof, for they
are idle. They are idle, therefore they
cry, let us go and sacrifice to our God. And that's what the
children of God say. I'm not gonna work, I'm gonna
go worship. I'm not gonna work for salvation, I'm gonna worship
God for what he's done for me. And the religion said, well,
you're just idle. You're just idle and they make
comparisons. You're saying this fellow over
here don't do nothing but go to church and worship God. That's
all he does. And this fellow over here is
busy in his community and he's doing all this religious stuff
and handing out tracts and all this stuff. You're saying these
guys are the same. No, I'm saying this guy got a lot better. Because
this guy knows what it is to rest in Jesus Christ. But religion
says he's idle. You're just idle. Payroll calls what they said
empty words. That's what they say. That's
what religion says. Verse nine, let no more work,
let more work be laid upon them that they may labor therein and
let them not regard vain words. Are you telling me that you believe
that there's no work for you to do to put you in a right standing
with God? Are you telling me that? Are
you telling me that your salvation is entirely based upon the work,
the accomplished work of Jesus Christ and none of your own?
Are you trying to tell me that? You need to get out and work.
We need to sing that song. We'll work till Jesus come. We
need to do something. They say you're idle. That's
what Pharaoh said. They're idle. You want to go worship God? That's
why you say you want to go, because you're just idle. Ain't nothing
to you. These are empty words, vain words.
Give me some words that mean something, they say. Their answer
to such foolishness is more work, increased labor, without help
from religion, as punishment or reformation for the persuasion
that true worship is resting without burdens, unbridled joy,
without labor, and dancing and rejoicing in the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's vain, they say. But that's
what the children of God do. Let us go out. Let us separate
from this mess. Let us go out and worship God
in the wilderness, not here in this land. The people of God,
the true church, true Israel, will not be dissuaded from the
worship of God outside the purview and restraints of false religion.
The people must go. Come out of her, my people. Have
no part with them. I will be your God and you will
be my people. Have no part with those. The
people must go. Believers cannot countenance
or pretend fellowship with that which is against God. Salvation
is not changing religions or converting from one false faith
system to another false faith system. Salvation is changing
gods. Get over it. Barney, you say,
if I'm gonna introduce you to the true God, I'm gonna have
to kill your God first, and that's the way it is. Your God's got
to go. If your God is that Namby Pamby,
nobody can't do nothing unless you let him. That God's got to
go or you'll never believe the true and living God. Salvation
is changing gods and no longer having anything to do with the
former idol that you worship. I've often been told by religion
that we are all in this together, many times, and that we worship
the same God. To this I generally say, describe
your God. Tell me what he's like. If your father's hands are tied,
if your God's hands are tied, if your God wants to save you
but can't unless you let him, if your God is dependent on your
will to save you, then we have different gods. It's not a matter
of fear. We got different gods. Because
the God of the Bible, the true and living God, the God whom
God's people worship, not like that at all. The difference is
night and day. The difference is black and white.
The difference is life and death. The true God does as he pleases
in heaven and earth and all the deep places. We worship different
gods. And I don't want to have anything
to do with such a sad and puny feckless fellow that they call
their God. The believer must go out, clean out of Egypt. where
there can be no true worship, no true rest, no true joy, no
reason to dance, and reel to and fro. When religion sees that
it's lost its influence, and Pharaoh began to see it, because
God sent pestilence, God sent locusts, God sends trouble to
Pharaoh, and all of a sudden the economy starts suffering.
And all because these people who make the bricks for their
pyramids are saying, we're not going to do anything until we
get out there and worship our God and offer sacrifice unto
Him. You've got to let us go do that
or God will send pestilence. And He did. The plagues of frogs
and flies that came upon Egypt did not touch God's people. The
muraine, the bacteria, think about people talking about free
will, God even controlled bacteria. Bacteria didn't land on the cattle
of the Israelites, only on the Egyptian cattle. God wouldn't
even allow a dog to bark against Israel. He severed his people
from this thing and protected his people and all this pestilence
and sorrow come to Pharaoh and he began to have second thoughts.
He realizes he's losing his influence and his power And that's represented
by the frogs and the flies that didn't touch God's people. Over
in chapter eight in verse 22, says this, and I will sever in
that day the land of Goshen. I will sever them. That's another
word for election. I will sever in that day the
land of Goshen in which my people dwell that no swarms of flies
shall be there to the end that thou mayest know that I am the
Lord in the midst of the earth and I will put a division "'Between
my people and thy people, "'tomorrow shall this sign be,' and the
Lord did so, "'and there came a grievous swarm of flies "'into
the house of Pharaoh and to his servant's house "'and to all
the land of Egypt. "'The land was corrupted by reason of the
swarm of flies.'" Now he's being introduced to the God that these
folks are talking about, the God that rules and reigns even
the house flies of the world. Pharaoh's tore up about it. He
don't know quite what to do about it. So he relents, gives in a
little. Religion does that sometimes.
It'll give in a little. That's what they did here. Pharaoh
relented. To lose such a labor force couldn't
be countenance. That couldn't be abided. So religion seeks to compromise,
to diminish this radical idea of living all together. Religion
wants you to stay and is willing to forgo certain things in order
to get you to do so. Many times I've been told that
I don't need to be so narrow and that the folks believed I
was a Christian too and they wanted me to stay with them,
but just don't bring up our differences. I've been told that many times.
Just don't bring it up to them. We're all going to the same place.
We all worship the same God. It's always been amazing to me.
They tell me to shut up, but they don't shut up. They would
just keep on rattling on. Just don't tell what you believe
and we'll get along just fine. That's what Pharaoh said in chapter
eight, verse 25. And Pharaoh called for Moses
and Aaron and said, go ye. These flies have taught us a
lesson. Go ye. Go ye and sacrifice to your God
in the land. Not outside. But you can sacrifice
to your God, but just stick around here. Just stick around here.
This is the tactic of Pharaoh. The tactic of all works and free
will legalistic religion. Pharaoh concedes that he's fighting
a losing battle because he's fighting against God. These narrow-minded
people are going to leave if he doesn't act fast. So he comes
up with a compromise. He tells Moses that they can
worship or sacrifice and worship his God with the blessing of
Egypt, but why go out in the wilderness to do it? Why do you
have to go out there to do it? Why do you have to pull away
from us? Why do you have to separate from us? Just stay here in the
land and worship to your heart's content. Give them right to worship. That's not what they wanted.
That's not what God had commanded. So Moses says, there's no way
in chapter eight, verse 26 and 27, Moses said, it's not me to do
so, not suitable. For we shall sacrifice the abomination
of the Egyptians to our Lord God. Lo, shall we sacrifice an
abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they
not stone us? We will go three days journey
into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he shall
command us. What they're saying is, Here,
Moses is not calling the Egyptian deities abomination, though they
clearly were. He declares that the sacrifice
that Israel would offer, if they offered it in the land, it would
be an abomination to the Egyptians, and such an action would cost
Israelites their life. This is true understanding. You
see, the sacrifice of Christ, which fully and totally accomplished
the salvation of God's people without any contribution from
the elect. is an abomination to religion.
It's an abomination to religion. The believer worships God in
Christ based on the successful substitutionary work of Christ,
by which he saved everyone for whom he died. Thou shall call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. The Jesus who died and actually
saved no one is a false god. False God, the true and living
God, Jesus Christ, is an abomination of religion and will not be worshiped
by God's people in the place where the idols are. Not be worshiped
in false religion or where false religion worships. Y'all just
go on out and find your churches. Everybody ought to be in church. You better find a church where
the gospel's preached. Better get out of that Egypt.
Head for the wilderness. When faced with this tenacious,
intractable attitude, the attitude of the people of God, Pharaoh
again caves and seeks another compromise. In verse 28 of chapter
8 he says, I will let you go. that you may sacrifice to the
Lord your God of the wilderness, only you shall not go very far
away. Don't get out of sight. Don't
get out of sight. You can leave the land and sacrifice
to your God, but don't go too far. Let's keep the lines of
communication open and see if in the end we cannot reach some
doctrine or practice that we can all agree on. We're all religious
people and surely you don't have to totally leave us. Totally
leave us. When the people of God leave
the house of Belial, the house of Belial sees as an action and
a declaration that they're not saved. That's the way it always
works out, that their religion is false. That's what they see.
We don't ever say it, but I've had people say to my face when
I tell them the truth. Had people say to my face when
I say I'm leaving this place. I'm leaving this church, and
I never said it to the church. I always said it to the pastor
when I left the place. Never caused trouble in the church,
in the group. I don't want to do that. But
I said to the pastor, I'm leaving here. And when he asked me why,
and I told him why, he said, well, you're saying I'm not saved.
I've never said that. But if they don't believe the
truth, they're not. That's the truth. That's the
truth. Light can have no fellowship
with darkness, lest darkness be considered to contain some
light. And darkness doesn't. Light dispels darkness. They
say, oh, don't worry. They have some truth. I've heard
many people say that. But some truth is not truth.
And if you put a drop of strict down in a cup of tea, it's no
longer tea. It's deadly poison. Any partial truth is an entire
lie. That's just the fact of it. And
it's hard, it's deceitful dealing. It's deceitful dealing. Moses in verse 29 says, behold,
I go out from thee and I will entreat the Lord that the swarms
of flies may depart from Pharaoh from his servants and from his
people tomorrow, but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully anymore
in not letting the people go to sacrifice of the Lord. We're
going out of this place. He said, this what you're saying,
don't go too far, it's deceitful. You're deceitful. Any partial
truth is a lie. It's deceitful dealing. I've
heard people talk about a lot of things. You know, I don't
use the word cowardice very often. I know a lot of people like to
say that about themselves if they believe in what is called
the doctrines of grace. But I hear, I've heard, since
I've been here, I've heard a lot of preachers, talked to a lot
of preachers, and they'll say, four-point calvaries. And what
they don't believe really is total depravity. But they say
they don't believe that Christ died only for his people. That's
what they're really saying. But they really don't believe
total depravity, because if they believe total depravity, they know that
all the rest has to be. All the rest has to be. And I
told one guy, one fellow told me there's a four-point calvary.
I said, what makes you pointless, don't it? Because that's what
it makes you. That's what it makes you. Pharaoh
hardened his heart, we know that. After more plagues came, he again
relented and came up with yet another compromise. Religion's
always willing to compromise. Listen, look at what religion's
done in the day in which we live. Can you imagine, I mean seriously,
you who have some gray hairs on your head, can you imagine
the church, so-called church, accepting in the day in which
you lived, the things that they're accepting today. Can you imagine? Try to imagine. See yourself
in the fifties and sixties when you were boys and girls, and
when the church had some kind of say-so in the neighborhood,
when certain things were prohibited by God's Word. They were prohibited,
they just did not exist. And now the church is saying,
let's accept all of it. because the church is always
ready to compromise if they can keep their status and keep the
money rolling in, they're always willing. The church today, by
and large, what is called the church today, is a viable organization,
well-oiled machine that can operate without ever mentioning Jesus
Christ and His sacrifice again. That's a fact. That's a fact. Think about what they're preaching.
Do they ever really talk about Jesus Christ? Except in an ancillary
mention of his name? No, they talk about you and how
they can make you better and how you can make yourself better
and how you can have health, wealth and a good economy and
life. That's what they talk about.
But stand up and talk about the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they'll gather to gather
even though they may be mortal enemies against each other. They'll
gather to gather against you. I've said it many times. Put
out any demonstration you want to. You want to put the crazy
religion nuts on one side and the homosexuals on the other
side of the street and they're just fighting each other. Let
me stand in the middle of that crowd and tell the truth about
God. and they won't be enemies no
more. They'll hold hands against the truth. Pilate and Herod became
friends because of their hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
Bible says that. They became friends for their
hatred against Jesus Christ. Religion will always compromise
in order to keep things going. Pharaoh hardened his heart. Look
over chapter 10, he's got another compromise. Chapter 10 in verse
8, it says, and Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh.
This is after the plague of locusts had set. Moses and Aaron were
brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them, go. I've had
enough. Your God is a pretty powerful
God. He's really tearing up our situation
here. You go on out. You go on out. Go serve the Lord. Then he says,
but who are they that shall go? Let's figure out who's gonna
go and who's gonna stay. Moses said, we go with our young
ones and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks
and with our herds will we go. We must hold a feast to the Lord. And he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you,
Pharaoh said. God bless you, have a good day. Godspeed. Let the Lord be so with you as
I will let you go. And your little ones, look to it for evil. It's a bad world out there. It's a scary world out there. Maybe we ought to take care of
your kids for you. Maybe I ought to look after your children for
you. This is the subtlety of religion. You can go and worship
your God in the wilderness, but the wilderness is a dangerous
place, and we won't take care of your children. Leave your
children to our care while you go out and worship the Lord. We'll give them a faith-based
religious education to prepare them for life. It stirs me to
no end that some who declare that they believe the truth will
give their children over to false religion and get them educated
about a false god. What most so-called religious
schools teach is man-centered and will worship. And if you
want to tell the truth about religious schools, when did they
start? Want to tell the truth about it? They started with segregation
or desegregation. That's when they started. That's
when all of them started in Winston-Salem. As soon as African-Americans
and black people in America got their freedom and started going
to schools with white kids, religious schools popped up like crazy.
They did. But what most so-called religious
schools teach is all about men and what they can do, all about
will worship. False religion can live with
you believing the truth. Did you know that? They can live
with you believing the truth if they can be the ones to take
care of the next generation. They're the ones that take care
of your children. But the believer says, nope, no way. The kids are coming with us,
and we worship God. They're going to see what true
worship is, praising God for what he's done for them. Finally, the truth comes out.
Old Pharaoh, like a cheap wallet, folds one more time, and some
more trials come his way. His final compromise reveals
the true nature of false religion. In chapter 10 in verse 24, Pharaoh called unto Moses and
said, go, serve the Lord. Take your kids. Take your kids. Only let your flocks and your
herds be stayed. Let your little ones also go
with you. But leave your flocks and your herds with us. You can
go, you can leave, and you can take your little ones. but leave
your herds. What's he saying? What's among
those herds? Clean beasts for sacrifice. They're
gonna go out and sacrifice, but leave your herd so you can't
take a sacrifice with you. What is he saying? He is saying
leave us with your sacrifice. religion will go to any measure,
compromise, any principle if they can still retain the name
of Christianity. Religion says do what you must,
leave us if you must, take your children if you must, but don't
say that we're not Christians. Don't say that. Leave us to sacrifice. Leave us the sacrifice. But the
fact is when the believer leaves false religion, the sacrifice
goes with him and that which is left is religion without Christ. That's what's left. The believer
worships God as God has commanded by giving all glory to Christ
for his salvation. He renounces any work or labor
of his own and trusts Christ alone for all his righteousness
and justification. There's no place for compromise
ever. ever! Society may try to dictate what
the church teaches and because churches and the government ain't
a whole lot of difference between any of them, they'll compromise
and say, well I know we said this is wrong a long time ago,
we won't say it's wrong now. It's alright. It's alright. I had a pastor the other day
I saw on a magazine or on an internet magazine He said, God,
God loves abortion. That's what he said. He said,
if you're a Christian, you believe in abortion. I think old Chelsea
Clinton said that. As a matter of fact, she said
that a while back. Can you imagine that? What's happened? Well, well, you can go with your
truth. You can go out to a little church
in Cherokee, North Carolina where nobody cares about you anyway
and preach all you want to about that stuff. Go ahead. We'll let
you take your children. We'll let you take, we'll let
you, but you got to leave us a name. You got to let us say
that we're Christian too. I say to you where the word Christian
comes from though, from this, in the beginning was a denouncement
It was a smack against those who practice that way. What is
it to be a Christian? To be a Christian is to be a
Christian. Christ alone. Christ and him crucified. And
what he says in this book is our rule of practice and nothing
else. Religion will say, well, don't
go too far. Religion will say, worship in
the land. Don't go outside the land. Religion
will say, well, you can go, but leave us your children. Religion
will say, well, you can take your children, but leave us a
sacrifice. They've got to hold on to something. They'll never
let go. And when Pharaoh let go, when
God buried him in the bottom of the sea. And he sank to the
bottom like a stone. That's when they let go. That's
for the child of God. No sir. Say what you will. Do what you will. We're going
out of this place. We're going to worship God with
the sacrifice that he'll accept. And that's Jesus Christ. And
the result of that is going to make us want to dance. and sing,
and reel to and fro, and enjoy in the Lord. Father, bless us
to understand and obey in Christ's name.