Well, good morning. Our study this morning is in the book of Exodus, and we're going to begin in, uh, Exodus chapter six this morning. So if you have a Bible, which I hope, uh, most all of you have, uh, the theme of this book is redemption or deliverance, and Exodus means the way out, and every major doctrine in the New Testament is found in the Pentateuch in type. I'll say that one more time. Every major doctrine in the New Testament is found in the Pentateuch in type, and so we find a lot of things in Exodus that have to do with redemption and sanctification and some of the grand themes of the New Testament. And so, uh, we, uh, have seen that this is God's picture book, the Old Testament, and, uh, there's pictures and types and shadows that speak of not only of Christ, but of our redemption. And, uh, Israel, who is God's people in the Old Testament, we're God's people in the New Testament, uh, we're in bondage, and that's a picture of where we were before we came to know the Lord. We were, as it says in Ephesians two, dead in trespasses and in sin. And we were, uh, following the course of this world according to the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. So that's where we were, and Pharaoh is a picture of Satan, who is the god of this world. First Corinthians, second Corinthians four four says, uh, if our gospel be hid, it is hid to those who are lost, in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of those that believe not. And so, uh, Pharaoh's a type of Satan, the god of this world, and of course Egypt is a picture of this world. Keith Green wrote a song, So You Want to Go Back to Egypt, has to do with a believer who's been saved out of this world wanting to go back and indulge in the things of this world. The bondage that was increased last week when Dave was sharing is a picture of the bondage of sin that weighs us down before we come to know Christ. And all this is moving to the Passover, which is a picture of our deliverance, our salvation. First Corinthians five, Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. And so that Passover lamb was a picture of the same lamb that John the Baptist could look at and say, behold the lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. So just helpful to always keep in mind in this study that this, these, uh, Old Testament books are pictures of New Testament truths. And we saw in, uh, chapter three that the Lord appeared to Moses in the bush, and in chapter three and four, we saw Moses' excuses for not going when God told him to. And, um, the first six chapters, we really see Moses the man, okay? And then we're gonna see, in chapter seven, we're gonna see the things are gonna shift from Moses' weakness being the main thing we're looking at to God's great power. And things are gonna change next week and from here on out. So this is kind of our last peek at Moses' weakness. In fact, there's gonna be a major change in Moses' life, and no longer will he be someone who is s- uh, uh, a scaredy cat to go approach Pharaoh, and someone who's shy and making excuses, but with unwavering boldness and confidence in God, he's going to jump into the conflict and face Pharaoh down time and time again, fearlessly. A man who is, you have to keep in mind, a great and mighty monarch, who people would be afraid to even approach his presence. A guy who could just give a command and maybe order somebody put to death. And, uh, so all of that could have been an option that would go through the typical mind of someone like you and I. And yet all that disappears as Moses just boldly confronts Pharaoh time and time again and comes away unscathed and, uh, comes back with greater confidence, and because he's relying on the Lord and no longer on himself. So this is the last chapter where we're going to kind of focus a little bit on Moses' weakness. Um... You- you can't blame Moses for still being in that position because we're going to see, as- as Dave brought out last week, that there was increased bondage. Moses goes and does what God tells him finally, after all the excuses, and instead of things getting better, things get worse. We could say Moses finally gets his hopes up, and the people of Israel get their hopes up. Hope surges, only to be, have a pin stuck in the balloon of hope, and the air all goes out of it because Pharaoh asks that question, who is the Lord that I should obey? And so we're going to look at that this morning and, uh, and look and see, uh, this final phase of Moses getting his courage back and God prompting him to move forward, uh, in his service for God. But before we do that, let's just, uh, stand, and we'll open the word of God. And if I can back up a couple of verses, infringe on some of Dave's territory, I will do that this morning. Um, it's the word of God. Uh, Exodus five twenty two is where we'll start. Moses returned to the Lord and said, O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all. Then the Lord said to Moses, now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. Because of my mighty hand, he will let them go. Because of my mighty hand, he will drive them out of this country. God also said to Moses, I am the Lord, or literally, I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, or El Shaddai. But by my name, the Lord, or Yahweh, I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan where they lived as aliens. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant. Therefore, say to the Israelites, I am Yahweh. I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from s- uh, from being slaves to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am Yahweh your God, or the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will, I will bring you to the land I swore with an uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am Yahweh. I am the Lord. Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to them because of their discouragement and cruel bondage. Then the Lord said to Moses, go tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, let the Israelites go out of this country. But Moses said to the Lord, if the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips? Now, we're not going to spend time on the genealogy, except if you notice in verse twenty six, and I would just say this genealogy is inserted here to show the lineage of Aaron and Moses, that they were of the tribe of Levi, and that that's the exact same Moses and Aaron, so there's no question in our minds as to who they are and what tribe they came from. Verse twenty six, it was the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, bring the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions. They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. It was the same Moses and Aaron. Notice that in verse twenty six it's Aaron and Moses, and then in verse twenty seven it's Moses and Aaron because Aaron is the oldest, and with the connected to the genealogy, he's mentioned first, but connected to the deliverance, Moses is mentioned first. Verse twenty eight: Now the Lord spoke to Moses in Egypt and said, I am Yahweh, I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, everything I tell you. But Moses said to the Lord, Lord, or since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me? Still got that eloquence problem. Okay. A few verses in chapter seven. Then the Lord said to Moses, see, I have made you like a god to Pharaoh and to your, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you about, uh, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh, let the Israelites go out of this country, but I will harden Pharaoh's heart. And though, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders, he will not listen to you. So eloquence doesn't, isn't really important here, is it? Then I will lay my hand on Egypt, and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, or it could be translated armies or hosts, and my people, the Israelites, and the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh, I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it. Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them. Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty three when they spoke to Pharaoh. Let's pray. Father, we just, uh, feel like there's some wonderful material here and a poor vessel to give it, but we thank you that you're able to take your word through the power of your Holy Spirit and make it plain on the tables of each of our hearts. I think of the words of a hymn writer of old who wrote, engrave this deeply on our hearts with an eternal pen, that we may in some small degree return thy love again. God, just make these truths real to us this morning. Help us to get a glimpse of you and your mighty hand and your love and your care for your people. Lord, if there's people here this morning that are discouraged, that have been hurt in some way, Lord, may this be used of you to encourage them to move forward in their Christian life. And Lord, if there's somebody here who doesn't know you, we pray that they would be drawn to you as well. We ask it in the mighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. God bless. You may be seated. Well, we're going to launch right into the talking points so that we, uh, move along quickly this morning. And so the very first one, it's kind of an introductory, uh, thing that kind of ties in chapter five with where we're going. It's things that Dave covered last week, but it's kind of a summary of that. But write it down, it just is going to help you. It will cement it in your mind as to, uh, sum up what's going on here. So the first point we have this morning is when God begins a work of deliverance, Satan increases his opposition. Remember, we said Pharaoh is a picture of Satan, and he's actually the one who's working behind Satan to keep, uh, the children of Israel, God's people, in bondage. And so God's about to bring a deliverance, and we saw last week that suddenly the heat is turned up. Satan gets a little whiff of God's liberation, and he immediately puts the, increases the pressure, and that's one of his tactics. Now, the cool thing is, is that Satan's tactics always backfire, okay? They do, but they seem right, and we're gonna, for a while, it looks like a good strategy, and it's not, the Bible says we are not ignorant of his devices. So Satan has strategies and devices, and we can go to the Word of God and look and see what those devices are, and we can be aware of them so that we don't get, uh, dismayed and discouraged when he starts throwing dust in the air and, and, uh, bringing his devices out. So, uh, when Moses came in chapter five and says, thus says the Lord God of Israel, you know, let my people go that they may serve me or worship me, we're going to see over and over again in all of these plagues, it's always let my people go, but so they can go free and just wander off and be sort of aimless like some Christians today. No, so that they may serve me or so that they may worship me. And Pharaoh's response to that is, who is the Lord that I should obey him? And he is about to find out who God is. He does not know the ramifications of that statement. And here's a man who's Satan is using him as a puppet, so to speak. Satan is the real power behind it, but he just, who is the Lord that I should obey him? I hope nobody here has that attitude. And so Satan or Pharaoh ratchets up the pressure where no straw, okay? Same quota as before. If you don't make it, you foremen who are in charge of your people, if you can't oppress and a- and drive your people to do it- do this and afflict them enough, then we're going to afflict you. And so, uh, the Israelite foremen are literally beaten because they don't make the quota. And they- they come groveling to, uh, to Pharaoh, and they still call him, you know, hey, we're your servants. They forgot that God had said, let my people go. And so there is a tug of war going on here. God has said, they're my people. And Pharaoh, energized by Satan, says, no, they're my people. And God says, no, I want them to go so they can serve me or worship me. And Pharaoh says, no, they're going to stay here as slaves. This is my economy. I'm not going to let them go. And so this tug of war over who the Israelites belong to. And before you're saved and God begins working in your life, there's this tug of war going on, and Satan ratchets up the pressure because he thinks that that's going to distract us, which it appears to do for a little bit of time. But to jump ahead a little bit in all of this, from God's perspective, the only way to be delivered from the fantasy of this world is to become miserable in it. True. The only way to become delivered from the fantasy of this world is to become m- miserable in it. Remember the prodigal son who said, ah, I'm gonna go try the world. I'm gonna go out there and experience all the things that mom and dad won't let me do, and I'm going to take my journey into a far country, somewhere way away from these influences and, uh, of mom and dad and the father's house, and I'm going to go out there and just have a wonderful, riotous living, and, uh, he wastes his substance. Satan always wants us to waste our life rather than let it be used for something constructive. And then he's in the pig pen. And finally, it says he came to his senses, and he said, how many hired servants have my father, of my fathers, have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I'm no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants. And, you know, we know the story how God met that son, how the father met that son with loving arms, in the same way God meets us when we finally come and turn to him. And so, we have to become miserable. I remember in my own life this battle going on as a person in my younger high school years, and I'm raised in a Christian home, and I know what's right, and I'm out there trying the world, and I'm a bit in the fast lane, and there's people that I'm hanging out with who are not the kind of people that my parents would have chosen for me to hang out with, and I'm out there moving along, and I remember coming home, and my life was going so fast that I'd actually have to swallow pills, don't anybody do this, to sleep at night, and I take like two or three of these pills, and I'd still be like wide awake because my life is just moving fast. And Satan is pulling one way, and God is pulling another way. And here's this tug of war going on. And I go to church, and I hear a good message, and I say, yeah, that's the way I need to go. And then I go back to my worldly friends, and I'd be in that environment, and I'd be getting pulled down, and this battle is going on, and the pressure gets ratcheted up. And finally, I got to a point where I said, I'm miserable in this, and God, whatever it takes, you know, get me out of this spot. I don't ever want to do this again. And, you know, the Lord knew how to ratchet up the pressure to the point where I just had to surrender to him. We have to want to be delivered as long as we're comfortable, we're c- we're content to stay in our slavery. As long as we're comfortable, we're content to stay in our slavery. I think of the, uh, passage in John, uh, five where there's a man who'd been by the pool for thirty eight years, and waiting for some kind of deliverance that never came. And Jesus said, do you want to be made well? And he said, I do. And that response, he suddenly, in that misery, was someone who was delivered. So when we begin, when God begins a work of deliverance, Satan increases his opposition. But we're going to see that God uses that to make us want to leave. If there hadn't been this increased opposition, the Israelites would have been content to stay in slavery. Um, a pastor, uh, wrote these words, and I'll just read them. I thought this is a good summary of this, this passage. He says, the word of God speaks to us and offers us hope. If we believe it, that belief will be opposed. Satan, who opposes our freedom from sin, makes it difficult, makes life more difficult. Life gets worse, not better. Because life gets worse, we get angry. Because we get angry, we look for someone to blame. But all the while, God is willing to ab- uh, God is granting deliverance from sin. In order to be delivered, we have to be miserable to the point we're willing to abandon the comfort of sin. So rather than blame those who discomfort us, we can give thanks for them. And so that's what's going on here. The Israelites at, at first, they look and they, they think, they go to Pharaoh, these foremen, they blame him, and then they come to Moses and Aaron, and then Moses comes to God, and Moses asked the questions that we often ask, and that's the why question. The second, uh, point that we see here, and Jessica, you can put this up for now. Like Moses, we want to focus on why, but God wants to focus us on who. Like Moses, we want to focus on why, but God wants to focus us on who, who he is. We get the why questions in verses twenty two through twenty three of chapter five that we read, where Moses returned to the Lord and said, oh Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? You ever feel like this? Ever since I did this, you know, ever since God I started obeying you, all this bad stuff has happened. That's Satan ratcheting up the pressure, you know. He's like, ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he's brought trouble upon us, and you have not rescued your people at all. It's wonderful to see how God encourages Pharaoh in this. You know, Pharaoh or Moses. Moses is thinking, you know, we finally got our hopes up, only to have them dashed. We want to know why, and God is focusing us on who he is, and that's where we get to chapter six. We're going to see who he is. All of us have those why questions. There's some people in this room that are in the building business, okay, and they have houses on the market, and some people who aren't in the building business that have houses on the market, and and then a buyer comes along and he's all ready to buy, and then somehow it falls through. I'm thinking, why? And people have kids that they raise, and they think everything's going well, and then all of a sudden they go bad, and there's problems, and they think, why? Why is this happening? We have dreams that fall apart. But we look and see what God's going to do. In verse one, he says, then the Lord said to Moses, now you're going to see what I will do to Pharaoh. Because of my mighty hand, he will, uh, drive them out of this country. So not only is Pharaoh who said, who's the Lord that I should obey him? God says, you know that same Pharaoh who said that? That same Pharaoh is going to literally drive the Israelites out because of my mighty hand. In verse two, he says, God also said to Moses, I am the Lord, or better translated, I am Yahweh. Okay? So think about this. God, why? Why did you do this? Ever since we did this, this is happening. And God says, Moses, I'm Yahweh. I'm the Lord. See, you're wondering all the why questions. You're forgetting who I am. Moses, I am the Lord. You're going to see what I'm going to do and how I'm going to have, bring fair to the point where he drives these people out. He says, I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the name God Almighty. What's that in the Hebrew? El Shaddai, okay? I appeared as El Shaddai to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But he says, but by my name Yahweh, I did not make myself known to them. Now that's a problem, because even though, uh, we have in this chapter, and I'm kind of making a deal out of it, I know, four times he says specifically, I am the Lord. I am Yahweh. And in the next chapter, and in verse, uh, 5, he says, I am the Lord. He's trying to focus Moses away from the why onto who he is. And so, but there is a problem here, but by my name Yahweh, I was not known to them. Anyone who's a Bible scholar could go back and see that God addressed Abraham several times and said, I'm Yahweh. I'm going to make a covenant with you. Here's what it is. Even clear back as early as Genesis four, I think it is, in verse one, it says, then men began to call on the name of the Lord. And if you look at that in the Hebrew, it's the word Yahweh. So God, uh, men were calling on Yahweh, uh, clear back in Genesis four. Abraham s- had God appear to him and say, I'm Yahweh, and yet it says here that Abraham didn't know him. So what, what gives in this? This is important, or I wouldn't bother to confuse you with it, okay? All right, it's very important. It could be, okay, Y- Yahweh, first of all, um, is a w- a term that's used sixty— six thousand eight hundred times in the Bible. Sometimes we refer to it as Jehovah, but it's better translated Yahweh. Six thousand eight hundred times. And it's a name that d- it that kind of brings out that God is a self-existing one. He is immutable, that is, he doesn't change. He's faithful to himself and to his word. Okay? And the way that we look at this problem, a better way to translate this would be, you know, I appeared to the Old Testament, and the forefathers knew me as God Almighty, El Shaddai. They knew me as the, the one who it brings, uh, the sufficient one, okay? They knew me as that, but by my character, Yahweh, they did not know me, okay? Because even though Yahweh is used, to Abraham, God was a covenant-making God. It was Yahweh who came and said, here's what we're going to do. I will make a covenant with you, and I will do this, and I will do that, and I'll bring your descendants out of the land of Israel with, uh, Egypt with a mighty hand. I will do all these things. But they never saw them carried out. So, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God was a covenant-making God. But they never knew him as a covenant-keeping God. And that's a big difference. In the book of Hebrews, chapter twelve, when it, after it talks about Abraham in verse thirteen, you don't need to turn to it, but it says this, uh, in chapter eleven, I'm sorry, verse thirteen. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, and they admitted that they were strangers and aliens on the earth. So, Abraham and Isaac knew about these promises and covenants of God raising up a people and bringing them out of Egypt after four hundred years, and they heard all those things, but they never saw it unfold in their lifetime. They never saw the power of God at work to fulfill his promises. And God is saying to Moses, remember, I'm Yahweh. All those promises I made to Moses, you're gonna see me fulfill those. You're gonna see those things unfold before your very eyes. Okay? And you're gonna realize that I am a covenant keeping God, not just a covenant making God. And it's important to see that. He's, he's, in verse four, he says, I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan where they lived as aliens. So there you see God as a covenant-making God, one who makes covenants. But in verse five, there's going to be some other things. We're going to see God as one who loves and cares for his people and fulfills his promises. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving. There's God's heart of love. And I have remembered my covenant. It's not that God had forgotten it. That is, I'm about to fulfill it. I'm going to show you that I keep my promises. And God is bringing before Moses, who's asking all the why questions, like we often do, a glimpse of himself and who he is and the greatness of his power. It's important to understand this because God has an obligation to his name. And when we become Christians, we take the name of Jesus. And, you know, if we drag the name of the Lord down into the dust and into the dirt, God will deal with us because his name is something very important, and he doesn't want his name, as he says several places, blasphemed among the heathen. He's concerned when his name is being blasphemed among the heathen because his name has to do with his character, and every Christian has taken the name of the Lord Jesus, and that ought to change how we live, okay? But his covenants are not based on us and our performance, as we're going to see. God's character as Yahweh, his faithfulness the- in that name means that he's faithful to himself. Now, normally we don't turn a lot of places, but I'm going to have you turn in your Bibles. I know this is a little deep to start off with, but turn in your Bible to the book of Ezekiel chapter twenty because it ties in with this passage. Ezekiel chapter twenty. And I know there's nobody here too lazy to turn to this today. Everybody is eager to look into the word of God and see what it says here. In Ezekiel chapter twenty and verse five, I'm starting with the end to the middle of the verse. This is what the sovereign Lord says. On the day I chose Israel, I swore with an uplifted hand. That's like God giving an oath with his hand uplifted. To the descendants of the house of Jacob and revealed myself to them in Egypt. When with uplifted hand, I said to them, I am Yahweh your God. I am the Lord your God. And on the day that I swore that to them, that I would bring them out of Egypt into a land that I, uh, I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands, I said to them, each of you get rid of the vile images, you see that Israel is in idolatry here, that you have s- set your eyes on, and do not defile yourselves with idols of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God. But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me. Nobody here has ever done that. Is that right? They did not r- get rid of the vile images that they had set their eyes on. And some of us have things like that. They're not idols of stone, but they're other types of idols. Nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in Egypt. So God looked at them in their idolatry and said, man, what I would, would want to do because of this sin is deal with them. Verse nine, but for the sake of my name, I did what would keep them from being profaned in the eyes of the nations they lived among, and in whose sight I had revealed myself to the Israelites by bringing them out of Egypt. Therefore, I led them out of Egypt and brought them into the desert. Verse fourteen, if you notice, it says, for the sake of my name. Verse twenty two, for the sake of my name. And in verse forty four, for my name s sake, and not according to your evil ways or your corrupt practices, O house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord. Let me ask you a question. Did God save Israel based on their performance or their love? So because, uh, bec- or their obedience to him and their good works, because they were good people? When you read Ezekiel twenty, you say, man, I don't blame God for feeling like the way they're behaving, they ought to be wiped out. But I made a covenant, and my covenant is, I can't, uh, go against my name. The self-existing Yahweh, immutably, uh, his immutability, faithful to himself and to his word, in spite of how we act and we behave, we can always rely on the word of God. That we have a God who has made promises in this book, and in spite of Israel's behavior, they made it. Some of them died along the way, of course, but as a people and a nation, God fulfilled his promises, and he will fulfill his promises to you and to I. If God says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved from your sins, then you can bank on God's promises. If God says, you know, I give unto them eternal life, and they will never perish, neither can any man pluck them out of my hand, then we can bank on God's promises that he's going to lead his sheep home to heaven. And he said, those who my father has given me, have I lost none except the son of perdition. Okay? So when God says it, it's not based on our performance, our behavior, it's based on his namesake, Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God. When Moses is asking all the questions, God is walking, so to speak, over to Moses and saying, Moses, I'm the Lord. I'm Yahweh. Do you realize who you're dealing with here? Okay? If I made a promise, it's going to be fulfilled. Just because it doesn't happen in your timetable, just because it didn't happen immediately the way you thought it should, just because there wasn't the in- infant, um, the instant gratification when your hope was surging of seeing it immediately fulfilled based on that. There's still a lot of things going on. God has a lot of things to do in Pharaoh's life and in the Israelites' life to make them despise Egypt and to make Pharaoh let them go and to show his power. And so that's what he's doing here. We got to realize who God is. A song that is sometimes sung here, and it's, uh... I thought some, I saw some dolls here, okay? I think that's who sings this. Who am I that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name, would care to fill my hurt. Who am I that the bright and morning star who would choose to light the way for my ever wandering heart? Not because of who I am, or I'm sorry, not because of who I am, but because of what you've done. Not because of what I've done, but because of who you are. That's what's going on here. I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow, a wave tossed in the ocean, a vapor in the wind. Still you hear me when I'm calling, Lord, you catch me when I'm falling, and you've told me who I am. I am yours. I am yours. God says, there's my peop- they're my people. I'm gonna bring them out with an outstretched hand, and I'm the Lord. I'm Yahweh. Who am I that the eyes that see my sin would look on me with love and watch me rise again? Who am I that the voice that calmed the sea would call out through the rain and calm the storm in me. Not because of who I am, but because of what you've done. Not because of what I've done, but because of who you are. That's what God is communicating to Moses, and Moses is going to get a hold of it in a minute. This third point, and we'll go through these last ones. I wanted to spend time on that one, so we'll go through these other ones quicker. The Word of God is the best encouragement for discouragement. The Word of God is the best encouragement for discouragement. When God wants to encourage his people, and he's the best example of this, he does it through his word. He's going to remind Moses, a discouraged man, not only who he is, but what he said in his word. Not just that he made a covenant, but he's going to remind him of the words that were said in that covenant. And so the best way we can encourage one another is not just through, you know, distracting people from their troubles, or here's a glass of wine, or, you know, try this, go see a Christian psychologist, you know, or go see a Christian pastor teacher, maybe he can help you. We need to be people who can turn in the word of God and comfort and encourage people with these words. It says that we, through comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. And so God uses the scriptures, he uses his word to comfort Moses, and he gives these seven I wills. And just so you notice, these seven I wills are sandwiched between at the beginning in brackets and at the end of I am Yahweh. I am the Lord at the beginning of them and at the end of them. He says in verse six, therefore say to the Israelites, I am the Lord, I'm Yahweh, and then the first I will, I will bring you out from the yoke of the Egyptians. The first one is salvation from the bondage of sin in Egypt. We sing that song, would you be free from your burden of sin? There's power in the blood. It's not until the blood is on the doorposts of the houses that they completely realize this deliverance, okay? It's not sealed until the blood is shed from the lamb. But God is saying, I'm going to br- give you that salvation. And the second one is liberation. I will free you from being slaves. You know that we are free, according to Romans six not to have to sin anymore. I like this, John Corson, some of you know who he is. Somebody came to him and said, oh, you're one of those Christians, you know, you, you don't, uh, um, you don't party and you don't drink. And John Corson said, I drink as I'm as much as I want to. I party as much as I want to. You see, before he was a slave to something that he couldn't control or ha- how have any deliverance over. But as Christians, we have, God get changes our wanter, as D. L. Moody put it. Somebody said, well, if I get saved, I might want to not want to do this or want, I might not be able to do that. And D. L. Moody said, well, don't worry about what you might not be able to do, because if you become a Christian, God will change your wanter. He'll give you new desires. And so we get out of the slavery of the bondage of serving sin and things that... And then the third one is redemption. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm. When did Jesus stretch his arms out? On the cross. He redeemed us with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. For us, our judgment came on Jesus at the cross. For Egypt, that judgment came upon that land that refused to let his people go. The fourth one is ad- adoption. In verse seven. I will take you as my own people. He gives us the full rights as sons. He's brought us into his family. And then there's revelation. Then you, uh, will know that I am the Lord your God. In verse seven, And that's a good place to be, to know that. Somebody, there's a bumper sticker, some of you have seen it, says NO, NO God, no God, no peace. And then KNOW, no God, no peace, KNOW. A lot of you have seen that. When we know the Lord, there's peace. God is saying to Moses, you know, Abraham and and Isaac and Jacob, they knew about my covenant, but they never saw it unfold. Some Christians study their Bibles, and they learn about God. I know somebody who grew up in a, in a church, and they heard all these catechisms and everything, but nobody ever said, you know what, you need to be born again. You need to come and accept God and repent of your sin and surrender your life and let Jesus live out through your life. Never heard that. They had all these facts and all these things, and we can go to church and learn all these facts and all these things, and yet never see the power of God unfold in our lives. And God wants each and every one of us to know that he is Yahweh, and he wants to let us see it unfold, not just know about God, but to experience the character of God in our lives. And then there's a, a new direction or purpose. I will bring you, he says, to a land I swore with an uplifted hand. That's his oath, that's his promise. To Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession. Now we've got a possession, we have a prospect. In Ephesians chapter one and verse eighteen, Paul prays this prayer. He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. So, God wants us to experience and to know that power and to know what he has brought us into, just as he was going to bring the Israelites into a special promised land. The fourth point that we want to look at is, we need to move forward in faith, even when we don't feel like it. You know, verse nine, Moses went to the children of Israel, and they didn't even want to listen because of these problems and pain and things that are going on. Satan ratcheted up the pressure, and it appears in verse nine that Satan's plan is working. His idea was, if I just make it hard enough for them, they won't have time to even think about these illusions of going to some promised land. Something that he called back in, uh, verse, uh, eleven or nine of chapter five, pay no attention to lies or to vain words. Now, he's trying to distract them from listening to the word and the promises of God by inflicting pain and turning up the pressure. And it seems like it's working because Moses goes and says, hey, we need to get out of here, and they're saying, ha, leave us alone. Just got worse last time. Our hopes all got up, and then we were just deflated and let down. And so, do you think Moses feels like going to Pharaoh after that experience? Okay, facing rejection one more time? Would you feel like going if you'd gone the first time and things got worse and all the Israelite foremen turned against you, and they're blaming you and they're blaming God? Would you feel like going? And then you go and tell the Israelites that you had a revelation from God who reminded you that he is Yahweh, he's the Lord, and now all of a sudden you recognize who he is, and they don't even listen to it. They're just content in their bondage. People are content in their sin, in their habits, in their worldliness, rather than recognize the hope of their calling in the Lord Jesus Christ. But Moses moves forward anyway. Based on who I am, God is saying to him, move forward, and he's coaxing Moses forward. The old saying that, you know, once bitten, twice shy, something bad happens when I tried this before, I don't want to do it again. That was the, the effect of the, the Israelites. But God urges Moses forward even in the face of rejection. I just want to say this, that following God cannot be based on whether it feels like something that you want to do. Somebody said once, I don't even feel saved until I have a cup of coffee in the morning. Okay. So don't base what you do on feelings, all right? Sometimes I don't feel like going to church, okay? But we always say when you least feel like going, that's when you need to go the most. Oh, the youth group. Do I have to go to youth group? Oh, you know, go through that, you know, and all those kids and everything. Yeah. When you don't feel like something, move forward in faith. God will reward you for it. Think of times at, uh, Camp Soundview that my wife and I were involved in, and and we would face intense opposition about three days into it. We'd feel like, let's go home. And moving forward in faith, breaking through that, and see God bring great victory and great deliverance. And it's as simple as this. Ephesians five twenty five says, husbands, love your wife. And I'm going to say, even when you don't feel like it. Wives, respect your husbands, even when you don't feel like it. And when the pressure and the opposition are there, and you've already faced rejection when you've tried it before, and things don't seem to be working, when you move forward in faith, even when you don't feel like it, is when God comes in and brings blessing. And we're going to find in this section that as Moses moves forward in spite of that opposition, one, he doesn't feel like it, that God comes in, and from this time forward, as we're going to see in a little bit, Moses is never a wimp after this throughout the whole deliverance out of Egypt and into the wilderness, okay? He basically does just a superb job until he smites the rock. All right? Make us realize that no matter how long we've walked with God and how well we've served, that we're always vulnerable. The fifth thing, it's not human eloquence, eloquence or ability, but God's mighty hand. We saw in verse one that twice there's a reference to God's mighty hand that he will drive them out. In verse six, we saw an outstretched arm. In chapter four— seven and verse four, then I will lay my hand with mighty acts of judgment, and I will bring out my divisions. Moses is still hung up on the eloquence thing. He says in verse twelve, you know, if the Israelites won't listen to me, you think Pharaoh's going to listen to me since I'm a man of faltering lips or uneloquent speech? He reverts back to this speech thing. We said before, could Moses have delivered the Israelites if he'd have been the best speaker in the whole world? Absolutely not. And we need to get past the, um, this eloquence thing. Um, I have a note here. It's not our eloquence, it's God's omnipotence. Okay? We need to get past the wow of man. People say, oh, you should, that church is a great church. What? I thought I belonged to the great church made up of every believer. Oh, you should hear so and so speak. He's such a dynamic speaker. What? I thought the job of a speaker was to lose himself where people got their eyes on Jesus. And it's not always the speaker's fault. It says in the last days, men will heap to themselves teachers. People will, oh yeah, that guy's just awesome. And the humble people who don't want to be put up on a pedestal get put up on a pedestal. And today we have preachers with spotlights on them that walk back and forth in, in great, uh, oratory and, and just wow people, almost hypnotize you as they're moving back and forth on the stage and saying all these things, and you've seen it on TV. Just look on the God channel, you'll see a lot of it, okay? All right. But that doesn't do anything. We need to get past the wow of man, and we need to get our focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope when people come here, they don't say, wow, what a great church. I hope they don't say that. I hope they say, you know what? I'm, I belong to a wonderful church, the church that Jesus Christ died for, of which every believer is a part of. I hope that people don't come away and say, man, that person was a great speaker. I hope they go away and say, man, Jesus Christ is awesome. He's Yahweh. He's the Lord. And that the focus that goes on in this pulpit is something that focuses people on Christ and not man. We need to get past the woe of man and get our focus on the Lord. Moses mentions it again in verse thirty. He says, but Moses said to the Lord, since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me? I just want to tell you, this is a little secret, okay? You have to notice this carefully. It's like God appears to him again and says, Moses, he doesn't say this to him, but last time I came and I gave you an opportunity to be an instrument of me, and you came up with all these excuses, and you wouldn't serve me until I threw a mere mortal into the mix, Aaron, and then you were willing to go to Jethro and say, I want to go and see if any of my people are alive, okay? Now, God says, I'm going to give you a chance to go on your own again. We're going to, we're going to take Aaron out of the mix for you, give you another opportunity. Maybe you've learned your lesson. You can go on your own. And that's verse twenty eight. Now, when the Lord spoke to Moses in Egypt, he said, I am the Lord, I'm Yahweh. Tell Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, everything I tell you. But Moses brings in this faltering lips thing again, and so no chapter divisions in the original. Then the Lord said to Moses, see, I have made you like a god to Pharaoh. I'm not eloquent. I'm going to make you like a god to this guy. Pharaoh thought he was a god. The Egyptians worshipped their Pharaohs. They had all kinds of gods. He said, man, I'm going to make you, who don't think you're eloquent, like a god to this guy. And your brother Aaron will be your prophet. Say everything I command you. It's important when we pe- preach the word of God that we we're not afraid to share the whole counsel of scripture. Paul said, I have not shunned to declare on- unto you the whole counsel of God. Not just take a cow path through the scriptures and preach the nicey things that will tickle people's ears and make them feel good, but the whole word of God. Make sure you tell them everything. And, um, and so he says, uh, but I will harden, verse three, Pharaoh's heart. And I have a little point here, we'll put this up, the sixth thing. God increases the resistance so he can show his strength in a greater way. Now, down in our basement, we have a weight set. God increases the resistance so he can show his strength in a greater way. And there are, you can stick a pin in the little bar, and it, it will, you can lift ten pounds if you want to. Can. Or twenty or thirty or forty. and I don't know how, Jesse, how high up does that thing go? So what's that, two hundred pounds? So I'm like, so let's just say it's four hundred, okay? And Jesse's really buff, you know. He says, all right, you come over to our house, and he's down there lifting weights, and he suddenly pulls a pin out and he sticks it down under four hundred pounds. He said, why all that resistance? I want you to know how strong I am. He doesn't usually brag about stuff like that. I'm the one who brags about him. He doesn't brag about himself, okay? And so all that resistance, he's going to lift that, and it's to show his power. God actually hardens Pharaoh's heart. Now, that's going to trouble some people, and we're not going to deal with that today because we don't have time. I'm just going to say this about it. Everything God does is right, so don't worry about him hardening Pharaoh's heart. But the purpose of it here is he wants to increase the resistance. He wants to, to have Pharaoh resist, and he's going to show his mighty hand through all these plagues and everything so that people will realize, as it says in verse five, not just the Israelites, not just God's people, but the heathen Egyptians will realize that I am Yahweh. Are we trusting the Lord in such a way, in the spite of opposition, criticism, and rejection, like Moses felt, that even the world will look at our lives and what is accomplished and say, God is the Lord. He's Yahweh. Even the Egyptians, Pharaoh says, who is the Lord that I should obey him? Pharaoh is going to know who Yahweh is. There's a lot of people who know who God is. The Bible says, you believe there's one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. Okay? But it's not enough just to know who he is, but to have that personal relationship where you know the character of God, and you become his people, and you experience his love and his care, even when you've been in bondage and in very difficult situations and under much pressure, to know that he loves and he cares, and it's not because of who I am, but it's because of who he is and what he has done. And we need to get a glimpse of who God is. And I feel like this passage of scripture, you know, I can't do it justice, but when we recognize that, then we can go forward. I think of these bodybuilders, you ever seen these things on TV where they, they don't just hook up a little Tonka truck, these big buff guys that are kind of bent over like this with all these muscles, and then pull it. But you see a semi truck. Anybody seen that? And this guy's down there with all that resistance, and he moves it, and they have timing, you know, how far it takes them to get that thing one hundred feet. I could never even budge that thing. We're talking about a God who made the worlds with just a word of his mouth, and Pharaoh is a pipsqueak, and any opposition that we face is minuscule compared to the power of Yahweh, to compared to the power of the one who is the Lord, and may God help us never, never to forget that. When I'm discouraged, which happens, it's because I forget Yahweh, that God is for me, as Paul writes, if God be for us, who then can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? Well, we find in verse, uh, four that he's going to bring his divisions, that is his armies out. These people who were slaves now become mighty warriors. And finally, in verse six, Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them, and Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty three when they spoke to Pharaoh. Some old guys. Nobody in this room is eighty three or eighty, I don't think, okay? I see some white-haired people, but I don't think any of them are that old. But, you know, in the strength of the Lord, with no eloquence, just a rod, and we're going to find out next week that any old stick will do, because Moses threw his rod down, it became a snake. Now Pharaoh, it's now this time it's Aaron's rod, because it's not the stick, it's the power behind it. All right? We're just, I'm just a stick, but the word of God is living and powerful, and there's power behind that. And so we're going to see that next time, but it says they did just as the Lord commanded them, and this is the point. When we obey in spite of our inadequacies, we move forward. When we obey God in spite of our adequacies, inadequacies. Yeah, it's right up there, okay. We move forward. Moses got over the hump, no more wavering. And some people here are stuck at a hump of discouragement and, uh, afraid of moving forward and worried about their own inadequacies, and they're not eloquent. Don't ask me to do communion, you know. Don't, don't expect me to do anything. I just want to warm a pew, okay? Because I'm not very talented and I'm not very good. Then good, because you're the kind of person that God can use, because he specializes, his strength and his power is, is made wor- is made perfect through our dynamic people. Is that what it says? No! His strength and his power is made perfect in our weakness. He's chosen the weak things to confound the wise. No more wavering from here on out. May we realize who the Lord is and get over the hump and step into the conflict, right in the thick of it, like Moses did, and trust God and realize that he is the Lord. Let's stand together in prayer. Father, we just give thanks for your word. We do not do it justice. We feel so inadequate, but we do thank you that we can move forward in spite of that, trusting you. Take your word today and make it real to our hearts. Pray that people here that are struggling and with the why questions would have their eyes focused on who you are. And to realize, God, that you do not always do things in our timetable, but you are a covenant-keeping God. And every word uttered in this book we have here today will come to pass. Heaven and earth will pass away, but your word, Lord, will never pass away. The word of God, which lives and abides forever, that is forever settled in heaven, that is living and powerful, and it does accomplish the purpose whereunto it has been sent. Lord, take it and use it today in our hearts and in our lives. Help us to keep our eyes on you as we go from this place, trusting you in spite of feelings, in spite of inadequacies, but recognize, as you said to Moses, I am the Lord. Lord, give us a glimpse of that today. In your name we pray. Amen. We're going to sing a little song in closing.