Beloved radio friends, we greet you in the ever precious and the worthy name of our beloved and blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We earnestly invite you to give attention to what is the greatest message and the greatest book that you and I can be occupied with in this world. And that is the message of the Word of God. We continue our study that we are following. in the story of the early chapters in the book of Exodus, the second book in the Bible. We are noting some of the characteristics that are revealed by the Holy Spirit in relation to great gospel truth and which are illustrated by the story of the children of Israel found in the chapters of the book of Exodus from chapters one through twelve. We have reached in chapter five the commencement of the great contest between Pharaoh, the great empire of Egypt over which he reigned, and against Moses and Aaron, the representatives of the children of Israel, on the authority of Jehovah their God. Now let us repeat with emphasis, as we have noted in verses one and two of chapter five, the commencement of this struggle for the emancipation of God's earthly people Israel. We re-emphasize again the true nature, the true character of the conflict, the true invisible contestants who were involved. On one hand, one was God. On the other hand, the other was Satan. My beloved, let me state, there is an invisible contest that has been going on from the beginning of time. When sin came into the Garden of Eden, and corrupted the human race. And through the centuries and millenniums that have followed, that corruption has continued and increased. And the power of sin under the dominion of Satan, the God of this world, the Prince of this world, the one who is called in the Bible the God of this age, it has ever been a conflict, though the struggle, though the stage may have been upon the earth between human beings and including human beings the contest has been a struggle between God and Satan and oh my friend listen that struggle is still going on God on one hand seeking the liberation of sinners guilty bound by sin and under the thraldom and the tyranny of Satan and seeking to deliver them from his power My beloved, that's the story of the gospel, telling us that our Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us out of this present evil world, according to the will of God, even our Father. We continue in chapter five of our book in the book of Exodus, and we will particularly note, very briefly and thoroughly, without the reading of the whole chapter, that when the contest began there was immediate opposition from Pharaoh. Who is the Lord that I should let Israel go? Who is the Lord that I should even listen to his voice? I want to tell you, I know he was a man, but unfortunately there are many men, there are many human beings today who have the same attitude toward God. Agnostic, atheistic, selfish, interested only in their own way and doing their own will. And say very bluntly, I don't even know the Lord. I'm sure there are many like that, and perhaps some of you are listening to my voice. But you know, the moment the contest began, the opposition of Pharaoh increased. As you read the fifth chapter of this book of Exodus, You find, and let me just read, please. Verse four, for brethren's sake. The king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do you, Moses and Aaron, let the people, and hinder the people from their works, get you unto your burdens. And now all you have to do is read the rest of the chapter. Well, what do you find? Pharaoh and the Egyptians make the work for the children of Israel more difficult than ever before. and to such a degree that they even withhold from them the very supplies they needed to make brick and build the places they were thus building for Pharaoh, for they had been building many things, many cities, undertaking them under the cruel whip of the taskmasters in Egypt for the glory of Pharaoh. And the people of Israel felt the burden even in a greater way. Go with me to verse fifteen and see the reaction of the children of Israel. For as they found themselves oppressed even greater, we read that the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealeth thou thus with thy servants? There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick, and behold, thy servants are beaten, but the fault is in thine own people. But he said, Your idol, Your idol, therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord. Go therefore now and work, and there shall no straw be given you, yet ye shall deliver the full amount of bricks. And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case. After it was said, ye shall not diminish art from your bricks of your daily task. My beloved is one thing, and please let me emphasize it. The moment God begins to interfere, for the sake of delivering His people, the devil gets on the job even in a greater way. I'm sure that I am speaking the truth, and it may be in the experience of many of you, that when God, by His grace, has sought to bring you to Christ, has been dealing with your soul, the devil comes around in opposition in a greater manner. How often this is the case? My beloved, I want to tell you very frankly, don't minimize the power and the opposition as well as the strategy and the will of the devil. He is a cruel and he is a strong taskmaster. Now as you go to the end of this chapter, the fifth chapter, you find... that the officers and the leaders of the children of Israel come across Moses. And in verse twenty we read, They met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh. They said unto Moses and Aaron, The Lord look upon you, and judge, because you have made our saviour to be aboard in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us. and virtually they tell Moses and Aaron you've made it worse for us instead of better my goodness it's a strange thing you know when God's servants try to help God's people they sometimes get the blame when things seem to go worse likewise did Moses and Aaron and in verse twenty two we read that Moses returned unto the Lord and said Lord Wherefore hast thou so evil and treated this people? Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people. Neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. Now, beloved, let's take a consideration of these words and this situation. Let us not overlook it, but let us take it carefully in. When God demands deliverance, it doesn't indicate that the moment he speaks that his purpose is to deliver, that it will be then and immediately accomplished. God is not unmindful that the serpent, the power of the enemy, is against him. You and I, humanly speaking, we think it ought to be done immediately. And that is often the case when we are seeking to win souls, if I may speak a word, of admonition and exhortation to my fellow believers in the Lord Jesus. There is no question of doubt every true and earnest Christian recognizes his and her responsibility to seek the winning of precious souls to the Savior and to be a witness, to point them to Christ, to plead with them to trust Christ. Now beloved, may I say, And I'm just pouring out what I know is upon my own heart, and in my own mind, when I first found the Lord, and that goes back sixty years ago, I recall that night when I found Christ as my Savior, I knew how I had found him. I knew that I had come to him as a guilty sinner. I knew that I had put my faith in the finished work of Calvary's cross. I knew that in my soul I had heard him say to me, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee. And I had found the forgiveness of sin. And I had found the way of salvation. Then immediately I thought, and rightly, all I need to do now is tell others, I found the way. I can tell others they can find the way too. And I can easily convince them and bring them to the Savior. My beloved, I'm sure that has been often and usually the experience of many Christians. But I want to tell you very frankly, you don't get souls one for the Savior that quickly by immediately telling them the way of salvation. Now let me illustrate it from an incident. A man found Christ as his Savior. One night he said to his wife, wife, I'm going to visit my neighbor. I'm going to show him from John three, sixteen, how easy it is to be saved. After thirty minutes visiting with his neighbor, he returned home, put his Bible on the table and said to his wife, that fellow is the dumbest man I ever met. She looked at him and she said, John, why do you say that? Well, he said, I showed him so clearly, so simply from John three, sixteen, how he could be saved. And he kept saying, I don't see it. I don't see it. I don't see it. He's a dumb man. His wife looked at him and said, Listen, John, it took you forty years before you saw it. And you think you can show him in thirty minutes? My beloved, there's an obvious lesson. The God of this world has blinded the minds of them that see not, lest the glorious light of the gospel should shine in them they be converted. Let us realize in this story Though God demanded, through Moses and Aaron, the deliverance, the release of his people, they didn't get out that quick. And the devil made things worse for them, which he can so often do. But we shall see God had his way. May we realize this truth. Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, bless the truth of thy word to the hearts and consciences of all. Amen.