Well, good evening, everyone. I hope that after that feast we had tonight, we are all ready for some good hard work. On the Lord's Day, we were considering the call and preparation of the faithful servant, Moses. And tonight we begin the study of the rest of the book, and I've divided it into four sections for our four remaining nights, Lord willing. I'll just mention them at this time. Tonight we want to look at the power of God as seen in the Exodus. Tomorrow night we'll look at the guidance of God as seen in the wilderness. And then on Thursday night we'll study the holiness of God as seen at Mount Sinai, the giving of the law. And on Friday the grace of God as seen in the tabernacle. So that gives us a little outline to follow. Now the passage we're going to look at tonight is chapter five through twelve. That's eight chapters, so you can tell that we're going to be summarizing. We're not going to do an in-depth study verse by verse, but we're going to summarize and just look for some high points and lessons to encourage us in our wilderness walk. So if you'll turn in your Bible to Exodus chapter five, We'll do some reading. Remember that our subject tonight is the power of God as seen in the Exodus. And please remember that these are all lessons that Moses was not only learning, but in which he was displaying the things that God had taught him and how he had been trained and equipped to be a godly leader. I want to say too why I'm reading in Exodus five. Very often when this section of scripture is dealt with, We tend to go to chapter twelve and spend all our time in the Passover. Now I love that chapter. I'd love to preach a week on Exodus twelve. But very often Exodus five and six and seven and so forth get left. And there's some real good things in there. So I'd like to begin tonight and do some reading in Exodus chapter five. Let's begin with verse one. And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray, thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God. lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. Then the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye Moses and Aaron loose the people from their works? Get you unto your burdens. And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens. And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore, Let them go and gather straw for themselves. Verse fifteen. Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants? There is no straw given unto thy servants. And they say unto us, Make brick. And behold, thy servants are beaten, but the fault is in thine own people. But he said, Ye are idle. Ye are idle. Therefore ye say, let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord. Go therefore now and work, for there shall no straw be given you. Yet shall ye deliver the number 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 anything from your bricks of your daily task. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh. And they said unto them, The Lord look upon you and judge, because ye have made us offensive in the eyes of Pharaoh. and in the eyes of his servants to put a sword in their hand to slay us. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so badly 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. Chapter six and just verse one. Then the Lord said unto Moses, Now shall thou see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. So we just look to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank thee for this time that we could open thy word together. And Lord, this is a passage that is dear to each one of our hearts as we remember that we too were once captive in the land of Pharaoh, as we might say. And we thank thee for that day when we were delivered by thy grace. And so help us together tonight to rejoice in the deliverance of thy people from captivity, of sin, and all other things that bind them. And help us, we pray, to discern in this section of thy word, rich and encouraging truths for our life as we seek to walk as pilgrims here below. We give thee our thanks and ask for thy help. in the worthy and precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The section that we're going to study tonight can be divided into three parts, the preparation, the plagues, and the Passover. And we're going to take a few moments and look at each one of those, keeping in mind our theme, the power of God. Now the preparation, chapter five and six, is interesting because even though we've pretty much finished with our subject of preparing Moses, I think God wanted just one little extra lesson here. And so this is kind of like the last preparation before his mighty work begins. And Moses was able to be an instrument of power in the hand of God because he had learned his own weakness. My, I wish we all could learn that. We're only able to be used of God when we learn our weakness. And Moses had learned that lesson, or was very near to learning it as much as God wanted him to. But it's interesting, in chapter five, there is one more thing that I want to bring out that I think God wants us to think deeply about because as we serve God, sometime we get in a situation, although perhaps not as staggeringly frightening as Moses was in, is in some ways a parallel. And there's some lessons here in chapter five. And so let's take a moment and look at that. In fact, if you'd go back to chapter four and read the last three verses or just glance at it, I'd like to suggest that Moses, when he started to go as God's servant, he encountered an initial burst of, you might say, success. In chapter four and verse twenty-nine through thirty-one, Moses goes and he gathers the elders of the people. He tells them his mission and shows them the signs and the people believe and bow their head in worship. And, you know, we might say, well, isn't that wonderful? And it's so easy. Moses goes and tells the people and they bow their head in worship and say, praise God, this is wonderful. An initial burst of success. But then you go into chapter five and we find just the opposite. And really, it's just an initial burst of failure. Because as we've read together, what happens is Moses goes in before Pharaoh. He makes his demand in the name of the Lord as a faithful servant. He doesn't beat around the bush. He comes right to the point and he says, God says, let my people go. And Pharaoh says, no way. I'm not going to. Who is the Lord? I don't even know him. And then he does something. He increases the labor of the children of Israel. I was reading a little book by a man named Edward Dennett and he made a statement that I really enjoyed about verse one. let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." He says that's a description of the Christian life. The goal of redemption is a feast to God in the wilderness. Isn't that nice? The goal of redemption is a feast to God in the wilderness. That's what we're supposed to be having. Well, that was the demand that Moses made. And apparently, if you read this chapter carefully, apparently, I wouldn't be dogmatic, but apparently the children of Israel were not at first told why the straw was taken away from them. The taskmasters just came and said, no more straw. And they cried out and they went to Pharaoh and they said, what has gone wrong? And it was as Pharaoh explained to them, you're idle and you want to go off and sacrifice in the wilderness, that I think the light began to dawn. and they realized that this is happening to us because of that man Moses and his brother Aaron. And they came out of Pharaoh's palace and they encounter Moses and Aaron in the way. And if you can picture in your mind that meeting, they come up to Moses and Aaron and they say, some deliverer. Now we are really in trouble. It's worse than it's ever been. There's been no deliverance. and you have gone to Pharaoh and made him angry, and now we're suffering more than we ever were before. It must have been a very bitter thing in Moses' life and preparation. And he goes, in the end of the chapter there, he goes back to God, misunderstood, discouraged perhaps, and he learns one last time that no word of his is going to affect deliverance. No demand of his in front of Pharaoh is going to get the job done. And he comes to the Lord, and I wouldn't say he questions his calling, but he pours out his complaint. Perhaps he questions his mission, and he said, Lord, you haven't delivered this people at all. And you could see him as a servant, and he's just come to the point you might say of death. The death of his vision to be the deliverer. And he says, it's just not working. And he cries out to God. And when I read that, I thought, you know, God wants to bring us to the point where we're totally dependent on him, doesn't he? We come to the absolute end of our own strength. I thought again of Abraham, who, as far as nature was concerned, his ability to fulfill the promise and have a child is impossible. And when nature was dead, the supernatural could begin and God worked. Well, it was the same right here. And so I go into verse one of chapter six then, and look at those lovely words. Now thou shalt see what I will do. Now thou shalt see what I will do. And if you read chapter six, we're not going to do it, but if you go through it and read it, eight times over you will see how God says, I will, I will, I will. Moses, I am ready to act now. And I thought, boy, that verse could be taken out of that passage and put on a little plaque in each one of our houses. Now thou shalt see what I will do. God says, I'm ready to start, Moses. Stand back. I'm ready to begin. Someone has said, we must never suppose that the difficulties which confront us indicate that we are not on God's path or doing His work. It's good. Never suppose that if we face difficulties, it means we're not on God's path or doing His work. And some of you may be undergoing experiences in your life where you're trying to reach to your family or live for God in some way, and you face difficulties. Maybe you find a time of great success, initial success. Maybe you find a time of initial rejection. Well, Moses faced both, didn't he, right here. And yet that was not it at all. Success or failure. God had not started a work yet. And so that brings us into the second part of our study tonight, and that's chapter seven through ten. In chapter seven and verse ten, we find Moses and Aaron going back to the palace and coming in before Pharaoh. Now, you know, I thought about that. Can you imagine the courage it must have taken for Moses to go back to that palace after having caused all the problems for the children of Israel to go back in now and make that same demand again? It must have been so very difficult. It must have taken such faith. to say, well, here we go again, same king, same demand, nothing really new added, only that God has said, go back and do it again. We could read this glibly as people long removed from the scene, but I dare say we can't enter into what it must have taken for Moses to do that. It was a step of sheer faith and trust in God. God said, go back and do it. So Moses goes in and he gives Pharaoh that little sign about putting the rod on the ground. It's like a little day of grace for Pharaoh. He hardens his heart and widespread destruction and judgment is now ready to fall. If in chapter five and six we see God's power to prepare his servant, in chapter seven through eleven we see God's power to uphold his name. And I'd like to, for the sake of our time tonight, just suggest to you some reasons why I think God worked in the plagues that he did. There are ten plagues altogether. It would take us far too long to study them. And so what I want to do just very briefly is suggest to you five reasons why I believe God worked in these plagues that he did. Now the first reason, and the one that I think we ought to put as number one, is because of a testimony. God was giving testimony to Pharaoh and to Egypt, but more than that to all the world. Listen while I read for you a verse from Romans chapter nine. Romans chapter nine and verse seventeen. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. God says very clearly, and it's stated there in Romans nine. This is the reason that I have raised the up, that I might show my power and my name might be declared throughout all the earth. And so the first reason then, God would display his power and declare his name throughout the earth. Second thing I think God was doing in these plagues is that he was giving some teaching plagues, if we could use that term, some things that would teach some lessons that apparently needed to be learned. You remember in chapter five when Pharaoh heard the demand of Moses, he said, who is the Lord? And he used the word Jehovah. Who is Jehovah? I know not Jehovah. Neither will I let you go. And God says, you don't know me? Well, you need to learn who I am then. The God of all creation. And so I will now unleash my creatures of my creation. in a way that will teach you that I am the God of creation. That I uphold things by the word of my power. And so there's a sense then in which these plagues were lessons, object lessons, to Pharaoh. You want to know who Jehovah is? He will show you. Thirdly, and very importantly, it is clear to us, or it should be, that God wars against all other gods and, listen to this, those who worship them. That's a third reason for these plagues. God wages war against all other gods, which are false gods, as well as those who worship them. That ought to give us some real cause for careful thought in view of the tremendous idolatry of materialism in which our country is immersed today. God will not tolerate other gods. He will not share his glory with other gods. And if we call ourselves Christians, we need to be very careful that there is only one God that has first place in our lives because God wars against other gods. And ultimately he wars against those who worship them. Let me just mention the ten plagues for you and make some suggestions about how God wars against those gods. First plague affected the Nile River. You may know that that was a sacred river. The waters were held to be sacred and God turned them to blood. And then he covered the land with frogs. The frog was a symbol of the fertility goddess, and it was forbidden in Egypt to destroy frogs. And so God says, you like frogs, you worship frogs? I'll give you plenty of them. And he did. The next two, the lice and the flies. I was studying about the priests of Egypt's temples, and they prided themselves in their cleanliness. And they shaved every day to make sure that they were spotlessly and immaculately clean. Imagine their horror when they and their gods were covered with this creeping, crawling lice and flies that just kind of came up out of the earth and covered them. The next four, God put his hand on those who worshiped the idols, the domestic life of Egypt. The disease fell upon the cattle, boils upon man, thunder hail and locusts upon the crops. So God really reaches out then and touches those who worship the false gods. Number nine, the sun was darkened. You remember that. I used to wonder why God left that to last, just one short of the death of the firstborn. Then I studied and found out that the number one God in Egypt, the chief of all the gods, was the sun, the sun god. And God really, in this object lesson, darkened their highest and chief god, didn't he? Put the sun out, made it dark. And so in this way, God displays his mighty power over all creation. Jehovah wins the contest against all other gods. And then finally, number ten, death to the firstborn, that symbol of what will happen to all those who reject his offer of repentance. So a third reason, then, is that God wars against all other gods and those who worship them. A fourth thing I think God was doing in these plagues is he was making a division between Israel and Egypt. Here we are back to the matter we mentioned the other night, separation. God separates between his people Israel and Egypt. And you remember that many of the plagues, in fact all of them toward the end, did not touch his people Israel. And finally, I would suggest that God was also displaying his mercy as well as his justice. You know, there was not one time that Pharaoh asked to have a plague removed. There was not one time when Pharaoh supposedly repented that God rejected his repentance, did he? What a display of the grace of God. Now, if you read the chapters here, it's pretty clear that Pharaoh isn't really broken and contrite in saying, I have sinned and I... I just confess to God and I, he doesn't do that at all. He says, I don't like the flies. I'm sorry, take them away. And yet even with such a shallow repentance, there's not one time that God rejects his repentance. What a merciful God we have. And God displays that mercy here at this time. Let me summarize this section by saying that God uses his power to defend his name. And I just want to say again as we move into our last section, we call ourselves Christians, and it's so easy to take that title glibly, isn't it? Oh, I'm a Christian. And yet when we're saying that, what we're really saying is that I am a disciple and follower of Jesus Christ. And we have to be very careful how we live and how we speak and how we act if we're going to take the name of Christ and call ourselves Christians. Because God... defends the honor of his holy name. And God forbid that we could read this passage and think about how foolish Pharaoh was and yet be foolish ourselves in not honoring the name by which we are called. Those are the word of challenge there for us. Then let's move into our last section, Exodus eleven and twelve, the Passover. Now here we see God's power to redeem. Sunday night, the choir did a lovely song for us. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness. My glory are, my beauty is dressed. I love that hymn, and I enjoyed that song. That's a great Reformation hymn, and if you read those words carefully, you'll see there's a lot of good theology in that hymn. Think about that first verse. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness. That's what I'm dressed in. Mid flaming worlds in these arrayed with joy shall I lift up my head. The writer of that hymn really gave his testimony, didn't he? When the world goes up and smoke, all I want to rejoice in is my blood and righteousness. That's prefigured for us in this passage in the Old Testament, as you well know, Exodus eleven and twelve, the Passover. Now I'd like to call your attention to two verses in chapter eleven, and then we'll take a brief look at chapter twelve. In chapter eleven in verse one, I thought it was interesting because the Lord says to Moses, I will bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards he will let you go from here. When he shall let you go, he will surely thrust you out from here altogether. May I paraphrase what God said in that verse? Moses, by the time I'm finished with Pharaoh, he will throw you out forcibly. He's not just going to let you go and release you. He's going to throw you out. And I pondered on that verse and I thought, you know, there's a good lesson there for us. Let the Lord take vengeance. Let him vindicate in his way. In the young people's groups that I work with up north, sometimes people are unkind to each other and sometimes hard feelings can arise. And more than once I've told the folks there, let the Lord set it right. You know, when God sets things right, He doesn't do a halfway job. He really does it. If you step in and do it, you'll make a mistake. If you let God vindicate you or set the score right, He'll really do it. Let God defend you. And Moses now has been seeing the powerful hand of God at work, and God says, Moses, I want to tell you, the next time I bring a plague, Pharaoh will throw you out forcibly. He'll want to see you go so quickly. The other thing I want to call your attention to verse eight. Moses does go into Pharaoh. He does make one last request, one last time, and he gives Pharaoh the request once again, and Pharaoh again hardens his heart, rejects the offer of God's grace, and we read at the end of verse eight, and he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger. Scripture tells us that Moses was the meekest man that ever lived. And I took my concordance and I looked up the word anger because I wanted to see if Moses got angry any other time. And I found three times in Exodus it says that Moses was angry. And I thought, well, that doesn't mean that anger is incompatible with meekness. Moses got angry three times. And then I looked some more and I found that God got angry more than three times. And it caused me to think. Why did Moses get angry? You remember we were studying in his call when he got angry and he slew the Egyptian? Now we come to a time in his life and he's angry, but it's a righteous and godly anger. Here's a man who hardens his heart against the grace of God. Egypt is virtually destroyed and Pharaoh still won't let go. It's a godly anger. You know, we should be angry about sin, shouldn't we? Sin ought to make us angry. It'd be good if some of God's people sometimes got very angry about the sin in their life or sin that they see and really cry out to God and not treat it lightly. Well, Moses was angry. And I guess what we can learn from that is that it's possible to be a meek person and yet be angry against sin and wrong. Well, he goes out from there. He leaves. It brings us to chapter twelve, the great chapter on the Passover. Now, I know that you folks have heard messages for years and years on the Passover. I wouldn't presume to be able to study that great section in just a few moments. What I want to do tonight is to just remind you of two of what I consider to be the highlights of this chapter and try to make some practical application for our own life. The first part has to do with the actual judgment that fell The blood was applied, the lamb was slain, and the blood was applied to the doorpost and the lintel. The angel passed over, and as we know, the firstborn in Israel was spared, and the firstborn in Egypt was judged. The question I would ask myself is, was God showing a favoritism here? Did he prefer Israel to Egypt? Was he more pleased with the works of the people of Israel? Or was there something about their character or their behavior that pleased him more than the Egyptians? And of course the answer is no. Nothing to do with any of that. The one sole thing that mattered to God was the blood applied to the door. That was the thing that mattered to God was the blood applied. We could see the application, can't we? We're not standing here or sitting here tonight. standing before God, presenting our righteousness, Jesus, thy blood and righteousness. Not mine, his. He sees the blood of his son, applied, so to speak, to my life, not literally, but by faith I trust in his precious blood, and I am free from the destroying angel. Well, while the blood was applied to the doorpost and the lintel, something was going on inside the house, wasn't it? The families were gathered having a feast. The lamb that had given its life to provide the blood was being roasted, and it was to be eaten. Roast lamb that night as the Passover meal. I'd like to just try to paint a little picture for you if you can visualize it. Picture two homes that were side by side in Israel, and both had faithfully killed the lamb, taken the blood. It had been plied to the door, and so both families were inside. safe, the blood was applied, no question about it. And if we could just maybe look in through a window or a crack in the wall and observe these families, we would see some real differences. In one home there was joy and rejoicing. Resting in the security and safety, the blood is applied, let's enjoy this lamb. God is going to save us. All is well with our soul. And a great time perhaps telling some stories that made the young people rejoice and speaking about the significance of the night and all that God has done in his wonders. And maybe the lamb just really tasted good. And the family is in a general state of enjoying and rejoicing. Then we look next door in that house. And there we see the family fussing and fretting and worrying. I wonder if God will see it. I wonder if we've cooked the lamb right. I wonder if the kids' behavior are right. I wonder this, and I hope that, and maybe just a general air of nervousness and fretting. Now, let me ask you, does any of that have any effect on the destroying angel at all? No. None whatsoever. Only the blood makes the difference. And so what are we saying then about the feast that's going on inside? I believe God says to us, enjoy the feast. Enjoy the feast. Some dear saints, you know, they pass their time fretting and stewing and fussing and worrying, and God says, I want you to come to rest. Enjoy the feast. Why, I've spread this feast for you and at great cost to myself. Rejoice in the Lord. And no amount of worry that we could ever worry is going to add one little bit of value to what God has prepared for us. Will it? And so we know that Israel leaves then true pilgrims. They leave a judged scene. Out they go from Egypt. Yes, they went out as a mixed multitude. There were those that went that maybe shouldn't have been along, that troubled them in later years, but they were redeemed and they were free. And out they went. They were leaving a scene on which God's judgment had fallen. Some of us that have grown up in the assembly have enjoyed the story of the Passover. all of our lives and perhaps for some of us it has become I won't say commonplace because may it never be that but we've heard it so many times that freshness and the greatness of it maybe doesn't grip us anymore and you know a young Christian when they first hear the story of the Passover and God's Lamb and of course the application of it in the New Testament the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world it thrills their souls I want to tell you about something that happened in our area not long ago. We have a brother in the next town over, a Christian couple, and they've opened their home for Bible studies, and they're just out to win their neighborhood for the Lord. And they're doing a great job. All kinds of people in that neighborhood have been saved. And they just have a good time every Thursday night. People come in, young people, and even some kids that are fooling with drugs and so forth. A woman came in the other night and found the Lord Thursday night. Well, anyway, one young man who lived diagonally across the street, he came in and he was saved. And he went back to his home and he was very burdened for his folks, for his mom and dad. And he was talking to his mom. He said, Mom, do you know what the Lamb of God is? And she said, well, I've heard of it. In fact, she said, we say it all the time in church. I haven't got the faintest idea what it is. Imagine that. He said, I haven't got the faintest idea what it is. And so he sat down, he said, would you like to know what it is? And he opened the Bible and he told her a little bit about the Lord Jesus and the way of salvation. And she said, you're not getting into that born again stuff, are you? And he said, well, I don't know. And so he came running across the street to Mr. Monroe's house and he says, John, am I born again? John said, well, now the other night when we prayed and you accepted Christ into your heart, did you mean it? Oh, yes, I did. I said, well, then, let's look at a verse here. According to the Bible, you've been born again. And I am. I got to go tell my folks. I'm into the born again. Oh, it's great, isn't it? That freshness, that love, just delightful. Well, I want to draw... Four conclusions for you at this time. In Exodus chapter eleven in verse three, we read that Moses was very great in the land of Egypt. Let me ask a question. What was it that took this man from being an obscure shepherd in the desert in a short period of time to become the most well-respected man in the land of Egypt? He was very great in Egypt. What was responsible for that? Now you may say, oh, well, he had God's mighty power. And there was miracles wrought. And yes, a lot of that, from God's point of view, in other words, from the divine side, we look at that in wonder and we say, yes, that was responsible. But I'd like to suggest some things that are open to every one of us here. Let's look at the human side. In other words, the lessons that we can learn for our lives in our pilgrim journey right where we are today. Let me give you four of them. And by the way, I have left, I've taken this up early in our study and not left it to the end because sometime when we draw conclusions at the end, we get overpowered. And I would rather have you see these four things about Moses' character all the way through our study in the next four nights. First of all, we have to acknowledge that Moses had a great deal of determination, didn't he? He was a determined servant. Once he got started, he was in it to the end. Let me ask a question. What has God called you to be faithful in? Maybe it's just visiting some sick person. Maybe it's a ministry and prayer on your knees for God's people. Maybe you stand at the door and hand out hymn books or welcome the saints. Maybe you work in the dining room or maybe you write letters or entertain. What is it that God has called you to be faithful in? Do you recognize that spiritual warfare is simply aimed at discouraging you and your calling? That's what it is. Spiritual warfare is aimed at discouraging you in that calling so that you give up or quit. Don't do it. Fight the fight. First Corinthians, fifteen, fifty-eight, we should all know it. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. So Moses was a determined man. Sometimes I ask our young people, what does it take to stop you in your work for God? I make them think about that. What's it going to take to stop you? You know, if they think about that and they give me a good answer, when they get discouraged, I go back to them and I repeat to them the day they told me that nothing would stop them. I'm telling you, do you mean all it took was this? We better have some prayer. You didn't tell me that when I asked you that question. Moses was determined. Secondly, perhaps the most important, well, how can we make these more important at one another? Secondly, Moses' dependence. He was a dependent man. He had come to learn dependence on God. I thought about Moses each time he went out of Pharaoh's palace and he lifted up his hands toward heaven and he prayed to God to take away the plague. And the Egyptians must have seen him. After he says to Pharaoh, okay, the flies will go or the locusts will go, he goes out and he lifts up his hand. I believe he spoke right out loud and they listened to what he said. He never once said, I, Moses, command these things to depart. Never once. He always did it in the name of the Lord. He was a dependent man. It wasn't Moses who was running this. Moses didn't have the power in himself to make one frog disappear. He always used the name of the Lord. John fifteen in verse five the Lord Jesus tells us if we don't abide in him we can accomplish nothing we're not abiding in him we can't bear fruit how do we show our dependence the word and prayer right the word and prayer we acknowledge our dependence daily upon God for his work in our lives you know I was thinking before I came here The world is a place that daily encourages us to be independent, doesn't it? The ads on TV, everything is geared toward taking command of your own life in your own hand. It's really hard today to follow a totally dependent Lord and not get caught up in the independence movement, isn't it? And I thought, what a special trial that must be for retired and retiring Christians. So much thought and prayer going into being independent in the sense of not being a burden on children or on somebody or something else. And I'm sure that's good because it isn't really a matter of dollars and cents, is it? It's a matter of the heart. And God wants us to check our hearts and make sure that we're not trusting in any other thing. that we trust in him. Yes, we have these blessings that he loans to us, but that's not what we're trusting to take care of us in our retirement years, or it better not be. So Moses was a dependent man. I was interested during the war as I listened to some of the briefings by the general and others over in Saudi Arabia that sometimes the reporters would ask them questions, and you notice what so often they would say, that is not my decision to make. The president will make that decision, and I will obey. again and again they went back to that I thought boy what submission to authority that is not my decision to make and it really it was it was a comfort to them to be able to say that's not on my shoulders that's the president's decision I'll just simply do what he wants what a lesson to us Christians isn't it there should be things in our life where we say that is not my decision to make when God makes that decision I'll be willing to do it and then thirdly we must observe about Moses His obedience. His obedience. You know, faith does not measure obedience by the consequences. Think about that. Faith does not measure obedience by the results. Faith does not measure obedience by whether or not I agree with the command or the instruction, or whether I thoroughly understand it, or whether I like it, or whether it's convenient. or any such thing. Faith measures obedience one way. What has God asked me to do? And I'll do it. Someone made the statement, do what is right, do what you know is right, and you will acquire a character which no amount of meditation and prayer could afford. That seems like a tough statement at first when I first read it. And then I thought, How much meditation and prayer would God trade for obedience? How long would I have to meditate in Scripture and pray before God would say, okay, you don't have to obey? God will never sacrifice obedience. To obey is better than sacrifice. Finally, we must note Moses' uncompromising stand. You know the story well how Pharaoh kept on proposing compromises. Go in the land and sacrifice. Will you men go and sacrifice? Leave the women and children here. Well, you could all go but leave your cattle here. And Moses was very bold, wasn't he, said. There shall not one hoof be left behind. No compromise, Pharaoh. No compromise at all. When it comes to little minor things of relationships and the way of seeing small things, we need to be able to compromise and love. But when it comes to the basics, what God has said, no compromise. Simple obedience. Plain and simple. That's what God blesses. Well, let me repeat those things. The determination, the dependence, the obedience, and the uncompromising stand of Moses. As I was watching the reports of the soldiers preparing to come home after the war, I had a thought. What a tremendous illustration they were of pilgrims, you know, when they were over there. Can you picture some soldier whose wife and children and home and all that he knew and loved were back home in the United States? And there he is and he's over in Saudi Arabia and he's fighting and he's in the sand and he's dirty and tired and hungry. And someone comes up to him and says, listen, I'll give you some money and some material possessions here. Wouldn't you like to settle down? Can you imagine what he would have said? You don't understand. My family and all that I live for and everything dear to my heart is over there. There's nothing you could offer me to get my roots in here. That's home. I don't want to stay here. The day I get the orders, I'll rejoice. I want to go home. That's the way we should be, shouldn't it? Satan comes to us and he says, look, I'll give you these little trinkets. Make this your home. going to compromise, disobey, or is our heart really over there? That's where I want to be. That's where my heart is. May God speak to us as we study these lessons about His power, that we be careful that we are faithful to honor and own His name and not compromise. Shall we pray? Our Father, we thank You for the rich blessings that we receive as we meditate on thy precious word. And tonight, Lord, as we have just sampled that great display of power to redeem, we remember the day in which we were redeemed and we praise and thank you for it. Lord, it is our joy as Christians together on each Lord's day, here together at thy table, to take the bread and the wine and to remember that sacrifice that was not the blood of animals, but was the blood of the God of heaven, thy dear Son. And so we thank thee for Moses, but we thank thee for the greater than Moses, our blessed Lord, for the redemption that he paid for each one of us. We ask now, Lord, that in gratitude for that gift, not to pay for it, but in gratitude to show our appreciation and thanks to thee, that we may be dependent and determined and obedient servants who are unwilling to compromise on what thou hast said. We ask it for thy grace, for thy honor, and that thy grace may be extended to us to live it in the worthy and precious name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.