Preparing for Judgment Exodus 11

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January 30, 2021 - Morning Service Faith Bible Church - Sacramento, CA Message - Preparing for Judgment - Exodus 11

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Well, good morning, and welcome to Faith Bible Church. Welcome to those that are ill at home and watching over YouTube and others that are not even in our area, but have found out about our teaching and preaching and our church.
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And we praise God for you and thankful that we can be a ministry to those that are not able to be in our presence and with us.
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But we know this is God's best if you're able to be here and to fellowship together. So we welcome you to come on down and be with us if you're physically able, okay?
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Just for announcements, there's gonna be a, what we call the church business meeting.
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Church is not really a business, but it has processes, it has procedures, and we're about the
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Lord's business. So we're having a meeting in two weeks after the morning service, and you're all invited to be there for that.
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We'll go over the budget and a few other things. So just remember that that's two weeks from now.
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Next week, we have Communion Sunday. So be there for that. Thank yous.
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I wanted to especially thank Barb, David, and Richard, and Kate, and all those that play music and help in the service, and Dave Hahn, and Pam, and just, there's a lot of people, and Emma, there's a lot of people behind the scenes that make our service what it is.
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And so I thank you all, because I know it's a sacrifice of praise, but we thank you for that.
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And prayer meeting this evening at six o 'clock, and every, you'll see in your bulletins, men's
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Bible studies every week at 3 .30 here at the church. And in March, we're gonna begin the first Sunday of each month with a prayer, with a breakfast devotional for the men, and that should be a good time of gathering.
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And also, just on a more serious note, just remember Kim, she had a close friend that passed away.
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And I don't have all the details. I know it's just her coming in the door, but it's a real burden for her, and I'm sure for other family, and for Kevin as well.
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So just keep them in your prayers, okay? She mourns the loss of her friend.
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As we prepare for service this morning, and I know these are always, these are,
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I guess every generation can say, these are challenging times. They are in many respects, no matter what generation you live in, it seems especially so, maybe it's because we're living right now, but they can be hard times, and they can be fearful, we can be anxious, we can be tentative about making decisions, and just focusing more on the world, rather than focusing on Christ.
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But God is a strong God, He is a loving God. He is the Lord over all events in history.
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He's the Lord over the events in our lives. And one author said, as relates to God's loving and merciful
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God that He is, he says, God is a kind king who uses His omnipotence with infinite tenderness, coming to the aid of His people in their darkest hour.
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Believers can confidently call out to God for help, knowing that He loves them perfectly, and will use
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His power when they are attacked and endangered. So we can thank God for that perfect love, and in Psalm 62, beginning of that psalm, it has a heading, a calm resolve to wait for the salvation of God.
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And we were just studying about the salvation of God this morning in Psalm 21, with Pastor Elgin leading that, another wonderful study.
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And verses five through eight of Psalm 62 is, my soul waits silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.
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He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved.
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And God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God.
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Trust in Him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us.
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Isn't that reassuring? So would you join with me in prayer? Lord God, we thank
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You for loving us. Father, that Your mercy is endless. Your love abounds in all things.
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And we thank You that we can live by that and we can hold on to that truth. God, we pray that You would help us to be faithful and obedient to Your calling, to what
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You will require of us as believers. Father, may we trust in You in all things.
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God, we ask that You would bless this service today, that You would cause our minds to pause and reflect upon how great
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You are, our responsibilities as Christians, as followers of You, that we can see from history past,
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Father, from Your Word of how Your generations past have led and have lived and died, but we can learn from that,
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Father, so that we might live victoriously for You in all things. So God, we pray for this country.
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We pray for all the men and women that are out serving You in every capacity in our governments, in our missionaries,
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Father. We pray for them on the front, where they are one -on -one discipling and preaching the
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Word. So God, may we be found faithful, Father, in all that we do here where You have us today and that You would bless this service and bless
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Pastor Ilgen as he shares from the Word and may our offerings of praise be a sweet aroma to You, Father.
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God bless this service, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Let all of those that seek
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Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee. Let such as love Thy salvation say continually,
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The Lord be magnified. And let's stand and sing. ♪
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Sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, sing ♪
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I'll be reading from Psalms chapter 78, verses 49 through 52.
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Psalms chapter 78 verses 49 to 52. He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation, and hostility, a band of destroying angels.
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He prepared a path for his anger. He did not spare them from death, but gave them over to the plague.
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He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
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But he brought his people out like a flock. He led them like sheep through the wilderness.
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May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of these words. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight,
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O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Let's stand and sing. 10.
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Verse 1 through verse 10. And the Lord said to Moses, I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt.
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Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether.
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Speak now in the hearing of the people. And let every man ask from his neighbor and every woman from her neighbor articles of silver and articles of gold.
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And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man
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Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.
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Then Pharaoh said, Thus says the Lord, About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals.
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Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again.
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But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the
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Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying,
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Get out, and all the people who follow you. After that I will go out.
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Then he went out from Pharaoh in great anger. But the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not heed you, so that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.
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So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened
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Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land. This is the word of the
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Lord. Let us pray. Father, we're thankful that your word is supreme, and your word is true, and your word is powerful.
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Father, we pray that today we would lean on your word and your promises, and on who you are and your characters.
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Father, we pray that as we battle sin in our daily life, that we would depend on you, who has promised full deliverance.
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Father, may we not depend on our own strength. We also pray for this nation, that you would lead the people here to repent and seek
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Jesus. Father, we pray that you would be with us this morning, that we would encounter the living
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God in the word. In Jesus' name, amen. We are reaching the climax of the plagues in the
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Egyptian narrative. This is so important to us, and this chapter is the announcement of the final plague.
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It is as if we've come upon the base of the mountain, and we get to see the peak.
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It's visible, and we know where it's headed, and the
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Lord has announced what will happen to Egypt. That final move, the final deliverance from the land of Egypt is announced now, and that's before the tenth plague.
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And this is so important to us, because for the first time, the people of Israel are mentioned and also involved.
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For the past nine plagues, there wasn't much involvement with God's people.
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It was mainly with Egypt, and Moses, and Aaron. But here, we actually see
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God preparing His own people for the departure. And this is really important to us, because we worship a
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God. We worship the King of Kings, who actually cares about each individual of His people, right?
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When earthly kings go out to battles, even if He wins, and He's very much celebrated, there's always that quote -unquote necessary cost.
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There were lives lost for the full deliverance of that earthly king's act.
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Even if He wins the war in a huge manner, there are people, His own people, who die.
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But with this announcement, that is not so. God, the
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Lord, the King of Kings, does not sacrifice His people to deliver
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His people. He can do it all by Himself. There is no quote -unquote necessary cost.
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He does it because He is omnipotent and merciful. He has great regard for each person of His people, of His flock.
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That psalm that was read said, He's the great shepherd who takes care of each sheep to not lose a single one.
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And that, in fact, is the greatest miracle of Exodus. The greatest miracle of Exodus is not the swarms of locusts.
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The greatest miracle of Exodus is not that the first born of Egypt died.
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The greatest miracle of Exodus is Exodus of Israel itself, that no single life of a slave died when
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God delivered His people out. In history, there is no such record of that, of a slave revolt without a single life being lost.
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Only here, in all of human history, when
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God delivers His people out of enslavement, no single life is lost from the land of Israel, from the people of Israel.
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So, the main point of today's text is focused more on God's people.
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And the main point is, when the Lord judges an unrepentant nation, He completely takes care of His people.
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When the Lord judges an unrepentant nation, He completely takes care of His people.
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The first point, before the Lord judges a wicked nation, He completely prepares
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His people. Before the Lord judges a wicked nation, He completely prepares
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His people. So, unlike the past nine plagues, the
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Lord tells Moses that this will be the final plague, right?
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The previous plagues, He didn't let Moses know, okay, there's two more to go, there's three more to go.
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But here, He tells Moses, I will bring one more plague to Pharaoh and on Egypt.
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Afterward, He will let you go from here. And when He lets you go,
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He will surely drive you out of here altogether. This plague will be so powerful that it is not that simply
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Pharaoh is permitting them to go, just, oh, yeah, you may go now. He's in no stance of giving permission anymore.
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He's desperately driving Israel out of the land altogether. He can't stand it anymore.
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He can't stand the plagues that's bombarding Him as long as Israel's in His land.
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However, the Lord declared this all the way back in chapter 6.
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This may seem new to us, but this was actually predicted by the
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Lord much earlier, even earlier than the first plague. Before any of the plagues happened,
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He said this, now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand,
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He will let them go, and with a strong hand, He will drive them out of His land.
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The Lord knew before any of the plagues what
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Pharaoh will do in the end, that He will drive Israel out.
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The past nine plagues escalated, right? It started with the
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Nile turning into blood, but no lives were lost. No one was hurt from the
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Nile becoming blood. It was just inconvenient. But to this one, where it's escalating, yet Pharaoh's heart remained hardened.
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And now the Lord will do something so intense that after it,
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Pharaoh will not only loosen his grip, but he will force
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Israel to depart from Egypt once and for all. This would be a complete, complete 180 turn on Pharaoh's part.
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And after this plague, Pharaoh will not restrict God's people in any way.
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Every time the prior plagues, he tried to restrict them. Oh, you can go, but not the children.
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Okay, every person can go, but not the beasts, right? Not the cattle. But here, it will be all of them can go without restriction.
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And in fact, you'll be forced to leave. The old, the young and the cattle, no restriction.
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For the past plagues, Moses was commanded to confront Pharaoh first.
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However, in verse two, the Lord commands Moses to speak to his own people.
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Speak now in the hearing of the people and let every man ask from his neighbor and every woman from her neighbor articles of silver and articles of gold.
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Because Egypt will drive out Israel for good, God is preparing his people for the journey to the promised land.
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God is financially providing for his people. And God reveals to them the source of the necessary finances.
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It is none other than their former slave masters. And how will this be all possible?
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Verse three shows us how verse two will be fulfilled. And the
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Lord gave the people favor in the side of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the side of Pharaoh's servants and in the side of the people.
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Here, the Lord uses human agency to financially sponsor
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Israel's departure from Egypt. This is ironic in multiple layers.
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The Lord could have easily supplied them with gold and silver from elsewhere.
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He's the king of kings. He owns everything. He could easily create gold and silver out of thin air if he wanted to.
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However, the Lord here will make the former slave masters pay
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Israel out of their own pocket. The Lord will make sure that Egypt will financially pay for the slave labor they've enjoyed.
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They once were once they thought were free. In the end, the enslavement of God's people will come at a high cost.
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Second, Moses will be great in the land of Egypt, even in the side of Pharaoh's servants.
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This is a great reversal. The Lord took an 80 -year -old man who himself had no confidence in his own abilities to speak and made him great in the eyes of the enemy king's very servants.
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That's the ironic twist. The Lord took a social reject.
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Remember that Moses was rejected not only by Israel, but Egypt.
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He was an ex -felon. He ran away to the land of Midian. And it was during that time the
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Lord appeared to Moses to commission him. And the
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Lord took that man. And when he's 80, not when he's in his prime, and made him great in the eyes of Egypt, the ancient global superpower,
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Moses becoming great in their eyes implicitly meant
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Pharaoh was no longer great in his own servants' eyes. And this was all done in preparation for Israel's complete deliverance.
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Egypt will ask Israel to leave because it fears
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Israel and Moses. And Egypt will financially sponsor their departure because God has placed favor for Israel.
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And this will come, very importantly, in the wilderness, especially when
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God asks Moses and Israel to build the tabernacle and all the necessary utensils that are with it.
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In fact, the Ark of the Covenant is made out of gold. Where are the slaves going to get gold?
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Well, the Lord knew, and He provided. And this is so important for the church today because we need to trust that the
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Lord prepares His people for our deliverance His way.
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What is God's way of delivering His people? For Christians, it is only through His Son, Jesus Christ, who was crucified for our sin on the cross and rose on the third day.
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And because Jesus faced the wrath for you, God delivers you from the grasp of sin.
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And for those who believe in Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit, the third person of the
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Trinity, who constantly sanctifies us to become more like Christ until we see
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Him face to face, until we're glorified and there's no longer any sign of sin, any trace of sin in our body anymore.
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And our salvation from start to finish is God's great work.
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He prepares us. He prepares us to be savable.
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And this gets problematic when churches are tempted to change
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God's way of deliverance and try to do it their own way.
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Instead of following what God tells us in His Word, the modern churches want to follow what the world says.
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Instead of viewing sins as something only Jesus can take away, the church starts renaming sins as conditions to recover from, as if it's a medical condition.
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Instead of battling against sins, the church starts celebrating sins as the world does.
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There are many churches with the rainbow flags outside, and that does not represent
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Christ at all, nor what the Bible teaches as human sexuality.
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The church does not win souls by celebrating what the world celebrates.
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It's never worked that way. And instead of depending on God's fully sufficient scripture, we start incorporating secular fields in the pulpit to provide, quote unquote, spiritual healing for the spiritually wounded.
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Instead of relying fully on God for preparation for deliverance, we rely on ourselves and on the world.
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We rely on what makes sense to us, what seems relevant in the world.
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If Israel reacted this way, it would have looked like this.
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After Moses said, hey, ask your neighbors for gold and silver and they'll give it to you, because God will give you favor in their eyes.
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But if they had reacted as what modern, quote unquote, churches do, they would have answered something like this.
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Moses, I appreciate the suggestion that God will provide for our deliverance through our
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Egyptian neighbors, but we can find gold and silver elsewhere. We can do that.
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So thank you, but no thanks. But that's how the church looks now.
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When we stray from what he says in the Bible and we seek help elsewhere, when we try to gain followers, when we try to get people to hear the gospel through other means that the world might say is acceptable, what the world might say is relevant, right?
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I often hear this where it's the church has its own gym and then it invites people.
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And maybe one day they might hear the gospel, right? The church has this own program, maybe childcare.
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And then, you know, secular people can come in and they can get free services. And maybe one day they could hear the gospel.
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But at the front of it is not the gospel, but the program itself and the relevance.
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The popularity, the people, the number of people that the church might garner, right?
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But that's not the way to go. For the church of Christ, we must never put
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Jesus on the back end. Rarely do those churches even bring up Jesus.
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And our strategy is never backdoor Jesus, right?
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Our strategy is not to fool them into thinking, oh, they're getting good services, but we're going to bring out
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Jesus backdoor. They're going to be fooled, but at least they'll hear the gospel. No, we have to be honest and go with what the
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Bible says. We've got to be honest even with the nonbelievers. We are here because we've been saved by Christ.
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And we have the gospel message that can save you, too, if you believe. We don't hide that from the nonbelievers.
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We're not ashamed of the gospel. We take how God prepares us seriously and literally.
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I believe when we do go by the word of God that it will bear fruit in His own time.
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And that's what we stand by. We go according to God's instruction in preparation for deliverance, not what we think would be great to the world.
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Now, what will God's last plague accomplish? The Lord will directly judge the wicked nation to completely revert the state of His people.
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The Lord will directly judge the wicked nation to completely revert the state of His people.
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Verses 4 through 8 show us how God will accomplish His deliverance through the last plague, the 10th plague.
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Thus says the Lord, about midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt.
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Unlike the previous plagues, Moses and Aaron do not have any involvement with the initiation of the plague.
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They just serve as the mouthpiece to warn Pharaoh what will happen if he disobeys.
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The previous nine plagues all started with Moses or Aaron lifting up the staff in the midst of Egypt.
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And when that happened, it would cause some sort of natural disaster or some sort of swarms of animals to come to Egypt to plague the land.
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The prior nine plagues, the Lord used human agency or the nature to punish
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Egypt. This time, the subject is very clear.
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The subject is the Lord, not Moses. This time, the direct actor of judgment is the
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Lord Himself, not the frogs, not the locusts, not the hailstorms, but the
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Lord. And He will do so at midnight, at the darkest and the most vulnerable time in Egypt.
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The Lord will visit. And verse 5 tells us what will happen when the
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Lord visits Egypt. And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals.
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The first part of the verse tells us who will be affected.
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When the Lord finally judges a wicked nation, He will judge the firstborn of Egypt.
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And unlike the world that we live in, the Lord will be impartial.
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Unlike the world, no guilty party will buy its way out of the
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Lord's judgment. And unlike the world, no guilty party will find pity before the
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Lord's judgment. We live in a world where our justice system, just because we live in a fallen world, is not perfect.
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And there are cases where the rich and the powerful do get away with just a light tap on the wrist.
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That happens. Also, we live in a world where the opposite is true.
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Under the name of social justice, we let criminals go off with a light tap on the wrist because they had a really, really hard life.
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So they couldn't really do anything but commit second -degree murder.
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Right? Both are true in an imperfect world.
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But not so with the Lord. The Lord is just.
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He's righteous. And no guilty party will go free. And here, the list is from the highest to the lowest.
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From the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of a female servant. Everyone will receive what is due to them.
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And this is because the enslavement of Israel was not just done by Pharaoh alone.
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But all those who worked under him, all of the stringent enslaving policies were applied by Egyptians working for Pharaoh.
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The royal officials, magicians, taskmasters, and average citizens all enslaved
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God's people. And for making
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God's people suffer, the Lord will have them pay. That's the point of the tenth plague.
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And in our modern culture, we might be offended by this. But that's what justice is.
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Receiving what they've earned. From the highest to the lowest.
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And here, God guarantees that he will visit each one at midnight.
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And they will personally pay for it. In fact, even their animals will have to pay.
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Now, one might question, what's wrong with the animals? Why the animals? Well, one commentator believes that because the
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Egyptians actually deified their animals, they believed their animals were gods. So, if the
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Lord actually lets the animals live, then the
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Egyptians might attribute the plague to their gods. Right?
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Can you imagine if all their firstborns are dead, but then their animals are alive and well?
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Oh, it's the cat god who did it. I knew we should have sacrificed to the cat god.
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We just didn't. Right? Because of that, to make clear that there was no other deity involved, the
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Lord judges the whole land of Egypt. And every firstborn will be judged.
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The point is that there is no one in Egypt who will escape the judgment of the
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Lord. And verse 6 tells us the effect of the final judgment that we'll have on Egypt.
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Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again.
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This unprecedented cry will be when
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Egypt wakes up in the morning. And they wake up to the horror of their firstborn dead.
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The whole nation will be filled with their angry cries. And that's something serious.
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But this is also a reversal of the state.
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Recall in Exodus 3, chapter 3, verses 7 and 9, when
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God showed up to Moses, he revealed his reason for responding. Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me.
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And I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. When God judges
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Egypt, the one who will be crying will now be the oppressor, not the oppressed.
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Their state will be reversed. And what will happen to God's people?
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Verse 7 through 8 tell us that first, how
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God will deal with his people. Verse 7, but against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue.
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Against man or beast, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between the
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Egyptians and Israel. It is important to know that dogs in the ancient culture were like rats of our time.
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Dogs were not pets. Dogs were not our fur babies that our culture treats them as.
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Dogs were scavengers. They were dirty. They were undesirable.
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And they could be even threatening, right? Knowing that, it helps us understand what
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God's people will experience on the night of the judgment, the final judgment. Israel will be completely left alone.
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While the climax of the plagues will hit Egypt, God's people will be completely safe and secure.
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So safe that even a dog, a normally vicious and undesirable animal that might follow you or even growl at you, would not dare bother
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God's own people. Nothing will bother
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God's own people when Egypt will face its biggest national crisis to this day.
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From the general description of God's people, verse 8 specifically reveals what will happen to Moses.
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And all these, your servants shall come down to me, that's Moses, and bow down to me, saying,
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Get out, and all the people who follow you. After that I will go out. This is a complete reversal since the beginning of the plagues.
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While Pharaoh's men looked down upon Moses at first, now they will go on their knees to beg him to get out.
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While Moses at first pleaded with Pharaoh, let our people go, he won't leave until it's time.
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Moses has the authority rather than Pharaoh in saying when we will leave.
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And while Pharaoh's men stood by Pharaoh since the beginning of the plagues, now they will leave his side to bow down to Moses in fear.
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There's a change in position here. No longer is Pharaoh the high and mighty.
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But rather a former slave of Israel. And this is an encouragement for God's people today.
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Because when God judges the world, he will revert the state of his people.
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Christians, the world will shame you for your faith in the crucified
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Messiah. That has been the case since the early church. To the
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Greeks it made no sense why they would worship a crucified Messiah.
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A complete humiliation. Why worship him? To the Jews it didn't make sense.
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How could God become man to be crucified for his people? That does not sound like our
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God who would free us from the enslavement of Rome. And Christians, you may lose friends or be cut from your family now that you're a
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Christian. However, the encouragement is this.
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For those who stand by Christ's side in suffering and humility now, you will be standing by Christ's side when he comes to judge the world.
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It's going to be a complete reversal. The world will judge you now for the belief you have in Christ and his word.
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They will call you dumb. They will call you anti -science. They will call you a bigot.
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They will call you backwards. They will call you all sorts of hateful things. And they will judge you for it.
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And some of you may lose your jobs. Some of you might lose connections, friends, family.
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Right? Some of you might have lost them already. But when
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Christ comes back to judge the world, guess who's going to be standing by his side?
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Not those who hate him. Not those who judge him now.
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But they'll have to answer to Christ, and you will be standing right beside him.
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And when you endure the suffering, as even Israel endured the suffering back then, if you endure the suffering now,
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Christ is not ashamed to call you his own. Christ will stand by you no matter what the cost.
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Christ will be your advocate. Christ will be the one who justifies you.
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Even if the world says you're guilty, it only takes one word from Christ to stand justified.
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Third, the Lord sovereignly works through the wicked nation's disobedience.
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The Lord sovereignly works through the wicked nation's disobedience.
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Verses 9 through 10 is a reminder of God's sovereignty. And we've seen this over and over and over again in Egypt and in Exodus.
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Despite what Pharaoh does or says or responds,
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God's plan is not shaken. God's plan is not stopped.
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Verse 9, But the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not heed you, so that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.
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So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened
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Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land. Even though Pharaoh will not budge,
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God will still work through him. Even though Pharaoh will disobey once again,
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God will fulfill his promise through the hard -hearted king.
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And despite the hardened heart, Moses and Aaron obeyed the Lord. They kept coming back to Pharaoh's throne room over and over again, according to God's command.
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Moses kept pleading for Pharaoh, even though he knew Pharaoh was lying through his teeth.
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And why is that? Both Moses and Aaron saw
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God's sovereignty over the foreign land of Egypt day after day.
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Every word that the Lord said came true to the dot.
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Every prediction of the Lord unfolded right before their eyes, just as the
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Lord said would happen. And they witnessed the deity who was above every deity of Egypt.
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They witnessed God in action, and the
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Egyptian deities powerless and humiliated. They served
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God, who brought Egypt down to its knees.
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And even though Pharaoh will harden his heart this time, they knew that the full deliverance was bound to happen because the sovereign
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Lord said so. Because he said so.
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And because of that, he obeyed, they obeyed, despite the short, temporary, unfavorable outcome.
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They trusted in their deliverer. And this is our ultimate comfort, as the nation we live in becomes more and more wicked.
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When the nation we're born in is becoming more and more unrepentant.
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Increasingly hardening its heart. Increasingly mocking the creator
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God. Increasingly taking the biblical worldview out of school, out of media, and out of our children.
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This text tells us our hope is not on those who are seated on the earthly thrones.
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But our hope is on the sovereign God who works through the stubborn, wicked rulers.
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Our hope is on Christ, who is seated at the right hand of God. And is not threatened by any of these rebellious rulers.
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Christians, God does not need a Christian governor in California to start a revival.
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He's much too powerful and much too merciful. God does not need a rational president in the
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Oval Office to redeem his people. The church does not need its own political party.
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What the church needs is trust in this
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God. The sovereign God who works through every obstacle because he is the one who is in charge.
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God does not give up on his people just because our country becomes too evil for him to handle.
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He's not threatened by the sin of this nation. The church needs to trust him in that.
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And that's what we see in Exodus. God's people who trusted in God despite the temporary shortcomings.
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Because they knew that God would deliver his people despite the corruption and sinfulness of the ruler in charge.
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Let us pray. Father, we thank you that you are in charge.
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And Father, I confess that there are times where it seems like this nation is too evil for deliverance.
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Maybe too wicked for another revival. But God, we trust that you are able to fully deliver your people out of the enslavement of sin.
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No matter who is in charge in this country. Father, we pray that we would rest on that hope today and forever.
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Because you've done it before over and over again. There's no reason to believe that you will stop doing that.
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In Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord of hosts is with us.
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The God of Jacob is our refuge. And let's just stand and sing our closing song,
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We Are God's People. We are
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God's people. Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee.
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Let such as love thy salvation, say continually, the Lord be magnified. And we are now dismissed.