Knowing the Lord - Part I

Well this morning we press on now in the book of Exodus and we're going to do all of chapter 5 this morning and this is if you look at your bulletin you'll notice it says part 1 so this is a two -part focus on ways that we are meant to know the

Lord and it'll be somewhat broad in a specific way this morning and the next week it'll be a little more particular as we look at chapter 6 verses 1 through 9 but this is all under the umbrella knowing the

Lord and as we think about knowing the Lord I hope we'll pick up some some good things that will carry us not just through chapters 5 and 6 but really all the way to chapter 15 especially what we're talking about this morning there are essentially two demands that Exodus 5 gives to us the first demand is let the people go and the second demand is let the

Lord judge those are going to be the two poles that drive us through the text this morning let the people go and let the

Lord judge so first let the people go beginning in verse 1 afterward

Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh thus says the Lord God of Israel let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness and Pharaoh said who is the

Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go I do not know the

Lord nor will I let Israel go the scene begins with Moses and Aaron going into Pharaoh were reminded that Moses has essentially forfeited his right to be the main spokesman for the

Lord between Pharaoh and Moses now we have Aaron that's a reminder that because of his lack of faith he forfeited this great privilege and now wherever he goes

Aaron goes with him to speak on his behalf we're gonna see that again in chapter 6 we're also reminded of the boldness of Moses though he's been stepped down and is reliant on Aaron to be his mouthpiece he is still a very bold man and he's going in to confront

Pharaoh just a reminder Pharaoh is not like a modern -day politician he's the ruler of Egypt this is not a ruler that if he walked into some restaurant in Ohio the waiter could refuse to serve him you know we don't welcome you you know rulers of the

GOP party in our establishment Pharaoh comes into your restaurant you serve him the whole populace serves him he has supreme authority he's divinized in the people's eyes he sits in the realm of the gods as it were he himself is a living

God and Moses and Aaron go into him to declare the true words of the true and living

God and this presumption this arrogance is shown in his response who is the

Lord that I should obey his voice people obey my voice Pharaoh says

I don't obey anyone's voice who is this Lord who is Yahweh I don't know him and I'm not going to listen to him it's a rhetorical question who is the

Lord he's not asking for information oh who is this Lord that you speak of now tell me more about him

I've never heard of Yahweh now this is a rhetorical question and it's expressing indignation so it's not like Paul in Acts 9 when the great brightness shows up on the road to Damascus and he says who are you

Lord the Lord says Jesus whom you persecute no no this isn't that kind of encounter it's not that kind of question who is the

Lord that I should obey him I don't recognize his authority this response is not only the response of Pharaoh to Moses this is essentially the response of everyone whether spoken or unspoken who doesn't believe upon the

Lord for salvation that might as well say as arrogantly as Pharaoh says it who's the

Lord that I should obey him who's the Lord that I should listen to his word why should

I change my way to the way of the Lord I will not do it I do not recognize his authority so if you find

Pharaoh stubborn and you're not a believer in the Lord maybe even if you are a believer in the

Lord take a look at the mirror very carefully in chapter 3 verse 11

Moses says who am I that I should go into Pharaoh and here Pharaoh says who's the

Lord that you should come into me so again we see this contest between Pharaoh and the

Lord God of course the answer to the question is what we saw in the burning bush chapter in chapter 3 who is the

Lord he's the Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob he's Yahweh he's the great I am he's ah say of himself transcendent self -subsisting self -existent the

Creator God the God of Israel who visits the affliction of his children and by his mighty hand moves forward his people from bondage to liberty from misery to freedom as he reveals his salvation to them that's who the

Lord God is a Pharaoh may not know the Lord at chapter 5 but he will know the

Lord by chapter 15 throughout the Exodus story Pharaoh will come to know the

Lord and he'll come to know the Lord of the most fearful way imaginable Moses and Aaron press forward they said the

God of the Hebrews has met with us please let us go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice to the

Lord our God lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword you can see some of the bargaining tactics here they make it something rational something easy to give permission toward they even give sort of a veiled threat but they do it in a way that they combine themselves to it lest he fall upon us with pestilence in sorts he would be in this boat together so they're trying to put themselves up on Pharaoh's level if we don't if we don't obey

God in this matter disaster will fall upon all of us we don't want that for the

Egyptians or the Hebrews Pharaoh and by the way it's just a three -day journey to go and celebrate him it's something very reasonable to give permission toward it's simply three days journey it's not saying we want to go three days time but rather to a place that's about three days away the point seems to be not that they could make it back to Horeb in three days unless they were all like Usain Bolt or something the point would be to get into the desert to get out of the land of Egypt when we get to chapter 8

Moses says one of the reasons he wants to go into the wilderness is because the way they will sacrifice would be an offense to the

Egyptians so he looks to remove himself and remove his offense from the Egyptians to go into the desert just a three days journey to sacrifice to the

Lord isn't that a reasonable request and of course Hebrews as slaves whenever the

Egyptians had any sort of festive occasion they would have been free from work just like their masters were free from work this is not a request that had never been granted before for many religious occasions

Hebrew slaves were allowed to be free for a period of time and even with the veiled thread of pestilence and sword which to a superstitious polytheist would be something to hedge your bets against well if you're saying there's this

God and it's a God of your people and there's this kind of threat on the line well then I'm not gonna risk anything with that go and feast come back and we'll smooth things over but Pharaoh refuses the king of Egypt of course no he's the king of Egypt but again we're giving this language to show the contrast the

King the Lord God versus the king of Egypt Moses and Aaron why do you take the people from their work get back to your labor and Pharaoh said look the people of the land are many now and you make them rest from their labor so the same day

Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers saying you shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before let them go and gather straw for themselves you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before you shall not reduce it for they are idle therefore they cry out let us go and sacrifice to our

God let more work be laid on the men that they may labor in it and let them not regard false words now this response already shows

Pharaoh becoming unhinged he's already slowly moving toward this stubborn position this incalcitrant view toward the

Hebrews and their poverty already we see he's devising a punishment perhaps as a strategy perhaps he wants to alienate

Moses from the people but either way he commands that the same quota be demanded from the slaves yet without straw being provided now they would have to go and gather straw for themselves straw and mud bricks how does that work the best that I could come up with of course this is mud that was taken from the

Nile banks a sort of red clay like mud and they would chop up straw as a way not only of binding the clay together but once the the clay and the straw was put together as the straw began to decay it would basically become humic acid which would fortify and strengthen the bricks and so it was a necessary component for the building projects and yet it was a lot more work to gather up straw already they were as slaves working to the uttermost to get the brick production up to quota by the way

I came across what I think is perhaps the best exposition or enlarging of the

Eighth Commandment that I've ever read and I don't know where it came from some of it is come it's from a catechism but the rest of it

I think is just ad -libbed and I don't even know where I came across it but I had it in my notes the

Eighth Commandment here applies the Eighth Commandment of course being you shall not steal so you have

Pharaoh saying I'm no longer going to supply you straw you have to make the same quota your life's gonna be incredibly difficult now because you have to gather the straw and make the bricks lest you be beaten or worse well how does the

Eighth Commandment you shall not steal apply to this listen to this you shall not steal not only prohibits the violation of our neighbor's private property it also means we are not to willfully impede our neighbor's success we are not to restrain his progress we are not to restrict his development or to take advantage of any of his circumstances that's the

Eighth Commandment that's a beautiful exposition of the Eighth Commandment always seeking the good of the other not putting undue burdens that would prevent your neighbor from succeeding or getting ahead or in any way taking advantage of their circumstances to your own benefit that is a violation of the

Eighth Commandment it's stealing as it were their means of labor their means of provision and that's what we see in verse 9 let more work be laid on the men this wasn't a nine -to -five gig this wasn't 40 hours and they punch out they were slaves they were already working around the clock working their fingers to the bone as it were now it's let more work be made laid on the men that's a translation the

Hebrews literally let the work be heavy make the work miserable make it intolerable make them groan make them weep make them despair of life make the work heavy and don't let them back force them into it drive them into it

Pharaoh almost is becoming unhinged here but there's also a strategy if the workload of the slaves is made even more burdensome they'll be so exhausted they just don't have time to daydream about Moses and the

Word of the Lord John McKay points this out if they're exhausted they will not be favorably impressed by what

Moses or Aaron say and that's true exhaustion has that effect on people we're not just souls we're not just attached brains we're bodies and souls that's what a human being is and exhaustion has a profound effect on our spiritual receptivity if you are exhausted physically it is that much harder for you to receive the

Word of the Lord or to have any hope in the Word of the Lord people despair of life itself when they're exhausted they become devoid of hope even the hope of living even the will to live because of that sheer profound exhaustion with life and that seems to be perhaps

Pharaoh's desire they're gonna have no hope in the words of Moses because I'm gonna drive out all hope from them bodily let them not regard false words verse 9 let them not regard lies that would be another possible translation so here's

Pharaoh saying Moses Aaron you are liars

I do not recognize your God I do not believe in your God I do not believe this word of your

God I do not believe your words and let all the Hebrews know not to believe these lies these false words so you have the showdown not only between the

Lord and Pharaoh between the Word of the Lord and the Word of Pharaoh and what is the truth

God's Word what is the lie Pharaoh's words their idol their idol their idol and he refuses to give rest to the people of God so the

Lord is going to act and give his people rest from Pharaoh you can see this is all about the contest all about the showdown

God will come and give his people the rest that Pharaoh refuses to give his people interesting case right now before the

Supreme Court Gerald Groff from Pennsylvania who is a retired postal worker he had been a missionary in parts of Africa I believe maybe some other places as well and when he came back he just wanted a simple job and a simple life and so he worked for the

Postal Service no problem then as an evangelical Christian to have the

Lord's Day free from work nice cushy government job until they signed a contract with Amazon for Sunday deliveries and Gerald Groff made it clear

I don't work on the Lord's Day of course every day he went in for two years he did what he could to not make that burdensome on his co -workers taking

Thanksgiving's or other holiday shifts and he always felt like he had this sort of axe hovering above his neck and eventually

I don't know if he was dismissed or he just was on leave or retired but now there's this case by Groff going before the

Supreme Court over this very issue will there be religious accommodation you should look into this case they they're saying it's very significant and I think the response to it at a cultural level is very telling of what we might be heading toward especially in the legal realm this is something that we happen to have a concert of a majority on the

Supreme Court with that's a good thing but the tide the generational tide is shifting in a pretty alarming way and really where is our culture going they're going after the way of Pharaoh yes who is

Gerald Groff he's idle idle idle let him work we all have to work seven days a week 365 days a year

Pharaoh does not want to give the people rest oh that's where we are today there used to be even in the state blue laws this wasn't an option

Gerald Groff wasn't in the headlines as some anomaly this was just culturally accepted you couldn't go anywhere you couldn't do anything on the

Lord's Day how that has shifted now to this hurried rat race where the idea is we always must be working there cannot be rest there cannot be anything like restoration and in fact your marriage your family your livelihood everything must be sacrificed on the altar of commerce so the way of God comes against this rebellion spirit that's what it is it's a spirit of battle reincarnate the

Word of God comes and it says no there's a different way for life because I did not make man for labor

I made labor for man and man is not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath is made for man so the

Word of God comes and it calls the world back to its rightful order back to the logic of creation through redemption and it urges people to live in an entirely different way and when that way when that word of that way comes to the

Pharaohs of our culture what do they say lies false words it's just idleness you've got a buck up just like the rest of us and where that word is not heated as we'll see through chapter 15 judgment follows judgment follows nation that whittles itself to the bone thinking this will be the key to economic integrity will find the surprising judgment of God imploding their economic integrity what does

Moses do he makes the Nile a stench before the Lord the very source of the wealth and prowess of Egypt becomes an abomination in the land nevertheless the order of Pharaoh goes forth the taskmasters of the people and the officers went out spoke to the people saying thus says

Pharaoh I will not give you straw go get yourself straw where you can find it yet none of your work will be reduced so the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw finding anything and everything they could and the taskmasters forced them to hurry saying fulfill your work your daily quota as there was when there was straw and now we're introduced in the text to these officers these would have been representatives among the

Hebrews they would have been like foremen and a construction site they go between the directives of the taskmasters to the people as intermediaries of the work and so these foremen have a certain position within Pharaoh's court a certain established authority and we see these officers now are going to carry us through the rest of chapter 5 the officers of the children of Israel whom

Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them you see these were appointed by Pharaoh's taskmasters you could put it this way they were in cahoots with Pharaoh's court we'll see that in more ways than one the officers of the children of Israel whom

Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them were beaten and were asked why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today as before so then the officers of the children of Israel came and they cried out to Pharaoh why are you dealing this way with your servants there's no straw given to your servants and they say make brick and indeed your servants are beaten but the faults in your own people but Pharaoh again maybe they thought it would be a sympathetic audience what my taskmasters are doing what well that's insane of course you need straw how else could the bricks be made of course you couldn't fulfill your quota if you're gathering straw maybe they thought he would be sympathetic to them maybe they thought there was this a big miscommunication and if only

Pharaoh could hear them like in the Soviet Union people that were being rounded up to be summarily executed or at least shoved into the gulag camps they often would cry out for Stalin this is a huge misunderstanding if only

Joseph Stalin could be here he would know meanwhile what is Stalin doing he's the one that's actually orchestrating it all tragic of course

Pharaoh responds you are idle must have been a shock idle let us go and sacrifice to the

Lord you say because you're idle therefore go now and work no straw will be given to you and you shall deliver the quota of bricks and the officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble when it was said to them you shall not reduce any bricks from your quota so again we have this contrast the

Word of the Lord and the Word of Pharaoh Moses and Aaron had said in verse 1 this is what the

Lord says and here we read verse 10 this is what Pharaoh says that's the great showdown in the passage and by the way there's always a contrast like this there's no shortage of pharaohs in our day there's always a contrast between the

Word of the Lord and the Word of Pharaoh in whatever form Pharaoh may be rarely and I mean rarely does the

Word of the Lord and the Word of Pharaoh line up almost always throughout history the

Word of the Lord goes against the Word of Pharaoh and now that this contest is in motion now that there's this burdensome demand bricks without straw and not one less leading to a disgruntled and worn down workforce we're almost led to wonder who's the winner here what's the end game of this

Pharaoh is seizing his power in a brutal cruel way he doesn't want to let his labor force leave his empire not even for a three -day journey to celebrate a feast in the desert and as he grasps his power with this animistic malevolence you can see that Pharaoh is already becoming irrational and if he was trying to preserve the power of his empire he's maneuvering in a way that now he's undermining it now he's maneuvering to his own ruin to put this kind of burden this kind of work and to alienate the workforce in this way will not lead to his success or his longevity it will lead to his downfall and so here already in Exodus chapter 5 we see the beginning of what

I would call civilized irrationality civilized irrationality listen this makes no sense this makes no sense

Pharaoh what is your endgame what is your goal what are you doing how is this gonna lead to your success in any way how is this gonna further your power or your kingdom it might momentarily it's gonna crumble from the inside out the officers cry out why are you dealing this way with your servants and they're expecting a reasonable reply they're expecting a reasonable response oh now that you raise this concern now that I see clearly how irrational this is let me deal with you in a right way in a just way well listen to me believers wake up that's not gonna happen look very carefully here at the beginning of civilized irrationality when you go to those in power and you lay out a very just sound case and you expect a reasonable response and a just treatment in response is that coming to the

Hebrews no is that coming for Christians in certain first world nations and in Western civilization at this time no

Pharaoh had a hardened heart of unbelief and the thing about a hardened heart of unbelief is that the hardening moves you not only away from what is righteous and good as defined by God but in tow with that eventually what is sound what is reasonable what is self -evident it becomes so irrational that evil is called good and good is called evil that is civilized irrationality and you cannot think well of course they were so primitive so many thousands of years ago you see how highly evolved we are look at our technological sophistication these kinds of things couldn't happen now not in the age of of news media spread so far and wide instant news around the world these kinds of things could not happen just say open your eyes

Germany was the leading nation heading into the 20th century it was premier among all first world nations among all

European nations in science and engineering technology literature philosophy theology in the civilized irrationality in Germany after World War one led to the systemic murder of the

Holocaust that's civilized irrationality evil called good good called evil are we not in those days today could we not look around and say we are living in a day when evil is called good and the most educated and sophisticated and well cultured among us do things that are evil and they celebrate them as if they're good when mutilation and the dehumanization of what

God has made is seen as a moral good affirmation we are living in these days

I was reading there's a man that died out in Nebraska maybe you read that this week look

Leroy Carhart well known he was a physician that provided late -term abortions one of the pioneering physicians if he's worthy of that name to give third trimester abortions even what at least we would call partial birth abortions

I was reading an NPR article that was sort of functioning as an obituary for Carhart at some point in the article they referenced the the animus that pro -life activists had against Carhart for obvious reasons and though charges were never filed and the investigation was inconclusive they they noted that when he was receiving a lot of threatening letters his family farm was burned down we don't condone that kind of violence but it was said in this article in a way that really struck me remember this man was a lightning pole of controversy in this sort of pro -life pro -abortion struggle and he was notorious a target for activists because he condoned and practiced up until he could not in Nebraska third trimester abortions and partial birth abortions and this is what the

NPR article said Carhart's farm burned down the fire killed 17 horses a cat and a dog this article was not very long and they felt it necessary to say think of how horrific and tragic this is a farm was burned down and 17 horses and a cat and a dog were lost in that fire to have the gall to think that is something that we should shed a tear over for a man who was butchering children as they were being born that is civilized irrationality but no one deceive you with empty words

Paul says because of these things the wrath of God comes upon sons of disobedience Pharaoh has a lot of empty words idleness idleness idleness idleness but no one deceive you with empty words because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience here are the

Hebrew foreman and they're crying out and Pharaoh in his pride in his cruelty is almost laughing

I'm giving you no rest I'm not reducing the quota

I'm not relenting and the more you grovel and the more you fight against it the more

I will add the more I will take from you he's almost laughing but as Christians were meant to see even the midst of that affliction it is actually the

Lord who is laughing never the tyrant never the oppressor but always the Lord Psalm 37 you could also look at Psalm 73 but Psalm 37

I'll just begin in verse 12 the wicked plots against the just gnashes at him with his teeth what is the

Lord doing what does Pharaoh think the Lord's doing he doesn't even recognize the

Lord's authority who's the Lord I'm the one who has the power

I'm the one who gets to laugh I'm the one who does what I want to do what does

Psalm 37 say the Lord is the one who's laughing the Lord laughs at him why he sees his day is coming

Pharaoh thinks he has all this power and his cruelty is almost unrestrained why is the

Lord laughing because he sees his day is coming verse 16 this is a good reminder

I think these are the things that we need to remind our children of in this sort of climate today where there's just a time it's funny

I was getting a haircut and the hairdresser was going on about her 22 year old son and she was just saying oh you know he's just mopes around and he's full of despair and I just can't figure out what it is and I said you know

I think we live in a day of instant gratification we just want everything now we expect to have everything now and if we can't have it now it's not worth doing anything to obtain it and so this 22 year old boy you know everything's instantaneous and given to him and he looks around at other people and you know they just record themselves on tic -tac and make a hundred thousand dollars it's like instant gratification did

I say tic -tac I meant tic -tac my white hair is showing yet so we look at that and we say we live in this day of instant gratification and I think we need to warn our children that the things that the culture says are worth aspiring for are not worth aspiring for the things that you want to labor long and hard for the things that often are worth laboring long and hard for and I love this wisdom from Psalm 37 a little that a righteous man has is better than many riches of the wicked that's wisdom the little that a righteous man has is better than the many riches of the wicked why the arms of the wicked will be broken but the

Lord will uphold the righteous he knows the days of the upright their inheritance is forever that's wisdom so secondly beginning in verse 20 we we go from let the let the people go to now let the

Lord judge verse 20 we're still looking with these Hebrew officers these foreman as they came out from Pharaoh they met

Moses and Aaron who stood there to meet them and they said to them what the

Lord look on you and judge you've made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants you put a sword in their hand to kill us you see how defeated these four men are they thought they would gain a rational hearing they got the opposite sent away dejected they see

Moses and Aaron and though it's Pharaoh who's made of the burden intolerable it's the foreman who say not to Pharaoh but to Moses and Aaron let the

Lord look on you and judge I find this to be the height of irony let the

Lord look on you and judge Moses let the Lord judge who do you think sent us let the

Lord judge why do you think we're here why do you think in the last chapter you were bowing down and worshiping when we share with you the

Word of God did you forget that already the Israelites are the ones speaking here like they don't know the

Lord either Pharaoh doesn't know the Lord he doesn't receive his word and now the Israelites these four men they don't know the

Lord let the Lord look and judge how could this be happening they don't even recognize their own irrationality they're going after Moses and Aaron instead of Pharaoh who's causing all of their misery they were so concerned they wanted just to grovel back to the way things were and that's always the temptation isn't it to go slinking back to the way things were oh it was nice when we had that little daydream about liberation and God moving in a mighty way well we got a taste of what that might cost us and no thank you we'll go back to slavery please these officers again are basically four men in the court of Pharaoh and as such

I think they were very concerned about their position in their rank before Pharaoh it's kind of that sad phenomenon you see it if you've ever seen

Schindler's List certain attendants in the work camps or in the Polish ghettos even though they were sort of the off scouring to the

Nazis or to the SS they held this position of authority and they basically lorded it over their fellow captives and I wonder if these four men were something like that and now their position is threatened and they feel the heat of Pharaoh's anger and it enrages them against Moses and Aaron it shows who they're actually giving deference to Pharaoh not

Moses Pharaoh that's why they go to Pharaoh to beg and not to the

Lord in prayer chapter 4 ended with this beautiful reception we read there the people believed and when they heard that the

Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he looked upon their affliction they bowed their heads and they worshipped but now what are they doing they're not bowing their heads they're not worshipping they're murmuring they're complaining they're saying to Moses and Aaron the

Lord judge you let the Lord judge you and so chapter 5 opens with not only discouragement but ultimately rejection it's the first foretaste of them rejecting the leadership of Moses remember pliable and Pilgrim's Progress right early on and Pilgrim's Progress when

Christian is alarmed by what he has read and he flees from the city of destruction and he goes out with such a haste and alarm calling for them to flee from the city that two neighbors come out after him remember obstinate and pliable and pliable of course unlike obstinate pliable is actually quite pleased with what he hears oh well what is this land like that you're going to and how will you get there and oh this all sounds so wonderful I guess

I'll go with you and what happens as soon as they hit the slow of despond it's just like the

Hebrews here at the end of chapter 5 as soon as the difficulty comes this is what pliable says it says pliable began to be offended and he angrily said to his fellow is this what you told me of all this while if we have such ill speed at our first time out what can we expect between now and our journeys end and we read he went away

Christians saw him no more I wonder if Bunyan in the 17th century met a lot of men that could have been called pliable you know here

I am in the security of the Anglican Church but what you're preaching and what you're saying is true and I I guess yeah

I guess I just need to go with you and I need to stand out for my faith and as soon as that difficulty comes this isn't for me that's what the

Hebrew foremen are like here and Moses like genuine Christians had to press on he had to bear that sense of rejection it was one thing for Moses to be rejected by Pharaoh he knew that he was going to be rejected by Pharaoh God told him that he was going to be rejected by Pharaoh remember that wasn't really his concern his concern back in chapter 3 was what if the people don't receive me what if they don't believe that you sent me and then we read at the end of chapter 4 when he came and he said the words of the

Lord to them and he did the signs of the Lord to them they all believed and they all worshiped he was on a spiritual high let

Moses reject me I'm here with my people and we're waiting on the Lord but now look at Moses now the people have rejected him now he's on his own and this directly affects him verse 22 and 23

Moses returned to the Lord and said Lord why have you brought trouble on this people why have you sent me since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name he's done evil to this people neither have you delivered your people at all

Moses now is filled with doubt and that's not a good look on a leader

Moses is filled with doubt and it's not a good look you almost want to jump back into the page and you know

Charlie horse's shoulder and say you of little faith did you forget what God said he would do but even though doubt is not a good look on a leader we can at least appreciate this he takes his doubt to the right place we read

Moses returned to the Lord so he's filled with doubt but he takes that doubt to the

Lord doubt is not a good look on a Christian but it's a good thing when a

Christian takes his doubt or takes her doubt to the Lord I love what G Campbell Morgan says happy is the man who when he cannot understand the movement of God's hand still has enough faith in God himself to tell him of his doubt those who have to face men and say to them thus says the

Lord also have a right to go to the Lord and expose their own doubts and fears to him that's well said the

Lord welcomes us to return to him notice when we get to chapter 6 the

Lord never rebukes Moses for this doesn't say I can't believe you're filled with discouragement and doubting he just encourages

Moses oh you've come to me heavy -laden way down with anxiety let me encourage you and remind you of who

I am and what I'm going to do I think you can expect that same reception from God if you allow your anxiety and your doubt to take you everywhere but God you'll only find more anxiety and doubt or worse a hardening of your heart in unbelief when you're wrestling when you're struggling why would the

Lord allow this who is the Lord that I should surrender my life to him you take those doubts to him look at Moses Lord why have you brought this about and why have you sent me and you have not delivered he gets more and more bold as he goes on you have not delivered this is the first shot and already he recognizes he's impatient and Christians cannot be impatient obedience does not always come with immediate success and certainly we're never to try to evaluate

God's judgment by looking at his immediate response to our obedience just because we've been obedient and there hasn't been blessing added to that obedience doesn't mean somehow that God is angry or he's ignorant or that we haven't actually tried to please the

Lord with our obedience it means we have to be patient again we're living in days of instant gratification we obey one time we make one change and when we don't find blessing we say well that was a waste of time well that was useless why did

I even ever bother obeying why did I change my life and make my life harder if I wouldn't be blessed automatically and instantly that's not how the

Christian life works brothers and sisters we need a patient persistent faith just like with Moses though it's all the harder to trust the

Lord and meet with those setbacks and when those afflictions when you have the Hebrew foreman saying let the

Lord judge you we reject you and the sad thing is we live in a day where there are many

Hebrew foremen in the Evangelical Church we live in a day when there are many leaders in the

Evangelical Church that are more interested in gaining the favor of Pharaoh they're more interested and somehow going back slinking back to their former slavery rather than pressing on through the difficulty toward faithfulness toward God's revelation the church is saturated with Hebrew foreman today and those

Hebrew foreman become a discouragement to the faithful that do see the word of the

Lord and they do trust the Lord and when even the leaders of the Evangelical Church begin to slink away and say let the

Lord judge we fear more Pharaoh's hatred than the despising of the

Lord we see Hebrew foreman unwilling to face the cost of faithfulness to pay the price to have a clear conscience we don't just have these men these leaders in the church putting their hand to the plow and looking back we have them plowing backwards literally plowing backwards making more and more compromises more and more capitulations to a godless culture to gain favor from a

Pharaoh that will never show them favor and they're uninterested in the favor of God that's a problem and it's a discouragement to many people in the church and God will judge them not in the way they think

God will judge them they would rather be a stench before the

Lord and find Pharaoh's approval than to be a stench to the gods of this age and be approved by God that can never be for a

Christian since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name he has done evil just notice that notice the progression things were relatively going well not perfectly they were crying out in misery but as far as the

Hebrew foremen are concerned now if only we could go back to that if only we could go back to Exodus 2 and Moses says since I came to speak in your name he has done evil speaking in God's name often results in the evil of others what is off the table as an option for the

Christian is to no longer speak in the name of God so what are your alternatives do you speak in the name of God as others do evil in response to that or do you not speak in the name of God so that evil actions aren't brought against you those are the options those are the pathways do you see why we have evangelical foremen in Pharaoh's court as it were because they would rather not speak in the

Lord's name and let evil be done and they camouflage that and say this is 1st

Corinthians 9 this is us becoming all things to all people that by all means we might win some you see this is why we show pronoun hospitality this is why we we wouldn't say we don't speak in the

Lord's name but we just try to make it very appealing and persuasive you live in a day of instant gratification for this very reason part of having a patient persistent faith is being willing to endure evil for the sake of representing

God's Word faithfully that is patient persistent faith the early church would have gone nowhere if the leaders hadn't taught their people that do not weary in doing good do not be overcome by evil overcome evil with good the evils there why is the evil there because you're speaking in the name of the

Lord and I would also point out God is still pruning

Moses wouldn't you think 40 years of tending sheep and Midian would have been enough pruning

God is still pruning oh I learned my lesson whoo I'm a sanctified man now

I'm ready to just climb the hill and God's like yeah not quite he pulls everything away from him again

God is still pruning Moses he takes him out of that spiritual high when he had all the enthusiasm of the people behind him and he had

God's signs right in front of him we're gonna see it again that first sign wait till you see what I do with my rod and then

Pharaoh's magicians come out and they do the same thing and Pharaoh's like go away it's just like Moses is constantly being pruned listen to me

God's providence often appears to contradict his promise you need to know that as a

Christian God's promise often appears to contradict his promise his providence often appears to contradict his promise did we not see that in the book of Genesis with the life of Joseph hey

Joseph what has the Lord shown you I'm going to be the leader of the family I'm going to be used to save you my brothers oh that's wonderful it's wonderful that God has promised you blessing in this position of authority and that you would be used to save your family oh what a blessed man you are and then what happens as he's ripped away from that family in slavery as he's cast into the pit into the dungeon as he's falsely accused and imprisoned you see

God's promise often seems at odds with his providence and this is why we need patient persistent faith neither have you delivered your people at all it's the final cry of desperation so how do you handle this feeling if you ever felt like Moses and if you haven't you will if you're a

Christian and you're speaking the Lord's name and because you're speaking in the Lord's name evil is being done against you you will eventually feel like Moses when the

Hebrew foremen of our culture people who name the name of Christ and they like to have their little

Christian life and semblance but it's a risk averse Christian life I don't want to get in any hot water

I don't want any sideways glances I don't want to put my skin in the game for the Lord and so we're discouraged from without we're discouraged from within how do you handle that feeling of powerlessness and desperation well the patient answer not only here not only the next ten chapters really the answer for the whole

Christian life is simply this let the Lord judge how will

Moses handle the feeling of powerlessness and desperation over the next ten chapters he will have to let the

Lord judge how will you in your life as a believer handle evil that comes against you when you're speaking in the name of the

Lord how will you handle desperation a feeling of God's absence a feeling of being exhausted and whittled down to the bone so that you can't even receive the the sort of warmth and light of God's Word into your dry husk of a life how will you be able to endure and persevere with a patient persistent faith you need to let the

Lord judge now let me spell that out a little bit three applications as we come to a close when the people of God attempt to devote their full service to the

Lord when they speak in the name of the Lord evil comes against them when they seek to serve the

Lord ultimately and fully they will receive opposition from the world woe to you when all men speak well of you no servants above his master if they mistreated me will they not mistreat you

Jesus says woe to you when all men speak well of you you will have trouble in this world

Jesus says we have Hebrew foremen that are doing everything they can to not have trouble rather than finding instantaneous blessings and security by slinking back into slavery we find conflict and when we find conflict how do we persevere we let the

Lord judge now letting the Lord judge is very difficult how can we do it three points first we love the

Lord for his righteous judgment let's start there love the

Lord for his righteous judgment the main thing here is we need to recover the goodness of the

Lord being a righteous judge I say recover because I think it's something that's been lost on Christians it's something that's come from our anti -authoritarian age the sort of hatred for anyone that imposes as a judge as it were you see that in the headlines so easily so readily you see that on the streets and in households there's this hatred for authority there's this hatred for authority immediately above and over and over all the way up on to God God loves order and he loves authority and in this sort of wash whether we realize it or not we too have been negatively affected and we begin to have this icky feeling about thinking about the

Lord as judge that's not what people need to hear that's not how people should think of God no no no no no he's your friend he's your grandfather he winks at you he's not a judge no no no we need to recover why it is good that God is a righteous judge that part of his glory and part of why we praise him is because he's a righteous judge and if you don't recover this everything

I've said so far from Exodus 5 will be meaningless to you love the

Lord for his righteous judgment you want to spend some time thinking about how Moses reflects on this go to Deuteronomy 32 later today read the

Song of Moses start around verse 35 and just read how Moses thinks about the

Lord being the judge and why that's a good thing why that's a song for Moses Moses of course is quoted

Deuteronomy 32 is quoted by Paul in Romans 12 vengeance is mine says the

Lord I will repay and Paul quotes this very thing brothers don't take vengeance into your own hands the

Lord is the righteous judge that frees you up to serve him with boldness and confidence that gives you endurance and perseverance that allows you to overcome evil with good he will repay so take heart this is the only place where let go and let

God applies rightly I think people use that wrongly in sanctification oh the problem was saying you know

Bill the reason you're not growing as a Christian is you gotta let go and let God no Bill you gotta try harder man you got a buck up Bill that's why work out your salvation of fear and trembling don't let go and let

God that's called the Keswick error famously plunged by JC Ryle but if there's any place that let go and let

God fits it's with his righteous judgment don't take it into your own hands

Paul says you overcome evil with good that's how you occupy your time and your work in this life but you know that God will have his just judgment in the end

Psalm 9 beginning in verse 7 the

Lord shall endure forever he has prepared his throne for judgment he shall judge the world in righteousness he shall administer judgment for the people's in uprightness the

Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in times of trouble and those who know your name will put their trust in you for you

Lord have not forsaken those who seek you sing praises to the

Lord who dwells in Zion declare his deeds among the people when he avenges blood he remembers them he does not forget the cry of the humble have mercy on me

O Lord consider my trouble and those who hate me you who lift me up from the gates of death

I will tell of your praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion I will rejoice in your salvation the nation's they've sunk down into a pit which they have made the very net which they hid their own foot is caught in it the

Lord is known by the judgment he executes let me say that again the

Lord is known by the judgment he executes but the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands meditation that's a guy on in Hebrew most likely an instrumental note but it's it's there we have it interestingly a guy on Salah you know meditation

Salah say la a pause could be for the musicians could be also an opportunity to reflect on what was said when you put a guy on with that I think it's saying camp out here and don't move on too quickly and what's that attached with the

Lord is known by the judgment he executes how is the

Lord known according to Psalm 9 well we have it in two places first those who know your name will put their trust in you so we have that way of knowing those who know the

Lord's name the great I am the God of his people the God who visits their affliction they have trusted in him they found refuge in him their cry is heard by him and then how else is he known the

Lord is known by the judgment he executes do you see either way the

Lord is known whether as a refuge or as the one who condemns either way he is known that's a warning to men and women who say who's the

Lord that I should heed his word I don't know the Lord oh you will know the Lord everyone will know the

Lord either as a refuge or as the judge so we recover the goodness of the

Lord who is righteous recover the goodness of the Lord who judges righteously look at Psalm 9 what is it that the afflicted do remember these are the afflicted these are the groaning these are the miserable these are the needy and what do they do they sing praises to the

Lord they declare his deeds among the people this calls back to verses 1 & 2 we open the service with it

I will praise you with my whole heart I'll tell of all your marvelous works I'm glad I rejoice in you

I sing praise to your name Most High why why is that the psalmist heart why well because verse 9 and 10 right a refuge in times of trouble you are those who know your name put their trust in you you

Lord have not forsaken those who seek you you don't forget the cry of the humble is that a reason to praise the

Lord amen is that a reason for Christians to be glad in the Lord of course it is but what else why else do we praise

God why else do we take heart he has prepared his throne for judgment he shall judge the world in righteousness for the psalmist that is a reason to praise and enjoy and magnify the

Lord now that is something that I don't think many Christians today find as a reason to praise and enjoy

God that he is a righteous judge we're called to meditate on this very thing the

Lord is known by the judgment he executes listen to me do you believe that even the wrath of man will praise him and if even the wrath of man will praise him should we not praise him for being a righteous judge psalm 9 says this is one of the reasons we enjoy him he is on his throne and will judge the world in righteousness what's our standard of righteousness justice it's the same word in Hebrew and Greek mish pot de chaos same word justice righteousness what's what's the best standard we have in this nation in this fallen world a blind woman holding a scale right that's as good as it gets 12 men a circuit of appeals blind justice

I can't see I can only weigh with evidence being established and then heard by a jury of peers that's as good as justice gets is the

Lord's justice blindfolded does he weigh by a scale and by the opinion of 12 peers no there's no blindfold he sees everything he judges the world in righteousness there's no bias there's no grading on a curve there's no lawyer that's able to pluck on the heartstrings as an advocate the

Lord sees through it all this is the reason we love the

Lord for his righteous judgment secondly so first we love the

Lord for his righteous judgment we need to recover that as a good thing worthy of praise and joy especially when we're afflicted and persecuted for evil secondly we live for the

Lord unto his righteous judgment live for the Lord unto his righteous judgment when you recover the goodness of the

Lord being a righteous judge part of that recovery will be your life now is pointed in the direction of God being your righteous judge the

Hebrew foreman said let the Lord look on you and judge they meant that as an insult they meant that as sort of a rebuke well

I'm saying it as an encouragement to you let the Lord look on your life and judge that's a right way for you to live every day as a

Christian you ought to be able to say Lord here are the things that I've done today here are the things that I still need yet to do please look on me and let me live in a way that I know you will judge me and yet seek your mercy

Lord look on me and judge yet in your judgment show mercy to me let me find your grace and favor through my

Savior the Lord Jesus Christ but Lord let me live in a way that I'm conscious and aware and my eyes are open to the fact that I must give an account to you it's a right way for a

Christian to live so what happens when the church has dispensed with the idea of God being a righteous judge or speaking of God as a judge or speaking of the judgment to come well that has now affected the church's sanctification the holiness of her members why because they no longer think of having to give an account to God oh you know he's the grandfather that always shows mercy and weeks months years go by before they start to think

Lord I have to give an account of this to you that's a problem you're not gonna have too many

Gerald Goff's in a world of Pharaoh's if you don't have that kind of awareness listen ultimately

I'm not giving an account to the postmaster general I'm giving an account to the Lord God so it requires you to live with an eye to his service rather than anyone else's service including your own

I have to give an account not just to everyone else but even of myself to the

Lord he means you have to live with an ear to his will how do you know how to live with the prospect of that judgment of that accounting unless you understand his will and what he desires for your life and then you must also have a heart for his judgment that means you're humbled by the prospect of that judgment and yet zealous for it like the psalmist judge the world in righteousness

Lord it was the early Christians who understood the Lord is the righteous judge his enemies are now being made as footstools psalm 110 the most quoted in the

New Testament why because their hope was built on the one who was coming in righteousness to judge the world

Maranatha Lord and how could they cry come Lord come judge of all the earth unless they were living every day with this reality of Lord look on me and judge look at Paul in first Corinthians 4

I love this Paul says with me it's a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court remember the context of 1st

Corinthians 1 through 4 the sort of splintering church and they have many sort of high -profile speakers coming through the sort of competing mission there in Corinth and now the

Corinthians though they were birthed by Paul say hey Paul you kind of need to refresh your

CV once you send us a copy of your resume remind us why we should go with you and not someone else and Paul laying out how he would not jump through their hoops he would not come in speech with eloquence he would rather preach nothing but Christ in him crucified and here in chapter 4 to continue on with the rebuke he says it's a very small thing for me to be judged by you you think

I'm laboring with you because I'm afraid of your judgment Corinthians you think I'm an apostle trying to appease your sense in your judgment no no it's a very small thing for me to be judged by you by any human court in fact

I don't even judge myself for I know of nothing that is against myself you see

I'm living in such a way that there's nothing that I can find to judge in myself not that I'm justified by this but he who judges me is the

Lord do you see how Paul is speaking to these Corinthian Christians I live my whole life with respect to one judge the

Lord Lord look on me and judge and show me if there's any wicked way within me and in your judgment show mercy therefore judge nothing before the time until the

Lord comes who will bring light to hidden things of darkness reveal the counsel of hearts then each one's praise will come from God Paul has a singular eye to God as judge and desires only praise to come from God not from the

Corinthian Church not from any other human arena he wants praise from God therefore he lives according to the judgment of God where do you want praise from do you want praise to come from the

Lord do you want to hear well done good and faithful servant or do you want the godless

God hating culture to pat you on the back and say well done well done you compromised you lived your life lukewarm you hedged every risk you never spoke in the name of the

Lord and see how it has gone well with you what difference would it make if we could say with Paul it's a very small thing for me to be judged by anyone my judgment is with the

Lord my praise comes from the Lord my life is for the Lord not in the blissful ignorance of the now oh he'll he always shows mercy he'll show mercy but in the sobering surety of the coming day that's what

Paul says on that day on that day it's a constant refrain in Paul's letters it's an eyes -open reality of the judgment of God because only the judgment of God is sure righteous and everlasting please hear me especially younger people because more so that at any other time in your life you're at this sort of pivotal place when the praise of men will either make you or break you and the opinion of the culture toward how you live and how you appear and what your values are that means more to you than perhaps any other time in your life it will mean it won't have as much weight or influence as it does now and so if you're counting and countenancing their judgment if you're seeking after their praise you will be slinking back into slavery and misery and a hardness of heart but if you look to the praise of God into the judgment of God you will remember only

God's judgment is sure only God's judgment is righteous only God's judgment is everlasting jump through hoops and do gymnastics to make yourself more appealing to a culture that hates

God dress yourself up as best you can it will last three years and you'll have to do it all over again it will never stop but when you live with an eye towards God's judgment

God who is rich in mercy you'll find that everlasting surety that belongs to those who live unto him so that's the second point we live for the

Lord unto his judgment and then third and last we know the

Lord by his righteous judgment I'll be quick here we know the Lord by his righteous judgment 2nd

Peter 3 says that scoffers will come no surprise who the scoffers are he says scoffers will come walking according to their own lust who are those that scoff at the

Lord's Word people that walk in their own lust why else would you scoff at the Lord's Word you're trying to protect your lust you're walking in uncleanness of course you can't hear that word of course you need to find reasons to reject that word scoffers will come walking in their own loss saying where's the promise of his coming there's no judgment it's just like Exodus 5

Moses then must be convinced of the righteous judgment to come he must love the

Lord for being a righteous judge he must live his life unto that righteous judgment and he must continually know the

Lord by that righteous judgment the Lord is known in the judgment he executes so Paul in Romans 2 begins to elaborate on this talking about the righteous judgment of God that comes upon both

Jew and Greek showing no partiality between them then in Romans 3 5 he says if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God what shall we say is

God unjust to afflicts wrath I'm speaking as a man certainly not how else could

God judge the world you see nothing was clearer for Paul than this fact that the day of judgment was appointed and God would come in a perfect righteous judgment to execute his wrath that was clear for Paul it motivated his ministry not just to save those that were lost but also to live his life in a way that was righteous unto the

Lord nothing is clearer for Paul than the fact that God would judge the world in righteousness that ought to be the thing that is central to us as Christians someone sent me this was years ago a picture of a botched tattoo and I always got a kick out of this it was some poor sap on his back it was a whole back tattoo and it was it was like a grim reaper or something and then it was the words only

God can judge me but they misspelled judge j -u -g -e it's like only

God can juke me or judge me you know it's kind of like ooh mistake but the sentiment there

I'm like I'm going to venture that the man who got this tattoo on his back would actually not find the judgment of God to be as readily welcome as he thinks only

God can judge me yeah that's a terrifying prospect for you it's a terrifying prospect for you a lot of people say that flippantly yeah let people think with only

God can judge me it's like yeah if God were to judge you you are you are ruined you are lost

God has a perfectly righteous judgment it motivates everything in the

Christians life when Paul wants to charge Timothy to preach the word what does he say does he say

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life no does he say

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will carry you whenever you only see one set of footprints behind you because he gets you no what does he say

I charge you therefore before God and the

Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom preach the word that's your motivation

Timothy there's a righteous judgment that is to come so don't be swayed by empty words don't be cheated by philosophies don't be put aside by the pressures and the persecutions preach the word in and out of season why because the day has been appointed

God will judge the world in righteousness the prospect of that to those who are self -seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness they receive indignation and wrath tribulation anguish on every soul who does evil the prospect of that ought to drive every aspect of our lives as Christians so have you known that righteous judgment you know the

Lord by his judgment consider what James 2 10 says whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point he's guilty of all every time you sin you break the entirety of God's law one little sin one little white sin over here one little sin that we wink out over here and James says every sin tens thousands of sin ten thousands of times you have broken the entirety of God's law and he's fixed a day to judge that in righteousness so then if we know that by the law no flesh is justified how can it be said the

Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed how is that possible with the righteous judge well it's only possible because Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us he made him who no sin to be sin for us this is where we meditate on Psalm 9 the

Lord is known by the judgment he executes for the Pharaoh for the obstinate for the unbeliever for the atheist

God is known by that judgment on that day that is fixed when his righteous condemnation is poured out as wrath upon them then the

Lord is known but for the believer the Lord is known by the judgment he executes when we look back upon the cross at Golgotha and we see a crucified

Savior being made sin for us and that righteous judgment is poured out on him and that is how he becomes a refuge for the needy and the oppressed amen

Christ bore the curse of the wrath of God the righteous judgment of the righteous judge that by his blood all united to him by faith would be made righteousness having a righteousness not as that is not their own being clothed with the righteousness from the imputed righteousness of Christ who died upon the cross that's why we sing

I will praise you O Lord with my whole heart I tell of your marvelous works that is why the Lord is known by his judgment that is why we can say those who know your name will put their trust in you you

O Lord have not forsaken those who seek you forsaken never by the blood of his

Son he brought them near and so Christ suffered once for sins the just for the unjust the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God love the

Lord for his righteous judgment live for the Lord unto his righteous judgment know the