DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And you shall say unto Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is My son,
even My firstborn: and I say unto you, Let My son go, that he may serve
Me." Exodus 4:22,23.
"Then the Lord said unto Moses, Now shall you see what I will do to
Pharaoh."
Exodus 6:1.
GOD had a people in Egypt. They were His own, the people of His choice.
Although they had been grievously oppressed and had sunk into
ignominious slavery, His interest in their welfare had in no degree
lessened. The Lord's purpose in sending Moses down into Egypt was that
He might fetch out that people from among the nations to make them a
separate people to Himself that He might give them an inheritance, even
the land which flowed with milk and honey and that they might dwell
there as witnesses of His Covenant and keep His Testimonies. Now
precisely what God was doing towards His people, Israel, in the land of
Ham, He is doing towards His own chosen ones throughout the whole
world.
From one point of view the object of the Gospel is to gather out from
among the nations a people whom He did foreknow, whom He did
predestinate, whom He has redeemed unto Himself to be His peculiar
heritage. These are to be fetched out from among others. They are to be
made a separate people to be brought into a distinct position and to
have a distinct experience. "The people shall dwell alone; they shall
not be reckoned among the nations" and they are ultimately to be
brought to a prepared place for which they are to be especially
prepared that they may abide there and that the Lord may verify the
thing that He has predicted of them, "They shall be Mine in that day
when I make up My jewels."
The work of rescuing perishing sinners out of the present evil world is
as worthy of God as the work of delivering Israel out of Egypt. The
same right hand of Jehovah, glorious in power, which released the sons
of Jacob from the thralldom of Pharaoh, is now stretched out to ransom
us from the dominion of Satan! The song of praise to Jesus Christ our
Redeemer shall be more exultant than that which Miriam and the
daughters of Israel lifted up by the Red Sea when they said, "Come let
us sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously." Indeed, we
shall sing at the last, the song of Moses, the servant of God and the
song of the Lamb, clearly indicating that the redemption out of Egypt
was always meant to be a leading type of the redemption of God's people
from out of the midst of the world, for Christ has a people whom He has
redeemed from among men, and there is a Church of which it is written,
"Christ loved His Church and gave Himself for it."
Now, in the process of bringing out these people of God from among the
mass of mankind, God sometimes uses instrumentality just as He did in
the former case. He may employ an instrument that is apparently as
little adapted for the work as Moses felt himself to be. Yet the work
is done and to God belongs the honor of accomplishing it. As for those
of us whom He uses, we are more than content to yield the honor to Him.
We rejoice in His excellency while we feel that we cannot take to
ourselves any credit whatever–for we are less than nothing in His
sight–and even in our own sight we are weak and worthless, so that
unto God, alone, shall the glory redound when redemption's work is
finished and complete!
I invite you to think, first of all, upon the voice of God. According
to our text, it is, "Thus says the Lord, Israel is My son, even My
firstborn: and I say unto you, Let My son go, that he may serve Me."
When we have dilated a little upon that, we shall need to have a few
words upon the voice of man. This was to be the voice of man, "You
shall say unto Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord." What God had spoken was to
be repeated by His servant, Moses. Then we shall close by
noticing, in the third place, the power which was to go with this voice
of man. "I will be with your mouth and you shall see what I will do to
Pharaoh."
I. Let us endeavor, then, at the outset, to fix our thoughts upon THE
VOICE OF GOD which was a real power to bring up His people out of
Egypt. That voice was threefold–asserting His proprietorship in them,
demanding their freedom and ordaining their destiny. With imperial
authority He claims the people as His own. "Thus says the Lord, Israel
is My son, even My firstborn." The Lord knows them that are His and the
Lord declared them to be His own with a jealousy of His inalienable
right to their allegiance and an assertion of His unfailing interest in
their welfare. The children of Israel were, at that time, in a very
sordid condition. They were up to their necks in clay, making bricks.
They were a band of slaves, degraded, brought down to the lowest
condition. They were so spiritless that they submitted to any exaction
of the tyrant and when the day of deliverance dawned on them, they
could not think emancipation possible, or welcome the joyful change in
their prospects.
They had, as a nation, lost the very thought of liberty! It was trodden
out. The people seemed as if they must lose their nationality or only
retain it as a nation of slaves. Yet all begrimed and beslaved as they
came to be, they were still beloved. The Lord loved them! He said,
"Israel is My son, even My firstborn." Surely Pharaoh might have said
in his heart, "This is a fine son! What must the God be who says of
these brick makers, this abject race, 'This is My son'?" Yes, and these
ill-conditioned, unkempt serfs–these debased men and women, He says of
them–"Even My firstborn, My son and heir." A man is naturally proud of
his son and heir, yet here is the mighty God speaking after the
language of mortal men, acknowledging these cheerless, crestfallen,
despised and dispirited people and saying, "Israel is My son, even My
firstborn."
He was acknowledging them, too, in the teeth of proud Pharaoh, whose
firstborn was saluted as a prince of the blood royal when he rode
through the land, before whom every knee bowed and to whom, as the son
of the great king, homage was constantly rendered. "Israel is My son,"
says God, "even My firstborn." He is not ashamed of His people! He
acknowledged His great love with which He loved us, even when we were
dead in trespasses and sin, just as He loved His people Israel when
they were still in bondage and in degradation. "He loved my soul out of
the Pit," said one of old. He loved us when we were lying in our blood
like an infant cast out unswaddled and unwashed. When no eye pitied us
in the day of our nativity and we were cast out in the open field, He
passed by and it was a time of love. And He said unto us, "Live." Oh,
wondrous Grace of God, that He acknowledges His son when that son is
still an Egyptian slave!
Moreover, God acknowledged His people when they did not acknowledge
Him, for His name, "Jehovah," was scarcely known to them. Although
Moses presented himself to them with evident credentials, they were
ready enough to reject him. We are informed in other parts of the
Scripture that they had gone aside to false gods. During their sojourn
in Egypt the Israelites fell into the prevailing superstition of the
country and they forsook the Lord. Some little light still lingered
among them. Some traditions were treasured and transmitted from sire to
son in solemn trust. Doubtless there was a remnant of pious souls,
faithful to the God of Abraham. The bones of Joseph, preserved in
Goshen as a memorial of the oath that he took of their tribes,
subsequently were carried through all their devious wanderings in the
wilderness and ultimately buried in Sechem, as you read in the last
chapter of the book of Joshua and they, I say, vouch for a fidelity we
cannot wantonly forget.
But the bulk of the people had fallen into the snares which surrounded
them and conformed to the fashions of those among whom their fortunes
were cast–whose many gods and lords were superstitiously served in
secret. They were not a people who could have scraped together so much
as a molehill of merit if they had tried! They were a vain and vicious
people, prone to supplant, yet utterly supplanted. They were especially
sinful because their marked proclivities which might have developed on
the side of virtue were perverted into stains and stigmas on their
reputation. Yet Jehovah says, "Israel is My son, even My firstborn."
And does the Lord acknowledge His people when they know Him not? Ah,
blessed be His name, He does, or else they would never come to know
Him! We love Him, now, because He first loved us and if there had not
been that antecedent knowledge of us–and love towards us–we had not
now been what we now are.
Oh, the freeness and spontaneity of the Grace of God that He should
know His people and call them His own even when, as yet, they know Him
not! He acknowledged this people by affirming His Covenant. "Israel is
My son." He was referring to the Covenant which He had made with
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob of old. And the Lord knows His people and
shows favor to them, not because of anything personal to recommend
them, for there is no superiority in their
nature, no brightness in their intellect, no beauty in their
disposition that can be pleasing in His sight! The only title to Grace
in His eyes is that ancient Covenant ordered in all things and sure
which He has made, not with Abraham, but with our Lord Jesus, who
stands as our Covenant Head!
We do not sufficiently reflect upon the Covenant as the great deep that
lies under the fountain of many waters out of which all the wells of
salvation continue to be filled with the living waters of Grace–
"Never had you felt the guilt of sin,
Or sweets of pardoning love,
Unless your worthless name had been
Enrolled to life above."
If you had not an interest in that Covenant which He made in the
eternal council chamber long before the earth was most assuredly in
hapless, hopeless obscurity, you would have lived and died! This was
the reason why He called Israel His son! An ancient Covenant had made
Israel to be so regarded. How sweet it is that He does not merely speak
about the people as being His people, but He says, "Israel is My son."
There is a love between father and son which cannot be found elsewhere.
Blood is thicker than water. Relationship has ties that cannot be
relaxed.
"Yes, but," says one, "Does God ever call His people, in any place, His
sons before they are regenerate?" Well, there is a text that says,
"Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into
your hearts, whereby you cry, Abba, Father." It is because, in the
purpose of God, His people are really His sons before they know
anything at all about it, that in due time He sends the Spirit of His
Son to give them the nature of children that they may enjoy the
adoption of children and say, "Abba, Father." O Beloved, it is
delightful to think that the Lord should look upon us before we are
born–before we are born again–with a love that cannot be measured and
cannot be broken! The gist of this affirming was thus–"Israel is My
son. You, Pharaoh, may call him your slave, but he is My child. He was
Mine before he was yours. Israel is My son. You say, 'No, he is my
serf.' I say, though he has fallen under your yoke, I will maintain My
right to him as My firstborn. He is a prince and to that estate he
shall be raised."
The Lord has a claim upon His people–a claim which all the claims of
Law and all the clamors of sin and death and Hell shall never be able
to deny. And though they basely submit to the claims of the Wicked One
and make a covenant with Death and a league with Hell, yet shall
Jehovah's claim upon them stand, for thus says the Lord, "Your league
with Death is broken and your covenant with Hell is disannulled." The
Lord Jesus will not suffer those whom He has made to be His own people
and ransomed by the bloody purchase upon the Cross to remain the slaves
of sin and Satan! They are His. His Father gave them to Him. They are
His! He bought them. They are His! Their names are written on His hands
and engraved on His side. They are His! He will not suffer so much as
one of them to remain in bondage to the adversary.
By thus acknowledging His people, He puts in a positive claim which
puts all other claims on one side. With the bare assertion of absolute
right He demands their unconditional freedom. "Thus says the Lord,
Israel is My son, even My firstborn: and I say unto you, let My son
go." What a grand verse that is! What an imperial edict it contains! As
in the narrative of the Cosmos, God said, "Light be, and light was," so
in the history of the exodus, short words are launched with Sovereign
force–"Let My son go." Well might the proud heart of Pharaoh have
quailed before the Almighty, whose lips asserted a right which His arm
was instantly able to enforce. How aptly those tones apply to our
deliverance from under the Law! The Law includes all mankind under its
curse–the god of this world claims the whole human race as his
subjects. In due time our Redeemer appears.
The Lord Jesus comes, identifies Himself with the enslaved family,
bears the curse, fulfils the Law and then on the ground of simple
justice demands for them full and perfect liberty, having fulfilled for
them the precept and for them endured the penalty! "Let My son go." On
what pretext could the Law, unless it were lawless and unjust, put in a
claim which has been discharged, or urge a right which has already been
fulfilled? No, from under the Law the people of God go free and their
joy is that they are not under the Law but under Grace! And how
gloriously do those tones sound when they come with force and power to
rescue us from the tyranny of sin and Satan! The Prince of the power of
the air holds men in subjection. He prejudices them and so stops their
ears against the Gospel. He seals their eyes against the Eternal Light,
but thus says the Lord, "Let My son go," and immediately the prejudice
vanishes, the ears are opened, Eternal Truth shines into the heart,
scales drop from the eyes and the soul beholds the Heaven-born Light
and begins to rejoice!
Satan will tie a soul down, sometimes, in very heavy bondage. I have
known him fasten a soul down with steel chains of despair such as could
not be snapped. The man has said, "There is no hope," and he has given
up all thought of pardon
and eternal life. But, "Thus says the Lord, let My son go." The iron
bands have snapped in a moment and the man has risen to hope and
liberty, for the Lord's voice breaks the chains! Fast bound by fearful
habits which seemed impossible to give up–having plunged into one sin
after another–the man has been shut in by one iron gate and then by
another and another and was enclosed in the innermost ward of the
prison. But at midnight he has been struck on the side when he was
asleep in his senseless carelessness.
Around him has shone a great light–the Covenant Angel has come to him
and led him through gate after gate! The iron gates have opened of
their own accord and the man has found himself free and scarcely knew
whether it was true or not! He knew not that it was true, but thought
he saw a vision. The thing has been scarcely done before he has found
himself to be alive and delivered from the bonds of sin, filled with
astonishment at himself and saying, "How can this be?" His tongue has
been filled with singing and his mouth with laughter and he has said,
"The Lord has done great things for me, of which I am glad."
Well, Beloved, the tones of that august voice which said, "Let My son
go" will continue to echo as long as you and I are here below! We shall
continue to be let go! This glorious liberty shall be made more
manifest to us daily. Are we not as creatures made subject to vanity
and compassed with infirmity? By-and-by we shall be liberated from the
bondage of the flesh! Our bodies shall go down into the grave and lie
there for a while in the prison of the tomb, but that voice which
quickened us into spiritual life will resuscitate our bodies and cause
them to enter into the resurrection-life of Christ! Through the dark,
dismal vaults will sound the loud, cheerful voice "Let My son go," and
there shall not a bone of a Believer be left.
As it was said of old, "not a hoof shall be left behind," so nothing
that belongs to redeemed man shall be left in the grave. "Of all that
You have given Me I have lost nothing," says Christ, and truly, of
person and of things–of all the people and of all that shall belong to
the people to make up their manhood–there shall nothing be lost–the
Lord shall have His own and His Grace shall triumph! This voice of God
is an acknowledgment of His people and a claim for their
deliverance–but no less is it an ordaining of their destiny. "Let My
son go, that he may serve Me." Oh yes, Beloved, we are no sooner set
free from serving Pharaoh than we begin to serve Jehovah! "Let My son
go, that he may serve Me."
And in what capacity did Israel serve God? It was in the loftiest
capacity possible! Israel became Jehovah's priest. It was in Israel
that the sacrifice was offered. In Israel the incense was burnt. From
Israel went up the sacred Psalm. Israel stood before the Lord in that
high position of sacred privilege. So, likewise, is it that as soon as
a man is brought out of the bondage of sin, he presents unto the Lord
the sacrifice of Christ by faith and afterwards goes on to present
himself a living sacrifice. Thus his thanksgivings and his broken and
contrite heart are perpetual oblations and offerings of a sweet
smelling savor, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Israel became the
servant of God by way of preserving the Testimony. His were the
Oracles. Israel kept the knowledge of the one God. Israel kept the
Revelation of the Most High. While all the world outside was dark,
Israel preserved the Light.
To this end, in like manner, Brothers and Sisters, you and I are called
of God. If He has brought us up out of the Egypt of sin, we are to
present daily sacrifice. We are to bear daily testimony to the Truth of
God. And oh, if we do not–should we begin to stagger through unbelief,
or speak with bated breath of the Truth that has been surely made known
to us. Should the fear of man, or the fashion of the age so beguile our
hearts, becloud our eyes, belie our good profession and utterly befool
our common sense that we shall blush to bear our testimony–what shame
must cover us! What confusion must take hold upon us! But, blessed be
His name, He will keep His own true to His Word. If it were possible,
the free-thinkers and the false teachers in these days would deceive
the very elect–but that is out of the question–it is beyond the range
of possibility!
All God's children shall be taught of the Lord and they shall hold His
Truth and bear witness to it, even to the world's end! Israel was to be
God's servant to serve Him by walking by faith. What a wonderful 40
years' walk that was in the wilderness! They did not live up to it but
still, the spirit of that march of mystery was very wonderful. Without
sowing or reaping they were fed! They were supplied with water without
fountain, reservoir, or watercourse. They were guided without a compass
and without one sign of track way over shifting sand! Yet they were
always well-fed, well-housed and, what was still more marvelous, their
camps were well shaded by day and well lit by night! They had a choice
experience of having nothing and yet possessing everything! With no
fertile fields or fruitful trees, yet Israel was made to
live upon the fat of the kidneys of wheat and to ride upon the high
places of the earth. She had all things and she abounded. The Lord was
her Shepherd and she did not want!
We are often called upon to serve God and that very conspicuously,
though we may be little conscious of it when we are required to walk by
faith. This is the work of God, the grandest work a man can do–to
believe on Him whom He has sent. The godlike work, the work of works is
this–to walk by faith, living upon the unseen God! Israel was to be
God's servant by continually dwelling in happy fellowship with God and
waiting upon Him with holy worship. Nowhere else, in all the world, was
a Passover or a feast of tabernacles kept to do Him homage–and nowhere
else was the Sabbath hallowed and observed. With them, alone, Jehovah
dwelt and among them Jehovah shone forth. And so, Beloved, if you and I
have been called out of bondage, it is that we may serve the Lord!
Are we all alive to our obligation? Are we faithful to our higher
calling? Are we doing our sworn, sacred duty? If anyone here is rescued
this night from the grip of the Destroyer, delivered from the bondage
of this evil world, saved from the damning power of sin–know that when
you leave one corps, you must enlist into another corps! You come in
fresh from the enemy's camp, not to be treated as a prisoner, but as a
recruit! You must enlist to assail the powers and passions you once
defended. God would have you become His servant that you may serve Him
with joy and gladness all your days. Thus, then, I have opened up the
voice of God as far as my time or strength or knowledge has permitted.
II. Now, secondly, here was THE VOICE OF MAN. What a comedown it seems
to be. "You shall say unto Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, Let My son go."
Why did not the Lord say it Himself? Why did He need to pick up a Moses
and send him to say it? Well, dear Friends, had the Lord said it
Himself to Pharaoh, it would have been very startling and Pharaoh must
have yielded ultimately to the Divine fiat–but don't you see the
deeper marvel in the milder proceeding–when Jehovah, as it were, hides
His power and cloaks it in weakness?
Instead of appealing to Pharaoh with that Voice which breaks the cedars
of Lebanon and makes the hinds to calve, He speaks to him by one who
was slow of speech and of a stammering tongue! Now, if God's voice can
vanquish Pharaoh when it masks itself behind the feebleness of a
stuttering, stammering Moses, it will be more glorious than it would
have been if it had used no instrumentality whatever! Why does not the
Lord speak to every sinner directly and bring him out and save him?
Well–He might do so. He might do it if He would–but when He
condescends, instead, to take us poor mortals who have tasted of His
love and says to us, "Now you go and be My voice: you go and speak for
Me," oh, then His Grace and power are not less conspicuous, but they
are far more admirable! In using such ill-adapted tools for the
accomplishment of His great designs, He shows His own transcendent
power!
That famous well-cover at Antwerp, just opposite the cathedral–one of
the finest pieces of worked iron that was ever known–is said to have
been made by Quintyn Matsys with nothing but a hammer and a file, his
fellow workmen having taken away his tools. If it is so, the more
praise is due to his consummate skill. All the works of God redound to
His Glory–but when the tools He uses appear to be totally inadequate
to the results He achieves–our reverence is excited, while our reason
is abashed and we marvel at a power we cannot understand! This comes
home to some of us very closely. Let us put it to ourselves. Does the
Lord take you, my Brother, or has He taken me–and does He speak words
of eternal power through our poor little tongues–through these unruly
members that are prone to do so much mischief?
If He really wins souls through them, or pulls down the pride of
Pharaoh through them, then shall it ring through eternity that the Lord
has done marvelous things! He has taken the worm and made him to be a
sharp thrashing instrument, having teeth–and made him to thrash the
mountains! He has chosen the weak things of the world to confuse the
things which are mighty! Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings has He
ordained strength because of His enemies, that He might still the enemy
and the avenger. Unto His name be Glory forever and ever!
The feebleness of the human voice has never appeared more palpable than
when it has attempted to repeat the sentences which have been uttered
by the mouth of the Lord. Moses seems to think that there must be some
mistake! Can it be that God means to bring Israel out of Egypt by him?
Whenever God designs to make His servants eminently useful, He lets
them know their frailty. The more treasure there is in the vessel, the
less will its comeliness be vaunted. It is mere common ware, an earthen
vessel that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us!
But when Moses found that he really was employed of God, how fearless
he was of ridicule! He went in unto Pharaoh and delivered his Master's
message.
The interview with Moses and Aaron must have seemed supremely
ridiculous to Pharaoh. It put him into a great rage. These two
Israelites, wretched slaves, coming to tell the great king of Egypt
that he must let Israel go! How absurd! Even to the Israelites it must
have appeared preposterous, for two persons such as these to go in
before the king. Why, with a word he could have said, "Take off the
dogs' heads," and so have ended all the business directly! Yet they
went and bearded him in his royal palace and delivered what he might
think a vain menace, but what they knew to be a veritable message from
God! Insignificant as we, of ourselves, may be, the very fact that God
instructs us to speak might suffice to quell our fears. We must go and
speak the Lord's message and must not be afraid of being thought
infatuated.
When I have sometimes bid a sinner live and believe in Christ, I have
heard a mutter, "What is the good of telling a dead man to live?" Some
wise Brother has said, "You might as well shake a pocket handkerchief
over a grave." Yes, Brother, it is true–quite true. So might Moses as
well have shaken a pocket handkerchief outside Pharaoh's palace but,
when God bid him to go and tell Pharaoh to let His people go, he went
and did it. And when the Lord bids any of us go to a sinner and say,
"Believe," we cannot make the sinner believe–neither can he make
himself believe–but the preacher sent of God is an echo of God's
voice! God speaks through him! With authority he is commissioned to say
to the sinner, "Turn you, turn you; why will you die? Repent and be
baptized, every one of you."
We are bid to speak peremptorily, as ambassadors of the King–not
because of any prerogative we assume–but as we commend ourselves to
every man's conscience, there is power in our message. The voice that
speaks by stammering Moses is Divine, notwithstanding the ridicule that
may be heaped upon it. Moses, having such a command to go and speak,
must be undeterred by refusal. "I know not the Lord," said Pharaoh,
"neither will I let His people go." Now, dear Brother, you cannot win
souls unless you are prepared to meet with strong rebuffs. Yes, but
some are heartbroken if any resistance is offered them! You may expect
it. Old human nature does not know the Lord.
You remember how Melancthon thought he was going to convert any number
of people when he began to preach, but when he found out his mistake,
he said, "Old Adam is too strong for young Melancthon." So he is. You
will come across a bit of grit every now and then which will break your
knife. Be not dismayed, the Lord will sharpen you and make you stronger
and stronger yet, for even that Pharaoh who said, "I will not let the
people go," will be down on his knees presently begging the people to
depart! We must be prepared for opposition and neither flinch nor
quail, but brace ourselves up for the struggle.
So, too, the man whom God sends ought to be assured of success. I am
persuaded that Moses, after he got over his first little difficulties
with the people and recovered from his own diffidence, parleyed not
with doubt, but was strong in faith. There he stood with the wondrous
rod, turning waters into blood and slaying all their fish; covering the
heavens with blackness; turning the dust into living creatures;
bringing hail and grievous murrain and doing it all as calmly and
quietly as he should do who feels that he is the voice of God! How
steadily he kept at his work! With what diligence he persevered in it,
till at last the 10th plague found Moses unmoved, ready to conduct the
people away to the Red Sea and to bring them out into the wilderness!
O servants of God, be calm and confident! Go on preaching the Gospel!
Go on teaching in the Sunday school! Go on giving away tracts! Go on
with steady perseverance! Be sure of this–you shall not labor in vain
or spend your strength for nothing! Do you still stutter? Are you still
slow of speech? Nevertheless, go on! Have you been rebuked and
rebuffed? Have you had little else but defeat? This is the way to
success! You shall pave the road with the rough flints of your failure!
Toil on and believe on! Be steadfast in your confidence, for with an
high hand and an outstretched arm the Lord will fetch out His elect and
He will fetch some of them out by jou! Only trust in the Lord and hold
on the even tenor of your way!
III. Our last word is upon THE POWER OF GOD. Without the power of God
the voice of man would have been an utter failure. What effect was
produced by the voice of Moses? Went there not forth with it a power
which plagued Pharaoh? It filled the sinful land of Egypt with plagues!
So men that preach God's Gospel with God's power fill the world with
plagues. "I know that," a man says. "I wish I had never listened to
that fellow. I could not sleep last night." No, the frogs were his
bedchamber! The true preacher finds his hearer sometimes saying, "I
will never go again. Wherever I am, I seem to be haunted and tormented
with the Truth of God that man has spoken so badly and so boldly. The
commands he enforces run counter to the prejudices I cherish! They
alarm my conscience and worry me incessantly."
Yes, he has made a simple sermon bring forth all manner of
flies–thoughts that will sting a man wherever he goes and he cannot
escape from them! He still kicks and strives against the Gospel–rebels
against it, won't have it–gets angry; goes to the theater one night;
joins in a little social revelry another night, but to no purpose. He
does not enjoy anything! He scarcely knows why. Soon a thick darkness
comes over the whole scene of life, as the darkness came over all the
land of Egypt. All that was beautiful and brilliant is now obscured.
All that was pleasant and joyous is now eclipsed. The man finds that he
does not even enjoy the ordinary comforts of life! He does not know
why. He does not intend to yield to the Gospel, yet his very bread
seems sour and the water he draws from the well is brackish and bitter.
His troubles multiply and follow one another in quick succession. Now a
hail storm that leaves desolation behind! Then a grievous disease among
the cattle. The hand of the Lord is not confined to the farm. It will
visit your home. His terrible judgment reaches your family, your
fondest love, your firstborn son. As of old there was a cry going up in
the land of Egypt so that it was intolerable to stay there, so God lays
bare His arm in the exceedingly great plagues which His terrible Law
brings upon a man! When He means to fetch him out and bring him to
Himself, God's servants become the harbingers of plagues! Jesus Himself
said, "I came not to send peace on the earth, but a sword."
That sword is unsheathed and families are divided against each other
with the grand intent that Israel should be brought out and peace
established by the Redemption which Jehovah has provided. What will
occur, by-and-by? Why, the oppressor will be glad to part with his
bondmen. It sometimes happens that the ungodly become very glad to get
rid of God's chosen people whom they are prone to persecute. "Their
melancholy ill agrees with our liveliness," so they say. They did all
they could to invite them to their parties and get them into their
frivolities again–they laid traps for them to keep them away from
hearing the Gospel–but now the Lord has begun to deal with them!
Their old companions say, "Now we must leave him." "I have tried all I
could to get our old comrade back to our old parties," says one, "but,
really, he said such things that he quite poisoned all our pleasures.
We could not enjoy ourselves! I say, let us get rid of him. Do not let
him be in our company any more." Yes, it is a grand thing when the
preaching of the Gospel makes the ungodly want to keep the converts
away from their cliques–when they say, "Oh, go off to the Tabernacle!
We do not want you here. You have pestered us enough with your
religion, your prayers, your crying, your tears, your talk about being
lost and your needing to find a Savior! You are bad company and you had
better be gone."
A lady who joined this Church some years ago, moving in the higher
circles of society, said to me, "I was quite willing to continue my
acquaintance with my friends, but I found they gave me the cold
shoulder and did not want me." Just so. It is a great mercy when the
Egyptians say, "Get you gone," and when they are ready to give you
jewels of silver and jewels of gold to get rid of you! The Lord wants
His people to come right out and to be separate! He knows how to, by
the simple utterance of the Gospel, put such a division between His
people and those who are not His people, that even the ungodly shall
begin to say, "Get you gone! We want to have nothing further to do with
you!" Glory be to God when such a thing as that happens!
And the Lord knows how to make all opposition cease, for it is written
that when Israel came out of Egypt, not so much as a dog moved his
tongue against the children of Israel. Before, they were such slaves
that if a cur barked at them they dared not turn against it, for fear
it should be the dog of an Egyptian who would be surely down upon them
for meddling with his dog. How dare a slave do that? Everybody was
against them. But when the Lord brought them out, there was not a dog
that dared bark that night! The Egyptians were all anxious that they
should be gone and willing that they should go. And Pharaoh, too, must
have astonished his subjects with his sudden zeal to see this strange
people gone. Do you know what that means?
Oh, what fights and battles; what wars and strife there were in my soul
when I was trying to find Christ! My old sins came up against me! My
memory unearthed buried trespasses–faults and failings gathered in
force like a flood and threatened to overwhelm me. Everything in my
constant studies and in my daily experiences seemed to drive me back
from Christ. But on that memorable Sabbath morning when I heard the
word, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth," I
did look and lo, against me not a dog did move his tongue! My sins did
not complain! They were drowned in the Red Sea of Jesus' blood! My old
corruptions–I did not know at the time that I had any–they were so
very quiet! Temptations ceased to trouble me!
For that little while, at any rate, the warrior seemed to sheathe his
sword and the brick maker laid down his clay to go out of Egypt with
jewels of silver and jewels of gold! I could sing unto the Lord, for He
had triumphed gloriously! I have met some of these old Egyptians since
then–a good number of them–and I have had some hard dealings with
them. But, at that time, all was still and quiet, happy and blessed–
"Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away!" With the Paschal Lamb in our mouths
nobody dares to challenge us. The blood on the door is an unanswerable
answer to every accuser, caviler, or adversary! Glory be to God, then,
who thus can fetch out His people and deliver them from their sins,
their lusts, their habits, their passions–deliver them from
death–deliver them from going down into the Pit and so deliver them
that none shall lay anything to their charge, since God has justified
them and Christ has absolved them!
May the Lord grant us Grace to be used as His instruments as Moses was.
And may we, each one of us, cry unto the Lord if we are in bondage,
just as Israel did in Egypt! May the Lord in mercy send forth
concerning every poor sinner here just such a message as He sent
concerning His people in the house of bondage–"Thus says the Lord, Let
My son go, that he may serve Me." If He will thus work among us as in
the olden times, to Him shall be the glory now at this present, yes,
and forevermore. Amen!