Amen
All right. Well, we we finished
Through the book of Genesis
It's not really a book by book as much as an overview of the Bible
But Genesis really needs to be covered almost chapter by chapter. I mean, it's kind of like
Big part of history now when we get to the book of Exodus
Obviously, we know where we're headed into we're talking about you know, the people leaving the land of Egypt
We're gonna go through a lot of things and so what I'm gonna do the next two weeks is I'm gonna draw some parallel
parallelism before
We decide to go into the details of Exodus because we're not gonna go chapter by chapter. We're gonna spend a lot of time
I'm just going to focus on the really big stories, the really cool stories.
Exodus has got a lot of great stories, right?
Obviously, we've got the Ten Plagues, we've got the Crossing of the Red Sea, we've got
to talk, you know, God talking out of a fiery bush.
I mean, there's just so much to unpack, and so I want to really spend time on that without
having to draw all the foreshadowing and all the prophetic things.
I'll just cover those as an overview, and so the title of the sermon this afternoon
a carnal shadow of a spiritual reality exodus a carnal shadow of a spiritual reality and what
i'm going to do is parallel the book of exodus to the book of acts it just works out that i
were going through the book of acts on wednesday and so it's top of mind and if there's something
to be said about the book of exodus is it's a very uh parallel book it's not an exact parallel
but we see a lot of similarities right and so we we just read the first
chapter in the book of Exodus. We see that now all of Joseph and basically all of his generation
have passed and the children of Israel have waxed great but with that comes a new king,
one that doesn't know Joseph, he doesn't know their history and he's threatened by them.
And I mean if you think about it from the you know from a perspective of even us just spiritually
because the devil is threatened by the fact that not only is he damned to hell but he wants to
drag as many as possible and who is the threat to to his plan we the ones that are saved right
and so that's really what we're going to take a look at and we're going to focus on so I only
have five quick points for you today this or this afternoon and the first point I want you to go
you're there and exit is one and just stay there but the first point that I have for you this uh
this afternoon is that
In the book of Exodus, what are they freed from?
They're freed from bondage, right?
They have liberty in Joseph.
Joseph represents as a foreshadow of Christ.
But then they immediately go into bondage with the new king.
And now who's the new foreshadow?
Or who's the new shadow that's going to come on the scene?
Moses is the one who's going to liberate them from not only the famines
and all the things that they had to go through to get to Egypt.
but from the oppression that they're going to be receiving from the new Pharaoh, the new king,
right? And if we look at the book of Acts, what's really the book of Acts is after Jesus
is risen from the dead, and what do we emphasize? Liberty and who? In Christ, right? And I mean,
you've got to do, you know, one of the things that's so great about the Bible and one of the
exercises that I think is important to do is that we need to spend time getting clarification in
The challenges in churches today comes from the fact that they either want to focus on one or the other
And they want to pretend or act like they're two separate entities when really it's the same
It's the same story. It's the same plan
It's just executed differently in the Old Testament. Jesus hasn't shown up on the scene in the New Testament
He does away with the Old Covenant. He's the New Covenant. He's the New Testament
It's a better testament and a lot of people want to focus especially false religions
They like to spend a lot of time where in the Old Testament.
And look, I love to spend time in the Old Testament just as much as anybody, but only
to clarify the things that I didn't get until I got into the New Testament.
And actually the Old Testament is great to read once you have liberty in Christ because
you see salvation everywhere.
You go to the book of Hebrews and you go to the Hall of Faith and you see Moses, he's
got a big chunk.
As a matter of fact, all the Old Testament saints have a big chunk, Abraham and Moses
Because of the fact that they knew who Christ the Redeemer, right?
So you're there in Exodus one and in verse nine it says
And he said unto the people behold the people of children of israel are more and mightier than we
Come and let us deal wisely with them lest they multiply and come to pass
When their fall falleth out any war they join us also into our enemies and fight against us and so get them up out of the land
Therefore they did set over them the taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens and they built for Pharaoh treasures cities
Pit them and Ramses, but the more they afflicted them. What do we see in the New Testament the more they persecuted them, right?
The more they multiplied and grew and they were grieved because of the children of Israel and the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with Rigger.
Rigger means like really hard extraneous work and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and in brick and all manner of service in the field.
All their service when they made them serve was with Rigger.
that oppression is going to become strong again. Right now it seems like the world's opened up
and we live in a, in a, like a more free world, but it's only going to be free until you decide,
you know, one day it's going to be only free to those that are willing to bow the knee to some
It's the first time in history. You know, I really don't care where you stand on your political stance
But I mean I followed it long enough to know now that's for the first time in history
This president's kind of different than all the other ones
Right. He's going after his enemies with the power. He's he's he's implementing things. He's got a corporate structure behind him
It's definitely, you know, not the same
Environment not the same feeling because what it is is it's all based on what bias
It's not a Republican or Democrat bias, it's Trump bias is whatever Trump decides to do.
And so we see these things now before I get too, too further too further along, let me
just give you the definition.
It's always like doing this whenever I can that word Exodus.
What does it mean?
You know, it's just a going out, right?
A departure or an immigration usually a large number of people a couple of weeks ago I preached
on the status, your immigration status in light of the Bible.
What is exodus? It's an emigration, right? You're you're leaving to emigrate somewhere else, right?
The exodus or the departure of the Israelites from Egypt under Moses the second book of the Bible containing a count of exodus and
Really, all it is is that word
It's from a Greek word exodus a going out or marching out equivalent to that that prefix
EX which is out of and all those which is way so it's out of the way, you know, and that's really what God's doing
here. Go over to John 8. Go over to John 8. And in this first point, we have freedom,
freed from bondage and spiritual liberty. And we that we're there in John 8. And in verse 34,
the Bible says, well, actually, I think it's verse 31, sorry, verse 31, the Bible says,
If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed.
And this is that famous set of scripture where he says,
the truth shall make you free, right?
And then after this he says,
and ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free.
They answered him, we be Abraham seed,
and we're never in bondage to any man.
How says thou ye shall be made free?
Which is interesting, right?
Because isn't that what they were bondage to is in, you know, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph goes in and then they're bondage to Pharaoh.
So they're already lying, or they're just ignorant.
And then we see in verse 34 says, Jesus answered them,
Barely, barely I sinned to you.
Whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin, and the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the Son abideth forever.
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
And we know that in John 6 through 8, these are very polemic sermons that Christ is giving.
These are sermons that are causing a lot of antagonism. In just a few chapters before,
in John 6, literally it says, and many of his disciples went with him no more.
Because he was talking about, you know, if you eat my flesh and you drink my blood,
and they thought he was talking about it. Literally, it's interesting. I was watching this clip of this
Social media Catholic guy. I don't know if you've seen him. He's got that really deep voice. He talks like this
I don't know. He's a really young guy and he's like pro-Catholic and they were asking him specifically about this and he was talking
about how the fact that you know salvation is only through Christ, but it's through what the
The sacraments right and the date in the
the Eucharist, and he was referring to John 6, you know, even to this day, the Catholics and the false religions still take it literally.
And then they're trying to force you to do things that are, it's all works-based, it's not based on who.
The Bible says, the Son abideth forever, right?
Sin cannot abide.
Heaven the only reason we're going to heaven is why because Jesus Christ paid for our sins
Go back to Exodus by the way stay obviously keep your finger in the book of Exodus
We're gonna focus on that and and if you want to you can also just keep your finger in the book of acts
We are gonna jump back and forth between the both books, but they're in Exodus 3
In verse 7, the Bible says in the Lord said,
I have surely seen the affliction of my people,
which are in Egypt, and I've heard their cry
by reason of their taskmasters for I know their sorrows.
I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the
Out of that land onto a good land and a large and until land flowing with milk and honey and unto the places of the
Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Parasites and the Hibites and the Jebusites anytime
I read this all I think about is heaven
Right because that's really what that is a picture of right? We're strangers and pilgrims in this world. Who is our Pharaoh the world?
Anybody who hates God is our feral. They're gonna oppress us. They're gonna try to make us not preach the word of God
Right, they're gonna push us to deny that God even exists
And if we go to Acts 2 verse 37 we see a similar thing here in it in the fact that you know
We're looking for God's the one that that's seeking his people, right?
They drew night of him and he draws night of them in Acts 2 verse 37 that says now when they heard this
They were pricked in the heart and sent unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles men and brethren
What should we do and Peter just finished preaching?
You know one of the first sermons in the book of Acts
It says that Peter sent and then repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins
And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost
For the promises unto you and to your children and to all that are far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call and
With many words did he testify and exhort saying save yourselves from this untold generation?
Peter's looking at the generation is what he's saying. He's like this is a bad generation
The children of Israel were in in Egypt and you know, I guess if you wanted to ask them
They would have been like these are bad people, right? They're they're oppressing us later on in the book of Exodus
Obviously, we'll cover that in more detail. But when Moses shows up on the scene, what it what do they do? They even oppress them more. I
Mean, they're literally just pushing them down
What does that look like today? Well, that looks like it's a little bit different. It looks like, you know apathy
It looks like contemporary churches. It looks like watered-down gospel
It looks like lazy and slothful Christians not willing to do anything for the cause of Christ
It looks like, you know, patriotism and political, you know, I guess righteous indignation or whatever
I don't I don't I can't follow politics anymore. It's it's too nuts
right? I mean everybody it's just it's gotten out of hand. You don't have to turn there.
Go bet you're just staying in Exodus and actually go to Exodus 12 but in Romans 6 verse 17 the
Bible says but God be thank that you were the servants of sin but you have obeyed from the
heart that from that form of doctrine which was delivered to you being then made free from sin
Now it's interesting because when we get saved we get liberty
So why would it say we're servants of righteousness because the goal is to want to serve God?
We're not oppressed or in bondage, but we're willingly
Moving to I mean well we is a lot of people those that want to serve God are willingly
submissive to the ministry of Christ and are willingly you
Let me see. I'm kind of getting tongue-tied here. I'm getting ahead of myself, but
We are willing to go before Christ and humble ourselves and submit ourselves to whatever
commandment he has for us, which is different than being forced to do things, right?
I was listening like a funny, a comedian made a funny joke and I thought it was interesting
because this is the world we live in.
You like and I think this is a real law. He was making a joke about California. How it says California is about to pay out reparations
for slavery
You know to a bunch of people that were never slaves and it's gonna be paid out from a bunch of people who were never slaves
In a state that never had any slaves, you know, that's the world we live in right but what I'm trying to say is
Oppression will always find a way to oppress you, even in liberty.
Whereas Christ doesn't ask anything of us,
we should be willing to want to serve Christ because He is our Redeemer.
Does that make sense here?
Like when we get saved, it's our reasonable service to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you know who's not cracking the whip? Christ.
He still lets us make our own choices and fall on our face or be successful and get the rewards.
It's not like the minute you get saved you get like an email a spiritual email in your head, and it's like a task list
Welcome to heaven now. You have to do this this this and that
You know what? I'm in the digital world and whenever you buy some online program like a coaching program
They'll send you an email. Hey, welcome to this coaching program. Here's the things that you have to do do do do do
That doesn't happen. You just get saved. It's freely, but if we're gonna serve Christ
We should become the servants of righteousness
Right why are we here in church?
Nobody's forcing you to be here if you don't want to be here. Don't be here. I've said it many times
I'm not kicking anybody out
But I'm gonna serve regardless of whoever's here and what was last time I called anybody to check on them
Why they're not a church I check on people but not because they're on church or not. I remember growing up
My parents, we jumped around a couple of churches,
but the one thing that always stood out to me,
all the churches, I guess this was the thing back in the 80s,
is if we didn't show up for a while,
like the pastor would come to your house.
It kind of sit with you and he never directly called you out
But there was a reason why he was there right and the minute that he showed up
I remember remember that pastor you're shaking your head because
Nobody wanted the pastor to come to the house because you knew you were like in trouble
I remember I mean I remember like today, you know, we get that knock and my mom's like oh, no
It's a pastor and everybody's like clean the house and you know all this stuff like it's
It happened more than once like it was just it's enough that I remember it, right?
And my mom would freak out and my dad was like really annoyed like
You know like why do we have to go through this?
Don't open the door, but obviously they knew you were there because the car's there
It's not like nowadays where you could have like a ring camera be like we're not home the cars outside
But we're not home, you know, so go back to exit is 12, but
So the first point was they were freed from bondage
In Exodus we see them being freed from bondage, but it's it's what it's a parallel or a foreshadowing as us being freed from sin
We're no longer a slave to sin, but we are now servants of righteousness
the second point I have for you is that
We see what in Exodus the way that they're freed is from
You know the last plague is what the blood on the post right they kill the first child
And the blood of the lamb
Pictures what the blood of Christ in Exodus 12 verse 12 the Bible says for I will pass through the land of Egypt
This night and I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt both man and beast and against all the gods of Egypt
I will execute judgment. I am the Lord
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses wherein you are and when I see the blood
I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt and
This day shall be unto you for a memorial and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations
You shall keep it a feet feast by an ordinance forever
And so we see what do we see the blood of Jesus Christ, right? That's a picture of the Bible says
that he is the Lamb of God, that's a perfect picture of salvation because all those people
in those houses got saved not because of their works, but because of the blood.
I mean that's literally one of the greatest pictures of salvation.
I don't know how you can read the Old Testament and think anything else.
Literally it's like, A, if I see the blood, you won't get killed, but if I don't see it,
There's no resume. There's no works. There's nothing, you know, it's not like the destroyer came by
He sees the blood still knocks on the door. It's like hey
Can I get your resume of all the good works and bad works that you've done? You know, have you been good or bad?
It's not Santa Claus
It's the destroyer
right
One day, people are going to be judged, and there's going to be two judgments, and the Bible says, you know, for us, it's a good thing when we're not in the second judgment.
When the sea gives up the dead, you know, and they're cast into the lake of fire and brimstone forever and ever.
I mean, that's the serious thing. Go back to Acts 20 real quick.
Go back to Acts 20, and we see this.
What's one of the overpowering themes of the book of Acts is all the people that are preaching you get Peter to preach you get
Steven to preach you get Paul to preach and they keep going through what the gospel you guys killed Jesus
You slayed him on the cross you gave him up. You killed the son of God
It's because of you you guys murdered him you wanted to get rid of him because of him we preached Jesus
We testified Jesus. They're just kind of they're basically repeating
the story all over again. In Acts 20 verse 26, the Bible says,
Wherefore, I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God, take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood.
You know, I think I saw something I guess John MacArthur, you know, we all got old and John MacArthur got old
and he's talking about how he's coming to the end of his life and
He better enjoy whatever little life he has left because John MacArthur is going to hell
You know why because he denies the one thing the blood
The Bible talks about the blood and he literally, he, I mean, he is a strong proponent almost
all in the entire ministry of denying the blood of Jesus Christ.
I mean, the Bible literally says he purchased us with his own blood and he's like, you
don't need the blood.
Jesus Christ. The blood has nothing to do with salvation. So so I guess you didn't read the book of Exodus and then you just didn't correlate it later
I mean just doesn't even make any sense to you go back to Exodus
But in 1st Corinthians 5 or 7 the Bible says perch out therefore the old leaven that you may be a new lump
As you are unleavened for even Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us.
Therefore, let us keep the feast not with old leaven,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
That's why when we celebrate the Lord's Supper,
we're careful about who celebrates it.
It's a serious thing.
I'm not today. I'm not you know tonight or this afternoon
I'm not gonna scare you to hell or to you know the fact that you God could come after you already did that this morning
But I will remind you it is a serious thing to mess with God
Right. I mean Pharaoh messed with him so much that he ended up going through all the 10 plagues
He didn't I mean and that's other that's a good
Illustration of someone who just doesn't want to get right with God, you know, sometimes we're a little bit too
sympathetic like we we care more than Christ and I mean I'm saying that
Physicially right if the Bible makes it clear that someone is showing indicators of
Someone who's hardening their heart for God and yet we keep wanting to show them grace
then we're also in sin, because God shows grace until he does it.
I mean, Pharaoh, like, he gave him nine chances and the guys just make him getting worse every time, you know what I'm saying?
Go to Acts 14 and the third point I have for you, so the first thing is, we're freed.
From our spiritual liberty and in Exodus. What are they freed from slavery from bondage?
That's a that's the picture we see there the second thing is in the you know
They're obviously spared by the blood of the lamb
Which is literally a picture of the blood the lamb of God, which is Jesus Christ, right?
His blood is what saves us
And by the way, they understood this, they had enough knowledge, especially with the
leader they had, which was Moses.
The Bible makes it clear that Moses knew what salvation was.
So they knew, they understood who Moses was, and they understood what that blood meant.
It wasn't just sparing them from Pharaoh, it was sparing them from a spiritual condemnation.
They did know that you read that. That's why you I love the New Testament clearing up the old and then the third point is
You know, we see baptism in the Old Testament the baptism of the Red Sea
Obviously no picture of the Old Testament is perfect to the New Testament
But in the New Testament we in especially in the book of Acts
What do we see the baptism of the Holy Ghost, right?
We go to Exodus 14 verse 21 the Bible says in Moses stretched out his hand over the sea
the Lord cost the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night and made the sea dry land and
the waters were divided and the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground and
The waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left, which is one of the coolest store
I mean, I remember being a kid and
reading about the part of the Red Sea
I mean when you're a kid and your imagination goes wild, that's that's just a cool story
That's why I don't want to that's why I want to spend some time in those
Because I mean that's just a cool story and you know, I've got my kids here. I want them to learn it well, too
I might even I might even have my do we still have that I know you're who gave it to you the little felt thing
The little felt board. That's how I learned it. Do you who remembers those you did you guys do that pester cob?
Yeah, I know a little already you guys did the little felt
You know remember you would put that on the little felt board and they would stick
Did you do that sister Linda?
You know, okay, so I think a lot of churches in the 80s did it was a pretty popular thing because you know there was no iPads kids
We didn't even have internet when we were growing up. Just so you know go to acts to
Go to acts to and they're in verse one and we're gonna jump to acts 19 as well, but in acts to verse one
The Bible says and when the day of Pentecost was fully come
They were all with one accord in one place and suddenly it came a sound from heaven as a
Rushing mighty wind. Well, what did God do in the Old Testament with a mighty wind?
He split the retzi right and it filled the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them close
Cloven tongues like as fire and it sat upon each of them
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance
If you go down to verse 38 the Bible says then Peter said unto them repent
And be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins
And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. I know we just saw that but it's worth repeating
Go over to Acts 19. I'll give you a second to get there since you're already in the book of Acts
Sorry about that an act 19 in verse 2 said he said unto them have you received the holy ghost since he believed
This is Paul talking to some believers
And they said unto and we have not so much as heard whether there be any holy ghost
And he said unto them unto what then were you baptized and they said unto John's baptism
Which proves that if you were dunked without the Holy Spirit, you know what you were just dunked
I went through all of it right as a baby. I was sprinkled as a Catholic
I have pictures of my baptism or so-called assignment of baptism. It's a sprinkling and then when I was 15
I took the six-month course as a seventh-day Adventist and then I was baptized as an Adventist
And then it wasn't till I actually got saved that I actually got baptized at the age of 25
So I wish I would have had so the other time at least I would have gotten clean right on the outside
But and then in verse 3 verse 4 says then said Paul
John barely baptized with the baptism of repentance saying unto the people that ye should believe
on him which should come after him that is on Christ Jesus.
When they heard this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and when Paul had
laid his hands upon them the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake with tongues and prophesied.
And where are they, you know, when they're exiting where are they going?
where people don't speak necessarily their language they don't have their customs
in the book of Exodus so really quick we're freed from bondage just like they're free from bondage
right they were freed from bondage we have the blood of the lamb which pictures what the blood of
Christ we have the baptism of the Red Sea which pictures what the baptism of the Holy Ghost in
the book of Acts and then the fourth point I have for you is they received the law at Mount Sinai
And obviously in the book of Acts they received what the Holy Ghost and what did Jesus come to do?
He came to fulfill both the law and the prophets see just because the law doesn't apply to us
Doesn't mean the law doesn't exist. Those are two different things, right?
We're above the law in the sense that Christ paid for our sins
I mean obviously if that law was to be enacted in our life, we would deserve what hell
But that doesn't negate the fact that the law still exists for us to follow
I know, I know it doesn't make a lot of sense, but you know, you just, just look at, obviously
this is not a corruption.
I'm just making an example of what it's like, but there are people that have influence and
power in the world, right?
And some things don't apply to them.
I mean, it's just, let's be honest, Trump, I mean, the guy's literally been to every
Right he he has influence and power and they figured it out whether whether he actually legally came out on top or not
You know, I don't know all the details, but it seems like he's above the law, right?
But with us, the nice thing about us is we're free from the law, but you know what?
We're not above the law. There is a difference because that's where God doesn't allow you to corrupt.
He's gonna chastise us on this earth, but when we go to heaven, obviously, it's gonna, we're not gonna sin anymore.
But here on this earth, you're not getting away with it, right?
I mean, I preached on that earlier this morning, but even as chastisement, we don't get away
with just lying and cheating and fornicating and adultery and all these things.
But it's, it's a chastisement instead of a punishment.
I mean, he could chastise you to death, but it's not like you're going to hell, right?
And go to Exodus 19, go to Exodus 19.
So, you know, right here it says after they they had come out, it says,
in the third month when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt,
the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
For they were departed from refudim and were come to the desert of Zinai and had pitched in the wilderness and there
Israel camped before the mount and Moses went up unto God and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain saying now
She'll say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel
You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagles wings brought you out unto myself
unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice, indeed, and keep my covenant, then
ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine." So
there's a difference, right? They've been redeemed, removed from Egypt.
But in order to be peculiar, what is required of them?
To keep the covenant, they obey his voice,
to keep his commandments.
In verse six, it says,
and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation, which the book of Revelation backs.
It says that we are spiritual priests
and kings in a holy nation.
These are the words which thou shall speak
unto the children of Israel.
So it's not like they just got a free pass.
He's just like I'm just taking care of you
But if you want to be peculiar if you want to have better things
Then you must do what I say
Right. We become servants to righteousness
and I mean honestly
The more that I read my Bible and the more that you know, we as a family I guess or individually
Let me just speak for myself, but obviously I'm the leader of my house
So our house has to do what I say, but personally
Like the more you just try to follow Christ the better it is. It really is better
Right. Why wouldn't you want to do the things that Christ has asked? I live, you know, I didn't
If you're young right now because I know there's some kids but also some young people if you're young right now
You don't have to try the things of the world to know it's bad. I know I mentioned that earlier, but I think it's a very important point
You know if I could go back and do it again people say oh you shouldn't have any regrets no regrets, right?
I remember when we were young we would say stupid stuff like that. Oh, no, I have regrets
There's a lot of things that I shouldn't have done as a young man, right?
Like just that's why David says Lord help me not remember the sins of my youth
I don't but and the reason is because we just either you didn't know better
You didn't have the opportunity or when you had the opportunity you didn't submit
Right, thank God that he had showed grace and that the gospel was presented more times than one to me because it didn't take the first time
Right and the thing is it's way better to just live for Christ and not experience any of the consequences of living
Against the law. I mean, it's just it just is
You know, I can tell you from experience that drinking sucks
But there's people that are better than me that can tell you from the Bible that drinking sucks and you know what?
We're both right. It's just one had didn't have to experience it
They didn't have to have those stupid nights. They didn't have to go through all that stupid stuff
They could just tell you from the Bible and both of you know
And that's the thing the world tries to like make you the only way you're really cool is if you're one of them, right?
Remember that maybe some of you didn't but
you know, growing up in school, like, who are the cool guys,
like the thugs or the bad guys, and the only way you could
really hang out with them is if they thought you were on their
level. And what did that mean? That you had to have some kind
of rough life with them. Thank God, I mean, my dad was always
a really good about that. He's like, why are you trying to be
like that? Like, why are you trying to be an idiot? You know,
those guys are have nothing to prove they're a bunch of losers.
But when you're young, losers seem cool. You know why? Because
you're just not smart enough to realize you're dealing with a
bunch of losers.
Half those guys probably never became anything, and the other half probably are dead.
And so we need to, you know, live not only in the Spirit,
but with that Spirit serve unto righteousness and obey the law.
If we go to Acts 2, and you know, just, you don't have to turn there out because we've already read these,
but they were filled, and we already read Acts 2 verse 1 through 4,
where they were filled with the Holy Ghost, right, because they received the Holy Ghost.
Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets.
But you know the thing about it is
just cause you have the spirit,
doesn't mean you're enacting the spirit.
You're not activating the spirit.
You know in first John or second,
one of the little John's,
it talks about how we can't sin anymore,
but our flesh does all the time.
Right, so it's better to just live in the spirit because in the spirit, you know, you're not going to commit sin
It's impossible for me to commit sin when I'm in the things of the spirit
You know, if I really prepare well and I'm not going to tell you when when that happens because I'm not going to play God
But I know that there are times when I prepare well and from behind the pulpit
I would say most of the time, you know, because I really diligently try not to like let things get in the way
I'm not sinning
I wouldn't say that's 100% of the time because I mean, there's just times when you just you're not on all cylinders, right?
Maybe your brain's going so much, especially my brain. I have the ability. I don't know if that's a
Particular thing to me or maybe all people can do that. They like to preach
But sometimes I'm preaching and I'm thinking like four or five different things back here, which is horrible
You know, that's why sometimes you see me jump around. I've tried to get better about it
But at some point you're just gonna accept the fact that that's just who I am
I mean, I'm just I don't know how to change everything about myself, right?
Go to go to go back to or actually go to the book of Deuteronomy.
I'm going to start closing this thing out.
But Jeremiah 31 verse 33, the Bible says,
but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.
After those days, sayeth the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts
and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people.
Look, the law is already written in our hearts.
That's why when you hear these idiots like oh, you know, what's morality?
I think morality is subjective and blah blah blah, but then you know
You ever see those like those debates and then somebody there's always the one guy that asks like the really
prominent question which is
Well, you know then who decides what murder is well murder is just universal
It's it's universal know that murdered wrong. So then there then there is a base of morality. Well. Yeah, but it's still subject
Okay, well, then I'm just done with this kind, you know kind of that's the thing
Why do we know that murder is wrong?
Because God placed it in our hearts. How do our children know?
First of all, how do our children know when they lie or when they committed, you know, the first says right?
Usually it's a lie or a deception. How do our children know that they're doing that if nobody's taught them?
Well, number one, they're sinners, but how do they know to recognize that they're committing this sin?
Because the law of good and evil, you know, it's in our hearts.
Right. Yeah, we're nobody taught my kids to sin, but nobody taught my kids also to recognize that that was bad
right like I remember the first have you ever been the best one is like a toddler they're they're starting to make that transition
You know about three or four depending on the age and the child of course
It could be five to six, but they're starting to make that transition from you know, just
Babies that you know spit up food and drop stuff and throw tantrums to like now. They're willingly
Doing that stuff. You ever catch them like you walk into the room
You're like hey, and they're like you ever see that you know like they're all so they're like that you caught them
All right, or the other one is now they're a little bit older and you walk into the room
to do something else, like maybe it happens with my kids,
they'll be in my room, now they're older,
so they don't do that, now they recognize it differently,
but when they start to recognize that,
and you walk into the room, maybe you're doing chores
or something, you're in and out in the kitchen of the room,
and you walk in, they're like, I wasn't doing anything,
you're like, I didn't even ask you,
what do you mean you weren't doing anything?
Now I want to know, what is the thing
that you weren't doing, right?
Have you ever had kids just give it up?
You're like, okay, wait a second here.
Let's investigate a little bit brother. Yeah, they just give themselves away
And so it's just like why do they know that because it's already written in their hearts
They understand these things. It's not like we have to have this long
I mean obviously a lifetime we want to read the Bible, but the basics are there
You know if a child saw someone get murdered they would understand what murder is even if nobody explained it to them
I mean, I hope that no children go through that, but that's life. You know, some people have witnessed that
And so it's just it's just interesting the fifth and final point I have for you today, and then I'll conclude is
We see and this is not truly an exodus
This is more of overview, but it has to carry over to the rest of the Bible, right?
We see that Israel is in the wilderness and where they headed to the promised land
Right 40 years in the wilderness straight into the promised land milk and honey
And what is that?
Us, we're in the wilderness the rest of our lives
the minute we get saved.
The minute we get saved, we get thrown into the desert.
It's a spiritual desert.
You know, I love that we have people at our church
for the main reason that sometimes
it's hard to be in a spiritual desert.
You know, I mean, I told you this
when some of you guys first showed up
and I'll tell it to whoever's here, you know, in the future,
I'll preach.
until I'm blue in the face, even if there's only me and my wife and my family.
But I'm not going to lie, when I was preaching to me and my wife and my kids,
it was a little bit of a spiritual desert.
It's just a little bit tougher to get excited about the word of God
when you're just preaching to a handful of people
as when you're preaching to a lot of people.
Not that it's impossible, but it's just tougher, right? I mean the children of Israel
That's why I like Joshua and Caleb's attitude. They're like, we're tired of this wilderness. Let's go take this
Let's go get that milk and honey and everybody else was just cowering in fear
right so go over to
Go over to Deuteronomy
So the book of Exodus
Israel wonders for 40 years
Not wonders like they're they wander. Sorry
And what is it for there? It's a testing and a refinement
And it becomes even a worse test when they fail, right?
Remember they go out and spy the land and that generation
Literally is not even allowed to go into the land until everybody dies
The only ones from the old generation that are able to go in there are Joshua
And Caleb, even Moses, because of the children of Israel, he lost his temper and struck the
rock twice.
And so even he wasn't able to go into the Promised Land.
Right?
Then they go into the Promised Land and then go to Deuteronomy, you're in chapter 8, Deuteronomy
8.
All the commandments which I command thee this day, show ye observed to do,
that ye may live and multiply and go in and possess the language the Lord swear unto your fathers.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years,
in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart,
whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no.
Nothing's changed.
Our spiritual wilderness is to what so the Lord knows what what's in our heart to humble us to prove us
The Bible says that we use the Bible the word have got to reproof to rebuke to exhort
God wants to know we'll keep his commandments if you love me you keep my commandments, right?
In Joshua, I just go back a few chapters Genesis X. I mean a Deuteronomy
John Genesis X is Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy. Oh, no, Joshua. Go forward. I'm sorry
In Joshua one
In verse two, I mean, verse one, the Bible says,
now after the death of Moses,
the servant of the Lord,
it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua,
the son of none, Moses minister, saying,
Moses, my servant is dead,
now therefore rise, go over this Jordan,
thou and all this people unto the land,
which I do give to them,
even to the children of Israel,
every place that the soul of your foot shall tread upon,
that I have given unto you as I said unto Moses.
What is that picture?
Well, we know that they already had the victory.
We know that they were going into the promised land.
The only people who could screw that thing up was them.
And you know what?
They screwed it up, right?
I mean, they literally messed it up.
They made a, you know, what is it?
They made an allegiance with a group of people because they didn't discern right, they didn't
seek the Lord's guidance.
But anyways, they end up messing all this up.
But what is it a picture of?
It's a picture of us leading others to Christ.
The victories already are literally Jesus has said hey when you get saved go into the promised land and collect all these people
You know what we're doing?
We're spying out the land and we're like it looks good, but it's a little scary out there
Those guys are like giants and we're like grasshoppers
I don't know if I want to go into the hedges and the highways. It's a little hot in Houston in August
And it's humid
And I'm tired and my feet hurt my throat hurts. So maybe I just won't go out today
You know, we were always making the excuses and God's like I just want to know if you're gonna keep my commandments. I
Just want to know if you're gonna humble yourselves. I
Just want to know if you're gonna prove yourselves to me
You're like I thought salvation was free it is but you want rewards in heaven, don't you?
Most people don't even know that rewards exist because that's another point of a biblical overview is people don't even know the Bible
They don't know that you can get crowns and rewards in heaven
They think they're just idly passing by until the day they die and then
That's the ones that are saved the ones that aren't saved. I mean, I've heard some weird stuff. I
Think pastor Cobb was with me remember that time pastor when we went into that
Apartment complex and that guy told us that eternity was a hundred years
You were with me, right? I'm just like we've heard some weird stuff. I mean the guy was adamant
I was like look you're gonna live with Christ for all eternity, but the lady got saved
It was it's literally like a sitcom
It was like an old grumpy couple and the lady wanted to listen to the gospel message
I'll never forget it cuz she was really sweet
She sat us down in her apartment and the old man was being really ornery like
I mean, he was just being a jerk and he turned on the TV really loud and so I'm screaming at the lady
I'm like and the Lord, you know, I'm like for all have sin and come short of the glory
I mean, I'm preaching it now. I'm like, it's so she finally turns around. She tells them to shut it down
Okay, so he turns off the TV so we go back to preaching and everything I say
He's got like some negative thing to say and then I'm like, look, you know, the Bible says it turned in
I think I was trying to explain attorney to her and all of a sudden he's like
Eternity. Eternity is only a hundred years.
I was like, no it's not. Eternity is like forever.
Yeah, forever just means a hundred years. I'm like, never mind.
Like this guy, I mean, we've heard some interesting things.
I mean, it's just like, people are just weird.
But we need to continue to go out there because that's the enemy we're facing.
It's easy to overcome.
Right another person would have gotten up and annoyed and left that lady going to hell in a handbasket
I can't do anything about the guy that doesn't want to get saved, but she wanted to get saved. She got saved
You know when we went so it in a renosa a couple months back
I literally was giving the gospel to a young lady who was sitting next to a guy who's wearing
What do you call it a pendant right of the
You know, a pendant, like a chain pendant, and it was of the death, the saint of death,
you know, it has the sickle and everything.
And I think he had like a tattoo or a hat of death, and she wouldn't get saved because
he was there.
But you know what?
I planted the seed.
And I was like, you know, when you get home, you need to pray this.
She just wouldn't pray I couldn't get her to pray and I know why because he was there
I even called like but you know we need to be fearless
I said look if he's making you uncomfortable we could go over here and get this thing right she didn't want to do it
I know he was like a, like a low level gangster.
Like that guy's probably, I don't know if he's killed,
but he was literally, I mean, they don't wear that stuff
unless they know they're comfortable.
In Mexico, I mean, here's different,
but in Mexico, if you're wearing stuff like that,
you're obviously telegraphing that you're part
of the bad guys and people don't mess with you.
Here you have to go to the, you know,
maybe like the fifth ward and stuff
where people wear certain colors.
But in Mexico, if you're wearing it out in the open
and you're letting everybody know
that you probably aren't to be trifled with.
We just got to go out and conquer go to Acts 14 go to Acts 14, and I'll read for you Acts 1
What do we see in Acts?
In verse 1 in chapter 1 of verse 8 it says but you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you
And you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and to the utter most part of the earth
That's literally our
promise land
Heaven is not our promised land heaven's already promised. I mean we already have heaven. There's nothing to conquer
That would be a workspace salvation. Our promised land is what are we what are we conquering in heaven?
What territory are we taking over what mountain are we claiming and you know what it is? It's a spiritual mountain
It's the souls of men and women that are going to hell
You know when we when we look at a map, I've played it one time. What is that risk?
Is it where you take over when we look at a map like that?
The way we look at it is we look at it from the point of view of how many people we're gonna get saved
Worldwide right there in Acts 14 in verse 21 the Bible says and when they had preached the gospel to that city and
Had taught many they returned again into Lystra and to Econium and Antioch
Confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation
Enter into the kingdom of God
It's literally a parallel a great picture of the book of Exodus
The only way that they were going to get to the Promised Land was to go through the 10 plagues,
was to go through the 40 years of the wilderness, was to be tested and tried.
Well, the only way we're going to, you know, enjoy the rewards in heaven, not get into heaven,
but enjoy the rewards in heaven is what? Through much tribulation.
This is not literally talking about just getting saved. They're already saved.
It says we confirm the souls of the disciples.
But if we're exhorting them in the faith and you want to come into the kingdom like that, then you're gonna have to go through much tribulation
Nothing happens at random
You know the challenges you're facing right now. They might not seem especially
You know, we're friends with a lot of people who are more on the mainstream media. We're persecuted more openly
You know, one of the things that you have to be careful with is
Not to look at that and be like am I spiritual enough?
Everybody if you're serving the Lord you're sir you're you're facing some kind of spiritual attack
Just because you're not on the news or your disease is on daily mail
Doesn't mean that you're not in a spiritual battle
I preached the sermon a long time ago, right? There's different devils for different levels. I
Don't know what level you're in. I
Don't know what level I mean. I mean I might have an idea, but honestly ultimately we don't know the full extent of it
I mean, we know that because even Abraham didn't know where he was headed. God said like leave. Just follow me
We have to just walk by faith. It's a blind faith, right? We're blinded by the light of Christ
And he's just that's the only path we see
So in conclusion, you don't have to turn there. I have one more verse for you
but in conclusion
Exodus is great. We're gonna next week. We're gonna see we're gonna focus on Moses and then we'll go through the book of Exodus
But I wanted to make sure we covered these main themes, right?
They're in bondage and it's a picture of being freed from sin
right
Also, the blood of the lamb or the blood on the post is a picture of what the blood of Christ
And we need to understand these things because there is an attack on these on these doctrines
I mean, today churches act like, you know, just because you're freed from, you know,
because Christ paid for you, that all of a sudden all of a sudden is available to you.
Today you go to a contemporary church and there's people that are like two or three
times divorced and their ex-wife and their ex-wife and their ex-wife are sitting in
the pews next to them.
And they got all the other kids scattered all over, you know, and I'm not picking. I mean one thing is getting divorced and
Repenting one thing is fornicating or committing adultery pending. The other thing is just like openly just keep showing up
though, I'm not
Because I know we're all sinners. There's people in here that have drank. There's people in here that have lived heavy lives
Maybe there's people that have done worse things
But we're not seeing them openly, but you go to I mean you go to these churches and it's like a free
They look just like the world
You know, it's the modern family, right? You got the stepdad and dad the biological dad
In the same, you know, pulpit. They're all praising God. Nobody's repented of anything
This is a free-for-all
Preacher preaches against you know, not drinking knowing that this weekend all his main deacons are gonna go drinking for the basketball game
Or the football, I mean they know this stuff openly. It's not even they're not even hiding it
You guys guys that are like having drug problems, they know that there's a corrupt business owner
Nobody says anything because you don't want to tip-toe on those tides
That's right
Then you got the baptism and then now baptism is a joke too. You go to a contemporary church and they have baptism parties
You ever seen those videos like they're they fill up all these pools
And everybody's just like baptizing people and everybody, you know, they got all the lights and music going everybody's clapping
I mean, I'm all for baptism, but it the Bible makes it quick. It's not even a party. It's like hey
It's 12 o'clock Jailer
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved in thy house
And then what they do after that baptize them
Nobody was there for the party. It was just quick quick and nimble. Let's get it done
And then they received the Holy Spirit, but they also kept the law, you know, God's testing us
And then we are once we're saved. We're basically in a spiritual wilderness
Waiting to get to heaven
And the land that we're supposed to conquer or the equivalent to conquering land is conquering souls.
Our battle is not to get to heaven. Heaven's already ours.
There's nothing to be won there. That territory could never be conquered because it's already owned by God Almighty.
The only access we have is through who? Jesus Christ.
But man, I like to show up with some sheaves.
Right like the hymn says we're bringing in the sheaves. I like to show up with some sheaves as we go into heaven
I like to say Lord we conquered here and we conquered there and we went over there and we conquered here
And when I was old I took that mountain
Right
So Exodus shows us you know God's physical deliverance, but acts reveals God's spiritual fulfillment
in Christ and the church, and just as Israel needed to trust and obey Moses,
who do we need to trust? Trust and obey Christ.
And technically, they trusted Moses because Moses trusted who?
Christ. We know that because
Hebrews tells us that. I'll close out with this in Philippians 1 verse 6. We know
the verse, so you don't have, I mean,
I hope you know the verse.
Being confident of this very thing that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ
We should remember that he's the one that begun a good work in us
So if we don't have good works, it's because we're being a stumbling block to our own spiritual growth. We're what is it?
Oh man, the word just left me
We're grieving the Holy Spirit
Sorry
Don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Don't be a stumbly block to yourself. I mean, there's already enough temptation out there
You don't need to help that along. I
Mean the literally the minute you walk out this door
You're like bombarded with just all the junk in the world. I was watching this one clip. I
guess
Politics is so funny. I get there was like a
you know, one of the committees up in Washington and
I guess the guy who's leading is a Republican and he's like I want to recognize
The congressman or the senator of such-as-such state mr.. So-and-so
And so then the other guy sitting next to him was mad because he wouldn't introduce him by his tranny name
In other words misses whatever and he said well
It's already been settled at the at the highest level or what not it you know, I'm watching this
Like it's we're just exposed to it all the time. I didn't even mean to watch it. It's just like on I don't remember if it was on you
like, you know
You watch like if even if you're watching just some general stuff like I could be watching a video on
I don't know how to use a certain software and if it ends and you don't click it quick enough
It auto plays into the next thing and the next thing doesn't have anything to do with the thing you're watching. It's just like
Right, you could you could be driving down and you got billboards with half-naked women and men and all kinds of
promotion of alcohol and drugs and
Disgusting stuff. I mean, I literally saw just a few months ago
a billboard
Promoting I guess some medicine for HIV and what was it promoting two queers two fags like nobody wants to see that how
People say oh, you should expose your children to that. No, I want them to know what's up because they're gonna see it anyways
Well, you shouldn't say queers. In fact, they're saying it
If you where do we not my kids already know we don't go to Target in June we don't go to
Charles fermented cheese Chucky cheese. I just thought that's what I call it Charles fermented cheese
We don't go to Chucky cheese. I mean it's fermented milk. Sorry Charles fermented milk
We don't go to Charles fermented milk in October because it's Halloween
Like there's certain things we just don't do and they're like why don't we do them?
Obviously, we're not going to go into graphic details, but we have to explain to them. There's sick wicked people out there
Because it's already there I don't I don't even have to try
Right, so anyways as we get into the book of Exodus and the rest of the the Bible
It's important to set these things up next week. We'll actually see the parallelism. Sorry between Christ and Moses
Then once we do that, we'll go through all the cool stuff in the Bible. So hopefully you guys are here
I know kids love kids love my my my sons obsessed with Egypt now because we've already gone through Exodus once and he thinks
It's just you know kids love, you know the 10 plagues and crossing of the Red Sea
Turning blood into the water into blood, you know all that cool stuff. So let's close in order prayer. Heavenly Father Lord
Thank you so much for today. Thank you for your blessings
Thank you for the Old Testament Lord
That it clears up
So many things in the New Testament and that the New Testament clears up a lot of the things in the Old Testament
Lord and that it all just is
is so
intricately weaved
that's so well presented Lord and
in addition to the fact that it also proves that this is a righteous book
To have so many authors over so many periods of time in so many different regions and all preach the same truth
It has to be from you
No other literature in the world. No other book or set of books or volumes has this
Accuracy and so we're grateful Lord for the Bible. We're grateful for the lessons in it
And we're grateful for your son Jesus Christ Lord
Help us to have a great week and help us to enjoy the the nice weather until it's not nice anymore in Jesus name
We pray amen