The Greatest Stories Ever Told

We know everyone has an idea and an opinion on something, right? But it didn't even make back in the movie theaters what it cost to produce the movie. But the title has stuck with us. And when we think about the greatest story ever told, we think about Jesus Christ, because indeed He is. If I can use that term story, and I hate to use the word story, but I couldn't come up with another word, it's the greatest truth ever told, it's the greatest life ever told, that it was ever lived. And He did change the world. And at this time of the year, we think about that. We think about it all the time.

Jesus Christ always should be at the forefront of our mind, because He's the reason we're here, He's the reason we have hope, He's the reason that we are anything or have any future ahead of us. But at this time of year, we rehearse and we go back and we look at His life, we think about what He did, we examine ourselves in light of what He did. And it is a story, but you know the story of Jesus Christ didn't begin with inactivity. It didn't begin with inativity as so many people think. I'll go back to Matthew 1, Luke 1, Mark 1, John 1, and talk about it up there.

The story of Jesus Christ began before there was ever man on earth. Revelation 13, verse 8 says, He was the land that was slain from the foundation of the world. Before there was ever man on earth, God the Father and the one who became Jesus Christ knew that there would be man, that He would be coming down to earth, being born as a human, that He would live His life as a human, that He would suffer unspeakable things and then He would die to deliver people from the bondage of death that they had brought themselves over by disobeying God's law and way of life.

It is a great story. It is one we should remember and one that should always be at the forefront of our minds because we owe it all to Jesus Christ. But as we look at the Bible, because here at the time that we live in, we're very blessed to live in the time we do. Because we know of the life of Jesus Christ and the people, the Jews of His time. You know, maybe after His death some of them, well, we know several of them, as they learned about Jesus Christ, they were cut to the heart and they realized what they had done.

But we live in a time where we can look at the life of Jesus Christ and we can see and understand so many more things and understand what He stood for and what He lived and died for. We can look at the Old Testament and we can see how there's a continuity in the Bible that goes from beginning to end. And that isn't just the New Testament and throw away the Old Testament like so many people would say today. You have to have the whole Bible to understand the plan of God, you have to have the whole Bible to even understand God and either to begin to understand His plan. And the story and the life of Jesus Christ is one of the great stories of the Bible.

The other one that would be in second place if we were going to have to rate them is in the Old Testament. There's another great story there that has fascinated people, that there's been movies made about, there's been children shows made about, a story that is too great for any man to ever come up with and too sensational for anyone to come up with the miracles that are involved in it. Another one of those stories and events that we review as we come closer to the days of Unleavened Bread and the Passover as we keep it. And you know that the story I'm talking about is the story of Israel and Egypt and their eventual exodus from Egypt as God delivered them.

You know, as Paul looked on that, because that story of the exodus is throughout the Bible. It's there in Exodus, it's there in the Psalms, it's there in Isaiah, it's in the New Testament as well. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10. And as Paul, you know, is writing the Corinthians, and he's looking at the whole panorama of human history and seeing how it all fits together and how the Bible flows from one thing to another. And you can see what God is doing or what God is working on, what he's teaching us as we look at things in the Old Testament, see how they continue in the New Testament and apply them into our lives today.

In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 1, he says, Moreover, brethren, I don't want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses, in the cloud, and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Talk about him in the New Testament, but he was right there in the Old Testament in that story of Israel and Exodus, Israel and Egypt as well. Verse 11, All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

As we look at those stories, as we prepare our minds and hearts for Passover, for the days of unloved and bad, for the things that we do and the physical things we do, but more importantly, the spiritual way that we keep those beasts. When we remember those stories, there are lessons and new lessons we should learn every year as we think and contemplate Israel and Egypt, new things that we should learn every year as we think about Jesus Christ and His life and how He lived and what He did and the example that He set for us.

And we should be able to tie those together because you know the same God who had a plan that before the foundation of the earth, the Lamb who was Jesus Christ was slain, He had that plan in mind and He continued it or began it at the time of creation or instituted it and then followed on through. So today, I'm going to talk about the two greatest stories ever told.

And I don't want to go into them in any great length because you know the stories, but I want to remind us to help us to remember a little bit about what God did in Old Testament times and the New Testament times. And then I want to take those two stories and derive some lessons from there that as we are now two weeks away from Passover and two weeks away from the Days of Unleavened Bread that we can apply into our lives and we can be cognizant of.

Things that we see in both stories that should also be evident in our lives. So let's go back and let's look at Israel and Egypt. Let's not go back to Exodus 1 because like the story of Jesus Christ, it didn't begin in the New Testament.

It began long before. So let's go back to Genesis 15. Genesis 15. Of course, God knew before even this time that there would be a chosen nation, that there would be a chosen nation and these things were going to come to pass. But in Genesis 15, Abraham, a man of faith, a man who was called a friend of God, a man who says he kept the statutes of God, he kept the commandments of God. He was an example. He turns his life around and turns his life toward God and follows him wherever he would go.

And God promised him a son. And you remember that son wasn't born for many, many years. Abraham learned to have faith in God and be patient. And finally, that son was born. But here in chapter 15, that son hasn't been born yet. And God tells him something that's quite interesting in verse 13. 15.13 says, He said to Abram, No, certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and they will afflict them for 400 years. And the nation whom they serve, I will judge.

Afterward, they will come out with great possessions. And as you know the story of Egypt and Israel coming out of it, here 400-some years before that, God is saying, and before Isaac is even born, those descendants that he's talking about are even on earth. God is telling him, this is what's going to be of your people. But in the fourth generation, verse 16, they shall return here for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. And it came to pass when the sun went down that it was dark, that behold there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.

On the same day, the Eternal made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates, the Kenites, the Kenizites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Parazites, the Raphaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Gergishites, and the Jevesites. Mark this land, Abram. This is the promised land. This is where I will bring your people back to after they go through this period in a land that he would judge.

And it turned out exactly the way God said. Isaac was born and his descendants, to follow him. Joseph found himself over in Egypt, a hero in the land as he saved Egypt from famine and the nations around them, as God instructed him. And the people of Israel marched into Egypt.

And as they marched into Egypt, they became mighty in number, many in number. And you remember the story as Pharaoh looked at the number of people that were there when the new Pharaoh arose who didn't know Joseph and didn't remember the story of why Joseph were there and why the Israelites were there. He became worried. He looked at the number of people and said, if we don't watch what we're doing, they can conquer us. Or they might be they might ally with another nation that would be against us. And all of a sudden we could find ourselves on the outside looking in. And he took upon himself to really begin the genocide. He decided in order to control the population, the baby boys, the Hebrew baby boys, were all going to have to be killed. And it was an awful time to be in Israel. It was an awful time anyway, as they were slaves and they were oppressed and they came into that land free. But they became slaves and they had a life that was no longer had any future. What they did in the morning was get up, work, do what their masters say, go to bed. They lived, they died, and they never had any choice but to do what they did. And they were living a miserable existence and there was no hope in insight. Let's turn back to Acts 17. Let's look at Stephen's account of Israel in Egypt at that time because he gives a concise account of what happens.

In Acts 7 and verse 17, Stephen, if you remember, is speaking to the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews that day and he is giving quite a sermon to them, recounting the history of Israel, recounting the history of the Hebrews, and tying or leading right up from that all the way into Christ time and drawing some comparisons there for them. If we pick it up in verse 17, the Acts 17, he says, when the time of promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt. God said, I'm going to multiply them. They're going to be in this place. The people grew and multiplied in Egypt. Another king arose. He didn't know Joseph. This man dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies so that they might not live. And there was a cry that went up from Israel. People groaning, and God listened. And it says in Exodus 3, he remembered his covenant with them. And it was time for him to do what he said he was going to do. Verse 20, at this time, Moses was born and was well pleasing to God. And he was brought up in his father's house for three months. You remember the story of Moses there? But when he was set out, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in words and deeds. We talked about Moses not too long ago. The type of leader he was. He was there in Egypt. He had all the advantages. He knew everything about Egypt. He was one of the princes, if you will, of the land. And he was a mighty man, one when you said Moses people knew who you were speaking of. Now, when he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him, who was oppressed and struck down the Egyptian. Verse 25, for he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand. I see my brother being chastised, oppressed, beaten by an Egyptian taskmaster. Moses, Stephen says, thought that his people would understand. I'm the deliverer that you've been waiting for. I'm a Hebrew. But they didn't understand. They didn't recognize who he was. In fact, they turned on him, as you read through, and as he came there the next day, they said, what are you going to kill us, like you did the taskmaster, Moses? And he had to flee, flee the Midian for 40 years.

Didn't turn out the way Moses said or thought. He supposed that they would understand that he was the deliverer. Now, whether God put that in his mind or not, I don't know. I'm just quoting what Stephen said here. But let's go back to Exodus. In Exodus 3, we find a more detailed account of Moses being called by God after he's been 40 years in Midian, after he's been humbled, after he is now a servant who is not the man that he was at 40 years old. Now he's 80 years old. He's been through a lot. He's no longer the prince of Egypt. He no longer has the bravado about him that he had back in the time when he was 40 years old. And in Exodus 4, let's pick it up. Now, let's do Exodus 3, verse 7 instead, and we'll get to 4.

This is Moses when he's at the burning bush. And he turns aside to see it. And the Eternal said to him, I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a large and good land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Parazites, Hittites, and the Jebusites, the same thing that he promised to Abraham several hundred years before. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have sent the oppressor, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them, come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you will bring my people, or that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And then you remember Moses had excuse after excuse after excuse. If he saw himself as the deliverer of Israel back forty years before he didn't see himself as the deliverer today, at eighty years old, he asked God, well, what do I call you? When they say, well, what God? Of the many gods we have in Egypt, what God is saying that I should let the, or Pharaoh would say, let the people go. Then in verse fourteen he says, tell them I am. I am who I am. And throughout the discourse here then you see Moses referring to God as I am. I am this. I am said this. I am delivered this message. I am spoke through Moses. But Moses had excuse after excuse and the last one he came up with and he goes, I am just not eloquent in speech. If we turn over to chapter four, verse ten, Moses said to the Eternal, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either before nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. And God reminded him who it is who gives us our words. So the Eternal said to him, who has made man's mouth, who makes them mute the deaf, the seeing, or the blind, have an eye. Now therefore go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say. Moses, you don't think about it. You don't have to prepare a message. You don't have to prepare a sermon. You don't have to prepare a space to give the stare. I'll tell you what it is. You are just going to go out and do my mission and you are going to say what I tell you to say, Moses. And Moses, reluctantly, after another excuse and errand to come with him, Moses did it. And he spoke the words that God gave him over and over in Exodus. You hear, Moses. God said the Moses and Moses told the people. Now in verse 21, you know, I don't know what Moses expected, but God was prepping him down in verse 21. This isn't going to be as easy as you should think. I'm God. You know me or I am, I am, God would say.

But Pharaoh doesn't know me. And it's not going to be the easy road that you think. Verse 21, the eternal or I am said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you do all these wonders.

Make sure you do all these wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in your hand.

But I'll harden his heart so they won't let the people go. And you will say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn. So I say to you, let my son go, that he may serve me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.

God kind of lays out for Moses what the plan is. He's not going to let you go. You're going to do these things. He's not going to let you go. Get yourself ready for that, Moses. And eventually, his firstborn is going to be killed because he's simply not going to pay attention to what you say or even more what God says. And so Moses went about, and we read about the plagues. We read what Moses did. He said the words that God said. He called down the plagues that God told him to call down. And time after time after time, Pharaoh just refused to listen. He would even relent and acknowledge that it was not a God of Egypt, but the God of the Hebrews that had brought these things on him. But as soon as God would take the plague away, he would turn his mind again back away and refuse to let the people go. Let's go over to Psalm 78.

Well, God did bring the people out of Egypt. He kept his promise. It may not have been exactly the way the Israelites wanted it to go. They may not have been prepared for 10 plagues to go through. They may not have been prepared for a Passover that was going to happen, that the Egypt was going to be totally decimated. But they saw their God totally decimate the mightiest power on earth at that time. And the story of Israel is a great story. Psalm 78, verse 12, marvelous things God did in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, and he made the water stand up like a heap. In the daytime, he led them with the clouds and all the night with a light of fire. He never left them. Whenever they looked up, God was there. They never had to wonder, is He still with us? He was there through the whole thing, and they saw Him do marvelous things that their minds couldn't even comprehend. He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink in abundance like the depths. He brought streams out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. You'd think of all the people who are stealing all the things, Israel would have been so enamored with God, so loyal to Him, so faithful to Him that they would have learned everything we need. He provides every problem we encounter. He solves in ways our minds couldn't even comprehend throughout their whole time that they walked with Him. And yet, the story of Israel is very disappointing because they never learned to trust God. They disappointed Him time and time and time again. There was something about them. There was something about their human physical bodies that was missing that didn't enable them. They weren't able to overcome their doubts and their disbelief. Verse 17, "...but they sinned even more against Him by rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness. They tested God in their heart." And then it goes on, and recounts all the things that He did. Rather than just asking God, we're out here in the desert. We're wandering. We don't have any food. What are we going to eat? And having faith that He was going to provide, they accused Him. What did they say? Over and over. We want to go back to Egypt. Why did you bring us out of here, Moses? Let us go back to Egypt. Why did you deliver us? What is this life we're living now? Obviously, they weren't thinking very clearly when they said those things because they were really remembering what life was like in Egypt. They wouldn't have wanted to go back there. But it was something about them. But the story of Israel is one where God absolutely kept His promise. The story of Israel is also very disappointing. One of the people failed. They failed God. They didn't understand Him. They didn't see Him. They didn't count Him for who He was. They didn't look at Him. They took everything He did for granted.

And they forgot. They forgot Him. You know, when God brought Israel out of Egypt, He brought Him through the Red Sea. They saw those marvelous things. They were celebrating. He told them He would do all those things. And He kept His word. He kept His end of the bargain. Let's go back to Exodus 19. But there was something that Israel had to do too. He was going to deliver them, just like He promised Abraham that He would deliver them. But they had something to do as well.

They just couldn't go on living the way they had. They had to do something in return to God. In Exodus 19, we find that. 19, verse 1. And the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai. For they had departed from Ephesus. They had come to the wilderness of Sinai, camped in the wilderness, and Israel camped there before the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord, or I Am, as they called Him, and there called to Him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, Here is the words I am giving you, Moses. Say this to them. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice, and keep My covenant, then you will be a special treasure to Me above all people, for all the earth is Mine. And you will be, or shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words, Moses, which you shall speak to the children of Israel. And He went back, and He told them those words, and verse 8, All the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do.

How could we have a better partner? How could we have a better ally? How could we have a better God? Everything you say we will do. And then over the course of the rest of our history, they didn't do it. And so we come to chapter 20, where God thunders down His commandments, His way of life to His people. And He gives them the commands and tells them how they should live. And we look down at verse 18 of chapter 20. All the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sounds of the trumpet, the mountain smoking. And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off, just like we would, because they saw the power of God, and that's just the little power of God that He was demonstrating there. And they said, Moses, you speak with us, and we will hear. But don't let God speak with us, lest we die.

If we want to hear from you, Moses, this God scares us. We don't want Him talking to us.

And Moses said that the people don't fear God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you so that you may not sin. But they stood afar off.

But they didn't want to hear God. They wanted to hear Moses speak because they were afraid.

Near the end of his life, as Moses is recounting the history of Israel and reminding the people of everything God had done with them from the time he brought them out of Egypt, in Deuteronomy 18, he gives quite a prophecy. Deuteronomy 18 and verse 15, Moses, who had led the people, it was really God leading them, but Moses was the one through whom he worked. He had led them for 40 years in the wilderness. Under his leadership and his following God and the commands God gave them, he brought them out of Egypt. He led them through many trying times. But he always focused them on God and never let them forget that. In verse 15, Moses says this, as he's talking to the children of Israel, Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren.

To raise up a prophet like me, someone to deliver you, someone with the same responsibility, someone with the same calling, and it won't be a foreigner, it'll be someone from your midst, someone from your people, just like Moses was from their people. The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear.

Him you shall hear. Verse 18, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, and I will put my words in his mouth, just like he gave Moses the words to speak. And he shall speak to them all that I command him, and it shall be that whoever will not hear my words, which he speaks in my name, I will require it of him.

People didn't want to hear God, they wanted to hear Moses, but this coming prophet, God said, they're going to listen, or we'd better listen to him. We'd better hear him.

Over in Matthew 17, we find Jesus Christ. During his ministry, one chapter before Matthew 16, he has just worked with the disciples. God has just revealed to Peter that Jesus is the Son of God. And Jesus Christ is talking about the church that he will raise up that will be in existence from that time until the time of Christ's return. And in verse 17, it's a very interesting vision that Jesus takes some of the disciples into. Chapter 17, 1, after six days of these events of chapter 16, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, led them on a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah, two great prophets, Moses who said, God will raise up a prophet like me, Elijah, who as it said, before the coming of the day of the Lord, Elijah will be there. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him, and Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it's good for us to be here. If you wish, let us make your three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him. Listen to him. Listen to the words that he has to say. Pay attention. Pay close attention, because I will put words in his mouth, and if you don't listen to them, and if you don't pay attention to them, it'll be required of you.

And Jesus Christ spoke the words of God. Let's go back to John 12. John 12.

Verse 49.

Now, let's pick it up in verse 47. We can do the last four verses there.

47. Christ speaking, he says, If anyone hears my words, hear me, if anyone hears my words and doesn't believe, I don't judge him, for I didn't come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48. He who rejects me and doesn't receive my words, has that which judges him. The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last days.

For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave me a command, what I should say and what I should speak, and I know that his command is everlasting life.

Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told me, so I speak.

God told Moses, Speak the words I give you, Moses, Jesus Christ, the I am of the Old Testament. On earth, and he said, The words I speak are the words God gives me.

Now, parenthetically, we can look at ourselves, because sometime in the future, where are we? Where are we, John? Let's go back to Luke. Just read the verses that are here, Luke 12.

There may become a time when you and I learn the lesson of Moses and Christ, that we will speak the words that God gives us. Luke 12. And verse 11, When they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, don't worry about how or what you should answer or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. Be led by it. Be close to God. Stay close to Him. And when you need to answer or when you need to say something, God will give you the words. He says the same thing in Luke 21. You can go to Luke 21 and see the same thing written there. Don't worry about it. There will be time when you brought before someone, and he says it will be an occasion for you to give testimony. Don't worry about what you're going to say. God will give you the words. We just have to learn to receive those words and learn to follow God in those ways. Let's go back to John 8 and see Christ again. This time he's in kind of a heated argument or a heated conversation, if you will, with the Pharisees in John 8. At the beginning of John 8, we have the woman who's called an adultery, and you remember the story there. Christ one by one dismisses the people. There are no accusers, and he tells her, go and sin no more. The Pharisees get into a conversation later on in the chapter here. Let's pick it up in verse 52.

Well, let's look at verse 51. Most assuredly, he tells them, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he'll never see death. He'll never see death. If you follow what I say, he'll never see death. That's quite a statement, isn't it? And the Jews, the Jews of that day, they are like, how can you say that? Now we know that they say you have a demon in verse 22. Abraham is dead in the prophets, and you say, if anyone keeps my word, he'll never see death.

Jesus answered, My honor is nothing. It's my Father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. And then he continues to talk to them. Through the Course, Christ says some pretty heated things to them about what they're like and what they know. And down in verse 58, he incenses them when he talks about Abraham. And he says to them, most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am, I am. And they knew exactly what he was talking about.

And they were incensed that anyone could even make that claim. So it says in the next verse, they were going to throw stones at him. They would have killed him right there, just for what he had said, except God hid him, and he walked away.

Well, Christ. Christ was a man that changed the world, as we know. And his beginning was interesting. We all know the stories that are back there in Matthew 2 on how he was conceived and married by the Holy Spirit. Joseph, her husband, or the one she was betrothed to, didn't want to marry her, it says in Matthew 2. Or he was considering not marrying her because of the situation that she was in when God came to him and said, no, Joseph, go ahead and marry her. What's in her is of the Holy Spirit. And so Joseph followed through, and they did. Then, let's go back to Matthew 2 and just see some of the beginning of Christ's life there, because it has pretty clear parallels to the children of Israel. In Matthew 2, we find Christ born in Bethlehem. Verse 3, we have Herod hearing about this king of the Jews that was born. And he feigned some interest in that, not because he really wanted to worship Christ or the king of the Jews, but because he was concerned, how is this going to affect my position? How is this going to affect me? In verse 7, you know, he heard that the wise men were going to see them. They gave him a prophecy of where Christ would be born. Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what kind of star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the young child. Now, when you found him, bring back word to me that I may come and worship him too. That isn't what he wanted to do. But the wise men may not have known that. They may have thought he was sincere. So they went ahead and they found the Christ child. And down in verse 12, it says, they are then being divinely warned in the dream that they should not return to Herod. They departed for their own country another way.

God wasn't going to tell Herod where that child was. Herod was incensed, incensed by what he had heard. Verse 16, Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry.

And he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all the districts from two years old and under according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.

Another act of genocide. I'm going to kill these children. I'm going to wipe them out.

They threaten me. And I don't want to hear anything from them. They threaten me so I will put them all to death. And that's what happened. But God knew. God knew what was going to be in Pharaoh's heart because Satan works in many of the same ways. And sometimes when we're newly baptized and when we are new in Christ, Satan comes after us with all he has to do. Because if he can kill a baby, that's what he's just happy to have any of the plan of God disrupted.

Doesn't mean those who have been in the church 20, 30, 40, 50 years can take a vacation on it because Satan is always looking to see how he can upend us.

In verse 13, it says, when they had departed, after the wise men departed, Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, take the young child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word. For Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he rose, he took the young child and his mother by night, then departed for Egypt, and he was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt I called my son. Out of Egypt I called my son.

Out of Egypt God called his people Israel. Out of Egypt God called his son. Out of spiritual Egypt God calls his people today.

Moses was a deliverer. In the human sense of the people, Jesus Christ is our deliverer today.

Back in Matthew 1. Matthew 1, verse 21. After God speaks to Joseph and says, Go ahead and marry, marry who you betrothed to, marry. He says this, She will bring forth the Son, and you will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

He'll deliver them from their sins. Israel was in bondage as slaves. Israel was there with no future, no hope, no one to deliver them. None of them could deliver them. They were hopeless until God got involved, until God raised up Moses, until He delivered them from Egypt. Before that, they had a futile and meaningless existence that was only going to lead to death.

For the rest of humanity, we all lived futile, meaningless lives. Going nowhere, no way out, none of us of our own power could overcome sin or deliver ourselves from the slavery of sin. Only Jesus Christ could deliver us from the bondage of sin. Only He could save us from absolute, certain death. Because we were all slaves. Make no mistake about that, we were all slaves.

We were all no different than the children of Israel. Going nowhere with no hope, no future, nothing meaningful in life, until God opened our minds to see that there is hope, there is future, there is life, there is meaning beyond this mundane physical existence. Over in Romans, Romans 6, Paul expands on this concept of the slavery that we are in to sin. And as we move closer to Passover, or any time, reading through Romans 6, 7, 8 can be a very enlightening, encouraging, and inspiring exercise. In verse 16 of Romans 6, Paul says, Don't you know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one slave whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness.

Only two states of existence. Either we're slaves to sin, apart from God, and that leads to death, or we yield ourselves to God when He opens our minds, and that leads to eternal life, when we yield ourselves to obey Him, when we give up that old way of life that leads only to death. Verse 17, God, but God, be thankful that though you were, and every one of us here were, no matter how good we might have thought we lived our lives, no matter how good we were to other people, no matter how we thought we were in life, but God, be thankful that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. When Christ, when God opens your mind and you responded to that call, and you saw light, and you saw freedom, and you saw the other way. When you heard Him, as God said, when you heard Him.

Back in verse 3, He talks about continuing the theme, do you not know that as many of us as are baptized, or as we're baptized into Christ Jesus, we're baptized into His death?

Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Bury the old, leave Egypt behind, out of Egypt, living a new life, living and letting God direct us, and in the process of the rest of our lives, write His laws on our minds and hearts.

But leaving the past and leaving the way of sin behind.

For if we had been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we'll also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing that our old man was crucified with Him. We put Him to death, we left that behind. There's no room like the Israelites to say, I want to go back. That was one of the things that irritated God. I want to go back to Egypt. This is a little harder than I thought it would be. I didn't count on this happening. I didn't realize that this is what lay in store for me. They wanted to go back to Egypt. We can't ever say, I want to go back.

I want to go back. I want to be like I used to be. I want to be in that part of feudal, meaningless existence that leads to absolutely nothing. And had they thought about what they were saying, maybe, just maybe, they would have realized how silly that was and how silly if any of us think that we would leave behind the words of eternal life to go back into a world that means nothing, that is going nowhere and that is fading fast. Well, we need to make sure we don't fall into that. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. No longer slaves to sin, no longer in bondage like the Israelites. Set free, set free by Jesus Christ and His sacrifice and what He's done for us. Verse 11, likewise, he says, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin. That life is past, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A new life, walking in Him, led by His Holy Spirit, letting Him feed our mind, educate our mind, teach us, bring to remembrance comfort, correct, instruct us in the way that He wants us to be, being led by that way. And even though we make the choice to be baptized and put the past behind and to leave Egypt behind us and to be to accept Christ as our deliverer and our Savior from sin, we still struggle with it, don't we? Wouldn't it be nice if when we were baptized and we made the choice that we came up and our minds were absolutely pure. All the old thoughts were going, all the old tendencies were going, all the reactions were gone. And truly God could just put His Spirit in us and that would be all we did from then on out, but that's not the case.

That will happen at the time that we're born into the kingdom of God. Well, we've lived the life of struggling and overcoming with God's Spirit the old tendencies, the old ways, when we put to death continually the things that come up in our minds, just like Paul had to struggle with. When we continually, as we get into the days of Unleavened Bread, put the sin out, the old ideas out, the things that we see creeping back into our minds, the thoughts that come from nowhere that we think, I haven't thought that for five years. Where did that come from? That we put it away. But we continually put the new in, the pure in, just like the days of Unleavened Bread picture for us. And in chapter 7, you see Paul struggling with this. Even Paul, who could doubt Paul's conversion with everything that he did and how much he sacrificed in life, and he struggled just like you and I struggle. Let's look just at a few verses here in chapter 7. 14.

Well, you know, let's start with verse 12. Therefore, the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Verse 14. For we know that the law is spiritual, but Paul says, I'm carnal. I'm still sold to understand. I still have this ringing around my mind. I'm still imperfect, as we all are and all will be until the first resurrection. For what I'm doing, I don't understand. What I will to do, that I don't practice. But what I hate, that I do.

If then I do what I will not to do. I agree with the law that it's good. But now it's no longer I who do it, but sin that still dwells in me. Still things that have to be rooted out. And every year when we go through the days one left and bread, more sin that God brings ours to recognize has to be put out. And Paul was going through the same thing. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For the will is present within me. I want to do God's will. I only want to think what's pure. I want to be exactly the way He wants me to be. But how is it? For His will is present with me. But how to perform what is good? I don't find. For the good that I will to do, I don't do. But the evil that I don't want to do, that I practice. Can't we all identify with these words? Now if I do what I will not to do, it's no longer I who do it, but sin that still dwells in me. Sin that still needs to be overcome. Sin that still has its hold on us, but our job is by the strength of Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of Him, by the Spirit of God, to put it out when we see it and to continue that all of our lives. I find then a law that evil is present within within. I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing the end to captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. It's a struggle. It's tough. We can't give up the fight. You have to keep working at it. Keep trusting and following God that He will deliver you. O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Only one can. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God. But when I yield to my flesh, I yield to the law of sin. And so Christ came to deliver His people from sin. He lived the perfect life. He never violated any of God's laws.

He set a perfect example in every way, shape, and form of obedience, of compassion, of love.

You read through the scriptures. Everyone that came to Him that was looking for healing, He healed them. He was a good man. Thousands came to listen to Him. He was speaking the words of God.

They came. They listened. But how many of them really allowed His words to permeate their hearts and minds? Or were they just convinced that what they were doing was the right thing and they weren't about to listen to Him? Because the people, the leaders of their day said, what we're doing is fine. You don't need to listen to that. Even though He had the words of God, even though every single prophecy in the Old Testament that talked about the coming of the Messiah, you fulfilled, they didn't listen to Him. All they wanted was to put Him away.

He threatened them. They didn't want what He had to preach. They didn't want to hear what He had to hear. And the people hardened their hearts. When He did miracles, they just plundered off as an act of Satan. When He healed, they instead blamed it on...look what He did. He healed them on the Sabbath rather than focusing on the good that He did. Everything He did, they turned it into another way and turned the argument upside down to discredit everything He did because they didn't want to believe. They simply didn't want to believe. The people of Israel did the same thing. As many things as they saw in God, they just kind of took it for granted. And even though over and over and over and over, they did the same thing. God, we want to go back to Egypt.

God, we don't have enough food. God, we don't have enough meat. God, where's our water? God, this. God, this. Nothing's the way we want it. And you'd think they would have learned their lesson, but they didn't. Let's go back to Psalm 78. What can we learn from the two greatest stories, if you will, that were ever told? What can we learn and what can we caution ourselves about as we look at the example of Israel, as we look at the example of the life of Jesus Christ and what He encountered? Well, back in Psalm 78, we find the history of Israel. Psalm 78. No, Psalm 78, verse 40. How often they provoked God in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert. Yes, again and again, they tempted God, and they limited the Holy One of Israel.

They didn't believe. They didn't listen. They didn't want to hear what was said. And they limited God. He was ready to take them and make them the greatest nation on earth. But by their actions, by their unbelief, by their taking things for granted, they limited Him. We can do the same thing. If we hear but don't do anything with it, we're limiting God. He's not going to force any of us into His kingdom. He's not going to force any of us to change. He's not going to force any of us to use His Holy Spirit. We have to make that choice. We have to struggle. We have to fight. They limited the Holy One of Israel. They didn't remember His power the day when He redeemed them from the enemy and all these other things that they did. They limited Him.

They didn't want to hear what He had to say. Same thing happened to His own disciples in a way. Let's go back to Mark 14. Jesus Christ...well, Mark 16, I think it is. I've got 14 marked down here. My church is Mark 16. Mark 16. Jesus Christ has been crucified. Jesus Christ has been resurrected.

The ladies came back and talked about His resurrection, but His disciples, His very own disciples, didn't believe because it didn't meet and they didn't understand what He had told them was going to happen. Mark 16, verse 14. Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table and He rebuked their unbelief. Why didn't you just believe what I said? Well, they had their own notions of what was going to happen. Even though He said, the Son of Man will be killed and He will be raised on the third day, that isn't what they heard. That isn't what they understood. Later He appeared to the leaveness, He sat at the table and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they didn't believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. His own disciples had a hardness of heart. They didn't let get in what God said. They had their own ideas and the truth of God wasn't going to permeate it. Could that be any of us? Could that be any of us? Do we have blind spots that we say, no, I believe, but not that. I'm not going to go, I can't accept that. Well, we probably all do and God will eventually show us that. There's a warning and something that we can pray to God about back in Hebrews 3. Hebrews 3, verse 7. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you will hear His voice, God says clearly, hear Him. Today, if you will hear His voice, don't harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works for years. I was angry with that generation and I said, they always go astray in their heart. Their heart isn't with Me. They haven't yielded fully to Me yet and they haven't known My ways. So I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest.

Those are tough words to read, isn't it? The writer goes on in verse 12 and says, beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Be close to God. Yield to Him. Look at His words. Follow His words. Give up your ideas. Give up your notions. Give up what you think and begin to believe and do what God says. He's the only way to eternal life. Everything else leads to death. And He says in verse 13, exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened to the deceitfulness of sin. For if we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence, steadfast to the end, not once saved, always saved, if we continue with God, walking in Him until the day that we die, continually struggling, continually yielding, continually following, continually aware of what sin can do to us if we allow it to develop in our lives. And then He repeats while it is said, today, if you will hear His voice, don't pardon your hearts. As in the rebellion, and then goes on and talks about the people of Israel.

We can learn something about prom today. So one of the things we can learn is, don't pardon your hearts, either like Israel, either like the disciples. And don't deceive.

I don't deceive, or I try not to deceive myself, and I'm sure I'm being perfect in this, that we don't have blind spots, that we don't have hardness of heart. But ask God to give us hearts of flesh, that when we see His Word, we will do it. And we will not just pawn it off and say, no, not that. It's one of the things that we can look at.

Let's think about another thing. Back in Exodus 13. Back in Exodus 13, the story of the children of Israel leaving, there were things that I'm sure as they departed from Egypt, and they know they were headed toward the Promised Land. They knew exactly where that land of the Gergashites, and Hivites, and Parazites, and Hivites, and Jebusites were. And they probably had in their mind just how long the journey was going to be. In Exodus 13, verse 7. It's not Exodus 13, verse 17. Exodus 13, verse 17.

They came to pass. When Pharaoh had let the people go, the God didn't lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near.

That may be the way that they thought they were going. Look! Right by the land of the Philistines, and there we are. God didn't lead them that way. None of them saw themselves being camped by the Red Sea. That seemed a strange place to go on the way to the Promised Land.

And yet there they were with their backs up against the Red Sea, screaming to go back to Egypt, because they didn't trust God. They didn't believe that He would be able to deliver them, but He did. And none of them believed, probably, that they were going to be wandering the wilderness for 40 years. 40 years were going to be wandering in the wilderness. No homes, no cities, wandering in the wilderness. They didn't see any of that coming. They had no choice.

And Moses was there always to have them remember God, to have faith in God. And he reminded them over and over in Deuteronomy, believe God, follow Him, trust Him, but they never seemed to get it.

And when Christ calls us and He says, follow Me, I will lead you to the kingdom. I will lead you if you follow Me and hear Me and apply My principles and words into your life. I will lead you to eternal life. Maybe some of us didn't count on it being as long a journey as it was. Maybe some of us didn't count on some of the trials and tests that we would have along the way. Maybe some of us think the journey is a little different than what we want. And maybe things have come our way, and some may have turned back and said, I didn't count on that. We're all still here, you and me.

Paul says in Romans 8, Romans 8 and verse 35, Who will separate us from the love of Christ? What would make us leave the path that God has called us on? When would we say, I've had enough, I'm going back to Egypt. I give up. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword.

Maybe really good times. I want to have all these opportunities, and I can make lots and lots of money. Maybe that'll separate me from Christ, so the world looks better. What would it be? What path would God take us on that we would ever say, we're not going there anymore? Because we didn't count on that. We talk about that before baptism, counting the cost that no matter what comes your way, you still continue to follow God. You may not know how long. You may not know, well, we don't know how long. We don't know how long until Jesus Christ returns or until our lives are over. We don't know what it befalls us, but no matter what comes our way, we continue to follow Him, because we believe Him. Paul says it succinctly in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 7. Something the Israel couldn't get, something we should understand. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 7, We walk by faith, not by sight, not our way, not the route we choose, but we have faith that Jesus Christ, and God the Father, will lead us where they say they will do. He delivered Israel to the Promised Land, but not by any of the ways that they thought He would. He will deliver us, while He's delivered us from sin, He will deliver us into the Kingdom if we follow Him and have faith, complete faith, in Him. Finally, one last thing that we can remember from this. Let's go back to Psalm 106. Psalm 106, another account of the journeys and history of Israel.

Psalm 106 verse 9.

He rebuked, speaking of God, God rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up. He led them through the depths and through the wilderness. He saved them from the hands of Him who hated them and redeemed them from the hands of the enemy. The waters hovered their enemies. There was not one of them left. Then they believed His words. Then they sang His praise. The first 13. They soon forgot His works. They didn't wait for His counsel. And when they got into the wilderness, they tested Him. They forgot what God had done for them. There's a key word when we look at the days of unleavened bread and what God tells us to do. Let's go back to Exodus 13.

That is, we prepare and as we go through some stories that we all know. The story of Israel, the story of Jesus Christ. It can maybe take for granted, but every time we look at it, we learn something new. God says, and there's a reason He has us do the holy days every year. There's a day reason that we put leavening out of our homes and keep the passover. In Exodus 13, verse 3, Moses said to the people, they had just come out of Egypt. Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For by strength of hand, the Eternal brought you out of this place. And then he says, no leavened bread shall be eaten. Remember, go back and remember what God had done. Remember what God has done in your life. Think about what your life was like before God delivered you from sin. Think about what your life was like when you had no hope and how different life was when you woke up in the morning and you had a whole different set of things that you were going to do, as opposed to the hope and the spring and the step that you have because of what God has called us to. Remember what God has done for you. The people of Israel forgot. We have the danger of forgetting and just taking things for granted and going about our business and just not remembering. God says at this time of year, remember. And He says, tell our children about the time that you came out of Egypt. Tell them about your life. Tell them how you came to understand God. How He called you. Tell them why you are on the path you are on and that we follow Him and that we believe Him and that He is the only way to life. Whatever the world has to throw out there, whatever the world has, it doesn't compare to what God has to offer. It simply doesn't. One way leads to death, the other way leads to eternal life. Back in Luke 22. It will be my last scripture. Luke 22. Verse 15. I read this a couple of weeks ago. Read it again in Luke 22. 15. Jesus Christ is preparing for that last passover. He says, With fervent desire, I desire to eat this passover with you before I suffer. I am eager to eat this. I am eager to get on with the plan of God and to remember that. For I will no longer eat it, he says, until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And then He took the cup. And in verse 19, He took the bread and gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. When you take the wine, when you wash each other's feet, when you take the bread, do this in remembrance of Me. Remember what I did for you.

Remember the sacrifice that I made. Remember how I lived my life. Remember that I will be with you to the end. And if you follow Me, I will take you to the Promised Land.