Lessons of Pharaoh in Exodus

When God sent Moses to Pharaoh to demand that the Israelites be set free, it's hard for us to fully comprehend what this meant.

They were the superpower of the day. They had the strongest economy and they had the strongest army in the world. And they dictated what happened throughout the Middle East. And Pharaoh, was the ruler over this empire. It wasn't just Egypt. They ruled an empire and they controlled the trade all around the Mediterranean.

And Moses, without any backing at all except for God, has to go confront him.

He was the absolute monarch. When I say the absolute monarch, understand by the word of Pharaoh, he determined whether someone lived or died. It was his word to determine life and death because he was a God. He was worshipped as a God. For many centuries, the Pharaohs would go up or get out every morning and go out and pray at sunrise. And the reason why was that Ra was the great sun god. It was his prayers that brought God up to shine on them that day.

So he was literally worshipped as a God. His word was absolute truth. He had absolute power.

He had all the wealth of Egypt belong to him. He owned everything and everybody in Egypt belonged to him as a God. Also as a God, he was the epitome of Satan's way.

He was cruel and arrogant and pride-filled and saw every other human being as inferior to him. And Moses is told to go to him and confront him, him and Aaron, just two guys. And they're supposed to confront this absolute monarch who was worshipped as a God. When we talk about the Passover in the Days of Love and Bread, there's a lot of analogies. There's a lot of lessons that we learn. We talk about Israel coming out of Egypt as a lesson for the church coming out of sin. We talk about slavery and how they were in physical slavery and we are in spiritual slavery to sin. We talk about the Passover and how the blood of that lamb on their doorpost meant that the Lord would pass over them and their firstborn would not die and how the blood of Jesus Christ saves us from eternal death. There's all these lessons we learn. There's also a lesson we learn from Pharaoh. I'm going to talk about Pharaoh. Now Pharaoh can be seen as a type of Satan, and that's important to understand. Pharaoh is a type of Satan, a man who is so arrogant, so filled with pride, so filled with his own ego, that he believed he was greater than God. That's important to understand because there's a lesson from that that weren't from that and from the Israelites as they left Egypt and what they did that is used both in the Psalms by David and is used in the New Testament by the Apostle Paul to teach us something about our lives. Let's go back to this story. I want to go back and just recap quickly about Moses having to go confront the most powerful man in the world who could have killed him just for the fun of it, a man who had complete power. Let's go to Exodus 6. Exodus chapter 6.

And let's look at verse, start here in verse 28. Exodus 6.28.

And then this next statement is very important because this is what we're going to be zeroing in on here for the rest of the sermon. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and will multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not heed you so that I may lay my hand on Egypt and bring my armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them. So there was two reasons God was going to do this. One was to free the Israelites. But there was another thing God was going to do. He says, I'm going to make this great superpower, these people who think that they rule the world, that they're the greatest people on the earth, the greatest people that have ever lived. He says, I'm going to bring them down so that they know I am God. The Egyptian religious system was about as convoluted and perverse as you could ever come up with. They had gods and goddesses for just about everything. Although, as I've said before, my favorite one was the goddess or the god of pregnant women. It was the hippopotamus god.

It didn't seem to offend them then. We have problems with that today. But they had the strangest, most convoluted religious system. But at the top of this system, as far as daily life, was Pharaoh. He was a god and believed that he was divine.

Let's go on here. Well, let me go before I go next. Let me say this. You have to understand this concept of hardening his heart. Before I go on with the story, let's think about what that means.

Does this mean God is going to take away this man's will and simply use him to do evil? How do we look at this? How do we understand this? What does it have to do with you and me?

What does this have to do with us as Christians? God says, I'm going to harden this man's heart. Many people think all this means is God says, I'm going to possess this man and I'm going to make him do what I want and he's not going to let the people go until I destroy Egypt. Is that what it means? What does it mean? But God does say I will harden his heart. So God's involved in this.

How we look at this and understand this is going to mean a lot when we look at an Old Testament Psalm and we look at some passages in the New Testament. So this is important. Let's pick up the story, of course. Moses and Aaron, they go and they demand that he let the people go. I mean, they actually got an audience with Pharaoh. They go in. The whole court's there. It's a big joke.

He throws down his rod, it turns into a snake and they throw down the, you know, the priests throw down their rods, it turns into snakes and Moses or Aaron's rod eats the other rods. You know, you know how this goes. Look at Exodus 7 verse 8 now. And so the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, say, when the Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, show us a miracle for yourselves. And that's what they did. They threw down the rod. But notice verse 13. And Pharaoh's heart grew hard and he did not heed them as the Lord had said. So now it didn't mean anything. This little miracle, hey, my priest could do this kind of miracle. This is no big deal. So his heart grew hard. And so more plagues came upon them.

The Nile was turned to blood. The Nile was turned to blood. Something is important that happens with this that is important for us to understand for the story. For Aaron to throw down a rod that turned into a snake was nothing more than a magician's trick to Pharaoh because he had priests that could do the same thing.

Nobody could turn the Nile River, which was worshiped itself, into blood. He couldn't do that as a god. Nobody could do that.

And Moses, under the command of the God of Israel, turned the Nile River and all the water in Egypt to blood. There is no denying the power of that. There's no denying that the Nile River wasn't done by a human being. That was beyond the power of Pharaoh. And he had all power on earth as far as he was concerned. There were no Egyptian gods who could do that. There was nobody who could do that. God had revealed Himself to Pharaoh as the God. He was going to show him as he did, I AM the God. I have sent Moses to you. Remember, he said, I'm going to show the Egyptians I am God. You want to see I'm God? Watch this. And he did something that is physically impossible.

You know, the Nile River continued to flow, and it continued to be blood. I mean, it wasn't just one-time event over this time period. It continued to flow. That means it just continued to be blood.

This was beyond any physical possibility, and God had revealed Himself.

And finally, Pharaoh sort of acquiesced, and then he said they could go. And then when everything turned back to fresh water, he said, no, they can't go. And he wouldn't let them go. So let's now go to verse 12 of chapter 8. Because what happens is Moses goes back and says, okay, God's going to show you who He is, and you're going to have a plague of frogs. And they had a plague of frogs. The whole country was covered with frogs. And finally, Pharaoh said, okay, okay, okay, come on, I'll let you go. Verse 12, then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried out to the Lord concerning the frogs, which he had brought against Pharaoh. So the Lord did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died out of the houses and out of the courtyards and out of the fields. They gathered them together in heaps and the land stank. When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as the Lord had said. Can you imagine millions of frogs? Now, if you've ever been around some still water where there's lots of frogs, that's a bad smell. If you've ever been around dead frogs, that's a bad smell. I don't know what it's like to be around millions of dead frogs. It just says, every place stank. The whole land stank.

And then it says, there's a very interesting little thing here. It says, and Pharaoh hardened his heart. Once again, verse 15, when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as the Lord had said. God was going to harden Pharaoh's heart.

We have to understand something about Pharaoh himself, because there's a warning for Christians not to harden our hearts. God did not take a good man, hardened his heart, and turned him into an evil man so that his will can be done. God was being unfair to Pharaoh. Oh, yes, I'm going to take this man, and I'm going to harden his heart for my purposes, and I'm going to make him an evil man for my good. And I've talked to people who actually believe that's the way God works. God makes people do evil for his purpose. So God made him do evil because God hardened his heart. But notice it said, he hardened his heart. God didn't take a good man and make him evil. But something interesting happens here to this man, this man who seized the power of God. God had revealed Himself to this man. There's no denying that there is a power doing this. And every time Moses shows up and says, the God of Israel is going to do this, and then it happens, there's no denying that the God of Israel is doing this. He could not. He would not, in his arrogance and his pride. He could not accept any other God but Himself.

The God of Israel was secondary to him. He was greater than the God of Israel. Understand, He was not denying the God of Israel. He believed the God of Israel existed. He had no choice but to believe that the God of Israel existed. And in the hardness of his heart, in his arrogance, he tried to fight God. When a person is so obstinate, so rebellious, so unrepentant towards God that he literally rejects God after God reveals himself to him, then God rejects that person.

When a person is so hard that God reveals himself, there's no denying. Pharaoh could not deny God. But no, I will be greater than Him. He cannot tell me how to live life. He cannot tell me who I am. And when God rejects this kind of obstinate rebellion, He gives the person over to their absolute rebellion. He no longer works with them. He no longer protects them. He is rejected, so He rejects them. He is abandoned, and He abandons them.

This is something to understand about God. I remember a time when I literally felt sick. I felt physically ill. I won't mention his name, but he was a very famous atheist. And every once in a while, I would watch his... I'd go on YouTube and watch some of his presentations. He'd give it colleges, trying to tell young people that they shouldn't believe in God. And he got cancer, and he was dying. And I saw an interview with him. And they said, now that you're dying, don't you think maybe there's a God? He said, no, no. And then he made this comment in the course of this interview. He said, if I suddenly die and I wake up and find there is a God, and he's the God of this Bible, I would never worship him. He is cruel, and he's evil, and he's bad, and he's unworthy of my worship. So yes, if I happen to find out there is a God, I would never worship him. It frightened me that a man can take that kind of stance. But that's the kind of stance that Pharaoh took. And Pharaoh took that stance. God said, fine, I reject you. You now become into the depths. You go into the depths of what you are. No grace from God. No help from God. Just an open confrontation between Pharaoh and God. Did God harden Pharaoh's heart? Yes, because he denied Pharaoh.

Only after Pharaoh's heart was so hardened, he denied God.

Now there's an important lesson in that.

There's an important lesson that a human being can become so obstinate, so rebellious, so judgmental that God, you don't know what you're doing. You're cruel. You're bad. You're evil. And I know more than you. Or in his case, he actually thought he was more powerful than this God of Israel. That by abandoning God, cut off from God's grace, cut off from God's help, cut off from interaction with God. We become abandoned by God and we slide into a hardness that is so hard, it will not soften. Pharaoh was not going to soften. It didn't matter what God did.

I mean, you think about what does it take, what kind of insanity does it take to come up to the Red Sea that is split open and people are passing through it?

Any normal human being would have fallen on their knees and said, you're a lot bigger than I am. What he said was, take the chariots down there and let's kill them right in the middle of the sea. I'll show that God who I am. Pharaoh epitomizes Satan's attitude. He became like Satan. He became like Satan.

And God rejected him and hardened his heart by letting him become what he was.

Now, they think, okay, that's a pretty serious issue, but that's the Old Testament. What about the New Testament? I mean, would God ever say to somebody, you know me, you have rejected me, and you have hardened your heart just like Pharaoh did, and therefore I reject you?

Could that happen? Well, let's go to Romans chapter 1. There is a huge difference between a person who is deceived by Satan does not know God. God has not revealed himself to that person.

God judges that person differently. That's why our understanding of the second resurrection is such an amazing belief of hope that most people, even if they have some understanding of God, but have not been converted, they're not being eternally judged yet. But what about people who God openly reveals himself to? And the response is, I hate you. Even if I find out someday that there is a God, and it's the God of this Bible, I would not worship Him because He's unworthy of my worship. And there are people who hate God that much. Look what it says here. Now, there's a sense of hope in this message. Okay, before we all get too depressed here, there's hope in this message. But we have to answer the question, did God just take His will away? Is that what God does? Because, you know, that is the teaching of probably half of Protestantism.

God has already condemned everybody to hell. A few people get saved.

We really don't have free will, but we do have free will. If we have free will, then how could God harden someone's heart? Well, let's look at how Paul puts this.

Verse 18, for the wrath of God, okay, this is New Testament passage, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and the righteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. There are people who know. There are people who see it. There are people who know. Yeah, there is a God, but I can't stand to give myself to that God.

He says, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse. When he turned that Nile River to flowing blood, and Moses said, this is the God that has sent me, Pharaoh no longer had an excuse.

God had revealed himself in just incredible power. And God said, if your heart's going to be that hardened, then I will give you over to your hardened heart. I will give you over to what is deep inside of you.

He says, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. In other words, these people can't even interact with God. They can't even accept God. I mean, you see people that do terrible things and yet still cry out to God for help. They still believe that God exists. They don't understand him.

But they still believe that God's there.

These are people who know it's God's there, and they hate that he's there.

Professor, professing to be wise, this is verse 22, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made with corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. They created paganism, in other words, and deceived people into worshiping statues. And it's interesting here, birds and four-footed animals and creeping things, most of the Egyptian gods and goddesses look part human and part like animals. Of course, he's not talking specifically to them here. He's talking to the Romans, but it would have fit Egypt very well. Therefore, God also gave them up. Now, this is very interesting. God gave them up.

Just like God gave up Pharaoh. You hate me so much. You reject me. You have abandoned me. So I abandon you. I reject you. I give you up to what you are.

That's a scary thing. And here He says to people who knew better and yet continued in their paganism, not those who were deceived by it, but those who know better, He says, I gave you up to uncleanness and the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who was blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up. Now, there's God is no longer working with them. They are given up to something else.

God gave them up the vile passions for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise, also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God and their knowledge, God gave them over. See how this keeps coming up? You say, well, God gave them a debased heart, as He says here, gave them over to a debased mind? No. He says God gave them over. He didn't give it to them. He gave them to what they wanted. They rejected Him, so He no longer worked with them. They reject Him. They're no longer receiving grace from Him. Now, this is the world you and I live in.

And we have to remember that because one of the core messages of the Days of 11 bread, and especially the last day, is coming out, right? Coming out of Egypt. We are coming out of a debased world. And sometimes it's very hard for us to understand. God has given over to this debased world a debased mind. And many people are just blindly following that. And there are those who know, and those who do it anyway. Because like Satan, they can't give in to God. And they must deceive others to follow them.

He says, gave them over to a debased mind, to do the things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whispers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death.

That's quite a long list, isn't it? Well, that describes Pharaoh, pretty much. It describes the way human society has been going ever since, well, Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden, as people reject God and God gives them over to a debased mind. And then they deceive everyone else. But remember, there is someone guiding all this, and that's Satan. Pharaoh was the epitome of satanic government, and he became the epitome of a human being who thinks like Satan.

And he's looking at the Roman world he lived in, and he says, you know what?

God gave them over to a debased mind. And if you studied the Roman emperors, especially in the middle to the late part of the first century, they were all insane. He could have been describing all the Roman emperors right there. They were insane.

They all had debased minds.

He says these people are worthy of death.

And then he makes this statement, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. In other words, we have to be careful that we don't tolerate things so much that we approve of those who practice those things.

Because we are beginning down a road that says, God, you don't really know the difference between right and wrong. I do.

So here we have Paul saying something very similar about people in the Roman world that we have happening with Pharaoh back in the ancient times of Moses, a debased world.

Now, the Israelites were called to come out of that. And yet, Israel, for the next 40 years, failed, didn't they? Well, for the first year they failed. For the next 39 years, they were punished. They failed 10 times in the first year. You know why they failed 10 times in the first year? Psalm 95. The salvation will be offered to all. Not everyone will accept salvation.

Salvation will be offered by God to all people. Not everyone will accept salvation.

God will open himself up to all people. Not everyone will accept God. Some will reject God, and God will reject them.

Now, ancient Israel, without God's spirit, failed over and over again because they can only understand God in a limited way. They're not in the same boat as what we're talking about in Pharaoh.

They're not in the same boat as what we're talking about in Romans. But they had a problem. So let's look at Psalm 95. This is a call, by the way. This Psalm is a song calling people to worship and obedience. In verse 6, he says, "'O come, let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.'" So here David is writing to Israel of his day, and he's saying, look, let's turn to God, let's worship God, let's obey God, and let's not have hardened hearts.

But he didn't say here, God hardened our hearts. He said, they have hardened hearts. Harden your hearts as they did in the rebellion. As in the day of trial in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, God says, they tried me, though they saw my work. For 40 years, I was grieved with that generation and says it is a people who go astray in their hearts and do not know my ways.

So I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter my rest." The ancient Israelites would not obey God. And the reason why is they kept hardening their hearts. They kept saying, there's a better way than this, and this isn't the way it should be. And I've got better ideas how this should work out. And it is a whole lot easier than crossing a desert and eating manna. There has to be something easier than walking across a desert and eating manna. God doesn't seem to know what He's doing. And they hardened their hearts. Now, what was their penalty for hardening their hearts?

They didn't get to go into the promise land. That doesn't mean that they lost their eternal salvation, because we do know that Israel is other prophecies. They are actually resurrected at the second resurrection and offered the chance to repent to receive God's Spirit.

I mean, Ezekiel talks about that. But they didn't receive the physical blessings that God had promised them. You don't get to go into the promise land, because you keep hardening your heart. You just won't be soft before me, God says. You just won't do what I say. You just won't listen to me. You have an argument against everything. Now, He didn't harden their hearts.

With Pharaoh, he said, your heart's so hard, and I abandon you. There, be hard. You have no idea how hard I can be. And Pharaoh thought he could beat him, or he would have never sent his army into the parted Red Sea, right? How arrogant do you have to think that? Yeah, we'll just kill them there. We'll show him. We'll kill them in the sea that he just parted. That's a level of arrogance that's insane. But then, remember, Satan's insane.

Satan is not a rational being. He's insane. We have to understand the depths of evil that humanity is possible. Now, I don't mean just an act of evil. Any human being can do a horrible thing. Tell a lie. Commit violence. I mean, we're all capable of very horrible things, but we're also capable of repentance. Well, we're talking about with Pharaoh and with what Paul's talking about, the Roman society, people that know better and still love evil and hate God, and they know better. Here they hardened their hearts, and in the hardening of their hearts, they didn't receive what God had promised to them.

It was a physical blessing, but God hasn't offered us a physical promised land, has He? We're coming out of Egypt. We're crossing our desert headed towards the promised land. We know that that promised land is out there, but who knew it would take this long? Who knew that it would mean months and months and months with nothing but manna? Who knew it would be this way?

Who knew that we would watch people of our congregations die?

Who knew that families would sometimes leave the truth and hate you for staying in it?

Who knew things wouldn't work out the way you wanted? Who knew, right?

Who knew they would take so long to get to the promised land? That's exactly what they went through, and they hardened their hearts, and when they hardened their hearts towards God, God said, I'll take that physical blessing away, and that entire generation, except for two people, died. They died. Only their children got to go into the promised land.

And okay, what's that have to do with me? Let's go to Hebrews.

Hebrews chapter 3.

You know, while you're turning to the Hebrews, I wasn't going to read this, but there's one other little passage in Psalms I'm going to just mention here. Psalm 81.

I don't read much of the Psalm, just a couple verses.

Because listen to what he says here.

But my people would not heed me, or not heed my voice, God says, and Israel would have none of me. In other words, they rejected God over and over again. I mean, they worshiped the golden calf. They just couldn't get Egypt out of their mind.

So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart to walk in their own councils.

God even said, okay, Israel, go ahead. I give you what you want. I give you over to your own stubborn hearts to listen to your own counsel, to listen to your own ways. And how did that work out for this act of God giving over to us, that God doesn't control us? God doesn't possess us. He didn't possess Pharaoh and make him evil. But he did say, you want a hardened heart? Good. I'm not going to soften anything about you. Without me, you're going to get as hard as a human being can be. And you're going to find you're nothing compared to me. Israel, ancient Israel, stubborn heart, stubborn heart, stubborn heart. And finally, God says, fine, be stubborn. I give you over to your heart. I give you over to your pride. Go ahead. And guess what? Without me, you'll just wander around in this wilderness and die.

Paul says to the Romans, to the Roman world, many of you should know better, and you're deceiving the world. You're deceiving the world, so God has given you over to this baseness. God has given you over to this perversion. God has given you over to this, and now you're going around and teaching other people, deceiving other people. But God held them responsible because they knew better.

And so, let's go down to Hebrews. You're all there. Let me get caught up. Hebrews 3.

And let's start. Either the lights are going crazy or I'm going blind. I'm not sure which here. Hebrews 7. I'm sorry, Hebrews 3. And let's start in verse 7. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, so this is written to the church. We have moved out of the Old Testament. We moved away from Paul talking to the Roman world. But now we're talking to a message specifically to the church. And this is from God's Spirit, inspired by God's Spirit. Today, if you will hear His voice, and do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion and the day of trial and the wilderness where your father's tested and tried me and saw my works for 40 years. Does that sound familiar? The writer of Hebrews is taking Psalm 95, which was written to the Israelites. And he's saying, this lesson applies to the church.

This lesson applies to the church. So he quotes a big chunk of Psalm 95. He says in verse 10, Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my way. So I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter my rest.

Little different wording, because it's probably translated from the Septuagint, but it's still what the Old Testament says. He says, back there in the Mesoritic text, he says, I gave them over. I gave them over to what they really wanted, and that's what they became. The warning is in the church, you and I have been given the power of God. We have seen the power of God. You and I have experienced the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. You and I have received the Spirit of God. We have seen God. We have a relationship with God. We have this book. He has revealed Himself to us in a way He never revealed Himself to Pharaoh. Pharaoh was just, he just said to Pharaoh, look at my power. With us, he's led us into his life, the life of the Almighty God.

And now here we are in this relationship with God, and we have a warning.

With all this, do not harden your hearts. Verse 11, I'm sorry, verse 12.

Remember, this is to the church. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. Be careful. Now he's talking to converted people in the church. Be careful.

That we don't harden our hearts. That we begin in unbelief to live evil lives.

But exhort one another daily. In other words, you and I have, you and I actually hear of a command that we are to work with each other. We are to know each other, and we are to talk to each other, and we are to help each other. Exhortation means to pull people out, to help them, to work with them. We are to exhort each other so that we don't slide into an evil heart of unbelief. We don't harden our hearts. But exhort one another daily while it is called today. Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Lest we be hardened by sin. We start to take our own sin for granted, and it makes us hard. We begin to defend our sin. It makes us hard. We begin to reject that God will give us the power to overcome sin, and it makes us hard. We begin to like our sin and not want to come out of Egypt, and it makes us hard. We are no longer soft before God. Interesting set of verses in the New Testament, isn't it? God's way is very positive. We emphasize the positiveness of it, but there's always this warning, and the warning is God has given you everything. Is it enough?

Are we still to me and something else from God?

God has given us everything, but we still somehow believe, God, you've been really bad to my life, and there's a better way.

And I don't like the way you do things, and I don't like the way you do find good and evil.

And we really see Him as evil, just like the atheist who said, if He wakes up after He dies and He's in hell, I guess He thought He'd be in hell. He would never worship that God in the Bible, no matter what. He would rather suffer in hell than worship that evil God. He was not worthy of His worship. It reminds me of the line from Paradise Lost, the longest poem in English language. And it's about the... Milton wrote it, I don't know, it wasn't 1500s, 1400s. It's about the rebellion of Satan against God. And there's a great line in there where Satan says, it is better to rule in hell than serve in heaven.

That's the way Pharaoh thought. It's better to rule in hell than serve in heaven, because I've got to serve that God.

He says, lest you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, verse 14, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. He says, we have our confidence. We've been given God's Spirit. We've been given the power. We've seen the power. So you have to hold on to that in confidence, knowing that God's going to see us through. While it is said today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. He, once again, quotes from Psalm 95.

Verse 1 of chapter 4, Therefore, it says, a promise remains.

You and I have not been promised the physical promise land. You and I have not been promised a land of milk and honey. You and I have not been promised a lot of cattle. You and I have not been promised nice houses. You and I have not been promised rain and dew season. That's not the promise we received.

We received the promise that Jesus Christ has gone to return and set up God's kingdom on this earth, and we can be part of the family of God and change this world because Satan will be removed. That's what you've been promised. That's what's the end of the journey. That's it. That's what's there. He says there remains a promise for entering His rest. That's why at times we say that the Sabbath is a type of the great millennial rest, when Jesus Christ is going to be on this earth and set up God's kingdom on this earth.

And we are walking towards that rest, that promise land.

Do not harden your hearts because the promise remains. Someone's going into the promise land because God said He'll get people there. All those who believe, all those who hold on to that and live that and follow that and do not harden their hearts will get there because He'll get us there.

If we don't get there, it's because we harden our hearts.

Otherwise He'll do it.

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you has come short of it.

Lest any of us become short of it.

Every once in a while, with all the positiveness of the message, of the gospel, and every once in a while in the Holy Days, I mean, every time I... Every Holy Day sermon to me is a time for positiveness. I mean, when I spoke in Murfreesboro on the first day, it was a positive message. Pentecost is a positive message.

Trumpets is a positive message. It's not a positive message for them, those who reject God, but it's a positive message for those who follow God. Atonement is an incredibly positive message. Feast of Tabernacles, the last great day, these are all incredible positive messages. The Passover is the most positive message because it begins the whole process.

But in all of this, every once in a while, every once in a while, we have to go back to the morning.

We have to go back to the morning and hear the writing of Hebrews. Take Psalm 95 and say, David said to Israel to remember what happened in the wilderness. And then he uses it to say to the church, remember, they didn't get their rest, which was just some land, some dirt and trees. We need to follow God to hold on unless we lose the promise that is made for us, which is a whole lot greater than the rest that was promised to them. This has been a wonderful Holy Day season.

It is a time to celebrate God's salvation. It is a time to celebrate Christ's sacrifice and then celebrate His resurrection. We have been in a Passover. It was a sober time because we thought about Christ's sacrifice. The rest of the days of Unleavened Bread is to think about His resurrection as we take in Christ, right? We take in this Unleavened Bread so that He lives His life in us, as was mentioned in the sermon this morning. That was all a positive message. But also, we cannot, through pride or stubbornness, allow the deceitfulness of sin to enter into our lives so that we begin to harden our hearts.

Satan is the Pharaoh of this world, and he wishes to harden your heart because his heart is hardened. He hates God. He wishes to bring down God. He wishes for everyone to see him as a better God.

And he wants to make us that way. He wants you to believe that spiritual Egypt is better than what God has promised you.

But remember this. Through the observance of these days, we are reminded. Christ our Passover won.

Right? Wasn't that the first song we sang? God is victorious? Christ our Passover has won.

Pharaoh no longer has power over you. We just think he does. Egypt no longer has power over us, except we think it does.

Keep Egypt in the past.

And remember, as long as we do not harden our hearts, it is a promise. And we can hang on to promises from God because God doesn't make promises he does not keep. Actually, there was this old Bob Dylan song. I hate to quote Bob Dylan. God don't make promises he don't keep.

How many know who Bob Dylan is? Okay. God don't make promises he don't keep.

God has made a promise to every one of you. He's already done his part.

Just stay focused on him. Focused on the work of Jesus Christ. Keep your heart soft. Do not harden your heart. And he will take you to the Promised Land.