Let My People Go!

Now, brethren, there's a particular phrase in the biblical account of the deliverance of the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt that has always stood out to me, and it may be one that you remember. It's a very meaningful phrase that's used several times in the Exodus account. In fact, I believe it's used nine different times in the book of Exodus. Perhaps it could be thought of as the battle cry of the Exodus. So what phrase do you think I'm thinking about? Do you know the phrase? I'll give you a few hints spoken first by Moses and Aaron to the Pharaoh of Egypt. He was actually quoting the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when speaking to Pharaoh. God told him to say this. The phrase is just four words long, 13 letters, and the entire four-word phrase. Does anyone know what it is? Let my people go. That's right. Let my people go. So today I want to answer six or seven questions in regard to this phrase. This battle cry, let my people go. Why did God want Pharaoh to let his people go? In what manner did God let Israel go? What does the Passover have to do with Pharaoh letting God's people go? How did the children of Israel react to being let go from Egypt? Is God still in the process of telling an evil, spiritual Pharaoh, let my people go? And what were the children of Israel to do upon being let go from Egypt? So we're going to answer those questions in the time that we have here today. So first question, why did God want Pharaoh to let his people go? Well, we know that Israel was in bondage to the Egyptians. Chapter 1 of the book of Exodus talks about how they were in bondage, how they had forgotten, and Israelite named Joseph, who had brought them out of famine, who had brought them out of despair. They had forgotten all about him, basically, and they had become harsh taskmasters. They had enslaved the Egyptians. They were treating them badly. They were making them serve the Egyptians with rigor, as it says.

They even took away—well, that gets into the account of the Exodus when they take away the straw in which to make the bricks and so forth to build. But they were not treating the Israelites well. In fact, they were even killing the newborn babies. As you may recall, the baby boys, they were putting them to death. In Exodus 2, the Israelites call out to God because of the bondage, the harsh bondage that they were going through. It talks about how God hears and acknowledges them. Let's go to Exodus 2 and review a couple of verses here. Exodus 2, verse 23. Now, it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died, then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant. Now it wasn't that God had actually forgotten his promise. It wasn't that he had actually forgotten what he was going to do for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their descendants. God certainly remembered it all along, but now it was time to do something about it. God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them. He had actually prophesied that they would be in bondage for 400 years in Egypt. That time was coming to an end.

In Exodus 3, verse 6, moreover, God said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Eternal said, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them to a promised land, a land flowing with milk and with honey. Verse 9, therefore, behold the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. 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, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Of course, Moses was reluctant to say the least to get with the program, but he does eventually. He also brings Aaron into the equation, and together they go before Pharaoh. So let's go to Exodus 5. Exodus 5, verse 1, afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go. There it is. There's that battle cry, that phrase that I was talking about. Let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. Well, notice what Pharaoh says. Who is this Lord? Who is this eternal, this Yahweh, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I do not know the eternal, the Lord Yahweh, nor will I let Israel go. So they said, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice to the eternal our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with a sword. But, of course, Pharaoh was not going to go along with that. In fact, that's when he implemented, okay, no straw then. If you've got this much time to waste, then I'm going to take away the straw and you can make the bricks on your own. So, instead of letting God's people go, he made things harder. Notice verse 17. But he said, you're idle, idle. Therefore, you say, let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. Therefore, go now and work. And so he made it harder for them. So this is the first place that this key phrase is used, let my people go. God wanted Pharaoh to let his children go. Why?

Well, because he loved them first and foremost. And also he had promised Abraham that he would allow them to go into a land that would flow with milk and honey and that there would be tremendous blessings through the children of Israel. And he had promised that they would come out of bondage in Egypt. So God was keeping his promises. And he did love Abraham and he had made that covenant. And so he was going to deliver the children of Israel. He says, I will be your God and you shall be my people. Of course, he was to make a model nation of the children of Israel and they were to represent him. That was a part of the plan. Of course, we know the children of Israel did not represent God well. And that's a whole other story.

So those were the main reasons to fulfill prophecy and also because God loved them and would make of them a nation. What does this mean to us today? Let's ask another question. What does this mean to us today from a spiritual perspective? What is the nation of Egypt symbolic of? I think we all realize it's symbolic of sin, right? We're to come out of sin this time of year. I mean, we're to come out of sin at all times during the year. But we know that Egypt is symbolic of sin and we're going to be keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread after the Passover. Those days picture putting sin out of our lives, coming out of our lives and out of Egypt, putting sin out of our lives and keeping God's law faithfully. That's what God wanted of his children. Now, we know that Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are referred to as the blessings and the cursings chapter for good reason because in these chapters God shows there will be many, many blessings for obedience, for righteousness, for faithfulness, but there will also be many curses for disobedience, for breaking God's laws. There is a cause and effect when we break God's law. It does break us. Be sure your sins will find you out and God allows that to happen. There is a penalty for breaking God's law. Now, God is merciful and we understand that and thankfully he is, so we don't get the full brunt of what we deserve and God is, again, very gracious to us. But God does want his people to be free from sin. He wants us to come out of bondage. Not just physical bondage, but more importantly he wants us to be out of spiritual bondage because in a very real sense until God calls us and until he opens up our mind to his truth and to his way of life, we are certainly in bondage to Satan the devil. In fact, Satan is the God of this world, isn't he? So he is the God of most people out there. Most people who don't understand the truth of God are in bondage to Satan. He has us imprisoned to some degree and he wants us to stay in our sins. He doesn't want us to be forgiven our sins. He wants us to yield to him, to Satan, to allow him to be our God and for us to be his people. That's what Satan wants and that's what he's accomplished with most of the world. Now God's allowed that to happen and it's all being done according to God's plan. So let's ask another question. In what manner, how and in what way did God let Israel go?

Did they just march out with no problems? They went to Pharaoh and let my people go and he said, sure, go ahead, take off. Don't ever want to see you again. It wasn't quite that simple, was it? Actually, God led them out with miraculous intervention on his part.

God intervened. God did something. In Exodus 3, verses 16-22, God promises to deliver them by his might, by his power, and by great wonders and miracles. Basically, he was going to allow them to go out with a high hand. They were going to be able to spoil the Egyptians and take many goods from the Egyptians on their way out upon their leaving and he was going to deliver them by his might and his power. And he was going to deliver them by his might and his power. As I mentioned, things got worse for the children of Israel in the very beginning when Moses came and Aaron came and they said, let my people go. It got worse. Pharaoh was not happy with his plan, this idea, and he would not let them go. Now, if you're like me, you probably have heard that all the plagues, the ten plagues that God poured out upon Egypt had to do with gods that were in Egypt and were showing God's power over the gods of Egypt. I actually looked into this and I've actually got some names for you this time because I don't think I'd ever heard anyone give the actual names of the gods that these different plagues were representing. So, depending on how accurate this website is, I Googled it. Stat.Rice.edu was the name of the website. Actually, I think it was Mormons who put this out. I haven't really had time to dig into it deeper, so you can go check it out and see how accurate it is. But I will share it with you. If we go to Exodus 7, that's where we see the first plagues beginning. The first plague had to do with water turning to blood. Now, there's an Egyptian god of the Nile River. This god's name was Happy. H-A-P-I. Not H-A-P-P-Y. I don't know if it's pronounced Happy or not, but it looks like it should be. So that's the Egyptian god of the Nile. Water was turned to blood. That was the first plague. Of course, that was big. I mean, that was a big plague, because the water in the Nile was extremely important to the children or to the Egyptians, and certainly it got their attention. But God hardened the heart to Pharaoh. Remember, it says he hardened his heart time and time again. And I've always wondered why. I know the Bible indicates that it was at least partially and maybe mainly because God wanted to show his power and his might. And if the Pharaoh had just let them go right away after the first plague, then he would not have that opportunity to pour nine more plagues out and really show his power. But I've wondered if there might be another reason. I just had this brainstorm this week. I thought of this by myself, actually. I mean, I think hopefully God put it into my mind. But I was thinking the Pharaoh is symbolic of Satan the devil.

The Pharaoh was actually looked upon as a god in Egypt. We'll talk a bit more about that. So the Pharaoh is symbolic of Satan the devil. The Pharaoh had the Israelites in bondage. Satan has many, many people, billions of people in bondage today. So Pharaoh is symbolic of Satan the devil. Now human beings can be very rebellious and very stubborn, can't they?

How much more so is Satan that way? So I thought, well, maybe God hardened his heart to show that Satan is very determined and is not easily going to let any of us go. Now Satan is a powerful being and he wants to keep us in bondage and he'd like to bring us back into bondage. And we've seen a lot of people who have been in the church of God who have gone back into bondage. They were attending, they were seemingly a part of our church, part of us, and yet they're no longer attending church or they may be going to a different church that doesn't really keep God's commandments the way that we do or that God has revealed to us. So I've wondered if maybe God hardened Pharaoh's heart because Satan is very, very determined and is not going to let us go easily. And he is a formidable foe. He's an enemy. He's an adversary.

He's not one we should take lightly and he will try to hang on to us. Now the second plague of frogs, again that's speculation. It doesn't say that in the Bible. So whether or not, I mean it makes some sense at least to me. The second plague of frogs had to do with the Egyptian goddess of fertility. The Egyptian goddess of fertility, water, and renewal who just happened to have the head of, guess what, a frog.

A frog. And that Egyptian goddess was named Hecate. So that's the second plague of frogs. I guess I may have told this group sometime in the past because I've been around here for a while. Back when I was a kid, there was a plague of frogs in the land. Now they were little frogs. They weren't big frogs. And I'm guessing that a lot of these frogs were good sized frogs, bullfrogs. And we did have frogs also around our house and we had a pond there.

So every night I would hear this sound, a home, a home, a home. And all these big bullfrogs would be blasting that out back and forth. And can you imagine billions or millions of frogs in the land and not just the bullfrogs, but the little frogs that make a lot of noise too? It'd probably just about drive you nuts. All the sounds of the frogs that were going on in the land of Egypt at that time. So that was the second plague of frogs.

The third plague was the plague of Lys. Now the magicians could not duplicate this particular plague and they understood something odd was going on here. Someone powerful is intervening. So this plague of Lys was reminiscent of the Egyptian god of the earth, one who was over the dust of the earth. Remember when Aaron took the rod and put it down on the ground, the dust became Lys. So this is the Egyptian god Geb. G-E-B. So Aaron smoked the dust of the earth, the dust became Lys. Third plague. I've never had Lys before, at least I don't think so.

I don't remember. It seems to me like mom did, there were seven of us, and it seems like one time back in the old days when we were children, she was washing everyone's head because one of us had Lys. I don't think it was me, I don't recall having it, but I have been... I think our kids ended up with Lys one time because they were...

I don't know, someone else had Lys, they ended up with Lys. You know how the story goes. It gets passed along. Even at camp, we check heads for Lys before we start camp to make sure there's not some kid that comes in with Lys and spreads it to everyone else. So that's the third plague. The fourth plague was the plague of flies. Now this was reminiscent of the Egyptian god of creation, movement of the sun, and rebirth, who also happened to have the head of a fly. And this god was called Kepri.

K-H-E-P-R-I. Kepri. So this was the god of flies. So the flies... There was a difference between Egypt and the children of Israel. They were not plagued by all these flies. So the fourth plague was a plague of flies throughout the whole land. And when I was a kid, there was a... No, actually I was an adult by then.

We just moved into our new home and it seemed like it was plagued with flies. Just for a short, very brief time. Now there were lots of biting flies around. And I'm sure that was just a small sampling of what it was like in Egypt when again there were billions of flies.

In Exodus 9 it goes through the fifth plague. This was pestilence on the livestock of the Egyptians. This was reminiscent of the Egyptian goddess of love and protection, usually depicted by the head of a cow. And this was the first plague that was found in the Egyptian goddess of love and protection. The Egyptian goddess of love and protection was the head of a cow. And there was pestilence on the livestock of the Egyptians. The Israelite livestock was not harmed, but the livestock of the Egyptians got sick and many of them died.

This was the fifth plague. The sixth plague was the plague of boils. Boils on the Egyptians and also on their beasts. And this was reminiscent of the Egyptian goddess of medicine, the god Isis. I-S-I-S. A goddess. Egyptian goddess of medicine, Isis. Then the seventh plague was the plague of hail. And this was reminiscent of the Egyptian goddess of the sky. The hail came from the sky. And believe it or not, this goddess was named Nut.

I'm not kidding you. N-U-T. Nut. Now that maybe it's pronounced N-U-T, it's not a spell. And this had to do again with the plague of hail. Large hail that would fall down on the Egyptians and killed many of them. And then the eighth plague was the plague of the Egyptians. And the third plague was the plague of the Egyptian goddess of medicine.

The plague of locusts. And this was reminiscent of the Egyptian god of storms and disorder.

The locusts were like storms. They were like billions of them and going through the sky. It looked like a storm. So I guess they believe it was reminiscent of this god Seth. The Egyptian god of storms and disorder. There were locusts throughout the land. And then the ninth plague reminiscent of the sun god, the most powerful god except for the tenth god. We'll talk about that in a moment. The ninth plague was the plague of darkness. Three days of complete darkness. So Ra was the sun god. And for three days the sun was blotted out. And then the last plague, the tenth plague, the plague upon the firstborn of Egypt. Now Pharaoh was the ultimate god or power of Egypt, considered the son of Ra. The son of the sun god. And evidently considered even more powerful. So it was the death of the firstborn of Egypt. And of course we know the Passover allowed the Israelite homes to be passed over. That's where the name comes from because the blood of the lamb was on the lintels and the doorposts of the Israelite homes. And so God passed over them and the firstborn did not die in those homes. So God miraculously led them out of Egypt. That's the main thing, is to realize that God is all-powerful. God is miraculous. This was the most powerful nation on earth. The Egyptians were the most powerful nation. Pharaoh the most powerful man. And God was leading them out miraculously with power and with might. So finally, after the 10th plague, we know that Pharaoh relented and allowed God's people to go. His heart was still hardened, however, because what did he do? He went after them. Now you'd think, come on, 10 plagues, your firstborn child's dead. Do you really want to pursue them? Or maybe you ought to just stay home. Well, again, God hardened his heart, maybe symbolic of Satan and how Satan will continue to go after us even when it doesn't make sense. Because God will be victorious over Satan. We know that. God will give us the victory if we rely upon him.

So it talks about how God miraculously let Egypt out by night, that he appeared to them in a cloud by day and a fire by night and showed them the way. God was with them, 2 million plus people coming out of Egypt. Now let's go to Exodus 14 and pick up the story here. Pharaoh does pursue them.

Mr. Burke in the Sermonant went through part of chapter 12 in regard to the Passover. So we understand that the Lamb was slain, that it was kept, it was a Lamb without blemish, obviously symbolic of our Savior Jesus Christ, who is without blemish, who laid his life down for us, was sacrificed for us. In Exodus 14, I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them, and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all of his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Eternal.

And they did so. And so the King of Egypt, the Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, the Pharaoh, his heart was turned against the people, and also the children of Egypt, also the people in Egypt wanted him to go after them too. I guess God hardened their hearts as well. And so Pharaoh pursued them. So when they saw the Pharaoh and his armies drawing near, verse 11, what did the children do?

Or what did the children of Israel do? That gets into another question that I'm going to ask you in a bit. But anyway, let's go on with verse 11 here. Then they said to Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?

Some of them were very content to just serve the Egyptians. They were used to that. And they just wanted to stay right where they were. But of course, God had a different... He had something else in mind for them. But they wanted to stay there and they kind of resented having to go out and march out and rely on God. They said, For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.

So they didn't have a lot of faith in God, did they? They didn't trust God, even though God showed power and might by delivering them from Egypt. Notice what Moses said to the people, Don't be afraid, stand still and see the salvation of the Eternal. So Moses has faith. He trusts God. He tells him to stand still, basically do nothing, and God will deliver them. So even today, it's by God's miraculous intervention that his people are delivered from the bondage of sin.

God is the one who miraculously allows us to be forgiven our sins. The wages of sin is what? Death. That's what we deserve. We don't deserve eternal life. We don't deserve to be forgiven. But God allows that because he intervenes miraculously for us, having sent his son to die for us, and then resurrecting his son miraculously. His son is now our high priest who makes intercession for us. We also know that John 644 talks about how God must call and draw a person to Christ.

God must open their minds to the power of his Spirit. He is the one who imparts spiritual understanding through his Spirit. Again, Satan doesn't give up easily and he will persistently pursue those who try to escape him. But as long as we yield to God's Spirit and we allow God to guide us and direct us, he will deliver us. So Pharaoh is now pursuing Israel. He's after them. And of course, God allows them to drown in the sea. What does the Passover have to do with Pharaoh letting God's people go? Only after the 10th plague, the one in conjunction with the Passover, did Pharaoh finally let God's people go? So the Passover sacrifice is all about forgiveness of sin.

It's all about letting the sins of the people be forgiven and becoming free from sin and the effects of sin, the penalty of sin. The penalty again is death. Also, the Passover blood delivered Israel's firstborn from death and Christ's blood delivers the firstfruits today. We are called firstfruits. Christ is the firstborn among many brethren. He is the first of the firstfruits, but we are to follow suit.

And also, we will be delivered because of the sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ if we've accepted Christ as our Savior, which is what we do at baptism. Correct? Have you have you repented of your sins and have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Those are the two questions that we're asked at baptism. So we do need to repent of our sins, and we also need to accept Christ as our Savior.

Some people will say, some religious leaders will say that there are many roads that lead to heaven or that lead to eternal life. But the fact of the matter is there's no other name given under heaven that we may be saved but that of Jesus Christ. So let's go to Acts 4 for a moment. Acts 4. Again, there's no name under heaven whereby we may be saved. That's the name of Christ. In Acts 4, this is after the day of Pentecost.

This was after God miraculously began to intervene and pour out His Spirit upon His followers. John and Peter have tremendous power at this time that God is giving them, so much so that a man who had denied Christ three times was now willing to die for Jesus Christ. And he was the one who stood up and preached a powerful sermon. They ask, what shall we do after He tells them, you have crucified the Son of God?

They ask, what shall we do? He says, repent and be baptized every one of you. And on that day, some 3,000 were baptized. There were some miraculous things going on at this time. God was delivering His people in miraculous ways. In Acts 4, it refers back to the healing of the lame man. Remember, there was a man lame from birth. And Peter and John come upon him. He's begging at the temple. And Peter says, Silver and gold, have I none, but what I have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ stand up and walk. And so at that very moment, his health was restored.

He was then leaping. And so they get in a lot of big trouble for doing something so dastardly as healing a man. I mean, that's that was the Pharisees that the religious leaders of the day were jealous of what was happening. Obviously, they were instrumental in killing Christ. And so they wanted to stamp this thing out as quickly as possible. And they were intent on doing that. So they arrested Peter and John. So in verse nine, Peter says, filled with the Holy Spirit in verse eight, says, If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ and Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man stands here before you whole.

This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. So Christ is our Passover Lamb who shed his blood for us. God is the one who delivers and makes us whole just as the lame man was delivered and made whole from a bondage that had kept him since he was a child, since he was born.

In 1 Corinthians 5-7, it shows that we must accept Christ as our Savior, as our Passover Lamb, if we are to be delivered from bondage. 1 Corinthians 5-7. 1 Corinthians 5-7, Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

We must accept Christ as our Savior. We have to humble ourselves, yield to God and to Christ, and allow them to live in us. The last question, what does the Passover have to do with Pharaoh letting God's people go? Well, it has everything to do with it, because it's obviously Christ who is our Passover.

So it has everything to do with that. Another question, how did the children of Israel react to being let go from Egypt? In Exodus 14, I already read that when they looked back and they saw Pharaoh coming, many of them became very afraid. Most of them were very afraid. They were not really trusting God fully by any means. They complained later on about not having adequate food and water. God gave them water from the rock. He gave them manna and quail to eat.

But that wasn't quite good enough, because God wasn't always Johnny on the spot. In other words, he did not intervene exactly when they wanted him to. They had to learn some faith. They had to learn to trust in God. So God made them wait. God wanted them to exercise some faith and some patience. But they weren't real good at that. And what happened in Exodus 32? Remember that chapter? The golden calf chapter? Aaron was instrumental in that as well, molding this golden calf that they were worshiping because Moses didn't come down from the mountain right away.

So that was how the children of Israel reacted to being let go. Most of them were very carnal. They weren't spiritually minded. They weren't very spiritually motivated.

Of course, they were steeped in paganism from living in Egypt for so long.

They wanted to return to Egypt. Many of them wanted to go back to Egypt. They had leaders that would lead them back to Egypt. There was a lot of rebellion going on. You might remember the name Korah. There was a lot of that going on. So let me ask you, how have you been reacting from your deliverance from sin? Have you been going back to Egypt?

Or have you been faithful and staying out of Egypt, not going back into sin, but being faithful and following God, being obedient to God? Or have you been a complainer?

Throughout the years, it does say something about stiff-necked Israelites, spiritual Israelites.

We do have a tendency to complain, to be impatient. All of us are still subject to sin, aren't we? Is there anyone here that's already perfect, who never slips up, who never sins, who I'm glad you have a perfect wife, guy. He was pointing at Barbara.

So anyway, I'm sure my wife would be pointing at me if she were here. But yes, she's heard this sermon before, so she goes and does her own little Bible study, so she probably gets more out of it rather than hearing me twice. I can't blame her.

Do you ever show signs of returning to Egypt, though? Do you ever show signs of going back into sin, of being unfaithful? We should ask ourselves this as we approach the Passover. We should examine ourselves and be honest with ourselves. Have we slipped in the last year since the last Passover?

Have we done things we're ashamed of? Have we done things that we should repent of?

Well, then now's the time to repent. God gives us time to repent, to turn to Him, to have our sins forgiven. We're told to come out of her, my people, right? We're to come out of Babylon. The Babylon that represents confusion, religious confusion, it represents following Satan instead of following God. Come out of her, my people. Again, let my people go. It's saying the same thing, isn't it? Come out of her, my people. Let my people go. Don't allow Babylon to get the best of you. This world is full of temptations. It's full of vices. It's full of things that want to drag us down spiritually. So we have to fight back. We need to have faith in God and let Him fight for us. But one thing I didn't bring out that I need to bring out is Moses told him to stand still. See the salvation of the Lord, which is all well and good because God does fight our battles for us. But it's also telling that God says, why are you telling to go forward?

That's what God said. Tell them to get moving. They need to go through the Red Sea. I've just opened it up for them. Now they need to get moving and go through it. So it takes faith to keep moving. It's not enough just to come out of Egypt. You've got to keep moving. You know, you've got to keep moving in the right direction because to He who overcomes will I grant to sit with me on my throne. It's not enough to just come out. You have to keep going and moving forward and putting sin out of your life. It's a process that we must all engage in. We need to come out of sin.

And that's a lifelong process. It's not something easy. We all fall short. We all slip up at times.

The Spirit's willing, but the flesh is weak. And the Bible tells us that we're to walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh. But it's so easy to walk in the flesh because we are flesh.

It's very easy to walk in the flesh. That's the easy thing to do what the flesh wants you to do. That's Satan wants you to do. So you have to fight back and learn to walk in the Spirit. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Christ says He will live in us.

Paul said, oh wretched man that I am, who's going to deliver me from this body of death?

He says, I will be delivered through my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's the answer. God will deliver us through Christ. We have to accept Christ, but we also have to do our part. We can't rely on God for everything. I mean, there is a certain reliance, obviously, that we need to have on God. In fact, we have to surrender to God, but then God wants us to do our part. So we need to move forward and fight the good fight. That's what God expects. You got to fight the good fight. You can't give in and you can't give up. You got to fight the good fight. Don't give in. Don't give up. Keep fighting the good fight. So there was fear and doubt for many, many of the Israelites who came out of Egypt. That was how they reacted. Fear and doubt. We have to overcome fear.

We have to overcome doubt. We have to learn faith, trust in God, and believe in Him. There were a few faithful ones that came out of Egypt, right, that are our examples to follow. Moses certainly was one of them. But what about the 12 spies? Ten of them were faithless. They said, there's giants in the land. There's no way. You know, we can't go into the Promised Land. It's not going to happen. You know, forget it. Thankfully, there were two, Joshua and Caleb, who said, God is with us, and with God on our side, we can do anything. We can have victory. We can go into the Promised Land. In fact, let's not talk about it. Let's go do it. Let's get moving. That's what Joshua and Caleb wanted. They should have listened to them, right? Otherwise, they wouldn't have had to wander in the wilderness for like 40 years. They had to learn to trust God then.

Even then, it doesn't seem like they learned their lessons very well, did they? They all went into captivity eventually because of their sins. So let's ask another question. Is God still in the process of telling a spiritual Pharaoh, let my people go? Is He still doing that? Well, again, we've talked about this some already. Pharaoh is clearly symbolic of Satan the Devil. God is still in the process of calling people today. We have new people that come in these doors every now and then. In Dallas, we have some new people that come, but it's up to them what they do with it.

Now, it's not just enough to hear the word. It's the doing of the word that God wants to see.

Hearing is not enough. You've got to be doers of the word.

So God is in the process of still calling people to Him, but they have to respond and they have to keep on going. Pharaoh is still clinging tightly. He wants to get to them early so that they don't get very far down the road toward the kingdom of God. He wants to derail them early.

He does it through the cares of this world, the parable of the sower.

There's so much truth to that. Satan is trying to get to people immediately.

People do need to fight back and they need to trust God. The Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Scripture is clear about that. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. He has to flee from you if you'll resist him. But if you don't resist him, then he'll get the better of you. You've got to resist him because Satan the devil would like to cause you lots of problems. Remember, the scripture talks about not being double-minded, but being single-minded and going forward in faith. So James chapter 4, 7, and 8, resist the devil. He will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Satan will flee. God will draw near. So we have to continue resisting Satan the devil until Christ returns, until we're changed into immortal spirit. Now in John chapter 10 verse 28, the scripture says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. Okay, underline anyone. No one. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. That's including Satan the devil. Now Satan doesn't have the power to snatch you out of God's hand.

Only you can allow that to happen. Only you can make that choice and that decision to allow Satan to get the better of you. As long as you resist him, he has no power over you. He's powerless.

You've been brought out of bondage and you will stay out of bondage as long as you continue to resist Satan and draw near to God. Now remember, only you can give in and only you can give up.

You have to stand faithful. Satan cannot force you to give up.

So what were the children of Israel to do upon being let go from Egypt? Another question. What were the children of Israel to do? I already mentioned this is to... they were to go and serve God, right? That was what God told them to do. To go and serve God. They were to keep on going and not just stand still. In fact, Romans chapter 6 tells us what we are to become. Romans chapter 6.

Well, let's read verse 15 along with it. What then shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace? Okay, that's a good question too.

Shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace? We believe that we're under grace. We know that we can't earn our salvation. I mean, all of us have already blown it. The wages of sin is death. That's what we deserve. So we've already blown it.

But he says should we go on sinning then because we're under grace? And the answer is clear, certainly not. You know, it doesn't give you license to sin. In fact, if you think it does, you'll end up in the lake of fire because God will cast those in the lake of fire who take sin lightly and who don't strive against sin. Verse 16, do you not know that to whom you present yourself, slaves to obey, you are that one, slaves whom you obey. Whether of sin leading to death. Okay, that's someone who's still in bondage, still in Egypt. Or, on the other hand, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. So if we choose to obey God, then we will become righteous.

Doesn't mean we have to be perfect in this life. None of us are going to reach perfection in this flesh. We're all going to fall short, but that's where repentance comes in. If we have a repentant heart and mind, and actually that's a gift that God gives, God has to grant repentance. Well, you know, we're to try to do our best. You know, that's what we are. You and I, we should try to do our best. I don't know that any of us ever do our best.

I don't think I do my best because I'm still weak. I could do better. I could do better. You could do better. I don't know that anyone ever really does their very best. Don't you think there's room for growth in your life? Then maybe you're not doing your best yet, but hopefully you're trying to do your best, and you're continuing to try to do that. So, getting back to verse 17 of chapter 6, well, let's talk about this. We're going to be a slave to someone, right? So, who would you rather be a slave to? Would you rather be a slave to God or to Satan? Who has your best interest in mind?

The scripture says that God wants to give you his kingdom. He says it's his good pleasure to give you his kingdom. He says he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance. So, God's not willing, but God's not going to force people either. He doesn't want anyone to be cast into the lake of fire, but people can choose and have that done to them if they choose sin over God. So, we have to choose to be God's slave, which is a good thing to totally surrender to God and place put your faith and trust in him.

That's a wonderful thing. So, hopefully we are in the process of going from slaves of sin to slaves of God. And that's our ultimate goal, to become a very faithful slave of God, a servant of God. One last question. Are you worthy to keep the Passover this year?

Are you worthy to keep the Passover? You're going to be keeping the Passover in a couple weeks.

Are you worthy? The Bible says we should examine ourselves and to see whether or not we're worthy.

Well, last year I covered that in a sermon and I talked about how none of us are truly worthy to keep the Passover because we all fall short of God's glory. We all are blemished, in a sense.

Only Christ is without blemish. Only the Father is without blemish.

We are blemished, but thankfully, God does forgive us. God does grant us repentance. So, God looks on the heart and he looks on whether or not your heart is right and good.

And if you're trying to do the best that you can do, you're working at it, you want to be forgiven your sins, then God will count you worthy. He will count you worthy and so you should keep the Passover. We should all go to God and pray to God and pray for forgiveness, pray that God will grant us repentance, and then we should keep the Passover.

And that shows our faith in Christ as our Savior. It shows that we do have faith, that we do believe in our Passover Lamb. So, brethren, we ought to rejoice that we're now slaves of God. We're not slaves of sin any longer. We've come out of Egypt.

God has truly let his people go. He's let you go. You are no longer in bondage to sin.

So, God has surely made the prevailing battle cry of the Exodus come true for us today.

God has indeed let my people go.