What Does Egypt Have to Do With You?

The glory of Egypt was evident to us when we viewed all of the temples and monuments erected by the Pharaohs and peoples of that area of the world. And by the way, you may not be aware that Egypt has around 60 or 70 percent of all of the monuments in the world. So it is an incredible place to go. It is incredible to see it. But like I mentioned to you, we visited the pyramids, we saw kyops, kufu as it's called, and the Great Pyramid. And we saw, of course, the tombs of the Pharaohs themselves, which is an interesting thing in the Valley of the Kings. And there's excavation, by the way, going on there all the time. And right now they are actually searching for Neferturi's tomb, and they feel that they may have found it. This was when we were there. In fact, they were talking about this when we visited Tutankham's tomb, which is not, by the way, very big at all. And so they felt like that he was buried rather hurriedly and may have occupied the tomb of somebody else. But anyway, that is something that is going to come out, I'm sure, down the line. But Memphis, of course, would have been a place of many great monuments as well. Luxor, as I mentioned, about Karnak and all of these great sites where we were able to visit. But what was so striking to me, brethren, is that Abraham, actually they say that Kiax was built around 2550 BC. The fact is that Abraham would have been well familiar with this pyramid. And no doubt, the others were there. He would have been well familiar with the greatness of Egypt, which I'm sure looked absolutely fantastic. By the way, the pyramids themselves, the kiax, I understand, had a veneer on the outside of it. There was a smooth veneer that would have been a white appearance. You would have been able to see it for miles. And it was the tallest monument, by the way, for centuries. The pyramid was. And of course, the pyramids are one of the seven wonders of the world. The incredible things to see. But to imagine, brethren, that Abraham was aware of these things, that Isaac certainly was aware of these things, and walked and saw all of these things, that Jacob, Moses, the children of Israel certainly would have been aware of these things in their day. It gives you a different perspective. You know, when you realize that, you think about that, they would have been familiar with these things. Egypt was a thriving civilization during the time, you know, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

It had a strange allure about it. I know it's had an allure to us for many, many years, wanting to go and to visit these places in Egypt that we only read about. It made me wonder, though, this allurement that people have toward Egypt, why do they have this?

I want to ask you the question, brethren, that will lead up the purpose of what I'm talking about here in the sermon today is, why are you here in the church today? Why are you here in the church?

When you are called out of this world, out of this society, brethren, let me ask you, was everything going real well in your life? I mean, did you just wake up one day and say, I want to be in the church? Or was it hard for you to come to the point where you realized that you need to make a change in your life and you need to be able to be a part of something where there was truth, people of like minds, and so forth? Did you not realize, I know I did, that you need to make some real changes in your life, in your personal life, that you needed to transform your life? We needed answers, didn't we? The questions. I remember, and I've told you many, many times when I was a teenager, I'd go across from our house, I'd go up to the top of where the hay bales were, and the top of a barn, you know, across from our house, and I would sit there and I would think. All the questions I didn't have an answer to. Why were you born? What was the purpose of life? And all those things. So we had all of these questions, brethren, that had great spiritual significance, and after we came into the church, it was refreshing, wasn't it? Finally we had the answers to some of those nagging questions that were in our lives. Then, maybe 10 years goes by, you sort of get used to the truth, don't you? It's easy to happen where people get used to the truth. 20 years goes by, I mean, it becomes old hat. After a while, this truth that you have come to see, that you've come to understand. And is it possible, brethren, that after a while, you tend to forget what it was like in the world that you came out of into the church?

You may not, some of you might be new now, might not realize that you can get to the point where you can forget what you came out of. What it was like in the world, you know, when you didn't know, when you didn't understand the truth, when you didn't, your mind was not open, you could not see it. The Bible was basically a confusion to you. Now, why do I mention about this? Why are you here? You know, what was your life like? And have you forgotten again what you came out of? Why am I talking about these things? You know, in the Bible, Egypt is a type of the world. And you know what? Israel is a type of you, a type of me. And you know, one of the problems, you know, one of the big problems that Israel had, if I were to ask you, what was one of Israel's big problems? Would you be able to come up with it rather than, you know what their problem was? I know you've heard this before. They had a problem of forgetfulness. So if you once knew it and you said, I can't think about what he's thinking, it's because we forgot. Israel had a problem of forgetting. And God had to remind them all over and over and over again. Let's go to Exodus chapter 1. Exodus chapter 1. How do you forget these things, by the way, that people go through? Exodus chapter 1. But we do. We can. I remember, even as a teenager, brethren, how miserable it was to be out in the world and not know the truth. It's miserable. It really is. Talk about, you know, the only thing you can do to fill it in is, you know, do what everybody else does in the world. And that's, they ignore the truth, and they simply go and do their own thing in life, whatever that is. But in Exodus chapter 1, in verse 7, what the children of Israel were fruitful, and they increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty. And the land was filled with them. So God brought them into Egypt, and that's where God began to multiply them. And now there was a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. Joseph, of course, had given them basically a favored position. You know, he was this, you know, assistant to the Pharaoh, basically, right-hand man of the Pharaoh, and he gave Israel a favorable position in Egypt. But it says that the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, and this king arose over Egypt that did not know Joseph. But not verse 9. And he said to his people, look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. A lot more of them than us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happens in the event of war that they join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land. Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supplies to these phytum and ramses. But it says, the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. It tends to be the case, isn't it?

And they were in dread of the children of Israel. And so the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And so here, you know, Israel was serving in a horrible situation. They were basically slaves. And it says, they made their lives bitter with hard bondage and mortar and brick, in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor. This is the way, brethren, quite frankly, it was for us in the world. We were in a bondage. And the people in the world, by the way, don't they don't realize they're under bondage. But they don't realize sometimes how miserable they are. You know, you can see it in people's eyes, by the way, when they drive home from work, how miserable their lives are. You can see it when you sit next to somebody or you're with other people, you know, when you're unbarred. You can see how empty people's lives are. But how quickly, by the way, we forget, like Israel, the bondage that we came out of.

But Egypt, brethren, is a symbol of what we came out of to God's way of life.

And so I visited a land, basically, that has a strange allurement to it that everybody seems to want to go to. And unfortunately, it pictures how we tend to want to go back to Egypt. We're going to go back to Egypt. Let's go to Genesis chapter 12. Over in Genesis chapter 12, you know, early on we have the mission of Egypt. And guess who it was? It was. In Genesis chapter 12, we know it was Abraham, Father Abraham.

But in verse 10 here, notice here, this is of the famine in the land. So here Abraham was up in Canaan. There was this great famine that was in the land. And Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. Of course, you have the Nile that was very fertile area with the crops. It is amazing, by the way, traveling around the back roads of Cairo and Luxor, how fertile the area is and how far inland it is fertile. You know, I think it is just a matter of a couple of miles away from the river, but that's not true. They built canals and, I think Joseph was instrumental in building canals as well. During his day, going back a long, long time. But it was a place of great abundance, which was a flooding of the Nile. There were other things that happened as well. But generally, it was a place of great abundance.

In verse 11, and he came to pass when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarah's wife, indeed, I know you are a woman of beautiful countenance.

Her countenance would have been different, by the way, than the countenance generally of the Egyptian. In fact, you know, she was a fair complexion compared to the Egyptians. Therefore, it will happen when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his life, and they will kill me, but they will not, they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with you for your sake, that I may live because of you. This is one of the many mistakes that Abraham made, by the way. When he tried to work it out himself, Agar was another one. But going on, it says, the princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to the Pharaoh, and the one that was taken to Pharaoh's house. And he treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep and oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys and camels. But the Lord, the eternal, plagued Pharaoh in his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and said, what is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she's my sister? I might have taken her as my wife. Now, therefore, here is your wife, take her and go your way. And so Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. Like I say, this is the first mention. This is the first mention of Egypt in the Bible. Is it a good experience? He went down to Egypt, and all kinds of good things happened. No, this was a very bad experience for Abram and Sarah. And the first mention of, in other words, brethren, in the Bible of Egypt, is negative, very negative. And so this sets the tone for how Egypt is viewed throughout the Bible.

Egypt pictures, in other words, brethren, and we know that it pictures the world that holds people in bondage. And that bondage, of course, leads to death. You know, brethren, why are we, why are we drawn to this Egypt of the world?

You know, and what is modern day's Egypt's relationship to you?

We know the world is very glittery, especially this time of the year. You know, you go through any of the neighborhoods, and they've just got, well, they have it lit up like a Christmas tree, literally. I was walking in my neighborhood last night, and you know, around the neighborhood, and they've got lights strung across streets and everything. It's amazing how many lights people have. Of course, you come to my house, our house is dark. It's a dark place. Yeah, you know, we, of course, purposely keep it that way. In fact, on all the holidays with the exception of Thanksgiving, we keep it dark. Halloween, all of those days, you know, we're quite different. It's amazing how many people decorate for Halloween anymore. It is amazing. You know, we had our neighbor, we came home one time, by the way, and he had the police tape across his front of his house. I became, because we had been away for something, came back, and here was this police tape, and I thought, what in the world happened here? Was there a shootout or something? You know, he put it up for Halloween. It wasn't funny to me, but he had it out there, and I thought, man, I'm glad you told me. I was thinking, I'm moving out of here, you know, about ready to go.

But, you know, Abraham went down to Egypt during a time of famine, and by the way, it wasn't a good experience. It was a negative experience. And when we deal with the world, brethren, it's always a negative experience, at least when we're a part of the world and a part of the society. You know, it is amazing to me, through the years, anytime our, down in Pasadena, so you may remember, that some of our men, you know, went to some of the seminaries down in the Pasadena area. And I don't know of a solitary one that came out of it. Maybe there are some that that came out of it and were not affected negatively. A lot of them went to the, you know, different seminaries down there and got their master. Some of them got their doctrine, doctorate. And unfortunately, you know, those are the same people that went along with the changes that happened in 95, where people rejected, you know, the truth. You know what they call a seminary, don't you? It's a place where they bury the truth. It's not a cemetery, but a seminary. They don't bury people there, but they bury the truth there. But many of our men did that. They went off and they, you know, got their, you know, PhDs and doctorates, and they were impacted negatively. Again, there may have been some that were not. I don't know them. I have not interacted with them. But, you know, it seems like that is the experience. When Jacob went down into Egypt, same thing, again, negative experience that occurred. When Isaac went down, he had the same problem. Now, interestingly, when Hagar took a bride for Ishmael, you know where she got? His bride? Egypt. It was down in Egypt. And, you know, after God had delivered Israel, you know, from bondage and from slavery, what did they want to do? They wanted to go back to Egypt, back into slavery. Now, brethren, before we look down our noses at people like this that make this kind of mistake, we must admit, brethren, that the world is an orem to us, isn't it? All the glitter, you know, all the things are out there in the world. But we need to counteract, brethren, the influences more than we do in our lives. We need to stay closer to God, I think, even more so as we approach the end of this age, even as the book of Hebrews warns us to do.

But Israel was in slavery and bondage to Pharaoh and Egypt. They were owned by Pharaoh.

And, brethren, if you get caught up in this world, in this society, you're going to be owned by the world. You're owned by it. You're enslaved by it. Some people get enslaved by their jobs. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't have a job. But some people have dedicated their entire lives to their job.

And God doesn't seem to fit in anywhere, into, you know, their lives when it comes to their job. It's almost like a job is a 24-hour thing, seven days a week. They work and work and work to make things work for them, financially speaking. And what do they have at the end of it? Maybe they have a temporary respite from property, but if they left God out of the picture, what do you have? You got nothing.

But, you know, when Israel was in Egypt, they had pain. They had suffering that they endured because they served with rigor, backbreaking work. And, brother, the same is true with us. We're in the world, you know, that bondage exacted a penalty upon us.

You know, we were enslaved to it. You know, we were not free in our minds. We're not free in our minds. We're enslaved to it, mentally even. And the ignorance, it sort of goes with the bondage that's out there. In fact, it does go with it out there. You can't escape it. You have all these questions that cannot be answered by mankind, apart from God. They can't be answered. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 2. God, though, has such great mercy on you and me, brethren. He has such incredible mercy upon you and me that He called us out of this world. It's interesting that when Christ was taken to Egypt, when it was time for Him to come back to Israel, God said, I called my son out of Egypt. I called him out of Egypt. When God called you, brethren, He called His son out of Egypt. Get out of Egypt and come to Me. Come to Me. He called Israel out of Egypt. He called you and Me out of Egypt. But in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1, it says, and you, He is made alive who are dead. You are dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world. We're like all the other Egyptians out there in the world. According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works and the sons of disobedience. We're out there. We're a part of that world, brethren, that society, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh of the mind and where, by nature, children are wrapped just as the others. We were just like every other Tom, Dick, or Harry walking the street out there. And God called us out of Egypt. We were slaves to our lusts and to Satan. And the longer you are out there, by the way, brethren, the worse it gets. And the harder it is pulling you out.

Sometimes people hold God at bay, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting too long, can't you?

I've known, I've talked to so many brethren who called later in their lives, and they said, why did God wait to call me so long? Well, you know, the fact that matters, you might have been calling us all along.

You know, the problem is we were deaf. We didn't hear it. You know, like, you know, your wife calling you all the time, husbands, and wanting to come to dinner, and, you know, she's upset because you don't come. And he said, well, all I got to do is call me. And she said this. She said, I did five times.

You guys got a problem with the hearing of listening. We have a problem, brethren, of hearing and listening. But the longer you are in Egypt, brethren, the worse it gets. And I don't know, maybe, maybe, brethren, what I saw, what we saw in Cairo and Luxor, and the way people's lives were there, maybe it was a reminder of how miserable people's lives are. People right now in Egypt are hurting because of the lack of tourism. We didn't see very many Americans there. There were British. There were Australians, New Zealanders. There was about four or five Americans, you know, I bumped into at the Centodal, which is in Cairo, and they were there teaching in Cairo. During the Centodal, they've been there, I think, for six months, and this is the first time they've ever been to the Centodal. But they've been there for a considerable length of time. They're teaching English, you know, which is a big and very important thing for them, you know, and people learning to speak English. Many of them do a lot of speaking English. But the longer you, again, are in Egypt, the worse it gets. And, you know, all the dirt and the grime and the misery that people are going through, like you said, people running you down trying to get a, you know, a bashi from you, a tip.

You know, we don't even have that culture here, do we, in the United States? People are having a hard time. Hard, it's hard to have your dignity, isn't it, when you're begging, basically, all the time? God did not want his people to be that way. He did not want us to be beggars. When God told, you know, him that he would be, you know, the servant of Shem, he really meant it, did he? He really meant it. Because they look upon us, brethren, is, you know, we're royalty, almost. Now, what was so striking to Joan and myself is that when we went up to see the pyramids, and we saw the Sphinx, and in all of the places, by the way, that we went. You know, when we go, you know, to the Giza Plateau, by the way, we go see the pyramids. We go see these monuments, these wonders of the world. We want to take pictures of ourselves in front of the pyramids. We sent you some of those pictures. But, you know, when the Egyptians, young people go to see the pyramids, you know what they want to do? They want to take pictures with the Americans. And so, everywhere we went, no kidding, you know, we would have these young girls, and we were like six or seven of them, they'd come up and say, you know, would you take a picture with me? And I thought they wanted us to take a picture of them. But what they wanted is to have one of their classmates take a picture of them with us. So, I don't know, maybe with my wife's beautiful hair, they thought she was a movie star. I don't know.

Me, I was like a wart on the side. But everywhere we went, it was that way. People wanted to take pictures with us. We didn't know we were so popular, you know. But there were a few Americans there, and, you know, all of these, and young teenager, teenage boys as well, I was surprised by that. All these people, I don't, maybe they were taking a picture because they were going to martyr us later. I don't know. But, no, we, like I say, felt very, very safe. And why wouldn't you? I mean, wherever you go, somebody's got a machine gun, you know. Although, I must say, I felt a little bit uncomfortable walking past the, some of the embassies that had machine gun guys out front, you know. Particularly the ones that are not particularly friendly to us. But, it was okay, though. I don't want to over-dramatize that. But let's go over here. Exodus 5, I got to stop talking about the asides, but Exodus chapter 5 and verse 5. And it says in Pharaoh, it says, Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor. You're talking of Moses, of course, here. God had tried to, he sent Moses and Aaron to tell Pharaoh, let my people go. And, you know, Pharaoh's saying, look, you get a lot of people here, and they're not working. You keep them from their labor. So, the same day, Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters, the people of their officers, saying, You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick, as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it for their idol. Therefore, they cry out, saying, let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words. And the taskmasters, the people, and their officers went out and spoke to the people, saying, Thus is the Pharaoh. I will not give you straw. So here, you know, far from Israel being delivered here, their lives become even more miserable. But that's the impact of Egypt. I'll tell you what, if you ever try to leave the world and society and your life, usually it's not peaches and cream when you try to come out of the world. People discover that, you know. Sometimes, you know, when it's like I told you about people that have actually, you know, I visited with them. Sometimes their mate says, well, if you go to that church, I'm out of here. I'm divorcing you. You know, that happens sometimes for people. Their lives are turned upside down. Because there's a hold there. There are many more tentacles on us than we realize when we try to come out of Egypt.

You know, you find, in fact, that if you strive and overcome something, the addiction to it is stronger than you realize and you fall back into it.

Because we're enslaved, we got ropes on us. We got shackles on us. And Israel certainly had that, and their lives got more miserable. And their rigor in their life became worse.

And we know they were in slavery, brethren, because think about this. They preferred slavery because they could have the cucumbers and the onions. Think about that.

Yet, you know, if I have the cucumbers and the onions, the leeks, the beans, or whatever, I'll take this slavery with it. Again, isn't it slavery? That is slavery. Enslaved to them. And sometimes we're the same way. We'll settle for what the misery of the world is as long as we can have those things we at least derive some pleasure out of. We're not willing to break it off and come out. But when they, you know, they're choosing the cucumbers and the leeks over freedom, you know, they thought escaping the captivity, the bondage that they were under, and going through the hardness of the wilderness, which was not easy, was worse than the back-breaking slavery that they had as long as they could have the cucumbers and all the things that the physical foods that they could have.

Brethren, the way out, when we start coming out of the world initially, is hard. It's not easy to come out of the world and out of the society. But, you know, brethren, you have to come to realize it is better than the ignorance and the bondage of sin, the slavery to it that we have. But, you know, what happens is once we come out, it gets harder for a period, and then we begin to come into our own.

We begin to enlighten. It gets easier to make it day by day. To think about it as well as kind of astounding is right there in the midst of their slavery, God had prepared a deliverer for them. Who was right there, right under their nose. Someone who was there who was going to deliver them, that was in their very midst. And we know that deliverer, by the way, that was right in their midst was Moses. Moses, who was, of course, as we know, put in a basket, pitched, you know, with tar so they would float, you know, down the Nile.

And he was rescued, of course, by, you know, the Pharaoh's daughter. And he was raised as a prince over Egypt, over in Exodus 2, in verses 1 through 10. It talks about these things. But again, think about the fact that, brethren, when you're in the bondage of the world, God's already prepared a deliverer for you. God's making a way out for you.

He's prepared the way for you. And I mean that not just from the standpoint of Jesus Christ, brethren, which is, of course, there for us all. But somebody's going to be there to help you in your escape from the world in Egypt that is out there. For me, by the way, I, you know, even though I had all these questions about life and the purpose for life, I had none of the answers.

I had no tools, frankly, to find the answer. And I had a buddy of mine. His name was Rick Everett. And Rick and I were very good friends. And we would work out together. You know, he was sort of in the track and field. And I think I've told you about this, that we sort of, you know, we would practice high jumping together. You know, we would do pole vaulting together.

Of course, our poles were not the fancy fiberglass poles, but we would go out in the, you know, behind the house, you know, in the forest back there and cut down a, you know, a tree and trim it up so that we make a pole vault. Of course, the only thing is, if we ever pole vaulted on that thing and it broke and snapped, it wouldn't have been a pretty picture. But we were doing like 10 feet with a pole vault with that, by the way. So we were doing pretty well, actually, for it. And he was a better high jumper than I was. He was, he learned how to do the flop, you know, back in those days, you know.

Can't remember the name of the fellow that developed that. But, but, but anyway. But I didn't realize that it was Rick was going to be the one who was going to open the door for me to the truth. I didn't know that. I didn't know those things. And I just happened to go over to his house one day. And he and his mother lived up on the side of a hill.

They were very poor, you know, and didn't have an awful lot. But I noticed next to his bed was a stack of these plain-truth magazines. And that was the way. And it wasn't long before we were studying the Bible. After I saw these things, I was in the 10th grade and I gave a speech in my speech class. And I was looking for a topic to cover. And I saw the one magazine that had Japan Supergiant on the front of it. So you may remember that old big supertanker that was on the front of the plain-truth magazine.

Well, I gave a speech in the 10th grade and class on the subject of how Japan, which was making trinkets, by the way, at that time, it was a joke, you know. Everything made in Japan was a joke. And everything was made in Japan. It was plastic, you know. My uncle bought a mini truck, and the name of it was a Datsun. And they joked about how they had, you know, made a truck like that Datsun, you know. But some of you may remember that it was nothing but a 10-can.

Of course, they're very much competing with us now. But again, it was my friend who began to introduce me to the truth. Now, he lives in Arkansas today. He does not...he's not a part of the church, but he was a tool through which I came into the church. So God provides a deliverer. And Jesus Christ, brethren, is a deliverer for us. Again, there are other means through which he calls him.

Let's go to John 1. John 1. Like I say with my buddy Rick, and I've seen him a time or two since, going back occasionally. It's always good to catch up with old friends. But in John 1, verse 11, notice this. Speaking of Jesus Christ, who was the light of the world, in verse 10 here, or verse 11, it says, He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

No, the Jews didn't even receive who Jesus Christ was.

It's like my friend. I didn't realize he was going to be the tool through which I would learn about the truth. We know His God had opened our mind and shown us, but He used it as a tool. Same thing. When Jesus was among His own people, they didn't really know who He was. They didn't accept Him as the Messiah. And we know that when Jesus Christ came, He said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He's anointed me to preach the good tidings to the poor. He sent me to proclaim release to the captives. So when Christ came as our Savior, as our deliverer, He was trying to free us. He was trying to take us from the captivity that we were in. And it says, The recovery of the sight to the blind, and the senate liberty those who were bruised. That's you and me, brethren, to free us. And the truth, Jesus Himself said, will set you free. It'll make you free.

So God, brethren, had a plan for you, and He had a plan for Israel.

And God's plan, by the way, for Israel predated Moses.

His plan, brethren, was ancient. It was ancient. You know how far back we got to go? To see where the plan of God began, you know, for the children of Israel?

We're going to go back to Abraham, to the time of Abraham. Because God said to Abraham, look, I'm going to, of your descendants, I'm going to make like the stars of heaven. He talked about how that they were going to be under bondage for a period of time. And after 400 and, you have two figures, 400 or 430 years, they're going to be brought out of that bondage. You can, again, read about that in Genesis 15. The promise that God made to Abraham, and that was, you know, centuries before, you know, even Israel was to be delivered. But God had a plan. And, brethren, God has a plan for you and me. It's an ancient plan. In fact, that plan goes back to the book of Genesis. In Genesis 3, verse 15, it talks about Jesus Christ coming and basically bruising the head of the serpent. We know that Jesus Christ came and He qualified to be the future King of kings and Lord of lords, and He became our Savior. And through His beating, His merciless beating, with that kind of nine tails and the fact, also, brethren, that He disqualified Satan, and He gave His life for us, brethren, He is our Savior and our Deliverer. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 2. You're not here, brethren, in the church, nor am I here because of what we've done. It's what God has done for us.

He's made a way. And the worst thing in the world, brethren, is once God has delivered us from this world, you know, is going back, going back into it. It's just like you think about it. If somebody was an alcoholic and they were down on Skid Row, and you took that person and you brought them out, you took care of them, you educated them, you showed them the way to live, you cleaned them up, you know, you helped in all ways you could to educate them about life, about health, about all the things, and then you turn their back and their back down on Skid Row.

This is, you see, this is what people sometimes do. Of course, we know I'm using Skid Row as a symbol, because it's not that necessarily people go back to. It may be their life that was a bearable life, but miserable nonetheless. But Ephesians chapter 2, now down to verse 4, but God, it says, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. God loved us, brethren, so much. Even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, in other words, made us alive together with Christ by grace who had been saved. It was by God's grace, brethren, he brought us out of off of Skid Row down there, he brought us out of Egypt, and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You know, think about this, what he's saying here. I made you sit in royal places. I didn't just bring you out of Egypt, I made you sit in royalty. And God is calling us, brethren, for the great purpose of assisting Christ in the Kingdom. Is that a big enough opportunity for us, brethren, to put the past in the past and to leave Egypt where it is? That in the ages of coming might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us, toward you. Put your name in there, brethren, toward you. God is going to show the world, brethren, how much he loved you. In Christ Jesus, when you were sitting as a king somewhere, now you started out like most of us do. I don't know of any...is anybody here from a royal line? I don't think we got anybody here from a royal line. Any multi-millionaires here?

Come up and talk to me afterwards. You're a multi-millionaire? I got something you could do. But, no, we didn't come from the the noble of the world, did we? We didn't come from the royal of the world. But God brought us up, brought us out of Egypt, brought us out of the world. He's going to give us something. He's going to make us something. And it says going on, by grace you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. God is a plan for delivering us, and he's done that. Now the important thing for you and me is to say where we are and keep going forward, not go back. You know, God's deliverance for Israel wasn't an easy thing. If you think about this, Egypt was the greatest nation on the entire earth at this time. The greatest nation had the greatest army, had the most wealth of any nation, you know, up on the face of the earth at this particular time. And God had to destroy a whole nation to deliver a people. He had to. He had to bring them down. And we know that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he was obstinate. And God had to bring them down. I'm not going to go through Exodus 5 through 13. We'll probably do that in the spring of the year. But with all of the plagues and the final plague of all, brethren, where the firstborn of Egypt were put to death, that died, that crippled the nations.

And the idea is that this is, by the way, when the Hyksos came in and took advantage of this this time when they were beaten down. It seems like it was at Benatep 2 when that happened.

When Israel was delivered, God again toppled this great nation in order to deliver them. Do you think, brethren, your deliverance from the world was easy?

I guess that depends on how hard you think your head is.

How hard-headed are you, brethren? Do you readily listen all the time?

Are you obedient at the drop of a hat? Our deliverance isn't very easy. Maybe sometimes it takes a lifetime to even call us. When did God start working with you in your mind?

You know, when I was called, I think I began to realize, longer I've been in the Church, that maybe it started, you know, longer ago than I realized. He was preparing my mind. I mean, how do you grow up in the world the way that people in the world think, and where you realize they're wrong? Mr. Armstrong used to say this, you don't know what you don't know.

But I didn't know, I didn't know, but somehow God opened my mind to things, and He opened yours as well. Not only, brethren, did God go to great lengths to deliver you from Egypt and from the world, brethren, He gave His only Son. Let that sink in a little bit. Some of you ever have, you know, sons, any daughters, what would you give? Would you be willing to give your child up for other people? Particularly if those other people were sinners. They were evil men. You know, we were not the God-stuck cup of tea when we were out there in the world, in society. Now, I know most of us think probably, I was a pretty good old boy, as they say down in Oklahoma. You know, usually everybody, by the way, in Oklahoma and Arkansas, he's a good old boy. Doesn't matter what he does. He might be down drinking on Friday and Saturday night and dragging on Monday, but he's a good old boy. He wouldn't hurt a flea.

But, you know, brethren, we were not good old boys. There's no such thing. No man is good, as Christ Himself said. And it wasn't easy for us to be drawn out of this world and to come to see the truth, to change our mind. But, you know, it's like what happens to when God begins to deliver us out, like He did with Egypt. When Israel was coming out of Egypt, and remember that Pharaoh and his armies were pursuing after Israel, and then, you know, they began to play because of the Red Sea that was there, this body of water that was, you know, between them and freedom. And God divided the Red Sea. It was a miracle. They walked over a dry shot, according to the Scriptures, and they got over on the other side, and then they rejoiced. They were happy. It's like a lot of times I've seen people when they've been baptized, oh, how happy they are. But after a period of time, the happiness sort of changes, doesn't it? And with Israel, when they came out, they were really happy when they got on the other side of the Red Sea. You've got Miriam dancing, you've got the tambourine, and boy, they're just getting down, you know. On the other side of the Red Sea. But when they got out of the wilderness, and it got hot, and the dust was taking up on them, and you're breathing in this dust, and you're not... you don't have the water to drink, you don't have the food to drink. All of a sudden, Egypt looked pretty good. The same is true for us sometimes. We come out of the world, and we've got all these things we get used to in the world, and pretty soon we think, well, that was better than what I got now. We can't allow that to happen to us, brother.

How soon we forget what it was like, how miserable it was. God performed these great miracles to deliver Israel, brethren. He destroyed your economy, he killed the firstborn of Egypt, he took out the cattle, he took out everything, brethren. But he did not. He did not do so with Israel's. He spared them. And God has performed great miracles for you, and for me as well, brethren, to bring us out of this world, and out of this society. The problem with Israel is Israel trusted that Egypt would always be able to supply their need. And I think there's a lot of people that maybe trust the United States, that the United States is going to be always able to take care, financially, of our needs. Well, the government's going to take care of us.

Well, you know, brethren, I beg to differ.

Now, what could government do for you? What can government do for you and me in the event of a crisis? Do any of you remember Katrina? Do any of you remember Houston? When there was flooding going on down there, people were trying to get away from the hurricane? You know, the highways were backed up so far. People were stuck on the highways in Katrina, you know, down in New Orleans. They were, the same thing happened in, you know, Houston when the flooding was going on down there because of the hurricanes and down in Galveston and all of that. What about the situation, by the way, in the Gulf? You know, with the oil that spewed out all over the Gulf. Has the government been able to come through and make everything right for that? No, brethren, the government is not going to deliver us. We cannot trust, frankly, ultimately, in this world's system, this political system to deliver us. It just simply won't. Frankly, it's only as a limited ability to do things.

If a few things happen, I'll tell you what, if something were to happen, if there was a, you know, some sort of a, where the power is knocked out across this country, brethren, you have never begun to see the bedlam, the confusion that would happen just by that.

And when there's a hurricane down in Florida, brethren, try to get something to the supermarket.

You go in there and there's nothing on the shelves to buy. If we had a problem in the Bay Area, brethren, there would be no food. Other people would have been there before you got there. There'd be no food. You're going to trust in the world to deliver you? Well, that's when we better have some faith, right? That God is our deliverer.

You know, in Jesus Christ Himself came in Matthew 6 and verse 33, He says, seek you first. Put this first. Seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the things that you have need of will be added to you.

God will give you what you need. Now, by the way, I'm not saying be unwise, because it talks about a wise man. If he sees trouble coming, he hides himself. He does something about it. Don't be foolish, but don't trust in the world to deliver you.

There are going to be a whole lot of other people to help besides you and me. People that may need it far worse. But with Israel, they wanted to go back to Egypt because they trusted in Egypt. And really, brethren, we've got to watch that in our own lives. Interestingly, David said this, brethren, in Psalm 37 and verse 25 through 28. Now, just read it to you. David said, I've been young and now am old. Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken. You see, God will never forsake us. He will never leave us or forsake us. And notice this, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, God is, and lends, and his seed is blessed. And down in verse 27, it says, Depart from evil and do good and dwell, he says, forevermore. We live according to God's laws, commandments, and statutes. We will dwell forevermore. For the eternal love's judgment, and for saints not his saints, they are preserved forever, but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. So, brother, if we trust in God, not in the world, God will take care of us. Again, do our due diligence of preparation, but put your trust in God. In Philippians 4 and verse 19, Paul wrote, But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. God will supply the need for us. He'll come to the aid where we need it.

Israel desired to go back also to Egypt because of the religion. They get comfortable with the religion of Egypt, and of course there were gods of every kind in Egypt. It's almost like a carnival when you go into some of the tombs and you see all the characters that they have. They have seen them, sure, and I'll show you pictures of them. They have birds with the heads of men. It's strange, strange. They have men with the heads of birds.

There's just a lot of strange things that were in Egypt. Of course, the gods of Egypt, what God was combating were the plagues of Egypt as well. But Israel desired not only to go back to the comfort and aid of Egypt, but the religion of the Egyptians. Because remember when Moses was up in the mountain and he came back with the tablets on which the commandments were written, and he heard Israel. They were laughing down in the camp. Remember the story about how they put pressure on Aaron to leave. They wanted to go back to Egypt. Aaron, I think, was trying to delay them from doing what they were going to do, at least until Moses came back. He gathered the gold from all of the people and he made a calf. By the way, at the Luxor Museum we saw the kind of calf very possibly they would have made. Certainly not the same one, but one like it that may have been made. But this golden calf was one of the gods of Egypt. So they desired to go back to the gods of Egypt. And you know what they said about this god that Aaron had made? These are what brought us out of Egypt. Not God, but these are what brought us out of Egypt. It's amazing. And, brethren, when we come out of the world and we come into the church, sometimes we can at least long for the pseudo-Semitismic attitudes of some of the churches we were part of. They talk about this unctuous, oily kind of love of Jesus. You know, when they say Jesus, it's not really the way we say Jesus. It's Jesus! They've got some sort of a... It's like oil almost falls off of it when they, you know, say the name of Jesus. And they love to say the name of the Lord. Lord this and Lord the Lord did this and Lord did that. You know, Christ said, not everybody calls me Lord, Lord. You know, He's going to be in the kingdom. He either does the will of the Father.

So Israel desired to go back to the Egypt. Sometimes people want to come out of the world. They desire to go back, you know. Sometimes people desire, you know, again, the false custom of Christmas, which we'll hear more about as we get closer to Christmas. They miss the Easter. They miss the fact that, you know, rabbits lay eggs, I guess.

And all the other things that people... It's almost as kind of goofy as what I saw on the walls, you know, of the tombs. You know, they want to go back to that. And boy, you know, this is bondage going to these holy days. You know, going off to the feast and spending a tenth of my income for the Feast of Tabernacles. That's bondage! You know, I've been keeping the feast for over 40 years, and I've never felt like anybody had a whip to my back.

I've always enjoyed the Feast of God. Not just the Feast of Tabernacles, but all of them, because they're meaningful. I never walked away from a Christmas service when I was going to the Protestant churches, by the way, of the world. And I never went on to those, and I came back, boy, I really learned something today about Christmas. I didn't know.

What do people learn? Let's go to Luke chapter 17. I gotta wrap up here. Luke chapter 17, just a one verse here. I want to remind us of, this is from Jesus Christ Himself.

But Jesus was talking about the end of the age.

In Luke chapter 17, I know that didn't look right, it was in Acts 17, I wonder. But down in verse 32, He was reminding people of the end of the age. He talked about the urgency of the times. He said it was going to be like the days of Noah.

People were going to be marrying, giving marriage, and all that. Life would be as usual. But, He said in verse 31 of Luke 17, In that day, he who was on the house stop, and his goods were in his house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise, the one who's the field, let him not turn back. They might go back. And then He says this short sentence, Remember lost wife. Remember lost wife. Lost wife, by the way, looked back. Why did she look back? Because she missed Sodom, and all that was there. And, brethren, the Israelites long to be back in Egypt.

And, brethren, we can long to be back in the world. Some do, rather. Some go back into the world. But, you know, when they go back into the world, it's never the same. It's not the same. You'll go back to see where you grew up.

You know, the places you grew up, are they the same? The house you grew up in, is it the same? It's not the way you remember it, is it? But think about it. When people leave the church, and they go back into the world, it's not the same when you go back to this world. Because, you know why? Because there's certain things etched into your mind, and you can't forget those. I think that they're going to remain there until basically the end of the age. God's going to give you an opportunity, people an opportunity to change, right up to the very last moment. Those things are going to be in your mind. Always wondering, maybe always wondering when the penalty is going to fall, when it's going to happen. So, brother, let's make sure, again, we don't have any temptation to go back in the world. What a misery it would be. You think about, of all the people that wanted to go back to Egypt, and said, let's go back to Egypt, you know, during the days of Coronavirus, there were only two, only two, of those adult members of Israel that went in to the Promised Land, only two that actually went into the Promised Land with the children of Israel. That was Joshua and Caleb. And all the others of the spies and all the people rebelled in the wilderness, they all died. The Bible says that, you know, their carcasses fell over a 40-year period in the wilderness, and they died. In other words, brother, they died in Egypt. They wanted to go there, they went, they died in Egypt.

Well, brother, we want to make sure that we're not among those that died in Egypt. Now, we're not perfect. We understand that. We know our lives are not perfect. And the road of being called is not easy. But, you know, Jesus Christ did say, take my burden, because it's easier. It's easy. The words are this easy. And what he's saying is that, you know, the load, the burden in the world is hard, very hard. And of course, it's a pass to death. Take my burden or my load, Christ is saying, why? He's not saying that it's totally easy for us. It's not. Sometimes it's hard for us. But the end result is not death. It's peace and life and everlasting life, for that matter.

So, brother, let's be careful. Let's be careful, brother, never to look back to Egypt and the bondage that is there. Let's not be like Lot's wife. You know, all those who perish never got Egypt out of their hearts. And our job is to get the world out of our hearts. A desire to go back there. Lot, by the way, who was considered one of the righteous men of the Bible, rather than wasn't perfect, because you think about it, as soon as he escaped out of Sodom, what did he do? He went up. He was, of course, I'm sure very depressed. His wife had been, you know, turned into a pillar of salt. She had died. And he ended up getting drunk. No excuse for it, but he did it. He sent. Lot wasn't perfect because he sent right after departing from Sodom. But in the New Testament, Lot is counted as one who is righteous, because when God said, don't look back, he didn't look back.

Well, brother, when it comes our time, rather than to leave the Sodom and Egypt of this world, let's make sure we're not looking back. Let's make sure we're looking forward. You know, Paul said he set his eyes on the high calling, the upward call of God. So let's seek God's kingdom, brethren. Let's not look back to Egypt. Let's not be allured by, you know, the wonders of Egypt out there in this society. But let's look toward the kingdom, though that great kingdom that is ahead of us, we're in fact, we're going to have peace and life everlasting.