I invite you to turn in the Scriptures this morning to Exodus chapter 6. Actually, the end of chapter 5, verse 22. I am really excited to get to the plagues. I want to start the plagues. But there is so much that happens before this, and the Lord is teaching us something important about waiting upon His deliverance. and I think what you'll see through this whole section here is the struggle that Israel had to wait upon the Lord and how that must have felt, what that must have been like. Keep in mind now, this is 400 years in. 400 years. Generations have come and gone. And here we are. God has finally sent His servant and the servant is frustrated because still, nothing's happening. Still. And we need to explore how the servant got through that. So that's what we're considering today. From Exodus chapter 5 at verse 22, and we will read together all the way through verse 9 of chapter 6. This is the word of the Lord. Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he's done evil to this people and you have not delivered your people at all. But the Lord said to Moses, now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand, he will send them out. And with a strong hand, he will drive them out of his land. God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty. But by my name, the Lord, I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel, whom the Egyptians hold as slaves. And I've remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from slavery to them and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people and I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord. Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. May the Lord bless this morning the hearing of His Word. Everyone at times becomes discouraged and feels like giving up. I wonder if there are any sitting here right now who are feeling that, going through that, know that. The weariness of things, the struggle of things, the monotony of things, nothing more painful really is when you have believed something with all your heart and you've given your life for this, You've accepted this as truth and then everything goes up in flames. Everything. And you know you shouldn't respond to the Lord disrespectfully. You know you shouldn't. Deep down, you love Him. Deep down, you know He's done wonderful things for you. But there is a real frustration at times over His ways and His doings, which the Scriptures tell you over and over. No one can figure out who knows the mind of the lord who can figure out his ways past are they finding out no one knows the mind of the lord what is the lord doing at times at times our frustration can be so great that that we might even cross a line in it i believe that's what you have this morning Moses is falling apart. Did you catch the end of chapter five? He is falling apart. Have you ever fallen apart? Falling apart, this servant. And we really do see how the Lord treats somebody who falls apart. I think that's what's remarkable about this passage. You would wonder, what does the Lord do with all these unstable people in the Old Testament who you thought were such pillars, right? Well, that's what I want to explore with you this morning in our passage the lord has the great goal of encouraging his servant of helping his servant and there's so much that we can learn from this learn of our own discouragements in life are due to the fact that often and that this is something that we have to be willing to hear that often the discouragements do come because we're not listening to him he tells us something over and over and over he keeps telling you what he's going to do and it's like a wall goes up and we still after all of the sermons after all of the preaching after all of the comfort comfort my people we still can block that and not listen it's not that the lord has been silent it's not that the lord has has told us a bit been silent about what he's going to do and how the plan is is going to go the issue really with moses is that in the moment this tyranny of the circumstance has so overcome him he can't hear it and neither can israel and that's i suppose an initial thing to say when the current circumstances that we're in and face drive our understanding of everything often it's as if we don't we no longer see the forest for the trees and what the lord is doing for us this morning in this text before he unveils and He demonstrates His power of deliverance. He takes them to the brink. That's what this is. And you see this in people's lives. He takes them to the brink and then all of a sudden, in the midst of this kind of distress, I want you to notice how the Lord renews with His Word His people and unfolds for them His plan and calls them before it unveils to believe him no matter what is in front of them at the moment that can be really hard that can be really difficult when everything around you psalm 46 has fallen apart when even if what the the mountains be picked up and are thrown into the midst of the sea if everything crumbles how am i to go forward that's this kind of situation it's a bad one i have to admit this is a bad one that's in front of you it certainly is not anything that Moses expected uh it has already been hard enough for Moses to accept that God was calling him to go do something that he viewed was impossible go and deliver Israel from out of Egypt and bondage are you kidding me this as Pharaoh. It scared him. He lacked abilities, he thought. How in the world could he overturn the mightiest kingdom of the world at that time? With the mightiest monarch, the most power, the greatest armies, he has to go in there riding on a donkey as a little desert shepherd with one staff humanly speaking he knows it's impossible but remember the lord had promised to be with him i'll be with you moses the lord said that i will be with you i'll be with your mouth i'm gonna i'm gonna help you and what you i'm gonna teach you and what you should say and guess what i'm gonna plunder that nation you watch what i do to them it seemed just awesome didn't it i think there was a moment where they all got really pumped up god would be with him god would put on display his power pharaoh would cower pharaoh would duck and cover and run and be done with them forever israel would march right into the wilderness and triumph moses believed it the start was just magnificent what a start this all was imagine the energy that developed when he goes into egypt and he stands in front of the children of israel and and remember last time he starts doing the signs he starts doing the signs he takes the rod he goes hey guys check this out and the thing becomes a snake and he grabs it and then he puts his hand in his bosom and becomes leprous and pulls it out and then he throws some water on the ground and it becomes blood. Can you hear the roars that day in Egypt? Can you hear the roar of God's people? It's come. Chapter 4 ended by saying they believed. The Lord had visited them. Chapter 4 leaves us this visual of the entire nation prostrate. The people, all the leaders, believing and bowing and worshiping the Lord. What a glorious moment. 400 years was ending and Moses had done everything that God commanded. He went, he packed up his family, he put them on a donkey, he rode through the long wilderness, he performed the signs, he spoke God's word, and it was glorious. What was last week? Everything came crashing down. Moses boldly goes on into Pharaoh's palace. And he speaks God's word. You let the people of the Lord go. Let my people go. Thus saith the Lord. There was the formula we were introduced to last time. Everything fell apart. It couldn't have gone worse. I mean it. It couldn't have gone worse. Pharaoh did not only tremble, he mocked the name of the Lord. Who is the Lord? Why should I obey him? I don't know him. And then he says, let me tell you, thus saith Pharaoh Moses. They can go and gather straw now. They're not going to the wilderness. They're idle. You've stopped their work. They're out there roaring, thinking you've brought deliverance. I'll tell you what they can go do. Thus saith Pharaoh, they can go gather straw. I'm not providing it anymore. They can run around frantically and figure it out, but I'm not reducing the quota. That's what they can go do. somebody walked up to me last week and says, you know, I don't think Moses handled it real well after that. Yes, that's exactly correct. Not only did he not handle it well, I think he cowered. He starts saying things like, well, you know, it's going to all get bad for us too if you don't let us go. It really, everything fell apart. Complete failure. Imagine how perplexed you are. You're walking out of Pharaoh's palace. Now the children of Israel are inflicted with more bondage. They're all ticked off at you. You have royally ticked off the nation. They are angry. They basically curse him. God, judge you. Your actions have messed up everything. You've made a stink. What a thing to say, huh? You've made a stink before Pharaoh. You know how difficult that must have been? you really believe you're following the will of the Lord, but nothing shows that He has any power to affect the natural course of things. Nothing. It's just perplexing. And I think we all should feel the cry of Moses at this point. In verse 22, O Lord, why have You done evil to this people? Are You troubling them? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil, and you have not delivered your people at all. Notice the word evil. I believe that's absolutely right. We have to feel that. He is pouring out his heart in frustration. I don't know if you caught it, and I thought I saw that the ESV here didn't correctly get it. Yeah, they did. O Lord is all capitalized. The Moses returned to Lord and then you'll notice there that when he uses the Lord's name, he does not use the holy name. He is intensely frustrated. He will not use the name at the burning bush to which the Jews misread and thought, well, then we can never use the name. The point was he is refusing to use the name because he's angry. He is angry. It's almost as if when you look at this, Why have you brought evil on this people? If you connect that to verse 23, and he says Pharaoh has brought evil, it's almost as if he's linked God's actions with Pharaoh's. Notice that. He's linked them together, and basically he has concluded, if God is sovereign, you brought the evil. And you stand back and you say, what's he struggling with? He's struggling with what everyone has ever struggled with about the Lord, his sovereignty. In light of life. Now he really has come to believe it and he refuses to see Pharaoh as acting so independently. So all he can do then is link together Pharaoh's actions and God's actions as bringing evil on people. Hold that thought. And why did you ever sin me? This is not what I signed up for. This is not what I wanted to do in the first place. And then probably the greatest cry of frustration, you haven't done any deliverance. We haven't seen any of your deliverance and notice this at all. There is zip, there's zero, there's none. You've failed. Are you getting a sense of his prayer? He is pouring out his heart in frustration. And in the process, I would conclude, shows unbelief, impatience, and if I heard a prayer like that, I would say, rebellion, right? But let's be honest. Have you ever felt any of those things? Maybe you weren't bold enough to voice it, but has it been in your heart? You ever struggled with the question, if God is good and God is sovereign, why this mess? How is He the one not at fault in all this? If you're truly in control and you're truly seated on the throne and we believe that about you, why are you letting this happen? Why are you letting Christians, why are you letting their heads get cut off? What about the fall into sin? How many times have you heard that question from somebody? How could a good God? Are you the one bringing this? Why are you putting us through this? You like doing this? I don't see deliverance. It's hard when you've made a conscious choice and you believe Him and nothing corresponds to what you believed. I tried to validate the story and I had some feedback from somebody, but I heard years ago that there was a student at Westminster who had sold everything and spent everything to uproot his family. He went to seminary and then he went on to get a PhD and the week after graduation, he dies in a car accident. And you think, what in the world? Think of the wife who's struggling with faithfulness to God's promises. Think of a family committed. I remember a family committed to the Lord who backed over their child in the driveway. An employee takes a stand about working on Sunday, gets fired. A man runs his business in a God-honoring way as opposed to the crook next door. His goes under. A woman rejects looking at many unbelieving men. She wants to be married, so she really does follow the Lord. And she looks, and she looks hard. She can't find anyone to marry. No man comes around for years. Parents do everything they feel is right to train their children in the Lord, and they see those efforts go up in flames. Why are we taken to the brink? Real cries at times, aren't they? real discouragement sorting out how to live by faith in this all that's been said to us and humanly speaking when what we're being told is an absolute impossibility it really becomes hard how is god going to get israel out of this one it went from bad to worse and this is about as bad as it could get, unless he just killed them all. And you know where it leads? Bitterness. Bitterness. Well, I look at Moses and here he is. But you know, in all of this, I find one thing really right about Moses. Israel runs back to who to get them out of the mess? Pharaoh. Moses is at the footstool. Moses is before the Lord. He's at the throne of grace. And he's bearing all. He's crying out to the one he knows as sovereign, who in this case seems to have abandoned him. And you know how important that point is? Moses pouring out his struggling heart to the Lord. Is there anything worse than feeling that God is against you? What do you do when you feel that God is against you? You just become discouraged and go the other way, don't you? Last place you want to be is here, singing praise to the Lord the Almighty. This is Yahweh he's talking to like this, by the way. If I were spoken to as a pastor, let's just hypothetically do this for a minute. If I were spoken to as a pastor and one of you were really mad at me and you said, you have evil intentions, your leadership is evil to us, and you haven't done your job at all, and you know what? You're a terrible pastor. I don't trust you anymore. How do you think I'd respond to that? Well, I don't know. I really don't. I'd probably try to be nice. I would fight back a little bit. I might use the kind of line, knock it off. I might say you're acting terrible. I might say you're terribly disrespecting the servant of the Lord. I would be prone to throw the book at you. I'd be prone to start reading the Ten Commandments. Really hard, by the way. What about your children? What if your children walked up to you with this kind of frustration and came to you and poured out and said these kind of things about your leadership as parents and assaulted you and said, you're not fulfilling anything you've said as parents. And I mean, you really felt this. You're doing evil to us. What would you do? What does God do? This is why I love the Old Testament. This is why I've always believed you want to see the character of your God, study it. What you have in front of you is the most tender, gracious, kind response of the Lord to assure His servant of His promises. What does He do? What does God do? He preaches a gospel sermon to Him. the most encouraging covenant of grace sermon we get in the Old Testament. He preaches it. And the goal is to encourage his servant and strengthen his servant and reassure his servant and recommission his servant. Notice what he says. Then the Lord said to Moses, now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. Didn't say, knock it off, Moses. For with a strong hand he will let him go And with a strong hand, he will drive them out of his land. Moses, you watch what I'm about to do to this guy. You watch what I'm about to do to this guy. In a few chapters, the Lord is going to say, for this very purpose, I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you, that my name may be declared in all the earth. Moses, you're going to see why I'm allowing this. You're going to see why this is all going the way it's gone. Last week, my title to the sermon was, it wasn't supposed to go this way. And I've titled the sermon, it's all going just as planned, Moses. I'm not going to allow Pharaoh to overcome my plans for you. You watch what I do. He's going to drive you out with his arm. Somebody walked up to me last week and said, do you know what Pharaoh says when they leave? He says, bless me please. You'll see the good intention that I have for you, Moses, and not evil. You'll see my purposes unfold and my plans to bless and not harm. I hold his heart. You're absolutely right. I harden it and I soften it as I please so that right now you're going to see what I do to him so that you will understand what salvation is and what it means and what it looks like. That's the whole point. You don't get it. It takes so much more than human strength to deliver sinners from bondage, Moses. I'm going to show you my power. I'm going to unveil my power. In all of us, in our children, we begin to face things that are perplexing and overwhelming. It's not as if God has let something happen beyond His will. Moses still had to witness himself, the deliverance. So what was God doing at this point before the deliverance? That's why I think there's this window here where we have to spend the time understanding this. He's calling him to faith. Believe me. This is how the just live. They live by faith. And it's no different from us. The whole New Testament, you know, if you say, well, I feel the same kind of burden and struggle as Moses, the whole New Testament presents the second coming of the Lord as a rescue mission to pull us out because we would be crushed. Can you imagine how awesome it's going to be as you see all of the antagonism, all the hatred of the Lord run its course? The cycle of iniquity running its course as it always has. And it becoming complete right in front of you. And you see what's coming and you see the persecutions. Can you imagine when heaven opens all of a sudden in the midst of that? And there he comes. See, I've told you beforehand, said Jesus. You know what it's going to be like. You know what's going to come. And this should cheer our hearts in the midst of the opposition. And this is what the Lord does to him. Notice what he does. Pharaoh had just said, who is the Lord? The Lord says to him in verse 2, God spoke, I am the Lord. Notice it's all capitalized. Who is this Lord, this desert God in a shrub? I don't change Moses. I'm going to fulfill my word and my promise. I didn't, and you haven't really thought a lot about what I've already done for you. I didn't reveal myself to the fathers like I'm now going to show myself to you. Your fathers didn't really, They knew this name, but they didn't really know me by this name. Meaning, they didn't see what this name looks like in fulfillment. You are the generation to see it. You're going to see it. It's all going to unfold in front of you. Salvation begins with me. Salvation comes from me. I'm the powerful one. There's nothing too difficult for me, Moses. Nothing escapes me. You're going to see it. And then he explains something so glorious to Moses. What is it? Look at verse 4. I establish my covenant with them to give them. He's talking of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Your fathers, I establish my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I've heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves. I've remembered my covenant. Say to the people of Israel, I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from slavery to them. And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you... Just listen to this. I will take you to be My people and I will be your God. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from the burdens of the Egyptians. I have a great desire, Moses. You're going to be my people and I will be your God. You know what that is, right? It's the essence of the covenant of grace. I've remembered it. To which you all should say at this point, every time God has said in Genesis, I remember something, remember, watch out. Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and now he says it right before Egypt. These guys are in deep doo-doo. I've not forgotten Abraham, Moses. and I'm going to bring you back to the land that I swore. You know that word swore there in verse 8, you know what it means? When I lifted up my hand. To which you say, when did God lift up His hand and swear? Genesis 15. He went in oath stance that night when Abraham was sleeping, and he cut open animals, remember, and he put them in rows, and the Lord that night pass through those pieces and it says that the symbols of God Himself, a smoking fire pod and a blazing torch, it was a two-columned, what we call theophany, they were like the legs of God walking through in oath stands. I swear to do this. Two immutable things, says Hebrew. Promise and oath. I have to do this. I'm God. I can't lie. God walked through that night. Abraham was taking a doze and all of this was unconditional, the covenant of grace. If I break that covenant to Abraham, that would happen to me. Now, remember this. Remember what God said right after this? In the midst of that oath-cutting ceremony, do you remember what happened? He said this, your people, Abraham, will be afflicted 400 years and you will go to your fathers in peace. Notice the promise, but I will bring them back. I'm going to get them. Not one of them will be lost. I took the oath. So here's what I want you to do, Moses. I want you to go back and I want you to speak to them this promise. There are seven I wills here. Did you notice that? There's these I wills in verse 6. Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rescue you from their bondage. And he just keeps going. i will i will i will i'm going to redeem you i'm going to take you i will be your god then you shall know that i am the lord your god who brings you from out of the burdens of the egyptians and i will bring you into the land which i swore to abraham isaac to jacob and i will give it to you as an heritage i am the lord well that harkens back to abraham when the lord spoke seven promises to him isn't it amazing that moses at the lowest moment of frustration ready to quit ready to give up god gives him a grace sermon i can learn so much from that as a pastor you can learn so much from that as a parent by the way this is how hearts are changed this is how faith is created and this is where i want to challenge us today what how does this section end i chose to end deliberately on verse 9 for a reason i want you to feel the effect listen look at verse 9 so moses spoke thus to the children of israel but they did not heed moses because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage moses went out and he preached the gospel god's proclaiming free grace god is proclaiming through moses his pastor grace and mercy and freedom and they were so held in the bondage they couldn't hear it they were so afflicted their hearts were so cast down they were so burdened they were so full of anguish they were so worried they couldn't even hear what god was saying to them you know i've thought to myself all of my life isn't that just the challenge today we wait upon the lord to come and get us and all the discouragements along the way. We're in a generation that's faced more depression. This has been a depressed generation. All the distraction. All the frustration. And what's the last thing you want to hear sometimes? Another sermon on what God will do. It's time to see it done. 400 years they sat there. What's been one of my greatest struggles as a pastor? I've seen a lot of life-changing response to the gospel message preached. I believe with all my heart, 1 Corinthians 1, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. I've seen it. I've enjoyed being a part and thankful to be used that way. But I also have seen in my own ministry the other thing. That year after year after year, I have steadily tried by grace to preach the magnificent love of God and I feel at times that I have failed at that, at times that I have not been as clear about that as I want to be. But I have witnessed people put up a wall totally distracted by life and bondage and hardship and all of the hardships of their lives and all the frustration of living in a sin-cursed world. They have put up a wall and they could sit and not listen. And do you know it's possible that you could sit under a gospel ministry for 20 years and never hear it. Do you hear him? This is how the Lord's responding to us. He didn't have to do this. We chose our misery. We chose our bondage. But God made a promise. And if you believe that this God can't lie, here we all are burdened by sin. burdened by bondage anguish over the things that happen and god every week bears his heart to you and he says come to me this is what the lord jesus was constantly saying come to me i'll give you rest from your burdens you hear it do you hear what he's thinking about i'll give you sabbath i'll give you rest from all of your burdens my yoke is easy my burden is light, come to me, come to me. I'm going to fulfill what I started. And then every week we get the vantage point of looking back now and the cross has been done. I have, I have, I have. That's his message to us. I have, I have. It's finished. I am the good shepherd. I am, I am, I am. That was Christ telling it all over the place. I am the Lord. I came for you. And sometimes I wonder if our burdens and frustrations prevent us from hearing it because of the broken spirit and harsh slavery. Are you hearing the Lord today? He's with you. He wants you to hear. I am your God. You are my people. The greatest balm in your weight is to know that He has and He will fulfill His covenant of grace and promise to you. Don't turn away from Him. We sometimes look at people who harden their hearts and stiffen their hearts and then don't even want to come to church. And I think, look at what He's saying. And there are people who say, no thanks i'll stay in egypt i'll stay in the bondage and it breaks our hearts believe him men ought always to pray and what not lose heart having this ministry by the mercy of god we don't lose heart we do not lose heart though our outer nature is wasting away our inner nature is being renewed day by day let us not grow weary in doing good for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart for our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding an eternal weight of glory while we do not look for the things which are seen but the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporary but the things which are not seen are eternal and I hope you've heard God's covenant of grace sermon to you today let's pray where do we begin oh Lord to thank you in all of our belligerence and all of our hardened heart you have spoken over and over us you told us how this would go you told us we would be taken to the brink at times in life you told us through much tribulation we enter the kingdom you've told us all this and then in the midst of it you said that in the world we'll have tribulation but you sent your Son who told us that He's overcome the world. And yet when the tribulation and when the hardship is right in front of us we seem to be blinded. We erect walls to everything you've ever said. We stiffen our hearts. Forgive us for this. And I pray this morning as the pastor here who under Shepherd of Christ whom you called, that you, Lord, would open wide every heart and soften it. Let it not be that however long this pastor stands here that someone could stiffen their heart and never hear the Gospel message of grace. Break in. Remove bitterness. Remove hearts that are angry, complaining spirits and give them joy that is complete and joy that is fulfilled as they look for the day when the Lord Jesus Christ will come and make everything right. Cure our hearts, O Lord, and thank you for treating us this way. In Jesus' name we pray these things in confidence. Amen.