LET MY PEOPLE GO! Dr. W. A. Criswell Now you can easily follow the message this morning if you will turn to the third chapter of the Book of Exodus; the third chapter of the Book of Exodus. The first time in the Bible that God refers to “My people” is in Exodus 3:7: And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows. [Exodus 3:7] The first time He calls them, “My people.” He repeats that with great emphasis in the fourth chapter of Exodus and the twenty-second and twenty-third verses: “Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My son, even My firstborn: And I say unto thee, Let My son go, that he may serve Me.” Then in the fifth chapter of the Book of Exodus, Moses and Aaron go in and say to Pharaoh, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let My people go.” [Exodus 5:1] That is as if God had said, “I have counted them one by one. Not a single, smallest, littlest one that belongs to Me is to be left in the land of darkness. All of them are to go, all of them. I’ve counted them. These are Mine, they belong to Me. And thus saith the Lord God, Let My people go.” If I could just say a comment here that is a glorious picture of God’s people who are going to be ultimately redeemed; who now dwell in the land of the shadow of death; and who are imprisoned in the tombs, and the sepulchers, and the graves of this earth. Some of these days, the whole purchase possession will be redeemed. Our spirits now when we are converted and regenerated; our bodies by and by when God says to death and to the kingdom of darkness, “I say unto thee, let My people go. I have their names written here. I have counted them. I know them every one.” And when that day arrives for the great ultimate and final exodus, there will not be left in the region of the shadow of death one of the least, littlest ones who have placed their trust in the Lord. There’ll not be a bone left in the region of death. There’ll not be a relic there for Satan to gloat over and exalt over. We all shall be delivered and we all shall be changed. “Thus saith the Lord God, let My people go.” Don’t you worry, God won’t forget you. Don’t you be afraid or embarrassed, don’t you tremble. God knows your name and when He counted up those who belong to Him, He counted you. “Let My people go.” I tell you, it’s a glorious thought. So when the demand was made, instead of lightening their burden it increased it. Instead of finding favor in the sight of the oppressor, he oppressed them all the more. So much so that in the fifth chapter of Exodus, in the fourteenth and following verses you have a description of the terrible task masters who stood over the lives of the people and made them despair of their very existence itself because of the heavy burdens laid upon them. In the sixth chapter and the sixth verse you have a description of their spirit; they were beat, they were broken. “And Moses spake unto the children of Israel: but they harkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.” They were helpless, they were pitiable, they were broken, they were beat down, they were crushed; and every tear that fell to the ground, and every sigh that was cast upon the breeze but emphasized and exclaimed the more of their oppression and their bondage. And their very slavery and their very anguish but was a public proclamation of their servitude and their helplessness. That’s exactly how it is with us when we fall into the region of the valley of death; every tear that is shed at the grave but emphasizes our bondage and our helplessness. Every sigh, and every groan, and every broken spirit is but a public declaration of our helplessness in the presence of the cruel and terrible enemy who reigns over the valley of the shadow of death. Every time you see a grave, every time you see a tomb, every time you see a monument, every time you see a cemetery, every time you see a flower wreath, every time you see a family bowed down in sorrow, every time you hear the groans of those who are in cruel, heart-brokenness over the invasion of the task master; all of those things are just emphases of our cruel oppressor and our helplessness in the presence of the prince of the kingdom of death and of darkness. Just as it was here they could not deliver themselves anymore than we can deliver ourselves. When the time comes for you to die, I’d like to see you deliver yourself. When the pale horseman knocks at your door and says, “I’ve come for you,” I’d like to see you deliver yourself. And when they embalm your body or because of poverty or exigency they just wrap you in burlap and put you in the earth, I’d like to see you deliver yourself. I’d like to see the man that can raise himself from the dead. You talk about helpless. There is no helplessness comparable to that when we fall into the cruel hands of the oppressor. We cannot save ourselves; we cannot help ourselves any more than these, God’s people, “My people” could help themselves when they were in the land of bondage, and for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage, they lay prostrate and broken. If we are saved, it lies in the hands of God. If we are ever delivered, it lies in the strength of the Almighty. If there’s not any salvation in Him, there’s not any salvation for us at all. In the land of bondage, we cry and groan in cruel oppression and finally are laid in the very dust of the ground but God, but God, God says, “I have counted them. I have named them.” There’s not a sparrow even that falls to the ground without the Father’s eye. “I saw it when it happened. And I numbered it. These are mine. They belong to Me. And I say unto thee, prince of the power of darkness and death, let My people go.” You talk about an exodus here that we’re going to describe when they went out with a high hand; brother, that’s not anything like the exodus we are going to see some of these days, when we are delivered with a high hand in the power and glory of the Lord—out of the kingdom of death and darkness into the kingdom of the liberty and life of the glorious Son of God. All right God says, “Let My people go.” So Pharaoh says, “Who is this Lord? I’ve never heard of Him. Who is this God? I don’t know Him.” That is what the skeptic says today, “Who is this God that could raise the dead? We don’t believe in raising the dead. Who is this God who can make us to live again? We don’t believe we live again.” That’s the skeptic. He doesn’t change. He was back there 1500 years BC. He is here 2000 years AD. He doesn’t ever change and he’s everywhere. “Who is this God? Our gods are gods that we can see, they are gods we can touch, they are gods we can shake hands with. They are gods that we can find remunerated in this world.” And whether they make an image of him or whether they just worship him in the spirit, the skeptic, and the unbeliever, and the infidel, their gods are here in this world. Sometimes today we worship money, and we worship power, and we worship influence, and we worship fame; and not many of us make images of them but back there they made images of them. And the Nile was a god, and the sun was a god, and fertility and fecundity were a god. And all of the elements were gods. You see? They were just a little more naïve than we, that’s all. But they were the same kind of skeptics and the same kind of infidels that we have today. “Who is this God that can raise the dead and give us the kingdom of light, and glory, and liberty? We don’t know any God like that.” So the Lord proceeded to answer that question every one of these plagues, they were not adventitious, farcical, facetious, fanciful, haphazard, just something. Every one of them had a meaning. Every one of those plagues took one of those false gods or goddesses and pulverized it; every one of them. The Nile was a god and they worshipped the god of the Nile. Every once in a while you will see a picture of the Pharaoh, and he has got an image of the god on this side, and the image of that god on the other side, and he stands in the middle, reading water lilies. The Nile was a god, so the great Lord God Jehovah just turned the whole Nile into a gory stream from bank to bank and it ran pure blood. And the fish died and the whole earth stank; that’s what the Lord God can do with a false imposter god. And all of those frogs, they had a goddess named A-G-K-T. And her head was a frog and she was the goddess of proliferation and fecundity like you would have rabbits at Easter time, except they just worshipped. And the Lord God took that goddess and so multiplied the fecundity and the fertility until the whole land stank with her. Just got so tired and so weary of sleeping with frogs, and eating frogs, and living with frogs, and going to bed with frogs, and getting up in the morning with frogs, sitting down with frogs, got so weary until they just nearly died. And the whole earth stank again with the goddess A-G-K-T. Then those people who were so scrupulously, slavishly, punctiliously given over to the ceremonial ablutions, they were washing Aphis the sacred bull. And they were washing the sacred goat, and they were washing all the sacred animals, and they were washing the priests and going through all those ablutions in the Nile. The Lord God covered them with lice. Every time a fellow went to worship his sacred god, there he was a-scratching, and a-itching, and a-pawing, and a-shaking ‘cause lice were all over him. There in the sacred temple where the priests were supposed to be so scrupulously, and punctiliously, and ablutionally clean, ceremonially clean, there he was covered in lice; lice all over him. That’s what the Lord God was doing to the land of Egypt. Every one of those plagues hit a god right square in the face or entered the domain over which a god was to preside and to protect. The Lord pulverized them. Now the great god of all the gods was named Ra. And that was the name of the god of the sun, Ra. That name was incorporated in their sacred city. And that name was incorporated in the name of their, the title of their king, “Pharaoh, O, Pha-raoh.” The great sun god and in that ninth plague, the Lord blotted him out, just blotted him out. For three days and three nights, the Egyptians couldn’t even get out of bed. They couldn’t find their feet, except to go down there and feel to see if they had feet. They couldn’t put on their clothes; they couldn’t find their clothes. It was a darkness that could be felt, you could cut it, you could reach out there and touch it. That’s what God did to Ra, the sun god. Can you imagine the impression that made in a land that is bathed in sunshine 365 days out of every year? Ah, those were great times when God took a notion to teach Pharaoh who all the Lord was. “Who is this Jehovah? I never heard of Him, I don’t know Him.” And I tell you, some of these days the infidels, and the skeptics, and the unbelievers are going to have a great time when God teaches them that there is a God and His name is the Lord Jehovah, Jesus the Christ. And they’re going to learn it some day too. “Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord.” [Philippians 2:10] It’ll come. It’ll come. It has to come. It will come; it came here. Now when Pharaoh was in the hands of the Lord and the Lord was saying to Him, “Let My people go,” why, Pharaoh had some deals to make. He had some compromises to suggest. And the first one is in the eighth chapter of Exodus and the twenty-fifth verse. God says, “I want My people out of the land of Egypt. I want them out of the land of darkness. I want them in the land of Canaan, in the promised land with Me in glory.” And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, “Go to sacrifice to your God in the land!” “Stay right where you are; why should you go down that aisle? Why should you shake that preacher’s hand? Why should you confess your faith in Christ? Why should you be baptized? Why, you’re all right! Stay right where you are. Don’t you be persuaded, don’t you listen to that preacher; you stay right where you are. You are as good as any one of the members in that church. Why, don’t you know? Long time ago or yesterday, one of the members of the church cheated you. Don’t you know? Don’t you know? Don’t you remember? Why, you’re as good as any of those church members, already and all right? You just stay right where you are. Don’t you move. Don’t you attend. Don’t you go. Don’t you confess. You just stay where you are in the land just as you are.” Yes sir, you do that and you’ll be lost. You’ll be lost. When the fire falls and burns them up, it’ll burn you up. When the hail comes and pulverizes that land, it’ll pulverize you. And when the great judgment of darkness of God falls upon the land, it’ll fall upon you. If you don’t get out, if you don’t flee from the wrath to come, some of these days that awful judgment will fall upon you. You can’t stay where you are and be saved. You can’t worship God in the land. “Out,” says God. “Out,” says the Lord, “Out!” God would say this day There is still time TO GO WITH US save yourself and your household COME QUICKLY PEOPLE WE ARE NOT TO PLAY CHURCH WE ARE THE CHURCH LET THE CHURCH RISE IN HOLY BOLDNESS SPEAK TRUTH TO EVERY MAN AND DO NOT WATER DOWN THE TRUTH Powerful Sermon Amen
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 14:08:10 +0000
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