"I Am the LORD"
Exodus 6:1-13

“1 Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. 2 And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD: 3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. 4 And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. 5 And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: 7 And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD. 9 And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage. 10 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 11 Go in, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land. 12 And Moses spake before the LORD, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips? 13 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel, and unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.” (Ex 6:1-13)

Introduction
A. God had sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh with the message: Ex 4: 21 And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go. 22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, 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: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.

B. God was not talking primarily about the slaves that were in Egypt. There were many slaves in the ancient world, and a great many nations under the yoke of bondage just as there are today. Slavery has been much more the norm of the world than political and economic freedom. God will not have the world destroyed by the actions of lawless and perverted men and women, so He brings them under bondage, to restrain them and fulfill His promise to Noah that there would be no more flood of waters to destroy the earth.

C. So God puts lawless men under the yoke of bondage, for political, economic, and religious liberty are His gifts and he will not have them squandered by people who despise them and put themselves under bondage to depraved lusts, wickedness, and perversity. Will you use your liberty to destroy your unborn babies; to engage is all kinds of sexual perversities and wickedness; to worship depraved idols and the lusts of men? God will restrain you wickedness by storms, earthquakes, famine, war, diseases and plagues, and ways that you cannot imagine. There will be no escape from these things but devastation and ruin.

D. But God is speaking here of His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus, whom He had ordained to be sent into the world through the children of Abraham specifically the great grandson of Abraham, the tribe of Judah, that is now in bondage in Egypt with the other tribes, Judah’s brethren. Moses and Aaron were not the ordained savior of the world, for they were from Levi, but they were serve as types and figures of the One who was to come.

E. Israel could not stay in Egypt, because Christ was in them: his human dna in the bodies of the nation, he was there in promise, in the sign of circumcision, and soon to be in them in many types and figures of the Law of Moses and the ceremonies.

We come now to the passage I read in Exodus 7

I. Pharaoh’s response was the response of all bullies. I do not recognize the Lord. I am the only power that I recognize or accept. “Who is Jehovah? I do not know Jehovah, and I will not let the people go.

A. Those who do not know the Lord, will pay no attention to His commandments. In fact, this is one of the chief ways of recognizing who does and who does not know the Lord.

B. The child of God takes the Scriptures seriously.

C. The enemy of the Lord and the bully will not let the people of God be free, but is always holding them in bondage. There is no greater fear on this earth than that which is connected to the fear of the liberty of the people God. “I know not the LORD, and I will not let the people go.” How can you control you life and the lives of other people, if you let the people of God go?

D. If you let the people of God go, then they will start using their money, their labor, their influence, and their words to teach and advance the Word of God, and then all the bullying systems that the world has build of to control the people of God will be thrown down.

E. My power, says Pharaoh, depends upon the slavery of those who know the Lord, or who are in danger of knowing the Lord. I will not let the people go: I do not know the Lord.

F. I know politics; I know economic power; I know how to influence people; I know how to terrorize a population and make them obey the king; But I don’t know the LORD, and I won’t let the people go.

G. Besides Moses, you don’t have a band. How can you ever expect to let the people go if you don’t have a band? The slaves won’t listen to you unless you have a band? Hey, you guys, listen to this. Moses and Aaron are going to lead the people out of our land, going to set them free. Ho HO Ho. Listen to me, Moses, I know more about keeping people in slavery than you can imagine. Go get a band, and then come back, and maybe we can talk. Ha Ha Ha. Slaves have to have bread and circuses, Moses.

Digression: As I remember, I don’t think Jesus had a band either. Who was the lead singer for the “Twelve Apostles?” [Hey, that would be a neat name for a rock group, wouldn’t it? Probably been done.] How did Paul get anyone to come hear him preach, when he didn’t even have a snappy worship group?

I know, I know, I just made up that stuff about the band. But it is true. Moses didn’t have a band. All he had was a message from God.M

II. So Moses left the presence of Pharaoh and filed his report.

A. First of all to God. Moses was very wise in this; it is always good to talk to God before you do anything else. 6:1-8.

1. Four times in these verses God says, “I am the LORD”
2. Ye shall know that I am the Lord.
3. Ye shall know that I am the Lord your God. Israel must be taught covenant before they can instruct the world.
4. Many times in the next chapters, God will say, “the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.”

B. Then Moses filed his report with the people: but they were hard of heart and did not believe. The bible says “anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.”

1. They were overwhelmed with the trouble they had. Many people do not come to Christ: “what good does it do?”

2. Almost as soon as they were delivered from Egypt, the people complained about water, about the manna, about Moses and Aaron, about everything. The martyr Stephen, after reminding them of their long history from Egypt to that day when he was on trial for preaching the gospel in Acts 7, ended his defense by saying: Ac 7:51,2: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:”

C. If people cannot believe for earthly things, how shall they believe for heavenly things. How could they trust the Lord for deliverance from the devil, when they could not believe Him for deliverance from Pharaoh.

D. How wonderful was the promise of God to them; how wonderful the promise that they refused to believe: vs. 6,7 “Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: 7 And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD.”

E. Why, because He adopted them for the sake of the Lord Jesus, who was in them, even though they did not believe.

F. In the same way, Christ dwells in the church, even though some do not believe. He is not in the church according to the flesh, for Christ has come and ascended into heaven, and will not be born on the earth again. The loves the church, not only for those who believe, but for those who will believe, both those born into the families of the people of God, but of those who believe though their word. Jesus himself prayed in John 17: 20 “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.”

G. God would deliver Israel from Egypt, not because of the faith of the people, for they had none, and the Spirit was promised but not yet poured out upon the world, but because God had promised to send the Redeemer into the world to save those who believe.

H. This shows that God’s favor is not the result of faith, but that faith is the result of God’s favor. Israel, as a nation, still does not believe, though beloved for their father’s sake; the day will come when the remnant upon the earth will believe and all the total of God’s people will be complete, and these words will be fulfilled completely.

III. The third thing we see, is that Moses and Aaron also were not pure before God.

A. Twice in this chapter, Moses spoke his old complaint against God:

1. 12 And Moses spake before the LORD, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?

2. Ex 6:30 And Moses said before the LORD, Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me?

B. The promise of God does not come because of the worthiness of the preacher.

C. The charge that Go gave Moses and Aaron must be obey: Go tell Pharaoh “Let the children of Israel go!”

Applications:

1. We face the bondage of unbelief, false doctrine, reliance on the world the flesh and the devil, just as Israel did.

2. We may also face in the future economic, political, religious bondage as the people of God have so often experience in the world. Satan goes about as a roaring lion….. Anti Christ is always in the world, and the followers of false gods often rely upon coercion and persecution to gain and maintain power.

3. The church is weakened by the love of the world, the love of ease, the love of pleasure so that we do not contend for the faith or make our choices in terms of the faith.

4. All of our senses are dulled and spoiled by the love of the world.

a) We do not want the sincere milk of the word, but we want feel-good philosophies and tasty tidbits, and frothy cotton candy. We do not think and meditate, but we mine the Scriptures to find things that “work” that enhance our wealth, sense of well-being, self-righteousness, and worldly advantage.

b) Our ears are uncircumcised, and we hear what we want to hear, but not the voice of the Good Shepherd, His warnings, and His reproofs.

c) Our mouths are dulled and closed, uncircumcised. We talk of many things, but we do not rebuke sin and wickedness, unless they are the sins that are politically correct to rebuke, like abortion, sodomy, and high taxes; but we waffle on heresy, sacrilege, and evil speakings, bitterness, and many other spiritual offenses.

d) We are dull of feeling, and have lost our first love. We lose our passion for truth and our feeling for the Lord Jesus and people of God, lapsing into cynicism and bitterness.

e) We are dull to the stench of bitterness and unbelief around us, where God’s name is everywhere blasphemed and Christians are spoken against. Oakland, Oregon, where I graduated from high school, had a paper mill. Before we moved to Oakland, we used to drive up highway 99 and recoil at the horrid stench of the mill. But after moving there, we got used to it, just as Penny and I did years later when we moved to another town with a paper mill, Anderson, CA. Never noticed the stink all around us.

f) But the message is the same, though we are dull indeed:

I AM THE LORD. As Isaiah said: Isa 45:22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

Amen and Amen
God bless you.