He Will Be Known By What He Does

[0:00] I'm just going to read the passage that Alan will be preaching from in a moment in Exodus chapter 6.

[0:11] If you have a Bible, please turn there. And as David was speaking and praying, many of you know the name of Tim Keller, a famous and faithful preacher and theologian in America.

[0:26] He served thousands in New York City and later this week passed away and went to be with the Lord. Such endurance and perseverance to the end, faithfulness to the end.

[0:43] Of someone, such a public figure like him, is to be praised and given thanks for.

[0:53] And we're grateful for the ministry that he gave to so many beyond New York, to the entire world in fact. But also we celebrate and give thanks for the faithfulness of folks that nobody knows the name of, our brothers and sisters right here, who remain faithful to the end.

[1:12] It's such a good thing when God gives such perseverance and endurance, as you said. So Exodus chapter 6, Moses has been commissioned to go back to Egypt to speak to the people of Israel and to Pharaoh and to bring them out.

[1:31] And Moses has already went to the people and told them this news and they rejoiced. And then he went to Pharaoh and told them to let the people go. And Pharaoh basically laughed in his face and told them to beat it.

[1:45] And everyone's confused. They don't know what's happening. And it's at this point when God speaks to Moses and tells them what he's going to do. And so Exodus chapter 6, and I'm going to read from verse 1 through to 7, verse 7.

[2:00] And there's a middle section with loads of funny names. Please bear with me. Alan's grateful that I'm reading it. Okay, here we go. And remember when it says the Lord, that's a translation for our sake when it really says Yahweh, the name of God.

[2:20] So Exodus 6. 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.

[2:35] God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty.

[2:45] But to 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.

[2:59] Moreover, I have heard the groanings of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have 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.

[3:26] 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 burden of the Egyptians.

[3:38] I will bring you into the land I swore to give Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.

[3:50] Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. And so the Lord said to Moses, Go in, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to tell the people of Israel, Go out of his land, to let them go out of his land.

[4:11] But Moses said to the Lord, Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? For I am of uncircumcised lips. But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, and gave them a charge about the people of Israel, and about Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

[4:33] These are the heads of their fathers' houses, the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, Hanoch, Palu, Hezron, and Camarai.

[4:45] These are the clans of Reuben, the sons of Simeon, Jemuel, Jamin, Ohed, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaol, the sons of Achananite women.

[4:58] These are the clans of Simeon. These are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their generations, Gershom, Gohath, and Merari, the years of the life of Levi being 137 years.

[5:12] The sons of Gershom, Lebnai, and Shimei, by the clans. The sons of Kohath, Amram, Ishar, Hebron, and Uziel.

[5:27] The years of the life of Kohath being 133 years. The sons of Merari, Mahli, and Mushai. These are the clans of the Levites, according to their generations.

[5:39] Amram took his wife Jochebed, and his father's sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. The years of the life of Amram being 137 years.

[5:53] The sons of Ishar, Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri. The sons of Uziel, Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri.

[6:04] Aaron took his wife, Elisheba, the daughter of Aminabed, Aminadab, sorry, and the sister of Nashon.

[6:16] And she bore him, Nabad, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. The sons of Korah, Ishar, Elkanah, and Abiasaf.

[6:32] These are the clans of the Korah heights. Eleazar, Aaron's son, took his wife, one of the daughters of Putael, and she bore him Phinehas.

[6:43] These are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites by their clans. We got there. These are Aaron and Moses, to whom the Lord said, bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts.

[7:00] They are Levites, Aaron and Moses. It was they who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt, this Moses, and this Aaron, the Levites.

[7:14] On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, the Lord said to Moses, I am Yahweh, I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say to you.

[7:24] But Moses said to the Lord, Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me? And the Lord said to Moses, See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.

[7:39] You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you.

[7:55] Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Israel by great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.

[8:14] And Moses and Aaron did so. They did just as the Lord commanded. Now Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.

[8:38] Good morning, everyone. Am I on? No? Yeah. Yeah. Got a red light. Yeah, we're good. Thank you so much for leading us this morning, Alan, and for Cal for reading.

[8:59] Yes, when the offer came for someone to read the passage, I was definitely thinking, yeah, someone else can have a bash at the genealogies. Cal had mentioned that the passing of Tim Keller this week and obviously all over social media and everything, there's been lots of people talking about Tim Keller and how influential he has been.

[9:28] Certainly for me, like most of my understanding of seeing Jesus in the Old Testament comes entirely from listening to Tim Keller lectures, which he puts out there for everyone to hear.

[9:40] But he said this, and it ties in beautifully with our last song. He said, if you're falling off a cliff, strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.

[9:53] Salvation is not finally based on the strength of your faith, but on the object of your faith. And that's really what we're looking at today. In today's passage, we're going to see it's not about the people.

[10:08] In fact, we're going to see the people are terrible. It's not about Moses and Aaron. They're a bit sugary as well. It is all about God.

[10:20] It is the God who says, I am and I will. As Cal beautifully put it together for us when he was talking to the kids.

[10:30] A few, well, more than a few years ago now, our 10th wedding anniversary, which is more than a few years ago now, we went to London.

[10:47] I don't go to London very often. There's too many people in London for me. We went to London. We did all the sites. We went to see The Lion King, which was amazing.

[11:01] But we also went to see Romeo and Juliet, the ballet. Most people look at me and think, I wouldn't have you down as a ballet kind of guy.

[11:12] I absolutely love ballet. Absolutely love it. And Romeo and Juliet is particularly spectacular. But if you ever go to ballet, one of the things you get at the start when you sit down is the orchestra start to play.

[11:29] and the orchestra play an overture. And what they're giving you is the music and some of the musical themes that are going to appear later on in the ballet. It gives you a sense of what to expect.

[11:42] There's almost a hint of anticipation as to what's coming. And Exodus 6, 2, right through to 7, 7, is an overture.

[11:52] God is laying out all that he is going to do for his people. If you remember last week, chapter 5, Moses has been to Pharaoh for the first time.

[12:08] The outcome has been not good. Pharaoh says these words, which I think he will regret. He says, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?

[12:20] I do not know the Lord. I will not let Israel go. And he makes the Israelites work. Things become more difficult. They're more oppressed. They're making bricks without straw.

[12:35] And the Israelites turn on Moses and Aaron. And even Moses is dejected. Moses is like, why is this happening? Lord, why are you not delivering your people from their slavery and from their oppression?

[12:51] Why are you not doing anything, Lord? And what we're going to see unpacked for us and unfold before us this morning is that God has a plan far greater than anything Moses and Aaron can imagine.

[13:05] It's not just a plan of rescue. It's a plan where he's going to display his awesome power. He refers to it as the outstretching of his arm is the language that's used.

[13:20] It's a plan to reveal who he is to his people by what he does and what he's going to do. And by the end, even Pharaoh will know who the Lord is because of all that he's going to do in Egypt.

[13:39] Now, before we get to the overture, there is this genealogy section in the middle of our passage. And it does seem slightly out of place.

[13:52] It breaks up the narrative and it's like, well, why did Moses put this here? Maybe he could have tagged it on at the end or whatever.

[14:04] It does seem to interrupt the flow a little bit. But what we see in the Bible, any time you come across a genealogy in the Bible, they're never insignificant. The author is always trying to tell you something.

[14:16] And we could do a whole sermon just on this genealogy. We're not going to do that because I can't read some of these names either. But genealogies are so often key to understanding context and history.

[14:32] They reveal the unfolding of God's grace and the lives of ordinary people. And what this genealogy does here and where it's placed in this passage is it roots these events that we're going to hear about in history.

[14:48] This is not myth that we're reading about. These were real people in real places following a real God. And they're also, and this is the amazing thing, is they're just ordinary people doing things that ordinary people do.

[15:05] What did we read about? They're getting married. They're having children. They're building family. They're building extended families or clans as it would be referred to.

[15:16] But it's through these ordinary people that God is going to do extraordinary things. And the genealogy also roots these events in the covenant.

[15:29] It's in the covenant that God made with Abraham Abraham and he made with Abraham's descendants. So there's the theological rooting as well. And probably the final thing it's doing is it's proving the credentials of Moses and perhaps more importantly actually Aaron at this point.

[15:49] These are true sons of Israel. And they're called to lead and in Aaron's case they're called to be the intercessors. It's from Aaron comes the priests and Aaron's descendants are going to be those who stand between the people and God and make intercession on behalf of the people.

[16:11] So it's the same Moses and the same Aaron who are descended from the tribe of Levi and are descendants of Abraham. And it's to them that God is speaking and they're discouraged and God is going to speak great truth into their lives.

[16:32] So let's look at the first part of this great overture and I call it The God Who Will Part 1. And in these verses so we're looking from really from verse chapter 6 verse 2 right down to the end of verse 8.

[16:51] And in these verses what we have is one of these amazing examples in the Old Testament where we get to hear God preaching. And God is preaching his own gospel.

[17:03] It's his own good news regarding himself and all that he is going to do. And as we pointed out in the talk earlier there are seven I will statements in this passage and each is intended to display the abundant and generous and gracious and all powerful nature of God towards his people.

[17:27] Let me group these into four statements to help us sort of see this morning the awesomeness of God. In terms of application this morning I should just say this at this point a lot of this is a bit like how would I describe I sometimes go away on my own with my tent and I go up into the mountains or a sea kayak full of food and I go off up the west coast on my own and Susan will often say to me what do you do?

[18:01] And to be honest all what I do is I the best word is I absorb I go into big spaces and I simply just absorb the greatness and the vastness of what is there.

[18:14] If you're out on the west coast off Araseg or you're in the Cairngorms or up in Glencoe wherever it's going to be it's just absorption and really that for us probably is our application this morning is just to sit and absorb the greatness of God towards his people.

[18:32] So let's see the first thing God does so the first thing he says in verse 3 and 4 he is the God who makes himself known. He makes himself known.

[18:43] God says to Moses that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob knew him principally as God almighty El Shaddai. They knew him as the one who made the covenant.

[18:57] They knew him as the one who was the promise maker. Now Abraham and Isaac and Jacob now they were also familiar with God's other name Yahweh the Lord because we know that it appears about a hundred times in Genesis but it's now four hundred years after the promise to Abraham and it's now that the true meaning of Yahweh is going to be revealed because its likelihood is that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob they knew the name but they maybe didn't really understand all that God was saying and what Yahweh is now revealing is this is that Yahweh is not only is he the promise maker but he is the promise keeper.

[19:46] He is the one who's going to uphold his covenant to his people. He is the one who is going to be true to his word and this is the first great aspect of the gospel that is revealed here by God.

[19:59] God is one who wants to be known. Who wants to who makes himself known. He's not some sort of abstract entity.

[20:12] He's personable. He's knowable. He's not like the gods of Egypt. He's not like the gods of Canaan or if we come to the New Testament he's not like the Greek gods or the Roman gods.

[20:24] This is the God who in the beginning walked with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the evening. He wants to be known. He is knowable.

[20:36] Paul writes in Romans he says this for what can be made what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so they are without excuse.

[20:59] God makes himself known through his creation. You sometimes hear atheists saying that they don't believe in some kind of great spirit in the sky or some kind of giant sky fairy.

[21:19] And Tim Keller said this what you can say to them is this well I don't believe in that kind of God either. We believe in a God who is not some abstract entity floating about in space.

[21:35] He is a God who is personable. In fact he is a God who is three persons. And he is knowable and he is concrete and he is real. and he makes himself known to his creation and to his world through his creation and through his word and through his son.

[21:55] The second thing we can say is this is the God who hears. He is a God who hears and remembers. The same God who makes himself known is also the God who hears the cries of his people.

[22:10] He hears the cries of the broken hearted, the downcast, the oppressed. In Genesis he is called El Shema, the God who hears.

[22:21] I think it was Hagar who is out and she is run away and God comes to her and she says you are the God who hears. El Shema.

[22:33] So God is not rubber eared. He hears and he is moved to action by the cries of his people because when he hears he remembers and he remembers his promises and in his timing now in our passage is the time for rescue and salvation.

[22:58] Is it not all too easy to think that God doesn't hear or respond to our cries for help? partly because we want things to change on our schedule according to our desires, according to our plans.

[23:25] John Calvin says this. He says, it was indeed possible for God to overwhelm Pharaoh at once by a single nod so that he should even fall down dead at the very sight of Moses.

[23:38] But he chose more clearly to lay open his power for if Pharaoh had either voluntarily yielded or had been overcome without effort, the glory of the victory would not have been so illustrious.

[23:52] God wished to accustom his servants in all ages to patience, lest they should faint in their minds if he does not immediately answer their prayers and at every moment relieve them from their distresses.

[24:07] God has perfect timing. It's been often said he's never early and he's certainly never late. If you're anything like me, then there are times when it does sometimes feel that God's a bit late.

[24:28] But we need to know that God does hear. He absolutely hears and he has compassion but he is sovereign.

[24:40] He has a plan. His plan is far greater and is achieving more good than anything you can possibly imagine.

[24:52] As Paul says, our light and momentary afflictions are actually just part of that plan. They're stitches in the great tapestry of the plan of God.

[25:07] Third thing we can say is this, he is the God, verse 6 and 7, he is the God who rescues and saves. In these two verses there are five I will statements.

[25:21] These are such amazing words. For Moses to hear, for Aaron to hear, and for the people to hear. This is a five-fold rescue plan that God is about to lay out.

[25:36] He says, I will bring you out from under the burden of Egypt. I will deliver you from slavery. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment. God is going to purchase his people for himself.

[25:49] God is God. They will now and forever always be his. I will take you to be my people.

[26:00] Their identity is going to change. They're going to go from being slaves to children. What a transformation. They're in bondage to Pharaoh.

[26:11] They're enslaved in Egypt and now they're going to be children of God. And he says, I will be your God. Such powerful words.

[26:24] Such a powerful picture and description of salvation. You know, if you're a Christian this morning, this is what has already happened to you.

[26:36] God has brought you out from under the burden and the reign of Satan. He set you free. from the bondage of sin.

[26:46] You're no longer a slave to your old ways. Sin has no mastery or power over you. You have been redeemed. Hear it.

[26:56] You have been redeemed by great power. The power that rests in the blood of Jesus as his outstretched arms were nailed to a cross. The great judgment which should have been ours is poured out on him.

[27:10] And now we can say truly and forever that we belong to God. Yahweh, the great I am, is our God.

[27:22] We are his people. We are adopted as sons of the living God. This is incredible news. This is the gospel.

[27:36] This is the good news of salvation. salvation. But it doesn't stop there. God's plan for salvation, his gospel, is more than rescue.

[27:52] More than rescue. We need to remember the people who are hearing or reading these words of Moses have been wandering in the wilderness. forgiveness. For them to know that the rescue from Egypt was not the end is absolutely key.

[28:12] For them to know that God is the God who provides a future for his people. And in his plan for the Israelites, he provides them with a land and a fulfilled promise.

[28:27] He says he will provide them. with land and a place of provision. You know, for us to know that our salvation is not the end.

[28:43] You know, we're in the wandering years. We're in exile in a land that is not our own. But there is a place that has been prepared for us.

[28:55] This is not the end. It's a new heaven. the new ark. The place where God will dwell with his people. Where all will be made new and we will get to see Jesus face to face.

[29:13] That was like Tim Keller's, almost his last words. He was ready to see Jesus face to face. God's face to face to face.

[29:25] That's the future. I think I probably quote this more often than anyone else, but C.S. Lewis always talks about further up, further in. That's what the future for us is.

[29:37] It never ends. It has no boundaries. It has no limitations. It's just more and more and more and more and more of God forever. and we'll never be bored of any of this.

[29:51] Now, you would think the people, when they hear this, you would think, wow, they're going to be excited.

[30:05] They're going to hear this and they're going to be on their knees, praising God. Their mindset's going to be changed. They're going to be filled with such hope and excitement. verse 9, Moses speaks to the people and they praise the God of their salvation.

[30:22] No, no, no. What does it say? They didn't listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

[30:38] Such a jarring point in this passage. This amazing panorama of the gospel laid out, the good news of God's rescue, it delivered to the people and it's just stop.

[30:56] People will not listen. These people are seemingly broken, so dejected, worn down, they've given up on hope.

[31:09] They're enslaved by their slavery. captivity. It's not just a physical captivity, but this is a spiritual captivity. And it's preventing them from seeing the good news as good.

[31:23] They simply have no capacity for faith in God. Their captivity has become all consuming. So even the very words of God fall on unhearing ears.

[31:40] Do you feel for Moses at this point? You know, God's told him this great plan and he's gone and he's presented this to the people.

[31:53] He's laid out this great presentation of the good news about God's plan for salvation and how they're going to be lifted out of slavery and he's going to have great power and he's going to take them out of Egypt and he's going to give them this land.

[32:06] And what does he get back? Not one. Not one positive response. I don't know, have you ever been in the same situation?

[32:20] Ever been in a situation where you've presented the gospel to someone maybe over a few weeks or a few months? Friends, family? Maybe you've brought someone to an event where a speaker is going to share the good news and they do a good job and what's the response?

[32:44] Rejection. You're like, you're gutted. You're like, what will it take? Because you love this person. You want them to know this great truth and you're like, Lord, what is it going to take?

[33:02] the people of Israel here are a picture of humanity. Paul says in Romans 6 that humanity is enslaved by sin.

[33:15] He goes on, he says in Ephesians 2, it says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work, and the sons of disobedience amongst whom we all once lived in the passion of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath.

[33:39] what's it going to take to change these people? What's it going to take to change any person?

[33:52] If we deal with the people in Egypt, what's it going to take to change them from being spiritually and physically enslaved to those people who are going to, and we know the story, they're going to get up, they're going to pack up their possessions and they are going to march out of Egypt and to cross the Red Sea and eventually they're going to be where they are now when we're reading this, on the edge of the promised land.

[34:19] Not as slaves, but as a great host of God's people. How does that happen? They've just rejected God and then a few first chapters later they're marching out of Egypt.

[34:35] What on earth is going on? Well, I put it this, it wasn't their willpower. They didn't just gird their loins, to use an old phrase.

[34:47] It wasn't their determination to be free. They're utterly buried in their slavery. They didn't come up with a clever escape plan. This was not mission impossible.

[35:00] Someone's dreamed up a great plan, and it's like the wee huddle, right boys, here's what we're going to do. We're going to hide behind the biggest pyramid, wait till it's dark, and sneak out of Egypt. No, they didn't come up with any of that.

[35:17] They didn't even deserve to be rescued. It wasn't that God had seen something worthy in them. They were those who had rejected him.

[35:31] What's it going to take? What's going to be to be the same thing that was required to turn my heart when I was 14? It was required to turn your heart whenever you became a Christian.

[35:43] It requires the gracious power of God, who by his spirit gives life, who breaks the chains of slavery, who opens the eyes to see the gospel so that we can believe and follow Jesus.

[35:58] These people need to see and experience the power of God. If you have your Bibles open, if you could flick over to 2 Corinthians, a small diversion.

[36:15] 2 Corinthians chapter 4. This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Let me read.

[36:32] verse 1. Paul writes, Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. We have renounced disgraceful and underhand ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word.

[36:46] But by the open statement of truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.

[36:57] In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbeliever. That's the people in Israel. They are blinded. They are blinded by their sin. They're in bondage.

[37:08] They're in slavery. They're dead. Paul goes on. He says, they're blinded to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.

[37:21] For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[37:42] For someone to move from slavery to freedom requires God to turn on the lights. Just in the beginning, God said, let there be light.

[37:58] Well, that has to happen in our hearts. That has to happen in our souls so that we can see. He gives us new hearts so that we can feel and believe and trust.

[38:12] So when we're talking to people and we're desperate, we're absolutely desperate for them to know Jesus, well, we still proclaim.

[38:23] That doesn't stop. We proclaim Jesus. We still proclaim the gospel, we still proclaim the good news, but as we proclaim it, what are we praying for? We're praying for God to turn on the lights.

[38:36] We're praying for that transformation to take place, or to put it in a more theological term, a new birth. This is the new birth of the gospel. people. And that's what has to happen to these people in Egypt.

[38:51] That's what has to happen to anyone here. That is what's required. Let's push on.

[39:02] So, in our passage, as we continue, God goes back to Moses right after the genealogy section, and he tells Moses, you've got to go back to Pharaoh.

[39:14] Pharaoh. And even Moses, like, Moses is just like, hang on, the people aren't with me. He only got his brother. Just me and my brother.

[39:26] And once again, God's going to speak to them. And we're going to see, if you like, God, the God who will part two. I'll be much briefer on this bit.

[39:38] But if you look at these last few verses in Exodus, the first few verses, sorry, in Exodus chapter 7. Look at what he says to Moses.

[39:51] He says, once again, it's God speaking. He says, he's going to make Moses be like a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron's going to be like his prophet. He will make Pharaoh's heart hard.

[40:05] He will multiply his signs and wonders. He says, he will lay his hands on Egypt and cause great acts of judgment. And on that day, when the people are brought out of Egypt, he says this, everyone will know that he is the Lord.

[40:22] And David prayed, either we'll know him as a source of salvation or as an instrument of judgment. There's a day coming.

[40:34] Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. You either confess it with joy or you confess it with dread.

[40:50] It is ultimate reality. Will Jesus be Savior or judge? church. And it would seem that we get to the end of this section in verses six and seven.

[41:08] It would seem that there are only two believers remaining in all of Egypt. Moses and Aaron.

[41:19] It says, Moses and Aaron believe God and do as he commanded. the lights come on for Moses and Aaron. But, and it points out this little detail, they're 80 and 83 years of age respectively.

[41:40] What are they going to do at 80 and 83? I'm about halfway there. There's maybe one or two here and you're in that age bracket or you're staring at it closely.

[41:59] They're old. What can they achieve at that age? Well, on their own, nothing. They can achieve nothing at that age.

[42:11] But what we're going to see is this. This is this great overture. God is about to act through them in great might and in great saving power. And starting with two men, like two believers, he is going to save a great host of people.

[42:30] Both Israelites, spoiler alert, there is also a mixed multitude of people. Egyptians, other races who are going to leave Egypt because they have seen the power of God and they've believed.

[42:44] saved. And they've come to know that God is a living God because of what he has done. Be encouraged this morning, brothers and sisters.

[42:56] God is not asking you to save everyone in your family or everyone in Bell's Hill because only God has the power to save sinners. God is the savior.

[43:08] God is the one who brings salvation. He is the one who opens the eyes. He is the one who gives a new heart. Who are we? Willing and obedient messengers who know and declare the goodness of God and all that he has done for us.

[43:30] Let me pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Father, we have read and we've seen in your word just how awesome you are.

[43:49] How much power you have exerted towards your people. We are those who are redeemed, saved, rescued, those who have been transformed from slaves to children of God.

[44:15] We are those who have a new identity. We are now found in Christ. We are in your son. And all the treasures and the joys of heaven and that eternal relationship with you is ours.

[44:36] Father, would this and with these truths, Father, by your spirit, Lord, would you bury these deep in our hearts or would they be a rock to us?

[44:47] Would they be a source of assurance? Would they be a source of confidence? And would they be a source of great gratitude for all that you are and for all that you have done for us?

[45:03] In Jesus' name, amen.