Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): God makes Himself known in a powerful way next on Abounding Grace.

We are delighted to share the next half hour with you. This is Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor, who today resumes our chapter-by-chapter study of Exodus. As we turn together to chapter 7, we're going to see how God would deliver His people and would use Moses and Aaron to be His messengers to the Pharaoh. The Lord is about to use some miracles to prove to the Pharaoh that these men were sent by God. Here is Pastor Ed with all the details.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Take God's word, hide it in your heart, and give out the word all day when you're talking to people. You don't have to quote Scripture. You can just begin to share with them what Jesus taught you. It's an attractive thing. And then after work, when you have your Bible in your car, you can say, "Oh wait, wait, wait, I want to share something with you. You know, I wanted you to see how you responded to what I share with you and I just want you to know that that wasn't from me. It's right here in the Bible."

And then you just pull it out and you start to read to them. You say, "See, this is the power of God's word." But you know what happens is you get all beat out of shape and you're going to get all upset. "I'm going to quit. I'm going to quit. They won't let me bring my Bible." What are you talking about? The Bible is in you. It's already there. Just walk in the Spirit, let Him use you, and give Him your word. Like I said, that's probably an answer for someone because it's much easier, isn't it, just to flip out and be upset and write letters to HR or whatever.

And then while you're writing letters to HR, the person in the cubicle next to you needs your attention. They don't need you all upset because you're representing the Lord. Can you imagine Moses coming to Pharaoh and going, "You know, I don't like God. Mom gave me your word anyway. I told her I didn't want to do this. See, Aaron, I told him I didn't want to do this." Pharaoh is just going to laugh. Somehow there was something, the presence, the anointing, perhaps even the Shekinah glory of God was on Moses and Aaron that would capture the known ruler of the world to give them his attention.

There was something in them. And as we look at the culture around us and we see it so dark, even in the darkest of culture, the darker things get, even the less light it requires to make a difference. And if you can just tap into that and get the word of God in you. Why do you read your devos in the morning? Why? Because you want to get the word of God in you. You want it to shape you and form you. Why are you reading a chapter of Proverbs every day? So that you might hear the wisdom of God.

Why would you flip through the Psalms? Because you want to deposit the worship of God inside of you. Why would you go to the Gospels? If that's all you read for the next year, you would go to follow Jesus so that you learn how to walk with Him and you learn the ways of Jesus. If that's all you did for a year, at the end of the year, you will be a different woman and a different man. Your heart will be melted before Him. You match that with obedience. What we need to learn is how to walk into things tactfully and obediently.

And they need the word of God. They don't need our opinions. You've heard that from the pulpit here many, many times. It's very important to me that you grasp this. Nobody cares about your opinions. Nobody. You shouldn't even care about your opinions. You're the only one that really cares so much about your opinions. You're the only one. "No, Ed, you don't understand. I found seven other people on TikTok, they care too." They're all bots anyway. And quite frankly, most people don't care about the word of God either.

They don't really care about what God's word is or what the Bible has to say. But here's the difference between God's word and your opinion. Your opinion is your opinion. And God's word is power. It's living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It cuts to the heart of the matter in people's lives. So people don't care about your opinions, although you might get a few claps and likes or whatever. People don't care about the word of God, but God uses His word to cut right to the heart.

Very rarely does He use your opinions that way unless, of course, you're sharing a biblical opinion. And then all of a sudden, people are touched by that. But don't ever forget that there is no power in our opinions, but there is much power in the word of God. And so Aaron and Moses, they come and they had to come with this confidence because look, He's telling them what's going to happen in verse 3: "I'm going to harden Pharaoh's heart." If we're standing there before God, don't you think we'd say, "Well, what am I going for then?"

If he's not going to listen to me and he's not going to care about me and he's just going to harden his heart, then why should I go? And He says in verse 4, in case Moses was really questioning, "Pharaoh's not going to listen to you." Like, what am I going for? But the answer in verse 5 is, "The Egyptians will know. That's why you're going. Just trust me." Or what's the phrase that you use today? "Just trust the process." Just trust the process. It may not be happening the way you want it right now.

It may not be ending the way, but you're not at the end yet. So just trust the process. How does that translate to us? Just trust the word. Don't be looking for immediate gratification, immediate results. Just trust the word because God may be doing something more behind the scenes that has nothing to do with the moment. Just faithful obedience. Trust God with the process. He's working something out. Remember, when He says, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart," there's two words in the Hebrew that we're dealing with here when it comes to harden.

One means to be hard, difficult, and show stubbornness. This is what Pharaoh will do. The other one is to stiffen or to make rigid. That's what God will do. God will come alongside Pharaoh's hardened heart and give him what he wants. This is a common question. It doesn't make sense. Why is God hardening Pharaoh's heart? Но it's like the best illustration I can think of is like for you parents, you understand this with your kids. You have a piece of candy in your hand and your kid gets a piece of candy and you come and you grab it.

You go, "No, no, you can't have that right now." And they go, "What are you talking about? This is the end of the world. I want that piece of candy. I've got to have that candy now, now, now." Kick and scream. And you're like, "Trust me. Trust me. You can't have it right now." And why would you say that? What they don't know is in the back room, you've got a basket full of candy. You're ready to bless them. You're ready to give them so much more, but you don't want to tell them yet.

You're just testing them with this little piece in their hand. That's it. Just give it to me. I'm dad, I'm mom. I don't want to throw my weight around or anything. I'm telling you what to do. Give it to me. But in the back of your mind, you're ready to bless, you're ready overwhelmingly to take care of them. And they scream and kick and scream. "No, no, no!" And what do you do? You decide to give in. "Okay, if you want the piece of candy, have it." "Yay! Haha, got you, got you, Dad! Haha."

Open it up, enjoy it. It lasts five minutes. And you let some time pass and you say, "Son, I need to talk to you. You know what you did is just not what we're teaching you here. Obedience, however you disciple your kids. And I just want you to know I was ready to bless you." "What?" "Yes, I was ready to bless you. I just asked, told you to give me the candy. Why didn't you trust me? I'm your dad, I'm your mom. I love you. I want to take care of you. I want you to trust me. But you wanted the candy."

"So let's walk back to the back room. Go ahead and open the closet door." "Yay!" And then you say, "No, you can't have it. You got your reward. I gave you what you wanted." "No, Dad, I didn't want that. I want—" "No, that was pretty clear. Mom, come in here, roll the tape." She gets off the phone. "It's pretty clear. You said you wanted it." "No, no, I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it. I'll give it back. I'll go buy another one." They start crying, all the waterworks. "No, I gave you what you want."

Remember in the Psalms, the Bible talks about God giving them what they desired but then sent leanness into their souls. It's that lesson of trusting in the Lord. So this hardening of Pharaoh's heart, don't misunderstand that God is not giving him a chance. There are 10 plagues coming. God has been very gracious to Pharaoh, but it's like God saying, "Pharaoh, if that's what you want, then that's what I'll give you." If you set your heart on a course, God will strengthen you.

So today, the good news is if you choose to follow God, then your sails are up and you can take off. And God will give you the strength and the joy. He will give you and empower you if you want to follow Him. If you want to harden your heart, if you choose to go against God, then your life will be very difficult. Your life will be very difficult. Jot this down, maybe memorize it. I memorize in the Old King James. In the New King James, it says in Proverbs 13:15, "Good understanding gains favor, but the way of the unfaithful is hard."

But the Old King James is "the way of the transgressor is hard." And that's how it got burned in my mind. This is the process God has chosen to display His power. We don't always understand His ways, but we know that God has an end purpose in mind. So verse 6. Verse 6 is great. We're making great progress today, but these are very important principles. Then Moses and Aaron did so, just as the Lord commanded them. So they did.

And then I love this. Let's not miss verse 7 before we move on. Moses is 80 years old and Aaron is 83 years old when they spoke to Pharaoh. They're in the prime of their lives, 80 years old, 83. Just the opposite of what our society says. So those of you that are silver-haired, what does the Bible say? The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, and in it is found the way of righteousness. This was God's timing to use Moses. We learned this from Pastor Bob Claycamp when he joined our team.

He had a word from the Lord that God gave him as he progresses in age. And the word the Lord gave him was that his latter years would be more fruitful than his earlier years. And if you get a chance to talk to Pastor Bob and ask him if that's come to pass, I'm certain that he would say yes, that God is still working. That in your older age, in those of you that are up in years, God is not done with you yet. Don't listen to the culture. Don't listen to even the church at times.

You look at the church, you go, "Oh, they've got all this new music and all these—" Yes, we do. We do have new music that is not 80 years old. You're right. Because there's a whole new culture we're reaching. So it's nothing for you to be upset about. It's not a decision against anyone that's older or young and any of the things, the technology, the different things that weren't the way you were growing up. But those of you that are older, I want you to remember this. You had your day.

You had your day. The music was fresh when you were young. There was another generation that was saying the same thing about you. And what we need to remember is we just need to learn how to die to ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to do what He wants to do among us. And the older generations, those of us that are older, we're saved. We're saved. And the younger generations, the people we're going, the unsaved, the culture is different. Has anybody noticed the culture is different than 50 years ago?

The word of God never changes, but the delivery of it does, and reaching a culture does. The gospel never changes, but the methodology has to change. And so it's not when I say you had your day, I'm not minimizing that. I'm just reminding you when the music that and you know, even in the sense, "Well, I wish we could play the old-time hymns." Sometimes we do. But do you know there are new-time hymns? And if the Lord doesn't come back in 30 years, people are going to be saying that.

I was listening to Pastor Ian. He took us into a little bit of a song that's 20-something years old tonight that I remember when it was introduced to the school. I remember when I was hunting around looking for the cassette tape of that particular band, whether it was Hillsong or it was Matt Redman or whoever introduced that song. It was 20 years ago. And some of you go, "Which was that? I didn't know what it was." I know, because it was 20 years ago. But here's the point.

These men are a model for us growing old in the Lord. And this is what I want each year that my life passes. I want to be used more when I was 30, 40, 50, pushing 60 now, 80 if God gives that to me, than I was when I first saved at 23. I want to continue on. There is no such thing as retirement for the Christian. Now, you might retire from work and from some other things, but as far as serving the Lord, no retirement. Get out.

Like there was a lot of people that were commenting on the soup tonight and I said exactly is what I want to do. I want to open a taco stand. I want to sell tacos till noon and then rest the rest of the day, and maybe we can add a little soup as a side. And Maria always reminds me, "First of all, Ed, I will never do that. But second of all, there's no retirement. That's not what God's called me to do. Maybe God's called you to do that, but that's not what God called me to do."

"God's called me to reach the culture a different way than you have. And if you are called for a taco stand, then make the best tacos ever so that the reputation of what you do for the Lord is the best of the best. And I'll visit your truck and give you a five out of five for sure. If you're called to teach the Bible, then you study to show yourself approved, a workman needing not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth and keep perfecting the craft of delivery.

You do what God has called you to do. There is no retirement, no matter your age. You're 80 years old right now, you go, "Man, I just got saved and I thought I— I wish, I wish." And we respect that. But you know what? There's no looking back. No matter what age you are, there's only looking forward. And let the Lord use you in greater ways. All right, you guys with me? Because that's what Moses did. That's what Aaron's at. These are old dudes being used greatly by the Lord. Verse 8 now.

And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, "When Pharaoh speaks to you saying, 'Show a miracle for yourselves,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh and let it become a serpent.'" And Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh and they did so just as the Lord commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants and it became a serpent. But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers. So the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.

And every man threw down his rod and they became serpents, but Aaron's rod swallowed up all their rods. And Pharaoh's heart grew hard and he did not heed them as the Lord had said. So these are the miracles that God would use to prove that they were sent by Him. They would validate the spoken word. And up to this point, Moses and Aaron have only delivered ultimatums, but now Pharaoh's going to see. He's going to experience it. The power will be demonstrated.

So they cast down the rods and there are snakes there. And you're like, "What happened with these magicians, verse 11, and sorcerers?" These miracles, how did they— what did they do? Well, the magicians did in like manner, but it doesn't say they did the same thing. The magicians did in like manner. They did not do the same thing. And for your consideration, there are four possibilities when it comes to these magicians, what happened here. How did their rods become snakes?

Number one, it's possible that they received supernatural power from the devil himself with God's permission. Probably not. Number two, God gave them temporary power directly. Probably not. The rods were rigid snakes already, so they were kind of sleeping. And maybe they froze them or something and when they cast them down to the ground, they woke up. Yeah, probably not. I think that they received some kind of deceptive power from the devil. That this was just completely false and fakery.

I don't want you to forget in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 8 that part of the end times deception has to do with the ability of the devil to fake and lie. And it says here, 2 Thessalonians 2:9, "The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with power, signs and lying wonders." Somewhere in the supernatural realm in the devil's creative order, he's able to lie and make it look real. He's able to even demonstrate things as we'll see in a moment.

It's interesting the magicians are neither— it says here the men that they call wise are not wise. The sorcerers and the magicians of Egypt, they're dealing in black magic and they're dealing in the demonic realm, which is why we always, any pastor that's faithful to the word of God will plead with you to stay away from that stuff. Don't even mess around with it. Don't have it in your house. Don't let your kids get involved with it. Like stay away from it. It's deceptive and lying.

And it doesn't help Pharaoh very much. Because what is the devil's plan for Pharaoh? To kill him so he'll be lost forever. What's the devil's plan for all of Egypt? To kill them so that they might be completely separated from God forever. They'll die in their sins and their idolatry. So this magicians, these sorcerers, they're not demonstrating the power of God at all. They're the antithesis. Now, verse 12 it says every man threw down his rod, they became serpents, but Aaron's rod swallowed up theirs.

And now Pharaoh's heart's growing cold. As we study through the 10 plagues coming up here, you'll see how they get harder and more severe, the plagues do. At times it looks like Pharaoh might be softening, only to turn harder. Eventually he'll be backed into a corner and he'll have no choice but to give in and let the people go. And as we move forward, know just for your to plan ahead for our studies with the plagues, know that the plagues are twofold.

Number one, the plagues are designed to bring Pharaoh to his knees and get his attention. But secondly, the plagues are being used to show God's power over the false Egyptian gods, little "g." That's what the people needed. Pharaoh needed it, but the people needed it as well. They will serve as concrete evidence Jehovah is the one true God. And the fakery and falsehood as we'll see— I mean, let me give you a hint. We're going to head out because we're out of time here.

When the next plague comes at the rest of the chapter, we're not going to finish it. I don't want to plow through it. I want to take my time with it. So we'll catch up another time. Но as the water is turned to blood, you will notice that the sorcerers came and just made it worse. Now doesn't it make sense that if truly they were representative of the power that's greater than God, that the magicians would have reversed the plague, not made it worse?

And that's just how the devil is. He's illogical. He's not thinking straight because his goal is different than God's. So anyone that's following the devil in their deception, you can know that something is not from the Lord because it's set for your— like you're looking at it and go, "Why would you make things worse? That's not from the Lord." It doesn't have to necessarily be from the pit of hell, but a— you can say, "That's just not from the Lord. Why would you do that?"

"Well, wait a minute, that doesn't even sound like the Lord. Like there's blood and nastiness in the Nile and you're just going to make it worse? Why would you do that?" "Well, you know, the Lord told me." No, man, the Lord didn't tell you that at all. "Well, you just see what Moses and Aaron did right now." No, God told Moses and Aaron to watch this. God didn't tell you to make it worse. And so as you read ahead, I want you to notice that.

And again, read ahead all the way through chapter 8. We'll see what we can cover next time. Но for homework, I want you to read Ezekiel chapter 20 to gain a little bit of insight on the children of Israel's heart. Ezekiel chapter 20, just to see a little bit what's going on in their hearts as we see it as well, maybe a mirror to ourselves. Но God uses these things in our lives to bring us to our knees, to get our attention, and to reveal His power over the false gods that we worship.

Right? Because we're standing here, sitting here in a sanctuary, watching online, listening on the radio somewhere, we're like, "Oh, those idolaters, those idolaters." What we should be saying is, "God, save us from our idolatry, from our false worship. Save us from the false worship of money or career or whatever. Who knows what comes in the way of true worship of God, what replaces our sufficiency that's found in Him." And so this is so encouraging. I wish we had more time for the rest of the chapter, but we'll get to it next time.

Guest (Male): Well, thanks for studying alongside us on Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. If you'd like to hear this message from Exodus again, just go online to aboundinggraceradio.org or listen wherever you get your podcasts. We also offer an app, too. Just search for Ed Taylor in the App Store. In Hebrews, we read that without faith, it is impossible to please God. So to say faith is important would be an understatement. It's the key to a successful Christian life. But what is faith? Where does it come from? How does it work? What does it accomplish?

Those questions and more are uncovered in a book we'd like to recommend to you by Chuck Smith. It's titled Faith. When you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, ask for a copy of Faith. Give us a call at 877-30-GRACE and we can help you with that. That number again: 877-30-GRACE. Also, please remember it is your financial support that helps us continue Abounding Grace on this station and many others like it. We're constantly hearing great reports of what God is doing in our listeners' lives, and your support helps to make that possible. So thank you.

You can make a secure donation online at aboundinggraceradio.com. We have new service times here at Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado. We meet together Saturdays at 6:00 p.m., Sundays at 8:00, 9:45, and 11:45 in the morning. For more information, call 877-30-GRACE or log in to calvaryco.church. Glad you're taking time out to study the word with us and be sure to join Pastor Ed Taylor tomorrow for Abounding Grace when we'll continue our series in Exodus.