Thru the Bible

Guest (Male): How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. You know how you can tell when someone has never read the Bible? They'll say one of two things. Welcome to through the Bible. I'm so glad that you've hopped aboard the Bible bus as we continue our journey through the whole Word of God. So what are those two things that people say? Well, first, the Bible is boring. Is it really?

After traveling through Genesis with Noah and the Flood, Abraham with all his ups and downs, Joseph and the drama with his brothers, I'd say not boring at all. How about you? And then we just walked with Jesus through the final chapters of Matthew, through his miracles, his last days, the crucifixion and the glorious resurrection. Not boring either. Not even close.

Now, we're back in the Old Testament where the children of Israel are slaves in Egypt and we're about to hear Moses say to Pharaoh, Let my people go. So, no, the Bible isn't boring, not when you study it like this. The second thing that people say is that the Old Testament is negative, you know, full of thou shalt nots. But here we're given something beautiful, a picture of God's faithfulness to His people in the middle of their suffering.

We're in Exodus chapter 6. Dr. J. Vernon McGee called this passage, The Seven I Wills of Redemption. Listen to them. God says, I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rescue you from their bondage and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm. That's three right there and there's more to come. It's going to be a great study. So, as you listen, think of someone that you could invite to join us. Someone who might believe that the Bible is boring or negative. This is a great place to help change their mind.

Let's pray together. Father, thank You for Your Word and the way it stirs faith in our hearts. Show us what You want us to know about Your beautiful plan to bring us into a relationship with You. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Now, open to Exodus 6 as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Friends, our study brings us to the sixth chapter of the book of Exodus and we're putting in at verse 6. We are now getting ready for the battle of the gods when the Lord sends the plagues upon the land of Egypt. And we found that the first thing Moses did, he and Aaron and the elders went into Pharaoh and made the demand to let them go out in the wilderness and sacrifice unto the Lord for three days.

And Pharaoh said, Nothing doing. He said, I don't know the Lord, and I don't know Him at all, and I'm not about to let the children of Israel go. In fact of the matter is he says, I'll just increase their workload because they wouldn't be complaining if it wasn't for the fact that they've got too much spare time. And so, the load was increased and the children of Israel complained to Moses and Moses went and complained to the Lord about it all.

Now God wants to give him an assurance of who He is and what He's going to do. And we saw last time, He made it clear to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You see that at this time they've got quite a history to build on. They've got a past that gives demonstration. We can say today, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.

It's a matter of record, friends, that God has intervened on your behalf and my behalf. Maybe you're not sure of it, but I am now that God has intervened on my behalf and being confident of this very thing that He which hath begun a good work will perform it. So that the history is very important. He said, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And I have now heard the groaning of the children of Israel. And God knows our needs today, and He knows our desperate condition and He can help. Now He says what He's going to do for them. And you have seven I wills. And these are the seven I wills of redemption. They begin here at verse 6 now, chapter 6 of Exodus. I'm reading,

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord. And believe me, He said that quite a few times also. Now the first I will, and I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians. Number two, and I will rid you out of their bondage.

Three, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgments. Four, and I will take you to Me for a people. And fifth, 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. Then the sixth one, verse 8, and I will bring you in unto the land concerning the which I did swear to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

And now number seven, and I will give it to you for a heritage. I'm the Lord. Now these are the seven I wills of redemption. God says to these people, He said, first of all, I'm going to bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. Now the corollary and the parallel to our redemption is here. The burden of sin today, the things of the world are a burden today to the heart.

And we're told to love not the world. But God delivers us from the burden of sin. And then He says, And I will rid you out of their bondage, and He'll deliver you from the slavery of sin. I have one of the most remarkable letters, and friends, we are receiving right now some of the most remarkable letters that I think that I've ever received. I'm convinced in my own heart that God is using this Bible study, not in just some little surface way to entertain people or to even give them knowledge, but the Spirit of God is reaching down today in depth into many hearts and transforming them.

I have a letter and I won't even say where it's from. It's from a man that I would have said and frankly, I don't think I would have spent much time personally talking with him, but yet I've been talking to him now for I think a couple of years. And this man has had a great transformation. He's a brilliant young man to begin with.

And he started out in sin, and I mean in sin. I think that he probably has today a half a dozen illegitimate children and not from just one, but each one is separate. He's had an affair after an affair. Added to that in his work has not been altogether honest in it. And then he got religious and he entered the priesthood, studied for the priesthood.

Then he fell in love with a girl that wanted to be a nun. And they had an affair. I'm not sure where they got married or not, but then even his own relatives, I don't know whether it was his brother, cousin's wife. He had an affair with her. I mean this fellow's been in sin. He was in the service and he attempted to help the chaplain in the service of all things.

This man has had a checker of career as anybody that I've ever heard of, and yet the Word of God has reached down into this man's life. He told me how he began to listen to it. And it just took days for the darkness to roll away and the light to break through into his heart and life. And he said, I'm now trusting the Lord Jesus.

And he's married this last one that he's had an affair with and she's his wife. But he still has the imping of conscience upon him, that yes, God has forgiven him. I'm going to try to be helpful to him now by writing to him because he wonders whether he ought to even live with this woman. He says he and his wife feel like maybe they're living in sin because of their past.

May I say to you, God has reached down in his life and redeemed him. Now that's the business God is saying, Look at these people in the land of Egypt. The burdens are upon them. They're in bondage. And God says, I'm going to take you out of here. I'm going to rid you of the bondage. And I'm going to redeem you with a stretched out arm.

And that's that mighty bare arm that Isaiah said, who hath believed our report and to whom is the bare arm of the Lord revealed? Well, I don't know who it's revealed to. I didn't know that fellow was listening in, but God knew and God reached down and did a work in his life. And we are receiving letter after letter like that today. God's doing a work today, friends, in hearts and lives and it's the work of redemption and He's reaching down.

It's not this little silly stuff that we came through today about Jesus this and Jesus that and no mention of sin. The idea today that you can sort of cuddle up to Him and He'll be your friend. May I say to you, my friend, what you need is a Savior from sin because in His sight you are corrupt.

And you'll have to deal with that. He died. He loved you enough to die for you to make it possible to be saved. And if He had to do that, you're going to have to come to Him as that kind of a sinner in order to be saved. This is the great plan of salvation right here. The seven I wills of redemption. This is the way God saves you. Listen to Him.

I will take you to Me for a people. And just think, lifting us out of the muck and the mire and making us His son by faith in Christ Jesus. Now He says, and I'll be to you a God. Now He just didn't lift us out of the muck and the mire to make us orphans and run off and leave us. He says, I'm going to be your God.

And I don't believe, friend, you're saved if you tell me today that, oh, you believed in Jesus, but you're going on living without Him and living today as if He does not exist and some actually living in sin tell me, oh, I've trusted Jesus. No, you haven't. You've had some little sissy experience that has done nothing for your life.

My friend, when you trust Him, He'll transform your life. And He'll become your God. And you'll bow down to Him and you'll acknowledge Him as your God. And that's the thing that He's talking about here. I will be to you a God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. God wants you to know something, friend. He wants you to know that you're saved.

He wants you to know Christ. He wants you to know Him, which bringeth you out from the burdens of the Egyptians. Now has God saved you from something? Somebody says, well, I don't know. You don't know, then you're not saved. When He saves, He saves you from something. I'll bring you out from the burdens of the Egyptians.

Now, not only does He save us from something, I'll bring you into the land concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now Canaan today is not a picture of heaven. It's a picture of the Christian life as believers should be living it today. Have you crossed over Jordan through the death and resurrection of Christ? Are you living today in the life and light and love of a living Savior?

That's important, friends. That's very important, and it's very real, by the way. Now in verse 8 again, and I will give it to you for a heritage. I'm the Lord. We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. And Paul in the fifth chapter of Romans makes it clear, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have access to Him. Oh, we have joy in the midst of trouble, and we've been given the Holy Spirit. And the love of God has been made real to us, and we're delivered from wrath to come. We're delivered from the great tribulation period. What kind of salvation do you have today, friends, that you're talking about that has not transformed your life and hasn't really redeemed you from something?

Say this is a great passage of scriptures and not. Here's the picture of your salvation and my salvation. Now will you notice verse 9? And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel, but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage. And your heart must go out to these people at a time like this. They just couldn't believe Moses because he hadn't helped them. He'd hurt them really.

Now notice verse 10, And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Go in, speak unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land. 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? Now 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.

In other words, he was not accepted, that is, Moses was not accepted by the children of Israel. And he's not accepted by Pharaoh, and he's reluctant to go into Pharaoh again and make a demand. Well, God's commissioned him. God says, You go on in there. In other words, he's to look to God at a time like this and not to circumstances.

Now, we have here something that to me is very strange in the midst of all of this. These difficulties, God is very careful. He's very careful to give us the families again. That's important as far as the Old Testament is concerned. It's very important to know who we're talking about. And the genealogy became all important. In verse 14, these be the heads of their fathers' houses. The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel.

And again, here we go through all of this. And I'm not going to go through it, friends, because I'll be honest with you. All it is is a bunch of names. I could go to sleep reading these names, but just because they're a little boring to me doesn't mean they're not important. It just means it's not a thrilling record here of anything except to God.

God was very, very, very insistent that the genealogies be recorded, that we know who we're talking about. And He has the same thing for you and me today. He wants us to be His children. And he wants us to be sons of God through faith in Christ, but we want to be sure about that. We want to be sure about it.

Now in verse 16, these are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations. And this will come up later and it's important. You have Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. These were the three sons and they are the ones that will take the Tabernacle through the wilderness. Quite interesting.

The children of Israel today, the average Jew could not tell you what tribe he belongs to. But back here, they had to be sure of these things because you see it's a genealogy leading to Jesus Christ. And then we have in verse 18, the sons of Kohath, Amram and Izhar and Hebron. And you will notice that Amram's named after the father of Moses.

And here we have verse 20, And Amram took him Jochebed his father's sister to wife, and she bare him Aaron and Moses, and the years of the life of Amram were a hundred thirty and seven years. Someone has asked me the question, well, Aaron was Moses' brother. Well, when Aaron was born, didn't he have the same problem they'd have with Moses? No, Aaron was older than Moses and the decree of Pharaoh hadn't probably been put in at that time.

It was not until he saw the way they were increasing. Now you have here this genealogy that we have before us. And I'm going to pass over it and come all the way down to verse 26 now. These are that Aaron and Moses, to whom the Lord said, Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies.

These are they which spake to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt. These are that Moses and Aaron. In other words, at this juncture when both Pharaoh and the children of Israel themselves, the circumcised would not accept them, the uncircumcised would not. And Moses is pretty discouraged.

Well, what about it then? Well, it's at this point that God gives His background of who He is. He has to be who He claims to be before He can deliver the children of Israel. There are those today that try to tell me that the virgin birth is not essential. May I say to you, it's absolutely essential. Then somebody comes and says, well, you don't have to believe the virgin birth to be saved.

Now will you listen to me very carefully about this? When I came to Christ, I never heard of the virgin birth. You don't have to trust His birth to be saved. You trust His death and resurrection to be saved. But wait just a minute. When you are saved, you'll come to know Him. And when you come to know Him, you'll find out He's virgin born and if He was not virgin born, then you made a mistake in trusting Him because He's not who He claimed to be.

So you see, it's not essential to believe the virgin birth to be saved, but no one who's been saved will deny the virgin birth. They cannot. This thing, my friend, is very important and essential. Moses and Aaron have to be who they claim to be. They are in the family of Levi. They belong to that line. And their father and mother are Amram and Jochebed.

You see this man Moses was brought up in Pharaoh's court. Therefore 40 years, he's been 40 years out under in the desert of Midian. He's married the priest of Midian's daughter. Now here he is back in the land. Who are you, anyway? Well, here's who he is. The credentials are very important. In fact, they're all important here.

Now God on that basis renews his call to Moses and to Aaron. Verse 28. It came to pass on the day when the Lord spake unto Moses in the land of Egypt, that the Lord spake unto Moses saying, I am the Lord. Speak thou unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say unto thee. And Moses said before the Lord, Behold, I'm of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me?

Moses again making excuses, you see. It's not a very pleasant task that he has. He's been rejected all the way long. He says, after all, I'm Moses. My father and mother Amram and Jochebed, and we're in the line of Levi. And Levi was a son of Jacob and Jacob a son of Isaac and Isaac a son of Abraham, and God made the promises to Abraham.

I'm in the right line, but he doesn't have very much faith. He said they've rejected me and I hesitate to go. Now in chapter 7, verse 1, notice what God says to Moses. He's having a little trouble with Moses, by the way. And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.

That is, he'll speak for you. You remember he had complained about the fact that he was not eloquent and now Aaron is to be his prophet. Now this, by the way, is the finest definition, I think you'll find of a prophet. It's given here in an illustration, you see. Moses will be a god to Pharaoh and Aaron will speak for him. And Aaron will be a prophet.

Now God has sent prophets to speak to His people in the past. These prophets, you see, are those who speak for God. A prophet is one who has a message from God to the people, and he's the very opposite of a priest. A prophet comes out from God and goes to the people. The priest represents the people and he comes from the people and he goes to God representing them.

Therefore, a priest is not to speak for God and a prophet is not to represent the people. He's to represent God. And Aaron now is to represent Moses before the people, and Moses is representing God before both the people and Pharaoh. That I think is something that is here that God would have us know.

Now we've come to the conclusion of this particular period. I wish we could move on a little farther today, but we're in no hurry. We've got five years, friends. So we're in no hurry. Next time we're going to see Moses and Aaron going into the presence of Pharaoh again. And by the way, the fireworks will begin also.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Guest (Male): Well, I'm hooked. How about you? Let's meet back here to see what happens next. To prepare your heart and mind for each study, why don't you try reading ahead? You can download our reading schedule bookmark in our app or at ttb.org or sign up for our mailing list to receive it along with our ministry newsletter. You can also reach us at 1-800-65-BIBLE or write to us at box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109.

In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C6B1. And while we take a break from our daily studies this weekend, I sure hope that you'll join me for Dr. McGee's never before aired Sunday sermon, Why the Ten Commandments Were Given. You can listen on our app, online at ttb.org, or just call 1-800-65-BIBLE for help in finding a local station.

Again, that's 1-800-65-BIBLE or ttb.org. And when you're in touch, would you let us know how you listen? Are you riding along on the app or tuning in on the radio? Maybe you're asking Alexa to play through the Bible or just watching it on YouTube. Every answer helps direct ministry decisions for us, so thanks for letting us know.

As Dr. McGee said, the fireworks are about to begin and don't miss this exciting study as we continue in the Book of Exodus. I'm Steve Schwetz and I'll save you a seat on the Bible bus as it rolls along next time.