Sunday, May 28, 2000   

When Moses and Aaron first presented God's demand to Pharaoh, he very haughtily rejected it (Exodus 5:2). Pharaoh's rejection of God's command pictures two things:

1. It pictures the carnal mind and unregenerate heart of the natural man. Total depravity--that's the picture. The natural man does not know God nor seek after Him. Romans 3:10-11 says: "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God."

     a. Note the words of the unregenerate Pharaoh: "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go."

     b. Pharaoh rejected God's command because he was a natural, unregenerate man. I Corinthians 2:14 says: "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.'

2. Secondly, we find that Pharaoh is a picture of Satan, the enemy of God. This will be more clearly seen as we study each compromise offered by Pharaoh to God's command to: "Let my people go.

3. God's answer to Pharaoh's defiant attitude was to visit the land of Egypt with the plagues. The plagues that came upon Egypt caused Pharaoh to pay attention to God's command. But as it is with the natural man, Pharaoh wanted to compromise and answer God's command in his on compromising way.

I. EXODUS 8:25,4 COMPROMISE #1, "SACRIFICE, BUT STAY IN THE LAND."

     A. Pharaoh said: "Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land."

          1. God's command called for complete separation from Egypt -- "three days' journey" (Exodus 3:18; 5:3).

          2. Egypt is a picture of the world. The Christian is to be completely separated-- "three days' journey" from the world. From Genesis through Revelation, the third day speaks of resurrection --complete deliverance.

               a. God's people have been delivered from this evil world. Galatians 1:4: "Who [Jesus] gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father."

               b. Jesus told His disciples: "Ye are not of this world, but I have chosen you out of the world" (John 15:19).

               c. James 4:4 says: "The friendship of the world is enmity with God."

1) We cannot be a friend of the world and worship God.

          2) We must separate ourselves from the world. We are to take our place by faith, outside the world: "Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach" (Hebrews 13:13).

     B. Many Christians today and many churches today have compromised; they have not left Egypt; they have not separated themselves. They have brought so-called Christian rock music into their sanctuaries and compromised in their daily lives to the point that they are no different from the world. This is exactly what the world's Pharaoh, Satan, desires.

          1. A. W. Pink said: "Professing Christians have for the most part, so assimilated their worship to Egyptian patterns, that instead of being hated by the world, they have taught the men of the world to join in with them.... of few indeed can it be said, "The world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not (I John 3:1)" (71).

          2. In Exodus 8:25 after the fifth plague, Pharaoh said: "Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land."

               a. Notice that Pharaoh said: "Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land."

               b. Pharaoh gives Israel permission to worship their God. He doesn't insist that they bow down to him.

               c. Pharaoh suggests that there is no need to go to the extreme. That's exactly what the devil desires--"a form of godliness but denying the power thereof."

     C. Christian read your Bible; be aware of Satan's devices; don't compromise. II Corinthians 2:11 says; "We are not ignorant of his [Satan's] devices.

      D. To sacrifice in the land brings ridicule!

           1. The land was an abomination to the Egyptian.

           2. The cross is foolishness to the world!

II. EXODUS 8:28, COMPROMISE #2, GO, BUT NOT TOO FAR

     A. Pharaoh gave them a little more rope, but it was still a rope. Pharaoh, a picture of Satan, did not want them to be out of his reach, out of his sight.

     B. God's command meant complete separation from Egypt, the world, Pharaoh, and the Devil.

     C. "Only ye shall not go very far away." This is one of the Devil's favorite and most successful temptations.

          1. Avoid extremes the Devil says:

               a. Don't be a fanatic.

               b. Don't be a separatist.

               c. Be accommodating to the ecumenical movement.

               d. Don't be narrow-minded on the way of salvation.

          2. If you are a Christian, don't let it spoil your life. Don't go too far.

               a. Don't cut loose old friends and associations.

               b. Don't stop going to questionable places--Don't go too far.

          3. God sent Moses to lead His people out of Egypt, to bring them to Canaan.

&          nbsp;    a. In this Moses is a type of Jesus Christ.

                    1) The Son of God left heaven for earth that He might take His people from earth to heaven.

                    2) He brings them first in spirit and heart, later in person.

               b. God's call to His children is: "Set your affection upon things above" (Colossians 3:1).

          4. There is no getting within sight of Canaan until we get beyond the sight of Egypt.

Ill. EXODUS 10:11, COMPROMISE #3, LEAVE THE CHILDREN BEHIND

     A. Pharaoh told Moses that the adults could go into the wilderness to sacrifice, but they were to go without the children.

     B. Just as Pharaoh tempted Moses with compromise, Christian parents are tempted to compromise today.

          1. Satan says to the Christian, "Be a Christian but don't force them to go to church; they need to make their own decisions, go on without them."

          2. Christian parents are told that their children must be educated in the world's ways. They must learn to get along with the world and make money.

               a. Christian parents often say they want the best of the world for their children: the best worldly education, the best social life. They don't want them to be left out.

               b. Oh, how they hope they'll not sell out to God and be a fanatic!

     C. Christian parents are to train their children in godly things.

          1. Proverbs 22:6: "Train up a child in the way he should go."

          2. We are not to bring our children up to conform to the world. God's command is to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4).

IV. EXODUS 10:24, COMPROMISE #4, LEAVE YOUR FLOCKS

     A. "Give yourselves to God, but don't consecrate your possessions to Him."

          1. Many people do not tithe because they have left their possessions in Egypt (Malachi 3:8).

          2. Matthew 6:21: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." If your possession are left in Egypt, so will your affections be.

          3. Note in Exodus 10:25-26 that "not an hoof" was to be left behind. All we have is to be at the Lord's disposal.

     B. Leaving the flocks behind would mean trying to serve God without a blood sacrifice.

          1. The devil wants religion without blood.

          2. Without blood, man goes the way of Cain: offering the fruit of the hands.

          3. You can't leave Egypt without the sacrifice. "Not an hoof" is to be left behind.

CONCLUSION: The Devil will do anything to get you to compromise. Don't do it!