Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.highlandparkbaptist.net/sermons/95390/introduction/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Joseph, we need to finish that story.

[0:17] Even though Joseph ended up as a corpse lying in a coffin,! We still need to continue on the story. Amen? So I really felt led to do that.

[0:27] So we're going to title this study, The Story Continues, A Journey Through the Exodus. Tonight we're just going to start an introduction.

[0:40] And so that's what we're going to do. Remember that the main point that Lee gave to us here concerning the book of Genesis from which a study came was to show the progression of redemptive history, how God will redeem His people from the curse of sin.

[1:03] So that was the theme, if you will, the main point of the book of Genesis as Lee showed us. Now Exodus is a little different. It has as its central theme, of course, the deliverance of the people of Israel, the twelve sons of Jacob and their descendants, out of Egyptian bondage.

[1:25] The basis of the book of Exodus lies in the previous work of God with the people of Israel, those that He brings out of bondage.

[1:37] There's the chosen seed of Abraham and the promises that God made to him concerning them become really the basis of all the activity we find in the book of Exodus.

[1:52] So although it is a book that deals with exiting, if you will, bondage, it really focuses in on the promises that God made in previous days, in particular to Abram in the covenant relationship that he gives to them.

[2:12] So that's where it starts. So turn to Genesis chapter 12 just a moment. And let's just remind ourselves about some things here before we really get into the book of Exodus.

[2:28] Genesis chapter 12, very familiar passage, but in reality, as far as the book of Exodus is concerned, this is where it all begins to give us a basis for the book of Exodus, the basis for the activity of God in the book of Exodus.

[2:48] So in verse number one of Genesis 12, and we are in Genesis here, by the way, said, Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee.

[3:05] And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee.

[3:17] And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Now we've looked at this before, but it's just good for us to refresh our mind as to what happens here.

[3:29] We see here the call of God upon Abram. Abram's about 70 years old or so when God calls him. That's a late stage of life for us for that call to begin.

[3:40] Amen? But that's what it was for Abram. Now, notice what it says. Now the Lord had said, now the word Lord, notice capitalized letters, is the word Jehovah.

[3:56] Remember the word Jehovah, the characteristics of that name basically are the fact that he's the everlasting God. He's powerful, everlasting. But for the most part, he's the God that reveals himself to man or manifests himself to man.

[4:14] You see that prevalent when that word Jehovah is used. God's about to do something to reveal himself to somebody. All right? And that's the picture you have here.

[4:26] Jehovah had said unto Abram, gives him some things that he's telling him to do. Get out from your country, from your kindred, from your father's house unto a land that I will show you.

[4:40] Now, back up with me just a moment. Notice it said, the Lord had said, past tense. All right? We're going to, in chapter 12, we get a picture of the fact that God had placed a call upon Abram and that he then begins to obey.

[4:57] But something else happens though before he ever obeys. And that's shown here in the last part of chapter 11 of the book of Genesis.

[5:09] Notice what it said in verses 31 and 32. And Terah, that's of course Abram's father, Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife.

[5:27] And they went forth with them from Ur the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan. Now, couple that with verse 1 of chapter 12, the Lord had said.

[5:39] So, when you look at the last two verses of chapter 11, insert that fact that God had already said to Abram, get out. In other words, the call of God upon Abram's life began prior to the last two verses of chapter 11.

[5:57] So, something happens here. God tells Abram, get out, get out of your country, from your kindred, from your father's house, to a land that I'm going to show you.

[6:14] But here, we get a picture. Abram did not just pick up his tent stakes here and tell Sarai, his wife, come on doll, we're going.

[6:26] Don't you imagine, Sarah, my wife would just have gone bananas if I'd turned out like Abram. Amen? Now, she's an obedient wife. She is.

[6:37] She's godly. She's God-fearing. She knows what God expects of a wife and she does that with great speed and sufficiency and I better quit.

[6:53] Kind of overdoing it here. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, think of Sarah in all of this, you know. Dog, God told me, let's pick up tent stakes and go, pack up the tent, let's go.

[7:06] And, you know, oh, here we go. And that time, you know, time and time again that happened. But nonetheless, nonetheless, notice it said in the last two verses of Genesis 11, Terah leaves with Abram and his herd or his horde to go to Canaan.

[7:30] That's not what God said, was it? Not what God said. Take note with me, if you will. In verse 31 of chapter 11, Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, Sarai his daughter-in-law and the sons of Abram.

[7:48] So it's all written in the idea of this is what Terah is bringing with him from Ur the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan. His plan is to go into Canaan.

[8:03] Terah's plan. But they come to Haran and they dwell there. Verse 32, the days of Terah were 205 years and Terah died in Haran.

[8:15] Now, if you were to go to Acts chapter 7 verses 2 and 4, it speaks of this. And it speaks of the fact that Abram did not go into Canaan.

[8:27] In other words, Abram did not obey God until after his dad died. So the idea here is there was a hindrance. There was a hindrance in Abram being able to satisfy and fulfill the will of God.

[8:44] And that hindrance was his dad. He followed his dad. All right? Now, no doubt, respected his dad even though his dad was a heathen.

[8:55] All right? An idolater, no doubt. So that's the picture here. There was a hindrance from Abraham really possessing then the promises that God has for him in this covenant relationship that he establishes with him.

[9:15] What a picture we have here. Have you ever stopped to wonder, have I allowed something or some things through my life to hinder my possessing my inheritance if you will or hindering the things that God has that he wants to do through me thus the things that he has for me in the midst of obedience.

[9:45] Good for us to consider, isn't it? And especially with the idea of the future. You know, be sure that we don't let anything or anyone hinder us from the complete obedience to the Lord when God tells us and shows us to do something.

[10:06] All right? A number of passages Galatians 6.14 Romans 6 Ephesians 4 all deal with the idea of surrendering ourselves to him some of it deals with dying to the sin nature and all of those things.

[10:20] All right? To be sure that we are satisfying the will of God. So, God commands Abram to leave when he's 70 years old leave all of his family his associates everything that he held dear and near to himself.

[10:42] Leave that and go to a land that he knows nothing about. Not only that, he doesn't even know where the land is at this point.

[10:54] All right? God just tells him you're going to go. Now, what's that tell us about Abram? He's trusting God.

[11:04] He's got such a faith in God that whatever God said is sufficient. Amen? That's sufficient. It's a done deal. When God says something, that's it.

[11:17] It's a done deal for him. He's able to trust God, trust God's sufficiency, trust God's wisdom, to the point that he believes everything that God says is good and okay.

[11:33] Amen? Amen? Have we ever, of course we have, analyzed what God has shown us?

[11:48] Okay, this is what God is really showing me in his word, saying to me through it. Let's look at this a minute. Amen? Can I do this?

[12:00] Is he really saying this to me? Or is it just my mind just conjuring up some thoughts here? Analyzing this, instead of saying, all right, God, I hear you, I understand what you're saying, what you're showing me, and I trust you.

[12:18] I trust you completely in that, so I'll go ahead and I'll do exactly what you say. Now, leave the place.

[12:31] Now, so, three ties that he's to sever here. His country, place of some of his affections, you know, might be even had his favorite hunting grounds, you know, where he went and did whatever.

[12:47] His birthplace and his kindred, of course, that's something that's very near and dear to his heart, and his father's house. That's that innermost circle of association that he has, you know, closest to his heart, his mind, his affections, his emotions, everything else.

[13:08] So, that's what he's to leave. Now, there's something else you have to consider. All these commands that God gives to Abram, all right, correspond to what he's about to do.

[13:24] All right? The promise corresponds to the command that he gives him. First of all, he said in that promise, take note with me, if you will, in verse 2, I will make of thee a great nation, I will bless thee, make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.

[13:41] And I will bless them that bless thee, curse them that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So, first of all, I'll make of thee a great nation.

[13:53] Going to compensate you, if you will, Abram, for the loss of your country, for leaving your country, I'm going to compensate. You're going to become yourself a great nation.

[14:05] Now, the nation that he belonged to at the time was sinking quickly into polytheism and idolatry. All right? That's what it was rapidly becoming.

[14:16] And so, really, when God calls him to come out of that, it's an escape from what was taking place in his own country. All right?

[14:27] And that in itself was a benefit to Abram. Besides that, God said, I'm going to make you the head of a chosen nation, and that becomes a double blessing to him.

[14:39] Now, secondly, he said, I'll bless thee. I'll bless you. Probably, I'd like to just insert in here, I'll bless your socks off.

[14:49] Amen? Yeah. Yeah. The place that was birthed, and those that he was near and dear to at that place is the place that brought him all past earthly joy and kindness.

[15:03] All right? But he said, God's going to make up the loss for that in earthly prosperity that he gives him. Now, thirdly, he said, I'll make your name great. That's to compensate him for his father's house, to be the patriarch of a new house, and by that he would be known by people everywhere and respected by them as well.

[15:27] Now, it goes even to a higher blessing, if you'll notice, and that's expressed in the words that God said, you will be a blessing. He's not merely to be the subject of blessing, but he's going to be the medium by which and through which God bestows blessings upon others, and that goes even to a higher element when he makes the statement, I will bless them that bless thee, curse them that curse thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

[15:58] All right? That's, you know, of course, that is the paramount passage that we think of when we think of the covenant relationship, and that's the picture, of course, of the coming of the Christ, coming of the Messiah.

[16:12] But there's something else here I think is interesting. When God said, Abram, I'll bless them that bless you, curse them that curse thee. Why did God do that?

[16:24] Why did God make that stipulation here? To me, as you said, God knows the future, but more so he knows in the future what they're going to become.

[16:39] They're going to be the covenant nation of God. God's chosen people. They're not there yet, but they're going to be. And so it really is a picture for us of the heart and mind of God toward his covenant nation.

[16:56] Yeah. I'm going to bless them that bless you, Abram, not just you, but all of your seed and what they're going to become as the covenant nation of God.

[17:08] And I'll curse them that curse you. Bless them that bless you, curse them that curse you. Yeah. And in thee, all the families of the earth are going to be blessed.

[17:19] You're going to be the medium through which I bring tremendous blessing to the inhabitants of the world. All right. Now, so there's an establishment of a great nation from Abram's seed.

[17:33] And then look in verses six and seven. Well, let's go ahead and verse four. All right. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him and Lot went with him.

[17:47] And Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. So they were there for what? Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, in other words, his nephew, and all their substance that they had gathered and the souls that they had gotten in Haran.

[18:03] And they went forth into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came. Verse six, and Abram passed through the land under the place of Shikkim unto the plain of Morah.

[18:17] And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord, that's Jehovah notice, appeared unto Abram. Now we don't know how he appeared, how he manifested himself to Abram, but he did in some form or fashion.

[18:32] He said unto Abram, unto thy seed will I give this land. Now notice that. He didn't say, Abram, I'm giving this to you.

[18:43] He said, I'm giving this to your seed. All right. And there builted he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him and he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.

[19:02] And there he built an altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the! Abram's journey going on still toward the south. All right.

[19:13] So he picks up tent stakes and obeys what God says and God says to him, Abram, you know, to me, look at what happens here. He picks up after dad dies, he picks up and begins to go and he goes and gets into the land of Canaan and while he's there God appears to him, manifests himself to him and makes another promise here or amplifies the previous promises.

[19:44] All right. I'm going to give you this land, this land I'm going to give to your seed. All right. You're going to become a great nation in essence and that nation is going to inherit this land.

[19:57] All right. It's theirs. I give it to them. Beautiful picture here. Why did God not previously before his dad died and in that calling that he put upon Abram's life why did he not tell Abram about the land?

[20:20] told him he was going to make him a great nation. Why did he not tell him about the land? It's not until Abram obeyed God that God went further with responding to him in the promise that he's given him.

[20:42] All right. Now if you look throughout scripture that is the way God operates. No matter who it is and where it is in scripture. God speaks.

[20:54] We respond or his people respond and then God takes them a little further. Showing them a little bit more. And on and on the process goes.

[21:06] It's similar to the sin cycle the people of Israel went through in their history. You know they were God's people then they got into idolatry.

[21:17] God brought them into judgment. They repented and you know God favored them again and the cycle just continued. Here this cycle is this. God takes the initiative.

[21:27] He speaks to us. He shows us what he wants. We respond in obedience and once we do that God takes us a little bit further showing us something else.

[21:38] All right. that's the way he operates. And it's all based in here upon promises that he makes to Abraham.

[21:49] So he gives them the promise of the land for the nation that will spring out of his seed. And God promises them to bless them.

[22:03] So redemption for all mankind then is to come through them. Now go over to Genesis chapter 15. Again this is on the heels of Abraham having to go and rescue his nephew Lot's son from the kings that have invaded Sodom and Gomorrah and captured him.

[22:32] Abraham hears of it. He goes and rescues Lot's son, his nephew, and brings him back. And on the way back you remember what happens. Who does he meet?

[22:46] Melchizedek. Yeah. King of Salem. High priest of who? Well the most high God. Alright. But notice something with me here.

[22:59] When Melchizedek meets Abram in verse number 19 of chapter 14 verse 18 Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine he was the priest of the most high God and he blessed him and said blessed be Abram of the most high God possessor of heaven and of earth that is the most high God somebody has said that means he's the highest of the high ones alright As if there were any other high ones!

[23:31] In other words! He said blessed be Abram of the most high God He puts the connection there between the two between Abraham and between God and He said blessed be the most high God which delivered thine enemies into thine hand and He gave them tithes and all Abram gave tithes to Melchizedek of all that spoil that he brought with him.

[24:08] Melchizedek assures Abram, if he didn't know it himself, he does now, that the one that delivered those kings into his hand was the Most High God that he serves.

[24:24] All right? He wants Abram, God wants Abram to recognize that and to know that. And so that in the first verse of chapter 15, after these things, after all that transpires, and they go their separate ways, the word of the Lord, the word of Jehovah, came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.

[24:51] Now, Abram said, Abram has not forgotten the promise, promises. So, God says, all right, you know, Melchizedek has let him know that it was God that delivered him, made that rescue of Lot's son a success.

[25:12] And now God says to him, I am your shield, I am your protector, I am your refuge, and I am your exceeding great reward. I am all you need.

[25:23] Now, here's what Abram says in response. Abram said, Lord God. All right? All right? Adonai, Jehovah. Master.

[25:35] Adonai, Master. What wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

[25:46] You know, and the idea, of course, here is, all right, God, you've said that I'm going to become a great nation. For that to happen, I'm going to have to have kids, and time's clipping along here.

[26:01] All right? I'm not getting any younger. What did you give me here? I've only got this servant, and he's from Damascus. All right?

[26:12] A steward of my house. Abram said, Behold to me, you've given no seed. And lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And behold, the word of Jehovah came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir.

[26:27] But he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. Okay? This is how it's going to happen. You're going to have a kid. And he brought him forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven.

[26:41] Tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. Look up there in the heavens, Abram. Can you number those stars?

[26:53] That's the degree to which your seed will multiply. All right? Now look at verse 6. Paramount passage. And he believed God. Oh, oh, think about that just a moment here.

[27:08] Think of it. Time has elapsed, yes. But as it's called, after Terah dies, he goes on in, gets into the land.

[27:18] God speaks further to him about now possessing land for his seed. And now he's allowed him to rescue his nephew. And God takes it further in his relationship and his plan with him.

[27:37] And he says, Now, look, Abram. That's how your seed's going to be numbered. Abram simply believed him.

[27:54] Amen. I love it. No questions. No. How are you going to do it, Lord? What's going to happen? No. He simply believed God.

[28:08] He believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. What a point. He said unto him, I am the Lord. I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it.

[28:23] And he said, Lord God, Adonai Jehovah, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? Okay. Okay. He's kind of hard-headed, isn't he? Yeah.

[28:35] How am I going to know that I'm going to inherit this land? Because it's possessed now by the Canaanites. And he said to him, he's going to do some paramount things here.

[28:47] Take me an heifer of three years old and a she-goat of three years old and a ram of three years old and a turtle dove and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these and divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against the other.

[29:03] But the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. And I think this is interesting. And that's a natural thing.

[29:13] Natural response for Abram. All right. He did as God said. And the birds started coming down. Buzzards and stuff, no doubt, probably to eat the animal parts that are laying there on the ground.

[29:26] So he shoos them away. What does God do next? When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram. All right.

[29:38] Kind of a picture he didn't want to shoot the birds off. Amen. Abram, I'm going to put you to sleep so you don't shoot them off. All right. Now, deep sleep fell upon Abram.

[29:49] And lo, and horror of great darkness fell upon him. He sensed a great darkness. And God said to Abraham, no doubt, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not there.

[30:06] So he starts opening up for us here. The end of the book of Genesis and the book of Exodus. All right. Your seed shall be a stranger in a land that's not theirs and shall serve them.

[30:23] And they shall be afflicted 400 years. Wow. Wow. Four? That's a long time.

[30:34] Amen. And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge. And afterward they shall come out with great substance. Amen.

[30:45] Wow. Yeah. It's going to happen, Abram, but it's going to take 400 years. All right. But when they come out, they're going to come out with great substance. Told you I was going to bless you.

[30:57] Bless your seed. Give them a land. Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in good old age. Now. But in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites not yet full.

[31:13] And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. What was the smoking fire and the burning lamp?

[31:26] It was God. Presence of God. Passed between those pieces. So you get the idea here. There are two. It's like the center aisle in a church.

[31:37] All right. And those pieces separated, cut up, separated on each side of that aisle. God passed down the middle of that aisle. That was a signification that he and he alone will see to it that that covenant is fulfilled because he's about to make a covenant here with Abram.

[31:57] And that same day, the Lord said, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying unto thy seed, have I given this land from the river that gives him the boundaries from the river of Egypt that no doubts the Nile under the great river, the river Euphrates.

[32:13] And then he talks about those that possess that now. The passing through the pieces, of course, is the idea that back then when you made a covenant with someone, an agreement with someone, that was a way to signify by passing through those pieces, both parties would pass through those pieces, that they would guarantee that they would do everything to fulfill their part of the agreement.

[32:47] So you have a good agreement there. With this one, only God passed through the pieces. Abram did not. Only God.

[32:59] God showing to Abram, I've made the promises and this is my covenant with you and this is the binding of my covenant with you to say that I will see to it that it will be fulfilled.

[33:16] That's why to me it's so exciting in the day that we're living. Wow. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[33:55] Let's put in motion here the things that will make redemption for lost humanity a reality in that covenant relationship that he established now with Abram.

[34:41] Now, the purpose of man's redemption is made clear here in the book of Exodus. And that is to become the instruments through which God is honored and glorified. That's the basic bottom line here.

[34:53] All right. Now, throughout the events of Exodus, God, well, as we just saw, God builds upon the prior knowledge that Israel has of God.

[35:04] Most of that came through his history and his dealings with Abraham. All right. And the people of Israel. Now, same thing holds true for you and I. The basis of what God does with us now come off of our past experiences with him.

[35:22] So it's always good for us to look back at what he's done. And even look back at how he's done that. And contemplate what he may be doing now or what he's doing now and what he may do in the future.

[35:38] All right. Because it's all based upon what he's done in the past. So past experience explains future workings. Amen. I came up with that myself.

[35:51] I did. Yeah. You can put that on the board if you want to. Past dealings, because that's not in your notes. Past dealings work or explain the future workings of God.

[36:03] So all we've got to do is if we're wondering what God's doing now, just look back. All right. So God reveals himself to be the one whom Abraham, Isaac and Jacob declare him to be.

[36:14] And that's what we find in the book of Exodus. So the people of Bungus are now going to experience God for themselves. So we look further in that and we'll have to uncouple here.

[36:27] But the rest of that, I think, is in your notes. We have a time frame of the events that take place in Exodus, beginning with the call of Abraham in 2091 B.C.

[36:38] to 1446 B.C. when God delivers Israel out of Egypt. Bottom note, approximately 359 years from the death of Joseph to the Exodus, the fulfillment of Joseph's prophetic words.

[36:53] You know, that's the distance between the fulfillment of Joseph's prophetic words to the time of his death. So God's now opening him or manifesting himself openly, openly to a new generation in Israel.

[37:10] I got to thinking about that when I was looking at this. You know, 400 years. How many generations passed? Came and went in that 400 years.

[37:23] Generations of people of Israel, of the seed of Abram. They're not Israel yet, but the seed of Abram. And to the point, 400 years later, you've got a brand new generation just coming.

[37:40] Now they're here. You realize how much is lost from generation to generation. So it's got to be an amazing thing here that God does to this brand new generation that has only heard of the promises of God.

[38:05] And you even wonder how much through those generations, those promises and those words that God gave to Abram have been watered down and changed. Amen? Because you, I mean, it proves out.

[38:19] We could just start in this room. I could whisper a secret to you. You give it to James. It would just go around the circle. And by the time it came over here, it'd be completely different. Amen?

[38:30] Yeah. So that's the way it goes when all these things are given. Of course, some of it's written. All right? So they have the written word, some of that. But still, consider that.

[38:40] So that's why, to me, that's why God does some of the tremendous things he does. With Pharaoh in particular. Not just to spook Pharaoh, if you will, but to show the people of Israel, the seed of Abraham.

[38:58] When I say, at this point, when I say the people of Israel, it's the people of Jacob. Yeah, not Joseph. Jacob. All right? That show them that God is still with them.

[39:11] He's still the God of the promise. The God of the covenant. He made with Abram. And they see that, and they begin to say, oh, hey.

[39:22] And they begin, they begin to develop a hunger. Here's the key. Why did God put them in captivity to begin with? So that he could develop in them a hunger.

[39:36] To be able to obtain the inheritance that God's given them. Yeah. Think of that. To develop within them a hunger.

[39:48] To obtain the inheritance that God's given them. And that's what he does here. Amen? Amen. All right. Question for us. Do we have a hunger?

[40:01] A real hunger for the inheritance that God has for us? Thank you.