And Moses said, we will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go, for we must hold a feast unto the Lord. And he said unto them, let the Lord be so with you as I will let you go and your little ones. Look to it, for evil is before you. Not so. Go now, ye that are men, and serve the Lord. For that ye did desire, and they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. And when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and rested in all the coasts of Egypt. Very grievous were they. Before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such. For they covered the face of the whole earth. so that the land was darkened. And they did eat every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left, and there remained not any green thing in the trees or in the herbs of the field throughout all the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste and said, I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and entreat the Lord your God that he may take away from me this death only. And he went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord, and the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts and cast them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the people or children of Israel go. And the Lord said unto Moses, stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days, but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. And what follows now is our text. to verse 26. And Pharaoh called unto Moses and said, Go ye serve the Lord. Only let your flocks and your herds be stayed. Let your little ones also go with you. And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God. Our cattle also shall go with us. There shall not a hoof be left behind. For therefore must we take to serve the Lord our God, and we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more, for in that day thou seest my face, thou shalt die. And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well. I will see thy face again no more. On a previous occasion of the administration of the sacrament of baptism, we saw that this passage of Holy Scripture, Exodus chapter 10, sets forth the truth, the gospel truth of the redemption and deliverance of God's people from the bondage of sin and of death, a bondage that otherwise holds them tight and captive, and a deliverance that completely frees them from that bondage of sin and death, and a deliverance that is completely accomplished and worked out in its fullness by Jesus Christ, our Savior. This passage of Holy Scripture is not simply an example, a living example of God's sovereignty in the world, even His sovereignty over mighty kings and mighty nations. It is that, we read in Scripture, for this reason I raised up Pharaoh, God says that I might show you my power in him and my name is declared in all the earth. That's Romans 9 verse 17. There is comfort and there is gospel and there is truth in that. But that's not the extent of the lesson that's being taught in this history. It is especially a type and a picture of the power and sovereignty of God in salvation. to save, namely the very truth taught in the following verse of Romans chapter 9, namely verse 18, that God has mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will, He hardeneth. This history does not concern simply the issue and matters concerning earthly nations and peoples, earthly slavery or earthly freedom, ownership of earthly property and lands, but it is a passage that concerns redemption and concerns salvation and concerns deliverance from the bondage of sin and of death and of Satan, and the ownership of heavenly property What this passage is teaching is especially brought out by the three attempts that Pharaoh makes to bargain or negotiate with Moses, and through Moses with God, Each of those attempts and the response of God's servant Moses teaches a specific or particular aspect of this redemption and salvation that the passage is teaching. Earlier, Pharaoh had tried to negotiate in order to retain the people in Egypt. You may serve your God for a while here in Egypt. And Moses' response makes clear that the redemption and salvation of God's people requires a spiritual separation from Egypt, a spiritual separation that results in a spiritual battle and conflict with the world of sin and with death. The passage that we consider last, whereby Pharaoh tries to negotiate the retention of the children, And the response of God through Moses teaches that the redemption and salvation of Christ from sin and from death includes children, includes the sons and the daughters of the covenant parents. And now we consider this last, wherein Pharaoh tries to retain the cattle of the children of Israel. He says, you can go, You can leave Egypt, you can go, man, woman, and child, but I want your cattle. They must stay behind. And the response of Moses, no, not a hoof shall be left behind, teaches the completeness and the perfection of that redemption. and that salvation from sin and from death. Consider with me this morning, not a hoof left behind, not a hoof left behind. The total redemption, the complete service, and the full perfection that is taught here in this passage. In this dispute, this battle of Pharaoh against God in this dispute, this battle of Pharaoh regarding the redemption and salvation of the people of God. Moses, the representative of God, the chosen servant of God, has made it emphatic that their purchase from the slavery of Egypt will be full, it will be complete, it will be perfect, such that even the cattle will participate in that redemption. That's what he means when he says, not a hoof shall be left behind. Moses has to make that emphatic because Pharaoh has once again hardened his heart against the severe judgment of God and attempted to negotiate that fact. Negotiate, in other words, the terms of Israel's redemption. The history makes clear that Pharaoh fears the children of Israel and that he fears their God. He fears Israel. That is why He put them to bondage and servitude in the first place. But He also fears their God, for He cannot deny that plague after plague, growing in intensity upon his nation, has, as his own servants recognize, destroyed the entire nation. And he cannot deny that this has come from God. That's why when he grudgingly admits that he has sinned, he admits that he sinned not only against Moses, but against their God. Nevertheless, the man is an unbeliever. He fears God, but he does not believe in Him. He does not trust in God. He fears God, but he will not obey Him, and he will not let his people go, at least on God's terms, as the sovereign God demands in salvation. In Pharaoh's mind, Israel are his people, not God's. In Pharaoh's mind, the nation of Israel is his to do with what he wants, not God's to do with what he wants. In his mind, Israel must serve and worship him as king, and not God's so that they might serve and worship him as king. So if they are to be redeemed, they will be redeemed according to Pharaoh's mind on his terms and not God's. In this, Pharaoh also shows how shrewd he is. That he is in the grasp and under the influence and control of one even shrewder, Satan. It is not just unbelief, and it is not just rebellion that is motivating Pharaoh. But this is his attempt to get at least something back, to retain something of the people of God. He may not be able to have a full victory, or even a partial victory, but he wants something He represents, of course, the devil. The devil, you understand, is always willing to give in a little if it allows him to get something else back, to retain something, some property of the people of God, some pleasure, some power in our life that he can then use as leverage to get us back into the bondage of sin. That's what's being pictured here. So he negotiates or attempts to negotiate. First he negotiates the place of redemption. Israel could be redeemed to worship God as long as they remain in Egypt under his influence and under his power. And Moses says, no, we must leave. Then he attempts to negotiate the children. The adults can go. They can go be redeemed to worship God, but not the children. And again, Moses says no. And now he negotiates the extent of that redemption further. The people may be redeemed. The souls may be redeemed. Bodies may be redeemed, but not their possessions. Not their cattle. And again, and even surprisingly we might think, Moses responds, no. In this redemption, in this deliverance, God calls everything out of Egypt. Not even a hoof will be left behind. This is a glorious picture of the redemption and salvation and deliverance that we have in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a marvelous and a thrilling picture of that deliverance. It's a picture that we, we must see and believe by faith. It's not only the picture is that the Lord expects to be preached, but what the Lord swears to us and seals to us by sacrament, even in the Lord's Supper and in baptism as we saw this morning. It is a picture that Christ redeemed. He went to the cross to redeem. And that everything that Christ went to the cross to redeem has been redeemed. Everything that He redeems, He saves and saves completely and to the uttermost. All is accomplished. All is fulfilled, so much so that not even a hoof is left behind. The same truth is taught in many places in Scripture, both in the Old and the New. In Isaiah 53, concerning Christ, we read, When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days. and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Jesus himself, the night in which he was betrayed, prayed this, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost. And that is the same idea that Jesus said also in the last crossword, it is finished. You understand now that this is the true gospel and this is the right gospel over against the false gospel. The gospel that might know this history, might even teach this history, but concludes a false conclusion. This is the gospel of a universal salvation. This is the gospel, the false gospel, of an unlimited atonement. These gospels, these conclusions of this passage teach that Jesus died for all men. He redeemed all men, head for head, without exception, in all the world, but none are actually redeemed, none are actually delivered, none are actually saved, unless those redeemed agree to the terms of the redemption, either by believing it or by doing what God demands, either through their own power or a common grace that God gives to all in the preaching of the gospel. But that means Jesus leaves behind many whom he redeemed. He leaves them in Egypt. He leaves them in the bondage of sin and of Egypt's power. It means that Jesus supposedly redeems some from the power of unbelief, indeed all from the power of unbelief, because that is what redemption is. And that is the greatest sin, unbelief. Make no mistake. But those whom He redeemed, He still leaves behind in Egypt, in the power of Pharaoh, in that unbelief and in that sin. And that dishonors our Lord Jesus Christ. And it dishonors the very gospel that's being taught in this wonderful passage of history. It robs the blood with which Jesus redeems us of its power. It teaches only that Jesus had good intentions to redeem. He had good intentions when He went to the cross. Good intentions for everyone whom He supposedly loves. He worked very hard to redeem. He gave His life to redeem. He poured out His soul to redeem, but He fails to actually save those whom He redeems. His blood was simply water poured out on the ground, worthless and vain. And there is no good news, there is no comfort, there is no honor and no praise of God in such a gospel. Nor does the Bible teach such a thing. The Bible right here in this passage says that in redemption, not a hoof, was left behind. It's a passage that is a picture even of us. The text is really giving us here a picture of us as the people of God, as the flock of God's own sheep, the people of His own pasture whom the Good Shepherd walks in front of and leads and guides and takes care of And about that flock, Jesus says, not a single hoof is left behind. The redeemed are every person, every individual, and all the people that are given to Christ and entrusted to His care to redeem. And not one single one of them is ever left behind. All whom He intends to redeem, all for whom he spilt his blood, broke his body, and poured out that blood, the very blood signified by baptism, all those given to him, all those engraven on his heart, all those he knows. And knowing them, he redeems them. and redeeming them, not one single one of them, not even one single part of them is left behind. Passage therefore has much practical application for us this morning. Perhaps for parents who present their children for baptism and us parents who have presented our children for baptism. Let's suppose, let's suppose there's a little lamb born to us in the church, a little lamb that's born to us as parents, a little lamb born physically weak and feeble who even dies soon after birth or grows up for a little bit and is stricken with cancer and dies. The question is, will Jesus leave behind that little lamb What about the elderly of the congregation who were baptized in the blood of Jesus Christ, who lived their life for Jesus, trusted in Jesus, believed in Him all their life as their redemption, who come to an old age, an old age such that perhaps the memory is lost. Their ability to know and to understand and remember what they were taught, perhaps even from Scripture, And as they lay there in their bed on the border of paradise, without strength even to confess their faith out loud, the question is, will Jesus leave that sheep behind? What about ourselves? Suppose the former blessedness of your faith has escaped you, and the way you feel right now is dark and lonely. You feel despondent. You feel desperate. You feel hopeless, and the question is, will your Savior leave you behind? No, not so much as a hoof will left behind. Suppose you shamefully have fallen into sin, perhaps the same sin more than once. Horrible grief, horrible shame rolls over you. You have sinned. You have submitted to the power of temptation. Will the devil be able to say that Jesus saves the strong ones, but the weak ones he leaves behind? That Jesus was able to save those strong, but could not keep the weak? Does Jesus redeem you only from the guilt of sin, but leave you alone to fight its power? And the answer of the text is, no, He will not. Not a hoof will be left behind. Jesus not only redeems and redeems those who are given to Him, but those whom He redeems, He saves completely from the bondage of sin and from death. If Satan were to say to Jesus today, as Pharaoh did to Moses, you can take your people, you can even take them out of Egypt, you can take the best of the flock, you can have the fattest of the flock, you can have the strongest of the flock, but what do you want with the diseased ones? What do you want with those that are always straying off and wandering? Do you want that shriveled one up over there? Do you want that ornery, stubborn one over there? What do you want those sheep for anyway? They're nothing but trouble. All kinds of work. They bring shame and dishonor to your name. What do you think the Lord's going to say? You make a good point. The Lord says, stand back, Satan. Get behind me. All that the Father hath given me shall come to me, and they shall in no wise be cast out. Not a hoof shall be left behind. The passage, beloved people of God, speaks to us as the flock and the sheep of the good shepherd's pasture, but you must notice that in the text there is another picture not only of the redemption of all the people of God, all of them strong and weak, but it's also redemption of each child of God, the totality of that redemption and that deliverance. To put it another way, the salvation of Jesus Christ of His people, that which He redeems and that which He receives is everything that belongs to His people, the cattle and the flocks and the herds and the horns and the hoofs of the people of God that they own and possess. In other words, it pictures also the effect of this redemption so that those whom Jesus has redeemed serve God and serve Him completely. Moses himself points out that picture when he insists that this is the reason why all must be redeemed and why all must leave Egypt. The goal, he says, is that therefore, or thereof, we must take to serve God. This, too, Moses insists on because this is the stated purpose of that redemption all along. God has insisted that he is determined to redeem his people, not for their sakes. God does not redeem the people of Israel so that they may serve themselves. He does not say to Pharaoh, let my people go, so that they are now free to do as they please, free to live however they want to live. Or, I have redeemed them and their property so that they may use that property now in their own service. They may use it for self-worship. They may use it according to the lust of their own eyes and the pride of life and their own flesh. That would be to leave the cattle behind. God has insisted. that the one great goal and purpose of their redemption is that they might serve Him, and that they might serve Him now with everything that they are and everything that they have, with all of their being and with all of their property. So much so that when Pharaoh says, leave the cattle behind, Moses says, no, it all must be used in the service of God, for we are redeemed. You see the picture therefore shifts. It shifts from representing the people of God, those whom Christ has redeemed, to the entirety of the purpose of that redemption. The flocks and the herds, the hooves and the horns represent not only we ourselves, but all of our possessions, all that God has given to us. to use in the service of him. Flocks and herds represent all the gifts that we are given by God in his grace. In fact, it's a picture of all the gifts that we lost in Adam and that are restored in Jesus Christ. For when Adam fell and we in him, it was not the case simply that we ourselves had to be redeemed body and soul, but all that God had given to us, all that God had given us charge over. And this passage points out that that which is lost must be restored also. Gift, of course, redeemed and restored by Christ too. You see, when Jesus redeems us, He claims ownership of us. And we know very well that when Jesus claims ownership of us, He claims not simply Our body, but our souls. The entire person, the entire being. And by implication there, for everything. Heart, mind, soul, and strength that we give ourselves to. Everything that God gives to us, body and soul. And that includes also our possessions. My mind is not my own, but belongs to Christ. My heart belongs not to me, but to Christ, thus also my house and my fields, my money and my car. Most clearly demonstrated by one of the main uses those flocks and herds were used for in the wilderness on their way to Canaan and thereafter in Canaan. Don't overlook that. But the point here is not only that Christ redeems our property and what He has given us, and done that, we might think for our own service, but in the service of God, take a look at specifically what Moses cites as the reason they must go. And the answer is they must be used for sacrifice. They must be dedicated to the worship of God. Many of those cattle will be slaughtered and burnt in the worship of God. Now you understand, in the Old Testament that was a picture of Christ that was coming. The very fact that they had to repeat those sacrifices over and over again was teaching the people of God that these were not the real atonement for sin. They were to look for Christ, to sacrifice Himself once for all, for the atonement and redemption of themselves and all that they possessed. We today are not to use anything that we have, not to use our body, not to use our soul, not to use our property as a way of atonement. as a way somehow to give back to God in the hopes that perhaps by that He will forgive our sins. That would be to deny the redemption again, but rather in thankfulness. God having redeemed us, God having claimed us, God having taken ownership of all that we are so that body and soul we belong to Him, our faithful Savior, it is now pressed into the service of Jesus and Jesus alone. So again, it's a picture of the entirety of our redemption. A redemption that Christ both makes possible, but actually accomplishes. through His death and resurrection. We're pointing out that this development in the understanding of the extent of the atonement and the extent of the salvation of Jesus Christ is emphasized when this particular incident occurs immediately after the three days of darkness there in the land of Egypt, surely pointing to the three days of darkness that Jesus lay in the grave and the subsequent life of his resurrection that is poured out upon his people. Nevertheless, the point is upon the completeness of that deliverance of the people of God. The atoning sacrifice of Christ was for us and for all that we have. Even as the children of Israel, of course, used those flocks and herds for income, and for food, and for clothing, and for shelter, that even of their own covenant families, even of the daughters and sons that were redeemed and came out of there, used to support their welfare and their well-being, not only of their own families but their fellow members. So also our own property, the things God has given, all of it, every hoof. God, you understand, when he redeems us, doesn't come to us and say, now you understand that I have a 51% controlling interest in you. I'm a majority shareholder and stakeholder in you, but you now control the rest. God does not come and say, I spilt the blood of my son, and I'll split it 50-50 with you. God does not come and say, now having redeemed you, my interest is one-third. One-third belongs to the devil, and one-third belongs to you. And now if you come to my side, me and you, having two-thirds, we'll cast out the devil and his third. God does not come to us and say, now I have redeemed you at some times and in some places and parts of your body and parts of your soul, but it all belongs to me. Not one hoof belongs to you as such because otherwise it would be to leave it behind. It's all summed up by the Apostle Paul when he said, I am the servant or slave of Jesus Christ at all times. in all places and in every aspect of my life so that my words, my attitudes, my behavior, my entire life, every moment belongs to God and is not mine. We not live our lives saying to ourselves, well, I partly belong to Jesus, but I'm partly my own. I'll serve him in this part of my life, but that one is mine. I'll serve him in his own things, but not my things. I'll serve him on Sunday, but not on Friday night. I'll use my Bible and Psalter in the service of Christ, but not my car and my house. That's mine. And understand now, the point of the text is, the deliverance of Jesus Christ is such that every child of God given to him understands that and knows that. Fundamentally knows, really, that even if one hoof is left behind, the entirety is left behind. You understand the picture and the power of it, right? Both as regards those whom Jesus redeemed and with regard to the extent of His redemption. You won't understand it unless you picture for yourself a fire. A fire in a barn. A barn full of sheep. And the barn collapses. Most of the sheep escape. All but one. And in that barn is a lamb, and on that lamb, even on the foot, the hoof of that lamb, is a huge barn timber. And the shepherd runs into the barn and he grabs that lamb and he pulls and he tugs and he tries, but he cannot get that one little hoof out from underneath that timber. Does the shepherd save the lamb or not? You see, if one hoof is left behind, then the entirety is left behind, and that's how Jesus Christ sees his flock, every member thereof, and every part of every member. Consider also that this text is something about the full perfection of that redemption and salvation. Although it's complete, although it's full, it's not perfect now. Make no mistake, it's total, it's entire, it's complete, but it's not perfected, at least not to the level of the perfection that God himself has proposed in Jesus Christ and promised to us by his servants such as Moses. Understand that. Every child of God understand that. It still remains within us and a part of us as long as we live on earth, an old man, There's the flesh of the body and the flesh of the soul so that we still sin grievously and shamefully. We still do like the children of Israel. We were lost after the flesh of Egypt. We'll find ourselves trying to go back at times, grumbling and complaining. That's why there's a promise of full perfection, full perfection of those whom Christ has redeemed, that which lies ahead, that which everyone Christ has redeemed longs for and hopes for. That's a redemption that's manifest by a sincere resolve to fight against whatever sins remain, to repent of them when the Lord reveals them to me. It's manifest by the shame and sorrow whenever we are reminded we're not using our heart and mind and soul and strength as we ought. Perfected, as Moses puts it, when we come thither unto Canaan. Every child of God here, every even little child, understands that's the picture of heaven, of paradise. And when we die, we'll find out that's true, won't we? Perfect freedom. Perfect, absolute deliverance in all of our being to serve God with all the saints of heaven whom Christ has redeemed. but it's still not perfect even there. For there's many possessions Christ has redeemed and seemingly left behind. There in the grave is our body that he has redeemed, but fear not. No hoof shall be left behind, no body, for he shall raise them. Not our children, for they shall join us. Not even the creation itself shall be left behind, for it be raised up in righteousness to serve God, who has redeemed it. But left behind will be Egypt, and that day left behind will be all the possessions of Egypt, will be left behind all the ungodly, burned up, destroyed in God's own wrath, even as he showed to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The following Jesus will be all those given unto him. Jesus will say, Father, I've kept every one of them. All whom thou hast given unto me, I have kept. None has been left behind, not the weak, not the infirmed, not a child, not an adult, not a soul or a body, not even the creation itself in which they live. It's all been delivered. It's all been taken safely out. Not a hoof has been left behind. Amen. Let us pray. Oh God, our Father in heaven, thou who hast ordained, worked out, accomplished such a wonderful salvation, we thank thee, oh Lord, for giving us the gospel of that salvation that we might believe. that we might trust in thee, that we might teach these wonderful works and ways to our children, that we might teach them the truth of their own salvation, so that they might live by faith all the days of their life and look forward to the perfection of all things in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank thee, O Lord, our Savior, for this great redemption and salvation from sin and death, completely, in all that we are and have, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.