Exodus chapter 8 and verse number 25. Hear the word of God. And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land. The education of Egypt was well underway. As we said before, God had hardened Pharaoh's wicked heart so that no matter how marvelous, how unusual the signs and the wonders might be, Pharaoh and his people would not hearken to the command of Jehovah to let the people go. The rod of Moses had become a serpent when thrown down before Pharaoh and his court, and had eaten up the serpents produced by the court magician. Then Moses had shown himself to Pharaoh as he performed his morning rituals at the river, and he smoked the water and turned them to blood. by the rod of God in the hands of Aaron. For seven days the people of Egypt were hard-pressed to find water, for all the water from the Nile, including that in the aqueducts and the pools and in the vessels and the ponds, had been turned to blood. This was the first of the great plagues that would destroy the power of Egypt and leave her weak and helpless for more than a generation. Later on, Moses Pharaoh would say to Moses, go, the land of Egypt is destroyed. You must understand, we will not understand what's taking place here if we do not understand that Pharaoh's world view was one of humanism, which involves sorcery and synchronism. By sorcery we mean that by harnessing the powers that are in the world and concentrating them, all of human problems can be solved. The king stood at the point of power where the power of the world and the power of the heavens conjoined and where death and hell merged with life and peace. He was the God-man. Pharaoh was the chief sorcerer. All religions and powers were merged into his person. He was the mediator between God and man. Never in the history of the world, other than perhaps Babylon, was this so clearly set forth. And Egypt, of course, was the arch type of the ancient world powers. All the world was a single continuum. The gods were the same as men, except they had been here first and had found the secret of life and immortality. But even the gods are willing to share with us if we are devoted to them and do their will. The gods will even be conformed to our will if we can find the secrets of the power of nature and use them correctly. St. Augustine records the story of the Egyptian who ascended up onto the mount and delivered such horrible curses against the gods that they were frightened and answered his prayers. They held that men had the power within themselves and power within the universe to make even the gods do their will. Jesus spoke against this theology of sorcery when he said in Matthew chapter 6, when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when you pray, enter into thy closet. When thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which sees in secret. and thy father which sees in secret shall reward thee openly. When you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be ye not therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him." The sorcerer believes that the power to move the gods lies in the man who is seeking to move the gods. Christianity says the power lies in the will and the purpose of God. He moves the man. You say, what's the difference? The difference is heaven or hell. Man does not move God. God moves men. According to the Egyptians and all the pagan systems of the world, including modern ones, in some way believe that the various powers are concentrated in the gods of the land. In Egypt, it was in the god of the river, the forces of nature. That was the reason that Pharaoh continued in his folly. He simply did not believe that Moses was any different from him. any different from him and his sorcery. He thought that Moses was just using some powers as yet unknown to him, but which he could use for his own purposes, or at least could be neutralized by his own power. He, of course, could never be persuaded to accept the idea that there is one living God who had chosen Israel for his own that God was bringing to pass all His holy purpose in the world through the nation of Israel, and God had devised a plan of redemption for the world that would not be revealed for many, many centuries. But at the center of that plan was the Lord Jesus Christ who dwelt in Israel in promise, in sacrament, and even in the James. of the men of Judah. A concept like that was beyond the darkened mind of Pharaoh. Although the promise of redemption had been given to the world from the beginning, when God had promised that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent, and that sacrifices had been instituted, and the blood of lambs had been slain by individual believers in sacrifices, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had testified to the coming and the promise of redemption through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. So the plagues were not just upon the Egyptians. They were directed against the religion and the worldview of Egypt. The folly of seeking to control nature would be revealed. The true God controls nature, and nature cannot control itself, nor can man use the forces of nature to control nature. And the folly of the magicians was revealed, and their impotence revealed. You cannot build a tower tall enough to escape the flood of God. You cannot build levees or dams strong enough to escape His wrath. You cannot harness the wind, for God has his way in the whirlwind. You cannot build strong enough houses to withstand his earthquakes, nor inoculate to stop his plagues. You cannot recruit armies powerful enough or equip them with weapons powerful enough to hold back the savage forces of those who are employed by God to do all his will. What matters? the puny efforts of men if God has become their enemy. When God rises to judge the earth, the earth will be judged. You cannot build schools effective enough to enlighten those whose minds are darkened by the judgment of God. Those who put their trust in science rather than in God are doomed when God rises to judge the earth. Remember the magicians of Egypt. But the plagues and the judgment upon Egypt, they were also a test to Moses and Aaron and to the people of Israel, God's election. was a formidable opponent, clever in the arts of the world and in the government of people. After the plague of the frogs, the two other plagues would come very quickly. After the blood and the frogs came the lice. The dust of Egypt was turned into lice, and they infested the people, the persons, the animals, the very fabric of the life of Egypt. Every once in a while in California, the schools of California, there is a plague of lice, and we would show them good head lice. And you want to talk. You want to talk and you want an illustration of some young person dying in their shoes. That's the 13, 14-year-old girl who's waiting in line to have her head examined on whether or not she has lice. That is embarrassment incarnate. But it had to happen. And these were just a few little, harmless little creatures. Can you imagine the plague of lice that infected the land of Egypt? Horrible. It was followed by the flies or the insects. The magicians were perilous this time. They could not produce more lice. They were forced to confess, this is the finger of God. But Faber was not convinced. After the lice, as I said, came the swarms of insects, the flies. God again sent Moses to find Pharaoh as he stood at the riverbank doing his morning devotions and making his measurement of the water. And he said to him, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thy servants, upon thy people, into the house of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies and also the ground whereupon they are. And so it was. is it was at this time that God said to Pharaoh through Moses and Aaron, I will sever that day in the land of Goshen in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, to the end that thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. I control nature. Nature does not control Me. I'm going to not only send flies, I'm going to selectively send flies. For they will not come upon the land of Goshen where my people dwell. I will put a division between my people and thy people, and this shall come to pass tomorrow. He would have Pharaoh know that even the evil things of the earth, like swarms of flies, are in his hands, and he does with them as he pleases. They can go, but they cannot go to Goshen. They cannot go until tomorrow. for even the times and the places are in the hands of Jehovah. I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. I am Jehovah. It was after the swarms of flies that Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and offered to them the first of the famous four compromises of Egypt. We want to look at these compromises this morning, for these things are written for our admonition. These are compromises that face the people of God in every age, it seems. We should be reminded in the admonition of the writer of Hebrews, let us therefore fear lest the promise being left of us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Only the faith of Moses and Aaron enabled them to have the wisdom to see the nature of the compromises and how deadly they would be to the people of God. These compromises are simply variations of the first one. The first one was in verse number 25, go. and sacrifice in the land. We like you, Moses. There's room for your religion in Egypt. We have many religions in Egypt. We like religions. We like you. Become one of us and live under the great umbrella of the brotherhood of man. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land. It is interesting that this compromise was offered at the precise point when God emphasizes the difference between the Egyptians and the elect of God. It was at precisely the point where God made a division. The flies go here, the flies don't go there. Pharaoh tries to keep close what God is going to put apart. It's a great sin to pull apart that which God has put together. It's also a great sin to put together what God would have be apart. The very uniqueness of Israel was the main offense to the Egyptians, and the uniqueness of the church is the major offense to the world today. Why would Egyptians think that sheep were unclean animals if it was not the work of the very devil himself to turn mankind away from the worship of the true God and the sacrament which pointed to redemption and sacrifice? Why sheep? It was a lamb that was offered. on the altars of the men of faith throughout the history of the world until the coming of Christ. For a long time, this superstition had prevailed in Egypt. That sheik were unclean and abominable. That's why the Israelites were settled in the land of Goshen to begin with. Such sacrifices were well known in the ancient world. But you can imagine the Egyptian being cut above. We're not like these rude wanderers of the desert who sacrifice sheep to their gods. Sophisticated, elitist. Moses knew that the religion of the people of God would not set the syncretism of Egypt. Every faithful Jew would be a witness against the idolatry and the wickedness of the Egyptians. Israel could not stay in Egypt if they were to fulfill their destiny, because in their very offerings they would cause outrage among the Egyptians. It would be a lose-lose situation for Israel. If they worshipped according to the promise of God and offered lambs upon their altars, the Egyptians would be so resented that they would stone them. If they did not, but tailored their worship to satisfy the Egyptians, then it would not be glorifying to God and they could not then fulfill their destiny. It would not be fit for them to do this. Moses understood the implication and rejected the compromise out of hand. But it was clever. The second compromise is in verse 28 of that same chapter. Fervor said, I will let you go that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, only you shall not go very far away. Intrigued for me, well, if I can't get you to stay here, at least don't go very far. Stay close. And pray for me. Pray for me. Just go a little ways. Keep your foot in both worlds. Accept so much of the Scripture that will ensure that you go to heaven, but keep enough of the world so you can live comfortably. Don't be a fanatic. This is just synchronism as a higher level. The first and great commandment refutes this compromise. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, strength, and mind. Not with a little of your heart, a little of your mind, a little of your soul, a little of your strength, God does not call us to go a little way. He calls us to go as far as the Scripture goes. Pharaoh becomes very pious. He's brushing the flies away. Pray for me. Pray for me. How humble he appears. I can use prayer. I'm not opposed to your God. Don't think I'm opposed to your God. Probably not, but it might. Flattery. Pretended piety. Pretended humility. There's no change in Pharaoh's mind. Not a bit. He just wanted the flies to go away. Moses delays the deliverance until the next day. He reproves Pharaoh for his deceit. He did not reply to this offer of compromise, it was beneath contempt. Neither does Moses reveal to Pharaoh how silly this was. The third compromise was offered by Pharaoh over in chapter 10. If you look at chapter 10, you'll find the third compromise, which again is another part. It's just another way of saying sacrifice in the land. Sacrifice in the land. Well, don't go far away. Keep close up so you can come back. And now this one. This was announced. It was given to Moses after he had announced the eighth plague, the plague of locusts. Beginning with verse number 7, we read these words. And Pharaoh's servants said unto him, that's verse 7 of chapter 10, How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let them in, go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? And Moses and Aaron were brought unto Pharaoh, and he said unto them, Go serve the Lord your God. But who is it, they that should go? 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, where we go, for we must hold a feast unto the Lord. And he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you, 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 of Pharaoh's presence. You that are men, go. You understand what you're doing. But why should you subject your wives and your children to this foolishness? You do it. You know, beloved, all that a godly man has belongs to the Lord. his wife, his children, his little ones, the babes, they all belong to God and are to be devoted to the service of the Lord. They all attend the sacrifice. They're all participators in the worship of the Lord. They all go out in the wilderness. They all stand before Mount Sinai. They all raise their hands and affirm the covenant. They all participate of the sacrifice. I thank God. I hope I'm not stepping on anybody's toes today. But I thank God that in all my life, I never spent a day in junior church. Never did. Not one day. I learned to sit in church and participate. I learned from twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday without fail. Never hurt me a bit. Kids in school used to tease me, now you go to church every Sunday, don't you? Twice on Sunday, don't you? Are you holy? Oh, it stung when I was a kid. I'm not arguing for holy days, but I'm arguing for community. The community of faith that includes the children and the wives and the entire household. The whole congregation, as I said, would stand before the Lord at Sinai, stand to the covenant, lift their holy hands in worship and praise. The children of the congregation should sit in the congregation with the elders. They should read the scriptures. They should sing the hymns. They should make the responses. They should learn to worship the Lord at an early age. In 1 Corinthians 10, verses 1 through 3, Forever brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. All men, women, boys, girls, oxen, horses, servants, all went through the Red Sea. It was called a baptism. They were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and the sea, and all did eat the same spiritual meat. They all drank of the water from the rock. They all ate of the manna that came from heaven. Everyone did. There was no special diet, no special water. In Psalm 148, I'm going to let you turn to it, give you a chance to turn to it. Psalm 148 in its entirety. A great hymn of praise unto the Lord. Psalm 148. Praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights. Praise ye Him, all His angels. Praise Him, all ye hosts. Praise Him, sun and moon. Praise Him, all you stars and lights. Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, and you waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created. He has also established them forever and ever. He has made a decree which shall not pass. Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons in all deeps, fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind fulfilling his word, mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl, kings of the earth and all people, princes, all judges of the earth, both young men and maidens, old men and children. The word there is infants. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is excellent. No, He starts in heaven and He makes His way down to the seas and to the land and to the church that He purchased with His own blood. All people and kings, all are to lift their voices in praise to the Lord. He also exalts the horn of His people, the praise of all His saints, even to the children of Israel, of people near unto Him. Praise ye the Lord. This is sobering. Our children are to go as far as we go. And they will go as far as we go. If we stay in Egypt, they will stay in Egypt. If we sacrifice in Egypt, they will sacrifice in Egypt. If we go just a little way, then they will go just a little way. Moses said, no, we're going to take our wives, we're going to take our children, we're going to take all that we have, all that we have go. And he rejected the compromise of the land. of Egypt. You and I are to be consistent in our obedience to Scripture. There are many voices that call us to stay close to the world, to rear our children so they would be comfortable in the world. To stay close. The fourth compromise was offered after the fourth plague, it's also in chapter 10, or after the ninth plague of darkness that covered the land. And after the darkness was so thick that they could not see each other for several days, Pharaoh called to Moses and he offered him his fourth and final compromise, verse number 24 of chapter 10. 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 thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God. We know not with what we must serve the Lord until we consider." You and I do not decide how we are to serve the Lord. You do not know what God will require of you in your lifetime in your service to the Lord. You do not know. How profound that statement of Moses, the statement of the man of faith. We know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come to the earth. It is God who will make the determination, and we must be prepared with all that we have. Jesus made a very sober point in his parable concerning the mammon of unrighteousness. I'm not going to read it. It's a long section in the book of Luke. Fourteen verses in the book of Luke. But I can summarize it. There was a man who was a steward over all of his Lord's possession. And the Lord said, I don't need your service anymore. You're terminated. I don't think you've been very honest. And you're fired. As of such and such a day. You have authority until then. You will continue in your job until the day is over. Until the day comes. So the man says, what shall I do? I'm too lazy to dig and I'm too old to beg and too ashamed to beg. What am I going to do? All I can do is work with numbers. What shall I do? Ha! He says, I know what I'll do. So he started calling his Lord's debtors. This man, he says, how much do you owe? And I don't remember the exact figure, so I'm going to make some up. That's not important anyway. What do you owe? He says, well, I owe a hundred dollars. Oh here, scratch that out, we're going to put $50. You owe $50. Signed his initial, legal note. He just cut the note in half. How much do you owe? I owe $1,000. Ah, let's make that $200. Now the Lord is not saying that's the way you should do business, but He's making a very important point. The unjust man, who only had authority over the goods for a limited period of time, he was smart enough to use the authority he had over the goods that weren't his, anyway, to make himself some friends. He was smart enough to make friends. And so he said, you know, I'm going to be kicked out of this job. The day is going to come, the first of the month, and I'm gone. But he made sure that when he left his employer's employment, he would have friends. Now that's the point of the parable. If you try to read any more into it, you're going to get all mixed up. And Jesus said, Make to yourself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. The things of this world are not yours. And that unjust steward was probably a better steward of his master's goods than you and I have been of the things of the world. We haven't used him for the glory of God. We haven't used him to advance our Lord's glory. But this man was smart enough to look ahead and say, I'm going to need some friends out there. And Jesus is saying, do something now with the things that you have so that you'll have some friends over there. Now that's the only point of the parable, but it's a pretty good one. You cannot serve the Lord if your possessions are in Egypt. You cannot serve the Lord if the things that you have belong to yourself. You cannot serve the Lord if the things that you have are only for advancing your purposes and your contentment in this world. That's the point of the parable, and that's the point of this compromise. Pharaoh knew that where a man's treasure is, there will his heart be. If your kids are there, that's where your heart will be. If your wife is there, that's where your heart will be. If your money is there, if your treasure is there, that's where your heart will be. Make to yourself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. It means take advantage of the opportunities you have that God gives you to use the things of the world which belong to God in a way that will bring eternal reward. And he asked the question, if you cannot use the things of the world in a godly way, then who is going to give you the true riches? And Christ ends with a very sober application. You cannot serve two masters. If your possessions are in Egypt, then your heart will be in Egypt. You will have a divided heart, as James tells us. I want to make this application to this one point of this sermon. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and all our mind. Nothing is to be withheld from Him. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed to the world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Now this is an important point that I'm about to make. No man, no human institution, no church, no mission society, no civil or charitable mission, No political party has the right to make this demand of you. No one does. If I were like the modern preachers, now would be the time to take the offering. But I'd be derelict of my duty. I would be a slave to that which is ungodly. This is a claim that can be made by God only. Only God has the right demand that we love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and our strength. I would not belong to a church that made that demand. If I lived in a country that made that demand, I would think in terms of Antichrist. For only Christ and only God can make that claim. Only God has sovereign right, but He does have the right to claim ownership over everything you are and everything you have. And I as a minister of the gospel, although I cannot make that claim for myself or my church or my institution or whatever it is I'm doing, yet I can make and I must make that claim for God as His minister. We cannot sacrifice in the land, we cannot go just a little way, leave our families behind, and we cannot leave our possessions behind. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind. What would be said later at Sinai and reaffirmed by Lord Jesus is in a figure. in these compromises offered to Moses and Aaron. The world offers many compromises that would take us away from our obedience and our duty and our privilege to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Paul made the claim in no uncertain terms in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, for the love of Christ constraineth us Because we thus judge that if Christ died for all, then we're all dead. And that He died for all, they that which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again. Amen and Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank You for Your mercies and Your grace. We thank you that we serve a God who is worthy of our love and our affection, our devotion. He is worthy that we be good stewards of our time, our labor, our wealth. Will we be good stewards of our hearts? Unite our hearts, O Lord, to fear thy name. that we be not divided between the love of the world and the love of God. For in loving the Lord, then we will love one another, as you have given us commandment. We pray these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.