Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleConfession, Possession, a Lesson & Faith
Bible TextExodus 9:27-35
Synopsis Four things everyone should know. Listen
Date25-Feb-2018
Series Exodus 2016
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: Confession, Possession, a Lesson & Faith (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: Confession, Possession, a Lesson & Faith (128 kbps)
Length 31 min.
 

Series: Exodus

Title: Confession, Possession, a Lesson and Faith

Text: Ex 9: 27-35

Date: February 25, 2018

Place: SGBC, New Jersey

 

Exodus 9: 27: And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. 28: Intreat the LORD (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer. 29: And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORD’S. 30: But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God. 31: And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled. 32: But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up. 33: And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. 34: And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35: And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the LORD had spoken by Moses.

 

Again, we see Pharaoh falsely repent—he confessed, “I have sinned this time”; he confessed “the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.”; he called on God’s intercessor to “entreat the LORD” on his behalf.

 

Yet, again it is only fleshly repentance. Many confess these very things who put on a show of outward repentance but it is repentance to be repented of.

 

2 Corinthians 7:10: For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

 

But there are several other things we can learn from this passage: confession, possession, a lesson and faith.  That will be our subject and our outline.

 

CONFESSION

Exodus 9: 27: And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them,…the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.

 

This will be the confession that every unbelieving rebel will make in the day of judgement.  You can mark it down. All who would not confess God’s righteousness in their salvation will be forced from their own mouths to confess God’s righteousness in their condemnation.

 

Philippians 2: 9: Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11: And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 

For you do not believe on Christ, you can be assured of this, you will bow to Christ in this life and praise God for his grace or you will bow to Christ in judgment then be cast our forever.

 

Ezekiel 33:11: Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

 

Psalm 2: 12: Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

 

POSSESSION

 

Exodus 9: 29: And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORD’S…33: And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth.

 

Here is the possessor and his possession, “the earth is the LORD’s.”  No matter how big men and their empires may become remember:

 

Psalm 24:1: The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

 

Many people in our day are so worried that the fat-cats at the top have rigged the capitalism system for their own greedy gain. That may be true. But the earth is still the LORD’s.

 

This is the believer’s comfort!  When God commanded the children of Israel to enter the promised-land and face those mighty enemies, God strengthened the heart of every believer with these words:

 

Deuteronomy 10:14: Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.

 

Since that is the case, God says to you and me who believe:

 

Deuteronomy 10 12: And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, 13: To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?...17: For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: 18: He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. 19: Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

 

Did the devil and every enemy stop Christ from redeeming us and clothing us in his righteousness? Then do not fear—they will not stop him from giving us food and raiment.

 

Psalm 50: 10: For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. 11: I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. 12: If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

 

Believer, we never have to stoop to the sinful tactics this world uses to provide for ourselves and our love ones in need. God owns all things and God will take care of us. Fear God and obey him rather than men.

 

A LESSON

 

Exodus 9: 30: But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God. 31: And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled. 32: But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up. 33: And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD:

 

Does it seem to you that verses 31-32 are out of place in this passage? Verses 31-32 give us an earthly illustration of heavenly things like the parable of the wheat and the tares.

 

By our first birth in sin, we are like the flax and the barley—“for the barley was in the ear and the flax was bolled.”  The barley stood tall with full ears and the flax budded.  By nature pride rules the heart of man so that we stand tall and budding in our self-righteousness against God, against his Christ, against his gospel and against his people. All who meet God in that condition shall be smitten down like Pharaoh was.

 

But sinners born again of God are like the wheat and the rie—“for they were not grown up.”  The wheat and the rie were little tender plants that had just poked out from the ground.  By God giving his child a broken and contrite heart he makes his child a little tender plant, low at Christ’s feet. The margin says, “they were hidden.”  All God’s elect have been hidden in Christ from before the foundation of the world.  We were hidden in Christ when he bore the wrath of God in our place.  Since Christ has already been smitten in judgment on our behalf, since we are hidden in Christ, for his sake who justified us, God will not smite his broken and contrite people.

 

FAITH

 

Exodus 9: 34: And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35: And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the LORD had spoken by Moses.

 

We see what faith is not.  Sinner, if you heard God was sending hail then you saw hail—bigger than you had ever seen—falling with fire from heaven; then if you asked a man to pray to God to make it stop and that man did so and immediately you saw it stopped, would you believe God? You would not—“And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.”

 

“Seeing is not believing.” Seeing is not faith. People think seeing is evidence. If they have evidence then they will believe. No. Seeing is not faith; seeing is not believing.  Faith is itself is the evidence.

 

Hebrews 11: 1: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

 

Faith has all confidence in Christ.  The proof we behold is Christ. The reason faith is the substance and the evidence is because faith believes on Christ our Solid Rock. We see in Christ one who satisfied and honored God’s holy law for his people. We see a living Redeemer ruling and reigning for our good.  By faith we know that Christ is more substantial and lasting than the things you see. Therefore, we who believe on Christ are settled on an immoveable foundation.

 

2 Corinthians 4: 18: While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 5: 1: For we know [by faith] that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

 

Scripture speaks of “heavens” plural—the 1st is the atmosphere in which we live; the 2nd is where scripture speaks of the moon and Arcturus, Orion, Pleiades, and other starry hosts dwell. But scripture speaks of a “third heaven” where God dwells. Christ is the Door into the third heaven. Only those who believe on Christ can enter.

 

The apostle Paul is the only believer who has seen the third heaven with the natural eye and lived to tell about it. No other believer on this earth has seen it with our eyes.  But faith believes the word of God that before God made the heavens and the earth there was eternal God.  And when God has fulfilled his purpose in saving his people for his glory—when this tiny blip called time is over—again there will only be eternal God, along with Christ and all those he saved by his grace.

 

Faith says what other evidence could we possibly need than the word of God himself?  It is why Old Testament saints spoke of Christ’s work of redemption already accomplished in their day. It is why we speak of heaven, and glory, and everlasting salvation as a present reality. Faith gives the believer a possession of things right now.

 

John 6:47: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

 

When you believe God you have all the evidence you need! God help us all to do so now!  Amen!