Start with me tonight in Exodus chapter four, if you would please. Verse 27. Exodus 4, 27. And the Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went and he met him in the Mount of God and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him and all the signs which he had commanded him. And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. And Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped." Then chapter five, verse one, and afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people go. that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." Moses and Aaron are now required to confront Pharaoh in person. I don't know about you, but I would have been scared. They know his contention toward their race and people. They know his heartless cruelty that was frequently displayed to them. They knew that their message for him would not please him for God had already told him that he would harden his heart and he wouldn't let Israel go. And what a picture and what an example of God's power here to impart grace and give courage to a trembling heart. God gives us what we need when we need it. God gives us strength when we need it. God gives us grace when we need it. God's strength is made perfect in our weakness, the scriptures say. Most gladly, therefore, would I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. The Lord told Paul that his grace was sufficient in every circumstance, trial, Affliction, doesn't matter. His grace is sufficient. Why? Because God's strength is made perfect. That word means complete, entire. Made known and revealed to believers in their weakness. You know, I am never more aware of the power of God and the power of Christ than when I am aware of my own weakness, my own inability, and my own unwillingness So with God-given boldness, here we have God's servants make their demand upon Pharaoh. And they said, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people go. May we never endeavor to preach outside of thus saith the Lord. The gospel is not my opinion. The gospel is not what I think. The gospel is thus saith the Lord. The gospel is what God declares it to be. The message of God has to do with liberty. It has to do with freedom from bondage. And we must remember again that that's what Egypt pictures and represents. It represents the bondage of sin's nature. It represents the bondage in keeping the law of God. We've talked about it several times. Basically, there's a two-fold bondage that the scriptures teach. The bondage of keeping God's law. It's bondage because we can't do it. And the bondage of our own sinful nature. And that's the two-fold bondage that every natural man and woman is under. We can't get out from underneath the bondage of the law. We may not agree with it. We may think it's too harsh and too strict, but you can't get out from under. There's some bondage there. Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. You see, that's the problem, to do. The law is weak in the flesh and that's our flesh because we can't do what the law requires. God requires perfect obedience to his law. I can't get out from underneath that. God discontinues to be just and holy. if he allows me to be saved apart from perfect obedience to his law. There's only one way that any of us can be set free, and that's by Christ perfectly keeping the law's demands for us. And he answered all the law's demands. He took every sin of every child of God, and he put them away, how? By the sacrifice of himself, and that's the gospel. And now before the law of God, there is no guilt. There's no wages of sins debt that you and I must pay. They've been paid. I don't owe a thing. The demands of the law against me have been met. The wages of sin have been paid. The holy justice of God has been satisfied. And then secondly, we are also under the bondage of a sinful nature. And oh, what bondage that is. I'm in bondage to a nature that cannot not sin. We say that, but it's so true. I cannot not sin. Do you know anything about that? I'm in bondage to that old nature. That's what Paul's talking about in Romans 7. What I wanna do and what I should do, I don't. And what I shouldn't do, that I do. Oh, wretched man that I am. But the Lord Jesus Christ sets his people free from the bondage of that nature by giving them a new nature. A nature that was not there before. The message of the gospel is it's a liberating message. It's a message of liberty. It's a message of freedom. God gives us a new nature in Christ, not an improved nature, not a reformed nature, not a religious nature. Some folks, I think, miss that. They think being religious is being spiritual. It's not. He gives us a new nature. For the law, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death, Romans 8. Christ has made, has delivered us from the curse of the law and we're free from the curse of that old nature. Do you know what the true message of the gospel is? Let my people go. Let my people go. God demands it. Do you know why? First, because the law has been kept and satisfied on the believer's behalf. The child of God, Christ has for the child of God paid the debt of sin and put it away by the sacrifice of himself. The bondage of the believer's will and nature has been crucified in Christ. We're made a new creature, and we've received a new nature. And that's why God demands that his people be let go. It's a picture of God's elect being freed from bondage. And that's why let my people go is the gospel message. Christ has done for them what they couldn't do for themselves. And my, we certainly say that a lot, don't we? But it's the only hope that I have. Moses and Aaron said in verse one, they said, thus saith the Lord. You see, our gospel comes from him. The gospel which we preach comes from God. The Lord God of Israel is the one who said this, said these things. He's the one that wrote this book. This is his word. It's not my opinion, it's not my take on things, it's God's. Thus saith the Lord God. This is the sovereign will, purpose, and power of God. He said, thus saith the Lord God of Israel. He's the God of a particular distinguished people. He is the God of Israel, not the God of everyone. The message of good news for Israel is this, let my people go. God said, Pharaoh, let my people go. And it's Israel's freedom from bondage that must be granted because it's what God demands for those that are his. That they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness, God says. You see, the gospel message is all about the Lord. It's all about the glory that God is to receive, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And the salvation and redemption of God's people, His gospel is a message of liberty and freedom. That's what I want you to see. That's what I want you to rejoice in. Free. from the law, oh happy condition. Jesus has bled and there's remission. Payment for sin and fool has been made. It's a message of God's distinguishing grace. Let my people go, not everybody, my people. Did you know that liberty and freedom, well I know you know it, but have you thought about it? Liberty and freedom are meaningless without some understanding of bondage. Until we've experienced the bondage of sin with the promise of death, and that's what sin's wages is, death, we'll never ever fully appreciate the liberty and freedom that we have in Christ. We just won't. And it is God who demands that Pharaoh let his people go. God says, set them free. And we ought to be happy about that because whatever God says comes to pass. Look at verse two. And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. And we read that verse and we think to ourselves, what arrogance? We also think to ourselves, what ignorance? But Pharaoh's gonna soon discover that he's nothing more than a puppet and a pawn in God's hands. The Lord knows how to humble the pride of man. How do I know that? For the scripture saith to Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. It wasn't many years later that when those two spies came to Rahab's house, she said, oh, I've heard, I've heard what your God did in the land of Egypt. Oh, that God's name might be declared throughout all the earth. Pharaoh said, I don't know the Lord. I don't recognize, that's what the word means. I don't acknowledge the Lord. As far as I'm concerned, your Lord is nothing to me. And I certainly won't let Israel go. Not gonna do it. Verse three, and they said, the God of the Hebrews hath met with us, let us go, we pray thee, three days journey into the desert and sacrifice unto the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. And the King of Egypt said unto them, wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works get you unto your burdens? I think we all have a pretty good understanding of what's going on here. Pharaoh didn't want to let Israel go because it greatly benefited him. They were his slaves. And this is typical of Egypt. This is typical of bondage. This is typical of salvation by works. That's what Egypt represents. Typical of this, Pharaoh doesn't like this talk about liberty. Pharaoh doesn't like this talk about freedom. And in verse four, what Pharaoh is saying, he says, you free the people from their works and their responsibility, and they'll never be good for anything. What a picture here of works religion. Isn't that what works religion says? You give folks this liberty, You give folks this freedom. You give folks this grace and mercy in Christ, and they'll never read their Bible. They'll never pray. They'll never attend church. Get you unto your burdens. Get on back to work, Pharaoh says. Do something for Pharaoh, your king. And verse five, and Pharaoh said, behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens. Now, this isn't talking just about just taking a break. They would get work breaks. They didn't work and go 24-7. At the end of the day, they got to go home, they got to eat, they got to rest. This is talking about permanent rest. This is talking about a complete rest, a finished work. That's what it's referring to. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest. Hebrews chapter four, verses nine through 11. This liberty and Freedom refers to a complete salvation. Pharaoh says, you want them to rest from their burdens? That doesn't work for me. For the people are now many. You know, my kingdom's about to really take off, Pharaoh's saying. He said, we're building bigger and we're building better. Are you trying to ruin this for me? If all you talk about is rest, how is any work gonna be done? You're trying to cause the people of the land to work no more. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to make them work more and I'm gonna make them work harder. Look at verse six. And Pharaoh commanded the same day, the taskmasters of the people and their officers saying, you shall no more give the people straw to make brick as heretofore. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. and the tail or the number of the bricks which they did make heretofore, you shall lay upon them, you shall not diminish off thereof. For they be idle, therefore they cry saying, let us go and sacrifice to our God. Verse nine, let there more work be laid upon the men that they may labor therein. and let them not regard vain words. Now this is a great dilemma for Israel because you can't make this kind of brick without straw. Now stay with me on this. I think it'll be a blessing to you. You see, it's impossible to make this kind of brick without straw. Just the same as it's impossible to be saved by works. It's impossible to do. It's like making bricks without straw. There is no straw, there is no grace in Christ to hold the bricks together. There is no straw, no power in Christ to start the flame, to fire the bricks, to make them solid and strong. If salvation is in any way conditioned on something that you and I must do, then none of us will ever be saved. It's impossible to make bricks without straw, and friends, it's impossible to be saved by works. In salvation by works, you have to make bricks without straw, and that's impossible to do. They certainly couldn't come up with the same number of bricks if there was no straw. And isn't that exactly what salvation by works is? I'm given something to do that I cannot possibly do. Look again at verse seven, Pharaoh says, let them go and gather straw for themselves. Can you and I provide or gather a perfect righteousness for ourselves? No, absolutely not. And that's why the works religionist claims that liberty and freedom lead to idleness. They say that kind of thinking will lead to sin and lawlessness. You tell people they have freedom and grace and mercy in Christ, and they'll live like they want to. But they forget that God changes the sinners want to. God changes those whom He loves that they want to. He makes them willing to do God's will in the day of His power. Besides that, sin and lawlessness is already found in me by nature. And the reason those who believe in salvation by works don't love freedom from bondage is because they really don't know what sin is. Now you think about this with me. That's a great burden, that's a great burden when you, When you don't know what sin is, or if you do know what it is, it's a great burden when you know you can't provide what God requires. It's like trying to make bricks without straw. It just can't be done. But the child of God to whom God has revealed something of their sin, you can't preach salvation free enough. You just can't. When God has revealed to me my sin, my desperate condition before Him, you can't preach freedom to me enough, freedom in Christ. That's all a true sinner wants to hear. To those who have been made to feel the guilt of their sin, you cannot preach salvation by grace enough. That's all they want to hear. Tell me again that wondrous story of Christ and what He's done for sinners. Religion says of those who believe in grace, well, you're just idle. You're just looking for an excuse to sin. You're looking for an excuse to do nothing. That's why you want this liberty and rest. And to say such things proves that men and women have no true understanding of sin and the bondage that it brings. Like Pharaoh, with religion, it's work, work, work. Liberty, freedom, and rest will only cause idleness. You know, my mother used to say to me, idle hands are the devil's workshop. I know you've heard that saying. And that's just another unscriptural saying. When I was an adult, I used to ask her, how did she know? I said, are you the devil's sister or something? And she'd say, no, I'm the devil's mother. But the only way you can get rest from the burden of the law, the only way you can get rest from the burden of sin's nature is by the perfect work of Christ. That's what this picture is. I hear people say that they believe in salvation by grace when I know that they really don't. They say that because they really don't know what salvation by works is. For works is exactly how they endeavor to accomplish their salvation. So what is meant by salvation by works? Well, I know this much, if any part of salvation is not all of grace, then it's by works. If any of salvation is dependent on us, dependent on you and I, we make it all by works. And that's exactly what Romans chapter 11, verse six tells us. And if by grace, then it's no more works. Otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise work is no more work. That simply means that salvation cannot be by works and grace both. It's either one or the other. Now, in the beginning of salvation, if I have to exercise my will, if I have to make a decision, if I have to give my heart to Jesus, as many folks say, then salvation's my works. In the middle of salvation, if it's me that has to persevere, if it's up to me to endure till the end, If it's up to me in any way to keep myself, then salvation is by works. And in the end of salvation, if I feel as though I've earned a reward, if I feel that I deserve the love and mercy and grace of God, if I feel that I've earned or in some way have merited salvation, then I make salvation all by works. Look at verse 10, and the taskmasters of the people went out and their officers, and they spake to the people saying, thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go ye, get you straw where you can find it. Yet not all of your work shall be diminished. You still got to produce the same amount of bricks without straw. Now look at verse 12. So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. The good news message of the gospel is, come unto me all ye that labor and heavy laden with sin and I'll give you rest. That's the good news of the gospel. The good news of the gospel is if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. The good news of the gospel is whosoever will, let him come and take the water of life freely. But the message of works is I will not give you straw. I will not give you anything. Go, get your own straw where you can find it, verse 11. Yet your work shall not be diminished. Your responsibility to provide is not diminished at all. Need the same amount of bricks. You're still responsible to come with the goods. And I think we see two things here very clearly. First, inability. And secondly, responsibility. You see, inability, if they were not supplied with the straw, No way could they come up with the required number of bricks, just impossible, inability, can't do it. They were given something that they were unable to do. That's what salvation by works is. It's given me something that I cannot do. The law of God gives you and I something that we are unable to do. And then responsibility, the same number of bricks, It's required. Inability does not negate responsibility. You still got to provide the same amount of bricks day in and day out. We don't have straw, sorry. Does it negate the responsibility? Now the first thing usually somebody will say is how can it be fair for me to be required to do something that I cannot do? But the child of God has learned that salvation has nothing to do with God being fair, and it has everything to do with perfect obedience to God. If I can't pay my taxes, if I don't have the ability to pay them, I'm still held responsible to pay them, right? If a murderer kills someone in our family and his defense is, well, I just have a murderous nature. That person in a court of justice won't be released from their responsibility not to kill. If that's so in the physical realm, if that's so and true in this world, then it's even more so in the spiritual realm because God's requirements are according to his holy justice. It's only when God shows us that we're truly responsible for all our sin. It's all our fault. We have no one to blame but ourselves. It's then when we are brought to the place where we can cry, Lord, have mercy on me. What else am I gonna do? The law of God requires what I can't do. My only hope is mercy. My only hope is that God might give me liberty and give me freedom in Christ. And that has to be revealed to us. God, the Holy Spirit has to show us. That's what John 16, eight says. And when he, the Holy Spirit has come, he will reprove that word means convince, convict. the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin. And did you pay any attention there to verse 12? So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt together stubble instead of straw. Now that word stubble here means sapless. It means lifeless. That's a picture of the dead works that men try to do. It's just lifeless, dead works, don't amount to anything. Pharaoh gave them something impossible to do, but they're still responsible. They're still responsible to provide what they had always been responsible to provide. And if you're going to endeavor to be saved by works, the same thing applies. You're still responsible to provide what God requires. What is that? Perfection. It's like making bricks without straw. Which would you prefer to be under, works or grace? I'll take grace. Give me grace. Verse 13, and the taskmasters hasted them saying, fulfill your works, your daily task. as when there was straw, and the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and demanded. Wherefore, have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick, both yesterday and today, as heretofore?" Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants? There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, make brick, and behold, thy servants are beaten, but the fault is in thine own people. But he said, ye are idle, ye are idle, therefore ye say, let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord. Go therefore now and work, for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tail of bricks." The number of bricks. Verse 19, and the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in an evil case. After it was said, you shall not minish out from your bricks of your daily task. And I was thinking as I read these verses, how true to human nature this is. Instead of crying into the Lord, instead of crying into the Lord, these leaders of Israel turned to Pharaoh for relief. Men continue to turn to the holy law of God for relief, but there's no relief there. No relief there. I'm sure that they hoped to appeal here to Pharaoh's pity or to some sense of his justice. The justice of God's law though is unbending and it's inflexible. Surely they could show Pharaoh that his demands were unreasonable and impossible to fulfill. Yet if you offend God's law in one point, you're guilty of it all. James 2.10, and unless God intervenes, the natural man will always prefer to lean upon the arm of flesh than be supported by him who is invisible. Verse 20, and they met Moses and Aaron who stood in the way, and they came forth from Pharaoh, and they said unto them, The Lord look upon you and judge because you have made our savor, our odor, our smell to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants to put a sword in their hand to slaves. And this shouldn't be a surprise to us. The Lord himself were hated by his own brethren according to the flesh and the very ones to whom he had ministered in grace unanimously cried crucifying. Verse 22, excuse me. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil and treated this people? Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people, and neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. Now look at chapter six, verse one. Then the Lord said unto Moses, now, now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land." You know, we cannot see what God can or will do until we see that we can't do anything. Until you and I are brought to the place that we can do nothing. till we see that we are in an evil case. It is then that you and I will see our need of Christ. I remember so vividly when I heard the gospel, how the God was holy, holy, a God of justice who would by no means clear the guilty. And when God revealed to me that I was guilty, Oh, I saw that I was in an evil case. And it was then that I knew that I must have Christ in order to be saved. You see, salvation is what God does for sinners, not what we do for God. Salvation is by and according to the righteous work that Christ did. I've got to have him. That's my only hope. Have you reached the end of yourself? Have you seen that you can do nothing? It's then and only then that we can see what God can do. Have you seen what God can do? Have you experienced what God can do? Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is in what God does. And it's there that salvation begins in election. That's where salvation stays. We're kept by the power of God. God chose us. God set his affection on us. In time, he called us, he justified us and will glorify us. And we're kept by the power of God as we walk through our daily lives. And that's where salvation ends. Having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them until the end. And God with a strong hand. Boy, I love the sound of that, don't you? A strong hand. With a strong hand shall God accomplish redemption for His elect, and with a strong hand He'll drive them out of this land, this land in which we live. And that's just the only way you and I will ever be saved. May God enable us to trust in Him. I think that's a beautiful picture of God's work, grace and mercy in our lives. It's a beautiful illustration of how we cannot be saved by works. We've got to rely upon He who was made to be sin for us in order to be made the perfect righteousness of God in Him. May the Lord be pleased to make this effectual to our hearts.