Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleGod Alone Makes The Difference
Bible TextExodus 10:27-11:10
Synopsis No one has reason to exalt ourselves over any other because the only one who makes us to differ from another is God—God doth put a difference between his people and the rest of this world. Listen.
Date29-Apr-2018
Series Exodus 2016
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: God Alone Makes The Difference (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: God Alone Makes The Difference (128 kbps)
Length 46 min.
 

Series: Exodus

Title: GOD ALONE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
Text: Exodus 10: 27-11: 10

Date: April 29, 2018

Place: SGBC, New Jersey

 

Lately, I have several folks trying to set me straight on my doctrine. They insist God did not choose some to save and pass by others and God would not harden some in reprobation.  By God’s sovereign hand, at the very time men confronted me on this, we have come to the end of Exodus 10 into Exodus 11.

 

Now, before I get into my message, as we simply read our text, please tell me if it appears to  you that scripture bears out that God chooses some and passes by others, even hardens some in reprobation.

 

Exodus 10: 27: But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go.

 

What does that say?—“the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”

 

Exodus 10: 27: But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go. 28: 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. 29: And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more.

 

Next, we have a parenthesis. It tell us what the LORD had already told Moses. After the parenthesis, we will come back to the rest of Moses meeting with Pharaoh.

 

Exodus 11: 1: And the LORD said unto Moses,

 

What does that say?—“the LORD said unto Moses.” The LORD did not say this to Pharaoh nor to Pharaoh’s servants nor to the Egyptians.

 

Exodus 11: 1: And the LORD said unto Moses. Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. 2: Speak now in the ears of the people,…

 

The LORD told Moses to speak privately “in the ears of the children of Israel only.” The LORD did not tell this to Pharaoh or his servants or the Egyptians. The LORD said speak this secretly “in the ears of only the children of Israel.”

 

Exodus 11: 2:…and let every man borrow of his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold.

 

God told the children of Israel to borrow from jewels from their Egyptian slave masters. They have been slaves for 430 years. Now, these Israelite slaves are to ask their Egyptian slave-owners to let them borrow their silver and gold jewels.

 

Exodus 11: 3: And the LORD gave the people  favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants, and in the sight of the people.

 

The children of Israel needed silver and gold to furnish the tabernacle so the LORD provided it through their enemies. And the LORD made all the Egyptian people, even Pharaoh’s own servants, view Moses as a very great man.

 

Now, we come back to Moses standing before Pharaoh. Around them are all Pharaoh’s servants: his nobles, ministers, and counsellors.

 

Exodus 11: 4: And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: 5: And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts. 6: And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.

 

There is no difference between sinners: from the throne to the mill all were guilty but watch it.

 

Exodus 11: 7: But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. 8: And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh [who was] in a great anger.

 

Then our text reminds us that all this came about exactly as God said it would before God ever sent Moses into Egypt.

 

Exodus 11: 9: And [or as] the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. 10: And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

 

Way back in chapter 4, before Moses ever returned into Egypt, the LORD told Moses all of this would come to pass: he told what Pharaoh would do.

 

Exodus 4: 21: And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go. 22: And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: 23: And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.

 

It is obvious from this text that God alone puts a difference between one sinner and another sinner.  God plainly declared “the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.  But in case someone argues that this only applied to the children of Israel and Egypt then turn with me to 1 Corinthians 4: 7.  The Holy Spirit uses Paul to teach the Corinthian believers—and all believers—not to be puffed up one against another:

 

1 Corinthians 4: 7: For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?

 

Proposition: No one has reason to exalt ourselves over any other because the only one who makes us to differ from another is God—God doth put a difference between his people and the rest of this world.

 

Subject: God Alone Makes the Difference

 

Divisions: I want to talk about four things this present world knows nothing about concerning God and concerning themselves.

 

THE CHARACTER OF GOD

 

Men and women today know nothing about the character of God.  The only thing men are told about God is that God is love. But God’s chief attribute is not love, it is holiness—God is holy. 

 

Indeed, God is love and God loves to show mercy but to those whom he loves and shows mercy, God must make absolute satisfaction to his holy law.   God told Moses, “I will by no means clear the guilty.” (Ex 34: 7)

“The soul that sinneth, it must die!” (Eze 18: 20)

 

God said, “And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die”—that included the firstborn in Israel. All are guilty, all must die under God’s justice.  But God makes the difference by providing his Son, the Lamb of God, to die in place of his people to satisfy his justice for them.  See, Holy God can have nothing to do with a sinner unless that sinner is made holy and righteous.

 

Leviticus 22:21…it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein.

 

Before sinners start rejecting the gospel and popping off about God loving everybody, they need to learn what they do not know—God is holy.  Everything God does is according to his holy and righteous character!

 

GOD IS ABSOLUTLEY SOVEREIGN

 

Men and women today do not know that God is absolutely sovereign.  Listen to this description of God.

 

Daniel 4:35…he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?

 

In our text, God determined the end from the beginning. Then God brought it to pass.  God told Moses everything God would do then God did it exactly as he said he would.  From the beginning, God said, “Israel is my Son!” And from the beginning God said, “Pharaoh will harden his heart and therefore I will justly harden his heart in reprobation.”

 

Before God made the world, God’s first sovereign, electing choice was his Son. God choose his Son to work all the works of saving his people so that Christ might receive all the glory. Speaking of Christ our Wisdom, he says, “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.” (Pro 8: 23)

 

Romans 8: 29: For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

 

Salvation is about two things. It is to declare God’s holy righteous character and to give his Son all the glory and praise from those he saves.

 

Therefore, in eternity, God choose his people unto salvation in his Son. Speaking to those God called to faith in Christ, Paul said,

 

2 Thessalonians 2: 13: But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation…

 

Ephesians 1: 3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

 

God chose his people by his free and sovereign grace and purpose, not because of anything in us.

 

2 Timothy 1:9: Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began

 

Romans 9: 11: (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)…15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16: So then [salvation is] not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

 

Who maketh thee to differ from another? If you are one who has been made to bow to Christ, God made thee to differ by choosing you in his Son by his free grace before the foundation of the world.  Before sinners start boasting about their will they need to learn that God alone is sovereign—“Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” (Mt 20:15) IT IS GOD ALONE WHO PUTS A DIFFERRENCE BETWEEN SINNERS BY HIS SOVEREIGN ELECTION OF GRACE

 

ABOUT THEMSELVES

 

Men and women today know nothing about themselves.  God says in ourselves, as we are born into this world, “there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3: 22-23)

 

There is no difference between sinners in ourselves. All who meet God outside of Christ are the same so each shall be justly condemned. The firstborn is the firstfruit—as he is so are all the rest:

 

Exodus 11: 5: And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.

 

Sinners imagine they make the difference: By their blood ancestry—who their parents were; Christ told the Pharisee’s do not think you are God’s elect because you are natural sons of Abraham; By the will of their flesh—by their decision for Christ and by their works; By the will of man--priests, preachers and parents think they can make the difference between sinners by their will—by baptizing infants or by craftiness in preaching lies, by coercing sinners into a confession.  But God says those who are born again: they “were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (Jn 1: 13)

 

John 3: 6: That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7: Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

 

Faith is not even by the will of man.

 

Ephesians 2: 8: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

 

Be sure to get this: when God gives life and faith, it is NOT left to the sinner to choose or refuse God, God draws us irresistibly to Christ.

 

John 6: 44: No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

 

When scripture says Peter “drew his sword”—it is the same word. God the Father said to Christ his Son,

 

Psalm 110:3: Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power,…

 

God said, “I…lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth…my people…out of the land…I stretch forth mine hand…and bring out the children…from among them.”

 

2 Thessalonians 2: 13:…God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Two people hear the same sermon, from the same preacher: one is willing to confess himself nothing but sin—incapable of doing one thing to please God and he calls on Christ for mercy and is saved.  The other is angry and calls God unrighteous for doing as he will. Who made the difference? God alone!  Before sinners start exalting their will to choose or refuse Christ, they need to be taught they are dead, helpless sinners—and only God can teach them!

 

GOD’S SON, CHRIST JESUS THE LORD

 

God sent his Son to satisfy his holy justice for all those the Father gave to him in eternity and Christ satisfied God’s justice for each one by bearing their sin and condemnation until he cried, “It is finished!” HE ACCOMPLISHED IT!

 

Hebrews 1: 2 [God]: Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3: Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

 

Why did he sit down? Because he finished the work.

 

Hebrews 10: 12: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;…14: For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

 

God is holy. Therefore, God’s holy character will not allow him to pour out judgment a second time on one sinner for whom Christ bore divine justice!  God’s Son made satisfaction—propitiation—to God’s justice for his elect. The Apostle John said to believers—not to everyone—to believers alone:

 

1 John 4:10  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation [satisfaction] for our sins.

 

Therefore, God’s holy character demands each one Christ redeemed must be given life and faith in Christ. Christ is risen with all power to give eternal life to as many as the Father has given him.  Christ did not come into this world to make salvation possible if the sinner will make the difference by choosing Christ. Christ says to all his disciples,

 

John 15:16: Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain:

 

John 5: 21: For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.

 

Those God gives faith in Christ are:

 

Romans 3: 24: justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26: To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 27: Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28: Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 31: Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

 

Romans 8: 1: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

 

Exodus 11: 7: [therefore] against any of [God’s elect] Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.

 

Believer, even in our lives, every door that is opened for you is, not first and foremost opened by you, it because God gives us favor in the sight of men just as he did the Israelite slaves in the site of their Egyptian masters. Therefore, “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

 

Romans 8: 31: What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32: He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33: Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. 34: Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [nothing and no one] (Ro 8:31-35)

 

God alone made the difference!

 

Amen!