God Will Fight for You

Amen. Children can be dismissed for children's church at this time and if you'll take your Bibles, we're going to be in Exodus. Let's see. Exodus chapter three here in just a few minutes. All the other passages I'm gonna have up on the screen.

But we're gonna be jumping around in Exodus beginning in chapter three here in just a few minutes. Last week, the sermon was this, God does not abandon his own. He did not abandon the children of Israel. They may have at times felt abandoned but he did not abandon them. There are times in life where we may feel abandoned but we can be rest assured that God does not abandon his own.

He is there. He is working. He cares for us. He said, I will never what? Leave thee nor forsake thee and even when things around us appear to be going badly, we can trust in the word of God to count all trials and tests for joy because God is working.

He has a purpose. That all things do work together for what? For good to them that love the Lord. He has not abandoned us, who have put our faith and trust in him. This morning, we're going to take that a little bit further and that is not only will God not abandon you, his child, but he will fight for you.

He will fight for you. He is fighting for you. David once wrote, Psalm 26 through eight. He says, now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed, That is his chosen ones. He will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen but we are risen and stand upright. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Lord, thank you for your word today. Please use it mightily in our hearts and lives.

Please work through your spirit today to open our eyes to help us to see the areas of our life that need to change to become more like our savior Jesus Christ and we pray if there be one here today that's never trusted you as the Lord and savior of their life that today would be their day of salvation. For in Jesus precious name, we pray. Amen. Another passage you might be familiar with reference to David First Samuel seventeen, one of my favorite chapters in the word of God. Then said David to the Philistine, thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

This day, will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand and I will smite thee and take thy head from thee and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day until the fowls of the air to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a god in Israel and all this assembly shall know that the Lord save it not with sword and spear for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. David declared his faith in the promises of almighty God. He declared his faith in the power of God. And that as long as he was standing for the Lord, that God would stand with him and he did and he took that stone and he put it in that sling and he slung it and down went that giant and down went the Philistines army that day. As Israel won a great victory and God was magnified.

The God who fights for his own. Goliath seemed to be an invincible foe. But he was not invincible before who? He was not invincible before God. David and Goliath is not the first story in scripture of an underdog defeating a seemingly overwhelming foe.

Abraham took an army. Abraham took on an army of four kings who had just defeated an alliance of five kings that that included Sodom and Gomorrah. He took on this army of four kings and soundly defeated them with an army of, anybody know? Army of about 300 men. Army of about 300 men, Abraham defeated an army of four kingdoms.

How? How is that possible? Well, because God fought for him. The armies of a thousand kingdoms are no match for the army of who? For the army of the Lord.

Gideon put to flight an army of hundreds of thousands with an army again of 300. Joshua's army which ranged around about 600,000, a little bigger, took on armies in the millions and fortified cities with walls that were impenetrable. Armies with chariots and weapons of war that Israel did not possess but they possessed one weapon that none of those other kings or kingdoms had and that was who? That was God. That was the Lord.

And city after sing them and kingdom after kingdom, they fell before the God of Israel. There were several battles in the Old Testament where God's people were vastly outnumbered by their foes and when they turn to prayer and faith in God, God fought for them. For instance, in the days of King Jehoshaphat, Judah faced an invading force of three different kingdoms, all meeting and joining up. To conquer Judah. But when the people turn to the Lord in prayer and in faith, we read this, second Chronicles twenty seventeen.

God said to them, you shall not need to fight this battle. Set yourselves, stand you still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, oh Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not nor be dismayed. Tomorrow, go out against them for the Lord will be with you. And he was.

God turned the enemies on each other. And Israel stood there singing praises to God while they looked out across the valley and saw the opposing enemy crumble before them without having to raise a sword in battle. As God destroyed the enemy. Here in Exodus, we read the record of powerless slaves who spurned their mighty masters. Their mighty masters being the most powerful nation and army in the world of their day.

They spurned them. They defeated them. They departed on their terms and with their spoil. That's what happens. That's what God does.

In the first several chapters of the book of Exodus for his people. Our God is real. Our God is mighty and our God cares about us. Has he cared about the people of Israel? God says, ask and it shall be given.

Seek and you shall find not and it shall be open unto you. Why? Because God cares about you. God cares about us. He wants to give us what kind of things.

Good things. He wants to show himself mighty in behalf of his children. He says in first Peter five seven, casting all your care upon him for he what? He cares for you. God says, bring it.

He's Philippians four six. Be careful for nothing. Don't be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your request be made known unto God and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. He cares about us. He cares about our daily struggles.

He cares about our emotional struggles, our spiritual struggles. He knows our enemy. And he and greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. No one and nothing can stand in God's way, not Goliath, not an alliance of many kingdoms, and not the mightiest kingdom of the world and the strongest dictator with the most well equipped army which would have been Pharaoh in the book of Exodus. So, let's take a quick look at the foe Moses defeated when God got involved.

So, Exodus chapter three is where we'll be in verse 10 in just a moment. First, we see the confrontation. The confrontation. So, we ended last week and God Moses was at the burning bush on Mount Sinai or also called Mount Horeb where God commands Moses, commissions Moses to go, and to free his people from Egypt, from Pharaoh. And so God heard the cries of his people as he hears our cries.

He cared about them as he cares for us and he sent Moses to lead them out. To win them liberty, freedom, salvation from the clutches of Egypt and Pharaoh. He told Moses to go with this forewarning that Pharaoh would not comply. You go to Pharaoh and you tell him that I am going that that Israel, you're demanding the release of Israel and and Pharaoh, however, will not comply. Now, sounds like a bad thing.

Now, you go and you tell them but he's not going to listen. You think, well, why should I go if he's not going to listen? Well, God has a what? He has a purpose in this and that's not the end of the story. Look if you would in chapter three verse 10.

Now, come now therefore and I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou may est bring forth my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt and Moses said unto God, who am I that I should go on to Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt. Let me stop there just for a moment. Little little review here. Who is Moses? Well, Moses is the adopted son of who?

Of Pharaoh. He grew up forty years in the palace. He was a somebody. When he left the palace and saw one of his fellow Hebrews being beaten, he killed the Egyptian who was beating him. Thinking, you know, I'm the mighty Moses and then, when he started hearing the rumor going around that he had killed an Egyptian all of a sudden, his great courage went and God sent him to the backside of the desert.

When he was the mighty Moses, he wasn't ready because he had to learn to trust in the mighty who? In the mighty God and not in the mighty Moses. Forty years on the backside of the desert, forty years as a shepherd and now at 80 years old, a humble Moses is ready to do the bidding of his God. Sometimes, God has to take us through trials. God knows what he's doing.

He needs us to learn to trust not in ourselves but more in in him. So that we can be the person he wants us to be. Verse 12, and he said, God said, certainly, I will be with thee and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain. Turn just chapter four and verse 21.

Chapter four verse 21. Verse 21 of chapter four, 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 and thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord, Israel is my own, even my firstborn 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. Look if you would in chapter seven, chapter seven verses one through seven. And the Lord said unto Moses, see, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh and Aaron, thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh that he send the children of Israel out of his land and I will harden Pharaoh's heart and will multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt but Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.

When I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them and Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, so did they and Moses was four score years old and Aaron four score and three years old when they spake unto Pharaoh. After some hesitation, Moses trusted who? He trusted in the Lord and he did what God commanded him to do and he went with Aaron, his brother, and he confronted the mightiest dictator and tyrant of the world in his day, the king of Egypt, Pharaoh. But Pharaoh did not what? He didn't budge.

He didn't listen. Why should he? What could Aaron and Moses do to him? That was his thought. Who are you?

What can you do to me? To the Egyptians, Pharaoh himself was a god. Look if you would in Exodus 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 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. He asked for it, didn't He said, I don't know the Lord. Who is the Lord that I should listen to him? What did he just do? He he he just told God, okay, show me who you are.

He dared God and God, of course, already knew. God already had determined. He knew that Pharaoh and his arrogance, ignorance, and allegiance to his false gods would refuse to offer, would refuse Moses's offer to leave Egypt Egypt quietly with Israel. He knew that Pharaoh would challenge his might and his person and his authority. This resulted in the opportunity for God to demonstrate his power to his own people in building their faith and to the people of Egypt.

A power infinitely greater than the gods of Egypt to strengthen their faith and glorify his name. The fact is God will be glorified. God will be magnified. God's plans will not be thwarted. God will not lose the war.

He will have the victory. The question is, which side will you be on? Pharaoh had chosen the wrong side. And he would suffer for it. And many of his people would also.

The side of the almighty God or the powerless gods of wood and clay, of stone, and metal, or of pride, and riches, and sinful pleasures. Which side are you on? It's a dangerous thing. To fall into the hands of the living, mighty God. Pharaoh challenged God to show himself God did.

Furthermore, God wants to be glorified in your life, Christian. Just as he did in the life of Moses and Aaron and Israel. He desires to be glorified by your faith and obedience which he deserves. But if he must, he will be also be glorified in your chastening. This again is up to who?

It's up to you. God blesses obedient children. God chases disobedient ones. But praise God he loves both. At times, I have been obedient one.

At times, I am a disobedient one. But praise God, I serve a merciful and loving savior. Amen. But he wants to be glorified in my life and in yours. Is so much better for him to be glorified in our obedience than in our chastening.

But God will do what is best. Moses and Aaron by faith obeyed God's command. It took courage on their part. It took a lot of courage on their part to stand in the court of Pharaoh and to demand that a god so to speak. The release the children of Israel.

In a moment's notice, in one word or two, Pharaoh could have had them killed. But he didn't. Why? Because they were not standing alone. God was with them.

He protected them. They gave their demands to Pharaoh. They made the confrontation. They obeyed the Lord. How about us?

What confrontation with sin do you need to make today? What confrontation with the enemy? What confrontation with self doubt and temptation do you need to make today? Is there a confrontation that needs to be made a confession that needs to be made today? What command has God given you?

Go into all the world and what? Preach, proclaim the gospel. Be my witnesses. Be you holy for I am holy. Pray for one another.

Forgive one another. There are many things that God has called us his children to do. Maybe something specifically he has called you to do. Will you trust him? Will you choose faith in God over the fear of man or the fear of temptation How about you?

The enemy of sin is daunting. So too is fear and doubt and pride and selfishness. Dare to believe and trust in the Lord. He will fight for you. Don't ever believe the lie of Satan that you cannot get victory over sin in your life.

Over a particular temptation. Greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Amen. Don't listen to Satan. Listen to God.

Trust in him. Moses and Aaron did and the story ends well. We must do the same. So, we first of all see the confrontation. Second of all, the conflagration.

Well, what does that word mean? Well, conflagration means the burning down of, the destruction of, the bringing down of. Pharaoh and Egypt to their knees and God did that and when Moses stood there before Pharaoh and gave God's demands and Pharaoh said, who is God? I don't know who he is. Why should I let you go?

Gave God the opportunity that he desired to show his mighty hand. In Egypt and in the world of that day and by record to us today. So, God brought Egypt to its knees. Plague after plague, he brought upon the people of Egypt. The rulers of Egypt, the gods of Egypt, until until the people knew that the God of Moses was God overall.

Until finally, Pharaoh capitulated in grief over the loss of his what? Of his firstborn son as God had said. Turn if you would in Exodus chapter 12. Exodus chapter 12. And look in verse 29.

Exodus twelve twenty nine. After the tenth plague and the death of the firstborn and we're going to talk more about the Passover next Sunday. So, don't think, well, they just skipping over the Passover. No, we're going to go back and look at the Passover more closely next week but look if you would in chapter 12 and verse 29 and came to pass that at midnight, the Lord smote all the firstborn of the land of Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne into the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon and all the firstborn of the cattle and Pharaoh rose up in the night. He and all his servants and all the Egyptians that and there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

That is not a house except where? In Goshen, where the Israelites live and not simply because they were Israelites but because they put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost and the judgment of God what passed over them. Praise God. God's invitation of salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ is given to all and God's judgment will too pass over all those who have put their faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. But we see here, Pharaoh defied the God of heaven and Pharaoh lost and Israel won.

The plagues which God brought upon the Egyptians served to demonstrate his great superiority over the gods of Egypt. An opportunity for all to see and submit to his lordship. Not only the Jews. Each plague and we won't take the time this morning to go through each one of them but each of the 10 plagues was an attack on the gods of Egypt. Beginning with happy.

That's just odd name for a god but anyway, Egyptians worshiped a god happy. Happy was the God of the Nile and of the floods. The first plague that God brought on Egypt was turning the water to what? To blood. Not just the Nile but every pond and every stream and every creek and every bucket of water in Israel turned to blood.

An attack by God upon the God of the Nile, one of Israel's most beloved God so to speak. The Nile River brought fertility to Egypt. It brought life to Egypt and God in a matter of moments turned all that water to blood and defied and attacked and defeated the God of Egypt. The ninth plague was an attack upon Ra. Ra is the sun God and for three days, the whole land of Egypt fell into what?

Darkness and the sun did not shine. Now, when does that happen? When does the sun not shine? Well, you say, well, it's overcast some days and it's kind of murky, you know, and you don't see the sun but that's not what we're talking about. God didn't make it obscured.

God made it what? Dark. There was darkness even in the homes of the people of Egypt. The sun did not shine. There was no light.

They dwelt in darkness for three days as God demonstrated his power over their worthless God. And then finally, God attacked the God of Egypt who sat on the throne. When he took the life of the firstborn of the pharaoh of Egypt. You can submit to the God of heaven and bow the knee in faith and love and allegiance today and reap the rewards that come to all those who choose Christ as Lord or you can bow the knee before him on the day of judgement but rest assured, every knee shall what? Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen. In Matthew ten twenty eight, Jesus said this, and fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body, soul, and body in hell. Don't fear the gods of Egypt. Don't fear idols. Don't fear men.

Fear God. God is the one who will determine our eternity. God is the almighty judge who created us and is sovereign overall. The fear of man brings a snare. It's a trap but who so trust in the Lord shall be what?

Safe. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and all those who put their trust in him shall be safe. The people of Israel and particularly the king of Israel defied God and God showed himself to be the almighty God he is in fighting for his own. As he will fight for you.

When you take a stand, when you trust in him, when you confront the enemy, he will fight for you. As he fought for them. And so number three, we see the the emancipation. Look if you would in chapter 12 again and verse 31. Verse 31, Exodus 12 and he called for Moses and Aaron by night, that is Pharaoh did, and said, rise up and get you forth from among my people.

Both you and the children of Israel and go serve the Lord as you have said. Also, take your flocks and your herds as you have said and be gone and bless me also and the Egyptians were urgent upon the people that they might send them out of the land in haste for they said, we be all dead men and the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs before being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders and the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels and of silver and jewels of gold and raiment and the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so that they lent unto them such things as they required and they spoiled the Egyptians. The word lent there doesn't mean they were borrowing it in order that they would give it back someday, okay? It was given to them in bunches in mass as they departed Egypt, how? Not ignominiously.

But in victory. And so Pharaoh finally consented to let Israel go But not until Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt and the power and reputation of Egypt suffered greatly at the hands of God of Moses and Israel. Not until God had demonstrate to both his people and the Egyptians that there really is only one true living almighty God who takes care of his own. And is able to destroy all his enemies. The God of the Bible, the true and living God, triumphed over the might of man and the gods of Egypt as his people prepared to leave.

The Egyptians showered the Israelites with gifts Of gold and silver and all sorts of jewelry, expensive clothing, just as God had foretold and by the way, when did God when did God predict that? Genesis chapter 15 verses thirteen and fourteen, God said to Abraham, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, Shall serve them and they shall afflict them four hundred years and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge? 10 plagues and afterward, they shall come out with what? Great substance. Whose substance?

The Egyptian substance. They spoiled the enemy on the battlefield and how do they do it? Did they do it with swords? They do it with machines of war? Did the army of Israel fight against the army of Egypt?

No, an army of one destroyed Egypt. And freed his people. That army of one is God and the same God that fought for them is the same God who fights for us. Greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Many of the spoils that they took out of Egypt would later be used to build the tabernacle in the wilderness.

Where Israel would worship their God and give him the glory. God promised Abraham that he would deliver his sentence from bondage and bring them back to the land. God promised Moses he would do the same when he sent him to Egypt to speak to Pharaoh and God always keeps his promises. And he'll do the same for us. Amen.

I will never leave you nor forsake you. I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. Promise after promise in God's word that he has made to his people. He will keep.

He will not abandon us. He will fight for us. We need to learn like Moses to humble ourselves and to trust in him. The Bible tells us that our most formidable and resolute enemy is not a man with flesh and blood or an army with planes, tanks, and missiles. But spiritual rulers and positions of great power and influence.

An enemy which desires to keep you in bondage to sin. And an enemy that wants to destroy the joy and testimony of every child of God. We call him the devil and he has many minions. That serve with him but Paul wrote, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand.

Yet, even as God reminds us of the powerful enemy that we face, he reminds us that he is with us and that if we will put on his armor and if we will trust in him, that that enemy is not a threat to him. And that we will have the victory. If we will learn to put on the armor of God. As we learn to draw close to him, to submit ourselves to him, the devil will what? Flee from us.

Stand up for Jesus to him. Stand up. Stand up for Jesus. One of the verses says this, the arm of flesh will fail you. You dare not trust your own.

Put on the gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer. Where duty calls or danger be never wanting or be never lacking there. If you put on the armor of God, if you'll trust in the Lord, if you'll go to him in prayer, he will fight for you and he will win. Your enemy will be defeated. Whether it is an enemy of flesh and blood or whether it is the temptation that you are struggling with.

There is a way of what? There is a way of escape. Trust you in the Lord. Revelation twelve eleven and they overcame him. Who's that?

Satan. By the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they love not their lives until the death. We will overcome him. By the blood of the lamb. Amen.

Indeed, we are no match for the trials that weigh us. Most certainly, the enemy that assails us. But God is more than a match for both. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not unto your own understanding.

In all your ways, acknowledge him. His authority, his love, his power. He will direct. He will protect and he will make straight your path. God fights for his own.

He will be there for you when you call. He will be there to save your soul. If you will but ask in faith. For whosoever shall call in the name of the Lord shall be what? Have you called on him in faith?

Have you come to him? If you're trying to get to heaven with the arm of the flesh, it will fail you. You're a sinner, you need a savior. There is one who loves you. He died for you.

He'll save your soul. If you'll choose to put your trust in him. He will be there to deliver you from the snares of the devil. He will be there protect you from the darts of temptation. He will be there to help you when you have fallen.

He will fight for you his child. Do you want his help? Let's pray. Dear God, thank you Lord. For the story Lord that we read and there's so much in these chapters in Exodus.

The Lord, we thank you for this point today that you fight for your own, that you care for your own, and that as you delivered Israel from bondage, you will deliver all those who put their trust, faith, and trust in you. From the eternal penalty of sin and hell and that you are able to deliver all of us, your children, when we ask. Ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be open unto you.

Lord, increase our faith. Lord, forgive us of our doubt and fear, our sin today. May we confess it to you. May we learn to trust you. May we say in our heart, as David did, that God is Lord and that he is able to demonstrate his power in our life and may it be seen in our life that others may see our good works and glorify our father which is in heaven today And Lord, if there be one here that's not yet trusted you, I pray as we give this hymn of invitation that they would come today.

In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen.