Satan's Tactics Against the Family — Exodus 5

0:00 If you would turn to Exodus chapter five. Now, Moses has met the lord at the burning bush. He's been commissioned. He takes his staff and his wife, Zafar, and two sons, puts him on a donkey. We studied this yesterday how the Lord intervened and was going to kill Moses because he had neglected things that were important to him and his family.

0:29 And Zipporah was forced to circumcise their probably newborn son, Eleazar, in order to save Moses' life. Mideonites didn't practice it. Moses, clear from Abraham, his people did. And so, the point yesterday was made that it's very if we expect to do great things for the lord and be used for lord, things in our own household have to be right first. This this the in the smaller sphere, we need to be obedient to the lord before he uses us in a greater capacity.

1:02 It's interesting that Moses sent Zipporah and his two sons back to Jethro and he meets Aaron and goes on to Egypt now with Aaron. There's not going to be any more interference in the work of god and so Moses comes to the people and Aaron, they do signs and the Israelites are so excited. The prophecy is being filled. They're going to be delivered from Egypt and so there's going to be this contest with Pharaoh in chapter five. So, we read in verse one, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, thus says the lord god of Israel, let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.

1:45 And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord or who is Jehovah that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord nor will I let Israel go. And keep in mind that in Egyptian culture, pharaoh was considered a god and so here is these Hebrews, these slaves coming into his presence demanding that pharaoh let all the Israelites go into the wilderness to have a feast and to worship the lord. So, they said, the god of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence and with the sword.

2:29 And the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people before their work? Get back to your labor. And Pharaoh said, look, the people of the land are many now and you make them rest from their labor. So that same day, Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and the officers saying, you shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before, let them go and gather straw for themselves. And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before, you shall not reduce it for they are idle.

3:08 Therefore, they cried out saying, let us go and sacrifice to our god. He says that again in verse 17, you are idle, idle. Therefore, you say, let us go and sacrifice to the lord. And so their quotas weren't met. The the taskmasters were brought in and beaten.

3:28 That's in verse 14 because the quotas weren't being met and they said it's unreasonable and Pharaoh says, no, you say you're idle. You got time to travel three days in the wilderness to worship. You got too much time on your hands. So, for now on, you can go and gather the straw and make the same number of bricks. The tally should not be diminished.

3:49 And I think I'll read this the end of this chapter too because these taskmasters came out from Pharaoh in verse 20. They met Moses and Aaron who stood there to meet them. And they said to them, let the lord look on you and judge because you made us abhorrent in the sight of pharaoh and in the sight of his servants to put a sword in their hand to kill us. So, Moses returned to the lord and said, this is one of those passages that you almost have a little have to chuckle at. Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people?

4:23 Why is it you have sent me? For since I came to pharaoh to speak in it in your name, he has done evil to your people, neither have you delivered your people at all. As if the Lord needs more information, right? Like the Lord doesn't know what's going on. And so the taskmasters are not happy with Moses and Aaron.

5:30 And I see this as a tactic that Satan is really using on families, especially in North America. When I was in public school, growing up in public school, the school calendar was clear on Wednesday nights because that was church night. Today, there are sporting events on Sunday mornings And that shows you how much have changed in just fifteen years. A little more than that. There's now this creeping in.

6:06 And so there's nothing wrong with music lessons. There's nothing wrong with sporting events. But if each child is doing two or three things before long, mom, the sphere of the home which she's supposed to keep and orderly so Satan doesn't get that wedge, that beachhead in. Now she's running frantic. And I've talked to mothers and said, I just feel like I'm on a roller coaster.

6:27 I can never get off. I said, stop. Stop. There's no reason that you have to be engaged in all these extracurricular activities. And so it's an opportunity for families to do things together and for the children to do things interactively together or maybe another family instead of just running to and fro all the time.

6:49 And it's an exhausting experience. And so we want the mothers, they want to be keepers of the home, protect the home. Dads should not be guiled into working more to support their children's amusements. We were involved in young people's work early on twenty five, thirty years ago. And I thought, boy, the way you had to do young people's work is you have a little story, you have a little lesson, then you take them to laser tag or bowling or whatever.

7:18 Bowling may not have been such a good thing since you had that coming up tonight. But the idea is go out and entertain them to get them to come. And so we learned that that just made the kids selfish. They just wanted more and more. And finally, the Lord's taught us through some really sad events that you don't have to use Lord's money and the Lord's servants to entertain young people.

7:41 Just keep the word of God before them. The two ideas in mentoring is instruction and righteousness that the man of God might be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. So there's the aspect of teaching doctrine to promote godly character, Christ like character and then there's the work of ministry which we read about in Ephesians chapter four. Each believer has gift, a ministry, and a calling and and help them understand what their calling is or spiritual gifts and come into the good of that. So they have these two things working together in mentoring and discipleship.

8:20 That's what we want for our young people. We want them to learn the word of God in a way that would help them develop their character into Christ likeness. And then we'll receive gift and ability and so forth, challenge them to encourage them to grow with constructive feedback along the way. And once we got out of the entertainment business, the young people's meetings got so much more fruitful and happier and the kids started experiencing joy because instead of expecting things, they were starting to serve. And the Lord blessed that.

8:50 So, busyness. Egypt represents the world. The children of God were in the world, and Satan tries to keep us busy in the things of the world. Neglecting, sometimes these are very permissible things, but neglecting the more spiritual things. Again, the home is a safe haven, a place of significance.

9:39 Aaron's the one doing the speaking, lays his rod down in these first three plagues and then we had the frogs coming up out of the water on the land in chapter eight and then we have that marvelous expression of God's power in the latter part of chapter eight where Aaron smites the ground and lice what was inanimate becomes living inanimate. And so now Egypt is paralyzed by this plague of lice. Remember the magicians, they couldn't do that. They were able to mimic the miracles before that. But we read in John chapter one that all life, the essence of life is in the living word and so, it's only god that creates and so, pharaoh's magicians, they throw up their hands and they say, this is none other than the finger of God.

10:33 And so that's the limitation. Satan can't produce life. He causes death and murder, but he can't produce life. So it's after these first three plagues, we get the fourth plague of flies starting in verse 20. And in verse 24, we read, and Lord did so, thick swarms of flies came into the house of Pharaoh, into the servant's house, and into all the land of Egypt.

10:59 The land was corrupted because of the swarms of flies. In the Hebrew, it's just means a mixed bag of insects. It's probably more than flies. Mosquitoes. I'm in Kansas, we have chiggers.

11:15 If that really wanted to inflict torment, I'm sure there were chiggers in there too. They're mean. Verse 25, then Moses came from, then Pharaoh came from Moses and Aaron and said, go sacrifice to your god. Now, mark this, in the land. They asked to go three days from there because that would get them out of Egypt and then they could sacrifice to god not in the world.

11:42 Pharaoh tried to keep them busy in the land but god is bringing on these plagues and he's pressing pharaoh's back against the wall with each plague. In Romans chapter nine, we read about these vessels of honor to glory. These vessels of mercy under God's glory. And we read about vessel vessels that are fit for destruction. Vessels of wrath and pharaoh was a vessel of wrath.

12:11 God did not fake make pharaoh worship false gods. God was had the the compassion to demonstrate himself before pharaoh And yet Pharaoh was rejecting the revelation that God was giving. So, Paul says, he was going to lift Pharaoh up, the most powerful man in the world, that as God causes him to fall, the entire world would be aware that Jehovah was a true god and so, each of these 10 plagues, Pharaoh is getting pressed and pressed and pressed by Jehovah god and so after the fourth plague, he says, okay, go sacrifice but stay in the land. Stay in the land. And so, this is the second attack on the family, on the people of God, and that is worship influenced by paganism as a front to God.

13:38 Secondly, how could they take a bull, for example, and come over and sacrifice it in the land when the Egyptians worshiped Apis, the god of the bull? They would be offering the gods of Egypt, and the people of Egypt would kill the Jews. You're killing our gods. Must not be much of a god if they can kill it. Right?

14:01 And then secondly, they're in Egypt, this pagan corrupt land. Would God accept what is clearly pagan in that land as a sacrifice? And so throughout scripture, we get this wonderful picture of God calling his people out of the world coming apart, coming aside, consecrated himself for him alone and eventually, that's where he's going to get his people. He's going to open up the Red Sea. He's going to deliver them out of Egypt.

14:30 He's going to close the Red Sea and god will have his people for himself in the wilderness and there's no going back and that's what god really loves. His people with him consecrated with him. You got a great picture of this in Genesis. God comes to a man, Noah, everything else is wicked. Men are doing the imaginations of their minds.

14:55 God looks down and everything's just putrid and wicked and he greeted them. They even made man. And then he says to Noah who found grace in the sight of god, found grace in the eyes of god. He tells him to build an ark. And then to take his wife, his three sons, and their wives into the ark.

15:14 And so it took a number of years to build that. And then finally, God says, come. So, I think the first gospel message in scripture. He didn't say go into the ark. He says, come, which meant God was in the ark.

15:28 If god was outside, he would say, go but he says, come and so eight souls by faith enter in. The ark is a beautiful picture of the lord Jesus Christ. One door, one way, god seals it and then the wrath of god and the storm comes down upon the ark which pictures Christ and the wrath of god came upon Christ for our sin and the souls within that ark are safe in the wrath of god and the water breaks up within from underneath and so the ark lifts up and that's the beautiful picture. Often, just think of, well, they're saved in the ark. No.

16:02 As the rain came down, the waters broke up, the ark lifted and separated off the earth. God's people consecrated to him. Separation. And so this is something that Satan hates. He hates separation of God's people.

16:18 He wants to keep them in the world. They can control them with worldly longings and loss. So, in the last days, we know that in the church age, many will depart from sound doctrine. Second Thessalonians two:three-four tells us that Paul tells the church at Thessalonica, someone had apparently forged a letter in his name saying, you missed the coming of the lord. And it greatly grieved the saints and Paul writes and said, no, you haven't missed the coming of the lord.

16:52 The rapture hasn't occurred. Before the day of the Lord occurs, which he's talking about the tribulation period, the Antichrist will appear and there'll be an apostasy within the professing church. Do we see that today? Absolutely. There is a corruption now.

17:13 Birds are setting in many branches, part of the kingdom parables of Matthew 13. Lot of corruption. And if there's ever a day that we need to hold on to the word of god with both hands and not compromise and be willing to say, I'm not going to get caught up in these things of the world. It would be today. We need to stand strong for the lord.

17:36 So, spirit led worship revealed truth. By the way, worship is not used as an adjective in scripture. I think seven times it's used in the New Testament, it's used as a noun, something describes like the worship of angels or so forth and 40 sometimes it's used as a verb. It's something we do, right? So, this idea of worship teams, worship leaders, worship pastors, all that is foreign to scripture.

18:07 Men do not constrain other men to worship. That's the job of the Holy Spirit. So, we come together and the Holy Spirit leads us in truth. If what we're sharing is not truth and it's not spirit led, it cannot be worshiped. Amen?

18:23 Amen. It has to be true. God is we read in first John chapter one. God walks in the light and if we want to have fellowship with him, we have to walk with him in the light according to truth. So, if we're sharing something that's not true and it's not spirit led, god isn't going to appreciate it.

18:40 So, have to remain in the truth. The Holy Spirit guides in truth and Satan exercises his authority to corrupt the truth and try to pull it, pull us from the truth. Keep your finger in Exodus. Just flip over to Colossians two for a minute. Okay, Colossians two verse four.

19:46 All right? Para logizomai. Logizomai is a word used 11 times in Romans chapter four and the subject matter of justification. So, when a sinner says, lord, I'm a I'm a sinner. I need a savior and they receive Christ as savior.

20:07 They acknowledge their sin. They repent. Receive Christ as savior. God imputes or credits righteousness to that person's account and the word, the accounting term there is imputing or crediting. That is the word here except it has para on it.

20:25 So, here's what the devil does. Here is a rock solid truth that god's word says and the believers resting right on it. Right? The firm foundation and so Satan comes what he wants us to believe, logizomah, he he imputes his thing, para near or around the truth. Really close to the truth and then he wants the believer to to leave this bedrock of truth from god's word and embrace what he wants.

20:57 And the more truth you know, the more closer this margin is because Satan knows he can't deceive us if we know the truth and it's something way out here. And so often it's really close. It's parrots near the truth, but he wants us to go off of the truth and draw away from it. I was speaking to some young people three years ago at a camp down in Oklahoma. And I was telling them, I don't care what you say, black is equal to white.

21:26 How many of you think black is equal to white? Nobody raised up their hands. I said, okay, I'll prove it to you. American Collegiate Dictionary, you look up black and one of the synonyms for black is dark. And if you look up dark, one of the synonyms for dark is dim.

21:44 And if you look up dim, one of the synonyms for dim is pale. And if you look up pale, one of the synonyms for pale is white. See? Black is equal to white. I proved it to you.

21:53 And then I ask, how many of think black is equal to white? I had kids raising their hands. But that's what the devil does. He paralog it only. He puts something he wants as truth, near the truth, to move us off of the truth.

22:09 And so we got to be very careful with these subtle attacks to keep us in the world influenced by the philosophies and traditions of the world. Alright, let's move on back to Exodus chapter eight, a third tactic. We got ten minutes, so I got to talk faster. Chapter eight. Well, what was Pharaoh's response to this?

23:00 The flies are terrible and so Pharaoh is saying, okay, what if I let you go out and worship your god and you don't have to do it in Egypt but don't go very far. It's a border position and so what he's hoping is that the Jews will get out there and they're just outside the border of Egypt, outside the border of the world. And as they smell, after they've been out there a few weeks and their food's running short, they'll start smelling the bread breaking in Egypt. And they'll think, Oh, the leeks and the onions. And in other words, he was hoping that through Egypt, the world, he could influence the people of god to come back.

23:45 And so, it's a border position. Don't go very far away. Again, there must be complete separation from the world in the believer's life. The reason for resigning the world is to have Christ in him alone. Amen?

23:59 The reason for resigning the world is to have Christ in him alone. No border position is permissible. I think sometimes we think, well, I know this is wrong, but I'm tough, you know, and we we get just as close to it we can thinking that we're not going to be influenced by something. Well, Satan doesn't send an email or tweet to tell you how he's going to attack, right? Oftentimes, it's in an area that we're not fortified and we don't think about.

24:28 And he sneaks around and pulls us back in. So again, we don't, it's not just being out of the world. We really don't even want to be close to any world philosophies or tactics or things that would pull our families back into the world system. Again, spiritually speaking, God's people are not only to be out of Egypt, but as far from it as its interfering tentacles can reach. I like this in Paul's talking to Timothy in, I think is it the first or second epistle where he talks about the farmer, the soldier?

25:06 Second epistle. Epistle. Thank you. And he says, he uses a word about the good soldier goes on and he's not encumbered with the things of the world. He's not, he doesn't allow himself to be encumbered.

25:23 And the word there I think is in pleco in the Greek, but it's in the passive voice. In the Greek, we have a passive voice where when you're relating to the verb and the subject, something is acting on the subject as related to the verb. The active voice, the subject's doing the action. And so what Paul is saying to his spiritual son Timothy is the the the soldier of the cross has to be active and not letting the things of the world entangle him. And so I kind of picture an octopus with its tentacles out there trying to grab and constantly pull in.

26:01 Well, you got to get out of reach of the tentacles. And so he's saying it's an active thing. It's not that we're actively pursuing the things of the world. He's saying the world is pursuing you just like we're seeing here with Pharaoh, wanting to pull us back in all the time. And so, it's an active duty for the soldier to constantly beat off the tentacle so we don't get drawn back in.

26:22 Passive voice. It's not the world, it's not the believer seeking out the world. The world is seeking the believer and therefore the believer has to keep beating it off. And that's that's an important concept. Okay, fourth tactic, Exodus chapter 10.

27:05 So, god has brought these eight plagues down on Egypt. It's decimating Egypt and now even Pharaoh's own counselors are saying, let let him go. Let him go, Pharaoh. So, Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh and he said to them, go serve the lord, your god. Who are the ones that are going?

27:27 And Moses said, we will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds. We will go for we must hold a feast unto the lord. So, so far we've had keep them busy in the world so they have no time for the lord. Keep them in worshiping in the world so I can influence their worship so it's not acceptable to god. We have keep them where they're out of the world but keep them near in a border position that I can still be influenced by the devil and now we're seeing that that pharaoh knows his backs against the wall and he's saying, alright, the man can go and worship outside of Egypt but leave your little ones here.

28:15 Leave your children in the world. Boy, is that happening today? In other words, the older generation is firm. They're not moving and Satan says, alright, I'll go after the next generation. And so, Moses said, no way.

28:31 If we go, we're a people together. We go all together. All of our resources are going. And he wouldn't budge on God's word. Can you think of what might have happened if the men left to go worship?

28:43 And it was just children and and probably many of the moms staying back with young children, Pharaoh could've gone in and slaughtered the whole lot of them. No protection. And so Moses rightly says, nope, we're going to go. God has called us all to go to this land. In other words, we as parents, we want our children to come into the place of the full blessing of god and the full provision of god and that was going to be in Canaan And so Moses isn't going to sacrifice.

29:18 When we were in Rockford, we had a little farmette and we had cattle and chickens and I would run two or three incubators of eggs each year and we get all these chicks. One year we had 20, well, we had about 30, but there were 22 that survived the process. And I put them in a box, little heat lamp for about a week, and then my wife would say, get them out of here. They stink. So, had a place out in the chicken house, really good for brooding these chicks.

29:49 You had a door, you walked in, and then there was this little compartment with another door that you could actually go in the chicken house. And I had wire mesh all the way around, and there was three rows of nests here with little cracks so you could reach to the backside of nests and get the eggs, not even have to go into the chicken house. And so I put them in this little area and I come out and check on them before I went to work, when I got home and I went out one morning to check on them and usually have to kind of open the door a little bit because they're scurrying around trying to get out. I opened the door and there wasn't any scurrying. I opened a little bit further, there weren't any chicks.

30:28 22 white fluffy chicks were all gone. I thought, what is going on here? So I did some investigation and I found at the corner, way back in the corner of the chicken house, there's a little hole about like that. And I later found out a couple days later it was a ferret. He died by lead poisoning.

30:51 He stuck his head up, saw him and that was the end of that. And what that ferret did is he climbed up that little hole and he climbed up the ramp to where the hens and the rooster was resting and he went right underneath the hens. He jumped over to the nest. He crawled up through the slit that got the eggs. He crawled down the chicken wire.

31:16 He grabbed a chick, went back up through the nest underneath the parents, down the hole, and he stuck 22 chicks down in the ground. No telling how long that took and right under the hand of the rooster and unfortunately, that's what's happening today. We have parents that they're not even, they don't even understand how Satan is taking the hearts of their children, stealing them away And when I when I saw that, I just couldn't believe it. I said, what tenacity to do something like that. Tenacity.

31:48 22, a whole whole lot gone. And the Pharaoh is only about that long. It's not a very big thing. Very damaging. So Satan wants our children in the world.

32:00 He wants them to stay in the world. So we got to hang tight. We want our children to come along with us. Don't be satisfied allowing them in the world, although you're saying, no, I won't be in the world. We have to go on together.

32:41 Let your little ones also go with you. See, he's his back's against the wall. He's he's just trying to find some compromise position and because Moses keeps holding to the word of god, he has to keep backing back and so now, the idea is, okay, your children can go with you. Just leave your resources in Egypt. Leave your resources in Egypt.

33:05 I love what Moses says here. Verse 25, you must also give us sacrifice and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice the Lord our God. Our livestock also shall go with us not a hoof or hoof depending on what part of country you're in, shall be left behind. For we must take some of them to serve the Lord our God. Even we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive.

33:34 And so, Moses is saying, no, pharaoh. God said, we're going to despoil Egypt when we leave. We're going out full because we're going to be alone with our god in the wilderness and we want all of our resources available to worship him and to serve him. And so another tactic that the enemy uses is he keeps our resources tied up in secular worldly things and then we don't have anything to give to the lord and for his ministry and to worship. And so, these tactics, especially in North America in our our century, I think we see Satan doing quite quite frequently.

34:14 Again, god equips believers today with resources to worship him. Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit who leads and guides our worship. In Christ, we possess all spiritual blessings in heavenly places which enable us to manifest the character of Christ to the world and be a living sacrifice for the Lord. And then God supplies physical resources to those who want to serve him. And I've seen it over and over again where the Lord's people who were just living frugally and in order that they'd have the most to give the lord, the lord just back spills.

34:51 It's like what Malachi said to, you test the lord and see if you cannot give the lord. You can't And so he's testing our faithfulness if we'll take these things and give it to the Lord for his use, then he'll fill us in and give us more opportunity to serve him. But we can't squander it on things that are frivolous and draw our hearts away from the Lord. Okay. So, just in a quick review, these summaries, satanic strategies, attack on the family, attack on the lord's people.

35:20 First was keep them busy in the land in Egypt so they have no time to serve god and worship the lord. Number two, keep them worshiping in the land. Keep them in the world so they are offering perversions, something that's not of truth to the lord. It's not acceptable. It's an abomination.

35:40 So, that would if we're in false doctrine, if we're in a church that's not teaching things right, that isn't going to be pleasing to the lord. Keep them near the land. You can come out of Egypt but near so we could be influenced by the traditions and philosophies of the world. Keep their children in the land. He'll give up on the older generation and then just focus on the younger generation.

36:04 He'll wait and hopefully influence the next generation to be drawn away. And then keep their resources in the land. They might get out of Egypt, they might have the right attitude, but then if their resources are still in the world, they don't have what they need to serve the Lord and worship the Lord. So these are very practical things that we can draw out of the book of Exodus. I thought I would close this with a couple quotes on the Christian home.

36:30 Hudson Taylor says this, If your father, your mother, your sister, your brother, even your very cat and dog in the house are not happier for you being a Christian. It's a question whether you really are. Oswald Chambers, the greatest benefits God has conferred on human life, fatherhood, motherhood, childhood, home become the greatest curses if Jesus Christ is not the head. In summary, a Christian home, this is where we started is where the Bible and its author is a center of family life and all home affairs. In Psalm 120 seven:one says, Unless the Lord builds a house, they labor in vain who build it.

37:11 So my encouragement for you all is these are trying times. There's a lot of challenges. There's a lot of influence. Just hold to the truth. Just be steadfast in the truth and commit yourselves to the Lord and the Lord will reward you and bless you.

37:27 Father, we're just thankful for this opportunity to think about these things. Lord, we pray that we might be faithful stewards of the children that you've given us. We pray we might raise them up for you, that they'd be those sharp arrows, that would penetrate a dark, wicked world with the truth and with the love of Christ. And we pray, Father, for the parents that have children at various ages that you would give them wisdom and raising them up. For us that are older, we pray, Father, we might be helpers and encouragers and counselors.

37:56 We pray, Father, we might have the courage just to come aside and give a word of exhortation and encouragement for others in this matter. Father, we've all learned by mistakes and I pray Father that something from your word today can be used to prevent someone else from having a mistake that was needless. Keep... Help us, Lord, to keep in mind these tactics of the evil one. We don't want to see our our time, our resources, our family being squandered away after secular things.

38:25 So help us in this, Lord, to keep that that holy consecration being in your presence for your glory. We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.