Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience To God

6 · The pastor describes enslaved people's adoption of the Exodus story as a source of comfort and hope for deliverance, reflected in spirituals like 'Go Down, Moses

And then finally, in American history, the other instance that you should know about is just the slaves. This is another instance in which the Exodus story was a compelling and potent piece of our development. As a nation, starting really around 1775 and going all the way to 1870, you had the Exodus story being taken up by southern slaves as sort of the story that made sense of their circumstances, that comforted them, that. That reminded them that God would deliver them, and so on and so forth. And really, all of their songs, certainly all their most famous songs that they sung while working in the fields involved some references to Pharaoh or to Moses or so on and so forth. The Lord by Moses to Pharaoh, said, oh, let my people go if not, I'll smite your firstborn dead oh, let my people go. Oh, go down, Moses away down to Egypt's land and tell Pharaoh let my people go.

7 · The pastor pivots from history to present, arguing that Exodus must now be applied spiritually rather than politically because America's spiritual health determines its future

So that's just a really quick overview of the role that the Exodus story has played in the history of the United States. Here we are in 2024, 164 years away from the Civil War, 248 years away from the Declaration of Independence, 400 years from the Mayflower. What relevance, if any, should the Exodus story play in our nation moving forward? Forward. I think the relevance, the way that this story can and should and must be used again for our country's future, is that we ought to apply it spiritually. It's been a very long time since we've done that. We've gotten used to applying the Exodus motif externally to systems of power and oppression, and so on and so forth. But we really need to get to the heart of the New Testament and how the New Testament uses the story of Exodus because we have a spiritual problem more than anything else. And this was always anticipated. It was always anticipated that this spiritual state of the citizens of this country would really predict the rise or fall of the nation. John Adams wrote, we have no government armed with power, capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

8 · The pastor asserts that the most urgent patriotic application of Exodus is the spiritual one: liberation from sin and Satan through Jesus

So I would argue this morning that the most pressing and patriotic application of the Exodus story for this particular moment in our national history is the spiritual one, the one in which we understand that we need Jesus to break us free from the tyranny of the devil and of sin. I think that that's fundamentally the only hope we have right now is for a group of people, hopefully many people, to embrace this spiritual motive or the spiritual motif in Exodus, which is really the true motif. One commentator puts it the book is not about liberation in general or about political and religious freedom in particular, but about deliverance from bad servitude to good servitude. The Israelites served Pharaoh, but were called by God to serve him instead. Now, we are not opposed at Providence in particular to seeing the Bible applied in the national world and the political world, and so on and so forth. I have absolutely no problem with applying God's word to to external problems. But if we're not careful, we'll do only that and fail to deal with the internal problem that is really the thing that predicts the rise or fall of nations ultimately. I know that there are many great injustices out in the world and many pharaohs to oppose, and some of them are in our own government. But before we do that, let's make sure that we have laid hold of the internal freedom that we've been given or offered through Christ.

9 · The pastor reads Exodus 6:6-8, the seven 'I will' statements of Yahweh promising liberation, deliverance, redemption, adoption, and possession to Israel

So let's look back. That was a long introduction, but let's look back at our text today. Exodus, chapter 6, verses 6 through 8. Exodus, chapter 6, verses six through eight. This is the seven I will statements of Yahweh that Moses says, I want you to go and tell my people these things that I will do. Seven of them say, therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And and I will deliver you from slavery to them. And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment, I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to Abraham, Isaac and to Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.

10 · The pastor categorizes the seven 'I will' statements into liberation, redemption, adoption, and possession, then maps these onto the gospel: liberation from sin, redemption by Christ's blood, adoption into God's family, and possession of God's kingdom

One way to break these statements, these seven statements down, is to see that the first two have to do with liberation. First two statements have to do with liberation. I will bring you from out of the burdens of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from slavery, from your slavery. The third I will statement has to do with redemption. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm. The fourth and fifth I will statements you could say have to do with adoption. I will take you to be my people. I will be your God. And the final two statements have to do with possession. I will bring you into a land and I will give it to you as a possession. Now, there are obvious gospel connections to all of this, as we've seen over the Weeks as we've been in Exodus. Everything in Exodus is just a whisper, a foreshadowing of a greater glory that was revealed to us through Jesus Christ. And so these seven I wills just directly correspond to our experience with the gospel. When Jesus saves us, we are liberated from sin and Satan with the precious blood of Christ, we're redeemed from the guilt that we've incurred through our sinning. We're adopted into the family of God and we are given possession of a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And that kingdom, by the way, is not of this world, but it is for this world. God means to let his kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So you can see the overlap here between these seven I will statements and the basic promises of the gospel. We are promised liberation, we are promised redemption, we are promised adoption. And we are promised possession of a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And we won't have time to get into all that this morning. I'm just going to stick on the first one on liberation and suggest again, we're talking about America's future and we're talking also about your future. And where do we go in the Exodus story to receive hope, to receive the power? We need to press on. And the first thing I think we really need to get back to and understand is this sense of liberation. We need to be liberated from an oppression we all live under. And that oppression is not external or at least not temporal. That oppression is spiritual.

11 · The pastor asserts that Pharaoh typologically represents Satan and Egyptian bondage represents slavery to sin—a foundational claim for the sermon's spiritual application

Now, as we've mentioned a number of times already throughout this series, Pharaoh is a stand in for Satan. We could go through all the verses throughout the Bible that correlate these two things, but I think you can even sense that just in a general way when you look at the story. Satan is, as we think of the Exodus story, reflecting the Gospel. Satan is a stand in for Satan. Egyptian bondage is slavery to sin and to Satan.

12 · The pastor outlines five characteristics of slavery to Satan: natural (default human state), invisible, vocational (doing his bidding), unfruitful (producing only death), and formidable (humanly inescapable)

Now it's very important that we understand something that I hear people talk about very often. But you could say a number of things about slavery to Satan. You could say that it is natural, that is that it's the default state of the human soul. You could say that it's invisible. It's not something that you see, it's vocational. You work for him, it's unfruitful, you don't get anything in return for working for him but death. And it's formidable. There's nothing that you as an individual can do about the situation if you are not in Christ.

13 · The pastor uses Bob Dylan's song 'Gotta Serve Somebody' to illustrate that all humans are in service to either God or Satan, with no neutral ground

The Bible says that you Are in fact in Satan, you're you. As Bob Dylan famously said, you will serve someone, Might be the devil, might be the Lord, but you're going to have to serve somebody. John Lennon hated that song so much that he came out with a terrible response song. This is back like when the. When the folk artists were doing beef rap style, you know. Anyway, John Lennon hated that song. He hated that song because it's true. He you're going to have to serve somebody. It might be the devil, might be the Lord, but you're going to have to serve someone.

14 · The pastor elaborates on slavery to Satan as natural—the default state for all sinners, who by their sin align themselves with Satan

St. John Linnet and wrote this terrible screed called Serve yourself. And that's impossible. There are two great forces in the world and you are aligned with one of the two. That's what we mean when we talk about slavery to Satan as being natural. The Bible teaches that that all people, by virtue of their own choice to sin, are caught up in slavery to Satan. The great Puritan Thomas Watson writes it this see into what a wretched, deplorable condition we had brought ourselves by sin, we had sinned ourselves into slavery so that we needed Christ to purchase our redemption. But by sin we are in a worse slavery. Slaves to Satan, a merciless tyrant who sports in the damnation of souls. In this condition we were then we were in when Christ came to redeem us. So one thing about being enslaved to Satan is it's just the way it is, man. It's just if you've sinned and you have not been redeemed by Christ, I'll tell you whose you are. And the Bible is real clear on that.

15 · The pastor expounds on the invisibility of spiritual slavery: unlike Israel in Egypt, those enslaved to Satan are blinded by the god of this world and cannot perceive their bondage

And another issue that we brought up related to this is not only is it natural, but it's invisible. The bondage isn't visible to the person in bondage. The hearts, the minds, the souls of people who are in bondage to the devil are not aware of their enslavement. Second Corinthians 4, 4 puts this very clearly in their case. The God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. So in Egypt, the original Exodus story, the Hebrews knew they were slaves and they could cry out and seek redemption from their slavery. Liberation from their slavery. But the kind of slavery that the New Testament talks about in our bondage to the devil is not one that you're even aware of when you're under it. It's perceptual in nature. It actually affects your capacity to know that this is a problem that you have.

16 · The pastor elaborates on the vocational nature of slavery to Satan, citing Ephesians 2:1-3 to show that those enslaved are actively carrying out the devil's will through their sinful desires

So it's natural. If you've ever sinned, you've been placed in league with the one who is the head sinner, if you will. And it's invisible. You won't see it. You won't even know it's there. And it's vocational. What do we mean by vocational? Well, it just means, like, you do what he wants you to do. Ephesians 2:1:3 says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in what you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. It's the devil, the spirit, that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body. So it's not only is it natural and invisible, but it's vocational. You're doing his bidding.

17 · The pastor expounds on the unfruitfulness of slavery to Satan, citing Romans 6:20 to show that sin produces only shame and death

And also it's unfruitful. Romans 6:20 says, what fruit were you getting at the time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. And earlier in that passage, we'll come back to that passage later, he says point blank, you're either a slave to sin or you're a slave to righteousness. Those are your two options. And each one of those options has a head, because you're going to have to serve somebody.

18 · The pastor applies the doctrine of spiritual slavery to national life, arguing that even apparently good actions are corrupted when performed by those enslaved to Satan

Now, this is all very important as we talk about not only you as an individual, but also the nation in general. The truth is, is that even actions that we may think of as good, if we are working for the devil, turn out to not be good. They will either produce pride or some other unforeseen problem. You see, one of the things we've got to fight against is to think that democracy is some kind of secret recipe that will always keep us safe. No, it's just another tool. It's just another piece of technology, if you will. And that technology could be used for good or could be used for bad.

19 · The pastor uses C

CS Lewis, as he was writing Screwtape, began to be increasingly concerned that the word democracy was used as a sort of incantation to blind people from thinking about things. He was already way back then, seeing this whole save our democracy thing for what it was.

20 · The pastor cites Lewis to argue that democracy itself can be hijacked to serve tyranny

And listen to how he writes in Screwtape letters. He says, is it not pretty to notice how democracy in the. in cantore sense is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient dictatorships by the same methods? So one of the reasons I'M arguing that America's future depends on recovering the spiritual meaning of Exodus is that no form of government is immune from being hijacked by satanic schemes. Schemes we didn't come up with the hack proof government in 1776. John Adams let us know that. Clearly Washington in his final address told us the exact same thing.

21 · The pastor expounds on the formidability of slavery to Satan, arguing that Satan is far stronger than Pharaoh and humans are no match for him

Now slavery to Satan is also formidable. The situation is just incredibly dire. If the situation in Exodus with Pharaoh was impossible to imagine, escaping from the situation in terms of a man's soul enslaved to Satan is even more so. Satan is far stronger than Pharaoh and we are no match for him. As Martin Luther would say in Our Mighty Fortress, 2nd Timothy 2, 24 talks about this. It talks about people being captured by Satan to do his will.

22 · The pastor asserts that Christ came to deliver us from slavery to Satan—a freedom deeper than political liberty

And so we need freedom at a different level than we as a country are used to thinking of. We need freedom to serve God, to break out from under the slavery of sin and Satan. And this is why Christ came. John Calvin said, the Son of God was made man to share the same state and nature as us. He put on our nature in order to submit himself to the state of death. He has freed us from a diabolical tyranny. The devil himself has been laid low as to be no more account, as if he did not exist.

23 · The pastor cites Colossians 1:13-14 to summarize the gospel as deliverance from the domain of darkness and transfer to Christ's kingdom

Colossians 1, 13, 14. Say it simply. Jesus came to deliver us from the domain of darkness and transfer us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. You can see the echoes of the seven I wills in Exodus 6 in this passage in Colossians. The passage in Exodus pertains to the deliverance of a physical tyranny. And the passage in Colossians pertains to the deliverance from a spiritual tyranny.

24 · The pastor calls the congregation to recognize that America's present condition—a 'screwtape democracy' of victimhood and debased equality—is the fruit of internal slavery to sin

And so my argument is just that the role Exodus. Exodus has played a role in the history of our country at key moments. And the role it must play now is the good old fashioned, y' all need to get saved role. The good old fashioned, you by virtue of your own sinning, have joined league with the tyrant of all tyrants. And you cannot escape that tyranny without the power of Christ. If we don't have an internal freedom, what kind of external freedom do we imagine we would manifest in the world? If we don't have an internal freedom as citizens, how are we supposed to build an external freedom? You're seeing this right now. We are living in what I would call a screw tape democracy. It's all rights and no responsibilities. And a grotesque kind of equality has emerged a worship of equality that punishes excellence and exalts victim status. You know, there are certain rides at every amusement park that have longer lines and they're the most popular rides. And in America right now, the number one, the biggest line is in front of the victim ride. Everybody knows that we live in this screwtape democracy with a grotesque kind of equality that punishes excellence and exalts victim status. And that's because the freedom that we're capable of building while we're enslaved to Satan is not true freedom. So we've got to double down on gospel sharing. We've got to proclaim freedom to the captives.

25 · The pastor re-quotes Exodus 6:6-7, framing God's promise to Moses as the prototype for the gospel promise of deliverance

God told Moses to tell the people, I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them. And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.

26 · The pastor answers the objection that people won't listen to the gospel by citing John 16:7-11—the Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment

And I really believe, friends, that God is telling us to go to our neighbors and say things like, whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. But the reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. We need to let people know that they are in bondage beyond their ability to understand, but that Jesus Christ has come to pronounce freedom for the captive. Now, people here, because we're all very similar in some of our neuroticisms, many of us would immediately think, well, that's all fine and good, but. But they won't listen. Well, friends, I want to leave you or just drop a Jesus juke on you. In John 16:7, Jesus addresses this exact issue. He says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. So Jesus is promising the Holy Spirit here, and listen to what he says here. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment concerning sin, because they do not believe in me concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you see me no longer concerning judgment, because the ruler of the world is judged. We've got to double down on this spiritual. The most literal and fundamental application of Exodus. You are enslaved to sin and Satan. You need freedom. You can't make that freedom happen on your own. Jesus came to deliver you out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of light. We need to double down on this. And by faith, look at Jesus words in John 16 and say he has promised that the helper will come and, and convict the world concerning these things.

27 · The pastor tells the story of Brandon, a political conservative who witnessed antifa riots in 2020, recognized the spiritual nature of the conflict, and came to faith in Christ as the true liberator

I think of our friend Brandon. Some of you know him, some of you don't. I won't use his last name because I didn't ask his permission. And I just thought about talking about him this morning. I didn't have time to ask. Brandon's in some position of prominence and in a bit of a situation where maybe he wouldn't want this out there. But he and his fiance attended Providence for a while until he was moved for a job. He was always a political conservative. He was always a red stater. But due to his job, he had kind of a front row seat to the antifa hijinks of the summer of 2020. He was right there on the front lines dealing with that. And suddenly one night, as the crowd throbbed with anger, something hit him. This is spiritual. This is spiritual. And it was a thought that he just couldn't get out of his head. He saw that there was a fundamentally religious nature to the thing he saw unfolding before his eyes. And he realized that while he was politically on the right, he was spiritually not right with God. He went to a Christian friend on his team and he said, what must I do to be saved, basically. And Brandon put his faith in Jesus as the true liberator of his soul. Now Brandon's a Christian now, and as much as he loved freedom before, he has freedom now, he has freedom in Christ. Does that affect his interaction with his country? Yes. He now understands where true freedom must come from, from which it. from where it must originate.

28 · The pastor issues a direct evangelistic appeal to unbelievers in the room, urging them to give their lives to Jesus, acknowledge their own sin, and receive freedom in Christ as the only hope for both their souls and the nation

So we have to double down on sharing the gospel. And if you're here today and you're like, oh, I don't even know if I am a Christian, well, let me just tell you, like, no judgment here. We were all not Christians before we became Christians. We've all got a Brandon story. And I would just encourage you, even just as an answer to some of the angst you may be feeling about the future of this country, about the condition that we're in. I just want to tell you, like, you need to give your life to Jesus. You need to get on the right team. You need to trust that Jesus has come to deliver you from darkness and into light. Get off your moral high horse a little bit because you are the problem too. If you're not serving Christ, you're serving the devil. But Jesus has come to redeem you from all of that and give you freedom so that you can be someone who is working for freedom. From the inside out.

29 · The pastor calls Christians to live in the freedom Christ has given them, not using freedom as a cover for evil

The last thing I want to mention as we close is simply that freedom comes from free men. The thing you need to notice about the Exodus story is that Moses, the whole time he was working for the deliverance of the people, was himself free. It's kind of uncanny as I've read this story so many times over the last few months. Like, why didn't Pharaoh just throw Moses into prison? And the answer is, because God wouldn't let him. God just protected him. But Christians today, I want to not only challenge you to be more zealous and hopeful in sharing the gospel with people, but I also want you to be zealous in refraining from the deeds of darkness. I want you to walk in the freedom that Christ has given you. First Peter 2:16 says, Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God. Galatians 5:1 says, for freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Ephesians 5:11. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. So today, Christian, you may be here and you have indeed trusted Jesus Christ with your hope for salvation. He is your only hope in life and death. But if you were honest, you would say that there are a number of practices in your life that are really oriented towards serving the other team. Listen, we need all of you on the right team. The world needs all of you on the right team. And Christ demands that he have all of you on his team because you are not your own. You were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your body, with your mind, with your heart, with your time.

30 · The pastor issues a double invitation: to unbelievers, receive freedom in Christ; to compromised believers, repent and return to walking in freedom

You may be saved, but you might be serving practically in some ways that you'd be ashamed of. I just want to invite everyone here to freedom. If you don't have Christ, I want to invite you to hear the jail cell door spring open and receive freedom from your slavery to sin and Satan by Christ's blood. And if you're here and you're a believer, but you are not walking in integrity, you are using your freedom as a cover up for evil. Though Christ has set you free, you keep returning to the yoke of slavery. You continue to participate in unfruitful works of darkness. Stop. Repent. Give your life to Jesus again. Go to people that you know will help you so that we can have everybody in this room walking shoulder to shoulder with freedom, working on the inside, to the outside.

31 · The pastor warns believers to expect opposition from the devil when they pursue holiness and gospel proclamation

I want to challenge each one of Us just to live as free men and women, truly free men and women proclaiming freedom to the world enslaved by Satan. And obviously the devil doesn't want you to do this. So you can expect opposition and temptation and distraction if you felt a little unnerved or convicted when I said, hey, Christian friend, are you really honoring the Lord? And you thought. Not in this area. Have you ever thought that he's just trying to keep you out of the game, the devil. He's trying to neuter you so that you can't be the force in this world for Christ that he wants you to be. You can expect opposition from the tyrant as you oppose the tyrant. But I just leave you with the words we saw at the beginning of the message. Rebellion against this tyrant is indeed obedience to God. It is the most fundamentally true way of expressing that sentence. Rebellion to the tyrant of sin and Satan is indeed obedience to God.

32 · The pastor prays for the Holy Spirit to bring freedom to the enslaved, reveal Christ to the blind, and embolden believers to proclaim the gospel and walk in holiness

Let me pray, Father God, we pray that you would, through your Holy Spirit, work in our hearts, bring freedom where there is slavery. Pronounce freedom to the captive. Father, if anyone here is enslaved to Satan and blinded and their eyes are being kept from seeing the goodness of Christ, we pray that through your Holy Spirit that Lord Jesus you would break free, you would reveal the truth, and that you would show them the way out. The way out is to trust you and who you are and what you've done. Living a perfect life, offering yourself up as a sacrifice to redeem the captive. So, Father, we pray for those here who need to be redeemed. And Lord, we also just pray for every single Christian in this room. Would you give us boldness to share the gospel of freedom to an enslaved world? And would you give us zeal to pursue that freedom in every aspect of our own lives so that we can honor you completely? Lord God, we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

33 · The pastor transitions to communion, reading Romans 6:20-23 to frame the table as a celebration of freedom in Christ—believers partaking in thanksgiving for the free gift of eternal life

For communion today, whether you're a member or a visitor here at Providence, we invite you to partake if you're a follower of Jesus Christ. And we encourage you to come in a moment and partake of these elements. Just pick them up, go sit down and say your prayers and do your business with God. I'll leave you for communion with this passage from Romans 6, 20, 23. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at the time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God. The fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end. Eternal life for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you've received the free gift of God, which is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, would you now come and partake of the Lord's table with us, celebrating and tasting and seeing that God is good.