Saved By God’s Mighty Power

The power to save us from bondage if we will submit to his control.

Exodus 7:3-5  But I will make Pharaoh’s heart stubborn so I can multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.  4  Even then Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you. So I will bring down my fist on Egypt. Then I will rescue my forces—my people, the Israelites—from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment.  5  When I raise my powerful hand and bring out the Israelites, the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.”

Exodus 7:10-13 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did what the LORD had commanded them. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent! 

11 Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers, and these Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic. 12 They threw down their staffs, which also became serpents! But then Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.

13 Pharaoh’s heart, however, remained hard. He still refused to listen, just as the LORD had predicted.

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Moses' call to serve God required a lot of perseverance, he had opposition from the world and also from God's people that he was called to help, but the opposition is only going to get worse as Moses returns to meet with Pharaoh over and over again.

Pharaoh would receive a greater revelation of God with each plague that was coming but Pharaoh wasn't the only person that needed to learn more about God and how to please him. God's chosen people needed to learn about God as well, they had already embraced the false gods of Egypt even as the one true God was working to secure their freedom. (Joshua 24:14, Ezekiel 20:7-8)

Through the encounters that Moses had with Pharaoh, God showed the whole world that he is the only all powerful God that was superior to the overwhelming number of deities that were worshiped in Egypt. Even Pharaoh was considered to be a god so it's no wonder that he had a difficult time dealing with the truth.

The plagues should have been a wakeup call for everybody, think about it, God announced what would happen, he said precisely when it would start and when it would stop happening and yet they wouldn't acknowledge that he was in control.

Man has been consistent with his rebellion against God from the start of world history. From the Garden of Eden, to the conditions that led to the flood, the Tower of Babel, it just doesn't stop despite all of the proof that points to the real God who is all powerful, all knowing and completely in control of every situation.

Exodus 5:2 “Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the LORD? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.” 

God will soon answer his question but Pharaoh won't accept it, instead of allowing the Israelites to leave with Egypt unharmed, he forces the slaves to stay and causes the destruction of his country and the misery of all of his people. 

At first Pharaoh wasn't impressed because his magicians could counterfeit the real deal but as the plagues continue we see that Satan's counterfeits don't stand a chance. Warren Wiersbe's Old Testament Commentary says that Satan always has inferior counterfeits that he uses to deceive the world:

• Satan counterfeits the works of God (2 Tim. 3:8)
• Satan counterfeits the children of God (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43 / 2 Cor. 11:26)
• Satan counterfeits the gospel (Gal. 1:6-9)
• Satan counterfeits true righteousness (Rom. 10:1-3)
• Satan counterfeits ministers who spread his lies (2 Cor. 11:13-15)
• Satan counterfeits Christ (2 Thess. 2:1-12)

God made it obvious to everyone that the powers of darkness were not powerful enough and they were not in control. After they are free from slavery, Moses encourages God's people to recall the miraculous work that God had accomplished for his chosen people, they have plenty of proof that there is one God that deserves our worship and every other god is a counterfeit.

Deuteronomy 4:32-34  “Now search all of history, from the time God created people on the earth until now, and search from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything as great as this ever been seen or heard before?

33  Has any nation ever heard the voice of God speaking from fire—as you did—and survived?  34  Has any other god dared to take a nation for himself out of another nation by means of trials, miraculous signs, wonders, war, a strong hand, a powerful arm, and terrifying acts?

Yet that is what the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, right before your eyes.

What has God done to show you favor? Have you been freed from slavery? If you are not a child of God then you are in bondage to the death penalty that is required to atone for your sin. But thankfully that isn't where God leaves us! The same all powerful God that is your judge is also the provider of your pardon.

Exodus 9:1 This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so they can worship me.

The day is coming when God's people will be freed from this world of sin to worship him for eternity. Everyone that thought that they were in control of their destiny will be left behind to face God's judgment through the events that Revelation tells us about. God will prove himself to mankind again but just like Pharaoh they will refuse to repent. (Revelation 6:15-17; 9:20,21; 16:9,11)

Thank you Lord for revealing your mighty power to save so that I can know how to escape your mighty power to judge. Help me to give up my throne and submit completely to your control.

I Am A Slave

We like being God's friend but the truth is his friends are also his slaves.

 

John 15:12-17, 20  This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.

20 A slave is not greater than the master

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I remember as a kid that someone would come to me and ask me to do something for them and even though I didn't want to do it there was an incentive being offered that would make me consider doing it. You have heard the line "I will be your best friend forever." This is the best offer that a kid can think of when he is trying to get his way.

We teach our kids that we shouldn't treat people that way, we like to base our friend relationships on equality and "give and take" but that doesn't work on God. Jesus told his disciples that if they obey all of his commands and do everything that he tells them to do then he will be their friend.

This sounds harsh or bizarre but that is what it all comes down to. Jesus says that the greatest display of love is for someone to die for his friend and you are my friend if you obey my commands. I know that if I do everything he tells me to do then that makes him Lord and it makes me his slave.

We do not like the term and we try to stay away from the idea of being a slave but the Bible is clear. Nobody in the Bible call themselves God's friend or Jesus friend, the Bible refers to both Abraham and Moses as friends of God and Jesus calls the disciples His friends but none of these people ever said that about themselves.

The apostles call themselves God's slave

Romans 1:1 / 1 Corinthians 9:19 / Titus 1:1 / James 1:1 / 2 Peter 1:1 / Jude 1:1

We love Romans 5:12 where Paul says that we are "friends of God" but we like to look over the fact that he says we became friends through "our Lord Jesus." Our thoughts should be that "Jesus is Lord and I am his slave."

Matthew 7:21  "Not everyone who calls out to Me, 'Lord! Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of My Father in heaven will enter. Luke 6:46  "So why do you keep calling Me 'Lord, Lord!' when you don't do what I say? Luke 9:23-24 “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself.” Luke 17:9-10  And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey Me you should say, 'We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.'"

The New Testament refers to Jesus as Lord more than five hundred times yet we refuse to actually see him and treat him that way. We call him Lord but we live with our own agenda, we obey our desires instead of his commands, we fail to let him be in charge.

Church leaders like to refer to the people that take on job duties around the church as volunteers but the truth is we are slaves and that should be the deciding factor in whether we fill a position. We like to signup if it is convenient but that isn't the lifestyle of a slave. How many "volunteers" would sign up on a list that refers to them as slaves?

Who Is In Control

Romans 6:16-18  Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.  17  Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you.  18  Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

If being a slave is offensive to you then the Bible has some bad news for you. The most important person in my life became a slave so why should I think that I should have it any better than he did? (Philippians 2:5-7) Jesus says that you should deny yourself daily, take up your cross and follow him wherever he leads. (Luke 9:23-25)

I tried a Google search on "who is in control of your life" and found that none of the search results mentioned the Bible. There are a lot of people trying to get control but the Bible tells me that I have to give up control. Scripture tells us that we are all slaves to something, we are all under the control of someone, the only thing that your free will gets to decide is who your master is going to be. (2 Peter 2:19, Matthew 6:24)

This slave has been bought at a high price, I am cared for, protected, rewarded, and loved but I am still a slave. I am not really free as a follower of Jesus, my morality, my attitudes and my convictions are all decided by him.

The way that I spend my money, my time and my talents should bring glory to my Lord and Master. My goal is to hear Jesus say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant!"

RELATED ARTICLES

Beyond Blind Faith (everystudent.com)
How To Take Up Your Cross (gty.org)

Sacrifice And Serve

At the Lord's Supper we are challenged to sacrifice and serve.

 

Luke 22:17-27 Then He took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. Then He said, "Take this and share it among yourselves.  18  For I will not drink wine again until the Kingdom of God has come."  19  He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then He broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, "This is My body, which is given for you. Do this to remember Me."

20  After supper He took another cup of wine and said, "This cup is the new covenant between God and His people--an agreement confirmed with My blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.  21  "But here at this table, sitting among us as a friend, is the man who will betray Me.  22  For it has been determined that the Son of Man must die. But what sorrow awaits the one who betrays Him."  23  The disciples began to ask each other which of them would ever do such a thing.

24  Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them.  25  Jesus told them, "In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called 'friends of the people.'  26  But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.  27  Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.

John 13:4-5  So He got up from the table, took off His robe, wrapped a towel around His waist,  5  and poured water into a basin. Then He began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with the towel He had around Him.

John 13:12-15  After washing their feet, He put on His robe again and sat down and asked, "Do you understand what I was doing?

13  You call Me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and you are right, because that's what I am.  14  And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each others feet.  15  I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.

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At the stroke of midnight God sent the final plague down on Egypt because of Pharaoh's refusal to let God's people leave his country so that they could move to a better place that God had prepared for them. God's people received instructions so that they would be covered with the sacrificial blood but all of Egypt was in mourning and finally they were allowed to go.

For hundreds of years the Jews have celebrated and now Jesus prepares to observe his third and final Passover. He knew that this Passover would be different, he knew that the symbolic Passover lamb would be replaced with the real and final sacrificial lamb.

At Jesus final Passover we see his example to us to be a sacrifice and a servant:

The Greatest Sacrifice

Hebrews 10:13 Our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.

The Savior is soon going to be killed, no longer living on earth and not yet glorified in heaven, Christ sacrifice was the beginning of a new covenant between God and man, an eternal covenant and the only sacrifice for our sins that would last forever. Jesus made His sacrifice our sacrifice, His life became our life, and His Father became our Father.

The blood of the new covenant was shed for all, the final payment for sin was achieved, the door to the Gentiles was opened and the temple veil was torn in two giving us direct access to God. (Hebrews 10:20-22)

Romans 12:1  And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him.

Now it is our turn to be a sacrifice, it is our turn to be offered up completely, we should give up any rights that we try to claim and give it all to Jesus. A sacrifice doesn't die partially, it is submitted to God, to be disposed of at his will. I should be devoted to God in the same way, I should be given over to his will for my life even if it means suffering, I need to be a living sacrifice.

The Greatest Servant

Isaiah 53:11-12  When He sees all that is accomplished by His anguish, He will be satisfied. And because of His experience, My righteous Servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for He will bear all their sins.  12  I will give Him the honors of a victorious soldier, because He exposed Himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

The suffering servant displayed the greatness of his love for us at Calvary but before he died he gave us another example of his love in action. Our Lord became our foot washer, the King of Kings became our servant, he was never too good to do anything that would benefit us. Because of his incredible love he was completely sold out to his mission.

As God, He owned everything; as the servant, He had to borrow everything: a place to be born, a boat in which to cross the Sea of Galilee and preach from, a donkey (itself a symbol of humility and servitude) to ride into Jerusalem for His triumphal entry, a room to celebrate His final Passover in, and a grave to be buried in.

-John MacArthur

Meanwhile we are busy trying to accumulate everything that we can acquire while we are here on earth. We built bigger barns and rent out storage facilities to hold our stuff. We forget that slaves do not own property, they do not have anything of value, and they cannot control what happens to themselves.

Jesus made it clear that he came to live on this planet to be a sacrifice and to serve. How can I think that my life in this world should be any different? Why are we so busy looking out for ourselves?

I need to sacrifice and serve, look out for the interest of others and have the same attitude that Jesus had. I don't have the right to serve when I feel like it. I don't have the right to give an offering that doesn't seem like a sacrifice. (Philippians 2:2-5)

Equality In The Body

We are all the same in the body of Christ.

2 Peter 1:1-2  This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.  2  May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.

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Despite what the Catholic church says about Peter and the glory and praise that they have erroneously given to him, Peter refers to himself as a slave and an apostle.

Faith is a gift from God and the gift has been given to us the same as it was given to the first disciples. Since we are all slaves without Christ we are all the same before him and none of us deserves to be treated differently.

The apostle Peter is a servant and so am I, it is amazing that the believers in the New Testament are seen as filthy rags, servants without any status or rights and "Saint" Peter never had the attitude that he was any different than the other believers.

The Roman Catholic Church still holds to the lies of Papal headship and Papal infallibility. Their lies state that: "The Pope possesses full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the whole Church and not merely in matters of faith and morals but also in Church discipline and in the government of the Church."

Christ is the head of the church and everyone of us is not worthy to have anyone look at us as having any authority or power. The levels of power and authority that the Catholic church tries to tell us that the chain of command from the Pope all the way down to the local priest is wrong. (Ephesians 1:19-23, Colossians 1:18, 2:10)

Mark 10:43-45  But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many.

A slave is subordinate, his service to his master is out of obligation, he has to serve he has no concern about the cost of serving or the inconvenience. It is too bad that the church is so full of volunteers today. The volunteer gets to decide if the time is right or if they like the job that they are being asked to do. If it is convenient then they will signup.

I am just a slave for Jesus, I need to remember that I am not any better than the next guy, we are all nothing without Jesus. I need to be ready to serve without reservation or excessive rules about when, where or how.

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him. (1 Timothy 1:12) Thank you Lord for loving me despite who I am. What an incredible privilege to loose my bondage to sin and become your servant.

Truly Free

I was born into slavery and I will be a slave until I die.

 

John 8:31-36  Jesus said to the people who believed in Him, "You are truly My disciples if you remain faithful to My teachings.  32  And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

33  "But we are descendants of Abraham," they said. "We have never been slaves to anyone. What do You mean, 'You will be set free'?"   

34  Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.  35  A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever.  36  So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free."

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It is amazing that there have been so many efforts to end slavery around the world and yet there has not been any progress made in ending slavery. Some anti-slavery websites indicate that it isn't legal anywhere but it is going on everywhere.

We all want to be free. Nobody wants to be a slave and nobody wants to be forced to do things that they cannot refuse to do and yet so many get trapped into a hopeless situation where they have no control.

The crowd at the temple was very confused, their opposition to Jesus got in the way of common sense, they had the nerve to say that they had never been a slave to anyone. The Romans had taken control of their country and placed ridiculous demands on them, before that the Babylonians and the Persians and the Egyptians all had a turn at making the Jews their slaves.

Psalms 51:5  For I was born a sinner--yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.

Even if they had never been slaves to anyone physically, Jesus is talking about their spiritual condition, there is a bondage that is far worse. Jesus makes it clear that we are all slaves to sin and as a slave we cannot change our condition, death is the only way out, we will never be free until the day we die. Everybody knows that you cannot make a dead slave do any more work for you.

The Slave Set Free
Romans 6:6-7  We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.

The truth has set me free, Jesus offers us an opportunity to have a close intimate relationship with him as his child, a dearly beloved member of his family! In Romans chapter seven the apostle Paul asks "Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?" and then he tells us about our hope "Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord."

1 Peter 2:24  He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By His wounds you are healed.

When I received Jesus I became a dead man to this world, I am no longer a slave to sin, my old life dies and the obligation of being a slave dies as well. I didn't have any rights as a slave and now Jesus has made me a family member and an heir.

Thank you Lord for releasing me from the bondage of sin!