A God To Pharaoh

–By Pastor Barry Farnsworth

“And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh.” Exodus 7:1a

At 80 years of age, Moses was being sent to deliver his people from Egypt. His 83 year old brother was to be his voice. The negotiations were to begin. They would tell Pharaoh what God said, and Pharaoh, for the most part, would not listen. However, it was time to speak up for the Lord. It was time to do what God had told them to do. It was time for judgment and judgment would precede deliverance. Everything was to happen according to the order God had established.

God told Moses he would be “a god to Pharaoh.” He would lay down the demands. He would require obedience. He would bring judgment. As far as Pharaoh was concerned, dealing with Moses was the same as dealing with God. Pharaoh might not know God, but he would learn. He might not obey, but he would wish he had. He might not recognize authority, but soon he would recognize no other authority. He may not like the arrangement, but he could not change it no matter how much earthly power he possessed.

What we might take from this exchange is that God is not only God to His people, but He is also God to the world. God is their God whether or not they choose to listen. He is their God whether or not they choose to obey. Moses is His voice. God will deliver His people from the world, but while His people are waiting to be delivered, they should remember to speak for God to the world. There is a reason God chose Moses to speak to Pharaoh, and there is a reason He chose you to speak to the world of our day. While our names may not be recorded in the Scripture, we can still be a Moses to a lost and dying world.

Are you ready to face your Pharaoh?

“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.” Exodus 7:5

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Super Sundays (Without The Bowl)

The First Super Sunday – God Created Light: “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Genesis 1:5

The Resurrection Day Was a Super Sunday: “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.” Luke 24:1-2. “He is not here, but is risen” Luke 24:6.

The Last Day of Pentecost (a 50 day feast) Was A Super Sunday: It was the day of ingathering of Old Testament believers into the New Testament Church: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. …we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” Acts 2:1-41

God Gave The Book Of Revelation To John On A Super Sunday: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.” Revelation 1:10

Wouldn’t it be something if Jesus was to return on the Lord’s Day? What a Super Sunday that would be! Matthew 24:36,42,44

Beware of the desecration of the Lord’s Day (that’s not super)—“If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isaiah 58:13-14. Beware of making pleasures the “idol” before God: “…lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” 2 Timothy 3:4

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Your Sorrow Shall Be Turned Into Joy

(John 16:20)

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren…that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13

The scripture does not lead us to believe that Christians have no sorrow, but rather due to our hope in Christ, we do not sorrow as the unsaved, who are without real hope.

Jeremiah’s life was filled with such heartbreaking experiences in witnessing the spiritual apostasy and eventual devastation of his country with the Babylonian captivity, that he is often referred to as the weeping prophet. Some of this is reflected in the Book of Lamentations. Job wept while suffering the loss of all things, even his health, as he was despised and denigrated by his friends. Our Lord and Saviour was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). There were many periods in David’s life that are reflected in Psalm 38:17: “For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.”

Yet in light of the hope God’s Word sets before us, our faith is enabled to triumph over our sorrow, “As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” 2 Corinthians 6:10.

The difference is that a lost person’s present hope will all be swallowed up in the coming eternal hopelessness, while a saved person’s sorrow will all be swallowed up in the coming glory that awaits us.

An unsaved person has no Divine intervention for their problems, whereas with the saved, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”, assures us that whenever necessary, God can and will intervene in the lives of those waiting upon Him. The lost have no larger plan and purpose for their lives, but the saved know God has a larger plan for our lives that involves His care. The lost have no promise that everything will work out for them in the end, whereas the saved have the promise that, at the outcome of all our trials, everything will work out for good to those that love the Lord and are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Thus, as we sorrow in this life, our sorrow is enlightened with, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18. “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” John 14:1

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Thinking With The Scriptures

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

The Bible admonishes us to consider the faithfulness, the personal sacrifices and devoted service rendered to God by the saints of all ages. We are also to consider that the faith to live such lives comes from looking unto Jesus.

Hebrews 11 is often referred to as an honor roll of faithful saints. It speaks of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, David, Samuel, etc. It lauds their faith for making accomplishments beyond their own abilities. It holds up their God given victories when going up against superior foes. It praises their courageous faith in withstanding torture and laying down their lives, rather than deny the faith. It values their willingness to forsake all the world had to offer, to fulfill God’s call and purpose, esteeming heavenly rewards above earthly gain.

In view of the stories of their lives, etched out by faith, what does the story of our life have to witness in comparison, as well as to those we are responsible to inspire? How much of our lives are being defined by the accomplishments of faith?

What kind of a story does our life tell? What sacrifices have we made to advance the kingdom of Christ? What characterizes our way of life? Have we been spiritual pillars in the church? Who have we been instrumental in bringing to Christ?

The revelations of God’s Word can enable us to fast forward to the judgment seat of Christ, to understand how the lives we are now living will fare then. We need to meditate in God’s Word and pray to understand now, what our lives will prove to be in the presence of our omniscient God.

We must consider–will we be satisfied with our lives, when they are put up beside the lives of the saints of other ages, and when it is made known what they could have been by looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith?

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“Cotton Candy” Religion

By Norman H. Wells

Religion has gotten popular! It’s sweeping the country!! Juke boxes grind out the latest popular hymns! Movie magazines carry news of religious activities of the movie stars! More money is coming into religious treasures than ever before. Great new church buildings are being built. A greater percentage of folks belong to churches than ever before in history! Tremendous evangelistic campaigns are regularly held and thousands are in attendance and great numbers of decisions are recorded.

Quite regularly the current bestseller is a book on religion. The newspapers and magazines carry regular columns by religious writers. The radio and television carry religious programs! Religious Universities, Colleges, High Schools and Elementary Schools are growing by leaps and bounds!

Religion is booming! The cry of “Revival” is heard over and over!! Religion is back by popular demand! The tragedy is that it has been diluted, streamlined, whopped up, condensed, smoothed out, made palatable enough to meet what the public demands in a religion. Instead of meeting the demands of God, religion has been changed to meet the demands of the public!!

In the haste to get everybody aboard the “bandwagon”, a “carnival” spirit has developed. The bands are playing, the flags are flying and everyone is invited to a hayride of happiness—a religious romp! Popcorn, peanuts and paper hats! It reminds me of the first time I took my youngest boy, David, to the Cincinnati Zoo. He was about four years old at the time. It was on this trip that he got his first glimpse of “cotton candy”. We stopped and he watched with great delight as the man behind the counter very skillfully spun the large, beautifully colored sticks full of this wonderful stuff. After watching with envy the others who were receiving this delicious looking delight, he turned, pleading eyes to me, and the purchase was made. I never will forget the look of delight that came on his face as he held the huge, colored concoction and took his first bite. As the cotton candy dissolved into nothing in his mouth, a look of amazement and disappointment took the place of delight.

Appearances had been deceiving. Thus it is with our modern “cotton candy” boom in religion! It’s big and beautiful unto you really try to get your teeth into it, and it dissolves into nothing.

It could also be compared to “bubble gum”—it makes a fine showing unto it breaks and leaves behind a sticky mess!!

The popularity that religion enjoys has been purchased at a terrific price. The desire to please man has supplanted the desire to please God. Today’s religion is designed to satisfy the carnal appetites of carnal Christians and the unregenerate. “What do I get out of it” is the approach made to this religion. When the services are entertaining and make the participants “feel good”, they are stamped as successful. The world’s methods and manners are as in the business world. Finances and figures have been made the test. A lot of people and a lot of money are interpreted as the sure blessing of God. It is considered sacrilege to question the doctrine or the ethics of anyone who has been successful in gathering a large crowd and abundant cash!

In view of the seeming boom in religion, it would be well to consider what has happened to the gospel!! What little gospel is preached is of such a shallow, frothy nature that it would bring a snort of disgust from such an one as the Apostle Paul. The strong message of the gospel has been so diluted as hardly to be recognizable. Sickeningly cheap, sentimental appeals are made for sickeningly cheap, sentimental decisions! What has happened to the sledge hammer messages concerning the hideous corruption of sin?

Has the day of identifying the sinner past? Today it is advertised so that no one will be offended at the preaching of the gospel!! What a change! What a come down!! The gospel has always offended! It offends Satan! It offends the guilty sinner and either brings him to repentance or hardens his heart! It offends the carnal Christian!! It offends the false teachers and their followers! It offends the promoters of sin and sinful pleasure! In today’s gospel, the question of sin is dealt with in such generalities that it is almost impossible to determine who is guilty!

Repentance has become a forgotten doctrine confined to the yellowing pages of neglected articles of faith. What used to mean “Godly Sorrow”, doesn’t even involve mild embarrassment today! The crowds have never responded very well to true repentance, so modern religion by popular demand has discarded it. Faith has been reduced to a mere head consent, a hand shake, and a card signed.

Today’s gospel has been watered down so thin it has lost the miracle working power of regeneration and is producing a shallow, casual, unregenerate religion.

Contrary to the popular idea that we are in the midst of revival, stand some undeniable facts that show we are in the midst of a time of apostasy!!! There is a great “falling away”!

First of all, consider the moral condition of our country. The figures have been published so many times they do not need to be reprinted here. Crime is at an all-time high!! Juvenile delinquency increases every year!! Divorce rates climb every year. Jail houses, penitentiaries and detention homes are packed to overflowing!!

Drunkenness and dope addicts mount with each passing day! Illegitimate births and abortions increase every year. Murder, rape, suicide, robbery, scream the headlines of our papers!! Sex-mad and whiskey-soaked, the nation reels down the path of the pursuit of Pleasure!! Check the material in the popular books, songs, radio and television shows, movies, etc. and get a glimpse of what appeals to America. True revival will check the flood tides of sin!! This has not happened in today’s so-called revival!!

It is not producing hatred for sin and love of righteousness! It does not demand that Christians live a separate dedicated life to God.

Second, consider the rapid rise and growth of a multitude of cults and false religions. This is not revival!!

Real revival brings men and women a love for the truth. The entire revealed truth of God is not declared in the Gospel of today, so the “converts” wander off after whatever religion suits their particular fancy. The keynote today is compromise. Everybody is to forget their “petty doctrinal differences” and join hands in a “great compromise”. In the midst of this kind of atmosphere, false cults and religions are booming! Modernism marches on!!!

Third, consider the shallow carnal Christian today’s so called “revival” produces, indeed, if it produces any Christians. May God help us to return to a gospel that glorifies God, antagonizes Satan, squelches sin, convicts sinners, produces repentance, routs false teachers, abolishes false religions, promotes sound doctrine, and brings about the miracle of regeneration that makes a hell bound sinner into a new creature in Christ Jesus.

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