It is for freedom that He has made us free

And the Lord spoke to Moses; “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says the Lord:

“Let My People go, that they may serve Me.”

Exodus 8:1, 5:1

This is an eternal cry in heart of God for His people in all generations.

All of God’s proclamations are eternal in their substance and this particular one stands true in all ages.

God calling His children out of the land of bondage to a freedom of sacrificial worship is an eternal ordinance honored by God and rewarded by Him throughout all history.

Although throughout the chapters of the book of Exodus this plea stood its grounds, but in all of them the call to separate from this world is the main theme of this cry from the heart of our Lord and God.

When Moses meets with Pharaoh, he proclaims what the Lord had spoken to him and the book of Exodus in different translations speaks of three different things, which in their reality they all meant the same thing.

“Let My people go so that they may serve Me.”

“Let My people go that they may worship Me”.

“Let My people go that they may sacrifice unto Me”.

These three different pleas and the one translation of the word “to serve”  as worshiping Him brings us to the purpose of Israel’s call to get out of the land of their slavery. Although this was a fulfillment of God’s own promise to Abraham four generations past, but it carried in itself a very important spiritual reality.  Tonight we need to discuss the spiritual aspects of this Exodus.

Biblically Egypt and its kingdom represent the world and its slavery to sin. Pharaoh in many occasions has been signifying as the hard taskmasters of this world or the kingdom of darkness and at times as Satan himself.

God’s call through His servant Moses was a call to freedom from the slavery of sin or the bondage of a lifelong sentence under its power. When God sent Moses to free the Israelites from the slavery of sin it was to give them an understanding of the bondage of their slavery to the power of sin. By this they understood, that unless they came out they could not serve the Lord in all these three different aspects of their new call in God. The call to worship, sacrifice and serve the God of their forefathers in freedom was the fulfillment of an ancient promise to Abraham.  This also spiritually proves that an enslaved man can not truly offer God anything in life while living under the power of slavery to sin. Only free men are free to worship God in spirit and in truth.

This spiritual principal is the reason why no unsaved man can fully serve, sacrifice or truly worship God. Why?

Since this person is the slave of the power of sin, which controls him all of his life.

Many times we seek to bring spiritual slaves into our midst and immediately see them transformed and that in our human zeal into a true worshipper, but we fail to realize this is not a human originated task, but a God ordained spiritual breakthrough by His grace alone.

We put restrictions on them while they are yet in the bondage of the Pharaoh of this world. The scriptures in Exodus say as the Lord was sending Moses to free the Israelites He Himself was hardening the heart of Pharaoh. Why?

Because only God’s victory in any spiritual warfare can gain Him the complete glory.

So is with the supernatural sovereign act of salvation through grace.

True act of service or any kind of sacrifice is only accepted, when the one offering would offer it by free choice and a willing heart, otherwise it is fake and not from the true intent of the heart in pure motives. God knowing this truth wanted free men to worship Him and not salves. On the contrary the Egyptian Pharaoh enjoyed the force enslavement of his captives. This is so much like the kingdom of Satan than the kingdom of our God.

For this very reason the evil heart of Pharaoh was the best grounds for God’s hardening act.  Satan being a hard taskmaster enjoys our enslavement, yet God seek those who would worship Him freely. Here is why the battle to leave the world’s pleasures is so fierce in its core. Satan loves to continually throw new chains at us to stop us from leaving the land of our captivity.  This is why the wilderness was the next best place for a former captive.

In the wilderness both Moses and his flock were encountering the law, which proved their true captivity unto the power of sin and recognized their state of slavery in Egypt to spiritual and physical idols of that land. It was here where the rebellion of sin was manifested and it was in the wilderness that their faith was intensely tested for their free future worship, service and sacrifice to be accepted by God.  Moses Himself needed to be broken in His self righteousnessonce again before he could bring a true sacrifice and offering to God acceptable to Him in complete humility and Godly righteousness.

This is why the Lord said to Pharaoh “Let My people go to the wilderness to worship Me”. A lot like King David’s humble plea for acceptance of worship and sacrifice and service in psalm 51 after his own admittance of his utter depravity of sinfulness.  Oh yes only free men can enter into His presence to offer up the sacrifices of true worship.

Israel in Egypt never sacrificed to God with the exception of the Passover offered to Him before their exit, and this is why they didn’t, because as slaves their sacrifice would not be acceptable they needed to be free men and not a slaves.

Slave is not free to do what the free man is allowed to do. Wilderness was a true place of sacrifice and feasting to the Lord. This place offered them a freedom by which their service of worship was unhindered if they remained obediently thankful.

Wilderness is a place that although it is void of the delicacies of the worldly enslavement of sin, yet it is the best place of true worship of God.

Wilderness is prepared for devotion and complete surrender.

Wilderness although was a place of bitter waters at times, meaning very heavy testing, but it is also the place of the greatest miracle working power of God to prove His love and protection for His own while traveling through.

As life gets tuff in the wilderness of our service and sacrifice or worship to Him, God’s continual goodness sweetens the bitter waters of our soul. Here in the wilderness is where the greatest enemies of our faith are fought and overcome, since no true service to God could remain without a cost to us and even overcome by our own strength or might.

It is in the wilderness that Egypt and its memories need to be completely forgotten before we could enter into the Canaan of our complete eternal rest with Him in heaven. A slave has no place in the kingdom of heaven.

Since it is for freedom that we are set free.

No chained man can worship with raised up hands towards heaven. Only the free in Christ can worship and offer Him sacrifices of praise and thanks giving. This is why Jesus said whomever the Son sets free is free indeed.

Why do you think the Judizers in Paul’s time were sent to bring the Galatians church into captivity of legalism, because Satan knew if they were spiritually enslaved all over again their service and worship would not be acceptable unto God? This is why Paul says some among the circumcision are spying on our freedom in Christ wanting to enslave us back into ritualistic legalism to take away our freedom of true worship. So is Satan with many different kinds of spiritual traps.

This is why we need to live soberly and not to allow anyone or anything to hinder our true sacrifice, service or worship unto our God Who has called us from darkness to His eternal light.    Amen?   Amen & Amen.