f you want to get a little bit free, a little bit of sacrifice will do. But ultimate freedom requires ultimate sacrifice. In the case of the Israelites, the price for freedom was the death of the firstborn - the firstborn sons of their captors, and the firstborn males of their flocks. For us today, freedom comes at the price of God's Firstborn Son and Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. (Message: Eric Elder; Worship Song: "Lord, I Lift Your Name On High" written by Rick Founds and led by Eric Elder; Running time: 30:36)

Lesson 9 - Ultimate Victory Comes Through Ultimate Sacrifice

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Hi; this is Eric Elder. Welcome to The Ranch.

I'm glad you're here because we're going to talk tonight about the ultimate victory and what brings about the ultimate victory when we're trying to get free. We were looking last time at the plagues that came on Egypt, and we went through the whole series of plagues, but we stopped right before the last plague that hit Egypt and that involved the death of the firstborn. And that's going to lead us into our lesson tonight and what brings the ultimate victory and how that happens to come about.

So we're going to look at Exodus Chapter 11. And we're going to have the guys here in the room read it, so if you guys want to read two or three verses each and we'll go around through all of Chapter 11, that's Verses 1 through 10.

PAUL: 1 Now the LORD had said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely. 2 Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold." 3 (The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.)

ERIC: Someone else?

DALE: So Moses said, "This is what the LORD says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. 5 Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.

ERIC: Someone else?

BUD: 6 There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt-worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. 7 But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.' Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. 8 All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, 'Go, you and all the people who follow you!' After that I will leave." Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.

ERIC: Someone else?

PAUL: 9 The LORD had said to Moses, "Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you-so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt." 10 Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country.

ERIC: So a couple things happen in here that are actually fulfillment of what God prophesied would happen. God said and spoke to Moses what would happen. There are two things in particular that happened. The first is that the Lord says in Verse 3, the Lord made the Egyptians what, towards the Israelites?

DALE: Gave favor.

ERIC: Gave favor, or made them favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.

So this is interesting that God said that this would happen back in Chapter 3, if you want to flip back there. Back in Chapter 3 we looked over there in Verse 21 and 22, when God first spoke to Moses in the burning bush, if you remember this passage, he said that these things would happen.

In Chapter 3, Verse 21 and 22, it says

21 "And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."

So after all we've been through and watching how Moses goes and tries to do this, and things get worse and just goes downhill and downhill, and it's just looking like it's never going to happen, here we are finally peaking here at the mountain top again where these things that God said would happen are actually happening. And not only the people are becoming favorably disposed but also Pharaoh's officials. So it's going all the way up the chain of command, and everybody highly regards Moses by this time because they see the Lord is with him.

The second thing that God spoke that would happen, the firstborn son of everyone in Egypt would die. From the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl who is at her hand mill, as well as the firstborn of the cattle as well. And if you'll go back to Exodus Chapter 4, it says also what God said to Moses exactly what happened.

Exodus Chapter 4, Verses 22 and 23. The Lord says this to Moses in Verse 22:

22 Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.' "

Now, this is before it all happened. This is before he even went to Egypt. God said this is what's going to happen. He said Israel is my firstborn. You've held them captive for all this time, 400 and some years Israel was captive. And God said finally, this is enough. Finally we're going to put punishment back on the Egyptians for the things that they've done, and the time had come for that punishment to be meted out or to be realized. And so this thing that God said would happen is about to take place.

The Israelites, however, also had to make a sacrifice. And what was that that they had to sacrifice, do you remember? This is coming up in the next chapter.

DALE: The killing of the lamb.

ERIC: Right. The killing of the lamb. So there was a killing that had to go on even on the Israelites' side, that this sacrifice of the lamb must be made for every household and that blood had to be put on the door; and when the Spirit saw the blood on the door, it would pass by. And if it didn't, then it would enter in and kill the firstborn son.

What's interesting to me about that scenario is that something had to die so that something else could live. If you remember Jesus talking about a kernel of wheat, unless it falls to the ground and dies, it cannot spring forth to a new life. There seems to be a spiritual principal here, where for some reason the death of one can bring the life of another. And the lesson for me out of this is that ultimate victory comes through ultimate sacrifice. Ultimate victory comes through ultimate sacrifice. Pharaoh wasn't going to get off just with a plague of gnats bugging him. The Egyptians weren't going to get free just by swatting a few flies. Freedom comes when someone pays the ultimate price.

PAUL: That's true, just like the soldiers overseas sacrificing their lives.

BUD: Revolutionary War.

ERIC: Revolutionary War. Ultimate victory comes through ultimate sacrifice. If you want a partial victory, then you can partially sacrifice.

DALE: You know, I was thinking about Barabbas. Barabbas was released, a criminal though he was, when Jesus paid his price.

ERIC: And carry it one more step, you and I were released because why? Because Jesus paid the price.

DALE: So there was a pattern established.

TYSON: You always hear the story about when the pilgrims first came to America and they showed them how, you know, if you put fish in the ground, the death of that fish, the nutrients, you know, that dead animal caused something else to live, the crops to live, you know. So we kill an animal so we can live, you know. They had to make a sacrifice you know, before Jesus came. Now He's our ultimate sacrifice. His death covers our sins. That's the blood of the lamb over the doorpost that saved them from the death angel.

ERIC: Right, right. Yeah, the death already took place so the Spirit of God didn't have to kill anyone in the house because the death had taken place.

I don't know if you have heard this about Abraham Lincoln and when he says he became a Christian. But I had seen this from James Kennedy, had sent this out. And it talks about how Abraham Lincoln, throughout his life, he believed in the providence of God but he rejected much of the Bible and especially the salvation message. But there was a point where he did put his faith in Christ.

And it says:

A remarkable conversation took place between an Illinois clergyman and President Lincoln after the death of Lincoln's beloved son, Willie, whose death was an almost unbearable heartbreaking experience for the president already bowed by the burden of the war.

Prior to this, Lincoln had been a strong believer in the providence of God, but he largely rejected most of the Bible, especially the doctrines of salvation and redemption.

"Mr. President, do you love Jesus?" inquired the pastor as recorded by William J. Johnson in his book, Abraham Lincoln the Christian.

After a long pause, Mr. Lincoln solemnly replied, "When I left Springfield, I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Yes, I do love Jesus."

When Lincoln was faced with the death of many of his countrymen, it was then that he put his faith in Christ. When he saw the sacrifices that were made, when he came to rely, another account says, only on God, where he couldn't go forward, he couldn't rely on anything but God at this point in his career and his presidency, that's when he put his faith in Christ.

It's also interesting to me that his most famous speech was made on that same field. The Gettysburg Address, a three-minute speech, a speech that many at the time said was one of the poorest speeches he gave in his presidency. Another man had given some eloquent speech that he prepared for a very long time for this event, but President Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address, "Fourscore and seven years ago..." and he talked about those who paid the ultimate price so that we could have our freedom.

I think the Holy Spirit did something in Lincoln on that day. As we'll see here in Exodus, the Holy Spirit made a significant impact on the Egyptians and on the Israelites on this day when this death occurred.

Some people feel like they can have freedom, not only freedom for their soul and the ultimate forgiveness, but freedom from addictions, freedom from whatever's holding them back. They feel like they can have it by just making some little sacrifice here or there. And I say if you make a little sacrifice, you'll get a little bit free. If you cut back on eating a little bit, you'll lose a little bit of weight. But if you make the ultimate sacrifice. I'm not asking anyone to kill themselves, because Christ has already done that, but there is a price to be paid. And when we realize that price has been paid, it can have a huge and profound impact on us.

Some people also wonder how this surrender comes about. How do you give up everything for the Lord? And there's a woman of faith from several hundred years ago called Madame Guyon, and she talked about surrender this way. She said it's "plunging your will into the depths of God's will there to be lost forever." Plunging your will into the depths of God's will there to be lost forever. Instead of you calling the shots for the rest of your life, instead of you deciding what you're going to do today and tomorrow and next year, you let God call those shots. Let Him have complete control. That is absolute surrender.

I remember hearing a woman talk about this topic, and I heard that quote and oh, it just pumped me up. And I was like, "that is so good!" I had this vision of this sort of swirling whirlwind of God's will and just plunging your will down into that, there to be lost forever. And just as she was speaking, I was just "Oh, that is so freeing, that's so awesome." Because I just get so weighed down trying to make decisions and trying to think of what I should do and when do I do it and where do I do it and how do I do it. And to just think that I can just plunge my will into God's will and let Him take over, it's awesome.

DALE: What you said in your analogy, I can see somebody just like diving out of a plane, free-falling into that whirlwind, just allowing God to be in control. Because you're certainly out of control.

ERIC: Yeah, there's a certain freedom to that when you just let Him take over. My kids and I did a bungee jump this weekend. We went to Cornerstone Festival, and I didn't want to do it; I thought it was one of those where they strap your feet on and you go straight down and bounce and you get a foot or two taller, and I just didn't need my joints to do that. But this is one where they pull you up sort of sideways on this big, it's more like a swing, like a pendulum. You got this harness on your chest and you can sort of fly forward like Superman. But you're hanging; there's a free-fall drop.

But even little Josiah went with me, six years old, and you get to go together. And we strapped in and they pull you up, up, up, up, and it's 100 feet up in the air and we're halfway up and he's like, "Are we there yet?" We're not close, sorry. He was hanging onto my arm and I said once we get up there, we can't come back down, we've got to go through with it. I don't want you to back out. And he said "No, I want to go, I want to go."

DALE: How were you?

ERIC: I was excited about it, but man, it was high. It doesn't look so high when you're on the ground, but as you go up and you're facing straight down. And you have to pull the cord yourself; they don't do it for you. So it's all in your hands. But I got up there and I just looked down, and all the crowd, they were down there, because they were watching this little six-year-old kid. They're all petrified; they're standing in line and they're shaking in their boots to go do it. And so they're all watching him. I just hang onto the cord, one, two, three, and you just drop. It just takes over and you just swing for the swing of your life, up and back and up and back. It was the coolest feeling. He loved it. His face was like :0 but then he was smiling and we were doing this Superman and flying. It was cool. It was a great feeling, though, to just be fully trusting on the ropes and everything, just let them completely take you.

In a way, it's like that with God. When I heard that message and I said to this friend of mine, "Isn't that a great thing, I mean, just plunging your will in the depths of God's will to be lost forever?" And my friend, he said "That scares me to death. I don't want to do that. I don't want anything to do with that." He just hated that whole idea. Now I described it from my perspective and why I like it so much, but he's a guy scared of heights in life. He didn't want to give up his will; he didn't want God to call the shots. He liked playing around with sin and the things that he was involved in; and giving up control to the God who was to him unknown and perhaps untrustworthy because he had never done it scared him to death.

Sometimes we're that way with giving up our sins, our addictions, or the things that hold us and keep us in bondage. We don't like them, but we're not sure we want to give them up, because we don't know that we can fully trust God. We don't know how the fall's going to be. We don't know if the ropes are going to hold. You're a climber; you know what this is like. There's a freedom in it, though, isn't there? Taking that plunge.

DEE: That's why I do it.

DALE: He's also not stupid and, you know, you are aware of the consequences, but you also knew that there was some safety. I don't think God, you know, He doesn't have us go out and do something that's totally insane.

ERIC: Right.

DALE: You know, a lot of people, they see surrender that way.

ERIC: Good point. Because there are some bungee jumps, like I say, I wouldn't go on. You're going to yank my body around, no way. But when I looked at this and I saw the structure and I saw the way it was set up, I said that's something I want to do.

And if you're watching this and you want to know if God's trustworthy, whether he'll hold you, I can tell you, I can assure you, I can guarantee you based on my experience, the experience of the guys here in this room, and more importantly the experience of the words recorded in this book, that God is trustworthy. He will catch you. It may be the ride of your life. It may give you a jolt, and it may take your breath away when you do it, but I can guarantee you He is trustworthy and plunging your will into the depths of His will there to be lost forever is the best thing that you can do.

Complete freedom comes through complete surrender. Put your faith in Christ for everything in your life. I don't know about you, but I know there are some things in each of our lives practically every day that we need more trust in God for. Maybe it's for what's going to happen with our kids, what's going to happen with our job, what's going to happen with our future, what's going to happen with our church, what's going to happen with our parents or our friends, what's going to happen with our health, what's going to happen with our life. Put your trust in Christ for everything in your life.

I think I want to take a minute to pray first before we sing, and I'd like to just pray for us here in this room and anyone watching this later, that we would be able to take a few moments here just to put our trust in Christ for everything in our life. He's trustworthy. He loves you. He cares about you. He knows what you're going through. Let's say a prayer here.

Father, we come before you on the verge of some decisions in our lives. Whether to put our trust fully in you and gain the ultimate victory, or whether to keep trusting in ourselves. We're trying to decide whether to give a little or give everything, whether to sacrifice a little or sacrifice it all, whether to pay the price for our sins ourselves or whether to put our faith in you completely to pay that price for us.

God, I pray for each one of us, that you would help us to make that decision today, and that our answer would be "Yes, Lord, we put our faith in you for everything, everything, everything, everything, everything." And, Lord, let us feel that tremendous thrill, that rush, that exhilaration of plunging our will into the depth of your will, there to be lost forever.

Lord, I pray right now that there would be people here in this room and people watching or reading this later who would say with me right now, yes, Lord. Would you guys just say that with me if you want to put your will into His will, if you want to put your full faith in Him, not just for your salvation but for everything you're facing. If you want to do that, would you just say with me, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord.

Father, fill us with that peace that passes understanding. Help us to experience that freedom that only comes through ultimate sacrifice. Help us to love you with our whole hearts from here on out. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Also while we were camping this last week, there was a woman who early on in the week, she started talking about her faith with a couple of the women there, and I noticed that they started talking more and they began to pray with her, and she decided for the first time in her life to put her full faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of her sins and to become a Christian.

She said later she thought that she was saved. She had a good head knowledge of the Bible. She had been involved in church much of her life, but she said that the knowledge had never made it from here in her head down to here in her heart, and she said that 12 inches made all the difference. Being able to move her faith from an intellectual faith to one that she really believed in her heart, that Christ was Lord, that Christ was in control.

And I had the great privilege of baptizing her down in the lake there with maybe 50 or 60 people watching and singing Amazing Grace on the beach. And being able to stand with her and to put her under the water, and as Jesus was baptized, I said these words to her. Jesus was baptized and a voice from heaven came down and said this is my son whom I love, with Him I'm well pleased. And I said I'm sure the same is going on in heaven right now, that God is saying this is my daughter whom I love, with her I am well pleased.

And God does that for everyone who will put their faith in Him. It was awesome to pull her up out of the water and to hear the praises on the beach of the people. They were clapping and singing for her, and to know that the angels also were rejoicing in heaven as the Bible says when one sinner repents. And I know that same thing happens for you guys as well and for us when we turn from the things that hold us and put our full trust in Christ.

I want to sing a song, Lord, I Lift Your Name on High, just to praise Him for the great sacrifice He made for us. If you guys want to stand up and you may not even need the words, if you want to sing it from memory here you can do that. Let's just sing, Lord, I Lift Your Name on High.

(Worship song.)

ERIC: Father, thank you for coming from heaven to earth. Thank you, God, for dying for us and for paying the price. Thank you for being raised again and telling us that you will one day come again for us. God, I pray that as we go about our days and our weeks that we would continue to put our trust in You every day, for everything in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Thanks, guys, and thanks for listening to this bit about Exodus. Next time we're going to conclude this first segment here and go ahead and get these Israelites out of Egypt and have the whole promise fulfilled where they will be able to come out and be set completely free. But I hope this has been encouraging to you, that ultimate freedom does come and it comes through ultimate sacrifice. Thanks again for coming. I hope you'll join us again here at The Ranch.