Resistant to Rescue

Ex 5:1–23.

1 And afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.” 3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, otherwise He will fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” 4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work? Get back to your labors!” 5 Again Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now many, and you would have them cease from their labors!” 6 So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters over the people and their foremen, saying, 7 “You are no longer to give the people straw to make brick as previously; let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 “But the quota of bricks which they were making previously, you shall impose on them; you are not to reduce any of it. Because they are lazy, therefore they cry out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 “Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them work at it so that they will pay no attention to false words.” 10 So the taskmasters of the people and their foremen went out and spoke to the people, saying, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I am not going to give you any straw. 11 ‘You go and get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it, but none of your labor will be reduced.’ ” 12 So the people scattered through all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 The taskmasters pressed them, saying, “Complete your work quota, your daily amount, just as when you had straw.” 14 Moreover, the foremen of the sons of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not completed your required amount either yesterday or today in making brick as previously?” 15 Then the foremen of the sons of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, “Why do you deal this way with your servants? 16 “There is no straw given to your servants, yet they keep saying to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are being beaten; but it is the fault of your own people.” 17 But he said, “You are lazy, very lazy; therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 “So go now and work; for you will be given no straw, yet you must deliver the quota of bricks.” 19 The foremen of the sons of Israel saw that they were in trouble because they were told, “You must not reduce your daily amount of bricks.” 20 When they left Pharaoh’s presence, they met Moses and Aaron as they were waiting for them. 21 They said to them, “May the Lord look upon you and judge you, for you have made us odious in Pharaoh’s sight and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.” 22 Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have You brought harm to this people? Why did You ever send me? 23 “Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all.”

Introduction

No matter what line of work you find yourself in there’s always going to be some kind of difficulty, some kind of resistance to progress. It’s only a matter of time until a customer isn’t completely happy with their service, a material order is cancelled delaying the project, or someone simply makes a mistake. The question isn’t whether or not resistance will come it’s how will we respond? Oftentimes what affects our response to difficulty and resistance is our trust in the plan and the planner. Maybe you’ve been in a position where you realize the plan is flawed so you take the issue to your manager and rightfully so. Maybe you’re the manager and you don’t deal directly with the problem, but you are trying to lead and encourage a team of people who are dealing directly with that difficulty. At the same time you don’t really have a say in the plan because that’s upper management’s responsibility, but you do have to get everyone on board with the plan whether you like it or not because you’re middle management. Sometimes a promotion isn’t always as great as it seems. The real trouble occurs when management and employees alike lose faith in the plan and the planner. When this happens the resistance doesn’t just come from outside the organization, it joins together with employee and managers to level resistance against upper management.

As we see in our text this morning, Pharaoh resists God’s call to let his people go. This we rather expect and have been told to expect from God. This is a problem certainly, but the real problem occurs when God’s people lose faith in the plan and the planner. God is perfect in all his ways, and there is no flaw to the plan that is about to unfold, yet because the people and Moses have lost faith, they begin to resist God. They don’t resist in the blatant rebellious ways which Pharaoh does, but the people will resist God in calls for judgement upon Moses and Moses will question God’s plan altogether. At the end of our passage this morning all resistance is against God, and yet God is unhindered. His perfect character will bring about His perfect plan even as His people and His prophet doubt Him. My hope this morning is that we would recognize the resistance that’s before as the people of God, trust the character and plan of God, and resist the temptation of our flesh to join the world in resisting God with even something like accusations. We may not have all the answers at the end of the day, but we do have a trustworthy God who is faithful to His Word. We can trust the plan because the planner is God.

The world, the flesh, and the devil demand our allegiance and resist our rescue from slavery, yet we are not to despair. God is faithful to deliver us even amidst great resistance.

God Calls for Rescue

The world resistant w/ oppression

The people resistant w/ judgement

The prophet resistant w/ questions

God Calls for Rescue (vs. 1-5)

The time has finally come. Moses and Aaron are on board and have given the word of the LORD to the people of Israel. So far Moses’ concerns about the people’s unbelief are put at ease. They’ve been given the good news and they respond as well as can be expected. They believe, bowed low, and worshiped God at the news of His concern for them. However, Moses has yet to receive Pharaoh’s response to God’s plan of deliverance.

Moses and Aaron come to the point of looking Pharaoh in the eye and give them the word of LORD. A Word of authority and command.

(vs. 1) “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ”

—-

It’s truly a formidable statement. God, the creator of the universe, and savior of Egypt through Joseph many years ago has spoken directly to Pharaoh saying, these are My People. Let them go that might celebrate Me in the wilderness. God is making a number of bold claims in this simple command. He isn’t negotiating either.

Firstly, God has a right to these people. They are His! They are His covenant people. Independent of how many years they’ve lived in Egypt under Pharaoh’s rule, the people of Israel belong to God! He is their God, and He has come to redeem them from bondage.

Secondly, God is deserving of their worship. The express purpose given to Pharaoh for letting them go is that God would be recognized as God before their eyes and worshiped. Moses and Aaron are not proclaiming a message of deliverance for their autonomy. Their proclaiming their deliverance from one king to another. One kingdom to another kingdom. One service to another greater service.

Finally, Pharaoh is expected to obey. God does not speak to even the king of Egypt as an equal like two heads of state would speak to each other. It’s assumed that even Pharaoh resides within the dominion of God and he does! Pharaoh is a man just like every other owing his entire being to the obedience of Yahweh, the one true Creator God.

The implications of this simple statement for Israel are immense. God is exerting his authority over Pharaoh and will deliver us making us his own that we would worship Him, the one true God! Yet what happens when Pharaoh does not heed God’s command?

(vs. 2) “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.” —- Moses and Aaron were told that Pharaoh would not let them go, but now they’re looking at resistance first hand. Pharaoh clearly does not recognize God’s authority. At this point you might imagine Moses and Aaron start to feel a little bit like middle management. God gave us this plan and we’re doing our part, but it’s not working!! Is there something wrong with the plan? Is there something wrong with the planner?

There’s a matter of application for us in these first two verses that we can’t miss before going further. The person of God, the plan of God, and the proclamation of God remain perfect even when the world, the flesh, and the devil resist. In our day and age, we like immediate results. I ordered something on Amazon the other day and it arrived in a day! You used to pay a handsome fee for overnight. Chick fil A brings me that spicy chicken deluxe in maybe 5 minutes, and with excellent customer service too! Praise God for overnight shipping and fast food on every day but Sunday. We recognize the excellence in those things, but I hope we would see an even greater excellence in God’s plan and proclamation of the good news even when it isn’t delivered overnight.

When you’ve been evangelizing with a neighbor or a family member for years and there’s no fruit.

When you’ve been battling with depression, a lack of assurance, or fear for years and the gospel truth’s you hold dear don’t appear to grant you the freedom you pray for.

When you’ve been battling with sin in your own life, and you continue to stumble as you repent and pray, repent and pray, repent and pray that God would grant you freedom from that sin.

In some way, shape or form, we wrestle with the reality that God’s plan of deliverance for me is good, even while the world, the flesh, and the devil resist every step towards that freedom from sin death. The truth is the kingdom of God grows in our hearts and in the church more like a tree than a flower. A little resistance will kill a flower in an instant. All it takes is a two year old with a dump truck, done! A tree faces every kind of resistance on its way to maturity, but it will grow!

A couple years ago, Rachel and I had the opportunity to go to Rocky Mountain National Park. We ended up driving to the alpine visitor center. It’s at an elevation where not much is growing up there, but on your way up you’ll see these trees that are maybe as tall as me and only have branches one side because the wind at that elevation has made it impossible for anything to grow on one side of the tree. As we’re walking through the visitor center and reading through the exhibits it turns out some of these trees are over a hundred years old. At first glance they appear to be the sorriest five year old Christmas tree you’ve ever seen. It turns out, that even through extraordinary resistance, they endure year after year. They don’t look like much at all, but they’re stronger than the 20ft tree in my front yard that fell over in a little Ohio wind storm.

In this life there is no shortage of resistance to the good news we proclaim promising us life and growth. Christ has begun a work in us which he will finish! We who are justified will be sanctified. The Word of God will not return void. The gospel will go forth and Christ will build His church. These glorious truths of our life, growth, and deliverance in Christ are not diminished by the resistance they face in the world the flesh and the devil. In fact they reap an even greater glory for the resistance they will endure. Keep praying. Keep believing! Keep looking to Christ even through the greatest resistance. All things will work to our good and His glory, just as He will work through even Pharaoh’s resistance for His glory and the good of Israel.

I promise I will not spend five minutes on each of the remaining 21 verses.

Pharaoh’s resistance turns out to be more than a simple ‘No’.

Moses and Aaron try to convince Pharaoh that calamity will fall upon them if Pharaoh doesn’t let them go. Perhaps Moses and Aaron believed that if they did not make it to Horeb promptly, God would begin to afflict them for a lack of obedience. We can’t say for sure what Moses and Aaron meant by that, but nevertheless Pharaoh is unconcerned. He wants the people to get back to work, but not back to their ordinary work. They will be oppressed with work beyond their ability to accomplish: an unjust slave-like work.

The world resistant w/ oppression (vs. 6-19)

If we look at verses 6 through 19, Pharaoh makes a concerted effort to tighten his grip on the people of Israel.

They already have a quota of bricks to be made, but now they will supply the straw themselves rather than being provided by the Egyptians.

Pharaoh has in mind to make them forget the idea of leaving altogether by giving them a heavier labor.

The people are left to scavenge for the necessary straw to fulfill their quota, yet at the end of the day they will be beaten for their failure.

They’re given a burden too great to bear and yet they’re considered lazy in the eyes of Pharaoh.

Just as hope has finally arrived, it seems Israel has found themselves in a quicksand which will not let them go. The more they speak of their deliverance the more the quicksand of Pharaoh’s dominion takes them in deeper and deeper. Their labor is increased, just as rest appears on the horizon. They’re beaten for their failures, just as freedom is declared by Moses and Aaron.

We might step back and recognize Pharaoh’s behavior as that of all tyrants. When they get a taste of power, there’s nothing that can make them let it go. When that power is threatened they’ll do anything to maintain it, even commit injustices we can hardly imagine.

This is true, but I believe it goes deeper than that. The behavior of Pharaoh is the nature of sin. The world, the flesh, and the devil all behave as tyrants when their dominion and power is threatened.

How did Saul treat the church before he met Christ on the road to Damascus. Outright persecution and tyranny was the standard for the Pharisees as the church found freedom in Christ. The world today is not so different. How many world governments today consider the church a threat to their authority?

How many in our culture consider the Christian worldview and the freedom we have as believers to be a threat to their way of life?

In response to this so called ‘threat’ demands are imposed on the church. Demands that seem attainable at first, but at the end of the day cannot justify us in the eyes of the world. We’re still lazy at the end of the day.

Unfortunately there are churches who have given in to the world’s demands as a means of making peace with the world. They give ground on the sanctity of marriage, biblical sexuality, biblical definitions of guilt, and even the gospel itself.

There’s no making peace with a tyrant who’s worldview states, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice?” Whatever ground is given to the world, it will never be enough. We’re watching it before our eyes. Everyone who has given ground to the world’s demands 5 years ago are all of a sudden falling short again, because there are new demands, new standards. No matter how hard we try, the appetite of the world for our fidelity will never be satisfied.

As much as this is true when we look out upon the world, it’s also true when we look at the nature of our sinful hearts.

To some degree, I believe we all have some experience with this whether we recognize it fully or not. From the first day we came to faith and were eternally saved from sin and death until now God has been slowly transforming the loves and affections of our hearts to the things of God, yet their remains the temptations and demands of the flesh. “Give me just a little more!” “Work just a little harder to satisfy me!”

It turns out our sinful flesh is very much like a tyrant. It loves power and the servitude of its subjects, and when that service is threatened, it will fight with every temptation to be satisfied. Again, a little like quicksand that is not easily escaped.

When we satisfy the flesh with even a moment’s service, it only takes another moment for that tyrant to demand a little more. The truth is no matter how much we feed that tyrant of our flesh, he will never be satisfied. Much like Pharaoh:

“You are lazy, very lazy; therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 “So go now and work; for you will be given no straw, yet you must deliver the quota of bricks.” Ex 5:17–18.

Trying to satisfy the demands of the flesh is true slavery beyond any we recognize in this world with our own two eyes.

I wish I could say the world and the flesh were the extent of it, but we all know the devil assists and encourages both to maintain their tyrannical demands. He himself demands the maintenance of his dominion, that dominion of sin, death, and corruption.

The devil tempted Jesus with his own demands for service.

Satisfy me. Bow before me, and I’ll give you the world.

Paul in his letter to the Ephesians describes the dominion of Satan this way,

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Eph 2:1–3.

Apart from Christ, apart from a deliverer, there is no peace with the world, the flesh or the devil, only tyranny and death. Indulging the flesh, and satisfying our lusts is not the freedom the world would have us believe. In truth it’s slavery! Slavery to sin, and slavery to the devil. It’s a slavery that continues to demand more and more, and yet is never satisfied.

It’s here, in that recognition that the tyrant cannot be satisfied where we find Israel in our narrative. It’s here where despair can begin to set in as the quicksand seems to swallow up those who try to resist. The truth is that any resistance apart from the divine deliverance of God is a futile effort.

We have the benefit of joining with Paul in looking back on our deliverer with eyes of faith. as he continues in Ephesians 2:4

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Eph 2:4–6.

We were as helpless as a dead man in that slavery which gripped us, and yet God in His gracious sovereignty and mercy saw fit to make us alive together with Christ and seat us with Christ in the heavenly places. By grace we have been saved. Praise God for the freedom we have from that tyranny of slavery!

It is by this sovereign grace and divine power that Israel too will find their material deliverance from slavery. They too will need God’s grace to save them eternally, to resurrect their hearts from death, but God is very content to teach his people of spiritual realities with earthly lessons and provisions.

Unfortunately these lessons will need to be taught time and again, as the people begin to complain and despair over the resistance they face.

I believe here is our primary point of application. How do we respond when the gospel has declared, God has made us His own, and we are free from the dominion of the world!” … yet the world demands our allegiance.

How do we respond when the gospel has declared, God has made us His own, and we are free from the dominion of the flesh!” … yet the flesh demands time and again, give me just a little more!

How do we respond when the gospel has declared, God has made us His own, and we are free from the dominion of Satan!” … yet Satan tempts us to fear and doubt whether the love of Christ is really ours.

With a clear view of the person and plan of God, we can say with certainty, “Christ is my hope and I will not despair.”

When the world demands of us, we can rest assured, Christ has declared me righteous. The world doesn’t define me. I am coheirs with Christ, and He says I am His.

When the flesh demands more of us, we can rest assured, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Furthermore, “... our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;” Ro 6:6.

And when the devil prowls around, tempting us to fear, to doubt, to wander, we can rest assured that his end is declared from the beginning to the end of Scripture. The head of the serpent is crushed in Christ’s death, and the serpent will be cast into eternal fire by our King and Savior in the end.

When we face resistance we must hold fast to the work which Christ has begun and has promised to complete. Should we look anywhere else, we will surely despair, and we see a picture of that in our text this morning.

The people resistant w/ judgement (vs. 20-21)

20 When they left Pharaoh’s presence, they met Moses and Aaron as they were waiting for them. 21 They said to them, “May the Lord look upon you and judge you, for you have made us odious in Pharaoh’s sight and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.” New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ex 5:20–21.

Not exactly words of hope or perseverance from the men of Israel. It’s not just hopeless, it’s accusatory. Moses, you’ve effectively equipped Pharaoh to do us harm. May God judge you for it.

Notice it’s not Pharaoh’s fault in their perspective. There’s no prayer to God for judgement upon Pharaoh for his resistance to God’s decree. They look to Moses and Aaron, God’s messengers, and say, may God judge you.

Anyone every heard the saying, “Don’t shoot the mail man.” That’s exactly what they just did. It seems shocking when we read it, but it might be more common than we realize.

Anyone ever been required to take a class that was particularly difficult? After some time wrestling with the class, you or one of classmates finally says, “Why do they make us take this stuff?” There’s a progression from recognizing the class is difficult. There’s resistance. Progress is slow. Until finally, someone’s to blame! Who can we blame for this difficulty? Few become willing to admit any longer that the nature of learning is difficult, no someone’s to blame. This is especially so when the purpose of the resistance isn’t clear. Why is this necessary?

In middle school we were all required to participate in a speech competition. At that time, I dreaded the idea of public speaking. I avoided it at all costs. A few things have changed since then, but at the time, I couldn’t see the reason for it. I didn’t see what benefit a speech competition would have for my future, and there was a temptation to turn my attention to my teachers in blame for the difficulty they put me through. Looking back on it now, I can see that my teachers were preparing us to be communicators. They were trustworthy people with a good plan for my equipping as a student, but in the moment the difficulty of the task put before me tempted me to let the resistance of an assignment turn me to question and resist good leadership.

In short, resistance turns into despair when the leadership is deemed untrustworthy.

In one sense you might expect Israel to respond this way. Moses hasn’t been there that long. The new prophet comes into town, hasn’t exactly built a reputation or trust with the people, and what does he do? He goes and picks a fight with Pharaoh, and as a result makes the work of every Israelite harder. You can imagine, how Moses might be deemed untrustworthy! He’s an unknown, and because he’s untrustworthy, resistance has turned into despair for Israel. The problem is that, Moses isn’t the one calling the shots. God is! Moses is a mouthpiece. Israel fails at this point to see God as trustworthy knowing it’s His person and His plan that will deliver the people of Israel, not Moses.

It’s not difficult to imagine a similar scenario panning out in the church today. Perhaps an older believer challenges a younger believer to consider who he spends his time with. “Brother I don’t know that you’re keeping a company that’s good for your faith. They’re asking you to do things you know are sinful! Next time they send an invite why don’t you come over to my place for dinner instead. The younger brother agrees, but when he tells his friends he’s not coming he’s derided for his faith. “Oh, so you’re too good for us now?” They even threaten to disown him as a friend altogether. There’s resistance, and rather than going to his older brother for help he goes frustrated to his older brother. “Now I’ve lost my friends!” Look what you did.

Now this is an extreme example, but it’s not so unthinkable. Resistance from the world, the flesh, and the devil tempts us to despair and we need to see God’s character and God’s plan in that resistance. God is working for our good through our brother or sister’s calling even though it may be difficult for a time. We don’t look to our brothers and sisters to work all the things in their power for our good. That’s not their job. We look to our brothers and sisters to speak truth into our lives, call us to what is good and right, and point our eyes and faith to Christ to work all things for our good through His almighty power. The church delivers the truth of God and God delivers the church. When we mix that up, we’re sure to despair.

Moses, doesn’t exactly answer the men of Israel with any food for their faith because he too is shaken by this resistance that’s before Him. He trying to execute the plan given to him and everyone is against him. Pharaoh is against him, now the people are against him. Unfortunately, his doubt in the person and plan of God will bring him to join the resistance against God as well.

The prophet resistant w/ questions (vs. 22-23)

22 Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have You brought harm to this people? Why did You ever send me? 23 “Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all.” Ex 5:22–23.

Moses has not resorted to outright rebellion like Pharaoh has, he still looks to God in prayer, though his prayer is one of accusations and questioning. It is bold no doubt! He actually accuses God of harming his people and failing to deliver His people. In addition, he returns to a previous doubt, “Why me?” “Why did You ever send me?”

At times, resistance turns our eyes to fellow believers in doubt and thus we despair, and at other times resistance is so great that it turns our eyes to God and yet we still doubt and we still despair.

Perhaps the loss of a loved one brings us to question, Lord why?

Perhaps a diagnosis brings us to ask, Father why? What purpose does this serve?

It needn’t be so great a thing either, even a new job that’s particularly difficult, kids at times, perhaps something was stolen from you. All these can bring us to a prayer of questioning, Father why is this so hard? Don’t you love me? This season sure doesn’t feel like all things working for my good...

I’d hope we would recognize that it’s okay to ask questions of God. The Psalmists time and again ask questions of God as a part of inspired Scripture.

Psalm 74:1-2

O God, why have You rejected us forever? Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture? 2 Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, Which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance; And this Mount Zion, where You have dwelt. New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ps 74:1–2.

Psalm 79:5

How long, O Lord? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire? New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ps 79:5.

Psalm 22:1-2

1 My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. 2 O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; And by night, but I have no rest. New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ps 22:1–2.

It’s when our questioning stops at unbelief where we stumble, and our questioning turns into accusations such as, “You have not delivered Your people at all.” God’s waiting should not be misconstrued as God’s failure. If you look at each of these Psalms, each question is followed by a firm expression of faith in the person and plan of God.

Deliverance:

Psalm 74:12

12 Yet God is my king from of old, Who works deeds of deliverance in the midst of the earth. New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ps 74:12.

Psalm 79:9

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name’s sake. New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ps 79:9.

Psalm 22:3-5

3 Yet You are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. 4 In You our fathers trusted; They trusted and You delivered them. 5 To You they cried out and were delivered; In You they trusted and were not disappointed. New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ps 22:3–5.

I hope Psalm 22 might ring a bell in our minds of Christ’s same words on the cross, and this ultimately where our comfort lies when we face resistance. When we are tempted to despair in the face of great resistance, whether in the world, the flesh, or the devil, we can look to Christ who faced a greater resistance and was truly forsaken for us, bearing our sin and the wrath of God that was due us that we would never have to fear being forsaken. We will face resistance! Christ promises that to His disciples,

“‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you;” Jn 15:20.

But that resistance does not mean we are forsaken.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Ro 8:31–32.

The Father gave His only Son, so that we would be forever His! His plan for His people will come to fruition. We will one day be fully and finally delivered from all resistance, but for now we can rest knowing that

that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ro 8:38–39.

For those of you who know this to be true and rest in it regularly, who might you be able to encourage with the faith that God has given you? Who near to you perhaps in the next row over, may be facing great resistance and in need of the assurance of the love of Christ for them. Might we keep each other from despair with the faith Christ has given us.

For those of you who are in the midst of that great resistance! Whether that be the ordinary difficulties of life, sin, or burdens of the heart. There are a number of people here in this congregation who would be happy to bear that burden with you. Don’t despair, and don’t believe the temptation that you need to face resistance alone.

Conclusion statement

Let’s Pray