(Exodus) Exodus 10:8-11

And so we find here that Moses and Aaron now are brought in again unto Pharaoh. And he said unto them, now here's his third compromise, Go serve the Lord your God, but who are they that shall go? And Moses said, We'll go with our young, with our old, with our sons, with our daughters, with our flocks, and with our herds will we go, for we must hold a feast unto the Lord. And he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you as I will let you go, and your little ones look to it, for evil is before you.

Not so go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord, for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. The compromise now is this.

Moses, you go on out in the wilderness with the men, with the adults, but you leave the children in the land, and you go out without them. Well, Pharaoh, I think, suspected that if they got three days in the wilderness, they would keep going, and so he wants to stop that, and he knows if he keeps the children, they'd not run away. They would come back for their children.

Now, this again has a corollary. It's a pattern for believers today. I think that as Pharaoh tested and tempted this man Moses with a compromise, that the child of God is today tempted with a compromise.

In fact, you will find these four compromises parallel in the Christian life. Now, first of all, of course, is be a Christian, but don't be narrow. And then you be a Christian, but don't go too far in this.

If you insist on doing certain things, well, don't make a practice of it. In other words, compromise. Now, this, as someone has said, is probably the most subtle temptation of all.

In other words, there are a great many people are told today, and a great many Christians, I'm of the opinion, I'm speaking to a great many Christians like this right now. Yes, you go ahead and be a Christian, but remember that your children are being brought up in the world in Egypt, and you want to prepare them for Egypt, so that today we have a great conflict in the average Christian home. I've seen this again and again.

There is this matter of the child being brought up under an educational system that's absolutely contrary to Christianity, and he's told, well, he must get along in the world, and that the child of God's in the world, and that the child of God, since he's to be in the world, he's to get in the world and make all the money he can, and get involved in the world. Friends, I've been a pastor a long time, over 30 years. I haven't learned very much, but I've learned a few things.

And I have seen again, and again, and again, a godly father and mother, and yet they want everything for their children. They say, we want them to have the best education. We want them to get up in the world.

We want them to succeed. We want them to be successful. We want them to get rich.

And believe me, one after another has fallen. One after another's departed from the Lord. This is the most subtle temptation that comes today to Christian parents.

And I personally think that's the problem right now in the Christian home, where we've got young people in rebellion. What did you expect, my friend, when you sent them to these worldly institutions, and he came home one day, a hippie or something even worse, and you say, my, how could he do that brought up in a Christian home? He did that because actually he wasn't brought up in a Christian home. The parents are lovely Christian people, but they didn't train really the children in the Christian values and in Christian things.

They were so anxious and ambitious for them to get on in the world, and they've lost them all how they have been lost today. This is the most subtle temptation of it all. And I spent time with it because I think it's rather important.

I think it's really important.