Exodus chapter 7 please. I don't think it would be a stretch
to say that understanding the New Testament in any depth at
all requires an awareness and an understanding of the things
of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is what is
preached in the New Testament. Several times the Lord said,
this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Mark, Luke, John,
and James all used that same terminology in their writings.
And the scriptures were fulfilled, that the scripture may be fulfilled.
The scripture must needs have been fulfilled. Speaking of the
things of the Old Testament and what they taught, Very important
for us to understand the Old Testament. And that's why I've
enjoyed so much our studies thus far in Genesis and in Exodus.
Speaking of the Old Testament scriptures, our Lord said, they
are they which testify of me. He said, had you believed Moses,
you would have believed me for Moses wrote of me. Exodus. is about the Lord Jesus Christ,
the same as Genesis. In all the scriptures, in the
Psalms and in the prophets, they're all concerning me, he said. All
things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses,
that includes Exodus, and in the prophets and in the Psalms
concerning me, Luke 24, 44. Paul said this, he said, for
whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our
learning. that we, through patience and
comfort of the scriptures, might have life. I find great comfort
in these things that we're studying. The sovereign election of God,
as we said in the beginning of our study of Exodus, was the
primary teaching found in the book of Genesis. And in the book
of Exodus, we find the beautiful story of redemption, deliverance,
and entrance into the land of promise. Exodus pictures and
typifies how the elect people of God are delivered from the
heavy bondage of sin. And this cursed world of sin
and wickedness, pictured by Egypt. Egypt is a good picture of this
world. It's ruled by the wicked King
Pharaoh who pictures and typifies Satan, the prince of this world.
And Exodus pictures how the Lord of glory came and delivered his
people with a powerful hand. The deliverance of Israel out
of Egypt shows us how chosen sinners who are bound in slavery
and held captive by a strong man receive their freedom in
Christ. And that's what the child of
God loves to hear. Tell me again that old, old story
of Jesus Christ and his glory, how he delivered sinners from
their sin. That's the good news. And in
this book of deliverance, we learn something about also the
hardness of man's heart. Whether we're talking about Pharaoh
or we're talking about the people of Israel. All our hearts are
hard by nature. These plagues that God sent and
poured out on Egypt revealed to us the absolute impossibility
of the old man of sin willingly being brought in submission to
God. And to those whom God loves and
chose, he's gonna break their obstinate will. and he's going
to make them submit to him. That was the case with me, and
that's the case with you, all who trust in Christ. We went about our own way, but
God revealed himself to us and made us love his way. And I'm
so thankful. And yet to those who do not bow
to Christ, God condemns and hardens them further, and he does so
by just simply leaving them alone to do what they in their heart
desire to do. And that's why often the men
here pray, Lord, don't leave me to myself. Don't let me have
my way. I don't want the Lord to leave
me to my own will. I certainly don't. Now the plagues
upon Egypt show us the extremes that God will go to in order
to save his people. And you and I cannot deliver
our own souls as Israel could not deliver themselves. It takes
the divine intervention of God on the believer's behalf. The
purpose of these plagues were numerous and diverse. They served
many purposes, but the ultimate purpose was the deliverance of
God's chosen nation. And what a view God gives us
of our redemption in Christ. First, these plagues of God gave
us a public manifestation of the mighty power that God has,
and he did so for all the world to see. The word of God tells
us in Exodus chapter nine and in Romans chapter nine that God
raised both Egypt and Pharaoh up that he might show his power
in them and that his name might be declared throughout all the
earth. And even Pharaoh's counselors
and magicians in the next chapter, as we'll see, confessed concerning
these plagues. They said, this is the finger
of God God displayed it so that even those who didn't believe
in him realized that this had to be God that did these things.
This is the finger of God, Exodus 8, 19. Second, these plagues
were a divine visitation of wrath and punishment upon Pharaoh and
the Egyptians for their cruel treatment of the Hebrews. And
though Pharaoh soon recanted, He admitted this in Exodus chapter
10 verse 16. The scripture says that he called
for Moses and Aaron in haste, and he said, I have sinned against
the Lord your God and against you. Oh, this was the wrath and
punishment of God upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Third, the
plagues were a judgment from God upon the so-called gods of
Egypt. As I hope we will see that in
these plagues, God is going to slay all the so-called deities
of Egypt. They had a lot of gods. And he
begins in this first plague with the first and most prominent
deity, the River Nile. That's what we'll look at tonight.
Fourth, these plagues demonstrate that Jehovah was high above all
false gods. Of course he is. He's the only
true and living God. When Jethro, the priest of Midian,
who was Moses' father-in-law, heard all that God did for Moses
and for Israel, the Lord's people, he said this, he said, blessed
be the Lord who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who had delivered the people
from under the hand of the Egyptians. He said, now I know that the
Lord is greater than all gods, for in the thing wherein they
dealt proudly, he was above them. God is the only true and living
God. There is no God beside him. And
the fifth thing, the plagues here were a solemn warning to
all other nations. that God would curse those who
cursed the Israelites. That was a promise that he made
to Abraham long before. Do you remember what Rahab said
in the book of Joshua? She told the spies, she said,
I know that the Lord hath given you the land and that your terror
is fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land faint
because of you. We've heard, we've heard. For
we've heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for
you when you came out of Egypt. And the lesson here is really
plain and simple. Don't mess with God. Don't mess
with God's people. God doesn't play the games that
people play. So with this in mind, let's read
a few verses here in Exodus chapter seven. After the miracle of Aaron's
rod, which swallowed up the serpents of Pharaoh's magicians, we saw
last time, the word of God says in verse 13, and he, God, hardened
Pharaoh's heart. that he hearkened not unto them
as the Lord had said. I believe there's 19 references
to the Lord hardening Pharaoh's heart in the book of Exodus alone. I may be wrong on that, but I
think that's correct. Verse 14, and the Lord said unto
Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened and he refuses to let the people
go. Get thee unto Pharaoh in the
morning. Lo, he goeth out into the water.
And thou shalt stand by the river's brink against he come. And the rod which was turned
to a serpent shall thou take in thine hand. And thou shalt
say unto him, the Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto
you saying, let my people go. that they may serve me in the
wilderness, and behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear. And thus saith the Lord, in this
thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will smite with
the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in
the river, and they shall be turned to blood. And the fish
that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink, and
the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
Say unto Aaron, take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon
the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and
upon their ponds. and upon all their pools of water,
that they may become blood and that there may be blood throughout
all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels
of stone. And Moses and Aaron did so as
the Lord commanded. And he lifted up the rod and
he smoked the waters that were in the river. in the sight of
Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants, and all the waters
that were in the river were turned to blood. And the fish that were
in the river died, and the river stank, and the Egyptians could
not drink of the water of the river, and there was blood throughout
all the land of Egypt. And the magicians of Egypt did
so with their enchantments. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened,
neither did he hearken unto them as the Lord had said. And Pharaoh
turned and went into his house, and neither did he set his heart
to do this also. And all the Egyptians digged
around about the river for water to drink, for they could not
drink of the water of the river. And seven days were fulfilled.
After that, the Lord had smitten the river. What a story. It's true. It's a true story. As I alluded to earlier, Egypt
worshipped the Nile River. The ancient historians declare
that Egypt believed and claimed that all their other gods were
born on the banks of the Nile River. There are several stories
that you can read concerning their other gods in this subject. That should have been a clue
to them that their gods weren't real. Gods aren't born. Egypt considered the Nile River
to be the source of all life. They gave all the credit and
glory for their prosperity to the River Nile. They gave no
credit to God, who by and through Joseph sustained them 400 years
earlier in that severe time of famine. Their God was the river. It was water to drink. It was
water to wash. It provided for the rich soil,
for the growing of their food. But it was a river of God's providing. And I was thinking about that.
They should have worshipped the God who gave the river, who created
the river. And man, by nature, is just so
prone to do just that. They worship the gifts of God. instead of the God who gave them.
God is going to expose and bring to naught all that men exalt
above Him. You think about that. That's
why all God's people are admonished in the New Testament to cast
down imaginations. That word imaginations means
carnal reasonings against God, His providence and His purpose.
and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God." Paul said, cast them out, cast them down. Bring into
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Christ is
salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. To
believe that in anything or anyone else salvation is found is disobedience
to the word of God and not to the obedience of Christ. And
God tells Moses and Aaron in verse 15, he says, get thee down
into Pharaoh in the morning. And lo, he goeth down to the
water. God appoints the time of all
things, doesn't he? He didn't tell them to go after
they finished breakfast and he didn't tell them to go when they
felt like it. He said, get thee to Pharaoh
in the morning when he goes down to the water. Now obviously,
this is something that Pharaoh did every day. There are a couple,
three references to him doing so in the Book of Exodus. I read
several of the old historians as to why Pharaoh went down to
the river early in the morning. And there are several reasons
given as to why. One old Jewish rabbi said it
was to relieve himself. I found that humorous, yet reasonable. You see, one Jewish historian
said it was for that reason. Pharaoh made himself out to be
God, who had no such need. Therefore, he woke early and
he went out to the river's edge to accomplish his needs secretly. One who claims to have a divine
status goes to great lengths to hide his humanity. And the
other explanations by the historians varied from Pharaoh's desire
to escape the heat and refresh him, bathe himself in the cool
waters, all the way down to he was just kept an eye on observing
how the river had risen and several other reasons, explanations given. But I'm convinced, as many of
the commentators and all who I had any confidence in, that
the real reason Pharaoh went down to the river's bank every
morning was to worship, to worship the Nile River. He was practicing
idolatry. He was giving reverence to the
water. And this is what every lost man
and woman does when they don't worship God. Folks say, well,
I'm not into idolatry. It's what every man and woman
does who doesn't worship God. They practice idolatry. Anything
and everything that we put before the worship of God is idolatry. And you can make anything an
object of idolatry, anything. Pharaoh went down to the water
to worship and to practice his devotions of idolatry. And it was on this morning, this
morning, the appointed time of God, that God put his man in
the way. That's what God does when he
has a message for someone. He sends a true servant. to stand in their way. That's
just God's ordained means. God's going to cross, as we say
all the time, the believer's path with the preaching of the
gospel. So God said, get thee unto Pharaoh
in the morning, lo, he goeth out to the water, and thou shalt
stand by the river's brink, against he come. And that's what that
means, stand between him and his God. The true servant of
God's not gonna step aside when it comes to the message of God.
He is by the commandment of God going to stand in the way and
deliver God's message. And God tells Moses to take the
rod, picturing the word and the gospel of God. We saw that, I
think, very clearly last time. That rod which was turned to
a serpent in your hand, and he said, you deliver my message.
What was the message? Look at verse 16 again. The Lord
God of the Hebrews has sent me unto thee saying, let my people
go, that they may serve me in the wilderness and behold hitherto
thou wouldest not hear. So again, we reiterate that our
message is a message of deliverance. It's a message of redemption. Our message is also a warning
to those who will not hear and bow to it. The first plague here
represents how God is going to destroy the things in this life
that men and women worship and attribute to giving them life.
And this is pictured here, I believe, so beautifully in the turning
of the river's water into blood. And what a solemn warning to
Pharaoh in Egypt. Now, oftentimes blood in the
scripture refers to death. The wages of sin is death. And
anything that we put before Christ is a false refuge and it's death. The Lord said in verse 17, he
said, in this, Thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Behold, I
will smite with the rod that is in my hand upon the waters
which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood." In
other words, what you think to be your salvation, and they attributed
their life to the river. He said, I'll turn it into death.
The very source of their religion and their reason for life is
what God smote here. Did you notice also that it was
God that said, I was smite with the rod that's in my hand. Verse
19 says that Aaron took the rod, but whenever the true servant
of God does the Lord's bidding, it's God that does it. There's
a lesson there. God said, smite the river with
the rod. Now the Hebrew word for smite
here means to kill, means to slaughter, it means to destroy.
God destroys the source of what men and women thinks gives them
life. Follow me? Verse 18, and the
fish in the river shall die. and the river shall stink, and
the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the now."
Oh, I'm telling you, when God saves a sinner, every false refuge
will die. Every false truth will stink.
I got to thinking about the saved sinner who once loved to drink
from the waters of their own doing. Now they loathe. They
loathe the drink from the false fountains of life. One time I
took great pride in my decision and my will and my work for God. Not anymore. Not anymore. It stinks. It absolutely stinks. The word loathe here means to
tire, to be weary of, to grieve and to faint. Egypt grieved. They loathed over the bloody
river. Israel rejoiced at it. It was
just one of the things that God would do to deliver them from
their bondage. And it pictured the deliverance
of the sin atoning blood of Christ. And we'll talk more about that
in a moment. In verse 19, we read, and the
Lord told Moses, and Moses told Aaron to take the rod and stretch
out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt. upon their streams,
upon the rivers, upon their ponds and upon all their pools of water,
that they may become blood and that there may be blood throughout
all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels
of stone. Let me say again, God will destroy
and cause all the vessels of water found in Egypt in this
world All the things that men and women take refuge in, other
than Christ and Him crucified, will become drinks of death.
The streams turn to blood. The river turn to blood. The
ponds and the small lakes turn to blood. If there was just a
little puddle of water, like we often see after rain, it turned
to blood. If they had previously poured
water into a wood basin or a pitcher of stone, it was also turned
to blood. Can you imagine? And in the end,
friends, all are going to see that there's only one river,
that there's only one fountain that flows forth with the waters
of life. And that's Christ. Christ is
the fountain. Christ is the river. All others
are seen to be what they really are, just drinks of death. And God in his work of redemption
begins by taking all that's highly esteemed among men and women
and revealing it for what it really is. It's a putrid, stinking
mess. The child of God knows that when
God smites and strikes the waters of idolatry, everything in the
water dies and is dead and is stinking and is corrupt. Everything. Everything. The saved child of
God won't drink it. They won't have anything to do
with it. Now try to imagine this in your
own mind. People of Egypt would go to the
vessels that they had just filled minutes ago with water, and they'd
be full of blood. All the refuge of lies God will
one day expose and destroy. All the things that men trust
to give them life are smitten, struck, killed, and slaughtered. And some will never see this
until it's too late. But there are others whom God
in mercy reveals the true means of salvation, and by His grace,
through His faith, they believe. Aren't you glad that God has
mercy on some? In verse 20, that God smote the
waters that were in the river, it says, in the sight of Pharaoh
and in the sight of his servants, meaning the servants of Pharaoh
who attended him. Brothers and sisters, one day
soon, every man and woman and sinner that has ever lived is
going to clearly see that everything else but salvation and redemption
in the Lord Jesus Christ, our substitute, is nothing but a
stinking mess. And that's what God is showing
us in this first plague, but that's not all. That's not all
it's showing us. Look again at verse 22. And the
magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments. And Pharaoh's
heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them as the Lord
had said. And again here, the magicians
of Pharaoh, like they did when Aaron threw down his rod, And
it turned into serpents. They threw down theirs, and it
turned into serpents. But we know, and we saw the sovereignty
and power of God in that. That Aaron's rod, Aaron's serpent
ate the other serpent, showing that God is sovereign and all-powerful. Again, the magicians of Pharaoh,
through illusion, through trickery, it says again with their enchantments,
they endeavored to equal the miracle of God. Now, where they
got the water, I don't know. We're not told. Probably, as
verse 24 tells us, by digging about close to the river's edge.
But I picture them here. And you've got to remember, they're
out there looking at the river. It's flowing with blood. And men have tried to excuse
that all kinds of ways. But God's word's true. I picture them here with a small
cup or a vial of water, and by some juggling trick, some act
of deception, they deceived those that saw them into believing
that they made water into blood. The real test of their power
would have been for them to turn the Nile River back into water.
But there is no way their trickery could pull that off. Just deception. What a picture again we have
of modern day religion. In the scriptures, water has
to do with cleansing and washing and revealing and regeneration.
And in the scriptures, blood has to do with the sin atoning
sacrifice and death of the Lord Jesus for his people. false religion
attempts to substitute the water for the blood. They endeavor
and attempt to make the washing, cleansing, and regeneration of
sinners by the work of their own hands, to be by the sin and
atoning sacrifice of Christ. They say, oh, I believe the salvations
of the Lord, but I believe that you have to make a decision.
I believe that you have to submit. You've got to allow God to save
you. It's just counterfeit. There's nothing to it. It's just
deception and it's illusion. They talk about and trust in
man's will, work, and way. They attribute their salvation
to something that they have done, something they have earned, something
they have merited. They attempt to make salvation
by their will and by their work. I'm telling you, and I know you
know it, but no one is ever going to win God's favor with their
work or their willingness. It's impossible. It's accomplished
only by the work of God. Salvation is in the blood, in
the blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Religion endeavors to substitute
the work and the will of man, saying that these are the things
that give us favor with God, and these are the things that
bring eternal life to us, but that's just not so. It's trickery. It's deception. But it's the blood of God's Son
that does. Now I know that we're washed,
the scripture says, by the washing of regeneration, but it's by
the renewing of the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of God applying
the blood of Christ to cleanse us. It's the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, that cleanses us from all sin, 1 John 1.7. Egypt substituted
their idolatrous, self-righteous ways as their means of eternal
life. But God turned it all to death. All to death. Religion does the
same thing. And God's going to reveal in the
end that men's works are works of iniquity. Isn't that what
our Lord said to those who boasted of all that they had done for
God? Our Lord said, depart from me,
ye that work iniquity. Man's self-efforts are works
of iniquity, and God won't accept them. Depart from me. I never
knew you. Thank God that the child of God
is made to see these things. Salvation is God's doing, and
I'm so glad that's the case. It's God who accomplishes our
washing, our cleansing, our regeneration, and our salvation by the blood
atoning work of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the religious
worship of the waters of Egypt are obnoxious to the people of
God. And God just makes them disdain.
I heard Brother Darwin say not long ago in a message that he
hates to even go to funerals anymore. And I know what he means. Because most of the time, they
give all the glory to the man and none to God. God's people
won't drink it. Won't drink it. It stinks and
it smells bad. And it dishonors our great God.
It makes them sick. It makes me sick to hear things
that God wants to and God's trying to and won't you let God? Oh,
it just makes me sick. God's people don't want any part
of it. It's only in the blood of Christ that we rejoice. There's
power. Power, wonder-working power,
the hymn writer said, in the blood of the Lamb. God's people
aren't going to have this world's religion. And sadly, this world's
religion won't have Christ. And I believe we see a great
picture of that here. I had a man tell me one time,
he said, well, we're all going to the same place. We're just
taking different routes. There's only one way. There is no different route.
Oh, there's a broad way that leads to destruction, and there's
a narrow way that leads to life, but they're not going to the
same place. There's only one gospel truth, just one. There's
only one life, and that's eternal life. That's everlasting life. That's the only life that matters
in the end. Oh, we're just passing through.
This life's like a vapor. In eternity, this life won't
mean much other than it's where God revealed Christ to us. Only
one way, one gospel, one life. Jesus Christ is the way, the
truth, and the life. Oh, we quote that scripture often,
but isn't it true? He's the only way, the only truth,
the only life. And no man, no woman, no sinner,
nobody cometh to the Father but by Him. Oh, that God might enable
us to trust in Him. That's my prayer. Lord, don't
leave me to myself. Enable me to continue trusting
in Christ.