Brethren, let's go back now to
Exodus 8. Now, we've been dealing with
the subject of Christ in the plagues. This is part 2. And
we saw that God started pouring judgment out upon Pharaoh and
upon Egypt. We're seeing these three things.
We're seeing the judgment of God upon those who will not believe
on Christ. We're seeing the judgment Christ
bore for His people and we're seeing the effects of that judgment
upon the unbeliever as well as the effects of Christ's blood
upon those who do believe. Now, we saw the judgment of the
water turned to blood. That's the judgment of death.
We saw the judgment of God leaving a man to himself, to the corruption
of his own heart, represented in the frogs. We saw the judgment
of being left under the curse and wrath of God in the dust,
the lice that were made from the dust, the curse being in
the dust. Now, fourthly, the next several
plagues that we're going to look at, I think through the ninth
one here, from the fourth to the ninth one, these show the
fierceness of God's wrath. upon an unbeliever which consumes
and plagues the sinner's body and destroys all his works and
makes him so he produces no good fruit and at last casts him into
outer darkness. Now, the fourth plague was flies. Go with me to Exodus 8 and look
at verse 24. He said there, The Lord had told him there would
come flies when he lifted up his hand. And it says, And the
Lord did so, and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house
of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses, and into all the land
of Egypt. And the land was corrupted by
reason of the swarm of flies. It says in Psalm 78, 45 that
when He sent these different sorts of flies, He devoured them. He devoured them. And then number
5 is the disease where He killed the cattle, Exodus 9 and verse
3. It says, Behold, the hand of
the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field. His hands upon
the cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses,
upon the camels, upon the oxen, upon the sheep, there should
be a very grievous moraine, and that means disease. And verse
6 says at the end there, of the cattle, I'm sorry, it says there
at the beginning, the Lord did the thing on the morrow and all
the cattle of Egypt died. All the cattle of Egypt died.
You see, sin destroys everything about us. It consumes us, it
consumes all our produce, everything we have. Go to Exodus 9 and verse
10. This is the disease upon the
people. Look, they took ashes. Verse 10, ìThey took ashes of
the furnace and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses sprinkled
it up toward heaven, and it became a boil, breaking forth with flames
upon man and upon beast.î Look at verse 14. God said, ìI will
at this time send all My plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy
servants, and upon thy people, that thou mayest know that there
is none like Me in all the earth. For now I will stretch out My
hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence. and
thou shalt be cut off from the earth. And in very deed for this
cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power,
and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. You know, we see a disease suddenly
plague men in this nation and we try to come down to what caused
it. Well, the first cause is God.
The first cause is God. And look here now in 7th, the
thunder and the hail that killed their crops. Look at Exodus 9.23. Moses stretched forth his rod
toward heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail. Look at verse
25. And the hail smote throughout
all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and
beast. And the hail smote every herb
of the field and broke every tree of the field. See, all the
fruit that a man produces, God is going to destroy it. It won't
stand up before God. Then 8, He sent locusts and He
consumed the rest of their crops. Exodus 10-12, He talks there
about sending the locusts. And He says, He's going to bring
locusts that they may come up upon the land of Egypt and eat
every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.
Verse 15, It says at the end there, there remain not any green
thing in the trees or in the herbs of the field throughout
all the land of Egypt. And then ninth, we see darkness. Look here at Exodus 10.21. Exodus 10.21, And the Lord said
unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there
may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which
may be felt. Verse 22 says, At the end it
says, And there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three
days. You see, when God leaves you in darkness, when God leaves
you to yourself and He leaves you in total spiritual darkness,
you're going to feel it. You're going to feel it. You
may not know the cause of it, but you're going to feel it.
That's what we see here. All these plagues represent the
effects of the wrath of God poured out upon those who are without
Christ. Go to Psalm 78 with me. Psalm 78 and let's look at verse
49. Psalm 78, 49. Look at this. It's talking here about our text
and about what God did. and pouring out those plagues. And it says here now, ultimately
this is what He was doing. He cast upon them the fierceness
of His anger, wrath, and indignation and trouble by sending evil angels
among them. He made a way to His anger. He
spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the
pestilence. Go to Isaiah 24. A few pages
to your right. Isaiah 24. Look at verse 1. Behold, the Lord maketh the earth
empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth
abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be as with the people,
so with the priest, as with the servant, so with his master,
as with the maid, so with her mistress, as with the buyer,
so with the seller, as with the lender, so with the borrower,
as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
The land shall be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled, for the
Lord has spoken this word. The earth mourneth and fadeth
away. The world languisheth and fadeth
away. The haughty people of the earth
do languish. proud people, the haughty people. The earth also
is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed
the laws, changed the ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell
therein are desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of
the earth are burned and few men left. Under the curse in
this life right now, In this life right now, under the curse,
the flesh of all God-haters only produces dead works and disease
and at last, death. That's all that is produced by
the flesh. Mine and yours. If we have left
ourselves and our flesh, that's all we produce. And then the
reason is, right now, all men outside of Christ are in spiritual
darkness. All these things we see portrayed
in these plagues is the fruitlessness. No fruit. Only death. And God's
brought it upon men. You just look at our nation and
you see it. Scott just read that Scripture and spoke about making
a man an offender for a word. That began in churches. Self-righteous
men preaching law and changing the laws and bringing them down
to men's level so that men could pretend to keep them and then
charging men guilty for every little thing. And then it permeates
into society. You see it now. In politics,
they can't say a word without somebody being offended and somebody
being accused. There's no mercy, there's no
forgiveness, there's no long-suffering and patience, none of that. It's
an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That's the result
of self-righteous, free-will, legal preaching is what that's
the result of. the destruction of a society.
And when God leaves us to ourselves, Isaiah said, from the sole of
the foot even to the head, there's no soundness in it but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores. They've not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. That's us in our flesh
in this world. A man without Christ who hasn't
been created anew inwardly by God, that's all he is. That's
God's Word. There's none righteous, no not
one. You say, well, I see man that's done some really good
works. Yeah, but outside of Christ, those works are corrupted by
sin. There are no good works outside
of Christ. Not any. Not any. If it's not produced
by God, God says it's not a good work. So you and I need Christ. We need Christ greatly because
we cannot produce anything but death and corruption. And God's
wrath upon a man will see to it that God's going to destroy
the land. He's going to destroy each man individually and the
land. That's why you see the world corrupted like it is now. And then after physical death,
you know what happens after physical death? That's not the end of
God's judgment. After physical death, men come into the great
judgment of God and then God casts all unbelievers into outer
darkness. Scripture says where there should
be wailing and gnashing of teeth, and they suffer for eternity
in hell. That's serious business, isn't
it? I know that this is not a subject that we preach often or enjoy
hearing about, but you know Christ spoke about hell more than any
other subject. He spoke about judgment and hell
more than any other subject. This is for real. Unbeliever,
there's one refuge, there's one place where God will spare sinners. One place. That's in Christ. Believing on Christ. One place. You see, Christ has already borne
the fierce fury of God's wrath. He's borne that for His people.
He's borne that for His people. You look to the cross, you see
the agony Christ bore on the cross. He did that for His people.
Christ bore destruction. God said there in one of those
plagues, He destroyed them. God bore destruction. Christ
bore destruction in His body on the tree. His visage was marred
more than any other man. His body, marred. And He did that that our bodies
shall never be marred. Those He died for will never
be destroyed. He won't suffer us to see corruption. And then
He carried the griefs and He bore the sorrows of the sin of
His people, just like God poured out that judgment of disease.
Christ bore, He carried our griefs and bore the sorrows of the sin
of His people. He knew all the effects of sin,
yet He was without sin Himself. He did not sin Himself, but He
was touched with all the feeling of our infirmities. and more
so on the cross than any place else. But He did that that He
might heal us forever. This is what He does for His
people. Thick darkness covered Him, not just for three days,
but for three hours on the cross in that severe pain and agony.
He paid an eternity of hell for His people in total, complete
darkness. He suffered the outer darkness
so His people will never have to suffer it. And we will always
have the everlasting light of Christ because He suffered. Why did He do that? Justice has
got to be satisfied. Say you commit a crime in our
country. You commit a crime, you go before
a judge and the judge is going to say, I am going to have mercy
on you. We are just going to not charge
you with this crime. We are going to have mercy on
you and we are going to let you go with a warning. When He does
that, that law that you were guilty of has been totally dishonored
because it wasn't upheld. But then if you come before Him
and He upholds that law and He sentences you to the worst sentence
you could have, He's honored the law. But He showed you no
mercy. You see, the purpose for which
Christ came was Christ went to the cross and bore the judgment
that His people deserve so that God honored His law because the
wages of sin is death and Christ died in the room instead of His
people. And at the same time, God shows mercy, saving and justifying
those for whom Christ died. So mercy and truth have met together
and kissed those in Christ. That's the only place this could
be. And so, we see in the children of Israel, when we look here
at this picture, we see the protection and the provision that God gives
to His people. Go back to Exodus 8.22. When He spoke about sending the
flies, God said this, I will sever, I will, God said I will,
I will sever in that day the land of Goshen. Exodus 8.22,
let me make sure I will sever in that day the
land of Goshen. That's where Israel was. That's
where His people were. I'll sever that Goshen in which
My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there. To the
end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the
earth. And I will put a division between My people and thy people. Unto Mars shall this sign be.
You see, God puts a difference between all His elect and the
rest of this world. Nothing came upon His people.
Look at Exodus 9, verse 4. The Lord shall sever between
the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt, and there shall
nothing die of all that is the children of Israel. You see,
this is the result of Christ's blood shed for His people. Exodus
9 and verse 26 says, when the hell fell on Egypt, Exodus 9
verse 26, it says, only in the land of Goshen, where the children
of Israel were, was there no hell. Not any. Look at Exodus
10 verse 23. When thick darkness came, Exodus
23 says, they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place
for three days, but all the children of Israel had light in their
dwellings. See, believer, Christ bore the fury of God's wrath
for us. And so God now says to His people,
He says this in Isaiah 54, 17, No weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper. No weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper. And every tongue that shall rise
against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me,
saith the Lord. That's Isaiah 54, 17. That's
God saving His people. You see, God does distinguish
between people. Was it fair for God to do that?
Yes, it's fair for God to do that. God can do with His own
what He will, and we're all sinners. So God distinguishes. He decides
who He will save and who He will not save. And He puts a difference. And because He satisfied His
justice for that people, and because He justified that people,
He severs that people so that no harm is going to come to them.
Now you and I suffer some in this life, but I'm telling you,
brethren, we're just suffering in the body. In the flesh. In the flesh that's dust and
going back to the dust. That's the only place we're suffering.
That's not hurting us at all. The real us is the new man born
of God. We're being bettered in the new
man. We're being profited in the new man. Whatever we suffer,
it's not hurting us in the least bit. God puts a difference between
His people and the world. Now let's go to this tenth plague.
This is the last plague now. God smote all the first born
in Egypt. Look here in Exodus 11.5. The Lord said He would go out
in Egypt at midnight, and He said, And all the firstborn in
the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh
that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the
maidservant that is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of
beasts. Look at verse 7. but against
any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue,
against man or beast, that you may know how that the Lord doth
put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel." Now, what
was going on when He smote their firstborn? What was He doing?
Well, the psalmist tells us in Psalm 78, 51, it says, He smote
all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength. You
see, the firstborn son, He's the one who carries on the Father's
name. And He's the one who's the head
of the Father's house so that He provides for all in the house. And He carries that name forward. Well, Exodus began, you know,
we saw the children of Israel so fruitful. They were very fruitful. God had delivered them and they
were fruitful. You know, in the garden, when
God made Adam, we were fruitful. But right after that, Pharaoh
began trying to destroy the name of God by destroying the name
of Israel out of the earth. He did this by throwing all the
firstborn sons and all the male children in the river and saving
the females. Because if he did that long enough,
the name of Israel would die out. The females would marry
Egyptians and there would just be Egyptians left. And Pharaoh's
name would be magnified and honored and all of this. That's what
the devil has been trying to do ever since the garden. That's
why he entered the garden and beguiled Eve who then took of
the fruit which led to Adam doing it and all the world dying. He
has been trying to put out the name of God by destroying God's
people in this earth. That's what He did. He would
exalt His name. He said in Isaiah 14, 13, I will
exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will be like the Most
High. That's His desire. We see that
in Pharaoh in our text. But God said this in Exodus 9,
16. Look here. Exodus 9, 16. He said, In very
deed for this cause have I raised thee up. This is why I raise
thee up, for to show in thee my power, and that my name, my
name, my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Look at Exodus 10 and verse 7.
It says there in the second part
that you may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel. You see, this is what God's doing
in the earth. He's putting a difference between
His people by His grace, by His blood, by His Spirit, by Christ. And it's God's name that we glorify
and we praise for saving us. It's God's name that we glorify. You see, God in all those plagues,
He's decreasing the name of Pharaoh. And that's what he's doing in
this world right now, in all the disease, in the wars, in
the plagues, in all the pestilence, in all the crops that don't die,
and God destroying all the fruits and all that. You know what he's
doing? He's diminishing the devil's name, little by little. And at
the same time, God's increasing His name before His people. He raised up the enemy for that
purpose. God did. He raised up the enemy
to show He is the only power. God is the only power. And He
did it that His name might be declared throughout all the earth.
And for that reason, the psalmist said, I'll praise the Lord according
to His righteousness and I will sing praise to the name of the
Lord Most High. We just sang His praises. We
just sang about His name. We are going to sing about His
name in a minute. We sing of His name. Some trust
in chariots and some in horses. Some people are trusting in earthly
things that they have built. and think God's going to save
them because of that. That's not even salvation. That's you
trying to save yourself. Some trust in chariots and horses,
but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. Trust in
Christ is trust in God's name, because it's in Christ, the firstborn
Son, that His name is carried on. The name of the Lord is a
strong tower. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. The righteous runneth into it and are safe. When a
tornado comes in the Midwest, when they have safe houses or
they have a tornado shelter, you run to that shelter and you
get in it. That's the only place you're going to be safe when
that tornado comes through. I'm telling you, the only place you'll
be safe when God's judgment passes through is in Christ. He's the
strong tower. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. So, from this first plague to the last, we see God decreasing
Pharaoh's name and exalting His name. And the way God exalted
His name, He destroyed the firstborn children in Egypt to decrease
Pharaoh's name. Now that picture is God. God
is going to judge every sinner in this Egypt that we live in
right here. He is going to destroy everyone by His judgment in righteousness
because we didn't have the righteousness God will accept. If you meet
God without Christ, you won't have the righteousness God will
accept, which is Christ alone. And so God will judge you, and
when He does, He is going to destroy the name of the devil.
But the way He magnifies His name and brings honor and glory
to His name is He sends His own firstborn. And He gives His own
firstborn to lay down His life in the room and place of His
people. That's how He exalts His name.
Look at Exodus 12, 21. Anybody ever heard of the Passover?
Well, this is what was pictured in the Passover. God slaying
a lamb in the place of all His firstborn so that when He saw
the blood, He passed over. Look at Exodus 12, 21. Then Moses
called for all the elders of Israel. And He said unto them,
Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and
kill the Passover. And ye shall take a bunch of
hyssop and dip it in the blood that's in the basin, and strike
the lentil and the two side posts with the blood that's in the
basin. That's important to note. The elder applied the blood. The man who was the head of the
family applied the blood to the door post of the house. Now look
what God said. And none of you shall go out
at the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will
pass through to smite the Egyptians. And when he seeth the blood upon
the lintel and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over
the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto
your houses to smite you. You see that? God exalted His
name by judging this world, by casting out the devil, and by
redeeming His people all at the same time in Christ, His firstborn
Son. He did that. He judged the world. He cast out Satan. And He saved
His people all at the same time in the judgment He poured out
on Christ. That's what's pictured here in this Passover. Christ
said, now is the judgment of this world. And now the precepts
of this world should be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up
from the earth, will draw all mine elect unto Me. That's the
three things He accomplished at one time on that cross by
God's firstborn, by the Lamb, by the Passover Lamb dying in
the room instead of His people. And Christ not only did that
work, the reason I pointed out to you that the head of the house
puts the blood on the doorpost, because Christ is the head of
the house. And Christ comes and applies His blood through the
Holy Spirit over the doorposts of our heart, making us believe
on Christ. And God said, when I see the
blood, When I see Christ, my firstborn Son's blood, I'll pass
over you. See, we have that blood on our
heart. Christ applying it, bringing
us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Through faith in Him,
God sees the blood and He passes over. And that's how God magnifies
His name. Now, that's why we don't preach
works. That's why we don't preach ourselves.
You haven't heard me preach anything that you need to do. to work
a work to make God accept you. You haven't heard me preach anything
about a work you need to do to be accepted of God. The only
thing that God commands is that the sinner cast all his hope
and all his care and all his trust into Christ's hand. And
trust Christ to do all the work necessary to save you. You see,
sinners, if you came in here and I told you some things you
ought to do to be saved, you'd do those things. You had no problem
jumping right to it and saying, I'm going to make a resolution
going out of here. I'm going to try to do everything
the preacher said. But one thing you won't do is
believe on Christ. One thing you won't do is nothing
to save yourself but trust Christ to do it. That's why Christ has
to come and apply the blood and make us willing to believe Him.
And I'm telling you now, he that believeth on Him is not condemned,
but he that believeth not is condemned already because he's
not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. My
name and your name is not going to be the ones that are going
to be glorified. We can forget that. I want to do all these
works and leave a great name behind me and a great legacy
behind me. When I get to glory, I just believe
God is going to have mercy on me. Your name is not going to
be exalted in this earth. In a very little time after you
and I die, me and I aren't even going to remember who you were.
And when you meet God, that name is going to be cast out. There
is one name that is going to be glorified, the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the name of God, the
triune God. God's pouring out this judgment
right now, turning men over to reprobation, to death. That's
what we've seen. He's leaving them to the corruption
of their natural heart, leaving them under the curse of His offended
law, leaving them to the destruction of their sinful flesh, and at
last, sentencing them to eternal death. That's what we saw in
the plagues. And this is all the sinner's fault, because he
would not bow and believe on Christ. If I perish, It's my
own fault. Scripture says the wages. What's
a wage? A wage is something you earn.
You earn a wage. You go to work, you work for
a wage, you're working to earn that wage. The wages of sin is
death. It's death. If a man perishes,
he earned it. But the gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus. That's His gift. Freely given.
Freely given. You know, the sad thing is, throughout
life, most sinners enjoy it to be the way it is. They enjoy
that judgment cast down on them. Because they are corrupted and
their vision and their understanding is corrupted. Listen to this,
the Lord said, the prophets prophesy falsely, the preachers preach
falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means. Preachers
today use every means that they can come up with. And they talk
to one another to figure out new creative means they can use
to get people in the pews and get their money in the bucket
and make the church bigger. And they preach a lie to do it.
But listen to this, and my people love to have it so. Sinners love
that. They love it. where God's people
are gathered, you see usually a very small remnant. And then
you pass by these big mega places to get there. Because the world
loves to be told a lie and to be told something they should
do. God's people love to be told what Christ has done for us.
We glory in His name. So on the other hand, even though
He's not going to pour out wrath He's pouring out wrath on the
unbeliever, but on the other hand, the Lord has poured all
these judgments on Christ, and so therefore, all these positive
effects we saw, that's what the believer has. So, here's the
difference, brethren. You know, the Scripture declares
this. Men, by their works, are trying to make a difference between
themselves and other men. That's what you do. That's what
I do. That's the motivation of the flesh. That's why we seek
a good job. That's why we seek a bigger house. That's why we seek a nicer vehicle.
That's why we seek better clothes. That's why we seek those things.
The flesh wants to differentiate himself from the other man. But
in spiritual things, God's the only one that puts a difference
between His people. We don't put a difference between us and
anybody else. God alone does it. And in all this He did, pouring
out judgment on the unbeliever and saving the believer, He showed
He's the one who made the difference. Scripture says, "...who maketh
thee to differ from another, and what hast thou that thou
didst not receive?" So if you received it, don't dare glory
as if you didn't receive it. Everything we have as believers,
Christ gave it. He gave it to us. It's a free
gift of God. Every bit of it. So let me end
by asking you this. Which camp are you going to be
found in? Are you going to be found in Goshen, amongst God's
Israel, where there's nothing but good things and light given,
and rejoicing in Christ, having all that Christ is given to us
freely? Or will you be found out there
in Egypt where all this grievous judgment will be poured out and
you have no mediator between you and God, no covering between
you and God and you have to bear it all? You see the difference
is being in the ark with Noah so that the ark bears all the
judgment and you don't get touched by a drop of rain water. Or will
you be outside of the ark where the flood comes and destroys
everybody? Because you had no ark to bear
it for you. Which one will you be in? Well, how do I get in
Christ? Believe on Him. Isn't that simple? You just believe on Him. You
just trust in a confident resolve that I trust Christ to save me. He alone is going to have to
make me righteous, and make me holy, and redeem me from the
curse, and make me fruitful, give me life, and preserve me,
and bring me home. He's going to have to do it all
by His wisdom. Because none of those things
I can produce. That's coming to Christ. Believing on Christ.
Casting your care on Christ. Trusting Christ. Trusting the
person. The Lord Jesus Christ, God in human flesh. It seems like everybody would
do that, doesn't it? We're so self-righteous because of the
corruption of sin that we can't let go of something we've done. We can't let go of it. We can't
empty our hands and just come to Christ. We can't do it. I
pray God now come into your heart and give you a new heart and
make you lay hold of Christ. See, if I have something in my
hand I can't pick this water up. It's going to be hard to
pick that water up. If I don't have anything in my hand, I can
lay hold of it. And I pray God, I empty your
hand and make you lay hold of Christ. It's the only way you
can. Alright.