I please God to bless us together
this evening as we consider his word. Let us turn to the book
of Exodus, chapter eight, and we'll read verse 19. The book of Exodus, chapter eight,
and reading verse 19. Then the magicians said unto
Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. Pharaoh's heart was hardened
and he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said. It is so clear that man left
to himself is a hardened wretch with no desire to turn to the
Lord and no desire to worship the Lord and no desire to submit
themselves to the great God. And the account that we have
in Exodus when Israel were in Egypt and about to be released
from those 400 years of bondage. You see how God graciously brought
Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh to show the power of God demonstrated
in those plagues which came upon Egypt and yet we see there Pharaoh
was very there and able to observe all those things which were happening
and all those things wherein the Lord appeared graciously
to relieve them of those plagues which had come upon them but
yet their hearts were hardened. And indeed if we move on to that
time when the Lord ordained that all the firstborn in Egypt should
be slain, that only had a temporary effect upon Pharaoh. Because
when he realised what he'd done to let the children of Israel
go, he took his chariot with all his men and chased after
them. But we see how The Lord then
dealt that final blow upon him and all his army as they were
destroyed in the Red Sea. Now the great truth is that the
God that dealt with Egypt and Pharaoh in those days is the
same God that you and I have to deal with today. And it is
very significant that in this account in exodus of these plagues
that the magicians were able to some extent to mystify Pharaoh
and those around him by mimicking those miracles which had occurred. And you would think that Pharaoh
would have realized how foolish he was because right from the
very beginning when Aaron came and threw his rod on the ground
and the other magicians that did so and they all became serpents
and then Aaron's rod gobbled up all the other serpents or
all the other rods that was surely a very clear evidence that God
was with Aaron and Moses but had no real impression upon Pharaoh
and that's a very solemn condition to ponder as regards our leaders
perhaps but also not to forget ourselves. It's very easy to
exonerate ourselves and to think, well, I don't come into that
condemnation. Well, we need to examine ourselves
very carefully before God to see whether we do truly believe
in the living and true God, and whether we do have faith in that
God, that He is able to do great things. and to have faith to
believe, so that when we come to pray to God, it's not as though
we're just beating the air, but we come to our God believing
he will hear and he will answer our petitions, and that we may
pray in accordance with his will, that those answers may be for
the honour and glory of our God. In this account we see that what
occurred, we come down to this plague of these lice. And apparently
they were everywhere. Of course they went inside your
clothes and in your beds and everywhere. And the magicians
realised that they could not reproduce this miracle. And therefore their response
was a very wonderful response, a very true response, and they
said, this is the finger of God. Of course, this was not the only
occasion when we observed very clearly the work of the finger
of God. In the Word of God, in the world,
in history, and I hope we might be able to say in our own little
lives to be able to trace out the finger
of God's work upon us. It's a very humbling experience,
a very humbling consideration to think that none less than
this great almighty God that did these wonderful miracles
all those years ago is the same God that you and I deal with
today and the same God who still works great things for his people
and to be able to acknowledge in our lives in one thing and
another that it is the finger of God that has been upon us. and it would be a great mercy
if that finger of God has been upon us for good and not for
evil. Well here we see then the magicians
unable to perform that which they no doubt wanted to do with
all their deceit and they had to recognise and they had to
acknowledge and that's the great blessing isn't it? They had to
acknowledge that this is the finger of God It was nothing
less than that. What a mercy it would be today
if our leaders, our national leaders, the leaders of the world
acknowledged that the virus that we have going around today is
the finger of God. It is quite clear. It is the
finger of God. There can be no other explanation
for it. rushing around trying to explain
how it's occurred, why it's occurred, why it's going around. But you
see the reality is that things are God and what a blessing if
we are able to acknowledge it and to thank God that our God
lives and our God reigns. And as in these plagues when
Moses and Aaron pleaded with God He took them away as quickly
as they came. You see, our God today can quickly
take away this coronavirus, as quickly as it appears to have
commenced, if it is His will. But of course, we don't know
what the will of the Lord is. It's clear His judgment is upon
the earth at the present time. Without any doubt, a man is pretty
helpless. He's rushing around doing many
things. But we see that there isn't as yet an abatement of
the position. And it brings the nations of
the world to their knees. It brings the nations of the
world to economic destruction. And it proves that in a moment,
or at least in a very short time, God can do that. which man could
not do. And if we try and even compare
it, we think perhaps of what man could do with nuclear forces
and nuclear bombs, but if you just stop for a moment and realize
how this has spread worldwide into remote areas, and generally
speaking, a nuclear situation would not go to such extents,
it may be more devastating in certain areas, but not overall
as this virus has. So we can sometimes stand back
and stand amazed at the power of God in a very simple way,
a very simple way. Nothing complicated, but man
cannot combat it. Well, the man in Moses' day here
could not combat those things which occurred through these
plagues. No, they came. They couldn't
stop them. It was only God that was able
to reverse them. And how merciful he was on so
many occasions in granting this reversal again and again. Pharaoh
promised to let Israel go. And again and again he revoked
his promise. Well, we have to deal today with
the same God that dealt with Pharaoh all those years ago.
And God knows the true state of the world. We don't know,
do we? We only see what is around us, and that's not often very
clear either. But God knows every detail. He
knows what men have planned and what men have anticipated might
occur. And we see how quickly those
plans can be destroyed and how quickly man is brought down with
no ability to change the situation. Well, that's true in a physical
way. And my friends, it's also really
true in a spiritual way. because man continues pleasing
himself he continues disobeying God he continues in his own course well, have we been there? you may say, are we there? and as God perhaps in his sovereign
mercy brings situations into our lives and the tendency is
of course to think well I'll reform myself sometimes when
people are ill perhaps seriously ill they say well if God allows
me to get better I'll change and I'll be a different person
sometimes that is true but very often it's not people go back
to their own ways well it is in that situation like it was
in these days the power of God. We know that God spoke the world
into being. He spoke it into being with all
the details and the Lord God still speaks today and how wonderful
it is if we have the evidence of God speaking to us, speaking
to our hearts and directing us in a right way and not to be
arrogant like Pharaoh was, and totally disobedient, and following
that which is of the flesh. Well, may God enable us to recognise
that when things occur in our lives, perhaps in our personal
lives, perhaps in our families, perhaps in those we know, to
realise that it is the finger of God. that it's not something
which has just come by chance. Men today like to think that
such things come by chance. But my friends, everything is
ordained by Almighty God from the very beginning of creation. It will be right down to the
end of time. Our God reigns as a majestic
glorious God, and everything submits to His all-wise plan. Nothing occurs without the divine
permission of Almighty God. So may we recognise that in our
lives and be able to know the truth that these things are the
finger of God. There are so many occasions,
are there not, in the Word of God where we see the finger of
God, the finger of God in condemnation, the finger of God in granting
wonderful deliverances. You see, it's all of His grace,
it's all of His favour if there are those deliverances brought
about. And if they are brought about
through His grace, what will the result be? The result must
be for the honour and glory of God. In our little lives, if
God brings about things where we're able to say it's the finger
of God which has brought this about, it must be for the honour
and glory of God. It won't be for our natural satisfaction. No, but if the Lord works powerfully,
it will be for His honour and for His glory. We have some wonderful
examples in the Word of God, and there are very, very many,
but just to quote a couple, in the days of Daniel, I'm sure
most are familiar with the occasion of the three Hebrew children,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And they lived in difficult times.
They lived when all the people were commanded to bow down to
false idols. Do you see they would not obey
the laws of the land which were contrary
to the law of God. And you and I are to obey the
laws of the land as long as they are in accordance with the word
of God. But we are not to obey the laws of the land when they
are contrary to the word of God. And sometimes that may result
in a costly position. It was so with those three Hebrew
children but God was with them and it
was demonstrated so clearly that God's finger was upon them because
when they were bold to say they weren't careful how they were
going to answer the king they didn't try and be clever they
answered the king very positively and very clearly that they would
not bow down to the idols and they knew what the result was
they knew they would be cast into that burning fiery furnace
but it didn't stop them doing and saying those things which
were right and God honouring and so it came to pass they were
thrown into the burning fiery furnace and it was heated exceedingly
hot seven times more than normal and the expectation was for them
to be burnt alive immediately and the opposite occurred. What was evident was this, the
finger of God was there with them in that burning fiery furnace. Of course the king as he looked
was so amazed and more so when he saw a fourth person with them. And he said, the fourth is like
unto the Son of God. And he commanded them to be brought
out of the furnace and we read there wasn't even the smell of
burning upon them. What was that? That was the finger
of God. Without any doubt, the power
of God was demonstrated and we should be very thankful when
we have an account like that to encourage us today because
we live in a day when we may come and have to stand up and
be counted and not just duck and dive and try and hide they
didn't try and hide they were bold and stood forth and God
was with them and therefore they observed this great blessing
of the finger of God appearing forth and then of course a couple
of chapters later on We read the account of Daniel himself,
when he didn't obey again the law of the king, but he continued
to proud his God. I think it was three times a
day. And he didn't hide either. He left his windows open so that
people could observe what he was doing. Well, that's what
they wanted to see, of course. They wanted to try and destroy
Daniel because He was a worshipper of the true God. But did they
succeed? No. They came and told the king. The king commanded in accordance
with the laws of the land which could not be broken that he should
be cast into the den of lions. Where normally the case was that
such were killed before they actually reached the bottom of
the pit. But on this occasion God shut
the lion's mouths. The riots got up early in the
morning, he couldn't sleep, he came to the den of lions and
he cried out, is thy God able to deliver me? Well, Daniel was
able to tell him, my God hath shut the lion's mouths. What was that? Without any doubt,
it was the finger of God. Now, let us be quite clear. God
hasn't changed. God hasn't become any less powerful. God is the same today. And He
can reverse things as quickly as they began. But in those situations,
one thing was very clear. There was an acknowledgement
of God working. There was an acknowledgement
of those testifying of their belief in the true God. They didn't just say, well I
hope things are going to improve, I hope things are going to get
better, I hope I won't have to endure. No, they testified of
their faith in God. And if we today are going to
see a change in our the worst situation, I believe there will
be those who would testify of the true God. And it would be
a great blessing if those who oppose the true God are put aflight,
are thrust down, and it would be a great blessing if we witness
a time of favour, a time of, we might say restitution, a time
of blessing. We don't know what the Lord's
plans are, we don't know what his purposes are, but we are
to seek that the Lord will remember us and bless us so that his name
may be honoured and glorified. And we should not therefore doubt
the ability of our God to do great things. Remember, he is
the same yesterday and today and forever. May our faith be increased. May the Church of God worldwide
cry unto God Most High, so there might be a wonderful outpouring
of His Holy Spirit in the conversion of many souls. And if it could
be, His Holy Word also, a cessation of the effect of this virus. Well, my friends, we can come
and we can commend these things to our God. The tendency is for
us to think, well, our prayers won't have any effect. The Word
of God tells us, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man obeys much. And if you and I are called by
grace, we are amongst those who are righteous, not in our own
righteousness, but we are clothed with the righteousness of our
Saviour. And so we are called upon therefore
to come to our God and to pray to Him. We are told He will be
inquired of by the House of Israel, the Church of God, to do these
things for them. We must not just sit back and
think, well, let everything take its course. We are to pray to
Almighty God, that God who has done great things in the past,
You can look back to, well, that wonderful occasion in history
of the Spanish Armada. You see, everything looked black.
We didn't look as though we were very prepared. We didn't have
a navy like the Spanish people did. But what happened? People
prayed to God. And what happened? The Lord sent
a great wind, which drove the Armada up the channel and of
course round the east coast and eventually round the north of
Scotland and down and much of it was destroyed on the west
coast of Ireland. We see how the wind changed direction
and drove the Armada all that way. The finger of God, no doubt
about that, the finger of God. And then we pass through as a
nation to world wars. And again there's been many occasions
in those wars when it has been observed and recorded the finger
of God was on our behalf, not because we were any better than
the enemy, not because we were any more gracious than the enemy,
but I believe it was because of the Lord's mercy and because
there were those who prayed under God And of course there were,
as we know in the last war, those days of prayer called for. And
God graciously heard those prayers. Sometimes we forget to pray,
don't we? Individually, we forget to pray. We perhaps rush over our prayers. We've got a lot to do. We've
got a busy day. And therefore we don't spend
very much time in prayer? Well, that's not God-honouring. How can we really expect the
Lord to grant the blessing and grant the favour? Well, to observe
then the finger of God in our nation would be a wonderful thing.
And to observe the finger of God in our own lives is, in one
sense, a more wonderful thing, because it's very personal. and
it reveals to us that God is with us and we do need to know
in our lives that God's finger has been upon us and that finger
has directed us and that finger has caused us to pray and that
finger has called us to seek unto God in a time when he may
be found and then what? cause that has been and what
cause there may be if we see God's wonderful work in our lives
and we see his finger has been upon us. Sometimes we may have
been stopped doing things, things perhaps that we look forward
to doing. We look forward perhaps for a
long time. I don't know, this virus is stopping many, many
things occurring. I don't know but there may have
been those things planned in all of our lives and we realise
those plans will come to naught why? the finger of God is upon
us we may not realise at the moment we may not realise when
it occurs the reason but it may be nevertheless after all As
we look back we see how God was in love to our souls and therefore
caused things to occur. Sometimes there are great things
which occur for the benefit of the Lord's people. And it's very
humbling to think sometimes when great things occur for the benefit
of our souls. And we can then observe that
it is the finger of God which has so graciously been toward
us for good and not for evil and caused things to occur so
therefore don't be disappointed if you are stopped doing things
which you look forward to just sit back and recognise it is
the Lord the Lord's finger is upon it and to be submissive
to the gracious will of God and to seek to understand the reason
for it sometimes the Lord is very gracious and shows us the
reason why we haven't been permitted to do certain things because
they wouldn't have been beneficial for us they wouldn't have been
profitable for our souls They would have taken us farther away
from our God. So the Lord has dealt with us
in love to our souls. And therefore it's good to be
able to observe the finger of God upon us. Let me read this
statement. I'll say this very carefully,
but we might think the finger of God is A very small part. It doesn't say in this verse,
the hand of God. It just says the finger. That really means he only has
to just touch and it's done. Touch and it's stopped. Sometimes touch and the way's
open. The finger of God. What a mercy
it is. for us to be able to observe
the finger of God in our own lives. That He is dealing with
us, this is the evidence, dealing with us as His children. You know, as parents we like
our children to enjoy the best of things if they are good and
honest. Well, our Heavenly Father, He deals with His children in
love. And we enjoy, by His Spirit,
the best of things, and you know what that is? Union and communion
with Christ. That's not something which develops
through our fleshly ideas. It's that which the Lord grants
to us. It's His wonderful gift to lead us into truth as it is
in Jesus, not something which is pleasing to the flesh but
it is to our spirit and we go on and we're rejoicing to know
the finger of God has been upon us to reveal Christ to our souls
it's the finger of God my friends and what a blessing that is to show us perhaps where we were
going we were going heading fast and furious for a never-ending
eternity in hell. And yet God, in love to our souls,
put forth his finger, the finger of God, and stopped us and turned
us in an opposite direction from going in the way of the world
to following the way of the Church of God. The finger of God. How very humbling that is. Which
of course then, without any doubt, If that is the path, we are led
and directed to the Saviour. We're led to His great and glorious
work of salvation. We're directed to see what He
did on our behalf. It was the finger of God, and
say that with all reverence, it was the finger of Almighty
God upon His blessed Son which caused Him to die upon that cross
at Calvary, to atone for the sins of all his people. The finger of God and then, as
we think of it, the resurrection. What a wonderful occasion that
was. And it was the finger of God.
We have, of course, that occasion with Lazarus when the Lord spoke
and said, loose him and let him go. And Lazarus come forth. Lazarus came forth, bound in
grave clothes. He came forth. The Word of God
was with power. It was the finger of God upon
Lazarus. Bless God for the resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ. To know today the Lord is risen
indeed. That was a wonderful message,
wasn't it? That those women gave to the
disciples, the Lord is risen indeed. And it's true today. The Lord is risen and today he is
exalted. Today he sits on the Father's
right hand of glory, there to gloriously intercede for us today. and to realise therefore that
it is all because of the finger of God upon us. It blesses us with faith to believe
in these great and glorious truths. They are not figments of our
imagination. They are the truth of God's word. And they are the truth which
our souls delight in, I hope they are. I hope your soul rejoices
in these great truths contained in the Word of God with reference
to our eternal state. What a mercy it is then to observe
God's finger upon us in our lives, to not go on through life with
no evidence of it. on this occasion and on many
occasions had the wonderful evidence of God's finger upon them stopping
them and encouraging them and going with them God's purposes
were fulfilled and they are continuing to be fulfilled what a blessing
it is in our lives when we see God's purposes being fulfilled
and what is the evidence of that? The evidence is this, to make
us more like Christ. The evidence is to draw us to
the Saviour. The evidence is that the things
of the world become strangely dim, and the things of glory
become brighter and brighter. And if that is so, it's the evidence
and the blessed finger of God is upon us. Well, may we prove
it. May we have the wonderful evidence
of it. And may we thank God for it. And therefore, as we consider
the situation which has developed in the world today, to realise,
yes, our God reigns. He's still on the throne. All
these things come about by his divine permission. They don't
come by chance. They're ordained by the great
God who created all things. May that be a help and a strength
and a comfort to us. And may we therefore be able
to go on day by day to commit all our way unto the Lord, to
trust also in Him that He will bring it to pass for His honour
and for His glory. This is the finger of God.