Exodus chapter 9, look at verse
23. And Moses stretched forth his
rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the
fire ran along upon the ground, and the Lord rained hail upon
the land of Egypt. So there was hail and fire mingled
with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it
in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail
smoked throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the
field, both man and beast, and the hail smoked every herb of
the field and break every tree of the field. Only in the land
of Goshen, where the children of Israel was, or where the children
of Israel were, was there no hail. And Pharaoh sinned and
called for Moses and Aaron and said unto them, I have sinned
this time, and the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Entreat the Lord, for it is enough. that there be no more mighty
thunderings and hail, and I will let you go, and ye shall stay
no longer." Now these words were said by Pharaoh when he was under
great duress, great stress, great fear. No doubt he meant it when
he said it. He was scared and he was very
fearful. This is a storm probably far
different from anything they'd ever experienced. I don't know
much about the weather in Egypt in modern day, but the scriptures
tell us here that there was never a hail storm like this one since
Egypt had been a nation. These pieces of ice that fell
maybe as big as a basketball. I don't know about you, but even
still, at my age, thunder gets my attention. It's a fearful
thing. It just kind of makes you feel
helpless, doesn't it? Pharaoh had heard the thunder,
seen the hail and the fire running along the ground, and I'm telling
you, he was afraid. And this was the first plague
that directly inflicted death on men and women. Those who regarded
not the word of the Lord, we're told in verse 21, didn't get
their servants and their cattle out of the field. And my, can
you imagine the moaning and the groaning and the screaming as
that hail killed those in the field. Pharaoh was scared. It
was unlike anything the Egyptians had ever experienced. And it
fell only on them. For in the land of Goshen, there
was no hate. And Pharaoh cried out of fear.
He said, I have sinned. He said, I am wicked. My people
are wicked. And the Lord is righteous. Well,
he's come a long way from the first time Moses and Aaron met
with him. And he said, I know not the Lord.
Don't know your Lord, not interested in your God. I won't listen to
him. I'm not gonna let his people
go. He's singing a little different tune here. But sadly, the repentance
that was born in this storm died in the calm. The repentance that
comes in the midst of the sound of the thunder and the screams
and the groans from all those that perished from the hell ceased
when all became quiet again. And we're told once more that
Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let Israel go. Now,
I know many who have sat on a bed of sickness or in times of trouble
that if God would heal them or if God would deliver them, that
they would leave their life of sin and live for God. But when
God grants healing or delivers them from trouble, their imagined
faith leaves. It leaves with their illness
and their trouble and they return to their previous hardened state. And Pharaoh here confesses his
sin. He made a confession of his sin,
but it was empty. It was empty. And as we saw last
week, faith without works is dead, being alone. Some believe
the word of the Lord and others do not regard the word of Jehovah. And that's the way it's always
been. And that's the way it'll be until the Lord wraps up all
things. And immediately, I think of the
verse that's found in 1 John 1 9, where the scriptures say,
if we confess our sins, he is faithful. Speaking of God, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. But Pharaoh found neither forgiveness
or cleansing for he hardened his heart each and every time
after these confessions. Oh, he said the right thing.
But in the end, it meant nothing. I was thinking today how so often
even we who profess to know the Lord, how often when we pray,
we confess our sins without really giving any thought to them at
all. It just kind of becomes a part of our routine and praying. We pray, Lord, thank you for
this, and thank you for that, and forgive us of our sins. Don't
give them much thought when we say that. Many times our prayer
for need of repentance just kind of becomes a flippant confession,
I'm afraid. May the Lord help us to truly
confess our sin, and may he give us true repentance. I mean true
repentance for our sins and iniquities which are against him and him
only. Let's never forget that. And
in verse 27, we find Pharaoh, I mean, he's scared to death.
Every single time I hear heavy thunder, it makes me think about
the omnipotence and the power of God. I often have said upon
hearing thunder, when our children are little, I'm like, there's
the Lord talking. I was somewhat surprised to find that the first
time the word thunder is used in scripture mentioned in the
Bible is right here in Exodus chapter nine. And I also was
surprised that the actual Hebrew word for thunder means to call
aloud. In Genesis chapter three, after
the fall of Adam, the same Hebrew word is translated the voice
of the Lord. Let's look at that for a second.
We're not far from it. Genesis chapter three. Look at
this with me. You're familiar with these verses.
Genesis chapter three, verse eight. And they, being Adam and
Eve, heard the voice of the Lord." That's the voice of the Lord
there. That phrase is the same Hebrew
word translated thunder in Exodus 9. They heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord called out unto
Adam and said unto him, where art thou? And he said, I heard
thy voice. Same, same phrase, same Hebrew
word there, thunder. I heard thy voice, thunder in
the garden. And I was afraid because I was
naked and I hid myself. So I thought that was interesting
and I just wanted to bring it to your attention. Now thinking
about Pharaoh here and his confession of I have sinned, there's an
old saying, I've heard it for years, that says there's no atheist
in foxholes. You know what that means. In
the midst of a battle, nobody then, when one's life is in danger,
no one then is denying that they don't believe in God. Everybody
believes God in foxholes. Men and women are in real trouble
when they think that they're going to die. I've seen it. I know you have too. They often
get religious. They confess their sin and they
believe in God. People that have never shown
any interest at all before. But when the battle is over and
they are safe and out of the foxhole, they go right back to
their unbelieving ways. And again, verse 27, Exodus chapter
nine. And Pharaoh sent and called for
Moses and Aaron and said unto them, I've sinned this time.
The Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked. Now, did
you notice closely Pharaoh's confession of sin here? He confesses,
I've sinned this time, this time. Not at all times, but this time
I sinned. That is never, I'm telling you,
that is never a sincere confession of sin, never. If I've just sinned
this time, then I have no true understanding of what sin is
at all. John said, if we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And
John is not talking there about the act. of sinning. The word sin is used in that
verse as a noun, not a verb. John is talking about what we
are by nature. He's talking about our sinful
nature. A true believer is always conscious
of their sinful nature. Sin is what we are, not just
what we do. We commit acts of sin, verb,
the verb sin, because of what we are. And we're always conscious
of it. Even now, when I endeavor to
preach, I am so conscious of my sin. I remember Brother Mahan
telling me many years ago to preach the things that comfort
me. He said, preach things that comfort
you. Why? Because the things that comfort
me, the sinner that I am, is going to comfort all those who
are sinners. The same gospel will comfort
other sinners. Sinners are comforted by the
same blessed truths of the gospel. So many times the messages that
I preach come about from inward struggles of my own. As I open
the word and try to find comfort for something that I may be going
through or whatever the case may be, I need comfort and assurance
for my own soul. Many times I'm preaching to myself,
just allowing you to listen in. If we say that we have no sin,
that word sin means offense. It's a noun. And by nature, we
have offended God. See, that's where a lot of folks
miss it. We talk about the scripture in
Psalm 51 verse four very often when David said, against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.
What makes sin so atrocious, friends, is the fact that it's
all against God. He's the one that we've offended
and he's the one that has to be appeased. Now John went on
to say, if we confess our sins, same word, offense. If we confess
what we are, not just what we do now, but we confess what we
are. Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm the sinner. God is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And
if we say that we have not sinned, is a verb, an act of sinning,
we make him, God, a liar and his word is not in us. How do
we make God a liar? Because he says we've sinned. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. That's what God says. And if
we say that we have not sinned or that sin is not what we are,
we call God a liar. Pharaoh said, I have sinned this
time. Well, I didn't sin the last time
and I probably won't sin the next time, but this time I sinned.
See, that just reveals, totally reveals the fact that he had
no concept at all of what sin is, sin is what we are. We've
offended God. We've offended God. Pharaoh's
confession was not sincere. And again, verse 27, and Pharaoh
sinned and called for Moses and Aaron and said unto them, I have
sinned this time. The Lord is righteous and I and
my people are wicked. Now we know that salvation is
personal. I'm gonna stand before God and
give an account for the things that I've done in this body. and you're gonna stand before
God and give an account for your sin. This confession of Pharaoh
is not an individual confession, if I can use that terminology. Pharaoh said, I and my people
are wicked. I'm a wicked man among many wicked
men. I'm no worse than anybody else.
That publican who went up to the temple to pray, the Pharisee
and the publican, not Republican, he may have been a Democrat,
I don't know. But that publican and that Pharisee
that went into the temple to pray, the Pharisee prayed thus
with himself. He thanked God he wouldn't like
other men. And the public, he stood in the
back. He wouldn't even lift his eyes
up in heaven. And he beat on his chest. And
he said, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. The original translation
actually uses the definite article the there instead of a. And what
that man said was this, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. As if there wasn't another sinner
in the world. He's saying, I'm the worst of the worst. Isn't
that what Paul said? I'm the chief of sinners. I'm
less than the least. That's what that man was saying.
I'm the chief, the worst. And anything short of this kind
of confession is a false confession. Pharaoh said, I'm just like everybody
else. Pharaoh said, nobody's perfect.
I've heard folks say that. I'm just, I'm no bigger, any
bigger a sinner than anyone else. Nobody's perfect. Did you notice
that Pharaoh didn't even ask to be forgiven? He didn't ask
to be made clean. Verse 28, he says, entreat Jehovah
that it may be enough that my sin might be taken away. No,
that's not what he said. He said, entreat Jehovah that
it may be enough that there be no more thunder No more thunder
of God and hail. That was all he was concerned
about. He was concerned only about the
results of his sin, the trouble that he was experiencing. Look
over a page at chapter 10. I don't want to get too far ahead
here, but I want you to see this. Look at verse 16. We see this
after the next plague, the plague of the locust. Pharaoh made another
confession of his sin. In verse 16, it says, then Pharaoh
called for Moses and Aaron in haste. And he said, I've sinned
against the Lord, your God. Notice that. Pharaoh had no personal
love or interest for God. He didn't consider the God of
Israel to be his God. He said, you're God. Pharaoh
didn't know what it was to sin against God. And he certainly
didn't know what David knew. that we just mentioned a minute
ago, David said, against thee and thee only have I sinned and
done this evil in thy sight that thou mayest be justified when
thou speakest and be clear when you judge. Pharaoh didn't know
anything about God's justice and God's right to be God. God was just and right in punishing
Pharaoh and Egypt. while they had continued to disobey
Him. They disobeyed and ignored every
command. And God was clear of any wrongdoing
when He destroyed Pharaoh. And it's sad to think about,
but there are going to be those who have never given God any
thought, never had any interest in the things of Christ that
are going to go out to meet God. And when God condemns them to
eternal wrath and judgment, He's gonna be justified when he speaks
against them. And he's gonna be clear when
he judges, clear of any wrongdoing. Look at verse 17. Now therefore
forgive, I pray thee, my sin, only this once. I won't do it
anymore. Now with this confession is a
promise that he'd never sin again. He says, forgive me this one
time and things will be different. Forgive me this one time and
I won't do it anymore. All we prove when we make a statement
like that is just complete ignorance, ignorance of understanding ourselves
and our sin. Those kind of statements prove
that men and women have no understanding at all of what sin is in the
first place. I remember when I was young and
I was religious, I would do something wrong or say a bad word, and
out of fear of judgment. That's what religion will do
to you. That's what works religion will do to you. It'll make you
fearful. Out of fear, I would promise God that if he'd forgive
me, I wouldn't say or do it again. And you know what? It never lasted
very long. Never did. And so many times,
after so many times of promising God, it became pretty obvious
to even me that I was promising something that I had no ability
to keep, no ability at all to do. Works of religion scared
me into trying to do something I couldn't. And I've seen it
time and time again. People get sick. People think
that they're dying. With these conditions, people
become afraid and they very often promise God many things that
they don't have the ability or the intentions to keep. It's
a result of a hardened heart. Lord, don't let me have a hardened
heart. Verse 17, and now forgive, I
pray you my sin only this time and entreat Jehovah your God
that he may take away from me this death only. You see what
he's concerned with? That's pretty much the concern
of the world. He's saying, take away this hail,
take away this fire, take away these locusts, take away the
problem, take away the trouble, take away the sickness, take
away the pain, and I'll do what's right. And it is no use for any
to say I have sinned merely under the influence of terror and then
to forget it afterwards. It means nothing. It's nothing
but an empty confession from a hardened heart. And it does
nothing but bring down more divine wrath. We've talked about these
plagues. Next week, the Lord willing,
we'll get into the next plague of the locusts. And each of these
plagues have increased in severity. They just keep getting worse.
Just keep getting worse. I don't suppose there's a man
or a woman that's ever lived that at one time or another,
sincerely or without sincerity, has not said or thought the words,
I have sinned. I have sinned. There've been
many in the scriptures that have made that confession as Pharaoh
did in our text. I wanna just name a few and have
you consider them for just a few minutes and then I'll finish.
You remember a fella named Balaam? In Numbers chapter 22, verse
34, you don't have to turn there. Balaam said unto the angel of
Jehovah, you remember he was trying to go in the angel wood
and let him pass and his donkey saw the angel, but he didn't.
But anyway, he said to the angel of Jehovah, I have sinned. But
Balaam just went right on in his sin afterwards. And Balaam
is standing up on the brow of a hill, and there's the multitude
of Israel down below him. And he's been hired and bidden
by a Moabite king named Balak to curse Israel. And he tells
this king, he says, how shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? How can I curse those that God
has blessed? And those that heard Balaam say
that probably said, there's a hopeful believer there. He knows some
truths. He's speaking the truth. But wait till he comes down from
that mountaintop experience. When he comes down from the brow
of that hill, you can read this, Numbers 22, 23, 24. He gives
the most diabolical advice to the king of Moab. And this is
what he tells him. He says, you cannot overthrow
these people. And I'm paraphrasing, you can't
overthrow these people in battle for God's with them. Here's what
you do. You try to entice them from their
God and seduce them into committing fornication. And their God will
turn his back on them. Balaam was a man that at one
point seemed to have the voice of an angel and the very soul
of the devil. He was a double-minded man. He said, I have sinned. But he
just kept right on in his sin. No man can serve two masters. We talk about that a lot. You
know, that verse or that statement, I think, is very often misunderstood. Some read it, no man can serve
two masters. And we get to thinking about
that. Well, actually, he can. He can serve three or four or
even more. This is the way to read that.
No man can serve two masters. Key word. He can serve two, but
they can't both be his master. And that's what the Lord was
saying. You can serve 20 if they're not your master, but there can
only be one master to the heart. Only one. You'll cling to the
one and hate the other. You'll serve the one and disobey
the other, because you can only have one master. Balaam did his
best, the best I can tell most of his life, to serve too. Why,
he offered sacrifices to God upon the altar of Baal. And many
today do the same thing. How they seem to love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus, they say.
But they offer sacrifices to God on the altar of Mammon. They
give their time to the church and witnessing and working and
after the After their own lusts, they heap unto themselves teachers
having itching ears. They put forth great effort to
build up their memberships, all the while taking from the poor
and devouring widows' houses that they may enrich themselves.
The Lord said the same shall receive a greater damnation. Balaam labored to serve two masters,
but Jane said that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Lord, don't let me be double-minded. You remember King Saul. God told
Samuel to tell Saul to destroy the Amalekites. God said, destroy
all that they have and spare them not. He said, slay both
man, woman, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and ass. And Saul spared
their king. He spared the best of their sheep
and the oxen and all that was good. And the Lord told Samuel
that it repented him that he had made Saul to be king. And God said, Saul is turned
back from following me and hath not performed my commandments.
And it grieves Samuel. And the scriptures say that Samuel
cried unto the Lord Almighty. Samuel then tells Saul and Saul
confesses to the prophet Samuel. And he says the same words Pharaoh
said. He said, I have sinned. But Saul didn't mean what he
said. He was an insincere man. Saul said, I've sinned for I've
transgressed the commandment of the Lord and thy words because
I feared the people, which was just a lying excuse. Saul had
never feared anybody. He was always ready enough to
do his own will. He didn't. And Saul was the type
of man who would act godly when he was around the prophet of
God and then take counsel with witches. He was an insincere
man. Lord, I don't want to be an insincere
man. I don't. I don't want to be an
insincere man. You remember Achan? God told
Israel to take nothing from the spoils of Jericho. Achan did
just that and Joshua found him out. And speaking kindly to him,
Joshua said, my son, give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of
Israel and make confession unto him. Tell him what you've done. Let him know what thou has done. Hide it not from me. And you
find Achan making a very full confession. And he says, indeed. Indeed, I have sinned against
the Lord God of Israel. And thus and thus have I done. when I was among the spoils,
a goodly Babylonian garment and 200 shekels of silver and a wedge
of gold of 50 shekels weight. And he said, I coveted them.
He said, I'm not gonna lie to you. I coveted those things and
behold, they're hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent
and the silvers underneath. Akin's confession seems to be
so full, so sincere, so sorrowful. John Gill says that he was a
believer, he was saved. And then I was surprised to find
that Spurgeon and Matthew Henry and several other commentators
considered that as his body was destroyed, so was his soul. And
we're not told his eternal end in the scriptures. His confession
seems to be one of doubtful repentance. May God grant us the grace to
live a life that gives evidence of true conversion, and that's
only done, friends, by believing in Christ. It's not, look at
me, what I've done, look how moral a person I am, look how
I do this and do that. No, sir. But it's by believing
Christ and trusting in Him as our substitute and our sacrifice
for sin. Oh, to give a good profession
of faith is to lean on Christ, to be faithful to his word, to
be faithful to his gospel. I don't want my salvation to
be doubtful. Lord, don't let my salvation
be doubtful. We believe, Lord, help thou our
unbelief. I wanna live like a man that
believes God. Then there's Judas. Yes, Judas,
the traitor. who had betrayed his master.
When he saw that his master was condemned, he repented and he
brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priest and
elder saying, I have sinned." Same three words. I've sinned
that I've betrayed innocent blood. And he cast down those 30 pieces
of silver in the temple and he went and he what? He hanged himself. There is a repentance of despair. Mr. Spurgeon spoke of a man that
he knew that was dying, said death was staring him in the
face, and he confessed, I've sinned. And Mr. Spurgeon told
him that Christ had died for sinners. But his answer was,
there's no hope for me. I know I shall be lost. I've cursed God to his face.
My day of grace is long past. How horrible, how dreadful is
that hideous repentance of despair. How hopeless for one to believe
that they're beyond the reach of God's grace. That was Judas. He confessed his sin. He threw
back the money, but he went and hung himself. I don't want to
give repentance of despair. But then there's the blessed
confession of the believer. I love the story of the prodigal
son. I suppose all God's people do. The prodigal, such a picture
of the child of God. The prodigal said, Father, I've
sinned. This young man had run away from a good home and a kind
father, and he spent all his money with harlots, and now he's
broke, nothing left. He goes to his old companions
and friends and asks them for help and relief, and they laugh
him to scorn. Oh, says he, you've drunk my
wine many a day, but now you won't help me. Go away, they
said. He goes to all his friends with
whom he was associated, but none of them give him a thing. They
were his friend until it didn't benefit them anymore to be so.
And at last, we're told that a certain citizen of the country
said, you want something to do? Well, go and feed my swine. And
that poor prodigal, who was the son of a rich landowner who had
great fortune, has to go out to feed swine. So that was the
worst employment there was. And the Lord is telling this
story to Jews. My, it was even a worse employment
for a Jewish person. What was his wages? the husk
of the swine, which is pig food. And that's what you and I were
eating before the Lord saved us by his grace. What was it
that caused him to come to his senses and return home and repent
of his ways? Was it the sorrow that God's
providence brought? Was it the starvation that he
was experiencing? Was it the guilt of his rebellious
actions? Well, those were probably all
contributing factors, no doubt. But it was the consideration
of his father's love and the gracious benefits of his father's
house. And as he sat there in that pig
pen, he's thinking, even the servants in my father's house
have it better than I do. Truly, friends, it's the goodness
of God that leads men and women to repentance. So, has God put
repentance in your heart? Has God put repentance in my
heart? He's the one that has to do it.
There never was a poor sinner who came to Christ. I love thinking
about this. Sometimes folks say things like,
well, how do I know the Lord to save me? This is my hope. The Lord never turned down a
poor sinner who came asking for help. Not one time. And if he turns you away, it'll
be the first time, but that can never happen. You know why? Because
he's promised that those that come to him, that he will in
no wise cast out. Pharaoh said, I've sinned. There's a lot of folks that say
I've sinned. But it was the confession of
a hardened heart. It was a confession of a double-minded
man. It was the confession of an insincere
man, a doubtful penitent. And he proved it in the end,
and his repentance was one of despair. But there are some that
confess, I have sinned, like Job and like David. Nathan said, thou art the man.
He said, I've sinned. And Nathan said, rejoice, the
Lord put away your sin. Oh, they're like the prodigal.
They are those who see and understand that God forgives them in Christ. And in Christ is the only way
that they can be forgiven. Repentance in Christ is the only
way that God can remain just and still justify the ungodly. And that's what makes God a just
God and a savior. Only one way we can be saved.
Only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
Only a just God can save a sinner and only a just God can justify
those who are ungodly. And that's good news for a sinner. That's great news for the ungodly.
I love that hymn that says, all the fitness that God requires
is that you feel your need of Him. That's it. That's all you
need. Feel your need of Him. Those
that are well have no need of a physician. But those that are
sick do. Lord, I'm sick, needy, help me,
help me.