Exodus chapter nine. In verse 13, we read, and the
Lord said unto Moses, rise up early in the morning and stand
before Pharaoh and say unto him, thus saith the Lord God of the
Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. For I 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. Certainly there is none like
him in all the earth. For now I will stretch out my
hand that I might smite thee and thy people with pestilence,
and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. Now, let me just pause
there for a second and tell you that at first I had a little
difficulty with verse 15. The next plague here, the seventh
plague is the plague of hail and fire. And here the Lord says
that he's gonna send all his plagues upon Pharaoh's heart
and upon his servants and upon his people. And he's gonna smite
them, slay them with pestilence. The reason I had difficulty with
that is because neither Pharaoh nor any in Egypt had or would
be killed by pestilence, meaning the flies and the lice and the
locusts to come. So why did God here say that
he would smite, kill, slay them with pestilence? Well, it's important
to know that in the Hebrew language, verbs are used in the past tense,
not the present. What God is saying in verse 15
is this, for if I had, if I had stretched out my hand and smitten
thee, you would have been cut off from the earth. Or you could
read it this way, for might I had, or I could have, stretched out
my hand and smitten thee and thy people with pestilence. And
if I had, then you would have been cut off from the earth.
God can do and God does do whatever he pleases. And God is simply
letting them know that he could have easily wiped them out. at any moment. He could have
killed them with the flies. He could have killed them with
the lice. He could have just spoken the word and all in Egypt
would have fallen dead, but he didn't because he chose not to.
And here Pharaoh is delivered a most dreadful message. God has marked him for ruin.
God says, now I will send all my plagues, but I'm going to
send them upon your heart. No place is now found for repentance
in Pharaoh. Nothing can prevent his utter
destruction. God will not only continue to
send these temporal plagues, but God will now send spiritual
plagues upon his heart and soul. And God can send plagues upon
men and women's hearts by making his judgments against them senseless
or hopeless, usually one of the two. And these are the worst
plagues, those that are sent upon the heart. Now these plagues
of the soul, as I said, make men and women senseless or foolish,
or it makes them hopeless, unfixable. They're either senseless of God's
judgments or they're hopeless, unfixable in God's judgment. And I believe that's very well
what Paul is saying in Romans chapter one. He said, and even
as they did not like to retain, that word means acknowledge,
though they didn't like to acknowledge God in their knowledge, God gave
them over to a reprobate mind. And that Greek word there for
reprobate mind, if you have a marginal Bible, the words reprobate mind
means a mind void of judgment. an unapproving mind, just don't
understand the things of God. And sadly, there are very few
men and women in comparison to the vast multitude who live in
this world that have knowledge of God. A lot of folks would
look at you cross-eyed if you said that to them, because we
live in a world today where everybody seems to love God. Everybody
knows God. I think I read something last
week that said a poll, whatever polls are worth, that said 90%
of people in the world believe in a God or some higher power. But they don't believe in this
God. I can assure you that. You don't have to listen to them
long to know that that's so. We live in a day where everybody
thinks they're going to heaven. Everyone is going to be better
off when they die. Just listen closely at the funeral
of an unbeliever. Oh, he's better off now, better
off. Verse 16, in very deed, and that
simply means truly, truly. Our Lord used to say that a lot.
Verily, verily, truly, truly. In very deed, for this cause
have I raised thee up. God's speaking to Pharaoh here.
through Moses, through God's messenger. He said, I raised
thee up for to show in thee my power and that my name may be
declared throughout all the earth. That's exactly what the Apostle
Paul quotes later on in the book of Romans. But none have ever
hardened their heart against God and prospered in doing so. God tells Pharaoh that he will
remain in history forever as a standing monument of the justice
and power of God's wrath. You see, God's sovereignty is
incontestable. And God's purpose is irresistible. And God's justice is inflexible. And this would be declared not
only throughout all the earth, not only in all places, but in
all ages to come. It's recorded in this book that
Pharaoh hardened his heart against God and that God on purpose did
it to show his power in Pharaoh. That God's name might be declared
throughout the whole world. You know, sometimes God raises
up evil men like Pharaoh. He raises them up to honor and
power and prestige and allows them for a very long time to
grow contemptuous, cocky, only in the end that he might be more
justified and more glorified in their destruction. And those
who would say, that's not my God, have yet to meet and know
the God of the Bible. Look at verse 17, as yet exaltest
thou thyself against my people, that thou will not let them go. And I'm telling you that if you
exalt yourself against God's people, You exalt yourself against
God. And anyone who doesn't acknowledge
God and worship Him in spirit and in truth as supreme and sovereign
attempts to exalt themselves above Him. That's what's wrong
with preaching today. Men try to bring God down on
their level so they can feel better about themselves. But
that's not God. Be not deceived. Paul wrote in
Galatians, God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, he shall
also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit
shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. Yes, Pharaoh is
reaping what he sown. Now in the first series of plagues,
the first three, let's just take a moment here to review. The
first three plagues, the plagues of the river turned to blood,
the frogs and the lice, God exposes the error of Egypt's idols and
their religion. They worship the Nile River,
which being turned into blood is a solemn reminder of the wages
of sin, which is death. All who look not to Christ's
blood as their cleansing and their covering will perish. They
worshiped frogs who we saw pictured the false prophets of Satan and
show us that even Satan has the ability to disguise himself as
an angel of light or a messenger of the gospel to deceive many. God is exposing their religion.
And the significance of the lice is found in the source from which
the lice came. Aaron smoked the dust of the
ground, and it became lice, showing us that we are nothing but dust,
and to dust we will return, and that life eternal comes only
by Christ breathing, by God breathing into us the breath of life. Then the second series of plagues,
we saw something of the fallen state of the natural man. The
swarm of flies shows us that by nature, we're nothing more
than maggots with wings. We love the flesh and the dunghills
of corruption. And then the Moran, the deadly
disease of the livestock shows us the filthiness of our will
and our worth and way and works and that God will in no wise
accept anything from us, nothing. Why? Because it's got to be perfect
to be accepted and nothing we have is perfect. that God will
accept. Then last time we looked at the
plague of boils and blains, and that shows us that we are inwardly
corrupt. From the sole of the foot to
the top of our head, there's no soundness in us. We're nothing
but wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores in the eyes of God, Isaiah
1.6. And then tonight we have the
seventh judgment or the seventh plague upon Egypt. And this seventh
plague marks the beginning of a third series of plagues. Each
plague has progressed in its severity. And these next three
plagues, which are the last three before the 10th and final plague,
which is the death of the firstborn. These next three plagues point
to heaven. as their place of origin. Now
we know that all these things came from God, but here it's
as though God is putting an exclamation mark on it and saying, I sent
these. Man being what he is, we see
the attitude of God in heaven. We see his attitude and what
it must be toward fallen men and women, and that's judgment,
wrath, and destruction. Friends, unless God intervenes,
unless God does a work of grace in a sinner's heart, that's where
we're all gonna wind up. Oh, may God enable us to trust
in Christ. Look at verse 18. Behold, tomorrow,
what grace is found in those two words. Behold, tomorrow,
about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail. such as hath not been in Egypt
since the foundation thereof even unto now." A great storm
is brewing. A great storm is coming. God
said it was, so we know that it's for certain. And this is
a storm of fire and ice, hail mingled with fire. The severity
of this seventh plague is marked by several particulars here.
Notice, God said it would be a very grievous hail. That word
grievous means hard, heavy, severe. There's coming a hard, heavy,
severe hailstorm. The judgment of God against all
unbelievers is gonna be hard and it's gonna be heavy and severe
on all to whom it falls. And God said it would be such
a severe hail, such as had not been seen in Egypt since it became
a nation. You've never seen a storm like
this one. That's what God's saying. You've
never seen one like I'm fixing to see. This would be a storm
of such great intensity that fire would be mingled with the
hail. And we're told in verse 25 that
that fire would run along the ground. And the effects of this
storm would be devastating. The hell would smite. That word
is very plain in the original language. It means kill. It means
slay. All that was in the field, throughout
all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. If this storm comes
and you're caught out in the field, you're gonna die. And
in verse 19, we see that. The hell should come down upon
all, every man and beast, and they shall die. Every herb of
the field would be destroyed. Their crops are gonna be destroyed.
And every tree would be broken, verse 25. You see that? And this
judgment was and is especially expressive of the wrath and the
judgment of a holy, sin-hating God. God is angry with the wicked
every day. Why? Because of their sin. Because
of their sin. He's a sin-hating God. And this
judgment is similar to expressions of God's anger that'll be witnessed
during the great tribulation, which scripture says will only
be shortened for the elect's sake in Matthew chapter 24. Now
I'm not gonna turn you to these two passages in particular, but
in Revelation chapter eight, verse seven, we're told that
there will be hail and fire mingled with blood and cast down upon
the earth and that trees would be burnt up as shall all the
grass. And the pictures in the video
that I've seen of some of these devastating fires, like in California. If you look at those things and
you can't help but to just shake your head, they're devastating.
It leaves everything desolate and horrific are the scenes of
the burnt trees and grass. You've seen them, it looks like
a war zone. That's the way the whole world is gonna look when
God is finished with it in judgment. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. The earth also and the works
that are therein shall be burned up." That's what Peter wrote
in 2 Peter 3. Then in Revelation chapter 16,
verse 21, we're told, and there fell upon men a great hail out
of heaven. Every stone about the weight
of a talent, and men blaspheme God because of the plague of
the hell. God sends down this hell and
judgment, and instead of men repenting, they blaspheme the
God that sent it. It says, for the plague thereof
was exceeding great. Now this was a grievous, very
grievous hell that fell in Exodus chapter 9. If it's anything like
the hell spoken of here in Revelation chapter 16, grievous, even very
grievous, is a mild term. This hell in Revelation 16 was
said to be about the weight of a talon. I did a little looking
into that, which is said to be three score pounds, 60 pounds.
Can you imagine a 60-pound hail ball? On June 22, 2013, chunks
of ice the size of softballs fell in Nebraska. And they only
weighed a pound and a half apiece. And they did $1.9 billion in
damages in just a short period of time. I mean, you can just
imagine a two-pound ball of ice with its jagged edges and all.
But what about a 60-pound? My, my. In Noah's day, God destroyed
the world with water. In the day that Peter speaks
of, that's gonna come, the earth is gonna be destroyed by fervent
heat. What I want you to see here is that fire and water,
and that's all I see is, they are two elements of judgment
throughout all the scriptures, fire and water. In Luke chapter
12, verse 49, the Lord Jesus said, I am come to send fire
on the earth. You know, physical fire would
no doubt come, but the Lord there is speaking of a spiritual fire,
a judgmental fire, a purifying fire. And he said, I'm not come
to give peace on earth. I tell you nay, but rather division. This spiritual fire causes division. The father shall be divided against
the son, and the son against the father, the mother against
the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law
against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against
her mother-in-law. And he said also to the people, when you
see a cloud rise out of the east straightway, you say, there cometh
a shower, and so it is. And when you see the south wind
blow, you say, there will be heat, and it cometh to pass.
But you hypocrites. You can discern the face of the
sky, the clouds, and of the earth, but how is it that you do not
discern this time? People today, just like they
were in Christ's day, are crying peace, peace. Everybody loves
everybody. Let's just all agree to go along
and get along. Peace, peace everywhere you look
when there is no one. There is no peace. Judgment is
coming. Judgment is coming. Well, David,
are you trying to scare us? I'm telling you that there's
refuge from this judgment. I've got great news for you. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. You know, meteorologists everywhere
today. with all the new high sophisticated
electronic weather devices can tell you near the exact minute
when a storm is coming. But where are those who are telling
sinners about the judgment and wrath of God that is to come?
Everybody just saying peace, peace. Everything's going to
be all right. You worship God like you want to, and if you
think God to be this, or if you think God to be that, just as
long as you think there's a God, everything's all right. That's
a lie. They're hollering peace, peace, when there is no peace.
God told Pharaoh. He just flat told him. God told
Egypt. God warned them that it was coming. Look at verse 18. That's why
I said a minute ago, what words of grace these first words are.
Behold tomorrow, about this time. They had 24 hours to repent,
to let God's people go. Behold tomorrow, about this time,
I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not
been in Egypt since the foundation thereof, even unto now. Send
therefore now, and gather thy cattle. and all that thou hast
in the field. For upon every man and beast
which shall be found in the field and shall not be brought home,
the hail shall come down upon them and they shall die." And
look at what happened. It says, he that feared the word
of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants
and his cattle flee into the houses. Verse 21, and he that
regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his
cattle in the field. In spite of Pharaoh's hardness,
opportunity is given to those who had fear and regard of God
and his word to save themselves from sharing in this judgment. Oh, you tell me God's not merciful,
gracious, and long-suffering. And God is still long suffering
and patient and merciful to many today who are yet without Christ. And he gives them great room
for repentance. Some here feared they revered
the word of the Lord and their servants and their cattle were
spared, verse 20, but others disregard. And they left their
servants and their cattle in the field and they were killed. Verse 21. And again, we see the
great consequences of unbelief and disregard of the word of
the Lord. Now, does this word mean anything
to you? It's life and death. It's life and death. Those who
regarded the warning of God's servant had no one to thank but
God. And those who disregarded God's
word had no one to blame but themselves. And it's the same
today. Obstinate infidelity, which is
deafness to the warnings of God and deafness to His wisest counsels,
leaves the blood of those that perish upon their own hands.
The more that sinners rebel against God, the more the curse is laid
upon them. And I think another worthy observation
is this. The very judgments that fell
on Egypt were the very judgments and means that delivered the
people of God. Isn't God amazing? Truly God
works all things together for the good of them that love Him,
who are thee called according to His purpose. Now, hold your
place here in Exodus. I wanna turn you to just a couple
places in Psalm. Look first at Psalm 97, if you
would. Who sent this storm? Well, we know who sent it. Look
at verse four, Psalm 97. His lightnings enlightened the
world. The earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at
the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the
whole earth. The heavens declared His righteousness,
and all the people see His glory. Confounded be all that serve
graven images, that boast themselves of idols. Worship Him, all ye
gods. Zion heard and was glad, and
the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O Lord."
Why did they rejoice? Because of God's judgments. For thou, Lord, art high above
all the earth. Thou art exalted far above all
gods. And ye that love the Lord hate
evil. He preserveth the souls of the
saints. He delivereth them out of the
hand of the wicked. Turn over a few pages to Psalm
135. You're familiar with these verses.
Look at verse six, Psalm 135, verse six. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He in heaven and in earth and the seas and all deep
places. He causeth the vapors to ascend
from the ends of the earth. He maketh lightnings for the
rain. He bringeth the wind out of His
treasuries. Who smoked the firstborn of Egypt,
both of man and beast? Who sent tokens and wonders into
the midst of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants? Who did that? Who smoked great
nations and slew mighty kings? Sihon, the king of the Amorites,
and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan, and gave
their land for an heritage and heritage unto Israel, his people. We'll talk more about that in
a moment. Now, the first thing that I see here in this saving
plague is in all the others, this plague is a result of God's
eternal purpose, counsel, and sovereign hand. All things are. It was judgment to Egypt, but
it was redemption for Israel. Everything God does in this world
in some way, and we'll never know this side of glory, but
in some way has to do with the deliverance, the salvation, and
the redemption of His people. There were many heathen nations
around Egypt, and God didn't rain fire and hail down on them. God didn't even bother them.
God didn't send them His messenger, His ambassador. He let them be. Do you know why? Because God's
people weren't held captive there. God is dealing with Egypt because
they are the ones who are afflicting God's people, holding God's people
captive. And once Israel is delivered
out of Egypt and brought into that land flowing with milk and
honey, God's also gonna deal with the Amorites and the Canaanites
and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites
because they will also oppose the people of God. I love to
think about God being on my side, God looking out for his people,
don't you? And I pity any who come against
the people of God. What better proof of that than
what's written in three out of four of the gospel narratives.
Christ himself said, but whoso shall offend one of these little
ones, which believe in me, it would be better for him that
a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned
in the depth of the sea. Now back in Exodus chapter nine,
and I'll begin to wrap this up. Look at verse 22. Exodus nine,
verse 22. And the Lord said unto Moses,
stretch forth thine hand toward heaven. that there may be hail
in the land of Egypt, upon man and upon beast, and upon every
herb of the field throughout the land of Egypt. 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 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 break every tree of the field. Only in the
land of Goshen, where the children of Israel was, there was no hail. No judgment. No judgment in Goshen. And again we see the distinguishing
grace of God. If you could have, from the air,
looked down upon Egypt, all you could see was death, disease,
and disaster. There wasn't anything left untouched
by the judgment of God. One curse after another has made
it desolate. My friends, continued rebellion
against God brings on a continued curse. And I know that the physical
plagues that fell on Egypt didn't fall on the people of God there
in Goshen, but I can assure you that the only reason that it
didn't is that God protected them from it. They deserved it. They worshipped idols the same
as Egypt did. But God set His affection on
them, and they were His, and God protected them. And what
a picture we have here of Christ being in heaven. What a picture
Goshen is of the Lord Jesus Christ. The things that Egypt suffered
caused them to harden their hearts further. They continued right
along in their rebellion. And friends, God's people suffer
the same thing as unbelievers do. I think a lot about what
our friends, the crab trees and the fruits are going through
right now. But these things are not judgments
to God's people, as we discussed a time or two ago. They're actually
blessings. If God will enable us to see,
we look at these trials and these tribulations with a different
perspective than this unbelieving world. Trials and tribulations
often cause unbelievers in the world to harden their hearts
against God more. Well, I thought God was a God
of love. Why, why, why would God send
this on me? But the same trials and tribulations
against God's people seem to only prepare them to want to
leave this ungodly world. Sadly, if God didn't send us
trouble, now let's just be honest with ourselves for a moment.
If God didn't send us trouble, we'd probably want to live here
forever. That's just how sinful we really are. God sends believers
troubles and trials and tribulations to remind us that there's something
far, far better awaiting us in Christ. Isn't that what Paul
said in Philippians chapter one? He said, for me to live is Christ,
but to die is what? Gain. Gain. He added this, he
said, for I'm in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart
and to be with Christ, which is far better. It's far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you. When God is finished with us,
We're done. We're done, and it'll be good.
It'll be gain. It will be far better. But as long as we're still here,
God has a purpose for us. He has a purpose for it, and
it's needful for someone and somebody. Yet again, as long
as we're in this world and we grow in the grace and in the
knowledge of the Lord, God is preparing us to depart. I can
say that from experience. In these last 20 years, especially
even the last 10, there's just nothing too much about this world
that excites me anymore. And that's just mercy and grace.
God weaning us from this world and the things of it and preparing
us to dwell in his kingdom forever. What a gracious and wonderful
thing to leave and depart and being desirous to do so is far,
far better. So what do we do? What do we
do in the meantime? We just remain in Goshen. We
just remain in Goshen and watch God do His work of judgment.
Knowing that if not for the grace and the mercy of God in Christ,
we would experience the same things. Aren't you glad that
God doesn't give you what you deserve? We don't want what we
deserve. We deserve the wrath and judgment
of God just as Egypt did. But God has distinguished and
separated His people from the world and He's put them in Goshen. And what a picture of Christ
that is. I love what Paul said in Philippians 4, I'll leave
you with this, verse 19. He said, but my God shall supply
all your need, singular, not needs, plural, but this is talking
about need. You see, there's only one thing
needful, just one thing that we need, that we've got to have,
and that is Christ. And it's only by God's grace
and provision that we're gathered into Him whom Goshen represents. Thank God for it. Thank God for
it. He could have passed us by and
left us to ourselves, but He was pleased to show us mercy
and grace. Let's pray together. Heavenly
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, have mercy on us. And cause us,
Lord, to lean and trust in Christ alone for all that you require
of us. That's the only way, Lord, that
we'll ever be saved. It's for Christ's honor, glory,
and sake that we ask. Amen.