You know, we say it all the time,
but I wonder if we really believe it. God is sovereign and in control
of all things. That's easy to say. Not so easy
when things aren't going as we hope. Nothing happens apart from
his will and purpose. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
And it's an amazing thought that everything that comes to pass
in time, God purposed before time was. If we as believers
could really get a hold of that, I mean really get a hold of it,
we would never question God's providence, but we do, don't
we? We would always rejoice in the
promise of Romans 8, 28, that in all things, God is out to
do us good, in all things. The captivity and deliverance
of Israel out of Egypt was predestinated and purposed by God before time
ever was. And it's recorded and preserved
in the scriptures to show us how God's gonna deliver and save
us by his grace. In the 15th chapter of Genesis,
God told Abraham just that. Some 400 years before Israel's
slavery and Israel's deliverance, he said to Abraham, know of a
surety, know for certain that thy seed shall be a stranger
in a land that is not theirs. He's speaking of Egypt. and shall
serve them. And they shall afflict them 400
years. And also that nation whom they
serve will I judge." And that word judge there in that verse
means execute judgment upon. That's what these plagues are.
God is executing judgment upon Egypt, God's enemies. And he
said, and afterward shall they come out with great substance,
and they did. 400 years before these things
came about. And that's exactly what happened.
God knows all things because God ordains all things. The Lord
of hosts hath sworn, saying, as I had thought, so shall it
come to pass. That's the God with whom we have
to do. He says, as I have purpose, so shall it stand. There's no
possibility of it not coming to pass when God ordains and
purposes it. That they may know from the rising
of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me.
I am the Lord and there is none else. I form the light and create
darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.
Now that doesn't mean that the Lord creates the evil of sin. That's something that we do a
pretty good job of on our own. Isaiah is speaking here of God's
sore judgments. And the word evil here in the
Hebrew actually means adversity, affliction, and calamity. He's
behind it all. Whether it's war, whether it's
famine, whether it's pestilence, even disease, all afflictions,
adversities, and calamities come under the heading of evil, and
they are of God. And that's what we see in these
plagues. Isaiah went on to say in that
same chapter, woe unto him that striveth with his maker. It's
futile to strive with our Maker. And for one like Pharaoh to strive
with God, his Maker, shows us something about the hardness
of man's heart by his obstinate will to love darkness rather
than light. This is the condemnation that
men love darkness rather than light. Thus the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven, both in his word and in his works
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. That's what Paul wrote
in Romans 1.18. And that's what we see here.
That's the reason for these plagues. And there's no greater picture
of that very thing than right here in these chapters of Exodus.
And the message of the gospel is simple and clear. God is going to save his people
from their bondage and slavery and sin, and nothing is gonna
stop him, nothing. What a picture we have of the
believers' deliverance and salvation by Christ alone. Egypt, as we've
said many times, pictures this religious world in which we live. Egypt gives us a picture of Christless
religion. It's a hopeless religion. Every
religion in this world is without hope that is without knowledge
of the true God and the Christ of the Bible. A hopeless religion
is a religion without Jesus Christ. I don't care what title you put
on it, what denomination you give it, if it's without Christ,
it's a false religion. A hopeless religion is one that
embraces, now listen to me, this is important. A hopeless religion
is one that embraces the will and the works of man for any
righteousness to appease the law and the justice of God. Paul said it's a dead religion.
It's by the dead works of dead men and women. It won't get the
job done. But those in Christ are dead
to it. For they've died and they've
risen and ascended in Christ and newness of life. And God
sets them apart in Goshen, the land of green pastures, and won't
let any harm come to them. The false religion of Egypt lives
and thrives on its ability to enslave and control the lives
and the minds of men by the bondage which comes from the threat of
wrath or the promise of reward. The idea of false religion is
to govern and control men and women instead of setting them
free. Instead of preaching things that
set them free. And that's what this real religion
does. And that's what these studies are showing us and teaching us.
The gospel, the good news, God's salvation by grace alone sets
men free. You shall know the truth. And
the truth shall set you free and the truth shall make you
free. It won't bind you and bound you. False religion hates freedom. It does. It promotes bondage. It makes you its trophies by
holding you in bondage. And Aaron and Moses come to Pharaoh
and they said, God said, let his people go. And as we saw
last week, you cannot worship God in Egypt. You can't do it. God's people cannot truly worship
in this world's Christless religion. You've got to vacate Egypt. You
can only truly worship God in the wilderness. You can't think
and praise God in the midst of false religion. Why? Because their God is not your
God. Two different gods. You remember
what Pharaoh said? He said, I don't know your God.
I'm not going to obey Him. I'm not going to do what He said.
I don't know your God. And you tell people about salvation,
the salvation, true salvation that only comes by the grace
and the mercy of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and they'll
tell you right to your face, that's not my God. Has anybody
ever told you that? That's not my God. Pharaoh told
Aaron and Moses that the people of Israel were too idle. He said,
you're too idle. You want to go out three days
into the wilderness and worship your God? Well, you've got too
much time on your hands. You're too idle. False religion
cannot fathom or imagine worship that does not involve some type
of work from man's hands. Can't imagine. Religion operates
under burdens. Religion claims to have all these
burdens. We have burdens for the lost,
and burden for the poor, and burden for the hungry, and burdens,
burdens, burdens. That's what Pharaoh told Moses
and Aaron in Exodus chapter five and verse four. It says, and
the king of Egypt said unto them, wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron,
let the people from their works get you into your burdens? Do something. But the Gospel
says, Seek ye from your labor and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Cast your cares upon the Lord. Lay your burdens at His feet.
The Gospel is liberating. There's freedom. Christ speaking
of the scribes and the Pharisees said, For they bind heavy burdens
and grievous to be born, and they lay them on men's shoulders,
but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
False religion can't imagine the concept of rest. I was in
it long enough to know that. Do this and do that. Don't do
this and don't do that. Justice Farrow couldn't imagine
the concept of rest. He said, you're too idle. Too
much time on your hands. I like to rest. I've grown very
fond of it as I've gotten older. Rest is necessary. Not so much
anymore, but there was a time when I was a younger man that
when I worked with my dad as a logger, my dad was several
years on me, worked me in the ground. I mean, he could work
circles around me, could up until the day he died. I used to work
physically hard, and I'm telling you, when I got finished, I couldn't
wait to rest. Oh, let me sit down and rest.
God's people's rest doesn't come from hard labor. Your rest doesn't
come from your work at all because there is no work for you to do.
That's the hardest thing to get across to folks. There is no
work for you to do. The work is finished. Christ
finished it. The work was and is finished
by Christ and all that is left for us to do is to rest. You tell religious folks that
you're resting in Christ alone and you know what they'll do?
They'll call you idle. Just like Pharaoh did. Boy, you're too
idle. God's people aren't going to
work for salvation. They're going to worship God
in Christ in the finished work that He's already done. I've
had folks ask me, what does your church do in the community? What
do y'all do for the underprivileged? Don't you knock on doors and
witness? Don't you hand out gospel tracts? Don't you have car washes and
bake sales to raise more money for Jesus? No. We rest. And religion says, you're idle. You're idle. There's nothing
for us to do that can put us in a right standing with God.
You know that and I know that, but it's only because God revealed
it to us. Christ has already finished the
work and the people of God are made free from the religious
works of the flesh. And that's what these plagues
are all about. God exposing man's religion,
the religion of the world, God delivering his people from their
physical bondage and their spiritual bondage. It's called sovereign,
free grace. Tonight, we're going to look
briefly at the fifth plague, the plague of the beast. And
this plague was a crushing blow to Egypt. We said in the beginning
of these studies that each of these plagues just get more severe. It's been my experience that
when men and women experience such afflictions as Egypt did,
they'll always do one of two things. They'll either in humility
run to Christ for freedom and rest, or their hearts will become
harder than they were before. Let's look at these first seven
verses here in Exodus chapter nine tonight. Verse one, I'll
comment on them as we go. Then the Lord said unto Moses,
go in unto Pharaoh and tell him, thus saith the Lord God of the
Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. And again,
we see that the message hasn't changed. The gospel message never
changes. It's a message of deliverance.
It's a message of redemption. It's a message of freedom. God
is going to redeem his elect people from their bondage and
he's gonna make them free. Verse two. For if thou refuse
to let them go and wilt hold them still." Oh, I'm telling
you how I wish that men and women knew that there's always a consequence
in refusing to obey God's word. There's always a consequence.
You would think that if anyone had learned that, it would have
been Pharaoh while he's already experienced four harsh judgments. And with each one, his heart
was only hardened more." Boy, that shows you something about
these wicked and desperately wicked, deceitful above all things
hearts within us. What hard consequences await
those who disobey God's word. Notice the words used here. For
if you refuse to let them go and will hold them still. Verse
three, behold the hand of the Lord. Behold the hand of the
Lord for all who disobey God and in the end reject Christ.
Behold the hand of the Lord. God says, vengeance belongs to
me. I will recompense saith the Lord. And it's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10, 30 and 31. Verse
three, behold the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle, which
is in the field. and upon the horses, and upon
the asses, and upon the camels, and upon the oxen, and upon the
sheep, and there shall be a grievous moran. The object of this plague
is the beast of Egypt. The hand of the Lord was upon
their cattle, their horses, their asses, their camels, oxen, and
sheep. And I'm telling you, this was
devastating to Egypt. Devastating. The beast provided
everything that was essential to the welfare of Egypt and its
economy. The beast provided their food.
The cattle were used to provide for their dairy products, their
milk and cheese, and for the plowing of their other various
crops to provide vegetables. They also drank the milk of the
goats and the sheep. Secondly, these beasts provided
their transportation. Not only did they carry the Egyptians
themselves, but the horses, the asses, and the camels, and the
oxen that were tied to carts and wagons and all were the means
of transporting their goods. Thirdly, many of these beasts
were objects of worship. You know the reason that Israel
wanted Aaron to make a golden calf when they were in the wilderness,
when Moses went up into the mountain? is because that's what they had
seen in Egypt. These people worshipped cattle. There are still countries today
that do. You don't spend 400 years in an idolatrous nation
and not pick up on some of their idolatrous ways. There was a
problem with Israel all through their 40 years in the wilderness,
and even after they entered into the land of Canaan, they still
worshipped idols. And fourthly, these beasts were
their currency. It was their livelihood. Well,
you could tell the wealth of a man by how many of these animals
he possessed. Many times in the scripture,
such as in the case of Job, for example, man's wealth is described
by how many cattle and how many horses and asses and camels and
oxen and sheep they had. You see, they didn't have bank
accounts. They didn't have stock certificates. Their wealth and
their livelihood was determined by how many of these animals
that they owned and possessed. They traded and they bartered
with these beasts. So we see that these animals
collectively pretty much affected every single part of the Egyptian
life. These beasts were their food,
their transportation, their wealth, and their religion. but because
of their rebellion and because of their disobedience to God,
the hand of the Lord was up on them and not in a good way. Now
that word Moran there, I believe I'm saying that right. I looked
it up. That word used here in verse three is an infectious
and deadly disease that infects and kills livestock. Matter of
fact, the word moran actually literally means death. The Hebrew
word for moran is debor, debor, I believe, and it means destruction
or great mortality. This moran resulted in the widespread
death of these beasts. Moses refers to it as a grievous
moran. It was kind of like leprosy in
a man. You're not going to get over
it. You get this and you're done for. The definition even denotes
a combination of several diseases. And if one didn't kill you, the
other one would. And the reason for this plague
is the same reason as the first four. An unwillingness to bow
to the Word of God. You know, there are many scientists
and scholars in the world today that try to justify all these
plagues as being natural causes. Why the bloody river led to the
frogs coming ashore, and the dead frogs led to the lice, and
the combination of the germs and the bacteria of the frogs
and the blood-sucking lice led to the infectious disease of
the cattle. They'll justify everything. But do we believe God's Word
or man's? A simple reading of these chapters,
these verses in Exodus show us that God sent these plagues.
Are we going to believe God? Are we going to let man reason
away everything that God does? They are not by coincidence or
accident. God sent them on purpose. Every one of them, the plagues
I'm speaking of. These plagues were sin of God
on the Egyptians as judgment against them, as their evil in
the city, and I haven't done it. Remember what that means? Judgment, adversity, calamity,
God sent it all. And it was against them for their
obstinate rebellion against Him. Oh, there's a price to pay if
you're going to disobey God. There's a price to pay if you
don't bow to Christ. When this world in which we live
experiences hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis,
and other such disasters, men either blame Satan or they credit
Mother Nature. Years ago, insurance company
called such things an act of God, but according to what little
research I did, I don't believe there's any insurance company
in America that still calls them acts of God anymore. And if they
do call it an act of God, it's just an attempt and an excuse
to get out of paying the claim. It's God that sends these things. They had it right. It's an act
of God. And a new reason men give for
these calamities that we experience, these tornadoes, hurricanes,
tsunamis, and all that, is climate change. They call it global warming. Well, there may be such a thing
as global warming. I don't know. But if there is,
I am telling you this much, God is the thermostat. He controls
it all. The Lord hath His way in the
whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His
feet. He rebuketh the sea, and He maketh
it dry, and He drieth up all the rivers. The mountains quake
at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence.
Yea, the world and all that dwell therein, who can stand before
His indignation? Wouldn't you like to ask Pharaoh
that? Who can abide in the fierceness
of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are thrown down by Him. And again, we see the
sovereign and distinguishing mercy and grace of God in His
predestinating appointments. Look at verse four. And the Lord
shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt,
and there shall nothing die of all that is in the children of
Israel. And the Lord appointed a set
time saying, tomorrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land."
Friends, the word of God speaks in great detail concerning the
appointments of God. It's amazing. I just jotted down
a few. There's appointed times, appointed
days, appointed seasons, appointed places, appointed kingdoms, appointed
births, appointed deaths, appointed stumblings. appointed ends, appointed
wrath, appointed destruction, appointed judgment, appointed
bounds of habitation, appointed preachers, appointed heirs, just
to name a few. And God is the Lord who appoints
all these things. And what He appoints, He always
does. Look at verse 6. And the Lord
did that thing on the morrow. Just what He said He'd do, He
did. and all the cattle of Egypt died, but of the cattle of the
children of Israel died not one." Not one. And I ask myself how
anyone can read these verses and not see the absolute sovereign
rule of God over all things. God said, this disease is gonna
come upon Egypt's cattle, but it's not gonna come upon Israel's
cattle. And again we see the distinguishing
grace of God. Israel's cattle, why they breed
the same air. They drank the same water, they
ate the same grass. Only one thing prevented the
death of Israel's cattle, and that was the sovereign will and
purpose of God. God has absolute power over all
things. It was demonstrated in the bloody
Nile. It was displayed in the frogs
and the lice. And it's demonstrated even in
the things that can only be seen through the view of a powerful
microscope. Even the germs and the bacteria
that cause disease. God is in control of all of it. Pharaoh didn't see it. Pharaoh
wouldn't see it. And he continued to harden his
heart. But I'm telling you, a day is
soon coming when God divides the walls of the Red Sea and
he puts Pharaoh at the bottom of it. And it's then that he'll
see something of God's sovereign power, but it then will be too
late. God's gonna gather his people
in Goshen and he's gonna show them by his distinguishing hand
of mercy and grace that all men are beasts before God. And if
that offends you, I'm sorry, you'd be mad at God because that's
what God says. There was another great king
in the scripture, the king of Babylon, and his name was Nebuchadnezzar. And he, like Pharaoh, was a proud,
proud man. He looked out upon his kingdom
one day and he said, is this not great Babylon that I have
built by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty? And like Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar
set himself up as God. God's not going to share his
glory with another. Nebuchadnezzar believed and declared
that Babylon was built by the might of his power and for the
honor of his majesty, but God showed him differently. And God
will. And while the word was in the
king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar,
To thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee, and they'll
drive you out from men, and you'll be dwelling with the beast of
the field, and God gonna make you eat grass like an ox, and
you're gonna know that the Most High God ruleth in the kingdom
of men, and He giveth it to whomsoever He will. And in the same hour
it was fulfilled. And men asked, What is that out
there in the field? What is that? Is it an animal? Is it a beast? Is it an ox eating
grass? Is that an eagle of some kind
with wings and claws? No. That's the great king of
Babylon when God got finished with him. But God had mercy on
him. And at the appointed time, and
his understanding returned to him, and he praised and he honored
God, who lives forever. And he said, all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he, God, doeth his will in
the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand. None can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? And this is what God makes all
his elect people to know. What is that? That we're nothing
and deserving of nothing. And everything that we have is
a gift of God's grace to us. Everything. What do you have
that you didn't receive? And if you received it, why do
you glory as if you didn't receive? We're nothing and deserving of
nothing, and He is God who gives all things, and He gives them
freely. You can't work for Him. You see, there are some beasts
that God has chosen to save for His own honor and glory, and
He's not going to allow this grievous moran to fall on them. It's not going to touch them.
Why? The sovereign, distinguishing mercy and grace of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ won't allow it. God determined to save a
people, and a people He will save. And He's not trying to
save them, and He doesn't want to save them. He saves them.
The Lord Jesus said, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. How many of them? All of them. They'll all come to Christ for
life. Every single one of them. He said, all that the Father
hath given me, I shall lose nothing. How many of them are gonna be
lost? None. Not a single one of them. Not
one beast in Goshen shall see death. The Moran of sin shall
not collect its wages of death. Why? It's all according as He,
God, hath chosen them in Christ before the foundation of the
world, that they should be holy and without blame before Him
in love. They didn't do anything to deserve it. God made them
holy and without blame in Christ. Having predestinated, predetermined
them into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. Many of you know that I was adopted.
I was adopted. My parents made arrangements
to adopt me before I was ever born. They took me out of the
hospital when I was five days old. What did I have to do with
it? Absolutely nothing. Nothing. And we don't have anything to
do with the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. It's
according to the good pleasure of his will. My mother pleased
them to adopt. Why, to the praise and the glory
of His grace, wherein He hath made them accepted in the Beloved,
in whom they have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of His grace." Friends, it's
all of grace. It's all of grace. And we see
again that man has no ability whatsoever to change his heart
and believe God. Look at verse seven. And Pharaoh
sent, and behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites
dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was
hardened, and he did not let the people go. The mercy and
grace of God to the Israelites should have broken him. He should
have right then realized that God is the God of heaven and
earth and he does what he wills, but it only hardened him more.
May God be pleased to give many that we know and love new hearts.
That's what we need. We need a new heart. No other
way by which a man can believe and be saved. May God make it
so for Christ's sake.