Exodus chapter 8. As God enables me to grow in
the grace and in the knowledge of Him, I see more clearly, I
believe, all the time that the Old Testament scriptures are
no doubt concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. The whole Bible
is, for that matter. Paul, speaking of the Old Testament
in Romans chapter 15, said, whatsoever things were written aforetime."
That's talking about the Old Testament scriptures. He said,
were written for our learning that we through patience and
comfort of the scriptures might have hope. If anybody ought to
have hope in this world, it should be God's people. Truly the only
hope that any of us have is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
believe one of the surest evidences of salvation is found in a love
for the Word of God and a love for Christ in whom this book
proclaims. If you have no interest in this
book, then you have no interest in the Savior, nor your salvation
for that matter, for Christ is the Word and Christ is salvation.
In John chapter 14 verse 23, the Lord Jesus said, love me he will keep my words
and my father will love him and will come unto him and make our
abode with him and he that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings
and the word which ye hear is not mine but the father's which
sent me that word keep there found in verse 23, and the word
keepeth found in verse 24. And the English language means
much more than just to obey. The Hebrew word for keep and
keepeth here means to guard, to guard, to prevent from escaping. Now, what are the things that
we guard most? The things that we love, the
things that we cherish. Those are the things that we
put in safes and in safety deposit boxes, the things that mean something
to us. Whosoever keepeth, whosoever
guards His Word, in Him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in
Him. How can we know that we belong
to Christ? How can we know that we are in
Him? John told us right there, we guard his word in our hearts. And it's obvious that some of
you love the word of God. You can see it in your faces.
You're here whenever it's preached. John also said in 1 John this,
chapter five, verse three, he said, for this is the love of
God that we keep. There again, that word guard,
that we guard his commandments. And then he said, his commandments
are not grievous. Has loving and guarding your
heart with God's word become grievous and burdensome to you? The believing child of God loves
the word of God. It's everything to them. And
they look forward to hearing it over and over and over again. In John chapter 6, when many
of our Lord's disciples went back, the scripture says, went
back and walked no more with him, the Lord asked his closest
friends, he said, will you also go away? And we know the response
of Peter. We love the response of Peter.
And he said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast what? The words. the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that
thou art that Christ. You know, I never really paid
much attention to that word that there. Why did Peter say that
thou art that Christ? What Christ is he speaking of?
He's speaking of that Christ that is spoken of in the Old
Testament scriptures. They're all concerning him. Has God shown you that Jesus
Christ is that Christ? The one whom we see in the Old
Testament Scriptures, that one, that seed of the woman, that
one whom God promised would come and redeem and deliver His people
from their sin. If He has, you'll guard and love
His Word until the end. And what does all this have to
do with our study in Exodus? Everything. Everything. Because
Israel's deliverance by God out of Egypt is God's spiritual figure
to us concerning our own deliverance from this world, from the power
of Satan, and from the effects of the bondage of sin. Israel's
deliverance by God has a direct connection with our spiritual
deliverance. And Israel's story of deliverance
has been recorded and it's been preserved throughout the ages
for our learning that we might, through patience and comfort
of the scriptures, have hope. Now when I see God with a mighty
hand as he delivered Israel out of Egypt, When I look at these
plagues and see how God sovereignly moved, I have great comfort and
hope in my redemption since God delivered me the same way, with
a mighty hand. In this account written by Moses,
we see the truth about man, his state, his standing, his condition,
his nature, his unbelief, his inability. His helplessness and
His hardness. And we also see the great truth
about God. Who He is and what He's done
and what He can do. He can do anything. He can do
everything. What a God we serve. It was God
that ordained Israel's bondage and it was God that initiated
their deliverance. God determined and purposed their
deliverance and redemption. And anyone who doesn't see that,
from the lessons here in Exodus have yet to see the truth. God
does things on purpose. God saves sinners on purpose.
His purpose cannot be altered or changed. His will cannot be
hindered. And that's why it is so blasphemous
to say that any will perish that God purposed to save. It's even
more blasphemous to say that men and women are saved only
when they lend their will to God to save them. And God is
dependent on no one for nothing. He works all things, all things,
after the counsel of His own will. He does what He wills. He does what He pleases. And
none can stay His hand, none can question His motives, and
the child of God doesn't want to. These glorious things that
we're studying here in the book of Exodus reveal these things
to be so. We look at them and we know that
God is sovereign in the salvation and in the deliverance of His
people. And yet men harden their hearts time and time again, as
Pharaoh did, but God's will and purpose cannot be thwarted. He has his way in the army of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And the Lord knoweth
how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve
the unjust until the day of judgment to be punished. 2 Peter 2.9.
Now last study, we looked at the fourth leg and we talked
about the flies that God sent into Egypt and what they picture
and represent. Those flies picture religious
men and women who are under the influence of Satan and his servants. And they very well picture and
illustrate to us the false converts of religion. You know, there
are many that are religious, but yet lost. They believe they
know God. They think that they serve him. They believe that God loves them,
but they're lost. The false religious convert begins
as a maggot, as we saw, born in corruption, hatched in the
rotting flesh of free will works religion, and he feeds and he
feeds and he feeds until a transformation occurs. Then they undergo a great
outward change, their habits and their ways change, and they
grow wings and they begin to swarm. They fly here and there
to do their selfish bidding, but their nature is still the
same. They still love to feed on rotting flesh and the dung
heels of false religion. And men can change their outward
appearance and their outward actions, but inwardly, they're
still worms. That's what the scripture calls
them, and that word every time means a maggot. And they have
nothing but the desire of feeding upon the rotting flesh of man's
will, work, walk, and way. And as we saw last time, it was
with the plague of the flies that God made a distinction between
Egypt and his people. These flies did not come to Goshen
where God's people resided. Now, I don't know, you think
about this, I don't know Even looking at a map where Egypt
stopped and Goshen started. But God did. And no fly crossed
that line. That's just how sovereign God
is. It's the same today. The converts
of false religion do not swarm where God's people gather. You
know why? They have no appetite for the
things of Christ and Him crucified. They only desire the dead work
of man and the dung of man's will. And oh, don't you see that
it's God who makes a distinction. between the flies of religion
and his people. Now look at verse 22 again. And
I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people
dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, to the end that
thou may knowest that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.
And I will put a division between my people and thy people. Tomorrow
shall this be. And look at those next five words.
And the Lord did so. Friends, God is still gathering
His elect out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
And God's mercy and grace was never intended for the Egyptians. God never purposed to save Pharaoh. His purpose concerning Pharaoh
was clear from the very beginning. Let me read that to you again.
One more time, Romans 9, 17. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I
might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. It was never God's intention
to turn Egypt around. First, God doesn't have intentions. God doesn't intend to do anything.
He does. And I've heard men pray things
like, Lord, turn America around. You're not going to turn America
around as long as sin has dominion in the hearts of its inhabitants.
God is calling his elect out of this heathen nation. And when
God saves the last of his people, he's going to destroy this nation
just like he is going to destroy every heathen nation. I'm a patriotic
person. I love America. I have an American
flag in my study. I have an American flag on my
license plate. I love this country and I pray
for it. But just as it was in the days of Noah, God sees that
the wickedness of man is great in the earth. Why? Because that
wickedness is great in the men and women that inhabit the earth.
And every imagination of the thoughts of our hearts are only
evil continually. And some say, well, I'm not that
bad. You've yet to see yourself as God sees you. You see, God's
grace is distinguishing. God divides, God separates, God's
people are in Goshen, the land of good pasture. And God put
them there on purpose. And he protects them there from
the swarming flies of heresy. Now, another lesson for us to
learn is this. There was no spiritual blessing
whatsoever bestowed upon Egypt. God blessed Egypt only because
Israel was there. Egypt prospered only as God preserved
Israel. And in the end, all Egypt's wealth
and all Egypt's glory left with Israel. We have a picture of
that as they left. People were just coming up to
them and handing them their possessions. When Israel left, Egypt was in
ruins. Now, the point that I want to
make is this. There was never a time that Israel
wasn't God's chosen nation. Regardless of how it may have
appeared to the surrounding nations, Israel was the blessed of God
and Egypt was the cursed. But it didn't look that way.
It didn't look that way at all. Israel was never what we call
the underdog, though it seemed that they were. They always had
the advantage. You know why? Because they belonged
to God. And no matter how things may
seem in this life, child of God, you have the advantage because
you belong to Him. Spiritually speaking, things
are seldom as they seem to be in the physical realm, in the
eyes of natural men who only have natural reasoning. Things
seldom are seen as they really are. Why? Because the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. God's got to give you eyes to
see. And if you don't, you won't see. Egypt had the wealth they
had because God had 400 years previously prospered them through
Joseph. We studied that very closely
in our study of Genesis. And he prospered them through
Joseph in the seven years of plenty and the seven years of
famine. When Joseph stored up all that
wheat and grain in the storehouses, People everywhere else were without
food. And they came and paid Pharaoh
for that. And Egypt became a wealthy, wealthy
nation. It was the famine that God sent
that made Egypt so wealthy. And it was the famine that God
sent that brought Jacob and his sons to Egypt. And it was Joseph's
God-given favor with Pharaoh that Jacob, whose name was changed
to Israel, wound up in the land of Goshen. All of this, all of
it. Israel's coming to Egypt. Israel's
falling into slavery there. Their deliverance out of Egypt
was all by the will, purpose, and pleasure of God. For 400
years, Egypt basked in the glory and the wealth and the honor
of the world because God made it so. And when Israel was finally
delivered, Egypt is found devastated and in total ruin. And it was
God that did that too. Having many gods. Egypt worshipped
frogs. The frog to them was a god of
fertility. Their frog god was supposed to
bless them with lots of children. But it was the Israelites, it
was God's people that God blessed in number. Israel grew so great
in number that Pharaoh decided to start killing them. But to
the world, Egypt appeared to be blessed. I was thinking again
today that if you took a picture of this little white brick church
building and then took a picture of the first church downtown
or the big church out on the highway and set them side by
side and then took a poll and asked people, which of these
two do you think are blessed of God? Most would point to the
picture of the big building because most people base success on size. But God never has. Never has. The Lord did not set his love
upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than
any people, for you were the fewest of all people. Why did
the Lord set his affection on you? One reason, but because
the Lord loved you. The Lord Jesus said, straight
is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and
few there be that find it. Would many really think this
modest little group that meets here on Butyl Road were the people
of God? I seriously doubt it. But things
spiritually are seldom as they seem naturally. While God waited
in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few,
that is, eight souls were saved. Boy, you talking about a remnant,
a small remnant. Out of all that lived in the
world in the days of Noah, God saved eight people from the flood. Our Lord himself said, many are
called, but few are chosen. Now we see here in verse 24,
that all the land of Egypt was corrupted, and that word means
destroyed, by reason of the swarm of flies. Friends, there's coming
a day, let me rephrase that, it's already here. That day when
the swarming flies of religion busily buzz around deceiving
multitudes. That's exactly what's happening.
I don't think in my lifetime that I've ever experienced a
more religious time. Time will come when they will
not endure sound doctrine. Does that sound familiar? Folks
today are not interested in sound doctrine. But after their own
lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears
and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall
be turned unto fables. Those days are here. And false
religion of the swarming flies has corrupted this world by turning
God's truth into fables. What I hear preached today doesn't
even resemble the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. Look at verse
25, and Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron and said, go ye,
go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land. Now listen, if the
swarming flies of false religion don't turn a man and a woman
from God, the next attempt of Satan is always to get them to
compromise. Compromise. That's exactly what
Pharaoh was saying and doing here. Pharaoh was saying, you
can go ahead and worship your God, but do it here. You see
that? He said, go and sacrifice to
your God in the land. What he means is in this land,
in Egypt. You can worship God, but do it
here in Egypt. And when God begins a work of
deliverance, what does Satan do? He suggests a compromise. Go ahead and worship, but don't
leave. Don't leave. Don't get radical. You can worship
God right here. You can still worship your God
where you're at. After all, we have the same goal,
the same desire, we're all spokes in the same wheel, we're all
connected to Christ the center hub, we're all links in the same
chain. But that wheel doesn't turn and
that chain won't pull. You worship your way and we'll
worship our way. And it's not surprising that
many churches today have two services. I had a friend tell
me the other day that he attended the second service because the
first service was with contemporary worship, with a band and the
whole nine yards. And then the second service was
with traditional worship, piano and singing and doing the old
hymns. Well, let me tell you, neither
are worship if Christ is not at the center. Pharaoh is saying
you can serve your God and you can serve Egypt at the same time. No, you cannot. No, you cannot. I had a man tell me not long
ago when we were talking about the things of Scripture and he
said, well, we just have to agree to disagree. Not when it comes
to who God is, we can't. We sure can't. God didn't send
his messengers into Egypt to work out a compromise. God sent
Moses and Aaron, his servants, his messengers down to Egypt
to deliver his people. And their message was the same
every time. God said, let my people go. God's going to deliver them out
of vain religion. He's going to deliver them out
of pagan idolatry. Israel has been in Egypt for
so long that they've now picked up their way of worship. But
God's not only going to deliver Israel from their physical bondage,
their labor and making bricks and building, but he's going
to deliver them from their spiritual bondage. And what a picture this
is of our salvation. God is not going to allow His
people to worship in Egypt. He's not going to allow His people
to worship at the Free Will Baptist Church in Egypt. Just not going
to do it. He's going to lead them into
a barren wilderness and He's going to teach them something
about themselves and something about Him. He's going to teach
them how to worship. We have to be taught how to worship.
Those who didn't learn, those whose hearts remained in Egypt
will find as we go through this book that they all died in the
wilderness. Not just playing games here folks.
So notice that Moses in verse 26 immediately replies to Pharaoh. And we read in Moses said, it's
not meat, it's not fit, so to do. For we shall sacrifice the
abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. Lo, shall
we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their
eyes? And will they not stone us? You see, it would be an abomination
to God for them to offer Egyptian sacrifices. And it would be an
abomination to the Egyptians to offer to God as they are. So there's no way that they could
serve God in the land of Egypt without incurring either the
displeasure of God or the displeasure of their taskmasters. Everything
in the true worship of God. Now listen, it's an abomination
to this world. In true gospel preaching, there's
no recognition at all of the flesh. Paul said, for I know
that in me, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.
And you tell somebody that there's nothing good in them, and the
veins in their neck pop out like a big garden hose, and they'll
hate you and they'll desire to kill you. That's exactly what
Moses said here. He said, and will they not stone
us? Everything in false religion has to do something with the
flesh. What we do for God, not what God has done for us. You
see, the gospel, and I say this again deliberately, the gospel
is a message of substitution. Substitution is God providing
a chosen sacrifice to be offered in the place of a sinner. God
is going to be just. and justifier. And man's way
of salvation doesn't leave God just. It doesn't. He can't. To suggest that a man or a woman
can, by the work of their own hands, justify themselves before
God is an abomination to God. You cannot do it. According to
God's holy law, in order for God to remain just, sin's got
to be punished. Justice has to be satisfied.
It must be. And that can only be accomplished
one way. In the substitution of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Holy and Perfect One. There's no other way. Now look
in verse 27. Moses says, We will go three
days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our
God and He shall command us. Now I still can't find anywhere
in God's dealing with Moses before he went to Pharaoh the first
time where God told him to do that. But this, I know this much,
this is not about a three day camp meeting or a Bible conference
in the wilderness. This is about a complete and
total deliverance. this is a picture of. God is
going to completely deliver them out of Egypt and he's going to
bury Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea. But also notice
that Moses didn't say anything to Pharaoh about them returning
either. And I would make this observation,
Moses said, when we get three days out into the wilderness,
he said, we shall do as God commands us. Moses here reveals really
the real issue of our enemy's subtle attacks to get us to compromise. You know what it is? It's to
attack the Word of God. It's to attack the command of
God. Satan's greatest desire is to
get us to compromise God's Word. What did the serpent ask Eve?
Hath God said? Hath God said? Are you sure that's
what God meant? Are you sure this is what God
wants? And then verse 28, and Pharaoh
said, I will let you go that you may sacrifice to the Lord
your God in the wilderness, only ye shall not go very far away. You can go, but don't go far. Satan doesn't care how close
you come to being saved, as long as you aren't. Satan doesn't
care if you believe the doctrine of election, as long as you never
trust the God who elects. Satan doesn't care if you're
a five-point Calvinist, as long as you never leave the Egypt
of this world. Satan doesn't care if you believe
in the sovereignty of God, as long as you never trust in Christ
to put away your sin. You can go and you can make sacrifice. You can go and you can worship
your God. Just don't go far. Just don't
go far. You read the 11th chapter of
Hebrew of all those saints who died in faith. He said, these
all died in faith. They all died believing God.
Did they not go all the way? It's those that endure till the
end that shall be saved. And what is our hope of enduring
till the end? Christ having loved His own which
were in the world. He loved them until the end.
That's my only hope of enduring, and that's we endure to the end
because Christ in love keeps us until the end. Oh, I love
the fact that I'm kept by the power of God. Don't you? Oh my,
what a marvelous grace that God saved me by His grace, and what
a marvelous grace is that He keeps me by His grace. Why that's
so is because I know that I'm so prone to wonder, so prone
to leave the God that I love, but God won't let me. God won't
let me. No man, no one, nobody can pluck
me from his hand. Verse 29, and Moses said, behold,
I will go out from thee, and I will entreat the Lord that
the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants,
and from his people tomorrow, but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully
anymore, and not letting the people go to sacrifice to the
Lord. And Moses went out from Pharaoh
and entreated the Lord. And the Lord did according to
the word of Moses, and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh,
from his servants and from his people, and there remained not
one. And Pharaoh hardened his heart
at this time also, and neither would he let the people go. Isn't
that amazing? But he soon will. But he soon
will, as we'll see. Let's pray. Lord, deliver us
from ourselves. Deliver us, Lord, from our will
Don't let us have our way. Make us willing, Lord, in this
day of Your power for Christ's sake. Enable us, Lord, to keep
our eyes on Him, to keep our hearts fastened to
Your Word, to guard Your Word with all diligence that we may
be found in Christ. We ask these things in his blessed
name and for his sake. Amen.