Before turning to Exodus chapter
8 tonight, would you turn with me to Romans chapter 9 and just
hold your place there for a bit and make a few comments and way
of introduction. Romans chapter 9. It's very, very important to
remember what Israel's slavery and bondage in Egypt is all about. Israel, representing God's chosen
people. Egypt, depicting the world and
its religion. Pharaoh, symbolizing Satan, the
hardened deceiver. Moses, personifying God's servant,
God's messenger and gospel preacher. are all beautiful pictures and
types of God's deliverance of his people out of this world
and out of false religion and from the bondage of Satan by
Christ. These are true stories nonetheless,
but God recorded them in this book to show us something about
how God saves sinners. It's important to understand
that these plagues that we're now presently studying represent
God's judgments against all who oppose God and his elect. And
they teach us and they warn us of the impending doom to come
to those who are without Christ. As God did in Egypt, he still
does today. He is gathering his elect out
of the heathen nations of this world to give the inheritance
of the everlasting covenant of grace. Israel's bondage here
pictures our bondage. Israel's deliverance pictures
our deliverance. Natural Israel, now I want you
to get this, and I know you understand this. Natural Israel is not the
same as the true Israel of God. They were figurative, typical
people in that sense. God is picturing and typifying
the deliverance of his elect is going to take place through
Christ. Now all of Israel in Moses' day
were not true Israel. Paul tells us that here in Romans
chapter 9, look at verse 6. Not as though the word of God
hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are
of Israel. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be caught. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God. but the children
of the promise are counted for the seed. Israel as a whole,
just because you were of the nation of Israel did not mean
that you were a child of God, though some of them were, but
not many. Out of as many as 2 million Israelites
that came out of Egypt by the mighty hand of God, only two,
only two of that original number entered into the land of promise,
Joshua and Caleb. And they both picture something
very beautiful. Joshua gives us a picture of
Christ. His name means Jehovah. And Caleb
pictures all the faithful of God. While his name actually
means faithful dog. I would love that to be said
of me. He's just a faithful dog. Truly many are called, but few
are chosen. Now, turn over a few pages to
Galatians chapter three with me, verse seven. I want to drive
this point home because I want us to see that these things that
we're studying here in Exodus have everything to do with our
redemption and salvation in Christ. We're not just studying history
here. Here in Galatians chapter 3, look at verse 7. And Paul
again affirms who the children of God are. They are referred
to as the children of Abraham. He says in verse seven, know
ye therefore that they which are of faith, they that which
believe, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture
foreseeing that God would justify the heathen, that's you and me. How's he gonna justify us? Through
faith. through faith, verse eight. Preached
before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations
be blessed. So then they which be of faith,
there it is again, those that believe, they that be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. What did God say of Abraham in
the scriptures? He believed God and it was counted
unto him for righteousness. These are the true children of
God. Romans 4 verse 3, Paul said, for what saith the scripture,
those who like Abraham believe God and it's counted unto them
for righteousness. The only righteousness that you
and I will ever have, the only righteousness that we would dare
present to God in the day of judgment is the holy and perfect
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, those who read the
story of deliverance and redemption in the book of Exodus, those
who have not been given the revelation of God, those who've not seen,
would say that Egypt appeared to be the ones blessed, and certainly
not Israel. They were cursed. They were the
ones in bondage. They were the ones who were slaves.
It was Israel who needed deliverance, not Egypt. And people would look
on from some of these other countries, may look upon that and say, well,
Egypt's the blessed ones, not Israel. If we didn't know the
story, none of us would believe that Israel were the blessed
children of God. And it's the same today. Many
in this world have wealth and great possessions, notoriety,
popularity, even fame. And when folks see them, they
say, oh, they see their physical and their material prosperity,
and people just automatically call them blessed. Oh, they're
blessed. But are they? I wonder, seriously,
I've thought about this. I wonder if there's anybody in
this town who sees and attends the big churches in this community,
I wonder if they would look at this little group here that meets
out on Beulah Road and this little white brick building that we
consider us truly blessed of God. I seriously doubt it. Because success is always associated
with numbers and prosperity. But that's how Israel appeared
in Egypt. Things aren't always as they
appear. And this is how God churches appear today. Why? Because God had chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God had chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. Israel wasn't even considered by Egypt to be the
people of God. And this world in general wouldn't
consider our little insignificant group of people to be God's elect.
Folks can look at these big mega churches that have thousands
of people or more, meeting two or three times on Sunday so they
can get everybody in and say, oh my, the Lord is really blessing
them. But is He? If they're not hearing
the truth, He's not. And yet, got a little group of
30 or 40, maybe 15, 20 on a Wednesday night like tonight, and people
go, there can't be nothing to them. A man and woman is going
to see who is really blessed when God gathers them in Goshen
and shows them these plagues. Now, just a quick review. These
plagues that we're looking at are how God divides and how God
separates his people from this Egypt of a world that we live
in. And that's why I want us to see the spiritual significance
of these plagues. In the first plague, the water
turning into blood exposes the religion of this world and the
effects that false religion has on it. False religion claims
that men and women are saved by the work of their own hands.
You say, well, I don't see where they take, well, they say, you've
got to make a decision. You've got to give your heart
to Jesus. That's a work that you do. It's ridiculous. They
turn personal sanctification into atonement. It can't be done. Our self-righteousness is nothing
but filthy rags. Those who attempt to substitute
their own righteousness for the righteousness of God are ignorant
of how sinners are truly saved. And that's exactly what Paul
said in Romans chapter 10. He said, for they being ignorant
of God's righteousness. They go about to establish their
own righteousness. And here's why. They haven't
submitted. They haven't bowed to the righteousness
of God. And it's the blood of Christ
that saves. For Paul went on to say in the
very next verse, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. The law requires perfection.
We say that all the time because it's true. And our self-righteous
works are far cry from perfect. And only the perfect work of
Christ's righteousness will suffice in the appeasing of God's holy
justice. Religion takes the water of their
works, which is unstable in all its ways, that's what water is,
and they make it into the atonement of blood, but it stinks in the
nostrils of God and it's not fit to drink. Can you imagine
the high priest of God carrying into the holy of holies the watered
down blood work of a sinner as a sacrifice for sin? It would
not have been accepted, no. because our sacrifice must be
perfect to be so. Then we saw in the second plague
of the frogs the spirits of devils working miracles and gathering
men into the battle of that great day of God. And these frogs speak
and represent false prophets. It says there in Revelation that
they come out of the mouth of the beast, they talk about the
will of man, they talk about man's work. Their talk is actually
the opposite of truth. You can take what they say about
the love of God and it's pretty much the opposite. You can take
what they say about God's mercy and grace or how salvation is
obtained and it's pretty much the opposite. These frogs of
false religion are everywhere. They leap into men and women's
lives. They croak their lies in the
darkness of this world's night. And they cause men and women
to trust their own filthy works and not the perfect righteousness
of Christ. Then last week, we looked at
the third plague. Here comes the lice. And we saw
how these lice represent the true nature of man who has fallen
a great foe. Men and women's natural appetite
is for the flesh. That's why Larry prayed what
he did a moment ago. Lord, take the things of this
world, take the things of this flesh off our minds that we may
truly worship. We're in this world, no doubt,
and we have to deal with the things that this world brings.
But friends, we're not of the world. This third plague of the
lies pictures the nature of man. Men and women's natural appetites
for the flesh. That's all natural man lives
for. Lice is plural as we saw for
a louse, and a louse is a blood-sucking, flesh-eating parasite that feeds
on the flesh. And these lice, plural, show
us a clear picture of what is in man's heart by nature. A louse,
singular, or lice, plural, is not something that's easily seen.
I got to thinking about that. They hide themselves close to
the skin and they feed upon that flesh. And what a picture of
sin they are. That sin in us that so easily
besets us. They're practically invisible.
It doesn't take long for them to reveal what they are, or that
they're there. Why? Because they're obsessed
with the flesh. They eat upon the flesh. That's
their appetite. And how true that is of man's
sin nature. You don't have to teach a child
how to sin. It comes natural to them. The sin reveals itself
from an early age. Truly, we come forth from the
womb speaking lies. A parent asks their child, did
you mark on that wall, young man? And he sits there and shakes
his head, no, with the crayons and everything. It just comes
natural. Men try to hide their sin. But
as one old preacher said many years ago, it's kind of like
being pregnant. You don't have to tell anyone.
It'll soon get out on you. It'll soon be noticeable. And
that which is flesh is flesh. And it's always, always going
to be flesh. The nature of the flesh will
always be the same. Our flesh doesn't evolve into
something better. We don't improve. God's gotta
give us a new heart, a new nature, a new man within. No improving
this flesh. And our God is the only one that
can put away these lice, this sin that so easily besets us. Only God can put it away. And even the magicians of Pharaoh
saw that, and go ahead and turn with me to Exodus chapter eight.
The magicians of Pharaoh saw that very clearly, that only
God can do this. And in verse 19, they confessed
this. They said, this is the finger
of God. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he hearkened not
unto them. as the Lord had said. And then
here in verse 20, we find the fourth plague that God brings
upon Egypt. Look at it. Verse 20, and the
Lord said unto Moses, rise up early in the morning and stand
before Pharaoh. Lo, he cometh forth to the water
and saith unto him, thus saith the Lord, let my people go. The
message hadn't changed. Still the same message. Moses
still bring the same message. Let my people go that they may
serve me. Else, if thou will not let my
people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee. and upon thy servants, and upon
thy people, and into thy houses, and in the houses of the Egyptians
shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they
are. 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 thou mayest know
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 sign be.'" And the Lord did so. He always does what he
says he's gonna do. And the Lord did so. And there
came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh and
into his servants' houses and into all the land of Egypt. The land was corrupted by reason
of the swarm of flies. Let me just make a couple comments.
This plague marked the beginning of a new series of plagues. In
the first three, the magicians of Pharaoh had openly opposed
every time their defeat had been revealed for all to see. God
put them to an open shame. And their last words were, this
is the finger of God. And we don't hear much from them
after that. And something else which evidences that this fourth
plague begins a new distinction from the other plagues is just
that, it's a distinction. God distinguishes, God divides,
God separates his people from the world of Egypt by this fourth
plague. The Israelites in the first three
had suffered themselves. And why not? They also merited
the wages of sin that was subject to the curse of the law. But
now, starting in this fourth plague, God distinguishes between
them and Egypt. And in verse 22, we read, God
says, I will sever the land of Goshen. Now that word sever in
the Hebrew means distinguish. God is a distinguishing God.
God says, I will distinguish the land of Goshen. You know
why? Because that's where his people are. And then in verse
23, when God says to Pharaoh, I will put a division between
my people and thy people. That word division in the Hebrew
tongue means distinction. It's pretty much the same thing,
but that's not all it means. It also means redemption. That
was such a blessing to me. What a blessing and revelation
of grace that is. God says, I will put a redemption
between my people and thy people. We know that the distinction
that God makes between his elect and the rest of the world has
to do with salvation and redemption. And again, we clearly see in
the Old Testament scriptures the election of God. in picture
and in title. So let's talk a little about
these flies and what they represent. First, I would have you notice
that in verses 20 and 24, the two words of flies, of flies
are in italics and we know what that means. And it seems here
the word that stands is swarms. That's the word that's used as
the origin. The Hebrew word for swarms indicates
a mixture If you have a marginal Bible, it may even say that a
mixture of noisome insects, a diverse sort of flies. And the word swarms
in the accordance also seems to include mosquito. Apparently
these swarm were made up of not only flies, but a variety of
insects in the same family and species. We're told in Psalm
chapter 78, that when the psalmist is talking about this very plague,
It says that God sent divers sorts of flies. And I was surprised
to discover that there are over 120,000 species of flies. There are 16,000 species of flies
alone in North America. Mosquitoes are actually considered
to be in the fly family. Generally flies are put into
two categories. First, biting, blood-sucking
flies, and secondly, filth flies. Now the blood-sucking, biting
type of fly or insect, like mosquitoes, the mosquitoes have like a needle-like
mouthpiece to suck blood, but did you know that larger flies,
like what we call horse flies, have slicing appendages that
tear the flesh of its victims to draw blood? If you can imagine
someone having razor blades for fingernails, that's kind of what
it's like. They can do a lot of damage to the flesh. And then
we had these filth flies, and they're just as disgusting. Though
they do not feed on blood, they're unsanitary. They feed and lay
their eggs in trash and feces or decaying material. You've
all seen it. Filth flies are known to carry
over a hundred and some diseases. And I suppose, according to the
definition we find of swarms in our text, that every imaginable
type of blood-sucking and filth flies came upon Egypt. Swarms. Swarms. And what a picture of
false religion and the converts of false religion. Last week,
as we discussed the plague of the lice, I thought to myself,
what could be worse than just a multitude of flesh-eating parasites
called lice? The scripture says that Aaron
struck the ground and the dust of the earth became lice. They
were everywhere. Lice everywhere, on man and on
beast. What could be worse than lice,
which pictures the sin nature that resides in the fallen, depraved
nature that's found in every son and daughter of Adam? What
could be worse than that? Well, there's just one thing,
and I now know what it is, and the answer is a swarm of blood-sucking
and filthy flies. These plagues get more severe
with each one. And the answer really to that
is found in what they picture and represent. You see, the only
thing worse... that the sin nature within a
man is a depraved and fallen son of Adam, deceived into thinking
that he or she is a saved child of God. I suppose if there's
anything worse than the sin nature within us, it would be one who
has that sin nature and somehow thinks they're saved by false
religions. That's a worse plague than the
lice, that being a false religious convert. The Bible claims one
in that state to be twofold the child of hell than the religion
that produced them. He told the Pharisees, he said,
you compass land and sea to proselyte people, make them disciples,
and all you do is produce twofold, double the child of hell that
you are. And I'm gonna be honest with
you, whenever I see a fly, I got a thing about them. The first
thing I think of is what that fly used to be. I cannot help
to remember what that fly evolved from. Flies evolved from a maggot. To me, there's nothing more disgusting.
A fly is nothing more than a maggot with wings, really. And this
is how God would have us to view false religion. What a true picture
we have here of the converts of false religion. False religion
is disgusting in the eyes of God, and it's disgusting in the
eyes of God's people. False religion is born in the
dead carcasses of fallen men and women. False religion is
bred and born in those who are dead in trespasses and sin. These
maggots of false religion feed upon the dead until they're full.
These maggots of false religion reach their fullness in just
a short period of time and soon that wiggling maggot is transformed
into a fly and they go into action. Did you know that it only takes
about 10 days for a newly hatched maggot to turn into a fly? And
when I was converted into religion, I'm gonna be honest with you,
it didn't take long for me, a maggot, and that's what we all are according
to the scriptures, it didn't take long for me, a maggot, to
grow my wings and it didn't take me long to fly into action. I
remember when Teresa and I first got into religion, I hadn't been
there maybe three or four times, and they made me a part of the
praise band. And I was soon asked to be the
youth leader, and I was soon called on to preach. And I didn't
even know God. I had no idea what I was doing.
Well, I had just gotten my wings, and I was buzzing around, flying
here and there, and I thought I was doing something for God.
But all I was was a maggot with wings. When that maggot is transformed
into a fly, they don't look anything like they used to. I cut my hair
and started dressing differently, started acting differently. You
know, man's got a way of transforming himself outwardly. His looks
change, his actions may change, but inwardly, he's still a maggot.
There's no change in his nature. His appetite is still for the
flesh and for the dunghill. And if you really want to find
flies, don't know why you would, but if you really want to find
flies, you go to the dung heap. Go to the dung heap of false
religion and you'll find them buzzing everywhere. These flies
are swarming all over the dung heap of Egypt. And what a picture
that is of religion. You know, when Paul talked about
his conversion and the hope that he once had, He was very honest. All his hope was tied up in religion. His hope had been a result of
his self-righteousness. His hope had been all tied up
in his bloodline. His hope had been all in his
zeal and his consecration. While he was a Pharisee of the
Pharisees and he took pride in that, he found hope and confidence
All tied up in religion. He had achieved the highest possible
position that could be obtained in religion. And that was his
hope. When God revealed the truth to
him, do you remember what he said about his religion? He said,
I count it all but dung. It's all but dung. And that's
what religion is. It's just all dung. False religion. It's just all done. And that's
where the flies like to swarm. Well, David, I think maybe you're
twisting this around a little bit to suit what you think, what
you're trying to teach. Well, this isn't what I think,
even though I agree with it totally. This is what God says. Look at,
there's several places we could go, but look at Job chapter 25
with me. You can let your place go in
Exodus. Look at Job chapter 25. Verse four, how then can man be justified
with God? Or how can he be clean that's
born of a woman? Behold, even to the moon and
it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How
much less that is a worm and the son of man, which is a worm.
Every time, friends, that the word worm is used in the scriptures,
it refers to a maggot. You look it up in your concordance,
and it'll say a maggot, a maggot, a nasty, wiggling maggot. And what a picture we have of
the pride and religion of man. One day Herod, I believe it was
in Acts chapter 12, all arrayed in his apparel, sitting upon
his throne. Oh, don't you know he thought
he was something. He made some great speech, and the people
of his kingdom gave out a shout, and they said, would this be
the voice of God, not the voice of a man? And Herod, he got all
puffed up and with pride and he thought himself to be something,
even more than what he had thought before. He thought himself to
be a God. And the angel of the Lord smote
him because the scripture says he didn't give God the glory.
It's exactly what it says. You look at it. And he was eaten
up with worms, diseased. He was diseased with maggots.
False religion gives all the glory to man and not God. And
the maggots and the flies, they eat it up. They swarm to this
false religion of Egypt. I never thought that I'd spend
an hour or two studying flies as much as I hate them. But here's
another interesting fact concerning flies. They live a very short
life. The life of a fly is short. I
forget how many lenses a fly has on his eyes. A bunch. And he sees things that the normal
insect can't see. Boy, there's another picture
there, isn't it? Religion sees a lot of things
that other people doesn't see, and most of them aren't in this
book. But a fly's life is 15 to 25 days. And when a fly appears,
it's already in its final stage before death. A man in false
religion is in his final stage before death. And sadly, there
are not many who are saved out of false religion. There's just
not. You can't convince someone in
religion to change their mind about what they believe. God
can't, but very seldom it seems he does. Multitudes of men and
women are gonna die trusting in a decision they made. They're
gonna die in a false profession of faith. And they're in their
final stage of reprobation. And they'll die trusting a free
will work that they did. And that's what the false religionists
said to Christ. They said, haven't we done many
wonderful works in thy name? That's what they were trusting
in. The only hope the flies of religion has is for God to reveal
the plague of false religion in them. That's how the nation
of Israel was delivered. And that's how the true Israel
of God is delivered. God reveals these things to us.
God must sever them. God must separate them. God must
put them in the land of Goshen. It's an act of sovereign grace
when he does. Go back to Exodus 8. I want to
show you one more verse in closing. Exodus chapter 8, I want you
to look again in verse 23. God told Pharaoh, he said, I'll
put a division between my people and thy people tomorrow, shall
this sign be. Now God was not only speaking
here of the next day when the flies came. He was also speaking
about the spiritual fulfillment of this plague, which is talking
about today. Talking about our day. This is
talking about the day of Christ when God will fulfill what he
predestinated before time ever was and separated his people,
his elect. And he's gonna cause them to
trust in Christ alone to have their sin put away. Tomorrow
is talking about the day when God calls His chosen to see the
false religionists rejoicing in their feeding upon the dead
and decaying things of the flesh and rejoicing in the filth of
man's work and so-called righteousness. And they shall be damned. This
is the day when God reveals Christ and Him crucified as the only
means of redemption and deliverance. I guarantee you, the Israelites
in Goshen, they knew who saved them. Brothers and sisters, if
we don't see the spiritual significance of these plagues and what they
represent, then we've simply wasted our time. We'd better
off to stay home. But if God enabled us to see
them, in all high I pray he will, we see the vanity of the world,
Egypt's religion. And we'll run to Christ who hides
us in Goshen. Do you know what Goshen is? It's
that pasture land suited for God's sheep. You remember when
Joseph's brothers came, he put them in the land of Goshen. That
was the best pasture land there was. It's grazing pastures for
God's sheep. And they're cared for by their
good shepherd. That's what these things teach
us. They teach us to run to Christ, the Good Shepherd in Goshen.
Oh, may God be pleased and make it so for you and for me.