Exodus chapter 9. Tonight we're going to look at
the sixth plague. We have not been in Exodus for
quite a while. And we're going to look at the sixth
plague tonight. I hope that the Lord will teach
us I hope that this is of the Lord.
I hope it's just right. I hope that it's for our learning. I pray that He'll meet with us.
The Lord sent 10 of these plagues. And they all have spiritual significance. The reason for every single one
of them was the Lord was saying something spiritually. It was
for their disobedience. They all came because of disobedience.
But every single one of these have spiritual significance. The first three plagues came
upon everybody. And there's a lot of details
about these plagues that I'm going to tell as we go through
them. There's a lot of details I'm not going to tell right now
because it's just too much. It's too much. But the first
three plagues came upon everybody. Nobody was exempt. Here was the
first one. Blood. The rivers all turned to blood. Actually,
all of the water turned to blood. Blood is on our hands. We are
a small number, and we all know that. We've all heard that many
times, but may we not take it for granted. Blood is on our
hands. Those people who brought our
Lord before Pilate, they said, crucify Him. His blood be on
us and on our children. And that's exactly what happened. We have blood on our hands. Think
about if you actually murdered somebody. I was watching a television
show last night and a woman murdered somebody. And she couldn't believe it.
She went in shock. Think if you actually murdered
somebody, the guilt that would come over you from having blood
on your hands. Well, we have blood on our hands,
and it's real. Outside of Christ, we have blood
on our hands. The second plague was frogs,
and they represent unclean spirits. And that's what we all are by
nature. We're all unclean. Every single one of us. The third
plague was lice. And lice came from the dust of
the ground. Our Lord told Adam, Cursed is
the ground for thy sake. For dust thou art, and unto dust
thou shalt return. In Adam we're all cursed. Outside
of Christ, we're all going to be cursed. Every single one of
us. But the Lord put a difference. Our Lord told Moses to tell Pharaoh,
for this same purpose has God raised you up. He's going to
show His power in you. The Lord did all this to show
His people something. Show the world something and
show His people something. He put a difference starting
with the fourth plague from there on out. And He did this because of a
covenant that He made with Abraham a long time ago. He said, your
seed, they're going to be in bondage 400 years, but I'm going
to bring them out. So the Lord put a difference
between His people and the rest of the world. And the fourth
plague that we looked at Swarms of flies. Look at chapter 8 verse
21. It says, Else if thou wilt not
let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee,
upon thy servants, upon thy people, into thy houses. And the houses
of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also
the ground whereon they are. But he says in verse 22, I will
sever in that day the land of Goshen. That's where Israel was. 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. The word swarms, it meant mortgaged. Mortgaged, it meant sold to. Completely taken with this world.
But the Lord said, not my people. Not my people. Verse 23, chapter
8, verse 23, he said, I will put a division. And that word
division, if you have a margin, it means redemption. I will put a redemption between
my people and thy people. I'm going to do something. I'm
going to do a work to put a difference. Now, does your Bibles, do they
have margins in them? Your other one does, doesn't
it? Margins in them? We're going to be looking at some margins.
The fifth plague was a grievous murrain. And that means a massive
destruction. But the Lord said, it's not coming
to my people. I'm going to put a difference.
Chapter 9, verse 4 says, And the Lord shall sever between
the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt, and there shall
nothing die of all that is the children of Israel." Nothing.
Why is that? It's because a redemption has
already been made. A redemption means the price
has already been paid. Nothing else is going to die.
So here we are now at the sixth plague. And it says, In chapter
9, verse 8, the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to
you handfuls of ashes of the furnace. Reach down at this furnace
where there are some ashes. And you get a handful of ashes.
And let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.
Throw it up into the air. And it shall become small dust
in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth
with blains upon man and upon beast throughout all the land
of Egypt. And they took ashes of the furnace
and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses sprinkled it up toward
heaven, and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon
man and upon beast. And the magicians could not stand
before Moses because of the boils, for the boil was upon the magicians
and upon all the Egyptians. And the Lord hardened the heart
of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had
spoken unto Moses." Boils. Breaking forth with blains. A blain is an inflamed sore. It's an inflamed ulcer. Breaking
forth. You know what that means? Putrefying. It's a putrefying sore. Is that starting to remind you
of anything else in God's Word? Putrefying sores? Go over to
Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1. Verse 1 says, The vision of Isaiah, the son
of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days
of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear,
O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have
nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against
me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib,
but Israel does not know. My people doth not consider.
Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers,
children that are corruptors, they have forsaken the Lord,
they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are
gone away backward." And my margin right there says separated. They're
separated. That's us. That's us by nature. Verse 5 says, Why should you
be stricken any more? You will revolt, that means rebel,
more and more. The whole head is sick and the
whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even
unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment." That's our flesh. That is our flesh. Because of
sin, it is a terrible sight. It is just a terrible sight.
Go over to Psalm 5. Psalm chapter 5 verse 9 says,
There is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part is very
wickedness. Their throat is an open sepulcher,
an open grave, stinking, vile. Their throat is an open sepulcher. They flatter with their tongue.
That is our flesh because of sin. because of rebellion. This is what the Lord told Moses
in Exodus. Moses represents the law. Show
the people what they are. They kept hardening their hearts,
hardening their hearts. And the Lord told Moses, and
this one came without warning. He said, you go grab some ashes
out of that furnace and you throw them up and you show the people
what they are. And they all broke out with boils,
breaking forth in blains, vile, just vile. Some of the old writers
say that the furnace where Moses picked up the ashes and threw
them up into the air, it was a furnace where sacrifices were
being made. to their gods, trying to stop
the plagues that God was sending. They were trying to make an appeasement
to God, sacrificing, trying to stop all this. How can we stop
all this? Moses, show them what their works
produce. Putrefying sores. The whole planet needs to hear
this. The whole planet needs to hear
this. And here's why. The whole planet
believes they are doing good things. Moses, he's the law. This holy law. The strict justice
of God. Show them what their deeds are
doing. Show them what their works are
doing. Putrefying sores. Go over to Job chapter 2. Job chapter 2. Verse 7 says, So went Satan forth
from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils
from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a
potsherd to scrape himself withal, and he sat down among the ashes."
Now, the Lord said Job was perfect and upright and one that feared
God and eschewed evil. You know what that means? Man
at his best state. The best state is altogether
vanity. There is none that doeth good,
no not one. You know, I try to be a good
person so I can get to heaven. There is none that doeth good,
no not one. So back over to Exodus. Exodus chapter 9. Here's what
the Lord is saying with these three plagues. These second set
of three where he's put a difference. The swarms of flies, this grievous
murrain, these boils upon man. Here's what he's saying. You
have given yourself to this world and I'm going to destroy you
because of it. And when I destroy you and you go meet God, you're
going to realize that all your works are going to condemn you.
All your works. That's the point of this message.
We need His works. We need His works. Our works
have got to cease. They're going to condemn us.
The things that we were trusting in to make us justified before
God, they're actually going to be the things that condemn us.
You know, they went in Matthew 7 to the Lord, Lord, Lord, haven't
we done all these wonderful things? Depart from me ye that work iniquity.
All that is what's condemning you. because of all the sin in
it. So verse 8 says, The Lord said
unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the
furnace, the root of all your works, and let Moses sprinkle
it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. Let the law bring
your works before God. Those are your works. Let the
law bring them before God. And it shall become small dust
in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth
with blains upon man and upon beast throughout all the land
of Egypt. And they took ashes of the furnace and stood before
Pharaoh, and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven, and it became
a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast." Now,
I have references here. I told you we were going to look
at some references. I want to show you something that comes from this. I have references for verse 9
and I have references for verse 11. In verse 11, my references
go to the word magicians. And it says, chapter 7 verse
11, which we already looked at whenever we were going through
the previous plagues and we showed where it talked about the magicians.
Chapter 8 verses 18 and 19, we already looked at that. 2 Timothy
3 verse 9. That's where it lists the names
of these magicians, okay? So we're not going to turn to
those, we're not going to look at that. Verse 9, I have four references
listed. Leviticus 13, 2 Kings 20, Job
2, and Revelation 16. And they all go to this word,
boil. All right, these references help
us compare scriptures. As we compare scriptures, we
see the meaning of them spiritually, we see the meaning of them physically.
And we're going to turn to a scripture and I want you to see why I'm
going there. This is why I'm doing this. I want you to see
why I'm going there. Leviticus 13 is talking about
how you're going to know if a sore or a boil is leprosy. They say,
this is what it looks like, and if this is leprous, you're going
to put them away for seven days. And they got to be cut off. They got to be shut up, cut off
from people. They're going to die. Leprosy
represents sin. And this sin is covering us from
our crown of our head to the sole of our foot, totally covered.
2 Kings 20, that reference right there, talks about a man named
Hezekiah who was sick unto death with a boil, and God healed him. He spared him. The impossible
was accomplished by God. This man was going to die, but
God. Job 2, we just turned there just
a second ago, when Satan afflicted Job. Without the hand of God,
no man is exempt from this. No man. I don't care how good
he appears to be. No man is exempt from this. Now,
Revelation 16. That's the last one on there.
All of the Word of God, it says the exact same thing. There is
one theme in this book, start to finish. One message, and here's
what it is. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in His sight." The law cannot justify
man. And salvation is totally in,
of, and by Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the entire
message of the book. That's what the books of the
law say. that Moses wrote. That's what
the Psalms say, the Prophets, the four Gospels, the Epistles,
and the Revelation. As many as are under the works
of the law are under the curse. That's what it says over and
over and over again. But as many as are of the works of Jesus
Christ, they're under the blood. They're under this covenant.
Okay, now, keeping that in mind, go to Revelation 16. Turn with
me over to Revelation chapter 16. Revelation 16, the reference
was to verse 2, and this is what it says, The first went and poured
out his vial upon the earth, and there fell a noisome and
grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and
upon them which worship his image. Now what does that mean? And
what does that have to do with Exodus 9? It says, "...the sore fell upon
the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which
worshipped His image." Now how can we understand what that means?
Here's how. We're going to turn to the reference.
Okay, there's a reference down here and it says go to chapter
13. So go with me over to chapter 13. Verse 1 says, And I stood upon
the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea,
having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns,
and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. Everything that's
not the truth is blasphemy. Total blasphemy. And I'm going
to tell you that that is exactly what's going on in the name of
religion. Total blasphemy. Complete and
total blasphemy. Look at verse 15. And He had
power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image
of the beast should both speak and cause, that as many as would
not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he
causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond,
to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads. And I'm not going to be secretive
about any of this. This is talking about man's works. And it's talking
about a mark that's either in the head or the hand. It's either
in the will or the work. People think that they can work
their way to heaven. Verse 17 says, And that no man might buy
or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast,
or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that
hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is
the number of a man, and his number is six hundred, three
score, and six." 666. Now if you want to get extremely
sidetracked on something that is not the issue, try to count
that number. That's what men do. They're trying
to figure out what is the meaning of this number. That's the most
speculated, guessed upon, I have no idea what that number means.
No idea at all. Some people think it's a date,
some people think it's a number of years that something's going
to take place. I have no idea what the physical
meaning of that number is. I could spend the rest of my
life trying to count this number, and I'd spend the rest of my
life missing Christ. Missing Christ in it. It says, here is wisdom, I'm
a fool. It says, let him that hath understanding,
I don't have the understanding, count the number of the beast.
I can't count that number. But I can tell you something
about this number. And it has everything to do with
Exodus 9. Verse 18 says, it is the number of a man. Six is the
number of a man. You know what day God created
man on? The sixth day. Do you know how many days God
commanded man to work? Six days shalt thou labor and
do all thy work. But not on the seventh. Seven
is rest. Six is not there yet. Seven is
perfection. Six is not there yet. Six is man's number. Man's works. And man's works is false religion. Every religion other than the
truth is built on man's works. I don't care what their sign
says. It's built on man's works. Work, work, work. Always striving, never reaching
perfection. Never reaching number seven.
Now right after that, chapter 14 verse 1 says, I looked and
lo, a lamb stood on the Mount Zion. That lamb has a capital
L. Back in chapter 13 verse 11 it
says, I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth and
he had two horns like a lamb. and he spake as a dragon. But
this Lamb is a capital L. That's Jesus Christ. He stood
on the Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred, forty, and four thousand,
having His Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven
as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder.
I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps, And
they sung as it were a new song before the throne and before
the four beasts and the elders, and no man could learn that song
but the 144,000 which were redeemed from the earth." No man could
learn that song but the redeemed. Verse 5 says, And in their mouth
was found no guile, for they are without fault before the
throne of God. And I saw another angel fly,
for they are the spirits of devils, working miracles which go forth
unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather
them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold,
I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and
keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. I want you to go down to chapter 14, verse 14. It says, I looked, and behold
a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of
Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp
sickle. And another angel came out of
the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the
cloud, Thrust in thy sickle and reap, for the time is come for
thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he
that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and
the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of
the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar which had power over
fire, and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle,
saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the
vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel
thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine
of the earth." Now I'm going to tell you something right now. This is my first time to do this. I'm going to show us the gospel.
I got a lot of information here. I studied a lot of stuff and
it's not working. I'm going to show you the gospel. Chapter 14, verse 19. And the angel thrust in his sickle
into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth." Okay,
now we're in the book of Revelation. This mysterious book that everybody's
wondering about, right? Just hold your place right here
and turn with me to John 15. John 15 verse 1 says, I am the
true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Verse 4 says, Abide
in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except
ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, and without me you
can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he
is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them,
and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. Now look
at verse 11. These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full. This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend."
Now go back to Revelation 14, verse 19 says, And the angel
thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine
of the earth, that's Jesus Christ, and cast it into the great winepress
of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden
without the city. You know where that is? That
was on Golgotha's hill, way outside of the city. And blood came out
of the winepress even unto the horse bridles by the space of
a thousand and six hundred furlongs. And then chapter 15 says, ìI
saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels,
having the seven last plagues. For in them is filled up the
wrath of God.î And he goes on to say, look at verse 3, ìThey
sung the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb,
saying, ìGreat and marvelous are thy works.îî Lord God Almighty,
just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. Verse 6 says,
And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven
plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their
breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave
unto the seven angels seven golden bowels, full of the wrath of
God, who liveth forever. Seven angels, seven bowels, seven
plagues. 777. That's God's number. Perfect. Finished. Verse 8 says,
And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and
from His power, and no man was able to enter into the temple
till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.
God's people know man has no part in it. Moses, pick up the
ashes, throw them toward heaven, and you show them what their
sacrifices and what their works are doing for them. It's nothing. It's putrefying sores. God's
people say, thy will be done. Thy works be done. Now chapter
16 says, And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying
to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials
of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went and
poured out his vial upon the earth, and there fell a noisome
and greasome sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast,
and upon them which worshipped his image." Condemnation. Judgment. judgment. Romans 8 verse 1 says, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ.
We do not plead our works at all. We do not. We pray that
God has put a difference. We pray that difference is a
redemption. And if that's the case, we're
under his works. And his works are going to be
cast up to God and they're going to all be accepted. All right,
let's stand together.