All right, let's turn back to
Exodus chapter 8. Exodus 8. Let's read these four verses
one more time. Verse 16, And the Lord said unto
Moses, saying to Aaron, Stretch out thy rod and smite the dust
of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land
of Egypt. And they did so. For Aaron stretched
out his hand with his rod and smote the dust of the earth,
and it became lice in man and in beast. All the dust of the
land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And the magicians
did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they
could not. So there were lice upon man and
upon beast. Then the magicians said unto
Pharaoh, This is the finger of God. And Pharaoh's heart was
hardened, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had said."
Now this is the third plague. In the first plague, our Lord
told Egypt, blood is coming to you. Blood is coming to you. You have blood on your hands. And because of that, because
of your sin, blood is coming to you. Death is coming to you. In the second plague, our Lord
said, frogs are coming to you. And Revelation 16 told us they
were deceiving spirits, lying spirits. False prophets are coming
to you to the point that if it were possible, even the elect
would be deceived. Lying spirits. It's the condemnation
of God. Because they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind, false prophets, blind spirits. The third plague here in verse
16 says, and the Lord said unto Moses, say unto Aaron, stretch
out thy rod and smite the dust of the land that it may become
lice throughout all the land of Egypt. Smite the dust. Smite the dust. Now let's see
what our Lord has had to say about dust up to this point. Alright? Go to Genesis chapter
2. Genesis 2 verse 7 says, And the Lord God formed man of
the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life, and man became a living soul. He formed man of the dust
of the ground. Alright, now go to Genesis 3
verse 17. And unto Adam he said, Because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life." Verse 19 says, In
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto
the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art,
and unto dust shalt thou return." Adam, because you sinned, cursed
is the ground. Cursed is the dust, for dust
thou art, and into dust shalt thou return." Man by nature, meaning every
man and woman on this earth outside of Jesus Christ, is under the
curse of a holy God. Under the curse. And back over
in our text, in Exodus 8, verse 16, the Lord said unto Moses,
saying to Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of
the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land
of Egypt. Do you know what the gospel is? Here's the gospel. Christ became
dust. That's the gospel. To sum up
this whole plague. Smite the dust. Man is dust of the ground. From
dust you came and to dust you're going to return. Here's the gospel. Christ became dust. He became dust in the place of
His people. And instead of His people, He
was smitten. The commandment was, smite the
dust. Smitten of God and afflicted.
The plague was upon Him. In John 18 verse 8, He said,
If you seek Me, let them go. Job 33 says, deliver him from
going down to the pit. I found a ransom. I found a ransom. He was smitten of God and afflicted.
That's the gospel to God's people. But our text here is a warning
to this world. It's the curse on this world. And it says, the Lord said unto
Moses, say unto Aaron, stretch out thy rod. Stretch out thy
rod. We've been going through Exodus
and we know what this rod is. The gospel is, that rod was smitten. The curse is, that rod will smite. That rod will smite. I thought
about that scripture which says, whosoever shall fall on this
stone shall be broken, broken, brokenhearted, broken in contrite. But on whomsoever it shall fall,
it will grind him to powder, dust, dust. Verse 16 says, and the Lord said
unto Moses, say unto Aaron, stretch out thy rod and smite the dust
of the land that it may become lice throughout all the land
of Egypt. Dust means clay. It means earth. Lice means fastening. Can't get them off. It means inflicting its sting. Now, as I look at these words,
I look them up in a concordance. We have a Bible dictionary and
it has all these words and it gives all these definitions.
Very, very rarely, but sometimes a word definition will give a
scripture to go with it in the concordance. All right? So we have these words. And we
can read them in here, but once you look up what the original
Hebrew meaning is, it might totally change the word. And sometimes
you'll have a verse that goes with it to describe this word,
to describe its context, or to describe this verse. Alright? The Scripture that was given
with the word lice is Hebrews 13 verse 14. Let's go over there. Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13 verse
14 says, For here have we no continuing
city, but we seek one to come. That was strange. That doesn't
sound like it goes at all with Exodus 8, does it? For here have we no continuing
city, but we seek one to come. Our Lord said, smite the dust
of the land that it may become lice throughout all the land
of Egypt. This is what our Lord is saying.
Here's my condemnation on you. This world, this earth, this
clay will take hold on you. It will take hold on you. His people,
His children have no continuing city here. But to the unbelieving world,
He says, here's my condemnation. This world will infix its sting
on you, this clay. And you will love it, and you'll live for it, and you'll die trying to get
it. That's the condemnation of God. This world has its hold on me. This world has its sting in me. This is the condemnation of God.
Now this is so scary. It is so scary because it's got
us all. It's got me. It's got you. It's
got us all. Here's my condemnation. This
world will infix its sting on you and you will love it and
you will live for it And you'll die trying to get it. Trying
to accumulate it. Trying to hold on to it. That's
God's condemnation on this world. I talk to people all the time.
How's it going? Oh man, we're so blessed. We
are so blessed. Business is booming. We're blessed. God has blessed us. We've got
so much money, we don't even have time to go worship. We've
got so much money and I'm expounding here. We're so busy. That's not the blessing of God.
Money is not the blessing of God. It's actually a curse. And the love of it is the root
of all evil. You know that? Not money itself,
but the love of it. And I'm going to tell you what,
I have it. I have it. It's the root of all evil. And so people go through this
life so happy. Look, we just got a brand new
car. How blessed we are! We're so blessed. It's actually
a curse. It's actually the condemnation
of God. Go to John chapter 3. John chapter 3 verse 19. It says, And this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather
than light. Because their deeds were evil. Because their deeds were evil. Because their deeds were evil,
this is the condemnation. This is the plague. This is the
result. Light came into the world and
men loved darkness rather than light. Now, this hit home to
me and the reason is because For the last two weeks, as I've
been studying, I am trying as hard as I can to quit thinking
about hardwood flooring. I'm trying as hard as I can.
I'm trying as hard as I can to quit thinking about what color
paint are we gonna put on that wall? I'm trying as hard as I
can to quit thinking about how many more coats of drywall mud
do we need in the kitchen? This world has infixed its sting
in me, right? And it's, aren't we so blessed? We just got a new house. Oh,
we're so blessed. I've never had a harder time
studying than I do right now. Is it the blessing? No, we need
a house. It's a wonderful thing. But you know what I'm saying? Matthew chapter 6. Go with me
to Matthew chapter 6. I wish I could get a hold of
this. What we're about to read, I wish I could get a hold of
this. Matthew 6 verse 19 says, Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth. where moth and rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also." If that's not a truer
verse, I don't know what is. Where your treasure is, that's
where your heart's going to be, that's where your mind's going
to be, that's where your love's going to be. Oh, I wish I wanted
to be Christ so badly. Verse 22, The light of the body
is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be
evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore
the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters,
for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he
will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
and money." Mammon. It means riches, things, this
world. You cannot serve God and mammon. Go to Matthew 16. Verse 26 says, For what is a
man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his
own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Smite this world and let it sink
its teeth into man. You know, as I read these scriptures
and I give these definitions, do you know what I realize? I
am describing myself. I'm describing myself. That is
no joke. This world has latched on to
my flesh. I know that's a fact. My wicked
nature wants it. It craves it. And if I get honest
with myself, but for the grace of God, it wouldn't take much
at all for me to give in exchange of my soul. I mean really, it's scary to
me. Lord, keep me. Keep me. That's my only hope. Keep me.
If God left me to myself, I would gladly exchange my eternal soul
for one tiny drop of this world. I really would. All it took for
Esau was one bowl of sod pottage. Esau. That's all it took. He gave it all up for one bowl
of sod pottage. What a fool. What a fool to give
up everything his father had. Everything. Everything that was
going to be inherited to him. His birthright for one little
bowl of soup. You think, that's the dumbest
thing I've ever heard of. Everything this world has to
offer is no more than a bowl of soup compared to the things
which Christ has prepared for them that love Him. Compared
to Christ Himself. It's nothing. Yeah, what a fool. And but for the grace of God,
there go I. I want you to turn with me to
John 16. This is my hope. This is my peace. This is my rest right here. John
chapter 16, verse 33 says, These things I have spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world."
This world that has its grip on me, this world that suck its
sting in me, He says, I have overcome this world. That's my only hope. That really
is. This world shall not have dominion
over you. Well, back to our text in Exodus
chapter 8. Verse 16 says, And the Lord said
unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust
of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land
of Egypt. And they did so, for Aaron stretched
out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth,
and it became lice in man and in beast. All the dust of the
land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt, in man and
in beast." Romans 8.22 says, The whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain together until now. The whole creation. Sin
has infected everything. Everything. Give a dog a bone. A big bone. And watch another
dog come up and try to get a bite of it. Isn't that terrible? Man and beast. Verse 18 says,
And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth
lice, but they could not. So there were lice upon man and
upon beast. Now, if the Lord will let me,
I write notes. I'm a note writer. I got an outline
from a man who sent me an outline not long ago. An hour-long message
was on a note card this big. And I thought, how do you preach
for an hour on a note card that big? I like to write a lot of
notes. Now, if we can get away from those, and if the Lord will
let us enter into His message and not into my notes, this will
bless your heart. Okay? Verse 18 says, The magicians
did so with their enchantments, to bring forth lice, but they
could not. So they were lice upon man and
upon beast. The magicians, Pharaoh is Satan. He's the devil, spiritually speaking. His magicians are his demons.
He himself. The magicians tried, but they
couldn't. They couldn't. And so it is with
our adversary. His bounds are set. Plague number
one, death. He can inflict death if God will
allow him to. He can bring uncleanness and
false prophecy. Plague number two, if God will
allow Him to, He sends lying spirits. But He cannot bring
about the curse. He cannot bring about this curse. Who is under the curse and who
is not, only God can purpose that. That's it. He's not allowed
to tamper with that. That is good news. That's good
news. He cannot put me under the curse. Verse 19 says, Then the magicians
said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God. And Pharaoh's
heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had
said. Now since we've been in Exodus,
we keep bringing up these magicians. These are their last words in
Exodus. They don't speak after this.
You never hear from them again. They're mentioned one more time
in chapter 9 verse 11, but they can't say anything. It says,
And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils,
for the boil was upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. They
couldn't do anything. These are their last words. In
the end, our adversary, and his demons, and his captives, everybody,
is going to have to acknowledge the hand of God. They said, this
is the finger of God. Every knee will bow. Every tongue
will confess, Jesus Christ is Lord. In John 8, that woman that was
caught in the act, all her accusers stood there and our Lord kneeled
down and He started writing in the dust. And He said, He that
is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And one by one, they went away. They had to acknowledge the finger
of God in the dust. God did this. We can't do this. This is of God. Verse 19 says,
Then the magician said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God. And
Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them,
as the Lord had said. Pharaoh had no attachment to
the Lord. Saw no beauty in Him that he
should desire. And God hardened his heart because
of his sin. I don't want the Lord to leave
me to myself. I don't want the Lord to leave me to this world. This world. I want to be attached to Him. I don't want to be attached to
this world. I want to be attached to His
life. I want to be attached to His
death. And the only way that's going
to happen is if He has attached Himself to me. That's the only way. I want to
read you this in closing. There's a psalm that I love. And it's hymn number 487. And
this is what it says. Jesus, my Lord, will love me
forever. From Him no power of evil can
sever. He gave His life to ransom my
soul, and now I belong to Him. Once I was lost in sin's degradation,
Jesus came down to bring me salvation. He became dust. Lifted me up
from sorrow and shame, and now I belong to Him. Joy floods my
soul, for Jesus hath saved me, freed me from sin that long had
enslaved me, His precious blood He gave to redeem, and now I
belong to Him. Now I belong to Jesus, and Jesus
belongs to me, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity
attached. This plague is nothing but bad
news to those who do not belong to the Lord. It's the plague.
We want the opposite. We need the opposite. I need
to be attached to Christ. I need Him to be attached to
me. Alright, let's stand together.