All right, let's go back to Exodus
chapter 8. How's everybody? Hot, cold? Just right, okay. Exodus chapter 8. I want us first notice chapter
7 verse 25. It says, in seven days were fulfilled,
after that the Lord had smitten the river." Last week, we looked
at the first plague. The water was turned into blood.
And it says, seven days were fulfilled after that the Lord
had smitten the river. The Lord and His goodness allowed
Pharaoh seven days, seven whole days before he sent this second
plague. Noah. Worked on an arc for 120
years. Warning the people repent and
get inside this arc. And that's what I do. I say,
repent and get inside this arc. You've got to be inside this
ark. And from the time that God told
Noah, okay, today's the day, you go get inside the ark. Noah
sat there for seven days. That door was wide open for seven
whole days before God shut that door. Our Lord, created all things
in six days. And on the seventh day, he rested. And the apostle Peter said, be
not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord
as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. Adam was born a little over 6,000
years ago, a little over six days ago. We are in the beginning. We're
in the early morning of the seventh day right now. May we apply these things to
our hearts and repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
We're in the last days. The door is open, right? May
we apply these things to our hearts and repent for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. Well, now chapter eight, verse
one says, and the Lord spake unto Moses, go unto Pharaoh and
say unto him, thus saith the Lord, let my people go that they
may serve me. And if thou refuse to let them
go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs. Now it's amazing how our God
operates. It's very amazing. His wisdom
and his control over the greatest thing all the way down to the
smallest thing. While back, whenever I used to
live in Rocky Mount, we had a men's study before the Wednesday night
service, just like we do back here. And somebody will read
scripture and pray. And I used to try to sit next
to Brother Henry as often as I could because he'd always slip
me something. Well, he gave me this one time.
Listen to this. The peace and rest a man enjoys. depends on his confidence in
the God who controls the flight of an angel or a fly, who controls
the flash of lightning or the glimmer of a glow worm. Every
time you see that little firefly light up, you remember God just
did that. No matter how great, no matter
how small, God is in control. Man curses God. He curses his
people. He curses his creation. Man is
proud. He's arrogant. He thinks he's
somebody. He thinks he's something. And
all God has to do to absolutely ruin his day, ruin his meal,
his food, ruin his peace, and make him blow his top is send
him one fly, one gnat. Get out of here! Right? Our God is amazing. He sent Pharaoh
some frogs. Frogs. Shows the power of our
God. He could have sent lions throughout
the city. Instead, he ruined their world
with frogs. Frogs that don't do anything
but hop and croak. That's all they do, hop and croak. Well, verse one right here says,
and the Lord spake unto Moses, going to Pharaoh and saying to
him, thus saith the Lord, let my people go that they may serve
me. And if thou refuse to let them
go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs. And the
river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up
and come into thine house and into thy bedchamber and upon
thy bed and into the house of thy servants and upon thy people
and into thine ovens and into thine kneading troughs." That's
a lot of frogs. This plague is more serious to
the Egyptians than the last one. Much more serious. Each plague
gets more progressively serious. When our Lord turned the water
into blood, that was judgment on general life. The fish died. They loathed to drink the water,
but it didn't affect them until they went to that river. Out
of sight, out of mind. They didn't have to see it, they
didn't have to deal with it until the time came that they had to
go to the river. These frogs brought God's judgment to their
personal things, their pleasures in life. The filth, the filth
and the slime infected all their food in their water. Verse 3
says, the end of it says, into thy kneading troughs. I have
a margin right there that says dough. They would try to get dough to
make bread. Now think about this. They open it up, try to get dough
to make bread, and there'd be frogs inside it. Verse 3 says a little farther
up, into thy ovens. They try to cook in their oven.
And when they pulled the food out, there'd be dead, burnt frogs
laying all over it. Verse 3 says, upon thy bed. They were just crawling all over
and in their beds. They couldn't sleep. They couldn't
get any rest. No rest. They had to listen to non-stop
croaking. Non-stop just croaking on top
of croaking, annoying croaking. Please make it stop. Please make
this stop. The stink and the stench was
on everything. It ruined everything. Every good thing, it ruined it. But I want you to notice something.
Turn with me over to Psalm 91. Psalm 91. Verse five says, thou shalt not be afraid for
the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day,
nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction
that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy
side and 10,000 at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh
thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou
behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast
made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation,
there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come
nigh thy dwelling. Brother Dwight just read in that
study Isaiah 43. And I thought about this as you
were reading it. You read verse two. It says, when thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. Now go back to Exodus chapter eight. Exodus eight, verse three says,
and the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall
go up and come into that house, into that bed chamber upon that
bed and into the house of that servants and upon that people
into that ovens, into that needing troughs and the frogs shall come
up both on the, and upon that people and upon that servants. The, thy people and thy servants,
but not the Israelites." Not the Israelites. Not a frog
on them. Not one frog touched. them. As we go through this,
we're going to get to the plague of darkness. It was so dark,
they couldn't see their hand in front of their face. They
couldn't see another man. And it was so dark, no man stood
up from where he sat for three whole days. And then right after
that, it says the tent of every Israelite had light in it. Every
single one of them. No darkness there. shall not come nigh thee. Verse
five says, and the Lord spake unto Moses, say unto Aaron, stretch
forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers,
over the ponds and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.
And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt and
the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. Now verse
seven says, and the magicians did so with their enchantments
and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt. Now here's the
thing to notice. The magicians could bring forth
frogs too. They could bring on the plague
just like they brought the last one on. They could turn water
into blood too. But they could not make the plague go away. Right? You know that Pharaoh
told them, if you can make frogs come, then make them go away.
They couldn't. Couldn't do it. Verse eight says,
then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron. and said, Entreat
the Lord that He may take away the frogs from me and from my
people, and I will let the people go that they may do sacrifice
unto the Lord. This same man who back in chapter
5 said, Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let
Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go. Now this same man is saying,
Moses and Aaron, Entreat the Lord for me. I acknowledge the Lord in this. I acknowledge that He did this
and He's the only one who can take it away. That sounds like
true repentance, doesn't it? That sounds like true repentance. But listen to His exact words,
okay? Look at verse 8. Then Pharaoh called for Moses
and Aaron and said, Entreat the Lord that He may take away the
frogs from me." He didn't say, Moses, would you
entreat the Lord for me because of my sin? Oh, I've sinned against God.
Entreat Him. for mercy. Please. What he said was, would
you ask God to take away the frogs? And the Lord did. He answered
his request. We should be careful what we
ask for. The Lord might give it to us.
He just might give it to us. If Pharaoh would have only asked
a hard thing like, Would you take away my sin? That's the only way we're going
to be with Him, is if He takes away our sin. But He didn't say
that. If He would have only asked that,
but He didn't. Verse 8, Then Pharaoh called
for Moses and Aaron, and said, Entreat the Lord, that he may
take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let
the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord. Tell the Lord I'll make a bargain
with him. Tell the Lord he and I can have
a good thing going. He doesn't know this Lord, does
he? He doesn't know this Lord. Verse nine, Moses said unto Pharaoh,
glory over me. When shall I entreat for thee
and for thy servants and for thy people to destroy the frogs
from thee and thy houses that they may remain in the river
only? Moses said, you make the call. He said, glory over me. You command. You pick a time. So you will know, whatever time
you say, when you see that happen, you will know God did this. Verse 10 says, And Pharaoh said,
Tomorrow. And Moses said, Be it according
to thy word, that thou mayest know that there is none like
unto the Lord our God. And the frogs shall depart from
thee, and from thine houses, and from thy servants, and from
thy people, they shall remain in the river only." Tomorrow. Why not today? Today. If they're so miserable, why
would Pharaoh not say today? Take them away today. Here's
why. He doesn't want to give God the
glory in this. And he's hoping that the frogs will go away before
tomorrow. He doesn't want to give God one
ounce of glory in this. That's man's downfall. When they knew God, they glorified
Him not as God. That's the reason for this plague
in the first place. Verse 12 says, And Moses and
Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried unto the Lord
because of the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh.
And the Lord did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs
died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the
fields. And they gathered them together upon heaps, and the
land stank." Stank. The Lord didn't just make them
disappear. He left them a reminder. They all just died. And they had to scoop them up
in piles and deal with all that death, with all that stench. And that ought to make them think
twice before the next plague comes, but it doesn't. Verse
15 says, But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, and that
means relief, God sent relief. He hardened his heart and hearkened
not unto them as the Lord had said." As the Lord had said he
would. Now turn with me to Ecclesiastes
chapter 8. This is a wicked world that we
live in. This is a very wicked world that
we live in. And Ecclesiastes 8 verse 11 says,
Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily,
therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to
do evil. What that means is evil is taking
place and just because God is not killing sinners right now, they don't worry about it. They're
fully set to do evil. Because sentence against an evil
work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons
of men is fully set in them to do evil. Pharaoh hardened his
heart and he wouldn't let the people go. And Pharaoh represents
every man and woman who has been left to themselves on this earth.
Now, this physical judgment that God sent, this plague, represents
a spiritual judgment. What is it? We know these frogs
came, but what does that mean? What are these frogs? Romans
1.28 says, And even as they did not like to retain God in their
knowledge, God gave them over. God did this. God sent these
frogs. What are they? Well, we read
it last week. Let's turn over to Revelation
16. Revelation 16 verse 13 says, and I saw three
unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon
and of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false
prophet 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. They are spirits of devils, unclean
spirits. John said, I saw three of them. Number in scripture has spiritual
significance, every single number. When I see the number three,
I think of our Trinity Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit. I think about the fact that when
our Lord died for the sin of his people, he was buried for
three days. Three. Unclean means demonic. Spirits are false prophets in
this case. John said, I saw demonic false
prophets preaching in the name of God. Preaching in the name of God.
Anybody who has sat under a false prophet has sat under one of
these frogs. Preaching in the name of God.
Believing they're doing it all in the name of God. This scares
me. What I studied scares my heart. It scares my heart. It breaks
my heart. I have people that I love, and
you do too. I mean, I love them. I love them. And they're sitting there listening
to these frogs. And they're so slimy. They're just so slimy to me. There's nothing more slimy than
a false prophet. I do not like to be lumped into
the category with them. I don't even know how to say
what they make me think of, but I don't care for them. Fake. They're fake. They're a stench in the nostrils
of God. They love to hear themselves
speak. They just love to hear themselves
speak. They just croak, and they just croak, and they will not
stop. Would somebody just make it stop? Just like a frog, they're puffed
up with pride. You've seen a frog do that, right? Puffed up with pride. Turn with
me to Jeremiah 23. You know, we're, we're going
to go meet God. We're going to go meet God. And there are some people that
are just very nice. They're just very nice. And there
are some preachers I've met that are nice, very nice, but they're
lying to people. They're lying to people and people
are being fooled. And when I, when I look at things
and say things like this, I want to tone it down a little bit,
not be offensive, but we're going to go meet God. We're about to go meet God. And this place, when we were
getting ready to go on the radio, I was listening to the radio,
trying to find out what would be a good station, and I listened
to a lot of these frogs just croaking and croaking, and I
was thinking, come on! How can people listen to this?
Really? Look at Jeremiah 23 verse 1.
It says, Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the
sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. Verse 9 says, My heart
within me is broken because of the prophets. All my bones shake. I'm like a drunken man and like
a man whom wine hath overcome because of the Lord and because
of the words of His holiness. For the land is full of adulterers. Now these false prophets in Revelation,
it's called the great whore, religion. And these frogs, they
got all up in the bed chambers and up in the beds. And a great
whoredom has taken place. For the land is full of adulterers,
verse 10, for because of swearing the land mourneth. The pleasant
places of the wilderness are dried up, their course is evil,
their force is not right. For both prophet and priest are
profane, yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith
the Lord. Wherefore their way shall be
unto them as slippery ways, slimy, in the darkness. You know frogs
are creatures of the night. Darkness. They shall be driven
on and fall therein, for I will bring evil upon them Even the
year of their visitation, saith the Lord. Look at verse 16. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto
you. They make you vain. They speak
a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord.
He said, it's not coming from me. Verse 17, they say still
unto them that despise me, the Lord hath said, No, he didn't. Well, the Lord says he helps
those that help themselves. No, he didn't. Smile. God loves you. He didn't say
that. I didn't say that. You're a liar. Verse 17, they say still unto
them that despise me, the Lord hath said, you shall have peace. And they say unto every one that
walketh after the imagination of his own heart, no evil shall
come upon you, don't worry about it. Which he did say that, but not
through them. To his people only. Verse 21,
I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. Just couldn't stand
it. I've got a message from God.
No, you don't. I have not sent these prophets,
yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. Verse 29, It is not My word like
as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the
rock in pieces. Therefore, behold, I am against
the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal My words, every one
from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets,
saith the Lord, that use their tongues and say, He saith." They're
quoting some scripture. They're quoting some of the things
that the Lord did say. Verse 32, Behold, I am against
them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them,
and cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness. Yet I sent them not nor commanded
them. Now watch this. Therefore they shall not profit
this people at all. Sayeth the Lord. Here's what
he's saying. I don't care what they're saying.
I don't care what they're quoting. I don't care what it sounds like,
they may have a little bit of good mixed in with all that stench. But he said, I didn't send them,
they're not my prophets, I didn't command them, and they're not
going to profit my people one ounce. I don't care what they
said, even if it's right, no profit to my people. How shall
they preach except they be sent? That's it. How shall they preach
except they be sent. This is the judgment of God,
the spiritual judgment of God on a wicked world. Look at verse
39. Therefore, behold, I, even I
will utterly forget you. Oh man, I thought about the thief
on the cross and he said, Lord, would you remember me? I need to be remembered. He said,
I will forget you. And I will forsake you and the city that I gave you,
the whole city, you and your fathers, and cast you out of
my presence. And I will bring an everlasting
reproach upon you and a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten."
It's God's judgment. Isn't this awful? And the thing
about it is I've been pacing all day because I'm a spirit,
a preacher. I want to tell you the truth.
All right, now, let's find out if I'm telling the truth or not.
Go to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4, verse 1 says, Beloved, believe
not every spirit, and I'm going to tell you this until the day
I die. Don't just believe me. It's important that we see it
right there. We turn and look with our own
two eyes. Don't take my word for it. We have to take God's
word for it. Believe not every spirit, but
try the spirits, whether they are of God. Because many false
prophets are gone out into the world. They've just covered the
world. Now verse two says, hereby know
ye the spirit of God. If you want to know the spirit
of God, If you want to know if this man is of God, this is what
it says in verse 2. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. Jesus Christ, not
just every preacher who says Jesus is come in the flesh. Every
man that says, Jesus the Christ, and what he means by that is,
every preacher that confesseth that God is come in the flesh. Not just a preacher that says
God has come in the flesh, but a man who preaches everything
about this man who came is God. He has all the say. He has all
the power. He has all the will. He did all
the work. This really is God. Every spirit
that confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. I listened to a message first
thing this morning by Don Fortner. And the whole way through that,
I thought, this man is of God. I was listening to what he was
saying. I was listening to him read the scripture, quote the
scripture. I heard what he had to say about our Lord and I thought
that is in total agreement with everything I've read in the scripture.
And it's refreshing to listen to a man and comfortably know
without having to dig and find it and where is it? I think it's
in there somewhere. I believe he's telling the truth. Just
make the message clear and plain and only God can do that. And
if a man is of God and if it's God's message and God's man and
God's spirit, And it's going to be clear and plain. This is
God. Verse three, every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that God
is coming to flesh. Anybody who says, yeah, he came,
but you've got to leave. He's a frog. Every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come into flesh is not of
God. And this is that spirit of antichrist. We think, you know, there's one
antichrist coming at the end. No, it's a, anything that is
anti Christ is antichrist. Where have you have heard that
it should come? And even now already, is it in the world? This is the spiritual judgment
of God on an evil world. Go back to Revelation 16. Almost
finished. Revelation 16. Verse 13 says, I saw three unclean
spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, out
of the mouth of the beast, out of the mouth of the false prophet.
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. Now look
at chapter 17 verse 14. It says, These shall make war
with the Lamb. Who's going to win? They're all
going to get together and make war with the Lamb. It goes on
to say, And the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords
and King of kings, and they that are with Him are called and chosen
and faithful. Now look at chapter 16, verse
17. And the seventh angel poured
out his vial into the air, and there came a great voice out
of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is Done. It is finished. All those frogs
are gathering together to make war with the Lamb, but the battle
is already over. It's already over. Don't worry
about those frogs. Forget about them. They plague
us. False religion plagues us. You
drive down the road and some frog has put a sign up on something
and it plagues us and it's just plaguing us and it's just croaking
and it's on everything. You try to go eat somewhere and
they've turned their restaurant into a religious thing. It's
in our dough. It's in everything. But don't
worry about those frogs. They're the judgment of God on
an evil world, but not one frog is going to touch you. Not one. Now, I will close with 2 Thessalonians
2. I'll close with this. 2 Thessalonians 2. Verse 1 says, Now we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together
unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled,
neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us, as
that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you
by any means, for that day That final day shall not come except
there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition. That day is not coming except
there be a falling away first. That's sad. Verse 8 says, And
then shall that wicked be revealed. whom the Lord shall consume with
the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness
of His coming, even him whose coming is after the working of
Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received
not the love of the truth that they might be saved." Verse 11
says, And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned
who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Does that worry you that there's
a chance you might be one of those ones that fall away? They
said there's going to be a great falling away. Well, I can tell
you this, if it's left up to you, if it's in your hands, then
you will fall away. You're going to fall away. But
thanks be to God, it is not up to you. If you're in the hands
of Jesus Christ, no man can pluck you out of his hands. Verse 13
right here says, But we are bound to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, brethren, stand fast. and hold the traditions which
you have been taught, whether by word or our epistle, now our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God, even our Father, which hath
loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through
grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word
and work." We are going to see with each one of these plagues
that we look at, how the Lord has put a difference between
the world and His people. And that difference is Jesus
Christ. That's the difference. Because
of Him, these judgments, the judgments of God on this world,
they're not going to come to you. Isn't that wonderful? Not if you're in Christ, not
going to come to you. I don't want to be a frog. Lord,
give me truth. Open our eyes. Teach us. Preach the word. Preach the word. Give us the word. All right,
let's stand together.