WORDS IN THAT SONG THAT THOU,
MY GOD, SHOULDST DIE FOR ME. THAT'S AN ASTOUNDING STATEMENT,
BUT A TRUE ONE. PAUL WROTE IN THE BOOK OF ACTS
20, 28 THAT GOD PURCHASED THE with his own blood. The vast part of religion does
not understand who died on that cross. If God Almighty came into
this world, took upon Him flesh, became a man, and went to the
cross and died for me, I assure you I'm going to be saved. I
assure you I'm going to be saved now God Almighty is not going
to take upon him flesh and become a man and die in my place and
me perish that's not possible if you understand who's hanging
on that cross you'll understand salvation that's when you'll
really understand salvation Exodus chapter 9. Now I'm going
to do just an overview, try to do just an overview of this chapter
this morning and then come back next Sunday and bring a message. He that feared the word of the
Lord and he that feared not. But this morning I titled it,
The God of Israel versus the God's little G of Egypt. The God of Israel versus the
gods of Egypt. I mentioned this to you some
weeks ago, that many of the plagues were a direct ASSAULT upon the
gods of Egypt, the gods they worship. Many of the plagues. If you realize that, you see,
you have more of an understanding of what's going on. Well, I got interested in a little
more about that, and so I went in search to find out if there was a god worshipped
in Egypt of cattle, because I know the Hindu. You know, they worship
the cattle, they won't kill a cow, they're just sacred to them.
Cattle can do whatever they want there, especially those Brahma
bulls, they can just do whatever they want. Well, it was interesting
what I came up with. I'm going to give this to you,
then we'll go through this chapter. But in Egypt, in the days of
Moses, and I asked this question, A.I. is pretty good, it could
be pretty good if you were to use it right. I asked this question
to A.I. and I'll give you the results
of it because I asked if there were any gods that represented
cattle in the time of Moses when the children of Israel were in
Egypt. And here's what I got. In ancient
Egypt, cattle were objects of religious worship, veneration. And there were deities associated
with cattle. There was the God of Hathor,
a major goddess often depicted as a cow or as a woman with cow
horns and a sun disk. She was associated with motherhood,
fertility, love, and the sky. Hathor was widely worshipped
and had temples throughout Egypt. And then there was another one
called Apis, a sacred bull, worshipped primarily in Memphis, but Apis
was seen as an earthly manifestation of the god Tau, and later associated
with Osiris. Apis bulls were chosen based
on specific markings and lived pampered lives with elaborate
burials upon death. This is how much they worshipped
them. And then there was another one called Nevis. It was another
sacred bull associated with Ra, which was the main god of Egypt.
and worshipped in Heliopolis. Nevis was less prominent than
Apis but still part of Egypt's sacred tradition. Here's where
it gets interesting. The worship of a golden calf
by the Israelites in Exodus 32 is widely seen by scholars as
influenced by the Egyptian bull worship of Apis. The Apis boy in particular would
have been a visible and powerful symbol of divine authority in
Egyptian religion. Now, one of the first things
God's going to do in this plague, you know what He's going to do?
He's going to kill the cattle. Where's Apis at? Where's Nevis
at? Where's Hathor at? That they
can't save the cattle. God's going to show them the
inability OF THEIR FALSE GODS, IT REALLY STANDS OUT WHEN YOU
REALLY UNDERSTAND THEIR WORSHIP, AND GOD TOOK WHAT THEY WORSHIPED
AND JUST PUT IT RIGHT IN THEIR FACE AND SHOWED THEM THE IMPOTENCE
OF THE GODS THAT THEY WORSHIPED. But also I see something else
here when I was reading this, IT PROVES TRUE! THIS IS SO TRUE! EVIL COMPANIONS CORRUPT GOOD
MANNERS. When they couldn't see Moses
after 40 days and night, they said, Aaron make us a calf, make
us a bull to worship like we had in Egypt. They were in Egypt
for 400 years and they fell into the false worship of those Egyptians. So the Word of God stands true.
EVIL COMPANIONS CORRUPT GOOD MANNERS. All right, now let me
do an overview of this chapter and I'll try to do it as quickly
as I wisely can. Put it that way, as I wisely
can. Here's the fifth plague. God is going to kill these cattle
and the livestock. But the verse 1 Verse one, the
very first thing that it stood out to me is this, the message
never changes. Every time God was going to face
Pharaoh, when he sent Moses to Pharaoh, the message was this,
let my people go. There's no compromise. They're
not going to sit down and have peace talks. They're not going
to do that. God's not going to do that with
the rebels. We do that, but God does not do that. This is one
of the reasons that natural enmity that's in man rises up against
God because God exercises His sovereignty in EVERYTHING because
everything's His. It's His right to do so. How
in the world can darkness and light sit down and make a compromise? That can't happen. Even in this
room, there's no compromise between darkness and light. Come into
this room and there's darkness. Flip the light on, what happens?
Darkness has to leave. Light drives darkness away. It
doesn't compromise with it. God is light. God is light and
He's not going to sit down and compromise with darkness. There's
not going to be any peace talks. And I thought of the gospel,
the gospel message never changes, does it? There's no compromise,
we don't compromise the gospel, we don't take the edge off the
gospel. Paul speaks of the offense of
the gospel. The gospel is offensive to the
natural man, it's offensive. It offends his thoughts of God,
it offends his wisdom, it offends his thoughts of himself, it's
offensive. And we're not going to take the
edge off the message just so we can fill pews. We're not going to do it. It would be dangerous. You
know, the gospel is called the everlasting gospel. It's the
unchanging gospel. You know, the gospel is the same
as it was in the beginning after Adam fell, God spoke of the seed
of the woman. I'm preaching to you that seed
of the woman this morning, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you go
from Genesis to Revelation, the message never changes. There's no compromise. And then the second thing we
see in verse 2 is the consequence for disobedience to the message.
You know there's consequences here this morning. He said, My
word will not return to Me void. Didn't God say that? He said,
It will accomplish what I send it to accomplish. IT WILL EITHER
MELT THE HEART OR IT WILL HARDEN THE HEART. The rebellious heart
will be hardened. He says here in verse 2, IF THOU
REFUSED TO LET THEM GO. You know all Pharaoh had to do
to avoid all of this was OBEY GOD. That's it. Just OBEY GOD. but he wouldn't do it. Refusing
God's message always brings CONSEQUENCES. Disobedience always brings JUDGEMENT. By one man's disobedience And
it was one act of disobedience, wasn't it? It wasn't many acts
of disobedience, and then God finally kicked him out of the
garden. One time, you see, God's holy, He cannot look upon sin. He has to deal with every sin. Here's the beauty of Christ crucified.
Every sin that I have, ever will have, was dealt with in Jesus
Christ. Every one of them, every one.
Not just a lump sum, You know, if you go to court and you're
there for two or three crimes, they deal with two or three crimes,
don't they? Every one of my sins, now listen, every one of the
sins of God's elect was dealt with on Jesus Christ at Calvary.
Every one of those sinners. Every sinner for whom He died
was dealt with at Calvary. If you refuse, listen, consequences
for disobedience is real. And then here in verse 3, we
see here that creation suffers due to man's sin. What did those
cattle ever do? What did the horses do, the donkeys
and all? What did they ever do against
God? SIN REACHES BEYOND MAN AND TOUCHES
ALL OF CREATION. You see, Adam was put over all
of creation. God put him over everything.
He was king of the earth and when he fell, he brought down
the whole human race and he brought down creation itself. See, he
was the federal head, he was the king, he was the representative.
We all fell in Adam. Yes, Jesus Christ is the federal
head and representative and all who are saved are saved in Christ
We died in Adam. We were made alive in Christ But there's listen the hand in
verse 3 the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle There shall
be a very grievous moraine a disease that's gonna fall upon all of
them and they're gonna die Gonna die, you know what Paul says
in Romans 8 22 we know THAT THE WHOLE CREATION GROWETH
AND TRAVAILETH IN PAIN TOGETHER UNTIL NOW." ALL OF CREATION,
ALL OF CREATION GROWNS AND TRAVAILS. THERE WASN'T A DESERT ON THIS
EARTH UNTIL ADAM FELL. THERE WAS NOT A BARREN PLACE
ON THIS EARTH UNTIL ADAM INTRODUCED SIN INTO THIS WORLD. AND THEN
MANY OF THESE PLACES BECOME BARREN, GOT DESERTS. Place starving for
water. Those are just examples to us
of what sin does. They're just examples. And then here in verse 4, God
makes a distinction between His people and the world. He calls
them His people, doesn't He? My soul, that's so plain throughout
the whole Word of God. Paul said there's a remnant according
to the election of grace. I'm not going to tear pages out
of the Bible just because I don't like it. I like it. There was one time I didn't.
But I like the whole Word of God. I love thy law, David said. I love God's law. I love His
Word. It's good. But there are many who would
like to tear pages out of this book. But God said here in verse 4,
between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt. God
puts a difference between His elect and the world, He does.
Even their possessions are protected, not a cattle, no cattle died
in Goshen, none of their cattle died. Remember last week, no
flies entered Goshen, the plagues did not enter Goshen, Christ
is our Goshen. Our sins are gone in Christ or
put away. They can't touch us. They can't
touch us in Christ. I'm getting ahead of myself.
There's no judgment in Christ. God protects His own. God rules
and He overrules the world for our good. Do you know that? God
is ruling the Lord Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of
lords is ruling right now this world for our good. So we need
to stop complaining. Whoever God puts in office, He
puts in office to bring about His eternal purpose. That's why
He does it. And then verse 5, judgment has
a set time. Now God said, I'm going to do
this if you don't let My people go. I'm going to bring judgment
on you. And the Lord appointed a set time. You know there's
a set time for judgment. This is what brought the conversation
up between me and Jeremy yesterday. I said there's a set time when
this and it's hard to comprehend, but this world, this earth, all
this WILL NOT EXIST! It will be GONE! Now if that's
not so, then the Bible's not so! Everything in the Word of
God is TRUE! It's not part TRUTH and part
NOT, it's ALL TRUE! And this is all going to be GONE!
There's a set time And I think we're getting close to it. But
there's a set time for all of this to dissolve and that new
heaven, new earth be ushered in. God said so! God said so! And Ecclesiastes
3 is the time and purpose for everything under heaven. And
then in verse 6 we see that God keeps His Word. He said the Lord
did that thing that He said on tomorrow. He always gave a set
time for judgment. That's the mercy of God. Remember
right now, right now, I can tell you by the Word of God, judgment's
coming, judgment's coming. You're being warned already,
just like He warned them. Every word of God is sure. Listen to Numbers 23, 19. God
is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he
should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? OR HATH HE SPOKEN, AND SHALL
HE NOT MAKE IT GOOD? Shall he not make it good? Then
we see here that TRUTH NOT HEEDED HARDENS THE HEART OF THE REBELLIOUS. Pharaoh's heart was hardened,
his heart was hardened. TRUTH TO A CHILD OF GOD WILL
SOFTEN YOUR HEART, IT WILL EDUCATE YOU, MAKE YOU WISE, BUT TO THE
UNBELIEVER IT WILL HARDEN YOUR HEART, IT WILL BRING OUT THAT
NATURAL ENMITY." He was like, oh, I hate that. You know, I
was talking to a man years ago, and he came a few times to 13th
Street and listened to Henry. He only came a handful of times.
And he said to me one time, He said, you know, he said, all
he ever talks about is election. He said, that's all he ever talks
about. And I, no, no, I said, he preaches the whole word of
God. And it dawned on me, you know,
it dawned on me. God was meeting that man at his
point of rebellion. And every time he came, Henry
preached on that subject. Not on purpose, he didn't even
know the man. I knew him, he came and he talked to me. And
it dawned on me, God's meeting you at your point of rebellion.
That's the truth. God meets every sinner at their
point of rebellion. Here's Pharaoh's point of rebellion,
who's going to be God? LET MY PEOPLE GO! You notice
that God said, I'm going to bring a plague on you, on your people,
on your servants, thy people, thy people, but these are MY
people. These are MY people. Who's going to be God? Who's
going to be the Sovereign? Who's going to be the Sovereign
in my house and your house? Is it going to be God or me? Or
you? Who's going to be the Sovereign?
God is! Whether we like it or not, He's going to be the Sovereign,
because He is! So there's a set time for judgment,
He said it's tomorrow, and the truth hardens the heart of the
rebellious, then He sends another plague, boils, What He does here
in verses 8 through 10, His judgment intensifies. You know, this is God's mercy.
You know, He always warns before judgment. He always sends a warning. You know, He said to Cain, if
you do right, shall you not be accepted? I thought, that jumped
out at me one day, I thought, there's mercy. Right there is
mercy. He said, Cain, if you do right,
if you offer the right sacrifice, the sacrifice your brother offered,
the sacrifice I set forth that represents my son, if you will
offer that, will you not be accepted? And you know what Cain did? He
refused. I'm going to offer what I want
to offer. And God said he was of that wicked one, the devil. Now we see here in verse 11, HOW THAT FALSE POWERS CRUMBLE
BEFORE THE POWER OF GOD. Those magicians, they couldn't,
they didn't want to reproduce this, this plague. Remember the others, when the
frogs come out, they brought out more frogs and then fly more,
you know. Here the boils, those boils was
up on them. and they couldn't they didn't
they couldn't reproduce it and they weren't they didn't want
to reproduce it they didn't want to give theirself more grief
god it is it's what you call checkmate if you ever played
chess it's called checkmate he put them in checkmate they couldn't
do anything pharaoh couldn't even turn to them oh the wisdom of god ashes become
dust SPREADING PAINFUL BOYS ON MAN AND BEAST, AND GOD'S JUDGMENT
BECOMES PERSONAL AND UNAVOIDABLE. After a certain time, it's unavoidable. And then listen, in verse 12,
the LORD HARDENED PHARAOH'S HEART. How did He harden Pharaoh's heart?
BY LEAVING HIM ALONE. ALL GOD HAS TO DO IS LEAVE ME
AND YOU ALONE AND OUR HEARTS WILL BECOME HARDENED. THAT'S
WHAT SIN DOES. SIN HAS A HARDENING EFFECT ON
THE HEART. IF HE LEAVES YOU ALONE, YOUR
HEART IS JUST GOING TO GROW HARDER. YOU SEE, LISTEN, THIS IS WHAT
HAPPENS WHEN DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY AND HUMAN PRIDE COME TOGETHER. It hardens the heart. And then
the seventh plague, he sends hail, fire from heaven. You know, this is what's going
to happen in the end of time is it's going to rain fire from
heaven on this earth and going to dissolve it with fire. But what we have here in the
verse of 13 through 14 is a revelation of God's uniqueness. HE SAID, THERE IS NONE LIKE ME
IN ALL THE EARTH. HE PROVED IT TO THE EGYPTIANS.
ALL THEIR LITTLE FALSE GODS COULD NOT STAND BEFORE THE GOD OF ISRAEL,
THE GOD OF THE HEBREWS. COULDN'T DO IT. COULDN'T DO IT. WHO CAN YOU LIKEN ME TO, HE SAID
OVER IN ISAIAH? WHO WOULD YOU LIKEN ME TO? NOBODY. GOD IS ALL TO HIMSELF. And then we see God's sovereignty
of judgment verses 15 and 16, For this cause have I raised
thee up. Pharaoh, Pharaoh, I raised you
up. I put you on the throne. Who
puts the presidents in Washington? Some of them we don't like. Some
of them we do like. But I can tell you this, as believers,
God put him there to accomplish His eternal purpose. I'm telling
you the truth. I VOTE! Go out and VOTE! But I assure
you one thing, God's going to put the person there that He's
purpose to put there to accomplish His eternal purpose. There's
been what, 47? Has there been 47 presidents?
Well, if there's 47 more, God's already chosen them. THAT IS
OUR GOD! God said to the Israelites in
one psalm, you thought I was altogether like you, you think
I'm like you. You think I vacillate like you, you think I'm up and
down like you. No, God is God. Our thoughts of God are too low
and our thoughts of ourself are too high. He said, you thought
I was altogether like yourself. I don't need a God like me. I
need a God that's far above me and a God that can save me. I
need God to save me from God. That's what I need. And I need
God to save me from myself. That's what I need. Even Pharaoh's rise to power
was to glorify God in the end. You know that? Every time we
read this book, God is glorified, isn't He? This is read throughout
the whole world. He said, My name is going to
be glorified throughout the whole earth. and this story has been read
millions upon millions of time and every time God's glorified
we see God's power. Then he gives in verse 17 and
19 a warning and a choice. He says here in verse 17 AS YET EXALT THYSELF AGAINST
MY PEOPLE, THAT THOU WILT NOT LET THEM GO. BEHOLD, TOMORROW
ABOUT THIS TIME I WILL CAUSE IT TO RAIN A VERY GRIEVOUS HAIL,
SUCH AS HATH NOT BEEN IN EGYPT SINCE THE FOUNDATION THEREOF,
EVEN UNTIL NOW. NOW YOU SINNED, THEREFORE, NOW,
AND YOU GATHER YOUR CATTLE." Here's the warning. He's telling
gather your cattle and your servants out of the field and you put
them up. Put them up. and they won't burn up, put them
up and they won't burn up and those servants whose master
didn't take any heed to God's word died they'd burn them up
they would burn up God always sends a warning before
he sends judgment always and then here in verses 20 and
21 there's a dividing line between faith and unbelief. Some heeded
the warnings, others ignored it, and they suffered the loss.
Some feared the word of the Lord, and some regarded not the word
of the Lord. We ll deal with that next week.
And then the destruction in verses 22 and 25 was unleashed. God
did what He said He d do. You believe that God s going
to bring judgment on this world one day? We see the simmering
of it from time to time. You see a tsunami went through
the earth several years ago and wiped out thousands of people.
Was that just Mother Nature? Who did that? Mother Nature or
God? No one dies that God doesn't take their life. He said, A SPARROW
DOES NOT FALL TO THE GROUND WITHOUT YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER. So how
much more a human being who's eternal? He's eternal. David said, MY TIMES ARE IN YOUR
HANDS. Job said, IS THERE NOT AN APPOINTED
TIME TO MAN UPON THE EARTH? MY DAYS ARE APPOINTED. And I
thank God they are. And I thank God He's the one
who appointed them. Because if He didn't, I'd have died a long
time ago. You ever realize how many times you can be killed
in a day? I was driving back and forth
here for six months, every week, back and forth. I had a guy in
a Mercedes just about nailed me. And when he caught himself,
I mean, it was just like this. I thought, how many times could
I die before I get home? It just hit me like that. I thought,
how many times could we die before this day is over with? How many
things could take our life? Whoo, I was lucky on that one,
wasn't I? There's no such thing as luck. God Almighty, I like
what somebody said one time, we are immortal until God makes
us mortal to take us home. You can't die before your time. That makes life easy to live.
There are some people who are too afraid to even walk out of
their house. No believer should be afraid to walk about. We are not. We are in the hands
of God Almighty. We are His children. We are the
apple of His eye. with the apple of his eye. He
said, You touch one of mine and it will be better. If you offend
one of mine, if you offend one of mine, it's better that a millstone
hang about your neck and you drown in the depths of the sea
than you offend one of my little ones. I mean, you just let somebody
offend one of your little ones. You find out what you do. You
find out what you do. God is God, and He makes a difference
between those who believe and those who believe not. But in verse 26, and I m going
to wind this down, verse 26, No judgment in Christ, no judgment
in Christ. Look at verse 26, Only in the
land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, Was there no
hell, no judgment, no fire, no death, no loss of life, not even
of their cattle. Pharaoh even sent to find that
out, and he did. Not a thing happened in Goshen. There is no judgment in Christ.
Our judgment fell on Him at Calvary. He took our judgment. No death
in Christ. He that believes in me shall
never die, He said. NO PLAGUES IN CHRIST! He said during Psalm
91, YOU SHALL SEE THEM, BUT THEY'LL NOT COME NIGH YOU. They'll not
come nigh you. I know there's a lot of people
freaked out and I think a lot of it had to do with the media
but they freaked out over COVID. You weren't. You weren't. We kept on meeting and just kept
right on going, didn't we? We didn't mask up and You were not afraid. I'm not
saying you're foolish, you were not afraid. We don't have nothing to be afraid
of. Now if the Lord, you know, I'm not saying we don't use good
sense, God gives us good sense, but we don't walk about on God's
earth in fear, in fear. I'm not going to wear a mask
for the rest of my life in fear. If I die, it's the best day of
my life. If you're a believer, you know
what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying, it's
the best day. Because Solomon said that. The day of one's death
is better than the day of one's birth. He's talking to believers. And in Pharaoh, in verse 27-30,
we see another act of false repentance. He said, I have sinned, the Lord
is righteous. These are words without heart.
These are words without a new heart. It's just words, that's
all they are, words. He just wanted to get out of
trouble. I've seen this over the years. I've seen people repent
and, you know, outwardly repent because they're in trouble. And
when the trouble's gone, they're gone. GODLY REPENTANCE IS UNTO
LIFE AND YOU DON'T LEAVE. You don't leave. And then we see at mercy in the
midst of wrath, In verse 31-32, THE WHEAT AND THE RYE WERE NOT
SMITTEN. Even in this judgment God didn't
smite all the food, He left them something to eat when it grew
up. God restrains His hand even in
judgment, in this life He does. And then we see HUMAN NATURE
NEVER CHANGES Pharaoh hardened his heart, 33 through 35. Pharaoh
repents outwardly but reverts when the storm ends. I thought
of this scripture, the dog returns to his vomit and the sow to her
wallowing in the mire when the trouble is over. 2 Peter 2.22. So here's the conclusion, here's
the conclusion. God's power is unmatched. by the so-called gods of this
world. His word is unfailing, He'll
do exactly what He said, and His justice is righteous, His
judgments are right. Through plague after plague,
Egypt learns that the Lord is alone, God Almighty, the God
of Israel is God. His mercy spares those who believe,
His justice falls on those who Hearts are hardened. Did we learn
something this morning? I hope we did. Lord willing,
next week I'm going to bring a message on those who feared
the Word of the Lord and those who feared not, and we'll look
at that.