I like it too. If you will, let's
turn to Exodus chapter 10. Exodus chapter 10. There's not a lot of faithful
men that's preached from this passage from this plague, this
plague of the locusts. And Brother Henry had said several
times when he would get up to start to preach, Henry said this,
I'm just saying I understand it. Henry said this. He'd say,
I don't really know how I'm gonna preach this. I said, well, you're
getting ready to. I understand a little more now.
So I want to just show you about these locusts what the word says. There's some writers of old that
had a lot of good insight and it could mean those things, but
the word is a commentary on the word. I appreciate what Brother
Gill had to say, and I appreciate what Brother Hawker had to say,
but the Lord speaks about this. He tells us what this is. That's
what I'm really worried about. I like to see what they've experienced,
and men of old, Lord's men of faithful, but I want to know
what God has to say. Are we concerned about that?
Let's look here at Exodus 10 verse 1. We'll be looking at
the first 20 verses. And the Lord said unto Moses, now who's
talking? The Lord's talking. And in these
first couple of verses, he's talking to Moses. He's telling
Moses this. Now go unto Pharaoh, for I have
hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I might
show these my signs before him. I've hardened his heart. He ain't
gonna listen, but you go tell him anyway, because I'm gonna
show my hand. I'm gonna show my right hand.
And it's not just for the Lord putting himself on display a
couple thousand years ago. And that thou, remember he's
speaking to Moses, mayest tell in the ears of thy son and of
thy son's sons what things I have wrought in Egypt. You're going
to tell your children about this, Moses, and your grandchildren
and the other grandchildren and their grandchildren. And my signs,
which I have done among them, that ye and your sons and your
sons' sons and all down to us may know how that I am the Lord. God's telling Moses, he's saying
this about your offspring, your spiritual offspring, all throughout
time. So guess who that's to? You that
believe God, this is to us. He's doing this plague of the
locust. I may only spend 10 minutes on this, but this is, the Lord
did this for us. that we may know that He's the
Lord. He's the Lord of hosts. Now that's precious, isn't it?
What if He painted us? I've got two paintings in our
home from people I know. They may not be worth 30 cents.
You might be able to recycle the canvas for more than what
somebody paid you for it. But I know the painter. and they
painted that for my family. And that, like I'll fight a fire
to get in that house to get them things out of there. That's precious
to me because of the painter. You understand that? Lord gave
us this gift. He's done this in Egypt and all
these plagues for us today, right now in 2024. When the Lord said
he's given nations for you, I've given Egypt and Saba for you.
That doesn't really hit home until we know people in Egypt.
until we know people in Seba. And it stings, doesn't it? And
it says, people crept in unaware, and they went out from us because
they weren't of us. Yeah, we understand that. But when those people,
they have a name, and I've ate lunch with them for 10 years,
and when we know them, and we have a connection to them, well,
it hits home, don't it? It hits home, just because this
is taking place in Egypt, just because this is some pharaoh
that we ain't never seen, and some Egyptian servants of his
that we don't know, and we ain't never had them over for dinner.
Lord, make us enter into this, because this is what's coming.
This is all foreshadowing. All these plagues are of what's
to come, and we're in this time of locusts right now. That's
just so. Each generation could probably
say that, but that's fine, but I'm in this generation, and right
now, and all these plagues, we're in the plague of locusts right
now in August. I pray this will be important
to us, and that we have an earnest interest for our sons and our
daughters and our sons' sons and our daughters' daughters
to hear this. I want people in San Diego County to hear this,
I want my children to hear it, my grandchildren, I want your
grandchildren, and any offspring, spiritually or physically, that
come, I want us to hear this. Now verse three, this is to us. The Lord told Moses, go get after
it. And Moses and Aaron came into Pharaoh and said unto him,
thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, how long wilt thou refuse
to humble thyself before me? Let my people go and do something
that they may serve me. Else, if you don't, if thou refuse
to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring the locusts
into thy coasts, not just a few, and they shall cover the face
of the earth that one cannot be able to see the earth. You
will look down, you ain't even gonna see the dirt. And they
shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth
unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth
for you out of the field. And they shall fill the houses,
and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians,
which neither thy fathers nor thy father's fathers have seen.
Nobody's seen nothing like this since the day that they were
upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself and went
out from Pharaoh. He went in to give Pharaoh this
warning. What a warning we have. What
a gracious God. Every time the Lord gives a warning
and when he warns us that he doesn't have to give us a warning,
I want to remember that God's gracious to send somebody to
warn us. This is kind, isn't it? He's
good. If Pharaoh disobeys and Pharaohs go to hell, God didn't
predestine him to go to hell. He went there all by himself.
He willfully did it. He willfully did it. Verse seven,
Pharaoh's servant said to him, how long shall this man snare
unto us? This guy's come down here, he's
setting a trap for us. Hey, this is the eighth time he's been
down here. And hey, don't stop. And every time he comes, it's
bad news for us. Make him stop. They set a trap
for us. We had it good till this Moses
fellow showed up. Let them in go, that they may
serve the Lord their God. It's their God, let them go do
what they want. They'll leave us alone. Let them gather together
in a local assembly. Let them love each other to death.
Just leave us out of it. I got better things to do. Knowest
thou not that Egypt is destroyed? This is gonna hurt us. These
locusts are coming. God's prophet said something.
And they actually agreed with him. Oh, what he says is right,
but I don't want to have no part with him. You ever heard that?
He's telling the truth, but I can't have no part with him. Leave
me to myself. Oh Lord, don't let us request
to be left to ourselves. And Moses and Aaron were brought
again into Pharaoh, verse eight. And he said to them, go. They
probably, hey, come back, Moses. Hey, get here, come here. We
talked to him, we changed his mind. We did you a favor. Well,
go serve the Lord your God. But who are they that shall go?
Now you can go worship, but I wanna know the parameters of which
you shall worship your God. And Moses said, we will go with
our young and our old, and with our sons and with our daughters,
and with our flocks and our herds. We go, me and my whole house.
Everyone and everything under the influence is gonna be for
the servitude of God. You get that? It ain't, well,
we're just taking the wise folks, we're just taking those over
14, or the rich ones, everybody. No respecter of persons, we saw
that last hour, right? Everybody, and whatever I have,
I'm gonna have it, because the Lord gave it to me for the furtherance
of the gospel, for the support of his saints, and that's why. It's all of me, the whole of
me. Our daughters and our flocks will go in the herds for thee,
for we must hold a feast unto the Lord. And he said unto them,
let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go and your
little ones. Look to it for evil is before
you, not so. Pharaoh said, do you think I'm
gonna let you and all your children and all your flocks and everybody,
the whole lot of you go? Not so. Verse 11, not so, go
now. Ye that are men, and serve the
Lord. You leave the women and the children
and the cattle and all that stuff here. For that ye did desire. You wanted the men to go. That'll
make you partially happy, but I'm gonna keep my reins on it
too. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. Pharaoh
just said this. He said, now you can go worship
God, but just the men. You go have your men's meeting. out
there in the wilderness, and that'll be enough. That'll be
enough. And then he didn't ask no input,
no nothing, he kicked them out. Verse 12, and the Lord said unto
Moses, Moses hadn't said nothing. He was probably praying continually,
wasn't he? The Lord spoke to Moses again. Stretch out thy
hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come
upon the land of Egypt and eat every herb of the land, even
all that the hail left. Everything I didn't destroy in
the hail, it's going now. And Moses stretched forth his
rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind
upon the land all that day and all that night. And when it was
morning, the east wind brought the locusts. And the locust went
up over all the land of Egypt and rested in all the coast of
Egypt. Very grievous were they. Before them, there was no such
locust as they. Neither after them shall be such.
Nothing's ever happened like this before. And I know at the
time, the 13-year and the 17-year cicadas matched up. I don't know
if it did here, but back east. And people thought this was,
they said it was apocalypse. Jesus is coming in a cardboard
sign. Lord said, ain't nothing gonna happen like this. Physically,
this is a physical thing that's taking place, carnally in the
world. And he said, neither saw after them shall be such, verse
15, for they covered the face of the whole earth so that the
land was darkened. And they did eat every herb of
the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had
left. And there remained not any green
thing in the trees or in the herbs of the field through all
the land of Egypt. Lord sent locusts. What do locusts
do? They're grasshoppers. That's
another translation we're going to look at in a little while.
Grasshoppers, or those periodical cicadas. They have 13, 17 years
to come up. We haven't been here long enough
to hear them. If they're here, you know what
I'm talking about, or you've seen them on TV. What do they do? One, they're noisy.
And two, they're destructive. They eat everything. If they get in your crops, they
eat it all. What does that leave you? Hungry.
They destroy everything, the herbs of the field and all the
green things that are pretty and green in life. It's brown
and dirty and ugly. Everything's destroyed, even
the side of it is, isn't it? What are these locusts? There's
two things that the scriptures speak of that stood out to me.
Let's turn over to Revelation 9. Like I said, a lot of men
say, well, this is false preachers and all these things, but let's
see what the Lord says. Revelation 9. Remember too, these plagues in
Egypt, you get the blood, everything's turned to blood, the frogs, all
those false prophets yackety-yacking, the lice that consumes our flesh,
the flies that annoy us, the boils coming, the livestock hurt,
the hail and fire coming down, the locusts, that's where we
are right now. And then what's coming after
this, after this generation? We're in darkness, and then the
plague of the firstborn. But here in Egypt, this physical
thing happened, it's a warning of things to come. This is for
everybody on earth. From Elon Musk down to the poorest
kid in some desert somewhere, nobody knows. Everybody. What
happened in Egypt then is a warning for the whole world. What's to
come. Revelation 9 verse 1. And the fifth angel sounded.
And I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth, and to him was
given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless
pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as a smoke of
a great furnace. And the sun and the air were
darkened by the reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came
out of the smoke locusts upon the earth. unto them was given
power, as scorpions of the earth have power." Remember us reading
the Lord said, your child asks you for an egg, you don't give
him a scorpion. If somebody asks for the gospel, you don't give
them a demon, do you? These locusts, they're like a
scorpion. They got a sting to them. Verse four, and it was
commanded then that they should not hurt the grass of the earth,
Neither any green thing, neither any tree. But I thought that's
what they ate, not these. This stuff happened in Egypt
a long time ago. This was foreshadowing what's to come. But only those
men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. Those
that I haven't pitched within and without. Those that aren't
mine, that I've made to go in the ark, and I've sealed them
in the ark. This ain't talking about some tattoos or something
like that. The Lord's talking about his
people, his elect. That'll make people a whole lot more mad and
tattooed. God chose a people, none of us deserved it. And they
said, they ain't gonna eat nothing green about them. They're the
green branch. They're not the dry branch that's gonna break
and spit for burning. These are the green branches. These locusts
are gonna consume everything else, everybody else. Verse five,
and to them it was given that they should not kill them, but
that they should be tormented five months. And their torment
was the torment of a scorpion when he strike at the man. Sting
of death, sin. That sting is just going on and
on, day in and day out. And it gets to be a drug. That
poison gets to taste real good. What we're doing is right because
God ain't killed us yet. We must be doing okay. They're
drunk on poison. Verse six, and I know those days
shall men seek death and shall not find it. They shall desire
to die and the death shall flee from them. People want to die.
It goes on that the shape of these and what it looks like,
and somebody saw a creature like that, you'd probably just pass
out. Torturous demons is what this is. Just like the land,
it's going to cover everything. And some say false prophets,
false preachers, maybe, but this is person to person. This is
everyone not sealed in Christ is who this is going to sting
and infect. And don't you see it? Don't you
see it? We don't look in the mirror,
but look at looking throughout the world, look on TV, look in
the books you read. It's like there's demons everywhere. All over. I've experienced this
in part. I talked to one of my friends about this, my preacher
friends. And I said, I was talking to somebody and you probably
experienced it too. And like, everything's fine. And then like,
it's gone. Ain't nobody home. The eyes blank
out. And they say things against the
gospel and wild things. Who is this person? What are
they saying? I can't believe that come out of their mouth.
And then it's kind of like they come back and they're like, hey, oh,
hey buddy. All right. Well, we're going
to go down to ball game next week. Why? Who are you? The guy's real friendly
down there, averages to me, checks us out, talks to us one day,
but he's just, I don't know if he's having a bad day or what, or
had locusts all in him. I don't know. That happens. These things aren't to be taken
lightly. Like in Ouija boards, don't go fooling with it, don't
tempt the Lord your God, but leave it alone. Right? That's
a good warning. Let's turn back to Isaiah 40.
We'll see that this is every person. But that's so too, Isaiah
chapter 40. It covered the earth, and I heard
some faithful men talk on this. I went and looked it up, and
you look at the population of the earth. I think the first
century is about 20 million to 200 million. You know, before
the flood, most historical scholars says about eight to nine billion
people on earth whenever Noah's flood came. That's what we're
at now, and it's just as in the days of Noah. And then, right
at the turn of the century, back in 1900, end of 1800s, this earth
had about two billion people on it. Right now we're pushing
nine in a hundred years. Go from two billion people to
nine billion. That's like a wind came from the east and originated
with God, the sun that rises in the east. And we're covering
this land and just destroying it. And people talk about climate
change and all that stuff. We ought not dump nuclear waste
out in the ocean, we know better. But we're the plague. I'm not
saying we're hurting Mother Earth. You that know, you know better
than that. Mankind's the problem. We're the thing that consumes.
We're the thing that stings. We're the sin. We are. But look here, look at the good
news first. The Lord leads with good news to his people, and
then he's gonna tell us what we are. Isaiah 40, verse one. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem.
That don't mean just be nice. That means speak to their hearts.
Now I want you, Trevor, you speak to my heart. I can speak to your
ears. I wanna know what your heart
looks like. God's gonna do it. He's just
sending them out. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem.
And cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. Youse at war. Remember that? The war's over. Her iniquity is pardoned. All
those good things you thought you did, now you see is bad.
Lord, pardon that. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. We've been washed and we've
been made where we cannot sin. We're made holy like Him. That
incorruptible seed. We're that eunuch, we ain't got
no seed. That seed's been put in us. He didn't just clean us
up and say, you know, you got to keep it. He's made us like
him. Oh, buddy. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord, make you
straight in the desert, a highway for our God. Every valley shall
be exalted. You down, we lift you up. Every
mountain and hill, O King Nebuchadnezzar so proud, God's able to abase,
he's able to make low. And all the crooked shall be
made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of
the Lord shall be revealed. And all flesh shall sit together,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Every knee is going
to bow, every tongue is going to confess. The difference is
the child of God does it now. That love we looked at last hour,
we're already, he's already loved us, we already love him. We're
family now. And I tell you what, if I said everybody in this whole
county is gonna honor my wife, that'd make me happy. I don't
like people come saying bad things about my wife. I like people
come say good things about my wife. That'd make me happy. Now, that's
an earthly example like we looked at. What's this church throughout
eternity? Every knee and every tongue,
everybody's gonna just praise and honor Christ. Don't that
make you happy? Is that what our desire is or
do I want a Ferrari? I want to make the T-ball champions
or whatever, I don't know, something else. Go fishing. I want that
to happen. Well, God says it's going to.
He promised that I believe him. Do you? Verse five, in the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall sit together
for the mouth of the Lord spoken. He said so. And then the voice
said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry?
Well, you're going to do this, Lord. What am I going to tell
them? I've heard what man has said to say. Hear me. I've heard what man has said
to say. Mankind has said, I want you
to say this. Now here's what you're to do. Here's what you're
to do. There's systematic things and
books. You can buy a whole bookstore
full of stuff, right? All kinds of advice and input. Man has
said to do things. I want to be a faithful servant
of Christ. Here's what God said for those
voices to speak. That's what I'm worried about.
I don't care what Henry said about Barnard too. I don't care.
He said, I don't care about what Barnard said, I care what God
said. Well, I don't care what Henry said, I care what God says. Here's
what God has to say. Tell them, all flesh is grass. All flesh is grass and all the
goodliness thereof is as a flower of the field. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth and the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. All the
beauty we have, anything in us ain't nothing. All the experiences
we've had, all the fortitude we've shown, it don't matter
deadly. What we've done to the Lord, it don't matter. He matters.
He matters. The word of the Lord shall stand
forever. Who's the word? Not what's the
word, who's the word? Christ is gonna stand forever.
Preach man low, preach Christ high. Look now at verse 11. And he shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry
them in his bosom. He shall gently lead those that
are with young. He's tender. He's kind. He feeds
us, looks after us. My pastor preached on preaching
this morning, and I can't wait. I didn't have time to listen.
I can't wait to go in because he just gives what the Lord gave
him. The great shepherd says, here, feed them this, you under
shepherd. And I said, here. I said, in a sense, I got the
easiest job on earth. I'll just tell you what the Lord
says. That's it. They don't change. What do you
think we can do with this? Well, here's what the word says.
What do you think about that? Well, here's what the Lord has
said about it. That's what he said. That's it, isn't it? He's
mighty and we're needy and he's faithful. Look down at verse
15. Behold the nations, that's Egypt and Saba and the great
and wonderful United States of America. The nicest city in America. Everybody, Mount Rushmore, take
something. The great czars of Russia of
old, and the sun never sets on the British crown or whatever.
All those nations, he says, are dropping a bucket. You ever pour
a bucket out to go water something and you tilt it back up and you
see there's just a couple little drops down there? Do we get it and
shake it and get an air blower out and try to get to it? That's
a drop in a bucket. You leave it alone. It's a dust on a scale.
God says nations are that. We admire nations, don't we?
He said, the nations are as a drop of a bucket or count as small
dust on the balance. Behold, he taketh up the isles
as a very little thing. The greater and lesser Antilles
on the Bahamian shelf, Hawaii, the great Indonesian beautiful
islands. The Lord said, that's a little thing, ain't nothing,
ain't nothing. Verse 22, it is he that said
upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are
as, that's everybody that lives on this earth. Grasshoppers. Literal translation, locusts.
Whoa-ho now. I can look out in this world.
Here's where the rubber meets the road. I can look out in this world
and I can tell you all kinds of bad things that happen. Take me in the month
of June, take me in downtown San Diego, and I'll talk to you
about Sodom and Gomorrah. There's demons left, right, and
center, ain't they? Now God's saying that I'm on this earth
too. Are you on this earth? He's saying I'm the locusts.
He's saying I'm the grasshopper. I'm the death, I'm the destruction,
I'm the... Hold on now. We're just grasshoppers? One
place says we're worms. But you know what the literal
translation of that word worms is? It made us a nightcrawler. that's in real good potting soil
instead of, you know, nasty old sandy dirt or something. No,
it's worse than that, maggot. Maggot. And that's like, he starts
us off with saying, crier of warfare is accomplished. Until
we're a maggot, we don't need to be made like Christ. Until
we're at war, we don't need the captain of our salvation. We
don't need the war to be put out, there ain't nothing we're
at war with. The Lord has to show us these things. He has
to teach us that The problem ain't in things and stuff, the
problem's within. The bulls ain't on the outside,
the bulls are on the inside. And the problem ain't with my
brother, the problem's with me. Now they probably got problems
too, because they're like me, but I don't even worry about me.
That great scholar once said, mind your own business. I don't
even mind my own business. That's me. Man-filled demons
are what has filled this earth. I've experienced it, and you
have too. I've seen that in my own family. People turn on a dime, don't
they? Like they're addicted to some
poison, or physically are addicted to a poison. That happens too. That's us, brethren. If the Lord
takes his hand off of us, we can condense. I can't believe
they do that. They're a Judas. I'll tell you who would be if
he took his hand off of them is this one. If I wasn't in that Landsberg
life before eternity, and I just entertained these things, and
I did it, and I did this, and I did that, and I did this, that's
all I'm gonna have is me. Said you go down to find justice,
that's what you're gonna find, just us. That's all I'm gonna have. If the Lord takes his hand off
of me. And if we think that wouldn't happen, you're currently deceived.
You got some confused, poisonous scorpions running through you.
It's made you delirious. You're bewitched. You're bewitched,
if you think that. When I used to be that way. Paul
didn't say, oh, wretched man, I used to be, did he? This is
an apostle that labored more than them all. He was mightily
used, wasn't he? What did Paul say? He saw through a glass dimly,
and he said, oh, wretched man, that I am. Now, I need Christ. I thank God that delivered me
through his son. That's a good place to be. That's a good place
to be. Well, that's miserable. That's
where God puts his people. You like something else? Go find
that. But the sheep, that's where they're going to be at his feet
down low, ain't they? These events in English are a
warning to mankind. It's to everybody and it's to
me. It's to everybody and it's to you. It is. Let's hate it. God gave it for
us to talk about. We're talking about it. Hate
it. They're warning the mankind of the things to come. There'll
be a day the Lord's coming back, and I don't know what all that's
gonna look like. He says it, but at the time, I thought about
that the other day. When we get the glory, we go, I get it. Why
didn't I think of that? I know exactly what he's talking
about. Look here, of course. How did I not see that? That's
what he meant. I don't know what those things
will come when the Lord comes, but I do know this. Call on him
who delights to show mercy. This warning has been given.
That's why I told him that one time, I said, you've been warning
me and warning me and warning me and warning me. I said, why don't
you listen? Please, not so I win. This is for you. Call on him
now who delights to show mercy. Henry wrote this, five reasons
for a sinner to hope for mercy. Why should we hope in the Lord
mercy? One, it's his nature. to show mercy. God is love and
he must be merciful to some because he's holy and he's love. He's
gonna love somebody. It's his desire to show mercy. It's his nature and it's his
desire. He delights to show mercy. It makes him happy for him to
show mercy. If that makes God happy, you
think it'd make his object of his mercy happy? It'll change
him. They'll be different. His glory
is to show mercy. When Moses said, show me your
glory, he said, I will be merciful. His name is the mercy giver. Jesus, savior, deliverer. He
will save. He's gonna show this mercy. And
his call is to mercy. The message he sent out, his
general call is what? Come unto me, I'll give you rest. Mercy. Now, will Egypt and Pharaoh
cry for mercy? They've been warned. That mean
old fellow Moses that keeps coming out here and messing with us.
All he does is tell us bad things are going to happen and it happens.
He's telling you good things too. Are they going to listen? Is Egypt going to listen? Is
Pharaoh going to listen? Am I going to listen? Remember,
it ain't just some locusts out there, are you gonna listen?
Are you? Look back in our text, Exodus
10. Verse 14. And the locusts went up over
all the land of Egypt and rested in all the coasts of Egypt, were
very grievous, were they? The four of them were no such
locusts as they, neither after them shall such be. shall be
such. For they covered the face of
the whole earth so that the land was darkened. And they did eat
every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which
the hail had left. And there remained not any green thing
in the trees or in the herbs of the field through all the
land of Egypt. Then, then, these troubles are good. Then Pharaoh
called for Moses and Aaron in haste, get them in here. And
he said, I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. Against your
God, against you. He said it. He said it. What's in the heart's gonna come
out the mouth. Now that sounds good, don't it? I've sinned against
your God and you. Well, how holy. Aren't we glad
to be in your pretty pleased presence? But as all them disciples
said, the apostles said, Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I? Lord,
is it I? And Judas said, Master, is it
I? And he said, you said it. It come out of your mouth. You
want to be judged out of your mouth? You just said it. See if you
can hear the difference between what Pharaoh, maybe this ain't
touching everybody. Pharaoh said, I've sinned against your God
and against you, Moses and Aaron. I've sinned against the preacher,
God's preacher. Well, it happened, but here's what David said. Have
mercy upon me, O God, that one that delights to show mercy.
According to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of
thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me throughly
from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge
my transgressions, my sins ever before me, against thee, and
thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in your sight,
that thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, and clear
when thou judgest. You send me to hell right now,
Lord, your right. Not, well, you have a God, I
got a God, I made George mad. That's what that prodigal son
says. He said, I sinned against God and you saw it. Well, I was
against his father. Well, where did his father get
that riches? God gave it to him. It was against God. You just
happened to see it. Pharaoh said, I've sinned against
your God and against you. Verse 17. Because of that. Because there's good confession
that he thinks is good. Now therefore forgive, I pray
thee, my sin only this once. He's saying Moses and Eric can
forgive sin. They can't forgive nothing. But I just remember
last time, he said, in this I've sinned. Now I was wrong in that
one little thing. That's why I said last plague.
This time he said, you just forgive my sin only this once and I'll
never do it again. My sin's ever before me, David
said. and entreat the Lord your God that he may take away from
me this death only. Get rid of these, I don't want
to deal with these demons no more. I want to be nice and friendly and happy.
Everybody wants to be happy, happy, happy. That's what I want.
Just this once, not ever before, amen. Verse 18, and he went out
from Pharaoh, Moses went out and entreated the Lord, didn't
say nothing to him. And the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind,
which took away the locusts and cast them into the Red Sea, and
there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt."
Remember what we just, for Scripture reading, the Lord said, here's
yours. You want to learn how to pray? Honor the Father. Ask him to
see Christ, that his will be done. And make us remember that
we're not very forgiving. He's the forgiving one. I will
be like him. And then he says, wear him out. Keep asking, keep
asking, keep asking, keep asking, keep asking. Whatever it is,
take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. I think we're
gonna sing it. Well, I need a Mercedes and I'm...
What? No, he said send the Holy Spirit.
Give me the right spirit. Give me your spirit. and treat
him, and treat him. The Lord's good, and if we ask,
this heathen Pharaoh said, Lord, or have the Lord, Moses asked
on his behalf, have the Lord get rid of these locusts. The
Lord did it. Have we asked him? He's faithful, and if he don't
give it to us, we're consuming it. What do locusts do? They
consume. We're consuming it on our own
lust. I didn't need it anyway. He's the wise one, not me. Lord,
you ought to do it this way. No, if you're pleased, do this,
Lord. And if not, give me the grace
to be all right and learn. Teach me, make me teachable.
Lord, so good and so merciful and so tender to the very ones
at war with him. Doesn't that make you love him
all the more? Doesn't that make you need Him and desire Him to
learn from and be like Him? He said, Matthew 5, but I'll
say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you, that, He said, do those things, that
you may be the children of your Father, which is in heaven. You'll
be like your daddy. For he maketh the sun to rise on the evil and
on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. He
took those locusts away from all of them. For if ye love them
which love you, what reward have you? Do not the publicans the
same? And if you salute your brethren
only, well, that's my brethren in Christ, hello, I'm not talking
to those heathens. What do you do more than others? Even the
publicans do that. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect. wash their feet, get them locusts
off of them. Verse 20, but the Lord hardened
Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the children of Israel
go. Like Moses, I pray, if thy presence
not go with me, carry us not up hence. Lord, if you're not
with us, if your spirit ain't with us, don't lift us up, we're
hard. I'm hard. Lord, I need you with
me day in and day out, every hour, every minute. I need you
with me always. What a warning, isn't it? Maybe
somebody covered in locusts. Lord, take them away. Take them
away. And so he did that. I straightened my life up and
I got some good dewormer out there and whatever, pesticides,
insecticides, that's what it is. Lord did that, didn't he? That's pretty good. Father, when we think of the
nations given for your people, it's an awesome thing. It's humbling, Lord, but when
we think of your son that was given for us, that willingly
laid down his life for grasshoppers, dust in the balance, worms, this
worm Jacob, how humbling, Lord. What love and what tenderness
you've showed to a bunch of maggots. and then to be made like him.
Lord, haste the day. Your will be done, but come quickly
and be with us till then, Lord. Forgive us our trespasses, forgive
us our sins, and make us forgiving. Give us the gifts of the spirit
to be long-suffering and meek and kind. And be with us as you
promised you will, Lord. Fulfill your promises. We know
that you will. Be with our families, those that
we love, and be with our enemies, Lord, save them, they're yours.
Be with our rulers, whether they're police or government, whatever,
wherever they may be, Lord, they're yours, and make us respect them
and save them. Thank you for this hour. It's
because of Christ we ask it, amen.