and things there. But anyway,
I just wanted to update you. We had a nice trip. We had a
few days down in Hobart to vacation, but that was before I had to
preach, which it don't matter. If I had to preach first, I had
to preach here when I get back. I'm always thinking what the
next message is, but we had some good time, just the two of us,
and there for two days, and then had a good visit with the church
there, and Lord blessed it. So I just wanted you to know
that. I did it. God did it, and I pray that's
majestic to us. We're gonna see this plague here.
It's another wonderful and terrible, well-known act of God. The Lord's
gonna kill all the beasts of Egypt. I wanna go just verse
by verse here in these first seven verses of Exodus 9, and
I just wanna make some comments on them. Here in Exodus 9, verse
1. Then the Lord said unto Moses,
go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, thus saith the Lord God
of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. The command of salvation goes
out. He said, go tell Pharaoh, I have
a people. I'm their God. Let them go. You have them. They're in bondage
right now. Let them go. So they can do cartwheels and
eat ice cream all day. They'll be happy about it. So
they can serve me. They're my servants. They're
gonna serve me. They're gonna worship me. They're
set apart for my use. This command goes forth. The
Lord has a people. He has a purpose for them. He's purchased them as his possession. And he commands their deliverance. And this is his work. And for
Israel, that's a great comfort. They're in bondage. God's looked
upon their afflictions. He's heard them. He's heard their
cries. And he said, by my right hand,
I'm going to bring them out. You can't do it. I'm going to
do it. And then he lets them see the
things that he's doing. He sent those first four plagues,
turn all the water into blood and so on. Mankind says, well,
because the water, scientifically, and I'm a scientist, I like math,
and I like to know how things work. I see the Lord's power
in it, not mother nature or whatever, but Lord did that. But some scientists
say, well, because all the water was turned to blood, that killed
the frog, it drove the frogs out of the water, and that killed
the frogs, and because of the death of the frogs, well, then
lice came and the flies, and then that spread disease, and
it made it to these beasts, all this cattle, and then that killed
the cattle. I'm like, well, that makes pretty good sense, don't
it? How'd all the water turn to blood? Their foundation's
shoddy. There's nothing to stand on.
They're just ignoring what the Lord did. But he's commanding,
he's heard them, and he's commanding them to be brought out. And that's
what he's gonna do for his people. It's his doing and his command
and his purpose. And like I've said a few times before, some
of these other plagues, there's two approaches, there's two opinions,
there's two attitudes concerning these plagues that come. Pharaoh dreads seeing Moses and
Aaron walking up them steps. Could you imagine? He's had four
plagues come. Here they come again. See them
walking up. I bet he would try to go hide,
wouldn't he? Tell them I'm busy. Tell them I'm at lunch. The Lord
didn't allow for that. Oh, this ain't gonna go good.
I want to talk to them. The children of Israel, they
see this. They see Moses and Aaron walking up to that palace.
This physical nation that's a picture of the Lord's children. They're
happy. This might be it. Maybe this
will be when the Lord brings us out. Maybe this will be when
this bondage of death and sin and all this stuff be lifted
forever. Maybe this is it. Maybe today's
the day. They're tickling us. Well, there's
a bunch of flies coming. There ain't no flies down here
in Goshen. We're all right. There's a bunch of lice. There ain't
no lice down here in Goshen. Frogs are everywhere, yicking and yacking
and barking and shapeshifting. They didn't bother us. There's
none in Goshen. All the water is blood. We got plenty of water
down here in Goshen. The Lord's gonna bring us out. He's been good to us already,
and he shall continue, and maybe today's the day. It says in Exodus
9, verse 2, for if the command was given to Pharaoh, let my
people go that they may serve me. For if thou refuse to let
them go, I will hold them still. Here's what's gonna happen. There's
been a command given, and here's the consequences for disobeying
God. I didn't want to pass that up.
That's simple, but we need told that there's always consequences
for disobeying God. It's so, it's so. There's things
that I've done or I'm doing that's knowingly against the word of
God, and there's a price to pay for that. pain and suffering
or discomfort or whatever, and knowing you sinned against God
even, conscience, there's a price to it in the body or in the mind
or in the heart. There's a price to disobeying
God. And I thought conversely, there's consequences to obeying
God. There is. To say that's what
God said, I ain't changing my mind, I'm not taking another
opinion, I'm not backing down, I'm not bending. Now this is
what he said. They got enough sense not to
curse God out loud, so they'll curse those that do it, whether
it be family, loved ones, relatives, whatever. And you too, when you
say, this is what God says, there's a price for you in your homes. But consider this, the Lord's
come to him, he sent his preacher to Pharaoh, and he said, here's
the command, you let my people go, they're gonna serve me. And
then he gives him the consequences ahead of time. Isn't that kind? Don't you see the generosity
of God in that, to give a warning, to warn people? We saw the plague
of Lies, and every third one we will see, there's no warning.
And that's right. Lord doesn't owe man nothing.
He doesn't owe people a warning. He's gave us a warning. We don't
need anything else. That's it. And just show up and
he's right when he judges. He's clear, isn't he? He's right
to do so. And then yet to this wicked king
that hardens his own heart over and over again, he says, one
more time, he said, now here, let him go. And if you don't,
Here's the consequences. Here's what's going to happen.
That's gracious. Pharaoh, he gritted his teeth and said, I
don't want to hear it. And your God's mean. No, he's not. He's warning you of these things.
Lord being gracious, sending a messenger with a command and
a warning and the consequences. And I thought that came in Nineveh
when Jonah came. What was Jonah's message? 40
days and then it was going to be overthrown. And that was it.
That was it. That's what's recorded for us. That was the entirety of it.
Imagine getting dressed up and getting up and shaving and putting
a tie on, or you ladies put your dresses on, getting your hair
fixed, and you go down and say, we're going to worship God today. And
all the Lord gave me was 40 days and Hamel was going to be overturned. What? But the Lord blessed that,
didn't he? That was the message he sent
for his purpose, and it didn't return to him. That king, as
a representation of Christ, he heard that message, and he tore
his clothes off, and he repented in sackcloth and ashes, and he
cried out, and he said, my whole kingdom, within the scope of
my influence, here's what I'm gonna do. As for me and my house,
we're serving the Lord. He said, let every man and beast
be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God, yea, let
them turn every one from his evil way, from the violence in
their hand, who can tell?" God said, I'm gonna overturn this
city, I'll kill everybody in it. And the king said, let's
pray to him. Don't grit your teeth and harden
your heart and fall asleep and hate God and be mean and rough
and fight and hide your head in the sand or crawl underneath
the rocks in the mountains. He said, let's cry to him. Let's
praise him. And he said, who can tell if
God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger
that we perished on? Maybe God will save us. Let's cry to him. Let's worship him. And if he
don't, does he deserve to be honored anyway? You bet he does. You bet he does. Verse three. Here's the consequence. Behold, the hand of the Lord
is upon thy cattle. which is in the field, upon the
horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and
upon the sheep, there shall be a very grievous rain." What's
gonna happen if the people are not let go to worship God and
to serve him? Moraine. It's gonna be on all
the cattle. That's the only time in scriptures
this word's used. It's deber in Hebrew. It means
pestilence, plague. Some say it's like anthrax is
what the results of it are, but it's a multitude of different
angles and sicknesses and illnesses and different things. It's kind
of all-encompassing. The brain goes like mad cow,
and the kidneys go, and the liver goes, and the intestines go,
and the muscles go. Just everything. Everything.
It's a multi-simpson death. Death. A deadly pestilence. What does this deadly pestilence,
this moraine, affect? The Lord said, I'm gonna do it
to all cattle. This destruction. Horses, asses, camels, ox, and
sheep. That covers a lot of things,
but that's a whole lot of cattle. What's this pointing to us? Well,
like I said there in Jonah, that king of Nineveh, he said, let
every man and beast be covered with sackcloth. What's this picture,
all these beasts that we're talking about? That covers a lot of things.
We don't consider cattle too much when we consider wealth,
do we? Not in our generation. We have other things. Instead
of, oh, they got 10,000 sheep and 400 camels and 8,000 goats. We said, well, they got a Roth
401k and a beach house and three boats and a Mercedes. We value
different things, don't we? Big bank account. We don't consider
cattle too much when we think about wealth and honor and pride. And pride, too. The Lord speaks
of several of his servants, and he speaks about cattle. He talks
about Abraham, how much cattle he had, and Lot had a whole mess
of cattle, and they couldn't be together, could they? Did
Lot say, you know what, instead of me taking this spot and you
taking that spot, Abraham, how about we just sell off half everything
we got? We got more than we can deal with and get along good. How about that? They wanted to
keep it, didn't they? several others. Job, the Lord
begins Job 1.3, said his substance was 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels,
500 yoke of oxen and 500 she-asses and very great household. He
had a mess of servants to take care of all of it. So that he
was the greatest of all the men of the East. He was the most
wealthy fellow there was because he had all those beasts, all
that cattle, didn't he? And I thought each one of those
horses, we've looked at some of these before when we were
in Job, but horses, that's normally for war or transportation, isn't
it? It gets us from point A to point B and it gets us there
real fast in a time of war. The cavalry, mounted warfare. And they're expensive too, aren't
they? They come at a great price. They come at a great cost. And
we still, I think a lot of countries, they still kill horse thieves.
That's punishable by death. It could be a livelihood and
a great worth. David wrote about that, he said,
some trust in chariots and some in horses. Some people trust
in these things, their ability to escape God or fight him, try
to run and get away from him. But we will remember the name
of the Lord, our God. We'll remember his name. And
asses, we got horses and they got asses. What does a bunch
of donkeys do? First thing you think, first
thing I think of, they got big old saddles on them, don't they?
Bags and bushels or whatever. They carry things. We're burdened,
and we want to put our burdens on something else. All of our
supplies that's going to sustain us for an extended period of
time, we put that and trust that in something else, don't we?
Camels, durable. It's hot, it's dry. I've been
trying to drink coconut water in between services back there.
And we had a plane ride, I got real dehydrated. And we come
back, it's 30% humidity. I got behind on water. It's a
hard thing being in a dry place without much water in you, isn't
it? What about camels? Boy, they can make it right through
that desert. If all else fails, we'll still have camels. We can
eat them. We can ride on them. They can pull stuff. They do
a whole lot of things, don't they? They're oxes. They plow
the fields for future crops, for future food, for future money.
We can sell. And sheep. Sheep, that's wool. And meat, covering. We sell them
for money, too. All of these things represent
mankind. It represents what we lean on
in ourselves, in our flesh, and in this world instead of God. It's all the things we trust
in is what this is. Things they worship too. They
worship horses. There's still some places in this world that
worship cows. In India, where old brother Angus
used to be. Calm as Hindu cows, they worship them things, won't
touch them. Can't do anything bad to them. And all of that,
all the things we put stock in and we trust in and we think
will deliver us and transport us and supply us and give us
crops for the future and cover us and everything, it's all vanity. And they're every one getting
ready to burn. They're getting ready to die. And that's everything
in this life, too, isn't it? That's stuff. A faithful preacher
in the mid-1900s, back in the 1900s, somebody had a brand new
Cadillac. And after service, they said,
look here at this Cadillac. He said, boy, that thing's nice. He liked Cadillacs,
too. He said, it's almost a shame,
but God's going to burn it. It's going to come to nothing.
It's going to rust. Anything new, anything we have on this
world is going to be gone. All these things we trust in.
And I thought, too, with all that wealth and status and all
those things that Egypt had. Now, Israel had some, too. Why'd they have it? I thought
they was in bondage. Well, they were, but they gotta eat, and they
gotta get around, and they gotta work. Most of it's to give it
to Egypt, pay taxes. They gotta keep a roof over their
head, they gotta keep the lights on. They had some things, too, but they
were the poor nation. They were the ones in bondage, they didn't
have much, they just had enough to barely escape by. That was
Israel. And Egypt's wealth and power,
this kingdom like we hadn't seen on this earth in a long time.
They had all this stuff, all these horses and chariots and
all these things. And you know what happened? The Lord's gonna
send this, and Egypt started out rich and Israel started out
poor, and one day it's just gonna flip flop. It's going to flip-flop. It's going to kill all those
beasts to Egypt, and the only beast left in that whole country
is going to be in Goshen, and Israel is going to own them.
That hit me this week. If the Egyptians are going to
have anything, it's going to be because of the child of Israel. How does the wicked of this world
get rain? because of God's children. Why do they have broccoli growing?
Why does this valley up here in the middle of this state provide
33% of all the food, all the vegetables in this nation? You
need vegetables. You need to eat carrots. That's
why they grow carrots. That's it. That's it. Verse four. And the Lord shall sever between
the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt. And there shall
nothing die of all that is in the children of Israel. The Lord's
gonna sever. You have your cattle. They're
exact same, ain't they? Where did Israel get them? Well,
it's the offspring of those. They're related. It's in the
same country. Where else do you think they
got them from? And they're gonna sever, sever. How the Lord gonna
sever? With a sword. A sword's gonna
sever. What's that? What's gonna separate
the death and the life? The word of God. That's their
sword, isn't it? Some of them had two swords and
apostles. We got the Old Testament and New Testament. We got two
swords too. The Word of God. It's the same. There's a physical
application here too. The Lord said all your things
that you rely on, your wealth and prosperity is all gonna be
taken away. Except for the children of Israel,
they're not gonna lose anything. They're gonna have all their
horses, all their asses, all their sheep. They won't lose nothing.
Nothing's gonna die. One can't even get sick and die. One didn't die of pneumonia or
whatever sheep get and asses and oxen and all that stuff.
Nothing died during this time at all in Israel. But there's
a physical application here. The Lord's people, this isn't
always, is it? This was in this case. The Lord's
people suffer. Just in horrible air and in a
wounding way. I've heard people say, Job had
that too, didn't he? Some kind of sickness came on
Joe, what'd you do? That's what his miserable comforters
came. What'd you do? Somebody get cancer, what'd they
do? Somebody dies or loses somebody in their family or something,
lost their job. Oh, they must have sinned against God. We've
all sinned against God. Believers suffer. Believers lose
cattle. Believers lose children. Believers
have illnesses. And sometimes believers die in
a horrible manner. Sometimes, not in this time right
now that we're in, but maybe in our lifetimes, believers are
burned at the stake. Their heads are cut off and put
on platters. That's so, isn't it? That doesn't mean they're
not a child of God. The children of God are not estranged from
suffering. We're not. But in this case,
The Lord's shown us something. We're not distanced from that
world that hates us. The Lord said, if the world hates
you, just remember it hated me. What's Christ saying? What we
call, you know, the general population of this ball that we live on.
He said, most of them hate me. People say, well, I don't hate
God. He says so. He said, most of
the world hates me. He says, it's going to hate you
too. But then when all said and done, he said in Luke 22, he
said, I sent you out without purse, without script, without
shoes. He said, lacked ye anything?
And they said, nothing, nothing. I haven't lost any homes. I haven't
lost any children. I haven't lost any parents. I
haven't lost any family. The Lord's provided every bit
of it. I haven't lost any shoes. These are still holding up. They're
getting kind of old. They're polished right up. These
are just fine. I've lacked nothing. Relationships, whatever it is,
the Lord's provided. And I thought, too, with all these cattle, the suffering
is directly related during this plague that's gonna kill all
the cattle. The suffering is directly related
to how much you leaned on those beasts. If Egypt leaned, the
more they leaned on those beasts and the more that they just had
to have them, the more suffering there was when the Lord took
it away. We're all affected, aren't we?
Just like sin. Sin doesn't just have an effect
on us. So if you do that, that's on you. Well, it affects those
around us, too. It sure does. These cows here
went through all of them. But that's for us and our families,
our children. If I do something that affects
these children, maybe my grandchildren. And maybe if I'm poor and poor
people have poor ways, maybe if I'm poor, maybe my children
are gonna end up poor. Or maybe I'm poor and I was lazy and my
children aren't. And then they're so driven to
succeed and to attain those things that they have no room for Christ.
It affects us. It affects us in ways where I'm
too hard charging. They see me dedicated to a job
or to a lifestyle or whatever and not to the Lord. That has
consequences. Verse 5, And the Lord appointed
a set time saying, tomorrow the Lord shall do this thing in the
land. His providence, he declares it.
And this time he's declaring when. He said, I want to separate
all these things from you, Egypt, but my people is going to be
just fine. And the Lord did that thing on the morrow, and all
the cattle of Egypt died, but of the cattle of the children
of Israel died not one." Not a one of them. Does that mean
that there was leaning on their fleshly means of trade? No, it's
not. It's showing us a picture here.
All this sin, all this pride, all this self-righteousness,
all this works and everything else, it all boils down to pride
and self-righteousness. All those things, it's going
to die. The wage of sin is death. And either we are going to die
on our own and lose everything, or we're going to die in a substitute. All the conveniences and the
life, all the sheep, the wool that
they provide, and then spiritually, that lamb slain and that covering
that he gave us, his robe of righteousness. The Lord's provided
all that and has preserved all that. That's it. Who made them different? Is there
a different attitude about those things? Is there a different
commitment about those things? Paul asked that. He said, for
who made thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that
thou didst not receive? And if you didn't receive it,
why dost thou glorify it as if thou hadst not received it? You
think Israel walked around and said, we earned these sheep and
these oxen and these horses? No, God did it. The Lord preserved
these things. He provided them in the first
place and he's preserved it. Verse seven. And Pharaoh sent,
didn't that get you? Them men ask an honest question.
Men, what must we do to be saved? We hear about this family, and
it's been made like Christ. What do I gotta do to get adopted?
Do I need to be in an orphanage? Nicodemus asked some bad questions,
but it's good for us, isn't it? Because the Lord answered them.
If you use Pharaoh, and you see all them cattle, the Lord just
killed all them cattle, and they have cattle. Can I live in Goshen? What do I gotta do to get in
Goshen? Maybe the Lord give me some cattle. Unfortunately, no. Verse seven,
Pharaoh sent and behold, there was not one of the cattle of
the Israelites dead. And the heart, he checked into
it, he sent messengers to go check on their cattle. And they
said, no, there's life there. Really, true life, there's life
there, nothing to hide. There's no death, there's eternal
life down there in Goshen and the Lord's people. And the heart
of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people go. What
a terrible thing. That leads us to believe, how
could the heart of a king be turned? How could it? We think,
we have loved ones. I'm sure you do too. It ain't
no different. The people in other places that
believe the gospel around this world have loved ones. And they
speak to their loved ones and you think, how could they not
be excited about this? How could they not be excited? Don't they
want to be made like Christ? Don't you? Do you know who he
is? Don't you want to be like him? And the Lord gives life
to his people, and this is secure and hits sure, because Christ's
blood is what bought it. There ain't no returns. Ain't
no takebacks. It ain't gonna get repossessed.
It's done forever. Aren't you excited? And we think
we can shove those things down people's throats and get them
brutally honest. I think surely I can talk to
my end of this and I can get them motivated about this gospel
and sending this gospel forth. Surely they're going to like
it. I'm going to try one more time. And it don't seem to work and
you get disappointed, don't you? Because some people are like
kings. I was. I know. I watched me. I knew everything. I heard my own heart. But God,
he's the one that softens the heart. He's the one that takes
that old stone he went out and puts one of flesh in. And he wasn't
pleased to do that in Pharaoh. He wasn't pleased. But guess
what? Pharaoh ain't dead yet. We know his end now, but at the
time, you reckon Moses and Herod prayed for him? God saved the
king. Wouldn't that be good? God saved the king. Anyway, well,
I look forward to going through these plagues with you. Let's
pray together. Father, thank you for this time together. Well,
thank you for. Everything you've given us, all
these comforts physically that you've just been so abundant
and given us, Lord, we've lacked nothing and all spiritual blessings
and heavenly places in Christ. We've lacked nothing. We like
nothing to be in your presence. And what a gracious and glorious
thing that is. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for
saving the people. Thank you for our brethren, those that
want to be conformed to the image of Christ and those that rejoice
when your hand moves and works and those that suffer also, Lord. yet have hope. They're not perplexed. They're not put out for these
things. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for all these things.
It's because of Christ, because of His willingness and His ability
to save a people, to make us His righteousness
that we ask these things. Amen.