Donna got up, preached one time.
He said, if I don't see any sleepy eyes, I'll get you out of here
in 26 minutes. I'd like, I wish I could do that. I ain't that
good. We got a plane to catch, so I told Kermit I'll go as fast
as I can, but I don't want to rush through any of it. It's
been precious to me. It really has been, going through
these plagues of Egypt. Who would think? But it has.
It's just been so sweet. And I've kind of experienced
some of them. And this whole week I've walked
down my driveway, I get attacked by flies, and I wasn't as mad
about it this time. And it'll probably get worse
in the next couple of weeks, but then they'll go away. It'll be
fine. I'm to greet you from the brethren at Kingsport, Brother
Gabe and Cody and several others. He'll be leaving at the end of
this month, him and Tony Moody and somebody else going with
him to Malawi, Africa and South Africa. They'll be gone about
three weeks. And I'm encouraged by that. And the Lord working
in the Philippines mightily too. And I'm thankful we get to see
it. It makes me happy. And then Angus and the brethren
out in Australia say hello. They told me to greet you. And
Lord willing, we'll be there next weekend preaching to them.
Look forward to seeing them again. That's a precious congregation. But here in Exodus 8, the fourth
plague, we remember those other ones, don't we? At first plague,
all the water turned into blood. The Lord declared His judgment
throughout the earth, judgment of God on man or on the lamb
that He provided, Christ our King. One or the other, your
blood or His blood. And I thought, you know, only
the Lord can remove or deal with that plague. The sorcerers couldn't
do it. Nobody else couldn't do it. That
blood was there. Only God can take that away,
that judgment away. Then we saw the frogs. That was
the false witnesses, the false preachers. They're shape-shifting.
They're stubborn. They're loud, loudmouths. And
they make it into every kitchen, living room, and bedroom. The
Lord said, your enemies be those of your own house. Prophets not
without honor saving his own country, saving his own home,
that's what he said. And all those frogs, just so
naturally occurring out of that river that Egypt worshiped, could
only be removed by the Lord. The magicians couldn't get rid
of them, they couldn't shovel them out of there, the Lord had
to do it. Then lice. Picture that sin that so easily
besets us. It's from the dust that we are.
And it just consumes flesh. That's what it wants to do. Eat
flesh. Feed on the flesh. Feed on the head. Feed on the
body. Feed on the desires. Consume it. Only the Lord can
remove that pest. Nobody else could. And now the
flies. The frogs came from water. The
lice came from dust. Every granule of dust came from
lice. And now the flies from the air. That's land, sea, and
air of Egypt. Is there anything desirable about
Egypt? Is Israel ready to go home? Get
us out of here. It's coming. Good. I want to
go. There's nothing above this place,
on this place, or under this place I find desirable. It's
just grow dim in the light of his marvelous grace. Well, here's
a warning to Pharaoh. Remember last time with the loss,
the Lord didn't give a warning on that third plate. He warns
Pharaoh. Verse 20. And the Lord said unto
Moses, rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh. Lo,
he cometh forth to the water, and saying him, Thus saith the
Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou
wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon
thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into
thy houses. And the houses of the Egyptians
shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they
are. I've read a lot about these flies
over the last few weeks, There's several different approaches
of how men addressed it, and two stood out. Both of them,
their approaches on what these flies were, were very different.
But both of them were according to the scriptures, and both of
them were really good illustrations of the gospel, the points that
they took. And that struck me. I think there's
something just in the fact that that's what's been commentated
on this, that we can learn from that. I was talking to a faithful
brother Been a believer for a long time, and he brought this up,
and I thought it was interesting. He said, you know, if you listen
to a lot of different people and read a lot of different people
consistently, the new man will grow some. The new man will learn
something. But you know what that old man's
gonna do? It's our nature. We're gonna compare. I sat down,
and I did that. I had two faithful sources as
to what these flies were, and I thought, well, that one's probably
right, and that one's not. And I like that one better, and
I like this one, and I like the way that sounds. That sounds
good to me. That other one, that one sounds good to me. That ain't
as fun. I don't want to hear that. And then I started comparing
the men. And that causes division, it
causes preference, doesn't it? Old brother B.B. Caldwell, Henry,
told a story. He was preaching there on 13th Street one time,
and they had a conference, and at the end of it, they was by
the door. Soon as the service was over, as the song was going,
they walked to the back, they opened the door, and they shake everybody's
hand on the way out so they can go home and process that meal
they just got. And somebody shook B.B.' 's hand,
and they said, that was my favorite message. This conference that
was the best one and he didn't let go and he pulled him in close.
I remember Henry's the pastor There's a visiting preacher But
he's old so he gets away with more and he pulled him in close
and he said don't you ever say that again? God won't bless that
spirit and he won't bless that attitude. He said we're not in
competition. I He said, that's what the Lord gave us, and you
be thankful for what the Lord gave you. And don't compare it. He said, God won't bless it.
And Henry learned from that. And then he told me. And he told
others. Told gave that. Told several
of us. Told a bunch of us. So what am I going to do with
this? I like both of them. One of them I like a little better
than the other one. I've really found them to be hand in hand.
You couldn't have one without the other. Someone give you both.
I saw some things on this side that got me rolling. And then
that one got the ball rolling that side and I saw some things
and I think Lord will bless it. So first, what do these flies
represent? These flies that the Lord's going to send to Egypt,
they represent evil spirits. What people call demons. Demons. Who sends evil spirits? Who sends demons? Well, that's
what these flies represent. Who sent the flies? God did. God did. The Lord did that. We
looked a little bit last hour at Job. Ask Job. Job, who sent the trials? He taught him most things at
the end. We see all the end state of it, but who brought that up?
Who brought Job's name up to Satan? The Lord did. The Lord
said, you consider my servant Job. And when it's talking about
Ahab, the Lord said, who shall persuade Ahab? Who will we send? And there came forth a spirit
to him and stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him.
I'll persuade him." The Lord said, how are you going to do
that? And he explained his game plan. And he said, go and do
it. That's in 1 Kings 22. He said, go and do it. Now, therefore,
behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these
thy prophets. The Lord did that. The Lord did that. We read that
in 2 Thessalonians. Him, who the coming after, the working
of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all
deceivableness and unrighteousness in them that perish, because
they receive not the love of the truth. I like the truth and
the truth's fine and I agree with you. No, they didn't receive
the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this
cause, because of that, they love darkness rather than light,
because of that, God shall send them strong delusions that they
should believe a lie. The Lord said that. How did man
do? Yes, it's his determinate counsel and his foreknowledge,
but men by wicked hands have executed it. And these spirits
and these demons by that, when the Lord came to them and they
said, all right, come, you're gonna cast us out now and kill
us? They said, put us in that swine, oh, holy one of Israel.
They knew there was one God, they knew he was holy. They had
some facts straight, didn't they? The Lord sent them in swine and
put them right off the cliff. Paul told Timothy, he said, the
time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but
after their own lusts, they shall heap to themselves teachers,
having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from
the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. And I thought, I
was thinking of that verse, and I was walking out in my driveway,
and then flies kept laying on my ear. I forgot to get my big
hat. It keeps the flies away. And I just kept, it itches. It
itches, don't it? They crawl on you, and get in
your hair, and you start smacking your hair in your head, and flies
itch the ear. And sometimes they'll do it to
the point I forgot what I was walking down the driveway for.
that took my attention away. And that's just three or four
flies buzzing around my head. This is physical, so we can learn
a spiritual application. That's three or four flies. Imagine
just swarms and swarms. So thick, every time you breathe
in, you're inhaling 15 or 20 of them. Now I want you to do
some algebra problems. Couldn't do algebra problems
anyway, probably now, but could you focus? Who sent them? The Lord sent the flies, didn't
he? He sent them. The Lord's in control and he's in command
of those demons and those evil spirits. And nowadays we call
them different things. I think I've come in contact
with a few of these. We call them isms, right? They'll have
alcoholism or, you know, drug addictions. Oh, they're fighting
with demons or mental illness, schizophrenia or whatever. They're
not in the right mind. But the mind and the heart's controlled
by the Lord, isn't it? They said, the king's heart is
in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water, and he turneth
it whether so ever he will. The Lord allows that to go in
his permissive will. So first, these flies as evil
spirits, as demons, and boy, they're around us. And just as
much as Elijah prayed, if we could open our eyes and see those
chariots of fire all around us, Paul said, we don't war with
flesh and blood, we war with principalities and powers and
spirits in dark places, don't we? I'd be so thrilled if I saw
them chariots of fire around these hills on top of us, and
then if the Lord closed that eye and opened the other one
up to see all the demons around us, I'd be terrified and screaming and
probably pass out. Wouldn't you? That's the first thing, and I
see that, that's true. The Lord sends that, He's in control of
it, and He doesn't send them to His people. We just read that
for the Scripture reading. Goshen wasn't touched. The Lord
took that from him. Remember that demoniac down in
the tombs? He was naked. He worshiped God naked. Didn't
have nothing to wear. And then the Lord said, y'all
go away, I'm gonna deal with him. And he dealt with him privately.
Got him by himself, got him alone. And they came back and he was
sitting in his right mind. He said, how you boys doing?
You want a hot dog? We got a fire going. And he was clothed. Where'd
they get clothes from? They have luggage? Lord robed him. That's his robe,
wasn't it? Clothed him. Took those things
away from him. Second, and this goes hand in hand really. I don't
see how you could separate the two. These flies are a representation
of false converts. Fakers. Fakers. Those in name only. Those who
claim to be religious. Those who claim to be moral.
Those who claim to keep the law or go to church. Those who claim
to be Christians. Or, as close as it can get, like
we've been looking at Ananias and Sapphira. Those that's in
the house of God, underneath the preaching of the gospel.
And they may like that truth. They may give ear to that truth,
but they don't love it. The love of the truth. They may
contribute to it, but there's no commitment. Let me go one
more layer. Then get some North-South out
of it. They'll date it, but they won't marry it. You get it? We'll
flirt with it, but there's no committal. There's no laying
down your life for it. That's what these flies represent. My
brother, Darwin Pruitt, he's a wise fella, isn't he? Mountain
genius, brilliant. He said, what could be worse
than water turning to blood? Because these plagues progressively
get worse. Each one gets ratcheted up some,
doesn't it? What could be worse than lying frogs drowning out
the truth and false preachers? What could be worse than the
sin of loss that's corrupted mankind, that we come forth from
Adam by heritage and we come forth by action of our own mouth's
line from the womb, conceived in sin. What could be worse than
those? An ignorant, depraved, fallen
child of Adam deceived into believing he's a son of God. He's right. He's right. The Lord warned of
that, didn't He? He said, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees,
you hypocrites. He said, for you encompass sea
and land to make one proselyte. You do everything you can do,
chasing people out in the parking lot and begging them and convincing
them and talking to them till they're blue in the face and
taking that horse to water and just holding its head under.
Everything you can to make one proselyte. And when he's made,
you make him a twofold child, more of hell than yourselves.
Terrible thing, the flies just reproduce, can you stop them?
Keep making things just like themselves, don't they? Swarms
of them, and they always come, these swarms are huge gatherings,
ain't it? You step back before these plagues came and you looked
at Egypt and you looked at Israel, living in Egypt and Goshen, and
you just said, Egypt's the place to be. This big number of people
in Egypt, the economy's good and everything's going great
and they're building buildings and pouring concrete, They're
doing great, ain't they? Big gathering. But Israel, that
ain't the way to go. They're in bondage. They're the
ones that's the slaves. They're the ones making bricks out there
so they can build. They're small and they're poor. Nothing's changed
in our day. You see these big swarms at big
churches, and they're pouring concrete. And their light bill's
probably got more commas in it than anything I ever seen. And
they're all buzzing flies. And the little small local assemblies
on the outskirts of town, small little shack just like Ruth,
out in the threshing floor somewhere. And people discount it. And they
say, well, that ain't nothing. There's a little tiny thing there.
That's a day of small things. 12 people there, or 6 people
there, or 8 people there. Small. What's that? God's there. God's there. Just like in Egypt, before these
plagues came, everybody said, Egypt's got it going on. Poor
Israel. The Lord dealt with Israel. He
had a covenant with them. He looked upon them, didn't he?
What is a fly? The Lord sent it. What is it?
What's a fly? It's a maggot with wings. Do
you know that? Where's a fly come from? Well,
it starts, it's an egg. Another fly lays an egg. We'll
get to where in a minute. It lays an egg and then there's
a larvae stage in biology. What do we call that larvae stage
of flies? Maggots. And then it matures
and it gets strong and it can make some noise and it becomes
a fly. And now it can bite, instead of just eat dead things. We call
them, some call them soldier flies. Soldier flies. They march
around this world declaring themselves soldiers of God. Yet they feed
on dead things and dung. It's the only thing they'll eat.
You set them out a piece of cake, get them a nice big thing of
Tillamook ice cream, and they won't touch it. Let that thing
rot and get putrefying, they'll eat it up, won't they? There's
a difference between that. I thought about showing you Samson
and that honey inside the line, but if a bee landed on your food,
would that revolt you? What about if a fly landed on
your food? Yeah, now it's different. Why? We know where flies go.
They go to dead things and they go to dumb. A bee does flowers
and pretty things and nice things, don't it? You can eat flowers,
some of them. They don't sting you, but you're not as offended. A fly offends you, don't it?
What do they feed on? These false converts. I've hit
on this before, Henry's hit on it before, and I just couldn't
get away from it. They feed on dead preachers and
prophets and apostles of the past. And they don't want anything
to do with the living ones but bite them. That's so. The Lord
told them in Matthew 23, He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killest the prophets, and stone us them which are sent
to you. You killed them back then, and now the ones that's
sent to you, you stone them. How often I ought to gather you
like children together, even like a hen, gather her chicks
under her wings, and yet you would not. In days of old, they
stoned the prophets, and then the prophet came, Christ came,
and he had 12 with him, didn't he? And they said, we don't want
nothing to do with you, we love Moses, and they killed him. They
did. And then a couple hundred years
later, you've read Fox's Book of Martyrs, ain't you? A couple
years later, they said, we love the apostles. We love St. Paul
and St. Peter and St. John. They named
bridges and buildings after them, didn't they? And what'd they
do? They burnt Tyndale at the stake. And then Spurgeon and
Philpott. I was typing this, somebody sent
me something about Philpott today. Spurgeon and Philpott were there
preaching to them. And they said, we ain't gonna
have nothing to do with you, but we love Tyndale. He was fabulous. He got us the
scriptures. He's the one that first translated them. Ryle came along,
and they stood on Tyndale. Henry and Scott, Don was here,
and they wouldn't have nothing to do with him. They said, we
love Spurgeon and Gill and Philpott. That happens fast, too. Soon
as they die, usually at Henry's funeral. Those people that cussed
him the whole time he was alive, and the second that man died,
they said, oh, he's wonderful. We're so thankful for him. You're
lying. You're buzzing around in people's
ears, and you're lying to them. It's a shame. It's a shame. It'll happen 200 years from now.
Somebody will probably cuss me now and try to kill me if they
could. And their offspring will say, oh, Brother Thacker's wonderful. They'd have choked me if they
could if I was alive in my time. But it's not just dead men that flies
swarm and want to consume and live off of and have nothing
to do with the living. What else do they feed upon? Dung. Dung. Well, what's dung in the scriptures?
Turn over Philippians 3. Philippians 3, verse 1. We look, I thought, well, do
I want to show that in Thessalonians or do I want to show that in
Philippians or Colossians or Galatians? Paul wrote a bunch,
didn't he? And it's pretty well the same thing. It's the same
thing over, like Peter's that mess we're looking through Acts.
Same thing. He worded it differently. Might
have said it from a different angle. Same thing. Look back to what
Nebuchadnezzar saw. Same thing. All flesh is grass. Behold your God. Thank you, Lord.
Ain't much changed, is it? Look here in Philippians 3 verse
1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Be happy about this.
To write the same things to you. to me indeed is not grievous,
but for you it's safe. I'm gonna keep telling the same
thing over and over again. Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision, beware of flies, for we are the
circumcision for true Israel, spiritual Israel, which worship
God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence
in the flesh. Though, speaking of the fleshly
things, I might also have confidence in the flesh. If you have entered
into that having confidence in the flesh because you did something
good, Paul said, I get it. I know where you're coming from.
I've experienced what you've experienced. I've been through
it already. If any other man thinketh he have whereof he might
trust in the flesh, you think you got something to stand on?
I more circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of
the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of Hebrews, as touching the law
of Pharisee. You couldn't hold a candle to
me. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness
which is the law, blameless. On the outside, nobody could
have anything to say, and I was so hard against it, I was chasing
after the Lord's people. And saying, you're not doing
it right. You're not doing it, that's not right. I'm gonna fix
everything. He was whipping them. But what things were gained to
me, all those things that seemed to be gained and good, I'm about
to be a member of the Sanhedrin. those I counted lost for Christ.
Yea, doubtless, I count all things but lost for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, whom I've suffered the
loss of all things." Just like old Barnabas sold off everything
he had. He said, I don't need this. Paul said, all that stuff
I just listed is gone. It ain't worth nothing. And do
count them but dung. that I may win Christ." Well,
did he count all that religious stuff? He didn't say, I was drinking,
smoking, and chewing tobacco. No, I was circumcised the eighth
day. I was persecuting the church. I had a zeal. He said, that's
dumb, that I may win Christ. I used to be a fly, and that's
what I fed on. It was delicious. And be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, his faithfulness. The righteousness
which is of God by faith. Now those that were doing that,
they were still in it. Paul said, I pray for them. I would to Israel be
saved. His brethren after the flesh, he said, for I bear them
record. They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
They don't know what they're doing and they're doing it as
hard as they can go and fight you tooth and toenail because
of it. They being ignorant of God's righteousness and going
about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted
themselves under the righteousness of God. He could see that, they couldn't,
and he prayed for them. He did. And he said, I hope the
Lord turns all that, that they're just resting in and hoping in,
into dung. And they'll see there's nothing
but a fly, and that's what we's eating. And I saw a sign that
said, a bee doesn't waste much time explaining to a fly why
honey tastes better than dung. This bee's trying its best to
say, leave that dung alone, this honey's good. Come on now, God
has to do that. Why did the Lord send this plague?
There's these flies and it could be, we could see it as false
converts and we could see it as demons and evil things and
all these things. Why did the Lord do that? Why? I don't want
to be covered in flies. I don't want to be covered in
demons. I don't want to be a false convert for sure. Why'd he do
that? Back in our text in Exodus 8, verse 20. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Rise up early in the morning. The first thing you're going
to seek in the day is me, what I told you to do. Rise up early
in the morning and stand before Pharaoh. Lo, he cometh forth
to the water, and saying to him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people
go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou wilt not let my
people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and
upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses.
And in the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies,
and also the ground whereon they are, all encompassing. And I will sever in that day
the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms
of flies shall be there. One ain't gonna sneak into this
kingdom. You get that? God looks on the heart. We know
what comes out the mouth. He looks on the heart. And ones are not
gonna be missing in glory. And one ain't gonna pull the
wool over his eyes and sneak in either. Ain't gonna be no faking
your way in. No swarms of flies shall be there.
To the end, this is the end. To this purpose, this is why
he's gonna do it. I'm interested in that. Thou
mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. What Lord did Nebuchadnezzar
revealed himself, didn't he? What do we do to Job and Moses
and Ezekiel and you? He reveals himself, don't he?
Isn't he revealed to Pharaoh? And isn't he revealed? Have they
not seen? Have they not all heard? Can't they go outside and look
at a hummingbird or a rainbow or the skies or the weather?
The sky is red. Don't you know what's going to
happen tomorrow morning? The love ain't there. The new creation
ain't there. You got to be born again. You
got to be born again. I will put a division between
my people and thy people. Tomorrow shall this sign be."
One of the old scholars said that 43 times, and I looked at
all their lists, because it's worded slightly different, it's
hard to look up, and it's at least that. 43 times in the scripture
says, I will be their God and they shall be my people. I'm
going to be their God, they're going to be my people. They're
going to be my people, I'm going to be their God. I shall be their God, they shall
be my people. I'm doing this. And everybody's going to know.
They're going to know a little bit in this earth. Like I said
before, look at the benefits that a community has by having
Lord's children there. Ought to be, right? And that final day, they're going
to know for sure then. Lord said, this is my people, that ain't.
He makes a difference. He makes a difference. He's going
to say in Exodus 11, when we get there, he said, but against
any of the children of Israel, shall not a dog move his tongue
against man or beast, that ye may know that the Lord's put
a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. It's going to be
known. He's, I'm going to do this. And people will know I'm
a Lord and I did it. It's for his glory. And boy,
that's sure for our good. Sure for our good. Paul said,
who maketh thee to differ from another? We're different. We're
different. Peculiar, ain't we? An uneven
number like in fish they brought out. Odd. Different. Who made you to differ? And who
has, what do you have that you didn't receive? Now, if you received
it, if we are different, the Lord's done that to us, why do
you glory as if you not received it? Why would we get puffed up
in grace? Not just pride of face and pride
of place. Why would we be puffed up in
grace? I was. The Lord deflated me. Now you see people like Paul,
you pray for them. All of Israel, wouldn't you let all men be saved?
Wouldn't that be wonderful? My enemies, much as we pray for
our loved ones, pray for your enemies. Those that despitefully
use you. It'd be fabulous, wouldn't it? Because the Lord would get the
glory for it. Not just my life would be easier not having an
extra brother or sister. Christ would be glorified in that. He'd
also be glorified if they're not saved. The Lord sent flies
and all his other plagues to save Israel, to bring his people
out. To show us what he's going to
do. Bring his children himself. What's
going to stand in his way? Nothing. What means is he capable
of using? It's things we wouldn't even
have thought of. This ain't going to take place the way we'd have
thought it. Have you ever experienced that? You think, well, how's
the Lord going to end this? Something's got to happen. Surely. I mean,
it can't go on like that. And then, however hit pans up,
I'd have never guessed it. I'd have never thought that.
And then, it's amazing. Just so happy, you want to clap,
keep standing. Remember, this is concerning
Pharaoh. The Lord said what he's going to do. This is him proving
he's God. He said what he's going to do,
and then he did it. He ain't like us. I'm going to try to
do everything I say I'm going to do. God will be with me. I
will hold my word. We ought to be men and women
of our word. If we say we're going to do something, you do it. You
pay your bills and you keep your word. But the Lord can. Look at verse 24. And the Lord
did so. He didn't waste his, that ain't
out of words, that ain't just filler to tell you that this
story's transisting to the next phase. God said he's gonna do
it, and then he did it. We ought to believe him in all
things, his warnings and his promises. And the Lord did so,
and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh,
and into the servant's house, and into all the land of Egypt,
and the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.
That's concerning Pharaoh, wasn't it? And everything else is taking
place, but Pharaoh's one of the characters. Verse 25. And Pharaoh
called for Moses and for Aaron and said, go ye, sacrifice to
your God in the land. You go worship your God. It still
ain't my God, but you go worship your God in the land, in the
land. That's not out in the wilderness.
That's not where the Lord said to go worshiping. He said, you,
you worship here with us. I turned Goshen right here in
Egypt where you were. You, you, you can have a disagreement.
We can still get along worship together. As a fellow years ago, left the
gospel. I heard someone comment, they
said, why did they leave? And it seemed like such a nice
thing. They said, we didn't see eye to eye on the scriptures.
Oh, you know what that means? Pharaoh thought that was OK.
He said, you can worship here. Just go worship God, but do it
over there. We'll do it together. We had a brother that He was
in legalism and all that, and he went to his pastor one day,
and he said, you need to listen to this fellow preaching. He
said, I heard him preach, and he goes, we're observing the
Sabbath, and we're doing all these things, and church punishment,
and all this other nonsense. He said, that ain't right. That
ain't grace. We got our tulip in a row, but the rest of it's
corrupt, it's dead, it's cold, it's evil, it's wicked, it's
mean, it's got teeth. or chewing on one another. He
said, this ain't right. And they said, listen, we'll keep worshiping
together, but you just don't bring that stuff up no more.
You can thank it, but don't tell nobody that, but we'll still
worship together. You ain't the same ship. You can't. I said, well, you
can just go, let's say some good things. Now you can get up. We'll
get up one time and you can be your turn. And you can say some
things about your God. The next time we'll get up, we'll talk
about our God, the frogs. It used to be all over this place
and that river, the Nile and all of our other cats or whatever
else they worship. We'll take turns. Everybody can be equal
and fair. You can't do that. Verse 26.
And Moses said, it's not meat to do so. We ain't doing that. No. for we shall sacrifice the
abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God? Are we gonna
take your religion and mix it in with ours and give that to
the Lord? No! Lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians
before their eyes? Are we gonna sit down here and
go to church with you? They'll stone us! If I could start preaching
this to them, they ain't gonna listen to that for five minutes,
they'll kill us. No! We can't have fellowship. Don't
be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with
darkness? I tell you what you just welded, we gotta start not
letting them come. You cleave to Christ, and those that don't
love him won't stick around long. You stand with Christ, whether
that's with a preacher, a local, whatever it is, a person, individuals,
those in your own home. You stay where Christ is, and
you cleave to him and his word, and you worship him, and those
that love him will worship him with you. And those that don't,
eventually they'll leave you alone. They'll go on. Them flies
will move on to another, something else dead they can chew on. Verse
27, we will go three days journey into the wilderness. We're going
to completely, in completion, we're getting out of here. We're
going to go three days journey in the wilderness and sacrifice
to the Lord our God as he shall command us. We're going to do
what God says. If it ruffles your feathers,
I hate that for you, but we're going to do what God says. And Pharaoh
said, I will let you go that you may sacrifice to the Lord
your God in the wilderness. All right, fine. Only you should
not go very far. We told you how far he's going
to go. What, we're going to walk slow them three days? I don't
know. He said, entreat for me. You can do that, but I'm still
going to have some type of constraint on you in the weakest form possible. You already declared what you're
going to do, but don't go too far. I'm still the boss. Now you entreat
for me. You go call out for me. He's
still not calling out to the Lord. He's still looking to a
man and not to God man as a mediator. You do that. If people's got
problems, I don't know what to pray for unless they tell me.
But there's sometimes you can just... I get emails from folks
from other places saying, you pray for me. And I say, well,
I mean, I will, but I don't have a different hotline than you
do. My prayers don't weigh more than your prayers. Well, you
pray for my family. How about that? And I'll pray
for your family and we'll just call it even. There's no way. But he said, you entreat for
me. Verse 29, and Moses said, Behold, I'll go out from thee,
and I'll treat the Lord as the swarms of flies made apart Pharaoh
for his servants and from his people tomorrow. I'll do what
you said. I'm just going to do it tomorrow.
Let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully anymore and not letting the people
go to sacrifice to the Lord. The Lord didn't tell Moses to
say that to him, did he? Was that wise? Well, not man's
wisdom. Go tell a king, like, you stop
doing what you're doing is wrong. Better quit it. But that was
good advice, wasn't it? John the Baptist told somebody,
he said, you can't marry a woman when what you're doing is wrong.
That cut his head off. They told Pharaoh, he said, you better
quit doing this. They said, I'll do it tomorrow. Remember when
the frogs were coming and Pharaoh wanted rid of them? Moses said,
Pharaoh, glory over me. When shall I entreat for you
and your servants and your households and all that? And Pharaoh said,
tomorrow. Just in case those magicians could get rid of them
frogs, right? Then he wouldn't have to do nothing. This time
Moses said, all right, I'll do what you ask. I'll do it tomorrow.
You got to lay in this all night long, buddy. And Moses went out
from Pharaoh and treated the Lord. And the Lord did according
to the word of Moses. And he removed the swarms of
flies from Pharaoh and from his servants and from his people.
And there remained not one." What a blessing. Just physically,
right? Just have that many flies all
around you and the Lord take that from you. Wouldn't even a heathen
say thank you? And Pharaoh hardened his heart
at this time also, neither would he let the people go. What a
shameful thing. All those things that just consume
us, we're no match for. And the Lord said, ask of me,
are you heavy? Like, oh, it's just too much
for me to bear. That's heavy, isn't it? You can't
bear it. Can't carry it. It's heavy. And I'm tired. I'm
wore out because I'm laboring. And he said, well, if you labor
and you're heavy laden, come to me. I'll give you rest. Come
to me. Isn't this proof that man can't
come to him and won't come to him unless the Lord draws him.
Seek me early while I may be found. Lord, I'll seek your face
when you say seek my face. You say that, and I'll start
seeking. Well, what do we do with that? Well, let's just sit
back on the couch, and if the Lord's gonna save somebody, he'll
save them. No, we cry out, don't we? Lord, turn my face. You step
in my feet. Walk in my shoes. You make my
feet move. Make me cry out to you. I don't
really want these trials, but if they come, make me see you
set them. You keep me like you said you would and that's gonna
prove that you're the Lord and you make a difference You've
done all this we thank you for it You get all the glory and
well, we sure are glad about that flies, huh, I Probably still
get mad next time fly lands on me. Wish I got my big hat I hope
it I hope when I walk to the mailbox, it's a little bit more
gentle than flies get on me I'll put gentle on you too. So All
right, brother mark