Well, I do want to talk to you
tonight about the boils and the hail. And I'll go right to work
here in Exodus chapter 9. I just read to you how Moses
is instructed by the Lord, as was Aaron, to go to the furnace. There were several furnaces in
Egypt. And Moses was to gather the ashes
of the furnace and then throw them up in the air, throw them
up toward heaven in obedience to what God had said. And then
that would come back down as boils upon both men and beast. throughout the land of Egypt,
but not within the land of Goshen, not upon the children of Israel."
You see, the Lord, He is the protector. He is the guardian
of His children. And we know that all of Israel
wasn't converted by the grace of God. They weren't all believers,
but they do stand in symbolism of the true church of our Lord
Jesus to whom no real harm can ever come. Our God has ordained
His true Israel, spiritual Israel, the city of Jerusalem. God has
ordained that we be saved by His grace. In fact, according
to 2 Timothy 1 and verse 9, we have always been saved in our
Lord Jesus. set apart in Him from before
the foundation of the world, safe in Him. We've been given
to Him in covenant grace and covenant love. God made a choice. It was an eternal choice. There
were some who were chosen unto salvation, and then there were
the rest. There were the others. There
are some people who are destined for mercy. They're destined for
grace. God Himself has appointed them
not to damnation, but to salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. These
were given to Him and He took them as a special trust. He took them to His heart. He
bears all of His elect upon His shoulders, even as the high priest
of Israel bore the names of the children of Israel upon His shoulders
and upon His breastplate. So our Savior, even from old
eternity, has borne His people on His shoulders. He's all-powerful
to protect us, and He bears us upon His heart because He loves
us with an everlasting love. In fact, that's the reason he
was sent into this world. He wasn't sent in order to merit
God's love. He wasn't sent here to kind of
trigger the love of God toward us or to cause the love of God
to be active toward us. He was sent because God loved
us. For God so loved the world. that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. It was because the Lord was affectionate
toward us, because he bore us upon his heart from old eternity,
that our Savior came into the world to redeem us from the curse
of the law by being made a curse in our stead. And so God protected Israel. And they stand, as I said, as
a picture. They stand in symbolism of the
true church of God. Even though we live, as it were,
in Goshen, we live in the land of Egypt.
As you know, and I'm sure you've heard before, that the land of
Egypt pictures the world We live in this world, but we're not
of this world. We have been separated by the
sovereign grace of God from the world. We live in the land of
Goshen. Oh, we suffer many of the different
trials that the world, the Egyptians as it were, might suffer. But
we're safe. We're safe in the arms of our
Savior. So Moses throws these ashes up
that have been gathered from the furnace. Now the furnaces
could refer to that place where the bricks were baked. The cruelty
of a pharaoh and the cruelty of the taskmasters. made the
Israelites have to bake their bricks in ovens or in furnaces
without the Egyptians providing any kind of straw for them. They had to go out and gather
stubble, the scripture says. And they had to bake their own
bricks. Well, as the Egyptians forced the labor of the Israelites
working around the brick kilns, the furnaces that the Egyptians
had built. Now God turns the tables on the
Egyptians. And all of a sudden, that cruelty
which was expressed toward the Israelites, God recompenses to
the enemies of Israel that which they deserve. They forced the
Israelites to work in these furnaces or around these furnaces. And
now the Lord says, Moses, you toss up the ashes into the air. The ashes that symbolize the
cruelty of the labor of the Egyptians. And it will come back down upon
the Egyptians as balls, fiery balls that would leave them scorched
on their skin. and suffering greatly. The Lord would do this. And then
these furnaces, it could refer to the place of sacrifice, because
that's also where the Egyptians sacrificed their offerings to
their many gods. They had an altar or a furnace
that they offered to Typhon or Seth, the god of wind, the god
of deadly creatures, to Neat, the goddess of heaven. And now
the Lord, the Lord sends Moses and Aaron, they gather the ashes
and throw it up, and then this goddess that supposedly controlled
the heavens, the heavens become a curse to the Egyptians. Their gods couldn't help them.
Their gods couldn't save them. And yet, and here you see the
depravity of men. they still continued to worship
their false gods. Even though they saw and experienced
and felt some of the wrath of God, certainly
not all of it by any measure, but just a token of the wrath
of God in these judgments, in these plagues. But they did not
change the hearts of the Egyptians. They remained godless, they remained
idolaters, worshiping their God and refusing to bow to the God
of Israel, who is the only God that there is. Behold the stubbornness
and the rebellion of the natural man. Though God has indicated
something of His own power and wisdom and might and glory in
creation, men close their eyes to that and instead they'll worship
false gods rather than worship the Lord God of glory. And that
should teach us something about the natural depravity of all
men. You see, why wouldn't the Egyptians
stop worshiping their false gods? Why wouldn't they worship the
God of Israel? Well, because their false religion
was so pleasing to the flesh. And because they were so spiritually
dead and unable to stop their idolatry
and unable to start worshiping the Lord. And the fact is nobody,
not you, not me, not anybody out there who's watching, nobody
will ever come to worship God Almighty through the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ apart from a work of grace being
done in the heart. Natural man will go on embracing
his idols. He'll go on embracing his false
gods. the gods that have no power,
the gods that can't answer them. When it's convenient, read again
1 Kings 16 where Elijah and the false prophets squared off against
each other. And though the gods of the false
prophets were cried to, Bill, of course, they called out to
Bill. Though he couldn't answer, and
though they cut themselves with knives and bled, they got up
on the altar and they prayed with great supplication and in
all seriousness and sincerity, yet their God couldn't answer
them, but they still didn't worship the God of glory. And Elijah prayed his 63-word
prayer, and after watering down the sacrifice and the altar,
fire came from heaven and just burned it all up. Because that's
our God. That's our God. Why do men call
on a God that can't save? Isaiah 45, the Lord asks that. Why do they pray to a God that
can't save? What's the use? And the Egyptians,
they called on their gods, but their gods couldn't help them.
And in the end, their gods couldn't save them from the Lord who came
through Egypt and killed all the firstborn of those whose
doors weren't marked with blood. And their gods couldn't save
the Egyptian soldiers and Pharaoh himself when the waters of the
Red Sea came crashing in on them. Their gods couldn't help them. I like what the king asked Daniel
there in the book of Daniel. He said, O Daniel, is thy God
able to save thee, to deliver thee? And he waited for an answer. And then he breathed a sigh of
relief. Daniel said, oh, King, live forever. I'm alive because
our God saves. Don't look to a false god that
can't say, can't talk to you, has no feeling, has no life,
just the creation of men's hands and the creation of men's empty
imaginations. That's the reason we call them
images because they come forth out of the vain imagination of
men. Our God created all things. He's
a God of creation and providence and salvation. Call upon the
Lord through the person and work of Christ. The bulls came. The bulls came. Blistered them
good. You would think, just if you
didn't know about men and women total depravity. You think in
light of all these other judgments, all these other destructive forces,
all these other plagues that God had sent, and now here comes
hail or bull, here comes the bulls from heaven. As the ashes
turn to bulls and they burn the skin and you're in misery. You say, why in the world don't
they turn to the Lord? Why in the world don't they pay
attention? Those folks over there in Goshen,
this is not happening to them. Their God's protecting them.
Our God's are not protecting us. You say, why do people not
call upon the name of the Lord? Because they're dead. That's
why. Because they're blind. Because
they're deaf. They have hard hearts. And nothing's
going to change them except the sovereign power of God. That's
what it takes. Well, boils. And then I want
you to consider this, that the Lord, He threatened judgment. He threatened judgment. See,
plague after plague has come. They were first threatened and
then plague after plague finally came. but still no release of
the captives. But you see, it's because they
were underneath a plague of a more severe kind, of a more deadly kind, of a damning
kind. That is the plague of sin. That's
the problem. You say, why won't my loved ones
believe this gospel? Makes so much sense to me. I
see salvations in Christ. I see it throughout the book
of God. I see salvations of the Lord, salvations by grace, salvation
received by God-given faith. I understand that from the Word
of God. Why don't my relatives believe this gospel like I believe
this gospel? That's because God made a difference
with you and He left them where they are. That's the sovereignty of our
Lord. You know, in the Bible, we read
often about the I wills of the Lord, right? We often read what
the Lord says I will. Go back to chapter 3. Let me
just give you a few instances here. And I won't spend much
time on this, but I want to show it to you. Look at chapter 3
and verse 17. This is the Lord's word to Moses
to give to the children of Israel. Chapter 3, verse 17. And I have
said, I will. I love the I wills of the Lord,
don't you? You got to love the I will because
nobody can frustrate his purpose or say unto him, what doest thou?
Nobody can frustrate his determination. The Lord says, I will bring you
up out of the land of affliction of Egypt unto the land of the
Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites
and the Hivites and the Jebusites unto a land flowing with milk
and honey. And the Lord further says, drop
down to verse 20. And I'll read verse 19. And I
am sure the Lord says that the king of Egypt will not let you
go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand
and smite Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in the midst
thereof. And after that, he will let you
go, verse 21. And I will give this people favor
in the sight of the Egyptians, And it shall come to pass that
when you go, you shall not go out empty. The Lord continually
says, I will, I will, I will show mercy. Look at chapter 6,
verses 6 through 8. The Lord says unto Moses, wherefore
say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, I am Jehovah,
The Savior, I am the one who saves, I'm the everlasting God.
I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians
and I will rid you out of their bondage and I will redeem you
with a stretched out arm and with great judgments. I will
take you to me for a people. I will be to you a God and you
shall know that I am the Lord your God which bringeth you which
bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and
I will bring you in unto the land concerning the which I did
swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob, and I will
give it to you for an heritage. I am the Lord." He keeps saying
this over and over again, and you don't have time Turn to it,
but over in chapter 33, the Lord said to Moses, I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. And all of the people of God
rejoice in the Lord's I wills because there is omnipotence
to back up His words. But look now back in our text
in chapter 9. Look at verse 14. Because the
I-wills of God's judgment are just as certain as the I-wills
of His mercy. Look at chapter 9 and verse 14. For I will at this time send
all my plagues upon thine heart, speaking to Pharaoh, and upon
thy servants, and upon thy people, that thou mayest know that there
is none like me in all the earth. For now I will stretch out my
hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence, and
thou shalt be cut off from the earth. I will, I will. Look at verse 18. God says, tomorrow,
behold, tomorrow, about this time, I will cause it to rain
a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since
the foundation thereof, even until now. The I wills of judgment
are just as certain as the I wills of mercy. God said, vengeance is mine,
I will repay. That's what he said, I will repay. Take those as seriously as you
do his I wills of grace and his I wills of mercy. No wonder Job said in Job 36,
18, because there is wrath, beware. Lest he take thee away with his
stroke. Know this, and we know it from
Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel, and from everybody else
who's died and face gone at the judgment. Know this, those that
exalt themselves in their arrogance and in their pride, God says,
I will abase them. You exalt yourself. God says,
I will bring you down. I will bring you down. And one
old writer said, here's what salvation is. It's to bow to
the sovereign will of God in salvation in this life. That's
what it is. You're going to bow sooner or
later. That's for certain. Because his will shall be accomplished. No wonder Moses said to Pharaoh,
to the children of Israel, he said in verse 19, Sin therefore
now, and gather thy cattle and all that thou hast in the field.
For upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field
and shall not be brought home, brought into safety, brought
into the barn, brought into the building, brought into the safe
haven, the hail shall come down upon them and they shall die. That's the Lord's Word. They
shall die. And therefore He says, notice
the last word of verse 18 is now. Now. The third word of verse 18 is
tomorrow. There's no time to trifle. There's
no time to think about this and, well, maybe I will, maybe I won't.
You better bow to God and seek safety in the only place of safety
there is, or God says, it's going to be too bad for you, you're
going to die. He's saying through the lips
of Moses, escape for your life. And the Lord in mercy said, there
are appointed places of safety. The barns, come home. And I say to sinners, come home
to God. There is a way to God. There
is a way. And judgment is surely going
to come. Therefore the Scriptures say
today, now is the day of salvation. Let's get serious about this
now. You better flee to a place of
refuge or you're going to perish. That's the word of the Lord through
Moses to everybody, to the Egyptians. You want to live? You want to
live? Well, you're not going to live
if you stay out there where the judgment's going to fall, where
the hail's going to fall, and the lightning's going to run
across the ground and burn you up. There's no safety there. Where's the safety? You see that
barn over there? Get in that barn. And I'm telling
you, there's a place of safety for poor sinners. Christ is the
place of safety, and nowhere else. Flee to the refuge for
sinners that God has appointed, God has ordained, and God graciously
has provided. And know this, if you flee to
the refuge, it's God who gave you the willingness to run to
Christ, to flee to Him. Because judgment's coming, and
the Lord told Pharaoh, it's coming tomorrow. It's coming tomorrow. That was a mercy of God to provide
a way of escape. Seek refuge or you'll perish.
Come home to God through Christ. But seek this refuge at once. Proverbs chapter one. God said,
because I called and you refused. I extended mercy through my servants. They preached the gospel to you,
but you wouldn't have any part of it. Well, I promise you God will
have the final word. And I say to each one of you,
I say to myself, and I say to every person who's watching this
broadcast, flee to Christ Jesus right now. Oh, God help you to
come home to God through Christ. There is a place of safety. There's
one arc. There's one arc. The reign of
God's judgment is going to fall and flood the earth. There's
one arc. That's our Lord Jesus Christ
and his substitutionary sacrifice. Well, who will heed this warning? Look at verse 20. He that feared
the word of the Lord, he that believed God, among the servants of Pharaoh,
the servants who feared the word of the Lord, made his servants
and his cattle flee into the houses, into the barns. It went
out there, the landowners, went to their servants and said, you
men better get in the barn tomorrow, take all my sheep, all my goats,
all my cattle, all my horses, put them all in the barn because
Moses said that God said judgment's coming tomorrow. So you hear
my word. You take all my servants and
take all my cattle into the barn. And you know what? They were
safe. The hail fell. but didn't hurt them. Why not? There was the obedience of faith. The obedience of faith. Faith
comes by hearing. They heard the word of God. They
heard the word of God through Moses. And to some degree, to
some degree, they believed. And I'd say to some degree. Well, who would not heed this
warning? Verse 21, he that regarded not
the word of the Lord, he who set no value on the word of God. That's an important statement. He who set no value on the word
of God left his servants and his cattle out in the field,
and you know what happened. They all died. They all died. They wouldn't heed what the Lord
had said. Look down at verse 25, and the
hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt. All that was in
the field, both man and beast, and the hail smote every herb
of the field and break every tree of the field. One place of safety. And they
said, no, I don't believe that. Well, didn't you see the Nile
River turn to blood? Didn't you experience the lice? And what about the flies, mosquitoes,
bees? All manner of flying insects.
What about all those? And yet you don't believe what
Moses says the Lord's gonna do tomorrow? Are you a fool? Yes, that's exactly what they
are. The fool hath said in his heart,
no God for me. You can have your God, Moses
and Aaron, and the Israelites. You can have your God, but we
don't want anything to do with that God. Well, all right then. Just get ready, because you're
going to die. But who did not fear this judgment? Verse 26. Only in the land of Goshen, where
the children of Israel were, was there no hell. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. That's right, isn't it, Joe?
No judgment. No judgment. Why not? Our Savior bore our judgment
when He died for us upon the cross of Calvary. Men did their
cruelest deeds to Him. They crucified Him and virtually
butchered Him. But that didn't make Him the
Savior. God dealt with His soul. God poured out His wrath upon
His Son. And I'm telling you, if the Lord
Jesus dying upon the cross of Calvary, bearing the sins of
His people, if that doesn't convince you that God's going to punish
sin, then nothing's going to convince you. And it's only when
the Spirit of God gives you spiritual eyesight to see the reason Christ
died on the cross, that God might be just and justifier of him
who believes in Jesus. He died for the sins of his people
and God dealt with him accordingly. That's the only way we could
be saved. If you die outside of Christ, God's going to deal
with you too. He's not going to show any mercy.
Because you see, Mercy and grace and salvation and forgiveness
and righteousness are all in the person and work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, I'll leave you with that
tonight and we'll sing a closing song.