Well, as you know, the Lord sent
ten judgments upon the Egyptians. And you might even ask the question,
couldn't he have delivered them without the first nine of them? And indeed, he could have. I
mean, we know the tenth plague was the death of the firstborn.
And the firstborn were of Israel. They were released and delivered
from death when the Lord passed through Egypt because of the
blood of the Passover lamb. And the Lord could have just
jumped right to that. There's no question about that.
We never doubt His power or His ability to do that which He set
out to do. He's going to deliver His people.
He said back in Exodus chapter 3, He told Moses, He said, I've
come down to deliver Israel up. I've come down to deliver Israel
up, up to the land that I have promised to them through the
words and the covenant made with Abraham. And indeed, we know
that our Lord Jesus has come down to lift us up. And the only
way we could ever be lifted up was for him to come down and
to humble himself and be obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. And of course, that's all pictured
in the 10th, the 10th judgment or plague that the Lord sent
to the Egyptians, the death of the firstborn, of the Egyptians
and they, the firstborn of the Israelites were passed over because
of the Passover lamb, which pictured our Lord Jesus. So still we ask,
why was it that our Lord sent these judgments upon the Egyptians,
the judgments one through nine? And let me say, before I answer
that question, the Israelites were, they were in a horrible
mess. One from which they couldn't
get out. They're in Egyptian bondage. I know that they'd been
in Egyptian bondage for 400 years. Excuse me, they had been in Egypt
for 400 years. As to this bondage that they
were in, the servitude of a cruel pharaoh, perhaps 80 to 100 years
is kind of the best guesstimate of the commentators. Theirs was a horrible, horrible
plight. And they had no ability to get
themselves out of this condition. And in that, they're a good picture
of us in our natural state of sinfulness and our depravity
and being cut off from God. We're in a mess because we're
held captive by Satan, by sin, and by sinful self. And we can't
get ourselves out of the mess that we're in. Little wonder
that the Savior said to the Jews in John 5, He said, And ye will
not come to me that ye might have life. Later in chapter 6,
He said, You cannot come to me. So you cannot and you will not.
Ours is a situation and a condition that is so bad, so awful, that
we have no possibility of delivering ourselves out of the bondage
that we're in. And that was pictured by the
bondage and the servitude of the Israelites in Egypt. And
I would also remind you that their captors were more powerful,
far more powerful than they were. And our captors, they're far
more powerful than we are. Sin is an awful captor. Sin is an awful, awful thing
that we're servants to. And then there's Satan. 2 Timothy
2 says that Satan holds all men captive at his will. Do you understand? Could it possibly be that there
are a few people who understand that Satan, Satan is our master
by nature? Our wills are in bondage to him. Let men and women foolishly speak
of the freedom of man's will, that man is a free moral agent. Satan knows better, for he holds
us captive just like Pharaoh held the Israelites captive.
We're not free moral agents. We're not free, we're captors. We're not moral, we're immoral. And we're not agents, we need
an agent. We need a mediator. because our
captors are far more powerful than we are. And in addition
to sin and to Satan, the law of God has arrested us and demands
a payment be made in order to secure our freedom and the payment
must be the death of a suitable substitute. So our condition
is a horrible one. And our enemies, those against
us, are far more powerful than we are. Which brings me to say this.
The deliverance of Israel was fully dependent upon the Lord
stepping in, intervening on their behalf. And that's our only hope. That's the only hope you've got.
It's the only hope I've got. Those of you who are watching,
the only hope you have of being liberated from the captivity
in which you are held is for the Lord God of glory to step
in and free you. It's going to take almighty power. It's gonna take a whole lot more
than your decision to liberate you. I'm sure the Israelites
in Egyptian bondage, many times they said, we want to be free,
but that didn't secure their freedom. It's going to take a power far
greater than any power we could possibly imagine to set a sinner
free. And behold, one came down. to lift us up to liberty, Christ
Jesus. And there in Exodus chapter three,
the Son of God speaking out of the burning bush told Moses,
I've come down to deliver my people and to take them up to
the land that I promised to Abraham. So theirs was a horrible condition
as is ours. Their captors were powerful,
as are ours. The Lord had to intervene for
Israel, and that's what he had to do for us. But that brings
me back to the original question. Why did the Lord send these judgments
upon the Egyptians? Well, number one, to make his
power known. And he says that a little further
over in the book of Exodus, and of course in Romans chapter 9,
the apostle Paul writes that for this same purpose, God said,
I've raised up Pharaoh to make my power known. And God's power
was made known back when He delivered the Israelites out of Egyptian
bondage, and His power is still being spoken of in a good many
places in light of what God did for Israel. And those who are
the Lord's people, we speak of the greatness, the greatness
of His delivering power. We never attribute our deliverance,
our salvation to anything we've done. You see, God saved Israel
in such a way he brought these judgments about to make his power
known. Yes, he could have just skipped
over those first nine judgments. In fact, he didn't even have
to use the tenth one. He could have liberated them,
but he was teaching us an object lesson. Those of you who are
Sunday school teachers, you often, especially in teaching the young
ones, you use an object lesson. Maybe, I know when I was growing
up, a flannel graph. Had a flannel graph board, the
teacher did, and put pictures up there in order to teach us.
There were object lessons. There were illustrations of truth.
And the Lord of Glory has illustrated gospel truth to His people through these judgments that he brought
about to Egypt to show his power. He changed the river Nile into
blood. Who can do that but God? And
he brought multitudes of frogs upon the Egyptians. Who could
do that but God? And then all the frogs that came
out and had infiltrated their dwelling places, their houses,
their cupboards, their ovens, their kneading troughs where
they're fixing the dough for bread and frogs are in there. How'd you like to have frog bread?
That's what they had because the frogs were into everything
and just must have driven them mad. The noise. Isn't it amazing how much noise
one frog can make? They can multiply thousands of
them. But they're not outside. They're
not tree frogs. They're not in the pond in the
back. They're in your house. They're
in your bedroom. They're in your bed. They're
everywhere. Oh, what a racket that was. Who
could do that but God? And then who could kill them
all? Just like that. He started them croaking, and
then he stopped it. And those that were near the
water, he drove them back in the water. God made his power known. And
you know, he makes his power known today. People just aren't
paying attention. Who do you think sends the storms, the tornadoes, the hurricanes,
the hailstorms? You see, man in his foolishness,
he attributes all of these things to Mother Nature. It's not Mother Nature. It's
the God of Nature. The God who controls all things,
He manifests His power. He sends His rain, His rain on
the just and the unjust. His sun, it shines on those who
love Him and those who hate Him. God makes His power known. And Pharaoh found out, he found
out who the Lord is. Remember back in chapter 4 when
Moses and Aaron said, the Lord said, let my people go. You say,
who is the Lord? Who is the Lord that I should
fear? I don't know him. I don't know him. But he found
out. In fact, here's just the second
of the plagues. And he's already telling Moses,
would you ask your God? This God that I don't know, This
God that I denied even exists. It's only the second one. He
got some more severe ones yet to come, but after the second
one, he said, ask your God to take the frogs away, and I'll
let his people go. He found out. I'll tell you another
reason why the Lord brought these judgments upon the Egyptians,
to defeat the gods of Egypt. Hold your place here and look
at Numbers chapter 33. Numbers chapter 33. Look at Numbers chapter 33 and
verse 4. Numbers 33 and verse 4. Moses is looking back over the
deliverance that God gave to Israel And he says in verse four, Numbers
33, four. For the Egyptians buried all
their firstborn, which the Lord had smitten among them. Remember,
God says, I kill and I make alive. Upon their gods, note this, upon
their gods also the Lord executed judgments. He defeated all their
gods. The Nile River. The Lord's already
defeated that. That was the source of life. That meant life to them. This
was their God. And the Lord smoked that river
with blood. And now he's gonna, the Lord's
gonna send in an abundance of frogs. because they worshiped
frogs. That was the goddess of fertility
was the frog, the goddess of life, the goddess of prosperity. They worshiped and honored frogs.
It's like the Lord said, you love frogs, you worship frogs,
have your belly full of them. Here they are. And I thought
about this, how God is omnipresent. All of a sudden, He made their
God, the frog, almost omnipresent. They were everywhere in Egypt,
but apparently not in the land of Goshen. And go back to Exodus. Let me
show you chapter 18 of Exodus. Look at Exodus chapter 18. And verse 11. This is when Jethro,
who was Moses' father-in-law, came for a visit. Moses went
out to meet him. And look at verse 8. Are you
there? Exodus chapter 18. Verse 8, And
Moses told his father-in-law Jethro all that the Lord had
done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake. and all the travail that had
come upon them by the way, and how the Lord delivered them. You see, salvation's of the Lord. You don't have to read too far
in the Bible to find out that the deliverance of the captives
is of the Lord. Salvation's of the Lord. If God
saves, if God saves, He gets the glory, not the sinner. Right
from the beginning in Genesis chapter 3 when Adam fell and
plunged us all into a state of depravity and alienation from
God. It's the Lord who came to the
rescue. It's the Lord who saves. It's the Lord who delivers. So
verse nine, and Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the
Lord had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand
of the Egyptians. And Jethro said, blessed be the
Lord who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians
and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people
from under the hand of the Egyptians. Nobody could do it but God, and
he did it. Who can save but the Lord? Watch
what he says in verse 11. Now I know that the Lord is greater
than all those man-made gods. For in this thing wherein they
dealt proudly, He was above them. The Egyptians dealt proudly.
They were proud of their gods. But the Lord conquered them all.
He conquered them all. So He sets forth all of these
plagues in order to show His power, in order to show that
He had authority over the gods. The gods were just the makings
of the figments of man's imagination. And thirdly, to show Israel that
the Lord only was their refuge. and their strength. So tonight, here in chapter 8,
we come to another plague. We looked at the first one, water
to blood. The Nile River was honored and
revered. And the Lord changed that river
into a river of blood. The fish died. The river stank. There's no life in that river
now when God did this. And God is exposing the weakness
of their God because that's their religion. And here's man's religion
today. This is man's false religion.
It's not a religion of life. God shows what it really is.
It's a religion of death. And for years I drank of the
water of the river of death, and you did too. Until the Lord awakened me by
His grace and He showed me there's no life in that river. There's
no life in the river of man's religion. All who drink of that
river will thirst again. Our Lord Jesus stood and cried
the last day of the feast of tabernacles and said, if any
man thirst, let him come to me and drink. And out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water. There is living water to drink
from, but it's not the dead water, the lifeless water of false religion. And I'll tell you, multitudes
of people are drinking from the river of death, and they receive
no good from it. So, here we go, real quick. Number one, in verse eight, here's
what this reminds me of, repetition. That's the word that comes to
my mind. And the Lord spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say
unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may
serve me. We've heard that before. The
message had been delivered to Pharaoh before, and this same
message will be delivered again and again. Which leads me to
say this, the servants of God are people, men of repetition. We keep preaching the same message.
Moses every time preached the same message to Pharaoh. He said,
well, can't he come up with something new? Well, no, this is the word
of God. Tell Pharaoh to let my people
go that they may serve me. And those who preach the gospel,
those of us who are called of God to preach this message of
redeeming grace, we are repeaters of the Word of God over and over
again. We keep preaching the gospel.
But you see, our message is not, the Lord is going to deliver
His people, but rather the Lord has delivered His people. The
work is finished. It's not for you to do. It's
not for you to make a decision for Jesus. The salvation of our
souls, the removal of our sin, the putting away of our iniquities,
the bringing in of everlasting righteousness is a work that
is finished to the satisfaction of God. And we keep saying it
over and over again. Because we don't have a better
message. If you're waiting for something different, you're not
going to hear it. This is the message that's gone forth from
this pulpit for the 60-some years that this church has been in
existence. And the Lord willingly will continue
to be the same message. Repetition. Repetition. And I think of that in John chapter
1, where it says, the next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto
him. And he said, Behold the Lamb
of God. You can go down a few verses and guess what? He's repeating
himself. His next message was, Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. We keep
preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified, buried, risen again,
ascended, ruling, reigning, coming again. We keep saying that over
and over again. And some people pay attention,
by the grace of God, and others say, he keeps plucking one string
on his guitar. Doesn't he know anything else?
Is that preacher so simple-minded that this is as deep as he can
get, Christ and Him crucified? It's as deep as I want to get.
And I tell you, you can't plumb the depths of that truth. Repetition. Secondly, I think
of the word, here it is, threat. Verses two through four. The
command is issued to Pharaoh. Says if you don't let Israel
go, you're gonna be in for it. Frogs. And I noticed this word in the
third verse, perhaps you noticed it too, and the rivers shall
bring forth frogs abundantly. This is what God said. Now, when
God says abundantly, it must be a lot. Would you agree with
that? I mean, for me to say abundantly,
that's many. But for God to deliver the message
to Moses and say, tell him that the river shall bring forth frogs
abundantly. You see, if God does something,
He has to do it abundantly because that's who He is. The Scripture
says to come to Him in repentance of sin and He will abundantly
pardon. You have no idea of the fullness
and the freeness of the abundant pardon of God. Abundance. Not by works of righteousness,
Titus 2 says. which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he has saved us by the washing of regeneration
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior. You have, you who are the people
of God, I'm including me and all of us and all who are watching,
we have no idea of the abundance of the grace of God that is given
to us in Christ Jesus the Lord. There's just no measuring it.
2 Peter 1, verse 11. For an entrance
shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And remember this reference,
Ephesians 3 and 20. Now unto him who is able to do
exceeding abundantly Above all that we ask or think according
to the power that worketh in us. We have no concept of what God
does and of what God is pleased to do if it's his will. Which brings me to the frogs. Can you imagine thousands upon
thousands of frogs that invaded the land? And the people worshipped
these frogs. It's like the Lord said, get
your fill of your religion here. You see, those frogs pictured
the false religion of the Egyptians and of all men by nature. Hold
your place here and turn over the book of Revelation. Look
at the book of Revelation, and I want you to go to chapter 16. Before this, there had been the
seven trumpet judgments. And the trumpet judgments, trumpets
were used to warn. And in a sense, we can make an
application in the book of Exodus to the warnings that Moses was
given by the Lord, the warnings that he gave to Pharaoh. Let
my people go or else. That's a trumpet warning. God
doesn't punish without warning. Better let them go. Let my people
go or I'm gonna bring frogs. The frogs would be everywhere.
A trumpet warning. But here in Revelation chapter
16, the Lord begins to pour out His
seven vials of judgment. So the trumpets have warned.
Now the vials are going to be poured out. And notice, and I don't have
time to get into this, but look at verse 12, and the sixth angel
poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates. The river
represents those things that feed and nourish the natural
man. And the water thereof was dried
up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
And I saw three unclean spirits, watch this, like frogs. Frogs. They come out of the mouth of
the dragon, the dragon is Satan. Out of the mouth of the beast,
the beast is pagan world empires and governments. You surely don't
think that our government, that the officials in Washington,
are anything else but pagan, do you? That's Republican, Democrat,
Independent, all of them. And then, and out of the mouth
of the false prophet, that's Babylon, which is false religion. Three unclean spirits like frogs. Frogs. You see, frogs represent
and speak of false messengers, false preachers. I said a while ago, one frog
can make a lot of noise. I would say ounce for ounce or
pound for pound, the frogs can make a louder noise than any
other animal I can think of. Well, what about if they're all
in your house? They're everywhere. Well, let
me tell you something about false preachers. They're everywhere. They're everywhere. You know,
I did a little reading about frogs. Frogs exist in very cold
climates because they have the ability that part of their body
can be frozen. During the wintertime, they dig
in the mud, like in this area down at the bottom of ponds that
will maybe freeze over. And they can last down there.
They're everywhere. Frogs are everywhere. And you know where they dwell?
You know where frogs... You know what kind of environment
they love? Darkness. You don't much hear them during
the daytime, but at night, man, they're croaking up a storm.
And false preachers who believe in free willism and preach that,
who preach baptismal regeneration and all other kind of lies, they're
croaking all the time. They're everywhere. They're all
across the globe. But just as in Egypt, these false
prophets, these frogs, are the judgments of God. Because read
II Thessalonians chapter 2. When the truth was preached,
they didn't believe the truth, so God sent them a lie, and then
damned them for believing it. These frogs, they're out here.
They're all in our city. They're all in Boyd County, in
the tri-state area, across this United States, in Canada, Mexico,
South America, Central America, all over the world. The world
is covered with frogs. And I mean, they intend to be
heard, too. They croak up a storm. And I
tell you, these frogs, they keep multiplying. Because like frogs,
they go jumping down the aisle. They love darkness. They're everywhere
they're allowed. And you know, these magicians
of Pharaoh, go back to chapter 8 now. These magicians of Pharaoh, with
their enchantments, they brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt
because frogs multiply quickly. Frogs multiply very quickly. You see these massive churches. They'll advertise how many souls
they've won, how many people have come to Jesus. You know
what's happened? Frogs begetting frogs. That's
a sad thing, really. It's very sad. Well, quickly, here's the fifth
thing. So we've covered frogs, now number
five. Here's his prayer. Then Pharaoh called for Moses
and Aaron and said, entreat the Lord. Boy, his attitude's changed
now. Entreat the Lord. Pray for me.
Pray for me. Lots of times people call me.
Pray for me, preacher. Pray for me. Pray for so-and-so.
Well, you want me to pray? Pray the disease will be healed
or their financial situation will be corrected or whatever.
It's very rarely somebody calls me and said, Jim, would you pray
for my son, my daughter, my grandchild, my husband, my wife, mother,
father? Would you pray that the Lord
would save them by his free and sovereign grace? I don't get
asked that very often. And Pharaoh says, entreat the
Lord, take away the frogs. Take away the frogs. But his prayer request contained
a fatal flaw. There was no confession of sin.
You know what he wants to get rid of? The judgment. That's what he's interested in.
He wants to get out from under the judgment. Well, who doesn't? But he doesn't want to get out
from under that which brought about the judgment. His arrogance,
his haughty spirit, his attitude toward God, he's not repentant
about that. He just wants to get out from
under the frogs. The frogs are driving me crazy. Get rid of the frogs. I'll let
the people go. I can't tell you how many times
I've visited people in the hospital and say something like, and I'm
thinking about one particular man years ago, he had kidney
stones. He said, would you pray the Lord
will heal me and I promise I'll be in church every Sunday. Well, the Lord delivered him
from the kidney stones. I preached his funeral about
eight or ten years later. He had never darkened the doors
of the church one time. What do you want to be saved
from? The pain of the kidney stones. Do you want to be saved from
your sin? That's the question. You're a
sinner against God. Salvation is in Christ Jesus. Yeah, there's a fatal flaw here.
No confession of sin, no admission of guilt. We've got to come to
the Lord through Christ Jesus just like the publican did. God,
be merciful to me. I'm the sinner. Be propitious
to me. Show mercy on account of the
sacrifice. I plead the blood of Christ. Pharaoh didn't do that. And Moses said in verse 9, and
you might wonder what this is all about. He says, glory over
me. And what he's saying is, I'm
going to leave this up to you. When is it you want the frogs
to leave? It's up to you. And look at verse 10. And he
said, tomorrow. I don't know about you, but I've
had frogs in the kitchen, frogs in the bedroom, frogs in the
bathtub, frogs in the kneading trough, frogs in the pantry,
frogs everywhere. frogs throughout the land, if
Moses said, glory over me, you tell me when do you want the
frogs to be gone? You know what I'd say? Now. And I'm not by myself there,
I think any reasonable, isn't that what you'd say? I'd say,
I want them gone now, Richard, I want them gone now. But he
says tomorrow. That's a dumb answer. I think
he said that because he's still counting on his magicians to
get rid of him. But you know, it's just like
the natural man. Rather than deal with God, who
God is, what I am, who Christ is, the natural man says, But the Bible says now is the
accepted time. Today is the day of salvation.
You remember when Paul went before Felix? Reason with him of righteousness. Remember what Felix said? When
I have a convenient season, I'll call for you. You know what he
said? Tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow. The ladies sang the song from
Isaiah 118. You know what the Lord says? Come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. Come now, not tomorrow. You have
no promise of tomorrow. Today. Now. Pharaoh, he's just like the natural
man. He's a procrastinator. I'll think
about it tomorrow. And you know what Moses said?
Be it according to your word. They'll be with you till tomorrow,
and you'll find out again who the Lord is. Of course, the Lord,
or Moses and Aaron, cried out to the Lord. Next day, the Lord
did according to the word of Moses. Frogs died. Look at verse
14. And gathered them together upon
heaps, and the land stank. Can you imagine this abundance
of frogs? They all died, and they're shoveling
them up in piles. And the sanitation department's
coming along, picking them up, or wherever they've disposed
of their rubbish back in those days. And the land stunk. I tell you, I hope and pray that
God will cause false religion to stink to you. Just a bunch of dead frogs. Watch this, and I'll quit. Verse
15, but when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, that he's getting a break. It's like being real dark, cloudy,
then the sun comes out, it's a respite. When we moved to Texas, I went
there because a brother had asked me, he sent me to insurance school,
and he said, here's the deal, you go to insurance school, I'll
pay for it, and then you move down to Tyler, Texas, and my
son will teach you how to sell insurance for Aflac, and you
preach the gospel to him. That was the deal. And I did,
and the Lord saved him and his wife, baptized them in their
swimming pool. And I started selling insurance
for Aflac. Wank, wank. You've seen that
on television. And the first insurance policy
I sold was nursing home insurance, long-term care insurance. Sold
to a college professor. And in that insurance policy
for nursing home insurance, it had a clause that said respite
care, which meant that, say, the husband or the wife, one
or the other, because both of them had the policy. If one or
the other wound up in a nursing home, then that policy would
pay and give the money to them to hire a nurse or someone to
sit with the afflicted person in the nursing home to give the
spouse a break. And that's called respite care.
And you see here with Pharaoh, when he saw there was respite,
it's a break in the judgment. Ah, the frogs are gone. Listen
to that. Oh, blessed quietness. No more
croaking. When he saw that, Well, his heart
got hard again. I'm not going to let him go. But this all happened, the last
few words of verse 15, as the Lord had said. Didn't take God
by surprise. He's not finished with this fellow.
He's not finished with the Egyptians. And he's not finished sending
the plagues. Oh, may the Lord show us the
seriousness of knowing him through Christ Jesus, our Savior. And
may he stop our ears to the deafening sound of these frogs that are
croaking their false gospel. False gospel of free willism,
of works, or be baptized and get saved, or walk in the aisle,
and all of that nonsense, and show people, show people that
salvation's in Christ. And I say, people, come to Christ,
but don't you move a muscle. You come in your heart. That's
right, isn't it? Come in your heart. Well, we'll
keep on going, the Lord willing, next Wednesday night. Let's sing
our closing song, 290. 290, be still my soul.