Let's go back to the book of
Exodus now. Exodus chapter 5 is where I'm
going to begin. Exodus chapter 5. And this will kind of lay the
foundation for the message. The message is entitled, Judgment
Upon the Gods of Egypt. Judgment upon the gods of Egypt. You'll recognize this portion
of scripture. We've dealt with it before, and
I just will use this to begin the message, Exodus chapter five,
verse one. And afterward, Moses and Aaron
went in, as the Lord had instructed them, and told Pharaoh, thus
saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people go. that they may
hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the
Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go. Here Pharaoh makes an admission
of his own ignorance. He doesn't know who the Lord
is and really that's the condition of every man and woman by nature. We don't know who the Lord is.
His problem is in fact a universal problem. You see, here's Pharaoh's idea
of a god himself. He is his own god. And really,
think about this. That's the problem with everybody. By nature, we think we're gods. And wasn't that the temptation
of the serpent, of Satan, to Eve? The Lord doth know that
in the day you eat thereof of that fruit of the tree that God
hath forbidden them to eat of, the Lord doth know that when
you eat of it, you'll be as God's. You'll be God, knowing good and
evil. And we know, really, truthfully,
that every person Born into this world, when we get to the age
of understanding who we are and our surroundings and so forth,
everything in our life is centered around self. Right? That's just the way we are. Why
do we do what we do? Because it pleases us. Because
it makes us happy. And the welfare of self, that's
always first and foremost in everybody's mind. And even as
the people of God, we must be honest and say, you know, that's
the way I am most of the time, except those times when God is
teaching me and reminding me that this life is not about me,
it's about Him. You see, the Lord made us to
worship Him and to enjoy Him forever. That's the way most
of the confessions of faith begin. That's the way most of the catechisms
begin. What is man's chief end? The chief end of man, and this
is It hardly matters which of the confessions of faith you
look at. I enjoy Spurgeon's confession
of faith. In fact, I've written a confession
of faith myself in days gone by and used it for instruction
of the young people. What is the chief end of man?
To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That's the chief end
of man. That's why God made man. But
when we come into this world as fallen people, our chief end
is the glory of self. And you know that's true. There's
no argument there. And this is the way Pharaoh felt. He says, who is the Lord? Who
is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? You
see, in Egypt, Pharaoh was himself a god. And he was worshipped as a god.
He was adored as a god. He governed as a god, and people
looked up to him as a god. He was all about pleasing himself,
as all people are. You remember what David said
in Psalm 14 in verse one? The fool hath said in his heart,
there is no God. That is no God for me. I've got a God, thank you very
much. And my God is me. That's what
he's saying. That's what the fool says. My
God is me. And so my world revolves not
around my creator, And not around the only Savior of sinners, not
around the Lord Jesus Christ and His work of redemption, but
my whole world revolves around me. And my happiness, my preservation,
my joy is in having my way. And if we don't
have our way, We get upset. You remember back in the third
chapter of Exodus. God gave the commission to Moses
that he was to lead Israel out of Egyptian captivity. Look back
with me in chapter three. Chapter three of Exodus. Verse
seven. Chapter 3, verse 7, and the Lord
said, he said to Moses, now this is the Son of God now. Let's
establish that. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
because he is the second person of the Trinity is the one who
speaks for the Trinity. He speaks for the Trinity because
God will not speak to nor be spoken to by any son or daughter
of Adam except through a mediator, except through the Son of God.
And it pleased the Father that in the Son of God, all the fullness
of the divine Godhead dwelt bodily. And the Lord Jesus has spoken
to Moses out of the bush that burned but wasn't consumed because
we know that because God is a consuming fire. He consumes those enemies
around Him and yet Him being a consuming fire doesn't consume
Himself. And out of that bush that burned
but wasn't consumed, the Son of God spoke. And he says to Moses in verse
seven, I've seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt. I've heard their cry by reason
of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. And I am come
down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to
bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large
land, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. unto the place
of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites,
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the tribe,
the children of Israel, is come unto me. And I've also seen the
oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them. And he says,
Come now therefore, and I will send thee, I'm gonna send you,
Moses, unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt." Now watch this. And Moses
said unto God, who am I? Who am I that I should go unto
Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel
out of Egypt? Who am I? Moses realizes something
that Pharaoh doesn't realize. You see, Pharaoh says, who is
the Lord? But Moses says, who am I? I'm nobody. That's not how Pharaoh
felt. Moses had been taken down a notch. The Lord had humbled him. The
Lord had taught him of the grace of God. of the meaning of salvation
by bloodshedding all those sacrifices pointing to the death of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And Moses said, Who am I? You
see, when the Word of the Lord comes to us in sovereign saving
power, We start with this idea, with this thought, who am I that
the Lord would do anything for me? Who am I? I'm nobody. Ask
Pharaoh if he thought himself of being nobody. Well, he'd just
have your head chopped off. He said, Pharaoh, I'm the God
here. Well, the Lord said to let my
people go. Who is the Lord? I don't know
your God. All the countries over which
I rule and reign, they all call me God. He doesn't know who he is. I
tell you something, it's a blessed thing, a wonderful day when the
Lord shows us we're nothing and nobody. Moses said, who am I? And we've
already studied that over and over again he realizes his own
insufficiency. He's not up to this task. He said, I'm a man of stammering
lips. They're not going to listen to
me. Who am I that I should go before Pharaoh, and that I should
bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And the Lord said
unto him in verse 12, Certainly I will be with thee, and this
shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee, when thou hast
brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God
upon this mountain. Now watch this. And Moses said
unto God, behold, when I come unto the children of Israel,
and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers hath sent
me unto you, and they shall say to me, what is his name? What
shall I say unto them? When they say unto me, who sent
you? What shall I say? And God said unto Moses, that
is the Son of God, I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto
you. And God said moreover unto Moses,
thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord
God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob, there's the Trinity, hath sent me unto you. This is
my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. Pharaoh said, who is the Lord? But he didn't want to hear who
the Lord was, who the Lord is. But Moses wants to know more.
And this is true of all of the people of God. We want to know
more about our Lord. We want to know more about who
He is, the second person of the Trinity. Indeed, more of who
the Father is and of His work of salvation and election and
predestination and His eternal purpose. And we want to know
more about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. of that new birth
which is from above, of being birthed into the kingdom of grace. We want to know more about the
continual work and ministry of the Spirit of God who indwells
us, who teaches us, who enlightens us, who instructs us, who guides
us, who leads us. When our Lord Jesus said, I'll
never leave you and I'll never forsake you, he's talking about
the ministry of the spirit of grace, his own spirit. And we learn more about the Holy
Spirit and that which is necessary for all of us, his continual
presence and the grace that he gives us. But remembering that
all of the fullness of the Godhead dwells in a body in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we're continually learning about Him. And I'm fully persuaded in eternity,
we will be learning more and more of our great and glorious
Savior forever and ever. There's so much we don't know.
Who is the Lord? Tell me more about him. But that's
not the attitude of Pharaoh. And I'll tell you this, that's
not the attitude of the wicked man. They're not interested in
knowing more about the Son of God. They have their own concept
of who their Savior is, the Savior that they believe, Jesus of Nazareth. They don't want to know more
about His offices, prophet, priest, and king? Sovereign of the universe? The successful Savior? Where
are those who are really interested in the Son of God, the great
King of kings and the Lord of lords? Who wants to hear more
about Him? Not very many. Over my ministry,
the years of my ministry, I've had people come to me and say,
you know, okay, you've taught us about Christ, now let's move
on to deeper subjects. Let's move on to more practical
things. We've heard enough of this gospel.
It's okay on Sunday morning, but not on Sunday night to the
church family, not on Wednesday night. We've heard enough of
him. No child of God talks that way. We want to know more about him.
And Moses says, when the children of Israel, they say, I'm sent
to deliver you. Well, who sent you? Tell us about
him. He's a God of glory. The God
of all grace. The Lord says, I am that I am. And what we tell sinners is the
Lord Jesus Christ is the only Savior. We call attention, and
certainly the Spirit of God in inspiring Moses to write this
many, many years after this happened, when he went before Pharaoh.
The Spirit of God had him write this to show the natural man's
ignorance of who the Lord is, to call attention to that ignorance. People don't know who God is.
Do you know who will believe Him? Do you know who will believe
the Lord? Do you know who will trust the Lord? Do you know who
will cast themselves with all of their sins upon the only Savior
of sinners? Well, the Scripture says in Psalm
9 in verse 10, they that know thy name, they that know thy
name will put their trust in thee, for thou, Lord, has not
forsaken them that seek thee. Who is it that puts their trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ? Those who know him. Pharaoh doesn't
know him. Didn't want to know him. Has
no interest in him. Now, Moses and Israel will come
to know him better through the Destructions that the Lord will
bring upon the Egyptians. Turn over to chapter 12 and verse
12. And I'll take this from my text.
They're gonna find out. Pharaoh doesn't know. The Egyptians
don't know who the Lord is. But they're gonna find out. They're
gonna find out. Exodus chapter 12 and verse 12. The Lord tells Moses, for I will
pass through the land of Egypt this night, and I will smite
the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and
against all the gods of Egypt while I execute judgment. I am
the Lord. Who is the Lord? He's the Lord
indeed. And you can go through, in fact,
I think in one of the messages on this, I went through and showed
you several passages where the Lord said, I am the Lord. He doesn't want to be Lord. He's
not pretending to be the Lord. He doesn't have limitations of
his Lordship. He says, I am the Lord. I am
the Lord. But the wicked don't want to
know Him. Several years ago, I had somebody
that I knew quite well talk to me about a preacher that we disagreed
as to what this preacher was preaching. And I said, well,
he just believes in easy believism. He's a free will preacher. And
this person said, but he believes on Jesus. Who is Jesus? Who is He? Does it make any difference
who Jesus is, the Jesus that you believe? Is it just a pitiful
imitation of an Almighty God or is He the Lord Jesus Christ? The words of the apostle Paul
and Silas to the Philippian jailer, just when I was discussing this
with this person, they came surging to my mind. Here's what they
said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is he? He's the Lord. He's the sovereign. He's the king. He got to the
throne by way of a bloody cross. He's Jesus who came to save his
people from their sins. He's the Christ, the anointed
one, the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. It makes a
difference which savior you believe in. You better believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one who can save
you. The psalmist said in Psalm 10
in verse four, the wicked through the pride of their countenance
will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. Psalm 12 in verse four, who have
said with our tongue will we prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is the Lord over us? You
talk about the Lord over everybody. He's not Lord over me. I'm the
master of my own fate. I control my life. I was reading today that Tony
Robbins is a motivational speaker. Maybe if you've had sales classes
or something like that, he talks about eight ways in which you
determine your own destiny. And I realize there's an element
of truth in things like that. You're motivated If you sit down
and do nothing, you're not gonna succeed. You have to be active,
but let me tell you something. You don't control your destiny. Actually, your destiny, that
was determined forever, because God, back in eternity past, determined
your destiny. I'm not saying don't seek his
will, and I'm not saying don't pray, I'm not saying don't seek
the face of God, but I'll tell you this, our God controls every
step you take. There's nothing you have ever
said, thought, or done that ultimately our God wasn't the first cause
of all of it because He is directing your path to the end that He
Himself has determined and all of your blunders in life and
all of your errors and even all of your sins, God will use all
of those to bring you to the point where He has purpose for
you to be. That's our God. The Lord will have Moses say
to Pharaoh, for this same purpose, I raised you up. It's a man who hated Israel,
who was a God to himself. This is a man who did everything
he could to make life as miserable for the children of Israel as
he could possibly make their lives. And God said, I raised
you up. I'm using you. I've said this
before, people say, I hope the Lord will use me. You can bet
on that. That's something you can really
go to the bank on. He will use you. He used Judas,
didn't He? You want to be used like He used
Judas? Not me. He used Lucifer, didn't He? Sure
He did. He used Adam, didn't He? Oh yeah. He uses everybody and everything
to bring to pass his almighty purpose and grace to his own
people so that everything serves the purpose of God. Yeah, the wicked say, who is
Lord over us? That's what Pharaoh said. Who
is the Lord? It's not my Lord. You don't know
it, buddy, but he is. He is. I'll tell you what, the day is
going to come, and you can read this in Second Thessalonians
chapter one, when our Lord Jesus Christ comes back in flaming
vengeance upon those who know not God. Those who know not God. Do you
know Him? And let me tell you something,
with all of your studying, you can't know Him. You can go to the great theologians
that have written marvelous things about God, but you still won't
know Him. You might know more about Him,
but you won't know Him. The only way you'll know the
God of the Bible is if He introduces Himself to you. Somebody said He's the God who
butts in. And He does. And he interrupts
your life. And he turns things upside down
for you. Like he did Saul of Tarsus. And you know, when the Lord confronted
him on the road to Damascus, you remember what Saul said? Who art thou, Lord? Who are you? I don't know you. But wait a minute, Mr. Saul.
Didn't you grow up at the feet, being instructed at the feet
of the greatest theologian of your day, Gamaliel? Yes. But I don't know the Lord. But didn't, weren't you, aren't
you a Pharisee? Yes. Don't you live by the law?
Yes. But I don't know who the Lord
is. It's a blessed day when God exposes
our ignorance of him. Lord, I don't know you, but I
want to know you. Paul went to Athens, started
preaching. And before that, he's walking
around the city, saw all these statutes and gods, images to various gods. And he said, I perceive this
is a real superstitious place here. It's a real religious place. But he said, in addition to all
your idols and statutes, I found one that says, to the unknown
God. He says, that's what I'm preaching to you about. And that's
the God we're preaching to people today, the God that people don't
know. Oh, they know the God who loves everybody and doesn't want
anybody to go to hell. They know the God who stands
in heaven and weeps over people because they won't let him have
his way. They know that God, but they
don't know the God of the Bible. They know Jesus who speaks good
to everybody, who loves everybody, like in the homosexual event our city had
over the weekend. Just love everybody. God loves
everybody. He includes everybody in his
family. I got news for them. They don't
know who God is. But neither do a lot of the people
who were opposed to that meeting. They don't know Him either. If they knew Him, they wouldn't
brag on the flesh as much as they do. They'd brag on Christ. Oh, give us a man. Give me somebody
who stands up and boldly says, I preach the Lord of glory, the
sovereign Savior. who has his will and does his
will in all things that ever happen. And he's the only savior
of sinners and he doesn't have to save you, but maybe he will. That's up to him. That's the
one they don't know. And Paul said, that's the God
I'm gonna preach to you about. Who is he? He's the great I am.
And Moses, he goes to Pharaoh, and he says, well, you're going
to find out who the Lord is, because you're in store for some
judgments that you can't imagine how horrible things are going
to be. And in essence, Mr. Pharaoh, you're going to find
out you're no God at all. You just don't know the worm
off the dunghill. And you know the Lord, he brings
these devastations, these judgments to pass over a long period of
time. We're impatient people. We want
things to happen right now. And you know we do. The Lord doesn't get in a hurry.
He didn't get in a hurry with the Egyptians, with Pharaoh.
He gave full opportunity for human responsibility to be tested. Pharaoh is responsible to do
what God told him to do. He's given full opportunity.
He could have repented if he'd wanted to. He didn't want to. And the Lord gave ample, ample
time to test the faith of Israel. Did they really believe the Lord? And he gave time through these
ten judgments, these ten plagues that the Lord sent. And
the first three go together, the middle three go together,
the last three, but then the last one. The first three, then
the next three got more severe, and the next three got more severe,
till finally the last one. The death of the firstborn, the
most severe. Why didn't God just jump right
to the last one to begin with? Well, he's manifesting his great
perfections and his power. He's showing his attributes. It won't be Moses who's going
to get the glory for leading Israel out of Egyptian bondage. It's going to be the Lord. It's
going to be the Lord. He will manifest the greatness
of his power. And he pours out his judgment.
The Lord pours out these ten judgments upon the gods of the
Egyptians. The first one's the water change
to blood, to defeat the god Hapi and Osiris. The Nile River gods,
the river was sacred to them. They worshiped the water. We
worship him who is the water of life. That's a big difference. I'm just about sick of hearing
people talk about Mother Earth. We gotta save Mother Earth. Well,
I'll tell you something. God made this earth, and he'll
preserve this earth till he's finished with it. when he has
saved his people, taken us out of this world, and then he's
gonna purify this earth with fire, like he's gonna purify
the heaven with fire. Don't you worry about you destroying
Mother Earth. You can't destroy it, man can't
destroy it, he can't create and he can't ultimately destroy.
I expect people ought to be worried about and concerned about who
is the Lord. Boy, that'd be refreshing to
hear somebody on the news say something about that. But you
needn't expect that to happen, not unless God has purpose in
it. And the second one, the frogs
covered the land. They had a frog called Heqet,
H-E-Q-E-T. Frog-headed goddess. She personified birth, Fertility
and life. And you know what we say? Christ
is our life. He's our life. And then lice. He sends lice. That was to defeat the Egyptian
god Leb, L-E-B. The earth god. Lice came from
the dust. God created man out of the dust
of the ground and get this, then he came down here to be a man
just like us. And then the swarm of flies,
Kepara, the keeper of all things, the insect God, supposed to protect
the crops from pestilence. Who is our keeper? Who is our
preserver? But Christ our Lord. The cattle, the cattle became
diseased. Apis, A-P-I-S, was the sacred
cattle god. They worshiped brute beasts. Oh, how foolish man is. He'll
worship a cow. He'll worship a sheep. He'll
worship a rock. He'll worship a tree. And the
son of God came down here clothed in human flesh, and I'm gonna
worship him, not apart from a divine revelation. You see, he is the cure for our
disease, which is sin. And then number six, the bulls
and the sores were sent upon man and beast. Neit, N-E-I-T,
the goddess, the queen of heaven. Moses threw dust from the furnaces
up into the sky, and down it came as dust, causing boils and
sores. I tell you, thank God one came
from heaven upon this earth who saved us from the boils and the
sores that sin covered us with. And then thunder and hail, Iris,
the water god. Christ is the water of life.
You thirsty? He said, if any man thirst, let
him come to me and drink. The locusts consumed all vegetation. Shu, S-H-Y-U, the god of the
air, but couldn't protect him from the locusts. I tell you
what, our Lord Jesus Christ, he's a God of heaven, earth,
air, space, everything. Thick darkness then, number nine,
covered Egypt for three days. Ra, the sun god, the supreme
deity. Don't worship him. Worship that
one who said, I am the light of the world. He is the son of
righteousness who shines in our hearts. And then lastly, the death of
the firstborn, a man and beast. And this was against ISIS, I-S-I-S,
the protector of the children. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
down here. He is the Lamb of God who died
for his people. And God poured out his judgments
upon Pharaoh, upon the Egyptians, and he defeated all of their
gods that they worshiped. And yet, they continued to worship those
gods. That's what the natural man will do, apart from a divine
revelation of the glory of God shining in the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Yes, he is that true lamb of
God who died, who shed his blood, and God said, when I see the
blood, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Pharaoh said,
who is the Lord? I don't know your God. No sir,
you don't. That's why you're in hell now.
And you've been there for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
years and you're never gonna get out. Because you don't know
who the Lord is. And if we've got any sense at
all, We'd say, Lord, teach me who you are. I don't wanna die not knowing
God. Let me tell you this, this is
life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Get your song books, we'll
sing a closing song.