And the Lord said unto Moses,
See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother
shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command
thee, and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send
the children of Israel out of his hand. And I will harden Pharaoh's
heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of
Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may
lay my hand upon Egypt. and bring forth mine armies and
my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great
judgments. And the Egyptians shall know
that I am the Lord when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and
bring out the children of Israel from among them. And Moses and
Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, so did they. And Moses
was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years
old, when they spake unto Pharaoh. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and unto Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh shall speak unto you,
saying, Show a miracle for you. Then thou shalt say unto Aaron,
Take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become
a serpent. And Moses and Aaron went in unto
Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron
cast down his rod before Pharaoh before his servants, and it became
a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the
wise men and the sorcerers. Now the magicians of Egypt, they
also did like men with their enchantments. For they cast down
every man his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron's rod swallowed
up all their rods, and he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened
not unto them, as the Lord had said. I want you to notice here
in verse 3 where it said, I will harden Pharaoh's heart. And in
verse 13, he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearken not unto
them. God hardens men's hearts. And
a hard heart is to be feared. A hard heart is to be feared.
All of us fear a hard heart. Sometimes we think it's so hard
that it's untouchable. But the only people who's concerned
about a hard heart is people that God gave a new heart. If
you don't have a new heart, then you do have a hard heart. And
I tell you, a hard heart, a heart of stone. And there's people
in this world called vessels of wrath. God himself said, I
will have mercy upon whom I'll have mercy and upon whom I will
have heart. That's what God said. And here's
a people whom God hardens their hearts. And Pharaoh is an example
of a man whom God hardens his heart. There was only one reason
that Pharaoh was born and he grew up and was exalted to the
position of Pharaoh. Now, Pharaoh's a title. And the
only reason he was born and raised and grew up and raised and exalted
to be favorable over Egypt was for God to glorify himself and
his power in what he's going to do to this one man. He said,
for this reason I raised him up. That's what God said, for
this reason I raised him up that I might show forth my power in
him. And Pharaoh is a perfect example
of a man whom God hardens his heart. And we're shut up to this
truth that if we have a heart, a heart of flesh that feels,
that's touched by the Spirit of God, that's touched by the
truth, that's touched by other people's infirmities, that's
touched by, with compassion is touched. God has to be the one
to give us that kind of a heart. He has to be the one to give
it to us. He has to give us a new heart. You know, preachers say,
you know, God, to give God your heart, we can, he's got to give
us a heart. What kind of heart can we give
him? You know, he gives us a heart and he gives us a new heart.
He said, I'll put a new heart and a new spirit within you.
And it's only whenever He touches us with the Spirit and touches
us and gives us a new heart that we can actually be touched with
the Word of God. Touched with the good news of
the Gospel. Shirley and I was talking about
what a day that's going to be whenever we're done with this
flesh. Done with this sorrow. Done with this... Everybody's
got like... Brad Prager was overwhelmed with
so many people that's got things wrong with them. That we just
get overwhelmed. And everybody in this building's
got heartaches, they got troubles, they got sorrows. But thank God He gave us a heart
that we can be touched for one another. We can be touched and
feel for one another. We can be touched and compassion
towards those that are sick and weak and frail. But here in chapter 7, we start
a new division in the book of Exodus. Up to this time, we've
been dealing with Moses, the deliverer. Now we're going to
see God start manifesting His power, manifesting His acts,
manifesting what He's going to do to deliver Israel up out of
Egypt. And here in chapter 7, Moses
had been timid up to this time. Look what he said here in the
last two verses of chapter six. He says that, Lord, speak unto
Moses, saying, I am the Lord. Speak thou unto Pharaoh, king
of Egypt, all that I say unto thee. And Moses said before the
Lord, Behold, I am a man of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken
unto me? He had been tempted. He's not
tempted anymore. He's not hesitant anymore. He's
not discouraged anymore. When the people came and said,
things are worse now since you got down here. But now it's going
to get really serious, the conflict between the Egyptians and God
Almighty. And it's not going to get serious
and this conflict's not going to get great just in what's said
and what God does. And you know God uses his word
but he also acts by spirit and acts by his power. And here's
an illustration of the great, great battle between good and
between evil. Here we see the prosperity of
the wicked. The Egyptians are prosperous,
wealthy, powerfulest nation on the earth at this time. And then
here's God's people. His chosen people, His elect
people, suffering, suffering so heavily and suffering such
adversity. The wicked prosper and the righteous
are suffering adversity. But I tell you, there's no doubt
to how the outcome is going to come. There's no doubt the way
this is going to come out. Who do you reckon is going to
win this war? Who do you reckon gonna win this
one? And look what it says here in verse 1 now. And the Lord
said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a God to
Pharaoh. What? I have made thee a God. And see it's to little G. He's
not a God himself, but he said I've made you a God to Pharaoh.
Moses has been chosen by God himself. to be his ambassador. And God gave him the authority.
And with the authority comes the power. God invested him with
the power to perform miracles and incredible miracles. But
here he's acting in God's stead. And Moses, when it says that
he's made him a god over Pharaoh, you'll see how this comes out.
Moses was to rule over Pharaoh. Moses don't say, he just goes
in there and tells Pharaoh what he's going to do. And then it
happens, and Pharaoh's got to come and say, Moses, stop this,
would you? Oh, he's going to rule over Pharaoh.
He's going to command Pharaoh what to do. He's going to control
him when he does wrong, and he's going to punish him for his disobedience. And Pharaoh will come to Moses
time and time again and say, Moses, Ask the Lord to stop this. When he starts having all these
plagues, he comes to Moses. And Moses is the one he's going
to have to deal with now. And Moses, God made him. He said,
I made you a God over him. And he's going to rule over him
too. You'll see that. And oh, look what he said. And
then he said, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. You know,
you're going to be a God and he's going to be your prophet. Go be a prophet. And you remember
when he said over in Exodus 4, he says, you know, said, ah,
you take the word most said, I'm a, I've stuttered a stammer
and I'm not a good spokesman. He said, but listen, I'll get,
I'll put words in your mouth and you take the words that I
put in your mouth and you put them in Aaron's mouth. And God's prophet is God's spokesman. And the Lord puts in his lips
the words he should utter. He's not left to himself how
he's supposed to free a prophet, what he's supposed to do. And
then look what he says in verse 2. Thou shalt speak all that
I command thee. All that I command thee. Here's
the situation. When I see that right there,
that's what God's telling me. Speak all that I command you. Don't pick and don't choose.
Don't go through the scriptures and find out what suits you and
suits everybody else. You speak what I tell you to
do. And how many preachers don't do that? Moses wasn't free to
pick and choose the words of the Lord and then tell everybody
what he thought would be best to deal, how to deal with Pharaoh. Oh, no. No, no, no. Paul told Timothy, preach the
word. Be instant, in season, out of
season. What does that mean? Whether
you feel like it or whether you don't. Whether you've got liberty
or whether you don't. Whether people listen to you
or whether they don't. He said, you be instant in season,
out of season. If the season's in, God bless
you. But if the season's not in, you
still go on preaching. That's what he's saying. And
he says in all this, The time is coming when men will not endure
sound doctrine, but heed, heed to themselves. Teachers, teachers,
and all they got engineers, they always listen for something new,
some new psychology, some new movement, some new way to deal
with people, some new way to talk people into something. Always
listen. They hit people at the flight
deck. And I tell you what, when God
commands us, you know what would somebody say? Well, it's not
right for us to preach on the sovereignty of God on Sunday
morning. Does that mean God's not sovereign
because you don't want to preach on Sunday morning? Oh, election
should never be preached on Sunday morning. And y'all, that's a
family secret. But what in the world would we
do? If we was left up to ourselves to choose what we'll preach when
we deal with the Word of God. Are we supposed to hide things,
keep things back from people? I know a couple of men, I know
a couple of men right off the top of my head. That they say
they believe what we believe and say that they really believe
it. And they'll even go hear some
of the preachers preach it. But when they go back to their
services and go back to their churches, they won't preach it
because you know what they said? I'll get fired. I've got to ease
them. I've got to sneak up on them. I've got to give them just
a little bit at a time. I'd rather see a church split
all to pieces than for a fellow to sneak up on people. Did God
sneak up on us? He met us head on. He met us
head on by the Gospel and by the Word of God. He made us head
on with the gospel that salvation is by grace and free grace and
sovereign grace that man can contribute nothing to his salvation. The only thing man's got that's
his own is his sin and the only person that can put that away
is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. So he said, you speak all that
I command you. Don't say nothing but what I
tell you to say. And then he said, and Aaron and
our brothers shall speak unto Pharaoh, and listen to what he
says now, and he will send the children of Israel out of this
land. They went in first and said, God said let my people
go. Now he says they're going to send them out. He's not going
to let them go, he's going to send them out. He's going to
be glad to get rid of them. And then look what he goes on
down and he says here, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart. I will harden Pharaoh's heart.
This is one of the most solemn truths revealed in all of Holy
Scripture. God himself hardening human hearts. Hardening human hearts. That's
a serious thing. The same son that produces food
for us to eat also cause weeds to grow, noxious weeds. The same
sun that will melt the wax on a candle hardens the clay. Same sun does that. God does
that. And enemies of the truth, they
say if Pharaoh's Sins and crimes were the result
of God hardening his heart. That makes God the author of
his sin. God would be unrighteous to punish him. Well, did God
harden his heart? Over there in Exodus 1 when he
said, I want all those male children killed. I want these Hebrew children,
every boy that's born, I want him killed. Did God cause him
to say that? Did God put that in his heart
to have children killed? Did God put it in his heart to
make those hard taskmasters to be over Israel? And then get
mad at them because they wanted to go off and worship God three
days straight? And he said, I'll just make it
harder on you, take away the straw and make it harder and
harder and harder on them? Did God do that to him? It sounds
like to me he had a pretty hard heart to start with. But when
Moses went down there and said, the Lord said, he said, who is
the Lord? that I should obey Him. I don't
know Him. Oh, listen. God did more than permit Pharaoh
to harden his own heart. God Himself hardened it. The
Word of God says so. Pharaoh hardened his heart against
God. And then God hardened his heart.
And the Scriptures makes it very plain who hardened his heart. And that's one thing that I Aren't
you afraid of that? Aren't you afraid of a hard heart? I've seen people's hearts so
hard that it's frightening. It's frightening. Look, keep
Exodus. Look over here at Psalm 105.
Let's look at Psalm 105. Look what it says over here. Look what the Lord has over there. What he said here in Psalm 105
down verse 25. Now this is talking about them
being in Egypt and this is what God did. And in verse 24, increased his
people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies.
And then listen to this, this is what he did to Egypt's. He
turned their heart to hate his people, to deal suddenly with
his people. God did that. He turned them
to where they'd hate Him. Where they'd hate Him. And I
tell you, beloved, it's not our responsibility to apologize for
God or vindicate God and His dealings in this world. I'm not
going to apologize for what God said He does. I'm not going to
vindicate Him for what He says He does. I ain't going to argue
with anybody over what He says. You know what our responsibility
is? Believe what He said. Believe what he said. Huh? And
God will someday, someday vindicate himself. And he will silence
every mouth, silence every heart, silence every enemy that's ever
been against him from all eternity. He'll silence every one of them.
And they'll not be able to say a word when they'll look at him
and say, you're exactly like he said you was. You're exactly
like he said you was. You're like he said you was when
people told me you was. You're not like I thought you
was. Oh my. And I tell you what, He's going
to silence those who hate and question Him. He's going to glorify
Himself in His sake. And here's the thing. Here's
the thing. What is man? Who does man think
he is to set in judgments upon God? That's what Paul meant when
he said there in Romans chapter 9. And you know what he's talking
about how that God, before the children ever being born, Having
done neither good nor evil, he said, Jacob, have a love, and
he shall have a hated. And then he went on down there
to say that according to the purpose of election, the purpose
of election, God's work might stand. And he went through there
and said, Whom he will, he'll harden. Whom he will, he'll...
If he'll have vessels of brass and vessels of mercy, whom he
will, he'll harden. Whom he will, he'll have compassion
on. And somebody said, Oh, listen, that's unrighteous. You know
what Paul said to him? Who art thou, O man, that replies
against God? Who in the world do you think
you are? That's what he said to him. Men
won't set any judgments on God. Oh, but now let me, okay, let
me get on down through here now. I've said enough about that.
Look down here in verses four and five. And he said, I'll multiply
my signs and wonders in the hand of Legion. But look what happens.
One reason God hardens men's heart is to display His mighty
power. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you. And here's
the reason why. That I may lay my hand upon Egypt. And listen to this. I never noticed
this before. But he said, and bring forth
nine armies. I will stretch my hand upon Egypt.
And he said, I've got armies. I've got armies. And he said,
I'm going to bring my armies down upon each. Armies, God's got armies. He
said he does according to his will in the armies of heaven
and among the heavens and the earth. So he said, I'm going
to send my armies down there. He said, I've got armies. Oh,
my word. Oh, an army of angels is going
to go through there. And oh, when he gets done with
it. And listen, and my people, the
children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, by great judgments. And the Egyptians, this is what's
going to happen. And the Egyptians, they're going to know. They're
going to know this. they are going to know this before
I'm done with them that I am the Lord when I stretch forth
my hand upon Egypt and listen and I bring I bring out the children
of Israel from among them oh listen God's got an army and
he said I'll bring them up they're going to know who did this when
it's all said and done they're going to know who did this And
oh, in this verse 67, Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded
them, so did they. What a simple thing to say. Huh? And they did what the Lord said
to do. I can just see them dirtying, ah
boy, that's just, that's too tough, Lord. We can't go up there
and deal with them people that way. Oh, that's just, that's
just being too tough. Oh. Moses wasn't him and Aaron
wasn't going to go up there and beg Pharaoh. No, no. And then look what it says here
about Moses and Aaron here. In verse 7. Moses was four score
years old. That means he was 80. He never
started the ministry until he was 80 years old. And Aaron was
83 years old. You know why this says that?
I don't have a clue why they say it, but I'll tell you what
I think it means. That God is not limited by a person's age,
He's not limited by a person's ability or a person's strength
or their age or nothing else. You know what it does? It just
magnifies the grace and power of God to do, use them. An 80-year-old man, God uses
him. 83-year-old man, God uses him. How do they do what they do?
God. I hope I make it to 75. I hope I can make it 10 more
years. If I make it 10 more years, coming this March, if I can make
it 10 years past March, I would have been here 50 years. I hope
the Lord let me stay here and preach to people 50 years. 10
more years. The Lord can do it, can't he?
The Lord can do it. And oh my, well they're old men. God don't care. He can use them. He can use a child. He used children. Oh, this week Samuel was a little
boy when the Lord called him. David was out tending the sheep,
just a teenager when the Lord called him. Oh, God don't care
about age. And oh, listen, he said here,
look what, down through start of verse eight. And the Lord
spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, when Pharaoh shall speak unto
you, say, show a miracle for you. Then thou shall say unto
Aaron, take your rod, cast it before Pharaoh, and it'll become
a serpent. Moses and Aaron went in and they did like the Lord
commanded them and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and
his servants and it became a serpent Now listen to this now Pharaoh's
gonna ask you for a miracle to test them to prove whether God's
for you and the God of Hebrews is really sinning And oh my and
now look what happens now and then Pharaoh also he said called
in all his wise men and his sorcerers and and the magicians of Egypt. They also did in like manner
with their enchantments. For they cast down every man
his rod, and they became serpents. But you see how they said they
did it with their enchantments. It wasn't by the Spirit of God,
it wasn't by the power of God. For they cast down every man
his rod, and they became serpents, but Aaron's rod swallowed them
up. How in the world was it possible for sorcerers and magicians to
perform this miracle? Well, I think I can show you
two reasons. I think I can show you two reasons
from the scriptures, using the scriptures as an illustration.
Keep this and look over with me in Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter
4. Look in Luke chapter 4. I believe
I can show you how this happens. You know, Satan's a counterfeiter.
Satan's a counterfeit. He can certainly counterfeit
so many things. But look what it said here in
verse 5. And the Lord Jesus Christ, he's
driven out by the Holy Ghost into the wilderness and the devil
came to tip him. And it said in verse 5 that the
devil taking him up into a high mountain, took Christ up into
a high mountain and showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world
in a moment of time just like that and the devil said unto him all
this power will I give thee and the glory of all this world and
the kingdoms of this world that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever
I will I give it If therefore thou wilt worship me and all
shall be thine. Now the first thing is we know
he's lying. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. God does as he pleases in the
heavens and the earth and the sea and all deep places. That's
the first thing you notice about Satan. He lies. He lies. He said I raised up kings and
I sat down kings. I raise up nations and I set
down nations. He said the nations are counted
as a drop of a bucket. So we know right off the bat,
Satan's telling a lie. Now watch what else he said.
If thou wilt worship me, all shall be thine. There's already
years to start with. And our Lord answered him and
said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan. And he used the word
of God on him. For it is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And
then it brought him to Jerusalem. Set him up on the pinnacle of
the temple. Went up on the temple and said unto him, If you really
are the Son of God, if you are who you say you are, cast yourself
down from this top of this temple here. For it's written, it's
written in the 91st Psalm, He shall give his angels charge
over thee to keep thee. And in their hands they shall
bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a
stone. And that's what the scripture
said. And thy Lord answered and said unto him, It is said, Thou
shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. So I tell you what, see
how powerful Satan was? And I tell you why he lied. Now
look over here in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter
11. And oh my, this is, this is,
this is what it is. Satan, you know, our Lord, like
I said this morning, our Lord told the Pharisees, you're, your
father's a devil. He was a liar from the beginning. He was a liar from the beginning.
And now look what it says here in verse 13, 2 Corinthians 11. Paul talks about people glory.
and he says the glory and all the things that they do for such
are false apostles deceitful works transforming themselves
into the apostles of Christ and that's no marvel about it just
don't stand in astonishment marvel about it for Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light Therefore, it is no great
thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness." And when he says this, he says they're not
talking about the righteousness of Christ. Ministers of righteousness
who claim to read righteous lives and want everybody else to do
something to live a righteous life instead of trusting the
righteousness of Christ. And he said this, Therefore,
it's no great things if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
transformed, transformed, transformed. Three times it says that. Whose
end shall be according to not their message, not what they
say, not what they preach, but their works, their works. Not what they preach, but what
they do. How they live. That's what's going on. That's
the test. Safe to count, official. But
I want you to notice here now. In verse 12, look what it says.
Aaron's rod was so much more, God so much more powerful and
so superior to anything they can do. And Aaron's rod swallowed
up all their rods. He threw that thing down there
and they threw all their rods down. He just went around eating
them all up. They didn't even have anything else to throw down. He showed how counterfeit they
was. He's all gone. Where'd all our
rods at? Oh my. Now look here in verse
13. This is awful. And he hardened Pharaoh's heart that he would not listen to them,
hearken to them, pay any attention to them as the Lord had said. And this is what we must face as the Lord has said. As the
Lord has said, not what man said. Let God be true in every man
alive. Man says you've got to do good
in order to be saved. God says he's got to save you
and make the tree good. Man says, well, you've got to
believe and you've got to repent in order to be born again. God
says you must be born again Before you can believe and before you
can repent there's got to be life before there's any action
And God's got to give life before a man can ever even believe And
oh, I'll tell you what I'm gonna believe God. I'm gonna believe
God all the wisdom of God The wisdom of God. I'm going to close
in Proverbs 21. Look with me over in Proverbs. Proverbs 21, verse 1. I'm going
to close with this verse of Scripture. Proverbs 21, 1. Let's see what this says. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord, The King's heart is in the hand
of the Lord as the rivers of water. Oh, people don't care
which way God runs his rivers. But just leave my free will and
leave my heart alone. The King's heart is in the hand
of the Lord as the rivers of water. Listen to this now. He
turneth it whithersoever He will. You know what I want God to do
with my heart? Turn it to Himself. Turn my heart to you. Turn my heart to you. Whatever
you do. That's why we pray, Lord, don't
leave us to ourselves. Because we know what would happen.
We know what would happen. Wouldn't we? Save us from a hard heart, a
hard heart. Oh, gracious Father, blessed
God in heaven. Thank you for the day. Thank
you for your presence. Thank you for your power. Thank
you for your word. Thank you for your grace. Thank
you for the prayers that we've heard, the scriptures we've read,
the songs that we've sung. We pray that we've done it to
honor and glorify You today. Because Lord, that's why we were
born. That's why You allow us to grow up. That's why You saved
us by Your grace. That we might glorify You. And
Your salvation given to us and accomplished by Your blessed
Son. An effectual salvation that saved us and keeps us and will
keep us till we can go home to be with our Lord Jesus Christ.
God bless these dear saints. And again, we pray for the sick
among us. Oh Lord, be their comfort in their tribulation. You've
been our comfort so many times in our trials. And Lord, let
us comfort them in trials as you've comforted us. Thank you
for the day. Thank you for your mercies. Thank
you for your word. Thank you for your gospel. In
Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Let's turn to Hymn 51. We'll sing this and
then you'll be at liberty to go. Hymn 51. Let's stand together. You know, I'll tell you something.
Every one of us knows this. We was born with a hard heart.
And God gave us a heart. He didn't have to harden ours.
It was already hard. Thank God He took it out. Put
in a new one. Praise the Savior. we owe Him, gladly let us render
to Him all we are. Jesus is the name that charms
us. He, for conflict, fits and arms
us. Nothing moves and nothing harms
us while we trust in Him. Saints forever He is faithful
Changing never Neither force nor God can sever Those He loves
from Him Keep us, Lord, oh keep us cleaving To Thyself and still
believing Till the hour of our receiving promise joy within
Then we shall be where we would be Then we shall be what we should
be See you Wednesday, God willing.