Now if you'll turn back to Exodus
chapter 9, I want us to look at these first seven verses. This is the fifth plague that
God has poured out on Egypt. And I should say on Pharaoh's
Egypt because Pharaoh is the one speaking for them. But the
plagues didn't just fall on him and his house, it fell on Pharaoh's
Egypt. And it fell on him because of
his unwillingness to bow to the demands of God. Now let me give
you three things here, kind of by the way of introduction into
the message tonight. And first of all, I want to show
you the object of the plague. I titled the message, The Plague
of the Beast. Because that's what it is. The
plague of the beast. And that's the object. It's the
plague. The object of the plague is the
beast. Cattle, horses, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep. This
plague indirectly, as he read through it, I don't know if you
were paying attention, but indirectly it affected the people by their
relationship to the beast. The same thing didn't happen
to Israel's cattle that happened to Egypt's cattle. There was
a relationship there. These beasts had a four-fold
purpose to their owners. If you look at these beasts,
there's a lot of beasts. There's all kinds of beasts in
the world, but he didn't name them all. He just named these
several. And he did that because of what
they meant to these people. There's a fourfold purpose to
the beast and their identification with the owner. The first is
food. They provided food. And then
secondly, transportation. These beasts is what carried
not only the owner but all of his possessions from point A
to point B. They didn't have automobiles.
They got on horses and asses and camels and that's how they
transported their goods. or they pulled them with oxen.
And then thirdly, they were used in common worship. The reason
Israel wanted a baby calf when they got out in the wilderness
is because that's what Egypt worshipped. They got that from
their old Egyptian idolatry. And then fourthly, they collectively,
all of these beasts together, stood for the livelihood of the
land. You know, when the Bible talks
about The social standing of a man like Job, he was a great
man. What does it do? It tells you
how many oxen and how many horses and how many cattle and all that
that he had. He comes along, he talks about Abraham, he does
the same thing. He talks about how many asses
he had and how many camels and all. It was their livelihood.
This was, you know, we won't show somebody our bank account
or our or stock certificates and things in our days, but back
then, you just come out to a man's farm and there's his wealth right
there in the field. You can tell when you pulled
up what kind of a livelihood he had. So these beasts collectively
pretty much affected every part of Egyptian life. That's what
I want you to see. They represented every part of
that. It represented their walk, it
represented their food, it represented their wealth, and so on. The
object of the plague is the beast. And then secondly is the plague
itself. It's called in scripture a moraine. Now I looked that word up and
it doesn't have a specific meaning as far as like anthrax. It is
a disease like anthrax or mad cow disease or other things that
we have in our day. But it doesn't have a... the
word moraine is a It's a word generally describing these deadly,
infectious diseases. This is not your run-of-the-mill,
we ain't talking about worming the cows here. We're talking
about something, if they get it, they're dead. This was a
very bad, bad plague. It's a grievous moraine, a very
infectious, deadly disease. Actually, the word, if you look
the word up and do some word studies on it, From what I understand
just reading different writers, they say that the Israelites
called it a moraine because the word incorporates death. It incorporates
death. If you got this, it's like leprosy.
You're a dead man. You're not going to get over
it. You're not going to take two aspirins and see me in the
morning. You get this, you're gone. And
we've got several examples in our days of diseases like this
among the animals. The evidence of this moraine
was open running leisures and ulcers and boils. And here's
what I want you to see. Nothing survives this plague.
If God sends this plague to you on purpose, nothing's going to
survive. All, it says all, it uses, the
Holy Spirit used that word all. All of the cattle of Egypt died. See it there in verse 6? They
all died. So we see the object of the plague
is the beast of Egypt. And then the plague itself, this
incurable disease. And then thirdly, the reason
for the plague. The reason for the plague was
his unwillingness to bow to the Word of God. God said, let my
people go. Not an unreasonable request.
They were his people. He's the one who brought them
there. He's the one who maintained and preserved Egypt for them.
And here they are as slaves. Now he said, let my people go.
Not an unreasonable thing to demand, but Pharaoh not going
to bow to the word of God. When we talk about men being
saved by grace, we're not talking about something unreasonable,
are we? It's a reasonable thing. It's a reasonable thing with
God. And His way of saving sinners is a righteous way and a reasonable
way. It's religion that's unreasonable. It was their unwillingness to
bow to the word of God. And this was not some coincidence
or freak accident. This disease was sent of God. This was a plague sent of God
on the Egyptians as a judgment of God against them because of
their obstinate rebellion against him. And I won't take time to
make this application. Disasters and plagues and tsunamis,
we just, the news has been full of it this year. And you look
on there and you hear about these disasters and plagues like that
earthquake over there, where is it, over in Turkey now. You
got these disasters and plagues and tsunamis and earthquakes
and hurricanes and tornadoes. They're all sin of God. These
ain't freaks of nature. Somebody said, well, it's due
to the climate change. Well, there might be a hundred
different reasons, secondary reasons why it's here, but I'm
telling you the first cause is God. And I can tell you why he's
sending them too. as a judgment. It's a judgment
against this unbelieving world who rebels against the sovereign
rule and will of God. And there might be a hundred
second causes, but the first cause is Him. The scripture said
the Lord has His way in the whirlwind. That's whose way He's going to
be having. Well, you can build this and build that. Yeah, you
can, but I'll tell you this. If he's got his sights set on
you, I don't care what you build, he'll send something to pull
you out of it. That's right. Old Nebuchadnezzar
said, he ruleth in the armies of heaven. He learned that. He
thought he was the ruler. And we'll get into him just a
little bit later on in the message. But he said, he ruleth in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and
none can stay his hand or even question what he does. He told
Nebuchadnezzar what he was going to do if he ever did it. And
he just kind of sloughed it off until after the fact. Then he
said, I'm going to tell you something about the living God. He rules.
He rules. Now, there are four things I
want you to see tonight concerning God's plague upon the beast of
Egypt. First of all, I want you to see
the far-reaching effects of sin. When God dealt with Adam after
the fall, He said, Cursed is the ground. Well, the ground
didn't do nothing. What has God judging the ground
for? Because out of that dust, man
was taken. Man's sin is far-reaching. It
goes way beyond himself. When Adam sinned, we all died.
Ain't that what Scripture said? Well, I didn't do anything. I
wasn't even born yet when he sinned. Ain't that what men tell
you? Cursed is the ground for thy
sake. I read you a verse of Scripture
Sunday morning quoted from the book of Job. And he was talking
about man being justified before God. And he said, the moon and
it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. What
did they do? Stars didn't do anything. Stars
wasn't even in this atmosphere. They're way out yonder, millions
of miles from here. They're not pure in his sight
now. Over in 2 Peter 3, verse 7, he
said, But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same
word, the same word which destroyed the world with water, are kept
in store reserved unto fire. Ain't that what he said? He's
going to destroy the whole outfit and recreate it. There's nothing outside of Christ,
this is what I want you to see, that's going to survive the judgment
of God. Nothing. Nothing out there. Don't lay up your treasures here
because moth and rust will take them away. Set your affections on things
above. Don't set your affections on
things down here. Nothing down here is going to
survive the judgment of God. Nothing. Not cattle, asses, horses,
sheep, oxen, I don't care what it is. All your wealth is going
to be burnt up. That old fella brought that beautiful
big Lincoln in and was showing it off to Brother Rolfes new
car and rubbed on that car and he said, almost a shame God gonna
burn it up. But he is. He is. God not only cursed the dust,
but he cursed everything come up out of it. Now it's gonna
bring forth thorns and thistles. You gonna labor for that food.
It's not just gonna be freely given to you anymore. You gonna
labor for it now. Nothing outside of Christ is
going to survive the judgment of God. Everything that belongs
to this world is going to be destroyed. And sin affects everything
you say. It affects everything you do.
It affects everything you love. It affects everything you produce.
Egypt before God was cursed. It was cursed. I don't think
that ever entered into Pharaoh's mind. It entered into those magicians'
minds. They said, this place is under
the judgment of God. You need to give in. Let him
have his way. Get them people out of here.
We're cursed with God. Pharaoh, he wasn't about to bow
down to that. And the beasts had really done
nothing to anyone, but because of their association to Egypt,
they were destroyed by God's plague. So if I'm looking at
this in its proper light, it's man himself who brings the plague. Man wants to turn that around.
You start talking to him about the sovereign grace of God, and
then he wants to turn that thing around and blame it on God. Well,
he could have chose everybody, but he didn't. He just chose
a few. There's no reason for me to believe or seek God. I'm
not one of God's elect. How you know that? How you know
that? I don't recall reading their
name anywhere in this book. But that's what men say. This
thing has to do with God's calling men into responsibility and He
holds them accountable here in Egypt. He held this man accountable
for everything He told him. He held him accountable. Now the second thing I want you
to consider in this plague of the beasts is God's eternal purpose
of grace. Who created these beasts? God
did. Why did He create them? Why did
He make a horse a horse and an ox an ox and a sheep a sheep?
Why did He do that? Well, I can tell you why. Creation
was formed and has its design and function and is preserved
and governed by God's eternal purpose of grace. That's right. Everything has its being, it
has its shape, it has its design, it's made specifically to do
a certain thing. A sheep, the only reason for
a sheep to be put on this earth is to demonstrate our shepherd
and his sheep. That's the only reason. And same
thing for an ox. And you can just go on and on
and on with these different animals and beasts. But let me give you
a couple of references here. In Colossians chapter 1 verse
15, Paul is talking about our eternal Redeemer. He that hath
redeemed us with His own blood. And he says, who is the image
of the invisible God. Now watch this. The firstborn
of every creature. The firstborn. He is the reason. He is the reason behind every
creature. Look at them bugs out on the
front door. I don't have a clue what them things have to do with
God's eternal purpose of grace, but they'll come a day when I
will. I will, by the grace of God, understand all things. He is the invisible God, the
firstborn of every creature. Verse 16, For by Him were all
things created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers. All things were created by him
and for him. It doesn't matter if you're talking
about elect angels or fallen angels. God created both of them,
didn't he? Sure he did. Elect man and fallen man, he
created of one blood. That's what Paul said. Our God
created all men of one blood. All nations of men. I don't care
what you're talking about. Governments, nations, cities,
creatures, climates, you can go on and on and on. God created
these things for his glory. And the sun, moon, and stars
have their place according to his everlasting purpose of grace.
You can read about it over in the Psalms where he talks about
the sun. He talks about the firmament
being the handiwork of God, standing there like a great cathedral
and that sun coming up and its light affecting everything in
the sanctuary. You can go on and on and on with
this thing of creation. But then over here in Romans
chapter 8 verse 19 it gets even clearer. He said the earnest
expectation of the creature. Now I've got a bunch of different
versions on my computer of the Bible and every other one except
the King James substitutes the word creation for creature. So you can do it. He's just not
talking about beasts here. He's talking about this created
world. He says here, the earnest expectation,
let me just substitute the word for you, of the creation waiteth
for the manifestation of the sons of God. Why would they wait
for the manifestation of the sons of God? Because that's their
purpose. That's their purpose. That's
why it's here. That's why these things are here.
For creation was made subject to vanity, verse 20, not willingly,
but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because
the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now, all to one glorious end. As a matter, like
a mother suffers to bring forth her child, he uses that word
travail. All creation is under this burden
of pain, waiting on this child to be born, waiting on this adoption
to take place. And we, along with the whole
creation, grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit,
the redemption of our bodies. Then he goes on to tell us that
these are the groanings which cannot be uttered, of which the
Holy Ghost helps our infirmity and teaches us how to pray. And
then in the end, we know. When the Holy Ghost is through
teaching us, we can say with Paul, and we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose. Creation, whatever it is you're
talking about, providence, All of these things, all working
together for that one great end. All right? Thirdly, this plague
was sent to manifest the absolute sovereign rule of God over all
things. He said, the moraine is going
to come on your cattle, but it ain't going to come on their
cattle. And there was nothing to stop the disease. There was
nothing to prevent the disease except what? God's Word. God's Word. And there's nothing
in time or space that is not under God's sovereign power. God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind
and he said, gird up now thy loins like a man. They stand
here before his friends and he was trying to justify himself
and justify his this curse that had fallen on him, and he went
a little overboard trying to justify himself, and God called
him down. And he said, who is this that
darkeneth counsel without understanding? He said, now, gird up your loins
like a man, and I'm going to ask you something, and you tell
me. Where were you when I created the world? Where were you when I laid its
foundations and stretched the line out on it and took the measurements
of it and hung the sun in the heaven?" And he goes on. I forget
how many questions he fires at Job. Things that we weren't there. We got no understanding of these
things. But boy, we sure ready to get red in the face and yell
at God, ain't we? Huh? You see what he's doing
here? Job's getting a little frustrated because of this And
it was a heavy curse that had come on him, a heavy trial had
come on old Joe. But he went a little overboard
and God called him down for it. Called him down. And he said,
where were you? I tell you, Solomon said this
was supposed to be the wisest man apart from Christ ever walked
on this earth, Solomon. He said, Keep thy foot when thou
enterest into the house of the Lord, and be more ready to hear
than offer the sacrifice of fools, because they consider not that
they do evil. This is God's house. We come
in here to hear a word from God. Boy, if I could hear from Him,
let me just close my mouth. I want to hear what He has to
say. You see what I'm saying? Because He's God. Pharaoh didn't
want to hear what he had to say. Pharaoh didn't want to hear anything
about it. He didn't want to hear what Moses had to say. He didn't
want to see these curses. He didn't want to see any of
this stuff. Old Peanut Pharaoh stood before God's ambassador
full of rebellion and pride as if he had some power against
the living God. And he did that because all he
could see of God was in a man. That's all he could see. He couldn't
stand it. He couldn't stand that God had
an ambassador that spoke for him. He couldn't stand it. God
knew he couldn't stand it up front. He told Moses when he
sent him down there, he said, I'm going to send you down there
and this is going to be his reaction to you. Because I'm more hard
in his heart. And then I see this down there.
This is just something that came to me a while ago and I jotted
it down. Moses and Aaron were not there to reveal the full
glory of God's omnipotence. They were there to manifest His
sovereignty in salvation. When I stand before you, there's
no way on this earth I can declare, under these circumstances, the
absolute omnipotence of God to you. All I can do is tell you
what the Scriptures say and bear witness of it. But what's being
manifested under the preaching of the gospel is God's sovereignty
and salvation, not his absolute omnipotence over all things.
Oh, it's demonstrated. It was demonstrated in the moraine,
and it was demonstrated in the flies and all them other things.
But there's coming a day when God's going to open those walls
of that sea up, and when Pharaoh gets down to bottom, he's going
to show him something about God's absolute omnipotence. He's going
to close it in. And there'll come a day when
Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth, and He's not coming
back in humility. And He's not coming back in that
humility of His manhood. He's coming back in the glory
of His person. With all His holy angels, He's
coming back in full glory. And then this world's gonna know
something about God's omnipotence in that day. They'll cry for
the rocks in the mountains to hide them from the face of God. There'll come a day when God
buried Pharaoh in the bottom of the sea. But for now, he exercises
just enough sovereignty to accomplish his purpose. That's what he does. He doesn't come down here and
make some big display where everybody in the whole community falls
down on their face. He doesn't do that, does he?
He manifests exactly the amount of sovereignty, exactly the amount
of justice, exactly the amount of glory of his character that
he needs to save whoever it is he came to save. And that's what
he does. And then fourthly, and this is
where I want to finish up with here, is the spiritual significance
of the pledge. God will gather his elect in
Goshen and show them by the distinguishing hand of grace that all men are
beasts before God. Now that's what he's going to
show. But here's the hope. Some are
beasts that God has chosen to save for his glory. And he's
not going to allow this grievous moraine to fall on them. He's
not going to touch them. God gave his prophet Daniel some
wisdom to interpret dreams. And he said to that great Babylonian
king, Nebuchadnezzar, he was troubled by this dream. He didn't
know what it meant. And he saw that tree, and the
tree was cut down, but the stump of it remained in the earth,
and then it grew back, and all these things. He didn't understand
what that meant. And so Daniel went up and gave him the interpretation
of the dream. And he stood before that great
Babylonian king, and he told him, he said, thy dwelling place
shall be with the what? The beast of the field. Ain't
that what he told him? Why on earth would he do that?
He's going to show him what he is. He's going to show him what
he is. Thy dwelling shall be with the
beast of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass
as oxen, and shall wet thee with the dew of heaven. until you
know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth
it to whomsoever he will." By an experience of grace, God calls
this proud, self-righteous king to take his place in the field
as a beast. As a beast. That's exactly what
he does with all the sinners, chosen sinners, that he's determined
to save by his grace. God put no difference between
that man and an ox or an ass. No difference whatsoever. Filled him with a madness. A
madness filled his mind and left him unable to discern the difference. He crawled around on all fours
out there like an ass in the field nibbling on clover. This great king, we're talking
about a monarch unlike anything we've ever known in our day. All men are beasts before God,
being cursed in their nature by the fall. And they've been
stripped of their glory, the glory of their first end and
brought by their rebellion to act like beasts. And the experience
of grace and the deliverance of God's people out of the bondage
of sin makes them to see themselves as beasts. Listen to David, Psalm
73, verse 22. He said, So foolish was I, and
ignorant I was as a beast before thee. Like a beast. Oh, thank God there's a hand
of sovereign grace to save son of Adam's curse of grace. All
of God's beasts are gathered over in Goshen, and all of Egypt's
beasts were left in the fields of Egypt. Pharaoh's herds and
flocks were preserved by his shepherds. He was the one in
power. He was the one giving commandments.
He sent out the shepherds, their keeping, and all that was up
to them. And all of God's herds and flocks were preserved by
him and his shepherds. But if all men are beasts, how
can you tell who's who? How can you tell Which one's
God's ox? Huh? They're all ox. They're all beasts. But how can
you tell which one's God's? Which one's God's horse or God's
camel, God's sheep? The grievous moraine reveals
the cursed beast. What is this moraine? It's the
curse to me of the idolatrous religion of this world. It's
the religion of the beast. Now I'd like for you to study,
I don't have time to get into it tonight, but I'd like for
you to study the 13th chapter of Revelations. He talks there
about beasts, not one beast, but two. The dragon, old Satan,
gave them both power. One of them came up out of the
sea. The one that came up out of the sea, I'll give you a hint,
He represented all the kings and rulers of the earth and all
these nations and kingdoms and all those things. That was all
represented in the beast that rose up out of the sea. Gave
him great power and great men bowed down to him. The second
beast rose up out of the earth. And Satan also gave him power. But him and the first beast were
brothers. They were friends. They got along
with one another. And this is talking about worldly
religion and worldly politics. Worldly religion and worldly
rulers. They kin to one another. And
one lives off of the other one. And they both have the same ruler,
Satan. This is the religion of the beast.
The beast rises up, gets his power from the dragon. And the
number of the beast is the number of man, 666. That's his number. The beast of religion is always
the friend of the beast of world government. He's quick to give
his approval and consent to his brother's lying wonders and ways.
There's not a politician on this earth that hasn't adopted at
one time or another some kind of religion and then promotes
it from his office, wherever it is. Make no mistake about
it, the plague of God This fatal infectious disease by which the
beasts of this world are made known is the religious leprosy
of free will works religion. That's exactly what it is. That's
the moraine. That's the cancer of the soul.
And every beast described under this plague was a grass eater. What's the Lord say about grass?
All flesh is grass. Ain't that what he said? That's
what to eat. That's what to feed on. And man's
glory. Think about that. What is it?
That's the flower, the grass. My front yard up in Kentucky,
I had some clover in that front yard. And in the spring when
it rained and the temperatures got up and the grass turned green,
that clover would come out and bloom and everything. Them cattle
would tear a fence down trying to get over there and get in
that clover. Geese flying over, they'd stop and eat that clover.
That's what man feeds on. He feeds on his own glory. Now, as this disease left its
victims, what'd they look like? They had cancers in them, didn't
they? Open running sores. Pus covered, lesions on them
all over them. Horrible to look at. Horrible
to look at. And that's exactly how God described
Israel who'd taken on the idolatry of this world. He said, from
the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there's no
soundness in you, wounds and bruises and putrefying sores,
neither bound up, neither mullified with ointment, just open, running
lesions. And as this disease left its
victim, with these open sores, so false religion left Israel
in the same condition. untreated, unbandaged bulls and
ulcers. And here's another thing I want
you to see about this plague. There's eight prominent stages
of the beast under the plague of God. If you want to, you can
turn over to Romans chapter 1 and I'll go through and give them
to you. There's eight prominent stages. The cows didn't just
get the disease and fall over dead. There were stages that
they went through. They first get this disease and
it would attack their organs, and then it would do something
else, and then it would cause them to go mad, and finally they
were just left out there like lepers, just eaten alive from
the inside out. But here in Romans chapter 1,
verse 21, here's the first stage of the plague of the beast. When
they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. How often did
Pharaoh meet and hear of the living God? Over and over and
over. When they knew God, they glorified
Him not as God. Now, I don't know how he was
revealed to these men here in Romans chapter 1. He gives three
revelations. He said there's a revelation
of God in the Gospel. This is the power of God unto
salvation. And then he goes on and he's
He says conscience is a witness to men. They have a conscience
in them. God testified of these things
in him and he knows it. And then thirdly, he gives him
creation to look at. So whatever light God gave them,
when they knew God according to that light, according to that
light, they glorified him not as God. They would not receive
God's testimony. And then secondly, they weren't
thankful. Same verse. They weren't thankful. A thankful man cherishes the
gift, uses the gift to its fullest advantage, and receives it humbly
and receives it in need, don't he? They weren't thankful. They weren't even thankful for
the warning. They weren't thankful for the conscience and creation
and all the witnesses. God wasn't under any obligation
to give them any kind of a witness, but He did. And then thirdly, verse 21, they
became vain in their imaginations. This is what Paul said about
the Gentile world over in Ephesians chapter 4. He said they walk
in the vanity of their minds. That's how they walk. They walk
imagining an unjust, compromising God. Well, God wouldn't send
a good man to hell, wouldn't he? He imagines a God who can accept
him according to his best efforts, takes whatever it is he's done,
his gifts. I've heard men brag on their
gifts that they give. and service, or amount of time
they attend the services, and all these different gifts, and
they're going to bring that up before God. And he talks about
that, the Lord did, over Matthew. He said, they'll say to me in
that day, have not we cast out devils in thy name, preached
in thy name, did many wonderful works in thy name? Depart from
me, ye workers of iniquity. Ain't that what he called it? They walk in the vanity of their
mind. They imagine that God is a concept. of man, and he's to
be understood only as a concept, and that concept applied as it
relates to the individual. God's not a concept. He's a person. He's a person. He has a character.
He has a purpose. He has a will. God is a purpose,
not a concept. And then these ignorant men,
they imagine man to be able to resist the will and purpose of
God. They become vain in their imaginations. And then, fourthly, he says down
in verse 21, their foolish heart was darkened. It was darkened. That's why men
don't... You say, well, why in the world
would men do that? His heart's darkened. Paul said
if our gospel be hid, it wasn't his fault. He was preaching it
as plain as he knew how. He was preaching it under the
power of God's Holy Spirit. He said, If our gospel be hid,
it is hid to the lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them that believe not. Lest God should shine that
glorious light of the gospel of Christ unto them. Their foolish
heart was darkened. And again, I quote from Ephesians
4, where he talked about the Gentiles walking in the vanity
of their mind. He said, Having their understanding
darkened, Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that's in them. Darkened by the God of this world
who blinds men to the truth with lies. And then fifthly, verse
23, here's the next stage. They changed the glory of the
uncorruptible God and turned around and sold Him to the world
as a man and as a bird. See the digression? See how he's
going downhill here? Starts out with a man, and then
birds, and then four-footed beasts, and creeping things. They changed the glory of the
uncorruptible God. And this is the poison. You go
read about those beasts, and you'll find his description of
one of them was a scorpion. Had the tail of a scorpion. with
the poison of the scorpion's tail. That's what that is. That's changing the glory of
the uncorruptible God. They project God as a beast and
project man as God. And then sixthly, they change
the truth of God into a lie. The truth of God into a lie.
They prostitute the love of God. They water down the mercy of
God. They turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. And the
restraining hand of God they call righteousness. God restrains
a man, keeps him from being as evil as he could be, and he counts
that as his personal righteousness. They changed the truth of God
into a lie. And then number 7, down in verse
28, they did not desire to retain God, that is, God as He reveals
Himself in their knowledge. They didn't want that aching
conscience. They didn't want it. Why not? Because it left them with a guilt
complex. They couldn't come. Men won't
come here very long. They come here very long, and
they're convicted. They get guilty under the sound
of the gospel, and they go out the back door. They might present
arguments and things, but I'll tell you the real reason why
they go out there, because they're guilty. Guilty. And they don't want to be guilty.
They don't want to think about it. Somehow not thinking about
it, they think hell's going to go away. Judgment's going to
go away. It ain't going away. It's fixed. I'll tell you another reason,
because it prevented them from freely seeking after the things
of this world. That's another reason. My son-in-law
told me one time, he said, and I get a little older, he said,
I'm going to join the church. You know, after I lose interest
in whatever it is he has an interest in. It prevents men from seeking
after the things of this world. And then it limits. Here's another
reason. Here's another reason. It limits
their fellowship and friendship with the world. Another reason, because it demanded
surrender to God's authority. You're going to surrender to
Him who is invisible. You'll bow to Him. And the biggest reason is this.
It takes their life out of their hands. Takes their life out of
their hands. An old hymn writer said, Jesus,
Savior, pilot me. Pilot me. And then the last stage,
the eighth stage of this religious death is such a madness that,
man, this is the end of it. This is just before God takes
him away. There's such a madness that knowing
the judgment of God, they not only commit what they know they're
forbidden to do, but they actually take pleasure in others who do
it. That's madness. That's madness. The grievous moraine of God on
beastly men leaves them standing in spiritual Egypt, dying under
its plagues. Listen to what Solomon says in
Ecclesiastes 9.3. He said, the heart of the sons
of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they
live. And after that, they go to the dead. Madness. Madness. But, oh, listen. None of the beasts of Israel
died in Goshen. All God's beasts are in Christ,
and nothing's going to die that's in Christ. It's all going to
be preserved that's in Him. Our Father, we thank You. Thank
You for this time and opportunity to gather together in this place, to have an interest Oh, what
a blessing to have an interest, to open this book, and to look
into these things which you've written, and to look in there
with the eye of your spirit, with some understanding, and
look into these things and see how these things are portrayed
spiritually in our day. Oh, what a blessing to gather
here and to do these things. Use the message tonight for thy
name's honor and glory, if we ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.