Now, if you'll turn back with
me to Exodus chapter 7, and let me remind you that, as
I have often done, that these things that we're looking at
here in the book of Exodus and the book of Genesis are typical
things. There's just not much value in
these things apart from what they figure. apart from what
they stand for in the Old Testament. And frankly, to have any kind
of understanding in any depth of the New Testament, you're
going to have to be aware of the teaching of these things
in the Old, because that's what they preached in the New Testament. Constantly he says, and this
happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled, or he'd make a
statement and say that the Scripture saith, and so on, and on, and
on, and on. And each of these things is from
this prophet, or that prophet, or from Moses, or from the law,
or something that happened in the Old Testament Scriptures.
So these things are there for our learning. Our Lord said to
the Pharisees, they are they that testify of Me. And had you believed Moses, He
said you would have believed Me for Moses wrote of Me. Exodus and what we're studying
here is about deliverance. It is the God of glory coming
into this cursed land, into this kingdom of wicked idolatry and
a wicked king and delivering his elect through the means and
message he before determined to send. Deliverance. Deliverance. It's the sinner
bound in slavery and held captive by the strong man, led about
in idolatry, surrounded by superstition and ceremonialism, exposed to
every kind of vile imagination that wicked heathens could conjure
up. Sound familiar? That's exactly how we're raised
today. And it's about the sinner upon
whom the Lord had set his love. And it's about the sinner for
whom God made an unbreakable covenant. First thing He told
Moses, I made a covenant with Abraham. That's why I'm here.
It's about sinners controlled by powers and might beyond their
ability to resist. And it's about subtlety and deceit
and lying wonders. And what we're going to be looking
at here tonight is the first of many plagues that God brought
about on Egypt. And he reveals the hardness in
these things. Here's what he's teaching us.
He's teaching us something about deliverance. And to understand
deliverance, you have to know something about the hardness
of the sinner's heart. And you remember I told you way
back at the beginning of our study that both the elect who
were out here in Goshen and Pharaoh Both represent one man. They
represent the sinner as he stands before God. Listen to this. And this is what he's doing here.
He's revealing the hardness of the sinner's heart and the utter
impossibility of that old man of sin to ever be brought into
willing submission to God. Now let me give you New Testament
Scripture along those lines. Romans 8 verse 5. For they that
are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. But they there after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit, for to be carnally minded. What does
that mean? What does carnal mean? That means
that fleshly appetite. Basically, what it means is everything
that seems normal to him. That's the carnal mind. It's
natural for him to, like I talked about the children, put them
back here and tell them they can have everything in the back
room, but don't go in that door. First thing they're going to
do is go in that door. Why? Because that's the nature of
the child. And that's what it means to be
carnally minded, natural minded, controlled by the lusts and desires
of your heart. And it's death. That's what he
said, just death is. It's death. But to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. Why? Because the carnal mind
is enmity against God. Now listen to this statement.
It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. You're not going to make him
subject to God. This old man ain't going to bow.
He'll hide. He'll lie. But he won't bow. He ain't going
to bow. No matter how many plagues or
how much suffering are brought to bear on Pharaoh's Egypt, they
would at last be swallowed up by the judgment of God, resisting
God, and be swallowed up in the sea. You think about it now,
there's a bunch of plagues God poured out on Egypt, including
killing their firstborn son. And yet, they climbed in that
chariot and went after God. Plagues were given to reveal
to Israel the utter impossibility of the old man of sin being brought
willingly, and I keep emphasizing that, willingly, voluntarily,
into submission to God. And then secondly, they're given
to show to them that God alone must affect their deliverance.
That's why He shows us these things. Only God can affect deliverance. You can't deliver your own soul.
You can't do it. You can't resist sin. You can't
resist its subtlety. We don't even know what sin is.
I've been in this thing a long time. And I'm telling you, sin
is so subtle. It's so subtle. You can do things
that are an absolute abomination to God and think you're doing
God a service. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. to show them that God alone must
effect their deliverance. If Israel could have taken the
first step, they would have. They would have. They'd never
cried out to God the first time. They couldn't take the first
step. And then thirdly, these plagues reveal who's truly Lord. That's another reason to give.
Look here in Exodus 7, verse 17. Thus saith the Lord in this. In what? in the smiting of the
waters of that river with that rod. In this thou shalt know
that I am the Lord. Behold, I'll smite with the rod
that is in my hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they
shall be turned into blood." Now, I titled the message tonight,
The Smitten Waters. If you'll just bear with me for
a few more minutes, I'll see if I can identify some of the
figures in this type. First of all, we've got this
river, the River Nile. That's what it's called. It's
known the longest and the best by that title, the Nile. It's
been called many things, but the Nile is what it's been called
the longest. And the Nile is a combination
of two words, and what it actually means, I'll just cut to the chase,
it means dark blue waters. That's what it means. They were
serene, beautiful. From all the historical writers
that I read, the waters of the Nile were known for its sweetness. They come down out of those mountain
springs, and it was known, it was deep, and it was pure, and
it was known for its sweetness. And the Nile was the patron deity. Now this is important because
all through these plagues, God's going to be slaying these deities
of Egypt. That's what these plagues are
all about. And the Nile was the patron deity, the parent deity
of all the gods in Egypt. All their gods were said to have
been born on the banks of the River Nile. The Nile was the
source. It was the spring of everything
in Egypt. It was the source of all life
in Egypt, and they boasted that it made them independent of rain.
In other words, we're independent of the providence of God. The
river, the God river, they worshiped it as a God. They boasted it
made them independent of rain, and it sustained them They gave
Joseph no honor, no credit whatsoever. They gave nothing to God for
sustaining them during that time. They gave all that glory to the
river. All that glory to sustain. They
said they were immune to famines. The only thing that made them
immune was the grace of God and Joseph that he sent down there.
And they believed this river deity was there for whoever needed
it. Water to wash, water to drink,
water to sustain them, and water to supply life and food, and
water to worship. That's the river. The river.
All right? The time. This becomes important. God said in the morning. In the
morning. What'd He say? He didn't say
when you felt like it. He said in the morning. In the
morning. On the first visit, Pharaoh agreed
to see Moses, invited him into his chambers. This time God summoned
Pharaoh to Moses. Moses didn't go to Pharaoh. God
said, he'll be out there on the river tomorrow. You go out there
and stand. He didn't meet Pharaoh at Pharaoh's
convenience, but at the time God foretold that he would come. That's the time. Paul told those
philosophers on Mars Hill that God hath determined the times
before appointed. Who did? God did. And set the
bounds of their habitation. Why did he do it? That they might
seek God. That's what he said. And then
there's the place. Where is the place? The place
is where God arranged for his servant to stand. That's always
the place. That's the place. Jerusalem,
that great city of the Jews, Henry used to call it the capital
of religion, boasting the great Temple of Solomon. They had all
the reputation of tradition and history behind them, a glorious
priesthood, an appealing population. Surely God will meet with the
Jews in Jerusalem. Let me give you two Scriptures.
Luke 3, verse 2, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests of that
day in Jerusalem, in the temple. Now listen, the Word of God came
unto John, son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. That's where
the Word came, to John. Matthew 3, verse 5. Then went
out to him all Jerusalem. Went out to John. They didn't
go to Chaos. They went out to John in Jerusalem
and all Judea and all the region round about the Jordan. They
went out where God's man stood. And that's always the place where
God crosses the path of a sinner. This path, I'm telling you, this
thing is predetermined of God. And it's going to be His way
or not at all. That's the way it's going to
be. And it don't matter if you're Pharaoh or if you're that servant
over there or if you're the leper. God has a place and He puts His
man in the place and He'll bring you to Him or take that man to
you. One or the other. One or the other. That's the
place. And then there's the reason. What's the reason? Well, the
reason is to intervene on the behalf of God's elect. That's
why he went out there. It had nothing to do with Pharaoh. Nothing to do with him. Actually, Pharaoh was there to
practice idolatry. We can think about that a little
bit. That's what every natural man's doing when God interrupts
his course. He's a practicing idolater. That's
exactly what he is. Unregenerate men do not worship
God. They practice idolatry. Well,
they preach if you're practicing idolatry. That's exactly right. Paul told the Philippian church,
he said, we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit. That is with spiritual understanding
and by spiritual revelation. and rejoiced in Christ Jesus
and had no confidence in the flesh. That's the only way God
can be worshiped and only believers can worship. Only men regenerated
of God can worship. Unbelievers practice idolatry. They know nothing of the living
God. They know nothing or right of what Christ did. They know
his name. I'd be willing to bet $20 that
you can't go over to Taylor and find somebody that doesn't know
that Jesus Christ came into this world, lived, and died on the
cross. I bet you can't find anybody
over there that don't believe that or don't know that or won't
profess to believe it. They'll all agree. I've never
met anybody in my lifetime who don't believe that. They all
know that. They're all aware of that. But they don't know
God. They don't know God. And that's
not what it is to know God. They don't worship God. They
practice idolatry. Pharaoh came that morning to
observe his idolatrous devotions. And God put his man in the way.
Listen to this, Exodus 7 verse 15. Get thee unto Pharaoh in
the morning, lo, he goeth out unto the water, and thou shalt
stand by the river's brink against he come. You know what that means?
Dead in the middle of his path. That's right. He's going this
way. Where's Moses? Right in front
of him. Right in front of him. He's right in the middle, in
the middle of the path. And when God crosses your path
with a preacher, He stands in the way. That's where He's at. He's standing in the way. You
can't ignore Him. And the way I see it, when God
puts a man in the way and intervenes and sets His man between you
and wherever it is that you're headed, you've only got three
choices. You can go back the way you came,
you can go around, or you can submit. It's one of those three
things, what you're going to do. Because I'm going to tell
you right now, he ain't going to back up and he ain't going
to step aside. He's going to stand in the way where God told
him to stand. Now go back up. A fellow wrote
me not too long ago, a pretty ugly letter about an article
I wrote. Told me I was going to have to
back up or stand aside. I wrote him back, and I said,
well, your interpretation of what I said is not what I said
at all. But I said, that being said,
I ain't backing up, and I ain't stepping aside. I'm not going
to do it. If I didn't believe what I said,
I wouldn't have said it. He ain't going to move. He's
not going to back up. He ain't going to step aside.
All right? Fifth place. The revelation of the curse.
Aaron by Moses, by his command, smoked the waters of the Nile. That beautiful, deep blue, hypnotic
water. That source of all their life.
That water that they cleansed in. That water they looked to
for food and security. the source of all their deity,
all their knowledge of God. It all comes from the now. The
very father and source of all their religion. Moses slapped
their god right in the face. Took that rod and pow, he hit
that river. God didn't tell him to lightly
stir it with a stick. And he didn't tell him to take
that thing and touch it like you would if you was Christian
and a king. He said, take that rod and smack the river. Same as he smoked the rock in
the wilderness. He smoked that river. Now, what was Pharaoh doing out there
at the start? Huh? They had a festival about
June or July in Egypt. And that's when everybody went
out to the river. And they went out there to pay
their devotions and pay tribute to the River Nile out there.
And the first one out there was Pharaoh. And he was going to
probably go out to the water and they'd probably take a little
jeweled container or something and dip it in the water and sprinkle
it on there. They had some kind of a thing that they did. And
all that kind of malarkey. I can just close my eyes and
look down the bank of that river and see blankets and families
gathered there, all of them sitting in awe of that river about that
time of year and looking at those deep blue waters and enjoying
the religious processionals that's going on. And there stands Moses
right in the middle of it. That festival began with a hymn. Here's the first line of the
hymn, that old Egyptian hymn. Hail, O Nile, O Nile, thou comest
forth over the land, thou comest in peace, giving life to Egypt,
O hidden God. That was the hymn they sang.
And then the high priest of Israel would stand up, and he declared
that the Nile was the father and savior of all Egypt. And then most likely they went
through these other processionals, and then they took a wooden image
of the river god And they put that water in it, and they put
it up on their backs, and they carried it throughout all the
land of Egypt, singing their idolatrous praise everywhere
that they went. And right in the middle of their
crowning annual procession, Moses takes a rod and smites their
God, just on top of that river. Have you got the picture? The first point of my message
tonight is this. The work of God in deliverance
begins by taking that which is highly esteemed among men and
revealing it for what it really is. A putrid, stinking mess. Isn't that what he says? Man
at his best state is altogether vanity. You won't find anybody that's
not going to say... I went out and talked to an old
fellow one time. He was mowing the grass down
in Ball, Louisiana years ago, and I was talking to him. I asked
him how were things between him and the Lord, if he knew the
Lord, and if he knew anything, if he went to church at all,
or any of those things. Well, now, he said, I ain't always
doing the right thing. You won't find too many people
that won't say that. But he said, one thing I can
say, as long as you got that one thing, God ain't smoked the
waters yet. When God gets finished with the
waters, everything in the water is dead. Everything in the water
that looked to that water for life begins to stink and corrupt,
and it's a mess. And the people wouldn't drink
it, wouldn't have anything to do with it. They went over there
and dug them a hole on the bank. Now there was nothing in this
confrontation when Moses went up before Pharaoh. There was
nothing in this confrontation to give any hope. You read it
again. No offers, no invitations, no appeals, not even a hint of
mercy or grace. This confrontation was altogether
a revelation of judgment. Altogether. He said, you didn't
listen. You didn't listen. Now I'm going
to show you who's Lord. And he took that rod and hit
that river. And I tell you this, God's not
going to teach Israel anything until Egypt lies dead in the
seas. I'm not going to teach them anything.
He didn't build a tabernacle in Egypt, did he? Where'd he
build it? Out there in the wilderness.
He don't teach them anything in Egypt. That man God intends
to save must first be slain. All of his hopes and all of his
potential and all of his religion and all of his idolatrous imaginations
must be exposed for what they are. It has to be brought to
bear on your heart until you have no hope in them, until you
turn them loose. Like Paul, put them on the dung
heap. What did he put on the dung heap?
All his righteousnesses. All the things that he hoped
in, all the things that he He rested his soul on these things.
He circumcised the eighth day. I remember the time and the place.
I've heard so many testimonies over the years of things that
men hope in. Paul took all his hope and threw
it on the dung heap. That's what's going on right
here. This judgment of God. All of his hopes and potentials
and his religion and all his imagination exposed for what
they are. The curse of his fallen nature
must be brought to bear on his own heart and mind until he sees
it lying dead in the street. Dead in the street. Paul said
when the commandment came, how did it come? Through the gospel. I died. Can't we see it? I died. And I pray the Lord killeth and
then he maketh alive. He bringeth down, then He lifts
up. He maketh poor and maketh rich. He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill to set them
among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory.
God does this. Everything in the waters of their
deity died under the plague of the blood. And then secondly,
let me see if I can draw a line from this this old ancient curse
to our present day theology. There's two elements here in
this type, water and blood. In John chapter 7, if you want
to turn over there, I look first of all at this thing of water.
Water in the New Testament is always related to the regenerating,
sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. When you're talking about
water, you're talking about washing, you're talking about being sanctified,
you're talking about the work of the Holy Spirit of God. Let
me see if I can show you this and show you that I'm not just
making this up. John 7, verse 37. The last day, that great
day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man
thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the Scripture hath said, Out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified."
He's talking about these rivers of living water flowing out of
the belly of the believer as the work of the Holy Spirit of
God. Listen to this one over in Titus
chapter 3 verse 5. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Salvation,
my friend, is the work of the triune God. God the Father chose
us and predestinated us under the adoption of children according
to the good pleasure of His will. We who believe in time, we have
obtained this inheritance being predestinated according to the
purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His
own will. That's what it says in the Scriptures.
The Father saved us, He told Timothy, and called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His
own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. So God the Father, you can read
about it over in Revelations chapter 5. He held in His hand
the book of all His eternal purpose and decrees and gave it to the
only one found worthy to unloose the seals and look on the book
and accomplish the will of God. And then secondly, God saved
us by His Son, our Savior. He's the surety of all God's
covenant promises. and the only mediator between
God and me. Everything God requires from
the sinner, He provides in the person and work of Christ. He
came into this world as a representative man, living and dying on our
behalf, and He provides us with a perfect righteousness and a
perfect atonement. The Scripture said He died the
just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. He was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Now listen
close to this scripture. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, this
Romans 3 verse 25, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. And this God did to declare His
righteousness. that He might be just and justifier
of all them that believe. We're saved, redeemed, justified,
and sanctified when the Son of God died in our place at Calvary. When God raised Him from the
dead, all God's elect were raised up with Him. And when God sat
Him at His own right hand, He sat us down with Him. Isn't that
what it says in Ephesians chapter 2? raised us up together with
Him, seated together with Him in the heavens. And when He cried,
it's finished, salvation's work was done. Our sins were under
the blood. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is He that condemns? It's Christ that dies. Sin has
been put away and righteousness ushered in, and the redemption
of our soul is accomplished in Christ. Well, Preacher, what's
all that got to do with the river now being turned into blood?
I'm glad you asked that question. Just this. All false religion,
without exception, substitutes the water for the blood. Every
last one of them. The blood speaks of that sin-atoning
sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and water has to do with cleansing,
washing, revealing, and sustaining. The religion of our day makes
the water appear as blood. They talk about man's decisions
and commitments. I don't say that man don't have
a decision. He does have a decision. You'll
never be saved until you make a decision. You never will. But
who makes you to make that decision? They preach man's will. I don't
preach that man don't have a will. Man has a will, but his will's
in bondage. He has to be made willing in
the day of God's power. I don't preach that man don't
have a will. He does have a will. And God's not going to save him
against his will. God's going to make him willing.
If he don't, he won't ever be willing. You see what I'm saying? And they talk about man's decisions
and commitments and dedications bringing him into favor with
God. It's the blood. that brings you
into favor with God. It's the righteousness of Christ
that justifies you before God. Not your good will. I don't care
how willing you are. You're not going to win God's
favor by your willingness. It's the blood. It's the blood. Religion substitutes man's works
and willingness and man's duties and deliberations saying these
are the things that bring life and favor with God. But these
things are the work of the blood, not the water. You know, there's
two examples of this over in the book of Luke, and I can't
recall everything that I studied on this, but I thought it was
worth mentioning to you. All of these miracles that Christ
performed when these men came to Him, that He would perform
miracles, every one of these is very instructional. If you look at it, because all
of them put together represent the center. They all represent
the center. Well, there was this one man
and he had dropsy. I bet you never looked up to
see what dropsy was, did you? It's an accumulation of water
in the blood. And it prevents the blood from
doing its work. And then the woman had an issue
of blood, didn't she? What was her problem? Blood was
accumulated where the water ought to be. and the water couldn't
do its cleansing effect on the body. You see what I'm saying?
You can't substitute water for blood or blood for water in the
New Testament. You can't substitute the work
of the Holy Spirit and attribute the same thing that you do toward
the blood and the death and the righteousness of Christ. Not the blood and righteousness
of Christ that cleanses us, but the work of the Holy Spirit applying
the blood and applying the righteousness of Christ to our hearts. Listen
to this scripture in 1 John chapter 1. He said, if we confess our
sins, this is very familiar to me, he is faithful and just. How can he do that? Huh? Because of the blood and righteousness
of Christ. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How
does he do that? By applying that blood and applying
that righteousness. All of the idolatrous waters
of religion is just steaming with activity and life. It catches
the eye. It peels to the senses. It's
satisfying to the touch. And it's easy to access until
God smokes it with His rod. And then that which was so easy
becomes just unfathomable, don't it? Huh? It's made to appear for what
it really is, just a stinking, bloody mess. Listen to this. He said, what the law could not
do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and foreseeing condemned
sin in the flesh. Exposed it for what it was. Let me see if I can draw a conclusion
here, and then I'll close. God the Father's purpose. We talk about the purpose of
God. Well, you can't have assurance and you can't have any of those
things and not believe in the God of purpose. That whole golden
chain of assurance there in Romans 8 beginning with verse 28, 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. God the Father's purpose makes
the salvation of God's elect sure. Sure. Salvation cannot fail because
God cannot fail. And idolatry, according to Isaiah,
is any religion that prays to a God who cannot save. Our God
saves. He purposed to save, and He saves. Now, won't you hear me? The eternal
purpose of God offers no hope to men. You know why? Because it doesn't reveal who
they are. It doesn't reveal who they are. I was preaching to a man one
night in his house, talking to him about these things, and he
said, yeah, but how do you know who it is God purposed to save?
And I said, well, just wait a minute. I'll get to that in a minute.
I'll get to that in a minute. Christ's death on the cross,
it's the very foundation of the salvation of God's elite, yet
it offers no hope to any man for the same reason. It doesn't
reveal who it is for whom he died. Look at it. Look at his suffering. Look at
him on the cross. Nowhere in there does it reveal
who these people are. Therefore, it offers no hope. It is only in the effectual calling
of the Holy Ghost that God's elect are revealed. That's exactly
right. Listen to this. Galatians chapter
4 verse 6. Because ye are sons, God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart, crying,
Abba, Father. That's the only way you can know
it. No other way to know it. And it begins with the revelation
of God's curse upon our self-righteous hopes. And it's only in this
sweet experience of grace that we're sealed with the Holy Spirit
of promise. And this is the earnest of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.
When sinners are born of God, they're made partakers, Peter
said, of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that's
in the world. That was what was going on on
this river. They substituted their idolatrous, self-righteous
ways in the place of God's blood. And God turned that whole outfit
into blood. And nothing they had in those
waters, in all the waters of the religion, nothing survived
it. Nothing survived it. The people
wouldn't drink it. It was obnoxious to them. And
so it will be to you if God ever reveals that self-righteousness
and that idolatry to you. I'm telling you, once a man knows
that, he's not going to go back to religion. It's obnoxious to
him. It makes him sick at his stomach. He can't sit. I can't
hardly sit through a funeral. I sit there and listen to them,
and they go on and on and on about these people and these
false hopes. And I'm thinking about this A
person's soul going out into eternity, and this man's up there
just smiling and talking and saying these things. It's obnoxious
to you once you hear it. Our Father, I pray that You'd
bless the message tonight. Bless it to our hearts. Cause
us to see it, to understand it, to rejoice in it, and give You
the glory for it. In Christ's name we ask. Amen.