At the first confrontation with
Pharaoh, God seems to have left His servant standing before that
great monarch in the flesh. Not all the way. He was with
him. His presence was with him. But
sometimes God will allow His servant to stand in the pulpit
alone. alone. He's there. He's not gone
anywhere. But you sure feel alone. When
he don't speak and that voice not heard inside. David said,
I thought I was clean gone. Return unto me. He just begged
and begged. Return unto me the joy of my
salvation. But he seems to have left him
alone, and not completely, because Pharaoh did not destroy him. Nor did he get shed of him, both
of which he would like to have done. But God manifested a hardening
of Pharaoh's heart, and I believe he did it for several reasons.
I believe he did it, first of all, to show Moses and Israel
that Pharaoh was way out of their class. And what I mean by that
was he was too much man for them. He was too much of an enemy for
them. And you remember who Pharaoh
figures here in these things. He stands as Satan and he's too
much for me. Too much for me. Too powerful for him to overcome
by anything that flesh can produce. And then secondly, God hardened
Pharaoh's heart to manifest the glory of his name. I just read
that to you. But over in Psalm 106, where
David's reflecting back on this particular part of Israel's history,
he says this. He said, our fathers understood
not thy wonders in Egypt. They didn't understand what was
going on. They didn't understand what they saw. They remembered
not the multitude of thy mercies, but they provoked him at the
sea, even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless, he saved them for
his name's sake." That's what was going on in Egypt. This salvation
was about God's glory, not Moses. It was about God's glory, not
Israel's glory. This thing was about God. He
saved them for His namesake that He might make known His mighty
power. That's what He was doing there.
And then thirdly, He hardened Pharaoh's heart to accomplish
the deliverance of His people, salvation of the Lord. It's all
of Him. The design of it's of Him. Who
art thou that replies against God? Huh? Shall the thing for
him say unto him that for him that wisest thou made me? This
thing's of God. And I tell you, it'd do us great
justice if we just back off, shut our mouths, sit down, and
listen to what God has to say about this salvation. And quit
rushing up into us. Pharaoh just kept rushing back
into Moses' face. If he'd just sit down, been quiet,
and listened, But he didn't, did he? No, he didn't. Salvation is of the Lord, and
everything about this salvation is owing to Him, and it's the
gift of God's free and sovereign grace. Paul said to the Corinthians,
but of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. God did those
things. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 31, that
according as it is written, he that gloryeth, let him glory
in the Lord. Because that's whose glory is
being made known. You want to glory in something,
find out about that glory. And all yours will disappear. Our glory is like the stars at
night. When the sun comes out, you can't
even see the stars. They disappear. In the glory
of that noonday sun, they disappear. And then God tells His servant
to see what He's doing, and see what this thing's about. That's
what that word, see, just jumped off the page at me last week
in the study. See, God said, see! God's servants have eyes to see. His people have eyes to see.
Now He said, see! I've demonstrated to you what
you are, and I've demonstrated to you what Pharaoh is. Now I'm
going to show you what I can do. So you sit up, open them
eyes and see. See whose glory you represent.
See whose person you represent when you go down there before
the king. See whose power. See what this power's all about.
You don't have any power. Man gets mad, jumps up and down,
shakes his fist, gets all red. Why? What is he before God? Like a moth flying into a bonfire. And then the Lord tells him,
he said, see, I've made thee a God to Pharaoh, made him a
God by his own good pleasure and will, and made a God to Pharaoh
by God's presence and power that was with him, and made him a
God to Pharaoh by a divine arrangement of providence and by a demonstration
of God's spirit and power, and also by an act of divine judgment. And then we come to this second
confrontation with Pharaoh, and this is where Abram's rod is
turned into a serpent. That just jumps up at you, don't
it, when you read that? Now, I've got five things for
you tonight here in Exodus chapter 7, as Moses comes before this
powerful enemy of God's people. And the first thing that I believe
we need to deal with is this whole thing about serpents. Aaron's
rod turned into a serpent. The magician's rod turned into
a serpent. One serpent ate the other serpent.
What's going on? What's all this stuff about serpents? What's going on back there? Why'd
he turn that rod? Why didn't he just turn it into
a fluffy bunny rabbit? Huh? Or a little puppy? Or a
little spotted pawn or something? Why didn't he do that? Why'd
he turn that thing into a snake? And I tell you, by all indications
in here, this thing was one of those big giant cobras. That's
what it was when he threw it down. Why not? Why not just a little
spotted pawn or a cute little puppy? Why a snake? I'll tell
you why, because this whole thing is not given to portray a fairy
tale religion. This thing is about God saving
sinners. That's what it's about. And that's
why he turned that rod into a serpent. This thing not about Pharaoh,
and it ain't about Moses, and it ain't about snakes. It's about
God saving sinners. That's what this whole story's
about. And it replays itself with David in the Psalms and
in the Prophets and all through the Scriptures. You just keep
reading about this deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. You just
keep reading about it. And as it comes down toward the
New Testament, it gets plainer and plainer and plainer what
it is he's talking about and what these things indicate and
what they symbolize and so on. Peter said this, he said, we've
not followed cunningly devised fables. You know what a fable
is? That's a fairy tale. That's a fairy tale. When we
made known unto you the power and coming of the Lord, but were
eyewitnesses of his majesty. Peter said, we saw it on the
mount. We saw it on the cross. We saw it after his resurrection.
We saw it when he stood on the clouds and ascended up into glory. But especially, he said, I saw
it in my revelation of grace. The Lord looked Peter right in
the eye, and he said, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you,
but my father, which is in heaven. He said, we're eyewitnesses of
his majesty, both spiritual eye and natural eye. Salvation is
set before men as a battle. and redemption by the blood,
and satisfaction of justice, and a deliverance from sin. Old
Pharaoh represented Satan. He's that old serpent. You know
what was on his mitre? He wears a mitre. This is scary. Sometime get you a dictionary,
an old dictionary, and all down the sides, the most prominent
things in the dictionary, pictured over here at the side. So I looked
up today, I looked up Pharaoh. And there's a picture of him
over here on the side. And his mitre is exactly like the Pope. Exactly. Except instead of a
cross on it, it has a raised cobra on front of it. The old serpent. The old serpent,
the devil. That was the insignia on his
crown. I know men and women read these things as though they were
parables and fictitious stories, but these things were real and
they had a specific design in mind. They were more allegories,
actually, than they are parables, like Abraham's two sons that
he had and his two wives. They stood as an allegory. Paul
tells us that over in Galatians. While they're historically correct
and actual people and events, they symbolize something else. The importance of their existence
and the deeds that were recorded in this book symbolize something
much greater than what actually took place. That old serpent
represents the devil. He first appeared in the garden
as a serpent. as a serpent. Isn't that something?
Way back, God establishes things. I tell you, the more I study
this book and the more I learn about the gospel, the more I
preach this gospel, the more I see those fundamentals laid
down in the first three chapters of Genesis. It's just amazing
how God laid these things down so that you ought to know what
they represent the rest of the way through the scriptures. He
tells you right up front. He represents the devil. He first
appeared in that garden, and in His appearing, it tells us
several things about Him. It reveals His character. The
serpent reveals His character better than any other beast in
the land. He tells you that right there
in Genesis. He said the serpent was more subtle than any beast
in God's creation. No other beast can picture Satan
like the serpent. He's subtle. He's deceitful.
He slithers around. He's beautiful to see, fascinating
in his appearance, but deadly and fatal with his bite. And
the second thing I see there in Genesis concerning this serpent
is that he speaks to the woman. Now that woman represents the
church, don't she? Sure she does. She represents
the people of God, the bride of Christ. That's the woman. And it's by speaking that the
real harm comes. He draws a question mark on God's
word, hath God surely said? Isn't that how he does? He puts a question mark on God's
motives. God knows. God knows. And the day you eat that, you're
going to be just like him. You're going to know good from
evil. You're going to be like God. That's why he don't want
you to eat it. He encourages God's people to
sin. Yes, He does. He said, you'll
be as God's. And it said, and when she saw,
how did she see that? Because He showed it to her.
When she saw it was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes,
and a fruit to be desired to make one wise. Give me that fruit,
boy. He encouraged her to sin, and
He always does. He always does. Satan speaks
and promises wisdom. You be wise, he said. And Satan
always denies God's judgment of sin. He said, you shall not
surely die. He always denies that. Boy, I
tell you what, if you go in a church and they start making little
about sin, turn around and walk out the door. They write it off. That's one of old Satan's ministers
in there. He's up there. making light of
the judgment of God. And then finally, when he's all
done speaking with her, all done beguiling the woman, all done
doing the harm he can do, he leaves her alone to face God
by herself. And he slithers on away looking
for the next victim. That's why a serpent, a serpent,
that's what this thing's about. It's about that old serpent,
the devil, and that judgment of God that he calls to come
upon this world. And then secondly, why did Aaron's
rod become a serpent? Why? What in the world is that
guy? Why would his rod become a serpent? I can understand why Pharaoh's
rod would become a serpent, but why would Aaron's rod become
a serpent? Well, the casting down of Aaron's
rod and its becoming a serpent is a clear representation of
Christ and his substitutionary work by which he'll break the
power of Satan's rule and deliver his elect out of his kingdom.
And the fact that Aaron's serpent swallowed up the magician serpent
was nothing less than God declaring his absolute supremacy over Pharaoh,
his magicians, and everything that they could spawn. God is
God. And it was a serpent. I'm telling
you, it's a serpent that beguiled Eve and caused the fall of Adam.
And then just a short time later, after this deal here in Egypt,
just a short time later, the Lord will reveal His redemptive
glory being portrayed as a serpent raised up on a pole. Isn't that
something? He told Moses, those fiery serpents
rained down. Why did they rain down? The judgment
of God rained down on them, biting them, dying. Man, they were dropping
like flies. I forget how many thousands of
them fell that day. Fire serpents biting them. Moses ran up and interceded for
Israel before God. And God said, make a brazen serpent
like unto those fire serpents and raise it up on the pole.
Everybody looks and live. Everybody looks and live. You can find that story on Numbers
21 in verse 9. Then in John chapter 3, he tells
us what this brazen serpent was all about. In John 3, verse 14,
it says, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's
why Aaron's rod become a serpent. God's laying these principles
and foundations down right up in the beginning of His book.
And now we're dealing with Israel and the church and all these
things and salvation. And He's going to establish what
this thing's all about. And this is the first mention
other than the garden. This is the first time this old
serpent's mentioned in relation to God and His salvation. All those bitten by the fiery
serpents were bitten as the result of God's judgment of sin. And
the only way to escape that judgment was to look to Him who was made
sin for us and judged as such for all to see. And so here in
Exodus what God is declaring in this rod of God made a serpent
that in order to break the power of Pharaoh's curse, our Lord
must first be made a curse. He must swallow up in himself
that which was made to appear and made to bring fear upon his
people. He'll swallow it up. He'll cause
it to disappear. And thirdly, Pharaoh's magicians,
it says, cast their rods on the ground and they become serpents.
Now, I want you to listen carefully to this. What I'm getting ready
to tell you here tonight, this is very important. When God commanded
Moses concerning Aaron's rod, He told him to cast it on the
ground and it would become a serpent. But listen to how He describes
what the magicians of Egypt did. Look down there in verse 11,
Exodus 7, 11. Then Pharaoh also called the
wise men and the sorcerers And this combination, he adds a third
descriptive term to it and calls them magicians. Now, the magicians
of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments,
with their enchantments. Now, I do not believe that Satan's
magicians could actually make their rods to become serpents.
I don't believe that. I don't believe that because
I've seen magicians since I was that big, and I never seen one
of them able to actually do what he said he would do. But by sleight
of hand, he could make you believe that he could make somebody float,
that he could make something disappear. He didn't actually
do it, but he sure convinced that audience that he did, didn't
he? Take that little hoop and put it all around that woman,
and there she is right there in the midair. Now, I don't believe that Satan's
magicians could actually make their rods to become serpents,
but by their enchantments. And I look that word up. Some
sensual, sensational, outward show, mesmerizing the audience
with their enthralling ways, caused their rods to appear to
be serpents. Now, I ain't got a doubt in my
mind that they were serpents. But it's the turning the rod
into the serpent that I don't believe. I've got no doubt that those
serpents was there and that Aaron's serpent ate their serpent. I've
got no doubt about that. But how did those serpents get
there to start with? That's what I want to know. God
turned that rod of Aaron into a serpent. Who turned theirs? By their enchantments. Now I
say this for two reasons. First, because of the way they're
described in the scriptures as becoming serpents by their enchantments. And then secondly, because we
got a clear understanding in the New Testament of how the
old serpent works. Listen to these verses. We've
been covering this in our Bible study on Sunday morning. But
listen to the scriptures. He said they walk in the vanity
of their mind. That's a vain thing. That's a
thing that don't even exist. Winston and I was talking just
yesterday. We was talking about man's free
will. And they just argue back and
forth over free will. There's no such thing as free
will, is there? Ain't no such thing. Man's will ain't free. They fighting over something
that don't exist. Salvation by work, that don't exist. That's
vanity. That's vanity. They walk in the
vanity. That's how Satan works. That's
how he works. He presents things that are no
more than just vanity. Ephesians 5, 6, let no man deceive
you with vain words. They're just vain words. They
don't mean anything. Don't mean anything. You ever talk to somebody, talk
to them for 30 minutes and they hadn't said nothing? Been talking
steady for 20 minutes. Don't say anything. They walk
in the vanity of their mind. They deceive men with vain words. Colossians 2.8, he said, beware
lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after
the tradition of men and the logic or principles, rudiments
of this world and not after Christ. This is ever the way of Satan
to deceive and fool and make things appear that could never
be. The scripture said he transforms
himself into an angel of light. There ain't no way Satan can
be the angel of light. There ain't no light in him.
That's what God said. He's a liar and a father of it.
In him is darkness. That's all that's in him. He
can't be an angel of light, but he can make you think he is. He also causes his ministers
to be transformed into ministers of righteousness. There's nothing
righteous about them. Men read the Pharisees. These
were self-righteous men. Their whole claim to fame was
their righteousness. Paul said, it's touching the
righteousness which is of the law. I was blameless as a Pharisee. That was their, that was, they're
not righteous. This man down there holding coat
killing people. Going everywhere seeking to kill
people. Persecuting the church of the
living God. He wasn't righteous. There wasn't
anything righteous about it. In 2 Peter 2, it said, Many
shall follow their pernicious ways, deadly, fatal, ruinous
ways, by reason of which the truth shall be evil spoken of,
and with feigned words. That word means fictitious. That
means made up stories. That's what that means. With
their made up stories. Old Pharisees said, well, how
come he transgresses the traditions of our fathers? And Christ said,
well, how come that you transgress with your traditions the commandments
of God? Where'd you come up with this
stuff about washing pots? God didn't order you to do that.
Huh? Made up stories. That's all it
is. Made up stories. Evil men, Paul said, seducers. They wax worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived, ever learning, never able to come to the knowledge
of the truth. But in the power and demonstration
of God's spirit, they're exposed for what they are. They're pretenders
of deceived men attempting to demonstrate a power that they
do not possess. And God swallows it up. He swallows
it up. The gospel of Christ swallows
up all the lying wonders of Satan's ministers and makes them to disappear
in the preaching of Christ crucified. Some of you come in here since
I've been here, and you had things that you heard all your life.
Boy, you was positive that they were right when you come in.
God made them disappear, didn't he? Huh? I didn't have to confront
you about them. I didn't have to get you over
in the corner and say, now look, look at this. I didn't have to
do anything. All they had to do was stand up here and preach
to you the truth from the Word of God and those lying wonders
just disappeared. That's what God did with those
serpents. They throwed them things down and did their enchantments
and raised this hand over here and with this one over here,
they throwed snakes on the ground and nobody knew it. And here
they are. Whoa! Wow! What a wonder. Here
they are. Got 500 down the aisle last weekend. Wow! The Spirit of God was really
in that. He wasn't in a hundred miles
of that out there. Made up stories, that's all it
is. The gospel of Christ swallows
up all those lying wonders. And then fourthly, here's the
fourth thing I want you to see. Because the rod of God was the
only rod left visible, That's the only rod left standing. When
that outfit was done that day, Aaron stood there with his rod
in his hand. And all other rods were gone.
You see where I'm coming from? Because the rod of God was the
only rod left visible, there's no reason to fear what Satan
and his magicians can spawn in this world. No reason to fear
it anymore. Just quit worrying about it.
Quit worrying about it. God will swallow them up just
like He did them. Turn with me to Colossians chapter
2. Colossians chapter 2, in that
whole chapter, it has to do with the enlightening of faith in
Christ to see the victory over sin in Christ. I tell you, we
get ourselves in trouble when we start seeking assurance in
ourselves. And we start looking, well, you
know, my church attendance just ain't what it ought to be. Well,
if it was, would you feel better about yourself? Then you're looking
to the wrong thing. That's self-righteousness. That's
what that is. I don't visit the hospital like I ought to. No,
I don't think you do. But if you did, would that make
you feel better? Would that make you feel closer
to God? That's self-righteousness. That's all in the world that
mess is. I'm telling you where assurance is. It's in Christ.
It's all in Christ. The more you see in Christ, the
more you turn loose of this world. I don't need experiences. I don't
need feelings. I don't need anything. All I
need is Christ. And here he sits at the right
hand of God. That's the only thing left was
that rod. That's my assurance. That's my assurance. When this
whole thing was said and done, God raised his son from the dead. And the only rod left standing
is that rod in the hand of God sitting at his own right hand.
That's the rod. That's my assurance right there.
I don't have anything else. And by that rod, he'll split
that sea. He'll smite that rock and bring
the water forth. He'll carry him all the way across
that whole wilderness for 40 years and maintain the whole
outfit. all the way to Canaan's door.
And the one reason why Moses couldn't go into the Promised
Land was because he smoked that rock twice. And that rock was
Christ. It's in Christ that all the treasures
of wisdom and the knowledge of God are discovered. That's what
he's telling us here in Colossians chapter 2. This is how we receive
those things and how we are to walk in Christ, rooted and built
up in Him, established in the faith. Verse 9. For in Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in
Him which is the head of all principality and power. And this
enlightening is how our hearts are changed, circumcised with
that circumcision not made with hands. seeing ourselves, verse
12, buried with Him in baptism, wherein also you're risen with
Him through the faith of the operation of God, who raised
Him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together
with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His
cross. Now watch this. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. Now that's exactly what took
place on Pharaoh's doorstep. He spoiled principalities and
powers and made an open show Both magicians come in and danced
their little dance and waved their hands and had their gowns
and went through all the made-up stories and uttered them words
that nobody had a clue what they were saying and pow, just letting
the ears ease. And I tell you, God just swallowed
the whole outfit up. Swallowed the whole outfit. Made
a show of them openly. That's exactly what happened
on that cross. He took them men that were doing exactly what
they wanted to do, exactly what was born out of their heart to
do, exactly what they snuck in private and planned to do. You
can't tell me these magicians were back in the back room somewhere
and Pharaoh went out there and just said, well, I guess I'll
call in. No. This thing was made up from the
very first time he came up before them. Had those magicians sitting
and waiting on him. Sure it was. But I tell you,
when this thing was done, they did exactly what God's counsel
determined for it to be done. And he made an open show out
of them. Made an open show out of them. His rod ate their rods.
Isn't that what it said? Swallowed them up. He made all
the evil that threatened God's people to disappear being swallowed
up into the rod of God. That's where it all went. It
disappeared. It was all consumed in that rod of God. And one preacher
said this. He said, even the slime from
the old serpent will one day be removed from God's creation. Even the slime is going to disappear.
And he tells us, once in the end of the world hath he appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And unto them that
look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto
salvation. And then the last thing I want
you to see here in these verses that I read to you a while ago
in this second confrontation with Pharaoh is how Pharaoh perceived
what he saw. I think I've been Pharaoh. I
think my heart would have melted. Huh? No. No. God hardened his heart. Listen to this, Exodus 7, verse
13. And he hardened Pharaoh's heart
that he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said. Now there
is no explanation for the hard-heartedness of man And men who love darkness
rather than light accept the judicial blindness given to them
of God for their total disregard of what God plainly demonstrated
in Christ before this world. He tells us over in John chapter
3 that he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. Ain't that what he said? The
wrath of God abideth on him. As a result of sin, the whole
human race fell under the curse of God. They fell under the judicial
blindness of God, if you will. By the offense of one judgment
came upon all men to condemnation. That's what it says. God found
us and saved us and delivered us and reminds us over and over
and over again that we, by nature, are the children. We were the
children of wrath, even as others. Sitting under that judgment,
sitting under that wrath, sitting under that curse, in bondage,
and God alone came down and delivered us. He said, such were some of you.
Ain't that what he said? I know that was an awful list
he read just before that awful description. He says in Ephesians chapter
2, you remember where you come from. You remember where I found
you. You were Gentiles. You were Gentiles. That's what
we are, Gentiles. And he said at that time you
were without God. You were aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, had no
hope without God in the world. That's where I found you. But
I made you nigh. Ain't that what he said? I made
you nigh. I made you fellow citizens with
the saints and of the household of God. The Lord said this over in John
chapter 3. He said, here's the condemnation. How can I know the judgment of
God on men? I stand up here and I talk to
men and women. They come in here. You bring
them in here. They're visitors. And they hear
me one time and they leave. And the first thing they say
when you get home, what in the world is he talking about men
being under God's judgment? How does he know that? How can
you know that? I'll tell you how you can know
it. Here it is. This is the condemnation. Light came into the world. And
men love darkness rather than light. You think about that. Perfect light. Perfect light. Perfect man. Perfect love. Perfect
mercy. Perfect, you name it. Perfect
justice. Perfect righteousness. All these
things in a man. The fullness of the Godhead in
him. And he came into this world nothing
but light. And men went over here. We love
this. We love this foolishness. We
love this tradition. We love all this better. We love
religion. We're going with it. They love
darkness. That's the condemnation. That's
the proof. Moses stood as an ambassador
of God with this understanding, that all of God's elect would
be delivered by the gospel of God's free grace, which he preached,
and that all who opposed it would be destroyed by the hand of God.
Every one of them. He knew that when he went down
there. Here's what Christ tells us. Go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be
damned. You know, write it down. Write
it down. Let me read you something from
the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 17 and verse
17. This is talking about old Satan
and all the little serpents that he spawned in the earth in all
his days. And this is coming down now toward
the end of time. And he's talking here about this
gospel age. And he's talking about what's
being exposed and what Christ is putting under his feet and
bringing into judgment. Now listen to this. He said, for God hath put in
their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree. They agree with
one another. And give their kingdom unto the
beast until all the words of God shall be fulfilled. All them
false prophets, all them churches, all them unbelievers, all them
people, God put it in their hearts. to fulfill all His will. Oh, let me tell you something.
Let me warn you. Don't you resist that still, small voice that
speaks inside you. Don't you resist it. Don't you
shove it away. You come in here and you hear
the gospel preached and sometimes you're troubled and you leave
here troubled. Don't push that voice away. I'll tell you, that's
a capital T over there in Hebrews chapter 3, and I don't know how
many times it's sitting in there. Winston asked me the other day,
he said, when he's talking about God and he uses the word he,
why don't they capitalize it? I don't know. But he capitalizes
that T, I can tell you that. And he said, today, if, if, oh,
what a word, if you hear his voice, I'm going to harden your heart.
Don't you harden your heart like they did in the provocation.
Because there come a time when God said that's enough. That's
enough. These ten times, He said, these
ten times I've told you and you didn't listen. You need to harden
your heart. Ten times. He said, now as I
live, saith the Lord, you're not coming in, but your carcasses
are going fall in the wilderness. And they died in unbelief. They
heard the gospel preached. It tells us in Hebrews chapter
4 the same as we heard it preached. But it wasn't mixed in faith
with them that heard it. Why? Because they hardened their
heart. Hardened their heart. Proverbs chapter 1 verse 23,
God said, turn ye at my reproof. Who? Whoever. Whoever. Turn ye. I don't care who it
is. Might be an old drunk wandered
in here one night. Turn ye at my reproof. That's what God said. Behold,
I pour out my spirit. Now that's a small s on that. He's talking about spiritual
understanding there. I pour out my spirit. I make
known my words unto you. Because I called And you refused. I've stretched out my hand, and
no man regarded. But you set it not on my counsel,
all God's eternal counsels, all his written counsels, all his
manifested counsels, and all his revealed counsel, all his
preached counsel. You set all my counsels aside,
and would none of my reproof. I'll laugh at your calamity.
I'll mock when your fear cometh. And when your fear cometh as
a desolation, Destruction cometh as a whirlwind when distress
and anguish comes on you. Then you'll call on me and I
won't answer. You call then. You beg then. Esau repented with tears. Didn't
change God. I won't answer. You seek me then. You seek me early then. You get
up early. You get up about four in the
morning. Get down on your knees. He said, I won't listen. I don't
hear you. For you hated knowledge and did
not choose the fear of the Lord. Therefore shall they eat of the
fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices.
You see what I'm saying? If, if you hear my voice, he
said, don't you harden your heart. What a thing for God to condescend
and speak to such worms and sinners and rebels as we are. Let alone
for one of us to fly up in his face and say, I don't hear that.
You better be careful. I tell you, this whole generation
is convinced that no matter when they call, no matter what they
say, no matter when they want to do it, God's sitting right
here ready to jump down here and listen. That ain't what this
says. This says there's a point where
God ain't going to hear you no more. And you better not play
games with Him. If you hear His voice, listen. Listen. Oh, what a precious thing
to hear His voice. Haro didn't want to hear his
voice. God hardened his heart. God hardened his heart. And you
look at what that man saw and what he heard. He heard, where's
another prophet like Moses? He heard Moses and it bounced
off him like water rolling off a duck's back. Don't you have preachers that
you heard in your life and you think, We have a Bible conference
and he shows up. If I can get that guy to come
hear him, God's going to do something for him. And he hears him and
goes out the door with the same attitude he had when he heard
you. God hardens his heart. I'll tell you where the miracle
is, is when God softens the heart. That's the miracle of God's grace
when it softens that heart. It don't surprise me to see men
harden their hearts. It surprises me when they soften
and melt like white. Old Daniel, he said, my comeliness,
when I saw it melted, it melted into corruption. And God said,
my word is a fire. It'll melt. I don't care how
hard that heart is. A mother's tears can't melt a
child's hard heart. But God's word can. It'll melt
it. Just melt it. Don't that tell
you who we ought to ask? We ought to be calling on Him
to save our children instead of calling on each other. Call
on God. He's the only one that can do
it. He's the only one that will.