Oh, that's good. Y'all are just
listening about Fred, so remember him in your prayers and hope
the doctors will find out what his ailment is in the next day
or so. Continue to remember Dee Parks and the others who requested
prayer. The Cunningham family at the loss of Tommy. I seek
the Lord's help for these folks. Sunday's the last Sunday of the
month. We'll be having the Lord's table and after the morning service
and then the dinner and no evening service, no afternoon service.
So remember that this Sunday. Let's begin our worship service,
hymn number 517. We got one, two, three, four,
five, six, got a septet, but Debbie's not gonna sing, so we
got a sextet. 517. On Jordan's stormy banks I'd
stand and cast a wishful eye to Canaan's fair and happy land
where my possessions lie. I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. Oh, who will come and go with
me? I am bound for the promised land. All o'er those wide extended
plain shines one eternal day. There God the sun for ever reigns
and scatters night away. I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. Oh, who will come and go with
me? I am bound for the promised land. No chilling winds, no poisonous
breath can reach that healthful shore. Sickness and sorrow and
death are felt and feared no more. I am bound for the promised
land. I am bound for the promised land. Oh, who will come and go with
me? I am bound for the promised land. When shall I reach that happy
place and be forever blessed? When shall I see my father's
face and in his bosom rest? I am bound for the promised land. for the promised land. Oh, who will come and go with
me? I am bound for the promised land. And number 46, oh, for a thousand
tongues to sing. ? Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing ? My great Redeemer's praise ? The glories of my God and King
? The triumphs of His grace ? My gracious Master and my God, assist
me to praise proclaim to spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of thy name. Jesus, a name that charms our
fears, that leads our sorrows cease. Tis music in a sinner's
ears. Tis life and health and peace. He breaks the power of canceled
sin. His blood can make the foulest
clean His blood availed for me Praise ye dumb, your lucent tongues
employ, Ye blind, behold your Saviour come, And leap ye lame
for joy. ? Glory to God and praise and
love be ever, ever given ? My saints below and saints above
the church in earth and heaven If you have your Bibles turn with
me to the 11th chapter of Exodus. I'm going to read the entire
chapter. It's only ten verses. The title
of my message tonight is One Last Plague. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards he will let you go
hence. When he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you
out hence altogether. Speak now in the ears of the
people, and every man, borrow of his neighbor, and every woman
of her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold. The Lord
gave the people favor in the sight of Egyptians. Moreover,
the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the
sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.
Moses said, Thus saith the Lord about midnight, Will I go out
into the midst of Egypt? And all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that
sitteth upon the throne, even to the firstborn of the maidservant
that is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of beasts.
There shall be great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as
there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against
any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue,
against man or beast, that ye may know how that the Lord doth
make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all
these thy servants shall come down unto thee, and bow down
themselves unto thee, saying, Get thee out, and all the people
that follow thee. And after that I will go out.
And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger, and the Lord
said to Moses Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that my wonders
may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. Moses and Aaron did
all the wonders before Pharaoh and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart so that he would not let the children of Israel go out
of his land. Let us pray. Now Father, we bless
you and thank you for your word that you left for your people
that you've given to them It's how you speak to us, how you
tell us the truth, how you instruct us and admonish us and warn us,
how you convince us and convict us and comfort us. We are thankful
we have it. For there's nothing on earth
that's said that's of value, nothing coming from men that
count for anything. But it is your word that endureth
forever, and your word which by the gospel is preached unto
us. We thank you. that we have it, that you do
not leave yourself without a witness. Father, we pray for those who
are sick, pray especially for Fred, he seems to be having some
trouble after this operation. Ask Lord that you be with him
and be with Arlene and those who minister to him. Be with
those doctors, they may find what the trouble is. Pray for
our shut-ins, that you be with them and watch over them. Pray
for ourselves, Father, as we gather here tonight, you might
be pleased to give us worship, cause us in our hearts to sing
praises to the name of Jesus Christ, for he's worthy of all
praise and all honor. We know that this text, as all
others do, speak of him in one form or another. Help us to see
it and to rejoice in him who's altogether lovely, the chiefest
among 10,000, the lily of the valley, the bright and morning
star, the rose of Sheriff, Our dear Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. If we see Him, all will be well. Help us, Lord, we pray in Christ's
name. Amen. Now this chapter chronologically
falls in the last bit of the conversation recorded in chapter
10, verses 26 through 29. When it says, when Moses answered
Pharaoh, when Pharaoh said, let your flocks and little ones stay,
Moses said, Our cattle also shall go with us. There shall not a
hoof be left behind, for thereof must we take to serve the Lord
our God, and we know not with what we must serve the Lord until
we come thither. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart, and he would not let them go. And Pharaoh said unto him,
Get thee from me. Take ye to thyself. See my face
no more. For in that day thou seest my
face, thou shalt die. And Moses said, Thou hast spoken
well, I will see thy face no more. Now this chapter 11 was
spoken sometime before that final conversation took place in this
text. This warning was given to Pharaoh
in his description of the last plague that God will put upon Egypt, and that will
be illuminated and experienced in chapter 12. The words of verse 9 and 10 of
chapter 11 relate to the last words between Pharaoh and Moses. It says here in verse 9 and 10
of chapter 11, And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not
hearken unto you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land
of Egypt and Moses and Aaron did all these orders before Pharaoh
and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let
the children of Israel go out of the land. That belongs back
to chapter 10 chronologically. Moses was speaking of the previous
plagues that were landed upon Egypt and also the plagues that
was yet to come. In verse 29 of the previous chapter, Moses
said I will see your face no more and that's what speaks of
when it says Moses left in anger in the last part of chapter 11. Now the Lord's description of
the plague to come is horrific. There's no doubt about that and
the guarantee is that Pharaoh will after this plague let the
people go and more than that he will actually thrust the people
out of the land. He'll push them out, he'll make
them go. It will also, according to what's been written here,
the cry of the people. They will come and bow down to the people
of Israel and say, get out, go, leave, take whatever we got and
take with you. The slaves that Pharaoh had tried
every manipulation to keep hold on will be pariahs to him in
the end because God will make it so. And he will make haste
to rid himself of their presence to be out of this land. Now the
Lord had hardened Pharaoh's heart many times. We've seen it every
time that a plague was given, God hardened Pharaoh's heart
over and over again. And he does that to bring him
to this historical day, this historical day where he will
willingly rid himself of a million man workforce. Get rid of everybody
that make clay bricks for him. He will react thusly because
he hates the people of God and the God they serve and does so
because God has hardened his heart. God did that. Now the Lord had promised Abraham
that his seed would suffer four centuries in Egypt back in Genesis
15 and that he would judge that nation, Egypt, and the people
would exit in possession of great wealth We find how that came
to pass in verses 2 and 3 here. It says, the Lord said, His people
speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow
of his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver
and jewels of gold. Now you imagine this. Where's
the mindset here? How can that be? These people
have suffered plague after plague after plague. they've suffered
greatly they've been in great distress and the Lord says now
go to these Egyptian people and ask them to borrow jewels of
gold and jewels of silver jewels of silver that's an amazing and
a wondrous thing that's how this great wealth that they came out
of Egypt with is obtained they didn't have great wealth they
were slaves but they came out with great wealth according to
Genesis 15 it will be obtained at the hand of those who suffered
under every plague that God has put upon them The people of Israel
will ask for gold and silver, jewels, other translations include
raiment and goods, provender, food. The Egyptians will gladly
give up their wealth. Gladly give up their wealth.
Though Pharaoh's heart has been hardened, the citizens' hearts
doesn't seem to have been hardened. It is said that the Lord caused
the Egyptians to favor Israel. That's what it says in verse
4. The Lord gave people favor. The people favor in the sight
of the Egyptians. must be taken in light of the
calls of the Egyptians' willingness to be so benevolent. If one has
seen and experienced the power of God over elements, like water,
over men, over beasts, over insects, and even over bacteria, and seen
that no plague had touched Israel, the favor referred to may be
favor salt, though it is declared as given. Maybe they're seeking
favor We don't want these plagues to come on us anymore, so whatever
you want, that's what we'll give you. Whatever these Israelites
asked would be reasonable in the light of the affliction that
the people had suffered and would willingly be given in hope that
no more plagues would follow. I can understand that thinking.
This would also apply to the respect the people had for Moses,
his greatness, and he said Moses was great in the eyes of the
people. His greatness was due to the fact that what he had
warned had come to pass, and the people did not wish to upset
him. After all, what Moses said, when Moses said God's going to
turn the water to blood, the water turned to blood. When God
says he's going to send a swarm of flies, the flies came. When
he said the lice is coming, the lice came. When the murrain landed
upon the cattle of Egypt, but not the cattle of the Israelites,
that's how it worked. Everything he said has come to
pass because God has told him what to say. His greatness was
due to the fact that what he had worn had come to pass, and
the people did not wish to upset him." That is a pretty good picture
of religion. They, like most religions, have
a slavish fear of the Lord. They do not love the Lord, but
they do not want Him to be mad at them, and would prefer to
have nothing to do with Him. If the cost of achieving this
is giving up their gold and silver and jewelry, then it is not too
much to ask. How much a false religion is
motivated out of a sense of paying off God to avoid trouble, praying
through and such. In verses 4 through 8, we see
the Lord Moses describes the last plague to Pharaoh. Moses said, Thus saith the Lord,
About midnight will I go out in the midst of Egypt, and all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. from the firstborn
of Pharaoh who sits on the throne, even unto the firstborn of the
maidservant that is behind the mill grinding the grain, and
all the firstborn of beasts. That's all the firstborn children.
You say, well that's all babies. No, that's grown-up men who were
the firstborn of the household. Whoever was a firstborn of a
household died. And there shall be great cry
throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it,
nor shall be like it any more. No cry like this will ever be
heard on earth again. But against the children of Israel
shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast, that ye
may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the
Egyptians and Israel. And all thy servants shall come
down unto me, says this to Pharaoh, all your servants shall come
down to me, and bow themselves to me, saying, Get thee out,
and all the people that follow thee. And after that, I will
go out. I will go out to East Ophiuchus.
This is what's going to happen. And he prefaces the whole thing
by saying, Thus saith the Lord. Well, those of us who know the
Lord know that that settles everything once and for all. Whatever the
Lord says shall come to pass. He says that in Isaiah chapter
46, verse 9 and 10. You're familiar with the passage. It says, Remember the former things
of old, for I am God, there is none else. I am God, there is
none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from the
ancient times of things which are not yet done, saying, My
counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. Calling
a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executes my counsel
to the counsel, yea, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. So when you read the words, thus
saith the Lord in Scripture, that means this is how it's going
to be and there's no possibility of it not turning out this way.
However, he fixes it so some believe and some do not believe. This is all part of God's plan. You say, well, does God do that?
Yes, He does that. He hardens people's heart as
well as softens their heart. He hardens men's heart as well
as giving them a new heart. This is God. He does as He pleases. We don't have a say with God.
We are clay. And the clay has no say. The
clay has no response except to simply do as it's molded to do. And so, when Pharaoh's heart
was hardened, it was God who hardened his heart. In the case
of Pharaoh, his heart had been turned to stone, and he could
not believe the words of the Lord and could not excuse himself,
even though God had hardened his heart. God had hardened his
heart. We know that. Sovereignly, He
did so. But that's the way the Lord operates,
and He doesn't give an answer to us as to why He does it that
way. He doesn't have to. Job made that clear. You saw
what happened to Job. You saw what he went through.
And in Job chapter 33, he says this concerning God, in Job chapter 33 and verse 12,
he says, Behold, in this thou art not just. I will answer thee
that God is greater than man. why does thou strive against
him? for he giveth not account of his matters of any of his
matters whatever god does he's not going to explain i remember
many years ago many many years ago when there was a place called
Biafra i don't know if you even remember that some of you may
remember but people were starving in Biafra and they had uh... Everybody was in uproar because
they couldn't stop the starvation that was going on. America was
giving tons and tons of money, sending grain and everything
like that, but they couldn't stop it. It was a great famine
in the land, and people were dying like crazy. And I remember
one preacher standing up years ago. This had to be probably
40 years ago. I wasn't even a pastor then,
so it had to be before that. One preacher stood up and said,
somebody's gonna have to answer for this, this starvation. and before I even started preaching,
I said, I wonder who that's going to be? He was saying, God needs
to answer for this. God doesn't give a count of His
matters. He said to Egypt, I have given
nations for you. I've wiped out nations for you.
For Lot, he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, two great cities. He
destroyed them. and everybody in them. He would
say everybody wasn't mean and evil. It didn't have anything
to do with it. These are God's cities, God's people, God's creatures,
and he destroyed them. And he doesn't have to give account
of his matters. Nebuchadnezzar knew that. He found that after
God had put him out in the pasture for a long time and then brought
him back to his senses. He said that all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his head. He can't be stopped.
he can't be stopped and nobody can say what are you doing or
why are you doing this? Why? Because it's not men's business
to enter into the things of God. Let the potsherds of the earth,
Isaiah said in Isaiah 45, strive against the potsherds of the
earth, but let not a man strive against his Creator. In Romans
chapter 9, Paul says it as clear as anything can be said. In verse
18, speaking of hardening Pharaoh's heart. He says, Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he hath mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth.
Now there will be some little jack-legged somebody who is going
to look at that and say, Well, that does not seem right for
God to do that. It just does not seem right. That is because
most people believe that everybody somehow has a plea for God, has
a stand with God, that somehow they can by their works, or by
their personal merit, they can make God do something for them.
They believe that God is at their disposal, but that's not the
case. God's creatures are at His disposal,
and He disposes of them as He sees fit. Therefore he hath mercy
on whom he will have mercy, and therefore whom he will harden.
He said that somebody's gonna say, he'll say, well if he's
sovereign, and he's hardened my heart, so I won't believe
him, How can he find fault with me if he's the one who did it?
That seems a reasonable argument, don't it? I mean, it's reasonable.
What's the answer to such a thing? Thou wilt then say, why does
he yet find fault? For if he's sovereign, who can
resist his will? He does as he pleases. How can
we resist him? And here's what he says, Nay,
but, O man, who are you to reply against God? Who are you? You say, well that's not an answer.
It's the answer. Who are you to reply against
God? Shall the thing formed, that's you, say to him that formed
it, that's God. Shall you say, why have you made
me like you made me? No, you can't say it. You had no choice,
no decision in the matter. He defines humanity as an inordinate,
wet dirt that's turned into clay has not the potter the power
over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel under honor
and another dishonored. Can't a potter do that? Of course
he can't. Why? Because he has power over
the clay. So, whom he will, he has mercy. And whom he will,
he honors. Well, what if God willing to show his wrath and
make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the
vessels of wrath that he had fitted or made to destroy on
his wheel of potter, potter's wheel, that he might make known
the riches of his glory and the vessels of mercy which he had
prepared for glory. Out of the same lump he made
one for glory and one to be used and discarded. That don't seem
right. He's talking about people. Yeah.
Pieces of clay. pieces of clay. Pharaoh's heart
was hardened because God hardened his heart and Pharaoh could not
say one thing about it. He could not answer to God even
though he knew he couldn't resist God. He finally even said that.
That night it was no angel of death that would tread the streets
and the alleys and homes of Egypt. No green mist would flow as it
did in that movie. the lord himself said i'm coming
through that's what the lord said i'm coming through about
midnight that he would go through that nation and kill the firstborn
of every man and beast it was an astonishing thing and the
precise measure needed for pharaoh to relent and thrust the people
out of his borders none can stay god's hand and the cry that comes out of
those houses and even from the Pharaoh's palace will be of such
as never been heard in the world before or since. It will be a
wail of the broken. The din will be the groans of
despair. That's what he says in verse
6. The groans of despair. He said, and there shall be a
great cry. throughout all the land of egypt such as never was
such as there was none like it nor shall be like it anymore
i can imagine this is a land of millions of people with great
cities great cities towns villages farms every house every house
every first born beast and every firstborn child perished that
night when God came through. Now what Moses tells Pharaoh
next is the truth that he is told from the beginning. He said
no harm will touch God's elect. No weapon formed against them
shall prosper. No dog, he says. Think about
a dog. whose very nature is to howl
and bark at the least disturbance, will not utter a whimper as moans
and wails of the desolate feel the atmosphere. No dog will bark
against an Israelite. They will surely be filled with
fear, dogs sense those things, but they will not bark against
any of God's elect. This is a phenomenon designed
to let Pharaoh know that the difference between the Egyptian
and the Israelite is of God's making. God's making alone and that by
divine election showing mercy on whom he will and hardening
whom he will. Moses did not tell Pharaoh how
the people will be delivered He himself did not yet know of
the blood of the Lamb that is spoken of in chapter 12, but
the scenario itself relates to the teaching of substitution,
which will later be revealed in this very book. The firstborn
of Egypt will be destroyed. Several times in this book the
Lord said, The firstborn belong to Me. The firstborn of Egypt
will be destroyed, and the firstborn of Israel will be spared. Look
over at chapter 34 of Exodus. This language is used again. This is about the destruction
and the salvation of the firstborn. It is set forth in verses 19
and 20. All that openeth the womb is
mine, and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep,
that is male, is mine. But the firstling of an ass thou
shalt redeem with a lamb, and if thou redeem him not, then
thou shalt break his neck. All the firstborn of thy son
shalt thou redeem, and none shall appear before me empty. In this chapter, the salvation
and destruction of the firstborn is set forth. The firstborn is redeemed by
blood, the blood of the lamb, or it's destroyed. That's plain.
You redeem it or you break its neck. You're either redeemed
or they perish. A lamb for an ass seems an unlikely
exchange, a strange substitution. But stranger still is the sinless
Lamb of God being slain for wretched sinners. In substitution, every
firstborn is slain, personally or by proxy, in a substitute. Every wild-ass's coat born of
Adam belongs to God, and their neck will be broken unless the
Lamb of God is slain in their room instead. That's what this
is saying. So great salvation. justice is satisfied in every
case of every individual for they all belong to God and justice
is satisfied upon every one of them one last plague and that
plague cries it is finished it is finished father
bless us to understand we pray in Christ's name amen