on the 19th, which on a Wednesday
we may, I may change the schedule that week so I can be there for
the operation. May change the schedule to meet on a Tuesday
night rather than Wednesday night. I'll let you know I either do
that or cancel service one because I want to be at the hospital
when he's operated on. I talked to Moose Parks. D is
on a new round of chemotherapy and he's doing pretty well. He's
feeling better. The first round really wiped
him out. It didn't do any good for the tumor or the cancer.
But the second round is not as strong of chemotherapy. He takes
it less often. He's not lost his hair and he's
preached three times this month. So he's feeling pretty good.
Been good enough to preach and that's good. So we're thankful
for that. Continue to remember him in your prayers if you will
and the other Supreme Courts as well. So Judah, you know when
you're going for the brain thing? Halloween. Spooky. Be sure and have them give you
some candy corn before you go in the operating room. Number 255, Blessed Assurance,
Jesus is Mine. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. ? Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine ? ? Air of salvation, purchase of God ? ? Born of His
Spirit, washed in His blood ? ? This is my story, this is my song
? ? Praising my Savior ? all the day long. This is my story,
this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight Angels descending
bring from above Echoes of mercy whispers of love This is my story,
this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my
song. Praising my Savior all the day
long. Perfect submission, all is at
rest. ? I and my Savior am happy and
blessed ? Watching and waiting, looking above ? Filled with His
goodness, lost in His love ? This is my story, this is my song
? Praising my Savior all the day long This is my story. This is my song. Praising my
Savior all the day long. Number 226. I am not skilled
to What God hath planned, I only
know that His right hand is one who is my Savior. I take Him at His word indeed. Christ died for sinners, this
I read. For in my heart I find the need
of Him to be my Savior. That He should leave His place
on high and come for sinful men to die, you count ? For I knew my Savior ? And oh,
that He fulfilled, they say, ? The travail of His soul in
me ? And with His Word contented me ? As I with my dear Savior
I'm going to cover verses chapters nine and
ten tonight on several of the plagues cover them lightly we're not
going to read all of them I leave that to your leisure and I hope
you will spend a little time reading these things for they
are instructive of how God dealt with Egypt in this particular
manner but I just want to read one actually one verse of scripture
in chapter nine as my text tonight and we'll deal with the rest
of the chapters as we go along or the rest of these two chapters.
In chapter 9 in verse 16 our Lord said and in very deed for
this cause I raise thee up for to show in thee my power and
that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. Let
us pray. Our Father in Heaven, most blessed
Lord and Savior, our King and our Master, our dearest friend,
our brother, we thank you that you have brought us into the
fold by your great sacrifice. You have counted us among your
elect, choosing us before the world began, before there was
any good or evil in us, before we were even conceived. Yet you
chose us in Christ before the world began to save us by his
perfect sacrifice. We can but praise you and thank
you for these things, for they are too wonderful for us. The
very contemplation of them sends our minds and hearts to places
of great joy and awe. Father, we pray for those of
our company who are sick. Pray for Fred as he's getting
ready for this operation on the 19th. Pray you'd be with him.
be with those doctors. May the operation be a success
and bring him back to a good measure of health and prepare
him for the time he had. Must have his chemotherapy. Ask
Lord you'd be with him, be with those doctors as they prepare
for that. Continue to pray for Dee Parks as he's on this new type of chemotherapy. Ask Lord
you'd be with him, be with his family as they minister to him.
Pray for the others who requested prayer, for those who've asked
for secret prayer. We know, Lord, you know every
case. We ask, Father, that you do what none of us can do. We
can't change people's hearts and minds, but you can. We pray that you will. In Christ's
name, amen. Now, chapters eight and nine
catalog several more plagues exacted upon Egypt As God's work
against Pharaoh and for his people is quickly drawing to a day of
reckoning, Pharaoh is unknowingly doing as the Lord has purposed.
He thinks he is resisting the Lord. He thinks he is rebelling
against the Lord. He thinks he is actually winning
against the Lord. And the Lord would have him think
this until the final blow. The Lord has hardened his heart
and he cannot but renege on every promise to let the people go
because the Lord has hardened his heart. Had God sovereign
his heart, he would have let the people go a long time ago.
Now he's made several instances where he said, I'll let the people
go, but there must be a caveat. The first one was that you can
take the men and go, but leave the women and children behind.
And that wouldn't work. And another place he says, you
can take the men, the women, and the children, but leave the
leave the sacrifice behind and so forth and so on. Each one
of those things represents some aspect of false religion and
how it keeps a hold on people. His will, Pharaoh's will is firmly
in the hands of his creator and though he chooses to act accordingly,
he is not acting. He's being acted upon. by God
Almighty. I've used the illustration many
times of the flower following the sun. That's what people think
flowers do. When the morning sun comes up,
the flower leans toward the sun. As the sun moves across the side,
the flower seems to follow it. And they place action upon the
flower. But it's the way the Lord made
the flower stem That causes it to do that. It has these two
types of cells on each stem. One is heliocentric, which reacts
to heat. Another is photocentric, which
reacts to light. And as light hits that side of
the stem, it contracts. The side where the sun is, the
heat and the light hit it and it bends that way. And as the
sun moves, the cells begin to extend again and as it gets on
the other side, They contract and bend the flower that way.
It looks like it's acting, but it's not. It's being acted upon.
And if you were an Egyptian looking at Pharaoh and didn't know the
stories we know the story, you'd think this fellow's acting this
way. He is, but he's acting that way because he's being acted
upon. This is the course that must
and will be followed as God has promised to Abraham back in Genesis
15. And after the plague of flies, after the plague of flies was
ended, God caused muraine to invade the cattle and the camels
and the donkeys and all the beasts in Egypt. Now, muraine is a type
of anthrax. It's a bacteria. It's a bacteria. But during this time, all those
animals, all the animals of Egypt, it says all of them, from the
herd animals to the pet animals to all of them, they got this
muraine, this anthrax, which is a killer, and the beast died. The beast died. Now, the thing
about it was that God made sure that this bacteria, which could
not be seen by the human eye, it was microscopic, did not touch
one of the cattle, or the sheep, or the camels, or the oxen, or
the asses of Israel. Not one. Now think about that. God controlled the invisible
to the human eye bacteria. And after the murine was settled,
God sent boils and blains upon the people and all of them were
infected with the people and that brought physical pain and
sorrow and after these plagues came a plague of hail and fire
from heaven that destroyed the crops and burned down houses
and the crops that had come to fruition were destroyed by the
hail and the fire and then came locusts after that that covered
every inch of the land and destroyed the seedlings and the future
crops of the land. So God is basically destroying
the livelihood of Egypt little by little and plague by plague.
And after the locusts, the Lord sent darkness. For three days
there was no light. Total, complete darkness. And
our Lord describes it as a darkness that could be felt. That's how
it's described in this text. A darkness that could be felt.
That's pretty strong, pretty powerful darkness. But I think
that's representative. It's a picture of a sinner. When
the Holy Ghost convinces him of the depths of his depravity,
it's a darkness that can be felt. It is a darkness that can be
felt and brings about a longing for deliverance and salvation.
After those three days of darkness, the people wanted out. But Pharaoh
still, his heart being hardened, would not let them go. And at
the end of every plague, Pharaoh's heart was hardened more and he
refused to let the people go. The Lord had shown himself to
be Lord over all, over all things. In chapter 9 and verse 14 it
says, For I will at this time send all plagues upon thine heart,
and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, that thou mayest
know that there is none like me in all the earth. The Egyptians
had a pantheon, a multiplicity of gods. They had gods that looked
like cats and gods that looked like dogs and gods that looked
like cattle. They had all kinds of gods. Gods
that were in the shape of a sun. Gods that were in the shape of
the moon. They worshipped everything. But
our Lord said, I'm sending the plagues so they'll know that
there's none other like me. You see, God Almighty controls
all things, and He would have these people know that. He causes
all things, and He does it for the glory of His namesake and
for the good of His people. He employs and manipulates, as
we have seen, the water, insects, bacteria, the rain, the wind,
the fire, the darkness, and the light, and none can stay His
hand. All these things belong to Him. They are all Him. Turn
over to Psalm 139 just for a moment. Psalm 139, verse 12 says this,
verse 11 says, David said, If I say, Surely the darkness shall
cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness
hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day. He's
talking about God. The darkness and light, there's
no difference with God. The darkness and the light are
both a light to thee. To us, it's a big deal, but not
with God. He controls these things. He's
in control of the light, and He's in control of the darkness,
and none can stay His hand when He sets His hand to do something.
Most all religious folks would agree that God is thus so powerful
that He controls all things. We hear that. Those who don't
believe in the gospel say God is sovereign, God is in control. I've heard Billy Graham and Frank
Graham both say God is in control of all things, you know, and
they say that usually. There's some great catastrophe
where men can't imagine stopping anything or causing something
to happen. This last hurricane, I heard
that language a lot. Well, you know, God's in control
of all things. He's in the world. Well, it's
true. He is, and they agree with that. They agree with that. but here's the rub, God says
He controls the wills of men, the wills of men, even kings
of great nations like Pharaoh, and here religion balks, asserting
that man's free will or man's will is free and that God does
not compromise that will. I heard Jimmy Swagger say many
years ago in in a conversation they were having about free will.
Of course, they believed in free will, believed that free will
was the cardinal doctrine. He actually said that. We believe
that salvation is holy by the free will of man. I saw the article
that he wrote. But he was saying about God and
man's free will. He says, God is a gentleman.
That's what he said. He would never impose upon man's
free will. Listen, God controls man's will. If He controls everything, He
controls men's wills too. And He doesn't really have to
do anything with the will itself. All He has to do is something
with the heart. Remember what He says, I will sing the plagues
to their heart. He hardened Pharaoh's heart. He messes with your heart. He
messes with your heart. He changes your heart. He moves
your heart. Your will will follow along.
Because your will has to do with your affections, your inclinations,
and your affinities, and your desires, and these are all matters
of the heart. They assert that man's free will,
man's will is free and God does not compromise it. It's an enormous
lie. It's an enormous lie and a foolish
error of humanity to think that God is such a pawn to the whim
of his creatures. As one man said, what fools these
mortals be, and he was quite correct. As we have seen in our
various studies, a constant theme arises as we've done every study
in the Old Testament thus far and in the New Testament also.
In the matter of salvation, the Lord brings about the salvation
of His people by first destroying the enemy of His people. That's
the way it works. Otherwise, salvation doesn't
mean anything at all. It doesn't make any sense. The
word salvation means being delivered from something you cannot deliver
yourself from or from someone you cannot deliver yourself from.
That is what it is to be saved, to be pulled out of that situation. And what that takes is for God
to take care and do away with whoever is holding you captive.
Whatever is holding you captive, God must deal with that. And
paramount to this teaching is God proving that the will of
all His creatures is entirely subservient to His sovereign
will. Satan is said to hold God's people
in check. He has them in their palace and
the palace is at peace. They are at peace in their sinful
situation. They are at peace wrapped in
the arms of Satan. Everything is going okay. But
for God to deliver them, to save them, He must first bind the
strong man. That's what it says. A stronger
than he must come in and bind the strong man and take from
him what he is holding captive. That is salvation. This is especially
revealed when a particular passage of scripture from the Old Testament
is employed to teach a truth in the New Testament. The truth
about man's will and the doctrine of electing grace is taught in
the book of Romans and Paul employs a passage from this context that
I read tonight and others in Exodus. In Exodus chapter 6 and
verse 19, see if this sounds familiar to you. And in very
deed for this cause, God says to Pharaoh, for this cause have
I raised thee up for to show in thee my power so that's what
this is all about that's what this is all about he sent the
plagues to his heart he hardened his heart and he did it to show
that he was the king of Egypt but it was God who had raised
him to that position so God could show his power show his power
and that my name shall be declared throughout all the earth. Now
turn over to Romans chapter 9. Let's read some verses of scripture
here and see if that verse pops up somewhere in this text. In
verse 11 it says, For the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. Now, who
gets called? Over in verse 24, Paul says,
Even us, whom he hath called, not only the Jews only, but also
the Gentiles, are called by his gospel, of course. Now, as it
is spoken in verse 11, it says in verse 12, It was said to her,
that is to Rebecca, The elder shall serve the younger. Now,
God begins to turn things upside down. The law and tradition said
the elder, the younger, would serve the elder. The elder was
the firstborn. Firstborn. The elders shall serve
the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now that just means just what
it says. It doesn't mean that he liked
Esau less. That's what a lot of people say.
He didn't love Esau as much. That's not what it says. It says
Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. Now where did that come
from? That came from Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament
in chapter 1. The Lord is confronting Israel
with its hatred for the truth and for them deserting God in
all the ceremonies and the law that He has set forth, but they
are denying it. Every time He says, You do this,
they say, When did we do that? It says that over 6 or 7 times
in the first chapter, but here in verse 2 it says, I have loved
you, said the Lord, of chapter 1, said the Lord, yet you say,
Wherein have you loved us? Well, you've loved us. Was not
Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? And yet I loved Jacob,
and I hated Esau, and I laid his mountain and his ears to
waste for the dragons of the wilderness. I loved, he said,
where do you love me? He said, I love Jacob. Now he's
talking to all the tribes of Jacob. Jacob is the patriarch
there. Esau owns none of these guys.
No tribe came from the loins of Esau that he is talking to.
They said, How did you love us? He said, I CHOSE YOU! I made
you to HAPPEN in Jacob. I made you to happen. That is
how I loved you. But I DIDN'T do it to Esau because
I HATED Esau. So back in Romans chapter 9,
he says, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. Now the natural
response, and Paul often does this as a lawyer, As a man who
understands the concept of the law, when a statement is made,
there's going to be a natural resistance and response to what
is made. Now, he's just said that God
chose Jacob that the purpose of his election might stand.
He's just said that he loved Jacob and hated Esau. Now, the
natural response to that, and I've heard it from people all
my life since I've been preaching the gospel, is to say, Well,
that's not fair. It's not fair for him to love
one and not love the other. That's just not fair. It's not
fair. And so, Paul addresses someone
asking that question. He says, what shall we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God? You're saying this is not
right? He's answering a question that
hadn't been asked, but he knows will be asked. because people
ask that you tell people today you tell your friends who don't
know the gospel but who are religious folks God chose his people to
salvation and rejected others they'll say that ain't fair that's
what that'll be the response that makes God unrighteous is
there unrighteous with God God forbid that's the strongest negative
in the Greek language it means no not never no never no never
let it be just a whole bunch double negatives, triple negatives,
quadruple negatives. He says, because he said to Moses,
now he's talking about Exodus 33, 19 when Moses said, show
me your glory. For he said to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. He said that. He said to Moses,
Moses said, show me your glory. He says, here's my glory. I'll
make my name to pass before you. I'll proclaim the name of the
Lord before you. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
and I'll have compassion, or I'll be gracious unto whom I
will be gracious. That's what I'll do. That's my glory. What's
he saying? He says, I'm going to show mercy.
God's going to show mercy. He said he was. I will show mercy
on somebody, but it'd be my choice. And I will be gracious to somebody,
but it's going to be my choice who I make, who I show grace
to. So he said, this is the explanation
that God is righteous in his acts, because he's already said,
this is my glory. I will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. So then, that being the case, it is not him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
It is not a man's will, it is not a man's speed and power,
it is of God's mercy that a person is saved. This is declared and
revealed, so plain, so very plain. This was declared to be real.
The first election to salvation did not consider works of men. It was all according to God's
purpose. We read that in verses 9-14, 15-16, just as plain as
can be. Here in Romans 9, Ephesians 1
said that's how it happened. Ephesians 1 says, Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, according, well based
on the fact that, according that He had chosen us in Christ before
the world began. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, Brethren,
we are bound to give thanks to God always to you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, belief in the
truth, whereunto He called you by our Gospel, through the obtaining
of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, how will it be
proved that man's will is impotent, And God is sovereign over it.
He inspires Paul to write, quote Moses, to set forth a doctrine
that we can understand. In verse 15 he says, For he said
to Moses, I will have mercy. That's how he proved it. That's
how he proved that man's will is impotent. It's not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but God that shows mercy.
That being the case, it was not the will of Jacob, nor the will
of Esau that determined who God loved. and who God chose. It was God who showed mercy to
whom He would. It was His glory and His prerogative. Well, how will it be proved that
God has power over men's will? How is that proved? We read it
back in our text in Exodus chapter 9 and verse 16. The Spirit inspires
Paul to use the Scripture in Exodus 9 that I read. God controlled
Pharaoh's will by hardening his heart. That's all he had to do. Heart in his heart, the will
is taken care of. People talk about the will. Willpower. The power of the will. People
say we had a will to live. I've never met somebody on a
deathbed that didn't have a will to live, but it didn't work.
It didn't work. I've never heard somebody stand
by a casket and look at a dead person and say, well, they finally
did something right. They finally got it right. They finally willed
something good. We die because it's an admission we don't have
much of a will. It's just that simple. It's just that simple.
Man's will is a servant, a slave, if you will, to his affection,
to his heart, to his affinities, what he's inclined toward and
his inclinations. With his heart hardened, his
will followed like a faithful dog. With his heart hardened,
every time Moses said, let my people go, He said, I will not
let them go. Why did He say that? Because
that's what His heart said. That's where His problem was.
God says He raised up Pharaoh. He raised up Pharaoh to show
that He will have mercy on whom He will. That He will control
the will of men to show forth His power. Where it says in verse
17 of Romans 9, For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for
this cause, or this same purpose have I raised thee up that I
might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth therefore hath he mercy on whom he will
have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth who's running that
show who's doing the willing that
works God's will he raised up this great king
sitting on a throne over probably at the time the greatest nation
of all. Powerful, rich, influential, feared, great army, everything. God raised him up to show Pharaoh
how strong he was? No. To show Pharaoh how strong
God was. I raised thee up to show my power
in thee and to show that he'll have mercy on whom he will. what
a grand purpose this is and what a grand thing God has taught
it to His people. He saved His people from the
slavery of sin. How did He do that? By controlling
the will of all His creatures. By controlling the will of them
that held them captive, He controlled their will. To Him be glory forever
and ever. Amen. Father, bless us to understand
and we pray in Christ's name, amen.