It's good to see you all out
this evening. Remember those who requested prayer. Fred's situation,
he's going to be Have a heart surgery on the 19th, right? 19th
this month, and then six weeks later, he'll begin his chemotherapy.
Now, have they told you how many veins they're going to work on?
They ain't told me. So they probably won't know until they get in
there. No. OK. OK. But that's this week. A continuing
member of the parks and the others who requested prayer. Seek the
Lord's help for them. Next Wednesday night will be
no Wednesday night service. I'm telling the Wednesday night
crowd right now. My sister has moved back from Texas all the
way to Lexington, Kentucky, so I'm going to go spend four days
with my sister, and then I'll be back on Friday. I haven't
seen her since Mom's funeral, and I'm kind of looking forward
to spending a little time with her. She's the only sister I
got. So I'll announce this also Sunday,
next wednesday night sunday regular services don't leave don't stay
away sunday next wednesday night so put that
on your calendar no service next wednesday night let's begin our
worship service hymn number 354 what a friend we have in jesus
what a friend we have in jesus Our sins and griefs to bear What
a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer Oh, what peace
we often forfeit Oh, what needless pain we bear All because we do
not care Everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Can we find a prince so faithful? Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every ? And with a load of care ? Precious
Savior still our refuge ? Take it to the Lord in prayer ? Do
thy friends despise forsake thee ? Take it to the Lord in prayer
? In his arms he'll take Him number 118 when I surveyed
the Wonders Cross. When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died My richest gain I count
but loss ? All my pride ? Forbid it, Lord,
that I should boast ? Save in the death of Christ my God ?
All the vain things that charm me most I sacrificed him to his
blood. See from his head, his hands,
his feet, sorrow and love. sorrow meet, or thorns compose
so rich a crown. Were the whole realm of nature
mine, that were a present far too small, ? Love so amazing,
so divine ? Demands my soul, my life, my all Turning your Bibles please to
the eighth chapter of Exodus. Look at verses 24 through 32. concerning the swarm of flies,
the plague of flies. It says in verse 24, And the
Lord did so. And there came a grievous swarm
of flies from the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses,
and into all the land of Egypt. And the land was corrupted by
reason of the swarm of flies. And Pharaoh called for Moses
and for Aaron and said, Go ye sacrifice to the Lord in the
land. And Moses says, It is not meet
to do so. for we shall sacrifice the abomination
of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. Lo, shall we sacrifice
the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they
not stone us? We will go three days' journey
into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall
command us. And Pharaoh said, I will let
you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord God in the wilderness. Only ye shall not go very far
away. Entreat from me. And Moses said, Behold, I go
out from thee, and will entreat the Lord, that the swarms of
flies may depart from Pharaoh, and from his servants, and from
his people to-morrow. But let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully
any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice unto the Lord.
And Moses went from Pharaoh, and entreated the Lord. And the
Lord did according to the word of Moses. And he removed the
swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his
people. There remained not one And Pharaoh hardened his heart
at this time also, neither would he let the people go. Let us
pray. Our Father in heaven, we are so thankful for your word,
which is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path, the entrance
of which gives understanding to the simple. We thank you that
you hold this world by the word of your power. that your son
is the living word, the word that was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And we are privileged to behold
his glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and full of truth. We are thankful, Father, that
we can come into your presence because of his sacrifice, because
of his shed blood, because of his perfect death, by which your
holy law was honored and satisfied and your justice was assuaged.
We thank you, Father. that you are just when you save
your people, even righteous to do so because of what Christ
has done. We pray for those of our company
who are sick, going through trials and tribulation. We ask, Lord,
your help for them. Remember especially Fred as he's
preparing for this operation on the 19th. We pray you'd be
with those doctors, give them great skill and understanding.
Pray you'll bring him back to a good measure of health as he
awaits the time when he begins his chemotherapy We ask, Lord,
you'd be with those doctors also. Give them great understanding.
Help us, Lord, to remember each other in prayer. We pray for
Dee Parks as he continues to fight with his cancer. Pray for
the others who requested prayer, for those who've lost loved ones.
We ask, Lord, that you'd help us tonight as we've gathered
here that you might give us a glimpse of the Savior who's worthy of
all praise and honor and glory, the author and finisher of our
faith. Cause us to look to Him who endured the cross, despising
the shame that he set down on the right hand of the Father.
He is all in all to the believer. Make him so in our hearts, we
pray tonight, in Christ's name, amen. Now, this passage is the account
of Pharaoh's reaction to the plague of flies that had completely
corrupted the land of Egypt. except for the fact that no flies
were allowed to cross the border of Goshen or light upon one of
God's elect. It's a wonder and amazing thing
that God controls insects in such a way. You'll find later
he actually controls bacteria in such a way when he gives the
cattle and horses muraine which is a bacterial infection. Once again the hard-hearted desperate
relents under the devastation from the onslaught of the sovereign
Lord. This plague, though great and devastating, was the hiding
place of God's power. So he has power even over insects.
That's just nothing to him. It takes more effort for me to
lift this handkerchief than it did for him to call the whole
world into existence, to make it so by the word of his mouth.
But Habakkuk, the prophet, said this about the Lord and his power.
He said, God came from Timon, that means the South, and the
Holy One from Mount Paran, Sila. Stop. Consider this. His glory
covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise,
and His brightness was as the light, and He had horns coming
out of His hand, and there was the hiding of His power. Before
him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his
feet. He stood and measured the earth.
He beheld and drove asunder the nations. The everlasting mountains
were scattered. The perpetual hills did bow.
His ways are everlasting." That's how God has described it. I'm
sure that's metaphorical language to some degree. But the language
is that he's beyond true description in his power and his greatness.
And though he does control flies, And I don't know whether flies
have much of a mind or not, but their mind was controlled to
where they would only go to the invisible border of Goshen and
could go no further. They could not light on any Israelite
that was walking around in Egypt. They could light on every Egyptian.
They could light on Pharaoh's house, all by God's sovereign
power. And that was the hiding of it.
His power has never been displayed where men have fully seen it.
It will not be until the end of time when he winds this whole
thing up and makes all things new, and that also by the word
of his power. He who could, had he chosen to
do so, open the earth and swallow the entire Egyptian population
with just a word, he sent flies to corrupt the slaveholders. to ruin their land, to show Egypt
and the world's religion that nothing could touch his elect
apart from his decree. Because in this sending of the
flies is when he said, I have severed this people for myself.
I have made a distinction between my people and Egyptians. I've
made that distinction. And those flies he used to show
who were his and who were not. How did people know who were
God's people? There wasn't no flies on them. No flies lit on
them. That's how they knew God made
it that way. The devil had to ask permission to touch Job just
as the flies could not touch the children of Israel. For God
to allow Satan to touch one of his elect is a wondrous thing.
He does that. He does that with Peter. When
Peter said, I'll never leave you, left these other 11 guys,
they might give you a hard time, but I'll always stick with you.
The Lord said, for the cock crows, you'll deny me three times. Another
place, Peter said, not so, Lord, to the Lord. And the Lord said,
get thee behind me, Satan. The devil has desired you that
he might sift you like wheat. And he will. He gonna sift Peter
like wheat. He said, but I prayed for you
that your face fail you not. The devil is used of the Lord.
He is God's creation. Though he is a fallen angel,
he is still an angel. He may be used of the Lord to
try his saints, but he can only go so far as the Creator allows
it. Satan is a created angel employed of the Lord for the
benefit of its chosen. Satan works for you. He doesn't
like it, and he'd prefer to do something else, but our Lord
said this, of the angels that He had made in Hebrews chapter
1. He said this in verse 13, but
to which of the angels said at any time, sit on my right hand.
He said that only to Jesus Christ, who is the angel of the covenant,
the messenger of the covenant. Sit thou on my right hand until
I make thy enemies thy footstool. That's what he said to Christ.
Never said that to an angel. He said, are they, the angels, not
all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who
shall be heirs of salvation? Satan is a part of God's work.
He is Satan's ape. He does what God says for him
to do. Bunyan said God has got him on a chain and he might reach
into that chain and you might see his teeth and he might bark
at you, but he will never touch you unless God allows him to
do so, just as he allowed him to touch Job. The corruption
and the putrefaction of Egypt has brought Pharaoh to his knees
once again. The king has become a beggar,
pleading for the swarm of flies to be abated. He calls for Moses
to entreat the Lord to remove the plague, and he begins his
entreaty with a promise to let the Israelites go and sacrifice
to their God. He said, I'll let your people
go if you'll entreat the Lord to get rid of these flies. But
he said it with a caveat. He said, go and sacrifice to
your God in the land. Now, what he was talking about
was the land of Goshen. He did not want him to leave
Egypt, so he wanted him to stay in the land of Goshen. He said,
Do your sacrifice in the land of Goshen. He says that in verse
25. He said, And Pharaoh called for
Moses, and there he said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in
the land. And Moses has an answer for him
in verses 26 and 27. Moses said it is not suitable
or meet to do so. Not suitable to do so. We're
not going to sacrifice in Goshen. That's not going to happen. But
we shall sacrifice the abomination. of the Egyptians to the Lord
our God. Lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination
of the Egyptians before their eyes, and they will stone us.
We will go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice
to the Lord our God as He has commanded us." The command of
the Lord was to go three days' journey into the wilderness and
sacrifice to the Lord. On a purely natural level, this
would prove a catastrophe for Egypt. Imagine the Egyptians
standing on the border of Goshen if The sacrifice was made there.
They being covered with flies watching as the fly-less Israelites
sacrificed to God. Remember also that the word sacrifice
in the original means to stand in a circle holding hands and
dance around. That's what the word sacrifice
means. So you imagine what that would have been to them. It would
have been an abomination to the Egyptians, no doubt about it.
The Israelites already were an abomination to the Egyptians.
We saw that in the first part of Exodus. They wouldn't even
eat at the same table with them. They wouldn't allow them in the
houses with them. They despised them. They said
they were an abomination. In Moses' words, the Israelites
would be hated for such a joyous celebration while these other
people were suffering such devastation with the fly. Moses words in
verse 26 and 27 carry a much greater message. He's saying that the sacrifice
of the Lord in the presence of these right religious idolaters
would be an abomination to the Egyptians to the point that they'd
want to kill him for it. He's not saying their idols are
an abomination. He said the sacrifice that we
would offer if we offered it in Goshen would be the same as
an abomination to the Egyptians to the point that they would
actually kill the Israelites if they could, put them out of business. Now,
what do we know? We know by faith that every sacrifice
to the Lord, every sacrifice to the Lord, no matter what it
is in the Old Testament, is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every
sacrifice offered to God whether it be bullock, or kid, or lamb,
or turtledove, all are a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the supreme sacrifice and all those sacrifices pointed
to and pictured Him in some aspect of His work on Calvary's tree.
Knowing that by faith that every sacrifice to the Lord is a picture
of Christ, this is a picture in Moses' words, of the world's
religious reaction to the singular worship of Jesus Christ. This
is what he's teaching here. The believer worships Christ
alone, nothing more, nothing less, no one else, as the entirety
of his salvation. If you ask a believer what his
salvation is, he won't say, I go to church, or I give, or I pray,
or I pray to send a prayer, I walk down an aisle. No, a believer
is going to say, Jesus Christ is it. He's all of it, from stem
to stem, from A to Z, from Alpha to Omega. He's all of it, from
beginning to end. Jesus Christ is the entirety
of my salvation, and because of religion's affinity to works
and free will and personal merit, the worship rendered by the believer
is an abomination to false religion. It's an abomination. If you don't
think so, just keep tooting that note on your horn, keep plucking
that string on your guitar. When people ask you what salvation
is, they're going to come up with some other stuff to tell
you that, well, you know, you've got to go to church, you've got
to do this, you've got to do that. I know what the Bible said,
Christ is all and in all. That which religion loves, free
will, works, personal merit, personal righteousness, that's
loved by religion. That is an abomination to the
believer. And that which the believer loves is an abomination
to religion. It's an abomination. Moses is
saying, if we were to offer this sacrifice in Goshen, Because this sacrifice means
this is the only way to approach God. They would consider it an abomination.
And they do today. They do today. It is the Lord
that has severed His people, you see. He has made a distinction
between them and Egypt, as the Lord said to His elect in Babylon
in the Revelation, which I believe is the true area of of missionary
work in the world today is in what is called the Organized
Church, which is Babylon. He said to those of his people
in Babylon, Come out of her, my people. Come out of her, my
people, and be ye not partakers of her sins, that ye receive
not her plagues. No, Moses said, we must go three
days out in the wilderness to sacrifice to our God. We can't
be around this mess. He can't be around it. Pharaoh
gives up on the Goshen scenario when he says, No, stay in the
land. And they said, No, we're not going to do that. And he
agrees to let the people go into the wilderness and sacrifice
to the Lord, but again he has another caveat. This time he
says they can go, but tells them that they shall not go far away.
You can go, you don't have to do it in the land, but don't
go far away. He would not have them leave
the arena of His dominion, which is much like religion of today.
They will reluctantly accept that you have a different way
of believing, that you have a difference of doctrine as long as it is
out of sight, but does not result in leaving the assembly. I've
been told this when I began to see the truth. Well, you don't
have to leave. Just don't say anything about it. Just don't
tell people what you believe. You don't have to leave. You
can hang around. Just keep as long as you shut up. The problem
with that was they never shut up about what they believe. But
they expect you to shut about what you believe. And the only
thing you can do is go. That's the only thing you can
do is go. That's the religion of the world
today. You can say that you worship Christ alone, but say it in the
wilderness where no one will hear and stay close so we can
still count you on the church roll. Pharaoh made this agreement
on the condition that Moses would entreat the Lord. He says, you
can go, but stay close. If you entreat the Lord about
these flies, I'll let you go. I'll let you go. And he had his
own, that's his own caveat. Moses said, okay, we'll go, but
I have something to say. Moses warned Pharaoh that though
he would entreat the Lord to end the plague, Pharaoh had better
not be lying about letting the people go. He said, don't deal
with me deceitfully about letting the people go. You said you was
going to let them go. Now I'm going to go and treat
the Lord about the plague. And we'll see if he lets it go.
I'll do it tomorrow. But don't you lie about this.
don't you deal deceitfully with me about this very thing. That's
what he said in verse 29, and Moses said, Behold, I go out
from thee, I will entreat the Lord that the swarms of flies
may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people
tomorrow, but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in
not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord, because
every time so far, Pharaoh has relented and said, OK, I'll let
you go, and then didn't. Now, we know the reason for that. God had hardened his heart. God
had hardened his heart. It was God's business to do that.
The Lord heard Moses' entreaty and removed the plague, but as
the Lord had ordained the outcome by hardening Pharaoh's heart,
this is merely the fulfillment of a sovereign purpose of God.
It says in verse 31, The Lord did according to the word of
Moses, and He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh's, and
from his servants, and from his people, and from where there
were no... This is interesting that it didn't remain one fly
on any of the people or the Pharaoh in the houses in all of Egypt,
not one little fly. That's how powerful God is. Pharaoh couldn't keep his promise.
He couldn't keep his promise. He must deal deceitfully because
he cannot do otherwise. With the flies disappearing he
breathed a sigh of unbelief and according to divine predestination
he hardened his heart and would not let the people go. Why did
he harden his heart? Because God had already hardened
his heart. God said that to Moses. You're going to do these things.
You're going to send these plagues. I'm going to send them to you. But
I've hardened Pharaoh's heart. He's not going to let the people
go. He's not going to let the people go. You see, there's a
day coming in this whole scenario. A day of reckoning is on the
horizon, and soon he will not let the people go. He will actually
send them out. he'll herd them out of the land,
he'll want them to leave, he'll beg them to go, and he'll give
them everything he wanted just to get out of his sight so we
won't have to deal with this God of theirs any longer. Their
presence in this world to him is the true plague. That's his
true plague. Israel's there. God's people
are there. And that's the plague of this
world, too. As far as the world sees, this is the plague. We
see it more and more in the day in which we live, much more than
when we were children, when we was growing up. Even false churches
had some respect in the world. Even men who didn't teach anything
had some respect in the world. It's gone. It's gone. I saw the
other day that the New Quarter has George Washington facing
away from the words, In God We Trust. I said, well, it's always
been the other way around. He was facing toward In God We
Trust, but the New Quarter has him facing away. Just a subtle
little thing. Don't mean much. But it says
something. It says something. What's going to happen for too
long, all these people that got all these ideas are going to
smack dab into the face of God. I remember one scientist I was
reading years ago. I think he was a physicist. No,
he was an astronomer. He studied the stars. And he
said, I know that one day And all my studies, after all my
studies, I just got this feeling that I'm gonna top the crest
of a hill and run right into God. And he wasn't a believer,
but he knew, in studying the universe, that there's something
much greater than him in this world. Much greater than his
understanding. On the horizon, the people are
going to be sent out. Why? Because God has hardened
Pharaoh's heart until that moment. Their presence in the world is
the bane of Pharaoh. And all we can say, having known
that this was prophesied in Genesis 15 to Abraham, this exact thing, all we can say is to God be the
glory. he will deliver his people. He will deliver them. We will
be delivered out of a world that hates us and hates the God that
we love. We'll be delivered. God says
Pharaoh will send them out. Be someday when the world says
we don't want anything more to do with you, just leave us. Just
go away. Go away. Father, bless us our
understanding. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.
All right. God bless you. Don't forget, next Wednesday
night, no service.