Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to Exodus chapter 9, as we are looking at how God dealt with Egypt and How he judged the gods of Egypt in order that he might bring the people to his own self The people precious in his sight people for his own purposes I remember when I was in college. I probably was like most of you. I Had to work my way through college I didn't have a whole lot of money, and so I drove these incredibly old Junker cars And my first car was actually wasn't a very bad car. It was a 1963 Dodge Dart I don't think they make that model anymore Had this little slant 6-2-25 engine that ran forever I think the body fell apart before the engine died and then I had another little clunker and By this time I was in the I was a lieutenant second lieutenant in the army. I didn't have much money They only paid us I think about $7,000 a year then and so I saved up my money, and I went to get a new car First new car I'd ever known at the age of 22 or 23 by this time, and I bought a Volkswagen The Super Beetle. I don't know. I don't know what was super about. I think you just had bigger lights on in the tail lights That's you know thing was super about it and Had the same three or four hamsters under the engine that kept things going and And it was it was bright orange. I To this day, I don't know why I bought it because it was the ugliest car ever Manufactured in Germany, but it was a good little car and I love that thing I polished it and washed it every week probably every other day and I don't have for about About six weeks and the army sent me back to Fort Sam, Houston, Texas on Special assignment for about 13 weeks So I drove it all the way down there did pretty well on the road The Illinois and Oklahoma on down to Texas and and I parked it in the parking lot of the Bachelors office quarter And I know more God inside than I heard thunder outside and I looked out the window Only to see one of the famous Texas hailstorms come down It shredded my little car It Panged it up and broke the glass and chip the paint and and that car was never the same even though I had bodywork done There were little puck marks all over it the Lord had killed my idol right in front of my eyes It was a horrible day every time I think of this plague I think it Texas and that parking lot in my car By the way when I mention a hail here. I mean H. A. I. L I'm not talking about the Southern view of perdition, okay? This this is the seventh plague that God sends on Exodus It introduces the third and final cycle of plague She's we mentioned this before I and the other preachers that these plagues have come in groups of three Of the first three cycle one seem to have afflicted the river Nile in particular that sacred Nile that sacred river With blood and frogs and gnaths cycle two We're flies and dead livestock and boils. They affected the land and the property of the people But in these final Three plagues it is persons who are afflicted through hail and locust and darkness that is very painful These plagues number one and four begin the same way plague number seven begins. They all begin the same way these cycles God says go to Pharaoh in the morning and stand before him and say this so It is if Moses comes and announces a Series of plagues and then we come one two and three and then three four and five and now You know in six and then seven eight and nine until he finally comes to that last and devastating plague of all So I want you to notice that in these this seventh plague There's an irony here because of the boils the scripture says the magicians of Egypt who are always there to try to Duplicate Moses as miracles they were unable to stand but Moses stands God is making a statement here He's saying to Pharaoh, you know if this thing continues there will only be one man standing and it won't be you Secondly, I want you to see this God Explains why he's doing these things to Pharaoh He as the judgements proceeds he gives more more detailed information about why Pharaoh Is making these judgments necessary and Then finally God informs Pharaoh that he is pulling out all the stops and sending a final Bevy of plagues along Egypt away in order to break them look what he says in verse 14 of chapter nine for this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself and on your servants and your people So that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth now you've seen the cycle here God goes to Pharaoh and says let my people go Pharaoh says I don't want to God says if you don't This is going to happen Pharaoh says try me so God sends the plague Increasingly as the plagues get more and more difficult Pharaoh blinks And then he buckles and then he breaks and he says okay, you can go But he modifies God's wording God says no there's no bargaining here You do it my way and I bless Egypt We do it your way and I ruin Egypt And it says that Pharaoh hardens his heart time after time So let's look at this seventh plague this great plague of fire from the sky and Notice first of all the morning of this plague that comes in verse 13 Then the Lord said to Moses rise up early in the morning and present yourself before fair and say to him Thus says the Lord the God of the head Hebrews let my people go that they may serve me for this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself and on your servants and on your people So that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you in your people with pestilence and You would have been cut off from the earth. In other words, you would have all died But for this purpose I have raised you up to show you my power So that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth You're still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go Behold about this time tomorrow. I will cause very heavy hail to fall Such as has never been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now Now therefore send Get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home Will die when the hail falls on them Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh heard his slaves and of slifed stock into the houses But whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field This is perhaps for the first time That were God it gives a detailed explanation for why he is literally striking Egypt These were the word plagues in English is really the Hebrew word to strike or to give a blow It is God who is raining down strike kept a strike and blow after blow ten of them in a row Smiting the land of Egypt he says and each time God strikes The land of Egypt Moses strikes something with his rod whether it's the land or the water of the skies He brings this blow upon Egypt for four reasons God says first of all he says to show all of Egypt How sing your little special this God Jehovah is So that you may know that there was none like me in all the earth forget all your gods and goddesses They've been impotent before me You should know that there was none like me in all of the world. Secondly, he says it is to spare Egypt this sounds strange, but he says listen For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself and your servants and your people so that you may know that there is none like me for by now I Could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence So that you would have been cut off From the face of the earth. I could have killed you all he said But I am like a father Discipline a child giving you incrementally more severe spankings until you break And do what will bless you Thirdly, he says I will use Pharaoh This self-proclaimed human God King To illustrate my sovereign majesty But for this purpose verse 16 for this purpose I have raised you up to show you my power So that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth We are familiar with this verse because it's repeated. It's quoted verbatim in Romans chapter 9 Where God is showing and Paul is explaining why he does what he does Sovereignly through his doctrine of predestination and his salvation by his grace in a sovereign manner He says so it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy for the scripture said to Pharaoh For this very purpose I have raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth So then he has mercy on him. He has mercy and he and he hardens whomever he wills God is saying Pharaoh The longer this thing is prolonged the greater. I become and the lesser you will be Because you're like every other human being listen folks. We exist only for one reason Only for one reason Whether it's the preacher or the newest baby baptized we exist for one reason To show the purposes of God through the glory of Jesus Christ. That's the only reason we live Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. So he says fourthly the immediate cause of these plagues Is Pharaoh's pride Look at verse 17 for you are still It reads in Hebrew you are to this point Exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go to this point. He says Pharaoh listen to me bow after blow after blow but to this point You still lock your jaw and when I give you the same command let my people go. You say I Will not now put yourself in God's place I'm not being facetious here. It's kind of like a parent and a five-year-old Although now this isn't the best illustration Because five-year-olds often rule the house But imagine a five-year-old and a man 45 years old squared off like this It's really not a fair fight is it the five-year-old will win but not with God What would God be if he said you know Pharaoh listen You're just not gonna give in so go ahead keep the people off find another plan save the world Who would follow God then it's not God's ego against Pharaoh's ego God doesn't have an ego It's God's sovereign plan to save the world including Pharaoh and his people That is being opposed here and God will not Because he cannot He cannot give in that's why he's immutable he can't change when you're perfect If you make any adjustments to what you are then you lose your perfection And in this case You're powered to save Some will say what pastor how can we don't read about all these things in the annals of Egyptian history why in this Stella's and in their In their monuments and in their pyramids they don't record these things well That's an easy answer because whenever you read ancient history from Probably the Romans back they never recorded things that were embarrassing They never recorded in their history books if they lost a battle or lost a war if there was a successful Million or an assassination or anything They only wrote history to bring themselves glory. So anything humiliating Would not be recorded but The nations of the earth heard this When Moses took the people of Israel Out into the wilderness He met some people who said We have heard and we tremble Pangs has cived us because of what we heard you did in all of Egypt Ray have the prostitute Told the two spies we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt And what he did to the two kings of the Emirates and we like wax have melted away before you The Gibbonite said to Joshua For we have heard the report of him and all that he did to Egypt and all that he did to the two kings of the Emirates And so our elders and all the inhabitants of the country have said to us Come let's make a covenant with them Even the people of Philistine in the days of young David and the in the Judship of Samuel Said woe to us for nothing like this has happened before woe to us who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods of Israel These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague All through the time of their wilderness So the nations heard about this thing God the gracious God is providing ample warning for all these people of Egypt and for the first time The Continuity of that country begins to break and it says at the servants of Pharaoh some of them Believe the Lord and brought their livestock and their slaves into the field Some obeyed Moses is Some obeyed Pharaoh You'd already had this kind of disruption his magicians already said Pharaoh you can't oppose this This is the finger of God now his servants in his own household say We better believe Moses and live Soon the home nation will demand that Pharaoh let these people go The clock was set in motion Moses said I got 24 hours And then I'm going to strike this land With the worst storm it's seen in all of its ancient history 3000 years So the judgment comes upon him Then the Lord said to Moses stretch out your hand toward the heaven So that there may be hail and all the land of Egypt on man and beast and every plant in the field in the land of Egypt Then Moses lifted up his staff toward the heavens and the Lord sent thunder and hail and fire rained down on the earth And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt there was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail Very heavy hail such as has never been in the land of Egypt since it became a nation The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt both man and beast The hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field only in the land of Goshen Where the people of Israel were Was there no hail For the seventh time Moses stretches out his staff And all hail breaks loose It comes down with thunder and rain and fire It's a supernatural rain storm and hail storm The fire does not indicate lightning The fire seems to be something that when it strikes the earth it catches things on fire So it consumes trees and grasses and grains and even animals in the field This is amazing because around Cairo even to this day They average about two inches of rainfall annually Towards the southern part it's less than that and in the Sahara desert the rain never comes But now it comes down in torrential flows of lightning and rain and fire mixed with hail One scholar said it is a most superficial act To attempt to argue that what occurs here is nothing more than an exaggeration of a natural event. Oh really Rain and hail comes down and consumes every living thing and everything in the field except for the land of Goshen I mean when was the last I'm even in Texas I mean my car was banged up, but it didn't burn up This is an act of God. This is the hand of God And it devastates land take a snapshot of Haiti In the wake of hurricane Matthews and transpose that over a nation five times its size and population And that's the devastation you see Moses's emphasis is precise. Listen to what he says the hills struck down everything Both man and beast Every plant of the field and every tree in the field everything was shattered by the Celestial bullets of fire that came down with this hail And then he describes the aftermath in verse 27 Then Pharaoh sent out and called Moses and Aaron and said to them this time I have sinned The Lord is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong Creed with the Lord for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail I will let you go and you shall stay no longer Moses said to him As soon as I have gone out of the city I will stretch out my hands to the Lord The thunder will cease and there will be no more hail so that you may know that the earth is the Lawrence But as for you and your servants I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God Now the flags and the barley were struck down for the barley was in the ear and the flags was in the bud But the wheat and the emmer that is the spelt We're not struck down for they are late in coming up So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the heavens the Lord and the thunder and the hail ceased The rain no longer poured upon the earth But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased He sinned yet again and hardened his heart. He in disturbance So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people of Israel go Just as the Lord God had spoken through Moses Now we've seen in these judgments that every single time these judgments come There's a judgment on some Egyptian God or goddess or several What we need to know is this According to the Egyptians view of life There was one God named Amtumrah Atum means all and raw means sun all things come from the sun He was the creator God And he out of his own spittle or his own tears or his own body parts he created other gods and from them human beings The first two gods he created was a son and a daughter a god named shoe God of the air and his sister Tefinut the goddess of moisture in the sky They conceived and gave birth to two children a boy and a girl Geb The Lord of the earth and his sister Newt the goddess of the sky
Newt and Geb were prolific They were procreating too many people and too many gods and so Atumrah said you will not be able to procreate at all And he separated the sky from the earth But their uncle a god named Toth the moon god Convinced his brother Atumrah the sun god to give them five days To live together as husband and wife and procreate and so they did And they created Osiris Their firstborn son who was God of the underworld and the ruler of the world And his evil and jealous brother Seth the god of disorder and envy and strife Then Isis The goddess of healing and the wife of her brother Osiris and the little sister nefties who married Seth And helped to raise Osiris from the dead after Seth killed him And Osiris and Isis gave birth to the favorite of all of the gods that we'll see in a few weeks This a young man who was a god and a man at the same time named Horus A Christ figure who was the redeemer of Egypt they called him And the king of kings So God strikes this family He plows right into the middle of it and he afflicts this goddess newt She was embodied they believed in the Milky Way Arching her body from east to west over the earth to protect her brother husband Gebb So that he could be fertile and give birth to all that is existing today The souls of the dead became the stars of the sky in her body She was the goddess of rebirth and resurrection Her laughter was called thunder her tears were the rain All the heavenly bodies entered her mouth every day and proceeded out of her womb every evening So the cycle of the heavens and the rotations of life in the earth continued through newt day after day after day She protected and watered the earth And kept the watery chaos above from damaging the things on the earth until God struck her down now her power to save She became a power to destruct her tears became rain that turned the icy hail Her thunder was mixed with fire that burned man and beast and grain alike her thunder slapper sent out shock waves of terror in the people And she was powerless before the god of Moses To do what she's supposed to do And protect her brother Gebb the earth That's why Moses repeatedly says in this passage So you will know that there's no other god in all of the earth But the god of the Hebrews Moses is neither naive or fooled When Pharaoh finally says I am wrong I've sinned and so my people Moses says we've heard that story before God has already said he's not going to unleash multiple plagues upon you and I know that you do not yet fear the Lord But I want you to notice this Pharaoh That where God is killed everything in the field he has left you yet the barley and the spelt The wheat and the spelt excuse me you left you these two grains so that you will not starve to death So that you will continue to live Because God is not desiring that any should perish But for all to come to repentance And live even in this moment God is extending to Pharaoh And to the people of Israel In spite of the hardness of their hearts one more opportunity To trust and obey
I don't know if there's any parallel between The goddess of the sky and what we're facing today. I really can't find an idol And our culture that would Be the modern version of newt unless it would be astrology Which I know none of you were into But there is a pattern here folks and then I think is what Is the main thing God wants to see is listen The impressive thing is not That God shatters These demonic spirits who pose as gods and goddesses That's light work for the Lord No the heavy lifting for Christ Is the our heavy hearts When God says the heart of Pharaoh was hardened it literally reads in Hebrew his heart was heavy And there's a pattern here and I want us to see this because it applies to human beings and therefore it applies to us Me as well as you it applies to me as well as to you And here it is Every time we say I don't want to to God Something bad happens Not necessarily externally But internally something happens to our heart our will It becomes a little harder And then next time we say no it becomes a little harder And then a little harder until Paul talks about a seared or defiled or A weak conscience We harden ourselves you'll notice that pattern sometimes Exodus says Pharaoh hardened his heart Half the time it says that nine times nine times it says God hardened his heart And they're both true When God speaks to Pharaoh Pharaoh says no Any hardens his heart You have to harden your heart to say no to the God who loves you and died for your sins And just wants to take it heaven and bless you in life no we say to him So God pushes in God responds harder and it hardens us more and it's a vicious cycle And the only one that can break it Is Pharaoh You me we have to say sometimes I don't want to But I will Every time a person chooses not to respond to God's word Or to resist God's will their heart Becomes a little harder until it cannot respond to God anymore The conscience becomes weakened and seared and defiled by their own disobedience And their idols How does this happen? Well, I will suggest to you today folks that happens the same way as in this story God reveals his will to us In a word And a preacher named Moses or Mike Comes and says thus sayeth the Lord and we say I don't want to And a hardening starts the preacher could say Come to church on Sunday evenings and worship God to complete the fourth command to keep the Sabbath day holy and we say I don't want to Come to Sunday school and send it to the teaching of the word of God and the fellowship with other believers and we say I don't want to I don't want to tie And I'm not going to be baptized and join the church
I'm not going to love my wife as Christ loved the church. You don't know what a witch I'm married to And I'm not going to submit to that man because he He's a dictator and a demon And I'm not going to honor my father and mother they work good parents I'm not going to pursue holiness because that would ruin my life and make me unhappy And I wouldn't have any friends And you know listen here's what's happening That false God behind all these things is wanting you to do that until finally listen to me Finally there comes the command but leave on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and you say I don't want
And then it's over. It's all over but the thunder
No, we excuse this away We can say oh I'm glad he's retired. Let's get a man in here who's reasonable
Because that's what they always do, isn't it? Hey, have sent a Elijah Oh you trouble a visor if you come here to bother us again
What the what this pharaoh eventually say to Moses you need to get out of here because if I see you again, I'm going to kill you You have brought He says Moses you have brought all this evil on us Paul would have to say to the Galatians have I become your enemy by telling you the truth Now you say I don't know if my heart's I'm going to tell you how you can tell it the heart's hardening
If you've lost your joy in the Lord that you had when you were first converted You can't blame that on me or God
It's because you've said no Then you can say well We're going to leave because my kids don't like his sermons. He's too academic They can't understand him. They won't pay attention I want you to look around right now and ask me a question It might be in two academic right now Is there any five-year-old that doesn't understand what I'm saying? And is your teenager looking to me right now and paying attention by God they are Yes, they are Because when we leave one church and we go to the next church I'll tell you what we do. We always go to church where we water it down. We don't go to something stronger We go to something weaker until finally We find the preacher and the people who give us the God we want and now we have an idol a God that when we say no He says Okay, let's change my plans and we're ruined the proof of this my friends That looms over you and me every single Sunday That crosses the testimony of three things God will not Take no For an answer father if it's possible Let this cup pass from me and God said no So Jesus said I really don't want to But I will I will do your will and not mine It's a testimony that God is so serious about sin That he would rather send his son to die for that sin rather than have you die in Egypt and then in hell forever And it is a testimony that in the human being There was the potential of such hardness of heart that even when the precious prince of heaven comes the true horus the son of God And tells us how to follow him We take him out And kill him There's only one thing that stands in the way Of being blessed or being Saved and that's our pride Isn't that what Moses said after all this you were still like insulting yourself Against God and his people What would have happened Had Moses Been able to break and Farrah had said you know I will let them go Would Egypt have been ruined? I don't think so I think all the slaves he lost God would have replaced with some other form of abundant blessing I think Farrah would have risen This man named Amenhotep the second to be the greatest of all Farrah's And the story would have read that there are millions of people who came to know the Lord in Egypt And the Lord blessed them in abundance and they became the friend and ally of Israel through all these days And the favored people of God that it didn't happen Listen Farrah said no Because he didn't believe that Moses is God would bless him if he obeyed him He thought that Moses is God will wreck his life and that's why we say no to God Because we think we came to church on Sunday and we tied or we Study the Bible or we did what we were saying it would ruin our lives
But how could a God who was willing to do this Ever tell you anything to do That would hurt you Or rob you of joy or bring you death There is so much that hangs in the balance Of the hardness of the softness of our heart that we could go on for months about it but we won't We simply need to remind ourselves of this That this judgment of hail and fire and all of this destruction Comes upon the world one more time In Revelation chapter 16 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air and the loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying it is done And there were flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder and a great earthquake such as there has never been since man was on the face of the earth So great was that earthquake the great city was split into three parts And the seas of the nations fell and God remembered babble on the great to make her drain the cup of the wind of the fury of his wrath And every iron and thud away and no mountains were to be found and great hailstones About 100 pounds each fell from heaven on people and they cursed God for the plague of hail Because the plague Was so severe figurative speech yes But imagery of some final judgment Or even when Jesus Christ appears Rather than say I have sinned and the people and I are wrong They will say one last time I will not because they said that every day of their lives and I don't want you to be among them Trust and obey For there is no other way to be happy in Jesus But to trust And obey Let's pray Father we underestimate the power of our hearts For good or for bad Both in its softness and obedience in its hardness and defiance
It is matched only by and exceeded only by The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and his kingship We know it is your will To bring us to repentance and faith this day and to Cause us to humble ourselves and obey you so that you could bless us all through this life Enrich our souls and our families and our communities and then take us to heaven That we might share a blissful future with you forever that is your stated and Purpose desire that's what you're going to do To those who repent of sins and Put their faith in Jesus Christ and follow him Save us from the wrath to come Save us first of all from the hardness of our hearts within And bring us to this point So that your name might be great among the nations that people might know about King Jesus and worship him And that we might be blessed We might be happy in Jesus and trust and obey
Help us in this we pray Break the power of resistance in us That we might say even when we don't want to Not my will but thine be done Only to discover the blessings and following you And in loving your son Jesus Christ For we ask this in Jesus name Amen