Frank Bailey: If you find your place now in Exodus chapter 5, I’m going to begin with a word of prayer, and then we’re going to look at a very familiar portion in the Bible. Lord, we thank you this morning that we do have an opportunity to be in this service because we’re going to open up the word of God. Lord, I’m keenly aware this morning that there’s nothing in me that could be a blessing or a help,

but I believe as we read the word of God that you could challenge us. And truly, Lord, it is the sword of the Spirit, so I pray, Spirit of God, that you take the sword and that you wield it, that you find the need and that you meet it. There could be some this morning that do not know jesus christ as personal savior

I doubt if there’s anybody who’s ignorant of what he’s done, but perhaps there’s some that have not received him There are christians this morning that are seeking for direction some very good kids who undoubtedly have come looking for Spiritual direction. I pray you’d give it. There’s others that are struggling with difficulties lord I don’t know the need but i’m just resting in the fact that you do

And I just trust that your word would do its work and that we give you the glory for what you do in jesus name amen If you look down to verse 1, the Bible says, and afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?

I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. Now, of course, we remember the story of Moses and Aaron coming into Pharaoh and asking him, or rather really demanding that God had said, let my people go. Now, what you have here is maybe somewhat of a strange response because Pharaoh asked this question, who is the Lord? Now, if I didn’t know much about Pharaoh and had seen nothing else about his life,

I might maybe anticipate here that Pharaoh did not realize that the Lord was the God of the Hebrews. You know, it’s in the same book in chapter 3 where Moses even asked the Lord, who am I supposed to tell them has sent me unto them? But I think what Pharaoh is saying here really is not who is Jehovah. Because from the days of Abraham, when Abraham named his altar Jehovah,

surely the people of Israel recognized that his name was associated with Jehovah. Everybody knew that the God of Israel was the God Jehovah. Now, these people in Egypt were not atheists. They did believe that there were gods, but they believed there were many gods They had at least 10 that they themselves served and they didn’t look at israel’s god and say well He’s not a god But it was very much entrenched in their mind that if you were a nation

Who was more powerful than another nation? Then obviously your gods were greater than their gods and many times in the old testament when a battle was Won a country would consider the fact well undoubtedly our gods favored us And our god is greater than theirs That is the way that Pharaoh and the Egyptian people viewed Jehovah God. For 400 years, this nation, Israel, had been slaves. Now just imagine in our own day, if we went back to 1609, 400 years ago,

and our country had begun to accumulate slaves at that time. Now we did have a time in our history where we had slavery, but imagine if it began in 1609 until the present day, people were still slaves. Now every time that we saw this group of people, we would always think of them that they’re slaves.

They’ve been slaves for 400 years. They’re slaves now. That is the way the Israelites were viewed by the Egyptians. They just looked at them as a race of people that were to be used, and they knew they had some religious background, though they were not truly religious,

but they knew they recognized Jehovah as their God. Now they looked at Jehovah as a very weak, impotent God that could do nothing. Well, now two representatives from this nation of slaves come and they say to Pharaoh, our God, the Lord has said, let my people go.

Now, on the other hand, who was Pharaoh? Pharaoh was the most powerful man in Egypt. Now, we don’t think of Egypt today as a very influential nation.

If Egypt threatened the United States today with military action, we probably would laugh at it. It would be almost a joke because they wouldn’t have really the type of military strength that would intimidate anyone. But in the day in which pharaoh lived egypt was probably the most powerful nation on the earth Nobody really would have wanted to go up and and attack egypt because their army was the most powerful known in that day

They would go out and take places and and conquer places and actually moses in his earlier days had been one of the main Military leaders for for pharaoh the earlier pharaoh, but pharaoh here was the most powerful man in the most powerful nation in the world. Now, he did not have a democracy. He was not in a position of being in charge of Egypt like our president would be in charge of the United States.

Pharaoh did not go to the Congress and ask permission or try to pass laws or seek to do things in a back way. His word was law in Egypt. You remember when Moses was in his early childhood and another Pharaoh had come on the throne and sent out a decree that says we’ll kill all the babies who are a certain age.

Well, his word was law. So now just for a moment, consider what it would be like to be Pharaoh. Pharaoh was the most powerful man in the most powerful nation on earth with complete dictatorial rule.

He was completely in charge. Really, he was the most powerful man in the world. Pharaoh. Now here are two representatives from a nation of slaves that they consider to be inferior, that they consider to be not at

all on the same plane with them. Come in to the most powerful man on earth, and they say, our God has demanded that you let his people go. Do you know what Pharaoh is saying?

He’s not saying, well, I’ve heard of these other gods, but who’s this fellow Jehovah? No, he’s saying, who does the Lord think he is to tell me what to do? He’s asking this question, who is the Lord?

Now certainly we would look and say it doesn’t matter how powerful Pharaoh is. It doesn’t matter what his position is. It doesn’t matter how powerful his nation is or what military he has at his disposal.

God is greater than he is. How could he ask such a question, who is the Lord? What type of person would put himself in a position to say, I don’t recognize God’s authority. But could it be that you’re here this morning and though you’ve never verbalized that statement,

by your life you’ve asked the same thing. Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? Hey, you know it might be that you listen to a preacher. Someone gets up and they give you absolute biblical concrete teaching

that some of the sin in your life ought not to be taking place. And as soon as you hear someone attack your music in your mind, you think, doesn’t matter to me what he says, I’m going to listen to it anyway. You’re saying, who is the Lord? Hey, it might be that someone goes after the type of movies that you watch

think, well, I enjoy those. And yeah, he might have some kind of something from the Bible. It doesn’t make any difference.

I’m going to do it anyway. You’ve basically said, who is God to tell me what to do? You see, this book represents what God says. In fact, this book is the living word

of God. Now, Pharaoh asked this question, who is the Lord? Do you realize that God and his great mercy is going to answer that question for Pharaoh?

He’s going to answer it for him. Now, God is going to take pains to make clear to Pharaoh who he is. And do you know this morning, if you want to know who God is, he’ll show you. If you want to find out who he is and what he’s like, God is in the

business of demonstrating who he is. But I’ll tell you, Pharaoh was not a willing subject. Do you realize it doesn’t take your willingness for God to decide he’s going to demonstrate who he is.

Someone may be completely uninterested this morning in knowing who he is. God can still show you who he is. Now, who is the Lord?

I want you to notice, first of all, God’s method in doing this. Turn over for a moment, if you would, to Exodus chapter seven. Now, you know, the account Moses and Aaron come back to Pharaoh.

They’ve spent some time, uh, talking to Pharaoh. And of course they’ve had a run in Pharaoh has sent more burdens on the people and so forth, but now they come back and they confront Pharaoh again. And in chapter seven in verse 10, Moses and Aaron went in and they did so as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants,

and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents, and Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.

Now you remember this account. Moses and Aaron come back in. They face Pharaoh again with the same question. And this time, instead of just saying,

well, who is the Lord? He says, look, I’ve already brought this before you. Now, why is it that Pharaoh did not just throw these men out on their ear?

Why did he give them even the license to come in and have this hearing? Because I’m telling you, there was something in the voice of Moses. God had said to Moses, I am going to give you a charge over the people and a charge over Pharaoh.

Pharaoh couldn’t explain it, but somehow when he heard Moses speak, he said his voice is authoritative. There’s something about him that I ought to listen to. I know that these men are telling me the truth, but he would not accept it.

He wouldn’t listen. Do you realize sometimes a person sits out and they hear the gospel and perhaps you confront them and they say, well, I just don’t believe the Bible. So how do you deal with a person who doesn’t believe the Bible?

You just give them the gospel. See, God honors this book. He honors his word.

Pharaoh listens to Moses and Aaron. And something inside of him is already telling him these people are representing God. But he’ll never verbalize it.

So he says to them in a sort of a light way, what sign would you show me? You know, Jesus said, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. There’s nothing more potent than the word that Moses had given.

But he says, show me a sign. Well, God says, here’s the sign you’re supposed to give him. He takes the rod, throws it on the ground.

It becomes a serpent. Now, we know that Moses, I mean, rather, Pharaoh, had two demon-possessed magicians that were at his side. They’re mentioned in the New Testament.

These two men were able to call up demons and do some very supernatural things. So it wasn’t surprising when Pharaoh turned to these demon-possessed magicians and said, Look, this guy’s just turned a stick into a snake. Show him that it’s not a big deal. So these two men step up by their trickery and demon power,

and they throw these sticks on the ground. They become serpents. Pharaoh looks back at Moses and Aaron with kind of a look of, See, no big deal. Then he looks back at the ground, and he notices that that serpent that Moses had thrown down

was devouring the snakes that the magicians had thrown down. Well, he looks back at his magicians trying to keep his composure as to ask, can you do that? And they kind of shrug their shoulders like, we can’t do that.

I don’t know how he did that. And they lost two good magic wands in the process. Now, Pharaoh knows at this point that something is taking place that he can’t explain. He knows after listening to Moses’ voice, and he knows after watching this supernatural miracle,

something inside of him says you ought to obey. Now, how do I know that takes place? I know from his response.

Look down again in verse 13. And it says, he hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Now, that’s sort of a strange way of translating a passive verb.

But don’t be confused that he is referring to Pharaoh. Pharaoh hardened Pharaoh’s heart. It’s translated later as his heart was hardened.

Pharaoh looked at what took place. And what it simply means is when he saw what happened, Something inside of him said you ought to obey. But he said, I’m Pharaoh.

Nobody tells me what to do. I’m not going to respond. And he hardens his heart.

Well, now God has demonstrated who he is. He wanted to see God’s power. God has shown him.

You’d say, well, that pretty much ought to be enough. God can lay him out. But God gives him another opportunity.

Now, this next opportunity is very interesting. I won’t read all the verses to save time. But you know that Pharaoh was a famous person.

Obviously, in Egypt, they didn’t have television. They didn’t have internet. They didn’t even have photographs.

So probably many Egyptians had never even seen Pharaoh. And if Pharaoh were ever to make a public appearance, you can be sure that multitudes of people would have come to see him just to say, I saw Pharaoh. I’ve seen him.

Now, Pharaoh often would go out to the river, the Nile River, to take a bath. Now, I can be pretty confident that when he went out to take a bath at the Nile River, He didn’t advertise where he was going to be. It would be very similar to our president coming into town and he was going to eat at a local restaurant.

They wouldn’t advertise it in the newspaper. The Secret Service would keep it completely hush-hush. They might even close the restaurant when he went to eat because there’d be thrill seekers.

I wouldn’t be one of them, but there’d be people that were thrilled to go see the president and see who he is and so forth. They would keep it a secret. Well, imagine Pharaoh going down to the Nile River. They didn’t advertise in the newspaper that he’s going to be at Pier 13

tomorrow morning at 6 if you’d like to watch him bathe. It was completely secretive. They probably changed the location all the time and kept it a complete secret.

And it was very early in the morning. Pharaoh walks down to the river. He’s about to take off his robe.

And just when he steps in, he hears a voice. He looks up and there’s Moses and Aaron. They’ve been waiting for half an hour waiting for him to get there. Now don’t you know he had to wonder in his mind,

how in the world did Moses and Aaron know to find me here? But they had a simple message You remember that message I gave yesterday pharaoh God said let my people go his message has not changed God says it again. Let my people go and here’s the consequence if you don’t i’m gonna turn the nile river in the blood Well, that’s preposterous the nile river. We’re not talking about a little creek that just ran through egypt

We’re not talking about just some little place that he went fishing over next to the castle We’re talking about the nile river to this day if the Nile River dried up Egypt would be the desert there’d be no civilization there it depends on the Nile River even with all the technology we have it could not exist without it and the Nile River is not just something that you could swim across 100 yards or so

this is a massive body of water God says I’ll turn it into blood well Pharaoh doesn’t believe it but God sends Aaron over with the rod and he touches the water and sure enough, it becomes blood. Not only that, the vessels of wood and of stone in the land, they weren’t even part of the river. All the drinking water turns to blood. Now, here Pharaoh looks at what happened, and in order to show that really God’s not that powerful,

in order to demonstrate that he’s just as big as God, he says to the magicians, show them that’s just a little trick. Show them that you can do the same thing. Now, I don’t know if the magicians had some red Kool-Aid in their pocket or what way they did it, but they made some kind of an attempt at turning some water into blood.

But they didn’t do it in the vessels of stone and the wood. And what they did wouldn’t have lasted, but what God did lasted. He turned the water into blood and the fish died and the river began to stink.

Now here we find that the Nile River has been cut off. Egypt is done. You let this thing go on for just a month and all the people will begin to thirst to death and there will be massive famine, massive death.

Egypt is over with. And here this powerful man who’s in charge of Egypt, his power is done. But after seven days, God let the river turn back into water. Now do you realize that was almost, if I can put it in the vernacular, like God picking up Pharaoh by his lapel and cutting off his air so he couldn’t breathe

and saying, if I wanted to, I could destroy you. But I’m going to give you another chance. Do you know who I am, Pharaoh?

Look back for his purpose in turning this water in verse 17 of chapter 7. Thus saith the Lord, and this shalt thou know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will smite with the rod that is in my hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned into blood.

He said, I’ll do it, I’ll do it, that you might know that I am the Lord. Evidently, Pharaoh hadn’t got the message yet. Because if you look down in chapter 7, just like after the serpents, in verse 22, the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments, And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.

Neither did he hearken unto them as the Lord had said. And Pharaoh turned and went into his house. Neither did he set his heart unto this also.

Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. He saw what took place. He had just had God up with his feet off of the ground and his air cut off just about to take him out.

God sets him back down and says, now you better listen. But he says, who is God? Who is he to tell me what to do?

I’m Pharaoh. I’ll do as I please. You’d say, man, that’s the greatest miracle has ever taken place since the flood.

The greatest judgment anybody’s ever seen in the history of the earth since God wiped out this earth with water. Surely God is done with him. God gives him another chance.

You know, it’s not unlike God to give you another chance. You know, I don’t know why God is so merciful. But when Moses wanted to find out what God was like, and God hit him in the cleft of the rock, and he passed by on the other side, the great theme of his character was he’s merciful unto generations.

God is a merciful God. He is demonstrating to Pharaoh who he is and still gives him another opportunity. So this time, Moses returns and he says, let my people go.

If you don’t, I’m going to smite your borders with frogs. Now, you might wonder, why did God choose to smite with frogs? I mean, why not a snake or why not mice?

But he chose a frog. Well, it just so happens that the people of Egypt worshipped the frog. Now, they also worshipped the serpent.

They worshipped the Nile River. They worshipped the frog. Every one of these judgments is directly related to a god that they worshipped.

But he takes the frog. Now, I’ll be honest with you. When I was a kid, I viewed frogs as expendable.

Now, I’m not recommending this. I really think this is kind of cruel. But just to show you my mentality, we used to try to come up with things to do the frogs.

They were sort of like our experiment animal. One of my friends got a chemistry set. He took all these chemicals and mixed them together and made some purple stuff.

We thought, man, I wonder if that’s poison. We took a frog, opened his mouth, poured it in, instantaneously killed the frog. So we knew it was poison.

One time we took a frog, and actually I don’t even know how I did this. It was really kind of amazing. but I took the frog and threw him up in the air and he come down and hung himself on a chain link fence.

I mean, it was really cruel. I don’t, I don’t recommend doing that. I threw one up one time, hit it with a baseball bat.

I was kind of a mean kid when it came to frogs. Now, you know, PETA wouldn’t appreciate that for sure, but I’m not recommending doing that, but you understand, we look at frogs as an expendable, uh, you know, you just don’t think anything about it. That’s not how an Egyptian viewed a frog.

This was a protected animal. I know it’s very difficult to imagine a where people would actually hold up an animal to the point that they would protect it and you’d get in trouble with the law if you killed it. But that’s what took place in Egypt.

You couldn’t kill a frog. You had to step over them. You had to walk around them.

They were treated with high respect. The frog was a protected animal. So God says, if you want to worship a frog, I’m going to give you all that you can handle.

And I’m going to tell you something. You know, one of the worst judgments God can bring upon you is to give you exactly what you want. You see somebody gets out of fellowship with god. They’re not right with god And they determine they want to live for the world

Do you realize one of the worst judgments god might give you is to let you just go ahead and do it? You see it’s going to come back and it’s going to full circle pay you back You know the backslider you know how god says he takes care of them. He just lets him be filled with his own way No restraint Do you realize god if he didn’t restrain us from what we really would like to do?

He even protected mankind back in Genesis and he said, you know, if we don’t do something here, man will not be restrained from anything that he’s imagined to do. I better confound his languages. He did that to be merciful to man because he knows that if he gives you exactly what you want, where you end up.

But he says, if you want to worship a frog, here’s all you can handle. Well, now the frogs invade the land of Egypt. Pharaoh is not going to be outdone.

He said, that’s no big deal. You got frogs to come out of the river. He got his magicians to do it.

And God let the magicians be successful. So they just got that many more frogs. Well, now this time, Moses doesn’t go back to Pharaoh and say, what do you think of this?

God doesn’t let the frogs go out. He waits until Pharaoh calls for him. You know, it’s amazing sometimes when God brings judgment, you’ll find that a person will at that point say, okay, God, I’m ready to do business with you.

Here’s somebody laying in a hospital. They’re flat of their back. They don’t know if they’re going to live or die.

and they call for a preacher, and they might make some kind of spurious decision. They might promise God everything in the book if God will let them live. They get out of the hospital and go to church about twice, and then they kiss God goodbye. Now you understand that sometimes when a person is in the midst of a heavy judgment,

they’ll say, God, I want relief from this judgment. God is not just looking for you to get relief from the judgment. He wants you to know who he is.

He wants you to receive his character and be willing to submit to his authority. But Pharaoh calls back for Moses and says, you got in treat for me. Now, here’s the picture.

These frogs are all over the place. They’ve never even seen one, a dead frog. But now we find that the frogs are in their bedchamber.

They roll over in the morning, frogs jump out from under them. It says that it was in their ovens. So when they cook their bread, they pull out and there’s a big loaf of bread with a couple of dead frogs fried on top of it.

It says it was in their kneading trough. They’re taking flour and mixing it and it’s half flour and half frog guts. I mean they’re walking to the bathroom in the morning and there’s carpeted there’s dead frogs everywhere and they’re squishing them I mean moses calls and says you got to do something for me moses And moses prays god Would you take away the frogs?

But god didn’t take away the frogs. He killed them dead in their tracks Now they’d never seen a dead frog. They worship them God said let me show you what I can do with this great god of yours You think you’re more powerful than I let me demonstrate what I can do and he carpets the land With dead frogs.

Well they scrape them up. Put them in heaps. And notice if you would.

In verse 13 of chapter 8. Exodus 8 13. The Lord did according to the word of Moses.

And the frogs died out of the houses. Out of the villages. And out of the fields.

And they gathered together upon heaps. And the land stank. There’s a pile of dead frogs.

You ever ridden your bicycle out on the street. And there was just one dead frog. And you got a whiff of it when you rode by.

Here’s a whole pile of them. Now that wasn’t insignificant Do you realize every day when Moses walked out? I mean rather pharaoh when he walked out on his patio And for months when the wind was blowing the right way He could sniff and it reminded him of the judgment of god God left it there as a reminder Do you know in god’s method of dealing with pharaoh?

He begins to reveal more and more of who he is and demonstrates more of his power all the time Do you realize god has given us a book that he started with our creation and went all the way to our new testament and told us What’s going to happen in the future? God has revealed much about himself The more you know about him the more responsible you are

Hey, everything that god is doing here for pharaoh is heaping up and treasuring up wrath against the day of judgment God is demonstrating more and more of who he is. He’s showing pharaoh what he’s like You say well surely he’s done now I mean pharaoh’s seen this great judgment is pharaoh going to repent? Well, look if you would in chapter 8 and verse 15 When pharaoh saw that there was respite

He hardened his heart and he hearkened not unto them as the lord had said When pharaoh saw that there was respite Hey, there’s the guy in the hospital when he gets out and realizes hey i’m not going to die I guess I don’t have to serve god anyway It demonstrates that he really didn’t submit to god’s authority in the first place I wonder if some of you have been under a heavy hand

You’ve been under some difficulties and maybe you’d said okay i’ll get right with god But when the respite or the relief came When the relief came you forgot what god did for you and you’re still not walking with him Well, see pharaoh did just that i’m pharaoh. I don’t care if he kills frogs. I don’t care if he piles up Stuff’s about rotted away.

Anyway, it’s probably just a coincidence. God’s not going to hey i’m the most powerful man in this world Nobody tells me what to do Well, god gives him another chance This time if you look down in your bible In verse 16 of chapter 8 The lord said unto moses Say unto aaron stretch out thy rod smite the dust of the land That it may become lice throughout all the land

And they did so for aaron stretched out his hand with his rod Smoked the dust of the earth and it became lice and man and beast And all the dust of the land became lice throughout the land Now notice verse 18 the magicians did so with their enchantments To bring forth lice But they could not See I told you god is demonstrating more of himself each time He’s making his character more and more clear to pharaoh

But this one’s a little different This time he comes in and says i’m going to turn the dust of the earth into lice Now the devil can imitate But the devil can’t create life He couldn’t do this He they failed at their attempt But think about pharaoh’s asking him to do this He asked him to turn the water they turned the water into blood Pharaoh said you guys try that

They brought frogs out of the river and they were causing them great problems Well, you guys show him that too. Now he does lice. He’s kind of scratching here and he says, look, you guys show him you can make lice too.

We need a little bit more of it. Hey, why did he need more lice, more frogs, and more water turned into blood? You know why?

Because the judgment that he was receiving wasn’t as important to him as demonstrating that he wasn’t going to listen to God. But you know, when a person gets out of sorts with God, they become irrational. You know, it might be, as was mentioned last night, you get a little bit upset with your parents.

They tell you you can’t do this. I’ll show them. I’ll pout.

I’ll go up to my room and sulk. They call me to supper. I won’t even go.

Well, you’re hungry. You’d love to go out and do something fun. But hey, you’re up there pouting.

You’re really showing them. Do you know what bitterness is really like? Somebody said bitterness is like you look at the person you so desperately hate.

And you take a glass of poison and you drink it and you’re waiting for them to die. You see bitterness just eats you up It just causes you the problem The other person’s having a great time they’re living they don’t even know you’re upset about it and you’re struggling and you’re miserable See pharaoh here is already being judged by god and just so he can show he’s right

Just so he can demonstrate his power just so he can say nobody tells me what to do Make some more lice But they couldn’t make any in this time So the magicians had more sense than pharaoh These two demon-possessed men give testimony to something If you look again to verse 18, the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. So there was lice upon man and upon beasts.

And the magicians said unto Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. Now it’s significant that these magicians would say God. They did not say this is the finger of a God.

This is not the work of one of our gods. This is not the work of one of Israel’s gods. This is the finger of God.

Undoubtedly, these magicians had seen that there was a God. See, before this, they thought there were many. But they said, Pharaoh, look, we can take a stick, make it turn into a snake.

We can fool people into thinking we can make water turn into blood. And we’ve got some tricks to bring frogs out of the water. But what you saw today, Pharaoh, let me just tell you, I can tell you this as an authority on the supernatural, what took place today, only God can do.

Well, surely Pharaoh would listen to the advice of these men. But you understand advice didn’t matter. In verse 19, after they said that, it said, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.

And he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said. Pharaoh sees what God does, sees his power, sees him demonstrated, but he says, I’m not going to do it. I’m Pharaoh.

Well, now God could have just said, that’s it. I mean, Pharaoh, after all, I’ve done everything I can to show you who I am. I’ve demonstrated you the most supernatural acts that I have since the creation of the world.

and you won’t listen, it’s over. But he gives him another chance. This time he reveals a little bit more about who he is. He says, I’m going to send a judgment this time,

and I’m going to sever the land of Goshen. Now up to this point, Goshen had received the frogs and the lice and the river and so forth, but this time he said, I’m going to send swarms of flies. Now probably this isn’t house flies, it’s probably more like gnats. You’ve been riding through a country scene in the summertime,

And your bicycle goes through a big old cloud. And it just fills you. You know, that’s why you never smile when you ride your bike.

You get bugs in your teeth. But anyway, you’ve experienced that. Now, this was not just a cloud.

They were everywhere. When you walk through, you’re walking through gnats. And they’re taking over. But when you walked out of Egypt, now leaving Egypt, entering Goshen,

and stepped across the city line, well, the gnats stopped. You know, man can’t do that. Man can’t control that.

But the Israelites had no gnats. I mean, it was completely clear. Well, this time he lets them stay.

The land became corrupt and germs began to spread and they were causing a lot of problems. And so Pharaoh again calls for Moses. Now here we find clearly an explanation of what God’s message is to Pharaoh.

Because something very interesting is going to take place here. Look if you would in verse 25. Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron and said, go ye sacrifice to your God in the land.

Well, boy, here we go. Finally, Pharaoh is showing a little promise. I mean, after all, this is the most powerful man in the world.

This boy was raised as a small child to be taught that you’re going to be the next Pharaoh. He was taught that there is no authority greater than you. The Egyptians even believe Pharaoh was a God.

His parents and his ministers and his nurse and everyone had said, look, you’re in line to be the next Pharaoh and you need to act like a Pharaoh. You’re in charge. He basically is a grown, spoiled brat, but he’s in charge of the whole world.

Well, now he’s been had so much hide taken off him by God that he says, you know what, Moses, your God is pretty powerful. You know, I have to admit, I believe God is he may be about as powerful as I am. So I’ll tell you what I’ll do.

I’m going to let them sacrifice to your God. I mean, after all, he’s pretty well demonstrated he’d be worthy of sacrifice. But here’s the stipulation.

You’ve got to have them sacrifice in the land. When Moses pointed out to him, he said, look, if we sacrifice in the land, the Egyptians are going to be greatly offended. And it’s going to be an abomination to them.

Pharaoh said, okay, you’ve got a good point. I’ll stipulate that, no problem. You can go ahead and go out to the wilderness and do it.

Go ahead and sacrifice in the wilderness, but don’t go very far away. You’ll read that down in verse 28. He says, don’t go very far away.

Now, what did God stipulate it? He said, let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. Pharaoh says, I’ll let them go, but they can’t go very far away.

Now, you know what the motive here behind Pharaoh in his heart is he wasn’t worried about these slaves. According to historians, all these slaves really did were they built monuments to Pharaoh. They built cities, things that would make him look good in the world.

It wasn’t really essential to their economy. But these slaves did things that Pharaoh’s bidding. I don’t really think that Pharaoh here is concerned about losing the slaves.

I don’t really think that he’s concerned that he not have them anymore. There’s a bigger point in Pharaoh’s heart right now. He says, look, I’m tired of these judgments.

I’m tired of the frogs and the lice and these flies are killing us. Look, I can solve the problem. I’ll let them go.

But I just want to make sure that nobody in the world that hears about this thinks that I gave in. They can go, but I’m not going to give it 100%. They’re not going in the wilderness.

They can just go out a little ways away. Now, you think to yourself that God now is making some progress. I mean, God has got to be impressed that Pharaoh is willing to meet him in the middle. He’s got to be impressed that a man so powerful as pharaoh pharaoh is willing to admit that god is that powerful And surely he’s going to be impressed god rejects his compromise

Do you realize god is not looking for you to give him 50 or 75 or to say well i’ve done so much But I can hold on to this area god’s not impressed with your compromise God wants it all You know when I was a about eighth grade I went to camp and this particular year a fellow did what was very popular back in that day I had never experienced it before but he gave what we called rock seminars

Now that wasn’t a seminar on geology and how rocks are formed. It was to tell us about the ills of rock music Well, I had never experienced that and I went to public school and actually my parents allowed me to listen to rock music And they didn’t know what kind of stuff I had and I like rock music and really had never been even been exposed to what this guy was saying

So his way of doing this was to take all these different principles and i’m an eighth grader i’m listening like you said You know junior high brain wasn’t totally developed but all i’m hearing is is the certain groups that he mentions Some of them. I knew most of them. I did some of them. I didn’t Now the point that this man had is look the rock culture is straight out of the pit of hell

They are totally opposed to god opposed to the bible But let me illustrate it for you. Here’s a group that does this and so here’s a group that does this Here’s one that worships the devil. Here’s one that does this and so forth.

And he was using this to illustrate his point. Well, several of the groups that he mentioned I had, but one thing that caught my attention I had never heard of. Now, I have to give a little background for you to understand this.

How many of you have ever heard of this old commodity that we had when I was a kid, a record? You know what a record is? Okay, a vinyl record.

All right. Now, a vinyl record, of course, you can place it on the record player. You had a 33 or a 78 or a 45.

and there’s also a neutral position, which was to help you to find a song right at the start. This guy explained, and there were several groups that used what they called back masking. Now, back masking is when they would take, usually it was heavy metal, but they would put heavy metal rock on the forward. But if you took your finger, put it on neutral and turned it back at the right speed,

you could discern satanic messages. Well, I had never heard that. I found out later that if you take country music and you play it backwards, Then you get your house back and your dog back and your girlfriend back and you quit drinking.

But anyway, they said that if you took this rock music and played it backwards, that you’d hear satanic messages. I was very skeptical. I thought that’s a little far-fetched.

I mean, how in the world can you be singing a song forward and then turn it backward and have a discernible statement? I said, it’s probably far-fetched. But he mentioned a group that I owned.

Now, some of them I didn’t have, some real heavy stuff. But he mentioned a couple of groups. I said, you know, I got that group.

When I get home, I’m going to see if that’s true. Well, I got home from camp first thing I did is I went out and I pulled these Records out that he had mentioned I stuck it on the record player took me three or four tries But I got it at just the right speed And sure enough, I could hear it just as plain as he ever said I said I can’t believe that I said there’s only one way

That that could take place the devil I mean a man doesn’t have sense enough to do that the devil must have gave them sense enough to do that And I don’t worship the devil. I’m not that bad. I mean I listen to rock music, but I don’t want to worship the devil I took those records every group that he mentioned that he had mentioned their name. I pulled out of my supply, broke them, threw them in the trash can

and wanted no part of them. But I kept the ones he didn’t mention. I mean, you know, after all, he didn’t mention this group, this group, and this group. Now his point was not go home and throw away the rock music

that I mentioned tonight. He couldn’t possibly mention every group. He used that to illustrate his point of the whole rock culture. But you say, well, wasn’t that a wonderful victory

that you got at camp that week? No, all I was willing to say is I don’t want to worship the devil. But I knew in my heart what his point was.

I said, but look, who is the Lord to tell me that I can’t listen to rock music? Now, I wasn’t going to verbalize that, but that’s what I was saying. Look, I’ll keep what I want to keep, and I just won’t go any farther than I want to go.

Listen, some of you believe that you’re okay because you go to school with some kids that maybe booze it up. You go to school with some kids that brag about the filth on their weekend. Or you’ve got some friends at church who have no interest at all in anything godly. but you say, well, look, I’m not nearly as bad as they are,

but God is still dealing in your heart about other areas that you refuse to give up. God’s not impressed with that. Hey, God is not impressed how you compare to other people.

God is simply impressed with this, and that is obedience. You see, what God’s message to Pharaoh was, was obey unconditionally. I want unconditional obedience.

He rejected his compromise. Well, now, what happens when he gets rejected? As you look down in verse 32, and Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.

See, he said, you know, maybe I’ll let them go out. Yeah, I’ll let them take a couple of days out. But really, God wasn’t going to take his compromise.

So Pharaoh said, I’m not. I’m Pharaoh. Nobody tells me what to do. Now, believe it or not, after this, God still gives him one more chance,

but only one more chance. Now, Pharaoh doesn’t know it. Doesn’t spell it out in the Bible.

Doesn’t even have a warning. Moses never even tells him this is it. But it happens.

He gets one more chance. It goes into chapter 9. He won’t read all the verses.

But basically he threatens him with a grievous moraine. You heard of mad cow disease. Something similar to that.

That is the cattle get it. You know if a bird flu or a mad cow disease hits a ranch. They close down all the ranches for miles because it’s so contagious.

This type of thing, they didn’t have any way to keep it in check. Once a few cattle got it, it spread to the horses, the camels, everybody, and all the cattle began to die. But believe it or not, not one Israelite cattle dies.

Well, Pharaoh can’t believe that. It’s just impossible. That’s just a rumor.

There’s no way their cattle is escaping this disease. You look in chapter 9, and in verse 6, the Lord did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died, but the cattle of the children of Israel died, not one. Pharaoh sent, and behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead.

And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go. Now, don’t miss this, but there’s no statement made here. No warning.

No type of indication. But what happened in heaven when Pharaoh said this time, No God! God said, that’s it.

I’ll never give him another chance. Now, how do we know that took place? See, in the narrative, you don’t notice it yet.

But now God comes and he says to him, I’m going to send boils. You look down to chapter 9, verse 10. They took the ashes of the furnace and they stood before Pharaoh.

Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils. For the boil was upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians.

And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. The magicians were in pain. The Egyptians were in pain.

They were struggling. They were crying. And the only difference this time when Pharaoh sees it is how did his heart get hardened?

The Lord hardened his heart. Not Pharaoh. It’s the first time that God is associated here with hardening the heart of Pharaoh.

God had told him already six times the number of men. Hey, here’s your opportunity. Take your chance.

Let my people go. He said, no, God, I’m Pharaoh. Nobody tells me what to do.

But there came a time when he said, no God. And God said he’ll never have another opportunity. Proverbs 29.1 says, he that being often reproved.

That is, you hear God’s word over and over again. He that being often reproved and hardened at his neck, which means you bristle. No God, I’m not going to listen.

No God, I’m not going to respond. He that being often reproved and hardened at his neck shall suddenly be destroyed. That means it happens without warning.

And that without remedy, that means there’ll be no cure. Let me say, first of all, if you’re here today and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, how many times has God dealt with you about receiving him? I mean, you know today that you, yes, you’re familiar that he died on a cross.

You know that he rose from the dead. You know that when he was placed on that cross, all your sin was placed on him. And you see the gospel and you understand it’s there, but you’d say, yeah, one day I’ll receive it.

You know, one day I’m going to put Jesus on the throne of my heart and I’ll take him and receive Christ. But you know, right now I’ve just got too much living to do. Right now I’ll go along with the Christian culture and I’m here and my parents, of course, make me go to church, whatever it might be.

For whatever reason, you’ve said, not now, God. To say not now, you’ll find out something else about God. His message is not only obey unconditionally, it is obey immediately.

Because you never know when God says that’s it. You see, the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done is to hear the gospel and to turn it down. Because God is merciful.

Now, he may deal with you to your dying day. I certainly wouldn’t make the point that he would deal with you six times and then stop. I don’t know how many times God will deal with you because he is merciful.

But I do know this. The more he reveals about himself to you, the more opportunity you have to find out what he’s like, the more devastating it will be when you turn him down. See, he was often reproved and he hardened his neck and he said, No, God, I’ll not receive it.

Do you know you’d be better off to have never heard the gospel than to hear it and to reject it? It’ll be much easier in hell for people who live in some dark jungle who’ve never seen a Bible than it will be for the people who live in the United States where the gospel is all around. You know what Jesus said about Capernaum?

He preached in Capernaum. It was like his hometown. And they rejected him.

And he said, Thou, Capernaum, which are exalted unto heaven, shall be thrust down to hell. For if the mighty works had been done in thee, which were done in Sodom and Gomorrah, it would have remained unto this day. I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom than it will be for thee.

Hey, there’ll be degrees of punishment in hell. Pharaoh will be down in one of the lowest parts and you’ll be with him if you reject the gospel after hearing probably what you’ve heard. So he rejects it.

But what about you as a believer? You know, if you’re a believer, you’re a believer. The Holy Spirit lives in your heart.

You’re going to be with Jesus. But you know, it’s still a dangerous thing when God deals in your heart and you say no, because God does something very interesting here. Now, I’ve shown you God’s method of how he deals with Pharaoh.

We’ve seen that in the narrative. We know what his message is, is obey unconditionally, obey immediately, but then very simply, what is his motive? Now, I use this because it’s human language. It’s almost difficult to refer to God having a motive,

but I believe this really is his motive. And how he deals in your life, this is his motive. Now, perhaps you think, well, his motive, obviously, is his love for me.

Now, is there any doubt today that God loves you? You know, what a statement in 1 John 4, 8, God is love. God has demonstrated his love to mankind.

Nobody has ever demonstrated love more than God. But you know what? That really is not his ultimate motive.

God is love because that’s who he is. You know what God’s motive is? It is his own glory.

God does what he does for his glory. Now, in the midst of his getting glory, he demonstrates his love to us. You know, when he sent Jesus Christ, the devil thought he had won a victory when he got man to fall.

And God ends up getting more glory out of sending his son to die for mankind and save people. But notice now the message has changed. God has a new message for Pharaoh.

Look, if you would, in chapter 9 in verse 14. He does not say, if you don’t, I will. He says in verse 14, I will at this time send all my plagues upon thy heart.

They’re coming whether you want them to or not. And upon thy servants and upon thy people. Why?

That thou mayest know that there’s none like me in all the earth. For now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence. That thou shall be cut off from the earth.

And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up. For to show in thee my power that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. Now he didn’t tell Pharaoh this in chapter 7.

But after Pharaoh went one step too far, God says, look, there’s some more plagues coming. And they’re coming. There’s no turning back.

There’s no opportunity for you to say stop. They’re coming. Now, why did God give him that message?

Because God had a purpose for Pharaoh. You know what Pharaoh’s purpose was? God wanted to show the whole world who he was through Pharaoh.

For this cause I have raised thee up for to show in thee my power. How did he do that? Well, Pharaoh’s the most powerful man in the world.

Everybody knows about Pharaoh. Do you think the story of Pharaoh being judged by God made it around to civilization? Well, a few years later, some 40 years later, let’s say we went back to 1969 and we came to the present day and there was an event like the standing on the moon, that type of momentous occasion.

We still remember it, but it’s not that impacting. Well, this was much more impacting because 40 years later, Israel comes into the land of Canaan. Two of the spies come into Rahab’s house and Rahab still has fear in her heart.

She said, we heard what you did to Pharaoh. Ever since we heard about what happened to Pharaoh, we’ve known that God is coming for us. It had its effect.

He wanted the whole world to know who he was through Pharaoh. You know, in a very real sense, Pharaoh was used of God. He spread God’s name throughout the world because God had providentially placed him in that type of position for a purpose to make his name spread.

Now, somebody looks at this maybe a little puzzled. And they say, wait a minute, that didn’t seem right. You mean to tell me that God let Pharaoh be the most powerful man in the world, he put him in this position, brought all these plagues, and he raised him up just so he could judge him?

But it doesn’t say he raised him up to judge him. It says he raised him up to make his name known throughout all the world. Now, clearly the way he did that was through judgment.

But I contend that that was Pharaoh’s decision. See, God just simply says, Pharaoh, I’ve got a purpose for your life. Here’s the purpose.

You’re going to make everybody in the world know how powerful I am. Now, by your response, Pharaoh, you can determine if that’s going to be through judgment or if it’s going to be through blessing. Now, you might maybe wonder, well, could God have really caused the Canaanites to fear if he’d have done it through blessing?

I mean, he blesses Pharaoh and pours blessing on top of him. Would that really cause the earth to fear him? Well, let’s think of another illustration.

What about a man who prayed, said, God, I don’t want riches. I don’t want glory. I want wisdom.

And God says, because you’ve asked for that wisdom, boy, I’m going to bless you immensely. Nobody was as blessed as King Solomon. But you know what the Bible tells us about King Solomon?

That in the days of King Solomon, he didn’t have a problem with war. Nobody would attack him. People came from the far corners of the earth to hear his wisdom because what God had done through Solomon has blessed him so immensely that the whole world heard about who God is.

He could have done that with Pharaoh. All God says is, I’m going to use you, Pharaoh, to make my name. Now, if you want to respond to me, I’ll do it through blessing.

If you want to reject me, I’ll do it. But nevertheless, I’m going to accomplish my purpose. Now, I believe today it could be said of all of us that for this cause, God has raised thee up.

Now, I can’t say that to make his name known throughout all the earth. You may not be used like Pharaoh for all the earth. But for this cause I have raised thee up God has a purpose for your life I believe that God puts you here and put breath in your lungs and knows you by name and knows every hair of your head He has a purpose for your life. If you don’t know christ as savior today

God still knows how your life ought to go Now you can determine today to get in line with his plan And live for him and I believe god could immensely use you Or you can determine No, i’m gonna go my own way Please don’t think that god is up in heaven wringing his hands thinking man, I Kind of had this fella here. I was going to send over to this area and boy

He’s not going to go so I guess i’ll have to change my plan or you know, here’s a fella I was going to have them have a testimony for me at their public school, but they’re not really doing it So I guess I messed that one up. Hey, god’s not wringing his hands wondering how things are going to turn out Now certainly god is displeased if your life is not right with him

But god has still said i’m going to accomplish my purpose God’s going to use your life one way or the other wouldn’t it be much better if he could use it in blessing years ago there was a boy in my church who began to he had a brother who was complete rebel doesn’t even know christ just really totally his parents raised him in church and he came to church on his uh on the graduation night got a

gift from the church and he never darkened the door again for years he just hated it the brother showed a little bit more promise his name was kenny kenny began to get in the youth group and began kind of do right a little bit. But when he turned 16, he got a motorcycle, nothing wrong with a motorcycle and nothing wrong with him having one, but it caused him to get in with a bad group of friends.

And these friends that all drove motorcycles together, totally got Kenny uninterested in church. He got off into things of the world and began to go around with them, be off on doing stuff that he shouldn’t have done. And just so happened as a 16 year old, he was on this motorcycle one day And he came flying around a corner And crossed the line hit a suburban amazingly enough he lived through it But he was in the hospital for some three months unconscious

Hanging between life and death Everybody was praying for kenny Everybody was uh hoping you know, I couldn’t help but think to myself Could this be chastisement? Wasn’t for me to decide but I just wondered I believe the boy’s really saved. I wonder if this isn’t chastisement Well, when the boy got out of the hospital, it took months He finally got out of the hospital one of the first places he came was church.

It had done its job. I mean, he got, God got his attention. Last time I went to that church, if I remember correctly, the last time I was there in a service, he was there years later.

He’s still going to church. The only difference in Kenny today, and I believe that at least to some extent, as far as I know, it did help him. He did get right and decided to change his life.

But there’s one difference in Kenny from when I knew him before. And now he’s now walks on one leg. So he lost that leg and he’s not going to get it back.

Now, I’m glad that Kenny made the right decision after he got hurt and the chastisement was effective. But do you know that Kenny is a walking sermon? Everybody that knows his story and everybody that’s familiar with what happened, I can’t help but see him and think to myself, well, I bet he wishes he hadn’t got out of the will of God.

You see, God used him, but he had to suffer some consequences as a result. Now, I’m certainly not saying how God will use you as an illustration. But, you know, it’s funny. I’ve dealt with this subject on a number of occasions, and I’ve had people to come up to me almost without exception afterwards

and say, let me tell you an illustration. Here’s a guy, so-and-so, at his funeral, people got saved. Now, God, one way or the other, wants to use your life.

You can get in his will. You can say, I want to be what he wants me to be, and God can bless your life. Or you can say well, who is god?

Who is he to tell me what to do though? You’ll never verbalize it by your attitude when you If you’re not willing to respond to the spirit of god’s moving in your heart, you really are saying Who is the lord? You know god’s gonna deal with some of you this week He’s gonna deal with your heart about all kinds of things. Some of you might get called to preach

Now I can’t call you and I can’t give you some kind of an emotional appeal to make you think you are if god calls You you better respond God calls you to just to surrender your life to whatever you’d better respond to it God deals with you about your sin you’d be willing to come clean Because if there’s one message you can take away with this and i’m done it’s simply this

Don’t say no to god. Let’s have a word of prayer Lord we are thankful this morning for your word We thank you for this next couple of days that we have an opportunity to hear your word again and again Lord I pray that you might drive the solemnity of this account into our heart Lord what a great message of your mercy How willing you are for us to come and respond and how patient you are with us

And yet what a solemn thought to think of what it would be to say no to god Lord I pray that you might get a hold of every heart That you might challenge if there are those without christ they might without hesitation respond to you That christians might have a sensitive heart over these next days to listen to you and that you might get the glory in our lives. We pray it in his name. Amen.