[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the preaching ministry of the Agape Baptist Church in George, South Africa.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Church, good to see each one here today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm told that it's able to be here and we can worship the Lord together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please excuse this mic.
[SPEAKER_00]: It seems like there's a problem with it today Actually, I think it's the soundboard.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the problem, but it's things to go up and often up and down So you can bear with us Turn it to Exodus chapter seven will continue there from verse 14
[SPEAKER_00]: Exodus 7 and we'll be looking at this first plague that the Lord brought upon Pharaoh in the Egyptians, so Exodus 7 and I'm going to begin reading in verse 14.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refuses to let the people go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he is going out to the water, stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent, and you shall say to him, the Lord
[SPEAKER_00]: The God of the Hebrews sent me to you saying, let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: But so far you have not obeyed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thus says the Lord, by this you shall note that I am the Lord behold with the staff that is in my hand I will stretch
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, I will strike the water that is in the nile and it shall turn into blood The fish in the nile shall die and the nile will stink and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the nile
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt and over the rivers and the canals and the ponds and all the pools of water so that they may become blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and vessels of stone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded in the site of Pharaoh in the site of his servants.
[SPEAKER_00]: He lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the fish in the Nile died and the Nile sank so that the Egyptians could not drink the water from the Nile.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this too heart, and all the Egyptians dug along the Nile.
[SPEAKER_00]: for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.
[SPEAKER_00]: 7 full days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father's, we come to your word this morning, I pray that you would still our hearts and minds to think upon
[SPEAKER_00]: your word this morning and the message that you have for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray you'd help us to to think down into our hearts and that we might obey your word.
[SPEAKER_00]: Guide us this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Spirit of God work in each of our hearts as only you know is needed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's difficult for us to imagine
[SPEAKER_00]: The impact of this first plague upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, the Nile River was really at the center of their civilization.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was not only important, obviously, for drinking water, but also for their agriculture.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for their trade, as they would use it to travel and to, for their ships, to carry goods to and from and for their communication.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you think about it, without the river denial, they would not have existed as they did.
[SPEAKER_00]: They could never have become a great nation that they did.
[SPEAKER_00]: And during this time, just to remember, this was the, what's referred to as the golden age of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they were at the height of their power and their prosperity.
[SPEAKER_00]: during this time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And because of the importance of the Nile, it was also at the center of their worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was at least one of the three main areas of their worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is the most significant fact for us to consider this morning as we think about the
[SPEAKER_00]: And as Pastor Dan spoke last Sunday about the reality that the worship of the gods and the goddesses of Egypt was really a worship of the demons and of Satan who was behind these gods.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we see in the New Testament that Paul warns the church at Corinth about this reality.
[SPEAKER_00]: and involvement with the idolatry of their day, he writes and have for you there on the screen one Corinthians 10, verse 19 and 20.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, what do I mean then that a thing sacrifice to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?
[SPEAKER_00]: know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I say that the things which the Gentile sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do not want you to become shares in demons.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to read you a little bit about this aspect of worship in Egypt, just so that you can get a little bit of the context of what the Lord is doing with these flags and reading here,
[SPEAKER_00]: James Montgomery, boys who is a well-known pastor and author, theologian from years back.
[SPEAKER_00]: He writes the ancient Egyptians head about 80 major gods and goddesses with a lot of minor deities clustered around them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he goes on these 80 gods and goddesses were themselves centered around three main areas of Egyptian life, the Nile, the Land, and the Sun.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can picture that and all their imagined gods would relate to these three areas.
[SPEAKER_00]: He continues to the plagues were directed against these three forces and against the gods and goddesses of Egypt that were grouped around them.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first two plagues were directed against the gods and goddesses of the Nile, and everything associated with the Nile.
[SPEAKER_00]: Four plagues were directed against the gods and goddesses of the land, and then the final four plagues were directed against the sky, and everything associated with the sky.
[SPEAKER_00]: The God-Conunum was considered the guardian of the now-source, and the God-Up-A was believed to be the spirit of the Nile, and so a God of life, and he goes on one of the greatest God's revered, and Egypt was the God of Serus who was the God of the underworld.
[SPEAKER_00]: and the Egyptians believed that the river now was his bloodstream.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can imagine the horror of the Egyptians when the Nile River turned into literal blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that the fish died in stank to the point that they couldn't drink the water.
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably didn't even want to be close to the Nile.
[SPEAKER_00]: if you if you've been around decaying fish you know you know what a terrible smell that is I don't I can't that's hard to imagine anything smells worse and so thousands and thousands of fish all along the banks of the Nile decaying would have been a terrible terrible thing to experience there for evidently of this week that this took place
[SPEAKER_00]: So I wanted to think about three reasons for the plagues that the Lord brought up on the land.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the first reason I want to notice is to discredit these so-called gods and the center of their worship in Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 17, 20, you see a reference to the striking of the Nile.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 17 says, then says, y'all away by this, you shall know that I am y'all way behold, I am about to strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand and it will be turned to blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: This word strike here is the same word that's, we get, that is, some trans-translated plague.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, translation, you might see that an occasion where it's translated plague is the same same word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And,
[SPEAKER_00]: Also earlier in chapter three, when God's first approached Moses about going back to Egypt, he says in verse 20, so I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wondrous deeds, which I shall do in the midst of it, and after that he will let you go.
[SPEAKER_00]: I counted some 13 times that this word is used, and these chapters related to what God is doing in Egypt, is striking.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the plagues then are strikes or blows against Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and specifically against their false worship against their adultery.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it would be demonstrated by the Lord in a very powerful way through these plagues that their gods were powerless before Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thinking forward, right before the last plague in chapter 12, the death of the first born, God would say this in verse 12, and I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast.
[SPEAKER_00]: And against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments, I am Yahweh.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can see then that what God is doing, what he's purposeed here in the, in the bringing about of these judgments, these plagues up on the land.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it wasn't just important for Pharaoh and Egyptians to come to this realization.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was also important for the Israelites
[SPEAKER_00]: to see, to come to know that God, yaway, God is the God of God's.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's no God like him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so as we think about our own lives, in application to our own lives, we also need that
[SPEAKER_00]: jealous for his glory, for his name, and we should think about how much we are influenced by our own society, by our own culture, how much are we influenced by superstitions, and by idols of our culture.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you maybe think, well, I don't have any idols, I don't, you know, I don't have any little card images set on the mantle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's probably true, but there are idols of the heart, aren't they, that we hold on to, and that we look to, and we can ask ourselves, what do I put before God?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do I value more than him?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do I take pleasure in more than him?
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are our idols.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was in our Bible study this week in wilderness, we were in Hebrews chapter 12 and the first few verses there, where the Christian life, our life is compared to a marathon race.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so these weights and sins that entangle us in our race, many times are the idols in the heart that we just don't want to give up, things that we enjoy more or things that we put first
[SPEAKER_00]: and we're not willing to put off.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord would challenge us as we read about the Egyptians and not just think those dumb Egyptians, why did they do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to turn that question back to ourselves and say, why do we do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do we put things before our God?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, secondly, the plagues were to humble Pharaoh.
[SPEAKER_00]: as ruler of the most powerful and prosperous nation of his day, he was lifted up with pride in his heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God is going to humble him down to the dirt and the people of Egypt that have mistreated
[SPEAKER_00]: God's chosen nation.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's chosen people.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to bring judgment upon them.
[SPEAKER_00]: In a chapter 7 verse 14, we read, then y'all always said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hard with firmness.
[SPEAKER_00]: He refuses to let the people go.
[SPEAKER_00]: This week I thought about this stubbornness of Pharaoh.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it would seem that he was willing to allow the land to be destroyed, basically.
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about the economy, not only their own people and their health and all the trouble that he was allowed are willing to endure so that he would not have to submit to God, to Yahweh.
[SPEAKER_00]: And would not listen.
[SPEAKER_00]: to Moses.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even when he did reliant because of the Plegs, as soon as the Plegs went away, he would change his mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it reminded me of the current situation in Iran where the leadership there, whoever's in the leadership now, is just not willing
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they would, it would seem they would, they're willing to let everything be destroyed rather than to submit to the demands of President Trump, that's kind of what's happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it is a, it's an amazing thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: The heart can become so hardened.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we see this theme right through this section, these chapters is repeated over and over again, this theme of Pharaoh's heart that is hardened.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God told Moses, God warn Moses beforehand that Pharaoh would not listen to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, God said that he would harden Pharaoh's hard heart even more.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that he does that so that he would not let the Israelites go until God is ready, until God is ready for them to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: I read somewhere this week that about someone who said that the plagues, or in the plagues, God was trying to convince Pharaoh to let his people go.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the plagues kept getting more severe until he did.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the problem with that thinking in that statement is that this person missed the point
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we try to do things, we try this, and if that is a work, we'll try something else, but God doesn't try, He just does, and what God purposes to do happens.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the children of Israel, they left Egypt right on time, they didn't leave before
[SPEAKER_00]: Or you could say one plague before God was ready for them to leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: And before God was finished demonstrating His power and His majesty and His the reality that He is God alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as we think about Pharaoh and His pride and His stubbornness, we must ask ourselves
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an ever-present trouble, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an ever-present temptation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we are constantly worn throughout the scriptures that we must practice or have a part of our practice as believers to put off pride and to put on humility.
[SPEAKER_00]: These plagues,
[SPEAKER_00]: that God brings upon Egypt is really a foreshadowing of the future judgment that God is going to bring upon the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Isaiah writes among the other prophets, right about this future day of the Lord before the Lord comes back, the Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll just show you a
[SPEAKER_00]: that a much longer section that deals with this, but from verse 17, as I took 17, he says, the loftiness of man will be bowed down, and the men who are high will be made low, and yaway alone will be exalted in that day, but the idols will be completely, but the idols
[SPEAKER_00]: Minimum will go into caves and of rocks and into holes in the ground before the dread of Yahweh and the splendor of his majesty.
[SPEAKER_00]: When he arises to make the earth tremble.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me show you the third reason that God brought these plagues as he did.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is that all men might know that y'all way alone is God.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Moses first came to Pharaoh, if you go back and think to chapter 5 and then verse 2, God and Moses comes with the God's demand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Pharaoh says, who is y'all way?
[SPEAKER_00]: that I should listen to his voice to let Israel go.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do not know Yahweh, and also I will not let Israel go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Pharaoh is going to find out who Yahweh is, or at least something about Yahweh.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in our chapter in our context, chapter 7, verse 17,
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord says, thus says y'all way, by this you shall know that I am y'all way, behold, I am about to strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned to blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, Pharaoh.
[SPEAKER_00]: would learn about who the Lord is.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Israel also needed this lesson.
[SPEAKER_00]: Israel also needed to be reminded and to know who God is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God will continue to remind them for years and years to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: and through the Psalms, for example, and he will remind them of this event where God delivered them out of bondage with a mighty hand, and that he is a covenant keeping God who steadfast and his love for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so his message to Israel is to remind them who he is, and he is the one who made this promise to Abraham and to Isaac and Jacob, and that he makes this same promise to them, and he is a faithful God who keeps his word.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, and then I will take you for my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am yaw way your God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You brought you out from under the hard laborers of the Egyptians.
[SPEAKER_00]: I count at 12 different times that this purpose statement is given in the context of these
[SPEAKER_00]: And so God is making this point clear to not only the Egyptians, but to his own people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's also spreading this message to the other nations.
[SPEAKER_00]: As you think about these events would become known to the other nations, the other peoples, for years to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: They do not fully understand who Yahweh is, but they fear him, because of what he did to the Egyptians, and how he led the Israelites through the wilderness all those years and brought them and would bring them into Canaan.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this matter of knowing who the Lord is,
[SPEAKER_00]: For us to know God, to truly know God, is to serve Him into worship Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He probably heard something like this purpose statement, to know God into making known.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, that is a purpose for us as believers, to know God into making known.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this knowledge is more than just a knowledge about God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's more than just facts.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's more than just learning more.
[SPEAKER_00]: But to know Him as our Lord and Savior, to know Him and to serve Him, to worship Him, as He has revealed to us and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus with his hypersleep prayer in John 17, you remember that chapter where he is just before, he is taken to be crucified.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's there with his disciples and he prays, all righteous Father, although the world has not known you, yet I have known you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And these have known you that you sent me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you love me may be in them, and I in them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the Lord revealed to His disciples the Father, He revealed God to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: What He is like?
[SPEAKER_00]: his characteristics.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, and will make it known.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, even after Jesus left, went back to heaven, he's continuing to make it known through the person of the Holy Spirit of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the Holy Spirit of God who dwells within us and the Word of God that is given to us, we can know
[SPEAKER_00]: the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we can have a relationship with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we can, we can live for him because of who he is and what he's done for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: In closing it's more and I want to think about this confrontation that Moses and Aaron had with Pharaoh there by the water.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a third time now that they have confronted
[SPEAKER_00]: and it's fitting that their Moses is back on the riverbank of the Nile.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's come for a full circle as any.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was put there to be delivered from the death
[SPEAKER_00]: thing, but now he's back and God has placed him there waiting for Pharaoh to come down to evidently a routine that he had, but God knew where he would be and when he would be there and he tells Moses and Aaron to go and wait for him and confront him there on the bank of the river.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as with the last time, the magicians of Egypt,
[SPEAKER_00]: these sorcerers.
[SPEAKER_00]: You could say they try to duplicate what God has done miraculously through Moses and Aaron.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so far they've been successful at least to give Pharaoh something to hold on to and his disbelief and his rebellion against God.
[SPEAKER_00]: But notice even these magicians, even with their demonic power, are not able to reverse what God did.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if you really wanted to prove that your gods or powerful, they would have turned the blood you water back into water, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of making more blood,
[SPEAKER_00]: And so God turned their magic back on themselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's all Pharaoh needed at the time to convince him that he's not going to worry about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not going to give it any thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice, again, what he says in verse 22, verse 23, yet the positions of Egypt did the same with their secret arts.
[SPEAKER_00]: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened with strength and he did not listen to them as y'all way it's spoken.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then Pharaoh turned and went into his house and he did not set his heart even on this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Pharaoh just missed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wouldn't even let his heart consider the truth that Moses and Aaron is speaking to him in mourning him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder if there's someone here this morning that God has been convincing you and convicting you concerning your need to humble yourself to turn and repentance and
[SPEAKER_00]: to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Allow God's Word to sink down into your heart and the truth of God's Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And think about what God has revealed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And don't just dismiss it like Pharaoh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't just turn away from it and cling to the lie of the devil and his counterfeit that's in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's common as mercy and grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if he is convicting your heart, it's because of his mercy and his grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: So respond to him and faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those of us who are believers, we know that mercy and grace of God has come to us and has convicted us of our sin and enabled us to turn to the Lord believing
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord calls us, and He warns us, that we might live for Him, that we might put Him first, that we would not allow idols in our heart, that we would confess and turn away from anything that is hindering, that is causing us to be entangled in our race for the Lord, amen.