Executing Judgment on all the gods

Turn with me. I'm going to read several passages from the Book of Revelation to start.

And these all pertain to the time ahead of us, when the world will be a much different place than what we live in today. Let's begin in Revelation 11 and read about the two witnesses that will be on the earth at that time before Christ returns. Revelation 11, verse 3, God records for us, I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two lambs stand standing before the God of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. These have the power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy, and they have power over waters to turn them to blood and to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire. When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street to that great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. There will be that conflict on earth between the beast power that derives its power from Satan and the two witnesses that will be testifying of the truth of God. Let's turn over to Revelation 13 and read about the beast power. Beginning in verse 1 of Revelation 13, I, John, who's given this vision by Jesus Christ, I stood on the sand to the sea, and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, his mouth like the mouth of a lion, and the dragon, who we know is Satan, the dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. He's the mighty one on earth. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast saying, who is like him? Who is able to make war with him? And he was given a mouth, speaking great things, and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for 42 months, and he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. So we have two witnesses. We have a beast power that derives its power from Satan that is clearly against God, clearly against the people of God. We drop down to verse 11.

John records, I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon, and he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and he causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.

Not a time that any of us would want to find ourselves living in, but a time that will come upon the earth, where there is a great power that causes people to worship him.

Maybe not willingly. He causes people to do that. They have no choice, perhaps, in the matter, either have a livelihood or starve, have a livelihood or die. An autocratic beast, a tyrant that's on earth that makes people do what he wants, and if you don't do it, or if you're the people of God who refuse to bow down to him, you die. Revelation 17. And we will pick it up in Revelation 17, verse 3.

To one of the seven angels, John says, in verse 3, He carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, which was full of names, of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, and she had in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.

And on her forehead a name was written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.

But the angel said to me, Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that you saw was and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. Nothing good comes out of the bottomless pit. We know who is put into the bottomless pit at the end of this age when Jesus Christ returns. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they see the beast that was and is not and yet is.

And then in verse 14, These will make war. This beast will make war with the lamb, and the lamb will overcome them. For he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful.

There's riveting prophecies in Revelation. The things that are going to come between now and the return of Jesus Christ can stimulate us. They can scare us a little bit. We know that they're absolutely all true. We don't know exactly how they'll come about, but as we live in an age now, we can begin to see where those buds are forming on the tree that what we wondered, how could that ever be possible that a world could be under a tyrant again? It can really happen.

We see kind of a tyrant over in the east, either in the east today, who is saying things and doing things the world didn't think was possible. And we can see where the world is moving in that direction as it moves away from this time of relative peace that's been on earth back to a time that wasn't so great in the world history. A time of war, a time of tyrants, a time where the king was the god of the earth or the god of his nation, and everyone just bowed down to what he did. No one would dare speak against him, and if you did speak against him, your life was in danger.

People had to do what they had to do. He was the one. He made all of the decisions in life.

People followed him implicitly because they had to. They had no choice. And they, in many cases, worshipped him. You read back through the Bible, you see that the world ruling kingdoms, men like Nebuchadnezzar, men like Pharaoh, back in the time of ancient Israel, they saw themselves as gods.

Everyone worshipped them, and they expected everyone to do exactly as they say. That's the time that lies ahead of us. Now, it isn't that everyone agrees with the kings. You know, the Bible doesn't say that everyone is like happy and celebrating and whatever, that a beast's power comes upon the earth. It does say that the beast's power causes people, causes people to worship him. We have another beast who causes and makes people, you know, and has this over their heads, that this will happen. You will do what I say, and you will worship this beast or else. So when we get a picture of what's going on, we see people who really have no choice in life. They are totally oppressed. They are totally in captivity to the powers that be at that time. And Satan is the one who holds that key. He's the one who has the authority over all the people on earth. The people of God need to resist him. The people of God will resist him, and it'll be a difficult time for them.

There will be those two witnesses that are there, and they will be talking of God. They will be telling the truth of God. There will be those two messages on earth that people will hear. One, follow me, follow me, follow me, the Satan power. That can work great wonders. Remember, they were granted to work those great wonders by which people will be deceived. And then the other truth of God. People will have to discern what is true and what is not true. What is true and what is of Satan. So it's a very difficult time on earth when we look at the time ahead. But it's not unlike an other time on earth for the people of God that was difficult as well. We're here in the time of Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread, and doubtless you've been thinking and reading about the plight of Israel as they found themselves in Egypt. Completely in slavery, no hope, no way out. There was nothing that they could do. Their life was hopeless. They were under an autocratic king, a pharaoh, who absolutely would not allow them to do anything except work.

Such an oppressive state that even Hebrew babies with one of his predecessors were just killed and thrown into the Nile River. There was no hope. There was no hope for Israel. They were sitting in a situation at that time that's not so unlike what the Bible says will be extant on the earth before Jesus Christ returns and delivers man from that satanic and that evil, evil time.

So today I want to look back at Israel and their time in Egypt and the things that we are very familiar with and draw some comparisons between the time ahead and the time that we have in the Bible back in the book of Exodus because God works in patterns and we can see we can learn some things about God. We can learn some things about ourselves as we look at Israel as they were delivered by God during a process that included 10 plagues and I don't know how long. Before we turn back there and we'll be going to Exodus 4 to begin with, let me just set the stage on who the characters are. We've talked about, we know Israel. They are the people of God. They are the physical people of God, determined to be or call the people of God because of the obedience of their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God called them his firstborn when he talks to Pharaoh. He sees them and he has never forgotten Israel or his promises to Israel. That's why in Exodus he comes down and he delivers them from the bondage that they are in. We have Israel and they're kind of as you read through the account in Exodus. They are bystanders, if you will. They are watching what's going on.

They are watching what God does. They are watching what Moses and Aaron do, but they are suffering through the whole time. So we have Israel. We have Egypt. We have Egypt that's a type of the world, if you will. We just read in Revelation that the city is called Spiritual Egypt. So we have a world and when we think of Egypt, we think of the type of the world that we live in today. It's a world that is, in their eyes, complete, wealthy. They have all the power of earth and Egypt at that time, that was the place to live. They were the premier nation on earth and they had this autocratic king that were there. If you were going to live in a nation on earth, Egypt is where you would want to be, much like in America and the wealthy nations today. But Egypt, Egypt was running okay under Pharaoh, totally apart from God. Egypt did not worship the true God. Egypt didn't even recognize the true God. They had a whole system of gods, a very intricate system of gods that they worshiped. And it's quite interesting when you see everything that they saw in life and how they took every created thing and made it into something that they worshiped. They had gods of the Nile, they had gods of the fish, they had gods of the livestock, they had a god for everything under the sun, including a god of the sun. And through the lives they knew that there was some greater power that was making all these things happen, but they had a little god that kind of had strange looks about them as they carved their little idols. But that's what they worshiped. And that's what the people of Israel were in for hundreds of years. That's where they were, and they lived. They worked hard, but they were in this system that was just totally apart from God. Wealthy, but their lives were oppressed. Their lives were oppressed, and they were going nowhere, and Pharaoh was holding them down.

Now, Pharaoh's an interesting character. Some people would say he's a type of Satan. He was an oppressor of God's people, much like the oppressor we see at the end time. Hold people down, he was the enemy of Israel. We know past Pharaohs even killed the Hebrew babies because they were worried about too many children being born. Pharaoh, type of Satan, yes, he was certainly not led by God. He was certainly doing things his own way. He saw himself as a god.

He was reared from the time that he was a little boy. You are a god. You are a god to the people of Egypt. They will worship you. So he has this enormous pride and this enormous self-image of who he is and where he is on earth. And Israel knew it. And Israel knew who they were. They were subject to Pharaoh. They were living their lives under his domain, never to come out from under it.

People in Egypt, just like people, they marveled at Pharaoh. How wonderful is he? They would do all the things that people would do, you know, to win favor with the king because he held the power of life and death in hands. As we go through and talk a little bit about Pharaoh, though, let's look at him in a little different way than just Satan. Because as we look at some of the things that happened during the times of the plagues, we can see that Pharaoh can be kind of like us before we were converted. When we see the messages that were given to Pharaoh in his response, it might make us think about how we responded. It might even make us think about how we respond to God today, even after we've been baptized and have his Holy Spirit. So we have Israel, we have Egypt, we have Pharaoh, and the other two main characters in this whole account are Moses and Aaron. You'll remember Moses. God called him. God called him out of the land of Midian. Moses was a reluctant leader. He did not want to do the job. Over and over, you'll remember he gave God excuses. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do that. And God said, basically, you are doing it. Let's look at verse chapter 4 here. We end at Exodus and pick it up at that time and see what God says about Moses and this time. We'll pick it up in verse 10. Exodus 4, verse 10.

Moses said to the Lord, O my Lord, I'm not eloquent, neither before nor since you've spoken to your servant. I'm slow of speech and slow of tongue. This is just one of many excuses that God, that Moses gave to God, that he shouldn't be the one to lead the people or be used as the deliverer of Israel. So the eternal said to him, Who has made man's mouth? Who makes the mute the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Haven't I, the eternal? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you shall say. But Moses said, O my Lord, please, please send by the hand of whomever else you may send. So the anger of God was kindled against Moses, and he said, Isn't Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well, and look, he's also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. He will be your spokesman, and he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God. Moses, this is the way we'll work it. Okay? I'm going to give you the words that you need to say to Pharaoh. You're going to give those words to Aaron. He's going to speak them to Pharaoh. You will be to him as God. Moses isn't God. God is God. God's directing the whole process here. Moses will be a servant. Moses will do what God says, give the words that God has given to him to Aaron, who will speak them. Keep your finger there. Well, just go forward in Exodus 7, 2 Exodus 7 here. And they will go to Pharaoh, and they will give the words to Pharaoh that God gives them to give. Now, this takes some courage and faith in God because Pharaoh has the power of life and death. Pharaoh can end their lives immediately. Chapter 7, verse 1, the Lord said to Moses, see, Moses, I've made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron, your brother shall be your prophet.

You too will go. You too will witness of my will to Pharaoh. I'm about to deliver my people. I'm about to make good on the promises that I gave Israel long ago. You will be the two that go up against Pharaoh. So we have Moses and Aaron, who are the spokesmen. Now, Moses and Aaron, I mean, tells us they're kind of like God and a prophet, the way God works, and they will deliver the message of God. They have to be very close to God. They have to be very in tune with God constantly, just as Jesus Christ was. In John 12, you know, in turn there, John 12, I think it's verse 49, Jesus Christ said, the words I speak are not mine. The words I speak are those that are given by the Father. That's how close Jesus Christ and God the Father were. The words I speak, He said, they are words given me by the Father. God told Moses, I'm going to give you the words. You speak them.

You know, we're told at the end time, when we're called before magistrates and kings, or wherever we're called into, God says, you don't worry. You don't have to write the script. You be close to me. You be in tune with me. Let your spirit be right where I am, and I will give you everything you need during that time. It won't be you, Moses. It won't be you, Aaron.

It won't be any of us or the two witnesses that deliver and make God's promises. It will be Him. It will be Him and Jesus Christ. So we have the stage set. And as we watch Moses and Aaron, and we see God speaking to Moses during that time, and then Aaron acting out or repeating the words, and he's actually the one who will strike the rod that will make these wonders that God has said we're going to come on earth, by which he would deliver Israel from Egypt, we can think about how God works with us, the Holy Spirit, the words that we hear, the words that when we're studying, we read the Bible, and the words that God gives us, and the directions to give, and that He will instruct us as well.

So let's go back to just a couple chapters. Exodus 5. So Moses and Aaron. Moses and Aaron, they're now ready to do God's will. Born in verse 1 of chapter 5, Moses and Aaron went in and they told Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. Pharaoh said exactly what you would expect him to say, Who is this eternal, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?

I don't know him, nor will I let Israel go. Well, God had warned Moses and Aaron, Go to Pharaoh, he's not going to let the people go. He will have a hard heart. So it shouldn't have been any surprise to them that Pharaoh said no. And so they say to Pharaoh, The God of the Hebrews has met with us, Please let us go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice the Lord our God lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.

And the king of Egypt said, Moses and Aaron, Why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor. So we have the people of Israel who have hope. Here's the deliverer we've been waiting for. Now we will be set free from Egypt. What happens, what happens as they see the truth and see the vision and see the time coming is, it doesn't turn out the way they think it will.

Pharaoh doesn't say, okay, what Pharaoh does is make life worse. It's more difficult. You think you had it bad before? Now you can gather your own straw and make your bricks. We're not doing that. If you've got time to think about this stuff, then life becomes more difficult. We'll fill your time that you don't have time to think about this God of the Hebrews anymore. And sometimes that's the case with us. We could be baptized. We might even respond to God.

Sometimes we could respond the first time we hear the truth the way Pharaoh did. What? That can't be true. The whole world can't be wrong about this or that or whatever we hear. I don't know this God. But God keeps approaching us. God keeps teaching us. God keeps coming back to us so our minds are opened and we'll see that Pharaoh comes to know God. Pharaoh comes to know some of the things along the way, but Pharaoh can never bring himself to yield to God.

And his failure to yield to God brings about his ultimate demise. It's a lesson for us in that. Okay, so we now have Israel. Israel is like now all of a sudden they've got this little doubt in their minds. Moses. Moses. This is what you told us that God said. But now our lives are tough. Our lives are worse than they were before. Sometimes that can happen. We may think that when we come into the church, life is going to be a bed of roses, but we learn quickly.

There are trials. There are tests. We will learn in years ahead. There are some tough times that we have to go through. Doesn't mean we lose faith in God. Israel was relatively quiet during this time. They were suffering from the things that they needed to do. But then the ten plagues begin. It's very interesting what God does with the ten plagues and how he approaches them. If we drop down to chapter seven, I believe it is.

Yeah, chapter seven and verse 20. Of course, you know what the first plague that God brings on? Oh, you know what? I didn't read something I wanted to read. Hold on just a minute. Yeah, let's go back. Well, at the beginning of chapter seven. Chapter seven and verse one. We already read this about, see Moses, I've made you as a God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land.

I will harden Pharaoh's heart. I will multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh won't heed you, so that I may lay my hand on Egypt and bring my armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. This is what's going to happen. He doesn't list what the judgments are, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the eternal when I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

And when we're through with God's working with Egypt, they absolutely know that God, the God of Israel, is the true God. Israel absolutely knows that God, their God, is the true God. All those gods of Egypt, all those gods of Egypt that they were so used to living with, and maybe even hearing, and maybe even found themselves trusting in a little bit, because, hey, Egypt is this great land. It's a wealthy place. It's a wonderful, well, not for them, but a wonderful place to live.

At least they had food. And it was good by their standards, because even as God brought them out of Egypt, they belonged to go back. So God says, I'm going to bring... Egypt will know who I am. That's a big chore. It isn't just a matter of God saying, I'm God. Moses and Aaron found that out. And that Pharaoh was going to say, okay, he was going to have to be taught God is God, and there is none other like him.

So down here in in verse 20 of chapter 7, we have the first plague, the Nile River, turns to blood, right, and all the waters. Verse 20 says Moses and Aaron did, just as the Lord commanded. Aaron lifted up the rod and struck the waters that were in the river in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of the servants, and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.

The fish that were in the river died. The river stank. The Egyptians could not drink the water of the river, so there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. Quite a miracle. Quite interesting that God chose the Nile River first, because the Nile River really was the lifeblood of Egypt. Without the Nile River, there is no Egypt.

Without the Nile River, it's just a barren wasteland like the Sahara Desert. Without the Nile River, they didn't have food. They didn't have the water to irrigate crops. They were nothing. They were dependent on the Nile River, and so they had all these little gods that had to do with the Nile River. A god of the flood, a god of the river, a god of the fish, a god of, I mean, you name them, they had gods everywhere because that Nile was their lifeblood.

There's the same Nile that Hebrew babies were thrown into when a former Pharaoh decided that he didn't want those babies around anymore, the Hebrews, to grow. So God chose Nile first. Let me strike the Nile. It will be unusable. And there was this miracle.

It turned to blood. Pharaoh was standing right there. What had happened? That would certainly get our attention, right? I think Pharaoh was calm during that time. Another, we find another few of the characters involved in the whole process here is these magicians, these priests of the gods of Egypt who were there as well. In verse 22, it says, then the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments. Oh, well look, Moses, your god looks like he can do this great miracle, and it's a miracle, but my priests did the same thing.

They did the same thing. Who gave them that power? You know, we read back in Revelation that there will be false prophets who give who are granted power to do wondrous things that the world will marvel after. Keep your finger there in Exodus. Jesus Christ talked about that at the time of the end as well and puts a caution in for us because there will be people that will be able to do things that we think only God could do. And we could be fooled when we see those great miracles or works that they do and think, oh, is this God or is this them? In Matthew 23—I'm sorry, not Matthew 23, Matthew 24—in verse 23, Christ says, if anyone says to you, look, here's the Christ, or there, don't believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders. They're going to be able to do some amazing things.

Call down fire from heaven. Whatever it is that God grants them to do, they will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. To deceive, if possible, even the elect. Well, we're going to have to know who God is. We're going to have to know what his plan is. We're going to have to know when we see those things happen. Well, that's not of God. That's a false prophet. They're not preaching the same thing God did. We're in tune with him. We know the word. We know the prophecies. We know who we should follow. If we're close to God, we wouldn't be deceived. But God will allow those things and those powers to happen to deceive, if possible, the elect. Our job now is make sure that we're becoming the type of people that isn't possible to be deceived. That takes work on our part. That takes focus on our part. That takes commitment on our part. But here, back at the time of Israel, we have the very same thing happening. These priests of Egypt are able to turn the water to blood, just like God did. Pharaoh can kind of almost see him like, okay, Moses, not a problem. He says there in verse 23, he turned and went into his house. Neither was his heart moved by this.

We can do the same thing. Your God is no more powerful than our God's. Moses, why would I listen to you? And so we go to the next plague. And as you go through the plagues, you see a little bit more happening with each one of them that God is teaching them. In chapter 8, in verse 1, we have this plague of frogs. Well, this plague of frogs. The Lord spoke to Moses. Go to Pharaoh, say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go, that they may serve me. But if you refuse to let them go, I'll smite all your territory with frogs. The river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into your house, into your bedroom, on your bed, into the houses of your servants, on your people, into your ovens, and into your kneading bowls. They will come up on all, on you, on your people, and on all your servants. Can you even imagine? Now, knowing Egypt, they worshipped frogs, too. What was appealing to them about frogs, so interesting to them, was frogs could live in water and land. They must be kind of supernatural. They're the kind of, they can be under the water, they can be on the land, they can live in both places. So they actually worshiped frogs and said, in fact, some of their gods had faces of frogs. So you would look and see one of the chief ones, I didn't know if I wrote down the name here, had the body of a woman and the face of a frog. What an attractive idol, right? And so, so they they would worship this god. There's frogs, but the frogs were usually contained in the Nile area. It was so important to them, these frogs, that it's reported or written in some places, that it was, you could, you couldn't even step on a frog. If you stepped on a frog, you had violated some sacred command someplace. Don't know if it was punishable by death, but you sinned if you stepped on a frog. So when God had this plague come about, what happened? Certainly they were everywhere. They had to step on them. So here's these animals, these little creatures that they worshiped, and now they're everywhere. Well, if you want frogs, here, you got frogs everywhere. And so you can see, you can see what God is beginning to do. Okay, this happens. And the frogs come up. Pharaoh looks at this in verse 7, because his priests do this as well. The magicians did so with their enchantments, and they brought up frogs on the land of Egypt. They were able to do that, too. But Pharaoh had to ask Moses for something.

He does ask Moses, can you talk to your God that he can take away the frogs from my and my people?

Well, maybe his magicians, his priests, they could bring the frogs. They didn't know how to get rid of them. What do we do with them? So he's beginning to see and ask Moses, can you get rid of these frogs? And if you do, if you will, I'll let the people go, that they may sacrifice to him.

Moses does it. The frogs disappear. And then Pharaoh starts a very bad habit, if you will, in verse 15. When all the frogs were gone, and Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and didn't heed Moses and Aaron, as the Lord had said.

Okay, I could see I needed God. I have this trial. I have this thing going on in life. It's a difficult situation. I've got to draw close to God. But then relief comes.

Do I continue close to God? Do I get closer to him? Or when there's no more pain, and when all the trouble has passed, do I sort of sink back into where I was before? God's there when I need him, desperately. But in good times, and when there's not a whole lot of problems, I don't really seek him as much as I should. Pharaoh, we see, gets into this habit. Over and over in the plagues, he does the same thing. Moses, get rid of him. I'll let the people go.

Every single time, he changes his mind. You and I can do exactly the same thing. You know, we see it in the world around us, with their religions and whatever. And back at the time of 9-11, in 2001, when that catastrophe happened, you know, it was reported there was a surge in church attendance. Everyone turned to God. Here we had an attack on the country, something that had never happened before. Let's turn to God. But a few months later, attendance was back down to where it was before. People forgot God. You and I can do the same thing. We all know we can turn to God. We all know that he can do whatever it is and fix any trial that we're in, any problem that we're in, that he can heal, any disease that we have. We turn to him and we beseech him. And in times of trial, we do grow closer to God. And that's a good thing. The chore is when the time is not so tense, do we stay close to God. Remember that God said that in times of plenty, Israel, don't forget me. Don't forget me. While Moses, or not Moses, very well, was doing that very same thing that we could do. Oh, okay. Go back to life. Everything is good. God is with me. So we see a little bit of the things here that God is beginning to work in Pharaoh. He does now have a recognition Moses' God can do something our God can't do. He can take the frogs away. If we go down to verse 18, we see the third plague here. And it's a plague of lice. And it says in verse 18, that this time on this third plague, the magicians or the priests so worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. Can't do this one, Pharaoh. This God can do something. We have no idea how he did it. And look what they say. The magician said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. This one we can't explain. This has to be God. This is something that can't happen naturally. We don't have any idea how to do it. Pharaoh is aware. Now, this time it is of God. This is happening. This is happening. But look what he does. I don't want to believe it. I don't want to believe that the Israel's God is stronger than our God's. I simply refuse to believe it. So, peace just denies it. I won't do it. I'm not going to do it that way. I don't want it. Therefore, my heart goes hard. I'm not going to listen to this anymore.

There are people that do that when they hear the word of God. We may do that on some things that we hear of God. Okay? I have to admit that's of God. I have to admit it. I don't want to believe that. I don't want to believe that God thinks I have to do it that way. I want to do it my way, and I'm going to do it that way. And that's going to be the way it is. I just don't believe that important to God. Maybe we've all, at some point in our life, thought that. I don't have to do it that way. I just will set my mind against that. A very dangerous thing to do when we know it's God, when we know it's of God, what our job is and what our calling is, is yield to Him.

Don't fight. Don't resist God. What Pharaoh is doing here is he is resisting God.

We all probably resist God in some way. And as we move closer to Passover, and we see some of these things that God has built into his deliverance from Egypt, there should be eye-openers to us. What do we do? Could we be like Pharaoh? Could we be doing the things, even though we're people of God? Could we be responding to God in the same way He did? We know what's right, but we just don't want it. And so we say, simply not doing it. I don't care if God says this. I'm not doing it that way.

So Pharaoh is on notice here. His priests can't duplicate. His priests can't duplicate this plague.

So as the plagues go on, Pharaoh is learning some things. Israel is learning some things. Moses and Aaron are learning some things. We're beginning to see God, who by His judgments is beginning to show Pharaoh, Egypt, and Israel, who is the true God. They will know, He said. They will know who God is when I'm done with this. So we have then the fourth plague in verse 22 of chapter 8.

This is the plague of swarms of flies, as added in there. There probably were flies or other things as well. The Egyptians did have other idols that had the body of humans in the face of flies. They did have scarab beetles on the face of some of those idols as well. Scarab beetles also can be in swarms. And so Egypt was just deluged with these flies. What is God saying? Well, if you're going to worship flies, if you're going to worship these things, you know what? Have all you can. This would be wonderful to you to have all these things that I bring upon you. In verse 22, we find something different about this plague. It happens exactly as Moses and Aaron said, but in this plague, God does something to show again His might. In verse 22, in that day, God said, I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the land. I will make a difference.

Between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall be. Okay, Pharaoh?

Gonna have all these swarms. You know what is going to happen to you? But where my people dwell, they're not going to have any of these swarms. Now, that's supernatural. That is something only God can do. Pharaoh hears this. Pharaoh may not yet have checked it out, but what God does is He will make a differentiation between His people and the people of Egypt. I will show you who my people are. Now, if we go back to Revelation 9 for just a second. We see that in the fifth trumpet.

God does a similar thing at the end of time. Revelation 9.

Let me find my notes here and see what verse that is. Verse 4.

We have the bottomless pit. Here is part of the topic in chapter 9. I'll read the first four verses here. Fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star falling from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke aroused out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. And out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth, and to them was given power. As the scorpions of the earth have power, they would hurt mankind. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. I will set a difference between my people and those. So we see God doing the same thing here in the plagues of Egypt. My people are going to be free of these plagues from here on out. What happens to Egypt, I will protect them. Now notice that God doesn't say, doesn't say, I've got to take them out of Egypt, I've got to take them to another land. This can't happen until they flee from Egypt. It happens right in place of where Egypt is.

Back in Psalm 93, you know, sometimes, you know, we talk about the end time, and people will talk about a place of safety, or a land of safety, or a safe place. And the Bible does indicate that God is going to do something with that with His people, but He doesn't have to take us to a safe place in order to protect us from what is happening. He didn't take Israel out of Egypt to protect them from the swarms of flies and all the plagues that came there. He was able to protect them right in place. In Psalm 93, that's not the right chapter, in Psalm 91, verse 3, Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you shall take refuge. His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, your right in the midst of it, but it shall not come near you.

Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked.

God can protect us wherever we are. That takes trust. That takes developing that trust. And absolutely looking to Him and knowing whatever situation we find ourselves in, He can protect.

He can protect. God was showing that to Israel with the fourth plague. And so the swarms disappeared, disappeared from Egypt. Israel wasn't affected. And if we go back to chapter 8, we see Pharaoh recognizing what's going on, but he is beginning to do another thing that you and I can do. In Exodus 8, we go back there, in verse 24, he's beginning to see the God of Israel is certainly stronger than our gods. And so he goes to Moses and he says, okay, verse 24, the Lord did it. Verse 25, and Pharaoh called from Moses and Aaron and said, go sacrifice to your God in the land. You want to sacrifice? Go ahead and sacrifice, but you're going to do it in the land. Now, Moses might have looked at that as a victory. See, Pharaoh's getting it. He says, go and sacrifice in the land. But Moses knows right away. This is a compromise. This is what God said to do. We're going out of Egypt for three days. We will take all the men, women, and children with us in the flocks and we will sacrifice to him there.

We're not going to compromise. We're going to do it exactly the way God said, exactly the way the Bible says. So Moses picks up on it right away. Moses said, it's not right to do so, for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. If we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians, then they will, will they not sown us? We will go three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice the Lord our God as he commands us. No. No, Pharaoh, that's not the deal. The deal is we're doing it exactly the way God said. But Pharaoh's not the only time he compromises. Later on, he compromises again. I can just get Moses because he knows he needs to. He knows God is more powerful. He knows what Moses is saying, but if he can just get it his way a little bit, can't that be some of what happens to us? If it can just be my way, if I can do most of what God says, if I can just do it this way and it's a little bit my way, isn't that okay? If God makes it crystal clear, my way. And the people who will be saved will have to do it his way. That will be the lesson of Israel as we give them to the near to the 10th plague. If they don't do it God's way, they suffer right along with Egypt. If they do it completely God's way, then they are his people who are shielded.

Next plague, plague on the livestock. God attacks those. I mean, here it mentions cattle. Or you remember Egypt worshipped cattle too when the when the Israelites were brought out of Egypt. What did they do when Moses was up on the mountain for 40 days? They built a golden calf. They went right back to what they were used to seeing in Egypt, you know, much the way we much the way we can if we don't watch what we're doing. But here in chapter 9, again, you know, in verse 4 here, we find Pharaoh doing something. Pharaoh is, he's getting it. He's looking at it. And verse 4, it says, the Lord will make a difference between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt. So nothing shall die of all that belongs to the children of Israel. God said, this is going to happen tomorrow. It happened that day. And in verse 7, this time Pharaoh sent. And indeed, not even one of the livestock of the Israelites was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh became hard, and he didn't let the people go. Okay, I see what the truth is. I'm simply not going to do it. What's wrong with Pharaoh? Now, his human nature is resistance to God. Next plague, Nastas thrown up in the air, boils. Boils come on all the people of Israel. Sore, boils. And there's nothing they can do about it.

Now, the magicians are there as well. It tells us in verse 11, the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils. For the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.

Now, that word magicians that's there is an interesting word. In the Hebrew, when you look into Septuagint, it's tied to the Greek word, Greek strong's Greek number 5333 in the New Testament.

Same word there in Egypt. These magicians were not just people that pull rabbits out of hat. They had all sorts of things they did in Egypt. One of the things that they did was they were able to heal diseases. There was a god of healing. These magicians were able to do this. And as God says that here's the magicians, they couldn't even stand. They were powerless to heal this condition that God brought upon Israel or upon Egypt. An interesting thing that, again, God is showing Egypt, you can't heal this one. Now, we find the Greek word that's tied to the Hebrew word back in two places in Revelation. Revelation 21.8 is one of them. Revelation 21.8. An interesting verse because it is the end time and God shows the people who will not be in the kingdom. If any of these are part of our lives or our character, they won't be there. And he doesn't start with sin, Sabbath breaking, all these other things that we might say. In verse 8 he says, but the cowardly, the ones who are afraid, timid, they fall down, they give in to Pharaoh, they give in to the beast power, they give in to whatever it is that might be there. The cowardly, the unbelieving, they don't have faith in God, they haven't developed that faith over the years. The abominable, they support those things that God calls abominations. We've talked about that before. All the abominations that God calls, not so unfamiliar to us in the world today because they are all in the Bible. Murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. The word sorcerers ties back to the word magicians. In the New Testament, the word is pharmacos. Let me read to you what the Strong says about this word that's translated sorcerers in the New Testament. These are those who use magical arts, especially one who uses drugs, potions, spells, and enchantments. Those magicians of the Old Testament, they couldn't heal those boils. They were powerless over that. Only God could remove those boils. And then God makes a tie to that at the end of time. In chapter 22 verse 15 is the other place that we see the New Testament tie to that word magicians in the Old Testament. Outside of the kingdom are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie.

What was God teaching Egypt? What does God teach us? He was doing something with all the gods of Egypt as we go through the plagues. He was teaching and he was rendering his judgment on them, on everything they believed and they held so dear in their life that they looked at, that they trusted in, and they counted on. And God dismantled every single one of them during the course of his deliverance of Israel. So let's go back to Exodus again.

In chapter 9 verse 13, they couldn't do anything with the boils. They couldn't even stand the magicians. They were powerless over it. Well, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He didn't heed them just as the Lord had spoken to Moses. In verse 13 God says to Moses, go and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go that they may serve me. For at this time I will send all my plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your people, that you may know that there is none like me in all this earth. Now if I had stretched out my hand and struck you in your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth. But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the earth. That's why I'm doing these things. I will prove and I will show I am the God, the only true God. And you will do, and all people eventually do what I say, or they will no longer be. Verse 17, As yet through all these things, Pharaoh, as yet you exalt yourself against my people, in that you will not let them go.

Humble yourselves, he tells Pharaoh in chapter 10. Humble yourself. What does God tell us? We can't approach him unless we become humble people. Without humility, God isn't listening to us. God isn't, well, God is listening to us, but God is looking and working with us. We have to become humble in God's sight. We have to realize everything we have, everything is going to be of him. As we've been going through the book of Ephesians and the Bible studies, what do we see? It's all in Jesus Christ. It's not about you, it's not about me. Salvation is in Jesus Christ. Everything in life and everything we will ever have is because of Jesus Christ. And we have to know that, and we have to deal with that, and we have to look at ourselves and say, we have to completely yield to God. He's not going to have people who are still exalting themselves and thinking, I have this way and I have that way. We have got to come as people to the point where we completely yield to God.

It's hard to do with human nature. We all think, oh, that's close enough. If I'm just close enough, it's good. You know, following God is not a game of horseshoes. You get no points for being close. You get points and you become close to God by doing what he says and asking him to break down the resistance, break down the pride that all of us have, that we begin to do things the way God says to do it. That we understand the words of the Bible in the course of our lives. We do exactly what Moses said in Deuteronomy, earnestly, carefully, diligently following God, living by every word of God. Doesn't happen overnight, but does happen during the course of our lifetimes. So God, getting real with Moses, humble yourself before me, not Moses, Pharaoh. Humble yourself before me. You're still exalting yourself. How much more of this do we have to do? Do you have to be completely destroyed before you get the message? Well, with Pharaoh, he was going to have to be completely, completely destroyed. In verse, we go over to chapter...

Well, what time do I have here? Let's move on to chapter 10 here. No, chapter 9, verse 27.

Let me show you where we are with Pharaoh. 927.

This time, hail comes down. Hail, like it's never been before. Hail, bigger than any hail before, mixed with fire. Pharaoh knows us of God. In verse 27, Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, I've sinned this time. I've sinned. Now, that's a pretty big recognition.

I've sinned this time. The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked.

Well, that's a good thing. That's what God wants us to come to to understand. We are sinners. We need Him. Pharaoh's there. He's getting it, but he's not getting it all the way. Ask the Lord, verse 28, that there may be no more mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer. Well, you know, Pharaoh, of course, doesn't follow through on that. In chapter 10, verse 16, Pharaoh calls for Moses after the locusts have eaten everything else up that's left in Egypt. God's completely destroying that civilization. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and Hasen said, I sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now, therefore, please forgive my sin. Forgive it.

Pharaoh's getting it. Pharaoh knows who God is. He sees the power. He knows what needs to be done.

He just can't allow his pride to be completely broken. How sad is that? That he knew it, and that he couldn't give up who he was. Give up.

Who he had been raised to be, and just wouldn't let go of self. Wouldn't let go of his ideas. Wouldn't let go of his way. Even though he's right there. How sad. What could have happened if Pharaoh had simply yielded to God? If he had just yielded? Well, you know the 10th plague. We'll come back to that in just a second, but let's go over to Exodus 12, verse 12. We'll see what God was doing during those plagues. Exodus 12, verse 12.

As God is preparing Israel for Passover and what they need to do in detail to be ready for Passover, he says, I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. I will tear down every god of Egypt. Every god you hold dear that you count on, that you look to, I will dismantle. The first commandment he gave to Israel, the first commandment, I am the Lord your God. There is no other God before me. No other God besides me.

He taught Egypt that lesson. They never learned it. It was completely decimated, completely destroyed. Pharaoh. Pharaoh, a god, couldn't even save the life of his own son.

But you know, Israel was watching, too. The people of Israel, it's not recorded that any one of the people of Israel failed to do what God had commanded them to do in detail on that Passover night. They began to see that God was real, that he meant what he said, and he gave Moses specific instructions of what to do. If anyone in Israel thought, don't need to do that, I can do it a little differently. I can put the blood here instead of where God said, you know what would have happened to him? Firstborn would have died. Had to do it. God was going to deliver Israel, but only those who did things in that last plague that came on Egypt, exactly the way God said. To the tea. Select the lamb now. Kill the lamb then. Spread the blood here. Eat the meal that I prepared for you in this way then. Don't come out of your house until the morning. They did it exactly the way God said. If they didn't, they would have had the same fate as Pharaoh and the people of Egypt.

So listen for us in that. God wants us out of Egypt, just like he was going to bring Israel out of Egypt. And he will bring us, but we have to also recognize all the things in our Egypt that we kind of hold a little bit before God and trust in a little more than perhaps we should.

God wants us to learn to trust in him. In Revelation 18, good for ancient Israel. They did it exactly the way God said. They watched, they observed, they kept the Passover in every detail that God said, and he brought them out of Egypt with the high hand. Revelation 18. God has a warning or an instruction for all of us. Revelation 18, verse 2. He cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen. Of course, Babylon is a society that we live in, a society that will be extant at the time of the end, has all these things, has become... I'm going to read verse 3. Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen, has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, a cage for every unclean and hated bird. All the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Hey people of God, come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, unless you receive of her plagues. Do any of us want to receive of the plagues that God will bring upon an earth, a disobedient, rebellious, hard-hearted earth and world that simply will not yield to him? Over and over in the trumpets of Revelation, we read, all these things happen, they simply will not repent. Just like Pharaoh wouldn't repent, even though they knew it was God, they won't repent. Her sins have reached heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. We need to be people that are following God and that are looking to him.

We need to be people who are committed to him, asking God to search our hearts, as we say, look at us and help us to put all those little gods out of our life so that we have just one God that we worship.