Well tonight we continue on in Exodus, so I ask you to turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 7 And I'm not going to read the entire passage that's in the order of worship as we move through The plagues I will read each one of the three tonight that we're going to be addressing But we will begin by reading from chapter 7 beginning in verse 8. Children, here are your questions. First, why did God send the plagues on Egypt? Two, why was the Egyptian religion wrong? Three, list the first three plagues. So again, our focus is on Exodus 7, 14 to 8, 19, but I'll begin reading in verse 8 of chapter 7. This is the word of God. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, When Pharaoh says to you, prove yourselves by working a miracle, then you shall say to Aaron, take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. Still, Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said." There ends the reading of God's Word. Let us join our hearts together in prayer. Father in heaven, we do thank you for your word, and we thank you for the record of your mighty works that bring you glory, as you make yourself known through your might and through your power. Lord, we also know that there's might and power in your word itself, and so we thank you that we can read it and know that we're hearing from you. We pray now as we move from the reading of your word to the preaching of your word, Lord, that you would help us to hear from you. So minister to us, we ask. Please help the preacher and help all of us who will hear tonight as we come to you in the name of Jesus. Amen. It's said that there were 2,000 plus false gods in the Egyptian pantheon. that the culture there was immersed in false religion. That's the context that Israel found themselves in, in this country, this nation, that had deity after deity, many that were depicted in images and little icons and statues and stuff like that. It produced millions of icons. and images of false gods. Yahweh is about to make himself known by taking down God after God before the very eyes of their worshipers. That's the context that we find ourselves in. Now, we're going to see him taking down each one of these gods, but due to the fact that there are so many gods, that there's this overpopulated pantheon, that there's this complex system of gods, it's going to be hard to always specifically focus on just which god of the Egyptians is being addressed, but nonetheless, they're being addressed. And because of the interconnectedness, we're going to see that there's collateral damage on lesser gods. We'll see that especially in the case of the issue with the Nile. We look at these gods, imagery of them is very well known throughout the world, kept in museums, kept in Egypt, of these gods, many of which are half human, half beasts. Some of them look just harmless, but they're not just cutesy morphs of creatures. They express something very disturbing, very dangerous. It's a result of imagination steeped in the very essence of false religion, confusing the creature with the creator, or the creator with the creature, not keeping that crucial distinction. It's a deadly error. Well, God has said to Moses, he said to Israel, he's said to Egypt, and he said to Pharaoh that through the works that he's about to do, he's going to show them that he is who he says he is. I am, Yahweh is going to make himself known simply I am. We come to our passage and we've already seen Moses and Aaron go into the presence of Pharaoh. We're going to see that again, which tells us that they must have had some kind of political immunity, some kind of diplomatic immunity. Why doesn't Pharaoh just kill them on the spot? They're a thorn in his flesh constantly. So they have some kind of relation there. Perhaps Pharaoh understands Moses' position. He knows that he was raised in his own household or in the household of Pharaoh, at least. And so you have this character, Moses, who's God's man, Aaron, his spokesperson in the presence of Pharaoh. And as we enter into our passage, we find out that Pharaoh is on his way down to the Nile. He's not just going down there to relax. He's going down there most likely to worship. He's going down there for his morning devotional. He's going down there for his quiet time. But he's about to see the hand of God. He's been warned. He hasn't listened. Now he's about to see the hand of God. And so look at your Bibles, verse 14. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go. 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, the God of the Hebrews sent me to you saying, let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness. But so far you've not obeyed. Thus says the Lord. By this you shall know that I am the Lord. Or, I am Yahweh, you can read. Behold, with the staff that is in my hand 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. And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and vessels of stone. Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants, he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank so that the Egyptians could not drink the water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts, so Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said. Pharaoh turned and went into his house, so he did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile. Seven full days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile. The Egyptians worshiped the Nile. The Nile was literally their source of life. And every year they relied on the Nile to flood so that the rich nutrients would nourish the land so that they could be the breadbasket that they were in. When it didn't flood, they were in danger of famine, and they worshipped the Nile, but they worshipped the Nile through a goddess called Happy. She was revered as the source of life to the nation. Someone gave me a sample of a prayer or a chant about the Nile that apparently they would use. It goes something like this. Praise to you, O Nile, that issues from the earth and comes to nourish Egypt, that waters the meadows He that Ra has created to nourish all cattle, that gives drink to the desert places which are far from water. When the Nile floods, offering is made to you. Cattle are slaughtered for you. A great oblation is made for you. Offering is also made to every other god, even as is done for the Nile with incense, oxen, cattle, and birds upon the flame. All you men extol the Nile gods and stand in awe of the might which his son, the Lord of all, has displayed, even he that makes green the two riverbanks. You are verdant, O Nile. You are verdant, he that makes man to live on his cattle and his cattle on the meadow." They worshipped the Nile. And God needed to strike at this God that they thought was the source of life, the actual real source of life. God Almighty, I am Yahweh, addresses this God and through Moses turns all the water in the whole land into blood. Now, don't listen to liberal theologians who try to say it was just an optical illusion or the water turned red, but it wasn't blood. This is blood. Plain reading says it was blood. And that meant that it could not be drunk. They could not drink the water of the Nile. This was very dangerous. You'll notice that there was collateral damage of the fish. The fish died in the Nile. They relied on the fish. There were fish gods. So that god, those fish gods are being addressed. There are other gods as well, all tied up in this Nile and at the forefront, this happy, this goddess. Well, you'd think that would sober everybody up quite a bit. The problem is the magicians that are Pharaoh's magi come along and they do the same thing. Now, how could they do the same thing when all the water in the land is already blood? It seems to me that they probably did a small sampling. And Pharaoh is so easily persuaded, so easily fooled, that their small sampling, whether it's through some kind of trickery or through their dark magic arts, remember, there's a real spiritual world behind this, Pharaoh's convinced, good enough for him, my magicians can do what Moses says Yahweh is doing. And so his heart is hardened just the very way that God said it would be. Now, the problem is partially solved by Egyptians that discovered that somehow through digging trenches, there's a filtration system where they can get fresh water. But make no mistake, God's not being fooled. They're not getting around God's work. In fact, he's going to lift this plague of blood in just seven days anyway. He is the one who's decided not to let them die at this point. The mercy of God. And so the blood is taken away. Well, the next plague, Chapter 8, Plague of Frogs. Get the background on this one. So frogs, a female frog can release over 3,000 eggs over a period of days externally for fertilization. So it's no wonder that this god, Hecht or Hecate, is a goddess of fertility. And she's depicted as a woman with a frog's head. So a sacred creature, frogs were worshipped. They were sacred creatures. Now look what happens. The Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me. But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into your houses and on your servants and your people and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants. And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals, and over the pools, and make the frogs come up on the land of Egypt. So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up from the land of Egypt. And so you have this plague. I'm not going to finish reading it. It goes into more detail. But here are these frogs. In my estimation, I'm a fan of frogs. Frogs are cute. A couple at a time. Not this way. One frog in the wrong place can throw you off. I'm sure I've seen it on Little House on the Prairie in the school room. Some kid puts a frog in the teacher's desk and she opens it up and she screams, one frog in the wrong place can throw you off. Here there are frogs everywhere, everywhere, all in their houses. No escaping from these frogs. Here their little gods are all around them, but the gods that they worship in these frogs are odious. And they literally become stinking. These frogs are everywhere. But then again, the magicians can do the same thing. And again, we don't know how this looked. We don't know what they did to make it look like they could do what God does. But nonetheless, they did something that impressed Pharaoh. They could do the same thing. The problem that they faced was that while they could conjure them up somehow, they couldn't get rid of them. They simply couldn't get rid of them. And so we have this situation in verse 8, the Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, And Moses says, OK, as long as you do what you said you're going to do. And of course, we know Pharaoh well enough to know. We also know that God is going to use Pharaoh to glorify his name. Pharaoh hardens his heart once again, goes back on his word. But the magicians can't get rid of him, and so they all end up dying. Dying. There's stinking frogs everywhere. Understand the power of this. Their little gods are all dead all around them in their houses, and they pile them up, and they reek. And they reek. Next plague. Next plague. Plague on man and beast. And this is translated here gnats. Some translate it lice. We know that they're little annoying bugs, whatever they are. I was thinking in Michigan, people can understand no-see-ums, those little things that bite and, you know, sting you and cause you to itch and just constantly plague you when they're around. But here we have these gnats. And so pick up in verse 16. Then the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt. And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth. And there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magician said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said. Imagine what this was like. I don't know if you get itchy when you read things like this, but gnats everywhere crawling on the people, man and beast. Most likely addressing either Seth, who was a god of chaos and violence and desert storms, and you get the idea of bringing up all this dust turning into gnats, or this god Geb, god of dust and the earth, it's not exactly sure, it could be both, but God is addressing yet another god, gods of the earth. I named this third set Hocus Pocus because I think what's also being addressed here very directly is not only these false gods, but the magicians themselves. And so their magic arts are being called out, and they even recognize it. They say to Pharaoh, this is God. This is beyond us. This is much bigger than us. And yet Pharaoh, once again, hardens his heart, even when his magicians testify to the fact that this is God. And so the plagues begin on Egypt. And as we move forward, we're going to expand on thoughts about these plagues as there are still some to come. The final one, most sobering, most awe-striking, most terrible. But we'll see that Pharaoh's heart is one time somewhat softened and next time hardened. But God again is in control here and he's using Pharaoh. But some of what we're going to want to explore is so what does this have to do with us? What does this have to do with us? Herbert Schlossberg, in a book called Idols for Destruction, I think it was one of the very first Christian books I ever bought. It was written in 1983. Has a book called Idols for Destruction. And here's what he writes, idolatry in its larger meaning is properly understood as any substitution of what is created for the creator. So substituting what is created for the creator. People may worship nature, money, mankind, power, history, or social and political systems instead of the God who created them all. The New Testament writers in particular recognize that the relationship need not be explicitly one of cultic worship. A man can place anyone or anything at the top of his pyramid of values. and that is ultimately what he serves. The ultimacy of that service profoundly affects the way he lives. When the society around him also turns away from God to idols, it is an idolatrous society and therefore is heading for destruction. I think that's a wake-up call if we could announce that at the State of the Union address of a wake-up call for our nation. He goes on in his book with a number of chapters, idols of history, idols of humanity, idols of mammon or money, idols of nature, idols of power, idols of religion. And he talks about the consequences of embracing those things as idols and as false gods, and he does offer some solutions. But you see, what was going on in Egypt is not a far cry from what we can see in our own world now, in our own culture. We might not see all these kinds of little gods and manifestations of these false gods, but nonetheless, there are plenty of false gods to be dealt with. those gods must be crushed. So I'll just mention a few for now. There are actual gods of religion, where anyone or anything is worshipped other than I am, other than Yahweh, that is idolatry, that's false worship. Pantheons, imaginary imaginary creatures with these godlike abilities. That's blasphemy. There are some religions that are immersed in that. It's not only Egypt. As you move through the Old Testament, you see that there are false gods throughout the land, that there are Baals and Ashtoreths and Molech, etc., etc., etc. And Israel constantly finds themselves in the midst of them and actually finds some of them alluring. Moving to the New Testament, the Greek and Roman cultures were immersed in false worship, false gods, God after God, goddess after goddess. Paul confronts them on his missionary journeys. False religions. manufacturing thousands of false gods. It's said that the Hindus, they have a hard time understanding exactly what's being said. Some say 33 gods and then all these other gods. Others say it's 330 million gods because their basic gods multiply with different incarnations, associates of the main gods. Buddhism includes a number of of divine beings venerated through rituals in different ways. There are gods of nature, tribes worship false gods, people worshiping trees and the sun and the moon and the stars. Those are religious things. I think that as we get closer and closer, we can see that even Christian religion can get skewed and lose their focus on who I am is and who Jesus is. There's gods of culture. Some cultures are immersed in highly paganized situations. Others more subtle. Invisible gods, communism's god, is very clearly the state. We have to worry about our own country. It's rare in the United States to see statuary everywhere for worship. Although it's very interesting and I will only reference it now, I'll probably quote it in the future, but I was reading one author who was saying, what if, and this is very relevant today because a lot of people seem to want to talk about aliens, but what would happen if an alien came to the United States now? And they were on a mission to see what the idols or what the worship in America was about. And their spaceship lands in the middle of a sports stadium. And they see people yelling and screaming and cheering on these men on the field and waving flags and devoted to them and all this kind of stuff. Would they say, well, this must be what they worship. They worship these athletes, these people. What if they landed their spaceship in the mall in Washington, D.C.? And they look around and they say, well, there's a there's an obelisk to a man here, and there's a huge statue of another man here. And you look over here and there's a treasury. So money must be something big in this country. And then they turn over here and they see the Supreme Court of the United States, who very often likes to pretend they're God. Is that what Americans worship? You get the point, right? It's not always little statuaries. It's not always little gods. We need to be very careful and understand that in our culture, there is great danger. You think about these gods. Who does our country see as creator and sustainer? Is it God? Is it the economy? What about this goddess of fertility? Can it be that while we understand the whole reproductive situation that we have defied even one of these false gods and have twisted everything on its head, not only letting all kinds of aberrations happen, but also killing the handiwork of such a God? God of Earth. You see the problem. doesn't remain in Egypt. Gods of religion, gods of culture, gods of the heart need to be taken out. Can anything be more clear than the first and second commandments that God gives? You shall have no other gods before me, and you shall not make any images of me. I am God. And so anything in the hearts that represents any kind of false god, whatever it may be, however it may manifest itself, must be destroyed. And we will see more mighty acts of God, but I will point right now to the mighty act of redemption, because people, that's what has set us free from being idolaters. That's what has set us free. from people who worship false gods. Not through some strange morphed beast, but the Son of God. God himself, human in the flesh. God in the flesh. It might be hard for us to imagine, I would imagine, I don't think we have any former Hindus, any former Buddhists in here, It might be hard for us to imagine what it would be like to have worshiped literal false gods and then to be delivered. But let's not take for granted the fact that through the work of Christ saving our souls, we've been delivered. We've been delivered from all false gods. Think about how Paul was vexed in his spirit in Athens and provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols and he discovers this altar to an unknown God and he takes that and he turns it around and basically says, my understanding of the sermon, you can know this unknown God, but you can only know him through Jesus. That's what we have experienced, that we have come to know the God that's unknown to so many people. Let's never take that for granted. God made known to us through Jesus. If you know God through Jesus, you have so much to be thankful for. Not only are you no longer in the slavery and bondage of sin, but you've been set free to worship the true and living God. Let's pray. Lord our God, we thank you so much for delivering us from all the gods that we could imagine, all the gods that are worshiped on this earth. You've set us free to see that you are the one true and living God, I am. We thank you so much that you, through Christ, have spared us the plague of wrath that we deserve, just as you spared your people in the midst of all these horrible plagues. And we would wonder, as they probably should have wondered, why have you spared us? And we fall back, as always, on your unmerited grace, your mercy, your kindness, your love that we simply can't understand or explain. But how thankful we are tonight that we know you and that we are free to worship you and to live for you. And we come to you in the name of our Savior Jesus with the help of the Holy Spirit. Amen. For closing, hymn is 481, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. And we'll please stand when we sing.