In the opening lines of his book, Let the Nations Be Glad, John Piper writes these words. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate. not man. When this age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. Worship abides forever. Not only then is worship the goal of missions, worship is the goal of Exodus. The book of Exodus is a missionary book. because it declares the Creator of the world. It announces Him and tells of His mighty deeds to people who need to know Him. It shows the tragedy that mankind has rebelled against God and has pursued the darkness of idolatry and sin. Listen to Paul's description of the heart of humanity apart from Christ. In Romans 1.21, he says, although they knew God, they didn't honor Him as God. They didn't give thanks to him as God. But in their thinking, they became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise. They became fools and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God, the glory of the immortal God for images. Imagine. Images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things, therefore, God gave them up. in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. And they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator. If man is to be rescued, the creator must also be the redeemer. Because if Romans one is describing the condition of man apart from Christ, then there must be a Redeemer outside of us. We have no hope in ourselves. Exodus is a missionary book because God says over and over that the purpose for His actions in Egypt is that they might know I am the Lord. They need to know that. They don't know that. That's a need they have is to know this God. So part of what God is doing is making known who He is in Egypt. So we need to study the plagues of Exodus because we need to know that He is the Lord. We have that same need to know that He is God, that there's none like Him in all the earth, and if we're to be rescued, the Creator must be our Redeemer. Whatever He does, He does for the sake of His name, to establish true worship. The goal of the Exodus was worship of God. We need to study the plagues of Exodus because we're reminded that God is a righteous judge. Though He is slow to anger, He does display righteous wrath. Today is the day of salvation, and we must ask, will we repent? Will we flee to the refuge for sinners, which is Christ Jesus alone? Because no other hope can save and no other hope can satisfy but Jesus Christ. One of the accomplishments of signs and wonders in Exodus 7 through Exodus 12 is the humiliation of the Egyptian gods. They are without power. They are mute, blind, and deaf. And they have no mighty hand that can stop Yahweh. And this is a point often either not known or not noticed in the plagues. And yet it's important to the specific plagues themselves and what Yahweh is teaching these Egyptians. Why frogs? Why the death of livestock? Why boils? Why darken the sun? These judgments all tie specifically to Egyptian deities in their pantheon. By giving the certain judgments that he does, he is humiliating and exposing the impotence of these Egyptian deities. These are idols who cannot save or deliver. According to Exodus 12.12, part of what God is doing in the plagues is executing judgment on the gods. In Numbers 33.4, Moses remembers that exodus event and those judgments, and he says that Yahweh was bringing judgment on those gods. So more than just Yahweh displaying his greatness to the Egyptians, or even vindicating the Israelites, Yahweh is coming against the rivaling gods who prove to be no successful rivals at all. These 10 plagues are a series that are marked carefully. in certain literary features. The nine plagues, followed by a tenth one, the nine plagues are an important unit. Three, three, and three that hang together. Three series of three. I went into some detail about this that I won't reiterate today, but in last week's message I was pointing out how one to three go together, four through six go together, seven through nine go together, and these threefold, the three threefold series of plagues set apart the climactic one. The climactic plague at the end of this series is the death of the firstborn, the tenth plague, which is what the text is building to. The text does not begin with that, and the Lord doesn't pour out just one judgment. A series of unfolding humiliations and judgments upon the land. In verses 20 through 32 of Exodus 8, we see the fourth plague. The scene is set in the morning. The Lord says to Moses, rise up early in the morning. present yourself to Pharaoh as he goes out to the water and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me. We've seen this command before. Moses was to give this command to Pharaoh in the first series of plans. So now he's going again. One feature of these threefold series of three plagues is that you have the opening plague of each series taking place by the river in the morning with Pharaoh. Moses goes out there and gives them this command. What we were reminded about, though, is the goal. Let my people go that they may worship me in the wilderness. The whole point of the Lord delivering Israelites is to be their God alone. And the praise of the peoples belongs to God. And he is worthy of their allegiance. And so when God delivers them, it will be for the purpose of setting them apart for his own great name. Pharaoh is going to hear this again. And in verse 21, the warning is, or else if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people. and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand." This could be a judgment of flies that are more equivalent to what we would understand to be mosquitoes, stinging and annoying pests, that are going to cover the Egyptians and their homes, permeating everything. How thorough? Well, the ground itself will be covered with them, so that wherever these people dwell and wherever these people walk in Egypt, there the judgment of God will be in their face. There's no escape from it. There's no escape from it. Wherever they go in the land, there are the flies. Now, there was an Egyptian deity named Beelzebub. Beelzebub was the lord of the flies. There may be another significant deity who is in the shape of a bug, a flying beetle named Keperer. These deities might be in view as examples of the kind of humiliation of gods being exposed by the Lord's judgments. We've seen that in Plague I, II, and III, certain gods associated with those judgments were being exposed and humiliated. And now that continues with the focus on the Lord of the Flies. God's going to show that Yahweh is the Lord of the Flies. Beelzebub can do nothing. And then verse 22, but on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen. Now think carefully here. This is, this is different from what the previous plagues, not, not simply different in content, but in scope. I will set apart the land of Goshen where my people dwell so that no swarms of flies shall be there that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. The plague is different then, not just in content, but in scope and focus. The land of Goshen was in Egypt, but it was a set-apart region that under Joseph's ministry there, where he was presiding as the prime minister of the land, the Israelites who came over to be fed and sustained by his provision, settled in the land of Goshen and never left. And it was a part in Egypt that was fertile and they were able to flourish there as a people and in fact become a nation out of the dozens of people that came over initially. And now this nation of people in this territory called Goshen will be protected. It's as if the Lord builds a wall around them and the flies are going to be everywhere, everywhere, all over the ground in all the houses except in the land of Goshen where the Israelites are. Consider the supernatural miracle that that requires. This is not a natural phenomenon. This is an unusual and only explainable by the supernatural kind of event. God is going to set apart the territory. And the purpose is clear, so that you may know I am the Lord, that I do this kind of thing. I am Lord over the flies. I'm setting apart the land of Egypt from the land of Goshen within it. And that kind of marking off demonstrates His supremacy. It demonstrates His supremacy over the gods of the land. In fact, That word, land, may be the best way to render the last word of verse 22, that you may know I'm the Lord in the midst of the land, not just the earth, though it could go either way. If land is more appropriate there, it's a way of reminding them that the Lord has shown up in Egypt. And this would be consistent with what he told Moses in Exodus 3, I have come down to deliver them. And Pharaoh is to know that the Lord is over the deities of Egypt, is supreme, and is rendering them exposed with their powerless identities in nature. They are no gods at all. God alone is God, and He has come down into the land. Yahweh is with us, they would know. In verse 23, thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow, this sign shall happen. How sovereign is the Lord? He sets the boundaries of the judgment and he sets the timing of the judgment. Consider the details here. He says it will be in the land of Egypt, except in this territory, there will be no flies swarming. And then he says, and it's not going to happen randomly or outside of my control. It will happen when I ordain it to happen. It will be tomorrow. God is sovereign. And it says in verse 24, and the Lord did so, which condenses a few things. It condenses. And then by implication that Moses would have gone to Pharaoh, he would have said, let my people go. Pharaoh would have said, I'm not going to do that. And then he says, or else here's what God's going to do. And so then the Lord did. So all those things happen according to the word of the Lord. The Lord carries out exactly what He had promised. There came, in verse 24, great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses. And throughout all the land of Egypt, the land was ruined by the swarms of flies. That word ruined is important. That kind of devastation has not been described yet with a word in the first three plagues. But in this fourth one, we're told that essentially Egypt is being ruined. It's being demolished. God's taking it apart brick by brick, if you will. The ruin of the land, though, is also symbolic, because spiritually speaking, Egypt has been in a ruinous way for a long time. And so the ruin of the land reminds us that before God, they are a people in desperate need of the light of Yahweh, because they are in deep darkness and slavery to idolatry. The land was ruined in a way that was far greater and worse than even outward devastation and nuisance of flies. In verse 25, Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron. Page Moses and Aaron, he said, get them in here. And he tells them, go sacrifice to your God within the land. Now, before we applaud Pharaoh here, look very carefully at what he has just done. He's agreed that they can sacrifice, but he has not fully gone with the direction of Yahweh, has he? What's different? He says in verse 25, sacrifice within the land, which would be the land of Egypt. So you can sacrifice to the Lord your God, which apparently was something prohibited to this point, go sacrifice to Him, but do it within the land. He's trying to strike a deal or a compromise. Pharaoh doesn't want the Israelites to go, so if they want so bad to sacrifice to their Lord, then let them do it, but stay here. Moses says in verse 26, it would not be right to do so. For the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? Now I don't think this is Moses trying to trying to say something that's not true, I think this would be one response that would be valid. He could also have reminded Pharaoh, just as he has in each of the plagues, or most of them so far, that Yahweh has said, let my people go a several days journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to me outside this land. That would have been a legitimate thing for Pharaoh to be told here. Also true, though, is that the Israelites would be sacrificing animals in a way that would be offensive to the Egyptians. Animals like bulls and rams were sacred in Egypt. And so Moses is right that if the Israelites start doing that there in Egypt, it's like they're taking the gods of the Egyptians and killing them. And so it would no doubt provoke and incense the Egyptians. I think Moses is right here. He says to Pharaoh in verse 27, we must go three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he tells us. So again, Moses has said what is true, and now he puts before Pharaoh the recurring statement about what Yahweh's commanded. We've got to go this far, we've got to go to this place, and we've got to do this thing, because that's what the Lord has said. Moses doesn't have the authority to broker a deal, all right? Moses doesn't get to say, well, I know the Lord said this, but Pharaoh's willing to meet me here, so we're just going to sort of meet halfway, and we'll say to the Israelites, all right, we've negotiated this, but we've all got to stay. He's going to let us, though, you know, sacrifice to the Lord. Moses insists on the original plan, which is right. In verse 28, Pharaoh says, I'll let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, only you must not go very far away. Plead with me." So Pharaoh, he's playing hardball here, isn't he? I mean, he's not going to let them go with just saying, all right, you guys go. You know, been here enough decades or centuries. You know, Lord be with you. Instead, he wants them to, all right, leave, but don't go very far away. Pharaoh's no doubt expecting that he's going to in some way bring them back or they'll come back on their own. And then the audacity is, and by the way, plead for me, which is a way of saying, can I give you a prayer request? You know, I know I'm ignoring the Lord. I'm in outright rebellion against him. I've heard his word. I'm not going to do that, but will you pray something for me? And in verse 29, Moses says, Behold, I am going out from you, and I will plead with the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, from his people tomorrow. Only let not Pharaoh cheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord." Now, what's he referring to? In the second plague, Pharaoh had said, you may go. And when Moses was about to leave, he said, will you pray that these frogs would go away. Moses did pray, the Lord removed the frogs to the degree that Pharaoh was approving, and then Pharaoh changed his mind and didn't let the people go after all. So Moses is talking about that. He says, let Pharaoh not cheat again. So it's a way of saying don't trifle or deal lightly with the instruction of the Lord and with the word you've now pledged. So in verse 30, Moses left Pharaoh's presence and he prayed to Yahweh. And in verse 31, the Lord did as Moses asked, remove the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, his servants and his people. Not one remained. So Moses kept his word. Yahweh kept his word. But Pharaoh doesn't keep his word. In verse 32, but Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also and did not let the people go. The fifth plague is in chapter nine, verses one to seven. Then Yahweh said to Moses, go into Pharaoh, because the second plague in each of the threefold series takes place not in the morning by the river, that's the first in each series. The middle plague in each of the threefold series takes place in the house of Pharaoh. So Moses has to go into where Pharaoh is, his home, his palace. Go into Pharaoh and say, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go, that they may serve me. Same command, same goal of the exodus, the worship of God. Verse 2, for if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field. Horses, donkeys, camels, the herds and the flocks, the hand of the Lord. That's not a good thing, right? The hand of the Lord falling is a warning here. Pharaoh doesn't want the hand of the Lord to fall. Because over and over again, in the historical books of the Old Testament and in some of the Psalms, the references to the hand of the Lord is associated with judgment, pestilence, death. Moses says the hand of the Lord will fall. If you refuse to let them go, God's hand will fall and a severe plague will come down. Livestock are going to die. Even different examples of livestock, right? Horses, donkeys, camels, herds, flocks. What's significant about livestock? Well, remember back in the previous plague in chapter 4, when Moses says the Egyptians would be offended at and find abominable what we would be sacrificing to the Lord. Because there were many examples of livestock that were treasured as sacred among the Egyptians. Well, then they're next in the fifth plague. Because gods and goddesses were depicted as livestock in the shape and fashioning of these idols. Some Egyptians worshipped a bull, which they viewed as a fertility figure, and there were religious cults in Egypt that were given to the worship of this beast. There was the god Bucchus, who was a sacred bull. and others that were depicted to embody the gods like Ptah and Ra of Egypt, embodied by bulls and statues of them. The chief bull was Apis, worshipped at a temple, with an entire priesthood devoted to the maintenance of the worship and the encouragement of the worship of Apis. There were also goddesses. Isis, the queen of the gods. Not Isis the acronym like the terrorist group. We're talking about Isis, the queen of the gods. Different Isis. Still bad. Isis was generally depicted with cow horns on her head. Another goddess named Hathor was represented with the head of a cow. The examples of all these gods serves to show that livestock, the death of them, the striking down of livestock, would be something that sends a message to the heart of the spiritual lives of the Egyptians, because there was widespread worship of these things. And so the Lord says to Moses, the hand of the Lord is going to fall. Moses says that to Pharaoh. And then in verse four, look at the distinction then made. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die. That's amazing. Another example of a supernatural working, walling around in a divisive division, good divisiveness, around the Israelites to protect them in the land of Goshen. Now, this was certainly a kind of religious practice of the worship of these sacred animals that would have influenced the thinking of the Israelites in some sense. Because later in the book of Exodus, Moses is going to be up on a mountain and he's going to receive the law of the Lord. And he's going to come down from that mountain and he's going to see the Israelites engaged in idolatry. having compiled all sorts of jewelry and materials into the fire and fashioned a golden calf. Why that animal? Because that's what Egypt does. And there's this bothersome, suspicious, skeptical thing that the reader has the more we read about some of the Israelites in Exodus and in Numbers, and we wonder that even though they've come out of Egypt, has Egypt altogether come out of their heart? We're not so sure about some of them. Because it's not incredibly clear that all Israel is Israel, as Paul would put it in Romans 9. It looks like some of them are stuck with their idolatry and are blind to the glories of Yahweh and are eager to live out their idolatry and immorality in unbelief. And some of that is demonstrated even near the end of Exodus, when they fashion what would have been a god of Egypt at the bottom of Mount Sinai. Why the true living God at that very moment is revealing himself to Moses. So the Lord makes a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt in verse 4. In verse 5, the Lord set a time, again His sovereignty, determining not just the extent of the judgment, but the timing of it. It will be tomorrow, the Lord will do this thing. And then the narrator says in verse 6, the next day the Lord did this thing. It's exactly what He said would happen. It was fulfilled by His power. The livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. Some translations say all of the livestock, or others say something like all kinds or most of, which is probably more in line with the intent here, because in the next plague and the sixth plague there will be boils that appear on the beasts. that you see in the plague. So this seems to be something like all kinds of livestock, like were listed earlier, camels and donkeys and cows and all the rest, rather than every single animal in Egypt dying. That couldn't be the case, literally, because in the very next plague, you've got some stuff happening to animals. So we have to recognize what would be the best way to understand the effect of this plague. Then you see the fulfillment of the Lord's word in verse seven. Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. When it says he sent and not one of them was dead, what that means is he sent to investigate. Moses had given him this word, came into his house and said, here's what the Lord's gonna do tomorrow if you refuse to let the people go. Well, apparently Pharaoh refused. That's a reasonable implication here because the plague fell. And so as this plague falls, Pharaoh knows, he said all the livestock in the land of Goshen with the Israelites wouldn't be struck down. Somebody go see if that happened. Sure enough, he sent for it. And they came back and they said, Pharaoh, you're not going to believe this. Every one of those animals are standing. You know, they're all alive. They're all alive and preserved and protected, just like Yahweh said. What's Pharaoh do? Well, the wise thing would be for him to surrender. But it says the heart of Pharaoh was hardened when he did not let the people go. His resolve is continuing to strengthen. Judgment after judgment is coming. Pharaoh is in Yahweh's hand and Yahweh is not finished. the sixth plague in chapter 9 in verse 8. And Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, take handfuls of soot from the kiln and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. Now, this is how the third plague in each of the three series unfolds in the sense of no warning given to Pharaoh. The third plague, and the sixth plague, and the ninth plague all happened, the last of each of these series of three, they all happened with no warning given to Pharaoh. You know, we've seen, go in the morning to the river, or go into Pharaoh's house and say to him, not the third plague in each series. The third, sixth, and ninth plagues happened without any warning to Pharaoh. Moses and Aaron are to take soot from the kiln, or ashes, if you will, and throw them in the air, in the sight of Pharaoh. So the only thing Pharaoh gets is that they're gonna show up with stuff in their hand and throw it. First of all, why are they coming back in there? They have nothing to say, and all of a sudden they're symbolically throwing what will then become, by the power of God, a judgment. In verse 9, it shall become fine dust all over the land of Egypt and become boils, breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt. This language about the boils upon the Egyptians was taken up in one of the covenant curses of Deuteronomy 28. And the Israelites were warned about a judgment from the Lord if they forsook the Lord who had saved them, delivered them, set them apart, gave them his law. He reminded them in Deuteronomy 28, 27, that upon you would come the judgment that the Egyptians themselves had to face. Don't let that be you Israelites. Now, several gods may be in view here. The god Thoth was the god of the healing arts. Another example would be Imhotep, a god of medicine, but perhaps most significant, the god Sekhmet in Egypt, who is a god of dealing with diseases with his own priesthood to worship and to maintain the worship of this god, meaning that the plague of boils and the outbreaking of sores and illness upon these people and upon beasts demonstrated that these gods who were trusted for their power to heal could do nothing. They could do nothing. These gods worshipped by priests and people for their healing qualities and powers were powerless after all, deaf and mute and blind. The plague of the boils was an attack on these gods and goddesses. So judgment on multiple levels then in Egypt, right? multiple levels, not just showing Pharaoh that God is God, not just showing the Egyptians that God is God, and not just showing the Israelites that God is God, but showing that all the gods of Egypt are not gods at all, demonstrating His exclusive and sole authority in heaven and on earth. He maintains all of His creation. He is Lord of everything, and everything going on in Egypt is under His jurisdiction. They answer to Him. And so do we. They answer to Him. And so do we. It's always been this way. Verse 10, So Moses and Aaron took from the kiln soot, stood before Pharaoh, so these ashes were thrown in the air, and it became boils breaking out and sores on man and beast. There could be an irony here. Some scholars suggest that the kiln or the place where these ovens would be and the fire that could be used were part of the brick-making process. And if that's the case, it could just be sun-dried bricks, but if they also used oven, resulting perhaps in other things being put in the oven besides just the bricks, then this would have been part of the Israelite slave regimen, if you will, part of their work, part of their labor. After all, Moses and Aaron know exactly where to go to get it. And it's probably because the Israelite people are dealing with that and Aaron prior to this moment as well. And so they go to what would have likely been associated with their slavery and God is turning it on its head. The very ashes of the fruit of the Israelites labor are being cast in the air and to become a judgment upon the oppressors. To vindicate the oppressed. And in verse 11, the magicians could not stand before Moses. I think this means they had to leave quickly because these people who would want to conjure up with their secret arts some sort of power, not because the gods were real, but because indeed the devil is real and his demonic power in them. But these magicians had to leave. There's no imitation attempted here. The boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. So there's a vast inability of all of the Egyptian forces and administration and sorcerers to stop Moses and ultimately Yahweh. They cannot do it. In verse 12, But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he didn't listen to them, meaning Moses and Aaron didn't listen to them as the Lord. had spoken to Moses. So over and over again, in the first six plagues, what we've seen is that Pharaoh's ears and eyes are deaf and blinded, spiritually speaking, just like the gods they worshipped. They've become like what they've worshipped. And their hearts are hardened and they do not want to follow Yahweh, yet they are powerless to stop Him. Not even the magicians with all their tricks or all their calling upon the evil one could do any imitative work. They're affected, every one of them, throughout the land. But notice it says it became boils upon all the Egyptians, indicating, I think, what the fourth and the fifth plagues confirm, that there is a division between the people of God in Goshen and the Egyptians throughout the rest of the land. God has truly set apart His people. There are spiritual lessons here, friends. One gentleman says, just as God brought Israel out of the house of bondage, so He brings the church out of the prison house of sin. And he's thinking about the fourth plague, when Pharaoh said to Moses, go and sacrifice to your God, but in the land, don't leave. Stay in Egypt, but call out to the Lord. And this scholar says some people are interested in getting religious without ever becoming Christians. They come to church on Sunday, but they're not willing to leave their sins for the rest of the week. To put it in terms of Exodus 8, they want to make some sacrifices as long as they don't have to leave Egypt. The Lord said he's gonna bring them out. And if they said, well, how about these terms? How about we negotiate it and compromise it this way? Well, who's God in this context? And who would Moses think he is to assume a self-relegated authority to make these deals and say, all right, we'll stay in the land when God had promised Abraham and Isaac and Jacob that they would dwell in a promised land. and that it would be given for the people of God as a type of the world to come and a new heavens and new earth. There was no staying in Egypt. It wasn't an option. And if the Israelites had thought of it that way, then their idea of worshiping and following God was vastly distorted. And that's true for a lot of people who show up in church on Sunday and they live their life in Egypt, thinking they're going to make sacrifices to the Lord and compromise it. It doesn't work this way. Spurgeon says the devil tempts us with this idea. The devil says, stay in your sin and trust in him. Spurgeon goes on to say, I charge you by the living God. Don't be duped by such a treacherous lie. It is not possible that you can find rest or salvation while you live in sin. There is no option to stay in Egypt. God's going to bring us out of the prison of sin, not halfway, but all the way he's going to deliver his people. Spurgeon illustrates it this way. What would you think of a man who went as near as he could to burning his house down just to see how much fire it could stand? What would you think of the man who cut himself with a knife to see how deep it could go without mortally wounding himself? Or another man who experimented as to how large a quantity of poison he could take before he dies? We would say with Spurgeon, these are extreme follies, but not as great as that of the man who tries to see how much sin he can indulge in and think himself saved. We cannot stay in Egypt. If we are His, He has brought us out of the bondage in the house of sin, and we must know with Spurgeon that the deliverance is to be complete, or it is no true deliverance at all. There is no option to stay in Egypt. The fourth plague has a lesson for the Israelites and all the subsequent readers of the book that God said it must be this way and so it must be this way if we are to follow him. We've got to leave it. Out of the darkness and into his marvelous light, out of the prison of slavery to sin and to death, into his goodness and mercy, culminated ultimately in our resurrection to life. The Israelites are protected from judgment. This foreshadows not just the fifth and the sixth plague that follow right after that fourth one. Doesn't it foreshadow also the Passover to come? Where in Exodus chapter 12, those who are covered by the blood will not be struck down by the judgment. Yet all those not covered by that blood will be. The Lord continues to make distinctions between His people who follow Him and those who do not. Because the people of God must live a distinct life. We are set apart. We are not to look like the world. Their values must not be ours. Their convictions must not be ours. Their worldview must not be ours. We must be a Bible-saturated and God-centered people, for that must be our claim, at the very least, that we know Him, and yet have we left Egypt, shown ourselves protected and delivered by the mercy of God from sin, that our desires and our affections are now Christward, that the sin we once loved we now declare war upon. And we see that spirit against the flesh and flesh against the spirit in Galatians 5. Don't think that you can profess to know him and make your life in Egypt. It didn't work then and it will not work now. And on the last day, Jesus will say to many on that day, you say to me, Lord, Lord, but I never. Because the division is clear. There is a wide way and many go and there is a narrow way and few find it. But the narrow way is the only one going to the gate of life. On that day, the division will continue with the judgment when he gathers the sheep and the goats. And that final division, that final separation will be crystal clear where God says to His people, enter into life everlasting, the joy of your master. Come and say to the wicked, depart from me into everlasting judgment. The division signaled in the book of Exodus foreshadows the greater spiritualities that will unfold all throughout the Bible and culminate when the nations are gathered before the throne of God. We will all stand before Him. The fifth plague reminds us to beware the hand of the Lord. The hand of the Lord, Moses said, will fall and he is disturbed, determined its scope and timing. God has appointed a time for judgment. Ecclesiastes 3 17 says that we're told God will judge the righteous and the wicked. The time has been set. And in Christ's words in the Sermon on the Mount, he says in Matthew 7, the one who hears his words and doesn't build his life on them is like a man who builds his house on the sand and the storm is going to come and the house will fall because the foundation cannot hold the power of the storm. God's hand will fall and it will not be the death of livestock. The nations will gather before him and the hand of the Lord will be a hurricane of wrath and the hurricane of God's wrath will devastate the wicked on the last day. His hand of judgment will fall. I wonder if you believe that. It's true in the book of Exodus and all of those earthly judgments foreshadow the truth of God, rendering all nations accountable to him by his power in hand. Truly, our only refuge is to trust His Word and follow Him out of Egypt, out of the slavery of sin and darkness of our idolatry, into the life and peace and pardon found only in Jesus Christ. Otherwise, the hand of the Lord is against us, friends. In the sixth plague, not even the magicians could stand before Moses. They had to leave, showing that even in the end, the wicked will not stand. According to Psalm 1 verse 5, the wicked will not stand in the judgment. There are those who are delighting in the Lord, following his word, loving what he has revealed of himself. And then in Psalm 1, there are the others who spurn God's word. They couldn't care less about God. His authority means nothing to them. They live in rebellion against him. And then there are others, perhaps you may think that they're professing something true about the Lord. And yet they want to live out in Egypt because in their heart of hearts, they truly don't love the person and ways and word of God. They don't think God is wise and they don't think his way is what they should follow. And so in their folly. They follow. The path of destruction on that wide road where many trod. Friend, I wonder where you are today about all of these matters, these plagues, that we've read about in the fourth and the fifth and the sixth ones have important lessons, not just for those first readers of the book where they are seeing this glorious account. But we need to study these plagues because these are truths about the Lord that have always been the case. And we must reckon with our sovereign God. But friends, in Christ, the righteous judgment of God will never touch us because he has borne it on Don't you see that that is how He has set us apart? The cross is a greater sign and wonder than the fourth and fifth and sixth plagues, and the three before those, and the three and four after those. The cross is the way God has a people in the refuge of the Redeemer. The Creator must become the Redeemer. And our new exodus in Christ has a goal. The worship of God among the nations. That's why missions exists. That's why evangelism and discipleship and the Church of Jesus Christ exist. It's for the praise of God among all the tribes and languages and peoples throughout the world. That is why we do what we do, because God is glorious and worthy of worship. That's the big picture. That's the aim, ultimately, of these plagues. It's the aim of the whole Bible. It's the aim of the Lord's Day. It's the aim of the Christian life, is that we understand the glory of God above all things. To know Him, and to worship Him, and to praise Him with our lives. And this will be so when we recognize we have been called out of Egypt. The Lord calls you to leave your sin, calls you to lay down your arms, to surrender your rebellion and to follow Him as King. He's the only Redeemer there is. He has shown us that all of the gods of Egypt and all of the gods of the 21st century American culture are powerless to save and powerless to satisfy. Let these judgments drive you to Christ, who is our only refuge. And that's good news. It's good news because God. Did not have to say. Anybody. In Egypt. Nobody deserves mercy. If they did, it wouldn't be called mercy and grace. They would have earned it and they could have said it good for us. We got what we had coming for us. Mercy means we don't get what is coming for us. And Christ has stepped in the place and interposed his precious blood as the lyric says. And he has taken us as his own by faith in him. And Christ alone being our refuge, the hand of the Lord will not fall on us because on the cross it fell on him. The message of the gospel is Christ has received the judging hand of the Lord in our place. What we know in Christ is only mercy.