Pharaoh's Frogs

[0:00] And we finished chapter 7 last Sunday, last two times really, we looked in chapter 7, first at Pharaoh's hardened heart, saw some things about a hard heart, and then last week the first plague, turning the water to blood.

[0:23] And I preached to you last week, one week without water. And so by chapter 8, everything seems to be resolved and back to normal as far as the water situation goes, though it's safe to say that that week would not quickly be forgotten.

[0:41] And may I just mention, don't ever lose sight of what it was like when there was no water, as we preached last week, what it was like without the Lord and His influence and His Holy Spirit, without that well springing up within you unto everlasting life.

[0:58] Or as Jesus Christ said, out of His belly shall flow rivers of living waters. And don't quickly forget, just because you get past it, don't quickly forget what it was like without the Lord in your life.

[1:13] And don't take it for granted that you have this wonderful gift of eternal life. But we're going to put that picture behind us for now, because in chapter 8, we're introduced to the second judgment upon Egypt.

[1:26] And this judgment is frogs. And instead of reading the entire chapter, I'd like to read with you down to verse number 15. From 1 to 15, and let's get a glimpse here of this second judgment upon the land of Egypt.

[1:44] Exodus chapter 8, verse number 1, And the Lord spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Notice God has not changed at all from what He wants.

[1:58] Verse 2, And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs. And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading troughs.

[2:19] And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants. And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.

[2:36] And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.

[2:48] Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Entreat the Lord, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people. And I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord. And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory over me!

[3:01] When shall I entreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to destroy the frogs from thee, and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only? And he said, Tomorrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word, that thou mayest know, that there is none like the Lord our God.

[3:17] And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people, that they remain in the river only. And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh. And Moses cried unto the Lord, because of the frogs, which he had brought against Pharaoh.

[3:30] And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. And the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields. And they gathered them together upon heaps, and the land stank.

[3:42] But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had said. Let's pray together. God, as we have read these 15 verses of your Holy Bible, help us as we consider this miracle, and this plague, and this moment, as it happened in history, as tragedies like this will happen again in the future.

[4:09] Thank you, Lord, that we're on the right side of this. But Lord, as we study it, please teach us some things. Please let there be some truth for us today.

[4:21] And please minister the word of God to each heart that's here. I pray that each person would get something from you, because they came to church this morning, because we opened up the Bible.

[4:33] And so, Lord, please let your holy words in power, and in spirit minister to our hearts. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

[4:44] So, we read 15 verses. What I'm going to do today is really just kind of outline the chapter with you, and comment along the way, and point out some things, and some truths, maybe some things we can glean, and can learn, from what's taking place here in plague number two.

[5:05] Now, it's easy. I said this last week. I'll say it again. I'll probably say it again. that it's easy to take all ten plagues as one, like just a horrible time.

[5:16] It's kind of hard to really isolate one, and really, really, really dig into it. I can't give you a perfect answer of why frogs.

[5:26] The next one is lice. Why lice? The next one's flies. Why flies? Is there some deep representation and significance here? Is there something more that we can be learning from this, or is it just what God did?

[5:40] If He would have did something else, we'd say, why that? I don't know. I can't answer that. But we'll look at it, and let's see if we can get something. A side note is I am pleased.

[5:51] I am thoroughly pleased at how far we've come just in the first seven chapters of Exodus, meaning when I felt the Lord just kind of guiding my thoughts to start this book and to preach through it, I promised I had no idea where it was going to go.

[6:08] I had no idea what the messages would look like week after week after week, and it was intimidating. I'm just dead honest. It was very intimidating to think I'm going to start something and be sticking my neck out, and I don't know how it's going to turn out.

[6:20] I don't have a book that somebody gave dynamite outlines, and I'm just checking one off the list. I have no idea where we're going to be at next week. But I've enjoyed it.

[6:32] I myself have enjoyed the diversity of thought and of sermons that have come out from these first seven chapters, and I'm excited about coming into another one.

[6:42] So here we are. Verse number one, at the very beginning of this plague, my outline goes like this. I want to study here first the implementation of the plague.

[6:53] The implementation of the plague, and you'll see it in two ways. There's the explanation, and then there's the execution of the plague in the first six verses. And so the Lord explains from the very beginning to Moses what it is he's going to do.

[7:09] Go tell Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord. And if you don't obey what I want, you don't give me my way, here's what's coming. It's going to be frogs.

[7:19] And it's not just going to be a couple. It's going to cover your land. It's going to be everywhere in your homes, in everything you do from sleep to work.

[7:31] You're going to have frogs in your face. They're going to be upon thee, in verse number four. And upon thy people. And upon all thy servants.

[7:43] Now frogs, they may not strike you as the scariest of animals, or they may not intimidate you at all, but I don't think you can get the gravity of this situation until you experience what it would be like to have frogs in your face, and in your food, and hopping on your plate, and in the seat, and on you, and in your bed.

[8:08] You ladies would be freaking out if there was frogs under your covers all over the place. There's no escape. So there's the explanation of the plague that God gives, and then the execution of it, in verses five and six, when he speaks to Moses and says, stretch your hand out, and he did it.

[8:27] And it says in verse six, at the end, that the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. So frogs are everywhere. All right, we got that. I hope you can picture it, though.

[8:37] I don't know if you can. It's not going to make a whole lot of sense, or really be powerful, if you can't picture how bad this really was. If it was here today, if it was here today, there would be frogs on your pew beside you, and they'd be landing on your Bible.

[8:54] And as soon as you shush that one away, there's two more, and there's more, and they're on the floor, and they're getting on your feet, and they're screaming over here, and over here, and over here, and somebody's jumping up.

[9:05] Ah! Get the... And you can't get away. There's frogs in the sanctuary. Let's get out of here. So where you go? Out to the foyer? There's frogs in the foyer.

[9:17] We're going out the door. This church is infested. Called working, or whoever they are. And they're on the sidewalk. But everybody, hurry up, get in the car. We got to get out of Silmar, because Silmar's infested with frogs, and as you're getting in the car, and starting the car, and shut the doors quickly, there's a frog on you.

[9:36] How did that get in here? Who let the door open? The windows open. There's frogs in the car. Okay. Well, you get them out of there, and you get out, and you get out of the road, and you're out of here, and as you're going, there's frogs.

[9:49] There's probably car wrecks. There's frogs. There's frogs. There's frogs. Get to your house, and for some dumb reason, you're pretending, imagining, they're not in my house, because they're back there.

[9:59] And you open the door, and there's frogs in your house. And you go to the bathroom, and there's frogs in your bathroom. And they're swimming in the toilet. And they're hopping in the tub. And please, God, no, not in my bed.

[10:12] But yes, the text says they're in the bed. You can't escape the frogs. And so let that sink in a little bit, if that helps you to picture how bad this was.

[10:23] This is a plague. This is tormenting Pharaoh and his people, the land of Egypt. And that teaches us something.

[10:35] That teaches us something right away, is that there is no escaping the judgment of God. There's no escaping the judgment of God.

[10:45] Oh, I'll just, oh, it's here, and it's bad because I did that, but I'll just go over here. Ask Jonah. Jonah. He got in a, boarded a ship to flee, Nineveh, and going to Tarshish, to flee the presence of the Lord.

[10:59] And guess what he found out? It's not very good over there either. There's a storm. Well, if I'll just get thrown into the water, that storm will be gone, and we'll have to deal with that.

[11:10] Well, I guess there's a whale waiting for you there, Jonah. You can't escape the judgment of God. And the frogs are everywhere. When God declares judgment, you're going to get judgment.

[11:22] When God says, the water's going to be turned to blood, it's turned to blood. Everywhere, it's turned to blood. When God says, let the rivers bring forth frogs, the rivers brought forth frogs abundantly, and there was no escaping.

[11:37] When God says, if you sow to your flesh, you will of your flesh reap corruption, you're going to get corruption if you sow to your flesh. When the Lord says, if you sow to the flesh, or if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die, you will shorten your life by living after the flesh.

[11:56] It'll happen. In 1 Timothy chapter 6, there's a caution against somebody that loves money, and it says, they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

[12:13] For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

[12:25] When God says, destruction, perdition, like a place of no escape, and he says, many sorrows, God means, you're going to get destruction, you're going to get perdition, and there's going to be many sorrows.

[12:42] There's no escaping the judgment of God. When God says, depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire, there is no escaping the judgment of God.

[12:56] If a sinner dies without Christ, if he dies without forgiveness of his sins, if he dies in his sins, he'll be cast into the fire of hell, and Christ asks the question, how can ye escape, how can ye escape, if ye neglects a great salvation?

[13:12] He asks this, how shall ye escape the damnation of hell? In hell, there is no escape. From the frogs, there is no escape.

[13:24] The implementation of this plague teaches us, firstly, that sinful man cannot escape the judgment of God. You know what you need to be reminded of, or be aware of, or be afraid of, is that you can't escape the judgment of God.

[13:42] You, smart guy, pretty girl, you can't escape what God says is going to pass. It'll come to pass. You ain't getting away with anything.

[13:53] Be sure your sin will find you out. Be afraid, be aware, fear God, and obey Him. And if God says, let go, then let go.

[14:05] Be obedient, and avoid at all costs the judgment of God, because you can't escape it. There's something, secondly, I want to look at first, the implementation of the plague in the first six verses, but then in verse 7, we have the imitation of the performers.

[14:22] These are the magicians. The magicians, here they are again. One week later, the magicians show back up. My, we remember these guys.

[14:37] They're going to show us what they can do. They're the wise men and the sorcerers, mentioned earlier in chapter 7, in verse, oh, number 11. And they showed up and turned water to blood, just like Aaron and Moses.

[14:50] And the point we learned last week was they couldn't help. All they could do is make it worse. You can't look to man to help you out when God's judging, because man can't do a thing against God.

[15:02] And, well, look who shows up again, but the good old performers, the magicians, and here they are to imitate what they saw with the frogs. Verse number 7 says, the magicians did so with their enchantments and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.

[15:19] It's the same story. Well, we read that last week in chapter 7 and verse 22 that the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments. And here they are again, one week later, right on time.

[15:31] Here come the magicians. Are they going to help the situation out? Absolutely not. Can we look to man to help the situation out?

[15:43] Absolutely not. Is America in a bad place right now? Perhaps is America getting maybe the first fruits or more of the judgment of God? Can we look to man to fix it?

[15:59] Can we vote in Donald Trump with his King James Bibles for sale? Can we put him in office? Because he'll fix it for us. Let me help you with that. No! That man ain't going to do a thing for you.

[16:12] He's not going to do a thing for the church. He might boost the economy. Help yourself. But that's two different worlds. That's not this world. It's not the kingdom of God.

[16:25] There's the imitation of the performers. You know what those men do? They make things worse. They're pompous. They're proud performers. They love the spotlight.

[16:38] They love their face. They love people to know who they are. But they don't know how to help anybody. All they know how to do is show off. In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus Christ warned about the Pharisees.

[16:52] And he said this in verse 4, For they do bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men's shoulders. But they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

[17:05] Why those religious elites, those hypocrites, they don't help. All they do is put the burden on you. All they do is make it worse. You got a little bit of water left, they turn at the blood.

[17:17] You got a place where there's no frogs? Well, they show that they can do it too and bring on more frogs. So no thank you to the performers. The imitation of the performers teaches us that man cannot assist.

[17:31] Once again, two weeks in a row, man cannot provide relief from the judgment of God. And now we look to the third thought here and we look at Pharaoh. And I want you to see this as verses 8 through 15, the improvisation of Pharaoh.

[17:49] The improvisation, meaning he reacts on impulse several times here with no real purpose and no real thought. It's just always in the moment, which I'll say is not befitting of a king to just react to that.

[18:03] Oh, change my mind to here and shift over to that because that's in front of me. And he's not behaving in a kingly manner, just changing his mind with the wind. And I want to look at three things here.

[18:16] The first is that there's his resolution to release. Then there's his reluctance to release them. And then finally his refusal to release as we've read.

[18:27] Let's look at the first one, his resolution. In verse number 8, then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, entreat the Lord that he may take away the frogs from me and from my people and I will let the people go that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord.

[18:43] So there is something to note here that I think Pharaoh has it backwards. Instead of just saying, all right, fine, I'll give you what you want. I'll let you go.

[18:55] Because I'll do that, would you please get rid of, he says it back, he says, get rid of the frogs, give me my way, then I will let them go. It looks like he's going to release them though.

[19:07] It comes out of his mouth, this resolution to release, but something's not right. Something's not right about the way he's approaching this. Now, the reason for this resolution, I think besides the obvious, the nuisance of the frogs, I think this plague's making him look pretty bad.

[19:25] This is on his people. This is on his land. It's on all thy borders. And so they can point the finger at him. It's no mystery that he's holding on, that these Jews are supposed to leave and that he won't let them go.

[19:38] This isn't being done in the back alley here. It's open. And it's making him look bad. And so it seems like, maybe, just maybe, he's humbled and rethinking his position here of holding on to the Jews, of being so hard and so stubborn.

[19:59] It sounds like he's willing to do what God said. I will let the people go. He said that with his mouth. Now, that doesn't hold true. And he's not coming at it right, as I showed you.

[20:12] But let's just pause on this thought here that that is the right reaction to the judgment of God. That is what's supposed to happen when you're corrected or punished, is that you rethink things.

[20:30] You take a step back and realize, I made this happen. And I can ask God, I can entreat the Lord and get this resolved.

[20:44] That's what judgment is supposed to do. It's supposed to cause you to give up on your stubbornness and on your refusal to let go of what God says let go of and repent.

[20:56] The judgment is supposed to bring forth repentance. When you get caught, you're supposed to seek to make it right. But inside of you is a wicked man, a carnal flesh that says, I'm going to double down on this.

[21:12] I'm not giving in. I'm not giving up. But no, Pharaoh, it seems like he might be rethinking his position. It shows evidence of repentance here by him, his resolution to release.

[21:28] So there's a reason for this and then there's the reaction of Moses to his resolution and he says in verse 9, I think you heard me as I read it, he said, glory over me.

[21:38] Have you ever heard anyone say those three words together? Except for Moses. Glory over me. That's such an odd statement. It's unfamiliar to us to speak like that.

[21:49] But Moses' reaction is just a surprise. It's very out of character for Pharaoh to be giving in, to be humbling himself in any way.

[22:00] It's very out of character for him to be agreeing to let God's people go. And so, it's completely unexpected. And so, Moses is like, just reacts with joy and surprise.

[22:15] But you can see that he doesn't fully, he doesn't, he's not so sure that Pharaoh's telling, he doesn't entreat the Lord right then and there. He doesn't say, oh, praise the Lord, Pharaoh.

[22:25] It's wonderful you finally, God, you heard him. He says, so when do you want me to do it? It's like there's still a game going on that neither of them really trust the other.

[22:39] And Moses asks him that question, when? And so then we see beyond the resolution to release, the reluctance to release, in verse 10, he said, tomorrow.

[22:51] tomorrow. Now, isn't that one of the most remarkable things in this entire passage? Tomorrow. I don't, I don't guess that there's anyone who's ever read Exodus chapter 8 that hasn't caught that, that response of Pharaoh hasn't caught your attention and think, really?

[23:13] Tomorrow? Why not today? I would want him gone today. Tomorrow? Isn't that peculiar?

[23:24] Of course it's peculiar. We all agree that's just a little strange. What good reason do you have, Pharaoh, in waiting another day, in sleeping another night, in waking up another morning with frogs and infestation all over your home and house and land?

[23:42] Something's just something's not right. I showed you there's something wrong in verse 8 when he says, entreat the Lord, get rid of the frogs and then I'll let him go when he should have had it the other way around but here it is that he's saying, yeah, tomorrow.

[23:59] So what's going on? It would logically follow sense and suit that you would want him gone today. Your people would want him gone today. So why tomorrow?

[24:10] Well, a few things. One thing it shows us is that God does not force his will upon any man. He is not forcing Pharaoh to repent. He's even giving him the liberty and option of saying, when do you want me to remove them?

[24:25] This is, I mean, it's beyond just showing you free will. This is showing that God will squeeze and God will judge and God will punish but there's always an option. There's always a choice.

[24:37] And this also reveals to us an obvious truth about Pharaoh and that is, Pharaoh did not really want to let these people go. I'll let them go.

[24:50] Okay, when do you want me to get rid of the frogs? If I say right now, I've got to let them go. He just didn't want to let them go.

[25:04] Let me illustrate this with something that you and I do all the time. when somebody tells you or when they're trying to sell you something, they're pushing you to do something, you know what you and I tell them all the time?

[25:19] Let me think about that. Why do we say let me think about that? You're not going to think about it. Even if you do, what you're really saying is I don't want to say yes to you right now.

[25:32] I don't want to agree with you. I don't like you pushing me into a decision. Oh, but if you make the decision, if you sign right now, it'll be 50% off. If you wait until tomorrow, they've got their ways of getting that signature.

[25:45] And you know what you want to do? Let me talk to my husband. Let me talk to my wife. And they know you're just pushing them off a little bit further. Just give me a little distance here. Trying to buy some time and Pharaoh is in that spot.

[26:00] Entreat the Lord. He'll take away the frogs. Okay, Pharaoh, when do you want me to do it? Pharaoh, just say the word. Just say the word and I'll call out on God right now.

[26:14] But he couldn't say the word, could he? He couldn't let go. He said he would, but there's a reluctance. There's too many Christians that are just like Pharaoh in their reluctance, in their hesitation to either let go of something that they ought to let go of or to obey God in something they ought to obey God in.

[26:39] There's a reluctance. There's a hesitation. I'll just hold out a little longer and the conviction will pass.

[26:49] I'll just wait till tomorrow. Don't want to be rash. Don't want to make any quick decisions while the Lord's dealing with my heart, so I'll just, tomorrow. And that never happens.

[27:01] They say that to delay is to disobey. Slow obedience is no obedience.

[27:13] And yet Christians all the time, they show their Pharaoh in them when they're reluctant to obey God. When God speaks, they just put up that, just not quite yet.

[27:26] Just let me think about it a little bit longer. The Lord speaks to their heart. The Lord's dealing with their heart, especially in a church service. It's a great place the Lord deal with you. And you just, you stand there with you grabbing the pew and you stand there and think and you stand there and you just won't respond.

[27:42] The Lord will tell you exactly what you need to do inside your spirit. He just speaks to you. He puts his finger on that spot and you just, just, your instinct is to take a step back.

[27:54] Your instinct is to be reluctant, to hesitate. And we see that in Pharaoh. Thirdly, we not only see his reluctance to release, then we see his refusal to release.

[28:05] By verse 15, when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, because he set it up that if you do your end first, then I'll do mine, he had an out. He had an opportunity to renege on his release of God's people and then he refused.

[28:22] In verse 15, when he saw that there was respite, meaning there was relief from the frogs, there was a delay, a postponement, he had a window. The Bible says he hardened his heart and hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said.

[28:38] A complete change of mind here. I was calling this the improvisation of Pharaoh because he says one thing in the moment, says another in the next, and here he is changing his mind altogether when things change around him.

[28:52] And the actions of Pharaoh once again display our sinful natures. His actions are just telling you who you are.

[29:05] They reveal the truth about your heart. The truth is you just don't want to let go. You just don't want to say yes to God. You don't want to obey where he puts and squeezes your heart or when he brings judgment into your life and tries to get your attention.

[29:19] You just don't want to. And so you play the game, you tiptoe around it while it's hot but then as soon as it cools off, right back to where you were before.

[29:31] It shows us that Pharaoh doesn't want to get right with God. Pharaoh doesn't even want to obey God at all. And your sin nature doesn't want to obey God at all either.

[29:44] When the judgment comes, the repentance comes to mind, the thought of getting this thing right and maybe even the lip service. Okay, I'll stop. I'll quit doing it that way or I'll start doing it this way or Lord, I'll get in line.

[29:57] But oh, it just gets easier and people kind of back off a little and things just soften up and right back to a hard heart to refusing God.

[30:10] And there's Pharaoh. And we've come to the end of the passage that we've read and I want to give you one more thought here and one more point on the outline and we'll call this the implications of this passage.

[30:23] The implications of this passage. Before we really close here, there's some additional thoughts that I have about this scene because the Bible is written to us in such a way that there's implications beyond just the story.

[30:39] And there's truth to be discerned and learned from more than just the players of the passage, the individuals, but there's, we've studied this already, there's typology and there's prophecy and there's truth that will, can be extracted from the text of a story that has light and relevance and bearing on other things in our lives or in the future.

[31:06] So there's additional truth, I believe, that we can represent in these details and understand the Lord said, I'll smite all thy borders with frogs and the river shall bring forth frogs, frogs, frogs and God, they brought up frogs upon the land.

[31:29] I'm not going to give you a major significance here of frogs but I'll give you a few things I studied out and considered. The word frogs shows up 11 times in this chapter, 11 times the word frogs.

[31:44] There's two other times it shows up in the Psalms, in Psalm 78 and in Psalm 105 and they're both referring back to Exodus, that God did this, God did that, he brought frogs abundantly up and so that makes a total of 13 times the word frogs was used about this plague.

[32:06] That's kind of interesting, the 13 is never a good thing as maybe you know. But there's one more time the word shows up and I want you to take a look at that. Come to Revelation 16.

[32:18] The 14th mention has nothing directly to do with Exodus. So we can say that Pharaoh's frogs are mentioned 13 times but now go to Revelation 16 and see one final mention of the word frogs.

[32:39] frogs. And the reason we're going here is because every time the frogs are mentioned in the Bible it always has to do with Exodus, with the second plague. There's never a reference to anything else.

[32:53] Nothing to compare this to but one time, one spot. There's something to compare. In Revelation 16, if I backed you up into 15, it starts with these, there's seven plagues and in chapter 15 in verses 5, 6, 7, 8, you have the temple of God in heaven, you have angels coming out of the temple with seven plagues and in verse 7 of chapter 15, one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God who liveth forever and ever.

[33:31] And so these seven angels have what's called seven plagues in verse 8. And then chapter 16 gives us these seven golden vials being poured out and it's called the wrath of God.

[33:47] Look at verse 1. I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, go your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And one after another, you see in verse 2, the first went, poured his vial.

[34:00] And verse 3, the second went, poured his vial and there's blood. And then verse 4, the third, verse 8, the fourth, verse 10, the fifth. And these are horrible, horrible things.

[34:12] I don't have time to discuss and read but verse 12, the sixth angel pours out his vial. And then in verse 17, the seventh angel pours out his vial.

[34:24] Before we get to 17, after 6, this is kind of peculiar. And so I'm just pointing out the break here in the text.

[34:36] In verse 12, the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates and the water thereof was dried up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And what follows that is four verses and a mention of frogs.

[34:49] But it doesn't seem that these four verses have anything to do with that sixth vial and the drying up of the river Euphrates. It's something else that's happening that's not really God's, the vials being poured out.

[35:03] It's something in addition to that, a separate thing. And then in chapter, or verse 17, the seventh one, it picks it up with there. So what we're reading, these four verses, I'm just trying to give you the setting, it's in the setting of this great future tribulation and horrible time on earth.

[35:19] And God is pouring out quite literally from these chapters the wrath of God upon man. And in the midst of that, verse 13, and I saw three unclean spirits like frogs.

[35:35] This is not God. This is not one of the vials. but this is three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

[35:49] Now if you know your Bible here, that's the satanic trinity. Kind of the imitation or the counter to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. The dragon is Satan in chapter number 12.

[36:03] The beast is the man, the antichrist in chapter 13. And the false prophet is that counter of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity.

[36:14] That's the other beast in chapter 13 that's working miracles and causing everybody to worship the first beast. He's doing the ministry of the Holy Spirit causing men to worship Jesus Christ.

[36:25] So this is this satanic trinity and they each send forth their spirit out of their mouth and it's verse 14 says they are the spirits of devils working miracles which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.

[36:46] And verse 16 tells us that's Armageddon. Now these are the satanic trinity. The Satan is gathering the kings of the earth, gathering the men to come up to fight against the Lord and his Christ.

[37:00] And so wild. What in the world? Verse 13, I saw three unclean spirits. Why can't it just say come out of the mouth of the dragon? For some reason and I don't have a great one for you but it says these spirits are like frogs.

[37:19] Weird. It's very weird. But as I'm coming back to Exodus I see some implications of this passage.

[37:30] First of all the only thing to associate frogs with in your Bible the only thing is spirits of devils that are coming out of Satan and the satanic trinity that are coming to work against God.

[37:51] The only scriptural occurrence of frogs is in Exodus 8 or in reference to the second plague. And it seems to be relatable to something satanic that happens in the future tribulation.

[38:07] Now I'm certain I don't know all that there is to know here and I wouldn't doubt at all there is something to know there that's beyond me and my understanding but I did notice a few things to just point out to you from the passage from what we were studying here.

[38:22] One thought is that frogs they come out of water and they come onto land and while we just say well duh they're amphibians they all do that well God made them to do that that's not just duh that's what God designed and it's very unique it's very very unique to have one stage of your life underwater in one world and have another one above the water and on dry land yet still need the water to exist and while that's odd and interesting of itself when the Bible connects frogs back to those spirits of devils it makes me kind of say you know that kind of does match these two different worlds these spirits how they'll try to come into a man's body but they need that man to live but they can live in two different worlds we can't do that you and I are stuck in this one and this one only we're physically incapable of being in and acting in a spirit realm apart from what God does by his Holy Spirit in us but the natural man is just he's oblivious to that stuff but these frogs represent something that can live in both worlds and come and go and use them both need them both in the scripture that we read it says that they come up in verse 4 the frogs shall come up in verse 5 stretch forth thine hand over the streams and it says that caused the frogs to come up in verse 6 again the frogs came up but then in verse 7 it says the magicians did so with their enchantments and they brought up frogs they brought them up upon the land of Egypt it's just a different word but it reminds me of another text in 1 Samuel chapter 28 where King Saul could not get an answer from God so he went and found a witch that had a familiar spirit and she said to him whom shall I bring up unto thee she's bringing up a spirit and these frogs it says that the magicians brought them up the wording is interesting and even connects to the thought of spirits another thing is that frogs are a camouflaged creature they often undetected until they leap out in front of you and you'd scream and you'd jump but they were there the whole time and you had no clue because you just weren't discerning their presence and that sounds much like the devil's as well of our inability especially the natural man to discern the presence of unclean spirits the more in tune you are with spiritual truth and feeding on my words are spirit

[41:12] Jesus Christ said as you feed on the truth of the word of God and walk in the spirit you'll have a greater ability to discern when there's spiritual opposition I could say when there's something that you should be away from I can recall being in a church service one time and it was not a good church it was just kind of a I shouldn't even have been there but I was there and when things kind of turned toward the end of the service this direction and the music changed and the vibe changed and the feeling changed and the attitude everything everything was just kind of just ho-hum and boring to me before but then all of a sudden it turned before we closed we're going to worship the Lord in spirit or something and whatever was going on I was like this I do not belong in this place it was like an invitation for something unclean it was not lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ and his word at all it was like you know let's get ourselves worked up into a trance and you know start this speaking in tongues nonsense anyway the frogs are a camouflaged creature and while in the plague they were everywhere the frog itself is often undetected just like when devils are present and working in a man or a woman and not discerned unless you are walking in the spirit and judging by the word of God and so it seems like there's some thoughts there that these frogs connect to some unclean spirits to some devils and the point that I'm going to get here this implication is that this horrible plague it pictures for us it gives us a little taste or glimpse of a horrible time of a tribulation on this earth while here it's just isolated to the borders of Egypt the one we read about in

[43:09] Revelation is that thing's worldwide and that thing's not going to be pretty and while in Exodus 8 what a miserable time to be born and raised in Egypt when God almighty God is just putting his whores upon that land and judging the land and plaguing its king and its people and to have to live through and deal with these things it's beyond depressing and aggravating it's probably enough to make you go crazy in your head to be dealing with blood and frogs and we're just getting started these epidemics would they're nothing short of misery and torment and so just in closing I'll say that it's kind of simple but I'm glad I'm not in Egypt and what I mean by that is I'm glad I'm not in Egypt anymore I'm glad that I've been called out of Egypt and by the mercy and grace of our holy God by the blood of Jesus Christ

[44:09] I got out he redeemed me and he plagues them this land is going to get the plagues they're going to get it bad and if you've never been brought out of Egypt the plagues are coming and if you reject Jesus Christ and an opportunity to be saved by the blood of Christ and to be forgiven of sins to take him as your savior and you say well I'm just a good person and I'm not going to worry about that stuff so much I'm not going to get all churchy all of a sudden then you reject Jesus Christ what's coming for you is the wrath of God you have an opportunity to receive the mercy of God but what's coming in the future are the vials the vials and the wrath of God is going to get poured out on this earth and that's God doing that he's sending those things to this earth and he's going to torment men and women and you might say they're innocent not before God they're not and anybody that rejects

[45:18] Jesus Christ there's plagues coming but before they get here let me say in last and closing there is an escape there's an escape from the frogs there's an escape from the judgment and there's a blood a sacrifice that can wash all of your wrongdoings away and can cleanse you and stand you up before God as if you were holy and as if you had righteousness of your own and you can be accepted from him he can say come unto me you've been cleansed the escape from all this torment is the Lord Jesus Christ thank God that I'm not in Egypt anymore I know most of you by name you're not in Egypt anymore you've received the sacrifice you've gotten away from this torture and this torment but remember that this is still coming for the world we've got more coming in Exodus the world's got plenty coming and it's not going to get better so Christian thank God to be out of

[46:24] Egypt if you're not saved this morning I want to challenge you have you ever received Jesus Christ have you ever considered that his blood was poured out was freely given not because soldiers were cruel but because you needed a payment for your sins I'd like you to take that payment I'd love to show you how you can know that Christ is your Savior if you've never been saved let's talk let me let me introduce you to the Lord Jesus Christ from the word of God if you are saved and church the admonition today going back to the plague and the Pharaoh is don't let that sinful nature that's in you rule don't let it don't let it lie when God's judgment comes repent could you just consider this and I'll promise I'm done would you consider this that you have two natures if you're saved you have this nature that wants

[47:27] God this nature is the Lord Jesus Christ and he wants to obey God at all cost he just wants to obey God he wants to love him and trust him he wants to grow in the word of God he's like get in that book it'll teach you everything you need to know and then there's this old guy who's full of sin and lust and he's faking it he's pretending to be good but he's not at his core he's a devil and when God speaks to your heart and says hey let's do this your new man says hey come on let's do it it's right God loves us he's got it's going to be right and the old man says I don't really I'm not playing that game I'm not doing that I'm too I know it's not for me that's for them and he says no to God I refuse to let him go I just want to put that one more time in front of your face those two natures are always fighting inside of you one of them's fighting to serve God and to do right and to walk in the spirit the other one's fighting to get out of my face

[48:34] I'll do what I want to do I'll live my life those two natures aren't going anywhere but recognize it and recognize that when God touches your heart and speaks to your heart you can trust him you can submit to him he will never harm you he will always lead you in the right way even if you don't understand it but the old man is the one that's telling you no just understand if you resist God you're giving in to the old filthy wicked sinner that's inside of you because you're afraid or because you think somebody will make fun of you or because you think you can't live it and you can't live it but you can trust God you can say yes to him and watch him grow you and strengthen you and build you up let's close let's pray God as we've come to an end here again this week I want to say thank you for the truth in this passage

[49:35] Lord I pray that this this king pharaoh and all of his his fighting against you his lies his his hesitation to do right and to give in his hard heart Lord may you not see that in any one of us and God it's in every one of us so Lord I pray that you'll teach us where it's at reveal them to us by your spirit within us help us to say yes to you Pharaoh's going to lose it he's going to lose his life oh God may we not pattern our lives after his behavior teach us to trust you teach us to obey you please receive the glory in all of this in our obedience and we pray this in Christ's name amen let's be dismissed with a song and John we can sing that one you got going on would you open to 388 a simple prayer put to words and song for the

[50:56] Lord to have his way let's stand 388 the part we will haveidad with Human around have them to have heard