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[0:00] All right, Exodus chapter 8, and we are working our way through the book of Exodus, and actually this is our third message out of this chapter, and last week we were in verses 16 through 19 where the third plague came from God upon the land of Egypt, and that was Lais.

[0:23] And we learned from that, actually we saw that God had a message for the magicians in that judgment, and that is those magicians up to this date, they were able to reproduce everything that Moses and Aaron did by throwing their rods down and seeing them turn into serpents, and then they were also able to turn water to blood, which didn't help the situation any, as well as they were able to bring frogs up out of the river just like Moses and Aaron did.

[0:51] But this time, they found out they were limited, and they learned a few things. One thing they learned was they're not as strong as they thought they were. They learned there was a ceiling on their ability and their power, and they also learned in that day that they were fighting against the person who was stronger than them.

[1:08] They were fighting for Pharaoh, and it turns out that this God of the Hebrew is against Pharaoh, and I'm fighting for the wrong team. And they found out that they're going to regret fighting for the wrong team.

[1:19] And so we studied that, made some application from that passage, God's message to the magicians. And today I want to pick it up in verse 20. And now we're going to see there's a new plague. A new plague coming from God upon the land of Egypt.

[1:33] And so let's read, follow along from verse 20 to the end of the chapter to verse 32. And the Bible reads that, The Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh. Lo, he cometh forth to the water, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

[1:51] Else if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

[2:07] And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, to the end that thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.

[2:18] And I will put a division between my people and thy people. Tomorrow shall this sign be. And the Lord did so. And there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, into the servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt.

[2:31] And the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies. And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land. And Moses said, It's not me to do so.

[2:42] For we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. Lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he shall command us.

[2:57] And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, only ye shall not go very far away. Entreat for me. And Moses said, Behold, I will go out from thee, and I will entreat the Lord that the swarm of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people tomorrow.

[3:17] But let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and entreated the Lord. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses, and he removed the swarm of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people.

[3:34] There remained not one. And Pharaoh hardened his heart. At this time also, neither would he let the people go. So a new plague, but in the end, it's the same result.

[3:48] A hardened heart of Pharaoh, and he won't let him go. And so his heart is still hard, and he still is refusing to release God's people.

[3:58] But I think there is some interesting things that come out of this. It looks like he's softening up a little bit. It looks like he's starting to weaken. He's starting to tell, okay, I'll let you go.

[4:09] And he kind of says, okay, just not far. Or first, it's just in the land. Then it's, okay, not far. But this is not the Pharaoh that began this first meeting. And we'll see that a little bit later.

[4:20] This guy is starting to warm up. I think the plagues are wearing him down. And to where he's getting warm, but still not willing to let God's people go.

[4:31] And there's also a new development in this ongoing conflict. Last week, the new development was that the magicians couldn't, they were powerless. They couldn't reproduce the working of God.

[4:41] In this case, there's something new that shows up. And that is that God puts this obvious separation between his people and the people of Egypt.

[4:51] This is the first time this shows up. And it's going to continue forward. But that's the first time it's mentioned like that, where God severs in that day where God's people dwelt, the land of Goshen. So there's another development in the story.

[5:04] Now, plague number four and a swarm of flies. Just one fly is annoying, right? Just one.

[5:16] It just takes one buzzing around your house or landing on you or on your plate or on the things in front of you. You're doing homework. You're doing things. Just one fly can be annoying.

[5:27] But a grievous swarm that corrupts the entire land sounds a bit unbearable. It sounds to like a whole other level.

[5:40] The other day, trash day at our house is Friday. And so Friday, I got home from studying about flies the whole day. And I get home and all the trash outside needs to come in the bins.

[5:55] And so I go out to get to these bins and they're covered, they're coated with flies. And that's not a big deal, right? It was a nice warm day and it's almost normal to see flies on those things.

[6:05] And they stink. I mean, they just, they retain a stench, those bins. And so I wheeled the one in and I came up to the green one. You know the green one, the natural waste, the food thing.

[6:18] I came to that one and I went to flip the lid up. And when I touched it, just that vibration of me touching that lid, lifting it up. Inside, I'm not, I'm not dramatic.

[6:32] There was hundreds of flies. And when I hit that thing, it just like, they instantly just hit the air and made this loud noise.

[6:43] It startled me. It sounded like it was going to be some major hornet's nest or something. But out of this, turned this black ball of flies, hundreds of them were in there.

[6:54] And they didn't all leave, but a majority of them hit the air and just buzzed all around. And I'm telling you, I've just been sitting on this passage for hours. And then I go home and I see more flies than I've ever seen in my life.

[7:07] Right there in front of my face coming up out of there at me. And I stepped back and I just thought for a moment, as I shut the lid and trapped a lot of them in there, I just thought, that's hundreds of flies right here, like in front of my hands.

[7:22] And I just took a glance around and saw the mountains in the distance and saw the homes and the street going both directions and thought, But if that swarm that's right here in my presence was covering the entire land and in everybody's house and on the ground where they are, that is something else.

[7:43] And I just in my mind got a glimpse of what that might look like. I'm sure it was way off. But it's like nothing you've ever seen. It's like nothing you've ever experienced, even if you hung out at your trash bins all day.

[7:58] You've never experienced this amount, this swarm, this plague of flies upon this land. It was no doubt unbearable. But my question is, was it avoidable?

[8:11] Was it avoidable? Now maybe for Pharaoh, it wasn't avoidable. Because God is doing a work on Egypt and he's going to show his wonders. And it's not just going to be a punishment of Pharaoh for his oppression of his people, but it's going to be a sign to all the world who this great God is.

[8:28] He's above all gods. So he's going to continue to plague and punish this king. But what about in your life? That's what we care about.

[8:40] What about in your life? Is dealing with such a plague of flies, such a pestilence, is this avoidable?

[8:51] I want to preach to you how to prevent a pestilence. And I'm going to picture the land of Egypt as if it's your life.

[9:02] The Bible says in this passage that the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies in verse 24. The Bible says that if you sow to the flesh, that you'll of the flesh reap corruption.

[9:19] So I wonder, is the corruption avoidable in your life? How can you prevent a pestilence? And we're going to look back through this passage and try to draw some application that can help you understand.

[9:34] Maybe Pharaoh wasn't going to avoid it, but there's signs and there's things in here that are going to show you how you can avoid such a pestilence from God. Let's pray together once more and then we'll get into the text.

[9:45] Now, Lord, as we study the Bible out, as we open up this book, we completely agree that these are your words, that what took place, this story was real.

[9:57] It happened in history just as the Word of God says it did. Yet, Lord, more importantly for us today, help us to discern where we can avoid having these things happen in our lives.

[10:08] And so please shed light on the text and on what's in our life. And, Lord, may you get something out of this that helps us, that draws us to you, get more fellowship, get more worship, maybe get a cleaner vessel that you can use and be pleased with.

[10:24] And we pray this for Jesus' sake and amen. So let's notice first, in the first two verses we read, verses 20 and 21, let's notice that there's a warning by the water.

[10:38] There's a warning by the water. In verse 20, the Lord said unto Moses, So God sends Moses and Aaron, likely, to Pharaoh to meet him by the water.

[11:04] Now, I'm just going to take a little liberty and presume and just kind of make some connections here. It's not everything that was said and spoken and done is in the text, but you judge what I say.

[11:17] As Pharaoh comes out to the water, it doesn't say the river, but possibly the river, be likely the river. Back in chapter 5, it was the previous Pharaoh's daughter who went down to the river to wash where she found Moses, the babe.

[11:29] And so it's quite likely that Pharaoh, in the morning, early in the morning, that he's coming forth to the water to wash. That's possible. It's chapter 2, verse 5, I should say, that the daughter's there.

[11:43] When Pharaoh comes to the water, whatever the case, I think he can't help but recall some of the plagues and warnings that God has sent his way.

[11:55] The blood that he had seen, the entire land was filled with blood. Why? Because the water was turned to blood, and it really wasn't that long ago. And after that, that water brought forth frogs.

[12:07] Frogs all over the place, and as a matter of fact, it was so bad by the time it was finished that they collected them up in heaps, and the land stank in verse 13 and 14 of this chapter 8.

[12:23] And now Pharaoh's going back down to the water. And God tells Moses, I want you to meet him by the water, specifically that place, because I think very fresh in his mind are the smells and the sights of what has just recently taken place in his land.

[12:40] And he's standing by the water, the very arena where God has been plaguing him and his people and his land. And so God sends him a warning by the water.

[12:51] And so Pharaoh comes out, and he's confronted by Moses. And he's confronted that if you don't let him go, I'm going to do something else. Now, he's kind of in touch with what just took place.

[13:04] Do you want more? Because you're about to get more. But how can you and I prevent a pestilence? How can we prevent a pestilence in our life? Well, number one, just give heed to God's warnings.

[13:17] He said, let him go, else if you don't, else if I will not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies. So how do you avoid the flies?

[13:30] Let him go. Here's your warning. You're standing by the water, remember? Remember? You want more? You get beat around enough, eventually no more.

[13:44] And so Pharaoh had a warning. God gave him a warning. And he could have prevented the pestilence. Maybe God was going to bring that thing on him.

[13:54] He was going to make it happen. But you, you have a choice. You have a choice in your life to take heed to God's warnings. Even if Pharaoh refuses, we can read between the lines that it doesn't tell us all of the words, and it doesn't tell us that Pharaoh refuses.

[14:12] It doesn't tell us, but he obviously does because the next thing that happens is the Lord sends a swarm of flies in verse 24. And so we can see that Pharaoh was in fact stubborn, and that Pharaoh's hard heart has just discounted all these reminders in front of his face, and he's discounted the new warning that God has given right in front of him by these men.

[14:35] And he's refused God's warning. I think we can learn something from Pharaoh's hard heart here. Earlier in chapter 5, we learned something that a hard heart wants to hold on to the things that God says you should let go of.

[14:50] Here in chapter 8, we can learn that a hard heart also ignores punishment and ignores warnings that God sends his way, just disregards them and turns a deaf ear.

[15:02] Oh, maybe he hears, but he refuses to take heed. I'd like to take you to Proverbs, and you can keep your place here in Exodus. We'll be back. But would you find the book of Proverbs?

[15:14] Right after the book of Psalms is Proverbs, and look at chapter 13 of Proverbs. Let's see what the Bible might have to say to somebody who won't heed the warnings that God gives him.

[15:31] Proverbs 13. And look at verse number 13. Where the Bible reads, Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed, but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.

[15:57] Whoso despiseth the word, like Pharaoh, ignoring God's punishments, ignoring and refusing to take heed to God's warnings. Your destruction's coming.

[16:09] You want to see it again? Look at Proverbs 29. Chapter 29, and verse number 1. This has got Pharaoh's name all over it.

[16:23] Proverbs 29, verse 1, the Bible says, He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

[16:37] He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. Destruction's coming for Pharaoh. A hard heart is leading him right into more destruction.

[16:52] It's pride and stubbornness of heart that will incite a resistance to God. Now, if you believe that the Lord loves you, He knows you, He has your best interest and heart, He wants to guide you into righteousness and the right ways, you know and believe that mentally, but why do you resist Him when He tries to steer you this way or guide you that way?

[17:16] What is it inside of you that says, I don't want to do that? Think about it. What is it inside of me that resists Him or His Word or His direction or His warnings?

[17:30] I'm just calling it pride and stubbornness of heart. Sin promotes pride. Sin will build up a stubborn heart, but once that resistance and that refusal to surrender becomes evident in your life, you refuse His warnings, you refuse His Word, eventually it just becomes open rebellion against God.

[17:55] I could give you a story. I'm one. I'm one. I lived an undercover wicked life for a while in home with good parents.

[18:07] It was just resisting God, resisting God, but not openly. Eventually it was just like, what am I playing games for? I'm done with this. And off I went into open rebellion. And there's stages to it.

[18:19] But how do you want to, you want to prevent the pestilence? Then give heed to God's warnings because when they come, you have a choice. It's a fork in the road and you could head on to destruction or you could prevent any of that coming.

[18:35] You could prevent the corruption and the pestilence as it were. It's a good reason why you ought to deal with sin quickly in your life and not allow it the opportunity to grow and to deceive your heart and to harden your heart because you can turn a deaf ear to God and you can not take heed to His warnings but you're not going to get around the Word of God.

[18:58] I can promise you that on my life. You're not getting around this book. Not one of you. Nobody in here is going to get around the Word of God. God will not be mocked. Not by you.

[19:09] Not by me. Not by anybody in this planet. What He said is taking place. So the best thing you can do is give heed to what He said and give heed to the warnings.

[19:19] If you don't destruction is coming. You want to prevent the pestilence? Then give heed to the warnings that God sends in your life. You start getting off into the wrong path and God says hey open your eyes look you're wrong.

[19:33] You're going to give heed? Are you going to turn back and get right? Are you just going to say it's okay. I can handle it. I'm good. Then why did He send you the warning? Why did He prick your heart about that? Why did He say stop doing that?

[19:45] You know why? Because He's trying to keep you from destruction. Because He's good like that. Or He could go on in Proverbs back in chapter 1 of Proverbs there's a full on picture of people that have refused His reproof and would none of His reproof.

[20:02] They refused His counsel. They refused His warnings. and then it goes on to their destruction. And the patterns all over the book for that matter. Not just in the Bible but also in life.

[20:15] Plenty of people. So there's a warning by the water but there's a hardened heart that refuses to hear and refuses to take heed and so God sends the swarm of flies in verse 24.

[20:26] But you can take heed. You don't have to follow Pharaoh here. You can prevent the pestilence. When the warning comes when it's written in black and white in front of your face you can read and take heed.

[20:41] When the Lord speaks to your heart when you hear truth from the Word of God you hear how He hates sin how He's going to punish sin how the end of that sin is going to be bad for you you can take heed.

[20:54] It's that easy. Just okay. Do I want to deal with the consequences of my sin? I'll take the pleasures. If you take the pleasures bro you're taking the consequences with it. It's built in and you're not getting around it.

[21:06] So make the decision. Heed the warning or deal with the corruption. Something else we see in this passage back in chapter 8 and this is where there's this new development as I called it.

[21:21] In verses 22 and 23 God establishes a perimeter of protection. If you don't mind I'll call it the no fly zone. Thank you.

[21:31] Thank you. That's what I was doing Friday. I was working on that. Verse 22 says God said I will sever in that day the land of Goshen in which my people dwell that no swarms of flies shall be there.

[21:46] No swarms of flies. Now he says he does this one reason is to the end that thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. And God's making this significant division between his people and Pharaoh's people the people of Egypt not just as protection for his people but also to let them all know who he is.

[22:05] Like the God that has the ability to control where the swarms of flies attack and where they don't that shows just shows even greater spectacle of his ability and his power.

[22:18] Now he puts up a perimeter around his people that flies either could not or that they would not enter in. No swarms of flies not even one. He established a perimeter.

[22:29] I want you to consider this. If you're a Hebrew and you find yourself surrounded by flies and you find that in your house or on the ground or wherever you're standing that you have flies around you I can tell you one thing you are not in the land of Goshen because there's no flies there.

[22:53] If you're a Hebrew one of God's chosen people and you've got flies you're not in Goshen. That's a no fly zone.

[23:06] The one that sent the division that established that division wants to keep the flies away from his people so that he can show a distinction those are my people and those are your people and the flies don't touch my people.

[23:24] It's something that God did he made a protected place. He severed for his people a place to dwell in safety. You want to know secondly how you can prevent a pestilence in your life?

[23:36] Get to Goshen. Stay in Goshen. Don't leave the land of Goshen. You won't have to see one fly ever. I know it's easier said than done in this application of what we're looking at here but what division did God what did he sever in your life?

[23:59] Now not you not what did you sever what did you put what did God divide? Take a look at Colossians chapter 2 let's see what the Bible says here that God did when you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior not when you join a church or give an offering in the offering plate but when you by faith receive Christ as your Savior you believe in his gospel he does a work in you that is phenomenal.

[24:36] There's a severance there's a division that takes place and let's understand this if you're unfamiliar with this passage then let's take a little bit of time to understand what he severed or what exactly God divided in Colossians chapter 2 begin reading in verse number 10 the Bible says and ye are complete and the next two words are important in him if you're not in him then you're not complete if you're not in Christ you're incomplete you're lacking a lot of things everything that Jesus Christ offers you're lacking eternal life because as we studied in the previous hour he is the true God and eternal life and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish pass from death unto life if you're not in Jesus Christ no life no righteousness no holiness nothing you're in your sins dead in your trespasses and in your sins so God does something when he places you in Christ in verse 11 it says in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands this is not something done by a doctor this is not a physical circumcision what does the word circumcised mean it means to cut away to sever ye are severed or cut away but it was something done not in the physical realm this is not done with hands it says it's not physical it's spiritual what is it verse 11 it says continuing in the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ in plainer words

[26:30] God through Jesus Christ in placing you in Christ he cuts away severs your soul that he saves and gives eternal life to he separates that soul from the body of the sins of the flesh from the sinner from the man or woman that has lust and has anger and has jealousy and greed and in the flesh dwells all the works of the flesh adultery and fornication and in the flesh is a dead man on his way to punishment and damnation but God when you reach out and trust Jesus Christ he says I'll take you I don't want that flesh I don't want nothing to do with that thing that dirty rascal I'll take and cut you away and place you your eternal soul into my son Jesus Christ you're now a member of his body you're bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh and so that circumcision is a severance or a cutting away of the sinner the soul from the sinner verse 12 buried with him in baptism that is not water there's no water in the chapter but you're buried with him in Christ you've been baptized in the body of Christ buried with him in baptism wherein ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead and you being dead in your sins and uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses it's pretty important that you take

[28:14] Jesus Christ as your savior like alone plus nothing don't lean on religion don't lean on how you were raised don't lean on the good things the good thoughts you have and the good things you've done because that's just the best you do you you God doesn't need anything you do his son did way more and he he has accepted his son he will not accept you what you need to do is get in his son and when you're in his son you're accepted in the beloved that's Ephesians chapter 1 that's where you want to be in Christ when you get in Christ this is how the operation takes place so going back to Exodus when God severed the land of Goshen separated it for his people no swarms of flies in there you want to prevent a pestilence that's where you should be you should go where the flies aren't where the corruption will never get and will never touch that's the land of Goshen for the Christian that's the new man that's the Lord Jesus Christ the Bible says put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill it in the lust thereof when God circumcises a soul away from their sinful flesh he creates a new man or the Bible calls it a new creature and in that new creature his spirit dwells and in that new residence

[29:45] God places righteousness and he places true holiness and when the believer walks in the spirit the fruit of the spirit develops in their life and comes forth if you're still in Colossians you can look over in chapter 3 and you can see a little bit of a list of the deeds of the flesh and in chapter 3 of Colossians I'm not going to read it I turned away but in Colossians 3 Galatians 5 you learn of the works of the flesh it's all over Ephesians chapter 4 these are all sins of the flesh things you do that are wrong they're against God and they picture flies they picture the corruption of flies you want to see one cool verse here I'll show you one look at a feet you know it's Ecclesiastes chapter 10 so if you find Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes comes right after Proverbs and find chapter 10 and I want to show you a neat little verse here that kind of really just ties into this whole concept

[31:01] Ecclesiastes and if you're at chapter 10 look at verse 1 and you see those first two words dead flies what do dead flies do they cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor so the ointment of the apothecary that's something that the doctor makes up and prescribes for healing for salve or some kind of ointment anoint and things like that but that healing ointment if it's full of dead flies it's not so appealing anymore is it you want to rub dead flies all over your flesh you know you got an open wound and you're going to put some medicine on it not looking to put something dying or dead and decayed are you so that's what dead flies do they cause the something that is supposed to be helpful is supposed to be healing and have a good savor to it a good smell it destroys it it ruins it now look at the end of that verse here's what it's likened to so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor somebody who should have wisdom and should hold themselves in honor in front of others having a reputation for wisdom and honor

[32:30] I can't think of anybody but a born again Christian that would apply to today a child of God living in this world should be a child of light and should be showing the wisdom and honor of his father and carrying himself in good reputation but a little folly a little sin in that life foolishness foolish thinking foolish decisions a little folly can really make your reputation stink and the flies here as we're studying and connecting to Exodus just pictures of those sins and things of foolishness in your life and that doesn't happen in the new man the new man in this case the land of Goshen doesn't have any flies he's of the Lord he's righteousness now this doesn't mean that because you get saved you never sin anymore it just means that when you sin it's a work of your flesh and you are no longer walking in the spirit but you're walking in the old man that's a choice that you make and probably do every day it's pretty common but understand that if you want to prevent pestilence you want to prevent corruption then walk in the spirit and you can avoid a whole lot of garbage heed God's warnings in the word of God and get to Goshen get to that place he's severed for you to walk in where it's purity and righteousness you have fellowship with Jesus Christ walk in the spirit take strides to get in the new man it's going to take some time on your knees it's going to take some time in the word of God to feed and to grow that nature inside of you that will long for righteousness and to do right and get victory over your sins it just doesn't happen overnight it doesn't happen because you want it to happen it takes work you have to feed the new man you have to grow him and get him established to where you walk in faith and now back in Exodus chapter 8 one more thing we see is we see the deceitful dealings of Pharaoh from verses 25 to the end of the chapter there's a couple things that come out of his dealings with Moses he's sick of the flies so he compromises in verse 25 he says go ye sacrifice to your God in the land well that's not going to work that's not the deal

[34:53] God said go three days journey but he says do it in the land just stay right here but he's deceitful because Moses points it out to him we read this we can't do that that's an abomination to the Egyptians they're going to stone us if we do this in front of them and Pharaoh knows that he's not oblivious to how the Egyptians would react he's part of them so telling him the sacrifice in the land it seems like he's deceitful it seems like he's trying to get something to happen to put them down instead of him being put down for a change so first he compromises and then secondly he concedes in verse 28 he says I will let you go I'll let you go just don't go very far and this is kind of undefined but Moses goes for it he says okay I'll entreat the Lord to take away the flies you said you'll let us go and this whatever this don't go very far thing it's good enough for Moses because he's going to take it and he gives he's heard this before

[35:58] I should mention that he's heard this back in chapter 8 verse 8 with the frogs Pharaoh saying I'll let you go and then he reneged on his promise and so Moses says to him in verse 29 at the end but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully anymore not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord so he first compromises then he concedes but Moses isn't such a believer in this deceitful man and it appears that he concedes but as we know he's deceitful because he just wanted to get rid of the flies as soon as the flies are gone he cancels and he takes back his word in verse 32 he hardened his heart neither would he let the people go so the deceitful dealings of Pharaoh were right back where we started but despite his deceitfulness I think we can learn something about his response here it really seems like these plagues are softening him up it really seems like he's starting to talk more and more about giving in and letting him go maybe you don't remember but look back at chapter 5 and verse 2 look at the very first response of Pharaoh to these two men coming before him saying let my people go let him go to sacrifice to the Lord his initial response is verse 2 of chapter 5 who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go

[37:23] I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go and then he tells them get back to your work as a matter of fact put more work on them they're lazy they've got time to talk about sacrifice and that was his response to the Lord now he's starting to get an idea who the Lord actually is and he's not liking it and he's starting to warm up to letting him go but he's not there yet I feel like he's more open than he was first approached you know why because the punishment is doing its work the punishment is beating on him and softening him and just like it's supposed to he's still on the fence and he's still fighting it and resisting the Lord but the punishment is starting to work and Christian if you want to prevent the pestilence in your life you want to prevent this this this corruption these swarms of flies all in your life to deal with then stop fighting and just give in to God stop being so stubborn with your sin and so argumentative and so justifying of it's okay or they're worse than I am and I'm doing alright and when God speaks just start learn to give in get off the fence and give in

[38:47] I think you should learn from this this story of Pharaoh the punishment softening him up but he's still hard and you know what he's going to get more punishment and he's going to get more punishment until finally after his son's dead he says up get you out of the land he wants them gone they don't have to ask permission anymore because the punishment keeps coming but do you want to avoid some of that do you want to avoid God beating on you then give in to him just do it now instead of getting another round you know if you've got parents that have made mistakes in life and they tell you about it then you don't need to find out for yourself what that's like you've already heard take their lesson and learn from it that's a blessing we can learn from Pharaoh you're not going to get away with it God says that it's going to happen so who do you think you are to fight against it or think it's well it's too bad for him it's not going to happen to me

[39:49] I'm not going to turn you to the passages but again in Proverbs there's a few verses I'll just mention to you the Bible says that the rod and reproof give wisdom the rod and reproof give wisdom and then in chapter 3 of the Proverbs it talks about correction and not despising correction from your father and the Lord whom he loveth he chasteneth and all of that and after that it says happy is the man that getteth wisdom you know how you get wisdom from the chastening from the rod and the reproof and that wise man makes wise decisions and he's happy so what am I saying well Pharaoh not so happy here things aren't good at all for him why because he keeps fighting against God he keeps resisting not giving heed to the warnings and he's fighting and he's being deceitful and he's trying to manipulate a way that he can get his own way and it's not going to work the punishment next round's coming there's another round coming after that

[40:52] Pharaoh there's another round coming after that you will give in God will get the win but if you want happiness in your life then learn from these things the punishment's doing the work we see that it's happening but it could stop right now in your life you could prevent any more from happening if you'll just give in to God so how do you avoid the flies how do you avoid the corruption or prevent the pestilence the first thing was give heed to God's warnings don't ignore them don't despise them you read that book have you?

[41:34] if you haven't read that book you better get your nose in that Bible you better learn what it says don't presume you know what it says don't presume that this society is telling you what the truth is it's not but the word of God is telling you what the truth is you better go to that Bible and find out what's right and heed the warnings and pattern your life after the book then you'll know you're pleasing to God if you have a hard heart if you have a stiff neck toward the Lord you're going to find yourself one day flat on your face because God will not be mocked you will not get away with sin it's not happened once you're not better than anybody else you're definitely not more powerful than God he might be patient and he might be long suffering to allow some things but it's coming so heed the warnings secondly it was get to Goshen live in the new man walk in the spirit God severed and created that new man for you to dwell in where you and he can dwell together in righteousness that's a special thing

[42:39] Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10 says we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them that's where he wants you in the land of Goshen in the new man Christian and then thirdly just give in to God don't fight don't deal deceitfully like Pharaoh did learn the lesson from the punishment learn from others mistakes and allow your heart to be soft toward the Lord that stubbornness and holding out will only lead to a grievous pestilence in your life amen let's bow our heads together we'll be dismissed and head our way in a moment but would you just bow your head for a moment and close your eyes without looking around just I'd like you to bow and consider some things of what we've looked at today and tried to make personal about preventing a pestilence in your life

[43:42] God chastens you and I and he punishes our foolish behavior but he does it because he loves us he does it because he wants to spare us from worse and I want you to consider you don't really want that do you you don't really want the pestilence and the corruption in your life do you I mean where you sit right now you're healthy you're alive but you don't want to walk out into a swarm of flies so remember if you're saved then you're his and he bought you and he loves you too much to just allow you to waste your life in sin and so he sends warnings maybe today he's sending a warning maybe today he's reminding you you're not going to get away with this you're letting it go you're playing games and I will not be mocked you know it's wrong so get it right get off the fence he sends warnings and he also provides a way of escape but the choice is yours will you come to an altar and get on your face and flee to the land of Goshen and get in the new man again get things right get things cleansed this corruption that we're looking at can be prevented in your life maybe not for Pharaoh but it can be in your life will you heed the warning this morning will you get it right will you get back to Goshen will you give in to God or do you need some more beatings you need some more punishment because that could come too finally is there anybody in here that says

[45:44] I'm not sure you're talking about all this being in Christ and eternal life and I've never heard that before in my life I don't know what you're talking about is there anybody here that would say I've never been saved I've never received Jesus Christ as my savior if anybody's here like that you say that's me I don't know if I'm saved nobody's looking would you just slip your hand up quickly just so I can see I want to pray for you I want you to be saved like I want you to when you die immediately be in the presence of the Lord to not be damned to not pay for your sins in hell because you will if you don't have a savior and you need Jesus Christ and I can show you how to get him if anybody here needs to be saved don't leave today without talking to me and let's just get in the Bible let's find out how you it's the best thing you'll ever do it's a free gift it's a wonderful thing and I want you to have it fathers we come to the close this message in this time

[46:59] I pray that your word would would be alive in our midst this morning that you would speak to hearts that you would get what you deserve out of our lives I know it's not your choice your number one to send punishment our way surely you'd so much rather we just submit and give heed to your warnings and to your word and yet God there's so much foolish pride in each one of us that we fight and we fight and we fight you Lord please have mercy on us remember that we're flesh please give courage to those who know know and have heard your voice this morning and are struggling to give in struggling to get it right I pray God that victory would come forth Lord if there's anybody here that's lost

[48:03] I said what I said from the Bible I know what I said was true I've experienced it as a reality in my life and so many here have as well please speak to their heart and show them how they need Jesus Christ speak to their heart from the inside let them know give them courage to deal with it today I pray you'll save a soul I pray you'll give some child of God victory get them out of Egypt back to Goshen please do a work that we could praise you for with your head still bound we're going to sing a hymn of invitation this morning just going to sing a few verses of a song and and while we sing I want to invite you if you would like come forward to this altar here just kneel down at these steps and if you need to talk to God about anything you do it nobody's going to come nobody's going to talk to you nobody's going to get in your case you just you have privacy with God and it's a great thing to do it's a great place to pray it's better than standing in your pew and bowing there it's better it just is it's something about just taking that step and showing God you're serious and just dealing with whatever's on your heart if you're not sure you're saved

[49:18]  I'd love to talk to you about it before we leave today there's no greater thing than being born again none never will be and I want to make sure you all have that before we go let's stand together what's the song would you find 357 in this hymnal and as we sing you're welcome to come and pray 357 357 357 357 357 357 358 357 357