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Exodus: God Redeems His People • Sermon • Submitted
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God’s Wrath Reveals
God’s Wrath Reveals
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Exodus 9
The reason for the plagues was to change the heart of pharoah in order for pharaoh to come into submission of the God of Heaven. However the pharaoh had a steadfast hard heart, the beginning of God’s judgment has begun at this point. It was God who hardened pharaoh’s heart .
As we examine this text and think about this section, it is important for us to remember this is the last in this series of plagues. As we’ve seen these plagues are split into 3 sets. There are 3 sets of plagues and then 1 final plagues.
What you will notice is that the first of the 3 plagues happens in the morning. Probably while pharaoh is at the Nile to worship the river itself. The second of the 3 happen to pharaoh at work, where Moses and Aaron go before pharaoh in his royal court and demand the release of God’s people.
Then the final plague in each of the 3 sets happen to pharaoh without warning. If you look back you’ll notice God warns then strikes, warns then strikes, then God just strikes.
He does this in each of the 3 sets of plagues.
warn-strike
warn- strike
strike
In this plague we see that God speaks to Moses and says :
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.
So this is a warning ahead of time this is the final set of plagues before the fullness of the wrath of God is poured out. We saw in the middle plagues that God was setting apart his people Israel, He was redeeming His people Israel. He was stepping into their bleak circumstance to take action against their enemies.
So this is a warning ahead of time this is the final set of plagues before the fullness of the wrath of God is poured out. We saw in the middle plagues that God was setting apart his people Israel, He was redeeming His people Israel. He was stepping into their bleak circumstance to take action against their enemies.
That is the God we serve, the God who loves, the God who listens, the God who rescues.
God was making a distinction between those people who were his and those who were not His. When the plagues came upon the livestock, when the flies came, when the boils came, when the gnats came.
These plagues would be extremely difficult but they would not touch Goshen where God’s children lived.
God would tell Pharaoh ahead of time that He was going to set His people apart, and then He would do exactly what He said He was going to do. But the pharaoh would not listen.
Even the pharaoh’s advisors were telling phraoah things like..surely this is the finger of God. His magicians could not stand before Moses and Aaron. Their parlor tricks, their attempts to duplicate the miracles being displayed could not be done.
Even in the face of all this proof of God’s soverign hand, pharaoh would not believe.
Thus is the human heart.
I wonder how many times a person will come into a sanctuary, and hear a preacher preach and think...”wow it’s like he knew my thoughts...”
How would the preacher know this was what was going on in my life?
Yet even in the face of direct proof that god is speaking to them they rationalize, and explain away the reality that God is speaking to them, and they walk out having never responded, and walking out into “life as normal”
Without knowing that it was God trying to save them from future trouble.
In this last set of plagues, God highlights a growing sense of belief in Egypt. Starting even with this first plague.
We will see a response of belief, now let me say this:
Growing belief is not neccesarily Growing Faith
Growing belief is not neccesarily Growing Faith
(Repeat)
The key here is the contrast betwen the pharaoh and the other Egyptians. You see the difference between someone with a hard heart and a person whose heart is at least soft enough to believe what he sees and respond appropriately.
You see the difference between a person who ought to know better by now, but doesn’t or at least doesn’t act on it because his heart is so hard, and individuals who are beginning to come to a place where they are understanding that whatever God says is a gurantee to take place. They are beginning to understand they had better at least respond.
This demonstrate what it looks like when a heart grown hard. The man is not even rational enough to respond in fear.
We see the other Egyptains responding at least in fear, if not faith. They may not believe that God is God. They may not believe that their false idols are not gods, or that pharaoh is not divine but they at least believe that when Moses tells them that something is about to happen, then something is about to happen.
When he says its going happen tomorrow, then its gonna happen tomorrow!
James says of belief:
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
James
The difference between you and the demons, and you and pharaoh is not that you believe… and they dont.
The demons believe, they actually believe in a way more than you believe.
#1 because they live in a realm that you don’t.
They’ve been around longer than you’ve been around
They are well aware that God IS who He says He is and that God and God does what He says He is going to do.
THEY BELIEVE AND THEY SHUDDER
But their hearts are hardened and filled with contempt for the Lord God.
Trust me when I tell you Pharaoh believed God was causing the miracles but his heart was hard and filled with contempt for the people of God and God Himself.
The next day he woke up and he was looking for hail, He believed it.
In the previous plague with the livestock, when God said the plague wouldn’t go to Goshen, what did pharaoh do?
HE SENT SOMEONE TO GOSHEN!!
Why?
Because He knew God was telling the truth, but he would not respond to that truth!
Trust me by now Pharaoh shudders!
He is terrified of God and He should be! As every individual ought to be. The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom...
However when your heart is hard, believing that God is going to something, and being afraid of what God is going to do is not enough to save you.
Either you are committed to your cause or just committed to not bending the knee.
Did you know in our culture we glorify and applaud this type of hard haertedness?
There is a movie about 2 tank division and they are only a few guys left and they are facing insurmountable odds, this idea of standing against insurmountable odds and fighting no matter what...
Normally in situations like this people arent thinking hey.. were gonna beat these guys! No they are thinking there are alot more of them than there are of us, but sometimes you dont stand against an undefeatable foe to defat them but you stand against them to say “WE WILL NOT BOW TO YOU”
When it happens for our side we build memorials for them and celebrate them… and we should because thats honorable.
But when it happens against God thats another thing altogether. That’s where pharaoh is right now.
“I know you can do all you have said you will do. I know you can kill my livestock, I know you can bloody the Nile, I know you can send flies and gnats, and boils… I know you are great and awe inspiring… BUT I WILL NOT BOW TO YOU!
Because I’m pharaoh and I’ve got a reputation to uphold. this is what a hard heart looks like.
you see people don’t stand this way in opposition to God because they don’t believe EVERYONE believes we just suppress the truth in our unrighteousness.
Paul tells us in .
There are no such things as an atheist folks!
If someone tells you they are an atheist, the one thing you know is that they are a liar. Amen somebody
Im an athiest…really?
Is that why you fight so hard against the God in whom you do not believe?
Ever notice that?
I mean athiest write books agains the God in whom they do not believe…WHY?
Because they believe.
How many books have you found refuting the existance of unicorns?
How many PHD’s have spent thier lives trying to prove that fairies and goblins don’t exist…?
They dont… why?
Because it is absolutely ludicris to even entertain the thought of such a mythical creature.
So if God is a myth, like fairies, unicorns, and goblins. Many athiest would say that He is.
Then why write about Him?
No No
Atheist write books about God not existing to make them feel better about the fact that they deny a very present and real God that they don't wanna have to submit to.
Atheist believe in God folks
They are just like pharaoh, pharaoh believes in God but his heart is hardened. The wrath of God reveals, and yet pharaohs heart is so hard he would rather send both himself and his people off to the gallows to die rather than bow to the God of all creation.
This is the picture of a hard heart, and friends this is a picture of your heart apart from Christ. There are people in this room today, and your like pharaoh from a couple plagues ago… ok fine you can go but you cant go far.... ok fine take the plague away and ill let you go....
YOu see some of us want to come to God with our own conditons… GOD DOESNT COME TO US ON OUR TERMS WE CAN ONLY COME TO GOD ON HIS TERMS.
14:04
YOu see some are like this pharaoh bc we say I will not bow the knee, “oh ill go to church, ill take my kids to church, ill do some spiritual things every once in awhile BUT I AM GOING TO LIVE AND LEAD AND GOVERN MY OWN LIFE, IM NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THAT THE WORLD IS THE WAY THAT YOU SAY THAT IT IS, IM NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THAT WHAT IS RIGHT IS WHAT YOU SAY IS RIGHT GOD, IM GOING TO LIVE IN ACCORDANCE TO MY OWN DESIRES AND DESIGN, AND GOD ILL GIVE YOU SOMETHING BUT I WONT GIVE YOU WHAT YOU DEMAND.
Thats a hard heart as well. There are hard hearts inside the church and there are hard hearts outside the church as well. Thats why we cannot say people are neccesarily repsonding in faith although they are definately responding in belief.
BUT WHAT DOES GOD’S WRATH REVEAL?
God’s Wrath Reveals His Mercy
God’s Wrath Reveals His Mercy
How does God’s wrath reveal His mercy?
For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.
IN other words God says:
“Oh and by the way all these things are coming upon you, and these are horrific, however it is not as bad as it should be, whenever God raises up and does something like this we ought always be reminded that it is not as bad as it should be. Anything short of wiping us all from the face of the planet is mercy. So when we see God’s wrath let’s remember that God is also showing HIs mercy
This is the 7th plague folks… this means God has restrained Himself 6 other times, as we have said God’s heart was for pharaoh and the Egyptians “To know that He was the Lord God.”
That phrase “Lord God” is important. its ordering is intentional, there is many who believe in God, but they don’t become Christians until He becomes the Lord God. When someone realizes that He ain’t just God but that He is LORD, KING RULER. That He should have first place in EVERYTHING, THAT HE AIN’T RUNNING FOR GOD HES THE ONLY ONE...
Salvation Comes
Simple belief without crowning Him and re-altering your life in light of the fact that He is Lord is like Pharaoh (i’ll believe in you if it saves me from judgment, but don’t ask me to change my life)
FOLKS THATS NOT SAVING FAITH!!!
Jesus said:
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
You have to be willing to die both physically and personally if your not willing to do that and it does not display itself in submission and obedience YOU ARE NOT A CHRISTIAN!
IT IS BECAUSE OF Gods mercy that there is another day to repent and turn from your sin and turn to Jesus!
If it weren’t for Gods mercy that there is another day to
Everytime we see His wrath we ought to look at it and realize that this is what we deserve but God being rich in mercy, sent Jesus to swallow up the cup of His fathers wrath in full so that we dont have to!
WHEN WE HEAR SERMONS ABOUT GODS WRATH IT IS A REMINDER OF THE GOODNESS OF GOD AND THE BLESSED GIFT GIVEN BY JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD!
WHO DRANK DOWN ALL THE PLAGUES OF GODS WRATH MEANT FOR US!
God is being merciful in this plague because this is not the final plague, He is still giving pharaoh a chance to respond rightly!
God does not treat us in accordance with what we deserve. Throughout all of history, there has never been a time when the Lord gave us what we deserve!
The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.
Psalm 103:6-14
God is compassionate and merciful and His wrath reminds us of that.
For those of us who are saved when we see the wrath of God we are reminded… that is what I deserve, and when I think of how god has blessed me instead of judging me… when i think about His loving kindness toward me I wanna yell at the top of my lungs PRAISE BE UNTO YOUR NAME OH LORD JESUS CHRIST MY ROCK AND MY REDEEMER!
God does not deal with us in according to what our sins deserve. He is merciful.
God’s Wrath has a Purpose
God’s Wrath has a Purpose
But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
Exodus 9:
Right here we notice an important truth. That at the end of the day, God desires to reveal himself, in both the good and the bad, for His own glory to be known among the nations.
God’s first love.. is His own glory.
Now before you hear that and think it sounds in someway, selfish, lets remember that it is His glory which shines into our hearts to bring about our salvaiton.
It is His excellence, His holiness, His righteousness, His faithfulness, His perfection that makes Him altogether different and makes Him worthy of glory.
God tells pharaoh here, that the purpose behind the miracles was so that His power might be on display for all to see, and ultimately so that the pharaoh would see the power of God.
WHY?
“That my name may be proclaimed in all the Earth”
God here is revealing Himself as the God who saves, sustains, and protects, and defends His own children.
Throughout these plagues god is screaming to the ancient world and is screaming to our world today...
TURN YOUR EYES UPON ME!!
TURN YOUR LIVES OVER TO ME!!
SURRENDER FULLY TO ME AND LIVE!!!
God’s Wrath Reveals the Heart of a Man.
God’s Wrath Reveals the Heart of a Man.
You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go.
Exodus 9:
God says you still lift yourself up, you think too highly of yourself, and as a result I’m sending a storm
Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.
Exodus 9:18
I find the parallels in the plagues and the events of the end of days to be interesting. Throughout our study on the plagues in Egypt we have witnessed God pouring out judgment on the people of Egypt in order to free the people of God but also to show them who the one true God is.
God warns now of large hail stones falling that are larger than have ever been seen before...
Hail so large it will crush both man and beast.
Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them.” ’ ”
Exodus 9:19
These hailstones were so large they had to be larger than cattle, can you imagine big balls of ice the size of a Volkswagen. But this is not the only time this blow of judgment is mentioned in the Bible.
Revelation
And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.
This is the fate for all who refuse to surrender to the God of love. Right now God sits on a seat of mercy extended His hand of love, extended His gift of grace through the person of JEsus Christ but there is coming a day of great judgment and on this day, hailstones will fall and crush all those hwo oppose the Lord.
LEt’s also notices the context of the passage in Revelation God gives us a peak inside why He is sednign such great and terrible Judgement.
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters,
with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”
The ones upon whom the judgement to fall is on the kings of the Earth but when He says that these people being crushed are adulterers what does He mean?
What God is trying to convey is that these men and women of Earth had committed adultery on Him. They were not submitted in their hearts to Christ alone as the sole bridegroom, but instead had played the harlot worshipping many other idols other than God Himself, which lead to sexual immorality as well as blasphemy.
This is the point for us today..
ARE OUR HEARTS SOLD OUT FOR THE GLORY OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST?
OR ARE THERE THINGS THAT COME FIRST?
IS JESUS CHRIST THE REGINING KING OF OUR HEART?
DOES THAT DISPLAY ITSELF IN THE WAY WE LIVE OUR LIVES?
Talk is cheap
If your were tried by a jury of your peers, would there be enough evidence to convict you of being a blood bought, sold out child of the King? When people mention us in conversation do they mention that were excellent in what we do, or do they mention how much we love JEsus.
I can tell you when I die the only thing that is going to matter to me is this:
DID PEOPLE KNOW THAT I LOVED JESUS CHRIST WITH A PASSION AND A FIRE LIKE NO ONE THEY HAD EVER SEEN?
Is your heart divided?
Revelation 3:
“ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Folks
We might get distracted in this life, but playing around with our walk with JEsus, or not taking it as serious as we should has dangerous consequences.
IN Egypt there came more signs of belief....
Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field.
Exodus 9:20
There are two people listening to this message, those who believe and take action, and those who pay no attention and hope that everything pans out ok.... (those people get crushed)
God crushes those who refuse to honor Him as Lord… in the end.
THE HOPE OF THE GOSPEL
Isaiah
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.