I've mentioned before, my grandmother, who went to be with the Lord a couple of years ago at the age of 106, whenever she saw us and whenever she saw my boys, we were always just good looking, you know, just the most handsome if we were ever in a class production. I was always the best, you know, and I knew she was lying, I knew that, but did I care? Not at all, you know. So grandparents, Just, we don't have to lie. I know you're not lying, but just to encourage them, it means a lot. I know. Exodus chapter nine. We're going to be considering verses 13 through 35. If you're able, would you please stand as I read for us these verses? hear God's word. 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. 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. 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. You're still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. 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. 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. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven. so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt on man and beast and every plant of the field in the land of Egypt. Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail and fire rain down upon the earth. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. And there was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as never had been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck down everything that was in the field and all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail." Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, this time I have sinned. The Lord is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong. Plead the Lord for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go and you shall stay no longer. Moses said to him, as soon as I've gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease and there will be no more hail so that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. But as for you and your servants, I know you do not yet fear the Lord God. The flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. But the wheat and the emmer were not struck down, for they are late in coming up. So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people of Israel go just as the Lord had spoken through Moses This is the word of the Lord Let's pray father we come to you in in need and in with great Awareness that it is you who must be our teacher through your word We pray that you would do that for us even this this morning that we might see our need of Christ that we might see him and how he's met our greatest need. Send your spirit to do the work of illumination, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Please have a seat. When I was a student, particularly in my, I would say my high school years, I don't recall this happening very often in college or seminary, but in my high school years, I always liked it when a teacher would, just before a test, say, okay, this is gonna be a review day. And so the teacher would go over concepts or things to be well aware of for the test. You know, like a math teacher might go into this problem. And I always liked it when they would say, now you need to know this for the test. So what do you do? And you know, you circle, you star, you underline in your notes, you know this, know this, know this list, know how to do this type of problem. One of the military expressions I've mentioned before that I picked up since being here in Warner Robins is to foot stomp something, right? To emphasize something. That's what a teacher was doing in that review. And what's that got to do with? Exodus chapter 9. Well, I think there are places in what we just read where God is giving a foot stomp, if I could put it that way, where there's some underlining going on, there's some circling, there's some asterisks being made. You need to know this. This is why I'm doing these things, so that you may know. And that's repeated in verses 14, 16, and 29 in Exodus chapter 9. There's a place where things are being underlined. Things are being circled. You need to know this. And so that's where I wanna focus our attention on this, the seventh of the 10 plagues. We're kinda in that part of a sermon series on the book of Exodus where it's the plague of the week sermon, I realize that. But there's something here that we can learn as we are in this seventh of 10 plagues. Let's remember, let's set the stage for where we are, and everyone's been here for all of it, may not be aware of what's going on, but God has called Moses to be his mediator, to be his prophet, to be the one who will lead his people out of bondage in Egypt, and remember how he appeared to Moses on that bush that was burning, yet the bush was not consumed by the fire, and God revealed his name as Yahweh, or Jehovah as we've often heard it called, I am who I will be, And he gives Moses this mission to lead the people out of bondage into slavery, and he sends Moses to Pharaoh, and we see where Pharaoh will harden his heart. At times, the language is God hardened his heart, because Pharaoh is an instrument by which God is teaching his people and teaching the world certain truths. And so now comes the seventh of these 10 plagues. And these aren't random plagues. These aren't just random signs when God turns the Nile to blood or when he sends the frogs and so forth. What God is doing is he's challenging the Egyptian gods. And we'll see that again this morning. Each of these signs is to show that the Egyptian gods that are worshiped, including the Pharaoh, are worthless and powerless. That's his purpose. And what we're seeing here in each of these plagues is they're just getting ratcheted up in intensity. Things are getting more and more severe. I'll quote Philip Ryken at this point. He writes, the plagues began in the water and then moved on to land. However, with the seventh plague, they started to rain down from the sky. Obviously, things were getting worse. God was opening up the arsenal of judgment to pour out his deadly wrath on Egypt. So that's where we are as we get and move ahead in these plagues. And so what the question I wanna ask of this passage and put before us this morning is, what is it that we really need to know? This is what you need to know. What are the lessons that we need to learn? And the first would be this. And these lessons, I'm sure, will seem somewhat repetitive, but here it is, the first of three, there is no one like the God of the Bible. That's the lesson, there is no one like the God of the Bible. Go back to verses 13 and 14, where the Lord says to Moses, rise up early in the morning, present yourself to Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me or that they may worship me. Verse 14, for this time, I will send my plagues on you yourself and on your servants, on your people, so that you may know there is none like me in all the earth. It's interesting. In verse 14, I imagine your Bibles may have what mine has. There's a footnote in verse 14. I just read it. By the word yourself, you know that this time I will send my plagues on you yourself. And there's a little footnote and it reads in the margin. At least it does of my Bible that the Hebrew reads on your heart, on your heart. Now what's significant about that? Well, I'm going to quote John Currid. He says, the plagues are principally targeted against you or more literally against your heart. The Egyptians believed that the Pharaoh's heart was the all-controlling factor in history and society. Now the king of Egypt's heart is hardened against the Hebrews. Yahweh assaults his heart to demonstrate that only the God of the Hebrews is the sovereign of the universe. I mean, that's important. That helps us to understand about when it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart, it's because God's in control. That's what's being driven home. And so here's the lesson. that's being driven home, particularly in verse 14, that it's only the God of the Hebrews. It's only the God who revealed himself to Abraham and to Isaac and Jacob. It's only the God who spoke to Moses out of that bush. It's only the God who revealed himself to David and to David's greater son, revealed himself in David's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the true and living God. That's what's being driven home here. I mean, verse 14 says, so that you may know there is none like me in all the earth. we've said it before, I said it just moments ago, these plagues were meant to humiliate the Egyptian gods. So, one more quote from John Currid, bear with me. He's the Old Testament scholar as well as an archeologist. He says, it's critical to remember that the Egyptians believed their gods to be personified in the elements of nature. The catastrophe of the hail was therefore a mockery of the Egyptian heavenly deities. including, and listen to these names, they're really interesting, Nut, the female representative of the sky and personification of the vault of heaven, Shew, the supporter of the heavens who holds up the sky, and I love the last one, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture, the goddess of moisture. So they had these three gods, and so with this plague of hail, God is assaulting the very existence of these Egyptian gods. I mean, this is God's whiteboard, and he's underlining, and he's circling, and he's putting a star. There is none like me in all the earth. None like me in all the earth. I picked up a book not long ago. One of the worst things that's happened to my budget is to get these emails from Westminster Bookstore. You know, all these people love this book, you need this book, and so I'm the sucker born every minute. I buy these books. Well, I just recently picked up one that's really, in all seriousness, really convicting me. The book is entitled Digital Liturgies Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age, Digital Liturgies. The author's name is Samuel James. And I'll be honest, here's a purpose I have. I would love for as many people in this church would read that book with me and let's have a Friday night book club and talk about it. I think this book is that important because what he's talking about in that book, it's not just the content of the internet that's affecting all of us, it's the internet and the way it works itself. and how it's affected us, how it's affected our abilities to concentrate. And I've noticed that myself. Do you have a hard time reading a long passage in a book? It's because we're so used to reading things on the internet and being within an article on the internet being a link that sends us to more information. All these embedded links, they've affected our capacity for concentration. And another point the author makes in that book is what's become our overriding, what's become the overriding authority for people is experience. And his illustration is the proliferation of reviews. Reviews for everything. I mean, I get tired of being asked for reviews. But we're suckers for them, right? Hey, let me read the reviews on Yelp about this restaurant so I'll know if it's any good. I'm going to buy something, let me read the reviews. And what becomes authoritative are people's anecdotal reviews. It's reviews trump any sense of expertise now. It's our experiences are determining what's true and what's not. Now, what's that got to do with what we're saying this morning? The Lord means to teach us there's none like me in all the earth. God alone is the source of truth and value. What he values is what we should value. What he says is true and good is that which is true and good. I like what Samuel James, the author of the book Digital Liturgy says, we're called to live wisely. To live wisely is to live life aligned with reality. to live life aligned with reality, and God in his revelation in scripture is the only source of what Francis Schaeffer called true truth. That's where reality is. Why is that? Because, God, there's none like me in all the earth. All these Egyptians are worshiping the false gods, but I'm the source of truth. Let me read you a quote from digital liturgies. One of the great things about being a Christian is that in a listless and frantic age, you don't have to chase after every new idea or attitude. To be a Christian is to go to bed every night knowing that you have a completely trustworthy, completely solid, and completely good word from the creator of the universe. The maker of the stars put the wisdom, truth, and hope we need in a book, the Bible. The Bible reveals to us the grand narrative, the master story that gives meaning and direction to our lives, and that story is the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no one like the God of the Bible, and you and I need to know this. The second thing we need to know is that the Lord is worthy of our worship and trust. The Lord is worthy of our worship and trust. And look at verses 15 and 16. We read in those verses, something similar to the point that was made a couple of weeks ago. God basically says in verses 15 and 16, you know, Pharaoh, I could have wiped you out, and all the Egyptians with pestilence. I could have sent a wasting disease, wiped you out, and my people could have been led out of Egypt. But I didn't do it that way. I didn't do it that way. I had other plans. I had other purposes. What were they? Verse 16, but for this purpose, I've raised you up to show you my power so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. God raised up Pharaoh so that God's power is made manifest, so that his name is proclaimed in all the earth. And that word for proclaim is a word often associated with worship, with worship. Consider this, and we may have mentioned this before, these plagues, we're learning, had a missionary purpose. We think of them strictly as God's punishing Pharaoh and punishing the Egyptians. No, they had a missionary purpose. As Philip Rikens says, these plagues had global implications. God wanted to be worshiped around the world. That's a purpose of these plagues. so that the world would know, the world would hear, the world would worship. It's fascinating, God's plans of redemption included ultimately Egyptians too. Listen to this passage from the book of Isaiah. In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, my inheritance. God has designs to save Egyptian people, to save Assyrian people, some of the most hated enemies of Israel. And the good news of the gospel, it's gonna bring them all together and break down walls and produce reconciliation. Don't you love in Acts 2, when the Spirit falls and the people of Jerusalem, hey, we're hearing the gospel, we're hearing the mighty works of God in our own language and there's a laundry list of nations listed and one of those nations is Egypt. Egypt. I find it fascinating that, you know, in the early centuries, Alexandria, Egypt, became one of the leading Christian cities in the ancient world. God does a work. He did a work. I remember a fellow student I had at Reform Theological Seminary was Egyptian. You see, God has a missionary purpose. Here is the missionary heart of God in these plagues. Here's the truth that the gospel of God's grace is intended for every people, people group, every tongue, every tribe, every nation, and the plagues are showing us this. That's amazing. We need to know that God is worthy of worship and trust. Now, one thing we've got to touch on because it's mentioned in the New Testament, that is Exodus 9 verse 16. This verse is quoted in Romans 9. We read the Apostle Paul writing in Romans 9 these words. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I have raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills." The Apostle Paul is bringing in Exodus 9 into Romans 9 as he speaks about God's sovereign purposes in election, to graciously call to himself a people he has chosen for himself. And he's using this occasion, this event with Pharaoh to show God's sovereignty over all things. The Exodus, we know, really ultimately is a picture of the gospel. It's a picture of what Jesus does for us, the greater Moses, who not merely leads his people out of bondage, he accomplishes their freedom through his death, burial, and resurrection. And so, what God, I believe, is teaching here, he means to teach his people. He means to teach the Egyptian people. I'm the only one worthy of worship. This is why Jesus said to that woman at the well, but the hour is coming, and now is here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. Worship is what God's after. Worship is what we are made for. Our God is worthy of our worship. When I was in Santiago, Chile, not too long ago, on the Sunday I was there, I was worshiping in a local church that was helping put on the course that I taught with SRL. And I remember I was talking to a young woman who was there, spoke great English, and she asked me the question, what have you enjoyed about your visit in Santiago? And my immediate response was, well, I just can't get over these beautiful Andes mountains that just seem to ring the city, these beautiful snow-capped mountains. And she laughed, she said, you know, that's what a lot of people say when I ask them that question. He says, for us, we just get up in the mornings and there are the mountains. And that's true about a lot of things. To live there and to see them regularly, it produced perhaps a bit of apathy. And it's an age-old problem, right? Familiarity breeds contempt. When it comes to worship, the worship of our God, it may be that familiarity breeds apathy, which is worse. At least in contempt, you're feeling something. Apathy is no feeling at all. And what's happened? Well, we've just lost sight of the glory and majesty of God. We don't value who he is in his infinite perfections, and we've just allowed ourselves to be lulled into apathy, and we just don't take time to reflect on who God is and what he's done for us in Christ. And the God of all grace, I believe, wants to free us from our apathy, that we might be moved to worship. We need to seek him. We need to challenge each other and encourage each other and exhort each other to worship him. We need that song sung to us regularly, that Andrew Peterson song, that asks that question, is he worthy? And remember, our choir's done it, and there's that echo, he is, and we need to remember that. His name is meant to be proclaimed and worshiped in all the earth, and we need to be a people stirred and motivated, and we can't just do it ourselves. We can't do it to ourselves. We need him to do it in us. But yet he says, hey, I'm giving you a pathway though. Meet with one another in worship. Gather around this table. Expose yourself to the word as you read it, as you hear it taught and preached. Those are ways for your heart to be stirred. God says, you need to know there is no one like me, the God of the Bible. I am worthy of your worship and trust. And thirdly and finally, and we're gonna We're going to sprint through the remainder of this passage. He teaches us, the Lord is King and there is no other. The Lord is King and there is no other. In verses 17 through 21, there's the warning that's given through Moses, the warning of judgment. And in verse 17, the essence of Pharaoh's sin, the sin of pride. He's exalting himself against my people. And the threat of this very heavy hail is given, such as never been in Egypt from the day until it was founded. But yet God then in verse 19 offers a way of escape, a way of mercy, you know, get out of the way, take shelter. And in verses 20 and 21, we're told that some did, some feared the Lord and some took that shelter, but those who did not. suffered the consequences. And in verses 22 through 26, the hail comes. It's hail mixed with lightning. That's that flashing fire that the passage describes. But again, we read in verse 26, God spares his people. This land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, there was no hail. And let's be reminded at this point, why does God spare Israel? Why is God even noticing Israel? Why does he even care about the Hebrews? What we're told in Deuteronomy 7, for you're a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession. And of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth, it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you. For you were the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath he swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. It's all God's amazing grace. That's why God chooses anyone. It's all his grace. And then in verses 27 and 28, we get this picture of Pharaoh's half-hearted repentance. Okay, I'm tired of the hail, would you do something about it? He's not, the passage says he doesn't yet fear the Lord, he doesn't really acknowledge God for who he is, doesn't truly worship him or trust him yet, he's just tired of the hail. And Moses realizes that. And Moses says as much in verse 30, but as for you and your servants, I know you do not yet fear the Lord, but yet, Moses stretches out his staff and the hail ceases, but I want to zero in on verse 29. As soon as I've gone out of the city, I'll stretch out my hands to the Lord, the thunder will cease, there'll be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. That you may know the earth is the Lord's. It doesn't belong to Nut or Tethnut or Shu or any of these other gods. It belongs to me. The earth is the Lord's and all it contains He was saying to the Egyptians, he was saying to Pharaoh, he was saying to Israel, your trust doesn't need to be there, it needs to be in me. Your confidence, your trust, it must be in me. There's no other place to put it. I'm discovering that one of the great privileges that I have in my profession is that I get to be at the bedside of the dying. I get to visit the bedside of those who are dying. That's a privilege, particularly, or perhaps especially, when it's the bedside of one dying in Christ, dying in faith. And these are words I've read multiple times in those opportunities. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also. And you know the way to where I'm going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. That's the great hope of the gospel. Don't you love what Jesus says? Believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms, and I love the way Jesus says this. If it were not so, would I have told you I'd go to prepare a place for you? The simple offer of the gospel is simple faith and trust in Christ, to rest in Him. We're not called to faith in faith. We're not called to faith in our own religious performance. We're called to faith in Christ. You see, the earth is the Lord's. He holds all things in His hands. It's mine, I rule and reign. You can only put your trust in Him. Now, we need to hear that. This community stood on the precipice of yet another government shutdown. Now it got averted, but have we learned our lesson yet? We're not to put our trust. Have we learned that as much as we ought to, I'm not saying we shouldn't be concerned about elections, we ought to pray for them. In fact, we ought to work for them. Some of you need to run for office. But that's not where our confidence is. It's not in Wall Street. It's not in my career. It's not in my performance. My confidence must be in Christ. And I believe that's what is being foot stomped here in verse 29. The earth is the Lord's. It's not these gods you worship. You need to know this. Yes, this will be on the test. Because it's that important. There is no one like the God of the Bible. The Lord is worthy of our worship and our trust. He's king, there is no other. Do you know him? Is your trust in him this morning? And maybe you need to look at your heart and say, Lord, my confidence is in other places. And I'm not valuing you and your word for what it is. I'm seeking my own way in places. And I'm not realizing that ultimately you are king. And I need to confess and forsake and pursue you in this matter, this area of my life. That's how we respond to these things that God is stressing to us. Are you growing in apathy? Then seek Him and the means He's provided, even in this table, if you're here as a believer this morning. Let's come to the table then together and be renewed in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and be renewed together. Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for the work you did even in the book of Exodus to remind us and to teach us things we need to know. May we remember who you are and your great grace towards us and the great promises you've made. May they be renewed to us even this morning. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.