Go ahead and begin. We're going to be reading again in Exodus 8 today. The title of my message is Fearsome Flies and Deceitful Dealings. We'll start in verse 20. And 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. 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. 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 thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. 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, and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt. 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 is not meet so to do, 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.' And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that you 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 go out from thee, and I will entreat the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people tomorrow. 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 swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. There remained not one. And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also. Neither would he let the people go." Father God, Lord, I thank you for this day to come together to worship you, Lord, and to hear your word, Father. And I pray that you would open our ears to your word today, God. my lips and my tongue, God, as I speak, God, that you would give me the message today that you would have us to hear. And God, I thank you for your preserved word that you've kept for us, Lord, the King James Bible. And Lord, I just pray that you would help us to understand the things that you have for us, God. And bless this church. Bless those that are not here today, Father. Keep them safe. And Lord, we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we've come to the fourth plague that God brought upon Egypt. We read about the water of the river being turned to blood and the plague of frogs that came up from the river and invaded every home. And then the third plague, when God turned all the dust of the land into lice. With the first two plagues, we saw how Pharaoh's magicians were able to sort of duplicate the act, as they were able to turn their rods into serpents when Moses first confronted Pharaoh with a miraculous sign. God's power was always greater power. When they threw down their rods, it said that Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods, proving that God was greater than whatever powers the Egyptians may have called upon. When Aaron smote the waters of the river and turned them to blood, it said the magicians also did so with their enchantments, and Pharaoh's heart was hardened. When the Lord brought the frogs upon the land, the magicians were also able to do so with their enchantments, and Pharaoh's heart was hardened. But he did sin for Moses and Aaron and asked them that they would entreat for them before God to remove the frogs. He said that if they would do this, He would let the people go. In Exodus 8 and 9 it says, So Moses does go to the Lord. He cries unto the Lord to remove the frogs. and the Lord does what He asks. He causes the frogs to die out throughout the land in their houses and villages. And this was a sign to Pharaoh, as Moses said, that he would know that there was no other God like the Lord. He would tell Pharaoh what was going to happen before it happened, and nothing could stay his hand or thwart his purposes, because he is the Lord God and there is none like unto Him. Nevertheless, Pharaoh hardened his heart again and refused to let the people go. After he had said he would, And so the Lord sent the third plague upon Egypt, the lice. All the dust of the land was turned into lice, and Pharaoh's magicians, when they tried to duplicate this miracle, were unable to. They couldn't get their enchantments to work, and to them, this was a confirmation that Moses was backed by God. And they told Pharaoh as much. They said, this is the finger of God. It's just his finger. Pharaoh is messing with a power that he can't comprehend, but still his heart is hardened, and he doesn't pay his magicians any heed either. So once again the Lord has Moses and Aaron go find Pharaoh at the river. It says, And 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. 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." God tells Moses to rise up early in the morning and meet Pharaoh again at the river. This seems to be Pharaoh's habit, to go to the river to begin his day. And I think this is commendable that Pharaoh rises early each day. It shows that whatever negative qualities Pharaoh might have, one of them is not slothfulness. He doesn't sleep in every morning and wait for the bad news to find him in his pajamas. He gets up and attends to the business of running his kingdom. It just happens that his kingdom is wicked and he should be attending to the Word of God that Moses has come to deliver to him. This time Moses warns him that the Lord intends to send swarms of flies. These flies would be upon Pharaoh and upon his servants and all his people. But then he tells Pharaoh that he is going to keep those flies away from Goshen. 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 thou may knowest that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth, and I will put a division between My people and thy people. Tomorrow shall this sign be." You might assume that God had previously allowed the plagues that He sent upon Egypt to affect the children of Israel as well as the Egyptians. I don't know if that is necessarily so, The Bible doesn't say specifically that the Israelites had to deal with the frogs and lice as well as the Egyptians, though they may have. But I think that it would have been in the character of God to keep His people from any of these plagues. But Moses may have just been pointing this out, this fact, to Pharaoh to emphasize that this judgment of God was upon Egypt specifically because maybe he had been too preoccupied with his own misery to notice. Psalm 78, 43 says, how He had wrought His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoam, and had turned their rivers into blood and their floods that they could not drink. He sent diverse sorts of flies among them which devoured them, and frogs which destroyed them. He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labor unto the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost. He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble by sending evil angels among them. He made a way to His anger. He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence, and smote all the firstborn in Egypt. the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham, but made his own people to go forth like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock." The Israelites complained to Moses when they were forced to make bricks without straw. I can't imagine that they wouldn't have complained if their homes were filled with frogs and lice as well as the Egyptians. The Bible makes no mention of this either. But in either case, from this point on, Pharaoh is made to know that the Lord has separated his people from the people of Egypt and that these judgments upon them are not going to be felt by Israel, but by Egypt alone. And this is so that Pharaoh will know that Moses' God is the Lord in the midst of the earth. Verse 24 says, And the Lord did so. And there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt. The land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies. Corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies. Flies are nasty. They seem mainly to exist to cause misery to man and beast alike. Many flies may merely be nuisances, like house flies. If you read the word flies in the text, you might think, house flies. But there are so many different types of flies in the world. The Bible might apply the word fly to any kind of flying insect, really, as we see with other words like fish that can apply to any kind of creature that lives in the sea. But even what we would consider true flies, there is just such a large variety of them. And they can be more trouble than just landing on your potato salad when you're at the barbecue. What we just read in verse 45 there, it said, The devouring might not be strictly literal. It also says, So this could be interpreted in a more poetic sense. That is to say that all these plagues in turn contributed to the downfall of Egypt and Pharaoh But the fact is that some flies are parasitic and will bite humans. Horse flies, deer flies, and mosquitoes, to name some of the more common biting flies. Article on A to Z animals. Do flies bite? It says out of the hundreds of thousands of species of flies that are currently known to exist, thankfully only a small percentage of them actually bite humans. Most species feed on decaying plant matter, food waste, or animal excrement. Additionally, some will feed upon flower nectar. Some varieties, however, have very small, razor-sharp mouthparts they can use to pierce our skin, and in most cases, suck our blood for nourishment. After sinking their mouthparts into a human or animal's skin, many flies will inject their saliva, which has anticoagulant properties. This encourages the blood to keep flowing, providing the fly with more blood to feed upon. In general, most fly bites are harmless, or only cause minor skin irritation and redness. For people who are allergic, though, these bites can be extremely painful and annoying to treat. Certain species of flies, particularly larger varieties like horseflies, can also cause more severe lasting pain with their biting mouthparts. I learned firsthand how annoying biting flies can be when we first came to Missouri. Living in the city, I'd never had much dealings with horseflies, but as soon as I moved out here to the country, I discovered that they were relentless. Once they had made it their intent to bite you, they would keep flying at you over and over until they managed to land, usually on your back, and often they could bite you right through your clothes. And we had lots of them, and deer flies, too. We had cattle that were running on the property at the time, and there were always horseflies around. And I would joke that horseflies were the state bird of Missouri. You may be wondering whether the Egyptians had a fly god to go along with this plague. Most of the results I found of this question pointed to a goddess named Wachit, but results related to that describe Wachit as a cobra. So I'm not sure how they might be linked. I don't doubt that the Egyptians probably had a fly god, and the idea that God is deliberately judging Egypt in a manner that shows their own gods to be impotent has a definite narrative appeal. But I don't find it to be very instructive for a believer today to know anything about the false gods of Egypt other than that the Israelites had spent time among the Egyptians and brought some of these things out with them in the mixed multitude. The Bible does talk about certain false gods in their context. But God doesn't bother to mention these Egyptian gods in the text, and I don't know if it would matter whether that idea was true or not. God despises all idols and will have no other gods before Him. And certainly Egypt is being judged for their idolatry, as many other nations were as well. But Pharaoh is tired of these flies. So in Exodus 8.25 we see it says, "'And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron and said, "'Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land, And Moses said, It is not meet so to do, 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 saw how Joseph had the land of Goshen set aside for the children of Israel, because they were to be separate from the Egyptians. He had his brothers tell Pharaoh that they were shepherds because shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians, and this would allow them to keep themselves distanced from the Egyptian people and have a good place to tend their flocks and raise their families. So now Pharaoh is telling Moses that they can do their sacrifices, but they should just do it there where they are. But Moses points out to him that the Egyptians consider their practices of sacrificing sheep to be abomination. probably because they have a ram god as well. And the killing of sheep to sacrifice to the God of Israel would be utterly offensive to them. Moses says, if they do this, the Egyptians would stone them. Verse 27, he says, We will go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as He shall command us. 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 and treat for me. Pharaoh seems to be agreeing to let them go and do their sacrifices. He says, don't go too far away, but he needs Moses to call off the swarms of flies that are vexing his kingdom. His magicians can't do anything. If they could, it would just be to call up more flies. He knows that he needs Moses to end this plague for him, so he consents again to let them go. Verse 29, and from his people, tomorrow. 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 swarms of flies from Pharaoh. From his servants and from his people there remained not one. And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go. So Pharaoh has not learned anything from his previous dealings with the Lord through Moses and Aaron. He continues to prevent the children of Israel from going to sacrifice to the Lord, even though he has now twice said that he would. Moses warned him not to deal deceitfully anymore with God, but again he hardens his heart as God said he would. I doubt that Pharaoh had any intention of keeping his word. Possibly he might have thought to do so, but I think it more likely that Pharaoh has only said that which he thought would help him in his present plight. He thinks, if I tell Moses that I will let them go, Moses will stop this plague. It worked the last time, it might work again. Despite Moses' admonition, he decides to tempt God, not realizing perhaps that his fate is already sealed as far as God is concerned. Pharaoh does not seem to be overly concerned that his word is not being honored toward the Israelites. They aren't even Egyptians. They are property. He owes them nothing. He is the ruler of Egypt, esteemed like a god by his people, and is used to having his way. These children of Israel are not giving him the respect that a god-king deserves, defying him and making demands of him. In his mind, he has every right to deceive them in order to get them to comply with his wishes. Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? Pharaoh would probably have no compunction about lying to his own subjects either. Often those in positions of great power see themselves as better than other people, and those around them are there to serve them. Pharaoh was born into his position and probably never had to serve anyone else's entire life, but was only served by everyone. If he had ever been denied anything, he could probably just lie to his own father and have someone executed. He seems to be the kind of person who would do such a thing. The kind of person that thinks the whole world revolves around them. Maybe what the world would call a narcissist. Someone like Pharaoh would hardly make a good ruler. He's obviously been handed a great kingdom that he could never have gathered for himself. And he's going to allow it to be destroyed because he's too proud to suffer his will to be the subject to the will of God and this Moses. A good ruler would give some thought to the welfare of his subjects. In 2 Chronicles, you read about Solomon, it says, In that night did God appear unto Solomon, and said unto him, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said unto God, Thou hast showed great mercy unto David my father, and hast made me to reign in his stead. Now, O Lord God, let thy promise unto David my father be established, for thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude. Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can judge this thy people that is so great?' And God said to Solomon, Because this was in thine heart, and thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honor, nor the life of thine enemies, neither yet hast thou asked long life, but hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou mayest judge my people over whom I made thee king. Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee, and I will give thee riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like." Solomon understood that as king of Israel he was responsible to God to do good to God's people, to judge righteously among them, not to gather riches and honor for himself. And God blessed his rule and gave him wisdom and knowledge and honor and wealth and riches that were unrivaled in all the world. As a wise ruler, Solomon would know better than to give his word and then go back on it. Psalms 15 says, "...Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor, in whose eyes a vile person is contemned. But he honoreth them that fear the Lord, he that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not, he that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved. And Solomon himself wrote in Proverbs 26, he that hateth, dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him. When he speaketh fair, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart, whose hatred is covered by deceit. His wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation. Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein, and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him. A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it, and a flattering mouth worketh ruin." Pharaoh has no such wisdom. He doesn't consider that his lies will have repercussions. He doesn't consider that he is not just lying to men, to Moses and Aaron, but that he is lying to God Himself, and no good will ever come from such deceits. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. Pharaoh is sowing destruction as he continues to ignore Moses' words to him. Dealing deceitfully with God has gotten many people in trouble. Ananias and Sapphira sold some property and were donating the money to the church, which it says at the time had all things common. It says that the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own. They all sold what they had, whether it was lands or houses, and brought the money to the apostles, and they distributed the money as it was needed. They just had a spirit of oneness about them, and they decided at this time to do it this way." It wasn't a command, and it doesn't appear that the churches continued to do this for long, but it is what they felt they were led to do in Acts. It says Barnabas did so with some land that he had. He sold it and laid the money at the apostles' feet. In Acts 5 we read, But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira his wife sold the possession and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? Ananias and Sapphira wanted to get in on this, but apparently didn't like the idea of giving all their money, so they kept a portion of it back for themselves. I don't think this would have been an issue, except that it seems that they had made a point of letting the apostles know that the money they gave was the whole price that they had received for the land. Peter asked Ananias why. Perhaps it was because he wanted the praise of men for his generosity in giving all as others had done, but also wanted the security of having some money of his own. Peter said that the money was his to begin with. He says, while it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? That was not lying unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost, and great fear came on all them that heard these things. So Ananias was killed by God for lying, a stupid lie. And when his wife came back, she didn't know what had happened to her husband, and she went along with the lie, like they had agreed to do. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost. And the young men came in, and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. Great fear came upon all the church. People should be afraid of lying to God and lying to God's people. But liars are going to be abundant in the last days. There are many people in the world who will seek to tell lies to the churches for financial gain or other considerations. 2 Peter 2 says, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. These false prophets will lead people astray, teaching them to sin like Balaam did when he showed Balak how to tempt the Israelites to commit fornication because he loved the wages of unrighteousness. But they won't get away with it any more than Ananias and Sapphira did. The Lord knows how to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. In Revelation 21-7 it says, He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. but the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." So we don't want to entertain liars and false teachers, and we don't want to be liars either. 1 John 1 says, if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, As He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. In the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. Now, Mike, send us our new challenge from the faraway land of Chicago. This time it's the go and sin no more challenge. He writes, the go and sin no more challenge. Every one of us sins in some way. It might be a large besetting sin of commission, or it might be a sin of omission. If we examine ourselves, there's something that we do involving our thoughts, our words, what we eat, what we say, what we wear, how we spend our time, or our attitude that is sinful. For this challenge, we are to identify a sinful habit or manner of living, and by the end of January, repent and fix it. There's no need to share this sin with anyone. It's between us and God. Go and sin no more. So I would encourage all of us to do so. I know there's areas in my life that I need to work on, and this is a good time to do so. The new year is a good time to do these things. And let's not deal deceitfully anymore and say that our sin is no sin. You know, there's probably many plagues that God could send upon us for our own sins that He hasn't. But let's not deal deceitfully with God. Amen? If God's convicted us of something in our lives, we need to get rid of it, get it out of our lives. Let's go to God. Father God, Lord, we thank You so much, God, for Your Word. Lord, again, I thank You for this church and these people, Father, my family, my friends, God. I just pray, God, that you would bless us all this new year and help us, Lord, to hear from your spirit, God, when it convicts us, God, of things that we need to change, Lord. Help us, Lord, to put away the things that keep us from serving you, Lord. And Lord, I pray that you would just help us all to love you more in this coming new year. God, I pray that you would bless those who are not here today, Father, that they would hear this sermon, Lord, and they would also, Father, be Just encourage, Lord, to put away sins, God, and get ready for your soon coming, Lord. We know that you are coming soon, that we're all gonna stand before you, God, and give an account for the things that we've done in the flesh, Lord. And every idle word that comes out of our mouth, God, we're gonna have to give an account for, Lord. We just pray, Lord, that you would help us to be accounted worthy to be able to stand before you. Lord, I pray that you'd bless the rest of our day, bless our fellowship. It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen.