Exodus chapter 10, commencing to read at verse 21. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. And Pharaoh called unto Moses and said, Go ye, serve the Lord. Only let your flocks and your herds be stayed. Let their little ones also go with you. And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God. Our cattle also shall go with us. There shall not an hoof be left behind. For thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God. And we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed thyself, see my face no more. For in that day that thou seest my face, thou shalt die. And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face. Again, no more. And we end our reading there, and God will add His blessing to the reading of His precious and His infallible truth for His name's sake. Amen. You know the story how that the children of Israel were down in the land of Egypt. And I suppose even the boys and girls can remember the story. And then of cloud that God wonderfully and miraculously led them out of bondage and led them into liberty. But for over 80 years, the Egyptians had been oppressing the Hebrews. And God had patiently borne with the persecution of His people. And then after that period of time, in the calendar of God, It was time for God to intervene and for God to move and for God to intervene on behalf of His firstborn. In actual fact, God says to Moses, Thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And I say unto thee, let my Son go. You'll read it in chapter 4, verses 22-23. Let my Son go. And if thou refuse to let Him go, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. Israel is my Son. Even my firstborn. We have been studying on the Lord's Day morning the importance of the land of Israel and what God is doing, I believe, in Israel even at this very present moment. But God said a way back there in the book of Exodus, Israel is my son. In other words, Israel is precious to me. She is my firstborn. And I say unto thee, let my son go. Let my son go, that he may serve me." Then God puts a warning. God says, if thou refuse to let him go, He says, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. You see, there is an underlying principle in the Word of God, friends, as we see as we go through this story tonight. Listen, that the Lord is slow to anger. And the Lord is plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide. Neither will He keep His anger forever. Yet, there comes a time. There comes a moment when God rises up and God is patiently borne with the persecution of the Egyptians upon His Son, the children of Israel. And yet God says, The time has come when that persecution will end. And God is rising up in judgment. And God is rising up in wrath. God sends Moses back, as you know the story. And He sends him with an errand. He sends him back to Egypt, because remember, he had been brought up in Pharaoh's palace. And God sends him back on a very special errand. It wasn't an easy errand, but it was an important one. And it was a message from God, let my people go. Let my son go. Now, Pharaoh, he was not willing to let the Hebrews go because the slaves were very important to him. They were very useful to him. And instead of being willing to let them go, we find that first of all, he dismisses God. Who is God that will tell Him to let His people go? Chapter 5, verse 2, And Moses said, Who is the Lord? And the word there is Jehovah. Who is Jehovah? That I should obey His voice to let Israel go. I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. And so he dismisses God. Who is Jehovah? Who is the Lord? And then he dismisses God's Word, because if you go down to the 9th verse, this is what he says, Let there no more work be laid upon the men, that they may labor therein, and let them not regard vain words. That's what he regarded God's Word as. Vain words. Empty, useless words. He dismissed the Lord. He dismissed the Word of God. He dismissed the warnings of God. Because instead of bending below the chastising rod of God, friend, he hardens his heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart against God. In other words, he was defiant. Who is this God that I should obey Him and let Israel go? Friend, it's a sad thing that Pharaoh hardens his heart. and dismisses God as if He didn't count on His Word. But you know, when I was reading this passage of God's Word in the book of Exodus, I read a sadder story. Because I read a statement in chapter 6, which I believe is even sadder than Pharaoh's Word. Because in chapter 6, in verse 12, it says this, And Moses spake before the Lord, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me, how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips? Behold, the children of Israel, they have not hearkened unto me. How then, how do you expect Pharaoh to listen if your people are not listening? The people that you have come down to deliver? The people that you have heard their cry? The people who you have seen their sorrow? And he says, O God, behold, the children of Israel, they have not hearkened unto me. How then can I expect Pharaoh, who is of uncircumcised God gives him a command in verse 13, the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel and unto Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. There was a job. There was a commission that God gave them to fulfill. And God sends them forth. Let me tell you, the preliminaries are over. The initial request to worship had been rejected, had been refused. And now it's time for God to move. God's going to intervene. Time for judgment. And the judgment we know is the judgment known as the plagues of Egypt. And God rises up in judgment, friend. And these plagues would be a visitation of God and a manifestation of the mighty power of God to let Pharaoh know who Jehovah was. In chapter 9, verse 16, it says simply these words, And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power. God is going to manifest His mighty power before Pharaoh, and He will make Pharaoh bow the knee, because every knee shall bow. And God will glorify His name. And God will manifest His power. And God will manifest His preeminence. And that My name may be declared. throughout all the earth. God's going to glorify His name and what He's going to do with Pharaoh. And let me tell you, whenever souls are damned in hell, friend, God will glorify His name. As the man who rejects Jesus Christ and will not bow the knee, the Word of God says every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and as the unconverted soul is cast into the depths of hell, let me tell you, God will glorify His name. His name will be glorified. He glorifies His name in the salvation of souls. But let me tell you, He'd glorify His name in the damnation of the lost. And God says, I raised you up. And He says, I want to tell you, I raised you up to show in thee My power, and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth. It was a time of the manifestation of the mighty power of God. It was a time of judgment. It was a time of wrath upon Pharaoh because of his sin. Because God is going to judge. If you turn to chapter 10 of Exodus, verse 16, then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and Haste. And he said, I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. You see, the time of visitation, friend, will be a time of God's judgment. It will be a time of God's wrath. It will be a time when God will deal with sin. And here we find in Pharaoh's life that God deals with sin, and God steps in and He cries out. He calls for Moses, and He calls for Aaron, and He says, I have sinned against the Lord your God. and against you. But let me tell you, friend, this wasn't repentance. Pharaoh did not repent of his sin here. You see, just like many people today, you see, when God steps in and God deals and God judges sin, friend, and God brings judgment, or God brings a person down and God humbles a person, then they make an empty profession at times, but it's not a genuine possession. It's not that they've repented of their sin. It's not that they've turned away from their sin. They want God to remove the sickness. They want God to remove the circumstance. They just want God to intervene. And so Pharaoh says in verse 17, Now therefore forgive I pray thee my sin, only this one. Entreat the Lord your God that He may take away from me this death only. You see, he's concerned about the wages. not the sin. And the Word of God says this, friend, except you repent, you'll perish. In other words, except there is a change of mind over sin, and it brings a change of heart, then the judgment of God will fall upon sin, because that's exactly what was happening here in Egypt. And Pharaoh found out that God wasn't finished with him. But I said, God is slow to anger, and God is plenteous in mercy. Have you ever looked at the plagues that God sent for him? Do you notice how there's a progressive nature in the advancing of the severity of the judgment? You see, God didn't bring death. of the firstborn. Although God warned, He said, listen, if you do not let My people go, He said, I will take thy son, thy firstborn. God says, I'll slay him. But God intervenes in a progressive nature because He's slow to anger. When a man rejects the Son of God, He just doesn't send him straight to hell, friend. God deals with him in mercy. God deals with him in grace. There are people in the service tonight, and you have heard the gospel over and over again. If God wasn't a gracious God, you'd be in hell tonight. If God wasn't a merciful God, you, my friend, would be indeed cast into the depths of the damned, never to return again. God would not call again. God would not deal in mercy with your soul. But we see here, even the plagues in Egypt, how the God's hand was outstretched. And God deals with them. God deals with them in mercy. Yes, there is a progressive nature in the severity of the judgment until finally the death angel does come. Because the wages of sin is death. There are ten plagues. But you notice before the last one came, which was the one that God warned of, Because that was the only one that God said. Right at the very beginning, God said concerning the slaying of the firstborn in Exodus 4, verse 23, He said, Let My son go that he may serve Me, and if thou refuse to let him go, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. That was the one He warned of. Right at the beginning. But you notice there were nine other plagues. And the first three go together because what God did in those first three was He intervened with the comforts of the people. He deprived them of the water to drink and to wash in. And then the second one, the frogs, which then intervened in the comfort of their home because it came out of the waters and into their homes and over their beds and everywhere. The comfort of their home was taken away. And then the lice came and the lice came upon their bodies. And there was this itch as the lice attacked their body or their health. Yes, the comforts. And then you'll notice the second three go together. Because it's not the comforts of the people, it's the corrupting of their possessions. And we have those with the flies which corrupted the land in chapter 8. And then the disease which smote the cattle. And then the boils and the sores that were sent on man and beast. And their possessions started to be dealt with. And there was the corrupting of their possessions. And then the last three, it was the curse of their provisions. Because the hail came and destroyed the herbage and the cattle, and the lightning ran across the ground. And then the locusts came and consumed the vegetation, that which was left. That which the hail had not destroyed, the locusts destroyed. And then God stopped all their provision, because for three days they never moved. Nine plagues, friend. Their comforts of the people, the corruption of their possessions, the curse of their provisions. And then finally God steps in. The angel of death. The death of the firstborn. And you see when God stepped in, friend, in that final one, no going back. Send away their day of grace and their day of opportunity. Now, notice before the first plague came. Just go back to chapter 7. Before the first plague came on the land of Egypt, twice we find that God had spoken through His servants to Pharaoh. Chapter 7, verse 16, "...thou shalt say unto him..." Verse 15, "...get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning." Get when it's early. Get when it's early before the day goes on and his heart gets hard. Get when it's early. Unto Pharaoh, verse 16, Thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness. And behold, hitherto thou wouldst not hear. Yes, twice Pharaoh rejected. God's order to let Israel go. And it seems, for those two times, friends, it seems as if that when he scorned God and rejected God, it seemed as if his rejection was not going to be contested. Matthew Henry says, God warns before he hounds. You see, when Pharaoh was first approached in chapter 5, in verse 1, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord? Now just mark that. And then he says this, I know not the Lord. Go to chapter 7. And in verse 17, "...thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord." God says, you say, you don't know who I am. He says, before I am finished, you will. And when I step in in judgment, and when I step in in power, Yes, Pharaoh, you're going to get a crash course in the knowledge of Jehovah God, and God is about to reveal Himself to Pharaoh like He never did it before. And I want to tell you, friend, God starts the plagues, and I'll tell you, God didn't send the plagues to entertain. But God sent them to enlighten Pharaoh about the important truths of life. I haven't time to go into the plagues, and we'll come to the one we want to touch on tonight, but let me say this. Each of those plagues were very important. God was sending a deliberate message through each one of those plagues. For example, what was the first plague? It was the rivers turning to blood. And God was sending judgment there because it ruined their eating. It polluted the drinking water. It killed the fish. What did they drink? What did they eat? Fish. But they drink water. And God ruined their eating because God was judging them. God ruined their ecology because their rivers were turned to blood and the fish died. And what does it say in chapter 7, verse 21? It says, the river stank. The very air was putrid in the judgment of God. The river stank. He ruined their economy because not only did they eat fish, their main economy was fish. Of course, whenever I think of the river turning to blood, can you remember something? Do you remember what Pharaoh did with the firstborn children, the male children? See, God was returning. to Pharaoh and reminding him of what he did in this judgment, because Pharaoh took the male children and threw them into the water. And when they threw them into the water for him to drown them, that water was crocodile infested. Do you know what the crocodiles did? They tore those bodies of those little babies apart. Do you know what happened? As the crocodiles tore their bodies apart, it stained the river with the blood of the innocent. They didn't care, you know, about the blood of the innocent in the water. But now they care because God turns the whole water to blood. You see, the Nile was worshipped. It was worshipped as a deity. Hymns and prayers and incense was offered to the river spirit. Now the very thing they trusted in The very thing they honored, God turns it to blood. And the very earth stanches with death. The second plague was a plague of frogs. You say, was God saying something in that? Let me tell you, friends. Frogs were worshipped in Egypt. They were worshipped. In actual fact, widely worshipped of the Egyptian gods was Hekai, who was the frog goddess. They wore the images of the frog goddess around their necks. They actually took images of the frog goddess and they would put it in their friends' coffins whenever they died. And so the second plague was against their idol, was against their false god of frogs. And what about the third one? It was lice. You know, the people of Egypt loved their country so much they even believed that the very dust of the ground was holy and sacred. You know what God did? God took the very dust of the ground and He turned the dust into rice. The very thing that they believed was sacred. The very thing that they believed was holy. And the dust of the ground, it springs up and it comes alive and it becomes as rice upon them. And the priests of their temple They, in actual fact, were so scrupulous about their cleanliness that every three days they would shave their heads and they would shave their bodies just in case they would harbor some vermin. And it would hinder their sacred duties. You know, God did. God just covered them up. And even though they shaved to make themselves clean, their bodies and their heads, God turned the very dust that they loved. And God made it live as life. I wish I had time to go down every one of them. The next one was flies. I believe that that word flies there, have you noticed? The phrase is actually written in italics. It is believed the word is beetles. Because in actual fact, everybody in Egypt worshipped the beetle god. If you would have gone to the crown of Egypt, you would have found that Pharaoh's crown had got a serpent. What was the first thing before Moses stopped or started all the work of the plagues? Wasn't the rod turned to the serpent? It was in the crown of Pharaoh. But there was something on his finger. On his finger was a ring. And the ring on Pharaoh's hand was known as the scarab. It was the beetle ring. In fact, they believed that if one of those rings was laid over the heart of a dead man, They believed that it would help them to get to heaven. And God says, you have a false god. And God filled the land with it. And what they found, it couldn't save any of them. And in reality, friend, one by one, these plagues have got a significance for the people. The castle in Egypt were sacred. And God sent the boils, and God sent the heel, and God sent the locusts. And every one of those had significance. Study it for yourself then. Get to the Word of God and find out exactly what was God saying here, because God was casting aside, and God was in reality mocking all their false deities. All the things that they believed in, all the things that they held to, everything they trusted, and God showed them it wasn't worth that. Then we come to chapter 10 very quickly. In the verses we read tonight, And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt." Look at the dynamic of the darkness, friend. It was a darkness that could be felt. Look at verse 22. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt. Three days. You know, that was the judgment of God then. Do you realize what God says concerning the angels that sinned? He said they're reserved in chains in darkness. God speaks about the future for the on-sea person. The Christless hail that is mentioned in the Word of God. And the Bible talks about, listen, the brightness of darkness forever. God sent this plague to the land of Egypt, and God says, stretch forth your hand, Moses. And He said, there will be over all the land, there will be a darkness, but there's something special about this darkness. It is so thick in darkness, it can be felt. In other words, it drove a fear into their heart. It was a fearful darkness, friends. In actual fact, the Word of God goes on to say that in the land of Egypt, neither rose any from his place. He was so afraid to move that for three days they never moved. God stopped them all. Sinner, let me tell you, Tonight you may be carrying on in your sin and you may think that nothing will ever stop you. And somehow the pleasures you have in your sin, my, you think you're drinking the wells of the world and they'll never run dry. I want to guarantee you something. God will stop you someday. And you'll feel the darkness of God's judgment. And you'll feel the very darkness and the thickness of the darkness of hell. And the fear of God shall grip your soul, because it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." They were so afraid, they never moved for the three days of darkness. Maybe tonight, friend, you think that hell's a joke and you think that the judgment of God is a joke. Let me tell you, Maybe some are so bold to say, when I meet God, I'll tell God a few things. Let me tell you, friend, God will stop you when you meet Him. God will stop you, all right. The dynamics of the darkness. But notice something else. The division of the darkness. Go to verse 23. They saw not one another. They couldn't even see their loved one. They would reach out their hand and I could hear them cry, Mommy, are you there? Are you there in the darkness? I can't move. Mommy, I'm afraid. It's so dark. I can't see you. Daddy, carry my friend. Where are you? I can't see you, Daddy. Some people, you know, have got this idea that hell's a place to sit around the fire and they'll joke. and they laugh and they have a wonderful time, I want to tell you, the darkness of the damned, friend, it speaks about the blackness of the darkness, wherever you think of that, the blackness of the darkness. And when your soul goes out into a Christless eternity, my friend, let me tell you this, they saw not one another! The Bible tells me that at the cross of Calvary, For three hours they're surrounded, the cross. For three hours, not three days, three hours. It was darkness. And in the midst of the darkness I hear a cry from the cross. It's a cry from the lovely lips of the Lord Jesus Christ. The One who became my substitute. He bore my sins. And the punishment for my sins were being extracted from the soul of my lovely Saviour. And He cries out, My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken Me? In the darkness. They saw not one another. What does it mean, friend? It means that the soul that's in the damned in hell, they're there alone. Though there are multitudes in hell, they see not one another. There's no unions in hell. There's no family unions in the damned, friend. Because as far as you're concerned in hell, it'll be so black and it'll be so dark and the fear of God will be so great. You'll be there as if alone. Alone. The division of the darkness. But then thirdly, there was the demotion of the darkness, because listen to me. In Egypt, the sun was worshipped under the title of Ra, R-A, Ra. In fact, that name came forward in the very title of Pharaoh. Pharaoh called himself the son, S-O-N, the son of the sun, S-U-N. And because of that, he expected to be adored by the people. And he was addressed as, and I quote, thou solar orb of mankind, chasing darkness from Egypt. That's what he believed he was. Let me tell you, my friend, they worshipped the sun god, the false deity. And Pharaoh believed that he was the one who chased the darkness from Egypt. And as the people for those three days groped in the darkness, the people were taught a very solemn lesson. That it was absolute folly to worship a helpless king. Man couldn't help him. in the darkness. And friend, in the awful darkness of a Christless eternity, maybe you're relying upon some friend. You're relying upon others. Yes, your companions. You think when you've got your companions, you've got everything else. Let me tell you, in the darkness of a Christless eternity, as you grope about in the darkness, that friend upon whom you depended, let me tell you, he'll not be worth because you're lost in the darkness. Some years ago, there was a little boy whose mummy, daddy and the little boy had many very precious times together, and then death came. Cancer came upon that mummy's frame and finally took mummy away. The night whenever the mummy was laid in Mother Earth, the Father brought the little bed of the boy into the room where he was lying and put it over just a little from his own. And as the light went out, the little boy had been asleep. Daddy was settling down for the night, and in the nighttime, the little boy woke up and Daddy heard a cry. And the little boy was sobbing. He says, Daddy, Daddy is so dark. I'm afraid. Daddy's big hand that had been calloused with the working of the years. He reached out his hand and he reached out and he caught hold of the little boy's in the bed beside him and he pulled the little boy's hand in his and he tightly squeezed it and he says, Darling, you don't need to be afraid for Daddy's here. but framed in the darkness of a lost eternity. Where that worm dieth not, and that fire is not quenched, and the lights never come, you'll have all your hopes and all your trusts dashed because they're no good. Ra, the sun, or the light, or the God of the sun. It wasn't worth that. But quickly, the difference of the darkness. You see, friend, many of the plagues were announced. Do you remember the words we read? Go into Pharaoh early in the morning. Say unto him. Look at verse 21. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thy hand, Moses. Don't go near Pharaoh. You have nothing to say to him. You have nothing to say! Nothing at all to say. No warning. You look in the plagues and how that the person second, there was a warning. The fourth and the fifth, there was a warning. The sixth and the seventh, there was a warning. Or the seventh and eighth, there was a warning. God says, Moses, I want you to go out.