The following message was given at Emanuel Baptist Church, Coconut Creek, Florida. I really wanted to sing my favorite hymn tonight, hymn number 1986, the Oscar Mayer Bologna song, but we sang that this morning. I thought I would change it to hymn number 1991. I don't want to grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid. Maybe next time. If you weren't here this morning, you have no idea what I'm talking about. You'll join me, Exodus chapter 9. Exodus 9 will be in verses 1 through 12 this evening. When I was a boy, I used to spend most of my summers in Iowa and I'd spend a few weeks with my grandparents and my mom's father, my grandfather, he was a farmer his entire life. He had cows and pigs and horses and hundreds and hundreds of acres of crops. And when I was old enough to be helpful, he just had pigs and crops then, and he'd gotten rid of the rest of all of his animals. But I remember every morning, we would wake up early, we'd get on some work clothes, we would eat some delicious bacon, and then we would head to the farm. And every morning, my routine with my grandfather is we'd pull up, we'd both get out of the truck, and I would say, Grandpa, your pigs really stink. And he would take a deep breath in and say, It smells like money. And we'd have a laugh and we'd go on our way. Well, for most of human history, and this is still true in many parts of the world today, nearly everyone raised their own crops and animals for their families. We are so accustomed in the West to restaurants and grocery stores and food stands that most Americans, especially, have never even seen an animal slaughtered, let alone butchered and made ready for consumption. Our biggest concern most of the time is what we want to eat, and not whether or not we are going to be able to eat based on the weather of that season, or based on whether or not we can find an animal while hunting, or based on whether or not the animals we have are sizable enough to use for meat. We think Mexican, Chinese, hamburgers and fries, while throughout history most people have said, what's available, we will make it work. We are a blessed people. And the average size of Americans going up and up shows that we've taken full advantage of this luxury. But because of the luxury we have, it's difficult for most people to identify with the devastation of losing an entire herd of livestock. If you've seen the price of beef lately, you know that it's certainly not a good thing when cow populations are low and farmers are just scraping by to make enough money to feed their families. But what about when it's your only option? It's all you have and it's all you will have for a long time because you can't grow a cow in a day. Losing livestock for a farmer is devastating. That is their paycheck. Those animals put food on the table, literally. And as we get back into Exodus tonight, we're going to see the fifth and sixth plagues from the Lord as he continues to do battle with Pharaoh and with the Egyptians and with their false gods. And this time he takes their food supply and their livelihood. We've seen a steady progression from A little bit annoying, to inconvenient, to a little painful, to very irritating, but now things are starting to get a lot more serious. The Lord has been merciful along the way. He's given Pharaoh plenty of warnings. He's announced on several occasions that he's going to send a plague before he did it, giving Pharaoh an opportunity to say, please don't, the people can go. But Pharaoh has been happy on two occasions now to ask Moses to go and to pray for him, pray to God and ask him to relent from his wrath. And Moses did it both times. Both times the Lord relented, but Pharaoh's heart has remained hard and the people of Israel have remained in Egyptian bondage. So the plagues continue and they get worse. So let's read together beginning chapter nine this evening in verse one. Then the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die. And the Lord set a time, saying, tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land. And the next day the Lord did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, take handfuls of soot from the kiln and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt. So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh and Moses threw it in the air and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them as the Lord had spoken to Moses. Well, when we think of God's work of redemption, we generally only think about it in positive terms. Now, of course, not one of us who's been redeemed by Christ would think of redemption in a negative way. It's the greatest possession that any of us have. We've been redeemed by Christ, so we are secure in Him for all eternity. And that's an amazing thing. That's wonderful news. But there is a reality about redemption that includes God's wrath. Yes, the Lord is busy at work. He is rescuing. He is purchasing His people at a price. But part of what God does to redeem His people is also to destroy. Specifically, God is at work to destroy Satan's strongholds, all of the forces that are arrayed against the people of God. I don't think we think about this enough as Westerners. We have very rationalistic thinking, which can be very good in many ways, but as Christians, we cannot forget the reality of what the scriptures teach us. Our lives, our interactions, our daily encounters with the circumstances we face are surrounded by the powers of darkness. The powers and principalities of the air are real and are active and are violently opposed to us and all we stand for in Christ and we can trust that he will work to destroy them. That's a significant part of what we see in the plague narratives from Exodus 7-11. He's bringing plagues against the enemies of his people. This is part of God's work of redemption. The high towers of God's enemies must be torn down if his people are to be safe and free. He will shatter every resistance to his rule, and that is a good thing. And this isn't just in the Old Testament. We also see this in the New Testament. We see Christ at work on our behalf, destroying the forces arrayed against his people. For example, I wonder if you've ever meditated on Jesus's words in John 16, 33. Remember, Jesus said, I have said these things to you that in me, you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world. John Calvin commented on this writing that, Jesus means that He has overcome every spiritual force aligned against His people. He has disarmed the spiritual forces of wickedness and let the captives free. And so we are now more than conquerors because Christ has vanquished all that would oppose God's elect, death, life, angels, and demons. And this is exactly what we're seeing in the plague narrative. God is tearing down what opposes Him and what opposes His people. Pharaoh, the entire Egyptian system and empire, and the false gods of the Egyptians that are no real rivals to the one true and living God. One abundantly clear thing that all of us have seen as we've walked through this is that God is sovereignly reigning and ruling from heaven. All the affairs of the universe, including the tiny bugs of the ground to the heart of an evil tyrant, Pharaoh, are in God's hands. God also makes distinctions, which is even more evident in this plague. We've seen it before, and God continues to make it more and more apparent that the Israelites are His people and the Egyptians are not His people. He watches over and protects His people, even amid His judgments against those who oppose Him. And this is good news, brothers and sisters, not just for the Israelites, but for us. It is good news for those who love and serve the Lord in a fallen world surrounded by significant opposition. So let's consider a few observations from our text. And the first is this, that God redeems his people so that we might worship and serve him. Notice in verse one, Moses uses this phrase that we see from all the prophets going forward, thus says the Lord. Exodus is the first time that we see this phrase, and it plays prominently through the plague narratives, but from here on out, it's picked up by pretty much all of the prophets throughout the Old Testament, and it's an introduction to divine revelation. The Lord is saying this through His prophet. The Lord wants you to know this. This is His word, not mine. It's not, here's what I think the Lord wants me to say to you, but rather this is what the Lord has told me to tell you. And Moses and Aaron are the first to use that phrase in the Old Testament. Now notice also the name that God uses for himself in verse one. Go into Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews. This is another revelation of the name of God. God's telling Moses, remind Pharaoh who it is that is speaking to him. I am the Lord. I am the God of the Hebrews. I am who I am. This is the first time since the first plague that God has used that title, God of the Hebrews. Remember in the beginning, I kept bringing this up because this is an important aspect of the narrative. Remember Pharaoh, when he said, I don't know who the Lord is. I don't know who it is that you are saying is telling me to do this. I don't know his name. I don't know what he does. I know nothing about him. But then later, he asks Moses, would you pray to the Lord on my behalf that he would relent? He's getting to know him a little bit and not in the way he would want. So God is coming back again and saying, since you said you didn't know who I am, I will tell you one more time, the God who has brought these plagues, the God who you cannot defeat, the God whom you cannot match, it is me. I am the God of the Hebrews, and I will bring another plague if you do not repent. And since you didn't know who I was, since you didn't know my name, since you said you've never heard of me, let me tell you one more time, I am the Lord. I am the God of the Hebrews. But here's the main point of all of this. God reiterates once again to Pharaoh why it's important that he is saying this, that he is the God of the Hebrews. And it is this main point that all of you know. Let my people go that they may serve me. God desires worship from his people. And this is what God is up to. This is really one of the main points of the entire book of Exodus, and really, it's one of the main points of the entire Bible. God's people will worship Him, and they will do it in the way that He wants. Remember this as we go through the book of Exodus. God will establish the way that He wants to be worshipped. It's not up for personal interpretation. It's not something we get to decide and change based on our mood or our desire to appeal to more people. God establishes how He will be worshipped, and it's not optional. This is just the beginning here. God establishes that He has a people who will worship Him. And as we progress through the book, we will see that God has a people who will worship Him in the way that He wants to be worshiped. This is the great purpose of redemption. We tend to think of redemption in personal terms. The Lord saved me. The Lord loves me. The Lord is with me. All of that is good and right, and we praise God for it. But, We should have a felt sense of God's nearness and we should internalize His promises and know that He truly does love us and take care of us as individuals, understanding that we are not the ultimate purpose of redemption. God is. The ultimate purpose that God has established for our salvation is to worship Him. This is why attempting to worship God through means that are not appointed by him is such an egregious error. People may have good intentions. They may think they're pleasing God, but he has told us what he wants and why he wants it in the way he wants it. You don't have to get very far in the Old Testament to see that people who didn't worship God in the way he wanted were killed. Not by man, but by God himself. And so we don't get to invent how we approach God. He has appointed means, and we shouldn't do anything more, and we certainly shouldn't do anything less. Now, of course, here we see that the people of God are the Israelites. They are a small picture of what's to come in the church. They're the type that shows that God rescues his people from bondage. For the Israelites, of course, it's bondage to the Egyptians, but it's a picture of God redeeming his people from bondage to sin. When we are in sin, we are the enemies of God. We are opposed to everything that God loves. And we certainly have no desire. We have no will and no willingness to do what God desires. God wants the worship of man. And so God redeems man to worship him. And the more we grow in the Christian faith, the more we desire to truly worship God as he commands, because we know it is good for us. The more we want what God commands because we know it's best for us. He offers himself to us to worship him because there is nothing and nobody greater. Our heart longs to worship someone or something, and God says, worship me. I created you, I sustain you, I provide for you, I protect you, I give you life and breath, and I and I alone am worthy of worship. It is for your good. And while you receive what is good for you, I receive all the glory because I alone am worthy of all the glory. And this is the theme throughout all of scripture. And here we see some of the early steps of all of this being played out. God redeems his people so that we can serve and worship him. That is the main purpose of your salvation. But we also see, and we've seen this already, that God has no rivals. Look beginning in verse 2, for if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. Now skip to verse 5, And the Lord set a time, saying, Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land. And the next day the Lord did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died. And then the end of verse 7, But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go. Now perhaps you've picked up on this reading these early chapters of Exodus, but along the way we've seen references to the plagues being accomplished by the finger of God against Egypt. But here we're told that the hand of the Lord will be against Egypt. Now this is a very intentional phrase because in Egyptian literature time and time again, When Pharaoh is referenced as exalting himself over and above nations that he has conquered, the texts talk about the strong hand of Pharaoh against his foes. Now, the Lord directly confronts and challenges Pharaoh and his supposed power, his supposed supremacy, saying, Pharaoh, your hand may be against your foes. You may have conquered many nations, but now my hand will be against you. It's a symbol of God's power. And of course, as we've seen all along, once again, this is a plague that directly confronts one of the gods of the Egyptian pantheon. A plague against the livestock is a direct attack against the goddess Hathor. She was the Egyptian deity who was the mother of Horus, the god of the sky, and Ra, the sun god. She was considered the goddess of beauty, and sensuality, and music, and dancing, and maternity. She's often depicted wearing a headdress of cow horns with a sun disc between them, or others skip the headdress, they just gave her the head of a cow. So from royal temples to domestic family altars, Hathor was worshiped all across Egypt and even in Tanubia. She was one of the most important divinities in ancient Egypt and Nubian pantheons. She was often associated with royalty. The Egyptian kings, even some pictures have the Egyptians kings are depicted as suckling from the goddess, who is seen as the mother to the pharaohs in both her human and cow form. But now what is she? The very image of her existence is being struck dead by the Lord. The very thing, the simple cow, the people look at it, they're reminded of their goddess, well, now it lays dead in their field. But remember, this wasn't just a strike at Pharaoh and the false goddess. This was a strike at the people of Egypt. Think about it. This was their food source. Also, they didn't have tractors, so they used livestock when they plowed their fields. The Egyptian military depended on the animals when they went off to battle. So this plague moved beyond being irritating and annoying and inconvenient. God is now striking at the heart of the people's livelihoods. God has no rivals, and anyone who seeks to challenge Him will be destroyed. Imagine being an Egyptian farmer, One day he has this massive herd of animals. He has hundreds of cattle and goats and camels and other animals. He finishes feeding them and giving them water and milking them. And then he goes to bed. He wakes up in the morning to do it all over again, like farmers do. And he walks out and what does he see? Every last one of his animals is dead. Not sick, not wounded, but dead. This is the fifth of the 10 plagues, and it is devastating. The Lord has no rivals, and anyone who attempts to thwart Him, anyone who attempts to stand up to Him, will pay a heavy price. My friend, maybe you're here tonight and you're not a Christian. The Bible says very plainly that if you do not worship the one true and living God, you are His enemy. And if you are an enemy of God, you will not win. You will be defeated. You will perish in your sin and you will face the judgment of God for all eternity. But my friend, this need not be your story because God has defeated sin. He has defeated death. He has defeated Satan on behalf of all who trust in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He sent him into this world to live a perfect life that you and I cannot live, but that is the standard of God. I have a law, it will be fulfilled, and it will be fulfilled to perfection, and you cannot do it. And so Jesus did it on behalf of his people. And he says, if you do not follow my law to perfection, you must die a sinner's death for all eternity. receiving the judgment and the penalty that is due to our sin. And so Jesus, on behalf of his people, died on a cross, taking upon himself the wrath of the Father that we might, by faith, have everlasting life in him. He was raised from the dead to defeat sin and death, the great enemies of this world. He crushed Satan underfoot. And now we have the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who is continually pleading on our behalf, continually intervening in our lives, continually working out his sovereign plan on behalf of his people, that we might worship him because he is worthy and he is the greatest good that we can have in this life. And my friend, if you do not know this God, If you do not know Christ, you are His enemy. He will not allow you to continue as His enemy unafflicted. Maybe not now in this life and maybe not the circumstances that you face today or tomorrow, but if nothing else, in the end, you will face the judgment of God. And I'm telling you, my friend, you do not want to be on the wrong side of this interaction between God and His enemies. He is loving, He is merciful, He is compassionate, but He is also full of wrath and vengeance, and He does not deal lightly with anyone who seeks to rival Him. He shows us over and over and over again in the scriptures, and here in the plague, we see it once again. And so, my friend, turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. Put all of your faith, all of your hope, all of your trust in Him, and you will not need to face the judgment of God, but instead the loving embrace of a Savior. We see it. God cares so specifically for His people. We see that here in the text. Look again at verse four. We see our next observation. We saw this last week as well. God makes distinctions to protect His people. Verse four, but the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die. And then what happened? End of verse six. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. And Pharaoh sent and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. We notice this also in the next plague in verse 11. What does it say? The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. That language is very specific. There were boils on the magicians. Remember these guys who repeatedly sought to replicate the plagues that God had sent upon all the Egyptians. And now the magicians are covered in boils, the Egyptians are covered in boils, but not the Israelites, not God's people, the Egyptians. Of course, this will be even more prominent when it comes to the final plague. When the angel of death arrives, it will not be the people of God who face his wrath, but the people of Egypt, the enemies of God. As Christians, we should think about this more often, this great reality. If you were the son or the daughter of a great king, everyone would know it. When you walk by, people would stand and stare. They would say, that's the prince or that's the princess. Nobody would dare threaten you with a death. People would respect you regardless of what you have done or how you have done it. You would have great confidence and you might even have a little swagger to go with it. But the reality, brothers and sisters, is that we have a king that is our father, that is greater than any earthly king. And yet, we so seldom live in the privilege of our royalty. He's made a distinction. We are his, we are his children. And we so often forget that we are the inheritors of all things with Christ. And we so often forget that we have a father who loves us and takes care of us. And we have a savior who intercedes on our behalf. How do I know that we forget this great reality? Because so often we face challenges, and we face difficulties, and we face temptations, and we tend to try to take it into our hands and solve it all by ourselves in our own finite wisdom. We attempt to do what only God can do well. We don't pray. We press on with whatever we think is best. We go through life with fear. What will people think? How will I be treated? If I stand faithfully on the principles set out for me by the Lord, how will I be received? Will anyone respect me? Will anyone want anything to do with me? But listen, your father is a heavenly father. He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords. Why would you ever go through life filled with fear and uncertainty, depending on your own will and your own ways, when the King of all the universe has promised you, when you come to me, I will provide for you all you need in great abundance. I will take care of you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I am with you always. Our God makes distinctions. And when we are in Him, those distinctions always work in our favor. Always. Brothers and sisters, this is one of the greatest realities of scripture. And this is the lesson that God intended for His people to learn. Remember that when these things are written down in what we now have as the book of Exodus, Israel had already passed through this trial. But God wanted them to see and to know what kind of God he is, that he is their God, that he is in control. There are no circumstances over which he does not rule. There are no events that he is not sovereignly overseeing for his purposes and his purposes work for the good of his people and for his own glory every single time. Now, of course, you'd imagine that at this time, this was a fearful thing, not just for the Egyptians, but for the Israelites as well. Now, sure, they were thankful that they looked and their livestock lived to see another day, but just imagine the scene. All of this livestock around them is dead. Theirs is alive, but all the rest is dead. Thankfully, not mine, but it could have been, and there's nothing I could do about it, but what now? Well, maybe they thought, maybe the Egyptians will steal ours and we're slaves, so what can we do? They will take it out on us. Surely they didn't just look at everything and shrug their shoulders and say, well, you people got what you deserved and we're fine, so no big deal. Maybe they did, but I have to think that the whole thing was rather unsettling for them as well until, until the very end. And sometimes brothers and sisters, when things in the moment are frightful and we struggle to know which way is up and the world seems to be burning down all around us, we have to remember that God truly is in control and truly does have the best for his people in mind. It may not be revealed in a day or a week or a year, but in the end, we'll all be able to look back and say, the Lord did good to me. The Lord is merciful. The Lord is kind. Our God is in control of everything. He makes distinctions. Sometimes He makes distinctions to spare His people from pain. Other times He makes distinctions that allow them to go through the pain and yet to do so for their benefit. but he is a sovereign God of heaven and of earth. And whatever we go through is that we might be brought to a place where we worship him all the more. There's a passage in the Chronicles of Narnia, and Jill is approaching the only stream that exists in Narnia, and she wants a drink. And when she arrives, the great lion, Aslan, is guarding the river. And she's frightened by Aslan, and she's trying to find out whether she's safe or not. And she says to Aslan, do you eat little girls? And his response is, little girl, I've consumed kingdoms, people, and worlds. And she continues to try to negotiate with him to ensure that it's safe and he won't give her any comfort at all. And finally she says, well, I'll have to go and find another stream. And he says, little girl, there is no other stream. And brothers and sisters, the truth is sometimes the stream we have to drink from might be frightening, but there is no other stream from which to drink. You're not going to be able to go and to find another God that's safer, another God who's more manageable or another God that is more domesticated. There is no other God. He is the sovereign God of heaven and earth. And the only thing that you can reckon with in the midst of trouble is that he is good and he is for you. You may not understand what he's doing, but he is good. And God intends for us to learn a lesson of his sovereignty. When the missionary William Carey was in India, his home burned to the ground at one point. Everything was lost. He had been there for 18 years. He had worked on Sanskrit lexicon and a guide to grammar. He had printing press and hundreds of scripture tracts. All of it was lost in the fire. It looked like the greatest discouragement that William Carey could face, and it was the greatest discouragement that he had faced up to that time. And if you know the story of William Carey, you know that's pretty significant. But God had another plan. He planned to cause greater support of the work of missions in India than had ever existed among the churches in England. And God used that very event, that theme that looked like it was the hand of Satan against William Carey, God used that to bring about good for the work of missions. Over and over we see this pattern. You may have situations in your own life that you can point to and see. There's so many stories of missionaries we can look at and see how God used the evil intentions of man. The evil that comes as a result of living in a fallen world, but God uses it for good. It's the very thing that Joseph told his brothers. You, you intended this for evil, but God intended it for good. That is our God. It doesn't mean that he works the same way every time, but he always has something in store for good for his people. He works for those who love them. He doesn't say, notice Romans 8, 28, we all like to remember that and quote that. He doesn't say that all things are good for those who love God. He says he works all things for good. He always has a distinction. He always has a special providence. He always has a purpose for what we face in our lives. Well, finally, we see the sixth plague in verses 8 through 12, the plague of boils. I mentioned already, the boils fell on the people of Egypt. And we see the same themes emerging. We see similar patterns. We see the handiwork of God. Okay, Pharaoh, blood in the Nile didn't work. Frogs covering the land and in your homes and in your cabinets and in your bowls, that didn't work. You didn't pay attention to the gnats that came out of nowhere and started biting you. You didn't pay attention to the flies that swarmed all over. None of that worked to you. I killed your livestock. I took your food source. I took your livelihood. So now I'm going for the bodies of your people. Boils on their skin. Can you imagine the misery? You ever had chicken pox or shingles or poison ivy, anything like that? It's miserable. Think of all these people, and it's not just one or two, it's all the people of Egypt covered in boils. Think of all they had already gone through. And while they're still trying to figure out how they're going to pick up the pieces of their lives after their food source and their military might and their field workers have all been destroyed, now they have to walk around covered in boils that are itching and burning. Notice God tells Moses and Aaron, In verses eight and nine, take handfuls of soot from the kiln. And what are those kilns? Those are the kilns where the Israelites were making bricks for Pharaoh. Take handfuls of soot from the kiln and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. It shall become fine dust over the land of Egypt and become boils, breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt. You see, God's ironic rejoinder here to the oppression of Pharaoh. The people of Israel knew a lot about brick soot and kilns, didn't they? They'd been forced in hard labor to produce bricks year after year after year, day after day after day, and now the soot from those kilns symbolizes God's judgment against Pharaoh. And so God is here again, showing His sovereignty in responding to Pharaoh's own method of oppressing the children of Israel. And of course, once again, He's showing His sovereignty over all the false deities of the Egyptians. This time, it was one that you're probably familiar with. The name is Isis, the queen of the throne, not the terrorist group Isis, but the Egyptian goddess Isis. She was the Egyptian, not that there's a big difference. She was the Egyptian goddess of healing and magic. Now there's a taunt from God associated with each plague, but it's especially true here. Hey Pharaoh, You have a goddess who heals bodies and does magic? Well, let's see if she can heal your people now. You've oppressed my people and I'm rescuing them. What will your goddess do for the people of Egypt? It's abundantly clear she will do nothing because she cannot do anything. And we see it here in verse 11, the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils for the boils came upon the magicians and all the Egyptians. Remember, the magicians were the ones who were doing the imitating work of Satan, saying, oh, we can do that. You turn the Nile into blood? Well, we can do that in a glass of water. You bring frogs out of the Nile? We can bring frogs. We can make the problem even worse and worse for everybody. Why wouldn't we want to do that? But they can't do it anymore. Not only can they not do it anymore, now they're covered in boils and they're not allowed to approach Pharaoh. God is taunting Pharaoh. It reminds me of Elijah with the prophets of Baal. One of my favorite stories in the Bible. I know you're surprised to hear that. Cry out to your God. Where is he? I love when he does this. Maybe he's sleeping. Maybe he ate too much cheese and he's stuck in the bathroom. Maybe he forgot about you. Where is your God? Bring him out, let him do his thing. Let's see him. Silence. And this is the same kind of thing. Where is Isis? She works through your magicians, supposedly. So where is she? Your magicians are covered in boils and they won't even go near you. So what now, Pharaoh? What are you going to do? They can't come to your rescue. Isis isn't coming to your rescue. So what now? Your move, big boy. He does nothing because He can do nothing. Now, the next time you will read of a plague like this after the book of Deuteronomy is in Revelation chapter 16. There, you have to think that these great plagues are on John's mind because Revelation 16.1 says, then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God. So the first angel went and poured out the bowl on the earth and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped the image. This plague becomes a sign of God's judgment against those who oppose his people. And here in the Exodus, at the very least, it is a sign of mortality. The vulnerability of our bodies, of disease and death. And so it's a warning. It is a warning against Pharaoh. God will reckon with those who aid the wicked in their wickedness. And he reckons with the magicians and they are infected right alongside all the other Egyptians. And it reminds us too, brothers and sisters, that Satan is unable to protect those who are in league with him. Satan provides no protection while God provides protection to his people for all eternity. He cannot protect. Satan cannot protect. And the magicians fall before Moses. But what happens to Pharaoh? We see verse 12, but the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. He did not listen to them as the Lord had spoken to Moses. God is God. He sovereignly sees in his handing sinners over to their own way, to their own desires, to that which they are in bondage to. This is unique in the plague stories. For the very first time in the plague narrative, we are told that God hardens Pharaoh's heart. In the first five plagues, we're told either that Pharaoh's heart is hardened or that he hardened his own heart. But here in the sixth plague, the first time we have this explicit reference that God hardened his heart. He said he would do it before, but now we see he actually does it. So are we to assume that Pharaoh hardened his own heart and that God's actions were only responsive to that? Well, no, that's not what the text says. But remember, we saw this before the plague started and God told Moses, this is what's going to happen. And what we're being told is that in God's sovereignty, his hardening administers a judgment on Pharaoh in which God gives Pharaoh exactly what he wants. Pharaoh's heart is hardened, not by pressing in on him to go against his desires, but by hardening him in the very desires that he wants already. This is the sorest judgment on this side of hell. It is a terrifying thing that God grants for the wicked to go their own way and follow their own pleasures. After all, what a fitting time to consider this, the month of June. as the world, well, not the world, as the West celebrates people having pride. Pride in that which God has thoroughly opposed. Pride in that which is unnatural and which God has destroyed on the earth before. And at some point, and this is exactly what Paul writes about in Romans chapter one, at some point, the Lord will hand one over to their own desires. Their heart will be hardened by God to do exactly what they want to do. And with all of their pride and all of their rejoicing, they're marching straight to hell. And this is exactly what we see God doing with Pharaoh. He gets exactly what he wants. God didn't have to coerce him. He didn't have to make him do anything. Pharaoh got what Pharaoh wanted and it ended in self-destruction. Again, I'm reminded of the Chronicles of Narnia. It's another scene where Susan was asking about Aslan the lion, who of course, Aslan represents Christ in the allegory. And Susan asks Mr. Beaver about him. And Mr. Beaver says, Aslan is a lion, the lion, the great lion. Oh, said Susan, I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion. Safe, asked Mr. Beaver. Who said anything about safe? Of course he's not safe, but he's good. He's the king, I tell you. Don't be mistaken, brothers and sisters, and my non-Christian friends. Our God is not safe. He has more power in the tip of His finger than all the world combined. He's not safe. But one thing we cannot forget and we cannot deny, He is good. Look to the God who is all powerful, who is all goodness, that you might find rest in the midst of every trial and every trouble. He makes distinctions. He cares for his people. He protects his people. And nobody, nothing, nada can stand in his way. Trust the Lord, brothers and sisters. Trust the King. He's not safe, but he's very, very good. Amen. Let's pray together. Lord, we are so very grateful that you are our God, that you have called us out of darkness into light. You've made that very important distinction. You have redeemed us. You have given us new life in Christ. But Lord, what a great assurance from your word that you are also putting to death your enemies, that you are pushing away all that seeks to oppose you. And Lord, in the end, we recognize that when the Lord Jesus Christ returns, he returns not as a lamb, but as a roaring lion. with a sword to do battle, to do that which you have promised that he would do. And so we acknowledge, Lord, that you are God, you are sovereign above all, that you are a king, and that by no means are you safe. But indeed, we know from our own lives, and we know from your word, and we know from our experiences time and time and time again that you are so very good. And so we pray, Lord, that you help us to trust you. In the midst of our trials, in the midst of the plagues of this land, we pray that you help us to put our trust in you and not be fearful, not be faithless, but know that whatever is happening is happening because you have willed it to happen for your purposes. And so instead of being scared, instead of trying to do what we want to do by our own wisdom, Lord, help us to turn to you in worship. to give you what you desire, to give you the very thing that you saved us to do. May our lives be lived by faith alone for your glory alone. We pray you do this for each and every one of us in Jesus name, amen. Receive our benediction. Now the God who hears your cries and listens to your prayers, be the shelter above you, the tower around you, the rock beneath you this day and all the days until Jesus comes. Amen. We hope you were edified by this message. For additional sermons, as well as information on giving to the ministry of Emmanuel Baptist Church and on our current building project, you can visit us online at ebcfl.org. That's ebcfl.org.