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[0:00] In Exodus chapter 8 beginning at verse 20, it says, And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there.

[0:43] 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.

[0:54] 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 servant's houses, and into all the land of Egypt.

[1:06] 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.

[1:18] And Moses said, It is not me so to do, for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God.

[1:28] 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.

[1:44] And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, only he shall not go very far away, and treat for me.

[1:55] 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.

[2:05] But let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more, and 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 the people, that remained not one.

[2:26] And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go. So I know that was a lot of reading, but this particular plague that comes along, not so much the plague, that we want to preach about this morning, but what went on because of the plague.

[2:45] Now, what we need to understand here is that the other plagues that came along, Pharaoh had indeed dealt deceitfully with Moses. He had tried to negotiate with Moses here, it was no different.

[3:01] He was trying to negotiate with Moses, with God's man. But Moses knew what the commandment of God to him was, in Exodus chapter 3, we find Moses out there in the desert, taking care of his father and little sheep, and he looks out, one day there's a bush there that's burning, and the Bible says that that bush was not consumed, and it's called mighty God, speaking to his man Moses from this, what we call commonly the burning bush.

[3:33] And God told Moses, said, I'm going to send you down into Egypt, I'm going to send you there to get your brethren out, to get your father's people out, to get these people out of slavery and out of bondage that have been down there for 400 plus years.

[3:51] At this point, I'm going to send you Moses to do this. You're going to go to Pharaoh, you're going to say, let my people go, and you're going to tell him that the I am, that I am, is the very one that's sent you, not only are you going to tell this to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, but you're going to tell it to your own people that the I am, that I am, is the one that is calling them out of Egypt. Moses knew it wouldn't be him calling them out, it was Almighty God that was calling his people out. So here, back to Exodus chapter eight, we find this swarm of flies has been, has been sent as judgment upon the land. And what does Pharaoh do? He calls for the only one that he knows can get something done about this. He calls for Moses. He says, he treat the Lord for me, ask the Lord to get rid of these flies, to get rid of this problem, of this pestilence.

[4:57] He asked Moses to go before God and to get rid of the issue. And what happens? He tries to get Moses to compromise. He tries to get Moses to compromise with what Moses already knew.

[5:14] God had already told Moses. He told Moses, back over in Exodus chapter three, he told Moses, he said, on this very mountain, on this mountain that you're on right now, where he saw the burning bush, he said, you're going to come back and you're going to serve me. You and these people will serve me in this mountain. That's why Moses told Pharaoh here, he said, as God shall command us, we got to go three days journey out into the wilderness, out into the desert. Hey, Moses had made that journey into Egypt and made that journey to Pharaoh. He knew exactly how long it took him to get there. He knew exactly how long it would take him to get back to the mountain that God said to go to. And God said to worship him there. He knew exactly how far it would have to go. But Pharaoh is trying to get Moses to compromise. He said, I'll let you suck our bus, but you'll do it inside the land. That is not what God said. He said, you'll serve me.

[6:20] You'll worship me. You will offer under me the way I say to, when I say to, and how I say to. Moses wouldn't give in. We need some folks like Moses here. We need some more folks in church houses. We need some more folks in the pulpit. We need some more people teaching, some more people preaching. We need some Christians out there that take Moses and stance on this, that will not compromise on the word of God, will not compromise on the commandments of God. They will not compromise what they know God has told them to do. There is too much of this going on in the world now, not only in the lost world, but in the church world as well. We need folks like Moses that says, no, that ain't going to happen. We can't sacrifice here. He tells Pharaoh, he says, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians right before their eyes? What was he talking about folks, the bulls and the heifers? That would have been an abomination for those Jews to have been slaughtering them right there in front of the Egyptians. And Moses was right. They would have probably took them out and stoned them for that, not only that, but for lambs and for calves and for rams and anything else that these people held sacred in their eyes. And I personally believe that that was part of Pharaoh's plan was to get these Jews to kill a couple of cows in front of the Egyptians so that his people, Pharaoh's people would swarm on God's people. But either way,

[8:04] Moses wouldn't go for that. Moses said, no, we're going to do this the way God said to do it. We have got to journey three days out into the wilderness, three days into the desert. Hey, Moses knew God had already promised complete deliverance for his people. Hey, when God saved my soul, he didn't halfway do it. He didn't bring me halfway across the Red Sea and then leave me for dead. When God delivered me, he delivered me completely across that sea, completely out of my sin, completely out of my wretchedness. Moses said, God promised deliverance. He will give deliverance. We will not sacrifice in this land. We won't sacrifice a little way out. We'll go to where God said to go. That's the attitude we as Christians need. And folks, if you are here lost, that's the attitude you're going to have to have. That's what it takes. Folks, it cannot be. I'm going to get sick and I'm going to walk with God, but I'm going to keep this pet sin here behind me that I can't seem to get rid of. God will have no part of that. When God delivers, he delivers.

[9:21] When he delivers, he delivers completely. Yes, we'll stand. Yes, we're going to fall short. We'll come short for the rest of our lives. I understand that, but there's too many people in the church world today. They're going to church Sunday after Sunday and Wednesday after Wednesday, Thursday after Thursday, whatever days it is, they go and they smile and they shake hands and they give the money and they testify and they sing songs, but at home, behind closed doors, they still got their pet sins.

[9:53] They're still looking at the internet, things that they shouldn't, still leaving their magazines, things that they shouldn't, still doing everything that they know better than they do. They never got deliverance because they wouldn't be doing those things that they did. They wouldn't be doing that. Holy Ghost of God wouldn't allow that. We need people with Moses' attitude. We need folks with Moses' attitude. We will do this how God said to do. What's Jesus say over in the New Testament?

[10:25] Jesus says, you cannot serve two masters. You'll either hate the one and love the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot do those two. Hey, we can't serve God and serve Satan at the same time. We can't walk in the church holding hands with God and then walk out the doors and for the rest of the week, be holding hands with Satan or with whatever demon we will hold hands with God allowing to lead us the whole way or we are not saved. Period. Period. Folks, we can't do it this way. There's a man over in the first Kings Elijah and he tells us he comes to the people. It's right before, it's the prophets of Baal right before this account, but he tells the people that are gathered there. He says, how long hope you between two opinions? If the Lord be God, worship him, serve him. But if Baal be God, hey, serve him and worship him. When he asks him the question, how long hope you between two opinions? Hey, this would have been easy for Moses to have gone back to those Jews that he was sent there to deliver. It would have been simple for him to go back and say, hey, look, this is the best offer we're going to get from Pharaoh. He's going to allow us to go on the outskirts of town, on the outskirts of the country, and we're finally going to be out of offer upon our God. But Moses would not have it. Moses wanted what God wanted. Every

[11:57] Christian alive now should want what God wants. Just like it was brought up by the Lord this morning. Church houses are about empty nowadays. Church houses are not only here. I can tell you where several other ones are about empty. You know which ones are full? The ones that are full are the ones you go into. They shut down all the lights. They get their pretty lights up on the stage.

[12:22] They have a rock concert for about 45 minutes. Hey, folks, I got nothing wrong with contemporary music. I got nothing again, contemporary music at all. I like casting grounds. I like third day.

[12:33] I like several of them that are out there. But I got nothing against any of that. But that's all it is. It's a show. Folks, you know who likes the dark? Jesus explains it. Everybody knows John 3.16. What about where Jesus says, the light has come into the world and men love darkness more than they love light. And he goes on to explain that they flee from the light because the light exposes their deeds and they run to those dark places. They run and they hide to away from the light. Folks, I don't want to go to any church that is completely dark. It shouldn't be that way.

[13:13] But those are the ones that are full. You know why? Because a lot of times, listen, I ain't running people down. I'm sure there's plenty of safe people go to those churches. But that's where the lost people feel the most comfortable is in the dark. They feel like they can't be seen. They feel like the only ones that know they're there are those that they might have come with. And those that they come with more than likely are in the same shape that they're in. They're in darkness. They're being exposed to the light. Folks, there's all kinds of things that go on in the dark that men don't want to have exposed in their lives. I'm telling you right now, if y'all didn't know me before I was saved, you'd be ashamed to have me as your pastor more than likely. But I know who redeemed me. I know who delivered me. I know what he delivered me from. And hey, it's the same story with any of you that were saved. None of us wants everything that we are done and thought posted for the world to see. I know what kind of life I had. I know what kind of thoughts I had. And I don't when there's a lot of that stuff. I don't want anybody including my wife to know about. And they step on sure in her life and your life and everybody's life in here that you have kept in a deep dark closet, buried with with Lord only knows how many skeletons, there's things in every one of our closets that only Almighty God knows about. Folks, I ain't saying he ain't forgiving me of those things or forgiving you of those things. I'm saying that there are things in the human mind that we don't want exposed to everybody. There's another man in First Kings. I talked about Elijah.

[14:59] In First Kings 18, you flip over just a couple of chapters, First Kings 21, there's another man, the man named Ahab, he's king over Samaria. That's Jezebel, Zazim. He's king over Samaria.

[15:13] He wants a certain vineyard, belongs to a Jezreel lot named Naboth. He goes to Naboth, he says, Hey, I like your vineyard here. Says it was it was hard against the palace of the king, meaning it was really close by and Ahab wanted that vineyard. So he goes to Naboth. He says, Hey, I like this thing. I'll give you one even better. I'll give you one fancier. I'll give you one prettier.

[15:38] And if that ain't enough, I'll give you the money for this. I'll give you more money. You ever thought this in here was worth. But what does Naboth say? He says, God forbid it me if I should give away the inheritance of my father's. Hey, that's the attitude that we need to have. We don't need to be given away. The inheritance has been promised to us. We don't need to be flushing it down the toilet, throwing it in the trash or anything. As God has promised and inheritance to his people, we are heirs to God and join the heirs with Jesus Christ. Why would we want to compromise that with the devil? The devil can do nothing with it anyway. Go happen to Naboth, if you've ever read that story. Naboth said, God forbid that I should do that. What does he have to do? He goes on with his wine. He cries, he won't eat. He's like a little kid pouting there at the table. And his wife, she comes to him and says, What's wrong, honey? What's wrong? What happened?

[16:34] He says, Well, there's this Jeseralite down here named Naboth. And I really like his vineyard and he won't give it to me. He wouldn't sell it to me. He wouldn't trade it for me. And I'm sad about it. Like a little kid sitting there at the table. What does Jeseral do? Wicked woman. That's the nicest thing I can say about her. That wicked woman. She comes up with a plan. She calls in to her. She says, she says, make a feast. Make a feast. You sit Naboth upon high. You make him feel like he's being honored. Make him feel like he's being glorified. And you send two of the sons of Bilal in there. Two of the sons. That shows the wickedness of this woman. She requested two of the sons of Bilal to go in there. Two of the sons of Satan, two sons of demons to go in there and testify falsely against Naboth and say, Hey, he's blasphemed against God. He's blasphemed against they have taken him out and stolen him. And that's exactly what they did. They set him upon high.

[17:34] And those two sons of Bilal come in there and testify falsely against Naboth. Falsely, and they dragged him out and they stoned him. When word got back to Jezebel, what had happened? They said, Hey, he's been taken out. He's been stoned and he is dead. What did Jezebel do? She told they have.

[17:53] Go get you vineyard. Go get you vineyard. It's all yours. Folks, ain't that wicked? Ain't that wicked? But Naboth never backed down. I'm sure as they were dragging him out the city. I'm sure as they were dragging him out there and stoned, he was proclaiming his innocence and what he had been accused of. Hey, if somebody comes in here right now and drags me out the doors, accusing me of murder, I can scream all the way out the doors. I ain't killed anybody. If they come in here and accuse me of arson, I can go all the way out the door saying, I ain't set fire to nothing, but there's a lot of sins in my life. If they came in here and they dragged me out, accusing me of those, I could not fight against that. But I'm sure Naboth, being falsely accused, the whole way saying, I haven't blessed him against anybody. I haven't blessed him against God, against they have, or against anyone. But nevertheless, he got punished, but he never backed down. He did not give in.

[18:51] That's the attitude that we've got to have as Christians. That's the attitude. It must be that way, folks. God makes no, no ifs ands or buts about it in the scripture. Hey, the scripture actually says that if we're God's, we shall not be ashamed. There is no room for error. There is no room for questions or for doubt. If it says we shall not be ashamed and we go out in the world, we're ashamed of the gospel, ashamed of Jesus, ashamed of God, we are not saved. Because the Bible says that we shall not be ashamed. Shall not be ashamed. Back to Exodus chapter eight, Pharaoh was trying to get Moses to compromise. He says, should we sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians right before their eyes? Let me tell you something. If you're a true blue child of God and you go out in here in the lost world amongst the sinners, they'll know it and you'll be an abomination in their eyes.

[19:55] You'll be offensive to them because you're living a holy life. You're living a righteous life. You're doing, you're doing everything that a born again, saved child of God is supposed to do. It will be an abomination in their eyes. But folks, that doesn't mean that we should sink down to their level.

[20:12] It doesn't mean we should go out to the bars with them, trying to win them the cross. That's completely contradictory to what the Bible teaches. The Bible says, if you know folks that do this or do that, they don't commune with them from this, turn away. That don't mean that you completely cut them out of your life. You call them and check on them if you want to. But you folks, you don't go out and partake of the same things that they're doing. Jesus ain't with sinners.

[20:40] Jesus dying with sinners. Jesus sought out sinners. Praise God. He still does that. He sought me out. Has a sinner. Hallelujah to that. But Jesus never once got drunk, never once partook with a prostitute, never once done any of those things that the sinners did. He hung out with them yes, and he called them out yes, but he never partook of the sin. Jesus lived a perfect sinless life.

[21:11] People say that all the time. Well, I can go out to the bars. I can go out on the street corners. I can go here and I can go there. You hang out with that crowd long enough and you'll be doing the exact same things that they are doing. And if you're a born again child of God, the Holy Ghost will show you you're not supposed to be doing those things. But James says that he then know what to do good and do what they're not to him. It is sin. If I know I should stay at the house. If I know I should stay with my wife, my husband. If I know I should be taking the sin and I'm doing it is sin.

[21:44] Amen. Period. I don't care how we justify it. You will never, ever, ever use God's word to justify your sin. And I will never use God's word to justify my sin. For the scripture has concluded all, understand, all means, all you, me, and everyone else, you, Gentile, barbarian, sithian, man, boy, woman, girl. It doesn't matter. It has concluded us all, understand, all under judgment, all under the righteous judgment of a just God. Amen. But that same God that puts us under that judgment made the way through Jesus Christ, made the way through Jesus Christ. God here, God could have come down. Oh yeah. God could have come down himself. Oh yeah. He could have killed Pharaoh, killed the entire Egyptian army without even descending. He could have just thought it up in the heavens and it would have been so and those Israelites would have been free from that point on. They, and he could have made that way through the Red Sea without Moses. The folks that would have marred the image of what we're talking about now. If God had done it that way, he absolutely could. It would have marred the image of redemption for God's people. It would have marred the image of a deliverer for God's people. It would have completely distorted that image. I believe that's why God done things the way that he did. He sent a deliverer to the one that had them under bondage, this man that we call Pharaoh in Egypt. He wasn't the only Pharaoh. Hey, that was a Pharaoh back in

[23:20] Joseph's day as well. Him and Joseph were pretty tired. Him and Joseph were under good terms. In fact, he made Joseph pretty much vice president of planet earth at that time. They were tired.

[23:33] They were tired, but hundreds of years ago and by between Joseph and between and where we're at right now, hundreds of years, that means at least a few different Pharaohs that come to be come to pass. So this is a different Pharaoh. You read it in Exodus one. There arose not a Pharaoh. There arose a Pharaoh that knew not Joseph. He didn't know who Joseph was. He didn't know how Joseph had interpreted dreams for the other Pharaohs. He didn't understand how Joseph had pretty much saved the entire world by the interpretation of his dreams. And by the plan that he said, hey, there's going to be seven years of planting. There's going to be seven years of all kinds of grain, all kinds of corn, but then there's going to be seven years of famine. You need to store up in the seven years of good so that we'll have some grain, have some food, and have some bread in the seven years of famine. They didn't know that Joseph and that Joseph was directly related to these people that were in bondage here. This is who God sent to have delivered. He didn't send to have the

[24:39] Egyptians deliver folks. The Egyptians are a picture of the world. He sent to have his own people delivered. He sent to have God's people delivered. He sent a deliverer to deliver those people.

[24:52] Listen, I understand. I understand Jesus died once and died for all. I ain't saying that he didn't, but God, when deliverance comes down, when it comes down, I've said it a thousand times. Y'all have heard me say, John 17, Jesus said, I pray not for the world. That's the words of Jesus Christ.

[25:12] I'm not praying for those that are out there lost. I'm not praying for the ones that haven't accepted me or haven't accepted the Father's plan. I'm not praying. I pray not for the world was the words of Jesus Christ himself. He says, I'm praying for those which thou has given me.

[25:28] I pray for those that are sanctified for the service of God. I pray for those which are and will be saved. That's who Christ prays for. When he's being mediator, that God's right hand, he is not mediating for the loss. He's mediating for those that have been born again, washed in his blood. That's the only ones that he mediates for. That's the only ones that he intersets this for.

[25:55] He cannot pray for those that are lost. What did he tell Peter? He told Peter, he said, Peter, Satan had desired to have you, to sift you, to sift you his wheat. He's desired to throw you in a sift and pan and to toss you around, throw you around. That's what Satan desired to do to Peter. But praise God for that next line. Jesus said, but I prayed for you, Peter.

[26:22] I prayed for you and when thou art converted, when thou are converted, he didn't say, Peter, you're converted now. He said, when thou are converted, you strengthen the brethren. Jesus knew Peter would be converted. He knew Peter would be convinced, be convicted. He knew all these things about Peter and he said, when you are converted, strengthen the brethren. Praise God. He knew who he was. He knows I'm his. And when Satan approaches God, when Satan approaches Jesus, says, let me have this one. I want to sift them. I want to throw them around a little bit. I want to toss them to and fro in this pan. See how they react. Jesus is praying. Hey, he didn't say, he didn't say, Satan's desired to have you and to sift you and I'm not going to give him over to you.

[27:11] Folks, Peter, as far as we know from church history and from Jewish history, he was crucified upside down. He died a martyr. He was crucified upside down because they were going to crucify him right side up. He said, I'm not worthy to be killed in the same manner that my Savior was killed.

[27:26] So they crucified him upside down. The folks, that's a little bit of sifting going on there. That's some tossing to and fro going on there. But Jesus had prayed for him. And that's the one thing that Peter going, folks, when Moses here went down into Egypt, he went down and like I said, this is one of 10 plagues that we read about here this morning. These flies came, they were one of the flies gone. He called for the one that he knew could do something about it and he tried to get them to compromise, tried to get them to go down a different road and Moses said, no, let me tell you something right now. If you are compromised in salvation, folks, God doesn't compromise salvation.

[28:08] You're either saved or you're lost. It is not a halfway thing. You cannot ride the fence as far salvation goes. God has either saved your soul or he hasn't saved your soul. There are no ifs and or buts about that. God, when he saves, he is able to save to the other most. And I believe that word other most. I believe that when the Bible said when the writer to the Hebrew says he's able to save to the other most, I believe that he is able to save that way. That's how he saved me. If you were born again, that's how he saved you. There is no other way for God to save.

[28:46] Pharaoh here trying to get Moses to compromise. Just go out into the land. The land would be Egypt. That wouldn't be the wilderness to stay in our land. No, folks, God wants worship where and when and how he wants worship. Then Pharaoh gives a little bit more leniency. He says, go on, but not too far. Moses has done, said we need three days journey because we got to get to that mountain.

[29:08] Exodus chapter three, God said, you will serve me in this mountain. He said, we have got to go three days journey. Moses did not bend. Moses did not break. Folks, we cannot bend. We cannot break. You know why we can't bend and we can't break because we have the strength of Jesus Christ when he was holding that cross. I know he fell over and I know they had to get another man to hold that cross up there for, but hey, he was not only had the weight of that wood on his back and what ropes they had around it and what iron might have been inside of it. He had the weight of your sin on him. He had the weight of my sin on him and the sin of the entire world. No wonder he fell over, but he went through with a mission that God had sent him to do. I would have broke.

[29:59] And you would have broke. I don't care how strong we think we are. We are not. We are nothing. He saved me to the uttermost. I cannot bend. I cannot break because I'm saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ didn't bend and didn't break, hey, even the Psalms say, no, the bone of his body would be broken. And it was. If he didn't bend and break and I'm saved by him, I'm not going to bend and I'm not going to break. I might get weary. I might get weary. I might get down.

[30:33] I might get depressed. I might get sad. Hard times might come my way, but Satan cannot break me and he cannot break me because I have the indwelling Holy Ghost living inside of me. And that is the only reason that I cannot break. Save people. Rest assured that you cannot break with the Holy Ghost inside for hell. God's done with me this morning. I bless you all.