Man, Exodus chapter number 8, we're continuing with the plagues upon Egypt.
If you remember last week in chapter 7, the first plague was the turning of the water
into blood.
And the Egyptians had to drink blood, they loathed to drink it, they hated it because
obviously it's miserable to have to drink blood.
But they had to do that even to survive because all of the water, even in their vessels, even
if they had water stored up in vessels of stone or vessels of wood, it all became blood.
The river became blood.
And then after a week, it goes back to normal.
So God's going to bring nine more plagues upon them and in chapter 8, we have plagues
2, 3, and 4.
And this is going to be the plague of the frogs, the plague of the lice, and the plague
of the flies.
And obviously none of these sound very pleasant.
But it says in verse 1 of chapter 8,
And the Lord spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let
my people go, that they may serve me.
And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs.
The first thing I want to point out before we even get into the plagues is this great
statement, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Obviously, the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior.
He's our Redeemer.
He's our Deliverer.
But when He saves us, He doesn't just save us so that we can do nothing.
He delivers us out of Egypt so that we can serve Him.
Amen?
The Bible says in Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
But then the next verse says, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
And so when we are saved through Jesus Christ, the idea is that we are freed up so that we
can serve Him now.
Now, unfortunately, not everyone who gets saved serves God.
There are lots of people who just take that free gift of salvation, and they don't end
up serving God with their life.
But that's not God's plan for them.
They're out of the will of God.
God's will is that we would be let go so that we can serve Him.
And that's what we see symbolized here.
And He says to Pharaoh, If thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy
borders with frogs.
And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thy house
and into thy bedchamber and upon thy bed and into the house of thy servants and upon thy
people and into thy ovens and into thy kneading troughs.
And the frogs shall come up both on thee and upon thy people and upon all thy servants.
I mean, can you imagine just frogs are in your food.
They're in the cupboard.
They're in the bed with you.
They're under the covers.
They're in the pillow.
I mean, this is the stuff of nightmares, right?
Just frogs everywhere.
Think about how gross a frog is.
Frogs are slimy.
They're dirty.
They're gross.
This is the last thing that you would want to just have your house filled with, okay?
It's gross.
It's nasty.
And it says in verse number five, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying to Aaron, Stretch
forth thy hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers and over the ponds, and cause
frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.
And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and
covered the land of Egypt.
And the magicians did so with their enchantments and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
And again, this is just showing the stupidity of the devil's crowd, the foolishness of
the magicians.
They can't do anything to help, but they're ready to bring more frogs.
Oh, thank you.
Can we get more frogs?
I mean, here Moses is smiting them with frogs, and then Pharaoh serves like, Oh, yeah, well,
watch this.
We're going to bring even more frogs.
Okay, that was cool.
Can you make the frogs go away?
And as I showed last week, they can never do anything positive.
They can never do anything to help the people.
They can only just bring more negative, okay?
So they can bring more frogs upon them, but that doesn't help anything.
Verse eight, then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, because his guys can't fix this,
and said, entreat the Lord that he may take away the frogs from me and from my people,
and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord.
And Moses said unto Pharaoh, glory over me.
Glory over me.
When shall I entreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to destroy the
frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only?
And he said, tomorrow.
Isn't that a strange thing to say?
Wouldn't it be?
Right now.
Get rid of the frogs right now.
We want the frogs gone today.
You know, this shows that he doesn't even love and care about his people that are having
to deal with these frogs.
He says, tomorrow.
Now why does he say tomorrow?
Because of his lack of faith.
Moses is saying, you know, glory over me.
He's basically saying, look, I'm going to show you that this is the power of God.
You name the time, and that's when the frogs are going to depart.
If he says today, they're going to be gone today.
If you say tomorrow, it'll be tomorrow.
If you say next week, it'll be, well, let's do it tomorrow.
You know, let's see how this is going to work.
What a fool.
But this shows how when God hardens someone's heart, they're so blind, they can't even see
what they're doing to themselves.
Later, people are going to have to take Pharaoh aside and say to him, knowest thou not that
all Egypt is destroyed?
Let these people go.
But he's deluded.
Now what does this represent, though?
The frogs.
Well, let's finish the story, and then I'm going to back up and explain to you what's
being symbolized here in this story.
So he says tomorrow in verse 10, and he said, be it according to thy word that thou mayest
know that there's none like unto the Lord our God.
And isn't it interesting how the atheists, they're always looking for evidence, right?
People who reject the Lord.
And so it's like, well, yeah, do it tomorrow.
That way I can name the time, and then that way I can see if this is really the Lord.
But here's what's interesting.
When Pharaoh gets this piece of evidence where the frogs die at the exact point that
Moses said that they would die, does Pharaoh at that point believe in the Lord?
And you see these atheistic types that are demanding evidence, if you were to present
them with evidence, they still wouldn't accept it because they've chosen a path of rejecting
the Lord.
They are willfully ignorant, the Bible says.
The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.
And so it's not that if they could just see, then they'd believe.
They don't want to believe.
And so even when they see something that points to the Lord, they're still not going to accept
it.
And so the Bible says in verse number 11, and the frogs shed apart from thee and from
thy houses and from thy servants and from thy people, they shall remain in the river
only.
And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried unto the Lord because of the
frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh.
And the Lord did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died out of the houses,
out of the villages, and out of the fields.
And they gathered them together upon heaps, and the land stank.
The land stank.
And then it says, but when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, meaning that he's getting
a break or a reprieve or he's getting a break from the plagues, when he saw that the frogs
are gone, it says he hardened his heart and hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said.
The Lord already predicted that he was going to harden his heart in that way.
Now what does this represent?
Well, if you think about it, frogs in the Bible, they only represent something bad.
The only time frogs are ever mentioned are in regard to this plague in Exodus.
And then also in the book of Revelation, chapter 16, the Bible talks about three unclean spirits
like frogs coming out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet,
and out of the mouth of the dragon.
And it says that they're the spirits of devils working miracles.
So demons are likened unto frogs in Revelation, chapter 16.
So this is picturing something evil.
But you could take this as a picture of sin in your life, okay?
So sin in your life, it kind of takes over.
You allow a little sin into your life.
And the next thing you know, it's permeating all areas of your life.
Just like these frogs were in their bed, they were in their food, they were in the cupboards,
they had just gotten everywhere.
And sin is ugly, just like frogs are ugly.
Frogs are gross.
Sin is dirty.
Sin is wicked.
Sin is disgusting in the eyes of God.
It's an abomination unto him.
And just as Pharaoh said, well, tomorrow, that's a lot of people's attitude toward the
sin in their life.
Like, well, I'm going to get rid of this tomorrow.
I'm going to deal with this tomorrow.
I wonder how many people who are addicted to drugs or who are smokers or drinkers or
whatever, I wonder how many of them say, well, I'm not going to do this for the rest of my
life.
You know, I mean, I know eventually I need to quit.
Eventually I need to stop doing this.
But I'm going to stop doing it tomorrow.
Or whatever the sin, fornication, stealing.
You know, well, I'll deal with this tomorrow.
I'm going to take care of this tomorrow.
Obviously I can't just, you know, do this for the rest of my life.
But we need to get rid of sin today.
All right.
We need to get the sin out of our life now and not say, well, down the road, you know,
get rid of the pornography.
Down the road, get rid of the whoredoms, the gambling, you know, I can get rid of that
stuff later.
No, you need to get rid of it now.
Needs to go now.
Don't spend another night with the frogs.
And that's what Pharaoh's doing.
One more night with the frogs.
And that's what Christians sometimes want to do.
The frogs in their life, they just want to have them for one more day, one more night.
I'll deal with it tomorrow.
Now why do we need to deal with the sin in our life now?
I'll tell you why.
Because even once you get rid of the sin in your life, there are still repercussions to
that.
Because think about it.
I think Pharaoh assumed that when Moses was going to get rid of the frogs, all the frogs
were going to kind of just run away like he was going to be like the Pied Piper and he
was going to lead all the frogs off a cliff or something and take them far away.
But instead of the frogs leaving, instead the frogs all just die.
So the frogs that are in their bed, the frogs that are in the pantry, they all die.
So now they just have a house full of dead frogs.
So they start gathering up all the dead frogs and they start making giant piles or heaps
of dead frogs.
And it caused the entire land of Egypt just to stink from piles of dead frogs.
Now this is very believable because there's a place in California called the Salton Sea.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
The Salton Sea in Southern California.
Now I remember looking at it on a map and thinking, boy, how come I never hear about,
you know, going to this place for recreation?
Because, you know, it's this giant body of water, it's in Southern California, it looks
pretty cool.
And one time I even drove not too far from it.
I saw it off in the distance.
I was like, yeah, it looks kind of cool.
How come nobody's there?
How come no boats are out?
You know, how come nobody's there?
And I didn't understand why this was so underrated.
Is this California's best kept secret, the Salton Sea?
So one time I mentioned to my wife like, oh, if we're going to California, we should go
check out that sea.
She googled it.
It turns out it was some kind of a failed experiment, okay?
It's a man-made body of water and they were trying to make this wonderful recreation area
for water skiing and camping and swimming and fishing.
Well it turns out that they goofed up somehow and there's something wrong with the ecology
there.
Everything there dies, okay?
So it's just a, it's a giant lake filled with just death, like dead fish, everything's dying.
That's why nobody's there.
And the thing smells so bad that you can literally be in Palm Springs, California, Palm Desert,
Indian Wells, which is like 45 minutes or an hour away and you're in this really ritzy,
rich part of town in Palm Springs and there's just this horrible stench of death.
Who has ever smelled that in Palm Springs from the Salton Sea?
My family's raising their hand, yeah, because we've smelled it.
It's just everything died and it stinks.
So look, if the Salton Sea can stink up a town that's like an hour away by car, think
about in Egypt, if all of these piles of frogs are in Egypt, you could easily smell that
pile of frogs miles away.
I mean the wind is going to carry that stench.
I mean, and look, there are a lot of towns in America that smell bad, bad smelling towns.
You know, thank God for Tempe.
It smells good here.
It smells like roses over here, but like, you know, I don't want to offend people, but
certain towns, Gilroy, California, wow, who knows what I'm talking about with Gilroy?
Yeah, there's like a garlic thing there and the whole town smells like garlic and they
have this big garlic festival once a year, but the rest of the year, it's not a festival.
It just smells like garlic.
And then I remember, I think it was maybe Tracy, California.
I have the California illustrations just because that's where I'm from.
They had a Heinz ketchup factory and this Heinz ketchup factory just stank up the town.
I mean, you just smell it.
I go, oh, what's that smell?
Or of course you'll have these giant feed lots of cattle and they'll just kind of smell
for miles and miles.
So that's what's going on here.
You know, these frogs, they all died and then they piled them all up and then they're just
these rotting corpses of frogs.
What do we do with these rotting corpses?
And just stinking up the whole country.
And so what that shows us is that once we get the sin out of our life, there's still
often a lasting repercussion.
That's why you're better off getting the sin out of your life now, not tomorrow.
Not like, oh, I'll deal with this a year from now or a month from now, but here's the more
damage we'll be done in that time.
You can do permanent damage to your body with sin.
You can do permanent damage to your brain.
You can do permanent damage to relationships in your life.
So even if God completely forgives you, which of course he does.
I mean, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
And there are a lot of people who've lived a very sinful life and then they confess and
forsake those sins, of course God is ready to pardon them and forgive them.
But does that mean that the repercussions of their sin are just gone?
No, they still often have to live with the repercussions of their sin.
I mean, if I went out and just drank a bunch of alcohol and then I repented of that and
said, okay, God, I'm done drinking and I get sober, hey, praise the Lord.
God's going to be pleased with me.
Now I'm clean, I'm sober.
But does that change the fact that I might have cirrhosis of the liver?
I might have already done damage or I might have, is that just going to remove the DUI
from the driving record?
You know, as soon as you stop drinking and confess it to the Lord, the Lord's just going
to come in and just erase your record?
No.
And sometimes things will come back to bite you way later, even though you're totally
right with God now.
But it's just the dead corpses of those frogs are still stinking up the joint.
And so you have to be careful.
And look, most sin has some kind of a permanently damaging effect.
If you stop and think about sins, right?
Let's just go through and name some sins and think about the permanent damage that they
can do in your life, okay?
So let's just think about some basic sins.
Okay, how about stealing, right?
Well, stealing gets you a criminal record.
So even if you do everything right and you're sorry and you fix everything, the way the
system works in America, that thing's on your record 30 years later.
Some employer is going to throw that in your face or some judge is going to throw that
in your face and say, well, you know, even though, you know, this parking ticket, we're
going to throw the book at you because you have this other offense back here.
Thirty years ago, you know, you stole something.
Thirty years ago, you were caught with marijuana or whatever stupid thing.
So basically, the point is every sin that you do is harming you in some way.
Let's say, for example, drinking.
Well, that's bad for your health, it's bad for relationships, smoking.
You know, my grandpa was a chain smoker for a couple of decades, but then he totally quit
smoking and didn't smoke for years and was just living a really clean Christian life
for decades.
But, you know, he ended up dying of lung disease from the smoking he had done decades earlier
because he'd already done permanent damage to his lungs, okay?
What about drugs?
I mean, you're frying your brain cells and a lot of those brain cells aren't coming back,
okay?
And by the way, let me say this, pornography destroys your brain.
It literally destroys your brain.
People who look at pornography are actually harming their brain.
In many ways, it's even similar to using drugs because of the way the endorphins are, the
high of looking at it or whatever.
But not only that, I've talked to many people who said that they cannot engage in normal
activity because they just screwed up their brain on pornography.
Now they can't even find their wife attractive.
They can't even engage in a normal marital life because they just fried their brain looking
at pornography.
I mean, that stuff is toxic.
That stuff will destroy your brain.
So you could say, oh, well, I totally quit looking at that and, you know, now I'm totally
clean of that, but hold on.
There still could be repercussions from that.
Now look, I'm not trying to discourage you or get you down.
Obviously, hey, we've got to confess and forsake and move on in our lives, but what I'm saying
is that even when you get right with God, there are sometimes still going to be ramifications
that you have to live with.
So that's why you should stop doing this stuff now and don't say, well, one more night with
the frogs.
Let's do it tomorrow.
And then tomorrow becomes Friday and then Friday and then, well, Monday, Monday morning,
you know, let's start the week out clean.
Let's start the week out sober.
Monday morning, starting Monday, you know, I got one more weekend, one last hurrah, and
then it becomes next weekend and then it becomes the weekend after that.
Okay.
So we need to get the sin and the garbage out of our life before it stinks up the place.
And you know, I don't care what the sin is, murder.
What about murder?
You say, well, who, come on, who commits murder?
Oh, I don't know.
You say, well, what's going to be the ramification of that guilt for the rest of your life?
You know, even if you do confess it to the Lord, a lot of, and you know, Hey, I hope
if you've had an abortion in the past and you've gotten right with God and you've confessed
and for saying that, I hope that you don't have any guilt.
I hope that you just take it to the cross and leave it there and understand that you're
forgiven in Christ, but, you know, I hope that you don't have any guilt and you don't
have any guilt.
I hope that you just take it to the cross and leave it there and understand that you're
forgiven in Christ.
But you know, I have a funny feeling that a lot of women probably still struggle with
guilt over that, even though they are forgiven by Christ, you know, and they probably still
feel bad about that.
So what I'm saying is no matter what the sin, we could go down the list.
I'm just trying to think of sins, whatever the list of sins we could think of, whether
it's stealing, murder, drinking, abusing your body with, with drugs or smoking or whatever
the junk you're putting into your body, you know, even when you get right with God, the
stench of that sin will sometimes still remain.
And I'm not saying that to discourage you, I'm saying that to encourage you to get the
sin out of your life sooner rather than later.
You know, and if you're, and here, let me be encouraging to you that are dealing with
the big heap of stinking dead frogs in your life, because I bet there are some people
out there that say, yeah, that's me.
You know, I got a big pile of dead frogs in my life that I'm still dealing with from back
when I wasn't right with God.
Well, then let me just encourage you by saying that that doesn't mean that God's mad at you.
Because as long as you're right with God now, God's not angry at you.
God has forgiven you.
It's not that God is punishing you.
It's that the heap of dead frogs is just there.
It's not just going to disappear.
You know, you have to eventually cremate those things or what.
I mean, I don't know what they did with them, but I'm assuming that they had to do some
kind of a bonfire to burn these corpses just to get rid of the sin.
How else do you get rid or bury them or I don't know, but whatever it is, it took work.
It was a hassle and you know what?
It's going to be a hassle for you.
So the best way to do it in our lives is to not allow these frogs in in the first place,
right?
Try to keep, and look, nobody's without sin.
Nobody's perfect.
But what I'm saying is we need to try to get the sin out of our life sooner rather than
later and not have a Pharaoh mentality that says, hey, I'll deal with this later, I'll
fix it tomorrow.
No, fix it now.
Fix it today.
Don't even spend one more night with the frogs.
So the Bible says in verse number 16, and the Lord said unto Moses, say unto Aaron,
stretch out thy rod and smite the dust of the land that it may become lice throughout
all the land of Egypt.
Now this is even worse than the frogs because frogs are gross and they smell bad and plus
they're noisy.
You know, there's a ribbit, ribbit all night.
You're not going to be able to, sorry, I can't do a better frog noise, but you know, you're
not going to be able to sleep with all that croaking and ribbit, ribbit.
It's gross.
It's in the food and everything like that, but you know, frogs are probably still almost
preferable to lice.
I mean having lice in your hair, that's rough.
You know, just a plague of lice where it's all over you and no matter how many times
you comb your hair with that little comb and use that toxic shampoo, you know, you just
can't get rid of the lice.
So he turns the dust into lice throughout all the land of Egypt and they did so for
Aaron stretched out his hand with the rod and smote the dust of the earth and it became
lice in man and in beast.
So fleas on the dog, lice on the humans and all the dust of the land became lice throughout
all the land of Egypt and watch this, and the magicians did so with their enchantments
to bring forth the lice, but they could not.
So there were lice upon man and upon beast.
Then the magician said unto Pharaoh, this is the finger of God and Pharaoh's heart was
hardened and he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said.
Now why couldn't the magicians make the lice?
They had no problem turning water into blood.
They were able to summon the frogs.
Why could they not turn the dust into lice?
Because this miracle actually required the creation of life.
You see, summoning the frogs, the frogs were already alive.
They just were able to bring the frogs like a pied piper to summon the frogs to them.
But when it came to actually taking dirt and creating a living thing, because a lice or
I'm sorry, a louse is a living thing.
This is an animal.
So turning dirt into animal, that's something that only God can do.
And so only God could create life, okay?
And so he's, you know, he's actually creating lice.
And the magicians, you know, they found their limit here and they said, well, this is the
finger of God.
You know, we can't do this.
And yet even with the magicians saying that, Pharaoh still hardens his heart and doesn't
believe them.
Matthew, verse 20, and the Lord said unto Moses, rise up early in the morning and stand
before Pharaoh.
Lo, he cometh to the water and say unto him, thus saith the Lord, let my people go that
they may serve me else that they will not let my people go.
Behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee and upon thy servants and upon thy people
and into thy houses and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies
and also the ground whereon they are.
So not only are they going to be swarming through the air, they're going to be creeping
upon the earth.
Now maybe this one doesn't seem as bad.
I remember when I was reading this as a kid, I thought to myself, you know, this one doesn't
seem as bad.
I mean, flies are bad, but are they that bad?
But you know, it is that bad.
I remember when we had a chicken coop, sometimes the flies would get a little out of control
because they'd be drawn to that chicken coop and you'd get these swarms of flies and it'll
really drive you nuts because they move so fast and they land on you and they fly away,
they land on you again and sometimes you get these really aggressive flies where you're
swinging at them and batting at them and they just keep landing on you and they're just
like taunting you, like come on, come on, and they just won't leave you alone.
So what we've done is we've found these fly traps at Home Depot, the ones that are like
a clear plastic bag with like a yellow plastic thing and you fill them with water.
Who knows the ones I'm talking about, the little liquid, and those things actually work
really well.
You know, this message is brought to you in part by Home Depot fly traps.
But anyway, those things actually work pretty well.
So we would hang those up throughout our yard and when we were having a big fly problem
and we hung those things up, they actually filled up with fly corpses and good, it didn't
take long for those bags of fly corpses to just start stinking horribly.
So the dead flies smelled horrible.
And the Bible even has a verse about that, Ecclesiastes chapter 11 verse 1, dead flies
cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking saver.
So does the little folly, and I hope I'm quoting this right, you know, so does the little folly
one who's in reputation for wisdom and honor, something like that.
Somebody who has a reputation for wisdom and honor, a little bit of folly is like dead
flies in the ointment of the apothecary.
Basically a little bit of stupidity in your life can stink up your whole reputation is
what he's saying there.
Paraphrase, I think it's Ecclesiastes 10 verse 1.
But anyway, you know, dead flies stink horribly, living flies are even worse.
You know, they're buzzing around, they keep landing on you and they're just all over you
and you're just, drives you nuts.
And then not only that, but they reproduce maggots, right?
The flies, they land, they lay their eggs, and of course they produce maggots.
So you've got dead flies, you got maggots, you got living flies flying around, this is
actually a disgusting plague, this is rough.
And so they're just swarms of flies.
And I mean when you picture a swarm, you're picturing pretty thick with flies.
And the Bible even says it's even on the ground where they walk, like they can't even step
without stepping in them, and then creating corpses that are going to stink, right?
So this is really gross.
But he says in verse 22, I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, that's where the Israelites
lived, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, to the end thou mayest
know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.
And I will put a division between my people and thy people, tomorrow shall this sign be.
And so there's a division where God's people aren't hurt by this plague, and that's encouraging
that even when God punishes a nation, he knows how to spare his people.
Just like he delivered just Lot, who was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked,
he knows how to deliver the righteous from the day of affliction.
And so God can protect us.
So even if America does wicked things and America gets judged, God can make our house
or our life or our family or our church like a little Goshen where the plague doesn't hit,
you know, where God can protect us and we can be in the eye of the storm and be safe
from the storm around us.
And so God protected his people here.
They were not affected by the plague of the flies.
And the Bible says in verse 24, and the Lord did so, and there came a grievous swarm of
flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses and into all the land of
Egypt.
The land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.
And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in
the land.
So remember, they're saying let us go, we're going to go three days journey into the wilderness
and worship the Lord three days journey away.
So he seems like he's relenting here and saying, Okay, go, go, but just do it in the land.
Just stay here.
Go ahead and serve God, but just serve God right here.
Do it in the land.
And Moses said, It is not me to do so, for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the
Egyptians to the Lord our God.
Lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes and will they
not stone us?
So what is he saying there when he says we're going to sacrifice the abomination to the
Egyptians?
Well, if you remember back in Genesis, Joseph tells his brother and he says, Look, every
shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.
And you, by the way, you know what that symbolizes?
What's a ship?
What's another word for shepherd?
Pastor.
Pastor means shepherd.
Every pastor is an abomination to the wicked people of this world.
See, the Egyptians represent the wicked world, the ungodly world, the world without Christ.
And he says that the shepherds are an abomination to them.
This is why real preachers are hated by the world.
That's why Jesus said, Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you, because a shepherd
is an abomination to the Egyptians.
Right?
So that's the symbolism there that pastors and preachers of the word of God are going
to be despised by the world around us.
That's why if your pastor is being invited to go dine with the mayor and the governor
and he's at the presidential prayer breakfast and he's being handed the keys to the city,
he's not a man of God.
Because the Bible says, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution.
He said, If they hate you, know that they hated me before they hated you.
He said, A disciple is not above his master, the servant is not above his Lord.
If they called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his
household?
So unless you think you're better than Jesus, you're not going to preach the word of God
and be loved by this world.
So anyone who wants to be a pastor, anyone who wants to be a missionary, anyone who wants
to preach and be out there and preach from the housetops, let me tell you something,
you need to be ready to pay the price.
There's going to be a cost.
You're going to be persecuted.
You are going to be an abomination to certain people because the just are an abomination
to the wicked and the wicked are an abomination to the just.
That's what Proverbs tells us.
So here, Pharaoh is saying, No, no, just stay in Egypt and serve God.
And Moses is saying, Well, that's not going to work because our service to God is an abomination
to this world.
So the symbolism here is that the devil wants us to think that we can have it both ways,
that we can stay worldly, we can stay in thick as thieves with the worldly, sinful crowd
and be serving God at the same time.
And in reality, we have to be separate.
Now we don't want to go too far with this because Jesus made it clear he doesn't want
us to be out of the world, but he wants us to be separate from the evil.
He doesn't want us to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
Now I am a strong believer, though, in remaining geographically in the city, remaining where
the population is because we are here to reach people with the gospel of Christ.
And it makes no sense to go out in the middle of nowhere somewhere and seclude ourselves
like a cult or something where they have some compound out in the middle of nowhere.
That's not what God called us to do.
We're not going to have a monastery, we're not going to have a convent, we have a church
and we want it to be in the midst of where the lost are, where the people are.
So we're not talking geographically, hey, let's geographically just get out of the United
States and go build a compound.
Wrong.
What we're saying, though, is that spiritually we need to be separate.
You know, spiritually we need to be different.
We need to be a peculiar people.
We need to be holy as God is holy.
Okay.
So even as we live in this world, we can't just expect to be in deep with the cool crowd
at school or with the cool crowd at the job and be the most popular in person.
You know, as a Bible-believing Christian, you're going to be out.
You're not going to be in.
You're going to be serving God in the wilderness.
You're going to be out in the tabernacle of the congregation.
You're not going to be inside, in tight with the Egyptians.
You say, I want to be a politician and a Bible-believing Christian.
It's not going to work.
You say, well, it worked for us.
No, it didn't.
It's not going to work, okay.
You can't be inside with the devil's crowd and be serving God.
You know, you got to choose, okay.
And so, you know, you're going to have to decide to go outside the camp with them.
And keep your finger here in Exodus 9.
Let's just quickly go to Hebrews and look at this.
Hebrews chapter 12.
I'm sorry, Hebrews 13.
Go to Hebrews chapter 13.
The Bible says in verse 12 of Hebrews 13, wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify
the people with his own blood suffered without the gate, watch this, let us go forth therefore
unto him without the camp bearing his reproach.
Let's us now go unto Jesus without the camp bearing his reproach.
So where is Jesus?
Is Jesus in the camp or is he out of the camp?
Is Jesus in the cool crowd?
No, he's outside of the cool crowd.
Is Jesus in with all the fundamental Baptists and is he in with the Southern Baptist?
Is he in with the mainstream evangelical Christianity?
No.
Unfortunately, he's not.
You know, you got to be outside of the clique sometimes, outside of the club.
If you want to serve Christ, you got to go outside of the camp, okay.
And again, I'm not saying physically.
I'm saying spiritually you got to go outside the camp.
So you got to get used to being a little bit of an outsider, where your goal can't be to
be popular and beloved of all and in the in group of society and culture, you're going
to be a bit of an outsider.
But the devil wants us to think that we can serve God and stay worldly, serve God and
be just like the world around us, serve God and succeed physically and be popular and
everybody loves us.
I mean, hey, why can't everybody in Tempe love me and I can serve God at the same time?
Why can't I be the beloved Congressman from Arizona and serve God at the same time?
You know, why can't I be invited to all the society dinners and invited to all the functions
and the prayer breakfast and be ecumenical?
Folks, that's where the devil's lie if you think that you can do both of those things.
You say, well, Pastor Anderson, it's just because you got up and preached radical things.
That's why you're an outsider.
You went too far and that's why the world doesn't like you.
You know, if you would just mellow out a little bit and just stick with the basics, then everybody
would love you.
That's not true.
The world is just looking for an excuse to hate us.
If it's not one thing, it'll be another.
Look, let me just give you an example.
You know, when I first moved here, I started two nursing home ministries.
Six months later, I was kicked out of both of them.
And you want to know what radical thing I was kicked out of both of them?
And these are two totally separate, different ownership, different management.
They didn't communicate with each other at all.
But within a month, I was kicked out of both for the same reason.
You're thinking, I wonder what radical thing Pastor Anderson preached to trigger them.
What controversial, wild-eyed thing did Pastor Anderson preach?
Both of them threw me out for saying that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
That's what they both articulated to me.
They both called me and said, hey, this is offensive because there are people who don't
believe in Jesus.
You're saying that they're not going to heaven.
You know, people have different paths and different religions.
You can't just get up and say that believing in Jesus is the only way.
You can't get up and say that there's only one way to heaven.
That's basically the gist of what I got from both of them.
And it was not the residents who complained, but it was staff members who were of other
religions who heard the preaching, and they were offended by the exclusivism doctrine
of saying that Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
And they said, you're out.
You're outside the camp.
Go to the wilderness.
Folks, the world today is always going to hate Christians or else Jesus lied when Jesus
said, you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake except the U.S.
You'll be hated of all nations for my namesake except God bless America, land that I love.
So basically, you know, America with 340 million people is just this huge exception to the
rule.
You'll be loved by America.
You know, you're going to be hated by other nations.
Folks, you'll be hated of all nations for my namesake is what Jesus said.
Anybody who gets up and preaches the whole Bible is going to be persecuted.
Now look, even if it weren't over this issue or that, look, let's say because you say,
well, it's just because you came down so hard on the sodomites.
Folks, the previous generation, they weren't preaching hard about the sodomites because
the sodomites weren't really a thing in that generation.
But did they still get persecuted for other reasons?
Oh yeah.
Folks, if it wasn't about the sodomites, it'd be something else.
It'd be like you guys are spanking your kids.
That's what they'd go after you for, right?
They're always going to find something.
Or this is what they'll say, you're knocking doors.
You know, you're knocking doors and soul winning, that's trespassing.
And they'd persecute us for knocking doors.
They'll persecute us.
Look, they're always going to find something.
Look at a history book, folks.
Christians were burned at the stake for saying, hey, we need to print the word of God in the
language of the common man so that people can read it.
It burned them at the stake for translating the Bible into English.
William Tyndale was burned at the stake.
Did he preach too hard against homos?
No.
Why?
Because it's always going to be something.
I mean, Baptists were drowned because they didn't expect baby baptism or they didn't
accept baby baptism.
So then they held Baptists under water and said, oh, you guys like dunking by immersion
so much.
Here, we're going to immerse you until you die.
Folks, Christians who believe the Bible and teach the word of God are going to be persecuted
one way or the other.
So don't get this attitude that says, well, I can just stay in Egypt.
I can be best buddies with the Egyptians.
I can just be deep into Egypt and just serve God.
No, because it's an abomination to them.
So you've got to come out from among them and be he separate, saith the Lord, and touch
not the unclean thing.
And again, not talking physically, talking spiritually.
Your best friends are going to be brothers and sisters in Christ.
You're not going to be able to be best friends with the people of this world and accepted
in the cool crowd and into society.
You can't have it both ways.
And this is what the devil's trying to trick them into thinking that they actually can't
have it both ways.
The world's not going to accept you because you're an abomination unto them, okay?
You know, this bozo preacher, let me just go off on this for a minute while we're on
the subs, since I'm kind of on a rabbit trail anyway, might as well just see where this
thing leads.
But anyway, you know, this bozo out in Knoxville, Tennessee, Charles Lawson, this guy with,
you know, he's got all his videos on crop circles and UFOs and hollow earth and all
this goofball stuff.
The guy's a complete bozo.
But anyway, he put out a video attacking, yours truly, of course, but also attacking
Pastor Grayson Fritz in Knoxville, Tennessee, who's actually a real man of God, amen?
Pastor Grayson Fritz, who's actually a man of God and gets up and preaches the Word of
God, does soul winning, preaches hard on sin, faithfully preaches the Bible, unlike this
clickbait, UFO chasing bozo idiot, Charles Lawson, who, by the way, you say, why are
you being so hard on him?
Because he preaches a false gospel.
He's not even saved.
That's why.
But this guy, Charles Lawson, gets up and attacks the man of God in his town, Grayson
Fritz, and attacks yours truly.
And here's what he said.
He said, you know what, all the homosexuals should know that I've always said that they're
welcome in the church.
And he said, in fact, I kid you not, we'll roll out the red carpet for the homosexuals
to come to the church.
He literally said he's going to roll out the red carpet for them.
And then in the next breath, he's praising Cracker Barrel for not allowing Pastor Grayson
Fritz to come, because I don't know if you heard about Pastor Grayson Fritz being banned
from Cracker Barrel.
OK.
You know, I mean, you know, it's one thing to get banned from a country.
And then there's getting banned from Cracker Barrel.
That's a whole other level.
In fact, my son, my son was doing plumbing in some random person's house.
Didn't you hear them?
They were they were hearing it on the news.
He was just in someone's random house and they were hearing it on the news.
And they're talking about, hey, did you hear about this pastor in Tennessee getting banned
from Cracker Barrel because he preached against sodomites?
This is right here in Phoenix.
I mean, this was a pretty big story.
It was all over.
It was like global news.
Oh, you know, wait, wait, wait.
Hold on.
Our correspondent.
This is just in.
A pastor is actually preaching what the Bible says and Cracker Barrel won't stand for it.
OK.
So that's the stupid Cracker Barrel.
They're a little falling apart, little biscuits.
They're a little tray of little packaged butters and packaged jelly.
Nuts to it.
I don't even like Cracker Barrel.
You know what's wrong with Cracker Barrel?
I'll tell you what's wrong.
They're breakfast sausage.
Don't they have the.
It's a goofed up breakfast sausage.
I haven't eaten there in years.
I wanted to give the details.
It's like why don't I just go get a Slim Jim at the gas station and it's pretty much like
a Cracker Barrel sausage.
Who knows what I'm talking about.
Who agrees with me on their sausage that it's got problems?
That's not a right sausage.
OK.
You know, I'd rather snap into a Slim Jim, you know, than to eat the Cracker Barrel sausage
pretty much the exact same thing.
That little stupid little game with those little pegs and the wooden thing.
Keep it.
I don't want it.
Nuts to you, Cracker Barrel.
I'd rather have the word of God.
I'd rather have grace and fritz down at Panera Bread with grace and fritz than to be a Cracker
Barrel with a bunch of homos, all right?
But anyway, so, you know, I totally got off course but Charles Lawson, all right, stay
on topic here, all right?
We're working our way back to Exodus, believe me.
We're doing a little wandering in the wilderness but we're eventually going to get to the Promised
Land.
But anyway, you know, so Charles Lawson gets up and says, yeah, we're going to roll out
the red carpet for homos.
And then he sits there and says how, you know, well, just as Americans, you know, just as
citizens of America, you know, we have to respect people and tolerate people regardless
of their race, their religion, their ethnicity.
You know, just go ahead and say it, Charles Lawson, their orientation because that's what
he's talking about.
He's talking about putting up with sodomites.
And then he says, you know, I mean, we've got to live this way or else we're not going
to be able to live at all.
He's just so scared.
But this is the part that was the most ridiculous thing that he said.
He then, after he talks about how we're going to roll out the red carpet for homos and,
you know, they should still have rights as Americans, you know, that's secular.
We all have rights as Americans.
That's a separate thing.
We've got to keep that separate from our religion.
Give them their rights.
Give the rights to the LGBT.
Then he turns around and says this, and I expect the same thing from them.
I expect the same thing from them.
Well, you know what?
You forgot to read Romans chapter 1 where it says that they're implacable, which means
that no matter what you give them, they're never going to be satisfied with it.
No matter what you do for them, they're never going to be satisfied.
No matter what you allow them, no matter what olive branch you extend to them, they will
not accept it because they're implacable.
You know what implacable means?
They cannot be placated.
You give them an inch, they'll take a mile.
You give them a finger, they'll take the whole hand.
That's what it means to be implacable.
And he thinks like, well, I'm going to learn how to get along with the homos in my town
and I'm going to be that.
I'm not going to be like Grace and Fritz.
Look, Charles Lawson, just say it.
You're not willing to give up Cracker Barrel for the cause of Christ.
For Jesus Christ, you won't give up Cracker Barrel.
So you're going to extend an olive branch to the homos.
Hey, let's roll out the red carpet.
God forbid that Grace and Fritz would be allowed through the door.
But roll out the red carpet for the homos.
More like a red ribbon for AIDS or something.
Isn't that what that is?
Yeah, the AIDS carpet.
Roll out the AIDS awareness carpet.
But anyway, think about this.
He's saying, well, I'll expect the same from them.
Well, you know what?
You're not going to get it, Charles Lawson, because they're implacable.
And you know what happens when you give that which is holy unto the dogs?
You know what happens when you cast your pearls before swine?
They turn again and they rid you.
And you're going to be rent.
You're going to be torn up because they're implacable.
So I'm with Grace and Fritz, amen?
I'm on Team Fritz.
And Cracker Barrel could go jump in a lake with Charles Lawson and all
the other queer baits out there who are trying to invite predators,
trying to invite pedophiles into the church.
Sorry, I want this place marked safe from pedophiles today, amen?
That's a whole other sermon.
But anyway, back to Exodus.
Whoever can tell me what this has to do with Exodus wins a special prize.
That's right, all right.
That's exactly right.
You know, the shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.
He says, well, just serve the Lord.
Just do it here in the land.
And they say, well, we can't because we're going to sacrifice
the abomination of the Egyptians.
At the end of verse 25, it said, in the land.
Verse 27, we'll go three days journey into the wilderness and
sacrifice the Lord our God as he shall command us.
You know what he's basically saying there?
Hey, we're going to serve God the way God commands us.
We're not going to let the world tell us how to serve God.
I'm not going to let Pharaoh tell me how to serve God.
Okay, yeah, we'll let you serve God.
Don't worry, you can serve God the way I tell you to.
And they say, nope, we're going to serve God how the Lord tells us to.
Have you ever noticed how atheists love to tell you how to be a Christian?
They're like, well, Christ wouldn't do that.
You're like, excuse me, are you a Christian now?
Atheists are the experts on how to be a Christian.
Don't let the world, don't let Fox News, don't let CNN,
don't let the President of the United States or Congress or the Senate or
any ambassador, don't let worldly people tell you how to be a Christian.
Let the Lord tell you how to be a Christian.
Let the Bible tell you how to be a Christian.
Don't let Pharaoh tell you, yeah, go ahead and serve the Lord my way.
Nope, it's going to be God's way.
We're going to serve the Lord our God as he shall command us.
And Pharaoh said, I'll let you go that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in
the wilderness, only you shall not go very far away.
Entreat for me, ask God if that's okay, if we can do this compromise.
And of course, it's not okay.
Moses said, behold, I'll go out from thee and I'll entreat the Lord that the swarms
of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people tomorrow.
But let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully anymore in not letting the people go to
sacrifice 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 and from his servants and
from his people.
There remain not one.
And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.
Again, you see the implacability of Pharaoh's heart and his reprobate condition.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord.
Help us to get the sin out of our lives, Lord.
Help us to realize that spiritually speaking, sin is like a frog or a louse or
a fly.
It's nasty, it's dirty, it's not helping us, it's unsanitary, it's wrecking our
lives, Lord.
Help us to get the sin out of our lives sooner rather than later, today not
tomorrow, Lord God.
And help us to be willing to go outside the camp to serve you.
Help us to serve you on your terms, not on the world's terms.
And help us to be willing to be different.
Help us to be willing to be out of the cool crowd if we're going to serve you,
Lord.
Help us to go outside the camp and bear your reproach.
And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.