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And we're here in exos chapter 8 and we're only going to be looking at five verses because we're looking at the third play here tonight But there's a lot of information about the third play here about the lice And we're starting in verse number 15 and notice what it says here But when pharaoh saw that there was respite and right there that's that's pretty powerful with the bible saying if you remember The frogs had were the second play I got a frog in my mouth That's not a good way to start off a sermon But um the The frogs had filled the land and then once they got rid of them pharaoh said, you know, hey do it tomorrow And then there's a respite meaning there's a break from the pain. There's a break from the frogs or basically it's horrible But then it gets less and see this is the way a lot of people work you know they have problems in their life and they're trying to cling on to god and cry out to god and Once it gets a little bit better Then all of a sudden they just kind of forget about it and go back to their old ways and that's exactly what pharaoh's doing There's a little bit of a break There's a little bit of a respite and what happens and he hearkened not onto them He hardened his heart and hearkened not onto them as the lord had said the lord said unto moses Sand Aaron stretch out thy rod and smite the dust of the land that it may become lice throughout all the land of egypt So I want you to notice here when it comes to lices smite the dust of the land, okay Go back to verse number two for a second Go back to verse number two And it says here in verse number two and if thou refused 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 thine house and into thy bed chamber and upon thy bed and into the house of thy Servants upon thy people and into thine ovens and into thine eating troughs So when you're looking at the plagues that we've seen so far The first plague was an attack on the Nile river, right? And so the Nile river was essentially like a god to ancient Egypt It's what made them powerful and they would worship it. I believe that we're seeing pharaoh going out to the water to worship That would be like his normal routine. They'd have some sort of religious service But we see with the second plague very clearly the frogs are coming out of the water With the third plague the lice are coming from the dust of the land and when you look at the fourth plague the flies The bible says they're coming from the air and what you're seeing is that god is attacking every bin Of Egypt, there's nothing being left. So the first attack is very strong hit the Nile river That's a huge part of the culture of ancient Egypt then all of a sudden you're hitting Uh the river where the frogs are coming out you're hitting the dust of the land you're hitting the air Then it's going to go on to attacking the livestock attacking your animals And you go on throughout all the plagues attacks human beings like they get the boils on their their bodies You get you get uh, the locus which will attack all the crops You get the darkness and basically every aspect of their lives is being attacked So I do believe when you look at these uh, ten plagues They're kind of attacks on various gods of ancient Egypt But really the thing is with the culture of ancient Egypt that was very religious Their religion was intertwined with their culture. So their religion intertwined every area of their lives So if you attack every year of their lives You're going to be basically hitting all the gods in the process as well And so basically however You want to look at that whether it's an attack on the gods or in every area of their life When you stop and look at the 10 plagues There's nothing that's being left undone I forgot to name it two of those plagues when I named through the 10 But every aspect if you look at these 10 plagues every area, I mean it hits the water it hits the ground It hits the air There's a reason why it says it's coming from the dust of the land because god is trying to prove a point all Aspects of your life are going to be torn apart Now when you're looking at a sin Though the one specific god you would look at that's being attacked the name of that god is geb geb I'm assuming it's pronounced geb. Maybe it's maybe it's geb. I don't know geb or geb But here's what it says about this god of ancient egypt the ancient egyptian god of the earth and growing crops and plants whose laugh caused earthquakes plus the father of snakes, so apparently Apparently the laugh of this god would just cause an earthquake so that's how earthquakes come, you know, basically Geb laughs and then the earth splits apart and he's the father of snakes. It sounds like a great god to worship Geb is the son of shu and tefnut husband of nut the egyptian goddess of the sky geb is one of the oldest gods in ancient egyptian history and acts as part of the Heliopolitan Eniade he is known to have given birth to osiris isis set nephthys and nehabga with his consorts Nut tefnut and minuetet And you know, I don't know it says here. I just noticed he is known to have given birth So I don't know if that means he's he's the father Or if if that's accurate what it's saying is like he actually gave birth to isis and osiris Which it's a pretty messed up culture, right? He is associated with healing earth vegetation plus underworld and royalty is connected with the mythological divine creator goose That laid a world egg where the world is located on so apparently the world is located on An egg and I don't really this is really outside the sermon But you know as I I joked about how some people say that the earth is on the back of a big turtle Here it's on on the back of an egg. Why do they pick surfaces that are sloped? It's gonna it's gonna roll off right? It's gonna roll off the turtle's back. It's gonna roll off the egg Just pick like a pancake or something. Why are you picking a curved surface? It doesn't really make sense, right? But that's what they say, right? Well notice what it says here in verse number 17 And they did so for aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and smote the dust of the earth and it became lice and man and a beast And all the dust land became lice throughout all the land of egypt now as we look through the plague so far The first plague is a pretty devastating plague because when your water supply is turned to blood There's going to be panic and they're doing everything they can to get Water out of the ground and because all the water they see is contaminated with blood Which means they're not going to be able to drink it I've said that with the second plague. I don't think frogs are as gross as maybe other people do but I think lice are disgusting. Okay So frogs to me don't really gross me out But but we had a dog growing up, you know ticks and lice And there's a bunch of kids that got lice in school and i'm trying to remember I remember my parents worried that I had lice, but i'm not sure if I actually did or not But it's a disgusting animal. I mean if you go to google images and look at a giant picture of lice It is gross. It is nasty and so To me this would be a pretty terrible plague when there's lice everywhere because I think that would mean that everybody's got like Thousands of lice in their hair and all over their body I mean This is a pretty disgusting plague when you think about it and point number one of the sermon is the uncleanness of lice The uncleanness the dirtiness of the animal lice now Here's the thing god created lice god created ticks god created flies. I don't always understand why it created certain animals They were created by god, but they are disgusting nonetheless and the bible tells us that they are an unclean animal but By definition here's what a lice here are what lice are Lice are obligate parasites living externally on warm-blooded hosts Which include every species of bird and mammal except for monotremes? pangons and bats lice are vectors of diseases such as typhus and I was talking about this sermon earlier today and my kids thought I was joking When I was telling them this animal will eat your blood they thought because you know, I tell a lot of jokes Like he's joking. I was like ask mom Right lice will go on you and lice and ticks I was explaining what those animals are I said, I don't want to show you a picture because you're gonna have nightmares It's a gross animal, but they will attach to your body and they eat your blood and you know What's even worse than that is they often carry diseases and that's a big problem Where it's not just that they're itchy they're disgusting and all of those things But then they carry diseases with them and they can send that on to you as they attach to your body Right, and of course if you have animals, I mean if you have dogs if you have cats lice and ticks and animals such as this They will often end up attaching to your pets and then you come in the home and then of course, you know They can be running around everywhere, right? Go in your bible to leviticus chapter 5 The leviticus 5 now i'm going to read you an article about lice in ancient egypt And this is not based on what the bible says about lice But here's what they say Head lice have been causing itching heads since ancient egyptian times imagine living in a time with very little technology We are lucky that we have the means to get rid of lice today Many ancient egyptians had head lice till the day they died and that is actually how archaeologists have discovered ancient egyptian lice remedies Through their mummified corpses now what i'll say is whenever we read anything We ought to really stop and think does this actually make sense? Because I don't think this statement makes sense at all It's like they say well, they had very little technology in ancient egypt. Well explain to me how they built the pyramids Because we don't know today How they built the pyramids And to sit here and say that they just people would just get lice at the age of five and having until they were 80 until they died they didn't know how to get rid of it You know, it's not that complicated. You know what? You know what they do? It's like for guys. They just shave your head Right. I mean they could come up with techniques. I don't think it's like man I don't know how to get this bug out of my hair I guess i'll just be scratching until i'm 80 years old and it's like What they often try to do is tell you that people from ancient times are just stupid. You're just Dumb now with any false religion. We as we're going through this science versus bible series There's a lot of stupid beliefs that are out there because people are not believing the bible But you cannot sit here and tell me that everyone's just really dumb. It's like people back then They couldn't they didn't know what one plus two was Right. They didn't know how to talk. They're just like cavemen, you know, just like, you know half monkey half man caveman It's like oh, we just learned to make fire, right? That's not reality at all. And so I don't believe for a second. They did not know how to get rid of lice They actually have some remedies that are listed here, but they were not dumb in ancient egypt But they had a stupid religion and when you do have a stupid religion You will do a lot of stupid things as a result. But here are some of the techniques they said Shaving the entire body so the lice had nowhere to live. Yeah, that's the you get rid of all the hair That's the basic thing that we were taught Um, I don't remember if we had it or not But I remember my parents were worried because a lot of kids at school did so for me. It's not a big deal Just you know cut the hair really low Then of course my sister had long hair and so I don't remember what they did with her They were didn't want to shave, you know her head or whatever to find out but um for guys it's very easy Um, one of the techniques they use was digesting a portion of date meal and water Served warm and then spat out and you know, it sounds kind of strange But you know if they actually did that they probably did it because it was effective, you know, I don't know Um, you know, obviously whenever there's a problem in a society as a result of a problem existing People figure out the solution of the problem. That's just the way that it works So if lice was an issue with ancient Egypt, which according to this article it was even outside of these plagues coming They would have figured out how to get rid of them, right? and so Leviticus chapter 5 Let's see what the bible says about lice and it says here in leviticus 5 verse 1 And if a soul sin and hear the voice of swearing and it is a witness Whether you're at the scene or known of it if you do not utter it then he shall bear his iniquity Or if a soul touched any unclean thing Whether it be a carcass of an unclean beast or a carcass of unclean cattle or notice this or the carcass of unclean creeping things And if it be hidden from him He also shall be unclean and guilty and whenever you're seeing the bible bring up creeping things It's bringing up that they are unclean It's bringing up that they are dirty and isn't that true with bugs? I mean if you have a dirty location, you know what you're going to have you're going to have a lot of bugs You want to get rid of the cockroaches one of the best methods is keep things clean don't keep food around I mean clean things up and bugs are not going to be around as much when it's clean That's the way that it works. And what you're seeing in the bible is that bugs are listed as unclean creeping things. They are Unclean bugs are obviously gross. They're disgusting and lice are obviously very itchy. They're gross. They're disgusting But they are unclean according to the word of god now go to leviticus chapter 11 leviticus 11 leviticus chapter 11 Now look i'm sure this sounds obvious to you but you know quite honestly around the world a lot of cultures will tell you that bugs are Not gross. They're another animal just like anything else and we got to treat them. Well It's like a lot of the religions coming out of india. They're saying we shouldn't kill bugs and it's just like I don't know about you, but I I don't hesitate when I see a bug on the wall It's like bam, you know you kill it It's like wash your hands and get rid of it Right, or if you have a lot of bugs you put out bug poison or whatever you need to do Get them out of your house, right? I think it's insanity if you lived in a house where bugs are everywhere and you don't even Do anything to get rid of them? It's like you've got to be kidding me, right? but there are cultures that teach that because let's just be honest if Evolution is true and the big bang is true and we are just an evolved animal Then that cockroach is your great great grandfather. That's just the way that it works That's reality And so it's just the logical conclusion If you believe in this but you know I don't believe that because I believe that man is made in the image of god And I think we are better than animals. I think we have dominion over the animals And so guess what if you've got a problem look when I was a kid We had a bunch of ants in our house, you know, we did we we got rid of them We killed them Why because we have dominion get rid of them and that is what the bible teaches Bible says here in leviticus 11 verse 41 And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth Shall be an abomination So every creeping thing and if there's any question that creepeth upon the earth, we're referring to insects Okay, we're referring to lice. We're referring to bugs Shall be an abomination. It shall not be eaten. I mean, isn't this just obvious that you should not eat cockroach and lice and ticks No, there are certainly animals that do eat these things. Uh, you know, I I saw my wife also mentioned She already knew that that monkeys are known to eat lice And so when they catch them on their body, they just take them. They just eat them. It's like So for people to try to say we're an evolved monkey, it's like you're an evolved animal It's like you're a bald monkey. It's like no, it's like i'm not like them. It's like that's disgusting to me But I was curious because around the world just about anything is eaten somewhere and yes There are groups of people that eat lice It's like you look at I was reading online just various native tribes And that eat bugs and lice is something they talked about That they would basically you know If their kids would get lice they'd search for them the moms would get the lice off and then they would eat it and it's just like Does there really need to be a bible verse that tells you not to eat this? I mean, that's just disgusting By the way, you don't have to eat everything to figure out whether or not you want to do it It's like it's gross. It's disgusting. I don't care what it tastes like. I don't want to find out it's disgusting Right, and you know, I was just thinking of just you know Because I was thinking of like the what is it nursery rhymer jack and poi. I was thinking cino on kuman Right whoever eats the lice Is the monkey right because that's what monkeys do and then it's just like and then people are doing it Here's the thing about this. I didn't need to know the bible verse when I was a kid to realize not to eat lice I didn't need the bible verse to realize. Hey don't eat a cockroach when I was a kid. It's just you know it It's just gross. It's disgusting and the bible is telling you it's disgusting, right? And I just want you to think about this just hypothetically though Because let's say for example that Eating lice was the tastiest thing that you would ever eat in your life And you knew that Would you eat lice? I would not Would you? No, it's disgusting You say what's your point? Here's my point. Think about this spiritually. Let us say a sin was the most rewarding pleasurable sin in the world But you know, it's gross You know, it's unclean, you know, it's wrong. Are you going to do it? Because here's the thing about I think all of us would feel this way even if eating a spoonful of lice Would be the greatest tasting thing you've ever had in your life. Would you do it? I wouldn't it's so unclean. It's so disgusting. It's so dirty. I don't care what the taste is Because in these tribes, you know, they'll say, you know, you should try it. It tastes really good Maybe it does I don't care Because it's unclean it's disgusting and here's the thing that is the way that we ought to feel about sin It doesn't matter how good it feels. It doesn't matter if you do heroin it gives you this great feeling. I don't care Because I know how unclean and destructive and unhealthy for your body that it is. So why would you do it? Right. I mean god created everything for a reason and I was kind of joking about, you know These are these are creatures god made and it's like why sometimes you wonder, you know Probably one reason is because we can see a creature that is gross and we can just be reminded how gross and disgusting sin is You see a creature like a tick or lice and oh, you know what it should remind you of it's unclean And the bible tells us hey be clean not unclean not just physically but spiritually See when it when it comes to the unclean animals that were not to eat Part of it is just health reasons bugs are unhealthy the modern science thing is like Eating bugs is like the big superfood cockroach is not the only bug that they keep talking about They're trying to make it into like a bug cereal and everything. It's got 10 times the amount of protein It's like look common sense is going to tell you it's unhealthy. I don't care how much protein is in it But the thing is this is the bible teaches us this but the thing is when we look at bugs We naturally just like it's disgusting But see the bible says it's unclean and the bible links the uncleanness of animals to the uncleanness spiritually It should remind us Not to fill our lives with sin I mean you think of some of the sins that are very prominent in this world pornography is very prominent It's unclean It's disgusting It's filthy. It's gross It doesn't matter how it makes you feel for 20 seconds or whatever it's like it's gross it's disgusting You should have nothing to do with it You say well when I drink I feel good. It makes me feel great. Yeah, but it's unclean It's disgusting. It's gross because when I give that example of eating lice all of us, it's just like It's nasty even to think about it doesn't matter how it tastes That is the way that we ought to think about sin. It doesn't matter How it feels it doesn't matter you listen to that rock song for those two minutes. You feel great, man You know, it hits me on the inside. I love it. I'm pumped but it's like it's unclean. It's sinful. It's wrong So why would you do it no matter how it feels no matter how pleasurable it is, right? Bible says sin pleasures for a season But sin is never worth it. It always makes you feel horrible. You feel guilty. You're in a bad mood as a result It's like are though is that small amount of pleasure in your life worth feeling just depressed and disgusting and miserable afterwards Right, and that is one of the examples I think when the bible is giving you unclean animals like bugs That's probably one of the big reasons god created them because it just naturally is a repulsive feeling When you go home and you see that cockroach, you know crawling around it's like oh, but see that's what sin is like It's disgusting It's gross and that's one of the things the bible is trying to tell us here I I don't really think they need to have a verse that says it shall not be eaten, but you know bugs are eaten All over the world and modern day science, which supposedly ahead the bible is telling you bugs are so healthy now because of the protein It's just like well, you know science will always have a lot of stupid things that throw out there That's why you need the bible verse number 42 Whatsoever goeth upon the belly and whatsoever goeth upon all four or whatsoever hath more feet among all creepy things that creep upon the earth Them shall ye not eat they are an abomination You shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth Neither shall you make yourselves unclean with them that you should be defiled thereby Brian the lord your god you shall therefore sanctify yourselves and ye shall be holy for I am holy and so notice He's talking about physically being unclean physically dirty animals, right? But then he's linking it with the spiritual because when he's saying be holy Yeah, he's using the physical example, but the thing is the old testament gives you physical examples to help explain the spiritual And so when he's giving you this physical example of being holy. Yeah, you know, you shouldn't touch touch a dead body You're unclean if you do that, you need to wash and get cleaned, right? But he's using that example to say you need to be holy put away the sin get it out of your life Neither shall you defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth Brian the lord that bringeth you up out of the land of egypt to be your god Ye shall therefore be holy for I am holy This is the law of the beast and of the fount of every living creature that move into the waters and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth To make a difference between the unclean and the clean and between the beast that may be eaten And the beast that may not be eaten and so in the old testament There's a lot of examples of unclean animals and clean animals Now, of course in the new testament that does not apply But what the bible speaks about in the new testament a lot is the difference between things that are clean spiritually Or morally correct versus things that are unclean And he uses this he he quotes from this to talk about putting a difference between the clean and the unclean Now here's a physical example that anyone can relate to bugs. We all know are unclean Or the bible speaks about like a dead dead animal. Yeah, of course, it's naturally just gross to touch a dead animal Right, we know that I mean just seeing it it reminds you of how gross that would be And what he's trying to do is just put this inside of your head of Sinful things saying it's unclean. It's dirty have nothing to do with it Look every time you see a bug creeping around that's the thought that ought to enter your mind It's like unclean things. I won't have nothing to do with Not just with eating that or touching that but I don't want to have anything to do with sin Right or a dead animal you see I mean, it's gross, you know I go walking around a lot There's dead frogs or dead cats or dead rats that have been hit and you know They haven't picked them up off the road yet and you just see them and there's all these flies on them and bugs It's gross But it's a reminder of how gross and disgusting sin is And I believe that's a big reason because you know a dead animal is extremely gross and nobody wants to touch it But but what what are the animals that do touch it the bugs? The bugs Because they're gross They're disgusting And it's a reminder to us how gross and disgusting sin is right turn your bible to excess chapter eight I mean for me of all these plagues This is the one that just really grosses me out thinking about it because you know The 10 plagues are very interesting as you're reading about them and you know A lot of the plagues. I mean if we lived through any of these they'd be horrible But it's like you're reading about the hail and fire And you're reading about darkness And your darkness is a very scary thing. But if i'm not in darkness, it doesn't creep me out But just thinking about lice. It's just like It's disgusting, right? But I think that's the feeling god wants you to have because he's trying to help you understand how disgusting and filthy sin Is in our lives. It's an unclean thing. So we see the uncleanness of lice Whatever too though we see the magicians cannot perform magic And so the magicians are able to recreate the rod they're able to recreate the water and blood they're able to recreate the frogs But notice what it says here verse 18 and the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not So there were lice upon man and upon beast And so the magicians were not happy to have their hair filled with a hundred lice. They wanted too much So they tried to recreate lice and create more They're they're not the brightest guys. They're not the sharpest or smartest guys but They're not able to recreate the lice and what that shows us is yes magic is real and People can tap into demonic spirits and the devil and whatever that's out there and do things that are impossible and illogical And are demonic and wrong But they do not have free access to do whatever they want where god cannot stop them And so god for whatever reason allows them to do the first two plagues and also the mini plague before the ten plagues of the rod turned into a snake But here He does not allow it right go to numbers 22 numbers 22 And it's not the only time we see this in the bible and I want to show you a character in the bible by the name of balaam and Balaam's obviously a pretty famous character in the bible and he's pretty well known because everybody knows the talking donkey, right? It's like how he's smiting it and trying to talk to it and everything So let's just read this story and see what the bible says here numbers 22 verse 1 And the children of israel set forward in pitching the plains of moab on this side jordan by jericho And balaam the son of zippor saw all that israel had done to the amorites and moab was so afraid of the people Because they were many and moab was distressed because of the children of israel and moab sent unto the elders of midian Now should this company lick up all that around about us as the ox licketh up the grass of the field And balaam the son of zippor was king of the moabites at that time He sent messengers therefore into balaam the son of bayord of pether Which is by the river the land of the children of his people to call him saying Behold, there is a people come out from egypt behold They cover the face of the earth and they abide over against me come now Therefore I pray thee curse me this people for they are too mighty for me for adventure I shall prevail though. We may smite them and then I may drive them out of the land for I want that He whom thou blesses is blessed And he whom thou curses is cursed And so basically balaam, uh sends messengers to get balaam And balaam is a religious prophet. We're going to see here He's actually a religious false prophet the new testament tells us this But he's calling balaam and he's asking balaam to curse the people because he's saying you have the power to basically bless a group of people Or to curse a group of people and so basically he's calling on balaam to just curse a group of people That's what it says in verse seven and the elders of moab and the elders of midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand And they came on a balaam and spake on them the words of balaam. Can you see this word? uh divination In verse seven and the rewards of divination Is actually the financial gain that will happen but the divination is the magic that is being done, you know, uh, when when Joseph was mad at his brothers. He made the statement. Don't you realize that a man such as I can certainly divine? And so that was a wrong statement to make because you're essentially saying you're practicing sorcery But divination is talking about like witchcraft talking about sorcery. And of course you look at religious Prophets throughout history or various religions today. You look at like voodoo their prophets are going to do what they're going to use sorcery You look at an albulario which some people would consider kind of like a religious prophet or whatever and they're doing sorcery, right? Verse number eight and he said unto them watch here this night and i'll bring you word again As the lord shall speak unto me and the prince of moab abode with balaam God came on to balaam and said what men are these with me and balaam said unto god Balaam the son of zipporah king of moab hath sent onto me saying behold There's a people come out of egypt which covered the face of the earth come now Curse me them for adventure. I shall be able to overcome them and drive them out And god said unto balaam thou shalt not go with them Thou shalt not curse the people for they are blessed And so god specifically tells balaam you're not going to curse the people they're blessed. I'm not going to allow it now If you were to just read the old testament you kind of get confused about this because with balaam It's like, you know, he's a he's a prophet. He has some abilities might might think is he a good prophet He's not a good prophet He's a false prophet right, but I would say this that if you were to look at false prophets of religions in the world Most of them probably think that they're good people. Most of them probably think they're doing god's work They think what they're doing is actually good even though they're filled full of wickedness and do horrible things They actually think that they're good people Right. I believe that if you're looking at the sorcerers in excess chapter eight We're going to see it in the next point that they think that they do things on behalf of god They don't think that they're bad guys or anything, but they are Right, and of course if you look at false prophets in the world today, like jehovah's witnesses leaders Do you really think the leaders of jehovah's witnesses think that they're evil people they don't They think what they're doing is good They think they're converting people and doing the right thing. I mean mormon leaders they think that When in reality, they're actually wicked and evil people and from an outsider standpoint It's kind of hard to see this because it's like it's clear they're evil But yet they don't realize it and balaam does not realize he's a bad guy He thinks he's a good guy and you know, god is actually speaking to him and god says no You're not going to curse his people That's what it says in verse 13 and balaam rose up in the morning and said unto the prince of balac Get you into your land for the lord Refuseth to give me leave to go with you now go to jude one I want to show you what the new testament says about balaam Because you might ask well why why would he even be willing to curse these people What what does this have to do with balaam, you know, what's what's the story about now? Now jude chapter one is A chapter that talks about false prophets. It is a parallel chapter to second peter chapter two And what I mean by parallel chapter is it tells the exact same information, but it uses different words different phrases And so obviously it's an important chapter because the bible essentially has the same chapter twice But the wording is a little bit different in each of the chapters There's a little bit of extra information a little bit, uh less in other areas depending on which chapter you're looking at but here's what it says in jude, and let me just um go back to Verse number four And it says there are certain men crept in unawares who are before old ordained to this condemnation Ungodly men turn to the grace of our god into lasciviousness and denying the only lord god and our lord Jesus christ, we're looking at people that are false prophets and they preach against the things of the bible And of course when you're looking at people that are like a jehovah's witness That's going door to door and trying to convert people i'd say that's an evil person That doesn't mean that they realize that they're evil, but we realize that they're doing the work of the devil They're trying to convince people that jesus did not bodily rise again. They're trying to convince people works get into heaven It's evil. It's wicked, right? But it doesn't necessarily mean that they know that now Notice what it says in verse number eight likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh despise dominion and speak evil of dignities Yeah, michael the archangel when continued with the devil He disputed about the body of moses thirst not bring against him a railing accusation said the lord rebuked me But these speak evil those things which they know not but what they know naturally as brute beasts in those things They corrupt themselves and the bible is saying the people that are reprobates are like animals. They're like brute beasts Right, you know an animal is being acting like an animal is essentially the curse of god in the bible Nebuchadnezzar has that curse upon him for a short time Actually quite a long time for several years But then when people become reprobates, what are they doing? They're acting like animals And sometimes specifically when you look at the lgbt people try to justify the lgbt and say but you know This is normal because that's what they do in the animal kingdom That's what they do under mother nature or whatever they say it's like you're proving our point they're acting like animals That's not normal because we are not animals. We're human beings We are not evolved apes. And so yeah, it's true that in the animal world they do that They're filled full of just homosexuality and everything But animals do a lot of disgusting things I mean think about you know, the gross things I said that you know are things that obviously we should not eat Isn't it true as much as you love your dog or a dog you've had before as much as I love my dog growing up That they eat a lot of gross things There's not much of a restraint to animals to what they eat Because we as people it's like if something you know, and I don't like food going to waste but you know If something's like rotten or something like that right it's like no i'm gonna stay away from it, right? Animals don't really have much of restraint. They just basically just eat whatever is there and so Acting like an animal is basically the curse of god, right? Now notice what the bible says here in verse number nine yet. Michael the or verse 11 Woe unto them for they have gone in the way of kane. So one person that brings up is kane What's kane known for killing his brother? Right and if you cross reference, you know, you can actually find out from first john in genesis that when god basically gives kane an ultimatum He says do right and you'll be accepted Do wrong in sin life at the door kane chooses wrong And so he kills his brother and when he actually kills him He's already made the decision to reject god according to the bible, but kane is obviously a bad person Now, is it possible for a normal person to commit murder and not be a reprobate? Absolutely, but obviously if someone's a murderer that's it's a major sin That's a sin. Most people are never going to commit and it says and ran greedily after the error of Balaam For reward remember the bible said the rewards of divination What does it mean for reward? It's saying that he's doing it for money Basically if you come to me and say hey curse this people it's like for the right price I'll curse whoever you want And for the right price i'll bless whoever you want He doesn't care what's right. He doesn't care what's wrong. He doesn't care about the situation He doesn't know about the situation, but if he's offered the money sure i'll curse them for the right price So don't get this idea that balaam was a good guy He was not a good prophet. He was a false prophet and he was willing to curse god's people But the reason why he didn't is god rejected it God stopped him Now here's something we need to understand God does allow false prophets to do certain things when it comes to those that practice sorcery They're able to do certain things by the power of the devil When it comes to those that don't practice sorcery, but are just preaching false religions. God allows them to exist And preach false religions And you know what? It's it's in god's hands and then just belongs onto god And so it's just what god allows we have to just accept that but balaam was not a good guy He was a horrible guy and so We see that the magicians are able to perform magic I'm sure that balaam was able at other times to bless or curse certain groups of people But here god puts a stop to it and he did the same thing with the egyptians in excess separate back to excess separate Excess separate I mean If if you get lice in in your hair, it's like you can get rid of it, right? but if there's like a multitude of lice and it's like everywhere It's like even if you get rid of some of the lice it's going to come back right I mean, how do you even sleep? Because like with the frogs like it specifically said they're in the bed So that's gonna be hard to sleep since you know, as we saw they're nocturnal most frogs So they're awake at night and you know, they would be more apt to sleep during the day So it'd be hard to sleep with the lice I mean if I mean isn't it true sometimes you're trying to sleep at night and you've got like an itch That just won't go away You know, sometimes it's it's just like especially this is true in the philippines because it's a hot country that You know, sometimes I take a shower earlier in the day And then you throughout the day, you know, you might sweat a little bit and everything and then all of a sudden like i'm itching At night, but i'm already taking a shower And then it's like, you know, it's only a little bit so I feel I can deal with it But it's just like bugging me And so then all of a sudden I just take another shower because I cannot get rid of this itch I cannot sleep as i'm itching right and so if you're gonna have lice In your hair and on your body I don't know how you could possibly fall asleep I mean I just even talking about this now my my head's starting to itch just I don't know it's like it's like when you hear someone talk about yawning then everyone's like Right, it's like just talking about this all of a sudden, you know, I see people around the room are like scratching and everything like that It's like I am too And so I don't know how they would even sleep with this But point number one we saw the uncleanness of lice and I think the the big point God's trying to drive home is the uncleanness of sin Is really a large reason why god has created bugs because they're just gross and disgusting and that's the way sin is Number two, we see that magicians cannot perform magic And then we see point number three lastly the finger of god because notice this statement in excess a verse 19 Then the magicians said unto pharaoh this is the finger of god And pharaoh's heart was hardened and he hearkened not onto them as the lord had said Remember pharaoh calls on to the magicians on the earlier plagues and I presume he says well I'm not impressed by that you do the same, right? And so they do the same they create the the rod into a serpent the water and blood they create the frogs but then this is That was the frogs were the last one they're able to do and at that point the magicians are like we can't do this It's like it's a power that's greater than ours Now you would think pharaoh would just give in at this point. It's like okay, whatever we're gonna lose this battle, but They tell them this is the finger of god what they're basically saying is this is something that only god can do We do not have the ability, you know the reason why I think it says finger is because I would imagine with sorcerers you see this from like movies and such they have like Wand or whatever and it's like they throw it forward. It's like their hand goes forward or their finger goes forward they can like Or whatever and what they're saying is we tried it's like lice lice Lice and it's just not happening and they're saying it's only god has this power to do this now You certainly see from this they believe in god I don't think that they're just saying this and I believe that they think that they're they're good But they believe this is the power that only god has been given This phrase finger of god is mentioned several times in scripture and I want to look through these go to excess 31 excess 31 Exes chapter 31 What the magicians are telling pharaoh is that this is something that only god can do Anyway, there's a lot of things in life that only god Can do and we need to realize this excess 31 verse 18 And he gave unto moses when he had made an end up communing with him upon mount sinai two tables of testimony tables of stone written with the finger of god And see when moses got the 10 commandments they were written with the finger of god You know, we talked about in the sermon on saturday that that idiot christopher hitchens says the 10 commandments are proof. There is no god Look man would not create the 10 commandments They wouldn't Especially when you think of the last commandment thou shalt not covet Because it's like it's something that's so natural to all of us All of us struggle with covetousness now if you're only thinking about money Maybe you don't struggle with covetousness of money, but all of us struggle with wanting things That don't belong to us. I mean i've said this to people at soul winning It's like, you know when they're they're acting like they've never sinned and I was like I brought up coveting I was like, well, I mean do you want to be a pro basketball player? Right or something like that. Like yeah, I want to be lebron james like well, that's coming that's sin. That's wrong It's like you're not six foot eight. It's not going to happen, right? You want something that doesn't belong to you and all of us we struggle with that You know somebody has something that is somebody's better than us at something or they have more and we want what they have covetousness Right associated with envenus and things such as that as well But it's just like when you look at the ten commandments, it's just like the beauty of what god wrote Men wouldn't create those he wouldn't write those right and when you look at the entire bible that god has created It's like you see what god wrote and if we as men Because I I find it ridiculous when people try to tell you well the bible is just written by man It's like how could men That lived a long distance from each other thousands of years apart from one another Have wrote things that perfectly line up That make this the most wonderful book on science and history and everything the most poetic majestic the greatest literary work How could random people in prison create the greatest literary work ever? It's like there's no explaining it except it's the finger of god Because man didn't write the bible was the finger of god And you know, i'll be honest. I didn't really read the bible and you know The thing about this is the the bible was was not written for the natural man The unsafe people the unsafe person cannot understand the bible now unsafe people do see certain things in the bible They say wow, it's majestic. It's amazing, but they oftentimes just don't get it But I remember after being saved and then I opened up the bible and i'm just like I'm, just blown away. I'm i'm amazed just reading the stories just they came to life to me like never before Because obviously, you know, I had sunday school growing up and and uh vacation bible school and those things But yeah, I wasn't saved so I didn't really get it and then after being saved you read the bible It's like this was written with the finger of god And one way you can look at this Because at our church at least in the english language we believe that the king james bible is the word of god We believe that other bibles have errors They've made changes and I don't believe that god is confound to one language because I don't think that they're speaking english up in heaven I think that god is outside of languages. I think that you could have a perfect bible in any any language You could translate it could be perfect Now obviously translating will be a very difficult thing But I do believe that you know, the word of god can be in any language But here's what i'll say in the when it when it comes to english bibles that if you read what the king james says And if you read what the nib says Even if you don't know all the facts or all the history or all the errors in these modern versions I can just tell What's the finger of god? And what's not the finger of god? It would be like somebody that is a very unskilled person trying to create counterfeit money And it's it would be like no, it's it's just like this is the real thing This is the false thing, it's kind of like, you know when when the philippines they first had the new 1000 peso bill I mean it seemed very fake right that seemed like something like personally was unskilled would make it just Seemed very fake compared to what they had before or whatever But what i'm saying is it's not hard, you know when you're saying if you pick up the king james bible It's like I can just tell this is the word of god I can just tell when I read it and look i've read books of other false religions for the purposes of preaching against them And there's a huge difference. The bhagavad-gita is a bunch of nonsense. It's Horrible writing it's boring. It makes no sense It's bizarre and it's like as a safe person you can just pick this up and realize This was written with the finger of god um go to your bible luke 11 Deuteronomy chapter 9 also talked about the two tables of stone written with the finger of god Um luke 11, we'll see one other reference here luke 11 This is why when when we're we're thinking about uh, you know The creation of this world during the science versus the bible series. It's just so laughable to me what scientists say It's like it's clear that the universe and the earth and the sun and the moon and the stars was created with what? with the finger of god This idea that it could create it's like you got to be kidding me. There are certain things in this world That only god has the power to do Because people stop and things like the virgin birth like you believe in the virgin birth You believe that a giant whale swallowed jonah It's like yes, I do because when you believe that god can do the impossible and he has power to do anything he wants It's like I don't doubt the power of god And they look at it and they think it's ridiculous But i'm just thinking the things you believe are ridiculous And then you're gonna laugh and scoff at the things that we believe It's like yeah, I do believe there are certain things that are done with the finger of god that no I cannot understand I can't comprehend I could not even begin to try to recreate because I couldn't do it It'd be impossible I'm, not foolish enough to think I can just sit inside a laboratory and just try to create life like scientists do no It's like certain things are in the hand only of god to be able to do It says in luke 11 verse 14 He was casting out a devil and it was dumb and it came to pass when the devil was gone out The dumb spake and the people wonder But some of them said he cast out devils through bills above the chief of the devils and when it's saying he's dumb It's what is the word pp? Is that the word and you know, basically not being able to speak a mute And basically when it's cast out They're amazed because a person that has been you know mute or or dumb Their whole life is able to speak And others tempting him sought of him a sign from heaven But he knowing their thoughts said to them every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and house divided against the house followed If satan also be divided against himself house those kingdoms stand because he said that I cast out devils through bills above And if I buy bills above cast out devils by whom your son's casting out. Therefore shall they be your judges and What he's saying is that what they're accusing him of is casting out devils through the devil uh, basically It's the same accusation that We would make To like people that practice voodoo. They're using the power of devil the devil to do miracles We would say that about like albolaros whatever magic they do. They're doing things by the power of the devil right If people are you know, uh at services like pentecostal services and they're casting out devils whatever they're doing They're doing by the power of the devil Right, of course when we make statements like that They accuse us of blaspheming the holy ghost sometimes because you're saying we're doing it by the power. Yes I'm saying that you're not jesus and you're doing it by the power of the devil And that was something only he gave the apostles the power to do But then he says In verse 20, but if I with a finger of god cast out devils No doubt the kingdom of god has come upon you So he's saying you're accusing me of doing things by the power of devils Well, it's going to be one or the other either i'm doing this by the power of the devil Or i'm doing this with the finger of god But the thing that kind of sticks with them And it's kind of like a backhand slap is what he just did is something they cannot do He's making someone who's dumb to speak and he's basically saying I did something that you don't have the power to do Why because it's with the finger of god. He's referencing them back to what was in excess chapter eight Because it mentions the finger of god a few times but the big one we think of is exodus eight And what is it it's the sorcerers have the ability to do a lot of things But then all of a sudden it's like you do not have the ability to do this And he said you think you're so special for the things that you've done But let me tell you something what I did was the finger of god. You cannot recreate it You cannot do it what they are accusing jesus of doing and being is a sorcerer and here's the thing Judaism teaches today that jesus was a sorcerer. That is what they teach in the talmud They say in the talmud that jesus is boiling and hot excrement Or hot tithe for all eternity For being a sorcerer. That's what it says about jesus in the talmud the beloved jews That love god so much and are god's chosen people. They blaspheme the name above all names jesus christ It's like no, they do not love the god of the bible because what you must understand Is that when jesus was crucified and rose again? You basically have two of those groups of people Those that believed on christ and got saved and those that stayed in judaism and what remained are those that rejected jesus And they rejected god And modern day judaism if you're thinking of one religion that blasphemes god there it's it's none other than than judaism Because there's anything about this, you know, obviously muslims are wrong and hindus are wrong and buddhists are wrong But all of them will say nice things about jesus Judaism says nothing nice About jesus christ. They they say that he's a sorcerer They say that he's a bastard the son of panera In the talmud that mary basically cheated on joseph because they reject the virgin birth. Obviously, they say nothing good about jesus christ But what jesus said is you know what I did this with the finger of god And this is something you do not have the power to do go to matthew chapter 19 matthew 19 So No, I definitely believe that God can still perform miracles today I think on a small level probably all of us have experienced certain things that seem Extraordinary or it's not just luck that it happened the way it happened Not a miracle such as this but we've seen things where you can definitely feel like the the hand of god Intervening and helping out in this situation. I've definitely experienced that I think all of us can say that we've experienced that in our life I definitely believe that god can still perform miracles But there's no modern day apostles that are going to walk around and you got the shadow of me and now you're healed Right you you shake my hand and your disease is just going to fly away Right, I go And then all of a sudden it's gone. I touch your head and then all of a sudden, you know after you know Doing this on the ground for 10 minutes you're healed That doesn't happen In today's world, by the way, when when when they were healing people back then I don't think that's that's how they got healed either Where it's like, you know like this right, it's like But there are no modern day apostles and I do believe miracles still can be performed today But Only by the power of god And we can pray for them and I do believe that god can answer prayers and we should pray and god can answer prayers But it's going to be up to god at the end of the day And it's going to be by the finger of god the power of god because these are things that are Outside of our control. So what we can do is we can let god know what our wishes are But it's up to god Matthew 19 verse 24 And again, I say unto you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle Than for a rich man to enter in the kingdom of god When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed saying who then could be saved But jesus beheld them and said of them with men this is impossible But with god all things are possible anyway, did you know that for somebody to get saved with men this is impossible It honestly is impossible For us to get people saved on our own I mean if we don't have god's word And god's power is not upon us if we're not filled with the holy ghost. It's impossible You can't get somebody saved without the power of god with men this is impossible And he's answering this direct thing, but He's saying with all things So even outside this is like you look at something that seems so hard, you know Sometimes there could be people that seem like they're never going to get saved I i've known people my life people that are relatives of mine people that I was around and I just thought to myself They are never going to get saved And then now I think back and you know And and usually when you think that it usually ends up being true Usually they never get saved But then I I do know people that have gotten saved that I never thought would get saved and I gave the gospel to I gave the gospel to I gave the gospel to And it's just like they're mad and it's just awkward all the time and now I can look back and say with men This is impossible But with god all things are possible. I never thought that they would ever get saved but they did but even outside that With things in life with us, it's impossible. We look at certain things in our life We we try to do things on our own sometimes. It's impossible anything. It could never happen. You're right. It could never happen in our own power It could never happen by what we do but with god all things are possible And I do believe sometimes in life. God is trying to get us to reach this point where we realize that without him We are helpless Because when we think that we don't really need god And we don't pray to god much we don't read the bible we just try to figure things out on our own It's it's like we're trying to take away glory from god I do believe sometimes and i've seen in my life where god kind of just kind of teaches me lessons saying Hey, you know what? I need you to trust in me with all your heart and rely on me and realize That without me you can do nothing Because with men this is impossible. But with god all things are possible. Let's close the word of prayer your heavenly father Thank you for allowing us to be here today and thank you for us Being able to see the scripture here in exit 8 and learn lessons from this god Help us to remember these things and help us to realize that in life We need to rely on you and trust in you with all of our heart god And ask you to bless our church and bless all the families at our church I ask you to be with all the prayer requests that all of us have Um, and I ask you to help us in all areas of our lives god. We pray this in. Jesus name. Amen