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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you In church, while the offering plate is being passed around, if you could open up your Bibles, the book of Exodus, chapter 11. That's the book of Exodus, chapter 11. As we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church, we're going to read the entire chapter. That's brother Devin, if he can do that for us. That was Exodus, chapter 11. And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt. Afterwards he will let you go hence. When he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. Take now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold. And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people. And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt, that all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it anymore. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast. You may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee, and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger. And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land. Brother Austin, can you pray for us please? All right, I'm going to do my best this morning to try to stay on point with the main point and focus of the sermon I want to preach for you this morning, but there's just so much content in this chapter and this story of the children of Israel being led free and the plague specifically is the context here in Exodus chapter 11, it's kind of the culmination of all the plagues that were brought forth against Egypt and against Pharaoh when Moses and Aaron kept going back to Pharaoh, you know, and treating him, hey, let my people go, you know, we're going to go, we're going to offer sacrifice, we need to go into wilderness, and Pharaoh kept saying, no, no, no, no, no, and God kept bringing these plagues upon Egypt and there's so much to learn from this. This story and this event is referenced like all throughout the Bible. It's a very monumental event for many reasons and there's a lot of spiritual significance in the events that take place here. I mean, it's kind of cool and interesting when we read through and we're going to read through all the various plagues and see what happened and these events literally happened, you know, the staff being turned into a serpent literally happened, right? These are events that are recorded. These things actually took place but in addition to just the physical occurrences of these events, there's also greater truths to understand and more teaching we could learn from the events that took place here and all the references to Egypt and, you know, and all throughout the Bible how it's referred to and the title of my story is The Difference Between the Egyptians and Israel and when you look down in your Bible here, I pull that title from one of the verses here in Exodus chapter 11, we're going to start rereading again in verse number one. I know we just read through the whole chapter but I want to get this in the context. Verse one, the Bible says, and the Lord said to Moses, yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards, he will let you go hence. When he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. And at this point, you know, he's been saying, no, no, no, no, God's saying, you know what, this last one, he's going to just, like, like, he's just going to shove you out the door and just be like, get out of here because it's going to be so grievous upon the land. Of course, that's the firstborn being killed is going to be enough for him to say, okay, that's it, get out of here. Let's keep reading verse number two, the Bible says, speak now in the ears of the people and let every man borrow of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold and the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people. And Moses said, thus saith the Lord, about midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt and all the firstborn land of Egypt shall die from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even under the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill and all the firstborn of beasts and there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it anymore. Now before I continue here, we're starting at the end of the plagues and this one event of the Passover, this plague of the firstborn child being killed and putting the blood upon the door posts and there's so much to that. I mean you could preach sermon after sermon after sermon just after this one event of the Passover. Obviously it's a huge significance here and I don't want to get too deep into this because I want to cover a lot more things in the passage but I will start off, I think this is probably also the most obvious, there is the physical salvation of people not dying because they put the blood, the sacrificed blood of the lamb over their household, over their door so that way the death angel would pass over their house and nobody would die and they'd be saved. Obviously representing salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ, if you have the blood of Jesus Christ applied to you, applied to the door posts of your heart, then your soul is saved from an eternity in hell and you are saved forever and being cast in a lake of fire will never happen to you because you've got Jesus Christ's blood and that's this huge difference here and what we're going to be doing is looking at the difference between the Egyptians and Israel and when I'm talking about Israel, I'm not talking about the physical nation that's in the world today, I'm not even talking about the physical nation at any time, I'm talking about the people of God, the spiritual Israel, the children of faith, the children of promise, right, like Abraham, we're all the seed of Abraham or children of Abraham because he's the father of faith and that we have faith, we are also inheritors of the promise. Just like Isaac was the son of the seed of promise, right, and we're of the seed of Isaac, regardless of our physical genealogy, that doesn't mean anything, we don't care about the physical genealogy, just like John the Baptist says, I preach this over and over again just to make sure it's clear in everyone's minds, you know, he said to the Pharisees, you know, think not to say within thy selves, we have Abraham to our father, for God is able of these stones to raise up seed unto Abraham, like it doesn't matter about the physical seed, like don't worry about that, that doesn't give you some free pass into heaven because you're physically born a Jew, because you could trace your genealogy back to where Abraham is one of your ancestors, that doesn't mean anything, you need to be a spiritual seed, you need to be born again of the word of God, the incorruptible seed to give you that eternal life, and this representation here and the difference between the Egyptians and Israel is that Israel was trusting in that blood for their salvation, Israel was, you know, saved their believers and from a spiritual standpoint, Egypt was not, Israel was. Now does that mean, now let me ask you this, if there was somebody who lived in the land of Egypt and they put, they sacrificed the Passover lamb according to the word of God and put that blood on a doorpost, would they be killed or not? No, they'd be saved, right? So it's not about their physical location where they're at and likewise if there was someone living in, well here it would be like in Goshen, right, where the children of Israel were physically residing, if any one of those people did not put that blood upon their doorpost, what was going to happen? They were going to lose the firstborn in that family, I mean that's what would happen, right? So it's not about their physical location and it's not about, well this was going to happen if you were just born of the seed of Israel, then you're all saved. No, they had to put the blood upon their doorpost in order to be saved, right? And we'll see later on as we go through the plagues that there was actually some of the people of Egypt who took heed, they feared the word of God and they saved some of their cattle from one of the other plagues later on because they started looking at the word of God going, whoa, wait a minute here, maybe there's something to this, maybe all these things are coming to pass, maybe we should protect ourselves too. So we have a huge difference, we're starting off with a difference that's kind of setting the mode between Egypt and Israel, we're talking about Egypt, we're talking about the unsaved world and that is very frequently the application to Egypt throughout scripture later on, you can see that when the Bible is making references to Egypt, it's making references to the people who are putting the children of God into bondage, the people who are oppressing, persecuting, and putting the children of God into bondage, the world at large versus the children of Israel who represent God's people, the saved, those who are born again. That's the key difference here. Now let's keep reading here in Exodus chapter 11, verse number 7, the Bible says, but against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast. So God's protection is on Israel here, on his people, right? And I love that, so not a dog move his tongue, obviously physically but there's a much deeper spiritual reference here as well, you know, those that are referred to as dogs in the Bible are typically sodomites, the people who are God haters, those are the people who are referred to as dogs in scripture and he says, you know what, they're not going to do anything to my people, why, because God's going to protect them, and he says that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel, see in God's eyes there's a big difference here, God says you're going to know, nothing's going to happen, now obviously in the context here, what this is, this is expressing that like nothing is going to happen to the children of Israel while the worst things are going to happen to the Egyptians, right, he's saying not even the smallest thing, you know, a dog's not going to move his tongue against man or against beast, like nothing is going to be hurt of God's people but those that are of Egypt, the exact opposite, there's a huge contrast going on here, and he says I want everybody to know that the Lord puts a difference between the Egyptians and Israel, and as we see, you know, this is the culmination, like I said in chapter 11, with the final plague of that first born dying, where it's just death in the families, leading up to this there's been a lot of other destructions, like I said we're going to get into that in a minute, but this is the final culmination, and I want you thinking about this, and I'm going to wrap this up at the end, I'm going to kind of let you know where we're headed with the sermon, you know, if God puts such a huge difference between Egypt and his people, does it make sense for you to be just like the Egyptians, to be just like the world, right, and this is what I want you thinking about as we go through this, and as you start looking at the plagues, and, you know, the people who oppress and the people who persecute God's people, you know, God wants there to be a difference, God doesn't want his people siding and yoking up with and going alongside the Egyptians, and unfortunately in this day we have a lot of so-called Christians, people who claim to be God's people, and some maybe really are and some are not, but what a shame it is when you've got people who want to claim the name of Jesus Christ yoking up alongside with the Egyptians, yoking up alongside with those that hate the people of God, that those that hate the Word of God, that those that want to silence and and completely cancel and shut out churches who are serving God, churches who are preaching the gospel, but they also preach the whole counsel of God, so when they preach against the Sodomites, which the biblical answer to the Sodomites, we read, say, for example, in the book of the Kings and the Chronicles of Judah, of Israel, how the righteous kings drove out the Sodomites out of the land. Read about Josiah, read about Asa, read about these kings where the Bible says they did right in the sight of the Lord, and then the next verse is saying and they drove the Sodomites out of the land. That's not there by mistake or coincidence, and I'm not going to go on and on and on about that subject, because there's so much scripture, again, to cover with that, but shame on the people who, you know, God likes that, because God likes the difference. God's saying, you know what, this is way different than this, but shame on the people that want to yoke up and join up with the Egyptians, with the dogs, where here God's saying, like, there's not a dog that's going to move his tongue against man or beast of my people, and try to join up on that side to condemn and persecute the people of God. The Bible says, and all these thy servants, verse 8, shall come down unto me and bow down themselves unto me, saying, get thee out, and all the people that follow thee, and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger. This is Moses, is really angry by this point, because it's gotten to this point of, basically, they brought it on themselves, right, hey, you should have listened, and now, you know what, you're not going to see us anymore, and this is the result, and this is what's going to happen, and it's, it's that death that's finally going to make them be driven out. Now, flip back to chapter 7, and we're going to look at some of the differences between Egypt and Israel, even in the signs that were given forth and the plagues that were brought forth, because there is a difference, and we're going to go back to the very first sign of that rod being cast out on the ground and being, becoming a serpent, and you may be thinking, why in the world would God use a serpent, even at all, to, as anything symbolic, or, you know, for, to show that he is God? We'll get to that in a second, but that's, you know, the, this ties in, I think, perfectly with the serpent in the wilderness that Moses held up. If you remember that, anyone who was, who was bit by a serpent in the wilderness, they would go and look to the brazen serpent that was made to be healed of that venomous bite, okay? If you remember that story, if that ever made you scratch your head and wonder and be like, why in the world would looking at this, you know, what seems to be an idol, like, like, there's so many things that might make you scratch your head about, about that passage. This is tied in with the same meaning as that, but let's read verse number 10 here first, and I'll get into that a little bit more, expound a little bit deeper. Verse number 10, the Bible says, and Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded, and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants and became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, now the magicians of Egypt, they also didn't like manner with their enchantments, for they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents, but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rod. So, so first thing we see, you know, they go and they're saying, hey, let my people go, Aaron cast down that rod and it becomes a snake, right? It's one of those things that should just be kind of like, wow, that's weird, maybe I should listen to what this guy's saying, but then the magicians are saying, oh, that's no big deal, we could do that trick too, right? And they, and they have these serpents that, that are, that come out of the rod, and then, but then Aaron's rod though, Aaron's serpent eats up theirs. So there's that first difference that we're going to see between what the world can produce, what the magicians can produce, what the enchanters can produce, and what God does. What God does is always superior to what the world can do, even when they're trying to mimic the things of God, even when they're trying to imitate, what God does is always better. We say, well, why would he use a serpent? Well, let's, let's go first a little bit forward to when he makes that brazen serpent in the wilderness, and apply that first, and then I think that's a little bit more clear than when we come here, it'll make a little bit more sense, I think. So with the serpent being made the brazen serpent, the serpent is more of a, an evil figure, right? And representative of Satan, and of sin, and of wickedness, just in general, that's, that's how the, the serpent is viewed and portrayed in Scripture. The serpent on the staff being lifted up for the children of Israel to look unto makes perfect sense when you think that Jesus Christ, when he was on the cross, he became sin for us. The Bible says he literally became sin for us, so he's buried, as he's burying the sins of the world on himself, that serpent's representative of that sin being nailed to the cross. And you've got to look to the cross, you've got to look to the sacrifice that was made, you got to look to Christ in order to be healed from the deadly bite of sin when it stings you. And that's the, the representation, what that, that symbolic meaning is, and what the greater teaching is, why that even occurred, and why God allowed that to happen, why God made that happen, because he could have done all manner of different things to heal people when they were bitten by serpents or whatever, if he wanted to, but there's a specific reason for everything in Scripture. Why did he choose that? Well, that's a very good reason why he did that, and I think further to that, the similar example that being used would be this specific event of those rods being swallowed up is that every sin is encapsulated, you know, those serpents all were eaten up into one serpent, so that all sin was kind of put in together, because Christ died for the sins of the whole world, right? So no matter how many other serpents there would be, how much sin there is, it's all eaten up and swallowed up by one that is ultimately then the, you know, the, the rod, you could represent the cross and when it's a rod, but when it becomes a serpent, it's representative of sin, kind of linking the two together there. So, but let's move on from that. We're going to jump down to verse number seven. There's a lot to get through, so I'm going to go kind of quickly through this. There's a lot of different, a lot of plagues, and there's a lot of, a lot of meaning behind these as well. Like I said, I'm going to try to do my best to get through this quickly, because there's so much. Verse 17, jump down to verse 17 in Exodus chapter 7. Now we're going to see the plague of the water being turned into blood. The Bible says, Thus saith the Lord, and this thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink, and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river. And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood, and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did so as the Lord commanded, and he lifted up the rod and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants, and all the waters that were in the river were turned into blood, and the fish that was in the river died, and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river, and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt, and the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments, and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them, as the Lord had said. So again, a lot to unpack here with the water being turned to blood, but a few things I want to point out here is that, again, this happened to Egypt, where the waters were turned to blood, and what was the purpose of it? So that they can't drink, right? And what happens when you can't drink? You're gonna be very thirsty, and the symbolic meaning here is the world can't satisfy that spiritual drink that you need, that refreshing that you need, like Jesus Christ said that, you know, there's spiritual waters, right? There's living waters that you need to receive, as he, when he was talking to the woman at the well, for example, and was referencing salvation as, hey, you know, you come here to draw water, but I could give you water where you'll never thirst again. But Egypt, Egypt can't provide that water. The Egyptian water is corrupt. Spiritually speaking, there is no life, no sustenance that you're gonna get from the world when it comes to that life provision, because we all need water physically to survive. Well, all that water is corrupt. And not only is it corrupt, but it's corrupt with blood. When you think about all the blood that's shed in the world by wicked people in this world and the blood that shed, well, this is kind of bringing that to light and bringing that to focus about how wicked the world is to say, you know what, you can't have life. Why? Because you're so wicked, because the ground is filled with the blood of the innocents. And if we could look at the spiritual picture of the United States of America today with all the innocent blood that has been shed on our soil through the baby murder and, you know, and among many other crimes and many other things that have been going on, unpunished with no judgment and no justice for wicked people doing wicked things, you know, to bring it all to light, just into vision, it wouldn't surprise me for all of our lakes and waters and streams to be turned into blood either to just show you the spiritual condition that the country has. This is what was being done in Egypt. He's just showing the spiritual condition of that nation and what it could provide for you. And it could provide nothing. And in fact, it stinks. Right? The fish died, and then you got these rotting corpses, and the whole land just stinks, because it could provide nothing. I mean, it's decaying, it's rotting. That's what Egypt offers you. And take this to heart when you're looking at Egypt, when you're looking at the great buildings, right, the pyramids, when you're looking at all these great advancements and how awesome and wealthy Egypt is and how great a place Egypt would be. And obviously, you know, apply this for today. We don't live in that time, but you know what I'm talking about. You look at the fancy buildings, the fancy skyscrapers, the wealth of whatever city, whatever place, if it's just the world's good and what the world provides, it may look good on the outside, but you know what's really filled with? Rotting. It stinks. What's happening here is God's showing people physically the state of what that place is going to bring you, of what Egypt will do for you. And here we see the Egyptians, they're able to do so with their enchantments, which also deceives the heart of Pharaoh. And you know, again, there's so many directions you could take with this. There's a lot of people who try to mimic God and godliness and say, oh, look, yeah, we do that. I mean, the Pentecostals try to do that, but what they end up doing then, unfortunately, is deceiving people into thinking, oh, well, this is, you know, oh, they could do this. This must be the power of God. I mean, they're saying this and they're doing this, but no, this is, you know, they could do it too. Or people saying, oh, that's just some trick. You know, we could do that same type of thing now and try to downplay the miracles of God. But as we're going to see, especially with the next plague, which is the plague of the frogs and flip over chapter eight, is these people were able to do some of these things to some extent, but they're never able to get rid of it. Right? It's like, okay, they could bring forth some blood somehow, but how about try cleaning the water? Try doing that cleansing. Because they had to entreat Moses for all the water to be cleansed. They had to entreat Moses, as we're going to read here, for the frogs to depart out of the land. It's like, yeah, you could bring forth a few frogs out of the water or whatever. Make them go away. They're good at bringing forth the corruption, but they fail at bringing forth the healing. Look at verse number two, the plague of the frogs of chapter eight, and 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 thine house and into thy bed chamber and upon thy bed and into the house of thy servants and upon thy people and into thine ovens and into thy kneading troughs, and the frogs shall come up both on thee and upon thy people and upon all thy servants, and the Lord spake unto Moses, say unto Aaron, stretch forth thine 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. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron 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 as we saw, you know, it's like magicians are doing this, oh, we could bring some frogs up too. Why did you go to Moses to have him taken away? I mean, why don't you use your magicians to get rid of those frogs, Pharaoh? Jump down to verse number 13, the Bible says, 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. So again, we have another reference to just the stinking land, the stinking Egyptian land. And mind you, you know, the land of Egypt was, would have been a bountiful place, right? Things were going well. There was a lot of prosperity in Egypt. It was a place to look to as a desirable place, physically, humanly speaking, to go be a part of. Now obviously, it was a heathen nation, it was a heathen land. They worshipped the sun gods, false gods, and idolatry all over the place, but as far as wealth, Egypt was a wealthy place. Remember, this is coming off the heels of the great famine that took place, right, where Joseph really facilitated the immense power that was brought into Pharaoh's house in Egypt. And that's a whole other sermon for another day, but if you remember the story, you know, Joseph was aware of the famine to come, the good years and the lean years, and he made provision so that the people could be sustained through the famine so that life could still be provided and everyone could be taken care of. But what ended up happening is he was charging the people, you know, first he taxed the people in order to do it, right? So the people were paying into this tax that they didn't even realize what was coming. They're just like, well, we need to take store of this, right? So people are being taxed or keeping up this store, and then they're being charged to get their tax back when, you know, they have to buy the food from them, and, you know, when money failed, then they had to give of their oxen and their possessions and anything that they had, and then when that failed, then they had to sell themselves into slavery, basically. That was, I do not believe that was a proper way of dealing with that. God bless you with the vision of being able to know and to be able to provide for people, but what ended up happening is that, yes, every people survived, so that was great. There was life was given, but then there was this consequence. Now, you put all this power into Pharaoh's house and into Egypt, the Egyptian government, to save these people alive, and you end up paying for that as a result later on, and the people who forgot about Joseph, and now they're looking at these Hebrews, is going, you know, hey, they're, you know, they're getting kind of, they're multiplying, and there's a lot of them, so we need to keep them down and oppress them. They've been doing this work for us. We need to make sure that they don't gain more power, you know, and that's when they get into bondage, and that's when they're, you know, literally passing laws to kill their children. The manchild's born that they're supposed to die, so Moses was supposed to have been put to death, but was saved, and again, a whole other story. There's so much to the story in the book of Exodus. I got to be careful not to get too deep into that, but let's bring things back, because now I'm starting to forget how I even got into all these stories. The land stinks, that's right, that's where we're at. The land stinks, and don't you forget it, and here's the thing, it's easy to forget about this stuff sometimes, especially, so let's make a further application. You get saved out of Egypt. You get saved out of that bondage of sin. You got the cleansing blood of Christ. You drink of that water, that living water, that provides you eternal life. That's awesome, right? And many people, I would say probably most people after that, will then say, wow, this is great, I want to try to live for God. I want to try to do what's right, and many people will start to grow and do, but there's still a thought of Egypt that can pop up in your mind, and the pull may be stronger the closer you are to Egypt. If you just left out of Egypt, you might be going like, well, you know, I really like that, and then the farther away you get from Egypt, the more of a distant memory becomes, but here's the thing, you always got to take heed to yourself lest you fall, because we've all been in Egypt in the past, and you don't want to get to a point where you're starting to have these fond memories of Egypt, and in case you start getting some fond memories of the world, of Egypt, of the things of the world, remember that the land stinks. The land stinks. It doesn't provide life. It provides death. Don't be deceived by the allure of sin, and even the children of Israel, you know, when they were in the wilderness, they started murmuring and complaining on, oh, man, I remember, you know, God is providing for them food for free. Angels' food at that. Manna. They don't have to do anything for it. Just collect it and eat it. Like, what a great blessing that is, and then they get to the point where they're going, well, I remember when we had the onion and the garlic and the cucumber and fish, you know, like, we had a bigger variety of menu. Yeah, and you were a slave. Like, you're free, and you've got one thing on the menu, and now you're talking about wanting to go back to have more things on the menu, and what, go back into the servitude and go back into bondage? Don't forget about that. You want to go back into the world, well, you know, I know I gave up this or that, I gave up this, but, I mean, man, now I think about it. I remember having fun. I remember, you know, don't. Don't forget. It's bondage. Any sin. It stinks. Let's move on here. Verse number 16, the lice. It's the next plague, and this is the point at which those magicians of the world can no longer mimic the plagues that God is bringing down on the people. Again, they're even limited. They're limited for each one of their mimicries. I don't know if that's a word or not, but they're limited in each one of the ways that they could try to show, oh, yeah, well, we could do that, too. That's no big deal. Every single one, they were limited because they were never able to take any of this stuff away. You know, even the first one with the rods becoming serpents, well, you know what? Aaron's rod ate up yours. Aaron's serpent ate up yours. You're left with nothing. But at this point going forward, now they just stop. Like, they're not able to do these things. They've reached their limit of even attempting to be able to do that, and we're gonna see here with the lice, I think, the reason why. Verse number 16, the Bible says in chapter 8, 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. And they did so. For Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and became lice and man, and in beast, all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. 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. Then the magicians 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. So at this point, they're finally saying, You know what? We can't do this. Only God can do this. And why is that? Every other plague up to this point, think about the frogs. Their frogs are just coming out of the water. They're already there. You think about the other, you know, blood. They're, you know, however they were, they were trying to mimic that. There's, you could probably explain to some degree how they were able to do some of these things, maybe get some frogs to come out of land, you know, whatever, whatever mechanism they could use to do that. But turning dust into a creature, that's like bringing forth life. The magicians are not able to do that. They're not able to take the dust of the ground and create something living, some living creature. They're just like, We can't do this. There's no way they could do that. This is the finger of God. And absolutely, you know, God is the only one that could bring forth life. Don't be deceived by the, by science, so-called science that's going to tell you that they could, you know, they're producing life in a test tube and stuff like that. No, they're not. They're not creating life. They could bring together the elements that create life, but they cannot make life happen. You could bring forth a seed and an egg to be able to conceive, but they are not the ones bringing forth that soul, that spirit that makes life. You're just adding the elements just in a slightly different way than God prescribed. But it's all the elements that are needed for God to bring forth that life. No one, no man is capable of just bringing forth life. God is the one, is the life giver. And that's spiritually and physically. So they're not able to do this. And think about this now. Now the application, the spiritual application of lice. What do lice do? Lice are real itchy. You get some bugs, you get some infestation. It's something that you'll never be satisfied. It's an itch that you're going to have to scratch and scratch. As long as you have those lice, it's not going to go away. That's what the world's going to offer you. You can get some temporary comfort by doing that scratch, but you know what? That itch is never going to go away. And what is the world, the philosophy of the world is covetousness. That's the way of the world. It's the going after money and whoever is the most sick. The winning at life by the world's measure is making multi-millions of dollars or whatever and owning a lot of stuff. That's the world's measure of success, but the problem is the love of money is the root of all evil. And the problem is that when you have this covetousness, it's one of those things that's never satisfied. No matter how much money you have, you're never going to be satisfied. It never offers true contentment. It doesn't offer joy and peace and long-suffering and gentleness and goodness and faith. You know what that's brought forth from? The Spirit. Walking in the Spirit. It's the Spirit of God. The spiritual things are going to bring you that true happiness and that true comfort, not the ways of the world, not Egypt. Don't be deceived by Egypt. It's going to bring you forth an itch that you can never satisfied. Let's jump down to verse number 21. Here's the flies. If thou wilt 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. Now the representation here, and I didn't bring this up for some of the other plagues, but like the frogs, the flies, these things get into everything and it makes a point to mention that. I kind of glossed over that, but it's getting in their oven. The frogs are just kind of all over the place. These flies, I mean I don't know about you, I hate flies. I hate flies. I've got multiple bug zappers in my house because I just can't stand flies and kids leave the doors open. There's flies coming going and I hate, it's like you're trying to eat. There's flies flying. Get out of here. I hate the flies. It's such a nuisance. Or probably even better, yeah, we've had, we've dealt with these stupid moths. I don't know if anyone's ever had this problem in your pantry. These moths lay these eggs and they turn into maggots and then they infest and like then you have these moths all over the place and it's this huge thing and there's like getting into everything and you have to like throw everything away to try to get rid of them and, you know, whatever. It's this big problem. So these pests are like big problems, but it gets into everything in the house. Everyone's impacted. Everything gets turned into chaos and when you go the way of the world and you get into the sinfulness of the world, it's gonna impact every area of your life. It's gonna get in and creep in and get into everything. Don't think that you can go and start having your secret sin and you're gonna, I'm gonna do this. It's, it's gonna grow. It's gonna fester. It's like a little leaven that's gonna leaven the whole lump and these plagues that come, you think you're gonna keep it under control. You're not. You want to go the way of the world? Just be prepared for it to start impacting and infecting everything in your life. Verse 22, and I will sever in that day the land of Goshen 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. So you're saying, you know what? You have all these flies and you have flies. There's no reason that a fly wouldn't travel from any other part of Egypt into Goshen, right? I mean, it's flying through the air. There'd be no reason for that. So when God does this, He's saying, you know what? I'm doing this on purpose. You're gonna make sure my people, they're not gonna have these problems. My people, you're not gonna find the flies in their house. They're not gonna have the nuisances. They're not gonna have this. Why? Because they're God's people, the children of God. But out in the world, you're gonna have this problem. So you're gonna make sure that you understand that there's a difference. Now these differences that God is placing is a testimony unto the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the power of God. It's a testimony. We ought to be living our lives as a testimony to the power of God in your life that you're not going back to the world and living like the world and having no difference between you and the world and you and the people of God in Egypt because now you're gonna be ruining that testimony and the power of God that should be in your life if you're living a godly life. God makes this difference and He's saying, look, this is just the way it is because there's a huge difference between His people and the world. He said, no swarm of flies is gonna be there and you're gonna know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. This is supernatural. God is, you know, the Lord is God and He's making His name known. Verse 23, and I will put a division between my people and I people, tomorrow shall this sign be. God is all for this division. God is not ecumenical and just wanting everybody just to come together and compromise. Well, let's all just be one big people. God's always separating the people. He's separating the nations. We see what happened the last time the whole world got together. They're building the Tower of Babel, trying to work their way to heaven, building a tower to heaven so that by the works of their own hands they could make their way into heaven to be with God or to be like God or to be as God like Satan wants to do. That's what happens when everyone joins together. God wants there to be divisions because not everybody is going to be saved. Not everybody is going to put their trust in the Lord so He's saying, you know what, you put your trust in the Lord, these people don't and you better make sure that there's a difference between you and those of the world. 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. So again, the land is just corrupted just like it has been with the water being turned to blood and the frogs and everything else that came forth. Let's go to chapter 9, verse number 2. We're going to go to the next plague. I'm trying to get through this. Yeah, I got to go a little bit faster. Verse number 2, the cattle. For if thou refuse to let them go and will hold them still, behold the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, upon the sheep, there shall be a very grievous murren and the land shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt and there shall nothing die of all that is the children's of Israel. And the Lord appointed us that time saying, tomorrow Lord shall do this thing in land and the Lord did that thing on the morrow and all the cattle of Egypt died but if the cattle of children of Israel died, not one. So now you have this pestilence, this disease coming forth that's infecting this cattle and all of a sudden, you know, that you got the COVID, the cattle COVID coming through, right? It's super contagious and stuff and it's infecting all these animals in Egypt but lo and behold, wow, here's the land of Goshen. They didn't even take any vaccines and they're, you know, no infections there. It's amazing, right? Well, because the Lord is protecting them and Lord's again showing there's a difference between the health of his people versus the health of the world whether it be beast or man because now we're going into the health of man with the boils. Look at verse number eight. The Bible says, and the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh and it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt and shall be a boil breaking forth with Blanes upon man and upon beast throughout all the land of Egypt and they took ashes of the furnace and stood before Pharaoh and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven and it became a boil breaking forth with Blanes upon man and upon beast. So, we got this, you know, disease, a pestilence with the boils and, you know, being brought upon man and upon beast but again, it's not happening to the children of Israel. It's not happening to God's people. So, what is the world offering us here? Well, God's showing us what the world offers through his judgments on the world. It's gonna offer you, you know, disease. It's gonna offer you just being in the boils are gonna be itchy too just like we saw with with Job. He had to have a pot shirt, a little piece of scraping off his body because he had these boils on his body that were just real itchy, miserable. This is what's happening here out in Egypt and I love this verse 11 because we didn't really, we stopped hearing about the magicians after they said about the lice like they can't do that miracle but now we're gonna see where the magicians are at because they, I mean, they're just not even, they're not even saying anything after that. Look at verse 11, and the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils for the boils upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. So, they're being afflicted by all this just as much as anyone else. They don't have any extra power. You know, magicians were looked to as, oh, they have all this great power and stuff. Not in the presence of God, not at all. These workers with the devil, magicians, working with familiar spirits, whatever so-called power they think they have on this earth, you can't stop. When God's gonna judge, that's it. They don't have any real power. They can't stand before Moses. One more testament, one more testimony, you know, the false prophets ought not to be able to stand before you. You should know the truth and be able to speak the truth and preach the truth so when the false prophet comes around, you know, they ought not to be able to stand. They won't be able to speak against the wisdom of your words, right, and they just can't stand before you because they're being shown for what they are a fraud. These magicians were a fraud. They're trying to say, well, we could do all the same things that Moses can do. No, you can't because Moses isn't doing it on his own accord of his own power. He's doing it through the power of God, the power of the Holy Ghost, doing all this great work. You don't have that. You're not saved. You're of the world. They can't stand before Moses. Moses is standing on the truth. Jump down to verse number 14. We're gonna see the hail. For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people that thou mayest know that there is none like me and all the earth. For now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence and thou shalt be cut off from the earth and in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up for to show in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. This is what God wants and it's no different today than it was back then. God wants his name to be declared throughout all the earth and he wants people to know that there's a difference and, you know, this event is referenced so many times about God, you know, doing these great miracles and events. He shouldn't have to do this over and over and over and over again for every generation. Look, he did this and made the statement and made it clear. But we need to be the servants that could also, you know, bring forth that message and help to proclaim the word of the Lord and proclaim the God of the universe to this world, to Egypt. Verse 16, and in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up for to show in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. He's saying this is the reason why you're even lifted up and elevated this position of Pharaoh. This is the reason because I want the whole world to know that I'm in charge, that I'm God, you're nobody, I let you be lifted up here just so I could bring forth my power and show the whole world what happens to those that oppose me. Verse 17, as yet exaltest thou thyself against my people that thou will not let them go. He's saying are you still exalting yourself over my people? You're not gonna let them go? Behold tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. And I'm briefly just gonna gonna mention this to throw this out there. As we read through these various plagues, notice some of the similarities that you'll see in the book of Revelation of the plagues that are gonna come down in the day of the Lord. And it's very similar, this is like a precursor, this is a foreshadowing of what's gonna happen at the end of the world as when the Antichrist comes into the power and he's going after the Saints and going to destroy and there's a great tribulation such as was not on the world no one ever shall be there's that great tribulation coming against the Saints against the people of God who are going to be hunted down slaughtered martyred you know with just a remnant that are gonna remain in our alive until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but that same vengeance and the same plagues that are being bought brought forth here because God's people are put into bondage and being persecuted so that it's very similar and it's foreshadowing of what's going to come in the future with spiritual Egypt or Babylon as referred to similarly in in scripture especially in the book of Revelation they're they're used interchangeably Egypt Sodom Babylon verse 19 verse 18 no verse verse 19 send therefore now and gather thy cattle and all that thou hast in the field for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field and shall not be brought home the hail shall come down upon them and they shall die lubers 20 he that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses so now we're starting to see people are waking up and realizing going like okay if he's saying this we're gonna we're gonna listen up we're gonna have a fear of God now because this stuff is actually happening it's coming to pass and some people were actually influenced and impacted by this and they were able to protect some of their stuff as they hear these plagues come in but other people didn't look what says and he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field hmm I wonder what happened to those and the Lord said unto Moses stretch forth thine hand toward heaven that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt upon man and upon beast and upon every herb of the field throughout the land of Egypt and Moses stretch stretch forth his rod toward heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail and the fire ran along upon the ground and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt so there was hail and fire mingled with the hail very grievous such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation and the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field both man and beast so yeah those people who didn't want to listen and didn't have the fear of the Lord what happened to them they got destroyed then their substance got destroyed and that's what happens to a people that lose a fear of God destruction is coming now God's long-suffering and merciful thank God for that but there's a point where God's judgment comes where he's had enough and it would do Egypt well and it would do God's people well also to have a healthy fear of the Lord let's keep reading here verse verse 25 again and the hail smote throughout all land of Egypt all those in the field both man and beast and the hail smote every herb of the field and break every tree of the field only in the land of Goshen where the children of Israel were there was no hail again there's a difference of separation between God's people and the people that are on the earth and you know God is always able and is always looking out for his people that they don't suffer from the wrath of God when God's pouring out his wrath like this his people are protected he did the same thing with Noah Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord when God wiped out and brought this this you know this judgment upon the world God took saved lots out of Sodom when he brought forth the fire and brimstone and God is gonna save his people here on earth before he pours out all of his wrath on the earth as well when Jesus Christ comes back and saves us from what's going on with the Antichrist those of us who are still alive and remain and will be will be protected just as him and God's always able to look out for his people so no matter how dark the times get no matter how tough they get just remember God's able to provide throughout everything we need even Elijah was brought the bread by the Ravens and was by a brook and had why he had food and water provided to him in the middle of a drought right when when plenty of people are dying and suffering well he was provided for that widow that he was sent to then brought forth the the meal out of the barrel you know that that lasted God provided there God can miraculous provide for his people no matter what's going on let's go to chapter 10 we're almost done here I'm gonna wrap it up now two more two more plays I want to mention and we're done the locusts verse number four else if thou refuse to let my people go behold tomorrow while I bring the locusts into thy coast and they shall cover the face of the earth that one cannot be able to see the earth I mean think about how many locusts that is how many insects is that we can't even see the ground there's gonna be like there's gonna be so many locusts you won't be able to see the ground yeah that's every like you try walking around as we walking on bugs everywhere you go and if that's the case I mean they're gonna be crawling up you and stuff it's like man not fun and and this is coming on the heels of all these other plagues that happened I mean hail mingled with fire destroying crops destroying beasts destroying people like like there's all this devastation destruction and now you've got these locusts eating up what's left because locusts are real you know we have like a few bugs in our little tiny garden and it's like man you know we're growing this stuff and then it's like they just come in and eat all the leaves and the plants like dying and stuff it's like that kind of stinks but we're not relying on that for like feed our family right it's like a fun garden to have or we could get a little bit of extra food or something and and and it's kind of enjoyable to have that so when that happens it's not a big deal and it's not at some severe level either right like we're not even really doing anything about it but I can't imagine I could only imagine locusts coming because the locusts are very destructive and they'll just eat away and when there's that many it's like they're just gonna eat up everything in sight and leave the land desolate and devastated and that's what was happening here is God's judgment coming upon them and again the difference between the judgment coming on Egypt versus judge no judgment coming on his people because all of this ultimately is representative of the difference the spiritual difference between those of the world and those that are born again the saved versus the unsaved because obviously there's a chastening of the Lord of his people when you're not living right you're not doing right but there's a huge separation of look you're saved you have eternal life you're not gonna get the judge the the the you know the wrath of God from the judgment of God like the the unsaved world is going to get that's the the big overarching symbolic meaning here and then throughout all of this these plagues God's people are taken care of but because of the separation we don't want to look like we're in the world we don't want to act like and enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season even though we ultimately won't pay the the price that the unsaved heathen pays we don't want to look like that and confuse the the distinction and differentiation that God's trying that God is so clearly and vividly put between the saved and the unsaved chapter 10 verse number four I forget where I left off I'll start reading verse number four else if I refuse let my people go be old tomorrow while I bring locusts into that coast and they shall cover the face of the earth that one cannot be able to see the earth and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped which remaineth unto from the hail and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field and they shall fill thy houses and the houses of all thy servants and all the Egyptians which neither thy fathers nor thy father's fathers have seen since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day and he turned himself and went out from Pharaoh jumped down verse number 12 and the Lord said unto Moses stretch out that hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts that they may come up upon the land of Egypt and eat every herb of the land even all that the hail hath left and Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night and when it was morning the east wind brought the locusts and the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and rested in all the coasts of Egypt very grievous were they before them there were no such locusts as they neither after them shall be such for they covered the face of the whole earth so that the land was darkened and they did eat every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left and there remains not any green thing in the trees or in the herbs of the field throughout all the land of Egypt I'm not going to continue any further on locusts let's jump down verse number 21 because I'm trying to wrap things up here I got one final point we'll see the darkness over the land now verse 21 and the Lord said unto Moses stretch out thy hand toward heaven that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt even darkness which may be felt the world is a dark place and without the light I mean going this goes back so fundamentally genesis chapter one right there's light and darkness as the first division of all divisions God separates the light from the darkness he separates the day from the night he's got the light there's darkness Jesus Christ is the light of the world right and he he opens up the eyes of the blind those that can't see those that are in darkness we need to see the light the world only provides darkness Egypt exists and lives in total darkness and it's so dark you know how great is that darkness that darkness is darkness about says that can be felt that dark that's like there is no your eye you cannot get any sensation of any light anywhere it's so dark it's it's it's oh and and I don't know but I can only imagine that's got to be a horrible feeling to feel that dark I mean I've been in dark place you know because if you go in a room or something where there's no light like like you kind of get in pretty dark place but it seems like there's always some source of light somewhere around that that lets you see a little bit I don't know but this is a darkness that can be felt not a place where we want to be and Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven and there was a thick darkness in all land of Egypt three days they saw not one another neither rose any from his place for three days but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings interesting they had no light the children of Israel did have light three days I'm not even gonna get into that not nearly enough time turn if you would real quickly to Ephesians chapter 5 these judgments highlight the judgments that you're gonna find if you live for this world these various judgments because God has judgment on sin and the things of this world are not the things of the Father the world has darkness not light even the things of this world that you can you can achieve or get the the riches the goods of this world that that's supposed to be the object of your life and success can be stolen can be consumed can can be rotted can just go away right in an instant the things this world easy come easy go that stuff can doesn't last at all whereas the riches from heaven the riches from God are eternal riches where moth and rust does not corrupt and thieves do not break forth nor steal if you live like the world expect the disease what is the world put forth Oh love right everything is love these days not fornication not adultery not perversion just love they want to paint this nice picture of love yeah go ahead go the ways of the world you know we're gonna find disease stink pestilence that's what you're really going to find that's the truth that's what you will get out of that expect shameful diseases like the boils I mean the the you know the the magicians they couldn't stand before Moses because of the boils right they were ashamed to even show their face it's a monkey pox that's right to put it the boils of today right AIDS world ultimately has nothing to offer but stink world's full of blood not the saving blood it's the blood of those who died by wicked hands that saturate the world and cause a stink the life source is polluted the water whatever the the life source of the world doesn't provide life provides death which is why you need the living water that fully satisfies I'm going to read for you from Romans 12 verse 1 about says I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your body's living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God that's what we're called to do is be you're not supposed to be like the world at all this would be transformed Egypt represents the world we could see what the world has to offer the way that God laid it out for us through his judgments upon the world if those are the judgments of God upon the world why would we want to have anything to do with the world as far as being in it right obviously we're in the world we're not of the world obviously we need to reach the people in the world but we are not to partake of the things of the world Ephesians 5 you know the let one of the last things was that darkness that could be felt but that God's people had no darkness why because they're children of light and we're if you're born again today you're a child of light not of darkness Ephesians 5 verse 6 the Bible says let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things come at the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience we saw that played out on the Egyptians be not either for partakers with them for ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord walk as children of light you know there was a time when you're unsaved that you're in darkness but now you're a child of God now you're in light you need to walk as children of light hey you have that light you have the light of Jesus now why don't you walk like you have that light for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth proving what is acceptable unto the Lord and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them for there's a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret but all things that are approved are made manifest by the light for whatsoever does make manifest is light light shines through darkness and light uncovers what the darkness tries to hide and that is why the darkness hates the light because the wicked deeds they're done in darkness are exposed by the light that's why Jesus was crucified that's why people hated him so bad that's why the Pharisees conspired against him because their deeds were wicked and evil and Jesus shed light on that that's why people of God get persecuted today because when you preach the truth and you preach light light exposes that darkness and the people who are in the darkness don't like that that's why you have the the heathen raging and foaming at their mouth over people preaching through the book of Leviticus and saying hey this thus saith the Lord this is what the Bible teaches this is what's right this is what's true yeah people hate that and they're going to shut you down and even kill you for it but we have not to worry or fear what man can do to us we need to have a healthy fear of God not a fear of man why why would we fear man when God is able to provide and God is able to protect and God is able to see people through we see that time and time again with his people this whole you know chapter all these chapters are reading about God's people taken care of God's people in light God's people no flies no frogs no lice no you know God's people they're great they're living life the wicked yeah I mean Pharaoh was threatening where did that get him and and if God were to allow you to suffer persecution Jesus said rejoice and be glad in that day for great is your reward in heaven so God's going to still bless you don't think that God's left you or forsaken you he'll never leave you forsake you don't don't think that he's gonna he's like well God's just you know abandoned me if you're saying look God's not doesn't abandon you he may try your faith he you know he may allow you to go through different things but in the end he's gonna pay you for that you don't know all the reasons why God might have you going through different things you know you just need to walk as a child of light and when you walk as a child of light it's gonna make other people angry and just expect that verse 14 wherefore he saith awake thou that sleep is and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light see then that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is and be not drunk with wine where in his excess but be filled with the Spirit speaking yourselves and Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing making melody in your heart to the Lord giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God and then it of course it continues into the passage that I hit on so often wives submit yourselves on your own husbands unto the Lord and goes into the husbands and wives why because it's all related to walking as children of light and having a difference and you know people don't have a problem with most of these verses that we read up until you get to verse 22 at least in today's society but hey it's all in the same chapter it's all in the same context you're gonna walk as a child of light you're gonna put a difference between the darkness and the light you can put a difference between the world and being a child of God you're gonna have that difference and you need to live that difference because you need to walk in the will of God you know what the will of God is there's a difference between men and women too and there's a difference between how you dress and there's a difference between how you look and there's a difference between what you do and what your role is there's a difference there's a difference they're not all the same thank God for the difference thank God that there still are godly women speaking as a man that don't want to look like a man because I don't want to get married to someone that looks like a man and I'm sure women don't want to get married to someone that looks like a woman at least a godly person doesn't who knows what the freaks and pervs out there these days but there's a difference praise God for the difference God made women different and beautiful and and valuable the godly woman is a price that's far above rubies very valuable very precious in the eyes of the Lord and you know what so are men a godly man very precious in the eyes of the Lord it's a good thing be a man be masculine be the leader follow Ephesians chapter 5 the whole chapter all the way through be that difference show the difference between the light and the darkness even I mean just it's the simplest of things some of the little things you know what I never say you know I never say I'm playing this and this just just came up recently because it comes up all the time in this wicked world you know I never say well I have to ask the boss in reference to my wife about what I'm gonna do or what our family is gonna do or anything like that never once are you gonna hear that out of my mouth even as a joke it's not funny it's not a funny joke because what you're doing is you're taking the Word of God and making a mockery and what the Bible saying is is where the the husband's role versus the wife's role I'm gonna make a mockery then you know what that's such a small example but you know what there's so many examples like that in this world you need to be different and I'm not saying well I was so righteous and great because I didn't you know look there's many other areas there's I'm sure there's plenty of areas where I'm failing okay but we need to be looking at every aspect of the Word of God and trying to walk in that light as best as we can to shine that light brightly and to do our best to show the distinction there is a difference here there is a difference there is a difference in the way that I live versus the way that the world lives there ought to be a difference and if you can't say that for yourself if you could just put you and some unsaved Joe from off the street next to each other and let's just take a look at how you live and let's take a look at how he lives he comes home from work cracks open a beer turns on the TV well let's see do you have that same pattern you come home from work you crack open a beer you turn on the TV where's the difference right look at the day-to-day life if you could just look at your life and be like you know what I live just like everybody else does in this world where's the difference there ought to be a difference we're way out of time so I'm not gonna go down a list of differences read the Bible right walk as a child of light yeah I'm gonna let you go don't worry we're out of here in just a minute in fact let's do it right now it's bar rise up word of prayer your heavenly father we thank you so much for your word for the instructions dear Lord help us to continue to learn there's so much packed into the story of the children of Israel being freed from bondage being freed from Egypt dear Lord and all the great truths that you have packed into your word Lord help us to be able to unpack those truths and to understand them fully dear Lord I pray for your wisdom and guidance upon our church I pray that you please bless our church bless everyone here help us all to grow in the Lord help us all to identify the areas where we ought to have a bigger difference between us and the world because we're not quite following your will as we ought to dear Lord I pray that you would please bless the soul winning this afternoon help us to lead many people to Christ that are in darkness right now Lord help us lead them to the light we love you to Jesus name we pray amen all right we're seeing one last song before dismissed brother Peter please lead us to song number 374 song 374 send the light song 374 on the first there's the ball comes ringing o'er the restless wind send the light send the light there are souls to rescue there are souls to save send the light send the light send the light the blessing gospel like let it shine from shore to shore send the light the blessing gospel like let it shine forevermore we have heard the best of good you call to get send the light send the light and a fold in our free at the cross we lay send the light send the light send the light the blessing gospel like let it shine from shore to shore send the light the blessing gospel like let it shine forevermore let us pray that grace be everywhere about send the light send the light send the light the blessing gospel like let it shine from shore to shore send the light the blessing gospel like let it shine forevermore on the last it's not church let it shine forever more amen church great see you thank you so much for coming guys you