(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. She might be used to you. My cues are there. I guess sometimes I won't go in there. There you go. So let's go for this. All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Stronghold Baptist Church. If you could grab your signals and open up the song number 442. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Song 442. Song 442. We gather together. Song 442. On the first. We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing. He chases and hastens His will to make known the wicked oppressions and sings from distressing. Sing praises to His name. He forgets God His own. Beside us to guide us for God with us ordaining maintaining His kingdom divine. So from the beginning the five we are winning. Thou Lord was at our side all glory be thine. We all do exalt Thee our leader in battle and pray that Thou still our defender will be let Thy congregation instead a tribulation Thy name be ever praised O Lord make us free. Amen. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father Lord thank you so much for keeping us safe as we gather here together Lord. Lord I just pray that the preaching and the singing give you glory Father. I pray that you will be in conversion with your spirit when it comes up here to preach Lord. That you can be able to preach decisively and be able to just do it clearly Lord. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen. Amen. Alright let's turn to our next song. Song number 173. Song number 173 Love Lifted Me. Love Lifted Me. Song number 173. On the first I was sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore very deeply staying within seeking to rise no more but the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry for the waters lift me now so they fare my love lifted me love lifted me when nothing else could help love lifted me love lifted me love lifted me when nothing else could help love lifted me all my heart to Him I give ever to Him I cling in His blessed presence slip ever His praises sing love so mighty and so true merit my soul's best songs faithful loving service to Him belongs love lifted me love lifted me when nothing else could help love lifted me love lifted me love lifted me when nothing else could help love lifted me soul's in danger look above Jesus completely saves He will lift you by His love out of the angry ways He's the Master of the sea billows His will away He's your Savior wants to be saved today love lifted me love lifted me when nothing else could help love lifted me love lifted me love lifted me when nothing else could help love lifted me Amen, great singing. At this time, we're going to go over our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, if you slip up your hand, we'll get one to you. Alright, if you could just open up to our first page. Our service times are there at the top. We have our Sunday morning service at 10 a.m. and then at 4 p.m. is our afternoon service. And on Wednesdays, our Bible study at 7 p.m. Below that, you'll see our soul winning opportunities. So, we just want to go over any salvations that we had for today. One, three, okay. Seven, eight, alright. I got one as well, so nine out today, amen. I miss anyone? Alright. Well, keep up all the great work out there. Nine salvations, amen to that. On the bottom is the offering at the bottle offering totals. On the next page is our prayer request. We have my wife who's been put on the my wife's office place on the prayer request and she has a tumor that they have found on her. Now, there is an update for that. Right now, she's at the hospital waiting outside the kind of just outside the hospital I guess there's a long line there. So, she's waiting to have surgery. So, just kind of keep her in prayer and just hope all that goes well. He's going to pray for her right now because he doesn't pray for her. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Dear Heavenly Father Lord, I just pray that your hand be on the physicians that are there Father and you be able to lead them and be able to make sure that this surgery that goes on today Lord, that can that can be successful Lord, but we know that you are the great physician Father and we put our faith in you to be able to do miracles Lord. So, we just pray that you can work your miracles on today during this surgery Lord that maybe you can do like a pre-scanning of everything and find out she actually doesn't need the surgery Father. We just pray for that and we pray that the surgery goes successful. Lord, I just pray that you be in this Lord and that you hear the voices of your people praying for Nancy Father. We just pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Alright. Right at the bottom of the page there we're praying for Mountain Baptist Church and pastor Jason Robinson. And then the next page is our October challenge where we're doing a baptism challenge I heard brother Mark has got a baptism coming up here. So, he's about winning this race. So, let's get people baptized. Don't forget to bring that up when you're preaching the gospel and just let them know hey, you know, baptism is part of this as well. And the next meds preaching class is on the 24th at 10.30 AM and all men are welcome to come and preach and you don't have to preach if you don't want to. But just try to prepare a 10 minute sermon 10 to 20 minute sermon that just depends on how many people are going to be there preaching. And below that we have the annual chili cook off which is on the 31st. And we'll be doing some soul winning. We'll be meeting at 10 AM. We'll be doing some soul winning before that and at 4 PM they'll have chili and judges and all that stuff. So, very exciting. And then you have our Bible memory passage. Below that, Philippians chapter 2 it memorizes verses 19 through 30 we're on the fourth week. If you can't memorize that and put it back where perfect, you'll receive a prize and then we have upcoming birthdays and anniversaries on the back. So, that is it for our announcements. We can turn to our next song. Song number 368. Song number 368. Song number 368. Holy Bible book divine. Song 368. On the first Holy Bible book divine Precious treasure thou art mine Mine to tell me whence I came Mine to teach me what I am Mine to chide me when I woe Mine to show a Savior's love Mine thou art to guide and guard Mine to punish for reward Mine to comfort in distress Suffering in this wilderness Mine to show by living faith we can triumph over death Mine to tell of choice to come and of rebel sinners do O thou holy book divine Precious treasures thou art mine Amen. At this time we're going to collect our Sunday afternoon offering. I'm going to ask brother Brian if you can do that for us. Hey pastor. All right. While the offering plate is being passed around you guys can open up your Bibles to the book of Exodus chapter 7. That's the book of Exodus chapter 7. And as we do customer here at Stronghold Baptist Church we'll read the entire chapter and I'm going to ask brother Carter if he can please read for us. Once again that's Exodus chapter 7. And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh and Ammon thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shall speak all that I command thee and Ammon thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh that he send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies and my people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them so did they. And Moses was four years old and Aaron four three years old when they spake unto Pharaoh. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron saying when Pharaoh shall speak unto you saying show a miracle for you then thou shall say unto Aaron take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh and they shall become a servant. And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh and they did so as the Lord had commanded them. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers. Now the magicians of Egypt they also did it like a man with their enchantments. But they cast down every man his rod and they became servants. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rod. And he hardened Pharaoh's heart that he hearken not unto them as the Lord had said. And the Lord said unto Moses Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go. Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning though he goeth out unto the water and thou shalt stand by the river's brink against he come. And the rod which was turned to a servant shall thou take in thine hand. And thou shalt say unto him the Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee saying let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness and behold hitherto thou wouldst not hear. Thus saith the Lord in this thou shalt know that I am the Lord behold I was smite with the rod that is in thine 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 sting and the Egyptian shall blow to drink of the water of the river. And the Lord spake unto Moses say unto him 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 landed 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 to 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 hearted not that he he hearkened unto them as the Lord had said and Pharaoh turned and went into his house neither did he set his heart to this also and all the Egyptians digged around about the river for water to drink for they could not drink of the water of the river and seven days were fulfilled after that the Lord had smitten the river let's have a word of prayer brother Martin would you pray for us please Heavenly Father please bless the society of the in your name and please bless the pastor in the name of Jesus Amen Alright now my sermon for this evening is actually a very simple concept so I don't know how long it's going to take to get through the material tonight probably not very long we're going to be focusing in on Pharaoh and the title of my sermon is called Don't Be a Pharaoh now one of the things you'll notice when you read through Exodus here especially these early chapters where Moses and Aaron are approaching Pharaohs you know if you know the whole story Moses of course is a man who's chosen of God to lead the children of Israel free they've been captive they've been brought into bondage they're slaves and God hears their cry and he has respect under the children of Israel and he sends Moses basically as his chosen servant to just bring the freedom bring him into the promised land to make good on the promises he made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob so in the course of this you know Moses goes and he sees the burning bush and that's where God speaks to him and then he's saying you know who am I going to say sent me right like what's your name God and says I am that I am and and he goes and sends Moses to speak to Pharaoh and Moses wanted help so he asked and treated the Lord and he sends Aaron with him Moses and Aaron end up going to Pharaoh and this is of course where we see the many plagues that God brings forth on the children of Israel excuse me on Egypt because Pharaoh keeps refusing to allow them to leave so they're saying you know we need to go worship the Lord we need to go out here three days journey and make this sacrifice and do all this stuff and Pharaoh is like no no not going to happen and at first he gets he gets you know really you know angry or whatever and there's so much disdain for the Hebrews he's just like oh you're asking you're asking me for something you must be lazy you must have too much time on your hands you want to go worship the Lord so he makes their jobs a lot harder and just basically just really leans on them and says okay you need to they were forced to they're they're in bondage they're slaves and they were forced to make these bricks right and so they're making all these bricks for their structures for the infrastructure whatever maybe for the pyramids but they're out there you know they're forced labor and he's saying okay in order you know we're gonna we're gonna remove some of your materials and you still have to make as many bricks you were making before and you know basically just putting the pressure on them and trying to completely get rid of Moses and Aaron even from within their own people so their own people are going to be mad at them saying what are you going in for now you're making our jobs harder right and just trying to to stop any of that from happening and you know obviously Pharaoh is a real wicked person real wicked man but one of the things that you'll notice as the story is aggressive and this is what the sermon is completely about but I thought you can do your own study on this if you haven't done this for yourself do your own Bible study the Lord promises Moses way early on saying that he was gonna harden Pharaoh's heart so that because God wanted to to make known to the whole world you know that the Lord is God the Lord is almighty and the Lord's gonna you know save with a strong arm and it was part of God's divine intent and purpose to have this happen but God didn't just harden Pharaoh's heart the entire time and when you go back and look through the story you'll see early on Pharaoh is hardening his own heart and just that term hardening your heart what that means is just he's not being very open or receptive to anything that God is saying and even in the face of seeing miracles and seeing these plagues and seeing God working he's just nope don't wanna hear it nope not gonna do it nope not gonna let you go you know and it kinda doesn't matter what he's seeing where a lot of people you'd say man how can you see that and still not see that this is God working he hardens his own heart but then what happens though after enough hardening of his own heart God starts hardening his heart and if God hardens your heart there's nothing you can do about that I mean if God's doing something you say you know what I'm gonna harden his heart now and this is a story that illustrates what we believe here as the reprobate doctrine and when someone becomes reprobate it means they're rejected it's people who have gone past the point of being able to be saved and there's a lot of peony and this isn't what the sermon's about but it's important to lay this groundwork before I kinda get into the meat of what we're gonna be preaching on this evening unfortunately today it's very pervasive where people will say you know you can get saved no it doesn't make you on your deathbed whatever and that's true for many people but it's not true for all it's not true for all there are some people who are beyond redemption and again I don't want to go too far deep into this but if you say that doesn't make sense I've never heard that before what are you talking about but you can get saved at any time anybody that puts their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ gets saved no matter what amen and amen but I'll tell you what there are people there are three groups of people 100% for sure you cannot deny it that if they if they are found to be in any one of these three categories they cannot be saved it is impossible one anyone who blasphemes the Holy Ghost there are no uncertain terms the Bible says they have neither forgiveness in this world nor the world to come that is the unforgivable sin listed in scripture and I'm not gonna go into all the details of what that's talking about but if anybody who blasphemes the Holy Ghost they cannot get saved and what that means you say well pastor what if someone commits the unforgivable sin what if somebody does that but then they believe in Jesus you'd have a contradiction there and the answer to that is they can't believe on Jesus because God hardens their heart and seals them the same way that someone who's born again someone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ you're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise so really even if you wanted to after that just I don't want to be saved I mean I don't know anyone who would not want to be saved right like no I want to once he's sealed you it's done I mean it's permanent it's eternal life it's sealed I mean you're born again it's done and that's exactly what we believe here and many people believe that doctrine and you know there's nothing wrong you know obviously it's more common or popular to understand that but on the same token once people become a child of the devil is what the Bible refers to it as Jesus Christ called some people children of the devil when they make a rejection of the gospel and find themselves in this category being a reprobate they're sealed unto damnation and that is taught in scripture and again I'm not going to prove all of that this evening one example would be people who blaspheme the Holy Ghost they're sealed they're done there's no forgiveness for them another group of people would be those who tamper with the word of God you could read the last chapter of the Bible end of Revelation chapter 22 you go near the end and the Bible says anyone who adds to the words that are written in this book God's going to add all the plagues unto them and anyone who removes the words from the prophecy of this book their name is going to be removed out of the book of life and out of the Holy City and you know in no uncertain terms saying yeah no salvation for you at all and then the third group is anyone who takes the mark of the beast because the Bible says that everybody that takes the mark of the beast goes to hell and again these things are not debatable there's not a lot of debate with me whether or not those things are true you can't so the idea of having people who are beyond redemption exists in those three categories at least now I believe there's you know when people basically understand the gospel they hear the gospel they've had the presentation it's clear to them it's not like they don't understand it because look let's be honest a lot of people don't get the gospel a lot of people can hear the gospel and they don't understand the gospel just for whatever reason their mind is still kind of clouded you can hear what they're saying and kind of understand but they don't really fully get it there's an aha moment where you're like oh that's what that means oh that's you know so you mean like I mean Jesus just paid everything and all I got to do is trust him and he becomes my savior and you know and it's forever and have that understanding but then people reject that I believe at that moment they've made their choice it's clear it's evident they've made their choice they've rejected the gospel so in turn they become rejected now we don't always know who those people are that reject I mean it's just sometimes no way of knowing who that is and I don't think I also don't think it's a large number of people either that fall into that category because most people that are unsaved either haven't heard the gospel or haven't understood the gospel and that's just the vast majority of people they're just out there they're ignorant and they're unbelief and they don't know any better but those that become reprobate are those that are beyond redemption Pharaoh is one of these people who God has hardened his heart he has opportunity and basically he has this attitude and I don't think I had this in my notes but basically when Moses and Aaron come to him he's like well who is the Lord who is the Lord anyways you know why should I care why should I have any respect unto you or to the Lord you know get back to work and that's the attitude that Pharaoh has and he continues to have that attitude and he has opportunities he can see and hear Moses and Aaron and he can see what they're doing and he can see the power of God but he's always finding excuses or reasons to harden his own heart and reject it now if you're born again you don't have to worry about being a reprobate or rejected because you already have redemption there's no way you can become beyond redemption you already are saved so that in that sense it's not going to apply to you anyone who's unsaved hey listen up to the sermon because you don't want to be like Pharaoh and getting to the point in your life where you've lost your opportunity but as Christians we're going to look at some of the characteristics and maybe some of the reasons behind why Pharaoh may have rejected it when he was on his own to reject things and not to possess some of the same character traits or follow the same folly that Pharaoh did even as a believer even though it's not going to lead you to reprobation you still want to avoid the pitfalls that Pharaoh had in your life. So we started off reading Exodus chapter 7 and one of the things that Pharaoh did was he minimized God's miracles because of counterfeits because of fakes that were out there and what we see is that everything that Aaron and Moses did was a miracle of God all those signs that they did, they were performing miracles, God made that happen, it's legit it was real but then Pharaoh sees his magicians basically doing similar things or the same things which causes him not to believe it causes him to say, oh yeah well, what's so miraculous about that? So look at verse number 10, the Bible says 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 it became a serpent so there's the one of the first miracles he does, he says he throws down his rod and it becomes a snake and that, you know, that's supernatural, there's something going on there, right? And then it says in verse 11, then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers now the magicians of Egypt they also did in like manner with their enchantments so you've got people and I'll tell you this much too I do believe that there are dark powers and dark forces and witchcraft that actually you know, if you want to call it works where there are people who can tap into supernatural powers that exist but the powers of devils and that it really does have a power here on earth now a lot of witchcraft and things like that is just fake and just kind of made up but some of it is not some of it is real and there's a reason why God is so serious and in his law made the commandment thou shalt not suffer a witch to live so people who are getting into the sorcerers and the witchcraft and getting into that dark stuff that cult stuff that black magic stuff he says that's death penalty that's a death penalty I mean people today can think about it as just kind of being a joke and not that big of a deal and Hollywood's making movies oh Harry Potter and all this other stuff and who cares about all this magic and it's not that big of a deal and it's just fun well God cares a lot about it he says thou shalt not suffer a witch to live I mean we're just approaching Halloween and what is the one of the big icons besides the pumpkin of Halloween you'll see everywhere it's going to be a witch on a broom right flying through the air that doesn't sound very Godly and you know fools the Bible says fools make a mock at sin and we ought not to just be oh well it's just fun what's so fun about it what's so fun about putting up an image of something that God says deserves to be put to death we shouldn't be making fun or joke or light about these things because you know what when you make light of those things you're teaching your kids it's not that big of a deal when the Bible says something the exact opposite no this is one of the biggest deals I mean doing something that causes a person to lose their life and God is saying that's so bad you deserve to die for it that's pretty serious that is not something you want your children to think oh it's not that big of a deal right I mean you wouldn't do the same thing about murder would you oh it's not that big of a deal to murder someone but we desensitize the kids to murder through all the media you know the Bible has the death sentence on adultery too but what do we do with that minimize it oh it's not that big of a deal you're always watching the TV shows and the movies where everyone is committing adultery and having multiple marriages and doing everything else it's just not a big deal right this is what you end up with another one of those is not suffering a witch to live and again I believe the reason why God takes that so serious is because there is reality to that it's not just someone just tricking you with you know it's not like these scam artists that have these you know they're crystal balls or whatever and you make an appointment to go see them and then they do all the research on you and then they're able to just tell you some things that makes it look like they know something special about you oh they didn't even tell how did they know that how did they know I had a brother named John or whatever it's because they looked you up online they looked you up on Facebook and you got all your families tagged and whatever and they can just make stuff up and make you think that it's real yeah there's a lot of charlatans out there but you know what there are some people who are have familiar spirits and are consulting with devils and that exists out there too and the Bible is real serious about that we have a story in the Bible of King Saul doing the same thing going to a witch and calling up Samuel for him to talk to him after Samuel had died so don't tell me this stuff isn't real but this is what Pharaoh is doing he's relying on those magicians to come and through power of darkness do this and then that makes it minimize the miracles of God now it shouldn't I mean if anything it should at least show you hey there's there's something miraculous going on here and what they're saying and what they're doing isn't what these magicians are all about there's another force at work here there's another power at work but he just minimizes like well it's just not that big of a deal like it's a parlor trick or something and he does this multiple times look at verse number 20 there in Exodus chapter 7 but the funny thing is though about God's miracles they always one up whatever the magicians are doing anyways like in this case when they cast down their their stabs and they became serpents they became snakes it says in verse 12 for they cast down every man's rod and they became serpents but Aaron's rods swallowed up their rods so there's always you know God's miracles are always better it's always going to outperform whatever the devil can bring whatever the devil's can do there you don't see their rods swallowing up Aaron's verse number 20 there's another another miracle here with the water being blood about the reason 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 serpents and all the waters that were in the river were turned to 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 and neither did he hearken unto them as the Lord had said so when Moses and Aaron are turned to water in the blood I mean it affects everything I bet you when the magicians did it it was probably just some like a little bit of water in a cup or something and they were able to make that turn but when Moses and Aaron did it it was everything and fish were dying because it was literally I mean it wasn't water anymore so they couldn't survive and it was making everything to stink but when the magicians did it when he sees oh yeah well I've seen that that's not a big deal his heart is hardened now I'm going to take a broader application of this because we're looking at things that Pharaoh was seeing and doing and we don't want to be like Pharaoh and there's some people that exist out there that I believe get poisoned by counterfeit Christianity by a lot of churches out there yeah they claim to be Christian but they get poisoned by these churches you know some bad thing happens in them they have people turn on them they have a bunch of hypocrites and it just turns out to be this disaster of an experience and then they use that and they want to have nothing to do with any church because they don't see the power of Christ they don't see you know the real truth the real gospel the real power that can come with the Lord and they look at all these other people that are out there and they end up getting poisoned by that you know we need to be careful to fail to see God working in our own lives and just kind of brush it off as being not that big of a deal no matter what it may be I mean it can be you know we pray for people to be healed all the time and we look to the Lord for healing but then if somebody you know oh they get they have surgery or whatever oh I've seen that happen already before when God is right because look I know for a fact God has done miracles in people's lives that I know in our lives you know there's times where things just simply aren't a coincidence and it happens probably more often than a lot of people think where God is involved in a way to to have things happen a certain way but when we fail to see God working in our life and just kind of brush it off as being not that big of a deal we run the risk of having this attitude like Pharaoh had and just completely dismissing what God is doing or just explaining away God's hand at work in our life and we want to make sure that we don't do that and we see this you know I don't know how many times I've talked to people either about soul winning or whatever and there's this whole chain of events that happens that somehow just leads us to talk to someone and they're saying you know I I've had people say I was just praying last night and this morning that God would just show me the truth and I want to know who he is and you know it's like and now you're here and people are telling me this like I didn't know any of that to me it was just seemingly random but when you have this set of circumstances lining up you're like that's not random and unfortunately I've had people that also even after they say that well I don't really know you know it's like of all people you should be receiving this don't dismiss what's happening here because this is divine this is God leading a worker to you to show you the truth and sometimes people just dismiss it wow what a weird coincidence I'm sorry I don't think that's a coincidence but we gotta make sure that we're not guilty of the same thing of misidentifying things in our life where God's working and just assuming that it's nothing flip over to chapter 8 if you will we're going to look through a few more of these we're going to see the miracle the frogs brought up on the land of Egypt verse number 5 says so here again we see magicians kind of mimicking or mirroring some of the things that Moses and Aaron are doing but one of the things I find interesting here is I look at verse number 8 it says why didn't he ask the magicians to make the frogs go away they were able to make them come up but it doesn't seem like they're able to make them go away and there's another shortfall or shortcoming of what the devil's able to do or these magicians are able to do with their power he has to go to Moses and Aaron to get rid of these things and you'll notice too as the miracles progress he continues to go back to them and say hey and treat the Lord for me but he's failing to see God's hand really in this and that maybe he should go well maybe there's something to this maybe this is real maybe I should listen to the Lord and listen to these guys and consider making the Lord my God too because of everything that's going on here that obviously the Lord is almighty and all powerful here even just based on what you can see verse number 9 says glory over me when shall I entreat for thee and for thy servants and for thy people to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses that they may remain in the river only so we're seeing here he's saying you know what pick a time pick a day go ahead just so that Pharaoh knows even further proof it's not just some coincidence that like oh yeah you said you're going to do it and they just were going to go away anyways he's like go ahead and pick the time because it wouldn't just be random how are you going to pick exactly what it is and then he says you know what tomorrow verse 10 and he said tomorrow and he said be it according to thy word that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the Lord our God but look at this and this is going to be kind of a big theme here and something to take to heart verse number 15 says but when Pharaoh saw that there was respite he hardened his heart and hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said what respite means there's relief respite means that okay the frogs are finally gone you know yeah everything was in a lot of chaos and turmoil we have all these frogs and causing all these problems man what are we going to do I know we'll just turn to these guys and turn to the Lord and then all of a sudden hey everything's fixed go right back to having no respect for the Lord and you know you're out of your trouble the fire's over and you completely forget about the Lord and unfortunately so many of us can act exactly the same way you go to God earnestly when you're in trouble God I've got this problem my hell's failing me God I need you God my loved one my husband my daughter there's something going on here I need your help there's always problems I lost my job God please help me and you're crying out to God and then he answers your prayer and then it's right back to yeah I'm still not going to church I'm still not doing anything I'm still not reading my Bible I'm still not praying to the Lord when the bad times come I'm going to go seek God but then as soon as things level off and become okay then it's just oh yeah who is the Lord who cares about God and I'll tell you what that's a dangerous place to be in where you're going to use God as someone that you could only turn to in times of trouble now look I'm not saying don't turn to God in times of trouble I'm not saying that at all you absolutely should be turning to God in your times of trouble unfortunately people have a weird you know belief about that too turn if you would to Luke chapter 17 you keep a place in Exodus we're going to be coming back to Exodus Luke 17 I had a friend once like shortly after I got saved you know I didn't really get plugged into a church but you know I was trying to get my friends there I was trying to tell them about Jesus and stuff and um I'd always bring it up and that one guy was just saying like he's like man I'm not going to go to God I was like just go to God with your problem you know like you have a problem go to him but he had pride right he didn't want to go to God and you know he didn't want to be a hypocrite and turn to the Lord and then and it's like well then don't right you shouldn't be a hypocrite but here's the right thing to do is to turn to God first of all that's always the right thing to do no matter what's going on hey turn to the Lord and seek his mercy and his forgiveness and see if he'll answer your prayer always do that but then once he answers you respect that acknowledge that and stay with him so you don't keep finding yourself in all these storms and all this turmoil and having all these problems and having to turn back to the Lord every time how about you just stay with him so you can prevent the problem from happening again and having to keep doing this cycle and just show some appreciation for an answered prayer Luke 17 we get a great example of this with the 10 lepers look at verse number 11 of Luke 17 the Bible reads and it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Mary and Galilee and as he entered into a certain village there met him 10 men that were lepers which stood afar off and they lifted up their voices and said Jesus master have mercy on us so they're going on to Jesus it's the right thing to do they're lepers they're in a bad condition they've got a serious disease and they want to be healed so they're going and seeking out Jesus help us at mercy on us please heal us we have leprosy verse 14 and when he saw them he said unto them go show yourselves unto the priests and it came to pass that as they went they were cleansed so he heals them he answers their prayer he hears them and they become cleansed now you would think that people who experience a miracle like that can at least go back to God and be like God thank you thank you for hearing my prayer thank you for healing me what an awesome thing for you to do I really appreciate that thank you for hearing me but unfortunately so many people are like the nine that they're like oh cool I'm healed some of them are probably just thinking like oh wow I guess I didn't really need to go to Jesus anyways or whatever just blowing it off as if it wasn't some miracle or it was going to go away on its own or you know whatever it is that people just come up with to not give honor and respect unto the Lord or they're so short sighted that now it's like oh I need to go back about my business doing something else and forget about the Lord who saved you forget about the Lord who cleansed you forget about the Lord who answered your prayer verse 15 says and one of them when he saw that he was healed turned back and with a loud voice glorified my God why is it only one of them and fell down on his face and his feet giving him thanks and he was a Samaritan and if you know anything about the Samaritans were like this mix of Israelites with the heathen and stuff and they weren't looked on even as being because they weren't full blooded Jews and they were just looked on as a second class citizen right and the fact that even mentions that he was a Samaritan would make me believe that some of the other ones were not Samaritans but they wouldn't even come back and give reverence unto Jesus like this man but I said regardless of who they are why is it only one person falling down and worshiping and giving glory unto God and saying thank you of ten people nine of them did not come back now Jesus says in verse 17 Jesus answering said were there not ten cleansed but where are the nine there are not found that return to give glory to God save this stranger and he said unto him arise go thy way thy faith hath made thee whole didn't I heal ten of you he knew who he healed only one person returned now this is an important parable an important story to understand too because people will scoff at the work that we do when we go out soul winning if you're not familiar with what soul winning is where we try to win souls to Christ as the Bible instructs us to do when we preach the gospel to people we show them how to be saved and then we go and lead them in prayer after we've thoroughly explained the gospel to them and make sure they understand what the gospel means understand that they're making a decision to put all of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ they understand those things they're accepting Jesus Christ and then they call we help them call on the Lord to be saved and that's what we practice here but the outsider the scoffer might come and say oh 571 salvation huh well how come I don't see 571 people in your church well the reason why you don't see 571 salvation is the same reason Jesus didn't see 10 lepers that were cleansed come back just to give thanks and say glory unto God because that's the same attitude well they must not have been saved then if they're not coming to your church well I guess those lepers weren't really cleansed then were they because they didn't come back and give thanks the problem is that you've got people that have no character and that can be cleansed and people that can be saved and then just go about their life as if nothing happened and not give thanks and not do the right thing it doesn't make them unsaved it doesn't make the lepers not cleansed it just means they're doing the wrong thing they ought to get right they're not showing any love or appreciation for what was done unto them and all these people that we lead to Christ that don't give any regard to the Lord and they don't get themselves in church you know what that's a shame it's like the 9 that aren't returning back does that mean that Jesus didn't cleanse them though? of course not because salvation isn't based on whether or not you do some good works after you get saved it's whether or not you've received Jesus Christ you receive Jesus Christ and never go to church a day in your life you're still saved but it's not the right thing to do to never go to church one day in your life but it doesn't affect your salvation one way or the other we need to be careful you earnestly go to God in prayer you have some problem that you don't get caught up in just the oh everything's fine now everything's back to normal go about my daily routine and forget about what God did for me and forget about all the good that God has done in your life to get you to the point where you are right now yeah it's real easy to turn to God when you're having problems how about you give thanks every day you don't have problems how about you acknowledge the Lord and not turn your back on Him when He's there for you to help you in your time of need and you can stay like that then your heart will remain soft with the Lord and keep you in good standing just in general with yourself as being a good child a good son of God as you ought to be go back to Exodus chapter 8 verse number 16 Exodus chapter 8 verse 16 Moses 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 in 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 to bring forth lice but they could not so now they finally start getting into some of the miracles that even the magicians can't do so there's no more explanation here Pharaoh is no more going oh yeah well these guys can do the same thing so what's the big deal now we're starting to get into much more serious things I mean it was enough he should have been able to recognize yeah they might be able to do one or two things but they couldn't get rid of them they couldn't get rid of the frogs they couldn't you know undo the stuff that only God was able to undo but now when it comes to bringing forth life because lice are living creatures and beings they couldn't do that man cannot bring forth life Satan can't bring forth life only God can bring forth life so the magicians tried to bring forth life they couldn't do it so they were lice upon man upon beast verse 19 then the magicians said to Pharaoh this is the finger of God we don't know how this is being done this could only be done by God and they explained that to him and Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said don't harden your heart when God is working let's flip over to chapter 9 Exodus chapter 9 and we're going to see Pharaoh behave the exact same way like we already saw in Luke 17 where the lepers are cleansed you know there's respite there's relief and the lepers are you know there's there's respite there's relief Exodus chapter 9 verse 27 we even have Pharaoh getting to the point where he's admitting that he's wicked and they're sinners verse 27 says and Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron and said unto them I have sinned this time the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked and treat the Lord for it is enough that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail and I will let you go and you shall stay no longer the problem that a lot of believers have is having the same type of an attitude when you've got problems going on as a result of your sin you do something wrong you do something wicked and again I'm going to say the right thing is to go to God I'm not saying don't go to the Lord go to the Lord even when you've sinned especially when you've sinned but don't go to the Lord with this attitude of oh God God help me save me but then even in the back of your mind you know as soon as I get an opportunity I'm going to go right back to that filth wickedness whatever sin it is that I'm doing and go right back out there it's the Catholic mentality of confessing your sins of going on Sunday you're going to church and you're going to go confess to some priest in a booth going oh God I'm sorry I did all this stuff and what do I need to do to make right and then on Monday you're going right back out and doing the exact same thing that's not going to help you any at all and in fact if you follow a pattern of behavior like that it's only going to harden your heart against the Lord anyways God's looking for true repentance he's looking for you to sincerely be sorry when he has to bring his judgment on you or his punishment on you to bring you low and to humble you and when you get right with God get right with him and don't just use him as oh I'm sin I'm wicked okay and then as soon as everything's well again it's like it never happened and I'm going to go right back to my old ways I'm going to go right back to getting involved in whatever sin it was I was doing and look people have a bad habit with that believers have a bad habit of that when we have the flesh and the flesh could be strong but I'll tell you what when God is punishing you because you're getting involved in some sin that you shouldn't be getting involved in and then you get delivered from that don't turn right back to it again stay with God continue seeking the Lord continue seeking his face continue seeking his word and seeking his will to stay on that path and to stay close to him so you don't just turn right back again and slide back away from him verse number 34 it says when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased he sinned yet more and hardened his heart and his servants so basically in verses 27 and 28 he's saying oh I'm wicked my people are wicked and treat the Lord make the hail stop make all these you know make this stuff stop and as soon as it stops it goes right back to sinning more hardens his heart verse 35 says and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened neither would he let the children of Israel go as the Lord had spoken by Moses and flip over to chapter 10 verse 16 the Bible reads and Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste and he said I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you now therefore forgive I pray thee my sin only this once how many times are you going to go God if you just get me out of this just this one time I promise I'm going to serve you I'm going to do this I'm going to do that I'm going to get it right and then God saves you out of that and how many people will actually give heed to their oath or to their promise and do what they said they were going to do or just go right back to what they had done before and this is a serious problem because this is a heart problem and this is going to cause you to get further and further away from the Lord when you have this type of an attitude and when you do these types of things and have this type of behavior where you're acting like Pharaoh does look Pharaoh was a reprobate Pharaoh was a rejected God ended up hardening Pharaoh's heart now I'm not saying you're ever going to become a reprobate but what I'm saying is don't be like one don't have this attitude hey if you get to a point where you're begging God to forgive you and just be like please just this once you know show mercy on me don't go back then and treat the Lord with disdain and go back on what you had said and what you had promised look I'll be honest with you I've gotten to this point at least once in my life when it came to alcohol and I made a promise that I was never going to touch it again and just begged for mercy from God you know what God showed me mercy you know what I haven't gone back on that promise and I'm not going to and we need to be careful with what we say to the Lord because our words matter you may not think your words matter as much as God thinks your words matter your word matters a lot you make a vow onto the Lord save me and I'll do this God holds you to that there's no just getting out of it you may think oh forget it I just said something stupid that's not how God views it if you open up your mouth to the Lord you better better make sure you know what you're saying and you better treat it with respect and respect God enough that if you're going to make some vow onto Him that you take that vow seriously and do not open up your mouth flippantly because God will require it He'll require it and then it's going to be, it'll probably end up even worse than whatever situation you're in to begin with calling on God for that help if I were to try to break my vow I'd be, I'm deathly afraid of what would happen because whatever it is it's going to be way worse than whatever judgment I was facing at the time now would be compounded way worse why because of to whom much is given of the same shall much be required and God's given me a lot and God showed mercy on me and I opened up my mouth and made a vow onto God and He helped me and He showed mercy and I cannot show any disdain for the Lord by just going off and now just breaking that word we need to be careful to have that and I'm not saying I've never done that before either there's been other times, you know, I'm not going to go down my litany of sins, I like talking about the ones that have worked out so far, right and praise the Lord for that and those are good, you know, those are good times but I don't want to go through any lists of things where, you know, I've struggled with because, look, we're all human, we all have that sin but it's just going to lead you into a worse and worse position when you open up your mouth like that and Pharaoh is this perfect example of someone, oh, forgive me just this one time, just get me out of this one time and I swear I'll change, I swear I'll let you go and he doesn't and he doesn't and he doesn't and he hardens his heart and things get worse and worse and worse for Pharaoh and that's the progression that you see and that's why we need to be careful that we don't fall in that same pattern because things will get worse and worse and worse for you just like a child that keeps doing the same behavior over and over and over again their punishment gets worse and worse and worse because it's like, look, haven't you learned I tried to take it easy on you the first time I had to correct you but now, you know, no you're doing the same thing again, okay, well, we're going to ramp it up a little bit, now you're doing the same thing and okay well, you know what, apparently that didn't work, the message didn't get through, so now we got to escalate the punishment and it'll go on and on and on, Pharaoh does this until like the entire land of Egypt is decimated by the plagues of the Lord because he just would not listen and he was stubborn and rebellious and refused to listen and you know what, God said fine, we're going to keep on doing this and obviously God had other things you know, other motivation going on but I'll tell you what, before God hardened Pharaoh's heart Pharaoh hardened his own heart and before it got out of control Pharaoh had the ability the will to be able to say nope I'm going to make this stop right now and I'm actually going to turn to the Lord or at least show respect unto the Lord and let the children of Israel go Flip over here with Isaiah chapter 55 in the last place, I want you to look we see that pattern with Pharaoh we see that pattern sometimes in ourselves and in other people but there's a very serious warning in Scripture that warns us that we need to seek God while he may be found and definitely for the unsaved hey, you don't know what a day is going to bring you don't know when you're going to breathe your last breath seek the Lord while he may be found and seek the Lord while he may be found before you know, maybe you end up rejecting the Lord, rejecting the gospel or whatever and find yourself in condition where later on you might want to try to seek him but you can't. Judas was a good example of that Judas was a devil he was a child of the devil Jesus said he was a devil from the beginning when he chose him to be a disciple he knew that he was a reprobate but here's the thing Judas felt sorry after he betrayed Jesus he genuinely felt sorry and repented for the actions that he had done but you know it is too late for him he was just like Esau so the Bible says he sought repentance diligently with tears I mean he was trying to seek it and he couldn't find it couldn't find it because he was already turned to a reprobate mind and when people get to that point God hardens their heart and makes it impossible for them to put their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that they could get saved and it's just impossible he's done with you so we need to seek the Lord while we may be found and know that you can't just keep burning God with your lies going oh God help me this time and then who's God? every time he saves you Isaiah 55 verse 6 says seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon God is a gracious, merciful God and has long suffering and loving kindness but don't take advantage of that because God will also not be mocked the Bible says be not deceived because God will not be mocked for whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap you think you could just do all this wicked stuff and just get away with it look you could do wicked things and turn to God and he may deliver you out of that but he's also not going to be mocked remember that he wasn't mocked with Pharaoh and Pharaoh paid a huge price let's look at the example of Pharaoh for what not to be in our life and the pattern not to follow so that we don't have the repercussions in our life of turning to the Lord but more in pretense or just more in times of trouble and then just forsaking God altogether when everything's going well you don't want to live disaster to disaster how about you allow one disaster to be enough and then be like that one leper that comes back and gives thanks and gratitude and then can even stay with him let's stay with the Lord so that we don't have to keep turning back to him it's a lot better to be with him in his presence than it is to have to come groveling back be like the prodigal son that went away but then was still able to return we should be like the other son that never went away because he had the great inheritance, he had the great reward he was like, you know what, you've been here with me the whole time doing what's right and now you're going to get everything yeah, he was allowed back we're going to show mercy and everything else and he's still a son but you're the one that's getting the great reward because you never forsook your father we need to be like that child as a child of God who never forsakes the Lord and never has to find ourselves in a position like Pharaoh's let's borrow our example of a word of prayer to the heavenly Father Lord we thank you so much for your mercy and graciousness Lord and kindness pray that you would please just help us day to day overcome our flesh and help us to walk in the spirit that we could continually turn to you Lord and never decide just not to turn back to you dear God but that we would always remember your mercies Lord but not just remember your mercies Lord help us to be mindful and that we would remember the story about Pharaoh and remember other scriptures Lord that would keep us from disregarding the miracles and disregarding your hand at work in our lives Lord help us to be able to see them for what they are and not just brush them off Lord we pray that we could continue to give you thanks for all that you do because you're worthy and your name is worthy to be praised it's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen Alright we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed this evening I'm going to ask brother Peter if you'd please lead us in that last song Song 149 trusting Jesus Song 149 on the verse simply trusting every day trusting through a stormy way even when my faith is small trusting Jesus that is all trusting as the moments fly trusting as the days go by trusting him whatever befall trusting Jesus that is all brightly does his spirit shine into this heart of mine while he leads I cannot fall trusting Jesus that is all trusting as the moments fly trusting as the days go by trusting him whatever befall trusting Jesus that is all singing in my way is clear praying in the path he drew if in danger for him call trusting Jesus that is all trusting as the moments fly trusting as the days go by trusting him whatever befall trusting Jesus that is all trusting him while life shall last trusting him till the earth be past till within the jasper wall trusting Jesus that is all trusting as the moments fly trusting as the days go by trusting him whatever befall trusting Jesus that is all thank you so much for coming