EXODUS 5-10 HOW TO EXPERIENCE JUDGMENT LIKE PHARAOH2021 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Exodus 5-10 How To Experience Judgment Like Pharaoh

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2021. Amen. Well, as we look at the book of Exodus, we, a couple of weeks ago, were in the book of Genesis and looking at the life of Joseph. And as we're working our way through the scriptures again, we're, you know, following along and reestablishing in our minds and hearts the beginnings of the nation of Israel.

And the man Joseph was sent to Egypt and kind of prepared the way, brought his family to Egypt so that the children of Israel really became a nation there in the land of Egypt, a

Later on in their history, they became servants or slaves of the nation of Egypt. But that was because of the threat that they seemed to pose. They were there in Egypt and the Egyptians were threatened by them and by their abundance. And so they began to put them into forced labor.

Now, as the children of Israel were there, they began to flourish. They began to grow. And what was 70 people who first went to Egypt with Joseph turned into several million by the end as Moses leads them out of the land of Egypt, heading towards the promised land. In the beginning chapters here of Exodus, we have how the Lord worked that out.

and how the Lord brought the Egyptians to a place of willingness to let the children of Israel go and to release them from the bondage that they were in. And I'm sure you're familiar with the account, and maybe you've been reading along with us over this past week. We got to see the plagues of Egypt that the Lord brought upon the nation as a testimony to the nation that the Lord truly is God and that he reigns on high.

Here in Exodus chapter 7 this morning, I would call your attention to verse 4, where God says, Pharaoh will not heed you.

so that I may lay my hand on Egypt and bring my armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And what we typically refer to as the plagues, the Lord here refers to as great judgments. Now, we're not going to get into a lot of detail on these great judgments this morning, but just to kind of recap it a little bit, there was 10 plagues that were brought upon the land of Egypt.

And these 10 plagues are recorded for us in Exodus chapter 7 through chapter 12, where the Lord kind of walks them through. And very similar to what we saw as we worked our way through Revelation and the tribulation period on Wednesday evenings. We're about to wrap that up this coming Wednesday. But it's just this walking through of this judgment after this judgment after this judgment. And

helping the people come to a complete and full awareness of the reality of God and to call them to repentance and to submit to him. And so the first plague hit and the water in the land of Egypt was turned into blood. And so it was undrinkable. They had to scrounge around, dig some new wells and try to get some fresh water because of this plague.

Then the second plague, and there was an abundance of frogs. So many frogs, it was all over them when they watched, slept, talked. You know, they just had frogs everywhere, and it became a great abomination for them.

Lice was the next thing or it also could have been mosquitoes. There's a little bit of discussion about what exactly that insect was. And so there was this attack of insects upon people, the biting people. And again, they were all over and it was inescapable.

Then there was the swarms of flies or gnats that would have come. And so that was the fourth plague. And again, just everywhere, inescapable and more than you can imagine, right? Just this massive amount of swarms all around them. Then there was the fifth plague, a pestilence or a disease on the livestock. And so this would be the oxen, the cattle, you know, the donkeys, all of their livestock would be affected by this disease, right?

And then the sixth plague came and it was boils, these terrible sores that broke out upon all the people around the land of Egypt. And then the seventh plague came and there was great hail that came upon the land of Egypt and destroyed the crops and everything that was outside Egypt.

Then the eighth plague came and there was a massive migration of locusts that came through that finished off all of the vegetation and anything that was left by the previous plagues. Then the ninth plague hit and there was a great darkness, a darkness that could be felt.

And then finally, the 10th plague was the death of the firstborn. Whether it was man or beast, God pronounced the death of the firstborn of each family there upon all the land of Egypt.

And so we've kind of walked through finishing up chapter 12 today in our reading going through the Bible in three years. We've walked through these 10 plagues and got to kind of see the progression play out. But as we look at these things and as you think about all of these different plagues,

You know, you might look at that and say, you know, that'd be really awesome if I could experience that in my life. And so that's what I want to share with you about this morning. The title of the message is how to experience judgment like Pharaoh. If you see those plagues and you think that's exactly what I've been searching for in my life.

That's exactly what I want to happen. I want to experience flies and locusts and hail and destruction like they experienced. And we can, from Pharaoh, learn some great examples and a model to follow if we want to experience that kind of life. And of course, I'm being a little bit sarcastic or facetious, right? We don't want to experience those things, for sure. All of us, we don't want those things. And we would look at those things and say, I don't want that.

And yet at the same time, what's interesting to consider as you look at the behavior of Pharaoh is,

As much as we would be completely opposed to the judgments that Pharaoh received, we are not necessarily completely opposed to the behavior of Pharaoh. And so this morning as we walk through these things, I want to walk you through kind of a little bit of a look at Pharaoh himself, his behavior, his choices, his pattern, to help us understand what not to do.

that we wouldn't experience God's judgment in our lives. God is God. He rules on high and he has the power and the right to bring judgment for sin regardless of the situation.

Regardless of if it's the Pharaoh of Egypt who is thought to be God who rules the world at that time, or you and I in our day-to-day lives, God has the power and authority to rule over us. And so it's appropriate for us to look at Pharaoh's example so that we learn what not to do. And so if you want to experience judgment like Pharaoh, you have to be a man of God.

The first thing to do, if you want to follow his example, is to not know God. Turn with me to Exodus chapter 5 for a moment, and we're going to jump around a little bit in these chapters, chapters 5 through 10 this morning, to get a good look at Pharaoh and his behavior. Here in Exodus chapter 5, it's the first encounter that Moses has with Pharaoh.

As God raised up Moses and called him to go and bring the message to Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go, chapter 5 records that first encounter. And we're just going to look at the first two verses here of Exodus chapter 5. Here's what it says. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, "'Thus says the Lord God of Israel, "'Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.'"

And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go. Moses and Aaron come in for the first message here to the Pharaoh with the word of the Lord to Pharaoh. And that is, let my people go. They need to go and hold a feast unto the Lord and sacrifice unto the Lord out in the wilderness. Let my people go.

And Pharaoh's response was not that, you know, I don't believe that there is a God. That's not what he said, right? Actually, the Egyptians worshipped a multitude of gods, and it was believed that the Pharaoh himself was God. And so there was a multitude of things that they worshipped. They didn't object to the concept of God, but he did object to Israel's God. And he says, you know, that God, I don't know God.

Now, as you walk through the plagues of Egypt, it's interesting to consider them in light of the gods that the Egyptians worshipped. And I'm not going to get into the details there, but you can follow along the plagues and correlate them with many of the gods that they worshipped and see that God was demonstrating the

His authority over all other gods. He was demonstrating that all those gods were false gods because they were not able to fulfill on their promise of protecting them, of providing for them, of, you know, doing all of those things that they thought those gods were doing for them.

And so God in these plagues was not just selecting random things, you know, just rolling a dice. All right, lice, that's what's next. All right, come on up, lice. You know, you're about to invade the land. But it was direct rebukes to the things that they worshiped and the things that they held on to. And this is an important thing to consider because we all worship something.

Every one of us, we have something in our lives or maybe several things in our lives that take the place of preeminence, of prominence, that take the place of first priority. And what God has declared is that he alone belongs in that place for us. He alone is the one who has the rights and is worthy of occupying that place of highest passion and most devotion.

that God must be most important in our lives. But the reality is for us as human beings is that we wrestle with that and we struggle with that. And we begin to, even as believers, put other things in our lives at a higher priority. And we begin to behave in a way that is contrary to what God has called us to as believers in Christ. And so here are the Egyptians saying,

They have these Hebrews enslaved. God says, these are my people, let them go. And Pharaoh's response is, I don't know you. I know my gods. I know the things that I worship. I know the things that I'm holding on to. I know lots of gods and I know all about gods, but I don't know the God of the Hebrews. He does not know the true and the living God.

And God now is going to hold them accountable for that. And God is going to, as he described in chapter seven, through the end of this process, they will know that he is God. God's going to reveal himself through these judgments because they would not know God without them. Because they would not hear and respond to the word of God, God will bring these judgments, these plagues upon them. Pharaoh says, I do not know this God.

It finally happened last week after almost, I think, 20 years. I got a ticket. Yeah. But you can rest easy. It was a parking ticket. So it wasn't like the old days. I got a parking ticket in Salt Lake City, Utah. And I don't know if you've ever been there, but that is one of the most confusing places ever.

to drive ever. I've never felt so much like a foreigner than driving around the streets of Salt Lake City. If you've not been there, it goes like this. You get the directions, and even I have Google in my ear, right, telling me, okay, turn left onto South 300 West. Okay, I'm turning left onto South 300 West. All right, next light, turn right on North 300 South. Wait, what? I

Okay, now turn left on South 400 East and then turn right on, it was like that, like they have like four different streets with 300 or 400, like it's all numbered like this. Some of them have, you know, North, South, East or West at the beginning. Some of them have it at the end. Some of it have different ones at both. And none of them are necessarily saying the direction that the street is going. I mean, it was just absolute confusion. Okay.

And so we're driving around. We get in late Saturday night into Salt Lake City, and we're trying to find this place where we're going to eat.

And as we're driving around, like, it's just really stressful. Like, there's all these things. Oh, what I didn't mention is a lot of these are one-way streets, right? So, and they're massive, like, five-lane one-way streets. So, it's kind of hard to see, and then it starts snowing. And so, there's snow coming down. I'm not used to driving in the snow. I'm not used to seeing, you know, these things. The directions are confusing. The streets are just hard to navigate. And we finally find this restaurant.

And now it's like, okay, where do we park? And so I'm searching, I'm looking. I drove around a couple times and finally found this spot that said public parking here. So I went in, pulled, found the spot. It was right across the street. Perfect. And we go have a nice meal. We're watching it snow outside. It's like, it was really cool. And we're like looking forward to coming back and seeing our car just like coated, you know, a whole layer of snow on the vehicle. And so we're checking it out. And then Kim's like, hey, we got a ticket.

And I was like, what? Like, how do we get a ticket? You know, I could not imagine. And then we pull it open. And of course, it's a parking ticket. That is, we did not prepay for parking. What I didn't realize when I drove in and parked was that I was supposed to pay for parking before I left the parking lot. Now, I'm from California, you know. How am I supposed to know that I'm supposed to pay for parking?

Well, afterwards, of course, I look and I can see there's signs and there's credit card signs, there's symbols, there's, you know, it was clear, but I just didn't see it. I didn't observe that I had to pay for the parking. But I could have the attitude. I could have the idea. How could I be expected to know? Well, open your eyes and look around. And yes, you can see it's very clearly labeled. You have to pay for parking. Well, all of that to say this.

God expects every person to know him. God expects that every one of us, God expects that every human being will know him or should know him. Paul talks about this in Romans chapter one, how God has revealed himself through creation to all of humanity so that everyone is without an excuse. Nobody has an excuse to not know that there is a God and nobody has an excuse to not know God.

If we do not know God, it is not a deficiency on God's part. We are expected to know God and we can be expected to know God because he has revealed enough about himself through creation that it should prompt us, it should spur in us a desire to seek him, to know him, to find out who he is and what he says. Pharaoh says, I do not know God.

And that was not a deficiency on God's part or God's message or God's work. That was a deficiency on Pharaoh's part to not seek after the creator of the heavens and the earth.

to not know God or to hear about God and not to pursue the knowledge of him, to not to seek to know him. Here, the Lord is going to reveal himself to Pharaoh. And it's not just this initial point where Pharaoh does not know God and refuses to respond. But all throughout this time, Pharaoh will say, no, no, I don't want to know God. I don't want to hear from God. I don't want to listen to God.

And so he is going to experience the judgment of God as a result. And if you want to experience the judgment of God like Pharaoh did, well, very simply, you can not know God. But if you want to escape judgment,

Again, we are all accountable to know God. God expects every one of us to know God. And he's set the signs, it's clear, but we might be ignoring those signs and not paying attention and frantic about, you know, the things that are happening around us. And so we're not listening to what God is saying, but God wants you to know him.

He wants you to get to know who he is and experience his person, his presence, his forgiveness. God wants us to know him. It's easy for those who are around the church who have been, you know, for some time, it's easy for us to kind of get familiar with the biblical accounts, get familiar with kind of the religious things that we do. And

lose sight of the actual connection to God. You can think about the religious leaders of Jesus' day, right? The Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were very religious, but they did not know God. And so this morning, as we look at Pharaoh, I would encourage you to allow the Lord to speak to your heart. And maybe it's a good opportunity to double check. Do you know God? Do you know God?

Not just do you know about God or do you, you know, hang out with other people who seem to know God, but do you know God? Do you have that real and personal connection to God that we have available to us by faith in Jesus Christ? We can escape the judgment of God by knowing him, by responding to his word and his promises to us.

Well, the second thing I'd like to consider about Pharaoh, if you want to experience judgment like Pharaoh experienced, here's the second thing you can do. Stubbornly refuse to obey God. If you want to experience judgment, here's what you can do. Stubbornly refuse to obey God. Jump over now to Exodus chapter 7.

In Exodus chapter 7, we're jumping forward in the timeline a little bit. A few plagues have come down now upon Egypt. But in Exodus chapter 7, we have another encounter with Moses and Aaron and Pharaoh. Here it is in Exodus chapter 7, verses 8 through 13. Here's what it says.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, Show a miracle for yourselves, and then you shall say to Aaron, Take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and let it become a serpent. So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, just as the Lord commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, so the magicians of Egypt, and

They also did in like manner with their enchantments. For every man threw down his rod and they became serpents. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. And Pharaoh's heart grew hard and he did not heed them as the Lord had said.

I misspoke just a moment ago when I said that this was after several of the plagues have happened. This is actually right before the plagues. And as Moses and Aaron have several encounters with Pharaoh, God gives Moses and Aaron this sign there to throw down the rod and it will become a snake. And it was, you know, the evidence that God was sending them and God was working through them and speaking through them. But Pharaoh, he had around him some sorcerers and magicians.

who kept him really deceived and kept him in a state of disobedience to God because they were able to cast down their rods and they were manifested as serpents as well.

And so there is this kind of showdown, but I like how it says, you know, Aaron's rod or Aaron's serpent ate up all the other serpents. So still God's showing his dominance. He's showing his, you know, preeminence above all of these other magicians and their so-called magic or their sorceries. And so here God reveals himself to Pharaoh through this, but notice what it says in verse 13 again. It says, Pharaoh's heart grew hard.

And he did not heed them. Pharaoh's heart grew hard. This is a dominant theme throughout these chapters of the plagues of Egypt. The hardness of Pharaoh's heart is a big subject here in these chapters. And it's an important one to consider. Because the idea of Pharaoh's heart being hard is that he is stubbornly saying, "'No, I will not do what God says.'"

Now, as we've been working our way through the book of Revelation on Wednesday evenings and talking about all of the judgments of the tribulation period, one of the things that I've continued to share is that as we look at these things, it should be a reminder for us to keep our heart soft before the Lord.

There is a need for us to be deliberate and intentional and keep our hearts soft. In contrast to Pharaoh having a hard heart, you and I, we really need to have soft hearts. And the contrast there is a stubborn disobedience and a willing obedience.

You and I, we may not want or consider that we are in that place of deserving or needing judgments like Pharaoh received. At the same time, I would suggest all of us have experienced that stubborn refusal to obey God. We can all from time to time find ourselves in a place where we know what God wants, but we say no.

Where God has told us maybe several times, where God has, you know, put it upon our hearts, or maybe he's, you know, spoken to us through a gathering together of believers and through a teaching of the word, or maybe, you know, through different counsel that we've received or in our personal devotions that several times God has showed us something about, well, let's say our workplace. And God says, here, this is something that I desire for you in the workplace. Or maybe that God has put something upon your heart in regards to your family, right?

Or in regards to your service unto the Lord, that God has spoken to you about your schooling, you know, that God has given you some insight, some instruction, some direction, or just take the word of God. And here we have his commands. We have his instruction for us and we know all of those things. But in this particular area, in this particular aspect of our life,

we can be stubborn and say, I don't want to do that. I don't want to stop doing what God's called me to stop doing. I don't want to start doing what God's called me to start doing. I want to do what it is that I want to do. And this is really what Pharaoh is doing here. His heart grew hard. And as you walk through the plagues following this, it tells us repeatedly Pharaoh's heart grew hard.

In Exodus chapter 8 verse 15, we're looking at the time where the second plague has just subsided. Through the word of the Lord, through the prayer of Moses, it says in verse 15 of Exodus chapter 8, "...when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them as the Lord had said."

The Lord knew ahead of time that Pharaoh was going to continue to harden his heart through this process and dig in his heels and be stubborn and say, no, I will not obey. And so God told Moses and Aaron about that in advance. We read about that in the beginning part of chapter seven. God said in advance, there would be this hardness of heart. And as there was this terrible plague of the frogs,

it seemed like Pharaoh's heart might have softened a bit, that he might be willing and ready to obey the Lord now and listen to God now. But no, when he saw that there was relief, it says he hardened his heart. He hardened his heart. He dug in his heels. He was stubborn and said, no, I will not obey. Then in verse 19 of Exodus chapter eight, as the third plague is going on and the lice is there upon them,

Up to this point, the magicians were trying to duplicate and were successful at duplicating many of the plagues. But now here with the lice, the third plague, the sorcerers say, we can't do this. This really is the finger of God. But in verse 19, as the magicians say to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. It says, but Pharaoh's heart grew hard and he did not heed them just as the Lord had said.

Pharaoh's heart grew hard. He hardened his heart over and over. Chapter 8 verse 32. Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also and he would not let the people go. Chapter 9 verse 7.

Tells us the heart of Pharaoh became hard and he did not let the people go. And so after each one of these plagues and through each one of these plagues, it's a choice, it's an opportunity for Pharaoh to respond to the word of the Lord and repent and receive relief. But each time, instead of turning to the Lord, he hardens his heart, gets more stubborn and says, no, I will not obey God.

And then that brings us to Exodus chapter 9. Check out verse 11 and 12. In Exodus chapter 9, verse 11 and 12, we're in the middle of the sixth plague where the boils are out upon all of the Egyptians, these painful sores. In verse 11, it tells us this. They took ashes from the furnace. I'm sorry, no, verse 11. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils. For the boils were on the magicians and

and on all the Egyptians. Verse 12, but the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses. Here we see now, as it brings us to chapter 9, time after time after time, Pharaoh has hardened his heart, but now we see a change, and it tells us here that the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh.

And it's a subject of much discussion about, you know, the Lord hardening Pharaoh's heart because you can stand back and say, wait a minute, if the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and then judged him for having a hard heart, how is that fair when it was the Lord who hardened it? But it's important to note the sequence. The Lord said in advance that his heart would be hard and become hard, but Pharaoh himself is the one who is hardening his heart throughout this process. But it did come to a point now in chapter 9 where

where God hardens his heart. And I think this is something that is important for us to consider because a lot of times we allow in our lives behavior, patterns, habits that we intend to. We say later on, we're going to change this. We know it's not best. We know it's not what God wants. You know, I know it's not really great, but I'm going to keep doing this for now with the intention of later on, I'm going to change it.

And I think it's really important and instructive for us to look at the example of Pharaoh here and understand when we make decisions, God honors those decisions. He gives us the ability and capability to make choices, to choose to follow him or to choose not to follow him. And either way we choose...

God helps us in that choice. He confirms, he strengthens us in those choices. And of course, on this side of it, where it's like, man, Lord, I want to follow you. I need your help. We appreciate God's help and strength, right? Yes, Lord, firm me up in my conviction. Firm me up in my commitment to you. And we want God's help in those decisions.

But the reality that we also need to consider is that when we determine to rebel against God, that there is that opportunity, that possibility that God will firm us up in that decision as well. And this is where I would suggest that we continue to keep our hearts soft before God.

In my head, I'm thinking about pottery. I'm thinking about you're molding something out of clay, right? And while it's soft and moldable, you can shape it to whatever you want. I can't. I'm not good at that kind of stuff, but you can, right? And so you go to one of those places where you make your own pottery, you make your own bowl or glass or fantastic vase or whatever, right? And then it's put in the furnace. It's put in the kiln and fired and so that it becomes firm and hard and it stays in that shape, right?

This is what the Lord does. We make decisions. We develop things. We choose paths. And then the Lord puts that in the furnace and says, all right, that's your course. And you're like, no, no, no. I made that choice right now, but I was hoping that later on I'm going to change it. I know it's not the right thing. It's not the best thing right now, but that's what I'm going to do right now. And then later on, I'm going to change it. And God says, I'm going to fire that decision. I'm going to firm it up. I'm going to set it in place.

That we're not to behave in a manner of, later on one day I'll repent. Later on one day I'll get right. Later on one day I'll clean up all those things. But that we are to be soft and moldable and allow the Lord to direct us. And then when he fires us, we're firmed up, we're hardened, we're in that position to walk with him and serve him and honor him with our lives.

Maybe you're not great at pottery. And so maybe you could think about it this way. It's like that chocolate syrup that you squeeze onto your ice cream, right? That then becomes like a hardened shell and it's like, boom, it stays. It keeps that shape. This is what our decisions and choices are. We're setting a path. We're setting a direction. And God has the right at any time to honor that path and honor that direction and firm up our decision. Pharaoh here stubbornly refused to obey God.

And so God says, all right, it's time to put it in the fire. That position, that decision, that choice, that direction, it's going to be firm now. And you're going to experience the results of that. Again, dealing with the different gods of the nation of Egypt, God many times works that way. You have this God in your life. You have this thing that you worship instead of God, this higher priority. Sometimes God will say, all right, I'm going to give you an abundance of that. And frogs will fill the land. And sometimes God reveals that.

the foolishness of those false gods that we have by giving us an abundance of the path that we've chosen. Sometimes God reveals the reality of that false God by taking it away, by stripping away that idol, that career that became too important and consumed your life. And so God says, all right, I'm gonna take it away from you. And then you'll see and know that that's not to be your God, that that is not something that you can trust in. The Lord alone is to be our God. Amen.

Or he might do it the other way and say, all right, you want to choose that career? You want that to consume your life? All right, I'm going to give you more than you can handle. I'm going to fill and consume your life with that direction. And you're going to be miserable as a result of the worship that you have of this career, of this path, of this direction, of this idol in your heart. There is a need for us to be soft before the Lord. If you want to experience joy,

The judgments like Pharaoh experienced, then by all means, follow his example and stubbornly refuse to obey God. But if you want to escape that judgment, willingly choose to obey God. Not stubbornly refuse, willingly choose. Is there anything in your life, you know what God wants, you just haven't done it yet?

Is there anything in your life right now that you know God wants you to stop, but you just haven't brought yourself to do it yet? Is there anything in your life that you know is out of line, but you plan to get to it one day, but you just haven't yet? Listen, that's following the path of Pharaoh. And we need to turn from that and to choose to obey the Lord. Not when it's convenient, but immediately, right now, to choose to listen to what he has to say.

Well, the next thing to consider as we look at Pharaoh, if you want to experience judgment like Pharaoh experienced, well, here in chapter 8, here's point number 3. Promise to obey God, but change your mind. Promise to obey God, but change your mind. You can look at Pharaoh and you can see his example here and you can think, who would ever do that? But then we can also look in the mirror and remember all the times that I've done that, right? Check out Exodus chapter 8.

Starting in verse 8, it says this, As they're experiencing the plague of frogs, Pharaoh says, all right, I realize there is this God. I realize he has done this. Please ask God for me to take away the frogs. And notice what he says, And I will let the people go.

He says, I give in. I will obey the voice of the Lord if he will remove these frogs from our midst. There's a couple other things that happen here. Moses gives him the opportunity to say when, but jumping down to verse 15, after the frogs were removed, God answered that prayer, verse 15, but when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as the Lord had said. Pharaoh made a promise. He made a commitment.

He says, okay, if God will do this, then I will listen to what he has said and I will obey him. I will let the people go. This is something that happens many times in the lives of believers where we're trying to kind of negotiate with God a little bit. God, if you will do this, then I will do that. Where we make commitments to God,

With the thought in mind that, okay, I'm going to get the direction that I want and that I need. I'm going to get the things that I want to accomplish and then I will obey the Lord. And sometimes we make commitments to God. We make promises to God. Some of those promises are foolish. The scriptures give a real warning against making foolish promises because you make a promise to God and God honors it. He says, okay, I accept that.

And so sometimes it's better not to vow than to vow and to not fulfill what it is that you vowed. But here Pharaoh says, all right, I give, I will let the people go. But then when it comes down to it, when it's actually time to fulfill that promise and to do what it is that he said he would do, he says, you know what? Nevermind. Again, he hardened his heart and he did not let the people go.

Listen, if you want to experience judgment like Pharaoh experienced judgment, this is a great pattern for you to follow. Make a promise to God. Make commitments to God. Decide to walk with the Lord and to do what he says, but then change your mind and don't do it. But if you want to escape judgment, if you want to avoid the fallout from sin, then choose a different course. And that is keep your promise to obey God. Keep your commitments to the Lord.

Follow through on those things that you told the Lord that you would walk in and fulfill and do. And maybe some of those have fallen by the wayside and maybe you need to pick those things back up and come back and make good on those promises that you made to God. The next thing to consider, we're going to jump over to Exodus chapter 10. Here's the fourth point this morning. If you want to experience judgment like Pharaoh did, here's what you do. Demand that God use your plan.

Demand that God do things your way. Here we see Pharaoh try this new strategy where he's seeking a compromise with the Lord. Well, I don't want to let them do what you want them to do, but how about this? And so he's trying to modify the terms. Check out Exodus chapter 10, starting in verse 7. Exodus chapter 10, looking at verses 7 through 11, it says this. Then Pharaoh's servants said to him,

"'How long shall this man be a snare to us? "'Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. "'Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?' "'So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, "'and he said to them, "'Go, serve the Lord your God. "'Who are the ones that are going?' "'And Moses said, "'We will go with our young and with our old, "'with our sons and our daughters, "'with our flocks and our herds. "'We will go, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.'"

Then he said to them, the Lord had better be with you when I let you and your little ones go. Beware, for evil is ahead of you. Not so. Go now you who are men and serve the Lord, for that is what you desired. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. What's happening here is Pharaoh says, okay, his servants are talking to him like, Pharaoh, come on.

Our land is destroyed. We're a wreck. We are devastated in all of this because we've not listened to the Lord. How much longer is this going to go on? And so they persuade Pharaoh. Okay, he calls him in. Okay, I guess I got to do this. I mean, everybody's telling me I got to do this and all these judgments happening. So, okay, I guess we're going to do this. So tell me again, what's the plan? Who's going? And Moses and Aaron say, everybody.

Us, the men, the wives, the children, our flocks and herds, we're all part of this worship that God has called us to and this sacrifice that must be done. And Pharaoh says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no way. If you take your kids with you and your wives with you and your herds with you,

You know what Pharaoh's realizing, right? There's no guarantee that they'll come back, right? So he's like, I can't let you do that. I need some kind of security. I need to hold you hostage in some way to make sure that you come back and still be my slaves. And so he says, no way. I'll let the men go. How about that? And he's attempting to modify the plan, modify the direction that God is giving. But of course, that doesn't work.

And the next plague now comes upon the nation of Egypt. And so Pharaoh tries again later on in chapter 10, verses 24 through 27. Verse 24 of Exodus 10 says, Pharaoh called to Moses and said, go serve the Lord. Only let your flocks and herds be kept back. Let your little ones also go with you. So later he says, okay, fine. Your kids can go, but you can't take your animals. Again, he's attempting to negotiate, to strike a deal, to compromise, right?

or to get God to compromise what he has declared. And Moses says no. God says no. Pharaoh's demanding that he gets to make the plans. He gets to say what goes and what stays. He gets to determine what the course is. And that is a great way to experience judgment like Pharaoh experienced. And yet, how many times do we demand that God do what we want?

How many times do we insist? How many times do we want God to listen to us and to follow our course? How many times do we want to do our plans and then ask God to bless it? We need to be careful. It's easy to kind of quickly look at Pharaoh and think how ridiculous he is and how dumb he is and, you know, kind of judge him in that. But I would suggest to us that Pharaoh is much more a reflection of us than we like to admit.

And we need to allow the Lord to use this example to show us what not to do. And so instead of demanding that God follow our plans, we need to submit to God and follow his plans. What is his plan? You're like, but I wanted this life for myself. And I wanted this career. You know, I wanted this path for my children. I wanted this. And this is what I want. And it's

God needs to fulfill what I want. I wanted to be happy. I wanted to, you know, not have to deal with this kind of hardship. I didn't want to, and I wanted, and we want God to follow our plans. But that's not the way that it works. God calls us. He has every right to do so. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He knows what is best for all of eternity. And so he says, you follow my plans.

You listen to me. Don't modify them. Don't change them. Don't add to them. Don't subtract from them. There's a lot of areas where God gives us a lot of freedom. And so he says, go ahead, make your own plan in this area, in this context. You can do whatever you want. He sets boundaries. He sets perimeters. And he gives us a lot of freedom. But then there's also a lot of areas where God says, there's no freedom. You do what I say because I'm God. And that might be offensive to us, but he is God. And we will stand before him.

to give account for how well we followed his plans, how much we sought him, how well we listened to what he had to say. Well, we'll finish it up with one last example from Pharaoh. If you want to experience judgment like Pharaoh experienced, here's the fifth thing that you can do. Acknowledge your sin, but do not repent.

acknowledge your sin, but do not repent. And for this, we're turning to Exodus chapter 9, looking at verses 27 through 30. Exodus chapter 9 verse 27 says this, And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron and said to them, I have sinned this time. The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked. Entreat the Lord that there may be no more mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough. I will let you go and shall stay no longer.

So Moses said to him, as soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease. There will be no more hail that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. But as for you and your servants, I know that you will not yet fear the Lord God. As the plague of hail is coming down upon them, again, in the midst of pain and agony, Pharaoh says, okay, okay, I give, I give, I give. I'll listen to God.

I've sinned, he says, and me and my people, we're wicked. He acknowledges his sinfulness here in Exodus chapter 9. But Moses has insight from the Lord. Even though Pharaoh has acknowledged sin, he hasn't repented. And there is a difference. A lot of times we kind of join them together. Confession, right? If you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive you.

And that is true, but we also need to understand that a part of confession is repentance, is a turning from the sin, not just acknowledging that it is sinful, not just acknowledging the fact of sin, but there needs to be a turning, there needs to be a change as well, a choice to stop going that direction. And so what Moses tells Pharaoh here is, you're right, you have sinned, you and your people are wicked,

But I know that you don't actually fear God. You haven't changed. You're just acknowledging the sin. You're saying what sounds right. You're saying, you know, the reality of sin or expressing that, but you're not actually ready to submit to God. It happens again in chapter 10, verse 16. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste and said, I have sinned against the Lord, your God, and against you.

Now, therefore, please forgive my sin only this once and entreat the Lord your God that he may take away from me this death only. In the midst of another plague, again, he comes to this acknowledgement, this confession, I have sinned, but he doesn't come to the place of repentance. A place of repentance for Pharaoh would have been submitting to God and saying, I'll let the people go. Although he acknowledged sin, he did not turn and then submit to God.

And if you want to experience judgment like Pharaoh experienced, that's a surefire way to do so. Acknowledging the sin by itself is, it's just a piece of what we need to do. If we want to escape judgment, we need to acknowledge the sin and then repent. We all sin. We all fall short of the glory of God. That is clear from the scriptures. And so that's true of every one of us. And all of us can fall into the sin

The trap of confessing sin, but not actually turning from it. Oh yeah, I'm terrible. You know, I'm a horrible person. I do all kinds of things. You know what I mean? Oh yeah, that was really bad what I did. But then we don't actually turn around and do something different. And sometimes we can be rather complacent about sin in our lives.

and we acknowledge it, yeah, that's not a really great part of my life. You know, like that, my temper, you know, my anger, you know, my eyes, my heart, my mouth, my ears, you know, all of these different things that I have and things that I do and I acknowledge it, but I'm not coming to repentance. I'm setting myself up for judgment. It's judgment that is deserved because the wages of sin is death. But if I want to escape, I can acknowledge my sin and repent. The acknowledging sin is the right thing to do.

We don't try to pretend that there is no sin. Look at 1 John 1 for that. The person who says, no, no, I don't sin or I haven't sinned, like, no, that's not right. There's nobody who can say that. Acknowledging sin is important, but sometimes we acknowledge sin and then just live in that sin. And God says, you need to come out of that sin. You need to stop practicing that. You need to turn and to live a different way. And so here from Pharaoh, we learn some valuable lessons today.

about how to experience judgment. And again, not that I would expect us actually to desire to experience those plagues or to experience those judgments. And yet, as much as we would be like directly opposed to, and yes, I must not, I don't want to, you know, have any part of those judgments, sometimes we can allow this pattern to continue in our lives forever.

We want to have the same pattern as Pharaoh, live the same life as Pharaoh, but not experience the consequences like Pharaoh did. If you want to experience judgment like Pharaoh, then don't know God. Don't seek him. Don't seek to find out about his word. Don't listen to him. Don't try to find out his heart. But if you want to escape judgment, get to know God. He has revealed himself and he's promised throughout his word, you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

God's promise is anybody who wants to know me will get to know me. God will reveal himself. If you want to experience judgment, then stubbornly refuse to obey God. Know what he says, know what he wants, and just dig your heels in and say, nope, nope, nope, I'm not going to do it. Again, we can look at Pharaoh and think about how foolish he is, but there's times in my life where I have known what God wants and stubbornly refused.

It's a path of destruction. It's a path of judgment. No, I need to be soft, moldable, submitted to the will of God and the plan of God. To escape judgment, I need to willingly choose to obey God. Even if it's not what I want to do, even if it's not what I was hoping for, I need to be willing to say, not my will, but your will be done. To follow the example of Pharaoh and experience judgment from God, you can promise to obey and then change your mind.

Make commitments and then just leave them be, right? Here we are in March, March 7th. Statistics show like 90% of New Year's resolutions have already fallen by the wayside, you know, back in February. Maybe you made some commitments to the Lord. Maybe the Lord put some things on your heart that he wanted for you this year. And where are you at? Did you change your mind already? And let those things fall by the wayside. If you want to escape judgment, keep your promise to obey God.

Keep those commitments that you've made to the Lord. Follow through on those things that he put upon your heart. If you want to experience judgment, follow the example of Pharaoh and demand that God use your plan. Insist that he do things your way, that he does what you want or that you do what you want, not what God wants. But if you want to escape judgment, follow God's plan. Let him give the direction. Let him show you the right way, the best way,

the things that are best for you. And we won't always understand that because his ways are higher than our ways, as high as the heavens are above the earth. And so that is a challenge for us. It requires for us to actually trust God. Following God's plan is a matter of faith. It's not so much a matter of, you know, great spiritual discernment. Usually it comes down to whether or not I believe that God loves me and has my best interests in mind. Finally,

If you want to follow the example of Pharaoh and experience judgment like he experienced, acknowledge your sin, but don't do anything about it. Don't repent. Don't turn from it. Don't change. Just acknowledge it. Yes, I am a sinner. Me and my people, we're wicked. But if you want to escape judgment, acknowledge your sin and then do something about it. Believe in Jesus Christ and ask him for forgiveness and set your life, set your behavior on a different course.

Ephesians chapter 4 talks about the putting off and the putting on, that you put off your sinful nature and in its place you put on God's nature. And so the thief, you put off stealing and instead you put on generosity. The liar, you put off lying and you put on speaking the truth, that you go a different direction, that you make a change in your life, in your behavior. Acknowledge your sin and

and then do something about it. Repent, turn from it, and follow the Lord. And so Pharaoh gives us a really great example here. How to experience judgment, if that's your desire. Of course, it's not. But we want to behave like Pharaoh and not experience judgment. And God says, no, no, it doesn't work that way. You want to have a right relationship with God? You want to experience the abundance of God's blessings? You want to escape judgment? Then know God.

willingly choose to obey him, keep your promises to him, follow his plan, and acknowledge your sin and repent as he brings it to light. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your examples in your word, both good and bad. And Lord, we learn so much from both of them about our own hearts because, Lord, all of us are sinful. We have similarities and commonalities because, Lord, we are affected by

by our sin nature, just as Pharaoh was. And so God, I pray for our hearts. Lord, where there needs to be a clarity and a revelation of where we're at with you and where our hearts are in all of these things, I pray that you would bring that clarity to light, that we would know the truth. And just as you gave Pharaoh opportunity to respond step-by-step throughout this whole process, Lord, I pray that you would help us to hear what you're saying, to see what you're revealing, and to respond quickly.

to respond promptly and soon and not wait for more and more judgment down the line, but learn to recognize the reality of who you are, to turn from our own ways, our own selfishness, and to follow you. And so God, I pray that you would help us to know you, help us to obey you, help us to really put you first in our life. May you have that place in

of prominence, highest devotion, highest passion. Lord, may it always be you. And where we're out of line, Lord, would you let us know that we could turn back and seek you once again. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.