"Something Worth Talking About" Exodus 10:1-20

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the preaching ministry of the Agopic Baptist Church in George South Africa.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, and welcome today, and trust the Lord has already blessed you, I just are being together and singing together and hearing His Word.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to ask you to turn to Exodus chapter 10 as we get into God's Word this morning.

Exodus 10 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: We are continuing with this series out of Exodus and looking at the plagues that God brought

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're in chapter 10 with the eighth plague of locus that God sent on the Egyptians.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to think back over this past week about the various conversations that you've had with different situations.

[SPEAKER_00]: And think about what do I talk about?

[SPEAKER_00]: What kind of conversation do I have?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's the thing that gets me talking?

[SPEAKER_00]: I think you can think about various conversations that you might have at work at school with friends or maybe at home with your children, with your parents, with your husband or your wife.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's also the occasional conversation that you'll have with a total stranger.

[SPEAKER_00]: My wife Sharon has always been very talented, you could say, at talking to strangers.

[SPEAKER_00]: It just has that ability to strike up conversation and be able to talk.

[SPEAKER_00]: The boys were growing up at home.

[SPEAKER_00]: We would be all out somewhere, maybe at a store.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the boys and I would be already checked out and waiting to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the boys would say, Mom's made a new friend.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's the way she would just strike up conversation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that was a good thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But as we think about our casual conversations, most of what we talk about is not very important.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think about it?

[SPEAKER_00]: We talk about the weather.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can give our opinions about the various topics and events that are happening, about the politics, about the sports, and there's value and just talking about random things.

[SPEAKER_00]: But as believers, we can't be content.

[SPEAKER_00]: All the things of this life, all the pursuits of this life apart from God is what the the writer of the Clies-Easties calls vanity and chasing after the wind.

[SPEAKER_00]: They really have no value and especially eternal value.

[SPEAKER_00]: But as believers, we have such grand things that we can talk about.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can talk about the Lord and what He has done, and what He is doing, and what He is still yet to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can talk about His Word and His Revelation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can talk about the great truths of His plan of redemption.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we can also talk about the practical ways in which He is showing grace to us every day.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so as believers, we need to think about ways that we can engage others in our conversations the way that we can turn casual conversations and conversations about everyday things into conversations about the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what he has done for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, here in Exodus 10, the Lord tells Moses,

[SPEAKER_00]: that, in part of his plan for the way he's bringing the plex upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, is to provide something that's really worth talking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let's look as we read from Exodus chapter 10, I will begin and verse one.

Exodus 10 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: Then the Lord said to Moses, go in and to Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants that I may show these signs of mine among them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them that you may know that I am the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh and said to him, that says, the Lord God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let my people go that they may serve me.

[SPEAKER_00]: For if you refuse to let my people go, the whole tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they shall cover the face of the land so that no one shall see the land.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, and they shall fill your house and your houses of your servants, and of all the Egyptians,

[SPEAKER_00]: as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen from the day they came on the earth to this day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I was servants said to him, how long shall this man be a snare to us?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let the men go

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you not know yet?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry, do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?

[SPEAKER_00]: The Mosin Air, and we're brought back to Pharaoh.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he said to them, go serve the Lord your God, but which ones are to go?

[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses said, we will go with our young and our old.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will go with our sons and daughters, and with our flocks and herds, and for we must hold a feast to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he said to them, the Lord be with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: If ever I let you and your little ones go, look, you have some evil purpose in mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, go the man among you and serve the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: For this is what you are asking.

[SPEAKER_00]: and they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord said to Moses stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locus, so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hell has left.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt and the Lord brought the east wind upon the land, all that day, and all that night.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when it was morning the East Wind had brought the locus and the locus came up over the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: Such a dense swarm of locus had never been before, nor ever will be again.

[SPEAKER_00]: They covered the face of the whole land so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hell had left, not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plants of the field through all the land of Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, I have sinned against the Lord, you're God and against you.

[SPEAKER_00]: and plead with the Lord your God, only to remove this death from me."

[SPEAKER_00]: So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord turned the wind into a very strong West Wind, which lifted the locus and drove them into the Red Sea.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not a single locus was left in the country of Egypt, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Others, we come before you this morning and before your word, I pray that you would help us in this time to listen with our hearts and allow the Spirit of God to speak to us, the things that you would tell for us, you know us Lord, you know our needs, you know our struggles, and I pray that you would speak to us this morning through your word.

[SPEAKER_00]: and do for that, only you can do.

[SPEAKER_00]: We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we've seen as we've looked at the various flags, one of the major themes that the Lord has repeated as purpose for these flags is that all the world might know that I am Yahweh, he says, that I am the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we see that purpose repeated in here in this chapter.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you just a review, look with me in Exodus 7, 5, chapter 7, verse 5, he says there, then the Egyptians shall know that I am y'all way when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then in chapter 9 and verse 14, he says, for this time, I will send all my plagues against the heart, against your heart in a month, your service, and your people, so that against this purpose, so that you may know that there is no one like me and all the earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't just for the Egyptians that he was,

[SPEAKER_00]: had this purpose, but all the nations, all the people's might know in chapter 9 of verse 16 He says, but indeed for this reason I have caused you to stand in order to show you my power in order to recount my name through all the earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we saw here in chapter 10, he repeats this purpose in verse 2, but here he specifically adds that Moses in the Israelites would have this work of God, this signs, this great power demonstration of God to tell their children and their grandchildren about God and how he delivered

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is something that Moses did preach and teach, and he did remind the people, and even as you think about the generation after 40 years of being in the wilderness, he comes to them and reminds them of these things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice in Deuteronomy chapter six,

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 4 to 7, He says, Here, O Israel, yaway is our God, yaway is one, you shall love yaway your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

[SPEAKER_00]: These words which I have commanded you today shall be on your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and you shall speak of them when you sit in your house and

[SPEAKER_00]: And then after Moses, God used Joshua, taking his place to lead the children of Israel into the promised land.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he gives the same emphasis about the next generation in Joshua chapter four.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is when they cross over the Jordan River during the flood season and the swollen river.

[SPEAKER_00]: And those 12 stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgão, and then they said to the sons of Israel, when your children asked their fathers in time to come saying, what do these stones mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Then you shall make your children know saying, Israel crossed this Jordan on dry land.

[SPEAKER_00]: For Yahweh, your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just as Yahweh, your God had done in the Red Sea, which he dried up from, dried up before us until we had crossed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And notice the purpose, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of Yahweh is strong so that you may fear Yahweh in your God forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the same purpose, the same great need that we have in our day, that we would teach our children and our grandchildren so that the next generation might know the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: but to know him as Lord and Savior.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so the challenge for us is that the Word of God, and the love of God and the praise of God would be in our hearts in such a way that we couldn't help but talk about God as the Lord gives us opportunity, as he opens doors for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even create opportunities,

[SPEAKER_00]: like Joshua stacking stones in the heap so that when a child would come along and say, what's that for?

[SPEAKER_00]: You would give it, you would have an opportunity to tell about the great work of God and what he did for us and what he has done for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have even greater things

[SPEAKER_00]: than walking through a river, or walking through the sea on dry land.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have the transforming work of God in our own hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those of us that are saved, we know the work of God and the power of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we can talk about the goodness of God and the revelation of His Word in the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: purpose for these plagues, and his judgment upon Pharaoh in the Egyptians, is that he is accomplishing something that not only the Egyptians would come to know Yahweh, and the other nations would fear him and know of him, but that the children of Israel might be convinced in their own hearts,

[SPEAKER_00]: and would remember who they serve.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we see again, this often repeated phrase in giving of these plagues is that God hardened Pharaoh's heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those in verse one again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you always said to Moses, come to Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart in the heart of his servants with firmness that I may set the signs of mine among them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so God would bring this judgment upon Egypt for their rejection of God, for their cruelty, to the children of Israel.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he does it in such a way that Pharaoh in the Egyptians and there's so God, so called God's would be humiliated.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, he doesn't just bring judgment and then take the children of Israel out.

[SPEAKER_00]: He prowed longs these plagues and he longs this interaction between Pharaoh and Moses and the demonstration that Egypt and their gods and their power, the greatest nation, the greatest most powerful nation on the earth at that time.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are powerless before the God of the Israelites, the Yahweh, and God wants all to know who he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all there God was heartening Pharaoh's heart in the heart of His servants.

[SPEAKER_00]: God was not taken away their own accountability for their own sin and their own rebellion against Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: They came to Pharaoh and say to him, thus says Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let my people go that they may serve me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a good question, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a rhetorical question from the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not asking it because he needs some more information or he really doesn't know what Pharaoh is going to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a question that's intended to bring conviction to the heart of Pharaoh.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's also a question that reveals that God's grace, even in His judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's an invitation here.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a warning.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there may be someone here this morning, a whom the Lord would ask, the same kind of question, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

[SPEAKER_00]: If we wanted to make this question into a statement, we could say something like, do not persist in your rebellion against me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because if you do tomorrow, I'm going to bring judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is what he's saying to Pharaoh, if you resist, I'm bringing locust to you tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in a society like this, a Grarian society where they're so dependent upon the harvest, they've already been devastated by this a great hillstorm that God brought and damaged their crops.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses is now warning of an even gravy greater disaster of this swarm of locusts.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Egyptians knew about this.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not something new to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: They knew the devastation that a swarm of locus could bring.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they had various gods, several different gods, that they would pray to for protection of their harvest and blessing and protection specifically against the locus I've read about.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Moses is saying that this form of locus is going to be something that even their great grandfathers have never seen or known about.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be greater than anything that would even come in the future.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so they are pronouncing something here that is devastating to their economy.

[SPEAKER_00]: to the future of their nation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And most in Aaron, soon as they give this warning and this pronounce them, but they turn and walk away.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as a bit of an amazing thing, as you think about who they're talking to, they're talking to the Pharaoh.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not something you do.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't just show up and reprimand or give a rebuke

[SPEAKER_00]: to Pharaoh and then just turn your back to them and walk away.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was just thought about how much Moses has changed in this time of going before Moses, obeying God, seeing God, faithful to his word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moses, you know, started out, you know, you remember you go back to chapter three and four.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, I can't, he said, Lord, just please send somebody else, I can't do this, I can't speak and as all these excuses, but God now has given him great boldness and as he's responding to God in obedience,

[SPEAKER_00]: and God has emboldened his heart to obey God and to have confidence in God so that he can now fearlessly stand before the greatest ruler on the earth from a human standpoint, Pharaoh.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he can just turn and walk away.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Pharaoh seems to be speechless.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no, they don't wait for response.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as they're leaving Pharaoh's servants or his ministers, those that are around him, they speak up.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's no doubt because they fear this judge, like that Yahweh is going to bring up on them, greater than they fear the Pharaoh.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don't imagine that that is something they would normally do, speak up and rebuke Fero.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a bit of a rebuke, or at least the challenge to Fero.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they challenge him with their own, how long kind of question in verse 7, look again with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Pharaoh Servant said to him, how long will this man be a snare to us?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let them in go that they may serve y'all way, their God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so they're able to see, even though God is also hardened their hearts,

[SPEAKER_00]: They are not blind to the reality that the land is destroyed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it is even greater destruction is coming with this plague of locus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so they ask how long will this man be a snare to us?

[SPEAKER_00]: They ship the blame to Moses.

[SPEAKER_00]: as the one who is a snare to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in reality, Pharaoh has fallen into his own snare.

[SPEAKER_00]: His stubborn pride has dug a pit that he has fallen into.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we see Pharaoh caught in this situation where his pride won't let him do what he knows that he needs to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Pharaoh listens to his advisors, and he calls Moses and Aaron back, and he agrees to let them go.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he still wants to let him go in his own terms, and he says, it will just let them go.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the others stay here.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Moses says, no, we must all go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Men and women, young and old, everything that we have.

[SPEAKER_00]: there's just no compromising with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: God wants total surrender for commitment to do his will.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then in verse 10, we see Pharaoh's responding with some very sarcastic words.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's, we don't always see it there, but he's being sarcastic and one author interpreted or wrote it

[SPEAKER_00]: about Pharaoh and they write may the help of your God be as far from you as I am from giving you permission to go with your little ones.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, he says, well, the Lord bless you, but it's not a chance that I'm going to let them go.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like the saying good luck with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you say, well, good luck with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you're not really wishing them good luck.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're saying, there's not a chance.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's not a chance that's going to happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's really what Pharaoh is saying.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good luck with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And with that, Moses and Aaron are driven out from their presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they leave.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as they leave, God directs Moses to stretch his hand out with his staff and call for the locus.

[SPEAKER_00]: God sends this east wind that would blow all day and through the night and the locus come like an invading army.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's hard to imagine.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've never been in a swarm of locus before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you may have seen something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: The closest thing that I've experienced is an emergence of cicadas in the eastern United States.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they are, they're not locus, they're big, like a locus, but they're a different insect.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they, in the southeast, they come in a cycle of 13 or 17 years.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they come in thousands, about a degree, and they cover everything, especially in the trees.

[SPEAKER_00]: And

[SPEAKER_00]: I remember walking through the woods after one of these emergence of the cicadas, and they are everywhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've covered everything above the ground, all the trees mainly, they fly around, they're not land on you, but they're not really harmful, I mean, they can kill trees, but they're

[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember walking through the woods with these things flying around and they make an incredible loud noise.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a rhythmic noise that they make and thousands together can be extremely loud.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was reminded when I was thinking about this, I've all the chainsaw's been running in and around George.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here in the other park, you can hear five or six chainsaw's all running at the same time in different places.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like a music that's being played, chainsaw's running.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a little bit like thousands, you know, multiply that by thousands.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you have these cicadas making this noise.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a bit of an ominous feeling to walk through the woods with all of these creatures.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like you're in some kind of Alfred Hitchcock movie, you know, with these other worldly creatures, you know, that are just all over the place.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's nothing, it's nothing in comparison to an invasion

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's other occasions in the Scripture where the Lord will use locus as a illustration of his coming judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one place in particular is in the book of Joel, the prophet Joel talks about the day of the Lord and referring to the day of the Lord's judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the time of the prophet Joel is evidently before the coming invasion from Babylon to take a Judah captive.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God sends a locus invasion upon the land and Joel writes about it in chapter 1 about this locus invasion and he's talking about it to illustrate and warn about the coming judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's talking about not only a near judgment, the invasion of an army, but he's looking beyond their immediate future to a future day of the Lord's coming and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Joel chapter one, I want you to want to just read for you a couple of verses in Joel chapter one verse two and three.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen how familiar this is to what he says in Exodus.

[SPEAKER_00]: He writes, here this old elders, and give ear all inhabitants of the land, as anything like this happened in your days or in your father's days, recount about it to your sons and let your sons recount about it to their sons, and their sons to the next generation.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you can see that God is using this invasion in a similar way to impress upon

[SPEAKER_00]: Not only the hearts of the Egyptians, but his own people, what God can do, and to put fear in the heart that if they would fear a locus of invasion, how much more should they fear the judgment of God?

[SPEAKER_00]: During this future judgment of God upon the earth, the Bible refers to it as a time of judgment

[SPEAKER_00]: period of judgment, John describes it in the book of Revelation of this time that God will bring judgment on the earth and he describes also as he sees an judgment, an invasion, a demonic invasion out of the pit of hell, the Revelation is chapter 9, and he says

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's using the imagery of a swarm of locus of these creatures that are going to come out of the pit of the hill to bring torment upon the earth, the revelation chapter 9.

Revelation 9 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is in the context of a scroll that the book of Revelation talks about, you know, it's like a book that's rolled up like a scroll and has seven seals on it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the image is that one seal is broken, and then a bit of the scroll is unrolled to reveal the judgment that's coming.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then a second seal is broken, and a little bit more is revealed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when you get to the seventh seal, and it's opened up, it reveals seven trumpets.

[SPEAKER_00]: that are going to be blown in each reveal judgment that comes upon the earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when you get to the seventh seal, it reveals seven vows of judgment that are poured out upon the earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the fifth of those trumpet judgments here in Revelation chapter nine.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me just read a few verses to give you a bit of what John sees and tries to describe for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then the fifth angel sounded.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then I saw a star from heaven, which had fallen to the earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: and the key of the pit of the abyss was given to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he opened the pit of the abyss and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the sun in the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then out of the smoke came locus upon the earth and power was given to him as the scorpions of the earth have power.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads, or they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or their torment was like the torment of scorpions when it stings a man.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in those days men will seek death.

[SPEAKER_00]: and we'll never find it.

[SPEAKER_00]: They will long to die and death flees from them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this is part of the judgment of this future day when the Lord before the Lord's return referred to as the day of Yahweh or the day of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: But even as Joel pronounces this judgment, the near judgment in this future judgment,

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord calls for repentance.

[SPEAKER_00]: And He offers His grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: In July chapter 2, verse 11, the 13 says, the day of Yahweh is indeed great and very awesome and who can endure it?

[SPEAKER_00]: For even now, declare Yahweh, return to me and all with all your heart and with fasting and weeping and welling and tear your heart and not your garments.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, return to Yahweh your God, for He is the gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding and loving kindness and relenting concerning evil.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice the phrase in that invitation, tear your heart and not your garments.

[SPEAKER_00]: As part of a show of repentance,

[SPEAKER_00]: They would tear tear the garments and similar outward things like throwing ash on your head, putting on sack cloth and so forth.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here of the Lord says, tear your heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not your garments.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, genuine repentance is more than an outward show of repentance.

[SPEAKER_00]: There must be something that comes from the heart, a genuine turning from

[SPEAKER_00]: yourself turning from your sin, turning to the Lord as a genuine repentance.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you go back to Exodus 10, number 16 and 17, you see Pharaoh's repentance.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Pharaoh's repentance is shallow.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not genuine.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice what I said in verse 16,

[SPEAKER_00]: then Pharaoh hurriedly called for Moses and Aaron and said, this is after the after the locusts have come and they've we don't know how long, but it doesn't tell us how long they've been there, but long enough that they've destroyed everything that was green that's left and long enough for Pharaoh to acknowledge that he's desperate.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he calls

[SPEAKER_00]: heardly calls for Moses and Aaron for 16 and said, I have sinned against y'all way your God and against you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So now please forgive my sin only this once and intrigued y'all way your God and he would only if he and that he would only cause this death to depart from me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if I were to repentance was not a genuine repentance because he's really only concerned about relief, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: He just wants to get rid of the problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, notice how he says, please forgive me only this once.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's like the saying, I'll never do it again.

[SPEAKER_00]: You heard your children say that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just, you know, please don't give me a spike, you know, I'll never do it again.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like,

[SPEAKER_00]: I just want relief, I don't want the problem, I don't want the pain, I'm not really sorry about what I did.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's bit what Pharaoh is doing and sometimes in many times today we see superficial professions of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see people that will come to God and make what looks like a genuine repentance and calling upon the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it turns out, many times, it's not genuine turning to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a lot like Pharaoh.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just want the Lord to take away this problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: I won't be better.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes people treat Lord Jesus in the gospel like an insurance policy.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, it's something good to have just in case.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want judgment, so just to be sure, I'll trust Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or it might be, well, everybody else is.

[SPEAKER_00]: It must be a good thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll try it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like trying out a new food or something.

[SPEAKER_00]: I tried it, but I didn't like it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But a real turning to the Lord, real repentance and faith is a surrender to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's turning to embrace Him for everything that He is, everything that He's claimed, and it's a turning from everything we are in our hope of our own righteousness so that our faith is in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: is a persevering in faith in obedience to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the clear teaching from God's Word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, God's grace is still available today to those who will turn to Him in genuine faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today is a day of grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul says, today is the day of salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there is a day of the Lord's judgment that is coming.

[SPEAKER_00]: The prophet Elijah's words of warning to Israel is still true for us today.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's he stood on the mountain and he confronts the bell worshippers.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he says in one Kings chapter 18 and verse 21, Elijah came near to all the people and said,

[SPEAKER_00]: How long will you hesitate between two opinions?

[SPEAKER_00]: If the Lord is God, follow Him, but if Bale, follow Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord comes to us with a similar invitation on His grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Elijah's words are very, very real for us today.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you believe him, then turn to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Follow him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if not, don't pretend.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go your own way.

[SPEAKER_00]: The side who you're going to follow.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one translation talks about or gives this word hesitate.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a bit of a

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a bit of imagery there of someone who is crippled.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not able to move very well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the net translation says that, how long will you be paralyzed by your indecision?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you're not moving.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're just kind of on the fence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord calls for decisive turning to Him in faith, trusting Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't be in the world and in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to be with the Lord or against Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's the call for us today.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord is warning.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's warning concerning coming judgment, but even in His pronouncement of coming judgment, He's offering His grace, and He's offering His invitation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, as we think about these words,

[SPEAKER_00]: As you get the revelation of your coming and the judgment to the apostle John, you gave him the imagery of taking your word and eating it, and you said that when he ate it, it would be

[SPEAKER_00]: the rejoicing and the sweetness of the time when the Lord would vindicate his name and bring righteousness to the earth in judgment upon sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: But as John 8 and swallowed, it was bitter in his stomach, and that speaks to the reality

[SPEAKER_00]: the judgment of God upon the souls of men, the thousands that will die without the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I pray, Father, that we might approach your judgment in the same way.

[SPEAKER_00]: We might rejoice in the day of your coming because we belong to you and we rejoice in your grace and we rejoice in your forgiveness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we know that righteousness will reign and so we look forward to that day, but may we also be grieved and burdened by the reality of all those around us that do not know you and that will face your judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Father, we pray for that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We pray your will be done in each heart, each life.

[SPEAKER_00]: According to your sovereign wisdom and grace, we thank you in Jesus name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.