Thank you. Greetings, friends. Exodus chapter seven and verse seventeen. Here God has sent Moses to the king of Egypt, Pharaoh, of that day. And God told Moses in verse sixteen, Thou shalt say unto him, unto Pharaoh, The Lord God of the Hebrews have sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, the Israelites, that they may serve me in the wilderness, and behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear. These are the ten plagues, and this is one of the ten plagues of God, that he rained down upon Egypt. In order that Pharaoh would let the people of Israel go, they that were slaves in Egypt, and were serving with hard bondage the King of Egypt and his people. And in verse seventeen we read the statement, I am. Thus says the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord. And how was he to know, how was Pharaoh to know, who did not know anything about God? How was he going to know that this was the Lord, the great I am, the Almighty, omnipotent God of heaven and earth? Well, Moses was going to follow what the Lord said. And the Lord would perform one of his miracles, which was one of judgment, one of the ten plagues that plagued Egypt in that day. Behold, says Moses, Do you still know that I am the Lord? That's what the Lord has said. Behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river. And they... shall be turned to blood. My what a judgment this would be. The river turned to blood. Ye shall know, in this thou shalt know that I am the Lord. By this great revelation of God, in performing this terrible judgment, Moses smiting the river, and the river water turning into blood. Could you imagine anything more forceful, more beyond the realm of human accomplishment or achievement, an entire river turning into blood? But the river flows. so that if it had just turned into blood at one place, it would soon pass that place, and normally the good water would again appear. But no, this was Dufferin. He turned the entire river into blood, and there was no place for them to get water to drink. So they began to dig around the river. trying to find water to drink. God made the river blood all the way long. Likely from its very source, he turned it into blood. Then it says in verse eighteen, and the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink, and the Egyptian shall loathe the drink of the water of the river. Yes? And so the river was filled with blood, the great I am, the powerful omnipotent gorn, proving to the Egyptians not only to King Pharaoh but to all of his household and all of his country, for they did drink out of the river according to these verses. And the Lord spake further unto Moses, say, unto Aaron, take thy rod and set 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. So not only in the river, but in all the streams, and all the pools, and all the lakes, and all the vessels, every bit of water turned into blood. Now this should have been enough to convince Pharaoh and all of his authorities, all of his assistants, all of his officials, as well as all the common people. This should have proven to them that there was some great hand beyond that of Moses and Aaron. who were just human beings. And alas, friends, it didn't prove. They cried later for Moses and Aaron to relieve them of this awful plague. But then they didn't turn to God. They wouldn't believe. Now, many times we hear it said, Why doesn't God interfere and cause these things to stop, these great calamities to stop? Well, God is proving to people by withholding His power to cause people to sink. And then great calamities do happen. God's permissive will lets them happen. And then people say, well, why did this happen? Why couldn't God have hindered this and prevented this from happening? A great earthquake. The great tornado. So many of them occur. And we hear about them now, where in former years we didn't. Many of them, in our own country, every day there are some, in particular period of the year. And these are great in their national catastrophes. They are something that is terrible. They're terrible. Take an awful toll of life at times. But God permits them, friends, that man might stop, and man might think what he wanted Pharaoh to do was to consider God, the great I am, the great I am, the omnipotent, all-powerful God, recognize him, and let his people, Israel, go that they may serve the Lord in the wilderness. And so these great plagues ten of them, and blood was won, every bit of water, in vessels of wood or stone, in ponds or lakes or riverlets or streams or brooks or rivers or whatever, turned to blood. What an awful thing this would be, and how revolting it would be to your nervous system. But it was for design. that the Pharaoh would know that there was a supreme being, a supreme power. My friends, we can't criticize the Egyptians too much, can we? In our day, men and women, boys and girls are doing things that would be utterly unheard of a few decades ago. The world has become corrupt to an extent it was not ever known before. God's going to show one of these days he's going to say, thus far shall thou go on no further. For men today, they don't take notice of the great calamities. They say it just happened. It might happen anywhere. They brush it off. as being not an extraordinary event, as it not being anything that would cause them to turn to God. And friends, our God is looking on. Our God takes notice. He sees and He knows the hearts of men, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart. And there's not many that are saying, Well, I repent. This is an action of God. God has permitted this. And I am going to turn to God. I'm going to repent of my evil deeds. I'm going to turn to the Savior who loved me and died for me on the cross. Oh, my friends, has this been the result of some of these major catastrophes? An airplane goes down. And dozens upon dozens of homes are wrecked. Families are wrecked. someone, loved one, caught in that awful fall. And the other catastrophes of enterprises, wherever it happens to be, as well as the storms, the hurricanes that happen, catastrophes in mind, on the highway so many persons lose their lives. Thousands upon thousands lose their lives. Oh, my friend, God is making us to know that he is God. God has permitted these that we might turn to him in our helplessness, and that we might accept the Lord Jesus Christ, because no man will see the Father except by the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh under the Father but by me. Oh, my friends, of the awful calamities of this present day, as it caused you to repent, and turn to go, and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, and accept him as your Savior, the one who died for your sins on Calvary. I am the Lord. Still he is. He ever will be, my friends, and you and I must meet him down at the end of life's highway. Father, we thank thee that thou art the great I am of eternity. The Lord Jesus could say, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life to the sheep, and he's the way, the truth, and the life. Oh, we thank thee, souls may be saved today by trusting Christ forevermore. Bless our country, our president, our vice president, the cabinet of the Congress, and the courts, and the governors, and the mayors, and all men everywhere in our great country. and around the world, for we pray, they'll trust the Savior in his precious Holy Name we are. Amen.