beloved radio friend we greet you in the ever precious and the worthy name of our beloved and blessed Savior the Lord Jesus Christ this is your Bible teacher of the air J.W. Bramall speaking and once again giving you a hearty invitation to listen to the ministry of the precious and the holy word of God we make no apology for the word of God We express that we have the responsibility under God to proclaim and teach His blessed truth. We continue in the book of Exodus, where in chapter seven of the book of Exodus, we have commenced the consideration of that great contest between Pharaoh, the king, and the emperor of Egypt long ago, and God's beloved servants, Moses and Aaron, when they came into the courts of Pharaoh and demanded of Pharaoh, Let my people go, set Jehovah. Again may we re-emphasize, the contest between Pharaoh and God's servants, Moses and Aaron, is but a fitting illustration of a greater battle, a greater warfare that rages. the conflict that has raged from the beginning of time when sin first entered into the human race. That conflict has raged between God and between the great enemy of God and man, even Satan. As in our story, the children of Israel were delivered from the realm of Egypt and the bondage and tyranny of Pharaoh to be brought into the land of Canaan. The great gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is illustrated, telling that it is the purpose of God in redemption to deliver sinners out of the bondage and tyranny of Satan and the affliction of sin and bring them from the realm of the serpent and translate them into the kingdom and the realm of his beloved son. What a story of redemption it is. The most recent message that we covered in this seventh chapter was the introduction of the miracle that began the contest within the court of Pharaoh. It was when Moses and Aaron went into the presence of Pharaoh and Pharaoh demanded that they show a miracle. So Moses and Aaron cast down the rod of God before Pharaoh and he became a serpent. And then Pharaoh called for his wise men, for his sorcerers, men of Egyptian knowledge and science, who were skilled in the learning of all the arts, of the occult, of the satanic wonders and mysteries of even the realm of Satan. And those magicians of Egypt, they imitated the very miracle that did Moses and Aaron. They cast their rods down. and they too became serpents. But this introductory miracle, as we have noted, and may I again read the twelfth verse, as they cast down every man his rod and they became serpents, we read. But Aaron's rod swallowed up the rods of the magicians. This being the indication of the ultimate victory that would follow that God would come out the conqueror and the mighty victor over the forces of the Egyptians. And so we can recognize the ultimate victory of God, the ultimate victory of Christ is assured, as thus the day will come when the realm of the serpent will be visited with divine judgment, and all the followers of the devil will be placed into eternal banishment, and God will emerge with a great band of redeemed hosts who have found his Son and trusted that Son of God as their Savior. We now turn to what could be properly called the first plague. And we read in chapter seven of the book of Exodus these words from verses nineteen, or may I begin reading, if I may, from verse fourteen and reading through verse twenty-one. And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's hardy pardon, He refuses to let the people go. Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning. Lo, he goeth out unto the water. Thou shalt stand by the river's brink as he comes. The rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand. Thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness. And behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear. Thus saith the Lord, in this thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will smite wither of that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink, and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river. And the Lord spake unto Moses, say unto Aaron, Take thy rod and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood, and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did so. As the Lord commanded, he lifted up the rod and smoked the waters that were in the river, in the side of Pharaoh, and in the side 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. May God bless the reading and hearing of his word. May the Holy Spirit be our teacher and revealer of the precious truths. Now, may we be reminded from two portions or two verses of Scripture that we read, first of all, in chapter seven and verse three, that all these plagues that were visited upon the Egyptians were definitely to the Israelites divine signs of divine judgment and intervention upon the gods of Egypt and upon Pharaoh and all the Egyptians. But according to Exodus chapter nine and verse fourteen, which we just refer to, God called them plagues upon Egypt and the Egyptians. They were as plagues to Egypt, and they are the symbol of Egypt's true character in the sight of God. upon which his divine judgments were to be visited. According to Exodus chapter twelve and verse twelve, where we shall someday God willing reach, God declared upon all the gods of Egypt, will I execute judgment. Now may I suggest, all this typifies to us the true character of the world in which we are now living. It's true character before God. And each plague will bring us a spiritual lesson regarding the character of this present world. When John the Apostle described the world in which you and I are living, in first John chapter two, verses fifteen through seventeen, he declared, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, The lust of the eyes and the pride of life is none of the Father but of the world, and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. My beloved radio listener, in the name of God, in the name of the Savior, in the name of the great Godhead, the Holy Scriptures seek to impress upon us what God seeks to be the true character of this great world system, that is dominated, that is controlled by the power of the devil himself. Again we repeat, God's word declares that Satan is the prince of this world, and that he is the God of this age, and that the whole world lies in the power of the wicked one. Do I need to ask my listener who's running the world? Do you see righteousness reigning? Do you see good manifested in every direction throughout this world? Do you not and do I not see the evidence of sin's power, of Satan's authority, of man's failure and sinfulness, and the crimes and the awfulness of sinful transgression that we see on every hand? is but the result of a world that is seeking to live without God in this present scene under the dominion and the authority of the God of this age and the prince of this world, even Satan. Now we have read what is the first plague, and it was the water being turned into blood. It was not only the River Nile, but it was every tributary, all the ponds within the land, every pool of water, every vessel, whether of wood or vessel of stone, that contained water, the waters of Egypt were turned into blood. Now, beloved, in the worship of Egyptian pantheism, or may I state, Egypt was very religious. And may I tell you, you can be religious and worship the gods of Satan. To be religious doesn't mean that you know God. for you can be worshipping the gods that Satan has raised up. And in the land and empire of Egypt there were many gods, and there were many goddesses that they worshipped. And one of the many Egyptian trinities that they worshipped consisted of one who was called a sun god by the name of Ra, another god of creative power by the name of Ta and another god that was called Hapi, H-A-P-I. which was really the worship of the River Nile. They worship the God, the Son God. They worship the God of creative power. And in union they believe that the Son, as well as the powers of creation, produced the River Nile, according to Egyptian religion and pantheonism. And thus these were the objects of their worship. For the River Nile to Egypt, was the very life of Egypt in its productiveness as they obtained their food. Food and wealth and beauty were all derived from it, but instead of worshiping the God who created it, they worshiped what he had created. My beloved, what a world we live in for the men worshiping today. Let God speak to us. Father, we pray. Bless the truth that we have covered very briefly and thoroughly in the Savior's name for his glory on end.