The plagues of Egypt serve as a type for God's judgment on the world, from which believers are redeemed through Christ's sacrifice. The plague of flies, which afflicted Egypt but not Israel, illustrates the division God creates between believers and unbelievers. This division is symbolized by the two sides of the cross: one leading to eternal death for those who reject Christ, and the other offering eternal life to those who repent and believe. For believers, the sermon exhorts them to lay aside the 'flies' of bitterness and malice, living in separation from the sinful irritations of the world.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.57 → restored 4.33
Beloved radio, friends, we greet you in the ever-precious, and in the worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior, by God's grace and help, we welcome you to the gospel of his grace and of his power to save. As we continue the study in the Word of God from the book of Exodus, and in chapter eight, we shall read again the plague of flies as recorded in chapter eight verses twenty through verse twenty four. May I raise a question? May I ask my radio listeners, would you have liked to have been in Egypt long ago when God's judgments by the plagues which he sent upon the land and upon the empire of Pharaoh were poured out in abundant measure?
I'm sure that you and I are grateful that we were not living under such circumstances and visited by divine judgment as they were long ago in Egypt. But may I remind my hearers, we are being reminded not only of those things that have happened in the past in relation to Egypt, but that Egypt is a type of the world, and upon this world in which you and I are now living, according to the Word of God, There are greater judgments to be poured out upon this unsuspecting world in a day to come. I commend the reading, careful, prayerful, of the Book of the Revelation to any of my listeners.
Just the reading of it will impress you with the fact there are judgments to be poured out upon the world. Read the Book of the Revelation through. and commencing at chapter six, reading down particularly to the end of chapter nineteen, you see judgment after judgment coming from the throne of God in heaven upon, as it will be poured out in the coming day of his wrath, not only upon an empire, but upon the whole world of humanity. I do beseech and I plead that any of you who are not saved will realize you are facing the danger of judgment.
Our premise that we have taken for these studies and their message to us today in the Gospel is taken from Galatians chapter one, verses three and part of verse four, our Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world. My beloved radio friend, The Lord Jesus came and died upon the cross of Calvary to provide a redemption, to provide a deliverance for your soul, for mine, and that we might escape the judgment of the wrath that is to come upon this unsuspecting, but sin-loving, God-hating, Christ-rejecting world.
May I say very humbly but very earnestly, Under God, I am grateful to acknowledge my salvation in Christ. I have no other refuge from the judgments that are to come, but the refuge that I have in Christ. And as the poet says, of the refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on thee. And I bid my radio listener, if never you return to Christ, Turn to him today before it's too late. This fourth plague, which we mention again, and read very briefly, was the plague of flies.
And may I point out what the Lord did in verse twenty-four, of chapter eight in the book of Exodus. And the Lord did, according as he had said he would. And there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servant's houses, and into all the land of Egypt, The land was corrupted by the reason of the swarm of flies. My beloved, we repeat again, this was divine judgment, not only upon the Egyptians, not only upon their emperor, but also upon the gods which they worship. And the very pantheistic gods represented by these flies.
Or if they possibly could have been, some think so. They may have been beetles. But nevertheless, God sent them in such abundance. The land was filled. And the air was filled with them. Now we noted in the closing moments of our preceding message that in this plague, and beginning with plague number four and going all the way down through plague number nine, The judgments that fell upon Egypt never fell upon the children of Israel. God said, I put a division. I made a separation. In fact, the word division means this.
I have placed a redemption between my people and thy people, as Moses spoke to Pharaoh on the behalf of God. What is the difference between the people who know not the Lord today? and the people who can say with gratitude and praise to God, I know the Lord. What is the difference between the people who say, by God's grace, I have been redeemed, and others who have to say, I'm a guilty sinner. I have never put my trust in Christ. I may even refuse to do such a thing. I have no confidence, perhaps, in the redemptive salvation that God offers me through Christ.
Now what is the difference between the folks? God says I put a redemption between them. And you know what the difference is? The difference is this. Between a believer and an unbeliever stands the division that has been made by the cross of Christ which the believer trusts. May I point out by this illustration, my friend, the difference. Will you please think in your mind and heart with me right now? of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now you visualize in your mind the cross of Christ. See it standing as it undoubtedly did so we know on the hill of Golgotha many centuries ago.
Now when you look at that cross by faith in your mind and in your eye you visualize that cross, may I point out to you, There are two sides to that cross. There is a left side and there is a right side. Now may I illustrate those two sides again? There is a dark side and there is a bright side of that cross. If you visualize the three crosses that were upon Calvary's Hill, there was one cross on the left upon which was a dying thief. There was another cross on the right of the middle cross where the Savior hung, upon which was another dying thief.
And do you recall that one thief on one side rejected the Savior and blasphemed him and ridiculed him? On the other side there was a penitent thief who confessed his sin and guilt, who called on the Lord. Remember me, O Lord, when thou comest into thy kingdom. And to whom the Lord Jesus said, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Now those two thieves are a vivid illustrations of the two sides of the cross. One in the darkness of his sins. One who dies in the blackness of despair.
One who goes down to pay the penalty for his sins in eternal death. For the wages of sin is death. And thus you can realize there's a dark side to the cross. But then the bright side of the cross is that side where those who have trusted the Lord Jesus have by faith stepped from the dark side to the bright side and in the possession of eternal life. Now let me quote a text. Chapter six in the book of Romans, verse twenty three. For the wages of sin is death. That's the dark side of the cross that you and I deserve.
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's the bright side. Now if you've never accepted the gift of salvation through Christ's redeeming work, you can step by faith, if you will, out of your darkness and you can be translated into the kingdom of light. For when God saves a soul, he translates that soul out of the kingdom of darkness and places it in the kingdom of light. Now I ask you, my friend, do you recognize the division that God places between his people and the people who are not his?
We raise the question, which side of the cross are you upon? It is the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ in his finished work of the cross that makes the difference. On one side is an unbeliever. On the other side is one who in penitence and confession of his sin or her sin repents and believes upon the Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of his or her soul. We ask the question, my friend, which side Are you on? And then may, before we close, may we give a word of exhortation for the believers.
There were no flies in Goshen. The flies were all in Egypt. Now what are flies? Irritating insects. Not very harmful, but very irritating. And swarms of them covered Egypt. But in the land of Goshen, no flies. Now those flies are very representative of the innumerable small ways that men and women in the world can be and are at trial to each other. Petty envies, jealousies, fact-binding, how characteristic. Now let me say this to my believing friends. Let me quote the words of Peter in First Peter chapter two, verse one, when he declares that we should lay aside all bitterness and wrath and malice and evil speaking.
For when you and I are believers in the Lord Jesus, those irritating conditions and mannerisms that were ours before we were saved, they should be put away. In other words, no flies on the believer. The saints are to walk in separation from the conditions that prevail in their sinful irritation within this present evil world. May you and I as believers remember the exhortation, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. That we may be free and live separate from those things that are around us that manifest the evil of today.
So may God realize some blessing and glory through the message in the hearts and lives of his people and even the unsaved. Father, bless the truth. Sanctify you to thy glory. In our Savior's name, amen.