The Plague of Lice
Key Passage: Exodus 8:16-20
Date: June 7, 2024
Turn your Bibles, if you would, to Exodus chapter number eight. I failed to mention Brother Jimmy’s got back surgery coming up. Pray for him, if you would, please, also on that. Exodus chapter number eight. In God’s Word, we’ve been in the life of Moses now for months, and we are to the third plague tonight.
And really the contested deal—I use that term lightly—of the gods. And we’ve emphasized how it is not just God thought, well, I’ll bring some frogs or some lice or whatever. Everyone was just strategically pointed at their gods of Egypt. And starting from the snake, the rod turning the snake, all that. And we’ve discussed that.
We did the water. Help me out. What was the first plague? The water turned to blood. Blood. And then last week we talked about the… One more night with the… Yeah, one more. How many listened to the song? Anybody look up or listen to them? “One more night with those stinking frogs.” Good. We had a couple of you look it up. Good deal. We need to play it one night or something. It’s a little long, but that’s a good little song. You’ll like it. And one more night with those stinking frogs.
Pharaoh, wow, why tomorrow? Why not just get rid of them, you know? But we do the same thing: one more night, my sin. And then tonight we’re on this wonderful subject of lice. Wow, I tell you what. I never forget. I remember one time in particular visiting someone’s house years ago. It was in the bus ministry. I can’t remember if it was here or somewhere else, but I went to somebody’s house and, of course, trying to get them to come to church on Saturday. Trying to get them to church the next day and all that, visiting with them, spend a little time with them, all that.
I’d been in that house ten, fifteen minutes. And, you know, always try to leave on a positive note, especially the bus ministry anywhere. You know, we’ll see tomorrow. You know, just making sure they’re coming. And I said, “We’ll see you tomorrow.” Been in there ten, fifteen minutes. They said, “No, we’re not. We can’t come tomorrow.” I said, “Why not?” “Well, we have lice.” Been in there about ten, fifteen. As soon as that happened, you know, all of a sudden you get this itch, you know. He’s like, “Is this real? Is this my brain doing this?” Anybody been there? You know? Oh, my goodness. And for the next day, is that really an itch? Is this real? You know? And I know it’s happened to me once in particular. I remember I think more than once, but lice. What a wonderful subject tonight. You know, I tell you what. Some don’t have to worry too much about the head, hair lice, though, you know what I mean?
Anyway, Ms. Patty, don’t look over there right now. She’s looking. Exodus chapter number eight. Exodus chapter number eight. And we are in verse number 16 tonight where we’re going to start at. Exodus chapter number eight and verse number 16. Only four verses on this here. Pretty amazing. Would you stand as I read God’s word together tonight if you’re able to please?
Exodus 8 and verse number 16. And the Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And they did so.
For Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and smoked the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and in beast. All the dust of the land became lice with all the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. So there were lice upon man and upon beasts. Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God. And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said.
And would you pray with me that God would give us what we need tonight? Just pray, Lord, You’re here. You’ve made time on a Wednesday night to be here. Just pray that God give you something like here. Would you do that? Let’s pray together on that. Lord, we come. Thank You, Lord, that You have what we need. Or really only You can meet the need. Father, I pray that You would through Your word and through just a simple preacher. Would You meet the needs of these dear people tonight? Father, let them leave being fed, energized, battery charged for You. Lord, please, would You do so? And we’ll thank You and brag on You for it. Well, Lord, we know the glory of credit belongs to You, so we’ll do the best to give it to You. Father, we ask for all these things in Your Son, Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. I want you to notice, I have missed this so many times, but go back to that verse number 16, would you please? I’ve tried to emphasize a little bit as we read it. And the Lord said to Moses, send to Aaron, stretch out that rod and smite the what? The dust of the land. Verse number 17, and they did so, and Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and smoked the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and beast, and all the dust of the land became lice in all the land of Egypt.
Now we’ve got another god, brother. Brother Marlin, would you bring that false god up there? This is Geb, G-E-B. I’m not sure I’m pronouncing exactly right, the god of the earth, or sometimes the ancient Egyptians’ god of the earth or dust, the earth. Every single time God’s going after one of their gods. It’s just amazing how He strategically takes their false gods out. Geb was an Egyptian god. Geb was over the dust of the earth. The ancient Egyptians referred to the earth as the house of Geb. According to the ancient Egyptians, Geb was the grandson of Ra, the son of Shu and Tefnut, the deity of moisture. It’s just a little interesting thought. That would make him, according to their gods, the third generation, and this is the third plague.
I got two more pictures, or maybe just one more. I didn’t download one in the right format. There’s another picture of their false God of the earth, or sometimes referred to God of dust. And you see how God was going after their false gods. Every single time, all these—this was just so strategic of God. I mentioned last Wednesday we really talked about the spiritual warfare. Now this is a battle of God and the false gods. Demonic activity, I think, was so prevalent. I think Moses was getting bombarded from every side. It was just spiritual warfare on steroids, if you will. Praise the Lord Jehovah one, amen. And we get to kind of study and glean truths from it. We’re going to do that a little bit tonight. But God turned these dust or false gods, if you will, into lice.
Wow. Just think about that. It was like the dust of the earth. I mean, they were mentioned it recently, but you ever see, you go somewhere, and it just looks like the ground is moving, and you get a little bit closer, you’re like, “That’s not the ground moving, that’s a bunch of roaches altogether,” whatever it may be, you know. That’s what it was, it was lice. I’m just covered in man and beast. By the way, it may not have just been head lice. By the way, if it was something else, the King James translators could have translated something else. We’ll just go with the Bible, and the Bible says lice. But could be body lice, which really is bad about transferring disease. Could be head lice. We’re not exactly sure. We’ll talk about head lice for just a moment here. Lice usually live for about 30 days. All right, not a long life. But the female lives, they can lay 300 eggs. Brother Garrett’s getting hungry back there. I tell you what, he’s moving, shaking a little bit or something. I don’t know what’s wrong with him there, you know? He’s having a seizure or something back there, you know? But 300 eggs they can lay. So now you imagine, all right, only 30 days, but the next generation, wow. They just got to increase 300% or potential for that. And we’re not sure how long this plague lasted. Some of them, one or two tells us, seven days, one of them. Maybe it lasted for a month. We don’t know. We don’t know how long it lasted. But can you imagine how it would multiply? The least that lice can do is make you itch and hard to comb your hair. But if you leave it, it can spread disease, especially body lice. It can make you lose hair and other things. But lice, can you imagine? I mean, it’s just all over man, mankind and the beast, the cattle. Lice everywhere. You know how it spreads, too, by the way, you know, and just everywhere. Can you imagine how many bald-headed men and ladies there were after this thing’s over? And you’ve got lice that much around everywhere? I mean, probably the easiest way and just, man, the barber’s going to be real busy around that time, you know? I mean, and…
It seems by statues and things and Pharaohs and all that they emphasized beauty in that culture. And especially for a lady, I mean, if a guy’s a bald head, it’s not too bad, you know? I mean, we’re ugly anyway, you know? But if a lady, that’s rough. And unfortunately, that happens sometimes with cancer and things. It’ll be a very tough thing. Not trying to make light of that. Man, that’s just, that’s tough. And if you will, the beauty turned to just ashes, if you will, through these false gods.
Now let’s just think about this just for a moment, spiritual application. You say, well, we don’t have any false gods like this in our life. Well, really, a god is anything allowed to be in front of God. Anything I put before God. God tells me this and I want to do that, whatever that god may be, that becomes a god. I put that before God. And so really, if I make a spiritual application, wow, be careful of things that I allow to be a god in my life. It can really change what I am or what I have. The beauty in my life, trilogy, you think about lice. I was making fun of Brother Garrett a little bit, but he was. He’s back to, oh, man, wife, you know. And that’s just the way we feel about it. But if I let something in my life and I let it have control, I let it be above God in my life. If I’m not careful, that thing can become like, ugh. Right? Yeah. And a god can be so many different things. A god in my life. You know, something I allow to be in control. And by the leg, just like lice, well, they can multiply, they can lay 300 eggs. Sin. What’s it said over there in Hosea? “You sow to the wind, you reap the whirlwind,” you know. You’ve heard it said. Sin, sin will keep you longer than you want to stay, take you farther than you want to go, and cost you more than you want to pay. Sin. And just allowing false gods, it just encourages me. I don’t want to hang on to anything Satan is offering me to put in front of God, whether it’s bitterness or unforgiveness or rebellion or music or movies, or the places I go, the friends I have. It could even be family. He says, “Family wrong?” No, but if I put family in front of God, God’s to be the ultimate. And I’m going to be His disciple, He must be first place, supreme. And a…
And God’s just really going through all these false gods that the children of Israel was under and taking them out. Let’s just try to glean a couple more things here real quickly tonight. Look at verse number 18, if we would hear. Verse 18, we’ve already read it. Let’s read it again. Verse number 18, “And the magicians did so with their enchantments.” Remember all the ones before, they could put the rods down and they became a snake too. They could turn some water into blood, and the Bible actually uses the word snake in blood. They could actually, you know, change it in, bring the frogs up, and the Bible calls the frogs, I think it was, we’ve talked about this, very satanic. But watch this. The magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not.
We’ve talked about it on Wednesday night. Satan has power. He does. We’ve mentioned it a lot here lately, but Satan’s power is limited. Amen. He’s on a leash. God got a six-foot leash. He can run six foot, but boom, boy, he’s going to hit him that chain and he’s going to go, you know what I mean? He’s limited, but God has unlimited power. I think Brother Smith, Monday night maybe or Sunday night talking about Jesus, what Jesus said, “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.” All power. Sometimes we call him—He’s the omnipotent God. He has all—He’s an all-powerful God. Satan’s limited. Satan will try to mimic or counterfeit God, but he’s limited in his power. Satan will offer you just gold, but boy friend, be careful, it’s limited. It’s really mud behind the scenes. He’s limited what he gives to you.
Let’s keep going. Look in verse number 19. Verse number 19, I like this. Y’all still out there tonight? Verse number 19, “And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, take thy rod and stretch out that hand upon them.” Oh, I’m sorry. I’m in verse chapter number seven. Let’s go back chapter eight. My bad, my bad. We’re up, verse number 19 of chapter eight, Pastor Paul. “Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of…”
But I like it when even the world—remember over there in Nehemiah, they’re trying to build the wall, opposition, opposition, Sanballat and Tobiah and all that opposition—remember, ended up building. How long, how short, I should say, was the time? How many days did it take them to build that wall? 52 days. What did even the enemies say? Look over in Nehemiah. Look over in Nehemiah, I think it’s chapter 6. I’ve got it in here since. Nehemiah chapter 6. I love this. Nehemiah chapter number 6. And look in verse number 16. It’s just a wonderful thing. God’s people had a mind to work in the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was wise enough. He didn’t come down off the wall. Nope. I’m not going to go over there to argue with all that. I’ve got a work to do. We’re going to keep after souls. I don’t have time to fight over that little bit of frivolous stuff. I got something to do for God. Oh, I stayed on the wall. He didn’t. No, you can’t join with us, the world? No, no, no. All these things happened to begin, Nehemiah, and they built it in 52 days. I look at verse number 16. Nehemiah 6 and verse number 16. Look at this one, there’s a wonderful thing here. Nehemiah 6:16, “And it came to pass that when all our enemies”—the world, if you will, now—“when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen”—maybe I should say the enemies sometimes are God’s people with the enemies and the other heathen and lost world—“all the world that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes, for they perceived that this work was wrought of God.” Wow.
Even when the world has to say, “Wow, that’s a work of God.” That’s wonderful, friend. It’s awesome. I remember we had Brother Bobby Robertson preaching for us years ago—I don’t know, 10, 12, 15 years ago—and Brother Bobby said this. We’re out in the parking lot before one of the services. He said, “Hey,” he said, “Brother Paul, pray that God would do something so big here everybody knows God did it.” That’s what you want. I mean, when God’s blessing, God’s—we often say we don’t want what we can do, that’s not much and nothing. We want what God can do. Only God can really just change your life and transform the life, change family trees. God does those things. And somebody said, “Hey, that’s God doing that right there.” That’s what we want. And God can do that. God did that here with Moses, and finally the false magicians, the demonic people, they say, “Well, our God can’t do that. That’s the finger of Elohim, real God.” A wonderful thing when the world says that. Well, they say, the world can’t argue with the changed life. And just let God work in your life. One of our men was talking to me earlier tonight, and I wasn’t planning on saying—but I love it—but his family, they recently asked him to do a wedding in his family. He probably not going to do that one, but he’s about to a funeral. And in the last years, God’s just changed his life, saved his soul, and changed his life. And his family sees it. And they’re like, “That’s God right there.” And we want that man to preach Jesus. I love it. Wonderful. And God can do a work where everybody knows God’s doing that. That’s what you want. God gets the glory. God gets praise. People look to God after that. That’s just a wonderful thing.
Now I’m going to read just a little bit more. We’re going to go to verse number 20, and just for a moment here, we’ll talk about flies. All right? We’re going to get on these wonderful subjects of lice. We’re going to flies now, you know. Wonderful things. We won’t be on it briefly, and then we’ll just for a bit try to draw some conclusions, maybe preach for a minute or two, and then move on. We’re in verse number 20, Exodus 8 and verse number 20. Exodus 8 and verse number 20 of God’s word. Y’all there tonight? Amen? Good deal.
Verse number 20. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water.” Seems like that was a habit. God often said, go get water. And say unto him, “Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else if they will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen”—I think next Wednesday we’ll get to this a little bit—that before the Israelites were going through it also, but now God said, I’m going to separate a little bit even more. “And the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel”—this plague’s not going to come there, just where the Egyptians are living—“this plague’s not going to come there, just where the Egyptians are living. Now I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that there shall be no swarms of flies there, to the end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between my people. Thy people, tomorrow shall this sign be.”
And the Lord did so, and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt. The land was corrupted. I’ve got that underlined. The land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.
Now, why is that important about the land was corrupted? Flies, they really spread disease and parasites and things. Just so they’re so bad about that. You know, you praise the Lord for the ladies of my life, they never let flies around. You can’t sit down and eat with flies around, you know? And there’s a reason for that. They’re pretty wise. They know what’s going on. I’m not trying to be gross; we’re talking about lice and frogs here. But lice and frogs here tonight. But here’s the problem of flies. Flies, they like to go and lay their eggs in manure. That’s kind of the dung; that’s their favorite place. Or if they can’t find that, just filth and trash. That’s where their babies are born, you know. Not only that, but also when they go and they land on food, before they eat that food, one of the first things they do, whatever is in their stomach comes up and they put that on their food. And it kind of liquefies their food they’re about to eat. Emily Deck says, “Ooh, I don’t want flies around while I’m eating next time,” you know? That’s why it’s—that’s why, you know, get that fly out of here, shoo, get out of here, fly, you know? Because that’s fly. And that’s how they can really spread disease so much—flies, especially swarms of flies. Now Sarah says, “Come on, Dad. You got to talk about all this stuff now?” That’s why the Bible talks about how corrupted the land. See, these flies—I mean, just swarms of flies everywhere, everywhere that just flies—not over where the children of Israel were. They didn’t get all those diseases, but where the Egyptians were.
See, have you will for just a minute, just try to change gears for just a second. We’re not going to be too much longer. Y’all, you’ve been so busy earlier this week, you know? But let’s go back to verse number 20 and let’s just take a quick overview about what all this thing is about. What’s it really about? What’s going on? It’s going to have ten plagues. What’s this battle all about here? We’ve read it many times. Sometimes we’ve just kind of—we’ve not really focused on it a whole lot. I want to just for a minute here to do that. Exodus 8. Look in verse number 20. “And the Lord,” that’s Jehovah, “said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh. Lo, he cometh forth to the water and say unto him, Thus saith Jehovah the Lord, Let my people go that they may serve me.”
Now, this whole thing is about God’s people and the false gods that have a hold on them. That’s causing them oppression, causing them to serve them, this oppression. The whole thing is about, hey, take that, take your hands off my people so they can go and serve me.
You see, when we get saved, we become God’s child or His people. You know that. Nothing can change that. Praise the Lord. Last—I hope you don’t mind me mentioning it—but last Wednesday, Ms. Rachel settled her salvation. She knows she’s a daughter of God now. Praise the Lord for that. She is on her way to heaven. The devil can’t touch as far as her salvation. Her eternal soul is saved. She’ll never stand before God and give account of her sins because Jesus gave account for her sins on the cross of Calvary. It’s a done deal. She’s a child of God. Now giving them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father has given me them as greater than all, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand. She’s in the hand of Jesus, and God the Father got His hand wrapped around Jesus. Nobody’s going to pluck her out of His hand. You’re saying that’s a done deal. But our everyday living, our living in this flesh, in this robe of flesh, Satan is so busy with all his little bitty gods down here oppressing you so you cannot serve God like you would like to many times. And Satan and his chains of sin and his little bitty gods all over this place down here, they don’t want to let you go. They many times have grown attached to your flesh for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years. They’re not about to let go of you unless something drastic, unless God Almighty cuts those strings.
That’s really what’s going on. This battle here is about God’s people. God kept sending His man in there, Moses, and you tell that guy, “Let my people go so they can go serve me.” And Pharaoh said, “No, I’m not letting go.” That happens every day in a Christian’s life, sometimes moment by moment. And maybe some addiction or just some bad sinful habit we have in our life, and you’ve just been there, and Satan’s got that little stronghold in your life, and it’s a moment-by-moment battling. You say, “I want to serve God,” and then Satan kind of pulls your chain and says, “Yeah, but you’ve been doing this so long, you’ve got a habit you can’t break.” That’s what I’ll tell you. But God strategically comes in the life of a Christian, and He says, “No, no, no, no, no. I want to cut those strings that Satan has you in your life, and I want you to have freedom so you can go serve me.” That’s what this battle is all about we’ve been studying about. It’s a battle that’s going on in your life in some area of your life because we all battle sin. It’s about it when you wake up in the morning time, and you don’t want to have your devotion. I don’t want to have my flesh. And yet the battle, I want to be close to God. What am I going to do? And that battle was always going on in her life. And the wonderful thing about it is God says, “I’ll come into your life and I’ll strategically cut and shoot at those false gods in your life.”
There are a couple things about it. Number one is very evident from this battle here we’re seeing: we can’t serve God, Jehovah God, and serve these false gods that are in our life at the same time. You just can’t do it. We sing about it. We sing about it. “I have decided to follow Jesus.” Remember that? Remember that second? Let me try to sing a little bit more. Let’s lower a little bit. I have this. I’m just too low. Somebody get a little lower for me. Somebody help me out, brother. Get me low. You got that higher voice. I mean, you know. Brother Abbott says I can’t do it. I want it low. Sing it with me. To follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. Remember that verse? The world behind me, the cross before me. I’m not mad. We’ll preach for just a second here, but we think we can follow Jesus and the world at the same time. And listen, I am fooling myself if I think I can listen to the music I want to listen to and go to the places I want to go to and use the language I want to use, and I’m serving God at the same time, friend, I’m fooling myself. I cannot follow the world and the Lord at the same time. There must be a separation of the two. And I must say I’m not going to go where I want to go. I’m going to go where He wants to go. I’m not going to talk and look and act just as close as I can to the world. I want to look different than the world. We have this worldly Christianity that says, “Well, I’m just cool. I can just be as close as I can be to the world and still follow Lord Jesus Christ,” and I am playing games with it all. There must be a separation. The Lord comes along and He says, “All that language you’ve been using, that attitude you’ve had, that spirit of rebellion you’ve been having”—God says, “Uh-uh. You may have had that in your life for 40 years. You grew up like that, but if you’re going to serve Me, we’re going a different direction,” friend. And I must let Him come in my life and shoot at those gods. I might just have to take my music and lay it on the altar. Well, that God of unforgiveness and bitterness and just the anger and all that, I may have to say, “I’m going to put her down right there.” I don’t know what it may be for you, but I’m playing games about. I think I can just, well, have one foot in the world. You know, you put one foot on the dock and one foot in the boat, you’re going to split your bridges, you know what? And God says, “No, that’s My people. Pharaoh, let them go.” And God will go through my life.
Look if you will over in James chapter 4 real quickly tonight. James chapter 4. By the way, while you’re turning there, this is a great statement. If you can turn it right at the same time, you might want to do this: True freedom is not the freedom to sin. True freedom is freedom from sin. You know, it’s your shame. I’ve got to go back. It’s just shame. We have preachers, quote, unquote—I use their term very lightly—that have drank alcoholic beverage from the pulpit to show people it’s all right to drink. Shame on them. I think I told here recently about the lady that she was in Florida, and she went to church. It was just all about freedom in Christ, freedom of Christ, and we do have freedom in Christ from sin. And so you can go drink, pastor. You can go drink anytime. You walk, freedom in Christ. And so she went and drank. But she started drinking lots. And I know we’re going to get to James 4 in a second. We’re going there, all right? And she was drinking so much, she thought, “I got a problem.” So she went to her pastor, and pastor said, “No, no, you got freedom of Christ.” And she kept drinking. And finally, one of her coworkers said, “Hey, you’ve got a problem. You’re addicted here.” And she went to her pastor again and said, “Hey, pastor, that’s to the point where some of my coworkers are saying I’m addicted to alcohol. What do you think?” He said, “Oh, you’re fine, freedom in Christ.” And she realized, “I can’t quit this stuff. I got to drink every day. I’m an alcoholic.” And she left that church. Praise the Lord. I use the term lightly. Moved back home to another state. I won’t say this day. Got in a real church and started going to AA, to be honest with you. And she overcame that false god in her life. That’s what this worldly Christianity is: you can do whatever you want to and serve God. It ends up you’re stuck in bondage for years. You never really win. God’s going to come along and He’s going to shoot at those false gods of my life.
Look at this James chapter 4. James chapter 4. Look at this. James chapter 4. Watch what He says. This is a strong statement. He says, “You adulterers and adulteresses. Know ye not that the friendship—just this friendship—the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” Wow.
Let’s just try to make it. This isn’t going to be a perfect illustration. Let’s just try to make that verse real to us. But my wife and I, we have John, most of you know, our son, John, and he’s in Oregon, and him and his wife, and we miss them, but we really miss those two grandkids now. Amen. You know? About to go visit him in April. Somebody say amen right there. Yeah. And we got new videos today from him. Ooh, I enjoyed watching them, you know. But let’s just say there’s a small—we’ll just say a section of the world that they have a certain disease, they’re all going to die, and my son, our son, has the blood type they need. And so we send our son over there, and I’m using this very lightly; it’s not a perfect illustration. But our son goes over there, and our son, he gives his blood for a cure for those people. He dies, he sheds his blood. He slit his wrist, we’ll say, and I’m just using it lightly, and they take his blood. He dies to save those people. And some, a smaller percentage of those people, take it, and they’re cured. Those people will be very near and dear to me and my wife because our son gave—we gave our son’s life for that. Let’s just say there’s a large section of those people that are like, “We don’t want your son’s blood. We’re good on our own.” And they really just make a mockery of our son and our sacrifice, and they’re just so anti, you know, the sacrifice and the child and all that, and they just make fun of it. They have a lifestyle against it, and they just—they don’t want anything to do with us and our son that shed his blood for us. And we’ll say my wife—this would never happen, all of the whole thing—but we’ll say my wife, she goes over there to that section of the world, and she just starts to buddy up with that crowd that cannot stand our son and his shed blood. And my wife goes over there, and she just—and I’m—can you imagine how I feel? Now, we’re the bride of Christ. And can you imagine that when I hear that she’s just befriending them? She knows they’re not going to accept the sacrifice. She knows that. They made it clear. But she just goes over there and she hangs out with them, and she becomes—they got in an atmosphere, and she becomes just like them. She befriends them. Can you imagine how I feel? My wife is over there hanging out with those people that are against our son that gave his life for them? And yet she goes over, she’s listening to the music they listen to, and they’ve got this certain style and fads, and she’s just doing all the things they do, and life is great. Man, I’m inside, I’m just—I’m boiling. How can you do that? And that’s what the Bible’s talking about. “You adulterers and adulteresses. Know ye not that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whosoever would be a friend of the world is the enemy.” Because of the world, the one that killed my son, the cross, He laid down His life, but they’re gladly to take it. Oh, friend, I can’t—I can’t just be all like the world and act like the world and drink like the world and talk like the world and act. The world behind me, the cross before me.
A couple other things about this, and we’re going to be done here. Number one, we said we can’t serve God and serve the gods of this world at the same time. It’s just no way to do that. Number two, you cannot be effective at serving God if I have the other little gods oppressing me. Number three, God will methodically go after the false gods that have control in my life. Did you hear that? God will methodically go after the false gods that have control in my life. He’ll do it. That’s what He means over there in James when He says that he may be perfect and entire, wanting or lacking nothing. Job was a wonderful, wonderful Christian, but God had a reason for allowing those things in his life. He was such a good Christian, but he still had self-righteousness. And God wouldn’t… Let’s get the fourth thing in here, the last thing, we’re done tonight. And this is encouraging to me. This is so encouraging me: God is the one that defeats the false gods in my life. Boy, that’s encouraging. Moses didn’t defeat all those false gods. The children of Israel didn’t do that. God will be the one. He’ll start dealing with something in your life, and if you yield and you allow God to work, God will be the one that defeats that stronghold in your life. You don’t have the power to defeat it, but God does.
Look over in Galatians. Galatians is a great book about this subject. Let’s just look at a couple of different verses here real quickly. Galatians chapter 5. Galatians 5. And Galatians 5 really talks about the struggle between the Holy Spirit and our flesh; they are contrary one to the other, the Bible says. But look at Galatians 5:16. Galatians 5, verse number 16, if you would please. Galatians 5, verse number 16. He says, “This I say then, walk in the Spirit.” Now, that walking is moment by moment, minute by minute, and I’m yielding, I’m giving Him control. “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Look at verse number 24. Verse number 24. I love this verse. “And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and the lusts.” Hey, there are many times that my affections and my lust, whatever, my flesh just takes it over, and I say, “Man, I’m not giving myself to Christ,” because they that are Christ have crucified the flesh. And I don’t do it like I should, but sometimes I’ll go and say, “Hey, Lord, I’m giving everything back to You. Here’s my house. Here’s my marriage. Here’s my children. Here’s my reputation. Here’s my heart, my bitterness or unforgiveness or anger.” They’re Christ. I’m not going to defeat all that in my life, but I give it to Christ. They that are Christ have crucified the flesh. Go over chapter number two. Chapter number two, Galatians right there. It’s a great, great verse, all kind of the same line here. Moses did not defeat all these false gods. God defeated them. Look in Galatians 2. Look in verse number 20. A great verse here. Galatians 2:20. “I am crucified with Christ.” Boy, that’s a statement right there. “I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Did you notice that first part? I’m crucified. It’s not a matter of me going, “Oh, I’m going to take out this false god, this false god, and this false god out of my life,” but God—He’ll come along and He’ll start dealing with that anger issue in my life. Maybe I’m bad at just cutting people off. Maybe I’m bad at just at gossiping. Maybe I’m bad at playing the sympathy card. I want everybody to feel it. Whatever, maybe. I don’t know. But God, He’ll come along and He’ll start dealing with that in your life. It’s not a matter of us, “I’m going to beat this thing.” No, no. It’s a matter of us yielding, walking in the Spirit moment by moment. It’s a matter of us, hey, saying, “Christ, I’m giving my life to You.” And then that Galatians 2:20, I don’t do this like I should, but sometimes the Lord will use this in my life. I’ll go to Jesus and I’ll say, “Jesus, can I get up on the cross with You? Can I climb up there with You? My flesh is about a mile long, and I need to die to self, like Paul said, I die daily.” And Jesus, can I get up there with You? I was singing it before I left the house: “There’s room at the cross.” I changed the word. I said, “There’s room on the cross for you.” That’s what Jesus said: “Hey, take your cross and follow me.” Man, Jesus, it’s wonderful up there on the cross of Jesus. More peace there, more delight, more joy, more interest of prayer, more influence for God. Right on the cross. That’s what He said. “I am crucified with Christ.” Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth within me. Moses didn’t wipe out all these false gods, and He will if I yield to Him.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Heads bowed, eyes closed. He’s going to be working at those false gods in our life until the day we die. We’re never going to arrive. There’s always going to be some saying, “God, you’ve got a string attached there.” And if I let Him, He’ll bring more and more freedom in my life—freedom from the world, freedom to serve God. You hear tonight and say, “Preacher, when God comes to me and He’s working on things in my life, I’m going to respond humbly, not proudly.” He resisted proud, but humbly, and I’m going to yield to Him, and I’m going to do my best to climb up on the cross and be crucified with Christ. God’s working in my heart in those saints. God brings them in my life. I want to do that more and more. That’s you tonight. You’re lifting up to preach. That’s me right there. I want to respond like that. Oh, me too. Me too. I need to. Oh, God bless you. God bless you. Would you please stand? Would you please stand? We’re going to have a word of prayer. Would you spend some time with the Lord? Just, oh, Lord, have me come up on the cross with You. Give Him everything. Give Him everything. Give Him everything. Give Him everything. Thank You, Lord, that You come and You just methodically take out the false gods, the strongholds in our life. Help us to yield to You. Help us to follow Your path. Help us to stay in there for You as You bring freedom in our life. Bless these few minutes, Lord, in a special way. Speak to us clearly, Lord. Well, thank You for what You do. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen. Would you come as our instruments play? Just be obedient to the Lord. Would you do that? Help me, and let me come to the cross with You. Give Him everything. Give Him everything. Give it all. Give it all.
We got a lot more plagues He goes through, and He just wipes them out, and He delivers His people. He’ll deliver you. And praise the Lord, we have a God that delivers us from the false gods of this world.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - Lice - Wednesday PM 3222023