Exodus 7:14-10:29 - What Can Ten Plagues Teach Us?

I'm going to invite you this morning to Exodus. Chapter seven is where we're going to be, almost said Acts. We're out of Acts. Exodus chapter seven is where we're going to be. And I want you to know, I am covering a pretty significant amount of Scripture today, and we're not reading every verse in this section of Scripture. I have an idea of why we're covering such a significant amount. I went back and I just thought through, out of what, 18 years here at ABC, have I ever taught such a large section of Scripture? I don't think I have in our history.

There's a few reasons I want to do this today. It's because we're in that section where we're talking about ten plagues, and I suppose we could approach it this way. This is covered through multiple chapters. And when you think about each of these plagues, I could have said, you know what, we really need to bore down on this and we're going to spend the next ten weeks talking about ten plagues. And I thought, who wants to show up for that? Right? Well, this is week number five of the ten plagues that we're going through together. That's a real downer. But also, in looking at these plagues, sometimes I feel like we can get so caught up in the detail of each of the plagues that we fail to see the greater scope of what God is painting here. And I'll give some arguments from Scripture, I think, why that's essential.

So this, I believe, is the first time we've ever gone through this specific section on a Sunday morning. And so I really want us to have that 10,000 foot view of what this passage is about. And we're even going to approach a few sections through the book of Exodus this way. In fact, we've mapped out how we're going to go through this book. And the plan is for 25 weeks, this is what we're covering. So we've been in this for a number of weeks already, but we're going to go through the whole book of Exodus in 25 weeks, and we're going to look at a few of these sections and chunks. So like here at the ten plagues, we're going to look at this in a chunk. When we get to the Ten Commandments again, we'll look at the broad idea of what the Ten Commandments are about. And then even in the building of the temple, we're going to look at the broad idea of what the temple represents here in the book of Exodus. So there'll be a few sections that we'll approach more broadly when we get through those areas.

And it begins with the ten plagues. And perhaps you've looked at these plagues before, maybe you've been taught these, and maybe particularly in a Sunday school class where it becomes somewhat of a children's story. It's got a lot of death in it, but it's got a children's story, maybe from that sense. But you've come away looking at these ten plagues and thought, it's nice to know. And that's great how God worked. But what does this have to do with me? Right? What is it that I could possibly glean from these plagues? In fact, at the top of your notes, this is what we put. What can ten plagues really teach us? Right? And have you really considered maybe even why these plagues, and why specifically the particular plagues that God has chosen?

In reality, God could have done anything to demonstrate his glory. If his interest was to just get Israel out of Egypt, into the Promised Land, he could have just annihilated the Egyptians or annihilated Pharaoh and said, okay, let's go everybody. And in fact, God said that much in Exodus chapter nine, verse 15. He said this, for by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people, talking to Pharaoh, with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. So God could have said, if that was simply my plan, just to get the children of Israel from one place to the next, I could have done that. Could have just struck you dead. We could have moved on. That could have been how it happened. But God chooses to work through these plagues, and he's doing it for a particular reason, right?

And considering that begins to help us understand, okay, so what is the reason? Is God just sitting around and thinking to himself, you know what? We seem to have ample frogs and gnats these days. I know what we'll do. We'll just create these plagues. Is that really how God's approaching this circumstance? I think there's more specificity to why God is choosing this path. And so we should ask the question, what is the reason?

Now, I think some people might get a little lost in trying to really determine the precise reason for each plague, but I think it's important to know that God doesn't always tell us specifically the particulars of each plague. We can certainly have a reasonable understanding as to why God would have chosen to move in the way that he did with each of these plagues. And sometimes individuals go back and say, well, each of these plagues are attached to a false god in Egypt. And so God is choosing each of these plagues as an affront to these false gods, to demonstrate himself as the one true God. And I don't believe that's untrue. I think it's accurate, but also, I acknowledge the text doesn't specifically attach each of these plagues to a specific god. So it becomes easy to see things like when you get to the ninth plague, there's darkness throughout the land. And one of the prominent gods of Egypt is the god Ra, which is the sun god, right? So it becomes evident that that seems to be an affront against that god.

But one thing that Scripture certainly says to us in Exodus chapter 12, verse 12, it says this, on all the gods of Egypt I will execute my judgments. I am the Lord. So what God is certainly broadly saying is that these plagues that I've brought on this land are absolutely an affront to these gods of Egypt. But he doesn't even take the time to actually specifically acknowledge to us which exact gods he's going after in Egypt by bringing these plagues. And for some people, they may find that irritating, right? I mean, we even talked about in the beginning that when you read the book of Exodus, you're left to the context clues to determine, okay, what point of Egypt is this? Because God never tells us Pharaoh's name. And for those that love history, this can become wildly irritating, right? Like what Pharaoh is this? I want to put it on a timeline. Just give me a name. And then you look at the plagues and say, okay, what gods are these? I can see these plagues. I can see what God says as an affront to the gods, for his glory declared over the land. But what gods are these?

And I would say this is exactly the point. This is the point in the way God is working. Because when it comes to Pharaoh, Pharaoh is viewed in the land as sort of a demigod. And God is saying, do you want to know what Pharaoh's name is? It doesn't matter what Pharaoh's name is, because the main character of this story is the glory of who I am. It's God himself. And so by leaving Pharaoh's name out of this book, it's to recognize the one true being, or true God, for which praise is due. It's not to Pharaoh. And it's the same with these plagues. It's to recognize this as an affront to the gods. God certainly is. But the theme of the story is not about recognizing these false gods. It's about recognizing the one true God and His glory over me.

And so God begins to lay these out against Pharaoh. And in fact, God declares this over and over again with each of these plagues. We see in Exodus chapter nine, verse 14, this is just one of many verses we could highlight. But as God introduces each one of these plagues, he makes his purpose clear that it's not about these false gods, but it's about who I am. In fact, Exodus 9:14 says, for this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. We don't want to give credence to these false gods anymore. In fact, if you remember, all the way back in Exodus chapter five, verse two, when Moses approached Pharaoh and said, the God Yahweh has declared, let his people go. And Pharaoh's response in Exodus five, verse two: I don't know this God. And now God is saying over and over again, my glory is made known. Who I am is being declared, is being proclaimed throughout all the earth.

And so each one of these plagues is helping us begin to recognize this one true God. God's goal with these plagues is not just simply to remove the idols from the Egyptians and the lives of the Hebrews, but rather that we would see his glory above all. And it's the same for us. As the condition of the human heart, no matter what century we are in, our hearts are idol factories. We're constantly creating idols in our lives, and it's an affront to the glory of God, and it's detrimental to the well-being of the soul, even in terms of eternity. And so understanding the significance of who God is in light of these things is important. The purpose of us gathering this morning, get this, is not just simply to stop doing bad things. It's not just simply to remove the idols of our life, because we know inevitably, even if you don't do another bad thing in your life, you can, quote, live an entirely good life, but never have a relationship with the Lord. And you can try to remove all the idols in your life, but what you're going to ultimately end up doing is just substituting for another idol.

And so why these ten plagues? And what can it teach us? Well, number one in your notes is this. We begin to learn God exposes our idols. God exposes our idols. And when you look at these ten plagues, I'll put them on the screen in just a moment. Don't make fun of my graphic. I know I'm not an artist, okay? But when we look at each of these ten plagues, I want you to see that there's actually a rhythm to how God introduces these plagues. He does it in a series of three until he gets to the final judgment. And the way that you see it is the way that God calls Moses to confront Pharaoh in each of these plagues. Meaning the first plague, he tells him to go stand in front of Pharaoh. The second plague, he tells him to go seek out Pharaoh. And the third, God just brings it about through the hardness of Pharaoh's heart. God brings the third plague, and it's the same rhythm with the fourth plague and the fifth plague and the sixth plague. Go stand before Pharaoh, then go pursue, seek him out, the fifth plague, and then the sixth plague, God produces it. And then the seventh, eighth, and ninth plague, it's the same rhythm. God produces these plagues in this particular way.

But in each one of these plagues, as they're given to us in series of three, there's a theme to each of these plagues. For the first series, the first three plagues, God is pronouncing his power over the Egyptian gods. It's known by the Egyptians that they worshiped the god of the Nile. And in these first two plagues, the magicians are actually able to reproduce the first and second plague, which is interesting. Pharaoh brings his magicians, they produce these first two plagues, and it tells us they can't undo the plagues. They can't make things better. But they can, by their power, make things worse, which is typical of what an idol does in our life. It over-promises, under-delivers, and puts us in a worse state than when we first began.

But here they are, the first couple plagues. They do this, and the first plague is turning the water to blood, which is ironic because Pharaoh used the Nile River as a place to bring death to the Hebrew people. They killed the firstborn males of Hebrews. It was a river of blood for the Hebrew people. But God literally turns it into a river of blood where the Egyptians can't use it. And they would worship at this river because this river they saw as a place dedicated to their gods that would give them life. But not only that, there's the frog god. We'll talk a little bit about that in a minute. And then the idea of gnats. But when you look at these plagues, what's being represented here is God controls the water. And then with the gnats, God tells Moses, strike the ground. And when he strikes the ground, the dust, it tells us, turns to gnats. So you're saying God controls the water and the land and everything in between. And the idea of the frog certainly represents that idea of the in between.

But even greater than that, these gnats were coming up on people and they were biting them. And for the priests, the individuals that they would consider as the holy people in the worship of these Egyptian gods, they highly held the thought of cleanliness as important as it relates to worship. But now these gnats have scattered everywhere. They are defiling these holy places of their worship and even creating wounds on their skin. These priests that would be so careful in their appearance, now their worship is even defiled. So from the water to the land and everything in between. And the idea of these frogs is that the Egyptians would bow down to a frog god because they saw it as a representation of the god of fertility. And for the Egyptians, they worshiped this god because, well, fertility was for their protection and preservation. Thinking in this society, we'll say 15th century BC, for conversation's sake. But in the 15th century, your well-being was based on your ability to procreate in an agricultural society. It helps you take care of the land. In a time period where there were no police, it was for your protection. And when you got older and you got to those years where you couldn't quite care for yourself as well, it was your family that you leaned upon. And so here they are worshiping these gods, and it's showing God's sovereignty over all those things.

Then when you get to four, five, and six, this is where in Exodus chapter eight, verse 19, the Egyptians start to recognize that this is certainly the hand of God, that they can't even duplicate these things anymore. It's God's hand that is stirring about these plagues. And then when you look at the flies and the livestock and the boils, these are now the plagues that make a distinction between the children of Israel and Egypt. God may have done it up to this point, but God makes it very clear, Egypt, when I bring these plagues, I want you to see that there's going to be a difference between my people and those that are opposed to me. And so these plagues, as they move forward, no longer touch God's people, but rather those who remain in rebellion against him.

And then plagues seven, eight, and nine. These plagues continue to escalate in their destruction. But God is even gracious during this time. When the first of those last plagues comes about, the plague of hail, God warns the people in Exodus chapter nine, verse 19. As I deliver this warning to you to bring about hail, if you don't want to be destroyed by it, you need to seek shelter indoors and bring your livestock indoors. And those that heeded the warning of God were preserved, but those that didn't were destroyed. And so seven, eight, and nine, these plagues reveal the sovereignty of who God is as the ultimate.

And then you get to these last couple of plagues, which are darkness and death, which remind us that ultimately this is the false belief that idols want you to buy into, that if you observe them, they will bless you. But in reality they lead you to a place of darkness and death. With these plagues, God's desire is to expose, not only to Egyptians and Israel, but also to us, the significance of what idols will produce in our life, but the glory of which God desires to make himself known in our lives.

But here's the reality. As you start to look across each of these plagues, what we discover is the way that the Egyptians respond and the way that Pharaoh responds is not much different than the way that we often respond. Which is number two: we defend our idols. We have a tendency to defend our idols. It's fascinating when you read this story over and over again how Pharaoh continues to harden his heart, and even the people begin to beg Pharaoh. It's leading us to a place of ruin. But Pharaoh's heart continues to harden towards the pursuit of his own destruction and even the destruction of his people. And it's the same for us when we live a life of idolatry. We're not the only ones that are harmed in that. So are others around us.

You see in Exodus chapter ten, verse seven, Then Pharaoh's servants said to him, how long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined? They're saying to Pharaoh, look around. Look at the path that it's led you on. Look what's taking place, not only in your life, but all of our lives because of this. And so they start to tell Pharaoh to relent. But you begin to see peppered throughout these passages how Pharaoh deals with his idols, none of which is healthy.

But this is what Exodus chapter seven, verse 22 says. It says this, but the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So this is the first two plagues. The magicians were able to duplicate it. So here's what Pharaoh does. Pharaoh's heart remained hardened and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said. Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. Pharaoh justified his position. And we're all good at that, as our hearts are idol factories, justifying our behavior as if we're the exception. Well, God says this and it's for most people, but let me explain to you why I'm different and why it's okay for me. And so we'll justify where we are.

And then it goes on further. And it says in Exodus chapter nine, verse 27, Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron, and said to them, this time I have sinned. The Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. So it looks like, oh wait, Pharaoh's finally getting it. It's getting through his thick skull what he's doing and how he needs to change. And verse 34, but when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.

One of the things that Pharaoh is teaching us is the idea of false repentance. And I find that this is an easy practice people regularly get into. We've shared a little bit about this recently, but let me just remind you, in case you weren't here, or in case you just need a little refresher, that as people, if we're not careful, what we often repent from is the result of sin and not sin itself. Now, don't get me wrong, repentance definitely has a place in our life. But the ultimate goal of repentance isn't just to repent for the sake of repentance. The ultimate goal in life is to walk with Jesus. It's for the glory of God, to our benefit. That's what God calls us to in this world. It's God's glory made known. So it's more than just simply turning away from something. The idea of repentance is also moving towards something, right? It's walking in that relationship with the Lord, saying, this used to own me, but no more, because my life is defined by him.

But we have this tendency of walking in false repentance. And the way it looks in life is this: when I do something wrong and it gets found out, I feel terrible. Because often when it's found out, not only do I feel embarrassed, but then I start to recognize, my eyes are open to the pain it created for other people, and I feel sad about that. I feel awful about that. And I want to tell people I'm sorry for that. And look, if you do something wrong and you feel bad about it, I'm glad you feel bad about it, right? Something is wrong with you if you do something you shouldn't, and there isn't some conviction in your heart. There is something wrong with that, right? And you should apologize to people when that happens. But I want you to know that's not true biblical repentance. It's good to begin to recognize where we're wrong, but what makes true repentance is not just simply repenting from the result of what my sin produced. What makes true repentance is to see my behavior, which is derived from my heart, as an affront to my God, regardless of how it impacts other people or not. Anytime I ever do anything wrong, it's always first an affront to the Lord. And true repentance isn't true repentance until I'm acknowledging, God, my battle is really with you.

And Pharaoh here in this moment, seeing the impact it's made against people, he's like, oh, I feel so sorry because I want this to stop. But as soon as that stopped, what does Pharaoh do? He goes back to doing what he's doing, because what's most important to Pharaoh is Pharaoh. So there's this false repentance. And the reason you have false repentance, it tells you in Exodus chapter ten, verse three, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? There's no true humility in the presence of God. And in so doing, Pharaoh continues to harden his own heart.

And then we see the last step in Exodus 10:24. Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, go serve the Lord. Your little ones also may go with you. Only let your flocks and your herds remain behind. And so Pharaoh gets to this place where he's eventually, at the end of chapter ten, just going to cut off Moses altogether and say, don't come back. If I see you again, you're a dead man. And so Moses never comes before Pharaoh again. But here you see in Exodus chapter ten, verse 24, that what Pharaoh is attempting to do is simply compromise. And let me just tell you, this is a temptation for all of us. And the reason it's a temptation for all of us is because we see the glory of God in conflict with what we think is best for us.

And so we start to ask questions this way. We'll say things like, well, I know God wants me to have a relationship with him. Maybe, hopefully you know that, but God wants me to have a relationship with him. But I really love the world. So how about this, God? How about I give you Sunday and you give me Monday? Like, let's just divide here, and you take some, I'll take some. And I want you to know, if that's your pursuit of the Christian life, it will be miserable, because you weren't created for that.

Now, sometimes we'll ask the question this way. Well, I know there's what God wants me to do, but where's the line? We want to ask the question like, here's what God wants me to do, but how far to the line can I go before God's going to get mad at me? Right? And so we want to toe that line. And we want to put one foot in the world and one with God. And I want you to know, again, if you think of your relationship with God in terms of that way, that's not healthy, because the pursuit of our life shouldn't be about where are the boundaries? I need to find the boundaries first for me to live. The pursuit of our life is to know God and to enjoy his glory all of our days, right? It's not about finding the boundaries. It's about recognizing the worth of who he is and surrendering our lives to it. Because my life will not delight in the greatest joy it can discover, lest it be submitted to the one that created me for his purpose. The rest of these idols in life are putting on a facade of what would tempt me to believe I could find joy. But ultimate joy can only be discovered in the one who has created me for his purpose. So anytime my eyes become about these boundaries, I've lost sight of the worth of who God is and the gift it is to delight in him all of my days.

And this is where Pharaoh is. Sometimes I think when we look at Pharaoh, we think to ourselves, yeah, it's good that we're fair is. But I read a story like this and I feel like I don't really have a connection to Pharaoh. Pharaoh is a terrible person because, well, he, first of all, killed kids. He threw kids in rivers for his convenience. Not much different than today, but he threw kids in rivers for his own convenience, for what he wanted. And he had slaves. And that's a terrible human being. But I want you to know, in his society, what Pharaoh was doing, according to his people, would have been for their benefit. And so they would look at Pharaoh and think, well, he's got our interest in mind. And what Pharaoh is doing is what really everyone does. If someone feels like a threat to our people, we get rid of that threat. And if a society conquers another group of people, they become slaves to that society. That's what happens in that century. And if we're not careful, we have the tendency of doing the same thing, judging ourselves by our morality based on the temperature of the culture of the day. And, well, if you call yourself a Christian, what you've got to do then is just be slightly better than the people around you, because, well, you're a Christian. So whatever their standards are, you just slightly improve your standards so that you can be better than them. That's not godly, by the way. Don't do what I'm telling you to do. I'm just telling you that's what we can easily do with idolatry in our hearts.

Rather, can I say, rather than just toss her aside like some sort of moral monster and say, I can't relate to him, look at him and his hardness of heart, how stupid do you have to be to do this over and over again? Can I just say, maybe the better way to think about Pharaoh is from a religious perspective. We can live in moral rebellion, and in moral rebellion it's not difficult for us to see when we're wrong, but we can also live in religious rebellion. And I would argue religious rebellion is more dangerous than moral rebellion. And the reason for that is religious rebellion has this way of helping me put on a facade of spirituality that lures me into believing I'm okay with my relationship with God because, well, I'm a good person. And if you don't connect with that, well, let me just tell you, all you have to do is read the Gospels. You read the Gospels, and you recognize the people that were quick to embrace Jesus were the ones that knew they were morally wrong. The ones that treated Jesus with animosity and rejected him and even wanted to kill him and ultimately brought him to the cross were the religious leaders.

Religion has this way of putting on this facade of saying, just like Pharaoh, well, I've done the list of good things. And in Pharaoh's life he was responsible for Egypt to maintain the order of Ma'at, which was peace and justice. The people depended on Pharaoh to appease the gods for the benefit of the people. And so from a religious sense, they would look at Pharaoh and he would be a moral person in their eyes because of what he would do for them. And so Pharaoh for us becomes that kind of example of moralism. And I want you to know that is not the goal of Christianity. We certainly want you to be good. But the goodness we produce as God's people is not the goal. It's the fruit. The goodness we produce is the result. The goal is a relationship with God. If we walk with Jesus, the result of our life will be goodness. But the goal is not goodness itself. We're not here this morning to preach moralism. I hope you live a moral life. But that's not the pursuit. That's not the ultimate. It's the glory of God made known.

And maybe we would even come to a place like this, these plagues that are on these false gods, and we would say something like this, look, I have a difficult time connecting to a story like this, because let me just tell you, I am in no danger of bowing down to a river god. Or maybe we'd say, reading a story like this, it's wonderful to read the story, but when I walk out of here, please know I plan not to worship a frog today. Like we would look at these things and think, how ridiculous these are. These are barbaric. And I'm not going to do that. But let me just tell you, the gods of Egypt aren't much different than our gods today. We may have made our idols look more sophisticated, but we still have the same struggle.

And let me just paint the picture. When you think about the idea of the frog god, for example, the frog god is the god of fertility. And why would the Egyptians bow down to the god of fertility? It's not because they truly want the god of fertility. The god of fertility is just used as a commodity to serve them and ultimately what they really desire. And in serving the god of fertility, what they hope it produces for them is offspring, because, well, offspring will help them farm the agricultural land, which will increase their wealth, and it will provide them protection, because what they idolize is comfort, and it will give them a future so that they can be secure. So the pursuit of the god of fertility really isn't primarily about the god of fertility, but about what the god of fertility can produce for them. Same thing with the Nile River. They worship the gods of the Nile, not because they really cared about the gods of the Nile, but what they could get from the gods of the Nile. When the Nile River would overflow, it would bring nourishment to the land, which would help fertilize the crops that would grow, giving them more wealth. And so for them, their worship of their god was connected to really what their ultimate god is. I'll get to that in just a moment.

But I would say it's the same in which we worship. In fact, I warned us just a few weeks ago in saying it like this: if you just think about your walk with the Lord over this last week, and you think for a moment of any time you might have prayed to the Lord. If the only time you talked to God this last week was simply when you had trouble, if the only time God really ever hears from you is when you go through hard things, listen, I'm not throwing stones, but just consider this for a moment. Perhaps the god you worship isn't the God you think. Perhaps rather than worship Jesus, which we will say we do, what we truly worship is comfort, and we just simply leverage Jesus as a tool to get what we ultimately desire. If the only time I talk to God is when I have problems, it might indicate that what I worship is not really God, but rather comfort.

Now hear me. I'm not saying comfort is wrong. I'm not saying joy is wrong. I'm not saying having things is wrong. But when they become the end in themselves, perhaps our pursuit is those things and not really the Lord. Maybe the reason we worship the Lord is not because we get God, but it's because what I'm interested in is what I get from God. So for some of us, or all of us, perhaps our pursuit in life is money. Perhaps it's pleasure. Perhaps it's power, position, sex. Maybe we pursue those things in life, but can I tell you that those pursuits are really pointing to a deeper idol resting in our hearts? For example, if you pursue success, it may represent that you want to go after significance or approval. If you pursue position, it may represent that you want power or recognition. If you pursue pleasure, it may represent that you want escape or comfort. If you pursue relationship as the ultimate, it may represent that what you truly long for is identity or acceptance. And can I tell you, the true god behind all of those things isn't even approval, recognition, comfort, or acceptance. The true idol is ourselves.

In 2005, some sociologists published a book in America called Soul Searching, and in so doing, they outlined what they thought America's God is. And they said it like this, based on America's religious belief. Number one, God exists. He created the world and watches over human life. Now that is not untrue for Christians. That's certainly something we would hold to. But then you go further and they say, number two, this God wants people to be good, nice, and fair. And again, we would say, well, God wants that. But that's not the ultimate. That's not the primary goal that we're after. That's the fruit. Number three, the central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about yourself. Number four, God does not need to be particularly involved in your life unless you need help. We talked about that already. And number five, good people go to heaven when they die. This is the outline of the big thought of what American theology is about.

Now, let me tell you this. I'm not going to break all these down, but I want you to know, if you can't recognize the distinction between what this says and biblical Christianity, perhaps you've been discipled more by the world than by Jesus. I'm not trying to be rude. I'm not trying to be mean. But I'm telling you, there's a way your culture wants you to think about what is important, and the way your culture is developing you is to make yourself the primary idol of life rather than God himself. And we see the glory of God as an antithesis to our existence. God is not your enemy, and his glory is not opposed to your joy.

In fact, they summarize it like this: America's God is moralistic therapeutic deism, meaning we'll live a good life because it makes us feel good, according to whatever our God is. Meaning, look at this. God exists. Get this, to serve my happiness. Do you see this? It's telling you what is Lord in that statement. It's not God. God has a different position. God exists to serve my happiness. Meaning the idol of our life isn't the Lord. Though sometimes we could say it, the idol of our life becomes me, rather than my life existing for his glory. Our lives conflict and wrestle with that reality of recognizing, do I believe I know better than God? Or do I truly recognize God made me for him? And in so doing, surrender my life to him.

If we follow moralistic therapeutic deism, then it ends with this: that God becomes a helper rather than Lord. That sin becomes anything that makes me unhappy rather than rebellion against God. That salvation becomes personal well-being rather than reconciliation in my relationship with the Lord. And worship becomes a means of feeling better rather than a response to God's infinite worth in my life. When we follow that path, we really end up with no biblical framework for understanding the holiness of God, the seriousness of sin, the necessity of salvation, the value of the cross, and the call to surrender to him become nothing.

The Bible really points it out like this. And it's not just to America, but America's idol is self-worship. But look, it's true of really any culture that's ever existed. And in Second Timothy three, Paul says it like this. But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. Avoid such people. He's saying, when you don't make the Lord Lord of your life, your pursuit is ample idols. You bow down to anything to find significance for who you are. And in so doing, you start to treat everything like it's a commodity to serve you, to the point you become abusive of it. Because what becomes most important to you, well, is yourself.

But the only way for us out of this is to see the significance of the Lord. When self is our idol, listen to this. When self is your idol, by the way, I know I'm laying it on heavy. We'll lighten it in just a minute. But when self is your idol, we tend to say these things. Follow your heart. Be true to yourself. Your happiness is ultimate. You define your identity. God exists to fulfill your dreams. Avoid whatever makes you uncomfortable. But when Christ is Lord of your life, when you see his infinite worth, you live life this way. Trust the Lord rather than your own understanding, Proverbs three, five. Deny yourself and follow Christ, Luke 9:23. God's glory is ultimate, in First Corinthians 10:31. Your identity is found in Christ, Galatians 2:20. You exist for God's glory, Isaiah 43, verse seven. Take up your cross and follow him, Luke 9:23. The greatest idol of our generation may not be something we possess, but what we see when we look in the mirror.

So let me give you this last point. Christ is greater than our idols. Christ is greater than our idols, because it becomes critical to find freedom in this way. And Jesus even taught this in the book of John chapter six, right after he did the miracle of the feeding of thousands. It says, Jesus comes to them and answers, truly, truly, I say to you, you're seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal. Then they said to him, what must we do, to do the works of God? And Jesus answered them and said, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. And Jesus said, I am the bread of life.

Jesus is saying, your problem is you're worshiping the created, and you're failing to see the value of the Creator. He's saying that you've had the sign of who I am, but you're choosing the substance of the things that were produced rather than me myself. And there becomes this challenge in our life to become face to face with the greatness of God and say, what is it I'm going to believe? Do I really believe that I am made to belong to him, that he alone sustains me, not what he produces, but he himself? Or do I trust myself over and above him to use the things of this world to serve me? Because what's most important in my life is me. We always are wrestling with this as people, and the antidote to that is to say, God, help me see the beauty of who you are. And in so doing, the value of my idols diminishes, and the presence of your glory, God, the affection of my heart growing in a deeper love for you helps my eyes remain fixed on your glory above all things. So God, help me see your worth in my life.

And can I tell you where it happens specifically? You look at these plagues, and at the end of these plagues, you see the plague of darkness and the plague of death. And then when you look at Christ's life, you realize at the final moments of his life as he went to the cross, it tells us darkness was over the land. Jesus endured the darkness. And Jesus endured the death, so that in him we could have life. The sweetness of who he is is seen at the cross. And the question is, what will you trust?

I know you have this final statement. Let me give it to you there in your notes. But it's to remind us of this. God's glory is not the enemy of my joy, but the avenue through which my joy is made complete. God's glory, let me say it one more time, is not the enemy of my joy, but the avenue through which my joy is made complete. Jesus said this in John 15, verse 11. I say these things, that your joy may be made full. You're made for him.

And look, when we leave today, and this is the last thing I want to say in closing, as we leave today, I want you to know, in thinking about how we can so easily make idols, and our pursuits of even God sometimes can simply just be using him to get something else that I worship, I don't want you walking out here and saying, I'm a terrible person. Let me just sit and sulk in my misery. Because I would tell you once again, you're making an idol. Once again, you're focused on you. The whole point of Jesus's pursuit in our life wasn't so that we sit and sulk in our misery about how bad we are, but we see the greatness of who he is, and we let it all go. And we say, Lord, thank you for giving your life for me, that I could experience the richness of who you are, so that I could walk in the newness of life. That I could put the past in the past and appreciate the joy for which you called me to. In you, I can let it all go, trusting in the sovereignty of who you are in my life.