The Hell Created by One Hard Heart

Exodus 7:14-25

Exodus 7:14–25 NKJV

14 So the Lord said to Moses: “Pharaoh’s heart is hard; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning, when he goes out to the water, and you shall stand by the river’s bank to meet him; and the rod which was turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand. 16 And you shall say to him, ‘The Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness”; but indeed, until now you would not hear! 17 Thus says the Lord: “By this you shall know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will strike the waters which are in the river with the rod that is in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood. 18 And the fish that are in the river shall die, the river shall stink, and the Egyptians will loathe to drink the water of the river.” ’ ” 19 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their streams, over their rivers, over their ponds, and over all their pools of water, that they may become blood. And there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in buckets of wood and pitchers of stone.’ ” 20 And Moses and Aaron did so, just as the Lord commanded. So he lifted up the rod and struck the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants. And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. 21 The fish that were in the river died, the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river. So there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 22 Then the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments; and Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the Lord had said. 23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house. Neither was his heart moved by this. 24 So all the Egyptians dug all around the river for water to drink, because they could not drink the water of the river. 25 And seven days passed after the Lord had struck the river.

Prayer

Message

This morning we find ourselves back in our study of Exodus. Our last time together you may remember that Moses and Aaron went before Pharoah in response to God’s instructions. God told Moses and Aaron that when Pharoah begins inquiring of you and asking you to show a miracle, I want you throw down your staff at Pharoah and I will make the staff into a serpent. You may also remember that Egypt’s wise guys, the sorcerers and magicians threw down their staffs and their rods became serpents as well. What is interesting is the serpent of God’s staff engulfed all of the other serpents and a great demonstration of the power of God on display for all the wise men of Egypt and Pharaoh to witness. Everytime you and I throw down the Lord’s serpent, God is choosing the outcome.

1 Corinthians 3:6–7 “6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.”

In this case time and again God’s Word records that Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Pharaoh was not moved by the words or the actions of God. Pharaoh was dug in to following self and his own will in life.

The title of my message is this morning, “The Hell Created by One Hard Heart.”

We all remember the background of these last weeks. Moses was called to be God’s deliverer to deliver His people, Israel. Moses’ assignment with the assistance of his brother Aaron was to go to Pharaoh and ask Pharoah to allow God’s people, the Israelites to go into the wilderness for three days to worship Yahweh.

As you know Pharoah refused Moses’ request. Pharaoh in essence refused the voice of God. God had heard the cries of His people as recorded in the scriptures and no was not an option. Israel would be leaving Egypt. Period the end.

This is an important teaching dear brother because whether we have a cooperative spirit or a combative spirit God will prevail. God chose to lead His people Israel out of bondage by the surrender and the submissive will of one man named Moses.

We have micro and macro teachings within this text.

Micro I mean that the story is applicable in our individual lives.

We look at the life of Moses and the life of Pharaoh.

Oh what God can do with one man or woman surrendered to His will for their lives, in this case Moses. God can take a transformed life and transform a nation, a community, a neighborhood, a family with the transformation of one life.

I think about men like Dr. Billy Graham, Adrian Rogers, Charles Stanley that are impacting people after they are dead and gone to be with the Lord through their radio ministries.

The converse is true as well. God can bring judgment on a nation, on a community or a family or a workplace, etc. by the hard hearted insensitive mindset of the will of God in one person’s life, namely the life of Pharaoh.

Macro

People at large can be blessed or cursed by our actions. Our lives have places of influence, both good and bad. And what is sad and what makes for a real challenge for all of us is that people will call us out much quicker for the bad we do than the good we do.

Exodus 20:5–6 “5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

Before we get into this text this morning I want us to really understand the underlying message in this study.

The cries of His people (and when I say the cries of mankind that He created) is a cry He heeds and He desires to offer salvation to everyone who desires a changed life in Christ. Israel was a people that were enslaved, literally enslaved to the people of Egypt, enslaved in a pagan lifestyle influence.

The story is a reminder that people created in the image of God are beings of worship. And when they do not worship the Creator, they worship His creation. The people of Israel were enslaved to pagan domination in their lives. The ten plagues represented God’s direct attack against all of the many gods that the people of Egypt worshipped and the people of Israel were exposed to. In fact, the people of Egypt worshipped over eighty gods.

Someone can make the statement that I do not worship, I do not participate in religion. I assure you that you are worshipping something. That is what you were created to do. You worship commerce, you worship family, you worship leisure, you worship sex, you worship spirits and I mean drugs, alcohol, prescription drugs and the list goes on. We all worship something or I hope you worship someone, the person of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, we learn from the story of Pharoah and Egypt is that God will make a person, a family, a community or a nation keenly aware of who He is. You can be assured that whether you call yourself an atheist or agnostic or you term your spiritual status anything else, Good will cause you to know that He is God.

Please understand something important. God allows man choice, free will to accept or reject Christ. God in His great love for you wants you to love Him by your own will. He will not force His will upon you, but when our actions have a bearing on the spiritual goodwill of others, we are treading on dangerous ground. If you choose not to follow the Lord, it will not because you do not know who God is.

Today is a sobering message because we learn today that when your hard hearted ways cause destruction in the lives of others, look out. God has a way of getting our attention.

Let’s continue on.

1. God Knows our Heart Condition VV. 14-18

Exodus 7:14 “14 So the Lord said to Moses: “Pharaoh’s heart is hard; he refuses to let the people go.”

Dearly beloved, here lies the root cause of Pharaoh's problem. Please underline in your Bible heart is hard.

Heart-Leb-mind or conscience

Pharaoh's conscience had become desensitized to God and Pharoah had become so hardened that he had lost any conscience over the abuse of the Israelite people. Pharoah was walking on thin ice with God. All we can assume as recorded in the Word of God is that Pharaoh never surrendered to the call of God in His life.

Addiction is one of the great patch jobs to desensitize to the hurts this world brings. Everybody commits all types of sin acts to lessen the pains of this world. Oh dear brother or sister, life can be vibrant, real, zealous in Christ.

We note that 14 x recorded in the book of Exodus that Pharaoh’s heart was hard. And what that reveals to us us is that our hearts becomes dampened to the call of God each time we choose to reject Him. Each time we commit a sin or we do a repeated immoral injustice our lives become desensitized to the sinfulness.

This is a true a story about an elder in a church in the Dallas Texas area. He was a CPA by trade. His walk by all measures was exemplary to the body of congregants. I assume he attended, I participated in the church in such a way that a trust was built. The church asked him to oversee the finances for the church. He did all the General ledger bookkeeping and made the deposits on Monday morning.

Something came up that the Pastor had to check the details of a financial matter by looking to see if something had cleared the bank account. Upon his investigation he stumbled across some discrepancies. You can probably figure out the remainder of the story. The pastor ultimately discovered that the man had embezzled $400,000 from the church and the pastor had to resign over the matter because it happened on his watch. Oh listen to me. Think about the future of that elder. He will have to do jail time for that sin. Think about the family. No breadwinner at home anymore. No parent to help care for the kids. Think about the pastor. The loss of influence on a body of believers. Think about his family. His livelihood. Think about how many congregants of that church that are disillusioned by the leadership and may be casualties to the things of God over the sin act of that elder. Collateral damage is real when we sin.

I can tell you what happened. It started very innocently with something small and when he got away with it and a need came up again it was easier the second time. And the fog and the dampening of the conscience happened to the point that he woke up one day we wake up and we are oblivious to the wrongs we have committed.

There are no laws today that bring about your heart or conscience to know right from wrong because there are so many laws on the books in our cities, our counties, our states and our country that are conflicting. Because you were created in the image of God, God has placed in your soul a conscience. God has instilled in you a gauge of right and wrong and when you continue to go against that conscience, your heart becomes hardened and that was the place Pharaoh had found himself.

We learn from this story of Pharaoh is that a continuance in a hardened heart causes a blinding, spiritual fog or lack of awareness to set in and we become oblivious to the damage we create around us when our lives are lived contrary to the will of God for our lives.

So, the Lord told Moses that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and He will refuse your request to allow the people of Israel to go into the wilderness to worship God. Moses, let me just tell you, you will be talking to a wall so here is what I want you to do.

I want you to meet Pharaoh on his stomping ground. I want you to meet him in his comfort zone of daily life. Meet Him down by the river where he goes every morning by the Nile’s river bank. Moses, I assure you, He will be there. Go and meet him there.

Now the question could be asked, why did God tell Moses to meet Pharaoh at the river’s edge? God knew that for Pharaoh and the people of Egypt that the Nile River was life itself. Why would he be beside the river and not at his palace? Pharaoh's normal behavior could have been like his sister and he went to bath in the Nile. That is a possibility. But, it could have been a place for him to go and worship.

For you see Egypt had many gods. Some eighty gods to be exact. And, today we study plague one, turning the water into blood, this plague attacked at the heart of their worship of the Nile.

Exodus—Saved for God's Glory Chapter 18: River of Blood

In September 2000 Great Britain faced a serious fuel shortage. Angered by the high cost of gasoline—or petrol, as Britons call it—truckers conspired to blockade the nation’s oil refineries. Within days the country was nearly at a standstill. There were long lines at the filling stations, where some owners charged as much as five times the former price of fuel. Reserves ran dangerously low, and Britain was within a day or two of a complete transportation shutdown: no planes, no trains, and no automobiles. It seemed that if the crisis lasted much longer, the whole British economy would collapse, taking the government down with it. It was all because of oil, the lifeblood of the modern state.

The Nile was as they thought the lifeblood of Egypt. It was their mode of transportation, the source of nourishment, their standard of measurement and even an object of worship. Everything in Egypt revolved around the Nile. So, the Lord was attacking at the synergy of the Egyptian people where it would hurt the most.

Pharaoh would not be able to ignore this plague because whether he was going to bathe or going to worship one of the many gods, what he would encounter would stop him from his normal routine.

Listen to what they were to say and do in Pharaoh’s presence, but more importantly why. What was the objective?

Exodus 7:16–17 (NKJV)

16 And you shall say to him, ‘The Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness”; but indeed, until now you would not hear! 17 Thus says the Lord: “By this you shall know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will strike the waters which are in the river with the rod that is in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood.

God’s aim was that if you are going to continue to harden your heart and you are going to cause my people to pay a price, I assure you before this is over you will know who I am.

Oh listen to me dear guest, dear congregant, dear loved one. If you are supposedly the patriarch or matriarch of your family or if you are one every one looks up to and you are flippant about the things of God and you are desensitized to His will for your life; If you have dampened your conscience to the point by being flippant about committing certain sins that you just continue to do and you pull down or you water down the spiritual influence of those about you, look out! I’m saying it in love, look out.

Galatians 6:7 NKJV

7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

We are reminded yet again in this text that the doctrine of sewing always calls for us to reap more than we sew.

2. God Will Use Calamity to Change Hearts VV. 19-24

Notice with me the far reaching consequences of the plague on Egypt.

Exodus 7:17–18 “17 Thus says the Lord: “By this you shall know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will strike the waters which are in the river with the rod that is in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood. 18 And the fish that are in the river shall die, the river shall stink, and the Egyptians will loathe to drink the water of the river.” ’ ””

The plague was to turn the river into blood. Let’s look at the far reaching affects. Fish were a major source of nourishment for the people. All the fish would die and stink the Scriptures stated.

You will remember that later the Israelites once they crossed the Red Sea and Moses had lead them to the wilderness that Israel loathed for the fish of the Nile.

Numbers 11:5–6 “5 We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6 but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!””

The pagan lifestyle of past was like Sodom and Gomorrah for Lot’s life, she looked back on that life and it killed her. Note something sobering. The complaining and the drawing back to the prior lifestyle desires in the desert caused all that were living in the original 40 years in the desert did not get to cross over to the Promised Land. That is the power of one hard hearted heart and the hell he brought on those original Israelites.

What I want us to consider is the collateral damage of sin and the judgment we pay and others pay due to the consequences many times of our actions. Pharaoh made a choice that had far reaching affects on the people around Him. But, Pharaoh had become so hardened of heart he had no clue of the far reaching affects of his actions.

In verses 19-24, Aaron was to stick the staff in the River Nile. Listen to the end result. It affected the streams, the rivers, their ponds, over all pools of water, even buckets of wood and pitchers of stone.

Exodus 7:24 “24 So all the Egyptians dug all around the river for water to drink, because they could not drink the water of the river.”

Many of us complain too often about the state of the next generations and their disinterest in the things of God. We want to pass the buck and state that they are the cause of their oblivious attitude toward God.

Oh listen to me dear brother and sister as hard is it is for me to say, the generations we are talking about are the generations we influenced. I ask you the question as I have to ask myself this question.

Where did my conscience, where did my heart become dulled to the things of God that my sin has caused such a multiplying affect as a consequence of the next generations disinterest in the things of God?

Now young people listen to me. I am thankful beyond compare to everyone of you that faithfully week in week out love the Lord and serve Him faithfully. Keep being that beacon of the Lord among your friends and peers at school and this church prays for you as you witness. Amen.

And listen closely, regardless of good or poor influences, we all come to an age of accountability with the Lord.

Oh dear church listen to me. When God delivers a blow, a plague on us because we are hardened to God in some area of our lives, we call that area off duty. We do not render our televisions to God, we do not render our wallets to the Lord, we do not render His teachings about sex in the confines of marriage, when we chose to live a life differently Monday through Saturday than we live on Sundays and our children see that, they suffer the consequences exponentially to the actions of prior generations teachings.

Listen to me dearly beloved, Pharaoh was a man of position, power, prestige, prominence and his hard hearted ways affected an entire people group. He lead the people away from God and a price they paid for it.

Luke 12:48

The New King James Version Chapter 12

For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

Pharaoh was living in the big house and totally oblivious to the world about him. People were dying due to his disregard for the things of God.

Oh listen dear person this morning. If you have lived your life totally as you so choose and you just come to tip a hat at God and there are young people, young children, grandchildren, or fellow school mates, fellow coworkers and you act one way here and one way out there and do not choose to live a life that is God honoring away from here God will cause you to pay a severe price. Why? We know better. We studied that verse last Sunday. If we know better, God will hold us accountable.

3. God Calls and there is a Certain Period of Response V. 25

Exodus 7:25 “25 And seven days passed after the Lord had struck the river.”

In Scripture, seven often symbolizes completion or perfection. Genesis tells us that God created the heavens and the Earth in six days, and, upon completion, God rested on the seventh day (Genesis 1; 2:1-2).

The seven churches in the Revelation reflect the wholeness or completeness of the church, the body of Christ.

The Lord had given seven days for Pharaoh to think about his actions. He gave seven days for the Egyptians to cry out and want a change. I will assure you that God wanted the people of Egypt to change as much as He wanted the cries of His people Israel to be answered.

Let me say from everything I have mentioned today is that Christ wants you to live in the land of milk and honey. He wants to offer you life anew and offer His best to you. He loves you and He wants you to answer His call.

For you see, the Lord knows the condition of our hearts. He knew what was within us.

Oh dearly beloved, it is the heart that is the seed of our iniquity.

Mark 7:21–22 “21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.”

Romans 7:18–21 “18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.”

But the good news today is that you can change. King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah the Hittite killed in battle.

King David knew where a clean heart comes from.

Psalm 51:10–14 “10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. 14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.”

Oh dearly beloved, the source of a clean heart is found in Christ Jesus.

Jesus can make you whole again. Is there one here today that has been playing at this thing called Christianity. Oh dearly beloved, religion will not save you, works will not save you.

Ephesians 2:4–7 “4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Oh it was grace, God’s grace that saved you. In His great mercy He offers a time, a complete and perfected time. There is a window. And you must answer when He calls because if you wait, you may become cold and hardened as Pharaoh. And the consequence ultimately is eternal separation from God. A place called hell. Oh He loves you, do not let that happen. Surrender to his call today.

1 Timothy 1:15 “15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”

Let’s pray.