Series:
Exodus
Title: Adding
Sin to Sin
Text:
Exodus 9: 8-12
Date:
December 10, 2017
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
We come
now to the fourth plague in Exodus 9. At
the end of this plague in verse 12 we read, “And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh.” In this plague, God used the ashes from
the Egyptians sacrifices to cause boils upon the people and their beasts. By
all this, God hardened the heart of Pharaoh.
Proposition:
When sinners continue offering vain sacrifices to God, refusing to repent and
believe on Christ, God hardens them using their own self-righteous religion. It
is because by their vain sacrifices sinners add sin to sin.
Subject:
Adding Sin to Sin
THE SINNER’S SACRIFICES
Exodus 9: 8: And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you
handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven
in the sight of Pharaoh. 9: And
it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil
breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land
of Egypt.
God will
not receive the sinner’s sacrifices. This
was not a furnace for heat. It was a place where the Egyptians burned their
religious sacrifices to propitiate, to satisfy, what they thought was the true
god or gods of heaven.
Spiritually
dead sinners, naturally, have some knowledge that God must be satisfied, though
it is a corrupt and defiled understanding.
Without being taught of God, men know they owe God something to
reconcile them to God. Without having a word from God to do so, the Egyptians
offered up burnt offerings to appease their god. In the deepest jungles, where men have never
read the scriptures, you will find sinners offering sacrifices. Sinners have a
polluted understanding that they are sinners and that God must be appeased. But men will not come to God with the one
sacrifice God is pleased with.
Notice,
where God commanded Moses to sprinkle the ashes and then notice what God did—“Take to you handfuls of ashes of the
furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.
And it shall become small dust in all the
land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of
Egypt.” God commanded they sprinkle
the dust of their sacrifices toward him, toward heaven. Then God showed that he
rejects the sacrifices of sinners. Though
spiritually dead sinners have some understanding that God must be propitiated,
they do not understand that no sacrifice of the sinner can make satisfaction to
God—God rejects them. Yet men go on offering sacrifices to God
in vain.
Hebrews 12: 11: And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take
away sins:
The same
is true of any sacrifice a sinner makes be they self-sacrifices trying to keep
the law, self-sacrifices trying to put away their sins by moral living or self-sacrifices
doing religious deeds they really do not want to do. Proof that a sinner cannot
make satisfaction is in his own conscience. The sinner must keep offering
sacrifices daily. But if the sinner’s sacrifice really made satisfaction to God
then God would purge the sinner’s conscience and he would cease offering them.
But they never cease.
Hebrews 10: 1:
For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very
image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by
year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2: For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that
the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3: But in those sacrifices there is
a remembrance again made of sins every year.
As soon
as Adam fell, Adam covered his nakedness with fig leaves. But did it purge his
conscience? No, when he heard God’s voice, he knew his fig leaves were not
enough. So he did more. He hid himself from the Voice of the Lord.
You and I
are sinners. Therefore, nothing you and I sacrifice to God can make eternal
satisfaction to God, put away our sin and make us righteous before God.
Satisfaction and salvation is “Not by
works of righteousness which we have done.” (Titus 3: 5)
Malachi 1:10: Who is there even among you that would shut
the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I
have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an
offering at your hand.
ADDING SIN TO SIN
Exodus
9: 10:
And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses
sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains
upon man, and upon beast. 11:
And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the
boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. 12: And the LORD hardened the heart of
Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.
Not only
does the sinner’s sacrifice not satisfy God, the sinner’s sacrifices actually
add sin to the sinner. We have seen how
sin is often compared to leprosy in scripture. That is the picture here. The
picture is of men being covered in more sin by the sacrifices they make to take
away their sins. The ashes of the very
sacrifices they offered to God to heal them, God made to break out in boils and
blisters upon man.
Notice, the beasts broke out in boils and
blisters. These were the beasts they worked with and sacrificed. All their works,
all their sacrifices were sin. So the
men who offered these sacrifices to cover their sins, only covered themselves
in more sin by their sacrifices. They added sin to sin upon themselves by their
sacrifices and further destroyed themselves.
Isaiah 30: 1: Woe to the rebellious children, saith the
LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not
of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
Adding
sin to sin by more and more vain religious sacrifices is what God referred to
when he said,
Isaiah 1:5: Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will
revolt more and more:
Legalists,
by whipping and judging sinners for their sins, by trying to make them
outwardly obedient, are only adding to themselves sin to sin:
Romans 2: 5: But after thy hardness and impenitent heart
treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the
righteous judgment of God…
At all
man’s sacrifices, God’s holy law says sin, sin, sin; guilty, guilty, guilty. “The
magicians could not stand before Moses [type of the law of God] because of the
boils. [because of sin]”
Proverbs 15:8: The sacrifice of the wicked is an
abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
Isaiah 1:13: Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an
abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I
cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
Luke 16:15: And he said unto them, Ye are they which
justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is
highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
This is
so of all men from the pulpit to the pew—“for
the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.”
THE WARNING
Exodus 9: 12: And the LORD hardened the heart
of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.
Here is the
urgent warning in our text. If a man will not repent from his vain works, God
will harden his heart leaving him to think he walks in light when he really is
in darkness.
Up till
now, “Pharaoh hardened his own heart.”
Now we read, “the LORD hardened the heart
of Pharaoh.” Before, Pharaoh would
not repent from his vain sacrifices and believe the gospel, now the LORD
hardened his heart so that he would not and could not ever repent and believe.
Yet, though
a man’s reprobation is his own fault, God’s purpose is not frustrated because it
comes to pass exactly as God said from the beginning—“as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.” Someone might say, “I cannot
reconcile how reprobation is the sinner’s fault yet it is according to the
eternal purpose of God.” God does not
call on us to reconcile it, simply to believe the word of God.
But heed
the warning. Pharaoh was left thinking in his own mind that his vain religion
was true religion. Christ said,
Matthew 6:23: “If…the
light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”
What
should I do? Peter said, “Make your
calling and election sure.” How can
I do so? How can I be sure God has saved
me? By the sacrifice you are resting
in. There is one sacrifice which
satisfied God—the Lord Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son. Christ said to God
his Father,
Hebrews 10: 8: Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings
and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which
are offered by the law; 9: Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He
taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10: By [Christ’s] will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all [eternity]…12: But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13: From henceforth expecting till his
enemies be made his footstool. 14:
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15:
Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: [not by our works of
righteousness but by the grace of Christ] for after that he had said before, 16: This is the covenant that I
will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into
their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17: And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 18: Now where remission of these is,
there is no more offering for sin. 19:
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of
Jesus, 20: By a new and living
way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his
flesh; 21: And having an
high priest over the house of God; 22:
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure
water. 23: Let us hold fast the
profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful
that promised;) 24: And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to
good works: 25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another:
and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. 26 For if we sin willfully
[if we cease assembling rejecting Christ] after that we have received the
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27: But a certain fearful looking for
of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
This how we make our calling and election sure. Is
Christ All your salvation? Are you resting in Christ to have perfected you
forever by his one offering? Do you have to hear his word and be with his
saints? If not, cease adding sin to sin—repent
from your works today and cast all your care on Christ. If so, continue assembling to hear his gospel and never turn from
Christ! There is no other sacrifice or offering necessary but Christ!
Amen!