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antagonism, to Him, and thus necessitates the judicial hardening of his heart. Every time the will of man is set against the will of God the heart of man is hardened. Every truth rejected hardens the heart. This is the law of God. It is inevitable. This is one of those awful laws of God which should make every sinner and every saint tremble. Sin is lustful. The eyes of Pharaoh were upon his possessions. He loved them. He could not bring himself to the point of let ting them go. Men lust for the treasures and pleasures of the world. God says let them go. Men hug them to their hearts. Better let them go. Whatever God calls for, give Him. Who art thou, man, to contend with God? Quit your fighting and yield yourself to God. Sin is fruitful. No sin is one sin. Every sin bears fruit after its kind. Every sin belongs to an innumerable company and they will come trooping along once they are started. Men sow to the wind but they reap of the whirlwind. Sin is fateful. Nine times Pharaoh broke faith with God. “There is a way which seemeth right to a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death.” “The soul that ■sinneth it shall die.” “Therefore we ought to' give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip.” Pharaoh was in fatuated with sin, went the limit and paid the price with his life. The remedy for sin is a new infatuation. There are three things of paramount im portance in this lesson. The judgment of death, the blood of the lamb, and the se- ' cutrity of the obedient. We must first of all have a true apprehension of God’s right eous judgments of sin. “My Spirit shall not always strive with men.” There is a limit to Divine mercy. There is a last fatal step which marks the boundary line of hope and beyond which there is nothing but the blackness of despair. The procla mation of death included all in Egypt. The L esson y i—A ugust 10. Golden Text,—Matt. 20 :28.
Pharaoh that he should question God's command? This is the attitude of the proud heart, confident of its own resources. This is the attitude of the indifferent who say, “we are occupied with our own af fairs} we have no time for the Lord.” This is the attitude of the stubborn who say, “What is the Lord? Why should we yield anything to Him? We do not want to hear His message, we will not give heed to His commands. We will not obey Him.” “Who is the Lord?” is the language of the wicked. “Away with Him, we will not have this God to rule over us.” Moses and Aaron as the ambassadors of Jehovah went with a “Thus saith the Lord” and Pharaoh turned them down good and hard. “I know not the Lord.” It seemed an easy thing for Pharaoh that day to send back his answer of defiance to Gpd’s demand, but Pharaoh was to know who'the Lord was through a bitter expe rience. “Who is the Lord ?” He is the Creator of the heaven and earth. He is the Almighty One. He is the One who rules in the heavens and will yet rule on the earth. He is the Judge of the quick and dead. He is the One with whom we will all have to do. Better bow your head, King Pharaoh. Better yield your will, proud sinner. Better surrender, Mr. Chris tian. Better say yes, to God’s request. Better do it now. L esson V.— A ugust 3. Golden Text,—Matt. 23:12. 1 Here is a lesson on the infatuation of sin, and the method of God in dealing with the heart of a hardened sinner. Here is the picture of a man with a vacillating will. Swayed between the fear of God’s wrath and the fear of losing rich possessions dear to him, we see a king who believed himself competent to cope with God. You laugh at him. You pity him. Yet, perhaps you are not unlike him. We shall see how God seeks to bring a sinner to terms and how the sinner seeks to outwit God and how the wages of sin is death. Sin is wilful. Pharaoh denies the right of God to rule. He puts himself i« open
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