The Pollution Of Sin Series

The Pollution of Sin

Exodus 9:8-12

- We’re continuing our study through the book of Psalms.

- As we go through this study, we’re asking the question, “What can I learn about honoring God from this passage?”

- Last week, we looked at the powerful hand of God.

- We saw that God’s hand can send pestilence, God’s hand can separate groups, and God’s hand can prove His Truth.

- His hand is powerful and capable of amazing things!

- This week, we’re going to look at the sixth plague of Egypt, the plague of boils, and we’re going to compare it with the pollution of sin.

- When I was a kid, my teachers were always telling me and the other students how horrible pollution is.

- It’s a part of Science curriculum in schools all across the country.

- There’s a push to combat the growing problem of pollution in our world.

- There was even a cartoon called Captain Planet about a superhero who fought against those who were polluting our planet.

- No matter how much they told us, though, it seems like every year, the world becomes more polluted.

- I’ll admit, I’m no environmentalist, but I do know that pollution is bad, and it can cause a lot of destruction to our world.

- But there is something that’s even worse than physical pollution, and that’s the spiritual pollution of sin.

- So let’s look at three things we see about the pollution of sin from the plague of boils.

I. Sin is dirty- Vs 8

- I used to live in Colorado with my family when I was a kid.

- One day, my brother and I went over to a friend’s house to play after church.

- Unfortunately, we didn’t bring a change of clothes, so we were there with our dress clothes on.

- I still remember what I was wearing.

- It was a brand-new outfit, with dress pants, shiny dress shoes, a black vest with a button up white dress shirt, and a bolo tie.

- I didn’t mind dressing up for church, so I really liked my new clothes.

- Well our friend was kind of a punk and decided to play a prank on me.

- We were outside exploring when we came across a small pond.

- It had a weird yellow color to it, and it smelled gross, so I asked him, “What kind of pond is this?”

- He told me it was a bathroom pond, which is better known as a sewage pond or lagoon.

- Well I didn’t believe him, so I said, “No way. That’s gross, why would they put that out here behind the house?”

- So he said, “You don’t believe me? Get close to the edge and take a closer look. That’ll prove it.”

- Well, I was only about 12 years old at the time, so I foolishly did what he said.

- I got right up to the edge and bent down for a closer look.

- All of a sudden, a huge rock came flying in my direction and it splashed into the pond right in front of me.

- My brand new white dress shirt was covered with water from the sewage pond.

- I was in shock, and then I heard him say, “Now do you believe me?” and he started laughing.

- Needless to say, I never went near one of those ponds again!

- But what I remember most about that was how dirty I felt once the water was on me and I realized what it was.

- It was disgusting, and I was horrified!

- I literally had sewage on me.

- Now obviously, that was pretty gross, but at least I could take a shower and wash it all off.

- The Egyptians, however, had something worse happen to them, and they couldn’t wash it off.

- They were covered in boils, all over their bodies, and there was nothing they could do to get rid of them.

- In order to understand how serious this was, we have to remember that not only did the Egyptians worship a lot of different gods, but they also prided themselves on cleanliness.

- As a matter of fact, their priests were required to be ritually and physically pure before entering a sanctuary.

- The plague of boils made not just the priests, but all of the Egyptians physically and ritually unclean.

- Just to give you another idea of how serious this was, imagine if in the wilderness, after the Israelites received the Law from Moses, all of them for some reason suddenly became leprous.

- That would be a huge deal because leprosy made a person unclean, so according to the Law of Moses, none of the Israelites would get to worship God at the Tabernacle, not even the priests since they would all be considered unclean!