when Jeff's not here for singing. He basically leads the singing
from out there and I just follow him. So I preached out, I remember
a couple weeks ago when I was up here I told you guys I was
going to be teaching out at Western Christian High School and it
went really well. I really enjoyed it. I think
the kids were one of three things. They were either really well
behaved, because they were extremely quiet, listening intently, or
they were sleeping. But regardless, I got to tell
them about Christ and how all of this, about how all of this
book, all of God's providence and plan is about Christ and
Him crucified. And that's, again, what I'll be talking about today.
It's the same message. A lot of scripture, one message. Everything
that has ever been orbits around Christ. He is the center of everything.
I was talking to Jeff and Karen from Western Christian High School
afterwards, and we were discussing many of the pictures of Christ
that are throughout the Old Testament, throughout the New Testament,
throughout the entire book. And starting all the way back in
Genesis, when God sacrificed an animal to cover the nakedness
and sins of Adam and Eve. That's a picture of Christ, this
shedding of blood to cover sin. Shortly before that, he tells
Satan directly that the serpent would strike at his heel, but
Christ would crush the head of the serpent. This is all right
at the beginning, and already the lessons are orbiting, are
focused solely on what Christ would do. And as we were talking about
these things, it got me thinking about all of these pictures of
Christ, and I find that very fascinating. Not only a blessing
for me, I just find it, as a human, I find it very fascinating the
way this book is just 100% pointed to Jesus Christ. the manna from heaven, the cities
of refuge. And then I came across the Passover, and it really jumped
out at me. First of all, I just think it's
an incredible set of events to think about on a human level,
what happened, I mean, with the 10 plagues, how the people, including
Pharaoh, responded to those plagues, and how it all ends up once again
at the Passover, which completely and wholly points to Jesus Christ. And just like any other picture
of Christ, it is a blessing and a comfort to the people of God.
And this one's certainly no exception. While there are many details
that coincide with the gospel of Christ, many elements that
point specific attributes of Christ and Him crucified, the
overreaching message is familiar because it's the same message
that we want to teach every time. It's the same message that we
want to hear every time. Every time we gather, we gather
to hear about Christ. Every time I come up here, that's
my only hope. And the Lord will take care of
it. He has his people preaching his word, and his word will reach
those people it's supposed to reach, and that is a guarantee.
And that takes the pressure off people like me, because I am
worth nothing. But if God wants to use my words
to reach someone, he can even use mine. And that's the way
it is. And the overreaching message,
the overarching message of all of this is wrapped up in the
one line at the end of this, and it says, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. That sentence, Man, I could study
for my entire life, which I have not, but I could study my entire
life and never come up with the words to truly encapture what
that sentence means, what that sentence holds true. When I see
the blood, I will pass over you. We can study that and we can
understand it as best we can. Even as believers who have had
their hearts softened and their eyes opened, we truly won't understand
the meaning of, when I see the blood, I will pass over you until
we are in his presence. But what he does allow us to
grasp now is still an incredible blessing. And that's what I'm
gonna talk about today. Courtney actually texted me on
Friday, she's like, you know what you're preaching on? I said,
no. But I did tell her, I said, hey,
just pick out what you want, I'm not sure of the details yet,
but I can tell you one thing, it will be about Jesus Christ.
So pick out songs about him. And once again, here we are,
one of the most well-known events in the Bible, and it points directly
to Christ over and over and over. But first, let's step back prior
to the Passover to get the full picture of how we get there. So the Passover was the final
plague of 10 plagues that God sent upon Egypt and upon Pharaoh
in order to get Israel released from their captivity. Israel
being a picture of, as always, a picture of God's people. Each was meant to be a punishment
and also to show power to Pharaoh so that he would release God's
people from their bondage, their slavery to Egypt. The first nine
plagues consisted of, and I've got kind of a lot today, so I'm
just gonna keep rolling right through this. The first one is
the plague of blood. It's interesting because this
first one was done in the presence of Pharaoh. The Nile was struck
by Moses. with a staff while Pharaoh was
watching, he made sure of that. And all of the water turned into
blood. And we're gonna go through all
of these for a specific reason, because each one is, on a human
level, terrifying. To really think about these things
that happened. And just this first one alone.
It says the entire river of the Nile turned into blood. All the
fish died. And then all of the other bodies
of water in Egypt, including, it even says, in buckets and
jars. So you had a glass of water turned
into blood. Terrifying. And this is just
the first one. So, I mean, every speck of water
turns into blood. What would you do if you were
Pharaoh? On a human level, I mean, I, Without the providence of God,
just as a person would be running away, I'd be terrified. I would
think, oh my, who am I dealing with? I am going to do whatever
he says. But that's not what happened.
Pharaoh hardened his heart, it says. Well, that is not a normal
reaction. That is a God's providence reaction,
providential reaction. He made Pharaoh harden his heart.
And it actually says that throughout these nine plagues. It says multiple
times that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. So you get to
the second one. So in between these, Pharaoh
says, you know, I'll let you go if you just take away this
curse of blood. And then he always hardens his heart afterwards
and changes his mind, which brings on the next plague. This one,
the plague of frogs. The Lord had Aaron stretch out
his staff and frogs came out of the Nile and covered the entire
land. It says it went into their homes,
their beds, even in their clothes as they were just living their
days. They were quite literally everywhere. And this is the first
time that Pharaoh tries to make a deal. He asks Moses and Aaron
and says, please pray to your God to take the frogs away. If
he would, then Pharaoh would let the people of Israel free
to go off and worship. Once the frogs were gone, Pharaoh
hardened his heart again. Again, completely unnatural reaction. Think about frogs everywhere,
if you can. Again, kind of a strange thought,
but also, I mean, even just our flood here in Rock Valley not
that long ago, floods sound awful until you're living in one, and
then you're like, you start to realize the consequences and
the effects that that actually has on every aspect of your life. Well, all of these would be the
same way. If there were frogs everywhere, it would be awful
and terrifying. And to see that there's a Lord,
a God over everything in Pharaoh's position that can make that happen.
And then to beg for mercy and then harden your heart again.
Again, completely unnatural. This is part of God's plan. He
was not supposed to, excuse me, Nat. Speaking of, Nats are coming
up. But he was supposed to harden
his heart. We weren't done yet. We had to get through all 10
of these. Next one, plague of gnats. It says the dust became
gnats. Try to count dust. You can't. It's uncountable. It's almost
immeasurable. Imagine how many gnats that would
be. I mean, everywhere it says that, and this is the point where
it starts talking about Pharaoh has magicians on his side that
could like try to mimic the things that God was trying to do. And
even they're saying at this point, okay, look, this is not magic. This is obviously, this is the
finger of God. So even his little helpers that
are trying to help him are like Pharaoh. we gotta stop this,
we're getting deep, we're getting in trouble. But Pharaoh once again hardened
his heart. So plague four, plague of flies,
a lot like gnats, but this time God made a distinction. He showed
the separation of his people from the world. He showed that
there was people who are set apart according to his will. Those flies covered everything
in Egypt. It said even the ground was covered.
But there were zero flies, not one fly in Goshen where the Israelites
lived, where God's people lived. This in itself is a wonderful
picture of election, the predetermined people of God. God has a holy people. A people
that are set apart from the world. Throughout this entire event,
set of events, and this message this morning, Israel is a picture
of God's people and Egypt is a picture of the world. God has
set apart his people from the rest of the world. And he shows
that over and over. And they've done nothing to deserve
it. They haven't earned it in any way. It was simply according
to the will of God, to his pleasure. God has chosen a people because
it is his will to do so. It says Egypt's land was ruined
by the flies. Pharaoh promised to let the people
go once again. Moses prayed, the Lord listened,
and not one fly remained. And then Pharaoh hardened his
heart. So we bring on the plague of
the livestock. All the livestock in Egypt got
sick or died. Not one animal belonging to Israel
was sick. Pharaoh once again hardened his
heart. The plague of boils. Moses tossed soot from a furnace
in the air, once again in the presence of Pharaoh, and they
make sure God sees that. God makes sure he sees this.
He sees what's happening, it doesn't just happen. He is there,
Pharaoh is watching Aaron, or Moses, toss soot in the air,
and immediately that soot Let me get this right, I want to
make sure I get this right. Turned into festering boils on all the
men and animals in Egypt. The magicians couldn't even stand
before Moses and Aaron due to the pain of the boils all over
their body. So the people that Pharaoh had with him to try to
stay even or match what Moses and Aaron were doing at this
point couldn't even be there because they were so covered
with boils and in pain. Where would you be mentally at
this point if you were Pharaoh? I mean, I would be terrified. I would turn and run to the hills.
I would say, do whatever you want. I'm no match for this. But no, that's not what happened. Once again, he hardened his heart. Actually, this is the first time
that it says that Pharaoh didn't harden his heart, it was hardened
by the Lord. It says, the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. And
this has always been the case. Even the first few times that
Pharaoh hardened his heart, it was hardened by the Lord. If God didn't want Pharaoh's
heart to be hardened, it wouldn't be. It's all part of his plan,
all part of his providence. There is a reason the Lord hardened
his heart. And we're gonna get there. The
next one is the plague of hail, the worst hailstorm in the history
of the nation of Egypt. Massive amounts of hail crushing
every man, animal, every growing thing in the field and stripped
every tree. But not one hailstone landed
in Goshen. Pharaoh begged Moses to pray
to the Lord to stop them. He did. Once it was over, Pharaoh
heart hardened. The next was the plague of locusts.
Moses tells Pharaoh that the locusts would overrun Egypt as
a warning this time, devouring what little is left of the country.
So many locusts that the face of the ground could not be seen.
They would be everywhere. This time Pharaoh's associates
told Pharaoh, Can we please just let these people go? Do you not see what's happening?
Our country has been destroyed. All the fish have died. All the
livestock have died. All the plants of the field have
died. All the trees have been stripped bare. And Pharaoh's
heart, still, he's hardening his heart. The people around
him are like, Pharaoh, just let them go. How blind are you? Do
you not see this? What's happening? Our country's
in disarray. Pharaoh listened. Actually, no,
at that point, Pharaoh did kind of listen and he said, our country
is destroyed. So Pharaoh called back Moses and Aaron and asked
them, if I let you go, who would be going? Moses said, well, all
of us, everything. We're taking everything with
us. Pharaoh listened and literally screamed no at that point. So
God sent the locusts, the ground was black, nothing green remained
on a tree or plant in Egypt. Pharaoh tried once again to make
a deal and the Lord once again hardened his heart. Then the
plague of darkness, three days of darkness, darkness that it
says could be felt. And it's interesting, because
the word that they use for felt in Hebrew is more than, see I
assumed when I read that, a darkness that could be felt, I assumed
it was an emotional feel, so dark that you kind of feel it,
like it sits on your psyche. That's not what the word is.
The word in Hebrew literally means, signifies touch. So it was such a heavy darkness
over the land of Israel that it could somehow be physically
felt. in that of a manner of physical touch. The kind of darkness
we don't understand. The kind of darkness only the
Lord can bring. But there was light in Goshen.
God lifted the darkness and once again the Lord hardened his heart.
It's extremely important to understand that this, just like all things,
was part of the Lord's providence. This was part of the Lord's plan.
If not, it would be hard to fathom a man, like Pharaoh, hardening
his heart in the face of these terrifying plagues. I wouldn't. I don't know any man that would.
All the water turns to blood. All the frogs, all the gnats,
all the flies, all the livestock die. You get covered in boils.
Hail strips the earth. Locusts, three days of darkness
so dark and terrifying you could feel it. And yet, he consistently
hardened his heart. An ordinary man would fold in
the face of these plagues that were obviously brought on by
the God of all creation. Even if Pharaoh didn't understand
the God and who he was, it would be obvious to anyone in his situation
that whatever was bringing on these disasters is much more
powerful than Pharaoh. It makes no sense on a natural
level to harden your heart in the face of these terrifying
displays of power. Which is why it's stated that
God hardened his heart. God's providence, God's plan
is perfect. All these plagues needed to happen.
Pharaoh couldn't quit after plague number one, number three, number
five. Because we needed to get right
here to the Passover. The final plague of the firstborn.
the picture of Christ and him crucified. God's judgment was
now coming. And it would claim every firstborn
son throughout Egypt. And this time it would include
Goshen. It was coming. The coming wrath of God. All
the pictures of Christ begin with the coming judgment of God. Because the fall is first. Like Henry Mahan used to say,
if you're wrong about the fall, you're wrong about it all. You
have to understand the fall first. The situation and predicament
that the men and women of God are in. We are guilty. We deserve damnation. We deserve
death. and that must be carried out somehow. So because the wrath of God is
why, I mean, the wrath of God is why Christ became flesh. A
debt was owed. A wrath-filled punishment was
going to be carried out. Christ came to receive it on
behalf of his people. The details of the Passover point
to that. So as we read earlier, I'm just gonna go through some
of the points of the Passover that are directly correlated
to Christ. To be spared the final plague,
the death of the firstborn son, they were to follow these instructions,
each of them representing an element of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Each household must select a lamb. Even the choice of animal is
pretty obvious. It's not a bull, it's not a calf,
it's a lamb. And as we know, Jesus Christ
is the lamb of God. Not only that, Revelations calls
him the victorious slain lamb of God who now sits on the throne. The lamb must be without defect,
representing the perfection that is Christ, perfect in every way,
completely free of sin. The lamb must be taken from the
fold, from the other sheep. Christ, our lamb, was taken from
among men, born of a woman, fully man, and also fully God. He had to be fully man in order
to take the place of his people. The lamb must be about one year
old and is to be killed. This is to show that our Lord,
in his full strength of life, would be put to death. The lamb was roasted in fire.
I was reading some of Henry Mahan's comments on this and he thought
that this probably signifies that the manner of our Lord's
death, he was crucified enduring the fire of God's wrath. You
couldn't boil it, you couldn't eat it raw, it must be cooked
over fire. The Lamb of God's blood was to
be sprinkled over both the top and the sides of the door. This
is a picture of the faith that is given to God's people. God
did not sprinkle the blood. The people did, trusting in God's
promise. Faith is a gift from God. The
sprinkling of blood is not what saved those people. It wasn't
the act of sprinkling, it was the blood itself. In the same way, we are saved
through faith, but by the blood. The sprinkling is the faith,
the blood is what actually is effective. Those people were
doing what they were told because they trusted in God to follow
his promises. So they did everything that was
told. They sprinkled the blood over
the top and the sides of the door, showing faith that they
believed in what Christ had told them, what God had told them.
that this would be what was needed to save them from the coming
wrath of God. We are saved solely by the Lord
Jesus Christ through faith in Him, which in itself is a gift
from God. They were to eat the lamb. This
is a picture of we look to Christ to sustain us. We are to eat
of the flesh and drink of the blood. Christ is the bread of
life, the living water, and the soul-cleansing blood. They were
to eat the lamb while they were ready to go. I think this is
so cool. It says you are to eat with their
cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet, and
your staff in hand. Egypt was to the Israelites is
what the world is to God's people. So Egypt was not their home,
just as this world is not our home. We are waiting for his
call to go home, whether that's one at a time or all together
when Christ comes back. We wait for the Lord to come
take us home, but we must be ready. And that's what he's talking
about. Eat the meat with your cloak
tucked into your belt and your staff in hand and your sandals
on your feet. Be ready to go home. And then the final aspect, the
Lord says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Again, this statement could study
for lifetimes and never have the words to truly portray the
magnitude of what that means. And you've got a few different
subjects to focus on on this passage. The I, when I see the
blood and I will pass over you, that's the judgment of God. He's come as his wrath in this
picture, he was coming to bring death, death that was fully justified
and fully deserved. But then you've also got the
blood, the blood of Christ. There has only ever been one
thing that has ever existed that could satisfy the wrath of God. The blood of Christ. That is the only thing that would
turn the wrath of God away from each door. Only the blood of Christ can
turn the wrath of God to the next household. Only the blood
of Christ can stop the wrath of God in its tracks. Do you
know why? Because when God went through
Egypt, raining down judgment on home after home, he would
come to a house with blood on the door. He would see that those
debts have already been paid. The death that he was bringing,
that they deserve, has already been carried out. The death has
already happened here. Here's the blood. Here's the
proof. There's no more death for them. As much as they might deserve
it, I don't even see it anymore because it's been paid. I have
come here to justify my wrath on all who deserve it. And every
time I come to a house and I see the son's blood on the door,
it stops me as the wrath of God because that payment has already
been made. The death that they deserve has
already been carried out. Thousands of years before Christ
would be born, God was already telling us, you must be washed
in the blood of the Lamb. That's what this is telling us. In order to be clean in my sight,
in God's sight, you must be cleaned by the fountain of blood. In
order to escape my wrath, you must be found in the one who
has already paid it. You must be found in a household
already covered by the blood of Christ. You must be found in the only
one in whom he is pleased. You must be found in Christ and
covered in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb. It is that
simple. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And if you are, again, he will
pass over you. He won't look in the window and
make sure your faith is strong enough inside that house. Make
sure you're not in there trembling and scared. Because you know
what, they probably were. I mean, they were told that God
was gonna come through and kill every firstborn son in Egypt. You would be terrified, even
if you followed his instructions. You're still human. But that
is not what God comes to make sure of. He doesn't come to see,
well, do you really trust me? Are you in there perfectly comfortable
knowing that what I told you is gonna be true? No, your faith
was already shown. What little faith you might have
was shown when you put the blood over the door. And that blood
is all I'm concerned with. When I see the perfect blood
of my son, nothing else matters. I will pass over you and I won't
pass over this week and come back and make sure you have another
lamb, make sure you're still following orders, following directions.
I will pass over you forever. You will never face my judgment. You will never experience my
wrath. Instead, you will be mine. You
will become part of my household. You will be loved by me. I will
take you home. And you will be with me forever. When I see the blood that is
everything needed, The blood of Christ is fully sufficient. In it satisfies my every demand. That's why these words are just
so incredibly powerful. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. I mean, you think about these
Egyptians. Think about these Israelites. They had no idea
what this all meant. Not in the big picture. We are
so blessed to live in this time of enlightenment. To be able
to look back and see this is just all about our Savior. All about the power and perfection
of his blood. So again, all these things that
they dealt with, all these plagues, all the hardening of the heart,
over and over, these things that don't make any sense to us, but
they're all part of God's providence. That's gonna be part of our lives
forever. We're always gonna have things we deal with that won't
make sense to us, because we're not God. We don't operate nearly
at his level. But we can trust that even in
these crazy times, I mean, it doesn't get crazier than that.
Even though sometimes it feels like right now is pretty wild,
this was pretty wild. Even in times that we don't understand,
even in times that are super difficult for us to see the positive,
times that are very difficult, times that are full of sorrow,
times that are just hard. But we know that they
are all pointing to Christ. And at some point, it'll all
make sense. And I'm not sure at that point
if we'll care. Because at that point, we'll be with Him. And I'm not sure if I'll wanna
look back, try to figure everything out at that point. I think I'll
be preoccupied. But either way, it's a great picture. to show
that with all these things happening, it's all part of the plan of
God to eventually come to the point where once again, we are
looking to Christ. Once again, we are at the foot
of the cross. Once again, we are looking to his blood and
his blood only for everything that is needed in our relationship
with God. It's right there. When I see
the blood, I will pass over you. Dear Lord, we thank you once
again for our time together this morning. We pray that this was a blessing
for everyone involved. We pray, Lord, that you'll be
able to keep with us, keep our minds from being so distracted
by the world. Remember how blessed we are to
not only hear these truths, but to have our hearts not hardened to have them softened and have
our eyes opened in a way that we can see the truth and believe
it. And that is nothing but a gift from you. And it is such a gift. And we pray, Lord, that you'll
be able to remind us and keep it in our minds on a regular
basis. What a blessing to know you, to be known by you. And we pray, Lord, that even
in our day-to-day items that we have to deal with, family,
friends, dealing with loss, the future of this church, the future
of our congregation, direction that we end up going, everything,
Lord, we look to you. We look to you for direction,
we look to you for comfort, we look to you for strength. You
are the source of all good things. So we look to you for all of
them. We pray this in Jesus' name,
amen. You can take out your hymnals
once again. And we'll turn them to number 579. Be still my soul
and we'll stand as we sing. Number 579.