You would turn with me to Exodus
chapter 11. I wanna look back at the 11th
chapter for just a moment before we move on further into the 12th
chapter. Exodus 11 verse four, we read,
and Moses said, thus saith the Lord, about midnight will I go
out into the midst of Egypt. And all the firstborn in, "'The
land of Egypt shall die "'from the firstborn of Pharaoh "'that
sitteth upon his throne, "'even unto the firstborn of the maidservant
"'that is behind the meal, "'and all the firstborn of beast. "'And
there shall be a great cry "'throughout all the land of Egypt, "'such
as there was none like it, "'nor shall be like it anymore. "'But
against any of the children of Israel, "'shall not a dog move
his tongue, against man or beast, that ye may know how that the
Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel." Now
there is a very important lesson to learn here. Notice carefully
the exact wording in verse five. We read all the firstborn in
the land of Egypt, Shabbat. It doesn't say that all the firstborn
of the land of Egypt shall die, but all those in the land of
Egypt. Now, Goshen, where the Israelites
dwelt, was in the land of Egypt. Goshen was in the land of Egypt
the same way that Madisonville is in the state of Kentucky,
and the same way that the state of Kentucky is in the United
States of America. And I point that out only to
remind you that the divine sentence of judgment, God's divine sentence
of judgment included the Israelites the same as it did the Egyptians.
Yet in the seventh verse, we're told that against any of the
children of Israel, not a dog would move his tongue. That we
may know how. These words mean something that
we may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel. Now it's very important to understand
that salvation is not just knowing that Christ died for our sins. Salvation is knowing how that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He died for
our sins according to the scriptures which is in reference here to
the Old Testament scriptures. That's the only scriptures they
had when that was written. And that's what we see in the
Passover lamb. We see how. how that God was
able to be just and justify the ungodly through the Passover
lamb. And you know, the real reason that men and women refuse
to believe and trust in Christ is the fact that they really
don't believe that they're sinners. And they don't believe that they
have offended the justice of God. And I don't suppose that
we might not seem all that bad when we compare ourselves to
one another. but the sentence of universal condemnation. That's
one thing that if you want to believe in something universal,
that would be the thing to believe in because universally we are
all condemned and that proceeds from the very and the perfect
righteousness of God. You see, in the sight of God,
we all have sinned and we all fall short. And I might add,
way short, way short of the glory of God. The difference which
God put between the Egyptians and Israel was only according
to the mercy, the grace, the purpose, and the choice of God
in Christ who shed his blood for them. It's the same today. The only difference between us
and one who does not believe, matter of fact, the only difference
between us and a man who's on death row for murder is the difference
that God put between. And this was and this is the
great dilemma that we face as sinners. Only God can resolve
that dilemma. How can God remain just and justify
the ungodly? You see, that's the issue. God
cannot, we say this all the time, but you'd be amazed how many
folks don't know this. God can't just sweep sin under
rug. His justice won't permit it.
It's got to be dealt with. It's got to be paid. So, it's
a great dilemma. How can justice and mercy be
reconciled together? It has to be. It has to be. It's a dilemma that no man or
woman can remedy. Only God could provide a way
for him to be both just and justifier. The soul that sins, what? It
shall die. The holy law and the holy justice
of God demands it. The wages of sin is death. If all are guilty and there are
none who are righteous, How can any be saved, redeemed, and live
eternally? You see, that's the dilemma.
God must provide a way to remain just and still justify sinners
like you and I. How can justice extract from
the sinner its full due and yet excuse the sinner's sin? It can't. Justice must be executed in order
for God to remain just. And how can mercy be manifested
except at the expense of justice? How could God spare Israel who
were as guilty of sin as the Egyptians were? Well, there is
no difference, Paul wrote, for all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. The only difference between Israel
and Egypt was the difference that God made. I'm convinced that before we're
ever able to appreciate Christ and his work of righteousness
that he accomplished for his elect, before we'll ever see
our desperate need of Christ, you're gonna have to understand
something about that God must remain just, honor his law, pay
our sin debt in order to save us. And God could only deliver
Israel on a righteous and a just basis. And it's the same with
us. And in order for God to remain
just, justice cannot be compromised. He can, by what no means, under
no circumstances, clear the guilty and still remain just. And sin's
got to be punished, got to be punished, and holy justice has
to be satisfied. And Israel equally with the Egyptians
fully merited and deserved the wrath of God. God's distinguishing
mercy was not because of any virtue or any excellence found
in Israel, none. The only difference between Noah,
you think about this, the only difference between Noah and the
rest of the world that God destroyed in the flood was that Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was in the world, and he
was just as guilty as everyone else, but he wasn't of the world.
What was the difference? Well, who was the difference?
God's wrath fell on Noah and his family the same as it did
the rest of the world. It had to. It had to in order
for God's holy justice to be executed. Now, are you following
me? The wrath of God's reign fell
on Noah and his family too. The judgment fell on Noah the
same as it did the rest of the world. The only difference, and
I mean the only difference, was that Noah was in the ark. Noah
was in Christ. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. The only difference between Abraham
and all the other idol makers in the land of Ur, The only difference
was that God called him out. God said, I will make you a great
nation. But didn't Abraham pull himself
up by the bootstraps and have a change of mind and decide to
get out of idol making and follow the Lord? No, he'd still been
making idols if God hadn't intervened and divinely intervened, I might
add, and said, come out. come out from among you. He said,
I'll make you a great nation. I will. God said, I'll make your
name great. And it was the difference that
God made in him. The only difference between Jacob
and Esau was the difference that God made. God said, before the
children were born, before the children had done any good or
evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand not of works. So don't think that you can do
anything to appease God and that you have any virtue or any excellence
within you that would cause God to be mindful of you. It's not
of works, but of Him, they call it. What was the difference? God simply said, Jacob have I
loved and Esau have I hated. Should have hated them both.
But in mercy and love, he chose to love one. And it's his prerogative
because God has the right to do what he will with his own. What's the difference between
you and your unbelieving brothers and sisters? What's the difference
between you and your unbelieving children or your unbelieving
parents or both for that matter? What's the difference between
you and your neighbors and your friends and your coworker? Daniel, next time you're at work
at GE, you look around you and you be reminded that God is the
one who made you to differ from the others. For those that have
no interest in Christ, it's God who made you to differ. Eddie,
when you go to work at the college, you consider all the faculty
and all the employees and every student. Remember that God made
you to differ from the unbelieving and the faithless. The reality
of the matter is that God would have been just, he would have
been good, he would have been holy and right and righteous
if he had left all of us in our sin and sent us all straight
to hell. But there's only one reason he
didn't. And it was according to his own
mercy, grace, and love in and for Christ. That's it. Now I
want to show you a passage. Stick your marker here and turn
to Ezekiel chapter 20 with me. Ezekiel chapter 20. We'll begin
reading in verse 6 when you find it. Ezekiel chapter 20. God's speaking through the prophet
here in verse six says, in the day that I lifted up my hand
unto them. Now he's speaking of Israel.
He's speaking of his people because he says, to bring them forth
of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied or searched
out is what that word means. That I had searched out for them
flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.
Then said I unto them, cast ye away every man the abominations
of his eyes, and defile not yourself with the idols of Egypt. I am
the Lord your God. But they rebelled against me,
and would not hearken unto me. And they did not every man cast
away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake
the idols of Egypt. Then I said, I'll pour out my
fury upon them to accomplish my anger against them in the
midst of the land of Egypt. but I wrought from my namesake
that it should not be polluted before the heathen among whom
they were and whose sight I made myself known unto them and bringing
them forth out of the land of Egypt. Now there's a lot of information
we find here in these verses that's not in the book of Exodus.
First, we see that Israel worshiped the same idols that Egypt did.
When they cried out of the reason of their bondage, the scripture
says, they weren't crying unto God. They were just crying out. But the Lord saw their affliction
and the Lord knew their sorrows and he called them his people
from the very beginning. Well, he'd made a covenant with
Christ before the foundation of the world and made one with
Abraham, made a promise to Abraham. And I'm telling you that this
proves that we love Him only because He first loved us. Now,
if you don't admit that, then you have yet to see the mercy
and grace of God. We love Him because He first
loved us. If He had not loved us, we'd
have never loved Him. And we didn't choose Him. People
say, oh, I've decided to follow Jesus. I've made Jesus my Lord.
You didn't choose Him. He first chose us. And secondly,
this passage shows us that God expressed strong disapproval
with Israel. Oh, they were his people, but
he wasn't happy with them. And thirdly, we see that Israel
didn't heed the Lord, but just blatantly defied him. Fourthly,
we're told here that the earlier plagues, they were also visitations
of judgment upon the Hebrews. The same as they were the Egyptians.
Each plague was in one way or another God exposing and bringing
into judgment the idols of Egypt. We talked about that in the earlier
plagues. They had a God for everything.
Most of their gods evolved around the River Nile. The first plague
that God did was turn it into blood. I was thinking many times
the process, if we can call it that, process of God's divine
intervention and his revelation to us is not always pleasant. It can be very painful. God brings
us down before he lifts us up. God kills us before he makes
us alive. God makes us sinners before he
ever reveals the Savior and makes us saints. We got to come down
a few notches, don't we? And fifthly, this passage here
in Ezekiel reminds us that the Lord delivered Israel, and it
certainly wasn't because of any worthiness or fitness or goodness
found in them. He did it simply for his own
name's sake, for his own glory. For the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great namesake, because it pleased the Lord to
make you his people. And that's the only reason he
did. It just pleased him to do so. For no reason outside of
himself, it pleased the Lord to make you his people. 1 Samuel 12, 22. And all that we've studied thus
far in the book of Exodus is typical in its significance.
In this book, we discover how accurately the physical condition
of the Israelites symbolized their spiritual state and condition,
and ours. First, they're seen in bondage,
in slavery at the mercy of a cruel king. which is a very accurate
and a very suitable portrayal of the condition of every natural
man and woman. We're captive to Satan, captive
to sin, and a captive to self. Israel was sold into slavery
and man by the fall of Adam is sold under sin. Paul said, I
am carnal, sold under sin. Do you see that about yourself?
You'll never have a need for Christ until you do. That's just
a fair fact. And secondly, as we said, we
read that the people of Israel and in Egypt sighed by reason
of their bondage. And they cried, but nothing is
said in the scriptures about them crying unto God. Yes, they
were conscious of their bondage. How could you not be out there
every day making bricks and building pyramids or whatever? They did
not know the source, and I mean capital S there, from which their
deliverance must come. They just cried out. The elect
of God in their natural state, when first awakened by the Holy
Spirit, realizing and recognizing because God has already breathed
spiritual life into them, they see their spiritual wickedness
and sin, and they sigh and they groan, but they're not yet acquainted
with Christ their Deliverer. They must grow in the grace and
in the knowledge of Him. When I first moved here 30 years
ago, I was in love with the doctrine of grace. I believed in the five
points and election was the one I loved the most. The fact that
God chose me before the foundation of the world. But it wasn't until
much later that I saw through the consistent preaching of Christ
by God's servant that my election is in Christ. He's God's elect
and I'm elected in him. Believing the doctrine of election
never saved anyone. The only thing that truly saves
a sinner is knowing Christ. And it's not an immediate and
a full revelation. We must grow in the grace and
in the knowledge of Him. That's why I can't tell you the
exact minute and hour that I was saved. Now in Exodus chapter
two, verse 23, you don't have to turn there. We're told that
Israel sighed by the reason of their bondage and they cried.
But how glorious is it to then read, their cry came up unto
God by reason of their bondage. God heard their cry. They weren't crying to him, but
he heard their cry. God heard their cry, even though it wasn't
addressed to him. And God remembered his covenant,
which was the ground of his actions to deliver them. He had told
Abraham in Genesis chapter 15, almost 500 years before what
he was going to do, what was going to happen. They were going
to fall into slavery and that he was going to deliver them
out with a mighty hand. And now God was doing that. But
it was unknown to all the Hebrew slaves that God had raised up
a deliverer. They didn't know it at the beginning. They were ignorant of the wondrous
grace, mercy, and deliverance which God had in store for them.
And when Jehovah appeared to Moses in the burning bush and
appointed him to be the deliverer of God's people, Israel didn't
know. They're still making bricks.
How accurate the picture, when the believer was first made conscious
of their guilt and their shame, had to learn something of God's
appointed deliverance. How can a man endeavor to take
any credit at all for his deliverance out of the bondage of sin? I
don't know. Salvation is of the Lord from beginning to end. A
dead man can't believe, a dead man can't have faith, and God
breathes into him the breath of life. And he becomes what? A living soul. And it's then
that he sees that God purposed this and ordained this before
the foundation of the world in the Lord Jesus Christ. How we
can take any credit for our salvation, I don't know. I know this, those
that endure to the end shall be saved, but they're gonna only
endure until the end because Christ having loved his own,
which were in the world, he loved them until the end. You see,
we're kept by the power of God. Now, in Exodus chapter four,
verse 31, we're told, and the people believed. And when they
heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that
he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and
worshiped. Do you remember that? But it's clear from what happened
next that this wasn't a genuine heart believing. As soon as Pharaoh
learned of God's intentions through God's messengers, he increased
their burdens and he said, let more work be laid upon. They
got so much free time on their hands, let them make bricks without
straw. And again, the picture holds
true. As soon as the great enemy of our soul discerns the spirit
of God bestowing his operations of grace within and upon the
sinner, Satan makes their lot even more miserable. He questions
the sinner as to how God could love such a one as they are.
He puts upon that seeking sinner the increased burden of zeal
that he or she must have to earn and deserve the merit and favor
of God. You need to do more. You need
to prove yourself to God. He whispers, you got to do more.
You got to do better. Soon after Pharaoh increased
their workload by making them, as I said, to make bricks without
straw, upon the news, the people of God came to Moses complaining
because of the increased misery. Didn't they put their trust in
him? No, they still leaned on the arm of the flesh and what
a picture that is of us by nature. You know, I was thinking when
the prodigal son began to be in want, the scripture said,
Well, he didn't return at once to his father. The scripture
says that he went and joined himself to a citizen of a different
country. And I'm just thinking how slow
we are to learn that God, our Heavenly Father alone, is able
to make meet all our problems and troubles, desperate need. And God teaches that there's
no other place to go. for help or salvation. To him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justify the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. So again, how clear it is that
the Lord doth put a difference between. It's not because of
any merit found in Israel, and it's not because of any merit
found in others. Israel was idolaters. They were rebellious. They were
unbelieving, just as much so as the Egyptians were. And the
more we acquaint ourselves with the absolute sovereignty of God
and the salvation of sinners, and the more we understand the
total corruption and depravity of ourselves, the more we'll
marvel at the infinite mercy and grace of God in Christ. The
Lord ever give you a good whiff of yourself sometimes and you
find yourself, your mind just going into the gutter and you
sit there and you catch yourself and you think for a minute, the
Lord loves me. When you consider the corruption
of your own heart, deceitfulness, desperate wickedness within,
you think it just makes the Lord's mercy and grace even sweeter,
doesn't it? Well, I want to just for a few
minutes consider tonight the Passover Lamb, Christ Jesus,
the Lamb of God. As we, you can turn back to Exodus
chapter 12 if you would. We'll just look at a couple verses
there tonight. Last week, we saw that this spotless
lamb of God was to be killed and to be eaten. The blood of
that lamb was to be applied to the side post of the door and
the lintel, not to the threshold, in order to be trampled upon.
And what a picture, the blood applied side post and the lintel,
what a picture they are of the cross, the post, the pole on
which Christ shed his blood. You know, I often think about
Obarabas. He was an accurate picture of
you and me. He was a criminal. He was a rebel.
He offended the law of the land. And most commentators think that
he was a murderer for only The worst of the worst were condemned
to the crucifixion of the cross. And I just picture in my mind
Barabbas sitting there in that dungeon. He's already been caught
in the act. He's been arrested. He's been
sentenced. And he's sitting there in that
wet, cold dungeon, chained hand and foot, just waiting for the
day for the soldiers to come and take him away to be crucified.
Can you picture him there? He's certain that he hears his
name shouted out by the angry throng outside, demanding that
justice be carried out against him. Soldiers come down those
dungeon steps. I bet he could hear every step.
And they walk up to him, and they unlock his chains. And he
says, this is it. It's over. And then one of the
soldiers, the chief soldier, says, Barabbas? You can go free. What? Yep, you can go free. You've been released today. A
man by the name of Jesus is being crucified in your place. Today,
this man, Jesus, is being nailed to the cross that was prepared
for you. Can you imagine how Barabbas
must have felt? Don't you just imagine that Barabbas
hung around? Now, we're not told, but I just,
knowing a little something of myself and the curiosity of men,
don't you imagine that he hung around to see who this man was
that died in his place? I'm sure that he was at the crucifixion.
Oh, he may have been in the background. He may have been hiding behind
a tree. I don't know, but I'm just sure that he was there.
Don't you just imagine that when he looked at that cross on which
Christ hung, he thought, that's my cross. That's the one that
was prepared for me. That should have been me dying
there. You see, friends, it's our horrific
sin that put the Lord Jesus on the cross. That blood that was
shed on the cross should have been your blood, should have
been mine. But our blood wouldn't have paid for one single sin,
But when Christ's blood was applied to the door, God saw his blood
and he passed over all who had the blood applied to the door
of their soul. According to verse 11 here and
in chapter 12, this was the Lord's Passover. Christ was dying on
our cross. It was our sin that put him there.
And God said, when I see the blood, whose blood? The blood
of the Lamb of God. to take away the sin of the world.
He said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the
plague, what plague? Plague of sin. Sin is a plague. It plagues us every day of our
lives. Every minute of every day, we're plagued by this plague
of sin. But he says, the plague of sin
shall not be upon you to destroy you. Why? Because it was put
upon him, according to verse 13. That's a glorious Passover. Look at verse 14. And this day
shall be unto you for a memorial, a remembrance. and you shall
keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations, you shall keep
it a feast by an ordinance forever. Now, every physical lamb that
was slain at every Passover feast pictured the Passover lamb that
was to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel made this sacrifice of
the lamb every year throughout generations, every year. Every
family had a lamb. Every physical Passover lamb
that was slain died and remained dead until the very last Passover
sacrifice was hit. Do you know when that was? Do
you know when and where it was? It was on the cross of Calvary. It was on the cross. That's why
we don't observe a feast anymore. We simply look to and remember
the one who died for us. Well, that's what the Lord's
table pictures in remembrance of me. We take the bread that
represents his broken body and we eat of it and we drink the
wine which pictures his shed blood. In Luke chapter 22, verse
15, you don't have to turn there. The Lord Jesus told his disciples
this. I was reading in the book of
Luke last week and ran across this verse. The Lord Jesus told
his disciples, he said, with desire, I have desired to eat
this Passover with you before I suffer. Why was it his desire
to eat this Passover with them? Because it was the very last
one. It was the last one. There'd be no more death after
this. Not for God's elect. No more death. It's finished,
Christ said from the cross. No more death. The law is appeased. God's justice is satisfied. God
can now remain just and justify the ungodly. Let me turn you
to one last scripture in closing, Hebrews chapter 10, and I'll
finish. Hebrews chapter 10. For the law,
having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image
of the things can never, never, With those sacrifices which they
offered year by year, continually make the comers thereunto, what? Perfect. That's what you gotta
be. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered if those sacrifice would have accomplished
redemption while they would have ceased to be offered? They'd
have stopped it. But they didn't. Do you know why? Read on. Because
that the worshipers once purged should have no more conscience
of sins. But in those sacrifices, those
Old Testament sacrifices that we've been talking about, there
is a remembrance again made of sins every year. Boy, you'd get
one behind you, and before you knew it, a year had passed, and
you had to do it all over again. And all it did was just remind
you of your sin. He says in verse four, for it's
not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away
sins. Wherefore, when he, Christ, cometh
into the world, he saith, sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared for me. In burnt offerings and
sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I,
lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me. That's
who this book's about. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. And above, when
he said, sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering
for sin, thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, which
are offered by the law, then said he, lo, I come to do thy
will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. And by the which will we are
sanctified through the offering of what? Of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. Now look at the next verse. But
this man, the God man, the one mediator between God and man.
After he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down
on the right hand of God. Do you know what that means?
It means that our Passover lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, has risen
from the dead. He lived, he died, he redeemed,
and he arose and he accomplished a Passover for his people. Look
at verse 13, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. And everyone is, every one of
them. For by one offering, he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified, them that are set
apart, them that are his. Danny, you're perfect forever
in Christ, our Passover lamb. You know, John said in Revelation
chapter five, verse six, when the Lord took him into the glory
of heaven, he said, I beheld and lo, in the midst of the throne
stood a lamb as it had been slain. We know who that is. It's our
Passover lamb that has taken away the sin of all the elect
throughout all time is now ruling and reigning on the throne of
God. And not only has God passed over
us in our sin, but he's now our heavenly father who works all
things together for our good as a loving father does his children. That's why we must have Christ,
the Passover lamb. We're guilty, we're deserving
of death, but Christ, our Passover lamb, has shed his blood, and
God now, in justice, can pass over you and I. He is our Passover
lamb. May God enable you and I to behold
the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of his people in the
world.