Exodus chapter 11. I just want to look at the last
couple verses in chapter 11 before we move on to chapter 12. Last week we looked at the difference
that God made between the Egyptians and Israel. Let me say this to
you who are in Christ. It's God who maketh thee to differ
from another. I'm so glad that the Lord revealed
that to us. He's the one that makes the difference.
We don't make any difference at all. He makes the difference. He causes us to differ from another. We have nothing that we did not
receive from God. Therefore, we cannot glory in
anything since we received all good things at his hand. Salvation
is by the mercy and the grace of God in Christ, and we certainly
have nothing to glory in. He gets all the glory, not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but into thy name be glory. The difference between the Egyptians
and Israel was the difference that God made. The difference
between Pharaoh and Moses was the difference that God made.
And the difference between every believer and every unbeliever
is the difference that God makes. Look at verse nine here in Exodus
chapter 11. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that my wonders may be multiplied
in the land of Egypt. Now, let me first say that if
you want to see some of your own heart and me mine, for that
matter, every heart by nature, just look at Pharaoh and his
heart. All God has to do, we say this
all the time, but it's so true. All God has to do to harden our
hearts is just leave us to ourselves. That's what he did with Pharaoh.
The Lord tells Moses that Pharaoh will not hearken to him. Did
you notice the reason why? He said that my wonders. may
be multiplied in the land of Egypt." Now, there's some question
in the minds of the commentators here as to whether Moses is referring
to this present time or if he, as the writer of the book of
Exodus, is reminding us of what God said concerning the hardness
of Pharaoh's heart when Moses first came to him. I don't think
it really matters so much as to when because the result And
the reason was the same. God raised Pharaoh up. Paul tells
us that he might show his power in him. And God raised Pharaoh
up that he might bring him down and that God's sovereign name
might be declared throughout all the earth. And certainly
it was. After this, the deliverance of Israel was over with and they
came out of Egypt. by the time they got to the land
of Canaan, Rahab, and all the people of Jericho had heard what
the Lord had done. And whether it was Pharaoh's
continuance in hardening his heart at this time, or in the
beginning, when God commanded him to let Israel go, the reason
and the result was the same, that the wonders of God may be
multiplied in the land of Egypt. I'm telling you, there would
be no doubt No doubt that the God of Israel was the one true
and living God when God got finished. No doubt about it. And whether
this speaks of the wonders of the first nine plagues and wonders
they were, or the wondrous work of the death of the firstborn
that we're about to look at, parting of the Red Sea, the destruction
of Pharaoh and all his hosts, the fact remains that Pharaoh
hardened his heart and God did many wondrous works because of
it. And I think of that passage found
in Psalm 76 that says, surely the wrath of man shall praise
God. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise God, and the remainder of wrath shall God restrain."
God uses even the hardness of men and women's heart to accomplish
His will and His purpose in this world. That's the kind of God,
the sovereign God that we serve. Now I want you to look at verse
10. And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh,
And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. How many times have we
read that in these verses and these chapters? The Lord hardened
Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the children of Israel
go out of his lane. Now here we see two things I
think in particular that are worth mentioning. I won't spend
much time on them. But first, notice that God did
these wonders before Pharaoh by Moses and Aaron. It was the
Lord's power. It was the Lord doing it. But
our God is a God of means. He uses men. He uses men to preach
His gospel. God could save men any way He
so determined to, but it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save those who believe. Secondly, man is responsible
for his own destruction. If any man or woman perish, they'll
have no one to blame but themselves. No one to blame but themselves.
It will be by, in, and through their own hard, rebellious heart. Now before we move on into chapter
12 concerning the Passover, I want to remind you again that before
Moses ever went before Pharaoh with the word of God, God told
Moses to warn Pharaoh from the very start that his resistance
that his disobedience against God's demand to let the children
of Israel go. He said, my people go. You're
going to let my people go that they may serve me. From the very
start, this demand of God to let his people go would result
in the death of Pharaoh's firstborn. He told Moses that before Moses
ever got into the land of Egypt. Tell Pharaoh to let my firstborn
son, being the nation of Israel, let him go. And if you don't,
this is what's going to happen. And here we are, nine plagues
later, after all the warnings. It had come down to this very
thing, the death of the firstborn. The first nine plagues, as I
mentioned briefly last time, were nothing short or less than
a show of God's mercy, God's grace, God's patience, and God's
longsuffering to Egypt. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened
and it persisted to rebel and the very warning that God first
gave was about to be carried out, the death of the firstborn.
And there are many who think that those who believe in the
sovereignty of God Those who believe that God, as God, has
the right to love one and not another. Those who believe that
God has the right to have mercy on some while passing by others. They think and believe that we
somehow, who believe that way, think and believe that God somehow
takes pleasure in the death of the wicked. That couldn't be
further from the truth. And I can show and prove to you
from scripture that that's not so. I won't turn you there, but
Ezekiel 33 11, you're familiar with this passage, listen to
it. God says to all who accuse him of such evil, say unto them,
now this is God speaking, say unto them, as I live, saith the
Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. That's pretty
plain and simple, isn't it? God doesn't take any pleasure
in the death of wicked men and women, but that the wicked turn
from his way and live. And then God says, turn ye, turn
ye from your evil ways, for why will you die? Boy, that's a good
question. I'd like to ask every unbeliever
who rejects and refuses to bow to Christ that very question.
Why will you die? To refuse Christ, not to bow
to Him, to reject Him is certain death, for sure. Turn ye, turn
ye from your ways, why will you die, O house of Israel? No doubt
Paul had that truth in mind when he wrote in Romans chapter two,
verse four, despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance
and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth
thee to repentance. It's the goodness of God that
leads men to repentance. And if men harden their hearts
against God, they're responsible for the consequences. Pharaoh
is a good picture of that for us. But God takes no delight
or pleasure in the death of wicked men, period. That's just the
way it is. Okay, Exodus chapter 12, verses
one and two. I want you to notice that here
we have a new beginning. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, this month shall be unto
you the beginning of months, and it shall be the first month
of the year to you." Now this marked the beginning of Israel
as a free nation. God is going to take them as
a group, as a people. as a nation all the way into
those promised blessings that he had promised Abraham some
500 years before. And these verses mark the beginning
of a new time, a new beginning for the people of God. And so
important was this event of God's Passover that God changed the
calendar. This is the beginning of a new
life, a new life, life before God. begins with the Passover. Let me say that again. Life before
God begins with the Passover. The appearing of the Lamb is
what marked this new beginning. Israel had been preserved by
God's hand of grace in the land of Goshen. We've seen that so
many times. They've been made to see all
the idolatry and the wickedness of Egypt that had been exposed
by the mighty hand of God. All Egypt's gods, God had destroyed,
made a mockery of. And God does the same thing with
a believer. We see this world, we see it's
all idolatrous religion for what it is. Like Israel, we sit in
a house of light in Goshen and we see the void formless darkness
of this Egypt of a world in which we live. And God exposes the
world for what it is. God convinced Israel of sin and
its consequences. And now he's going to reveal
to them the Passover lamb. That's what God does to and for
his people. God's going to convince you of
sin before he ever shows you your need of Christ, the lamb
of God. God is going to show you that
the wages of sin is death before he shows you life in the Passover
land. Was that not your experience?
Those of you that know Christ, God showed me my helplessness
before him. He showed me that I could do
nothing, that I was nothing, and that I was totally dependent
upon him for salvation. There's death and devastation
all over the land of Egypt. God has just destroyed it. Very
little is left. And Israel saw it all. Egypt
smelt of death. Israel has been made to see firsthand
by experience that it was God that put a difference between
them and Egypt. And God is going to show every
child of God that He alone has put a difference between them
and the people of this world. God is in this 10th and final
plague going to kill the firstborn of Egypt and the difference between
Egypt and Israel, listen, the only difference between Egypt
and Israel is the blood of the Lamb that covers them. Christ
is the Lamb of God. Scripture says, slain before
the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb
of God, is our Passover. The purpose of the Old Testament
scriptures was and still is to set forth the Lord Jesus Christ
in his glorious person and work as our substitute and savior. It does so in all the pictures
and the types and the prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures.
No doubt, one of the clearest and most instructive pictures
of Christ in the whole Old Testament is the Passover Lamb. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God by whose death all God's elect
are delivered from sin, delivered from bondage, and death forever. Eternal life is found only in
the shed blood of the Lamb of God, which is what the Passover
pictures. Did you know that the word Passover
means exemption? I found that very interesting.
Exemption is defined as the state of being free from an obligation
or liability imposed on you. The law of God obligates and
it opposes upon us the need of a perfect righteousness. Oh my,
it's a heavy burden because it's something that you and I cannot
provide for ourselves. The law declares what? That we
must be perfect to be accepted. God accepts nothing less than
perfection. There can be no blemish. no spot,
no wrinkle in our sacrifice. And we are, in and of ourselves,
from the sole of our feet to the top of our heads, nothing
but wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores that have not been bound
or doctored. Now, has God shown you that's
what you are? If he has, you ought to thank
him. Because it will not be until you see that, that you'll ever
see your need of a substitute, a sacrifice, and a surety before
God. That's just a fact. Those that
are well have no need of a physician. We go to the doctor when we're
sick, don't we? No one will come to the great
physician until they see that they're in bad shape, in need
of help. Christ, the Lamb of God, the Passover Lamb, is the
Lamb of exemption. I like that. He's the exemption
Lamb. In verse 11, we're told that
this Passover is the Lord's Passover. You see, the Lord Jesus is our
Passover. God cannot and God will not accept
what we're able to offer, no matter how good it is. No matter
how good it is. or how good we think it to be,
it falls way short of the glory of God. Now in verse three, the
Lord instructs Moses here and he says, to speak ye into all
the congregation of Israel, saying in the 10th day of this month,
they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the
house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. And I think very
well we see in the picture of the Passover lamb the humiliation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who is the eternal almighty
God became a lamb that he might redeem us with his blood. God
Himself became a man, became a substitute, became the surety
for His people. Throughout the Bible, our Savior
is presented to us as the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world. We see Him in the blood-stained
skins that covered our first parents, Adam and Eve. What a
picture of the Lamb we see there. Adam and Edith clothed themselves
with fig leaf righteousness. Those leaves would soon dry up
and fall off. There was no covering at all.
But God killed a lamb. and took the skins and covered
them. What a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect
righteousness. We see the Lamb of God enables
sacrifice that God wholeheartedly accepted. Cain came with the
best works of his hands and God rejected them. God won't accept
the work of man's hands. No matter how good they might
be, He accepts only the blood sacrifice of the Lamb of God. We see him in Genesis chapter
22, when Abraham and Isaac went into the mountain. Isaac said,
Father, we have the wood, we have the fire, but where's the
lamb? And Abraham said, God is able to provide himself a lamb. Christ is that lamb. Christ is
that lamb. We see God as the lamb that he
provides for himself. We see in Isaiah chapter 53 that
he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter. Peter said that God's
elect had been redeemed by the blood of the lamb. John tells
us through divine revelation in that book called Revelation,
that all those in glory will be singing one song. You know
what it is? Worthy is the lamb. Worthy is
the lamb. Now in verse five here, we see
that this lamb that Israel was to offer, to sacrifice and to
partake of, shall be without blemish, a male of the first
year. And ye shall take it out from
the sheep or from the goats. Now, first, this sacrifice had
to be without blemish. Why? Because God will accept
nothing less than perfection. Secondly, it had to be a male. What's the significance of that?
Well, it was by man that sin came into the world. And it must
be by man that righteousness must be established. Our federal
head, Adam, brought death. And our federal head, Christ,
is the one who must obtain life for us. This lamb had to be a
male. Thirdly, we're told that it had
to be a ram of the first year. A lamb in the prime of his life.
Christ is the one who was struck down in the prime and the full
vitality of his life. You see, only a lamb that was
strong and active and energetic, full of spirit and full of life
would be accepted by God. And Christ fulfilled all the
requirements as our substitute, our sacrifice, our surety, and
our savior. Fourthly, the lamb of sacrifice
had to be separated from the rest of the flock. Look at verse
six. And ye shall keep it up until the 14th day of the same
month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel
shall kill it in the evening. Christ our Lord was set apart. by the purpose, the counsel and
the decree of God is the lamb slain before the foundation of
the world. And he is that lamb, our Passover
lamb was without blemish. And he was set aside on the 10th
day. This lamb was set aside on the
10th day until the 14th day to be inspected and confirmed to
have no insufficiency. It had to be perfect. Oh, I can
just see every morning the head of that household going out.
They've separated that lamb. They've put the best one they
had, a male of the first year, without blemish, and they've
separated. They've set out, and every morning
they go out there and they watch that lamb. Make sure he's not
limping. Make sure that there's no insufficiencies. Why? Because he's got to be perfect.
He's got to be without blemish. What a picture that is of Christ.
For four days, it was to be observed carefully and thoroughly. Four
days before our Lord was crucified, he rolled into Jerusalem, the
place of sacrifice, and he was set apart by God. And he was
examined by all that came in contact with him. Most importantly,
examined by God himself. You remember what God's testimony
of his son was? This is my beloved son. and whom
I'm well-pleased." Why was God well-pleased? Because he was
perfect. He was without blemish. And he
had to be in order to be our Savior, our substitute. Why,
even Christ's judge, Pilate, said three different times in
the Gospel of John alone, I think John chapter 18, he said, I find
no fault in him. Even his enemies found no fault
in him. Did you notice in verse six that
the Passover lamb had to be killed? Now that's very, very important.
I know you know what that symbolizes. But I want you to think about
this for a moment. The life of Christ, as perfect
and as precious as it was and is, could not save anyone. Couldn't save anyone. The Lord
had to be killed. He had to die. The scripture
says he had to die of the just for the unjust. He who was perfect
had to die for us who are unjust, everything but perfect, that
He might bring us to God. You see, according to the law
of God, according to divine justice, Christ was, by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, he was taken and with wicked
hands, by wicked hands, was crucified and slain in order to cover our
sins with his blood. He had to die as our substitute
and our sacrifice, being perfectly holy, without spot, wrinkle,
or blemish of any kind, being perfectly holy, righteous, and
just. See, not just any man could die
for us. Had to be a perfect man. Had
to be without blemish, without blame. And he was made to be
sin. Oh, we read those verses and
we memorize them, and I wonder sometimes if we really give them
much thought. He who knew no sin. The Lord
Jesus Christ, God made Him who knew no sin to be made sin for
us. Do you know what that means?
That's what your salvation depends totally upon. That God made Him
sin, that God put your sin on Him and made you the perfect
righteousness of God in Him. Now that's salvation and that's
substitution. He had to die as our substitute
and sacrifice. and we had to be made the righteousness
of God and Him. And I never grow tired of hearing
that. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, scripture says, there
shall no flesh be justified in His sight, for by the law is
the knowledge of sin. You see, the law was given to
show us that we could not keep it. Do you see that you can't
keep the law? You need someone to keep it for
you. Cause it's gotta be kept. The law couldn't save us because
it was weak through the flesh and God sending his own son in
the likeness of sinful flesh. But he had no sin. He knew no
sin. He was only in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin,
the scripture says, condemned sin in the flesh. We must have
this lamb. Look at verse seven. and they
shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and
on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat
it. As the head of every household
in Israel took that blood and sprinkled the blood upon the
door post and upon the lintel of his house for the salvation
of his family and for himself, so our heavenly father, by the
power and grace of His Spirit applies the blood of Christ to
each and every one of God's elect. Hebrews 9.22 says, and almost
all things are by the law purged with blood and without shedding
of blood is no remission. Unless God shed His blood for
you friends, you will die in your sin. "'cause the wages of
sin is death, "'and the soul that sinneth, it shall surely
die.'" Now that's what God says. When the Holy Spirit sprinkles
our guilty conscience with the blood of Christ, he makes us
see that it's enough. And the blood alone satisfies
God's justice. By the blood of Christ, which
is the blood of God, iniquity is purged, and sin is removed,
And along with it, the guilt of it. Now I'm telling you, that
if you feel guilt over your sin, you need to look to Christ. You
need to look to Christ. Yet according to verse 8 here,
it says that every person in the house was required to eat.
that roasted lamb for themselves. Only those who ate the lamb,
roasted with fire, were delivered from death. All who ate the lamb
were spared and delivered. And it's the same for us. Only
as we partake of Christ, who was tried under the fiery indignation
of God, shall we be delivered from the law of sin and death.
all for whom the blood was shed, ate the lamb, and walked out
of Egypt, and walked out with Moses, who's a picture of the
law. You see, the law of God in Christ is fulfilled. God's
justice is satisfied. And we walk out, we're delivered. And the law has no claim on us.
The law has been fulfilled and satisfied for us in Christ. That's why there's no guilt.
No guilt. I'm as perfect as Christ Himself. Now what is it to eat the lamb? Well our Lord said in John chapter
6 verse 54, Whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood
hath eternal life and I'll raise him up to last day. Well how
do we do that? How do we do that? By believing
and trusting in Him. By believing and trusting in
Christ and His perfect work of righteousness for us. That's
what the Lord's table symbolizes. The partaking of Christ. The
partaking of Christ and His body which was broken for us. And
the partaking and drinking of His blood that was shed for us.
He said, do this in remembrance of Me. There's so much more that
we can say about these verses eight through 11. Time won't
permit me tonight, maybe next time, but I do want you to see
this. Look down at verse 12. Now this
is the only hope of eternal life that you and I have. Verse 12,
for I, this is God speaking, I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night. and will smite all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the
gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. And the blood shall be for you,
or shall be to you for a token, that word means evidence, upon
the houses where ye are. And when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt." Isn't that
the best news you ever heard? Now I want to ask you a couple
questions in closing. I want you to think about them.
What was the one thing that God was looking for when he passed
through the land of Egypt that night. Was he looking for faith? Was he looking for faithfulness?
Was he looking for spiritual understanding and knowledge?
Was he looking for sincerity? Was he looking for obedience?
What was he looking for? He was looking for blood. He
said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Was the blood
on everybody's door? Or was it just on the Israelites'
door? Who had to see the blood? God said, when I see the blood,
God had to see it. I'm pretty sure that those folks
in the house couldn't see the blood. It was on the outside
of the door and the lintels. I'm pretty sure they couldn't
see it. God said, when I see the blood, you know, sometimes
I see it and sometimes I don't. That doesn't matter. God sees
the blood. I rejoice in the blood. I do.
I know that if Christ didn't shed his blood for me, I am in
trouble. But I don't rejoice in it as
I ought. The blood of the lamb was shed for God, not me. I had
someone get a bit upset with me not long ago for saying that.
I said, God's blood wasn't shed for me, it was shed for God.
Now I understand that it was shed for me. Without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission. But listen to me, friends. Before
God could do something for me, He had to do something for Himself.
Do you see that? Sin had to be punished. The law
had to be satisfied. Holy justice had to be appeased. Christ's blood had to be shed
for God before He could ever justify me. When God sees the
blood, what does He do? He said, I'll pass over you.
He'll pass over us in His wrath and in His judgment and in His
eternal condemnation. Do you suppose that there were
any of the Israelites in the house that were under the blood
that were so wicked and so worthless that God killed them anyway?
Huh? Not a one. Not a one. I'm sure that there were some
in the house who were calm and full of confidence in their security. And I'm sure that there were
some in the house that were uncertain, scared to death, and trembling
with no assurance. Don't you imagine? So let me
ask you this. Were the ones full of faith and
assurance any more secure than the ones who were trembling in
fear? Nope. Why? Because the security was
in the blood. Not in their assurance. And our
security is in the blood of the Lamb, not in our faith. All men
talk about their faith. Faith is nothing more than a
gift of God, the same as grace is. For by grace are you saved
through faith, that's not of yourselves. God gives us the
grace and the faith to believe these things. Men have made faith
into salvation. They trust in their faith instead
of the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God. our securities in the blood
of the lamb that was shed for us, not in our faith. We're told
in verse 30 that someone died in every house in Egypt that
night. Verse 30 says, for there was
not a house where there was not one dead. Can you imagine? And as it was in Egypt, so is
it in this world. Holy justice will pass by none. All who are not in Christ covered
with his blood will suffer the wrath of God and must die. Now hear me on this. Someone's gonna die because of
sin. That's what sin's wages are.
The wages of sin is death. Someone must die to pay the penalty
of sin. And it's either going to be me,
or it's going to be my perfect substitute. But in the house,
where the doorpost and lintel were covered with the blood,
God passed over in mercy, grace, and love. Truly the blood of
Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanseth us from all sin. All of it. I'm so glad that he put that
little word all in there. Cause I'd be worrying about that
one sin that maybe he didn't cleanse me from, but he cleansed
me from all of them. Every single one. Do you believe that? Much more
than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from
wrath through him. That's what's going on here.
For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. That's it, that's the only thing
they can. Thank God for the Passover lamb that was slain before the
foundation of the world. Child of God, thank God that
He has applied the blood of Christ to your heart's door. He's not
standing at your heart's door knocking for you to let Him come
in. He's there as a covering so that
you can come to God by Him. Big, big difference, big difference. Do you have the blood of Christ
apply to the door in which you go in and out? Well, that's the
only hope that we have of eternal salvation. May God be pleased
to make these words affectional to our hearts.