Good morning. You would open
your Bibles to Exodus chapter 12. Exodus chapter 12. The title of the message this
morning, which could also be the title of the Bible study, is the difference is Christ. The difference is Christ. If you look in chapter 11 and
verse 7, the last part of that says that ye may know how that
the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. We will read in just a moment
the first 13 verses of chapter 12 to show us more about the
Passover and the Passover land. But I want to start, and I had
our brother read chapter 11 to make sure we understand and we
realize that the focus of this message is the difference between
the Egyptians and the people of Israel. Last time I preached
here, it was out of Romans 8 and the end of verse 28, that said,
to them that are called according to his purpose. The difference
is between those who are called according to his purpose and
those who are not. The beginning of chapter 11 says,
in Exodus 11 here says, and the Lord said unto Moses, yet will
I bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards,
he will let you go hence. There were 10 plagues. This is
going to be the 10th plague, and the Lord says to him, this
is the one that's going to do it. According to his purpose,
he had 10 plagues. He didn't need 10 plagues, but
he chose by his purpose to have 10 plagues. And all of them,
and there's a lot in this, and we don't have time for it, but
all of these plagues all led up to this one plague, this plague
where Blood was required. That was the difference between
life and death. And that difference is Christ. This book, the Bible, all of
it points and leads to the same thing. to the Lord Jesus Christ
and His blood. That's the difference. Our subject,
every single time we get up here, is the difference between life
and death, eternal life, eternal salvation, spiritual life, spiritual
death. And we have to know that. We
have to see that. So in reading this, I'll say
this again in a second. These verses in chapter 12, remember,
we're looking at the difference between these people. Verse 1
of chapter 12 says, And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in
the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning
of months. It shall be the first month of
the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation
of Israel, saying, in the tenth 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 if the household be too little
for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house
take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according
to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb
shall be without blemish, a male of the first year, and ye shall
take it out from the sheep or from the goats. And ye shall
keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening. And they shall take of the blood
and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts
of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the
flesh in that night, roast with fire and unleavened bread, and
with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor
sodden it all with water, but roast with fire, his head with
his legs, and with the pertinence thereof. And ye shall let nothing
of it remain until the morning, and that which remaineth of it
until the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye
eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and
your staff in your hand. and ye shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord's Passover. For 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 to you for a token upon the houses where you 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. This picture, the Passover, is
one of the best pictures in all the Bible. We see so much. It's such a complete picture
in so many ways to show us the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the necessity of it, and all these things. And there are many
different ways to look at this. This morning, the way I want
to do this is I want to look at the characteristics of this
lamb, of the Passover lamb, compared to the characteristics of our
Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, our lamb. The Lord preached to
the Jews through this the whole doctrine of the gospel. He taught
them the choice of the sacrifice, the characteristics of the lamb,
the death of the lamb and the sprinkling of the blood, the
eating of the lamb and the faith that rested in it. The grand
results of it, the people were delivered and God was glorified. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
9. Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews 9, look at verse 11. Hebrews 9 chapter 9 verse 11,
But Christ, being come in high priests of good things to come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the
blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkled
in the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, how
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God?" This passage says
to us, All of Israel had these ceremonies and these sacrifices
that they did. And we'll see in this in a moment
how the blood of a lamb was the difference between life and death
for the firstborn. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
difference in salvation. If he put it in to ordinance,
if he put it into this Passover, he said, you kill a lamb and
that blood will show me and I'll pass over. And that's the difference.
Think how much more a perfect, true and living God, his sacrifice
saves his people. Our God is not a lamb. It's not with blemish. Our God
is a perfect, complete sacrifice. So I want to look at these characteristics.
I want to see these. And there are 11 different things
I want to point out. And don't be scared. I remember
as a kid listening, and when a man would get up and say, I've
got three points, I've got four points, I remember thinking to
myself, that number was going to tell me how long we were going
to be here. And so I was also told by a preacher who'd done
it a long time, tell me, if you've ever got more than about four
points, you probably shouldn't number them, because everybody's
going to get scared. We won't take that long. But
I want to go through these, because each of these things, There's
even more than I can see. There's more than I'm getting
these from other men who've seen this before me. And there's more
than this. But it's important that we spend just a moment or
two on each one, because every little thing we can learn about
the Lord Jesus Christ and what he's done for us is so valuable. We can't find anything that's
more valuable than that. So let's start with the first
thing. The first one is that the lamb was to be without blemish. It had to be absolute perfection
and sinless. That's representing our Lord.
The sacrifice. The only way that we could not
face death was that there was one who would be sacrificed that
was perfect. Someone had to take our place.
Someone had to be perfect, right? We're sinners, that's all we
do is sin. Our Lord became a man. He was tempted as we are. He
became a man and lived perfectly. This book is full of verses and
testimonies that tell us, the wages of sin is death. You said
that. Sin must be punished by death. So we needed someone who
could not sin. And that was our Lord. He became
a man and even though He was tempted as we are, He did not
sin. He was made sin for us, but He
did not sin. 2 Corinthians says, For He hath
made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. For Him to take our punishment,
He had to take our sin. And for us to get what He deserved,
that transaction is one that I'll never understand. But He
gave us His righteousness. In order to atone for our sin,
He must have no sin of His own. In Hebrews it says, For we have
not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities, but was in all points tempted, like as we are,
yet without sin. A perfect sacrifice. A lamb without
blemish. A perfect sacrifice. The second
one. The lamb was to be taken out
of the fold. Jesus Christ our Lamb was taken
from among men. He had to be among us. He had
to live like us. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter
18. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Jesus Christ our Lamb was taken
from among men. Deuteronomy 18 look at verse
15. The Lord thy God will raise up
unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren,
like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken, according to all that
thou desirest of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the
assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord
my God, neither let me see this great fire any more that I die
not. And the Lord said unto me, They
have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them
up a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee, and
will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them
all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he shall speak
in my name, I will require it of him. He was the seed of woman,
the seed of Abraham, and made of the seed of David according
to the flesh. In Galatians it says, Now to
Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not into
seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. The difference is Christ. It's
him. The substitute had to be a man.
Thirdly, the lamb was to be a year old and was to be killed. This
shows that our Lord in his full strength of life should be put
to death. The lamb wasn't to be old and
feeble. The first one was without blemish.
This had to be a sacrifice of value. You couldn't go out and
find the worst sheep you had. You couldn't go out there and
be like, well, this goat's about to kick the bucket. Let's use
him. No, this was not a substitute. This was not something that didn't
have value. The lamb was to be a year old
In Hebrews 9, let me read this to you. I don't want you to have
to turn to it. In Hebrews 9, in his full strength of life, our
Lord was to be put to death. This also signifies his willingness. In Hebrews 9, it says this. For
Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands,
which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself,
now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet that he
should offer himself often as the high priest entered into
the holy place every year with blood of others." This is saying
not as these sacrifices that were done on a daily, a weekly,
a monthly, a yearly basis. They kept doing these sacrifices
because they were not sacrifices that could keep them from their
sin. But it says, that Him wants. For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the
world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. For those who look unto him,
he will appear, the one who is perfect, who died for us, the
perfect sacrifice. All right. Fourthly, the lamb
was to be roasted with fire. Very specific instructions on
how this lamb was to be cooked. Our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified,
enduring the fire of God's wrath for our sins. Death Eternal death
is a really scary thing. And I don't think we have any
grasp of how serious the judgment of God is. Sin must be punished. Now, it says sin must be punished. Every single sin must be punished. Can you imagine the punishment
for every single one of your sins? I don't know a number to
say how many sins we have, but let's just start with a million
today. Everything we do, every single one has to be punished. The wrath of God upon sin is
eternal. It is. And only one who is perfect
could bear this, taking all of our sin on himself and for the
wrath of God. Maybe we should be a little more
thankful. You know, I don't think we ever enter truly into what
he did for us. Okay, next, the lamb was to be
roasted whole. In John 19, it says, for these
things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of
him shall not be broken. Our sacrifice, our Lord Jesus
Christ, He was a willing sacrifice. He told his disciples, he said,
I've got to go. He said, I must go. And then
they're ready to defend him. Peter pulls out a sword and he
says, stop it. He said, this isn't your fight.
It's mine. He went willingly and it says
no bone would be broken. If they were going to take me
for this, they're going to fight. I'm going to fight back. Even when they put a spear in
his side, all the things, they beat him, all those punishments.
How in the world did not a single bone get broken? Because it wasn't
his purpose. No one can do anything to our
Lord, our willing perfect sacrifice. All right, the blood of the lamb
was to be sprinkled. It was to be sprinkled upon the
lintel and the sides of the door of the Israelites in the same
way that the blood of Christ is applied by faith. There is
no salvation nor deliverance apart from faith. Now, if I'm
being honest, I struggle and oftentimes try to shy away from
discussing this point whenever I come to it. Listen to these
verses. John 3 says, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. But
the wrath of God abideth in him. It says, whoever believes will
have life, and if you don't, you won't. Hebrews it says, but
without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh
to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. That one says that you've got
to have faith. You have to. Now, one reason
I shy away from this is because I hate trying to tell people
you've got to believe, you've got to have faith, when I sure
don't feel like I have much of either. But more importantly
to me is I am so scared to say these things because I'm nervous
that someone is going to look at this and say that guy up there
just said that if I believe that I'll be saved. So I'm going to
make myself believe. But let me show you something.
Remember the title of this is The Difference is Christ. So
let me show you something in our text. Go back here to Exodus
11. Let me show you this. And it's
important to see that God did not put the blood on the door.
The people put it there because they believe God. So look at
Exodus 11 verse 6. 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 the Lord doth put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel." I'll make this point, but I've got
two more things to read. Look in chapter 12, verse 12. For 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 to you for a token upon the houses where you 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." Now look at verse 29. And it came to pass that at midnight,
the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt from the
firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn
of the captive that was in the dungeon and all the firstborn
of cattle. So let me set this up. It said
very clearly in chapter 11, the Lord said, I will come through
that night and I will smite the firstborn of every man and beast. There was no qualifier. This
did not say that this affected the Egyptians and not the Israelites.
It said everyone. I'm going through the whole land,
and I'm going to kill the firstborn of every man and every beast,
all of them. All of them. Then he said, I
will provide a Passover lamb. There will be a lamb, all right?
But the lamb has to be put on. You have to believe. You have
to have faith. You've got to put that blood on, right? The three
passages we just read, all three said that no one in a house of
Israel would be harmed. All of those were said before
he told the people of Israel to put the blood on the door.
So our Lord said, before any of these people knew it, nothing
is going to happen to a single child of Israel. How is that
possible if they had to have the blood? How could he be sure?
The reason is because the Lord Jesus Christ calls his sheep.
They do what he says. He made them do it. He gave them
the belief to do it. He gave them the faith to do
it. All of it. There's no other way to explain
this. How many ever households this was? How many ever thousands
of households? For him to say, I will kill every single firstborn
in the land except for those who put blood on the door. But
then he also says in chapter 11 verse 7, but against any of
the children of Israel shall not even a dog move his tongue
against them. No one will hurt my people. Why
do these verses, why do we find comfort in these verses and why
are we okay when it says, He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life, and he that believeth not on the Son shall
not see life. Because if the Lord Jesus Christ called you,
he will make you to believe. Christ is the difference. It
doesn't matter what we're talking about. If we want to say, do
you believe? Well, the only way you'll believe
is if the Lord Jesus Christ made you believe. You know, the only
reason any of these people put blood on that, did all the things
he said, is because he made them do it. Now, that may not seem
like good news to someone who thinks they would do it on their
own, but for someone who feels pretty positive, even with the
life of the firstborn child on the line, I'd find a reason not
to do it. I would. I'd say, he doesn't
have this power over me. I'd say, I'll do it tomorrow.
I'll say, I don't believe he's coming. I'd find a reason. But
the Lord Jesus Christ made every single one of His children put
the blood on the door. He did it. The blood on the door
denotes an outward confession, an evidence of heart faith. In
all our going out and going in, the blood of the Lamb is ever
before us. Thankfully, the Lord Jesus Christ
makes that blood effectual to us. He provided the blood. He
provided the sacrifice. And He gives us faith to believe.
Okay, moving on to the next one. The Israelites were to eat the
flesh of the lamb. Now this signifies that we must,
by faith, feed upon Christ. In John 6, it says, truly believing
on Christ and receiving Christ within us is called eating His
flesh and drinking His blood. We must feed on Him. Now, this
is another thing. The Lord gives us a need. of sustenance from Him. We can't
explain it. None of us can, but there's just
this part inside that says, I just need Him. That's what I need. There are so many people in this
world, and apart from Christ, we'd be in the same thing, who
have no need of the Lord Jesus Christ. No need, no desire, anything. By God's grace, He gives us a
desire to feed off Him, to give us that. And I think this comes
in time, or I sure hope it does, I know I don't have enough now,
but for us to realize that the only place for us to find peace
and rest and sustenance is in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we're
ever in need, if we're ever hungry, if we're ever thirsty, or whatever
we ever are, come to the Lord, He'll provide. Then it says,
they were to eat the lamb with unleavened bread. Now, leaven
is a picture throughout the scriptures of evil. Leaven changes everything
about bread. Leaven changes the size of it. It changes the shape of it. It
changes the texture, the taste. It changes everything. Leaven
does. The scripture says, purge out
therefore the old leaven that you may be a new excuse me, that
you may be a new man as you are unleavened for even Christ our
Passover is sacrificed for us. This is signifying to us, don't
add anything to it. This sacrifice that they were
making, the sacrifice was enough. Don't add anything else to it.
Christ endured the full wrathment and judgment for our full justification. And nothing is to be mixed, added,
nor joined to Him. Him by Himself, Christ alone. That's the difference. The title
of this message isn't, The Difference is Christ and something else. The difference is Christ. It's
only Christ. That's it. We have a perfect
sacrifice, a perfect Savior. Why would we ever want to add
anything to that? And then they said, nothing of
the lamb was to remain. All of it was to be consumed.
This says that the whole Christ is to be received and fed upon
by faith. Christ in both natures, divine
and human, Christ in all his offices, prophet, priest, and
king, Christ in all his person and work. These two together
don't add an 11. And the whole thing, you have
to take the whole thing. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a complete
and perfect sacrifice. And it says very clearly, we
don't add anything to it and we don't take anything away from
nothing. So often in religion, the problem
comes from us continuing to talk. continuing to say things. You
can hear someone say something like, the Lord is my only hope.
If I do this, or if I don't do this, well then He's not your
only hope. Just use the scripture and stop.
The Lord is my only hope. Don't add another word to it.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the difference. He's our sacrifice. He's everything. He's our faith. He's our belief. He's all of
it. Don't add anything. Don't take anything away. And
so often these things are just, they're so small we don't even
realize it. I think we're all guilty of it all the time. But
Lord Christ alone, that's it. We just need to praise what He
has done and shut our mouths. Give Him all the glory. That's
so often what we take from Him. Well, we love giving ourselves
some of the glory. Just, I mean, we love glory. I do. I love it. You know, somebody
wants to say something nice about me, I'll take it a hundred out
of a hundred times. I will. I'll take it. It doesn't
even have to be true. You can come, and I've heard
this many times, but we have people over to the house, and
my wife cooks the whole meal, and she's cleaned the whole house,
and made the kids act a certain way, and done all these things,
and at the end, someone comes up to me and be like, I really
appreciate this. You did so much for us. I'll just look back at
it and be like, you're welcome. It took a lot of effort. We love
taking glory. In salvation, we don't deserve
anything, because we didn't do anything. And if we think that
we did something, if we think we have a part in salvation,
we aren't saved. It's that plain. We cannot add
leaven. We cannot take anything out.
Okay, there's just two more. They were to eat the Passover
dressed and ready to move out of Egypt. Boy, I love this one.
This is the Lord's Passover and it effectually saves. This is
telling them the same thing it's telling us. The day is coming. Judgment day is coming. Boy,
be dressed and ready for it because it's coming. These people, now,
think about the situation they're in. This is the 10th plague,
right? So they've been through this whole rigmarole nine times,
right? They were told, Pharaoh, he said,
Pharaoh, if you don't let the people of Israel go, I'm going
to bring a plague upon you. So they brought a plague. And
he said, oh my goodness, stop the plague. Stop it, stop it.
I'll let them go. Think about the celebration everybody had
when they heard that. These people have been slaves
for generations. That's all they knew. And they
were told, you get your freedom. And then the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart. And he said, nope, don't go. And it happened a second
time, and a third time, and a fourth time, and a fifth time, and a
sixth time, and a seventh time, and an eighth time, and a ninth
time. I can understand why someone
might have thought to themselves, I don't think I'm going to go
through this whole trouble because the last nine times, or how many
ever it was, it might have taken me one time. But, you know, this
probably is not going to work out. The rest of them didn't.
The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's just one. And
it is a perfect sacrifice that is effectual and it is done.
The world as Egypt to Israel is no longer our home. We're
pilgrims temporarily here, but awaiting his call to move out
and go home to Canaan. You know, we should look at this
earth as they looked at Egypt. Can you imagine how much they
hated that place? They were slaves. They were in bondage. And you
know, you kids think to yourself, man, I don't like getting up
this early to go to school. Every single day, they woke up at sunrise,
or they were in the fields at sunrise and worked all day long
doing what someone else told them to do, being beaten until
the sun was going down and they said, well, you can go home and
sleep and then come right back and do it again. And they didn't
have the Friday afternoon they thought, well, at least I get
two days off. No, they worked a whole week. And they didn't have a
summer break or any other holidays. They worked every single day
in bondage. Imagine how much they hated that
place. This is the way we should look at this flesh and where
we are now. There will be a day because of
what our Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross. There'll be a day,
and we need to look forward to that day. Some of us are more
ready than others, and time will tell with that. But you know
what we don't know? We don't know our day. It could
be today. My grandmother just turned 101. We don't know the day, but we
need to be ready. We do. It doesn't matter how
young or old you are, be ready for that day. Look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Passover wouldn't have been
the same had it not been the 10th plague. You guys, all of
these things that had happened. You know, these plagues that
came about, all of them came to this one moment. And it's
important to know that because everything leads to the same
thing. The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. His death, His
burial, His resurrection, all pointed to the same thing. And
can you imagine just the wondrous, I mean, the feeling among those
people as they were leaving that place. We're free, the Lord delivered
us. It has no comparison to the feeling
of the child of God shedding this flesh, knowing, standing
before an almighty, holy God, with the wrath of God, just ready
for our sin, to realize that the blood of Christ has been
put on me. And I'm free. And I get to be
with Him forever, for eternity. What a reward. Maybe these people
leaving Egypt out of this bondage for their whole lives, maybe
that gives us a little semblance to understand that. All right,
last one. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. I've alluded to it a few times,
but so often when we look at stories like this in the Old
Testament, we don't actually enter in to what's actually happening. And it's okay that we see this
as a picture, and I'm emphasizing that over and over again, that
this lamb is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he
did for us in our sin. But try to take just a second,
and I'll try to be brief here, to enter into actually what happened
in this scenario. These people of Israel, and even
the Egyptians for that matter, had gone through all of these
plagues. And they're difficult plagues. And these people had
gone back and forth. We're leaving. We're not leaving.
He's going to let us go. Are we ever going to get out of here?
All these things. All to come down to this moment where the
Lord says to them, I'm going to go through the land and I'm
going to kill the firstborn child in every house. Now, it's one
thing for someone to say to me, I'm going to turn water into
blood. One thing for someone to say
to me, that I'm going to bring locusts, or flies, or lice. It's one thing to say that I'm
going to get boils and all that stuff. And I'm sure those were serious.
But for someone to say, I'm going to kill every single firstborn
child? Can you imagine? I mean, it would
be paralyzing, wouldn't it? I mean, I imagine in that moment,
you think of a mother in that scenario thinking to herself,
I mean, They knew it was going to happen. They had nine examples. Is that
a good reason for ten plagues? When they were told the firstborn
is going to die, they had seen the Lord tell them nine times
something's going to happen. And guess what? It happened all
nine times. They knew this was coming. They
knew it was coming. But in our Lord's mercy, He gave
them a way. He gave them a sacrifice. He
did that. And do you know if you think
about it? Well, I'll come to that. I'm
going to get to that in a second. Let me read these two verses. Romans 8 says, There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ.
He's the difference. Who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. Ephesians says, In whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace. It's all Christ. Okay, so let
me make the last point I want to make. Look with me at Three
different verses. Exodus 11, verse 5, okay? All these things we've said about
the children of Israel. The call. Look at Exodus, I'm
sorry, it's Exodus 11, verse 5. And 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 mill, and all the firstborn of beasts.
Okay, chapter 12, verse 12. For 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 finally, verse
29. And it came to pass that at midnight
the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt from the
firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn
of the captive that was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn
of the cattle. Let me see if I can make this
sense for us. Every single person in the land,
the Egyptians and the Israelites, all of them had seen the first
nine plagues. All of them had been foretold
and they came to pass all nine times. So with this 10th plague
coming, the firstborn child, okay? Now you cannot convince
me that there were not people in Egypt, there was not a mother
or a father that heard this and thought to themselves, my child
is going to die. They, humanly speaking, okay, I like
to look at this, I don't like to, I do look at this and think
to myself, how in the world did any of them not think this was
coming to pass? How could they not think this
was coming to pass? I mean, it's ludicrous, right? How in the
world could someone tell you something nine times and it comes
exactly how they say it all nine times and you not believe it?
Well, I don't know about you guys, but I heard the truth about
the Lord Jesus Christ probably about 150,000 times before I
ever believed it. And that was just because he
made me do it. These three verses I just read just told us that
every single firstborn in the land of Egypt, of the Egyptians,
all died. And the ones we read earlier
told us that every single firstborn of the Israelites, of the people
of Israel, none of them died. How could anyone ever argue anything
other than the Lord Jesus Christ is the difference? You mean to
tell me hundreds of thousands of people were threatened with
the life of the firstborn child and not one of them thought to
themselves, maybe I should do this? It shows us, first off,
that apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, we will not believe the
gospel. We won't. We just won't believe
it. And I don't even know how to say that more than, without
Him, we will not believe. But what is so amazing about
that is that if the Lord Jesus Christ has called us, there is
no way, not any chance whatsoever, that we won't believe and we
won't be saved. This is the Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. It's not strange that the Lord
would hate a sinner, but that he would love one. Because of
the Lord Jesus Christ choosing a people, calling them, predestinating
them to salvation. And then he became a man, lived
perfectly, died willingly on the cross as a perfect sacrifice,
bearing our sin, taking the punishment we deserved. and died on the
cross. But conquering over sin and death,
he arose and is sitting on the throne above, taking our sin,
making it his own, and his righteousness, and making it our own. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the difference. I pray to God that he would make
us to see that. We won't see it otherwise. But
Lord, please make us to see. Look to you. All right.