Good morning. If you'd like,
you can go ahead and open to Exodus chapter 12. Exodus 12. Working from home and having
a job that really doesn't revolve around holidays and kids are
homeschooled. As I was preparing and trying
to look for something that I thought would be a blessing, it took
a little bit to realize that today would be Easter when I
spoke. And so when it finally dawned
on me that that was the case, I looked up Easter in the concordance
Word occurs one time in the Bible. And as I got there, I started
looking up the definitions of Easter. And the first definition
is the Paschal sacrifice. The second, the Paschal lamb. Well, what's Paschal mean? So I looked that up in the dictionary
and it all points to the Passover. which led me to Exodus 12. Let's
read some of this chapter together. Exodus 12, beginning in verse
one. 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 an 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. You shall
take it out from the sheep or from the goats, and you 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. And they shall take of the blood
and strike it on the two side post and on the upper door post
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
soddened at 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 you
eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet and your
staff in your hand, and you 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 of 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. There's the command. Now skip
down to verse 21. Then Moses called for all the
elders of Israel and said unto them, draw out and take you a
lamb according to your families and kill the Passover. And you
shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that
is in the basin and strike the lentil and the two side post
with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall
go out at the door of his house until the morning. for the Lord
will pass through to smite the Egyptians. And when he seeth
the blood upon the lintel and on the two side posts, the Lord
will pass over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come
in unto your houses to smite you. And you shall observe this
thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever. And
it shall come to pass when you become to the land which the
Lord will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye
shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass when
your children shall say unto you, what mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, it is the
sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of
the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians and
delivered our houses, and the people bowed the head and worshiped. And the children of Israel went
away and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so
did they." That was the day of the Passover, the day that preceded
the night the Lord would pass through. 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 until the firstborn of the captive that was in the
dungeon and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up
in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians,
and there was a great cry in Egypt. For there was not a house
where there was not one dead. This chapter is generally familiar
to many of us. I've read it many times. But
as I was reading it this last time, as I was studying this,
there were a few verses that caught my attention. And Lord
willing this morning I'll show those verses and I pray that
he'll enable me to bring glory to our Lord Jesus Christ through
them and provide a reminder for us, those of us who need reminding
so very often because we forget so very quickly just how great
things our Lord has done for us. The first verse that really
caught my attention was verse 30. And Pharaoh rose up in the night,
he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was
a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was
not one dead. This statement hit close to home
this year. Many of us in this congregation,
many of us that we've heard of have gone through some relatively
serious medical events. Here of just late. There was not a house where there
was not one dead. What is it that causes us to
live with this sentence of death over us? We read in Romans 5.12, As by
one man sin entered into the world and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men for that all have sinned. Every house. And for us this
morning, every house, this physical body in which a soul dwells. Every house. We are all under
the same condemnation. We have all sinned. We have all
transgressed God's command. We are all guilty. And yet this
is what we say by nature. We think to ourselves, I see
that command that you made there. I see it, I understand why you
said it. But God, you just don't understand. I have to disobey that, and I'm
justified in doing so because of the events surrounding me.
We justify ourselves. In our sin and in our pride,
we believe God to be one such as we are. But thank God, he
is nothing like us. He is holy, he is just, he is
sovereign. He alone does according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. We are his subjects and we have rebelled and we are under
his just condemnation. What are we to do? Can we straighten
up and fly right? Can we say, I'm going to do better
today? Yesterday's done. I'm already
guilty. By nature, we make a promise
to ourselves. I can keep this law. I'm going
to take one of these laws that you command, and I'm going to
keep it. That'll make me justified. Today, I'm not gonna murder anybody. I can keep that one. I'll justify
myself that way. We run to God's law thinking
it will make us acceptable before him. Even if we could keep one law.
Hold your place here and turn to Galatians 3. Galatians 3. as we sinners by nature, sinners
by choice, and sinners by practice run to the law to justify ourselves
therein. Look at Galatians 3 verse 10. For as many as are of the works
of the law, all of us who are running to the law to justify
ourselves before it, For as many as are of the works of the law
are under the curse. Why are we under the curse? For
it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth. Every moment
of every day, awake or asleep, cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all. not just one, not just some,
continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. You can go back to Exodus 12.
God is holy, his law is holy. We are sinners, opposed by nature,
we neither can nor will keep his law. Just as the people of
Israel so long ago were held captive in Egypt, we are born
in sin and shame. These children of Israel, about
to go through this Passover, were born under their bondage. 400 years or so before, Israel
had freely gone down into Egypt. And during the course of time,
they were made to be slaves. None of these children of Israel
went down to Egypt themselves. But because of what their father
did, they were under bondage and enslaved, just like us. Because of what my father did,
I am born dead in trespasses and sins. And I continue living
in it. I thrived in it without the Lord
having mercy upon me. Is there any hope for one born
in such a condition? Back in Exodus 12. Verse 5. Exodus
12 5. Your lamb. shall be without blemish, a male
of the first year. You shall take it out from the
sheep or from the goats and you 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. 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. Skip down to 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.
Is there any hope for one born dead in trespasses and sins,
one born with the curse upon them? Israel found hope. Verse 13, the blood. Oh, the precious 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. Israel took a lamb and they separated
that lamb from all the others, and they observed it to ensure
that it was a lamb without spot or blemish. And then they killed
that lamb. That lamb had to die. It couldn't
just be injured. They couldn't just take some
of his blood. It had to die. And then they
hid behind that lamb's blood applied to their house. Every
house in Egypt that night had death in it. Either the plague
and curse killed the firstborn or the lamb appointed by God
for those that he would redeem died. There are a few things I want
to consider concerning this physical lamb before we turn and behold
our lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ. First, this lamb was appointed
by God as the substitute for those he would redeem before
judgment came into the land. Secondly, this lamb was a valuable
lamb. I grew up surrounded by dairy
farms, and dad was a friend of many of those farmers, and I
can remember going particularly one farmer's house, we went many
times, and he would take us out into the fields, and he knew
his cows, and he would point to a cow and say, see that cow? She's a good milker. And you see that cow? She's the
calf of that cow. She's a good milker. And that
cow is a calf of that cow. She's a good milker. That good milking cow had offspring
that was a good milking cow. You hear the same thing when
racehorses are talked about. They'll talk about this racehorse,
especially if it's doing well, and they'll point to its lineage,
particularly if it comes from a famous racehorse. say that
one came from that one and they're good racehorses. This lamb taken
out of the flocks of Israel was a valuable lamb. It was a male
of the first year in his prime and it was a male without spot
or blemish. This is a ram that a shepherd
would have looked at and gone, I want to breed that ram. That ram will increase my flock. That ram will make my flock to
be better. It'll improve the longevity of
my flock. And that shepherd would have
immediately known we're taking a valuable lamb as a sacrifice. And the final thing I want to
consider concerning this sacrificed lamb is it did not die the standard
death of a sheep. The blood of a lamb slaughtered
for its meat holds absolutely no value. It's kind of in the
way. It's just got to be dealt with
and gotten rid of. There's no value in it. when
you're looking to have a lamb to eat. But this lamb, being
slaughtered, its blood was captured in a basin to be set aside. For that blood must be placed
on the door or the curse is upon my house." We came to this topic with the
question, How can a sinner against God under the just condemnation
of death be spared from the curse? The answer from God Almighty
is when I see the blood. Is this any blood or is this
particular blood? On the night of the Passover,
it was the blood of the Lamb without spot and without blemish
which God looked for, which only represented and pictured for
us our Lord Jesus Christ, the appointed of God, the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Only the sinner under the blood
of Christ shall be set free from the curse. Why must it be Christ's
blood alone? Hold your place here and turn
to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. Why must it be Christ's blood alone? 1 Peter 1 verse 18. For as much as you know, there
are some things we know, and this is one of them. For as much
as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things
as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by
tradition from your fathers, If we weren't redeemed by that,
what were we redeemed by? But with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. While the blood of the lamb offered
on the night of the Passover was valuable. It was valuable
in the eyes of the shepherds. It was valuable in the eyes of
those who hid behind it that night. But that blood of that
physical lamb that night was precious in God's sight only
because it pointed to our Lord Jesus Christ. His blood is precious
because of who he is. It is the blood of God manifest
in the flesh. It is the blood of the only begotten
of the Father. It is the blood of the seed of
woman, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. It's the
blood of the only man who stands righteous before the law. And
that is the reason it must be Christ's blood alone to atone
for our sin. His blood is the only blood without
the disease of sin. Everything about me I inherited
from my father, who inherited from his father, who inherited
from his father, and the only thing that we've inherited is
dead in trespasses and sins. But Jesus Christ, being a man,
and yet so much more than a man, he is the man in fullness of
the Godhead bodily. Jesus Christ is God the Son. His blood is precious to the
Father, and it is precious to those of us whom he has redeemed. Just as that lamb slain for the
Passover died an unusual death, so did our Lord. Having committed
no sin, being righteous before the law, how can he die? The wages of sin is death, not
the wages of righteousness. He went about doing good. And we can't even enter in to
what that means. There is one good. God is good. None else. One day, maybe, we'll
know what that means. He went about doing good. Go to Calvary's mount, to the
cross upon which our Lord hangs. There we see how God is just
and the justifier of sinful men. Upon that cross, Lord Jesus Christ,
God the Son, was made sin. There is a payment which must
be made for our sins, and it is death. Christ Jesus took our
sin and bore him in his body upon that tree. There he hangs
suffering the just punishment of my sin. In himself. Just as the Passover lamb was
slain and died so that the curse, the plague would not come to
Israel that night. We read over in first Peter 318.
First Peter 318. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." Return in your mind's eye once
again to the day on which Israel slew that lamb. That lamb was slain, the blood
was caught in a basin. Think of the horror those people
must have realized. The Almighty God, Jehovah, I
Am, was coming through Egypt that night. Any house without the blood placed
upon the door would endure the curse. The man slaying the lamb
had the thought of the preciousness of this blood he was capturing. Then having gathered the blood,
he takes hypsum and soaks it in the basin to apply the blood.
He goes to his house. Take that hyssop and just, okay,
I'm done, and move on. I don't think so. This man knew
the seriousness of what was coming through. He understood the curse
that he was under. He wants there to be no doubt
that blood has been shed for this house. He takes that hyssop
and he paints that entire doorway. He covers it heavily with blood
on the lintel and on the side post. I imagine he tried as well
as he could to cover every grain of wood with the blood so that
not a single grain was left uncovered. We sinners have this promise. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Do we not cry out, Lord forbid,
that I should trust in any other than the Lord Jesus Christ? Cover
me, truly, from head to toe, top to bottom, cover me in his
blood. Let nothing be left uncovered. Return back to Exodus 12. As I mentioned, there was a few
verses that caught my attention reading this account. Verse 30. And Pharaoh rose up in the night,
he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was
a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was
not one dead. The curse is upon us. Verse 13. And the blood shall
be to you for a token 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. We read in 1 John 1 7, the blood
of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. And the final verse that caught
my attention is verse one. Exodus 12, verse one. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron in the land of Egypt, what condescending grace that
God was pleased to speak to men. men in a vile land, men who are
the children of a rebellious father, men who are rebels themselves. Yet it pleased the Lord to speak
to them, to make known to them that salvation was accomplished,
that judgment is coming, but that the Lamb had been provided
for their redemption. thanks be to God, he has not
stopped speaking to men. We have the sure word of God,
and he is still revealing himself through the preaching of Christ
Jesus crucified. Is the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ precious to you? If God is ever pleased to reveal
himself to you, If you're ever made to know that you are a sinner
against the true and living God, who needs a refuge because the
curse is upon you, when he reveals that Christ Jesus is the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, his blood shall
be precious to you. May he make it more and more
precious to each of us.