This morning I'd like to talk
to you about the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. How
He draws His people out of this world, affectionately calls them
to Himself, makes dead sinners live, blind to see and the deaf
to hear. First, we're going to see two
examples of men that were not drawn out by the blood. Pharaoh
and Judas Iscariot. Pharaoh saw all God's wonders.
All His glory had no change in His heart. Judas Iscariot walked
with Christ for three and a half years. He was right beside God
Almighty. Never saw Him. He never drew
Him out. He never caught Him. It had no
effect on Him. Secondly, I want to talk to you
about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and how it cleanses His
people from their sin. It gives them life, makes them
love Him because He first loved them. Christ asked Peter, love
esau me? He asked him three times. Now
you remember, Peter denied him three times. Christ looked at
him, he said, love esau me? Feed my lambs. Love esau me? Feed my lambs. He said, do you
love me, Peter? Peter said, Lord, you know all
things. You know I love you. Can you imagine that Pearson
look? Love covers all things, 1 Peter 4.8. And above all things,
have fervent charity, which is love, for love shall cover a
multitude of sins. And I want to show you several
of God's saints that were drawn out by the redreaming blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Ben just went through one. Job
had everything done to him, and the Lord drew him out. Pharaoh
saw the same thing. He died in his sins. Yeah, I'm gonna read John 17,
one and two. I guess that's part of my text.
That's the main part of my text. These words spake Jesus and he
lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify thy son that thy son
also may be glorified in thee. Thou has given him power over
all flesh, all of it. Give eternal life to as many
as Thou has given him. Spurgeon wrote one time, he said,
I'm not trying to explain God to you. I'm just going to try
to tell you what this book says. And the only way I can do that
is tell you exactly what it says. Spurgeon said, if I can explain
God, then he's me. I'm no better than he is. And
life is in this book right here. And we very seldom open it and
look at it. This is where life is. David Edmiston had an article
in his bulletin about six years ago, and it pierced me. This
woman, she was dating a man. Well, she bought this book, and
she read two or three pages. She threw the book to the side.
She didn't care for the book. Started dating the author, and
she fell in love with him. She read the book cover to cover.
She couldn't put it down then because she loved the author.
Until you love the author of this book, you're never gonna
open it. He has to reveal it to you. Now I wanna walk through
Exodus, the first 12 chapters. Don't get scared, I ain't gonna
be up here two hours. I just wanna hit the high spots of the
plagues that God showed Pharaoh and put him through. And it had
no effect on him. None. None. He hardened his heart
toward God. He hated God. I'm going to give
you a little backdrop. When Joseph was in Egypt, he
brought his father Jacob and his family down to Egypt because
there was a great famine in the land. Okay, well, Joseph died. Another pharaoh grew up. He'd been dead many years. Joseph
died and another pharaoh rose up who didn't know Joseph. Joseph
had been dead for a while, and the Israelites had been in bondage
for about 400 years. And they said that they had grown
to be about a million people. Pharaoh was afraid of Israel.
He thought if another country come up to war against him, they'd
fight against them. So he made their task harder.
He made it hard for them. He made their life bitter. Pharaoh
told the Egyptian midwives, Shifra and Pua, when you go into the
Israelites and sit down at the stool, to deliver their babies,
kill the males. Kill all the males, but let the
daughters live. Well, God put a spirit in Shapura and Pua to
fear Him. And they did, and they didn't
kill the men. This is all God's providence in everything that's
going on. It ain't just something that
happens. They didn't do it. They wouldn't do it. Moses was
born. And what does Moses' name mean?
We're drawn out. He's been drawn out. thrown out
of the river. His mother had him. She hid him
for three months, and the baby was strong. She made an ark. She made an ark, like Noah's.
She made an ark. She covered it with slime and
pitch. The slime is what we are. The pitch is the blood of Christ.
It covers our slime. Propitiation, it covers us. She sets it afloat in the river.
And in God's good providence, the daughter of Pharaoh sees
the child. She draws it out of the river,
takes Moses home where he would be raised in Pharaoh's house.
The very man that hates the Israelites and wants to kill them, he's
going to raise God's man in his house. Feed him, make him strong,
everything. And Moses did grow strong. He
was walking one day through the Hebrews, we were out there working
and he saw an Egyptian beating one of the Hebrews. He kills
him. He gets mad, kills the Egyptian. Moses, he buries him in the sand.
The next day he's walking out, he sees two of the Hebrews fighting.
He says, why are y'all beating each other? They said, who made
you a judge and a prince over us, Moses? Moses knew he was
found out, and he flees. He fled to Midian. He married
Jethro's daughter, Zipporah. He stays there 40 years, and
guess what Moses is doing? He's a shepherd. He's a flock.
He's tending the flock. Yeah, and this is a picture of
Christ. God only spoke to Moses mouth to mouth. He spoke to Israelites. Moses did. God spoke to Moses,
and he spoke to the Israelites. Yeah, while Moses was watching
the herds, the Lord appeared unto Moses in the burning bush,
and that's Christ. He was not consumed by the fire
and God's wrath. He told Moses to return to Egypt
and tell Pharaoh to let my people go. Moses asked, whom shall I
say sent me? And God said, you tell him I
am that I am sent you. John 18, four and five, Christ
and God are one and the same. Christ asked, whom seek you?
In John 18, four and five. And they said, Jesus of neither. Jesus answered, I am. And they
fell to the ground when he said, I am. And as dumb as they are
and as we are, they did it again. And they stood up and they bound
the Lord like they could actually tie him up if they wanted to.
He let them tie him up. I mean, He spoke His name in
power and they fell down and got back up. I don't have to
tell you how dumb we are to God. God told Moses that Pharaoh ain't
going to let you go. And I'm going to stretch out
my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders. And after that,
after I finish showing all my glory, I'm going to let him let
you go. He has no choice in the matter.
When Moses went unto Pharaoh and told him, God said to let
my people go, this was Pharaoh's reply in Exodus 5 too. Who is
the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? Moses
replied, let us go and worship in the wilderness and worship
the Lord our God. Pharaoh said, hey, if you got
that much time, we're gonna make you task harder. So that's what
he did. He made the Egyptians get straw
now. They didn't. They still had to
make their same quota of brick, but now they had to get the straw
for it too. So Moses, he goes back in front of Pharaoh. God
told Moses, when Pharaoh wants to see a miracle, tell Aaron
to cast down his rod and it will become a serpent. Pharaoh called
his magicians and sorcerers and they cast down their rods and
theirs became serpents. What the magicians are doing
in enchantments is all trickery. It's a picture of false religion.
That's all it is. People want to hear peace, peace,
when there is no peace. They don't want to hear the truth.
They want to hear games and tricks. And that's not what you want.
That's what I love so much about Rupert. Rupert stood up here
and he told the truth and he was hated for it. He was hated
for it. Matthew 24, 24. For there shall
arise false Christ and false prophets and shall show great
signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible, they
should deceive the very elect. Yeah, Pharaoh's heart was hardened
when he saw that. The first plague Moses told Pharaoh
to go, to let the Hebrews go. And the rivers and the ponds
stretched out His hands across the rivers and ponds, and everything
in Egypt, all the water turned to blood, everything. Pots into
pots everywhere, but God still showed them mercy. They could
dig beside the river and get clean water. The land stank from
the plague of the blood in the river and in all the waters.
Plague number two, smite all the borders with frogs, and the
rivers shall give up them abundantly. Frogs were in the Egyptians'
houses, in their beds. They were everywhere. The enchantments
and magicians did the same thing. They did it with trickery. Moses raised his hands. Pharaoh
had to ask Moses to ask God to take the plague away. The magicians
and sorcerers couldn't do that. He had to ask God. Moses did
say, and the frogs, they left. They were big and big piles.
The whole land stunk of frogs. Third plague, smite the dust
and it will become lice. All the dust became lice. It
was on man and beast. The magicians couldn't bring
forth the lice with trickery, and this is what they said. And
they said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. We can't do
this. We can't trick this. We can't
show this. The fourth plague, swarms of flies. They were upon
all the Egyptians and all the houses, on man and beast, on
the ground and everywhere. But in the land of Goshen, where
the Israelites were, not one fly, not a fly. Goshen means
draw and near. It's a land that's just plenteous
with everything. There were no flies on my people
that they may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the
earth, and I will put a division between my people and thy people.
Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron to stay the plague. Moses
said, I will ask the Lord that the flies depart. And when he
had, Pharaoh had peace. He refused to let them go. It
says, Pharaoh had respite. That's what it said, and that
means peace. When trials are over, we forget about God. People
that don't know the living God, their God is Dagon. He's sitting
up in your house, and when you need Him, when something's wrong,
when something happens in your life, a great trial, we pull
God down and we ask Him for something. That's not the God of the Bible.
That's not the God of the Bible. And just as soon as it's over,
what do we do with Dagon? We set Him right back up on the
top of the shelf. Yeah, God knocked Dagon off and knocked all his
limbs off. Remember that? Yeah. Pharaoh cries out because
of his troubles he's in. A child of God cries out because
of his sin. He says to God, against thee
and thee only have I sinned. Men pray when problems arise,
and that's where they leave it. God takes away the flies. Pharaoh
tries to give God a condition on how he's gonna let his people
go. That's what man and religion
does. They tell God, hey, I'll do this if you'll do that. Mm-mm.
That's not the God of the Bible. The God is, I shall and you will. Period. Nothing there. That's
it. I shall and you will. Plague number five. And the grievous
moran, which is an infectious disease in the cattle, in the
field, the horses, the asses, the camels, the oxen, and the
sheep. All the cattle of the Egyptians died Not one of the
Israelites' cattle died or had the infection, and the heart
of Pharaoh was hardened. Plague number six, the handful
of ashes. God told Aaron to take a handful
of ashes out of the furnace and let Moses sprinkle it up toward
heaven. In the sight of Pharaoh and it
shall become small dust in all of Egypt. It shall also become
bulls with plans upon man and beast in Egypt. The magicians
and sorcerers couldn't do this. Pharaoh's heart was hardened.
Turn over to Exodus 9, 13 through 17. 13 through 17. And Moses stretched forth his
rod. Oh, in the wrong verse, wrong chapter, I'm sorry. I didn't
mark these so I wouldn't get there so quick on you. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and
say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let
my people go, that they may serve thee. For I will at this time
send all my plagues upon their heart. upon the servants and
upon the people, that you mayest know that there is none like
me in all the earth. For now I will stretch forth
my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence,
and thou shalt be cut off from the face of the earth. And in
the very deed for this cause have I raised you up, for to
show in thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout
all the earth. As yet, you exalt yourself against
my people that you will not let them go. Plague 7, a very grievous
hell, hadn't been seen now, and so it's the foundation of the
world. Every man and beast that was in the field was going to
be killed if they stayed out. But they came in. They would
live. This hell killed everybody that
was in the field. It stripped the trees. It stripped,
what is it called, the herbs. Everything was stripped. from
that hell. Pharaoh called for Moses, and
this is what he says, I have sinned. The Lord is righteous. I and my people are wicked. I will let you go, like it was
his choice. He's going to manipulate God
here. You can manipulate man with your tears. Whatever you
want to do, you can manipulate man. You can cry and do whatever.
And this is what he's doing. He just wants this to stop. But
then when he gets a little rest between each one, he goes back
and he does the same thing. The Lord sent the locusts for
plague number eight. The east wind, on the east wind.
There were so many locusts, it blackened the sky. You couldn't
see, couldn't see anything. Yeah, and they ate everything.
Everything that was left from what the hail didn't strip, they
take it. God sent the west wind, and he blew them into the Red
Sea, and they were choked. The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart.
The thick darkness. Moses stretched forth his hand
to heaven, and darkness came off over all the land, the kind
of darkness that can be felt. The Egyptians saw nothing. They didn't speak to anybody.
They didn't get out of the bed for three days. But all of the
children of Israel and Goshen, they had light in their chambers.
Pharaoh called for Moses and said, you can go and worship
your God, but leave your flocks behind. Again, he's gonna give
God how he's gonna let him do his stuff. No, he ain't gonna
do that. Moses said, our cattle shall
go with us, not a hoof shall be left behind. The Lord hardened
Pharaoh's heart. Let's read Romans 9, 15 through
21. I know Ben just went over that,
but I'm gonna look at it again. you For he said to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. Though it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy.
For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for these same
purposes have I raised you up. I raised you up to show my glory
through you. I raise thee up that I might
show my power in thee, and thou, my name, might be declared throughout
all the earth. Therefore, hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardens. Thou wilt
say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? for who hath
resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honor and another unto dishonor? Yes, he does. Yes, he does. Yep. Yeah. Pharaoh thought he would manipulate
and fool God with his words, with that saying, God sees your
heart. He sees your heart. I want to
also look at Hannah's prayer. I know John just went over that,
but this is a child of God that has been given life. This is
what her prayer is. She doesn't just say that. This
is what her prayer is. And Hannah prayed and said, My
heart rejoitheth in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord.
My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice in
thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord,
for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like
our God. Talk no more so exceedingly proudly,
and let not arrogancy come out of your mouth, for the Lord is
a God of knowledge, and thy actions are weighed. The bows of the
mighty are broken, and they that stumble are girded with strength.
They that were full have hired out themselves for bread, and
they that were hungry ceased, so that the barren hath born
seven, and she that hath mercy children is wax feeble. The Lord
killeth, and he maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave,
and he bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and he
maketh rich. He bringeth low, and he lifteth
up. He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill. to
set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne
of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and
He has set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of His
saints, and the wicked shall be silent in the darkness." That's
exactly what Pharaoh was, wasn't he? He was silent in the darkness.
He couldn't say nothing. For by strength shall no man
prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall
be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall He thunder
upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends
of the earth and shall give strength unto His King and exalt the horn
of His Anointed, which is Christ. Pharaoh had not been drawn out
by the blood of the lamb. He saw all these plagues, pestilence,
diseases, death that God had brought on Pharaoh and the Egyptians. He didn't move his heart one
bit. The Holy Spirit must convict a man of his sin and he'll cry
out and say, against thee and thee only have I sinned. Judas
Iscariot was with Christ, like I said, for three and a half
years. He was a manipulator, he was a liar. He kissed Christ
on the cheek and he sold him for 30 pieces of silver. He kissed
him. He kissed him while he betrayed
him. Yeah, 30 pieces of silver. This world sees all of God's
glory every day. They attribute it to mother nature,
all the hurricanes, COVID, floods, earthquake, death, it's all God.
He rules all that, every bit of it, everything. We just saw
that He controls everything in this world. Animals, the weather,
man, disease, death and life, both spiritually and the death
of the body. In Exodus 13, 13, y'all don't
have to turn to these, but it's just so important to show you
what God says, not what I say. But everything that I have said
to you this morning has come right straight from the Bible.
1313, and every firstling of an ass
thou shalt redeem with a lamb. And if you won't redeem it, then
you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of men
among the children shalt thou redeem. Now, Spurgeon wrote,
as a donkey being unclean was not acceptable to God, even so
unrenewed man being unclean is unacceptable before the Most
High. Leviticus 17, 11, For the life of the flesh is in the blood,
and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement
for your souls. It is the blood that maketh atonement
for your sin. The blood, Christ's blood, drawn
out by His blood. His blood makes the difference.
His blood. When man's blood is drained from
his body, he dies. When Christ's blood was shed,
It gave His people life. It covered their sin to be found
no more. Christ took the wrath, the judgment
of God for His people's sin, shed His blood to give us life
in and through Him. Pharaoh nor Judas had been drawn
out. That's what I wanted to look
at and show you the people that were drawn out and this blood
did effectually cover them. And the Lord said, I will go
out at midnight in the midst of Egypt and all the firstborn
of Egypt shall die. the firstborn of Pharaoh, to
the fourthborn of the servants, and the firstborn of all beasts.
But against the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue
against man or beast. Against his people nobody can
prevail when he stands. Yet you may know that the Lord
doth put a difference between Egypt and Israel, his people.
The Passover is on the first month. You take a male lamb of
the first year in his prime, in his strength. You make sure
he doesn't have any spot or blemish. That's Christ. He's strong. There's
nothing wrong with him. There's no sin. There's nothing.
You set that lamb apart. You watch it for four days. Make
sure the lamb's perfect. And all the congregation of Israel
shall kill the blood in the lamb. They shall take of the blood,
strike it on the two side posts. This is the Passover and on the
upper part of the house. Then they shall eat it. They
shall eat roast with fire, unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs
shall they eat it. Let nothing remain until the
morning. What is left, you burn it with fire. You eat it with
your clothes on, your shoes and your staff in your hand. It is
the Lord's Passover. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you." When God sees us, He sees Christ. He sees His
blood. We are pilgrims. We eat this
Passover. We take this Passover because
we're pilgrims passing through this land. That's why we keep
our shoes on, our clothes on. We're just passing through. This
isn't our home. We're going to another home.
And it's close. The last Passover was in Matthew
26. Jesus took the bread. He blessed
it. And they ate it. He said, you
take, you eat this body. He took the cup and he gave this
and said, drink you all of it. For this is my blood of the New
Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. When Christ died on the cross
and shed his precious blood for his people, he took the wrath
of God. He was made sin for us. And he
said, it is finished. Salvation is accomplished. The
Lamb of God slain, Revelation 5, verse 6. This is Christ in
heaven. And I saw a lamb in the midst
of the throne as if it had been slain, redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb. The God of the Bible does exactly
as He pleases. There's a few that I would just
like to speak to just about that the blood of the Lamb drew out
and He saved them. God saved these people. Adam
and Eve were given one thing not to do. One thing. They did it. They did it. They
said, I'm going to be God. I don't care what you say. That's
what Pharaoh said, too. But God saved these two. They
sinned. God was walking through the garden.
They were ashamed. They were naked. They never knew
they were naked. They were wearing fig leaves. What did Adam do? Played the blame game. Ah, it's
the woman you gave me. It's God's fault. It's her fault.
It's everybody's fault, but my fault. No, it's your fault. Yeah. God took a lamb. He slit that lamb's throat in
front of them. They'd never seen blood, and that blood drew out,
and God covered them with His salvation. I know He taught them
that because when she had Cain, the first thing she said was,
I have a man from the Lord. And actually, she had a devil.
Abel brought a lamb. They taught Abel, this is how
you worship God. Cain said, I ain't worshiping
him that way. I'm not worshiping him that way. I'm gonna bring
what I do. I'm gonna show people, I'm gonna give God the fruit
of my labor, what I did. God won't accept that. He accepts
the blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and not anything
else. Rahab the harlot, Joshua 2.11,
and as soon as we had heard these things, this is Rahab the harlot,
when she heard about God, their hearts did melt. Neither did
there remain any courage in any man because of God. For the Lord
your God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. She
was affectionately called out by Christ. Nebuchadnezzar, what
did Nebuchadnezzar do? God called him His serpent. He
took Israel into bondage, did the horrible things, and Nebuchadnezzar
gets up and says, look at great Babylon that I built. And when
he said it, when he said that, the Lord immediately smoked him
and took his brain where he couldn't even think, and he put him in
the field to eat like an animal. He ate grass. His hair grew like
eagle's feathers. His claws grew like eagle's claws.
And this is what Nebuchadnezzar said when the Lord gave him his
mind back in Daniel 4.37. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise
and extol and honor the King of heaven. All works are truth,
and his ways are judgment. And those that walk in pride
He is able to abase, and He's going to abase them. And the
last one I want to tell you about is Paul. Paul, let's read Acts
9, 1-15. Paul has just watched Stephen
die. They've just stoned the apostle
Stephen and killed him. And Saul was yet still breathing
out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the
Lord. He went unto the high priest and desired of him letters to
Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found out any of these,
whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto
Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came
near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a bright
light. And he fell to the earth, and
he heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
That's the first thing out of his mouth. He knows this is God.
He said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for you to kick against
a prick. And he trembling with astonishment said, Lord, what
will you have me do? He said, And the Lord said unto him, Arise
and go into the city, and it shall be told you what you must
do. And the men which journeyed with Paul stood with him speechless,
hearing a voice, but seeing no man. He drew out Paul, right
there. He called Paul. The other three
men didn't hear it. And Saul arose, and he went from
the earth. And when his eyes were opened, he saw no man but
they that led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
He was there three days without sight, neither did he eat nor
did he drink. And there was a certain disciple
at Damascus, a man named Ananias. And to him said the Lord in a
vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here,
Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street
which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judah
for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he prayed." Now Paul's
been praying his whole life, and now he's praying to God.
He's praying to God. He's been praying his whole life. And he said, And he hath seen
in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand
on him, that he might receive his sight. And Ananias answered,
Lord, I have heard by many a man how much evil he hath done to
the saints of Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from
the chief priest to bind all that call on his name. But the
Lord said unto him, Go thy way. For he is a chosen vessel unto
me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children
of Israel. For I will show him how much
great things he must suffer for my sake. Our God is the God of I will
and you shall. That's who he is. That's who
the God of this Bible is. Everything the Lord requires
from a poor sinner Everything He requires, He supplies. God
gives life. He gave Hannah life. He gave
her life. He used to shut up. When they
took Isaac's wife, he told Rachel, I think it was Rachel and Isaac,
he told them, he said, tell them you're my sister. The Lord shut
up the womb for that whole country until He let them go. There were
no children born. He didn't give them life. I'm
just telling you, what do you think of Christ? What do you
think of Christ? Because right here He is. If
y'all will, stand with me. John, a closing prayer for me.
Lord, thank You for bringing us here to hear Your Word of
grace. Thank You for Your salvation. Thank You for these two men that
brought the Gospel to us today. Thank You for living this Gospel
here. Thank You for Your salvation, Lord. It's all of you. Save us,
Lord. Save our children. Be with us
today. Without you, there is nothing.
You're all. Forgive me of my sins, O Lord.
Amen. We dismiss.