I'm in your Bibles, back to the
portion of Scripture that Brother Stan read in Exodus chapter 10. It is my great pleasure to be
here this morning. I was so happy when your pastor
called and asked me to come speak. It's always such a joy to be
here with you. I'm supposed to pass along greetings
from my pastor, who is also Glad to be known as your assistant
pastor. We agree that there is no place
we'd rather be than speaking in Rocky Mount. It is such a
joy to preach to this group here. It's a testimony to your pastor
and the grace of God. Exodus 10, 11, and 12. I want you to look at two verses
in particular as we begin the message, and that's verses 27
and 28 of chapter 10. They brought a stand read which
reads, For the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would
not let them go. And then Pharaoh made a threat
to Moses. He said, Get thee from me, take
heed of thyself, See my face no more, for in that day that
you see my face, you shall die." Now, to kind of put this in perspective
a little bit, I suspect, Justin, you know, every school's got
a bully. I suspect yours does, too. There's
some big guy who's always pushing somebody around, always looking
for trouble, always going to whip up on some little guy. And
how would it be if that guy one day, out in the schoolyard, Justin,
comes up to the littlest kid there and starts that business,
and that little guy grabs him and, I mean, turns him every
way but loose. Just puts a whipping on him.
We'd all like to see that, wouldn't we? And then the next day he
comes up and he tries him again, and starts that stuff, and the
little guy just slams him. And the third day he shows up,
starts, and boy, he gets another whipping. And nine days in a
row he does that. And on the tenth day he shows
up, can you imagine him, Justin, going up to the little guy and
saying, Buddy, you better watch out, I'm going to really get
you. You come at me and I'm going
to whip you good. You know, you'd think by now
he'd have figured this out, wouldn't you? You see, that's what we've
got here. I mean, Moses, as the prophet
and spokesman for God, had been the instrument used of God to
first turn the rivers of Egypt into blood. Now you'd think that'd
get somebody's attention, wouldn't you? But not Pharaoh. And then Moses had called down
the plague of frogs. Egyptians got up one morning,
and you ladies go to make breakfast, and you open the cabinet door,
and frogs are jumping out everywhere. And you open your pantry, and
frogs are everywhere. And you go get into your clothes
closet, and there's frogs jumping everywhere. Wouldn't take long
to get tired of that, would it? Oh, but not Pharaoh. Pharaoh,
you see, pays no mind. So Moses calls down the plague
of lice. I don't know if any of you have
ever had lice, but if you haven't, you don't want them. I mean,
it's just, it's just... In Korea, you couldn't, you couldn't
be in the service in Korea for a year and not get them from
somebody. And let me, it's just, all of
a sudden, it's just everywhere. But not Pharaoh. So, Moses caused
down the plague of flies. You get one fly in your house,
it's a problem, isn't it? Drive you nuts until you get
him? I mean, this was flies. You bring something out of your
icebox, flies. Hundreds, thousands, millions
of flies everywhere. contaminating everything, spoiling
everything. Not Moses, I mean, not Pharaoh.
Then came the plague of the murrain, and that means that every beast
in Egypt died. Every cow. Why do you think Pharaoh
over there in what's staying red said, OK, y'all can go, but
leave your herds? You know why? Egypt didn't have
any herds anymore. They were all dead. Did that
get to Pharaoh? Did he understand yet he had
a weapon? No. So at Moses' hand came the plague
of boils. I only had one boil in all my
life. I was eleven years old and I
still got the scar to prove it and I never want another one.
They had boils everywhere. Did that get Pharaoh's attention?
No. So Moses called down hail from
heaven. The only thing was Everything
the hail didn't beat down, it set it on fire. The plague of
fiery hail. Did that get Pharaoh's attention?
No. Then came the locusts, and they
ate everything in the land of Egypt down to the ground. So
we got every beast in Egypt is dead, and all the food is eaten
up. Pharaoh still will not bow. So God sends darkness, and not
just dark darkness, but darkness that can be felt. I can't imagine
what that's like, but that's got to be dark. Did you notice
also there was light in Israel? I wonder who the light of the
world is. I wonder how it's shown only
in their houses. That's a picture, isn't it? That's
another message one But still Pharaoh, in the face of all of
that, has the audacity to get down in Moses' face and say,
the next time you see my face, you'll die. I mean, he does not have a clue,
does he? He has no concept of who's in
control. And that should tell us something
about us by nature. about depravity, about sin, and
we ought not be looking at Pharaoh and saying, You fool. How many times has he warned
us? How many plagues have come our way, and we spewed out our
threats? In the Scripture, it says we
rebel all the more. We say, We'll not have this man
reign over us, despite all we've seen. And it should come as no
surprise to us that the unregenerate, by nature, hate God's people,
just as Pharaoh hated Israel, as Cain hated his brother, as
Pharaoh hated Moses. Unbelievers are going to hate
you. They're going to hate you. Do you understand that Moses
was of the family of Pharaoh? Two generations before, he had
been brought in as an adopted son in Pharaoh's house. And that's
how Pharaoh was treating his brother. And it may come to that
with you. You see what Moses had to do
in verse 29? Moses said, Thou hast spoken
well, I'll see thy face again no more. Believers don't want,
we don't want contention and trouble and all of this. Turn
over to Hebrews 11. God's people don't desire division
any more than, I mean, but listen, if anyone or anything puts itself
between us and our Lord Jesus Christ, no matter the threat
or the consequences, we need to be bold and forsake it for
Christ's sake. Our Lord himself said, Whosoever
he be of you that forsaketh not all that he has, he can't be
my disciple. And I don't know whether, don't
know whether it's happened to you yet or not, but it will. There'll come a time when you
got to make the same declaration that Moses did. And I, I may
have told you this before. Boy, when I first heard the gospel,
I thought, I can't wait to tell my family this. I've got good
news. Something. There's hope. And I told my brother about it.
Made him so mad. We were visiting my mother in
Tennessee. He got in a car and drove back
to Kentucky and left me there. I had to borrow my mother's car
to get home. And I thought, what's made him
so mad? And not long after that, I was telling my sister, And
it made her so mad she got in my face and shook her finger
in my face and said, she said, damn you, damn you, don't you
ever talk to me about the Bible again. And I thought, oh, sis. But you know what I had to say
to her? The same thing Moses said here.
I said, sis, I won't. And it breaks my heart because
the door's never been opened again. Moses was looking to Christ and
not to Pharaoh. Look here in Hebrews 11 verse
27. By faith Moses forsook Egypt,
not fearing the wrath of the king. Where do you get the courage
to stand up in the face of the most powerful man on earth in
that day? It says, Not fearing the wrath
of the king, for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. He had his eyes on Christ. And
that's what we need, is to keep our eyes on Christ as Moses did.
But now, turn back to our text in Exodus, and let's begin in
chapter 11 here, verse 1. Read that with me. 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. When he shall let you go, he
shall surely thrust you out hence altogether." One more plague. One more plague. And I should...we
need to make this clear. Do we understand what life is
as we live it here on this earth? Most...yes, most preachers preaching
in the world in this country, you know, they tell you they
would make it something like this. Well, you know, life is
this this journey, and it's over these placid seas. And when the
storms arise, you know, they'll come on. You should, you know,
look to God and and then it'll be OK again. And you move on.
And, you know, they got it just backwards. Life is a hurricane. Isn't it? It's just, and every
once in a while, the Lord in his grace lets us go through
the eye of the storm and have a little peaceful time until
you get to the other side and then, and then there's another
hurricane you run into. It's just one storm, one plague
after another, isn't it? One trial after another. One
heartache, one trouble after another. The Lord gives you these
peaceful times because he just won't try us beyond what we can
endure. There's one constant hurricane we give up when we
die of frustration and despair. But our Lord's good. But let
me tell you, there's one plague coming. One more to every human being
on this planet. One more plague and it's death. And we're going to come to that
place. Everybody's going to come to that place. And where does a man get the
courage to face that plague? Well, Moses was prepared of God
to be used. He was raised in Pharaoh's house,
and therefore he was familiar with Pharaoh's ways. He wasn't
intimidated by Pharaoh. God had prepared him to deal
with men like that. He wasn't tempted by gold and
silver. He'd grown up with it. Pharaoh's
gold all around him. It didn't bother him. Didn't
feel any special need for it or the prestige or power of that
man. And here's the third thing. God
sent Moses. That's what gave him the ability
to go and do what he did. And God spoke to Moses continually. Do you see that here? It says,
And the Lord said unto Moses, You see that first phrase there
in verse 1 of chapter 11? Now let me show you something
here that I had never seen. I hope this is a blessing to
you. Turn back to Exodus 3. And give me a minute to show
you where we're going with this, but turn back to Exodus 3. In
verse 14 it says, and this is when Moses first met the Lord,
when he spoke to him out of the burning bush. We all know that
story. And God said to Moses in verse 14, I am that I am. And he said,
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath
sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses,
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord
God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is my name forever,
and this is my memorial unto all generations. Now look at
Exodus chapter 4 and verse 2. And the Lord said unto Moses.
Look at verse 4. And the Lord said unto Moses.
And verse 6. And the Lord said furthermore
unto Moses. And verse 11. And the Lord said
unto Moses. Verse 19. And the Lord said unto
Moses. Verse 21. And the Lord said unto
Moses. Turn over to chapter 6, verse
1, And the Lord said unto Moses, Look at verse 2, And God said
unto Moses what he say to him, I am the Lord, and I appeared
unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob. You see, he spoke
to those men as well by the name of God Almighty, but by my name
Jehovah was I not known to them. He spoke especially to Moses.
I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land
of Canaan, and the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were
strangers. And I have also heard the groaning
of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage.
And I have remembered my covenant. Wherefore, say unto the children
of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under
the burdens of the Egyptians. and I'll rid you out of your
bondage, and I'll redeem you with a stretched-out arm and
with great judgment." God spoke to Moses and gave him the message.
You see that? Well, he's still talking to him
now, right? No. Look at verse 10. And the Lord
said unto Moses. And look at verse 13. And the
Lord spake to Moses. And verse 28 of that chapter.
And it came to pass on the day when the Lord spake unto Moses. Look at chapter 7 now. Have you
got that? Verse 1, And the Lord said unto
Moses, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother
shall be thy prophet, that shall speak all that I command thee.
And Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the
children of Israel out of his land. He has a prophet here and
those who support him, Aaron. But this thing about making him
a god before Pharaoh, is that a curious thing? Let me tell
you, all that's saying is that the way Moses was able to come
into the presence of Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the
world, and speak to him like this without Pharaoh going, take
him out and cut his head off. Kill that man, which he had that
power to do. The only way he was able to do
that is God put fear into Pharaoh's heart concerning Moses. You know
why they haven't killed your pastor yet? He'd go to jail. Understand? God's given the people
of this community respect. They won't touch your pastor.
Not because they wouldn't like to. You think they wouldn't like
to have killed Henry Mahan in Ashland? I'm telling you, they
would like to have killed us. One day at a funeral, a lady
wouldn't get in the car with Doris because she was Henry's
wife. A lady wouldn't wait on her in a store because she was
Henry's wife. You think they wouldn't kill
him if they couldn't? God put the fear of God in Pharaoh for
Moses. But now look at chapter 7, verse
8. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
verse 14. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
verse 19. And the Lord spake to Moses,
chapter 8, verse 1. And the Lord spake to Moses.
And this goes on and on and on. I've got another 15 listings
here. What's it showing us here? The Lord spake to Moses. And
things haven't changed a bit in all those hundreds of years
since Moses. Do you know how 13th Street happened?
The Lord prepared a man, raised him up. Henry Manningham's got
no fear of this religious world. He's got no rule of silver and
gold. He can be on television for 26
years and not be seduced by that sort of thing that goes with
it. You see all these TV preachers
just get fancier and fancier and prancing and dancing all
the more, don't they? Henry's not seduced by that,
but the other thing is that the Lord spoken to him and continues
to speak to him. I know where to find my pastor.
He's in his study. I don't know if I want to call
Paul. I know where to reach him. I don't call him at home. I call
him in his study. That's where he's going to be.
He studies the word because that's how the Lord speaks to him. It's
not like in Moses day where he didn't have this word and God
spoke directly to his prophet. He speaks now through his word.
and men who are blessed of God stay in this Word. God speaks through His Word.
Go back to chapter 11 with me there. Got it there? Look at verse 2 and 3 here. Now speak in the ears of the
people, and let every man borrow of his neighbor, and every woman
of her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold. And the Lord
gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover,
the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the
sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of his people. Moses wasn't seduced by popularity. But I'll tell you what, God used
that influence for a purpose, and that's to provide for his
people. You know, do you ever wonder
how, if you lose your job in one place, how it's amazing the
Lord will raise up something somewhere else? He's going to
provide for his people. And two things are being demonstrated
here. Number one is that These people
have been slaves for 400 years. Brickmakers. All they had was
the huts they lived in and the animals the Lord gave them. That's
all they had. They lived in rags. They had
nothing. And they were getting ready to
leave. I tell you what, they weren't
going to leave poor. They were going into the promised land
rich. And that's what this is a picture of. Those Egyptians
came and gave their jewelry, their precious stones and gold
and silver to them and said, You take it. You take it. And
I don't know what the motive was, whether they hoped to gain
from it, whether they were tired of the plagues and they were
hoping they'd stop if they gave them the stuff. But I do know
this. There's something else being said here. And that's that
Moses told them, We're going to have a feast here. We're going
to worship the Lord in a special way. We're going to observe the
Lord's Passover. And he said, when we do, we're
going to put on the best we got. And since the best we got isn't
much, you go to your neighbor and say, can I borrow that robe? And we're going to dress up.
And that's a picture of what we ought to do when we come to
worship the Lord, isn't it? And I guess I heard somebody
say that the way that what we wear when we come to worship
ought to be in direct proportion to what our conscience tells
us how we dress for the one who died in our place. Pretty good recommendation, isn't
it? Look at verse 4 here with me.
And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight I will go
out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn of the
land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that
sitteth upon the throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant
that is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of beasts And
there shall be a great..." There was some time that had passed
between this. They had a few beasts now. The herds had come back a little
bit, or they'd gone to buy them. I don't know which. But Egypt
had some beasts again. And he said the firstborn of
them were going to die. And look then what it says in 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
any more." First thing I want you to see is it says, the Lord
says, I will. This is not some death angel.
It's not some creeping fog that comes through a green mist or
something. This is God himself comes through the land of Egypt
and executes judgment. Scripture says, I kill and I
make alive. Whatever happened here, God did
it. It is not God turned Satan loose
or And this ought to put an end to the, if any of us needed any
evidence of the falsehood of this whole thing that's going
on over there in the Middle East, on 9-11 and all the terrorism
that's going on. Do you know what those fellows
are doing? They're saying, let me tell you,
if their God wanted judgment to fall, why doesn't he let it
fall? Why didn't he come? Instead of sending those men,
our God doesn't say, well, you just take vengeance in your own
hand. Does he? No. He says, vengeance is mine.
They worship a false god. They're taking matters into their
own hands. And that's not the true and living God. That's terror. They kill the innocent with the
guilty. You know what I'm saying? And I'll tell you why that's
important. In the 9-11 attack, how many followers of Islam died? Is it 25 or 19? I don't know. A bunch. Do you know how many
fellow Islamists they killed in the World Trade Center? What
was it? 80 or 800? I don't know. But
do you understand? A bunch of their own people were
there and they killed them, too. Now, let me put it in perspective
for you. How many Jews died on the night of the first Passover?
Not a one. Do you know why? It was the Lord
that came through, and he killed and he made alive. He didn't
kill one Jew that night, not one. That's because he's Lord,
he's sovereign. He's sovereign. But do you know
our Lord was merciful even in judgment? Do you know why? He only killed the firstborn. He could have killed them all,
couldn't he? He could have, I mean, by rights, these people had enslaved
and abused his people for 400 years. He could have just wiped
them all out. He said, no, I'll be merciful.
I'll kill just the firstborn. But he was further merciful in
this way. How many infants do you suppose
there were amongst the firstborn? Do you know who those are? They're
our brethren. As he said, I have a people and
every tribe and kindred and nation under heaven. How in the world
did he get any believers out of that Egyptian bunch? You know
how? He took the firstborn infants
to be with him. That's how he did it. Our God's
merciful at every turn. Every turn. Look at verse 7 here
with me. It says, But against any of the
children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against
man or beast, that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a
difference between the Egyptians and Israel." Well, what's the
difference between Egypt and Israel? As you're going to see,
it's the difference between having a lamb and not having a lamb.
It's going to be the difference between divine election and self-salvation,
or decisionism. It's going to be a difference
between grace and works. And this night, the way to understand
it completely, it's a difference between sovereign life and sovereign
death. Just that clear. That's the difference. To remove all chance, however,
that anyone would falsely accuse our Lord of not being sovereign
in this, in complete control. Do you know what he did? 2 million,
2 million Jews in this place. In Rocky Mount, how many kids
get bit by a dog every day? I suspect several. And some might
even get bit by a rabid dog. And without treatment like in
that day, they might have died from that. Let me tell you what
this is showing us. You know what this is saying?
The Lord says, going to be a lot of people die tonight. And he
said, on tomorrow, he says, not one of my people are going to
die. And to ensure that, I'm even going to lock the jaws of
the dogs. That's how little chance, there
is no chance one of my children will die, even from a dog bite. Because you see, if one dies,
the next day the Egyptians are going to say, see that one died.
He's not God. And our Lord's not going to hear
that accusation. And that got to be the answer when people
say, well, Christ died for everybody on the cross, and now it's up
to you. And let me tell you, who he died
for, he died for and they live. Not one for whom Christ died
on the cross at Calvary will perish. Not one. He has mercy. It's complete mercy. He is gracious, completely gracious. and he saves his people. Now,
look at chapter 12, verse 3. Move over there with me. "'Speak
ye,' he says to Moses, 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 souls, Every man, according
to his eating, shall make your count for the lamb." I want you
to notice, first of all, it says a lamb. It doesn't say some lamb. It doesn't say lambs. It says a lamb. This is a very
specific lamb, as you'll come to see. It also doesn't say,
well, you know, take a lamb and some turtle doves, or take a
lamb and a shank of beef, or take a lamb and and your first
fruits. It's the lamb and the lamb alone. That's all it was. There was
only one offering of the Passover, and that's a lamb. And our salvation
is not Christ and our tithing, or Christ and our good works,
or Christ and our obeying the law. It's nothing but Christ.
Salvation is just as much only in Christ as this night being
passed over is only in the land. Only in the land. Meet with you and your clan and
preach the gospel. And then go down to Nancy's and
have her group come together and him preach there. And then
we'll go do the Philaean group in their place, and we'll just
get several lambs. You see what he's saying here?
I tell you, one lamb's enough for us, isn't it? Huh? The message,
the gospel is enough. We don't need, we don't need
all these different, and let me tell you, there are not a
bunch of lambs out here being preached this morning. There's
not a lot of gospels. There's one gospel, only one,
only one. Now look at verse five here with
me. And here's one of the sweetest words in all of Scripture. Your
lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year, and
she'll take it out from the sheep and from the goats. And without
blemish, that's got to be Christ, doesn't it? Only man who ever
lived without sin, we know that's Christ. Your pastors taught you
that. But the word I want you to see
there is the word before lamb. It's your lamb. My lamb. That's what it says, isn't it?
Over in Isaiah, doesn't it say that a child was born, but a
son was given? Well, who was the Lamb of Christ
Jesus given to? I tell you what, Stan, if he's
given to you, he's your lamb. And if he's given to you, he's
your lamb. Now, you can, I mean, if it's
your lamb, you're not going to let it are you out there? You're not going to let it just
wander out there and hope it finds some feed and whatever.
Tell you what, if he's your lamb, you're going to lay hold of your
lamb, aren't you? I tell you what, if the Lord
Jesus Christ reveals himself to us and he's our lamb, we're
going to lay hold on him. He's going to be precious to
us. He's your lamb. To have the lamb that's required
is a gift of God's grace. And let me explain this to you.
You know what the people of Israel had that the Egyptians didn't?
Lambs. You see that? Lambs. Lambs. God came through with a plague
and killed every lamb in Egypt. I mean, don't misunderstand me.
They didn't want a lamb. They didn't want any lambs. But
I tell you what, they didn't have any lambs. And I'll tell
you what, the people of Israel, God's people, they didn't know
they were going to need a lamb. But God in His mercy, when the
murrain came through, it killed every beast in Egypt, except
down in Goshen. And that's where Israel lived.
And there, not a beast was harmed. And they had lambs everywhere. So when God said, get a lamb,
everybody had a lamb. He's your lamb. Every family
had a lamb. Their lamb that they desperately
needed. And of course, over in Isaiah,
it says, Our Lord was led as a lamb before his shears. Spoke not a word, didn't he?
He was willing to be the lamb. And he's willing to be your lamb.
Don't misunderstand me. It's not, you know, you didn't
provide him. God provided him. And I tell you what, he took
our place as the blood of a lamb took the place of God's people
that night. Everyone else in Egypt, do you
know what was required of them that they didn't have the blood
of a lamb? God took the blood of their firstborn. That's pretty...is
that clear? It's either you got a lamb and
you put the lamb's blood up there, or God's going to God's going
to take your blood. You'll die that night. The plague's
coming through. Look at verse 7 here with me,
of chapter 12. And they shall take of the blood,
and strike it on the two side posts, and on the upper door
posts of the house wherein they shall eat it. And they shall
eat the flesh, and that night roast it with fire, and unleavened
bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Notice that after the sacrifice
was partaken of and eaten and consumed, there was nothing else
to be done. That was it. Let me tell you
what we better not be doing. How about if some fellow says,
OK, well, we killed the lamb, we got the blood, we've eaten
it, and we put the blood on the... He said, you know, but, you know,
my house is kind of shabby. He said, it doesn't look too
good. I think what I think I'll do here, I'm going to go out
and put a fresh coat of whitewash in the front of the house tonight.
I mean, you know, that's got to be better than having the
blood on this old, ugly looking house. Tell you what, you better
not be caught out there whitewashing the house when God comes through.
Because he said you better be under the blood. And let me tell
you what the message is here. I don't care what it is that
anybody's counting on. I don't care if it's, well, I
took care of my mama till she was sick, and I took care of
her, or I've been good to my kids, or I don't mistreat my
wife, or I don't care. Boy, I'd never touch these lips. I'd give ten percent of everything
I own away. I don't care what it is. You're
out there whitewashing your house, and when God comes through, he's
going to demand of you the blood, and since you're not under the
blood, he's going to demand your blood. See what I'm saying there? Under the blood. That's all that's
needful, is under the blood. It's to crucify Christ again,
to have anything else. That's like saying, well, I'll
kill two lambs. That's not what he said. It's
the lamb. And your lamb's good enough. Your lamb is enough. Don't need anything else with
it. Rest in him. Wait upon him. Look at verse
11 with me. And thus shall ye eat it with
your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff
in your hand, and shall eat it in haste. It's the Lord's Passover. Be ready to leave Egypt." Why'd
they eat with their shoes on and a staff in their hand? He
says, you're leaving this place. Do we realize? Listen, I know
I was young once too, and I got a grandbaby. I'm feeling like
an old man. And it would just seem like yesterday,
20 years ago, when I came here as a young man to preach. So,
I tell you, it's going to be gone like that. I tell you what,
you better have your shoes on, your staff in your hand, because
we're leaving this place. You'll bat your eyes, and your
children will be grown, and you'll be gone. And let me tell you this. Do
you know God only had to say that to them one time? You know
why? people of God had had enough of slavery in Egypt. Now, have
we had enough of slavery and sin? Are we ready to leave this
place and go to our long home, having no more sin, no more pain,
no more sorrow? That's if you've got a lamb.
If you've got a lamb, It's the Lord's Passover, and
it's not open to interpretation. It's his way or no way. Don't
change it. Don't argue over it. Just believe
in the Christ of the Lord's Passover. And the greatest proof there
is that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you ready to
depart? Are you ready to depart? Well, verse 12, here's the promise
of the Passover. for I will pass through Egypt."
You see who came through? Not some terrorist. No. God says, I'm coming through.
The land of Egypt this night, and I'll 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. Judgment is coming. Everyone's
accountable. I'm telling you, everybody in
here, everybody in here. Believer, unbeliever, whatever
you claim to be, everybody's going to face this one last plague.
Judgment is coming. Now, the proof of that is that
Egypt faced the plague that night. And do you know what? Since they
didn't have any lambs, God took their firstborn and shed its
blood. But now, Israel passed through
this plague also. The plague came to them. Yes,
it did. Judgment came to them. But do you know what? Everybody
who was under the Lamb, you know what God did? Instead of killing
their firstborn and taking his blood, he took the blood of his
firstborn. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
firstborn Son of God Almighty. And when God came through, when
he saw the he drove that spear inside of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When he saw the blood, he put the crown of thorns on his head.
When he saw the blood, he drove those nails in the hands of his
son and in his feet, and watched him die. Turned his back, and he came to that night, he
said, When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. So you can go
to this judgment all by yourself, or you can go in the firstborn.
And you see the result in verse 13, And the blood shall be 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. I didn't tell
you, you've got to face the judgment in this plague that's frightening
you. You children, you don't have to be frightened of that
if you've got a lamb. You know why? In their houses,
they didn't see any plague. They didn't see it at all. It came and went. I tell you,
we're not going to be standing there shaking at some bar of
judgment under the condemnation of God, just hoping that he really
meant what he said. No sirree, in the twinkling of
an eye. We'll depart this place and go
to be with Christ. We'll be in him. You see, what
the Lord says, he does. What he foretells comes to pass.
What he desires shall be. What he promises, he performs.
Why? Because he says, I am the Lord.
I am the Lord. I'm God. Beside me, there's none
else. And the promise is precious. thanks be unto God, he didn't
say, when I see the blood, I might pass over you. He didn't say,
when I see the blood, I guess I should pass over you. When
I see the blood, I guarantee you he didn't say this, if you'll
let me, I'll pass over you. Is that despicable? Boy, that,
that just, that is vile. Everybody who had a lamb and
put the blood out there had to be counting on the promise, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. And such is the faith
that he gives the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
dependent on him completely, counting on him. There is that
power in the blood. Do you all sing, when I see the
blood? John, is that a song here you all know, When I See the
Blood? Let's close the service with number 232, When I See the
Blood. May the Lord bless his Word. All right, let's all stand. That's such a good hymn. Let's all sing all four versions.
We ain't got nowhere to go. with the blood of the Lamb, and
the cross will fall for you. When I see the Lamb, when I see
the Lamb, when I see the Lamb, by the cross I will fall for
you. He's there for sinners, He's
there for saints, All He has promised that He will do. Watch in the thousands, open
for sin, And I will touch Him for you. When I see the light,
when I When I see the Lord, my heart
has a place for Him. Just as God is always there,
He's always here with me. When I feel alive, when I feel
alive, when I feel alive, when I feel alive. I see the stars by the glass
of his castle with you. Oh, great compassion, oh, God
of love, oh, loving heart, make me grateful and free. I see the
water under the flame, and oh, how I love to be with you. When I see the glow of the sun,
I'm glad to be you.