Works of God always deserve to
be kept in continual remembrance, all of the works of God, be it
His work of creation or His work of providence, and most especially
His work of grace. In the book of Job, right at
the end of Job, Job 37, Job's younger friend, Elihu, he said,
"'Hearken unto this, O Job, and consider.'" What should Job consider? Elihu said, "'Consider the wondrous
works of God.'" And that's good, sound advice for all of God's
Jobs, to consider the wondrous works of God. You remember in
the book of Acts when the Spirit of God came in marvelous, wonderful
power there in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost. And the
people who listened to the preachers of the gospel, they were shocked. These were people who came from
various other nations. And they said, we do hear them
speak and our tongues the wonderful works of God. In our conversation and in our
messages, we must always be talking about the wonderful works of
God. And in the text that I have read
to you, and in this context, the setting of the Passover,
this is one of the wonderful works of God that is not only
written in the Word of God, thankfully, but it's recorded even by historians. And people even today are still
speaking about the Passover that God instituted, that the blood
of the Lamb was to be outside the doorposts and over the doorposts,
People are still singing about God saying, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Now, undoubtedly, many people
don't understand what that's all about, but people are still
talking about this work. And within the Jewish community,
they're still observing Passover, though that is wrong. And the
reason it's wrong is because Christ, our Passover, has been
sacrificed for us. We know the Passover was important
to our Lord Jesus. When He was 12 years old, He
went with Joseph and Mary to Jerusalem at Passover time. And no doubt He attended every
Passover. He went to the Passovers during
His public ministry. In fact, in Luke chapter 22,
I believe it is, he told Peter and John, and this was the last
one that he attended and the last one that was ever held,
truly. He told Peter and John, take
care of the Passover. This is up to you men. You prepare for it. You find
us somewhere to meet. You take care of getting a lamb,
making sure it's roasted. Have the unleavened bread. You
have everything ready. This is your responsibility.
And our Lord Jesus partook of the last Passover. And that led
into the Lord's supper as he implemented a new supper, a new
feast. And it's the feast by which we
remember his death until he comes again. In fact, that's what we're
going to do this coming Lord's day. We're not going to observe
the Passover. We're going to observe the Lord's
Supper and remember our Lord's death until He comes again. The
Passover was a marvelous work that God did, and Moses is instructed
by the Lord to make sure that this is spoken of throughout
the generations of Israel. Let me pick up with a reading
again now in verse 25 of Exodus chapter 12. And it shall come to pass when you
come to the land which the Lord will give you 40 years later,
right? Because it's going to be 40 years
while they wandered in the wilderness, 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? What's this service all about? Why do we have the Passover?
What's the significance of this? Why is it important? That ye
shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord. It'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 their head and worshipped,
and the children of Israel went away and did as the Lord had
commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they." So when they get into
the land of promise, the land of milk and honey, prosperity
that they would enjoy within the land of Canaan in the promised
land. And they were to then resume
observing this Passover feast. And when the children came to
them and said, you know, Dad, why do we do this? You make sure
you tell them the reason for this. And let me say this to
all of us, that we instruct our children, our grandchildren,
those in your family, You should take the time, especially after
the worship service Sunday, after we have the Lord's Supper, you
ought to tell your young people the reason we partake of the
Lord's Supper. Tell them what it's all about.
Tell them in your own language. You have grandchildren, you have
people in your family that perhaps I'll never even meet. And you
know the very truth of God. You know about redeeming grace.
You know about the necessity of the blood of the Passover
lamb. Christ our Passover was sacrificed
for us. Sit down with your family as
God gives you opportunity and talk to them about the meaning
of the service of the Lord's Supper. Because you have an avenue
to them that I don't have. You have a way to reach them
that doesn't belong to me. If they come, I'll preach to
them. But you can't even in a casual conversation say to one of your
grandchildren or children or somebody in your family, you
know, we had the Lord's Supper today. Do you know what that's
all about? And then you can set forth Bread
being the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's his humanity.
There's the incarnation. And then as we take the wine,
you can tell them, you know, we take wine. That picture's
the blood of our Savior. Has no impurities in it. The
blood of Christ was necessary. to satisfy divine justice. And you see, that's what the
Lord told Moses to say to the people. When your children ask
you about this, you'd be ready with an answer. You'd be ready
to tell them what it's all about. Now, the Lord had a people in
Egypt. They're the people of His choice and the people of
His covenant. They're people in bondage. They can't deliver themselves.
Self-rescue was an impossibility. And they had to come to realize
and see that for themselves. And the Lord brought them to
the end of themselves to the point that they finally cried
out to God in their misery. And that's what the Lord will
do. He'll bring a person to the end of themselves. and then they'll
cry to the Lord. As one writer said, he brings
people to their wit's end, and then he puts a cry for mercy
within the heart, and then he answers the cry. As we arrive in Exodus chapter
12, nine plagues have been poured out so far. This is the last
one. And it will result in the deliverance
of the captives. But it'll be devastating for
the captors. There will be a rescue for the
people of God, but it'll be a night of horror for the Egyptians. It'll be a night of joy and celebration
for Israel, but a night of unbearable grief and agony for the Egyptians. God said to Moses to tell the
elders of Israel, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And God designed this to be a
picture of redemption by Lord Jesus Christ and his bloody sacrifice. That's how we were delivered
from the curse of God's law. Christ was cursed for us. That's
why we won't suffer any condemnation. We had a God-appointed, suitable,
perfect substitute who stood in our place and died the death
that we deserve to die. And that's all by God's design. And it was a work done. It was
necessary in order for the firstborn to be saved, delivered, and it's
a work done. Redemption was a work done in
order for us to be rescued. Turn back to Exodus chapter 3. I've got a couple of passages
I want you to look at. Exodus chapter 3, this is God's
work. Now it's not the work of Moses,
it's not the work of Aaron. I know God used those men, and
God does use his servants, and I'm thankful for that. And I'm
most honored to be one of his servants that he uses to give
the truth of God to the people to whom he appoints to hear it.
But it is God's work. We understand that. It's God's
work. But God uses men to accomplish
his work. Exodus chapter number three. Look at verse seven. It's just
what our Lord says to Moses from the burning bush. And the Lord
said, I've surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt.
So he says, I've seen. Then he says, I've heard. I've heard their cry by reason
of their taskmasters. Number three, I know. I see,
I know. I hear. I'm very much aware of what's
going on and I've come down. And doesn't that put you in mind
of our Lord Jesus Christ coming down from heaven to redeem us? The Son of God says, I've come
down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to
bring them up. I've come down to bring them
up. That's why our Lord Jesus Christ came. He came down to
live, to suffer, to bleed and die, to take us up, to take us
all the way up to the very throne of God, to bring us up. Because we have to be brought. It says, To bring them up out
of that land unto a good land, and large a land flowing with
milk and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites,
and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And again God says, Now therefore
behold the cry of the children of Israel is coming to me. I
have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed
them. What God tells Moses is, this
is what I'm going to do. And make no mistake about it,
and I know all of you are very much aware of this, and I hope
that all of you are watching by way of the internet, this
salvation of Israel, it's God's work. This is his most wonderful
work. I began the message talking about
the necessity of remembering the works of God. And the greatest
work of God of all is his work of grace. It's his work of salvation. Would that men would speak more
about this marvelous work of redeeming mercy to unworthy sinners. God says, I've come down and
this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to deliver my people.
And that's what our Lord Jesus Christ did. Now, I said he used
men. Turn with me to the book of Hebrews
chapter 11. Of course, one of the men that
he used is a man by the name of Moses. Look at Hebrews chapter
11. Hebrews chapter 11. And it begins in verse 23, speaking
about the faith of Moses. And I won't read all of these,
but I'll get to verse, I just want to read verse 28. Hebrews
11, 28. Through faith he kept the Passover. It's important. Through faith
he kept the Passover in the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed
the firstborn should touch them. By faith. By faith, believing
what God told him. And I've said to you before,
one of the most important ways you can honor God is just to
believe what He says. Believe His Word. And Moses believed
what God told him. And therefore, as I read to you
a few minutes ago, he went out to the elders and explained to
them, this is what's got to happen. Tell every family, choose a lamb. The lamb must be perfect. It
must be a male of the first year. Keep it up four days for inspection. And then the lamb has got to
be killed. The blood has to be caught in
a basin. and a bunch of hyssopists to
take that blood and the fathers to go outside. The same one who
killed the lamb must go outside with the blood and then sprinkle
the blood on the doorposts and over the doorposts outside. And
then they come in, the lamb is roasted, they've got to eat it
with unleavened bread. Do all of these things according
to the will of God. Moses believed what God said,
therefore he delivered the message. And really, this is what preaching
is all about. It's believing what God says
in a man's heart, and then that man delivering to the congregation
that which God has said. You see, Moses did all this by
faith. Had he not believed God, which
is an impossibility, of course, but had he not believed God,
then the message would not have gone forth from his lips to the
children of Israel. But he did believe. And in his
own house, I'm persuaded, though both of his sons were in Midian,
were among the Midianites then, because he sent his wife and
his two sons away, his oldest son was Gershom, So they're amongst
the Midianites. Moses sent them away for their
own safety, but I'm still persuaded that wherever it was that Moses
lived, he still put the blood out there because the Lord could
reach all the way to the Midianites and reach Gershom wherever he
was. So Moses, by faith, by faith,
believing what God said, killed a lamb, coughed the blood, Took some
hyssop, went outside. Oh God, I believe what you said. I believe what you said. Protect
my firstborn. Went back in, shut the door. Moses, by faith, by faith, kept
the Passover. Now, we don't congratulate Moses
for believing God. Because faith is a gift. And if you believe God, if you
believe what God says in his book, if you believe what God
says about himself, if you believe what God says about us, about
you, about me, and if we believe what God says about the Lord
Jesus, and his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. That faith
to believe did not originate with you. It couldn't. Because we're impure fountains
and nothing good can come forth from an impure fountain. It has to be a gift. And I'll tell you, if you believe
God, say, I don't believe Him like I should. Hey, nobody does. And we don't believe Him like
we're going to. But we do believe Him. And the fact that we believe
is evidence of a marvelous, wonderful work of God within each of us. A few things about this Passover.
Number one, it was a memorial feast to celebrate redemption. It was a celebration time in
anticipation of the grace and mercy of God, because I remind
you, they're eating this feast before the Lord came through
to pour out judgment upon the Egyptian firstborn. But the Israelites,
believing God, believing when God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you, they did that, they came back in, they
ate of the roasted lamb, they ate the unleavened bread with
bitter herbs, that picture is repentance. They did all of this
because of faith in the Lord. I believe what God has said.
They're celebrating redemption. And we, Sunday morning, we will
celebrate redemption, not redemption to come, but redemption that
took place 2,000 years ago. And really, when we take the
Lord's Supper, it's a time of joy and celebration. It's marvelous
what God has done for us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Our sins
have been put away. We're made the righteousness
of God in Him. It's a time of joy. It's a time
of gladness. So it was a memorial feast to
celebrate redemption. Secondly, it was a Sabbath feast. A Sabbath feast. Go back to our
text here in Exodus chapter 12. Look at verse 16. And in the first day, there shall
be an holy convocation. And in the seventh day, there
shall be an holy convocation to you. No manner of work shall
be done in them, save that which every man must eat. That only
may be done of you." It's a Sabbath feast. And the Sabbath feast
means you rest. The work would be done by God. Nothing was required of the firstborn. Maybe he goes to his dad and
says, Dad, what shall I do? What do you want me to do, dad?
You don't have to do anything, son. But surely there's some
work that I must perform so that God, when he comes through, won't
take my life. No, son, this is the work that
God must do. It's a feast. A Sabbath feast. His dad could tell him, listen
son, your life is in the hands of God. We can't assist the Lord in any
way. I'll tell you son, I believe
God. You are as safe as you could possibly be behind the blood. Don't worry. And I'm telling
you who believe God, you are as safe as you could
possibly be. You're as safe as if you were
right beside the Savior in heaven right now. Isn't that right?
You're that safe. Oh, God, give us that blessed
assurance that all is well because of the work and the person of
our Lord Jesus. And then here's the third thing
about this feast. It was a memorial feast to celebrate
redemption. It was a Sabbath feast, so it
was a time of rest. The third thing is it was a family
feast. Look at verse 47. Go on over
deeper into the chapter. Exodus 12, 47. All the congregation
of Israel shall keep it. No Egyptians there, just the
congregation of Israel. You see, Moses did not announce
to the Egyptians that they needed to take a lamb. It wasn't preached
to the Egyptians. This is for the Lord's people.
It's for family. Real quick, let me give you three
things. What does the Passover mean? Because Moses says, the
Lord told Moses, told people, when your children ask, what
meaneth this service? What does it mean? I'll give
you three things here. Number one, it means that God
is glorified. No one else could have done what
God did. He was glorified in this. You
see, God chose Abram. God entered into a covenant with
Abram. God looked after Abram, brought
him out of Ur of the Chaldees, promised him and make of him
a great nation. Also promised him that his seed
would spend 400 years in bondage. And then the Lord would bring
them out of that. The Lord himself preserved the
seed of Abraham when there were just a few. And in time of dearth,
our Lord had already made prearrangement for the preservation of Israel
because he took a man by the name of Joseph Through all the
ups and downs of his life and the twists and turns of marvelous
providence, Joseph made his way to the very throne of Egypt.
And he preserved, he preserved that little family. Such a very,
very small nation, a nation of only 70 people. God preserved them. They dwelt in Egypt. And not
just in Egypt generally. Well, just live anywhere you
want to. Pharaoh said, the better pasture
land, the best place for y'all to be is in Goshen. You just,
you dwell in Goshen. And they did. Who brought all of that to pass?
Who by his providence was directing in every step of their history? God did. God is glorified. And I tell
you in our history of redemption, Jonathan Edwards has a marvelous,
marvelous large portion in his works called The History of Redemption. It's quite worth your while to
read that if you have an opportunity. Oh, the history of redemption. Christ being our message, we set him forth from the word
of God. I've told you before, Years ago,
I was invited to preach at a minister's meeting, and I preached Christ the Preacher's
Theme. And after I finished and after
we had eaten together, we gathered back, and I was informed that
the other preachers could ask me any question they wanted to.
And so I said, step back behind the pulpit, and I did. He started
asking me questions and one man raised his hand and I said, yeah,
brother. And he stood up and he said,
I'm teaching through the history of Israel. He said, I don't see
how I can preach Christ from the history of Israel. And I said, I don't see how you
can avoid preaching Christ from the history of Israel. As you
read through this, Passover. I see Christ all through it,
don't you? And I would say the only way
you couldn't see Christ in this is to look away. You see, all of this points to
Him and God is glorified. That's the meaning of this. What
meaning of this service? It means God glorified himself. Secondly, it means that the blood
of an appointed lamb came between God and the firstborn. See, every man in Israel had
to have a lamb as a sacrifice. The father of each family would
seize a lamb inspect it, keep it up, kill it for the family
with his own hands, shed the blood, catch it in a basin, take
hyssop and apply the blood. To me, the hyssop sprinkling
the blood, in a sense, pictures the preaching of the gospel.
I've taken the hyssop and dipped it in the basin of blood and
preaching it as strong as I can." Because God said, when I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. This chapter is bursting with
meaning. I don't even know how we're talking
about can't see Christ in the history of Israel. Well, you
could just spend a long time, many, many sermons here. various
aspects of the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you, the most important
thing about this Passover was the blood. The blood, the precious blood
of the paschal lamb. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. And did you catch that verse
when I read a while ago? Verse 22, at the end of it. And none of you, right at the
last day, and none of you shall go out at the door of his house
until the morning. Don't go out. That's pretty simple. Don't go out. And I was thinking
this afternoon, I prepared the message today, This afternoon
I was kind of looking over it again and I thought, you know,
if that was a teenage boy, I bet he was itching to get outside.
And maybe he played with some Egyptian boys. Here's the Israelite
fella, he's inside, and some Egyptian boy said, hey, what's
this red blood, what's this blood I hear on the doorpost for? Come
on out, let's play a while. Let's go shoot some baskets or
whatever, whatever the kids did for entertainment back then.
And maybe the boy walked over to the door, put his hand on
the doorknob, and his dad said, don't you touch that doorknob.
But dad, I want to go outside and play. God said, stay in. You can't go out. You can't go
out. Let me tell you something. I
know we're kept by the power of God. We're preserved. But
we also are warned not to forsake the gospel. Don't go out. Don't go out. Don't forsake this
message of redeeming grace. Why not? Because there's death
out there, that's why. You can't go out, son. You're
going to stay in here. Doggone it, Dad. You've raised kids. You know
how kids are. But Dad was firm. Let me tell
you something, son. The only place of safety, and
let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen here and who are watching, the
only place of safety is behind the blood. You see, God's out there. We're
in here. And the only thing between us
and God that'll protect us is the blood. of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, up until now, these
nine plagues, it's been Aaron and Moses have been involved
in them, but not this time. Not this time, God said, I'm
passing through. You're not dealing with Moses
anymore, Pharaoh. You're not dealing with Aaron
anymore. This is one-on-one with God. And Moses tells all the elders,
listen, the only place of safety from an angry God, from a God
that's full of vengeance against sin is to be behind the blood. And I'm telling you, it's the
only place of safety is in Christ. In Christ. I know flesh wants to do something. Let's go outside. Maybe we need
to put some boards, nail some boards up from the outside to
keep the Lord from coming in. Boards won't keep him out. Boards
won't keep the death out. Blood will. And I'll tell you, this is the
last thing it means. I'll tell you this. It means where there
is no blood between the sinner and God, there is only death. Think of that blood of the Passover
lamb as being like a mediator. Somebody between you and God. You gotta have somebody between
you and God. Gotta have Christ and his blood
redemption. See, the reason the Israelites
were safe and the reason the Egyptians perished is because
there was no mediator. There wasn't any blood between
the Egyptians and the Lord. But there was blood for a chosen
people. They couldn't perish. There's a great hymn. It's called
Reconciled to God. It was written by Isaac Watts
a long time ago. But one of the verses, the song
is entitled Reconciled to God. And Isaac Watts wrote a lot.
A lot of hymns in our hymn book, and a lot of hymns in Laudanire.
He wrote well over a thousand hymns. But one of the verses
says this, goes this, and it's very good. He says, "'Til God
in human flesh I see, my thoughts no comfort find. The holy, just,
and sacred three are terrors to my mind. But if Emmanuel's
face appears, my hope, my joy begins. His name forbids my slavish
fear. His grace and his blood removes
my sin. Thank God for the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Let's sing a closing song. I
want us to sing Rock of Ages, but I want us to sing all four
stanzas which are found in that black folder. And that's number
15, page 15 in your black folder. And we'll sing it to the traditional
tune, of course. But page 15, Rock of Ages, all
four stanzas. Rock of ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood ?
From thy rich side which flowed ? ? Be of sin the devil cured
? ? Cleansed me from his guilt and power ? ? Not the labors
of my hands ? ? And fulfill thy lost demands ? ? Could my sin
no respite know ? ? Could my tears forever flow ? ? All for
sin could not atone ? Thou must save and Thou alone Nothing in
Thy hand I bring Simply to Thy cross I cling Make it come to
Thee for dress ? Helpless look to Thee for grace ? ? Thou light
to the mountain fly ? ? Watch me, Savior, or I die ? ? While
I draw this fleeting breath ? When my life is close in death, When
I soar to worlds unknown, See me on my judgment throne, A rock
of ages left for me, Let me hide myself in thee.