Exodus chapter 12 records for
us the last of the ten plagues that the Lord sent upon the Egyptians,
this one being the death of the firstborn. And inasmuch as death
is the wages of sin, we have no difficulty, therefore, understanding
that the issue which is at hand here in Exodus chapter 12 and
the issue which is raised and dealt with by God is the issue
of sin. The wages of sin being death
and as James says, sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. Here we have a notable instance
of God exercising His judgment and bringing upon the people
of Egypt thousands of deaths, the deaths of the firstborn,
and all of them instances of that which is the just wages
of sin. Pharaoh and the rest of the Egyptians
had dared to defy God. They have now defied God through
nine different plagues. This one, this one will do more
than get their attention. This one will leave them in such
a state of horror of all. of the God of Israel, that they
will be stricken in their hearts from Pharaoh all the way down
to the lowest servant in the kingdom, and the Israelites will
be released, and they will be free to go out, out of the land
of Egypt, because the Egyptians are going to have a tremendous
task on their hands to bury their dead. And as they begin to prepare
the bodies for graves, the children of Israel go out with a high
hand rejoicing. And as we shall see in the coming
Wednesday nights, The Egyptians said to them, as the Israelites
left, if you need anything, here, take whatever it is we've got.
Just get out of our land. And so God fulfilled his promise
to Abraham. You see, God entered into a covenant
with Abraham that his descendants would be held captive in a foreign
land for 400 years. And then, and then, they would
be released from their captivity. I'm sure that the children of
Israel, the few who believed God, the few who remembered what the
Lord had said by way of promises to Abraham, with the word being
passed down through the generations, As they remembered what God's
promises were to Abraham and to the rest of the children of
Israel, I'm sure they wondered, when will that promise come to
pass? And those who are counting the
years, perhaps the older saints of God, they said, we've been waiting
to be released from captivity all these years. And I bet they
prayed, oh God, when will this trial be over? Oh God, when will our hardships
reach an end? And they poured out their hearts
to Jehovah. Oh God, help us. Oh God, free
us. Oh God, take away this awful
burden of this very cruel Pharaoh and
his taskmasters. And still they were in captivity. And then God was pleased to raise
up a deliverer. And little did the children of
Israel know that that infant who was rescued from the reeds
of the Nile River, rescued by Pharaoh's daughter who gave him
the name Moses, drawn forth. Little did the children of Israel
have an inkling that that's the Deliverer. And I say to you who
are the people of God, and perhaps you are going through some very
difficult trials, And God's people have been doing so ever since
the first believer was martyred for his faith, Abel. I say to
those of you who have been severely trapped and troubled, be patient. Be patient. Because he who has brought you
forth to the trial will deliver you, but it will only be in his
time. And one of the most difficult
things for any of the people of God is patience. No wonder so often we read in
the book of Psalms, wait on the Lord. Wait, I say, and within
that word wait is the idea of believe and trust Him. All of His promises are valid,
they're true, and they're to be to us pillows
of softness upon which we trust the Lord and rely. He's faithful
to what he's promised. And the Lord now is bringing
to pass that which he promised to faithful Abraham. And here it is, over 400 years
since the Lord entered into a covenant with Abraham, and it's 1,500
years before our Lord Jesus is coming into this world. And yet here we have, especially
in this portion of Scripture, a beautiful portrait of our Lord
Jesus whom John the Baptist, he labeled Him as being the Lamb
of God. And we know that Paul said in
1 Corinthians that this is Christ who is our Passover, who is pictured
here in this Passover. feast that God gave them. And
the unique thing about this Passover feast is that the sacrifice,
you know, in every other feast, the sacrifices of the animals
that they offered on their altars, they were indeed offered on altars
and consumed by fire. But this one, this one is roasted
with fire, and then the people ate it. Because it's a picture
of our Lord Jesus. The roasting of the lamb pictures
His death. And then the people sat down
to eat. And we feast upon our Lord Jesus
by faith, believing Him, resting in Him. And as it says in John
chapter 6, he that believeth on the Son of God, we eat of
him and we drink of his blood. And so we have salvation. Last week we learned from chapter
11 and verse 7 that the God of the Bible had made a difference
between the Egyptians and Israel. They stand as pictures of two
much, much larger groups. The Egyptians picture the non-elect
world, the world that doesn't know God, that will never know
God. The world that's passed over, God passed over them with
His mercy and with His grace and with His salvation. The Israelites,
they stand as a picture of the people of God, a portrait of
the church of God, whom God purposed to save before the world began.
In fact, in a sense, we can say He did save us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. He loved us with an everlasting
love. He saw us in the Lamb of God,
who was the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the
world. He saw us in Christ Jesus and we've always been accepted
in Him. And then the Spirit of God draws
us, woos us to the Savior. It is indeed God who has made
the difference. Now this evening we're going
to learn that the difference God has made has a major result. Judgment upon the Egyptians and
salvation upon Israel. The wrath of God upon the firstborn
of the Egyptians and the kindness of God upon the Israelites. Or to put it perhaps a little
more bluntly, death to the one group, life to the other group. You see the difference between
the Egyptians and the Israelites, between the homes that were devastated
by the death of the firstborn and the homes that were filled
with joy and merriment the next morning, was the difference God
ordained and God brought to pass. God said he had passed through
Egypt. And he did so with his sword drawn. And God was angry. He passed
through Egypt in wrath, in condemnation, and in judgment. You'll notice
here in verse 12, look at chapter 12 and verse 12 again. God says,
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. And they will learn, if they
have not found out already, they will at least know the truth
of this, I am the Lord. They worship all of their gods,
Our Lord is going to execute judgment upon all the gods of
the Egyptians and they'll find out who is God indeed. The Lord was gonna bring about
and did bring about extensive judgment. When I look at verse
12, to me that's the voice of judgment. That's the voice of vengeance.
That's the voice of wrath. He said, let me read it again.
I will pass through the land of Egypt this night. Listen to
it. And well, I will smite. I will smite. The firstborn in the land of
Egypt, both man and beast, I will smite. It is God's prerogative to either
smite or save. There are people in this world
that will be smitten by the rod of God's wrath. And there are
other people in this world who will be touched by the scepter
of His sovereign mercy. And some of them are here tonight. No wonder Paul said, who maketh
thee to differ from another? Yes, the one group will hear,
as it were, the voice of judgment. But this other group is gonna
hear the voice, and that's why I entitled the messages I did,
the voice of sovereign mercy. For he says in verse 13, And
the blood shall be to you, not to them, not to them, not to everybody,
but to you. Who's the you? To Israel. And that's a picture of the people
of God. And the blood shall be to the
people of God, a token, a sign, upon the houses where you are.
And God said, and here's the voice of sovereign mercy, when
I see the blood, not when you see it, when I see the blood,
God's eye is always on the blood of the substitute. And God help us to keep our eyes
on the blood of the substitute as well. But know this, it is
not our sight of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that satisfied
justice. It's not our sight that saves
us, that justifies us, that makes us righteous, that puts our sins
away. It's God's sight of the blood.
If He sees the blood, When he looks at you, if he sees
the blood, let me tell you something. Death
will never touch you. Wrath's never gonna visit your
house. You're safe as we sing in the
chorus in the arms of Jesus. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. He says, the plague shall not
be upon you to destroy you. You're not going to be destroyed. But he is going to smite the
land of Egypt. Just a couple of things here
real quick. First of all, the Lord's people
were safe. I hear the voice of sovereign
mercy. I hear His voice say, when I
see the blood, I will pass over you. Why were the Israelites
safe? Well, I'll tell you, it wasn't
because they were better than the Egyptians, because they were
just as bad. Just as bad. Just as vile, just
as sinful, just as rebellious, and just as ungodly. I'll tell you why they're safe.
Number one, because God made a difference. He chose Israel. He didn't choose
Egypt. A man's a fool. A woman's a fool
who would deny that. Of all the nations of the earth,
God chose one nation to be His people, not His spiritual people,
but a nation that belonged to Him and He would do with it as
He would and use them, give them the prophets, give them the law,
give them the Word of God, and ultimately give them the Lord
Jesus Christ that is the Son of God would come through their
lineage. He'd be the son of Abraham and the son of David. God chose
him. And that's a picture of God choosing
us in Christ before the world began. The person who honestly
reads the Word of God doesn't bring their preconceived ideas
Contrariness to sovereign grace doesn't bring those things when
they read the scriptures, but they bow to the Word of God.
Has to admit God is the God of election. God's a God who shows
mercy to whom He will. God said, I'll be gracious to
whom I'll be gracious. I'll be merciful to whom I'll
be merciful. How can you make anything else
out of that? And I'll tell you this, the reason
that Israel was saved, there's no difference between the Israelites
and the Egyptians by nature, but the reason they were saved
was because of a covenant. A covenant. God had made a covenant
with Abraham. He appointed to them many physical
mercies, including a land that flowed with milk and honey. And
as I've already indicated for 400 years, the promise seemed
to be impossible to come to fulfillment. Their release seemed to be an
impossibility. Their escape also impossible. But God had covenanted with Abraham
to do them good. And I'm telling you, God entered
into a covenant with our representative, the Son of God. God who chose a people unto salvation. Yes, He entered into a covenant
with our representative to do us good. And He cannot do anything less
for the people of God except do us good. You see, there is nothing bad
that can happen to a believer. And I know we moan and groan
and we got our fair share, all of us do, of complaints. May
God forgive us. But nothing bad can ever come
to the people of God. Who can condemn us? who can lay a charge to our account. It's God who's justified us,
who's declared us to be righteous and forgiven, who can condemn
us. It's Christ that died. He died
for us. He was condemned for us. He endured
the wrath of God for us. Yea, rather that is risen again,
who also maketh intercession for us. Trace it all back to a covenant.
The covenant of grace made with our representative. And then
the second thing I want to give you tonight is this. The Lord's
people were safe because of divine provision. Always remember this. God will accept. God will accept. That which he demands and that
which he provides, he will accept. That which he demands and that which he has appointed. He appointed the Passover lamb. As you go down through here,
and this has been pointed out before, I'm sure you've noticed
in verse three, he says, a lamb. Verse four, the lamb. Verse five,
your lamb. God appointed the lamb. A lamb,
the lamb, your lamb. Keeps getting more personal,
doesn't it? Is Christ your lamb? The lamb that's dear to you,
the lamb to whom you look. The Lord provided for the Israelites,
but he didn't provide for the Egyptians. God declared he's coming through
Egypt. And he gives specific instructions to the Israelites
regarding this a lamb, the lamb, your lamb. what to do with it,
in order for the firstborn of the Israelite families to live. Everything in this has to do
with the blood of the Lamb. And the blood of the Lamb has
everything to do with salvation. In this context, we see three
things. We see the blood shed. We see the blood as it is sprinkled. And then we see the blood that
is seen by the eye of God. In verse two, this month shall
be unto you the beginning of months. The Lord, it was really
about the middle of September thereabouts, and now the Bible
scholars call it their ecclesiastical calendar. Their religious calendar
was changed. And it begins, and still does,
with the middle of March, which is springtime, when things come
to life. And you see with Israel, and
due to this Passover lamb, these lambs being slaughtered and the
blood applied, and their liberation, this is really when their life
began. They trace everything back to
this. And from then on, as we shall
see, God said, you remember this Passover from now on. And our Lord, when He kept the
last Passover, He then instituted the Lord's Supper right out of
this in order for us to remember His
death, the death of the Lamb of God that took our sins away. Here in verse 3, it says, and
all the congregation of Israel. Let me tell you something. I
looked at that today and I got to thinking about this. He who
will not listen, he who will not listen to the word of God,
God will leave him to himself. That's what happened to Pharaoh. Pharaoh wouldn't listen. The
Egyptians wouldn't listen. And now, you see, through the
first nine plagues, through the first nine, the Israelites, you
don't hear much about them. They were kind of passive. They
weren't doing anything, just watching what's going on. But
all of a sudden, they're gonna be involved now. Because the death of the lambs will be for their benefit. And they're gonna listen. And
the Lord says to Moses and Aaron, speak ye unto all the congregation
saying. You see Moses and Aaron been
speaking to Pharaoh. He really hadn't been listening. Who will listen to the voice
of God? Who will hear Him when He speaks? Those to whom He gives the hearing
ear and the believing heart. And I'll tell you what you don't
see or read about the Israelites when they hear the word of the
Lord. You don't hear anybody say, hey,
I don't believe this is gonna happen. You don't read anything
about that. Because they're listening. Oh,
God enable us to listen to his word, to hear what he has to
say. Let me hear what the Lord has
to say to me. Well, he goes down through here.
And you've heard this many times before, so I'm not going to labor
too much about this. But he tells the people to keep
the lambs—by the way, when we're talking about lambs
and Once a lamb reaches a year old,
then it's no longer called a lamb, then it's called a sheep. This
is when the lamb is in the strength of its body,
in its youth, in its vitality. And that's our Lord Jesus. I know he's the ancient of days,
but Solomon says his locks are black, his hair is black and
bushy. Strong, mighty, that one who
is the Lamb of God. And in verse 5, it's without
blemish. It's got to be without blemish. No sin, no defilement. Put your lamb up for four days. Beautiful picture in the life
of our Lord. Four days before his death, he
entered into Jerusalem. And I mean he was inspected and
examined by everybody. And even a heathen, heathen ruler
said, I find no fault in this man. No blemish, no spot, nothing that would disqualify
him from being God's sacrifice for sin. The perfect lamb of God. And then they were to kill it,
kill the lamb. And it's interesting, you know,
in how this is worded, let all the congregation kill the lamb. Verse six, 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 as though it's
one lamb. You see, everything is really
pointing in the future, 1500 years in the future to one lamb,
the Lamb of God. It's got to be killed. Shed the blood, catch it in a
basin, and sprinkle the blood on the doorposts and over the
doorposts. Roast the lamb with fire. Don't boil it. Don't eat of it raw. It's got
to be roasted. That's the wrath of God. Roasted by God. And eat the whole
lamb. Eat it all. You take Christ,
when we feed on Christ, we feed on all of his offices and the
entirety of who he is and that which he's done. You don't pick
and choose. You believe on him as the Lord
Jesus Christ, not just Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ. You take
him in all of his offices, prophet, priest, and king. This one who
was roasted with the fire of God's wrath, eating with unleavened
bread. They had to get unleavened out
of their houses for a week. After this, for a week, From
then on, every time they partook of Passover, get the leaven out
of your house. It's a sign of hypocrisy and
sin. Come before God with a true heart. Then he says in verse 10, if
any of it remains, burn it. What's the reason for that? Well,
I would say, so that it wouldn't be dishonored,
so that the remainders or the leftovers wouldn't be dishonored
by the Egyptians after they're gone. Burn it. It says in verse 11, thus shall
ye eat it. Eat it with your loins girded.
We're girded with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Shoes
on your feet. You see, they were, in Egypt,
they were servants or slaves. Typically, slaves didn't even
wear shoes. In the New Testament, they didn't. Put shoes on your feet. Our feet
are shod with the Choose the gospel of God's peace, the gospel
of God's grace. Staff in your hand, leaning on
the Lord, leaning on his promises, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Eat it in haste, no time to waste. And don't ever forget this, the
last few words of verse 12. It's the Lord's Passover. I know, I know that it's by means
of this that the firstborn of the Israelites were spared and
rescued and delivered from death. But first and foremost, it's
God's Passover. That's whose it is. And it's the same way in salvation.
It's God's salvation. We reap the benefits, but it's
first of all for Him. And I've said it a bunch of times,
and God gives me strength and grace. I'll keep on saying it
to the day I can't preach anymore. God had to do something for himself
before he could do anything for us. It's the Lord's Passover. And when you read of our Lord
Jesus Christ dying on the cross of Calvary, you remember this. That death is first of all for
God. That God might be just and the
justifier of everybody who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
we'll keep on going next Wednesday. I've given you enough for tonight.