Well, let's go to the book of
Exodus. Exodus chapter 1. We discovered last week that
the word Exodus means going out. The very last word of Genesis,
the last words, so Joseph died, last words of Genesis, so Joseph
died being 110 years old. They embalmed him and he was
put in a coffin in Egypt. But death doesn't have the final
word. So we get to the book of Exodus
which speaks of going out. Genesis ends with death. with
death. Why do people die? It's a good
question. It's a question everybody ought
to ask, and we only get the answer from the Word of God. Why do
people die? Death is the result of sin. Our Lord said to Adam, in the
day you eat thereof of this forbidden fruit, you'll surely die. But the death of Adam affected
more than just that one man. The death of Adam affected everybody
who came forth from that man. All of his posterity, all of
his seed, all of his offspring. So that includes us tonight.
It includes everybody who was born as a result of a union of
a man and a woman. Our Lord Jesus wasn't born of
the seed of Adam. The Lord Jesus was born of the
seed of the woman. So He had no sin. He had no depravity. He was the
sinless one. Here in the last verse of Genesis,
we see that Joseph died. Look here in chapter 1 of Exodus. Let me read these first six verses
to you. Exodus 1-1, now these are the
names of the children of Israel which came into Egypt. Every
man in his household came with Jacob. Reuben, Simeon, Levi,
and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali,
Gad, and Asher. And all the souls that came out
of the loins of Jacob were 70 souls. For Joseph was in Egypt
already, and now we're reminded once again, and Joseph died. and all of his brethren, all
of his brothers, and all of that generation. Joseph was a child
of God. He's a beautiful picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, and I know the scripture
says, only mentions one man as being a figure of Christ, a figure
of him it was to come, and that's Adam. And that statement is made
in chapter 5 of the book of Romans. So we know Adam was a figure.
He was a type. He was a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ. So also was Joseph in a multitude
of ways. I don't know whether you have
access to the book of Genesis written by A.W. Pink. I'm sure we have a copy of it
back here in the Lending Library. that you can take it and read
it. And Arthur W. Pink says that Joseph was a picture
of our Lord Jesus in at least 100 different ways. I chose not
to use that outline tonight. But it's an excellent book. It's called Gleanings from Genesis
by Arthur W. Pink. It's very well worth your
reading. But he talks about how Joseph
is such a great picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. But though
Joseph was a beautiful picture, a portrait of the Son of God,
a picture on top of Him, yet Joseph died. Which is evidence
to us that he was a sinner. He was a sinner. The wages of
sin is death. but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, there are in the
Bible, there are three different kinds of death mentioned. There's
of course physical death, there's spiritual death, and there is
eternal or everlasting death. There's physical death. Adam
lived 930 years, and then the scripture says, and he died.
Read Genesis chapter 5. You could call that the obituary
chapter. Because over and over again it
says, and he died. And he died. And he died. Here's
Joseph who is a beautiful picture of our Savior, yet it says of
Joseph, he died. He died. Physical death. But Adam, though he did not die
physically immediately when he disobeyed God, he would later
die that physical death, but he died in another way immediately. He died spiritually. He lost
that life of God. God made him an innocence. Now he's a fallen man. God made
him upright. Now he's a rebel against God. God made him with that desire
to walk with God, and to speak with God, and to fellowship with
God. Now, Adam has no desire to do
that. And when he hears the voice of
God calling unto him in the garden, Adam runs from God. He runs. He flees from the presence of
the Lord. What happened? He died spiritually. Spiritual death. And unless God had been gracious
to him and merciful to him, there's a third type of death that is
the result of sin. Not only physical death and spiritual
death, there's what we call unending death, eternal death. The Scripture
speaks of it in Revelation chapter 20 as the second death. The second death. That's the
death of the soul in eternal condemnation. Three types of
death. The Scripture says that in Adam
we died. Hold your place here. Turn to
Romans chapter 5. Let me show you something over
here. Look at Romans 5. Look at Romans 5, first of all,
verse 12. Romans 5, 12, and I want you
to note this. Wherefore, as by one man, that
one man is Adam, of course, sin entered into the world. By one
man. All of the problems, all of the
wretchedness, all of the vileness throughout all of the world,
everything that has resulted from sin, it's all traced back
to one man. But that one man, he did not
act as a private individual. He acted as the head of his race. He represented us. Wherefore,
as by one man, sin entered into the world, and something else,
death by sin. That's what I just talked about.
Physical death, spiritual death, and eternal death. And so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned, that is, all
sin in Adam. Death passed upon all men. And
if you look up that word, past, it means it walks among all men. Death walks among all men all
the time. And death has taken people very
close to you. Death was near you, but didn't
take you, but it was walking among you. It walks among all
of us. It takes husband, wife, mother,
father, brother, sister, son, daughter. Death takes whom God
says to take. Death has passed upon all men. Physical death. Spiritual death. It walks among all men, for all
men are spiritually dead. And it walks upon all men because
all men will die eternally unless God gives life. We're totally
bound up to or backed in a corner to the sovereign prerogative
of God to give life. As there are three kinds of death,
there are three kinds of life. There's physical life, you got
that now. You got physical life. I know
we're dying daily. And death does walk amongst all
of us. And one of these days, death
will take me and it won't ask me, are you ready to go? Can I take you now? No, death
doesn't do that. Death comes as a king. You go,
just like that. Death reigns. Death reigns. Physical death, spiritual death,
eternal death unless God is merciful. But there's physical life. But
there's another kind of life too. There's spiritual life that
God has to give. You can't give yourself this
life. You have to be born again. Born from above is what the Savior
said to Nicodemus. Accept a man, be born again. He can't see the Kingdom of God. We're born the first time. We
didn't have anything to do with that birth. And if we're going
to go to glory, we'll have to be born the second time, and
we don't have anything to do with that birth either. That's
a spiritual birth. Of his own will, this is what
James chapter 1 says, of his own will begat he us with the
word of truth, with the gospel. What is it that the Lord uses
in giving this spiritual life to spiritually dead sinners?
He uses the incorruptible seed of the Word of God that liveth
and abideth forever. This is the reason we keep on
preaching the gospel. It's one of the reasons. It's
because it's the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ that God uses
to quicken spiritually dead sinners. And then there's everlasting
life or eternal life. Drop down here in chapter 5 of
Romans. Look at verse 19. And this makes it really clear.
For as by one man's disobedience, now who's that man? You know,
that's Adam. By his disobedience, many, literally
the many whom he represented, all that he represented were
made or, let me give you this, legally considered to be sinners. See, it doesn't matter whether
you say, well, I don't feel like I'm a sinner. Well, that doesn't
change the fact that you are. God has already legally established
the fact you are a sinful person. By one man's disobedience, the
many that he represented were made or legally constituted to
be sinners. So, This is very important. So by the obedience of one. Who's that? The last Adam. The Bible only talks about two
Adams. First Adam, last Adam. First
representative, second representative. The first one was the head of
his race. The second one, Jesus Christ our Lord, the God-man,
he's the representative of a chosen race. So by the obedience of one, his
obedience unto death, Philippians chapter 2, so by the death of
one shall many, that is the many that he represented, be made
righteous, legally declared to be righteous. Moreover, the law
entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. Look at verse 21. That is, sin
hath reigned unto death. Even so might grace reign always
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ the Lord. Death in Adam. Life in Christ. Death by something you didn't
do, but your representative did. Life by something you didn't
do, but your representative did. Christ Jesus. So you didn't become
a sinner by something you did. You do things because you're
born a sinner. You are a sinner. You are sin. And this salvation comes to us
because of something that somebody else did. Christ our Lord. So thanks be unto God that death
doesn't have the final word. And Joseph said, take my bones
to Canaan with you. He said, I believe the promise
of God. Our family, our nation is leaving
Egypt one day. And when you leave, I believe
the Word of God. I believe we'll have the land
that was promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, my father. We'll have that land. And when
you leave Egypt and you go to the promised land, you take my
bones with you. And you can read later on, indeed
they did. He believed that God would deliver
them from the bondage of Egypt that awaited them. So the meaning
of Exodus is going out. As we shall see next week from
here in Exodus chapter 1, this is a people in bondage. This
is a people in captivity. Now they're going to grow to
be a great nation, 600,000 men, plus women and children. So we're
talking about maybe 4 million, 5 million people. That's the
number of Israelites in the land of Goshen. But they're still
in captivity, no matter their number. They're in a bad way,
or they will become in a bad way. So the meaning of Exodus is going
out. And historically, the book of
Exodus deals with Israel going out of Egyptian bondage. And naturally, it follows Genesis. For you see, considered historically,
Genesis is the book of beginnings. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. In Genesis, we learn that Adam's
the head of our race. As soon as he fell, the Lord
announced that somebody else is coming. The seed of the woman. In Genesis, we learn that we're
in the mess that we're in on account of sin. Say, Jim, this
world sure is in a mess. You got that right. We're in
a mess because of one three-letter word, S-I-M. That's the problem. Really, we're
the problem. People are the problem. Now,
since Genesis is the book of beginnings, what did God do from
the beginning? Well, you know, the Scripture
says from the beginning He chose a people unto salvation. Isn't
that what it says? 2 Thessalonians 2 says that.
Matthew 25, 34, Then shall the king say unto them on his right
hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from before the foundation of the world. And Genesis is the book of election. If you're taking notes, make
a note of this. Genesis is the book of election. If you want to see election,
you just go to the book of Genesis. We know first of all, we know
this from Isaiah, that God chose His Son to be the Savior. And
then we know that God, having chosen His Son to be the Savior,
chose us in the Savior under salvation. And you go through
the book of Genesis, well, let me help you a little bit. God
chose Abel, but not Cain, right? God chose Abel, but not Cain,
as the vessel of mercy. And though Abel was murdered
by Cain, it was, and a brother who would be born later, his
name is Seth, who took up the cause of God, because God doesn't
leave Himself without a witness. God chose Abel, God chose Seth. Go a little bit further. God
chose one of Noah's sons through whom Messiah would come. His name was Shem. Not through
the other two. but through Shem. Go a little
further. God chose Abraham to be the father
of a nation. He chose him and called him out
of Ur of the Chaldeans. Go a little bit further. Abraham
had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Which one did God choose? Isaac. Isaac had two sons, Jacob and
Esau. Which one did God choose? God
chose Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons. God chose
one of them to whom He would give enormous tribulations and
troubles and took him down a long road into slavery and into prison. But God had chosen this man When
he was 17 years old, he went out. His brothers sold him into
slavery, into bondage. And all the tribulations of Joseph
are certainly categorized in the book of Genesis. But God
chose him. He would be the one who would
be exalted to the throne of Egypt. Even as our Lord Christ was chosen
of God to be the Savior of His people. God chose Judah to be the royal
tribe through whom he would send Messiah. So Genesis is the book of election. Got it? You got it. It's pressed
in your mind. You'll never forget it ever,
right? Genesis is the book of election. Well, what's going
to come next naturally? Redemption. Redemption. We see the deliverance of God's
people from their sinful condition by the substitutionary death
of the Lamb. And of course, that's the Passover
Lamb. That's what God used to bring
His people out of slavery. You see, Israel was a chosen
people, a chosen nation. No question about that. Not that
all of them were chosen unto salvation, but the nation itself
was chosen. And within the nation, there
was a remnant according to the election of grace. But people who are chosen unto
salvation have got to be redeemed. They've got to be redeemed. So, this is how God saves His
people. Deliverance by redemption. We'll see next week. They're
in a really bad way in Egypt. I mean, their taskmasters are
cruel to them. There's no possibility of them
releasing themselves from captivity. Yet the Lord, He said to Abraham,
after 430 years, I'll free your people from the bondage that
they're going to experience. Well, how would God free them? By the blood of the Passover
lamb. What a gospel lesson! And we seek God's provision to
fulfill His own promises. You see, God will always do what
He promises He's going to do. So in the book of Exodus, we
see the Lord redeeming His people by the blood of the Passover
lamb. We see Him taking them out of
their bondage. And I'll give you a key verse,
two key passages to the book of Exodus if you want to make
a note. Chapter 15, first of all. Chapter 15 and verse 13. Here's what I would call one
of the very key verses of the book of Exodus. Here in chapter
15, this is the song of redemption. It's the song of Moses. It's
the song of Miriam. All of the saints of God sang
this. They've come out of the Red Sea. The Lord has destroyed the Egyptians
who went in after them and they were drowned in the waters. Chapter
15, verse 13. This is the song, thou in thy
mercy has led forth the people which thou has redeemed. Thou
has guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. God redeemed them by price and
by power. And another key passage is Exodus
chapter 29 and verses 45 and 46. Exodus chapter 29, 45 and 46. God has given them now
the tabernacle. And here's what he says. What
a promise from the Lord. Chapter 29, verse 45. And I will dwell among the children
of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am
the Lord their God that brought them forth out of the land of
Egypt, that I may dwell among them. And then he reminds them,
I am the Lord their God. Who did this? the Lord did. So Genesis teaches us of God's
electing grace. Exodus teaches us of God's redeeming
grace. And I'll go just a little bit
further. Leviticus teaches us the way to worship the Lord. That's where the offerings, the
sacrifices are listed. You want to worship God? If you
were an Israelite, you had to bring a lamb, or a turtle dove,
or a bullock, a goat. You're a sinner. How are you
going to approach God? Through a bloody sacrifice. We're all
sinners. How are we going to approach
God? How are we going to worship God? Here we want to worship
God tonight. We want to reverence God. We
want to give God the respect that is His due. How can we do
that? Only through the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way. Tell me
the old, old story. That's why we tell it over and
over and over again. That's how we worship God. Let me go back to give you chapter
divisions in Exodus. I'll give this to you as quick
as I can. Let me break down the whole book
for you. Alright, ready? Chapters 1 through 6. Those chapters speak to us of
people who need deliverance and redemption. That's what the first
six chapters teach us. There are helpless people. There
are hopeless people. There's no possibility of freedom
for any of them by their own efforts. They're held by the enemy. the
mightiest army in all of the earth held them in captivity. They're people who need redeeming. Do you see a picture of us there?
Our helplessness, our hopelessness, our sinfulness? That's chapters
1 through 6. And then, chapters 7 through
11, These chapters teach us of the
might of the One who is going to redeem them. And that might,
that power is seen in all the plagues that He poured out upon
Egypt. Is the Lord mighty enough? Is He powerful enough to really
redeem Israel and bring them out of bondage? Well, let's see. Can He defeat all the gods of
Egypt? Because that's what every one
of the plagues was designed to do. And I'll show you that when
we get to those. To defeat the gods of Egypt. You've got to see the power of
the Redeemer. See, our Lord Jesus was not only
willing to redeem, but He was able to redeem. That's why the
Scripture says He's mighty to save. Why? In Isaiah chapter 9, He's called
the mighty God. Only the mighty God can reach
down and save folks like us who are enslaved, in bondage to sin
and to Satan. So the verses 1-6, that's the
people who need redeeming, or excuse me, chapters 1-6, people
who need redeeming. Chapters 7-11, here we see the
power of the Redeemer, and that's seen in pouring out all these
plagues upon the Egyptians. Thirdly, chapters 12-18, the
manner of redemption. How do you do it? Two words. Price. Power. That's how He did it. This is
the manner of redemption. This is how God redeems. He redeems. He delivers them by power. Secondly, but by price first. Price and power. And there we
see the boat pass over and the Red Sea, crossing of the Red
Sea. And really, both of those great
events have got to be kept together. They've got to be considered
together because the one is the price, the other one is the power. I was thinking about this today. There would have been no No need
of a passage through the Red Sea if it hadn't been for the
Passover lamb. Right? Think about it. There'd
be no need of a passage through the Red Sea. They wouldn't have
been there. They wouldn't have been there without the Passover
lamb. And there would have been no
passage through the Red Sea, if there had not been a Passover,
because the purpose of God in the Passover would have been
defeated. To eliminate either one, to eliminate
either one, the Passover or the passage through the Red Sea would
nullify both of them. What's the use in redeeming a
people by blood if they're going to drown in the sea? And there would be no need of
a passage through the Red Sea if there was no Passover lamb.
You've got to have them both. Because both of them picture
salvation by redemption and by power. Price and power. And so as we shall see as we
study chapters 12 through 18, Salvation, deliverance, redemption. First of all, it's got to be
by price. You're redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot and blemish. And number two, it has to be
by power. It's going to take a power a
whole lot greater than ours to break the hold that Satan has
over us. And then here's something else.
Let's go a step further. Chapters 19-24, here are the
demands of God. Now we're getting into the law. Chapters 19-24, the demands of
the law. And really, all of the demands
of the law of God can be Oh, I don't know. Summarized in this
way. Perfect obedience. Right? That's what God demanded. Perfect
obedience. And the Lord told Moses, if they
obey, they'll have life. Go tell the people that. Go tell
the people, here's my law. Do they want to enter into a
covenant with me? Here's what's required. Blessings
or life on condition of their obedience. And you know what
they said? Yeah, we'll agree to that. What fools. You see, in Genesis chapter 3
and verse 15, there we see the covenant of grace. But now when
you get over here to chapters 19 through 24 of Exodus, that's
a covenant of works. They did not, the Jews did not
understand, and I'll tell you, most, the vast majority of people
today don't understand what it means to be under the law of
God. They have no idea. You see, here's what God's law
demands. Galatians 3, verse 10. You've got to continue in all
things that are written in the law to do them. That's what He
said. Otherwise, it's death for you. See, God didn't give us ten commandments
and say, now do the best you can do. No, he said, be perfect. If this
is what you want, you be perfect. Do you know what Moses said to
the people when they came to Mount Sinai and it's thundering
and lightning and the mountain is shaking and here's all this
smoke pouring out of it? Moses said, the Lord said for
me to tell you, don't you even touch that mountain. I'll kill
you. I will kill you flat dead if you touch that mountain. And
you know what people do? They've been doing it ever since.
And there are a lot of people doing it today. They run to Mount
Sinai. Run to the Law of God. For either salvation or sanctification. It's still a deadly mountain.
And it'll kill you. I'm telling you, the Mount Sinai
is a killer. You see, the reason God gave
that commandment, don't touch the mountain, and get this, if
you forget everything else I've said tonight, get this, He said,
don't touch that mountain. That mountain, Mount Sinai, says
to you, don't come to me, go to another mount. Mount Calvary. There's where salvation is. Don't
you come to me, because I'll kill you. You say, well, Jim, I'm trying
to live by the law of God. He'll kill you. You're going
to be dead. You're going to be dead. God's
going to put you away in hell. Your obedience to God's law is
absolutely impossible. It wasn't given as a means of
salvation. It wasn't given as a means of
sanctification or as you obey it growing in holiness. Somebody needs to read Romans
chapter 3. It was given to expose guilt. The law was given to pronounce
us guilty. And if you ever see God's law
in that light, you'll be scared to death at Mount Sinai. And you'll say, I'm going to
that other mountain. I'm going to Mount Calvary where
the Savior died. Death is found at Mount Sinai. Life is found at Mount Calvary
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then lastly, because I'm
giving you an outline of the whole book, chapters 25 through
40, provisions are made for fallen sinners to approach God, the
tabernacle. That's what chapters 25 through
40 are about. A tabernacle, and God said, that's
where I'll meet with you. That's where you'll meet with
me. And that's a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where is God
going to meet with you? Where are you going to meet with
God? In the only Mediator, the God-Man, Christ Jesus. Remember that. Not law, but grace. Not your obedience, but the obedience
unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's really pretty simple,
isn't it? God's law kills. Life is in Christ. You read 2
Corinthians chapter 2. The ministration of the law is
a ministration of condemnation and death. And somebody tells you, well,
I'm just trying to live by the Ten Commandments. If people say
that to you, they have no understanding whatsoever of what God's law
demands. Because if you fail on one point, you're dead. You're dead. Forsake that mountain. See, that's
what it means when Paul says in Galatians, he says, the law
was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. And the word really
is to drive us to Christ. What does the law teach us? It
teaches us not by the deeds of the law are we justified. We're
justified upon the basis of the bloody death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Which brings us to sing a closing
song tonight. What do you think it takes to
wash our sin away? It takes the blood of the Lord
Jesus. God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass of you. 2.32.
That's what we're gonna sing now. 232, when I see the blood,
232.