Thank you so much. Thank God
for his love for folks like us that shall evermore endure. Well, let's go back to Exodus
again this evening, Exodus chapter 12. And I'll endeavor to speak to
you on the subject, the Lord's Passover. The Lord's Passover. Let's bow once again. Our Father, we thank you for
your everlasting love for your covenant people. You loved us before we knew you. You loved us when we fell. You loved us before you ever
made this world. You've loved us from old eternity. This is a love that is boundless
and as endless and as enduring as you are. Oh God, thank you. We're not worthy of any of your
mercy. We're not worthy of your love. And yet in loving, loving kindness
you predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ unto Yourself. And out of the depths of Your
love, You sent Your only begotten Son to die for sinners. And here
we see Your love manifested like nowhere else. at the cross of
Calvary. We thank you. We bless you. Lord,
sometimes we think about that song. Mercy drops round us are
falling, but for the showers we plead. Lord, you've sent us
a flood of mercies. Like Ezekiel said, waters to
swim in. The depths of your mercies to
us are endless, even as the height of them is and the breadth of
them. And all of these mercies and
all of this grace and all of your love is for your people. As we focus once again this evening
our father upon that lamb that you sent into this world, even
that one who is the dearest to your heart, the son of your bosom,
that one who has always been your delight. Lord, help us to
exalt him and to honor him this evening. And may everyone in
the building, may everyone who's under the sound of my voice,
Know the greatness of his loving kindness, the wonders of his
forgiveness, the delightfulness of being robed in the garments
of his salvation and righteousness. Lord, be with us. We ask this
prayer for Jesus' sake. Amen. I would like to read my text
to you. Really, it's found in two verses. First of all, chapter number
12 and verse 11, the last statement of it, it is the Lord's Passover. And then a little further, verse
27, when, this is some time later,
when your children shall ask you, what is this all about? Why are you observing this? Why
are you picking a lamb? Why are you killing the lamb
and so forth and so on? Why are you eating it? Well,
when they ask that, then this is what you say in verse 27,
you shall say it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed
over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smoked
the Egyptians and delivered our houses. And the people bowed
the head and worshiped. This is God's Passover. This
is the Passover of the Lord. And yet, in the days of our Lord
Jesus, when he ministered in this world and when he began
his public ministry, and at the end of his public ministry, it
is noted that in John 2.13 and John 11.55, it's called the Jews'
Passover. It isn't any longer referred
to as the Lord's Passover because the Lord was left out. They put
him out a long time ago. They didn't have any respect
for God, didn't have any love for God, didn't have any worship
for God. Oh, they still went through the
religious ritual. They got a lamb, they got a place
to observe the Passover. They roasted the lamb, as Ron
read to us this morning, and then they ate the lamb, and then
they entered into the feast of the unleavened bread. They went
through all of that, just like they did back in these days when
it was first begun, with the exception, of course, they didn't
put blood on the doorposts then, but they were still going through
all the rituals of religion but God wasn't with them. They didn't
recognize God. They didn't worship God. They
didn't honor that one who is the Lamb of God who was walking
in their very midst. They had no use for a hymn. They
had no use for his word. They had no use for the sacrifice
that he was going to offer. They hated him. The Savior said,
they hated me without a cause. So, back before that, a thousand
years or so before that, here our Lord instituted this marvelous
feast. But it is more than just a historical
reference to something that happened with Israel. This is a work that
had to be done in order to direct our attention to a much greater
work that would take place when God sacrificed his lamb for the
sake of sinners. Brethren and sisters, let's don't
ever forget the Passover. the Lord's Passover. Let's don't
forget the cross of Calvary. Let's don't forget the blood
of redemption, the blood of atonement. I know it isn't fashionable these
days to even speak about people being sinful. No, we should leave
out the word sin. We should say people make mistakes. Nobody's perfect. Well, we all
have our faults. The scripture says, all have
sinned. Let's just say it the way God
says it. God's so clear. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Therefore, we've got to
be justified freely. through the redemption by the
grace of God, through the redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
there's got to be the blood, the blood of atonement, the blood
of remission. Without the shedding of blood,
the scripture says there is no remission, there is no forgiveness
of sins, because it is the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ that satisfied divine justice, that appeased God. What did God demand and what
did he get at every house? Even the houses of the Israelites
as well as the houses of the Egyptians. What did God demand
and what did God get? He got death. He got blood. He got a life. Either a life of a suitable substitute
that lamb without spot and without blemish or the life of the firstborn
in the family. And it teaches the story of redemption. What can wash away my sin? I've got lots of sin. I've got
numerous sins. I can't number my sins. And you
can't either. You have no idea how many times
you've sinned today. And moreover, not only have you
sinned a multitude of times, but you are sin. We are sinners. We are part and parcel of sin. As an egg is full of meat, we're
full of sin. No wonder Paul said, oh, wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. We've got to have the
Lamb of God. He sang in that song. I've heard
that song for years and years. How that men will someday, they'll
call, they'll pray to the rocks and the mountains to fall on
them. Fall on them and hide them from who? God's lamb. That's what it says. Hide them
from the face of the lamb. The lamb is angry. The lamb is
out for justice. The lamb is out for vengeance.
Our Lord's Lamb died upon the cross of Calvary. Yes, He has
love. Yes, He has grace. And yes, He
has mercy. But He's always just. And He's
always righteous. And you'll bow before Him and
believe Him and worship Him. You'll kiss God's Son. or else
you'll someday cry to the rocks in the mountains, oh, fall on
us. I don't want to do business with
God's lamb, but you will. You will. Let me remind you that in the
case of the firstborn, only those were spared who were
in safety back behind a blood-marked door. No firstborn child or son,
we assume it was a son, no firstborn son died who was safe behind
a blood-marked door. Was spared in Christ Jesus. You see, God spared not his own
son so that we would be spared. Our Lord is called the firstborn
of many brethren, Romans 9 and 29. He's called the firstborn
of every creature, Colossians 1 and verse 15. He's called the
firstborn from the dead, Colossians 1, 18. And we read in Romans
8, God spared not his son, but delivered him up for us all.
And how shall he not freely give us all things in him? As I've studied this and I've
been reading, I've actually been reading this all week. I started
thinking about this actually week before last. A lot of times
a message has to marinate a while. That's what I call it. It don't
just come on you. You just start thinking about
it and then you just read and you mull it over and you ask
God to give you some understanding of it. And as I looked at this,
I tried to put myself in the place of a firstborn son. I'm not the firstborn son in
my family, my brother. his firstborn son, but for the
sake of kind of entering into this and kind of putting myself
in this picture, I thought, well, what if I was a firstborn son?
And one day my dad comes home and my dad says, let's all get
together. We need to have a family meeting.
Okay. He says, Moses gathered all the
dads together of Israel. and he told us something that's
gonna be of real interest to y'all. He said, we're leaving
this place in four days. Well, how's that gonna happen,
Dad? That's what I asked. How's that gonna happen, Dad?
Well, he said, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna get a lamb. Okay, can I pick out the lamb? Now, wait a minute. It can't
be just any lamb. Well, Dad, we got a lot of lambs
out here in our flock. Well, what's it got to be, Dad?
And he says, well, it's gotta be a boy lamb. It's gotta be
a male. Okay, and we got several of those. Now, wait a minute. It's gotta
be of the first year. Well, we got some like that,
Dad. Well, hang on. He says, it's
got to be a lamb without blemish and without spot. What does that
mean, Dad? It means we got to look them
over really good. Can't have anything wrong with
it. And once we pick out this right
lamb, the one we choose, we're going to all go out there together.
Your mom and your sister and you and me, we're going to go
out here to the flock. We're going to pick out one of these
lambs. And it's gotta be exactly like God told Moses that we gotta
choose and can't have anything wrong with it. Well, you know,
dad, I was thinking about that old lamb we've got. You know,
it's about dead anyhow. I thought maybe that'd be a good
one to give to the Lord. No, son. And dad rebuked me. Dad said, no, can't do that.
We gotta give God the best. God deserves the best, not the
leftovers. Not one's gonna die anyhow, and
so we go out to the plot, and we find just the right lamb. Mom looks at it, and Dad says,
honey, you see anything wrong with this lamb? She said, no.
Looked good to me. And then he asked my sister,
I know you love these lambs, and you pet them. They're kind
of pets for you. You see anything wrong with this,
something I've missed? No, dad, it looks perfect to
me. And then he asked me, I said,
well, dad, you know a whole lot more about lambs than I do. Does it look okay to you? He
said, it looks exactly right. So dad took that lamb, but then
he pinned it up. And I said, what'd you do that
for? He said, because we're going
to inspect it four days. Just make sure it's exactly right. And after four days, Dad said,
this is the one right here. And he goes out there, and I
go with him. And he takes a knife, and he
kills that lamb. And he told me, he said, quick,
get that basin right there. And he said, no, put it under
this blood. This blood's gonna pour out.
You catch it now. Okay, dad. And I caught all that
blood. It just started pouring out.
He just cut one of them main arteries or veins or whatever
it is you call it. That blood just started flowing
out. I was catching that basin the best I could. I missed some
of it, but I got most of it. And then dad said, give me a
bunch of hyssop. And so I went around the house
and we had some hyssop plants growing and I got some hyssop
and I brought it back. And what are you going to do
with that dad? He said, you just watch. He said, come with me. I said, okay. And I went with
him and we went outside and went there to the door. And I said,
what are you going to do now dad? He said, listen, this is
what God said. God said, he's coming through
Egypt tonight. God is? God is. The God who made everything?
The God who made everything. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What's he going to do? He's going
to kill the firstborn in every family that doesn't have the
blood marked on the door. Well, Dad, put that blood on
there then, because I don't want to die. And I watched as my dad
dipped that hyssop in that bowl of blood and he put it over the
lentil right over the top of the door and on the sides. He
said, let's go back in. And then he shut the door. He
said, now, son, you don't have anything to worry about because
our house is marked. Are you sure, daddy? He said, God, don't lie. Our
God doesn't lie. He's as good as His word. Now you can just rest easy about
it, James. You don't have anything to worry
about. You sure God's not going to kill
me? I'm afraid. I can't see the blood, Dad. The
blood's out yonder. I can't see it. Now, son, listen
to me. Would you listen to me? Yes,
Dad. Your safety is not dependent upon you seeing the blood." Well,
it's a good thing, Dad, because I can't see it. He said, your
safety is dependent upon God Almighty seeing that blood. He's coming through tonight,
midnight. You'll be fine. You don't have anything to worry
about. Well, what's mom doing? She's roasting that lamb for
supper. We gonna have for supper. We
having a lamb tonight? Roasted lamb and unleavened bread. Why has it got, what does that
mean? It means it's gonna be flat bread. Ain't gonna rise.
Well, why is that? Because that leaven, yeast, that
indicates hypocrisy and sin. So we're gonna eat roasted lamb. Roasted with fire. And we're gonna have unleavened
bread. And then we're gonna wait. Because
God's coming through, but you don't have anything to worry
about. As I thought about this, That which burdens my heart,
knowing that God is just and God is righteous, I want to know
when God comes through this world in judgment, and he will. I want to know when God comes
through in judgment, that is, the Lamb of God, when He comes
to judge, here's what I want to know. Am I going to be safe? That's all that matters, isn't
it? Am I going to be saved? I know He's coming back in judgment, but what about me? Perhaps this is being selfish,
but you and I have to examine ourselves to see if we'd be in
the faith. Am I going to be safe when He
comes back, when He comes back for me, either in death or in
His coming, when He comes back in the clouds? Will I be all
right then? And if I have a blessed assurance
that all is well with the Holy God in me because of the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, I can face another day. Isn't that
right? You can face another day. And
you can face an illness if you go to the doctor and the doctor
says, I've got bad news for you. We got that test result back
and boy, you don't have long to live. If I know I'm hidden behind the
blood, I don't have anything to worry about. And I can therefore face death. And I can even face the judgment
if I know I'm safe behind the blood. Therefore, I can bear
any burden, no matter how heavy, I can face any trial, no matter
how difficult, if, if I know I'm safe behind the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. When the overflowing scourge
of God's wrath falls on this earth, if I'm behind the blood,
if I'm marked with the blood, That scourge is not going to
fall on me. And I knew. There are people,
not people here, but there are people in this world, they don't
wanna hear this sort of preaching. Well, let's get on with more
practical things. Why don't you tell us how to
live? What to do and what not to do? Would you give us some
rules and regulations to live by? We wanna hear practical things.
I don't know anything more practical Then this, are you safe behind
the blood? That's as practical as it gets.
That's when the rubber hits the road right there. The blood, it's vital to God
and it better be vital to us. When the judgment comes, I'll
be spared. because somebody was judged in
my stead, the Lord Jesus Christ. I know I'm safe in the hands
of the Lord. He said, my sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life. They shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hands. My Father which
gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. I am my Father alone. I'm in
the hands of the Father. That's a safe place to be, in
the hands of God. I'm held in the hands of the
Lord God omnipotent. And if I can have some assurance
of that, I can face anything. Like I say, if all is well between
me and God, nothing else matters. If things are not right between
me and God, then I am in imminent danger, and you are too. And I want to say, I wish I could
say to every preacher, every preacher in the city of Ashland,
I wish I could say to them, get up and tell people who are going
into eternity about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
waste your time entertaining people. That's what we're doing,
preachers are doing today, they're entertaining people. And here's
the idea, make the church as much like the world as you can
so the person out in the world will feel comfortable in the
church. and give some entertaining music. Let's get us going here. Let's have a drum set up here.
Let's get everybody clapping and waving your hands and all
of that tomfoolery. That's a bunch of religious junk. Where is the preaching of the
blood? Where is the preaching of the
grace of God? Where is the preaching of salvation
that God has to do? That salvation is of the Lord. Do you know how safe the Israelites
were? And Israel's a picture of the
church of our Lord Jesus. Go back to chapter 11. Look at
chapter 11, verse seven. Verse six, and Moses, the Lord
is telling Moses about what's going to happen. In verse six,
and there shall be a great, great cry throughout all the land of
Egypt, such as was never like it nor shall be like it anymore,
but against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move
his tongue. Against man or beast, that ye
may know that the Lord doth put a difference God has marked out
some people. He has separated some people. He's separated. There's a separation
between the Egyptians and Israel. Even a dog's not gonna bark against
you. Nancy and I, we lived in Michigan. Probably some of those folks
are watching this evening. If you are, hello. We're glad
you joined us. When we lived up there, we would
walk just about every day to the elementary school where she
taught fourth grade. And we did that until she was
diagnosed with this lung disease. But she's so afraid of big dogs. And we'd be walking through a
neighborhood, and there'd be some dog come barking. I didn't
know she could move this fast. She just might jump out of her
shoes, out of her tennis shoes, and make sure that I was between
her and the big dog. When I used to drive for United
Parcel Service, and I had steel-toed shoes, and so whenever a big
dog tried to accost me, he got a face full of leather. But most of the time, they were
nice to me. If you'd be nice to dogs, generally,
they'll be nice to you. But they'd just bark, bark at
her and scare her to death. This is what Moses says to the
children of Israel. This is what God told them. He
said, God's gonna even seal the mouths of the dogs. They're not
gonna bark against you. In fact, they're not gonna bark
against your sheep or your cattle. Why not? I'm your God. I'm your protection. I'm your savior. And that's what we need to get
a hold of today. The Lord is our savior. Can't
anything harm you? Not ultimately. We're safe in
the hands of the Lord. We're safe in the heart of the
Lord. He loves us. He loves us. How do you know
he loves us? Here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. What does propitiation mean?
Satisfaction of divine justice. And I'm safe in the covenant
of God. He chose me, I didn't choose
him. He made me his choice back in eternity, before the foundations
of the earth were formed. before the mountains were brought
forth, before he made the angels, he put me in the covenant of
grace and he wrote my name down. He took out his indelible ink
pen of sovereign grace and he wrote my name down. You know
what indelible ink is? It can't be erased. out of an
ink pen years ago called a Rapidegraph. And as I usually do, and I've
got an ink pen here, Clarence gave it to me. Clarence, if you're
watching this, one of the ink pens you gave me. It doesn't
have indelible ink, but I had a Rapidegraph indelible ink,
and I had it in my white shirt, because I'm about all the time
wearing a white shirt, and that rascal leaked. That's a good way to mess up
a white shirt. It's from black Indian ink to
leak on it. Can't get it out. Our names are
written with the indelible ink of free and sovereign grace.
God's not writing new names down in the book of life. My daddy
used to sing in a quartet, and they sang that song. It sounded
so pretty. There's a new name written down in glory, and it's
mine, and it's mine. Wait a minute. No new name's
written down. All the names written in God's
book of grace were written before the world began. That's what
the scripture says, before the foundation of the world, Revelation
13, eight. I'm safe because I'm in the hands
of the Lord. I'm safe because I'm in the heart
of the Lord. I'm safe because I'm in the covenant
of the Lord. I'm safe because I'm in Christ
Jesus, the Lord. He chose me in Christ. He predestinated
me in Christ. There's no condemnation in Christ
Jesus. He sanctified me in Christ. I'm
made wise in Christ. Someday I'll fall asleep in Christ. I have grace in Christ. I'm a
new creature in Christ. We're wedded to Him. Yes, I'm very concerned about
this subject. Everything right with God, it is through Christ the Lord. Let me show you something I saw
as I just read through this passage. It's very interesting, the way
God expresses what he's going to do in Egypt. Look at verse number 12, chapter
12, verse 12. God says, I will pass through.
Are you there? Because I want you to see if
you pick up on this. Chapter 12, verse 12, 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. I am
the Lord. Verse 13, and the blood shall
be to you for a token. When I see the blood, It shall
be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And then
he says, 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. Now look at one more verse, verse
23. For the Lord will pass through,
chapter 12, 23. For the Lord will pass through
to smite the Egyptians. And when he seeeth the blood
upon the lentil and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass
over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come in under
your houses to smite you. Watch this. When God speaks of
what he's going to do to the Egyptians, he says, I'm going
to pass through. Now, did you pick up on that?
Now look at it again in verse 12. For I will pass through the
land. And that's this way. I'm coming
through. Straight line. I'm coming through. Every house, I'm coming through. The Egyptians, I'm passing through. But when he says, about the Israelites. He doesn't say, I'm passing through.
He says, I'm passing over. I'm passing through in judgment.
I'm passing over in mercy and in grace for one reason, the
blood. That's the difference. You say
what you want to, but the difference here is the blood. How come I
hear a blood curdling cry in the house of Pharaoh? And how
come there's no blood-curdling cry in the house of Moses or
Aaron or any of the men where they have a firstborn child there? What's the difference? One thing,
that's all. It wasn't that the Israelites
were better than the Egyptians. Listen, they proved themselves
to be a godless people and idolatrous people. The only difference was
the difference God made. It was the difference of the
blood. The blood is the difference between life and death. That's
the way it is. It was back then, it still is
today. It's the difference between life
and death. He passed over the Israelites. Outside the church building,
both sides, is a sign, Protected by Safeguard. That's good. We come in, you
know, hit that code so the alarm doesn't trip, and then when we
leave, we set it. Same thing at our house. Protected
by Safeguard. that blood on that door outside
the Israelites house announced this, protected by God. What do you think about that? That's the way it is with all
of the Lord's people because of the blood protected by God. Now, why do you worry? Now, why
do you fret? Now, why do you murmur? Now why
the anxiety? I don't know what I'm going to
do. Wait a minute, is the blood out there? Huh, is the blood out there?
Yeah, it's out there. Man alive, you don't have to
worry the world. God passes over you. Let me give
you a few more things. First of all, what about the
blood now? What kind of blood? Cow's blood? Ox blood? The blood of an ass? The blood of a dog? The blood
of a cat? Ethan, our grandson, just got
back from the Middle East. He said, sure is a lot of camels
over there. They stink, he said. What about
the blood of a camel? No. No, it's got to be the right
blood, the blood of the Lamb. It's got to be the blood of the
Lamb of God. The blood of a divinely appointed
Lamb. It's got to be the blood of an
unblemished Lamb. Our Lord Jesus was sinless. It had to be the blood, in our
case, of a man. who was God. Say, but God can't shed blood.
Now, wait a minute. Over in the book of Acts chapter
20, Paul met with the Ephesian preachers. And he told them,
he said, now feed the church of God, which he purchased with
his own blood. Purchased with his own blood. Whose blood? God's blood. But
God can't die. He's the God-man who died. Here's the second thing I want
to talk about, the power of the blood. It was the blood that
stopped the plague. There's no question about that.
When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. There's power in the
blood. Power to put away sin. Power
to satisfy God's justice. Power to break the chains that
bind us. Power to make us new in Christ
Jesus. Power to enable you to look to
Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior. Power to resist the devil. Power
to bear up under any circumstance. There is power in the blood.
Would you be free from the burden of sin? Power in the blood. Would you or evil a victory win? There's power in the blood. Wonder working power. You see the death of the Lord
Jesus, that is the blood of the Lord Jesus was powerful enough
to satisfy God. That's how powerful it was. I'll give you a little advice.
Be careful of what the old times used to call Fullerism. There
was an old Baptist preacher called Fuller. I forget his first name. But he compromised the gospel
and he made this statement. He said, the blood of Jesus Christ
was sufficient to save all men, but efficient only to those who
believe, end quote. Let me give that to you again.
The blood of Jesus Christ was sufficient to save all men, but
efficient only to those who believe. That's a very dangerous statement. Because that's just another way
of saying he did all he could do for you. Now the rest is up
to you. That is just not true. What that says is your faith
makes his blood effectual. Your faith doesn't make his blood
effectual. His blood is effectual. because
it wasn't offered to you. Now you be careful. Preachers
will sometimes say, I've heard preachers say, will you accept
the price that Christ paid for you? Who is offering you the
price? That's what I want to know. Show
me in the word of God where God ever offers you the blood. It
is never offered to you. It is never offered to the devil.
It's always offered to God. You read the book of Leviticus,
it's always the blood before the Lord. Who's the blood for
anyway? It's for God. That's why it's
out there on the outside of the door, not the inside of the door. I want to see the blood. I want
to rejoice in the blood, but my faith off time is weak and
I can't see the blood, but God always does. It's for God's sight. That's who the blood's for. And
I bet you it's not, and I'm not a betting man, but if I was,
I'd just about bet the farm, and I don't own a farm anyhow,
but I'd still bet, I bet you one preacher out of a thousand
that knows that. The blood's offered to God, it's
not offered to you. We heard someone say the other
day, God's offering you forgiveness. Show me that in the Bible. You
show me that. Where does it say God offers
you salvation? Show me that. That's not in there
either. You see, this thing of the substitutionary work of the
Lord Jesus Christ was for God. It's presented to God. It's for
you, Lord. And I've said this a thousand
times, I bet you, during my ministry. God had to do something for himself. before he'd do anything for us. Now, here's the second thing,
or the third thing. The one condition affixed to
this promise. Do you preach a conditional salvation?
Yeah, we do. Here's the condition. God says,
when I see the blood. That's the condition, when God
sees the blood. The eyes of the father will never
grow dim. He always sees the blood. The blood was for him. And then let me just give you
some practical application. Would you go with me to, I'm
gonna get you to go two passages. Isaiah, first of all, chapter
28. Isaiah chapter 28. I tell you,
one of these days, the Lord's gonna gather his people unto
himself. Christ is coming back and he's
gonna gather his children unto himself. And then he's gonna
pass through this world. He's gonna pass through this
country. He's gonna pass through this
city. He's gonna pass through in judgment. Of that, I have no doubt. I know that's the truth. I know
that's the truth. Isaiah 28, let me read this to
you. Verse 14, where for here, The
words of the Lord, ye scornful, you bragging, boastful men that
rule this people which is in Jerusalem, you ungodly religious
leaders. Because you've said we've made
a covenant with death and with hell, we are at agreement when
the overflowing scourge shall pass through, when it passes
through, it's what we read about there in Exodus chapter 12, when
it passes through, Hey, not going to come to my house. Well, we'll
see about that. Why do you think it's not going
to come to your house? because we've made lies our refuge,
and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Therefore, thus saith
the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion. I lay in the church for
a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure
foundation. He that believeth on him shall
not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the
lion, and righteousness to the plummet. and the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow the
hiding place, and your covenant with death shall be disannulled,
and your agreement with hell shall not stand when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden by it."
You go ahead and hide behind your church membership. You go
ahead. and no blood there. You go ahead and hide behind
your baptism. I'd baptize. Yeah, but that's
not blood. That's not gonna keep you safe
when the scourge comes through. The Lord's coming through and
he'll get folks like you. Well, who's safe? People behind
the blood marked door. That's pretty simple, isn't it? And then I'm gonna give you one
more reference. And this, I'm gonna have to read a lot of scripture
here. Ezekiel, go to Ezekiel chapter eight. And I won't read
this whole chapter. but it needs to be read. I'll
tell you what, the Lord Jesus in pre-incarnate form, he takes
Ezekiel up in a vision. Ezekiel is actually in Babylon
because they're in captivity, but there's so much ungodliness
within the nation as a whole. so much idolatry even among the
elders, the 70 elders and priesthood. They've gone into captivity,
but the Lord's gonna show Ezekiel a vision that is gonna leave
a deep impression on him, and I hope it'll leave a deep impression
upon you and me, too. Well, he catches him away, Look at verse three, chapter
eight, verse three. So he put forth the form of a
hand. It was an unusual person, and
I'm sure it's Christ the Lord in pre-incarnate form. And he saw this, I'll read verse
two. I beheld in low alikeness as the appearance of fire. God's
a consuming fire and that's what scripture says. That's the glory
of God, the Shekinah glory of God's fire. From the appearance
of His loins even downward fire, and from His loins even upward
as the appearance of brightness as the color of amber. Here's
the glory of the Lord. And he put forth the form of
a hand, he took me by a lock of mine head, and the Spirit
lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me
in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate
that looketh toward the north, where was the seat of the image
of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy." He showed him these
idols that the Jews were bound down before. And behold, the
glory of God, the God of Israel, was there according to the vision
that I saw in the plain. Then said he unto me, Son of
man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted
up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold, northward
at the gate of the altar, this image of jealousy in the entry.
He said, furthermore unto me, son of man, seest thou what they
do, even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth
here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary, but turn thee
yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations. The Lord
is showing him the idolatry of these religious leaders. Read
on, verse seven. He brought me to the door of
the court. And when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. And
he said to me, son of man, dig now in the wall. And when I digged
in the wall, behold the door. They were doing things behind
the wall. They even put up a temporary
wall so nobody'd see the idolatry that is going on inside the temple.
Verse nine, he said unto me, go in and behold the wicked abominations
that they do here. So I went in and saw and behold
every form of creeping things and abominable beasts and all
the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the wall round
about. They had all these pictures of
animals and beasts and stuff that they worshiped. This is
in the house of God. Look at verse 11, and there stood
before them 70 men. Now that ought to kind of ring
a bell in your mind, the Sanhedrin. Back in the days of Moses, the
Lord said, choose 70 elders. So here's the Sanhedrin, 70 men
of the ancients, men who were supposed to be wise and learned. ancients of the house of Israel,
and in the midst of them stood Jeazaniah, the son of Shaphan,
with every man his censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of
incense went up. And then he said unto me, Son
of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel
do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery?
For they say the Lord doesn't see us. The Lord's forsaken the
earth. Verse 13, he said unto me, turn
thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abomination. It just
keeps getting worse. Verse 14, he took me to the door
of the gate of the Lord's house, which was toward the north, and
behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. That's the false
God of the shepherds. Verse 15, then said he to me,
hast thou seen this old son of man? Turn thee yet again, and
thou shalt see greater abominations than these. He brought me into
the inner court of the Lord's house, and behold, at the door
of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, the
brazen altar, where the sacrifices were offered, were about five
and 20 men, priests, with their backs toward the temple
of the Lord and their faces toward the east and they worshiped the
sun in the east, just like the Egyptians did. They worshiped
Ra, the sun god. Verse 17, then he said to me,
hast thou seen this old son of man? Is it a light thing to the
house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit
here? For they have filled the land
with violence, and they have returned to provoke me to anger
and loathe. They put the branch to their
nose. They're just sniffing all of this false idolatry, and they're
happy with it, they're pleased with it. And God says, therefore will
I deal in fury. Mine eyes shall not spare, neither
will I have pity. And though they cry in mine ears
with a loud voice, I'm not gonna hear them, and I gotta keep reading.
Or he cried also in mine ears with a loud voice saying, cause
them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every
man with his destroying weapon in his hand. And I actually think
these are angels with like a battle ax. And behold, six men came from
the way of the higher gate. which lie toward the north, and
every man had a slaughter weapon in his hand. But then there was
another man. There's another man. Among them,
he's clothed with linen, and he's got a writer's inkhorn
by his side. And they all went in and stood
beside the brazen altar where the sacrifices were offered,
and that's where they worshiped God. And the glory of the God
of Israel was gone up from the cherub whereupon he was to the
threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed
with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side." That's
the Son of God right there. He's clothed in fine linen. That's
his righteousness. And he's got an inkhorn by his
side. And the Lord said unto him, go
through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem,
and here's what I want you to do, set a mark upon the foreheads
of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations
that be done in the midst thereof. You mark them, you take your
ink pen and you mark their forehead. They are exempt from judgment. I'm not going to get them, because
they're marked. And you mark them. You mark them. You see, what you have here,
you have six who are destroyers, and you have one who shows mercy. Six with the battle axe or sword
or something like that, and they're going to kill one who goes out
and marks the ones who mourn over the shameful condition of
Judah, who worship God, whose hearts are broken over the idolatry. They're looking to Jesus Christ
for all of salvation. And to the others, he said, to
the other six, he said in mine hearing, go ye after him through
the city and smite. Let not your eyes spare, neither
have ye pity, You kill utterly old and young, both maids and
little children and women, but, but don't come near any man upon
whom is the mark. And you start at my sanctuary.
You start in there, right in the temple, where those 70 elders
are and where those 25 priests are. And they began at the ancient
men which were before the house. And he said unto them, defile
the house and fill the courts with slain, fill it with blood. They despised the blood of the
lamb. Now you shed their blood. Go ye forth. And they went forth,
they slew in the city. Verse eight. and it came to pass
while they was going about killing, I was left. I was left. He had the mark on him. And in that temple, there was
70 elders dead, 25 priests, who had been facing the East
and worshiping the Son God of Ra. They were dead. And Ezekiel
looks around. He said, I'm the only one left.
I'm the only one left. Well, why are you left? I got
the mark. I've been marked by the Son of
God. He said, I fell on my face and
cried, and I said, ah, Lord God, wilt thou destroy all the residue
of Israel in the pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem? The
Lord said to me, the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah
is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city
full of perverseness, for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the
earth, the Lord seeth not. It doesn't matter to God. Religion is religion. It doesn't
matter. That's what a lot of people today
say. It don't matter what your religion is. It don't matter
what your denomination is. What was it? We saw a program
last night. A guy said, just believe what
you believe in. That's all you got to do. Believe
what you believe in. Boy, is that stupid or what?
Just believe what you believe. It don't matter what it is. Just
believe in something. and he's gonna get your blood. The Lord says, but as for me,
mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I'll recompense
their way upon their head. Now watch this. And behold, now
the attention is turned back to this man in the linen garment
who has the ink horn. Behold, the man clothed with
linen, which had the ink corn by his side, reported the matter.
He goes back to the father and he says, I have done as thou
hast commanded me. I did what you told me to do.
I marked them. They're safe. They're safe. Has he marked you? If he's marked you, you're safe
forever. There's no judgment coming your
way. And it may be, I don't know,
but it may be you're the only one in your family who's spared.
And you might be sort of like Ezekiel was. You'll look around,
everybody else is dead. And I was left. Ain't that something? I was left. Why did he leave
me? Why do you spare me? Why me? I'm as ungodly as anybody else.
Why me, Lord? And our Lord Jesus Christ answers
the question, even so, Father, but so it please thee, is God's
will. Are you marked? If you're marked, you're safe. no matter what happens. Let's pray. Lord, for thy mercy we plead. And we, those of us who know
you, by free grace, by revealing mercy, those of us who've been
marked with the blood of the Lord Jesus, Lord, we praise you
once again that you spared us. You could have left us and not dealt with us in grace. We'd been like the Egyptians. You could have not sent us the
gospel, but you did. And we want to thank you. Not
only did you send us the gospel, but you sent the gospel to us
in power. And in the assurance of the Holy
Spirit, who taught us of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his justice
satisfying death upon the cross of Calvary, it's evident that
he satisfied justice because you raised him from the dead.
and you exalted him to the highest heaven. He's the one we believe. He's the one we rest in. And
in him, we're safe forever. Thank you, Lord, for marking
us with the ink from the ink horn of your sovereign grace. And we shall never perish because
our Lord Jesus shed his blood for us. Send us away rejoicing
in this great savior In whose name I ask these things, amen.