Now as you know, in the book
of Exodus, the Hebrew children were found in bondage in Egypt. God had called out Moses into
the wilderness and some 40 years later commissioned him on Mount
Sinai through the burning bush to go back and bring the people
of Israel, God's chosen people, through Abraham out of Egypt. He told Moses, he said, Pharaoh
will not let the people go. And it's interesting how the
Bible puts this when you look at the situation between Moses
and Pharaoh. Because at times it says that
God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and then at times it says Pharaoh
hardened his own heart. And here's the bottom line. If
you read in Romans chapter nine, Whatever purpose that Pharaoh
served, even in his rebellion, it was ordained of God. The scripture
tells us that. And I know a lot of people don't
like to hear that, but that's what God says. It's not what
I'm saying or you're saying, this is what God said. We're
just saying what God says. Even for this purpose, I raised
him up. This evil, wicked man whose heart
was hardened in unbelief, and stubbornness, and pride, and
power, and he would not let them go. And so the Lord, through
Moses, rained ten plagues on Egypt. You can read commentaries
on this. Each plague may have some spiritual
significance in the sense that one writer says that each plague
was God exposing the falsehood of a particular Egyptian god,
and that may be so. But up to this point, he brought
nine plagues upon Egypt because of Pharaoh's refusal to let the
people go. And now we come to the 10th and
the final plague, and that was the death of all the firstborn
in Egypt. And all of this again, we see
God's sovereign working, both in Pharaoh's refusal and in Israel's
freedom from bondage. Now we know that God had promised
this liberty, this freedom from bondage, 430 years before this
to Abraham. And that's where he told Abraham,
he said, I'm gonna make a great nation of you. Kings will come
out of you, all of that. And this was 430 years later
that the people are coming out of their bondage and they're
gonna be given a new home. And of course, we know what happens
after they leave Egypt and they rebel against God and he makes
them wander in the wilderness for 40 years until they actually
do go over into the Promised Land, the next generation. And
if you'll look at verse seven of chapter 11, it says here, now listen to this,
it says, but against any of the children of Israel, now he's
gonna kill the firstborn of Egypt. And he says, but against any
of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue. There's
not even a dog that's gonna bark at you. against man or beast
that you may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel." Who made the difference? God did. God sovereignly chose Israel
to be his instrument, to do his bidding and to work his will,
and mainly we know what that's all about. He chose this nation,
this poor, undeserving nation, He made a difference between
Egypt and Israel. Why did he choose Israel? It
wasn't because they were greater in number, or they were greater
in morality, or they were cooperative. In fact, remember he told Moses,
he said, you go down there and you tell them who I am, and then
I'm gonna deliver them according to my promise made to Abraham,
and they're not gonna listen to you. It wasn't conditioned on Israel,
the people, or any of it. And it certainly wasn't because
they were greater than Egypt. but God sovereignly and that's
a picture of God's election of grace. That's another thing that's
explained clearly in Romans 9 and 10 and 11 through Jacob and Esau. God loved Jacob and hated Esau. God gave Esau what Esau deserved
and God had grace. upon Jacob. Now, why? Well, it
wasn't because of who they were or it wasn't because of anything
they did. He said this took place before any good or evil. But
this is God's sovereign choice and that's what this is. He made
a difference between Egypt and Israel. This is God's glory.
He said that. And when Moses said, show me
your glory, he said, I'll have mercy on whom I will. I'll be
gracious to whom I will. He's the potter, we're the clay. And so that's His glory. But
here's what we need to understand from our point of view, is that
this is the case. Every one of us, without exception,
deserve and have earned nothing but God's wrath. So if God has mercy on any of
us, He's giving us something, He's holding back something that
we deserve, His wrath. And if He shows grace to any
of us, He's giving us something that we don't deserve. And that's
what it is. God chose a people for Himself
upon whom He shows mercy in saving them from their sins by His grace
through Jesus Christ our Lord. And that's the only answer the
Bible gives. God doesn't sit down, he doesn't stoop down.
He said, now let me help you figure this out. No, he just
says, this is the way it is. Who are we to reply against God?
Who are we to argue and debate God? None of us. And so this is the pronouncement
here in chapter 11 of the play. You read the whole chapter, but
let's go on over to chapter 12. And it says, look at the first
two verses, the Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron, that's Moses'
brother, in the land of Egypt, saying, this month shall be unto
you the beginning of months, and it shall be the first month
of the year to you. Now this thing was so important
that God changed their calendar over this. And this is where
he's going to institute the Feast of Passover. He's gonna command
this. And as I said, it's one of the
greatest types in the Bible of the Lord Jesus Christ and the
salvation that he's accomplished and assured for all of his people,
all whom the Father gave him before the foundation of the
world. And the Apostle Paul, he wrote about this when he was
inspired by the Spirit to speak of this in 1 Corinthians chapter
five. I've got this written in your
lesson where Paul tells them to purge out there for the old
leaven. Now we're gonna see that Leaven
and unleaven, we're gonna talk about the Feast of Unleavened
Bread, is coincides with the Passover. And it's really important. He said, purge out therefore
the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened. And he says, for even Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us. Christ our Passover. Now you know about the Passover
lamb. We're gonna talk about that in detail. But why aren't
we slain lambs today? Because Christ put an end to
that. Our hope is in the lamb that
was slain for our sins, Jesus Christ. One time for all his
people forever and ever and ever. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. That's how powerful and rich
valuable his blood, his death is. And so, as I said, this was
such an important and necessary feast that God changed their
whole calendar to commemorate the very beginning of this year,
the month Nisan, or Nisan, Nisen, somebody might pronounce it.
And so, what's pictured in the Passover is going to be the salvation
that Christ, the Lamb of God, remember John the Baptist, John
1.29, behold the Lamb of God. I've got a good friend who before
he even heard the gospel, he and his wife sat down and decided
just to start reading through the Bible. And of course they
started in Genesis and they were reading it through together.
He was reading it and she was listening. And when they got
to the book of Exodus, and even passed there, got to the book
of Leviticus, he looked up at his wife one day and he said,
honey, he said, if I believe this book, we ought to be sacrificing
lambs. And I don't know what day it
was, but I think it was the next Sunday morning, he happened to
flip on the television, and he heard Pastor Henry Mahan from
13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky, And the title
of the message was Behold the Lamb of God. Now, what do you
suppose, man, I'll tell you, there had to be a lot of natural
selection going on there, didn't there? A lot of chance, luck,
and, no, God's providence. And for the first time, he heard
about Christ, the Lamb of God. And he started coming to that
church, and eventually the Lord brought him to a saving knowledge
of the lamb, the true lamb. So just think about that. That's
what it pictures. Well, look at verse three. He says, speak
ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying in the 10th
day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb,
according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for in house,
And if the household be too little for a lamb, let him and his neighbor
next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls. Every
man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb."
Now here's the Passover lamb. It's a special, special type
of Christ. As one writer said, maybe the
clearest and most complete of all the types. Because in it,
God preached to these people. This is what I call gospel preaching
in type and picture. So when somebody says, well,
you know, they didn't hear the gospel. Yes, they did, right
here. And God preached to these Jews the whole doctrine of the
gospel. How God saves sinners, based
upon the blood. The death of an appointed, one
who's appointed, one who's qualified substitute. Showing how holy
God is. That God must punish sin. And I like to put it this way.
God has punished all the sins of his people in the person of
Christ, the Lamb. But if God, listen, if God charges
any of us with sin, we must be punished with eternal damnation,
isn't that right? That's why we preach so much
the doctrine of the non-imputation of sin. Blessed be the man to
whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Well, what did he do with our
iniquity, the demerit of our iniquities, the dead of our sin?
He gave them to Christ, the Lamb. So just as God the Father chose
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be the surety, the substitute,
the redeemer of His people here, He chose a lamb to be the Passover
sacrifice. Now Christ is the Lamb of God
over in the book of Isaiah. I'll just read this to you a
little bit, you know, where He talks about in verse six, all
we like sheep have gone astray. Christ is the shepherd where
his sheep. We've turned everyone to his
own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. God chose a lamb
to picture the perfect eternal lamb of God. And so one writer
said that maybe the reason God chose a lamb is because a lamb
is something that is really meek. And meekness doesn't mean weak.
It means submissive. It means obedient. When the blessing
of meekness, which is one of the works of the Spirit in us,
makes us submissive to God's way of salvation, submissive
to God's will, revealed in the word. And that's what it is. And Christ submitted himself.
He made himself of no reputation. He took on him the likeness of
sinful flesh. You remember he told them, he
said, no man takes my life from me, I give it. I give my life. And he said, in this I'm doing
the will of the Father. So that may have been why it's
a lamp. But look at verse five back here
in Exodus 12. Now he gives the qualifications and we can relate
each one to Christ. Your lamb shall be without blemish. Now what does that say? This
lamb is a perfect lamb. No spot, no blemish. And so that signifies what? The
absolute sinless perfection of Christ. And I believe it goes
right to what we call the impeccability of Christ. You know, people argue
about that. What does that mean he's impeccable?
That means he cannot sin. He cannot sin. But people think,
well, in order to be like me, he had to have that possibility.
No. He was made like unto his brethren, yes, in the human flesh,
but without sin. He was made sin, that's God imputing,
charging, accounting our sins to him, but he knew no sin. He could not and he did not sin. He lived a perfect life. And
when he died, it wasn't for his own sins, it was for our sins
imputed to him. Now you can argue, say, well
they became his by imputation, and that's okay. But there were
sins that we committed. We fell in Adam. That's our sin. We're born dead in trespasses
and sins. We commit sin, and he died for those sins. And so
it was for the sins of his people charged to him. And this is how
Christ, the Lamb of God, was made sin. We read it in 1 Peter
last week that we were redeemed, not with corruptible things,
but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. So think about it this way. God
was just to punish his perfect son for sin's charge to him. But while Christ was hanging
on that cross, He remained perfectly sinless, spotless in himself,
in his mind, in his affections, in his will, in his motive. He never had a sinful thought.
You know the seven sayings of Christ on the cross. Every saying
shows the perfection of the son of God who was justly under the
wrath of his father for our sins imputed to him. So he's a lamb
without blemish. And look on in verse five. Your
lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. One
year old, a young lamb. And Christ was cut down. See, this lamb had to be in the strength of its life.
And that's what Christ did in his life, in his human life.
He was about 33, 33 and a half years old. He was in the prime
of life and he was taken in that prime of life to be slain. And it says, you shall take it
out from the sheep or from the goats. That speaks of Christ's
humanity. He was taken from among men.
He had to be human in that sense. He is God. manifest in the flesh,
the word made flesh. He's the seed of woman. He's
the seed of Abraham. He was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh. And the reason that he had to
be that is really explained all through the scripture. But one
of my favorite passages that explains that is in Hebrews chapter
two. This is why he had to be God
manifest in the flesh without sin. And it says in verse 14
of Hebrews two, for as much then as the children." Now who's he
talking about children? Talking about the chosen, adopted
children of God, the elect. And he says, so for as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself,
Christ, likewise in the same way took part of the same, that
through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil. God cannot die. Did you know that? But this
person who is God can die because of his humanity. And I know sometimes
you get to thinking about stuff like that and it's mind-boggling,
isn't it? But his death is to be attributed to his humanity,
because God cannot die. And verse 15 says, deliver them
who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. Look at verse 16 of Hebrews 2.
For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he
took on him the seed of Abraham. That's God's elect. And that's
speaking of the spiritual seed of Abraham. All who are justified
in Christ, forgiven of their sins, accounted righteous in
him, and all who are brought to faith in Christ in repentance.
And he says, wherefore, in all things, it behooved him. That
word behooved is the Greek word for debt. Our debt was placed
upon Christ. And he was obligated because
he took that debt upon himself as our surety. It behooved him
to be made like unto his brethren that he might be made a merciful
and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. Now that's why he had to be made
flesh. Now go back to Exodus 12 rather. Look at verse six. It says, and
you shall keep it up until the 14th day of the month. They had
to keep that lamb for a while. It's not really explained why,
but it could be is they had to watch that lamb to make sure
in that time that there was no blemish or no spot on that lamb. Just like Christ, you know, he
was born of a woman, the seed of woman. an infant, and he grew
up. The Bible says he grew in wisdom
and stature, but in all that time he committed no sin. He
proved to be what God said he was and is, the spotless Son
of God incarnate, and it also could refer to the preservation
of Christ through those young years. You know, we don't know
a whole lot about what happened in his youth. other than a few
passages, for example, when it's spoken of when he was in the
temple. How old was he then, what, 12? Is that what he was,
12 years old, disputing with the elders? And remember, Joseph
and Mary went to get him, and he said, I must be about my father's
business. So we know very little, but we
know that he was preserved by the providence and power of the
Father and the Spirit, given the Spirit without measure. And
so the lamb had to be kept. Verse six, it says, and the whole
assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening. The lamb had to be killed as
a sacrifice. Somebody said this is a bloody
religion. You bet it is. There's a scarlet
thread that runs from Genesis to Revelation. It culminates
in the lamb, Christ, being slain on the cross. Willingly, he did
it. Submissively, he did it. And
then it finalizes itself in the song of the redeemed, which is
what? Worthy is the lamb that was slain. Isn't that something? Every bit of it. And the fact
that he had to be killed, he had to be slain, you know, that
concept, that truth was established way back in Genesis chapter 2
when God looked at Adam and Eve and He said, now look, here's
the garden. And He said, of every tree of the garden you can eat
except one. The tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. And He said, in the day that you eat thereof
you shall surely die. Death is the penalty. The wages
of sin is death. There's no parole here. There's no letting you off with
a lighter sentence. Sin demands death. For as sin
hath reigned unto death. So in order to satisfy the justice
of God, death has to be the penalty. And that's eternal death, eternal
damnation. Somebody argues, say, well, that
just seems like God's cruel and bloodthirsty. Let me tell you
something. If that's what you think, you don't know God. Remember, he told Moses about
this issue of punishing sin and wrath. He said, I'm the Lord. It's who He is. That's His nature. He's a just God. Now He's also
a loving God, and a merciful God, and a gracious God. He's a God who saves. He's a
God of love. God is love, but not at the expense
of justice. So Christ had to come and die.
Christ didn't come here to be a good example, even though He
is the best example of obedience. That's not why He came. He didn't
come here to be a martyr just so we can raise up some kind
of a rebellion or anything like that. He told his disciples when
they tried to stop him from going into Jerusalem when it was time,
he said, look, this is why I came into the world. He was born to
die, but he wasn't gonna stay dead. He's gonna be raised again
with the salvation of his people. One writer said, just as the
death of the lambs in Egypt marked the defeat for the Egyptians,
it marked victory for the Israelites. And that's the way it is with
the death of Christ. The cross is foolishness to them that are
lost, but it's the power of God and the wisdom of God to us who
are being saved. We'll look at verse seven. He says, and they shall take
of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the
upper door post of the houses wherein they shall eat it. That's
on the frame of the door, each side and over the top, that blood.
And they were to do it with hyssop. You remember when David prayed
his prayer of penitence in Psalm 51, he said, purge me with hyssop. That's the picture. They took
a brush made of hyssop and they put the blood on the door post,
sides and the top. And in that feast, what he was
doing, this blood that points to the righteousness of God,
that's what it is, the death of Christ, the blood of Christ,
is the righteousness of God established, revealed in the gospel, the merits
of his obedience unto death that's been imputed to his people, dying
to satisfy the justice of God. And so that righteousness, imputed
Christ's righteousness is the ground of our justification before
God. It's the ground of our acceptance
with God. But it's not only the ground
of our justification, it's also the power and the source of our
sanctification by the Spirit, spiritual life given. And when
it comes to them taking the blood, striking it over the doorpost,
And that's a picture of their faith. They believe God. If you
put the blood on your doorpost, what does that tell you? You
believe what God said. And later on, we'll see this next week.
Well, it's down there in verse 13. God said, when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. And that's where the name Passover
comes from. God said, when I see the blood. And so Whenever, putting
the blood on the doorpost and they had to eat the roast, he
said, wherewith in they shall eat it. They're gonna put the
blood over, they're gonna roast the lamb and eat it. We'll get
into some more of that next week. But in doing this, they showed
they believed God. They had faith in the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of the promise. And we
know God gives the gift of faith to his people. so that we express
our belief in him as the God who justifies the ungodly through
Jesus Christ. Faith is the gift of God, saving
faith. And any of those Israelites who
refused to do that, they died with the Egyptians. But those
who had the blood on their door, that was evidence that God was
effectually, powerfully good to them. to deliver them from,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you, to deliver them from
the bondage of Egypt and from death that all the Egyptians
would experience without the blood. So what does the Bible
say? There's life in the blood. Without
the blood, there's death. So as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness. And what did it
take to bring forth that righteousness? The blood, through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Okay.