I'll read it again. Paul covers
400 years of history in this one verse. Look at verse 17. The God of this people of Israel
chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as
strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high hand or high
arm brought he them out of it, out of Egypt. The Exodus. The Exodus. A high arm is a Hebrew
idiom for his might and his power, his omnipotence. God is the all
powerful. omnipotent God. There's nothing that He wills
that He doesn't have the power to make to come to pass. Now,
I would say I can worship a God like that, but I will not worship
a God like that unless God the Holy Spirit enables me and causes
me to. But by His grace, I can worship
a God like that. Now, the Exodus was a historical
event, it actually took place, and it gives us so many beautiful
types of the gospel, but the first we hear of it is in Genesis
chapter 15, when God tells Moses what's going to happen. Would
you turn with me there to Genesis 15? Or he told Abraham, excuse
me, what was going to take place. Verse 13, he says to Abraham, and he said unto Abram, know
of a surety that thy seed, now he doesn't have any kids yet,
but he's going to. He says, know of a surety that
thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs
and shall serve them. and they shall afflict them 400 years. Speaking of the 400 years
that Israel would spend in Egypt. And also that nation whom they
shall serve will I judge. And afterward, they shall come
out with great substance. They're gonna come out and Israel,
the people of Egypt are going to give them all their gold and
silver and jewelry and say, please get out and take it all with
you. Now in Genesis 50, Joseph speaks of this, Genesis chapter
50, verse 24. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I die. Now, before I go on reading,
you remember how Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers into
Egypt. And through a course of events,
he became the most powerful man in all of Egypt. It's a beautiful
story. And through this, to deliver
the children of Jacob from the famine, he brought them into
the land. And that's how they got there,
70 of them. And you'll remember that Joseph said, you meant it
for evil. He's talking to his brothers. I love this. You meant
it for evil, but God meant it for good, to save much life,
alive. Now, Joseph is dying. And we
read in verse 24, and Joseph said unto his brother, and I
die, and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this
land into the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the
children of Israel saying, God will surely visit you and you
shall carry up my bones from hence. You're gonna take my bones. And it happened when Moses had
them take Joseph's bones with him during the Exodus out of
Egypt. Now in Exodus chapter one, beginning
in verse five, And the souls that came out of the loins of
Jacob were 70 souls, for Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph
died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. And the
children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and
multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled
with him. Now there arose up a new king
over Egypt which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people,
behold, the people of the children of Israel more and mightier than
we. Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply,
and it come to pass, when there falls out any war, they join
also our enemies and fight against us, and so get them up out of
the land. Now he said, we're in trouble.
They're getting too big. And if you go on reading in chapter
one, what he did to keep this growth down, he told the, Israel
midwives, here's what I want you to do. Every time an Egyptian
woman has a baby, if it's a boy, throw it in a river, kill it.
If it's a girl, let it live. He was trying to control the
population that way and he didn't feel like he had to worry about
the Egyptian women. Now this was about the time that
Moses was born. Look in chapter two, and there
went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of
Levi, and the woman conceived and bare son. And when she saw
him, that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months to keep
him from being thrown into the river and put to death. And when
she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes
and daubed it with slime and with pitch and put the child
therein, and she lay it in the flags by the river's brink. And
his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done to him.
And the daughter of Pharaoh, It just so happened. The daughter
of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her
maidens walked along by the riverside, and when she saw the ark among
the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she opened
it, she saw the child, and behold, the babe wept, and she had compassion
on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then
said his sister, who happened to be there, to Pharaoh's daughter,
shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women that she
may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to
her, go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And
Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, take this child away and
nurse it for me, and I'll give thee wages. And the woman took
the child that was her own child. And she nursed it, and the child
grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, And he became
her son. And she called his name Moses.
And she said, because I drew him out of the water. Now, you
can't escape the irony that Pharaoh is raising the man that God was
going to use to destroy him. He didn't know it, but that is
exactly what was taking place. Now, look in, as you go on reading
in chapter two, Moses goes out to, visit his brethren. He saw an Egyptian mistreat one
of them. So he murdered the Egyptian and
hid his body in the sand. And the next day he was afraid
that somebody would find out about it because he heard somebody
say, you're gonna kill me the way you killed that Egyptian.
And so he fled from the land and he left and he spent 40 years
as a shepherd after that, 40 years. Now look in chapter two,
verse 23. This is after Moses has been
spending 40 years in the wilderness, and it came to pass in the process
of time that the king of Egypt died. And the children of Israel
sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried. And their cry
came up unto God by reason of the bondage. Now, I believe at
this time, they didn't know who God was. They were just crying. They'd been in Egypt for 400
years and they'd adopted much of their religion. And here they
are in this miserable condition. They were the ones who were building
the pyramids. And you can imagine what a horrible life that was.
And they were just crying. And God heard their groaning.
Verse 24, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with
Isaac, and with Jacob. God looked upon the children
of Israel and God had respect to them. Now God remembered the
covenant and it's very important for you and I to understand the
covenant. God's made two covenants. The
one was first made with Adam in the garden. You eat of that
tree and you'll die. When you eat of the tree, you'll
die. Adam's standing before God was
according to his own personal obedience or disobedience. If
he didn't eat, he'd live. If he did eat, he would die. And God purposed him to eat.
Now that's the first covenant, it's the covenant of works. Salvation
dependent upon works, your works. The second covenant is the covenant
he made with his son before the foundation of the world. And
this covenant is completely dependent upon the son, not upon you, but
upon what Christ does in your behalf. Now, which covenant would
you rather be under? One that was dependent upon what
you do or one that's dependent upon what Christ has done? Now that's the covenant he made,
and that is the covenant of grace. And that's the covenant he remembered
when he saw and heard the sighing of the children of Israel. Look
in chapter three, verse one. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro,
his father-in-law, he'd been doing this for 40 years, the
priest of Midian. And I imagine Egypt seemed like
a long time ago, 40 years. watching sheep in the wilderness. And I wonder how much he could
even remember of the time when he was one of the top men in
Egypt, a son of Pharaoh's daughter. He kept the flock of Jethro,
his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock
to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God,
even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him, And this is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not a created
angel. This is the angel, the uncreated
angel of the Lord that's speaking to Moses from the midst of the
bush. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he
looked and behold, the bush burned with fire and the bush was not
consumed. And Moses said, I'll now turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. Now
I love, I've brought this out several times in the last year
or two, but it's such a blessing to see this as the Lord Jesus
Christ. This bush did not need the energy
of the wood to keep burning. This speaks of the deity of the
Lord Jesus Christ, his absolute independence. He has need of
nothing. That is the Christ of God. Also, this bush could not be
consumed. The fire kept burning, but the
bush could not be consumed." Now this speaks of the perfect
humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the fire of God's wrath
came down upon Him, it could not consume Him. As a matter
of fact, he consumed the wrath. So there was no more. What a
beautiful and simple picture we have of the Lord Jesus speaking
to Moses from the burning bush. Now let's see what he said, verse
four. And when the Lord saw that he
turned aside to see, I love thinking about that. The Lord watching
Moses, watching me and you. And when he saw, he turned aside
to see this great sight. God called unto him out of the
midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. And he said, draw not thy hither,
put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God
of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he
was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I've surely
seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard
their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their
sorrow. And I'm come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the
land into a good land and a large into a land flowing with milk
and honey into the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and
the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
Now therefore, behold the cry of the children of Israel, come
to me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians
oppress them. Come now therefore, and I'll
send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Now, in the following
verses, Moses tries to convince the Lord that he's not the man
for the job. I think it's interesting when he was a young man, He thought
he was the man for the job. You remember how in Stephen's
account in Acts, Moses thought that they would understand that
by his hand they'd be delivered, but they didn't. So 40 years
later, he is now ready for this. And I think it's so interesting
that he doesn't want the job. He's afraid. He feels totally
unfit for anything like this, but the Lord causes him to be
The one, look in chapter four, verse 21. And the Lord said unto
Moses, when thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou doest
all these wonders before Pharaoh, which I put not in hand, but
listen to these words, but I will harden his heart that he shall
not let the people go. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh,
thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. Once again, that can only be
understood in light of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I say unto thee, let my son
go, that he may serve me, and if thou refuse to let him go,
behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn son. Now look in chapter five, verses
one and two. Now Moses appears before Pharaoh, and afterwards
Moses and Aaron went in. Now at this time, they know the
Lord. They know the Lord. They know
who he is. They know of his omnipotence,
his power, his sovereign control. They know who he is. And afterward,
Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord,
God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast
unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, who is the
Lord? that I should obey his voice
to let Israel go. I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go. Now, I love to think of Moses
at that time, when Pharaoh says, who is the Lord that I should
obey his voice? Moses is thinking, you're fixing
to find out who he is, and you're going to be made to obey his
voice. Now look in verse four of chapter
five, after he made this request to let the children of Israel
go, and the king of Egypt said unto them, wherefore do ye, Moses
and Aaron, let the people from their works? Get ye unto your
burdens. And Pharaoh said, behold, the
people of the land now are many, and you make them rest from their
burdens. And Pharaoh commanded the same
day the taskmasters of the people and their officers saying, No
more give the people straw to make brick. As heretofore, let
them go and gather straw for themselves, and the tail of the
bricks which they did make hereto you shall lay upon them. You
shall not diminish aught thereof, for they be idle. Therefore they
cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let there more work
be laid upon the men. that they may labor therein and
let them not regard vain words. And that is what was laid upon
them. Now, it got worse for them. And they understood that, look
in verse 22. And Moses, chapter 5, and Moses
returned unto the Lord and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so
evil and treated this people? It became worse for them rather
than better. They had to make the same amount of bricks without
the straw. And I'm sure they were very frustrated.
They were thinking, things have gone south since Moses got here. And I guarantee you they were
upset with Moses. And Moses was upset. And he comes
to the Lord, and Moses returned to the Lord and said, Lord, wherefore
hast thou so evil and treated this people? Why is it that thou
sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to
speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people. Neither
hast thou delivered thy people at all. Then the Lord said unto
Moses, now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand shall
he let them go, And with a strong hand shall he drive them out
of his land. And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am
the Lord. And I appeared unto Abraham,
and to Isaac, and to Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but
by my name of Jehovah, salvation. Jehovah is salvation. Was I not
known to them? And I have also established my
covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land
of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And I have
also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the
Egyptians kept in bondage. I have remembered my covenant.
Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and
I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a
stretched out arm and with great judgments. And I'll take you
to me for people, I'll be to you a God. There's the promise
of the gospel. And you shall know that I am
the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens
of the Egyptians. You're gonna know I do it. And
I'll bring you into that land concerning which I did swear
to give to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob. and I'll give it
to you for an heritage. Now in chapter seven, we start
learning of the plagues he's going to send Pharaoh's way. And the Lord said unto Moses,
see, I have made thee a God to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother
shall be thy prophet. Do you remember how Moses said,
I can't speak? I can't go into him, I'm slow
of tongue. He said, your brother can speak. You're gonna be the
Pharaoh of God, and Aaron is going to be your spokesman, and
he's going to be to you a prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command
thee, and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send
the children of Israel out of the land, and I will harden Pharaoh's
heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of
Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may
lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies and my people,
the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know
that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt, and
bring out the children of Israel from among them. And Moses and
Aaron did as the Lord commanded them. And Moses was four score
years old, and Aaron was four score and three years old, when
they spake unto Pharaoh. And then we have the beginning
of the plagues. The first plague, he took the
Nile River and they worshiped the Nile River. As a matter of
fact, every one of these 10 judgments had something to do with some
kind of deities they worshiped. They worshiped the Nile River. And you know what he did? He
turned it all into blood. All the fish died. The land stank
because of the fishes. It was a mess. And they didn't
have anything to drink. Look in verse 24 of chapter seven.
And all the Egyptians dig round about the river for water to
drink, for they could not drink of the water of the river. And
seven days were fulfilled after the Lord had smitten the river. Now, the next plague is the plague
of frogs. You've heard of plagues of biblical
proportions. Well, this is what that's talking
about. Frogs were everywhere. If you went to bed, there were
frogs in your bed. If you opened up your oven to
cook something, frogs would jump out. I mean, frogs were everywhere. Can you imagine how difficult
that would be? Frogs covering the land. Look in chapter eight, verse
eight. Then, this is after these frogs,
then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, entreat the
Lord that he may take away the frogs from me and from my people. And I'll let the people go that
they may do sacrifice unto the Lord. Get rid of these frogs,
please. And Moses said unto Pharaoh,
glory over me, when shall I entreat for you and for thy servants
and for thy people to destroy the frogs from thee in the house,
that they may remain in the river. So the frogs go back after this
and Pharaoh hardened his heart again. When the frogs are gone
and he gets in his own bed without frogs, he eats food that's not
contaminated with frogs, he says, things are better. God hardens
his heart and he refuses to let the people go. The third plague
was the plague of lice. All the dust of the land was
turned into living lice. And you'll remember that the
magicians of Egypt couldn't duplicate this. They duplicated the first
two, but they couldn't duplicate this because they couldn't make
life. They couldn't produce life. And can you imagine lice covering
your body? The body of everybody, man and
beast, but it didn't touch the Israelites. but it covered everyone
else. Look in verse 18. And the magicians did so with
their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not do so,
so there were lice upon man and beast. Then the magician said
unto Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. And Pharaoh's heart was
hardened, and he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said. Now, the fourth plague was the
swarm of flies. Now, I hate flies. I mean, if
there's one fly in this room while I'm trying to preach, wherever
it's going, I see it, and I know it's gonna land up here at some
point. It's happened. But can you imagine swarms and
swarms of flies covering everybody? I mean, they're disgusting creatures
anyway. Swarms of flies everywhere. Now, look what happens in verse
25 of this chapter. And Pharaoh called for Moses
and Aaron and said, go you sacrifice to your God in the land. You
can't leave Egypt. You can go ahead and sacrifice
to get rid of these flies. Go ahead and sacrifice, but it
has to be in the land. You can't leave Egypt. God doesn't
negotiate with sinners. doesn t negotiate with men. You
re not going to make a deal with him. You re going to do what
he says. But God let the flies go, and
the fifth plague was sent upon the livestock once again. Now,
look in chapter 9 verse 4, And the LORD shall sever between
the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt, and there shall
nothing die of all that s the children of Israel. Now, In this
plague on the livestock, all of the Egyptian livestock, all
their cattle died. Pharaoh sent somebody to go see
where the children of Israel was. Wasn't one that died, not
even one. And yet his heart was hardened.
And then the sixth plague was the plague of boils. man and
beast. Everybody was covered with boils
and tumors. And what a disgusting thing that
must have been. And they were just miserable.
But Pharaoh's heart hardened once again. But look at chapter
9 verse 16, This is God speaking to Pharaoh
after his heart has been hardened. And he says, in very deed for
this cause have I raised thee up for to show thee my power
and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth and
yet exaltest thyself against my people that thou will not
let them go. Paul quotes this in Romans 9.16.
with regard to Pharaoh, where he says, even for this same purpose
have I raised you up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardens. Paul was quoting this passage
in Romans chapter nine. And then the seventh plague is
the plague of hail. Look in verse 27 of chapter nine, This is after the hail has come
down upon the children of Egypt, the Egyptians, and Pharaoh is
afraid. This fire and the hail would
hit and fire would be along the ground. Verse 27, and Pharaoh
sent and called for Moses and Aaron said unto them, I've sinned
this time. The Lord is righteous. and I
and my people are wicked. Entreat the Lord, for it's enough
that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail, and I'll
let you go and you shall stay no longer." He was scared at
this time. He says, ask the Lord to stop
this. Look in verse 34. And when Pharaoh
saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased,
he sinned yet more and hardened his heart, he and his servants,
and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let
the children of Israel go as the Lord had spoken by him. Now
here we see where he hardened his heart. He hardened his heart,
and we see where the Lord hardened his heart. Let me remind you
of this. All the Lord has to do to harden
my heart or harden your heart is leave us alone. That's all it takes, and we'll
be just like Pharaoh. Now, the eighth plague was the
plague of locusts that destroyed all the crops you couldn't even
see because of the locusts the Lord sent. And the ninth plague
was the plague of darkness, even the darkness that might be felt. Look at Exodus chapter 10, verse
24. This is after the thick darkness
where people couldn't see anything. Imagine that, spending three
days in absolute blindness and darkness. You couldn't see anything.
Verse 24, and Pharaoh called unto Moses and said, go ye, serve
the Lord. Only let your flocks and your
herds be stayed. Let the little ones go with you,
but you can't bring your cattle. Now, once again, God doesn't
negotiate with sinners. That ain't gonna happen. I love
the way Moses replies. And Moses said, thou must give
us also sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice
unto the Lord our God. Our cattle also shall go with
us. There shall not be an hoof left behind. Charles Spurgeon's
got a sermon on that entitled Particular Redemption. There's
not gonna be a hoof left behind. Everybody that Christ died for,
he's gonna have, and not one of them will be lost. Now, Pharaoh
says, get out of here at that point. You're not gonna see my
face anymore. And Moses said, you've well said,
you're not gonna see my face anymore. Now look in chapter
11, verse one, And the Lord said unto Moses,
yet will I bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards, he'll let you go
out hence. And when he shall let you go, he'll thrust you
out hence altogether. Speak now in the ears of the
people and let every man borrow of his neighbor and every man
of her neighbor jewels of silver and jewels of gold. I like to
think about this, them coming up to the Egyptians. Let me have
your jewels, let me have your silver, let me have your gold.
Okay, here it is. Here it is, just get out of here. The land
had been ruined. Verse three, and the Lord gave
the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the
man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt in the sight of
Pharaoh's servants and the sight of the people. And Moses said,
thus saith the Lord about midnight will I go out into the midst
of Egypt. And all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt shall die from the firstborn of Pharaoh that
sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant
that's behind the mill, and all the firstborn of the beast. And
there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as
there was none 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 you may know how the Lord
doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And
if you are a believer, you know the Lord has put a difference
between you and that person who doesn't know Him. Hail sovereign
grace. Verse eight, and all these thy
servants shall come down unto me, and bow themselves unto me,
saying, get thee out, and all the people that follow thee,
and after that I'll go out. And he went out from Pharaoh
in a great anger. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that my wonders may be multiplied
in the land of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron did all these
wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart,
so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of
his land. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto
you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of
the year. Now the calendar is changed for this, the Passover. This is the beginning of months.
This is when your history begins. Do you know that your history,
your spiritual history, begins when you have some understanding
of the Passover? Now, remember how Paul said that
the gospel was how that Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures? Well, here we have how Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. He says in verse
three, speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel saying
in the 10th month of this month, they shall take to them every
man a lamb. according to the house of their fathers, a lamb
for an house, and if the household be too little for the 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 of the lamb. Your lamb shall be without
blemish. A male of the first year, you
shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall
keep it until the 14th day of that same month, and the whole
assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it. in the
evening. Now, this lamb was without blemish. Don't you love to think of the
perfect life of the Lord Jesus Christ? A life without blemish,
without sin, perfectly honoring to God's law. And what were they
to do? They were to kill it. There's the cross. And what were
they to do? Eat it. And that tells me that
the only nourishment I have is Christ crucified. That's all
I can eat that will do me any good. They were to eat all of
it. They were not to leave any of
it behind. Now look in 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. Like I said, every one of these
plagues was against a certain god of Egypt. And he's showing
his utter control and superiority to these false gods. I will execute
judgment, I am the Lord, and the blood, the blood of that
land that they were called upon to take the blood in a basin
and put it over the doorpost, the lentils of the door. And
the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses wherein
you are 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. Who had to see the blood? God said, when I see the blood. You know, if you were in one
of the houses, you couldn't see it, could you? He said, when I see the blood. What was God looking for? He
didn't say, when I see your tears of repentance. He didn't say,
when I see your faith. He didn't say, when I see how
well you're giving up your sin and starting to follow me. He
said nothing of that nature. He said, when I see the blood. the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's all he was looking for. When I see the blood. Now let's imagine, and I don't
think it's a wrong imagination. I have no doubt that something
like this took place. Perhaps on that very day, before
that Passover night, Some Israelite committed some foul, depraved,
evil sin. Every sin is foul, evil, and
depraved, but something that would just make you stand back
and make you blush. Let's say some Israelite committed
some horrible crime that very day. If they were in the house,
with the blood over the door, were they safe? He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Now, isn't that your gospel?
Your whole gospel, my whole gospel, is found in that. Who is he that
condemneth, Paul said. Now, if somebody says, who can
condemn you? I can think of a lot of people that can condemn me.
As a matter of fact, I can condemn myself pretty easily. I know
a whole lot more about me than you do. And I can condemn myself,
you can condemn me, but Paul lays out this charge, who is
he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. And God says, when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. Now look in Exodus chapter 13,
or Exodus chapter 12 verse 29. And it came to pass that at midnight,
The Lord smoked all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, from the
firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, unto the firstborn
of the captive that was in the dungeon, all the firstborn of
the cattle, and Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all of
his servants, and all of the Egyptians, and there was a great
cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one
dead. Can you imagine that? And somebody died in Israelite's
house too, the lamb. But where there was no blood,
the firstborn died. And he called for Moses and Aaron
by night, verse 31, and said, rise up and get you forth from
among the people, both you and the children of Israel, and go
and serve the Lord, as you have said. And also take your flocks
and your herds, as you said, and be gone, and bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent
upon the people that they might send them out of the land in
haste, for they said, we'd be all dead men. And the people
took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading cloths
being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. This is
so they could eat the Passover dinner. And the children of Israel
did according to the word of Moses. And they bartered the
Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment. And
this is what is going to be used to make the tabernacle. And the
Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so
that they lent unto them such things as they required and they
spoiled. the Egyptians. Look in chapter
13, verse 17. And it came to pass when Pharaoh
had let the people go, that God led them not through the way
of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God
said, lest peradventure of the people repent when they see war
and they return to Egypt. But God led the people about
through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children
of Israel went up, harnessed out of the land of Egypt in ranks
And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. You remember that.
For he had straightly sworn the children of Israel saying, God
will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones, hence
with you. Now they're at the Red Sea. They've left Egypt and they're
at the Red Sea. There's mountains on one side,
the Red Sea in the other. Now look what happened. Verse
one. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and
encamp from Pahiroth, Migdal, in the sea, over against Baal-zivon. Before it shall you encamp by
the sea, for Pharaoh will save the children of Israel. They're
entangled in the land. The wilderness shut them in,
and I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he will follow after them.
You know, you'd think he would have learned by now, wouldn't
you? But like I said, all God's gotta do is leave us alone and
our heart will be just as hard as Pharaoh's. For Pharaoh shall
save the children of Israel. They're entangled in the land,
the wilderness shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart
that he shall follow after them. And I'll be honored upon Pharaoh
and upon all his hosts that the Egyptians may know that I am
the Lord. And they did so and it was told
the king of Egypt, people fled and the heart of Pharaoh and
of his servants was turned against the people. And they said, why
have we done this? That we let Israel go from serving us. How
quickly they forgot why they've done it. He made ready his chariot
and took the people with him. He took 600 chosen chariots and
all the chariots of Egypt and the captains over every one of
them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
And he pursued after the children of Israel and the children of
Israel went out with a high hand. But the Egyptians pursued after
them all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and
his army and overtook them in camping by the sea beside Pihairoth
before Beelzebub." Now, remember what all they'd seen. Now we
get some kind of picture of the character of the children of
Israel and the character of me and you. Remember what all they
had seen. And Pharaoh drew nigh, the children
of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched
after them. And they were sore afraid, and
the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And they said
unto Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou
taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus
with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word
that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, let us alone? Do you know that's the response
of every natural man to the gospel? Let us alone that we may serve
the Egyptians, for it'd been better for us to serve the Egyptians
than that we should die in the wilderness. And Moses said unto
the people, fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of
the Lord, which he will show to you today. For the Egyptians
who have you seen today, you shall see no more forever. The
Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace. And you know what happens. The
Lord causes the Red Sea to part. It took all night for that to
take place. He could have done it just like
this if he wanted to, but it took all night. Look in verse
19. And the angel of God, which went
before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them. And the
pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind
them. And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the
camp of Israel. And it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it
gave light by night to these. It was darkness to the Egyptians,
but it was light to the Israelites. That's the way the gospel is,
isn't it? It's darkness to those who do not believe, but it's
light to those who have eyes to see. Verse 21, and Moses stretched
out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go
back by strong east wind all that night and made the sea dry
land. The waters were divided, and
the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the
dry ground. And the waters were a wall unto them on their right
hand and on their left. Oh, can you imagine this walk
through the Red Sea? And the Egyptians pursued, went
in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses,
his chariots, his horsemen. And it came to pass that in the
morning watch, the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians
through the pillar of the fire and cloud, and troubled the host
of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels, that they
braved them heavily. So the Egyptians said, let us
flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth them against
the Egyptians. And the Lord said unto Moses,
stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come
again upon the Egyptians and upon their chariots and upon
their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea,
and the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared, and
the Egyptians fled against it. And the Lord overthrew the Egyptians
in the midst of the sea, and the waters returned and covered
the chariots and the horsemen, all the hosts of Pharaoh that
came into the sea after them. There remained not so much as
one of them." My dear friend, with regard to all your sin,
past, present, and future. If Christ died for you, there
doesn't remain so much as one of them. But the children of
Israel, verse 29, walked upon dry land in the midst of the
sea, and the waters were walled unto them on the right hand and
on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of
the hand of the Egyptians, And Israel saw the Egyptians dead
upon the seashore. I wonder what they were thinking
when they saw that. All my sins, dead upon the seashore. And Israel saw that great work
which the Lord did upon the Egyptians and the people feared the Lord
and believed the Lord and his servant Moses. Now back to our text, Acts chapter Verse 17, 400 years of history. The God of this people of Israel
chose our fathers and exalted the people. Now,
if you're a believer, you were chose by God and exalted by being
in Christ. And when they dwelt to strangers
in the land of Egypt, and with a high arm brought he them out
of it. And this is all because of the
Passover. Let's pray.