Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. I want to attempt to preach on
the Passover. The Scripture says in 1 Corinthians
15.3 that the gospel is how that Christ died for our sins according
to the Scripture. And that is talking about the
Old Testament Scripture. We have all these different types
of how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture,
and none is clearer than the Passover. Now, this is when Israel
was leaving Egypt. It's what's known as the Exodus,
when they left Egypt. Now, 430 years before this took
place, it was prophesied to Abraham that it would take place. We
read in Genesis chapter 15, beginning in verse 12, And when the sun
was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo and horror
of great darkness fell upon him. And he, the Lord, said unto Abram,
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 four hundred years. And also that nation whom they
shall serve will I judge, And afterward, they'll come out with
great substance. Now, this was prophesied by God
430 years before it took place. And then in Exodus chapter 3, God tells Moses,
after he had told him he was going to go into Pharaoh and
demand that the children of Israel be released, God says this to
Moses, And I'm sure that the king of Egypt will not let you
go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand
and will smite Egypt with all my wonders, which I'll do in
the midst thereof. And afterward, He'll let you
go after these ten plagues. Now, the Lord could have brought
him out without doing anything, just by His almighty power. He
didn't have to do all this, but He had a purpose. He said in
Exodus 12, against all the gods of Egypt, will I execute judgment.
And these plagues all represent some aspect of the false religion
of Egypt that He was destroying. Now, in chapter 5, verses 1 and
2, and afterwards, 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, Moses knows who
the Lord is, and he knows that Pharaoh is getting ready to find
out exactly who the Lord is, but if you go on reading in that
chapter, Pharaoh said, The reason you're asking for this is because
you're too idle. You've got too much time on your
hands or you wouldn't be asking for something like this." So
he started making them make bricks without straw. They had to go
gather their own straw in order to make bricks, and they were
expected to make the same amount of bricks. which was impossible. And when they couldn't do it,
the leaders were beaten by the Egyptians. And they said, why
are you doing this? We can't do this. And they saw that they
were in a worse condition now than they had been. And they
were very upset with Moses and Aaron and said, why have you
got us into this position to where we look so bad before Pharaoh? They were very upset. So Moses goes in again to Pharaoh
and Aaron, and he throws his staff down before Pharaoh to
show the power that was in the staff because of the Lord, and
it turned into a snake. But the magicians of Egypt, they
threw their staffs down as well, and they turned into snakes.
They could duplicate what Moses had done. And what this lets
us know is there's great signs and wonders in false religion.
You don't think there's not, but Moses' staff swallowed up
the snakes of the Egyptians, and they were given some idea
of what was to come. Now, the first plague, was water
turned into blood. Remember, the Lord's going to
do all ten of these plagues. He didn't have to, but He's going
to, to execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. All of
their false notions and their false ideas are going to be shown
as powerless through these plagues. The first plague, the Nile River
and all of its tributaries were turned to blood. And the fish
died and the land stank and people didn't have anything to drink.
But Pharaoh hardened his heart. So the plague after that was
the plague of frogs. Frogs came in and they covered
the land. They were in your home. They
were in your bedroom. They were in your oven. Everywhere
you looked there was frogs. Can you imagine how horrible
that would have been? And Pharaoh said, would you have
those frogs removed? And the frogs died, and they
put them in piles. But after that, Pharaoh's heart
hardened again. And then the third plague was
the dust of the land was turned to lice. Lice covered every man,
woman, boy, and girl in Egypt. lice covered the livestock and
whatever beast there was. And listen to what the Egyptians,
magicians, had to say about this. They said in chapter 18, verse
19, Then the magician said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of
God. They couldn't duplicate this, making something alive
that had been dust. They couldn't duplicate this.
They said, This is the finger of God. This is the hand of God
doing this. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened
not unto them. Now, I think it's interesting,
15, 19 times during the course of this story, we read of the
hardening of Pharaoh's heart. 15 times it says God hardened
his heart. Four times it says he hardened
his own heart. You might think, well, which
is it? Both. God hardened his heart. As a
matter of fact, The Lord said, the Scripture saith to Pharaoh-this
is in Romans 9, a quotation from this story-the Scripture saith
to Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee 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." God
is in absolute sovereign control, and He is hardening Pharaoh's
heart, and all the Lord has to do to harden my heart or your
heart is nothing. Just leave us alone, and we will
become hard-hearted. That's all it takes. And so Pharaoh
continues to harden his heart. The Lord hardened his heart.
He was a puppet in the Lord's hand doing the Lord's will, although
he didn't realize it. But God hardened his heart once
again. Now, the fourth plague was swarms
of flies. After the lice had left, God
sent swarms of flies. Now, I don't know of anything
that I'd dislike, as far as creatures, much more than flies. I can't
stand them. Can you imagine having swarms
of flies covering you? It would make existence so miserable. And Pharaoh asked that the flies
might be removed, and when they were, he hardened his heart once
again. And then, The fifth plague was
all the livestock was diseased and died. But yet when you went
into Israel in the land of Goshen where the Israelites were, none
of their livestock died. And the swarms of flies weren't
there, and the lice weren't there. They were only with the Egyptians.
They saw how the Lord made a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.
And then there was the plague of boils, and even the magicians
were covered with these boils, the Egyptian magicians, and everybody
was just covered with boils. What a horrible disease, and
they asked for deliverance from that. And as soon as there was
deliverance, Pharaoh's heart was hardened again. And the next
judgment was balls of hail mingled with fire coming down from heaven,
and they were warned. don't be out in the field. If
you do, you'll be killed." And everybody that was outdoors,
when these mighty thunderings and hail and fire came down,
and many people were killed, and Pharaoh was afraid at this
time. As a matter of fact, he says
in verse 27 of chapter 9, And Pharaoh sent, and called for
Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time.
The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Entreat
the Lord, for it is enough that there be no more mighty thunderings
in hell. And I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.
He was scared to death at this time. So Moses prayed to the
Lord, the hail stopped, the thunder ceased, and he hardened his heart
again. And the next plague was that
of the locusts. The land became dark with the
locusts, and they ate every green thing in the land, and there
was absolutely nothing left to eat. Egypt had been destroyed. And Pharaoh hardened his heart
again. And then the land was turned
to darkness, darkness that might be felt. For three days, everybody
was afraid to move because you could not see utter darkness,
but it was light in the land of Goshen. Because once again,
the Lord had put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. Now, these nine plagues take
place to set up this last plague, if you want to call it that.
God said, I'm going to pass through the land, and I'm going to destroy
the firstborn in every house. Every house. No exceptions. But I'm going to put a difference. between the Egyptians and the
children of Israel, and this is where we get the story of
the Passover lamb. Now, let me begin reading in
verse 27 of chapter 10, and I want to read several verses here.
These are very important. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart, and he would not let them go. This is after the darkness. And Pharaoh said unto him, Get
thee from me, take heed of thyself, see my face no more. For the
day that thou seest me, thou shalt die. And Moses said, Thou
spoken well, I will see thy face again no more. And the Lord said
unto Moses, Yet will I bring one more plague upon Pharaoh
and upon Egypt. Afterwards he'll let you go hence.
When he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence
altogether. Now speak now in the ears of
the people, the children of Israel, and let every man borrow of his
neighbor and every woman of his neighbor jewels of silver and
jewels of gold. 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 in 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 sits upon the throne, even to
the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill, and
all the firstborn of the beasts. And there shall be a great cry
throughout all the land of Egypt, such as were none like it, nor
shall be like it any more. But against any of the children
of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast,
that you may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel. And all these thy servants shall
come down to me, and bow themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out,
and all the people that follow thee." 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." And now
we're given the instructions concerning the Passover. Now let me remind you what I
said at the beginning of this message. The gospel is how that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He's talking
about the Old Testament Scriptures. The New Testament had not been
completed when Paul made that statement. And if you want to
understand the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he was
doing, you can only understand through the Old Testament Scriptures.
The Old Testament Scriptures, people look at the Old Testament
quite often, it's not important, not as important as the New Testament,
the Old Bible, but the New Testament cannot possibly be understood
apart from the Old Testament scriptures and these types that
we're given. So I'm going to begin reading
in chapter 12, verse 1, 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 to you. Now, the calendar was changed
for the Passover. You see, life begins, time begins,
when a man or woman is made to understand the Passover. That's
how significant this is. The calendar was changed for
this. Now he says in verse 3, Speak
ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth
day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb. Now, we read in Revelation 13.8
of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And we read that
in eternity future, when the church is in heaven, they're
going to be singing this song, worthy is the lamb that was slain. Take every man a lamb. Abel understood something about
this when he came into God's presence. He brought the blood
of a lamb, a sacrificial lamb, knowing that in and of myself,
I deserve death. And the only way I can approach
God's presence is through the coming sacrifice, the coming
lamb of God. He understood the gospel. And
you know, the scripture says that God had respect to Abel
and to his offering. But to Cain, who brought the
fruit of his own works, he had no respect and no regard. I think of Abraham. He is instructed
by God to kill his own son, take him up, and offer him up as a
burnt offering. And Abraham obeyed God. You see, he believed God,
and he believed that God would raise his son up from the dead.
We know that from Genesis 22, verse 5, when He says, I and
the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. And Hebrews
11 tells us He fully expected God to raise His Son from the
dead because God had made a promise that the Messiah was going to
come through that boy, and He believed God. Now, we know that
God provided a substitutionary ram that was offered up in the
room instead of Isaac. You can read about that in Genesis
22, but there's a question Isaac asks that's so poignant as they're
going up Mount Moriah. He says to his father, not knowing
that he was supposed to be the sacrifice, Father, here's The
wood hears the fire, but where is a lamb? Where is the lamb
for the burnt offering? And Abraham looked at his son
and said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. You see, there's nothing you
and I could provide that God would accept. It's all sinful,
every bit of it, but God provides everything he requires. God will
provide a lamb. You can't provide a sacrifice
God would accept, but God does. God provides for himself. You see, for God to do something
for me or you, he had to do something for himself. He had to make a
way to be just and yet justify the ungodly. He had to have a
way for his law to be honored, sin to be punished, and yet he
can show mercy. He had to do these things for
himself before he could do anything for me or you. And God provides
Himself as the Lamb for the burnt offering. So, take every man
a lamb, speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying,
In the tenth day of the month they shall take to them every
man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb
for a house. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let
him and his neighbor next unto his house take according to the
number of the souls. Every man according to his eating
shall you make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be
without blemish. A male of the first year, you
shall take it out from the sheet or from the goats, and you shall
keep it into the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole
assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening." Now let's consider this lamb. This lamb had to be
spotless and without blemish, speaking of the perfect life
and the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in order for
Christ to do anything for me or you, He had to be without
sin. If He had sin, He couldn't save
you any more than I could save you if He had sin. But He, the
Son of God, kept God's law perfectly. worked out a perfect righteousness
before God's holy law. He never sinned. He's without blemish and without
spot. And what were they to do with
that lamb? Kill it and eat it. Now, why
did the Lord Jesus Christ die if he was sinless? because the
sins of his people were put in him, on him. He bore our sins
in his own body on the tree. I don't understand what all that
means, but I know the sins of the elect became his sins so
that he became guilty of the commission of those sins. And
the wrath of God came down upon him and he took the sinner's
place. He took what I deserve and that
perfect righteousness that he worked out. is given to me. It's
called substitution. That's what this Passover lamb
is all about. And what were they to do? Kill
it. That's Christ dying. Eat it. This is our necessary
food. I live off the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's my only hope at all times,
constantly. Now, we read 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'll execute judgment.
I am the Lord, and the blood shall be to you for a token upon
the houses where you are. 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, let me ask you a
few questions that I hope you'll give careful consideration to.
First, what was God looking for? He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. That's the one thing He was looking
for. He didn't say, when I see your
faith. He didn't say, when I see your
tears. He didn't say, when I see your sorrow over your sin and
your intention to never commit that sin again. He didn't say,
when I see your sincerity. He didn't say, when I see your
doctrinal understanding. He didn't say, when I see your
baptism or your works in any way. He said, when I see the
blood. That's the one thing God was
looking for, the blood of the Lamb. When I see the blood, I
will pass over you. Now, here's my second question.
First, we see the one thing God was looking for was blood. Here's
the second question, who had to see it? He said, when I see
the blood, I will pass over you. Not when you see it, when I see
the blood, I will pass over you. This is for sure. When God sees
the blood, he shows mercy. Now, You'll remember he told
the children of Israel to take that lamb that was slain, put
it-strike it-the blood on the lentil in the doorpost. Go in
the house and don't come out. And when God passed through the
land, he said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Now, I want you to consider this
question. We have this house, or many houses,
really, with the blood over the door, and God passed through
in mercy. Now, was there any house-and
let me back on that. He passed through in judgment,
because the reason he passed by that house was because there
was already blood. There was already blood shed.
That lamb represented the substitutionary lamb of God, and when God passed
by, it's because the firstborn had died in the substitute lamb,
and that's why He passed by. Now, here's the question I want
you to consider real carefully. Let's think about the people
in those houses with the blood over the door. Let's say someone
that very day had committed horrible sins and horrible crimes and
had done things that would just make you shiver. If he was in
a house with that blood over the door, was he safe? My dear friend, the answer is
yes. Everybody in the house with the blood over the door was saved
without any exception. You see, the blood of Jesus Christ
actually does put away all sin. And everybody in the house with
the blood over the door was safe and secure. Let me ask another
question. Let's say there's somebody outside
of the house He's not in the house with the blood over the
door, but he's a very nice person, very moral, pays his bill, treats
his family well, treats his neighbors well, is a good citizen, just
a fine person. If he was outside of the house
with the blood over the door, was he safe? The answer is no. He or the firstborn in his family
would be destroyed because, really, all men are sinners. All men
are guilty. He may look good on the outside,
but he's not on the inside. And God looks on the heart. And
God knows what everybody is. And that man who we might have
judged to be a very good man, no, he would be judged if he
was not in the house with the blood over the door. Now, I think
of this. There were some people who had
assurance while they were in that house. The Lord's not going
to touch me in judgment. I'm in the house with the blood
over the door. And they felt such assurance and safety. And
somebody else might have been a little bit afraid. What if
he gets me anyway? Thoughts of unbelief and fear.
Was the person with assurance any more secure than the person
who feared? No, their security was in the
house, not in one's assurance or one's lack thereof. The person
who had dismay and fear wasn't any less safe than the one who
had complete assurance because their assurance was in the blood. Now, this is the gospel. When
I see the blood, I will pass over you. Now, that's the gospel.
That's how Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture.
When I see the blood, I will pass over you. And they were
given one thing to do that night. Stay in the house. Stay in the
house. Don't go outside. Stay in the
house. If you go outside, you're not
under the protection. Now, what do I learn from that?
Oh, I simply want to be found in Christ at all times. I don't
want to ever be viewed independently of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
to stay in the house and not try to approach God by my works
or by my attitude or by anything about me. I simply want to be
just like Paul when he said, oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in him. When God comes looking for me,
there's only one place I want to be found, in the Lord Jesus
Christ, so that all that God sees is Christ. not having my
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness which is of God
by faith. Oh, I simply want to be found
in Him. May God make that so for me and
for you. Now, there is no gospel apart
from an understanding of the Passover. When God said, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. What a comforting thought
when the Lord sees the blood of His Son He passes over because
of that blood and doesn't destroy. Now we have this message on DVD
and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Kniper praying God
will be pleased to make Himself known to you. Amen. To request
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