that my wonders may be multiplied
in the land of Egypt. For this same purpose, God said
to Pharaoh, have I raised thee up that I might make my power
known through you and in you. And verse 10 said, And Moses
and Aaron did all these wonders, you know about the plagues that
God sent upon Egypt. But every time God would send
a plague, verse 10 says, the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart
so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of
the land. Back in verse 1 of chapter 11,
the Lord said to Moses, yet will I bring one plague more upon
Pharaoh. This is the last one. one more
plague. And after that, he'll let you
go. He'll let you go hence. And when
he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. In verse 4, he tells us about
this terrible, terrible plague. Verse 4, Moses is telling people
of Israel, what God would do. Moses said in verse 4, Thus saith
the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt. The Lord said, I will. About
midnight, I will. I don't know of any mention of
any kind of death angel ever in any of this scripture, but
I read it again this morning, someone talking about Perhaps the Lord will use an
angel, I don't know, but the Lord who does it, he said, I'll
go out. In verse 5, all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die,
all of them. This is a sweeping loss, a terrible
loss. The firstborn, all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of highest-ranking king, lord, ruler of Egypt, that sitteth on his throne, even
the firstborn of the lowly maidservant that scrubs the floor, the firstborn
in every home in Egypt, even the firstborn of the What a sweeping loss from the
throne to the maidservant to the beast. And what a severe
loss, the firstborn. Now, we need to take a moment
and consider the firstborn. It's not true today like it has
been in the past. It's not true in this country
like it still is in many countries, but the firstborn is the heir,
the firstborn son is always the heir, was then the leader of
the family. That's the reason that Isaac
was so upset when Jacob deceived him because Esau was the firstborn. He was supposed to have the birthright.
He's the heir, the leader of the family, the firstborn is
the elder brother. All the other children look up
to the firstborn. The firstborn steps in and takes
over when the father is incapacitated or dies. The firstborn is the
glory of the family. And then the firstborn is the
support back then. Now older people have Social
Security and all other benefits, but not then. The firstborn was
the support of the parents. It was his responsibility to
take care of his parents, and also of the servants, the faithful
servants in the home. He was his responsibility, and
God's going to kill every one of them. Every firstborn is going to destroy
the firstborn, and that will destroy the order of the family,
the rule, the chain of command. destroy the leadership in every
home, destroy the peace and tranquility of the family, chaos. That's
the reason verse 6 is so powerful here. It says, and there shall
be a great cry. When I pass through at midnight
and kill the firstborn of every single family in Egypt, from
the throne to the maid, at the mill. And there shall be a great
cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none
like it ever before, nor shall be like it any more." Never. Never. A great cry. But verse 7, God put a difference
between Israel and Egypt. The Israelites and the Egyptians.
God put a difference. What a difference it was. Verse
7 said, But against any of the children of Israel shall not
even a dog move his tongue. Against man or beast. That you
may know how the Lord put a difference between the Egyptian and the
Israelites. Egyptian and Israel. What a difference. We are Israel. What he says here
about national Israel, he says about spiritual Israel. Our firstborn
lives. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
firstborn. Scripture says he's the firstborn
among many brethren. He's our elder brother. He's
the heir. He's the king. He's the leader.
He's the commander. He's the captain. Always has
been, always will be. He is the image of God, he is
the firstborn of every creature. Paul wrote in Colossians, he
is the head of the church, the firstborn from the day. We are members of the church
of the firstborn. Our firstborn lives. In our home
there is peace and tranquility and order, and our support is
assured, and our provision is in his hands. We have peace,
not chaos. We have order, tranquility, and
rule because our firstborn lives. And here in chapter 12, he tells
us what he did to make the difference. It's the word substitution. Substitution. Their firstborn died. Our firstborn took our place.
And we live. That's the word, substitution.
That's the message. That's the hope. I will go out and all the firstborn
shall die. But his firstborn died and God
brought him forth from the grave. He lives. He ever lives. And
let's look at chapter 12. So he told the children of Israel
that they were to do a certain thing here. called the Passover. A certain thing here now to keep
from the firstborn, their firstborn, dying in every home. Substitution. Lamb's going to take the place
of their firstborn. And that lamb is God's firstborn.
So he says in verse 1, Now the Lord said to Moses and Avon in
the land of Egypt, spake to them, This month shall be unto you
the beginning of months. It will be the first month of
the year to you. speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel,
saying in the tenth day of the month, you take every man a lamb
according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house."
Now, you select the lamb. It's going to be a substitution
that takes place here. I'm going to pass through Egypt
at midnight, and I'm going to kill the firstborn in every home.
Now, to save you that judgment and that terrible wrath of God
You select the lamb, select the lamb. And he chose our lamb,
spiritual Israel, national Israel, they selected the lamb. They
picked it out, picked it out, but God chose our lamb. He chose
our lamb. In Genesis, don't turn to this,
Genesis 4-4, he pictured that lamb when Abel brought a lamb
and sacrificed it as a sin offering to God. And in Genesis 22, verse
8, he spoke to Abraham, and Abraham prophesied that the Lamb would
come. He said, God will provide himself a Lamb. You don't pick
one out. Israel did. They picked out the
Lamb. They selected. That's what he said there, didn't
he? He told them to, every man, according
to the house, pick out a Lamb. You pick him out. But God picked
our Lamb out. He chose him. He pictured him,
he prophesied that he would provide himself the lamb. And then he
revealed the lamb in Isaiah 53 to be a man. He said he'd grow up before him
as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. He'd be wounded
by transgression, bruised by iniquities. He'd be led as a
lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearer's done, be
a man. And then he identified him in
John 1.29, John said, there he is, behold the Lamb of God, Jesus
of Nazareth. Then in Revelation chapter 5,
he glorified the Lamb, the Lamb in the midst of the throng, glorified. And here he typifies the Lamb.
But just like Israel, down there in Egypt, when God comes through
that horrible judgment, and destroys the firstborn. We need a substitute. They needed a substitute. There
was death in every home, Israel, Israelites, as well as Egyptian.
But in the Egyptian home, the firstborn died. In the Israelite
home, the lamb died. And for us, the lamb died. God chose that lamb. Here he
typifies the lamb. It shows us how we are delivered
from wrath and judgment and condemnation. And he said, verse 4, If the
household be too little for a lamb, let him and his neighbor next
unto the house take it according to the number of the souls. Every
man according to his eating shall you make your count for the lamb.
And your lamb that you pick out shall be without blemish. And
the lamb God picked out for us is the only person without blemish,
without sin. There is no other. There is no
choice. Christ is the only one without
sin. He had no sin, knew no sin. Which of you, he said, convinces
me of sin? Only one without sin, without
blemish. And it's to be a male of the
first year, a male in the prime. When you pick out your lamb,
you choose one without blemish or spot or disease, and choose
one of the first year, a male in the prime, not an old lamb
ready to die or a sick lamb or a crippled lamb, but in strength,
who gives his life. And you take it from among the
sheep, right out from among the rest of them. Go out there among
the sheep, like our Lord Jesus Christ. Moses said, God will
raise up a prophet from among the brethren, like me, from among
you, from the midst of you. And these people, they saw Jesus
of Nazareth. They said there's no beauty about
him, that we should desire him. He's just like all the other
carpenters. We know him, he's a carpenter.
He's a winebibber. He's a gluttonous man. He said to him, you're not 50
years old. What are you talking about? You knew Abraham. You're
not 50 years old. How could you know Abraham? Just
a man. No beauty about him. Take him
from among the sheep or the goats. He was born of a woman. halo about his head and no glow
from his face. He was a man, bone of our bone,
flesh of our flesh. Your lamb, God picked him out.
Your lamb, your substitute. Substitute for you is my lamb. And in verse 6 he says you keep
him up until the 14th day. That would be four days, wouldn't
it? Four days. You keep him up and
observe him. That's what they're doing here
is keeping him up to prove the language. Be sure there's no
fault found with him or no disease found on him. But you, you keep
him up until the 14th day of the month. Our Lord walked on
this earth. Each day is about 10 years. He walked this earth about 33
years, 34 years. He was tempted in all points
as we are, yet proved to be without sin. He was tempted more than
we were. He was tempted by Satan himself. The devil himself came to him.
Tried him. Tried by men, tried by religious
leaders, tried by Satan, tried in every way, yet without sin.
Proved to be perfect. And he says in verse 6, and the
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it. Not
one man. One man is not going to go around killing these lambs.
Not a one man deal. It's the verdict of all. It's
the agreement of all. It's the responsibility of the
whole nation. It's the agreement of everyone. This lamb is my
substitute. Your substitute. Everybody here.
Nobody goes aside and says, I'm not having any part in this.
Yes, you are. The whole congregation will kill him. It pleased God
to bruise him, and it pleased me. I'm so thankful the Lord Jesus
Christ was pleased to die. The whole congregation shall
kill it in the evening. Two or three words said about
that in the evening of this world, the last days. or between the
evenings. But kill the lamb. It pleased
God to bruise him. It pleased all believers. We
agree on this. The lamb is to die. This is God's
word. This is God's way. This is God's
will. The lamb is to die. We seek no
other way. But now Moses is in there better.
We seek no other way. The whole congregation is in
total agreement. The lamb is our substitute. And
you shall take of the blood, when you have slain the lamb,
take the blood and strike it on the two side posts of your
house, every house. Take hyssop, dip that hyssop
in the blood, put it on the side post and on the linen. Put that
blood on the upper door post of the house this way and thou
shalt eat it. Now putting the blood on the
door, wasn't necessary to direct the
Lord to where they were. In other words, somebody might
get the idea that the Lord passes through and he says, there's
one with blood on it and there's one that's not. He knew where
there wasn't any blood and where there was blood, so he didn't
need that blood to direct him to the house. The Lord knoweth
them that are his. The foundation of God's standard,
sure, the Lord knoweth them that are his. And I'll tell you this,
it wasn't that blood of that lamb, that animal blood, that
held back the wrath and judgment of God. But it was the blood
of Christ. It's put there by the faith of
those people. They believed God. They believed
God. They slew the lamb. They took
its blood and put it on the doorpost. And that's the very thing that
we do. We believe God, that his judgment and wrath is against
sin. He's appointed unto me and wants
to die, and after that the judgment, God said, I will pass through.
And my wrath and my judgment shall fall, but where I see the
blood, whose blood? That animal blood? No sin. Where
I see the blood, does God have to look for it? No sin. Where
I see the blood is his divine, elect people. who believed him
and looked to Christ. And like those Israelites, they
believed God's warning. They took the lamb and slew it.
They put the blood on the door. That was an act of faith. They
went in the house and sat down. And God passed through. But that
which held back the wrath of God was the blood of Christ,
the blood of Christ our Lord. Verse 8, chapter 12 says this,
verse 8, and they shall eat the flesh in the night when you kill
the lamb, roast it with fire. That shows how our Lord died.
Hanging on that cross, he cried out thirst, or the burning fever
and heat as his wounds were opened. hanging under the judgment of
God, the wrath of God, hot thirst. And when they roasted that lamb
in the fire, it was picturing his sufferings on that cross,
burning, agony. He said, all you that pass by,
is any sorrow like my sorrow? Behold, is any sorrow like my
sorrow with which the Lord hath afflicted me? Look and see. Roast it and make kill that lamb
and cut its blood and put it on the door and then they roasted
it with fire and showed how our Lord suffered and they ate it.
Ate it, took the lamb with him. That picture is receiving Christ.
It's not just believing a doctrine or believing some words. It's actually receiving him. to eat his flesh and drink his
blood. And he says don't eat it with
unleavened bread, no leaven. Leaven is hypocrisy. Eat it in
sincerity, in sincerity, with unleavened bread. And eat it
with bitter herbs, that's repentance. Unleavened bread, which is sincerity,
no pretense. and eat it with the bitter herbs,
which indicates true repentance, sorrow over sin, a deep sense
of sorrow and grief over sin toward God. Eat it with bitter
herbs. Don't eat it raw. Don't eat it
raw. What does that mean? Christ must
suffer. He must be roasted. You can't save us without suffering. Suffer the just for the unjust
that he might bring us to God. It has to be roasted. And not
sodden at all with water. When you eat this lamb, don't
mix it with gravy, don't make it, mix it with gravy, water,
don't make any additions. Nothing but the lamb himself.
It's not Christ and baptism or Christ and my works and Christ
and something else. It's just Christ. just Christ, not mixed with anything,
but roast with fire, and all his head, his legs, with the
pertinence thereof, all of it. And you don't let anything remain
to the morning. When the lamb, this lamb, is
chosen without spot or blemish, kept up, observed, it's It's
a lamb without blemish or spot, it's the right one. So he's slain,
blood shed, put on the door, roasted with fire, don't leave
anything. It's the whole Christ. It's Christ
our prophet, Christ our priest, Christ our king. A person can't
have him as savior and not have him as Lord. It's Christ my hope,
Christ my help, Christ my life, Christ my all. in all of Christ
as he is. We can't divide him up. We can't
separate his sovereignty from his love. We can't separate his
love from his justice. We can't separate his justice
from his righteousness. We can't have a Christ that we
design ourselves and say I don't like this part. I like this part.
I like what the Lord says over here. I don't like what he says
over here. Don't eat anything until the
morning. If you can't consume all of it,
burn it with fire. But don't let anything remain.
It's the whole Christ that redeems, the whole Christ. And what's
this? And eat it with your loins girded,
shoes on your feet, staff on your hand. Eat it in haste. You leave in this place, eat
it dressed and ready to move out. In other words, this is
the end of your sojourn here in Egypt. Egypt is not your home anymore. Pharaoh is not your king anymore. Egypt and its people are not
your companions anymore. You've been redeemed. The Lamb
has died. God's Lamb has delivered you.
God's judgment is on Egypt. I'm coming through tonight. I'm
going to disrupt every home, every life, every person. I'm
going to take away the leadership, the provision, the elder brother,
the influence. I'm going to corrupt them and
twist them and turn them and chaos will reign and rule, but
not you. You get your clothes on, shoes
on your feet. You're leaving that place. When
Christ was crucified, I died to the world and the world died
to me. That's right. We've been translated.
You've been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom
of his dear son. Egypt's not your home anymore. You eat this. When you take this,
you do it with your loins girded, shoes on your feet, staff in
your hand, eat it in haste. It's the Lord's Passover. So it's Passover. We're in a new kingdom, a new commander-in-chief, new
direction. We're leaving here, and we're
going to his kingdom, his land. Verse 12, and what's his assurance? He said, I will. Our assurance is not based on
our wills, it's based on his will. His will, not our will. I read this and then I turned
over and read in Isaiah, Satan's statement, I will be like God.
I will ascend into the heights of the clouds. I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God. I will, I will. No, the Lord said, you'll be
cast down into hell. Now here's the will that gives
us assurance, and here's the will that gives us hope. It's
not our will, it's his will. He said, listen, I will pass
through the land of Egypt this night. I will. And I will smite all the firstborn
of the land of Egypt. I sure will. I will. Both man and beast. against all
the leaders of Egypt. Watch, fourth thing, I will execute
judgment. The Lord will not clear the guilty. He will punish sinners. I will
pass through Egypt. I will smite the firstborn. I will execute judgment. But there's a difference. They
don't have a lamb. They don't have a substitute.
They are sinners just like we are, but we have a substitute.
God put a difference between us and them. What is the difference?
We have a substitute. We have someone to take that
judgment, take that wrath, and take that suffering for us. Verse 13, And
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be to you for a token upon
the houses where you are." This blood is a token of his blood.
And when I see the blood, I will, I will pass over Egypt. Oh, that's a whole lot better,
isn't it? I will pass through Egypt. I will smite the firstborn. I will execute wrath. But when
I see the blood, And you know and I know it's not that animal
blood. It's the blood of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. It's not when I see it, it's
when He sees it. He said when I see the blood, when I see Christ
as your offering, your sin offering, your substitute, I will pass
over you. That's where it gets the name
Passover. You observe this Passover and
somebody asks you what you're doing, it's the Lord's Passover.
He said, Lord, pass over. We were in bondage and sin and
slavery, and his judgment and wrath was upon this world, and
he came through Egypt and destroyed every home, but he passed over
ours because we had a lamb of substitute. He took our place,
and he passed over. Now turn to 1 Corinthians 5. Listen to this. 1 Corinthians
chapter 5. I believe it's verse 7. 1 Corinthians
5 verse 7. Purge out therefore the old leaven
that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened even for even
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. He's our Passover. And when he met with his disciples,
there in Luke 22, where I read a few moments ago, it was to
eat this Passover, which they kept every year, every single
year. And our Lord, the Lamb, met with
his disciples for that last Passover, when they gathered together.
And it was on the very, at the very time when the Passover was
to be slain. And he took the bread, and he
break it. He gave thanks. He gave it to
them. He said now this is my body. My body broken for you. Eat it
like they ate the lamb. Eat it. Take it. Do this in remembrance
of me. I'm your lamb. Then he took the
wine and he blessed it and he handed it to them and said drink
it. This is my blood shed for you. This do in remembrance of
me. No more lamb to be slain and
burned and eaten. That Passover's gone. Here's
the substitute. And all of that was just typical
of him. That's a picture of him. Moses wasn't saved by that blood
on his door out there. He was saved by the blood of
Christ. But he put that blood on the door because he believed
Christ. And we take this, and I'm doing the same thing they
did back then. They were looking to the Christ,
they were remembering the Christ who will come, I'm remembering
the Christ who did come. They were remembering the Lamb
who will come, I'm remembering the Lamb who did come and die.
Substitution took my place in my stead for my sake. And I take that bread and I eat
it. Picture receiving Christ and
that wine I drink it, receiving Christ. That's salvation, substitution.