Judgement & Salvation Go Hand In Hand

[0:00] Exodus chapter 12. If the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons.

[0:36] According to what each can eat, you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

[1:01] Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.

[1:15] Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted with its head, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning, anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.

[1:29] In this manner you shall eat it, with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand. You shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.

[1:40] For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am the Lord.

[1:52] The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood I will pass over you. And no plague shall befall you or destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

[2:04] This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations as a statute forever. You shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.

[2:17] On the first you shall remove leaven out of all your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened from the first day until the seventh, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly.

[2:32] No work shall be done on those days, but what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. For on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt.

[2:46] Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.

[3:00] For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel. Whether he's a sojourner or a native in the land, you shall eat nothing leavened.

[3:14] In all your dwelling places you shall eat nothing. You shall eat unleavened bread. Then Moses called the elders of Israel and said to them, Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans and kill the Passover lamb.

[3:29] Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of this house, of his house, until morning.

[3:41] For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the lintel and the doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

[3:54] You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. When you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he promised, you shall keep this service.

[4:07] And when your children say to you, What do you mean by this service? You shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover. For he passed over the houses of the people of Israel and Egypt when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.

[4:23] And the people bowed their heads and worshipped. Then the people of Israel went and did so. And as the Lord had commanded Moses and Arian, so they did.

[4:33] At midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock.

[4:48] Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead.

[4:59] And then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel, and go. Serve the Lord as you have said.

[5:10] Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also. The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, We shall all die.

[5:25] We shall all be dead. So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up, and their cloaks on their shoulders. The people of Israel had also done as Moses had told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing.

[5:43] And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus, they plundered the Egyptians. And the people of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Succoth, about 600,000 men on foot besides women and children.

[6:01] A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. And they baked unleavened cakes of dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.

[6:20] The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

[6:31] It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them up, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. So this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.

[6:46] Amen. This is God's Word. Well, a lot to take in there. Things have come to a climax.

[6:57] We've gone through all the plagues, and this was the final one. Things have come to a climax, so much so that back in chapter 10, verse 28, at the end of the ninth plague, Pharaoh said to Moses, Get out of my sight.

[7:12] The next time you see my face, you will die. It's got to a snapping point. And at the same time with Moses, in chapter 11, verse 8, it says that he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger after warning him about the firstborn sons.

[7:28] And so Moses and Pharaoh have come to a standoff. And now, it might seem to the Israelites that nothing is working here. None of these plagues, as devastating as they are, nothing is moving Pharaoh from keeping the Israelites.

[7:45] So what difference is this going to make? Pharaoh just won't budge. Yet back in chapter 4, God knew this would happen. Even before Moses returned to Egypt, God said that he would harden Pharaoh's heart so that he wouldn't let Israel go.

[8:01] And God knew it would come to this, and he said, Then you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, Let my son go, that he may serve me.

[8:12] If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son. Well, we're now at a point when Pharaoh has refused to let God's son go. All that's left is God to fulfill his promise that God will kill Pharaoh's firstborn son.

[8:30] Now, a very quick note, it's worth noting this statement, firstborn son, doesn't necessarily mean children, like little kids. A firstborn is a firstborn all their life.

[8:41] So we mustn't automatically think this is just about killing children. My big brother's a firstborn son. Anyone here firstborn? Put your hands up if you're firstborn. There we go. Watch out.

[8:54] It was about the status, the status and the importance of a firstborn son in this context. The heir to the throne of Egypt, his life was at stake here.

[9:08] Now, if you were here last week, you remember me saying that I reckoned that the Pharaoh of the Exodus could be Amenhotep II. It's just my thoughts on a lot of research that other people have done.

[9:22] There's actually historical artifacts that tell us that the next Pharaoh was one of, after Amenhotep II, the next Pharaoh was one of his sons, but not his firstborn because his firstborn had died.

[9:36] And that's in history. And so it's a good thing. It's not a coincidence. Whoever the Pharaoh was, that is exactly what we would expect. Anyway, I wonder what the Israelites were thinking at this point.

[9:50] Is anything going to work? Is anything going to budge Pharaoh? You know, you think if God kills his firstborn son, that's going to surely make him madder. It's not going to let him, make him let the people go.

[10:04] I wonder if they were even bothered now because they've been living the life in Goshen. Nothing of the plagues have been bothering them. Perhaps they weren't working as much now, making bricks and stuff, while the Egyptians were suffering plague after plague.

[10:21] The Israelites were probably being more and more feared by the Egyptians and they were living in comfort. I wonder what they were thinking. Perhaps they enjoyed this change of circumstance, but I wonder if they doubted if any of these plagues were going to make Pharaoh budge.

[10:39] The surprise is, while they were expecting another plague, certainly Israel were not expecting a Passover. Passover. They weren't expecting this.

[10:50] All the other plagues they had been protected from, yet this one is different. And so what we're going to do is we're going to look at this in three parts. We're going to look at the Passover, the plague, and the promise.

[11:03] And so the Passover, this whole big section, where all the other plagues have been focused on what has been said to the Egyptians and to Pharaoh, this time there's a turning towards Israel and there's a lot of instruction.

[11:16] A lot of instruction. So here we have this moment where the Hebrews are expecting this other plague, but Moses turns to them and says, listen guys, we're going to have a new year, we're going to change the calendar.

[11:30] What? What are you talking about, Moses? Well, it's going to be a new beginning. This is the moment. This is the moment of a new beginning. And Israel would have been like, oh great, New Year celebrations in March.

[11:44] We love it. How are we going to celebrate? Are we going to paint the town red? No, you're going to paint your doorpost red with blood. What? This is what you're going to do to celebrate the new year, Israel.

[11:57] You're going to sacrifice a lamb, one for every household. There's going to be utterly thousands of lambs killed. Now, does that ring any bells?

[12:10] I want you to cast your mind back to chapter 8 because this poses a real problem for Israel. Back in chapter 8 after the plague of flies, Pharaoh said to Moses, okay, go and sacrifice within the land.

[12:25] And Moses said, no, I'm not falling for it. It wouldn't be right to do so for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord are an abomination to the Egyptians.

[12:36] If we do this, then the Egyptians will stone us for doing this. Now God is asking them to do it in the sight of all the Egyptians.

[12:48] Sacrifice all these lambs. This is posing a real problem. Here we have a dilemma. Pharaoh has told Moses that if he sees his face again, he's dead. And Moses already said that if we do this kind of sacrifice in Egypt, we could be stoned.

[13:03] Yet God has told the entire nation, every single house, there's not a house that's getting out of this, to do something that everyone else will find highly offensive.

[13:17] Highly offensive. It could lead to them being stoned. The question is, are the Hebrews going to worry about Pharaoh and the Egyptians or are they going to listen to the Lord their God?

[13:28] What are they going to do? Who has proven their words to be true? Pharaoh's threat? Next time you see my face, I'm going to kill you. Well, how has Pharaoh's threats and words panned out in the past?

[13:42] He can't keep his word. But every time God says something, he keeps his word. And so the Israelites, are they going to listen to Yahweh because he's the one that's proven his word to be true? Who has proven themselves to be more feared?

[13:56] Pharaoh, the Egyptians, or Yahweh? Yahweh has proven himself to be the one that should be feared in all of this. And who has proven themselves trustworthy to save?

[14:10] Is it not Yahweh? Now, I'm getting ahead of myself here, but Jesus Christ is our Passover Lamb. He is the one who changes our calendar.

[14:20] It's not his blood and his cross an offense to the world. Is that not the same thing? Christians have already, throughout the centuries, been killed for doing this thing.

[14:35] You think about the Israelites. If we do this sacrifice, if we trust in this blood of the Lamb, we could be killed for this. Well, this has been the case for Christians for hundreds of years.

[14:48] Trusting in the blood of Christ, looking to the cross, could get you killed. But who are you going to fear? Are you going to fear man? Are you going to fear God? You see, people in general will accept, no matter their religion or whatever, people will accept a man being killed.

[15:07] You know, a historical person being put to death, even if his death was undeserved. People will accept that. Jesus died on a cross, we accept that. You know, he was a good man, he was unjustly punished, they were bad back then.

[15:23] But as soon as you say that Jesus is the Lamb of God who has been sacrificed for the sins of the world, people have a problem with that. Then you begin to offend people. Now this, this is a real problem for Israel.

[15:37] They have been asked to do something that will be highly offensive to Egypt. Could get them stoned, what are they going to do? Even today, there are people around the world that if they trust in the blood of Jesus, they might be killed.

[15:53] today, they might be killed for that. If they turn to Christ, they might be killed. But who are you going to trust? Are you going to trust man or God? Who are you going to fear? Man or God?

[16:04] Who is going to save you? Man? Idols? The ram-headed God Amun-Re? The powerful God of the sun in Egypt?

[16:15] Are you going to trust him to save you? Who can rescue us? Who can rescue the world from slavery to sin and darkness? As Paul says, who will deliver me from this body of death?

[16:30] That's the question that we should be asking. We shouldn't be asking, should I do this? I might be killed. Well, we need delivered from death anyway. And who's going to deliver us from death? Any man on earth?

[16:43] Or is it the Lord himself? When God promises a deliverance, he delivers. Even, and actually most often when it looks impossible.

[16:56] It's worth noting that any reservations that people have about trusting in God, they are reservations because of a fear of consequence, not because of a lack of evidence or a lack of trustworthiness on God's part.

[17:09] God has shown himself to be trustworthy to the Israelites. And all the plagues, God has shown that he can do what he says he's going to do. And even for us today, God has proven himself to be trustworthy.

[17:24] He doesn't, God never requires someone to take a complete leap of faith into blind faith. He has shown himself to be trustworthy. He requires a response.

[17:36] And so the Hebrews might have some reservations about sacrificing lambs, but God is going to require their trust if they are to be delivered. Think about this.

[17:46] As soon as they go out of the land, at every step of the way, God is going to require trust. Do you trust me? And so this is a great test for them. It's like Moses on the way to Egypt and they had to circumcise his son and he had to trust in the blood.

[18:02] Are you going to trust God? Now, there is another twist in the story. After all these plagues that don't affect the Hebrews, this plague is completely indiscriminate.

[18:16] The distinction here is not made between ethnicities. The distinction is not made between who is in Goshen and who is not. The distinction is not even made between who is oppressed and who is the oppressor.

[18:32] The distinction in this plague, the only distinction, is who trusts in the blood of the Lamb and who does not. That's the only distinction.

[18:44] Who's welcome to trust in the Lamb? Anyone. Who's going to? That's the distinction. So, I was thinking about this, I was reading about this and I was thinking, can you think of a time in your life when you've been passed over for something?

[19:00] I don't know what it's like wherever you grew up, but for me, things like the school football team, you just don't get picked. the school dance, they did this horrible thing when I was in school where all the girls lined up there and all the guys lined up there and then they had to go up and pick and then someone like me would be left like, oh, nobody's picking me to dance with me.

[19:23] Times in your life you've been passed over for something. Maybe it's a promotion. Maybe it's an opportunity. Whatever it is, this moment, this is something that you really would want to be passed over because the Lord is visiting every single house, whether it's Hebrew, Egyptian, the Lord's visiting every single house and only those that have blood on their doorposts will be passed over.

[19:51] There's something revealing in this, isn't there? There's something revealing about sin and death that it's universal. It doesn't matter if you're a Hebrew or an Egyptian. It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from.

[20:02] There's a universality about sin and death and the only way to be passed over is by the blood of an innocent lamb. The only way, a spotless, innocent lamb, a sacrifice, a substitute.

[20:17] Something about salvation, universal clause in salvation is the only way to be saved is through the blood of a spotless lamb.

[20:28] Suddenly, the Hebrews find themselves under this threat, same threat that Egypt's under, what a shock. You see, God is showing Israel at this moment that their salvation costs something.

[20:42] Salvation doesn't come free. It just so happens that we don't need to pay the price. But salvation costs something. Something very precious.

[20:53] It isn't free to the Israelites and neither is it owed. It's not owed to the Israelites. Salvation comes at a price. The innocent lifeblood of another. Why is this?

[21:05] Why is this the case for every single one of us? Well, this was true back in Genesis. Back in Genesis, right at the beginning, there was one command with a consequence. Only one command with a consequence.

[21:17] And the result of disobeying that command was what? Death. Adam and Eve were given one command with a consequence. And the consequence of disobeying that was death.

[21:29] They had access to life. They had access to every kind of good thing. The one thing they weren't to do is the one thing they did do. And when they did it, they immediately come under the sentence of death.

[21:46] Now, I wonder if you've ever asked yourself this with Adam and Eve. You know that command, the day that you shall eat of this, you shall die. Surely. Surely. But they didn't, did they?

[21:57] They didn't die that day. Why did they not die that day? Why did they live on? I mean, they eventually did die, but didn't God say that it would be that very day, the day that they would eat of it, that they would die?

[22:08] Why didn't they die? Well, you have this moment where God turns up and they've got these fig leaves, they've made these outfits, I mean, Deborah, I'm sure you can make a fantastic dress out of fig leaves and stuff like that.

[22:23] But God turns up, finds out what's happened and what does he do? What does he clothe them with? He clothes them with skin. And where did he get that skin from?

[22:35] See, for the first time, death happens. And it just so happens that it's not the death of Adam and Eve, it's the death of something else to cover them up. Isn't that interesting? Even in the garden, the life of an innocent animal had to be sacrificed to cover the death of another.

[22:53] God must be true to his word. His word cannot fail, but he is merciful and gracious. God is both just and merciful. Now, in 1227, skipping forward, it's said in chapter 1227 of Exodus, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover.

[23:15] This lamb is a sacrifice. It's not just an offering, it's a sacrifice. This was to show Israel that it wasn't just about salvation from Egypt, but salvation from sin.

[23:28] This is pointing to something deeper of which Egypt was just an outward expression of. These plagues, remember, were called great acts of judgment. Just as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were the front face of it, who was really being judged was the gods of Egypt.

[23:47] Also, just as slavery was the front face of it, what they were really being rescued from was sin. That's what it's pointing to. This Exodus is pointing to something deeper, a deeper issue and problem for humanity.

[24:02] And so notice this, in this account, whether you're Israelite, whether you're Hebrew, no matter who you are, nobody, not one single person in this account is innocent. Nobody's innocent in this account.

[24:15] The payment for their ransom must be paid, and atonement for their sin must be made. And yet, while judgment will fall on everyone in order for God to be just, God will provide a way for his mercy.

[24:30] Judgment will fall on everyone because God is just, but he provides a way for mercy. Now, this fact that the judgment will fall on a substitute, this is pregnant with meaning and significance, especially to the Israelites, it should remind them and point them back to Isaac.

[24:51] If you know the story of Isaac, when Abraham was told to take Isaac, who was really his only son, forget Ishmael because that was on Abraham's efforts, Isaac was the son of promise.

[25:05] On Isaac hung all the promises of God, and therefore, when God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the question is, well, how's God going to fulfill his promise if Isaac's dead?

[25:17] And so, Hebrews says that Abraham reckoned that God would raise him from the dead, because he's learned that God will fulfill his promise. It doesn't matter if it looks impossible. Isaac was told to be offered.

[25:33] The whole promise rested on the son of the promise. It all rested on Isaac, and at this moment in Exodus, the whole promise of God rests on Israel's survival.

[25:49] If Israel do not survive and go out of the land, then God is shown to be a liar. So he must, he must provide a way.

[26:01] Like Isaac, a lamb must be provided. That's what Abraham said to Isaac, wasn't it? When Isaac, I think about that moment. If you've ever had a kid, you know, or something, you know, you'd see, and Abraham's walking up with Isaac, fun daddy son trip, and Isaac's like, hey, dad, where's the lamb?

[26:24] We've forgotten something here. Don't worry, son. God will provide a lamb. Hey, dad, why are you tying me up? It's heart-wrenching. But God had a plan, and this was to show something significant.

[26:40] Isaac wasn't going to be harmed. Abraham replied, sorry, I'm getting caught in the throat there thinking about that. God will provide for himself a lamb for the burnt offering, my son.

[26:53] He will. God will provide a lamb. God is going to provide this. Now, this is where it gets interesting. Abraham is about to sacrifice his son, but the angel of the Lord calls him to stop, and then a ram is provided by God, and Abraham names the place.

[27:08] Does anyone remember what Abraham names the place? The Lord will provide. And so the Hebrew word for provide there is actually see. The Lord will see. And so this is picked up in something called the Michilta, an ancient commentary on Exodus by Rabbi Ishmael.

[27:27] Not Isaac's brother. A guy called Rabbi Ishmael takes this up when he's doing a commentary on Exodus chapter 13, chapter 12, verse 13.

[27:38] Look at verse 13 of chapter 12. It says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. This is God. When I see the blood on the doorpost, I will pass over.

[27:51] And so Rabbi Ishmael says this. What did he see? What was it that God saw? And he says something interesting. He says, the blood of the binding of Isaac.

[28:02] That's what he saw. And so then he quotes Genesis 22, where Abraham said, the Lord will see. That's what he called a place, the Lord will see. And he's saying this is what he saw.

[28:14] And he also quotes 1 Chronicles 21, 15. And this is the moment when David has taken a census and then disaster, plague strikes the nation.

[28:25] And the Lord is going to wipe out and destroy Jerusalem. And just before he's about to destroy Jerusalem, it says in 1 Chronicles 21, 15, but as he was about to destroy, the Lord saw.

[28:39] And he relented of the plague. Interesting. No plague shall befall you. And there was the angel, the destroyer. And God said, no, it's enough. It's enough.

[28:50] It's all right. These things are the same. The blood of Isaac, which he didn't really shed any blood. But the Lord saw and there was an angel. All these things in common.

[29:02] Abraham, Isaac, the Hebrews in Egypt, and Jerusalem in David's census. There's a threat of death. The Lord sees. The angel stops. And each person is averted from death.

[29:16] Sacrifice is made. A ransom is paid. Interestingly, if you want to look at the time of David's census and the plague that fell, have a look at Exodus 30.

[29:29] Exodus 30 talks about blood for a sin offering for atonement. And then it mentions that whenever a census is taken, a ransom must be paid.

[29:40] So that each person must be counted. When you are counted, this is the idea. When you are counted, you are to acknowledge that you are only alive and numbered only by the grace of God.

[29:52] A ransom must be paid when you're counted. because you must acknowledge to God that you're only alive and counted because of the grace of God. And so, your sin has been atoned by another.

[30:07] Your ransom has been paid by God. There's this bigger picture going on. The Passover lamb pointed back to Isaac, and the memorial of their deliverance from Egypt was going to be remembered forever.

[30:22] And the Jews will look back to Isaac at this moment. But what they don't see in Isaac is that he points towards Christ. He points towards Jesus. You see, there must be an atonement made and a ransom paid.

[30:35] And the idea is that our salvation comes from the Lord, and it comes at a price. The price for Isaac was one for one. The price for Egypt on Passover was one per household.

[30:48] Thousands of innocent and spotless lambs would have been killed that night. Josephus, when talking about the Passover and Jesus' day, Josephus reckons there would have been some 256,500 lambs killed at Passover.

[31:08] A quarter of a million lambs killed at Passover. One for every household. Hebrews 9.22 says, without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins.

[31:21] Yet Hebrews 10.4 also says, it's actually impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away any sins. There is a lamb. There is a lamb whose blood can take away sin.

[31:35] And this time, it's not a lamb one for one. It's not a lamb per household. It's a lamb. One lamb for the whole world. One lamb for the whole world.

[31:47] As John the Baptist says in John 1.29, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's Jesus Christ. Jesus. Jesus himself said in Mark 10, the son of man came to give his life as a ransom for many.

[32:03] And Peter says in his first letter, you were ransomed. Not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Like a lamb without blemish or spot.

[32:17] There is one lamb per household in this moment. But it's pointing towards a time when there will be one lamb for the entire world. Now think about this. The lamb had to be inspected.

[32:29] It's got to be without blemish. Can't have any blemish or spot on it. Go and pick a lamb on the 10th day. Take it in. Inspect it. Keep it. On the 14th day, it will be killed.

[32:40] Now, this question stopped me. Can you imagine if it were us that were inspected?

[32:52] Can you imagine that? Let's go and see if you've got any spots or blemishes. But this is often how humans think, isn't it? Throughout cultures and generations, throughout the world and throughout the ages, we have this view that we would fare better than we actually would in such an inspection.

[33:15] Good people go to heaven. That's what we would say. But we forget about the inspection line. We forget the criteria. Well, that's fair.

[33:26] You know, you might have less spots than this other person, but you need to be without spot or blemish. Do you have any spots or blemish? Even one under your arm?

[33:36] Whatever it is. Man, I am so glad that it's not me that needs to be inspected. See, when you stand before God, will you not be glad if it's not you that gets inspected, but someone else?

[33:51] A lamb without blemish has been inspected on your behalf, so you're free to go in. What a joy. What a joy. In Galatians 2, 21, Paul, in effect, says, if righteousness were possible through our own efforts and our own deeds, then Christ died for no purpose.

[34:08] And what he is saying is it was necessary for Christ to die because each and every one of us are not without blemish or spot. Thank God he not only inspects the lamb and not us, but thank God that he provides a lamb without and blemish.

[34:23] As Peter says in 1 Peter 2, 22, Jesus committed no sin, neither was there deceit found in his mouth. John, his friend, also says he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there was no sin.

[34:40] How does Jesus fare in the inspection? He's without blemish. Just like the Passover lamb, Jesus was inspected, selected, and killed.

[34:52] Think about this. We've just came through Easter. The Jewish council put him on trial and inspected him, didn't they? And Jesus himself said, if there's any wrong in me, name it.

[35:05] Anything that I've said that's wrong, name it. And they couldn't. They had to bring in false witnesses. And then Christ was taken before the Romans. Jesus was taken before the Romans, and even Pilate, the governor, said, in him I find no guilt.

[35:21] There's nothing wrong with this guy. I find no guilt in him, said Pilate. Jesus is being inspected just before he's killed, and he's found to be without spot or blemish.

[35:34] Back in John 11, even Caiaphas, the high priest said, it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.

[35:50] But the thing is, he wasn't chosen by these evil men. He was chosen before the foundations of the earth by the Father. And when he died, he died willingly.

[36:01] No bones could be broken. No bones would be broken of Christ. That's why it says in Exodus that this lamb can't break any of his bones, because it points towards Christ.

[36:15] And why can't Jesus' bones be broken? Why can't his bones be broken? Because when you're crucified, especially at Passover, the death needs to be quick.

[36:26] You need to get the people down off the cross. And the only way to do that, because death on a crucifix is through asphyxiation. You basically suffocate.

[36:39] And it's a slow, slow process. People would be on the cross for days. But at this time of the year, it couldn't happen. We need to get them off the cross. And the only way you're going to hurry up that process is by breaking their legs so that they can't breathe.

[36:52] But if someone broke Jesus' legs, then it would be said that they killed him and he didn't die willingly. But no, he gave his life willingly. Nobody took it from him. Is that not what Jesus says in John 10?

[37:06] No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father. His sacrifice was an offering he made of himself.

[37:18] Hebrews 10, 12 says, When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. How are we doing?

[37:30] Are we getting there? Are we following? It's difficult. There's a lot of information, a number of details in this account. But the big picture here is that judgment and salvation go hand in hand.

[37:44] God is the one who provides salvation. Only God, and it comes at a price. And so we trust in God. God is just and merciful. We'll see more of this when God's character is revealed in the glory to Moses.

[37:59] God is revealed in both judgment and salvation because God is God the just and God the merciful. There's all sorts of things going on here about, you know, you can't boil it, you need to roast it, all that kind of stuff.

[38:16] We don't have time to go through everything, but one of the ideas was that it was roasted like a trial by fire. Everything is burned off.

[38:27] It's the judgment. You know, someone else has been judged and not you. Another question is the unleavened bread. Why is there so much about this unleavened bread? Some scholars think that this just doesn't fit in this passage.

[38:41] It was added in or something. But what's the thing about this unleavened bread? Well, here's the point. Leaven was seen as, often seen as sin.

[38:54] A little tiny, tiny, tiny bit in the batch can affect the whole batch. And so they were to clear everything out. All traces of this were to be gone.

[39:05] Because if they are to be saved, they are also to be sanctified, aren't they? And so it is the Lamb, it's the death and blood of the Lamb that saves them. But what are they saved for?

[39:17] They are saved to become more and more free from sin. Especially as a new nation. They need to be without sin, without being affected by things like the sins of the other nations.

[39:31] Especially if they are to be the ones that bring salvation to all other nations. A nation, a holy nation, aren't they? They're said to be a holy nation. And so they need to be made holy.

[39:44] Again, we see this in Hebrews 10, for by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. See the connection between the Lamb and the bread?

[39:56] Salvation and sanctification. Paul says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 5. He says, Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you are really unleavened.

[40:08] For Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate and festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

[40:23] This newness, holiness. But the other thing, one of the questions I was asking myself was, we're going to celebrate communion.

[40:33] Jesus says, Remember me in this way. If He is the Lamb that was sacrificed, why have we not to remember His body and His flesh with the Lamb? Why bread and not lamb?

[40:48] Well, the idea is that sacrifice has been made. There will be no more sacrifice. Once and one time only, for all time, a sacrifice has been made.

[41:00] We're not going to sacrifice every year again to remember this, because the sacrifice, the lambs were pointing to the true Lamb. What use would it be going back to actual lambs when the true Lamb has come?

[41:12] And so, we take bread now to remember Jesus, not lambs, not kebabs. And so, at the end of this section, the people bow their heads and they worship, and this is what they're rescued to.

[41:27] They're rescued to worship God. And this is what we see. And so, the plague finally happens in Egypt, and this is going to be very quick. Can you imagine the cry?

[41:39] Can you imagine the cry that went throughout the nation? Moses said prior to this happening, there will be a cry throughout Egypt like there has never been or never will be ever again. A cry throughout Egypt.

[41:52] And think about this, if you're an Israelite in your house, you know, sitting with the blood of the Lamb just wondering, eating this meal with your jacket on, with your shoes on, with your belt fastened, ready to go, nervous, because God is going to come and you're like, is this blood really going to save us?

[42:12] Really? And then you begin to hear cries throughout the land. You begin to hear a wailing going on in your neighbors. How terrible. You know, the people would have not just been celebrating in victory, oh, finally, but they would have been with awe and fear and probably sorrow, because the Lord takes no pleasure in death, even the death of the wicked.

[42:34] Now, I wonder if there would have been any friendships or any relationships of any kind between an Israelite family and an Egyptian family, someone you knew down the road, somebody's died in their house.

[42:46] You know, this little person or one of their kids or whatever, somebody's died. There wasn't a house where nobody died. Somebody died. And you're hearing this. And you know that the only reason there was not a death in your house was not because of anything you did, but because of the blood of the Lamb.

[43:07] Not because of your ethnicity, not because of your morality, but simply because there was blood on your doorposts. That's the only reason my death didn't come at your house. Now, imagine realizing that as you begin to hear these cries going throughout Egypt.

[43:22] And the only difference between you and them is this blood on your doorposts. And you see, you see how sin, sin affects other people more than we ever know. The sin of Pharaoh.

[43:35] Remember, if you don't let my son go, I will kill your firstborn son. And Pharaoh's only thinking of himself. Really, he's only thinking of himself, his own interests, his own glory, his own pride.

[43:48] And yet, his sin brought disaster and death on the entire nation. His sin affected everyone in his nation. What a disgrace. What a terrible thing.

[44:01] And the only difference is this blood. That's the only reason why there wasn't death for Israel. And how many of us, how many of us are on the one hand so grateful and relieved for the blood of Jesus that prevents that for us, but on the other hand, we have someone in our family or a neighbor or a friend who doesn't have that blood in their doorposts?

[44:25] What does that mean for them? Because you know in the one hand you will be passed over. Glory and praise and thanks to God that you will be passed over. But you know that if they don't have this blood, they will not be passed over.

[44:39] You see, the Passover is so important because each house, every person, will be visited. The only thing that will prevent death and judgment is the blood of the Lamb. The only way to be passed over is by the blood of the Lamb.

[44:52] And if we knew, if we knew that a night like this was coming, how serious would we take the blood of the Lamb? And if we knew that a night like this was coming, how much more would we tell our neighbors about the blood of this Lamb?

[45:09] Because there is a night coming. There is a night coming in which every person will need the Passover Lamb. Finally, the promise.

[45:20] everything that God said that He would do is beginning to happen. And so, I want to quickly just run through some of these passages from Genesis.

[45:32] Genesis chapter 15. God said, but I know for certain that your offspring, and He said this to Abraham, know for certain that your offspring will be foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and they will be servants and slaves there.

[45:46] They will be afflicted for 400 years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possession. This is happening now.

[45:58] Judgment has been brought on the nation, and they are coming out with great possession. Gold and silver and clothing. God is fulfilling His promise. And then if you go to Genesis 46.

[46:09] Genesis 46 is when Joseph was in Egypt, and Jacob is told to go down to Egypt, and God said to Jacob, I am God, I am the God of your fathers, do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.

[46:26] He did that. And I myself will go down with you to Egypt. Exodus 3, God is coming down, and I will also bring you up again. God is doing that.

[46:39] Go to Genesis chapter 50. You see, we all know, we all know Genesis 50, what you meant for evil, God meant for good, but a few lines later, it says this, Jacob says this to his brothers, I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land.

[46:59] And God is doing that. God is doing that. He's fulfilling everything that He's promised. Exodus 3, chapter 3, verse 8, I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up, to bring them out, and God is beginning to do that.

[47:19] Or Exodus chapter 6, verse 1, Now you will see what I shall do to Pharaoh. Oh, did they see? Oh, did they see? And with a strong hand He will send them out, and with a strong hand He will drive them out of this land.

[47:35] And guess who comes with a strong hand? Pharaoh, saying, Get out. Get out. Move. Go. Every one of you, go. Or verse 6 of chapter 6, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out of from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment.

[48:01] Has God not just done that? And yet we know that God goes on to say more things, to promise more things. See how God fulfilled all of these, but if you know, God promised more things to them, to the land in which they were going, the things that were coming to them.

[48:20] And so, think about where we are, just to end this. Appreciate you've been holding on as long as you can. Think about where we sit in history. It's like this point in Exodus.

[48:34] You know, while there will be a day of reckoning, a Passover lamb has been offered for the whole world. One lamb, one sacrifice, one for all people and for all time has already came and been offered and sacrificed for the world.

[48:52] Blood has been shed for the world to trust. And if we've already seen and experienced him coming down and his rescuing us out of sin and darkness and slavery, then the question is where we sit in history, how much more will he take us to where he said he was taking us?

[49:15] The land of promise. How much more is God going to fulfill the promises that have yet to come? Because there are promises, isn't there? Promises that we are holding.

[49:26] If you're not a Christian, you need the blood of this lamb and if you are, you need the assurance of his promise. In my father's house there are many rooms.

[49:36] If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am you may be also.

[49:50] That is a promise still to be fulfilled, but we have seen him fulfill other promises so we can completely rely on that promise. or as it says, and let me finish with this, in Titus chapter 2, Titus chapter 2, the grace of God has appeared.

[50:12] The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people. And then Paul goes on to write, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, just like the Israelites, but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration, which is the blood, and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that by being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

[50:53] Folks, we can trust fully in the blood and we can trust fully and the promises yet to come, for God is faithful. Salvation comes from him and it comes at a price, and thank God that Christ paid that price for us.

[51:07] Let me pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the assurance of your faithfulness, for the assurance of your promise, for the assurance of your word, and for the assurance of the salvation that only comes through your Son, Jesus.

[51:21] for you have shown us, even in the Exodus for the Israelites, of the great things that you will do, both acts of great judgment and acts of mercy, that are both perfectly seen in the cross of Christ.

[51:38] We thank you. Help us to trust fully in the blood of Christ and help us to trust in the promise yet to come, for you are faithful to do this. Amen. Amen. Amen.