Amen. We turn as we continue to work through the book of Exodus to Exodus chapter 13. And the journey has just begun. Looking back at 12 verse 37, the people of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Sukkoth, about 600,000 men on foot besides women and children, a mixed multitude also. And the people of God have some further instructions from the Lord in Exodus 13. It's page 70, and the Bible is under the seats. We'll be reading and considering the first 16 verses of this chapter. Let us hear the very Word of God, Exodus chapter 13, beginning at verse 1. The Lord said to Moses, Consecrate to Me all the firstborn. Whatever is first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is Mine. Then Moses said to the people, Remember this day in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. For by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. Today, in the month of Aviv, you are going out. And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord Unleavened bread shall be in for seven days. No leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. You shall tell your son on that day, it is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt. And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand, and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord might be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year. When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's. Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall also redeem. And when in time to come your son asks you, what does this mean? You shall say to him, by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first opened the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem. It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt." So far the reading. The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, I do not know the story of every person in Wupon, very far from it. But for members of this, our community, our town, who I have been able to speak to about spiritual things, this pattern is common. That they were born in a family that attended church. They were baptized. They were involved in church growing up to one degree or another, sometimes more, sometimes less. But that now they are no longer in the visible Church of God. They are no longer part of God's visible people. They are no longer in church at all. And then there's various reasons for this. Maybe it's, you know, some word about disliking the church itself. Maybe it's a direct, I don't believe in God anymore. Maybe it's something kind of in between. Oh, I think God still exists. I still read the Bible once in a while. I don't think there's any book like the Bible. I just not in church. Now if we move from the anecdotes of some personal conversations that I've had in this town to some statistics about our state as a whole, these are not at all isolated conversations. A Barna group, which is one of the statistics and trends groups, they did a study in the year 2003 in the state of Wisconsin. And they asked every adult in the state of Wisconsin this question. Have you been in church at least one time in the last month? And 80% of people in 2003 said yes. 80% of adults in the state of Wisconsin said, yes, I've been in church at least once in the last month. In 2019, so this is before COVID. And I think we can say that there are less people in church after COVID than before COVID. In 2019, the same study group asked the same question to the same group of people. Barnard Group Study, they asked adults in Wisconsin, have you been in church at least once in the last month? Less than 50% of people said yes. It went from 80% to less than 50% in about 15 years. And again, I think we can say it's even less now. Now, some people who were not adults at the first study were adults at the second study. Some people who were adults at the first study passed away. So exactly how many people is that? Well, that's hard to say. But we're talking about at least hundreds of thousands of people. who are no longer part of Christ's visible church. People of God, we do not live in an unchurched state. Most people have been baptized, have spent part of their life as part of the visible people of God. But we live in an increasingly dramatically increasingly de-churched state and de-churched city. This, brothers and sisters, is a reminder of one of the leavens of sin that we must be aware of. It is a reminder of the call to steadfast faith. 2003 to 2019, it's about 15 years. Where will you be in 15 years? Where will you be in 30 years? Where will you be, if you are still living, in 45 years, in 60 years? God calls us to steadfast faith. One of the easiest to see visible fruits of that. Now there can be some, right, who are not in church because of health reasons. Really that's the only reason to not be in church for a whole month. You shouldn't have an ox in the ditch. for a whole month. That would be a sign of spiritual laziness. We are called to steadfast, continued faith. And the Word of God speaks to us of this in many ways. And in our text, there is a call to continued, continued remembrance of God's deliverance. Remember it. Remember it on special occasions. Remember it annually. Make the law of God to be that which is on your lips, which is on the tip of your tongue daily. This is the charge of our text. This is our theme this morning. Continually or steadfastly remember God's deliverance. And in our text here that comes with instructions about two things, some further instructions about the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we'll look at that in our second point, instruction about newness, the newness which putting away leaven symbolized, but also with a whole new ceremonial law which God established on this day, the new ceremonial law of the consecration of the firstborn, both of man and beast. That's our first point, instructions about consecration, redemption, instruction about this consecration of the firstborn. Well as we hear the call to continued remembrance of God's deliverance, there's this new ceremonial law about consecration. What is consecration? What does it mean to consecrate something? Well to consecrate is to set it apart in a special way. to set it apart as holy. And this is specifically to God. Listen to the emphasis in the text on how this is consecration to the Lord. And it emphasizes God's ownership over all things. And look at verse 2. Consecrate to me all the firstborn. And then the last words of that verse. Both of man and beast is mine. And then again in verse 12, you shall set apart to the Lord all the first to open the womb, all the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's. This is a new ceremony. It's to the Lord. It emphasizes God's ownership and it had two basic parts to it. It had an annual animal consecration and then an occasional human consecration. The annual animal consecrations, when would they occur? When are most domesticated animals born? In the spring. Which is one of the reasons why, you might say, wait a second, I can see how the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover, I see how that ties to the Exodus. I can see how the consecration, okay, because the firstborn and the sacrifice, but wait, what's all going on here? It's more than that. It's that this is going to happen in the same time of year as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Because this is the month of Aviv. This is the month of spring. This is the time of new life and new flowers and new growth and the new birth of animals. And so annually, you're going to have this animal consecration. This is another annual reminder in the springtime of our call to honor God. In this way, specifically, this new ceremonial law, every firstborn male animal, verse 12, is to be sacrificed. The only exception is if it is an unclean animal, like a donkey, then you can't sacrifice it. So you have the sacrifice of a clean animal, like a lamb, instead. But if anybody's out there looking for loopholes, or if anybody who has a donkey genuinely does not own a sheep, which would be unusual. Donkeys are rarer and more expensive. But if anybody had a donkey and no sheep, then You can't sacrifice the donkey with a blood sacrifice, but there still needs to be death, so verse 13, you break the donkey's neck. There was also an occasional human consecration. Now here, there is no death. This was not a sacrifice. This was a redemption. There was a redemption price in Luke 2. the parents of Jesus take Jesus to Jerusalem for this. He was the firstborn son. There is no death in the human consecration in that special redemption which would be done occasionally on the birth of a firstborn son. Now this is, what do we have? We have We have both an emphasis upon death, because the animals had to be sacrificed, and an emphasis upon life and being spared from death. Because the firstborn sons are not put to death. It is very clear, they are redeemed. All of this is a reminder, the firstborn sons have this symbolic place, but it really stands for all of the people of God. Turn back a few pages to Exodus chapter 4, and the language of this whole battle between Egypt and Israel, between Pharaoh and the Lord God. It is expressed to Moses as he's just beginning his journey down to Egypt. It's expressed as a battle between the firstborn. And all of the people of God are called God's firstborn. Hear this language that God gave to Moses back in Exodus 4, verses 22 and 23. 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. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son. So brothers and sisters, there's teaching about death in this consecration of the firstborn, both man and beast. There's teaching about being spared from death. There's teaching about life and deliverance. There's emphasis on God's ownership of all things. God is the creator of all things. But more than that, there's more specifically than that, this is a new ceremonial law which is another way that we are taught about God's salvation of his people. about God's special relationship to his people. I delivered you, my firstborn son, and now you are to have this new ceremonial law whenever there is a birth of a firstborn son and this new sacrifice whenever there is the birth of a first male animal. God continues to show so beautifully, so repeatedly, So, varyingly, His grace. He calls us to a continual remembrance of His deliverance. And He teaches us that beautifully, varyingly, repeatedly in the New Testament. He does it repeatedly, varyingly, beautifully in the Old Testament, including with all of these different signs and ceremonies. And brothers and sisters, they all We know this. They all take us to Jesus Christ. We see it so clearly here. What does God say? Your firstborn son, he does not have to die. Even as with the consecration of the firstborn animals, I'm reminding you of how necessary it is to have the spilling of blood and to have death. Where does it all come together? When God sends His own Son. God the Father who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life. And when God sent His own Son, yes, He fulfilled this ceremonial law as an infant when Joseph and Mary took Him to the temple, He also died. The language of the Apostle Paul in Romans 8, verse 22, God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. The life and the death, it all comes together in God's only begotten Son, whom He did not spare, but who died so that we might have life. So even though we don't carry out this ceremonial law anymore, if you do own animals, you don't have to sacrifice the first born male animal. But it takes us to Christ. And even just to see this law is to see, again, the repeated and beautiful ways in which God gives us the gospel, which we are to continue And this ceremonial law for the first Old Testament people, and this was continual, right? You did this for the firstborn son. That was only occasional. You only have the birth of a firstborn son every so often. Once in every family or sometimes less if there's no children or no sons. But the firstborn male animals, if you own any animals, that's coming all the time. That's coming with some frequency. And so there's blood spilling all the time. And so the children are in the house. And it's given to us through the father-son paradigm. But there's language of instruction here, which that's just a paradigm. This was to be fathers and mothers were to teach all of their sons and daughters this. And in the time, verse 14, when your son asks you, what does this mean? You continually. remind and instruct and teach about the deliverance of God. What does this mean? We do this because He has delivered us. We do this because He brought us out of Egypt. Yes, there was death involved. He killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. There was also life, but the firstborn of my sons I redeemed. and deliverance. By a strong hand, the end of verse 16, the Lord brought us out of Egypt. And remember this continually. I'm not going to go into great detail about the mark on your hand, the front list between your eyes. There's a text later in the Torah that uses the language of binding it on your hand, binding it so we shouldn't think of... It's all a symbol. As, like, as this. It's not something to be literal. But it's a symbol, and we should probably think of something being bound, so something like a bracelet on your hand, something like a piece of jewelry that's very visible, that's easily marked. And so then, symbolically, this is kind of like what? This is like when somebody has jewelry in a prominent place, like a front lid on the eyes, or like a necklace here with a cross on it, or a bracelet with a cross on it. We don't have to do that. We shouldn't make it a law that everyone has to do that. But it's not wrong to do that. And symbolically, symbolically, we should all do that. Symbolically, we should have a continual remembrance of the deliverance of God. Like it's something that's bound right here, that's so visible and you can see it all the time. Like something that's right here, a prominent piece of jewelry that everybody's gonna see as soon as they look on your face. It's a mark of who we are. I belong to Christ. And I am constantly reminded of what Christ has done. Because I am called to continually live in the remembrance of His deliverance. And all of these ceremonies of the Old Testament, they were never to be mere ceremonies. They were always to be tied with this instruction And they were always to be like, as, something that's constantly there reminding us of what God has done. And we have that same calling as the New Testament people of God. We do not have mere ceremonies and sacraments. No, we are to have instruction about why we do what we do. And a continual remembrance, like something that's very plain and visible of God's deliverance. Well, with this, brothers and sisters, we'll come to our second point. And now we're looking at the instructions about newness, about the newness of the symbol of removing all of the old leaven. And this is verses 3 to 10. And as we come here, Let's just pause for a moment and think about the setting. Because look at the very day that these instructions were given. This new ceremonial law, the consecration of the firstborn, and some further instructions about the Feast of Unleavened Bread. When was all this given? It was given on the first day of the Exodus. Look at verse 3. Remember this day in which you came out of slavery. and especially clear here in verse 4, today in the month of Aviv you are going out. Now the text doesn't say and there were a lot of things going on that day and it was not the easiest day to get instructions about a whole new ceremonial law and further words about the Feast of Unleavened Bread. But the text doesn't have to say that. There was a lot going on in the first day of the Exodus. This was the busiest day in the life of these people. They are gathering everything up. They're throwing it over their shoulder. They're traveling, verse 37, from Ramses to Sukkot. How did these instructions even get passed on? Scripture doesn't give us every detail. Probably the elders who are mentioned back in chapter 12, verse 21, probably Moses told the elders. And then through the elders, people heard this in one group or another. Probably they did this after they got to Sukkot. But it doesn't give us all the details of exactly how, when, where. That's probably how they did it. But the point is, there is a lot going on this day. And the people need this reassurance. Because one thing that's sprinkled all through all of verses 1-16, all these instructions, is especially here in 3-10, look especially at verse 5. There is language about how this deliverance will happen. You will come to the land of the Canaanites, verse 5, verse 11. You shall continue to remember this from year to year, verse 10. You shall therefore keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year. Let's just stop and remember how stressful this day was. And we don't know exactly where Sukkoth is. And we don't know exactly where Pharaoh's palace was at that time. I'm not even sure we can know exactly which Pharaoh was Pharaoh at this time. But it's entirely possible. We know they've gone up in elevations. You come out of the Nile Delta, you come up in elevation. It's entirely possible that the people are looking back and they can still see Pharaoh's palace. Which means they know that even after all of the devastation of the plagues, Pharaoh still got some chariots and war horses over there. This is the first day of the Exodus, but they haven't gone very far yet. Some people might already be mumbling and wondering, is Pharaoh really going to let us get away with this? And on the first level, we know they're right. Pharaoh is going to send his chariots and warhorses after them. What is God doing? He is speaking to them in the very first day of their deliverance, this day of change, this day of turbulence, this day of uncertainty. You will be in the promised land. you as a nation. Of course, we know all the details of how long it's going to take and all of that, but you as a nation will be in the promised land. People of God, let us continually remember the grace of God, including on very turbulent, difficult days when it seems like everything is upended and I don't even know how long I'm gonna be able to eat the unleavened bread that I just threw over my back and it doesn't taste very good and I'm leaving my home that my family has been in for 430 years and I can see Pharaoh's chariots. Are those going to be chasing after me? Continually remember God's deliverance. and that the salvation of your soul as you trust in Jesus Christ who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us, there is nothing that can separate you from the love of Christ as you repent of your sins and trust in him. So even the setting, people of God, it's not All the nerve-wracking details of that day aren't spelled out, but what a comfort it must have been. Again, these are promises that God has already given. He already promised it to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and repeatedly. He already said it again through the people, to the people, through Moses. But here they are, they've taken the first steps, but everything's still crazy. You will be delivered. It's God's reassuring promise given repeatedly to his people. And we've already looked at the Feast of Unleavened Bread itself in some detail back in chapter 12. So now as we're working towards our conclusion, let's just draw a little bit more of the symbolism. The old leaven put away, to be totally unleavened. The symbol, the symbol being put away all of the old ways of Egypt. Walk in the newness of my laws, my ways. That's why there's that emphasis upon the law of God being on your mouth. The law of God may be on your mouth in the middle of verse 9. put away all the old ways of Egypt, walk in the newness of obedience and my ways, no longer serve the bondage of slavery, come into the bondage of serving me. It's all of those And people have got a symbol which continues to be helpful for us as God's people. A symbol which Jesus used a number of times in the New Testament, including Mark 8, verse 15, when Jesus said to his disciples, Mark 8, verse 15, and he cautioned them, saying, Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. What's the leaven of Pharisees? Well, that's a reminder that even for those who are in the visible people of God, even for those who are faithfully attending Christ's church, well, there's still things we need to be beware of. It's not like that's it. It's said and done. Now you're steadfast. You're safe. That's all there is to it. No, we're not saved by church attendance. We must beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. We must beware of religious traditionalism. We must beware of hypocrisy and all these things. What's the leaven of Herod? Who is Herod? There's a lot of Herods, but Jesus is probably speaking about the Herod who was ruling when he said this. The Herod who would say something to Jesus on the day of his death. The Herod who put John the Baptist to death. The Herod who married whomever he wanted. So what's the leaven of Herod? It's the leaven of worldliness. I'm going to marry whoever I want. I'm going to throw a big party and it's going to get me in trouble because I want to make all my friends happy, even if it means hurting other people. It's worldliness. It's sin. It's also, as John Calvin once said, the leaven of apostasy. What's apostasy? Apostasy is the falling away from God's people. It's no longer being part of God's visible people. It's the de-churched. Because Herod was at least ethnically part Jew in that sense. He was part of the people of God. He was part of the Israelite nation who totally rejected Christ and all things religious. So we have on the one hand, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware of hypocrisy within Christ's visible church. On the other hand, we have, beware of the leaven of Herod, the embracing of worldly sins and the not being part of Christ's visible people at all, even if ethnically you're, in those terms, the new covenant wasn't yet established, even if you're Herod ethnically part of God's people. Beware, in today's terms, of the same kind of hypocrisies Traditionalism. Some might call us a more traditional church. We must beware of traditionalism. We must. And beware of the leaven that by the hundreds of thousands surrounds us in this state. The leaven of being de-churched. Again, that is That is the sin that surrounds us. You are more likely to find somebody who was in church, who is no longer in church, than you are to find somebody who has never been part of Christ's visible people, who's never heard anything of the gospel. And so people of God, let us beware of all of the leavens of sin. Let us repent of all of our sins. And let us continue. I pray that you continue to remember the deliverance of God. The deliverance of sin through Jesus Christ. Now, 15 years from now, 30 years from now, 45 years from now, 60 years from now, His promises are always sure, and what we are called to continually lean upon. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, we do give thanks that you have so beautifully and clearly and repeatedly.