Let's pray, please. Father, we give you thanks for your holy word, the Bible, and thank you for speaking to us and not leaving us in darkness, but giving us the words of eternal life. And we pray that this passage would go forth in clarity, that it would bring about saving faith and strengthen saving faith in this congregation. And we pray that we would receive his truth with faith and love, lay them up in our hearts and practice them in our lives. In Jesus' name we ask, amen. Please turn to Exodus chapter 12. It's doing a one-week detour from 1 Samuel. Exodus chapter 12, verses 1 through 13 is our scripture reading and our sermon passage for this morning. Exodus chapter 12, verses 1 through 13. Exodus 12, beginning at verse 1, this is God's Word. Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, This month shall be the beginning of months for you. It is to be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves according to their father's households, a lamb for each household. Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them. According to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boil it at all with water, but rather roast it with fire, both its head and its legs, along with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning you shall burn with fire. Now you shall eat it in this manner, with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments, I and the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. May God bless the reading of his holy word. I'm giving you an outline there in your bulletin. I would encourage you to follow along with that. Two introductory points, the covenant theology throughout all of scripture, and then the significance of Passover, and then we'll walk through the passage. So point number one, introduction to covenant theology through all of scripture. The Bible is structured under two primary covenants. The covenant of works, which was a legal covenant between God and Adam and all of Adam's future posterity in him and whom he represented. If Adam obeyed that covenant of works, he would have earned by pure justice the right to eat from the tree of life and live forever. And he failed. And that's why we're all born in sin, guilty of Adam's first sin, lacking our original righteousness, and we have a nature that is wholly corrupted, which is commonly called original sin, out of which flow all of our actual transgressions of God's law. The covenant of grace is God's altogether merciful, gracious, and kind answer to that fallen to sin. Since we are no longer capable of eternal life by works to any degree at all, God was pleased to make this second covenant, the covenant not of works, but of grace. In this covenant, God freely offers to all the sinners of the world salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Jesus so that they can be saved, and promising to give unto all those that are ordained to eternal life his Holy Spirit to make them willing and able to believe. That covenant of grace goes into effect the moment that God promised Adam, the serpent, and Eve that this wonderful seed of the woman would come one day. The seed of the woman, of course, is none other than Jesus Christ himself. So there is one covenant of grace that runs through both Testaments, all the way through the whole Bible, Old and New Testament together. Never think in terms of Old Testament being law, as if people were saved by the law back then, and New Testament, now we have grace, now we're saved by grace. That is fundamentally and completely wrong. The Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace run side by side, all the way through the entire Bible. Covenant of Works, Covenant of Grace, throughout both Testaments. The Covenant of Grace, beginning when God first promises Adam this seed, this God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would come and undo what the serpent did, and would do right what Adam failed to do. Old Testament believers were saved in exactly the same way that we are. Justification by faith alone in the coming Messiah. Justification by believing on Him, getting into heaven completely apart from works, and only by trusting in the coming of Jesus. Jesus was in their future, of course, where we live on the timeline, and Jesus is in our past, but it was the same promise, the same gospel, the same Savior. And for salvation to be by grace, it has to be by faith alone and not by works to any degree at all. Otherwise, it's not grace. God saves sinners. God gets all the glory. The Great Westminster Confession of Faith describes the way in which the covenant of grace, the gospel, was administered during the Old Testament time and the way that the covenant of grace was administered in New Testament times. It calls that the time of the law and the time of the gospel. It summarizes it in these words. Please listen carefully to this. This is Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 7.5. This covenant of grace was differently administered in the time of the law, meaning the time of the Old Testament, and in the time of the gospel. Under the law, it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, and the Passover lamb. and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all for signifying Christ to come. What does for signifying means? It means to signify beforehand. All those things signify to them that one day this one sacrifice would happen, this one savior would come. which were for that time sufficient and efficacious through the operation of the Spirit to instruct and build up the elect in faith and the promised Messiah, by whom they had full remission of sins and eternal salvation, and is called the Old Testament." What did Abraham believe? How was Abraham justified? Abraham believed the gospel. Abraham did not trust in his works. How was David saved? David believed the gospel. How were Old Testament Israelites saved? They believed the gospel. They trust in the coming of Jesus. They did not believe that their works were going to save them. They believed in the coming of the Savior. Okay, so there you have, that's covenant theology throughout scripture. And once you learn to see that, it's everywhere. You see the gospel all over the place in the Old Testament. Okay, so point number two, the significance of Passover. We're gonna do a little background and then we'll walk through the text. A little background about Exodus 12. Exodus 12, one through 13 here is about the Passover lamb and its substitutionary death to rescue Israel from death. The heart of the gospel as it is presented in the Old Testament scriptures is summarized well in one phrase in verse 13. I want you to see verse 13, the opening phrase of it. Here's the gospel, you ready? When I see the blood, I will pass over you. and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you. When I strike the land of Egypt. Now notice, notice here, please. He doesn't say when I see the blood and some fruit in your life, not when I see the blood and I see at least a little bit of real transformation in your life. Not when I see the blood and I see your good works or when I see the blood and you've been sanctified some, when I see the blood and you've grown some, what is the only thing that makes the wrath of God pass over the blood? Go ahead, bring it. Bring it. Bring the objection. You're an antinomian. You don't believe that. You think Christians can live like the devil and still go to heaven. No, I don't. God sanctifies every single person that he saves. Does sanctification play a role in getting us into heaven? No. Do our good works play a role in getting us into heaven? No, they can't. But does God sanctify every person he saves? Of course, of course. But does that save us? No, it doesn't. No role whatsoever. Paul, by divine inspiration, picks up that language in 1 Corinthians 5-7 and says, Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us. And this is why when it comes to salvation, when it comes to getting into heaven, listen, God will not accept any works or sacrifices we bring, any offerings we have, because the only sacrifice for God that he will accept is the one that Christ offered on Calvary. You see, this plague, this 10th plague during the Exodus, the final plague before they come out of Egyptian bondage there, it's a foreshadowing of the final judgment on the whole world. You see, Israelites and Egyptian and all other people will be at that final judgment, just as this plague will reach not just the Egyptians, but this plague would have killed Israelites too, if they had not put that blood on the doorpost of their house. And only those that are under the blood of God's true Lamb of God, Jesus, will be saved from the wrath and justice of God that's coming in that day. The thing is, all of the people here, Israelite and Egyptian alike, all of them are guilty before God. Israel, true believing Christians, Egypt, all unbelievers in the world are all guilty of breaking God's commandments, God's laws. And that's why Paul says that it doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile, it doesn't matter if you're a barbarian, Scythian, male, female, slave, nor free. We are all condemned and guilty before God's law. We just all confess that together. We violated your commandments. I violated God's commandments this week. So did you. Egyptians and Israelites alike are all under that ultimate death sentence, that judgment before the Holy God. But God, thankfully, is gracious and merciful, loving and compassionate. What will save the Israelites from being killed here will not be their works. It will not be their personal holiness or anything they do. It is the blood of a blemish free lamb alone. that God coming in judgment will see and pass over that house. God is teaching the Israelites here the gospel of a substitutionary sacrifice, which takes that sentence of death away by something pure dying as their substitute in their place. A lamb would be sacrificed. Jesus, the true lamb of God, whose one sacrifice will actually remove all the guilt of those who believe on him alone for eternal life. That's ultimately what he's teaching them about here. God told Adam about that fruit in the Garden of Eden. In the day you eat of it, you will surely die. And so for us to be redeemed from that death sentence, someone's gotta die in our place. A death must take place, a substitutionary death, a death that we deserve for our sins. And in the instructions that God would breathe forth to the Levites, Leviticus 17, 11, he told them the life of the flesh is in the blood. The life of the flesh is in the blood. So why does the blood make atonement to the justice of God? Because it represents a life that has ceased, a life that has died. When the Lord sees the blood, when he knows that lamb was killed, the curse of death will pass over them. He will accept the death of a substitute in their place and nothing else and nothing alongside of it either. You see, if the heads of those Israelite households had said, okay, we have this big bucket of blood. Okay, everybody cut your finger and put one little drop in there just so God knows we're serious, it wouldn't have worked. The angel of death would have visited death on that house. Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us. So God ultimately is saying to us, when we die on the day of judgment, when I come to you, if I see the blood, when I see the blood of Christ on you, I will pass over you. Not your works, not your sincerity, not a vindication of your faith on the Day of Judgment. That's just a new way of teaching the Galatian heresy. It's the same old thing. The only thing we have is the blood and Christ's righteousness. That's it. That's all we've got. Israel, like the rest of the world on the Day of Judgment, just had to believe God. I bet they were nervous when they went to bed that night. They killed a blemish free lamb and according to God's directions, they put it on the doorposts of the house. And if they didn't believe God, if they didn't kill the lamb and didn't put the blood on the doorposts, death would come into their house. And that eternal death sentence rests on every living human being on earth at every moment since the time that Adam fell. But those hidden under the blood of Christ will be passed over. by God's wrath. That's what Paul says, Romans 5, 9, much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. The wrath of God will pass over us if we're justified by the blood of Christ. That wrath, that judicial legal punishment required by God's justice against our breaking of his commandments. It's here pictured as the angel of the Lord, the destroyer coming against the whole land of Egypt. And this plague is different. This plague is a little different from all the other ones. Because in this plague, God does not make a distinction between Egypt and Israel as he had before. And the other plagues, remember, God makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. When God killed all the livestock of the land, the Bible says in Exodus 9, verse 4, But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing will die of all that belongs to the sons of Israel. But they didn't have to kill a lamb or put blood on anything for that to happen, right? In the plague of darkness, Exodus 10.23, Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt. But all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings. So God protected his people from these other plagues, but he's not going to in this one unless there's blood on the doorpost. In this final plague, yes, God still makes that distinction between Egypt and Israel, but there's a condition. If Israel wants to be saved, they've got to kill this blemish-free land and put its blood on the doorposts and the lintel of their house. And if they didn't, they would get hit by this plague too. You see, Passover is a sacrament. It's a divine ordinance, if you prefer that word, sacrament. That's a direct parallel to the Lord's Supper. The Passover taught God's people about the need for a substitutionary, blemish-free, perfect sacrifice to appease the judgment of God. And it would be celebrated annually for the rest of Israel's history until Jesus came and fulfilled it. And this plague will foreshadow the final judgment of God on the whole world. And therefore, if even Israel would be saved from it, the blood of a lamb must be put on their doorposts so that the angel of God, when he sees the blood, would pass over them. It's exactly the same with us now. but it's not a type or a shadow anymore, it's a reality. The next time the judgment of God comes, it's gonna be for eternal life or eternal death. What's he gonna see when he comes to you? Will he see the blood? I wanna warn you, if you're trusting, oh yeah, I believe in Jesus, but I'm also trusting in my covenant faithfulness. Is the wrath of God gonna pass over you? Uh-uh, it's gonna fall on you. It's Christ alone or you're not saved. The fact that the Passover was offered repeatedly year by year showed its inherent inability to actually redeem sinners from their sins. It was to make them look for the true Lamb of God who would die once and accomplish redemption for that one grand sacrifice. Because the final judgment of God from which the Lord delivers his people by his sacrifice alone is being portrayed in the 10th plague of Egypt. Even Israel must kill a blemish free lamb and put its blood on the doorposts of their houses to be spared. When God sees the blood, his judgment will pass by because the judgment already fell on that lamb. You see how clear the gospel is in the Old Testament to them? I've always wondered, how did the Pharisees not see this? Well, same reason, we wouldn't see it either if God didn't open our eyes, right? I mean, every year they did Passover, all these lambs, and they turned it into a money-making scheme. Well, your lamb's got a blemish, so you've got to buy one of ours at 10 times the price. Instead of saying, this is supposed to portray your need for the true lamb of God. And what did John the Baptist say about Jesus when he introduced him to the public? Behold the lamb of God. This is what this feast pointed to for thousands of years. Israel is going to be struck if they don't believe, if they don't kill the lamb and put his blood on their houses. And this is why evangelism is so urgent at all times. Man's conscience bears witness against them, but few in our society today are troubled enough to see that there's real guilt before a real holy God against them. There's a judgment far greater than any of these plagues that came against Egypt. There's a day of reckoning when all of the out of balance scales of justice will be made perfectly even by God's judgment for the repentant sinners who receive and rest on Christ alone to get to heaven. Listen, justice has already been answered. And the scales are already perfectly balanced. Do you know Christ? There is no punishment left. Where there is remission of sins, there is no longer a sacrifice. God will not accept one. But one way or the other, the death sentence, all sinners are justly under. One way or the other, every one of my sins, every one of your sins is gonna be punished by God. Everyone's sins will be punished by God. Your sins will be punished by God, either on Christ at the cross or you in hell. God's justice and holiness demand it. Romans 2.5, Paul calls the second coming, the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. That ought to strike some terror in us. That ought to strike us with, I'm trusting in Jesus and nothing else. Those justified by the blood of Christ, they will be saved from that wrath. Those still in their sins will hear the just sentence of condemnation announced in their hearing upon clear evidence of their having willfully and repeatedly violated God, His holy laws. This 10th plague is the great Old Testament picture of final judgment at the last day. It's so simple that it's wonderful. Those under the blood of Christ, prefigured in the blood of these lambs, are saved. Those not under the blood of Christ are not. What's the difference? The blood. You mean God doesn't look at each Israelite to see if they've borne enough fruit to convict them of having saving faith? Correct. He doesn't. But will they bear fruit? Yes. Will they be converted? Yes. Will they be born again? Yes. Will they be sanctified? Yes. Does that play any role in getting us into heaven? Okay. So if you think that it's your fault, the blood alone is what saved them is the blood of Christ. What has already paid the debt of your sins is blood on your doorposts. Figuratively speaking, when God sees the blood, will they pass over you? This is the most important questions anyone can consider. key to having that blessed assurance of salvation is recognizing it's the blood of Christ, the death of Christ, Christ's righteousness alone that saves us. Justification before God is not by works, but by trusting in Jesus alone. So that salvation would be by grace. And so the salvation would be of God. And so we would have assurance of it. That's why Paul, This wonderful paragraph, I've cited it in your thoughts for style of meditation. Please go through those today as a family or with friends. Romans 4.14, listen. For if those who are of the law are heirs, meaning those that are doing good works to try to get into heaven, if they're heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified. For the law brings about wrath. For this reason, it's by faith in order that it would be by grace. And so the promise would be guaranteed to all the descendants. Passover illustrates the gospel of salvation and justification completely apart from works by faith alone perfectly. God sees the blood, not the works of those upon whom the blood rests. He sees the blood and he passes over. So many professing Christians today are constantly having their assurance destroyed by subtle forms of legalism. Subtle forms of people blurring the line between justification and sanctification. And by misunderstandings of the judgment of works, those seem to be the key passages that people camp out on today. You would think they're the only passages in the Bible, rather than Romans 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, and Galatians 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. There's just this little snippet here, a little snippet there, a little snippet there about we all have to appear and give an account of our works, and those are the only things in the Bible about salvation. That's nonsense. You go to the passages that address the topic. That's how you do biblical interpretation. Learn from Passover. This is God teaching them, you need to be relying only on the provision I give you. And nothing you do. When I see the blood, not what you've done, but the provision. Now, let's walk through the passage. Exodus chapter 12, verse 1 and 2. You see verse 1 and 2? Prior to this time, or excuse me, verse 1. Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, verse two, this month shall be the beginning of months for you. It is to be the first month of the year to you. Okay, stop there. Prior to this time, the calendar year had previously ended with the gathering of harvest in autumn, which for them was roughly equivalent to the end of our September, beginning of October. Now this, when God kind of shifts the calendar for them, this shifts the beginning of their calendar year to our March and April months. Okay, so moving into this time was not because of agriculture. It was because of the Exodus. It was because I want you to remember the first of the year is when you guys came out of Egypt. Okay, look at verse three. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying on the 10th of this month, they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their father's households, a lamb for each household. Okay, stop there. Now, it's very important that you notice. Notice what he calls Israel here, the congregation of Israel. That's a Hebrew term that refers to the church, the church of Israel. Speak to the church of Israel. I want to tell you, anyone who tries to make a hard distinction between Israel and the church needs to recognize that the church is not a new concept. The church is not a New Testament concept. The Hebrew words, Eidah and Kahal, they both refer to the church. Have you ever heard someone say, well, the church gets started next chapter two? You ever heard that? That is not true. The church starts with Adam and Eve. In the Garden of Eden, it extends to their son Seth, it extends to Noah and his family, and then to Abraham and his family, and then to the nation of Israel. You know how we know that they're the church? Because the Bible calls them a church. They are the assembly, the kahal, the eidah, the ekklesia in Greek, the congregation, the religious assembly. There is a unity to the people of God before and after the coming of Christ. And why is this? Because the plight of man is the same for everyone before and after the coming of Christ, sin and its punishment. And the gospel is also exactly the same for everyone, Jew or Gentile, before and after the coming of Christ. Anyone that's ever gone to heaven has gone there by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, either anticipating Christ or us looking back to Christ. God is the same through all of time, and the way of man's salvation likewise remains the same. And always remember this, it says in the Old Testament, Paul citing from Genesis 12 and Galatians 3.8, he says, Abraham had the gospel preached to him. I remember learning that, really? Abraham had the gospel preached to him? Yeah, when God told him, and you, all the nations of the world will be blessed. And Jesus said in John 8.56, Abraham looked forward to seeing my day, Indeed, he saw it and was glad." What did Abraham believe? The gospel. What was he looking forward to? The coming of Jesus. In Hebrews 4, verse 2, Israel had the gospel preached to them, but they did not combine the hearing of it with faith. They didn't understand it. For the most part, they rejected it. And so they were the church. The church is not a New Testament concept. It is manifested visibly on earth as it always has been, the people who profess faith in Christ together with their children. You know, that's Old Testament teaching, that's New Testament teaching. That's one of the reasons we baptize our children, because they've always been part of the invisible church. They were never thrown out of it. And that is an Old Testament and a New Testament truth. The Levites at this point in Israel's history, when Exodus 12 was being, when we're in that historical section, had not been set apart for priestly duties at this point. So at this time, at the first Passover, the head of the household, represented his family in this sort of priestly duty to take the land, to slay it, and to put the blood on the doorposts. So notice that again, look at verse three, speak to all the congregation, the church of Israel saying on the 10th day of this month, they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their father's households, a lamb for each household. Now look at verse four. Now, if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them, according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. Okay, stop there. The entire lamb had to be eaten and the uneaten portion burned completely the following morning. A year old lamb, that would give a lot of food to eat. If a family was smaller, two or more families could get together to make sure that the whole lamb got eaten. You had to make sure that the whole thing could get eaten, so it might take several families to accomplish that. Okay, look at verse five. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Okay, stop there. The lamb that they used had to be the best one they had. It was to be a year old, no blemishes, not allowed to be crippled, diseased, blind, or in any way defective. This was to foreshadow the moral perfection of the sinless lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who would die for the sins of his people. It was Jesus's moral perfection. The fact that he had no blemishes, his absolute sinless purity would be our garment of salvation at the last day. Our robe of righteousness, his sinless blood would be shed in our behalf. And notice the perfection theme and the lamb theme that we see picked up in the New Testament. Just listen to this passage. Listen. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1.18, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb. See him harking back to Exodus 12 here. Without blemish, as of a lamb without blemish, without spot. Look at verse five again. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male, a year old. What is Jesus identified as? A lamb without blemish. You see the gospel here in the Old Testament? Only a perfect victim, a perfect substitute could save us. Only a morally perfect, blemish-free man, the God-man Jesus Christ, could achieve what we all need, don't have, and could never earn, a satisfaction to God's justice for all our sins, and a lifetime of flawless and perfect obedience to the holy commandments of God. Jesus Christ alone has done this for us and on our behalf. That's what the Lord is teaching his people here in Passover, and it's what he's teaching us now. with the grandest and most memorable historical example possible. You see, temporal judgments like this in ancient Egypt there, like the other plagues and the cleansing of the promised land, those are always intended to show us that God is there and God is very angry and righteously so at human rebellion and sin. I had a Christian friend in college, I remember, He told me he had discovered this new Bible teacher and he was all excited about him. He said that he felt his divine mission was to let the whole world know God's not mad at him. And at the time, I wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but I thought, as I thought about it and thought about my Bible, I thought, yeah, he is. God once destroyed the entire world with water. Killed everybody in it, except eight people in the ark. Think of that. Eight people survived the global deluge. And when the giant tsunamis and millions of tons of water came crashing over the land to kill everything that breathes, including every human being on earth, I'm pretty sure anyone standing there telling people, God's not mad at you, would ring pretty hollow. Is God angry at sin? We're told all the time, don't emphasize that. That's gonna drive people away. And we shouldn't talk about hell and judgment. You know who talked about hell and judgment more than anyone else? Jesus did. Dear congregation, without hell and judgment, what does the cross even mean? What does the cross even mean without that concept? Does the gospel make sense without those things, without hell, without judgment, without God's righteous anger against sin? Does the love of God make any sense without those concepts? He that makes lightly of sin will make lightly of the Savior. Our doctrine of grace will only be as deep as our doctrine of sin. You know, we sing that hymn, Amazing Grace, and it's such a great hymn, but do we really think it's amazing, that grace is amazing? Think of the times in your life when you've used the word amazing. You know, that car is amazing. That song was amazing. That musician is amazing. We overuse that word. And there was a man at the church in Ohio, an elderly fellow, early on in my preaching ministry, he told me I was using the word awesome too much and amazing too much. And he said, there's only one about whom I use such words and that's God and his grace. So I kind of made a mental note of that. So if I use those words too often, please do say something to me. Only the sovereign Holy Spirit working through his words can make people see that God is holy, that he's amazing, and that his grace truly is astounding. It's amazing. That blemished free lamb slain for all those Israelite households would make the wrath pass over them and not touch them because it fell symbolically upon the dead lamb that had his blood spilled and then was eaten by the family. The judgment fell on it. At the cross, there is no symbolism. At the cross, there's no figure. There's no sign of something to come. It's the real thing. How serious is God about sin? How much wrath and anger does he have against sin? Tell people, look at what it costs to bring us forgiveness. Look at what Jesus endured. That shows his justice and his love together, both of them. He loved us that much that he would do that to satisfy his own judgment so that it would never fall upon us. At the cross, it shows us the real wrath of God. It shows us the holy God unleashing the fullness of his righteous indignation, his holy justice against all the sins of his people, the transgressions, the iniquities and wickedness, the backslidings and the compromises. It all falls on our Passover on Jesus. What Jesus bore was the strike that justice demanded so we could go free. And Jesus finished that work. And indeed it is finished. And I wanna encourage you, you're gonna have to tell it to yourself and tell it to others every day of your life. It's finished. Leave it finished. Faith in Jesus is simply the beggar's empty hand. What contribution did Israel make to being passed over by the wrath of God? None. They simply believed and the blood was applied to their house. When God sees the blood, he doesn't bring death. And I will say it again. Notice God doesn't say, when I see the blood and your good works, I'll pass over you. When I see the blood and see evidence of your conversion, then I'll pass over you. Why aren't the subsequent acts of obedience and personal sanctification, which always follow, they always follow if someone is born again. Why are those not involved in what answers the wrath of God and causes his wrath to pass over us? The simple answer is, because they can't. Even my best works are stained with enough sin to be the noblest thing I've ever done in my life could be used to send me to hell. Less than perfect obedience does not, cannot satisfy the demands of the just and holy God. Jesus said in Matthew 5, 48, be perfect. Even as God in heaven is perfect. That's not good news. That's the bad news. Less than perfect sacrifices cannot appease his righteous indignation against our sins. It all must be accomplished by a perfect substitute or it's not gonna be accomplished at all. Westminster Confession. It'd be great if those who say they believe this actually did. In the chapter of good works, point number five, we cannot buy our best works, merit, pardon of sin or eternal life at the hand of God by reason of the great disproportion that is between them and the glory to come and the infinite distance that is between us and God whom by them we can neither profit nor satisfy for the debt of our former sins. So we cannot buy our best works, contribute anything to the blood that God will see. Look at verse six. You shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month. Then the whole assembly." There's that Old Testament word again for church. The whole church of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. And notice this now. The lamb would be selected on the 10th day of the month, but they would keep it until the 14th of the month. Isn't that interesting? They had to set it apart and keep it for four days. Many commentators think that was to really impress on them. This is the one. This is the one, this is the one that's gonna die. They wanted to burn into their hearts and minds that it's this lamb and this lamb alone is gonna be offered in our behalf. And again, that word assembly there means congregation. The church, Israel is the church, the entire worshiping church on earth. Isn't the symbolism remarkable here? The whole gathered people of God, the entire church, the assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. In twilight, that term just simply means between the two evenings. So as the sun's going down, they would kill this lamb, and they take its blood, put it on the doorposts, and then the lentil across the top, and then they would eat the lamb. Look at verse seven. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lentil of the houses in which they eat it. Just remember, the lentil is the top barb, is the top beam. Okay, the doorposts are the two sides. So each one of them have blood on it. Verse eight. They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs." You know why they ate it with unleavened bread? To remember the speed with which they came out of Egypt. They remember that they were driven out. They didn't have time to sit around and wait for leaven to make the bread fluffy. So they used unleavened bread and bitter herbs were to remember the bitterness of their life there. There's a lot of symbolism here. We need to benefit from it too. That God got us out of our own slavery in an instant when he affectionately called us. It was quick. It was fast. And the bitter herbs that they ate. Remember the bitterness. If you remember your life before you were a Christian, the bitterness of that world, the bitter herbs, the bitter guilt, the shame, the feeling dirty and low down all the time. And you know, we still feel that way at times, don't we? When we struggle with sin. Unleavened bread God got us out in an instant and the bitter herbs life before Christ was terrible being a slave of sin Yes, life's a lot more complicated as a Christian I've got all these other problems now because I'm a believer but it's not nothing like being a slave of sin anymore Look at verse nine through 11. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roast it with fire, both its head and its legs, with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. Now you shall eat it in this manner, with your loins girded, with your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. And so he wanted them to eat it for the rest of their generations, for the rest of their history, with their loins girded, with their sandals on, with staffs in their hands, to remember we were on our way out of Egypt. And when the kids asked him, why are you guys doing that? Why are we dressed like this? Why are we eating unleavened bread and eating bitter herbs? To remember the bitterness of our life when we were slaves in Egypt. To remember the speed with which God got us out of that place. And to remember he wanted us to leave quickly. Look at verse 12. For I will go to the land of Egypt on that night and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. And many have wondered, why would he kill their animals too? Why would he kill their animals? That's really an indirect way of God saying, I'm also gonna kill all their gods. Countless Egyptian deities were represented by animals. One of the reasons that the Egyptians hated shepherds, and especially the Israelites, is because they raised cattle to eat them. And the Egyptians thought that cows were an incarnation of the god Hathor. And now that I live next to cows in my backyard, I don't know why anybody would think they're divine at all. Pretty gross, actually. Every remnant of idolatry would be left in ruins when God's people left that place. God would leave Egypt, its people, and its gods destroyed. Egypt would know and Pharaoh would know that Yahweh alone is God. None of their deities and their supposed great powers would be able to deliver them from the hand of the Lord. God's gonna strike down the firstborn of man and the firstborn of their animals. Their people and their gods are gonna be ruined. God's gonna repay them to their face for all the abuse and all of the suffering that they had inflicted upon Israel. Deuteronomy 7 verse 10, that he repays those who hate him to their face to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You know, sometimes people that hate God actually turned out to be among God's people, as you see Israel's history unfold, and in the church, sadly. But in the case of the Exodus, it was Pharaoh and the Egyptians that he would repay to their face. God's gonna strike down, meaning kill. He's gonna kill the firstborn son among men and beasts. Remember what God called Israel over and over again? Israel is my son, my firstborn. And how many Israelite sons have the Egyptians killed? And so God's vengeance is, I'm taking all of your firstborns now. as vengeance for all of the firstborn that you took from my people, and the fact that Israel is my son, Israel is my firstborn, and you've been murdering them, and now I'm going to kill you. Is God mad at sin? Do we know this God who does things like this? Moses told Pharaoh, Israel is my son, my firstborn. God told Pharaoh, you dared to lay a hand on my firstborn, and now I'm gonna kill you. God's gonna strike down every firstborn in the entire country. The last two phrases of verse 12, you see the last two phrases there? I will execute judgments, I am Yahweh. Look at verse 13, last one. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Okay, just a couple of things in conclusion. Blood is the life of a victim. This is God's promise. Think about how relevant this is. Christ, our Passover, Paul said. Christ, our Passover has been sacrificed in our behalf. All who repent and believe the gospel, meaning they hate their sin, they despise their sin, they are repentant, they grieve over their sin, and they trust in Christ alone. God's promise is that his wrath will pass over them. Wrath will not fall on them because it already fell on Christ, our Passover. When Jesus was nailed to the cross and we went through Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That great passage goes on to describe something something eternal, something cosmic was happening there that is almost inexplicable. Matthew 27, 51, then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth quaked and rocks were split. So when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly saying, truly, this was the son of God. R.C. Sproul said it was as if that earthquake was God's fist grabbing the whole earth and shaking it, bringing the hammer blow of his judgment, but it was all focused on our Passover so that it would never fall on us. You realize that is the greatest treasure a human being can have? I don't care whatever issues, problems, stuff you've got going on in your life, things that are bothering you, worrying you, to know that God's judgment has passed over you is the greatest treasure there is. Communion with God is the greatest treasure there is. Having Him as our Father and our portion is the greatest thing there is. When the fulfillment of Passover came, when Jesus came, he was nailed to the cross and he died there and his blood, his life was spilled there. And before he said those seven things from the cross, one of the last ones was, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And a great theologian said, we are spectators of a wonder, the praise and glory of which eternity will not exhaust. It is the Lord of glory, the Son of God incarnate, the God-man, drinking the cup given him by the Eternal Father, the cup of woe and of indescribable agony. We almost hesitate to say so, but it must be said, it is God and our nature being forsaken by God. The cry from the accursed tree evinces nothing less than the abandonment that is the wages of sin. Do you realize what Jesus is experiencing here? If you know him, you'll never know what that is. You'll never experience that, because he'll never forsake you, ever. That theologian says, there's no reproduction or parallel in the experience of archangels or of the greatest believers. The faintest parallel would crush the holiest of men and the mightiest of the angelic host. There's only one who could take this punishment away. It would destroy anyone else that ever tried to. Only the God-man can do it. So do you know him? Do you know the Lamb of God? When God's judgment comes, as it will, there's a day of judgment. Paul told the Athenians in Acts 17, God has set a day when he would judge the world in righteousness. Every single moment that passes by, we're one step closer to it. When God's judgment comes, when the real thing, not a plague in Egypt, when the real thing signified by that plague comes, and it surely will come to you, When the eyes of the all-knowing, holy God come to you, what will He see? I can tell you from my part, He'll see the blood. Because I'm not trusting in my works. Am I thankful for all the work God has done in my life? You bet I am. So is my wife. Very thankful for that. Am I trusting or relying on any of that? Not at all. When the wrath of God signified in this 10th plague comes to me, it's gonna pass over me. Because all he will see is the blood, my savior, Christ, my Passover lamb, was sacrificed for me. I pray and hope he was sacrificed for all of you. Trust in him and nothing else. Let's pray. Father, we bless your name for the gospel. It's such a simple and glorious thing. As John the Baptist said long ago, he who has the son has life, And he who does not have the Son shall not see life, for the wrath of God abides on him. What a blessing it is to know your wrath's gone. Those that trust in you alone, you're our loving Father and always will be for the rest of eternity. So that we can even look at the day of our death with great anticipation and joy, not with fear and trembling, but joy. Christ, our Passover was sacrificed in our behalf. May everyone here and everyone who ever hears this Trust in Him and nothing else. For their salvation, in His name I pray. Amen.