I apologize in advance, although I'm told you should never apologize from a pulpit. I've misjudged the length of my sermon, and so we'll probably be, you're probably listening to me for 35 to 40 minutes. I pray that that's not detrimental to your health. Where to start with this rather lengthy story of the Passover that occurred in Egypt, and we could simply go back to verse 1 in chapter 11 and start expounding the scriptures from there. But I believe we will not capture the essence of the lesson for us here today without going a little bit further back. So let me do that. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and everything else as well. He established mankind with dominion over the earth. He gave him joy in labor. he commanded them to multiply and prosper in the earth and to cover the earth that creation was very good Adam and Eve then as we know freely sinned against God since Adam stood as the head of all of humanity as the head of the human race the Bible teaches that we sinned in Adam that we carry the corruption of sin in our frames and indeed that we then pursue sin in our lives and for that sin and because of that sin we stand as guilty before God now that is a calamity of great magnitude. See, it wasn't just the paradise that was lost, as Milton puts it. The whole of humanity was lost, separated from God, with a sin barrier between he and us, where he can't, the holy and the perfect and the pure God, can't even approach that which is ungodly and sinful and dark and full of corruption. And that's a calamity that's shared by every single living person since Adam. with that ominous with that sin came an ominous a darkness but no sooner had God declared and pronounced those curses on the serpent and on the earth no sooner had those curses come but we see him responding in love and mercy he begins to establish a way of redemption He's determined to not leave humanity in their lostness and hopelessness and futility. And so he begins, even in the garden, to speak about and to begin to work out how he will redeem his people. The rest of Genesis, we know the stories of Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and the book of Genesis that ends. with 70 of Jacob's offspring. They're residing in a place called Goshen in the northeast of Egypt. They're living under a kindly Pharaoh, a Pharaoh who was kindly disposed to them. And then we come to the next book in the Bible, Exodus. And it picks up on the narrative from the end of Genesis. So it does follow on in a sense. Joseph has died now. There's a new Pharaoh in place. Israel's numbers have grown by this time. Indeed, we learn in our reading that 600,000 men left the borders of Egypt. But the new pharaoh who doesn't know Joseph, he's frightened. And in acting, he acts like Planned Parenthood of his day with, he implements and embarks on a campaign of infanticide and he subjects Israel to a harsh slavery. And of course, we learn again that that lasted 400 plus years. But by way of this redemptive story, God then appears to Moses in that burning bush. And from that place, God says to Moses, and these are critical words. He says to Moses, go and say to the Israelites, I am the Lord, and I will bring you up out from under the yoke of the Egyptians and I will set you free from slavery in Egypt and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. So that's the Lord's purpose and it begins to take shape as we look through the plagues and now today the Passover. That's what God is bringing to pass. He's redeeming his people and he's bringing mighty acts of judgment against Egypt. And that comes to my second point, that judgment. What did it look like, that judgment in Egypt? He said that he's bringing these mighty acts of judgment against Pharaoh. How does he do that? And from a casual reading, we know the pain and suffering of the Egyptians as they had to deal with those plagues, one after the other in a rolling succession. We know that must have tested them out, but there was more to that story. see the plagues that God brought against Egypt hit right at the heart of their false gods they had more than 2,000 gods they had a God for everything yeah and they had names for these gods and if the if the crops failed they turn and they worship and pray and try to appease this God or that God had gods coming out of their ears God the true and living God when he brings this Passover when he brought all those plagues and in this Passover he's directly confronting and attacking those gods let me show you a couple of examples when the when the Nile became blood that was an opening salvo against a God named Harvey he wasn't very happy it was Harvey and he was the God of the Nile when God turned the water of the Nile into blood he's basically saying your God is useless he's got no power not against me when the frogs came up they mocked hate their toad goddess who was also a ruler of the land when that when the plague of the livestock belittled the gods they had two gods for the cattle one was the bull god Apis and the other was Hathor the cow god And God just struck them down dead. They were powerless against this God. Their priests were found sometimes burning human sacrifice alive and they take the remaining ashes and throw them into the air. For what? To petition the favour of their healing God. His name was Thoth. Moses took a handful of ashes and threw it in the air and what happened? They all got boiled. So God's, the calamities, the judgments that God brings against Egypt and not only against Pharaoh and his people but they're exposed, he's exposing the folly and the futility of these gods that they worship. Each one of these plagues reveals a God who's meeting them on their own turf. Even that three days of darkness That turned the lights out for Amun-Re, the great sun god of Egypt. Couldn't even keep the sun going for three whole days. But the worst is yet to come, as we read. So Egypt has lost its grain, its livestock. Everything in the ground's been laid to waste by the hail. They're humiliated, they're starved, they're thirsty, they're scratching for water in pits by the Nile. They were laying awake at night and they were hunted by frogs and gnats and flies. It would have been just an appalling set of circumstances. Magicians, they've given up. Their dark arts, they worked for a couple of guys here. Though why anyone would want to make more water into blood, I do not know. But their dark arts have failed. And they said to Pharaoh, that's the finger of God, with a capital G, with a capital L-O-R-D. Even the Pharaoh's servants, they've seen the impotence of their gods. And they cried out, how long is this man to be a snare to us? Don't you understand that this is destroying Egypt, that Egypt is ruined? But for this Pharaoh, who himself was worshipped as a god, there was no true softening of his heart. Yes, he seemed to relent at times. We read that time and again. It seems that he's relenting with political pressure and as the wealth of Egypt is being decimated, before his eyes we see At the final analysis, we see that those hints of relenting, they're nothing more than trying to escape the current plague. Indeed, we could teach on that for quite a deal of time, because we're given to that ourselves, aren't we? So this Pharaoh, his relenting was not repentance, not as we know it from the Bible. I'll just trace the downward spiral. The flies came in and Pharaoh, he said, yeah, okay, the Israelites can go and worship, but they have to stay in Egypt. They've got to stay within my borders. The flies went away and Pharaoh changed his mind. He wouldn't let the people go. The hail came and Pharaoh said the people can go. Okay, you can go. The hail melted. Nah, he wouldn't let them go. Changed his mind again. The Bible calls it hardening of his heart. We see a strange mixture of Pharaoh hardening his own heart against the people and against this God. We also see God himself working to harden Pharaoh's heart to bring about his own redemptive purposes. The locusts came. Pharaoh said, all right, you can go, but only the men you can leave the borders but only the men the locusts took off they flew away and Pharaoh would not let the people go and Pharaoh cried out from the darkness he said I'll go and worship this Lord even your women and children can go with you all right you win but leave your livestock behind then the darkness gave way to sunlight and what did Pharaoh do you're not going anywhere people there was no repentance there was no true softening of his heart And of course, in those series, in all of Pharaoh's response, there's a couple of things that we can learn to ourselves today, things that we should think critically about. First, we're reminded that a person without Christ is as much a slave as were the Israelites under Pharaoh. A person who has not Christ is under the power of Satan and they're a slave to Satan's ways. And trust me, I have never had a personal encounter with Satan. I don't believe that that's a part of our experience in our New Testament times. But we do know that he is a terrible taskmaster. He is a very hard and a vicious taskmaster. His grip on the hearts of men and women, it's a terrible and a vengeful thing. See, he desires two things. He doesn't want anyone to go out in faith in Christ. And he will do all that he is able to prevent that. And secondly, he will desire to tear down the faith of those who belong to Christ. So we, as believers, we need to be vigilant. The scripture speaks time and again, be sober, be watchful, be alert. Because this Satan, in various ways, in the dark and elemental forces working in the world, in his demons doing things that we don't see, in that unseen world that is affecting our seen world, in so many ways we need to be watchful and sober. because he's roaring and going about like a lion, devouring any that he can. The second thing I want to draw to your attention, it comes a little bit closer home to us in some ways. You see, in our minds we've been thinking about this Pharaoh and even the language I've used, I've intentionally steered you to think this way because it's natural to us. In our minds, we assign Pharaoh to the condemnation that we say he deserves. What a wicked and evil man, we say. I would never do such a thing. So he's rightly under God's judgment. And there's something in us that may even be tempted to celebrate the judgments that come against him. Now, I would offer you a caution there. I would suggest very strongly that you need to search out your heart. You see, it's common for every person to take a sort of a high ground in these types of things and to point the finger of condemnation all too readily. But we become Pharisees, little Pharisees, when we sit with that smug sense of judgment on others. but we fail to see that there's a huge telegraph pole sticking right over her forehead and where we ourselves can be held accountable for the same sorts of sins as we see. See, that was the problem of the good son, the good brother in that parable, the prodigal son. Our focus when we hear that parable is usually on the one that's returning and how wonderful is that. we may not see that the heart of the one that stayed home and who rails against his father what he's actually saying in his heart is look at me pop I'm the one who's been faithful I'm the one who's done everything you asked me to do I haven't faulted in my duty I've sacrificed everything to keep this little estate of yours going and I'm the good one here why would you have compassion on that ridiculous fool who went and squandered our wealth how can you possibly have compassion on that one? And if we're not careful, that's how we respond when we see others behaving in very perverse ways. So I urge you to carefully inspect your heart. Be alert and sober. Inspect your motives carefully. And when you study the scripture, see if there is no evil to be found. See if there's no evil lurking and waiting to come out and accuse another in the same way as David did under Nathan's rebuke about Abigail. That brings me to my third point. And it's about this most terrible plague. Nine plagues have come and gone. Pharaoh is still set in his ways. He's not going to let Israel go. So God explains five things to Moses. I've summarized this all down into five particular things about the Passover. First, God says at midnight an angel of death is going to come through and he's going to destroy the firstborn of every family, man and beast. Second, he says, anywhere that I find the blood of the lamb over the door of the house, that house will be spared. Third, he says, go to the Egyptians and ask of them for gold and silver and clothing. Plunder them for their goods, which they did, as we know. Fourth, God tells Moses that not only will Pharaoh change his mind, but he will actively pursue and drive them out of the land. They'll be hastened out of Egypt. And the fifth thing he explains has to do with this Passover celebration. From this time forward, Israel is to celebrate this Passover festival in the month of Nisan, which is now God reset their calendars. Nisan is now the first month of your calendar year. So every New Year's Day, they're looking forward to this imminent Passover celebration. How is Israel to celebrate? On the 10th day of the month, choose out a lamb, no spots, no blemishes, sufficient to feed every family, no one's going to miss out, must be in its prime, one year old. There's a lamb, and then there's a hog, and then there's a mutton sheep, the progress. And at one year, they're in their prime. That's when we like to put them on the barbecue most. At twilight, on the 14th day of Nisang, they're to kill that lamb, take some hyssop and sprinkle the blood on the doorposts and the lintels of each house. Then they barbecue the lamb up, they eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and the leftovers must not be leftovers, they have to be burned up as well. Finally, they're to eat with sandals on, staff in hand, ready to go. They've got their Nikes and their shorts on. They're going to make a dash after this feast on this night. And that brings me to our fourth and final point. And here, I want to ask you two questions. So this is in two sections. I want to consider the meaning of this Passover event from two different perspectives. The first question I've got here is, what was the relevance to Moses' readers? See, Moses is dead by the time the Israelites begin to move into Canaan, and they're now under the headship of Joshua. Joshua's their new leader, and Moses has passed away, as you'll recall. So, but he's written these words and I've no doubt that Joshua would have read these words in their hearing before they take up the mighty gauntlet that God's given them to move into the land of Canaan. What's the relevance of hearing this story to those people? They would recall a bondage in Egypt. See, this is the second generation. These are not the ones who are in Egypt. They've all died in the 40 years in the wilderness. This is a second generation, and I hear this story of their history, and I will be compelled to recall their bondage in Egypt, their ancestors, their fathers and their grandfathers. And as I recall those events, Their minds are turned to that day. It was preceded by a darkness, a great darkness, and there was a sound of a bleeding lamb. But when the sun came up the next day, they were found making their exodus out of Egypt. And they will know that it was under God's mighty arm that they were brought out of Egypt. The Israelites were preserved led by the hand of God that's what they're being told and how does this affect them as this generation of this this next generation of Israelites they're bracing to go into this promised land a land flowing with milk and honey but who's before them Yeah, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hevites, and all of the ites under the sun are arrayed against them and they have to go to battle against all of these people. And hearing these stories and remembering the faithfulness of God, their hands are strengthened for battle and their hearts are encouraged and lifted up into the heavens, knowing they have a faithful God, a God who marches before them. as do we as his people today. We should take heart from these stories as well. Because our God is the same God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he goes before us in our world today. And he prepares a place for us in eternity. So for Israel, for those Israelites, the Passover was a memorial, a remembrance of the days in which the Lord brought the hosts out of the land of Egypt. So they're encouraged and they're strengthened. Second question, and this one's more important to us, I think. Second question is, so what? How does that, what's the relevance to us today? So why do I need to know these things? Well, first note that we have the whole Scriptures. We've got all 66 books. We know the beginning to the end. We know what's coming. We know what's happened. We know what's transpired. We know much more than Israel camped by the Jordan. And when we see this first Passover, and the repeated celebration of Passover through history, it's a picture, it's a vivid picture under which we see God's justice and judgment falling and his mercy and redemption for his people. We have this messy and this gory picture, this bloody picture of what God did to redeem his people. Not only on the doorposts and the lintels of the houses down there in Goshen in Egypt but on the cross 2,000 years ago. I'll ask you another question before I press on with that point. What do you think it was that saved the Israelites? What, if you were there, What was it that you did? What was it that will save you from Pharaoh and that ongoing slavery? What saved you? Now, most of us, I think, in our minds will answer, I'll believe what God says. I'll trust in what God says. But that's only part of the truth. We are commanded, believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. But it is not your belief that saves. It's not your trust and faith that saves. The object of that trust is what saves you. And again, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. In the case of Israel in Egypt, what was it that saved them? This is looking forward to Christ. You know what saved them? Blood. Blood on the doorposts and on the lintel across the top. But for the one who did not believe, whether they be Jew or Egyptian and they refused to put the blood on the doorposts, woe to that person for they did not escape death in their household. And these things continue to stand for us today. We've seen centuries, probably at least hundreds of thousands of sacrifices throughout the Old Testament made over the years, blood and bull and goats and rams. They're all done under God's direction to show the Israelites that blood must be shed to atone for sin. Every Israelite who's grown up in the Jewish tradition at the time of Christ, every one of them, will know the grave importance behind that phrase. Behold the Lamb of God, the sacrifice for sin, the one who will bring atonement. They all knew what that meant. Most, many if not most, refuse to believe that Christ was that Lamb, but they knew what that term meant. even the timing of Jesus' crucifixion. this Lamb of God. It's a stark reminder of the need for blood for atonement. In the days of Jesus, the Passover has changed. It's morphed under the governance of faulty thinking in the leadership. At 9am on the 14th day of Nisan, as a prelude to their sacrifice, the high priest would choose out a single lamb. It was called the Lamb for the People. And that lamb at 9 in the morning was taken away and tied to a stake. It was left out on public display, the lamb for the people. Later on in the day at three o'clock, slightly before three, somewhere in that, between 2.30 and three, that lamb for the people was slain and its blood collected while the priests made the peace offering. But our Jesus, he is the lamb of God. And in the prime of his life, never once having sinned, nobody could hold anything against him. Pilate said, I have no charge against this man. Now it was said of the Pharisees that they couldn't find anything. They couldn't find fault. They just kept raising false accusations and failing. And this Savior was obedient not only as far as he was able to the laws of the land and to do the wishes of the people but he was above all things totally obedient to his Father in every way. On the morning of Passover that Jesus by nine o'clock he was already staked out. He was already nailed. Outside the walls of the temple, mind you, inside on the other side there's the land for the people tied to a stake. And there's our Saviour already outside the temple. At three in the afternoon in that time frame when the priests took the life of that land for the people and they drained the blood and at that very time Jesus cried out from the cross. What did he say? was his words on the cross? It is finished. Yeah, a labour of love and mercy showing humanity, the love of God, the compassion of God and all of that labour and now he dies on his own out under the roaring sun and he says it is finished at the same time as the lamb by these priests behind the temple walls was being slain. The blood on the doorposts, now it's a bigger story. The blood on the doorposts in Goshen back those ages ago, it spoke loudly as a rehearsal, as a symbolic representation of a far greater atonement yet to come. So Jesus is not only the fulfillment of that Passover, but he has become its embodiment. He's actually become the Lamb of God himself. So we stand in need of redemption from slavery to sin in just the same way that the Israelites needed redemption from Pharaoh's slavery in Egypt. In Egypt, it was the blood of the land. In today's world, in our Christian heritage 2,000 years ago until this very day, it is faith in the shed blood of Christ. which we today celebrate in the Lord's Supper which is lurking behind me. So let me ask you before I completely wind up, where do you stand in relation to that God today? Do you know the God of the universe because of what his son did, because of his son's shed blood? See, many people today, we're misled, we're misguided and I've known many people in church for decades and they say with their mouth that they're a Christian but then you poke around and you learn I'm not necessarily sure of that. See, I don't know your hearts, only God does. But many people think that coming to church on Sunday morning for worship and going to Bible studies and doing church picnics and going to all the church calendar events and doing all these things, they think that that will create favour with God. And many have done that for decades, as I said. Others think that they're born in a family line of Christians and therefore I must be a Christian too. Or I've born in what was once called the Christian nation. I don't think we can say that anymore. Others hold to their denomination, but trust me, being a Presbyterian will not save you. It's the best place to be, but it will not save you. Keeping a list, here's one that we all, well I do anyway, not many people and I think probably all of us have a tendency. We like lists and we like check boxes. Any that are accountants amongst us, they get their big long list there and they tick off the box and it goes to the auditor and it's all done. And we do the same. We've got lists in our mind or on the fridge or in the back of our Bibles, don't do this, don't do that, do that and do the other. And we think in our minds, done that, great, oh look, I've won a bit of favour we've got today, I've been a good person. We think that by doing the law that God will look on us in a kindly way. Consider that though. Consider doing things to please God. Let's go back a number of years now, I won't say how many, when I was looking and seeking out a wife and I stumbled across the beautiful Amanda who sits in the second from the back pew. And I marry her and I sit her down and I say, right, in preparation for our marriage, I've written up a book and here it is. I've got 800 pages here and I've written down very precisely how I want you to cook my food, how I want the bed made, the washing to be done, what you're to say about me in public, how you're to dress and how you're to do your hair and how often. And I've got this rule book for you. And I give it, it's got a nice pink ribbon on it. I'm doing something. And I say to my wife, if you do this without falter for 10 years, 20 years, if you do this for 20 years, then I will love you. How do you think she's going to go with that? Do you really think? that the sinful hearts of men and women who carry that corruption, who inherit the sin of Adam in our bodies and who are incapable of being holy because he is holy, do you really think that our salvation depends on doing the law? No, it can't be. It's totally contradictory to logic and to what the Bible teaches. Indeed, my wife would have spent her life grieving over a lost love, wouldn't she? And that analogy points up our position before God. He doesn't say, make a list. He says, obey my commands, absolutely. But he doesn't say, if you follow my law to the letter, I will save you, because he knows we can't. so instead instead of relying on our efforts to try and be holy as he is holy what did he do he sent his son that is the Lord Jesus Christ the Lamb of God he sent him why to take away our sin how did he do that by shedding his blood and dying on the cross he was obedient to his father for our sakes because we can't be obedient in perfection. We can't perfectly obey him. He suffered a cruelty on a cross so that we would have life. He gave his life. He died so that we might live. And it really is that simple. Many people think that the gospel is some great big complex thing and you need a few sheets of A4 and a whiteboard to talk about. The gospel is really that simple. I'll close by asking you to examine your heart if you know this God in this way. If today you know that God has had mercy on you because you've gone to him and cried out for mercy, praise be to God. And I pray in your life that he continues to show you great mercy. If you don't know God in this If you've heard these words today and they begin to speak to you in ways that suggest that they're not merely human words, then today I urge you, don't delay, don't dally about, don't think I might do this next week. Call on his name while he may yet be found. May God bless each and every one of you. Amen.