Let's go before the Lord in prayer and ask for His blessing. Our Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you again for this hour that you've granted us to come and learn about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who He is and what He has done in the matter of our salvation. We pray that the Holy Spirit will give me faithful words to speak and also give us ears to hear and encourage us in the truth and granting us repentance and faith in the things that are true and faithful in Christ Jesus. We honor you for all we saw here, this message, for whom this message was given. May you speak to them only in the way that you alone are able to speak. We thank you, we honor you for all things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, good morning again. Good to be here and talking about the same things. The same things about Christ Jesus and why He is very important. The only important person there is in all of creation. He, being uncreated, being the God of all creation, who sustains all things by the word of His power, and who has created us into a new man by His own death on the cross. That's how God sees us all in Christ, that we have been created anew, and we possess every spiritual blessing in Him in the heavenly places. We've been seated with Him also. So we have some very wonderful news and this is the matter that God has been preaching right from the Old Testament scriptures all the way to the New. There's not any recorded scriptures in the Bible that do not relate something to us about the person of Christ. So this morning we're going to be in Exodus 18 and we're going to work our teaching from verses 1 to 16 Exodus 13, verses 1-16, Moses recorded and said, Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast, it is Mine. And Moses said to the people, Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For by strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. On this day you are going out in the month Abib, and it shall be when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites. and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which ye swore to your fathers to give you, and land flowing with milk and honey, that ye shall keep this service in this month. Seven days ye shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, And no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters. And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, This is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt. You shall be as a sign to you on your hand, and as a memorial between your eyes, that the Lord's law may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year. And it shall be, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you, that you shall set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which we have, the males shall be the Lord's but every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck, and all the firstborn of men among your sons you shall redeem. So it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, What is this? That you shall say to him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrificed to the Lord all males that opened the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeemed. You shall be as a sign on your hand and as frontless between your eyes. For by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt. And that is the word of the Lord. And that is enough knowledge to make you wise according to salvation. We have one title for this message. A lamb for an ass. A lamb for an ass. I pray a message that people will cherish. So we are back in Egypt. I was contemplating between going back to Romans and going back to Egypt. I thought to go back to Egypt where the children of Israel at this point have packed their bags and are ready to escape out of town. because the time of their deliverance has come. Deliverance from the hand of Pharaoh, exactly as God had promised Abraham in Genesis 15. God had promised Abraham that after 400 something years, he would come and deliver his people from the hand of Pharaoh. And we have rehearsed over and over the matters of the gospel that were in view because this was a gospel story of the exodus of all of God's people from their own slavery to sin to death and condemnation, which were captured and dramatized In real life, the life of Israel in their captivity in Egypt, dramatized and captured in the decrees of Pharaoh and their laboring under his heavy burdens. And we cannot understand any story of the Bible until we have defined the characters. and issues as they relate to the story or work of redemption. That's how to read the Bible. Some characters and issues are easy to define. They are more straightforward than others. But those who help us to build the puzzle pieces of the not so clear pictures. You have to begin with the puzzle piece that is obvious and then you build everything around it. So if you can find a type of Christ first, then it becomes easier for the rest of the puzzle pieces to fall into place provided your New Testament gospel understanding is also good. Sometimes the details of a story fall into place so quickly, you can literally chalk on them, like for real. They come out so fast that even when you're writing things down, you don't have enough time to capture all the pieces as they're falling to your head. And in Egypt, we have a hardened Pharaoh. who would not let the people go. He would not set the people free. And we determined that Pharaoh was a type of God the Father who is saying a people in slavery to sin cannot just be set free because of their misery or because of their goodness. God does not serve people just because they are miserable. Something has to be done for them. A condition outside of themselves has to be met for their deliverance. And the decrees of Pharaoh and his taskmasters with pictures of the law and its demands on the sinner. and saying the law is unbendable in its demands of righteousness. It demands the same level of performance, which is perfection. And that is why Pharaoh did not change the number of bricks, the quota of bricks that were imposed on the children of Israel to make every day. And so from this condition, from this situation, God's people needed to be delivered. And God set in motion nine plagues to deliver his people. But he knew that they would not deliver them. Because God is not impressed by just a show of miracles. Salvation has issues that have to be addressed, that have to be understood. And if you don't understand those issues, you will struggle with understanding God's purpose and what Christ did. So the matter of God's justice and law have to be justified because of our sin if there's going to be a deliverance. And there's no plague or miracle that can accomplish that. And so with each miracle, we are told Pharaoh hadn't his heart and would not, or did not let the people go. But God said with the 10th plague, it is going to happen. God knows exactly what has to be given for Pharaoh to set the people free. God knows the condition of salvation, the condition of justification, and it is not found in the people who are in slavery. It is outside of them. It comes by way of the death of the firstborn of Pharaoh. In fact, the death of the firstborn itself becomes not just the basis of justification, but the justification itself. Because it meets the righteous requirement of the law. The death of the firstborn meets the righteous requirement of the law. And that's Romans 8, verse 2 I believe. The death becomes the fulfillment of the law as it is done or is given to settle a debt of righteousness which came by way of our sin. And that tells you that God tied the salvation of his people from his own hands to the death of his firstborn, the Lord Jesus Christ. The children of Israel were being delivered from the hand of Pharaoh, as all of God's people are delivered and have been delivered from the hand of God. And in that, God introduced the Passover lamb and its qualifications to expand on that gospel testimony. In other words, to put more meat to the bones of Pharaoh's son and the first born of Egypt, as it were. The Passover lamb had to be one without blemish. and one that had lived with the people that it was going to represent for four days. And that's speaking to the incarnation of Christ, the coming of Christ in the flesh. The Lord Jesus had to live for a while with those that he came to die for, that he may be acquainted with a human condition so that he may be qualified as the high priest who sympathizes with the weaknesses of his people. That's Hebrews theology. And so God enacted the Passover lamb and tied its death to the deliverance of the people. Do not miss that. So this Exodus was a deliverance of a people by the blood of the God appointed substitute and sacrifice. That's one of the most important statements that I'll say in awe of this message. This Exodus was just not a people moving out of Egypt. It was the salvation of the people that happened by the blood of the God appointed substitute. The Passover lamb was the ransom payment because it ransomed Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. It was the redemption price. And that is the hallmark of the gospel, deliverance justification from the house of bondage by the blood of Christ. And we'll just stop there and say we've finished our message for today. It's 16 minutes. But we have more. Now God preached that all his people left Egypt with articles of gold and silver and colored them. they did not leave the land of their oppression empty-handed. And so, all the redeemed of the Lord will depart, this life clothed with the riches of Christ. That's what was pictured in the articles of God and Silva. And His righteousness, imputed to them, pictured in the clothing. And the whole assembly exited Egypt one day, in one day, all of them. And that's speaking to the accomplishments of Christ on the cross, that once he has been given, he perfected his people, they sanctified forever as one body in one day. And he caused their mass exodus from condemnation to justification. An exodus from condemnation to justification from all their sin and the burdens of the law. So anyone who comes and says the redeemed from Egypt are still under the law, laboring under Pharaoh, they are saying you are still in Egypt. And you did not take part in the full exodus that Christ came and accomplished. And they are not telling the truth. They can defend the traditions of their church, their confessions, but they do not understand the text. God then rehearsed the Passover feast for them and instructed that this was a feast to be remembered by them and their children in remembrance of their great deliverance by the hand of the Lord. And he tied it to another feast, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. which followed immediately the day after the Feast of the Passover. And the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the children of Israel, they were to eat bread that was made without yeast, bread made without any influence of sin. And that's speaking to the Lord Jesus who is the bread from heaven, who had no influence of sin whatsoever. He was holy and righteous. And in chapter 13 of Exodus, God gives a brief introduction on what he wanted done with the firstborn of Israel. It's very curious, but we will expand it and expound it. Verse 1 and 2 of chapter 13, Exodus. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Concentrate to me, O firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast, it is mine. That is interesting because why would he turn to this matter immediately after the death of all the first born of Egypt? God has interest in the first born. He kills them and he owns them. Why is he interested or obsessed in human terms? with ownership of the firstborn and also the killing of the firstborn. Exodus chapter 4 verse 21 to 23. And the Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, that says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn. So I said to you, let my son go, that he may serve me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed, I'll kill your son, your firstborn. God says, if you do not let my son go, my firstborn, I will kill your firstborn. God was preaching. What is he saying? He's saying if the law cannot set his people free, then he has to kill his own firstborn to accomplish the list. the law cannot set free. So the condition for your release is if God kills his own son. We will develop that some more. Osir 11 verse 1, God says when Israel was a child, I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son. Matthew 2.15 You know the decree of Herod after he heard that Jesus the king of the Jews had been born and had come to take his place. And Herod was not happy about that prospect. So he issued out a decree to kill all the young boys. And this is what we are told in Matthew 2.15 that Jesus by the angel came to Joseph and Mary. They were warned that Herod was coming for the son and they had to escape to Egypt for a minute. And then if you go and read the story, the angel came back again and said, well, he who sought the life of Jesus was dead. Herod was dead. It's safe for you to go back to Palestine. So we are told that Jesus was there in Egypt until the death of Herod. that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying out of Egypt I called my son. So this sonship, this firstborn is multi-faceted, is multi-layered but it's fulfillment is in the person of Christ. So Christ is he who is represented in the testimony of the firstborn. It is he who is represented in the firstborn of Pharaoh whom God said he would kill for the salvation of his people from the house of bondage. Now God comes to tell us that this picture of the firstborn was speaking of his son, my son Christ Jesus, who was also represented in Israel. Israel itself carried the name of Christ. Christ Jesus, if you go to Isaiah, is also referred to as Israel. He's Israel. He also is David, as he is the son of David, but he's also David. So Christ is the prince who has power with God. That's what Israel means. Israel means the prince who has power with God. So Israel has to give to God all the firstborn. And that means to be given as a sacrifice. Christ has to be given all to God. Not in pieces or remnants of a half-baked accomplishment. The firstborn belongs to God. The totality of the firstborn belongs to God. And the firstborn was given not to help the other kids to go to college. He was given to die. That's what pleases God, the death of his own son. Christ Jesus came to establish, to accomplish our Exodus by His death. That's what He did. He did not make it an event possible in the future on account of Sean's faith. That's not the condition of the Exodus. But God took a small detour, or a short detour, to remind them again of the Feast of Unleavened Bread before he continued with the Law of Redemption. And that will take us to verse 3 of Exodus, verse 13. The Feast of Unleavened Bread rehearsed again. And Moses said to the people, remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, For by strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. Remember this day. God says remember this day. What happened on this day that it should be remembered? God says the day that you went out of Egypt. What does that mean? The day that you were justified and set free from the hand of Pharaoh, remember that day. The day that you were redeemed by the blood of the lamb, remember that day. Redeemed from what? God says, redeemed from the house of bondage. So there is a house of bondage in the house of freedom. Those are the only two houses in existence. The house of bondage and the house of freedom. The house of bondage is the house of Hagar, the maid servant, the house of the law, Mount Sinai. How did Israel get to Egypt? Through the Ishmaelites. These are the grandkids of Hagar, because the law brings into bondage. And coming out of Egypt, who brought them out? It was not Moses. It was the Passover man. It was Christ. So we have two houses, the house of bondage and the house of freedom, which is the house of Sarah. of the New Testament with the blood of Christ that has been sprinkled at the door lentils. So in Egypt, we have the tale of two testaments. The Old Testament of the law brings under bondage and the New Testament in the blood of the Passover in the house of freedom. So those pictures are there. Remember, God says, redemption does not wait for the sinner to make a decision about it. You cannot make a decision to be saved. Redemption does not wait for you to be regenerated because the regeneration is not the redemption price. Your choice is not the redemption price God wants you to remember what happened on the day and what caused the exodus. God says this is how it actually happened. For by the strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place. By strength of hand The Lord brought you out of this place of bondage. He did not make it possible for you to come out of bondage. He brought you out. It happened by the hand of the Lord on this very day. He translated his people from this house of bondage. But why does God continue to emphasize the matter of by his strong almighty hand? What is he saying? He has the cross of Christ in view. The nails-carved hands are what God is talking about. Because it is by them that his people were brought out of the house of bondage and are justified. By the nails-carved hands of Christ. By these mighty hands. So it is not by our knowledge of the hand that we were brought out, but by the hand itself. So we have to destroy all attempts of conditioning justification on the doing, on the response, on knowledge of the sinner. The hand of the Lord is anthropomorphic language. Anthropos just means man. Morph, form. So giving human attributes to God to make him accessible. But Christ is the hand of the Lord that is in view, that accomplished the exodus, the salvation of God's people because Mount Calvary is the fulfillment of that. Verse 4 says, Exodus 13 again, On this day you are going out in the month of Abib. So you have the timing of when they left their slavery. It happened in the month of Abib. On this day you are going out. On this day I am setting you free from the decrees of Pharaoh. On this day I have justified you from all your sins. So the Passover is the day that God's people went out of their slavery of sin and its judgment. It is the day that you were translated out of Adam into Christ. The old became old. Very old. And the new became very new. The new creation. On this day, on Mount Calvary, you are going out of the old Adam. You are going out of Egypt. And you went out. And that's God's declaration. You went out from all these things. You did not go out of Egypt last week. You went out of Egypt when the Christ was given to die. That was your day of departure from Egypt. And it shall be, verse 5, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you. That is the promise of salvation. It's God who promised it. A land flowing with milk and honey that it shall keep this service in this month. So this is going to be the day that you shall remember when you get in the land of promise. Because it was the day of your salvation. not of your potential salvation, this day shall be remembered in all of eternity. Because Christ continues to have the nail scarred hands. and the nail scarred feet. He still has them as a remembrance of all these things because he is the fulfillment of those things. We shall never ever forget about it. He will be there to remind us of how we got out of the house of slavery. Verse 6, seven days you shall eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. So the Passover ran for one day. And the very next day began the feast of unleavened bread, which ran for seven days. And the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, was the Sabbath. And the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread also was concluded with the Sabbath. That's very important. Because when Jesus died, the very next day, Jesus died on the Passover day as a Passover man. And the very next day, The reason why Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus rushed to get Jesus off from the cross was because they were preparing for the Sabbath, which is unleavened bread, not the regular Saturday Sabbath. Jesus died midweek. We actually have text for that in Daniel. Okay. And that preaching what? What is the significance of following immediately the death of Jesus with the Sabbath? It doesn't matter when it happens. As soon as the Christ is given, immediately there has to be rest for all those that he died for. No work shall be done. both Christ by his death had finished the work of salvation. So Christ's work is concluded by a Sabbath. Right? So as soon as God's Passover has been given, God's people must enter his rest. No condemnation for those who are in Christ. Verse 7. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, And no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters. No leaven shall be seen in the camp of God's people." What is God saying? No other Jesus. Because unleavened bread was looking to Jesus. And God is saying no other Jesus. No other Saviors. No other gospels. No mixing Jesus with the law. No mixing Jesus with works to accomplish your exodus. No mixing Jesus with anything that comes from us as conditions of salvation. Do not mix anything with Jesus. Even something that is so small is leaven. God sees it. He saw it with the sons of Aaron in Leviticus 10, I believe. They were priests. They were offering incense to the Lord, burning incense. They had all the priestly regalia. But they did something that only God could see. They introduced leaven to the offering. They changed the incense. Yes, people saw the smoke. And a lot of church people would have said, oh, you Aaron's sons, you're very inventive. We actually like that better. It smells better. They got in trouble. Nobody could notice it. It was very small. God saw it and he killed them. He killed them on the spot. And he told Aaron not to weep for his children. I'm going to kill them because they're messing with Jesus. There's an issue with leaven. There's an issue with the gospel. You don't mess with Jesus. You don't mix Jesus with anything to try and improve your standing before God. Exodus 13 verse 8, And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, This is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt. What is God saying? He is saying this is how the gospel is to be preached and believed. Saying what? This is what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt. The gospel is a proclamation of what God did to serve his people by the blood of the Passover lamb This is where you and I were. We were not in Jerusalem. We were in Egypt. We were in the house of bondage. God finds you in some version of Egypt. And there's no redemption without ever passing through the house of bondage. You were not in church. You were busy sinning. under the burdens of Pharaoh. You were alienated to God in your mind by wicked works. That's the teaching of Apostle Paul. But this is what the Lord did for you. He passed over you because of the blood of the Lamb. He justified you. He cleaned you up of all your idols, your sins, and a lot of mess. He forgave you. He reconciled himself to you. That's the way things are. God did not reconcile himself to you two weeks ago or five years ago. He reconciled himself to you when the Christ was given over to death. That's where the peace terms were signed. That's where the justification happened. The signing of the pact of peace was between the father and the son. The son representing you. You were not there to sign anything. But he did sign with the ink of his own blood. The ink that cannot be deleted. So preaching the gospel is not what causes the exodus from Egypt. We have to be faithful and honest with this matter. Preaching the gospel does not cause your exodus from Egypt. It is a proclamation that the exodus already happened. It is a declaration and a remembrance. God says, remember that the Lord took you out. a remembrance of the Exodus already accomplished by Christ Jesus. So pay attention to these words. Preachers do not serve people. There's no preacher who can serve anybody. They can't even serve themselves. They do not cause anyone's Exodus from sin or condemnation. Sinners do not cause the Exodus of other sinners. is only by the death of the unblemished lamb of God. And I am here to bring you to the remembrance, to the knowledge of how it happened. Not how it will happen, nor how it happened when Jesus showed up. Verse 9 It shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes that the Lord's law may be in your mouth for with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. The law that would be in their mouth is not mouth sign. Why? God says you have to remember. that the law may be in your mouth for confession. The law of Mount Sinai does not cause an Exodus from Pharaoh. It is the law of the gospel. Why? Because the text says, for with a strong hand, the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. So we were not delivered by the law from the house of bondage. We needed a much stronger hand than the hand of Moses. The hand of Moses failed to deliver God's people. Moses went to see Pharaoh nine times, performed miracles, still Pharaoh was not persuaded and he failed. Moses cannot persuade God for you for salvation because your account sucks. But if Moses has to persuade God, he has to look to your law obedience. He cannot persuade God on your behalf to be released from judgment. Only the Son is able and has done it. But the Jews, especially the Pharisees did not get this commandment. They missed the gospel. So this is what they did instead, where God says, you shall therefore keep this ordinance in this season from year to year. This is what the Pharisees interpreted. all that keeping of the commandment through the law of your mouth or keep God's law through their mouth. And when Jesus shows up, this is what he found his people doing. Matthew 23, 1 to 5. Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you to do or observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works. For they say and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do, to be seen by men, they make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. So this was coming from Exodus 13. the Pharisees made that commandment to remember the Exodus tattooing things on their heads and stuff and then they made these big stretch garments with large boxes of the phylacteries in a show of an oversized spirituality and the Lord condemned it because they're missing the point, but there's something that I want you to see from that text that I read in Matthew 23. Let's read again from verse 3. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works, for they say and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers." The Pharisees, the scribes, these guys are also coming from the Levites. Because they are the ones who are transcribing the law and keeping records of the law. So there are pictures of the law, and the Lord is saying, this is what the law does to people. The law binds you with heavy burdens, hard to bear. It lays them on men's shoulders, but they themselves, the law itself, will not move them with one of their fingers. The Lord does not help your salvation. That's the testimony that we find in Egypt with Pharaoh and his taskmasters. Pharaoh said, I'm not going to reduce the quarter of bricks, but you have to go and find your own straw. I'm not going to help you with even getting an ounce of the straw. The Lord does not help a sinner. It will bind you with heavy burdens, but it will not touch any of those burdens. That's why the Lord Jesus came and said, come to me, you who are weary and heavy laden because of the burdens, and I'll give you rest. So there's a distinction there. So you can't be marrying Christ to Moses, you have to make a distinction. That's faithful gospel preaching, okay? Now we shall finish our message with the law of the firstborn. that God had introduced briefly at the beginning of the chapter where He had said in Exodus 13 verse 2. Now we will go into the details of that command, verse 11. of Exodus 18, and it shall be, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers and gives it to you, that you shall set apart to the Lord all that is up in the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have, the males shall be the lords. So all the male firstborn of all animals, shall belong to the Lord. And that means they shall be sacrificed, they shall be separated to be sacrificed to the Lord. The firstborn was considered to be more precious because if they were male, they were the ones to carry the inheritance. So they are very precious. And this was a reminder to them that Israel was God's firstborn. Christ was and is God's precious firstborn. That's the point. But every firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem it, then it shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of men among your sons you shall redeem." So the firstborn of a donkey could not be given to the Lord for sacrifice. In other words, it was not acceptable sacrifice. But why? Because the donkey was an unclean animal. In Leviticus 11, God gave the way to distinguish the clean and the unclean animals. Clean animals were land mammals that chew the cud, they regurgitate their stuff, and meditate on it, and have a divided hoof, such as cattle, dear God's sheep. Seafood with both fins and scales. Yeah. Certain birds, including chicken. That's why chicken is always on the menu. Doves. Even some insects like grasshoppers and locusts. But then there was also the class of the unclean animals. Then animals that either do not chew the cud or do not have a split hoof, such as pigs, cats, horses, donkeys, rats, seafood, lurking fiends, or scales, such as lobster, shellfish, catfish, and birds. Like vouchers. That's why Abraham had to chase away the vouchers from the sacrifice. Bad gospel preachers. Right? And God said, I am not having a donkey to me. I am not having a donkey. Even if it is a firstborn. Hear this. as God was expressing his disgust with the sins of Judah. The Hallow Tree. Jeremiah 2. Let's go to Jeremiah 2. To give you an idea of what's wrong with the donkey. Jeremiah 2, beginning at verse 20. God says through Jeremiah, For of old I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds, and you said I will not transgress. When on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down playing the hallowed, yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before me? into the degenerate plant of an alien vine. For though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, says the Lord God. How can you say I am not polluted? I have not gone after the bells. See your way in the valley. know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary, the son relative of a camel, breaking loose in her ways, a wild donkey used to the wilderness that sniffs at the wind in her desire, in a time of mating who can turn her way. All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In a month, they'll find her. Sounds like God really knows his creatures. He made them that way. And God is saying, a donkey is a stubborn animal. A donkey is very hard to work with. It is not as agreeable as you may think. It's very stubborn. It will bite you. It kicks. and it's lazy, it doesn't pull hard enough. You can't. If you yoke a donkey to an ox, the donkey can just decide to stop and lie down to the ground. And there's nothing that it can do to it. And God is saying, naturally, this who you are, you are a stubborn As a donkey in sin, you chase after idols and love them. And being like a donkey, there's nothing that a sinner can do to wash themselves and be clean before God. Because God says that, though you wash yourself with much soap, your iniquity is ever present before me. I still see your sin even through your best works of righteousness. That's the washing. Religion will give you a lot of soap. They'll get you a lot of soap to try and wash yourself. God says, I still see it. That's much of what is being preached at the gospel. The washing of oneself with a lot of soap, a lot of perfuming. and hoping that God is pleased with that. But being a donkey, God says there is nothing that you can do to justify yourself before him or cause yourself to belong to him. Nothing that you can do to cause yourself to belong to him. Hear that point. This is a very important understanding and God is being very clear. We have no natural title to anything that is in God just because we exist. We are limited by the very fact that we are sinners, we are donkeys. And because of that, the donkey could not be given to be a sacrifice acceptable to God, as is It could not stand on its own four legs, could not stand on its own merit. What then should happen to a donkey? If a donkey should live, God said, redeem it. A donkey needs to be redeemed. But redeemed with what? Redeemed with a lamb. It has to be redeemed with a lamb. The donkey, the sinner can only be redeemed with a lamb. And that means they just cannot come to God of their own merit. They cannot. They cannot be justified by anything that they did or was done to them. It has to be by something that was done for them. There has to be an exchange, see what God is saying, there has to be an exchange a lamb for a donkey? What shall a donkey give for its life? What shall a donkey bring? Is it going to bring some other donkey? What shall a man give in exchange for their soul? That's the question. That's what Jesus asked. God says a lamb. A donkey, a sinner can only be redeemed by Christ Jesus, the lamb of God. And what happens if a lamb cannot be found? God says, break its neck, kill the donkey, destroy it, condemn it to death. But that's not fair. That's not fair. You can't be killing that cute donkey. Such a cute donkey. No, he's a cute stubborn donkey. What if the donkey has some good works? Even looks good. The cute donkey. The donkey used to pull a wagon to draw water and some grain from the field. The donkey was pulling a cart to carry grain from the field. It's a useful donkey. God says it doesn't matter. It's still a donkey, kill it. Lord, Lord, did we not do many wonderful things in your name? We drew water, in your name. We prophesied in your name. We pulled wagons in your name. We did many wonderful things in your name. God says, you're still a donkey. Depart from me. I never knew you. Show me the land. Do not just show me the wood and the fire. Remember Isaac. Father, where is the lamp of sacrifice? I see the fire, I see the wood, but where is the lamp? Because there has to be an exchange. If Isaac has to leave, the lamp has to be found. And it is the lamp that God has to provide, and He did. So those who came, To Jesus in Matthew 7, we bring the testimony of an unredeemed donkey. It did a lot of works to profess before God. But what was lacking in their testimony was the lamb. They had not been exchanged with the lamb. They were supposed to be talking about the lamb and not their own works. So what happens if a sinner is not redeemed in Christ? God says let them go to the pit. I have nothing against the Queen of England. But if the Queen did not get a lamp in her place, it is not well. God is not respectful of persons. God is not into warm and fuzzy things like we are as human beings. God says let them be condemned unless they found the lamp for a ransom. The donkey has to be ransomed. That is the gospel. Our being ransomed by Christ the Lamb of God. The gospel is simple. A lamb for a donkey. A lamb for an ass. Christ for the sinner. So it is not about anything that we do with Christ. But what Christ has done for us, the sinners. Christ standing for the sinner. The lamb standing for the donkey. Justification in the lamb, by the lamb. Not justification because we have some knowledge about the lamb, but because the lamb took our place as full surety and ransomed us. Okay? Verse 14. Exodus 13, So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, What is this that you shall say to him? By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. This was the same thing God said was the reason for them to commemorate the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. God wanted them to tattoo this matter to their mind to remind them that they owed their shoulders from condemnation to the dying of the lamb, not to their own goodness, because naturally they were donkeys. That donkey line was there to remind them that their freedom, they owed their freedom from Pharaoh to the death of the lamb. He did not redeem them because of their good deeds, but because He found a lamp without blemish for them. Those nail-scarred hands on Mount Calvary were the strength of the hand of God. They were not immobilized as we may think. Those hands of Christ Jesus had strength in them. how much strength was in the hands of the Lord as He was on the cross, enough strength to justify all His elect from their sins, enough strength to perfect us for all time, to make us complete in Him, enough strength to reconcile us to God, enough strength to open the heavenly doors for us. Even though those hands seemed to be immobilized, they were turning, they were moving things, transactions were happening. That's where it happened. Verse 15 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, but the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. So this was happening. Israel is supposed to tell their children the context of the Exodus. How it happened and why it happened. What were the issues? The problem was Pharaoh. God says they need to remember that their Exodus happened in the context of a Pharaoh who was being stubborn and refusing to let them go out of the house of bondage. Pharaoh was adamant that they would not leave the house of bondage. And as I've said before, people are too quick to assume understanding of statements like these. And that's why they miss the gospel nuggets. They're too quick to condemn Pharaoh. If you are too quick to condemn Pharaoh, then you miss out on what God is actually saying. Pharaoh is not there for us to condemn him. We are supposed to understand the issues of salvation through Pharaoh. Pharaoh, the sovereign of Egypt, was stubborn to let the people go. As God said, he would hide in his heart. But what does Pharaoh really know? Nothing. Pharaoh does not know what's going on. So who is making him stubborn? It is not Pharaoh. It is God. God said it. I'm going to harden his heart. I'm going to make him stubborn. So who is causing the people to not be set free? It was not Pharaoh. It is God. God not Pharaoh is your problem. God, not Pharaoh, is He who has brought you and I into futility, in the house of bondage. It is He who brought us where we are or where we were in Adam. Sin came by way of God's ordination and doing. I mean, people are trying to project this just to show that they don't know what they're talking about. Okay? And God is more stubborn than Pharaoh. If God's heart is hardened against a sinner, they will never escape. If God is hardened towards a person, they will not escape. Because God says, who can deliver from my hands? The expected answer is no one. So God was always our problem. But God has to give to God what God agrees with. So it is God who has to come down to deliver you from himself as he came down. In the conversation between God and Moses in the burning bush, he says, I have come down. And that is speaking to the incarnation of Jesus. He's coming down from heaven to deliver his people from their sins, from the hands of Pharaoh, from the hands of his father. I've come down. I've heard the cry of my people. I've heard the misery of my people. I've come to deliver them. So God is he who has to appoint a lamp to stand in the place of the donkey, that it may escape the house of bondage. So it is Christ who has caused your escape from the hands of God. It is Christ Jesus who justified you. Not your faith. People, please. Your faith cannot justify you in the matter of which we are talking. The children of Israel without the blood that God had approved, the blood that God saw, they could have as much faith as they want. As long as there was no payment, as long as there was no redemption price, as long as there was nothing to mediate their exodus from Pharaoh to salvation that could not help them. Their faith could not help them. It is the blood of Christ that God sees and is pleased with. That he on that basis alone declares you as righteous. The blood. Remember the woman with the issue of blood. She had a blood problem. Every man and woman born in Adam has a blood issue. So they need a blood donor of the kind that Jesus brings. So the Lord says this, we are almost done. Verse 15 I believe, Exodus 10, I sacrifice to the Lord all males that open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem. I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that open the womb. All the males were represented in the person of Christ. It is he who whom we sacrifice in confession to God through faith. We are sacrificing Christ in confession of faith. To say he is our redeemer who caused our exodus from the house of bondage. And faith is God's given testimony. bringing us to the confession of the sacrifice of the firstborn to himself and saying he is the one who caused your exodus from the house of bondage by his death. That's what faith is about. It is not causing, it is acknowledging a transaction. But the sons were to be redeemed. They were to be bought back from being made sacrifices by money. It's something that I did not want to develop. The sons could not be given to be offered as sacrifices. That's the whole idea. God is saying, OK, you bring your firstborn of animals. Use those in sacrifice. But your sons, I'm not going to have you butchering your sons. That does not work. That's not the idea. Because that would have spelled doom to the survival of the nation itself if all the firstborn were being butchered constantly. But God ends this way. By way of repetition. And this is for the third time in this chapter. Verse 16 is a repetition of verse 9 and 14. It shall be as a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes, for by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt." It shall be a sign on your hand and as frontlets. That's the one thing that we referenced in Matthew 23 that the Pharisees and scribes were doing. But what was God saying with that? Esau B is a sign on your hand and is frontless between your eyes. For by strength of hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt. God is saying, preach the gospel. Remember the cross. Preach the blood as complete. Preach the lamb as the one who stood in the place of the dog and redeemed it so that it would not have its neck broken. Preach the lamb and his blood is only visible to God. Preach how the Exodus was accomplished. Because if you understand the Exodus, you understand your own justification before God. by the blood of the Passover lamb, the firstborn of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. In all the Passover, there was a donkey that was supposed to have its neck broken by the name of Barabbas. That donkey was on death row to have its neck broken. But he found and lamb. That's how Barabbas went home. God gave Barabbas a lamb because he was a donkey. He was an ass and worthy of death. But he went home a justified man because Christ stood for him and ransomed his life. That's your gospel. That's your hope. So be careful how you hear people saying these things. Emphasize what God prioritizes and emphasizes. Listen to what people are saying or are not saying. Anybody who conditions salvation of a donkey to anything than the full representation by the Lamb is not telling the truth. It's about the Lamb of God. Amen. Well done. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord we thank you for this time that you have appointed to teach us the matter of our salvation in the story of Israel in Egypt. how they owed their freedom from the house of bondage to the death of the Passover lamb, to the death of the firstborn of Israel, firstborn of Pharaoh, picturing our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the knowledge of the unleavened bread with our Lord Jesus Christ. We had no sin in him. We thank you, Lord, for the exchange that has happened for us who were sinners, who were donkeys. Thank you for providing the lamb that our necks may not be broken. And that's the declaration of the gospel. That's the simplicity of Christ. That's the sufficiency of Christ. We thank you. We honor you. We pray that you keep us in the days ahead. And grant strength to those who are weary for whatever reason, either spiritually or physically, ailments, just old age, whatever issues. relationship issues marriage issues lord we pray for all your people that they may find comfort in the truth of christ we honor you in all things we pray in jesus name amen all right good people a lamb for an ass that's god's gospel remember that