This exposition of Exodus 12:1-13 by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, September 9, 2018.
Intro:
I was sitting in a crowded auditorium at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. I was there for their annual Pastor’s Conference. The man speaking was a doctor of psychiatry and he was telling us why people go into the field of psychology.
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He said the vast majority have “issues” and this is a way of getting help without having to admit they have a problem. The more reasons he gave the louder the laughter. We preachers were nodding with approval. Most of us thinking, “I know a guy like that.” Then everything changed. He said, “Keep laughing because in a minute I’m going to tell you why you’re a preacher!” He wasn’t funny anymore. Now he’s meddling. Who does he think he is? What gives him the right to say such things? Looking back some 30 plus years, I have to say, “His observations were painfully accurate.” I thought about that experience this week as I was preparing today’s message. I think the people of Israel may have had much the same reaction I did at that Pastor’s Conference. It was easy to understand why God came in judgment of Pharaoh and the nation of Egypt. After all Pharaoh sought to eliminate the Israelites. He forced them into slavery. He refused the will and Word of God. Not once or twice but nine times. Blow after blow and yet he would not yield. Such stubborn obstinance deserves the judgment of God. As God came in judgment and Israel was spared they must have nodded approval. They no doubt enjoyed seeing the Egyptians squirm. But now, in the ten and final judgment - they were involved.
God was going to pass through the land of Egypt in a great sweeping judgment and the firstborn in every house would die. From the house of Pharaoh down to the lowest slave; from the wealthiest to the poorest of the poor and everyone in between. Death was coming to every home throughout all of Egypt unless that home was under the blood. Our text this morning is found in the 12th chapter of Exodus.
Text: Exodus 12:1-13
Occasionally I meet someone who claims to be a New Testament Christian. I know what they mean but no one is truly a New Testament Christian. There has been a push in recent days by a very popular preacher who suggests that churches need to “unhitch” from the Old Testament. There’s just a lot of baggage in the Old Testament that is embarrassing or difficult to explain in our enlightened and sophisticated culture. Well, the problem with that is we are not New Testament Christians we are biblical Christians. The gospel is not confined to the New Testament it runs throughout the whole of Scripture. Don’t you remember our Lord and his journey with those two disciples on the road to Emmaus? How the risen Lord, beginning with Moses and the prophets, showed the bewildered disciples that the whole message of the Scriptures (the Old Testament) was about him!
The glory and wonder of the gospel is not merely a New Testament truth, it is a biblical truth.
This morning I want you to see the gospel in the Passover.
I want you to see that 1400 years before the birth of Christ…
Thesis: The glory and wonder of the gospel is powerfully and wonderfully displayed in the Passover.
There are three things I want us to note.
- The Passover declares the uncomfortable truth of sin and its devastating consequences.
- The Passover declares God’s gracious provision through a lamb without spot or blemish.
- The Passover pleads for total, absolute trust in the blood of the lamb to turn away the sovereign, righteous wrath of God.
Conclusion:
Those who were “under the blood” were kept safe when God passed through the land in judgment. Christ is our substitute. He died that we might live. His blood stands between our sin and God’s holiness. When you look to the cross you see the payment made for your sin. When God sees the blood he says, “It is enough. The debt is paid in full. I am satisfied. Death will passover and you are safe forever more.
Paul tells us in Romans 3 - we are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (3:24-26)
You are a sinner.
God has graciously made provision for you in the person of the Lord Jesus.
Will you trust in the blood of Christ, alone?
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