God’s Sacrifice in the Wilderness

The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.

H. B. Charles
Grace and peace be multiplied to each of you tonight in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. My assignment tonight is Exodus chapter 12. Would you get your copy of God’s word in turn there with me and permit me to begin by reading a section, the opening section of this chapter, beginning at verse number one. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month, shall be for you the beginning of months. It should be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the 10th day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers, houses, lamb for household and if the household is too small for a lamb, and he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons according to what each can eat, and you shall make your count for the lamb. Your Lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the 14th day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Then, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two door post and the lentil of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw boiled and water but roasted its head with its legs and its inner parts, and you shall not let none of it remain until the morning anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner, you shall eat it with your belt fastened 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 pass through the land of Egypt that night. And I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. The blood shall be assigned for you. The house is where you are and when I see the blood, I will pass over you know plague will befall you to destroy you. When I strike the land of Egypt, a man

Joseph is the bridge between the book of Genesis and the book of Exodus. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. But the Lord was with him. Joseph arrived in Egypt as a slave. He became a wrongly convicted prisoner in part of his house. But he was promoted to Prime Minister second in command to the Pharaoh and the time of national crisis. Before his death, his reconciled family some 70 persons moved to Egypt with Joseph after Josef’s death, the people of Israel became a large, strong, great people. It is there. The drama of Exodus begins. A Pharaoh rose who did not know Joseph. The Pharaoh viewed this mighty Hebrew population as a threat to national security. So Pharaoh severely and bitterly oppressed the children of Israel. The Lord raised up Moses to deliver his people so great is our God He raised up Moses in Pharaoh’s household. As we heard last hour, the Lord revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush, declaring himself to be the AI Am and he compelled Moses to return to Egypt to tell Pharaoh to let his people go free. In Exodus chapter five, verse two, Pharaoh arrogantly asked, Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? The Lord answered Pharaoh’s arrogant question by striking Egypt with severe plagues. The 10 plagues forced Pharaoh into submission. These plates also proved that Yahweh was greater than the gods of Egypt. These idols could not stay God’s hand for God’s plans or match God’s works. The devastating bombardment of blood, frogs, lice, flies, pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and death proved that God is God alone. Exodus chapter 12 precourse, the 10th and final play this climactic play it gets recorded more fully than the previous night. It is what in the real sense this entire chapter is about, but it is presented in a way that sets this tense plague apart from the others. If I may say it this way, the first nine plagues were a message to Pharaoh, but in this 10th plague, there is a message to Israel. Exodus chapter 12 reports this 10th plague from that perspective. The chapter narrates the 10th played with the focus on the Passover. If I may summarize the chapter, the Passover is commanded in verses one through 28. The Passover is an act it in verses 29 through 40. And then the Passover is instituted in verses 43 through 51. After Israel crossed the Red Sea, the book of Exodus details how God makes these free slaves, his covenant people. He will prove his faithfulness over and over again. And they will prove their unfaithfulness over and over again. We will see that the relationship between this holy God and his sinful people was not based upon their ability to be faithful. It will be based upon the blood of atonement. And this bloody basis of redemption and relationship is, in fact the scarlet thread from Israel’s wilderness wonderings to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, where his blood and righteousness opened for us a new and living way to God. Hebrews chapter nine, verse 22, was searched without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. This redemptive strategy of divine covenant through atoning sacrifice begins here with the Passover in Exodus chapter 12. The chapter begins with the Lord’s commands to Moses and Aaron. No verse to this month shall be for you, the beginning of month shall be the first month of the year to you. This time reference emphasizes the revolutionary nature of the Passover. A fiscal year may be more critical to accompany then the calendar year a school year schedule may be more important to an educator than the calendar year, a new season may be more significant to the athlete than the calendar year. The Passover we see here with God’s new year Israel’s new orientation of time was with revolve around this sovereign act of redemption. Moses would instruct the men to take a lamb for their household. If they could not afford one the neighbors would share. But no family wants to be left out. This young lamb was to be without spot, or blemish. He was to be selected on the 10th day of the month, it was to be sacrificed on the 14th day of the month. Verse seven states the purpose of this sacrificial lamb. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two door post and on the lintel of the house in which they eat it. The lambs flesh was to be eaten that night, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, not nothing was to remain until morning. And as they ate, the people were to be dressed and ready to move at any moment. Now, verse 11, ends with this assertion, it is the Lord’s Passover. The Passover was a historical event of divine intervention, God Himself visited these people in the Passover. The Passover, would become an annual fee so that Israel would never forget what the Lord did for them when he appeared in Egypt, in judgment, verses 12 and 13. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast and own all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments, I am the Lord. The blood shall be assigned for you home, the house is where you are, 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. The Passover was simultaneously an act of divine judgment and an act of divine salvation. This divine work of redemption was to be if you will re enacted each year so that the Israelites would not forget the revelation of God to them through this Passover. Verse 14,

this day shall be for you a memorial and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord. Throughout all your generations as a statue forever, you shall keep it as a feast. But does this Passover reveal Dr. Piper last hour, lifted for us. Exodus chapter three. My assignment tonight is Exodus chapter 12. And in the following messages you will hear the emphasis will be on God’s dealings with his people in the wilderness wanderings along the way to the promised land as we see it in Exodus, his account. But here, like in Exodus three, this passage is significant. For us to spend time with before the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, and began to journey in the wilderness. The revelation of God, to Moses at the burning bush is a statement about who God is. But the work of God in the Passover is a statement about how God works. And how God works is hope for these ancient pilgrims and the Christian pilgrim today. Four lessons that were to be drawn from this Passover see, first there’s a lesson about sovereignty. A lesson about sovereignty before and beyond. What this Passover passage says about the lamb and the blood and the Exodus. It is first and foremost a statement about God It is the Lord’s Passover. God displayed His sovereignty to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians. Verse 12, on all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments I am the Lord. Israel’s oppression in Egypt was rooted in something more than the Egyptians sense of ethnic superiority. It was rooted in theological ignorance and arrogance. Pharaoh and the Egyptians thought their gods were greater than the God of the children of Israel. The Passover, rebuke 10 refuted their theological errors, God in the Passover will strike down the firstborn of Egypt and their gods will not be able to save them. God’s sovereign judgment here was poetic justice. When Moses was born, Pharaoh commanded that the male Hebrew babies be thrown into the Nile hit for years it seemed this great wickedness went unanswered and unpunished. But here in Exodus 12, we are reminded friends, evil will not have the last word God always has the last word. The Passover, however, was not Jeff, God’s sovereignty own display for the Egyptians. It was also God’s sovereignty on display for the Israelites. In Exodus chapter two, verses 23 through 25. The Bible says during those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel grown because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue came to God. And God heard their groaning Good God, remember His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob, God saw the people of Israel and God knew. You see Franz Moses, his confrontation with Pharaoh was a message from God, to his people that he saw. He heard he knew. Specifically, the Passover was the divine announcement that God is able to save his people with a mighty arm and outstretched hand in the memorial of the Passover was to remind them how great their god was, as they wander in the wilderness to the land of promise. And saith as you follow Christ through life’s wilderness experiences, look to the Passover end, remember who God is, God is God all by himself. Psalm 145, verse three says it this way, Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. When his greatness is unsearchable. There is in the story of the Passover, a lesson about sovereignty, but secondly, a lesson about sin. The Passover declares the sovereignty of God, but it also declares the holiness of God. Holiness is the defining attribute of God. If you look at the attributes of God without holiness, you will only see an idol made in your own image. Isaiah chapter six, verse three, tells us the Sarafem saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. The Passover, display the surpassing glory of God’s perfect and infinite holy Yes, yes, the Passover with God’s judgment against Pharaoh, the Egyptians and their gods. But the children of Israel were not automatically spared from this judgment because they were better than the Egyptians. God passed over the households covered with blood on the doorposts by his sovereign grace and mercy. Notice verse 12, the blood shall be assigned for you home, the house is where you are. 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. And then dropped down to verse 23. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the lentil land, on the two door post, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. The quote unquote destroyer was scheduled to visit every household that night, Egyptian and Hebrew. The destroyer did not pass over the Israelites because they deserve to be spared. God had made a promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that he would now fulfill to the children of Israel. God was faithful, the Israelites were not. They had sinned against the Lord. They did not believe God’s word to them. They were as idolatrous in some ways as the Egyptians. So this Passover confronts us with the sinfulness of sin. It reminds us Romans three, verse 23, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. At our best, we all fall short our righteous deeds, Isaiah 64, verse six, or F polluted garments before the Lord. We are sinners by nature, having a heritage a sinful nature from Adam, but we are personally sinners by choice by inclination, by desire by speech by conduct.

Romans 623 rightly says the wages of sin is death, we all deserve sovereign, righteous, eternal punishment. Buddy fees in chapter two verses four and five, declare, But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead, in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace, you have been safe. Which leads to the third lesson. There is a lesson here about sovereignty and lesson about sin. Thirdly, a lesson about substitution. The Passover is not just a statement, thank God about the sinfulness of sin. It is also a statement about the salvation of sinners. How does God save sinners? God saves by the blood of substitutionary atonement. There are hints that this before the Passover. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, God covered their nakedness with coats of skin. over him remember when Abraham and his son Isaac climbed Mount Moriah and Isaac X to Father where is the lamb? For the burnt offering? Genesis 22 Verse eight, Abraham answered, son, God will provide for himself the lamb and God did during the Passover, what is hinted at in previous passages is made explicit. The Israelites were to select a lamb. The lamb was to be without spot or blemish. The innocent lamb was to be slaughtered for the people If blood was to be placed on the wood beings of the door in Exodus chapter 12, verse 13 says the blood shall be assigned for you, um, the house is where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you the blood of the Passover lamb was a sign to God and Israel, Israel with a look to the blood on the doorposts as a sign that we’re to look at the blood to see and know what it meant. Versus 26 to 27 says when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service? You shall say it is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Jesus Egypt, when he struck the Egyptian but spared our houses. God passed over their houses when he saw the blood. The blood of the lamb sick signified the Passover, the 10th plague and de Exodus. Oh, but friends. Moreover, the blood of the Passover lamb is a type of Christ. In a greater deeper how your way the events of this Passover in Exodus chapter 12, points us to Jesus who died at the cross as our substitute. He took the punishment of God’s wrath so that by faith in Him we may be declared righteous before God. First Corinthians chapter five, verse seven, calls Christ our paths over land. This Old Testament story points us to Jesus who is our all sufficient Prophet, Priest and King. God started this atonement business with one lamb for a person. Here in our text, there is one lamb for each household. On the Day of Atonement, the high priests will sacrifice when lamb for the nation. But remember, in John one, when John the Baptist declared when he saw Jesus coming, Behold, the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and His blood is our hope. The bad news tonight is that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And we will have to answer to God for how we have lived our lives. The worst news is that there is nothing we can do to fix what our sins have broken. There is no good thing in us to commend to God, all of our righteous deeds fall short of God’s perfect standards. But the good news is, God sent His only begotten Son into the world who died at the cross for our sins and who rose from the dead for our justification. First Peter, chapter three, verse 18, saying For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous that he may bring us to God be put to death in the flesh but may live in the Spirit. And the best news is If you are here tonight you are far from God. If you run to the cross, confess your sins and throw yourself on his mercy and trust the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our only hope for salvation tonight from you can have in and through the blood of Jesus Christ, free forgiveness, new life and eternal hope. Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 21, says, for our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that we may become the righteousness of God. I have one more lesson but let me pause and testify while I’m here. Blessing assurance, Jesus’s man Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine air of salvation, purchased by God, born of his Spirit, washed in this blood. But the fourth lesson you should know here is the lesson about sanctification. Exodus 12 records the Passover as a historical event, it also records the Passover as an on going Memorial. Verses 14 to 27. Detail the instruction of the Passover has been feast established by the Lord, then the 10th playing itself is recorded where God struck down all of the firstborn sons of Egypt. You know, verses 31 and 32. Pharaoh summon Moses and Aaron by night and said, up, get away from my people. Both you and the people of Israel, go serve the Lord, as you have said, take your flocks and your herds as you have said, and be gone. Wait for it. And bless me also hardened Pharaoh axed who is the Lord now humbled Pharaoh praise and bless me also.

From there, the chapter reports the beginning of the Exodus. And the chapter ends with the institution of the Passover in the final verses of this chapter, verses 43 through 49 emphasize that the feast was not for strangers or foreigners. To participate, one would have to be circumcised as a member of the Covenant community. The Passover was to be a family meal in which redeemed people celebrated God’s sovereign grace, sparing mercy and steadfast love. The night Jesus was portrayed he observed the Feast of Passover with His disciples. And he instituted the Lord’s supper that night, saying to the disciples Do this in remembrance of me. But there is a another lesson for us from this Passover feast. It is not just a word about salvation, it is a call to sanctification. That is how Paul uses it in first Corinthians chapter five after he rebukes the church for tolerating gross sexual immorality in their midst. He says in first Corinthians chapter five, verses six to eight. cleans out the old living, that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the level of malice and evil with the young level bread of sincerity and truth thank God the blood of the lamb covers our sin but the blood of the lamb also cleanses us from sin. The church that I grew up in during communion we would regularly saying what became my favorite communion him. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from me manuals, vein centers plunge beneath that for lose all their guilty stand the dying thief rejoice to see that fountain in his day. And there may I though violet, see, wash all my sins away. But it was many years before I found out that him had more verses than those two.

And there is another verse, which is better than the verses I just cited. That great hymn goes on to say, Dear dying lamb, that precious blood will never lose his power. To all the ransom Church of God be saved, to send no more. That’s our hope in Christ, that one of these days we will be saved to sin no more. Father, we thank You for Your Word tonight. We thank you for its truth, its wisdom and its authority. We praise you as the sovereign God who reigns over heaven and earth, no one can stay your hand. No one can thwart your plans. No one can hinder your power. You are faithful. We confess to you Lord, that we are sinful. And there is nothing in us to commend to you. But we praise you that what you in righteousness demand you supply through Jesus Christ, who was wounded for our transgressions, who was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one of us to his own way. But we praise you that you have laid on Christ, the iniquity of us all. And in light of Your mercy to us, we pray that You would help us to present our bodies afresh to us living sacrifices holy and acceptable to you, which is our spiritual worship, to the praise of your glory. Amen.