Everybody, welcome.

Welcome, Wes Cole.

Welcome, Rancho.

Glad you're with us.

I'm in Exodus chapter 12, verse 1 through 13.

I want to encourage you to find that.

I know it's on the screen, but if you can find it in your Bible, take a few notes.

We're in a series we're calling Promises.

And this is our Easter series.

And the reason we're doing this, it's so important that you and I not only understand what salvation is.

by grace through faith, but we understand the story of salvation.

So that when you're talking to your friends or when people are asking, tell me more about how this happens, that you not only know about the cross, but you understand that even before the foundations of the world, God had put his plan of redemption in place.

And the reason we've called this series Promises is because most of us, most of our frustrations come because of unrealized expectations.

You know, we take a new job and we think we're going to get more vacation time, more money.

It's going to be more peaceful.

The employees are actually going to be nice to us.

We have children.

We have no idea that when a mother has children, her life is over for about eight years, right?

We're glad we had them.

It doesn't change the father that much, but it's a huge transition for the mother.

Marriages.

You think about two people who come from dysfunctional families, because we all do, suddenly think they can come together and it's not going to be difficult.

Marriage is difficult.

Friendships, you'll be betrayed.

Churches will disappoint you because they're made up of flawed, dysfunctional people.

So a lot of times our frustration is because we feel like someone's made a promise to us, a commitment, or maybe even signed a contract of some kind, and they don't follow through.

So it's easy to become cynical when you start to number the amount of people or the amount of circumstances that have let you down.

The series is called Promises because it's supposed to remind you.

One, do not place God in the same category as you do everyone else.

Yes, you might be let down by a lot of your friends and your business partners, and you might become cynical.

Why should I believe God or why should I believe what this pastor tells me about God?

Everybody else has let me down.

Perhaps God will too.

Second, the promises that God makes and demonstrates will always come to fruition.

And I'm trying to remind you of that.

And that the great promise, the greatest promise you have from God you is eternal life, which is no small thing.

I mean, it's a pretty big deal, isn't it?

That you look around at the way the world is and the challenges you have in your own life, and old age hitting you, and you're falling apart.

It's the world, man.

It's the way that it is.

But you're supposed to be able to live with this centralized joy to where you know that you're going to win in the end, and you'll have moments of sorrow, but there should be a centralized joy that just never deters you.

You're always positive, okay?

And that's how you know that something's gone on, some transformation has taken place.

And again, God's plan of salvation was demonstrated from the beginning.

It's not like this was an afterthought.

It's not like God looks down and says, wow, look at those guys.

Look at mankind.

They're really acting evil toward one another.

This is not a shocker or surprise.

God put the plan of salvation and redemption in play before anyone was born.

Revelation 13, 8 describes Jesus as the lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world.

What does that mean?

It means that God thinks literally, okay?

He thinks progressively.

You being created in the image of God means that you make decisions that way too.

So God decides first he's going to create.

He decides that he's creating you and me for the purpose of a love relationship.

Some of you have heard this before, which means he has to give us free will because love is only genuine if it's given freely.

If it's coerced or if it's forced, that's not love.

For love to maintain its integrity, it has to be given freely.

So God creates, chooses that love is the highest value in the universe, creates us for a love relationship.

In his foreknowledge, because God knows all things.

He knows that many are going to use their faith freedom to reject him rather than pursue him, that sin is going to enter the world.

And as a result, disintegration is going to enter.

But before he creates day one, he's already decided that he's going to put a plan of redemption in place to restore everything that's ever been lost.

All of that happens before day one of creation.

And the beauty of it, and it's the reason it's important you and I understand it, God chose to reveal this redemptive story to us.

And he revealed it to us in the Bible, the scriptures, beginning all the way back in Genesis and then giving us more details.

It's why it's called progressive revelation as the scriptures unfold.

And you and I are looking more specifically at the Exodus story, where God delivers his people out of bondage in Egypt and has Moses bring them to the promised land.

So we said last week that the Exodus event, which is why if I were you, I would read it again and again and again, is a paradigm for what God has promised you in salvation and redemption.

Even though the events happened to Israel, specifically the nation of Israel, Everything that happens in the Exodus account is a demonstration of God's offer of salvation and the manner in which he plans to redeem the world.

So that's why, again, it's crucial.

The reason I'm going through these two weekends before we get to the next two, which if I were you, I would not miss as we talk about what our promised land is like.

That'll be fun.

It's the reason it's important that you understand how important this whole Exodus account really is that you understand the details.

Now, I told you during this series, you're going to have to think a little bit.

You got to lean in.

And it's difficult sometimes because you have busy lives, right?

If we could have somebody come up and just do a little dance and get your attention, that may help you.

We don't have time to do that.

And I don't have time for a lot of stories and jokes and funny things to try to get you motivated.

I don't have time for pep rally.

I just want to give you good teaching.

So here we go.

You know the story.

You know the setting of the Exodus story.

And it's what?

God's people are in bondage in Egypt.

As we said last week, they're enslaved.

They're mistreated.

They're impoverished.

They're pushed down.

They have no rights.

They see no hope, no plan, no future.

In other words, a lot of the way that people look at our world today in places that are not so affluent, the people of Israel are demoralized.

They simply are sitting around you and working in their forced labor, waiting to die.

They cry out to the God that they had forgotten in hopes that he had not forgotten them.

God hears their cry.

He sends them a deliverer by the name of Moses, who ushers in plagues as warning signs.

So the plagues that we see that descend upon Egypt, they come to demonstrate the power of Moses' God.

in hopes that Pharaoh would be encouraged to let the people of God go, to free them.

The plagues are God's way of saying, yes, these are Moses' people, but Pharaoh, these are my people.

And if you don't let them go from the enslavement and from your mistreatment, then the power and judgment that has produced these plagues are going to descend upon you.

Now quickly, let's see how well you know the Bible.

How did the Hebrews get into slavery in Egypt in the first place?

He goes all the way back to Genesis 50 and Joseph's coat of many colors.

His brothers sell him into slavery.

He ends up in Egypt.

But the sovereign plan of God ensures that Joseph rises through the ranks in Egypt and becomes really ruler over the land as a Hebrew.

And as a Hebrew, he's put in charge of the entire land.

And his God gives him dreams and reveals to him a famine is coming.

And Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, gives a special anointing on this young Hebrew boy, Joseph.

And he ends up saving, sparing not only the Israelites but also the Egyptians from the destruction of the coming famine.

As a result, Joseph's people, the Israelites now, are welcomed in Egypt and they are honored guests.

They're respected and revered in a foreign land, but it's short-lived because one, the Israelites forgot their God as they typically do.

And the Egyptians forgot the salvation that came from the Hebrews and their God Yahweh.

Now, part of the reason that the Hebrews lost favor with Pharaoh is because the Hebrews started multiplying like rabbits.

This happens when they obey the precepts of God, they flourish.

That's what shalom means, human flourishing.

So the Hebrews are flourishing and the Egyptian Pharaoh, the one who had seen the...

Well, he's dead and gone.

There's a new Pharaoh.

The one who honored...

The Hebrews has passed away and there's another Pharaoh.

This Pharaoh doesn't look at the Hebrews like the Pharaohs before.

So this Pharaoh says to himself, man, I've got to do something about these Hebrews.

They're out of control.

They are about to outnumber us.

They could overpower us.

So I'm going to conquer these foreigners within Egypt by subjecting them to slavery, forced labor.

We're going to use them to build our empire.

And I'm going to stifle their growth and prosperity through pain and suffering.

And that's exactly what he does.

And the abuse goes year after year after year.

And finally, the Hebrews repent, call out to God.

God hears their cries and sends them Moses.

Now, Moses' job is to do what?

To march the children of Israel out of Egypt in bondage and take them to the promised land.

But Pharaoh, as we saw last week, has no intention of letting the Hebrews go.

I mean, he's building an empire.

He needs the slave labor.

So his heart becomes hardened.

And even though he knows that Yahweh is the real God demonstrated through the plagues, he still refuses to let the people of God go, proving once again that unbelief is not a matter of a lack of evidence, but the suppression of it.

Therefore, God now decides to send in the destroyer.

That's actually his name.

the destroyer who's going to call in the debt that Pharaoh owes.

And here's where the passage begins.

Here we go.

Verse one, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, this month is to be for you the first month, the month, first month of your year.

Tell the whole community of Israel that on the 10th day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.

If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one.

with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are.

You are determined the amount of the lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.

The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.

Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.

Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs.

That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast.

Verse 11.

This is how you are to eat it, with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand.

Eat it in haste.

It is the Lord's Passover.

on that same night.

I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals.

And I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.

I am the Lord.

The blood will be assigned for you on the houses where you are.

And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

And then down in verse 23, when the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians.

He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

Now, let's learn some things together.

First of all, who's the destroyer?

It sounds like a Marvel character.

You could have a movie.

The destroyer.

God is saying to Moses and Aaron, that I'm going to give you a little glimpse of the final judgment that will come up on the earth someday.

In this one night, in one place, eternal divine judgment day is going to come down on the earth.

A temporary, preliminary devastation in association with the final day of accountability, otherwise known as the day of the Lord.

I'm going to send that destroyer down.

And all who are in the vicinity, will have to give an account for their sins and transgressions.

And God says to the people, I'm about to release the destroyer.

And he's about to go through the most powerful military and political power the world has ever seen.

And with great ease, he's going to lay it waste.

And then he says, but the problem is, if I send him down, he's coming for you too.

No one's immune.

Not even you, Israel.

Because he's no respecter of persons.

And all are sinful and unrighteous.

And he says there's only one way to escape.

The destroyer, the lamb.

The weakest, mildest creature is the only way to be saved from the destroyer.

Kill the lamb.

Eat with your family.

Put the blood over the doorpost.

And the destroyer will pass over you.

Now listen.

Especially those of you somewhat skeptical about the Old Testament narratives.

If you don't place this story in the complete context of the story of the Lamb, it will seem offensive to you.

Our culture is propositional.

Teaching and learning come through statements of fact that correspond to reality.

When you and I want to prove something, we talk a lot.

We use words.

But in Moses and Abraham's culture, it is a culture of narrative.

which means it's progressive storytelling.

To make a point, to present facts, I tell you a story, and that story grows and progressively gives you more information.

So God is communicating in the most effective way in the culture in which Moses is engaged.

Now, if you know anything about the story of the lamb slain before the foundations of the world, you know that it didn't start in the Exodus account.

You can find it all the way back in Genesis 22, when Abraham is told by God to take his son Isaac.

God says, the one I promised you, the one through whom I said I will fulfill my promises, the gift I have given you and Sarah in your old age, I want you to take that son, the one that you love, the one that you've placed your hopes and dreams in, and I want you to take him up on the mountain and sacrifice him.

So when modern people in our world hear this.

The first thing they think is, man, Abraham must have thought, this is a monstrous, unkind, uncouth, unfathomable kind of ridiculous God.

But if that's what you think, it's because you don't understand the historical and contextual context, or at least the cultural context, of the story of Abraham.

Because if you notice, in Abraham's culture, a firstborn son was everything.

Remember, we've said this numerous times, promogeniture.

The firstborn son gets two-thirds of the wealth.

He takes the family name.

It's his responsibility to expand the land and to give prosperity to the family.

Upon the firstborn son rests a lot of burden.

It's the security, the identity, the future of the family.

Abraham's culture started to place all their hopes and dreams on the firstborn son.

Promogeniture was not God's idea.

He tolerated it, but it was not his idea.

Why do you think Abraham so desperately wanted a son?

Why do you think barren women became so depressed?

Why do you think the firstborn son got all the inheritance?

Because the firstborn son had begun to take the place of God in Abraham's day.

If I just have a firstborn son, that's all I need.

I will expand my wealth and land and my name will live forever.

But here's the problem, and it's our problem too, right?

From where does the son come?

Who gives you the firstborn son?

God, which means your real hope is in God.

Because without God, there is no firstborn son.

And some of you might say, well, man, that's so archaic to put all your hope and your family on a son.

We would never do something like that, really.

We do the same thing all the time.

Only our hopes and our dreams, we put it all on how much wealth or position that we have.

My identity has a lot to do with the stuff I have and where I live and the clothes I wear and what clubs I belong and how people perceive me.

Do you agree with that?

Do you think that's how we operate in our world today?

Do you think these things don't become our idols?

You know, I just read this week a U.S.

risk and behavior study.

This is mind-boggling.

the suicide rate among 10 to 24-year-olds increased 62%.

Between 2006 and 2023, the article says why.

What would you guess?

Social media.

These young people live and die by acceptance, rejection, by being canceled, by being followed.

Social media has become the new idol.

It's where you place your greatest worth.

The next generation, we're told, is serving, worshiping.

They put their hope and their ability to be liked and adored and followed.

And it's their dream to be famous, to have one thing that might, what do you call that thing when it just perpetuates?

Viral.

In my day, viral was a bad word.

It's like you're going to get the flu and die.

Now it's like, I want to be viral.

I got to go viral.

At the heart of this is the denial that God is the source of all acquirements and achievements.

It seems to me that you'd want to draw near to God.

He's the one that gives you success.

And the Bible says if you draw near to God, God's going to draw near to you.

In Abraham's culture, God sends a clear and direct message.

And this is the message.

I require the life of every firstborn unless you redeem it back to yourself with a lamb.

Now, why would God do something?

That seems vile, doesn't it?

God says there's a redemption price on the firstborn of every family.

And that's giving his people in that day and that culture two messages.

Number one, to remind them your ultimate hope is in me.

I'm the source of every good and perfect gift.

Trust in me for the things that you're ultimately looking for and you'll never be disappointed.

Second, your ultimate debt is to me.

I gave you life.

I put the breath in your lungs.

I hold all things including you together.

Yet you worship and trust other things.

My favorite quote by anyone other than Jesus in the Bible is G.K.

Chesterton, who said, if my kids have Santa to thank for putting candy in their stockings, who do I have to thank for putting two feet into mine?

In other words, G.K.

Chesterton was asking, who am I ultimately indebted to?

To whom do I owe my life and being and breath?

So as a reminder, God says to Abraham, Abraham, I'm going to demand that you sacrifice your firstborn son, the firstborn of everything, and your flocks and herds as acknowledgement that all good things, including your firstborn sons, come from me.

I want you to give the first fruits of all you have, even your children.

Now, let me go back.

Why would God do that?

And the reason is God wants to keep you aware that if you really want the shalom flourishing life, draw near to Him.

Come to him for those things.

The other things will always let you down.

However, God knows that life is sacred and would never accept the sacrifice of a firstborn son.

Therefore, he said, I'm gonna give you a way to redeem your son or your firstborn back.

Did you notice, if you ever read that story, when God said to Abraham, offer up your firstborn as an offering, Abraham takes it in stride as if, That's fair.

Doesn't complain.

I mean, what if God had said, Abraham, go into the tent and take Sarah's life?

I think he would have said, whoa, what's going on here?

I think Abraham would have said, I'm having hallucinations.

God would never ask me to do that, something that is so invariant to his will.

But when God tells him to take Isaac on the mountain, how does he respond?

He gathers the wood, resources, and Isaac.

He might have some confusion, yeah, maybe some anxiety, yes, but he understood that God had the right to call in the debt.

So he started walking up the mountain.

He understands that God has the right to the firstborn son.

Yes, I'm not saying he didn't struggle, but he never said this to God.

He would never say, how can you be so unjust?

Because unjust means how can you take something that does not belong to you?

But everything belongs to God.

How can you make a claim on something that you have no claim to?

But he has a claim on everything.

So as Abraham walks up the mountain, he probably did say, God, how can you be both just and merciful?

Now that I can hear him saying.

How can you be both just, because you have a claim on everything, but loving and merciful too?

Because you promised me a son.

You promised me a hope and a future.

And I know you're holy, but God, how can you be both holy, just, and loving and merciful?

Now, verse eight, chapter 22, Abraham.

took the wood for the burnt offering, placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife.

As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father, Abraham, father, yes, my son, Abraham replied, the fire and the wood are here, Isaac said, but where's the lamb for the burnt offering?

Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son, and the two of them went on together.

I love this.

Isaac says, Dad, I see the wood, I see the fire.

Where's the lamb?

And Abraham said, oh, God's going to provide the lamb.

Don't you worry about that.

Now, what does that tell you about Abraham?

It tells you that Abraham was certain, I know God and God's not going to take the life of my son.

God would find a way to satisfy his holiness and justice while maintaining his great love and mercy.

Now, let's go back again.

Here's the objection I hear from the secular world.

What?

This is so archaic.

It's why I don't like the Bible.

The idea of everyone owing a debt to God, please.

I don't owe God for my life.

I'm a self-made man.

Really?

What part did you make?

I've worked hard all my life.

Okay, who gave you breath, your body, your talents, your business acumen?

Everything you have is a gift from God in your mother's womb.

Okay, I'll give you that, Pastor.

But for sin, come on, Pastor Jeff, sin is subjective.

Nobody really, you know, what somebody's sin is somebody else's righteousness, really.

I can't remember where this illustration came from.

I wanna say C.S.

Lewis, but I couldn't find it.

So it came from somebody, not me.

But whoever this was, was brilliant.

I just don't know.

I could not find it, but I know it's out there.

If I were to give you a tape recorder and you just put it on your pocket, you tapped it on your belt and it recorded every time you said, you know what, you ought to, it kicked on and recorded.

You know, we ought to, and it kicked on and recorded.

And I took that recorder after about a month, and I played it back for you.

And every time you said, I ought to, or you ought to, and then I could show you how many times you violated your own oughts, you would see, oh, you believe in objective morality.

You don't even keep your own law, much less the law of God.

But wait, but Jeff, you said that we're all sinners.

I've heard you say that.

God knows we struggle.

He knows the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

In the end, God will just forgive us all.

Man, how many times have I heard that?

Why can't God just forgive?

Can't God just forget about it?

He knows we're human, we're weak.

Can't God just let my sins slide?

Here's the answer.

No, he can't.

No, he can't.

Why not?

Please follow me here.

Deep down inside, you know this is not a foreign concept to you.

If somebody really wrongs you, a betrayal of a friend, somebody caused you to lose your job, somebody steals from you, somebody slanders you, you know as well as I do when that happens to you, when somebody really wrongs you, there is a debt to be paid.

You think somehow they should pay for what they did.

You pray that they pay.

You may even pray that God dropped the hammer on them because you think they deserve it.

God, they can't get away from what they did to me.

If there's any justice in the world, God, you will get them.

Everybody loves Raymond, my favorite television show.

Robert says, every day I pray a prayer for Raymond.

Deborah says, what is it?

He goes, every day I pray, God, get him.

When you're offended, when somebody wounds you, There's something between you and that person who seriously wronged you, and the deeper the relationship, the deeper the debt, and you feel you are owed something.

The debt can't just be wished away, and there's only one of two ways to deal with that debt.

One, you make them pay it down.

You hurt them, you berate them, you snub them, you slander them, you alienate them, you plot vengeful acts against them.

You want to make them suffer until you feel the debt, what they did to you, has been paid down.

We are all like that.

All of us.

Okay?

But the Bible says if that's the way you choose to deal with the debt, you'll become bitter, miserable, unable to move forward.

Your growth as a person or as a Christian will be stagnated.

You will become easily irritable.

Joy will become peripheral now, sorrow centralized, and ultimately you'll become a hardened man.

So you can make them pay it down, which makes you bitter.

Or you can forgive the debt, which is the right thing to do.

But here's what forgiveness is.

When I want to hurt them, I don't.

When I want to slice up their reputation, I don't.

When I want to gossip and slander, I don't.

When I think hatred thoughts, I force those thoughts to submit to the authority of Jesus Christ, who constantly forgives me for all my debts.

And I beat my body and my emotions into submission to the Lord's prayer.

Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me.

Right?

And here's the thing.

The longer I refuse to take acts of revenge, as time goes on, my anger will start to subside.

Why?

Because I'm slowly paying down the debt.

I'm slowly paying it down.

I absorb and I take on the pain of their offense and the loss that it brought into my life.

But make no mistake, there's a cost to somebody.

Always.

Forgiveness means I'm the one paying down the debt.

I take the pain.

I assume the struggle.

I take the affliction.

I absorb the suffering.

There's just no way emotionally, psychologically, that someone can just be forgiven.

somebody's got to pay.

They pay it.

You pay it.

It does not simply disappear.

Can you imagine a court case, and I think I've used this before, of a man comes into court and his daughter's been raped.

And the lawyer says to the judge, well, he admits that he did it, but he's sorry.

And the judge says, oh, well, if he's sorry, you can go free.

How would the father, is that justice?

Is that love?

No, because now the woman raped feels devalued.

Now she's going to pay.

I don't matter.

The family of the murdered victim or the rape victim feels victimized.

Obviously, we don't matter, so now the family's paying.

And in both cases, society pays because now there's no deterrent for rape.

If all you got to do is say, yeah, did it, sorry, the perpetrator pays.

The victim pays, society pays, but somebody's going to pay.

Forgiveness is real impossible, but the debt, it never simply goes away.

Somebody pays a price, somebody experiences the pain.

Now, if this is true, and it is despite our rhetoric, that we cannot avoid the economy of debt and the reality that when someone has significantly wronged us, somebody's got to pay either us or them.

If we can sense that on an earthly level, how much more with God on a cosmic level?

Abraham knows this.

He knows what so many of us conveniently deny.

God created, God sustains life, God is the originator of life.

You and I owe God a debt of gratitude.

We owe our very lives to him.

But we don't give our lives to him, do we?

We don't serve his purposes.

We want to serve ours.

Worse yet, we want him to serve us and help our goals come to fruition.

We owe it to him to live a holy and pure life.

Everything we have is a gift of God.

We're created in the image of God.

We think, we feel, we enjoy the pleasures of life.

Our ultimate allegiance is to him and his way of living.

But we don't live a holy and pure life.

We don't love God the way we should.

We don't love our neighbors the way we should.

I don't and you don't.

I was studying this afternoon at Coffee Clatch.

I got to stop doing that.

Everybody knows I go there.

And a homeless man came in off the street and sat down right in front of me and started giving me a speech about Jesus.

And, you know, everything in me wanted to say, Dude, I'm trying to study a sermon here.

And thank God, God called me and said, wait a minute, you think that sermon is more important than this?

It was hard to sit there, but I knew God wanted me to.

It was hard to sit there and listen.

You know why?

Because I'm selfish, just like you.

I'm more concerned about me than I am him.

We don't love God the way we should.

We don't love our neighbor the way we should.

In Abraham's story, we're simply learning there is a debt you and I owe to God, and he has the right to call it in.

Now, thank God, in Abraham's story, at the last minute before the knife comes down, God says to Abraham, don't do it.

Here's the problem I have with the story.

Not the problem, but the first, I should say the confusion.

Where's the lamb?

Yes, there's a ram caught in the thicket that is sacrificed as a thank offering, but it's not an unblemished spotless lamb.

It's an injured, blemished, trapped lamb.

So on the mountain, a significant part of the story of the lamb, we learn there is a debt.

God has a right to collect it, but it doesn't get paid.

Now, Exodus chapter 12 is the second part of the story of the lamb.

Again, now God is going to claim the life of every firstborn in every family in Egypt, not just the Egyptians, but the Hebrews as well.

And if we can get out of our cultural and historical bias for one moment, we'll begin to understand that God claims the life of the firstborn because as the creator of all things, he has the right of ownership and he's working in a culture that's a storytelling culture.

He never intended for Abraham to slaughter Isaac.

That's not the way God works.

But through storytelling and experience, Abraham learns something valuable.

That the only hope all of us have for not having to pay the debt ourselves, our only hope is in a lamb.

So this Passover story, we see two significant principles.

Stay with me.

I'm going to make the final close.

All right?

We're on time.

Take a deep breath.

We see two significant principles.

We see one, spiritual egalitarianism, and two, spiritual substitutionism.

First, spiritual egalitarianism, you find in Exodus 12, 22b, none of you shall go out the door of your house until morning, meaning The destroyer is not just coming for the Egyptians.

but everyone who owes a debt to God.

The destroyer is no respecter of persons.

It's amazing because God says to the Israelites, you are oppressed and afflicted.

They are the oppressors and afflictors.

You worship the one true God.

They worship idols, but you're no better than the Egyptians.

Oh man.

In the final analysis, if anyone tries to go outside in the darkness, and face the destroyer on their own, all will likewise perish.

Because all owe a debt to God, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

None of us give him the worship and the praise he deserves for giving us life and breath.

None of us love God as we ought to or our neighbors as we ought to.

We Christians believe that we are better than everyone else.

No, we believe the only difference is the story of the lamb.

We believe in spiritual egalitarianism.

We are all so deep in debt to God, but we also believe in spiritual substitutionism, that the story of the lamb tells us.

Listen, that night at the first Passover, come on now, this is where the story gets really good and then we're going to end it, but you got to stay with me.

If that night as they celebrated the Passover, you think about it, if you're a firstborn son, whoo, the destroyer is coming for you.

You're sitting down to eat the Passover, the first one that night, and you're thinking, the only reason, first of all, I hope God keeps his word.

You're thinking, because you can sense the destroyer of the darkness.

And you're saying, you know what?

The only reason I'm alive is because that thing's dead.

The only reason I'm still breathing is that lamb is on my plate.

No lamb, I'm dead meat.

Well, he's dead meat already, but I'm dead meat.

Every firstborn son in every home looked at that lamb on the table and said, nervous firstborn sons, the only reason I'm dead, I'm not dead, is because of that lamb.

Now in the West, this is offensive.

Why would God hurt a little lamb?

You've got to get out your cultural narrowness.

You say, God should have done it another way.

I recall Jesus' words in Luke 7.

To what then can I compare the people of this generation?

What are they like?

They're like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other.

We played the pipe for you.

You did not dance.

We sang a dirge and you did not cry.

That's Jesus' way of saying no matter what God would have done, if you're intent on disbelief, there's nothing going to change that.

In the West, precepts.

Propositions, definitions, in the East, pictures, narratives, progressive revelation.

And God chose to move into this culture, the culture of his people, in a unique narrative called the story of the lamb.

And he said to them, do not go out into the night.

You cannot face the destroyer alone because all of you are in debt, but there is a way to pay the debt.

Now, the debt was paid by the lamb, right?

There's still a substantial problem though, because what happened on the first Passover that night was a one-time deliverance.

It's not meant to give anybody ultimate deliverance.

It's not the ultimate deliverance everybody needs to escape the ultimate darkness of separation from God.

My goodness, we need a more radical, more enduring, more substitutionary lamb.

And now we come to the rest of the story.

All right, Paul Harvey.

For those of you over 60, the story of the Lamb comes to a climactic point in Luke 22, 7.

Jesus sends Peter and John to prepare the Passover feast, a feast that has been celebrated by the nation of Israel for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, bringing us to the time of Jesus.

Passover is still celebrated today, by the way, even atheistic Israel.

And of course, the more reverently religious in Jerusalem.

But Passover is still celebrated.

It celebrates the event of the Exodus, when the destroyer passed over the homes of the Israelites, and they were spared by God's or from God's judgment.

They followed his instructions.

They slay the unblemished lamb, place the blood over the doorpost.

The Passover meal, still celebrated today, by the way, includes many things.

It includes, one, the presider.

The presider is the father who speaks the words of redemption and promise over the family.

He tells the whole story of how God liberated the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

Second, you got the Passover meal consisting of unleavened bread.

You have matzah, which is unleavened bread, not having the time to rise, representing the haste at which they left Egypt.

And you have what is called maror, which is bitter herbs, representing the bitterness of their suffering in Egypt.

You'll also celebrate with four cups of wine, representing the cup of sanctification, the cup of judgment and deliverance, and the cup of praise and restoration.

And then, of course, you have the main course, the Lamb.

But in Matthew 26, Jesus had taken care of all the preliminary details, and he celebrates the Passover with the disciples.

But it's all a setup to communicate the story of the Lamb and how God's story of redemption is about to culminate in him.

So think about it.

Think of the scene.

You've seen the paintings by da Vinci.

You've seen them by some of the most famous artists.

Jesus is at the center or the head of the table.

It should be the head.

He's at the head of the table.

He takes the place of the presider.

He's proclaiming redemption and promise.

But the disciples would have been absolutely perplexed by what Jesus said because they've been saying the same thing for thousands of years.

Have you ever known anybody to start singing a song and it's so bad?

that you say to them, you know, that's not how that goes.

Have you ever heard somebody try to sing a song and the tune is just, what?

And it's frustrating.

The disciples would have wanted to say to Jesus, hey, that's not how that goes.

Because when Jesus took the bread, he did not say what they had said for thousands of years.

This is the bread of our affliction.

Our ancestors were afflicted and broken in the wilderness so that we could be free, which had been stated Hundreds and hundreds of years.

Jesus instead looks right in the disciples' eyes and says, this is my body afflicted for you.

This is the bread of my affliction.

I will suffer to give you ultimate freedom from sin and death once and for all.

It is my suffering that will ultimately liberate you.

And then if you notice, he doesn't take four cups.

He only takes one cup, the cup of redemption that he's about to provide.

And finally, if you read the text, where's the lamb?

I mean, if you can't have Passover without the lamb, but you do have the lamb, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Jesus is saying, my death is the central event toward which God's relationship to the world has been moving.

Now, John, when he said, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, was saying to Jesus, I get it.

I got you.

I know who you are.

Our firstborn sons were not saved because of some woolly little quadrupeds.

No matter how cute they were, our firstborn sons are saved because God is going to give up his firstborn son.

Because God gave up his little lamb, we don't have to give up ours.

And God says to Abraham, I'm going to walk my son up the hill of Golgotha, and I'm going to lay the wood on him, and no one's going to be able to stop the knife.

Your beloved son will not have to die, Abraham.

because my beloved son will.

And then the ultimate child cried out to the ultimate father and said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The father paid the price in silence.

And as we've said a hundred times, he turned his back on his own son so that we'd never have to turn his back on us.

By the way, in the cross, Abraham had his question answered.

How can God be both holy and merciful.

By sending his son to die for the sins of the world, the holy requirements of God's nature have been met.

Sin has been punished.

But instead of punishing us, he punished his own son.

And the love comes from giving up what was most precious to him so he wouldn't lose you.

Now, let's finish this.

In Matthew 27, verse 45, 50, and 52.

From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over all the land.

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

Now, did you notice something?

Have you noticed something there?

Oh, people who've never read the Bible, Jesus died at twilight.

Remember the Passover lambs had to travel to Jerusalem from Magdala there and then be slain at twilight.

When darkness was about to fall over the earth, just like the original Exodus story, back in Exodus chapter 12, verse 6, take care of them until the 14th day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.

Well, again, the lamb had to be slaughtered at twilight, just like in the Exodus story.

And just as darkness fell over all of Egypt, and the lamb was slain at twilight, and the blood was placed over the doorposts, darkness fell over all the earth when Jesus was crucified, as the blood of the ultimate lamb was spread across a Roman cross.

The more you study the Old and New Testament, the more you realize, wait a minute, this passage...

In Exodus was written hundreds and hundreds and hundreds.

We know this now.

This is not for debate.

The Torah was written hundreds and hundreds, thousands of years before Jesus was ever born.

How could they know this?

Did you know the Passover in Exodus was the 14th day of Nisan?

Do you know that Jesus was crucified a few thousand years later on the 14th day of Nisan?

The exact day on the calendar?

The Passover lamb was selected on the 10th day of Nisan, according to the Old Testament, written thousands of years before Jesus.

Did you know that Jesus' triumphal entry, where he publicly presents himself as the deliverer, the lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world, happened on the 10th day of Nisan?

This is the story of the lamb.

What is the story?

Abraham's chapter tells us there is a debt owed by all.

because God is the giver of all things.

He has the right, the sacred right to claim the first fruits.

And he's our real source of hope.

But Moses chapter tells us we're all guilty.

We're all debtors to God.

We don't love God the way we should or our neighbors, but a substitute can pay our debt.

And if the destroyer appears, we would all be destroyed unless we take the blood of the and place it over the doorpost.

And then thank God.

It culminates in Jesus' chapter when God has provided the ultimate spotless lamb without blemish.

And they spread his blood over the post of a Roman cross.

And now you and I are told that all who place the blood of the lamb over the doorpost of their hearts will have eternal life.

This is the story.

If you want your life, if you want to have a centralized joy in your life from here forward, you will never forget the ultimate story that started with the creation of all things.

It was the plan all along.

You're not saved by your good works.

You might try hard the rest of your life to do good things because you love God.

That's great.

But you're saved because the blood of the Lamb.

Is the substitutionary sacrifice required by God to pay for your sins?

All right, now I want to ask one question.

I'm so far over, might as well just enjoy it.

But how do you know?

How do you know that you've placed the blood of the Lamb over the doorpost?

Can I read something to you?

In Matthew 27, I read before, from noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over all the land.

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

And then verse 51 says, at that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

Now, why was the curtain torn in two in the temple?

Well, because you couldn't go into the Holy of Holies, man.

That's where God's presence was.

You better not waltz in there.

You'll be struck dead because you're not holy.

But now, because Christ has made you holy, you can go in and have fellowship with God.

This is the ultimate of the promised land.

You don't need a priest.

You don't need someone to absolve your sin.

There's only one mediator between God and man, and he's the man Jesus Christ.

You can talk to him all the time.

Here's what I've learned in my life of ministry.

Here's a good sign that you know that you've put the blood of the lamb over the doorpost of your heart.

You want to meet with God regularly.

You want to meet with him.

You're not perfect.

You got issues, man.

Welcome to church.

But you know what you want down deep in your heart?

If I really got down in your heart, I'd find a place where I really want to be with God.

You know, I really want to be with God, Jeff.

I've got so many issues and I'm trying, I'm trying.

I really want to be with God.

That is a sign you got it.

So repent of your sin, stop beating yourself silly and live with a centralized joy that in your weaknesses.

He is strong.

Amen?

All right.

Father, thank you for the story of the lab.

And I pray in Christ's name that, man, if our eyes have never been open to this, that suddenly the Holy Spirit would reveal to us how wonderful the story of God, history, his story really is, that it wasn't an afterthought.

It was from the beginning.

And we will be with God in our promised land of eternity.

Just help us to make it through the wilderness so that we can arrive safely.

In Christ's name, everybody said, amen.

Everybody, welcome.

Welcome, Wes Cole.

Welcome, Rancho.

Glad you're with us.

I'm in Exodus chapter 12, verse 1 through 13.

I want to encourage you to find that.

I know it's on the screen, but if you can find it in your Bible, take a few notes.

We're in a series we're calling Promises.

And this is our Easter series.

The reason we're doing this, it's so important that you and I not only understand what salvation is by grace through faith, but we understand the story of salvation.

So that when you're talking to your friends or when people are asking, tell me more about how this happens, that you not only know about the cross, but you understand that even before the foundations of the world, God had put his plan of redemption in place.

And the reason we've called this series Promises is because most of us, most of our frustrations come because of unrealized I'm out.

expectations.

We take a new job and we think we're going to get more vacation time, more money.

It's going to be more peaceful.

The employees are actually going to be nice to us.

We have children.

We have no idea that when a mother has children, her life is over for about eight years, right?

We're glad we had them.

It doesn't change the father that much, but it's a huge transition for the mother.

Marriages.

You think about two people who come from dysfunctional families, because we all do.

suddenly think they can come together and it's not going to be difficult.

Marriage is difficult.

Friendships, you'll be betrayed.

Churches will disappoint you because they're made up of flawed, dysfunctional people.

So a lot of times our frustration is because we feel like someone's made a promise to us, a commitment, or maybe even signed a contract of some kind, and they don't follow through.

So it's easy to become cynical when you start to number the amount of people or the amount of circumstances that...

have let you down.

The series is called Promises because it's supposed to remind you, one, do not place God in the same category as you do everyone else.

Yes, you might be let down by a lot of your friends and your business partners, and you might become cynical.

Why should I believe God or why should I believe what this pastor tells me about God?

Everybody else has let me down.

Perhaps God will too.

Second, the promises that God makes and demonstrates Thanks.

will always come to fruition.

And I'm trying to remind you of that.

And that the great promise, the greatest promise you have from God is eternal life, which is no small thing.

I mean, it's a pretty big deal, isn't it?

That you look around at the way the world is and the challenges you have in your own life and old age hitting you and you're falling apart.

It's the world, man.

It's the way that it is.

But you're supposed to be able to live with this centralized joy.

to where you know that you're going to win in the end, and you'll have moments of sorrow, but there should be a centralized joy that just never deters you.

You're always positive, okay?

And that's how you know that something's going on, some transformation has taken place.

And again, God's plan of salvation was demonstrated from the beginning.

It's not like this was an afterthought.

It's not like God looks down and says, wow, look at those guys.

Look at mankind.

They're really acting evil toward one another.

This is not a shocker or surprise.

God put the plan of salvation and redemption in play before anyone was born.

Revelation 13.8 describes Jesus as the lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world.

What does that mean?

It means that God thinks literally, okay?

He thinks progressively.

You being created in the image of God means that you make decisions that way too.

So God decides first he's going to create.

He decides that he's creating you and me for the purpose of a love relationship.

Some of you have heard this before, which means he has to give us free will because love is only genuine if it's given freely.

If it's coerced or if it's forced, that's not love.

For love to maintain its integrity, it has to be given freely.

So God creates, chooses that love is the highest value in the universe.

Creates us for a love relationship.

In his foreknowledge, because God knows all things, he knows that many are going to use their freedom to reject him rather than pursue him.

That sin is going to enter the world.

Result, disintegration is going to enter.

But before he creates day one, he's already decided that he's going to put a plan of redemption in place to restore everything that's ever been lost.

All of that happens before day one of creation.

And the beauty of it, and it's the reason it's important you and I understand it, God chose to reveal this redemptive story to us.

And he revealed it to us in the Bible.

the scriptures, beginning all the way back in Genesis and then giving us more details.

It's why it's called progressive revelation as the scriptures unfold.

And you and I are looking more specifically at the Exodus story where God delivers his people out of bondage in Egypt and has Moses bring them to the promised land.

So we said last week that the Exodus event, which is why if I were you, I would read it again and again and again, is a paradigm for what God has promised you in salvation and redemption.

Even though the events happen to Israel, specifically the nation of Israel, everything that happens in the Exodus account is a demonstration of God's offer of salvation and the manner in which he plans to redeem the world.

So that's why, again, it's crucial.

The reason I'm going through these two weekends before we get to the next two, which if I were you, I would not miss as we talk about what our promised land is like, that'll be fun.

It's the reason it's important that you understand how important this whole Exodus account really is and that you understand the details.

Now, I told you during this series, you're going to have to think a little bit.

You got to lean in.

It's difficult sometimes because you have busy lives, right?

If we could have somebody come up and just do a little dance and get your attention, that may help you.

We don't have time to do that.

And I don't have time for a lot of stories and jokes and funny things to try to get you motivated.

I don't have time for pep rally.

I just want to give you good teaching.

So here we go.

You know the story.

You know the setting of the Exodus story.

And it's what?

God's people are in bondage in Egypt.

As we said last week, they're enslaved, they're mistreated, they're impoverished, they're pushed down.

They have no rights.

They see no hope, no plan, no future.

In other words, a lot of the way that people look at our world today in places that are not so affluent, the people of Israel are demoralized.

They simply are sitting around and working in their forced labor, waiting to die.

They cry out to the God that they had forgotten in hopes that he had not forgotten them.

God hears their cry.

He sends them a deliverer by the name of Moses, who ushers in plagues as warning signs.

So the plagues that we see that descend upon Egypt, They come to demonstrate the power of Moses' God in hopes that Pharaoh would be encouraged to let the people of God go, to free them.

The plagues are God's way of saying, yes, these are Moses' people, but Pharaoh, these are my people.

And if you don't let them go from the enslavement and from your mistreatment, then the power and judgment that has produced these plagues are going to descend upon you.

Now quickly, let's see how...

How well you know the Bible.

How did the Hebrews get into slavery in Egypt in the first place?

He goes all the way back to Genesis 50 and Joseph's coat of many colors.

His brothers sell him into slavery.

He ends up in Egypt, but the sovereign plan of God ensures that Joseph rises through the ranks in Egypt and becomes really ruler over the land as a Hebrew.

And as a Hebrew, He's put in charge of the entire land and his God gives him dreams and reveals to him a famine is coming.

And Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, gives a special anointing on this young Hebrew boy, Joseph, and he ends up saving, sparing not only the Israelites, but also the Egyptians from the destruction of the coming famine.

As a result, Joseph's people, the Israelites now, are welcomed in Egypt.

And they are honored guests.

They're respected and revered in a foreign land, but it's short-lived because one, the Israelites forgot their God as they typically do.

And the Egyptians forgot the salvation that came from the Hebrews and their God Yahweh.

Now, part of the reason that the Hebrews lost favor with Pharaoh is because the Hebrews started multiplying like rabbits.

This happens when they obey the precepts of God, they flourish.

That's what Shalom means.

means human flourishing.

So the Hebrews are flourishing and the Egyptian Pharaoh, the one who had seen the...

Well, he's dead and gone.

There's a new Pharaoh.

The one who honored the Hebrews has passed away and there's another Pharaoh.

This Pharaoh doesn't look at the Hebrews like the Pharaohs before.

So this Pharaoh says to himself, man, I've got to do something about these Hebrews.

They're out of control.

They are about to outnumber us.

They could overpower us.

So I'm going to conquer these foreigners within Egypt by subjecting them to slavery, forced labor.

We're going to use them to build our empire.

And I'm going to stifle their growth and prosperity through pain and suffering.

And that's exactly what he does.

And the abuse goes year after year after year.

And finally, the Hebrews repent, call out to God.

God hears their cries and sends them Moses.

Now, Moses' job is to do what?

to march the children of Israel out of Egypt in bondage and take them to the promised land.

But Pharaoh, as we saw last week, has no intention of letting the Hebrews go.

I mean, he's building an empire.

He needs the slave labor.

So his heart becomes hardened.

And even though he knows that Yahweh is the real God demonstrated through the plagues, he still refuses to let the people of God go, proving once again that unbelief is not a matter of a lack of evidence, but the suppression of it.

Therefore, God now decides to send in the destroyer.

That's actually his name, the destroyer who's going to call in the debt that Pharaoh owes.

And here's where the passage begins.

Here we go.

Verse one, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, this month is to be for you the first month, the month, first month of your year.

Tell the whole community of Israel that on the 10th day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.

If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are.

You are determined the amount of the lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.

The animals you choose must be year old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.

Take care of them until the 14th day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.

Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.

That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast.

Verse 11.

This is how you are to eat it, with your cloak tucked into your belt.

Your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand.

Eat it in haste.

It is the Lord's Passover.

On that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals.

And I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.

I am the Lord.

The blood will be assigned for you on the houses where you are.

And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

And then down in verse 23.

When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

Now, let's learn some things together.

First of all, who's the destroyer?

It sounds like a Marvel character.

You could have a movie.

The destroyer.

God is saying to Moses and Aaron, that I'm going to give you a little glimpse of the final judgment that will come up on the earth someday.

In this one night, in one place, eternal divine judgment day is going to come down on the earth.

A temporary, preliminary devastation in association with the final day of accountability, otherwise known as the day of the Lord.

I'm going to send that destroyer down.

And all who are in the vicinity, will have to give an account for their sins and transgressions.

And God says to the people, I'm about to release the destroyer.

And he's about to go through the most powerful military and political power the world has ever seen.

And with great ease, he's going to lay it waste.

And then he says, but the problem is, if I send him down, he's coming for you too.

No one's immune.

Not even you, Israel.

Because he's no respecter of persons.

And all are sinful and unrighteous.

And he says there's only one way to escape.

The destroyer, the lamb, the weakest, mildest creature is the only way to be saved from the destroyer.

Kill the lamb, eat with your family, put the blood over the doorposts, and the destroyer will pass over you.

Now listen, especially those of you somewhat skeptical about the Old Testament narratives.

If you don't place this story in the complete context of the story of the lamb, it will seem offensive to you.

Our culture Remember?

It's propositional.

Teaching and learning come through statements of fact that correspond to reality.

When you and I wanna prove something, we talk a lot.

We use words.

But in Moses and Abraham's culture, it is a culture of narrative, which means it's progressive storytelling.

To make a point, to present facts, I tell you a story.

And that story grows and progressively gives you more information.

So God is communicating in the most effective way in the culture in which Moses is engaged.

Now, if you know anything about the story of the lamb slain before the foundations of the world, you know that it didn't start in the Exodus account.

You can find it all the way back in Genesis 22, when Abraham is told by God to take his son, Isaac.

God says, the one I promised you, the one through whom I said I will fulfill my promises, the gift I have given you, and Sarah in your old age, I want you to take that son, the one that you love, the one that you've placed your hopes and dreams in, and I want you to take him up on the mountain and sacrifice him.

So when modern people in our world hear this, the first thing they think is, man, Abraham must have thought this is a monstrous, unkind, uncouth, unfathomable kind of ridiculous God.

But if that's what you think, it's because you don't understand the historical.

in contextual context, or at least a cultural context, of the story of Abraham.

Because if you notice, in Abraham's culture, a firstborn son was everything.

Remember, we've said this numerous times, primogeniture.

The firstborn son gets two-thirds of the wealth.

He takes the family name.

It's his responsibility to expand the land and to give prosperity to the family.

Upon the firstborn son rests a lot of burden.

It's the security, the identity, the future of the family.

Abraham's culture started to place all their hopes and dreams on the firstborn son.

Promogeniture was not God's idea.

He tolerated it, but it was not his idea.

Why do you think Abraham so desperately wanted a son?

Why do you think barren women became so depressed?

Why do you think the firstborn son got all the inheritance?

Because the firstborn son...

had begun to take the place of God in Abraham's day.

If I just have a firstborn son, that's all I need.

I will expand my wealth and land, and my name will live forever.

But here's the problem, and it's our problem too, right?

From where does the son come?

Who gives you the firstborn son?

God, which means your real hope is in God.

Because without God, there is no firstborn son.

And some of you might say, well, man, that's so archaic to put all your hope and your family on a son.

We would never do something like that, really.

We do the same thing all the time.

Only our hopes and our dreams, we put it all on how much wealth or position that we have.

My identity has a lot to do with the stuff I have and where I live and the clothes I wear and what clubs I belong and how people perceive me.

Do you agree with that?

Do you think that's how we operate in our world today?

Do you think these things don't become our idols?

You know, I just read this week a US risk and behavior study.

This is mind boggling.

The suicide rate among 10 to 24 year olds increased 62% between 2006 and 2023.

The article says why.

What would you guess?

Social media.

These young people live and die by acceptance, rejection, by being canceled, by being followed.

Social media has become the new idol.

It's where you place your greatest worth.

The next generation, we're told, is serving, worshiping.

They put their hope and their ability to be liked and adored and followed.

And it's their dream to be famous, to have one thing that might, what do you call that thing when it just perpetuates?

Viral.

In my day, viral was a bad word.

It's like you're going to get the flu and die.

Now it's like, I want to be viral.

I got to go viral.

At the heart of this is the denial that God is the source of all acquirements and achievements.

It seems to me that you'd want to draw near to God.

He's the one that gives you success.

And the Bible says if you draw near to God, God's going to draw near to you.

In Abraham's culture, God sends a clear and direct message.

And this is the message.

I require the life of every firstborn.

Unless you redeem it back to yourself with a lamb.

Now, why would God do something?

That seems vile, doesn't it?

God says there's a redemption price on the firstborn of every family.

And that's giving his people in that day and that culture two messages.

Number one, to remind them your ultimate hope is in me.

I'm the source of every good and perfect gift.

Trust in me for the things that you're ultimately looking for and you'll never be disappointed.

Second, your ultimate debt is to me.

I gave you life.

I put the breath in your lungs.

I hold all things, including you, together.

Yet you worship and trust other things.

My favorite quote by anyone other than Jesus in the Bible is G.K.

Chesterton, who said, if my kids have Santa to thank for putting candy in their stockings, who do I have to thank for putting two feet into mine?

In other words, G.K.

Chesterton was asking, who am I ultimately indebted to?

To whom do I owe my life and being and breath?

So as a reminder, God says to Abraham, Abraham, I'm gonna demand that you sacrifice your firstborn son, the firstborn of everything, and your flocks and herds as acknowledgement that all good things, including your firstborn sons, come from me.

I want you to give the firstfruits of all you have, even your children.

Now let me go back.

Why would God do that?

And the reason is God wants to keep you aware that if you really want the shalom flourishing life, draw near to him.

Come to him for those things.

The other things will always let you down.

However, God knows that life is sacred and would never accept the sacrifice of a firstborn son.

Therefore, he said, I'm going to give you a way to redeem your son or your firstborn back.

Did you notice, if you ever read that story, when God said to Abraham, offer up your firstborn as an offering, Abraham takes it in stride as if that's fair.

That doesn't complain.

I mean, what if God had said, Abraham, go into the tent and take Sarah's life?

I think he would have said, whoa, what's going on here?

I think Abraham would have said, I'm having hallucinations.

God would never ask me to do that.

Something that is so invariant to his will.

But when God tells him to take Isaac on the mountain, how does he respond?

He gathers the wood, resources, and Isaac.

He might have some confusion, yeah, maybe some anxiety, yes, but he understood that God had the right to call in the debt.

So he started walking up the mountain.

He understands that God has the right to the firstborn son.

Yes, I'm not saying he didn't struggle, but he never said this to God.

He would never say, how can you be so unjust?

Because unjust means how can you take something that does not belong to you?

but everything belongs to God.

How can you make a claim on something that you have no claim to?

But he has a claim on everything.

So as Abraham walks up the mountain, he probably did say, God, how can you be both just and merciful?

Now that I can hear him saying, how can you be both just because you have a claim on everything, but loving and merciful too?

Because you promised me a son.

You promised me a hope and a future.

And I know you're holy, but God...

How can you be both holy, just, and loving and merciful?

Now, verse 8, chapter 22, Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering, placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife.

As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father, Abraham, father, yes, my son, Abraham replied, the fire and the wood are here, Isaac said, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?

Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son, and the two of them went on together.

I love this.

Isaac says, dad, I see the wood.

I see the fire.

Where's the lamb?

And Abraham said, oh, God's going to provide the lamb.

Don't you worry about that.

Now, what does that tell you about Abraham?

It tells you that Abraham was certain, I know God, and God's not going to take the life of my son.

God would find a way to satisfy his holiness and justice while maintaining him his great love and mercy.

Now let's go back again.

Here's the objection I hear from the secular world.

What?

This is so archaic.

It's why I don't...

like the Bible.

The idea of everyone owing a debt to God, please.

I don't owe God for my life.

I'm a self-made man.

Really?

What part did you make?

I've worked hard all my life.

Okay.

Who gave you breath, your body, your talents, your business acumen?

Everything you have is a gift from God in your mother's womb.

Okay.

I'll give you that pastor.

But for sin, come on, Pastor Jeff, sin is subjective.

Nobody really, you know, what somebody's sin is somebody else's righteousness.

Really.

I can't remember where this illustration came from.

I want to say C.S.

Lewis, but I couldn't find it.

So it came from somebody, not me.

But whoever this was, was brilliant.

I just don't know.

I could not find it, but I know it's out there.

If I were to give you a tape recorder and you just put it on your pocket, you tapped it on your belt and...

It recorded.

Every time you said, you know what, you ought to, it kicked on and recorded.

You know, we ought to, and it kicked on and recorded.

And I took that recorder after about a month, and I played it back for you.

And every time you said, I ought to, or you ought to, and then I could show you how many times you violated your own oughts, you would see, oh, you believe in objective morality.

You don't even keep your own law.

Must less the law of God.

But wait, but Jeff, you said that we're all sinners.

I've heard you say that.

God knows we struggle.

He knows the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

In the end, God will just forgive us all.

Man, how many times have I heard that?

Why can't God just forgive?

Can't God just forget about it?

He knows we're human, we're weak.

Can't God just let my sins slide?

Here's the answer.

No, he can't.

No, he can't.

Why not?

Please follow me here.

Deep down inside You know this is not a foreign concept to you.

If somebody really wrongs you, a betrayal of a friend, somebody caused you to lose your job, somebody steals from you, somebody slanders you, you know as well as I do, when that happens to you, when somebody really wrongs you, there is a debt to be paid.

You think somehow they should pay for what they did.

You pray that they pay.

You may even pray that God dropped the hammer on them because you think they deserve it.

God, they can't get away from what they did to me.

If there's any justice in the world, God, you will get them.

Everybody loves Raymond, my favorite television show.

Robert says, every day I pray a prayer for Raymond.

Deborah says, what is it?

He goes, every day I pray, God, get him.

When you're offended, when somebody wounds you, There's something between you and that person who seriously wronged you.

And the deeper the relationship, the deeper the debt.

And you feel you are owed something.

The debt can't just be wished away.

And there's only one of two ways to deal with that debt.

One, you make them pay it down.

You hurt them.

You berate them.

You snub them.

You slander them.

You alienate them.

You plot vengeful acts against them.

You want to make them suffer until you feel the debt, what they did to you, has been paid down.

We are all like that, all of us, okay?

But the Bible says if that's the way you choose to deal with the debt, you'll become bitter, miserable, unable to move forward.

Your growth as a person or as a Christian will be stagnated.

You will become easily irritable.

Joy will become peripheral now, sorrow centralized, and ultimately you'll become a hardened man.

So you can make them pay it down, which makes you bitter, or you can forgive the debt, which is the right thing to do.

But here's what forgiveness is.

When I want to hurt them, I don't.

When I want to slice up their reputation, I don't.

When I want to gossip and slander, I don't.

When I think hatred thoughts, I force those thoughts to submit to the authority of Jesus Christ, who constantly forgives me for all my debts.

And I beat my body and my emotions into The submission...

To the Lord's prayer, forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me.

Right?

And here's the thing.

The longer I refuse to take acts of revenge, as time goes on, my anger will start to subside.

Why?

Because I'm slowly paying down the debt.

I'm slowly paying it down.

I absorb and I take on the pain of their offense and the loss that it brought into my life.

But make no mistake, there's a cost to somebody.

Always.

Forgiveness means I'm the one paying down the debt.

I take the pain.

I assume the struggle.

I take the affliction.

I absorb the suffering.

There's just no way emotionally, psychologically, that someone can just be forgiven.

Somebody's got to pay.

They pay it.

You pay it.

It does not simply disappear.

Can you imagine a court case, and I think I've used this before, of a man comes into court and his daughter's been raped and The lawyer says to the judge, well, he admits that he did it, but he's sorry.

And the judge says, oh, well, if he's sorry, you can go free.

How would the father, is that justice?

Is that love?

No, because now the woman raped feels devalued.

Now she's going to pay.

I don't matter.

The family of the murdered victim or the rape victim feels victimized.

Obviously, we don't matter.

So now the family's paying.

And in both cases.

Society pays because now there's no deterrent for rape.

If all you got to do is say, yeah, did it, sorry.

The perpetrator pays, the victim pays, society pays, but somebody's going to pay.

Forgiveness is real impossible, but the debt does never, it never simply goes away.

Somebody pays a price, somebody experiences the pain.

Now, if this is true, and it is despite our rhetoric, that we cannot avoid the economy of debt, And the reality that when someone has significantly wronged us, somebody's got to pay either us or them.

If we can sense that on an earthly level, how much more with God on a cosmic level?

Abraham knows this.

He knows what so many of us conveniently deny.

God created, God sustains life, God is the originator of life.

You and I owe God a debt of gratitude.

We owe our very lives to him, but we don't give our lives to him, do we?

We don't serve his purposes.

We want to serve ours.

Worse yet, we want him to serve us and help our goals come to fruition.

We owe it to him to live a holy and pure life.

Everything we have is a gift of God.

We're created in the image of God.

We think, we feel, we enjoy the pleasures of life.

Our ultimate allegiance is to him and his way of living.

But we don't live a holy and pure life.

We don't love God the way we should.

We don't love our neighbors the way we should.

I don't and you don't.

I was studying this afternoon at Coffee Clatch.

I got to stop doing that.

Everybody knows I go there.

And a homeless man came in off the street and sat down right in front of me.

and started giving me a speech about Jesus.

And you know, everything in me wanted to say, dude, I'm trying to study a sermon here.

And thank God, God called me and said, wait a minute, you think that sermon is more important than this?

It was hard to sit there, but I knew God wanted me to.

It was hard to sit there and listen.

You know why?

Because I'm selfish, just like you.

I'm more concerned about me than I am him.

We don't love God the way we should.

We don't love our neighbor the way we should.

In Abraham's story, We're simply learning there is a debt you and I owe to God, and he has the right to call it in.

Now, thank God, in Abraham's story, at the last minute before the knife comes down, God says to Abraham, don't do it.

Here's the problem I have with the story.

Not the problem, but I should say the confusion.

Where's the lamb?

Yes, there's a ram caught in the thicket that is sacrificed as a thank offering, but it's not an unblemished spotless lamb.

It's an injured, blemished, trapped lamb.

So on the mountain, a significant part of the story of the lamb, we learn there is a debt.

God has a right to collect it, but it doesn't get paid.

Now, Exodus chapter 12 is the second part of the story of the lamb.

Again, now God is going to claim the life of every firstborn in every family in Egypt, not just the Egyptians, but the Hebrews as well.

And if we can get out of our cultural and historical bias, For one moment, we'll begin to understand that God claims the life of the firstborn because as the creator of all things, he has the right of ownership and he's working in a culture that's a storytelling culture.

He never intended for Abraham to slaughter Isaac.

That's not the way God works.

But through storytelling and experience, Abraham learns something valuable that the only hope all of us have for not having to pay the debt ourselves Our only hope is in a lamb.

So this Passover story, we see two significant principles.

Stay with me.

I'm going to make the final close.

All right?

We're on time.

Take a deep breath.

We see two significant principles.

We see one spiritual egalitarian.

and two, spiritual substitutionism.

First, spiritual egalitarianism, you find in Exodus 12, 22b, none of you shall go out the door of your house until morning, meaning the destroyer is not just coming for the Egyptians, but everyone who owes a debt to God.

The destroyer is no respecter of persons.

It's amazing, because God says to the Israelites, you are oppressed and afflicted.

They are the oppressors and afflictors.

You worship the one true God, they worship idols, but you're no better than the Egyptians.

Oh man.

In the final analysis, if anyone tries to go outside in the darkness and face the destroyer on their own, all will likewise perish.

Because all owe a debt to God, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, none of us give him the worship and the praise.

He deserves for giving us life and breath.

None of us love God as we ought to or our neighbors as we ought to.

We Christians believe that we are better than everyone else.

No, we believe the only difference is the story of the land.

We believe in spiritual egalitarianism.

We are all so deep in debt to God, but we also believe in spiritual substitutionism.

That the story of the lamb tells us.

Listen, that night at the first Passover.

Come on now.

This is where the story gets really good and then we're gonna end it.

But you gotta stay with me.

If that night as they celebrated the Passover, you think about it.

If you're a firstborn son, whoo, the destroyer's coming for you.

You're sitting down to eat the Passover, the first one that night, and you're thinking.

The only reason, first of all, I hope God keeps his word.

You're thinking, because you can sense the destroyer of the darkness.

And you're saying, you know what?

The only reason I'm alive is because that thing's dead.

The only reason I'm still breathing is that lamb is on my plate.

No lamb, I'm dead meat.

Well, he's dead meat already, but I'm dead meat.

Every firstborn son in every home looked at that lamb on the table and said, nervous firstborn sons, the only reason I'm dead, I'm not dead, is because of that lamb.

Now in the West, this is offensive.

Why would God hurt a little lamb?

You've got to get out your cultural narrowness.

You say, God should have done it another way.

I recall Jesus' words in Luke 7, to what then can I compare the people of this generation?

What are they like?

They're like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other.

We played the pipe for you.

You did not dance.

We sang a dirge and you did not cry.

That's Jesus' way of saying no matter what God would have done, if you're intent on disbelief, there's nothing gonna change that.

In the West, precepts, propositions, definitions.

In the East, pictures, narratives, progressive revelation.

And God chose to move into this culture, the culture of his people.

in a unique narrative called the story of the lamb.

And he said to them, do not go out into the night.

You cannot face the destroyer alone because all of you are in debt, but there is a way to pay the debt.

Now, the debt was paid by the lamb, right?

There's still a substantial problem though, because what happened on the first Passover that night was a one-time deliverance.

It's not meant to give anybody ultimate deliverance.

It's not the ultimate deliverance everybody needs to escape the ultimate darkness of separation from God.

My goodness, we need a more radical, more enduring, more substitutionary lamb.

And now we come to the rest of the story.

All right, Paul Harvey, for those of you over 60, the story of the lamb comes to, oh, come on now, lean in, lean in.

The story of the Lamb comes to a climactic point in Luke 22, 7.

Jesus sends Peter and John to prepare the Passover feast, a feast that has been celebrated by the nation of Israel for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, bringing us to the time of Jesus.

Passover is still celebrated today, by the way, even atheistic Israel.

And of course, the more reverently religious in Jerusalem.

But Passover is still celebrated.

It celebrates the event of the Exodus when the destroyer passed over the homes of the Israelites and they were spared by God's or from God's judgment.

They followed his instructions, they slay the unblemished lamb, place the blood over the doorpost.

The Passover meal still celebrated today, by the way, includes many things.

It includes one, the presider.

The presider is the father who speaks the words of redemption and promise over the family.

He tells the whole story of how God liberated the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

Second, you got the Passover meal consisting of unleavened bread.

You have matzah, which is unleavened bread, not having the time to rise, representing the haste at which they left Egypt.

And you have what is called maror, which is bitter herbs representing the bitterness of their suffering in Egypt.

You'll also celebrate with four cups of wine.

representing the cup of sanctification, the cup of judgment and deliverance, and the cup of praise and restoration.

And then, of course, you have the main course, the Lamb.

But in Matthew 26, Jesus had taken care of all the preliminary details, and he celebrates the Passover with the disciples.

But it's all a setup to communicate the story of the Lamb and how God's story of redemption is about to culminate in him.

So think about it.

Think of the scene.

You've seen the paintings.

By da Vinci, you've seen them by some of the most famous artists.

Jesus is at the center or the head of the table.

It should be the head.

He's at the head of the table.

He takes the place of the presider.

He's proclaiming redemption and promise.

But the disciples would have been absolutely perplexed by what Jesus said because they've been saying the same thing for thousands of years.

Have you ever known anybody to start singing a song and it's so bad that you say to them, You know, that's not how that goes.

Have you ever heard somebody try to sing a song and the tune is just, what, that, that?

And it's frustrating.

The disciples would have wanted to say to Jesus, hey, that's not how that goes.

Because when Jesus took the bread, he did not say what they had said for thousands of years.

This is the bread of our affliction.

Our ancestors were afflicted and broken in the wilderness so that we could be free, which had been stated hundreds and hundreds of years.

But Jesus said, Jesus instead looks right in the disciples' eyes and says, this is my body afflicted for you.

This is the bread of my affliction.

I will suffer to give you ultimate freedom from sin and death once and for all.

It is my suffering that will ultimately liberate you.

And then if you notice, he doesn't take four cups.

He only takes one cup, the cup of redemption that he's about to provide.

And finally, if you read the text, where's the lamb?

I mean, if you can't have Passover without the lamb, but you do have the lamb, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Jesus is saying, my death is the central event toward which God's relationship to the world has been moving.

Now, John, when he said, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, was saying to Jesus, I get it.

I got you.

I know who you are.

Our firstborn sons were not saved because of some woolly little quadrupeds.

No matter how cute they were, our firstborn sons are saved because God is going to give up his firstborn son.

Because God gave up his little lamb, we don't have to give up ours.

And God says to Abraham, I'm going to walk my son up the hill of Golgotha, and I'm going to lay the wood on him, and no one's going to be able to stop the knife.

Your beloved son will not have to die, Abraham.

because my beloved son will.

And then the ultimate child cried out to the ultimate father and said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The father paid the price in silence.

And as we've said a hundred times, he turned his back on his own son so that we'd never have to turn his back on us.

By the way, in the cross, Abraham had his question answered.

How can God be both holy and merciful.

By sending his son to die for the sins of the world, the holy requirements of God's nature have been met.

Sin has been punished.

But instead of punishing us, he punished his own son.

And the love comes from giving up what was most precious to him so he wouldn't lose you.

Now, let's finish this.

In Matthew 27, verse 45, 50, and 52.

From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over all the land.

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

Now, did you notice something?

Have you noticed something there?

Oh, people who've never read the Bible, Jesus died at twilight.

Remember the Passover lambs had to travel to Jerusalem from Magdala there and then be slain at twilight.

When darkness was about to fall over the earth, just like the original Exodus story, back in Exodus chapter 12, verse 6, take care of them until the 14th day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.

Well, again, the lamb had to be slaughtered at twilight, just like in the Exodus story.

And just as darkness fell over all of Egypt, and the Lamb was slain at twilight, and the blood was placed over the doorposts, darkness fell over all the earth when Jesus was crucified, as the blood of the ultimate Lamb was spread across a Roman cross.

The more you study the Old and New Testament, the more you realize, wait a minute, this passage in Exodus was written hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, and we know this now.

This is not for debate.

Genesis, the Torah was written hundreds and hundreds and thousands of years before Jesus was ever born.

How could they know this?

Did you know the Passover in Exodus was the 14th day of Nisan?

Do you know that Jesus was crucified a few thousand years later on the 14th day of Nisan?

The exact day on the calendar?

The Passover lamb was selected on the 10th day of Nisan, according to the Old Testament, written thousands of years before Jesus.

Did you know that Jesus' triumphal entry, where he publicly presents himself as the deliverer, the lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world, happened on the 10th day of Nisan?

This is the story of the lamb.

What is the story?

Abraham's chapter tells us there is a debt owed by all, because God is the giver of all things.

He has the right, the sacred right to claim the first fruits.

And he's our real source of hope.

But Moses chapter tells us we're all guilty.

We're all debtors to God.

We don't love God the way we should or our neighbors, but a substitute can pay our debt.

And if the destroyer appears, we would all be destroyed unless we take the blood of the lamb and place it over the doorpost.

And then thank God it culminates in Jesus chapter.

When God has provided the ultimate spotless lamb without blemish, and they spread his blood over the post of a Roman cross, and now you and I are told that all who place the blood of the lamb over the doorpost of their hearts will have eternal life.

This is the story.

If you want your life, if you want to have a centralized joy in your life from here forward, you will never forget the ultimate story that started with the creation of all things.

It was the plan all along.

You're not saved by your good works.

You might try hard the rest of your life to do good things because you love God.

That's great.

But you're saved because the blood of the Lamb.

Is the substitutionary sacrifice required by God to pay for your sins?

All right, now I want to ask one question.

I'm so far over, might as well just enjoy it.

But how do you know?

How do you know that you've placed the blood of the Lamb over the doorpost?

Can I read something to you?

In Matthew 27, I read before, from noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over all the land.

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit and then...

Verse 51 says, at that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

Now, why was the curtain torn in two in the temple?

Well, because you couldn't go into the Holy of Holies, man.

That's where God's presence was.

You better not waltz in there.

You'll be struck dead because you're not holy.

But now, because Christ has made you holy, you can go in and have fellowship with God.

This is the ultimate of the promised land.

You don't need a priest.

You don't need someone to absolve your sin.

There's only one mediator between God and man, and he's the man Jesus Christ.

You can talk to him all the time.

Here's what I've learned in my life of ministry.

Here's a good sign that you know that you've put the blood of the Lamb over the doorpost of your heart.

You want to meet with God regularly.

You want to meet with him.

You're not perfect.

You got issues, man.

Welcome to church.

But you know what you want down deep in your heart.

If I really got down in your heart, I'd find a place where I really want to be with God.

You know, I really want to be with God, Jeff.

I've got so many issues and I'm trying.

I'm trying.

I really want to be with God.

That is a sign you got it.

So repent of your sin.

Stop beating yourself silly.

and live with a centralized joy that in your weaknesses, he is strong.

Amen.

All right.

Father, thank you for the story of the lab.

And I pray in Christ's name that, man, if our eyes have never been open to this, that suddenly the Holy Spirit would reveal to us how wonderful the story of God, history, his story really is, that it wasn't an afterthought.

it was from the beginning and we will Be with God in our promised land of eternity.

Just help us to make it through the wilderness so that we can arrive safely.

In Christ's name, everybody said.