Are You Under the Blood?

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me tonight to the book of Exodus.
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Exodus chapter 12.
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The title of tonight's message is Under the Blood.
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Exodus chapter 12.
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We're going to read verses 12 and 13.
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Now it is the custom in this church to stand for the reading of God's word.
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So if you are able, I invite you to stand as we give honor and reverence to the holy, inspired, and inerrant word of God.
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And so it comes to us in the 12th chapter of Exodus, verse 12.
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This is the Lord speaking.
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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.
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And on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.
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I am the Lord.
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The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.
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And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.
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And no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
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Father in heaven, as the word is preached tonight, I pray that your Holy Spirit would mix the words with faith.
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And Lord, that they would bury themselves deep into our hearts and that they would produce in us fruit.
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And Father, for the believers in the room, that they would be challenged to understand who this God is that we call the Lord.
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And for Lord, those who are here that do not know you, that still are outside of the blood of the Lamb, that are at this very moment under the potential of the judgment of God, may it be that the word of God preached would draw them in.
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And may the Holy Spirit of God quicken their dead souls, that they might come to life and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And it is in his name.
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Amen.
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You may be seated.
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About thirty five hundred years ago, in the darkness of a single night, a cacophony of screams could be heard throughout the land of Egypt.
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The people had already experienced terrifying wonders leading up to this frightful night.
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They had seen the river turn to blood.
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They had seen hailstones fall from the sky.
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They had seen the sun darken.
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They had been plagued by frogs, lice, flies, locusts, and their very own bodies had been covered with boils.
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But nothing which came before was to compare to the experience of judgment which would befall them that night.
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The night was Pesach, the Passover.
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And as Exodus 12 and verse 30 says, there was not a house in the land of Egypt where there was not one dead.
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Yet in the midst of this awful scene, there stood the people of Israel.
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They experienced not the severity of God's wrath, but instead they experienced the comfort of his protection.
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And so the question that I want to ask tonight, what was the difference? What separated Israel and Egypt on that horrible night? And how does that apply to us some 3,500 years later? I want us to look at this text tonight.
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I was going to preach the whole chapter.
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Ha ha.
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I had to narrow it a little.
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So I narrowed it to two verses.
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And what I want us to see in these two verses is the threefold words of God.
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One is the promise of God.
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Two is the person of God.
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And three is the provision of God in the Passover.
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So let us look first at the promise.
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He says in verse 12, 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 judgment.
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Notice here, each one of these statements is said by God himself.
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I will pass through.
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I will strike.
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I will execute judgment.
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Remember, this is God speaking.
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And each of these things that is being said is essentially a promise from God.
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Much is made of the promises of God.
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We often say rest in the promises of God and rejoice in the promises of God and let ourselves find joy and comfort in the promises of God.
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And all that is true.
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But let me remind you something.
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Some of God's promises are not promises of blessing, but they are promises of judgment.
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Yet they are still promises.
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Because what God says he will do.
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What God says is a promise when he says, I will, I will, I will.
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And there are three recipients to the promise.
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One is the land of Egypt.
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I will pass through the land.
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Two is the sons of Egypt.
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I will strike the firstborn of every house.
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And three is the gods of Egypt.
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And I will execute judgment on all their gods.
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This should bring to mind the scriptures which promise us the other judgments of God.
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Remember that he promised judgment to Adam and Eve.
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On the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.
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They ate of the fruit.
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They were cast out of the garden.
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They died spiritually that day.
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He promised judgment on the generation of Noah's day.
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In 120 years it shall come that the Lord will open the skies and the waters of the deep will burst forth and the springs of the deep will come and will envelop the world and there will be a great deluge.
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And there was.
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And only eight souls were saved.
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God promises judgment even today.
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He promises judgment on all who sin.
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And we see this promise fulfilled daily.
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Two hundred and fifty thousand people die every day.
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The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
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We see the judgment of God every day.
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The wages of sin is death.
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But in this text, he is promising judgment on Egypt and he has provided for them nine precursory judgments, each one of them demonstrating his power, each one of them providing a warning and each one of them giving a reason and opportunity for repentance.
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How many of us know that God will judge one day and yet we are ignoring his warnings tonight? God will keep his promise to judge.
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We know this because of who he is.
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That's the next thing I want to show you.
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We've seen the promise.
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The promise is judgment.
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And now we see the person.
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Look at what he says at the end of verse 12.
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He says he says, I will pass through.
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I will strike.
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I will execute judgments.
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I am the Lord.
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In your English Bible, you'll notice that the word Lord is all capitalized.
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L.O.R.D., all caps.
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The reason for that is because this is a translation of the divine name Yahweh.
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If you see capital L with the lowercase rest of the letters, that's a translation of Adonai, which is the name Lord in the proper sense, Lord.
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But when you see capital O, capital R, capital D after the L, that means I am Yahweh.
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I am the Lord.
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And by the way, he's not just reminding them of who's speaking.
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He's reminding them of his authority and his ability.
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You see, the Lord God has authority to judge.
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Many people have issue with that.
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They find fault with the judgment of God.
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Unbelievers will often attack the idea of God judging them.
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They'll claim themselves too good to be judged, too noble to fall under the judgment of God.
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They'll refuse to believe that they could ever be under his judgment.
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Some even go as far as to say, who is he to judge me? I'll tell you who he is.
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He is the Lord.
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That's what he's saying.
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I am the Lord.
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The Lord has the authority to judge.
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Second Chronicles 20 and verse 6.
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Oh, Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over the kingdoms of the nations and in your hand are power and might so that none is able to withstand you.
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Isaiah 45 9, woe to the one who quarrels with his maker.
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Psalm 97 verse 5, the mountains melt like wax before the Lord.
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God has the authority to judge.
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But not only does he have the authority, he has the ability.
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Because he says here, I am the Lord.
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It'd be one thing if he were simply saying it and he didn't have the power to act it out.
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But here's the thing.
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God is not impotent.
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God is omnipotent.
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He's not without power.
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He has all power.
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And in him is all the power to bring to pass the judgment that he promises.
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You see, there's great comfort in thinking of God being all powerful.
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And we rejoice here.
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We call our church sovereign grace.
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We celebrate the sovereignty of God.
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And that's good.
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But think about this, beloved.
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Not only should that bring us comfort, that should also bring us concern.
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Because if he has the power and he has the ability to be God, he has the power and the ability to judge.
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He is Lord.
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He has the power to do what he says he will do.
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You know who learned this very well? A king.
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During the reign, actually during the time of the prophet Daniel, he reigned.
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His name was Nebuchadnezzar.
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Nebuchadnezzar was standing on his home and he was looking out at his kingdom and he was feeling pretty froggy.
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He was feeling pretty good about himself.
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He looked at all that I have done.
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Look at all that I have amassed.
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Look at all I have accomplished.
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Next thing you know, God robs his sanity from him.
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And he ends up in the field eating grass like a cow.
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His fingernails grew like that of an eagle and his hair matted down like the like the feathers of a bird.
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He went crazy because God took from him his sanity.
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And when he awoke from that insanity, I want you to hear what he said.
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Daniel chapter four, verse thirty four.
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At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven.
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My reason returned to me.
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I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom endures from generation to generation.
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All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing.
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And he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can hold back his hand or say, what have you done? If Nebuchadnezzar, the wicked king of Babylon, can look to the God of heaven and say, that is the God of authority.
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How much more should we understand the authority and the ability of God to judge? We must know who he is.
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So we've seen his promise.
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I will bring judgment.
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We've seen his person.
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I am the Lord.
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Finally, third point, the provision.
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Verse thirteen.
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The blood shall be a sign for you.
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What's the blood here? What's he talking about? The blood of the lamb, the sacrificed lamb.
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The blood shall be a sign for you.
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Notice the sign is for them.
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God doesn't need a sign to know who are his.
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My sheep hear my voice.
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I know them and they follow me.
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The Bible says my name is written on his hand.
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But the sign becomes a sign for them.
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God had already distinguished them through nine plagues.
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Why now do they need a sign? Because God was providing a prescription for a provision.
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The prescription was this.
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Take the lamb at twilight.
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Sacrifice the lamb.
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Take the blood of the lamb.
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Take its blood and put it on your door.
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That's the prescription.
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Why? Because it provided the provision.
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The provision was what? In my divine grace, I will pass over the house that has blood on the frame.
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In my divine mercy, I will pass over the house that's covered in the blood.
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This was an act of sheer mercy.
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Understand this, beloved.
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Not one of the Israelites deserved the mercy of God.
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You do not deserve the mercy of Almighty God.
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I understand today we have a world that's full of people that are very happy with themselves.
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We've developed a culture of self-help.
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We've developed a culture of self-esteem.
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And everybody thinks they're the greatest at everything.
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You know what we're really best at? Rebelling against God.
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We're really best at being sinners.
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But here's the great thing.
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God is a better Savior than you are a sinner.
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Christ is a greater Savior than you are a sinner.
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And he's better at being merciful than you are at being rebellious.
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So he makes a provision in his Son.
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And by the way, that's what this blood was all about.
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Don't think for a minute that the blood of that Lamb was all that there was to it.
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The blood of that Lamb pointed forward to the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.
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The blood of that Lamb pointed forward to the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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I'm not making that up.
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I didn't even come up with that.
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The New Testament tells me that.
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1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7.
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Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened.
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For Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed.
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I don't have to wonder if the Lamb of the Old Testament pointed to the Lamb of the New Testament.
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John told me, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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1 Peter 1 19.
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We have the precious blood of Christ who was a lamb without blemish or spot.
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Consider in this verse, verse 13, the repetition of the word you.
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The blood is a sign for you.
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It's going to be on the houses where you live.
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I will pass over you.
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No plague will befall you to destroy you.
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Who's the you? Israel.
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The you in the message is Israel.
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Egypt was going to receive judgment, but you, Israel, will receive protection.
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They will experience fury.
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You will experience favor.
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And in that simple illustration, Egypt and Israel became an analogy for the world and the church.
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And by the church, I mean all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are part of the church, the universal church of the living God.
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Like Egypt 3,500 years ago, like Egypt, the world is tonight slumbering under the promise of the judgment of God.
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And like Israel, the church is sheltered under the protection of God's provision.
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And one day, the promise of God's judgment will arrive on the threshold of every man's heart.
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Hebrews 9 and 27 says, It is appointed unto every man once to die.
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And after this is judgment.
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The judgment of God will arrive on the threshold of your heart.
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It may not be tonight, but it may.
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It may not be this year, but it may.
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It may not be this decade or the next.
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But one day, the judgment of God will arrive on the threshold of your heart.
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And what will distinguish you will be whether or not you are covered in the blood of the Lamb.
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What will distinguish you from the world will be whether the threshold of your heart has been painted with the blood of Jesus Christ.
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So I ask you tonight, beloved friends, those of you who I know not, those of you who I know very well, are you under the blood tonight? It's not a feeling, it's not an emotion.
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It's a fact.
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You either have Christ or you do not.
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You're either under the blood or you are not.
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You have received him as Lord and Savior through repentance of sin and faith in him or you have not.
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And if you haven't, oh, mercy of mercies, look at Egypt, hear the cacophony of screams, hear the cries and know that those cries bellow from hell for eternity.
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Only if our hearts are covered in the blood of the Lamb will we be given the mercy of the Lord.
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May we pray.
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Father, it is only in your mercy, it is only by your mercy that we can be saved.
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That's the song we heard.
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It's about the cross.
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It's about my sin.
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It's about the fact that the Lord came, the Lord Jesus Christ has come and he was born once so that we could be born again.
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Lord, tonight, if there be those among us who are not born again, who have not bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, may they hear the words of Jesus Christ.
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Unless a man be born again, he will not see the kingdom of God.
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Unless a man be born again, he will not see the kingdom of heaven.
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Lord, may it be that you save souls tonight.
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Lord, may it be that men and women in this room would bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Break their spirit, oh, God, break our hearts, oh, God.
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May we not be as those in Egypt under the weight of the judgment of God, but may we be like those in Israel who are passed over in your mercy by your blessed providence of the blood of the Lamb.
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And it's in Christ's name we pray.
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Amen.