Sermon Tone Analysis

This has been a long time coming, really.

The Lord knew this from eternity past; it’s been a long time coming.

The Lord told Moses exactly what was going to take place before Moses even returned to Egypt:

It’s been a long time coming.

What’s more, the 9 plagues leading up to this—the 10th plague—likely occured over the period of a year or more.

So the people of Israel and Egypt had a long time to wrap their heads around what was coming, if they had eyes to see and ears to hear.

It’s been a long time coming.

This has been announced to Pharaoh, to the Lord’s people, and to us:

And here now, it happens:

>All of this took place, just as the Lord hath said.

This is an encouragement.

We know whatever the Lord says He will do, He will do.

What He wants done will be done.

What He has purposed from eternity past will come to pass.

Be encouraged, Christian.

When everything is crumbling down around you, when the world is out of sorts and full of chaos, remind yourself of what the Lord has said; repeat to yourself, over and over, “I know what the Lord has said, what He has promised.

So it shall be.”

All of this is taking place, just as the Lord hath said.

Let this encourage you and motivate you today, here and now.

The Lord will come soon; He IS coming soon to judge the living and the dead.

Those apart from Christ will experience death—everlasting separation, everlasting death.

The death of the firstborn in Egypt is a reminder to us, to all of us: only those who are hidden under the blood of the lamb are spared; only those of us who are hidden in Christ, underneath the blood of the perfect, spotless Lamb of God will escape death.

Friend, if you are not hidden in Christ, if you have not entrusted your life to Him of your own volition, on the Day He returns to set the world at rights, you will be struck down, you will be lost forever.

Have you entrusted your life to Him? Have you, in faith, united yourself to Christ?

Have you confessed your sins, seeking His forgiveness?

This is something you have to do for yourself, of your own will.

This isn’t something your parents or grandparents or spouse can decide for you.

It’s not enough to be a “good person”, not nearly enough.

Belonging to a church is insufficient.

Good deeds will never come close to accomplishing this.

You must, yourself, give yourself to Christ, trust that His death on the cross, His blood spilled for your sins, is all you need.

If you’ve yet to trust in Jesus for yourself, friend, don’t delay.

The Day of the Lord has been a long time coming, and it is at hand.

Don’t delay.

Surrender to Him.

Pray He would rescue you.

Bow your head here and now, and pray:

I need You Jesus,

To come to my Rescue;

I confess my sins and my sinfulness.

I need you to save me.

I need your blood to cover me.

I trust in You, Jesus, and You alone.

And I will follow you all the days of my life.

>Let’s continue on in our text.

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to Exodus Chapter 12.

If you’re able and willing, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word.

Exodus 12, beginning with verse 29—

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!

_______________

“The death of the firstborn was the final blow, the tenth and deadliest plague.

By visiting death on the Egyptians, while at the same time protecting his people, God was declaring the basis for salvation…the distinction God made that night is the one He always makes.

It is the distinction between those who have faith in the blood of the sacrifice He provides and those who do not.

And on that distinction rests the eternal destiny of every human being.”—P.G.

Ryken

Sadly, here in Egypt, the Egyptians did not have faith in the Lord, the God of Israel.

They did not put blood on their doorposts; because of this, they were destined for destruction.

Not one single family escaped.

The Bible says (12:30)—there was not a house without someone dead.

This plague affected everyone from Pharaoh and his family to the prisoner and their family, all the way down to the firstborn of all the livestock.

As difficult as this is to imagine, as hard as this is to read (and to preach!) the first sentence of our text for this morning highlights one of the more hard-to-swallow attributes of God:

The Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt...

This, very clearly, is the JUSTICE of God.

Our God is a just God.

It was true for the Egyptians, and it’s true for us.

What Pharaoh and his countrymen suffered was just a glimpse of what will happen at the end of the world.

“We will all be there: the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the sinners and the saints.

From the dungeon to the throne, from the cubicle to the highest office in the land, no one will escape.

No one will receive special treatment.

God is no respecter of persons, and He will judge everyone by the same standard.

He does not care what color we are, how much money we have, where we go to school, what company we work for, or even how good we are.

What matters to God is whether or not we have faith in the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

Those who trust in the blood of Christ will receive eternal life.

Those who do not hold on to Him and to His cross will be finally and fatally lost.

The great divide between salvation and damnation is marked in blood.”

It’s clear to see the Lord’s justice on display here, isn’t it?

I can’t even imagine what it would be like—not for the Egyptians in their grief and loud wailing; and not for the Israelites.

You know that some of the Israelites heard the loud wailing coming from the Egyptian homes.

And for those who didn’t hear the screams of pain and heartache from their captors, they knew what was happening.

They knew that tonight was the night when the Lord was going to strike down the firstborn of every home.

For sure, some of the people of Israel were fearful; but all they had to do was look to the blood on the doorframe—that was the sign of their salvation.

Believers in Jesus Christ have the same confidence.

Whenever we are fearful or anxious or unsure of God’s love for us, all we need to do is look to the cross, where we see the proof of His love and guarantee of our salvation marked in blood.

>Finally, after all this time (more than 400 years for the Israelites; and almost 5 months for us) we finally get to the point in the story where Pharaoh tells Moses and Aaron to get the heck of out Dodge, them and all the Israelites:

Finally, the Israelites will be freed from their slavery and oppression; and they will be able to worship the Lord as He deserves to be worshipped.

Pharaoh has suffered great loss in all of this, as have the people of Egypt—their firstborn, their livestock; all the gods they worship have been shown to be powerless, useless, worthless.

They’ve suffered greatly.

What’s more, the Egyptians are afraid that they all might die if the Israelites hang around any longer.

So they beg the Israelites to hurry up and leave the country.

The people left in such a hurry, they didn’t have time to add yeast to their bread (the significance of unleavened bread, you see, goes back to this moment).

So ready are they to get rid of the Israelites, the Egyptians even help the Israelites pack their bags.

Not only were the Egyptians helping the Israelites pack their bags, they even give them some of their own belongings.

This has been briefly mentioned before:

The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people...

This is, very clearly, the GRACE of God.

The grace of God is one of the attributes of God we really like; we could do without the justice of God (especially when it confronts our sinfulness), but we love the grace of God.

And we should.

This is unmerited favor.

And it’s all grace, really.

Everything that’s going on here is grace.

Grace upon grace upon grace.