{The Book} The Writings of Moses Exodus

Transcription

1 We are into a series called THE BOOK; that's because when we walk into this place we open up this [holds Bible up], The Book, the Bible, and we study it and we decided that what we're going to do is we're just going to go right through it from beginning to end. So last week we started in the book of Genesis and this week we're in the book of Exodus. And what we're doing is, the week before we talk about the book of Exodus we read the book of Exodus on our own. And so many of you have been reading the book of Exodus this week and someone said to me last week, "I don't know why, but the sermon really hit me this week." I said, "I know why. It's because you've been reading in advance and God's been preparing your heart and working in your heart." There are powerful, awesome, amazing things that happen when you read God's Book, and that's why we want to talk about The Book. But we don't want to just talk about it, we want to read it and let it just flush through our lives. So this week we've been reading the book of Exodus. Next week we're going to read the book of Leviticus. If that scares you it should it's a big book and it's got a lot of stuff to say in there and you're going to be going, "What?!" Let me just say this to you: Sometimes there are certain books that you just read where you just have to read at a high level. You've just got to read it; you've just got to go through it. And I believe that God has placed every word in this Book on purpose and we need to read it, so I'd love to encourage you to be in it this week reading it. Many of you have been finding that listening to it's huge, and so there are Bible apps we have listed on the front of your handout this week one of the apps that a lot of people have been enjoying that's extremely animated, so you may want to download that, but this week take time to download that, listen to the Bible. Hey, listen, if you haven't gotten into it so far and you just want to jump in this week, Leviticus is a great place to jump in. [laughter] Seriously, you can just jump in right where we're at; just jump in this week. Some of you have just said, "I just can't go through all of that." You know, just read some because the Word of God is powerful and it promises it will never return void. It promises that it's going to get into places inside of us that we never thought were possible. Give it a try and be part of it. A lot of you have commutes, a lot of you have down time a great time to be listening to the Word of God. Also know that many of you are note takers, you've been asking for notes, so you'll notice in here [holds up program] we have a tear-off in the center of your program today. Notes, we have the major parts of the notes listed here. If you're electronic, you can just go to our website and where you see the advertisement for the series The Book, if you click on that it'll actually have electronic copies of the notes there as well as videos of the sermons, so there's something here for everyone. Many of you have been asking what the little symbols for each book mean. The description's up here right here on the top of the notes, and so each symbol has a meaning, so it's sort of cool. You can be following along. You can tear these off and three-hole punch them and put them into your own notebook and be following along. We also have key rings out here in the lobby today, right out there. Right now all we have is Genesis and Exodus; the people that provide us Leviticus wimped out on us this week and didn't get them mailed to us, and I promise you it wasn't because of the weather. They will get us Leviticus mailed, but we want to be memorizing these verses. There's one verse in every book that we want to memorize and put it on one of these rings, carry it with you and just be reading through it. Again, just letting the Word of God wash over your heart and life. We are convinced of all the things that you could involve yourself in, if you'll just let the Word of God wash through your life, if you'll read it, if you'll memorize it, the Scripture talks about meditating on it the best way to memorize it is just meditate on it, think on it, think on it, think on it it's going to get into you. It's going to show huge results that you can't even begin to imagine today. 1

2 Also, if you're not in a small group, would love for you to jump into a small group; that's where we're discussing this and talking about this. And on your program again today there's a tear-off here, if you tear this off a little later on you can pop this into the offering bucket when it comes around, just write on there and give us your name and and say, "Hey, I want to be in a small group," and we'll get you plugged into a small group. A lot of you have been asking, we've been trying to find small groups for everyone that wants to be part of one, but definitely sign up for that and be a part of that. If you're here for the first time, we'd love to meet you so write your name on here and let us know that you're here. And again, pop that in the offering bucket when it comes around. Last week we started in the book of Genesis. I'm going to give you a quick overview because we had so much ice last week a lot of you couldn't skate out of your driveways, so we'll start right back there at the very beginning and that's what's fun about the Bible is we get to do that very thing. In the beginning it says, "In the beginning, God" is the beginning of Genesis. God's the foundation of everything we're going to talk about, and as we open up His Book by the way, speaking of His Book, so we're going to go through this from front to back. One of the questions some of you may ask is, "Okay, you keep on talking about this as THE Book, how this is the place to go to; the go-to place." We believe that here at Calvary, but you may not be sure why. On Wednesday nights we're doing a whole series on all the doctrines that Calvary believes. Last week and this week we're talking about why we believe in this Book, and this week we're going to discuss on Wednesday night at 7 o'clock, from 7-8, we're going to discuss how the books that found their way into this Bible got there, who got to choose them, and how we can be sure that they're really the right ones that God wanted in here. We're also going to be talking about the fact that there's a bunch of books that some other churches use in their Bibles that we don't believe belong in there, and we're going to be talking about why that is so you've got to come this Wednesday night, all right? Wednesday night at 7 are you coming? By then you'll have been snowed in so long you'll be dying for a reason to get out. [laughter] You've got to come Wednesday night at 7; kids and youth group and great stuff going on. Okay, so back to the book of Genesis. So God creates this world. He looks at it and He says it's good, and we know that and we agree with that. He places mankind in the garden, and as He places mankind in the garden He says listen, there's only one thing you can't do in this garden, everything else is free game, but in the middle there's a tree don't touch it. When you touch it you shall surely die; both spiritual death, separation from God, and physical death where now you're going to die a physical death. And mankind couldn't help themselves and had to touch that tree and eat of it, and as a result death came to all mankind. We're separated from God. In fact, that death passed on to us is why we have the sin nature today. Well, after that death came upon mankind and that separation took place between us and God, God says I don't want that. I don't want to be separated from mankind, and so He makes this promise. It's His promise of a Savior. It's a promise to redeem us from that; to make everything right again. And what we see in the rest of the Bible is a progression of explaining how exactly God goes about doing that to bring us back together with Him. And we want to have that relationship with Him. Once we were severed we didn't like that, we didn't want that. We hate death, we resist it, we strive against it, and so God makes a promise to bring a Savior. From there on out mankind gets worse and worse and worse. Their sin grows more and more and more until God finally says I regret that I even created these people. He presses the reset button and we have the flood. After the flood God puts His hand on a man by the name of Abraham. God puts His hand on 2

3 a man by the name of Abraham and as He does so He says I want to work through a people, and through you I am going to make your family fill the whole earth and I'm going to work through them to bring my plan of salvation. The text tells us that Abraham in faith believes God, because God then tells him what He wants him to do next, and Abraham says I'm in and takes a step even though he doesn't know where he's going, doesn't know exactly what this all looks like, how this is going to come to be, and he begins to do what God tells him to do. Unfortunately, even though God says hey, I'm going to use your people and your family and I'm going to work through them, unfortunately that family doesn't all see the same level of faith that Abraham does. They don't necessarily want to follow God the way Abraham did. Some of you know that, you've experienced that, you've been teaching your family, but at a given point they make their decisions as to what they're going to do and that happened to Abraham, too, and so many of Abraham's descendants decided to go away from God. They began to intermarry outside of God's family and what they did is they married people who loved other gods more than the one true God and pretty soon God's people began to wander away from God. God wanted to bring them back and oftentimes when we wander away from God it takes some hard stuff to bring us back, and some things have to happen to get us back to that spot that aren't too pretty. In this situation, God allows something to happen where some brothers sell their brother, a guy by the name of Joseph, into slavery. Joseph ends up in a place called Egypt and God gives Joseph these visions of what's about to come. There's famine that's coming and so they begin to, under Joseph's leadership, store up food so that during the famine there would be food there. And during that famine Joseph's brothers come and they come to him and in the course of that all of God's people are saved by coming to Egypt to get food. But in the midst of that God's people find themselves in slavery in Egypt and it's no small deal. It is a long period of slavery, 435 years of hard labor and difficult times. You talk about difficulties, you talk about going through it to refine you and make you better and make you more like what God has called you to be, 435 years is a little more than what most of us can handle. It's more than a lifetime for us. And that takes us to Exodus chapter 2. If you have your Bibles, I'd love for you to turn there because we're going to follow through and read exactly what happens. And this 435 years is referenced here in chapter 2 of Exodus in verse 23: 23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant another word for that would be promise with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel and God knew. EXODUS 2:23-25 The NIV says God was concerned for them. 1 And as we read this we're just reminded that God sees us, God knows what we're going through, and God cares deeply. And in the midst of that we may ask ourselves the question, well, then, why would He allow them to be in this slavery and in this hard time, and the answer is extremely simple: God wanted to get them to a place where they would trust Him. We go, oh, if you just let me out of this and everything will be all better. But there is something going 1 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. EXODUS 2:25 (NIV) 3

4 on inside of them that caused them to continue to reject God, and God says I want to get your attention. I want to get your attention and I want to work those rough edges off so that you will come to a place where you will trust me. God is a promise-keeping God. That's what this verse says, it says He remembers His promise and, in turn, He says some things of what He will do. If you'll turn over in your Bibles to chapter 6, and we read in chapter 6, verse 6, God speaks to Moses and He says to Moses I want you to be my deliverer and He says here's the thing that I want you to say to my people, to Israel. He says in verse 6 of chapter 6: 6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you By the way, the Israelites there in Egypt during those 435 years built the infrastructure of what we know of as in ancient Israel including probably the pyramids. They were very much a part of what was taking place there. And God says I will bring you out from the burdens of the Egyptians. from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD. Probably what is most shocking about these statements of I will, I will, God's promises to the people is the people's response. You would think that their response would be, "Yes! Finally, after these 435 years we are released." And yet that's not what happens. We read in verse 9: 9 Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. EXODUS 6:6-9 And some of us in here today are in the middle of so much right now that when someone says to you, "Let me talk to you about God's promises," there's sort of this hand that goes out [gives "talk to the hand" gesture] and says, "I can't hear that right now." And I've had quite a few people even say that we shouldn't say a lot about God's promises and God's blessings and what God will do to us, that somehow that makes a person feel worse and they're just not able to receive that. I struggle with that because here's God saying to His people I've made promises to you. I love you. I love you a lot and I care about you. Why wouldn't we tell each other that? Why wouldn't we remind each other of that? You're in a tough time right now, why wouldn't you say to someone else who's in a tough time, "Hey, you know, God is faithful. God is there." You know, when God speaks to Abraham originally and says hey, here are my promises, before Abraham ever sees those promises fulfilled the Scripture says Abraham takes a step. Abraham believes God, and the Scriptures say that was counted to him as righteousness. And we're sitting in a spot this morning where we can't see the promises of God working out. They do not make sense. There are no solutions in our minds, in our heads that could work this out, and yet I believe we should stop and step back and go, "Wow, God has made promises. He does love us. He does care about us." And if there's one thing that we're going to just see as we keep on going through the Bible is how God just always is seeing the situation that His people are in. That's what we see back when man sins, I mean, God could have said, "You're done. I'm so fed up with you. I told you one tree you couldn't eat off of and you had to go to that tree immediately." God could have said you're done. We get to this part and He sees the people struggling and moaning and He says 4

5 hey, here's what I'll do for you, and they don't even listen. And He could have said I'm done, and yet He does not. He keeps on reaching out to us. Church, I just want to beg you right now. If you're sitting here today just sort of saying like this [puts both hands up] to God because you haven't seen any motion and you haven't seen any action, I just say to you please know that God is a promise-keeping God. He's made promises to you. He'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you. And He's wanting to reach out to you in love right now. I'd just encourage you right now even where you're at if you're just feeling that weight, that burden, that frustration, just cry out to Him quietly in your heart and go, "God, I want to receive that love. Just let it fall down on me right now. I need to feel it. I don't feel like I want to receive it right now, but I'm taking it. I'm taking it." So the people reject that statement. They reject and yet God says I want to do something big. I want to release my people. So if you have your Bibles, we look over to chapter 7 and verse 5. God says I'm going to do something so big, chapter 7, verse 5 says: 5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, EXODUS 7:5 Now I'm just going to flip my page left one more time to chapter 5, verse 1: 1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. 2 But Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go. EXODUS 5:1-2 In other words, I don't buy this God stuff. I don't believe there's a God, so why would I listen to you, Moses, tell me God said to do this? And I want to just say this in this room here starting out here this morning, I know there are some of you in this room who will make that statement. I don't really have to listen to what you're about to say because I don't even believe there is a God. Okay, we all have to make that decision and we all have to make that stand. We have to decide. It does not negate God just because you say, "I don't believe that. I have my own beliefs." And you're going to have to come to a place where you decide what they are and own those. And in that place you sure hope that they're powerful enough to get you through. So what happens, and I'm just going to go over this really at high level, is God to get the attention of the people of Egypt, to get Pharaoh's attention, to get Pharaoh to soften his heart, to let God's people go, God sends this series of ten plagues on Egypt. I mean, they're horrific. The first one, you know, water turns to blood. The second one, frogs all over the place. And there's some observations that you see in the midst of these. One is Pharaoh's immediate response is I don't buy that there's any God, and then you see this happen. And then there's an immediate response to that there's always a response to everything, you either believe or you reject so immediately he has his magicians (this is Pharaoh) has his magicians copy this same act, the turning the water into blood and making frogs come out. Satan's a counterfeiter. He can do that. Except when they got to the gnats the magicians couldn't hang. They couldn't make gnats. In fact, the magicians said, "Pharaoh, we're out of our league. This is beyond us." I think I'd be trusting God at this point. And we think somehow that if we were to see enough, hear enough, that we'd go, "Okay, that's God." 5

6 A lot of us wish that God would speak to us, and yet all the way through these plagues you'll hear this: "And the Lord God said" and then He sends another plague. And the Lord God said, and He sends another plague and no one thinks God's talking. God's being loud and clear and for us here today, I think oftentimes I'll hear people, "How do you think God talks in our day? I mean, does God ever come down and say, 'Lee ' " And you read things like this and you begin to see that God is working through all that is around us and He's making it very clear: I am God. I am in charge. Listen to me. As these plagues continue to come on and they're awful and you would just think that you would relent and say, "Boy, if that s you God, I'm out. I'm done." I mean, one after another just sequentially, and finally Pharaoh does pull "Oh, you know, I'll get just a little bit religious here for a minute," and he pulls the sin card. "I've sinned! I've sinned!" And yet it says that he hardened his heart. One of the things we'll see throughout these plagues is that Pharaoh hardens his heart time after time after time again. And then some of you noticed this week when you were reading that in the later plagues, I believe it starts with the boils, all of a sudden it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart and there's sort of this visceral response with our own righteousness that causes us to go, "Whoa! Whoa! What's God doing hardening someone's heart? That's mean. That's not nice. You can't do that, God!" Who are we to say God you can't do that right now? We're not God, He is, and we need to let Him be God and do it His way. But there is a reminder in all of this and there's a reminder even as we hear what we're about to hear in the next few moments, and that reminder is simply this: That today in this room we may have a choice and in the midst of that choice we may choose to harden our heart. We may choose to say I don't believe in God. I just have different thoughts. We may choose to say that the way God tells mankind to do it is just not for me, and we can choose to harden our heart. We could even say, "You know what, the jury's still out. Someday I'll think through this because I do see where this might have some validity." Realize that many people have waited too long, and I believe this is a warning to us where we realize now that later on God hardens Pharaoh's heart. That there does come a time God gives chance after chance after chance after chance and finally God says enough. We're done here. Oh, we talked about the fact that Pharaoh just sets this expectation I don't believe in God. We talked about the fact that Pharaoh gets counterfeits to say we can do the same thing, our gods can do the same thing, and so he counterfeits it. We've talked about him pulling the sin card; well, maybe if I pull that God will relent. Then he does this is he goes a little bit of a different direction and he says well, I'll negotiate with God. God's not interested in being negotiated with. He says well, why don't you just take your people and go a little ways out there, and God says no. I have told you how this is going to be and that's how it's going to work. When you finally get to the ninth plague and you have three days of darkness, Pharaoh says to Moses, listen, he says, you get out of here. By the way, if you ever come back I will kill you. All the while all of this could have been skipped. All we have to do is stop and say, "Yes, God. I get it; you're God. I believe you. I trust you." We then get to the final plague, the tenth plague, and I want to just say this by way of preface. First of all, this is something that actually happened but what I am about to tell you I'm not telling you just merely tell you a historical fact of information in the Bible so that you have a little more information and knowledge about how these plagues went down so that maybe the next time you see an Exodus movie you can sort of compare it and go, "Oh, I think they got it a little bit wrong here." What I'm about ready to share with you in the tenth plague is an absolute foundational, spiritual principle that starts here and is carried throughout the rest of the Bible. It will explain to us the foundation of redemption. Remember, these people are slaves in Egypt. God is going to release them from their slavery. How does He do that? What is His requirement? What we're going to find out is that we today are slaves to sin, and the way He releases us from that sin goes all the way back to the original requirement found here in Exodus chapter 11. So if you have your Bible, I want you to follow along in Exodus chapter 11, verse 1. 6

7 By the way, I believe that everything about what I'm ready to say could not be more highly opposed I sensed it in first hour in a way so strongly I don't remember feeling it that way in this room before. Satan does not want what I am about ready to share to be shared. This is absolutely foundational to everything, everything you need to know for the rest of your life. Verse 4: 1 The LORD said to Moses, Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. 4 So Moses said, Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, 5 and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 6 There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. 7 But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. EXODUS 11:1, 4-7 And now if you'll just look down on your page to chapter 12, verse 1, we begin to get some description here. 1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. I told you a minute ago this is going to be so world changing that it's actually going to change the calendar. That happened again when Jesus came into the world. This is how absolutely foundational this is. Keep on looking down to verse 3: 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, By the way, these descriptions will later describe Jesus and what is required for a perfect sacrifice for our sins. If you were to dig into this deeper, you'll see how Jesus fits these descriptions. Verse 5: Verse 7: 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. EXODUS 12:1-6 7 Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts capture this and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 7

8 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. They're dressed ready to leave, ready to move, God's about to work and it is described as a Passover. The angel of death is going to pass over the house. If the blood is on the doorpost or on the top, the angel passes over and the firstborn child does not die. That simple; it's about the blood. Verse 12, God speaking here, okay? God speaking, capture that: 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 judgments: I am the LORD. That reminds me back to what Pharaoh said at the very beginning: I don't believe in your God. Well, he had all of his different gods, and there are those who believe that when you go through these ten plagues that one of the things God was doing was systematically taking out their gods to get their attention showing that their gods are worthless and are powerless, and no matter how much trust and faith they put on them, they will fail. It causes you to even recognize that the difficulties that we go through oftentimes are God destroying the little "g" gods of our lives, the things that we place more important than Him, that we're depending upon for our security, for our health, for our well-being, and one by one He takes them out in the process. Now at the end, God says I will execute my judgment and I will execute them upon your gods also. And verse 13 says; 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. EXODUS 12:7-13 When I was a boy I was the firstborn son, actually the only born son of my family, and I was taught this story from a young age and it bothered me because as I read all of those details I realize that family had to make a decision to do each one of those things, and if I'm the oldest son I'm stepping back going, "Don't miss a thing," because I know what's about to happen. It causes me to as I read that wonder how many people heard God's words hey, you gotta put the blood on the side posts and put the blood on the top and said, "I don't do that. That doesn't make any sense. That's stupid. Who came up with that idea? In fact, it's gross. Who wants to be walking through there and have it drip on them? That could be a bad thing tomorrow. I'm not doing that. We're a lot more advanced than that. We're smarter than that. We built the pyramids and those things are going to be around a long time from now. Are you kidding me, we gotta put blood on the door? Why don't we just get up and leave? I mean, you think putting blood on the door's going to let Pharaoh let us leave?" And you can hear this mindset and thought process. I asked myself did they do that because for certain the passage is clear is every person had to decide. Moses couldn't decide for the community. Moses couldn't say okay, this is what's best for the community and here's how it's going to be. Each person had to decide; what do I make of what I hear? He says put the blood on the doorposts and on the thing going across the top. I even asked myself how much faith would it take to do that. 8

9 First of all I thought maybe quite a bit, I mean, it doesn't make sense. It seems odd. We've never seen this before. No angel has ever gone across killing the firstborns, so it's outside of my realm of understanding, so maybe it would take a lot of faith. God's telling you to do it, but maybe it takes faith. And then all of a sudden it hit me, hold on, what have they been going through as they've seen these other nine plagues? One after another God saying I'm going to do it and He does it. God saying I'm going to do it and He does it. And finally God says, hey, listen, here's the deal. Put the blood on the doorposts because I'm passing over and if I don't see the blood on the doorposts, the oldest son is going to die. At that moment you just say, "God, I believe you. I believe you." How could you not? He'd proven Himself true over and over, and then He tells you what to do and it's just a matter of saying, "Okay, God. I don't get it. It doesn't make sense, but you're God, I'm in. I'll do what you say." And the Scripture tells us what happens next. Verse 29 of chapter 12: 29 At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. 30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. EXODUS 12:29-30 I can hear those cries; that absolute terror. I can feel that feeling inside where I say, "Why didn't I listen? I knew better." I can hear those cries the Scripture says never to be heard at that kind of level and harshness ever again because a people refused to listen to God and do it God's way. I can promise you that that night no one was wondering where the blueprints for the pyramids were. No one cared what the supply chain was for them that night. No one cared what their boss was going to say tomorrow morning when they arrived. No one cared what their bank account balance was. No one cared what the results of the tests were going to be found to be. And no one was even wondering the unknown; what happens if we get out of here and we end up at the Red Sea unable to cross. No one was wondering what because all that mattered that night was the blood. I'm telling you, church, you've got to hear me. I pray that God's Spirit will somehow fall on you and help you understand this. This is foundational because the New Testament tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. And He lays this down here as a foundational principle and in the New Testament John the Baptist, who you've heard of, he's coming along and he points ahead and he says, "Ah, there is the Lamb of God who has come to save us from our sins." Jesus, over and over, referred to himself and was referred to as the Lamb of God who would come to be sacrificed, whose blood would be shed to be applied to our lives to bring forgiveness of sins. And when there is not forgiveness of sins, we face a certain fiery hell of an eternity separated from God in a physical, literal place called Hell where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth and wailing like was heard by those Egyptian women that night, who were wishing somehow they had applied the blood. Church, I'm going to tell you today that Jesus says in Luke chapter 22 and I'm going to turn there in a second Jesus says to his disciples in that Upper Room I have longed for a long time to come to this place and celebrate the Passover with you. You see, after that Passover there in Egypt and the people of God left, God set up for them a festival. A premiere they had a whole bunch of festivals but this one was the #1 one every year that they were all required to go to, that of Passover, where they would remember what God did as He passed over the home that night because of the blood. And they passed it on to their children and their children's children because it was absolutely required. And Jesus there on the night before He would be crucified, on the night before He died, Jesus sits there with His disciples and says I've been looking forward to celebrating this Passover with you, because there on that night He 9

10 would change it and He would change the focus because He would hang on the cross and He would die and He would shed his blood for the forgiveness of sin. And today we celebrate that and we remember that with Communion. The big question here today is what are we going to do with the blood? I want to read to you something that is fascinating and may tell many of your stories. It's still back in Exodus chapter 12, verse 31: 31 Then he [Pharaoh] summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, Up, go out from among my people, you can imagine both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as you have said. 32 Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and then he says this and bless me also! EXODUS 12:29-32 You've got to be kidding. You have just put your hand up in the face of God over and over and over. You've brought the full-on destruction of your country and the people and the children of your country, and now you go oh, yeah, okay, go. Oh, by the way, bless me. I see it so often. I see people who say, "Nice message, Pastor, but I don't buy that. I don't believe God like you do. I don't believe this blood stuff. By the way, you know, could you just pray a blessing over me?" I thought you didn't buy it. I didn't think you believed in Him. I didn't think you believed in forgiveness of the blood. "Oh, I don't." Pray to God to bless me in my surgery tomorrow. Pray that God will bless my new business. Hey, pray that God will bless my new marriage. We want the blessing of God, but He gives us very simple instructions. "Oh, yeah, it's hard to understand. It doesn't make sense." Paint blood on doorposts? Jesus hanging and dying on the cross, the God of the universe hanging and dying on the cross, to shed His blood because it would be that blood and if we would believe in it, He'd forgive us of our sins? And so we come to this place today and I just want to say to you, I want to beg of you, it's all about the blood. The lambs would be sacrificed many times over in the Old Testament. It would never bring lasting forgiveness. But the Lamb of God would hang on the cross once and shed His blood once for the forgiveness of our sins, and He offers you that forgiveness this morning. And you go, "I don't quite understand it, but that's okay, I get it now. I get it. He's God. He can say it the way He wants to. He came and He did the work for me, and all I have to do is trust in His shed blood and I have eternal life and I have forgiveness of my sins." I want to offer that to you today. Before we go on any further, we're going to celebrate this in just a second, but before we go on any further I want to just give you the opportunity. It's just as simple as saying a prayer going, "I trust in that blood." There's no works. We cannot work our way to God, and we're going to keep on saying that here at Calvary. We can't work to keep our way to God. We keep on depending over and over on the blood. It's all about the blood. So would you just bow your heads right now and maybe you've never asked Him into your life, just say, "Jesus, I want to invite you into my life. I want you to save me from my sins. I believe that your blood was shed to forgive my sins and I know I can't do anything about those. I trust you as God to cleanse me of that sin through your blood." And the Word of God tells you because you have the Son you have life and you can know for certain that you have eternal life. 10

11 Lord God, I pray for those who have put their trust in You right now they'd feel the joy of their salvation. They'd feel a joy of forgiveness. They'd feel how amazing it feels to just have their sins lifted off their back and feel lighter. And I pray now that we'll be able to celebrate what You did for us. In Jesus' Name, Amen. So Jesus says in Luke chapter 22: 15 And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. 17 And he took a cup, I hope that you received one on the way in. If you haven't, there's some people walking around with some baskets with these cups in them. You can look at that. and when he had given thanks he said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. 19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. LUKE 22:15-20 He gives thanks. He takes the bread and when He's given thanks He breaks it and He gives it to them and He says, "This is my body, which is given for you." He says I want you to do this in remembrance of me, and so He begins to change this thing called Passover and it becomes focused in on Him because, remember, the story of the Bible is to bring our attention all the way from the very beginning there where God wants to show us that He is sending us a Savior. He says I am that Savior. I am the One who can forgive sin, so He says this is my body, which is broken for you. You can just take that little clear tab and peel it off the top and you'll find the bread under that. And together right now we say thank you, Jesus, and we take this in remembrance of Him. I don't want you to rush this. If you'd like to just take that other tab and pull it back on the cup that you have in front of you there, but don't rush to drink it. Again, Hebrews says without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. 2 Here at Calvary we believe the Word of God is clear that this is a celebration of what Jesus did for us. The Word of God would tell us that if we have not put our faith and trust in Him it would make no sense to partake of this, but if you've put your faith and trust in Him it doesn't matter where you normally go to church this is for you, this is for us to remember Him by. Jesus took this cup and He said this cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this as often as you drink until I come again. Let's drink together. [Prayer] We're reminded of your blood that was shed, Lord God, for the forgiveness of our sins. We know how pricey that was and we just stop and we hold this cup and we say wow, thank you. Thank you for forgiving us. We love you. 2 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9:22 11

12 Don't rush away from this moment, please. It's all about the blood. What you are participating in here now goes so far back; all the way back to that night when they painted it on the door. You see that freedom from slavery all the way back to that night when Jesus sat around the table and changed the picture to remind everyone it was about His blood that would be shed. He didn't want us to ever forget it so He left this picture for us to remember, to participate in it. He tells us to keep doing this until He comes again. We love you, Jesus. It's in Your Name we pray. Amen. I just want you to know that we would love to talk to you more about this. We'd love to pray with you today. I'm going to ask that the people who are so phenomenal about helping us pray to just be around the back of the church here during this last song. They're in red shirts. They'd love to pray with you. They'd love to take you back into the prayer chapel which is that open room back here and just talk with you about salvation. This is so absolutely crucial and I just invite you to be a part of that. I'm going to give you an opportunity to give your gifts and tithes and your offerings back to the Lord right now. We don't pay for what He's done for us. He paid for everything. He could have used anything to support His ministry, but He gives us the opportunity to be a part of that. And it's fun how He allows us to participate in these things, and so He gives us the opportunity to give back the first part of everything we earn as a sacrifice of praise to Him. So may you be blessed as you give generously to the Lord today. God bless you as you give. VIMEO: UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED, SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS ARE FROM THE HOLY BIBLE, ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION (ESV). COPYRIGHT 2001 BY CROSSWAY BIBLES, A DIVISION OF GOOD NEWS PUBLISHERS SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS MARKED (NIV) ARE TAKEN FROM THE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV) HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV COPYRIGHT 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 BY BIBLICA, INC. USED BY PERMISSION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WORLDWIDE. COPYRIGHT 2015 LEE WIGGINS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 12