This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome back to the
New Mercies Podcast. This is Wednesday, March
the 11th. Now, before we get into the episode
today, I want to give you just a little bit of
kind of a backstory and a little bit of transparency
of what's going on. If you are a regular listener
to the podcast, maybe you listen to the show
on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts or some type
of audio streaming platform, you notice something
different today. There were no advertisements.
That's great, right? We could just jump right
into the episode. That's because I have recently
stepped away from the ad agency that I was using.
The reason is they were allowing things that
didn't necessarily align with what I wanted to
put in front of our audience for the work that
we do here at the New Mercies Podcast. So all
that to say, podcasting is not free. There are
hosting and distribution and... production fees
and all of that. So if you did want to ever support,
you can do that with the link that is in the
podcast episode description. So at the top of
that description, you'll see a little link. You
can donate whatever sum of money that you want
to help just offset some of the costs so that
we can keep this growing and going long term.
Now, if you don't give and if nobody gives, listen,
here's the deal. The Lord will provide. We're
going to still keep doing this by faith, however
he sees fit. So I'm encouraged today. I'm just
glad you're along with me for this journey together.
Now, all that stuff out of the way. You'll hear
a little bit more about this. about that this
week as we jump in a little bit more. But I want
to share today out of Exodus 12. That's where
our reading plan takes us today, Exodus chapter
12. We're going to see the Passover take place.
We talk a lot about the Passover in the New Testament,
whenever Jesus was taking Passover with his disciples,
how this is a long -standing festival that was
going on. that they had instituted. This is where
it gets instituted in Exodus 12. I want to give
us a little bit of a background before we continue
into this Easter season that we're walking into
as a church family and as just believers getting
ready for Easter whenever it's coming up. But
in Exodus 12, there's a lot happening. Israel
is in slavery. They're in bondage in Egypt. While
they're in Egypt, they're trying to get out.
Moses keeps going to Pharaoh and he keeps saying,
no, you can't leave. You can't leave. Plagues
come on them. A lot happens in the first 11 chapters.
of Exodus, and what we find in chapter 12 is
this is the moment that they're about to be released.
They're about to be freed from the slavery and
the bondage that they're in. There's a lot that
happens in Exodus 12. I know it's a long chapter.
I encourage you today to read it with clear eyes
and read it slowly. Let it kind of soak in. It
begins with God speaking to Moses and Aaron,
explaining the Passover, then Moses and Aaron
telling the people of Israel how to do it, how
to Each household needs to find a lamb. They
need to take the lamb. Then they need to kill
the lamb. Then they need to take and dip this
hyssop down into the blood of the lamb and put
the blood of the lamb on the doorpost and on
the lentils. So I want to read a couple of verses
for us here today. And so I want to begin reading
in verse number 12 of chapter 12. So here's what
the Bible says. In Exodus 12 at verse 12 and
13, For I will pass through the land of Egypt
that night, and I will strike all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and
on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.
I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for
you on your 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. As I read the entire chapter
and specifically those two verses kind of give
us a little bit of a sum up right there in the
middle. There's a lot that happens in Exodus
12. It is terrifying. This is not a sentimental
thing. We think about whenever we have a dinner
or we have a moment or even thinking about the
Passover, we think, oh, it's a great time for
family to get around and walk through this process
together. And it's so sentimental. It gives us
this moment of remembrance. This is terrifying.
terrifying. I want you to think about the amount
of horror that is going on in this moment. God
tells the people and tells Moses and Aaron, they
tell the people, listen, what's going to happen
is you're going to take a lamb that's done nothing
wrong. You're going to kill it. And then you're
going to take its blood and you're going to put
it over your doors and over your homes. And then
what's going to happen is God's going to come
over and he's going to execute judgment. I looked
through this text over and over again. I thought,
what is it that stands out? This is a text that
we've heard and we've known for a long time.
But ultimately, the question that I kind of came
up with, the question is not, is God going to
judge? The question is, are you covered? That's
the question. As I read over and over and over
again through every little passage in here, every
paragraph, I began to ask the question. It's
not a question of will God judge. It's are we
covered while he judges? He's going to judge.
I looked over and over again. His wrath is so
precise, so precise. Again, in verse 12, it says,
I will pass through the land of Egypt that night
and strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,
both man and beast, on the gods of Egypt. I will
execute judgment. I am. The Lord, I will pass
through. I will strike. I will execute judgment.
It is precise. There's no doubt about it. He's
going to do it exactly like he says he's going
to do it. This is not one of the judgments. You
go back and look at the other judgments that
came and the other plagues that showed up. Some
of them were natural disasters. Some of them
were insects. Some of them were different things
that went on that could sort of be explained,
maybe not exactly, but you could almost stretch
a little bit. This is a natural disaster. It's
something that is unlikely, but we see that these
animals probably all came from one place or whatever
it may be. This is not... a natural disaster
or a natural cause. This isn't just bad luck
showing up. It's not like, oh, there's a sickness
that's come in. So the sickness has brought in
all this. This is God doing this. It's God working.
It's him saying, I will execute judgment. I'm
going to come in and this is what's going to
happen. He names himself as the judge that comes
in and does this. There's no question. He names
himself as the judge who comes in to take matters
into his own hands. And Egypt, even Egypt's gods
are judged. Everything about it is judged. This
is our God, Yahweh's supremacy over... everything
that's happening. This is a powerful verse. It's
not just a, oh, let's remember back to the time
of the Passover. How sweet, how nice. This is
God acting in a way that we have to take a step
back and say, if we don't have the blood of the
Lamb covering us, we are doomed. We're doomed.
thinking about what our generation, what the
people in our world need today. And I thought
about what's the greatest need. And I began to,
I asked somebody the other day, I said, what's
the biggest need in our generation, in our culture
today? And there was a few people that started
sharing things, you know, mental health is a
big need in our culture and stress and anxiety,
money and finances in general and different,
just all kinds of health and everything, right?
There's so many. problems. We can look around
and see problem after problem after problem,
and they are all problems, I will say. I agree
every one of those are issues, and we need to
deal with those issues. But the biggest problem
in our generation, the biggest issue, is that
God is holy and we are not. That's the biggest
issue. The biggest issue that we will ever face.
Don't think it's just natural disasters or sickness
or some kind of bad luck will strike us. It is
God who is holy. He is holy, and the problem
is we're not ready to meet him. That's the problem.
That's the generational issue and problem. Now,
I'm not saying that you that is listening today
or me or whatever is not ready to meet the Lord.
I would love for the Lord to come back. A few
things I still want to get aligned in my life,
right? Still want to grow toward holiness in
a more purifying way. But ultimately, our biggest
problem in the world is not all of these little
symptoms everywhere. It's that God's holy, and
we're not ready to meet him. That's the big problem.
So how do we get people ready to meet him, right?
Here we go. Let's keep going in. Again, the question
is not, will God judge? The question is, are
we covered? That is the question. The blood is
not symbolic emotion. The blood is substitution.
That's what the blood is. Verse 13, again, the
blood shall be a sign for you. on the houses
where you are. And when I see the blood, I will
pass over. He says, the blood is the substitute.
The blood is the substitute. And I think about
that. It's not God overlooking sin. You realize
that, right? It's not God saying, I won't look
at your sin. I won't judge your sin. Your sin
no longer doesn't matter. That's not what God's
saying. He's not overlooking sin. Instead, he's
realizing, he's seeing that death has already
occurred in this house. Death has already occurred
in this house so I can pass over. He's still
pouring his wrath out. He's still pouring his
judgment out. It just doesn't need to fall on
you because there's been something or someone
that has substituted themselves and now their
blood was shed. Again, how we don't picture this
to Christ and just see all this every single
moment that we read it, I don't know what our
problem is. I want to share one more thought
in all of this process. If we're not careful,
what we'll say is Israel had the benefit because
they were better than Egypt. Or the Israelites
were better than the Egyptians, so God gave them
a way out. That's not the case. I want to read
just a couple more verses, verses 22 and 23,
or 21, 22, 23. Here's what happens. Moses called
all the elders of Israel and said to them, Go
select lambs for yourselves according to your
clans and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch
of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in
the basin. And when he sees the blood on the
lentil and the two doorposts, the Lord will pass
over the door and will not allow the destroyer
to enter your houses to strike you. read that
and I think, oh, he hated the Egyptians and he
loved Israel. And then I realized something.
If an Israelite did not follow through and put
the substitutionary blood on the doorpost and
the lintel or the top of the door all the way
around the door, right? If an Israelite didn't
do that, God would allow the destroyer to go
into that house. You had to be covered. It's
not if God is going to judge, it's if we are
covered. That's the question. That's what we
got to know in our own lives. Are you covered
by the blood? The blood must absolutely be applied.
It had to be applied in order for the Lord to
pass over that house. I'm just asking you in
your life today, has it been applied in your
life? I hope and pray it has. I hope and pray
it's been a part of you for a long time. Here's
what I know. There's some actionable steps that
the Israelites had to take. They had to take
the lamb. They had to kill the lamb. They had
to apply the blood of the lamb. They had to do
this in an actionable phase. They couldn't just
believe in it. They had to do something. They
couldn't just agree with the doctrine, right?
They had to do something about the doctrine.
They had to do something about the truth. In
our life today, here's the mercy challenge that
I got today. Am I doing anything about this blood
that is applied? Am I doing anything about it?
Or am I just saying I believe in that doctrine?
I think we get sometimes confused and think that
the more we know about the story, the better
we are. But I will say, you know, in the end,
Jesus even points to this. It's not well thought,
good and faithful servant. It's not well planned,
good and faithful servant. It's not well believed,
good and faithful servant. It's well done, good
and faithful servant. As I look through this
whole chapter, here's what I realized. The only
thing that makes you safe is the appearance of
the blood of the lamb. That's it. That's the
only thing. It's the covering of the blood. Are
you found under the blood or not? No matter what
you do today, I hope and pray you live like you
are under the blood. Because here's what happens.
As soon as the blood is applied and God passes
over, and again, remember this, He's not passing
over your opinions. He's not passing over what
you think. He's not passing over a doctrine.
He's passing over the actionable step of... Putting
yourself under the blood of the Lamb. That's
what he's passing over. There has been death
here that's happened. A substitute has taken
this place, so I'm not going to bring my wrath
and judgment on them. That's what we experience
as Christians, as believers today. I am found
under the blood of the Lamb of Jesus Christ,
and God is not going to put his wrath on me in
the end. His wrath was put out on Jesus. He was
my substitute. Now, as God passes over and now
the Israelites are freed, guess what? They get
sent out of slavery. They're no longer slaves
to Egypt anymore. You know, Egypt is a picture
of the world. Can I tell you something? Once
we are found under the blood of the Lamb, we're
no longer slaves to the world anymore. We're
freed. We get to go and experience God. Then
as they walk out into the wilderness, they get
to experience God in new ways. His presence is
around them. It's all they focus on. He then
gives them some law. Why does he give them law?
Not to save them. They've already been saved.
Why did he give them the law? He gave them the
law so that they could live a life pleasing to
him so they could stay close to his presence.
That's what he's done in us, right? We've been
found under the blood of the Lamb. Now we're
set free. Now we learn how to walk closer in
his presence. That's what he's been doing this
whole time. time. I hope and pray that Exodus
chapter 12 speaks to your heart, fills you with
joy today, and fills you with courage to go and
share about this wonderful, wonderful blood.