WEBVTT 00:00:00.620 --> 00:00:03.339 Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons, 00:00:03.459 --> 00:00:06.419 a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg. 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:08.960 It's our hope that these sermons will draw you 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:11.359 more into the life of following God, Father, 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:14.339 Son and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming and 00:00:14.339 --> 00:00:16.660 joining with us each Sunday morning at 10am in 00:00:16.660 --> 00:00:19.000 the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:22.539 us online at SecondCityChurch .org and on Facebook, 00:00:22.839 --> 00:00:25.219 Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this 00:00:25.219 --> 00:00:33.030 sermon. God bless. Great God, we come before 00:00:33.030 --> 00:00:34.789 your word and we pray that you would hide it 00:00:34.789 --> 00:00:37.469 in our hearts, that it would be our delight and 00:00:37.469 --> 00:00:39.549 our joy, that it would be our confession that 00:00:39.549 --> 00:00:41.530 the grass withers and the flower fades, but the 00:00:41.530 --> 00:00:44.289 word of our Lord stands forever. And God, that 00:00:44.289 --> 00:00:46.490 we would take joy in this truth that you communicate 00:00:46.490 --> 00:00:50.350 your truths to us from your holy word. God, now 00:00:50.350 --> 00:00:52.109 may the words in my mouth and the meditations 00:00:52.109 --> 00:00:54.670 of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, 00:00:54.729 --> 00:00:58.789 our rock and our Redeemer. Amen. All right, we 00:00:58.789 --> 00:01:03.700 just heard part of Exodus chapter 12. And if 00:01:03.700 --> 00:01:05.420 you've been around Second City Church for a little 00:01:05.420 --> 00:01:10.780 while, a year, two, three, 10 or more, I hope 00:01:10.780 --> 00:01:13.120 that you've had the opportunity to gather together 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:15.599 on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday, 00:01:16.099 --> 00:01:19.640 as we remember the death of our Lord on the cross. 00:01:20.900 --> 00:01:24.400 It's a service where we recount some of the events 00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:27.909 that we just heard. We actually take some bitter 00:01:27.909 --> 00:01:30.530 herbs and unleavened bread and things like that. 00:01:30.829 --> 00:01:34.010 But it's an account that sort of bleeds seamlessly 00:01:34.010 --> 00:01:37.569 as we remember how our Lord Himself celebrated 00:01:37.569 --> 00:01:39.930 the Passover with His disciples, but He also 00:01:39.930 --> 00:01:43.030 instituted for us the Great Supper, which we 00:01:43.030 --> 00:01:47.510 celebrate week in and week out. I've heard from 00:01:47.510 --> 00:01:49.769 many of you that it's one of the highlights of 00:01:49.769 --> 00:01:53.549 our church sort of life together, gathering together, 00:01:53.989 --> 00:01:58.250 recounting. the events here of Exodus 12 and 00:01:58.250 --> 00:02:04.159 the events there of the cross. The great redemption 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:06.560 stories of both the Old Testament faith and the 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:11.219 New Testament faith. And it's because in the 00:02:11.219 --> 00:02:14.819 Old Testament these events, the Exodus events 00:02:14.819 --> 00:02:18.539 and the New Testament event of Calvary are the 00:02:18.539 --> 00:02:22.500 great acts of redemption in the Bible. This was 00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:26.530 the thing that marked the people of God. The 00:02:26.530 --> 00:02:30.030 cross is understood through the lens of this 00:02:30.030 --> 00:02:36.849 text. Behold, the lamb of God, as we heard, takes 00:02:36.849 --> 00:02:40.300 away the sins of the world, as John the Baptist 00:02:40.300 --> 00:02:43.900 declares as Jesus comes for baptism. Or in his 00:02:43.900 --> 00:02:48.219 vision, right, in Revelation chapter five, then 00:02:48.219 --> 00:02:56.939 I saw a lamb who had been slain. And likely John 00:02:56.939 --> 00:02:59.080 the Baptist in the image of Revelation had in 00:02:59.080 --> 00:03:02.919 mind both the cross that is so central to our 00:03:02.919 --> 00:03:07.930 faith and also this text, Exodus chapter 12, 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:15.909 the blood of the Lamb. Of course, all of these 00:03:15.909 --> 00:03:21.189 texts focus on that reality, blood, blood that 00:03:21.189 --> 00:03:27.300 was shed. The blood here, though, is to convey 00:03:27.300 --> 00:03:31.060 protection, right? But the odd thing is that 00:03:31.060 --> 00:03:32.539 this is what many commentaries say, well, who 00:03:32.539 --> 00:03:36.289 is the protection from? We know that they were 00:03:36.289 --> 00:03:39.449 oppressed by Pharaoh. You remember back just 00:03:39.449 --> 00:03:42.270 not long ago, all of the words, the affliction 00:03:42.270 --> 00:03:44.430 and the ruthless oppression and all the words 00:03:44.430 --> 00:03:47.430 that are used to describe Pharaoh, how he treated 00:03:47.430 --> 00:03:51.810 the Israelites. And yet that's not what the blood 00:03:51.810 --> 00:03:57.349 of the Passover lamb was for. The blood of the 00:03:57.349 --> 00:04:00.909 Passover lamb was to protect against the judgment 00:04:00.909 --> 00:04:05.969 of God. Blood is mentioned quite a bit in this 00:04:05.969 --> 00:04:08.930 passage. Specifically, it's mentioned four times, 00:04:08.930 --> 00:04:13.729 but... It's all throughout. But I want you to 00:04:13.729 --> 00:04:16.490 say with this idea that this is the story of 00:04:16.490 --> 00:04:19.360 redemption in the Old Testament that we're reading. 00:04:20.180 --> 00:04:22.220 It marks the beginning of their life together. 00:04:22.300 --> 00:04:26.860 It sort of defines their life together. It's 00:04:26.860 --> 00:04:29.079 the beginning of their year. It's the first thing 00:04:29.079 --> 00:04:31.220 that God says, this is what sort of marks you 00:04:31.220 --> 00:04:35.129 as you go out. And of course we would say the 00:04:35.129 --> 00:04:41.199 cross is the thing that marks Christians. A bloody 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:46.720 cross. Jesus' blood being shed, His body being 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:50.759 given up for us. Now a lot of people, you might 00:04:50.759 --> 00:04:52.600 know this, but a lot of people love the Exodus 00:04:52.600 --> 00:04:56.980 story, Exodus chapter 12, because it really is 00:04:56.980 --> 00:05:00.829 one of the great models in history of an oppressed 00:05:00.829 --> 00:05:05.610 people being set free, liberty for captives, 00:05:06.329 --> 00:05:10.620 freedom from slavery. It's the story that has 00:05:10.620 --> 00:05:14.300 enabled so many people to take on the cause of 00:05:14.300 --> 00:05:17.180 liberation, the care for the needy, the relief 00:05:17.180 --> 00:05:21.379 of the poor, the abolition of slavery, freedom 00:05:21.379 --> 00:05:26.050 from oppression. Yet, I think as you sit in this 00:05:26.050 --> 00:05:30.139 passage, it's by no means an easy passage. And 00:05:30.139 --> 00:05:32.139 again, I think it's because there's so much blood. 00:05:34.680 --> 00:05:36.560 I mentioned that blood is mentioned four times, 00:05:36.620 --> 00:05:38.579 and those four times are all mentioned in relation 00:05:38.579 --> 00:05:40.759 to the lamb, what they're supposed to do with 00:05:40.759 --> 00:05:46.079 this blood. But there is so much death. So much 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:50.519 life and so much death in Exodus chapter 12 in 00:05:50.519 --> 00:05:55.870 this, these story that marked God's people. It 00:05:55.870 --> 00:05:58.389 is the story of liberation and it has been used 00:05:58.389 --> 00:06:02.050 to enable so many to take on the cause of those 00:06:02.050 --> 00:06:04.629 who are in need of freedom. But this is not an 00:06:04.629 --> 00:06:08.290 easy passage, an easy story. So let me in some 00:06:08.290 --> 00:06:09.730 ways maybe illustrate this. I was talking with 00:06:09.730 --> 00:06:11.449 a friend who's a pastor out in California this 00:06:11.449 --> 00:06:14.449 week. And I told him I was preaching this passage 00:06:14.449 --> 00:06:17.329 and I was wrestling with just how hard this passage 00:06:17.329 --> 00:06:19.149 can be. And he said, you know what? I actually 00:06:19.149 --> 00:06:22.529 had dinner recently with this woman and she was 00:06:22.529 --> 00:06:28.750 the first woman who worked on the London Stock 00:06:28.750 --> 00:06:31.149 Exchange, on the floor of the London Stock Exchange. 00:06:31.649 --> 00:06:34.029 And she actually afterwards became the first 00:06:34.029 --> 00:06:36.829 woman to work on the New York Stock Exchange. 00:06:37.449 --> 00:06:39.250 And she actually recently became a Christian. 00:06:40.009 --> 00:06:42.449 and I got to have dinner with her, some friends, 00:06:42.730 --> 00:06:44.209 and I just asked her, like, so you've been reading 00:06:44.209 --> 00:06:46.990 through the Bible, what have you found challenging 00:06:46.990 --> 00:06:51.189 about the Bible? And she said, all the violence. 00:06:55.839 --> 00:06:58.899 It reminded me of when I was leading a campus 00:06:58.899 --> 00:07:00.579 ministry, a former university fellowship down 00:07:00.579 --> 00:07:02.620 in Virginia in Richmond, and I had become friends 00:07:02.620 --> 00:07:05.519 with a guy there on the campus of VCU who wasn't 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:06.959 a Christian. We became good enough friends. I 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:09.860 was like, hey, I would love it if you came to 00:07:09.860 --> 00:07:12.529 our large group meeting. Just come, just come 00:07:12.529 --> 00:07:14.189 observe, come listen. You don't have to sing 00:07:14.189 --> 00:07:16.430 along. I just want you to kind of take it in 00:07:16.430 --> 00:07:18.889 and then how about you and I get together afterwards? 00:07:18.889 --> 00:07:20.589 Because I would love to hear your thoughts. Is 00:07:20.589 --> 00:07:22.970 it a place where a non -Christian can come and 00:07:22.970 --> 00:07:24.769 kind of feel welcome and kind of understand what's 00:07:24.769 --> 00:07:26.050 happening? I just want to hear all your thoughts. 00:07:26.410 --> 00:07:28.050 And so he did that. He came and he heard and 00:07:28.050 --> 00:07:30.610 he listened to our singing and he heard my sermon 00:07:30.610 --> 00:07:32.829 and these kinds of things. And then we got together 00:07:32.829 --> 00:07:36.610 the next week and I said, well, tell me what 00:07:36.610 --> 00:07:43.420 you think. You know what he said? Y 'all talk 00:07:43.420 --> 00:07:48.180 about blood a lot. And that's a little weird. 00:07:49.639 --> 00:07:53.509 And I said, fair enough. We do, we sing nothing 00:07:53.509 --> 00:07:57.009 but the blood. I think we sang that that week. 00:07:57.889 --> 00:08:00.110 I was preaching about the reality of the atonement 00:08:00.110 --> 00:08:08.139 of God, the sins of the world. Most of us are 00:08:08.139 --> 00:08:11.240 far from violence, at least violence that we 00:08:11.240 --> 00:08:13.279 see blood. We don't have animals that we kill 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:16.220 like they did, right? We get them packaged up 00:08:16.220 --> 00:08:19.410 for a lot of people, ideally boneless even. to 00:08:19.410 --> 00:08:25.279 forget that they were once living beings. So 00:08:25.279 --> 00:08:27.540 it's far from us. But this morning I want us 00:08:27.540 --> 00:08:31.920 to see that with all this blood, this passage 00:08:31.949 --> 00:08:34.929 marks out the people of God and it speaks of 00:08:34.929 --> 00:08:39.299 judgment and it speaks of grace. Okay. First 00:08:39.299 --> 00:08:42.100 judgment. And I wonder if when I first say, hey, 00:08:42.139 --> 00:08:43.700 we're gonna talk about judgment, if maybe you 00:08:43.700 --> 00:08:46.870 start to squirm a little bit. We gotta talk about 00:08:46.870 --> 00:08:51.679 that. And because it's true, it's one of the 00:08:51.679 --> 00:08:54.220 great objections to Christian faith is just how 00:08:54.220 --> 00:08:58.919 judgy religious people can be. Judgmental Christians 00:08:58.919 --> 00:09:03.480 can be fair enough. It can be a true indictment 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:10.600 at times. But even to long for somebody's liberation, 00:09:13.370 --> 00:09:19.860 to long, to desire, to work against, to cry against 00:09:19.860 --> 00:09:23.200 the death of children in war, as we rightly do. 00:09:23.919 --> 00:09:28.720 or to make a judgment on just work practices. 00:09:29.830 --> 00:09:31.649 All of these things, they are to make a judgment 00:09:31.649 --> 00:09:33.909 of something being right and something being 00:09:33.909 --> 00:09:36.690 wrong. You cannot get away from the idea of a 00:09:36.690 --> 00:09:40.080 degree of judgment. And if there isn't a God, 00:09:40.120 --> 00:09:42.480 if there isn't really moral absolutes, well, 00:09:42.500 --> 00:09:44.779 then it's hard to say what's so bad about oppression. 00:09:46.029 --> 00:09:48.809 What's so bad about the collateral civilian casualties 00:09:48.809 --> 00:09:51.429 of war or harsh unpaid working environments. 00:09:54.620 --> 00:09:57.139 Instead, like I said, this text, which is a text 00:09:57.139 --> 00:10:00.259 of judgment, has been used as one of the great 00:10:00.259 --> 00:10:04.919 texts to ennoble, to invigorate people to work 00:10:04.919 --> 00:10:08.340 towards just causes in the world, a text of judgment. 00:10:12.210 --> 00:10:15.230 If you know there's a God and he's given us a 00:10:15.230 --> 00:10:17.350 way to live in the world and he is going to judge 00:10:17.350 --> 00:10:21.419 us, then you might have a high view of working 00:10:21.419 --> 00:10:24.519 for the good of his world against oppression. 00:10:25.340 --> 00:10:27.500 Maybe some of you have read Chesterton's famous 00:10:27.500 --> 00:10:31.350 book, Orthodoxy. There is a short season where 00:10:31.350 --> 00:10:35.360 I sought to read it every year. I haven't done 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:38.590 that recently. But he talks in the third chapter 00:10:38.590 --> 00:10:41.429 about how the infinite skeptic, the one who can't 00:10:41.429 --> 00:10:44.309 actually land on a judgment, makes for a poor 00:10:44.309 --> 00:10:49.029 rebel. Because if you doubt everything, you actually 00:10:49.029 --> 00:10:52.250 lose the foundation from which you have to protest. 00:10:54.039 --> 00:10:55.919 And so in some ways I'm saying you must judge. 00:10:56.429 --> 00:10:59.009 in order to protest, you must become a judge 00:10:59.009 --> 00:11:00.809 in order to work towards the goodness and wholeness 00:11:00.809 --> 00:11:05.269 of this world. But here's the thing, okay, I 00:11:05.269 --> 00:11:08.330 think a lot of times we rightly are criticized 00:11:08.330 --> 00:11:10.250 for judgment because so often the way that we 00:11:10.250 --> 00:11:14.379 judge is not actually a just judgment. So this 00:11:14.379 --> 00:11:16.100 text actually gets at, I think some of the ways 00:11:16.100 --> 00:11:21.360 that we sort of judge wrongly. And first, I want 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:23.700 you to see that the judgment in this passage 00:11:23.700 --> 00:11:27.360 isn't allowing us to say, ah, these good people 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:31.090 there. these bad people there, okay? What do 00:11:31.090 --> 00:11:36.399 I mean? Well, one of the first things is that 00:11:36.399 --> 00:11:39.019 I want you to see is that this is not about sort 00:11:39.019 --> 00:11:42.500 of ethno -nationalism. This is not what this 00:11:42.500 --> 00:11:47.769 text is about. We can't just say, ah, it's the 00:11:47.769 --> 00:11:51.220 Israelites who are spared, the Egyptians who 00:11:51.220 --> 00:11:57.659 are not spared. If we kept reading, we might 00:11:57.659 --> 00:12:00.740 be tempted to think that. Verse 29 says, the 00:12:00.740 --> 00:12:02.580 Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land 00:12:02.580 --> 00:12:04.919 of Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat 00:12:04.919 --> 00:12:06.720 on the throne to the firstborn of the captive 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:10.409 who was in the in the dungeon. It even says all 00:12:10.409 --> 00:12:13.110 the firstborn livestock. But I want you to see 00:12:13.110 --> 00:12:15.909 this is not sort of ethno -nationalist, meaning 00:12:15.909 --> 00:12:22.149 our people and those people, right? This isn't 00:12:22.149 --> 00:12:24.169 that the Lord is some kind of nationalistic God 00:12:24.169 --> 00:12:26.990 who's supposed to just bless these kinds of people. 00:12:27.750 --> 00:12:30.929 I mean, I think we rightly say God bless America. 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:33.320 but the subtext sometimes can be, and not all 00:12:33.320 --> 00:12:35.220 those other people. It's not that kind of thing. 00:12:37.399 --> 00:12:38.840 Now, if we looked at the end of the chapter, 00:12:38.940 --> 00:12:40.320 it's actually kind of interesting. I mentioned 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:41.779 this earlier a little bit, but it speaks about 00:12:41.779 --> 00:12:43.860 who can celebrate the meal that commemorates 00:12:43.860 --> 00:12:47.740 this judgment and this grace of God. And interesting, 00:12:47.860 --> 00:12:51.019 it says, no foreigner can eat of it. But Sonic 00:12:51.019 --> 00:12:53.360 kind of gets at this idea. But then it gives 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:56.279 qualifications for the sojourner who can, meaning 00:12:56.279 --> 00:12:58.340 you can actually go through and you can become 00:12:58.340 --> 00:13:01.490 part of the people of God. You can be somebody 00:13:01.490 --> 00:13:04.019 who is not ethnically part of it and you can 00:13:04.019 --> 00:13:06.059 totally enter into it. To the fact that you're 00:13:06.059 --> 00:13:09.299 no longer called a foreigner, but you're truly 00:13:09.299 --> 00:13:11.700 part of the people of God. You could be born 00:13:11.700 --> 00:13:15.659 outside of Israel and become part of Israel. 00:13:17.110 --> 00:13:19.070 This is actually partly why this is an interesting 00:13:19.070 --> 00:13:22.470 little detail. In verse 38 of this passage, what 00:13:22.470 --> 00:13:29.549 it says is a mixed multitude left Egypt. There's 00:13:29.549 --> 00:13:32.889 all kinds of different people who have come under 00:13:32.889 --> 00:13:34.929 this reality that they are worshiping the true 00:13:34.929 --> 00:13:39.159 God and they've been spared. Leviticus 43, or 00:13:39.159 --> 00:13:42.860 sorry, not 43. There's not a Leviticus 43. Leviticus 00:13:42.860 --> 00:13:47.259 24. We could read of a woman whose son's father 00:13:47.259 --> 00:13:50.240 was an Egyptian. There was intermarriage taking 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:54.210 place. So you can't say, oh, people that look 00:13:54.210 --> 00:13:57.710 like me, good. Those people, bad. There's no 00:13:57.710 --> 00:14:02.090 place for that. We could read in Exodus 9 20, 00:14:02.110 --> 00:14:04.269 which was during the plague where the hail came 00:14:04.269 --> 00:14:08.190 down, that there were those who feared the Lord 00:14:08.190 --> 00:14:11.940 among the servants of Pharaoh. And what they 00:14:11.940 --> 00:14:14.039 did is they actually heeded Moses's words and 00:14:14.039 --> 00:14:15.659 they went inside and they brought their livestock 00:14:15.659 --> 00:14:17.779 inside and they were fine. And there were the 00:14:17.779 --> 00:14:20.659 servants of Pharaoh who didn't do that. So you 00:14:20.659 --> 00:14:24.309 could be really part of Pharaoh's community and 00:14:24.309 --> 00:14:27.860 worship the true God. Give yourself over to the 00:14:27.860 --> 00:14:34.220 true Lord. God just wanted to pass over the Israelite 00:14:34.220 --> 00:14:37.220 houses and not the Egyptian houses One of things 00:14:37.220 --> 00:14:38.679 that we learned earlier is he knew where they 00:14:38.679 --> 00:14:41.179 all were the frogs didn't go in these houses 00:14:41.179 --> 00:14:43.159 in those houses, right? So it's not this kind 00:14:43.159 --> 00:14:47.330 of ethnic thing nationalistic thing It can't 00:14:47.330 --> 00:14:49.669 be that this judgment is based on a thing that 00:14:49.669 --> 00:14:55.809 we so often judge others by The other thing is 00:14:55.809 --> 00:14:58.970 that the judgment here that happens in this text 00:14:58.970 --> 00:15:04.200 can't be because Israel's more righteous It doesn't 00:15:04.200 --> 00:15:08.539 really work. In Deuteronomy, we read this can't 00:15:08.539 --> 00:15:14.570 be the case. It's not just the fact that Pharaoh 00:15:14.570 --> 00:15:16.990 killed all the, you know, he desired to kill 00:15:16.990 --> 00:15:20.009 the little baby boys of the Israelites. Remember 00:15:20.009 --> 00:15:22.509 Moses being put in the basket. And so God is 00:15:22.509 --> 00:15:25.509 just bringing judgment on those people like Pharaoh. 00:15:26.860 --> 00:15:29.279 Can't be that. Because actually in chapter nine 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:32.279 of Deuteronomy, God says, don't say in your heart, 00:15:32.809 --> 00:15:35.509 It's because of my righteousness that the Lord 00:15:35.509 --> 00:15:37.490 has brought me in to possess the land." He says, 00:15:37.669 --> 00:15:42.769 you can't say that. You can't say that. You can't 00:15:42.769 --> 00:15:45.529 just look out and say, oh, judge the Pharaohs 00:15:45.529 --> 00:15:52.830 because I'm upstanding. Judgment in Egypt cannot 00:15:52.830 --> 00:15:55.549 be because of the goodness or righteousness of 00:15:55.549 --> 00:16:00.649 Israel. I also don't think that you can come 00:16:00.649 --> 00:16:02.830 to this passage and think that judgment is just 00:16:02.830 --> 00:16:06.720 for the non -religious. meaning that if you just 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:08.899 kind of do the religious stuff, you're going 00:16:08.899 --> 00:16:14.110 to be fine. If you read through, if you look 00:16:14.110 --> 00:16:16.769 at the plagues, the 10 plagues, you know, last 00:16:16.769 --> 00:16:19.639 week I kind of considered the first nine. The 00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:23.259 first nine keep this sort of format that I talked 00:16:23.259 --> 00:16:25.659 about last week. Then the Lord said to Moses, 00:16:25.659 --> 00:16:27.679 right? So I said, these are the words of the 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:29.399 Lord. And then there's this action, there's the 00:16:29.399 --> 00:16:31.379 hardening of heart. There's this kind of rhythm 00:16:31.379 --> 00:16:33.600 that happens in those plagues. You get to this 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:35.379 10th plague and it's like, it's totally different. 00:16:35.700 --> 00:16:37.860 There's all this detail. And a lot of the detail 00:16:37.860 --> 00:16:41.379 is detail about what the people are supposed 00:16:41.379 --> 00:16:46.879 to do. They were supposed to take a spotless 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:48.600 lamb that was at least a year old. They were 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:49.879 supposed to have it. They were supposed to do 00:16:49.879 --> 00:16:51.480 it on the 10th day. It wasn't until the 14th 00:16:51.480 --> 00:16:53.340 day that they're supposed to kill it. There's 00:16:53.340 --> 00:16:54.919 all these details. You're supposed to take the 00:16:54.919 --> 00:16:57.879 blood and put it in the basin and dab it. There's 00:16:57.879 --> 00:17:01.909 all these ritual acts that are happening. I want 00:17:01.909 --> 00:17:03.350 you to think about some of these ritual acts, 00:17:03.389 --> 00:17:10.500 right? Not everybody had a bunch of Sheep, just 00:17:10.500 --> 00:17:12.819 around. Maybe some people had just a few. One 00:17:12.819 --> 00:17:14.559 sheep, that could have been a huge part of their 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:16.940 net worth. You're asking me to give, I don't 00:17:16.940 --> 00:17:20.279 know, 25 % of my sheep for this act, God, you 00:17:20.279 --> 00:17:21.720 know, maybe they're protesting, but they kind 00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:24.279 of go along with it. Like, you want me to tithe? 00:17:24.359 --> 00:17:27.180 I don't know. Then you want me to follow these 00:17:27.180 --> 00:17:29.220 instructions? You want me to set aside this whole 00:17:29.220 --> 00:17:33.849 week, cleansing from leaven and all this? You 00:17:33.849 --> 00:17:35.329 know, there's all these kinds of details that 00:17:35.329 --> 00:17:38.829 they kind of go through. They're not supposed 00:17:38.829 --> 00:17:40.789 to boil the lamb. Did you notice that detail? 00:17:40.930 --> 00:17:42.450 And if there's bones left over, they're supposed 00:17:42.450 --> 00:17:45.069 to burn them up. I mean, it's just like detail 00:17:45.069 --> 00:17:46.890 after detail. It's totally different than the 00:17:46.890 --> 00:17:49.930 other plagues. And it's a lot of kind of religious 00:17:49.930 --> 00:17:54.589 sort of, you know, specificity, which in some 00:17:54.589 --> 00:17:56.509 ways was to say that these were the kinds of 00:17:56.509 --> 00:18:01.029 people, I don't know, that showed up for worship 00:18:01.029 --> 00:18:02.789 instead of sleeping in and just doing whatever 00:18:02.789 --> 00:18:05.549 they wanted, you know? They lifted up their voices 00:18:05.549 --> 00:18:08.859 and sang, they tithed. They were good religious 00:18:08.859 --> 00:18:14.720 folk in a way, if they got to this point. You 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:18.240 could say maybe, ah, the judgment just happens 00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:21.380 on those who don't follow religion properly, 00:18:21.559 --> 00:18:24.180 that don't do the things, go through the right 00:18:24.180 --> 00:18:29.579 steps. But I don't think you can get there either. 00:18:32.910 --> 00:18:34.849 Now, I think there's actually a detail here that 00:18:34.849 --> 00:18:36.450 almost seems to say you can go through all of 00:18:36.450 --> 00:18:41.839 the right steps and miss it all. Verse 22 says, 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:45.079 None of you shall go out of the door of his house 00:18:45.170 --> 00:18:51.470 until morning." Why give that detail? If they 00:18:51.470 --> 00:18:53.490 went through all of these steps, look at all 00:18:53.490 --> 00:18:55.710 the good things I did, look at how I followed 00:18:55.710 --> 00:18:58.609 this and that that you told me to do, why would 00:18:58.609 --> 00:19:01.089 he give this instruction? Why would they have 00:19:01.089 --> 00:19:07.140 to stay inside? I mean, okay, think, is this 00:19:07.140 --> 00:19:12.099 just a passage about freeing the oppressed? I 00:19:12.099 --> 00:19:17.019 don't think it is. If it is, why does it matter 00:19:17.019 --> 00:19:21.079 where the slave is? If the main point is doing 00:19:21.079 --> 00:19:23.180 away with an oppressor and freeing the oppressed, 00:19:23.400 --> 00:19:28.349 why does it matter where he is? If this is just 00:19:28.349 --> 00:19:31.630 a passage about ethno -nationalism, why does 00:19:31.630 --> 00:19:34.289 it matter where they are? These kinds of people 00:19:34.289 --> 00:19:36.369 are good, those kinds of people are bad, then 00:19:36.369 --> 00:19:40.380 who cares where they're staying at night? If 00:19:40.380 --> 00:19:46.710 this is about freeing the good people, keeping 00:19:46.710 --> 00:19:48.609 the good people alive, why does it matter where 00:19:48.609 --> 00:19:54.650 they are? Yeah, if this is about just following 00:19:54.650 --> 00:19:57.210 all of these steps and they followed them all 00:19:57.210 --> 00:20:00.599 and they've eaten the The lamb why did I have 00:20:00.599 --> 00:20:08.099 to stay inside? But what seems so clear is who? 00:20:09.490 --> 00:20:14.220 Who is covered the only people are those who 00:20:14.220 --> 00:20:18.640 stay under the blood of the lamb and that's the 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:24.460 only thing You can be an Egyptian, right? You 00:20:24.460 --> 00:20:26.599 could you can go through the all these things, 00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:30.930 but you have to stay under the blood of the lamb. 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:34.160 You can be a foreigner. You can be a sojourner. 00:20:34.980 --> 00:20:36.720 You've got to stay under the blood of the lamb. 00:20:39.049 --> 00:20:41.150 He isn't just coming to free the oppressed, though 00:20:41.150 --> 00:20:46.420 he is doing that. He isn't trying to just make 00:20:46.420 --> 00:20:48.359 a righteous people, though he is doing that, 00:20:48.420 --> 00:20:50.259 right? I mean, he goes to Sinai and gives them 00:20:50.259 --> 00:20:53.099 a law and desires that they be holy as he is 00:20:53.099 --> 00:20:55.240 holy. He isn't just making a nation, though he 00:20:55.240 --> 00:20:57.400 is doing that, though it's not an ethno nation. 00:21:00.569 --> 00:21:02.349 He isn't just making a special people, though 00:21:02.349 --> 00:21:07.150 he is doing that also. isn't just trying to get 00:21:07.150 --> 00:21:10.309 them to follow certain religious practices, though 00:21:10.309 --> 00:21:12.309 of course we have lots of that in the Bible too. 00:21:13.119 --> 00:21:16.940 All of this is whether or not you are under the 00:21:16.940 --> 00:21:21.710 blood of the lamb. That's the main thing here, 00:21:23.900 --> 00:21:28.500 which is to say that you cannot take shelter 00:21:28.789 --> 00:21:37.829 in your Jewishness or who your parents were or 00:21:37.829 --> 00:21:40.109 look at all the good things I've done in life, 00:21:40.490 --> 00:21:46.250 God. Or look at how I gave to your work and how 00:21:46.250 --> 00:21:50.900 I showed up and I sang. There's just like no 00:21:50.900 --> 00:21:56.640 place for it. I mean, here's the truth is that 00:21:56.640 --> 00:21:58.319 most times these are the ways that we kind of 00:21:58.319 --> 00:22:03.759 judge people. We judge people by how they look 00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:06.730 like us. Maybe you don't do that. How they vote 00:22:06.730 --> 00:22:12.359 like you. Maybe how they educate their children 00:22:12.359 --> 00:22:18.210 like you. How well do you resonate with their 00:22:18.210 --> 00:22:21.210 values, their goodness? How much does it resonate 00:22:21.210 --> 00:22:26.660 with yours? Don't we do this? Yes, we do. I mean, 00:22:26.680 --> 00:22:28.420 in some ways it's warning us against the judgments 00:22:28.420 --> 00:22:31.880 that we so often give towards others. But the 00:22:31.880 --> 00:22:35.759 big thing here is are you under the lamb that 00:22:35.759 --> 00:22:41.910 is slain? And countless spoke throughout history 00:22:41.910 --> 00:22:46.289 have judged the world by their race and by their 00:22:46.289 --> 00:22:50.670 ethnicity. Countless religious folk have judged 00:22:50.670 --> 00:22:57.509 others by this and that and the other. And maybe 00:22:57.509 --> 00:22:59.210 we're inclined to come to a passage like this 00:22:59.210 --> 00:23:01.029 because it does talk a lot about the Egyptians 00:23:01.029 --> 00:23:03.789 and the Israelites. That's true. And maybe we're 00:23:03.789 --> 00:23:05.950 inclined to come to this and say, ah, this stamps 00:23:06.750 --> 00:23:12.630 my ethno -nationalism or whatever it is, my view 00:23:12.630 --> 00:23:17.140 on Israel or not. I'm saying you can't do that 00:23:17.529 --> 00:23:20.690 because you've got to stay under the land that 00:23:20.690 --> 00:23:28.960 was slain. So this judgment, it's hard judgment, 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:36.490 difficult judgment. I think there's some answers 00:23:36.490 --> 00:23:38.869 to the question of what this judgment is about. 00:23:39.740 --> 00:23:42.140 But I also do think the answer to the judgment 00:23:42.140 --> 00:23:44.980 of the question of what this judgment is about 00:23:44.980 --> 00:23:48.630 is in Probably the two hardest parts about this 00:23:48.630 --> 00:23:53.150 story Okay, and I will say this I've said this 00:23:53.150 --> 00:23:55.349 before but the hard parts the parts that make 00:23:55.349 --> 00:23:56.970 you scratch your head are normally the parts 00:23:56.970 --> 00:23:59.230 where there's some answers We got to sit with 00:23:59.230 --> 00:24:02.099 them. Okay Don't brush them off too quickly. 00:24:04.250 --> 00:24:06.029 And the first thing that's really hard about 00:24:06.029 --> 00:24:08.450 this passage is that so many firstborn are killed 00:24:10.410 --> 00:24:13.069 I mean God look God made the world and he declared 00:24:13.069 --> 00:24:16.259 it good. God does not delight in the death Death 00:24:16.380 --> 00:24:18.660 and yet so many firstborn are killed and they're 00:24:18.660 --> 00:24:20.599 killed by the angel of the Lord who comes to 00:24:20.599 --> 00:24:25.740 bring judgment So why do I start? Why do I think 00:24:25.740 --> 00:24:28.559 this begins to answer a question about judgment? 00:24:32.440 --> 00:24:36.259 The Bible says unequivocally That the wages of 00:24:36.259 --> 00:24:43.029 sin are death the wages of sin is death I mean 00:24:43.029 --> 00:24:47.559 that is just a clear teaching of the Bible That's 00:24:47.559 --> 00:24:50.460 what we read in Romans 6 and maybe some people 00:24:50.460 --> 00:24:53.509 were attempting to go. Well, that's Paul I don't 00:24:53.509 --> 00:24:55.349 know about that guy. Maybe that's what you think. 00:24:56.819 --> 00:25:00.059 But it isn't just Paul. It's actually right from 00:25:00.059 --> 00:25:03.670 the very get -go of the Bible. Genesis chapter 00:25:03.670 --> 00:25:08.099 three, Adam and Eve try to downplay sin. We're 00:25:08.099 --> 00:25:11.200 gonna hide from each other. Let's just make this 00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:15.700 easy. Let's grab some leaves, cover ourselves 00:25:15.700 --> 00:25:19.000 up. Let's downplay it. And when God says right 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:20.640 from the very beginning, in fact, what he does 00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:23.240 as he comes, right, is he covers them with skin, 00:25:23.299 --> 00:25:25.740 which right from the very beginning says, The 00:25:25.740 --> 00:25:33.240 wages of sin is death. Something has to die. 00:25:34.170 --> 00:25:38.500 You downplay sin. I'm going to show you just 00:25:38.500 --> 00:25:41.500 how severe it is. The wages of sin is death. 00:25:46.390 --> 00:25:48.849 All over the Bible. I mean, I can show you this 00:25:48.849 --> 00:25:50.750 again and again. We can walk through the sacrificial 00:25:50.750 --> 00:25:54.160 system. But it's all throughout the Bible that 00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:57.660 the wages of sin is death. Something has to die. 00:26:01.730 --> 00:26:03.769 Maybe you can remember back with me actually 00:26:03.769 --> 00:26:06.069 the first time that a lamb or it's actually a 00:26:06.069 --> 00:26:08.170 ram the word here You actually heard that it 00:26:08.170 --> 00:26:09.750 was sort of interchangeable here in this text 00:26:09.750 --> 00:26:12.170 because that word this first uses lamb actually 00:26:12.170 --> 00:26:15.599 can mean either animal But you can think about 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:18.099 the first time that a lamb or a ram has to die 00:26:18.099 --> 00:26:21.460 Abraham is Told by the Lord in Genesis 22 to 00:26:21.460 --> 00:26:24.660 take his son. And if you know the story Abraham 00:26:24.660 --> 00:26:28.910 had waited Long long into life to finally have 00:26:28.910 --> 00:26:30.950 a son and God had promised to give him a son 00:26:31.150 --> 00:26:32.809 And not only he promised to give him a son, but 00:26:32.809 --> 00:26:35.970 to multiply his offspring to be as many as the 00:26:35.970 --> 00:26:40.119 stars in the heavens. And yet God told to bring 00:26:40.119 --> 00:26:43.500 that son up to the mountain and to offer him 00:26:43.500 --> 00:26:45.420 as a sacrifice, not to slay him, not just to 00:26:45.420 --> 00:26:48.670 stab him, but to offer him up to the Lord. And 00:26:48.670 --> 00:26:52.779 of course we go, what is going on here? Maybe 00:26:52.779 --> 00:26:55.220 when we think of the woman that I mentioned at 00:26:55.220 --> 00:26:56.400 the beginning, who's given herself to follow 00:26:56.400 --> 00:26:57.940 Jesus, but she looks like she says this is so 00:26:57.940 --> 00:27:02.539 violent. What's happening? Well, Abraham knew 00:27:02.539 --> 00:27:06.690 that the firstborn, was forfeit to the Lord, 00:27:07.269 --> 00:27:11.269 was to be given over to God. That's what Exodus 00:27:11.269 --> 00:27:15.339 22 tells us too, actually. Exodus 22, just 10 00:27:15.339 --> 00:27:17.660 chapters later says, the firstborn of your sons, 00:27:18.099 --> 00:27:24.609 you shall give to me. Talks about how they can 00:27:24.609 --> 00:27:27.569 be redeemed. Number three says the life of your 00:27:27.569 --> 00:27:29.789 firstborn sons are forfeit, they belong to me. 00:27:30.170 --> 00:27:33.430 You can redeem them and keep them alive, but 00:27:33.430 --> 00:27:36.880 they belong to me. What's going on with all this? 00:27:37.859 --> 00:27:40.660 I think the symbolism is sort of lost on us, 00:27:40.660 --> 00:27:44.900 but in the ancient Near East, the firstborn son 00:27:45.059 --> 00:27:48.799 got all of the wealth. They got the family name. 00:27:49.730 --> 00:27:51.309 Largely this was so that they could keep the 00:27:51.309 --> 00:27:53.309 family farm and they can keep the family alive 00:27:53.309 --> 00:27:56.490 and keep the family going. It was sort of a certain 00:27:56.490 --> 00:28:00.089 way of preserving the family. And the Bible doesn't 00:28:00.089 --> 00:28:02.230 enshrine this idea, but it sort of honors it 00:28:02.230 --> 00:28:05.049 and understands it. It was the cultural context 00:28:05.049 --> 00:28:08.410 in which this was written. But what it's saying 00:28:08.410 --> 00:28:10.789 is that the firstborn family represents the whole. 00:28:13.819 --> 00:28:16.819 So the death of the firstborn son or the offering 00:28:16.819 --> 00:28:19.559 them up to God or the consecrating them for the 00:28:19.559 --> 00:28:24.200 Lord was to say all of my life, all of my being 00:28:24.200 --> 00:28:29.440 is yours. The firstborn son was a way of talking 00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:32.359 about your whole life, all that you are, all 00:28:32.359 --> 00:28:36.670 that you hope to be, all of your being. And the 00:28:36.670 --> 00:28:39.470 Bible again and again says the wages of sin is 00:28:39.470 --> 00:28:47.500 death. We all deserve. Death. The weight of cosmic 00:28:47.500 --> 00:28:52.599 treason is death. Abraham knew this. When God 00:28:52.599 --> 00:28:58.609 comes to him, he doesn't really protest. He knows 00:28:58.609 --> 00:29:05.079 this. The wages of sin is death. He knows that 00:29:05.079 --> 00:29:08.480 what God was calling to him was the reality of 00:29:08.480 --> 00:29:13.220 his sin. Now, I think this gets us to the second 00:29:13.220 --> 00:29:15.000 hard thing, okay? So the first one is a really 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:18.950 hard thing in this passage. And I think the next 00:29:18.950 --> 00:29:20.509 hard thing is just this reality that I've been 00:29:20.509 --> 00:29:25.259 saying, the wage of sin is death. Because my 00:29:25.259 --> 00:29:28.779 guess is that for most of you, you hear the judgment 00:29:28.779 --> 00:29:32.230 that takes place in this text and you go, yeah, 00:29:33.539 --> 00:29:41.809 Hitler, Jack the Ripper, Pharaoh, give it to 00:29:41.809 --> 00:29:51.920 them, judge them. But the Abrahams and the Moses 00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:56.279 and the people that stayed inside their house, 00:29:57.819 --> 00:30:04.009 under the blood of the lamb. They knew that the 00:30:04.009 --> 00:30:09.710 real issue, they knew that the real issue is 00:30:09.710 --> 00:30:12.410 that they were alive at all, that that was God's 00:30:12.410 --> 00:30:15.869 grace. They knew that they deserved what the 00:30:15.869 --> 00:30:20.150 lamb got. I mean, Abraham offering up Isaac, 00:30:20.150 --> 00:30:23.069 he knows that this is the way to have sin is 00:30:23.069 --> 00:30:30.849 death. Abraham and Moses and all these people 00:30:30.849 --> 00:30:33.130 under the blood of a lamb know that their life 00:30:33.130 --> 00:30:37.720 is more than they ever deserve. that all the 00:30:37.720 --> 00:30:39.960 life that they have is simply the mercy of God. 00:30:40.019 --> 00:30:43.529 And we tend to think it is our, it's God's duty 00:30:43.529 --> 00:30:48.930 to give it to us. They would not have that position. 00:30:49.950 --> 00:30:58.140 It's all grace. You see, why could the Israelites 00:30:58.140 --> 00:31:04.369 not leave their houses? It's because this isn't 00:31:04.369 --> 00:31:06.349 about the things that we judge others on. It's 00:31:06.349 --> 00:31:08.369 not some ethno -nationalism. It's not these people 00:31:08.369 --> 00:31:10.390 are righteous and those people are not righteous 00:31:10.390 --> 00:31:12.890 in their deeds. It's these people do the religiosity 00:31:12.890 --> 00:31:18.720 and those people don't do the religiosity. Why 00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:22.079 did the Ram have to die in Isaac's place there 00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:29.099 in the story in Genesis chapter 22? Because something 00:31:29.099 --> 00:31:33.829 has to die for sin. I mean, that is the story 00:31:33.829 --> 00:31:38.500 of Scripture. This is the moment. Did you notice 00:31:38.500 --> 00:31:41.480 at the very beginning of our passage, verse two, 00:31:41.480 --> 00:31:44.930 God says, this is gonna be the first month for 00:31:44.930 --> 00:31:48.069 you. This is gonna be the first day for you. 00:31:48.069 --> 00:31:51.230 This is gonna be what defines your life is what 00:31:51.230 --> 00:31:54.400 happens here. And that's exactly what Christians 00:31:54.400 --> 00:31:59.690 say. The thing that defines our life is the reality 00:31:59.690 --> 00:32:03.960 of the death of another in our place, because 00:32:03.960 --> 00:32:11.450 we deserve death. Which is to say that while 00:32:11.450 --> 00:32:14.660 this is a story of judgment, it's a story of 00:32:14.660 --> 00:32:19.990 grace. I mean, how could a mixed multitude leave 00:32:19.990 --> 00:32:23.769 Egypt? It was probably because the Israelites 00:32:23.769 --> 00:32:25.869 were telling their neighbors, their Egyptian 00:32:25.869 --> 00:32:29.579 neighbors, here. Hear the good news. There is 00:32:29.579 --> 00:32:32.559 a way out from the wages of sin being death. 00:32:33.630 --> 00:32:35.490 There's a way to freedom. You don't have to live 00:32:35.490 --> 00:32:39.789 this way. In some ways, actually, it's a great 00:32:39.789 --> 00:32:42.250 test for you. How much do you believe in the 00:32:42.250 --> 00:32:46.160 reality that Christ's death atones for our sin 00:32:46.160 --> 00:32:48.660 and gives us life? Do you want to tell your neighbors 00:32:48.660 --> 00:32:55.269 there is a way to live? But this whole story 00:32:55.269 --> 00:32:56.769 of judgment, while it's a story of judgment, 00:32:56.910 --> 00:33:00.670 is a story of God's grace. God gives a way out. 00:33:00.750 --> 00:33:03.309 The wages of sin is death. Our sin is heinous. 00:33:03.509 --> 00:33:05.630 We live in rebellion against God and it demands 00:33:05.630 --> 00:33:08.930 death. And something has to die and something 00:33:08.930 --> 00:33:13.529 does die. And all of this points forward to the 00:33:13.529 --> 00:33:16.670 Lamb of God who is slain. The Lamb of God who 00:33:16.670 --> 00:33:22.019 is slain upon the cross. I mean, that is why 00:33:22.019 --> 00:33:24.180 there at the very beginning of the Gospels, John 00:33:24.180 --> 00:33:26.880 can say, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away 00:33:26.880 --> 00:33:28.640 the sin of the world. That's why in Revelation, 00:33:29.009 --> 00:33:31.710 We have the lamb who was slain and everyone is 00:33:31.710 --> 00:33:34.109 falling down and worshiping from every tribe 00:33:34.109 --> 00:33:38.720 and tongue and nation. Everyone is worshiping 00:33:38.720 --> 00:33:41.019 the lamb who was slain. That's why Paul says 00:33:41.019 --> 00:33:42.700 in first Corinthians chapter five, which we've 00:33:42.700 --> 00:33:44.539 been saying, if you notice, as I invite you to 00:33:44.539 --> 00:33:47.799 the table, Christ our Passover lamb is sacrificed. 00:33:47.859 --> 00:33:51.500 Therefore, let us keep the feast because at the 00:33:51.500 --> 00:33:53.799 center of Christian faith is the judgment that 00:33:53.799 --> 00:34:00.619 we rightly deserve goes on to Jesus and his blood. 00:34:01.599 --> 00:34:07.400 His body broken is our life. Without it, we rightly 00:34:07.400 --> 00:34:09.619 deserve the judgment of God, but with it, we 00:34:09.619 --> 00:34:19.960 have life and freedom. I'm gonna end by not actually 00:34:19.960 --> 00:34:22.039 saying what I have here. I heard this story. 00:34:23.530 --> 00:34:24.989 Some of you know who Charles Spurgeon was. He 00:34:24.989 --> 00:34:27.269 was one of the great Baptist preachers in London 00:34:27.269 --> 00:34:31.820 in the mid late 19th century. He preached to 00:34:31.820 --> 00:34:35.579 so many that they had to build a new church building, 00:34:35.679 --> 00:34:38.000 right? and they were building it and he went 00:34:38.000 --> 00:34:39.860 in and the acoustics in this were supposed to 00:34:39.860 --> 00:34:42.360 be amazing. He had a loud voice anyway, but the 00:34:42.360 --> 00:34:44.320 acoustics were supposed to be amazing that he 00:34:44.320 --> 00:34:47.400 could preach and people all in the back could 00:34:47.400 --> 00:34:49.739 hear. And he got up and he thought there was 00:34:49.739 --> 00:34:52.000 nobody there. He went in and he thought all the 00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:53.440 construction workers were gone. He got into the 00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:58.250 pulpit and he tested out the pulpit. He said, 00:34:58.590 --> 00:35:01.769 behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin 00:35:01.769 --> 00:35:06.610 of the world. You hear it reverberate throughout. 00:35:06.989 --> 00:35:09.409 He says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away 00:35:09.409 --> 00:35:10.829 the sin of the world. And maybe he's just like, 00:35:10.829 --> 00:35:14.829 oh, this works pretty well. But supposedly back 00:35:14.829 --> 00:35:18.239 in the balcony, there was one construction worker 00:35:18.239 --> 00:35:22.150 and he dropped his tools and he began to cry. 00:35:23.599 --> 00:35:26.119 And he went home and weeks later he went to that 00:35:26.119 --> 00:35:30.360 church and he actually told Spurgeon, I was in 00:35:30.360 --> 00:35:36.000 the back and I knew my sin. And all I heard was 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:39.530 you yelling. Behold the Lamb of God who takes 00:35:39.530 --> 00:35:42.010 away the sin of the world. And I went home and 00:35:42.010 --> 00:35:45.090 gave my life to Jesus, and I'm a changed man." 00:35:46.659 --> 00:35:51.360 What I'm telling you is this. Hear this. Jesus 00:35:51.360 --> 00:35:53.760 himself is the Lamb of God who takes away the 00:35:53.760 --> 00:35:56.699 sin of the world. All the judgment that we rightly 00:35:56.699 --> 00:35:59.559 deserve, the scriptures say, are placed upon 00:35:59.559 --> 00:36:03.110 him. And his righteousness, his good deeds are 00:36:03.110 --> 00:36:06.800 now given to us. All of our sin is taken away 00:36:06.800 --> 00:36:09.980 by the shed blood of Jesus. And the only way 00:36:09.980 --> 00:36:14.530 to be outside the just judgment of God is to 00:36:14.530 --> 00:36:18.099 be under the lamb and his blood that was shed 00:36:18.099 --> 00:36:23.380 for us. Let me end with that. Lord God, stories 00:36:23.380 --> 00:36:26.559 that we know too well, stories that we want to 00:36:26.559 --> 00:36:30.539 dismiss as old, and yet this is the heart of 00:36:30.539 --> 00:36:32.900 the Christian message that you died that we might 00:36:32.900 --> 00:36:37.980 live. God. We want to look at this in a way and 00:36:37.980 --> 00:36:40.599 think, how strange, but God, I pray that you 00:36:40.599 --> 00:36:42.900 would give us, not like Adam and Eve, a small 00:36:42.900 --> 00:36:45.659 view of our sin, but a great view, how heinous 00:36:45.659 --> 00:36:48.519 it is, how much it deserves death. And yet, Lord, 00:36:48.780 --> 00:36:52.670 in that, Lord, humble us, but lift us up because 00:36:52.670 --> 00:36:55.570 you're the God who gave of your life for us. 00:36:56.309 --> 00:37:00.230 Jesus, shedding your blood for us. Would we glory 00:37:00.230 --> 00:37:03.670 in the cross of Christ, the place where your 00:37:03.670 --> 00:37:07.389 blood was shed. Where you gave up your life that 00:37:07.389 --> 00:37:10.190 we would have life. We pray in your name. Amen. 00:37:11.949 --> 00:37:13.929 Thank you for listening to Second City Sermons 00:37:13.929 --> 00:37:16.670 podcast. We hope this sermon has encouraged you 00:37:16.670 --> 00:37:18.829 to worship God and to celebrate the gospel of 00:37:18.829 --> 00:37:21.909 Jesus. Please consider subscribing to this podcast 00:37:21.909 --> 00:37:24.650 and joining us in person each Sunday at 10 a 00:37:24.650 --> 00:37:27.489 .m. You can find us online at secondcitychurch 00:37:27.489 --> 00:37:30.590 .org and on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. 00:37:30.929 --> 00:37:32.949 Thanks again for listening. God bless.