Now, would you open your Bible with me please to the book of Exodus and the 11th chapter.
The clock of God's dealings with Egypt ticked away for some nine months as plague after
plague fell upon the nation.
Now as we come to chapter 11, it's approaching midnight, as it were, with respect to God's
judgment.
The final and most devastating judgment was just about to come.
Now the Lord said to Moses, one more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt.
After that he will let you go from here.
When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out from here completely.
Speak now in the hearing of the people that each man asked from his neighbor and each
woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and articles of gold.
The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.
Furthermore, the man Moses himself was greatly esteemed in the land of Egypt, both in the
sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people.
And Moses said, Thus says the Lord, about midnight I am going out in the midst of Egypt,
and all the 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 millstones, all the firstborn of the cattle as well.
Moreover, there shall be a great cry in the land of Egypt, such as there has not been
before and such as shall never be again.
But against any of the sons of Israel a dog shall not even bark, whether against man or
beast, that you may understand how the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
And all these your servants will come down to me and bow themselves before me, saying,
Go out, you and all the people who follow you, and after that I will go out.
And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.
Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that my wonders will
be multiplied in the land of Egypt.
And Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, yet the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.
Now keeping your finger here, would you please turn to John chapter 14.
The Gospel of John the fourteenth chapter.
In the text in Exodus announcing the final
plague upon God's enemies, we also see interwoven the assurance of God's blessings on his people.
These blessings in Exodus eleven, expressed by the Lord on that eve before the Passover
was instituted, were again expressed by this same Lord on the eve before the Passover was
fulfilled.
Thus I read the text from John chapter 14.
God's people are a people of blessing.
Having been released from the condemnation we deserve because of our sin, we now have
by God's grace eternal life.
Furthermore, we have been given in Christ Jesus every spiritual blessing, says the Apostle
Paul in Ephesians chapter one.
Today I'd like for us to enumerate the blessings in our text which belong to God's people.
As we do so, we will consider some of the implications of those blessings as well.
The first blessing I'd like for us to look at is the blessing of his protection.
You see that for example in verse seven of Exodus eleven, where God says against any
of the sons of Israel a dog shall not even bark.
That you may understand how the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
The people of God have the blessing of his protection upon their lives.
We see this illustrated numerous times in the Bible, but one that comes to mind is the
example of Elisha when he and his servant were at the city of Dothan.
He had been giving away the secrets of the king of Aram of Syria.
The king was upset about that and so he found out where Elisha was and surrounded him during
the night.
The servant of the prophet got up in the morning and looked out and there were the enemies.
They came back in, expressed alarm to Elisha.
Elisha said, don't fear.
In essence he said those that are for us are greater in number than those who are on the
other side.
And he said, Lord open his eyes.
God opened the eyes of that servant and he could see into the realm of spiritual things
with his physical eyes and he was able to see that the enemy was surrounded by God's
troops, angels in chariots of fire, with horses of fire.
Elisha was protected.
God protected him on that occasion and they took captive those Syrian soldiers without
a single arrow being shot and then released them.
The people of God enjoy the protection of the Lord.
As the psalmist says, the angel of the Lord camps round about those that fear him and
delivers them.
Here we see the nation of Israel protected in the midst of the land of Egypt.
At a time when God was bringing great judgment upon the people of Egypt, he protected his
own people.
And what was the cause for this?
Well it's the fact that God made a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
The cause for that distinction was the holiness of God.
Just as God is holy, that is completely set apart from all of his creation, he is other
than we are.
He is unique.
There is none like him.
He is holy.
So everything that God puts his hand upon to be his is made holy.
It is set apart.
It is made distinct from other things because it is his who is holy.
That is the cause for the distinction.
We have to understand of course that the means by which God did this was his grace.
It was not that the people of Israel were better people than the people of Egypt.
But God in his grace had chosen those people to be his own.
They were vessels of mercy.
When just as well they deserve to be vessels of wrath, objects of his judgment like the
people of Egypt.
But God in his grace showed to them an undeserved kindness.
Just as the song said that we heard sung by the quartet earlier, Oh the love that sought
me.
Oh the blood that bought me.
Oh the grace that brought me to the fold.
Wondrous grace that brought me to the fold.
You and I have to understand that if we know God today as our Lord and our Savior, if we
have that personal relationship with him it is the act of God's grace that we have been
set apart from those who are in the world.
The basis for God's distinction here was the blood of the Passover lamb which was about
to be shed.
God provided that that lamb should bear the penalty of death and its blood then should
be sprinkled on the door post in a certain manner.
That's why in chapter 12 and verse 12 God says to the people of Israel, I will go through
the land of Egypt on that night and will strike down all the first born in the land of Egypt,
both man and beast.
And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment, I am Yahweh.
And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live.
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.
The only basis by which God could show his grace to the people of Israel is that there
be a substitute to bear the penalty they also deserve, the penalty of death.
And God provided that substitute in the Passover lamb.
What belongs to God has his protection.
Do you belong to him today?
The Lord Jesus said, let not your heart be troubled.
In the verse that we read in John 14 later in the chapter he goes on to say, peace I
leave with you, my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give to you, let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be
fearful.
God provides protection for us so that we need not be fearful.
Do we need fear the wrath of God?
The answer to that is no, if we are God's people.
We are protected.
Why?
Because God in his grace has made a distinction between us and the people in the world.
The basis for that is the blood of God's Passover lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because we have been by grace brought to faith in that Christ.
And that blood has been applied to us and cleansed us from our sin.
Because God's judgment was poured out upon that lamb, his son at the cross of Calvary.
You and I today do not need to fear the wrath of God for we are protected from it.
You and I who belong to the Lord today, we who are his people in this age, likewise have
the blessing of his protection upon our lives.
We have the guarantee that we are his and we need not fear separation from him.
In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 13 he tells us that we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit.
In the fourth chapter of the same book in verse 30 he says, and grieve not the Holy
Spirit of God whereby you are sealed under the day of redemption.
The Spirit of God serves as his seal upon us that we belong to him.
And it is that seal that protects us from ever coming under the wrath of God.
We have the blessing of protection.
Thank God for that blessing that belongs to his people.
And then in our text we also see the blessing of God's person given to the people of Israel.
Six times in this chapter God uses that name for himself that we have come to appreciate
perhaps in a more full way, Yahweh, O Lord, or Jehovah, capital L, capital O, capital R,
capital D in our English translations.
This was a newly expounded name of God to the people of Israel.
They had had the name before this given to them.
But now they come into an understanding of that name.
This is the name of the God who always is the same, the I Am.
He is the one who is eternally existent and also completely self-sufficient.
He lacks nothing in himself and he provides through himself all that his people need.
All that is needed on every occasion, Yahweh provides to his own.
That is the blessing of his person.
God wanted them to experience himself as their faithful provider.
He wanted them to know him as their personal God who had established a covenant with them
as a people.
He wanted them to know his faithfulness.
They had the blessing of his person.
How many of you know the chorus, Christ is all I need?
Christ is all I need, all all I need?
How many of you know that?
If you can remember five words, Christ is all I need, you've got all the words that
exist in that chorus.
I'd like you to learn it with me right now, would you?
If you know it, sing it with me.
I don't particularly like to do solos.
Thank you.
Christ is all I need.
Christ is all I need, all all I need.
Christ is all I need.
Christ is all I need, all all I need.
Let's sing it once more for those of you who are just learning it.
Christ is all I need.
Christ is all I need, all all I need.
Christ is all I need.
Christ is all I need, all all I need.
And folks, he is.
He was as Yahweh to his people in the Old Testament, and he is the same today.
He said, you believe in God, believe also in me.
In the fifteenth chapter of John, he said to his own on that night before Passover was
fulfilled in himself, I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit.
Jesus says to us in this day that we are united to him.
We abide in him, he abides in us.
Because we believe in him, even as we believe in the Father, we have all that we need.
Just as he was all that was needed for the people of Israel 3500 years ago.
So in 1988, Jesus Christ is all his people need today.
We have the blessing of his person.
I want you to know that our Lord desires that we find our fulfillment and our satisfaction
in him and in him alone.
We have to be aware of substitutes that we so easily attach ourselves to.
Sometimes we attach ourselves to other people and we find our fulfillment, our happiness
in being with others.
But what happens if those others cannot be with us or are taken from us?
There are those who attach themselves to pleasant circumstances.
Things are going great in life and they find their fulfillment in the way things are going
at the moment.
But what happens when things change?
Others find their fulfillment in material possessions.
But what happens when those things are taken away?
They are no longer ours or we lose them.
Jesus Christ desires that you and I find our fulfillment and our satisfaction in him alone.
So I ask you today, where do you find your satisfaction?
Is it in the person of your Savior, Jesus Christ?
Are you in love with him?
Is he the one who absorbs your devotion and your worship?
I want you to know that's the only position that he will be satisfied with.
If he is the preeminent one in your life, he deserves that and he rightfully demands
it.
Some time ago I came across a poem by Charles Spurgeon.
I knew he was a great preacher.
I didn't know he was such a good poet.
But here are the words that he writes as he thinks about this theme of Christ being everything
to life.
What the hand is to the lute, what the breath to the flute, what fragrance is to the smell,
what the spring is to the well, what the flower is to the bee, that is Jesus Christ to me.
What the mother to the child, what the guide is in pathless wild, what is oil to troubled
wave, what is ransom to a slave, what is water to the sea, that is Jesus Christ to me.
In other words, Jesus Christ is everything that there is to life.
It's all that gives life its fullness and its meaning.
In His person, He wants us to be satisfied.
You and I have the blessing of His person today.
We have the joy of that personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
The one who is Jehovah come in the flesh and we need nothing besides Him.
I notice a third blessing to the people of God in our text and that is the blessing of
His provision.
I see that provision as threefold at least to the Israelites.
We see this in verses 1 through 3 of chapter 11 as well as in another verse that I want
to refer to back in chapter 6.
But God's provision for the Israelites involved number one, deliverance from bondage.
It did not come as quickly as they wanted it to, but God did provide deliverance.
In fact, God said at the end, they're going to thrust you out of the land of Egypt.
They're going to chase you out.
Not just willing to let you go, they're going to help usher you to the door.
He also provided for them sustenance for the pilgrimage.
That is suggested by the fact that He said, ask of your neighbors articles of silver and
gold.
He comes to help provide for the needs they would have in the wilderness, including the
need to construct the tabernacle that He will describe to them a little later in this very
book.
Sustenance for the pilgrimage.
And thirdly, He provided for them the possession of the promised land.
To see that clearly, just back up with me to chapter 6 and notice a couple of verses
in verse 6, say therefore to the sons of Israel, says the Lord, I am the Lord and I will bring
you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from their bondage.
I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.
We certainly have seen that, haven't we?
Then He says in verse 7, then I will take you for my people and I will be your God and
you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brought you out from under the burdens
of the Egyptians and I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob and I will give it to you for a possession.
I am Yahweh.
What did God provide for His people Israel?
Deliverance from bondage, sustenance in their pilgrimage and finally the possession of the
promised land.
I want you to know that there is a parallel to each of those today for those of us who
are God's people.
He provides for us in the first place deliverance from our bondage.
As Jesus said in John chapter 15, you are not of the world.
Now remember that in Bible symbolism Egypt pictures the world.
You remember that.
Jesus says in the New Testament, you are not of the world.
I chose you out of the world.
Therefore the world hates you.
We have been chosen out of the world.
We have known the deliverance of the Lord.
Do we have sustenance for our pilgrimage?
May I remind you of a few aspects of that that Jesus talked about with His disciples
on the night before Passover was fulfilled.
He said to them, my peace I give to you.
John 14, 27.
He said these things I have spoken to you that you might have my joy.
John 15, 11.
He said the Father will send the comforter, the helper to you.
It's the Holy Spirit, John 14, verses 16 and 17.
And He says if you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
He has provided for us prayer.
Folks, everything that we need in our pilgrimage in this life He has provided.
Spiritual blessing, access to His presence, the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives
to strengthen us.
There is nothing more that we need.
He has provided everything for our pilgrimage.
But just as the Lord provided for His people a physical land, so He has provided for us
an eternal home in heaven.
Jesus said in My Father's house are many dwelling places.
If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.
Our Lord said I am going to prepare a custom designed abode, a dwelling place for you in
My Father's house.
You and I have been given by Him the possession of a promised home.
That becomes all the more dear as loved ones leave this earth and go to their homes that
the Lord has provided.
It becomes all the more dear the older you get.
And you begin to realize that life is not going to go on for you.
Somehow in our youth we think that we are going to escape death.
That it is never going to overtake us, or at least not for a long, long time.
We don't know that.
And even if it is what a young person calls a long time, the older you get you realize
it is not very long.
Aren't you glad that you and I have an eternal home?
What a blessing it is to have all of this provided for us.
Just as the people of Israel had the blessing of God's provision, you and I have His provision
as well.
Deliverance from the world of sin and condemnation.
Sustenance for our pilgrimage in this life.
And when this life is over in the will of God, an eternal dwelling place.
Just as David said of old, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
What blessed promises are these?
Christ makes provision for every one of His own in this world.
When I was a kid we used to sing a chorus.
I don't know if it is sung anymore.
Choruses seem to have their day and then they go out of fad, I suppose is the word to use.
It wasn't a great theological treatise by any means, as most weren't back in those
days.
It simply said, this world is not my home.
I'm just a passing through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
Well, as simple as that chorus was and is, it expresses a wonderful truth.
We're not living for this world.
Egypt is not our destination.
It is not our home.
The wilderness is not our stopping place.
But our destination, our destiny, is that place that Jesus is preparing for each one
of His own.
Do you have that assurance of a home in heaven?
Then I want to point out finally a fourth blessing that belongs to the people of God.
Beyond the blessing of His provision, we have the blessing of His promise.
As we read in Exodus chapter 6, I will take you for my people, says the Lord.
God used this language describing His action.
He said, I will come down.
I will deliver.
I will bring you out.
Does that remind you of anything?
Jesus said, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will what?
Come again and take you, receive you to myself, that where I am there you may be also.
You and I have the blessing of His promise today that there is a time when He will come
and receive us to Himself.
I believe that that verse is referring to the rapture, that time when our Lord will
come again to the earth and will call by the power of His own resurrection, His own to
Himself, glorified in their eternal bodies.
He said, if I go away and prepare a place, that's exactly what He's doing, I will come
again.
Not maybe, not probably, not should, I will come again and receive you to myself.
Are you looking for Him today?
Someone sent me in the mail a book a few weeks ago that says the rapture is going to occur
this fall.
He is unable to give the day or the hour, but He gives us the week.
September 12th, 13th or 14th as I recall.
He has 88 reasons why He believes the Lord may come at that time.
Maybe He's right, I don't know.
He frankly loses me in some of His exegesis of the scripture.
I get a little lost in some of the turns and twists that He makes.
But He goes on to say, if the Lord doesn't come at this time, at least perhaps this book
will stir up some people to recognize that He is coming.
I appreciate that spirit.
If it's not one of those three days in September, if His 88 reasons don't quite fit the picture,
one thing we do know, He is coming again.
And you and I need to live in the light of that blessed hope that is ours.
The promise that He has given.
What if we don't get to finish our vacation this summer?
What if you don't get to go back to school this year?
What a disappointment, right?
What if you don't get to have those things fulfilled that you've been looking forward
to?
My brother-in-law, as you know, was here a week ago and he said he was fishing with a
friend of his from the church where he attends in Kentucky earlier this summer.
And as they were fishing, they began talking about the Lord's return and he was astounded
that his friend said, I don't want the Lord to come back now.
I've got too much I want to do.
What short-sightedness.
What a pathetic way for a professing Christian to live.
My friend, if He should come today and nothing else that I want to do in life is fulfilled,
that's great as far as I'm concerned.
Lord Jesus, come now and receive us.
His promise is, I will come again and receive you to myself.
Well, those are the blessings that belong to God's people, whether it's 3500 years
ago when the Passover was instituted, or if it was on that night 2000 years ago just before
the Passover was fulfilled, or if it's this day, almost 2000 years later, when we celebrate
the Passover lamb, Jesus Christ.
These are the blessings of God.
The proud pagan nation of Egypt thought to keep the people of Israel in bondage, but
God intervened to deliver them.
He left the pantheon of their gods in shambles.
Their gods were exposed as impotent, false deities in the presence of the living Yahweh,
the living Lord of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
He left the nation of Egypt economically devastated.
He created fear in the hearts of the populace.
He humbled their arrogant, wicked leader, revealing his hardened hearts and judging
him indeed with increased hardness.
I want you to know that it is a fearful thing.
It is a frightful thing to be an enemy of the true and living God.
Oh, you say, I'm not His enemy.
I would never be the enemy of God.
Dear friend, if you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, by virtue of the fact
you are yet in your sins, you are the enemy of God.
In your wicked works, He describes you as being hostile toward Him.
You are not at peace with God.
You are at war with God.
Your need today is to surrender.
It's not a truce.
It's a surrender.
Will you surrender to Him?
Will you trust in the provision that He has made through Jesus Christ for your sin?
And for those of us who have, who are the people of God, is it not a wonderful thing
to be one of His?
Is it not a blessing to be one of God's people?
Our journey like Israel's may at times appear foreboding and uncertain, but we have the
assurance of His blessings in our lives.
Bishop Houghton of the China Inland Mission wrote these words,
I thought I was walking all alone, into darkness, immense and drear.
But where it was densest, a hand touched my own, and a voice spoke gentle and clear.
Do you not think you might have known that I should be here?
Your need is met.
Your way will be shown.
Be of good cheer.
Child of God, I want to leave you with that thought today.
Be of good cheer.
Your Lord's hand is near your own.
However dark or black the thickness may seem around you, recognize that your need is met.
Your way will be shown because He's there.
You're His.
Let's bow together.
Here I thank you today for the blessings that belong to the people of God, and that we can
call ourselves such is surely the work of grace.
For there is nothing inherently good in any of us.
It is only your undeserved kindness that has brought us to the Savior that we might find
through Him peace with you.
I pray this morning for that friend who is here without Christ that even now at this
moment there may be the act of faith in that heart, a turning from self and sin, and a
trusting in the Savior who died and rose again.
Thank you for the promise that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, whosoever
shall call shall be saved.
May that one call in faith at this moment.
Dear friend, if that's you that I've prayed for, the Spirit of God knows, would you call
upon the Lord to be your Savior?
Would you believe in Him now with your heart and trust Him alone?
Tell Him so, right where you're seated.
And if that is your decision, would you come by the door here in the front where I greet
folks as they leave and tell me that this morning you made that decision, you placed
your faith in Christ.
Father, I pray too that each one of us who in some time in the past has done that may
rejoice in the blessings that are ours in Christ and may we find in Him alone all that
we need.
Forgive us for the substitutes that we cling to.
Strip them from us and may Christ be our all today, everything to us.
We pray in His name.
Amen.