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Our text today as we return to the Old Testament and to this exciting portion of Scripture

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dealing with the release of the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt.

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The title of the message today is The Final Plague and the First Passover.

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Exodus chapter 12.

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You and I live in an age which does not take the God of the Bible very seriously.

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There are those who refuse to acknowledge God's existence, of course.

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There are those who see the belief in a God as a human weakness, as a crutch upon which

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weak human beings must lean.

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Then there are others who don't take God very seriously and mock Him, blaspheme Him.

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An example of that perhaps would be the kind of film that has been talked about so much

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and recently in the news.

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There are those films that depict God as a jovial, cigar-smoking old man.

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And there are those that depict Him as this last one, as a confused, hot-blooded young

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Messiah.

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Very little respect for the God of the Bible.

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Then there are those who redefine God, who seek to fit Him into their concept, their

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concept of what God should be like.

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To them, God is an idea to be explored and developed.

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God to them is the product of human thought and the evolution of that.

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Then there are still others who claim to believe and follow the biblical God, but they refuse

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to live in obedience to His demands of lordship in their lives.

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These are those who want to have God in their lives as long as He keeps out of their way.

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I say again, we live in an age which does not take the God of the Bible very seriously.

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The failure to take God seriously brought the nation of Egypt in the 15th century B.C.

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to its knees.

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God sent nine plagues upon that nation because of the hard-heartedness of its leader, Pharaoh.

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One more is yet to come.

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What were these plagues that God sent?

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On the one hand, they were expressions in the material, physical world of His judgment,

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God's judgment, upon the hardened heart of Pharaoh.

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On the other hand, they were also evidences of the impotence of Egypt's gods.

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For each plague was directly or indirectly an attack upon the Egyptian pantheon.

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And each one exposed that false system of belief upon which the Egyptians based their

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lives.

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We come now to the final plague, as well as the first Passover.

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What our text today tells us is that we must take God seriously.

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Whether we be saint or sinner, lost or saved, we dare not trifle with the God of the Bible.

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Let's consider first the final plague.

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As we look at this, we are reminded that there is an end to the mercy and the patience of

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God.

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God's delay of judgment is often misinterpreted as His disinterest in sin.

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That is a fatal mistake, because God does take note of it.

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God is not lackadaisical about injustices.

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He is not careless about the oppression in our world.

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He sees it all, and He sees the immorality, the lying, the stealing, the murder.

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He sees the covetousness, the materialism, the dishonoring of parents, the rebellion

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against His appointed authority.

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God knows the self-centeredness of our culture.

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He knows it all.

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He deals with sinners one by one as they fall into His hands at death.

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Furthermore, He brings an eventual and planned end to those nations and cultures which choose

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to forget Him.

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God will not be mocked.

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As rich in mercy as He is, He is also angry with the wicked every day, and His wrath is

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coming upon every one of them to repay them for their evil.

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This truth is illustrated in the plagues that fell upon Egypt.

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Some of the plagues were preceded by warnings, such as this tenth plague.

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Look in chapter 11, verse 4, where Moses said,

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Thus says the LORD, About midnight I am going out into the midst

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of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die,

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From the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on his throne,

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Even to the firstborn of the slave-girl who is behind the millstones,

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All the firstborn of the cattle as well.

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Moreover, there shall be a great cry in the land of Egypt,

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Such as there has not been before, and such as shall never be again.

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But against any of the sons of Israel a dog shall not even bark,

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Whether against man or beast.

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You may understand how the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

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And all these your servants will come down to me,

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And bow themselves before me, saying, Go out, you and all the people who follow

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you.

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And after that I will go out.

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And Moses went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.

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And now turn over a page as we look in chapter 12 and verse 29.

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And now it came about at midnight that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land

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of Egypt, From the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on

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his throne, To the firstborn of the captive who was in

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the dungeon, And all the firstborn of cattle.

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And Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians.

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There was a great cry in Egypt, For there was no home where there was not

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someone dead.

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Egypt learned that night that you must take the God of the Bible seriously.

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The last plague underscores that truth.

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Notice the details, the time was about midnight.

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Keep in mind that they were not watching Johnny Carson in those days.

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Normally they went to bed when the sun went to bed.

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And in that part of the world it goes to bed about the same time every night, early in

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the evening.

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But I can guarantee you that night there was not much sleep.

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There was wonder and fear and worry.

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Would this happen, which Moses had spoken?

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And certainly about midnight it did.

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Now what was the action, what did happen?

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Well it tells us that the Lord struck the firstborn.

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We're not told how it happened, that is really unimportant.

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The fact is that this was the hand of the Lord.

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He sent his angel throughout the land of Egypt at midnight.

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And notice the extent of this plague.

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It was both selective and universal.

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It touched only the firstborn, it was selective.

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The secondborn, thirdborn and so on were fine.

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But the firstborn in every house was killed.

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How many of you this morning are the firstborn in your family?

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Would you lift your hands?

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Those of us with our hands up now would be the ones dead that night in Egypt.

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But it was universal in the sense that throughout all of the land of Egypt, not an exception,

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throughout the Egyptians, the firstborn died that night.

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And the effect of it was great crying in the land.

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You can only imagine the drama of this as household after household and hut after palace

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began to find and discover the firstborn was gone, was dead.

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The mourning and the crying that began to arise within the villages and the towns of

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Egypt as they realized the finality and the terror of this final plague of God upon their

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nation.

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And the result was rather dramatic as well and immediate.

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It was the glad release that very night of the Israelite slaves.

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Verse 31 says, then he, Pharaoh, called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, rise up,

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get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel, and go, worship the Lord

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as you've said.

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Take both your flocks and your herds as you have said and go and bless me also.

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It's an interesting response, isn't it?

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And the Egyptians urged the people.

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This is not just Pharaoh.

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This is the populace.

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They urged the people to send them out of the land in haste for they said, we shall

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all be dead.

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So the people took their dough before it was leavened with their kneading bowls, bound up

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on the clothes on their shoulders.

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Now the sons of Israel had done according to the word of Moses for they had requested

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from the Egyptians articles of silver and articles of gold and clothing.

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And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so that they let

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them have their request.

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Thus they plundered the Egyptians just as had been predicted in Moses' life through

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Moses, but furthermore as had been predicted 400 years before.

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That night they left Egypt and they left with the wealth of Egypt.

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For God said to Abraham regarding his descendants who would be enslaved in Egypt for those 400

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years, I will judge the nation whom they serve, Genesis 15, 14, and they will come out with

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many possessions.

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On that night they were paid for their generations of slavery in Egypt.

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Please, please never doubt God's determination to do His will and to keep His word.

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We see that in this last plague upon the nation of Egypt.

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It is a warning to all of us that we cannot trifle with the God of the Bible.

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What He says He will do.

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But we have to ask again this question.

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On that night when the firstborn of Egypt died, what spared the Israelites judgment?

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Was it that they were better people?

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Was it that they were inherently more righteous than the Egyptians?

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The answer to that is absolutely no.

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God by an act of His divine grace made a difference between the Egyptians and the Israelites.

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That is the only thing that spared them that night.

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God was able to make that difference because of the first Passover.

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That brings us to the second part of the message today.

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The first Passover.

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So that He could make a difference between the Israelites and the Egyptians with regard

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to their sin.

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God made provision for the sin of His people.

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He provided a substitute death so that the firstborn of the Israelites would not have

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to die.

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It was a lamb or a young goat which provided by its death the blood of atonement.

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Because you see it is a law that is as true today as it was then and it will be true throughout

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the history of man that sin requires the death of the sinner.

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The holy God whom we worshiped earlier in this service is the same today as He was then.

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Because He is holy He cannot, He will not allow sin into His presence.

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And He will strike out against sin not in meanness but because He is holy and judges

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sin.

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God that night provided so that He would not have to strike the children of Israel for

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their sin.

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He provided the Passover lamb and we know from the New Testament that Jesus Christ is

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the fulfillment of the Passover lamb.

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This lamb described in Exodus chapter 12 was a type, a prophetic type of Jesus Christ.

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He fulfills this picture that we see in Exodus chapter 12.

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The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us

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and He is the only provision that God makes for the sin of humanity.

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Neither is salvation found in any other, says Peter, for there is no other name under heaven

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given among men whereby we must be saved.

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Just as that night in Egypt there was but one escape from certain death.

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So today there is but one escape from the judgment of God and that escape is God's

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Passover lamb, Jesus Christ.

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I want you to notice with me here in the 12th chapter what God says regarding this lamb

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beginning in verse 3.

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Speak to all the congregation of Israel saying, on the 10th of this month they are each one

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to take a lamb for themselves according to their father's household, a lamb for each

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household.

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Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house

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are to take one according to the number of persons in them.

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According to what each man should eat you are to divide the lamb.

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Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old.

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You may take it from the sheep or from the goats and you shall keep it until the 14th

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day of the same month.

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Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.

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Moreover they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two door posts and on the

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lintel of the houses in which they eat it and they shall eat the flesh that same night

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roasted with fire and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

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Notice first of all what God says regarding the selection of the lamb.

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It was to be a personal lamb.

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You will notice the progress.

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It begins in verse 3 with a lamb.

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It moves in verse 4 to the lamb and finally in verse 5 your lamb.

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This lamb was to be a personal lamb selected by the head of each household and if the household

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was small they were to bring in another household nearby so that there might not be any of the

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lamb wasted that night when they ate the body after it had been properly cooked.

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It was a personal lamb.

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My friend, I want you to know that it is not enough to know that Jesus Christ is a Savior

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or that He is even the Savior of the world, but you must be able to say He is my Savior.

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Secondly I want you to notice that it was a perfect lamb that was to be picked.

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An unblemished male.

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Everything about this animal was to be perfect.

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No spots, no imperfection at all, but absolutely perfect.

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So God's Passover lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, though He was tempted in every way like we

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are, was without sin.

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He who knew no sin was made sin for us on the cross, but until that moment He was absolutely

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perfect in His life.

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He obeyed perfectly every aspect of the law of God in His life.

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He was a prime lamb, a male, a year old, and so our Savior in the prime of His manhood

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was sacrificed.

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He was a proven lamb, for the lamb was to be taken out from the others and kept separate

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for four days.

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The purpose of that was to test the lamb, to make sure that there was nothing about it that would disqualify it to be that Passover lamb.

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To make sure it would not become sick in those four days.

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So our Savior went through a period of testing in His life, especially in the time of His

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public ministry.

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He entered into that time with that temptation of Satan recorded for us, a temptation which

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then continued on throughout the next three years, but which was especially strong in

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those three that are recorded.

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He was tried and tested by the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Zealots.

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He was put under pressure by every conceivable source, even His own disciples, and proven

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to be worthy to be the Lamb of God.

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After the Lamb was selected, it was to be sacrificed in the manner described in verses

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six and seven.

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The Lamb was of no use.

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It provided nothing unless its blood was shed.

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And so at the evening of the fourteenth day, a time which was probably between the sun's

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decline in the afternoon until its setting, during that period of time it was to be slain.

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But notice that some of the blood was to be caught and then applied to the door post of

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the house in a certain manner.

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If you picture it in your mind, you see here that it symbolized a cross from the two sides

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of the door and on the top.

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And some commentators say the Lamb was slain right there at the base of the door where

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the blood was caught.

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And so it provided, as it were, the picture of the cross right there at that house, the

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sacrifice of the Lamb.

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But then notice the sufficiency of the Lamb as well.

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Nothing else was required.

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They were not to be in a certain condition in the house.

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They were not to clean the house.

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They were not to whitewash it.

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All that was required to protect them from the judgment was the shed blood of that Lamb.

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And what a parallel that is today.

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We can add nothing to the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has once for all

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time sacrificed Himself for our sin.

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Nothing more can be sacrificed.

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Nothing more need be sacrificed.

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We can add nothing to His work by our feeble efforts.

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He alone as the Lamb who was sacrificed is sufficient for us.

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And that Lamb on that first Passover night was then roasted with fire and was eaten by

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those within the house.

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And thus it provided not only for their protection but for their sufficiency as well during the

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night.

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I want you to know that right now for those of us who have come to the Savior, to the

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cross and received Him, that Jesus Christ is all we need.

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He is sufficient for us throughout our lifetime, throughout our journey in this world.

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He is all that we need.

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He provided sustenance for the redeemed by His blood.

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You may notice with me the security of the Lamb.

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Verses 12 and 13, God says this, I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and

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will strike down all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast.

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And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.

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I am Yahweh.

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And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live.

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And when I see the blood I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy

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you when I strike the land of Egypt.

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Here I want you to see with me the perfect escape which the Lamb provided from the wrath

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of God.

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My friend Jesus Christ provides that for His own today.

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It is perfect, absolutely perfect deliverance for us from the wrath of God.

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The Lord Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say to you, he that hears my word and believes

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on him that sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but has already

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passed from death to life.

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Isn't that a wonderful word?

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For those of us who know Him, for those of us who have trusted God's Lamb, He says that

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we will not come into condemnation.

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That is His promise.

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But He says we have already passed from death to life.

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Perfect security the Lamb provided for the Israelites that night just as Jesus Christ

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provides perfect security for us today.

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The feast of Passover was then to be celebrated each year in the first month of the year among

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the Jews.

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That generation onward, it was to provide a testimony to young children as they grew

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up of what God did for the people that night, how God had provided for them.

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And the evening of the Passover was to begin a second feast on the calendar of the Jews

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called the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

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For a whole week, a period of seven days, they were to eat no leaven.

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On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they were to sweep out their houses

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to make sure not one bit of yeast or leaven would be in their house.

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Why?

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Because that represented to them corruption.

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It represented to them sin.

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And so God said for those seven days you will have no leaven in your houses, beginning with

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a holy convocation, concluded the same way.

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It is that Passover meal that the Lord Jesus took with His disciples the night before He

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was crucified, from which He took the element of the unleavened bread and the wine.

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And He said, I want to give this a new meaning for you.

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This is my blood.

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This is my body, which is broken for you.

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Partake of this in remembrance of me.

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So every time you and I partake of the Lord's Supper, it is a tie for us back to the first

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Passover.

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Now the Passover feast as the Jews celebrated it for those centuries from this time onward

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has been fulfilled.

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We no longer need to offer up a lamb, for the Lamb of God has once and for all been

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sacrificed for us.

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And we remember Him whenever we partake of the feast that we call the Lord's Supper.

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Observance of that feast is not an option on our part.

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Jesus commanded us to do it.

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If you and I habitually overlook the Lord's Supper, we are in sin.

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We cannot trifle with the God of the Bible.

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And for you and for me to partake of that Supper carelessly, or not to partake of it

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out of carelessness, is to be living in disobedience to Jesus Christ and playing with the same God

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of the Bible who brought judgment upon Egypt on this night that we read about in Exodus

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12.

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Only a fool fails to take God seriously.

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But the fact is that we live in a foolish age, don't we?

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One of the psalmist foresaw a day like ours, probably because it was a day like his own,

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because man has not changed in the 3,000 years since these words were written.

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In pride, the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted.

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Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.

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For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire, and the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord.

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The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek God.

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All his thoughts are, there is no God.

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His ways prosper at all times.

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Thy judgments are on high out of his sight.

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As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them.

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This is the wicked man now.

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He says to himself, I shall not be moved.

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Throughout all generations I shall not be an adversity.

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His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression.

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Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness.

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He sits in the lurking places in the villages.

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In the hiding places he kills the innocent.

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His eyes stealthily watch for the unfortunate.

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He lurks in a hiding place as a lion in his lair.

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He lurks to catch the afflicted.

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He catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net.

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He crouches, he bows down on the unfortunate fall by his mighty ones.

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He says to himself, God has forgotten.

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He has hidden his face.

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He will never see it.

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Does that not describe my friend, the fool who plays with God, who says God doesn't

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know?

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His judgments are on high.

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They're not for me.

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Adversity will never come to me.

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Let me tell you about the young corporate executive who was climbing the ladder of success.

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Everything that he did seemed to turn to gold.

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The decisions that he made in the corporation seemed always right and upward he went, even

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if he had to step on other people to make that step.

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The decisions that he made in the stock market always seemed to be timed just right.

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He's the kind of guy that would have sold on October 18th last year and bought on the

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19th when everything was flat and bottomed out.

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Everything that he did seemed to turn the right way.

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He had it all put together.

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One night in his penthouse, he looked out over the city in which he had great influence.

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He said to himself, what am I going to do?

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I have all of this money.

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I have all of these stocks.

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I am very secure in life.

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I know what I'm going to do.

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I'm going to begin my own business.

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I'm going to make it rich in this town.

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I am going to begin building buildings and owning them myself.

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Everyone in this town will know who I am.

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That night, God said to him, you fool.

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This night, your soul is required of you.

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Every one of us had better take the God of the Bible seriously.

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What shall a prophet of man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?

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Let's bow together.

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My friend, either tonight or today as we speak here, and remember this night in ancient Israel,

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you are either under the condemnation of God because you are playing with the God of the

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Bible, or you have learned to take him seriously and you have received his only provision for

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sin, Jesus Christ.

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With our heads bowed and with the Spirit of God searching our hearts, I wonder if there

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is not a man, a woman, a young person in this auditorium this morning whom the Holy Spirit

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has convicted.

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You have to admit that you have not taken the God of the Bible very seriously.

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Perhaps like the psalmist of old, the wicked that he described, you have felt that God

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has not seen.

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Somehow you are going to escape an accountability before him.

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Perhaps you have even said, there is no God.

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But in your heart you know there is, and he is a holy God.

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He will deal with you because of your sin.

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It may not be today or tomorrow, but deal with you he will.

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He surely will.

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And you have only one escape, only one course of deliverance, and that is the way that God

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himself has provided for you.

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Will you repent of your playful attitude about God?

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Will you repent of your sin and trust Jesus Christ today?

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Would that be the attitude of your heart?

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If so, tell him right where you are seated.

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Pray to him quietly in your own heart.

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Ask his forgiveness.

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Tell him that you trust the death of Jesus Christ to be sufficient for your sin.

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Ask God's Lamb, Jesus Christ, to save you, and he will.

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Even the wind and the sea obey him.

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He will come in and save you.

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If that is the attitude of your heart today, I would like to pray for you in closing.

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I would like to ask you to come forward in invitation, but the fact is we have no place

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to take you to pray with you.

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There is not an empty room.

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But that is not important.

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The important thing is your heart attitude.

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I would like to see you at the door afterward, and you can just tell me what you have done

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and we can try to get together later.

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Since you cannot come forward in a public indication of your faith, would you lift your

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hand right now?

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God bless you.

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This is the first time.

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The life-changing time.

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Anyone else?

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I mean business with God today.

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Father, I thank you for this one who has lifted the hand.

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But there are still others who are playing with that decision.

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I pray that you will continue to bear upon them the weight of the consequences of that

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attitude.

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May there be a genuine turning to you yet.

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Lord, those of us who have come to you through Jesus Christ, give thanks for the provision

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you have made for us.

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For we are all worthy of condemnation.

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And Lord, just as those ancient people were to celebrate the feast without leaven in their

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houses, so may we walk with you without leaven in our lives.

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May our lives be clean and pure as children of God.

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May they reflect the kind of God you are.

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May the light shine forth from us as a witness to others and above everything else as a glory

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to you and honor to you, our Savior.

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We pray this morning that you will seal the challenge of this message to our hearts.

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And may all of us take you seriously, more seriously perhaps than ever before in our

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lives as we depart from here.

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In Jesus' name, amen.