In this sermon, the preacher discusses the last judgment and the final plague that was coming upon the land of Egypt. The land of Goshen had previously escaped the last three plagues, but in order to be spared from this one, the Israelites had to put blood on their doorposts. The Egyptians, realizing the severity of the situation, urged the Israelites to leave the land. Pharaoh, after his own son was affected by the plague, finally gave in and allowed the Israelites to go, even asking for their blessings. The Israelites left Egypt, taking with them borrowed items from the Egyptians, who owed them so much that they were essentially spoiled.

Now, in verse 29, why, we see now this is the last judgment, the last plague that's coming on the land of Egypt, and God had prepared His people from it. Now, the land of Goshen had escaped the last three plagues, but would not escape here unless there was the blood on the doorpost, and any Egyptian could put it on his doorpost. All he'd had to do was just believe God, and the death angel wouldn't have gone in and asked, are you an Israelite? That's going to surprise a lot of people someday when they're going to find out that the Lord's not going to ask the name of the church you belong to, because if you have trusted Christ, the Spirit of God has baptized you into the body of believers, and that is today, of course, the true church. Now, will you notice, and I begin reading now at verse 29 of the twelfth chapter of Exodus, "...came to pass that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house, for there was not one dead." You see, the firstborn in each house. This is the last judgment. In other words, God up to this point has not touched human life. He's not taken human life, but now He does. And don't say that God is a murderer. The Lord giveth, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. When you are able to create life, then you'll be able to take it away. But wait until you can do that. Now will you notice verse 30, "...and Pharaoh rose up in the night." You see, this is something that was tragic. Now verse 31, "...he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel, and go serve the Lord, as ye have said. Also take your flocks, your herds, as ye have said, and be gone, and bless me also." Poor old Pharaoh now, he's had to give up. Up to this point, he's been reluctant. But now what has happened, it's reached in and touched his own son. And believe me, this is where you really get an individual. Now you see, God didn't begin with this plague. He began way back there by just throwing down a rod, and that rod becoming a crocodile. That could have been the message that if he had believed God, the children of Israel could have gone out then, and he'd spared his people these judgments. Therefore, don't blame it on God. God is making him release the children of Israel, which he was reluctant to do. And the Egyptians, I'm reading verse 33, and the Egyptians were urging upon the people that they might send them out of the land in haste, for they said, we'd be all dead men. They didn't know where this would end. And of course, what would be the next step? If God now took the firstborn, what could he do next? Well, the next thing to do would be to bring death to all the Egyptians. And so Pharaoh and the people said, we want you out of here, because we're afraid what will come next. And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their need troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses, and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and raiment. This matter of borrowing is they're collecting back dues. And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so that they lent unto them. The literal back of borrowed is they ask. And here they lent, they gave unto them such things as they required, and they spoil the Egyptians. Actually, the Egyptians owed them so much that when they left, they spoiled them. Now, verse 37, And the children of Israel journeyed from Ramesses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men beside children. Now, you can see where Dr. Kyle got his figures on which he attempted to base the number that came out of the land of Egypt. Well, how many did come out of the land of Egypt? We're going to get to that when we get to the book of Numbers, actually. But it would seem that there came out of the land of Egypt well over a million people. There were 600,000 on foot that were men. This had nothing to do with the children or the women. And then here our attention is called to something else. Verse 38, And a mixed multitude went up also with them, and flocks and herds, even very much cattle. Now, this mixed multitude will be the trouble in the camp. Who were the mixed multitude? Well, let me stop for just a moment because in the book of Numbers in the 11th chapter, I'll go into a great deal of detail about them because they were the troublemakers. Well, factually, they were half-breeds. An Egyptian had married a Jewish maiden, or a Hebrew had married an Egyptian maid, and then there was the offspring. And now the question comes to him, long as they lived in the land of Egypt, there's no question, no decision to make. But now, what shall he do? Shall the half-breed, shall he go up with the children of Israel, or shall he stay? Well, many of them didn't know. Many of them didn't go up, and some thought they should go up. And then they wondered whether when the going got hard and difficult, they wondered whether they hadn't made a mistake. And they were the first ones to complain. And by the way, they were not Israelites in the true sense of the word. That's been a big problem for Israel over there today, is a half-breed, a Gentile mother. Does that mean that the offspring are Israelites, are the citizens of Israel? It's always been a problem with them, and it's always caused them trouble. And by the way, we have that same thing in the church. We've got people that join the church. They're not saved. They're just part of the mixed multitude. And always the complaining and trouble comes from that crowd. I've never believed that a troublemaker in church is really a child of God. Now, I've been a pastor a long time, but let's understand what we mean by troublemakers. But we'll see that when we get to the 11th chapter of the book of Numbers, and that will be coming up.