In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes that all of humanity is under the domination of Satan due to sin. The power of Satan lies in sin, which gives him the ability to act as a jailer over mankind. The preacher highlights that the wages of sin is death, and Satan is determined to ensure that everyone experiences death in its various forms. The sermon also discusses the story of Moses and Pharaoh, emphasizing the resistance Pharaoh displayed towards God and the consequences he faced as a result. The preacher concludes by emphasizing the importance of being in the Lord Jesus Christ to avoid the judgment of God.

Will you turn this morning to the first epistle of Corinthians, chapter 10. The first epistle of Corinthians to the Corinthians, chapter 10. We're going to read a few verses beginning at verse 1. Moreover brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ, that was the majority of them. That is the true meaning of that word. All, all, all came out of Egypt, but not all got into Canaan. They all came out, but with the majority of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are coming. Therefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed, lest he fall. Now in that passage the Apostle Paul is obviously referring to that great emancipation that Israel experienced by the intervention of Jehovah, who delivered them out of the terrible bondage and misery and lash of Pharaoh. He refers too to the fact that having been brought out of Egypt, they spent a long period, an unhappy period, of some forty years in the wilderness. And only when the whole of that generation except the two men had died out, did the new generation get into the land of Canaan, which God had always had in mind for them when he first brought them out. And then having mentioned this great period of Israel's history, he says all these things happened unto them for ensamples, examples we would say in modern English. And as you can see in the margin of your authorised version, it gives you against the word example, types. All these things happened unto them for types of us. Let nobody say that when we take up the Old Testament and see in it types of us and types of Christ, that we are taking liberties and spiritualising the Bible and putting a meaning on it which we import into it from outside. The Holy Spirit here says all these things happened unto them for types of us. And in these days we are going to look at this portion of Israel's history from this simple point of view. We are going to see in it types of us and types of Jesus Christ and of his great salvation. We are going to follow Israel from Egypt through the wilderness into Canaan. And we shall see it's a type of our passage from death unto life and life more abundant through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's establish what God's purpose was in bringing Israel out of Egypt. Well now when the proposition was first made by God to Moses, this is what God said in Exodus chapter three. When God appeared to Moses at the burning bush, this is what God said to Moses, Exodus chapter three verse seven. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters. For I know their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore behold the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. These people were the descendants of God's chosen man Abraham, and in his descendants God had a great purpose for the redemption of the whole world, for from this nation was going to come the Messiah. And God had prophesied that Abraham's seed would spend four hundred years in Egypt, and that they would come under the heel of the oppressor. But the end of that time God had said way back to Abraham, he was going to bring them forth. Therefore this situation hadn't taken God by surprise. He prophesied they were going to be in Egypt. In fact he'd allowed it to happen. But now the hour of his deliverance had come. But will you please notice that he's not only going to bring them out from under the hand of the Egyptians, but his purpose is to bring them out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey, even the land that God had prophesied and promised to Abraham long before. And thus it is God brought them out in order that he might bring them in. His purpose for them wasn't merely a negative one, that is to free them from the misery and unhappiness of being a nation of slaves to the Egyptians, but to bring them into another land, a far better land, the land of Canaan, which will be rarely theirs. A land that would have a fruitfulness that even Egypt, with all its civilization, knew nothing of. Now that was God's purpose. He brought them out that he might bring them in. It was never God's first purpose that that people whom he'd redeemed with a mighty hand should spend 40 years in that desert, that that whole generation should die out before their descendants entered in. His purpose was that very same generation that came out should go in and enjoy that good land. And no matter what enemies might be there, grace was enough to deal with them all and give them that land. It was only their disobedience and unbelief and murmuring and much else that made that painful long sojourn in the wilderness necessary. Well now, we, like Israel, had been born in the spiritual, or if you like, the unspiritual counterpart of Egypt. The whole world, we are told, lieth in the wicked one. The whole lot, the whole of society, all the descendants of Adam lie in the wicked one. They're under the domination of Pharaoh, Satan, the god of this world. And you and I were born as part of that world under the domination of Satan. The thing which gave Satan his power over the human race was sin. That gives Satan his power to act as the jailer. Even God himself has said, the wages of sin is death, and the devil is out to see that you jolly well get death in all its many forms. And he knows how to lash us with his lash, under the law, with its tenfold lash. Learning alas how true, that the more I tried, the sooner I died, while the law cried, you, you, you. And every one of us, we're born away from God under sin. As soon as they're born, we read, they go astray. They've got the seeds in it from the beginning. And where sin comes, there comes death and judgment and condemnation. And the more you try to be better, the more sure you are, sure you are to fail of achieving your standards. And the more you fail to achieve your standards, the more Satan has to accuse you of. And that's where we all came. Many people, of course, are not all that conscious of accusation and guilt. But it's an unconscious load. They're trying to enjoy the things of Egypt. But in quiet moments, they know the lash of Pharaoh. What you've done and what you are, you haven't measured up. You somehow can't be different. What's the use of trying? All right, go deeper into the things of Egypt. Well now, that's where we all began. But God has a people chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world, for whom he has a glorious purpose as he did for Egypt. And grace has determined he's going to have a great number, whom no man can number, rescued out from this world, out from the power of Satan, brought to himself. And so he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, should not go on in Egypt, but have everlasting life and come out of that sad, unhappy bondage into freedom and light and into fellowship with God himself, and be a people for his name, through whom he can achieve his wonderful purposes. But what I want to emphasize at this point is this, that just as in Israel's case, God's purpose was to bring them out that he might bring them in, so with us. His purpose is not merely to relieve us of the burden of a heavy heart and an accusing conscience, and to forgive our sins and set us free from the old way of life, because that leaves a vacuum. And all too often, if that vacuum isn't filled, the person concerned is tempted to go back to the things of Egypt today and come under Pharaoh. No, God's purpose in giving his son for us, in approaching us, in initiating his work of grace in us and in saving us, is to bring us out, that he might bring us into a good land and a large, the spiritual counterpart of Canaan. Now I know our hymns familiarize us with the thought of Canaan being heaven. You see, we get saved out of Egypt and this wilderness, this earth is a wilderness, through which we walk and one day we pass the Jordan into the immediate presence of God in heaven. And I think it's right you could, quite rightly, regard in certain passages Canaan as a picture of heaven. But that doesn't really give full meaning to the whole stretch of this canvas. I suggest to you that Canaan is the Lord Jesus fully enjoyed here and now. In contrast to that land of unhappiness and dissatisfaction, here is a land that flows with milk and honey, a land of copious rainfall, out of whose hills you may dig grass, what a wonderful land. It pictures the Lord Jesus fully satisfying his people, filling their every need, triumphing for them over their enemies, making them to triumph. A life where we just look back on the things of the world and we can't understand how they had any satisfaction for us at all, so good it is to be enjoying Christ in the present, to be walking with him, to be partakers of his risen life, having that life reproduced in us, and seeing his triumph over things that are all the time too much for us. I would suggest it's that fullness of spiritual life in Christ which is pictured for us by Canaan. And God has brought us out in order that he might bring us in. And no matter what river Jordans seem to be in the way to impede us getting to that place of blessing, in Jesus is a way through every river available for the weakest and the most unworthy of us, perfectly, easily adapted to Christians who are no better than we are. And that's what we want to find out, that's what we want to explore. Well that was God's purpose in saving us. But as in the case of Israel, so with us. So often there's all too long a gap between getting out of Egypt and getting into Canaan. And we can spend all too long a time out of one but not into the other, in what is here pictured as a wilderness, as a desert where nothing grows, where there's no water or no satisfaction naturally. Now that wasn't God's purpose. It was his purpose that they should come out and go to Sinai and spend 12 months there. They did. But after that, his purpose was a quick march through to the land that he'd got for them. But as we shall see owing to their unbelief and disobedience, they were condemned to walking up and down and dying out in that wilderness. Someone has put it this way, Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh were the only two who ever got through to that land of milk and honey. And the big emphasis in that passage we read was this, they all got out of Egypt. They all came through the Red Sea, all, all, all. But after that, with a majority, God was not well pleased. But they were overthrown in the wilderness and their bones lay bleaching there in the desert sun. Well now, who dares say what proportion who get out of Egypt get into Canaan? But I'm quite sure it's always a smaller number who get into Canaan. It needn't be. It was never intended. There's every provision for the weakest of us to enter in and possess the land and come into peace and real rest and victory. But so often, like Israel, because of our unbelief and disobedience, which we shall think about later, we find ourselves all too long in the wilderness. However, let me make this clear. In talking about coming into Canaan, I don't want you to get the idea that I am regarding people here, some in Canaan, some not necessarily. Or rather, should I say, I'm not regarding that you get in once for all. I, I, I, I've been in Canaan. And praise the Lord, he brought me there today. But things can go wrong and I can find myself back in the wilderness. And there seems to be a great barrier impeding my entrance into rest again. But whatever that barrier is, and no matter how culpable I seem to be, Jesus has made a way through every door to bring me at any moment into rest and peace. But you know, it's so easy not to bother and to get content and settle down in the wilderness. And we may have been there a long time. Well now, that is our canvas in these days. Pray, will you, that God will help us to see his lessons, and especially for myself, because I have to seek the Lord day by day for the unfolding of this lovely and precious subject from Egypt to Canaan. But I want to think about Egypt, first of all. And in particular, Pharaoh and his kingdom. It's a terrific story. I know we relegate it to Sunday school days, we don't give it much attention, but latterly I've been reading again and afresh the story of that great contest between God and Pharaoh. And I've been astonished at the terrific resistance that Pharaoh put up against God. It's almost unbelievable that man could resist God so determinedly, and for so long, and with such terrible results, and yet God is doing it, until the awful hour of final retribution. What a solemnly, that man can resist God year after year, in spite of the judgments and chastenings God brings upon that man, and do so with such daring that the final retribution comes upon him without remedy. It begins, of course, with Moses going in, in Exodus chapter 5, to Pharaoh, and in verse 1, Moses says, By the way, would you notice what the Christian life is pictured as? It's a feast, not a fast. And Pharaoh said, By the way, whenever you have LORD, OR in capitals, it's always Jehovah in the original. Give him his name in your thinking, if not in your reading. And so straight away, Pharaoh resisted this demand from the God of the Hebrews. And thereafter, it's a contest between God and Pharaoh, and God has to break Pharaoh's will. And in order to do it, he brought upon him judgment after judgment, plague after plague, and not only upon Pharaoh, but upon his kingdom. What a story it is. The day when they turned on the taps, and the water came out red, smelly. Sometimes our taps do that, and there wasn't any water, but wasn't polluted. And then, because Pharaoh wouldn't give in, Moses said, All right, God's going to send this plague of frogs. Frogs, everywhere frogs. Do you like frogs? In the kitchen, everywhere frogs! How terrible! And because Pharaoh wouldn't give in then, God said, All right, we're going to have the dust turn to lice. Everybody found the dust was turned to lice. What a terrible experience they had. Still this man wouldn't. He relented up to a point, said, All right, if you'll ask God, I'll let them go. But as soon as there was relief, he went back on his word, you remember, and he resisted. And then there came that swarm of flies, everywhere flies, flies, flies, in the hot desert state of Egypt. And then there was a moraine on I don't know what moraine is. I don't know anything about animals. But anyhow, it was their beasts, their cattle, and God touched their property. And that began to make them think that when that was relieved, when they were relieved of that, Pharaoh went back on his promise. And then were those boils. Everybody got boils. It's rather interesting we read that the magicians couldn't stand before Pharaoh because of his boils. Well, I've known because of their boils, I've known people couldn't sit down because of boils. But these folks couldn't even stand to know what they did with themselves. God was putting his hand upon Pharaoh and his kingdom. And then there came the hail, and the lightning, and the destruction of all their crops. And then the locusts that ate up the little crops that the hail had left. And then there came that terrible darkness. The night was just the same as the day. A darkness that could be felt everywhere. And then finally the tenth plague with the smiting of Egypt's firstborn. And all this was to subdue Moses. And he had the most obvious manifestation that this wasn't accident. It was God. Not only did it happen exactly when Moses said it would, but the extraordinary thing in plague after plague, the land of Goshen where Israel dwelt was spared. And at first Pharaoh didn't believe it. He said, go and have a look. They said, it's true. And he knew this was the finger of God, but he wouldn't let Israel go. Now it's very interesting to note that in some places it says Pharaoh hardened his heart, and in other places it says God hardened his heart. And the interesting thing, that in most places where it says Pharaoh hardened his heart, it's one Hebrew word apparently, and in places where it says God hardened his heart, it's another Hebrew word. When it's Pharaoh hardening his heart, it's the word which means he made heavy his heart. He made stupid his heart. He didn't choose to understand. He wasn't going to give in. That was his own personal attitude. But because that was his attitude, God said, all right, I'll ratify your attitude. I will make, and the next word is strong your heart, I will give you an insane burial that will make you go on resisting, so that I'll have to send more plagues. And if you won't be a foil for my mercy, you'll be a foil for my wrath. I'll get a name for myself, if not in showing mercy, if you won't let me do that, I'll get a name for myself in showing wrath. How tender God actually was to Pharaoh. He offered him the choice of letting Israel go without suffering to him or his people. It could have happened so easily. All the suffering that came on Pharaoh and his people was only due to his stubbornness. Don't complain when it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart. He hardened his own first. If a man says, I won't, all right, sometimes God says you're new shan't. Now all this is tremendously important to us. The terrible possibility of us, of man, pitting our wills against God, as he comes to us calling for our repentance and submission to Christ. When God created his universe, he forced everything into his will. It had to obey. Even the birds, they're actuated by instinct, they don't know how, they're having to obey. But when it came to man, God stopped. Here there's going to be a difference, I'm going to give him my crowning gift, the gift of a free will. He's got the opportunity of choosing to obey or choosing to disobey. An extraordinary thing is that you've got, and I've got, this terrible power. I can, if I will, resist to bring us to submission, to bring us to salvation. He sometimes brings grievous chastenings upon us. Many are the sorrows of the ungodly. This world is littered with the wrecks that people have made of their lives. Things have gone wrong, which God never intended in the first place to go wrong, but he had to let them go wrong to bring us down. Sometimes he has to take a further hand in allowing us sufferings and deprivations to bring Pharaoh down. Please turn the cassette over now, do not fast wind it in either direction. Sometimes he has to take a further hand in allowing us sufferings and deprivations to bring Pharaoh down. And yet in spite of some of the beginnings of these plagues that may have come upon some of our lives, we may be still pitting our wills against him, determined to go on in independence. I tell you it's a dangerous thing. His love for us is such that he's not going to stop at anything to get us, even if it means a path of pain and suffering for us. In Isaiah 1 it says, why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, the whole heart faint, from the sole of the foot, even unto the head there's no soundness in it. How true that was of Egypt. There was no soundness in Egypt, it was a wreck. Yet he wouldn't give in like Hitler. He preferred to bring his nation down around his ears and everybody else to death, rather than give in. That's what Hitler did. That's what Pharaoh did. And that's what sinners do today. And I doubt not that there may be some doing it here. Oh, what objectlessness one has seen. Sometimes young people brought up in godly homes. The utter perverseness of the human will, that will pit itself against the God of their fathers, just because he is the God of their fathers. If perhaps it had unconverted parents, it would have been a point in which they could have differed from their parents in getting converted. But they have to follow mum and dad. My friend, you either do so or you go to hell. But oh, the perverseness of the human will. And I tell you, dear friends, it's very solemn. We may begin by hardening our hearts, making stupid our hearts, not choosing to understand, not choosing to listen to the meetings, making stupid and heavy our hearts. But you know, there may well come a point, if we persist in that long enough, where God said, all right, if you won't, then you shan't. I designed that you would have been a foil for my mercy, a foil for my grace, that your testimony would have shown what grace can do for a sinner. And others should have believed. But he sometimes has to say, if you aren't willing to be a foil for my grace, I'll make you a foil for my wrath. And people will see how great are the calamities that come upon the man who resists God. This isn't made up. You've only got to look at the world, look at the race. And you know, nearly every man in England has got a spiritual history. That man who's way away from God, spoiling his life in one way or another. If you knew the whole story years ago, he was confronted with Jesus Christ, but he wouldn't. And this is where it's not. And God says, I'll make my power known through you. I want to make it known through the grace which I show. That's where I get my greatest glory. But if your will is such, I will harden you, I will give you a daring, I will give you an obstinacy that will astonish angels, in order that you shall topple way down to final destruction. Now that's the meaning of this solemn, solemn passage. God did not harden Pharaoh's heart until again and again he'd hardened it himself. And the hardening of his heart that God gave to Pharaoh was simply, he made it strong. That's a Hebrew word. He gave him the daring to resist even God. How utterly insane. Now, I don't want you to say, well, I think that's happened already to me. If there's the slightest concern that it should happen, that's a proof that it hasn't. When it's happened, nothing in the world makes that man concerned. But all I am saying, we may be on the path, some of us here, we could have come to Christ even last night and we didn't. We've got to go on a little bit longer, a little bit longer, and one day, God says, all right, if you won't, then you shan't. And then there came the last plague. There were nine, then the final one. And there was a difference between the nine and the tenth. The nine affected their property and their persons. But the tenth was different. It affected their very lives, the lives of their firstborn. They were the flower of the race. A big difference. The nine plagues were not punitive. Not one of them was punitive in its intention. Every one of them was restorative, intended to soften and break and give him the chance to repent. They were restorative in their intention, but not the last one. That was not restorative. It was punitive. Now, there's a big difference between the chastening judgments that God brings on the rebellious sons of men and the final judgment. All the others are never punitive. No man ever say, God's punishing me for my sins. He's doing nothing of the sort for two reasons. One, that thing you're suffering isn't severe enough to be regarded as a punishment for sin. That? A punishment for sin? That's no punishment. Secondly, the only adequate punishment for sin has already been poured out. On the head of another, the Lord Jesus. The only real punishment for sin is that which Jesus bore in his body on the cross. What comes upon us now is not a punishment. It's restorative. Oh, dear old friend, when things go wrong and problems accrue, when sorrow comes and you get in a jam, even though it's very much direct, linked with our own faults and our own transgressions, it's not a punishment. Behind that frowning providence, there's the smiling face of grace. And he has to use these things to bring us down, to get us to repent. And at last, we come to Jesus. Oh, the stories that doubtless could be told here of how under the hand of God, men humbled themselves. And they found that that very thing was designed to bring them to God's dear Son. And they end up by praising God for those very things. Oh, yes, they're restorative. But there's a last judgment which isn't restorative. I say again, right to the end, everything is only restorative in its intention. Of course, we may defy that intention, and then the last one comes, which is punitive. And the last plague pictures the last, final judgment. When, according to the Book of Revelation, the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books are opened, and men are judged according to the things written in the books, that terribly accurate record of our lives and thoughts and intents, the men revealed and hidden, and all has to come out. At last, men have to face the God whom they've been fighting. But there's another book, the Lamb's Book of Life, and whosoever is not found written in that Lamb's Book of Life, whoever's name is not written there in the blood of the Redeemer, we're told, is cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. There's a first death, there's a second death to be endured. I want you to notice, with regard to this final judgment, there was no difference. I was smite the firstborn of Pharaoh, the firstborn of a man in the dungeon, and the firstborn of the cattle in the store. The judgment of God was absolutely impartial. It extended from the palace to the dungeon, even to the store. My Bible tells me there is no difference, for all has said it. Shakespeare, immortal poet, he stands there. There's no difference between him and the man who is just a nobody. Your politicians, your kings, your literateurs, your immortal poets, your great musicians, your Beethovens, God says there is no difference, for all have said it. And the judgment of God is going to reach from the palace down to the dungeon. And if we're not in the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall not escape. Now Israel. I want you to turn to Exodus. We turn from Pharaoh to Israel. Exodus, chapter 11, verse 7. And here God is talking about this final judgment. He says here, but against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, that ye may know how the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. Now listen to that great word. The Lord does put a difference between the Egyptians and... The Lord puts a difference between the world and those who are his own, by grace. An eternal difference. You will see that is also said again in chapter 8, verse 23. And I will put a division between my people and thy people. Tomorrow shall this sign be. And your margin tells you that the word division is, I will put a redemption between my people and the Egyptians. And you know, whereas these, the counterpart of these plagues is coming upon this world, not only individually but corporately. The book of Revelation talks about the kingdom of the beast. If you look at that passage you will find the sort of plagues that fall upon the kingdom of the beast are very much the same as you've got here. If you want a real literal interpretation, then this is picturing what's going to happen to the kingdom of the beast at the end of time. The calamities are going to come upon this world. But, the Lord says, be that as it may. Be those plagues what they may. I put a difference between the world and the true Israel. And of course, that did happen. In five out of the nine plagues, we are told, Goshen was spared. And I take it, one infers that the whole lot, there was always a difference. No lice, no flies in the land of Goshen where Israel lived. No marine on their beasts. No hail upon their flocks. No darkness but light. And all the way through, the Lord put a difference. And do you know that's today the same? In spite of all that has to come upon the sons of men, in spite of all that's going to come upon our world corporately, the Lord puts a difference all the time between the world and what the world suffers and his special people. You say, is that really so? Don't Christians suffer? Don't things go wrong with them? Don't they have sorrow? Sometimes grievous sorrows and troubles? Yes, they do. But it's still the same. He puts a difference. There's a difference first in his intention. This comes to the saints of God as a loving chastening designed for their increase in holiness. No sign of judgment there. A chastening, a discipline. And they are unable to accept it, not as something that's come upon them, they know not how, and so on, with no answer, they know it's coming from the loving hand of a loving God designed for their increase in holiness. Someone has said, no circumstance is good or ill in itself save in the effect which you allow it to have upon you. What effect does the world allow these things to have upon them? Well, you know, they've got no hope, they go down into despair and bitterness and resentment, why did it happen to me? And that only adds to the pain of what they endure. But the saint of God may know that it isn't good or ill, indeed all things work together for good to them that love God. And he receives them from a loving hand, and having seen the love of God displayed in the giving of his son, the most severe circumstance in life cannot for a moment persuade him that God doesn't love him. That's the art of a Roman saint. I'm persuaded that nothing can separate, what I have to go through, because he's seen the love of God in giving his son for him. Nothing can give the lie to the love of God after that. And he goes through it in fellowship with God. He has so many cushions of grace. He has a place of repose. Many sweet deliverances and a happy issue out of his inflections. There's a reason, a purpose he loves to tell. Oh, what a difference the Lord puts between the Egyptians and Israel. But wait a minute, those are the nine plagues. In a measure we have some that appear outwardly have the same as the world, though as I've said inwardly we don't. What about this final one? There's been a difference put between the Egyptians and Israel all the way along, but what about this final one? Is this difference going to be maintained? Because if it isn't, then they're finished. Their firstborn, the flower of their race is going to perish as well as Egypt's. God says there's going to be that difference maintained even in this final plague. Indeed, this is what's been the difference all along, if you only knew it, but here it is coming into full view. I'm going to put a difference, even in this final plague, between Israel and the Egyptians. My dear friends, you may have sweet comforts all the way along in life's troubles. God seems to have put a difference. He's cushioned things. He's been near you in your troubles. But tell me, is that difference going to be maintained in that all-important day when I, the summons, must obey and from this world be called away? Is that difference going to be maintained there? Is that difference going to be maintained when the books are opened? When the timeline of perfect righteousness is going to put aside alongside every life? How do you know in that all-important day there's still going to be a difference, and what is the ground of the difference? God says there's going to be a difference, and you remember what it is he told them. Take Halam. The tenth day of the first month, keep it until the fourteenth month. It must be without blemish. And in the evening of the fourteenth day, the whole assembly of Israel must kill it. This is Exodus 12. Kill it. Not kill them, kill it. To God's mind, there's many lands for victory. One land. And the whole assembly of the children of Israel shall kill it. Him, God saw him to be. For Jesus is said in Revelation 13.8 to be the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. God had provided for the redemption of the world, and for the forgiveness of sins, and freedom from judgment, even before any sin had been committed. The situation hasn't taken him by surprise. It's all been anticipated, fully and perfectly, in this blessed second person of the Trinity, and in God's mind and purpose, where there's no time. He was already slain. For man's sin before the foundation of the world. And they were to collect the blood, each house, to get a little hiss of weed, pull it out of the wall and use it as a brush, put it into the basin and sprinkle it on the top doorpost, and on the side doorpost. And God said, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and this last plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. Yes, that, those many lambs, picture the lamb, our blessed Lord Jesus. That blood pictures His blood, and the sprinkling of that blood pictures our repentance, our coming to Him, and by faith claiming, Thou has died for sinners, therefore Lord for me. And then it is sprinkled upon the doorposts of heart and conscience. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague, that last plague, shall not be upon you, when I smite the land of Egypt. In that last day there's going to be a difference, right there. The difference is not going to be the difference between the palace and the dungeon. It's going to be on one thing only, upon the blood sprinkled on the heart, or the blood not sprinkled. That's the only thing. Like those two thieves, it's simply a question which side of Calvary's cross we stand. A friend of mine, Leif Samuel, spoke to a policeman, he said, he said, you have to say, we've got to find the Lord. He said, oh, I'm going to be the dying thief. In other words, you've got to put it off. And Leif said, but which thief, which side? One railed on Jesus, the other said, Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And that's the only point of difference. The blood of the Lord Jesus. Israel were no better than the Egyptians, maybe. But they'd obeyed God. They'd taken the lamb, they'd sprinkled it on the door. Now, I just want to say one last thing. And it's this. In Exodus 12 it says, and the blood. Verse 12, 13, it's an important verse, you can look at it. And the blood shall be to you for a token among the houses where ye are. Now listen. The blood shall be to you for a token. Now many people say, you know, I cannot understand this emphasis on the blood of Christ. Talk about the life of Christ, or even the death of Christ. But this emphasis on the blood of Christ, it's offensive to me. Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? The blood, I can't understand it. And it's not only unbelievers that say that. Even believers. I would fear to loss to explain what I really mean by the blood of the Lord Jesus. Well this will help us. The blood shall be to you for a token. The power of that blood that day was, it was a token of something. Not the blood itself. It was a token of something. It says so. The blood shall be to you for a token. A token of what? A token of judgment already met. Judgment was due to come on the house of the Israelites, I suppose, as much as any other house. But when the angel went past and saw that blood, it was as if that blood said, you can't come in here, judgment's already been here. When did judgment come to that house? As the sun was setting. As father and son came and took that lamb. The boy said, I can't kill it. He said, son, either that lamb dies or you die. Come on. But we can't come to love it. You've got to do it. But look at the dear thing. Either that lamb dies or you die. Judgment's got to come. If it doesn't come on the lamb, it's going to come on you. And at last that boy was willing for the judgment to come upon another. And they took the blood. And thereafter it became a token of that fact. It had already come. Death had already visited that house, but in the person of the substitute. And that's the meaning of the blood of Jesus. The blood, dear one, shall be to you for a token of what? Of judgment? No. The wrath of a sin-hating God with me can have nothing to do. My Saviour's obedience to blood hides all my transgressions from view. Judgment to my sins has already come. It's been exhausted in the bosom of the Lamb of God when He said, it is finished. It is finished was His cry. Finished every job. Sinner, this is all you mean to tell me, is it not? But I'm not good enough, friend. It's been finished. All that could keep you out of heaven, all that could condemn you, the years of rebellion, the judgment and all that has already come and been exhausted, burnt itself out. So there's none for you. And the blood is the token of that fact. That's the simple meaning. Yes, one of the reasons why it's difficult to receive is it always implies judgment. Always implies, but it tells us of judgment made. There's an interesting thing. The hymns about the cross are invariably solemn hymns. Good Friday hymns. But the hymns about the blood are invariably ones with a lilt and a thrill of victory. It's finished. It's over. I'm out of freedom. The fact that I've been what I have is under that blood. It's a perfect atonement, it's a perfect righteousness for the man who hasn't got any. You'll always find that. Don't quibble that there's a lilt and you want to beat time. Talk about, too sacred. My friend, the hymn writers were right. It's always the note of victory. Judgment has been finished. And dear one, you've been condemning yourself and blaming yourself. Oh, come to Jesus. Tell him, yes, I'm all this, Lord, but that blood, I anticipated it. I claim it for myself, oft as it is sprinkled. On our guilty hearts, Satan in confusion, terror-struck, departs. And it isn't only initially we need to sprinkle the blood. Things go wrong, and though we haven't lost our salvation, we lose our peace. We want to get back again. Tell God what it is. And the blood has anticipated even that. Oh, the Christian can go on to have terrible condemnation and blaming himself, and hope if he could pray more or be a better Christian, he'd get peace. You never will. You get it by the blood. And remember, you haven't only got to sprinkle it on the upper doorpost between you and God, but on the side posts, too. Sometimes there are things wrong between us and somebody else. Been there for years wrong. You won't get real peace. You say, Lord, it's wrong. I'm the one to blame. And then the blood is sprinkled on the doorposts, and on the side posts. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Doesn't only mean I will omit you, I will hover over you, is the Hebrew word. I'll be on guard over you. I will be your righteousness. I will undertake the battle for you. Oh, how secure is the salvation of the ones when he sees the blood, Jehovah. Jehovah puts his wing over me. My dear friend, I'll be at the old hymn, happy, but not more secure when glorified with him in heaven. I'll be happier there, but no more short, secure. I'm as secure as the blood can make me. Now, I wonder, have you changed to the right side of the cross yet? Or are you a pharaoh? Still, God have mercy on you if you are. And if you're a believer, have we got peace, or is there something that's bothering us? Oh, friend, the blood of the Lord Jesus is waiting to be sprinkled, to cleanse, upon the upper doorposts and upon the side posts, when he sees the blood sprinkled. No matter what the failure's been, you're as right with God as the blood can make you. And you sing the song that Israel sang. Let us pray. Beloved Lord Jesus, we want to thank thee for these sweet provisions of grace, but we thank thee they come to us mingled with truth. The truth about ourselves. We ask thee, Lord, may we no longer be as pharaohs. May we do what pharaoh didn't. Humble ourselves before thee, and gratefully come to the dear Saviour, thus provided, and receive him, and have his blood wash away every sin, and give us peace with thee. Interpret these things to us, we pray thee, in thy dear name. Amen. And now may the grace together, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen.