God’s Wrath And The Blood

GOD’S WRATH AND THE BLOOD

Ex. 12:3-13; 1 Cor. 5:7

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: “4 worms in Church"

1. A minister decided to add a visual demonstration about the evil habits of modern society.

2. Four worms were placed into four separate jars.

a. 1st - put into a container of alcohol.

b. 2nd - put into a container of cigarette smoke.

c. 3rd - put into a container of chocolate syrup.

d. 4th - put into a container of good clean soil.

2. At the conclusion of the sermon on evil habits, the Minister reported the following results:

a. 1st worm in alcohol . . . . . .. Dead.

b. 2nd worm in cigarette smoke . . Dead!

c. 3rd worm in chocolate syrup . . . Dead!.

d. 4th worm in good clean soil . .Alive!

3. So the Minister asked the congregation,

"So, my friends? What did you learn from this demonstration?"

4. Maxine, sitting in the back, quickly raised her hand and said, "As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!"

5. That pretty much ended the service!

B. TEXT

3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover. 12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every

firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. Ex. 12:3,5-8,11-13.

“For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” 1 Cor. 5:7B.

C. THESIS

1. It was a terrible time for the land of Egypt. God had risen up against the land with horrible plagues – which destroyed all of the land, the animals, and the waters of Egypt.

2. The Nile turned to blood, the frogs, the lice, the flies, Beasts died of disease, Boils, Hail, locusts, darkness.

3. Imagine yourself there that night. The tenth plague was more frightening than all the others: Jehovah Himself has loosed Death into the streets with sword unsheathed!

a. Death will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. No one will survive the night. Every house will have a dead person in it!

b. No bolted door or barred window can keep that Death out. “Tremble, all inhabitants of the land! You will all lose someone tonight!”

c. Wait! The voice of God’s Mercy spoke: “There is a reprieve, an exception: all who take refuge under the blood of God’s substitutionary sacrifice will be spared!”

I. HOW IMPORTANCE WAS THE BLOOD THAT NIGHT? The Most Important thing in the world!

A. WAS MADE AS CONSPICUOUS AS POSSIBLE

1. It became the distinguishing Mark. You could tell an Israelite from an Egyptian – NOT by clothing or by language, but by the Blood on the doorway.

2. There were no “secret believers” that day! What you believed was emblazoned in red on the front of your house.

3. You had to disregard your friend’s opinions, your social standing, your sophistication, your wealth.

3. Both rich and poor had to disfigure the fronts of their houses with grotesque swaths of blood.

4. There was NO COMPROMISE POSTION: Either you had the Blood on your house, or you didn’t! There wasn’t a nice, polite way to do it.

5. The Lord’s people couldn’t be ashamed of Jesus that day and live! They had to choose.

B. THE BLOOD WAS THE SAVING TOKEN

1. Every house in Egypt had a dead person in it.

2. Only the blood separated the living from the dead.

3. When the walls of Jericho fell, only one house (in the wall) was left standing – the one with the Scarlet Cord in the window!