Series: Living By Faith
Scripture: Hebrews 11:28 By faith he (Moses) kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel – NIV
Title: The Deliverance of Faith!
Proposition: This is a profound passage, rich in typology, that points to how God delivers us from the ultimate bondage of sin!
Intro: Our scripture text points us to a historic moment in which God that set a nation of people free from 400 years of slavery.
Our nation’s national anthem contains within it these words, “the land of the free, “ but are we really free?
In America you are free to come and go as you please. You are free for example if you are of age drink alcoholic beverages, smoke, gamble, but again the question I want to ask is this – are we REALLY FREE?
Many are bound by addictions of all sorts. Drugs, tobacco, gambling, pornography, even food!
We are the most medicated country in the world. We are bound by fears, hatreds, hang-ups etc. How free are we
really?
These examples point us to the reality that Jesus pointed out to even the religious leaders of his day:
John 8: 34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
If you sin, then you are a slave according to Jesus!
That is why I believe this message is so important, for it points us toward what I’ve entitled this message after:
Title: The Deliverance of Faith!
Proposition: This is a profound passage, rich in typology, that points to how God delivers us from the ultimate bondage of sin!
So in order to simplify let begin to look at it in an elementary fashion by looking at first of all:
I. The Problem they needed deliverance from?
A) Problem?
1. Slavery!
Exodus 2: 23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.- NIV
B) Picture of everyone?
1. Jesus said:
John 8:34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
2. Paul wrote:
Romans 7:14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin
Titus 3:3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
3. Peter said to Simon the Sorcerer:
Acts 8:23 For I see that you are bitterly envious and in bondage to sin." – NET
2 Peter 2:19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity--for "people are slaves to whatever has mastered them."- NIV
4. Jesus also said to the religious leaders of his day:
John 8: 44a You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.
5. Paul wrote to Timothy that there are those who are in:
2 Timothy 2:26b the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.
C) Point of our scripture text:
1. God came down to Moses and said:
Exodus 3:7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
Exodus 3: 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
D) Problem?
Exodus 3: 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
E) Predictable!
Exodus 5: 2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”
F) Possibility?
1. Pharaoh never heard of Jehovah= The Self -Existing; Eternal One, or if he did, would not acknowledge him as God!
II. The Provision for deliverance?
A) Provision?
1. Signs – a mark, demonstration, a token?
Exodus 7: 8 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.” 10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake.
B) Problem?
Exodus 7:11 Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts
1. By their secret arts, black magic, sorcery, or hidden arts or tricks!
C) Proof!
Exodus 7:12 Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.
1. That the God of Aaron and Moses is greater than the “gods” of Egypt!
D) Produce?
Exodus 7:13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.
1. Proved insufficient to convince Pharaoh to let them go.
E) Providence!
Exodus 7:13b just as the Lord had said.
1. God knew what the outcome would be!
III. The Plagues that do not bring deliverance?
A) The Plague of Blood
Exodus 7:19 The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs—and they will turn to blood.’ Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone.” 20 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. 21 The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.
22 But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said
B) The Plague of Frogs
Exodus 7:25 Seven days passed after the Lord struck the Nile.
Exodus 8:1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. 2 If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country.
Exodus 8: 6 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land. 7 But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. 8 Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.”
Exodus 8: 12 After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. 13 And the Lord did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields. 14 They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.
C) Point? - There were 7 other plagues that were sent:
3. The Plague of Gnats
4. The Plague of Flies
5. The Plague on Livestock
6. The Plague of Boils
7. The Plague of Hail
8. The Plague of Locusts
9. The Plague of Darkness
D) Perspective:
1. Seven times in this exchange we see that Pharaoh hardened his heart.
Exodus 7: 13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.
Exodus 7:22 But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said
Exodus 8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.
Exodus 8: 19 the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the Lord had said.
Exodus 8: 32 But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go.
Exodus 9:17 Pharaoh investigated and found that not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died. Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go.
Exodus 9:34 When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again: He and his officials hardened their hearts.
a) he hardened ??????????? (ve·hach·bed): to be make heavy, weighty, burdensome, dull, unresponsive, insensible.
b) his heart ??????? (lib·bov,) inner man, mind, will, the seat of his reflections, memory, emotions passions , inclinations, resolutions, determinations of his will, and conscience, ie., his heart.
John Wesley - By himself and the devil.
2. But then something concerning happens:
Exodus 9: 12 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses.
Exodus 10:20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go.
Exodus 10:27 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he was not willing to let them go.
3. Why would God hardened anyone’s heart?
Dr. J. Sidlow Baxter - God did not override Pharaoh’s own will. The hardening was a reciprocal process.
Timothy Mackie - But the whole contest between God and Pharaoh must be interpreted by what God said to Moses before ever the contest started: “The king of Egypt will not” (Exod 3:19). The will was already set. The heart was already hard. The hardening process developed inasmuch as the plagues forced Pharaoh to an issue which crystallized his sin. …
John Gill – He having often, and so long hardened his own heart, God gave him up to judicial hardness of heart, to his own corruptions, the temptations of Satan, and the lying magicians about him
John Trapp - Like a piece of metal under a black smith’s anvil, he grew harder with each hammering.
4. If we harden our heart’s God may just give us over to it!
John Wesley - Before he had hardened his own heart, and resisted the grace of God, and now God justly gave him up to his own heart's lusts, to strong delusions, permitting Satan to blind and harden him. Willful hardness is commonly punished with judicial hardness. Let us dread this as the sorest judgment a man can be under on this side hell.
5. How did God harden Pharaoh’s heart? God simply revealed himself. He revealed his power, supremacy, love for his people, hatred of sin, etc.. through the signs and wonders of the plagues. It was this revelation of God that hardened his heart. It is a biblical axiom that revelation devoid of illuminating grace hardens sinful hearts. As someone else has said, ‘the same sun that melts the wax can harden the clay.’
James Ellicott- The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh.—The judicial punitive hardening of Pharaoh’s heart by God Himself now began. As with the heathen in later times!
6. It is happening in our world today!!
Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Romans 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
Romans 1:28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.
7. And throughout this narrative Pharaoh shows remorse as a result of the outcome of the plagues but never true repentance!
2 Corinthians 7:9B For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
a) That is worldly sorrow verses godly sorrow
b) Difference?
CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON - A child caught stealing a cookie may burst out in tears. But what is it that they are crying about? Is it for their sin? Or is it for getting caught? And even if they are sad about what they’ve done, is that any assurance that they won’t be back at the cookie jar once their guilt feeling fades? Adults, too, feel sorrow when they are caught sinning. But is this sorrow evidence of true repentance? Sorrow is not repentance. We see that out in the world, where there is a great deal of sorrow on account of sin that is certainly not repentance, and never leads to it.
CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON - Ah, but there is a sweet sorrow, a healthy sorrow! …It does not spoil your happiness, my brother or sister, to confess your sin; the unhappiness is in not making the confession.
CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON - Godly sorrow is concerned with God…It is the sorrow that recognizes the enormity of what has been done, because this sin has been committed against God. That is the very heart of godly sorrow, as penitent David cried, “Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight;” and as the prodigal said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight.”
CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON - When a man is really awakened, he sees that the enormity of offense is that it is an offense against God; that is the worst part of the offense, as he rightly judges, and he therefore sorrows over it….I hardly know a diviner joy than to lay my head in my Heavenly Father’s bosom, and to say, “Father, I have sinned, but you have forgiven me; and, oh, I do love you!
V. The Passover that bring the ultimate deliverance!
Hebrews 11:28 By faith….(Moses) kept the Passover
Exodus 11: 11 Now the Lord had said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.
Exodus 11: 4 So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. 5 Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. 6 There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.
A) Preparation
Exodus 12:1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 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. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 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. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 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.
Exodus 12:21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
B) The Passover!
Exodus 12: 29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.
C) Produce?
1. Deliverance!
a) Freedom from slavery!
Exodus 12: 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.
Exodus 12: 31 During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. 32 Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”
VI. The Prophetic Picture!
A) Pointing to?
1 Corinthians 5: 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
1. Christ is our Passover!
a) Deliverance can only come through him!
John 8: 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Q: How?
Isaiah 53:4?Surely he took up our pain
????and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
????stricken by him, and afflicted.
5?But he was pierced?for our transgressions,
????he was crushed?for our iniquities;
the punishment?that brought us peace?was on him,
????and by his wounds?we are healed.
6?We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
????each of us has turned to our own way;
and the?Lord?has laid on him
????the iniquity?of us all.
7?He was oppressed?and afflicted,
????yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb?to the slaughter,
????and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
????so he did not open his mouth.
John 1: 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world!
1Peter 1: 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last days
Revelation 13:8b the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
VII. The Particulars of our deliverance:
a) Forgiveness
Heb 9:22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
b) Justification -d??a??? -dikaioo
i. To be o rendered just, or righteous
Romans 3:25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
Rom 5:9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!
c) Redemption -?p???t??s?? -apolytrosis
i. A releasing effected by payment of ransom, deliverance
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace
Heb 9:12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining[fn] eternal redemption.
d) Reconciliation - ?ata??a?? -katallage
i. Restoration to favour
ii. To conciliate to one's self
iii. In the NT of the restoration of the favour of God to sinners that repent and put their trust in the expiatory death of Christ
Col 1:20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
e) Cleansed conscience
Heb 9:14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,[fn] so that we may serve the living God!
f) Confidence
Heb 10:19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
i. Before God
ii. Satan!
Revelation 12: 10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
g) Closeness
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13)
h) Communion
1Jo 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[fn] sin.
XI. Preparing for out Passover/deliverance:
A) Prepare?
1. Repentance
a) Get rid of the yeast = sin!
Exodus 12: 5 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
B) Reliance
1. Trust wholly in the Passover Lamb!
Exodus 12:12 “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
2. Only His Blood can atone for your sin!
C) Reception
1. Take him completely in!
Exodus 12: 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it.
2. He must not only be your Savior, but Lord!
Romans 10: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10: 9b -10 (The Message) “Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!” 11 Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.”
Conclusion: Are you trusting in Christ alone to deliver you?
Psalm 18:2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
