Faith - Hebrews 11:28

Israel is my firstborn son. And I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.

But Pharaoh thought himself a god and did not listen. So the Lord brought a series of plagues against Egypt, a series of judgments to humble Pharaoh. And over the course of months, repeat, and this happens over the course of months, you see the same thing repeatedly. Pharaoh agrees to let Israel go. If the plague stops, Moses intercedes, and then Pharaoh changes his mind and says, no, you can't leave. He refuses to free God's covenant people. And Egypt's sin cries out for judgment. And so it comes to a 10th plague, the judgment that God had threatened. That night, God would strike down the firstborn of every family in the land, unless, unless something was offered as a substitute. Now, it would have to be something valuable, something not easily replaced. It would have to be something pure. It would have to be something involving blood. A one-year-old male lamb without any physical blemishes, one per family, it must be slaughtered and the blood applied to the doorframe so that when the angel of the Lord passed through the land, it would pass over those homes that had applied the blood. The Israelites were to eat their evening meal in haste, ready to travel, because Pharaoh would finally relent and let them go, would want them gone. The Egyptians would essentially pay them to leave, and a mixed multitude would depart with them. The Passover was a substitute sacrifice leading to their freedom. It was nothing less than judgment for Egypt. and salvation for God's people. And keeping it was entirely a matter of faith. That's the second thing to talk about. Keeping the Passover was entirely a matter of faith for Israel. Think about Pharaoh for a moment. He made the Israelites slaves. He tried to kill their children. Nine times he refused to let them go. What would be different this time? Think about what the Israelites were supposed to do. I mean, they had offered sacrifices before, but nothing like this. And if God really did destroy the firstborn, how is a bit of blood supposed to protect them? Think about the results they were supposed to see. They would not only go free, but they would plunder Egypt. There was nothing in their experience to prepare them for this. And yet they did it. They trusted God. Moses trusted God. The Israelites obeyed because they believed what God said. God spoke, so they trusted him. This is the way one commentator puts it.

All the earlier attempts to convince Pharaoh of God's power seemed but to increase his arrogance. The instructions were strange, the demands costly, and the ritual unprecedented, but they did precisely as they were told.

Exodus 12, 28 says,

then the people of Israel went and did so, as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

So we've seen what the Passover is. We've seen how keeping the Passover was a matter of faith. So then how do we exercise similar faith? If we could summarize everything that we've said so far into one sentence, it would have to be something like this. Moses and the Israelites kept the Passover by faith in order to be rescued from God's judgment and receive salvation. We say it again, Moses and the Israelites kept the Passover by faith in order to be rescued from God's judgment and receive salvation. And in the same way, each of us needs to come to Jesus Christ by faith in order to be rescued from God's judgment and receive salvation. Surely, this is the most important way that we can exercise similar faith. If the blood of a lamb was effective to protect the Israelites from God's judgment against Egypt, how much more will the sprinkled blood of Christ protect us from God's eternal judgment against the sins of the whole world? If a lamb without physical defect was accepted by God, how much more will he accept the sinless and perfect Son of God? Through our disobedience and unbelief, each of us has merited God's judgment as surely as Pharaoh had, but God has accepted his son as our substitute.

Christ is our Passover lamb,

we're told in 1 Corinthians 5. As great as Moses' sacrifice was, Christ's sacrifice of himself was better. We must trust in him and in him alone. And whether we're hearing that for the first time or we're hearing it for the thousandth time, we need to keep hearing it and we need to keep coming. But we can lean in a little bit more. Because Moses and the Israelites, they kept the Passover by faith. But they did so despite past experience with Pharaoh, despite the strangeness of what God had commanded. So they obeyed because they trusted what God had said. God's promises were more real to them than Pharaoh's threats. Do you get that? God's promises were more real to them than Pharaoh's threats. And that's exciting to see, but it's also difficult. It's also challenging. I'll speak for myself. It's difficult and challenging for me because I fear that all too often God's promises are less real to me. than the troubles that I face, and maybe you can relate to that. You give me a deadline that looms near, or a medical bill that needs payment, a coworker who ridicules my faith, a family member who doesn't believe, a child who's sick, a sin that I've fallen into yet once again, and you can fill in your own. never mind the threats of the king of Egypt. I shift all too quickly from confident faith to a grumbling spirit or to anxious brooding or to timid silence. And in those moments, what I need to do, what we need to do is repent. We need to ask for help for our unbelief so that what God has said will be more real to us than whatever it is that is challenging our faith, whatever it is that threatens us in that moment. There are promises that we need to keep before us. We need to ask for grace to trust God's promises, promises such as Romans 8, 31 and 32.

What then shall we say of these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

Or Hebrews 4, 14 through 16.

Since then we have such a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, but without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

See, Moses and the Israelites kept the Passover by faith. So also do we need to come to Jesus Christ by faith. May God help us in our unbelief so that his promises will be more real to us than any troubles that we might face. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this passage of the scriptures and we ask that you would take its truths and that you would write it upon our hearts and that you would grant us, because faith only comes as a gift, we ask that you would grant each of us through your word, as your spirit works, the grace to trust you, to trust you even as Moses and the Israelites trusted you in keeping the Passover. And we pray this in the name of our Passover lamb, Jesus Christ. Amen. And now please stand and we'll sing our benediction.