Amen. In the passage that Edward read from the Old Testament, we have a description of the central act of worship for the two major faiths in all of history. Western faiths. There's three Western faiths essentially, which is Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. And of two of them, Judaism and Christianity, where the scriptures we've read describe the Passover and where Jesus has revived or renewed the Passover, which is what we now call communion or in some places the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper, which we celebrate today. One pastor says, in both cases the central act of worship involves the bloody sacrifice of a helpless victim. In case of Judaism, it's a lamb. In the case of Christianity, it's the lamb of God himself, Jesus. And the story of the lamb in Genesis begins where Abraham is commanded by God to take your son, your only son, Isaac, and sacrifice him on the mount where I will show you. And as he climbs the mountain, Isaac says, Father, where is the wood? I see the fire in the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said God will provide the lamb for himself for the burnt offering. And as you know in the story, Abraham ties up Isaac and as he raises his hand to slay him, God stops him and says, now I know that you trust me and me alone. And then there was a ram in the thicket and they sacrificed the ram, but that wasn't the lamb. The passage that we read or that Edward read refers to the final plague in the series of ten plagues in Exodus. But they were an answer to the question that Pharaoh asked, the ruler of Egypt. And remember Moses went to Pharaoh and he said, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. Let my people go that they may have a festival to me in the desert. Pharaoh said, who's the Lord? That I should obey him and let Israel go. I don't know this Lord and I will not let Israel go. What is he asking? Why should I believe in your God? It was not an atheist question. It was a religious pluralist question. Now afterwards there are many, after all, there are many gods in Egypt. He's saying what makes yours unique? Now if you talk to people in the HRM about God, you will discover that's not an uncommon sentiment. They'll say there are many ways to see God or spirituality and mine is most likely as good as yours. So why should I listen to you? So God answers Pharaoh's question with the ten plagues. And this is our outline. God is the creator who judges. He's the judge who saves and he's the Savior who loves. So in Exodus 7 the first plague is that the Nile is turned to blood. By this you shall know that I am the Lord with the staff that is in my hand. I will strike the water that is in the Nile and it shall turn to blood. The fish in the Nile will die and the Nile will stink and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile. In the plagues God claims superiority over all of the earth and while doing so he claims superiority over the gods of Egypt and defeats them. How does he do that? Well turning an island of blood struck directly at these gods. Knoom was the guardian of the Nile. Hoppy was the spirit of the Nile. Its dynamic essence was sometimes manifested as a crocodile. Osiris was the god of the underworld. The river Nile was considered its bloodstream. Sepik took the form of a crocodile. Neith was a warlike goddess whose special interest was in the lattice, the largest fish in the Nile. And Hathor was the god who protected Chromis, the smaller fish in the Nile. So you see striking the Nile struck at several of the gods of Egypt. But the second plague frogs was... frogs were deified in the goddess Hept who assisted women in childbirth. The Egyptians thought of frogs as gods. They were sacred and could not be killed, a crime punishable by death. Yet the Egyptians were forced to tread on them and see them all die. The third plague was gnats. The fourth plague was flies. The god there is Yutich. The fifth plague was the Egyptian livestock died. Hathor was the goddess of love, beauty, and joy and was represented by a cow and the god Apis was represented by a bull. The sixth plague boils struck at the god Sekhmet. The seventh plague hail struck at Nut, the goddess of the sky. The eighth plague, Locust, struck at Isis and Seth, the god of crops. And the ninth plague darkness, Ra, the sun god. And since Pharaoh claimed to be god, his son would also be considered a deity. And his son died in the tenth plague. But this judgment wasn't without mercy. Scholars have noted for decades how this section of Exodus, the creator in his judgments against the gods of Egypt, he's doing something that is de-creation. In the original creation, the earth was formless and void and God moved over the surface of the earth and created absolute perfection. But now in the plagues, he's undoing it. Things are going from order to disorder, from harmony to chaos, from integration to disintegration. He's not only the creator who judges, but he's also the judge who says what God is doing here is ultimately a kindness to Egypt. And you say, wait, how is that possible? Well, do you remember when, this is a long time ago now, but do you remember when September 11 took place? The next day, even that day, at least in the US, all the places of worship were full. Did people who did not have a god suddenly get one? No. Whatever their particular god was was proven to be impotent. When disaster strikes, you turn to the thing that you were living for, whether it's money or power or romance or another person, and you realize when disaster strikes that that god, that idol that you have, was worthless. Because it can all be taken away from you in an instant. It doesn't pass muster when it comes to life and death. The things that happened in your life, that throw your life into chaos, are the things that show the impotence of your false gods. So the Egyptians would suddenly have doubts about their gods. Another thing that the commentators have pointed out is how natural these plagues seem. At least in the beginning. The Nile is struck. And so naturally, the frogs leave the Nile and the marshes, and they are everywhere and dying. So of course there are gnats and flies, and skin diseases, and all this follows from an ecological disaster. So you can see why maybe Pharaoh initially thinks that this is happening naturally. But this brings us to a larger point. When we disobey God, our life tends to fall apart. Things become chaotic. For example, God is that first place in your life, if anything is more important to you than God, you will experience on some level disintegration. And a god of your own making will not hold up when you meet the real crises of life. Whether they're national or personal. The God that you have made up in your own head. You know how people think. Maybe you, maybe all of us to some degree, we say things like, I like to think of God like this. Fill in the blank. But you see, when you say I like to think of God like, fill in the blank. But you see, when you say I like to think of God like, fill in the blank. You are making God up for yourself. You are creating God in your own image. For some of you you say things like, I like to think of God who isn't judgmental. I like an all-accepting, all-loving God. For others, I really like it when God goes after evil people. I feel good when that happens. I don't like it when he lets them off the hook. But if you're making it up, and you know you're making it up, how is that God going to help you when trouble strikes? Let's say you go to the doctor and you learn you have a life-threatening disease. How will a God of your own making be of any help to you at all? When you're suddenly out of work and your whole self-image was wrapped up in what you did, how will a made-up God help you? It can't. It will only judge you and berate you and belittle you. Every God is a judging God. But the real God is not only a God who judges, but he's a God who saves. We see that in the last plague. God did that in the story of Abraham, as we mentioned. God demands the life of the firstborn. But here he does something different than any Egyptian God or any Roman or Greek God or Buddhist or Hindu God. He offers salvation that is not dependent on works of the person being saved. He tells the Hebrews to sacrifice a lamb and put the blood on the doorposts and then eat it with their family that night. I want you to know something that the Hebrews understood as well. That night in every house in Egypt, there was either a dead lamb or a dead son. The ultimate plague of death and destruction was coming down on Egypt, and the only way to escape it was to be under the blood of the Passover lamb. This week we were, this week Friday, was the presbytery and we had two candidates who were examined for the ministry. And one of them was talking about the Passover and he said the Hebrews were saved and the Egyptians were killed, the firstborn. That's not quite right. You see, what it depended on was whether the blood was on the doorposts and the lamb was on the floorposts. And the blood was on the floorposts and the lamb was on the floorposts. What it depended on was whether the blood was on the doorposts and the lintel. And it didn't matter whether you were Hebrew or Egyptian or any other race. If you had the blood on your doorpost, you were passed over. Now, obviously the majority, the vast majority were Hebrews, but if there was a Hebrew that didn't do that, then their firstborn died. And if there was an Egyptian that did, their firstborn didn't. So it wasn't dependent on your nationality. It wasn't dependent on where you grew up. It was dependent on whether or not you were under the blood of the lamb. If you were in a home with the blood of the lamb covering your door, you were spared. And if you did not, you were not. What lessons could the Hebrews take from this? We were spared, yes, but it wasn't because we were better. Yes, we are victims of slavery and oppression, but that does not make us without guilt. We needed a substitute. That's the mistake I think some of us as Christians make. We present ourselves as though we're better. But I know non-Christians who are far better people than me. And I'm sure you do too. They're better citizens. They may be better fathers, better mothers, better children. Being a Christian doesn't mean that you're better than everybody, although you're going in that direction, hopefully. What it means is that you're under the blood of the lamb, that you're saved. You're saved from your sin, because the substitute has paid for it. What this first Passover points to is the need for the lamb of God. You see, the events leading up to the first Passover show us that God is our creator, that He's our judge, but He's also our Savior. When our Savior comes, He shows us that He's not only a Savior who saves, but He's a Savior who loves. When Jesus had this last Passover with the disciples, it was unlike any other Passover meal. Jesus stood and they expected Him to say when He broke the bread, this is the bread of our affliction, because that was the traditional saying for the Passover, the bread of our affliction, the affliction being the 400 years of Egyptian slavery. But that's not what He says. He says, this is my body. And when He took the cup, He said, this is the new covenant in my blood. And if that wasn't shocking enough, the biggest shock of all would be because of what wasn't there. There was no lamb. There was no lamb at this Passover. Why? Because Jesus is the lamb. The lamb of every Passover up until that point was pointing to the lamb. And at the Last Supper, there was no lamb on the table because the lamb of God was at the table. He's the lamb of God. He's the Savior who loves. His love is so great that He was willing to take upon Himself the wrath of God that our sin deserved, to which the plagues point. As horrifying as the plagues were, they're mild compared to the wrath of God that was poured out on Jesus at the cross. All of the wrath, in full measure, was poured out on Jesus, the Lamb of God, as He suffered on the cross, the Lamb that was due our sin. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And even the last plague, the death of the firstborn, was executed on God's only begotten Son. Do you see it? The greatness of the love of God. He's both the judge who must do justice, the Savior who takes the judgment in our place, and the Savior who loves us. I don't know who your God is, whether it's money or sex or a person or a position, but all of them will fail you when disaster of some sort strikes you, which it most certainly will. At some point in your life, it always does. You will suffer the death of a loved one. Somebody or yourself will have a horrible disease. There'll be an accident. You'll lose a job. Your house will be repossessed. Any of those things or all of those things could befall you. And if you are worshipping a false God, an idol, you will be wrecked. Only Christ can get you through those things. When Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey Him? The answer is, He's the Creator. He's the judge. He's the Savior. He's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. There is no other God. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, as we come to worship You,