13th May 2024

13th May 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 12:29-42 focus 29-30)


Message (Alan Burke) 


I remember learning about the plagues as a child, they filled me with wonder at the Lord. That the Lord our God could turn the Nile into blood, send frogs, gnats and flies on the land then bring disease on the livestock, boils on all of Egypt, hail and fire fell from the sky, locusts consuming everything, darkness consumed the land and then this final plague the death of the firstborn. All these years later I still have the wonder but I see things differently than I did as a child for I now know the pain that death brings, I see it all to often and how whether that death is sudden or expected that it comes to all. While the Lord had given his people a substitute so they could be saved from the judgment that he would bring, that night for the Egyptians there was no substitute. 


That night the Lord moved, the houses who had killed the sacrificial lamb and painted their doorposts and lintels with the blood were spared but from the the the firstborn of Pharaoh, to the firstborn of the prisoner, and the firstborn of all the livestock died. Pharaoh we are told 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. 


Two verses that covey the horror of the judgement the Lord brought upon the Egyptians. We hear this, and when we think of it more than just facts, words on the page, this is a highly distressing reality that was brought upon Egypt. In all that unfolded, it doesn’t sit comfortably with many people. The reason is that the God that we have been spoon fed throughout our lives is all about the love, or he is the senile old grandad figure that loves us even though we burnt down his garden shed. We forget that our God is Holy, Holy, Holy, he cannot look on sin and we all deserve not his grace but his wrath. 


The Lord provided a substitute for his people, they deserved the judgement also, he provides a substitute for all who will trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, a substitute that died in our place. This is important for us all to hear and to know the substitute because the Lord once more will bring his judgement on this earth, Jesus himself warned of it, the book of revelation details it, every person who has ever lived will stand before the Lord and be judged and it will either be in our sin and we will face the judgement we deserve or it will be in Christ the substitute, who took the punishment that we deserve. God had saved his people from the judgment he himself was brining, saved by God from God but know this “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Rom 10:13). Share this gospel with those who you know and love, pray for them that the Lord would bring them to faith for one day it will be too late.  


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q37 What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?
A The souls of believers are, at their death, made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves until the resurrection.
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