True Deliverance

Text: Exodus 12:3-13

The children of Israel had been in Egypt for over four hundred years. Egypt is a type or a symbol of a life of sin. At first, the children of Israel were fine in Egypt and enjoyed the benefits of living in such a well developed civilization, but after a while, the Egyptians began to realize that there was something different about the Jews, and began to persecute them. God could not convince the children of Israel to leave Egypt until things began to get worse! God loves you enough that He will allow things in your life to get worse trying to get you to realize that you don’t want to stay in sin!!!!! Before you made a decision to serve God, you had to desire to leave Egypt or SIN. This is true repentance, not going to back to the things that you used to do, not going back to the places where you once went, but making a decision to say “God I want to change!!!”

Oh all of us have enjoyed the benefits of sin for a season before. And there is some pleasure in sin. But only for a short time. After a little while, you begin to think that there must be more to life and then sin takes off its pretty mask to reveal what it really is: spiritual death! You will only be satisfied with sin for a short time before you must try to go to something deeper to fulfill that emptiness inside! And so you go deeper and deeper in sin until finally it’s finished work, death is achieved! Jesus said “if you drink of the water that I give, you will never thirst again.” He meant, that if you will stop trying to fill your life up yourself, and will drink of the gift that I will give you, you will never have to sin again to fill that void.

Through their persecution, Israel realized that they wanted out of Egypt out of the life of sin. Moses began to give them instructions that God had given him. Every family must select a lamb and it must be penned up for 14 days and inspected to make sure it was spotless. The family must then kill the lamb and roast whole over a flame and then eat the entire lamb. If it was too much for one family to eat, then they must share with another family. They were to share it with another family, just as long as it was totally consumed. They then were to take the blood of the lamb and spread it on the door posts of their house. If they did this, then when God came throught the land that night killing every Egyptian firstborn, He would see the blood on the doorposts and passover the Israelites house.

Notice that God did this at midnight, and that the family must be fully dressed with walking stick in hand and belonging ready to go while they ate this late meal. It was NOT convenient. It took some effort on their part beyond mental power. Their plans for the evening were ruined. But if they wanted to get out of Egypt and be delivered from their bondage, then they had to be willing to do what God said! If we are going to be saved then we must do it God’s way. If you really want the benefits of God, then you must play by God’s rules not man’s rules. Matters not what man thinks, it matters what God’s word says!!!!!!!

When John the Baptist saw Jesus come to be baptized, he made the announcement: “Behold the Lamb of God, which cometh to take away the sins of the world” God’s way of salvation said that the blood of a lamb was required for the remission of Sin. Jesus was that lamb. In the passover, the lamb had to be washed and inspected to make sure it was spotless. For that reason Jesus was baptized and a visible anointing settled upon Jesus proving that He was washed and ready to begin his role as the sacrificial lamb. A voice came from heaven saying “This is my son in whom I am well pleased.” Indicating that the lamb of God or the flesh of Jesus Christ had been approved and was spotless; without sin. This was done to prove to John that the one he had preached about was here! We know from scripture that God is omnipresence and omnipotent, so God can be in three places or perform three activities at once. Just as He can hear all of our prayers all over the world! So the baptism of Jesus did not prove a trinity or threesome of Gods, it merely reminded us of what we already knew, God is able to do anything he wants!

Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

God is a Spirit, and a Spirit has no body nor flesh nor blood. So when God decided to fulfill the role as the Lamb of God, He had to come and be born of a woman so that he would have blood to shed! God can do two things at once! He was both the purchaser and the price!

Death striked Egypt but not Israel because they are protected by the blood. And finally Israel begins the process to leave Egypt. God instruct them to head to a little valley and camp before the Red Sea! God had already told Moses in

Exod 6:2-8 And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD: And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD.

God was taking them somewhere! God was not going to deliver Israel out of Egypt and then leave them alone to find out a direction for themselves! As they leave Egypt, we find that the Spirit of God comes to them in a VISIBLE way and begins to lead them.

Exod 13:21-22 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:

He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

He leads them to camp on the banks of the Red Sea and they are surrounded by mountains on the sides, and the sea in front and then Egypts chariots come from behind! The people begin to grumble and complain. They thought they were free but now God has seemingly led them to a place of defeat! Pharoah’s armies are closing in, and all seems lost, but then in Exodus 14:19-20 the pillar of cloud and fire moved behind Israel in between them and the Egyptians, and “was a cloud of darknesss to the Egyptians and gave light by night to Israel” Moses stretched forth his hand, and the Red Sea parted and Israel crossed over on dry ground, and when the Egyptians tried to follow the Israelites, the Bible says that God troubled the Egyptians from the cloud, and caused their chariot wheels to fall off in the middle of the Red Sea. Then the walls of the sea fell back and Israel was delivered!!!

Notice Israel had to do it God’s way!!!! For them to come out of Egypt required a made up mind on their part to leave! So too must we make up our mind in repentance to leave the world of Sin! It also required the blood of the lamb being applied to their house! So must our personal temple have the blood of the Lamb of Jesus applied to us through baptism. Act 2:38, says that we are baptized for the remission of Sins. and in Matthew 26:28, Jesus says

Matt 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

So the blood is applied to our life when we are baptized!!!!! But many people stop there! Until they crossed the Red Sea, Israel was still not completely free from Egypt’s bondage!!! Israel had to learn to trust and follow the leading of God’s Spirit! This is why we must have God’s Spirit come into our lives after repentance, and after baptism, because it leads us to a place of the miraculous where God can truely deliver us from our past!!!! God’s Spirit will lead you and guide you in the way that you should go!!!!!! God was taking them somewhere but without His Spirit, they were without direction!!!!!!

I ask you, how did they know that God’s Spirit had come to them to lead them and guide them?? God is a Spirit and He is invisible, so how could they see for sure without a doubt that He had come to deliver and lead them? God sent a visible sign of His Spirit!!! The sign was a pillar of cloud and of fire!!!!

We’ve already talked about how that Jesus was the Lamb and that it is His blood that has to be applied to our life in baptism! It was Jesus that said in John 14:18, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” Verse 26 He says,

John 14:26-27 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Acts 1:5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

So Jesus was not going to leave his discipled alone, after they had made the decision to follow him, and after He had shed His blood! But came back as the Holy Ghost!!!

Acts 2:1-6 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

Acts 2:14-18

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

When God’s spirit came it came with a visible form!!! Tounges like as of fire!!!!!

Now the pillar of cloud has been replaced with the wind of the moving of the Holy Spirit and the pillar of fire has been replaced with the speaking of other tounges as God gives the utterance or teaches. The visible signs of the cloud and fire were not God’s Spirit, but the Bible teaches that it was the visible sign of His Spirit. He was in the fire!!! Likewise tounges are not God’s Spirit but the sign that His Spirit has come to lead you and guide you!

Jesus explained it to Nicodemus as

John 3:5-8 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

It’s God’s way!!!!!!! It was not until the visible image of God’s Spirit came that the Israelites were really free from the bondage of their past! It would be the pillar of fire that led them through the wilderness to the promised land. And so we must have God’s Spirit to lead us to the areas that God wants us to go!!!! Jesus said that they would receive power after that the Holy Ghost came upon them. It was not until the Israelites received God’ Spirit in a visibile way that they begin to see the miraculous deliverance of God! It was after the Holy Ghost had come upon them, that we find Peter and John performing mighty miracles just as Jesus had!!!! There is power in receiving God’s Spirit!!!!!

Immediately after their deliverance from the Red Sea, Israel began to dance and worship God in a way that they had never been able to in Egypt!!!!!

You must praise God to receive His Spirit!!! and after you will be able to praise Him is a freedom that you never could before, so God will be able to bless you in a way that He never could before!!!