Beloved radio, friends, we greet you in the ever-precious and the altogether lovely name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is your Bible teacher at the air speaking, J.W. Bramhall, giving you a hearty welcome to some of the concluding messages from the book of Exodus in relation to the character of the world and God's decisive judgments that are coming upon it. We are followed the plagues that God sent upon the land of Egypt long ago. Such a resemblance they have to that which is yet to come not only upon a nation, but upon the whole world. God's judgments upon a world that is godless, Christless, and seeking the sinful pleasures of this theme and worshiping the idols of this world, so filled by the power of Satan. We now come to the last plague, which is recorded in the twelfth chapter of the book of the Exodus. It is the tenth plague. Tis the severest of them all. It is the climactic plague that brought the liberation of the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage and from the oppression of the Pharaoh. It is recorded in chapter twelve of the book of Exodus, verses one through thirteen. We shall read the words that indicate under God the final deliverance of his earthly people from the bondage of Egypt. And the Lord speak unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you, the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you, speaking unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month, They shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house, and if the house will be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls. Every man, according to his eating, shall make your count for the lamb. Your land shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. Ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats. And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. and they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs, they shall eat it. Heat not of it raw, nor soren at all with water, but roast with fire, his head with his legs, and with the pertinence thereof, and ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning. And that which remaineth of it until the morning? Ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And ye shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord, and the blood shall be to you, for a token upon the houses where ye are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing of his precious and his holy word. Now we would like particularly to revert again to the practices that were found in the great land of Egypt long ago. Where they worship in their pantheistic religions, all manner of gods that were created by even the God of glory in heaven above. And in that great land of Egypt, if you and I could have been living in those days, and entered into the temples of Egypt. You would see, as every worshipper did then, as they passed under the shadowing wings of a serpent and the sun graven over the doorway, that this was the great symbol of ancient Egyptian worship. The serpent with a sun graven over and above it was the greatest symbol of ancient Egypt. Those shadowing wings of the serpent were the emblem of dominion and protection according to their belief. The serpent itself was the symbol of their wisdom and majesty. The disc of the sun was the symbol of supremacy. as the mighty ruler of the day. Then if you entered through those doorways and looked upon the side of the doorways, you would have found engraved pictures of conquerors and even the gods whom they honored in their victories when inscribed. And on passing into and out of the temple buildings, the worshippers were under an archway. reared in honor of the deities under whose protection Egypt supposedly dwelt securely. Beloved, this is a symbol of the world, strange to say, that the great dominion of this scene above is certainly the satanic serpent himself ruling over it, and men and women unfortunately under his supremacy at large. And we have been seeking to bring out, by God's grace and the wisdom of his spirit, this world is a place where men and women need a deliverer to rescue them from sin's dominion, Satan's power, and the gods of this present scene. Now God's conclusive judgment upon Egypt brings before us in the chapter that we have read that he would deliver his judgment upon the very best that Egypt could and had produced. That is, that which was their own production of children in the land, the firstborn of man as well as beast. May I read these words as they are recorded in chapter eleven and verse five of the book of Exodus. For God said to Moses about midnight, Will I go out into the midst of Egypt? And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even under the firstborn of the maid-servant that is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of these. May I repeat, and carefully take in this fact, the death that Egypt could and did produce in God's judgment was worthy of death. Now may I bring a New Testament scripture to bear upon this fact, in relation not to Egypt alone, but to the world in which you and I are living. the best that man can ever produce in this world is only worthy of death. I quote the words of Romans chapter six and verse twenty-three. The opening phrase of that verse declares this statement, the wages of sin is death. Beloved, you may have wondered, Why God so drastically dealt with Egypt and the Emperor of the Pharaohs long ago. But may I point out, God had his specific as well as holy reasons to bring divine judgment upon a nation and upon a people who were worthy of destruction. But may I correspondingly remind you, the whole world is worthy of divine judgment. the best that man has produced, as indicated, the wages that he deserves, the divine payment that he will indeed receive from a holy God, his death. Beloved, when I speak those words, I would like to remind you that the eternal consequences of man's sins is eternal death. eternal separation and judgment by God and banishment from His holy presence. May I raise the question, have you, my listeners, ever realized and recognized the punishment that your sins deserve? Now I speak these words faithfully that I acknowledge myself. This is the just and the righteous judgment that I too deserve for my sins. We are dealing with a holy God. And God, that holy being, is dealing with unjust and unrighteous people. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And as we look at the universal judgment of God over the land of Egypt, that every firstborn of every family, from the very Pharaoh upon the throne, down to the made servant that was behind the mill, and even the firstborn of beasts, they were under the sentence of death. This was a universal fact. Now realize with me, and I speak it very seriously, and very solemnly, the whole world is deserving of divine judgment and retribution, even eternal death, and eternal banishment from God's everlasting glory. And that is the lake of fire. May I say, I say it myself, my sins are worthy of eternal death. Though I thank God for a salvation that I now possess, I still repeat that I have been no different than any other man, woman, boy or girl, My sins, and I say to you, my friend, your sins deserve eternal death. And the death of the firstborn in Egypt would remind us of that truth. May this sink into our hearts and consciences. Father, bless this which we have covered very briefly, but thoroughly we trust to thy glory in Jesus' name. Amen.