SPURGEON THE EXODUS
“And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty
years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the
Lord went out from the land of Egypt.” Exodus 12:41
IT is our firm conviction and increasing belief, that the historical books of
Scripture were intended to teach us by types and figures spiritual things.
We believe that every portion of Scripture history is not only a faithful
transcript of what did actually happen, but also a shadow of what happens
spiritually in the dealings of God with his people, or in the dispensations of
his grace towards the world at large. We do pot look upon the historical
books of Scripture as being mere rolls of history, such as profane authors
might have written, but we regard them as being most true and infallible
records of the past, and also most bright and glorious foreshadowings of
the future, or else most wondrous metaphors and marvellous illustrations
of things which are verily received among us, and most truly felt in the
Christian heart. We may be wrong-we believe we are not, at any rate, the
very error has given us instruction, and our mistake has afforded us
comfort. We look upon the book of Exodus as being a book of types of the
deliverances which God will give to his elect people: not only as a history
of what he has done, in bringing them out of Egypt by smiting the firstborn,
leading them through the Red Sea, and guiding them through the
wilderness, but also as a picture of his faithful dealings with all his people,
whom by the blood of Christ he separates from the Egyptians, and by his
strong and mighty hand takes out of the house of their bondage and out of
the land of their slavery. Last Sabbath evening we had the type of the
Passover-the Paschal Lamb; and we showed you then, how the sprinkled
blood, and the eaten lamb, were types of the blood applied for our
justification, and of the flesh received by inward communion with Jesus,
the soul living and feeding upon him. We now take the Exodus, or the
going of the children of Israel out of Egypt, as being a type and picture of
the going out of all the vessels of mercy from the house of their bondage,
and the deliverance of all the lawful captives from the chains of their cruel
taskmasters, by sovereign and omnipotent grace, through the Passover of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
The land of Egypt is a picture of the house of bondage into which all God’s
covenant people will, sooner or later, be brought on account of their sin.
All those whom God means to give an inheritance in Canaan, he will first
take down into Egypt. Even Jesus Christ himself went into Egypt before he
appeared publicly as a teacher before the world, that in his instance, as well
as in that of every Christian, the prophecy might be fulfilled-”Out of Egypt
have I called my Son.” Every one who enjoys the liberty wherewith Christ
doth make us free, must first feel the galling bondage of sin. Our wrists
must be made to smart by the fetters of our iniquity, and our backs must be
made to bleed by the lash of the law-the taskmaster which drives us to
Jesus Christ. There is no true liberty which is not preceded by true
bondage; there is no true deliverance from sin, unless we have first of all
groaned and cried unto God, as did the people of Israel when in bondage in
Egypt. We must all serve in the brick-kiln; we must all be wearied with
toiling among the pots, or otherwise we could never realize that glorious
verse-”Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of
a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.” We must
have bondage before liberty; before resurrection there must come death;
before life there must come corruption; before we are brought out of the
horrible pit and the miry clay we must be made to exclaim, “I sink in deep
mire, where there is no standing ,” and ere, like Jonah, we can be fetched
out of the whale’s belly, and delivered from our sin, we must have been
taken down to the bottoms of the mountains, with the weeds wrapped
about our heads, shuddering under a deep sense of our own nothingness
and fearing that the earth with her bars was about us for ever. Taking this
as a key, you will see that the deliverance out of Egypt is a beautiful
picture of the deliverance of all God’s people from the bondage of the law
and the slavery of their sins.
I. First, consider THE MODE OF THEIR GOING OUT. When the children of
Israel went out of Egypt it is a remarkable thing that they were forced out
by the Egyptians. Those Egyptians who had enriched themselves with their
slavery, said, “Get ye hence, for we be all dead men;” they begged and
entreated them to go, yea, they hurried them forth, gave them jewels that
they might depart, and made them quit the land; and it is a striking thing,
that the very sins which oppress the child of God in Egypt, are the very
things that drive him to Jesus. Our sins make slaves of us while we are in
Egypt, and when God the Holy Spirit stirs them up against us, how do they
beat us with cruel lashes, till our soul is worn with extreme bondage, but
those very sins, by God’s grace, are made the means of driving us to the
Savior. The dove fleeth not to its cote unless the eagle doth pursue it; so
sins like eagles pursue the timid soul, making it fly into the clefts of the
Rock Christ Jesus to hide itself. Once, beloved, our sins kept us from
Christ; but now every sin drives us to him for pardon. I had not known
Christ if I had not known sin I had not known a deliverer, if I had not
smarted under the Egyptians. The Holy Spirit drives us to Christ, just as
the Egyptians drove the people out of Egypt.
Again: the children of Israel went out of Egypt covered with jewels and
arrayed in their best garments. The Jews have ever on their feast days been
desirous of wearing jewels and all kinds of goodly apparel; and when they
were too poor to possess them, they would borrow jewels for the purpose.
So it was at this remarkable Passover. They had been so oppressed that
they had kept no festival for many a year, but now they all arrayed
themselves in their best garments, and at the command of God did borrow
of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment; “and the
Lord gave them favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto
them such things as they required: and they spoiled the Egyptians.” Let
none say that this was robbery. It would have been, had it not been
commanded of God, but as a king can set aside his own laws, so God is
above his laws, and whatsoever he orders is right. Abraham would have
been guilty of murder in taking up his knife to slay his son, had not God
commanded him to do so; but the feet of God having commanded the
action, made it justifiable and right. But, moreover, the word “borrowed”
here is by the best translators said to mean nothing more than that the
children of Israel asked them for their jewels, and had no intention
whatever of returning them and entered into no agreement to do so; and it
was most just, that they should do this, because they had toiled for the
Egyptians for years, without having had any remuneration. Sometimes
necessity has no law: how much more shall that God who is above all
necessities be the master of his own laws? The great Potentate, the only
wise God, the King of kings, hath a right to make what laws he pleases;
and let not vain man dare to question his Maker, when his Maker gives him
a command. But the fact is very significant. The children of Israel did not
go out of Egypt poorly clad; they went out with their best clothing on, and
moreover, they had borrowed jewels of gold, and jewels of silver, and
raiment, and they went gladly out of the land. Ah! beloved, that is just how
a child of God comes out of Egypt. He does not come out of his bondage
with his old garments of self-righteousness on: oh! no, as long as he wears
those he will always keep in Egypt, but he marches out with the blood and
righteousness of Jesus Christ upon him, and adorned with the goodly
graces of the Holy Spirit. Oh! beloved, if you could see a child of Israel
coming out of the bondage of sin, you would say, “Who is this that cometh
up from the wilderness?” Is this the poor slave that was making bricks
without straw? Is this the wretch who had nothing but rags and tatters on
him? Is this the poor creature whose whole person was soiled with the mud
of Egypt’s river, and who labored in Goshen’s land without a wage or pay?
Yes, it is he; and now he is arrayed like a king, and apparelled as a prince.
Lo, each of these men of labor cometh like a bridegroom decked for his
wedding, and their wives seem like royal brides clad in their bridal robes.
Every child of God, when he comes out of Egypt, is arrayed in goodly
apparel
“Strangely, my soul, art thou arrayed,
By the great sacred Three;
In sweetest harmony of praise.
Let all thy powers agree.”
Note, moreover, that these people obtained their jewels from the
Eqyptians. God’s people never lose anything by going to the house of
bondage. They win their choicest jewels from the Egyptians. “Strangely
true it is, sins do me good,” said an old writer once, “because they drive
me to the Savior; and so I get good by them.” Ask the humble Christian
where he got his humility, and ten to one he will say that he got it in the
furnace of deep sorrow on account of sin. See another who is tender in
conscience: where did he get that jewel from? It came from Egypt, I’ll be
bound. We get more by being in bondage, under conviction of sin, than we
often do by liberty. That bondage state, under which thou art now laboring,
thou poor way-worn child of sorrow, shall be good for thee; for when thou
comest out of Egypt thou wilt steal jewels from the Egyptians; thou wilt
have won pearls from thy very convictions. “Oh!” say some, “I have been
for months and years toiling under a sense of sin, and cannot get
deliverance.” Well, I hope you will get it soon; but if you do not, you will
have gained all the more jewels by stopping there, and when you come out,
you will very likely make the best of Christians. What more noble preacher
to sinners than John Bunyan? And who suffered more than he did? For
years he was doubting and hesitating, sometimes thinking that Christ would
save him, at other times thinking that he was never one of the elect, and
continually bemoaning himself; but he got jewels while he was in bondage
that he would never have obtained anywhere else. Who could have made a
large collection of jewels like Pilgrim’s Progress, if he had not lived in
Egypt? It was because he tarried so long in Egypt that he gathered so many
jewels; and oh! beloved, let us be content to stop a little while in distress;
for the jewels that we shall win there will adorn us all our lives long, and
we shall one night come out of Egypt, not with weeping, but with songs
and crowns of rejoicing. We shall have “the garments of praise for the
spirit of heaviness;” the sackcloth shall be removed from our loins, and the
ashes from our head, and we shall march forth decked with jewels,
glittering with gold and silver.
But there is one more thought concerning the way of their coming out, and
that is, they came out in haste. I think a child of God, whenever he has the
opportunity of coming out of bondage, will quickly avail himself of it.
When a man comes to me, and says “I am under deep conviction of sin,”
and so on, and seems to be very well content talking about to-morrow, and
to-morrow, and to-morrow, and saying, ‘I can repent when I please, and I
can believe when I please,’ and always procrastinating!- Ah! I think to
myself, that is not the Lord’s deliverance, for when his people go forth out
of Egypt, they are always in a hurry to get out. I never met with a poor
sinner under a sense of sin, who was not in haste to get his burden off his
back. No man has a broken heart, unless he wants to have it bound up
directly. “To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart,” says the
Holy Ghost; he never says tomorrow; to-day is his continual cry, and every
true-born Israelite will pant to get out of Egypt, whenever he has the
opportunity. He will not stop to knead his dough, and make his bread to
carry with him; but he will carry the unleavened bread on his shoulders, he
will be in such a hurry to get away. He who hateth the noisomeness of the
dungeon, longeth to hear the wards of the lock creak, that he may find
liberty; he who hath been long in the pit hasteth to escape; he who hath
suffered the task master’s whip fleeth like a dove unto his window, that he
may find peace and deliverance in Christ Jesus.
II. But having noticed three points of similarity in the emigration of the
Israelites and the deliverance of God’s people, we would lead your
attention, secondly, to a remark concerning THE MAGNITUDE OF THIS
DELIVERANCE. Did it never strike you what a wonderful exodus of the
people of Israel this was? Do you know how many people went out?
According to the very lowest calculations, there must have been two
millions and a half, all assembled together in one place, and all coming out
of the country at one time; and then, besides these, there went out with
them an exceeding great company-a mixed multitude. The number must
have been so large that it is impossible to imagine it. Suppose the people of
London should all go out at once to march through a wilderness; it would
be a marvellous thing in history, such as we can hardly conceive of, but
here were, to say the least, two millions of people, all at one time coming
out from the midst of Egypt, and going forth from the country “They
journeyed,” it is said, “from Rameses to Succoth.” Rameses was where
they were employed in building a city for the king. They stayed in Succoth,
or booths. Because such an immense multitude could not find houses they
therefore made booths; and hence the children of Israel ever afterwards
kept “the feast of tabernacles,” to commemorate their building of the
booths at Succoth, when they first of all came out of Egypt. What a mind
Moses must have had, to direct so great an army, or rather what a spirit
must that have been that rested on him, so that he could lead them all to
one place, and then guide them all through the wilderness, if you bear in
mind this mighty number, you will be astonished to think what a quantity of
manna it must have required to feed them, and what a stream of water that
must have been which followed them! Talk of the armies of Xerxes, or the
host of the Persians; speak of the mighty armies that kings and potentates
have assembled! Here was an army that outvied them all. But oh! beloved,
how much grandeur is there in the thought of the multitudes Christ
redeems with his blood. Christ did not die to save a few; “he shall see of
the travail of his soul, and shall be abundantly satisfied.” “By his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.” “A multitude which
no man can number” shall stand before the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Oh! wondrous emigration-the emigration of myriads of souls! Let us
compare them neither with the stars of heaven, nor the dust of the earth,
nor the sand of the sea; but let us remember that God hath promised to
Abraham-”As the sand upon the sea shore, even so shall thy seed be.”
“Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of
Israel?” They lick up the earth like water, and the land is utterly devoured
before them. Oh! mighty God! how great is that deliverance which bringeth
out a host of thine elect more countless than the stars and as innumerable
as the sands upon a thousand stores! all hail to thy power that doeth all
this!
You will have another idea of the greatness of this work, when you think
of the different stations which the children of Israel must have occupied. I
suppose they were not all equally destitute; they were not all toiling in the
same brick-kilns, but some of them would be in one place, some in
another-some working in the king’s court, some for the meaner Egyptians dispersed
every where; but wherever they might be, they all came from
hence. If Pharoah had slaves in his halls, they marched out the self-same
day from his golden-gated palace, at Memphis or at Thebes. They all came
forth that same day from their different situations, and guided by God they
all came to one spot, where they built their booths, and called it Succoth.
As when the autumn doth decline, and the winter approacheth, we have
seen the chattering swallows gather upon the house-top, prepared for
distant flights beyond the purple sea, where they might find another
summer in another land, so did these Israelites from all their countries thus
assemble; and stand together, about to take their flight across a trackless
wilderness to that land of which God had told them saying, “Behold, I will
bring you into a land that floweth with milk and honey.” Oh! great and
glorious works of God! “great are thy works, O Lord, and marvellous are
thy doings; and that my soul knoweth right well.”
I would have you, beloved, particularly remember one thing; and that is,
that great as this emigration was, and enormous as were the multitudes that
quitted Egypt, it was only one Passover that set them all free. They did not
want two celebrations of the supper, they did not need two angels to fly
through Egypt; it was not necessary to have two deliverances: but all in
one night, all by the Paschal Lamb, all by the Passover supper, they were
saved. Look at yonder host above! See ye the blood washed throng of
souls, chosen of God and precious? Can you tell their number? Can you
count the small dust of the beatified ones before the throne? Ah! no; but
here is a thought for you. They did not want two Christs to save them; they
did not require two Holy Spirits to deliver them; nor did it need two
sacrifices to bring them there.
“Ask them whence their victory came,
They with united breath
Ascribe their victory to the Lamb,
Their triumph in his death”
One agonizing sacrifice, one death on Calvary, one bloody sweat on
Gethsemane, one shriek of “It is finished” consummated all the work of
redemption. Oh! the precious blood of Christ! I love it when I think it
saves one sinner; but oh! to think of the multitude of sinners that it saves!
Beloved, we do not think enough of our Lord Jesus Christ; we have not
half such an estimation of his precious person as we ought to have. We do
not value his blood at the right price. Why, poor sinner, thou art saying this
morning, “This blood cannot save me.” What! not save thee, when it is
engaged to save thousands upon thousands, and myriads of myriads? Shall
the shepherd who gathereth the whole flock together, and leadeth them
unto the pastures lose a single lamb? Thou sayest, perhaps, “I am so little.”
For that very reason then, thou dost not want so much of his power to take
care of thee. “But,” says one, “I am so great a sinner.” Ay, then, so much
the better, for he “came to save sinners, of whom I am chief,” said Paul;
and he came to save thee. Ah! do not fear, ye sons of God; he who brought
the Israelites all out in one night can bring you all out, though you are in
the veriest bondage. Perhaps there is one of you who not only has to make
bricks without straw, but has to make twice as many bricks as any one else,
you think, and your taskmaster has a whip which goes right round you, and
cuts the flesh off you every time; you have worse bondage than any one,
your slavery is more intense, your oven hotter, your pots harder to make.
Very well, I am glad of it: how sweet liberty will be to thee! and I will tell
you, you shall not be left in Egypt, for if you were, what would old
Pharaoh say? “He said he would bring them all out, but he has not; there is
one left;” and he would parade that poor Israelite through the streets, he
would take him through Memphis and Thebes, and say, “There is one that
God would not deliver; there is one I had so tight in my grasp that he could
not get him out!” Ah! master devil! you shall not say that of one of the
Lord’s people; they shall all be there, the great and the small; this unworthy
hand shall take the hand of the blessed St. Paul; they shall all be in heaven,
shall all be redeemed, shall all be saved; but all, mark you, through one
sacrifice, one covenant, one blood, one Passover.
III. This brings us to speak more fully of THE COMPLETENESS OF THEIR
DELIVERANCE. Our text says,- “It came to pass at the end of the four
hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the
hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.” Our dear Arminian
friends think that some of the Lord’s people will not come out of Egypt,
but will be lost at last. Ah! well, as good Hart says-
“If one poor saint may fall away,
It follows so may all;”
and none of us are safe and secure. Therefore, we do not give way to that.
But all the hosts came out of Egypt, every one of them; not a soul was left
behind. There is a poor man that was lame. Ah! you see him throw away
his crutches. There is a poor woman sick; ay, but she suddenly rises from
her bed. There is another palsied, who can by no means lift himself up, but
his frame in a moment becomes firm, “for there was not one feeble person
in all their tribes.”-Psalm 105:37. There is a poor little babe who knows
nothing about it; but still it leaves Egypt, carried by its mother. The old
greyheaded sire tottered not on his staff. Though eighty years of age, yet
he was a son of Israel, and out he came. There was a youth who had just
begun to have his shoulders galled, but though he was young the time was
come for him, and out he came. They all came out, every one of them;
there was not one left behind. I do not suppose they had any hospitals
there; but if they had, I am sure they did not leave any of them in the
hospital, but all were healed in an instant. There was one Israelite who had
rebelled against the government of Moses, and said, “Who made you a
judge and a divider over us?” But they did not leave him behind; even he
came out. All of them came out; nor do we find that there was some poor
shrivelled creature whose arms and legs were almost useless, and who was
half an idiot, whose brain was nearly gone, left behind. So beloved, if you
are “the meanest lamb in Jesus’ fold,” you are “one in Jesus now;” though
you have very little learning, and very little common sense, you will come
out of Egypt. If the Lord has put you there in bondage, and you have been
made to groan there, he will make you sing by-and-by, when you are
redeemed from it. There is no fear of your being left behind, for if you
were, Pharoah would say, “He delivered the strong ones, but he was not
able to fetch out the weak ,” and then there would be laughter in hell
against the might and omnipotence of God. They all came out.
But not only so; they all had their cattle with them. As Moses said, “Not a
hoof shall be left behind.” They were to have all their goods, as well as
their persons. What does this teach us? Why, not only that all God’s people
shall be saved, but that all that God’s people ever had shall be restored. All
that Jacob ever took down to Egypt shall be brought out again. Have I lost
a perfect righteousness in Adam? I shall have a perfect righteousness in
Christ. Have I lost happiness on earth in Adam? God will give me much
happiness here below in Christ. Have I lost heaven in Adam? I shall have
heaven in Christ; for Christ came not only to seek and to save the people
that were lost, but that which was lost; that is, all the inheritance, as well as
the people, all their property. Not the sheep merely, but the good pasture
that the sheep had lost: not only the prodigal son, but all the prodigal son’s
estates. Everything was brought out of Egypt; not even Joseph’s bones
were left behind. The Egyptians could not say that they had a scrap of the
Israelites’ property-not even one of their kneading troughs, or one of their
old garments. And when Christ shall have conquered all things to himself,
the Christian shall not have lost one atom by the toils of Egypt, but shall be
able to say, “O death where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” O
hell, where is thy triumph? Thou hast not a flag nor a pennon to show of
thy victory; there is not a Basque or a helmet left upon the battle-field;
there is not a single trophy which thou mayest raise up in hell in scorn of
Christ. He hath not only delivered his people, but they have gone out with
flying colors, taking their shields with them. Stand and admire and love the
Lord, who thus delivers all his people.
IV. This brings us to notice, in the fourth place, THE TIME WHEN THE
ISRAELITES CAME OUT OF EGYPT. “It came to pass at the end of four
hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the
hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.” God had promised to
Abraham that his people should be in bondage four hundred and thirty
years, and they were not in bondage one day more. As soon as God’s bond
became due, though it had been drawn four hundred and thirty years
before, he paid the bill, he required no more time to do it in, but he did it at
once Christopher Ness says, they had to tarry for the fulfillment of the
promise till the night came; for though he fulfilled it the selfsame day, he
made them stay to the end of it, to prove their faith. He was wrong there,
because scripture days begin at night. “The evening and the morning were
the second day.” So that God did not make them wait, but paid them at
once. As soon as the day came, beginning with our night, as the Jewish day
does now, and the scriptural day always did-as soon as the clock struck-
God paid his bond. We have heard of some landlords who come for their
rent at twelve o’clock precisely. Well, we admire a man’s honesty if he
pays him exactly at that minute; but God is never behind hand in fulfilling
his promises, not by the ticking of a clock. Though his promise seem to
tarry, wait for it. You may be mistaken as to the date, if he has promised
anything on a certain day, he will not keep you waiting till the morrow.
The selfsame day that the Lord had promised, the Israelites came out; and
so all the Lord’s people shall come out of bondage at the predestined
moment: and they cannot possibly come out of bondage before the
appointed time. O thou poor distressed heir of heaven, groaning under sin
and seeking rest, but finding none, believe that it is the Lord’s will that
thou shouldst be a little longer where there is a smoking furnace. Wait a
little; he is doing thee good. Like Jesus of old, he is speaking hardly to
thee, to try thy faith; he is telling thee now that thou art a dog, because he
wants to hear thee say, “Truth, Lord, but the dogs eat of the crumbs.” He
would not keep thee waiting, if thine eagerness did not thereby get fresh
vigor; he would not keep thee crying, if he did not mean to make it a sign
of better grace to you for the future. Therefore wait; for you shall come
out of Egypt, and have a joyous rescue in that day when they shall come
with singing unto Zion, with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.
But now, beloved, we must finish up in a very solemn manner, by
reminding you of the companions that came out of Egypt with the children
of Israel. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, there were certain
persons in Egypt, dissatified with the king-very likely culprits, condemned
persons, debtors, bankrupts, and such like persons, who were tired of their
country, and who, as is wittily said of those who are transported, “left their
country for their country’s good.” But though these people went with the
children of Israel, mark you, they were not of them. They escaped, but the
door was not opened to let them out; it was only opened to let out the
children of Israel. These runaways were always a trouble to the children of
Israel. It is said that the mixed multitude fell a lusting; it was the mixed
multitude that taught them to worship the golden calf; it was the mixed
multitude that always led them astray; and that mixed multitude have their
representatives now. There are many men that came out of the land of
Egypt who never were Israelites; and there are many that join with us in
church fellowship, and eat that spiritual bread, and drink of that spiritual
rock that followed them; and yet with many of them God is not wellpleased,
just as there were many of old with whom he was not wellpleased,
and who were overthrown in the wilderness. “Ah!” says one, “but
I thought if they had been in Egypt, certainly if they came out they must
have been Christians; for you have used the metaphors.” Ay, yes; but mark
how these people were in Egypt. This mixed multitude was never in
bondage in Egypt. It was Israel that had to feel the task-master’s whip, and
to make the bricks without straw. But these fellows had nothing to do.
They were Egyptians themselves- true-born Egyptians- “heirs of sin and
children of wrath;” they never had any real bondage, and therefore they
could not rejoice as the true Israelite did, when they were set free from the
yoke of Pharaoh. These people are represented amongst us by certain
persons, who will tell us, “Ah! I know I have been a sinner.” That is as
much as to say you have been an Egyptian, and that is all: “but I cannot
say, I have felt my sin, and utterly abhorred it and wept over it.” They
come and say, “I am a sinner,” hear something about Jesus Christ, catch at
it with a fancied faith- not with the faith that unites with the Lamb and
brings us true salvation, but with a notional, pretended faith, and they get
deliverance; and some of these people are marvellously happy; they do not
have doubts and fears; they are at ease, like Moab; they have not been
emptied from vessel to vessel. They can tell us about Egypt, of course;
they know as much about it as the child of God. If the child of God
describes the brick-kiln, and how they made bricks without straw, he has
seen it, though he has not felt it; and he can talk about it, perhaps better
than the poor Israelite; for the poor Israelite has sometimes been smitten
on the mouth, it may be, so that he stammers, and cannot speak so well as
the other, who never had a blow. He knows all about the bondage; perhaps
he has invented some of it, in order to try the poor Israelite; and he can
describe very accurately the going out of Egypt and the journey through
the wilderness. But here is the difference, mark you, between the Israelites
and the Egyptians. The Egyptians did not sprinkle the blood on the doorposts;
and we do not read of the mixed multitude eating the paschal lamb,
for it is written, “No stranger shall eat thereof.” Some persons are
continually saying, “I believe I am going to heaven;” but they have never
sprinkled the blood, never eaten the paschal Lamb, never had fellowship
with Christ, and never had vital union with him.
O ye members of Christian churches! there are many of you who have a
feigned experience and a feigned religion. How many there are of you who
have the externals merely of godliness! ye are white-washed sepulchres,
outwardly fair and beautiful, like the garnished gardens of a cemetery; but
inwardly ye are full of dead men’s bones and rottenness! Be persuaded, I
beseech you, to get no deliverance any way except by the blood of the
Lamb, and by really feasting on Christ. Many a man gets a deliverance by
stifling his conscience. “Ah!” says one of these mixed multitude, “here am I
in the prison; and this is the night when the children of Israel go out of
Egypt; Oh! if I might go out!” What does he do? Why, the keeper is
frightened; he has lost his eldest son, and the prisoner says, “Let me out!”
and he bribes the keeper to let him go; and there is many a man that gets
out of Egypt by bribing his conscience. “There, master conscience,” he
says, “I will never get drunk any more; I will always go to church; there is
my shop, that is always open on a Sunday-I will put two shutters up, and
that is almost as good as closing it entirely; and I will not do the business
myself-I will get a servant to do it for me.” And out he comes! But he had
better remain in Egypt than get out like that. There are some again that get
out by main force; the keeper falls down dead, and so they get out of
prison. There are men who not only bribe, but kill their conscience; they go
so far that their conscience is almost dead, and when he is in a fit one day
they rush forth, and escape; and so they have “peace, peace, where there is
no peace.” They wrap themselves up in the folds of their own delusions,
and invent for themselves refuges of lies, where they do place their trust. O
ye mixed multitude! ye are the ruin of the churches; ye set us a lusting; the
pure Israelite’s blood is tainted by union with you; you sit as God’s people
sit, and yet you are not his people; you hear as God’s people hear, and yet
you are “in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity.” You take the
sacrament as sweetly as others, while you are eating and drinking
damnation to yourself; you come to the church-meeting, and you sit in the
private assembly of the saints; but even when you are there, you are
nothing but a wolf in sheep’s clothing, entering the flock when you ought
not to be there.
My dear hearers, do try yourselves, to see whether you are real Israelites.
Oh! could Christ say to you, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is
no guile.” Have you the blood on your door-post? Have you eaten of
Jesus? Do you live on him? Do you have fellowship with him? Has God the
Holy Ghost brought you out of Egypt? or have you come out yourself?
Have you found refuge in his dear cross and wounded side? If you have,
rejoice, for Pharaoh himself cannot bring you back again; but if you have
not, I pray my Master to dash your peace into atoms, fair and lovely as it
may be; I beseech him to send the winds of conviction and the floods of his
wrath, that your house may fall now, rather than it should stand to your
death, and then, in that last solemn hour, the edifice of your own hands
should totter. Mixed multitude! hear ye this! ye assembled gatherings of
professors! “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your
own selves. Know ye not your own Selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you,
except ye be reprobates?” But if he be not in you, then are ye reprobates
still, whom God abhorreth. The Lord bring all his people out of Egypt, and
deliver all his children from the house of bondage.