Bootstrap
Paul Mahan

What Mean Ye By This Service

Exodus 12:26
Paul Mahan August, 25 2021 Audio
0 Comments
Exodus

In the sermon "What Mean Ye By This Service," Paul Mahan explores the significance of the Passover as a foreshadowing of Christ's sacrifice, emphasizing the importance of communion as a means of remembering the Lord's death and our need for Him. Mahan highlights that there are only two established ordinances in the New Testament church: baptism and the Lord's Supper, underscoring how both symbolize the gospel of Christ. He uses Exodus 12:26-27 and related texts to support his teaching, particularly focusing on the requirement of understanding and personal confession before partaking in communion. The doctrinal significance lies in the clear distinction made between the true body and blood of Christ and the symbolic elements of bread and wine, with a strong denunciation of transubstantiation as contrary to the Reformed understanding of the sacraments.

Key Quotes

“He passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smoked the Egyptians and delivered our houses.”

“Baptism is a public confession of faith in Christ. It's public. The Lord's table is something personal.”

“We look to Christ. When we do this table, what do you mean by this sermon? It's just symbolic.”

“When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

100%
Exodus 12. Go to Exodus 12 with
me now. Very familiar portion of Scripture. Look at two verses with Exodus
12. Well, two here and one more in
the next chapter. Exodus 12, verse 26. And it shall come to pass, When
your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the
sacrifice of the Lord's Passover. He passed over the houses of
the children of Israel in Egypt when he smoked the Egyptians
and delivered our houses. And the people bowed their head
in worship. Now turn the page in the exact
same spot And chapter 13, verse 14, it's got the same spot on
the page. Verse 14 says, It shall be when
thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? That
thou shouldst say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought
us out from Egypt, from the house of Babylon. What mean ye by this
service? There are many religions. There's
only one true religion. Hours, yes. Many ceremonies that
men and women go through, many traditions, many rituals or rites,
religious rites. But there are only two ordinances,
and you can call them a rite or a ritual. The word ritual
or rite means an established way of worship. Well, these two
are established by our God, only two. One is baptism, and the
other is the Lord's table, what we're doing tonight. Baptism
is water, the Lord's table, wine. How significant that the Lord
turned the water into wine, His first miracle. water, wine, and
bread. Simple, common elements all represent
the gospel of Christ crucified. We know that. You know that.
You must know that to partake of this table, to go through
baptism. Baptism is the public confession
of faith in Christ. It's public. The Lord's table
is something personal. You personally commune the communion
of the Lord's body and blood. Baptism is someone immersing
you in water, putting you under the water. And that's a symbol
of Christ's death, burial. Crucified with Christ, buried
with Him. Someone puts you under the water.
and buries you and covers you, and we're covered by the blood,
and He's covered our sin by His blood. We died with Him. Have
you confessed Him in believers' baptism? We're going to have
one Sunday, and if anybody wants to join us, you tell me, okay? And if you want to, you can take
this table tonight, and I'll baptize you Sunday. How's that?
But someone puts you under the water, And we were crucified
with Christ, but someone's got to bring you out. Raise us. He said, I will raise them up.
He didn't believe it. I will raise them up at the last
day. So he raises us to walk, Scripture
says, in newness of life. Walk by faith, not sight. The world walks by sight. We
walk by faith in Christ. It's a confession, all right?
There's a confession before communion. All right, the Lord's table.
What meaning we by this service? What's the meaning of it? Well,
Paul said it, just show the Lord's death till he come. It's for
those who believe him, those who hunger and thirst. We're
going to eat something. It's going to become a part of
us. Like our Lord said, except you eat my flesh and drink my
blood. We eat this. It's for those who
hunger and thirst for Christ. Don't do this if you don't know
what you're doing. unless you have a real hunger and thirst
and need for Christ, have tasted of His grace, okay, and have
confessed Him. So this is the communion of the
Lord's death. Paul talked about the fellowship
of His suffering. We enter into the fellowship
of His suffering. As I said, don't eat this, don't
do this if you don't know, if you don't have this need of Christ,
if you don't know what you're doing. Now, the Lord warned about
that. In fact, look at chapter 12, verse 43. Look at chapter 12, verse 43.
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, this is the ordinance of the
Passover. There shall no stranger eat thereof. You need to know, you're not
a stranger to the covenant. And it goes on down, verse 48,
when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, or keep the Passover,
he is to be circumcised before he takes it. And you know that
circumcision is not flesh, but the heart, not with hands, but
by the God, our Almighty. It's the heart, breaks the heart,
takes away a heart of stone, gives you a heart of flesh. and
shows you your need of Christ, all right? So this is the Lord's
table. This is what we're doing. We're remembering Him. He said, this is due as often
as you do this in remembrance of Me. It's a memorial. Not for
someone who's still dead, but living. He said, I'm the living
bread. But it's the fellowship of His
suffering. Our Lord's body was broken. We take this bread. I
broke this bread today. and our Lord's body was broken.
He's our bread of life. The wine. We use wine because
Scripture says so. And it represents the precious
wine of Christ's blood, which is incorruptible. Wine will not
corrupt. And it's medicinal. It's the blood of Christ that
healeth, cleanseth us from all sin. And wine makes glad the
heart. The blood of Christ makes us
glad. This is not the Passover. We're not observing the Passover. Okay? Christ, our Passover, was
already sacrificed for that. By one offering. Where's John?
There he is. By one offering. He hath perfected for ever them
that are sanctified. He made that in one offering.
Not like the old priest that did it once every year. He did
it once in the end of the world and sat down, sat down. Work
was finished. No more offering. No more sacrifice
to be made. This is not the Passover. This
is a feast, a table. Why insist upon this? Because
Catholicism does the mass. You've heard of the mass. You
know what they say? They say that that bread actually
becomes the body of Christ again. Yes, they do. And they say the
wine turns in mystically, miraculously turns into the blood of Christ.
Yes, they do. That's what they say. You know,
most of the martyrs died fighting that. It's called transubstantiation.
And the priest in Catholicism, don't they, Mike? You know that
the priest himself takes that and he puts it in your mind.
Our Lord said for you to take that bread and you eat it. You
take the cut and divide it for yourself. Christ did. He did
for us. He did the work, okay? This is
just a supper. This is just bread. I bought
it at Walmart. It's not going to be anything
but bread. Okay? And wine. And there's nothing. We don't sacrifice Christ again.
That is heresy. And that priest that claims to
do that is anti-Christ. Christ made the one offering
for everyone. He made it to God. All right? And that needs to
be said. That needs to be understood.
You know, there's a lot of people today that don't know what Tommasi
is. A lot of so-called Christians
don't know what Tommasi is, don't care, and have no problem with
it. They think it's just a communion table like we're doing. No, it's
not, is it? No, it's not. And as I said, there were lots
of men and women died over that. They said, that is not the blood
of Christ. This is not the body of Christ. This is just bread and wine,
just represents it. Christ did that one work. It's
not, it's priestcraft, like witchcraft. It's priestcraft. That's what
they're practicing. That needs to be understood.
All right? So they're not taking the Lord's
table. We are. We're remembering what
He did for us. And we're just eating that symbolically
as needing Christ. As hungry and thirsting for Christ. And knowing and believing that
He meets our every need. Just simple. I go back to chapter
12, verse 1. You know these verses. Right
now, this is my favorite chapter in the Bible. You know these
verses. The Lord spake unto Moses and
Aaron in the land of Egypt. The Lord has spoken unto us.
God at sundry time and diverse manner has spoken unto the fathers
by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by His
Son in this world. Like Egypt, the Lord came, spoke.
Moses and Aaron. He said, this month shall be
unto you the beginning of months. It's the first month of the year
to you. When you, when Christ reveals himself to you, When
Christ, you find out He's your Lamb of God, life begins. You're born again. It's all there. You're like a babe, a newborn
babe. Verse 3, Speak unto all the congregation
of Israel. Who's this for? Israel. Christ died for His sheep, His
people. This was for Israel. It wasn't
for the world. It wasn't offered to everybody. It wasn't offered
to the Egyptians. He didn't go out and say, anybody that wants
it? No, sir. This was particular limited atonement. What? Yes, it was. From God's
people. And again, I say this, and I
emphasize it over and over, he did not offer himself to man. He offered himself to God. Without
spot, without blemish, to God. and God accepted it on behalf
of his people. All right? Is that important?
That's the heart and soul of the gospel. Substitution and
satisfaction. All right, speak unto the house
of Israel, the congregation of Israel. See, they were gathered
together. On the tenth day of the month, every man a lamb.
Every woman, every person has to have a lamb. Do you have a
lamb? I told you I was in contact with
this woman who's an Orthodox Jew, and I said, oh, I could
think of a thousand verses of Scripture. Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes it.
to the Jewish stumbling block, to the Greek foolishness, but
that's what you say, wisdom of God, the power of God. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. The blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from our sin. He is the Lamb. The Jews don't sacrifice lambs
anymore. There's no remission of sin. If they don't believe
Christ, Christ said, if you believe not that I am, you'll die on
your sin. And what? The Lamb. The Christ who was
to come. The promised one. We believe,
don't we? Here we are, Gentiles. We believe. Because that's what God said
would happen. He took it from the Jews and
gave it to the Gentiles. Every man a lamb. Look at Revelation
5 quickly. This is wonderful. This is what
we're going to be singing in glory. You know, everyone in
glory that's heard the gospel and seen Christ's glory and hungered
and thirst after Him and called upon Him and come to Him by faith
and partaken of Him, eaten His flesh and drank his blood, every
one of them are going to see a lamb on the throne. That's
who we're going to see. Revelation 5, verse 6, I beheld,
and lo, in the midst of the throne, and the four beasts, and in the
midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain. Everybody
in heaven is looking at a lamb. The lamb man. And then in verse
9, they all sing a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take
the book, to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain, and hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood. He's our Redeemer. Behold the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. That is,
not just Jews, but Gentiles. All who trust Him, all who believe
Him. Now that's who we're all going
to see, and that's what we're all going to see. The blood. The Lamb and His shed blood. After the Lord delivered the
children of Israel through the Red Sea, and they saw no Egyptians
alive anymore, that represents sin? He says, they start singing. Chapter 15, right after that,
he says, then they sang. They sang. What can wash away
my sin? So he said, every house a lamb,
every man a lamb. And I think the houses there
represent the church, the local churches. And your lamb, verse
5, shall be without blemish. Do you know how few people understand
or believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin? Do you
know how few people believe that? I had the statistics in my notebook
somewhere. Something like 50-some percent
of so-called Christians don't even believe He was virgin born.
Then He's not God. He's an imposter. And if he has
the seed of Adam in him, he's a sinner. He can't save anybody. He can't save himself. He needs
a Christ to save him. He's born of a virgin. He doesn't
have the seed of man in him. He doesn't have sin. He's without
sin. Your lamb is without blemish, without spot. That's what John
read there in Hebrews 9 tonight. He offered himself to God without
spot unto God. He was observed, look at verse,
taken out from the sheep. He was a man, like us, but holy,
harmless and sacred. Verse 6, you keep it up till
the fourteenth day, all the congregation shall observe it. And all shall
observe it. Our Lord was observed by God
and man to be without sin. Remember, He said, which of you
convinces me of sin? He stood up. Anybody convinced
me. They had to hire liars, false
witnesses to drum up things on Him. And they couldn't agree
because nobody saw or heard or witnessed Him sin one sin. Who can say that? Can anybody
find any fault in me? No fault? Without spot? God Himself couldn't, I like
thinking about that, couldn't contain Himself. That's my beloved
Son in whom I'm with. The Lord is well pleased, John,
for His righteousness sake. Does that please you? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's what amen means. Oh, yeah. Yay! And that righteousness is
ours. The whole congregation shall
kill it. Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Jews,
the Gentiles all killed Him. They did what God determined
before to be done, didn't they? They killed the lamb, as God
said they would. Now take of the blood and strike
it on the two side posts, on the upper door post of the houses
wherein they shall eat it. Take the blood, apply it to the
house. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, is applied to His house, His kin. His household, his family. What was it applied to? The door. Well, what's the door? Christ. The lintel. What's the lintel?
That's the head. That's the header. His head,
his hands. It wasn't on the threshold line. It's not to be trodden underfoot.
No, no, no. I don't think that blood fell
on the ground either. I really don't think the blood
of Christ when he was on that cross fell to the ground. Not
one drop of that is going to be wasted. It's too precious.
It's not going to fall to the ground for men to walk on it.
Isn't that what Hebrews talks about? How much sore punishment
shall he be thought of worthy that he tried none to put the
blood of the Son of God? That's what men and women do
when they offer Christ and all that kind of unholy thing, a
common thing. Here, take it if you want it.
Not the blood of God's Son, you don't. He applies it to whom
He will, and whoever He applies it to, they're saved. That blood's
going to count for something. It does. Apply it to the doorpost,
the head, the header, and His hands and His feet. Well, in
His house, read on, it says, wherein they shall eat it. They
shall eat the flesh in that night. Eat it. Read with me, John 6,
John chapter 6. And someone asked about tasting
the Lord's grace. Well, here it is, from the Lord's
mouth, John chapter 6. And this is emphatic language,
isn't it? And after he said this, many
disciples wouldn't walk anymore with him. They said, this is
hard, I don't understand that. Boy, if you understand it, you'll
keep walking with him, won't you? Oh, if you understand that
he's your lamb. Read on, John 6 verse 53, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. What's that
mean? You know what that means. I could
ask any professing believer here what that means. You could give
me a pretty good description, couldn't you? Why do you eat?
Need, hunger and thirst, a nourishment, don't you? You go without food,
you're going to die. If you don't have Christ, you're
going to die. And this gospel, you've got to
hear this gospel, don't you? You've got to feed on Christ.
Sheep eat sheep food. Well, the food of sheep is the
shepherd himself. You need his... When you find
out who Christ is and what He did for you, a sinner, you need,
you hunger and thirst after His righteousness, His shed blood. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath the eternal life. Eateth, eateth, eateth, drinketh,
eateth, drinketh. You never quit hungry and thirsty. You never quit partaking. You
never quit hearing, hearing, hearing, hearing, feasting, feasting,
feasting, feasting. As long as you're alive, you're
going to keep eating and drinking Christ. It's your life. You know, the older you get,
about all you do is eat. You know, is that about the most
wonderful thing you can think of? You eat breakfast, what's
for lunch? Eat lunch before supper. How
about a midnight snack? Well, Christ, as long as we live
in this world, there ain't nothing to it other than this. Christ,
this is better than life. He is life. Now he that hath
that attitude hath life. Christ is their life. Someone
is part-time too and can take it or leave it? No. He said,
My flesh is meat indeed. My blood is drink indeed. He
that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me. And
I in him. That's why you need him. That's
why you love to hear of Him. He's in you. His Spirit's in
you. Oh my. Go back to the text. So we eat this flesh in that
night. Meaning, right now. He said He
did it in haste. But this is, this is the eleventh
hour. They went out. when it was darkness
in Egypt. You know, when they crossed the
Red Sea, it was light. You know that. They went through
in darkness. As soon as they hit the other
side, morning. A new land. When the Egyptians
recovered, the sun was up. You know, we're in a dark world.
But we have light in our dwellings, remember? Christ is alive. Darkness that can be felt. Well, he said, eat the flesh
and that night, today, right now, roast with fire. He said down in verse 9, don't
eat it raw or sodden with water, roast with fire. You remember
when Elijah was up on Mount Carmel and those prophets of Baal? Remember,
400 prophets of Baal? And here's what Elijah said,
that God did answers by fire. He's God. Our God is consuming
fire. When Christ was crucified, He
was a burnt offering. He endured the fire of God's
wrath. He went through hell on Calvary's
tree. roast with fire. He endured the
wrath of God for God's people. Unleavened bread. That's his
sinlessness. Yet Paul talked about do this
with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Sincerity. Don't do it as a habit. Don't
do it as a ritual or as some ceremony that you're supposed
to go through. And that's why we don't have it too often. I
think it makes it too commonplace. The less you have it, the more
you enjoy it when you do have it. Unleavened bread of sincerity
with bitter herbs. They were to eat it with bitter
herbs. What's that? Oh, it's bitter. The Gospel is
bittersweet, isn't it? The bitterness of our sins. What
Christ had to endure because of me. It gives us sorrow and
yet it gives us great joy. It's sweet, the gospel is sweet,
yet bitter to think of what, of our sin and our unbelief.
Bitterness. And they shall eat it. Don't
eat it raw or sodden with water, but roast with fire his head,
with his leg, and the pertinence thereof. In other words, don't
break a bone. Not one bone is to be broken.
You're going to see that whole lamb there. When that thing is
burnt, when it's burnt, you're going to see that was a lamb.
And his visage was marred more than any man. But looking at
it, you see, behold, the man. The lamb. Burnt, but not consumed. Like Moses burning bush. He wants that man. That's Christ
crucified. Burn it with fire. Thus shall
ye eat it. Verse 11, your loins girded.
Gird with the truth, Paul said. We're undergirded. We're supported by. We won't
fall. Nothing will fall out. We've
got this girdle of truth on. Bound up. Wrapped up. And your shoes on your feet.
Why? Why? Moses, we're leaving. Preparation of the gospel of
peace means preparing to die. We're preparing to leave this
place. Don't take your shoes off. Leave them on. We're leaving
here. Staff in your hand? You got your
staff in your hand? Not your phone. Your staff. And you shall eat it in haste.
There's no tomorrow. Don't leave anything. Verse 10,
I left that out. You should let nothing of it
remain until the morning. There remaineth no more sacrifice
for sin. There is no more. Don't leave
it until the morning. Don't leave this off. Leave it
now. 11, it is the Lord's Passover. Now
that was literally the Lord's Passover when there was a lamb
slain and the blood was shed and applied to the door. But
Christ is our Passover. And he was slain in the end of
the world for remission of our sin. He is our Passover. So we don't observe a Passover. We look to Christ. When we do
this table, what do you mean by this sermon? It's just symbolic. There's nothing in this. There's
nothing special about these things. We're going to throw away the
bread that's left over. We're going to pour out the wine
down the drain. Why? Because it's just bread and wine.
Okay? It's not sanctified stuff. No,
no, no, no, no. It's just symbolic. There's nothing,
no thing sinful, no thing holy. You understand that? When you
understand that, you'll quit being an idolater and worshiping
things. We worship a person. A person. All right? He said, I will pass
through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt. He said that four times a year.
I will smite. I will smite, when I smite, and
then it ends up, chapter 14 says he did smite, just like he said
he would. All the promises of God are yea
and amen in Christ. The promises to us of life, but
the promises of death and destruction is true too, to those that don't
believe it. It's that serious. I will smite
the land. And this day, verse 12, against the gods of Egypt. I want to show you, God says,
who is really God. I will execute judgment. I am
the Lord. And here it is, verse 13. And the blood shall be to you
for a token upon the houses where you are. This house where we
are, this house of God, what's the token that God's here? The
blood. We preach the blood. I told the
men down in Mexico, a preacher's class, I said, if you don't feel
like you have any liberty, if you can't feel like you're stumbling
and mumbling, okay, don't feel like you have the people's ear,
just holler, blood! It's the blood. And I said, you
will have accomplished something. Because it is the blood. That's what the house is under
and covered with. And of course, God said, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. Good news, John David. When I see the blood, when God
sees the blood. There's so many times we don't
feel like we're a believer. We don't feel like we have any
faith. All we can see in ourselves is sin. But that's not what God
said. When I see your faith, when I
see your sincerity, when I see your whatever. No, when I see
the blood. Rahab put that scarlet line out
the window dish. She couldn't see it. Who was
supposed to see it? Those five, those two men. And
they had to know which house to come, which, where there's
the blood in. She couldn't see it, but she
believed it was there. I kind of think, though, every now and
then she'd open the window. Is it there? And that's why you
come here. Tell me one more time, preachers.
Is the blood before the Lord? Is the blood on the mercy seat?
Yes, it is. You can't see Him, but He's there.
And he said, God cannot lie when I see the blood. I will pass
over you. I will. And bring you out. And
he said in verse 13, Plague shall not be upon you. Plague of sin. No more sin on you. destroys,
not going to destroy. Sin will not have dominion over
you and it will not destroy you. It will not kill you. Because
Christ died. Somebody say Amen. Yay and Amen. When I smite the
land of Egypt. And this day will be a memorial
for you. Keep it a feast throughout your generation. So, when our
children ask, what means ye by this service? Because Christ, our Passover, was killed for us. Sacrificed
for us. That's why. All right. Men, you come pass
out the bread. We're going to sing number 192.
Paul Mahan
About Paul Mahan
Paul Mahan has been pastor of Central Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, Virginia since 1989; preaching the Gospel of God's Sovereign Grace.
Broadcaster:

Comments

0 / 2000 characters
Comments are moderated before appearing.

Be the first to comment!

Joshua

Joshua

Shall we play a game? Ask me about articles, sermons, or theology from our library. I can also help you navigate the site.