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Don Bell

"Eating the Passover"

Exodus 12:1-13
Don Bell April, 28 2024 Video & Audio
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Don Bell April, 28 2024 Video & Audio

Sermon Transcript

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Thanks. 326 and while we're thinking about
it since you just told me to tell everybody about it We are
gonna have a lunch next Sunday after service. We're gonna keep
it super simple I'm gonna get some pizzas and we're gonna see
if somebody could bring some salad. I know I think miss Fran
or Marlene usually makes one of those big salads and then
maybe some people can just bring some salad toppings and some
dressing or something like that and some drinks and that's all
we'll have to do so just gonna have pizza and salad and 326.
More about Jesus would I know. More of His grace to adore. Let's try it a little lower.
More about Jesus would I know. More of his grace to others show. More of his saving fullness see. More of his love Her died for
me. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness sing. More of His love who died for
me. More about Jesus let me learn. more of his holy will discern. Spirit of God, my teacher be,
showing the things of Christ to me. More, more about Jesus
More, more about Jesus More of His saving fullness see More
of His love who died for me. More about Jesus in his word. Holding communion with my Lord. Hearing His voice in every line,
Making each faithful, saying, Mine. More, more about Jesus, More about Jesus, more of his
saving fullness see, more of his love, her died for me. More about Jesus on his throne. Riches and glory all his own. More of his kingdom sure increased. More of his coming, Prince of
Peace. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. Be seated. Hymn number 70. Hymn number 70. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning Our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy,
holy ? Merciful and mighty ? God in
three persons ? Blessed Trinity ? Holy, holy, holy All the saints adore thee, Casting
down their golden crowns Around the glassy sea. Cherubim and seraphim, Falling
down before thee, which word and art and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see, Only Thou art holy, There is
none beside Thee, Perfect in power, In love and purity. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, all thy works
shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three persons, blessed
Trinity. Good evening. Can we turn to
Genesis chapter 37? Genesis 37. Jacob dwelt in the land wherein
his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are
the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was
feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was with the sons
of Bilhi, and with the sons of Zilphah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought unto his father
their evil report. Now Israel loved Joseph more
than all his children, because he was the son of his old age,
and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren
saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they
hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph
dreamed a dream. And he told it to his brethren,
and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, here,
I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. For behold, we
were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheave arose and also
stood upright. And behold, your sheaves stood
round about and made obeisance to my sheave. And his brethren
said to him, shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shall thou
indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet more for
his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream
and told it to his brethren and said, behold, I have dreamed
a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon and 11 stars
made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father
and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him and
said unto him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall
I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves
to thee, to the earth? And his brethren envied him,
but his father observed the saying. And his brethren went to feed
their father's flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph,
Do not thy brethren feed thy flock in Shechem? Come, and I
will send thee unto them. And he said unto him, Here am
I. And he said unto him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be
well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks, and bring me
word again. So he sent him out of the vale
of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a certain man found him,
and behold, he was wandering in the field. And the man asked
him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren.
Tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the man
said, they are departed hence, for I heard them say, let us
go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren and found
them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off, even before
he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay
him. And they said one to another, behold, this dreamer cometh.
Come now, therefore, and let us slay him and cast him in some
pit. And we will say some evil beast
hath devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.'
And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands and said,
Let us not kill him. And Reuben said unto them, Shed
no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness,
and lay no hand upon him, that he might rid him out of their
hands to deliver him to his father again. And it came to pass when
Joseph was come unto his brethren that they stripped Joseph out
of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him, and they
took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty. There
was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread,
and they lifted up their eyes and looked. And behold, a company
of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery
and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah
said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother
and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the
Ishmaelites, and let our hand not be upon him, for he is our
brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.
Then there passed by Midianites, merchantmen, and they drew and
lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites
for twenty pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph into
Egypt. And Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was
not in the pit. And he rent his clothes. And
he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not, and
I, whither shall I go? And they took Joseph's coat,
and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped it in the blood. And
they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their
father, and said, This have we found. know now whether it be
thy son's coat or no." And he knew it, and said, It is my son's
coat. An evil beast hath devoured him.
Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his
clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins. and mourned for his
son many days. And all his sons and all his
daughters rose up to comfort him. But he refused to be comforted
and said, for I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
And the Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer
of the Pharaohs and captain of the guard. Our Lord and our God, we come
to you again and we pray. We thank you, Lord, for this
place that you've given us to meet. Lord, we ask that you would
be pleased to keep it. Lord, thank you for our pastor
who studies and tells us the truth, Lord, that we can trust
your word, Lord. That's all we need. Lord, we
ask that you would be with our families that don't know you,
Lord. Ask that you'd be merciful to them just like you were merciful
to us, Lord. Help them, Lord. Lord, we thank
you and we ask for your mercy on the sick of this congregation,
Lord. We ask mercy for the family,
Lord, that's lost their loved one. Lord, we ask that you'd
keep them and uphold them, Lord. And we thank you for your mercy,
Lord. We thank you for every day, the mercy. Mercy to you,
Lord. Mercy to us and holy glory to
your name. Lord, we ask all this in Christ's
name, amen. Hymn number 168. 168. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,
Thou art scattering, full and free. Showers the thirsty land
refreshing, Let some drops now fall on me. Even me, even me,
let Thy blessing fall on me. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
let me love and cling to Thee. I am longing for thy favor, whilst
art calling, O call me. Even me, even me, let Thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty Savior,
Thou canst make the blind to see. Witnesser of Jesus' merit,
speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God, so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me. Even me, even me, let Thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, Thy lost one bringing,
bind my heart, O Lord, to Thee. While the streams of life are
springing, Blessing others, O bless me. Even me, even me, Let Thy
blessing fall on me. Exodus chapter 12, Exodus chapter
12, and here's reading Genesis 37. Joseph is more a type of
Christ than anybody else in the Bible. Mr. Pink said that there's 72 types
of the Lord Jesus, that Joseph is 72 types of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was obvious in that what he
read that it was talking about Christ. It was obvious it was.
Brothers hated him. He was going to rule over them,
and he did. And that's the way it is with Christ. They did hate
him, but he's the Lord whether they like it or not. And then
they sold him, you know. They sold him. Took his clothes off of him the
way they did our Lord. Sold gambols for his garments.
gambled for his garments, sold him for thirty pieces of silver. But oh, bless His name, I'm so
thankful that we can find the Gospel anywhere we look, if God
will bless us to see it. And here in Exodus 12, I want
to talk about the eating of the Passover. Let me read down to Verse 13, And the LORD spake unto Moses
and Aaron in the land of Egypt. That's an amazing thing that
the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, and
saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months.
It shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye 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 a house. And if the household
be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to
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 lamb shall be without blemish,
a male of the first year. You shall take it out from the
sheep and from the goats, and you shall keep it up until the
fourteenth day of the same year, 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 post of the houses, wherein they shall
eat it. And they shall eat the flesh, and that night roast with
fire, and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs shall they
eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sond it all with water, but roast
with fire his head with legs, and with the pertinence thereof.
And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning. and
that which remaineth of it unto the morning, ye shall burn with
fire. And thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girded, your
shoes on your feet, 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 smite
all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast,
against all the gods of Egypt, will I execute judgment. I am
the Lord. and the blood shall be to you
for a token upon the house where ye are. And when I see the blood,
I will pass over you, and the plague shall not come upon you
to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt." Now, I m going to deal with several
verses of this, but the thing that I want to deal with is that
they shall eat the flesh. Verse 8, They shall eat the flesh,
roasted with fire, eat it not raw nor sodden with water, let
nothing of it remain. I want to talk about eating the
Passover. Now we know it's the blood, all of us know, God made
us to understand it's the blood that cleanses us from our sin.
It's the blood that cleanses us. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. It's the blood that makes atonement
for the soul. God himself said, when I see
the blood, When I see the blood, I'll pass over you, I'll pass
over you. The blood is our place of safety. Blood is our salvation. That
washes all our sin away. And I tell you, I thank God for
the blood, and God told them there in verse 13, I've given
you the blood as a token. by God Almighty, and He gives
them that token to show that He s been satisfied and will
accept ALL where the blood is seen. When He went through Egypt,
everybody in Egypt that the firstborn have ever sold in Egypt died
that night, even those in the house of Israel. They died in
their substitute. They all died in their substitute.
You know, where there wasn?t any blood, God inflicted judgment. And now I tell you, because the
blood was already shed, judgment had already been inflicted. And
so, you know, He?ll accept ALL the blood where the blood is
seen. And I tell you, you know, That's why I said Christ is a
lamb without spot and without blemish. We were redeemed with
Christ, a spotless lamb without spot and without blemish. And
I'll tell you what, He, Christ is our atonement, made our atonement
for us. But now it's the lamb that's
eaten. When they take this lamb and eat this lamb, and you take
and eat it, and that's when we come into fellowship and communion
with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's taking Christ and eating
Him, and it's eating that Lamb, eating that Lamb. That's how
we come into fellowship and communion with Him. Our Lord in John 6
and 53 said, Except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of
the Son of Man, you'll have no life in you. They said, How are
we going to eat His flesh and drink His blood? Our Lord said,
I'm that bread which come down from heaven. He told them what
I was going to be. He said, just like they ate bread and died
in the wilderness, He said, I'm going to have to die for you
to have my flesh. I'm going to have to shed my
blood. And when He was talking about it was a spiritual act,
we're not cannibals, and that's not what He was teaching. And
I tell you, it was by taking the Lord Jesus Christ by faith
and EATING Him, eating Him like we will tonight. Eating by faith
and eating, that's what nourishes our mind. That's what nourishes
our souls. That's what nourishes and blesses
our hearts. And oh my, He's sufficient. This
is what I love about Him. He's sufficient for the whole
man, for everything about us. You know, we're fearfully and
wonderfully made. Would God give us MINDS? He gives
us UNDERSTANDING, He gives us HEARTS, He gives us a SOUL, He
gives us EMOTIONS, He gives us AFFECTIONS, He gives us FAITH,
and all these things that He gives us, He gives us so that
when we come to eat Christ, we're NOURISHED! I mean, we get things
for our mind! You know, the greatest intellects
in this world, I don't care how Einstein, anybody, the smartest
people in this world, Beloved, apart from the revelation of
God, they could not possibly know God. They can t do it. They can t do it. And I tell
you what, He is sufficient for the whole man. And look what
He said here in verse 3. He said down in the last part of the
verse, To them every man a lamb, according to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for a house. Oh, God provided a Lamb for every
one of us, every one of our homes. He provided a Lamb for us, a
Lamb for our children if they are brought to faith in Christ,
a Lamb for a house, a Lamb for a household. And ain t it wonderful
to have Christ to be the Lord, to be the Lamb, to be our sacrifice
when we re at home, and He meets the needs of the whole man. And
then verse 5, it says this, Your Lamb shall be without blemish.
You can t have a can t have a spot on it. It s got to be perfect.
And look what he goes on to say, A male of the first year. That
means that he s got to be strong. He s going to be perfect. He
s going to be a male of the first year. And when you go out and
look at him, he said, You know, you ll keep him up 14 days. keep
him up 14 days, and every day you go out there and look at
him. Every day go out there and examine him and make sure there
s nothing wrong with him whatsoever. And he said, After you do that,
you shall take him out from the sheep, keep him up 14 days, and
all the whole again. And then he said, And you shall
keep it up, keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same
month. Oh, examine it for 14 days, And this is what's so wonderful
about this, Our Lord Jesus Christ, He said, Which of you convinces
me of sin? There's nothing, you look at
the Lord Jesus Christ, and there's not a fault or flaw in Him in
any way. From the day he was born to the
day he died, not one fault. You know, you hear people talk
about when his little boy, no doubt he was mischievous and
hurt himself here and hurt himself there, and he'd done this and
done that. Listen, he was perfect all the days of his life. He
was a perfect child. He was a perfect infant. He was
a perfect young man. He was a perfect 30-year-old,
31-year-old, 33-year-old, PERFECT all the days of His life, and
I tell you what, you can look into the Lord Jesus Christ and
everything He said, everything He did, and everything about
His life, and you have to come back and say, Oh, SPOTLESS, SPOTLESS,
SPOTLESS! And that s what we have to say.
And then it says here, the last part of verse 6, it says, And
the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening. Now, you know how many lambs
there was? There was a whole bunch of lambs,
but He said, The whole congregation shall kill it. All those lambs
were regarded as one. Kill it! THEY ALL SHALL KILL
IT. GOD CONSIDERED ALL JUST ONE LAMB,
AND THAT LAMB WAS CHRIST OUR PASSOVER SACRIFICE FOR US. AND
OH MY, THEY WERE VIEWED AS ONE, ONE LAMB FOR ONE PEOPLE. AND
LET?S LOOK AT HOW THEY ATE THE PASSOVER. LOOK BACK UP HERE NOW
IN VERSE 8, AND IT SAYS, THEY SHALL EAT THE FLESH, And that night, roast with fire.
Roast with fire. Now, fire is emblematic of judgment. God is a consuming fire. And
Christ as the food of our hearts, as having suffered for us, is
what this is talking about. Our Lord Jesus Christ passed
through the fire of God's wrath. You know, fire fell many times,
and fire fell and consumed the sacrifices. Fire fell in Elijah's
day and consumed all those sacrifices. and the fire is what they used
in the tabernacle to burn the sacrifices with. Well, Christ,
as our Lamb, Christ is our One who suffered for us, He passed
through the fire, passed through the fire of God's wrath, and
the fact that wrath was so heavy upon Him, that He Himself, in
the night before that, when they come to get Him, He was in the
Garden of Gethsemane, praying and sweating great drops of blood,
and He said, Father, Father, If it be possible, if it's possible
at all, let this cup pass from me. But nevertheless, not my
will, but thy will be done. And when our Lord was on that
cross, no wonder he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? And oh, he was the one despised
and rejected. And oh my, we see him on the
cross. When our Lord was on the cross,
I tell you, God's wrath is poured out upon him. And I tell you,
he drank the dregs of the cup, of that cup, dregs out of that
cup. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he
was roast with fire, and I tell you what, he was really roast
with fire. This roast here, I tell you what,
this was just with fire, but Christ, what suffering that he
had. What suffering that he had. But
that's what they said, eat him, roast with fire. And oh, look
in, keep Exodus. Look in Isaiah 63. Look in Isaiah
63. Talking about our Lord Jesus
Christ and what he went through for it. And I tell you what,
he says, you shall eat him. And that's what we're talking
about, you know, eating the Passover. And we have to have Christ. We
have to have him as our Passover. Sacrifice for us. And look what
it said here in Isaiah 63, first five verses, talking about our
Lord. Who is this that cometh from
Edom, with dyed garments from Basra? This, that is, now listen,
he said he's got dyed with garment. That is glorious in his apparel. Whatever he's got on is glorious.
what he's dressed in, it's glorious. And then look what he said, traveling
in the greatness of his strength. So when he's traveling, he's
going by his own strength, the greatness of his strength. And
I that speak in righteousness, who is he talking to? He said,
I am the one traveling in that. I'm the one that's mighty to
save. And oh, wherefore art thou, and they asked this question
again, wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments
like him that treadeth the wine-thread? I've trodden the wine-press alone,
and of the people there was none with me. He by himself purged
our sins, for I will tread them in my anger, and trample them
in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments,
and I will stain all my garments, for the day of vengeance is in
my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. Oh, the blood. And I looked, looked around,
somebody help me, none. And there's none to uphold me.
Therefore, my own harm brought salvation unto me. Oh, I tell
you, our Lord, that's what He's talking about. He treaded that
wine bridge by Himself. He treaded by Himself. And I
tell you, this is the only object of true faith, Christ crucified. It's not the cross that saves
us. Oh, it's not the cross. No, no, when we talk about the
cross and glorying in the cross, we're not talking about a wooden
cross that Christ was on. We're talking about what was
accomplished on that cross, who was on that cross. Oh my, it
wasn't the cross that saved, it was Christ suffering on that
cross. Oh my, it was Christ bearing
our wrath, making atonement for our sin. And oh my, and that's
what saves us, Christ and Him, what He did on that cross. And
as they ate that lamb roast with fire, Christ must be trusted
and looked to as the one who suffered for us. He suffered
and He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He suffered
the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. So
oh my, we're gonna eat it roast with fire. And I tell you, if
we take Christ, we gotta take Him with His cross. Somebody
read that in a study this evening. He said about Christ, you know,
he's talking about going and suffering for the Lord's people.
And he said, if a man seeks to save his life, he'll lose it.
But if he loses my life for my sake in the gospel, he'll save
it, he'll find it. He'll save it, and that's what
this business is. We gotta have Christ and His
suffering. We gotta have Christ bein' roast
with fire. And I tell you, Christ endured
on the cross what was due us, and because of the worth of His
blessed person, because of the merit of who He is, Christ was
able to suffer all the wrath of God for a multitude that no
man could number, And I tell you what, and we take Him as
He is. We take Him as He is. And then
look what else it said here in verse 9 of Exodus. He said, Don't eat it raw. Don't
eat it raw. Don't eat it raw. Oh my! And what does that mean? That
means a lot of people like to separate the Lord Jesus Christ
from His atonement. know, that s what Simon Peter
was going to do there in Matthew 16. Our Lord told him, said,
I m going to go up to Jerusalem, I m going to suffer, I m going
to crucify, and I m going to die by the Pharisees and Sadducees,
and they re going to crucify me. And Peter got him and rebuked
him, said, No, no, no, you re not going to do that! He wanted
Christ, but he wanted Him raw, HE WANTED CHRIST WITHOUT HIS
CROSS, HE WANTED CHRIST, AND THAT'S WHAT PEOPLE DO, THEY WANT
HIM RAW, THEY WANT HIM WITHOUT HIS LORDSHIP, THEY WANT HIM WITHOUT
HIS POWER, THEY WANT HIM WITHOUT HIS GRACE, THEY WANT CHRIST ON
THEIR TERMS, NOT ON HIS TERMS, AND OH MY, PEOPLE WANT A PERSONAL
SAVIOR WITHOUT HIS CROSS, PERSONAL SAVIOR WITHOUT HIS SUFFERINGS,
OH MY, I TELL YOU, YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM, YOU GOT TO HAVE THE
WHOLE CHRIST, and don t eat him raw. They want Jesus as a prophet. That s great! They want Him as
a great teacher, a great MORAL example for all of us. They want
Him as a WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL example. They don t care for
Him being a social worker. Oh, He s a social worker, you
know. He gets folks to do a lot of wonderful things. He s a marriage
counselor. He can take care of your health
and He'll take care of your wealth. That's eating Him raw, that's
eating Him raw. That's to eat the lamb raw. Don't
dare, don't dare. No, oh God, help us never to
dare to approach God without Him being roasted under God's
wrath. Oh, we can't do it without being
roasted. He's the wisdom and power of
God. And don't eat Him raw. And you know, I was reading about
a fella, A real famous man, he decided he wanted to get baptized.
Decided he wanted to get baptized. You know why he wanted to get
baptized? Because he said it would take care of his past. He said, I've studied on it,
I've read on it, and they tell me that if I get baptized that
I'll be okay, I'll be alright. That's eatin' wrong. That's eatin' Christ wrong. Preachers
that tell people that they need to make a decision, that's eatin'
Him wrong. Come to the altar, that's eatin' Him wrong. Knockin'
on it, and Him knockin' on your heart's door, that's eatin' Him
wrong. Take Him any way, you know, they'll
take Him, they want Him to save them from certain things that
they're doin', but not save them from their sin. Not saving from
the wrath of God and the judgment of God. And I'll tell you what,
that's to eat him raw. And God help us to, you can't
approach God, you cannot approach God without Christ being your
substitute, being roasted with the fire of God's wrath. And
then look what else it said here in verse nine. Eat it not raw,
nor sodden at all with water. What in the world is that all
about? Don't water down the gospel.
Don?t water it down! Don?t let the atonement of Christ
be watered down! You know, there was people that
preached that Christ is yea and nay, you know, and Paul said,
We don?t preach Christ of yea and nay, we preach Christ of
yea. What?s yea and nay? That He can save you and still
you?ll not be His Savior, I mean not be your Lord. He can be your
Savior and still Let you live in the world and all my don't
tone down the atonement. Don't let it be watered down
Our Lord and this is what this is how you don't water it down.
He said I lay down my life for the sheep No man takes it from
me I've got the power to lay it down and this lamb when this
lamb was offered here This lamb was given, you know, it was for
only one people Nobody it wasn't for anybody in Egypt it was only
for Israel God's elect people. And Christ is only crucified
for a particular people. Our Lord said, Thou hast given
Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to
as many as Thou hast given Him. And He said, I pray not for the
world. I pray not for the world. I pray
for who? Those Thou hast given Me out
of the world. that the Father gives me, they
going to come to me. Shall call his name Jesus, he
going to save his people from their sin. Look over in John
six with me, John chapter six and verse 53. Let's look over
here together. Now look our Lord Jesus, look
what He says, 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. You have no life in you. DON'T
WATER IT DOWN. I MEAN, DID OUR LORD DID NOT
WATER THIS DOWN RIGHT HERE? HE DID NOT WATER THIS DOWN. HE
TOLD THEM JUST EXACTLY WHAT HE'S GONNA HAVE TO. HE SAID IN VERSE
54, WHOSOEVER EATETH MY FLESH AND DRINKETH MY BLOOD HATH ETERNAL
LIFE, AND I'LL RAISE HIM UP AT THE LAST DAY. I'LL RAISE HIM
UP. NOW, HE'S TALKING ABOUT THE SPIRITUAL
EATING. THOSE FOLKS ACTUALLY ATE LAMB.
WE EAT CHRIST SPIRITUALLY. WE EAT CHRIST SPIRITUALLY. And
look what He goes on to say down in verse 60. You know, He said that he that
eats this bread will never have to eat again. He'll live forever. Then verse 60, Many therefore
of his disciples, when they had heard this, they said, This is
a hard saying. This is awful hard. This is a hard saying. Who can
hear it? And what He's saying is, Who
can understand it? Who's going to do it? Who s going to believe
it? What is he saying? Oh, my. This is a hard saying. Who can hear it? I tell you who
can hear it. My sheep can. We can hear it. I heard every
word of it, didn t you? I heard every word of it. Old
timers used to say, I heard it, I heard it. Oh, I tell you this, IF CHRIST
SUFFERED FOR YOU, IF CHRIST IS YOUR PASSOVER, THEN YOU DO EAT
HIS FLESH AND YOU DO DRINK HIS BLOOD IN EVERY SERVICE THAT WE
COME TO. IF HE DID THIS FOR THE WORLD,
DO YOU KNOW HOW? IF CHRIST DIED FOR THE WHOLE WORLD, THEN THE
WHOLE WORLD WOULD BE SAVED. THAT'S HOW POWERFUL AND GLORIOUS
AND WONDERFUL OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS. IF HIS BLOOD WAS SHED
FOR THE WHOLE WORLD, THERE'D NOT BE ONE SOUL GO TO HELL, NOT
ONE. JUST NOT ONE. ALL YOU HAVE TO
DO IS READ THE BIBLE AND BELIEVE THOSE FEW VERSES OF SCRIPTURE
AND FORGET ABOUT IT. BUT OH NO, THAT LAMB WAS FOR
ISRAEL ONLY. CHRIST IS FOR HIS ELECT ONLY. CHRIST DIED ONLY FOR HIS PEOPLE,
AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO WATER IT DOWN. WE'RE NOT GOING TO,
YOU KNOW, SODDEN WITH WATER MEANS TO BOIL IT. Boil it. Who wants to? Oh my, oh don't
water the gospel down, don't water it down. And then look
what it said in verse 11. And thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girded, your
shoes on your feet, your staff in your hand, and eat it in haste,
eat it in haste. And what they're telling them
folks is, and this is what I'm telling us, eat it right now. Bow to Christ right now. Receive
Christ right now. You know, there's folks, and
I don't understand this, well, I do on account of the fallen
nature, but when men and women wait for some reason, they're
looking for some reason in themselves why they should not believe.
or else they re looking in reasons in God for not WANTING to do
anything for them. But I just said here, Eat Him
in Haste! Right now! Eat Him fast! Don t let none of it left over!
Eat Christ NOW! NOW! Eat it in haste! Eat it
in haste! Oh, we won t eat it! Oh, we can
t eat it later! We can t eat it later, we gotta
do it hungry! And here s the thing, If you want the Lord Jesus
Christ, and this is something I think every believer does,
they want Christ all the time. If you've ever, EVER seen Christ
as your Lamb, as your Passover Lamb, you've seen Him roasted
with fire, You don't want him raw. You want him as a substitute.
You want him bearing your wrath, bearing your judgment. And you
don't want to eat him watered down. You don't want a watered
down gospel. And oh my. And he said, eat it, eat it in
haste. Eat it right now. Don't wait
around. Oh my goodness, don't wait around.
And if there's anybody listening to me out there, they re listening
tonight or watching tonight, I tell you what, if you re an
unbeliever, eat Christ right now, eat Him in haste right now.
Don t play with Christ, trifle with the world, but don t trifle
with the Savior, don t trifle with the Savior. And then look
what He said in verse 10, eat all of it, eating out of
it raw, excuse me, verse 10, and let none of it remain until
the morning. Eat all of it. Don't leave nothing over. Oh
my, we must have a whole Christ, a whole lamb, or none of Him. Oh my. Some want of His example,
but they don't want His doctrine. Don't want His doctrine. Now
people, you say around here all the time, don't give me doctrine,
just give me Jesus. you can t have Christ without
doctrine. You just can t do it. You can t have Christ without
doctrine. He said, My doctrine, I gave my doctrines, not mine,
but his that send me, our Lord said. And oh, my, they want someone
s doctrine, They want the five points of Calvinism or Calvinism,
and yet they don t want His precepts. They don t want to be told how
they re supposed to live. They re not supposed to be kind
and generous and loving and follow Christ and be FAITHFUL to Christ.
That s something that s such a burden to see people that s
just not faithful to the gospel. I don t get it to have a profession
of faith and not be faithful to the gospel. I don't get that,
it's unnatural to me. If Christ is really, truly the
Lamb that was suffered for you, and you really believe that with
all your heart, and you don't want Him raw, you don't want
Him watered down, you want Him to be your Savior, to be your
Lord, to be your Master. Well, what in the world is wrong?
What's wrong? Oh, my. Somebody told me this the other
day. I'm going to quit preaching and talk a minute. I'm going
to meddle. I'm going to meddle in people's
business, if you don't mind. But, you know, here recently,
somebody told me, they told their preacher, said, well, we decided
to have Pazama Church this morning. In other words, we're going to
stay home, stay in our pajamas before we go, so we won't go. You know, pajama church is what
they say. We're just going to stay in our
pajamas and watch it on TV. Oh, I hope nobody ever comes
and tells me that. Oh, my goodness. But pajama church. But oh my, I just, I can't get
my head around that. You know, you can't, you can
sit at your table and eat in your pajamas if you want to,
but you cannot eat the gospel and enjoy the gospel sitting
around in your pajamas watching the TV. You see, when you want
to eat, you want to go get a fork and a spoon and a knife and And
you won't eat out of a plate. And that's what it is. We come
here to eat out of the plate. To eat the fresh fruit, to eat
the bread. You ever had bread straight out of the oven? Oh
my, it's so hot and it's so good. Don't even cut it. Just reach
and break the end off of it. Get you a big old thing of butter
and just start buttoning it up and eating it. Huh? Well, that's
the way I feel about the gospel. Oh, you know, I heard a fellow
say one time, he said, I'm going to bake some new bread to feed
the children with this morning. He's talking about, you know,
I want to bring fresh bread. I'd love to bring some fresh
bread here one time into preaching if I could. Oh, I really would. Eat all of it. You got to have
the whole lamb. Oh my, there's nothing left. There's nothing, nothing, no
more in Christ than we absolutely need. We and everything that
that's in Christ. We need all of him Everything
about him everything about him. Oh my if he's going to be your
substitute He's got also be your king if he's going to be your
Savior. He's also got to be your Lord
your master He's not only our justification, but he's also
our sanctification. He sets us apart and Paul asked
the question, he said, Is Christ divided? Is Christ divided? No! No! And then look what he
said in verse 8 again. He said, And eat it with unleavened
bread, unleavened bread. You know what leaven is. Everybody
knows what leaven is. It s the same thing you d call
bacon soda, I reckon. But what it was is always, ALWAYS
affiliated with sin. Our Lord told them, Beware of
the doctrine of the Pharisees. And you know And Paul said in
1 Corinthians 5, he said, purge out that old leaven. Now, you
know, we have that, we eat with unleavened bread. We gotta purge
out the old leaven of our traditions, of our works, of our merit, of
envy and malice and jealousy and all those kind of things.
And all those things that our flesh We'll give it away to,
that's leaven. We gotta purge out that old leaven
of envy and malice and works. And leaven was always typical
of sin and always typical of hypocrisy, of hypocrisy. So we have to, by God's grace,
bow and receive our Lord Jesus Christ honestly, sincerely. We have to have the whole of
Christ. everything about Him. And I tell
you, not only must we have all of Him, here's the other side
of it. He has to have all of Him. And
remember the old hymn writer said, We're the whole realm of
nature, mind, that's a present far too small. Love so amazing,
so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. My all, if it was
left up to us without this flesh, We would never ever, our whole
lives would be committed to Christ in a way that would just be unimaginable
to us the way it is right now. But we have to have the whole
Christ and He must have the whole of you. And this is the thing
right here. This is where we have to be honest.
Oh my, don't trifle with the Lord. Don't trifle with the Lord.
If you're gonna play act, go someplace else. If you wanna
pretend, don't do it here with the substitute, with Christ,
the lamb. And then look what he said there
in verse eight again. Eat it with bitter herbs, bitter
herbs, bitter herbs. And the herbs were to enhance
the taste of the lamb. Relish is like, it made it taste
better, but it's bitter herbs. And remember the bitterness of
Christ and the bitterness of our sin and how awful it was
when Christ began to deal with us and bring it to Himself. Oh, I tell you, the bitterness
of our bondage, Christ made it so much sweeter. And then there
s the bitter herbs of repentance, bitter herbs of repentance. And
oh my, the bitter herbs of our unworthiness. Oh, I tell you,
Have you ever felt worthy once Christ saved you? Worthy of anything? Huh? Oh, there's bitter herbs, poorness
of spirit. You know, the tarrels and the
morels are having some bitter herbs right now, bitter herbs. And as long as we're believers
in this life, we're going to have a lot of bitter herbs. A
lot of bitter herbs. You may have some bitter herbs
tomorrow. You may have bitter herbs last
week. And I'll tell you, this will always go with those that's
believing, is bitter herbs, bitter herbs. Things that, our trials
are bitter herbs. Our sin is bitter herbs. And
all these things, what makes Christ so sweet to us is because
of how bitter life gets to be in this life, bitter. And if
you eat the lamb with bitter herbs, go with him. But who cares, you know, if the
bitter herbs go with Christ, who cares as long as we have
the privilege of eating the lamb. That's all that matters. If God
gave us nothing but sweetness and beds of roses all the way
to glory, we would be the sorriest bunch you ever met in your life.
We would be awful, wouldn't we? Be awful. And then I love this,
and I'll be done. Look what He said in verse 11,
And thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes
on your feet, your staff in your hand, and ye shall eat it in
haste. It's the Lord's Passover. He said, When we eat the lamb,
you've got to be ready to go! Eat it with your traveling clothes
on! You know, this is an amazing
thing! Whatever clothes you're wearing
when Christ calls you home, you've got your traveling clothes on.
We've got our traveling clothes on right now. What is it? The righteousness of Christ,
the holiness of Christ. Oh my, you know, get your traveling,
put your shoes on, put your shoes on, get your staff in your hand,
you're fixing to leave here. It's as quick as God passes through,
you're going out of here. And oh, this world, this world
is not our home. Oh, we have started our exodus
already out of this world. We ve already started our exodus
out of this world, and oh, we re headed, where are you going
to the promised land? Huh? Oh, my! He said it like
this, Here we have no continuing city, but look for one to come. Look in Hebrews 11 with me. Just
look in Hebrews 11 and I ll be done. Look in Hebrews 11, talking
about, you know, put your traveling clothes on. Joe Terrell was in his pajamas
when the Lord took him home, but he had his traveling clothes
on. I tell you what, look what he
says here now. Hebrews 11, 9 and 10. talking about Abraham, By faith
he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling
in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, with heirs with him of
the same promise. For he looked for a city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Oh my! And then look what he said down
in verse 13, These all died in faith, NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE
PROMISES, BUT HAVING SEEN THEM WAY, WAY OFF, THEY PERSUADED
THEM THAT THEY SEEMED WAY, WAY OFF, AND THEY EMBRACED THOSE
PROMISES THEY SEEMED SO FAR OFF. AND WHEN THEY EMBRACED THEM AND
SEEN THEM AND EMBRACED THEM, THEY CONFESSED THAT THEY WERE
STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS ON THE EARTH. FOR THEY THAT SAY SUCH
THINGS DECLARE PLAINLY THAT THEY SEEK A COUNTRY, AND TRULY If
they had been mindful out of that country from whence they'd
come, they'd have turned around and went back. But now, but now,
they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly country,
wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He
has prepared for them a city." He's already got it ready. He's
already got it ready. Huh? Oh my, He's already got
it ready. city prepared for us, you know,
got twelve stones in it, got four gates to it, pearls, and the foundation, you
know, that He laid is the Lord Jesus Christ. The foundation
ain t never going to change. He laid that foundation. That
foundation ain t never going to change. And you know, he said,
Be shod with shoes on your feet. We're shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. We got the breastplate of righteousness.
We got the helmet of salvation. Ready to go. Ready to go. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, again we bless you that you allowed us
this privilege to be here, and I pray that you'd be pleased
to bless the message to your glory and the good of those that's
here. Lord, it's in our hearts, it's
in our souls, no matter what this flesh is like. We can't
go by our feelings, we can't go by our emotion, we can't go
by our thoughts even. Lord, we've got to go by what
you say. And regardless of how down we get or how up we get,
You're still. You're still. We've got to have
You. We want all of You, Lord. We want everything about You. We want Your Godhead with all
that glory and power. We want Your humanity and all
its sinlessness and purity. We want Your Word that feeds
us and comforts us. Mercy, oh God, that embraces
us when we're discouraged. We want your grace to hold us
up because we can't stand up by ourselves. And Lord, we understand
clearly without you, without you, we can do nothing. And so
Lord, we commit ourselves again as much as this old rotten, corrupt
flesh will let us. Lord, we commit ourselves to
you one more time in this world. And if you let us live tomorrow,
God will get up and say, you're our God, you're our Lord, you're
our master, and we still want all of you. And Lord, enable
us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
unto you. And do it for Christ's sake,
for Christ's sake, amen. Amen. Learning to lean, learning
to lean, I'm learning to lean on Jesus. FINDING MORE POWER THAN I EVER
DREAMED I'M LEARNING TO LEAN ON JESUS I'll see you Wednesday,
God willing. Don't forget the lunch next week,
and I'll be back here Wednesday night, next week.
Don Bell
About Don Bell
Don Bell is the current pastor of Lantana Grace Church in Crossville, TN.
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