now let's open our bibles to
exodus chapter 13 exodus chapter 13 and the lord spake unto moses
saying sanctify unto me all the firstborn whatsoever openeth
the womb among the children of israel both of man and of beast
it is mine And Moses said unto the people, remember this day,
in which he came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage,
for by strength of hand, the Lord brought you out from this
place. There shall no leavened bread be eaten. This day came
ye out in the month of Abed, and it shall be when the Lord
shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and of the
Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. a land flowing
with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this
month. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in
the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread
shall be eaten seven days, and there shall no leavened bread
be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee
in all thy quarters. And thou shalt show thy son in
that day, saying, this is done because of that which the Lord
did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. And it shall be
for a sign unto thee, upon thine hand, and for a memorial between
thine eyes, that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth. For with
a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt. Thou shalt
therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.
And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land
of the Canaanites, as he sware unto thee and to thy fathers,
and shall give it thee, that thou shalt set apart unto the
Lord all that openeth the matrix. And every firstling that cometh
of a beast which thou hast, the males shall be the lords. And
every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with the lamb. And
if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck, and
the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem. And
it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying,
what is this? That thou shalt say unto him
by strength of hand, the Lord brought us out from Egypt and
from the house of bondage. And it came to pass when Pharaoh
would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn
of beast. Therefore I sacrificed to the
Lord all that openeth the matrix being males, but all the firstborn
of my children I redeemed. And it should be for a token
upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes, for by strength
of hand, the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt." Thank God
for his word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, oh, how thankful
we are for your word. How thankful we are for this
picture of substitution, salvation for your people through the substitution
substitutionary death of Christ our Savior. And how thankful
we are that you've given us yet one more opportunity to meet
together, to hear your gospel preached, to sing the songs of
praises, to come and bow before your throne as your children
coming before you in prayer, offering our thanksgiving and
our praises. Oh, how we praise your matchless
name for the salvation that you purposed that you provided, that
you made sure through the obedience and the sacrifice of your son. Father, human language, human
tongues and lips can't even begin to express our praise and our
thanksgiving. But with everything that in us
is, Father, we thank you and we praise your matchless name.
And Father, I pray you bless your word as it's preached tonight.
that you would enable me to rightly divide the word of truth, that
you would enable me to preach by the power of your spirit,
in clear and simple terms, preach Christ and him crucified. And
Father, be with your people, give us an ear to hear, a heart
that would believe and rejoice in hearing one more time of Christ
our Savior. And what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for all of your people, whether they may be gathered
together tonight Father, bless for your great namesake. Cause
your name to be known in this wicked and perverse generation
in which we live. Father, we pray for those who
are sick and away from us who can't be with us this evening.
We pray that you'd be with them, that you'd watch over, that you'd
heal and comfort and deliver them. Return them back to us
as soon as it could be thy will. All these things we ask and we
give thanks in that name which is above every name. the name
of Christ our Savior. Amen. I've titled the message this
evening, Redeeming an Ass. As I began reading this passage
this week, I thought it was very, very interesting to me that the
very day after Israel left Egypt, you know, they left in the middle
of the night, and that next day, the Lord took time to give Moses
the law concerning redeeming an ass. Now you see this repeated
throughout the law and other sections of scripture, but the
Lord took the time to give this instruction on redeeming an ass
that very first day after they came out of Egypt. I just thought
that's so interesting. Now the redeeming of the ass
and the redeeming of Israel from Egypt, you know, when many times
when the Lord would talk about bringing Israel and delivering
them out of Egypt, he didn't use the word deliver, he used
the word redeem. Redeeming Israel from Egypt and
the redeeming of the ass are both pictures of the redemption
that God's elect have through the sacrifice, through the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And these verses this evening,
the ass is a picture of you and me, that stubborn jackass that
represents you and me. In his commentary on this passage,
Brother Don Fortner, this sounds just like him, He said with all
apologies to the jackass. The jackass is being compared
to us. But that's good for us to see.
Because if we got some idea of how disgusting that we really
are, that'll make us a whole lot more interested in God's
grace. Make God's grace a whole lot sweeter to us. I pray that
the Holy Spirit will enable us to see something about Christ
our sacrifice and his substitutionary sacrifice this passage. Now if
we're going to talk about salvation, number one is this, we've got
to speak of Christ our Savior, who he is. In verse one of Exodus
chapter 13, the Lord spake unto Moses saying, sanctify unto me
all the firstborn whatsoever openeth the womb among the children
of Israel, both of man and of beast, it's mine. Now the Lord
lays claim to all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. Man and
beast, he said, they're mine. That word sanctify or to sanctify
and to be all the firstborn, that word sanctify means to consecrate
or to dedicate, to set apart. All the firstborn in the land
of Egypt were to be set apart and dedicated to the Lord. Now
that's not because the firstborn is so special. And as a firstborn,
that's a little bit hard for me to say, John. I always thought
the firstborn, because the firstborn's so special. The firstborn ain't
special. No, no more special than all the younger siblings.
The firstborn, God's using them, those worthless firstborn. He's using them as a picture,
as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the firstborn
of God. In eternity before creation,
the Father consecrated His Son. He set His Son apart to be the
Savior of the people that the Father elected to save. The Father
elected a Savior and He elected a people to save. That's why
in Isaiah chapter 42, the Father called His Son, mine elect. He's
then the Savior the Father elected to save His people. And the Father
set His Son apart to be the mediator of the covenant of grace. He
set His Son apart to serve God's purpose in redeeming His people
from their sin. He put all the purpose of his
grace into the hand of his son, and the father calls him his
firstborn. I want you to look at a few scriptures, Hebrews
chapter 12. Hebrews 12, verse 22. But you are come unto Mount Zion,
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly
and Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men
made perfect, and to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of ables. The Father here calls his people
the General Assembly, the Church of the Firstborn." All of the
church, all the body of Christ, every believer that's part of
the body of Christ, they are in Christ the firstborn. He's
our head. This is where it all comes from,
from Christ the firstborn. Now look back at Romans chapter
eight. Christ came to redeem. He came as the firstborn. He
came to redeem those people. And since he's the one who came
to save them, all of those people shall be redeemed. There's no
question about it. that would be redeemed and glorified
together with Christ. Romans 8 verse 29. For whom he
did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that his Son might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Now all that
is sure because who the Savior is. The Savior is the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's firstborn. Now I know he's the only begotten
son, but here the father calls him his firstborn. Not the only
born, the firstborn. Since he's the firstborn, that
means there's many more who are gonna come after him. And it's
all those that the father gave his son to save, they're gonna
be redeemed and glorified. And it's so sure 2000 years ago,
when the apostle Paul was writing Romans chapter eight, he wrote
about our glorification in the past tense. That's how sure this
thing is because of, of who the savior is. Look at Colossians
chapter one. Do I know that? So because God's firstborn, he
cannot fail to save his people. Colossians one verse 13. who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature." The King, the firstborn, the one that's
dedicated to God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him
were all things created that are in heaven and that are on
earth, visible and invisible. whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by him,
by this firstborn and for this firstborn. And he's before all
things and by him, all things consist. And he's the head of
the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things, he might have the preeminence,
God's firstborn, is the one who's gonna come to save all of God's
people. He suffered and died to put their
sin away. And he's the firstborn from the dead. He's the first
one to die, to rise from the dead, to die no more. And all
of his people, they're gonna be raised in him. They're gonna
be given life too, but they're gonna be raised from the dead
and be brought together to be with Christ for eternity. Now
that's what this firstborn is talking about back in Exodus
13. All those firstborn in Israel, they belong to God. They were
pictures of Christ, the firstborn of the Father. Christ, that's
who the Savior is. Well, second thing is this, what
did he do for his people? He made them holy. Verse three,
back in Exodus 13. And Moses said unto the people,
remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt out of the
house of bondage, for by strength of hand, the Lord brought you
out from this place. There shall no leavened bread
be eaten. This day came ye out in the month of Abed. And it
shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hypates,
and the Jebusites, which ye swear unto thy fathers to give thee,
the land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this
service in this month. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened
bread, and the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened
bread shall be eaten seven days, and there shall no leavened bread
be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee
in all thy quarters. This is the feast of unleavened
bread with the Passover. Unleavened bread was eaten for
seven days. And that unleavened bread's a
picture. It's a picture of what Christ did for his people. Christ
made all of his people holy. He completely removed their sin,
so that they have no sin. See, that's what this leaven
is a picture of. All throughout Scripture, leaven is a picture
of sin. Now, the Passover wasn't just
a one-night thing, you know, where they killed the lamb and
roasted his body and ate it, put the blood on the door. It's
a week-long thing leading up to that sacrifice. The sacrifice
was the most important thing, but it was a week-long thing
leading up to this. And all that week, the people,
didn't eat anything leavened. They didn't eat any leavened
bread, it was all unleavened. And you know what that unleavened
bread's a picture of? We still use it today, don't
we? In the Lord's table, we have unleavened bread as a picture
of the sinlessness of Christ. His sinless body, His sinless
perfection. And not only did they not eat
any unleavened bread, they're commanded, get all the leaven
out of the house. I mean, you search every nook and cranny.
You search in the backs of those cabinets and stuff, make sure
there's no leaven hidden back there anywhere. You get all of
the leaven out of the house. That seems kind of extreme. I
mean, you know, let's save that leaven back there. We'll use
it next week. Get it all out of the house,
the Lord said. Now, why is that so important? Because it's a
picture. It's a picture of what Christ
has done for his people. By his sacrifice, he made them
have no sin, like unleavened, can you say unsinful? He made
them to have no sin. The all-seeing eye of God searches
his people diligently, just like the people would search their
houses diligently. Now they might miss a little
cake 11 somewhere, maybe, but this is the all-seeing eye of
God. He doesn't miss anything. And he searches his people diligently
to see if there's any sin in them. And he can't find any because
there's none there because Christ completely removed the sin of
his people. That's not just a doctrinal statement.
That's the life. That's the experience of God's
people. And if you look at Ephesians chapter five, I'll show you that.
Ephesians chapter five. Verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that,
now here's why Christ sanctified or sacrificed himself for his
people. Here's what he accomplished when he gave himself for his
people, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word, that he might present it to himself,
a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle or any such
thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. That's the way Christ made his
people, made them not have any spot of sin, not any wrinkle
of sin, not any imperfection, but that they're holy and without
blemish. Now look back with me at Psalm
139. Now I told you, this is not just some doctrinal pie in
the sky thing that's not true now, but gonna be true someday.
This is the way God's people really are. This is what Christ
has truly made his people to be. Here's an amazing statement. Psalm 139 verse 23. Search me, O God, and know my
heart. Try me and know my thoughts and
see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way
everlasting. Now I kind of got to catch my
breath before I even make that, read this. Can you imagine one
of us telling God, search me, see if there's any hidden sin
in me, any way of wickedness in me? The only person who could
be making this statement is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Christ
speaking. Only Christ can tell his father,
search me and see if there'll be any sin in me. There's no
wicked way in me. Only Christ could say that. But
you know what? Every believer can say the same
thing. Because this is what Christ has made his people. He's made
them to be sinless. Even the way that they observe
the seven days of the Passover shows us that. They ate unleavened
bread for seven days. Seven's the number of perfection.
That's the perfection God's people have in Christ. He took all of
their sin away. so that it is no more, it's gone. Now that's really good news.
But you know, most people when they hear that statement that
Christ took all of our sin away, I want us to really think about
this, especially this group of people. We tend to think of all
the worst things I've ever done, the actions that the world calls
sinful and vile and repulsive, and we're so thankful. that Christ
has taken those things away from us, and we ought to be. But don't
fall into the trap of thinking, that's the worst things I've
ever done, that's the worst sin that I ever have, these outward
things. Do you know what our worst sin
is? It's religious things. Religious
things, and it depends on the motive now, the religious things
that we've done trying to make ourselves more acceptable to
God. If I do this, God will love me more. If I do this, God will
bless me more. He'll see me as more devout and
more whatever, you know, than somebody else. You know what
that is? It's self-righteousness. And
that's the only damning sin. Remember when the Lord warned
his disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees? And he had
to finally tell them, I'm not talking about bread. I'm talking
about their doctrine. Their doctrine, was self-righteousness. You keep the law, you obey and
follow these ceremonies, and you'll be righteous. It's self-righteous,
and the Lord said, get that leaven out of you. Search that diligently,
and get that self-righteousness out of our houses. Now, that's
the hardest thing to do, isn't it? Because it keeps cropping
up. We get rid of it, and two seconds
later, it's going right back. It's just always right there.
It's constant work getting this self-righteousness out of us
so that we're enjoying trusting Christ alone. If God saved you,
you'd trust Christ alone. I know you do. But that self-righteousness,
it keeps cropping up. We hate it. Well, I've got good
news for you. Now, don't ever settle for that
self-righteousness being in you. Constantly be trying to get rid
of it. But when you can, don't lose hope. Christ has cleansed
his people of even the sin of self-righteousness because he
took the leaven out, he did it. That's what he did, he made his
people holy. Well, the third thing is, how
did he do it? Back in our text, how did Christ
make his people to have no sin? Verse 11, and it should be when
the Lord should bring thee into the land of the Canaanites as
he swear unto thee. and to thy fathers, and shall
give it thee, that thou shalt set apart unto the Lord all that
openeth the matrix. And every firstling that cometh
of a beast which thou hast, the males shall be the Lord's. And
every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb, and
if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck. And
all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem. Now the Lord sent all the firstborn
males of the animals their minds. But the ass, that unclean animal,
God said, I won't have it. I will not accept it. God told
Moses, when you have an ass, and it's the firstborn, break
its neck. Because I won't have it. It's
an unclean animal. I will not have it. You break its neck.
And if you want to keep the ass, then you don't want to break
its neck. You want to keep it. You want to use it for whatever.
Then you have to redeem that ass by sacrificing a lamb in
its place. Now, you think about a jackass
and a lamb. Who would do that? I mean, just
break the jackass's neck. You know, they're a dime a dozen.
You'll have another one later, you know. Who's going to sacrifice
a clean animal for an unclean one? Who's going to sacrifice
a lamb? For a jackass, who would do such
a thing? I mean, why did you take this
beautiful, cute little lamb and sacrifice it so a stubborn jackass
can live? Who would do such a thing? I know you see the picture. Who
would redeem a sinful, stiff-necked, rebellious people by sacrificing
his son? Nobody but God. But now God did
it because His law must be satisfied. Remember I said this in the introduction,
this firstborn ass represents you and me. That jackass is an
unclean animal. Now that's us. This is what Isaiah
said of you and me. We're all as an unclean thing
and all of our righteousnesses, the best things that we have
ever done are filthy rags. They're filthy, right? Defiled
with sin. Our sin is not breaking the rules. Our sin is something that defiles
our souls, that makes us unclean through and through. And the
holy God says, I'll not accept that. I'll not accept that unclean
thing. You've got to break its neck
and get it out of my presence. But here's the thing. God still
has a claim on that firstborn, doesn't he? God still says that
firstborn is mine. Even the firstborn ass, that's
why God says kill it. I mean, it's mine, but you kill
it because I won't have it. Do you know when the father chose
a people to save? He chose those people, he set
his love upon them, and he chose those people to save. They're
a bunch of unclean animals, a bunch of jackasses. They're sinful,
vile people. but God chose to save them. And
when they were born, the father would not see his people put
to death. Yes, they're unclean. Yes, they're
just, they're exactly like that stubborn jackass, but God loved
those people. He said, those people are mine. And if one of them perishes,
God loses all of his glory. He loses his right to be God. He's not gonna allow them to
perish. So even God only has two choices. He can slay them. He can let
those people be condemned to hell. That's what they deserve
by their sin. Just like that firstborn ass,
you could break its neck. Or you could redeem that jackass
by the sacrifice of a lamb. See, even God only has two choices. Those elect belong to God, now
they're His. He's laid claim on them, He said,
they're mine. But justice still has to be satisfied. Something
has to be done to redeem them of their uncleanness. So in the most amazing act of
love and grace that has ever been known in God's creation,
you know what the Father did? He sent His firstborn. He sent
his only begotten son, his beloved son. He sent his son into the
world as a man, as the Lamb of God who would come and take away
the sin of his people. Christ came and redeemed his
people by dying the death that they deserve. He died as their
substitute so they would live. Christ died the death his people
deserve so they'd have eternal life. The father sacrificed the
son of his love to redeem his people who were unclean in their
sin in every way. But the death of Christ is so
powerful that his blood washed those unclean people and made
them white as snow, made them clean and holy without any trace
of sin. He made his people without spot
or wrinkle or any such thing, just like the apostle Paul told
us. Now, that ass was unclean, but you know what else? The ass
has a famous, well-earned reputation for being stubborn and mean and
dirty. That's the nature of the ass
and you can't change it. You can't train him out of it.
You can't change his surroundings and make him start acting better.
You can't keep washing the dirt off the coat of the ass. You
can't keep perfuming it and think it's going to be anything different
than an ass. It's still going to be an ass. You can't take
the ass and put it in a pasture with a bunch of sheep. The ass
is never going to be a sheep. You can't put the ass in a field
with a bunch of horses. It's never gonna be a horse.
It's always gonna be a stubborn, stiff-necked jackass. That jackass
will never become submissive like she, and willingly follow
the voice of the shepherd. Never. I can't think of a better
description of you and me, spiritually, than that. We're dirty. We're defiled with sin, and I
don't care how many outward religious ceremonies we go through, our
heart is still going to be defiled with sin. Wash up the outside
all you want, the inside still full of corruption and dead men's
bones. And we talk about the ass being so stubborn. I want
to tell you what. That jackass, stubborn as he
may be, he's got nothing on us. I mean, he's got nothing on us. Here's the proof of it. There's
not one person here can deny it. We hear the gospel over and
over and over again. Many of us grew up hearing the
gospel over and over and over again, and we will not submit. We might act nice on the outside,
so we kind of get along with everybody, but in our heart,
we will not submit because our heart is hard and it's stubborn. See, our problem is not individual
sins that we've committed. As heinous as those things are,
here's our problem. It's our nature. It's our nature. It's a nature that can only sin
more and more and more and will never, ever, ever submit itself
to the righteousness of Christ. But Christ came. And he suffered
and died for his people. The death of Christ washed his
people from all of their sin and paid the penalty for all
the sin of his people. But he didn't stop there. The
death of Christ also gives his people a new nature. See, the
nature of this flesh will always be a stubborn jackass. The flesh
will never submit. It will never believe. It will
never beg God for mercy. But God gives his people a second
nature, a new nature, the nature of the sheep, the nature that
knows the voice of his shepherd and will willingly follow him.
See, that's the only way any of us can be made accepted by
the Father. It's through the death of Christ
the lamb. The sacrifice of Christ, our Passover lamb, gave redemption
and cleansing for all of His elect. It redeemed us from the
house of the bondman. By His one sacrifice, the Lord
Jesus Christ saved all of His people of all human history and
made every last one of them holy. When the Lord's given this instruction
to Moses about redeeming the firstborn ass, what happened
the night before? The night before, all of Israel
left Egypt. Every last one of them. They
didn't leave a hoof or a hair behind. Not one of them was left
behind. Every last one of them came out
of Egypt free and enriched with goods. Why? One sacrifice. The sacrifice of that Passover
lamb. Now that's an effectual sacrifice, isn't it? That's the
picture of Christ, our sacrifice. See, the Lord is driving home
this truth to us. The truth of substitution. Substitution
and satisfaction. It's at the heart of the gospel.
You cannot preach the gospel without preaching this glorious
truth of substitution. The Passover, that's one of the
clearest pictures we have of that, isn't it? The firstborn
only lived because a lamb died in its place. Same thing with
the jackass. That stubborn jackass, the only
reason its neck wasn't broken, it was redeemed by the death
of a lamb. The only reason, substitution. And that's how the Lord Jesus
Christ redeemed all of his people. He died as their substitute.
He died in their place. And salvation, through the death
of the substitute is perfect. It's complete in every way. You don't have to do one thing
to have it. It's already complete. God gives
it to you freely. This salvation is perfect. It honors all of God's characters,
all of his attributes. Salvation through the death of
the substitute honors God's justice. Now, there's got to be death
for sin. That unclean animal's got to die. Well, if a lamb dies
in its place, there's still death for sin in there. It honors God's
justice. God's justice is satisfied when
he saves his people from their sin. That's perfect. And I'm
so glad it's that way. I'm so glad God doesn't say,
well, I'm gonna pretend like that their sin debt was paid.
If God's pretending like our sin debt's paid, one day he could
say, You know, your sin debt hadn't really been paid and I'm
tired of you. Now you got to pay it. I'm glad that the Lord
doesn't say you've got to do something in order to have this.
I can't do anything. I can't do anything to please
God. But if God's justice is satisfied for me by the death
of the substitute. Oh, I see God's justice is magnified
in this. God's justice being satisfied
is what makes salvation in Christ. Sure. Salvation through the death
of the substitute honors and magnifies God's grace. To think
that the son of God died so that rebels like you and me would
be given eternal life. Now that's grace. I mean, that's
grace. I mean, it would be gracious
if God just said, you know, I'm gonna forget about your sin.
I'm gonna forget about your sin, dad. Just don't worry about it.
I mean, that would be gracious. But I'll tell you what is infinitely
more gracious is the father slaughtering his son so a sinful people can
be redeemed. Oh, that's gracious. Doesn't
that just thrill your heart? Salvation through the death of
a substitute honors God's wisdom. There is no man-made religion
yet that has found a way to satisfy both justice and mercy, both
truth and grace, not one. But God and his wisdom provided
the way. It's through the death of the
substitute. And salvation is through the death of the substitute.
Now that glorifies God's character in every way. And it also gives
comfort and assurance to the hearts of God's people. Now God
is holy. God is just. If the father punished
Christ for my sin, if Christ died as my substitute, then God
can never punish me for it. Because he can never punish two
people for the same sin. The death of the substitute is
the only way I find any assurance that my sin has been put away.
Y'all know religious people are like this, that their assurance
of salvation is they act better than they used to. And outwardly,
they probably do. But if that was my hope, I can
tell you what old Frank's thinking about at two o'clock in the morning
when I wake up and can't go back to sleep. Yeah, maybe I have
acted better outwardly than I used to, but not good enough. And
in here, ain't got no better. There's no assurance in that.
But if Christ died as my substitute to put my sin away, then I've got no worries, do
I? No worries whatsoever. I have no reason to fear dying
and facing God in judgment if Christ already died as my substitute.
The father can't, not only does he not want to condemn me if
Christ died for me, he can't condemn me. Not in still beholding,
he can't. If Christ died as my substitute,
if Christ died to redeem me, brother, I'm redeemed. And I
have eternal life. Now that brings me to the last
thing. Christ, our message. Look at verse eight. Now, the Lord says, when you're
going through all this in these seven days, unleavened bread
and preparing to kill the Passover, thou shalt show thy son in that
day saying, this is done because of that which the Lord did unto
me when I came forth out of Egypt. And it should be for a sign unto
thee upon thine hand and for a memorial between thine eyes
that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth. For with a strong
hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt. Thou shalt therefore
keep this ordinance in his season from year to year. Now look down
at verse 14. And it shall be when thy son
asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? That thou
shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out
from Egypt, from the house of bondage. And it came to pass
when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of
man, the firstborn of beast, Therefore, I sacrifice to the
Lord all that openeth the matrix, being males, but all the firstborn
of my children I redeem. And it should be for a token
upon thine hand and for frontlets between thine eyes. For by strength
of hand, the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt." Now, the
Lord gives us here a very specific message to preach. It's a message
of deliverance through the death of the substitute. He says, In
one place, he says, as you're going through these ceremonies,
you show your son, you tell your children why you're doing this.
And then he says, when your son asks you, why are you doing this?
What does all this mean? There's a very specific message
we're to preach. A message of the death of the
substitute. That's how we're delivered. We're
to preach that message and only preach that message. It's all
by the strength of the hand of the Lord. Don't you take any
credit for it. This is all what the Lord did
for us. And we're to keep preaching that
message over and over and over again till Christ returns. We're
to keep preaching it over again so that we don't forget it. The
Lord says you keep this as frontlets, something hanging down in front
of your eyes. Some years ago in Bible school,
I made a little hat with wires sticking out and some letters
hanging out in front of it. I made one of the kids wear that. and
those things hanging down in front of their eyes had to be
the most annoying thing in this world. But after a while, whatever
they were, ABC 123, whatever was in front of them, they couldn't
forget it because it's right there all the time. That's what
the Lord's telling us. You keep this right in front
of your eyes at all times so that you can't forget it. And
Lord gives us that commandment is such tender compassion for
our flesh, doesn't he? The Lord commands us, keep reminding
each other. Keep preaching this gospel over
and over and over again. The gospel of substitution. Keep
preaching it over and over and over again. Keep it right here. God gave us the commandment to
do that because he knows us. He knows we're prone to forget.
So keep preaching this message of substitution. You're the preaching
of the gospel. gathering together here and worshiping
God together, it's a tangible way for us to be reminded of
our need, our need of mercy, our need of grace, our need of
forgiveness, our need of life, and how it is that the Lord,
by his grace, delivered us through the death of the substitute.
I also thought of baptism and the Lord's table. Those are tangible
reminders, seeing someone dunked under the water, and brought
back up. That's such a tangible reminder. The Lord's death, burial and
resurrection is my substitute. That's my salvation. The Lord's
table, taking that broken bread and eating it, taking that wine
and drinking it. It's a tangible reminder that
the Lord's given to us because he is so compassionate for our
weaknesses to remind us of Christ, the center substitute, so that
we don't forget. And I'll tell you, as long as
Lord gives us opportunity to preach and to hear this gospel
and be reminded of Him, that's just what I intend to do. And
you know what? The Lord will bless it. Of that,
I'm sure. The Lord's gonna bless it, because
that's what He told us to do. I can't think of a better way
to spend an evening in the middle of the week than be reminded
of Christ our substitute, can you? That's what the Lord gave
us here. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how can we even begin
to thank you for the redemption that unclean people, such as
we are, have redemption in Christ. Christ, our substitute, by Him
dying the death that we deserve. Father, how thankful we are.
And oh, I pray you give us the faith to believe him, not just
to believe the mechanics of substitution, but to believe on the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ and have our hearts thrilled at the thought
of him dying as our substitute. Father, how we thank you. I pray
you bless your word as it's been preached. Pray you bless us as
we return back home, that you watch over us, keep us safe,
Bring us back here again Sunday to be reminded one more time
of this glorious gospel of substitution. It's in Christ's name, for his
sake and his glory we pray. Amen. All right, Jonathan.