recorded, I should say, in the scripture. The Passover Lamb, Exodus 12. We're just going to look at the first 10 verses and we're going to see how close, this is remarkable, how close this Passover Lamb typified and foreshadowed the Lord Jesus Christ. It's just absolutely amazing. It's such a clear and remarkable type, this here in Exodus, this Lamb of God.

And Paul in 1 Corinthians, you don't have to turn there, 1 Corinthians chapter five and verse seven writes, by inspiration of God, he makes sure we don't miss that Christ is the Passover Lamb. He says in 1 Corinthians five and verse seven, purge out there for the old leaven, that you may be a new love as you are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us." Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.

So we're going to read the writing of Moses and his description of what's happening here for the Jews, the Israelites. And the Lord God spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.

speaking unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for 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 souls. Every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.

Your 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 unto the 14th day. 14th day, so 10, 14, it's four days. The 14th day, the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night. roast with fire, and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs shall they eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire his head and his legs, and with the pertinence thereof.

And you shall not let of it remain until the morning. And that which remaineth of it until the morning you shall burn with fire."

So it's a complete, complete sacrifice. There's nothing left. And when Christ hung on the cross, he said, it is finished. He basically poured out his soul, his entire being unto death to take it again.

Well, the first thing I'd like to, before we even get into the text and see the peculiar or the particularities of this, the text is that you remember Christ himself said regarding Moses, He said, Moses wrote of me. And this, you know, by the eye of faith, even the Old Testament saints, when they did this, they were looking at a crucified Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So I want us to glean, even the most minute, and the Lord, I think, revealed some things to me during the message by Spurgeon, some things I hadn't really seen before. but I want us to glean the most minute details of Jesus Christ, our Passover. So in verse three, we're just gonna kind of go through here and look at what the scripture says. And then scriptures, one man that's been, it's not anything that I made up or read about, or, you know, it's been handed down forever. The best way to interpret scriptures is by scripture. So scripture interprets scripture. Look at verse three. speaking unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, in the tenth day of the month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, a lamb for the house.

Now in this book, the scriptures, Christ is often referred to as the Lamb of God. You see that in the gospels, in the gospel of John, behold, when John the Baptist said, behold, the Lamb of God. And then in Revelations, and you can turn there if you want, Revelations chapter 5, and verse 6 through 9 and 12, Revelations chapter 5, verse 6 through 9, And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne of the four beasts, in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns, seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain and has redeemed us unto God by thy blood. out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation. And thou hast made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. In verse 12, then they sang this song with a loud voice saying, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing.

And we could, you don't need to turn there, but you could turn. to Revelations 13 in verse eight, and it speaks of Christ as the lamb.

So the first thought is that they were to take every man a lamb, and this lamb is perfectly pictured. And as I said, the scriptures themselves call Christ the lamb of God.

Verse five, secondly, verse five, your lamb, personal, shall be without blemish." We'll stop there, without blemish. Now this is without blemish. Our Lord and Savior was without fault. They tried to, they had false accusations, but none of them were true. And matter of fact, one of the, said, I find no fault in this man, because there was no fault. It was the trumped up charges that they brought against him. But even those who saw what was going on, they said, no, there's no, this man has done nothing wrong. He went about, says the scriptures, doing good. So he was without fault, no sin upon him, The scriptures in Hebrews says he's holy, harmless, and undefiled. And then first Peter says we weren't redeemed with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ. It's a lamb without blemish. He's your lamb.

Now, if you take another lamb of another gospel, it says, you know, he's trying to save you and he's, he didn't try to do anything. As Bruce said this morning, he accomplished salvation for his people. This is the hope that we have. We don't preach a second rate savior. We don't preach a savior who's trying to do anything. When they brought this lamb, it was without blemish. and they had to look at it and study it, as we'll see later on, that there's no blemish in this, which signifies that Christ, our Savior, had no sin. Matter of fact, Daniel, and I love this quote, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. He had to be spotless. He had to be pure in order to take upon him our sinfulness and give us his righteousness.

Well, secondly, look in the same verse, a lamb, your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. So what does this signify? A male of the first year. It signifies young, vibrant, full of strength and health. Christ was in the prime of his life. He wasn't ready to be called. You know, he wasn't ready to be, well, you know, our old horse, he wasn't ready to be put out to pasture. He did this willingly and fully knowing he was in his right mind. He was full of strength, full of vigor, full of health. Therefore he, and it says, no man takes my life, he says in the gospels, but he willingly offered up himself. Why? without blemish, a male the first year. You shall take it out from the sheep and from the goats."

Well, next point, look at verse six. There are several points to this section. And you shall keep it unto the 14th day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. Lamb shall be without blemish, without spots, a male the first year, you'll keep it until the 14th day. So they kept it from day 10, which it says in verse three, in the 10th day to the 14th day, they were to look at it. Every time, I don't know how often, but often. Look at it, study it, maybe it was just the father of the house, maybe it was the mother, maybe it was the whole family. Because, you know, and I believe it's in Deuteronomy, it says these things, write them down and tell them to your children and their children's children. And so that's what we do. We look at Christ, we behold him, we keep it, we look at it, we look upon it or him as if this lamb is a picture of Christ, we examine him. We study him, we love him, we look unto him. He says, look unto me all the ends of the earth and be saved. Look unto Christ, not yourself.

So they're studying and looking. Day one, looks like he's the same. Day two. Looks like he's the same. Day three, same. He doesn't change. Therefore us, the sons of Jacob, his elect are not consumed. Why? Because he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. But this is amazing. And I, this, I didn't never seen this before. How minutely and to detail is our sovereign God. Four days. Four days they studied this thing. Well, if you look in the Gospel of John and you look at different texts, you can see that Christ comes into Jerusalem. It says very specifically six days before he was in Bethany, Bethany is not Jerusalem. He came into Jerusalem and in four days later, he's on the cross. Is that a coincidence? I don't think so. I think the scriptures, the exactness of the sovereignty of God to slay His Son on our behalf. There is nothing out of place. You know, you look in a mirror and you're trying to make sure everything's in place. There was nothing out of place in the foreordination and the purpose and decree of God the Father When it comes to God the Son, when it comes to God the Holy Spirit, they will all act in unison to save His people, to save us from a wicked and horrible death. It's just beautiful.

Now the second thing I see in this is he says in verse six again, you shall keep it the 14th day of the same month and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel, the whole assembly, all the family of God can and do willing, willingly enjoy the substitutionary accomplishments of a crucified redeemer, crucified redeemer. Do you believe on him? Do you believe on him? Then, partake with us of his broken body and his shed blood for sin and uncleanness." The whole assembly. The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And I don't understand church history and church writings. I never understood closed communion. Well, you're not a part of this group. I never understood that. I never understood where they got that. And I haven't looked at it for some time.

But the whole assembly. If you're a believer, partake of the Lord's, if you've been baptized, that's a confession of, that's a confession, a public confession. It doesn't save, but it's a public confession that you will follow him. You will be like the believers in act. You will break bread. You will partake of the apostles doctrine and you'll continue. That's what, that's what that shows. So you partake of the body and the blood with us.

And thirdly, he says in verse six again, and the whole congregation of the Israel shall kill it in the evening. Well, when did Christ die? Well, it says in Matthew 27, the ninth hour, okay? That's the evening. So, you know, I say, and I know this doesn't maybe sound proper, you can't make these things up. The scripture is so clear. God has this whole thing, this whole... Institute whatever you want to call this whole thing of salt salvation. It is not there's nowhere. Is it left by chance? There's nowhere. Do you see the word luck or even find this is specifically most and Lord the Lord himself spake to Moses and Aaron the land of Egypt this month shall be to you the beginning of the month it shall be the first month speak to the congregation and this is what you're gonna do

and Do you believe this? Do you believe the Lamb of God was successful? The Lamb of God was sent here on purpose. The Lamb of God was pure, holy, harmless, undefiled, according to the decrees and purpose of his sovereign grace, and saved a people, these people, who it's for, it wasn't for the Egyptians, it was for his people, in this particular example, the Israelites, and he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He's just, this is just a picture.

But the Old Testament believers, they rejoice. You know, we get to do this once a week, you know, or Sunday, we'll gather the first day of the week. Once a month, it's like, ah, I can't wait till next month. Can't wait till next month. To see the brethren, the whole congregation, yes, but to look at the Lamb, to behold the Lamb for four days, what a privilege. What a privilege, this place we behold the lamb. I pray every time we gather together.

Verse seven, okay, how much is more of this? Is there pictures? Well, there's beautiful pictures throughout the whole thing. And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper post of the houses wherein they shall eat it. So what you have here is blood shed and applied. Is it not? The blood is shed, but it just doesn't sit there. It's got to be applied. The Lord Jesus Christ, he shed his blood on Calvary, and it was applied by the Holy Spirit of grace and supplications, both shed and applied.

Brethren, our Lord not only poured out his lifeblood, but he also applied it I think it's Andrew Boehner. One of those writers said he's got a book, it's Redemption Accomplished and Applied. That's what I'm saying. This is it right here. Not only did he pour out his lifeblood, but also he applied it in the correction or covering or atoning work of this in this redeeming act, Hebrews chapter 12. This redeeming act, it's just beautiful. They shall take the blood and apply it. If they didn't put it on the doorpost and lintel, that death angel would have taken care of them, the firstborn. But they did, and the death angel passed over the shedding, and the application is on purpose in God's eternal covenant purpose. Applied to each reclaimed sinner, shed to satisfy justice, and our in our immense need. So it satisfied, the blood was shed, but it was also applied.

And then one writer said, satisfying Christ's righteousness is sufficient to justify, and his blood is sufficient to cleanse us from all our sins. But I want you to know, we see faith in here. Where do we see faith in here? Look at the verse. Wherein they shall eat it. Oh, this is a work? No, no. Grace is, faith is by grace, and that's not of ourselves. What we understand is, but the natural flow of things, and faith flows with the believing sinner. Repentance flows with the believing sinner. Walking in newness of life is an outcome of this. What's the natural outcome of this shedding in blood and everything? It's to eat it. By faith, we receive it personally. You didn't give it to somebody else. You took it personally. Your mom and dad can't believe for you. You have to believe. I have to believe. So we, by faith, receives it. We eat of it. And it also says the same thing in verse eight. Look at the last phrase, verse eight. They shall eat it.

Every time we gather together, whether we have Lord's Supper or not, we gather together in the name of Christ to celebrate, honor, glorify his death for his people. But now let's look at the peculiarities of this death in verse eight. Let's look a little closer here. Fire, and they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire. That means consume the sacrifice, consume the offering with fire. This shows the wrath of God do us, because of our sins and iniquities. It's got to be roasted. It's not to be, as he says, don't eat of it raw. It's got to be roasted. Christ underwent, for you and for me, if we're his, if we believe upon him, the wrath of God. And I can't even begin to explain it. The fact that he said, and I would recommend listening to Lance Heller's Third message, Sunday morning, the last message, I've never heard it preached so clear, Christ being made sin for the believer, is absolutely beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. And this is what took place, the fire of the wrath of God, the agonies of Christ for us, roasted with fire. And he did. When he could say on the cross, my God, my God, thou hast forsaken me, when his whole life, he says, the Father's never forsaken me. The Father's always with me. But then that one at that moment, explain it. I can't, it's behind a veil. I'm not gonna peek. I'm just gonna present. And by grace, we will eat, we will partake of this by faith.

So it shows the wrath of God do us in our sins and iniquities. And he says, in Romans 8, God spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. And I got thinking, what does it mean spared not? Well, I looked it up. In the Greek, God spared not, that means he was not hesitant to punish. Spared not. Spared, it kind of sounds like a euphemism, kind of a little easy, but it means that God did not hesitate to punish his son on our behalf. Spared not. Did not hesitate to punish. Now let's, move on. That's the first thing. The second thing, we feast upon Christ with sincerity and truth by faith, which is contrary to leaven. That's what he's saying. Roast it with fire and unleavened bread. Now, you know, leaven always spoils. Leaven is a sign of corruption, of air of hypocrisy, of malice. I'll also put in our puny works. If you think your works save you, if you think your repentances, if you think your good deeds, whatever you do that you think satisfy God, that's leaven. Get rid of it. You're not to do that.

We were to eat of the flesh that night, roasted with fire, unleavened bread. Unleavened bread. We have judged God, in sincerity, and say, you're right. Our way's wrong, your way's right. It's Christ or nothing.

But now this, this is interesting. Bitter herbs, the third thing in this verse. And with bitter herbs, you shall eat it. So it's a continue. Every time we take the Lord's Supper, every time we gather here, we partake of the lamb of God, which is our meat, Christ says, if you do not eat my meat or drink my blood, you have none of me. Not literally, but by faith. But what does He mean by bitter herbs?

Take your pick. Take your pick. Every day, maybe not every day, a believer feeds, opens the Word, feeds upon the Word, But there's also bitter herbs in this life. Got to work. Not a sweat of your brow. Why? Because of sin. People live, die. People are angry. People are mean. People are hateful. Government's upside down. Why? These are bitter herbs. It all comes. It all comes together. And I'm not rejoicing in it. But I do know this, it's like it was, from what I read and looked at it, it was like a garish. You know how when you order something and they send you a steak and there's that little piece of parsley. No, if you eat that, it's bitter, but it will make the steak taste better. It's a contrast, okay? So back in this time, it was a garish. And it says, to season or to make the lamb taste that much more delightful.

Isn't it so brethren? We must go through many pains and hardships and heartaches and trials. Thomas Boston wrote a book. It's very difficult to read, but I would recommend it slowly. It's called, The Crook and the Lot. And he gets it out of Ecclesiastes 7, verse 13. Our lot is filled with many crooks. All right, ups and downs. Joseph, after all the crooks, he met up in his lot with his brethren and said, you meant it for evil, bitter, but God meant it for good.

Life without sorrow, pain, or difficulty would be far too easy. And I know the older I get, it's like, well, I don't want this ache and pain. I don't want this hassle. It comes. May we receive it as part of worshiping Christ. Sunshine all day. I know enough about growing things. Sunshine all day will not grow crops. You need rain. You need temperature change. And there are some folks who will say, I'm not going to follow Christ because it will be too much difficulty. This life is just like this long and eternity in hell will never die. So don't look at it that way. Look at the joy that is set before you. The joy that is set before you.

Philippians 1 and verse 29 says, not only is it given on behalf, let me find it and read it so I don't mess it up. For unto you it is given in behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, that's a grace, to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. Suffer for his sake. And 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy 3.13. Well, maybe I got that one wrong. No, 2 Timothy 3.12, Yea, and all those that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

It's partaking of the Lamb. What a privilege that is. What a privilege to partake of the Lord's Supper. What a privilege to gather together and remember Christ. But remember, we've got to eat some bitter herbs when we eat it. When we eat it. Esther will have her Mordecai. Jacob will have his Laban. Not seven, 14 years. He lied to Jacob. Daniel will be tried in the lion's den. As a matter of fact, we are severely warned in Amos 6, woe unto those who are at ease in Zion.

Yes, we want the best for our children. We want them to not suffer anything, but I won't tell you what Jim James said about his daughter, but I will tell you, we would rather have our children suffer and be saved than to go through life, everything comes easy, and there's no difficulty. Remember our text. We, by God-given faith, eat the Passover with these bitter herbs.

Well, look at Jonah. It's almost the whole thing. Jonah's just one struggle after another. but he was the Lord's. This is a mark of his people. They will have patience, have her perfect work upon us by the gracious spirit of God. He, Christ, will not lose one of his sheep. He can't lose one of his sheep at all. So may we keep following him whom our souls loves. Yes, take the bitter and thereby enjoy the lamb all the more.

And when I was doing this, Bruce, I thought about John and Betty. All the time. All the time. They were either in the hospital or out of the hospital. Well, Scott Richardson's quote about the life of a believer, the three-phase life of a believer was so true. You're either heading into trial, you're in trial, or you just left trial. That's the bitter herbs. And John was, they were that way all the time. But boy, they knew whom they believed. They knew what they believed and they knew whom they believed.

So I want to close with just asking us to remember what our blessed Lord endured for his church. Did he just, did he, was he born 33 years and walked right into heaven? No, he was, he had a cross to bear and he must, I must need to go through Samaria and I have a baptism where I went to be baptized and I must, I must do it, must go through it. And he endured the pain, endured the affliction, counted it all joy. And I know that's really very difficult. It's easy to say when nothing's happening. But we will, we will eat the flesh that night, roasted with fire, unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs. That's, it's included. It's included.

Well, we can look back and see He has not forsaken us and He has promised that He will not forsake us. May we simply rest in Christ Jesus to the eternal benefit of our souls. Look to Him. Look to that Lamb. Study that Lamb. Get familiar with that Lamb. Learn about that Lamb. Praise that Lamb. Worship that Lamb. Confess Him in Christ and then tell us about it. Tell us what is so unique to you about our Redeemer, because He's unique like none other. That's why the believer can say, He's altogether lovely.

Matt, would you close us?