will understand that phrase we
just heard, the lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's land. Now, Mark chapter 14 is the beginning
of the eternal story of the cross insofar as the period in time
in which it took place. Notice how in our text in Mark
chapter 14 verse 1, after two days was the feast of the Passover. Do you know the Lord Jesus was
crucified on the Passover? Now there's so much significance
in that. He himself, the Lamb of God, was put to death on Passover
day. There's some irony here. The
chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him
by craft and put him to death, but they said not on the feast
day. They didn't want it to be on the feast day. It ended up
being on the feast day, but they didn't want it to be lest there
be an uproar of the people. They wanted to do whatever was
politically expedient to keep them safe. I love in the Gospel
of John where he says, the Jews Passover was at hand. It was
a corruption of the Passover. As a matter of fact, there were
two high priests, Cephas and Annas. There's only supposed
to be one high priest and that speaks so much of the corruption
of this thing, but still the Lord was crucified on the Passover. Now I've entitled this message,
the gospel to a child. The inspiration of that came
in Exodus chapter 12, if you turn there for a moment. As a
matter of fact, keep your marker in there because we're going
to be coming back to that. But after the instructions with
regard to the Passover, we read in verse 26, and it shall come
to pass when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by
this service? What is this supposed to mean?
What's the purpose behind this? Then shall you say it's the sacrifice
of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children
of Israel and Egypt, and he smote the Egyptians and delivered our
houses, and the people bowed the head and worshiped. Now, my goal is to preach to
a fourth grader. I don't want it to go above that
level, thinking about children. That is probably the way we ought
always to preach, but that is my goal, to preach the gospel
to a child, perhaps eight or nine years old, asking this question,
what mean ye by this service, this Passover feast? Now the Passover feast, is the
time when the Lord Jesus Christ would be nailed to the cross
as the Passover lamb. He's called in 1 Corinthians
5 by the Apostle Paul. He said this, Christ our Passover. Christ our Passover is sacrificed
for us. Now in Matthew 26, the Lord said,
you know that after two days is the feast of the Passover.
And the son of man is betrayed on that day and to be crucified. The Lord was crucified at the
time of the Passover, which he spoke of. Now, before we look
at the Passover, there's a scripture in 1 Corinthians 15, verse three,
and there's not a more important verse of scripture in the Bible.
Here's the gospel, how that, Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures. Now it's not that Christ died
for our sins. If I say that, I'm not telling
why he died, I'm not telling who he died for, and I'm not
telling what he accomplished by that death. So to simply say
that Christ died for our sins is not to tell what the scripture
does. The scripture says that Christ, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures, the Old Testament
scriptures. And I think that since our Lord
was crucified on Passover day, the Passover is how he died for
our sins according to the Old Testament scriptures. Now, would
you turn to Exodus chapter Exodus chapter 10. Now the Lord had
sent nine plagues to Egypt. You know, he could have just
pulled them out as an act of his power, but he chose to send
nine plagues to Egypt. The first one was when the Nile
River turned to blood. Can you imagine that was their
drinking water? And it was gone. And then there
was the frogs, the land covered with sticky, grotesque frogs
in your bed, in your house when you tried to cook, they'd be
in the oven. Can you imagine what a trial that would have
And then there was the plague of lice. Now, I've never had
lice. I'm thankful. Some of you may
have had lice before, but if you have, I don't want to be
around you. Can you imagine what a horrible thing it would for
everybody to be covered with lice? And then there was the
plague of flies. I hate flies. One fly I hate. Now can you, you think, Lynn
actually asked me, why did the Lord create flies? I think it's
part of the curse. There's nothing, what good does
a fly do as far as it irritates you? And can you imagine having
swarms of flies covering your body all the time? And then there
was the disease of the livestock, where all their livestock died,
and then, The boils covered them all. Now each time, after each
time, the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so he wouldn't let the
people go. After every one of these plagues
that the Lord sent, everybody would want, get them out of here.
And then the Lord would harden Pharaoh's heart again and he
wouldn't let the people go. And then there was the hail that
came down. Then there was the locust eating all their food.
And then there was darkness where you couldn't even see your hand
in front of your face, darkness that might be felt. And each
time after each one of these nine plagues, the Lord hardened
Pharaoh's heart. Does the Lord do that? Yes, he
does. The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. Now look in Luke chapter, I mean,
Exodus chapter 10, verse 27, But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart, and he would not let them go. Somebody says, Pharaoh hardened
his own heart. Well, yeah, when the Lord hardened
his heart, he did. The Lord hardened his heart,
so he would not let them go. And Pharaoh said unto him, speaking
to Moses, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face
no more, for in the day that thou seest my face, thou shalt
die. And Moses said, thou hast spoken
well, I'll see thy face no more. And the Lord said unto Moses,
yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards, He will let you go
hence. When he shall let you go, he
shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. Get out of here.
We don't want you here anymore. Speak now in the ears of the
people and let every man borrow of his neighbor and every woman
of his neighbor jewels of silver and jewels of gold. And the Lord
gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Now,
can you imagine that? Let me have all your silver and
all your gold. Okay, here it is. All these houses, that was
going on. You see, the King's heart's in
the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it withersoever he will. And he moved the people, they
wanted him out. They said in one place, we'd
be his dead men. We'd be his, I mean, just the ransacked land. They wanted him out. They were,
we're leaving, give me your money. How much? You can have it all.
I mean, that is an amazing thing right there. And this is where
all the money for the tabernacle and the gold and silver for that
came from. Moreover, the man Moses was very
great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants
and in the sight of the people. And Moses said, thus saith the
Lord, about midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt. The Lord is the one who's the
executioner here, the Lord himself. It wasn't an angel, it was the
Lord himself. and all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt shall die. From the firstborn of Pharaoh
that sits upon the throne, even under the firstborn of the maidservants
that's behind the mill, and all the firstborn of the beast, every
firstborn is gonna die. Now, everybody in the land of
Egypt has to happen to. Either the firstborn literally
died or in the house where the blood was, he died in their place. That's what the Passover lamb
was all about, that all the firstborn in Egypt, everywhere there was
death, either the death of the Paschal lamb or the death of
the firstborn. That's what was taking place.
Now, verse seven, but against any of the children of Israel,
shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast, that you
may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the
Egyptians and Israel." Now, this is what God wants everyone to
know. I'm the one, he says, that puts
the difference. And what is What we're going
to see is one difference. Perhaps these houses looked alike,
but what was the one difference when the Lord passed through
mercy? It's a house with the blood over the post and lintel
of the door. The blood was the difference. Now, I hope we'll see that even
more clearly. blood is the difference. If you're
going to be accepted by God, if I'm going to be accepted by
God, there's one reason, the blood, the blood is the difference. And we're going to see that.
Verse eight, and all these thy servants, this is speaking to
Pharaoh shall come down unto me and bow down themselves unto
me saying, get thee out and all thy people that follow thee,
after that I'll go out. And he went out from Pharaoh
in a great anger. Moses had a temper all the time. He was mad when he walked out
of that place. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you for this purpose. that my
wonders, things which only I can do may be multiplied in the land
of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron did all these
wonders before Pharaoh and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart
so that he would not let the children of Israel go. And the
Lord 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. Now, this is so amazing. The
Lord changed the calendar for this event. Have you ever heard
of that happening before? The Lord actually changing the
calendar? And you know what he was saying
by that? Spiritual life begins with an
understanding of the Passover. There is no spiritual life. And
I would want to say to every young person, you do not have
spiritual life until God gives it to you. And the evidence of
him giving it to you is all of a sudden, you're gonna understand
the Passover. You're going to rejoice in the
Passover. Now verse three, speak ye unto
all the congregation of Israel saying, In the 10th day of this
month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to
the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. And if the household
be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto
his house take it according to the number of the souls. Every
man according to his eating shall make your account for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year. You
should take it out from the sheep or from the goats and you shall
keep it into the 14th day of the same month. You'll watch
it for two weeks. And the whole assembly of the congregation
of Israel shall kill it in the evening." Now, remember, this
lamb represents the Lamb of God. You know, as soon as our first
parents fell, what did God do? He flew a lamb. and he covered
them. You remember when Abel comes
into God's presence and Cain, Cain comes without blood, Abel
comes with a lamb. And the scripture says God had
respect to Abel and his offering. And listen to me real carefully.
If you come pleading only the blood and looking nowhere but
the blood of Jesus Christ as your only way of acceptance before
God, you know what? The God of glory respects you. Isn't that amazing? He respected
Abel and his offering. To have the respect of God Almighty,
that's such an amazing concept and thought. I think of Abraham
going up Mount Moriah and his son said, here's wood, here's
fire, but where's the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham
said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb. And this is the
lamb of God's providing. You couldn't provide anything
that God would accept, but he provides for himself that which
he accepts, the lamb of God. Now, what is very significant
is verse four speaks of, verse five, I mean, the lamb shall
be without blemish. You know what that's a reference
to? The sinlessness of Jesus Christ. He had to be without
blemish. You see, if he had any sin, he
couldn't do anything for you. but he had no sin. That's the perfect obedience
and the perfect righteousness that he worked out. It was to
be one year old at the prime of his life. Feed the church of God, Paul
said, which he purchased with his own blood. What were they to do with this
lamb? You shall keep it into the 14th
day of the same month and the whole assembly of the congregation
shall kill it in the evening. This speaks of the death of the
Lamb of God. For you or I to be saved, number
one, Jesus Christ had to be without sin or he couldn't do anything
for us. But if he was without sin and
went back to heaven, that wouldn't do anything for us either. He
had to die without the shedding of blood. is no remission of
sins. Now, somebody may think, why
can't he just forgive? Why does blood have to be shed?
Why didn't he just forgive us? I mean, I forgive people. Why
didn't he just forgive and just forget it? Why is this thing
about blood having to be shed? That just seems harsh. That seems
barbaric. Why does blood have to be shed?
If Every member of your family was
murdered. Your mom, your dad, your brothers,
your sisters, everybody that was dear to you. And the man
who did it was caught. And he's brought before the judge.
And the judge says, I'm a forgiving judge. I'm just going to forget
this. Would there be anything right
about that? No, He would be an unjust judge. He would be a wrong
judge. God is the judge. OF THE EARTH. SHALL NOT THE JUDGE OF THE EARTH
DO RIGHT, AND FOR GOD TO ACCEPT AND FORGIVE SIN, THAT SIN MUST
BE PUNISHED, THAT SIN MUST BE PAID FOR. THAT'S WHY GOD SAYS
WITHOUT THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD, THERE IS NO REMISSION OF SIN.
AND REMEMBER WHOSE BLOOD WAS SHED. IF MY BLOOD WAS SHED FOR
YOU, WOULD IT DO YOU ANY GOOD AT ALL? NO. but this is the blood
of God's son. That's why his blood puts away
sin. Somebody says, well, how could
the blood of one man pay for the sins of so many men? Because
of who that man is. That's why. Oh, the glorious
son of God. That's why his blood puts away
sin. Now look in verse seven, we read
about eating this sacrifice. Verse seven, and they shall take
of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the
upper door of the post of the house, wherein they shall eat
it. They took a hyssop branch. That blood had been put in a
basin. They put that branch in the basin where the blood was
and they wiped it. over the doorpost and down the
lentils of the door so that there was blood over the door. And we're gonna come back to
that in a moment, but notice where it says, you put the post
of the house wherewith they shall eat it. You were to eat this
Passover lamb. This represents faith. I've heard
people talk about, well, you had to apply the blood. No, that's
not the point. Yes, somebody had to apply the
blood to show it, but that's not what faith is. I've heard
people say, well, you had to apply the blood. No, you might
not have applied it. You might've just been in the
house, not having anything to do with putting that blood up.
The head of the house was supposed to do that. But the point is,
faith is eating the sacrifice. like you eat a meal. Now, let's
see what he says. This is so important. If you want to understand
faith, this gives us some idea of what faith means. Verse eight,
and they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire. Now that's talking about Christ
being roasted under the wrath of God. And that's exactly what
took place with him. God's wrath fell upon him. And
notice what it says, and unleavened bread. All leaven had to be purged
out of the house. You can't have any works in this
thing. This has nothing to do with your works. That's to be
purged away. He by himself purged our sins,
your work. You can't believe the gospel
and still keep this leavened bread. Only unleavened bread,
all works must be put out. And with bitter herbs, you can't
think of the death of Christ without thinking of the bitterness
of your own sin. You can't do it. I mean, it's
my sin. That's why he died. My sin, he
took in his own body on the tree. How bitter that is, my sin. Now let's go on eating. Eat not
of it raw. Remember, it's Christ crucified.
Don't try eating it raw. It's Christ crucified. Nor sodden
it all with water. Don't water it down. Now the
atonement of Christ, let me say this. I want everybody, I want
an eight or nine year old person to understand this. The atonement
of Christ is not to be watered down. It was for Israel only. It's for the elect only. I want every young person to
understand that. And the reason I want us to understand
that is because that if his blood is shed for the Egyptians as
well, and he kills them anyway, that means the blood of the Christ
is not saving. The blood of Christ is successful
blood. Don't water it down and let it
turn into mush where you can't understand what it is. Don't
water it down. His head with his legs, with
the pertinence thereof, and you shall let nothing of it remain
until morning. Eat all of it. Eat all of it. Every part of the gospel is to
be taken. No part is to be left out. It's
God's Passover. Every aspect of the gospel. Somebody
says, what must I believe to be saved? Everything God says.
Everything God says. Eat all of it. And you let nothing
remain of it remain until the morning. And that which remaineth
of it until the morning, you shall burn with fire. And thus
you eat it. with your loins girded. Now,
that means you're in a traveling position. Remember, they were
to travel that very night. And you know, whenever you believe
on Christ, you find out that you're just passing through this
world as a sojourner, as a traveler. This world is not your home. You're just passing through,
looking for that time where you'll behold the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You're to eat it in a traveling
posture, your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your
staff in hand. And this is so important. He
says, eat it in haste. Now I wanna say to every one
of us, believe on Christ right now. Don't wait for something
to happen. Don't wait till you know more.
Don't wait till you think you got your life better. Don't wait
till your experience is greater. Believe on Christ right now. Eat it in haste. Do not wait
for anything. Because if you're waiting for
anything, that's works. That's looking for something
in yourself. Don't do that. Remember, this is unleavened
bread, not the leavened bread of your works. Eat it in haste. Eat it right now. It is the Lord's Passover. Verse 12. For I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt,
I will execute judgment for I am the Lord." Now, understand this.
He says, I'm executing judgment against their gods. Do you know
they worship the Nile River? They worshiped that river. And
he turned it into blood where everything that got out of it
died. The fish stank. And you know, every one of those
10 plagues had something to do with the false religion of Egypt. All 10 of them. And he says,
I'm executing judgment against the gods of the Egyptians. They're false worship. They're
false gods. God always does that. That's
involved. And then look what he says in
verse 13. And the blood shall be to you
for a token upon the houses where you are And when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Was there anybody in one of those
houses that was perhaps so bad that God said, well, I'm getting
that one? Not a one. Everybody in the house
with the blood over the door, was safe and secure. And I love
to think about that night. I don't have any doubt that there
were people who were trembling, thinking, I've had it. He's going
to get me anyway. Did he? No. And there were other
people who had great faith and were just confident everything's
going to be fine. But you know, the one with great
faith wasn't any more secure than the one who was scared to
death. Because God didn't say, when I see the greatness of your
faith, he said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Now, what was God looking for? What was God looking for? He
didn't say, when I see your faith, I'll pass over you. He didn't
say, when I see your holy living, I'll pass over you. He didn't
say, when I see your battle against sin, I'll pass over you. He didn't
say, when I see your sincerity, I'll pass over you. He said,
when I see the blood, that's the one thing God was looking
for. When I see the blood. Who had to see the blood? You
know, I think this is interesting. If you were in the house, could
you see the blood? No. You were in the house. You couldn't see the blood, but
it was not really so much important for you to see it as God to see
it. Who had to see the blood? Not you. God said, when I see
the blood, when I see the blood. And what did he say? I will pass
over you. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. The blood shall be to you for
a token. Now, the difference between the
saved and the lost was this, the blood. Would you dare put anything else
in there? The difference between the saved and the lost was The
blood. It's only the blood that cleanses
us from sin. The blood is the token. And if
you and I are saved, there will only be one reason, because Jesus
Christ, God's Passover lamb, was sacrificed for you. And you
look to him only. Now, when he was made to be sin,
this is mysterious. When we're talking about the
Passover lamb, why did he die? where the scripture says he was
made to be sin. Now it was God that made him
sin. You couldn't, I never forget one time hearing a preacher talk
about his sin. He got caught up in some kind
of sin and he said, well, I put that sin under the blood. And
I thought, oh, you can't, you can't do that. The only one who
can put sin under the blood is God himself. And God can do that
for he hath made him to be sin for us. who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Where the blood was, he passed
over in mercy. Where the blood was not, he judged
and killed the firstborn. That's just the truth. And our
Lord was crucified on Passover day. Now I would like to close
by just reading Isaiah 53, if you turn with me there. Christ
died for our sins according to the scripture. The prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah
53, Who hath believed our report? Well, he answers that in the
next statement. You know, it doesn't seem like
many people believe, does it? I've been looking at Sodom and
Gomorrah. We're going to be considering
that in a couple of weeks, what the Lord did. And you know how
big Sodom and Gomorrah was? I don't know how people know,
but I've read 500,000 people. The two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah,
that valley, 500,000 people. And do you remember how Abraham
said, will you spare it for 10's sake? And the Lord said, I won't
judge that place if there are 10 believers there. 10 righteous
men, and you know there weren't, but the point is, not many people
believe. Not many people believe. Well,
who does believe? Well, he answered that in the
next statement, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? I know who believes, who he reveals
himself to. That's who believes. For he shall
grow up, the Lord Jesus, before him as a tender plant and as
a root out of dry ground. Remember the way they watched
that lamb for 14 days? Well, the father watched him
for 33 years as he grew up. He hath no form nor comeliness,
and when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire.
And there wasn't anything physical about Christ that would make
you look at him and think, he must be the son of God. He was
just an ordinary joe. Physically, there wasn't anything
about him that would have attracted you. You would have just gone
on and not noticed it. Isn't that amazing? The son of
God, nobody got it. Nobody could see who he was.
Verse three, he's despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows. Remember those bitter herbs?
Well, he became a man of sorrows when those sins became his sins.
And he became this man of Shire who was acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. Have you ever seen
somebody out and you didn't want them to see you, so you kind
of hid? You kind of tried to duck away so maybe they wouldn't
recognize you. Well, that's the way people did
with the Lord Jesus. They didn't want to be identified
with him in any way. They hid their faces. He was
despised and we esteemed him not. Surely He had borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows. And yet we did esteem Him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now he was oppressed. He was afflicted. Yet he opened
not his mouth. He didn't defend himself. Why? Because he was guilty and he
knew it. That's why he, didn't defend himself. When my sin became
his sin, he became guilty of that sin. So he didn't try to
defend himself. Oh, I'm so quick to want to defend
myself. If I'm accused of something I
didn't do, oh, I want to, I want to defend myself. But the Lord
didn't defend himself because he knew before his father, he
was guilty as charged. That's why he didn't open his
mouth. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not
his mouth. He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep
before shears is done, so he opened not his mouth. He was
taken from prison and from judgment in this unjust trial. Who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living as God's lamb,
the Passover lamb for the transgression of my people was he stricken. That's who he died for, the transgression
of my people. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death, talking about being buried
in a rich man's tomb, which he was, because he had done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. Now, I want every one of us to
understand just what that means. That doesn't mean that the Lord
got some kind of pleasure out of punishing him. That's speaking
of the Lord's complete satisfaction with him. He's so satisfied. Let me tell you how satisfied
he is with the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's how satisfied. He's completely
satisfied with everybody he died for. He looks at every one of
his people and he is completely satisfied. He says, there's no
spot in me. Thou art all fair, my love. That's the satisfying
work of Jesus Christ. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul and offer him for sin, he shall see
his days, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with
the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death. And
he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. Now, I love that
we're starting to look through the Passover at the most wonderful
story ever told. The story of the life, the death,
and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Lord. Let's pray.