Turn with me today, if you will,
to Mark chapter 14. We are going to think about the
Lamb of God today, the Lord willing, the Passover Lamb. Mark chapter 14, the first two
verses. After two days was the feast
of the Passover. and of unleavened bread. And
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, lest there be an uproar of the people. For several weeks
now, we have been looking at these verses in the Gospel of
Mark, which cover the last week in the earthly life of the Lord,
the week in which he was crucified, This week began with him entering
into Jerusalem in a very triumphant way, and the crowds were crying,
Hosannas, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And then soon before the week
was ended, the shouts of crucify him would be sounded forth in
the cities, or in the city of Jerusalem. Now I want to point
out first of all to us from these verses, that despite the chief
priest and scribe's intention that the Lord Jesus not be crucified
on a feast day, he was. Notice that again, about halfway
in verse one, it says, and the chief priest and the scribe sought
how they might take him by craft and put him to death, but they
said, not on the feast day. In other words, the man, the
religious leaders of Israel at that day who planned the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, they did not want him to be crucified
or put to death on one of the feast days. But despite what
they wanted, we know that there's a God in heaven who overrules
men and men's plans and The Apostle Peter, on the day of Pentecost,
spoke about the Lord's death being accomplished. He said,
according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Men had their plans, their proposals,
but God disposed according to His will, according to His purpose. His purpose is one purpose. He doesn't have several purposes,
he has one purpose and his purpose shall be accomplished and he
purposed his purpose before the foundation of the world. The Passover serves or serves
rather as a type of the Redeemer and redemption from sin by blood. Our text says, after two days
was the feast of the Passover. We might think of the Passover
as a type, as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. If you notice down in verse 12
of this passage, the disciples asked him, Yes, they said at
the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover,
his disciples said unto him, where wilt thou that we go and
prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover? So when we talk
about the Passover, or when the scriptures speak of the Passover,
we're talking about the Passover lamb. We're talking about the
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. when he was killed. When they
asked the disciple, or the disciples asked the Lord, where would you
eat the Passover? That is, eat the Passover lamb. The Passover lamb would be killed
on the feast day. And the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians
chapter 5 and verse 7 says, even Christ, our Passover. Even Christ,
our Passover. In other words, even Christ,
our lamb. Our Passover lamb is sacrificed
for us. Christ was sacrificed for us. You know, you read in various
systematic theology books of different thoughts concerning
the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, and one of them is the
example theory, the example theory. that Jesus, He died as an example
for us so that when we are placed in bad situations, we might suffer
patiently as He did. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ no
doubt is an example to all of us, but His death was a substitutionary
death. His death was a sacrificial death,
and His death is pictured to us in the Passover. the Passover
that delivered the nation of Israel from Egyptian bondage
many years before this. It's a type. The Passover serves
as a type. And a type is something like
a shadow. If the light is behind where
I'm standing and my shadow is before me, to every shadow there
is a reality. And the type, the Passover, was
a shadow of the reality, that Passover of Moses and the nation
of Israel coming out of Egypt was a shadow of the reality. They were delivered from Egyptian
bondage, but the reality is the true Passover Lamb delivers His
Israel, that is His chosen people, from the bondage of sin. And the bondage of sin is much
worse than the slavery and bondage in which the Israelites were
in in Egypt. Let's go back, if you will, and
let's look at the giving of the Passover. Let's turn back to
Exodus chapter 12. Exodus chapter 12, first thing
I want to bring to us, and I have three things, but first of all,
the Passover originated with the Lord. Notice that in verse
one, and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron. The Passover
originated with the Lord. Moses and Aaron, they didn't
sit down and try to figure out some scheme, some plan, some
way that they might deliver their people from Egypt. The Passover
was not the product of man's ingenuity. Angels, even angels,
they did not tell Moses anything like this. I just thought they
might have said, listen, Moses, you've tried all these plagues,
the flies, the frogs, the water turning into blood, and nothing's
worked so far. Your people are still here in
bondage. Try this plan. The angels didn't
come up with the plan. The Passover is the work of the
Lord. He's the one who gave it. It
originated from the Lord. The Lord said, and the scheme
of redemption, it is God's scheme. It's God's plan of redemption. And it originated with God. The Lord said, you know, the
book of life that we read about in the book of Revelation, The
book of life is the book of the Lamb. That's what it's called,
the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. And over the years, I haven't
heard this in a long time, and I'm thankful I haven't, but back
years ago, some of these quacks, they said, well, you know, this
is God's plan A, plan B. Plan A didn't work. God created
man, placed him in the garden, and his plan was that he would
always continue to be holy. No, God knew and God planned
from the very beginning because the Lamb was slain from before
the foundation of the world. In other words, before there
ever was a sinner, and Adam was the first sinner, he's the only
man who ever became a sinner by sinning. All of us are sinners. But not one of us became sinners
by sinning. We became sinners by His sin,
by His one sin, as He was the representative of all of His
posterity. The Lord didn't switch plans. This has always been His purpose,
to glorify His Son. The gospel is called the everlasting
gospel. The fact that it is everlasting
means it has no beginning and has no ending. You say, explain
that. We cannot explain God. If we could, that would mean
that he would be limited to our ability to comprehend. God is so much greater In fact,
he said this, who would you liken me to? There's no creature, all
creatures are his creatures, and there's no creature that
can serve as a picture of God. There's no one like God. And
that's one of man's problems, God tells us that. That's one
of the problems that men have today. And I guarantee you there
are men today walking on the streets of Houston, who think
that God is like they are. That's one of man's big problems. And you may be here today and
that may be your problem. You may assume that God is like
you are. He isn't. He isn't. And you can overlook a transgression
God will not. God is holy. And every transgression,
every disobedience, the scripture says, will receive a just reward. Though God is merciful and gracious
and long-suffering and will by no means clear the guilty. That's a big problem, isn't it? That's a big problem. If God
will by no means clear the guilty, and all of us are guilty, we've
got a problem. Thank God he has the solution.
It began with God. The Lord said, the Lord spake
unto Moses and to Aaron. Because it is the Lord's Passover,
There's no possibility of failure. No possibility. You say, well,
maybe Pharaoh's not going to let them go. There's no possibility
of failure. Look back in chapter 11, Exodus
chapter 11. And the Lord said unto Moses,
go in unto Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart
of his servants, that I might show thee my signs before him. And that thou mayest tell him,
tell in the ears of thy son and of thy son what things I have
wrought in Egypt and my sons, which I have done among them,
that you may know how that I am the Lord. And the Lord assured, well, I
see I'm in the wrong chapter. Chapter 11, verse 1, and the
Lord said unto Moses, yet will I bring one plague more upon
Pharaoh and upon Egypt afterwards. And notice, he will. Let you go hence. He will. There's no possibility that he's
not going to let you go. God doesn't fail. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the servant of Jehovah in Isaiah chapter
42, God says, behold, my servant, mine elect whom I uphold, he
shall not fail nor be discouraged. God told Moses, he will, Pharaoh
will let you go. There's no possibility that they're
not going to leave Egypt, the Israelites. I love the I, the
will, the shalls and the wills of the scripture, don't you?
When God says, I will, and thou shalt. No question about it. God is not some make-believe
God. He's not some paper tiger, my
friends. God is God. Look back to Exodus
chapter 6, just a few pages back. When God called Moses, in Exodus
chapter 6 and verses 6 and 7, Wherefore say unto the children
of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will. Don't you love these wills? God's
will. I will bring you out from under
the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their
bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, with
a great judgment, and I will take you to me for a people,
and I will be to you a God, and you shall. I will, and you shall. That's the God of the Bible.
And that's the God of the Passover. So first of all, the Passover
originated with the Lord, even as salvation, the gospel, originates
with Him. Second, the Passover spoke of
the Lamb. Let's read here back in chapter
12 of Exodus, the Passover spoke of the Lamb. And Philip Henry,
who was the father of Matthew Henry, he said, now a lamb was
the fittest creature that could be to be a type of Christ, both
in respect of harmlessness and also usefulness. None so patient,
none more profitable than a lamb. And isn't that so about the Lamb
of God? None so patient prayed for those
who crucified him. Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. And yet, none so profitable. He's the only way unto the Father. Let's begin reading in verse
three. 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 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 count for the lamb. Your lamb
shall be without blemish. That's the first thing I want
us to Stop and think about it. The lamb must be without blemish. The lamb must be perfect. The Passover lamb. A lamb with
any blemish, no matter how small, no matter how small it may have
been, a lamb with any blemish could not serve in this type. It had to be a lamb without blemish. because it shadows forth the
sinless Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. You might say,
well, how is it possible that He came into this world and He
was bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, but He was sinless? Well, first of all, because He
was born of the Virgin. He's not the seed of a man. All
of us here today, we are all the seed of some man, our Father. He was the seed of the woman. And the angel told Mary that
the power of the Holy Spirit would come upon her. Therefore,
that holy thing, that body and soul which was prepared by God
the Holy Spirit from her, from her body, taken into union with
His person, the eternal Son of God, that holy thing shall be
called the Son of God. And the scriptures are replete
with the Lord himself challenging. In fact, heaven and earth and
hell all testify to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is
sinless. Heaven testified at his baptism
when there was a voice from heaven which said, this is my beloved
son, in whom I am well pleased. And make no mistake about it,
my friends, God would never be pleased with anyone that was
tainted with sin. That's just not going to happen.
That's against God's nature. to be pleased with anyone with
sin. And then Earth testified to the
fact that he was sinless when he said, which of you, which
of you convinces me of sin? These were his detractors. These were the ones who hated
him. And yet he challenged them, which of you convinces me of
sin? No one opened their mouth. And
then Hel, that demon spirit, when he entered into one of the
synagogues, said, we know who thou art, thou holy one of God. Hast thou come to torment us
before the time? You see, even hell testified
to the holiness, the sinlessness of Jesus Christ, our Lord. All right, let's read on. Another
few words there in verse five. First of all, we saw it must
be a lamb without blemish. It must be second, a male of
the first year. Now, this lamb had to be strong. He was a lamb of the first year. He was in the prime and strength
of life. We think of the truth that the
Lord Jesus Christ, when he was crucified, was about 33 years
of age. He was at that point as a man
where he would be his strongest. But let's not forget, his strength
had to be much more than the strongest of all men. Because upon him, God laid the
sins of his people. The guilt of the sins of his
people were all laid upon Christ and all the angels together. You may not have ever considered
this, but I hope you will. The guilt of sin, the weight
of sin is so great that if all the angels the holy angels of
God. If God had laid the sins of His
people, the equivalent to the wrath that the sins of His people
deserve upon all the angels, it would have crushed them all.
It would have crushed them all. Remember that drawing or picture
we've seen of Atlas? And he's got the weight of the
whole world. I tell you, Atlas, he could not
have supported the weight of the sins of God's people. Would
have crushed him. It had to be a lamb of the first
year showing the strength to bear the penalty for the sins
of God's chosen people. The hell, if you're here today
and you're saved, Your sins deserve an eternity of suffering. Your sins did. My sins did. And so did every other person
in this building. He had to suffer the penalty,
which is eternal death, for the sins of all of his people. All of his chosen elect people,
he had to take our sins and bear them, the scripture says, in
his own body on the tree. The lamb had to be of the first
year, showing the strength and pitchering. Remember, this is
a shadow. It's a type of him who is a true Passover lamb. Read on in that text, verse five. You shall take it out from the
sheep or from the goats. The lamb was chosen. You take
it out from. In other words, if a man had
five sheep or 10 sheep or 20 sheep, he chose one out. He chose one out. That's the
point I want to make, that the Lord Jesus Christ is God's first
elect. God chose him first and then
chose all of his people in him, in Christ. Well, let's go on
to the next verse. And you shall keep it up until
the 14th day of the same month. And notice that was four days,
four days. The Lord Jesus Christ entered
into his ministry and we believe in the 30th year of his life
and he was crucified. three and a half years later.
And many believe this four days might picture that. But the reason
it was kept up for the four days was they continued to examine
the lamb. They continued to look at the
lamb to make sure because when the day comes we're going to
offer this lamb up. We can't find that now he's got
a blemish we overlooked. No, no. Because in this 14th
day, verse six, and you shall keep it up until the 14th day
of the same month and the whole assembly of the congregation
of Israel shall kill it in the evening. Between the evenings,
I believe if you have a marginal reading, it's between the evenings.
So the Lord Jesus Christ we know was crucified upon the cross
from 12 to three in the afternoon. But the point I wanted to make
is, do you see that word, it? It. You shall keep it up until
the 14th day of the same month and the whole assembly of the
congregation of Israel shall kill it. How many Passover lambs
were there? How many families were there?
There was a lamb for every family. But notice the instruction is,
you shall kill it, singular. pointing to the fact that God
only has one Passover lamb. There's only one Savior. I know
we live in a day when people want to be accepted and they
don't want to offend anyone, but my friends, the gospel is
offensive to lost men. It's offensive to men who believe
that man is not depraved. We believe in the truth concerning
man's depravity. That's where we began. Man is
totally depraved. He fell. He didn't wound himself
in the fall. He fell. He broke his neck. He
died spiritually. We're not all going to the same
place, just taking different roads. They killed him. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, the truth, the life, and no man comes unto the Father
but by me. So what about all these other
religions? The Lord Jesus Christ said, no
man, no man. I remember preaching a funeral
several years ago, and the lady that was attending, I didn't
know her, but she told me after the service, she said, I sure
like to hear that John 14 6 used at funerals. I am the way, the
truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by
me. She said, I attend so many funerals,
and it's almost like everybody goes to heaven. That's like that
saying, you know. When someone dies, well, they're
in a better place. That ain't always true. It's
never true if a person does not know Christ. If a person is not
washed in the blood of this Passover lamb, they shall kill it. All the various lambs pictured,
and yet here's the truth, the blood of Thousands of lambs were
killed that night. If all that blood could be collected
into one bath, and you could bathe in that bath, it would
not remove one sin. It's not possible, the writer
of Hebrews says, not possible that the blood of bulls and goats
should take away sin. It pictured, this it, these Passover
lambs pictured it, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the blood was applied. Let's read verse seven. They shall take of the blood,
verse seven, 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. The blood of the lamb
not only was shed, but it had to be applied. They had to take
hyssop and strike the two doorposts and the lintel above the door
in the house in which they were staying. And the lamb had to
be roasted. It couldn't be boiled. had to
be roasted, and it had to be a whole lamb. You don't just
cut off a leg and roast that over here or anything like. No,
the whole lamb had to all be roasted, showing the roasting
shows the fire of the wrath of God that the Lord Jesus Christ
endured as the Savior, as the Passover lamb. And they had to
eat the whole lamb. When you receive Christ, people
say, well, I'll take Christ. You know, I want Christ to be
my Savior. Well, that's not the, that's
not the issue. I'll take Christ to be my Savior.
I don't want to go to hell. That's not the issue. Nobody
wants to go to hell. They hate a whole Christ. And
if Christ is not Lord, he's not your savior. That's what he said. We must take him and we must,
by faith, take the blood of Christ and sprinkle that or strike that
on the side post of our souls. You say, well, how do you do
that? By faith. The same way we eat. his blood
and drink his flesh, or drink his blood and eat his flesh the
same way we strike the side post of our souls with his blood.
It's by faith, it's by looking to Christ, just as we sang a
few minutes ago. Look to the Lamb of God. Even a baby can look. You know,
if God, remember Naaman the leper? He was a big shot. Syrian, I
believe he was. Syrian general, five-star general. Had the favor of his king, but
he was a leper. He was a leper. No matter how
great, how mighty, how powerful, how wealthy men may come, may
become in this world, yet, Like Naaman, we are lepers. We are sinful men and women. And there was a servant girl
taken captive, and she was in his house. You say, that sure
was lucky. No, luck had nothing to do with
it. It was God's providence that
put that young maid in the house of Naaman, and she told her master,
her mistress, would to God he was in Israel. He'd be cured,
he'd be cleansed of that leprosy. And when Naaman heard that, you
know, when you have an incurable disease, there's no expense,
there's no traveling distance, there's nothing you won't do
to try to find healing. That's just the way
we are. And Naaman, He took off, didn't
he? And boy, he was loaded down with
silver and garments and everything else. I'm going to buy it. I'm
going to buy my healing. She said, there's a prophet over
there, and I'm going to see him. And I guarantee you, when he
sees what I've brought, he's going to cleanse me of this leprosy. I love that story, don't you?
And so he shows up. First of all, he went to the
king. Well, he went to the wrong place. Not many mighty, not many
noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of
this world. He started off at the top and
the king said, well, that king, his king's trying to start a
war with me. Nobody's ever cleansed anyone
of leprosy. And the prophet Elisha sent word
to the king and said, send him down to me. Let him come to my
house. And boy, they took off. And that
chariot was just flying down the road, and the horses, you
know, pulling the chariot, and the dust was flying. They end
up down there in front of Elisha's house, and I'm sure it wasn't
a mansion. And Elisha tells his servant,
go out and tell him, go out and tell Haman, go dip down in the
river Jordan seven times. You'll come up clean. And you know that offended his
pride. He didn't even come out. He didn't
even come out of the house. I thought surely, and that, I
thought, I thought, you better put your thoughts aside and hear
God's thoughts. That's what Naaman had to do.
I thought he'd come out and strike hands over me. But he didn't. And so he's leaving
mad and offended. One of his servants said, listen,
if he had told you to do some hard thing, if he had told you
to get out on your knees and make a pilgrimage, you would
have done that. If he'd given you some hard thing
to do, In other words, if he'd given you something to do in
which you could boast in glory because you did it, Naaman, why don't you just take
his word and go dip in the jar? And he did. And he came up clean. The reason I said that is because
even a child can look. If God told you to do something
for your salvation, so hard and so difficult, but he doesn't. He just says, look. Look. Who cannot look? Look to Christ. Look to the Lamb of God. That's what John the Baptist
said, wasn't it? Behold, the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sins of the world. And of course, the last thing
there in chapter 12 I want to point out is the blood of the
Lamb secured their deliverance. Look down in verse 29 of Exodus
12, verse 29. After they applied the blood
to the doorpost God passed over the houses in which that blood
was applied. You see, God was only looking
for one thing. He wasn't looking for who had
the highest degree of education or who had the most money in
the bank. He wasn't looking for anything but the blood. When
I see the blood, I will pass over that house. I will pass
over the, and here's the interesting thing, the people inside the
house, the first born who were saved inside the house, they
couldn't see the blood. God did, and he passed over that
house. Verse 29, it came to pass that
at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of
Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne,
unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon, and
all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night,
and he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there
was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there
was not one dead. You say, well, Preacher, I thought
he was passing over the firstborn. He did, but there was a Passover
lamb that had been slain. There was not one house. There
was not one house, the scripture says, where there was not one
dead, either the firstborn man of the family or the lamb. But there was one dead in each
one of those houses. And Pharaoh called for Moses
and Aaron by night and said, rise up and get you forth from
among my people, both you and the children of Israel, and go
serve the Lord as you have said. Now let me close with this. Go back with me to Mark chapter
14. After two days, Mark chapter
14 verse 1, after two days was the feast of the Passover and
of unleavened bread, and 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, lest there be an uproar
among the people. He did die on the feast day. The blood of Israel's Lamb accomplished
their physical redemption from Egypt, and it is a great picture
of the blood of the Lamb of God that redeemed and accomplished
salvation for each and every one who trusts in Him, who looks
to Him. By blood, His substitutionary
sacrifice Those of us who believe in him were justified, justified
by blood, sanctified by blood, redeemed by blood, forgiven by
blood, made near by blood, everything that we have. as a child of God
comes to us today through the blood, through the death of God's
Passover lamb. May the Lord bless this word
to all of us here. Maybe you're here. Oh, would
you not look? Would you not look today? Look away from yourself and look to Christ only. That's one of the simplest things
and one of the hardest things to do. At the same time, it's
one of the simplest things you could ever do. Look. And yet
it's one of the hardest things. We want to trust in some feeling. So I just don't feel. I haven't
said anything about feeling, have I? I haven't said anything
about failing. Well, I just don't know. Do you
know you are a sinner and that Christ is God's Passover lamb? Won't you look? Won't you look? Amen. We're going to sing a hymn,
When I See the Blood, number 232. When I see the blood, I
will pass over thee.