And everybody was on that side.
We thought we were going to have some kind of a rally or something
for this side. Or even possible disciplinary
action. But y'all aren't hopeless, you're
just a little slow. No, isn't it wonderful to be
together? I'm so glad to be here. It's
good to see Jackie. Y'all know Jackie's been going
through some difficulties with her health. She comes a long
way to worship with us, and I'm thankful the Lord brought her
here. It's just good to worship together, isn't it? We take it
for granted, but sometimes we don't. Thank the Lord for his
mercies. Let's pray and ask him to bless
us this morning. Father, thank you for all your
goodness to us. How longsuffering and kind you
are to such wretches as us. Thank you for bringing us together.
Thank you, Lord, for another time, another hour to sit and
forget about this world and ourselves and everything vain and think
about things above where the Lord Jesus Christ sits on the
right hand of the majesty on high. May we think on these things. Thank you for all your tender
mercies toward us. Thank you for saving us. Thank
you for the precious blood that bought us. Meet with us by your mighty and
gracious Holy Spirit. Take the things of Christ from
your gospel and shine them into our hearts that we might see
him and know him and rejoice alone in him in his precious
name. Amen. Luke chapter 22. We we've been in Luke all week since last
Sunday and then Wednesday night. We had sort of a part two Message
from the first six verses And now we'll begin with verse 7 Verse 7 this morning And I think we'll just Go go
a verse at a time here verse 7 of Luke 22 Then came the day
of unleavened bread when the Passover must be killed. Now this Day of Unleavened Bread,
this was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread that
began on the 14th day of the Hebrew month Nisan and continued
for seven days. So there were seven days in which
they were to eat no leaven. And as plainly stated here, it
was the day that the Passover lamb was to be killed and eaten,
that first day of the feast. And the eating of the Passover,
and we know that the Passover lamb is Christ, Christ our Passover
was offered for us, the scripture says. The eating of the unleavened
bread with it, though, was significant and instructive. It was God's
instruction from the very beginning, from the first Passover, way
back in Egypt when the Lord delivered his people from bondage. And
we see the spiritual significance of the unleavened bread with
which the lamb was to be eaten in 1 Corinthians 5. If you would
turn over there with me, let's look at that together. 1 Corinthians
5, 6. I wanted to talk a little bit about this
because our text begins with that. Then came the day of unleavened
bread. What does that have to do with?
Well, it was that first day of the seven in which they were
to eat no leaven. Passover was to be killed that first day,
the 14th day of Nisan, but the first day of the feast. And look
at 1 Corinthians 5. Paul deals with that here. He
said, your glorying is not good. And of course that We'll call
your attention to the context if you want to read that later
what he's talking about, but any glorying in the flesh is
not good. Paul said, God forbid that I
glory in anything or anybody but Christ crucified. Your glorying
is not good. If you're not glorying, let him
that glory glory in this. Let the wise man glory in his
wisdom and the strong man in his might. Let not the rich man
glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this,
that he understandeth and knoweth me." Glory in God's grace in
revealing his son to you. So your glorying is not good.
And then he's scolding him here. He said, no ye not. The Lord
dealt with people that way. He said, haven't you read the
scriptures? He would say that to the Pharisee. No ye not that
a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. A little bit of glorying
now. Glorying, boasting is excluded
in the gospel. It's excluded. Where is boasting
then? By grace are you saved through faith. And that's not
of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. It doesn't matter how much you
glory in yourself, little or much, it ain't good. It ain't
good. purge out therefore the old leaven. And we know what he's talking
about from other scripture. We'll look at that in a second.
That you may be a new lump as you are unleavened. You're without
these things and so the The glorying should all be in the lamb and
not in anything, there's no leaven, there's no glorying in anything,
but the Passover himself, for even Christ, our Passover, is
sacrificed for us. There's the glory. The glory
is in substitution. The glory is in Christ and not
us. Christ for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast,
let us honor, not to keep the Passover, that was over. We don't
wanna see that. But let's honor the truth of
that, not with old leaven, neither
with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened
bread, not a cracker, but of sincerity. Truth we don't keep
that physical feast anymore, but we we still glory in Christ
who is our Passover lamb With sincerity and truth, there's
your unleavened bread. That's the spiritual fulfillment
of our text of the Exodus 12 The leaven signifies here, as
he mentioned, glorying in the flesh. Your glorying is not good,
so stop it. Observe the spiritual Passover
without that leaven, the leaven of glorying in self. Leaven also
signifies hypocrisy, as our Lord said in Luke 12.1. Let me read
Luke 12.1 to you. In the meantime, when there were
gathered together an innumerable multitude of people in so much
that they trod one upon another, Christ began to say unto his
disciples, first of all, beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees,
which is hypocrisy. Hence the words that Paul used
where we just read, sincerity and truth, that's the opposite
of hypocrisy. You see how he's teaching what
our Lord taught. The Lord spoke of the 11 of the
Pharisees also in Matthew chapter 16. Let's look at that together.
Matthew 16, if you would turn over there, verse five, Matthew
16, five. You see, here's the thing about
it. This is why this is so important. We're observing the Passover
in a sense now, in the sense that Paul spoke of it in a spiritual
way. We look to the lamb. He is our deliverance from bondage,
the bondage of sin and Satan himself. Christ and his precious
blood. God said, when I see the blood,
that's still important. That's still vital to me. If
God doesn't see the blood with regard to me right now, I'm in
trouble. I'm a goner. So this is not just a history
lesson, is it? This is how we're going to worship
Him right now. So Matthew 16, 5, And when his
disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take
bread. They forgot to bring some lunch with them. They were traveling
across the water there, and they forgot to bring anything to eat.
And Jesus said unto them, take heed and beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." And they reasoned among themselves
saying, they got to thinking, why did he say that? And here's
what they came up with, it's because we've taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived without,
he didn't have to hear them, he knew their hearts, didn't
he? He said unto them, oh ye of little faith, why reason ye
among yourselves because you've brought no bread? Do you really
Do you think I'm rebuking you because you forgot lunch? Don't
you remember that that's happened before? And I made lunch out
of nothing? I mean, that's what he's fixing
to say, isn't it? Do you not yet understand, neither
remember the five loaves of the 5,000 and how many baskets you
took up, neither the seven loaves of the 4,000 and how many baskets
you took up? You don't need lunch, you need
me. And everything he taught, when he said, beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees, he's talking about, watch out for anything,
any glorying in anything or anybody but me. How is it that you do not understand
that I speak not to you concerning bread, that you should beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees, then Aren't you glad he's long-suffering
with us? He teaches us with patience and
long-suffering. Then understood they how that
he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine,
the teaching. You see how it's not about the
physical things. The Lord provides those too,
didn't he? He reminded them of that. But
his teaching is not about that. It's about spiritual food. Don't
let there be any leaven in what you eat spiritually. The doctrine
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees, it was anti-Christ doctrine. It was doctrine that gloried
in the flesh and in their keeping of the law. So when it comes
to the Passover, that is Christ, our Passover and his precious
blood, whereby we're delivered from the bondage, signified by
their bondage, 400-year bondage in Egypt, our bondage to sin,
Satan, and self. When we think about that, there
can be no glorying in the flesh. That's what this is about. God
forbid that I should glory save in what he did, what he accomplished,
what he fulfilled and perfected. in my place for me, for me. To say that Christ dying on Calvary
was all that he could do, you know, he did his best, he did
all he could do, but the real deciding of the matter of salvation
is in your hands, it's in the hands of the sinner. That's glorifying
the flesh, that's not good, Paul said, that's not good, your glorying
is not good. Let us observe the Passover spiritually
without any leaven. There can be no leaven of hypocrisy,
that is, no pretense, no lip service. Hypocrisy, as we said,
glorying in the flesh, that's out. God forbid that we glory
in anything but Him and what He did. And no hypocrisy, no
pretense, no outward show. He said you clean the outside
of the cup. but inside you're corrupt and
vile. It's easy to say one thing and
live another when it comes to the simple gospel of Christ and
what He accomplished by His sin-atoning death. Do we trust Him or do
we trust Him plus our decision, plus our works, plus our living
the Christian life, plus anything? It's leaven. Cast it out. There wasn't even to be any found
in your house. Well, I won't use it. I'll just
put it over here. No, get rid of it. Get rid of it. And then he said this, sincerity
and what else? Truth. If you're gonna observe the Passover
really, spiritually, in the fulfillment of the Passover by Christ, you
got to know the truth of God concerning his son, Jesus Christ. No leaven of the Pharisees, which
is false doctrine. The simple truth of what happened
on the cross is not difficult to understand. Christ, the son
of God, came to redeem his people. His name, Jesus, was given to
him for what reason? For he shall save his people. from their sins. So every time
you hear his blessed name, it should remind you that he is
the victorious, conquering captain of our salvation. He came to redeem his people
from their sins, and that's simply what he did. I said, well, boy,
everybody knows that. No, they don't. Most people think
that he just made it possible for you to be redeemed. Way far
most people think that. Very, very few think that he
actually redeemed anybody on Calvary. Very few people in this
world believe that Christ actually did what he came to do. Very,
very few. By bearing their sins in his
own body on the tree, by suffering the wrath of God in their place.
And he knew their names. He knew every one of them by
name that he died for. When he prayed his high priestly
prayer in John 17, he said, I'm not interceding for this world.
I'm interceding for those you gave me. Praying to the Father,
interceding for them. If the high priest didn't come
into the holy place for you, then there's no atonement for
you. There was no atonement for the Philistines. It was for the
Jews, the spiritual Jews. By suffering God's wrath, Christ
Jesus made full atonement for the sins of everyone for whom
he died. That's the simple truth of it.
It is enough. that Jesus died and that he died
for me. Is that enough for you? Salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation is Christ and him crucified. So unleavened bread and the Passover,
God's lamb that takes away sin is to be killed. And notice the
word must. There's just one way in there.
There's just one way. He must be killed. The Passover
must be killed if anybody's going free. If anybody's not going
to die in bondage, the Passover must be killed. You remember
what Paul preached in the synagogues, Acts 17.2, and Paul, as his manner
was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them
out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must
needs have suffered. You don't need to walk an aisle,
but Christ had to suffer if you're gonna be saved. You don't need
to walk an aisle to be saved. Christ must needs have suffered
and risen again from the dead. And here's what he opened and
alleged to, which you ought to look up those words sometime.
To open and allege, the picture is somebody placing food on a
table. And here's what Paul put on the
table. For anybody that's hungry, that this Jesus whom I preach
unto you is Christ. It's not complicated, is it?
You just need to know him. You just need to know who he
is. The Passover must be killed or the sinner must be killed.
It's that, it's that plain. If God is to have mercy on a
sinner, then the Passover must be killed. Verse eight, let's
look at verses eight through 12 together in our text there
in Luke 22 verse eight. And he sent Peter and John saying,
go, and prepare us the Passover that we may eat. And they said
unto him, where wilt thou that we prepare? And he said unto
them, behold, when you are entered into the city, there shall a
man meet you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the
house where he entereth in, and you shall say unto the good man
of the house, the master saith unto thee, where is the guest
chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? and
he shall show you a large upper room furnished. There make ready. You see, you need to understand
something more than just that somebody died on a cross to save
sinners. You need to know who it is. You
need to know it was the master. It was the sovereign Lord of
glory that died to accomplish something and he accomplished
it. Of course he did. Look at who
he is. He knew that man. He knew the man that they would
meet. He knows everybody. He knows you inside and out.
The disciples didn't, but Christ knew who he was. And he knew
where that man would be going. You know why he knew that? Because
a man deviseth his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Proverbs
16, 9. He knew what that man would be
doing. He knew the path he would take, because he directed his
steps, and he knew why he was going there. He knew that he
would be fetching water. You know why? Because the eyes
of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
He knows when you fetch water. He knows everything that you
do before you ever did it. Proverbs 15, 3, he knew what
Judas would do soon. He knew what he would do. He
told him beforehand. what he would do and he knew
everything from a man fetching water for his house to a devil
from the beginning that was going to betray the Son of God. He
knew everything and everybody and what they were doing and
why. This is who died. That's why this language, this
is not just filler. We need to know who he is, who
we're dealing with, who it was that shed his precious blood
on Calvary. He knew the timing of it all. He knew that the disciples'
path would cross that of this man. Because as David said in
Psalm 31, 15, my times are in his hand. And he hath made everything
beautiful in his time. The fact that their paths would
cross and all that would work out and they would sit down together
and have that last meal. That's beautiful, isn't it? Beautiful.
And it came to pass when he said it would. And every aspect that
led up to it came to pass when he said it would. And the Lord
told these favored disciples to speak for him. That's a blessing
to me. He said, you go and here's what
you'll say. He still does that. Aren't you
glad? I'm so glad he does that. Here's
the message. Now, he doesn't leave it up to
you. Just say whatever, you know. Try to figure things out and
explain them the best you can. He's told us what to say, hasn't
he? Just like he did them. Here's the message. Say to the
master of the house, the master, Think about that for a second,
because that word Goodman there, it means the master of the house.
Say to the master that the master is coming. The Lord gives authority,
but he is the authority. He gives us something to say,
but he's the one that said it. And we have no authority to say
anything. but what he told us to say. He
said, all power is given to me. All authority is given to me
in heaven and earth. Therefore, you go and speak.
You go and preach. Not because you have the authority,
but because I do. And I've given you what to say. Say to the master of the house,
the master has a question for you. Where is the guest chamber
where I will eat the Passover with my disciples? The Lord didn't
tell them to say that because he needed to know. He told them
to say that because they needed to know. And that's why he told
me to say what I'm saying this morning. Not because he needs
to know, because you do. And I do. Where will it be? The word guest chamber there,
it's interesting. The word guest chamber there
is the same word used in Luke two and verse seven. Let me read
you that verse. And she, Mary, brought forth
her firstborn son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and wrapped him in swaddling
clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for
them in the guest chamber, in the inn. Same word, in the inn. There was no room for him then, but there is now. There's going
to be room on this day in our text. Why? Why is there room for him
now? There's a guest chamber waiting
for him and those with him. Why? The Passover. That's why,
that's why. No man by nature has any room
for God's son. You've got no use for him. You've
got no room for him by nature. But because of what he accomplished
for his people, if you're one of them, you got room for him
now. You notice that he didn't ask
for permission. You notice he didn't come saying,
you know, would it be okay if we borrowed your upper room for
a little while? The Lord don't come that way.
He didn't send me to ask your permission. He sent me to tell you how it
is, who he is and what he did. And if you're hungry, here's food you can eat and never
be hungry again. Here's water. that you can drink
and never thirst. He's going to eat this Passover.
He's going to eat it with his disciples. And here's the message
to this man, this certain man that he knew, knew everything
about, knew everything he was doing and why and when and everything
about him. Here's what he said to him. We're
gonna have the Passover. We're gonna eat the Passover
together, and we're gonna do it at your house. Does that remind
you of anybody? We're gonna do this at your house.
Does that remind you of Zacchaeus? The Lord didn't say, Zacchaeus,
come down here, and if it's okay with you, he said, Zacchaeus, you come down,
for I must abide at thy house today. That's how the Lord comes
now. And if you need him, that'll
be the best thing you ever heard. You won't have not a single problem
with it. You see who it is that died?
He's the sovereign Christ. He accomplishes everything that
he intends to accomplish. And he's the one that was slain
to redeem his people from their sins. The root word for upper
room means high ground. High ground. There'll be an upper
room there. When the Lord comes in your house,
he's going to take the high ground. You know that, don't you, if
you know him? He's not just a guest. It's his house now. It's his
house. Is that not right? You know him?
Whose house are you? Whose house are you? Verse 13. Back in Luke 22 verse 13. And they went and found as he
had said unto them. And they made ready the Passover. The Lord sent me with a message
this morning just like he sent them And you will find this morning
that it is exactly as he said it would be. They found as he had said. We're not always going to find
things to be the way we would like them to be. But you will find it the way
he said. Faith is not believing that the Lord will do what you
want him to do. A lot of people are real confused about that.
If you just believe in, you just believe, believe, believe, and
name it and claim it, that's not faith. Faith is not believing
the Lord's gonna do what you want him to do. Faith is believing
him, that he's gonna do what he said he would do, that he's
who he said he is, and that he did what he said he did, and
will do what he said he'd do. It's simply believing him. Because
he is himself the truth of God. If he says here's what's going
to happen, that's what's going to happen. If he says here's
the way things are, then that's the way things are. Concerning the Passover and what
that signifies, the scripture says that the Lord Jesus Christ
obtained eternal redemption for his sheep. for those for whom
he died. He perfected forever those whom
he sanctified on that cross. You'll find that it is just as
he said it was. He said, I laid down my life
for my sheep and they shall never perish. You'll find it's just
like he said. He said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. And you will find it to be as
he said. He said, if I go, I'll come again
and receive you unto myself. The part we're coming to, y'all,
I wish I could say it like it should be said. He said, with
desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you. This
is the one that said, if I go, I'll come again. What are you
coming back? Why would he come back here?
To receive you unto myself so that where I am, There you may
be. You'll find it as he said. In verse 14, when the hour was come,
he sat down. And the 12 apostles with him,
what a what an honor. To sit down here this morning
and to know that this one this sovereign, this Christ, this
lamb, this savior, said, I'll sit down with you where two or
three are gathered in my name. There I am. And he said unto them with desire,
I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not
any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of
God with desire. This is an interesting word.
I hesitated to even talk about the actual meaning of this word
because I don't want to cast any kind of an undesirable light, but it
means what it means. And it's important, though, that
we understand the true meaning of it and not associate it with
what it's normally translated as in the scripture. And I think
it adds some understanding here if the Lord will reveal it to
us. So you'll see what I mean. Because the word means lust.
It means lust. And everywhere that it's used,
in the New Testament, in the scripture, in the Greek. It's
translated lust or evil concupiscence. Everywhere except three times. And this is of course one of
them in our text, but I want to show you all three of them,
because this word's used a lot. And it always means something
bad, except these three times. These three are different. In
Philippians 1.23, when Paul said, I am in a strait betwixt two,
having a desire. Lust isn't always bad. It can
be, of course, but it's not always bad. It means deep, overwhelming,
all-consuming desire. In a sinner, lust is uncontrollable,
unless God gives you grace. We can do all things through
Christ now, but without him we can do nothing, and this is one
of the things we can do nothing about. You're gonna lust after
money, you're gonna lust after all the wrong things. They are
gonna consume you. You're gonna wake up thinking
about them, you're gonna go to bed thinking about them, it's
gonna be all the wrong things. Glorying in the flesh, apart
from his grace. But Paul said, I have a desire.
I have a consuming, overwhelming desire to depart and to be with
Christ. You see, it's mutual by His grace.
It's mutual, isn't it? He said, with desire, I've desired
to be with you and eat this Passover with you. And we have that same
desire. It's mutual because He first
loved us. We love Him. And it's an overwhelming
thing. It's a life-changing thing. It's
an uncontrollable thing. Having a desire to depart and
be with Christ. And I'll tell you something else.
The second one I want to read a little bit of the context with.
And you can, of course, turn there if you'd like to. 1 Thessalonians
2. I want to read a little of the context with this so we understand
what's being said here. 1 Thessalonians 2.14. For you,
brethren, Speaking to the church at Thessalonica,
you, brethren, became followers of the churches of God, which
in Judea are in Christ Jesus, for ye also have suffered like
things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews,
who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have
persecuted us. They've been consistent, haven't
they? Those who hate Christ, hate his people, and they're
consistent in that. And they please not God and are
contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that
they might be saved, to fill up their sins all way, for the
wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. But we, brethren,
being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart,
endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. Here's the thing about the Lord
and his people. He loves us. He flat loves us. And we love him by his grace. We love him. His love is the
cause of ours. And that doesn't diminish it.
Not a bit. That's what makes our love what
it is. He's the source of it. He's the cause of it. And I'll
tell you something else about the Lord sheep. They love one
another. with great desire, with great desire, wherefore we would
have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered
us. And then our text. And again, I don't know how to
talk about this. The Lord Jesus Christ said, with
desire, I have desired to eat this Passover. with you. Since the Lord showed me that
verse, I mean, you know, we're aware of a lot of scripture from
when we were children. We're aware of them, but then
the Lord will show you something every once in a while, won't
he? And then I hope someday he'll
really show it to me because I don't know anything as I ought
to know. But he showed me that very, I can't, when we come to
the Lord's table and observe the Lord's table, which we will
soon do again, if he It doesn't come back. But I can't come to the table
without thinking of this verse. With desire have I desired to
eat this Passover with you. I love those words with you. With you. Look at verse 19 back in our text. He took bread and gave thanks
and break it and gave unto them saying, this is my body, which
is given for you, for you. If you are Christ, if
you're one of his, if you believe on him, if he's your Passover,
if the son has made you free indeed, you have no idea how much he
loves you. You have no idea. I can say that
without hesitation. I don't either. We have no idea. He gave himself for you. And his one desire is to be with
you. Father, I will that they also
now has given me. Be with me. Where I am. that they may behold my glory
which thou hast given me for thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world. The Lord declares that this is
the last Passover. He's not going to eat it anymore.
You know what? I'm not either. I'm not going to do that. We
don't need that. He is the fulfillment of it. He's about to fulfill
the Passover. Many will observe religious rituals
after this, but there's no more Passover like it was then, like
they ate together then. The shadows are gone now. The
true Passover has been slain. In verse 19, he institutes now
the Lord's table, which we still observe to this day. The scripture
teaches us to do that till he come. We do show the Lord's death
in that way till he come. And so, until he comes, we'll
do that. We'll do that. We do this because we love him,
but in doing so, we remember his love for us. That's the point
of the table. Herein is love. Not that we loved
God, but that he loved us. End. There's always an and with
love. Not a mitigating and, but a defining
and. There's always an and. What is
love? People talk about love. Is it
an emotion? If you looked it up in the dictionary, I doubt
if it would be. I doubt if it would even come close, you reckon.
But this book tells us what it is and what it does. You know
why it tells us what it does? Because the only way to know
what it is is to know what it does and doesn't do. And you
know what it does? Herein is love. Not that we loved
God. If you're looking to find out
what love is, don't look at yourself or any other sinner. but that he loved us and. You wanna know what it is? He
sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin. And beloved, if God so loved
us, we ought also to love one another. Let's pray.