Let's turn in our Bibles to Exodus
chapter 13. Exodus chapter 13. Our subject this morning is once
again sanctification. Now according to the scriptures,
sanctification is to be made holy. To be made holy. You read about holiness, you
read about sanctification, it's the same thing. God the Father
set His people apart, sanctified His people in Christ in divine
election when He chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. God the Son sanctified all those
God the Father gave to Him by His blood on the cross. And God
the Holy Spirit sanctifies His people in regeneration in the
new birth when He comes and cleanses us and washes us clean in the
blood of Christ. That's how we're sanctified.
Now last time, we saw that sanctification is of God through Christ. This is typified in the fact
that the Lord sent Moses to sanctify the children of Israel. Look
here in Exodus 13. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth
the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast,
it is mine. Now remember at this time, the
Passover lamb had already been sacrificed. God, through that
Passover lamb, He had slain all the firstborn in type and ceremony
in that Passover lamb. And they were already redeemed
out of Israel, already sanctified by the Lord through that Passover
lamb. Now, the Lord sends Moses and
says, now you go and you sanctify them to me in their experience
of it. You go tell them they're mine. You go separate them and make
them to know they belong to me. Now, what that pictures is, Christ
our Passover Lamb sanctified all his people on the cross.
And he arose from the grave and God the Father sends him forth. He comes forth through the preaching
of the gospel, through the Holy Spirit, and he sanctifies his
people in the heart. You get that? That's the picture
here. And then, after that, we saw
in verses 3 through 10 that sanctification is through the hearing of faith.
It's through the hearing of the gospel of Christ, not through
the hearing of works. As soon as God told Moses to
go sanctify the firstborn, the first thing Moses did is he went
and preached to the children of Israel. And that's how we're
sanctified, through the preaching of the works of Christ. The preaching that declares what
God has done for His people in Christ. And He gave them the
ordinance of the Passover, and He gave them the ordinance of
the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And that feast was to remind
them, constantly remind them, that God had sanctified them
by redeeming them out through that Passover lamb. That God
did it. He brought them out of bondage.
And you and I, we don't have to observe the Passover. We observe the Lord's table. And we don't have the Passover
to remind us. We have this feast or the feast
of unleavened bread to remind us. We have this feast of the
gospel. Remember Paul said, let us keep the feast. This gospel
feast. Because Christ our Passover is
sacrificed for. You are leavened because Christ
our Passover is sanctified for. So this was a picture of hearing
the gospel preached. That's how we're sanctified.
But then God gave them another, another thing to do that also
pictured the hearing of faith. This also pictured the preaching
of the gospel, the hearing of the gospel by which His people
are sanctified. This is what we're going to look
at today. It was the sanctification of all the firstborn. Now look
at Exodus 13, 11. This is picturing the hearing of faith. It pictures
because it was a constant reminder to them that God sanctified them. And that's what the gospel is,
it's a constant reminder that we didn't sanctify ourselves,
God sanctified us. Alright, watch, Exodus 13, 11.
And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land
of the Canaanites, as He sware unto thee and to thy fathers,
and shall give it thee, that thou shalt set apart unto the
Lord all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling Every firstborn
that cometh of a beast which thou hast, the males shall be
the lords. And every firstling of an ass
thou shalt redeem with a lamb. And if thou will not redeem it,
then thou shalt break his neck. And all the firstborn of man
among thy children shalt thou redeem. And it shall be when
thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that
thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out
from Egypt from the house of bondage. And it came to pass
when Pharaoh would hardly let us go that the Lord slew all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of
man and the firstborn of beast. And therefore I sacrifice to
the Lord All that openeth the matrix being males. That is, all that openeth the
womb being males. He sanctified them because they're
His. They're the Lord's. But all the firstborn of my children
I redeem. You wouldn't slay the firstborn
children, so God said redeem them. And it shall be for a token
upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes, for by strength
of hand the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt." Now again, this
is another picture of the hearing of faith by which we are sanctified. But this time we're focusing
on the Lamb. And I've titled this, Sanctification
by Christ the Lamb. Because that's the focus here.
Sanctification by Christ the Lamb. Now like the law of the
firstborn constantly reminded them they were sanctified through
the redemption of that Passover Lamb. That's what it constantly
reminded them. They were sanctified through
the redemption by that Passover Lamb. So we're constantly reminded
in the gospel that we're sanctified, made holy through the redemption
of Christ the Lamb. That's the message. Alright,
first of all, they were reminded that all that they are and all
that they possess belong to the Lord. They were His. This is what they were reminded
of by this law of the firstborn. Every time they observed it,
they were reminded, we and everything we are belongs to the Lord. Look
at verse 11. It shall be when the Lord shall
bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore unto
thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee, that thou
shalt set apart... That's what sanctification is.
You set apart unto the Lord. is to be set apart, consecrated
unto the Lord. That's sanctification. You set
apart unto the Lord all that openeth the matrix, and every
firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast, the males shall
be the Lord's. Let me tell you why the Lord
said do this. In Numbers 8.17, this is what
God said. Because all the firstborn of
the children of Israel are mine. both man and beast. On the day
that I smoked every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified
them for myself." Now get that statement. God said, on the day
I smoked every firstborn in the land of Egypt, that was the day
He smoked the Passover lamb in place of Israel's firstborn. He said, in that day when I smote
all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them. I sanctified them. And I did
it for myself. Now remember that statement.
So, all the animals that God said were clean animals, God
told them which animals, which beasts were clean animals. Those
were ones God would receive. And so all the clean animals
that were the firstborn, They were to set them apart unto the
Lord. And the margin reads, it says,
cause to pass over. Here's what they would do. Get
the picture here now. They would come to the altar,
there would be a fire burning. They would take this first born
lamb, a first born clean animal, slay it, make it to pass through
that fire. as a burnt offering. Smoke goes
up to God, sweet smelling, savory to God, and it passed through
that fire to the Lord. Unto the Lord. Now, the sacrifice
passing through that fire to God is a picture of Christ passing
through the fiery justice of God, satisfying the justice of
God so that it came up to God a sweet smelling savor. His law
has been honored. His justice has been satisfied.
And so when Christ passed through that fiery justice, all those
God gave to Christ in divine election were in Christ. And we passed through that fiery
justice. So that now we're clean. We're
clean and God will receive us. Those true believers there that
were born of the Holy Spirit, they were offering those first
born clean animals as a burnt offering to God to thank the
Lord. That's what a burnt offering
was for. They were thanking the Lord, they were acknowledging
to the Lord that they themselves and everything they possessed
belonged to the Lord. Everything they had had been
given them from the Lord and they themselves belonged to the
Lord. That's what they were declaring.
The true believer knew what was pictured in the ceremony. Born
of the Holy Spirit, taught of God. They knew that the picture
was that they died under the justice of God in that Passover
lamb. That Passover lamb being slain
was a picture of the fiery justice of God coming down on Christ
and slaying Christ in the room instead of His people. You see,
everybody who is a sinner must die. Because God's justice demands
it. You and I have all sinned, we
all have to die under God's justice. You are either going to die in
yourself for all eternity a living death in hell or God has provided
the lamb to die in the place of His people. We don't know
who His people are. We preach this gospel and through
it God is going to sanctify us in the heart and bring all that
He sanctified at Calvary to cast our care on Him. Are you one
He died for? How do you know if I am one He
died for? You are going to believe this
gospel by God's grace. It is the only way. The only
way, the true believer knew what this pictured. He knew what this
pictured. He knew that it was a picture
of the Passover lamb, the coming Messiah, Christ our Passover. And so by sacrificing those firstborn
animals to God, they were acknowledging just what God declared. They
were acknowledging that on the day that I smote every firstborn
in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them for myself. They are mine. Now remember, the firstborn are
like the firstfruits. Remember God also told them to
offer Him all the firstfruits. And whatever the first is, that's
what the rest is. And so the firstborn represents
all God's elect. Christ is the firstborn Son of
God. And all His elect are firstborn
sons in Christ. Now, you and I, who are firstborn
sons in Christ, we don't have to offer up our firstborn. We
don't have to do that. We're not under the law. We don't
have to do that now. We are the firstborn typified
here. We don't have to offer up lambs. or any of our firstborn animals
or anything like that. We don't have to do that. We
are the firstborn and Christ is the firstborn. You know, Christ
himself is truly the firstborn and he's the only one who's truly
the first to ever open the womb. The womb is opened at conception. It's not opened at birth. You
read that. Go study it. It's true. The womb
is opened at conception. It's not opened at birth. Christ
is the only one who opened the womb at birth because he was
born of a virgin so that he would not be sinful like those he came
to redeem. He's the one, you know, the scripture
says, when the days of Mary's purification according to the
law of Moses were accomplished, they brought Christ to Jerusalem
to present Him to the Lord. As it's written in the law of
the Lord, every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy
to the Lord. That's why they brought Christ
there. But here's what was happening. Christ is the only one who ever
fulfilled this law perfectly. Now, only one. And He's the only
one who ever fulfilled all the law perfectly. And it's only
because His people were in Him that you and I, the four God,
have fulfilled the law perfectly. Christ did it for us. That's
what we have here. We fulfilled that very law and
all the law perfectly in Christ. And God says to you and me, in
Christ, He says this, On the day that I smoked, Every firstborn
elect child, when I smoked Christ my firstborn, I sanctified every
firstborn elect child for myself. That's what he's teaching us
here. Now, they were reminded when they offered up those firstborn
clean animals, what we're reminded of when we hear this gospel preached.
Every time they came and offered up that firstborn animal, they
were reminded that they were made clean by the Lamb. We don't have to be reminded
of it by the law and doing this ceremony. We are reminded of
it by hearing the gospel preached. This is a picture of the hearing
of faith. This is how God sanctifies us in the beginning. and in our
hearts and keeps us sanctified unto Him by continually hearing
this message. By continually being reminded
in the new man we're sanctified by God in Christ Jesus. Now, since we're holy by the
blood of Christ, since we have been sanctified and made clean,
we don't have to offer up clean animals. We're not under the
law. We're under grace. So what is it you and I present
to the Lord? How are we going to thank God
and acknowledge to God that everything we are, that we ourselves belong
to Him and everything we have belongs to Him? How are we going
to acknowledge that everything we receive, we've received by
God's grace from God? How are we going to acknowledge
this? What are we going to present? Go to Romans 12. Here's the light and easy yoke
we're under. We're not under that law. We're
under grace. So here's the light and easy yoke He's given to you
and me. Look at Romans 12, 1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God. See? And you know what He didn't
say there? He didn't say, I command you
by the law of Moses. Nope. Because we're not under
the law. We're under grace. I beseech you by the gospel,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. You see that? We belong to God.
And we're holy because what God did in giving His Son, so it's
only reasonable. Seeing what God did to make us
holy, It's only reasonable that we present our bodies to God
living unto God. What's that mean? Go to 1 Corinthians
6. Look at verse 19. What? Know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have
of God, and ye are not your own? You're not your own. If you're
born of God, you're not your own. For you are bought with
a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit which are God's. See there? That's such a light and easy
yoke that Christ has given us compared to what they were under,
under the law. You and I simply live unto God,
praising Him, honoring Him, glorifying Him in everything we do. What
a light and easy yoke. When you love somebody and you
see that they've given everything for you, you children, your fathers
and mothers have loved you and they've given themselves for
you, they've done everything they can for you and they've
given you everything you possess. Is it difficult for you to live
your life in such a way that you honor them? Not difficult
at all, is it? Because you love them. You don't
have to be commanded to do it because the law says do it. You
do it because of the mercy they've shown you. Because you love them.
That's the law we're under. That's the law we're under. Alright,
secondly. Let's go back to Exodus 13. They were reminded. that the
reason that they were sanctified and clean is because a clean
lamb redeemed them who were unclean. They were constantly reminded
the way they were made clean, sanctified, holy unto God is
because they were unclean and a clean lamb redeemed them. And look here in Exodus 13, 13.
Every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb. And
if thou will not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck. Now
an ass, God said it, it's true, an ass is a wild, stubborn, and
God said, an unclean animal. A wild, stubborn, unclean animal
that will not obey. That's what an ass is. When you
see donkeys in westerns and things like that in the movies and they
look like they're just gentle and docile, those are trained
donkeys. My parents had an ass. It won't
do anything you tell it to do. And if you whip it and you try
to make it do what you'd have it do, it will just sit down
and show you, I'm not doing anything. Wild, unclean ass is a picture
of every child of Adam. That's a picture of you and me
by nature. Every one of us. That is us. For vain man would
be wise, Job said, though man be born like a wild ass's coat. The wild ass will not bear the
yoke. The wild ass has got to be broken. And none of God's
elect will bear the yoke of Christ until we've been broken. We have
to be broken. A wild ass used to the wilderness
snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure. That's a picture of you and me.
Now understand, God would not receive an unclean ass unless
that unclean ass had been sanctified and made clean. He wouldn't receive
it. Man, here's this and he's got
an ass there and he's got a lamb over here and he don't want to
kill that lamb for this old dirty, unclean, stubborn ass. Ah, here's
what I'll do. I'll just take this ass and I'll
just separate it myself and I'll just put it over here in the
field with the lambs. And I'll trick God. I'll take
some lamb's wool and I'll just put it over that donkey and I'll
make him look like a lamb. I'll wash him real good, clean
him up first, put some perfume on him so it smells good, and
then I'll cover him up in lamb's wool and make him look like a
clean lamb. And I'll say, oh, he's sanctified. But he won't be clean and he
won't be sanctified. Not before God. And churches
in religion are giving men rules and regulations and things for
them to do. And men themselves are separating
themselves, are being separated by others and putting on an outward
form that looks like sanctification. But before God, they're still
just unclean asses. And that's a fact. Sanctification
is not of us. We can't sanctify ourselves and
no man can sanctify you. We have to be sanctified by God.
Job said, if I wash myself with snow water and make my hands
never so clean, yet thou shall plunge me in the ditch and mine
own clothes shall abhor me. You and I can't make ourselves.
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing? Not one. Sanctification is entirely of
the Lord apart from our works. In order for us to be clean and
sanctified, that unclean ass had to be redeemed by a clean
lamb dying in its place or else God said, break its neck. That's
because you and me, who are unclean asses by nature, God says we're
either going to have to die under the justice of God Or a clean
lamb is going to have to die in our place to sanctify us and
make us holy to God. Thank God He gave His Son. And
His Son is the clean lamb who came and laid down His life and
sanctified His people. Now be sure to get what God is
teaching in the type in our text. Be sure to get this. His people
are perfected in sanctification, made perfectly holy, sanctified
under God by the blood of Christ by which we're also redeemed. You get that? Go with me to Hebrews
10. Let's see this in the Scriptures.
Hebrews 10. I know that men everywhere, they
hear us preach this and they say, you confuse sanctification,
you confuse holiness and righteousness. No, we're not. No, we're not.
They're vitally linked and they're both by the blood of Christ.
Look here. Hebrews 10.9. Then said I, this is Christ speaking,
or then said He, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. He had to come do the will of
God because you and I couldn't. None of those He came to sanctify
could do it. He came to do the will of God,
to keep God's law perfectly, to go under the justice of God
and redeem us from all our sin. Look at this. He taketh away
the first, that is, that first covenant law of works, that He
may establish the second, the everlasting covenant of grace.
Now watch. By the witch will, by that will,
He said, I come to do thy will, O God, and by That will, by His
will, were sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all time. Look at verse 14. For by one
offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And
He says in those verses in between, men right now are offering sacrifices
that can never take away sin. They can't make you holy, they
can't make you righteous. Men are doing the same thing
today. Our sanctification is the same one who is our righteousness
and our redemption. He is Christ. He is Christ. He is sanctification and righteousness
and redemption. And then God showed the result
of this, what Christ accomplished in their firstborn sons. Go back
to Exodus 13. At the end of verse 13, He says,
And all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou
redeem. Now, they paid a redemption price
and they bought their firstborn sons. That's what they were doing. Now, by the blood of Christ,
He's bought His people to Himself. That's what redemption is. It's
to buy back. And He has bought His people
back from the curse of the law. The curse of the law is you and
I can't do it. That's the curse of it. So for
Him to buy us, Christ had to go and be made that curse. He
had to be made the curse for us to redeem us from the curse.
And that's the price He had to pay. And He paid it and He redeemed
us and so now all God's elect are God's purchased possession,
His holy firstborn sons. We belong to Him. Go to 1 Peter
1, look at verse 15. This is what God says to us now.
1 Peter 1 verse 15. Look at this. Look at the connection
between holiness and redemption. Verse 15, As he which hath called
you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, that
is conduct, because it's written, Be ye holy for I am holy. Look
at verse 18. Here's our constraint. For as
much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. The clean lamb
died for us who are unclean. That's how we were made holy.
That's how we were made holy. That's amazing grace, brethren.
Christ's blood has bought all God's elect so that we're sanctified,
we're perfected forever with God's purchased possession. We're
His firstborn sons. And by this gospel, by telling
us this, He keeps us sanctified unto Him. And here's how holiness
manifests itself. Read on in 1 Peter 1.22. Seeing
you have purified your souls, that's holiness, in obeying the
truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren,
see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.
And seeing that you're born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth
forever, end of verse 25 says, and this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you, since our flesh is grass, he
says in chapter 2 verse 1, wherefore lay aside your fleshly man. Lay aside all malice, and all
guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings. And as
newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may
grow thereby. That's the same thing I preached
to you Thursday night. That's the same thing. Being
sanctified by God, set apart by God, the law we're under is
to love one another. so that we can have this gospel
and be constantly reminded our sanctification is by God through
the blood of the Lamb. All right, thirdly, just as they
were reminded and kept sanctified under God through this constant
reminder of this law of the firstborn, just like they were reminded,
you and I are constantly reminded through hearing the gospel preached.
Look here, Exodus 13, verse 14. And it shall be when thy son
asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? Why are
you doing this? What does this mean? That's the
same as us preaching this gospel and one of our children coming
up and saying, Why are you preaching this gospel? Why is this the
message you always preach? Here's what our answer is. Because
by strength of hand, the Lord brought us out from Egypt from
the house of slavery. The Lord brought us out. He sanctified
us out from the bondage of sin, death, and hell, and the devil.
That's why we preach Christ and Him crucified. That's why we
don't preach man's work, we preach God's work. That's why. Look,
and it came to pass when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, when
the devil would not let us go, the Lord slew all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn
of beast. He slew us in Christ the firstborn, our Passover lamb.
And therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord, I present to Him my
own body. Because I'm the firstborn. I
present to Him my own body. And I live trying to honor and
glorify Him in everything I do. Because I'm holy and sanctified
and righteous in Christ Jesus the Lord. That was the picture
that they were showing their children. And it's by this gospel
that we're constrained to do everything to Christ's glory.
That's what sanctification is. He separates us. He's made us
holy. You don't get more holy. You
either are holy or you are not holy. When He's made you holy,
it's just like justification. You're either justified or you're
not. You're either righteous or you're not. When He's made
you holy, just like when you were born, you were a human being.
You didn't grow into more of a human being. You're as much
of a human you're going to be until you die. You grow in that
state of being a human. And we don't grow more holy,
we grow in grace. and knowledge of the Lord as
His holy people. We're holy. He's translated us
out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear
Son and made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light. To be made meet means I'm fit to go right into heaven
right now with God's saints in my new spirit. Nothing has to
be done to the new man within me. He's holy. I can go right
in and be with God's people. That's the only way God will
hear me now. Because it's through Christ who has made me holy.
We have that holiness without which no man will see the Lord.
Did the thief on the cross have it? Then it wasn't by works,
was it? Because his hands and his feet
was nailed to a cross. And God said, you've got to have
that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. He saw
the Lord. He had it, didn't he? It's being
given a new holy heart, being created anew by God. And this
message constrains us to live to His glory. Look at verse 16.
It shall be for a token upon thine hand. This law of the sanctification,
when they did it, it reminded them that their hands are to
be used for God's purpose, to serve the Lord, to glorify the
Lord. It was a constant token, a constant
sign, a constant reminder upon their hands. Our New Testament
version of that is this. Therefore, whether you eat or
drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Whatsoever
you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
given thanks to God and the Father by Him. And then look, by this
gospel, we're kept looking only to Christ. Look, He said, and
it will be for frontlets between thine eyes. What does the scripture
say? Let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with
patience the race set before us looking unto Jesus the author
and finisher of our faith. It keeps us looking to Christ
only. To Christ only. To Christ only. And we kept giving
him all the praise and all the glory. Look here. For by strength
of hand the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt. as it is written,
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. You can't glory
only in the Lord if you have a part of sanctification. You
can't. Those preachers that are telling
sinners that they're sanctified by going back to the law and
keeping the law, they're glorying in themselves. The only way you
can glory only in the Lord is if Christ is made unto you wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Everything. Amen. Let's stand together. Take about a eight minute break. We'll come back. When you hear
the piano, come back. In case anybody's wondering what
the big clunky piece of furniture in the kitchen is, it's our portable
baptistry. And I think we're going to take
the wheels off of it so it'll match the island a little bit
better and we're going to put some Formica on it so that it's
got a lid on it and we're going to use it to put food on. We're
going to stain it and all that. So, I mean, we only use that
thing every so often. So, a big expensive piece of
furniture like that, we might as well use it for something.
So, we're going to try to use it for a table. So, alright,
let's go to the Lord in prayer. Brethren, thank you for this
day. Thank you for free, complete sanctification in Christ our
Lamb. Thank you that He redeemed us,
that He perfected us forever. What grace, Lord, what amazing
grace that you come and give us new hearts and sprinkle our
bodies and wash us and let us come near unto a holy God like
yourself. Lord, don't let us ever look
to ourselves for any aspect of our salvation, especially not
our sanctification. Keep us ever, ever, ever looking
to Christ. Forgive us our sins, Lord. We
ask You to be with us today and meet with us. For Christ's sake,
for His honor and glory, in His name we pray. Amen.