Brethren, let's go to Exodus
13. Now most of what we read in our text,
we've read and I've preached on in chapters before this. A
good deal of what we've read, I've preached on before this.
And our tendency is, when we come to a passage that's repeated,
our tendency is to say, well, I've already read that, so I'll
just skip over it. But remember this, God repeats
it because it's of utmost importance. There's nothing in this book
that's just in there to fill up pages. It's there because
it's of utmost importance. Our text today concerns the sanctification
of God's elect by God. That's the purpose. Sanctification
is of God, apart from man's works, in and through the redemption
by Christ the Lamb. It's all of God, not of us. That's the only way that we can
glory only in the Lord. It's all of God. Just as our
justification is all of God, so our sanctification. We glory
only in the Lord. Our message is that the sanctification
of every one of God's children is by the works of God, apart
from our works, through Christ the Lamb, through the Spirit
of God. Now Exodus 13.1 begins this way,
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 you see who started this? The Lord said. The Lord Jehovah
said this. And He said this to Moses. Moses
here is God's prophet and mediator. He's working as a mediator between
God and His people in Israel. But he's a picture of that prophet
that's like Moses that was to come. That prophet that has now
come and has risen to God's right hand who is the head of the church
who fills all in all His people. The picture of Christ Jesus our
Lord, that one mediator between God and men. Christ is preeminently
Himself the firstborn Son of God. He is preeminently the firstborn
Son of God. He's the firstborn of a virgin. He's truly the first one to ever
open the matrix, to open the womb. He's the first one. He's
the firstborn Son of God. He's the firstborn from the dead. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. And in Christ, all His people
are the church of the firstborn. We're all firstborn children
in Christ the firstborn. That's how we were sanctified
in eternity. God chose us in Christ. Christ
came forth and we were in Him in everything Christ accomplished. Our head did it and so we did
it in our head. Christ Jesus. But why are we
told to sanctify the firstborn? When God told Moses to sanctify
the firstborn, why did Moses begin by giving and declaring
God's Word concerning the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread?
Why did he start there? It's because sanctification is
through the preaching of the gospel of Christ crucified, the
hearing of faith. by which we're continually reminded
that God delivered us apart from any contribution we make. That's
how God sanctifies His people, that's how He continues to keep
us sanctified in Christ, is through the continual remembrance, through
the preaching of the gospel, the continual remembrance of
all the works that He accomplished for us apart from any contribution
by us. Now first of all, sanctification
is through the hearing of faith. And when I say the hearing of
faith, I mean the hearing of Christ's faith. Go look here
in Exodus 13, verse 1. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Sanctify unto me all the firstborn. Verse 3 begins, And Moses said
unto the people, The Lord spoke this to Moses, and he sent Moses,
and Moses went to the people, and he declared God's Word to
the people. But here's what he declared. Remember this day. Remember this day in which ye
came out from Egypt out of the house of slavery. For by strength
of hand the Lord brought you out from this place. That's what
he's saying. Remember, you were just a slave. You were in bondage. The Lord
brought you out from this place. There shall no leavened bread
be eaten. God commanded Moses to sanctify
the firstborn and the way Moses began sanctifying the firstborn
was to go and declare the word of God. putting the people in
remembrance that their deliverance was by God, by His strong hand. He went preaching the truth unto
them and that's how God sanctifies His people, through the hearing
of Christ's faithfulness. Go with me now to Galatians 3. Galatians 3, the Galatians were
being bewitched by Judaizers who were... they would concede
a little bit that justification is by Christ, but now sanctification,
you got to go back to the law. You have to go back to the law
for that. That's a co-effort between you and God. That's a
lie. Galatians 3.1, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched
you? Who hath bewitched you? that ye should not obey the truth,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth
crucified among you." How was Christ and Him crucified, set
forth among them? He tells us in the next verse.
This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Were you born again
by the Spirit of God by hearing about the works of man or through
hearing about Christ's works? Which one? Which one was it? Verse 3, Are you so foolish,
having begun in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? Is this work going to be carried on and brought to
its end by your hand? Are you going to return to the
law of Moses now? Have you suffered so many things
in vain, if it be yet in vain? Watch this next question. He
therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles
among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, by the hearing
of faith? Scripture tells us Christ prays the Father, and
the Father gives the Holy Spirit. by which we're sanctified, given
a new heart and sanctified. And he asked, does he do that
through the preaching of man's works or through the hearing
of God's faithful works? Which one? Which one? Look at verse 6. Even as Abraham
believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, 430
years before the law was given at Mount Sinai, God sanctified
Moses through the hearing of Christ's faithfulness. That's
what he heard. He heard the gospel. Look at
verse 8. The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying,
In thee shall all nations be blessed. And Abraham believed
God. By the Spirit sanctifying him,
giving him a new heart, he believed God. He didn't have the law,
that wasn't being preached to him. The gospel was being preached
to him. In thee, in thy seed, in Christ
Jesus shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. And God
sanctified him in the heart and gave him a new heart. The only
way God's people experience the free justification of God in
Christ. He's by God sanctifying us by
ministering to us the Holy Spirit. And by this, you're sanctified
through faith that is in Christ. Through this, our souls are purified
in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love
of the brethren. God only sanctifies through the
hearing of faith. That's the only way. We're going
to have to hear Christ in Him crucified declared. Now, if that's
how he begins this work, are we going to be so foolish as
to go back to the law and start preaching man's works now? Are
we going to start preaching man's morality now? And think God's
going to bless that work and work that in the heart of His
people? Just a few pages before this, Paul said, we know we're
justified through the faith of Christ, therefore have we believed
in Christ that we might be justified by the faithfulness of Christ.
He said, but while I say that I'm justified by Christ, I have
found a sinner. Did Christ minister that? Christ
worked that in me? What was the sin he was talking
about? Peter tried to sanctify himself. Peter got up and left
one table and went over to another table and separated himself.
Paul said, God forbid, Christ didn't have a thing to do with
that. He didn't work that. He did not work that. He ministers
the Spirit through the hearing of Christ and Him crucified.
And when He ministers the Spirit, He brings you to His feet. Makes
you know you've been separated. You've been consecrated to God.
You've been called out and made holy. So that you stop trying
to sanctify yourself. That's the paradox of what sanctification
really is. When a man is sanctified, he
quits trying to sanctify himself. But not until then. So God continues
this work through the hearing of faith. Now secondly, back
in our text, the purpose for preaching the faith of Christ
is to keep us in remembrance that we're saved by God's works.
That's the purpose of the hearing of faith, is to keep us always
remembering we're saved by God's works. Now look here, Exodus
13.3, And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in
which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage,
for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place,
there shall no leavened bread be eaten." The gospel, just like
the ordinance of the Lord's supper, just like this Passover was,
this feast of unleavened bread, the gospel and the Lord's table,
they're to keep us always remembering that Christ is our righteousness
and Christ is our sanctification. Paul Peter said, I will not cease
to put you in remembrance of these things. Though you know
them and you are established in the present truth, I won't
cease to preach and bring you into remembrance that all these
works are performed by our Lord. We're constantly reminded, brethren,
through the gospel, through the Lord's table, just like they
were through that Passover ordinance, We're constantly reminded that
it was by strength of hand that God brought us out from where
we were. He delivered us out. The whole
of Israel's deliverance was the work of God alone. It was the
Lord God who brought them out of Egypt and the Lord God who
brought them into Canaan. And so it is with us, brethren.
Every step in our salvation beginning to end is of the Lord. That's why it says salvation
is of the Lord. The strength of God's hand was
in the Lamb that God provided to die in place of the firstborn. It typified Christ Jesus, our
firstborn. He is the arm of God. He's the
strong hand of God, Christ the Lamb. God the Father sent Christ
His Son to sanctify all His people. And Christ does it through the
word of truth. He does it through the gospel which declares Christ
is our righteousness. He's our justification. He's
our sanctification. Go with me to John 17 and verse
17. John 17, 17. Christ prayed to
the Father, sanctify them through thy truth. Sanctify them through
thy truth. John 17, 17. Thy word is truth. What did Moses go declaring to
the people? God's word. Sanctify them through
thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast
sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into
the world. And for their sakes I sanctify
myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
When Christ walked this earth, He separated Himself. as holy
and separate from sinners so that he was fit and gave himself
as the Lamb of God to bear the justice of God in place of his
people. And he did that that he might
be the truth that his ministers preach. That's what he said there. I sanctify myself that they might
be sanctified through the truth. He did what He did that He might
be the truth we preach whereby we're going to be sanctified.
Go with me to Ephesians 5 verse 25. And who does the sanctifying
as we preach this gospel? Christ does it. Ephesians 5 verse
25. Husbands, love your wives. Now
watch this. Even as Christ also loved the
church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the Word. That He might present
it to Himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
See, He's the one who is the sanctifier and He's our sanctification. Just like He's the justifier
and He's our justification. Now, next time we're going to
concentrate on this next passage. And it's telling us that the
sanctification of the firstborn is through the blood of a lamb
by which we're redeemed. Go with me to Exodus 13, 13. He says there, every firstling
of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb. You know who that ass
is a typical of? Let me give you a description
of an ass. He won't do what you tell him to do. He'll stiffen
up his neck. He'll kick at you. He won't do
what you tell him. And if you get too hard with
him, he'll sit down on you. He's a picture of you and me
by nature. He says here, 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. See, the truth that
Christ is and that He worked for His people, sanctifying Himself,
giving Himself, laying down His life for His people so that the
truth would be preached, that truth is God's justice demanded
that either Christ go under His justice and redeem us or we had
to have our necks broken. One of the two. One of the two. We had to be redeemed by the
blood of the Lamb or we had to have our neck broken. One of
the two. Thanks be to God He sent His
Son who laid down His life, bearing our sin, bearing our curse under
the fierce wrath of God's justice and put away the sin of His people
forever. Forever. And you see, it's through
this truth that we preach. Declaring that He's our righteousness
and He's the one now who has the crown rights as our prophet,
priest, and king, that He might sanctify us through the washing
of water by the Word, that He might be the one to set us apart
in regeneration through His blood. And this is the message he's
going to use, the truth he's going to use to sanctify us.
When this gospel is preached, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians
1, that's when of God Christ is made unto you wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. It's through this truth. It's
through this gospel. It's not through the works of
man. And that's our third point. The
point we just looked at said we got to hear this continually
preached so that we remember all the works are of God. And
we have to constantly be reminded through the hearing of faith,
brethren, that all the works, I mean none of the works are
of us. We don't contribute. We do not
contribute. Exodus 13.3 says, No leaven shall
be eaten. Verse 6, seven days thou shalt
eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast
to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten
seven days, and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee,
neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters.
Now God's pretty serious about this thing about no leaven being
with Him. Why no leaven? What's that picture? Leaven is
a type of sin, particularly the sinful fleshly works whereby
vain religious men try to make themselves righteous and holy
by their own works. A man's got to be blind not to
read the scripture and see. That's exactly what the Pharisees
were doing. That's exactly what the Judaizers
were doing. Accept you be circumcised and keep the law, you can't be
saved. Peter stood up, he looked those Pharisees in the face and
he said, nope, we're going to be saved like these Gentiles
that never even had the law. We're going to be set apart by
God giving us a new heart, giving us faith and bringing us to trust
Christ for our righteousness. That's how we're going to be
saved. Just like these Gentiles. Don't you know that made those
Jews mad? Why? Because all their gospel was
is you got to go back and work the works of the law if you want
to be perfected before God. Jesus said unto them, Take heed,
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And then
understood they how that he made them not beware of the leaven
of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Beware of their doctrine. God made it clear when He delivered
Israel. He made it clear that they didn't
contribute any provision for themselves. He did it by delivering
them before they had a chance to even make their bread leaven. Go back to Exodus 12.39. Look
here. They went up out of Egypt and
they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought
forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were
thrust out of Egypt and could not tarry, neither had they prepared
any fixture. The Lord took them out before
they had a chance to even make any provision for themselves. And that's what He does for His
people. He takes us out when we can't make any provision for
ourselves. That's how He sanctifies. So
to keep them remembering that they contribute nothing to this
sanctification and this redemption, to keep them remembering that,
they were to eat no leavened bread for seven days during this
feast. It's because there is not the
slightest work of man mixed with God's works. Not any. All our righteousness are as
filthy rags. Well, preacher, I'm proud that
I don't sin as much and I keep the law a whole lot more. Stinking,
filthy rags. It's dumb. That's what it is.
It's dumb. You know why? Because you think
it's something. That's why. Not only was Israel forbidden
to mix leaven with their offering, none was even allowed to remain
in the house. Because there's no place for
works in the house of God. Not any place of works in the
house of God. So the word from God that Moses
preached to them is the message we preach. What did the Lord
tell us to go preach? All flesh is grass, and thy God
reigneth. That's what Moses preached to
them. That's what God was preaching to them through this Passover
feast and this feast of unleavened bread. He's preaching the whole
work is by the Passover lamb, Christ Jesus who is to come,
and through the unleavened bread He's teaching them, and you don't
have a thing to do with it. That's our gospel. And like as
God gave them this feast, today we're going to partake of a feast
Christ has given us. We're partaking of this feast
through the gospel. and we're going to partake of
the Lord's table doing what? Remembering Christ. He said,
do this in remembrance of me. Now, fourthly, not only is the
Lord's table pictured in these feasts, they portray the whole
complete perfect state of grace enjoyed by every sanctified soul
as we partake of this gospel feast throughout our lives. This
feast, portrays them constantly partaking of this feast, portrays
how those that God sanctifies continually partake of the feast
of the gospel all our lives. Look here in Exodus 13, verse
8. Thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, This is done
because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth
out of Egypt. They were to declare the truth
that it was God who delivered them. They were to declare this
to their sons in every generation. Just like you and I preach this
gospel in every generation. This is the gospel. It never
changes. The message never changes. It was God who redeemed us out.
It's God who sanctified us. This is our message. And they
preached it continually that they might remember salvation
is of the Lord. But by constantly being put in
remembrance, brethren, that our sanctification and our justification
is of God by being constantly reminded of this message. This
is the message through which Christ is formed in the heart
and He rules our heart. Christ Himself rules the heart
of His people. Moses and the law does not. No
man does. No preacher does. No laws and
rules and regulation of churches do. Christ rules the hearts of
His people. And He does it in love. In love. Now, look at this. Exodus 13,
9. This is what we see here. Because
He rules our hearts in love, we live by faith. Look at this. It should be for a sign unto
thee, Exodus 13, 9, this ordinance. It will be a sign for thee upon
thine hand, for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord's law
may be in thy mouth. For with a strong hand hath the
Lord brought thee out of Egypt. Thou shalt therefore keep this
ordinance in his season from year to year. Now remember, the
law at Mount Sinai has not been given yet. The law at Mount Sinai
has not been given yet. The word law here is referring
to the gospel of God's works. The word law here is referring
to what He said there, "...for with a strong hand hath the Lord
brought you out." That's what I want to be in your mouth. God
brought you out. That's what I want to be guiding
your hand. And so by the gospel, the rule
of every sanctified child of God, the rule that we're under,
brethren, that constrains us continually is not the law of
Mount Sinai. No, sir. It's not the law of
Mount Sinai. It's the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace in Christ crucified. Think of what you're saying if
you say, now I don't believe that, I think the law of Moses
is our rule of life. Aren't you saying exactly what the Pharisees
said every time Christ preached this to them? I'm giving Christ all the glory.
You must want some if you don't like this. Isn't that right?
The gospel constrains our hands to do all by the love of Christ
who gave Himself for us. Is that not true? Faith which
worketh by love, by the love of Christ constraining us by
who gave Himself for us. That's why with our hands we
do everything we do. The gospel constrains our eyes
to look only to Christ and to show mercy and forgiveness to
others. The gospels in our hearts from which our mouths speak the
gospel to our children and to everybody continually. And this
gospel by which we're constrained is, with a strong hand hath the
Lord brought thee out of Egypt. And you know the Pharisees, God
didn't give them the Spirit, He didn't sanctify them, they
couldn't hear them. You know what they did with that verse?
They made those little boxes they carried around on their
forehead and in their phylacteries and all that, remembering God's
command. They did something natural that
could be seen outwardly, because that's all their religion was,
was outward in the flesh. Has God given you the Spirit
to understand this is talking about the Gospel of Christ that
constrains us? That's who constrains us, and
he does it through the gospel. Go with me to Galatians 3.10.
Again, I should have told you to hold your place there, but
after Paul said that about them not being continued to be sanctified
by the hearing of works, but by the hearing of faith, look
what he says in Galatians 3.10. This is why he's warning them,
brethren. Galatians 3.10, for as many as
are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written,
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Can you keep all the law
of God? Honestly, you and me as believers,
can't we keep all the law of God by ourselves, by us trying
to keep it? I mean now as God says keep it.
I mean if somebody disobeys, we got to kill them. Because
that's what God's law says. We got to drop them dead because
God's law demands it. Are we going to keep that? And if a man says it's not that
strict, God's law is not brought down in any regard. Period. You're going to have
to keep it perfectly. And if you can't, you're under
the curse. That's a fact. Now look. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it's evident. For the just shall
live by faith. Oh, sea preacher, he's talking
about justification. But remember, you can't experience
God's justification until you've been sanctified in the heart
and made to live by faith. You can't experience it. He's
talking to them about both throughout here. We begin our lives, once
we're sanctified, we begin living our lives by faith, not by the
compulsion of law and restraint. Go back, look at Galatians 3.11.
The just shall live by faith and the law is not of faith.
I don't know how in any way else you can make that say something
that it don't say. I don't know how you can twist
it to make that not mean what it means. The law is not of faith. Any way you slice it, the law
is not of faith. You doing is not faith. Faith
is trusting Christ doing. But the man that doeth the law
shall live in the law." But here's the good news. Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. For
it's written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. See what
a despising of Christ it is to send sinners back to the law?
It's saying that Christ Redemption is not enough. You've got to
add something to it. No, you don't. No, you don't. Beware of the leaven of the scribes
and Pharisees. Look here. He did all that, that
the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ. Here it is, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. And through the gospel
of Christ, the blessing of Abraham comes on us. God gives us the
spirit that He promised. And by the Holy Spirit, He sanctifies
us so that we begin living unto God by faith ruled by the faithfulness
of Christ in our heart. And that's the blessing of Abraham.
He was able to live unto God by the gospel apart from the
law. He didn't even have it. And that's
how we live today. Go back to Galatians 2.19. Paul
said, I through the law am dead to the law. That means exactly
what it says. Through Christ keeping the law
for me and dying under it, I'm dead to it. I have already died. That I might live now unto God. You see that? The law has nothing
else to say to me. Now I can live under God. My
sin's been dealt with. Now watch this. I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. who loved
me and gave himself for me. That's what is meant by the just
live by faith. Just live our lives by Christ
abiding in us by the faithfulness of Christ within us. Ruling our heart in spirit and
keeping us ever looking to Him alone. constantly, continually reminding
us that He gave Himself for us. And when God did this for Abraham
and he got this blessing, when God brought the law in, it didn't
change that blessing he had. When God brought the law in,
He added it because of transgressions to reveal sin and make everybody
guilty, shut our mouth. But it didn't change anything
He gave to Abraham through the gospel. Christ had given him
a new heart and it was abiding in his heart. And he was walking
all those days without having the Lord at Mount Sinai, having
Christ Himself leading him. And the constraint of his heart
that made him honor and glorify the Lord in the things he did
is the constraint of Christ's love in his heart. Christ said, He saw my day and
He's glad and He believed me. And this is what led Him. Christ
led Him. This is how He leads His people. Look here, and the law didn't
change that. I can't read all of it. Go back sometime, read
Galatians 3.15-8. It tells you that it doesn't
change it. But look at verse 18. Here's why it doesn't change
it. For if the inheritance be of the law, it's no more of promise,
but God gave it to Abraham by promise. That means this, if
any part of our salvation, justification, sanctification, redemption, wisdom,
whatever, if any part of our salvation, is by law, by our
contribution, by our work, then it's no more of God's grace and
it's no more of God's promise. But God gave it to Abraham 430
years before the law by free grace, by writing His promise
on Abraham's heart, His everlasting covenant on his heart. And it
never changes. It never changes. So once God
sanctified us and He's formed Christ in our new heart, He brings
us to rest in the blood of Christ our righteousness and we go through
our whole lives living by the faith of the Son of God ruling
our hearts, constrained by His love who gave Himself for us. This is why Paul said, Purge
out therefore the old leaven that you may be a new lump as
you are unleavened. Preacher, it doesn't seem like
I'm unleavened. It didn't seem like the Corinthians
were either. You go read that and all the trouble they had
and the sin they were in and all the stuff they were going
through. But he said, you are sanctified. You are justified. You are unleavened. How so? For even Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast
not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Let us keep this feast, looking
to Christ, hearing His gospel preached, having Christ ruling
in our hearts and constraining us by His love, so that everything
we do in our lives, we do it for the furtherance of the gospel,
for the honor and glory of God our Savior. And if any Pharisee
comes up to me by that and says, so you say it, a man can just
break the law, I will reveal my sin, I'm afraid. If that's what you got out of
it, you blind as a bat. Either we believe this or we
don't. You know who believes it? The man that preaches it.
Because you preach this and God, this is all I preach. You want
to see evidence? You want to see proof it works?
Cast your eyes about. There's nothing making these
people come here but this gospel. Christ working in their heart
through it. That's it. That's it. Well, you don't have much. All
we've got is Christ. He's all. And if you've got Christ,
you've got all. What else do you need? So how
does this gospel feast go in? How does this gospel feast go
in? Look back at Exodus 13.6. Exodus 13, 6, 7 days thou shalt
eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast
to the Lord. Seven represents perfection. We are going to partake of this
gospel feast all our days, remembering what God has done for us in Christ.
Being kept by His grace continually. And it's going to end one day.
in a gospel feast unto our Lord Jesus Christ. In the marriage
feast of the Lamb. That's how it's going to be.
We're going to come to Him in that perfect day. And you see
there, in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. Not a feast to me. Not a feast
to me. Didn't you get rid of the leaven
out of your house? No. He made me do it. It's by His grace, by Him ruling
my heart that He makes you purge out the old leaven. You just
try it sometime. He'll leave you to yourself sometime
to show you that you can't purge it out. You can't put off the
old man. And then He comes and puts Him
off for you. Puts on the new man to show you He's doing that
for you too. So when we come to the end of
this feast, when we come to the marriage feast of the Lamb, we're
not going to be feasting unto us, we're going to be feasting
unto Him. Go to Revelation. Revelation 19. We'll end with
this. Who are we feasting to right
now? Christ. Who are we going to feast
to when we partake of the Lord's table? Who are we going to be
remembering? Christ. You know who we are going to
feast to on that day? Christ. Look here. A voice came out of
the throne, verse 5, saying, Praise our God, all ye His servants,
and ye that fear Him, both small and great. And I heard, as it
were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters,
and the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to Him. because the marriage of the Lamb
is come, and his wife hath made herself ready, and to her was
granted... This is how she made herself
ready. To her was granted. To her was given. She should
be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen
is the righteousness of the saints. Get those two words now. The
fine linen is the righteousness of all those who are sanctified.
It's the righteousness of all those who are sanctified. Who
made that fine linen? Who is that fine linen? Christ
is. He's our righteousness and our
sanctification. And He said unto me, Write, Blessed
are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.
And He said unto me, These are the true sayings of God. Next time we'll see that sanctification
is wrapped up entirely in our redemption by Christ our Lamb. That's how our sanctification
and our justification are so vitally connected that they can't
be separated. Christ had to be holy in heart
to justify us for His work to be accepted. And when Christ
abides in a sinner, He not only brings us to cast our care on
Christ for justification, Christ is the sanctification who turns
us from us to Him. We're going to see they're vitally
united in that next passage. And in the passage after that,
we'll see God continues to sanctify us by leading us in the way.
He didn't take Israel straight to Egypt. He took them a different
way. Why? Because it was the best
thing for them. That's why. To keep them. All right. All God's saints,
if you listen to me now. If you got a problem with the
message I just preached, don't partake of this supper. Just
don't even do it. Nobody is going to be looking
at you. But if all your feasting is to the Lord, That means all
your hope, all your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption
is Christ only. Christ commands, do this in remembrance
of me. That's what He commands. Don't
do it looking to you. Don't do it looking to anybody
else. Well preacher, I got so much sin. Yeah, you do. You don't know how bad it really
is either. You got secret sins you don't
even know about. What's your acceptance at God's throne? Christ. What's your acceptance
to come to this table? Your worthiness to come to this
table? It's Christ. If that's true, come to the table.
If not, don't do it. Because you're going to drink
abomination to yourself. Not discerning the Lord's body. Alright. Brother Kevin and Brother Rob.