Brethren, let's go now to Exodus
chapter 12. I want to actually have you turn
to two places, Exodus 12 and 1 Corinthians 5. Exodus 12 and
1 Corinthians 5. And let's begin reading now in
Exodus 12, verse 14. We saw the Passover was slain
last time. We saw the Passover was slain
and now we come to this word right here, verse 14. And this
day shall be unto you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast
to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by
an ordinance forever. Seven days shall you eat unleavened
bread. Even the first day you shall
put away leaven out of your houses. For whosoever eateth leavened
bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall
be cut off from Israel. And in the first day there shall
be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be
a holy convocation to you. No manner of work shall be done
in them, save that which every man must eat. That only may be
done of you. And you shall observe the feast
of unleavened bread. For in this selfsame day have
I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore
shall you observe this day in your generations by an ordinance
forever. In the first month, on the fourteenth
day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread
until the one and twentieth day of the month at evening. Seven
days there shall be no leaven found in your houses. For whosoever
eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off
from the congregation of Israel. whether he be a stranger or born
in the land. You shall eat nothing leavened.
In all your habitations shall you eat unleavened bread. Now go with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 5. Hold your place in Exodus 12.
We're going to go back and forth today. Now go with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 5 verse 7. Paul says, Purge out, therefore,
the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover,
is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feasts,
not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Now our subject this morning
is, let us keep the feast. Let us keep the feast. Now we
no longer keep the feast of the Passover. Christ fulfilled all
that was pictured in that Old Covenant ordinance. He's the
fulfillment of it. And Christ, the night He ate
the last Passover with His disciples, He instituted the Lord's Supper. And so now, that's the feast
we keep, the Lord's Table. But the feast I want to speak
to you about today is the feast that we partake of each time
that we gather together to feast on Christ our bread from heaven
through the preaching of the gospel. This is a continual feast
for God's people. The Lord said, in this mountain
shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people His elect from
among the Jew and from among the Gentile, all people He's
assembled together. He'll say, I'll make a feast
of fat things, a feast of wines on the leaves, of fat things
full of marrow, of wines on the leaves well refined. By the grace
of God, you and I who believe have been given a new heart to
believe on Christ. And we believe Christ, trusting
He is our complete acceptance with God our Father. And that
is a merry heart. When you're given a new heart,
to trust Christ is all your acceptance with God so you can cease from
all your vain works. That is a merry heart. And the Scripture says this,
Proverbs 15, 15, All the days of the afflicted are evil. but
he that is of a merry heart continually feasteth. He has a continual
feast. God's saints keep the feast by
continually assembling together to feast upon Christ our Passover
who sacrificed for us through the preaching of the gospel. This is our feast, brethren.
We continually feast upon Christ Jesus our Lord. We gather together
and we keep the feast of the Lord's table as part of this
feast. But we're continually gathering
and feasting upon Christ our bread from heaven. Now, first
of all, to partake of this gospel feast, we must be unleavened. You and I, to partake of this
feast, we must be unleavened. Look there in 1 Corinthians 5,
7. He says, Purge out therefore the old leaven that you may be
a new lump. Now listen to this word. As ye
are unleavened. He's talking to God's saints.
He's talking to believers here that's been sanctified by God.
And he says, you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. Now you remember leaven is a
type of sin. A leaven is a type of sin. It's
a type of the sin of self-righteous works. It's a type of the sin
of an impure unholy heart full of deceit and guile. It's a picture
of sin. But he says, you are unleavened. You are unleavened without sin. Righteous and holy. How do sinners
become unleavened? How do we become righteous and
holy? We saw last week a great deal
of what I'm going to show you here at first, but I want to
review two verses in particular. I even put an article in the
bulletin because this is such a beautiful picture. A beautiful
picture. We begin to experience God's
grace ourselves. We begin to experience it. It
began long before we ever experienced it, but we begin to experience
it when the Holy Spirit, through Christ our Head, applies the
blood, creating in us a new heart. That's when we begin to experience
God's grace ourselves. Go back to Exodus 12, 7. And they shall take of the blood,
This is the blood of the lamb that died in their place, in
tithe. Now take of the blood and they
strike it on the two side posts on the upper door posts of the
houses wherein they shall eat it. Now, the paschal lamb was
both slain and it had its blood applied by the elder who was
the head of his house. He slew the lamb and he applied
the blood of the lamb. Look down at Exodus 12, 21. Then
Moses called for the elders of Israel. These are the heads of
the houses. And he said unto them, draw out
and take you a lamb according to your families and kill the
Passover. This was the head of the house.
He killed it. and you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it
in the blood that's in the basin and strike the lintel and the
two side posts with the blood that's in the basin and none
of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning."
You see, the elder killed the lamb and the elder applied the
blood of the lamb. Christ is the elder brother. He's the elder. He's our everlasting
father. He's the elder of his house. He's the head of his house. Look
with me at Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 5. Hebrews 3.5, Moses verily was
faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of
those things which were to be spoken after. But Christ as a
son over his own house, whose house are we. If we hold fast
the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
The head of the house killed the lamb. Christ is the head
of his house and Christ is the lamb. He's the head of the house
and he is the lamb. Christ laid down his own life
and shed his own blood in place of his people. For as the substitute
of his people to deliver us from the from the curse of the law.
Christ is the head of the house and he's the lamb. He laid down
his life himself. And then the head of the house
applied the blood. And Christ, scripture says, he's
risen now. And what did Ephesians 1 say?
He's the head over all things to the church that he might fill
all in all. Christ, through the Holy Spirit,
applies the blood in the hearts of His people. He's the head
and He's the Lamb who gave His blood, who shed His blood to
redeem us. And He's the head who's risen,
who fills all in all His people. He's the one who, through the
Spirit, sheds the blood in our heart. Go to Titus 3. Titus chapter
3. And look at verse 5. not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy
He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior. And that's why Hebrews 9.14 tells
us, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience,
your inward man, from dead works, so that you serve the living
God. And the elder, after the elder
slew the lamb, and after the elder applied the blood, he entered
into the house and he stayed in that house with his children
until the morning. He did not go out of that house.
He stayed in that house with his children. And when Christ
has done this work for us on the cross and in our hearts,
Christ abides in His house. He abides in His regenerated
redeemed child. He abides in us. And He will
not go out until resurrection morning. He abides with us. Now brethren, when He applies
His blood to our hearts, there is an effectual result. He creates
in us a new man. A new man. Go back to Exodus
12.8. And in this new man, we believe and we repent. Exodus
12.8, this is all showing us how we are unleavened. Alright,
Exodus 12.8. They shall eat the flesh in that
night. In the same night that the elder
applied the blood to the doorpost, his children within that house
ate the flesh of the Passover lamb. that very night. And as
soon as Christ applies the blood, and our conscience is purged,
and there's a new spirit given to us, as soon as that takes
place, we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how we're
made willing in the day of His power to believe on Christ. We
eat the lamb, Christ Jesus the Lord. He said, Whoso eateth my
flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise
him up at the last day. We eat His flesh and drink His
blood through faith in Him. He said, As the living Father
has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me. Christ is our life. He's our
bread. We believe on Him when He's applied
the blood in our hearts. Verse 8, And they'll eat this
lamb roast with fire. Now they didn't make the lamb
to be roasted by fire by eating it. The lamb had already been
roasted by fire. The lamb had already borne the
fire in their place, in tithe, before as yet they ate the lamb.
You know, you hear it commonly said that Christ did all He could
do on the cross and now the way it's made effectual is by you
believing on Christ. We do not make the blood of Christ
effectual by partaking of the lamb. The Lamb has already borne
the fire of God's justice. Christ already bore it for His
people. And He already extinguished that fire towards His people
by satisfying the justice of God. We partake of Christ, believing
on Christ, confessing, I am crucified with Christ. Back there when
He was crucified, I am crucified with Him. My old man of sin is
crucified, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth
I should not serve sin. That was done when Christ laid
down His life. That's what faith confesses.
We eat the lamb already roasted. And we eat it with unleavened
bread. Now did you see when I read the
text, when He told them to keep this feast, so much was said
about no leaven, no leaven, no leaven, has to be eaten with
unleavened bread. Now I want you to pay close attention
here. Paul said you are unleavened. You are unleavened. Leaven typifies
sin. Now, Christ made His people righteous
by His work for us on the cross. He made us righteous by His work
for us on the cross. Paul said you are leavened because
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Christ made us righteous
on the cross when He laid down His life. That's why Psalm 32.2
says, Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. It's because before God's holy
justice, before His bar of justice, His people have no sin. You are
unleavened. Christ has put away our sin by
the sacrifice of Himself. Made us righteous in Him. And
then Christ makes us holy by His work in His people in regeneration. And that's why Psalm 32 to who
said, and not only is the man blessed to whom the Lord will
not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile, no
deceit, no sin, no hypocrisy whatsoever. You see, Christ makes
us holy by this work in regeneration. And so now because of what Christ
did for us on the cross, and because of what Christ has done
in us in our hearts, you are unleavened. You are unleavened. Now go back to 1 Corinthians
5.8. Now then, Paul says in verse 8, Therefore,
let us keep the feast, not with old leaven. Not with old leaven. That is, not attempting to add
to Christ's righteousness by going back to the old covenant
law and all those old legal sacrifices. We keep this feast not with old
leaven, not with the old covenant law adding to Christ's righteousness. Look here, neither with the leaven
of malice and wickedness. Where does malice and wickedness
originate? In the heart. In the heart. He's saying not attempting to
add sinful self-sanctifying works of the flesh. Sanctification's
in the heart. We're not trying to add sanctifying
works to make ourselves holy. We're not trying to do that.
But we keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity. That's worshipping God with a
holy heart in which is no guile. Because Christ, our sanctification,
abides within us. He sanctified us. So we partake
of this feast in sincerity. insincere, with a true heart,
in true holiness. And then he says, and in truth,
that is, resting by faith in Christ our righteousness. Now look down, you see the opposites
there? He says, not with old leaven,
that's not adding old covenant self-righteous works, but with
the unleavened bread of truth. Old leaven and truth are opposites.
The old self-righteous works. We don't partake with that anymore. We don't try to add to Christ's
righteousness. But now we keep this feast in truth. That is,
resting in Christ our righteousness through faith. And he says here,
look at this other opposite. Not with the leaven of malice
and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity.
The opposite of a heart that's full of guile, full of malice
and wickedness, is a heart that has no guile, that's sincere
and true and honest. We don't keep this feast with
that old heart of guile. There is in you and me an old
heart of guile, the old flesh. But we don't worship in Christ.
Our flesh has nothing to do with it. Everything wherein we worship
God is the creation of Christ Jesus our Lord. And it's in sincerity,
in true holiness by Christ our sanctification abiding in us.
That's what Christ meant when He said this, He said, God is
spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit. That is in that new spirit He
gives when He sanctifies you, makes you sincere, makes you
without guile. And in truth, that is looking
nowhere but to Christ for all, for all righteousness. In sincerity
and in truth. And this happens when of God,
Christ is made unto us righteousness and sanctification. That's what
He's made in the hearts of His people. He's our righteousness
and our sanctification. We're not trying to add anything
to Christ. And then He says in Exodus 12,
verse 8, And with bitter herbs they shall eat it. When God gives
faith in Christ, He gives repentance from our sin and from our dead
works. He said, I'll pour upon the houses of David and upon
the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication. And they shall look upon Me whom
they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him,
as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness
for him. As one that's in bitterness for
his firstborn. We don't ever stop repenting. Just like we don't ever stop
believing, we don't ever stop repenting. because we constantly
have this old sinful flesh with us and we are constantly beholding
how Christ loved us and gave Himself for us and it constantly
is causing us to repent and mourn in bitterness because of our
sin. You mourn your sin. You mourn
your sin. Does your sin bother you? A believer,
on one hand, we know we have no sin in Christ, we're righteous
in Christ, we're holy by Christ, and yet we also know that we
still have sin in our flesh. And even though God's not going
to lay it to our charge, He's satisfied, He's answered, He's
justified us, but still we mourn that our sin is against our Redeemer. So, what I'm showing you here
is, this is how God's elect are made unleavened. We're created
anew by Christ our righteousness and by Christ our sanctification.
It's by His work for us on the cross and His work in us in the
new birth. And one day, He's going to complete
this work He's begun in us. He's going to raise our vile
bodies, our sinful bodies, so that they shall be fashioned
like unto His glorious body, whereby He's able to subdue all
things unto Himself by that same power. And then we'll be perfect
within and without. Perfectly unleavened. For now,
in that new man, in Christ, you are unleavened. For Christ, our
Passover, sacrificed for us. Alright, now secondly, therefore
Paul says, let us keep the feast in sincerity and in truth. Now
that he's done this work and brought us to the feet of Christ,
in UR 11, he says, let us keep this feast now in sincerity and
in truth. We keep this gospel feast by
continually remembering Christ. Go back to Exodus 12 and look
at verse 14. The purpose of that Passover
feast, he says in verse 14, this day shall be unto you for a memorial,
for a remembrance. You won't ever forget this. And
so he gave them an ordinance. He gave them the Passover feast
to observe, to always remember what God did for them that night.
He brought them out of Egypt. And Christ has given us a physical
ordinance. He's given us the ordinance of
the unleavened bread and the wine. So that we always remember
Christ. We'll never forget what Christ
has done for us. We always remember Him. And as
we keep this feast, this gospel feast, every time we gather together,
the purpose of preaching the gospel is to put God's people
in remembrance of what Christ has done for us. That's the purpose. Everything I've said up to this
point was to put you in remembrance of what Christ has done for you
and in you. That's the purpose. He told Timothy,
Paul told Timothy, if you put the brethren in remembrance of
these things, You'll be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished
up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou
hast attained. So each time we gather together,
I want to always put you in remembrance of Christ Jesus and the works
that He has finished on our behalf. I want to put you in remembrance
of the works He's doing right now. keeping us and preserving
us and ministering to us through this gospel. And I want to keep
you in remembrance of the works He shall do for us. We have been
saved, we are being saved, and we shall be saved. And we need
to always remember that it's all by the work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what this feast is about,
always remembering Him. And then we keep this feast not
with old leaven, Not with old Levin. Look here in Exodus 12,
16. This was a Sabbath feast. In
Exodus 12, 16, he says, No manner of work shall be done
in these seven days. No manner of work shall be done
in the seventh day, the first seventh day and the last seventh
day. No work shall be done in those days. When Christ by Himself
purged our sins, what did He do? Well, let's go back to the
first creation. When He first created the heaven
and the earth, what did He do in the seventh day? He rested. Where did He rest from? From
all His works, because all His works were finished. There was
nothing else to do in the creation of heaven and earth and man. He was done, He was finished,
and He rested, because there was nothing else to do. Well,
the new creation, Christ's people created anew, is by Christ coming
and by Himself purging our sins. And when He had by Himself purged
our sins, what does Hebrews 1.3 say He did? He sat down. He sat down at the right hand
of the Father. Why did He sit down? because the works were
finished. He finished all the works of
redeeming His people. And so Hebrews 4.3 says, We that
believe do enter into rest. We enter into rest. It says,
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he
that hath entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his
own works, just like God ceased from His. Just like He ceased
from His works in the first creation, and just like Christ ceased from
His works when He finished the work of redemption. When you
believe on Christ, we've ceased from our works. So we keep this
feast not with old leaven, not going back to the law and trying
to work for either righteousness or holiness. We keep this feast
resting in Christ Jesus the Lord. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. We don't try to
go back to the law for righteousness. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. And we don't go
back to the law for sanctification. Paul said, Are you so foolish
having begun in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? By the hearing of works? No. The Galatians were being lied
to just like folks are being lied to in our day. They were
being told, Now that you've been justified by Christ, by grace,
now you have to sanctify yourselves by your works before the law,
under the law. And Paul said this, he's declaring
that we're sanctified by Christ. Go to Galatians 3.10. I want
you to see this. He's declaring we're sanctified
by Christ and I want you to see what he says here. Galatians
3.10. He says, For as many as are of
the works of the law, they 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. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God is evident. For the just shall
live by faith, and the law is not of faith. But the man that
doeth them shall live in them. Was Paul confused about justification
and sanctification? In the context, he's telling
sinners they're not sanctified by the works of the law. But
then he starts talking about no man's justified by the works
of the law because the just shall live by faith. Did he not understand
there's a difference between justification and sanctification?
Sure he did. What's he saying then? He's saying
the same as you cannot justify yourself by your works, you can't
sanctify yourself by your works. Those who are sanctified by Christ
and justified by Christ, we live by faith in Christ. We don't
go back to the law for righteousness or sanctification. We live by
faith in Christ. We'll see that later in the second
hour. And then we don't keep this feast
with the leaven of malice and wickedness. Just like our flesh
is full of self-righteous leaven, our flesh is also full of antinomian
leaven, lawless leaven. That's really what a self-righteous
person is. He's without law because the
law of the Lord is believe on my Son and live by faith. And
the man who goes back to the law trying to justify himself
by the works of the law, he's not obeying God. So he's without
law completely. People will say, but I'm saved
by grace and I'm not under the law and that means it doesn't
matter how I live. What we see Thursday night, that's
the flesh flattering him before his own eyes. That's our sinful
flesh flattering us. Paul said, what shall we say
then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? What then? Shall we sin because
we're under grace and not under the law? God forbid. Whoever
we yield ourselves to, to obey, that's whose servants we are.
If we yield ourselves to the flesh and live in sin, we're
the servants of sin. But if we yield ourselves to
the Lord, and live unto righteousness were the servants of the Lord.
God be thanked. You were the servants of sin,
but by the grace of God you obeyed from the heart the doctrine that
was delivered to you, the gospel that was preached to you, and
you were delivered from being the servants of sin and you became
the servants of righteousness. And so we keep the feast, living
unto our gracious Lord. We don't live unto our flesh,
we live unto the Lord. We don't live unto Moses, we
live unto the Lord. Look at Exodus 12, 14. He says
there, you shall keep it a feast to the Lord. You shall keep it
a feast to the Lord. I through the law am dead to
the law that I might live unto God. In Christ Jesus neither
circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love." That's the law we're under. Faith which
worketh by love. One last thing. Let us keep this
feast in love toward one another because we are, by God's grace,
the family of God. We're the family of God. Look
at Exodus 12 verse 43. The Lord said unto Moses and
Aaron, this is the ordinance of the Passover. There shall
no stranger eat thereof. But every man's servant that
is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall
he eat thereof. Verse 47. All the congregation
of Israel shall keep it. Go to Ephesians 3.14. Everybody
that is keeping this feast, truly worshiping Christ Jesus in spirit
and in truth, they've all been redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb and they've all had the blood applied in their heart.
They've all been made righteous and made holy by Christ our righteousness
and Christ our sanctification. We've been made righteous by
Christ and we've been circumcised in the heart by Christ. And that,
by God's grace, we're the family of God. Brothers and sisters
in Christ. This will never end. This will
never end. We're going to be brothers and
sisters in Christ for all eternity. Look at this, Ephesians 3.14,
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to
be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with
all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that
you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Look at
Ephesians 4 and look at verse 1. He says, I therefore the prisoner
of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. How do we do that? In lowliness
and meekness, with longsuffering. How long did God suffer with
us when we were in our sin and even now. How long has God been
long-suffering with us? And forbearing one another in
love? Forbearing one another means
you're just overlooking the faults. Look down at Ephesians 4.32.
Here's how you endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit and the
bond of peace. Ephesians 4.32, Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven
you. It takes a hard, calloused heart
to not forgive a brother or sister in Christ when God, for Christ's
sake, has forgiven me. I mean, is that not right? Be ye therefore followers of
God as little children, as dear children, and walk in love as
Christ also has loved us and has given himself for us, an
offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. He
is saying love each other by giving yourselves for one another. By giving yourselves for one
another. I ought to ask myself every day, when is the last time
I did something for a brother or a sister in Christ? And that ought to help motivate
me. I need to give myself. I need to give myself for my
brethren. Just like Christ gave himself for me. This is how we
keep this feast, brethren. This is how the church of God
is a happy and merry place. Because we are all just worms
saved by grace. And we endeavor to keep unity. Alright, let's stand together. Father, thank You for this Word.
Help us now to obey it. Help us to truly keep this Feast,
looking to Christ only for righteousness and sanctification. Help us keep
this Feast, Lord, by not living unto our flesh, but by living
unto the Lord who bought us. And Lord, help us to keep this
Feast by loving one another. By faith and love, let us keep
this feast. Ever thankful, Lord, for what
You've done for us. Forgive us, Lord, for our unbelief. Forgive us for our not loving
as we all pray that You would forgive us in the name and in
the blood and person of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It's in His name we pray. Amen.