Alright, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Exodus chapter 12. Exodus chapter 12. We're going to have a two-part
message today, and the subject is Christ, our Passover. Christ,
our Passover. So we'll look at part 1 now and
part 2 when we come back after the break. Let's begin here with
a little history. Now, before Joseph died, back
in Genesis 50, I was going to preach on this. I thought it
would be nice to preach on this and then come over here and preach
on what Joseph was foretelling, but it just didn't work that
way. I've got too much to look at here in Christ the Passover
to be able to preach on both. But before Christ, I mean before
Joseph died, he said what Abraham was told by God. He said, God
will surely visit you, talking to the children of Israel. He
said, God will surely visit you and He'll deliver you out of
Egypt and He'll deliver you into the land He promised. That was
what God told Abraham way, way back there, before Jacob was
born, before Isaac was born. God said, they'll be in bondage
for 430 years and I'll bring them out. And God brought them
out to the very day. 430 years to the day. And God
brought them out. And that's what we're finding
here in Exodus 12. God is visiting His people, Israel,
to bring them out of Egypt into the land God promised. Now the
reason He had to visit them is when Joseph died, Exodus 1.8
says there rose up a new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph. And he was fearful of the Israelite
children. And so they made their lives
bitter with hard bondage. They put taskmasters over them. They brought them into slavery.
And that slavery they were in is a picture of the slavery that
we're born into when we're born in Adam. We're born into that
slavery. Just like the children of Israel
were born into that slavery. We can't free ourselves from
it, from sin, death or hell, just like they could free themselves.
We're under the power of the devil, just like they were under
the power of Pharaoh, that new Pharaoh. And they could not free
themselves from it. The one way, this is what we
see in our text today, the one way God's elect are freed from
death, from sin, death and hell, is by God visiting us in the
person of His Son and freeing us through His broken body and
His shed blood. That's the one way God's people
are set free. By Christ our Redeemer. Look
with me over at Hebrews 2. I want to show you this. This
will be good to see before we start our message. Hebrews 2
verse 14. This sums up what we're looking
at in both messages this morning. Hebrews 2 verse 14. It says, For as much then as
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself,
Christ the Lord, God the Son, likewise took part of the same,
that through death, through death, he might destroy him that had
the power of death, that is the devil. Our text is giving a picture
of that. God's going to destroy Pharaoh.
"...might destroy him that had the power of death," that is
the devil, "...and deliver them," redeem them, deliver them, "...who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
All our life we were slaves until Christ came and delivered us.
And that's what we're going to see in our text. Now let's go
back to Exodus 12. And we'll just take this verse
by verse. Now the first thing we're going to see is that the
time of their deliverance, when they were brought out, the time
of their deliverance marked a new beginning. It marked a time when
everything would become new to the children of Israel. Listen
up, Exodus 12, verses 1 through 3. The Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto
you the beginning of months. This month shall be unto you
the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of
the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation
of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall
take to them every man a lamb. Now over in Deuteronomy 16, you
don't have to turn there, but he said, Observe the month of
Abib, A-B-I-B, the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the
Lord thy God, for in the month of Abib, he says, the Lord thy
God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Our Passover
lamb, this happened through a lamb, our Passover lamb is Christ.
He's our Passover Lamb, Christ the Lord. He's the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. That's because when He entered
into covenant with God to save His people from our sins, when
He became surety, God looked nowhere else. Christ agreed to
be slain for His people. And so, therefore, because God's
unchangeable, God's unmovable, therefore, from that point, Christ
became the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He was
as good as done in the mind and purpose of God because Christ
entered covenant to accomplish it. Abraham spoke of Him. He said, God will provide Himself
a Lamb. And that's who Christ is. He's
God providing Himself. That man, Christ Jesus, is God
in human flesh. And that man, Christ Jesus, is
the Son of God, the only begotten Son of God who God provided.
God provided Himself a Lamb. And then John, one day, was standing
there and he looked up and here comes Christ walking on the earth.
And John said, Behold the Lamb of God. which taketh away the
sin of the world. There He is. That's the Lamb
of God. This is the one that's been spoken
of since the garden. This is the one pictured when
Adam slew those kids in the garden, those animals in the garden,
and made coats of skins to cover Adam and Eve. This is the one
pictured. This is Abel's Lamb. This is the Lamb that was slain
throughout all the sacrifices. Behold, this is the one that
typified. This is the Lamb of God, Christ the Lord. He's the
Lamb of God. And Paul summed it up. He said,
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Christ is the Lamb. He's
the Lamb. And in the month of Bibb, that
very month of Bibb, Christ made all things new. He came forth
in that month. It was in that month that He
sat down and He observed the last Passover. Do you realize
that when He did that and put an end to that Passover feast,
He's showing us that He is truly the fulfillment of the law. He
fulfilled that Passover feast. He Himself is the Passover. But
He ate that last literal feast and that ended that feast. That
was the end of it. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. He ended it. He
did it in that very month of the year. And then in that same
month of Bibh, He made something new. He gave us a new feast called
the Lord's Table which we're going to observe today. He made
something new and He's showing us by that what it is to make
old things pass away and to make all things new. He's done away
with the old covenant law because He fulfilled everything. And
He's brought in His new everlasting covenant. We see it in the way
He put away the old Passover feast and He made a new feast,
the Lord's Table. And in that very month, He went
through a mock trial and then He was crucified and then He
rose again. And when He came out of that
grave with all His elect in Him, He made all things new. And in the day He enters into
the heart that He's made new and He reveals what He's done
for you and brings you to faith in Christ, that's when we experience
and understand, indeed, He's made all things, old things to
pass away, He's made all things new. That's what Paul was speaking
about in 2 Corinthians 5.17 when he said, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. He's a totally new creation. God didn't use anything that
was there to make His child. He used Christ to come forth
and make everything new. There's a new nature created.
There's a new way of worship that Christ has made. There's
new grace to where you just simply believe and love your brethren.
He made all things new. If you're in Christ, you're a
new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. That's the very first thing we
see stated here. In the month of Baal, God said
everything is going to be new to you. You see Christ in that? You see how He made all things
new? Now let's look at the second thing. God has provided Christ
to save each and every member of His house. He provided Christ
to save each and every member of His house. Now look at verse
3. He says, Speak ye unto all the
congregation of Israel, and say, On the tenth day of this month
they shall take to them every man a lamb. Now he's speaking
to the head of the house. The head of the house was to
take a lamb. according to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for a house. He was to consider how many people
he had in his house, the head of the house was to count all
the members of his house, and he was to provide a lamb just
for the members of his house. Just for the members of his house.
And it says, and if the house sold, be too little for the lamb.
In other words, there's not enough people in the house to eat one
lamb. Not enough inhabitants in that
house to consume one whole lamb. He says, then let him and his
neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of
the souls. Every man according to his eating
shall make your count for the lamb. In other words, you only
need a lamb for the amount of people you have. And the amount
of people you have, that's how much lamb you have in every house. Here's the point. Here's the
point. It's a three-fold lesson for
us. Number one, Christ broke His
body and shed His blood effectually for each individual elect child
of God that makes up His house. Christ is the head of the house.
Christ is the head of the house. And Christ gave Himself as the
Lamb. He is that Lamb. And he did it
only for as many as are in his house. That's who he did it for.
For each member of his house. He said to each child of God
individually, this is my body which is broken for you. You're going to see to it, each
member has a portion of the lamb. This is my body broken for you. This is my blood which was shed
for you. It's personal. Every individual
member of the house. And then the members of two houses
could share one lamb. What does that teach us? It teaches
us that every chosen child of God is a member of the same household
of God. It didn't matter if two houses
came together and shared one lamb. They were still the Israel
of God. That's how come they could do
it. They couldn't go and share with Egyptian houses because
they weren't of that race. They were the race of God. They
were God's chosen race. They were His true Israel. And
so they were of the same house. Scripture tells all His people,
ye are fellow citizens with the saints. We're of that one city,
heavenly Jerusalem. We're fellow citizens of one
city. And you are of the household
of God. All the true children of God
are of one household. There's a church you can see.
I'm not talking about that church. I'm talking about His true church. I'm talking about those who are
really His elect people. There are people in the visible
church that aren't His people. I'm talking about His true people
make up the household of God. We bow our knees to the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in heaven and
in earth is named. There's just one family. One
family. And here's the third thing it
teaches us. Everybody, no matter where they were, in what house
they were in, they were all under that one heading as the children
of Israel and every one of them ate the same spiritual meat. Everybody in the house of Israel
ate the lamb. Everybody did. And that's what
Christ said, My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink
indeed. That means He's the life. He
is the only life there is. I was at a parade one time. There
were these two ladies sitting in front of me. One of the ladies
was Jewish, one lady was Catholic. And they were talking to one
another. And they were trying to figure out what the difference
was between their religions. And the lady who was Catholic
said, we believe Christ died on the cross, that He is the
Christ, He is the Messiah, and He died to save his people. And the Jewish lady said, well,
we don't believe Christ is the Messiah. We don't believe that
Jesus was the Messiah. And they come to the conclusion,
this was their final conclusion, was, well, you believe you're
saved your way, and we're both saved, I'm just saved another
way. That's not so, brethren. There's just one way. Christ
is the way. Christ is the one way. That's
what we see here in the fact that they all ate the same spiritual
meat. Alright? Thirdly, let's now behold
Christ, our Passover lamb. Let's see Christ, our Passover
lamb. Exodus 12, verse 5. Your lamb
shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You shall
take it out from the sheep, or from the goats. Now the lamb
had to be without blemish. It had to be without blemish.
They meticulously looked over these lambs. If it had one hair that was a
different color, it couldn't be offered. It had a blemish
in it. If it had one little scar on
it, it had a blemish in it. It had to be a perfect, spotless
lamb. Had to be. Because it's picturing
the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus the Lord had to
be. Our substitute had to be. Our head and our substitute had
to be holy, sinless, spotless, the Lamb of God. He had to be.
He had to be. He had to be first of all because
he was the head of his house. He was the head of his house.
He was representing his house. Legally representing his house.
There's only ever been two men in the history of the world that
began their life without sin. Only two. And both of them were
the head of their house. The first was Adam, the last
was Christ. Adam disobeyed God, sin entered,
and all his house died because of Adam. They all died in Adam. They all died in Adam. You died
in Adam. You died in a... Federal head. And I died in a federal head.
But the last Adam, who is Christ, he is the head who was faithful. He obeyed God even to the death
of the cross. And he saved all his house. All his house. The Apostle Paul
put it this way, as in Adam all died. Everybody in his house
died. So in Christ shall all be made
alive. All in His house shall live.
You get that first reason? They're the head of their houses.
That's why they had to be sinless. They had to start out sinless.
But Christ had to be holy, secondly, in order for Him to be made sin
of His people. In order for Him to be a fit
substitute to have the sin of His people put on Him, He had
to be spotless. He had to be spotless. You know,
when they brought that lamb in the ceremony, that lamb was spotless. And they brought that lamb to
the priest. And the priest put his hands
on the head of the lamb, which signified transferring the sins
of Israel onto that lamb. And then when the sins of Israel
were transferred onto that lamb, then, and only then, did that
lamb become fit for slaughter. Because now, it's typically,
ceremonially, it's guilty. And so it can be slain in the
place of Israel. But in order to have those sins
put on that lamp, that lamp could have no spot in itself. And that's more realistic in
Christ. He's the express image. And He
came and He had to be a holy, perfect, spotless man. to present
Himself to have God put all the sins of His elect on Him. He
had to be perfect. He had to be spotless. For as
much as you know that you were redeemed with the precious blood
of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He
had to be. And then He says here the lamb
had to be a male. The lamb had to be a male. What
does that... Why is that? It carries one of
the same meanings. Christ Jesus is male for two
reasons. The man is the head of the woman. God ordained that for a purpose. As head of his house, the man
is legally responsible for the whole house. Whatever the head
of the house does, that's what the rest of the house does. That's
federal headship. So Christ is the head and His
legal standing as the male, as the head, will be the legal standing
of His whole house. That's what we talk about when
we talk about righteousness. The legal standing of Christ
is the legal standing of His whole house. That's why He had
to be male. He's the head of the house. And then the second
reason is, it's by the male's seed that his children are conceived. The nature of the children comes
from the male. The nature of our children, man,
when we get upset with our children and we think, why are you like
you are? Why won't you mind me and obey
me? It's because we gave them our
nature. That's why we need to just go look in the mirror. There's
nobody to blame but us. We gave them our nature. That's
why they act like they do. But see, Christ is the male because
all the children of his house are born of his incorruptible
seed through his bride. through the preaching of the
gospel. It's so beautiful of a picture between the man and
the woman. This is why the church is subject to Christ. We only
preach what He tells us to preach. We preach His Word because that
Word is the incorruptible seed. And Christ comes forth in the
Word and He creates, He conceives life in the heart of His child.
It's just like a husband and a wife. They have to be together
in this thing to create a child. That's what you have pictured
in the gospel. Or what you have literally in the gospel. Whosoever
is born of God. I want you to see this. 1 John
3, 9. Go there with me. 1 John 3, 9. Verse John 3, 9. Look at this. Whosoever is born
of God doth not commit sin. Now listen to me. We're not talking
about the old man. The old man is not born of God.
The old nature is not born of God. It's born of Adam's seed.
The old nature is sinful, corrupt. The new man is born of God. And
whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. The new man does
not sin. The new man in his people does
not sin. For his seed remaineth in him. Christ's seed remains
in him. He is born of the incorruptible
seed. Therefore the nature is incorruptible,
can't be corrupted. And he cannot sin because he
is born of God. He is born of God. Now brethren,
we must not diminish this branch of the work of Christ. There's
two branches in the work of Christ. His work on the cross and His
work in His people. We can't diminish either one
in an effort to glorify the other one. And when men speak of the
new nature as just being a mere principle, or they say that men
don't have a new nature, there's just one nature, that's diminishing
or totally denying the work of Christ in His child. The reason
He's a male is because He federally, legally represents His people
on the cross. And He's also the everlasting
Father. He'll always be the Father of
His children because by His incorruptible seed, we'll never die. And so,
we wouldn't deny Him being Christ on the cross, would we? Why would
we deny Him being the everlasting Father who must birth His children
with a new nature? We can't deny either one of them.
Christ is head and He's everlasting Father. He made us righteous
and He must make us to be born again. Blessed is the man doing
the Lord will not impute sin and in whose spirit there is
no guile. Both are necessary. Both are
necessary. This is why Christ had to be
a male. He had to be a male. Then look at this next thing.
It says there He was a male of the first year. A male of the
first year. I love how God is so specific
in this Passover lamb. Because everything He's... This
is why I couldn't just... I tried to just maybe say, well,
I'll cut some things out. I'll just preach a little of
this. But it's just all so needful to show Christ. And you just
can't cut any of it out. A male of the first year means
this lamb was in the prime of his life. This lamb was full
of strength and vigor. A male of the first year. And it shows us that Christ Jesus
being 33, somewhere in there, about that years old. He was
in the prime of life. He was full of strength. And
it shows you that no man took his life. He willingly laid down
his life. Look at John 10. John 10. John 10 and verse 17. He says, Therefore doth my Father
love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man takes it from me, but
I lay it down of myself. He willingly laid down His life.
I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my Father. This was what He
was doing to please the Father, to satisfy justice and save His
people. And He did it willingly. He did
it willingly. You know when we're going to
be made willing to serve the Father? Only when Christ, the
willing one, is formed in our heart, then we'll be willing
in the day of His power. Willing. And then look, it says
that the sheep was taken from the sheep or from the goats.
From the sheep or from the goats. You know, on the Day of Atonement,
you can't just take one thing and picture Christ with it. It's
just too much involved in Christ. On the day of atonement, later,
when God would show how Christ made atonement, He used sheep
and goats. He used sheep and goats to show
how Christ made atonement for us and how He's the scapegoat
who took all our sins away into a land not inhabited. And so
He told them here on the night of the Passover, it can be from
a sheep or a goat. Both of them show some aspect
of the work Christ accomplished for His people. We read in the
Scripture, He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. There's the Lamb. And then we read, as far as the
east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions
from us. There's the scapegoat, carrying
our sins away into a land not inhabited. That's Christ. Both of those works are what
He accomplished for His people. Now, let's get to the crucifixion. The crucifixion of Christ was
according to God's eternal purpose and according to His sovereign
hand of grace. It was according to God's eternal
purpose and His sovereign hand of grace. This will comfort our
hearts if we can get this. Look at verse 6. God said, You
shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month. and the
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening." God told the time it would be slaughtered and God
said who would slaughter it. It was all appointed by God.
Every bit of it. Christ came into this world and
He died at the time appointed of God. The exact time appointed
of God. The Scripture says, when the
fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son. Joseph, all
those years before, 430 years ago, from this time right here
we're looking at, from this night we're looking at in Exodus 12,
430 years to the day, they entered bondage in Israel,
and God had said, In 430 years, I'm going to deliver them. I'm
going to visit them. And Joseph said, God shall visit
you. And He did at that precise time. Have you ever been able to say,
I'm going to do this at this precise time and be certain of
it? The Scripture says, we ought
to say, if the Lord wills. Because He's the only one that
can say, I'm going to do it at this time and do it at that time.
That's Him. They sought to take Him. Remember,
He walked around, they sought to take Him, but no man laid
hands on Him. Why? For His hour was not yet
come. It was futile for them to try
to take Him. It says, Jesus said this at one
point, it got to a point, then Jesus said this. He said, the
hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. And
when they came to arrest him, he made certain, they knew, you're
only doing this because it's the time appointed. He said,
I was with you daily in the marketplace and I was in the temple. No man
laid hands on me. None of you were able to touch
me. And he said, but this is your hour. This is your hour. This is the time appointed. Right
here. Brethren, that ought to give
us some encouragement. No matter what happens to us
in our life, no matter what comes to pass, you can know this, it's by the
appointment of God or it wouldn't be happening. And that gives
you some comfort. Even it might not take the sorrow
away, it may be a sorrowful thing you're going through. But at
least you know, my Father is in full control. This is at His
appointed time and it will end at His appointed time. And then
when we see this whole assembly of the congregation killing it
in the evening, we're reminded of the wicked hands that crucified
our Redeemer. Wicked hands crucified our Redeemer.
The blood of Christ is on the children of Israel. Remember
they said, let His blood be on us and our children. You don't
want to say something like that. Kill Him. Let His blood be on
our hands. We'll be responsible for His
murder. But that was according to God's
appointment. Scripture says, Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you've taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. All they did was whatsoever thy
hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. But this is
the good news in that. Just like here we see the children
of Israel are the ones who are killing that sacrifice. It was
you and I who are the elect of God It was our wicked hands. It was our sin that was the cause
for Christ going to the cross. And that too was God's appointment. That was appointed by God. That
was appointed by God. You stop now a moment. And I
want you to think. The whole time I'm preaching
this, I don't want you to be carried away with the type. I
want you to be carried away with Him who is the express image
of the type. I want you to be carried away
with Christ. You stop a minute and you look to that cross and
you behold there that flood of wickedness all around the foot
of that cross. And you behold Christ Jesus,
God in human flesh, hanging there between two thieves, numbered
with the transgressors. And you see Him there willingly
taking all the sins of His people. And you see Him there righteously
broken, giving His body for the purpose for which it was made,
to bear our sins in His body on the tree, that God might be
just to pour out wrath on Him in the room instead of His people.
And there He is broken. giving Himself to feel all the
pain and all the suffering and all the feeling of our infirmities. No sin of His own, but all the
shame that we were guilty of. That's what He bore. And you
behold Him there willingly shedding His own blood. willingly shedding
His own blood. His visage marred more than any
other man. And so shall He sprinkle many
nations. So shall He save His people from
our sin. And you behold Him there in the
midst of all this, forsaken by God. I just wish I could get this
in my own heart and in your heart like it ought to be. Forsaken
of God. Forsaken of God. To be separated from the glory
of God is hell. Hell doesn't have to be a place.
It doesn't have to be a specific location. It's just wherever
you are, if you're cut off from God, that's hell. And He was
cut off from God on that cross. cut off on that cross. But I
want you to behold everything that took place there, brethren,
was determined on purpose in that eternal counsel between
God the Father and God the Son. They agreed on that. And it was
all brought to pass. Every last detail was fulfilled
by the hand of God. It was so ordered by God. He told thousands of years before
different things that would happen. Like saying it would happen in
the month of Baal. And that's when it happened.
Like saying it would happen during the Passover. That's when it
happened. by showing Him to be the Passover Lamb who would deliver
His people. That's what He did. Everything
was ordered by God so precisely and He fulfilled it so precisely,
showing us that it was all determined before to be done. And God, that
means brethren, God had a people from before the foundation of
the world that God counseled and purposed and predestinated
that He would save according to His eternal purpose. And when
you see that nothing else frustrated God's purpose, nothing else turned
God, nothing else happened outside of the will of God on that cross,
know this. Nothing should be able to stop
God from saving any of His people. He works His will. And because
Christ hung on that cross and cried out, it is finished. Ephesians
1.11 says, In Christ we have obtained an eternal inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. That's how we're
saved. By God who works all things after
the counsel of His own will. That gives me great confidence.
That gives me great comfort. I know God's going to save His
people. I know He's going to save every one of them. I know
He has redeemed us and I know He shall call us and make us
to be born again. I know He shall. Because it's
all according to the purpose of Him who works everything after
the counsel of His own will. He will not fail. He cannot fail. He's God. He's God. If you see
the word God, just know that means He cannot fail. God. Alright, brethren. We'll take
a short break and we'll come back. Let's stand together. Father, we thank You for Your
Word. Thank You for this spotless Lamb of God. Lord, how important every detail
of salvation is. And how important it is to know
You fulfilled every detail. Make us to see Christ now, Lord. Don't let this be a shell and
just a form of religion. Don't let us go through the motions.
Make us to truly be quickened in our hearts to see Christ and
rejoice and enter into this glorious Good News. Lord, we can't worship
without You. We pray, Lord, You'd make us
now worship You. Give us hearts to come back and
sing to Your praise and read the Scriptures looking for You
and hear Your Gospel preached, thinking upon Your broken body
and Your shed blood. Make the elements of this table
come alive to us and make us truly see how they represent
our Lord Jesus. Make us think on Him, Lord. We
ask it in Christ's name. Amen.