Everything that comes to pass
in this world comes to pass under the sovereign control of God
Almighty. And it's predetermined by God
before He spoke anything into existence. And God uses, we see
often in Scriptures, entire nations to make His power known and to
reveal in his elect that salvation is totally, absolutely, completely
of the Lord alone. The book of Exodus begins in
Egypt after Jacob and his offspring had traveled there. They had
lived out their lives and that whole generation had died. And
the Lord had raised up a Pharaoh that didn't know Joseph. They
made the lives of the Israelites bitter with hard bondage. And
Israel's bondage in Egypt is a good picture of man's spiritually
dead condition. Every child of Adam is born into
this world under such bondage to sin that we can't free ourselves
from it, no more than Israel could free themselves from the
Egyptians' bondage. absolutely helpless to free ourselves,
but just like Israel's bondage, Adam's fall was no surprise to
God. None of this was a surprise to
God. In fact, it fulfilled God's purpose of exalting his son before
the eyes of his people. as our only Lord and Savior. And back in Genesis 15, verse
13, years and years before Jacob went down into Egypt, God told
Abraham he would. And He told him why. He said
unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger
in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them. And they
shall afflict them four hundred years, and also that nation whom
they shall serve will I judge. and afterward shall they come
out with great substance." The Lord had Moses go and tell Pharaoh
that He raised Pharaoh up for the very purpose. He said in
Exodus 9.16, And in very deed for this cause have I raised
thee up, for to show in thee my power, and that my name may
be declared throughout all the earth. That's why Pharaoh was
given the power that he had. And the Lord sovereignly reigns
that His people might delight in His free grace and declare
His name throughout their generations. That's what was taking place
here. He told Moses in Exodus 10 too. He said, And that thou
mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what
things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done
among them, that you may know how that I am the Lord. Look over there with me at Exodus
11, verse 1. The Lord had brought all these
plagues on Pharaoh, and he wouldn't listen. And God had hardened Pharaoh's
heart. And Exodus 11, verse 1 says,
The Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more
upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt, and afterwards he will let you
go hence. And when he shall let you go,
he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. Speak now in
the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbor,
and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of
gold. And the Lord gave the people
favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very
great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants,
and in the sight of the people. And Moses said, Thus saith the
Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt,
and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. from
the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even
unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill, and
all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry
throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it,
nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children
of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast. Now why would the Lord do that?
Why would the Lord bring His people through all that to this
place right here? Look at this next phrase, that
you may know how that the Lord does put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel. Who made the difference? The
Lord did. There wasn't any difference between
Israel and the Egyptians in themselves. Not any difference between the
two. Not any difference in those that God chose to save when they're
born into this world and those He passes by. Not any difference. Who makes a difference? The Lord
does. If we're going to understand
grace, we must understand that grace is not something that God
has to show to anybody. And we gotta understand that
grace, if it's something that's deserved, it ceases to be grace. It becomes a wage earned. And that's a work. Salvation's
by grace. It's not by works, it's by grace.
And God says clearly here, the reason I've done all this is
that you might know who put a difference between you. And it all came
down to this one night in Egypt. And now we're going to see what
the Lord did in this night in Egypt. The title of our message,
we're going to observe the Lord's Table today. And the Lord's Table
was instituted the night that He was betrayed. And before He
instituted the Lord's Supper, He observed the Lord's Passover
with His apostles. If we're going to understand
something about the Lord's Supper, we need to look at the Lord's
Passover. So we'll look here today at the
Lord's Passover. Exodus 12, verse 1. And the Lord
spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This
month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first
month of the year to you. Speaking unto all the congregation
of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall
take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for a house. And if the household be too little
for the lamb, they had to eat all of it. So if the household
doesn't have enough people that they can eat a lamb by themselves,
let him and his neighbor next unto his house take a lamb according
to the number of the souls. Every man according to his eating
shall make your count for the lamb. Now who does this lamb
picture? You know who this lamb typifies,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over there at Revelation
5 verse 1. Whenever John saw the Lord coming
unto him, he said, Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world, This is He of whom
I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me,
for he was before me." That's who this Lamb is. Here in Revelation
5. And I saw in the right hand of
Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back
side sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming
with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose
the seals thereof? And no man in heaven nor in earth,
neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man
was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to
look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto
me, Weep not. Behold, the Lion of the tribe
of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book,
and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and lo,
in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the
midst of the elders stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God
sent forth into all the earth." Omnipotent, omniscient, the lamb. And he came and he took the book
out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And
when he took the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders
fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden
vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they
sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and
to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain and has redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, out of every tongue
and people and nation, and has made us under our God kings and
priests, and we shall reign on the earth." That's who this Lamb
typifies. That's who we're talking about
in this Lamb. Go back there in Exodus 12, verse
5. And your Lamb shall be without
blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take it out from
the sheep or from the goats, It had to be without blemish.
This Lamb of God, Christ Jesus, was conceived of the Holy Ghost
from the womb of a virgin. No sin in Him. Not conceived
in sin like the other children of Adam. And the Lord Jesus is
God's perfect, sinless, holy sacrifice. Peter said, For as
much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things, as with silver and gold from the vain conversation received
by the tradition of your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish, without spot. And this lamb was
a male of the first year. Our first representative was
a man, a male, so the second. The Lord Jesus Christ laid down
His life in the prime of His life. It was no, couldn't be
brought up any slander against him that he was sickly or feeble
or he laid down his life in the prime of life. And he was taken
out from the sheep. God's son truly joined himself
with his brethren as a man. We saw that in Hebrews. We saw
it in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 11. It says, both he that sanctifies
and they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause he's
not ashamed to call them brethren. Verse 14 there of Hebrews 2 says,
For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil, and deliver them, who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage. That's what's taking
place here in Egypt, they're being delivered from bondage.
There it says, verse 6, "...and you shall keep this lamb up until
the fourteenth day of the same month. And the whole assembly
of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening."
They took this lamb and they observed Him for four days. Our
Lord came to this earth and He walked this earth for thirty-three
and a half years. He was tried by God. He was tried
under the law. He was tried by Satan, tried
by man, and there was found no sin in Him, no guile in Him at
all. Perfect. Spotless. That's why
we read in Isaiah 28, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone. And this lamb had to die. This
lamb had to die. The Son of God who took upon
Himself the form of a servant, took upon Himself flesh and blood,
was born for the purpose of dying on the cross. That's why He was
born. He said, therefore does my Father
love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again?
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down. I have power to take it up again.
And then verse 7, they shall take of the blood of this lamb
and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post
of the houses wherein they shall eat it. Now the blood has to
be applied. We saw this, I believe this has
a couple of significance here to us more
than just one thing. Almost all things are by the
law purged with blood. We saw that in our Hebrew lesson
last week. And we saw how the Lord entered
into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God for us.
He entered in with His own blood into God's presence. And then
we have seen how the Holy Spirit applies His blood inwardly and
sprinkles our conscience. so that it purges our conscience
that we might serve God, turn from dead works to serve the
living God. And what's most vividly set forth
here is a type of the believer's faith in Christ and in His shed
blood. They took this blood and they
put it on the outside of that doorpost and above it, over the
top of it. And they went in that house.
And they shut themselves in that house. And they didn't leave
that house. They stayed in that house. That's what a believer
does. He believes Christ and he becomes
a member of his household, enters into his household through faith,
and never leaves there. That's where he stays, under
the blood. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It's the
evidence of things seen. Plenty of things folks believe
in that they can't see. But the first thing that the
Greeks, the wise men of this world would throw up is they
can't see God. Faith is the evidence. Hope is the evidence. It's the
substance of things hoped for. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Everybody that comes to God must
come to Him, believe in Him, trust in Him. This showed that
they believed God. They believed what God said was
going to come to pass. He's going to pass through Egypt
and smite all the firstborn in Egypt. And they believed God.
God's coming in judgment to this earth and He's going to strike
down this whole world that's not under that blood, that's
not believing on His Son. You believe Him? It's coming
to pass. He said it. He worked all these
things together. Whole nations here to bring this
to this point right here. To teach you and me right here
today that that's exactly what He's doing right now. He's bringing
everything to its end purpose. And it's going to meet in Christ
His Son. And every knee is going to bow.
And every tongue is going to confess that He's Lord of lords
and King of kings. Every knee. And then verse 8 here, it says,
And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire
and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
They entered the household of God through the blood of Christ.
Christ is our life. We come here to eat, to drink,
to be strengthened by Him who is our life. Faith is not a one-time
deal for you. You make a profession and you
get it out of the way and go on your merry way. Faith in Christ
is living upon Christ. It's feeding continually upon
Him. That's why we come here. We come
here to eat the bread from heaven, Christ. We come here to drink
of His blood. And we do that by hearing of
Him and His gospel, of what He's accomplished. He told that to
some folks when he was on this earth. They didn't understand
him. They didn't understand what he said. But he said, my flesh
is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. It's meat and
it's drink indeed because of what it accomplished. You see,
here it says it had to be roasted with fire. This one who was spotless,
who was perfect, who walked under God's law for 33 some years,
He then went to the cross and He took the sin of His people
upon Himself and was made a curse in the place of His people. He
who knew no sin was made sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He said, My strength faileth
because of my iniquity and my bones are consumed. He was roasted
with fire. in the oven of God's wrath, under
the fire of God's wrath. And they were to eat this sacrifice
with unleavened bread. In fact, they were to get all
the leaven out of the whole house. You know what leaven is? If you
are making bread, you take a little leaven and put it in the bread
and it makes the bread rise. And it'll just get bigger and
bigger and bigger. You've seen your mom make bread.
You've seen how that bread just rises up. If we come to Christ,
we've got to come to Christ in sincerity and in truth. Leaven
is a symbol of hypocrisy. It's a symbol of evil. It's that
which causes a man to be puffed up and to boast. Ain't it leaven? We can't eat this sacrifice with
leaven. It can't be mixed with. Turn
with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Brother Pete just read this. There in verse 130 it says, Of
God are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God's made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according
as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. We
don't have any glorying of our own. The church at Corinth was
having a problem, and they were divided. And anytime that the
gospel of Christ ceases to be preached, and a person ceases
to feed and to drink continually upon Christ, that's what happens. There's division. And that's
what had taken place here at the church at Corinth. They were
puffed up Paul uses that phrase several times and I like that
because it's leaven that's what it does it puffs somebody up
makes you rise up and Paul says here first Corinthians 5 6 your
glory is not good Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump? It just takes a little bit of
self-righteousness to enter into me, to enter into you, to make
us out and out completely rise up in glory in our flesh. It
only takes a little leaven in the midst of us right here. It
wouldn't take much preaching works at all. Stand up, preach
it two or three times, the next thing you know we're all boasting
in our works, in our will, in our way, in what we've accomplished.
and wondering why everybody else don't act like we act. But Paul
says here, a little bit leavens the whole lump. And he says,
purge out therefore the old leaven. Where do you think Paul's getting
this from? He's getting it from over here
in Exodus. They were told to take all the leaven out of the
house. Get it all out of the house. You can't partake of this
sacrifice with the leaven of your works and your will and
your way and your understanding It's got to be all Christ. All
Christ. And he said, purge it out therefore
that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened. He's talking
to these folks here that were divided. That weren't acting
like they were unleavened. But he said they were. Why? For
even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. That's how we come to
be unleavened. That's how all our glory is taken
out of us. It's because we behold Christ.
We behold Him as being altogether lovely. And we have nothing to
glory in. He becomes everything. Our wisdom,
our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption. And we keep this
feast. We keep it not with old leaven,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. That's what this leaven
represents. And then, back over in our text,
they ate this with bitter herbs. I don't know exactly what the
significance of the herbs is, but I do think that when I I
partake of the Lord's table, and I partake of the unleavened
bread and the wine. When I think of what my Savior
endured, when I hear Him preached, and I think of what He suffered
on the cross, in my room and my stead, on my behalf, that
I might walk away justified. I'm always brought to remember
that it was for my sin. He was dying for my sin. And
that's bitter. It's my sin that put Him on that
cross. Is it your sin that put Him there? Did my sin put Him
there? And then a few other things we
see here about partaking of this feast. It says in Exodus 12.9,
eat not of it raw, nor sodden it all with water, but roast with fire, his head
with his legs with the pertinence thereof." Now, they couldn't
eat it raw, and it's emphasized here again. Can't eat it raw,
can't eat it sodden at all with water, but it's got to be eaten
one way. Roasted with fire. That's the
only way. A sinner can't have Christ, not
the Christ of this Bible, and have Him in part. He's got to
be the conquering, ruling, reigning King of Kings. We can't have
it. We can't come and say that our
mixing our faith with his sacrifice is what made his blood effectual.
That's to sodden it with water. That's to water it down. Take
the edge off. That's to take the offense out
of the cross. Listen to me. Listen to me. It's not our faith
that makes His blood justifies. That's not what the doctrine
of justification by faith teaches. We're justified by faith. But
it's because Christ justified us at Calvary that God gives
us the faith to believe that He's all our justification. You
got that? If it's any other way, if we
come and we say that it's not until a believer believes that
Christ's blood actually accomplished anything, then we water it down. The only reason a man will say
that is to make it not offensive to sinful flesh. If you ask the
average believer, who made the difference between you and Egypt?
They'll say, my faith. I believed. I gave my heart to
Jesus, or whatever. But the difference, the Lord's
teaching, the difference is He made the difference. I put a
difference between thee and Egypt, the Lord said. It's God who maketh
thee to differ. We don't have anything to glory
in. You can't eat this thing with sodden, sodden in wine or
water or oil or any of our addition. We've got to take Christ's satisfied,
divine justice, justified all for whom He died, finished redemption. That's how we come to Christ.
Not adding nothing, taking nothing away. And then it says here in
Exodus 12.10, sort of a continuation of that thought. And you shall
let nothing of it remain until the morning. At which remaineth
of it until the morning you shall burn with fire." We take Christ
as He is. We receive Christ as He is. And only as He is. We take Him as Sovereign Lord.
We take Him as God's anointed Christ. We take Him as God's
Lamb. We take Him as God's way of salvation. We take Him as the sacrifice
with whom God is well pleased. We take all of Him and we come
bowing to Him. And He's our life from then on. It's all or nothing. It's all
or nothing. Now, verse 11. He says there,
And thus shall ye eat it with your loins girded, your shoes
on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and ye shall eat
it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. They were to eat this Passover
in haste. They were to eat it like it was
going to be the last meal they ever had. Is that how we come
to this place to partake of Christ? Like it will be the last time
we ever partake of Him? Is this world our home? The believers of old, they just
passed through. They were pilgrims, Scripture
said. They were looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.
If you ever come to believe on Christ, by God's grace, we become
pilgrims. This place ceases to be our home.
When the door is open, when the chains are cut loose, when the
Lord showed them favor with the people and gave them much substance
and abundance and passed through Egypt that night. And they beheld
that they were under His care and in His sovereign hand and
under the power of His grace. They didn't stay in Egypt. They
left. And He said, Be ready to leave.
Be ready to leave. Are you ready to lead? Let me
show you something. Turn over to 1 John, chapter
2. 1 John, chapter 2. I often wonder when we, folks
ask, request for prayer be made for somebody that's sick, a believer. You know, I wouldn't pray for
somebody to stay sick. I really wouldn't. I wouldn't
pray for somebody to... I hope they stay sick. But isn't
that kind of what we're praying for when we pray for the Lord
to spare them and leave them in this world? For them just
to stay in these bodies of death? A happy day is when we leave
this earth and come into God's presence. Look here what the
world has to offer. Verse 15. Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is
in the world, you want to know what's in it? This is it. This
is it. The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of lies. That's it. That's all this world, that's
the best we'll get out of this world. The lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And it is not
of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth
away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God
abideth forever. He said, you take this Passover,
and you eat it with your loins girded, shoes on your feet, your
staff in your hand, and eat it in haste, ready to leave this
place, ready to leave here. And then verse 12, Exodus 12,
12. He says, For I'll pass through
the land of Egypt this night, and I'll smite all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the
gods of Egypt will I execute judgment. I, the Lord." That's
who's doing this. He said, I, the Lord. And the
blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are.
And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague
shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of
Egypt." And just as God promised, He passed through that land.
And the Lord killed the firstborn man and beast. And He executed
judgment against their gods. All of them that were wood, He
probably burned them up. And the metal ones, He burned
them up and showed them to be nothing but just idolatry. the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
It's all that their gods were and all the hope afforded them. But Israel, Israel's firstborn
died in a lamb. All the firstborn in Egypt died
that night. All of them. Even Israel's. But Israel's died in a lamb.
And God said, when I see the blood of that lamb, I'll pass
over you. Well, here's the conclusion. Look over at Luke 22, verse 15. The night our Lord was betrayed,
He observed the last Passover with His apostles. This is Him
to whom this Passover pointed. And now He's come. And it says
here in verse 15 of Luke 22, And He said unto them, I have
desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For
I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be
fulfilled in the kingdom of God. He's going to the cross to fulfill
everything typified that we just looked at in that Passover. He
said, I'm not going to eat this anymore. I'm going to fulfill what this
is picturing. I'm going to fulfill it. And
he took the cup. They had just eaten the Passover
and he takes a cup and he gave thanks. And he said, take this
and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not
drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall
come. And he took bread and gave thanks
and break it and gave unto them saying, this is my body which
is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. This do in remembrance of me. And likewise also the cup after
supper, saying, this cup is the new testament, the new covenant,
that everlasting covenant in my blood which is shed for you. No more lambs to be slain because
the Lamb has laid down His life. No more blood to be shed because
The Lord of Glory, God's Lamb, laid down His life, shed His
blood. Now, we observe the ordinance
of the Lord's Table, the Lord's Supper. And we do it for three
reasons. We do it, number one, because
the Lord commanded believers to partake of this Supper. It's His Supper. It's not this
church's supper. It's not any church's supper.
It's the Lord's supper. It was the Lord's Passover. It's
the Lord's supper. And He commanded those that had
been regenerated. Those that could take that Passover
were those that had been circumcised. Circumcision is a picture of
that which takes place in the heart. circumcisions in the heart,
not in the flesh, not in the letter, in the heart. He's a
Jew which is one inwardly. Those that have been regenerated
by God's grace can call upon Him in truth and in spirit, truly
call Him Abba Father. Through the blood of the Lamb,
they're commanded to take up this table. That's one reason
why we take it. Secondly, we observe it because
We need to be constantly reminded of Him. Isn't that sad? That our feebleness and our sinful
flesh, we have to constantly be reminded of His broken body
and His shed blood. He said, this do in remembrance
of Me. And Paul said something over
in 1 Corinthians 11 that I think is another reason why we do this,
why we take this bread and this wine. He said in 1 Corinthians
11 verse 26, he said, for as often as you eat this bread and
drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till He come. Who do we show it to? We show it to the one who saw
the blood that night when he passed over his children. He said, when I see the blood. One more time we come to God
and we say, this is how we approach your throne of grace. We approach
it in a broken body of our Redeemer, whose body was broken on our
behalf. We come one more time and we
say, Lord, we come to You in nothing but Your blood. Nothing
but Your blood. And we'll keep on feeding and
drinking His body and His blood, week in, week out, right here
at this place, as long as He keeps us. He brings us to Himself until
He comes again. And by His grace, we'll continue
saying He's the only way. The only way we approach God
is in Him. Alright.