Amen. Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew 26. When Brother Tony told me that he was going to
be looking at First Corinthians 11, on the significance of the
bread of this ordinance, I immediately felt led to look at the significance
of the wine of this ordinance. If you look at Matthew 26, verse
26, this is what 1 Corinthians 11 is quoting. As they were eating, Jesus took
bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples,
and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup,
and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all
of it, for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed
for many for the remission of sins. Our Lord chose bread and
wine to represent His body and His blood. And as that bread
is not His body, that is not His body, that does not become
His actual body like some believe it does. It does not. That's a picture of His body.
That's what that is. And in the same way, this wine
is not his actual blood. And it does not become his actual
blood. This is a picture. This is a
representation reminder of his actual blood. And this is what
he said about it. He said, this is my blood. This is a representation. He handed them the cup. And he said, this is a reminder
for you of my blood of the New Testament. He said, every time
you drink this, I want you to remember my blood of the New
Testament. Now, what I want us to look at
for a brief moment is what does that mean? What does that mean? What does he mean when he says,
this is my blood of the new Testament? The word Testament means covenant. And the word covenant means promise. That's what it means. Promise.
He said this wine. represents the blood of God's
covenant, the blood of God's promise. God made a covenant
of blood. He made a promise concerning blood. And I want to show it to you. Go with me to Exodus 11. Exodus 11, from the very beginning
in the Garden of Eden, God told Adam, the wages of sin
against me is death. That's what he told Adam. The
wages of sin against me is death. The consequences of sin is death. Romans 5 verse 12 tells us that
by one man, Adam, the very first man, the only man who was standing
on the earth at the time man was created. By one man, sin
entered the world and death by sin. And so death passed upon
all men for that all have sin. Every soul that has ever walked
this earth has sinned against God. Every soul. Therefore, every soul deserves
the vengeance and wrath of God Almighty. Every soul. But because God is gracious,
We talk about the characteristics of our God. This morning it was
faithful. God is so faithful because God
is gracious and because God is merciful. Even though according
to His holiness and His righteousness and His justice, all must receive
punishment and wrath. Everybody needs to know that.
You're a sinner against God and you must receive punishment and
wrath from him. You must. But for some. For many, the scripture says,
not all, but many. He said, I am going to make a
covenant concerning them. Covenant of blood. Exodus 11
verse one. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Yet will I bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Pharaoh right here represents
Adam. And Egypt represents the world. This is a picture of Adam and
the entire world. That's what this is. By one man's
disobedience, Pharaoh. Pharaoh was the one that said,
I will not bow to your demands. Moses would go in and say, God
Almighty said. And Pharaoh said, I will not
bow to his demands. And all the other houses of Egypt,
they may have thought, well, that's not fair. We didn't do
that. We didn't defy the authority
of God Almighty. Yeah, but you would have. Had
you been given the chance, you would have done the same thing
Pharaoh did. If it had been any one of us back then in the garden,
instead of Adam, we would have done the exact same thing Adam
did. If it had been any one of us,
we would have done the exact same thing Adam did. Why do you
say that? It's because sin is the very nature of mankind. Sin. Sin is not just what we
do. Sin is what we are. We're not
sinners because we sinned. We sin because we're sinners
and because we are sinners. The wrath and the judgment of
God must fall on us. We want to talk about a characteristic
of God Almighty. God is holy. God is holy. That means he has to do what's
right. And because we're sinners against
him, he has to bring his wrath and his judgment on us. There
is no sweeping sin under the rug. All of us have sinned. Therefore,
according to His holy justice, His judgment and His wrath must
fall on us. And that's what Egypt is a picture
of. Every soul in Egypt was a sinner against God. Therefore, the judgment
of God fell on every soul in Egypt. And I want to emphasize
that right there. The judgment of God fell on every
soul in Egypt. Death came to every house in
Egypt. Well, wait a minute. God's people
were in Egypt. Did death come to God's people's house? Yes,
it did. Why? They were sinners against
God just like everybody else. That's the reason why. All have
sinned. So God said, death is coming
to everybody. Death is coming to every single
house. But the goodness and mercy of God said, look at chapter
12, verse one, the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, the law
and the prophet. 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. 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, according to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for in house." There is going to be a substitution
here. Boy, you talk about good news
for some Israelites in Egypt. God said, I'm going to provide
a lamb. Death will come to every house, but for the houses of
all my chosen people, I'm going to provide a substitute lamb.
Verse four, and if the household be too little for the lamb, Let
him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to
the number of the souls. Every man according to his eating
shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without
blemish. Christ our spotless savior without
leaven as we just heard. Your lamb shall be without blemish.
a male of the first year, you shall take it out from the sheep
or from the goats, and you shall keep it up until the 14th day
of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation
of Israel shall kill it in the evening." The whole congregation
of Israel is going to be the cause of this lamb's death. It's going to die because of
them. They shall take of the blood
and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts
of the houses wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the
flesh in that night, roast with fire and unleavened bread, and
with bitter herbs shall they eat it. eat not of it raw nor
sodden at all with water, but roast with fire his head with
his legs and with the pertinence thereof. And you shall let nothing
of it remain until the morning. And that which remaineth of it
until the morning, you shall burn with fire." This lamb is
gonna suffer judgment's fire. The punishment, the wrath, the
judgment, the death, all of it is going to come on that lamb.
And then he said to his people, I want you to eat that lamb. I want you to become joined to
that lamb, one with that lamb, filled with that lamb, strengthened
by that lamb. Verse 11, and thus shall you
eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet and your
staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt,
I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. And the blood
shall be to you for a token, for a sign, for a reminder of
this covenant promise. What is the covenant promise?
He said, here it is right here. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. When I see that death has already
come to this house, I'll move on. I'll be satisfied. You'll be safe. And he said,
I want you to observe this Passover, this killing of this lamb every
year for a reminder of my blood covenant concerning you. And
our Lord, I read it there in Matthew, our Lord gave this table
ordinance while he was observing this Passover. That's what our
brother just said in the upper room. This is the last Passover.
while he was observing this Passover and he said to them as he handed
them that cup, this representation, what he was saying to them was
this blood of this substitute sacrifice lamb that this Passover
has represented for thousands of years since this moment to
Matthew 26. Thousands of years, this blood
Sacrifice Lamb. He said, this has represented
this moment right here. I am here right now with that
actual blood. The blood that God made his covenant
on. God made that covenant on particular
blood. And Christ said, it's my blood.
It's not the blood of bulls and goats. It's not just any blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission for sins. It's not just any blood. You
can't just shed any blood and remit sins. He said, it's my
blood. It's only my blood, the blood
of God's lamb. And he said, I, God's sacrificial
lamb, I'm about to shed that blood. He left this moment. They came and took him. He was
judged. He told them, I'm about to go
shed this blood right now on the cross of Calvary. And he
said, I'm going to take my blood and I'm going to apply it to
the door of your soul. Every soul that my father gave
to me to save, I'm going to apply my blood to their soul. And He said, when the day of
judgment comes, and if this is any comfort and any peace, this
ought to really, really bless us. When the day of judgment
comes, and it's coming, when the day of judgment comes,
Christ said, and God Almighty sees my blood on your soul. you'll see that judgment's already
come to you. Death has already come to you and he'll be satisfied
and his judgment will pass you by. Because his judgment on your
sin fell on me, he will pass you by in my blood, you're safe. That is God's covenant promise
concerning all of his people. In my blood you are safe. You
are covered, you're righteous, you're accepted, you're safe.
That is something to remember, isn't it? That's something to
remember. Thank God for the blood. The
soul-cleansing blood of God's lamb. All right, would you men
pass out the bread?