All right, turn with me to Exodus
chapter 12. We're going to go right into our message.
Some men are going to read scripture for us afterwards. Exodus chapter 12. And let's read from verse 21
to 28. Exodus 12, 21. Then Moses called for all the
elders of Israel and said unto them, Draw out and take you a
lamb according to your families and kill the Passover. And ye
shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that
is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts
with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall
go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord
will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when he seeth
the blood upon the lintel and on the two side posts, The Lord
will pass over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come
in unto your houses to smite you. And ye shall observe this
thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever. And
it shall come to pass when ye become to the land which the
Lord will give you according as he hath promised that ye shall
keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when
your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That you shall say, It is the
sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of
the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians and
delivered our houses, and the people bowed the head and worshipped. And the children of Israel went
away and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so
did they. Now we've used this text before
for our observing of the Lord's table. Exodus 12 is where the
Lord instigated this Passover. But I was thinking about this
ordinance this week, studying for it, and I entered into the fact that
if the Lord is willing, if He's truly willing, it's all His doing,
it's all His purpose. But if the Lord would be merciful
in time, He could move on the hearts of our children. If he's willing, I cannot help
but think about us, our congregation, as I prepare these messages.
And we have children sitting here. And if the Lord would be
so merciful, oh, if he'd be so kind, he could move on the hearts
of our children and he could cause them to take an interest
in this. We all have so many interests
in this life, in this world, and it takes the power of God
to cause a sinner to take an interest in this. But He can
do it. If it's His will, He can do it.
And nothing would thrill me more. I mean, honestly, I think of
everything that could happen in this life, nothing would thrill
me more than for our children to come to us and ask this question. And I cannot tell you how deeply
I pray God would save my two children, but I cannot tell you
how deeply I pray God would save your children too. Oh, if He would be so merciful.
This would be the greatest thing for us. If God would move on
them, and cause them to come to us and ask this question right
here. Verse 26 says, And it shall come
to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by
this service? I've noticed that you observe
this table every so often, as often as you do it. You observe
this table, I've noticed That I am not yet a part of it. What mean ye by this service? Why do you do this? And what
does it mean? Why do you do this? And what
does it mean? If we are always preaching, it's
Christ alone, Christ alone. Why do you do this? And what
does it mean? Our Lord said to his people,
when your children come and ask you this, be ready to give them
the answer. Be ready to give them the answer.
What do we mean by this service? Turn with me over to Hebrews
chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. First, let's
tell them what we do not mean. Alright? First, let's tell them
what we don't mean. Hebrews chapter 10, look at verse
4. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. It's not possible. When Israel observed the Passover,
The Lord told them, I want you to do this forever, and we're
still doing it. And when Israel, back in that
day, observed the Passover, they killed a lamb. I came over here
early, and I prepared this. But if we would have been alive
2,000 years ago, I would have killed a lamb. And we would have had a sacrifice.
And that's what they did back then. They killed a lamb. And
they put the lamb's blood on the doorpost. And they ate the lamb's meat
that was roast with fire. They partook of it. They ate
it. And that lamb's blood and that
lamb's meat had no salvation in it. None whatsoever as far
as eternity goes and heaven goes and all those things go It did
not make one bit of difference No salvation. There was nothing
special. There was nothing saving in that
animal and it's the exact same with these elements This bread
was made from stuff in our cabinet Nothing special in it nothing
saving in it What can wash away my sins? Not that wine right
there. What can make me whole again? Not that unleavened bread right
there. So when the time comes, if God causes our children to
ask with an invested heart in this, what mean ye by this service? First, it's important that we
tell them what we do not mean. We do not observe this believing
there's any salvation in this ceremony. None whatsoever. We do not observe this Believing
that God will be more pleased with us because we do observe
this. Well, he's more happy with us
because we take it. That's not why we do this. Not
at all. Look at Hebrews 10 verse 1. It says for the law having
a shadow of good things to come. and not the very image of the
things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
For then would they not have ceased to be offered?" If that
Passover could have put away sins, wouldn't they have stopped
doing it? There would be no more sins to put away. Verse 2, for
then would they not have ceased to be offered, because that the
worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of
sins. But in those sacrifices there
is a remembrance again made of sins every year. He said the ordinance is a shadow. That's what he said, the ordinance
is a shadow. Now you can see a lot in a shadow. You can tell a lot by a shadow. A lot of times you can tell whether
the one who is casting the shadow is a man, a woman, tall, short. You can tell a lot by a shadow.
Usually you can see a clear outline of the one casting a shadow.
But that shadow is not the one casting the shadow. Not at all. It's just an image of the one. That's all it is. This table
is a shadow. It's just an image, it's not
the one, but it is an image of the one. Now the first time this
image, this picture, that's what this is, this shadow was given
was in the Garden of Eden. Go with me over to Genesis chapter
3. Genesis 3 verse 1 says, Now the
serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea,
hath God said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And I just want to point out here, every time I read this,
I think of the subtlety of lies. God did say that. Look at verse
16, the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of
the garden thou mayest freely eat. He said it. I don't disagree with that statement.
It's not in what he said, it's in what he didn't say. The next
one says, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And that's one of the dangers of the lies of false religion.
Sometimes it's not in what they say. You can agree with certain
things, but it's in what they don't say. But our adversary
came to Eve and verse 1, now the serpent was more subtle than
any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he
said unto the woman, yea, hath God said you shall not eat of
every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent,
We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
hath said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch
it, lest you die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, You shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you
shall be as gods, knowing good and evil, And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her
husband with her, and he did eat. And at that exact moment
right there, sin infected and consumed man. Right there. Man died spiritually right there. Separation from God, that's what
spiritual death is. Separation from God, right there.
Now look at verse 16. Unto the woman the Lord said,
I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow
thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy
husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said,
Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast
eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also, and thistles
shall it bring forth to thee. and thou shalt eat the herb of
the field, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till
thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken,
for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." Because of
sin, death is coming. You came from dust and now you're
going back to dust. Verse 20, And Adam called his
wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of
skins and clothed them." Not only did our Lord tell them
about their redemption, they sinned. And the Lord immediately
came and said, here is the result of your sin, here is the curse
that comes from your sin. And He immediately told them
their redemption. But not only did He tell them,
He also showed them. He showed them that. He illustrated
to them the horrible punishment unto death that one would have
to endure to cover their sins. This is now what it will take
to cover what you've done. So he took a lamb, and he killed
the lamb. And he skinned that innocent
lamb, and he made coats, and he put it on them. The innocent must be taken and
given to the guilty. That's what has to happen. That
guilt must be laid on the innocent and that innocence must be laid
on the guilty. It's the only way God will be
satisfied. Only way. And he proved that
with their children. He proved that with Adam and
Eve's children. Chapter 4 verse 1 says, And Adam knew Eve his
wife, and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten
a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother
Abel, and Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller
of the ground. And in process of time it came
to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground and offering
unto the Lord. Nothing had to be slain in Cain's
offering. Nothing. No guilt was transferred. No innocence was transferred,
which means Cain still came before God in his own sins. Without
that death, There's no remission of sins. And he came before God
in his own sin. He brought his own works. But
all of our works are filthy rags, aren't they? They're just all
filthy rags. And they didn't help him one bit. What they actually
did was added to his guilt and his shame and his sin. But verse
4 says, Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock
and of the fat thereof. Abel brought Abel brought blood. He brought
a payment for his sin. And it says, the end of verse
4 says, The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.
But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect, and Cain
was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And we know how that story
ends, don't we? This table is not our salvation. It's not our salvation. But just
like Abel's offering, it is an image. It's a shadow of the one
that saved us. Now go with me back to Exodus
chapter 12. Exodus 12 verse 26. And it shall come to pass when
your children shall say unto you, what mean ye by this service? That you shall say, here's what
you say. First of all, he said, it is
the sacrifice. It is the sacrifice. What is
a sacrifice? What is a sacrifice? Not just
thinking about it from the point of view of the sacrificer, thinking
about it from the sacrificee. If I'm going to make a sacrifice
for my children, I'm going to be the one to give up something.
Right? I'm going to be the one that
denies myself. If it comes down to either they
eat or I eat, they're going to eat. Right? I'm going to deny myself. I'm
going to make the sacrifice. I'm going to do without for their
sake. This is the sacrifice. This is the sacrifice. It came
down to Him or us. He chose us. Sin was there. One had to die. He made the sacrifice. He chose
us. He denied. This is the shadow
of what He did. He denied Himself. He gave up
His sinlessness. He gave up his perfection. He
gave up his righteousness. He gave up his blood. He gave
up his standing before God. He was in good standing with
God. And he was cut off from God for
us. What do we mean by this service? Number one, it is the sacrifice. Verse 27 says, it is the sacrifice
of the Lord's Passover. This was God's doing. God did
every bit of it. Nobody killed the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is the amazing part of grace. Amazing grace. He willingly did
it. That's the amazing part. He willingly
did it. Nobody killed him. He laid down
his own life. He spewed out, you know, he's
God. He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. He
said, I and my Father are one. I can do nothing other than what
the Father does because we are the same. Well, God spewed out
his wrath. He spewed out his wrath and he
took his own wrath. This is the sacrifice of the
Lord's Passover. Start to finish, this was God's
doing. Every bit of it. Verse 27 says, it is the sacrifice
of the Lord's Passover who passed over the houses of the children
of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our
houses. This does not mean at all, not
at all, that he turned a blind eye to us. Not at all. This does not mean that he swept
our sins under the rug. You know, he dealt with them
in judgment and in justice, but he just kind of passed us by.
Not at all. He dealt with our house. He dealt with our house right
there in that land. He dealt with them directly.
He dealt with us through the Lamb, through our substitute.
And judgment did come to our house. That's how we can stand
before God justified. It's because our sin was punished
and paid, not just swept under the rug. I hope he doesn't see
it anymore. I hope that never comes back up again. It was punished. every ounce of it. My sin was
punished. He dealt with me right there
in Christ. God slew His Lamb instead of
us. Verse 26 says, It shall come
to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by
this service? That you shall say, It is the
sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of
the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians and
delivered our houses and the people bowed the head and worshipped."
There is nothing to glory in. There is never anything to glory
in when it comes to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. There
was no decision we made. We took no part in this matter.
This was a tis done, the great transaction is done. totally
done. All we did was bring the judgment
of God to the land. That's the only part in it we
had. When we see this right here though, all we can do, and whenever
the Lord lets me just enter in for just a minute to this whole
thing, when He lets me step away from the flesh, and
step into His Spirit, it is truly something to bow your head over
in worship. It really is. When I see this,
and I know when we all see this, I bow my head, we all bow our
head in shame, don't we? Shame and just sorrow, absolute
sorrow over our sin, what it caused for our Lord. But we also
bow our head in thanks, great thanks for his kindness and his
mercy. That's what this is right here.
That right there is kindness and mercy. Verse 28 says, And the children
of Israel went away And did as the Lord had commanded Moses
and Aaron, so did they. Moses told the people, this is
what God has commanded us to do. God told Moses, I want you
to do this. And Moses went out and told everybody,
this is what God has commanded us to do. So did they. And they
did it until the Lord came and went to the cross. over, year after year, over and
over again. They held this Passover, they
sacrificed a lamb all the way up until the time that the Lord
went to the cross. The last Passover with the sacrifice
of a lamb was the night in which he was betrayed. That was the
very last one, sacrificing a lamb. At that moment he put away the
sacrifice of a lamb And he told us this. Go with me over to 1
Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Verse 26 says, For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till
he come. Till he come again. He said, I want you to sacrifice
a lamb. I want you to take some hyssop.
I want you to dip it in the blood. I want you to put it on the door.
And then I want you to roast this lamb with fire, and I want
you to eat it. And he said, I want you to do that to show that I
am coming to lay down my life, to give myself as a payment for
sin. And they did that until he came. And then he put that away and
he said, now this blood is the cup of the New Testament in my
body which is shed for many for the remission of sins. I want
you to eat this bread, I want you to drink this cup till he
come again. This is the New Testament, till
he come. And he said, I want you to observe
this shadow as oft as you do it until I come again to receive
you unto myself." Not only do I want you to say to God and
man, this is a confession He's given us, an open confession.
Not only do I want you to say to God and man, I want you to
show to God and man that all of your hope is not in the fact
that you go to church. And this is important right here.
Let me tell you where our hope is not. It's not in our faithfulness
to the services. That's not where our hope is.
I'm so thrilled to be here. I'm so thrilled God would bring
me. And I'm so thrilled God would
bring you. It is so wonderful to meet together. It's the highlight
of my life. But my hope is not in our faithfulness
to the services. That's not my hope. That's not
any of our hope. And our hope is not in our doctrine. It's not in the doctrines of
grace, as people say it. Our hope is not in the fact that
we're Calvinists. That's not where our hope is.
Our hope is in the fact that God said When I see the blood
of my Son, I will pass over you. That's where our hope is. When
I see His blood on you, because your guilt was put on Him, And
His innocence was shed for you. When I see that blood on you,
I'll pass over you. That's where all our hope is.
It is in one thing. It is in Christ's blood being
shed on us. Now here's our last question.
Who should partake of this table? Here this table is. Who should
partake of this table? Should everybody in this room
partake of this table? The answer is no. Our children
don't partake of it. Not yet. There's no age limit. But they don't partake of it
yet. There's a reason for it. Who should partake of this table?
Look right here at 1 Corinthians 11 verse 28 says, But let a man
examine himself. That does not say let the preacher
examine the man. I didn't say that. It says, let
a man examine himself. And here's what I would encourage
every single one of us to do. If we've been observing this
table for 40 years, I would encourage us to do this again. Let's right
now examine ourselves. Before we partake of this table,
let's examine ourselves. Let a man examine himself. And so let him eat of that bread
and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning
the Lord's body." This is all about the Lord's body. This is
not about my religion. This is not about my ceremony.
This is not about me wanting to be saved. This is a shadow
of the Lord's body and everything it accomplished, everything it
finished. If a person believes that he is in himself worthy
to take this table. If anybody ought to take this
table, I ought to take this table. If a person believes that in
himself, he is worthy to take this table. If a person believes
that God is happy with him or her because of the way they live
their life and God accepts them because of their goodness and
their good deeds and the fact that I'm a fine Christian person. If a person believes that, that
person should not partake of this table. If a person believes
that. But if a person believes he or
she is so unworthy, if their biggest struggle is, I don't
even think I ought to take this table. I don't even think I'm worthy
to take this table. I don't see how God could make
me a part of this. I'm an absolute sinner with no
hope outside of Jesus Christ taking my place. If that's you and if that's me,
then this table is for us. This table is for us. Let a man
examine himself. This is between me and my God. And if Christ is all your hope,
I mean everything, everything, then this is for us. This is
for us. In being a partaker of this,
we are showing the Lord's beautiful, precious death till he come. As oft as we do it, we'll keep
doing this until He comes. All right, Brother Luke Coffey
is going to come up and read Scripture for us. I've asked
these men to read from Romans 8. These are passages that really
blessed me, and I pray the Lord will bless these readings. All
right, Brother Luke, you come.