All right, if you would open
your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. We're going to read just one sentence
from chapter 5, verse 7. It will be the last sentence
in that verse. For Christ, our Passover lamb,
has been sacrificed. Now, there is hardly a clearer
picture of redemption than the feast of Passover which was given
to the Jews. You recall that they had spent
about 400 years, that is Jacob and his descendants had spent
about 400 years as foreigners in the land of Egypt. And while
things started out well, because one of the sons of Jacob was
essentially Prime Minister of Egypt, And they had prospered
and flourished there in the land of Egypt. There eventually arose
a pharaoh, a king, who had no regard for Joseph and his memory. And he became fearful of the
Jews and fearful that they were becoming such a large group within
Egypt that they would rise up and take over. So he put them
in bondage. And he had them making bricks. I suppose the pharaohs, like
me, big shop leaders, they liked to leave memorials to themselves
and they liked to build buildings so that people could say, well,
so-and-so built that. And so he was having these Jews make
bricks. so that they could build buildings and the rest of Egypt
would prosper while the Jews worked under heavy burdens. But the Lord sent them a deliverer
in the person of Moses. Moses was 80 years old, or about
80 years old, and he was sitting in Egypt with a message for Pharaoh. God says, you tell Pharaoh Thus
saith the Lord, let my people go. And Pharaoh's response was,
who is this Lord? Who is this Jehovah that I should
mislead? And all the arrogance of humanity,
all the pride of humanity is bundled together in that one
question. Pharaoh worshipped. Ra, the Egyptian
Sun God. And he was, if I recall my Egyptian
culture correctly, he considered himself somewhat a human manifestation
of Ra, the Sun God. And so since Ra was their chief
god, He said, with all the pride a man can muster, who is this
other God? That I, the human expression
of Ra, the sun god, who is this Jehovah that I should listen
to Him? And so through a series of 10
plays, the Lord explained Pharaoh who he is. And God, what he said was, he
says, I will make myself known to the gods of Egypt. I will
make myself known. I will destroy and overthrow
the gods of Egypt. Isn't that interesting? He didn't
say, I'm going to overthrow Pharaoh. He said, I'm going to overthrow
the gods. Now, I get it, but I don't want to overthrow Pharaoh.
But also, each of these plagues, as I, at least I've read this
in the case, each of these plagues, had some connection to one of
the gods worshipped in Egypt. For example, when the water was
turned to blood, the Nile, including the Nile River, was considered
one of the gods of Egypt. And the fires, and all these
things. It was like most nations of that
day, they had a whole lot of gods. And then finally, God deals
with the chief God. Jehovah deals with the chief
God, whose supposed human expression had said, who is Jehovah? Now
I show this in the end. He did it this way. Jehovah said to Moses, on such
and such a night, I am going to pass through Egypt. And I
am going to kill the firstborn of every household. From the
household family, all the way down to that slave girl on the
milking stool. Her son would have died too.
And not only that, the firstborn of the cattle. White and walnut. And notice that the Lord did
not say, I'm going to kill the firstborn of the Egyptians. He
did not say, I'm going through the Egyptian households and killing
the firstborn of all the Egyptian households. He says, I'm going
through Egypt. Now, Egypt is a picture of the world here. But what he's saying is that
judgment is passing through that land. And everyone in that land
is under my judgment. That includes the Jews. God passed over the Jews that
night, but he did not pass over them because they were Jews.
He did not pass over them because they were slaves in that land.
He did not pass over them because they were worshipping him as
they ought to, because they weren't. Many of them were worshipping
false gods. Many of them had given themselves
over to the worship of the Egyptian gods. They had not set themselves
apart from the Egyptians. The only way you knew who the
Jews were in that day was they were the ones doing the primary
labor. But you couldn't. Their conduct
was the same as the Egyptians. Their gods were the same as the
Egyptians. So when God says, I'm going to kill the first house
of every house in Egypt, that included all the households of
the Jews. You can see how this becomes
a picture of our salvation and our redemption. Because God has
said He has appointed a day in which He will judge the entire
world in righteousness by Jesus Christ. And that includes you
and me. See, everybody is going to be
judged by God. Everybody is going to be condemned by God. And everybody
is going to suffer the penalty for their sin. The gospel is
not a message that God's judgment has been turned aside. The gospel is a message that
God's judgment has been satisfied for His people in the suffering
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the judgment came. The condemnation
was delivered. And the penalty was suffering. We are not saved because we are
Christians. We are not saved because we believe. If we indeed are saved, we are
saved for this reason, at least this is the most obvious reason,
the one set forth in Scripture. We are saved because the blood
of Jesus Christ is upon us, a token that judgment has already passed
on us. But the Lord God said to go through
Egypt and kill the firstborn of every household. But He did
something special with Israel. He said that He was going to
make a distinction between Israel and Egypt. Israel had not made
this distinction themselves. They were acting just like Egypt.
But God was going to make a distinction. He had chosen them, and he was
going to make that distinction more evident, more obvious in
this. He told them of a way of salvation
in the day of his wrath. When he poured out his wrath
that night on Egypt, there would be a way of salvation revealed
and performed in behalf of the Jewish people. And he said it
will be like this. Every household is to take a
land. And what that did was he was setting up every household
to be an illustration, a microcosm if you will, of the entire household
of God. He said the household is to take
the land. Now that doesn't mean everybody
in the household is involved in this. In those times the father
stood as the priest of his house. And so he asked the father who
chose the land. And he said, the household will
take the land for the household. And you'll take it on the 10th
day, and you'll watch it until the 14th day. You'll look it
over. You'll make sure it's not lame. You make sure it doesn't
have spots. Make sure it's not sick. He said,
because this land has got to be perfect. And he said on a twilight, on
the 14th, he says, you take that land, that beautiful, innocent,
year-old land, and you shred its throat, and you collect the
blood, and you deliver the body there to be roasted. Not boiled,
roasted. And you take some of that blood,
and you go outside to your Lord. This is what he's telling the
father, the priest of the house to do. He says, you take some
of that blood, and you put some on the lintel, the crossbeam
over the top of your board, and you put some on each side. Crucifixion
had not yet been invented. It had never been practiced.
That didn't come from Mother Earth. close to a thousand years
before it was ever known that crucifixion was the means of
executing people. But long before the man of our
Lord's death was known to anybody, God hadn't penned a description
of him in blood by Homer's death. For his head was crowned, Christ's
head was crowned with thorns. And his hands were laid over
the tree. And you have that over the top of the door. With two
hands spread out. The blood. The blood of Passover. And he says, you go inside and
you eat that lamb. You take it in you. To be part
of you. And you stay inside there. Behind
the blood. And at about midnight, I'm coming
through Egypt. And I'm coming through in wrath
and in vengeance. Intent on killing the firstborn
of every household of every herd. But when I see the blood, and
if I see the blood on the door of somebody's home, I'll pass
over. Why? Because they can never leave? Well, the interesting thing is
the blood did not save the person who applied it. Who applied it? The father. Who was saved by
it? The firstborn. I've heard people
say, now what you have to do is go out and put the blood on
the doorpost of your heart. It's not ours to put anywhere.
The blood's going to be put in our hands. The blood is in the
hands of the one who shed the blood. The blood was in the hands
of the Father, and He put it on the door for the sake of His
Son, to spare Him. We don't apply the blood. The
blood's on the outside and we're on the inside. The Lord said to them, the blood
will be a token for you upon the groves. But it was a token
they didn't see. Imagine meeting one of those
firstborn sons in the house when you're inside. And your dad says,
son, Lord's coming through Egypt tonight. He's going to kill the
firstborn in every household. He said, don't worry son, he's
made a way for salvation. That man out there, I know he'll
kill him. I want you to take his blood,
and I am going to put it on the North Coast and on the land.
And then we're all coming inside and waiting. The son, inside the house, couldn't
see the blood. But his dad told him he was late.
And if he believed what his father said, he rested comfortably. Not waiting for wrath, but waiting
for the redemption that would come after the wrath passed over
Egypt, or passed through Egypt. And so there all those Jews sat
in their households. And indeed, about midnight, the
Lord went through Egypt. that he went through without
mercy. His wrath found full expression
that night for all Egypt. And it found full expression
through a dead lamb His blood was on the door, and his body
had been eaten, roasted and eaten. He found it that way, or he found
it through the death of the firstborn of every household. And when
God went through Egypt, a cry rose up from Egypt. If you want a picture of the horribleness
of the wrath of God, I think this is pretty good. Nearly everybody
here is a parent. Imagine you're also a child. Imagine you're sitting in your
house and you don't have any idea anything's coming. Nobody
told you a word was coming. Nobody told you about the land. You're just about your business.
Whatever it is, you might be fair. There in your house, thinking
to yourself, above all others and beyond the reach of any god,
because you're the top god. Or you might be the very lowest
in the social strata of Egypt, and you are just a condom laborer.
In fact, the Lord had even gone down to what would have been
considered the lowest, a woman who built cabs. And all at once, the first one,
you're here and I'm just trying to stay right in front of you. So fast, so unexpected, without really So great is the loss of a child
and so good is it an example of God's wrath that it says in
Zechariah, he compares the sorrow of those who repent upon their
understanding of the crucifixion or the sacrifice of Christ and
says they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son. As we were sitting there singing,
I had something in mind much later to make sure that the worship
of God is entitled to. And I don't know why, maybe simply
to put myself in the right frame of mind for preaching this message.
The Lord just made it cross my mind. What if I got a phone call? It was told to me when my sons
was gone. A car accident. What happened? That's what happened to every
woman in Egypt under whose door the blood was not to be found. For those in the houses with
the blood on it, nothing happened. There was dystopia on the outside,
which they had to receive by faith. And some of them received
it with strong faith, some of them with weak faith. But you
know something? It didn't matter how well they
could see the blood. It didn't matter how strong their
faith was, that the blood was on the door, and the blood would
indeed set aside, as it were, the judgment
of God. Didn't matter. The Lord didn't say, and the
blood shall be a trophy upon the doors for you, and if you
really, really believe in it, I will pass over you. He said,
the blood will be a trophy for you, and when I see it, when
I see it, says God, I shall pass over you. Brethren, there's great
comfort for you and me when we can see the blood on the door.
And believe with all our hearts that it is there, and that it
is satisfying to God. But while our comfort is dependent
upon our ability to see, our safety is dependent on God's
ability to see it. And I know one thing God will
not miss, the blood of His Son. When He passed through Egypt,
He saw the total of judgment already passed. And as Augustus Toplady said
in his psalm, justice payment will not twice demand. First
in my bleeding substitute's hand, and then again in mine. And God
goes through Egypt bid on vengeance, but he isn't just God. And where
vengeance has already been carried out, he will not visit it a second
time. So he says, when I see above
the token of wrath already expended, I'll pass over and go on to the
next place. So I remember right that Jews were in the northern
part of Egypt. Not only did God start from the north or the south,
but I know this, everywhere He saw blood, which I assume is
on the house of every Jew. Because God had chosen of the
Jews, and He had sent a prophet to them to tell them, and He
had given them grace, indeed, to go through the process He
had sent. So that blood was there. And he passed right on. That night, not even a dog barked. We're Israelis. And I know something
about dogs. You've got to remember, these
weren't the sweet little dogs that people make pets out of. Dogs weren't all the man's best
friends. I don't know how long he's been that way. Dogs, in
most places, were considered unclean animals. They were the
scavengers that cleaned up the scraps of what the predators
left behind. And they were just out there.
And like coyotes, they tended to howl and bark at night. But
not that night. Nine dogs kept anybody awake
among the houses where the blood was. Now this, of course, is all a
picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus. When we think of Christ
on Passover land being sacrificed, well as we realize it, it's taken
us directly to Calvary. And it is interesting, this Passover
observance, when was it carried out? Let me put it this way.
When did the crucifixion happen? Right during the Passover feast. There was a time when the finger
of God pointed out something blinding to the Jews. Of course, they were blind and
couldn't see it no matter how blind it was pointed out. God,
by arranging that His Son be crucified right there at Passover,
God was saying, this is what the Passover means. The Passover
wasn't about you performing the feasts and thinking you made
yourself righteous by it. You see, that's the problem the
Jews had. They were giving these observances
throughout the year. Passover feast, Feast of Tabernacles,
Day of Atonement, all these things. And they kept them all, thinking
that by keeping them, they were endearing themselves to God.
But every one of them was an illustration that salvation is
a work of God's grace accomplished in His Son. But they didn't see
it. They thought they wanted to have
it pretty clear, didn't they? Passover. Now you take this woman
who's claiming to be my son, and now you're going to take
my man and crucify him. And his blood is going to make
the same pattern on that cross that I told your forefathers
some thousand or so years ago to put on our doors, and you've
been doing it for a thousand years. This is the real Passover. This
is the real lamb of the Passover. Jesus Christ, like that land
that they were to sacrifice, was chosen by the Father to be
saved by Him. Because Jesus Christ, our Passover
bread, cannot be our substitute, unless like that land of the
Jewish Passover, He is without spot and without blemish, without
defect. Who shall bring anything to the
charge of God's elect, said Paul. And the first one that applies
to is the Lord Jesus Christ. If there'd be anybody that would
be foolish enough to charge Christ Even those that don't believe
he's the son of God don't know that following him. Everybody
knows that he's as good a man as he's ever lived. In fact,
there's nothing that he did, did, nothing that's recorded
about him, that anybody can find fault with. But that's not what's
most important, Mark. The most important thing is he
never did anything that God could find fault with. Twice he opens
up to heaven and says, this is my beloved son, in whom I am
well pleased. That just didn't do anything
wrong, because God's not pleased with anybody that does things
wrong. Now we're pleased with our children. Well, wouldn't
you say that the standard for our children pleasing us is a
whole lot lower than the standard God has for His sons pleasing
Him? Christ was perfect. And therefore,
he was suitable to be our substitute. The father chose him. The father
examined him. The father killed him. If we can teach people anything,
or maybe I should make it more personal, if we can learn anything,
Let us learn this. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not
die at the hands of Rome. He did not die at the hands of
Israel. He did not die at the hands of the devil. He died at
the hands of God. The same one who was bent on
destroying us because of his wrath, instead turned his wrath
on his son. Now, folks, it would be one thing,
it would be a horrible thing to just have to stand by as we
watch one of our children be executed, and executed in a torturous
fashion. It'd be another thing altogether
if we were the ones that did it. You know what? I couldn't. I couldn't. I don't think I could. I couldn't
kill one of my children. Not for anybody. Not for me. I couldn't do it. God the Father, man, that quiet little pot of angels
of God, reported to Evelyn his own beloved son. And when he delivered him up,
who did he deliver Christ up to? Not us. He delivered the
Son up to the Father's own justice. And all that makes hell a horrible
place fell on the Lord Jesus Christ on that day. You say,
well, what does that amount to? I don't know. I don't know. I don't think I ever will. Because Christ knows what that
is, I never will. Oh, it might be that someday
He'll explain to me, but you know, you don't know anything
that you haven't experienced. We did. We've become... Doctors. We can become obstetricians. Baby doctors. Birth doctors. And we never know what it is
to give birth. We can describe it medically
with perfection. But unless you are a woman, you
have no clue what it is to give birth. And unless you go to hell,
you have no idea what hell is. And so, unless you perish personally,
cut off from Christ, you'll never know what hell is. And you can
thank God for that, because He came to know hell when you grew
up. And that blood, which was shed
by the Son, has been applied by the Father to all His people. to spare them. Now I want to
ask a few questions as we think about that scene. That's why
I called it a cross examination. We're going to take an examination
at the cross. We're going to ask some questions
and find out what the answer is. The first one is this. As I look at the cross, What
does that sacrifice say about me? People have this idea where it
says by law is the knowledge of sin. I said, well, I'm going
to teach a man of sin, preach the law to him. You know, the
law can teach a person that he's broken the law. Just like a student in time.
It says speed limit 55 and you look down at your speedometer
and you're doing 65. But you know that you have broken
the law. But that sign can't make you
care. Let's face it, we're driving
down the interstate and we see speed limit 65, what does that
mean? Set the cruise for 70 or so.
We have no regard to that speed limit beyond what fear we might
have that a policeman will catch us, so we do the math in our
minds. No, the police are not going
to bother with me if I'm just 5, 6, 7 miles an hour over the
speed limit. It's not like we really have regard for the speed
limit or we think it's right. We all think we can drive faster
than we're allowed to, so we do. The law never made anybody
righteous. The law never made anybody care
about the things that are written in the law. You know what stops
a person in his tracks and makes him understand what kind of sinner
he is and what kind of trouble he's in? It's when, by the grace
of God, he's been given a vision of Jesus Christ. I mean, a sight
by faith of who Christ is and what he was doing on that cross. I never can forget that short
outline he would go through once in a while when he was preaching. That outline was three questions
to ask as you viewed the cross. Who is that man? What's he doing? And where is he now? Who is he? The cross teaches
who I am, a sinner, beyond my own help. beyond the reach of
my own will. If I understand anything of what
happened to Christ on the cross as he bore sin that he himself
did not even commit, and I understand what was done to him, then if
I've got any brains at all, any spiritual discernment at all,
I've got to realize that I am a sinner beyond my own power
of changing it. Secondly is with you, the cross. We can understand something about
who the man is that's on the cross. Well, he's the promised
one. It wouldn't do any good for anybody
else to be on the cross. In fact, on that day, there were
two other men on the crosses, and it was of no significance
to eternity whatsoever. There were other men there, stretched
out. There were other men bleeding
the same pattern I wore bled. They died that day, and they
died under sin, just like our Lord did. But there's a difference between
their death and the Lord's. This is the Son of God. This is one who existed before
the world began. In fact, this is the one who
made the world. And this is the one whom He comes
from. He's the Ancient of Days. He's going forth with Him from
everlasting. And yet in this world, this Word,
says John, became flesh and made His dwelling among us and we
have seen His glory. We've come to understand who
He is and seen the glory of His divine person and seen the glory
of His perfect humanity. And John goes on and he says,
we have, he doesn't express it just there this way, but we've
sinned the glory of his sacrifice. Because we see that only one
like that, the perfect son of God, could die as a substitute
for sinners. If he is not perfect, his death
means nothing. If he is not chosen of God to
be the substitute, his death means nothing. If he's not approved
by God, his death means nothing. Who is that name? God in the
human flesh. As near as we can tell from the
scriptures, hell goes on and on and on and on and on. Like Mother Spurgeon said in
that scripture, you can believe it or not, you can be damned.
He said it's not written. on the inside of the portal of
heaven shall be damned. And for eternal days, the God
who changes not in his testimony shall be there. He that believeth
not shall be damned. And when a million years have
rolled out, and a million years have been suffered by those people
in hell, it shall still be upon the door, shall be damned. Hell's terror, why? Because for
all the suffering that goes on there, the wrath of God is never
satisfied. For all the suffering for sin
that goes on there, the sin never stops. They still sin against
God. His judgment does not soften
their hearts. His judgment doesn't change their
minds. His judgment doesn't make them
go from being so foolish to being wise. Instead, they shake their
fists all the more in His face. And it goes on and on and on
because the sin goes on and on and on. But Jesus Christ, who
had no sin of his own and could not be provoked to rebellion,
he absorbed within himself, as it were, our sins. And then he
absorbed within himself all the punishment to them, added nothing
of his own to them. And so he was able, by the sacrifice
of himself once for all, to justify us, redeem us, and deliver us
from our sin. Did Jesus fulfill all that was
required by God for a sacrifice? Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews 9 verse 14. Hebrews 9 verse 14. How much more then will the blood
of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished
to God, cleanse our consciences from acts of need to death, so
that we may serve the living God. The Lord Jesus Christ offered
himself. He was of himself, the right
kind of offering, perfect for that spot. He offered himself
to the right person, to God. He gave to God what God required. And God always accepts what He
requires. You ever had someone that said,
if you do so and so, I'll do such and such? And so you did
so and so, but when it came to him doing such and such, they
wanted to add something. They said, well, I didn't think you
could get it in there, so I'm going to add some more. They
went back on the field. Well, for lack of a better way
to put it, there was a deal between the father and the son. And the
father said, you take on their nature. You humble yourself and
become obedient to death, even to death on the cross. You bear
their sins in my sight and bear my punishment. If you do that,
I will relieve them of any obligation or penalty for their sin. And that's exactly what Jesus
did. He offered himself and that's fine. He came before the judge
and he said, I have no sin on me. And the father charged again,
God and Judge of all charged again, all the sins of his leg. And Peter said, the righteous, Christ suffered, the righteous
for the unrighteous. Peter says he bore our sins in
his body on the tree. And since he offered to God what
God required, God accepted. Now as you think about these
things in your mind, think of what you are, of who Christ is,
and what he did as he bore sins in his body on the tree, ask
yourself this question. Is what Christ did enough for
a sinner like me? Now admit it. We usually have
to ask this point. Question the different way. Because most people are asking
themselves this. Why did God require so much of
Christ to save me? It couldn't have been that much.
I wasn't in that much trouble. I'm not that bad. Would be God that we became so
aware of our sin that we might wonder if even
the death of Christ was enough to put it away. If we're going to err, let's
err on the side of knowing the greatness of our
sin. and wondering how I could ever
be that tall. But let's not stop there. Let's
answer that question. Is the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ enough for a sinner like me? Yes, it is. There's nothing that you have
done, not in the seriousness of it or the amount of times
that you've done it, Nor, it doesn't matter how often you
try to quit, you're still capable of it. Those are not the issues. When we answer the question of
whether the sacrifice is good enough for us, we only have to
answer to this one question, is it good enough for God? Because
that's the one who's being satisfied by it. See, I don't have to be
satisfied by the one thing. People say, well, if you'll just
accept Christ's Word for you. Christ's Word was never offered
to you or me. He offered Himself without spot to God. And the
issue is, did God accept it? And God has given His testimony
of His acceptance. He brings Jesus Christ to the
table. Now, if God says, good enough, who am I to come by and
say, no, no, you just don't know how much I've seen. God knows
exactly how much you've seen. Jesus Christ. He knows exactly
how much you've sinned, if indeed you're one of Him, because He
bore those sins. And the Bible says, God's testimony
concerning the Son, God has set Christ forward as a sacrifice
that puts away wrath. Now that's how God sets Him forth. If God sets Him forth for that,
then He's good enough for that. And you don't have to question
if He's finer than that. Has God said enough? Yes, God
said enough for you. And this last question. If there be any of you this morning, for whatever reason, whether
you are an unbeliever just encompassed with doubts and fear, If you are a believer who comes
with doubts and fears, or if you are a young man, who for the first time has seen
what kind of sinner you are in the sight of God, and yet have
been given spiritual eyes to see how great the sacrifice of
Christ is, that when He could even put away sins like yours,
there's only one other question to ask. Is there any reason for
me not to trust the Lord Jesus with the full confidence that
He can and will save me? And I know the answer to that question. There's the knowledge of what
you did, there's the knowledge of who Christ is, the knowledge
of what He's done, and there's the knowledge of His promise
that He that has the Son has a Christ in life. That if we
confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will give us our
chance and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We have the testimony of a historical
event in Egypt, centuries ago, the Passover. And God said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you and Sherman. He passed over
every house upon which was found the blood. And you may know it is. If the
blood is upon you, the blood of Christ our Passover is upon
you, then the wrath of God will never fall on you. So how can I know if the blood
is there? You can't know it by looking at it. Because the blood
is on the outside, and you're on the inside. But you can believe
it. You can take God's Word for it.
And if God gives you the great grace to take His Word for it,
that the blood is enough, and that the blood is thine, then
rest assured, the blood is thine. And never shall the wrath of
God come upon you. May God have His blessing on
you.