Can you hear anything? Can you hear now? You may not want
to. Alright, if you will, let's borrow.
Bow our heads right quick and go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Lord, we beg for continuing
mercies today. Both in the speaking into the
hearing, we need your help so much. It's really, it's just a waste
of time if you don't come and visit with us, dear Lord. We're
so backwards and so unknowing and so spiritually dead that
even just reading these words in your magnificent book, if
you don't touch our hearts with understanding, it does us no
good. So please visit us today. and
teach us more of your dear Savior and our only hope, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen. All right, if you made
your way to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, I'd like to read just a few
verses, and this is more or less just an introduction to where
I want to go today. But I'm going to begin reading
in verse 1. And it's written, it is reported
commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication
as it is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should
have his father's wife. And you are puffed up and have
not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be
taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body
but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present,
concerning him that hath done so this deed. In the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together in my spirit,
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such one unto
Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may
be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your Glorian is not good. Know you not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven,
that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened. For even
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep
the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice
and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth." Now, though I read these few verses, we're really
going to turn around and go back to Joshua chapter 5 this morning,
where I've been coming to you. But since I read this passage,
I'll just give a little commentary on it, especially these first
five verses. Evidently, there is a high official
in the church there at Corinth. most probably a preacher, who
has taken the unusual and unnatural step of having relations with
what is in effect his mother-in-law, or his stepmother, I'm sorry.
And instead of excommunicating this person from the church,
the church as a whole seems to be overlooking this sin and accepting
of this shameful and disturbing development. Paul writes in those
first five verses. It's time for them to rectify
that situation. Just keep that in mind. I may
make a reference back to that as an example of something I
want to say later, but that's not why I came here this morning.
Why I came was something here in verse 8 and most specifically
verse 7. But these two verses will refer
back to Joshua 5, and in turn, that will refer us back to Exodus
12, which is where I'm gonna end up this morning. But from
verse eight, it says that we are told to feast on Christ with
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. We are to bring nothing,
nothing but a broken and a contrite heart to this meal that never
ends. This meal that never ends for
the penitent sinner. Bring nothing to Christ. He doesn't need your help. And the main purpose for me coming
to this verse is just to show you here in verse 7. To show
what this Old Testament example and picture we're going to be
looking at this morning, what it really means. In verse 7 it's
told to us, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Between this statement here and
what's written in Hebrews 11 concerning Moses, I'm going to
quote that in a little bit, the Passover had an eye toward the
Messiah. That's what it was looking to. It's why the first Passover was
celebrated. Yes, we're going to read that,
and it was to show them what to do for them to be freed from
the captivity of slavery, which they were just in. But even with
that, it still had an eye toward the Messiah. So as we begin our
look back in these Old Testament scriptures we're going to look
at this morning, keep this verse in your mind. where Paul explains
to us what this picture is all about. Christ is our Passover. So if you would, quickly turn
back to Joshua chapter 5. And I guess I've, if I remember
correctly and my notes are right, this is the third time I've tried
to work on this chapter of Scripture. With the first verse, I worked
on the care that God takes of His people, of His children.
And with the second lesson I brought to us. I tried to deal with circumcision,
but I tried to move it away from just that physical circumcision
as described in Joshua 5. That circumcision which separated
those people from all the other people on the earth. It made
them different. I tried to move from there to
the circumcision as it is explained in the New Testament, this circumcision
of the heart. The work that God does on his
children's heart, the way he separates his children, they're
still different from all the others on this earth. He separates
them to himself by circumcision of their heart. If you remember, I tried to make
a point that this second circumcision, and it was a tremendous number
of people who had to undergo this operation. It happened on
one day. One day. Every male that had
been born to the Hebrew nation over the last 40 years, they
all were circumcised on one day. Why the urgency? Why did it have
to be that quick? It was the first month of the
Hebrew year. It was the tenth day of that
month. God had told Joshua, you're going to observe the Passover
on the fourteenth of that month. The men had to have the operation. a little time to heal, to be
able to observe the Passover in just a few days from there. That's why the urgency. But I
want to pick up our reading here in Joshua 5, beginning in verse
8. And it came to pass, when they
had done circumcising all the people that they abode in their
places in the camp, till they were whole. And the Lord said
unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from
you, wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal, and to
this day. And the children of Israel encamped
in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the
month at Even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of
the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, unleavened
cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. And the manna ceased
on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the
land. Neither had the children of Israel
manna any more. But they did eat of the fruit
of the land of Canaan that year." Like so many things in scriptures,
there's various thoughts and beliefs on so many things, and
one of these is on the Passover itself, and if it was actually
observed during the 40 years of their wandering while they
went around and around in the wilderness. And I did a lot of
reading and a lot of studying and a lot of looking and trying
to find evidence that, yes, they did continue that practice. I believe I read where John Calvin,
he believed they did. They did observe it in some way,
form, or fashion. But most of the commentators
I read and what I came to believe was that no, they did not. And
as you'll see, they were commanded at the first Passover to do it
every year. Within one year, they were already
failing to do that the best I could determine. I came to this conclusion for
a couple of reasons. This time period of the Hebrew
nation is mentioned over and over again in scripture, both
in the Old and in the New Testaments. It's never mentioned even once,
even quickly, about them ever observing the Passover. But what
came to my mind to be even a stronger evidence was a word of condemnation
that God brought to the Hebrews in the book of Amos when he was
dealing with their idolatry. He makes this statement to the
Hebrews. He says, Have you offered unto
me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O
house of Israel? But you have borne the tabernacle
of your Moloch and Kiwan, your images, the star of your God,
which you made to yourselves. Not having you turn there just
for those two verses, but the understanding I get of those
verses is that God is reminding these disobedient Jews that they
have made sure to keep up their worship to these false idols
that they've set before them. And He contrasts this to they're
not worshiping Him while they wandered in the wilderness the
way that He had just commanded them to do. right before they
were released from captivity. So in my mind, they failed to
keep the Passover during this time. And like so many things,
we make so many excuses. We all do not to worship God
the way we should. A little sickness, something
comes up, our children's got something going on, We always
find an excuse not to worship God. How many times do you come
up with an excuse to not read your Bible? I can come up with one every
day. I'm always tired. No excuse at all. I'm sure these
people found many reasons. They never knew where they were
going to be from one day to the next. That would have made it
difficult to plan, to carry out. The land was so barren that the
Lord had to provide manna for the people to eat. What would
all these sheep have been eating during this time? It would take
a tremendous amount of sheep for all of these people to offer
acceptable sacrifices to the Lord. And not only that, as we're
going to read and spend some time on, they had to be unblemished
sheep. They could have no fault, no
disease. As far as sheep go, they had
to be perfect. That would have made it difficult.
Circumcision itself was a reason. The reason they had to be circumcised
on that 10th day, that tremendous amount of people, you had to
be circumcised to observe the Passover. Well, by this time,
especially by that 40th year, there was a tremendous amount
of people who could have not have even joined in on the Feast
of the Passover. I'm sure they found many, many
reasons, good practical reasons as we would view them. But as
I've thought over this passage more and more over the last few
weeks, there's come to my mind a spiritual reason why these
people didn't observe the Passover. See if you can follow along with
my mind's logic on this. These people rebelled against
the God who had delivered them from captivity. And with that
rebellion, with that sin, they had forfeited their right
to enter the promised land. So they therefore subsequently
died over that 40-year period. Every single one of them, save
two, died because of that sin. They never entered the promised
land. So the Passover was remembrance
back to that promise, the promise that they no longer were going
to take part of. But it was also a look forward
to the Messiah. As I've already tried to put
forward, and we're going to look at closer in a few minutes, this
people, they no longer had either. Neither the look back to look
forward to, nor the look forward to the Messiah. They had no hope.
Therefore, the Passover had no meaning to them. They died in
the wilderness in their trespasses and sin. But it's not so with this next
generation that we read of in Joshua 5. They've now entered
the promised land. And the hope of the coming Messiah
It's theirs. So the first, and I think it's
very appropriate, the very first, you know, they had all kind of
festivals and feasts and things they were supposed to do. The
very first one they observed once they took possession of
their new home was the Passover. So with that being the case,
Begin turning to Exodus chapter 12. I would like for us to dig
a little bit deeper into the Passover So I want to go back
to when the first time It was instituted the first time they
observed it back while they were still in captivity in Egypt Exodus chapter 12 and at this
time point in time, God has punished Egypt with plague after plague,
locusts, all kinds of things. The river turned red with blood.
I believe it was nine up to this point. Yet Pharaoh still refused
to let God's people go and worship him. So Moses and Aaron, after
meeting with the Pharaoh once again and being denied the freedom
of the people, They received these words from God that we
read here, beginning in verse one of Exodus 12. And the Lord spoke 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 you 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 an house. And if the household be too little
for the lamb, 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. 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 until the 14th day of the same month. And the whole
assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening. And they shall take up the blood
and strike it on the two side post and on the upper door post
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 they shall 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. 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 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 this day shall be unto you
for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout
your generations. You shall keep it a feast by
an ordinance forever. So go on, skip on down to verse
29 and we'll see the results of what happens. from the firstborn of Pharaoh
that sat on his throne, unto the firstborn of the captive
that was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle."
Every household of the Egyptians, every single one suffered loss. They suffered death. No exceptions. And Pharaoh rose up in the night,
he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there
was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there
was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron
by night and said, rise up and get you forth from among my people,
both you and the children of Israel, and go serve the Lord
as you have said. The Hebrew nation had been slaves
in Egypt for over 400 years. This is now over. And the passage
I just read to you from Joshua 5, it is the remembrance of these
events. They were finally observed by
this free nation. But as I've already stated, the
Passover was not only a look at an event in the past, but
it was also a look to the future. I told you I'd read to you from
Hebrews 11, And this is in reference to Moses' first observance. He
was there when the first Passover was instituted. This is what
it said of him in Hebrews 11. By faith Moses, when he was come
to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. esteeming the reproach
of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he
had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook
Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured,
listen to this, as seeing him who is invisible. Moses had his eye toward Christ. He was looking for the Messiah.
And it says in verse 28, through faith he kept the Passover. And the sprinkling of blood,
lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. He had faith
in the blood. The Passover is Christ through
and through. That's what it speaks about.
So I'd like to take the remaining time we have. We're already down
to about 20 minutes. I want to look at just a few
verses here in Exodus chapter 12 and just take a quick look
and a quick gander at what they have to say about the Savior.
So I'll just pick out a few selected verses and make short comments
here and a few longer ones there. So let's start with verse five. It says, your lamb shall be without
blemish. A male of the first year, you
shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats. Great care
was to be taken in choosing an unblemished lamb. The best specimens,
they were to be removed from the general population of the
sheep and goats on the 10th day of the first month. And then
they were to be observed the next few days to make sure that
they were without spot. They had no faults in them. And
then they were to be sacrificed on the 14th. I'm sure that somewhere
along the way, there was an entire checklist. You know how we always
like to make lists, make sure everything's covered. I'm sure
they had a whole checklist. They had to go to each one of
those lambs. And we're talking a tremendous amount of animals. Each one of them had to pass. This passing, these lambs becoming
an acceptable sacrifice, they're nothing more than just a picture
of Jesus. First he entered Jerusalem when
he Think about it, when he got on that donkey's back and he
entered Jerusalem, that last triumphant time, it was the 10th
day of the first month. The same day that they were supposed
to separate all of these sheep. These sheep were to be sacrificed
on the 14th. Why did they go up? To break
Christ's legs? Where he would die before the
Passover. He fulfilled that picture. This
is a picture of His death. But, and how precious it is,
He was the only man who was ever unblemished with any sin whatsoever. No sin in Him. Tempted by Satan
over and over again, Forty days in the wilderness. How easy just
to break one law to get Satan off his back. Nobody else was
around. No, finally Satan just threw up his hands and left him
alone. During his public ministry, the
scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and any other sees they had,
they sent spies around following him all the time. Why? Trying to trip him up, trying
to get him to sin, trying to catch him in his sin. Why? Just
so they could discredit him in the eyes of the people. But yet
when it was all said and done, following him day after day after
day, listening to sermon after sermon after sermon, watching
miracle after miracle after miracle, all they could do when they brought
him to the Roman government was bring some trumped-up charges,
some false charges that did not stand. So much so that Pilate, after
examining and interrogating him, he came with these words. And
these words, because he was the representative of the Roman government,
the largest country kingdom in the world at this time. He carried
the full force and weight of that entire government when he
made these comments about our Lord and Savior. Behold, I bring
him forth to you that you may know that I find no fault in
him. Not only did Christ break none
of God's laws, He didn't break any Roman laws either. no fault,
no sin, unblemished. The words of the dying thief,
they cry out this truth about this unblemished lamb, this unblemished
lamb that was sacrificed on Calvary, they still ring true. When he
spoke to the other male factor, he said, does not thou fear God,
seeing thou art in the same condemnation And we indeed justly, for we
received the due reward of our deeds. But this man had done
nothing amiss." Nothing amiss. In some ways that's an understatement
when speaking about this unblemished land. Verse 6, And you shall
keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. And the
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening." Now, I always like to give you all a warning when
I come up with what I think might be an original thought. If any
of the commentators mentioned this, I didn't catch it when
I was reading it, and I did do quite a bit of reading this time.
But I had this thought on this verse, this part of the whole
assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening. I went back and read these words.
You know, Pilate more or less just wiped his hands of the whole
matter. But because he was afraid of the crowd and he wanted to
appease the Jews and keep them satisfied during this Passover
time, he took the bold step of turning Jesus over to the religious
leaders and to the crowd. And what did this mob say? What
did the congregation of Israel say? Crucify, crucify. The congregation of Israel shall
kill it in the evening. Verse seven, and they shall take
of the blood and strike it on the two side post and on the
upper door post 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 they shall eat it. They should
eat the lamb with unleavened bread. Now this was also mentioned
in Joshua 5 and back in 1 Corinthians. As they observed this feast for
sure in later years, and they may have even done it this first
time, But they were supposed, the people
of Israel, the Hebrews, were supposed to go in their houses
with a lamp, I guess a candle of some sort. And they were supposed
to inspect every nook and cranny of their house. And if they could
find any leaven whatsoever, they were supposed to completely get
it away. They could take no chance at
all to mix anything with this unleavened bread. What did it
say? Even a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. This is a lesson so many of us
need to learn. And really, as we speak to others,
if you have the opportunity, it's a lesson we need to try
to relay to them. When you come to feed on Christ,
bring nothing with you. I say it again. Especially don't
be bringing any of your so-called good works. Anything you think
you might have done. These songs we sing, we probably
don't think enough on them. I've got quite a few quoted here
and I'll probably mention it in the next few minutes if I
don't just start running completely out of time. But this song of
Top Lady that we sing, we need to all make it our cry. Nothing
in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come
to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. Foul eye to
the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die. Or to change that last
line for our purposes today, feed me, Savior, or I die. We have to feed on this unblemished
land. This land was also to be eaten
with bitter herbs, and I guess that's what we would call a salad.
Now, what it exactly consisted of, it's probably a different
kind of greens. And I've got these thoughts,
and I took them directly from Mr. Spurge, and he had the strongest
comments on them, and the one who really spent a lot of time
on it. He took these bitter herbs to speak to the experience of
a believer, the believer who lives on Christ. He made several
comments on it, and I'll just put a few of them here. He says,
when a believer is first brought to Christ, joy is mixed with
sorrow. The heart is glad that Christ
died for his sin. And isn't that true? Remember
your own conversion? And now I paraphrased all of
this, just to shorten it up. And I put here, the heart is
sad, even though you have such joy, the heart is sad that it's
sin, that your sin has put Christ on the cross. Didn't you have
those feelings? Do you still have those feelings?
Those bitter herbs. This is another bitter herb that's
eaten, is that the believer has a distaste in things which before
brought them joy. As soon as a man knows that he's
saved by the shedding of Christ's blood, he begins to dislike the
things he once enjoyed. Pleasures, amusements, those
things of a polluting character, Mr. Spurgeon wrote, even things
of a doubtful sort. they once lose all their former
charm. Have you found that case to be
your case? The draw that this world has
on you? So many things that once were
important to you and you cared about, they go to the wayside. Think back to that example I
read to you in 1 Corinthians. Whomever Paul leveled that charge
against, he was not exhibiting this Christian character that
Mr. Spurgeon is speaking about. It put doubt in Paul's mind about
the true conversion of this man. Therefore, he told that church,
put him out. The worldly draw of this world Lessons and lessons for a believer. These bitter herbs, they continue
to be eaten when we feed on Christ. Think about yourself. I'll think
about myself. There are times when our faith
feels a little bit stronger than others. But in some respects, that's
few and far between sometimes. Most of the time when I go to
Christ, I'm still burdened by this sin that I carry around
on me. Those bitter herbs just don't seem to go away. Trials
and tribulations, they're also bitter herbs. In God's grace,
it so often comes to a believer, mix with them. But how sweet-tasting the Savior
is after tasting these bitter herbs. After you go through these trials,
these tribulations. Verse 9, 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. Jesus was roasted in
the same fire as the people, as we are. I'm already out of
time. But he came and lived as a man.
He felt pain, loss, fatigue, temptation, disappointment. He lived just like we did. He
was roasted in the fire. We'll skip. I've got some references
there, but I'll go down to verse 10. 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. Here's yet what I
see is another condemnation of modern day religion, and that's
really nothing more but a condemnation of modern so-called Christians,
modern day so-called Christians. They seem to want to choose and
pick what part of Christ they want as their savior. They might
like this part, but not something else. They want him as their savior,
but they don't want him as their king. Back to those blessings. They
want those blessings, but they don't want to have to go through
the trials. They want to praise him for the rain, but they have
no idea that it was him that brought the drought in the start
with. Give him glory for that, too. There's a reason and a purpose
for it. You have to take all of Christ
or you have none of Christ. There's no in between. Verse 13 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
here's what brings it all together, this verse 13. When I see the
blood, I will pass over you. And not just any old blood's
gonna do, is it? The lambs that were sacrificed,
they were specific lambs, unblemished lambs. So is this lamb of God. He was foreordained before the
foundation of the world to redeem his people. He was chosen for
this task. And he was blood, this blood,
it was the blood of an innocent victim. He had to be unblemished. Why? If I could say such a thing,
if he had committed just one sin, he would have to have died
for his own sin. Oh no, no sin whatsoever. So when he died, when he shed
his blood. It was for other. Sin. The sins of his people. It was
payment. For their breaking of the law. How precious is this blood? For
those of you who have children, how precious is the blood of
your children? Think how much more precious
the blood of Jesus is. The God, God who is love, the
perfect God who loves perfectly, loves his son. How precious each
and every drop he shed is. And how effective is it? How effective is this blood?
I'll just go to Hebrews 9, read a few verses for you. I'll let
the writer of Hebrews, most probably Paul, tell us. He said, for Christ
is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which
are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself now to
appear in the presence of God for us. So was Christ's sacrifice
acceptable? Well, he died, he was buried,
and he's now risen into heaven at the right hand of God. Yes,
it was acceptable. Verse 25, nor yet that he should
offer himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy
place every year with the blood of others. For then must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once in
the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. Christ only had to die once. And that one death was satisfactory
and is still satisfactory. As it is appointed unto man once
to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall
he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Without sin. Not only has the
sin debt been paid, not only is justice been satisfied, Now
that sins gone. Completely covered. By the blood. This blood is the only thing
that can save. Go back and reread Exodus 12.
Nothing else. Nothing else. Was put around
that door. Around the three sides of the
door post. Nothing but the blood. That's it. How effective is this blood?
Read your Bibles. It saved liars, it saved cheats,
it saved thieves, adulterers, murderers, and it saved the worst
sinners of all, the self-righteous. The self-righteous who call themselves
the chiefest sinners. It has saved them all. There's
not a sin that it can't save. This is the substitutionary work
of our Savior. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. If Christ died for you, if you're
under his blood, When God passes by in judgment,
He sees the blood of His Son and His justice is satisfied.
And He leaves you, passes by, leaving you accepted in the Beloved. I've got one more little verse
here from Mr. Toplady. It just sort of wraps this substitutionary
work up in my mind anyway. Christ died for his people. That
is sufficient. That's effective. God's justice
is satisfied. His people are saved. Mr. Top Lady wrote. If thou has my
discharge procured and freely in my place endured. The whole
of wrath divine, payment God will not twice demand, first
at my bleeding surety's hand and then again at mine. If Christ died for you, God sees
the blood and he passes by. Thank you.