I want you to turn to Exodus
chapter 12 with me now. Exodus chapter 12. This symbolic table behind me is what we normally call the
Lord's table. I believe that's significant
because it represents the person and the work of our Lord, all
that he did, all that he did. All we are doing tonight is merely
remembering what he did. what he did, we're not calling
attention in the least degree to anything about ourselves,
not our faith, not the ceremony. We're not calling attention to
or making much of this ceremony. This is the reason that I believe
we should make this as simple as possible, because if you add
much pomp and ceremony, you take away from the simplicity that
is in Christ. You take men's eyes, men and
women's eyes and minds off of the person and the work of Christ
and get them on the ceremony. If you add all of this pageantry
and beauty and eloquence of what some places call the Latin liturgy,
you take away from the plain bloody sacrifice of Christ on
the cross. That's the reason we make this
as simple as possible. And it's also called the Lord's
Table because I believe it's symbolic of the first table that
was spread for God's people in the form of a feast called the
Feast of Unleavened Bread, or what we're going to look at here,
the Passover. And here in our text, it says
the Lord's Passover. Let's read it together. Let's
read the first 13 verses. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto
you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of
the year to you. And 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 an house. 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. And your
lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year. You
should take it out from the sheep or from the goats, you should
keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month and the
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening. And they shall take of the blood
and strike it on the two side post and on the upper door post
of the house, 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 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 ye shall let nothing
of it remain until the morning. And that which remaineth of it
until the morning, ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye
eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, And
your staff in your hand, and you shall eat in a haste. It
is the Lord's Passover. Jump down to verse twenty-seven.
Verse twenty-six, And it shall come to pass when your children
shall say unto you, What are you doing here? What mean you
by this service? That you shall say, It is the
sacrifice of the Lord's Passover. It is the Lord's Passover. This
is the Lord's table representing all that he did. All that he
did is not our table. To fence, to police, to keep
anyone from. It is not our table, it is the
Lord's table. Salvation is not within our hands
to dole out or dispense as we see fit. It's the Lord's salvation. It's the Lord's Passover. He
is the author. He is the finisher. and he is
all in between. It is the Lord's Passover. Now, let's look at this verse
by verse very quickly. Look at verse 2 with me. The
Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, This month shall be unto
you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of
the year to you. Now, when God Almighty speaks
to an old sinner who's been dead and trespasses in sin and reveals
Christ to his or her heart for the first time, he has been born
again. Old things have passed away.
All things have become new. It's the first day of the rest
of his life, real life, life more abundant. This is newness
of life to him, the first month of his real life. He's been dead
up to that point, but he is now living in Christ, this baby in
Christ. And also, Christ is called the
firstborn among many brothers, and the cross, Calvary, is the
starting point of all history. It's the starting point. It's
the finishing point, and it's the starting point. I know Christ
was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, but
he had to be slain, and when he was slain, when that transaction
was done, that was the starting point of the history of God's
family. Verse 3, And 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. They shall take every
man a lamb." Who is this talking about? Look at verse 21 with
me in this same passage. Verse 21, Moses, here's some
more specific instructions. Moses called for all the elders
of Israel and said unto them, draw out and take you a lamb. These instructions were to the
elders. Take you a lamb, according to your families." In other words,
according to the families that are under your charge, and kill
the Passover. This is significant. This is
significant. In other words, every man of
every household wasn't necessarily in charge of killing the Passover.
It was the elders' responsibility. God had instituted this, given
the elders charge over so many houses. per elder, so many families
were under the charge and the care and the safekeeping of the
instruction of these elders. This is significant. This is
typical of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit,
who took the lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
took the lamb from the bosom of the Father, took Christ and
sent him to God's family. Look at verse three again. shall take to them every man
a lamb according to the house of their fathers." A lamb for
a house. The elders were to take a lamb
for the Father's house. And God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit took Christ the lamb and sent him unto the
Father's house. No one else. Christ was sent
to the church, to the house, by the elders. by God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It says, a lamb, there's
only one. There's only one lamb slain.
Four in house, there's only one church. A lamb, one lamb for
Christ, one bride. And it says, verse four, if the
household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor,
now the reason that was significant, that every man in every house
was not necessarily in charge of his own house, because that's
typical salvation. Salvation is not in our hands.
I know a man by faith appropriates or receives the
blood of Christ by faith. And what he's saying when he
believes Christ and believes in the atoning work of Christ,
he's saying, I believe this is mine. I receive this work of
mine. But God, the Holy Spirit, is
the one that applied the blood. We didn't do that. That would
make this salvation dependent upon our faith, wouldn't it?
Even that faith again. So see, this is the work of the
triune God, the work of the elders. The elders were responsible that
the blood was to be on the door. There may have been some men,
some heads of some household that didn't have good sense.
And the elders were going to make sure that those people,
God's people, Israel, had the blood on their door. OK? And so the blood was applied
by the Holy Spirit to us. We didn't apply the blood. He
applied the blood. That's significant. It's the
Lord's Passover, he said. The Lord started it and the Lord
was going to finish it. The Lord was going to apply it.
And all in between. Verse 4, he said, 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 counts for the
lamb." In other words, to these elders was given a strict charge,
you see that every man is accounted for. Every man, you see that every
man is accounted for, for the lamb. Make it all count. No waste here. There were strict
orders given that there was to be no waste of this precious,
life-saving substance. It's blind. Not too much, there
was not too much, nor was there too little to go around. And
each elder was to determine how many people were in that house,
in those houses, how much blood it would take, how much victuals
or food it would take for that house, and in the wisdom, the
God-given wisdom to that elder, He made sure there was just enough,
not too much, not too little, according to the God-given wisdom.
What does that speak of to you? Particular redemption. Yes, sir. Say it loudly. Particular redemption. There is not going to be, in
the wisdom of God Almighty, there is to be no waste of that precious
substance. I despise any mention of universal
redemption. I despise it. It's a mockery
of God's wisdom. It says God didn't know how much
it would take to save how many. He didn't know who was going
to be saved. It's a mockery. It's a. It disgraces. It brings down
the power of the blood of Christ to say that Christ has spilled
his out there on everybody and whoever just received it, they
made it effectual. That means there's no power in
the blood. That means the power is in the one who believes in
it. Right? That's not so. That's
a lie. That's blasphemy. It's the blood
that makes atonement for the soul. Romans 5 says the blood
is what justifies. We're justified by the blood
of Christ. Particular redemption. There's no waste of the precious,
soul-saving, redeeming substance, the blood of God's Son. This
was no wholesale, arbitrary, universal spilling of the blood
of Christ. The blood of Christ was not spilt. It was poured out on purpose
on the mercy seat before God, but it was applied. This is the
word I'm going for. It was not spilt. It was applied. I'm saying the blood to spill
something means you don't have control of it, right? His blood
wasn't spilled. It was applied. It was applied. There's no offer of the blood
to anyone who wanted it. No. The elders who didn't go
running through the streets say anybody who wants blood can have
it. God's coming through and there was no offer here of the
blood. Moses and Aaron, God told Moses and Aaron, you see to it
that the elders apply the blood to this house, that house, this
house, that house, that house, everyone that I ordain. You make
sure they've got the blood. Nobody, no less, no more. Right? Is that a picture of particular
redemption or what? Now, I'm not glorying in a doctrine.
What I am glorying in and what I am exalting or attempting to
exalt, very feebly right now, is the effectual, sovereign,
saving, power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that everybody
for whom it is supplied and everybody for whom it is shed is saved. That's our hope. That's our hope. There was no offer of blood to
anyone who wanted it, but a sovereign act of application upon all the
ordained souls of God's people. Make sure you count. Make sure
you count now. Can God count? My soul, that's
blasphemy to even say such a thing. God didn't know what it would
take, so he just threw the blood out there hoping somebody would
have it. We do that. When I was pouring the wine down
there a couple, last time we had this, we had a little bit
of blood, a little bit of wine left over in the bottle. And
I was trying to think, I wonder how many people are going to
be there. I don't know, I just don't have any idea. I sure hope
there's enough to go around. Christ, you reckon God was worrying
about death? And you know, this is so expensive,
I don't want to waste any of it. There's no sense in putting
it back in the bottle, you know. You reckon God even thought such
a thing? He knew exactly how much blood it would take and
exactly who would believe on Him, and He applied the blood
accordingly. No more, no less. Make it count. Make sure the
blood is applied to every soul and every drop is used. And your lamb shall be without
blemish." Without blemish, your lamb. Significant, it's God's
wisdom that he chose a lamb for the sacrifice. A lamb, because
a lamb is perhaps the meekest animal on the face of the earth. Have any of you ever held a little
baby lamb? You know, their cry is next to
the cry of a child. You ever heard a little lamb
bleating? You ever felt their little noses? It's like a baby's
behind. A lamb is significant. God chose a lamb. It's the meekest,
mildest, gentlest animal on the face of the earth. And it's the
most useful. Every part of a lamb is useful
in the service of man. the coach for man's protection
and his warmth, the body for his nourishment, the blood for
his atonement. And doesn't this speak clearly
of Christ? Christ, he said, take my yoke upon you and learn of
me. I am meek, harmless, meek, gentlest man who ever, the only
true gentle man who ever lived, a gentleman, the epitome of a
gentleman. And every part of Christ, every
facet of Christ's life from the cradle to the grave was useful
for man. Every step he took was expedient
for us, was necessary. Every word he spoke was expedient,
was useful for us. Every act he performed was expedient
for man, was edifying, was profitable, was good for man. Every part
of Christ, every facet of Christ was useful. His blood for our
atonement, His body, His life for our life, for our nourishment,
and His righteousness for our protection, His comfort for our
warmth. And look at this, it says a male
of the first year, a male of the first year. There will be
some fools, some hypocritical blasphemous fools out there trying
to take the gender out of the Bible. Don't even address that. Scripture says, a male of the
first year, the first year. In Jewish laws, a man was not
considered law until he was thirty years old. Christ began his earthly
ministry the first year of his life, thirty years old. A male
of the first year, and take him out from the sheep or from the
goats. I bet you Nancy could quote this,
Psalm 89, 18. He's exalted one chosen out of
the people. Out of the sheep, there's a few
sheep in there, a few goats too. Christ was chosen out from among
them. Jew and Gentile, verse 6. And you shall keep it up,
keep this lamb up until the fourteenth day of the same month. Observe
it. The lamb was to be carefully
observed to make sure that this animal was without spot and without
blemish. There was to be, there was not
to be any blind, halt, lame, or spotted inferior creatures
for the sacrifice, for God's sacrifice. Please pass over.
And Christ is the spotless Lamb of God, observed by God and men
for thirty-three years, to be perfect, to be spotless, to be
holy, unblameable, unreprovable. And he said in the final day,
he said, Is there anybody can find any fault in me? Anybody? Anywhere? If you can, then I'm
not the Lamb of God, because it must be without spot or without
limit. Anybody? Which of you lays anything
to my charge? Anybody? None? Then I'll go be sacrificed. Even his enemies couldn't lay
anything to his charge. Those who tried to find something
couldn't. And look at this. And he said,
All Israel, the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel,
shall kill it in the evening. Shall kill it. Everybody shall
kill it, even though God ordained this day. Even though God is
the one who instituted this, the people were to take part
in it. The people were to be the means of killing the Passover.
What does that remind you of? Peter said at Pentecost, we,
or you, with wicked hands have taken and crucified the Lord
of glory. But you did what God determined before to be done.
You killed God's Passover for him. That's what you did. You
took God's lamb to the altar and slew it for him, just like
he said you would. Slew the blood of the lamb. And
it says there in the evening. You notice that? You know when
this was? According to Dr. Gill, that is.
According to the times that he looked up, he talked about the
evenings, and I'll go into this, but he talked about the evening
being the going down to the sun at one time and the coming up
to the sun at another, that right in the evening there'd be a middle
time. That was the ninth hour. The ninth hour. Does that ring
a bell? In the ninth hour he cried, it
is finished. Father, into thy hands I commit
my sins. my soul." The ninth hour, in the evening. Kill it
in the evening. Christ died in the ninth hour.
Verse seven, "...shall take of the blood,
and strike it on the two side posts, the jams, and on the upper
door post, the lintel of the house, wherein they shall eat
it." The elders were to apply the blood to every house under
their charge, to the doorjams, one on each side, and to the
lintel on top, the header, lintel. And God the Holy Spirit, our
elder, our teacher, stay with me, God the Holy Spirit takes
the blood of Christ and applies it, first of all, to the head.
Yeah, that's where it comes in first, comes in the understanding,
doesn't it? It comes in the head, it comes in the ear, and the
understanding. You've got to understand. You've got to understand
what Christ did or you're not discerning the broken body and
the shed blood of Christ. You've got to understand it.
We don't say anything against the understanding, against knowledge.
You've got to have it. You don't have to have all knowledge, but
you've got to have some. He applies it to the head, to the knowledge,
to the understanding, and then he applies it to the heart. Then it goes in and it really
sinks in, the heart, the affection. And then he applies it to the
hands, the hands, the actions that purify, he purifies the
life, he sanctifies the life. And it says here that they shall
eat it, verse 7. No, verse 8, I'm sorry. Yeah, verse 7. They take the
blood and put it on the two side posts on the upper door post
of the house wherein they shall eat it. And verse 8, they shall
eat the flesh, they shall eat it. The people's only response
to all this, this was the only responsibility, basically. This was the only thing that
God called upon the people to do, eat it. Is there any merit
in eating? Huh? Was that anything to brag
about? Could the people, after they
ate, that lamb go running out the door and say, hey, we're
saved, because we ate. We ate the lamb. Huh? It was
the blood that makes a coma, wasn't it? Wasn't them eating
it? That's significant, Henry Sore. We eat it. Yes, we receive Christ by faith,
but all the saving benefit and the power is not in the act,
it's in the food. Right? The saving power is not
in the act, it's in the food. Faith, all faith is, is merely
taking or ingesting inside. Believing in the heart, receiving
Christ by faith, there's nothing meritorious about that. There's
nothing to boast of about that. Besides, it's God that gives
the hunger and the thirst to begin with. A man's diet of hunger
doesn't even know it until God shows him, hey, you're hungry,
eat, okay. Hey, you're a sinner, you need
Christ, believe him, okay. Nothing meritorious about faith,
is it? That's the end of the means, right? Not to mean the
then, sin to the means. This is where this generation
is getting it all wrong, isn't it? It's God that causes the hunger
and the thirst, and it's God that makes us willing in the
day of his power both to will and to do of his pleasure, that
is, to believe on Christ, confess Christ. Nevertheless, he does
say to us, now you eat it. You do have to eat it, don't
you? You do have to believe Christ.
The Holy Spirit doesn't believe for you. Thank God he gives you
the strength to believe. But he doesn't believe for you.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the command comes. Confess him
by baptism. We're not drug up into the baptismal
pool. We've got to be made willing,
that's for sure, but we do it willingly. Partake of the Lord's
table. Nobody forced me to come here
tonight. I did it willingly. God compelled me. He went out
in the highways and the hedges and the bushes and shrubs and
found me. a low-down snake in the grass, and said, You come
on, boy, we've got a supper served. I didn't want any part of it
before, but once he showed me the beauty of it, once I smelled
the lamb chop on the grill, I wanted to come. How about you? When
Christ finally became a sweet-smelling savor to you, you wanted to come,
didn't you, to the table? and fellowship with the things
you have to tell me not to say similar myself with things I
want to. I don't really have to be reminded
that too much I do but it don't make sense. He said he didn't
in that night eat the place in that night. That night. That's the night
of salvation that's when Christ was coming through. That was
the day of salvation for those people. What? There wasn't no
meeting tomorrow. There's no promise of tomorrow. Boast not
yourself of tomorrow. One fellow could have said, well,
I'm tired. I'm going to retire tonight. I'm going to retire
tonight. And in the morning, in a more
convenient time, I'll eat some of this. No. Tonight. Tonight. And then he said, roast
it with fire. Roasted with fire, Christ withstood
the fiery indignation of God Almighty's wrath against our
sin. He was literally roasted upon the cross. Listen to this.
Hanging upon the cross, Christ hung upon that cross in the heat
of the day, underneath the fiery rays of the sun. His body was
literally, he hung on the cross for six hours. His body that
was normally covered was uncovered, naked, even the most tender parts
of his body uncovered, exposed to the hot, unrelenting, scorching
heat of the sun. He was literally fried, burned
on that cross. But you know when he died, you
know what happened? What happened? When he died,
the sun went down. It got dark. What does that mean? The wrath of God has been spent. It's not going to be burning
us. There's now no condemnation to them that are in Christ. Why?
He burned under the hot sun of God's wrath and indignation for
us. We don't have to. We don't have to suffer the wrath
of God. The sun's out, been put out.
There'll be no more need for the sun in heaven. Christ will
be the light. And it would be perfect like
that. Christ extinguished the wrath of God against our sins.
And he said, roast with fire and unleavened bread. Unleavened
bread. In him was no sin. Leavened always
represented sin, self-righteousness. In him was no sin. He who knew
no sin was made sin, though, for us. And bitter herbs. Eat it with bitter herbs. Christ's
life from the cradle to the grave was bitterness, gall and bitterness
of sins, the weight of our sins that he was to carry, bitter
herbs, bitter herb. And here's some more instructions
to the people here. Those were to the elders. Verse
9, eat not of it raw. Don't eat it raw. You cannot
be saved under a false gospel. You cannot be saved under half
the counsel of God. Paul said, I've not shown to
declare it all, all the counsel of God. You cannot know and confess
an unrevealed Christ. You cannot trust an unfinished
work, can you? Huh? You cannot trust a Lord
who's not sovereign and a work that's not finished. Nobody is
saved believing on some Jesus. Right? Don't eat it raw. Half
a gospel won't save anybody. A baby in a manger, don't eat
a false cry of another Jesus, a half-baked story of a baby
in a manger and all love and some tears to go with it. That
won't save anybody. You've got to have a sovereign
Lord working out a perfect righteousness, hanging on a cross, shedding
an effectual blood for a Satan and going to the right
hand of God and sitting down, satisfied, the work finished,
you've got to have that gospel. That's what you've got to have.
That's who you've got to trust. That's what you've got to know
something about. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. We've
got to understand something of righteousness, else God wouldn't
have spoken 500 times. Got to understand something about
our need of righteousness. Got to understand something about
sin and the only way it's going to be done away with. Our generation
is totally bypassing this question of sin, aren't they? They're
just going up and accepting Jesus and accepting his health and
his wealth and their, you know, all this freedom from their troubles
and problems and all that. Sin is not even an issue anymore.
Oh, you can't do that. Got to have some repentance first,
doesn't it? Not saying how much. Scripture doesn't qualify that
and say how much. We'll leave that to God, won't
we? To deal with every individual accordingly. But a man does have
to realize something of his sins and repent to God, repentance
toward God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who puts away
that sin. And he says, not siding with water, either. Not a watered-down
version of the gospel, either. Not siding with water, not conditioned
upon that water. That'll work, too. It's not conditioned
upon that water. That's just the answer of a good
conscience. And not soddened with water. It's not some watered-down
version or mixed version. What do you do when you add water
to something? You make a mixed drink? You don't mix anything
with Christ. It's not Christ plus anything,
is it? It's Christ only. And roast with fire, he says
it again. Roast with fire. He said to those Pharisees, in
Matthew 23, he said, you tie me at Annison-Cumming. You do,
you're so careful about these little small and minor details,
you know, make sure you're doing this and that and the other,
don't, you know, whatever you don't do, whatever you feel like
you're not supposed to do, whatever you feel like you are supposed
to do. And he said, you've omitted what? What did he say, Rick?
The weightier matters. The weightier matters, judgment,
mercy, faith. He said, these things ought you
to have done, and not to let the others undone, but these
are the things you ought to be taken up with. The weightier
matters, judgment. God's going to judge. He's going
to judge me if I'm not found in Christ. Man's got to understand
that first. Forget the antics. Forget the
coming. Think about some judgment now.
Forget about your financial problems. Think about the judgment of God
against your sins, right? Forget about your temporal needs.
Think about your need to have this faith without which no man
can please God. Mercy. Forget about whatever
you hear. Cry to God for mercy. Forget
about everything you need but mercy. That's the one thing. You know, when Christ said in
John 16, verse 8, he said, when the Holy Spirit has come. Now,
our generation likes to talk a lot about the Holy Spirit.
These Charismatics, these so-called Pentecostals, they like to talk
a lot about the Holy Spirit, don't they? They completely bypass
what Christ said in John 16, don't they? Forget that. It's
like it never was written. He said, when the Holy Spirit
is come, he said in verse 8, he'll reprove the world, that
is, the world of his people, of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Those are gospel issues, aren't
they? They're all satisfied and met
in Christ. There's no talk about sin, righteousness,
and judgment, or faith and judgment, is there? No talk whatsoever
about it. When the Holy Spirit has come,
that's what he's going to approve his people of. That's what they're
going to understand. That's what they're going to
see their need of, most certainly. Roast with fire. You've got to
understand something about judgment, don't you? Sure you do. His head
with his legs. Roast with fire, his head with
his legs. Christ better be your head. Paul said some people aren't
lifting up the head. Not holding the head. Where is
that, he said there? Ephesians, I think, somewhere.
Not holding the head. Some people don't hold up the
head, they hold up the body. They make much of the body, but
not much of the head. There wouldn't be much of a body
without the head, would there? Not holding the head. The head. Christ
must be your head. The Lord over all. And with his
legs. Christ better be your strength.
The legs are the seat of strength, aren't they? The strong men of
the house. Isn't Christ our strength? Isn't
His work our only hope? Doesn't the weight of the world
hang on Him? Doesn't it all depend on Him
holding it up, this sin burden, huh? Doesn't it all depend on
Him having strong legs to walk the walk? I can't walk the walk.
It all depends on Him walking the walk, doesn't it? Most certainly. A head with the
legs and the pertinence. All salvation, everything pertaining
to salvation is dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Head,
the leg, the pertinence, everything. Everything. Christ is all. Verse
ten, you let nothing of it remain until the morning either. Nothing
to remain until the morning. Don't try to do anything to help
out this ordinance. Men do, don't they? He says,
don't add anything to the finished work of Christ. It's like I said at the very
beginning, all this is, now we've got this dressed up, we didn't
have to put a tablecloth on here, but in case we spilled something,
we'd catch some of this wine. We're not trying to make this
some kind of holy ritual. These are just elements. This is just wine. Manichevich wine, Joe Parks bought
it at Winn-Dixie. Right? This is just unleavened bread. Nancy Parks
made it in her oven. There's no saving power in these
elements. Why would I dress this up? Why
would I dress me up in a robe and go through all these huma,
huma, huma, and you walk by me and I bless you, my brother,
and all this? Why would I do that? It's taken
away from, it's just simple, simple elements to remember him
with. Forget the elements, remember
the Christ. Forget the ceremony, remember the sacrifice. All right? Forget the tablecloth, remember
the robe of righteousness. Right? He says, don't add anything to
it. Let nothing of it remain. Don't
add anything. I may be stretching that a little
bit, but I think it applies here. Don't add anything to the finished
work of Christ. We wouldn't add, Christ said
this is it. He took some bread, he broke
it, he took a cup, filled it, pasteurized it. He didn't say
anything. One man told us tonight that
he said that one fellow insisted that you better take this ordinance,
you better take it every Sunday or you're being disobedient.
That's not what Christ said. He said as often as you do this.
He didn't tell us how often, did he? Men make a law out of grace. Do this fight in the spirit of
grace. That's what Paul talked about
in Galatians. If I be circumcised, if I do
anything to merit, to make myself pleasing, that I think that God
is going to accept, whatever it may be, even this, Christ
died in vain. All we're doing is remembering
what he did. Let's get our eyes off of this and get our eyes
on Christ. That's what it's all about. Don't add anything to
it. You know, we wouldn't add some brush strokes. If I had
a Rembrandt in my house, a Rembrandt that cost millions, you know,
I wouldn't have one in my house, most of them. Well, a Rembrandt
would, a Picasso, some of those foolish, childish things, I wouldn't
have. But if I had one of those on my wall, you know, I wouldn't
go by there someday and say, hey, I think that needs touching
up. Would you? If I was listening to a Tchaikovsky
overture, the 1812 overture, did Tchaikovsky write the 1812
overture? And he's going on and on, and
I say, stop that tape! There needs to be a minor in
there, a sharp, there's a note missing. Oh, my soul, man, the
audacity of you to think such a thing. The work of Christ, the wisdom
of God. power of Christ, the effectualness
of his work, dare I, the audacity of me to add anything to that
perfect work? Well, he needs it. Christ needs
you. Isn't that blasphemy of the highest
sort? Isn't that despising the Spirit of grace? Isn't that bringing
down the wisdom of God and the work of Christ, the power of
his blood? for every man. But you know,
he can't save anybody unless you let him. You better not do that, he says.
You let nothing of it remain until the morning, that which
remaineth of it until the morning, burn it with fire. That reminds
me of what we studied back in Corinthians. Paul said, if any
man build upon this foundation, wood, hay, and stubble, it's
going to be burned with fire. That's how I got that out of
that. Any man build on this one foundation, no other foundation
can any man lay. And that which is laid, you didn't
lay it, I didn't lay it, God laid it, Christ, which is Christ
the Lord. Any man build wood, hay and stubble
on it, it's going to be burned with fire. Hopefully God will
show the man his error and save his soul, but burn up his foolish,
filthy, self-righteous rags. Also, again, here he said, I
think in that same verse there, no waste, nothing to be left,
nothing to remain until the morning, no waste, everything used up.
Particular, peculiar, purchased people, that's what we are. Just
enough blood to go around, just enough. I'm thankful. I'm thankful. I don't know how
many people we got in here, but I believe we've got enough wine
to go around. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? And I'm sure glad that there's
enough blood for me, even me. Verse 11, "...and eat it with
your loins girted," that is, your minds girted. Paul talked
about it in Ephesians. Girt with truth, Ephesians 6,
your minds girted with truth. You understand, you've got to
understand what you're doing here. Paul said this is the reason
that somebody who does not discern Anybody who eats this unworthily
is somebody who does not really know Christ, believe Christ,
and discern the person and the work of Christ. You cannot partake
of this, you cannot remember somebody you don't know, right?
As my pastor always said, any more than you can come back from
where you ain't been. This is to eat the body and the
blood of Christ, the elements, unworthily, not discerning the
body, not rightfully understanding what Christ did and taking it
for yourself. Really see your need of it. Eat
it with your loins girded, your minds girded. So the truth, your
shoes on your feet, shoes on your feet, shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. In other words, you've got to
be willing and wanting and ready to serve. No man can serve two masters,
cannot serve God and mammon. Shoes on your feet, shod with
the preparation of the gospel of peace means that the man's
got to be willing to be made like Christ and live for his
glory. Don't partake of this, don't talk about believing Christ
unless you want to be made like Christ and you want to serve
Christ, you want to live for his glory. That's hypocrisy, isn't
it? That convicts all of us, I know,
but it's so. It's so. Shoes on your feet. Shod with
the preparation of the gospel. Here am I, Lord, send me. Staff
in your hand. Staff of life. Bread is sometimes
called staff of life. This is the bread of life, isn't
it? Staff in your hand. You've got it in your hand right
now, haven't you? Got it in your hand. Look into the Word of God
in your hand and in your heart and on your mind. Hide it in
your heart. And you shall eat it in haste. Believe now. Trust now. Now. Now. Today. Paul said it a couple
of times, several times. Today. Yeah, while it's called
today. Tomorrow won't be called today.
Today's today. While it is called today. Harden
not your heart like in the provocation like the children. Believe now,
and thou shalt be saved." Because he says, verse 12, I'm passing
through the land of Egypt this night. Our generation, he said,
this generation shall not pass away until Christ comes. He's coming in our generation.
And it might be tomorrow. We don't know. He said in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, he said, in a day when you think
not, like a thief in the night. Didn't he? As a thief in the
night, he's coming. I'm passing through the land
of Egypt. This is Egypt. We're living in a modern-day
Egypt now, modern Rome. And he says, I'm going to smite
all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, men, women, and beasts,
against all the gods of Egypt, all this false religion. I'm
going to burn it up, and I'm going to execute judgment. I'm
the Lord. Judgment. I'm the Lord. The next
time Christ comes, it's going to be judgment. Judgment is coming,
like Noah, who was a preacher of righteousness. We preach,
judgment is coming. It better be in the ark. Judgment is coming. Verse 13,
here is the good news. But the blood, and the blood
shall be to you. Thank God, to you. God called
you by his grace, to you. If you see your need of Christ,
God supplied the blood to you. For a token, the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, is a token of God's mercy, God's love, God's
grace. This element is a picture of
God's Son. It's a token upon the houses
where you are. Because when I see the blood, I will pass over you, pass over
you in mercy, and pass and spread over you my skirt, cover your
nakedness. and pass and spread over you
my robe of righteousness, and pass and spread over you, spread
the table with grace. And the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you, when I shall smite the land of Egypt." Now,
verse 14, "...and this day," this day, the day Christ died,
"...shall be unto you for memorial." And you shall keep it a feast
to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by
an ordinance forever." And I point it out to our men,
and we'll read it in a moment, where he says, Christ says, that
we're going to do this again in heaven. We're going to partake
of this in heaven, but it's going to be not the last supper. It's
going to be the first supper, the marriage supper. And it'll
never end. It'll never end. Christ, he said,
I don't want to sit down with you at the marriage supper of
the Lamb. We're going to partake of these elements. And then you'll
see, you'll know. That wine going down will be
the sweetest wine ever. Touch your lip on it. You'll
be gazing at him. You'll have trouble remembering
him then, will you? You'll be looking right in his eyes. That
bread will be the sweetest bread. Mindy, you've never made bread
like the one we're going to eat out there." Looking right at the bread himself.
An ordinance forever. This is a memory to remember.
Brother Henry served the bread first, please. Bear with me in your Bibles from
Matthew chapter 26. Thank you. Look at Matthew 26 with me. It's the account of our Lord
eating Passover with his disciples before he went to the cross.
Now, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples
came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare
for thee to eat the Passover? And he said, Go into the city
to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is
at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy
house with my disciples." It sounds like Christ was the one
doing the preparing, doesn't it? They said, Where will we
prepare it? He said, I've already prepared
it. Now, when the evening was come,
he sat down with the twelve, and as they did eat, he said,
Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they
were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say
unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, He
that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray
me. The Son of man goeth as it is
written of him, but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man
is betrayed. It had been good for that man
if he had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him,
answered and said, Master, is it I? with the bread in his hand. And Christ said unto him, You
said it. Verse 26, And as they were eating, Jesus took bread,
and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to
his disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body. So Henry, would you lead us in
prayer? We ask you in Jesus' name. Amen. In that same passage there in
Matthew 26, look at it with me, verse 27. And he took a 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. Let's pray together. Dear Lord, we are merely doing
what you have instructed us to do. We don't want to make more out of this than it really
is. It's a mere remembrance. Lord, we know that these elements
are nothing in themselves. to this wine, there's nothing
to this bread, they're just elements, they're rudiments of the world. But there's sure something to
the blood of Christ. There's everything, all saving
benefit and power in the blood of Christ, in the broken body
of Christ. And that is what we're trying
to do here. Our flesh is so weak, we're so pitiful, so so finite
in our understanding, so weak and frail that we go through
these things without understanding, without real discernment. And
we need to remember, we need to have spiritual eyes. We need
to have spiritual discernment and judgment. We need to judge,
discern the body of Christ. the blood of Christ. Lord, give
us that understanding. May we, when we do this, as we're
doing now, may we truly remember you as the weary wine goes down
into our bodies. May we think about Christ who
lives in us, Christ who warms us, as the wine goes down and
warms our very bellies. We think of, may Christ, by the
power of his spirit, warm us within, touch us, our very innermost
being, our very sense, our very presence. Lord, we thank you for the shed
blood of Christ. We cannot thank you as we should.
We don't understand it, really, as we should. We don't place
a high enough value upon it as we should, we know that. We speak
much of it, but we don't really understand it. But for the Son
of God to pour out that, for his blessed, perfect body to
be marred in any way, that's horrible. For his precious, sinless
blood to be shed, to be poured out in any way for any reason,
It's horrible to think about. There's no death. He was not deserving of death,
but we were, Lord. We deserve to be disfigured and
marred, our business marred more than any man under the punishing
stroke and hand of God. Our blood needs to be poured
out upon the ground and walked and trampled under the foot of
men, and to be done away with forever. Our memory needs to
be done away with. But thank God the role was reversed. That Christ poured out that blood.
He poured it out. And in pouring it out, it was
poured out on that mercy seat. And it brought redemption. It covered our sinful souls.
Lord God, make us understand something of these things, and
not just with our heads, but make it sink the reality of what
Christ did, actually pouring out his soul unto death. Make
that a reality in our hearts, and make it precious to those
who believe. Make him precious, the precious
blood, precious faith. Thank you for the blood of Christ.
Someday we'll thank you like we ought to. But for right now,
receive our thanksgiving because of the blood. In his name we
pray. Amen.