Turn your Bibles with me this
morning to Exodus chapter 12. Milton said a few things about
this and made me think about it. We want to remember Gary Shepard
this morning. This is his first Sunday. You
know, he's Betty. The Lord took her home last Monday. And it's his first Sunday. I'm
going to have to get up and preach so you know what that dear brother
is going through. And I've got a lot of folks on
vacation and on trips. And I pray the Lord to see them
safely there and safely back, folks that are sick. All right,
let's read the first 11 verses of Exodus chapter 12. 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. 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 account 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 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 posts and on the upper door post
of the houses wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the
flesh, and that night roast with fire and unleavened bread, and
with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor
sodden it 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 ye shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord's Passover. Exodus chapter 12, and I hope the Lord gives me something
to say about it. But the verses that I want to
look at this morning in Exodus 12 is verses 8 through 11. And
they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire and unleavened
bread, and with bitter herbs shall they eat it. eat not of
it raw, nor sodden it 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, your staff in your hand, and ye shall eat it in haste,
it is the Lord's Passover. Now they started out this chapter
by talking about shedding the blood and putting it on the doorpost
and on the lentils. And beloved, it's the blood,
it's the blood that cleanses us from sin. The blood of Jesus
Christ cleanses us from all sin. It's the blood that makes atonement
for the soul. And God Himself said, when I
see the blood, what He said in verse 13, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you, is what He said, look at there in verse
13. And the blood shall be a token for you upon the houses. A token. A token that I, when I see that
blood, I will pass over you. And the plague plagued of God
going to destroy every firstborn and execute judgment upon that
land and upon everybody that's not washed in the blood, everybody
that was not behind that blood, where that blood was shed, where
that blood was put on that door post and over that lintel, everyone
who was bought under that blood and behind that blood, God executed
judgment on. And that's what he's going to
do to everybody that's not trusting Christ. He's going to one day
execute judgment upon everybody. And he's already executed judgment
upon multitudes and multitudes of people. God's a just God. And bless his name, he's a just
God and a savior. I don't want to know him just
as just. I want to know Him as a just and a Savior, and how
He can stay just and save me. If you ever find that out, you'll
understand the Gospel. And the blood, the blood's our
place of safety and security. God said, when I see the blood.
He didn't say when you did. You know, you was inside. That
door was shut. The blood was outside on that
door. And that blood, behind that blood, where that blood
is, there's safety and there's security. Safety and security,
our salvation. The token given that God has
been satisfied and will accept all where the blood is seen is
because He says, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. That's
why Paul says, but now being justified by the blood of Christ,
by whom we have now received the atonement, that our Lord
Jesus Christ has said that He Himself was the just for the
unjust, being put to death, suffering death, the just for the unjust,
that He's the one that might bring us to God. A man can't
get to God by himself. Somebody's got to bring him.
And I was thinking of this this week. I know this don't pertain
to anything that I'm fixing to say. But I was thinking this
morning, or one day yesterday, maybe even, about people being
lost. And I got to thinking, what in
the world do people mean when they're lost? Well, and I thought
of this, that only sheep are lost. And God's going to find every
lost sheep. Everybody else is dead and trespasses and sins,
but I tell you what and when I tell you this God will get
you lost and when he gets you lost He's found you And I'd like to find somebody
that's lost I'd like to find somebody that's lost But now
it's the blood it's the blood God said when I see the blood,
but it's also the lamb eating the lamb eating the lamb taken
and eaten, that we come into fellowship and communion with
God. Our Lord Jesus Christ told His
disciples in the Pharisees, except you eat the flesh and drink the
blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. But he that
eats the flesh and drinks the blood He hath eternal life. Now he wasn't talking about his
literal body. He wasn't talking about his literal
blood. But he's talking about a spiritual
union. You've got to have me. Body and
soul. Body and blood. You've got to
have my body crucified. You've got to have my blood to
make atonement. You can't have one without the
other. Crucified to blood. And so if we're going to have
communion with God, we've got to not only have the Passover
blood, but we've got to have communion with Christ. We're
going to have to eat that lamb. Eat that lamb. We've got to take
him and eat him. And it's taking our Lord Jesus Christ by faith.
and eating Him and taking Him that enlightens our mind, feeds
our mind, feeds our souls, feeds our heart. And that's why it's
so, so important to have public worship. Because if you're going
to get fed, the only place you're going to get fed is where the
Gospel is preached. And I'll tell you this, our Lord Jesus
Christ, He's a whole Savior for a whole man. And we got a whole
Savior for every part of our souls, mind, body, and strength.
And let me show you a couple of things here. Look in verse
3 with me. I'll show you a couple of things while I'm getting into
my message here. He said in verse 3, And down
in the last part of the verse, take every man a lamb according
to their house. A lamb for a house. And that
means a lamb for a family. A lamb for us and a lamb for
our children. And a lamb for every house. A
lamb for every family. A lamb for every parent, man,
woman and child. A lamb according to the house.
And then in verse 5 it says this, Your lamb shall be without spot
and without blemish. And look what it says, a male
of the first year, you shall take it out from the sheep or
goats and keep it up for 14 days. Your lamb, it can't have a blemish
in it. It can't have any kind of blemish.
It's got to be perfect. And it has to be a male of the
first year, right in the very prime of his life, right in all
of his strength, in his prime, in his strength. And then you
got to keep it up. Keep it up and examine it. Go
out every day and examine that thing. Look at that thing. Make
sure there's no spot, no blemish in it. And I tell you, I, Lord
Jesus Christ, God looked at him, man looked at him, the law looked
at him, justice looked at him, holiness looked at him, righteousness
looked at him and said, I find no fault in this man. This is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Which of you, our Lord
said, asked him, said, which of you convinces me of sin? So
he was kept up, and every eye, oh, listen, people looked at
him, examined him. Satan himself found nothing in
him. Oh, listen, I tell you what,
he was without spot and without blemish, and he was kept up.
He was well examined. And then look what it says down
in verse six. And after the 14th day you keep
it up and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel
shall kill it in the evening. Now they say that there was probably
250,000 lambs that evening. But God says they shall kill
it. All them lambs represented one lamb. That's why God said
you shall kill it. He's going to regard all them
lambs as just one. And that lamb was shed for a
particular people. There were many lambs, but as
a lamb for a house, and they were all considered one for one
people. And that's why Paul says, Christ,
our Passover sacrifice for us. But I want to look this morning,
if I can, for just a little while at how they ate the Passover.
And now look down here with me in verse eight. Here's the first thing I want
us to see. And they shall eat the flesh that night, roast with
fire. If you're going to take Christ,
you've got to have Him roast with fire. And fire is emblematic
of judgment. God is a consuming fire. And
our Lord Jesus Christ, He must be roast with fire. God's judgment must fall upon
Him. God's wrath must fall upon Him. That fire that's in God's wrath
got to fall upon the Son of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the food
for our heart is having Him having suffered for us. He passed through
the fire of God's wrath. God Himself forsook him and said,
oh, and that's why our Lord says, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? We must know our Lord Jesus Christ
as the one despised and rejected of men. We must see him for ourselves
on the cross of God's wrath and his judgment poured out on him
and the judgment of God and God's wrath poured out on him and upon
him and he took the cup of God. He said, Father, if there's any
other way, let this cup pass from me. But nevertheless, not my will
but thine be done. Keep Exodus and look in Isaiah
63. Look in Isaiah 63. And I tell you, this is something
people don't want. They don't want a suffering Savior.
They don't want to think about God's wrath. They don't want
to think about God's judgment. God doesn't consume in fire.
But I tell you, God God, wherever He finds sin, it's got to be
punished. And when sin was laid on His
blessed Son, and He was roast with that fire, that meant that
God's judgment, God's wrath, God's fire fell on Him. He tread the winepress of God
alone. Look what He said in Isaiah 63,
Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from
Basra? This, who is this that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine
apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine
vat? And oh, this Lord Jesus Christ, look what he said, I
have tread in the wine press alone. and of the people there
was none with me. For I will tread them in mine
anger and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be
sprinkled upon my garments, and I'll stain all my raiment. He
was made sin for us. And listen to this, for the day
of my vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is
come. And I looked, And there's nobody
to help. And I wondered if there was none
to uphold me. Therefore, my own arm brought
salvation unto me, and my fury upheld it. Oh, listen. He tread that winepress all by
Himself. He by Himself purged our sins. And I tell you, this is the only
object of true faith. Christ crucified. It's not the
cross. Now listen to me. It's not the
cross that saves us. No, no, it's not the cross that
people say, I trust in the cross. Listen, the cross is not what
saved us. It was who was on that cross that saves us. It was who
died on that cross that saved us. It was who bore our sins
that saves us. It was who bore the judgment
and wrath of God that saves us. And I'll tell you, it's Christ
that's the object of our faith. It's not the cross. It's Christ
suffering our curse, bearing our wrath, atoning for our sins
that saves us. And as they ate that lamb roast
with fire, Christ must be trusted in and looked to as the one who
suffered. And let me tell you something
else about it. He got to be roast with fire. Thank God he bore
God's wrath. That's why when we've done faced
God's judgment, God done punished me for my sin. I've done bore
the wrath of God and the judgment of God and the punishment of
God for my sin. Where at? In that lamb that was
roast with fire. What else he says about it now
in verse 9? Eat not of it raw, nor sodden
it all with water. Now what does that mean? Don't
eat it raw. And this is substitution. When
our Lord said, eat my flesh and drink my blood. What this means
is we can never separate our Lord Jesus Christ from His atonement,
from His bloodshed. It must be roasted, but people
And preachers do this. They want a personal Savior.
Personal Savior. But they want Him without His
cross. They want Him without His suffering. They want Him
without barren sin. And let me show you what I mean
by that. You keep Exodus and look in Matthew 16 with me. This is exactly what I mean by
this. People are more interested in
and getting people in a service than they are of honoring Christ. They're more interested in how
trying to get folks around here they advertise everything under
the sun and mention everything under the sun about coming to
their services but they never ever mention Christ. Come the
way you are. If you got tattoos all over you,
that's fine. Got rings in your nose and bells
on your toes, come on in, that's fine. But they're interested in getting
you in a service and getting you interested in trying God.
But they never mention Christ. And if we go anywhere or listen
to anybody that's not preaching Christ, you're listening to a
false prophet. You're listening to somebody
that's lying on God. They're more interested in what kind
of music they're going to have in the service than they are
about telling people about Christ. And they dare not talk to people
about being lost. You're good people, all you need
to do is just come up front and accept Jesus. Well, I'll tell
you what, a guy ain't a good person on the top side of God.
You're the only good person, there's our Lord Jesus Christ
and God Himself. And the only hope we've got is
Him. Him. Not what we do, it's Him. Don't eat him without, and I
tell you, look in Matthew 16, 21. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto His disciples how that He must go up to Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes, and listen to this, and be killed. Be killed. and raised again the third day.
Now watch what happens. Then Peter took him, took him,
laid hands on him, wretched, touched him. Then Peter took
him and began to rebuke him, rebuking Christ, saying, Be it
far from thee, Lord. Pity thyself. This shall not
be unto thee. Oh, you don't need to be killed,
you don't have to suffer. You can save us without that. But he turned and said unto Peter,
get thee behind me, Satan. Now listen, Peter wasn't Satan,
but Satan used him that day. And that's what tells you, when
you start preaching Christ without his cross, Satan's using you. And he said, get thee behind
me, Satan, for thou art an offense unto me. You offend me. You ridicule
me. You're an offense unto me. You're
an offense unto God. For thou savorest, delightest
not, tastest not the things be of God, but those that be of
men. And oh, and he says, Then said
Jesus unto his disciples, If any will come after me, the first
thing he's got to do is deny himself. Denies works, denies
righteousness, denies merit, denied anything he's ever done.
The only thing he can lay claim to is sin. You got to deny everything
but your sin because that's all you got. And oh, look what he
said. And then, not only take up his
cross, but follow me. Follow me. And oh, let me tell
you something, beloved, about eating it raw. Folks wanted Jesus
as a prophet. Yes, they want to be taught.
especially about the end times, for they don't care to have Him
as a great teacher, a wonderful, wonderful example, teach us how
to be good to the poor, and this is to eat the lamb raw when you
want Christ like that. But don't dare, don't dare approach
God without Him being roasted with fire under God's wrath. The Jews, they won't assign.
The Greeks seek after wisdom. But God made Christ unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and power. So don't eat it raw. You've got to take and roast
with fire. And then look what else it says there in verse 9. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden
it all with water. Don't let it be sodden down with
water. What does that mean? Don't they let the atonement,
don't have the atonement of Christ watered down. Don't water it
down. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I
lay down my life for the sheep. I lay it down for the sheep.
And if you make it for anybody else than the sheep, you've watered
it down. The lamb was for Israel. The
lamb was for a particular people. And that's why our Lord Jesus
Christ says, my Father has given me all power over all flesh that
I should give eternal life to who? As many as thou hast given
him. I pray not for the world. I'm not praying for the world.
The whole world lies in wickedness, our Lord said. But I pray not
for the world, but I pray for them. them that you gave me. And I'll tell you anything less
than that is watering the gospel down. Our Lord Jesus Christ said,
all that the Father gives me. That's why I love the gospel.
I'll tell you what, every time I preach, I preach with expectation.
You know why? Because I'm preaching a salvation
that saves. And all that the Father gives
me, they're going to come to me. And when that soul comes
to me, I'll never, never, never, never, never, never, never cast
him out. And if anybody could have ever
been cast out, Christ would have cast me out the first day I believed
because I still had so much unbelief in me. And I would be cast out
today for what I think in my mind and my, Oh Lord, have mercy. If God was going to cast anybody
out, he'd have done cast you out, wouldn't he? But he don't
do that. He said, I give unto them eternal
life. not life until they sin, not
life until they have perfect faith, not life until they fall,
not life until they stumble, not life until they do something
that's awful and embarrassing and shameful, not, no, I'll never
cast them out. In fact, he went on so far as
to say that I'm gonna come and get you again. And when I come
to get you again, I'm going to take you exactly to be with me
where I am. So not only if he's not going
to ever cast us out, but he's going to take us to be with him
where he is. Oh, listen. Our Lord Jesus Christ. I know I'm looking at a lot of
things. Look in John 6 with me. John 6. Our Lord Jesus. John 6, 53. John 6.53 Our Lord Jesus then said Jesus
unto them, to the Jews, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except
ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye
have no life any more. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh
my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. And verse 57, as the living Father
has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat man and are dead. He that eateth this bread shall
live forever. These things said in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. Many of his disciples when they
heard that said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? They said, this is too tough. We got to have you. We got to
have your flesh. We got to have your blood. You're
the bread. You came down from heaven. And
you know, you live by the father. And if we have you, we live by
you. And we live by the father. They said, oh, how in the world
can we do this? Oh, they wanted, and they said,
it's a hard saying. Who can hear it? And what he
means by that is who can understand it? Who can understand it? Well, I'll tell you who can understand
it. My sheep hear my voice. Oh, my. I said, we don't, we
don't understand. I said, I know you're not because
you're not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. And I know this, beloved, if
Christ suffered for you, if Christ is your Passover, you know what
you're doing this morning? You're eating his flesh and you're
drinking his blood. And if he did this for the whole
world, then the whole world would be saved. That's how powerful. and precious his blood and life
is. If he did it for the whole world,
as men say, there wouldn't be a lost soul in this universe. That's why he made a distinction.
There was millions and millions of people in Egypt. But there
was only one people that had a lamb. There was only one bloodshedding
for one people. There was only one people going
to come out of Egypt. There was only one people that
God was going to pass over. And that's, and we're Israel.
We're God's Israel. And oh, let me give you another,
another one back over here. And look what he says down here. Down in verse 11. And He says
in the last part of the verse, And ye shall eat it in haste. It's the Lord's Passover. Eat
it in haste. What does that mean? Eat it now. Right now. Eat it in haste. Take
Christ right now. Don't wait. Don't wait. When that blood was shed and
that lamb was roasted with fire, He said once it's roasted with
fire, that blood's been shed, It's time to have it. And what
I'm telling you, beloved, don't wait. Don't wait. Believe Christ
now. Come to Christ right now. Come
to Him, come to Him, come to Him, and then take Christ right
now. Don't wait! What are you waiting
for? You know, I'll tell you why you're
waiting. You're looking for some reason in yourself as to why
you think God should receive you. And if God receives you,
He receives you for Christ's sake because Christ died for
sin. Or you're looking for some reason
in yourselves why God would receive you for some reason why you've
done something or didn't do something. The blood's been shed. The lamb's
been roast. It's time to take Christ. It's
time to eat Christ. It's time to come to Christ.
What reason keeps you from coming to Christ? What is it about you that tells
you that I can't trust Him? Or what is it about you that
thinks there's something about you that you've got to commend
yourself to God? These folks didn't have anything
but a roasted lamb and shed blood. And God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. Eat it now, eat it in haste. I'm eating, I'm eating, I'm eating,
I'm going to be eating until I eat and that heavenly kingdom
in Christ girds Himself and sets us down and feeds us Himself. And all I ask you is this, are
you hungry? Come take the Lord Jesus Christ. I know this. He will satisfy
your heart and soul that nothing else can do. Nothing else can
do. Eat it in haste. And here's another
thing about it. In verse 10, And you shall let
nothing of it remain until the morning. What he means by that
is eat all of it. Take him off. Uh-huh. And that means we got to have
a whole Christ. A whole lamb. Or none of him. And no lamb. And that's why I
said, eat him all. Don't leave nothing. Don't leave
nothing. What does that mean? Take Christ
and all that he is. Take Christ and all of his power. Take Christ and all of his blood.
Take Christ in all of his glory. Take Christ in all of his grace. Take Christ in all of his wisdom. Take Christ in all of his love.
Take Christ with all the war that bore all your sins away
by himself. And some want Christ as an example,
but they don't want his doctrine, don't want his teaching. And
yet others want his doctrine, but they don't want his precepts.
They don't want him to tell them how they're supposed to be their
boss, to be their lord, to be their master. But nothing, nothing of him must
be left, for there's no more in Christ than we as sinners
absolutely need. I need a whole Christ, don't
you? I don't need a partial Christ. If he was just an example for
me, there'd be no hope for me. I could never measure up. I couldn't
even begin. As John said, I couldn't loosen
the shoelace. If he wasn't nothing but a teacher,
I'm too dumb to get all that he has to teach. If He gave me nothing but a bunch
of laws to keep and rules to keep, I'd be lost because I'd
mess them up the first day. But if I have a whole Christ
roast with fire, bearing God's judgment, bearing our sin away
in His own body on the tree, if I have a whole Christ, if
I have everything there is about Him, then I got something for
the whole man. for my heart, mind, body, soul,
and eternity. I've got His righteousness. I've
got His grace. He's my strength. He's my hope. He's my acceptance before God.
So you've got to hold Christ. Let nothing. If He's going to
be your substitute, He'll also have to be your King. If He's
going to be your Savior, He's also your Lord. And O Lord, speak, thy servant
heareth. Not my will today, Lord, but
thine be done." You see, He's not only our justification, but
He's also our sanctification. That's why Paul asked the Corinthians,
is Christ divided? No. No. No. Let me show you another thing
here if I can. In verse 8. You eat the flesh, and that night
roast with fire, and look here, and with unleavened bread." Unleavened
bread. What in the world is he talking
about there? Leaven. Leaven was a type of
sin. When you put a little leaven
in something, it leavened the whole thing. And so purge out
the old leaven of tradition, and works, and envy, and malice. Look over with me at 1 Corinthians
5. Here's exactly what He's talking about in 1 Corinthians 5. This
is exactly what He's talking about over here in 1 Corinthians
5. About the leaven. And our Lord
told His disciples, He said, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. which is hypocrisy. Purge out
the old leaven of traditions, and works, and merit, and envy,
and self-righteousness, and malice. Look what the apostles said in
1 Corinthians 5, 6. Your glorying is not good. Your
boasting and bragging is not good. Know you not that just
a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Just a little bit. Purge out
therefore the old leaven. Go through, purge out that old
leaven. That you may be a new lump. As
you are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover,
sacrificed for us. Let us therefore keep the feast,
not with old leaven. Don't bring no old leaven in
this. Don't bring anything with it. Don't bring nothing with
you. Neither with the leaven of malice. or wickedness, but
with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." And truth. Oh my! If you take the whole
Christ, He'll take the whole of you. We take the whole Christ
and He gets all of us. We can't bring no leaven with
us. We can't bring our words. We can't bring our traditions. We can't bring any merit? What have we got to bring? As
the old hymn writer said, in my hands no price I bring. What have we got right now to
give to God? Right now, in this service, right
this minute, what do we have that God would accept that we
have done today in this service? I'll tell you what, you know
in Exodus 28, you don't have to look there, but when Aaron
had a mitre set upon his head, had a gold thing around it, it
said, holiness to the Lord. And he had this breastplate on
with the 12 tribes of Israel here and the 12 tribes of Israel
here. And stones and their names engraved
in them. Every name of every son of Israel. twelve tribes. And it says that when He went
in to make an atonement, He would bear the sins of the holy things. That He has to bear the sins
even of our prayers, and our tears, and our worship. He has to bear the sins of my
preaching, your listening, Your prayers, your teaching, everything
that we do, Christ has to bear the sins of even our worship. Now ain't that right? You know
it has to be that way. If you know yourself any at all,
you know it has to be that way. And I'll be honest here, I'll
tell you what, don't trifle, don't trifle, don't trifle with
the Lord. Oh my, don't trifle with Him.
Oh my, don't trifle with him. That old unleavened bread, it
won't work, it won't work. And then look, let me show you
a couple other things. Back over here in Exodus. He
said in verse 8, he says, eat it with unleavened bread and
with bitter herbs, with bitter herbs. Now they had these bitter
herbs to enhance the flavor of the lamb, to make the lamb to flavor it. But oh, and listen,
he said, eat it with bitter herbs. Remember the bitterness of your
bondage when you're bound by sin, slaves to sin? You know,
whenever you realize the bondage is in, it'll always make Christ
sweeter to you, that He saved us from our sin, from our bondage.
And then there's the bitter herbs of repentance. Oh my, sin, oh
what an awful thing and then we have to come with the bitter
herbs of repentance. The bitter herbs of unworthiness.
Oh, when God makes you to understand just how unworthy and how awful
you really are. Oh, that's a bitter, that's bitter,
that's bitter herbs. Poorness of spirit. Oh, these
things is what makes Christ precious to you. And I know this, that
there'll always be bitter herbs. that goes with our believing.
Our afflictions, our trials, our sin, those are bitter herbs. But I tell you, all these things
that we go through makes Christ so much sweeter to us. We got
to have Him. We keep going to Him. And if
you eat the lamb with the bitter herbs, if you eat the lamb, the
bitter herbs go with Him. But who in the world cares as
long as you got the lamb? You know who cares if you got
the lamb? If the herbs are bitter and there's trials and burdens
and afflictions and heartaches and sorrows? Who cares? We've got the lamb. We've got
the lamb. And I know this also, if God
gave us nothing but sweetness, you know how sorry we'd be. If
there's nothing but sweetness, most of y'all would be out on
the lake somewhere fishing. Ain't that right? That's what
you'd be doing. But oh, listen, here's the last thing. Here's
the last thing. Let me show you this. In verse
11, And thus shall ye eat it with your loins girded, your
shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and ye shall
eat it in haste. This is the Lord's Passover.
Oh, you're going to eat it with your traveling clothes on. Those folks, he says, now when
you eat this, you got your clothes on, you got your shoes on, you
got stuff in your head, because in the morning you're fixing
to leave here. This world is not our home. It's
not our home. We started our exodus When we
come to Christ and we're headed for another world, we're headed
for a land that's been promised to us by God. Let me show you
this in Hebrews 11. Hebrews, this is my last thing,
Hebrews 11. There's a dear man and woman
came by the house yesterday and I know it immediately when I
saw her that there was something wrong with her. She's kind of
staggering and she had a hard time climbing steps and I asked
her husband she said after a while said I gotta go sit down. I asked
her husband what's wrong? Brain tumor. And the brain tumor was two years
ago. Took her last treatment over a year ago. And we talked about how that
we are so thankful that God don't let us know what tomorrow is
going to bring. I'm so thankful he don't let us know what tomorrow's
gonna bring. We have enough to deal with today. But we talked
about how thankful we are that this is not the only place we've
got to live. This is not our home. It really
isn't our home. And I'm gonna tell you something.
If this world's your home and you're not homesick to go to
be where Christ is, if you don't get homesick sometimes, I'm afraid
for you. Because I certainly get homesick
sometimes. I get to thinking, Lord, I know
I got to stay till you're done with me. But you know, when you're ready,
I'm ready. I get to missing people. I went
through all the folks in this congregation the other day that
the Lord's took home. You know how many people he took?
One year he took three people home just with cancer alone out
of this congregation. all the young people, all the
kids, and all the teenagers. This world's not our home. Not our home. Old Henry used
to say, don't drive your steaks down here. God'll pull them up. God'll pull them up. He'll jerk
that tit. Them tit pulls up. And this world's
not our home. We're headed for the promised
land. Look what it says in Hebrews 11.9. Thank God it's not. By faith, talking about Abraham,
he soldiered in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling
in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same
promise. Why was he just keep on traveling
and surging? Because he was looking, he looked
for a city, which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Jacob. Isaac. Come on, we got to move. Why? Well, just maybe five or
six miles on down here or ten miles that way, we're going to
find that place that God promised us, that city. And he spent his
whole life looking for that city. That's what we're doing. We're
spending our lives as believers looking for that city. A city
that God built and laid the foundation for. which cannot be moved. Look down at verse 13. These all died in faith. not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off and were persuaded. When they
saw them promises, they were persuaded of them and embraced
them. And by doing that, they confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they
that declare such things, declare plainly that they're seeking
a country. And truly, if they had been mindful
of that country, From whence they came out, they might have
had opportunity to have return. But now listen to it. But now
they desire a better country. That is a heavenly country. And
because of that, wherefore God, even God himself, is not ashamed
to be called their God. For he hath prepared for them
a city. Oh my. We like to go visit cities, you
know, and look around. And he said, here we have no
continuing city, but we look for one to come. And let me give
you, finishing up, and he says, with your loins girded and shoes
on your feet, loins girded with the truth, with the gospel of
the grace of God, having the shield of faith, the robe of
righteousness, and our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace. And if you got that, if you got
Christ, you know what? You're ready, ready, ready to
leave this place. And until that happens, you're
not. Until that happens, you're not. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of Christ our Lord, thank you for the gospel. Thank you
for our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for his blood. Thank
you for his dying. Thank you for his suffering.
Thank you for raising him up again, setting him at your right
hand. And oh Lord, we want him the
way you've given him to us, the way you've provided for us. We
want him all. We want him all. Christ is our
all. He is our all. He's all we need. He's all we want. Oh, he's all
we desire. And oh Lord, we need him so.
God, please move upon hearts to trust him. We ask these things
in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.