Well, it has been a wonderful
day to be with God's people, and I always look forward to
meeting on Sunday and Wednesday. It is truly a blessing, truly
a blessing. Tonight we'll be in Exodus chapter
12. We're going to read a rather large portion of Scripture. Exodus
chapter 12. Starting in verse 1, 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 the month they shall take
to them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers.
A lamb for a house. Verse 4, 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.
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. Ye
shall take it out of the sheep or from the goats, and ye shall
keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month. 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 posts 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 and his legs,
and with the pertinence thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it
remain until the morning, and not which remaineth of it until
the morning, and ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye
eat it, with your loins girded, and your shoes on your feet,
and your staff in your hand. And ye 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 of the
land of Egypt, both men and beasts, 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, wherever 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. Seven days shall you eat unleavened
bread. Even the first day you shall
put away leaven out of your houses. For whosoever eateth leavened
bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall
be cut off from Israel. And in the first day there shall
be in holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be
in holy convocation to you. No manner of work shall be done
in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be
done of you. And ye shall observe the feast
of the unleavened bread, For in this same self-day have I
bought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore shall
ye observe this day in your generations for an ordinance forever. And in verse 28 to 30 says this,
And the children of Israel went away and did as the Lord had
commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it came to pass
that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land
of Egypt, 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. 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. Oh, when I see the blood, when
I see the blood. Now God's people, God's people
are always safe. Always safe. But they're safe
under the blood. They're safe under the blood. And they're only safe through
the blood of Christ. In this picture, those who are
safe, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you This pictures,
this pictures the believer being safe in Christ because we are
redeemed by his precious blood. Now I was told this week that
there's a church in the local area here that went and took
the blood out of all the hymnals. Well, you would call that a bloodless
gospel, right? They probably don't, if they took it out of
the hymnals, they probably don't preach it in the pulpit. Therefore,
it's a bloodless gospel, but it's not a gospel at all, because
the gospel is good news. The gospel is good news for sinners,
right? And what the scriptures say,
it says, without the shed in the blood, there's no remission. There's
no good news there. None. You take the blood out,
you don't have the gospel. No gospel, no blood, no gospel. How are God's people redeemed?
How are we purchased? By the blood of Christ. By the
blood of Christ. So God's people are safe, but
they're bought with the precious blood of Christ. He purchased
his people. He purchased us. And the only
reason we are safe is because of the blood. Because the blood,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. I'll pass over you. So we see that night in Egypt,
God spared the Israelites because he saw the blood mark on the
lentils. And on the two side posts, and
so it is, and so it is with those who trust Christ, with those
who trust Christ. Trust in Christ is believing
that the Lord Jesus Christ died as our substitute and that his
blood paid the payment that God demanded to cover all of our
sins. And when God sees the blood of
Christ upon us, upon those he believes, he passes over. Judgment
will not fall. But if you're not covered in
the blood, well, we know, judgment shall fall. And you're dead in
trespasses and sins. So without the blood, there's
no remission for sins. No remission for sins. And think
of this, too, for the believer. The blood is the blood of a divinely
appointed victim. A divinely appointed victim,
it was divinely appointed that Christ would die in the room
instead of his people, we saw that today, too, right? He shall
not fail. It was appointed by God. And
we saw again in the morning, and in the Sunday school, and
in the morning, that what God commands, what happens? It comes
to pass. So God says, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. That's a picture of us covered
in the blood of Christ, safe under the blood, safe under the
precious blood. Turn with me, if you would, to
Acts chapter 2. He didn't come into this world
by accident. It was divinely appointed that
He would die for His people. He shall not fail. Acts chapter
2 verse 22 to 24. You men of Israel, hear these
words of Jesus of Nazareth, the man approved of God among you
by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst
of you, as you yourself also know. Him being delivered by
the determinate counsel, so there was a time in eternity when it
was determined that Christ would come to this world. The determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. He is king. Ye have taken him
by wicked hands, have crucified and slain. Now these wicked men
crucified Christ, but it was by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. He must redeem his people from
their sins. And again, back to what we learned
this morning, he shall not fail either, and he did not. He redeemed
his people with his precious blood. Whom God raised up raised from
the grave having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible
that he should be holding of it The blood was well-pleasing to
God when he saw it on the lentils in the post right and he passed
over the Israelites well The blood of Christ is well-pleasing
to God It pays the price that God demands
And God sent Christ himself to be the redeemer of his people,
according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. The sins of all God's people
were laid upon Christ. And he bore them, bore them all,
and it was God's will that he did that. It was God's will that
he died upon the cross. It was according to the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God that his precious blood would
be shed to redeem our souls. It sure makes us thankful. And think of this, the blood
of Christ, it paid the price for all the elect of all the
ages. It secured our pardons. with
His precious blood. It was God's will that Christ
should die the sinner's substitute before His own law and before
His own justice as the sinner's substitute. Jesus is God's chosen Savior
for man. And he is able to save all his
sheep. And he does. And he seeks out his sheep, and
he redeems them. He saves them. How do I know
this? He did it for me. He did it for
a whole bunch of other folks here, too. He really did. We're great sinners to our shame,
but oh, he's a great Savior. He is a great savior. Folks sometimes say, well, you
don't know, you don't know what I've done when you know how bad
of a sinner I am. Well, I've said this before.
I know how bad I am. Lord, save me. It's man's pride and self-righteousness
that keeps him from running to Christ. See, when he breaks us. And he shows us our desperate
need for Christ. We run to him. We realize, like
that lame man we looked at this morning, we're helpless, hopeless,
have no ability to come. But oh, the shepherd seeks out
his sheep. He seeks out his sheep. And he
was the lamb, not only a divinely appointed victim, but he was
spotless and sinless. That's hard for us to fathom
sometimes because all we do is sin, right? There's sin in everything we
do. But he never ever had one thought
that was a sin. And we saw on Exodus, right?
The lamb had to be without blemish, right? It had to be perfect,
spotless, without blemish. Christ was without blemish, spotless,
without sin. Not one sin. Ever. Ever. Thus he is the perfect sacrifice. The spotless sacrifice. This
is why he can redeem his people from their sins. He said in John,
and I don't know the exact reference, but he said, the prince of this
world cometh and hath nothing in me. Satan hath nothing. He has a lot in us, doesn't he?
That's all we do. But nothing in Christ, nothing. And then the God-man Christ goes
and divides. Divinely appointed dies in the
room instead of his people the room in place of his people and
sheds that precious blood For our sins What love what love We can't
even fathom that The sinless spotless lamb of God he who'd
never had a sin and thought word or deed dies in the place of
sinners to redeem them. It's not a maybe. He shall not fail and he did
not fail. So the blood of Jesus is able
to save because he died the just one for the unjust. The perfect,
sinless, spotless Lamb of God for sinners. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers to feed the church of God Which he purchased with
his own blood Acts chapter 20 verse 28 to feed the church of
God Which he hath purchased with his own blood God himself purchased
his people which he himself has purchased
with his own blood. We must be redeemed. There must
be a payment for sin. Christ pays it all. When I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. I'll pass over you. Good news
for sinners. Good news. Now, some will say,
well, how has the blood of Christ such power to save? Not only because God appointed
that blood, but again, because it was the blood of a spotless,
the spotless one, the sinless one. If Christ had only been a man,
there'd be no value in his blood to save, because neither of us
can redeem each other, not let alone ourselves, right? But this
is the God man. The God man, neither the perfect
man. The sinless one. God incarnate
in the flesh. And he purchases people with
his own precious blood. And think of this, the Passover
lamb was slain every year, wasn't it? But the blood of Christ. Is shed
for the remission of sin. Once. Just once. Just once. by the offering of
himself. Christ offered himself up for
his people. And then he cries, this is wonderful
for we who believe, it is finished. Ended. What happens when you
come to, say you're riding a subway and you come to the end, right?
Usually they have a wall up or something. You can't go any further.
It's the end. It's finished, right? As far
as you can go, it's finished. There's nothing left. It's finished. The sacrifice has been done for
the sins of God's people, which means there's nothing for us
to add to that work. Nothing for us to do. He did
it all. It is May that ring in our ears. Let us for a moment just picture
Christ upon the cross. Three crosses on Calvary's hill. In the center is our Savior,
thorn-crowned. His hands are nailed to the tree. His face is so marred That He's
unrecognizable. He's in the agonies of death. And let us remember that He's
a real man. He's a real man. God in the flesh,
but He's a real man. He hung on a real cross. This is not a story that someone
spun up. This is truth. He really died. He lived and died as spoken of
in the Bible. And let us think for a moment
that that man, that man on the cross, the man Christ Jesus, is dying for the redemption of
His people. He's dying for the redemption
of His people. If you would be saved or I'd
be saved, we must only trust in what He done on the cross. We can't trust in our works, but only in what He's done. And
God says, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. I'll pass
over you. Nothing but the blood of Christ
can save our souls. Nothing but the blood of Christ. Think if some Israelite had to
disobey God's command and put something else up. He would have
perished. He would have perished. It's the same with us if we try
to bring our own works and our own doing before the Lord. We'll perish. There's only one
work that God is satisfied with, only one who could redeem sinners
and satisfy God's law, and that's Christ Jesus the King. When I
see the blood, I'll pass over you. And let us remember, either foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.
So that means my works, my tears, my prayers, nothing but the blood of Christ
is sufficient. My works, my tears, my prayers
cannot redeem me. Some folks trust in sacraments,
they call them. Some folks trust in certain church.
Well, I belong to this church and that church. Some folks trust in their baptism. We are only to trust in Christ
and him alone. We're only safe under the blood
of Christ. There's not any saving power
in anything we do, or anywhere but in the blood of Christ. Only that blood has the power
to redeem us. The blood stands out as the only
rock of our salvation, the precious blood of Christ. And God is a
jealous God. And anything that you put with
Christ, in His precious blood, destroys grace. What will we put with Christ?
Our good works? They're like filthy rags in the
eyes of the Lord. And think of this, folks who
like to attach their works to Christ. One old commentator said,
will you attach yourself to a chariot of salvation with Christ? Shall our filthy righteousness
be joined with the spotless Christ? Our works? No, God forbid. This is what people are doing
when they mix grace and works. They're really adding to what
Christ did. Never. All says God forbid in
Romans. Trust anything other than Christ
and you're condemned. You perish. What is our, all of our hope
is believers, Christ. Is salvation in anything we do?
No, only in Christ. Only in Christ. But I was born into religion, people
tell you. No. Yeah, you were born into religion,
works, but only the grace of God and Christ can save us. Only
that. Other refuge have I none, only
Christ in Him alone." So there's no saving power anywhere
but in the blood of Christ. Only the blood of Christ has
the power to redeem sinners. Jesus Christ is the only rock
of our salvation. Now some like to lean on experience, or they make repentance in faith
to be an idol. Oh, if I just had enough faith. Now we will repent when the Lord
saves us. We will repent when the Lord
saves us. And we will have faith when the Lord saves us. But today we are commanded by
the word of God to trust in Christ. Not on our feelings on account
of sin. Turn with me if you would to Mark chapter 1 verses 14 and
15. Again, we're great sinners, but
Christ is a great Savior of sinners. I'll read you a portion out of
Isaiah quickly. Tell ye and bring them near. Let them take counsel
together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord and there is no God else beside me, a just
God and a Savior? There is none beside me. Look
unto me and be ye saved. Look unto Christ and be ye saved.
That's the only place for salvation. All the ends of the earth. For
I am God and there is none else. This is the same God who spoke
that night in Egypt. and said, I'm going to come through,
and I'll pass over if the blood's there. Mark 1, verses 14 and 15, Now
after John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and
believe the gospel. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Repentance is a gift of God. But sometimes people put so much
emphasis on faith and repentance that they almost become an idol
to people. Repentance is turning from your
ways and turning to God. Could my zeal no respite? No.
Could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone.
Thou must save and thou alone. Christ must save us or else we'll
perish. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. I'll pass over you. Only the blood of Christ can
save us. Only that shed blood, Christ dying in our room and
place. One says, if I had more faith,
I'd have more hope. And this is a deadly error too.
We're not saved by the amount of faith we have. We're saved
by Christ. Faith is a grain of mustard seed
will save you. Because of who we're looking
to. Look unto me and be saved. Look unto Christ. Turn your eye upon him. Turn your eye upon Christ, because
face object is Christ. Face object is Christ. As I said, people say, well,
you just gotta have more faith. Well, I just need to look to
Christ. That's who I need to look to.
I need to look to, my, we're so flatened sometimes. But if
we look to Him, set your mind on Him. As I said earlier, a bloodless
gospel is no gospel at all. Without the shed and the blood,
there's no remission. And think, there was an innocent
victim that night in every one of those Israelite houses that
died. That pictured Christ. That pictured
Christ. So by faith we look to who? Christ. We look to him. It's not the amount of our faith,
it's what his precious blood did for us. That he purchased
his people with his own precious blood. And our adversary, the devil,
wants us to have our eyes off of Christ. He does not want us
to have our eyes upon Christ. And this is why they take the
blood out of hymn books and they preach a bloodless gospel. But here's a great truth. The
blood of Christ and not blood alone has the power to save us. Has the power to save us. I hear thy welcome voice that
calls me Lord to thee for cleansing in thy precious blood that flowed
on Calvary. All hail atoning blood, all hail
redeeming grace. All hail the gift of Christ our
Lord, our strength and righteousness. Cleansing in the blood. What
does the blood of Jesus cleanse us from? A-L-L, our sins. All of them. I love those little
words. All our sins. There's none left
behind. All of them. All of them. Like what this commentator said,
O beloved of God, the royal bath of mercy where black souls are
washed white, washed white as snow, was filled from the veins
of our Lord Jesus Christ. No blood of martyrs mingled with
that stream. No blood of heroes of the faith
has entered into the river of atonement. The banquet feast
of mercy is served by one host. Just one host. The Lord Jesus Christ, the sinner's
substitute. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. Oh, what wonderful blood. He's prepared the feast. He invites
the guests. He makes us willing to come. And he gives us the spotless
robe of righteousness, the wedding garment for his bride. The wedding garment for his bride.
And like I said, think that every one of those houses, there was
an innocent victim. for that blood to be sprinkled
on the lentil. Oh, Christ died in the room in
place of sinners, of all His elect. And He did it willingly. He did it willingly. And He was successful. He redeemed
His people from their sins. And the believer is now covered
under the blood of Christ. And think of that picture, right? All who were in that house were
safe, right? Because of the precious blood.
Are you under the blood of Christ? Are you safe like these are rights
tonight? Because only those who are covered under that precious
blood are safe. are safe. May God make you willing
and grant you faith to believe.