If you want, you can turn to
your Bibles to Exodus chapter 12. Roland mentioned having our
hearts knit together. I'll tell you a story about the
first time I ever went to preach in Dingus, West Virginia. Savannah,
our youngest, she was probably six months old. Holly was four.
And it was nighttime. And if you've never been to Dingus,
you've never seen dark night like this in Dingus, West Virginia.
And Janet looked out the window. I mean, it was dark. And she
looked at me. She said, Frank Tate, where have
you brought me and my babies? And I thought, uh-oh. Well, about
that time, the phone rang. And it was Gary Vance. He said,
come down here to the restaurant. It's a little ways down the road.
And we'll get you something to eat. Well, we went down there,
and the whole congregation, was there. And I mean, we just instantly
just fell in love. We just instantly felt such a
kinship. It was just as being at a family
reunion. It was just very, very, very
special. And it's been that way for 30 years. And I'm very thankful. All right, Exodus chapter 12,
I titled the message this evening, the beginning of life. It being
New Year's Eve, I thought about using the title, the beginning
of the year. But the beginning of life, the beginning of spiritual
life, that's really the subject that I want us to look at tonight
in the picture that we have of the very first Passover. This
is the end of this year and it is the beginning of the next
year. And lots happened in 2023, hadn't it? And lots gonna happen
in 2024. Largely, it's gonna be a repeat. We're gonna have a lot of sorrows
and we're gonna have a lot of joys. There's going to be laughter. There's going to be tears. There's
going to be births. There's going to be deaths. But
now, what's the beginning of the year? 2024. What's the beginning? Well, what
is really going to matter in 2024? Well, it's the same thing
that's mattered in the last 6,000 years. It's just going to be
repeated in 2024. I have six things I want to show
you about the beginning of life. Number one is this. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the beginning of life. Exodus 12 verse one. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, this month should be
unto you the beginning of months. It should be the first month
of the year to you. Now the Passover was so important that the Lord
changed the whole calendar over. I mean, imagine suddenly making
July, the first month of the year. The Lord changed the calendar
for this, the Passover. God's people, Israel, they were
gonna be delivered from Egypt, bondage in Egypt that night because
of the Passover. After that first Passover, not
only are the Egyptians gonna let Israel go free, they're gonna
thrust them out. They're gonna give them all their
jewelry and all their gold, just so they hurry and get out, they're
gonna thrust them out. because that's God's purpose.
God's gonna give us a picture of redemption. His people, Israel,
they're gonna have freedom from bondage by the death and by the
blood of the Passover lamb. Look back in Exodus chapter 11.
The Lord told us for this happened. This is his purpose. And the
Lord said unto Moses, yet will I bring one more plague upon
Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards, he'll let you go
in. When he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out
from hence altogether. That was God's purpose because
this Passover is a picture of redemption in God's Son. And
the picture, just the picture, is so important that the Lord
changed the calendar for this and made the Passover the first
month of the year for Israel. Well, this is a picture of Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ is so important. All spiritual life begins in
him. It all comes from Him. The word
beginning is used here in our text. It doesn't just mean the
start. It means the chief thing. It
means the head. It means the sum. Christ is the
chief thing in this matter of life. He's the head of life.
He's the source of all life. And Christ is the sum of our
life. He's the sum of spiritual life.
It just all adds up to Him. Christ doesn't just give his
people life. Christ is our life. He's the sum of it. All spiritual
life is in Christ. It all began in Christ. All spiritual
life is earned by Christ. And all spiritual life is kept
by Christ. He's the head of it. And this
is God's eternal purpose. I think this always bears repeating. God didn't create Adam in the
garden and expect Adam to obey the one rule that God gave him
and earned a righteousness, and he saw that failed, so now he
thought he better come up with plan B. This is God's eternal
purpose, that all life be in his Son. The Father's purpose
is to glorify his Son in all things. 1 John 5 verse 11 says
this, this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal
life, and this life is where? In his Son. It's his eternal
purpose. Christ is the beginning of life.
He's the head of it. He's the sum of it. You and I
are born dead in sin. Well, I've got good news for
you. Whoever it is that believes on
the son has life because Christ is the head of it. He's the beginning
of it. Christ is our life. All right,
number two, the source of life is Christ the lamb. Verse three
says, speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel saying in the 10th
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. In other words, it's got to be
a lamb. Now you know Israel thinking
we would like to go free from bondage in Egypt. They've been
crying for it, they've been praying for it, and in their wildest
imagination, they never would have thought the way we're gonna
be set free is we're gonna go pick a lamb. and pin him up here,
and at the right time, we're all gonna sacrifice him together,
and the Lord's gonna use that to set us free. Nobody ever,
ever, ever would have dreamed of that. They never would have
dreamed of the sacrifice unless the Lord told them to do it.
Now, there's got to be a lamb. There's got to be a lamb as a
picture of Christ who came to give life to his people. Remember,
our Lord began his earthly ministry, and he came walking up to John
the Baptist. How did John identify him? Behold the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world. There's got to be a lamb to picture
Christ. Now the natural man, wouldn't
you think that when John said that, behold the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world, I just bet you almost
nobody understood what he was talking about. I mean, the natural
man doesn't have any idea we've got to have a lamb. I need a
lamb to be sacrificed for my sin. By nature, we think, well,
I'll just keep the law. I'll do as good as I can. I know
I can't be perfect, but I'll do as good as I can and God will
accept that. No, he won't either. No, he won't. God will only accept perfection.
It must be perfect to be accepted. So God has to tell us what we
need. He has to tell us that we need Christ to be our land.
This land must be divinely appointed by God. Now just any old sacrifice
won't do. Just going through any religious
ceremony won't do. The sacrifice has got to satisfy
God's character. The lamb has to satisfy God's
justice. So God's got to be the one to
appoint the lamb. And the lamb must be perfect.
Look at verse five. Your lamb should be without blemish.
A male of the first year, you shall take it out from the sheep
or from the goats. Now God's not going to accept
a lamb that's lame or blind or diseased or so old it's going
to die soon anyway. This lamb can't have any spot.
It can't have any blemish because it's got to be a picture of Christ.
It's got to be in full health because the Lord Jesus did not
lose his life. He gave it. He sacrificed himself
and he did it as the sinless sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the sinless lamb of God. There's not a spot, there's not
a stain, there's not a scent even of sin on him. He's the
sinless sacrifice. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able
to save sinners, would he? If the Lord Jesus had any sin of
his own, he wouldn't be able to take the sin of his people
away from them and make it his. If he had any sin of his own,
his blood would be as worthless as ours. He wouldn't be able
to pay for the sin of his people. The lamb must be perfect. because
Christ is perfect. This lamb is a picture of Christ.
And this lamb's got to be watched. You make sure this lamb is perfect.
Verse six says that you should keep it up until the 14th day
of the same month. And here the father of a family,
he went out and he picked out a lamb for his family. He built
a special pen there beside their house, and he kept that lamb
all by itself in that pen for 14 days. For two weeks, every
time that father walked past that pen, you know what he did?
He looked at the lamb to make sure it wasn't showing any signs
of sickness. He wanted to make sure it didn't
have any bruises on it, not showing any signs of disease. Every time
the father went in to feed that lamb, he looked at it. He touched
it. He looked to make sure this lamb
was perfect. It was important that this lamb
be perfect. This lamb is going to be a sacrifice
for that man's firstborn. He wanted to make sure this lamb
is perfect. The lamb I'm going to sacrifice
to God is going to be worth something. He's perfect. But the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lamb of God, boy, He was observed, wasn't He? He
was watched closely by man. The Pharisees watched Him so
close. I mean, they were just ate up with this. They wanted
to find some fault in this man, Jesus. I mean, they hired spies. They searched. They tried to
trick him up, you know, publicly and things. And they couldn't
find any fault in him. When it came time, they finally
said, we got to get rid of this guy no matter what. They're going
to want to condemn him. The only way they could do it
is find false witnesses who would lie on him. Because they knew
he was innocent. Pilate examined him. Pilate said,
I find no fault in him at all. There was a centurion there.
He was in charge of the soldiers, you know, around the crucifixion.
He was in charge of the Lord's crucifixion. And he watched everything
that went on that day. He'd seen lots of crucifixions,
I would imagine. Lots of people die on the cross.
And he watched the crucifixion this day. He watched the Lord
suffer. He watched him die because he
gave up the ghost. And when it was all said and
done, you know what that man said? Truly, this was a son of God. Truly,
this was a righteous man. There's no sin in him. Man could
find no fault with him. And more importantly, you know
who else who watched the Lord? The father. Now that's what really matters.
The father watched him. The father judged him. And you
know what the father saw? Perfection. The father audibly
spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved son. and whom I'm
well pleased. Now remember, this is the beginning.
The chief thing, the chief thing in this matter of life, in this
matter of spiritual life and forgiveness of sin is Christ
the Lamb of God. He must be sacrificed for our
sin. I remember years and years ago,
Brother Mahan made this statement. He says, it's not the power of
Christ that saves. It's not the holiness of Christ
that saves. It's the blood. It's the blood. It's the blood that saves. In
this matter of life, Christ is the chief thing. He's the lamb
to be sacrificed for sin. And unless he dies, his people
can never live. All right, here's the third thing.
gives life to a specific people. Verse three says, speaking into
all the congregation of Israel, saying, in the 10th day of this
month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to
the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. And if the house
shall 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.
To hear the father of the family, he went out and he selected a
lamb that was the right size, just the right size to feed his
family. If the family was real small and the household was real
small, maybe just two, like me and Janet. We're empty nesters,
just two of us. We probably had to go join Jonathan, you know,
in his house, you know, to have a lamb big enough to feed all
of us. But the lamb selected was just
the right size to feed everybody in that house. It was for them
specifically. It was for them to eat. And this
lamb, very importantly, was the substitute for a specific person. This lamb was the substitute,
was the sacrifice for the firstborn in this house and nobody else. Jonathan would have a lamb. That
lamb, Jonathan, would be for your firstborn, for Rosalie.
It wouldn't be for your neighbor's firstborn. It couldn't be for
my firstborn. It was for your firstborn. There's
got to be a substitute. That ram, that lamb was for a
specific person. And none of it was wasted. If
there's any leftovers in the morning, you are to burn them
up with fire. Look over at verse 10. And you shall let nothing
of it remain until the morning. And that which remaineth of it
until morning, you shall burn with fire. Now, why'd they do
that? There can't be any leftovers.
There can't be anything wasted. Here's all that pictures. The
Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, the Lamb of God, and he
came to save a specific people. He came to save God's elect.
God's elect are the people that the Father gave the Son to save,
and he came to save them. He came to be their Lamb. He
came to be a substitute for a specific people, all of God's elect. He came to be their substitute
and nobody else's. Christ came to save those people
by his sacrifice. That's what he came to do. Now
I'm telling you, because of who he is, he's the son of God, because
of who he is, he's a sinless sacrificer. All of those people
will be saved. They must be. No one for whom
Christ died will ever perish. If Christ died for someone, but
they perished because they refused to accept him or they refused
to do something else, you know what that would mean? His sacrifice
for that person was wasted, wasn't it? There'll be no waste in the
sacrifice. No, the sacrifice of Christ was
not in vain. He came to save a specific people.
He came to be the substitute for an exact specific people
and everyone that he died for is given life. And nothing could be more evident
in the word of God than God's electing love for people. God
always chooses one and passes another one by. There are too
many examples in scripture to list. It's just almost on every
page. God's electing love for his people.
God does not love every son of Adam. He did not intend to try
to save every son of Adam. God loves his people. He loves
the people that he chose to save. And Christ did not come as a
beggar. as a martyr trying to suffer
and die for every son of Adam and give him a chance to be saved.
You know, if they'll just do something to ratify his sacrifice,
that makes Christ a beggar. That makes Christ a martyr, not
a sacrifice. Christ came to be a sacrifice
for a specific people. He came to suffer and die for
those people, and he came to save those people from their
sins. Right before our Savior went
to the cross, he prayed to his father. John 17, that prayer
is recorded. In that prayer, he said, Father,
you gave me power over all flesh that I should give eternal life.
To who? To as many as you gave me. That's
who I'm gonna go suffer for. He's getting ready to go to the
cross to make that sacrifice for sin. And he said to his father
in that prayer, I pray not for the world. I'm not praying for
everybody in the world. But for them, thou hast given
me. That's who he's praying for. And that's the people who are
saved. That's what the Passover lamb
pictures. The lamb died so the firstborn would live. Now that's
election. That's what that is. Now I wanna say this one more
time. One more time today, I'm gonna say it again later on,
I'm sure. There isn't anything more obvious
in the word of God than God's electing love. What does scripture say to you?
What does scripture say to me? Scripture tells us to come to
Christ begging for mercy. We're to come to Christ begging
for forgiveness. We're to come to Christ begging
him to save us because we're a sinner that needs a savior.
Nowhere in the word of God does it command the elect to come
to Christ. Nowhere. Christ did not stand up on that
last day of the feast and cry, all you elect come unto me. He
said, are you thirsty? Come to me. I'll give you drink. He said, are you weary? Are you
weary of being under the law and not being able to keep it?
Are you weary of the burden of the law? Come to me, I'll give you
rest. See that? He didn't say if you're
elect, come to me, I'll give you rest. He said, if you're
weary, come to me, I'll give you rest. You don't come to Christ
because you're one of the elect. Here's the issue. Are you a sinner?
Now that's the issue. If you're a sinner, You come
to Christ because you need a Savior. You come begging Him to have
mercy on your sorry soul. And you know what you'll find
out right quick? You'll find out pretty quick, oh, I came
to Christ because the Father chose me first. I didn't know
that. I came to Christ because I had
a need. But you'll find out real quick, oh, I came to Christ because
the Holy Spirit was drawing me all along. I just didn't know
it. You see, none of the sacrifice
of Christ is gonna be wasted. Every seat in heaven will be
filled. Our Savior said, I go to prepare
a place for you. Every one of those places is
gonna be filled. There will be one empty place. There will be
one person that Christ intended to be in this mansion that's
not there because he lost him, not one. And this is also true. There's plenty of room for everybody
who wants to come. Now, do you need a Savior? Come
to Christ. Come to Christ. If you have a
desire to come to Christ, come and come right now. I mean right
now. You come to Christ. Do you know why you want to come
to Christ? Do you know why you have some sense of your sin and
you know that you need a Savior? You know why you have that sense?
Why do you want to come to Christ? Why do you want to quit trusting
yourself and trust Christ? Because God's given you new one
too. That's why. See, you want to come to Christ because God's
drawing you. Now, if you desire to come to
Christ, you come, and you come right now. You'll find out that
lamb was sacrificed for me. That lamb of God that John identified,
the Lord Jesus Christ, he was sacrificed for me. You'll find
that when you come to me. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Life comes through the death
of the lamb. back in Exodus 12, verse six.
And you shall keep it up until the 14th day of the same month,
and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall
kill it in the evening. Now that lamb must die. Must die. I raised two girls,
me and Janet. I know how it would have been
in my house if we'd had a little lamb pinned up outside our house
for 14 days Daddy would have had a fight on his hands putting
that, killing that thing. Daddy had a fight on his hands.
But the lamb must die. Now you can love that lamb all
you want, but the lamb must die. Love Christ all you want. He
must die. He must die because he was made
sin. Someone says, oh, I love Christ
too much to say he was made sin Well, that's what scripture says.
I mean, do you love him more than the father does? Listen,
he's got to die. He's got to die bearing the sin
of his people because God's justice demands there's got to be death
for sin. You're going to die or Christ is going to die as
your substitute. One or the other. That's pictured this night in
Egypt. Every home in Egypt that night experienced death. Every
single home without exception. Either the lamb died or the firstborn
died. And the only way that firstborn
lived is if the lamb died in his place. Well, that's what
Christ did for his people. He took the sin of his people
and he suffered. He died for that sin. He died
as a substitute for his people. He died the death that they deserved
so that they would live, so that they'd be delivered. Now, since
Christ died, he's the spotless lamb. the sinless lamb, since
Christ is the one that died, God's justice is satisfied. And
now, God's justice demands that God's elect live. Demands it. Now remember here, we're talking
about the beginning, the chief thing. The chief thing in spiritual
life is our life comes from the death of the lamb. From the death
of Christ, our substitute. Salvation is in the blood. It's in the blood, it's in the
blood, it's in the blood, it's in the blood. If sinners are
gonna be saved, the lamb's got to die. And he did, didn't he? But now, the gospel message doesn't
end there. The Passover doesn't end there.
Here's the fifth thing. Life is given when the blood's
applied. Verse seven, and they shall take
of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and the upper
door post of the houses wherein they shall eat it. Now we cannot
miss this. The blood must be applied. That's
why I read to you in Hebrews chapter 11 to open the service.
Moses observed the Passover, ate the Passover and the sprinkling
of blood. The blood must be applied. I'm
telling you, if everything else on this night was done right,
the father went out and selected a lamb. The lamb didn't have
any blemish, didn't have any spot. He washed that lamb. for 14 days to make sure it was
a lamb that was perfect, that was healthy, that could be offered
to God as a sacrifice. At the appointed time in the
evening, the father killed that lamb. He slit its throat, caught
its blood in a basin. He roasted that lamb with fire.
His head with his legs and a partner's throat, roasted it with fire.
Took that lamb, went in and sat down with his family and ate
the lamb. His firstborn would die. the
blood must be applied. The blood's got to be shed and
the blood must be applied. Now the same thing's true, the
salvation of our souls, the blood must be applied. And we talk
about, and when scripture talks about the blood being applied
to our hearts, you know, David said, purge me with hyssop and
I shall be clean. He's referring to the Passover.
They dipped hyssop in the blood and that's how they applied it
to their doorposts. He said, purge me with hyssop.
apply the blood of Christ to my heart, and I'll be clean. That's the new birth. See, God,
the Holy Spirit, must apply the blood of Christ to our hearts
so we can have spiritual life. Well, all right, I see that.
Do you see the doctrine of that? You see, that's plain as scripture.
Let's get right down to where the rubber meets the road. How
can I tell if the blood of Christ has been applied to my heart
or not? I can't do that for my own self. God's got to do that
for me. How can I tell if the blood of Christ has been applied
to my heart? Well, the answer is very simple. It's faith. It's faith. Faith in Christ.
Do you believe all it takes to save you is Christ? He's all
it takes. His obedience, his sacrifice,
his life, his death, his resurrection, and you don't have to do anything
to add to it to make it enough to save you. Is it Christ alone?
Do you believe that? Do you believe in the whole Christ? Everything the Bible says about
him. Well, if your answer is yes, then the blood of Christ
has been applied to your heart. The only person that can believe
that is a regenerated person. This lamb must be divinely appointed. The lamb must die and the lamb
must be believed. He must be believed. That's pictured
here in this first Passover. Look here at verse eight. and
they should eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire,
and unleavened bread with bitter herbs, they shall eat it. Now
the lamb, he's got to die under the fire of God's wrath against
him. That's why he must be burned
with fire. And then that lamb must be eaten
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. And here's what that's
saying. When I eat that lamb with the
unleavened bread, I'm saying Christ is my only hope of righteousness.
Leaven is a picture of sin in scriptures. The only way I can
be unleavened without sin is in Christ. He's the one who had
no sin, and he's the one that I trust. Just like the unleavened
bread we'll take here in a few minutes. That unleavened bread's
a picture of the sinless body of Christ, broken for the sins
of his people. And when I can eat the lamb with
those bitter herbs, those bitter herbs are pictures of repentance.
You know, I take those bitter herbs and I'm saying, I don't
trust anything that I've done. It's Christ alone. Christ alone. That's bitter to the flesh, isn't
it? To say, I don't trust my works anymore. I don't trust
my works to bring to God and hope that they'll be good enough.
I don't trust my works anymore. I trust Christ alone. Now that's
bitter to the flesh. But there's no spiritual life
without it. If you cannot trust your works and trust Christ alone,
the blood of Christ has been applied to your hearts. Verse
nine says, eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water,
but roast with fire, his head with his legs with the pertinence
thereof. Now don't eat it raw. Christ must die. He must die
and his body must be roasted with fire, the fire of God's
wrath. Don't you trust a savior that's preached to you that did
not die for you on purpose. Don't you believe it, because
it's a lie. Don't take the gospel just like you take this Passover
lamb and water it down. Don't put some water in there
and make some gravy to make it taste better. Don't add anything
to Christ to make him taste better to the flesh, like you're trying
to talk the flesh into doing something. I'm not trying to
talk your flesh into doing anything, because our flesh is incapable
of doing anything. I'm preaching Christ to you and
praying the Holy Spirit will apply the blood of Christ to
your hearts. We're not trying to talk the flesh into doing
anything. Just trust Christ and Christ alone as he's revealed
in the scripture. Can you trust him as he's revealed
in scripture? Not some fairy tale men have
made up, but as he's revealed in scripture, can you trust him?
If you can, the blood's been applied to your heart. Look at
verse 11. And thus shall you eat it, with
your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff
in your hand. You shall eat it in haste, it's the Lord's Passover. Now come to Christ in faith. Don't come trying him out and
seeing if he'll accept you. You come to him in faith, believing
he'll do what he said he'll do. He's able to save even you. That's
what they did on this Passover night. Now why'd they eat this
first Passover with their shoes on their feet, their loins girded,
and their staff in their hand? Why'd they eat it in haste? Why'd
they do that? Well, they did that because they believed God.
They ate that way because they believe. I'm leaving this place
tonight. You know why? God said so. That's faith. Believe in it because that's
what God said. And if the Holy Spirit has applied the blood
of Christ to your heart, you believe God. You trust Christ. That's how you tell if He's applied
the blood to your heart or not. Alright, here's the last thing. I love this one. This is the
beginning. This is the chief thing. Life
is secure because of the land. Life's not secure because you
keep the law and you sin less than you used to and you live
a good moral life now and you do all these good works. That
doesn't make your life secure. Spiritual life is secure because
of the land. He's the chief thing. Verse 12.
God said, for I'll pass through the land of Egypt this night.
and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man
and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute
judgment. I am the Lord, and the blood
should be to you for a token upon the houses where you are.
And when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And the plague
should not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of
Egypt. Now, it was the Lord himself,
it wasn't an angel, wasn't a death angel or something, it was the
Lord. He passed through Egypt that night in judgment. In judgment. And he killed every single firstborn
Egyptian maiden. If their house, if their blood
was not on that door. That's God's justice. But when
he came to a door where there was blood on the door, nobody
died there. See, when he saw blood on the
door, you know what that told the Lord? There's already been
death in this house tonight. There's not need for another.
And this was the Lord's promise. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. I will. I think it's important
to note this just because of the error that we hear. You know,
people talk about the sacrifice of Christ today, like the sacrifice
of Christ is an offer to you. Won't you accept it? Don't you
feel sorry for Jesus because how he suffered and died for
you? You know, won't you accept it? The blood wasn't offered
to you. They put the blood on the door
and went in and shut the door. They sat down and ate the Passover.
More than likely, there's the firstborn sitting at that table.
More than likely, he didn't see his daddy put the blood on the
door. The daddy told him I did it. The blood's out there, but
you can't see it, but that's all right, because the blood's
not for you. The blood's for the Lord. It's blood before the
Lord. Blood before the Lord. The blood
had to be offered to God as an atonement for sin. And when God
sees the blood of Christ, He's satisfied. The death of Christ
is all it takes to satisfy the Father. When I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Now that was given in picture
that night. And God's promise is still in effect today, just
as much today as it was 2,000 years ago, 4,000 years ago. When
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Now take that promise and
trust it. Take that promise and cling to
it. Because I know how we are. I know how we are. We go through
the dark, dark night of trial and trouble, you feel so alone,
and you think, oh, God's gonna cast me, He's cast me off now.
He finally just got fed up with me and my weak faith and my sin. You know why we think that way?
Because we're looking at ourselves. You hang on in those dark, dark
days to this promise. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. No if, no maybe, I will pass
over you. Now you trust him. Take him at
his word, trust him. Now that's the beginning. That's
the sum of it all. Life is found hiding under the
blood of Christ. And if you trust Christ like
that, that's what you'll confess in just a few moments. When you
take this bread and this wine at the Lord's table, Now after
this night, that night in Egypt, for 2,000 years, Israel observed
Passover exactly the same way as they did that very first night.
And then the Lord Jesus came. And the night before, the night
that he was betrayed, he observed the very last Passover with his
disciples. 2,000 years of it. Now they're
done, this is the last one. Because Christ our Passover,
the sacrifice for us. And as they ate that Passover,
the Lord instituted the first Lord's table. He did that 2,000
years ago. And tonight, we're gonna observe
that table the exact way our Lord did with his disciples 2,000
years ago. Isn't that something? So Wayne,
you men, if you would, distribute the bread.