You have your Bibles, open them
with me to Exodus chapter 12. I was on my way up here this
week, and Shirley and I was yesterday, and I said, I don't know how
many times, it's impossible to count how many times I've come
up this road to come up here to this meeting, come up here
to a conference for so many years. And they first started out in
this New Year's weekend, wasn't it? And boy, it'd be so cold. Had wind come across this hill. And then he moved to September,
and that's a lot better over Labor Day, because in winter
conferences, oh, they were so cold. But I'm very, very thankful
to be able to be here, and I hope the Lord will make me a blessing
to all of you. I start reading here in Exodus
12, and I want to talk about eating the Passover. And the
Lord spake unto Moses in 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 a 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 14th day of the same month in the whole
assembly of the congregation of Israel. shall kill it in the
evening. And they shall take of the blood
and shall strike it on the two side posts and upper door post
of the houses wherein shall they eat. And they shall eat the flesh
and that night roast with fire, unleavened bread with bitter
herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sonde
it all with water, but roast with fire. His head with the
legs and with the pertinence thereof, and you shall let nothing
of it remain until the morning, and that which remaineth of it
into the morning you shall burn with fire. And thus shall you
eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, your
staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's
Passover. We just sang that song, Power
in the Blood, Power in the Blood, and God said here, that when
the blood, that when he sees the blood, he'll pass over us.
But I want to talk about the eating of the Passover. It says
there in verse eight, and they shall eat of the flesh of that
night, the eating of the Passover. Now it's the blood, it's the
blood that cleanses us from sin. It's the blood alone that God
has been pleased, takes red blood, takes black sinners and washes
them white as stone, makes them acceptable before God. And when
God sees that blood, God will not, cannot, must not ever punish
us again because he punished us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the blood is our place of
safety. Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
is our salvation. The token that God gave to us
is that God has been satisfied by the death and blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ and will accept and receive all where the blood
has been applied. You know, he talked about the
sprinkling of the blood. We come under the sprinkling
of the blood. And that to me, I'll tell you what it means to
me, that when God brings us to the Lord Jesus Christ, he takes
the blood by the Holy Spirit and he sprinkles it on us by
the Holy Spirit. And that's how we know our sins
is gone, he sprinkles that blood and our conscience is quiet,
our conscience is clean, our mind is satisfied, everything
about us, when he sprinkles that blood by the Holy Spirit on our
conscience, then they're sprinkled and they're clean forevermore.
But it's not only that, the blood, but it's the eating the lamb. The lamb taken and eating, that's
how we come in fellowship and communion with God. Our Lord
said, except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have
no part in me, no part in me. And it's taking Christ by faith
and eating him, like we're gonna do this morning. We eat, he's
that heavenly manna that came down. It's his blood that made
atonement for our sin. And so when we come to Christ
by faith, and when we sit in these services like this, we
eat, eat that lamb of God, eat that precious, precious manna,
and enjoy the fellowship of our Lord Jesus Christ, it nourishes
our mind. It washes our souls and blesses
our souls. and it strengthens our heart
and encourages us. And this is what's so blessed
about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's sufficient. He's sufficient
for the whole man, not just part of it, for all of us. He meets
every part and every need we have in this world right now
because as we take him by faith. And now it says here in verse
three, he says, you know, take a lamb according to your house,
A lamb according to a house. That means a lamb for us and
for our children, for our family. You know, and a house represents
the people, it represents the people in a home. And he says,
you take a lamb for every house. And if there's not enough in
your house, you just get your neighbors and y'all come together.
Well, you got enough to eat. Well, we've come together today,
neighbors, blessed people of God, to eat the lamb of God.
And as we all have a lamb, and then it's got to be, it says
in verse five, it has to be without blemish. Your lamb shall be without
blemish. Where you gonna find a lamb without
blemish? Oh, listen, I tell you, without spot or blemish, we're
justified, we're washed from our sins by the Lamb without
spot or without blemish. And he has to be a male of the
first year. And I mean that, that means it's when his strength,
it's when it's vigor and when it's glorious in his power. It
has to be in his prime, it's in his strength. And our Lord
Jesus Christ was in his prime and in his strength. He is the
one that came into this world with all the strength and might
of Almighty God. And I tell you, he was in his
prime. And do you know what strength
it took for our Lord Jesus Christ to go to the cross You know what
strength it took for him to do that? And every word he spoke
from that cross was a word that was already given in the Old
Testament. And he stayed in complete control
of everything that was going on that day on that cross. You
know the strength it took for him to do that? As a man, every
word he spoke, and the first word he spoke was this, Father,
forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. They don't know what they're doing. Oh, he had strength. He had power. In fact, he never
even died until he said, Lord, into thy hands I commend thy
spirit. Oh, he had strength. And I'll
tell you what, I'll tell you how much else of the strength
he had. He has the strength to carry all his children at one
time in this world in his own shoulders, on his shoulder at
any time. Now all of us here are different.
We all got different personalities, but every one of us have a need
of Christ. I hope we do. And thy Lord Jesus Christ, you
know, he's got the government on one shoulder, and he's got
his people on the other. And bless his holy name. He'll
never let us down until he lets us down in glory. And you know
what? I need him to carry me. I need
him to carry me. And then look what he says down
here in verse six. And you shall keep it up until
the 14th day. And why do they keep it up for
14 days? To examine it. To watch over
it. To make sure it don't have any
blemishes. To make sure it's all right.
And then, you know, and then he says this there in verse six.
and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall
kill it in these. There was many, many lambs, but
the lamb was for the whole assembly. God counted it as just one lamb.
Every family had a lamb, but God said the whole assembly,
all of them, get the benefit of that lamb's lamb. And they
all done it at the same time. But oh my, they were viewed as
one and for one people. So let's look at how they ate
the Passover. Look down here at verse eight
with me. I believe that's where I want
to go. And that night, they shall eat
the flesh that night. And here's the first thing they
gotta do with when they eat the, now he's talking about the lamb
already been roasted, the lamb been slain. And then look what
he says, they shall eat the flesh that night, roast with fire.
Roast with fire. What does that mean? Well, fire
in the scriptures is always emblematic of judgment. You know, they had
the brazen altar, and the fire consumed the sacrifice. And fire
always represents the judgment of God, emblematic of judgment. God, he says, is a consuming
fire. And so when we take Christ, the
food for our hearts is having suffered for us. Now what I mean
by that is that when our Lord Jesus Christ was on that cross,
The fire of God's wrath came down on him. You read it this
morning. He will not at all acquit the
wicked. He will not acquit us. We've suffered for our sins.
Where did we suffer? Christ on the cross, bearing
the wrath of God, bearing the justice of God, bearing the punishment
of God. Not for himself, but for somebody
else. And I tell you, when our Lord
Jesus Christ suffered, bless his holy name, he passed through
the fire of God's wrath, and I tell you what, then he was
the one despised and rejected. And when they would have let
him go, they said, no, crucify him. And our Lord Jesus Christ,
when he said, I thirst, He just said that to fulfill the scriptures. And we see him there on the cross
as God's wrath is poured out upon him. And he took it down
to the very dregs. Now you keep Exodus 12 and look
with me over here in Isaiah 63. This is amazing verse of scripture
to me. This is such a blessing to me.
But Isaiah 63. I look at this all the time.
Have our congregation look at it all the time. And I'll tell you, if I've ever
preached anything they ain't heard before, I don't know who
it'd be. It'd be 43 years next March.
Me and Don and Tim James all started within two months of
one another. Two months of one another. But look at this. Who
is this that cometh from Edom? with dyed garments from Basra.
This is that glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness
of his strength. I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Who's this speaking now? The
Lord Jesus Christ. They ask him, where do you get
red? Where'd you get all that red in your garment, in your
apparel? like him that treadeth in the
wine vat. He said, I've tread the winepress
alone, and of the people there was none with me. Christ didn't
need any help from anybody. He still don't need no help from
anybody. For I will tread them in my anger
and trample them in my fury. and their blood shall be sprinkled
upon my garments, and I will strain all my garments." Now
this is what happened when He was on the cross. Whose blood
was it there? It was His blood shed for us. Stained His garments red for
us. And listen to this, for the day of my vengeance is in my
heart. And oh, bless his soul. Listen to this, and the year
of my redeeming has come. Time for the Lord to redeem his
people. And he said, and I looked, nobody
to help. I wonder if there's none to uphold
me. And listen to this now, therefore my own arm brought salvation
unto me. My own arm brought salvation.
Oh, he tread the winepress alone, and the only object of true faith
is the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's not the cross
that saves. It was who's on that cross. It's
not the amount of blood that was shed, it was whose blood
that was shed. And I tell you, he was the one
bearing our wrath. God will never, I've never once
thought, after I've heard the gospel, that God would ever,
ever punish me for anything that I've ever done. And I mean, you
know, I may live to be 80 or 90 years old, and there's so
many sins that we commit that we're not even conscious of.
And if Christ did not bear the wrath of God for all of our sins,
known and unknown, then beloved, we are in trouble. But he bore
all my sins from the day I was born till the day I leave this
world in his own body on that tree. Huh? Oh my, and they ate
that lamb roast with fire. And that means we look to him
as the one who suffered, bore our sins in his own body on that
tree. And look at the next thing it
says about, we eat at roast with fire. I mean, we take Christ
as one who suffered for us. Suffered for us, he suffered
the wrath of God for us. He endured the fire for us. Look
what else it says now down here in verse nine. Eating out of
it raw. Don't eat it raw. What in the
world is he talking about? Don't eat it raw. That means
that people won't Christ without his cross. That's what that's
talking about. You can never separate the Lord
Jesus from his atonement. It must be roasted. And that's
why so many people, that's what's so awful. I showed Shirley a
thing in the paper this morning. I was a pastor of a church, dressed
up as a drag queen. I mean, he had the lipstick on,
the big blonde wig, and big old long fingernails and all that. Now, do you reckon they know
anything about Christ roast with fire? They're eating Christ raw. Raw. You know, people want a
personal savior, but they want him without his cross. They want
him without his sufferings. They want to accept Jesus on
their terms, on their rights, on their works, on their merit.
And they want him raw. They don't want nothing to hear
about somebody bearing their sin. They don't even want sin
mentioned. But I tell you, you keep this
and look with me in Matthew 26, excuse me, Matthew 16. Matthew 16, you wanna see somebody
that, just what I'm talking about here. In Matthew 16. You know, this is where Peter
says you doubt the Christ the son of the living God And all
our Lord said, oh, you're Peter up on this rock. I'm gonna build
my church gonna give you the keys of the kingdom Then look
what happens next in verse 21 From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. Now
watch it. Then Peter took him and began
to rebuke him. Can you imagine somebody trying
to, rebuking the Lord? That's what he said, rebuked
him. And what did he say? What did he say? Lord, now you
listen to what I'm telling you. That's not gonna happen to you.
That's not gonna happen. I don't want that to happen to
you, and we don't want that to happen to you, and it's not gonna
happen to you. Oh, don't let this happen. But
what did our Lord do? He turned around and said, you
get behind me, devil. You think Satan can't use one
of his own, one of God's, yes he can. And look what he said.
Get behind me, Satan. You are a fence to me because
you love the taste of the things that's not of God. You love the
taste of the things of the flesh. but those that be of men. And
that's what people want. That's what Simon Peter wanted.
He wanted Christ without his cross. He didn't want Christ
to suffer. And that's what it means to don't
eat him raw. You got to take him like he was
roast with fire. They don't mind having Jesus
as a prophet. They don't mind having Jesus
as a great teacher. They don't mind having him as
a wonderful savior. And they don't mind having him
as somebody that loves them. They don't mind having him as
somebody that would love to save them if they'd let him. They
don't mind him being a social worker. They don't mind him being
a healer. They don't mind him being the
answer to your marriage problems. But I tell you what, that's not
eating the law raw, that's to eat the lamb raw. But don't dare
approach God without Christ being roast under God's wrath, because
God will reject you, will not speak to you, or will not look
in your direction. unless Christ is one you come
to that's been roast with fire. Because in Him, in the Lord Jesus
Christ is the wisdom of God. Shows how wise God is to provide
a way to save His people without themselves ever suffering. How
to put their sins away without them doing anything about it.
And He's the power of God by which He comes and makes it effectual
in our hearts and in our lives. Huh? And then here's another
thing about it. Eat it roast or fire. Don't eat
it raw. Don't eat it raw. And here's
the next thing back over here in Exodus 12. And he is not wrong there in
verse nine, nor sodden at all with water. Don't water it down, that's what
that means, don't water it down. Don't let the atonement of Christ
be watered down. You know, it's a fact, it's a
fact that this idea You know, when our Lord Jesus,
He says, you know, don't eat it, don't eat the Sodom and Gomorrah,
don't water it down. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He made
it so plain, so clear. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. And this lamb was for a particular
people. It was only for Israel, nobody
else but Israel. And the death of our Lord Jesus
Christ was for nobody else but his elect, for those that were
given to him in an eternal covenant of grace. The lamb was for Israel,
particular people. And our Lord Jesus Christ died
for a particular people. His blood was shed for a particular
people. He said, you know, when the angel
told Mary she's gonna have a baby, gonna have an infant, gonna have
a child. And this is the time of year when you talking about
him watered down, the atonement watered down. Right up the road
from where we are, there's a great big huge Baptist church, cost
millions of dollars to build. And they built them a shack out
front. And they're gonna have a man
and a woman and a real baby And a real lamb and they're gonna
have all that stuff right out front so everybody can drive
by and see it They won't jeep that water him down. Keep him
in a manger Water him down keep him in the
grave But oh my, I, Lord Jesus, that angel told Mary, said, what
am I gonna call him? Call him Jesus. His name will
be called Jesus and he shall, shall save his people from their
sins. And I tell you, we're not gonna
water it down. All that the Father gives me,
what's gonna happen to them? They all gonna come to me. And
this is what's so blessed. You know, everybody quotes that
part of it. But this is a part I love more than any part of
that verse. That deal in no wise cast us out. You know, to think about all the things
we think, all the things we've done, all the places we went,
all the ways we've acted so un-Christlike, so fleshly, so carnal, so sinful,
And there's nothing we'll say, nothing we'll do, no place we'll
go, anything we ever say that'll make Christ say, get away from
me. He'll never do it. Never do it. There's nothing they'll ever
say, nothing they'll ever do. You know where Simon Peter 93
times? Get away from me. When David
was in the arm of Bathsheba, don't you ever come to me again. No, not one, not one thing will
make Christ ever separate us from his people. Never, never. That's the most comforting thing
to me in this world. And I tell you what, if anybody
would be cast out, I've done enough for all of us to be cast
out. but he'll never ever cast any
of us out. That's what he told his disciples. These people came to him and
said, if you be the Christ, tell us plainly. Tell us plainly. He said, I told you, but you
don't believe. Why don't you believe? Because
you're not my sheep. Our Lord Jesus said, except ye
eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part in me. And he
went on to say, I'm that true man of which came down from heaven.
Your fathers ate the man in the wilderness and they died. But
he said, he that eateth me, he shall never die. Believest thou
this? And the scripture says at that
time, many walked away from him and said, this is a hard saying,
who can hear it? I can hear it, can't you? I can hear it. He ain't never
said nothing too hard for us. Oh, listen. People say, boy, I just don't
hardly believe them. My sheep hear my voice. I know this, if
Christ suffered for you, if Christ is your Passover, You do eat
his flesh. You do drink his blood. And if
he did this for the world, the world would be saved. But I do
know this, that there's people that's never heard the gospel
yet, that Christ died for, that Christ's blood put away their
sin, and one of these days, God'll cross their path with the gospel,
and when that happens, they'll believe. They'll hear his voice.
They'll hear his voice. And I tell you, then not only
that eat it roast with fire, don't water it down, don't eat
it raw, but look what else it says here. You know what, let
me say this before I move on. Our Lord Jesus said, thou hast
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to those that thou hast given him. He said, I pray not for
the world. I don't pray for the world. I
pray for them that you gave me out of the world. And then he
said, look here in verse eight, verse 11, excuse me. And thus shall ye eat it with
your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff
in your hand. And listen to this, eat it in haste. Eat it in haste. Why does that tell? Take Christ
right now. Believe Christ right now. right
this moment. Don't wait, don't put it off,
don't think about it, don't consider it, don't twiddle your thumbs.
Come to Christ right now. And that's something believers
do continually and constantly, is coming to Christ. They have
come, they are coming, and they shall come. We're always coming
to Christ. And if anybody's waiting, looking
for some reason why they shouldn't come to Christ, whether they
should believe or not, it's because they're looking for some reason
in themselves. Oh my, why would God not receive
a person that come to Christ? I remember a young woman, she
said, I just can't believe that Christ would have me. I just
can't believe that Christ would have me. I can't believe that he wouldn't. Why wouldn't he? Why wouldn't
he? Are you hungry? Then Christ is our bread. Are
you hungry? Christ is our life. Oh, he'll satisfy your soul.
He said, eat it in haste. I mean, take it. You know, I don't want to be
ugly, I really don't. I really don't, but I don't know
if they're doing it around here or not. And you know, people
are using this plague, this virus that God sent on the world, as
an excuse to keep coming to services. They use it as an excuse. And
I don't understand it. I don't understand it, I don't
get it. But I know that people that are
hungry, people that are hungry, they're going to come and eat.
They're going to come and eat. And the reason people ain't coming
and eating, they can use any excuse they want to, is they're
not hungry. I don't care what you put on
the table, as long as it ain't spam, I'll eat it. You can put it, you know, anything
you put on the table but spam. I ain't going to eat no spam.
It's just lard, that's all it is, with just a little bit of
color in it. And I'm not gonna eat it, but
I'll tell you this, you put anything else on the table, and I'll eat
it. I'm like Mikey, I'll eat anything.
And I'll tell you what, when people are hungry, when they
have to have Christ, and if you can find an excuse for not coming
to Christ, that tells me one thing, you're not hungry. You
don't have a need. You don't need something for
your soul. You don't need something for your heart, your mind, and
your soul. I'll tell you an experience I
had just recently. There's a fella that come down to visit Doc Stone
from up in Indiana. He is a school teacher, and he
works part-time in the summer in a park. And he's an old German,
and I met him, and he come down and had He met us one time and
stayed a few days. But anyway, to make a long story
short, he came down recently and he had never been in a service
where the preacher was, where the sovereign grace of God's
preached. But he come to a service one Sunday morning while he was
visiting Doc. And he told me, he grabbed me
immediately and said, being in this service, and watching and
being able to interact with you while you're preaching and see
what's going on, seeing you really there and seeing you what you
say. And being in the service, eating
at the table. He said, that's just different
day and night. He said, that ain't even comparable. He said,
watching you on Facebook and being in the service with you
is two different worlds. Two different worlds. And I tell
you, that's a man that just, And that's the way I feel everybody
ought to be. Everybody ought to be. Well,
and now, that's my opinion. I quit preaching to tell you
that. Now I'm gonna go back to preaching. Then look what else he said about
that in verse 10. He said, you know, and let nothing
of it remain until the morning. And then he said, thus shall
ye eat it. Eat all of it. Eat all of it. Let nothing of
it remain. Eat all of it. What does that
mean? That means we got to have a whole
Christ. A whole Christ. We got to have
a whole lamb. We either got to have all the
lamb or none of the lamb. We got to have Christ as the
whole Christ. And what in the world does that
mean? That we got to have Christ for ourselves. And all Christ
for ourselves. Christ is in all of His person,
with all of His power, with all of His glory, with all of His
attributes, with all of His strength, with all of His mercy, with all
of His grace, with all of His compassion, with everything He's
got, we got to have Him in all of it. We can't take just a little
bit of it and leave some of it off. Some people like his example,
but they don't want his doctrine. Some people want his doctrine,
but they don't want to listen to what he says. And then he said, nothing must
be left. There's no more in Christ than sinners absolutely need.
You got to have all of him. And I need Christ, oh how, we
sang that song, I need thee, oh I need thee, ever I need thee.
You know, we ought to say every moment, I need Thee, oh Lord,
every moment, I need Thee, I need Thee every moment, oh Lord. Do
some of you all feel that way, that you got to have Him every
moment? Huh? Got to have Him every moment.
And I tell you, there's nothing in Him that we absolutely need. If He's gonna be your substitute,
To bear your sins in his own body, then he's also gotta be
your king. If he's gonna be your savior,
then he also has to be your Lord. Not mere the Lord to trust, but
also to obey. But he's not only our justification,
but he's also our sanctification. That's why Paul said, is Christ
divided? No, Christ is one. And we get
all of Christ. All of us get all of him. All
of him. And that's why he said, with
the head, the legs, and the pertinence thereof, take him all. Take him
all. And then look what else it says
here. In verse eight. And they shall eat the flesh
that night, roast with fire. And listen to this, unleavened
bread. Unleavened bread. Hall told the Corinthians, he
said, purge out the old leaven. Purge out the old leaven. What's
the old leaven? Leaven's always been typical of sin in the scriptures.
Beware of leaven. A little leaven leaveneth the
whole part. You just add just a tiny bit of leaven to the gospel
and you've destroyed it. And he said, purge out the old
leaven, the traditions. Traditions, we had traditions
for years. Oh my goodness, the traditions
we had, awful. Purge out the old leaven of works. Purge out the old leaven of merit. Purge out the old leaven of envy
and malice, jealousy. Purge it out. And I tell you,
leaven was a type of sin, especially hypocrisy. Especially hypocrisy. You know, our Lord Jesus told
his disciples, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And
they said, is it because we forgot to bring any bread? And he says,
beware of the leaven of Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. Play acting. Play acting. And I tell you, we take the Lord
Jesus Christ with our heart, with our soul, and everything
about him. And I tell you, not only do we
take Him, but He has to have us. He has to have all of us. You know, we got a will, we got
a mind, we got emotions, we got affections, we got eyes, we got
ears, we got hands, we got feet. And I got a body that moves.
Voices that can speak. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He
has to have it. All of us. He has to have our
ears, our spiritual ears. Has to have our spiritual eyes
so we can see Him by faith. He has to have our heart. He
has to have our will. He has to have our mind. We get
all of Him and He has to have all of us. He got to have us
all. And bless his holy name. This
is one thing that I tell you what, that's a grief to all of
us as believers. Lord, if there's anything about
me that doesn't belong to you, take it away. If I just take
me like a cup, break me and put me back together, whatever you
need to do so that you get all of me. I don't want no reservation
in me for Christ. Do you? No, no. And I tell you, you gotta be
honest here. Don't trifle with the Lord. If you wanna play act,
if you wanna pretend, don't do it where the gospel's at. Don't
do it there. Don't play act, don't pretend
there. And then look what else it says here. Oh, this is something. There in verse eight, it said,
and eat it with bitter herbs, with bitter herbs, Now I eat
it with bitter herbs. Those bitter herbs was to enhance
the taste of the lamb. Kind of like a relish you have,
you know. But when he talks about the bitterness of herbs, remember
the bitterness of our bondage, our sin, and how we was held
so captive by sin, and Christ come and saved us from our bondage,
saved us from our bondage of tradition, saved us from our
bondage of self, saved us from our bondage of self-righteousness
and hope in ourselves. Oh, I tell you, when he saves
us out of our bondage, it makes Christ so much sweeter. And then
there's the bitter herbs of repentance. Lord, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry
I said that. I'm so sorry I thought that.
I'm so sorry I acted that way. Oh my. That bitter herbs of repentance. I'm sorry. I'm sorry of being
sorry. I'm sorry for being sorry. And
then there's the bitter herbs of our unworthiness. We never
feel worthy. Never. Oh my. We all are the
bitter herbs of our unworthiness, the poorness of spirit. And I
know this, and I know some of you know it by experience. There'll
always be bitter herbs that goes with believing. There'll always
be bitter herbs that goes with believing. We have our afflictions
in this world, our afflictions. We have our trials. Trials, so
many trials. You know, Scott Richardson said
a believer's in one of three places. He's either in a trial,
coming out of a trial, or going into a trial. That's where a
believer's at almost all the time. And we have our trials,
have our trials. A dear lady in our congregation,
she lost a son when he was 18 years old. Then she lost a husband after
40-something years. She got remarried, married about
five or six years, and then she lost that husband. She's lost
two husbands and a son, and only had two children to start with.
She's one of the sweetest ladies you'll ever be around. Oh, we
have some bitter times. Them herbs are so bitter. Oh
my, our burdens and our afflictions, they get so bitter sometimes.
And if it wasn't Christ, wasn't for Christ, we couldn't bear
it, we couldn't eat it, we couldn't take it, we just couldn't take
it, we just couldn't take it. And then our sin, our sin and
all these afflictions and all these trials and these bitter
herbs that we have in our life will make Christ that much sweeter
to us, make Christ that much sweeter to us. And if you eat
the lamb and the bitter herbs, If you eat the lamb, the bitter
herbs go with it. But who in the world cares as
long as we have the lamb, as long as we have the lamb to eat
and the way God provided him for us, as long as we have the
lamb, that's all that matters. If God gave us nothing but sweetness
all the time, oh, what a sorry bunch of people we'd be, huh?
But like Shelby said, he's leaning us off the world. He's weaning
us off of this world. And I want to be weaned. Now
Henry Mahan used to say, don't let God have to break your arm
or break your hand to make you turn loose or something in this
world. Don't let him do that. Don't hold anything so tight. Let your hand be open so you
don't have to break it to take something away from you. And
everything we have, everything we have, belongs to Him. And He can take it when He wants
to. He can take our homes. He can take our health. He can
take our lives. He can take our spouse. He can
take our children. Everything we have belongs to
Him. He can take it when He wants to. And the only thing we can
say about it is, Lord, it's You. It's You. Just give me grace. Just give me grace. That's all
I want, grace. to not dishonor you through this
thing. That's all I want. Ain't that
right? Ain't that the way we are? And
then listen to this. I'm gonna hit on a high note. I'm gonna hit on a high note.
Look what it says there. Verse 11. And thus shall ye eat it with
your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff
in your hand. What's that mean? Eat it with
your traveling clothes on. Cause you don't, you know, this
world's not our home. This world's not our home. We're
strangers and pilgrims in this world. We really truly are. We're like, we're like Esau.
We started our exodus. We started out of this world
when God called us and saved us by grace. We started on a
journey. And we're leaving this world. We're going on an exodus out
of this world. And where are we going? We're doing like Abraham.
He never had a foot that belonged to him. But he spent his life,
Hebrews 11 says, looking for a city whose builder and maker
was God. And you know where he found it? Oh my, here we have no continued
city, but we look for one to come. We're gonna go be with
the spirits of just men made perfect. Here we have no continued
city, but we look for one to come. This world, I'm telling
you, and I quit watching the news last January. What is this,
December? I catch a little bit when I'm
at the gym, but I tell you, I quit watching the news. You know why?
Because it would just make me, I'd be talking to the TV and
talking to the commentators, and I mean, I'd talk back to
the television. Y'all don't do that, do you?
No, no, you don't do that. That's why I quit watching. You know where I get my good
news at? Right here at a service like this. I get my good news
out of this blessed book. I get my good news out of the
gospel. I get my blessed news from Christ my Lord and beloved. And the world's gonna do what
the world's gonna do. And nothing we think about it,
no way we deal with it, is it good. People ask me for years,
I don't know how many times people ask me, how's the world treat
you? It ain't never treated me good. Even when I was in it,
it never treated me good. I'd get sick and be in the hospital
for months at a time. You think I had a friend to visit
me? Not one. You think I had a fellow employee
that I worked with come see me? Not one. The only person to ever come
see me was my wife. She'd bring the kids when I was
in the hospital for so many times. No, the world has never been
good to me. And it's certainly, certainly not good to us. It
tastes bad, don't it? Like John Newton said, if you
go to the world, he said, you know, you go out into a big rain,
you go with a raincoat on, and so of course, you're going to
be out there just a few minutes, and you don't want to get messed
up, so you just get out there as fast as you can, get what
you've done done, and get out. That's the way we are about the
world. And I tell you what, then look what he said, have your
loins girded about. You know what we're girded about
with? We're girded about with the truth. That's what the scriptures
tells us over in Ephesians 6. And then you know, and we didn't
dress ourselves, we got on a robe, a robe of righteousness, perfect,
pure, the very righteousness of God. And we got a helmet on,
what's it called? A helmet of salvation. Oh my. Our loins gird about with the
truth. And I tell you, we got a shield, and it's the shield
of faith. And you talk about we're shod with the preparation
of the gospel. So I tell you what, we got our
staff in our hand. You watch our staff, right there. Got my shoes on, got my gospel
shoes on. Got my robe of righteousness,
I'm dressed, ready to go. And I got the truth. keeping
me girded in. Oh, what a gospel, what a Savior,
what a Lord, huh? What a blessed, blessed Savior. Our Father, oh our Lord and our
God, the blessed God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank
you for allowing us to be here today to worship together to
gather around the gospel, to gather around our Lord Jesus
Christ, to gather around and enjoy the fellowship of the Spirit
of God, to enjoy the fellowship with one another. Thank you for
the gospel. Thank you for your grace. Thank
you for your eternal electing love. And God bless these dear
saints. Lord, strengthen them, encourage
them, add to them, Oh Lord, unite all of our hearts together in
love for one another. And unite our hearts together
and then also unite our hearts to love the Lord Jesus Christ. And God bless, Lord bless these
dear, dear people. Bless them, oh God, strengthen
them, encourage them. They've been through some very
deep waters. They've been through some very trying times. And Lord,
we know that when the trial is, they all have their end, they're
designed to do something. And Lord, enable us to kiss the
hand of your providence again in this world, for Christ's sake.
Amen, amen. The Lord bless y'all. Thank you so much for letting
me come up.