The tenth and final plague of
Egypt has now been declared, and all of the firstborn in Egypt
are about to die. So terrible was this plague,
he said, a cry went out in all the land, and there was not a
house where death was not found. There was death in every house
in Egypt. All of the firstborns. I told
you last time we met and studied this that the most prominent
thing about the firstborn is that he is the beginning and
the hope of all that was to come. Isaac was God's promised son
and the firstborn in God's eyes. He didn't even recognize Ishmael
at all. But he recognized Isaac as the
firstborn. And actually, it was what Isaac
stood for. Because Christ is the firstborn.
And I showed you there in Exodus chapter 4, when God told Moses
to go down into Egypt, He said, you tell Pharaoh that the children
of Israel, he's to let you go because this is my son, even
my firstborn. Which he considered them all
in Christ. So the prominent thing about
the firstborn, he's the beginning. He's the hope of all that is
to come. And he represents that hope in
the firstborn, both of Egypt and Israel. Both. Both. All of the glory and the
power and the strength of Egypt is about to be dissolved by the
sovereign hand of God. It's about to come to an end. And he said, from the firstborn
of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn
of the maidservant that is behind the mill, and even all the firstborn
of beasts, Exodus 11, 5, all of the firstborn in Egypt shall
die. Now, we know what that firstborn
represents. That represents that false profession
of religion. That's what it is. That's what
Satan promotes. That's his hope. That's the future
hope of his glory. It's what he promotes in those
who believe his lies. They are the firstborn. That's
his children. Our Lord told those Pharisees,
you remember, they said, now wait a minute. They said, we've
been not born of fornication. We have one Father, even God. And he said, now listen to what
he tells them. If God were your Father, He said, you'd love Me,
because I proceeded forth and came from God. But ye are of
your father the devil. In other words, this heavenly
Father, your God that you're talking about, is the Father
of lies. That's your Father. And you're
His firstborn. You're the hope of His kingdom.
But God's going to destroy this hope. And He's going to take
the firstborn of Pharaoh, and you can liken that even unto
all the other followers of him, the followers of Pharaoh, he
said it wasn't just going to be Pharaoh's firstborn that died,
but all the firstborn are going to die, clear down to the maidservant
that's behind the mill. From the he that sitteth on the
throne to the lowest servant, all of the firstborn are going
to die, and not only that, but those represented in the beast.
Who are they in the spiritual kingdom today? Who's that talking
about? That's talking about them ones over there in Romans chapter
1 who worship such things as beasts and snakes and birds and
all that kind of stuff. They're represented in the beast
of Egypt. So all of your religious firstborn
are going to die. All of your common firstborn
are going to die. And all of your beastly firstborn
are going to die. The whole outfit is going to
die. All of the firstborn. in Egypt. And that firstborn
in Egypt stands in figure to the false hope which Satan has
produced by his lying subtlety into which all in his kingdom
find hope for their future. Old Pharaoh, like Satan, was
a pretender to the throne and a pretender to deity. What the
Pharisees called God their Father, Christ called the Father of life.
Now there's two things which must come to pass in the deliverance
of God's people. And those two things are showed
us very clearly here in the deliverance of Egypt. First of all, the evil
king and his firstborn must be slain by the hand of God. You've
got to see him slain. God's going to slay him before
they're out. God could have slayed them before
they ever got there. He could have just prevented
Egypt from ever being raised up in power, but it was in the
purpose of God, in God's hand that raised it. Even for this
same purpose have I raised thee up. That's his very work. So
this evil king is purposed of God to be put to death. He's
going to be slain by the hand of God and all of the firstborn
in his kingdom. And then secondly, they must
all be brought to see and embrace the Lamb of God, to be able to
recognize Him, to understand what He's there for, to understand
this Lamb of God and that blood applied to their door that prevented
the destroyer of God from coming in that door and destroying all
that they had. I want to give you several things
tonight to think about it as we look at the events of what
Moses called the night of the Lord. I read that there in chapter
12 on down in here, you get to it. And man, that thing set solemn
with me when I read it. He called it the night of the
Lord. He said, this night will I pass through Egypt. Here's the first thing I want
you to see. is that Christ is the Lamb of God set forth in
the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. The Christ of
God is always represented as a lamb. It was a lamb in the
Garden of Eden, even though it doesn't say that, because why
else would Abel be taught of Adam to bring a lamb to the altar?
Abel brought that lamb because it was a lamb slain and showed
to Adam back in the Garden. It's always been a lamb. Well,
how do I know that it was a lamb? Well, I've got some other verses
of Scripture to help me along with that. Revelation 13, 8 calls
Him the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It didn't say before,
it said from. From the foundation. Where was
the foundation of the world? Wasn't it in that? Wasn't it
in the garden? Isn't that what He's talking
about? The beginning of things? The very foundation, this thing
was showed, He was the Lamb slain. And then in Hebrews 13, verse
20, if you want to go back even further than that into eternity,
His blood is referred to there as the blood of the everlasting
covenant. The blood of this Lamb is the
very blood of the everlasting covenant of God. And you can
go on and on in the Scriptures and talking about these things,
but this Lamb is the key to all deliverance. He is the key to
all faith. He is the key to worship. And
He is the key to your daily walk. And God sets Him forth as such
from the very beginning of time. From the very outset in the garden
all the way through, He sets forth this Lamb. This Lamb was
preeminent in all the worship of Israel. It was preeminent
in the worship and walk of Abraham. And you can go all the way back.
This was preeminent about the sacrifice of Abel. And if you
read over in the book of Jude, you'll find out that Enoch was
no dummy either. Enoch talked about these ungodly
prophets. And Enoch talked about all these
things. These men weren't cavemen running around in bare skins
who didn't know anything. These men were men of God. They
knew and understood what God taught. And this Lamb is the
key to those things. It was the Lamb that distinguished
Abel's offering from the free will works religion of his brother
Cain. And at the top of Moriah, when
God took Abraham up to the top of that mountain, and old Isaac
was there, and he was a young man. He wasn't an old child.
He was a young man, 15, 16 years old. And he had enough. See, he'd been with his father
before when they worshipped God, and he knew there had to be a
lamb. And he saw the wood, and he saw the fire, and he saw that
big knife sitting on his daddy's side, but he didn't see no lamb. And he's carrying all them things
up there, Nathan. He said, where's the lamb? Where's
the lamb? Abraham said, God will provide
Himself a lamb for the burnt offering. And there was a ram
caught in the thicket. The lamb, it's always been preeminent. Down in Egypt, in this darkness
that could even be felt, the Lord said to Moses, Exodus 12,
verse 3, take every man a lamb. Take every man a lamb. And the
giving of the lamb and the appropriation of it, of its blood, is the Lord's
passion. And as the Lord's forerunner,
you see Him there on the banks of the Jordan River, baptizing
and preaching the gospel. And He looks up there that path,
and here comes Jesus of Nazareth walking down that path. And the
heavenly dove descends down upon Him. And John said, Behold the
Lamb. Ain't that how you identified
Him? You see the preeminence of the Lamb. He's always been
set forth as the Lamb. You can't understand the gospel
and not understand the Lamb. That's why he established these
things from the very beginning. And he tells us in Isaiah, I
read to him out in Amarillo the other day out of the book of
Isaiah where he said, Have not I, the Lord, told you these things
from the very beginning? Have I not shown these things
to you? Have I not established these things to you? The Lamb. There was never a time when the
Christ of God was not typically represented as the Lamb. Alright,
here's the second thing. Jesus of Nazareth is the Paschal
Lamb. We don't still look for a lamb.
John sent his disciples out to Christ, and they said, aren't
thou the Christ, or do we look for another? He's the Lamb. He is the Paschal Lamb. He's
the Lamb to which all lambs spoke. Now, the clearest commentary
on that, I think, is in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 7. And I'm not going
to read it to you in its entirety because it's dealing with another
subject. But I just want you to hear his definition of this
Lamb. He said in 1 Corinthians 5, 7,
he said, for even Christ our Passover. You remember reading
that? Even Christ, our Passover, is
sacrificed for us. Now, He is the Paschal Lamb.
I remember Brother Mahan one time, he had made some statements
to a congregation. He was away preaching, and one
of the ladies there was a Jew. And she was visiting some friends
of hers, and he was talking to them about the Jew. The spiritual
Jew, the natural Jew, no longer exists. It's the spiritual Jew. It's always been the spiritual
Jew, but they were a typical people. And she took argument
with him after the meeting. And she began to talk to him.
And he said, well, she said, now, there's no need to talk
to me about Jesus. She said, we don't consider Jesus
to be the Christ. And he said, all right, let's
just take Jesus out of it. Let's just take him out of it.
Where's your lamb? Huh? Where's your lamb? You can't worship God without
a lamb. Now, either Christ is that lamb,
or we still got to go out to the flock and pick out a lamb.
But you can't worship God without a lamb. He's always, from the
foundation of the world, established the preeminence of the lamb in
worship. And you're not going to worship
God apart from a lamb. You're not going to do it. So
he said, where's your lamb? Now what you need to do if you're
going to be a natural Jew is you're going to have to build
you a temple. You're going to have to build an Ark of the Covenant.
You're going to have to put up the grapes. You're going to have
to do the whole nine yards. And you're going to have to go
get a lamb and slaughter that thing and take its blood in there
and present it to God. Otherwise, you're not going to
worship God. He is the Paschal Lamb. In 1 Peter 1, verse 18,
he said, we're not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold. from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." Clearly referring
back to that lamb that God distinguished that I read to you just a few
minutes ago. Who verily, listen to this, was
foreordained before the foundation of the world, but He's manifest
in His last times for you. Now listen. Who by Him, who by
this lamb, by this precious blood of the Lamb of God, foreordained
before the foundation of the world, who by Him do believe
in God that raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory that
your faith and hope might be in God. As Israel was spared the judgment
of God and delivered from the darkness of Egypt, so spiritual
Israel was spared the curse of Adam and delivered from the God
of this world by the blood of the Lamb of God. Jesus of Nazareth
is the Lamb to which all other lambs were set forth. And now
that He has come and fulfilled the types, now hear me, to incorporate
into our worship or re-institute this ceremony as a holy day is
nothing short of idolatry. Christ has fulfilled those types. He has fulfilled those types.
Christ our Passover, Peter said, or Paul said, is sacrifice for
us. And then thirdly, I want you to look at several things
that are typically represented by the Passover lamb. Now, the
first thing is this. The lamb was to be a male. You
know, we buzz right through these things sometimes and don't even
think about it. That lamb was a male lamb. God will provide
Himself a sacrifice. And I know what he's talking
about there. He's talking about Christ. But when the typical sacrifice
was found, what did he find? He found a ram caught in the
thickets. It's a male. A male. I want to
kind of go round about way with this thing, but over in Romans
chapter 3, I'm all the time quoting this to you. He says, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus,
whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. Faith in His blood to declare
His righteousness. Now, a propitiation means a mercy
seed. It means that which enables God
to be propitious. I told the folks out there, last
Saturday, that God can't just take an eraser and go erase your
sin. God has to be enabled to stay
in unity with His own nature of holiness and justice and all
that harmony. That's what holiness is. It means
wholeness. The wholeness of God. He's not
going to compromise His justice to show anybody mercy. He's not
going to do it. And he's not going to compromise
his righteousness, but neither is he going to compromise his
grace to be just. He's going to do all of these
things. And so to be propitious, to enable God to be propitious
to the sinner, to justify freely the sinner that comes to him,
required the death of his son. God sent forth His Son as a propitiation. That's how He set Him forth. This is what enables God to hear
our ignorant words. You think how ignorant we are.
We're coming in before the all-wise, all-holy God, and we don't even
know how to pray. We don't even know what to ask
for when we do pray. We've got an open door into the
throne room of God, and we babble on like a bunch of kids. And
most of the time, we bring in a shopping list. We're not talking
about mourning over sins and all that stuff. We're looking
for something, wanting something to come into His presence. And I tell you, God will burn
us up on the spot, even while we're praying, because all our
righteousnesses are no more than filthy rags, except for the blood
of His Son. And it makes them propitious.
You know, and how you are to your little children when they're
little, they come up to you and ask you some of the dumbest things
in the world ever, but you'll just smile at them, pat them
on the head and say, well, let's go see about it. This is propitiation. This is
what this lamb is all about. And it was a male, because it
was a male that represented all mankind that fell, and a male
that has to redeem it back. When Eve sinned, nothing happened.
But when Adam sinned, sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, and so death passed upon all men. It was a male that represented
all mankind, and a male that's required to redeem his elect.
And one of the most blasphemous things ever invented by false
religion is the idea of a woman mediator, Mary. Catholicism presents
her as a mediator. You think about that. When God
in His Word clearly tells you there's one mediator between
God and men, the man, he said, Christ Jesus. Holy Ghost don't
put words in here by accident. 1 Corinthians 15.21 says, For since
by man came death, by man came also the resurrection from the
dead. It had to be a male lamb. And that lamb must be a male
because of what it foretold and what it foreshadowed. Secondly,
it was a male of the first year in the prime of its life when
that life was at its highest value. And it was to be the firstling
of the flock because it represented and stood for the substitutionary
work of the firstborn. It was to keep God from coming
into that house and slaying the firstborn. And it was to be the
firstling. And that being the beginning
of all the promises of God, that was a very important thing. Now
listen to God's predestination. Listen to this in Romans chapter
8. Verse 29, I think it is. He says, God predestinated us
to be conformed to the image of His Son. Why did He do that? That He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. That's what He says. The firstborn. And then thirdly, the lamb must
be separated from the flocks or the herds. It was to be taken
from the sheep or the goats. To be a male, taken from the
sheep or the goats. So the lamb must be separated
from the flocks or the herd. And I know this is inclusive
of God's election and ordination of Christ our Passover. I know
that for sure. This separated lamb, it was to
be sanctified, set apart for God's use, and God set apart
Christ from all eternity. I know that that's the first
meaning of this verse. And Peter tells us clearly in
Acts 2.23 that Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God to be slain with their wicked hands. So we
know that that's the first meaning. The Lamb was always slain by
wicked hands because that's why the Lamb was appropriated. So
it must be by wicked hands that He was slain because He came
to save sinners. And He was separated of God to
this end. They did unto Him, it said, it
goes on further to say that they did unto Him what God's counsel
and God's hand determined before to be done. But on this night,
and I want you to listen to me on this point, twice in the verses
that I read to you, He stipulated that they were to go select the
Lamb. Now He said, you draw it out. God didn't choose the Lamb. And
Moses and Aaron didn't go out and tie a ribbon on it. They
come down to the people and they set forth by the Word of God,
they set forth in description the lamb that God required. Isn't
that what they did? Now he said, you go choose a
lamb. You go pick one out. Out of your
flocks, you look around and you find the lamb that fits God's
description. You find the lamb that fits what
God commanded to be offered. And then you pin him up and you
watch him for four days. You separate the lamb. They listened as God's ambassador
described God's lamb and then out of their flocks they took
what God instructed them to take. And when I preach to you each
week, And when I'm away somewhere else preaching, I'm always attempting
to preach the Christ of God. I'm trying to describe to you
the Lamb that God declared to me. As best I can with what frailties
and things that I have, this is what I'm attempting to do
is set before you the Lamb. I'm not tying a ribbon around
His neck. I can't go do it for you. And God's not going to do
it for you. You're going to do it. You're going to do it. And
I'm doing my best to set him forth as God has set him forth
to me. I set him forth in his offices
and in his substitutionary work, in his incarnate person and his
deity and in his humility and his sufferings. And I don't make
anybody here pass any kind of a catechism. We're not going
to start that or give you a test about every six months, see if
you're listening. and things like that. I'm not
going to do all that. I simply tell you and describe
for you the lamb that God has set forth to be the propitiation
for our sin and call on you to believe on Him. That's it. That's it. That's what God commanded
them to do. A lamb must be selected by the
people according to the Word of God. And being this lamb is
to be examined for flaws. He said, now you're going to
do this on the 10th day of the month. This is going to be the
beginning of months for you, the beginning of time for you.
And on this month, on the 10th day of the first month, I think
the first month of the Jews was Abib, if I remember right, but
on the 10th day of that month, you're to select that lamb. Go
out and find it. Look out there in the flocks
and the herds, and you find what God's described, and you bring
him in, and you pin him up, and then you watch him for four days. Make sure there's no blemishes.
Make sure you wasn't mistaken about his age. He used to be
the male of the first year. You've got to make sure this
is God's lamb. I tell you, if it's not God's
lamb, if it's not that blood you put on the door, you're in
trouble. You're in trouble. It's not just any lamb. And if
I'd have one quarrel against this generation, it's that. They're
just saying lamb and let you go get whatever kind of lamb
you want. Well, you can't find that in the scripture. That lamb
is described in detail, isn't it? It wasn't just any lamb. It wasn't just any lamb. He demands perfection. God demands
and cannot be satisfied with anything less. You know what
we call folks that's hard to please? You get somebody that's
really hard to please, you've cut timber for them before. And
they want everything just like, what do you call them? Perfectionist,
ain't that what we call them? And boy, if we're going to have
work done and I've got to get somebody to watch over my work,
I'm going to hunt for a perfectionist, ain't you? Because I want my
work done as good as it can be. What do you reckon God requires?
Huh? He requires absolute perfection. Absolute perfection. And this
Lamb figured him who knew no sin. He said to them, which of
you convinces me of sin? You watch me. For 30 years you've
watched me. You've hounded me. You've went
everywhere. You've baited me with questions. You've tried
to trick me and trap me. You've taken me in your temple
when I was 12 years old and threw questions at me. And I left you
doctors sitting there stammering in the temple at 12 years old.
Which of you convinces me of sin? They had to make stuff up
on you. They had to go out in the crowd
and lie about him. They couldn't find anything.
They took the most strictest, cruel, Roman dictator that's
ever been, and he said, I find no fault in this just man. Took
Herod that sought to kill him his whole lifetime, and Herod
couldn't find any reason in him to put him to death. No fault. Perfect lamb. And this whole
blind generation I preach to have been convinced that it's
sufficient to point men to Jesus and let them pick and define
the lamb for themselves. I want to read you something
out of Malachi. I thought this might be helpful to introduce
this into here on this subject. But in Malachi 1.8, he said,
if you offer the blind for a sacrifice, he said, is it not evil? And
if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer it
now to your governor. Will he be pleased? Huh? Take it down to the president.
Take that old blind, lame lamb down there to the president of
the United States and say, here's how much I love you. Here's how
much I care for you. Give it to him. Will he be pleased?
For from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the
same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles. And in every
place, incense shall be offered unto my name. Now listen. and
a pure offering. It better be pure. It better
be spotless, healthy, a lamb, a male of the first year. You have profaned the table of
the Lord and made it contemptible. And you said, also, behold, what
a weariness is it? And you snuffed at it, saith
the Lord of hosts. And you brought that which was
torn, and lame, and sick, and you brought it as an offering. Should I accept this at your
hand, saith the Lord? But cursed be the deceiver which
hath in his flock a male, and balleth, and sacrifices unto
the Lord a corrupt thing. Cursed is that deceiver. For
I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is
dreadful among the heathen. This Lamb must be scrutinized,
examined, and proved to be the Lamb of God. Four days. Ain't that what it
said? Do you know when He rode that ass into Jerusalem, how
many days it was before He died? Four days. Four days. For four days He was scrutinized. He was scrutinized. I mean, He
was judged and looked at His whole life. But for four days,
And you know what four days they were? From the 10th to the 14th
of the month. Isn't that something? On the
very days which this speaks of, which this Lamb should be set
before the whole house of Israel, He was. And no fault could be
found in Him. And then, fifthly, He was to
be killed by those he came to save. That's right. He said, you take
the lamb, you choose it, you pin it up, you scrutinize it,
and then you kill it. You kill it. God ordained it,
but he's going to die by your hands, by the hands of the sinner. And I tell you, the sacrifice
don't do you any good. You know, you remember, some
of you do, I preached a message on Abraham and Isaac up on Mount
Moriah. And I asked this question. I
said, why would God? Now, God told Abraham, take this
son. He's waited 100 years for him.
And then he spends 15 years with him, raising the boy and loving
the boy and all of this. Then God tells him, take him
up on the mountain and sacrifice him. Offer him up a burnt offering
unto God. Why on earth would God ask him
to do that? I'll tell you why. Because God
wanted not only Abraham, the father of faith, but he wanted
all his faithful to understand that this sacrifice of Christ
is not some hard-hearted, cold-letter thing that didn't affect God
whatsoever. God pierced his son's heart with
the sword of his everlasting justice, and there ain't a man
that's ever been born that can either enter into that and understand
it. The closest we can come is looking
at Abraham with that knife, hovered over his dearly beloved son with
that knife, and God stayed his hand. God would not let that
man enter into such a thing as that. He just wanted us to understand
what it was. What it was. Oh, until we come to see the
blood shed by our own hand, that sacrifice is more It's not anything,
just a general offering, ain't it? That's all it ever was to
me. I'd look at it and wonder at it and think about it, but
it never was anything to me but just some far away distant thing
had no effect on me whatsoever till I learned my hand put Him
to death. My sin put Him to death. And
that 3,000 souls, those hardened Jews who stood out there in His
company and cried, crucify Him, crucify Him, crucify Him. What
broke their heart at Pentecost? He said, this same Jesus that
you crucified, God hath made Him both Lord and Christ. And
you killed Him. You killed Him. Oh, they said,
what are we going to do? What are we going to do? And then He tells us this. Its
flesh must be roasted with fire and bitter herbs. Not to be boiled
or eaten raw, but roasted with fire. And this lamb, as the substitute,
must bear the fire of God's wrath alone. We understand that when
we see these things. That's why it's always been a
burn offering. In type, he has to bear that
wrath of God and show that wrath. And the lamb that we eat spiritually
is that lamb roasted in the fire of God. Crucified. Put to death. All the wrath that
was due me, He poured out on Him. I just can't even imagine. I'm ashamed to stand here and
talk without my eyes being full of tears about such a thing as
God's wrath poured out on His Son. Just emptied it out on Him. He poured it out and made him
drink the red dregs of the cup until it was all gone. All gone. And then the seventh thing is
this. Its blood was to be sprinkled on the door post and the lintel
of each house where the lamb was to be eaten. If you are going
to eat this lamb, its blood had to be on the door post. on the
doorpost. You can't eat what you didn't
kill. We can sit around and talk about eating deer all we want
to, but if we don't kill one, we ain't eating nothing. That's
the way it was there. There ain't going to be no lamb
eating until he died. Until he died. And there'd be
nothing spiritually to eat if his blood wasn't put on the doorpost.
You see what I'm saying? There'd be no eating of the lamb
where there is no blood displayed. Nothing in that house but death
and weakness. It's the blood that makes the
eating possible. That's what makes it possible.
That's what enables the Holy Spirit to be sent to us and open
our hearts and minds and for us to spiritually be enabled,
to be made meat of God, to enter into these things and understand
these things and spiritually eat these things. Many people
admire Christ and even profess Christ, Thousands do in our day,
but all the while they deny the whole sufficiency and reality
of His work. What would you accomplish if
you did eat His flesh? If His blood wasn't on the doorpost,
you're going to die anyway. You'd just die full instead of
dying empty. And it wasn't just blood in itself
that caused God to pass over them, or even the blood of the
Lamb. It was the blood of the Lamb alone. There's nothing else
mentioned. God didn't say, when I see you
eating the lamb. He said, when I see the blood.
Now what does He say? I'll pass over you. It's the
blood of Christ alone. This generation talks about believing
on Christ. They even talk about His blood
being shed for sin. But they don't rest in the blood
of Christ alone. It's the blood plus. Well, it
ain't the blood plus. It's just the blood. It's the
lamb alone that's fair to Israel. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. But there's more here. This blood
had to be taken by their hands and sprinkled on the door of
their house. And I want to be as clear as I can be on this,
and then I'll wind this thing up. It's the Holy Spirit who
applies the blood to the conscience. Natural man can't do that. You
can't work this thing up. It's the Holy Spirit of God who
applies the blood of Christ upon the consciences of guilty sinners
and purges that conscience from dead works to serve the true
and living God. It purges it from that old dead
ceremonial religion. That's what he's talking about,
dead works. It purges from that blind idolatry and that ignorance
and deceit. It purges that conscience from
those things to serve the true and living God. Paul said that
he was an able minister of the New Testament, not of the letter,
but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. Keeping some sort of Easter ceremony
won't do you any good. In fact, it has a killing effect
on you. that leaves us in our own dead
inabilities. But understanding Easter, now,
that's a whole other story, because the Spirit of God enables you
to understand this Easter, this Passover sacrifice. We're to
understand those things, and then He applies them to our hearts
and our conscience. Now, having said that, let me
be quick to say this. Only true saving faith can discern
the difference in what God does and what you do. Now you think
on that for a few minutes. God tells you to believe. Have
you believed? Huh? Who enabled you to believe? The Holy Spirit of God. Could
you tell it was the Holy Spirit? No. You just believed, didn't
you? Well, I believe. Well, how did
you do that? By grace, or you say, through
faith and batting out of yourselves, it is the gift of God. But who
believed? You did. You did. How come them people, how come
them people strike that blood on the doorpost? Huh? What made
them believe God, the Holy Spirit? Who put the blood on the doorpost?
They did. They did. He now commandeth all
men everywhere to repent. But you ain't going to repent
apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. You can't see the Kingdom
of God. You can't do any of them things.
But you're commanded to do them, and you will do them. You will. But you won't be able, except
by faith, except by reading this book and understanding there's
no other way you're going to separate that work from what
you do. So it's not a violation of the work of the Holy Spirit
for me to command men to believe, is it? Huh? Now, God said, take
the blood and strike it on the doorpost. That's what he told.
So that means it's OK to take the blood and strike it on the
doorpost. He tells us to believe. What's that mean? That means
it's OK for you to believe. God commanded it. It's all right. You see what an important point
that really is, though? He tells us in Philippians chapter
2, we're told to take the mind of Christ revealed to us in the
person and work of Christ. To take that mind that He had
and work out our own salvation in fear and trembling. And then
what does He tell you? For it's God that worketh in
you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. You're kind
of like that disciple that The Lord found him under a tree.
Well, he found him. He found Philip. And Philip ran and told Nathaniel,
the Lord found Philip. And he ran and told Nathaniel,
he said, I found the Lord. Well, he didn't find the Lord.
The Lord found him. But when the Lord found him,
he found the Lord, didn't he? Huh? That's the way it is with
this thing of believing. It's the Lamb declared. Chosen,
separated, and slain. It's the Lamb. That's what I
want you to see. It's the Lamb. From beginning
to end, it's the Lamb. It's the Lamb. It's the Lamb
whose blood is on the doorpost, whose flesh can then be eaten. Somebody died in every house
in Egypt. Exodus 12, verse 30, there was
not a house where there was not one dead. That's what it says.
The undeniable, unchangeable judgment of God is death to the
sinner. And we'll either die in a substitute
or we'll die ourselves, one or the other. But death is required. And it's the blood of Christ
alone that cries from the door, touch not this house, don't come
here. This house is under the blood. Wow, what a blessing. What a blessing. I believe I
could eat that lamb. I don't even like the lamb, but
I could eat the lamb. If I knew that door was there,
and God was passing through Egypt in that darkness, and God had
given them light. You remember I showed you that
here a few weeks ago. God had given, He left light
in the houses in Israel. And they're the only ones who
had light. And they went out there in that darkness outside,
took that blood, put it on that door post and on that lintel
and on the other side of the door post. And they went back
in and they ate that lamb. And they put their shoes on and
they stabbed. Why? Because they was ready to
leave. They ready to leave. There's nothing left to hold
you in bondage once that blood's been applied. You're a free man. You're a free man. We hear his
voice, don't we? And we follow