It says of our Lord Jesus Christ,
to him give all the prophets witness that through his name,
whosoever believeth in him shall not or shall receive the remission
of sins. Our Lord Jesus spoke in John
chapter 5 and said, Moses wrote of me. And never did Moses write
more clearly of him than in these 51 verses of Exodus chapter 12. We won't read the whole chapter
simply for the sake of time, but let's read a portion here,
beginning at verse one. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, this month shall be to
you the beginning of months. When redemption is experienced
in the soul, new life begins. 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 him or next
unto his house take it according to the number of the souls. Every
man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish. A male of the first year, 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. And the whole
assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening. And they shall take of the blood
and strike it on the two side post and on the upper door post
of the houses wherein they shall eat." The two side post and the
upper door post, but not the threshold. There's a reason. And they shall eat of the flesh
and eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire and unleavened
bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of
it raw nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire his
head, with his legs, and with the pertinence thereof. And you
shall eat, or you shall let nothing of it remain until the morning.
and that which remaineth of it until 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, hurriedly. It is the Lord's Passover. For
I will 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
shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And
when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague
shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of
Egypt. And this day shall be unto you
for a memorial and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout
your generations. You shall keep it a feast by
an ordinance forever. Skip down to verse 29. And it came to pass that at midnight,
the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the
firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, unto the firstborn
of the captive that was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn
of the cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night,
he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there
was a great cry in Egypt. For there was not an house where
there was not one dead, verse 41. And it came to pass at the
end of the 430 years, even the self same day it came to pass
that all the host of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.
It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them
out of the land of Egypt This is that night of the Lord to
be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations. I've read every good commentator
I can find on this passage of scripture. Some of them I have
read repeatedly. I've read numerous sermons from
Exodus chapter 12. The best commentary, however,
on this chapter is found in the New Testament in two places. Look first at 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter
1. I'm often asked, what do you
suggest that I read in order to study and understand the Bible? Try this book first. Try this
one first. It sheds a whole lot of light
on what men say about it. Try this book first. You want
to understand what the meaning of the Passover is. This is what
it means. First Peter 1 verse 18. For as
much as you know, that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers. You weren't redeemed by any perishing
thing that men provide from your empty, meaningless lives received
particularly by the religious traditions of your fathers. Well,
how were we redeemed? With the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. The lamb portrayed
in what we just read of in Exodus chapter 12, who verily was foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these
last times for you, who by him do believe in God that raised
him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and
hope might be in God. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. When we read the 12th chapter
of Exodus, we who are taught of God are compelled to say as
Philip did to Nathanael, we have found him of whom Moses and the
law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph, the son of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse
7. Purge out therefore the old leaven,
that you may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the
feast. not with old leaven, neither
with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth." Now, if God the Holy Spirit will
enable me, I want to show you a few things from Exodus chapter
12 about Christ, our Passover. What a blessed, blessed revelation
of our God we have before us in this chapter. everything that
transpired that night in Egypt, everything written in the 51
verses of Exodus 12, both those things that are crystal clear
and those things that may seem a little bit unclear to you,
everything that transpired that night, everything written in
this blessed chapter was written by divine inspiration to give
us a vivid picture of our redemption accomplished by the dying of
Jesus Christ, God's darling son, the Lamb of God, and accomplished
by that redemption being applied to our hearts by God the Holy
Spirit as he reveals Christ to chosen sinners. As Israel was
preserved from death and delivered out of Egypt by the blood of
the Passover lamb, by the mighty arm of God revealed in their
deliverance, so all the host of God's elect have been redeemed
by the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of
God, the true Passover. And all God's Israel, all God's
elect, being redeemed by Christ, shall have the mighty arm of
the Lord revealed to them and in them, being delivered conscientiously
being delivered knowingly from the curse of the law as God gives
them life and faith in Jesus Christ. Following the Holy Spirit's
commentary given to us in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, I want to show you
four things. Number one, Christ is our Passover. Number two, Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. He sacrificed, and number three,
sacrificed for us. And number four, let us therefore
keep the feast. Christ is our Passover. Now, we'll spend the bulk of
the time here because this is the most important of all I've
got to say, and everything else flows from this. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lamb of God, is our Passover. The purpose of the
Old Testament scriptures and the purpose of this chapter that
we have just read and the events that are written down here is
to reveal to us the person and work of Christ. I keep stressing
this. I want to stress it every time
I have opportunity because I want you every time you read this
book to look for the Redeemer. You will read the book with no
profit to your soul if you don't see Christ and redemption in
what you read. You will read it with no profit
to your soul. You can memorize this book word
by word, line by line, verse by verse, chapter by chapter,
book by book, and never understand anything for your soul's profit. If you don't understand, this
book is all about Jesus Christ crucified. All of it's about
him. The events that transpired in
the Old Testament history are not merely events that they just
sort of happened and then the prophets were taught of God.
Now take that event and make that an illustration of redemption.
Make that an illustration of grace. No, the events that came
to pass. came to pass by the order of
divine purpose and by the arrangement of divine providence specifically
to show us pictures of redemption. And that is most particularly
true with regard to everything in the worship of God's saints
in the Old Testament. Everything about Old Testament
worship, the temple, the tabernacle, the mercy seat, the Ark of the
Covenant, altars, the priesthood, the robes of the priests, the
sacrifices, the holy days, everything is intended by God to portray
to us Jesus Christ, our great surety. Brother Bob Ponce read
back in the office just a little bit ago a portion of Hebrews
chapters 9 and 10. And I couldn't help but to notice
as he was reading, we got to verse 22. Now, the apostle had
been writing by inspiration about the priesthood and the tabernacle
and the ministry and service of the tabernacle and the priesthood,
all the while explaining one priest that was not of the Aaronic
order, one priest that stood out from among all the others,
a man by the name of Melchizedek, who was the imminent type of
Christ our priest. And right in the middle of that,
The Spirit of God says, by so much, that is by the oath and
the promise of God, by God's own sworn oath, Jesus Christ
is the mediator of a better covenant, of the new covenant, the covenant
of God's free grace. And that covenant is what's being
revealed to us here as it is accomplished in the redemption
of our souls. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Lamb of God, by whose death alone God's elect are delivered from
sin, from bondage, from the curse of the law, from hell, and from
death forever. Paschal Lamb, by God appointed,
all our sins on thee were laid. By almighty love anointed, thou
hast full atonement made. Well, what does that mean, atonement? All thy people are forgiven through
the virtue of thy blood. Opened is the gate of heaven. Peace is made to which man and
God. Atonement means forgiveness. Atonement means salvation. Atonement means the salvation
of God's elect is absolutely sure. Look at Exodus chapter
three. Now chapter 12 verse three. The Lord said, speak ye unto
all the congregation of Israel. When I was in Bible college my
first year, matter of fact, it wasn't even my first year yet.
It started in summer school. And folks were belittling, making
fun of the fact that some of us actually believe Christ redeemed
his people. Making fun of the fact that some
of us actually believe that the blood of Christ was not a waste
shed for men who perish and go to hell anyhow. Some of us actually
believe that God's elect are called by the irresistible call
of God's grace and that his grace is always special, distinct,
and distinguishing. And I asked the professor one
day, I've forgotten what the particular occasion was, but
he was leading folks in a rally to laugh at free grace. I said,
would you mind explaining to me why in Exodus chapter 3 God
told Moses to tell Israel alone about redemption? Well, the fur started to fly
because there's no explaining it away. God said, Moses and
Aaron, y'all go tell the children of Israel what I'm about to do.
Don't even mention it to the Egyptians. Well, why is that? Because it's
intended for nobody else. It's designed for no one else,
just for those who shall be delivered. Speak to 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. Now this is a picture of our
Savior in his great humiliation. He who is God, the eternal Son,
became a lamb. What a picture. As the sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so he opens not his mouth. He
became not only a lamb, but he became a lamb brought before
men with horrible accusation and stood before men utterly
defenseless before those who opposed him, that he might die
in our room and in our stead. who is God Almighty, is God the
Lamb, the Lamb of God, slain for our sins. Behold, John the
Baptist said. Behold, the Lamb of God. I try to picture things in my
mind when I read them. Here's John preaching. And he
sees the Lord Jesus walking across the hillside. And he says, fellas,
this is what I've been telling you about. See him. He is the
one of whom all the scriptures speak. Behold, the Lamb. Throughout this book, throughout
this book, the scriptures speak about the Lamb. When Adam and
Eve were cursed of God, Before the Lord God drove them from
the garden, he slaughtered an innocent victim and took the
skins of that victim and clothed the guilty pair. Having made
a promise, he said, the woman's seed will crush the serpent's
head. And then he shows them a picture. He says,
this is what's going to happen. See that lamb? And he kills it. And he skins it. And he makes
garments for Adam and Eve. That's the picture. So you sure
that's what all that implied? Pretty sure. The very next chapter,
we see Adam's son, Abel, bringing a sacrifice to the Lord God,
the firstling of the flock, bringing to God that which God had promised
He would Himself do. Here in Exodus chapter 12, the
Lord God is presented as requiring a lamb, the very same one of
whom Abraham spoke. You remember when God told Abraham,
He said, take your son, your son Isaac, the son that you dearly
love. and go three days and offer him
as a burnt offering to me. And Abraham and Isaac go up to
the mount. And Isaac's got the wood for
a burnt offering on his back, carrying the fire to light the
fire in his hand. And he says to his daddy as they're
going up to the top of the mount, he said, Dad, we got the wood
for a burnt offering, we got the fire, but where is the lamb? He knew you can't come to God
without a lamb. Where is the lamb? We got to
have a lamb. And his daddy said, my son, listen
to the language now. He didn't say, my son, God will
provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering. He said, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. This is He
of whom Isaiah wrote in Isaiah chapter 53. This is He whom John
the Baptist saw as He said, Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of the world. We are bought with the blood,
the precious blood of the Lamb, as a Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And when the book closes in Revelation
chapter 5, we begin to read again about a Lamb. And throughout
that book, everything focuses on a lamb. The lamb slain had
to be a male. A male of the first year. A lamb
without blemish. Look at verse 5. Your lamb shall
be without blemish. No spot in it. A male of the
first year. Not a ewe, a male. Ye shall take
it out from the sheep. separated from the sheep or from
the goats. The Passover lamb had to be a
lamb without blemish. That's our Redeemer, holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners. David, he could not satisfy for
your sin had he any sin of his own. He must be without blemish. It had to be a male, a ram. Why is that? Because it was man
who died and man who brought death. Man who sinned and man
who ruined our race. Did you ever notice when Eve
was beguiled of Satan and she took the fruit, whatever it was,
nothing happened? Nothing happened. Nothing. Nothing changed. Well, but Eve
took the fruit and she gave it to our father Adam. Why didn't
anything happen? Why was the curse not then pronounced? Why were her eyes not then opened
so that she saw herself naked and she now knew evil as well
as good? Why? Because Eve was not the
representative of the race. And the race was not ruined by
the doing and dying of each individual personally. The race was ruined
by the doing and the dying of one man, Adam. And Adam represented
Eve just as he represented us all. And because it was a man
who brought sin and a man who brought death, a man who dared
to mock God and try to rob God of His glory, by man must come
redemption. Man must be punished. By man,
justice must be satisfied. By a man, righteousness must
be brought in. It must be a ram of the first
year. Why the first year? because it
must be the sacrifice of one who is in the prime of his life. In the prime of his life. I realize if you start to talk
to Brother Bailey, he's 70 now and he might convince you that
he thinks he's in the prime of his life, but it ain't so. It ain't so. And these days,
mamas expect their little boys to search for themselves and
maybe find themselves sometime around 45, 50 years old. But
a man is in the prime of his life between 30, 35, 36 years
old. He has reached then the full
age of manhood. He's as mature at least physically
as he will ever be, as strong as he will ever be. And our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, walked on this earth to the full
age of mature manhood, that he might suffer all the fury of
God's wrath absolutely according to his will, but suffer all the
fury of God's wrath, having been obedient to God. through the
full age of a man. This lamb had to be separated
from the rest of the flock. In verse 6, you shall keep it
up until the 14th day of the same month. Keep it up for four
days. For four days. The Lord Jesus
was set apart as the lamb before the foundation of the world.
He is described, as I've repeatedly told you, as the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. He is that lamb that was chosen
out of the flock. The psalmist said, behold, thou
hast laid help upon one that is mighty. Thou hast exalted
one chosen out of the people. And our Lord Jesus was kept up
for four days, four days before his crucifixion. He rode into
Jerusalem, the place of sacrifice. And he was set apart from men
and examined carefully by his enemies. And none found any fault
in this lamb. The paschal lamb had to be slain
in the evening of the fourth day. Of the fourth day. Are you beginning to notice something?
These things that we're reading in Exodus 12, could not be applied to any individual
except the Christ of God, our Savior. The prophecies of the
Old Testament are given in such minute detail that the only way
anyone can possibly deny that Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph, is indeed Christ, the son of God, our Messiah and Redeemer,
is to shut their eyes and refuse to recognize plain facts revealed
in Scripture. He had to be slain in the evening
of the fourth day after his separation. There he must die a violent death,
being sacrificed on the 14th day of the month. The Lord Jesus died at the precise appointed
time fixed by God before the world was. In due time, Christ
died. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law. In the fourth
day of time, 4,000 years after the creation of the earth, the
Lord Jesus died. The lamb not only had to be killed
in the fourth day in the evening, According to Deuteronomy chapter
16, the only place the lamb could be slaughtered, the only place
the lamb could be slaughtered to keep this feast was at Jerusalem. So the Lord Jesus, when the time
came for him to die, set his face like a flint. His disciples
said, don't go up there, the Jews are trying to kill you.
He set his face like a flint to go up to Jerusalem. The lamb
had to be slaughtered. not just hung up, but killed
by the letting of its blood and then hung upon the curse tree. The Lord Jesus Christ was slaughtered
by the sword of divine justice, by the spilling of his blood,
by God's own sword. And the lamb had to be roasted
with fire. See him in Gethsemane. Hear him
as he cries, hanging upon the cursed tree. I thirst as his
body is wracked with pain and burns with fever. And not a bone
of the lamb could be broken. Look at verse 46. In one house
it shall be eaten. Thou shalt not carry forth aught
of the flesh abroad out of the house, neither shall ye break
a bone thereof. Hold your hands here and turn
to John chapter 19. When they came to break the legs
of the men hanging on the crosses. Verse 33, when they came to Jesus
and saw that he was dead already, They break not his legs. But
one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith
came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it by record,
and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true, that
you might believe. For these things were done that
the scripture should be fulfilled. Not a bone of him shall be broken. Not a bone. Read Acts chapter
3, chapter 2, 3, 4, and 13. Read those chapters and see how
often the scripture says, when they had fulfilled all that God
had written in his word, when the Jews and the Romans had fulfilled
everything, they came and took him down from the cross. If you
read the story of the crucifixion, it looks like the Jews and Pilate
and the Roman soldiers and the people gathered around kept a
concordance and looked up every passage and said, now what are
we supposed to do next? And they did exactly what God had written
in the prophets they would do, did nothing but what God said
in the prophets they would do, and things they would normally
have done, He kept them from doing simply that all might see
these things could be fulfilled only by the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 7 of Exodus 12. The blood of the slain lamb had
to be sprinkled. upon the door post and the upper
post, the little. As the father of every household
in Israel sprinkled the blood upon the door of his house for
the salvation of his family, so our heavenly father by the
power and grace of his spirit applies the blood of Christ to
the hearts of his elect at the appointed time of deliverance
and sprinkles your conscience and makes it clean. with the
blood of his son. What a striking picture this
is, of the sprinkling of the blood of Christ upon our souls,
teaching us that his blood must be applied as well as shed. Personally applied, individually
applied to each one for whom the blood was shed. Robert Hawker
rightly observed, the blood of sacrifice must be applied as
well as spilt. An unapplied ransom is no ransom. An unapplied Savior is no Savior. Only God the Holy Spirit can
sprinkle the conscience, sprinkle the heart with the precious blood
of Jesus Christ. That is, make us to see and understand
that His sacrifice put away sin by the satisfying of divine justice. Nothing else but the blood sprinkled
on our conscience can satisfy our conscience. And by that,
giving us faith in Christ, God speaks peace to our souls, declaring
our sins forgiven. And yet, every person in the
house, look at verse 8, every person in the house was required
to eat the roasted lamb for himself. Only those who ate the lamb were
delivered from death. They're the only ones who did.
And all who ate the lamb were delivered. But that's not all. All for whom the blood was shed
ate the lamb. Now don't miss that. All who
ate the lamb were delivered and each one must eat the lamb for
himself and must eat it all. That's what faith is. Read John
chapter 6. We eat his flesh and drink his
blood. We take the whole Savior and
trust him. That's what it is to live by
faith. Each one ate for himself. Only those who ate were delivered.
All who ate were delivered. And all who were redeemed ate
and came out of Egypt. They not only came out of Egypt,
Rex, they came out of Egypt with Moses at the lead. What do you mean, Brother Don?
What's the significance of that? Moses is the law. Moses is justice. Moses' judgment and the law of
God leads the way for the deliverance of God's people, demanding, as
does his mercy, that every sinner for whom Christ died must go
free. God commands us to eat the lamb.
That means it's all right for us to eat it. If you eat the
lamb, the blood was shed for you, and yet this is something
you must do yourself. And look at verse 13. Every soul
under the blood was such saved. And the blood shall be to you
for a token upon the houses where you are. When I see the blood,
I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. Someone had
to die in every household. Someone died that night in every
house in Egypt. Someone died both among the Egyptians
and among the Israelites. For there was not an house, we're
told in verse 30, where there was not one dead. Yet the destroying
angel destroyed none of the children
of Israel. There was not a house where there
was none dead, but none of the children of Israel died. How
can both be true? The children of Israel all died
in a substitute victim, the lamb. For the children of Egypt, there
was no substitute. There was no lamb. There was
no sacrifice. Thank God for the lamb. You too must die, every one of
us, either personally, suffering the wrath of God forever, representatively
by the sacrifice of the substitute, Jesus Christ the Lord our Redeemer. Justice will pass by none. The blood atoned for our sins. The blood pacifies the wrath
of God. The blood satisfies divine justice. The holy, infinite justice of
God cannot require more than the blood of the Lamb of God. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. And by him, we have received
the atonement. Now look at this. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed. I wonder why Paul was not inspired
to write, Christ our Passover was sacrificed. It was done in
the past. Why was he not inspired to write
Christ our Passover has been sacrificed? It was already over. He was inspired by God the Holy
Spirit to write Christ our Passover is, present tense, sacrificed. Why? Because his one sacrifice. made for sins forever, by which
justice is satisfied and our sins put away forever, is perpetually,
everlastingly, effectual, and meritorious. Ever that which
God hears speaking in heaven, by which our advocate pleads
our acceptance and our forgiveness. Christ, our sacrifice, Our Christ, our Passover is sacrificed
for us. Children of God, read Redemption's story personally. The Son of God, Shelby Faulkner,
loved you, gave himself for you. The son of God, Don Fortner,
loved me and gave himself for me. We keep stressing the fact that
this book nowhere suggests that there is any way, any sense,
any degree, any measure in which Christ died for all men, those
who are damned as well as those who are lost. And we do so with
good reason, to suggest that Christ died, that he died hoping
somehow, that some way, those who perish under the wrath of
God, those who never have been the objects of his love, might
somehow benefit from it. To utterly destroy the justice
of God Almighty, his wisdom and his love, making all meaningless. If God loves those who are damned,
His love is as useless as yours or mine. If Christ died for those
who are damned, His blood no more satisfies justice than yours
could. If God Almighty has planned the
salvation of those who are damned as well as those who are saved,
God's wisdom is as foolish as yours or mine. The blood was
not to be sprinkled on the threshold because those who despise the
blood of Christ and count the blood of the covenant an unholy
thing, count the blood of the covenant a common thing, something
for everybody. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 29,
trample that blood under their feet and God won't have it. Christ is our Passover. Christ
our Passover is sacrificed. He sacrificed for us. Let us
therefore keep the feast. Come, eat his flesh and drink
his blood. That's what faith does. Eat the
feast, keep the feast with your loins girt about with the truth,
with the staff of faith in your hand. Those Jews could not look
at that blood. Not one of them. The father sprinkled
the blood on the door post, on the side post, and the upper
lintel while the family was inside. And he walked in and shut the
door. And not one of them could see the blood. All they had was
God's Word to believe. And they had the staff of faith
in their hands, believing God. And they had their feet shod,
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And they
had their coats on their back, the robe of perfect righteousness.
And they said, we're fixing to leave here, boys. We're going
out tonight. We're going out because God said
it. That's what the Passover is all
about. That's what it's all about. Our Passover sacrificed for us. And now we live by faith in Him. And that's all. In your handbook number 232.
232.