The Passover lamb, typifying
the Lord Jesus Christ, was to be killed. Blood was shed. And that was the whole ground
of their salvation. What's the one thing God was
looking for? When I see the blood. That's
all He was looking for. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you." That was the whole ground of their salvation. And I find such comfort in that. That's good news to me. That
God is looking only for the blood. If He's looking for anything
else, I'm in trouble. But thank God, praise His holy
name, He says, when I see the blood, the blood of his son,
I will pass over you." Now that's the gospel, isn't it? And that lamb that was killed
was to be eaten. They killed the lamb, they put
its blood over the door, and then they ate that lamb. And that pictures faith in Christ. Those who had the blood mark
on their homes All ate the lamb whose blood was shed. Every single
one of them. They ate that lamb. That lamb
that the blood would put over their doors, they ate it that
very night. The Lord said in John chapter
6, verse 57, He that eateth me, even he shall live by me. Now, I've entitled this message,
Eating the Passover. eating the Passover. If he's
passed over us in mercy, here is the evidence we will eat the
Passover. What is the evidence that Jesus
Christ died for you? Now, don't take for granted,
I realize religion teaches that he died for everybody, but the
Bible doesn't teach that. He died for his people. Now,
what is the evidence that he died for you? How can, can you
tell by looking at me that Christ died for me? No, you can't tell
anything like that at all. But that scripture I just read,
faith is the evidence of things not seen. The evidence that Jesus
Christ died for me is the faith I have in him. My faith I have
in him is the evidence, proof positive, that he died for me. Now, I love the way faith is
described in terms of eating. Now, you think about how eating
How important it is to every one of us. Food is so very important. I'm not one of those people who's
been so taken up with something I forgot to eat. That's never
happened to me once. People talk, I was so busy I forgot to eat.
Not me. I'm always aware of my need to
eat. You think of why we eat. We eat
for pleasure. How much pleasure is there in
good food? It's extremely pleasurable. And
how much pleasure there is in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?
It's a pleasurable experience. We eat to alleviate hunger pain.
Faith in Christ is the only thing that alleviates our pain. Simply
resting in Him. We eat to live. What'll happen
if you quit eating? You'll die. You continue living
by eating. And we look to Christ daily.
That's how we live. We live by the faith of the Son
of God. And we need to grow and be strong.
Strength and growth come only through faith in Christ, truly. Eating. Taking something in. It tastes good. It satisfies
your hunger. It strengthens you. It causes
you to not die. It becomes part of you. What
you eat actually becomes part of you. Eating is such a fit
emblem of faith in Christ. I can't overemphasize the importance
of faith, can I? The Lord said on numerous occasions, Thy faith
hath saved thee. How many times did He say that?
Thy faith hath made thee whole. That's a good way to say it.
The Lord said it that way. It's a good way to say it. What is
faith? What does it mean to feed on
the Lord Jesus Christ? What does it mean to eat the
Passover? Now, there's a very specific instruction given concerning
eating this Passover lamb, and everything's very important.
Look in verse 8. And they shall eat the flesh
in that Night, Exodus 12, verse 8, they shall eat the flesh in
that night. As a matter of fact, whenever
you observe the Passover, you were to do it in the dark at
night time. And there's a lot of significance
to that. Night is the time of darkness when you can't see.
Now, remember, faith is believing what you cannot see. That's a simple concept, but
it's so awesome. I cannot see that I stand perfect
before God. I can't look at myself and see
that. I can't look at you and see that you stand without sin
before God. I can't see that. I can't see
that when God When I look at myself, I can't see how God sees
me as altogether lovely, how He can say to me, Behold, thou
art fair, my love. Behold, thou art the fairest
of women. I can't see how He can speak to me that way. But
I believe He does. I believe what I can't see. Faith
is in the night. Faith believes what it cannot
see. We walk by faith and not by sight. Listen to this scripture from
Romans chapter 8. Hope that is seen is not hope.
For what a man seeth, why did he yet hope for? But if we hope
for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for
it? Now, faith is in the dark. It doesn't mean it's blind. It
doesn't mean you can't see. But I mean, it's not blind faith
in the sense that I know what I believe. I know whom I believed. But I believe that which I can't
see. I can't see that I'm perfect
before God, but I believe I am. Do you believe that? Isn't that
wonderful to know that God sees you as without sin? He was to be eaten in the night.
And notice what it says next. And they shall eat the flesh
in that night, roast with fire. The method of cooking was to
be roasted with fire, which is symbolic of Christ being roasted. under the wrath of God. What
was he doing hanging on that cross? He was suffering the wrath
of God. He was roasting under the wrath
of God. Now here's the object of our
confidence. Christ crucified. Do you believe that he suffered
the wrath of God for sin? Do you really believe that? Do you believe he really put
away sin? by the sacrifice of himself.
Do you really believe that everybody he died for, their sin is gone,
blotted out, put away? Are you relying upon his death
as your life before God? Right now, I am relying on his
death, his Perfect sheds blood. His glorious work on the cross.
I'm relying on who he is and what he did as my actual life
before God. That is my life before God. I'm
relying on this. The lamb was to be roasted with
fire. And notice in verse 8, there
are two things that it was to be that went along with eating
the flesh. And they shall eat the flesh,
and that night roast with fire, and unleavened bread, and with
bitter herbs they shall eat it. There were two things to be eaten
along with the lamb, unleavened bread and bitter herbs. And this
is very instructive. Now, unleavened bread, what is
it? Well, leaven is yeast. The word means literally arising. Bread's flat, but you put yeast
in it. It puffs up. Puffed up, filled up with hot
air. That's what leaven is. And throughout the scripture,
leaven represents something evil. It always does. Puffed up. Look what, look in verse 18 of
chapter 12 about what is said about this leaven when the Passover
is observed. In the first month, on the fourteenth
day of the month at even, you shall eat unleavened bread until
that one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days
shall there be no leaven, no yeast found in your houses. I
mean, you had to purge your house completely of yeast. For whosoever
eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off
from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born
in the land. You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your habitations
shall you eat unleavened bread. That's all they could eat. Now,
throughout the scriptures, like I said, leaven is an emblem of
evil, and we don't have to really guess what it represents. Would
you turn with me to Luke chapter 12? Luke chapter 12. The Lord tells
us what leaven means, what it represents. In the meantime, Luke chapter
12, verse 1. In the meantime, when there were gathered together
an innumerable multitude of people, Insomuch that they trove one
upon another, he began to say to the disciples, first of all,
beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is what? Hypocrisy. Now, what is hypocrisy? It's the Greek word for an actor. A stage actor, when they put
on plays, the actors were called What a hypocrite is, is an actor. He pretends to be what he is
really not. Turn to 1 Corinthians 5. This
will tell us what unleavened bread is. We see leaven is hypocrisy. Verse 5. Or verse 6, excuse me. Your glory is not good. Know
ye not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Now your glory,
your self-righteousness is what he's talking about. It's not
good. You put a little, little leaven, it's going to go throughout
the whole lump of dough. Verse 7, Purge out therefore
the old leaven, that ye 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 the old leaven, neither with
the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity." That's the opposite of hypocrisy. The unleavened
bread of sincerity and Now that's what I must eat the Passover
with, the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Now this
is what happens in faith in Christ. First of all, I'm not pretending. I'm not an actor. Here's the first thing I can
say about myself. I'm a real sinner. I don't just take the name. I
really believe that's what I am, and I really need, in all sincerity, I need His righteousness. I don't have any. I need His
shed blood because I can't come up with a sin payment. I'm not
pretending about this. I'm not acting. This is the real
thing. I sincerely need His grace. I sincerely need His mercy. I'm poor and I'm needy and I
need the Lord. Sincerely, I need him to do everything
for me because I can't do anything for myself. I'm not acting this
out. This is real. The unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth. Now listen to this. A hypocrite,
an actor, can be satisfied with something less than the truth,
can't they? But if you are sincere before God, you cannot be satisfied
with anything short of the truth. Give me the truth. That's what I want. Whatever
it says, that's what I want. Give me the truth. Somebody that's
not an actor, somebody that's not a hypocrite, that's what
they want. Now, this roasted lamb was to be eaten with this
unleavened bread, the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
And look what it says next in our text, back to Exodus chapter
12. And with bitter herbs, they shall
eat it. And everybody, everybody I ran
said that was endive lettuce. And you've had that. I mean,
it is bitter. It tastes terrible. I can't stand endive lettuce.
I mean, you eat it, crunch it up. It's bitter. But yet the
Lord tells these people, eat this with bitter herbs. Now, why? What's the point behind
this? Well, you can't trust Jesus Christ
without being aware of the bitterness of the bondage of salvation by
works. It's impossible to trust Christ
without an awareness of that bitterness It's impossible to
trust Christ apart from some awareness of the bitterness of
your own personal sin. It doesn't taste good. You make
yourself sick. It's bitter. It's hard to deal
with. But you know what is amazing
about this? As bitter as it is, you can only
trust Christ as a sinner, can't you? Try to trust Him as a righteous
person. You can't do it. You can only
trust the Lord Jesus Christ as a sinner with some awareness
of the bitterness of bondage, trying to be saved by your works.
You know, you can't do it. So with faith in Christ, there's
always an awareness of this bitterness. But it's a sweet bitterness.
It's a good bitterness because it's only as a sinner that I
can trust Christ. It gets real complicated when
I get above that. When I start thinking of myself in any other
light, but when I'm nothing but a sinner, it's easy to trust
the Savior of sinners, isn't it? This was to be served with
unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Now, look what he says next in
verse nine. Don't eat it raw. Don't bypass this roasting with
fire. Don't eat it raw. Don't dare
find any confidence in anything but the death of Christ. This is the man God used more
than any other man to expand the gospel. This is the man that
was taken up into the third heavens and heard unspeakable things
which are not lawful for a man to utter. This man was given
revelation and oh, what an experience this man had. I mean, he was
the apostle, Paul. God used him to write 13 books
in the Bible. And he says regarding himself, he says, God forbid
that I should glory. that I should take credit in,
that I should have confidence in, that I should rejoice in
anything save the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't try
it raw. Don't ever think of any acceptance
you might have apart from the death, the bloody death, the
sacrificial death, the satisfying death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, a lamb that was not
killed Didn't save anybody, did it? If blood wasn't put over
the door, nobody was saved. Never do anything to minimize
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, eat not of it raw. And
next he says, nor sodden at all with water. Don't boil it. Don't
boil it. You can boil a piece of meat.
And what happens to it? It turns into mush, stringy mush,
all the nutrients. Leave it. Don't water down. Don't boil the atonement of Christ.
Don't water down. Don't let it get soaked down
with water. Don't water down the atonement of Christ. Why would you? What's the motive? Whenever somebody wants to weaken
up on the gospel, you know what the first thing they do is? They
water down the atonement of Christ. Now, what do I mean by that? Who died? Christ died, the Son of God. Who did he die for? He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. And of the sheep I have which
are not of his fold, them also I must bring. And there shall
be one fold and one shepherd. He laid down his life for God's
elect. He did not die for every son
of Adam. The Bible doesn't teach that.
He died for the elect. And somebody's saying, well,
why do you make such an issue of that? Because the Bible does.
And my hope is that Christ died for me. And if you tell me that
He could pay for my sins and die for me and I could end up
in hell anyway, you take away my hope. This is not just arguing
doctrine. This is talking about the very
ground of my salvation, the only hope I have, that what He did
is everything and that it's enough to save me. And if you tell me
that he died for everybody and start kind of watering it down,
well, there's a sense in which he died for everybody. No, there's
not. I've heard preachers do that so many times. There's a
sense in which he died for everybody. No, he died for his elect. He
died for those who believe. He died for those that the Father
gave him before the foundation of the world. And what did he
do by his death? He accomplished salvation for everybody he died
for. He said in Hebrews chapter 10
verse 14, we read, he hath by that one offering, that bloody
death on the cross, by one offering, he hath perfected forever. That's a work that doesn't need
to be repeated. Now, why would somebody want
to water that down? There's only one reason anybody
would water that down is to try to make it more palatable to
the flesh. There are no other motives. I've heard people say,
well, I believe in election. I believe God elected people,
but I believe Christ died for everybody. That's foolishness.
That's watering it down. That's trying to make the atonement
more palatable to the flesh. Don't water it down and don't
have any sympathy with anybody who does. There is no good reason
for this. None at all. Don't water it down. What's he say? Look, let's go
and read him. Verse nine, eat none of it raw nor sodden, soaked
with water, but roast with fire. His head with his legs and with
the pertinence there, that's talking about the liver, the
kidneys, the heart, you burn everything and you shall let
nothing of it remain into the morning and that which remaineth
of it into the morning, you shall burn with Fire, now you were
to roast that lamb with fire, his head, his legs, and all the
insides. And you were to eat all of it,
let nothing remain, a half of Christ will not save. Now there's,
there's, why the head and the legs? The head and the legs,
and everything on the inside, the whole thing, the whole thing,
but the emphasis is the head and the legs. The head is the
doctrine of Christ. You eat all the doctrine of Christ. You don't leave any of it out. Would He reveal something and
it be non-essential? Would He reveal something and
it not be important? You eat everything, He said, teaching
them to observe all things. All things. Whatsoever I said
to you. We eat the whole head, the whole
doctrine of Christ. And it's good doctrine. It tastes
good, doesn't it? You know, the doctrine of Jesus
Christ. I love the doctrine of Christ. His doctrine is who He
is. And not only do we eat the head
and roast it, we eat the legs. That has to do with the walk. If my belief doesn't affect my
walk in this world, my faith is no good. Now, you can just
write that down. It's not real. If my faith does
not affect my walk in this world, my faith is no good. What change
in your life has your faith made? I want us all to ask that question
to ourselves. What change in your life has
your faith made? Are you a disciple of Christ?
Faith in Christ affects our doctrine and our walk. We can't pick and
choose. We eat the whole thing, don't
we? His head with his legs and the
pertinence thereof. Verse 11. And thus shall ye eat
it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your
staff in your hand, and ye shall eat it in haste. It's the Lord's
Passover. Now, the first thing that I would
notice about this is they were to eat this in a traveling posture.
I mean, they had their shoes on, their staff in their hand,
and they were ready to go. They ate this thing knowing that God
was going to bring them out of there. They believed what God
said. I see faith just in this traveling posture. Now, they've
been in bondage for 400 years, but they know after this night,
we're headed out of here. And they believed it, and they
proved that by the posture in which they ate this food. They
ate it with the staff in their hand. Shoes on their feet. Now, notice the particulars. He says, you do this with your
loins girded. Now, that's what you do when
you're getting ready for difficult physical activity. Remember,
they'd have big robes and when they were going to do something,
they'd pull up those robes and gird them so they could move
and not be hindered by them. Turn with me for a moment to
Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. This represents, these loins
girded represents a readiness to serve. And this is what faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, if you believe Christ,
you want to serve him, don't you? I mean, you want to honor
him in every aspect of, you want to be a servant to his people.
You really do. That's your highest ambition,
my highest ambition. And I'm telling you the truth,
as God is my witness, I want to be your servant. I don't want
to be your boss. I want to be your servant. I
want to be a servant to the people of God. There is a desire to
serve. Now look here in Luke chapter
12, beginning in verse 35. Let your loins be girded about,
and your lights burning. And you yourselves liken the
men that wait for their Lord when He will return from the
wedding, that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open unto
Him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom
the Lord, when He cometh, shall find Watching for him, barely
I say unto you that he shall gird himself, and make them to
sit down to meet, and will come forth, and serve them. And if
he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and
find them so, blessed are those servants. But this knoweth that
if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief
would come, he would have watched, and have not suffered his house
to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready, that's ready to serve,
For the son of man cometh in an hour when you think not. Now you're to, I'm to have my
loins girded, ready to serve. Lord, what would you have me
do? It doesn't matter what it is.
It doesn't matter what the place of service is. It really doesn't
matter. I don't care if it's digging
a ditch or if it's ruling a kingdom. What would you have me do? I'm
ready to serve. That's what faith does. It has
that effect on everybody who has it. They want to be servants
of the Lord. And look what he says next in our text. The next
is chapter 12. Verse 11. Thus shall ye eat it with your
loins girded, your shoes on your feet. Now, my dear friends, you
and I have a walk. We have a walk in this world.
We have a race to run. You know, God does have a specific
purpose for me and for you. We have a walk through this world. Now, I don't know what the walk
is. I don't know what is ahead of
me. I hope, by the grace of God, I'm satisfied to walk with Him
Regardless of where he puts me or where that walk would be or
what kind of pain or what I want to walk with him, whatever, whatever
the case. But we have some specific shoes
were to wear in this walk. Remember that scripture in Ephesians
6, let your feet be shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace. Now, these are comfortable shoes
for this walk, the gospel of peace. God's at peace with me. at all times. Christ put away
my sins. I'm at peace with Him. I'm reconciled
to God. Not only is He reconciled to
me, I'm reconciled to Him. I'm reconciled to His way of
salvation. I'm at peace with You. I'm not in competition with
You. I'm Your brother, not Your competitor. I'm at peace. I'm at peace with
all men. I'm a peacemaker. I preach the
gospel of peace. Now, if somebody's going to argue
over the gospel, I'm not going to keep my mouth shut. If they're
going to deny it, I'm going to say something about it. But I'm
a peacemaker. I'm not looking for a fight.
I'm a peacemaker. I walk through this world with the gospel of
peace. And what comfortable shoes these
are. The preparation of the gospel
of peace. And as we walk, With our loins
girded and our shoes upon our feet, look what it says next
in verse 11. With your staff in your hand. What do you do
with a staff? You lean on it. You lean your
weight upon it. We are leaning on something outside
of ourselves. We can't gird our loins. We can't
walk. We can't stand without leaning
on Him and we lean on Him hard. I'm depending upon Him to hold
me up. I'm depending on Him to order
my steps in His Word. That walk I'm talking about,
I'm depending on Him to direct each step, strengthen each step. And I know that if He doesn't
hold me up, I'm going to fall flat on the ground. I know that.
And I'm leaning on this I'm leaning on the Word of God. God deliver
us from the mere Word of a man. I want the Word of God to back
up what I'm saying. I want this to be God's Word
and not man's Word or not man's religion, but God's truth. We
are leaning on the Word of God, and we dread the thought of standing
on our own in any way. And then he says finally, in verse 11, You shall eat it
in haste. You're not going to wait around.
You're going to eat this Passover lamb in a hurry, in haste. In this thing of trusting, now
remember, eating this lamb is trusting Jesus Christ, His person,
His work as your whole salvation before God. Believe Him right
now. Don't wait for anything. Don't wait to get better. It's
not going to happen. I mean, if you get better, you
don't need Him in the first place. Don't wait till you understand
more. Don't wait till you have a deeper experience. Don't wait
for anything. As a matter of fact, if you're
waiting, that means you're waiting to get better. That means you
really believe in salvation by works. Your faith is only in
the present. If you're looking back to past faith or faith that
you're going to have tomorrow, it's not real faith. The only
time to believe is right now. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
right now. Now, if you're looking back to
where you believed yesterday, you're looking to an experience.
You're not looking to the Lamb of God. If you're intending on doing
it tomorrow, that's in the strength and energy of the flesh. You
don't even know if you have tomorrow. The time to believe is right
now. You know, right now. Don't misunderstand what I'm
saying. But if I've never trusted Jesus Christ before. I'm doing it right now. I'm believing him right now as
my wisdom as my righteousness, my sanctification, and my redemption.
Eat it in haste. Don't wait around. Don't wait
for something to happen. And his final statement is, it
is the Lord's Passover. And the best way to comment on
that is to read verses 12 and 13. God says, 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 of that lamb that you're going to eat.
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. Let us keep the feast. And may God give us grace to
feed on the Lord Jesus Christ even now. Let's pray together.