When I say look for the gospel
in a passage of scripture, I don't mean like What are those fine Waldo things?
You all know what I'm talking about. Do you know I never have
been able to find Waldo once when I look at those things?
I don't get it. And anytime that there's some
kind of something special you're supposed to see, I never see
it. I try, but I'm not talking about looking for the gospel
like that. Mark 14, I've entitled this message,
room. The upper room. Now the Bible
is filled with stories to illustrate gospel truth. There are things
that actually happened. The creation happened. And that's
given to teach us that God does not need our help in saving us.
It's his work alone. The fall literally took place. But that's given to teach us
that everybody dies an Adam, and in the same manner, everybody
shall live in Christ. We have the story of Cain and
Abel, and that story is given to let us know that there's only
one way at all times that God can be approached through the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way. Every
story, Every event, every sacrifice, every narrative in the Bible
is given to teach us gospel truth. When the Lord said you search
the scriptures and in them you think you have eternal life and
they are they which testify of me, he was talking about the
Old Testament scriptures. Now you can't take that too far. Every word in the Bible is given
to teach us the gospel. And do you know the same is true
in the New Testament? You take the stories, the events,
the parables, they're all given to illustrate some aspect of
the gospel, and such is this passage I just read. This is given to teach you and
I the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm basically taking
it from verse 15, but let's look at this whole passage of scripture
together. And the first day of unleavened
bread, which is talking about the Passover feast, when they
killed the Passover, I wish I could understand that
at all times, my only hope is found in the killing of the Passover. You can't get away from the everythingness
of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the first day of
the unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover, his disciples
said unto him, where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou
mayest eat the Passover? Now we know that the Passover
lamb was to be killed, and we looked at this a couple of weeks
ago. We were to eat of that Passover, and that represents faith in
Christ. And the Lord Jesus, the Passover himself, was going to
eat of that Passover. Now turn with me to Exodus chapter
12 for just a moment. You know, I've heard preachers
talk about the Passover and say, you had to apply the blood. That's
faith. You have to apply the blood.
No, no. You don't apply the blood. God
applies the blood. Men did that, but that's not
faith in Christ, not your application of the blood. But eating the
Passover is faith. And look at this in Exodus chapter
12. This is after the people have
entered the house with the blood over the door. It says, they
shall eat it. Look in verse eight, Exodus chapter
12. They shall eat the flesh in that
night, roast with fire. Now what that is a reference
to is the Lord Jesus Christ being roasted under the fire of God's
wrath. That is what we eat. And then
he says, and unleavened bread, all leaven was to be purged out. You couldn't eat the Passover
with any leaven. All works, get this down, all
works are to be purged out. Nothing but unleavened bread. and with bitter herbs they shall
eat it. Now, even though we understand
that sin is put away and it's gone, sin's always a bitter thing
to us, isn't it? It's gonna be bitter until we
know nothing more about it in heaven. It's a bitter thing,
it's a hateful thing. Verse nine, eat not of it raw, We're reminded again that it
must be roasted with fire. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water. It's not to be watered down in
any respect. The glorious achievements of
the atonement of Christ, our only hope. It's not to be boiled
and turned into a mush. But roast with fire, that's repeated. Roast with fire, evidently we
need to hear that again. Roast with fire. His head with his legs and with
the pertinence thereof, everything is to be roasted. Verse 10, and
you shall leave nothing of it until the morning. You're to
eat all of it. every bit of it. There's no aspect
of the gospel that could be left out. You shall let nothing of
it remain into 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 and your shoes on your feet and your staff
in your hand. Now, when you eat the Passover,
one thing that's apparent to you, this world, We're just traveling
through it. You know, when you go into a
hotel room, do you kind of rearrange? Well, I guess I do. I always
change the lamp somewhere. But theoretically, when you go
into a hotel room, you don't put up new pictures, you don't,
you're just there for a night. And that's what this world is
to us. We're to eat this Passover in a traveling posture. This
world is not our home. And I'm so thankful for this
admonition. You shall eat it in haste. You
know what that means? Don't wait for anything. Don't
wait till you're better. Don't wait till you have more
understanding. Don't wait for some kind of experience
you're looking toward. Don't wait for anything. Eat it right now. That is the command of the gospel. Eat it right now. And that's
the command to everybody in this room, without exception. Eat
the Passover right now. Do not wait. Eat it in haste, for it is the
Lord's Passover. And back to our text. And the first day of the unleavened
bread, when they killed the Passover, his disciples said unto him,
where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat
the Passover? Verse 13, and he sendeth forth
two of his disciples and saith unto them, go ye into the city
and there shall meet you. a man. Now that's important.
He doesn't say you'll meet a man. That man will come to you. There
you shall meet a man bearing a picture of water. Follow him. Now I don't have any doubt this
happened literally. But this is given to teach us
something about the preaching of the gospel. This man bearing
this pitcher of water. This is the preaching of the
gospel. Now, the man is just that, a
man. A sinful man. Never forget it. The man that's speaking to you
right now I'm painfully aware of the fact that I'm a sinful,
fallible, weak man. That preacher is a man, but he's
bearing something very special, that water of life, the water
of the gospel. Now that man can't quench your
thirst, but what he's bearing can quench your thirst. the water
of life. If you knew the gift of God and
who it is that saith to you, give me to drink, you would have
asked of him and he would have given thee living water. Being born again, the Lord said
of water and of the spirit, the washing of water by the word. Now this man bearing this pitcher
of water represents the preaching of the gospel. Husbands, love
your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for
it that he might cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. Oh, the cleansing of the gospel,
the washing of water. This man will meet you. You're
not gonna meet him. Aren't you thankful the Lord
crossed your path with the gospel? He came to you. I hear preachers
saying men are thirsting for hearing the truth. No, they're
not. They're just happy with the things the way they are.
Nobody naturally seeks God. But thank God, He crossed my
path with the preaching of the gospel. This man will meet you. And what are you gonna do? Follow
him. Follow Him. You see, He's gonna
bring you to the guest chamber. Somebody says, I won't follow
any man. Well, you won't follow Christ then. Follow Him. You tell me to follow a man?
Well, Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. Follow Him. And what's gonna happen? And wheresoever he shall go in,
Say ye to the good man of the house, this man is gonna bring
you to this place, and say ye to the good man of the house,
the master saith, where is the guest chamber? Where I shall
eat the Passover with my disciples. Now, I love this word, the guest
chamber. That's where the Passover is. is eaten in the guest chamber. Now that is the same word that's
translated in. Remember when there was no room
for him in the inn? It is a place of rest, and the
word means a dining room. This is where you're going to
eat, and if you eat, here's how you'll know you've eaten. You
rest. Now that's the only way you know
when you've eaten. If you're still unsure and thinking you
feel incomplete and needing something else, you didn't eat. If you
eat, you'll find rest in the guest chamber. And look how this
guest chamber is described. The master saith, where is the
guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples?
Isn't that special to think of the Lord eating the Passover?
He's the only one who really knew what it meant, and he knew
he was the Passover. You know, when we take the Lord's
Table, every time I take the Lord's Table, without exception,
I always think, I ought to feel more. I ought to be more, all
the feelings that I feel like I ought to have. Every time,
every time, every time. I'd like to do the Lord's Table
in remembrance of him the way I ought to, but I'll tell you
one who does know what the Lord's Table means, the Lord. He knows
it all together. And when he ate the Passover,
what must that have been? He knew he was getting ready
to be roasted under the wrath of God. Christ, our Passover
sacrifice for us. But look what we see in verse
15, and he, This man bearing the pitcher
of water, the one who's the owner of the guest chamber, he will
show you a large upper room furnished and prepared. What a glorious
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, a large upper room, completely
furnished. You don't need to bring anything
for it. Prepared by Christ himself. Now, the first thing that I would
notice is it's a room. This is a room. This is a room. We're in this room. We're not outside of this room.
We're in this room. The Lord Jesus Christ, the person
of Christ is a place to be. He is a room. I love what Paul said,
Oh, that I may win Christ and be found in that room in him. He is a room and How many times
are we exhorted to abide in Him? That's particular with John.
Now, little children, abide in Him. Now, to abide in Him is
to be satisfied to only be in Him. Are you? Are you satisfied? to only be
in Him where He, being in Him is all you have. You don't have
anything else. Being in Him is all you need.
You don't need anything else. Being in Him is all you desire.
You don't desire anything else but to be found in Him. Not having your own righteousness.
You don't have anything to do with that which is of the law,
but that which is of the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. Christ Jesus is a room. And there is a specific occupancy
in this room, the elect of God. No more, no less. You know, the church of the living
God is a church that never grows. It never grows. You know, people
have all these philosophies of church growth. The church of
the Lord Jesus Christ never grows, and it's never diminished. It
has the great church role of the general assembly of God's
elect, the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.
And let me say this, this is the only legitimate church role.
Every local church row has wheat and dares. That's one of the
reasons why we don't have a church roll here as such. I mean, I
know we got a phone book where everybody knows what everybody's
phone number's in, but as far as a church roll, like this person's
a member of the church, well, I hope you are, I hope I am,
but it's so sketchy, it's so iffy, but this church roll's
not. And this church, every one of God's elect, everybody that
Christ died for is in this room. And it's an upper room. Why this detail? It's an upper
room. It's so upper, it's so high,
it reaches to heaven. We are seated together in the
heavenlies, in heaven, in Christ Jesus right now. Now I'm looking
at you while you're here on earth, but beloved, if me and you are
in him, we are in heaven right now in the one in whom we are. If he's in heaven, I'm in heaven
too. Everybody in him is in heaven
already glorified. That's how complete this salvation
is, already glorified, lacking nothing. This upper room, oh,
how high this room is. And this is a reminder to us
of how complete our salvation is. And notice it is a large
upper room. It's a large upper room. The number of God's elect is
a large number. Scripture says 10,000 times 10,000
and thousands and thousands. That's a lot of people. Some have said that there will
be more in heaven then there will be in hell because Christ
is gonna have the preeminence in all things. Now, I don't like
that. Maybe there is more in heaven than hell, I don't know.
I don't know, but it's not like you're gonna say he doesn't have
the preeminence in all things if there's less people in heaven
than hell. He still has the preeminence if anybody is not in heaven and
everybody's in hell. You see, he gets the preeminence
over the people in hell too in all things. He has the preeminence. And I'm not gonna try to argue
whether there's more people in heaven than there are in hell.
That's something the scripture does not address. But I will
say this, heaven is a large, large place. This upper room
is a large, large place. And there is room for the very
chief of sinners. That's how big this room is.
There's room for the most evil, the most wicked man, woman, boy
or girl to ever live. That's the size of this room.
You can't be too sinful to fit into this room. That's how big
this room is. And I love the way Paul said,
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I, what's
he say next? Am. Man, I used to be a real rounder
until God saved me. I hate people's testimonies.
I really do. I used to be this, I used to
be that. Paul said, I am the chief of sinners. But here is
the point. There's room for the very chief
of sinners. This is a very large, You can't
be too sinful to fit into this room. Now, your righteousness
can keep you out. Matter of fact, if you have any
righteousness, you don't get to come in the room. You're cut
off. You're not invited. You're not
brought in. But if you have nothing but sin in and of yourself, this
room is for you. It's a large upper room. And get this. He will show you a large upper
room furnished. Completely furnished. And I don't know what all the
significance of this is, but the furnished is in the perfect
tense in the original language. Perfectly completed. Nothing can be added to it. This
large upper room is perfectly furnished. Now, what all does
that mean? It means this, in this room, you
have everything and it's already provided. Ephesians 1.3 says,
he hath blessed us. He hath blessed us, not he will
bless us, not he's going to bless us, he hath. blessed us with all, all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What a room
this is. You have election in this room,
chosen in Him, you have complete justification, perfect righteousness. You have complete sanctification. You have complete acceptance. You have total adoption. You
have everything God has for the sinner is in this room, and you
have it in its fullness right now. Now, this room, you don't
bring anything. You don't bring anything. Quite often, you know, they think,
well, what can I bring? Nothing. Nothing. You're not
going to bring anything into this room. You'd spoil it if
you did. I mean, if you brought something into the room, you'd
ruin it. Do you think your furniture could look in any way in comparison
to this room that's furnished so perfectly? This room is furnished
completely. There's nothing you need to bring. Now, how complete is this? How
about this furnishing? Well, let me give you some scriptures. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. That's a big statement, isn't
it? And you are complete in Him. He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. Accepted. Completely accepted. Graced is the word in the Beloved. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, for
he has made unto us wisdom. And it's God that made him this
done to us. God can do this. Of him are you in Christ Jesus?
How do you get in Christ? God's got to put you there. That's,
I don't know what else to say. God's got to put you there. Of
him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. The scripture
says in Colossians 1, 22, that he presents us holy. And this is how complete. I dare
say everyone is still lacking here, but we shouldn't. Holy,
unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight. Now that's how
full this is. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Furnished, But he takes it even
further. And prepared. And prepared. The Lord said, I go to prepare
a place for you. Now, I love what was said in
the parable of the marriage feast. Come, for all things are now
ready. All things are now prepared.
You don't need to bring anything. What's that? You always hear it on the radio
during Christmas, what can I bring to the king for, I can't remember,
it's so stupid though. What are you gonna bring? It's
all prepared, it's all furnished, and it is all prepared. All things
are now ready. Now, the only thing, and this
didn't come from your preparing, but what did it take to get into
the wedding feast? The wedding garment prepared by the great
king himself. The righteousness and merits
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't try to enter into this
room without this garment prepared by the king. The wedding garment,
his righteousness. And I know who'll be interested
in this garment. The one who doesn't have anything else to
wear. Like Bartimaeus, you've cast off your filthy rags. And
you want to be clothed with his righteousness. Robes wash white
in the blood of the lamb. And there in that large upper
room, furnished and prepared, made ready for us. Are you ready? Well, yeah. If he is, I am. If I'm in him,
yeah, I'm ready. Are you ready to meet God? Yes,
I am. Yes, I am. And I have such assurance
that all God's salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ, this large
upper room, furnished and prepared. When he shall come with trumpet
sound, oh, may I then in him be found, dressed in his righteousness,
alone, faultless to stand before God's holy throne. Verse 16. Now verse 15, he will show you
a large upper room furnished and prepared there make ready
for us. Now, what I like about this is
it's already ready. He says there make ready. Well,
look at the final line of verse 16, and they made ready the Passover.
Well, it was already ready, but their credit for doing it. Already
ready, but yet it says they made ready for the Passover. But let's
look at this verse 16 in closing. And his disciples went forth
and came into the city and found it as he said unto them. Isn't that the way it always
is? We find it exactly as he said unto them. And they made ready the Passover.
Now let me say a couple of things about this particular Passover. Number one, I couldn't help but
think of Josiah. You can remember in Second Kings
where Josiah was a good king, but he'd never read a copy of
the scriptures. And there were some people cleaning out the
temple and they found a copy of the Bible and they brought
it to Josiah and Josiah, they read it to Josiah and he wept
and said, we're under great wrath, we're in trouble. But at that
point, the Lord spoke to him from that. And you know what
the scripture says they did? You know, the Passover had fallen
into disuse during this time. And the scripture says this about
the Passover after they were given this copy of the Bible. Surely there was not holding
such a Passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel,
nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of
Judah. Oh, this was the greatest Passover
ever. But here's one that's better. This is the Lord Jesus eating
this last Passover. I don't have any doubt that this
was the greatest of all the Passovers because of who was eating it
and what was to take place that very day. And the second thing
that I would say about this Passover meal, this was the last Passover. No more. They're all fulfilled. Everything is fulfilled by the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that is when he began the
Lord's table. And we're going to consider that
next week. But what a joy this Passover
meal was and what a joy to be in this guest chamber, this place
of rest, this dining hall was this large, what a type of
the Lord Jesus Christ, a large, big enough for you, big enough
for you, I don't care who you are, upper room, furnished and prepared. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for our
Redeemer. How we thank you for his largeness. To save the chief of sinners,
how we thank you that he is so high he's in heaven seated at
your right hand and we're completing him. How we thank you that the
room is completely furnished. It's all of our work. prepared
by thy Son, how we thank you for him. Lord, take these words
and cause us to eat of the Passover, to believe on thy Son, and to
rest in him. In his name we pray, amen.