In Exodus, Chapter 13. While
you're turning there, there was a message that Bruce Crabtree
preached in Crossville that was such a blessing to me, and I've
had will to make a bunch of CDs and just pick one up if you can
back in the back. It's on Increase Our Faith, and
it was so helpful to me, and I believe everybody would benefit
in listening to this particular message. I may be egocentric in doing
this, but if you're looking at this spot on my head, you might
not have even noticed that it did limb pop me, and I disobeyed
her. I had one of those pre-cancerous
things where they, it's not, you know, it could turn there,
they put the cold spray on it, whatever happens, so that's what
it is. Exodus 13. Let's read verses 1 and 2. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Sanctify unto me all the firstborn. Whatsoever openeth
the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast,
it is mine." I've entitled this message, Our
Response to Redemption. Our Response to Redemption. Now, when God saves somebody, are they no different than they
were before He saved them? If they're not, it's not much of a salvation.
Isn't that so? But beloved, they are different. They're not the same. While it's
true that we still have the flesh, the old man, the old nature,
and it is no different. And it never gets better. It
never improves. It never grows weaker. We deal
with that every single day. I don't have to convince you
of that. You know what it is to deal with the old man. While it's true we still have
the flesh, it's equally true we have the new man. Would you
turn with me to Colossians chapter 3 for a moment? Paul says in verse 10. To the church of Colossus, you
have put on the new man. Which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him, you put on the new man,
someone that was not there before. Let's look at this passage of
scripture. I want to read Several verses. Start back up in verse 1. Knowing
who this new man is will make this passage come alive. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things in the earth, for you are dead And your life
is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall you appear also with Him in glory.
Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth. Now,
who's doing that? The only one who can do that is the new man.
Mortify your members which are upon the earth. Fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection. evil desire and covetousness,
which is idolatry, for which things take the wrath of God
cometh on the children of disobedience, into which you also walked sometimes
when you lived in them. But now you also put off all
these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your
mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off
the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which
is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him. where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in
all. Now, you put on, therefore, as
the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies. I think it's very interesting
that when he mentions the clothing of God's elect, the first thing
he mentions is vows of mercies. Kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one
another. If any man hath a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave
you, so also do ye. And above all these things put
on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Back to our text. The next is chapter 12. Now, this is our response to
redemption. And you know what took place
in chapter 12? The Passover. I don't suppose there's a verse
of Scripture that thrills me anymore. And that thrills me
even right now. I'm going to quote this to you
out of Exodus chapter 12, where God said, When I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Isn't that thrilling? All God
was looking for was the blood. He wasn't looking for anything
else, was He? And he says, when I see the blood, I will pass
over you. That's redemption. That's being
redeemed by the blood of Christ. That whole chapter is about the
redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We just sang of our Redeemer. He's our Redeemer. That's a precious
name of our Savior. He's our Redeemer. He redeemed
me. He paid for my sins. I stand
perfect before God. It's wonderful. Now what's your response to that? Well, the Lord says, sanctify
unto me. After this redeeming work, sanctify
unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth a womb among the children
of Israel, both man and a beast. It's mine. Verse 11 of the same
chapter, and it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into
the land of the Canaanites, as he sware unto thee and to thy
fathers, and shall give it thee. There's sovereign grace. He gives
it to you because he swore he would. He's doing it. Thou shalt set apart unto the
Lord. Thou shalt set apart unto the
Lord. All that openeth the matrix,
and every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast, the
males shall be the Lord. Now, all I have is His. You believe that? All I... He redeemed me. He bought
me. I'm not my own. I've been bought
with a price. And all I have is His. And if I really believe that,
it's not hard to Sanctify the firstborn to Him, and all that
represents. It's not hard if you really believe
that all you have is His anyway. Now, if it's yours and you're
having to give up some of it, it's difficult. It's hard. But
if it's all His, it's easy, isn't it? Sanctify to me all the firstborn. Now, most people have just enough
religion to make them feel miserable and make them feel guilty. They
just walk around with a black cloud over their head, and it's
because they have never seen what redemption really is, and
therefore it's impossible for them to respond in the right
way. Now, if you see, if you believe that the Lord has redeemed,
that He put away all your sin and that you stand perfect before
God because of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you see, if you believe
that, if you rest in that, I know what your response will be every
time. You'll give yourself completely lock, stock and barrel to Him. And if you don't, it's because
you've never really believed His redeeming work. He's never
really done anything for you. I know everybody who sees redemption
They're going to give themselves lock, stock and barrel to him. Now, we've got so many examples
of this in the scripture. Let me look at several scriptures
in the New Testament. Turn to Romans 12. Paul says, after he has set forth
the gospel so clearly in these first 11 chapters, He says, I
beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed
to this world, But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God." Notice his whole argument for them to present
their bodies a living sacrifice is the mercies of God. The mercies of God. Is that enough
of a reason for you to give yourself wholeheartedly to Him to present
your body, not just your mind, not just your intentions, but
everything you are, your body, as a living sacrifice? Turn with me back to Romans 6. Look at this. Verse 11. Likewise, reckon ye
also yourselves to be dead indeed, and to sin, but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, the reason I'm to reckon
myself to be dead in sin is because I am dead to sin. It doesn't
have anything to say to me. Christ has Washed it all away. I have His perfect righteousness.
It is my righteousness. And I am dead to sin. Doesn't
have anything to say to me. If you can reckon yourselves
to be dead to sin. Now he says this to every believer.
You view yourself as well. I'm dead to sin. Would God tell
you to be dead to sin if you weren't dead? To reckon yourself
to be dead to sin if you weren't dead to sin? No. You are dead
to sin. Has nothing to say to you. Your
sin has been washed away. You stand perfect before God.
Now let's go and read. He says, likewise reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God. Through Jesus
Christ, our Lord, let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal
body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof, neither
yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,
but yield, present yourselves unto God. That's the exact same
thing Paul is saying in Romans 12, too. Present your bodies
a living sacrifice. You present yourselves to God.
Now, Lord, hear my I don't know what else I can say. Lord, here
am I. I can't make any promise to do anything, but here am I. Here am I. It's an actual presentation
of everything you are to him. Yield yourselves unto God as
those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments
of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. Turn
to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Verse 20, For you are bought
with a price, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore,
glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Verse 1, having therefore these
promises, dearly beloved, these promises of free grace, these
promises of the complete forgiveness of sin, these promises of having
His righteousness as your righteousness, having the promise that He'll
never leave you or forsake you, having the promise of eternal
grace, having these promises. We've got them. Having these
promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear
of God. One other scripture, 1 John chapter
3. Verse 2. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God? And it does not yet appear what
we shall be. We don't know what it's like.
We can't even imagine what it's like to be without sin, to be
perfectly conformed in the image of Christ. We read about it.
We believe it, but we don't understand what it is going to be like.
But we know that when he shall appear, you know, I think of
that passage of Scripture where Paul said, there's henceforth,
ladies, and I'm ready to be offered the time of my departures at
hand. Therefore, there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me and to
all them that love his appearing. I'm one of those that love his
appearing. I love his first appearing when he appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. I love his appearing before the
father before me right now is my greatest intercessor and priest. I look forward to his appearing
whenever I'm going to see him and everybody's going to be made
to bow to him. I look forward to that. I love his appearing.
Now, we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is. And every man that had this hope
in him, this hope of a complete salvation that's in the Lord
Jesus Christ, what does he do? He purifies himself, even as
he is pure. So the response to redemption
is consecration to the Lord every time. And if that response is
not there, somebody doesn't really believe the message of redemption.
Because if you really believe He's given all for you and put
away your sin, you're going to give yourself wholly to Him. And it won't be hard to do. It's
not looked upon as a sacrifice or a difficult thing. No, you
believe you're his anyway. Who's your owner? Who's your
Lord? Who's your master? That's the question. If he's
your Lord, he's your master, you give yourself to him. Now
back to our text in Exodus chapter 12. You consecrate. He said, you
set apart to me. You do this. You set this apart
to me. You consecrate this to me. And
he starts talking about leaven once again. Now, I realize we
considered leaven two or three weeks ago, but here he talks
about it again in chapter 13. And Moses said to the people,
verse 3, Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt,
out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand the Lord
brought you out from this place, and there shall no leaven bread
be eaten. Remember in the Passover you
were not to eat any leaven bread. This day came ye out in the month
of Abib, and it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into
the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites,
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sweareth unto thy fathers,
to give thee a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt
keep this service in this month. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened
bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord.
Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and there shall be
no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be
leaven with thee in all thy quarters. And thou shalt show thy son in
that day, saying, This is done because of that which the Lord
did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. And it shall be
for a sign unto thee, thine hand, and for a memorial between thine
eyes, that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth. For with a strong
hand the Lord brought thee out of Egypt. Thou shalt therefore
keep this ordinance In a season from year to year. Now another,
here's the next response to redemption. First, when you see, when I see
by the grace of God that He's redeemed me and put away my sin,
I consecrate to Him the firstborn. That's everything I am. Not only
do I do that, I start getting rid of the left. That left. There's nothing wrong with leaven,
yeast in and of itself, you know that. But during this ceremony,
this seven-day feast, you ought to get all the leaven out of
your house. And leaven represents the introduction of something
that will corrupt you. A little leaven. Leaven's the
whole lump. You allow that little leaven,
and it's going to work its way throughout the whole batch of
dough. And they were to get rid of all the leaven out of their
houses. And you know, you and I are called upon to purge out
the leaven every single day. It's there, and we purge it out.
Now, in the New Testament, I looked at how the word is used in the
New Testament, and if you want to understand what the Old Testament
means, look at the New Testament. If you want to know what the
New Testament means, look at the Old Testament. Now, leaven in the New Testament
means four things. First, it's the leaven of hypocrisy. Turn to Luke chapter 12. And
don't you reckon that this is something that you need to purge
out? The hypocrisy that's in you. You know, it's with me. It's embarrassing to admit that,
but it's with me. Hypocrisy. Well, look, verse one. In the
meantime, when they were gathered together, an innumerable multitude
of people, insomuch that they trod one upon another, he began
to say to his disciples, first of all, beware ye of the eleven
of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Now, in this passage, he gives
three marks of hypocrisy. Let's go on reading. Covering and hiding, verse two,
for there's nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither
hid that shall not be known. It's not being honest enough
to tell the truth, verse three, therefore, whatsoever you have
spoken in darkness should be heard in light, and that which
you've spoken in the air and closet should be proclaimed upon the
housetops. It's being more concerned about
what men think than what God thinks. That's what's behind
hypocrisy. He says, I say unto you, my friend, be not afraid
of them that kill the body. And after that, they have no
more that they can do. But I forewarn you whom you shall fear. Fear
him which after he hath killed the body hath power to cast into
hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him.
Now, this is what is behind hypocrisy. It's not telling the truth. It's
acting. It's pretending. It's covering
up. It's pretending to be what you're
not. Being controlled by the fear
of man. Now, that's that's why people play the hypocrite. That's
all involved. And now, you know, as well as
I do, that you deal with that on a daily basis. And you're
called upon and I'm called upon to purge that out. That's the
response to redemption, to always be purging that. Matthew chapter
16. Verse six. Then said Jesus unto them, take
heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. We've already
seen that hypocrisy and the Sadducees. Now here's the second form of
leaven that I'm to purge out. It's the doctrine of the Sadducees.
Let me tell you something about the Sadducees. Acts chapter 23,
verse 8 says, For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection,
neither angel nor spirit. The Sadducees are the intellectuals.
The Sadducees are people who can't believe something unless
they understand it. They've got to understand it and grasp it
or they don't believe it. They don't confess the resurrection
because it doesn't make sense to them. They don't confess angels
because they've never seen any. They don't confess anything unless
they can see it and feel it and taste it. It's intellectualism. It's death to faith. And he says,
take heed. Don't go that direction. Take
heed of the leaven of the Pharisees. I mean, the Sadducees. Get rid
of that. Turn to Mark 8. Verse 15. And he charges him saying, take
heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven
of Herod. The leaven of Herod. Who's Herod?
Look back in Mark chapter 6. Verse 20, Herod's that one who
feared John, knowing that he was a just man and a holy, and
he observed him and we heard him. He did many things. I mean,
he was impressed with what he had to say and heard him gladly.
But you know what Herod ended up doing? When that little maid
comes in and dances before him, he has John beheaded. Now, you
take heed of the leaven of Herod. And then in Galatians 5 we read
of the leaven of works. Turn over there. Galatians 5.
Now these are the four things the New Testament says about
leaven. Galatians chapter 5. Verse 9. A little leaven leavens
the whole lump and he's talking about salvation by works. If
you had introduced one work into salvation, something you must
do or you can't be saved, you make the whole thing worse. A
little leaven leavens the whole lump. And what am I called on
to do? I'm called upon to purge it all out, every bit of it. Now, in our response to redemption,
we're called upon to get rid of the leaven. And we're to do
that on a daily basis. Now, back to our text in Exodus
chapter 12. He repeats himself in verse 11,
he talked about the Purging out of the eleven, and it shall be
when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of Canaanites,
as he sware unto thee, and to thy fathers, and shall give it
thee, thank God for that, that thou shalt set apart unto the
Lord all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling that cometh
of the beast which thou hast, the males, shall be the lords.
Now he brings out, this sounds almost unusual. Let's read verse
13. All of a sudden he talks about
the firstling of an ass. And every firstling of an ass
thou shalt redeem with a lamb, and if thou wilt not redeem it,
then thou shalt break his neck. And all the firstborn of man
among thy children thou shalt redeem." Now, we've been given
all these instructions regarding what our response to God's redeeming
work is. And they're absolutely necessary.
Now, you listen to me real carefully. The gospel of God's grace does
not excuse sin any more than God's holy law does. It's never an excuse for sin. And our response to grace is
to give ourselves to him. to consecrate ourselves to Him
and to always be purging out the leaven. That is to be our
response to grace. But the Lord in His mercy knows
what we'll start thinking when we start thinking about all the
stuff we need to do. And so he reminds us of this glorious picture
of redemption. We're brought back to redemption
once again. If all you ever hear about is
what all you ought to be doing, oh, you just get so discouraged.
Now, I'm thankful for these instructions, but the Lord doesn't leave us
here. He knows the way we are. And
so he brings us right back to redemption. He talks about the
redemption of the ash. The firstling of an ass thou
shalt redeem with a lamb, and if thou wilt not redeem it, thou
shalt break his neck, and all the firstborn of man among thy
children shalt thou redeem." An ass was an unclean animal. Its name
tells you something about its character. Everybody knows what
an ass is. You know some. Everybody knows exactly what
he's talking about. Yes, it's an unclean animal, the ass. He talks about the ass being
redeemed. Now, this ass or this donkey
was an unclean animal, and this unclean ass is a picture of you
and me. You believe that? This is given
to remind us of what we are. Scott Richardson was preaching
upon this many years ago. And my little sister brought
her boyfriend to church. And there he was preaching. And
she said he, and if you know him, you can appreciate this,
I guess. He said, you are the unclean ass. And he said her,
she said her boyfriend looked at her. I mean, I can imagine. I would like to have been there
when that happened. I can imagine why people would. But at any
rate. Here's what's amazing. A lamb
for an ass? Is an ass worth redeeming? Would
you give a precious, spotless lamb for this ass that He says,
if you don't redeem it, break its neck. It's worthless. There's
no good in it. There's no good to it. If it's
not redeemed, go ahead and break its neck because it's worthless.
giving a lamb for an ass? You know, that doesn't even begin
to show the amazing character of God's love in giving His Son
for me, the unclean ass. He said, redeem it or break its
neck. If it's not redeemed, all it
can be is destroyed. If Christ did not redeem us,
all we can be is destroyed. That's how sinful we really are. Do you know you and I are a whole
lot more sinful than we even imagine? We don't even have a
clue. Turn over to Exodus 34 for a
moment. These instructions are repeated.
In verse 19. Verse 18, He says, The feast of unleavened
bread shalt thou keep seven days, thou shalt eat unleavened bread
as I commanded thee in the time of the month of Abib, for in
the month of Abib thou camest forth out of Egypt. All that
openeth the matrix is mine, and every firstling among thy cattle,
whether ox or sheep, that is male. But the firstling of an
ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb, and after thou redeem him not,
then thou shalt break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons
thou shalt redeem, and none shall appear before me empty. Now that
wasn't quoted in Exodus chapter 13. He says none shall appear
before me empty. Now how is it that this unclean
ass is going to be able to appear before God with something that
God can accept? He said, none shall appear before
me empty. I love that hymn we sing, nothing
in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. I love that
hymn and I believe it. But you know, we actually bring
something before the Lord. He said, none of my people are
going to appear before me empty. And how is that? Because of the
redemption. Look, turn to 1 Corinthians 1.
Because of this redemption. But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us. This is how we appear before
God. He's made unto us wisdom fit
for fellowship with God, wise before God. He's made unto us
righteousness. He's made unto us sanctification,
or holiness, and he's made unto us redemption. We come into God's
presence just like this, through the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
that unclean animal was redeemed, he's not going to come into God's
presence empty-handed. And I come into his presence
with Christ. Now, when you believe that, doesn't
it make you want to give yourself a toe beat again? It really does. That makes you want to give yourself,
surrender yourself completely to Him. It's only when you don't
really believe that that you don't. But when you believe that,
by the grace of God, that you're complete in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you want to give yourself completely to Him. Now back to our text
in Exodus chapter 12. Aren't you thankful that right
after He gives us these instructions, He tells us about the redemption
of the ass? Verse 14, And it shall be when
thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, what is this? What in the world are you redeeming
this unclean animal for? Why would you give a lamb for
this? What what is going on here? I don't understand this. What
is this? That thou shalt say unto him, by strength of hand,
the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage. This is one of four times that
that word is used. Here's your answer. We're redeemed
by power. Look, look back up in verse three.
And Moses said to the people, remember this day in which you
came out from Egypt out of the house of bondage, for by strength
of hand, the Lord brought you out from this place by strength
of hand. Look at verse nine. And it shall
be for a sign to be upon mine head and for a memorial between
thine eyes, that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth, for with
a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt. Verse 16. And it should be for a token
upon thine hand and in front before thine eyes, for by strength
of hand the Lord brought thee forth out of Egypt." Now, redemption. Remember, this is our response
to redemption, His redeeming work. When you talk about the
redeeming blood of Christ, I want you to think just for a moment
about the power of God behind it. The omnipotence that's in
His blood. His blood is such that it's made it to where my
sin is not. Now, that's powerful. Because
of the blood of Jesus Christ, my sin's not merely forgiven.
There's nothing there. It's gone. The blood of Christ
is such that not only does it put away all my sin, It makes
me perfect before God. Where God looks at me. God's
looking at me right now. And He's seeing someone who's
perfectly conformed to the image of His Son. Now, is that power
or what? Oh, the power of His blood. And when your son asks you, why
are you doing this? You tell him, by strength of
hand, the Lord redeemed us. It should be, verse 14, when
thy son asketh thee in time to come, what is this? That thou
shalt say unto him, by strength of hand, the Lord brought us
out from Egypt, from the house of bondage. And it came to pass,
when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of
man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to the
Lord all that openeth the womb, being males, that all the firstborn
of my children I redeem. And it shall be for a token upon
thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes. For by strength
of hand, the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt." And I'm
never going to forget it. Now, if you really believe redemption,
here's your response. Consecration and purging. Purging after leaving. But you're
always brought back. Not the thinking about your consecration
and your purging, but you're brought to thinking about the
redemption, about that unclean ass that was good for nothing. And if you didn't redeem it,
break its neck. That's how worthless it is. But the Lord, in his mercy,
gave a lamb for that. What, what astounding grace. I just want to leave you with
this thought. God loved you, just as if you're
the only one, so much that He gave His Son to die for you. Love so amazing, so divine, demands
my soul, my life. my all. Let's pray.