Turn with me to Exodus chapter 12. Exodus chapter 12. Look at verse 14. Exodus 12 verse 14. 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.

Now this word memorial, it means a reminder. It means to call to remembrance. And we need to be. We need to be reminded frequently. Look at verse one of Exodus 12. What were they commanded? What were the children of Israel commanded to remember?

Look here beginning with verse one. The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, this month shall be unto you the beginning of months. 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 every man and lamb according to the house of their fathers, a land for a house.

And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of souls. Every man, according to his eating, shall make your account for the land, and your land shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. Take it from the sheep or from the goats and 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 posts and on the upper door post of the house wherein they shall eat. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire and unleavened bread. And with bitter herbs shall they eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden it all with water, but roast it with fire. His head with the legs and the pertinence thereof, and you shall let nothing of it remain until the morning. And that which remains until 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, and you shall eat it in haste. 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, against all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgment. I am the Lord in the blood.

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.

The Lord had sent plague upon plague upon the Egyptians. He had taken water, water, and he turned that to blood. He had sent frogs, and lice, and flies, and disease. He sent a moraine that killed the cattle. He sent boils, and hail, and locusts, and darkness. Not just dimming the lights, but darkness, darkness that could be felt. all these mighty works he sent. And each time, each time, Pharaoh's heart was hardened more and more. And he refused. He refused to let the children of Israel go. He said, I will not let them go. In Exodus 11, told Moses, he said, I'm going to bring one more plague, one more plague upon Egypt. And he said, after that, he will surely thrust you out. He won't be able to get you out of there quick enough. God's going to send judgment.

And here in our text, we read of the Passover lamb. A picture. We love these Old Testament pictures, don't we? A picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And throughout the scripture, this Passover lamb is used to preach the whole doctrine of the gospel. Think about this. God chose that lamb. It's His Lamb. We read in John 1 29, the next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and he said this, he said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. We see the characteristics of that Lamb. You know, I know for me, if I was told to, if I had a whole field of lamb, and I was told to sacrifice one of them, and maybe you'd do the same, I'd probably go out and find one that was about to keel over anyhow, right? I'd find a sick one. But that's not who God chose, was it? The choice lamb. In 1 Peter 2, 22, we read this. that he did no sin. Neither was guile found in his mouth. He is the perfect sacrifice. And that's what scripture declares. And that perfect lamb, that spotless lamb, it had to die. Its blood had to be shed.

Turn with me to Hebrews. Hold your place there and turn to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 9, look at verse 11. Hebrews 9, verse 11. being come a high priest, Christ being become a high priest of good things, to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves. How? How then? Read on. By his own He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot unto God, Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And that lamb, that lamb had to die. And it was eaten. And listen, when that was all over with, they were to go into the house and rest. Believing. believing Almighty God, believing what He said.

Scripture says this, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. And listen, the result of that sacrifice, What was the result of it? The people, not everybody, but God's people were delivered just as he promised. The people were delivered and Almighty God was glorified.

Back there in Exodus chapter 12, again, look at verse 26. Verse 26 of Exodus 12. It shall come to pass when your children, when your children shall say unto you, what mean you by this service? What's this all about? Then ye shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover who passed over the houses of the children of Egypt, of Israel, when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses. And what did the people do? They bowed their heads and they worshiped.

Paul, writing to the Ephesians, he said unto him, be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end, amen. So for a few minutes, just for a few minutes here this evening, let's look at this Passover lamb. Let's look at what the people were called to remember. And above all, let's look at Christ. That's what we truly want to see, isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ, our Passover.

Now that lamb, again, it was without blemish. It was, we don't even know what this means, but it was absolutely perfect. Everything we see is tainted with sin. This lamb was to be perfect. You know, scripture says this, that he, that the Lord Jesus Christ was in all points tempted, like we, yet without sin. He's the sinless Savior.

2 Corinthians 5, 21, we read this, for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, in Christ. He must live a perfect life to atone for our sin. He can have no sin of his own. Sinless. Leviticus, back there in Leviticus 22, it says this, it must be, what? Perfect. It must be perfect to be accepted.

Well, back here in our text, look at verse 5 of Exodus 12. That lamb was to be taken out from among the sheep. Taken from among the fold. The Lord Jesus Christ was taken from among men. He became a man. He was made a man. In Deuteronomy 18, verse 15, it says this, the Lord God will raise up unto thee a prophet. Where? From the midst of thee. From among thy brethren, like unto me, and to him shall you hearken.

He said, I'm gonna raise up a man, a prophet from among thy brethren, and I'm gonna put my words into his mouth, and he's gonna speak all that I command, and it shall come to pass that whoever doesn't hearken unto his word, whoever doesn't hearken to the words that he shall speak in my name, I'm gonna require it of him. God raised up the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider this. He's the seed of woman. He's the seed of Abraham. He's the seed of David according to the flesh. He was actually a man. God became a man.

Again, back in Exodus 12, look at verse 5 and 6. This lamb, it was a male. of the first year. It was in the prime of its strength, in the prime of its life, and it had to be killed. It had to be slain. And the Lord Jesus Christ, in the full strength of his life, he was put to death. He was made an offering for sin. We read there that that lamb was to be roasted with fire. Roasted with fire. Think about how the Lord Jesus Christ suffered, how he died. We can't begin to enter into that, can we?

Paul wrote this, he said, I delivered unto you first of all that which I received. How? How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Consider the manner of his death. He was crucified. He was nailed to a cross. His humiliation. The wicked things that were said about him, those false witnesses that rose up against him. He was treated with contempt. The insults that were cast out of folks' mouth. The cruelty of those soldiers. That crown of thorns plaited on his head. put a reed in his hand and mocked him. He was scourged. He was beaten to the point of he wasn't even unrecognizable.

Men paint these images of such a lovely sight. There was no lovely sight to be seen on the cross. He endured all of that and then he endured being made sin. He was made sin. That's what we are. That's who and what we are. We drink iniquity like rainwater. He's the spotless Lamb of God and yet He took all the sins of His people upon Himself. And He suffered and He died. And on top of that, He bore the wrath. Not just the wrath and contempt of the people. He bore the wrath of His Father. The wrath of God was poured out upon Him. The fire of God's wrath poured out on him.

We read there that that lamb was roasted, roasted whole. That's our Lord on the cross. And then read on in Exodus there, verse seven of Exodus 12. We read that the lamb, the blood of that lamb was sprinkled upon the lentils and the side post. Blood had to be shed. Without the shedding of blood, no remission. There had to be a blood sacrifice. His blood was poured out. And then that blood, that blood of that lamb was applied by faith. There's no salvation, there's no deliverance apart from faith. Without faith, without faith it's impossible to please Him. He that believeth on me, he that believeth on the Son of God, what's scripture say? He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

God didn't put the blood on the door. He gave him that lamb and that blood was precious. But he told him, he said, you take that blood and you strike it on the door by faith. They went out and they put that blood on the door. They obeyed God. Why'd they do it? Because they believe God. They believe what he said, what he told them. Take the blood, isn't that what they were told? Take the blood and apply it on the door. And the Lord said this, he said, when I see that blood, not how you put it on there, not anything to do with man, he said, when I see the blood of that lamb that I provided, I'm gonna pass over you.

That blood on the door, it's an outward confession. I believe God. You know, I was thinking about this. If anybody else went by the house and they saw that blood on the door, they had to take notice of that, didn't they? The blood was on the door, evidence of faith. And that's what baptism is. It's a profession of faith. We confess the Lord Jesus Christ in baptism. It's an outward confession. Scripture says, the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, not to put in the way of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. An outward confession. of who we believe, who we're resting in.

And then we read next that the Israelites were to eat the flesh of that lamb. By faith, we do the same. We feed on Christ. We believe Christ. We receive Him. That's called eating His flesh and drinking His blood. We have to eat. If we don't eat, we don't have life. We have to have something to drink. If we don't do that, we have no life. We can't live without water. We're dependent upon it. And when we eat his flesh and we drink his blood, we declare our dependence on him. He's my life. Without Him, I have no life. We must have Christ.

Well, still here in Exodus 12, eat the lamb. Eat the lamb with unleavened bread. Why is that important? Why unleavened bread? Well, leaven's a type of evil. It's a type of sin. And those that come to Christ, the true Passover, listen, we come in truth. We come in sincerity. We come without hypocrisy. We come hating evil. Eat that lamb with bitter herbs. Bitter herbs. We come to Christ in sorrow. We sorrow over our sin. Certainly not like we should. but we sorrow over sin. David said this, he said, have mercy on me, oh God. He said, my sin, it's easy to find, it is ever before me. We come to him with repentance. David said this, he said, against thee and thee only. Have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight?

Well, that lamb, it was to be eaten. It was not to be eaten raw and not sodden with water. There was nothing to be done to dress it up. It wasn't to be boiled in wine. It wasn't to make some kind of gravy. Right? We take something that's not very good and we make a little gravy of ourselves and put on there to make it a little bit better, make it tolerable. That's not the case here. It's Christ and Christ alone. There's nothing to be added. We don't have anything to add to it to make it any better. Nothing can be added to make it any better. Christ is all. He says, roast it with fire. Salvation. Salvation is in Christ and Christ alone. And there on that cross, He alone, He alone endured the wrath of God. He alone endured the judgment of God for this purpose, to justify his people, to take away our sin. And again, there's nothing added to that. There's nothing mixed with it, joined together. He alone is my rock and my salvation." He walked the winepress of God's wrath alone. There was none to help, none who would, none who could.

Verse 10, there was nothing to remain. We need Christ, and we need Him in every portion of His work. He's our prophet. He's our priest. He's our king. I need Him in all His person and work. He said, eat that Passover, dressed and ready to go. This isn't going to be your home for long. You're leaving Egypt. He said, with your loins girded and your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand, eat it in haste. It's the Lord's Passover. Egypt wasn't going to be their home for much longer, was it? The Lord was going to reach in there and bring them out. this world, this world with all that it has is at best temporary, a temporary dwelling place. We're not going to be here forever. We're pilgrims here just for a little while.

Well, one more verse. Look at Exodus 12 verse 13. When I see the blood, I'll pass over. I'll leap over your house. That's why it's called the Passover. The Lord, when he's seen the blood of that lamb, I tell you, when he didn't see the blood of the lamb, there was judgment. There was death. That next morning, there was a cry that went out through that land like was never heard before or again.

But for the children of Israel, he said, when I see the blood of the lamb, he passed over. He delivered them. Death had already come to that house, hadn't it? The death of the lamb. And in the same manner, His judgment and His wrath has passed over His people. How can that be? By the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Scripture says this. I love this passage of Scripture. There is therefore now. When? Now. right now. There is therefore now no condemnation." To who? To them that are in Christ Jesus.

Here's another one. He said this, he said, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, what's it do? Cleanses us from all sin.

This, this shall be a memorial unto you. It's the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and he delivered our houses. And the people bowed their heads and they worshipped. They worshipped.

And we, God's people, were commanded. We're commanded as well to remember Him. He said, this do, this, this do in remembrance of me. For this purpose, listen, to keep these things fresh in our minds, fresh in our hearts. What? His sacrifice for sin. His intercession on our behalf. All right.