The book of Hebrews, chapter 9. You young people better
be on page 1309 in your Bibles if you haven't found it. I want
to read three scriptures for us. I want to read Hebrews 9
and 1 Corinthians 5. Then we'll go to Exodus 12. Hebrews
chapter 9 and verse 12. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." He entered
in once into the holy place, and I think if you'll study this
book, you'll find out that it's God's presence. The only holy
place is God's presence. And he entered into the very
presence of God. by His Spirit and obtained eternal
redemption for us. Now look over in 1 Corinthians
chapter 5 and look in verse 6 through verse
8. 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and look
in verse 6. That will be on page 1242 in
your 6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? 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 old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
Now let's turn over to our text in Exodus chapter 12. You remember
the context we looked at last week? They took the lamb. The wrath of God was going to
come. At midnight they took the lamb. They slaughtered the lamb. They
cut his throat and put the blood upon the lintel of the door and
on the two side posts. And let's begin here in verse
7. Look in verse 7. And they shall take of the blood
and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post
of the houses wherein they shall eat it. And they shall 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 and
his legs with the pertinence thereof, the inwards. And ye
shall let nothing of it remain until the morning, and that which
remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. And
thus shall ye eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your
feet, your staff in your 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, and against all the gods of Egypt
I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. And the blood
shall be to you for a sign 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 that ordinance forever. Seven days shall you
eat unleavened bread. Even the first day you shall
put away leaven out of your houses. For whosoever eateth leavened
bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall
be cut off from Israel." Now I read over there in Hebrews
chapter 12 and verse 7 for a purpose. Last week we looked at one aspect
of our salvation. Tonight we are going to consider
another aspect of our salvation. That is why we looked last week
at one portion of Exodus chapter 12 and tonight we are going to
look at another portion of it. And in Hebrews chapter 9 and
verse 12, I read that passage to you that
Jesus Christ had entered in once into the holy place having obtained
eternal redemption. And that word means accomplished.
He has accomplished redemption. Having obtained. By all intents
and purposes, the eternal redemption of every believer has already
been accomplished. Now you say, Look at us. Redemption's
been accomplished. The work for us has been accomplished. The sin has been put away. Reconciliation
has been made. There's peace with God. Everything
that's going to be done on our behalf in regards to our reconciliation
to God and sin being put away and atoned for, all that's been
accomplished on our behalf. Now, you look at yourself and
you say, and you see redemption not been accomplished in us,
it hasn't. We know that. But it has been
accomplished for us. It's already been done before
we were born. The Holy Spirit now is working in us. And someday
redemption is going to be accomplished in us and with us. But it's already
been accomplished on our behalf. We are waiting to enter into
the full realization of our accomplished redemption. It has been obtained
and we will enter into the full glory of that, as I said, Sunday. And the reason I read this verse
to us concerning redemption accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, because
our faith must be in man accomplished redemption. Our faith must not
be in what we are doing, in religious works. Our faith must be in what
has already been done outside of us before we were ever born.
Now you understand that. You understand the difference
in this? We have to be settled on this point. Because we are
not settled on this point, it leads to so much doubt. It leads
to so much confusion. When we talk about salvation,
when we talk about redemption, it's been accomplished. 2,000 years ago, it's been accomplished.
Now, how do I apply Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12 to our text here
that we just read tonight? Okay, it's this way. What was
it that secured the firstborn from the wrath of God? Somebody
tell me what it was that secured the firstborn from the wrath
of God. When God said, I'm going to see
something, the blood. What else? What else? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing, is
it? What about our sincerity? What
about when God said, when I see the blood plus your sincerity? What about when He said, when
I see the blood plus the greatness of your faith, or your deep understanding,
or when I see your religious duties? It's the blood, isn't
it? Just the blood. It's just the
blood. This was what secured their being
delivered from the wrath of God. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Our faith cannot be in our faith. Our faith cannot be in our commitment. Our faith cannot be in our sincerity. Our faith must be in Him who
did the work. Our faith must be in that blood
that was shed before you and I ever lifted a finger to do
anything. It was not anything done by them.
or anything they refrained from doing while they were in the
house, the basis of their security was the blood. It was the blood. Their assurance and their peace
from the very beginning, when they put that blood on those
doorposts, their assurance from that time forward and their peace
had to be in the blood. In the blood. Exodus chapter
12 contains two aspects of our salvation, two different aspects
of our salvation. Number one, what was accomplished
for us on our behalf, outside of ourselves, before we lifted
a finger. That's one aspect of our salvation.
And brothers and sisters, I can't stress enough why we have to
be settled on Because if we're not settled here, there's no
way that we can go to the next aspect that we're going to study
on tonight. What is our faith in? Who is our faith in? Is it
in Jesus Christ who finished the work on our behalf? A finished
redemption and an accomplished task? It must be. It must be. That's the first, and you and
I looked at that last week. That's what we looked at. And
this afternoon, we want to look at this other aspect of our salvation,
and that's our communion and our fellowship with the Lord
and with one another in the light of what's been accomplished on
our behalf. And you note this. It's because
we don't understand this that creates a lot of doubt and confusion. Settle this, therefore. Settle
it. Live in the faith of this, that
your redemption has already been accomplished. Sin has already
been purged. You're already completely delivered
from the wrath of God. Can you get a hold of that? That
you are completely delivered from the wrath of God. There
is no wrath that's going to touch you if you're in Jesus Christ.
There's no wrath towards you anymore. It's gone. Then we go to this second subject.
How do we live our lives in the light of this accomplished redemption? That's what we're going to look
at here. That's what we're looking at tonight. After that blood
was on the doorpost, they got in the houses. How did they live
then? How did they live then? The first
thing then, let's look at it this way, consider this with
me. In the light of this accomplished redemption, in the light of this
blood that was upon the doorpost, that secured them from the wrath
of God, an association was formed. An association was formed between
these people. Go down every street, go down
every alleyway, walk out through the country, And you look at
every house where the blood was upon that door. And you look
behind that door in that house, and you'll find these people
doing the same thing. All of them was eating a roasted
lamb. All of them had their shoes on
their feet. All of them had their long dresses tucked up. And all
of them was watching and waiting for the morning. eating unleavened
bread. This blood had brought an association
with this group of people. The blood had formed a fellowship
with this group of people. You and I have many local churches,
don't we? And we've got a bunch of them,
don't we? Some we like, some we don't like,
some we don't understand. But there's a lot of local churches.
What forms the basis of our association. What is it that forms the basis
of our association? Not only with us, but when we
enter into fellowship with another local congregation. Our faith
in an accomplished redemption. Is that not it? Is that not it? This is why the church world
cannot have a Bible while the church and the world cannot have
a Bible association. How can the church and the world
enter into association and a fellowship and a communion? There is as
much difference in the world and in the church as darkness
and light, as life and death. You look at verse 12 and you
see there all the firstborn in the land of Egypt was going to
die. Judgment was pending upon all the firstborn in the land
of Israel. In verse 13, the judgment had been removed by blood. They weren't to be touched. See
the difference in those two people? And there is no way they are
going to have association. The association among all the
children of Israel was on this basis. It was all in the houses
where the blood was applied. And that's the way you and I
associate with one another and that's the way we associate with
other churches, local churches. On the basis of man accomplished
redemption. Now anybody, anybody, any group
of people is welcome to form associations. I'm glad we live
in a country where you can do that. You know you can get together
in our society and you're allowed to form a communist party. That
seems strange, but you can. You can associate. There's plenty
of commonists you can associate with. My dad used to be a mason. He's associated with a mason.
I seen on TV the other night they was talking about Oddfellas
Club. They used to have an Oddfellas
Association. A lot of people on that association. But, if you're going to worship
with God's people and associate with God's people, There's only
one basis upon which you can do that, and that's through faith
in an accomplished redemption. That's the only basis. That's
the basis. Not a system. I love the system
of Calvinism, and you do too. We don't talk much here about
Calvinism, do we? But we love that system called
Calvinism. But our association is not around
a system. It's not around a denomination.
That's why we don't have Baptists or anything else over our building
out here. Because that's not where our
association is. Our association is in this. It's around this accomplished
redemption. Jesus Christ and what He's done
for us has brought us together. What, therefore, are you and
I to think about those people who profess to be saved, they
profess to be delivered from the wrath to come, and yet they
have no fellowship, they have no association or communion with
saints. Some place such little worth
upon this communion with saints in the local church where they
live. They live their lives based upon
Something else altogether. Well, I can't fellowship with
God's people. This is where I work. Or this
is where I'm getting my education. Or some environmental or geographical
concerns. What is it, brothers and sisters,
that brings you and I together here tonight? What is it that
brought Brother Wayne all the way down from Alaska You think
he comes here because we speak in tongues? I don't think so. You think he comes here because
we've got a great missionary outreach? I just about bet anything
one of the factors that caused him to move here and to associate
with us, he knows what association is based on. An accomplished
redemption. If he'd have heard me preach
the last year or so that we're working our way to heaven, and
that we're working trying to justify ourselves before God,
and we're trying to do something to add to what the Master's already
done? You wouldn't be here, would you? If you had any sense, you
wouldn't be here. These men and these women gathered,
and they got in these houses, and they put on their shoes,
and they tucked up their dresses, and they were eating their son's
leavened bread. They were associating and talking
and saying one with another. because they were behind those
doors painted with the blood of that Lamb. Look right quickly
in Philippians. Hold Exodus chapter 12 and look
in Philippians chapter 1. Young people, that's on page
1278. Look in Philippians chapter 1,
verse 3. I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests
with joy for your fellowship in the Gospel. When? From the
first day until now. Your fellowship. What has brought
you together in fellowship? Sharing. Communion one with another. What's brought you together?
What's the basis of your association? the gospel. And what is the gospel? An accomplished redemption. Christ
has died for our sins, has put away our sins. So what do we
learn here from Exodus? The blood upon this doorpost? Well, the first thing we learn,
that is the basis of our association, our fellowship one with another.
Look back over in Exodus again, chapter 12. And look in verse
8. I've got to move quickly. I've been keeping you much too
long. Look in verse 8 of Exodus, chapter 12. Let's see some of
these things. This is a solemn thing here.
Look at this. In verse 8, And they shall eat the flesh in that
night. They cooked this lamb over fire,
and they ate it at night. As far as I know, they were awake
all night long. I know they were. Because they
had their shoes on. Staff in their hand. They were
ready to go. They ate during the night. Boy, this makes it solid, doesn't
it? A very sobering thing. If you
were outside and you walked down through Egypt where those Egyptians
lived, their houses were dark. As dark as it can be. It was
only when you went by an Israeli house that you saw light in their
dwellings. It was dark. It was at midnight
when this cry would come. Listen to what the Apostle Paul
said when he's talking about the coming of the Lord. He said,
You are not in darkness, that that day should approach you
as a thief. You are the children of light. You're children of the day. You're
not You're not of the night, but you're of the day. Therefore,
let us not sleep as do others. For they that sleep, they sleep
in the night. Look around us, brothers and
sisters. This is a dark world, isn't it? And the world is sleeping. Only the believer is awake. He's
awake and he's watching and he's eating the redeeming body and
the precious blood of his Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. Let us
not sleep as do others. God has not appointed us to rap,
but to obtain salvation. Therefore, Paul said, it's high
time to awake out of sleep. Our salvation is nearer than
when we first believed. So look around you and see if
it ain't a dark world that we live in. I don't want to go out
there, do you? Man, there's light in our house.
We've got food here to sustain us. I don't want to go back out
in that darkness. We was out there one time. Man,
I don't want to go back out there. Stumbling around in despair.
Judgment pending. At midnight a scream is coming,
a cry. Oh, it was at night. And it's
not now. It's not now. Secondly, look at this in verse
8 also. And they shall eat the flesh
in that night, roast with fire. Roast with fire. And he tells
us in verse 9, eat not of it raw, nor soddened at all with
water." Now, look over in verse, I think it's verse 46. Look over
in verse 46. There was a reason they weren't
to eat this flesh raw or soddened with water, boiled in water.
You wouldn't need a huge cooker to cook a whole lamb. or a kid
goat. It would be impossible probably
for them to have done that, especially ever have. And so if they had
cooked it in a pot, what would they have had to done? They would
have had to cut it up, wouldn't they? Well, look in verse 46
of chapter 12. In one house shall it be eaten,
thou shalt not carry forth of the flesh abroad out of the house,
neither shall ye break a bone thereof. Well, here's the reason
they were forbidden to do that. They would have to break their
bones. They would have to chop it up. They would have to cut
it up in pieces. You remember on the cross it
was said of our Lord Jesus, not a bone of Him was broken. So
the top here is protected. Don't cut it up. Don't cook it
in water. And something else here in verse
46, they weren't to carry it out from one house to another.
They weren't to boil it in water and then carry somebody a leg
over there to the house or carry a shoulder over here to another
house. In other words, the lamb was to be eaten whole. He wasn't
to be separated. They would split him. You've seen people gut animals. And they took out all the intestines,
washed them real good, cleansed them, and put them all back in.
And they roasted the whole lamb over the fire. They were to partake
of the whole lamb. You couldn't have this part of
Him. You weren't allowed to take a shoulder over there, a ham
over here. You had to eat the whole lamb. Now what does that
tell us? Doesn't that tell us that we can't just have bits
and pieces of the Lord Jesus Christ? We've got to have Him
all. We eat of a whole lamb, don't
we? You ever heard some people say,
well, I received Him as Savior, not my Lord? That's impossible. He's the Savior and the Lord.
Well, I'll commit myself to Him to save me, but not to follow
Him. Well, you've got to follow Him. There's the crown and there's
the cross. It's the whole Savior that we
must protect. And then He tells us here in
chapter 12 and verse 8 that He was to be roasted with fire. And every place you find in the
Scriptures where this is talking about judgment, you'll find it's
fire, it's symbolic of the wrath of God, it's symbolic of the
anger of God, it's symbolic of the fury of God. Let me give
you some places if you want to just write these down and look
at them later. Psalms chapter 79 verse 5, Psalms chapter 89
verse 46, Jeremiah chapter 4 and verse 4, And listen to Nahum chapter 1
verse 6. Who can stand before His indignation? Who can abide the fierceness
of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire. God's fury is like fire. So when
He said the lamb has to be roasted, what does that tell us? That
tells us our Lamb, the Lamb of God, underwent the judgment of
God for us. We don't eat Him raw, do we?
The flesh of Christ would do us no good to eat Him raw. He
said, My flesh will profit you nothing. It profits you nothing. It has to be subject to the fire. The wrath of God has to fall
upon His Son. It has to roast Him, as it were.
And that's who we eat of, this redeeming Christ who was subject
to God's wrath. We esteemed him smitten, stricken
of God, and afflicted. The wrath of God, the fire of
God was upon his body and his soul. My, my, we're talking.
Not boiled. Not boiled. Not carried from
house to house. Now look at what else you're
in verse 8. Look in chapter 12 and verse
8. They shall eat the flesh, and that night," that's the first
thing, "...roast with fire, unleavened bread." Unleavened bread. Now what does that mean, unleavened
bread? When you and I partake of the communion on Sunday afternoon,
we still use unleavened bread. Gail makes the bread herself.
We don't put yeast in it. Yeast makes the dough rise. Leaven,
in and of itself, is not a bad thing. The children of Israel
ate leaven, but they didn't eat it when they were burnt off.
The kingdom of God is lacking to leaven. That's a good thing.
The kingdom of God gets started in people's hearts and it just
takes them over. It takes over communities, sometimes
nations. But in the sense that it's used
here, it represents something bad. Leaven represents malice
and wickedness. Now listen to Luke chapter 12
verse 1. If you want to put this down, you can read it later.
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. What is leaven? It's hypocrisy. Listen to Matthew
16 and 12. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,
of the Sadducees. What was the Sadducees doctrine?
They didn't believe in resurrection. That's bad leaven. That gets
started and man, that will spread. Listen to this. A little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump. So we've got wickedness, malice,
hypocrisy, false doctrine, and you get just a little bit of
false doctrine, what does it do? Boy, it just starts permeating,
doesn't it? Like yeast. You get just a little
bit of hypocrisy, a little bit of malice or wickedness, and
what does it do? If it's not checked, If it's
not dug out and went through every crack and crevice as the
children of Israel did and got it out of their houses? He commanded
them, don't you eat this sacrifice with leaven. And they had seven
days of feast. And on the first day of that
feast, man, they went through their houses and they looked
every place to make sure they didn't have any leaven in there.
And He says, if you are found with leaven, Then you're going
to be cut off. You'll be put out from among
my people. So that shows you how serious
it was. And it's serious because of what
it represents. Malice and wickedness. Hypocrisy. False doctrine. Listen to what
Paul said. I read to you. Let me quote again.
He said, Purge out, therefore, the old leaven. Let us keep the feast. Let us
keep the feast. This is 1 Corinthians 5. What's
he talking about? Let us eat Christ. Let us live
upon the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. In our own personal
lives, we live upon Christ. We do it as we commune tonight
one with another. We do it as we partake of the
Lord's dinner, communion table on Sundays. 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."
Listen to what C. H. McIntosh said. I thought this
was very important and that's why I wanted to establish what
we did last week because this is another subject we're studying
on. We're in the house now and the
blood has been applied. The blood is there. Redemption
is accomplished. Now we're in the house. We're eating this
lamb. What's our whole attitude to
be? Sincerity, truth, purging out the old leaven of wickedness
and hypocrisy. Listen to C. H. Macintosh, what
he said. It is one thing to be saved by
grace. It is quite another thing to
live in the enjoyment of that salvation. The allowance of evil
can drastically and negatively affect the sweetness of our fellowship. Practical holiness, though it
is not the basis of our salvation, is intimately connected with
the enjoyment of our salvation. The blood is there so the person
is eternally secure, but because the leaven must be purged, and
if not, it can hinder the sweetness. of the knowledge and the communion
that we have. Now, I like that, don't you?
I like that. Because it shows us our whole
attitude as we live in Christ and enjoy Him. What's our attitude
towards self and sin and hypocrisy and insincerity? We're to dig
this stuff out and the evil thoughts and check these things. Check
these things. Look over with me right quick
in Psalm 51, right quickly. Here's the best example I could
think of as I read C.H. Macintosh's quote on that. Look
in Psalm 51 and look in verse 8. This is where David had fell
into sin with Bathsheba. And I'm not justifying that any
more than I justify my own sin. But let me say this, and I hope
you understand me. Don't misunderstand me. When
David fell into this awful sin, awful sin of adultery and murder,
was he still justified before God? Was he still accepted? He was, wasn't he? Old Scott
Richard used to say, if nothing else, about David teaches us,
his fall teaches us this, that men are really saved by grace.
I mean, there's no other way this man can be saved if redemption
wasn't already accomplished for him. And as soon as he said,
I've sinned against God, what did the prophet say? He's put
away your sin. You shall not die. He's put away
your sin. But look how it affected this man. And that's what we're
talking about tonight. Look what he said here in Psalm
51. Look in verse 8. Make me to your joy and gladness. that the bones which you have
broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from
your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore
unto me your salvation." Oh, He ain't restoring salvation,
is He? Then what aspect of salvation
is David wanting to restore? The joy. The joy. Why had he lost the joy? He hadn't
got that leaven out, had he? Leaven? You talk about leaven.
You talk about insincerity. You talk about hypocrisy. It
just got in David and it permeated his being. And boy, when the
Lord finally brought him to account for it. He realized, man, I've
lost the joy of it. I've lost the assurance of it.
I've lost this sweet communion of it. That's what we're saying. That's what we're saying. They
had to eat this feast. They had to keep this feast.
They ate this lamb, but with unleavened bread. Look back in
chapter 12, verse 10. Two more points and we'll close.
Look in verse 10. I want you to notice how the
Holy Spirit is so careful here even to protect this time. Chapter
12 and verse 10. You shall let nothing of it remain
until the morning, and that which remaineth of it until the morning
you shall burn with fire. Not one particle of this sacrifice
could be left behind. What would happen to it if they
left a big ham laying there on the table? What would happen
to it in that heat in just a few days? It would start decaying
with it. It would rot. And the Holy Spirit has so protected
the preciousness of the sacrifice of Christ, He even says about
its type, not one particle of it is to be wasted. That's how
precious the sacrifice is. The sacrifice of Christ, the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, is sufficient for the world if
they'll come and partake of it. Let everybody come, let anybody
come, and they'll find the sacrifice of Christ can save their souls. Not a one will come and he'll
say, I'm sorry, it just can't reach you. Let the world come,
and they'll find there's blood there to cleanse away their sin.
But not one drop of blood has been wasted. Not one groan, not
one tear, not one drop of sweat had been shed in vain. Jesus
Christ did not die in vain. And if He died and obtained redemption
for those who were in hell when He died, then what are we going
to do about His sacrifice on their behalf? You say, well,
it means nothing. It's in vain. Is it wasted? What's going to happen to it?
Is it going to rot? Is it going to decay? He bore
as much Judas' sins as he did Peter? That's a big waste, ain't
it? And the Holy Spirit won't even
allow that to be done to this type. How much more to the Son
of God? Brothers and sisters, when He
died, He'll save every man by that sacrifice that comes to
Him. And He's going to save every man that sacrifice was intended
for. But it will not be wasted. It is not in vain. Lastly, in
verse 11, look at this. And you shall eat it with your
loins girded, shoes on your feet, your staff in your hand, and
you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. Look here what this blood did
for these people. It secured their ultimate deliverance
from Egypt. And it would eventually bring
them into the land of Canaan. And it did, didn't it? It did.
It brought Israel finally into the land of Canaan. They hadn't
gone anywhere yet, had they? They were still in Egypt. They
were still in their houses. They hadn't gone anyplace. But
you know, with all intents and purposes, even though they hadn't
gone three days' journey, they hadn't crossed the Red Sea, they
hadn't got out into the desert, they hadn't entered the land
of Canaan, but with all intents and purposes, this was a redeemed
people. Before they ever left, they were
a redeemed people. And the Lord wanted them to consider
themselves a redeemed people, ready to enter the land of Canaan.
That's how much the blood of this Lamb had did for them. It
delivered them and assured them the land of Canaan. And He said,
it's so much so that I want you to be ready. I want you to look
like you're ready. I want you to spend the night
in confidence with your shoes on your feet, your staff in your
hand, and your loins tucked up. I want you to have that kind
of assurance. What I've did for you by this blood has secured
your deliverance and your entrance into the land of Canaan. And
brothers and sisters, ain't the blood of Christ done that for
us too? It's done that for us. The sacrifice of Christ, as we
sit here this very night, you know something? We've been redeemed.
We've been redeemed. And we're ready for heaven. We're
ready for heaven, aren't we? Any questions? Any comments?