While they were singing this
hymn, there is a fountain filled with blood. It occurred to me
that 250 years ago, in the church pastored by John
Luton, northwest of London, England,
they sang this hymn. It was written by his good friend,
William Cowper. who lived right behind him. John
Newton lived on one street, and William Cowper lived directly
behind him on another street, and their flower gardens joined
one another, and there was a path. William Cowper suffered from
depression, Great Depression, and often went through severe,
severe times of soul-searching, and he spent quite a bit of time
on that path, I'm told, going over to his pastor's house. He
wasn't a pastor, he was a songwriter, historian, poet. His home's now
a museum, which we visited. But he spent much time walking
that path over to Mr. Newton's house, being encouraged
in Christ. And they sang that hymn, There's
a Fountain, I tell our young people, I told my class this
morning, don't leave the old paths. Don't leave the old paths. Don't
leave the old hymns and the old gospel. Don't leave the way of
solemnity in the presence of the Lord. Mr. Spurgeon, a hundred years
later, thought so much of that particular hymn that he asked
that it be recorded on his tombstone. And that verse is right there
on Mr. Spurgeon's tombstone. They sang
that hymn when they met on Sunday night a hundred and some odd
years ago. And we sang it again tonight.
And I hope by God's grace, if the Lord Jesus does not return
in the next fifty years, they're still singing that hymn right
here on Sunday night. And some of you young people
are sitting right there where your dads and moms are now. And
one of you standing up here, leading this congregation in
the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wouldn't that be something?
God be pleased to preserve that testimony. But I guarantee you,
it'll be preserved on the old landmarks. He's not going to
bless new means and new directions and new ways. He's not going
to do it. He blesses the old ways. That's right. The old ways. Because the old ways are His
ways. That's right. It doesn't matter the generation.
Men are the same. They're sons of Adam. It doesn't
matter the generation. God is the same, yesterday, today,
and forever. It doesn't matter the generation.
The gospel is the same, and it's ever new. It's ever new. Somebody said, you've got a first
century theology. No, it's older than that. It
goes back before there were any centuries. It goes back to the
eternal counsels of God when he made Christ our surety. And
what we're doing tonight, and what we're saying tonight, and
what we're reviewing tonight is what Abel believed, and Abraham,
and Moses. All right, let's turn back to
Exodus, this time to chapter 12. Chapter 11, I'm sorry, chapter
11 of Exodus, what Ronnie read for us. Now, the Lord had sent
plague upon plague upon the Egyptians. But each time Pharaoh's heart
was hardened, he hardened his heart, God hardened his heart. God permitted it to be hardened.
And Pharaoh would not allow the Israelites to leave the land
of Egypt. So the Lord spoke here to Moses
in Exodus 11, verse 1. He said to Moses, Exodus 11,
verse 1, Yet will I bring one plague more, one more, upon Pharaoh. Now, I can't name all the plagues.
It's not necessary. But I do know they were severe. There was the Nile River turned
to blood. There was the pestilence of lice
and flies, and then there was the complete darkness over all
the land. And there were several of nine,
I believe, in all. But this one more is something
to consider. One more. One more plague. upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt,
and afterwards He'll let you go. He'll let you go. He'll let you go hence. Oh, the patience of our God,
the long-suffering of our God. How long will He allow rebels
to go? How long? I'll tell you how long,
till the cup of His wrath is full. And when the cup of His
wrath is full, their foot will slide in due time. And he just
gave Pharaoh more and more rope, more and more, more and more.
All this went on for some time. But now this is the day. He said,
this is it. He'll let you go. And when he
shall let you go, he'll literally thrust you out hence. He'll be
so glad to get rid of you, he'll push you out. That's right. All right, what's going to happen?
Down here in verse 4, And Moses said, thus saith the Lord, About
midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt. And I want to
pause here a minute, and let's make a covenant. Nobody else,
nobody else from this congregation ever talk about a death angel
anymore now, going through the land of Egypt. God said, I will. I will. It's like a preacher
I heard yesterday talking on television. He said, now, God's
saying something to us in that earthquake over in Los Angeles.
God's speaking to this, to America. Now, he said, God didn't cause
that earthquake. Now, don't misunderstand me. He didn't have anything to
do with that earthquake. But he ought not speak in it, then,
if he didn't have anything to do with it. Let the fellow have
something to do with his faith. But he said, I'll pass through
the land of Egypt. All right, listen. And all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt shall die." Now, listen. The firstborn, from the firstborn
of Pharaoh that sitteth on the throne, even unto the firstborn
of the made serpent that's behind the mill, and the firstborn of
the beast. How many times did he use that
word, firstborn, in that one sentence? One, two, three, four. What does it mean? Why the firstborn? Why not an uncle or a niece or
a nephew? Why not the baby in the crib,
the last one born? Why the firstborn? Would you
who know something about the Scriptures know that the firstborn
is the heir? Right? Something special about
the firstborn. the firstborn that comes forth
from the womb. Special. Something special about
the firstborn. He's the heir. Secondly, the
firstborn is the leader of the family. He's the, in the case
of a house of believers, he's the priest of the home. He's
the leader. He's the one who gets the birthright.
In Ireland, even today, he's the one that inherits everything.
There's such a small country. See, this is retained even in
the natural realm. There's such a small country,
such small farms and holdings, that if a man has ten or twelve
children, they split the land up, and by this time, they'd
be divided into thousands of one-acre lots. But the firstborn
gets it. The firstborn. The firstborn
is the pride of the family. That's right. When you have a
child born, the first one born in the home, you take about a
hundred rolls of film a week. By the time you've had the fifth
one, you don't take too many pictures anymore. That's right. But that firstborn is the pride
of the household. That's right. It's just so. Firstborn
is the support of parents. That's right. Firstborn is supposed
to take care of his parents. That's according to this. So to destroy the firstborn, And the firstborn is the heir
to the throne, isn't that right? In any kingdom of men, the firstborn
succeeds his father. So to destroy the firstborn in
every home, every home, God said, here, I'll destroy the firstborn
from the house of Pharaoh that sits, and here this says this,
that sitteth upon his throne." The firstborn of Pharaoh that
sitteth upon his throne. Pharaoh sat on the throne. Yeah,
but this son sat there with him, because he's the heir. Just like
our Lord Jesus Christ is the firstborn. He sits on the Father's
throne. That's right. He said, I'll destroy the firstborn
that sitteth upon, shares the throne. inherits the throne with
Pharaoh, the firstborn of the maidservant that's behind the
mill, so insignificant, yet the firstborn's going from that home
too, and the firstborn of the beast out on the field. And to
destroy the firstborn in every home, in every situation, is
to destroy the order of the land. The order, the rule, the discipline,
the support, the peace. of the whole land, God's going
to destroy the firstborn. Everything that their society
is built on is gone, he said. That's the reason verse 6 says,
and there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt,
their leaders, their pride, their heirs, their support, their firstborn.
There'll be a cry goes up from that land such as none ever like
it. And none will ever be like it
anymore. But verse 7, but against Israel,
against any of the children of Israel, no such judgment. Against God's people, no such
judgment. God makes a difference. Against
Israel, these are the untouchables by His grace. Doth children of Israel shall
not a dog move his tongue? Not even a dog will move his
tongue against man or beast. That you may know how that the Lord doth put a
difference between the Egyptians and the Israelites. What's the
difference? God made the difference. God's
the difference. And the difference in the grace of God is because
of God's firstborn, Christ Jesus. That's right. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our firstborn. He cannot be destroyed. See,
he's called the firstborn among many brethren. Romans 8 says,
Whom he foreknew he predestinated to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the what? The firstborn. He's
our heir. He's our leader. He's our pride. He's our support. He's our King. One of us first... I'm not the
firstborn in my home. My brother was. But any of you
who are the firstborn here, you don't take any security in that
fact. You take security in the fact that He's your firstborn.
He is. He's called the firstborn of
every creature. He's called the firstborn from the dead. And
that's the difference. We don't die because our firstborn
died. That's right, as a substitute.
And our Lord shows us again and again in His Word that the firstborn
by nature holds no significance in the kingdom of grace, none
whatsoever. Turn to Romans 9. He shows us
that. I'll just show you two or three
illustrations of that. First one here in Romans 9. Listen
to this. He's going to destroy the power
of Satan. He's going to destroy the natural
order. He's going to kill, he's showing this is a symbol, this
is a picture, this is a type, as God comes through the land
of Egypt and destroys their leaders, their pride, their gods, their
heirs, their everything, the firstborn goals. And he's showing
us that as he preserves Israel because of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now watch Romans 9, verse 10. Romans 9. And not only this,
but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even our father Isaac,
the children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand, not of words, but of him that calleth it was said, The
firstborn shall serve the younger." God has no respect for man's
natural firstborn. He'll reverse the order. He'd
choose the younger. So he said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I rejected, Esau have I hated. Let me show you another
picture of that over here in Genesis 48. This is so interesting
here, Genesis 48. Turn over there a moment. What
I'm showing you now is the significance of this judgment upon Egypt. God destroying the order, the
natural order, the rule, the leaders, God coming in and just
destroying all of their pride, their firstborn. Here in Genesis
48, verse 13. Now, old Jacob here is getting
old and feeble. He's about to die. Joseph's father. And Jacob have a love, you see. By grace, Jacob has the birthright. Jacob has the birthright. He's
the priest of that tribe or family. He's the priest of God He's the
man God's man by choice by grace not by nature But he's Jacob
have a love and here Jacob Joseph brings his two sons Joseph's
got two sons. He's proud of his son Verse chapter
48 of Genesis Verse 12, And Joseph brought
them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his
face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his
right hand, toward Jacob. You remember God changed his
name to Israel? You remember this morning? Now you're no longer
Jacob, you're Israel. So he brought his sons to his
father Jacob, who is Israel. And he brought Ephraim in his
right hand toward Israel's left hand. And Manasseh in his left
hand toward Israel's right hand. This old man's about blind. Old
Jacob's about blind. He ain't dumb, he's blind. And
here, Joseph's making sure that he blesses the right one. You're
blessed with the right hand. And he wants his father Jacob
to put that right hand on Manasseh's head. And that left hand on Ephraim's
head. So he set him up that way. He
put Ephraim towards Israel's left hand, and Manasseh towards
Israel's right hand, and brought them near. And Israel stretched
out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head. He crossed
his hands. Who was the younger? And his
left hand lay over here on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly. For Manasseh was the firstborn. And he said in verse 17, he saw
his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim. It displeased
him. It was evil in his eyes. And
he held up his, he grabbed his father's hand to remove it from
Ephraim's head and put it on Manasseh's head. We're going
to do it anyway. Even Joseph will do it. Joseph ought to back off, wouldn't
you think? Wouldn't you think? Wouldn't
you think? But this is so I tell you, our works, our righteousness,
our pride, it's just so ingrained in us, it's so born in us. He's
standing in front of Israel, Prince with God. His father,
the priest of the home, the birthright holder, the man God speaks through,
and he's going to take his hand and move it. Think about that,
John. distresses us when we think about
it. We see ourselves in things like this. It's not going to
be that way. It's going to be who deserves
it. No, it's not either. And Joseph said to his father,
not so, my father. This is my firstborn. Put your
right hand on his head. And his father refused. And he
said, I know it, my son. I know who's your firstborn. And he also shall become a people.
He also shall be great, but truly his younger brothers shall be
greater than he. And his seed shall become a multitude of nations. This is the Lord's doings. And the sooner we come to bow
and submit, happier we're going to be. Understand it, I do not. But he's going to do it in a
way in which he gets all the glory. Let me show you one more
scripture about this firstborn thing. Turn to Hebrews 10. Hebrews
chapter 10. The Son quickeneth whom He will.
God saves whom He will. He said, I'll be merciful to
whom I will be merciful. But Hebrews chapter 10, after
all the years of the laws and the ceremonies and the washings
and the baptisms and the sacrifices and the priesthood and the tabernacle
and the mercy seat, Christ came. the firstborn, our firstborn,
of every creature, first begotten from the dead. And the Lord Jesus
said, the Apostle Paul said in Hebrews 10 verse 9, Then said
he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, he taketh away the first,
that he may establish the second. And I'm telling you, if you'll
go through the Scripture and see how that God has done away
with the first covenant, and there's a new everlasting covenant.
First Adam, death. Second Adam, life. The first
tabernacle, gone. Christ's tabernacle among us.
The first priesthood. Christ is the priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. The first mercy seat. The first
atonement, gone. Christ is our mercy seat. The
first nature, you got to be born again, new nature, new heart. The first heaven shall pass away,
there'll be a new heaven. The first earth shall go away,
there'll be a new earth. Behold, by His grace, through
this broken body and shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, God
makes all things new. And He'll take nothing from us
and nothing of us by nature. and rewarded. Everything we are
and have, we're going to find in Christ. That's right. So really, in the death of the
firstborn in Egypt, God is saying a whole lot to us here. Man's
way is gone. Man's pride is gone. Respect
of persons is gone. Christ is the firstborn. All
right. So salvation and deliverance.
by this picture, by this type, is all by His grace, by His will,
according to His purpose, for His glory, through the righteousness
and obedience and blood of His dear Son. So let's look at chapter
12. Now, my friends, we're redeemed not by corruptible things, but
the precious blood of Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all sin. He made peace through the blood
of his cross. It's the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul. Thou hast redeemed us to God
by thy blood out of every nation. He has washed us from our sins
in his own precious blood. And without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. I have no problem rejoicing in,
preaching about, exalting the blood of Christ Jesus. So let's
look here at this picture the Lord gives us here for a few
moments. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Abel in the land of Egypt, saying, Now this month shall
be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first
month of the year to you. Now speak ye unto all the congregation
of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month thou shalt
take to them every man a lamb. Here's your deliverance. Here's
your salvation. Here's your escape. when I pass
through and destroy all of man's government, order, and ways.
You take a lamb. According to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for a house. Now, what's the lamb? Why did
the Lord select a lamb? Why not a dog? Why not a lion? Why not a horse? Why not a cow?
Because of the meekness, gentleness, humility of the lamb. Our Lord is led as a lamb to
the slaughter. Isn't that right? As a sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Christ
is the lamb. Submissive. A lamb is submissive. I can't think of any other animal
that they could have brought in this sacrifice and not had
great, great opposition. But he gave himself. Willingly
no man takes my life for me. I lay it down and that's what
Isaiah said He's led as a lamb to the slaughter as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb. So he opened out his mouth now
look at verse 4 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 the souls Every man according to his eating shall
make your count for the lamb Now your lamb shall be without
blemish that means It's to be as perfect as it could be. Not
to be a mangy lamb that nobody wants. It's to be the best you've
got. And that shows our Lord Jesus
Christ the perfection, the sinlessness of His nature. He knew no sin. He had no sin. He did no sin.
The lamb is without spot or blemish. I read on. Your lamb is to be
a male of the first year. A lamb of the first year, in
the prime of life, a year old, strong, not an old lamb about
to die, an old lamb that's lived his life and dies of natural
causes. Take the young, strong lamb,
Christ, thirty-three years old, right in the prime of life, and
you'll take it from among the sheep or from the goats. In other
words, take it from among the foal. Take it from among all
the other lambs, and this shows how our Lord was born a man,
born of a woman, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. This
lamb is to be taken like Moses gave this prophecy. He said,
the Lord will raise up that prophet from among the brethren, from
the midst of you. And the Lord Jesus Christ, they
saw, they said, well, we know him. He's the carpenter of Nazareth. His brethren and his sisters
and his mother, they all live. We know who they are. We know
who he is. He's taken from among. All right. Verse 6. Watch this.
Now, keep it. You shall keep it up till the
fourteenth day of the same month. You got him on the tenth day,
keep him up to the fourteenth day. Watch him. Try him. Test
him. Make sure there's not any problem,
not any disease. Watch that lamb. Our Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world. Thirty some odd years He lived
here and walked on this earth, tempted, tried, tested for four
decades nearly. Tried by heaven, tried by Satan,
tried by men, found no fault in Him. Perfect. And then, verse
6, keep it up to the fourteenth day of the same month, and the
whole congregation The whole assembly shall kill it in the
evening. Kill the lamb. Who killed it? The whole shooting
match killed it. That's right. We killed him.
Somebody says, the Jews crucified Christ. Yep. The Romans crucified
Christ. Yep. So did the Gentiles. So
did you. It was all there. Our voices
blended with the rest. We'll not have this man reign
over us. Crucify him and give us Barabbas. It pleased God to
bruise him. But we're the ones that did it.
We carried out the act. All right, watch this, verse
7 now. And you take the blood. Now watch, this is so important.
The whole assembly, the whole congregation, kill it and eat
it, and then you take the blood. You strike it on the two side
posts on the upper door post of the houses when you shall
eat it. The blood was to be sprinkled. This, my friends, is an act of
faith. God purposed to deliver them. God gave the lamb, sent
Christ, of whom the lamb is a picture. It pleased God to bruise him.
But God didn't put the blood on the door. Now, I don't know
how to explain what I'm going to try to explain here, but I
just know it's so. The people did. And they believed
God. Those who put the blood on the
door believed God. They believed God. And those
who didn't, didn't believe God. The blood on the door denotes
an outward confession of an inward belief. That's what a person
does when they confess Christ. It's an outward confession. Without
faith, it's impossible to please God. He that believeth on the
Son hath life. That's right. And the Lord God
didn't kill the lamb and he didn't put the blood on the door. But
it was his purpose that accomplished it all. And also his purpose
and his will gave them the understanding. He's the one who sent Moses to
them and told them what to do. And they believed and they acted.
That's what we're saying, they acted. And the blood, watch it
now, on the door. signifies that in our going out
and in our coming in, the blood is always before us. They didn't
take the blood and put it in a bowl and put it in the cabinet.
Nor did they put it on top of the house. They put it on the
door. And every time they went in or
came out, there she was, in our going out and our coming in.
The blood of Christ is always before us, always. I'm the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved, and he shall go in and out and find pasture." All right, then he said this
in verse 8, "...and you'll eat the flesh in the night." Eat
the lamb. Eat it. Christ said, you eat
my flesh and drink my blood. You receive Christ within. Christ
is not hanging on these walls of crucifix. There's no crucifix
in here. There's no statues of Christ. There's no monuments of Christ.
There's nothing outside. Christ lives in us. Christ lives in us. Christ is
received by faith. Christ is eaten, taken within
us. Eat it. Roast it with fire. This signifies the manner of
his death, the fire of God's wrath. I thirst. Think about hanging there in
that miserable Wretched condition, beaten, beaten, bruised, bleeding. Tongue cleaves to the roof of
his mouth, he said, and I thirst. The heat, the fever, don't you
know those wounds? Roasted with fire, and as you
see that lamb roasted in the fire, you see our lamb under
the judgment and wrath of the Father. And eat it, he said,
with unleavened bread. What is leaven? It's evil. It's
a type of evil. Eat and receive Christ without
hypocrisy. Without hypocrisy. Sincere and
genuine. No evil intent. That's how we
eat Him. That's how we receive Christ.
With a genuine faith. With a genuine need. With a genuine
love. Don't play games with this. Don't eat this with any kind
of hypocrisy. Roast Him with fire. and eat
with unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs thou shalt eat."
What's these bitter herbs? That's the grief over our sins,
sorrow over our sins. As we receive Christ our Lord,
we receive him joyfully, but we receive him humbly. And we receive him mourning over
our sins, tasting the bitterness of our sins. Don't eat it raw. He's got to die. Christ must
die. Christ must bear the wrath of God. Don't eat it raw. Don't
sodden it with water or gravy. Don't mix anything with it. Don't
mix anything with Christ. It's Christ, our prophet, priest,
and king. Don't mix anything. But roasted
with fire, head, legs, to the pertinent self, all of the Lamb.
Don't! There's none to be left. You
can't have part of Christ. I'll take Him as Savior, but not as King, not as Lord,
not as my priest, not as my intercessor. Well, you won't have Him. You
can't leave part of Christ out. It's the whole Christ. Eat the
whole Christ. Receive the whole Christ. Verse
10, let nothing remain to the morning. That which remaineth
unto the morning you got to burn with fire. No part of it. Take all of it. Nothing left
over. And watch this. And you eat with
your loins girded, shoes on your feet, stamp in your hand, eat
it in haste. It's the Lord's Passover. You're
moving out. You're moving out. Egypt is no
longer your home. You're sojourners now. And when
Christ, when you receive Christ, you're packed up and ready to
move out. That's right. You're packed up, dressed, got
your shoes on your feet, your staff in your hand, hat on your
head, and this world is no longer your home. with all its garlics
and onions is no longer your dwelling place, you're no longer
the servant of Satan and sin and the slavery and the bondage,
you're moving out. Moving out. Now you may walk
a long time, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, but you're moving. You're fully dressed, leaving
this place. Now watch this. It's the Lord's Passover. And
I'll pass through the land of Egypt this night, and I'll smite
all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, man and beast, against
all the gods, the princes, the leaders of Egypt. I'll execute
judgment. I'm the Lord. And that blood
shall be to you for a token. A token, a symbol. That blood
didn't save them. That blood was a picture of the
one who saved them. That blood doesn't, didn't, keep
God's wrath off of them, that animal blood, that's a token.
This wine and bread doesn't save anybody, it's not a sacrament,
it's not a saving ordinance. It's a token, it's a picture,
just like this right here. This is no more the Savior than
that animal blood is the Savior. This is a token, it's a picture,
a symbol of Him who is the Savior. Can you see that? Sure you can
see that. This is the Lord's parcel. It's
a token upon the house where you are. And when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. I will. I love the shalls and wills of
God's Word. He didn't say, now I'll give
some consideration to setting you free. No, sir. When I see
the blood, I will pass over you. That's my guarantee. I've sworn
it by two things. Number one, by my oath and by
my covenant, and I can't lie. I'll pass over you when I see
the blood. That animal blood? No, sir. This wine? No, sir. Am I taking it? No, sir. I see the blood on the
cross, the blood of the Lamb of God. Is that your hope? That's my hope. I'll pass over
you. Now then, it come to pass, verse 25, skip over to verse
29, 25, I mean, 24, Exodus 12, 24. And you shall observe this thing,
you shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and
to thy sons forever. It come to pass when you be coming
to the land, which the Lord will give you according to this he
hath promised, you shall keep this service. And it shall come
to pass when your children shall say unto you, What are you doing?
What mean ye by this service? You say, This is a sacrifice
of the Lord's Passover. who passed over the houses of
the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians,
and delivered our houses, and the people bowed their head and
worshiped." Now you turn to 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, chapter 7. 1 Corinthians, chapter 7 it is,
and 5, chapter 5, 1 Corinthians, chapter
5. Do we have a Passover we observe?
Yes, sir. Do we have a Passover in which
God delivered us? Yes, sir. 1 Corinthians 5, 7. Purge out therefore the old leaven,
that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us. Christ is their Passover,
and Christ is our Passover. And our Lord met with his disciples
back yonder on the... during the time in which he was
betrayed, and he took bread, and he break it, and he said,
take it, this is my body, broken for you. He took the wine, he
said, take, drink this, drink all of it, it's my blood shed
for you. As often as you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you show the Lord's death, till he comes. Just like Israel by faith, put
that blood on the door. They were showing their faith.
They were showing their Lord's death. We take this and show
His death.