All right, let's open our Bibles
to the book of Exodus and read about the first Passover. Israel had been in Egypt about
400 years, and the Lord had sent Moses down to deliver the people
out of bondage and lead them over to Canaan. And in chapter
11 of Exodus, verse 1, the Lord said to Moses, yet will I bring
one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. And after that,
afterwards, he will let you go hence. When he shall let you
go, he shall surely thrust you out, hence altogether. And Moses says, Thus saith the
Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt,
and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from
the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even
unto the firstborn of the maidservant that's behind the mill, and all
the firstborn of the beast. There shall be a great cry throughout
all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall
be like it any more. But God will deliver his people. God will show mercy to Israel. But against any of the children
of Israel shall not a dog, not even a dog, move his tongue,
against man or beast. you may know how that the Lord
doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. Now chapter 12, verse 1, And
so the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months,
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 to them every man a lamb." Now, this is a picture
of Christ, our Passover. This is the first Passover feast,
the first Passover observed by Israel. Take a lamb, according
to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. 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. Because they must eat all of
it, leave nothing remaining. Every man according to his eating
shall make your count for the lamb. Now listen to this, your
lamb shall be without blemish. Our Lord Jesus Christ is without
spot or sin. Must be a male of the first year
in the prime of life. You take it out from the sheep
or from the goats. Keep it up until the 14th day.
That's four days observing it. Make sure there's no blight or
scurvy or disease or any blemish on this particular lamb. Leave
it up and observe it. The whole assembly of the congregation
of Israel shall kill it, kill the lamb and the take the blood. Now here's the first mention
of hyssop. You take the blood and this is
what the way you take it. Look down at verse 21. Moses called for all the elders
of Israel and said unto them, draw out and take your lamb now
according to your families and kill the Passover. Take a bunch
of hyssop. You don't put your hands on the
blood. The hyssop is a plant that grows not very tall, has
leaves and certain hyssop. That's just a plant. And they
take these pieces of this plant and fix it like they do fix it
and dip it in the blood and sprinkle it on the lintel and the side
post. And that was what the high priest did. He dipped hyssop
and sprinkled the blood. And he says there in verse 22,
you take a bunch of hyssop. You know, David, when he prayed
in Psalm 51, said, Lord, purge me with hyssop, and I'll be clean
and washed, and I'll be whiter than the snow. Sprinkle the blood
upon my heart and cleanse me. Take a bunch of hyssop, verse
22, dip it in the blood that's in the basin, and strike the
little and the two side posts with the blood that's in the
basin. go out of the door of his house until the evening,
for the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians. And when
he sees the blood upon the lintel on the side post, the Lord will
pass over." There's the word. See, that's the pass over. The
Lord will pass over and will not suffer the destroyer to come
into your houses to smite you. This is a picture of our Lord. Our Lord is establishing this
pass over Way back here in Egypt is a picture of the death of
his son for his people. And go back now to verse 7. You
take the blood. I had to go over there and show
you how they took the blood. They didn't touch it in any way.
You strike it on the two side posts, on the upper door post
of the houses wherein thou shalt eat it. And thou shalt eat the
flesh in that night. Eat the Passover. Roast it with
fire now. Don't eat it raw. Roast it with
fire, unleavened bread. Note, leaven is a type of evil.
It's a type of sin. So we've got a lamb and eat it
with unleavened bread with bitter herbs. These bitter herbs are
a picture of repentance and sorrow for our sins. Eat it with unleavened
bread, roast it with fire. Our Lord died under the judgment
and fire of God's wrath on the cross. Verse 9, eat it not raw,
and don't mix it with anything, not sodden at all with water,
don't put anything with it, or gravy, roast it with fire, head
with his legs, with the pertinence thereof, and let nothing remain
of it until the morning. It's the whole Christ that saves,
not part Christ. He's prophet, priest, and king. Take Christ in all of his office
and work. all of his great name and righteousness,
wisdom, atonement. Let nothing remain unto the morning,
and that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn
with fire. And eat it with your loins girted, shoes on your feet,
staff in your hands, ready to leave this place. Eat it in haste,
it's the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night and snipe all the firstborn in the land
of Egypt, man and beast, and against all the gods, that's
princes and kings and rulers of Egypt, I'll execute judgment,
I'm the Lord. But the blood, but the blood
of Christ shall be to you for a token upon the houses." He
said, well, that didn't say the blood of Christ, but that's what
it is anyway. It's a picture of the blood of
Christ. They were looking. The blood
of lambs and bulls and goats can't take away sin. The death
of an animal can't stand in the stead of a man. You know that. This is a type. And these people
were saved, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Abel, by looking to the lamb.
They sacrificed the lamb. But they weren't trusting that
lamb and that blood to save them. They were trusting God's lamb
and the blood of Christ to save them. They were looking to the
coming Lord like we look back to the Lord who came. This is
a symbol here. This is not the blood of Christ.
And this wine and bread won't save anybody. This is not a sacrament. This can't take sin away. But
I'll tell you this, what that represents can take sin away.
And we take this, we're not looking to this to save anybody. But this is a type, this is a
symbol, this is a picture of him who did die, shed his blood. This wine was squeezed out of
a grape, took a life out of that grape. This bread was roasted
and baked and freshed and wintered and brought into the loaf. And that's what this is here.
He says, I'll pass over you and the plague shall not be upon
you when I smite the land of Egypt. Now, turn to Luke chapter
22. And this is what Brother Frank read in the book of Matthew
a while ago. We look at Luke 22. And our Lord was born a Jew. He was born of the seed of David.
He was born of the tribe of Judah. That's the kingly tribe in Israel. He's the king priest. And he
was born a Jew. And he was under the law of Moses,
said, now you observe this Passover every year. The first month,
the tenth day, observe this Passover until the Lord comes. You observe
it. And they observed it. Now when
the Lord Jesus came, a man in the flesh, he was made under
the law of Moses. He was circumcised when he was
eight days old. called his name Jesus. His mother
took him to the temple when he was a baby to offer sacrifices
like all Jewish babies. That's when he saw Simeon in
the temple. Simeon saw him, rather. When he was 12 years old, about
12, they took him to the temple for that special ceremony. And
our Lord went to the synagogue every Sabbath day. He kept the
Sabbath. Yes, sir, he was under that law. He was under that law. He kept the Sabbath, and he kept
the Passover. He did all these things, fulfilling
our righteousness. He kept them perfectly. None
of these men ever kept them perfectly, but he did, and gave to us that
righteousness. Now, so here, on the night that
he was betrayed, on the night before he was to suffer, Verse
14 of Luke 22, and when the hour was come, he sat down with his
12 apostles. To do what? To do what he'd done
every year for 33 years. Kept the Passover. Every year. Kept the Passover. Because our
Passover hadn't died yet. Now this is the last Passover.
This is it. Because he's about to die. Now
you hold that right there and turn to Don't leave it there
and turn to 1 Corinthians 5. And this sums this whole thing
up right here, what I'm talking about in 1 Corinthians 5. Verse
7, there you have it, 1 Corinthians 5, 7. Now you purge out, therefore,
the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. You see, Christ is our lamb.
We have a lamb without blemish, without spot, a male of the first
year, prime of life, sinless. He's been tested all these years,
a man of sours acquainted with grief, tested by Satan, tested
by the law, tested by the Father, tested by men, tried, and no
sin was found in him. And then he was killed. His blood
was shed. And God sprinkled our hearts
with the blood of Christ. Now, let's look at this, Luke
22, verse 14. When the hour was come, he sat
down and the twelve apostles with him, and he said with desire,
I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Now,
when our lamb dies, we're not going to kill any more lambs.
When his blood is shed, we're not going to shed any more blood.
When his blood is applied, we're not going to look to any of these
types and pictures. For I say unto you, I will not
Anymore eat thou art, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of
God, and neither shall any other of his people." And he took the
cup, gave thanks, and said, take this and divide it among yourselves.
For I say unto you, I'll not drink of the fruit of the vine
until the kingdom of God shall come. He took the bread, unleavened
bread, gave thanks. He broke it. See, his body was
broken. The bread was broken in pieces.
and gave it to them, and he said, this is my body. Well, it wasn't
his actual body, he was standing there in his body. He was standing
there in his body. That's not his actual body, that's
a picture of his broken body. And that's what this is. I know
there's folks back years ago used to talk about this bread
becomes the body of Christ. No, it doesn't. It's symbolic
of the body of Christ. When he said, this is my body,
He's saying this is symbolically, hey, his body's still right here.
And gave thanks, said, this is my body, which is given for you.
This doing remembrance of me, likewise the cup, he said, this
cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you. So you can see it doesn't become
his blood or become his body, because his blood was still in
his body when he was standing there. So it's a picture and
a type. And that's the last, he's closing
the door on the Passover. Christ, our Passover, is about
to die. And the next time those disciples
come together to consider the sacrifice and to consider the
atonement, they eat the bread and drink the wine in memory
of Christ who died. Oh, I turn to 1 Corinthians 11,
and here Paul gave this supper to the church. Paul, an apostle. He passed it along to the church,
and he says in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23, and this is not, back here in
verse 22, he said, Had you not houses to eat and drink in? This
is not a fellowship supper. This is not a gala affair where
everybody gathers and carries on like some of them were doing.
He said, You've got houses to eat and drink in. despised the
Church of God and shamed them that have not, what shall I say
to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not." All
right, he said, here's the way to observe the Lord's table.
I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you,
that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed,
took bread. And when he'd given thanks, he'd
break it. And he said, take and eat this. That's what we do.
We give thanks. The bread is broken. And we take
it. We take it deliberately and willingly. We take this bread. We take it. Take it and eat it. This is my
body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.
After the same man also he took the cup when he stopped saying
this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do you. And there's no The Jews observed
the Passover once a year, but he didn't give us a set time
to observe the Lord's Table. Not once a year, not on the 10th
or the 14th of April. It's as often as you do it. Mr. Spurgeon observed the Lord's
Table every Lord's Day in the tabernacle in London, and some
observe it more often than others, but there's nothing said here
about how often Except one thing, as often as you do it, you do
it solemnly and sincerely and in a committed passion, remembering
the Lord's death. As often as you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you do show. Show it to whom? Well, it's a
confession before God. Christ is my hope. Christ is
my Redeemer. Christ is my Savior, Christ is
my only righteousness, atonement, sent offerings, hope, life, salvation. Confess it to God, between me
and Him. Lord, I believe. You confess
it to one another. You confess it to your children.
It's like Moses said back there in Exodus, when your children
ask you, what are you doing? What does this mean? He said,
when you kill a lamb and eat the the flesh, put the blood
on the door, on the mercy seat. What do you mean by this service?
That's the Lord's Passover, and we say to our children, this
is the Lord's suffering. And we do it before the Lord, we
do it before one another, we do it before our children, and
we do it in our own hearts, again, again confessing. This is my
hope. This is my redemption. It's not
in church membership. my good deeds and morality and
whatever God may have given us as gifts and goodness and mercy
from Christ. But now verse 27 says, Now whosoever
eats this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily in
an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and blood of the
Lord. And he goes on and tells us what this unworthy manner is.
Then a man examined himself. Examined himself for what? How
good he is? Whether he discerns, that word discern, discerns the
Lord's body, understands what he's doing, means what he's doing,
is serious about what he's doing before the Lord. That's what
we're talking about. Be sure that we discern the Lord's
body. Let a man examine himself and
so let him be. Don't examine himself and then
run from it, but examine yourself and be. at bread and drink that
cup. He doesn't drink it unworthily,
he doesn't drink it judgment to himself. It's not that one
act that damns him, that's an unfortunate word that King James
uses, it's judgment, judgment to himself, not discerning the
Lord's body, discerning. That's his problem, you see.
Anyone who eats and drinks, not discerning, not understanding,
not doing this just as a ritual or as a a common church ordinance,
or because everybody else is doing it, or maybe it's a good
luck charm, or maybe looking for some salvation in that bread
and wine. People believe this is a sacrament.
You know what? A sacrament has saving power.
But this is not a sacrament. So don't eat it that way. Not
at all. Not at all. Doesn't have any
saving value. That's not discerning the Lord's body. That's the problem. All right, back to 1 Corinthians
10. One more verse, and then I'm
going to make some comments that I think will be a blessing to
you. In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 15, I speak as to wise men. Taught
men and women with discernment. They've listened and they've
learned. I speak to wise men. Now, you judge what I say. The
cup of blessing. cup of blessings. I hold in my
hand. It says the cup of blessing.
Our Lord talked about the cup of suffering. He said to his
disciples, the cup which my father has given me, shall I not drink
of it? He talked about the cup of service. If you give a cup
of cold water to somebody in the name of a disciple, God bless
you. That's a cup of service. And
then he talks in Revelation about the cup of wrath. The cup of
wrath is poured out with indignation. But this is THE cup of blessing. You know what that means? It
says THE cup, not A cup. This is THE cup. This is the
only source of blessing. This cup. which represents his
shared love. You see what I'm saying? This,
the cup of blessings, every blessing of God for you and me, symbolically,
is right here. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly in Christ. Isn't that right? In Christ. In Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You are complete in Christ. The cup of blessing. That's what
it is, symbolically. There is none other name unto
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. This cup, the cup, the cup of
blessing which we bless. Now listen, it doesn't say here
that we say words over it and turn it into what it's not. I
know that there are people who talk about the priest blesses
this and it becomes something that's not. No man got any authority
to turn this into anything. There was a fellow back in the
15th or 14th century went to the priest, and he said, The
wine that the altar boy has there, what is it? He said, Well, when
I bless it, it's turned into the blood of Christ. He said, Will the blood of Christ
make anybody drunk? The priest said, No. He said,
Get that boy to drink that whole container, and let's see what
happens to him. If it's the blood of Christ,
it will not make him drunk. naturally turned him down on
his offer. You can't turn this into something
that's not. That's not the way we bless it.
We don't have any authority to turn this into a saving liquid. How do we bless it? I'll tell
you how we bless it. We bless it by setting it apart.
This is not a common meal, this is a special meal. A special
meal, a special time for special people, remembering a special
Lord. That's how we bless it. Secondly,
we bless it by faith. It's not for everybody. It's
for believers. We bless it by faith. We believe.
It's not an open public demonstration. It's for redeemed believers who
discern the body and blood of their Lord. And they bless it
with their devotion and faith and commitment. Thirdly, they
bless it by prayer. They ask God to bless them with
a greater understanding of his of his blood, a greater understanding
of his love. And we bless it with praise.
We praise him for his mercy to us and for his grace through
Christ our Lord. So this cup of blessing which
we bless, now watch this question. Is it not the communion of the
blood of Christ? This bread, the bread, the cup,
the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body
of Christ? I want you, if you will, and
this is something I do all the time, it helps me so much, and
maybe you can do the same thing if you buy a concordance, Strong's
Concordance, which they have in the office, and you look up
this word communion in the Greek lexicon. If you're reading the
Old Testament, you look it up in the Hebrew. But I looked up
this word, it says, the cup of blessing which we bled. Is it
not the communion? It's not the actual blood of
Christ, but it's the communion of the blood of Christ. It's
the communion of the body of Christ. And the word communion
here in the Greek has five words, which it means. Five words. Number one, it means participation. I just said it, participation.
We're united to Christ by grace. And through that union with Christ,
we participate in his mercy, in his righteousness, in his
blood. Of God are you in Christ, who's made unto you wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. You participate because you're
in him. That's what they're seeking,
participation. Secondly, partnership, union,
communion, union with Christ. We're joined as with Christ,
being sons of God, We are joint heirs with him who is the heir.
It's like a wife and a husband become one. Partnership. What's his is hers. Thirdly, it means distribution. If God spared not his own son,
how shall he not with him freely give us all things? God is not
going to withhold anything from you that Christ bought for you
or in your stead or in your place. He gives it. That's distribution.
It's participation. It is partnership. It is distribution. It's fellowship. We're one. Father, he said, I pray that
they may be one as we're one. That's fellowship in Christ. And then fifthly, the word benefaction,
benefits. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits. And let me show you, I read this
at Brother Roy's memorial service, Psalm 116. Psalm 116, talking
about these benefits in Christ. In Psalm 116, verse 12, Psalm 116, verse 12, what shall
I render unto the Lord for all his benefit towards me? I'll
take the cup. I'll take the cup. That's what
I'll render to him. I'll take the cup of salvation,
and I'll call on the name of the Lord, and I'll pay my vows
now in the presence of his people. That's what I'll do. Benefit. All right, back to this text
here now. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not partnership,
fellowship, union, participation, communion with our Lord Jesus
Christ? This bread we break, is it not the communion, the
bread that we break, communion of the body of Christ? That's
what it is. This cup of wine is a sign and
symbol of his blood. For it is in his blood and his
death that the blessings of God become ours. This bread is the
communion of his broken body. He was wounded for our transgression,
he was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. And by drinking
and eating, we believe, we receive, and we remember. And as often
as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we show the Lord's
death till he comes." But we being many are one bread.
How many grains of corn, I don't have any bread there, you know
what it looks like, how many grains of corn had to be threshed
and ground? I watched the ladies down in the Pueblos
deal with that round stone and pouring corn
into this little this little bowl and grinding it with that
stone. How many grains of corn went
into the making of that one bread? How many of us are here, but
we're one bread? How many grapes? Oh, how many
grapes are stomped and threshed and bruised and broken to become
one wine? And that's what we are. He said,
you being many are one bread and one body, the body of Christ.
and all partakers of that one bread and that one wine. There are many. Go on back as
far as you want to. Our forefathers and reformers,
they believed. They observed this supper. Our
Lord fulfilled the Passover and established the Lord's table.
God's people for centuries, for centuries, have been meeting
together like we are tonight. This bread is my body broken
for you, and this wine is my blood shed for you. Many of us,
but we're one. One Lord, one faith, one body.