Turn to a scripture verse in
the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 5, 1 Corinthians 5, the latter part
of verse 7, 1 Corinthians 5, just the latter
part of verse 7, the last line, is sacrificed for us. For even Christ, our Passover
is sacrificed for us. Now Israel, Israel was in Egypt
in bondage and slavery. Their groans and their cries
of 400 years, 400 years in slavery and bondage, calling for the
pharaohs of Egypt and their cries went up to heaven. And Almighty
God, in his own time, determined to deliver, to redeem his people
from Israel, from Egypt, from darkness and slavery, in his
own time. And in doing so, he said to Moses,
have the people select a lamb, a lamb for each house. Now if
the house is not big enough, to consume one lamb, then two
or three houses go together. But select a lamb without spot
or blemish, a male of the first year, put it up for four days,
select it on the tenth day, put it up till the fourteenth day,
and observe it. And then on the fourteenth day,
you slay the lamb. And you roast it with fire. And
you eat the meat. And you take the blood and strike
it on the lintel and on the two side posts of the door. And you
go in your house and you get ready to leave Egypt. For at
midnight I will pass through the land of Egypt. And I will
bring death upon the firstborn in every home, in every home. But when I see the blood, I'll
pass over you." And that night, the Scripture says, there was
a terrible wail went up from the land of Egypt, as home after
home after home, even the cattle on the hillside, all the way
to the home of Pharaoh. the king of Egypt, the firstborn
in every home was dead, except in the home protected by the
blood. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you." And they left Egypt, and God instructed them, turn
to Exodus 12, God instructed them to keep this Passover. Exodus chapter 12, He instructed
them to observe this Passover every year at this time. He said
in verse 25 of Exodus 12, And it shall come to pass, when ye
be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according
as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. And
it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you,
What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is 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
in worship. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
gathered his 12 disciples together, he was observing this Passover
with his disciples. I read it a moment ago. He said,
you'd go and make ready the Passover. And they said, where? And he
said, well, a man will meet you, and you follow him. You'll go
to a house, and you'll say to him, the master has need of this
house to observe the Passover, this Passover feast with his
disciples. You make ready. Well that evening
he sat around with his disciples and observed this Passover. Israel
was in Egypt, slavery and sin, helpless, hopeless. And God purposed
to save them. And God saved them in a way that
was typical and symbolic of the way he saved sinners from darkness
and slavery of sin. And Israel observed this Passover.
Now when our Lord Jesus Christ ate the Passover with his disciples,
he took bread and he break it, and he gave it to them. And he
said, this is my body which is broken for you, this doing remembrance
of me. And he took the cup and gave
it to them, and he said, this wine is my blood. of the New
Testament, the new covenant which is shed for you. Drink ye all
of it, and do so in remembrance of me." And that same time, our
Lord, at that same month, our Lord went to the cross and died.
The Lord's Passover. Our Passover. Our Lamb slain. And from that moment, this Passover
is ceased. What it represented has been
fulfilled. whom it represented, he has come
and died. And we no longer slay a lamb,
we no longer go through the ceremony of the Passover supper, but now
we observe the Lord's table, which he gave to his church.
Now let's look for just a moment, beginning at Exodus 12, verse
3, at how this Passover represents or symbolizes our Lord Jesus
Christ. In Exodus 12, verse 3, he said
in verse 3, speaking to Moses, unto all the congregation of
Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month thou shalt
take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for a house. Now, no other creature could
so well have typified our Lord Jesus Christ as a lamb. He is
led as a lamb to the slaughter. As a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, he opened not his mouth. He laid down his life willingly. He did not object, he did not
argue, he did not fight. When they came to take him in
the garden with their swords and spears, he said to them,
you seek me, let these go their way. And he gave himself willingly. He gave his back to those who
whipped it. He gave his cheeks to those that
plucked out the hair. He gave his face to those who
smote him. He is holy and harmless and undefiled. And no other creature, no other
creature could so well have represented Christ as a lamb. You watch a
lamb and their wool is stripped from their back to clothe us.
And they never offer any resistance. They don't growl, they don't
bite, they don't kick, they don't gore. They stand there while
you strip the wool. And when they are slain, when
a lamb's blood is shed and they're slain to feed us, they stand
there bleating until their life is gone out of them. But they
offer no resistance. And a lamb represents Christ
because our Lord Jesus Christ is a willing substitute. He said,
my kingdom is not of this world, or my servants would fight you.
My servants would fight you. But he never fought. He willingly
died. So that's Christ is our Lamb. When John the Baptist pointed
to him, he said, there's the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. Christ is our Lamb. All right,
secondly, he said, take a lamb, verse 4, verse 5, your lamb shall
be without blemish. without blemish. It must not
be sick. You see, it cannot be seconds. The Lord is never pleased with
anything like that. One time they mentioned giving
the Lord something that was a sick lamb, a sick sheep. He said,
take that to your governor and see if he'll accept it. But he
said, you pick out the best lamb, must not be sick, must not be
lame, must not be diseased. It must be the finest lamb of
the flock. And I'll tell you this, our sacrifice,
our lamb, is the crown jewel of glory. He's the Father's well-beloved
Son. He's the choice. He's the firstborn
of every creature. He is the elect of God. He is
the finest. The finest. Our Lord Jesus Christ
was without sin, no spot or blemish. He knew no sin. He not only did
no sin, He knew no sin. He was tempted in all points
as we are, yet without sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ, Scripture
says, in Him is no sin. Alright, notice the next word.
It's to be a male of the first year. That's the prime of life.
That sheep, one year old, of the first year, the prime of
life. The prime of its existence. Christ died at 33 years of age.
in the prime of his life, in the strength and health of his
youth. You shall take it from among
the sheep or from the goats. Watch this now. You shall keep
it up until the fourteenth day. That's four days. Now, I've studied
this a little bit and I've found so many different applications
to these four days. They just, I think, sometimes
take these things too far. These types and all, they try
to get too much out of them. But they kept it put up four
days, and chiefly, keeping that lamb put up for four days was
to observe it. To critically scrutinize it and
inspect it, that it might be certain that there was no blemish,
that there was no spot, that there was no disease. That it
was a perfect lamb. And that's why they kept it up.
Because if it had a spot or a blemish or disease, it could not be accepted
of God. And our Lord Jesus Christ walked
on this earth. He walked on this earth for nearly
34 years, but principally 4 years, publicly. And he began his public
ministry by being scrutinized and inspected by Satan. Satan
took him to the top of that mountain, and he tried him every way he
knew to try. Our Lord, you've never known temptation. You say,
well, if the Lord only knew my temptation. Well, you ain't never
have been tempted. You've never been the sole object
of the prince of evil. You never have. You've never
been the sole object of all of the force of cunning and craftiness
and deceit and power that hell can bring to bear upon him. And
that in his weakened state, for he'd been without food, Charlie,
for forty days. You talk about our Lord identifying
with us in our trials and temptations. He didn't meet Satan when he
had gotten up from a meal and spent the week in rest. He met
Satan at his weakest point, when he was without food forty days.
And Satan tried him. First of all, make these stones
bread. Why don't you eat? You've got
the power to do it. You want the people to worship
you? Why, he said, cast yourself off the temple. Prove you're
the Son of God. They'll worship you. Why, he
said, you worship me and I'll give you the kingdoms of this
world. All this will be. You don't have to go to a cross.
You don't have to be despised and rejected of me. I'll give
you the influence of this world. You can buy it if you want it.
It's an awful cost. You can have the favor of this
world. You can have it. Satan will give
it to you. You can have the approval of
this world, the favor of this world. You can have the companionship
of this world. You've just got to sell your
soul. That's all you've got to do. It comes high, doesn't it? It comes high. Our Lord Jesus
Christ was tried of Satan and then the Pharisees, the religious
men, the Sadducees, the lawyers. They all tried him. And then
the Lord God tried him. And then the Father himself tried
him. Pilate summed it up at his trial.
He spoke for heaven, earth, and hell. I find no fault in it. I find no fault. So they took
him out and crucified him. You see, the lamb was selected
without spot or blemish, put up for four days, inspected,
scrutinized, watched, proved to be an acceptable lamb. So
then they took it out and slew it, and slew it. And our Lord
Jesus Christ proved through four years of the strongest temptation
and the strongest scrutiny and inspection and trial by the Prince
of Darkness and the King of Glory. And all mankind. And finally
God used Pilate and his tongue. The Lord used whom he willed
to speak for him. You know that? And old Pilate stood before the
whole world and pointed at him. I find no fault in him. And heaven
said that to him. This is my son in whom I'm well
pleased. I find no fault in him. So they
crucified him. See, the lamb must be slain.
It says here in verse 6, you keep it to the fourteenth day.
of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation
of Israel shall kill it." Oh, that's such a fine lamb, and
such a spotless lamb, and it's perfect, you've observed it.
Lord, why not, we've proved our faithfulness. We've proved we
believe what you said. We've proved by putting up the
lamb, but now these lambs could be, they could be used as food
on our journey. There's a lot of things we must
be killed. Don't do any reasoning. Don't
use any logic on God. The law's got to be satisfied
and justice has to be honored. The soul that's in it's got to
die. And I don't care what sentimentality or emotion you feel toward the
Son of God, if He's going to be our Savior, He's got to die.
He's got to. The blood must be shed. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission. Our Lord taught
that in the garden when He slew the first lamb to cover Adam's
nakedness. Abel proved that when he and
Cain came to bring their offering. And Cain used his reason. He
used his logic. He used his good common sense.
And Abel used the word of God and bought a lamb. And God had
respect to Abel's offering and rejected Cain's. Abraham proved
it when he took his son off that altar and put the lamb in its
place. Well, there's been enough suffering here. There's been
enough conflict. Let the lamb go and Isaac never
got to die. Somebody's got to die for my
sin. The wages of sin is death. The
soul that's in it, it must die. Do what you will. Believe what
you will. Teach what you will. Claim what
you will. The lamb's got to die. It's got
to kill it. He died. Alright, let's go on. Now then, but faith applies to
blood. I hear all those people sitting
around listening to Moses. This is such an eventful time.
They had served in Egypt. Some of those old men had long,
white beards, stooped shoulders, withered, and weather-beaten
hands and faces. They had served in Egypt under
the bondage and slavery of Pharaoh's whip. Their fathers had served. Their fathers' fathers had served.
And their fathers' fathers' fathers had been in that in that horrible
slavery. And Moses stood up before them
and he said, take the lamb now and roast it with fire. That's
our Lord's suffering on the cross, burned with fire. The fire of
wrath. He said, I thirst. I thirst. Oh, the dry throat and the parched
lips and the burning fever racking through his body. He suffered.
He burned on the altar of Calvary. Eat the flesh and take the blood. And when you finish killing that
lamb and eating the flesh, you take that blood. This is so important.
And on your house, you put that blood on the lintel, on the two-door
post. Because God Almighty says here,
look at it, verse 7, and you take the blood and you strike
it on the two-side post, on the upper-door post of the houses
wherein ye shall eat. They shall eat the flesh in that
night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread with bitter herbs, they
shall eat it. Don't eat it raw, don't eat it sodden with water,
roast it with fire. And then on down here in verse
11, you eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet,
your staff in your hand, you shall eat it in haste. It's the
Lord's Passover. While I was passing through the
land of Egypt this night, This night I'll smite all the firstborn
of the land of Egypt, both man and beast, against all the gods,
princes of Egypt. I'll execute judgment. I am the
Lord, and the blood shall be to you for a token, for a token
upon the houses where you are." My friend, that blood on that
doorpost of their houses was symbolic. It was a token. It was a pattern. The blood of
an animal cannot save. That represented Christ. And
the application of the blood by faith is the same thing that
we do when we confess Christ. Lord, I believe. I receive Christ. I believe Christ. I commit my
soul to Christ. When that father slew that lamb
and they ate it, and he took the blood, and with a hyssop
he went over to the door, He is saying, Lord, I believe. That's
what he's saying, Russell. He's saying, I believe. I believe. Lord, I believe. That's all.
I just believe. I believe. And he went in the
house and shut the door. And that night, God, not a deaf
angel, God said, I'll pass through. I'm tired of people talking about
deaf angels. God said, I'll pass through. God will slay sinners. He said, binge at this man, I'll
repay. And He's going to pass through.
He may pass through your soul tonight. He may pass through
your house tonight. The only thing that holds Him
back is your time hasn't come. That's the only thing. But I'm
telling you this, as I take this bread and this wine, I'm doing
just exactly what that daddy did in Egypt. I'm saying, Lord,
this is my hope. I'm putting my blood on the door.
I hold up the bread. Now, just like that daddy held
up that that meat from that slain lamb and ate it with his family.
He ate it in faith. And I take this unleavened bread
and I eat it before God and before men and before my own heart. And I say, this is my hope. When
God passes through, when the darkness comes, and the day of
God's judgment shall appear, and He passes through with His
judgment, this is my hope. And I want to take this wine
in a few minutes. And I'm going to drink it before the Lord.
It's the same thing when that daddy put that blood on that
door. That's the same thing. That's clear as I can make it,
my friend. And that's clear as God can make it. Because that's what God said.
It is the Lord's Passover. It's not a Baptist church Passover. He keeps saying that. You see
how many times he said that, Bob? It's the Lord's Passover.
It's the Lord's Passover. It's the Lord's Passover. It's
the Lord's supper. It's purposed by Him, provided
by Him, purchased by Him, and presented to us by Him. And I
take the Lord's supper. And that's my hope. It's not
because I'm a preacher, or because I've been in the church all these
years, or because I'm better than anybody else. It's because
this sinner is saved by the grace of God, through the blood of
Jesus Christ. Now let me tell you something.
If you're sitting out here tonight and we're reenacting just exactly
what happened in Egypt, God's coming through. I don't know
when He's coming through. But I'm saying this, you take the
lamb and its blood, and you before God, God is my witness, this
is my hope. This is my hope. If you can take
it, take it. If you've received Christ, believed
on Him, rested in Him, if you by faith have put the blood on
the door, And you take the bread and the water and rejoice in
it. Oh, I'm telling you, don't you
know they rejoice? They rejoice, and I'm telling
you this, when it was all over, they stood outside those doors
as that whale went up from Egypt and thanked God for the blood.
And I'll tell you, when we get to glory, we're going to stand
in amazement and say, worthy is the Lamb. who loved us and
washed us in his own precious blood, and made us unto our God,
kings and priests. Unto him be the glory both now
and forever. I thank God for the Lamb. Russell,
you serve our table for us. I look in the faces of our
boys and girls as they're watching this serving of the bread. And
I want to say to them what our Master said to his disciples,
and I have many things to say to you that you're not able now
to understand. But you watch what is being done,
what we're saying to you boys and girls. And God will open
your heart someday to see your sins, your need of Christ, and
bring you to faith in Him. But what you're seeing here is
what Here, men and women, young people from all walks of life,
from every background experience, from all nationalities, even
from all denominations, have been brought together by the
Spirit of God to rest in one Savior, to trust in him who loved
us and gave himself for us. That's what we're saying to you.
When you ask, what meaneth this ordinance? We're saying to you
that Christ is our hope, that he redeemed us by his blood.
And the only way you'll be redeemed is by trusting him. God's never
had but one way of salvation for any sheep, and that's Christ. So you listen to this and watch
this and observe it. Don't you let anybody ever take
you away from it. You keep coming back to this
one. This is my body, he said, broken for you. Well, let's turn in our hymn
book, if you will, to number 210, Saved by the Blood of the Crucified
One, number 210. Mike, you come lead us in the
first and last verse of number 210. First and last stanza, while
we're stanzaling. Saved by the blood of the crucified
one Now ransom from sin and a new work begun Sing praise to the
Father and praise to the Son Saved by the blood of the crucified
one. Saved! Saved! My sins are all pardoned, my
guilt is all gone. Saved, saved, I'm saved by the blood of the
crucified one. Saved by the blood of the Crucified
One. All hail to the Father, all hail
to the Son. All hail to the Spirit, the Great
Three-in-One. Saved by the blood of the crucified
one. Saved! Saved! My sins are all pardoned. My guilt is all gone. Saved! Saved! I'm saved by the blood of the
crucified one.