Well, it's good to see y'all
out to see Miss Fred. Okay, is that why they're out
tonight? He's not feeling well. I know he was having trouble
Sunday with some chemo brain. Oh, I wouldn't doubt that. Probably
so. Continue to remember him in your
prayer. Dee Parks went for his cat scan and the situation has
not improved so he's not going to have any more treatment. So
I don't know. Probably not long for this world, but remember
him in your prayers. And his wife, Christy, and their kids. Their kids are teenagers now.
So remember them and also remember Loretta. She's going to have
You already had the biopsy. You're going to get checked out
for breast cancer on Monday at the Hope Center in Asheville,
right? Okay. Remember her in your prayers.
And I hope we all have a good Thanksgiving tomorrow. Eat a lot of turkey. As far as
announcements go, we have the Lord's Table Sunday, but no dinner
because everybody's going to be picking out tomorrow. So let's
begin our worship service tonight with hymn number 485, Revive
Us Again. We praise Thee, O God, for the
Son of Thy love, for Jesus who died and is now gone. Hallelujah, thine the glory Hallelujah,
amen Hallelujah, thine the glory Revive us again We praise Thee,
O God, for Thy Spirit of light, who has shown us our Savior and
scattered our night. Alleluia, Thine the glory! Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, thine the glory, revive
us again. All glory and praise to the Lamb
that was slain, who has borne all our sins and has cleansed
every Alleluia, thine the glory. Alleluia,
amen. Alleluia, thine the glory. Revive us again. Revive us again. Fill each heart with thy love. May his soul be rekindled with
fire ? Hallelujah, thine the glory ?
? Hallelujah, amen ? ? Hallelujah, thine the glory ? ? Revive us
again ? Hymn number 51, Praise the Savior. Thank you. Praise the Savior, ye who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render
to Him all we are and have. Jesus is a name that charms us
He for conflict fits and arms us Nothing moves and nothing
harms us While we trust in Him Trust in Him, ye Saints, forever. He is faithful, changing never. Neither force nor guile can sever
those he loves from Him. ? Keep us, Lord, oh, keep us
cleaving ? To thyself and still believing ? Till the hour of
our receiving ? Promise joys with thee ? Then we shall be
where we would be ? Then we shall be what we should be ? Things
that are not now nor could be ? Soon shall be Also, Holly asked that Sammy
Al's family be remembered in prayer. He died, I think, and
had a heart condition, I believe. So remember that family in your
prayers also. How are you feeling, Sharon?
Better? Exodus chapter 12 and read verse 21 through 28. Then Moses called for all the
elders of Israel and said unto them, draw out and take you a
lamb according to your families and kill the Passover. And he
shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that
is in the basin and strike the lentil and the two side posts
with the blood that is in the basin. and none of you shall
go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord
will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when he seeth
the blood upon the lintel and the two side posts, the Lord
will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer
to come into your house to smite you. And ye shall observe this
thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever, and
it shall come to pass when ye be come to the land which the
Lord will give you, according as he 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 and Egypt,
when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses, and the
people bowed their head and worshipped. and the children of Israel went
away and did as the Lord commanded to Moses and Aaron. So did they,
let us pray. Now Father, we are thankful that
in your Old Testament Christ is set forth in such a glorious
and wondrous manner. We are thankful, Father, for
the shed blood of Jesus Christ, for that perfect death, that
sacrifice that he offered to you. that satisfied your law
and your justice on behalf of those whom you had chosen from
the foundation of the world, your elect. And that sacrifice, we know,
Lord, was effectual in the redemption of his people. And we shall be
thankful forever. And our song in heaven will be
worthy as the lamb that was slain that has redeemed us by his blood
out of every kindred nation, tongue, and people. made us kings
and priests under our God. Our hearts are full of thanksgiving
and praise because of your goodness and kindness toward us. We don't
deserve the least of your favor and yet you have favored us completely
and given us grace upon grace, mercy upon mercy. Mercy is renewed
every day. You brought us to Christ give
us faith to believe your word. Things that are too much for
us to understand, but oh how we appreciate it. Pray for those
who are sick. Pray for Brother Fred as you
continue to minister to him and bring him back to a good measure
of health. Be with Arlene as she ministers to him. Pray for
this Sammy Al's family that you be with them at the loss of a
loved one. Pray for our shut-ins, Lord, for Wayne and for Ethel
and for Peggy Lambert. Pray also Father that you'd be
pleased to meet with us in the presence of your spirit. Pray
for Sister Loretta. As she's facing this, we ask
Lord that you be with those doctors and give her a clear understanding
of what the condition is. Give her wisdom and understanding
to make the right choice in these things. Be with Sylvester as
he ministers to her. Help us Lord, tonight, this hour,
to worship you, to bow our heads as these who heard of the great
great salvation that you have wrought in Egypt cause us to
bow our heads and worship you because we have been delivered
from so great a curse we have so great a salvation
it far exceeds a natural deliverance from a nation you have delivered
us from sin and we can never thank you enough Help us now,
we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Now this passage that I
just read to you is a record of Moses and Aaron repeating
the Lord's instructions concerning the preparations for the Passover
and the subsequent feast established, the seven-day memorial feast
to be observed in perpetuity. And Moses does not offer his
opinion in this. or endeavor to add some religious
spin to the Lord's words. He tells them what He's been
told and that's all He does. He does not add anything to it.
He does not add to them as to address their will to say if
you're so inclined because these are commands of the Lord as it
says in the last verse. Verse 28 rather it says the children
of Israel went away and did as the Lord had commanded. So these
words that Moses gave came as a command of the Lord and is
likewise everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord
because he is Lord over all is a command. It's a command. And it's likewise the arena of
every gospel preacher. He is to tell out what the Lord
has said and nothing else. Though he may add sense to it,
his job is to repeat what the Lord has revealed in his word.
That's what it says in verse 21 through 23. Then Moses called
for all the elders of Israel and said unto them, Draw out
and take you a lamb according to your families and kill the
Passover. This is what the Lord told him to tell the people.
And he shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood
that is in the basin and strike the lentil in two side posts
with the blood. that is in the basin, and none
of you shall go out at the door of this house until morning.
For the Lord will pass through and smite the Egyptians, and
when he seeth the blood upon the lintel and on the two side
posts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not suffer
the destroyer to come into your house to smite you." says things a little different
than the Lord said, but he doesn't change the context or the meaning,
he adds sense to the words. If you look over at Nehemiah,
when the law was read to the people, in Nehemiah chapter 8,
in verse 8 it says, So they read in the book of the law of God
distinctly, and gave the sense of what the
meaning of these things were, and caused them to understand
the reading. And Nehemiah, which was a Tershasha,
and Ezra, the priest, the scribe, and the Levites that taught the
people, said unto the people, This day is holy unto the Lord
God. Mourn not, nor weep, for all
the people wept when they heard the words of the law. which shows
that they really did give us sense and an understanding of
these people, for when the law is read we all find ourselves
guilty. Then he said, Go your way, go
your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions
unto them for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy
unto the Lord, neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord
is your strength. So the Levites stilled all the
people, saying, Hold your peace for this day, For this day is
holy, neither be ye greed. And all the people went their
way to eat and drink and send portions and to make great mirth,
because they had understood the words that were declared to them."
What a thing that is. He must have really gave sense
to the law in that it was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. These
people could rejoice. Back in our text, the word elders
does not address the age of men, but rather the status they have
among the tribes, men held in esteem for their offices they
occupy. They were heads of families or
men of influence in the tribes. And they were told as the Lord
had instructed to take a lamb and kill the Passover. That's
what it says. Now our Lord didn't say it that way, but Moses did. Take the Lord, take a lamb and
kill the Passover. It's interesting to note that
the Passover had only been revealed to Moses and Aaron, not to this
people. This is the first they've heard
of it, but it is used in this introduction prior to being explained
in the following sentences. This may be a grammatical convenience,
or it may be the Spirit's manner of designating the singularity
and exclusivity of the sacrifice. This is the first time that they've
ever heard the word Passover. Kill the Passover. The lamb is referred to as the
Passover. He didn't say Passover lamb,
He said Passover, indicating that the Lamb and the function
that it is to perform cannot be separated. Take a Lamb and
kill the Passover. Kill the Passover. So the work
and the Lamb are united. What He is to do and what He
is to accomplish is united. This is a picture of Christ and
His work. This is a picture that you cannot have one without the
other. You can't speak of Jesus Christ. You can't mention His
name. who is without referring to what
he came to do. It's impossible. He's Christ,
the anointed, the Christ. What is he anointed for? He's
anointed to accomplish the work of salvation. Thou shalt call
his name Jesus. Well, why do you call him that?
Because he shall save his people from their sins. The work of
Christ and the person of Christ cannot be separated, cannot be
separated. There is no explanation of Christ
coming into this world at all but to extol what He came to
do. This is the only way we understand
why Christ came, what He came to do. Kill the Passover is just
another way of saying that specifically Christ came into this world to
die. He came to this world to die and that for the salvation
of a peculiar people. Purge out the old leaven, and
keep the feast, for Christ is the Passover slain for us. It
says in 1 Corinthians 5, 7. The Lamb's blood is to be captured
in a basin. That's not mentioned before,
but now it's to be captured in a basin. What does that mean?
Well, it's not to be spilt on the ground. This signifies that
it's precious and designated for a specific purpose. The blood
is protection. The blood is salvation. It's
the salvation of God's people and none else. Nobody else's
doors had blood on it. In all of the world, no other
doors had blood on it this night. Just Egypt's door. Just Israel's
door. Some hyssop. What is hyssop?
It's a small plant that grows out of craggy rocks. It consists
of three stems and three leaves and they're very tender. And
it's often used to paint things with. It's to be dipped in the
blood and the heads of the households are to strike it on the lentils
on the doorposts. That's above them and on the
sides of the doorposts. And they didn't sprinkle it on
themselves. They sprinkled it on the doorposts. The Lord was
not looking to them or looking on them. He was looking for this
particular thing. He was looking for the blood.
For the blood. The residents of those houses
were to go in and stay there until morning. So once they closed
the door and went inside to eat that lamb and make that unleavened
bread and dress up to go, put their shoes on their feet and
gird their loins about and be ready to make haste and leave,
once they went inside that door, they didn't see the blood. They
didn't see the blood. And our salvation is not us seeing
the blood. By faith, we see it in Scripture.
But that's not our salvation. Our salvation is God seeing the
blood. he's the one commanded to be
for the blood to be uh... for the lamb be slain the blood
to be spread on the door post he says when i see the blood
i will pass over you i will pass over you the residents of those
houses were to go inside and stay there in the morning and
wait until the lord said come out effectively they were under
the blood the whole night they were under the blood of the Lamb.
Of all the houses in the world, only those Israelite houses were
protected and saved from the wrath to come. The other nations
weren't involved. Just Egypt, which represented
sin, which represented false religion, was involved, and the
people of God. They were saved from the wrath
to come. That's the language of Scripture. This is a picture
of the effectual blood death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what it says in Romans chapter 5 and verse 9. When I read this, I think of
this night in Egypt. Romans chapter 5 verse 9 says,
Much more then, now being justified by his blood, we shall be saved
from the wrath to come. They were under that blood of
that lamb and they were saved from the wrath that was to come
that night. The language back in our text of verse 23 is very
interesting. It says, For the LORD will pass
through to smite the Egyptians, and when he seeth the blood upon
the lintel and upon the two side posts, the LORD will pass over
the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your
house and smite you. It declares that the LORD will
pass over the blood, and He will pass through Egypt and smite
the firstborn. Now Moses speaks of the Lord not suffering the
destroyer to come to the house of Israel to smite. Now Moses
may be referring to the Lord as the destroyer but that's not
the way the language seems to be. The grammar suggests that
the destroyer is other than the Lord since it is the Lord that
suffers or allows the destroyer to pass over the Israelites and
to smite the houses of Egypt. maybe that the Lord employs an
angel to do this destruction. I don't know. Some historians
and some Jewish writers say he employed an angel to do it and
that wouldn't be outside the purview of how he responds sometimes
and how he does things. Over in 2 Kings chapter 19 when old Sennacherib was going to
come against the Israelites and second Kings chapter 19 this is how it was described
that night if I can get the two pages to
come apart verse 35 it says this and it came to pass that night
that the angel of the Lord and notice that's also capital L-O-R-D
L-O-R-D went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred
four score and five thousand And when they arose early in
the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. Now this was
how the angel of the Lord was used. Now maybe this was the
destroyer. It doesn't really say. But I
thought it was interesting that the Lord suffers the destroyer
to destroy the houses of Egypt but not touch the houses of the
Israelites. Now in verse 24, Moses tells
the elders that this great deliverance is to be memorialized in a feast.
He says, and ye shall observe this thing in an ordinance to
thee and to thy sons forever. He tells the elders that this
is to be memorialized in a feast until the end of days. And one
element of the occasion was omitted in this feast. The feast is discussed
in the previous verses. What is the feast? Well, they
are to eat the lamb fully, and discard or burn what was left,
if any was left over. They were to eat unleavened bread
only and all the leaven was to be taken out of their houses.
Those are elements of the feast. The way they were dressed to
leave quickly was an element of the feast. But as he speaks
of the elements of the feast, the blood on the doorpost is
not mentioned. It is omitted. It is omitted. The unleavened bread would be
eaten for seven days and all the leaven would be removed from
the houses. and that refers to the fact that no works of the
flesh had anything to do with their deliverance from Egypt.
The blood, however, was not again applied to the doorposts and
the lentils in observance of the feast. Why? It would be remembered
because when the sons were to ask what went on, they were to
tell them how they were delivered out of Egypt by the blood of
the Lamb. It would be remembered and memorialized,
but once the blood had been applied, the Passover was finished. It was finished. The ordinance
given in the church, which is baptism, the Lord's table, and
the preaching of the gospel are all memorials of a work that's
already finished. Christ's blood is not shed again.
That blood was on the doorpost that night. It was applied that
night for the Lord to see, not for them to see, for the Lord
to see, and that was the finishing of the shedding of the blood.
There was no more blood shed. The blood has been applied and
the elect are forever safe. The blood has been applied. The carnal doctrines of transubstantiation
and consubstantiation, which is practiced by the Roman Catholics
and those churches that came out of Roman Catholicism, Presbyterians,
Lutheran, and so forth, they hold to what is called consubstantiation,
wherein the elements of the Lord's table are said to actually become
the physical or spiritual body and blood of Christ. They believe
that when they take that wafer in their mouth, they call it
Corpus Christi. It's actually the body of Christ. They say when you put it in your
mouth, it becomes the body of Christ. And when you drink the
wine, it becomes the blood of Christ. That's called transubstantiation. Or the churches that came out
of Rome in the Reformations said it was consubstantiation. It
spiritually became the body and blood of Jesus. It doesn't do
any of those things. It's not a sacrament. It's not a sacrament
at all. That just won't fly. the sacrificial
blood death of Christ was finished two thousand years ago and the
slaves have been set free now we commemorate that grand day
when we by faith feast on the bread of heaven without the leaven
of hypocrisy in the land that God has promised which is Emmanuel's
land which is the kingdom of God he said when you get to that
land observe this feast but know this you don't have to put blood
on your door post and limbs. That's a one-time thing. Blood
represents death. That's a final thing. And the
Lord offered His death to God in the place of our death. substituted
for us he died in our room instead and it's a finished work what
took place on crown where that's why we preach christ and him
crucified all worded that exactly as it should be worded we preach
christ where is christ he's on the throne having finished the
work of salvation well how did he finish it he was crucified
the crucifixion is a past thing it's a finished work a finished
work and we rejoice in that he's enthroned now But we're set free. We're set free. Christ is not
crucified anew when we take the Lord's table or we go into the
waters of baptism or when I preach the gospel. And when they observe
this feast, the curiosity of their children evidently will
be piqued, as children often do. I've had children ask me,
what does that Lord's table mean? and I get the opportunity to
tell them what it means when it says this in verse 26 and
it shall come to pass when your children shall say unto you what
mean you by this sir? What do you mean by this? What
is this? You take this bread and you don't eat no leaven for
seven days and you talk about being delivered? What does all
that mean? And then they can tell them.
Then they can tell them. Not many people have asked me
over the years but when they do, I'm glad to tell them. I
preached a message one time about the Philippian jailer and he
actually asked, the only time in scripture that it's actually
asked, what must I do to be saved? That
question is only asked by him in all of scripture. and I've
said many times if anybody ever asked me that I'm going to tell
them exactly what Paul said to the Philippians or what Peter
said to the Philippians. I'm going to tell them. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I'm kind
of waiting for somebody to ask that. When they ask it I got
the answer. When this is asked what does
this mean? The Lord says have an answer. He said and this is
what you tell them. That he shall say it is the sacrifice
of the Lord's Passover. 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 Egyptian and delivered our houses and
the people bowed their heads. The elders shall tell the old,
old story. This is what happened. What do
I do when I preach the gospel? I tell the old story. This is
what happened. Two thousand years ago on Calvary's tree, our Lord
Jesus Christ settled the matter of our sin forever with God.
He did it by his shed blood on Calvary's tree. And we can rejoice
in that. And we tell the story over and
over again. He says, that's what you tell them. And don't change
the story down through the year. He said, when they ask you, because
this is for you and your sons forever, whenever them kids ask
you what this means, this is what you tell them. This is the
Lord's sacrifice, the sacrifice of the Passover. because god
in his mercy passed over our houses and slew the egyptians
but passed over us and delivered our houses that night you just
tell them that tell them over and over again it's a sweet story
that never loses its savor to those who know christ and it's
the same story we've seen from all our studies in the old testament
thus far the first thing that happened when the lord saves
his people as he destroys the enemy. That was the promise of
Jesus Christ in Genesis 3.15 when the Lord said to the woman
your seed is going to bruise the serpent's head and he's going
to bruise your seed's heel. That was a promise. That's called
the Proto-Evangelium or the first mention of the Gospel. The first
mention of the Gospel. It's the old story, you see.
started long before we ever was. In fact, it started before the
world was. And those who are delivered, it says, will bow
their heads and worship doing what the Lord commanded. They'll
bow their head and worship. That's what happens when you
hear the gospel. If you're a child of God, in your heart, you rejoice
in Christ. You rejoice in what He's done
for you. And you don't mind hearing the story again. Tell me one
more time. still over and over again same
old story same old song this is what keeps me going in a world
that's gone awry is knowing that my savior died in my room instead
and anytime you want to tell me about it anytime you want
to brag about it go right ahead i'm all ears god bless you have
a great day tomorrow I'm gonna try this.