It is a real joy to have that
peace in one's heart, in one's own soul,
and to know that he has made peace
by the blood of his cross.
And may God in his grace and in
his mercy minister that peace tonight to some
needy heart as we speak from the word
of God.
Shall we read the scriptures tonight commencing in
Leviticus chapter 23, reading only the fifth verse,
and then we shall turn to the book
of Exodus chapter 12 and read a section
there, and then a closing scripture verse in
1 Corinthians 5.
Chapter 23 in the book of Leviticus, reading
verse 14.
In the 14th day of the first month
and even is the Lord's Passover.
Shall we read the account in the book
of Exodus chapter 12, regarding the very first
Passover that was kept in the land of
Egypt centuries ago.
Reading at verse 1 and reading down through
verse 14.
And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron
in the land of Egypt, saying, this month
shall be unto you the beginning of month.
It 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
land according to the house of their fathers,
a land for an house.
And if the house shall be too little
for the man, let him and his neighbor
next unto his house take it according to
the number of the soul.
Every man according to his eating shall make
your account for the land.
Your land shall be without blemish a male
of the first year.
Ye shall take it out from the sheep
or from the goat.
And ye shall keep it up until the
14th day of the same month.
And the whole assembly of the congregation of
Israel shall kill it in the evening.
And they shall take of the blood and
strike it on the two five posts and
on the upper doorposts of the houses wherein
they shall eat it.
And they shall eat the flesh in that
night, roast with fire, and unleaven bread.
And with dinner heard they shall eat it,
eat not of it raw, nor fatten at
all with water, but roast with fire, his
head with his legs, and with the pertinence
thereof.
And ye shall let nothing of it remain
until the morning.
And that which remaineth of it until the
morning ye shall burn with fire.
And thus shall ye eat it with your
loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and
your staff in your hand.
And ye shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord's Passover.
For I will pass through the land of
Egypt this night, and will smite all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man
and beast.
And against all the gods of Egypt I
will execute judgment.
I am the Lord.
And the blood shall be to you for
a token upon the houses where ye are.
And when I see the blood I will
pass over you, and the plague shall not
be upon you to destroy you when I
smite the land of Egypt.
And this day shall be unto you for
a memorial, and ye shall keep it for
a feast to the Lord throughout your generations.
Ye shall keep it a feast by an
ordinance forever.
The first epistle of Paul written to the
Corinthians chapter 5.
And reading the seventh verse, whereby the Spirit
of God, the beloved apostle, is stated at
the end of this seventh verse, for even
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
May God bless the reading and the hearing
of his words.
May the Holy Spirit, the only interpreter and
the only convictor of souls, as well as
the illuminator of believers, may the Holy Spirit
minister tonight in his own power to the
blessing of all.
Our subject for the week is taken from
the Levitical chapter from which we have read,
chapter 23, and we purpose in the will
of God to speak upon the seven feasts
of Jehovah.
We've already stated there was a primary meaning
for those feasts.
They were to be kept annually by the
children of Israel throughout the year.
And these seven feasts were to be holy
convocations when the people of God gathered together
and rejoiced and worshiped before Jehovah their God.
It was not only an occasion of worship
and joy for his people, but it was
an occasion of joy and pleasure for God,
their Jehovah, to be in the midst of
his people and enjoy them.
Now we have stated there are three applications
that we follow.
First is already mentioned, the primary application, belonging
to the history of Israel in those days
long ago.
Then we have another application that is very
precious.
These seven feasts typify the redemptive purposes of
God, the Jehovah of Israel, for his people,
the nation of Israel.
And from the commencement of the Feast of
Passover to the final fulfillment of the Feast
of Tabernacles, these feasts typify the redemptive purposes
of God for Israel from the beginning of
his purposes with them as a nation to
the final consummation.
And may I interject for the sake of
emphasis, do not fear that God has forgotten
his promises to Israel.
He has not, he will not, but he
will bring them to the fruition of his
purposes and crown them as a nation in
the land of Israel under the reign of
their Messiah, the coming Savior, our Lord Jesus
Christ.
And may it be so.
But you find in these seven feasts a
most beautiful type of the redemptive purposes of
God beginning with the Feast of Passover, consummating
with the Feast of Tabernacles pertaining to Israel.
We have a third application, and thank God
for the Bible.
Thank God for his word.
We read in the New Testament, these things
were written long ago for our admonition upon
whom the ends of the ages have come.
These things have been written aforetime for our
learning, wrote the beloved apostle Paul to the
Romans.
And the great application of the great antitypical
teaching that we would follow is that in
these seven feasts we see also the redemptive
purposes of God for all the human race
from the beginning to the end.
Tonight we look at the first feast.
We see it in its primary meaning as
well as the first occasion that it was
kept, and then later commemorated year after year
in Israel.
And we shall see how we typify the
very foundation of God in his redemptive purposes
for Israel, but not only his redemptive purposes
for Israel, but for his redemptive purpose in
relation to the whole human race.
The Passover was the first great feast to
be kept, and necessarily it had to be,
because the slain land, the passion land, was
the starting point of the foundation of God's
dealings with his people Israel.
And when it was instituted, I trust you
notice it in the reading of Exodus chapter
12, I point it out to you please,
when it was instituted, we have in verses
one and two of the chapter before us,
Exodus 12, that it was the beginning of
the birthday of the nation of Israel.
The Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron in
the land of Egypt, saying, this month shall
be unto you the beginning of months.
It shall be the first month of the
year to you.
It was the birthday of the nation of
Israel.
Their past with its misery and with its
bondage was to be blotted out, for they
were to be redeemed from the slavery and
from the death that they faced in bondage
on the Pharaoh in the Egyptians.
They were to be delivered by the blood
of the Lamb, they were to be delivered
by the power of God, and it was
to be the birthday of the nation.
Now beloved, every believer knows I'm sure that
his and her spiritual birthday is the beginning
of month two.
A believer's salvation, the new birth, when a
believer in the Lord Jesus commences his or
her relationship with God, eclipses his and her
natural birth.
What a joy it is to have two
birthdays!
But how important it is to have the
second.
And the second birth eclipses, in importance, the
first birth, the natural birth.
And it does indeed eclipses.
For the relationship of a soul with God
begins when that new birth has been effected.
And thus, when the believer's past is under
the blood of Christ, his sins and hers
are eternally forgiven by God.
That, pray God, is the beginning of a
relationship that is founded upon the great work
of Christ's redemption.
The Passover Lamb and its sacrifice was the
redemption of Israel out of Egyptian bondage and
from it.
Redemption is the very theme of the book
of Exodus.
And beloved, may I state, when you look
at the Bible as a whole, one is
so properly stated that the Bible is the
history of the redemption of the human race.
See coming in, in the early chapters of
Genesis, that God working throughout the whole book,
working on his promise, and all the way
through, redemption by blood.
By blood in the garden of Eden, by
blood upon the patriarch altars of old, by
blood in Egypt, when he redeemed the families
of Israel, by blood when the nation was
instituted, and the great national day of atonement,
once every year, was set for the national
sins to be forgiven.
It was, they were forgiven by blood.
And then when the Lord Jesus came, it
was not only redemption by blood for a
nation, but it was redemption by blood for
a whole world.
As John the Baptist said, behold the Lamb
of God which taketh away the sin of
the world.
You come into your New Testament epistle, reading
of the words of John as he writes
them in 1 John 1 verse 7, saying,
the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from
all sin.
And there you recognize the great teaching that
without the shedding of blood there can be
no remission, and it is the blood of
Jesus Christ upon and over the believer that
sufficiently covers and cleanses that soul in the
sight of God from all its sin.
You look in the last book of the
Bible, the Revelation, and you see the glory
of that multitude around the throne of God,
surrounded by the angelic host on the outer
edge, and yet every redeemed saint sings unto
him that loved us, thou hast washed us
from our sin in thine own blood, and
every saint sings, thou hast made us kings
and priests, redeemed us from
the beginning to the end of the Bible.
Redemption is by blood.
May I say them tragically?
If there is anyone here tonight needing their
sin forgiven, there is only one power that
can wash away your sin, and that is
the efficacy of redemption.
I hope you'll see that lesson tonight, as
we look at the commemoration of this great
Passover feast and its meaning.
We go into the twelfth chapter, and I
want you to know very carefully and specifically,
this redemption that was by the blood of
the passion lamp.
Now may I give you some thoughts in
background of the book of Exodus.
It's one of the greatest books with the
theme of redemption as already mentioned, and in
it you have some perfect typology in the
background that illustrates what this Passover feast brings
before us in its great anticycle, the gospel
of redeeming grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.
For instance, Egypt, in its power of that
day, is the perfect type of the world
in which you and I live in.
I know no greater type than the Word
of God, more perfectly suggesting the character of
the world, the world as it is today
under sin and Satan and in its power,
as being represented typically by Egypt.
It was the world empire of that day.
And then I think of Pharaoh, for if
you study anything in the Egyptology of that
realm long ago, you'll find that the Pharaohs
called themselves many times gods, and they had
monuments erected to themselves as gods.
And Pharaoh was so typical of the god
of this age, the one who's the prince
of this world, even Satan.
And then you have the children of Israel,
so typical of the people, under bondage and
tyranny and oppression by Pharaoh and the Egyptian
authorities, and how they represent the great multitude
in this world.
My beloved, may I say it, and I
do so from a very heavy heart, there
are undoubtedly more souls today in bondage to
sin and Satan than ever before.
The millions of human beings across not only
our nation, but across the extent of the
world that are under the bondage and tyranny
of sin, its power, and Satan's authority, they
need deliverance.
And in our background, the story of Moses,
he is so typical of Christ the Deliverer.
And when you look at the whole world
scene, you can recognize Egypt, the type of
the world.
Pharaoh, a type of Satan, the god of
this age, the prince of this world, the
children of Israel in bondage, and the souls
that are in hard bondage tonight.
And then, Moses so typical as God ordained
him to be the Emancipator, the Deliverer, to
bring deliverance to Israel, so typical of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the only Redeemer.
Now, I want you to know something.
I want you to know the meaning of
that word Passover.
Will you tell with me in your Bible
to Isaiah?
Isaiah chapter 31.
Isaiah chapter 31, for the meaning of this
word Passover in its Hebrew sense, is very
important as well as precious.
And in Isaiah chapter 31, we have the
Lord Jehovah's singing, I'd like to read verses
four and five, of the prophecy of Isaiah
chapter 31.
The words literally may be true of the
coming day, but note what God said through
the prophet.
For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me,
like as the lion and the young lion
roaring on its prey, when a multitude of
shepherds is called forth against him, he will
not be afraid of their voice, nor abase
himself for the noise of them.
So shall the Lord of hosts come down
to fight for Mount Zion, and for the
hill thereon, as birds flying, may I paraphrase
it, as the original would suggest, as birds
with outstretched wings.
So will the Lord of hosts defend or
cover Jerusalem.
Defending or covering, he also, also he will
deliver it.
And passing over, he will preserve or deliver
it.
Now note the word Passover.
Passing, passing over means as birds with outstretched
wings.
He covers Jerusalem, the city.
He covers his people, and they are under
those outstretched wings of divine protection.
Now I want you to remember that, because
of this fact as we have it in
the book of Exodus chapter 12.
For I want to contrast what was the
protection and the deliverance for Israel, and what
was the protection and power that the Egyptians
trusted in.
If you and I could have seen the
temple entrances of Egypt long ago.
If we could have seen the palaces of
the pharaohs, over the doors of all the
Egyptian temples, over the doors of all the
palaces of the pharaohs, was the wind serpent,
the great symbol of one of the greatest
gods of Egypt, the wind serpent.
And in the center of that wind serpent,
the dip of a sun represented.
That wind serpent with the sun as a
dip, in the center of it, was the
symbol of Egypt's protection, of Egyptian power, that
they trusted in.
That God comes to his people Israel in
the land of Egypt, and he delivers them
by other wings, outstretched over his people under
which they were able to trust.
Beloved, may I say, redemption will never come
from this world for anyone.
Redemption will never come from the flesh.
Redemption will neither come from the devil.
Redemption comes only from God, and through God,
and through his beloved son, the Lord Jesus
Christ.
I think of Paul writing to the Ephesians
and saying, I accept that in the beloved
in whom we have redemption, through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of Israel.
Now look with me in the chapter before
us in Exodus, first in chapter 11, please.
I want you to note something in verse
four and five, that all the land of
Egypt, including the Israelites within the land, was
under the sentence of death.
Note the word, Moses said, 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 late
servant that is behind the mill, and all
the firstborn of these.
Now I'd like to point out a fact
that needs to be emphasized.
The Israelites were equally guilty morally, they were
equally equally guilty with the Egyptians and sinners
in the sight of God.
The ground of difference between them was not
Israel's superiority over Egypt.
May I insert this thought?
Don't you ever think that a Christian has
any moral superiority over any other person to
have the favor of God?
Never.
What is the difference?
Between Israel and between Egypt, all were equally
guilty of sin in the sight of God.
You know what the difference is?
The difference is wholly and only the blood
of the passion land.
That was the only difference, but it was
all the difference in the land of Egypt
that night long ago.
Now if you follow with me in chapter
12 briefly and thoroughly as possible, look with
me in verse 3.
I want you to notice this first fact
regarding the passion land, the blood of that
land which was to be shed and placed
upon the doorpost.
Verse 3, speaking unto all the congregation of
Israel, saying, in the tenth day of this
month they shall take to them every man
of land, according to the house of their
fathers, a land for an house.
Now I want you to know, the land
was chosen.
They must choose the land of God's prescription.
They must choose the land.
The land was chosen.
My beloved, you know I trust you do.
That land typifies the land of God, the
land of God, which taketh away the sin
of the world.
Peter writing in his epistle, 1 Peter 1,
18 and 19, said, ye know that ye
were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as
silver and gold, but with the precious blood
of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who verily was foreordained, went
before the foundation of the world.
Beloved friend, tonight, long before you and I
were born, Christ, the Son of God, the
Eternal Son, was chosen to be the land
to be slain for your sins and mine.
Then you know verse 3 and 4, verse
4 particularly, verse 3 we found it had
to be a land, and in verse 4
it had to be, or verse 5, your
land shall be without blemish, a male of
the first year.
The qualification, a land without blemish, and as
already quoted from 1 Peter, ye know ye
are not redeemed with corruptible things, such as
silver and gold, but with the precious blood
of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot.
Do you ever sing that old hymn, precious
old hymn of the church?
There is a green hill far away without
a city wall, where the dear Lord was
crucified, who died to save us all.
You remember the second verse?
There was none other good enough to pay
the price of sin.
He only could unlock the gate of heaven
and let him in.
The lamb is chosen, the lamb is qualified,
the noblest thing.
Ye shall keep it up, the lamb is
to be kept from the tenth day to
the fourteenth day.
Four days to be not scrutinized and identified,
but we read on, and the whole assembly
of the congregation of Israel shall kill it
in the evening.
Now may I repeat, the lamb was chosen,
the lamb was qualified, but the lamb, you
ask the question why did Christ die?
It was necessary that he should be slain.
As the song in heaven declares, for thou
was slain and has redeemed us unto God
by thy blood.
And the lamb was slain.
But fourth, the lamb was appropriated, and the
lamb was appropriated in two ways.
Now note first of all, let me read
verse seven.
They shall take of the blood and strike
it on the two side posts and on
the upper door posts of the houses wherein
they shall eat it.
Go down the chapter with me please.
Verse 21 and 22, where again the commandment
is given regarding the appropriation and application of
the blood.
Then Moses called for all the elders of
Israel and said unto them, draw out and
take you a lamb according to your family,
and kill the Passover, and ye shall take
a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in
the blood that is in the basin, and
strike the lintel on 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.
The blood must be applied.
Now I want you to know very carefully,
the blood in the basin was not enough.
The blood in the basin suggests that Christ
has died.
The blood in the basin suggests that he
has shed his precious blood.
But a bunch of hyssop, a most worthless
herd that grew profusely all around, the most
common herd that you could find, and worthless
in value, was to be taken and dipped
into that blood.
Then the blood was to be placed on
the door post above, and upon the two
side posts.
And God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you.
The blood must be applied.
Now if you remember, I want you to
realize, and going back to what we have
stated previously, think of the houses of the
pharaohs.
Think of the temples of Egypt.
Over the temple, the winged serpent with the
disk of the sun.
On the side, the engraving of the many
victories and powers of all the Egyptians, or
of their gods, or of their pharaohs, and
the great boast of what they were in
themselves in their human achievement.
Beloved may I say, there are too many
people who have under the, over the door
post and the side posts of their souls,
their own human merit, their own human worth,
in which they trust as being capable of
presenting themselves to a holy God for the
redemption of their soul.
Beloved you'll never make.
You cannot boast in anything of this present
scene.
You cannot boast in anything that you have
done to merit redemption.
You will have to dip your face in
the blood of Christ, and you will have
to smear all you've trusted in, all you've
rested in by nation, and wipe it out,
cover it, that the blood of Christ alone
must be your feet.
You remember the poet wrote that lovely hymn,
Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to
thy cross.
Why the emphasis?
Beloved look, God was going to bring a
people out of Egypt, make of them a
great nation, take them into the land of
their inheritance.
But before they could begin the journey, his
purposes with them, and his purposes for them,
had to begin on the ground of redemption.
And that redemption had to be by blood.
God's purpose of redemption with the whole human
race is basically upon the foundation of blood
taking sins away, and covering to bring the
sinner under the outstretched wings of God's favor
and blessing.
Do you remember me I ask a question,
do you rest there?
May I point out verse 13, look at
it.
The blood shall be to you for a
token upon the houses where ye are, and
when I see the blood, I will pass
over you, and the plank shall not be
upon you to destroy you when I smite
the land of Egypt.
Do you remember me I suggest, what God
says clearly, when I see the blood.
My sinner friend, may I ask you a
question, do you believe that God appreciates and
values the blood of his dear son?
There's only one answer to that question.
God values the blood of his dear son.
Precious, precious blood of Jesus, shed on Calvary,
shed for rebels, shed for sinners, yet shed
for me.
God values that blood.
May I ask the question, if God values
that blood with eternal appreciation, cannot you, may
not I, rest under the value of that
precious blood that God appreciates?
The second thing they were to do, not
only appropriate the blood, will you look back
in chapter 12, and may I read verse
8 and 9.
They shall eat the flesh of that lamb
in that night, roast with fire and unleavened
bread, with dinner herds shall they eat it,
eat not of it raw, not fattened at
all with water, but roast with fire, his
head with his legs and with the pertinence
thereof.
Beloved, there is the blood applied for my
soul's covering, then there is the lamb to
be enjoyed, the lamb to partake of the
roast lamb.
I feed on the one who died.
Under the shelter of his blood I can
now feed upon Christ.
I trust his blood to obtain life eternal.
I feed upon him to sustain that life,
and oh thank God, even with the bitter
experiences of life that the bitter herds and
the unleavened bread would suggest, nevertheless I can
feed on Christ.
Now I want you to note in closing,
verse 11th, the wonderful readiness of Israel when
thus they were to depart out of Egypt.
There was the blood, first of all, to
make him safe.
When I see the blood I'll pass over
you, be sure it's on the doorpost.
There was the promise of God to make
him certain.
When I see the blood I'll pass over
you.
And then there was the lamb to satisfy
his appetite.
May I repeat, you know there's a track
written by dear George Cunningham.
Dear George Cunningham wrote that lovely track, safety,
certainty, and enjoyment.
And here you have the picture, the safety
of the soul under the blood of Christ,
safety.
Certainty, the promise of God that when I
see the blood, he says, I will pass
over you the word of God for my
assurance, that's my certainty.
And then I feed upon Christ, that's my
enjoyment.
Oh beloved, now note verse 12, 11 rather,
verse 11.
As you see then, God saying to the
Israelite, thus shall ye eat it, with your
loins girded, your shoes on your feet, your
staff in your hand, ye shall eat it
in faith.
It is the Lord's Passover.
Ready to leave.
You know, I don't know whether you'll appreciate,
but I want to tell you frankly that
the Park of Palms is the place worth
leaving if you're going to go to glory,
or any other place.
But here's the picture, ready to leave Egypt.
And the longer I live in this world,
the less I want to live longer in
it, for some reason or other, the message
says.
But I'm ready to leave it.
Praise God, ready to leave it.
The blood is over the soul.
The word of God gives me the certainty
of assurance.
The person of Christ is the delight and
joy of my heart, content and satisfied with
him, to enjoy him.
That's how to leave it.
That's how to leave the world.
Thus shall ye eat it, your loins girded,
meaning ready for travel.
Do you recall a fellow when I was
witnessing to him many years ago in one
of the plantations in South Carolina?
I was witnessing so much evidently enthusiastically to
him about going to heaven.
He said, now wait a minute, Captain.
He says, you isn't going there so soon
as you...
Well, beloved, thank God I know I'm going.
How about you?
Under the blood, feeding on the lamb, shoes
on the feet, stack in the hand, urgency
to leave.
This is the night, says the Lord.
You're gonna leave Egypt.
May I ask this, if God said to
you tonight, you're gonna leave, you're gonna leave
this world, how would you feel about it?
Are you ready?
We might indeed quote the words of the
dear old hymn.
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing
power?
Are you washed in the blood of the
lamb?
Are you fully trusting in his grace this
hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the
lamb?
And beloved friends, whether it is real as
a nation, whether it is the whole world
of nations, God's purposes of redemption begin in
his dealings with anyone.
They begin on that basic foundation.
We must be redeemed by the blood of
Christ.
God grant this is true for you tonight.
If not, trust him now for his name's
sake, shall we pray.
Father, we thank thee in the precious name,
and through the merits of the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus, for such a redemption.
The beginning of thy purposes to bring thy
creatures out of their bondage of sin, and
misery, darkness, and difficulty that is ours under
Satan's authority, and our own wicked flesh, can
only be brought to pass by the blood
of Christ and the power of God.
Oh, how we pray tonight for every soul
that is in our gathering, not knowing Christ.
Lord Jesus, may thy Holy Spirit convict them,
may thy Holy Spirit convert them.
Oh, may they say, my soul hath found
a resting place, not in device nor creed.
I trust thee of a living one, his
wounds for me shall plead.
I need no other argument, I need no
other plea.
It is enough that Jesus died, and that
he died for me.
Lord Jesus, thou knowest everyone in this audience
who are not under the blood.
Give them no rest of heart and mind,
until by faith they put the blood of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, between their
souls, and that day of judgment.
For God said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you.
My wings will be outstretched, covering, delivering, preserving.
God grant, every soul without the Savior who
came in, will go out with the Savior
tonight.
For we ask it in our Savior's name,
and for his glory.
Amen.
Shall we sit quietly for a moment while
the music plays?