In this sermon, the preacher discusses the grace of God and how it is depicted in the tabernacle and the wilderness offerings. He refers to Exodus chapter 12 and Deuteronomy 28 to highlight the blessings that come from obeying the voice of the Lord. The preacher shares a personal story about a man who was injured while working with slabs and how his mother nursed him back to health. The sermon also touches on the penalty of sin, which is death, and raises the question of whether that is all that happens when one sins.

We thank Thee, our Heavenly Father, that the Lord Jesus does live. Thou hast exalted Him and given Him a name above every name. And we join that company of the redeemed now in His presence to bow before Him and to worship Him and to adore Him. And we would ask that this morning we might see other aspects of His victory. We might understand, perhaps, in some new way, that which He purchased for us with His poured-out life. We thank Thee that we are Thine. We've been made by Thee. We've been loved by Thee. We've been redeemed by the poured-out life and love of Thy dear Son. And now today we would come and bring Thee again. All we are and all we have. And ask Thee to use us in any way that will honor and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen. Last week we considered victory at the cross. And this morning we're going to talk about victory for the cross. Have you ever wondered just why the communion service states, this is His blood shed for the remission of our sins? When the cup is lifted and then this, the bread which is given for you. Have you ever asked yourself why that formula is used in somewhat that fashion? We know that it's by the shedding of blood that there is remission of sins. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. The question was asked me on one occasion, why was it necessary for Christ to go to the cross? If it's the shedding of blood that makes atonement for the soul, why then could not the Lord Jesus have had the spear of the soldier pierce Him on the garden path and His life be poured out there? Why did He have to undergo the shame, the bruising, the beating, the suffering, the indescribable agony of those hours on the cross and in preparation for the cross? Why? Well, all questions that are given by reasonable people, I think, deserve an attempt at least at an honest and a reasonable answer. And I think that's a good question. One could say, well, because it was prophesied that He would die on the cross. And I think this is right and fair because it was prophesied. But why? You have to go beyond the dictate of prophecy. There had to be a reason in the mind of God rather than just a dictate that would cause His suffering, His son, these added hours of agony. And so as we consider victory for the cross, I think we need to go back and understand a little bit of what was actually the result of sin. Now, last week we saw that sin is the committal of the will to satisfy a good appetite in a bad way. Temptation is the proposition presented to the intellect to gratify a good appetite in a bad way. Now, temptation and sin are not synonymous. They're not the same. And I'll not go into the basis of the fact that God gave to us these many appetites and proper ways of satisfying them and then forbidden ways of satisfying them. I'm sure that you're familiar with that. But suffice it to say that the word, the day thou eatest, thou shalt surely die, was set forth as the penalty for sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. This was the word. And we see several aspects in which when the sin was committed, as recorded in Genesis, man died. First, he died legally. By sin, by this act of rebellion, when man's love turned away from God and in upon himself, he lost all legal claim upon God. God had assumed responsibility for the people he'd made. He provided them a home and everything necessary to satisfy all of their appetites in a right and a proper manner. But he said, when you decide to be God, and you decide how to meet your needs and satisfy your appetites, the penalty of this is going to be death. And so the first aspect was legal death. Separation is the significance of the word death in this situation, and I think uniformly in the Scripture. Man died legally. He lost all legal claim upon God. The only thing that a sinner can ask of God, has any right to ask of God, is justice when he's judged. And there's little consolation in that. But that's all. It's the only legal claim. He can't ask God for life. He can't ask Him for food or shelter or protection. He can't ask Him for anything else, because by sin, he has lost and forfeited all legal right to the protection, provision, and care of God. Then the second aspect was spiritual, physical death. We'll take that next. Physical death. Man began to die physically. I believe that it's generally known or held that God made the human body capable of indefinite duration, longevity. Every seven years, every cell in the human body is replaced by another cell. And now there's a great deal of study looking for that marvelous elixir, that new hadical, that's going to make it possible for us to live indefinitely. Well, perhaps we'll find it. We'll probably find that aging is chemical, and there may be a time coming when that does occur. But physical death is the penalty. The people lived a lot longer, you know, 900 years. Then he got into so much mischief, God said after the flood, 120 years was long enough for him to parade around it. And then God brought a new order with Moses, and He said, 70 per chance, 80. And I'm going to let him get as weak as he can in those last years, because he could make too much. Phosphorus therapy was as strong as it was earlier. So there's been a bound set, just as God set a bound to the sea, thus far and no farther. God seems to have set a bound to life. But the body is capable of indefinite duration, because it replaces every cell. You've heard the song on television. There's a new you coming. Well, this is true. And every cell is being replaced. But death, physical death. Death is passed upon all men for that all have sinned. And then spiritual death. We're made for God. We're made incapable of being complete or happy without God. Someone as well said, God carved into us an empty place that just fits Himself. Nothing can fill us, satisfy us, complete us but God. The most marvelous illustration that we have of anyone trying to do that is Solomon and the letter in the little book Ecclesiastes is a testimony of a man who tried to satisfy himself using the available means, which haven't changed from that time until this, which were power. He was the king of kings. All the other nations paid tribute to him. And possessions. He had villas and stables. And go through the Holy Land, you think that every time someone threw a stick, Solomon built a stable. They're just all over the place. And fountains and vineyards. And he said he looked at all the power he had and said, solely you're satisfied. And the answer he got back was vanity, soap bubbles, emptiness. Then he looked at all that his hands had made and said, is that enough to complete you? And the answer he got back was vanity of vanity, soap bubbles, as one man as well translated it, I think. Emptiness, nothing, shiny nothing. Then he tried wisdom and he brought the wisest of the teachers to his courts. Learned all they could give, went to God and sought the gift of wisdom, received it, and now his teachers became his pupils. And when he was the wisest man in the world, he said, now solely you're satisfied. And the answer he got back was emptiness of emptiness. And finally he turned to pleasure. And he said he kept back nothing of which his ears had heard, his mind had imagined, or his eyes had seen. He did everything until he was so satiated and jaded and exhausted that nothing stirred any interest in him. And then he said, solely you're satisfied. And the answer he got back was that melancholy emptiness of emptiness. He said, well, what's the end of life? Just to be born and live and die? And, of course, the answer he gave was no. Remember your Creator in the days of your youth. Don't waste your life trying to satisfy yourself with that, which can't bring satisfaction. You see, God made us in such a way, he said, Augustine, nothing can satisfy us but God. We will not rest until we rest in thee. We died spiritually. We have all the paraphernalia, all the equipment, we have everything we need to know God, yet in him we live and move and have our being, and know him not. Because God has just ordained that until we repent and savingly receive his Son, there is no revelation of himself. So we died spiritually. Then, of course, the last is separation. Someone said, why doesn't God take sinners to heaven? Because so doing, I'm sure, would be a worse punishment than giving them an environment congenial to their spirits. And so it is that he created a place to which men could go, where they would be drawn by a moral gravitation to their own kind. And those who've been born of God are drawn to him, and those who have not, like the two gamblers that rushed down to the pier on Toronto, and there were two boats, and they jumped and made it just as the gangplank was being pulled up, and they got out in there and found that they'd gotten on the one with the Sunday school picnic. And after about two hours listening to talk and testimonies and hymn sayings, they went to the captain and said, give us a lifeboat and put us off. There's hell on this ship. Well, there's a sense in which that's true. And so separation in a place in the Scripture to which men go because of the essence and nature of their being is taught. The soul that sinned shall die. Now, that's the penalty of sin. And is that all? Is that all that happened? Is that all that took place, just the penalty of sin? Now, let's just establish, because you better be kind of critical and be alert, because I want to take you with me, but I don't want you to get there a little later and say, well, how did we arrive here? You watch how we get there as well as when we arrive. Now, are you agreed with me that the penalty of sin is death? The soul that sinneth, it shall die. All right, fine. Then we'll go back to Genesis, the third chapter, and we'll find something else that's of considerable interest. That in addition to the penalty, there is another factor introduced. We had, when I was in school years ago, a hermeneutical principle called the first-mention principle. In the Scripture, if you want to find out how God uses a word, find the first time that He used it, and from that you'll be able to understand how God looks at it. Now, I'm going to ask you to turn to the 14th verse, third chapter. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou grow, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. Now, we've got another word introduced. It's not death. It's curse. All right? And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. And it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Oh, now we're coming to another element, aren't we? There's going to be pain in her life. And unto Adam he said, Cursed is the ground for thy sake. Now, this doesn't sound like death, does it? It sounds like a change of condition from what had been pleasant to unpleasant. Well, what's the reference? Well, the penalty is death. And so God, as it were, says, I'm going to give you a time of imprisonment or 30 days of hard labor so that you can begin to understand the nature of the penalty. Perhaps in the interim, you will be induced to repent. So the curse has to do with a change of condition, a change of situation, a change from pleasantness to unpleasantness, from pleasure to sorrow, from health to pain and sickness. All right? Let's look again. Thorns also and thistle shall this cursed earth bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken. For thus thou art, and under thus shalt thou return. Now, are we together here? Penalty is death. The penalty is pronounced. But before the penalty is executed, something called the curse is introduced. And it has to do with a change of condition, a change of situation. All right, let's get a little picture of this. Turn to Deuteronomy 28. If we are going to understand what Christ did at the cross and the victory for the cross, we better understand the problems He was encountering. Now, you may not have been cognizant of the problems, but He was, apparently. Now, in Deuteronomy 28, we have two sections. Beginning with the first verse and through the fourteenth, you have blessings. And all these blessings in the second verse shall come on thee and overtake thee, if thou hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, in the field, to be the fruit of thy body, the fruit of thy ground, the fruit of thy cattle, and the increase of thy kind, the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in. Now, we understand what blessing is. It has to do with life, and their situation, and their homes, and their families. Now, go down to the fifteenth verse. But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, but to observe to do all his commandments and all his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee. Now, he's not talking about the penalty of sin. Sin carries with it penalty, which is death. Cursed shalt thou be in the city and in the field, shall be thy basket and store, the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy land. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in and goest out. The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, rebuke, and all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed. The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee until ye have consumed thee. The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, with a fever, with an inflammation, with an extreme burning, with a sword, with blasting, with mildew. And the heavens over thy head shall be brass, and the Lord shall make thy land powder. The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies. The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt and with hemorrhoids and with scabs and with itch. I don't know what the botch of Egypt is, but I know that when we got there in 1945 as missionaries to Africa, I got sick. And it must have been that. The first day I was afraid I'd be sick, and the second day I was afraid I would be sicker, and the third day I was afraid I would die, and the fourth day I was afraid I wouldn't die. Oh, it was terrible. Now, if that's what it was, it's not fun. Now, I don't know that that's what he had reference to, but I want you just to know that whatever it was, stay away from it. Well, now, I think I've given you enough to understand what the curse is. All right? The curse is a condition that's imposed upon the one who's under the sentence of death. The curse is that which is a foretaste of the sentence given during a period in which it's possible for the one under the sentence to repent and to receive grace. A foretaste, as it were, so that you'll get a little bit of an idea of what's going to happen later. A preview, if you please. So that he might have some incentive to meet the conditions necessary for the penalty to be rescinded. Now, we understand that in the situation in which this comes, it comes upon the presentation of the grace of God, because the tabernacle in the wilderness and the offerings were all a picture of Calvary. They were all a picture of the marvelous grace of God. Let's go back to Exodus chapter 12, shall we? And see this grace set forth in one of the clearest and one of the perhaps earliest and most complete pictures. This is in Exodus chapter 12. And the Lord speak unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months, and it shall be the first month of the year. 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, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. He shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats. And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it, all kill it at the same time in the evening. Now notice. And they shall take of the blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission. They shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts of the house. Now what happens if you take those two side posts and slide them together and you drop your lintel down a little bit? What do you have? You have a cross. So we're taking these goddesses, picturing it here. The blood, blood of the cross if you please. Now they shall eat the flesh. Oh, well here's something more. I didn't say anything about that earlier, did I? I just said they shall take the blood and sprinkle it on the door posts. And then they shall eat the flesh in that night. Roast with fire and unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. Shall they eat it? Eat not of it raw nor softened at all with water but roast with fire his head with his legs and with the curtains thereof. And let nothing of it remain until the morning and that which remains of it in the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, 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. What's he talking about? Without the shedding of blood there is no remission. What is he talking about? He's talking about the blood which the Son of God shed on the cross which was for the purpose of our salvation. Now I'm going to ask you to go to Galatians. Bear this in mind and perhaps hold it. Galatians the third chapter and the thirteenth verse. Because here we have a most, well, to me an astounding statement, a thrilling statement. Galatians 3.13 Now we know that he has redeemed us from the penalty of sin by his poured out blood, his life that was shed. But what we have in this thirteenth verse? Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ and that you might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Now this is an entirely different matter. If you say that the curse of the law here is the same as the penalty of the law, then you're having to introduce a principle of interpretation that doesn't prevail anywhere else in Scripture. Where God makes a distinction and man destroys the distinction, we can't do that. No, we're talking about two things. Now remember what I said about the communion service? His blood which is shed for the remission of sins. Then, this is my body which is given for you. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now what happens? Let's go back to see what took place. The Lord Jesus is apprehended in the garden. But it didn't begin there. It began in the garden actually, but not when he was apprehended. There's another conflict that's going on and without which I don't think we understand, we really understand Calvary. And that is when the Lord Jesus Christ undergoes those hours of agony as he's bowed, as he's been shown by the artist over a stone. And it says he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. Or someone has said the pressure of what was happening to him in those hours was so enormous that perspiration burst from his brow as clots of blood. Just press himself. Well, now what's happening? Let's go back and see what's taking place. There's the Scripture also that said that the soul that sinneth it shall die indicated that it was the soul that sinned that should die. Not anyone else. A man shall die for his own sin was the way the law was given. And one man could not die for another. And yet, there at the door of the tabernacle, when this faithful Israelite came carrying a lamb under his arm and called to the Levite or priest within who had come outside the door, and there he stood with those five pillars and five in Scripture is the number of grace, and those four hangings between the five pillars, the one on the right being blue and the second one white and the third one scarlet and the fourth one purple, we have a marvelous picture of Christ. He is the blue, the heavenly dweller, the one by whom all things is made, who has become man, been sinless, perfect man, the son of man, tested and tried, of whom the Father could say, my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, and the scarlet as the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, and the purple who has been exalted and raised from the dead and given a name above every name and enthroned as the ruler of the universe. It is all right there in those four hangings at the door of the tabernacle, in front of which the priest stands. And this Israelite takes the lamb and the priest inspects it to see that there is not spot or blemish on it, for then it would not be acceptable for sacrifice. And the Israelite then puts his hand on the head of this little lamb and he confesses the sin that has moved him to come from his home, perhaps over several hills away in a little valley, and yet he knows that he has broken the law of God and he knows that there is this means provided. So he stands there and with contrition he confesses his sin. And the priest then takes the knife and the bow, the throat is cut, the blood is caught, and then the lamb is taken in to the altar of burnt offering, speaking of the cross. And as this Israelite stands and sees the smoke ascend and hears behind the curtain the hiss of the blood and the flesh upon the fire, he says, Some mystery I don't understand, that an innocent lamb could take away the sins of a man. But you see, there has been an identification of the man with the lamb by laying his hands upon it and bringing it and confessing his sin over it. Now we come to the other aspect of the picture. John the Baptist has said, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Here is the one of whom all the lambs that have been sacrificed have pointed, the Lord Jesus Christ. God come in the flesh. And so, the Son of God now has come to that hour, the hour for which I have come into the world, said he, speaking of it in anticipation. But it's one thing for him to have lived these thirty and three years obedient to the Father, but it's another thing to fulfill this. And he now, the sinless Lamb, but he's not a lamb, he's a man, he's God, the Eternal God, the perfect union of humanity and deity. God come in the flesh. And now there has to be a grappling. This sinless Son of God has to fulfill that which was in the mind of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit before the world was made. That he was willing to become sin for us, he who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. His purpose wasn't just to redeem us from the penalty of the sin, it was to redeem us from the penalty of the sin, and to redeem us from the curse of the law, and to set us free. And so we see the Lord Jesus Christ now bowed there with all the pressure of eternity past and eternity to come, as it were, upon him, and all that he knew about sin, for he is the sinless, righteous, holy God as well as perfect man. And there is now an encounter when the Lord Jesus Christ has to deliberately reach out down through time, as it were, and find you, and bring you back to him, and cross you somehow to his heart until he becomes you. His identification with you is so complete that when he hangs upon the cross, the Father is going to see him as you. Now this means, therefore, that it has to be more than you played for us this morning, and you played for us. But Christ died for us, not in the same way that you played for us. Each of us were not to have played. You were to have played for us. Each of us were to have died. And Christ died for us, not in the sense of performing, but in a personal identification and in a personal relationship. And thus, there has to be that embrace. May I just again take you to an experience back in Africa to try to get you to understand what's involved with this. You, I suppose, as I have marveled sometimes as you see the Lord Jesus praying, and you see the perspiration burst from his brow, and you saw perhaps like I did that it was the number of your sins, or perhaps when he cried out, let this come, pass from me, it was the weight of your sins. Well, God gave me an experience back in Africa years ago that changed my thinking in this regard. I share it with you. I seldom do, but will this morning. I was, my wife and I were the only two at the time in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan that had had a Summer Institute of Linguistics training, and so we were assigned to work with the Sudan government as under the education department to do pioneer linguistic survey of about ten tribes that had no contact with education or missions. And I was trying to get an initial word list for comparison purposes from the Ngasena language, a tribe of about 25-30,000 people that had been closed to all approach by missions. And yet when the dry season, we couldn't go into their area, but when the dry season occurred, they brought their cattle down into our area. So I would go out and just spend the day in the camp talking to them and writing down the words as I could pick them off their teeth, so to speak. And this particular day, I knew they'd moved, they'd gone probably four or five miles further. It would be ten o'clock before I could reach them, and then I'd have to leave by three to get back. So I started a little after six. It was going to be a terribly hot day. I put my helmet down over my eyes to shield myself. I was walking, as it were, into the sun, and I tried to protect my eyes from the early morning glare. And as I did, just going down the path, watching a few feet in front of me, I glanced up to see what was ahead, and saw a shadow on the path. Well, it was just there. I didn't pay any attention to it. I thought perhaps it was a bundle of thatching grass that one of the women had gotten tired of carrying home the night before. They were getting their thatching grass this time of year. She'd just set it on the side of the path to pick up in the morning. But as I came a little closer, moved on, I smelled a horrible smell. It was... I'd never quite encountered an odor like this before. And then I looked up, and there was a person. And I presumed the odor was emanating from him. And I'd never seen such a person. When I saw what was in front of me, I wanted to turn and run. That's how it felt. I had... was meeting my first leper. Now, I'd seen pictures of lepers. I had read books about leprosy. I'd talked with missionaries that worked with lepers. But I'd never seen one before. And there he was, sitting in the path. I'd heard there was one in our area. But when he'd come into the village, the children would stick their dogs and throw sticks at him and say, You're dead. Smell yourself. You're dead. Go lie down. Let your spirit go. You're dead. Look, you're rotting already. Well, there he was on my path. And he held out his hands to me. Well, they weren't really hands. There were no fingers. Just a bone or two protruding through the mass of rotting flesh. He looked at me. He started to speak. He had no teeth. His lips were turned down and ulcerated. And just a hoarse sound came out. It affected his vocal cords. I know what he was saying. He was saying, Put yourself in my place. What if I were you and you were here? What would you want me to do for you? That's always the cry of the needy. And his eyes, well, they were pocking ulcers around the edges, dripping pus down his cheek, and his nose was eaten away. His feet, well, he couldn't walk. The front of his feet was eaten off partially. There were heavy pads on his elbows and on his knees. Around his neck was a leather thong to which was dyed a half of a gourd. I knew how he moved when I saw the pads. He moved on his hands and knees like this. And then he'd see a bit of grain. Someone dropped. And he'd pick it up with the pads of his hands and put it into the gourd. And when he got a little grain, he'd curl it. And he'd lay his tongue down on it and hold it in his toothless jaws till he was soft enough to swallow. And he was sitting in front of me. And I went over and got as near to him as I could wish to. I got down on my heels and looked into his face. And somehow, deep within me, I said, I'll do anything to help you. My day was changed. I was going to have to do something for this man. And when I said, I'll do anything to help you, it was as though my eyes opened. You see, the leper is the picture of the sinner. Some people have said leprosy is a type of sin. No, the leper is the picture of the sinner. And I was looking in the face of that man into a physical incarnation of what God saw spiritually when he saw me. Because God, in the Holy Spirit, in your inspiration, chose the leper as the picture of the sinner. Eyes used for sin, ears for sin, mouth for sin, hands, feet, just all. And there was myself. This was me in God's eyes. This was you if you'd been there. This was God's picture of us. Now, I said to Him, I'll do anything to help you. And all of a sudden, it took me back to that garden scene when the Lord Jesus, I said, Lord, look down. He saw you, and He saw you, and He saw me. And He said, Father, I'll do anything to help you. And I realized then, as I never had before, what Christ did do in the garden. Perhaps I can illustrate it this way. If I had done for the leper what Christ did do for me. Now, I didn't do this. Don't misunderstand me. But if I had done for him what Christ did do for me, this is what it would have meant. I would have had to have looked at that man and calculated all the effects of that loathsome disease. And then I would have had to have deliberately gone down, put my hands under his arms, and lifted him up, and then brought that clean face, my clean face, in on his filthy face, until rotting hand in my clean hand, body against body, I somehow could have compressed and pulled until in the alchemy of love, my health would have gone out on him, and his disease come in on me. This is a little picture of what it means when it says he was made to be sin for us, he who knew no sin. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now, this was no light thing that the Son of God did in Gethsemane. And when he comes out, when he comes out, he is no longer only the Son of God he is now made. In the eyes of God and in the eyes of Satan. Now, there are two penalties. The one is death, the penalty for sin. The other is the curse of the law. Now, as you read the curse of the law, who would be the agent that would enforce most of it? Would you go back to Job and you will find that all God did was just raise his hand and the agents of the enforcement of the curse upon basket and store and family and all they possessed was Satan, the God of this world. And so you will find the Lord Jesus Christ now coming out of the garden as you, with two things on you. One, the penalty of your sin and the other, the curse of the law. And so he's got to do two things. He's got to redeem us from the penalty and he's got to redeem us from the curse. In Galatians 3.13 says Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. Now let us go back with this in view to Exodus the twelfth chapter and see what happened. We've got to understand what he did, what this victory for the cross is. Not just at the cross but a victory for the cross because it's by this means that our release is achieved. I'm going to ask you to go to the eighth verse of Exodus 12. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire. Many times having been in the Sudan and countries similar to this, just south of Egypt, I have been trekking with Arabs and with the other people and we have killed a small gazelle or we have purchased a goat for our evening meal. And do you know how we cooked it? The same way. We took off the skin and we drew out from the inside all that was there. And then we took a long green stick, stripped it of its bark and washed it a little perhaps, pushed it in in such a way that we had a staff that could rest on the fork sticks over the coals of the fire. And then in order that the fire could penetrate in the chest cavity, we cut a short stick and pushed the beast open so that the flesh would get the flame. And that's what Israel did that night. And what is it? It's the cross. And that lamb, as that family gathers around, they watch as that flesh is beginning now to absorb the fire. For how long? Well, normally you would expect it to take five to six hours for a lamb that would feed a family to be properly cooked unless it was to be charred and to be burned. This is the period of time that the heat would penetrate normally. Less depending on the size of the animal, of course. So what do you have there that night in Israel? You have the blood on the doorpost that the angel of the Lord looks for. That's all he looks for. I see the blood. I'll pass over you. But what's happening? Here's that lamb and it's on a cross and it's over the fire. Well, let me illustrate it. These people had two things against them. One, they had the penalty of the law and the other, the curse of the law. Part of that curse was the fact that they'd been under bondage. They had no possessions. They had no goods. They had nothing. Nothing at all that was theirs. They were slaves. Slaves indeed. And now God wants to redeem them. They've got so many things. They're sick. They're impoverished. They're defeated. Everything is against them. And yet He wants to make a nation of them. So He says, You take this lamb and then... Well, let me illustrate it. I'm going to take you to one home in Israel that night. There's a young man lying on an angry, rope-tied bed. He's never walked since that day when he was working on one of Pharaoh's buildings. He was pushing behind. He was the fellow that put the chalk block in when they rolled these big granite slabs up to put in the building. One of the men on the rope, the tow rope ahead, had stumbled, and the others had stumbled, and the block got away. And he didn't get out fast enough, and it caught his hip and thigh, and it had crushed it. They thought he'd die. They brought him home, but his mother had nursed him back. But there he is on this angry. They have to carry him out in the day camp. He can't walk. His one leg is completely withered, and his right leg has, for lack of use, grown weak. And he's that afternoon in the house, this little mud-walled house, talking to his mother, and he says, Mother, has Father killed the lamb yet? No, no. Your uncle's coming, and we're killing the lamb together, and he'll be here. But that's all right. It'll be all right. Mother, by sunset, you know, a little later, they brought the lamb. Can't you hear them? Yes, I can hear them. Has he killed the lamb? Yes. You know, I'm the firstborn mother, says this boy lying on the angry. And the angel of the Lord will come for me. I'm the only firstborn in this family. Neither you nor Father were, and I'm the oldest of the children. And I'm the one, and I'm so anxious. Son, your father now is dipping the hyssop into the blood. There it is, son. It's on the lintel. Now it's on the two side poles. After a little while, he says, Mother, Father and Uncle still there? Yes. Would you ask if they would carry me out so that I could see the blood on the doorpost? Well, yes. So they'd pick up the anger and carry it out and lie there and see that it's not taking back yet. No, son. Now you stay here in the courtyard now. Oh, no, take me back. You know, son, Moses didn't just tell us to put the blood on the doorpost. He also told us to eat the flesh of the lamb together. Together. The father comes out, and the son goes and looks up and says, Father, what's that? Father, you've got my coat. And so he watches. They took the stick and put it through in the crosspiece as they sat and conversed as families do while the meal was in preparation these hours of this very special day. And then about evening, about dusk, the father comes out, and the son has been dozing, looks up and says, Father, what's that? Father, you've got my coat. What's my coat for? That isn't, I don't need that. Well, Moses told us to eat the flesh with our coats on. We've got to do just what he told us. Well, that's silly for me. I've been here on the bed. The son, we're going to do just what Moses told us. So he puts his hand in, right and left, and ties the sack. I haven't had this on since, since the day before I was hurt. The accident. Yes, that's right. Father, you've got my sandals. You've kept them all these years. What are my sandals? Yes, he told us to eat with our sandals. But, Father, look at that foot. It's tight. He told us to eat a sandal. Moses, Moses told us to eat with our sandals. We're going to put it on. I haven't had those on either since before the accident. I know, but we're going to have them on tonight. We're going to do just what Moses told us. And so he ties the sandal on the twisted foot, and on the other foot. And what's that, Father? You've got my staff there? I didn't see that. You're going to keep that staff for me? Is that, uh, when did we close in the last long time? Huh? And, uh, he said, you want me to keep that staff? Yes, you're going to have to have that by you. Well, Father, as the meal is served, I'm not hungry really. This has been such an emotional day. Son, Moses told you to eat the flesh. But, I just thought, Son, Moses said, eat it. What? Son, we're going to do just what he said. Well, just give me a little piece then. You know I have no appetite. That's good, Father. I'll have another little piece. Uh, Father, may I have, Father, look, I moved my foot. No. Yes, look, Father, I moved my foot. May I have some more of that meat? Father, I bent my knee. Father, something is happening. Look at my leg. I don't know what's happening, but I can, look, my foot's straight. Put your arm under me. Yes. He stands and says, no, I won't have to be left behind. I was a, didn't want to eat because I knew this was the last meal, and I couldn't go with you. You couldn't carry me. He said, where'd you make that all up? Well, if you'd like to turn to Psalm 105, 37, you'll find I didn't make it up. For in that it says, they went forth with silver and gold. What was the curse? Poverty. But after they'd eaten, the Egyptians came in and gave them the gold and gave them the silver. The curse was lifted. And then, and there was not one feeble person among all their number. See, what are you trying to tell us? I'm not trying to tell you anything the Word of God doesn't tell you. I'm telling you that Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. That's the victory for the cross. That's why he endured those hours of agony. If you will go back and find what happened to him in those five hours and relate it to the curse, you will find that every single aspect of the curse was endured by the Son of God in the five hours of his agony preceding those moments when he gave up his spirit and his heart burst. Why? He not only wanted to deliver us from the penalty of our sin, indeed he did, but he wanted to deliver us from the curse of the law, that we might, while we're in time, honor him and glorify him and fulfill his plan and his purpose and that one day we'd have bodies like unto his own body of glory. So, he died on the cross to save us from the penalty of our sin, indeed. And he also died on the cross that he could save us from the curse of the law. And he hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, as it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. I don't know what you're going to do with this, but whatever it is, just you have to understand it before you can do anything. And I trust the Spirit of God will teach us. Father in heaven, we've sought by every means we could to share what we understand thy word to teach concerning the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ for his cross in redeeming his people from the penalty of their sin and from the curse of the law. And we would pray that perhaps some beleaguered and impressed who've never understood the emancipation proclamation of the resurrection of thy dear son will lay hold of him today and experience that release and that deliverance to be also precious. We ask, therefore, that our minds will be illumined, our hearts will be opened, our spirits will be responsive, and we will, as did the Bereans, search the Scriptures daily to see if these things be so. We do thank thee for thy presence. We thank thee, Father, for the Lord Jesus Christ who was made to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of thyself.