In this sermon, the speaker begins by talking about the joy and love that children have for lambs. He then transitions to the story of the first Passover in the Bible, where the Israelites were oppressed in Egypt. The speaker emphasizes the importance of the blood of the lamb in the Passover, as it symbolized judgment for sin. The sermon concludes with a reference to Revelation 19:6, where the hosts of heaven praise God for the marriage of the Lamb and the readiness of his wife.

Philippians chapter 3, as a warm-up for several texts. Philippians chapter 3, the words of Paul, and this is the theme of our conference, and the Lord has put His finger on some things for many of us in these days. And in verse 7 of chapter 3, it says, "...what things were gained to me, I counted loss for Christ. Yes, doubtless, and I count all things, but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things." He keeps saying, all things, all things, loss. "...and I do count them but rubbish, or dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him." That's what he wants, to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law. And when Paul uses that, he doesn't just mean the Ten Commandments. He means anything that will help me think I'm better or worse by performance or not performing. Any standard of behavior, or list of principles, or methods, that's just something from the outside coming in. You see, the Spirit's from the inside working out. The law comes from the outside. So that's the law. I want to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. The righteousness which is by, or of God, by faith. That I may know Him. That I may know Him. I want to just stop there and pray, and then I want us to turn to Matthew 22. Father, we want to know You. Lord Jesus, we want to know You. Holy Spirit, we want to know You. And we know that as we come to know You, the things of earth will grow strangely dim. If we don't know You, the things of earth will become greatly grim. Lord, we know that we are under pressure and this love pressure to turn our hearts and minds to You. The things that we think are gain or preservation or that which is necessary in this world, may we count them but rubbish. Put them on the altar of God, that we might win Christ, that we might know Christ and that You would clothe us tonight with the righteousness that's not our own, but rather that righteousness, which is the gift of God through faith in the Lord Jesus, as we'll see tonight through a precious, precious fountain that you've opened. Make it real, make it heavenly wisdom, open our hearts to truth and do something tonight to culminate many things you've been saying and doing in these hours of this day. Bring it to a head and may it just be the glory of God tonight. In the name of Jesus, precious lamb of glory, we thank you. Amen. Well, in the book of Matthew, Chapter 22, we start with a parable with a very deep meaning, especially if you're Jewish. It's been my privilege the last couple of weeks to be at Beth Halel. It's a Messianic Jewish synagogue in Atlanta. And they're Jewish believers who have met Yeshua Hamashiach, the Messiah. And I'm telling you, it is such a blessing to be there with them and to see their eyes light up when the scriptures that they preserve for us. God opens, I think Haynes was there and he saw it was a precious time we had there as we are sharing about the blood of Christ just before Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. There there are some of their holy days, Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, days of all 10 days preceding. And I have thought about bringing this these verses to them. Chapter 22, verse one, Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said, The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king which made a marriage for his son and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding. And they would not come again. He sent forth other servants saying, Tell them which are bidden. Behold, I've prepared my dinner, my ox and my fatlings are killed and all things are now ready. Come to the marriage. But they made light of it. You know, that phrase made light of it is the same word over in Hebrews chapter two that when it says, How shall we escape if we neglect? Neglect so great salvation or make light of. That's it right there. They made light of it and they went their ways, one to his farm, the other to his merchandise or business. And the remnant took his servants and treated them spitefully and slew them. But when the king heard of it, he was angry and he sent forth his armies and he destroyed destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. And he said to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden are not worthy. Go ye, therefore, into the highways and as many as you find bid to the marriage. And so those servants went out to the highways and gathered together all as many as they found both bad and good, because that's not the factor here. Both bad and good. And the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man that didn't have all the wedding garment. Now, these wedding garments are long, white linen, pure and clean that come down to the wrists and down to the feet and come up around your neck. And they're long and flowing and they stand for purity and dedication and holiness. And in a Jewish wedding, the bridegroom would be at his father's house preparing a place for his bride. And then in an evening, the bride had to be ready with her maidens. That's the parable of those ten virgins in the in Matthew 25. They had to be ready for in such an hour as they knew not. The bridegroom would come and say, Come to my father's house. We're ready for the consummation. And so these people for the wedding would come dressed in white down to the wrist, down to the feet. And everyone would have a garment and they would walk through the streets in darkness by the light of a light by a lamp. And they would come to the bride's house and she would like her her lamps would be trimmed up. And then they'd march back through the streets into a room where they would have the wedding and all and all the feasts and the and the celebration. And everyone had on white garments. And so here's someone that comes in without a wedding garment. And the king came to him and said, friend, how did you come in here not having a wedding garment? And the man was speechless and then said the king to his servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Many are called and a few are chosen. Or as a little child said, many are cold and some are frozen, but many are called and few are chosen. There's a picture here of that Jewish wedding and this this white linen garment. It's called a kathanas to the Hebrew and the Old Testament. It's a wedding garment. Now, this imagery, if you're a Jew, means something. If you know the Old Testament spiritually over in the book of Revelation, chapter 19, you see this carried out. Turn there and you'll see this picture of the wedding and the white linen carried out. You guys have done so good today listening. I'll tell you, you've sat there and you've listened and you've listened and you've listened. Hang in there. Revelation, chapter 19, verse six. This is when the hosts of heaven praise God. The consummation is coming. And in verse five, the voice came out of the throne saying, praise our God, all ye servants and you who fear him both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude as the voice of many waters and the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia for the Lord God omnipotent. He reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him because the marriage of this lamb has come of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. She's ready. She's made herself ready and to her was granted or given that she should be clothed in fine linen, clean and white. That's a wedding garment. If you know the symbols for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. It's a symbol for the righteousness of the saints, the bride of Christ. And they have this garment on. It's given to her that she can put on white garments and they stand for the garments of the righteousness of the saints. It's a gift. And he said to me, write this down. Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are the true sayings of God. You see, Jesus Christ is coming for a bride. Ephesians five talks about us having white linen pressed and clean clothed and made ready as the bride of Christ, like we're to love our wives in the same way that Christ loves the church and has pressed and cleaned her garment. So she's without blemish or without spot. So this wonderful image of clean, pure garments that are made white. And we'll see how in a moment. You know, I've done a lot of weddings. I am a romantic person. I like weddings and I enjoy weddings. It's always fun to go to the rehearsal dinner and meet the family and witness. And, you know, I've done weddings and seen all kinds of brides, all sizes and all shapes. I've seen short brides. Do you take this man to be looking down? And I've seen tall brides. My roommate in seminary was six feet nine. We're both single. We used to pray for wives. And I got married first. And he said, God will never send me a wife. He sent him a wife six feet four. And she is gorgeous. And she says that he makes her feel dainty. And that's great. I'm telling you, she's it's precious. That's just like God, isn't it? Praise the Lord. And and I've done weddings for beautiful brides. And I've done weddings for brides. But I wondered if the groom was blind. I've done weddings for skinny brides and wide brides and all kinds. I've seen them all different ways, but I've never seen a dirty bride. Have you? She's always clean. She always takes a bath and puts on her best clothes because it's her special day. And I'll tell you, Jesus is coming for a bride and not a widow. He's coming for a clean and pure bride. And she will have made herself ready, responding to the word of God and the spirit of Christ. You see, it says in Second Corinthians chapter seven, verse one about the promises of God. It says Second Corinthians seven one, having therefore these precious promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh. That's the outer life and the spirit. That's the inner life, perfecting holiness in the reverential awe of God. We've got the word of God that by this we might be partakers of the exceeding great and precious promises of God and by the promises of God cleanse ourselves. Now, John had seen this vast multitude we just read about earlier back in chapter seven of Revelation, and we need to look there. Revelation chapter seven, and we see this multitude clothed in fine white linen, clean and pure. And in verse nine, he says, after this, I beheld in low, a great multitude, which no man could number of all nations and kinds and peoples and tongues. They stood before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. And they cried with a loud voice saying, Hosanna, which is what they did as a triumphant entry. But it says here salvation to God who sits upon the throne and to the lamb and all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures. They fell before the throne on their faces and worship God. It says they did that seven times in the book of Revelation. They got calluses on their nose from falling before the throne. And they said, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. Being curious in his heart about this great multitude in white, the angel perceived and discerned that and one of the elders answered, saying unto me, what are these that are clothed in white robes and where do they come from? And he knew enough to say, sir, are you the one that knows? And he said to me, these are they which came out of great tribulation and they've washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. That's how you make your robes clean. That's how you get white linen garments. And therefore, because of this white blood washed robes, they are in the presence of the throne of God and they serve him day and night in his tabernacle. And the one who sits on the throne will literally, it says, spread his tent over them. He will spread his tabernacle over them. Back in the first chapter of Revelation, it salutes the Lord Jesus and the writer says unto him that loves us and has washed us from our sins in his own blood and made us kings and priests to our God. It's through his own blood. He has loosed us or washed us from our sins. In Revelation chapter three, it says that blessed are they that are worthy to walk with him in white. It says, watch that no man defile your garment in another place. In Revelation chapter 12, verse 11, it talks about being an overcomer of the accuser of the brethren by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony and by the fact that we do not love our own lives, even to the point of martyrdom or death. That's what it means. We've given it all. We've counted all loss, but rubbish to be clothed in the righteousness of another. So we are naked before God without the covering of the wedding garment that he gives to his bride. White linen, blood washed righteousness. Revelation chapter five. Look there. They're praising him today. This moment around the throne because of his sacrifice and worth. Verse nine, they sang a new song. This is all of heaven around the throne of the lamb that's taken the scroll of redemption. They're saying thou art worthy to take the book to open the seals of it because you were slain. You have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every kind and tongue and people and nation and has made us to our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the beasts and the elders. And the number of them was ten myriads is the Greek word myriads and myriads of myriads saying with a loud voice. It sounds like a heartbeat. Listen, this worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. It's the heartbeat around the throne of the universe. Tonight is the heartbeat of that mighty celestial myriads of myriads saying thou are worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And then it gets even bigger. Every creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and all that's in the sea and in them heard I saying blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sits upon the throne and to the lamb forever and ever. And the four living creatures said amen. And the people at Covington said amen. And the four and 20 elders fall down and worshiped him. That's what we should be doing. The one who lives forever and forever. You see, this white linen here is the righteousness of the saints. Now, from the beginning of the Bible, God has chosen to teach man and women that they could not stand before God in their own righteousness, no matter how much they wanted, no matter how sincere they were, their righteousness had to be a righteousness that was given from God based upon the blood of a sacrifice. And I want you to think back again. We're going to trace some things through all the way back till after that fall. And in Genesis chapter three, right after the Lord says to the devil, I will put enmity between your seed. That's the seed of the devil and the woman's seed. And you will bruise his heel and he will crush your head. He's describing Calvary as Jesus feet are nailed to that cross. But beneath that heel of Christ would be the head of the serpent and he'd be forever crushed. And it's the first he's called the first mention of the gospel. It's called in theological terms, the proto evangelium. It's the first mention of the gospel. And right after that, he curses the earth and curses the work of Adam. And then Adam turns to his wife and says, by the way, your name is Eve. First time her name is mentioned, which means mother of a living. Adam had seen something. He'd seen something in that moment. And God then, it says, makes them coats of skin in three twenty one coats, plural of skin, singular two coats out of one skin. And this is before a man ate food, by the way, of meat. Meat had not yet been sanctioned by God. And so this was a pure sacrifice. You couldn't even use the meat. And so God made a coat, which is from the word Kaffir, which is from the same root of Katana, same root Kaffir means to cover. It's the same root for the word atonement in the Hebrew. God made a covering that was an atonement to cover like a coat, the nakedness of of Adam and Eve. But before that, you see, they had tried to cover their own nakedness. He heard the voice of God, like some of you heard him this weekend and was afraid, afraid, which is good fear because he'd sin. But he tried to do a wrong thing. And some of you may try to do that. Tried to cover it up with fig leaves. That's the symbol of the Jewish nation through the whole Old Testament religion. In a sense, the Jewish, you see, if anything we could do, that's our own righteousness. Anything we could do to cover our nakedness. Let me tell you, you try wearing fig leaves in a bonfire. It'd be a hot time in the old town tonight. They wouldn't last. All of our righteousness are as filthy rags. They're just like it literally says a minstrel's cloth to God. It's as loathsome that our efforts as a minstrel's cloth. And I hope you understand. I'm just saying what the scriptures say. When God took that life of another, he took from its covering and gave to Adam and Eve and the covering of an innocent party became the covering of the nakedness of Adam and Eve. And Adam saw it. He saw the Messiah coming and he believed. And I believe Adam was saved. No question in my mind about it, because it says that he told his children. How do you know that? Well, it was by faith in the next chapter. Hebrews 11 says, by faith, Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. And to have faith, you've got to have faith comes by hearing the word of God. He'd heard from somebody. Cain and Abel came to a place that God had appointed for sacrifice. It means appointed place on an appointed day. And Cain came with the best of what God had cursed, the fruit of his own efforts, bouquets of flowers and nice social things and offering to God his own sincerity and hard work. And you know what happened? God declined it. Abel came with the firstling of the flock, the blood of a lamb. And God gave some signal, probably fire. We don't know. It doesn't say showing that he bore witness to that sacrifice of Abel and bore witness that he was righteous and Cain became jealous and began to persecute, as you know, Abel, just like those who are trying to insist on their own righteousness due today. Those who have simply the coat of Christ on Cain and Abel showed it was by the blood that they came in chapter six. God says there was a man named Noah who found grace in the eyes of the Lord grace. And God came to Noah and said, I'm going to judge the earth. Make me an arc of gopher wood. And I want you to pitch it on the inside and outside. Pitch was a dark, rosinous, dark red substance. And the word for pitch there is the same root word as Kaphar or to propitiate. And it means to cover on the outside to keep out judgment and to cover on the inside. It's inner and outer protection. And God said to Noah, I want you to go into that ark. Is that what he said? He didn't say go into the ark. See, let's suppose that I said to my children, you go in the house. I'm out here. Well, they're in the house and I'm out in the yard and they're not with me. God didn't say go in the ark. He said, Noah, I want you to come in the ark. Come in here where I am. I'm in here with you and I'll set you in with the symbol of what's the atonement all around. And there's only a window above. That's the only source you can look above. He was to be covered and propitiated. And when he got out of that ark, he dedicated the new heaven and new earth of his day. He hit the Ararat on resurrection morning. Did you know that the 17th day of the seventh month, the name whose name is rest came down on holy ground and he sanctified the earth with blood with a rainbow to God, saying, I'm a covenant keeping God and the other half surround the throne of the land. It's all perfect. Every word of God is pure. And in Leviticus, the priest would offer a sacrifice. And God said in chapter 17, it is the blood that will make an atonement for your soul, a coat, a covering, a cover or nakedness that which keeps out wrath. The blood will make an atonement for the soul. No wonder that the writer of the Psalms that named David, who understood this principle, cried out in astonishment. Chapter 32 of Psalms. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, covered, meaning with the blood, with the blood. So you see, this is talking about imputed righteousness, the gift of God, that God would call someone righteous who wasn't righteous because they had on a coat that was given to them because the life of an innocent victim was stripped of it and given to the one who was guilty. It's a picture all through the Bible, nakedness covered and wrath kept away. Zachariah said it this way. God is speaking to people and he says, as for the by the blood of my covenant, I have sent forth my prisoners out of the pit wherein there is no water. God has freed us from the pit in which there's no water or the blood of his covenant. And God's guilt, our guilt is gone. But God's glory is given, not just passive acceptance, but total acceptance. Glory is given. Isaiah sang about it in his song in chapter sixty one. He said this, Isaiah sixty one ten. Listen, talking about God. He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself as a bride dresses herself up. He has done it. He's covered me. The Old Testament foreshadows, you see, of second Corinthians, chapter five, when it says he took the Lord Jesus, who knew no sin and made him to be sin in order that I in him might become the righteousness of God. He took off Jesus coat and put it on me. He took off my filthy rags and put it on him and he became sin. Filthy rags put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 13, 14, first Corinthians, chapter one, verse 30, that says it is of God. It's his work that you are in Christ and he is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. All those things as we're in him. What a wonderful thing. This word for Katana is the same word from the root used for Adam and Eve's coat and also the coat of the priest, the undergarment. Did you know that? When it talks about the priests in the Old Testament having their basic white linen underclothes that they would put their other garments over, it was a picture of a family that had to be born into a specific family, the family of the high priest. They had to be born. They had to be separated. They were separated publicly. There would be a public bath by the high priests, and they'd put the blood on their right ear and on their right thumb and on their right big toe for cleansed doing, cleansed hearing, cleansed walking. Then they'd put the oil on it and they had seven days of separation of fire and and all and they'd be separated. But they wore these white linen robes and without these, they'd be dead meat. Literally, all flesh must be covered. A family of high priests, offspring born, consecrated by blood, clothed in pure white linen, anointed by the oil. And this is a picture of what the New Testament says we are to stand between God and man ministering in the holy place to God and out in the public court to those who are seeking him mediators, ambassadors of the throne of God. First Peter, Chapter two. Listen. First Peter, Chapter two, verse five to nine. I'm starting to get excited. I can feel it rising. Give me a listen to this. You are a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood. That means after Melchizedek, our Lord Jesus is order. You're born in his family, a holy nation, a peculiar people, some more peculiar than others. God has chosen you that you should show forth the praises of him who's called you out of darkness into his marvelous life. He never calls you out of anything. He doesn't call you into something better out of darkness, away from idolatry, but not just from. It's two. It's two. It's into him and all that he wants. You see, it's called we are called priests in the book of Hebrews. We come boldly into the holy of holies through the bloody rent veil of the flesh of Christ, and we come to the throne of grace. The Ark of the Covenant sprinkle with the blood of better sacrifices than those bulls and goats. We come boldly in with open face, saying all having a high priest over the true house of God, whoever liveth to pray not only for us, but to hear the petitions and give us grace and mercy to help in a time of need. He is a consuming fire and let us. Therefore, if we wouldn't escape and we neglected his voice on earth, how much less can we need to pay attention to his voice that comes tonight from heaven from the throne of God? Do you see it? Where is holy bride dressed, purchased where his priesthood? That's why David cried out after his sin. Wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. Sprinkle me with the hyssop. What's on that hyssop that has to be sprinkled? What we'll see before the night is over. It's white washed, blood washed linen. One glorious step further. You see, when the priests went on in offering those offerings as they developed, they would have to go up an incline of an offer of an altar. The altar was on an incline. I wonder why that is. It was high and lifted up and they have to get that sacrifice and lift it up. If I lift it up, says the Lord, it would lift it up on that incline. And when the priest bent over like this to put his sacrifice over the flames, the backs of his legs would show. And God hates all flesh. God made him grow his beard around like Lloyd down here in a big round under the chin thing so that he couldn't see his face. It's a good idea. No, no, but a big beard, because God said, wear bonnets, wear things around your face beard so I can't see flesh. No flesh can glory my presence. And by the way, I want you to put on linen underpants because when you bend over, I'm offended at what I see. It's in Exodus twenty nine. It talks about that to have this sanction of of linen covering their back parts, their hinder parts. And without this covering, no priest would ever live. They would be struck down immediately. They had to have this picture of righteousness. Well, all four Gospels cover it after the trial of Jesus. He was stripped completely naked. I don't think he hung before Father God with that little loincloth that we graciously put on our pictures. And I think we should. But you know what? I think he was stripped before the eyes of a mocking world. And it was the first priest in all of history who didn't have to have a covering. He was righteous in his own self and could in his own merit before Father God offer a linen, a living, beautiful sacrifice. You know, just another step further. It says his flesh was the was the actual veil that was rent. Those those Gospels show the Lord Jesus in four colors of robes. There's a purple robe. There's a scarlet robe. There's a word in the Greek called Lampros. It means white, radiant. And his own robe was probably blue. Why do I say that? Because those are the four colors on the veil. And as he came with his own blue, seamless robe woven without seeing from top to bottom, he came before Anna's. Remember? And Anna said, are you? And he quoted from Daniel chapter seven. Are you the Messiah, son of the blessed? And the Lord Jesus answered because he put him under oath and said, I am. And in the future, you're going to see me coming with the power came and say with the power of God coming clothed with power and great glory. And the priest did what was forbidden in the Old Testament. Priests were not allowed to tear their garments. In fact, they're warned in the book of Leviticus. If the priest tears his garment, it had a piece of a woven secure around the neck to keep it from ripping because there was to be no seam in the Levitical priesthood. And so as this priest grabbed his collar and ripped, he ripped his garment. God had said the day the high priest rinsed his garment, the Levitical priesthood is over. It's ended. And little did he know that when he grabbed his neck and ripped that collar open that God said the Levi, the law is over. And from that moment, Jesus became the high priest of Melchizedek after that order. And he went to the cross and he was stripped. And you know what? God's sovereignty had his seamless garment, not torn the cast lots for it. See, God is in charge of it all. Seamless righteousness. Once we had no peace. Now we have peace through the blood. Once we were far off. Now we become near by the blood and by his blood. Every man, woman, boy and girl can walk right into the Holy of Holies. Now there's a picture of this in Exodus 12. I want you to look at this where we'll spend the rest of our time. It's one of the best pictures in all the Bible, I think, of imputed righteousness under the blood, perhaps nowhere in all the scripture to the benefits of the blood more forcibly hit us than right here, graphically before our eyes in that first Passover, the first one. Now, you know, the account of how the Israelites had come into Egypt and they were welcomed for 30 years. But after that, another Pharaoh rose up that did not know Joseph and began to oppress these precious people. And for years, 400 years, they had to make bricks without straw. And they were they were in bad shape, walking in mud, not fed well. And it says in chapter two that their cry came up before God. They weren't praying particularly. I don't think. But God's eye was on his covenant people. He's a covenant keeping God. God said their cry has come up before me and I've come down to deliver them. I know their sorrow. See, God knows your sorrows and he knows it all. And as as this cry came up before him, God says, when I'm going to give my people deliverance, he takes he takes a man that's chosen and he gives him a word about the lamb. And that's what you're going to see here. He picks Moses, his chosen. Moses has to get his own house in order. He thought he could overlook circumcising his own son and be used by God. And God, in chapter four, sought to kill Moses because Moses thought he could preach without doing what he's supposed to be calling others to do. And his wife comes and circumcises the son and throws the foreskin down at Moses feet and said, you're a bloody husband to me. You're in covenant with me now. You owe me, Buster. That's what she's saying. Women are bad about that, you know. And on it and God says to Moses, listen, I want you to go in and tell Pharaoh to let my people go. Pharaoh worshipped other gods. So there were ten plagues. There were ten gods he was after. They worshipped the frogs. And so God said, you like frogs? He sent frogs in their pots and pans and underwear and every chariot. You name it. They had frogs all over Egypt. You like bugs, scarabs and all that. And they put bugs in their clothes, bugs everywhere. You worship the sun. He blew it out. It was totally black. And that was scary. And you like the Nile. You get all your sustenance from the Nile. He turned it to blood. It was a systematic attack on the gods of Egypt. And they parallel the judgments in the book of Revelation. But you see, Pharaoh hardened his heart ten times. And after he hardened his heart ten times, you know what happened the next ten, twenty times he says his heart was hardened. Pharaoh did it the first ten. God did it the last ten. Take care that you harden not your heart, because God may give you what you want. He may give you what you want. Listen to his voice today. If you will hear his voice. Do not go on hardening your heart, it says in the New Testament. Today is the day. Tonight is the night for to act on what God says because of the blood. One by one, Pharaoh hardened his heart and God came in and said, let my people go. And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey him? So God introduced himself again and again and again. And Pharaoh didn't listen. See, judgment came over Egypt that night and God then came and said, listen, he hadn't listened, but I'm going to do a great work. And tonight, this night, you do it this way. I'm going to bring the people of God out tonight with a great deliverance. And here's how. Verse one, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying this month, this month, and it was the seventh month on the Hebrew calendar, the month of Abib, according to Deuteronomy 16, one this month will become to you the beginning of months. It's going to be the first month of the year. I'm going to give you a new calendar. All things are going to become new after what's going to happen now. Speak to all the congregation of Israel saying very specifically and very detailed on the 10th day of this month, they will take to them every man, a lamb, according to their house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. But if the house is too little for the lamb, notice the lamb is never too little for the house. The house is too little for the land. If the house is too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to him combine and take it to the number of the souls. Every man, according to his eating, you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish. A male of the first year in its prime meaning, you shall take it out from among the sheep separated or from the goats, and you will keep this lamb up until the 14th day of the same month. Very specific and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening specifically, and they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts of the house in which they shall go in to eat it. And this is how they'll eat it in that night roast with fire to picture an unloving bread and with bitter herbs. They shall eat it. Don't eat it raw. Don't eat it boiled with water, but roast it with fire to picture his head and his legs and with all the insides of and don't let anything remain to the morning. And if it does remain to the morning, burn what's left with fire. This is how you'll eat it with your loins girded and your running shoes is the equivalent on your feet, and you will eat it in a hurry because it's the Lord's Passover. You're saying something to those who watch. You're saying we're leaving. We're leaving. I'm going to pass through the land of Egypt this night. I'm coming. The Lord saying, and I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. It's a picture of everything natural, everything. The first creation, both man and beast against all the gods of Egypt. I'm going to execute judgment. I'm the Lord. I am the Lord, and the blood will be to you for a token upon the house in which you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague will not come upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. God is going to destroy the first creation, and he's coming to judge sin. And God says, listen, you do it what I'm telling you. And when I see the blood, it will be a reminder. We have tokens on Marta that say you've paid already. It's a reminder. It's not worth a penny, but it's a little token that says somebody's paid already. And a token is reminder. And God says, when I see the blood, it will remind me of something. And it's very clear in this passage what it reminds him of. And when I do get reminded, I will pass over Passover here does not mean to turn the head and go by Passover in the Hebrew means I will set a guard over you and protect you against all comers. I will not allow this this destroying angel, this this presence to come in. It will not come near to you. Judgment will not fall upon those under the blood. I will protect you. Imagine then on the 10th day, specifically taking a little lamb, taking it into your house. Lambs are really cute. I'm telling you, little long ears and little tails that twitch and kids love it. I brought some pictures of lambs from Australia, and my kids just thought they would want to have one morning thing. Can you imagine your little children are there for three days and they love that lamb? They feed that lamb. And then the 14th day in the evening outside the door, you go and the kid can tell something's up. What are you doing, Dad, with the lamb? Well, son, you don't understand this now, but God says that there's got to be judgment for sin. And this lamb's got to die. If this lamb doesn't die, you have to die because you're the firstborn and I'm the firstborn and my dad is the firstborn. And if it's either our life or this life and this life's got to be laid down and the blood will be a reminder that there's been judgment for sin. A life's been laid down. When God sees the blood, he will protect us from that which comes to judge the gods of this world. And when the blood was on that door, it would be applied in faith. Look over it. Verse 21. Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said, draw out and take a lamb according to your families and kill the Passover. Take the bunch of hyssop. It's a little herb that grew in their house like a paintbrush. Dip it in the blood that's in the basin and strike the lentil and the two side posts with the blood that's in the basin. And none of you go out to the door of this house to the morning for the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the lentil on the side posts, the Lord will pass over and not allow the destroyer to come into your house to smite you. You see, they would take that lamb over in the evening on the 14th day and they'd pull its head back like this right outside the door. And it says the basin, there's where the blood would be caught. But the basin is a is an Egyptian Hebrew cross of a word that is actually a word stop, which means a drainage ditch right at the foot of the door. It's where the water would flow through and puddle up there to keep from coming in your living room. They're outside the threshold. The head would be pulled back and the knife across that neck and the blood would spurt out and fill that spill by violent death into the ground. Then they take this hyssop, a bitter herb eaten in Passover. When you eat it, it brings tears to your eyes. It's a picture. They put that blood in that warm. They put that hyssop in that warm blood. It wasn't enough just to kill the lamb. It had to be applied. They'd take that blood and then go on the top of the door and it would splatter and then and then rub it on the sides of the door on the wood of the door. And God said, it's going to remind me of something after the bloods there that go inside and eat the flesh of the lamb whose blood was shed. And it would be in them a little bit of that lamb in each person. When God saw the lamb, he'd see maybe a shoulder in this person and a back in this one and a neck in the other one. But part of that lamb, a little bit of the lamb inside of each one to the from God's standpoint, you could see the whole lamb roasted with fire and inside and they're under the blood trusting. That's why in oriental countries you take your shoes off at the threshold and step across the threshold because it goes back to where you used to make sacrifice. That's why fireplaces are in the living room, because that's where you'd roast it needed in the living room. We call it that's where you live together and have fellowship. And it goes all the way back. We've lost sight of that. When God said, I will see the blood, it's a reminder of him. You know what it reminds him of? It would say to God, sin's wages have been paid and it would say to death, you can't come in here. And it's my opinion of the blood, says God, that matters not how you feel about it. Brother, I want to say something to you tonight. You may not understand the blood, but it's not what you think of the blood that matters. It's what God thinks of it. And when God says it's enough, then that settles it. You can sit there like some of those Hebrew people might be under the blood. Some of them are in there saying, praise God. Hallelujah. I know it work. Praise God for the blood. Others might be in there saying, oh, will it work? Will it work? Oh, I hope he takes it for sure. And you see others being there just saying, well, I don't know what's happening, but they're under the blood. They're under the blood. And every single person that was under the blood was protected by God, different temperaments, different types. But God protected them. You can see the picture years later. John 12 says it was in the ninth of Nassau that Jesus went into Bethany. The next morning he got up and went on the 10th. Do you know that's the same day as this 10th day right here? It's an amazing thing. He went in on the 10th day into Jerusalem and they cried, Hosanna, Hosanna. You know what that means? Salvation is what they cried around the throne of the Lamb because of the blood. And they had palms in their hands. They were waving and they're laying their garments down for him to walk across. And at that same day, on that 10th of Passover, all the lambs from Bethlehem were being brought in and the northeast gate, they'd come in like a white sheep pulled across the field. You'd see these lambs coming in and in through the gate, coming into the temple to be examined for three days to make sure they were perfect and without blemish to become a sacrifice to God. At that same time, Jesus is coming in the sheep gate right there. And you know what? He's not coming in on two legs like a man. He's coming in on four legs, riding a little simple, little foul of an ass. It's a perfect picture. Hosanna. This is the lamb that God's provided back in Abraham's time. Jehovah Jireh. God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. This is the one that God is sending. The Lamb of God predestinated before the foundation of the world coming in to Jerusalem. And when he would come in there for three and a half days, those lambs would be examined for three and a half days. God's lamb would be examined. Never a man spake like this man. Which of you convinces me of sin? We find no fault in him. Perfect. God is showing the world that his lamb is without blemish, separated from Adam's race. And so on that 14th day in the evening, as Jesus was hanging on that cross, you could see that blood pooling at the foot of the cross in the dirt 14th day in the evening. And you saw the blood on either side. But if you were going to walk through him, if if he is the door, I am the door. I am that rended veil through which you must come into the holy of holies. You see the blood on either side where his wrists were pierced to wood. You see the splash of the crown of thorns above where the hyssop was splashed above. And it's a perfect picture. And when God sees it, it reminds him of that. This is Exodus trying to teach us that Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us. First Corinthians five, seven. Let us therefore keep the feast. And when God sees the blood, you know what he says, it's enough. When they came out of there that night, when God came through and judged and they came out, it says that God made them. I mean, there was a weak one in their midst. They're all well by the power of God. And they came out and they've been walking in mud for years and they're all healthy. They're all well. God delivered them completely from the bondage of the picture of the flesh and not even a dog barked at him. Can you imagine almost three million Jews getting up in the middle of the night and leaving with all the gold and taking the gold and then even barking to God can silence the tongue of every opposition. So God will pass over that one that's washed in the blood. And when you're washed in the blood, you can't be any more right with God than you'll ever be when you're willing to call sin, sin and get under the blood. But we've got to apply that blood. We've got to apply that blood on the door. Now, I want to ask you like a child, I wonder in our own house, this temple of God, where's the door? I mean, we've been taught. Behold, I stand at the door and not the Bible says out of the heart flow, the issues of life, the door open the door of your heart. You see, I know heart. There's a door there. My heart. Christ's home is a little book that you ought to get and use and give out. So so we need to put the blood on our hearts. It says having our hearts sprinkled from a guilty conscience, meaning with the blood God wants to sprinkle us with the blood. When God looks at your heart tonight, what does he see? What does he see? You know, all of us hang out something. Some of us hang out our intellect. Some of us hang out. It's kind of like that place called Rotenburg, Germany. Some of you have been there. It's on that romantic road. And it's old fashioned, like the 14th or 12th century. And outside every shop, they hang a shoe or a key or something like that. And it says the person inside of here is a locksmith or a bootmaker or something like that. It tells what they do. It's a symbol. It's a sign. It's a token. And so when God looks at my heart, what does he see? Does he see the blood or does he see something that's unconfessed sin? It's out there hanging outside your door. Does he see unconfessed sin? Some ruffled attitude with your wife, unrepentant of deeds, irritation, some stain of something long behind you that he wants you to make right. Sin stains the human conscience and the conscience is defiled and it's polluted and the mind becomes defiled deep in the heart. You know, here, follow me when God sees sin instead of the blood on my heart, he cannot bless as he yearns to bless. He longs to bless. He cannot give me peace. There's no fellowship. There's no heavenly joy. And we are miserable. And here's how we think as men. This is so key. Don't get tired of me here. Listen, here's my logic. Well, if God can't bless me when sin is on my heart, when he sees sin, then logically he can only bless me when sin is not there. That's logical to the human mind. And so we don't want him to see sin, something that he's convicted us of as a Christian, maybe a bad attitude and and it's there and it's hanging there. So we try harder. I don't want him to see sin. I love God. So I try to be sweeter. I hang that out. I try to be nicer and I hang that out. I try to take my wife flowers and I hang that out, try to be more sincere. I strive to be a quote, better Christian. I want to be a better Christian. I want to do more, pray more, give more, read my Bible more. Soon God will see a new victory in my life. And when he does, he can bless me like I know he wants to. And the young Christian may come to a men's conference and hear a message or see his pastor at home and say only when I'm like that can God really bless me when I get to this standard. We don't know. It's different. When I get to this standard, God will bless me. What a mistake that is to think like that. You see, I'm trying to get by with my own effort, a piece that's forfeited by my own sin. I'll never get peace by anything except for the blood. Only the blood can peace come by doing doesn't do it. You know, I write this expression down. This is a good one liner. Christian service is never the answer for Christian sin. You can do more all you want, but Christian service is never the answer for a Christian sin in God's vocabulary. The answer for sin is not goodness on man's part. It's grace on God's part. That's God's answer for sin, grace on God's part, the mercy of God that we heard about before. What can wash away my sin? Not longer prayer time, not more Bible study, only the blood. You see, I'll never succeed in getting anything good out there anyway. You can try all you want to get something good to commend yourself. I gave my money to orphans. It'll never get out there because you see any good thing you think is simply a deception. There's no good thing in me. It's not real. It's phony. Get it tonight. God did not say when I see a new holiness in Lloyd or Al or anybody's life, when I see a new holiness, then I'll bless you as a Christian. He said, when I see the blood, I'll protect you against all comers, devils and opposers of this world. When I see the blood on your heart sprinkled, I will protect you and I will stand watch over you. I wonder tonight, oh, restless heart, if you've really seen the blood. I wonder if you've really seen the blood and all that it means. It's available, a fountain open for sin, for people that can't point to anything else. No good deeds, no talent, no anything. All they can do is just point to the blood and say, behold, the way to God. They point to that blood. You know, this is good news for bad people. I'll tell you what else, though. It's bad news for good people. Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain. But Christ, the heavenly lamb, washes all my guilt away, a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they. You see what happens when I see the blood and I know what God thinks of it. I don't have to keep struggling to be better than I am. I don't have to keep trying to prove to God how sincere I am. I don't have to try to make up for my my failure by more work and busyness. I can instead realize I'll never be able to improve my own flesh and I can burn my card in the old Adam Improvement Society. But so many are card charter carrying members, charter card carrying members. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And we can quit this naval Christianity, deadly introspection. It's one thing when the spirit points out something. It's another thing when we in our inverted pride go around lamenting that we can't be better than we know we are. I'm no good. Oh, poor me. Self-pity rolling in inverted pride. You see, pride doesn't have to say, look how great I am. It could say, look how pathetic I am. I, I, I. We got to forget it and get our eyes on the Lord Jesus. We got to trust his blood and and realize that when I am under the blood of Jesus Christ, that I am as right with the father as I'll ever be in all of eternity. When I'm covered with the blood of Jesus and appropriate that I get total victory. Victory with God is always total and never partial. Victory is always a gift and it's never a growth. It's always now and it's not later and it's always by faith, never by feeling. Victory is a gift, not a growth. It's always total and not partial. And it's for me. It's by faith, not sight. And I wonder if it's possible that you come to this conference and you have been waiting for some token of self-improvement that you could hang outside your consciousness of your heart and say, now God will see that I'm really sincere. You've been trying to make up for failure by some effort or some new success. And I want to say to you tonight, you can be completely delivered tonight. You can come out of bondage by the blood of the Lamb. It's a man that's got a word about the Lamb of God when the blood that's been shed at Calvary. But the key question is this. When can I be catapulted into the joy filled life by the blood? When? When does God see the blood? I'll tell you when God sees the blood on your heart. It's not just automatic. When does God see the blood? Precisely when I repent. You see, God sees the blood when I take the hyssop figure of repentance and dip it in that blood, that fountain that's always open of incorruptible blood and stick it in that blood by faith. When I come to Calvary and put that repentance in the blood at the foot of the cross and I apply it upwards toward God and outwards toward my fellow man, I put the blood over my heart and say, Lord, you're right. I'm wrong. I'm going to quit blaming you. Quit excusing myself. Oh, God, you're right and I'm wrong. And oh, God, I confess my sin. I call it what you call it. And God then can forgive me and cleanse me. God, I'm wrong. You're my only hope. The blood will win the guilty to be a bold lion. Once we see what it will do, we're justified freely by his blood and we're deeply broken by his goodness. We see brokenness comes not just when I see my badness. Brokenness comes when I know my badness and see God's goodness. Anyhow, by grace, it's the goodness of God to me through the blood that leads me to the deepest brokenness and the greatest repentance. It's a glorious thing. We've got to not just preach the blood. You've got to quit just admiring the blood. You've got to quit just saying, wow, amazing grace. And you're going to take him at his word and let him forgive you. Some of you, you're being your own God because you won't let God forgive you. You failed and you've been a wretch and you're so lamenting the fact that you're not good and you're not righteous and you're hoping that you can really find out you're not as bad as you know you are. And God says, give up. Quit trying to be a great person. Quit trying to go about to establish your own righteousness and be content with one gift of righteousness from God, from the Lamb of God that is complete and forever. And when you're covered with the blood of the Lamb, you can march right into the throne room of God and he will watch over you. And you know what you can say tonight? Now, I'm not talking about for people that cover sin, cover excuses. I'm talking about covering sin. I'm talking. You can trick yourself with this word. I'm talking about people who come with hyssop, not some some mistletoe. I'm talking about hyssop. And we put it in the blood and put it on our heart. And I can stand and say thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift, the victory, which is by faith through the righteousness of the blood. I'm closed at the garment of salvation. And now when God looks at me, I'm as righteous in God's sight. As Jesus Christ, I am as righteous in the sight of my God from now on forever by the blood as Jesus Christ in the presence of God, you say that's blasphemy. No, it's not blasphemy. That's freedom. I'll tell you what's blasphemy. It's to try to trust some other righteousness. If you can't say if you're under the blood, if you can't say it with your lips, I'm as righteous as Jesus Christ. You know why you can't say that? It's because you don't have his righteousness. It's somebody else's. It's your own or some other form. And, you know, it's not the same as his deep within. And you can't trust this like it's blasphemy to call this as righteous as this. What I'm going to tell you tonight, you'd be smart to get rid of that and throw away your own righteousness. Like Paul said, it's like filthy rags and say, Lord, close me with your righteousness. God will put on your heart, on your life, the very righteousness of Christ as a coat covering you, a propitiation over you. He will wash you in the blood. And when you stand before God, you will be just as if you'd never sin. You'll be right by the blood of the lamb. This is good news. But you've got to dare to trust his word. Is this cheap grace? No, it's very expensive. Cost the blood of the lamb. No wonder we love him. Christ's merit clothing on me tonight. No wonder I praise him and thank him. And no wonder I serve him not to get anything from him, but because I have everything in him. And now a life of gratitude and joy is in order. You can have a perfect heart tonight by the blood of Jesus Christ, as you call sin sin. But let me tell you something. You can trick yourself. God sees the blood. We're willing to say, oh, God, I'm wrong and you're right. God, I'm guilty and you're perfect. And I've been trying to set up my own righteousness by the law. And it'll always fall short. All have sinned and come short. But I want to walk before you clothed in white. I want to have the righteousness, which is the gift of God, as I trust you and take you at your word and dare with trembling hands to receive victory. Same way you receive salvation from the hand of a dying Christ on Calvary. Come to the throne of God by faith and take that righteousness in the hand of a victorious Christ through the blood victory reaches out and says it's yours through the blood of the lamb. Come to the fountain that's open for sin. Aren't you tired of trying to be better than you are? I am. When the devil comes to me and accuses me, I say, you're right, devil. You don't have any discernment at all. It's easy to see. But why don't you go ask Jesus because he's he's washed me in the blood and he calls me righteous. And woe be to you if you're against the one who God is for. Oh, God, I'm wrong and you're right. But he spared not his own son and delivered him over freely for me. So how shall he not now with me freely give me all things? I'll tell you one last thought. The fact that the blood wins the guilty to be bold. If the father doesn't see the blood, you're under total judgment. See, people kind of hope someday that God will see how much they tried and how sincere they were and they can get to the end of their life, having never dealt with the blood of Christ and kind of come through and say, well, maybe God will say that I just was kind of deceived and I didn't want the blood, but I want God, you know how hard I tried. And maybe you think he just loves you so much. You just let you off. Let me tell you, when Jesus Christ was crucified, it forever removed that possibility because the son of God had no sin. But when the sin was on him, my sin, God demanded his death for sin. If anybody in the world had a hope of getting the penalty of sin rescinded, it would have been God's own son. Don't you think? I mean, he said, well, it's not come on in anyway. But when he saw sin on his son, he had to pay the uttermost. And let me tell you, if God lets you get by with not dealing with that cross, with that sin, at the blood of Christ, it's like Father God taking his son and saying smacking him. Your death didn't really mean anything at all. What you went through wasn't important because I let old Joe off over here. What a fearful thought for the Christ rejecter. What a fearful thought for the blood despiser. Nothing in my hands. I bring simply to thy cross. I cling naked. I come to thee for dress foul. I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I will die. Wash me in the blood of the lamb. And when you're clothed with the blood of the lamb, you're as right as you'll be a million years from now. They're praising him around the throne tonight because they're covered with the blood. Then when I tell to sinners all around what a dear savior I have found and I'll point to that atoning blood and say, behold, the way to God, that's it, brother, the blood. You can't get any more simpler than that. The blood of Jesus, that's a trumpet of grace tonight, and God wants us to have an altar called, you know, you figured it out already, didn't you? It's real serious for some of you. I mean, some of you've heard the word all day long and you've made all kinds of promises and it's just filthy rags of self-righteousness. God says, I want you to deal with sin is sin. The things I put my finger on. I want you to come with hyssop and I want you to discard them as rubbish and count them that you might win Christ and agree with him and walk with him and give yourself over and reach with that broken heart of repentance into that blood that's open for you tonight. The blood is available. He's alive. He's adequate. And let the blood of Jesus Christ cover your broken heart. And I'm telling you, when God sees the blood, a heart that's right covered with blood, he will protect you against all comers. He will watch over you to perform his word. You can count on him as you say, oh, God, you're right. You're totally right. I'm wrong. Safe place to be all the way down, because if you're down, you don't have to worry about falling low. I'm with you. Get down there low. It's not the right way to be. I'm with you down. Get down.