In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of not just admiring or discussing the truth of God, but actually putting it into action. He uses the analogy of giving clear instructions to a group of people and finding them discussing the instructions instead of carrying them out. The speaker also shares a personal story of a friend who witnessed the power of Christ in his life but was silenced by the church. The sermon highlights the need for personal faith and action in accepting the power of Jesus to set us free from the bondage of sin and the influence of Satan.

I'm delighted to be with you again, and I'd like to turn you to the book of Exodus, and to chapter 12. The Lord has set a feast before us. And that's a wonderful word from God, the Lord has set a feast before us. And in Exodus chapter 12, it describes one of the chief feasts of Israel, which was the Passover. And if you know anything about the Old Testament, you'll know that when God made his people, as he directed them, he instructed them that they should be three times a year, they should have a feast. These three times were divided into more than three, but you could actually count seven feasts in Israel. Three feasts. And the chief feast was the Passover. I read recently, and I wrote it down here, some of the things that the modern day Jews will do at their Passover. Here, let me just read to you some of the things they will do. Here, it's a bit of interest. It tells us that they will bring their preparation for the Passover includes the preparation for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So they'll spring clean the house before Passover. They'll remove all unleavened bread because the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the first day of Passover. On the evening of Passover, they'll put a place for Elijah. Nobody sits there. Elijah is to sit there. They believe Elijah, this is not in the Bible, but they believe that Elijah may well come at the Passover. And they give him a cup filled with wine. Interesting, isn't it? They've got a glass of scalded water on the table, which indicates the Red Sea. They've got three loaves of unleavened bread. During the Passover feast, the middle loaf is broken to eat. They have roast meat. They have four cups of red wine. And they, of course, indicate the blood. They have a cup, I forgot, I didn't write them all down. I'll get them somewhere. One of the cups is a cup of blessing. One is a cup of cursing. Which no one drinks. It's all out. And there's a cup of salvation, which overflows. There's bitter herbs on the table. And various other things the modern Jews do. They also sing Psalms 113-118. That's probably what Jesus sang. That's probably a tradition coming from the time of Jesus. And in Psalm 118, one of the final verses is, This is the day the Lord has made. You will rejoice and be glad in it. So, the Passover is central to Jewish life and worship today. Wonderful. A tradition that was instituted by God. And I want to talk to you a little bit about this Passover Feast. The Feast of the Passover. And what it means for us. Because, of course, I've just described to you what the modern Jews are. Some of it is a little bit Biblical. Some is not so Biblical. But the Biblical Feast is something given to us of God. And one reason the Feast is given to us is that we may believe that Jesus is the Messiah. The Christ. And that believing, we may have life in his name. This is the reason the Bible is written. Now, I love the fulfillment of prophecy. Very precious, the fulfillment of prophecy. If you turn to chapter 12. And if you look at this verse 3. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to their every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers. Alright. The tenth day of this month. And it tells us that, if you look in the New Testament, that on that very day was the day that Jesus, what we call Passover, is the day that Jesus entered into Jerusalem. Wonderful, isn't it? The fulfillment of prophecy. Down to the very day. And when they took the lamb on this tenth day of the month, they were to examine the lamb to make sure the lamb was without blemish. And you know that when Jesus entered into Jerusalem on the tenth day of the month, he was examined by the Pharisees, the Sadducees, finally by Pilate, and everybody. And they all declared, they all declared that this man was without blemish. He was a lamb without blemish. On the very day that Jesus entered into Jerusalem, they were choosing lambs for the Passover. Everywhere, putting them aside. On the day that Jesus entered into Jerusalem, every family was setting aside a lamb, and they were keeping it to examine it that it was without blemish. And over those days they kept the lamb. Jesus was also being examined. And then, on the fourteenth day, which is, you can read it here in verse 6, we shall keep it, till the fourteenth day of the same month, the whole establishment of the colonization of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they killed the lambs about three p.m., which, if you know your Bible, is the exact hour in which Jesus died. In fact, it's interesting that history books tell us that on the day that Jesus died, there was a historian in Jerusalem, or he made findings about what happened on that day, his name was Josephus, and he said that on that day there were 256,000 lambs slain. Alright. And he said that there were so many, they had to start preparing and slay them at nine o'clock in the morning. And, of course, they had to finish by three, so they could all be prepared. So, between nine a.m. in the morning, this is what he writes, and three p.m. in the afternoon, they were slain for that one. Those were the exact hours in which Jesus Christ was on the cross, offering for our sins. The Jews had to roast the lamb and, again, this is not in the Bible, but they say that when they roasted the lamb, in the way they did it, they couldn't break a bone, and they tried to make people now whole, and in order to kind of roast that lamb over their fires, they would slay it out over a cross-like structure, and roast that lamb on a cross. It's incredible, these details. And there's the story of the Passover. Now, when you come to the New Testament, you will perhaps know that the Passover feast is so closely linked in with the life and ministry of Jesus, and all that he did, and everything that he always went to the Passover, and a Passover time, certain key miracles were done, the cleansing of the temple, feeding of the five thousands, the raising of Lazarus, all these things are the Passover, wonderful things in our Passover time. Well, alright, there it is, the fulfilment of prophecy in a wonderful way. God has written into the Bible the prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And even little details written into this whole story so wonderfully portray the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Bible is one of the proofs that Jesus is the Son of God. He is the Son of God. One of the proofs is here. Another proof is, of course, that he's changed my life. That's the greatest proof. But we praise God, we do not only have truth that says I must believe in him in my own little world. We praise God there is a greater truth written into the Bible, written into the history of the nation, the Jewish nation, written into the whole fabric of the Bible in that nation, so that we may know that Jesus is the Messiah. It's not a private opinion, it's not just my own little thoughts. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. In one way, we can say that we can objectively prove that Jesus is the Son of God. When I say that, the proof in the end will rely on each one of us believing. Because it's not enough to have the proof, you must also believe the proof. And even that is not enough, you must commit yourself to that truth. And there are many people who believe it's probably true that Jesus was the Son of God, but they've never committed themselves to that truth. And therefore they've never experienced the truth of Jesus Christ. But as I said, the wonderful thing about truth is that it's on every hand we can believe that Jesus is the Son of God, not because we personally believe it, but because this truth is greater than us. It is written in the pages of the Scripture, it's written in the Exhumation, it's written into the fabric of the world around us, the truth of God. And we could spend a long, long time proving that Jesus is the Son of God. And I believe that to any person who is reasonable and inclined to believe, they will accept there is proof to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Not just personal, but radical and real. But although these proofs are here, that's one of the reasons that this whole story is written. Yet, when I come to this story, I need to know what it is, about this story, what is God's pain to each one of us. If we say now that, well, we've received this truth, this is the Word of God, this is the truth of God, it's written there in a wonderful way to portray the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The question then is, what is it saying to us? Because you will know that this Feast of the Passover was fulfilled, it was a central part of Jewish life to this day, but it was fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it is, in one sense, the only Feast that is continued in the symbolism of the Communion. Now the Communion is slightly different, but still it was instituted by Jesus on the very night. On the Passover. He celebrated the Passover and introduced the Communion. So what does it mean? What does this whole Feast of the Passover mean? Well, the answer lies that in this chapter 12, and if I return to chapter 12 again and you look into verse 2, it says this, this month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year. Alright, now this is the point at which God is saying this is the hinge on which the door turns. Alright, this is the hinge. This is the point around which everything is going to evolve. This is the beginning of the year for you. And yet, when you look into it, you'll agree that the deliverance seemed to begin beforehand. Perhaps you can go back a few chapters and you can go down back to chapter 3 when Moses met God in the burning bush and was sent into Egypt to bring the word of deliverance. But, we then go back into these chapters 3 onto chapter 11 and we find this that in those chapters we find many mighty miracles. Many wonderful things that were done by Moses in Egypt. But yet we do not find the deliverance. Which is what the Passover is all about. It's about deliverance. And, when we ask ourselves why is this Passover such a key to the whole understanding of what we believe, what we understand in the New Testament the answer is because of the need of deliverance. Now the understanding of any of the truth of God only is relative to this that I understand my need of deliverance. My own need of salvation. My own need to be set free from the power of Egypt. The power of Satan. The power of darkness. All the power that are wreaking havoc in the world this evening. All the misery and the fear. And all the depression and the darkness and the unbelief and the hopelessness. All that is reigning in the world. That is what this whole thing is about. That I should be delivered from the power of Egypt. The gospel is the gospel of deliverance. The whole good news of Jesus is the good news of deliverance from Egypt. From its power, its tyranny, its reign, the kingdom of darkness. That we should be set free from the kingdom of darkness. Now, up until this point, if you like, all the native spirits of the nation in all their bondage and all their misery, all that has gone wrong, all that was going wrong in their lives, yet they didn't realise the centre of their own need. Many of them would have thought it was a political answer. So it is sedentary. Some people believe that the answer to our problem is political. Throw money at it, throw a new government strategy at it, or whatever it is. Throw something human at it and we can overcome our problems. But I don't think many people doubt nowadays that there's almost nothing that governments can do to set people free. There may have been a time when people believed that. But now, of course, the danger is that we go back the other way and we begin to believe in a democracy that if we sign our petitions, if we lobby Parliament, if we change the laws, we will save people. I'm not saying I don't want to change laws that have been passed. I do. But I also know that none of the laws passed in, wherever it be, in any Parliament or in any place, whether it even be in Brussels or in Washington or any place, none of the laws passed by a man will ever save a single human being from hell. Neither can there be a legislation that will save a single human being from fear or from addictions or bondages of the mind and heart. They don't exist. These laws don't exist. And so when we come to these pivotal chapters, what we're talking about is that God who wants to set the human heart free in the depths of its being, in the depths of our being, can set us free from the kingdom of darkness and the power and influence of Satan and all the fear of death and all the bondage and habits that afflict the human soul, the whole purpose of this miracle is to show us the wonder of the power of Jesus to set us free. We need to be set free. We don't need to be set free in a cultural way. Have you ever been to this kind of thing where somebody says, I want you all to loosen up a bit. I want you to loosen up a bit. The other day I was in a very African meeting, it was a joint prayer meeting and it was mainly Nigerians it was mainly Nigerians and they were obviously frustrated with us English and they were exhorting us to react and to speak to somebody, they were always saying speak to me somebody and they wanted us all to be free but you know if we change all our culture and become we're not like Jamaican people we're sort of we're very improper I don't know but anyway and they said it succeeded and they're getting, yeah man we're all right now they probably wanted us to do we're all free like that it wouldn't have changed our hearts it wouldn't change our hearts you know that freedom is something that Christ brings to our hearts true freedom when you can wake up in the morning and know you're free you're free from fear free from bad habits of sin free from mental habits of negativeness all these things, you're free the wonderful power of freedom in the Holy Spirit this is what Jesus wants to bring freedom from within now when you look at this beginning of the year, chapter 12 verse 2, this month shall be to you the beginning of month before this took place they'd known, seen God moving in mighty power in the nation and doing great miracles in fact the nation was being shaken terribly shaken the nation of Egypt God was shaking the government of Egypt he was shaking Pharaoh's confidence in himself very much as the greatest man he was in that sense the picture of the human heart, Pharaoh, in that way a man who was hardened and would not be shaken out of his confidence in himself when he spoke God he never was, Pharaoh in that way is the picture of an unrepentant man but the nation was shaken and God sent miracles to smite the nation and shake it so strongly that there might there might be something in them something said, according to the author speaking to Israel of the power of God and yet we all when we come to chapter 11 and then chapter 12 at this point no one has gone out of Egypt, no one you know that this is the point you realize that when you look into your life and you look at the things that you've done and the things you do the things that are the habits of your life or might be religious habits or whatever they are the thing is at this point nothing that has happened in their lives set them free from the power of the dominion of Egypt and Pharaoh they were in bondage in their hearts and that's why God instituted this Passover the Passover was that they must be set free the Passover was the night of their deliverance the Passover wasn't just a nice meal together like a Christmas dinner or something it wasn't like that at all this was in the midst of a great crisis that they should be set free you know that if God should say tonight to the world he said look I will smite all the enemies of the world some have been loud and I'm sure you're the chief one I shall smite them all dead but what you've got to do if this is going to happen you ought to go into your homes and do something you ought to go into your homes and do something strange thing to say but God is saying that the power of deliverance is going to go right out over this nation of Egypt and it will go right out and you shall be set free from the dominion of Egypt from the power of darkness if you keep the Passover if you keep the Passover so each one of us must keep the Passover now this is the this is the critical moment that each one of us must realise that the real point of deliverance is known to God and therefore at some point in our lives we come to the one who knows the answer Jesus said you call me Lord and Master and you say well for so I am but just think about it you call me Lord and Master Jesus Christ is Lord and Master and you do well to call him that because he is Lord and Master he knows how to set us free no one else knows not one person only the Lord Jesus Christ he is the only one who has the power in his hands to set us all free you must go to that right person by going to the right doctor or going to the right expert yesterday I had an electrical problem in my car I created the problem I decided I would save £25 by fitting this whole stereo I would save £25 and I would fit it myself and it was not the first time I have done this I have done this many times in my life I have done it about 10 not the first one also I have watched it I fitted one for someone a brother asked me if I could fit it in his car and since I had so much experience I did this and I connected it all up and then smoke started pouring out of the cassette radio because I realised I was on the wrong track but anyway so I fitted this cassette player and it didn't work properly and then there was a fuse blowing and everything so I had to go and pay £25 for somebody to get it fixed and also to get this fuse problem solved and I have to say unfortunately they were an expert and they looked at it for a short time £25 is a lot to me so we made a time and they solved it and they told me you have connected this wire that lights the dashboard to the earth anyway you will hear about it and I had to go to the person who knows you know there was a a man in America called Henry Ford who started his Model T Ford factory in America and he was the first production line he got this fantastic production line it was marvellous and he got this man named Charlie Steinmetz he was an electrical engineer and he thought about all the electrical things on this fantastic production line and after a few years of running smoothly it broke down and Henry Ford he got all his own electricians and everybody working there he got them all to look at it and day after day no one could solve the problem. So eventually he phoned Charlie Steinmetz and said would you come and look at it Charlie Steinmetz came and he looked at it and he fiddled a bit here and fiddled a bit there and he looked at it and he when he pressed the switch he said my God and then Charlie Steinmetz said here's my bill $10,000 which is a lot of money in those days probably about £100,000 here's my bill and I don't know how much it would be worth but it's a lot of money and Henry Ford, excuse me $10,000 is a lot of money he said do you want the breakdown I'll give you the breakdown he only kinked it around played around a little bit and then you know you hit the switch and that was all you did he said yes I'll give you the breakdown of the bill for tinkering around $10 for knowing where to tinker $9,999 $9,999 I think £35 for knowing where to tinker but you see if you go to somebody and you say look I've got this problem do you know that you can spend a fortune paying people to sort out your problem it's the biggest industry for the rich is paying charlatans to sort out their problems I read an article about Hollywood in Hollywood the big stars they're all going to these charlatans people who all kinds of things in touch with the other side or whatever it is giving them answers to their problems and their marriages and everything going wrong pouring money into these people cost my father silver or green as it is in England and the people are hungry people they won't turn to Jesus Christ free of charge of course why won't people turn to Jesus very simply because when Jesus Christ gives you his answer one of the first things he'll speak to you about is your sin but you have to know where to go you can go to all the charlatans and all the tinkers there are lots of tinkers around and they'll take you on a night and all kinds of things but what you need is somebody who knows exactly what they're doing with your soul and this is why in chapter 12 this isn't God's thing this is God saying look this is the way for you to get free this is the way of freedom for your soul it is the true way it is the only way it is a sure way it is reality and he can tell you this very plainly go and ask other people who've gone this way because the bible tells you God saying I'm going to make this so clear that everyone will know that that is the Messiah and then you'll say and I'm then going to call there to be a multitude of witnesses so that everybody will know before it's going to be prepared afterwards it's going to be testified in every age that Jesus is our salvation Jesus Christ here is the beginning of month which will be the first month of the year to you and this truth that you hear tonight about Jesus Christ is this foundational truth and central truth that shall be the pivotal point of your life your whole life will be remembered free Passover Passover and Passover what it was like before and what it was like after and that's the truth of God that there should be something so powerful in reading your life from God that you should know that at that point God came into my life and changed it and called me to be set free that's what the Passover was like God intervened in the history of a nation and set them free and intervened in our lives and set us free now let's look at this account they chose in verse 4 they chose the land they kept it until the 14th day as I said fulfilled exactly in the life of Jesus Christ and then in verse 7 they shall take of the blood and they shall strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts of the houses wherein they shall eat it and they shall eat the flesh in that night roast with fire and on leavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat of it eat not of it raw nor softened with water but roast with fire and so it goes on now this is this point turn over to chapter 12 a bit further down it tells us this verse 22 you shall take you shall kill the Passover lamb you shall take a bunch of this up dip it in the blood that is in the vase and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the vase and none of you shall go out of the door of this house till the morning for the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians and when he sees the blood upon the lintel and on the two side posts the Lord will pass over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you and you shall observe this thing of laudanus to thee as thy sons forever so here is the picture this was to be something that they individually did the other miracles were things that were done down there in Egypt striking the Nile in terms of blood, slaves coming over the nation, but this night was something that would strike every single home in Egypt unless they themselves took action, what did they have to do? well the lamb had to be slain, they had to have their hands on that slain lamb and then they took that bowl of blood, the father led his whole family to the door of the house and standing there by the door in the sky door of them he would sprinkle this blood on the door posts and on the upper lintel, the whole door smeared on the outside with blood and then as they all watched they would all then individually go on in through that door of blood into the house and once they were in that house they would eat the lamb now you can see already that here is the picture here is the wonderful truth of God presenting into the doorway through which you pass, truth is not a thing that you understand in your mind and get instructed, truth is a doorway through which you pass, the truth of God is not something that you enter into simply by understanding, you understand and then as the understanding comes something in you has to rise up and pass through that doorway to go through with God I've got a friend who he was a policeman and he used to have to lecture to schools about taking, about drug taking and the dangers of drug taking he used to lecture to them all about these things and he said this he used to tell the students this, he said I want you all to know, he said that when you do this you take that drug, you will go through a doorway that's true, certain things you can do in this life are like going through a doorway it's like a ratchet too, you go through a doorway and get there, the door closes behind you you can't go back again, that's taking drugs certain things that people get into certain one way streets that are on this life, you go through that door you know, it could mention different things, a bit like let me say, Ouija boards or whatever, you go through a door, it's time to shut behind you you ready? they acted in faith in that drug to give them happiness and they went through it it's time to shut behind them now what this is saying to you, is that here is a doorway for you not into bondage and darkness, but out of it the doorway is the truth of Christ that if Christ be received in a loving heart you should receive the Lord Jesus Christ as the doorway of your salvation think of the power of darkness in Ouija boards and drugs and all these things, think of the power people believe in the power of evil, they believe in the power that there is, in all these things they believe, and they enter into all these things, they want to enter into you know, there are lines being crossed people want to cross deeper and deeper into pleasures and all kinds of things, you know, to cross the line here is this truth that to enter into freedom, you have to cross the line of holiness, cross the line of washing, cross the line of cleansing something that will take place in your heart, in your personality that washes you clean the door, and it's the doorway of blood it is the door the door into the power of God, it's the doorway of blood now notice, author is the Lord will pass through, verse 23, to smite Egyptians, and when he sees the blood upon a lintel on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and the Lord will not struggle to destroy, to come into your house, to smite you, here's the wonderful truth about the blood is that there's the blood and there is the law of God so the salvation is immediately linked here with God himself the power of the Lord our God to keep the destroyer out it's not an angel saving us, it's the Lord God himself it's not even blood saving us, it's God himself saving us, did you notice that? it's not blood because if you put this blood on the door that blood will save you like some kind of fetish, no no no the blood is there, I see your obedience in that blood, I will stand there and I will be a protection, I will keep you out, and the reason for all this is that there on that night, over the land of Egypt comes the destroyer, this destroying angel and what it meant to them as they were in their rooms with this, that there they knew that that night was the night of deliverance or of judgment because on that night there was deliverance from the angel of death but there was also the smiting of death in every home that would not believe and obey the Lord and when you consider the horror that there was the gospel, how widely it was known, we can't know but here it was that the gospel was free to anybody who believed this gospel this good news any Egyptian who could believe this could have the deliverance every single one but there was a further condition if an Egyptian wanted to know the power of the blood of this land saving them from the angel of death then they had to do this and this is verse 11 because they didn't just put the blood on their doorstep if an Egyptian had done that put it on their door and then gone in well they had to go in and they had to eat the land that doesn't tell us if they had not eaten the land, what would have happened it doesn't tell us doesn't tell us but here in verse 11 it tells us this, you shall eat it like this, with your loins curved, your shoes on your feet your scalp in your hand and you shall eat it in haste it is the Lord's Passover what does that mean it means if the Egyptians ate it without any preparation of journey, they were eating it in the wrong way, what do I mean the truth is it's linked with a tremendous journey deliverance is linked with the beginning of a journey it's not linked with you just shut the door and straight back it's linked with a journey out of Egypt and in and on to the promised land they've got their vision on another world they want to know that promised land and if the Egyptians ate it all we want to do is escape this this one thing then they would have said oh good we'll escape the next morning they'd come out and say goodbye to all the people of God whether God would have honoured them in that way I don't know because one thing I know is if they trusted in that blood to save them from the angel of death without any intention whatsoever of going with the people of God then they kept it in a total monstery and even if they were delivered from that angel of death in that night they were not free from all the bondage and dangers of Egypt they were still in bondage it doesn't tell us that they have to keep everything but God said if you want deliverance this is how you do it and in verse 11 it speaks of a people ready for pilgrimage this is not a feast for those who are just going to settle down in a corner and say all I wanted was to be to feel a bit better no this is a feast for those whose life is settled pilgrimage in pursuit of God and of his kingdom that's how you eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet and your stuff in your hand in other words you're going to put on your mountain boots put on your hiking boots go get dressed for some kind of comfy afternoon get dressed for a pilgrimage you're going on a long journey, go now it's the Lord's passage it means if the Egyptians ate it without any preparation they were eating it in the wrong way what do I mean? the truth is it's linked with a tremendous journey deliverance is linked with the beginning of a journey it's not linked with you just shut the doors and phew escape back it's linked with a journey out of Egypt and in an arm of the promised land they've got their vision on another world they want to know that promised land and if the Egyptians ate it and thought well all we want to do is escape this this one thing then they would just say look good we've escaped the next morning they come out and say goodbye to all the people of God whether God would have honoured them in that way I don't know because one thing I know is if they trusted in that blood to save them from the angel of death without any intention whatsoever of going with the people of God then they kept them in their total wrong spirit and even if they were delivered from that angel of death in that night they were not free from all the bondage and dangers of Egypt they were still in bondage it doesn't tell us that they had to keep everything but God said if you want deliverance this is how you do it and in verse 11 it speaks of a people ready for pilgrimage this is not a feast for those who are just going to settle down in a corner and say all I wanted was to feel a bit better no this is a feast for those whose life is settled pilgrimage in pursuit of God and of his kingdom that's how you eat it with your loins girded your shoes on your feet and your stuff in your hand in other words you're going to put on your mountain boots put on your hiking boots don't get dressed for some kind of comfy afternoon get dressed for a pilgrimage you're going on a long journey going now it's the Lord's Passover and I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt and this is the point as you eat the Passover you're preparing for your journey you know that in the strength of this food you shall journey with God now there's these great things the first thing is you pass through the door let's consider this a little bit more because you pass through the door and you go in now they would have gone through the door into their own familiar surroundings back into their own home and you know one of the strange things about experiencing experiencing the power of the Lord Jesus Christ is actually experiencing what many people in the churches have believed and sung in praise for many years but they've never experienced it it's a strange thing but the gospel does not change because we believe it what changes is we change and come to experience the power of it you know one of the things I've noticed I'm sure it's true of the Church of Scotland and of the various churches the established churches that are around in Scotland you'll find that their praise and their songs and their the things they put, they talk of the power of salvation through the blood of the Lamb and yet you ought to take the congregation and say right, come out of the church let's all come out of the church let's look at the door again and now let's go in to what we believed and one of the strangest things is this that the believer is not someone who's created a new faith the believer, it's strange that so often believers are put out of established churches I've known churches I remember meeting a man who was in the war in Chad he was an educated man and the city of Angemina was being pierced and sacked and destroyed several times in the last 20, 30 years that city has been totally destroyed and he was a Methodist believer in a little church in the capital city and with all the war going on all around he came to true faith he experienced the power of the blood and he came and he witnessed, he testified Christ became, you know what it is they put him out of the church in the midst of war they put him out of the church just recently I've got a friend I led him to the Lord about 20 years ago in Cameroon and he moved to Spain and various things and he got married and I went to preach his wedding and the reason I have to go and do everything for him is because there in that church, a tiny little church he witnessed that Christ is getting free from sin several months he witnessed Christ has set me free he said and the elder said you can't say that in this church because he said it with conviction with faith with reality and the truth of God is simply this, here is the power of the blood of Jesus Christ it's the door for you, it's the door it's always been the door but the difference is, has a person gone through the door and churches can be filled with people who can admire the door they can look at the door, they can make songs about the door, but they've never gone through it you know I look at the truth of God and Jesus said you've got to do what I say you've got to do what I say if I gave you, if I was in the office and gave you clear instructions that I want you to do this and this and this for example, I want you to build this wooden hut or I want you to clean the floor or something I want you to do this, do it and I go away and I come back and you're all sitting in a group and you haven't done a thing I've said and I thought why wouldn't you do what I said and I find out you're in a group discussing what I said but you haven't done it and I said look I've given you these instructions I want you to do what I said and I go away again, clean the floor and while I've gone away I come back and now people are making songs about the things I say and it's all admired and they're singing new songs about what I say, but they still haven't done it and then there's another person saying clean the floor oh this word clean has a special meaning in the Anglo-Saxon original and they're going all the floor clean, it sounds wonderful people get excited about it oh clean the floor yes, it's tremendous and they haven't done it I've come back in the whole meeting and they're excited about my instructions but not all of them have done it and the point is here's the word put the blood of the lamb on the window put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost and then go through it and into the house and when you're in the house take your scarf put your walking boots on get everything ready get ready for your journey and then eat the lamb eat the lamb three things there three key things here's the first the blood through which you pass you pass through the blood and the blood passes through you like a door now the blood of Jesus is not here in this room in any physical sense there's no physical blood in this room that's in a bowl anywhere there's blood in my body, there's blood in your body but there's no blood of Jesus anywhere in this room anywhere in a physical sense and yet the bible says that those who are saved have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb and the blood of the lamb is the power of the living saviour in this room that if you elect him to wash your heart clean, speaking forgiveness to you and cleansing to you as you receive him that's Jesus he is not a dead bowl of blood somewhere he is the living saviour that if you believe in him and receive him he'll be like a door to us and we'll go in and as I get through that door and I come through with a heart to get out of me to get out of all these things all this to make I get out of it I can enjoy the feast this is not a feast of enjoyment of physical carnal pleasure this is a feast of enjoying the lamb and of journeying with Jesus because if you enjoy the lamb first of all the power of his blood to wash you from sins but secondly the fragrance, the taste of the lamb, if you enjoy the lamb it's not a coincidence if you enjoy the lamb it's a wonder that Jesus is really tasty he's really tasty now you may say wait a minute God said let me tell you this you're supposed to eat him and you're supposed to become tasty to him he wants to eat you yes he wants to eat you this is eat my body that's what he said isn't it take my body, eat take my blood, drink it all of you eat me, drink me what is it then it's the wonder of the person, you let that person fill you and flood you you let his blood wash you from your sins and you let his lovely personality flood you and fill you eating Jesus is simply letting him fill you with himself it's the presence of God if I was to describe the brood of God I would say it's the presence of God you know when you just let that person's presence fill your heart and your mind you want that presence to be the continual atmosphere of your life that's eating the life it's saying to him I want you to have my life, I want you to live in me I want the consciousness of your presence you know the greatest blessing of the Christian is this the constant awareness of God now I know that there are days when God does not seem as close sometimes sometimes he seems far away but the promise of the New Testament is that the bereaved shall know the reality of the presence of God within him and though there be days of testing he shall know the power of the presence of God to keep him, transform him and feed him and sustain him we are kept as we eat the lamb we eat the presence of God we let him have it and wonder of wonder there comes a moment when Jesus is not just saying well it's nice to have you as my people, I want you as my people but now because he's washed us and we've let him change us there is a delight over each one of us he can let your presence delight him he can let you come into the understanding of things about him that are kept from others because your life is a delight to him you're being eaten by him you're coming into deeper things of God as he delights in you he eats you and you become sweet to his taste God eats his people in this way, his presence I am one with my father, says Jesus, we are one I live by him, he's my food, my drink, my air my everything, and we live by Jesus now in this Passover very simply they each had to believe and enter him everyone individually in other things it was done for the nation but in the Passover they all had to enter each one each one had to go through that door, each one had to believe that promise, each one had to eat the lamb each one had to be dressed with the clothing of pilgrimage each one kept the Passover with a personal act of faith now tonight, I don't know in what robes you are dressed, whether you're dressed to stay in this world for the rest of your life and all eternity you want to be in this world you want this life to last as long as possible or whether in your heart you know there's a better world, you know that this world is not worth living for you know that the pleasures of this world and its age are passing away and your heart is set on the kingdom of God and you want to eat the lamb well it's an introduction we've got to see this Passover again in the New Testament because we've seen it really in its Old Testament, we've got to see it fulfilled because it was fulfilled there on that cross we've got to look at the cross of Jesus Christ, but not tonight we'll look at it another time but let's pray now shall we and let each of us pass through that door if you've not passed through already pass through that door the door is declared to us there in that Old Testament passage of Scripture a door forgiveness for your sins washing from the power of sin deliverance from Egypt and into the presence of the Lamb, the smell of that roast now the smell of the wonderful Saviour Jesus His love His joy, His peace you want that presence in you but you can't eat it unless your heart is settled on going after Him following Him for that salvation let Jesus be your life your salvation receive Him now let Him be your life, let's pray Lord I thank you