In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the story of the Israelites' deliverance from Egypt as described in the book of Exodus. He emphasizes that God heard the groanings of the Israelites and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The preacher highlights how God sent Moses as his ambassador to Pharaoh, demanding the release of the Israelites. He also mentions how each of the ten plagues was a direct attack on the false gods of Egypt. The sermon concludes by pointing out the prophecy of a lamb that would bring deliverance, which is later fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Father, we just want to thank you tonight for the Word of God. And we ask that as we look into this sure Word that we will see that the path of the just is indeed a path of shining light. And it grows brighter and brighter with each step into the dawning day. And tonight we can have a certain hope and know that our God reigns because of the truth of this book and the overwhelming testimony of history to its veracity and your sovereignty. And so tonight we worship, we adore you, we bless you. We ask you to open unworthy hearts to hear a glorious truth about Jesus. And may it ignite us to be sparks out of the dry, dead world. May it catch a flame in our particular place. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Last week we studied Abraham and we took up right with Abraham when we left off with the whole point of Blood Covenant. And we saw that he was the model of a man of faith who was brought into a blood covenant of grace and became a blood brother with God. He believed God and it was counted to him, imputed to him, put on the books as righteousness. Well in the remainder of Genesis we know that Abraham had a son named Isaac. God renewed or reconfirmed the covenant with Abraham to Isaac. And then to Jacob, Isaac's son, also he did the same. And then Jacob had 12 sons and all of these bore in their body the outward marks of covenant, circumcision for them. But at the end of Genesis we see what's happened. Jacob and his 12 sons, actually 11 sons, joining Joseph in Egypt where God and his sovereignty had brought them. And there they were, what they thought, escaping tragedy in Canaan, which was famine, but God had them there underneath the protection of his prime minister who was a covenant man. And so as they're there in Egypt, welcomed because of Joseph, we see something happening in the counsels of God. I want to take you to Exodus chapter 1. We want to read together. We're going to be covering a lot of scripture tonight and I want to read what happened after they were in Egypt, 30 years after they got there, something happened. In Exodus chapter 1, verse 8, it says, Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which did not know Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come on, let's deal wisely with them, lest they multiply. It will come to pass that when there falls out any war, they will join our enemies fighting against us, and so they'll leave the land. Therefore the Egyptians set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Ramesses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And so the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. They made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and brick and all manner of servitude in the field. All their service where they made them serve was with rigor. And during this time, almost a 400-year period of time now, they're serving, they're becoming a nation of slaves. We see at the end of chapter 2, verse 23, God, it rehearses again what had happened, it came to pass in the process of time, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed by reason of their bondage. And they cried out, and their cry came up unto God by reason of bondage. And look at this, God heard their groanings, not their prayers, but their groanings. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them. Why? Because he was a covenant-keeping God then, and he is today as well. He's going to keep his covenant with people who forgot that he didn't. And look over in chapter 3, verse 7, the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt. I've heard their crying by reason of their bondmasters. Look at this precious phrase, for I know their sorrows. Who is this speaking? Well, we know who it is that knows their sorrows, it's the pre-incarnate man of sorrows. I've come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land into a good land, into a large and good land flowing with milk and honey. And so the reason for deliverance for the people of God was and is covenant. Well, Pharaoh, in this particular account, is a picture of Satan. In Egypt, he's a picture of the ruler of the darkness of this world. Egypt was the land of darkness and one of the symbols of Egypt was a snake. He wore a snake on his crown. He wore a snake on his thing that he wore, carried to show that he was the boss. So Pharaoh's crown and his staff had a snake on it. And it was a perfect manifestation of the Lord of this world, the ruler of darkness, lording it over the inheritance of God, keeping them in bitterness and bondage in the slime pits chomping out bricks for the kingdoms of this world. Well, God is saying, watch out, Pharaoh, because when you've enslaved the people of God, you've touched the apple of my eye. And so God picked a man named Moses. We showed last week he's a basket case that God turned into a great leader because of the covenant. And so Moses becomes an ambassador and he is sent to Pharaoh and he comes in and he doesn't reason with Pharaoh. He comes in as an ambassador of God with the word of the king. And he says, God says, let my people go. And Pharaoh said, well, who is this Lord that I should obey him? I don't know the Lord. And so the Lord introduced himself. He made a frontal attack on all the ten gods of Egypt. Each one of the plagues was a direct assault upon the consciousness of a nation believing in phony gods. You worship the frog, have some frogs in your underwear and your drawers and your dishes. You like bugs and lice here, have them on your bodies. You like the Nile River. It'll turn the blood over and over. He attacks their gods and shows them that there's only one true God. Nine times Egypt has to repent and they almost do. But the Pharaoh keeps hardening his heart. Finally, in chapter 11, we see after such hardness of heart, God says to Moses, he says, listen enough, I'm going to deliver my people with a strong hand. No more argument. I'm going to go ahead and bring them out. When God's going to bring his people out, he gives a word about a lamb. To a man and a man comes and announces God's given a lamb, and so in chapter 12, after 400 years of silence, we see God speaking to the people and he is taking the lamb. Let's read these first verses, verses one through eight. God's saying, look, with the power of a lamb, I'm going to crush the head of the serpent forever. And in verse one, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying this month, it was the seventh month of Abed. This will be the beginning of months to you, the first month of the year. You speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying in the 10th day of this month, they shall take to them every man, a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a whole household. And if the household is too little for the lamb, oh, this lamb is never too little for the house. The house is too little for this lamb. If the house is too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it. According 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, take it out from among the sheep or the goats, and you shall keep it up until the 14th day, exactly of the same month. The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood of this lamb and strike it on the two side posts of the door and on the upper portion of the door of the house, wherein they shall go and eat it and they shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire and unleavened bread and with bitter herbs shall they eat it. Don't eat it raw or boiled with water, but roasted with fire. And then it says, do the whole lamb. It goes on to say, don't let anything of the lamb remain until the morning. You eat this whole lamb so that in the morning in every family, there's a little bit of the lamb. Oh, you might have a shank, you might have the back, but the whole lamb is gone and and it's really still there, but it's inside the family. That's what God is really having them do. And he says, I want you to have your shoes on, your robes on and your bags packed. You're ready to go. You see, it's a perfect picture of people who've only received a word from God and the blood of the lamb. That's all. Nothing's changed. And so it says in verse eleven, thus shall you eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in a hurry because it's the Lord's Passover. I'm going to pass through the land of Egypt this night and smite all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast against all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgment. I am the Lord and the blood shall be to you for a reminder, a token, a symbol upon the houses in which you are. And when I see the blood, when God sees the blood, I will pass over you. The Hebrew word means set a watch up over you and protect you against all comers. It doesn't mean to cover your eyes and go by. It means when I see the blood, I'll recognize it and I'll put guard outside of your house. And the plague will not come upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. Verse twenty one. Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, setting to them, draw out and take you a lamb to your families, kill the Passover, and you shall take a bunch of little paint brush like bitter herbs in their homes, growing in the houses, dip it in this blood that's in the basin. The word basin is the word sop. It's a drainage ditch right outside the front door of an Egyptian house that when it rains, it would drain off the water and the blood would be shed in a in a drainage ditch right outside on the threshold of their door, like a little basin there. That's why oriental people even today will not step on the door of their house because it was the place where sacrifice was offered and it's too holy to step on. So you catch this blood in the basin, put the bitter herbs in it, strike the lentil and the two side posts with the blood. And none of you go out the door until the morning because the Lord is going to pass through to smite the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the little and on the two side posts, the Lord will watch over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you. What a tremendous picture, as God says, I'm going to bring you out with a mighty arm. I'm going to make a new calendar for you this month. All things new, you take a lamb on the 10th day of this month and make sure it's perfect. No blemish, no spot. Check its eyelids, examine it for three days. Then you take it outside your front door, the whole family and the daddy. God's order still on the 14th day in the evening. Very specific. The ceremony would take place, the father goes over to the lamb, pulls its neck back and pulls a knife across its throat. The blood gushes out into the basin in front of the door and it's and there they take a little herb, a bitter herb, applying the blood that shed over their door. Now, if you were looking at this door from a distance, you would see blood at the top, blood on the sides and blood spilled on the basin. And if you could go down the centuries, you would see in the perfect shape of the blood on the cross, the blood on the head of the Lord, the blood on the arms of the Lord and the blood flowing into the pool beneath his feet. There over the door, you can almost hear Jesus saying, the Lamb of God, I am the door. If by me any men come in, he shall be protected. He's saying this to them in a picture in that evening as he is having this blood of the lamb on their door outside the front door. The blood would be painted. No harm would come to those in God's hiding place who are under the blood, who are washed in the precious blood. So really and truly, they're making those two walls of blood like Abraham did. And in symbol, they're walking through those walls into the place of obedience that God says to go and remain. And so you take that lamb that was slain in with you and there you feast upon that lamb and you take into you the flesh of that lamb that shed its blood for you. Now, there were about three million people in Egypt at this time, and they estimate there have been one third of a million or half of a million lambs. I don't know if you ever smell roast lamb, but I'm telling you, I like it in Australia. It's very plenteous. And when I go there, I always eat it almost every meal I can. It's wonderful when it's a good, sweet smelling savor. Think about a third of a million of them. What would it fill Egypt with? A sweet smelling aroma of obedience in a land of darkness. And there you see the people of God obeying God. Picture it that night as they gathered in their homes around the table with the lamb on the table under the blood of the lamb on the table was a whole lamb with not one bone broken, it says. It's very specific. Don't break one bone. You know, why don't you? Because not a bone of Jesus will be broken later, years later. And they would take herbs and unleavened bread. Herbs remind them as they ate them of the bitterness of slavery and the and the repentance that's necessary to walk with God. The unleavened bread would show the lack of corruption and the purity of life that must be if you're going to fellowship at his table. All of the lamb was to be eaten and each family member had a part of it inside. And so they said in their clothes, in obedience and really and truly nothing had changed in Egypt. All they had was a word of God and the blood of the lamb. But they were saying with every part of their being, we are leaving. We're leaving this place. We've been brought out because of God's word and the blood. We are free from the dominion of the snake, the ruler of darkness. And so as they sat down at that meal, they were actually sharing a meal with God in a real sense, a covenant meal. They passed through the walls of blood that night. God came through Egypt and he judged all the firstborn, a picture of judging all of Adam's race. And there was a wailing. And in the middle of the night, Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, get up, get out. He urged him to leave. The devil was no match for the power of God. And so that night as they left, they left in the strength of the flesh that they had eaten. Do you see that they have the Lamb of God in them and they're going in the power and the strength physically of that flesh that they had eaten and no one could touch them. The Bible says clearly that even dogs stopped barking when they, you know, if you've ever been to Egypt all night long, there are dogs and roosters crowing, roosters crowing, dogs barking, roosters don't crow. OK, but it's very distressing and you can hardly sleep. And when you hear the slightest movement, well, they say not a not a single dog barked in Egypt as they left that night. And God had them give their gold and their silver to them. They left wealthy for one reason, so they could use all that gold and silver to build a tabernacle, the worship center of God. They use the devil's money to build a worship shrine of the worship sanctuary of God. Wonderful. He paid the diaper bill with it before for Moses, as we said last week. Psalm 105 verse 37 says that when they left, not one person was feeble among them. They were healed. They were healthy. You know, it says they were in slime pits for 400 years and they ate pretty poorly. And after all that, with all these three million people, not one of them was feeble. God's word says they were healthy because of the lamb. They I like to think that God had the Egyptians pay him 400 years wages in one morning. Anyway, God said to these people once every year between the 10th and the 14th of this month, I want you to remember the Passover. And when you do this on the night of the 14th, you remember that I reestablished my covenant with you and I've brought you out of Egypt and I'm your God. And you are my people. And they said, we're going to do it. And they did the next year. One more time, they did in Numbers chapter nine. They kept the next Passover and we see them rejoicing. But soon they forgot after even a year. And we see them wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. They became uncircumcised. They lost the covenant marks in their body. They became a strange people. But God was a covenant keeping God. He guided them with the pillar of cloud by day, sheltering them from the heat of the sun and the fire by night to keep them warm. And he rained manna upon them. And he's a covenant keeping God. And God brought them into the land with a mighty hand. And once they got inside the land, God had gotten their attention and they had their third Passover in Joshua, chapter five. They circumcised the whole nation facing a battle. They circumcised themselves because they say obedience is more important than survival. They knew you couldn't fight a battle being just being circumcised. They killed a whole bunch of fellows doing that before back in Genesis. But they circumcised themselves to the Lord. And right after they ate the lamb again and circumcised themselves, they took the strong hold of the enemy and it just fell down without even lifting a finger. That's the power of obedience. Well, over the next years and in the land, things changed. The period of judges we see up and down. But God being faithful, God is a faithful God. To his people. And so we see David coming along and then Solomon and Solomon built a temple and Solomon built a splendid temple. And when the temple was built, it became the centralized place of worship. And so they began to have the Passover in a temple every year by God's direction. The people had difficulty obtaining a perfect lamb. And so the priests initiated the breeding of special lambs, lambs that were born to die, a special lamb called a pasca, a Passover lamb, a lamb guaranteed to be an offering acceptable without spot, without blemish, because the rabbis have watched them from the very womb of their mother. And so they were the very best strain of lambs carefully watched over by priest shepherds day and night. They never took their eyes off of them. They were called rabbinic flocks. They were brought to the temple just before Passover to be sold in early April, just before the Passover. They're brought into the fields outside Jerusalem in what today, if you go to Israel, to Bethlehem, you'll see those hills of Bethlehem and they will say these are special fields, fields where Passover lambs were watched. Well, that's the very fields that these lambs were brought to. And on the 10th day of the month, they were taken across out and into Jerusalem to be sold there, born to die. Well, there were other additions to the Passover meal as they came into the land. They added certain things into the into the ceremony. What I love about this is that the Jews didn't understand why they were adding it. They were added. They still do it today. They added three unleavened cakes that they would eat. They were pierced and striped. If you buy what they call matzah today, Jewish bread for the Passover feast, they look like a saltine cracker. They were in that day. They were striped and they were pierced. Who does that sound like? And they took three of these unleavened bread and they put them into a three pouch bag, one bag with three pouches, one piece of bread in each of the pouches. And so there were cups of wine added after Exodus chapter nine, those four promises of God, there were four cups of wine at selected points in the meal that they would drink cups of blessing, cup of redemption, not cup of redemption, cup of blessing and a cup of celebration, different cups. But at a special place in the meal, that pouch was taken out and they would take them out of the middle pouch, that piece of bread. You know, what does that three pouch bag mean anyway? Why do they have three pouches and why do they take the middle piece out? They still do it in Passover today and they don't even know why. Well, it's called the Isaac piece. Why is it called the Isaac piece? Well, who was Isaac? But the promised son we saw last week, whom the father loved, who later would give his promised son on an offering that he carry on his back on wood. So this Isaac piece was taken out and it was broken. Half of the Isaac piece was passed around and eaten by all. The other half was wrapped in a white linen napkin and put behind the back, beneath a pillow, out of sight, out of mind until all was finished. And then they would resurrect it out from this unwrapped. It's called the amphicomene, which means that which comes later. And they would then pass that around and eat it for dessert. I think you might see what the Lord is trying to show in all of this. Well, as this developed more, Jeremiah and Ezekiel began to prophesy. And Jeremiah came and prophesied, saying, look, there's going to be a day coming in Jeremiah 31, verses 31 to 34. He said, there's coming a day when I'm going to make a covenant with you, Israel, not like the one that I made when I brought them your fathers out of Egypt. But this is the covenant that I will make. It's going to be different. That was an external covenant. I freed you from external bondage. But the day is coming, saith the Lord, that I'm going to free you from internal bondage. I'm going to do something so fantastic that all things will become new, just like then I'm going to forgive and forget all of your iniquities. I'm going to write the laws of God, not on tables of stone like I did when I brought you out of Egypt, but on the tables of your heart and in your mind. And you will know the Lord from the least to the greatest of you, and you'll know him intimately. You'll know him personally and you will be my people and I will be your God. And Ezekiel wrote about it, too, saying, I'll give you a heart to obey God and I will do all I've promised in chapter 36 of Ezekiel. So expecting this waiting, longing joyously for this, the Hebrew people added another cup of wine to the Passover meal. And they put an empty chair at the end of the table. And every time they had Passover, they thought Elijah would come before the Messiah would come. They would send out the youngest boy to look for Elijah. You go to a Hebrew neighborhood, you'll see all these little boys out there looking around for Elijah and they'll come back in and say, he's not there. And they'll go next year, Jerusalem. That's what they do. But in that day, there was an empty chair for centuries at the end of the table. It was waiting for the Messiah. And that cup at the end of the table was called the redemption cup, the cup. It was called the cup. And they would look every meal longingly at that cup and say, when Messiah comes, he will take that cup. And when he takes that cup, the new covenant will be here. It was saved for him. So every time they ate the meal, they looked at that cup and they waited for the day that Messiah would come to affect the new covenant and write the truth of God on the inside and free them from bondage on the inside. Well, after Malachi preached, there was another 400 years of silence. There was 400 years of bondage under Egypt. And then God sent a man with a word saying, take a lamb. And after Malachi, there was another 400 years of bondage and under the Romans, silence, not a word from heaven. And the people of God were being tortured by different people and under revolt under Rome. And then came the word of the Lord at the end of about 400 years. And it came through Zacharias. Remember the mother of John, the father of John the Baptist? You know what Zacharias mean? God remembers, Jehovah remembers. And he began to prophesy in Luke chapter. Let me just read it in Luke chapter one. Listen to this. God's doing something. He hasn't forgotten the people. He's doing something. Oh, this is really something. When you see this, if it all falls together, it'll change your whole view of the Bible. In Luke chapter one, verse 67. The man whose name is Jehovah remembers prophesies being filled with the Holy Spirit, verse 68, and says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. He has raised up for them a horn of salvation in the house of his servant David. Just like he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been since the world began that we should be saved from our enemies. You see, that's Exodus being brought out of bondage and from the hand of all that hate us to perform. Look at this. This is the reason for what's going to happen, just like it was when he came down into Egypt and saw his people's bondage. So now he's come down again to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. The oath that he swore to our father, Abraham, that he would grant unto us that we would be delivered out of the hand of our enemies. We might serve him without any fear in holiness and in righteousness before him in his presence all the days of our life. What an amazing prophecy. And then we don't find it surprising, do we then later, that about 30 years later, which is about 430 years, exactly the time that Moses said to the people that 430 years, take a lamb, that another hot blooded holy man of God stood up and he introduced the ministry of one who they thought was like Moses and said, Behold the Lamb of God who is taking away the sin of the world. You see how God parallels the word. It's an amazing thing how when the law was given on Sinai and it was brought down to man, three thousand people died. And in the New Testament, when the spirit was given because of Mount Calvary, he came down at Pentecost. Three thousand people were saved because the letter killeth and the spirit giveth life. It's all set up. It's all beautiful. It's all perfect. Well, when was Jesus born anyway? Well, remember, there was no room for Jesus in the Bethlehem Inn, remember? And Bethlehem is just a little teeny town in Judah, small. It's never a problem for room except for a couple of times a year. And this particular time, there were probably two hundred and fifty thousand people, according to Josephus in Jerusalem. And they said it was a miracle that people could be there. They sleep under bushes and trees and under rocks. It was Passover. He wasn't born in December. I mean, history documents that we don't know when exactly he was born, but I believe the scriptures intimate. He was born at Passover. And I'll show you why now, because it says that when Jesus was born, there were in that same country shepherds remaining in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. They were in the fields. Where were they in Bethlehem? And the law, the rabbinic law, had said for years and still does today that a shepherd cannot bring up his sheep around the city. He must stay way far away. You know why? Because sheep stink. They're messy. And so the law says to keep them away from the city. No sheep were allowed near Jerusalem or Bethlehem except for one kind of sheep at a special time of year. When was it? Passover. What was it? Passover lambs. And I want to suggest to you tonight that the lambs outside Bethlehem, the night that Jesus was born, were Passover lambs, lambs that were born to die. Certain shepherds watching over special flocks by night, day and night, because they were getting ready to be taken into the temple to be sold, born to die. And each one on the way to becoming a covenant lamb, a little picture of Jesus. And it was to these special shepherds guarding lambs born to die that the announcement was made unto you as born this day in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And he's born in a stable, too, just like a lamb should be. I can almost hear him saying that. And and you can just almost hear God saying, that's it, boys, you're out of business. No more. No more lambs born to die. And you know what it says? It says they left their flocks unheard of. They left their flocks and they went to worship the lamb, the final lamb born to die. And imagine now as Jesus grew up in Nazareth, because it says that he would be a Nazarene. He grew up as Jesus grew up and he heard Joseph, the father hosting the Passover meal after Jesus was born. Mary and Joseph had other children, at least six. The Bible says they had four brothers and sisters, which means more than one, two, which means that Jesus was the oldest of at least seven children. Honey, there's still hope for us. I mean, the Lord had seven in his family, but as can you imagine how he sat there? Try to get back in the spirit, honey. Uh, uh, but but as as can you imagine how as Joseph was there explaining like the daddy always did, this is because of we were in bondage in Egypt and this how Jesus felt knowing he was the fulfillment of everything they were doing. Well, tradition says and the scriptures lead us to believe that something happened to Joseph shortly after Jesus became recognized in that 12 year old birthday as a in the temple, asking questions that the priest couldn't answer. That something happened to Joseph. Perhaps Jesus became the head of a household. It wouldn't surprise me because he knows how to empathize with those who have to take care of their families who aren't supposed to be. And and I believe he became the head of that household. He made a living for all those kids. And he was he made the best yolks and coffins and tables and chairs and in all of all of Israel. I mean, perfect. He was he was known as the carpenter throughout the one. If you want a good deal, go to him. And, you know, as he watched this and then he began himself to give this Passover meal to his own family. I knew he I just know that he thought of that day that he would become the fulfillment of all of that. Well, the time came for him to be revealed as the son of God, the Lamb of God. And God said, behold, the Lamb of God, four hundred and thirty years. This is the one that will bear our judgment. This is the one that will cut covenant and crush the head of the serpent. This is the one whose blood will be shed for us and will hide beneath it. This is the one whose flesh we will eat. And he would say so later. And in the strength of what we would have of him, we would live our lives, the blood shed for us, his life given to us on the inside. Now, do you know that the day that the lambs were taken from the fields in Bethlehem into the temple to be sold and examined for three days after that was called Palm Sunday by us? It's what we know is Palm Sunday. It's that day just before Palm Sunday. Everybody knows what Palm Sunday is. And it's the day that Jesus was coming in to Jerusalem because palms, they wave palms. Well, what they would do, they would leave Bethlehem in John chapter 12. You see that on the ninth day of that month, Jesus spent the night with Mary and Martha in Bethany. The next morning he got up, which was the 10th. And he got he told his disciples to go find him this fowl of an ass, this donkey. And they came and brought it to him. He put a blanket. They put a blanket over it and he got on it and he went up, down into the Kidron Valley, across and up into the northeast side of Jerusalem in the Sheep Gate. And at that same time, on that 10th day, thousands of lambs, like a white sheep being pulled across those mountains, were coming in and down that valley and up into that very same area. And it's as if God is saying the lambs are now ready and my lamb is now ready. And as he came in, Jesus, they were he was welcome with the hosanna, hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna means save now, save now. As Jesus came in, they're shouting hosanna. Well, I can almost hear the bells ringing. I'll tell you, it is good. This is good stuff. I'm enjoying it more than any of you. But the lamb was entering Jerusalem and the lambs were entering Jerusalem. And I love it because Jesus entered on four legs and not two. Every detail, God thinks of. So we're coming to the final Passover, the last one that God would ever recognize. It's going to culminate all of them. This is the one they've all been pointing toward. Have you ever wondered why there was so much time given to the last three days of Jesus in the Gospels? You know, I used to wonder that. But now I know because during those next three days, those lambs that came in by the thousands would spend their time in the courtyard. They'd pull out their tongue, the priest and the priest would pull out the lamb's tongue and they would look, they would look at their eyelids and they'd look at their feet and make sure there wasn't any little black hairs in there that were unsightly. These had to be perfect and they had to be confirmed as such, even though they were perfect. So during these days, while the lamb, the lambs were being examined for blemishes or spots, anything that would make them unacceptable. God, the father, not to be outdone, allowed his son to be examined by the Pharisees. The religious leaders of that day, the Sadducees, the academic leaders of that day, the Herodians, which are the political leaders of that day, and the soldiers, which were the army leaders of that day. Everyone that ever saw him or heard him said, never a man speaks like this. No man condemns this man of sin. We find no fault in him. Which of you convinces me of sin? And they couldn't open their mouth spotless, the lamb of God, because it says in first Peter, you see, chapter one, verse 18. We are not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from our vain way of life received, handed down by tradition from our fathers. But we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of the blood of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Who was ordained of a truth for this very cause, but was just in these last days revealed to you? This has been in God's heart from before the foundation of the world. Jesus would be examined for three days. The testimony of man is lamb of God without blemish or spot. Well, another beautiful thing. Jewish time was calculated differently than Gentile time, and the Jewish calendar was different. So that's what we call the 13th, the 10th through the 13th, examining that lamb at 13th, 6 p.m. The evening began the day, which is the 14th for the Jews back in Genesis one. It says the evening and the morning were this day. So you know that that the Jewish day begins at sundown and goes from evening to the next evening. So that's their day, like the first to be from the 6 o'clock or what we would call the 31st to the end to the beginning. You see what I'm saying? I'm getting confused trying to even say it. But anyway, the the 13th of Nisan at 6 p.m. actually became Passover day. Now, the Gentiles wouldn't think it was the Passover day. They'd say it's still the 13th. But but it was the 14th in the Jewish mind and in God's mind, too, I believe. So the 14th of April began at sundown of what we would call the 13th and it would become Passover. And it was that night that the first few hours of the Passover that Jesus Christ said to his disciples, go prepare the Passover. No details, just prepare the Passover. And obviously they would do it like any Jew would prepare the Passover if they're told to do that. And so they went into the city and they prepared the Passover. Jesus said, we must eat this Passover tonight. He made it clear because you see, most of the rest of Israel would eat Passover the following afternoon after the lamb was after the lamb was slain. But you see, Jesus said, we must eat it tonight because you see, the next day he was going to fulfill it in the kingdom of God himself. And so the last Passover meal is hosted again by the lamb. The one that you're supposed to be eating, he's hosting the meal. And so the last supper, he gathers his disciples together around him and it's the standard Passover. But there's something different and they know that something's up and they they ate the early meal in Luke. It says in chapter 22 that they had the cup of wine earlier and they they ate the meal and and then at the point where the bread is to be taken. Remember that pouch, prepare the Passover at the point where the bread is to be taken. Normally, nothing is said at that point of the meal. I can almost see and I can't prove it. But a Jew would tell you and later in the meal, you'll know it's a standard Passover that he took that pouch and I can see him reaching in and taking out that middle piece, the Isaac piece. And he reaches in and he takes it and he thanks father for it and he breaks it. And normally when nothing is said, he says, this is my body. Which is broken for you, one bag, three breads, father, son, Holy Spirit, the son of God, the promised seed, Isaac brought out out into the open, broken in public. This is my body broken for you. See, Jesus identified what the Jews had been doing for centuries, holding God's word in their hand without even knowing how it really tasted. And so united together in the broken body of the second person of the Trinity, they knew that something was up as it passed around the table. Go to Luke chapter 22 and I want to read verse 13, just to rehearse what we've just said and they went. Let's just go up to verse 12, talking about the Passover. He will show you a large upper room furnished there, make ready the Passover. And they went and found it just as he had said to them and they made ready the Passover. And when the hour was come, he sat down with the twelve apostles with him and he said to them with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will not anymore eat thereof until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. It was soon to be. And he took and the Greek leaves out the definite article, which which makes it say a cup. And he took a cup and gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves. See, that's one of the earlier cups of wine. For I'm saying to you, I will not drink any of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread and he gave thanks and he broke it and he gave it to them, saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Now, look at this verse 20. Before we read that, let me just say that Luke is the doctor. He's the one that wrote the beginning of the book of Acts that said, I've done every detail very carefully and he's very accurate. He's the historian. And so it says after the supper, it's very important. Verse 20. Likewise, also the cup in the Greek, the definite article is there. The cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. The regular Passover was over after it was ended. After the supper was over, he looked down at that cup at the end of the table that had sat there for centuries waiting for Messiah. And that's the redemption cup. And it says he took the cup. Can you imagine how their heart felt when he took that cup and he took the cup that nobody ever touched? And he says, this is the new covenant in my blood that shed for you. Now, Matthew adds that he passed it around the table and he says, drink ye. All of it is a covenant meal. He's saying by doing that, that they seem to understand that he is claiming I am the Messiah by the shedding of my blood. God will wipe away the memory of your sins. He will write the law in your heart and in your mind. And and and you will know God intimately and personally because of the shedding of my blood. It was an awesome moment. You know, in Matthew 26, verse 30, it says that after this, they sang a hymn and they went out to the Mount of Olives. Now, for a Gentile to read, that would say, isn't that nice? They're singing a hymn and going out. Well, any Jew could tell you what they sang earlier in the meal. They always sing several verses. They sing what they call the Hallel. It's Psalm 113 through Psalm 118. They always do it every Passover meal. They sing it together and they did it here as well earlier in the meal. They sing Psalm 113 and 114 before the breaking of the bread. It shows what was in Egypt and when they came across Jordan. But then after the bread and after the wine, they sing the great Hallel, which is Psalm 115 through 118. And I want to just take you there for a few moments and show you what they sang. There's no question they sang this because of everything else that's been fulfilled in order. And I want you just to see the awesome input of the word of God as Jesus and his disciples set in an intimate group and sang scripture. And look at what they're singing in Psalm 116. We won't read all of this by any means, but it says in verse one, I love the Lord because he's heard my voice and my supplication. Verse three, the sorrows of death surround me. The pains of hell get a hold upon me. I find trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord. Oh, Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. And then verse 12, you can almost hear the anticipation of Gethsemane. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation. I will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones. Singing that, can you see the Lord Jesus with his hands up with tears, with his disciples? Could be tears. I can't prove it. But what a moment it was. They're singing and worshiping the Lord. Verse 17, I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving. I will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows now to the Lord in the presence of all of his people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the middle of you, Jerusalem. Hallelujah. That's what it says. Praise you, the Lord. Then the next psalm is about the loving kindness of God, the covenant word for God, keeping his covenant. Psalm 118 starts off like that. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, because his mercy endures forever. Three times in three verses, his mercy endures forever. This is why Jesus is going to the cross, the mercy and loving kindness of God. Look at verse 15. I hope this grips your heart, as you can imagine, Jesus, the voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord is doing valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord is doing valiantly. I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord. Look at verse 22, we sing this so bountifully, this is the day the Lord hath made, but I'll tell you, it means something different. We can sing it bouncy because it wasn't bouncy when it happened. The stone which the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner. This is the doing of the Lord. It's marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. The lamb is saying this is the day for which I was born to die. Hosanna, Hosanna, I beseech thee, O Lord, send now holiness or prosperity. Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. And they finish his singing. Verse 27, God is the Lord which has showed us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. Jesus bounded across my cords of love. Thou art my God. I will praise thee. Thou art my God. I will exalt thee. And he finishes, I will give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Jesus going to the cross. Then they went out and on the way to Gethsemane. People say that they believe John 17 was prayed as he went. He prayed five times there. Oh, that they may be one, that they may be one. And so from the garden of Gethsemane, he was arrested, went through the mockery of a trial. And after several trials and scourging, soon he was on his way. Before a crowd that said, crucify him, crucify him. And they at nine a.m., he was led out to a lonely spot just north of Mount Moriah. And there he was nailed down. Do you know it's the same piece of rock as Temple Rock, Mount Moriah, where Isaac was offered up. And as he was being nailed to the cross and dropped in that hole, I am sure that he could see the temple. And the priests at that very moment, nine a.m., were in the courtyard and they were sharpening their great knives as they had done for a long time, getting ready to slice the necks of all those thousands of lambs for the thousands of people that were gathering in the courtyard, preparing for Passover. The great altar was forged up and the smoke was burning and ascending up, making like a large cloud. And I'm sure the Lord saw that, too, as he could see the smoke ready to consume the fire, ready to consume those lambs, those artificial lambs in the courtyard. No, no doubt Jesus could see all this from the cross. And he could hear in the courtyard the the empty singing of people in religion saying hallelujah. They were singing the hallel. They always did that in the courtyard in those days, rejoicing intimately. The lambs were all ready and the lamb was ready. Jesus has been hanging on the cross for three hours now. It's 12 high noon. No chance of an eclipse because it's Passover. The moon is full. The other end of heaven and the sun is there and a strange stillness fills the air for three hours. He's hung there and the blood has oozed down his arms and legs down the cross and made a pool in the ground beneath his feet. And as you looked at that, you could almost look back and remember that pool and the blood on the side and the top of the doors from the crown of thorns and the nails in his hands. And he is despised. He's rejected. He's numbered among the transgressors. They're casting their teeth at him. People are jeering and his body is convulsing as it grows harder to breathe. Only a few times he spoke. And when he did, he seemed to be quoting scripture. My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Why are thou so far from the words of my roaring? And without warning at 12 o'clock, the sun went dark. Pure dark, it's just right in the height of their ceremony in the courtyard. And it's a thick darkness, one that you can feel. And people knew that something was wrong. I can almost hear him shrieking. And for three hours, the day's activities were stopped. You couldn't see your hand. The sun was put out. God blew out the sun, pulled the shutter of the universe and said, if you can't, if I can't see him suffer, nobody can. Passover was impossible. And at 3 p.m., the time of the evening sacrifice, the time when the lamb should have been slain, the time and God said, that's it, no more of that. The Lamb of God pierced the darkness with a triumphant cry. It is finished. And then he said, Father, into thy hands, I commit my spirit. And at that point, things begin to shake and the temple, they knew something was wrong. And on the inside, they looked and the veil had been torn from the top to the bottom, four inches thick. And God was saying, that's it, no more religion. The Lamb of God has shed his blood and the way into the holiest is now there. Two walls of blood. Jesus's cross body. You enter by him to the holiest of all. Therefore, brethren, having boldness by the body, by the blood of Jesus, let's enter right in to the very holiest of all. The Lamb has shed his blood and all the lambs and all the blood of all the sacrifices of all the centuries pointed right toward this moment, the last Passover. It is finished. So now I've got to come to the cross by faith with the bitter herbs of repentance. And I've got to apply by faith that that that joining of my will into God's will. Yes, Lord, I'm leaving. I'm going to take you at your word through contradictory evidence. Nothing has changed except the word of God in the blood. And I apply the blood onto the old guilty doorposts of my heart. And I'm hiding beneath the blood of Jesus. And I'm feasting on his flesh, this precious word and all that he is in his person. I'm putting the Lamb of God in me. And we dare to believe God's word. And we say by everything we do, Jesus said in Luke 12, Be like to men that wait for your God, have your lamps burning and your feet shod. He says that to us using that same picture, where to be waiting and we're saying we're leaving. We bear the inner seal of circumcision, a heart cut back free from the flesh. We walk by faith out of this world's bondage, escaping the corruption in the world through lust. We celebrate often by eating the meal as often as we can together. And when we gather and eat the Lord's Supper, you know what we're doing? We are in reality the family of God. And in each of us, there's a little bit of Jesus. You're part of the body of the Lamb of God. You may be a foot. I may be an ear. But in each of us, we have our separate functions, the body of Christ. And as we gather, he unites us just like he did. Then we sit together in the heavenlies and we have a love feast that's hosted still by Jesus. Do you see it? It's perfect all the way through. And we haven't even touched the garment. It's been torture to me to rush through it. We could take hours and hours on this because God made it perfect. The head of the snake has been crushed forever. I will finish by saying this, that in the book of Revelation, this is picked up again. This this picture is picked up again. The Lamb of God is mentioned twenty nine times in Revelation, the consummation. And we see the Lamb of God in heaven. And he's known as the mighty deliverer of God's people from suffering and to bring them out. In fact, the picture is there when when the man who's caught up into the heavenly seas and in chapter seven, he sees a vast host. And in chapter seven, verse 14, he says, Who are these people that are clothed in white robes? They're waving palms. And the answer comes these. Verse 14. These are they which have come out. Exodus out of great tribulation. They've washed their robes and they've been white in the blood of the Lamb. And because of this, God's covenant, they are in his presence and they serve him day and night in his tabernacle. Look what it says. It's almost the picture of what he did for Israel in the wilderness with the manna and the cloud and the guidance. They will not hunger anymore. Neither will they thirst anymore. That rock is Christ. Can you see it? The sun won't shine on them anymore because there's a cloud over him, nor any heat. And then it says the lamb that's in the midst of the throne, he will feed them. He will lead them to Elam or to fountains of living water, and God will wipe away all the tears from their eyes. Well, remember how Israel sang after their deliverance at the Red Sea when the armies were destroyed? Well, once God brings out his people and they're safe and secure from all alarms in Revelation chapter 15, we see it's an amazing thing at the beginning. In verse three, it says that when they come out, verse three, they sing the song of the of Moses, the servant of God and the song of the lamb saying, great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways. King of saints who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name for you alone are holy. All nations shall come and worship before you because your judgments are revealed. You see, it's an amazing similarity there is God brings it out in the climax. You guessed it is the marriage feast of the lamb when he himself sits down again. And once again, he drinks it with us in the kingdom of God, just like he said at his early supper in Revelation 19, nine blessed are they blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the lamb. And then in verse 10, I fell at his feet to worship him. He says, don't do it. Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And indeed, tonight we see him prophesied, glorified, magnified throughout the whole Bible. If you're here tonight and you still doubt the Bible, then you're not listening. Nobody could ever do that. Nobody could ever put that together with such beauty and fidelity and integrity. And it's all a testimony to say, come to the marriage feast of the lamb, come to the cross. And with the bitter arms of repentance, yes, tears, bitterness. It's hard. Apply that precious, fresh, precious blood of Jesus to your heart. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let him wash you in the blood. Let him fill you with his spirit and his self and fill you with the word and follow the lamb wherever he's going. Walk in the footprints of the lamb. When you do that, he'll bring you out, he'll bring you out when all the worlds are flaming in these arrayed, I can with joy lift up my head. We shall reign with him forever and ever. Well, are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Are you feasting on him? Paul could say in First Corinthians five, seven, Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast. What's he saying? He's saying let's live before him with the unleavened bread of a sincere and pure life. Let's eat his flesh. Let's drink his blood. Let's live in this covenant grace. Let's believe him to indeed write the law of God in our hearts and minds and believe he's forgotten our sins and with joy walk in covenant with Jesus. I hope you take it tonight. I hope you take it. We've been on holy ground. It's a high place. Let's have prayer. Father, tonight we're overcome again. I'm overcome. Lord, just coming here tonight, you know how afraid I was to even say these words again, even though I've heard them before. I never get over hearing them. It amazes me. It amazes me how we can hear these things and be so reluctant to trust you, how needy we are. Lord Jesus, these things that that so many are longing to hear and we hear them so easily. Lord, may we see to whom much is given, much is required. And the requirement is a worthy response, a sacrifice of praise, a full surrender, a coming in, a laying aside of unbelief and reluctance. And so tonight, may we lay aside every weight and sin of unbelief that so easily tangles us up and dare to eat your flesh, Lord Jesus, and drink your blood and be clothed with all you are. Take us from here in a holy hush as we ponder all of these things in our hearts. In Jesus name, amen.