The Blood of the Passover | Exodus 12:12-13

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Appreciate that, Chris and Cynthia. That's an awesome song. Really awesome song. What an amazing promise. It's been fulfilled. Yes, made all things new. And we have a glorious place waiting for all of us that belong to Christ. And it goes right with this message. The song service. It's amazing how God works. Title of this message, The Blood of the Passover. The blood of the Passover. You think about this is Psalm Sun Palm Sunday, the week before the resurrection, and of course the crucifixion before that. And we're going to look at the blood of the Passover because that's what it's all about. It points to Jesus. So if you want to turn to Exodus chapter 12, all the way back to the book of Exodus, chapter 12. And this message does, it points, it all points to Jesus. That's an amazing story. We're going to look at Exodus chapter 12, thinking about the blood of the Passover. We'll begin reading verse 12 of Exodus chapter 12. God is speaking to Moses and says he's got a plan to free the Jews out of Egyptian bondage. We're going to jump to verse 12, and he says, For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. He says, I am the Lord. Then he says in verse 13, And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And then it says, When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you. When I smite the land of Egypt. Let's go to the Lord in word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we just humbly bow before you. Lord, just thank you so much for the beautiful day and uh for the awesome privilege we have to be here this morning to worship you in spirit and in truth. And Father, I just ask you to for your preaching grace, and that you just have me behind the cross, and I remain there. And Lord, if we look at this uh amazing story that's recorded for us, uh the story of the Passover, that we realize and understand that uh you saw the blood that night from the Lamb that was shed for them to be free, that again that it all points to Jesus, uh dying on the cross, and that I pray everyone here is covered in his blood and is born again unto you to live a life to glorify you. And we do pray, Lord, if there's a lost one among us, anyone that hasn't confessed their sins and repented of their sins and truly realize how much they're loved and realize the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for their sins, for all sins, that today would be the day that they would repent and call out upon him and be saved. And uh live a life to glorify you. Father, we're so very blessed to have your word and your Holy Spirit. And I pray, Father, that uh we'd be yielding to him. Uh that he's here among us, he's in us. And I pray again that you're we would hear the small still voice, you know, speaking to each and every one of us. Again, for your will to be done in each and every life. We love and we praise you, Lord. We pray everything's done and said just brings you honor, glory, and praise. We ask forgiveness of sins and we ask it's all in Jesus' name. Amen. So again, as you uh we look at this story of the Passover, uh, it's an amazing story. I mean, it's an amazing story that uh it speaks and it shows us, again, I can't stress it enough, I can't say it enough, how the bondage of the Jews being as slaves in bondage to the Egyptians for over 400 years, that it all points to Jesus and the cross. It's a picture for us to see that God will fulfill his promise of deliverance. And but us as being all being sinners and bondage to slaves as slaves to sin, guess what? There's death because of sin. But there is a way out, and that plan being Christ and his blood on the cross. And we're going to see in this Passover that God had a plan. He had a plan for them to be redeemed, to be set free. And again, it all points to Jesus. You know, the Old Testament uh looks forward to the cross, the Messiah. We look back to the cross as a New Testament church. So we're so very blessed to have the completed story, to have the completed word, to see and understand what's going on and know that God is gonna fulfill every promise. Every promise. Agent Rogers used to say that, you know, we don't live by demanding that God explain everything to us. What do we do? We live by expectation of God's promises, knowing He will keep every promise. He will. He will keep every promise. So we see in this story, He promised He's gonna let them go free. He's gonna keep that promise. But we have the completed word again to see and understand this and to and for God's will to be done in our lives. But we must, as we understand this Passover, it's like God's word for us today. It must be applied. You can read God's word all day long, but if you don't obey it, you don't apply it to a life, it will not change your heart, it will not change your life. But God wants to change it, change us from the inside out. And how's he do it? Well, first and foremost, it's salvation. And then as we yield to the Holy Spirit, we grow and understand his word and we apply it to our life. We must be obedient to it. And again, God gave instructions to Moses, and he expected those people that wanted to be let go to be set free to do what? Follow the instructions. Every single one of them perfectly. And so there's three things we're gonna look at today. The plan must be followed. God has laid out a plan and it must be followed. Second one is the faith in the blood of the Lamb. And the third point is the Passover today. The Passover today. And uh again, that is the Lord's Supper. That's what we're gonna look at in just a few minutes. But think about the plan must be followed. Let's look back to get the whole context, what the what the God's plan was. It was about the Passover in uh chapter 12 of Exodus. Look in verse 1. All the plagues have happened, and God says, There's gonna be one more plague. And Pharaoh will let you go, and it's gonna be the plague of death to the firstborn. And he says in verse 1 The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be to you beginning of months, and shall be the first month of the year to you. He says, Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth day of this month you shall take of them every man, what's it say, a lamb. Don't forget this. As they had to take a lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him of his neighbor, him and his neighbor next unto his house, take it according to the number of souls, every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. And he says in verse 5, again, picturing Christ, thinking about Jesus, says, Your lamb shall be without blemish. A male of the first year, you shall take it out from your sheep or from your goats. Again, a picture of Jesus being sinless, being a man, being perfect, the perfect Son of God. And you shall sheep, and he says in verse 6, you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall do what? Kill it, kill it in the evening. Jesus was crucified in the afternoon. And so we, all this again, pointing to Jesus. Then look in verse 7. And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts of the houses wherein they shall eat it. Not the priest, not anybody else, but they were to apply the blood themselves for every house. And how are we saved? We have to present, repent of our sins and have God's blood applied to Christ's blood, applied to our heart individually. Your parents can't do it for you, your grandparents do it, can't do it for you. You have to do it yourself. That's why he says, You take that blood and apply it to your house. And he says, And each of you shall eat the flesh at night, roast with fire and unleavened bread, with bitter herbs, they shall eat it. Then he says in verse 9, Eat not of it raw, nor sodden all at all with water, but roast with fire, his head with his legs, and his fruitness therewith, and you shall let nothing of it remain until the morning, and that which remaineth in the morning shall be burnt with fire. And thus shall he eat with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, you shall eat it in haste. And what's it what's it say in verse 11? It is the Lord's Passover. It is God's plan to set them free. It's God's plan to set them free. The same for us today. He has a plan for us, which is Jesus Christ on the cross. But what were they to do? They were to follow the plan. To follow the plan. Look in verse 12. And it says, God speaking this to Moses, tell him what's going to happen. He says, For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and I will smite all the firstborn land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. He says, The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And he says, This, here's the key. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. And then verse 14 he says, And this day shall be unto you for a memorial. And you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. And so we see that God's talking to Moses. This is what the plan is going to be, that he would see the blood. If they applied the blood, he would pass over when he seized the blood. Again, picturing us placing Christ's blood upon us, but he would pass over us, that eternal death wouldn't be to us. It would have to be born again unto God. So Moses calls the congregation. We'll jump all the way down to verse 21. And he says, And Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said unto them, draw out and take you a lamb according to your families and kill the Passover. You shall take the bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin and strike in the linen on the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin, and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. What was he going to do? I picture it being like a bowl, you know, hyssop and things in it, and the blood in it, it's going to take a like a, we might think of like a small mop, short-handled mop, they'd dip it in that, and they would take it and they would strike it on one side of the doorpost, they'd dip it down again, strike it on the other side of the doorpost, and then they'd put it in the middle. I've always heard with the blood dripping down, it probably did form like a cross. It probably did. But they would be a the blood was going to be representing what? Their freedom. A way for them to get out, to be set free from God. And God was going to see the blood. So Moses is telling them what to do. And he says in verse 23, For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians. But he says what? When he seeth the blood upon the lintel and upon the two sideposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you. I mean, what an amazing promise from God. But you have, we had, they had to do it. And uh he said, You shall observe to do this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever. It shall come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you according as he has promised, that you shall keep this service, and it shall come to pass that your children shall say unto you, What mean you by this service? What's he talking about? It's talking about in the future. Moses was saying, God's going to set you free. And when you get to that promised land, you're going to do this every year to remember how God has set you free. To remember. God always wants us to remember what? The blessing, how great he is, how awesome he is. And then we see in verse 26, and verse 27. Then you shall say, It is a sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the house of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses, and the people bowed the head and worshipped, and the children of Israel went away and did as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. Then look in verse 29. And it came to pass that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne to the firstborn of captive, but that was under dungeon, and all the firstborn of the cattle. What do we see here? Verse 29. That God kept his promise. He said, I will execute judgment upon the Egyptians and any Jew that wouldn't believe, that didn't have the faith to take the lamb and take the blood, you're going to be judged. And God is a God of promises, and he will fulfill and keep every promise. Every promise. So we see in verse 30. And Pharaoh rose up in the night. He and all his servants and all the Egyptians. There was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, Rise up and get you forth from among my people, both ye and your children of Israel. He says, And go and serve the Lord as ye have said. Remember, all the times they were going to Pharaoh and said, Let my children go. God says, Let my children go, and we may go and serve him. He wouldn't do it, he wouldn't do it, he wouldn't do it. Well, this night he says, Go, as you have said. Go serve your Lord as you have said. And it's an amazing thing. Again, it started with a plan having the blood, having faith in the blood. And they like us today have to place our faith in the blood of the Lamb, which is Jesus Christ. And so that's a second point, faith in the blood of the Lamb. You know, Isaiah prophesied about Jesus coming. Turn if you would to Isaiah 53. Thinking about the Passover, because we're going to look at this in just a few minutes. Because they were to continue the Passover for several hundreds, thousands of years to remember what Jesus, God had done for them. But also think about the faith in the blood of the Lamb, the Lamb being Jesus. Isaiah 53, he was a prophet of God, and he says in verse 5, Isaiah 53, 5, he says, But he was wounded for our transgressions. Who is he? Well, he's talking about Jesus. He's prophesying about Jesus to come. He says, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. And he says in verse 6, All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Look what it says. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shears is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. And again, he was talking all about Jesus coming and dying on the cross for our sins. What put him on the cross? Our sins. He died for us. And he says, in verse 8, he was taken from prison in judgment. And who shall declare his generation? He was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgressions of my people, he was stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence, neither was there any deceit in his mouth. Then verse 10, look what it says. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise them. Why? It was God's plan. It's like the song they just sung about. It was God's plan that Jesus Christ would come, live a sinless life, and die for our sin. Talk about an amazing God, an amazing love that we cannot fully comprehend. It's an agape love, that God would love us regardless. But he said it pleased him. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Wine, it explains, he hath put him to grief, and thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Look what it says. Because he had poured out his soul unto death. Don't believe the lies and things you might see on YouTube or different things about Christ not dying on the cross. Guess what? Jesus Christ died on the cross and after three days was resurrected and is alive forevermore. He died on the cross. There's death. There had to be death to satisfy what? God's judgment, God's wrath. Just like Pharaoh would not argue that he lost the firstborn. And those that were all wailing and weeping and crying, what happened? There was death. There was death. Because God's righteous judgment had there had to be. So Jesus died in our place for us. And it says he was numbered with the transgressors and he bare the sin of many. And then look at the very end. And he made intercession for the transgressors. He interceded for us. He took our place. It's an amazing, amazing gift. It's an amazing plan. And Isaiah was pointing to Jesus being the Lamb. Well, he turned all the way to the New Testament because after Malachi was 400 years, Isaiah was like 460, 440 years before Jesus would appear. But guess what happened in John? Turn to John chapter 1. There was a voice of one crying in the wilderness. Jesus said, disciples asked him one point, well, we thought Elijah was supposed to come back. Jesus says he has, in the form of John the Baptist. And he was in the one crying in the wilderness. And what's he say is he was baptizing the next day, verse 29. You turn to John chapter 1, verse 29. It says, the next day, John, talking about John the Baptist, seeth Jesus coming unto him. And look what he says. And saith, Behold, the Lamb of God. So you think about John seeing Jesus as the Lamb of God, because John knew the Old Testament. He knew about the Passover. All the Lamb being slayed that night was a picture of Christ. He says, Behold the Lamb of God. And what's he going to do? Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. He says, This is he whom I said, After me cometh the man which is preferred before me, for he was before me. He says, and I knew him not that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bear record saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and in a boat upon him, and I knew him not, that he that sent me to baptize with water, the same sent unto me, upon whom you shall see the Spirit descend and remain on him, the same as he which baptized with the Holy Ghost. God said, You'll be baptized and you'll be baptized and you'll be baptizing, but you're going to see one come, and that you baptize him, you're going to see the Holy Spirit fall upon him. He said, When you see that happen, know that it is the Son of God. And that's what John says here. It's recorded for us in verse 34. He says, And I saw. What did he see? He says, I saw the Holy Spirit like a dove come and set upon Christ. And he says, and bear record that this is who? The Son of God. So John is saying, He's here. I've seen him. The Holy Spirit. He's fell upon him. It's amazing. That's an amazing plan that we would see fulfilled in Christ. That he would come and live and die for us. And then Hebrews explains him being our high priest. So turn to Hebrews chapter 9. It's an amazing book talking about the superiority of Christ in all things. Because so many people today, you know, especially Catholicism and different things like that, they get hung up on the high having a priest or a pope. Guess what? The Pope needs to be saved just like all of us. But understanding that Jesus is our high priest. And he goes back to the time of the sacrifices in the Old Testament. Again, all of those pointing to Jesus. Just like the Passover, he says in Hebrews chapter 9, verse 1, he says, Then verily the first covenant also had ordinances of divine service and of worldly sanctuary. Talking about the tabernacle. Then he says, And there was a tabernacle made, the first where there was a candlestick and a table and a showbread, which is called the sanctuary. Then he says, and after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, was the tabernacle was divided into sections. And the last section was a little place where it was the Ark of the Covenant and all those things in the Ark of the Covenant. And the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies one time a year. And he would offer a sacrifice. He'd take blood and offer a sacrifice for himself. And he'd offer a sacrifice for the people. But it's only once a year. Until when? Until Christ came. And he's trying to explain to them that Christ sacrifices once and forever. Jump down to verse 11. He says, But Christ, being come a high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that they say, not of this building. Then he says, look what he says. Verse 12. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, because that's what they would take in the Old Testament. They take those blood from the bulls and calves, and they would take it as a sacrifice. Well, he's what he's saying. It wasn't, but what do you take? He says, but by his own blood. Jesus would take his own blood. He entered into the into once, into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Then he says, For if the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer sprinkling, the unclean, sanctify the purity of the flesh. Look what it says in verse 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ? Blood of Christ shall through the eternal spirit of offer himself without spotting to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. To serve the living God. And he would go on and explain how the this was the first covenant, the first testament that would be fulfilled in Christ. And then Christ would do what? Start the second one, second covenant of the second testament. Look in verse, jump all the way down to verse 22 this time. He says, And almost all things are by the law purged with blood. Talking about the first the first covenant, the first testament. All are cleansed by blood. He says, and without shedding of blood, there is no remission. He said, It was therefore necessary that the powers of things in the heavens should be per purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves were the better sacrifice than these. Because what could reach into heaven? We couldn't. The blood was here, but guess what? Christ could take his own blood when he would intercede for us into heaven. What's he saying in verse 24? For Christ is not entering to the holy places made with hands. He says, not in an earthly tabernacle. Where's he at? He's in heaven. He says, He's in an earthly tabernacle, which is a figure of the true, but in heaven itself. Verse 24. Now to appear in the presence of God for us. See, Christianity really is not a religion, it is a relationship. You have to have a relationship. Jesus said, You must be born again. He told Nicodemus that a man must be born again. And it blew Nicodemus's mind because he was so hung up on the physical things. He said, What? Can a man into his mother's womb a second time and be born again? He's like, No, spiritually, you must be born again, spiritually, born to the Father. And that's what he's saying that Jesus went in there and appeared in the presence of God for us. He presented that blood on the tabernacle on the table, the altar for us to pay our sin debt. And he says, Nor yet that he should offer himself often as a high priest entered to the holy place every year with the blood of others. And he says, if he had to do that, he said, For them must he have offered and suffered from the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. I know it's a lengthy reading, but I want you to understand that everything about the Lamb, from the Passover that Isaiah to John, is talking about Jesus Christ. It's pointing to Jesus Christ, dying once and all for us. Because what happens in verse 27? It says, as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. Just as God promised. Poured out his judgment and wrath on the Egyptians. Any of the Jews, anybody else that wouldn't believe, guess what? There will be a judgment day for all. All people will stand before God and give an account of their life. And every bow, every knee will bow and tongue confess Jesus Christ as Lord. And Jesus, we want everybody to be saved, is what he says. So Christ was one offering, verse 28, once offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that look unto him shall he appear a second time without sin unto salvation. Why'd Jesus die? So that we could be saved. That we could experience salvation. But not just be saved. We are saved to serve. We are saved to serve. That's what he would go on to talk about in Hebrews chapter 10. Turn over to Hebrews chapter 10. Look what he says in verse 9. He says, Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. Guess what? If Jesus Christ came to do God's will, and Jesus is our example in all things, what are we to do? God's will. Have God's will fulfilled in our life. He says, What? What did Jesus do? He says, He taketh away the first that he may establish the second, by the which we are all sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Jesus fulfilled the law. Thank goodness we're not under the law. We are under God's grace. And we're not, we don't have to bring a weekly or yearly or monthly sacrifice to God. What do we bring ourselves? We worship God in spirit and in truth, and understanding that we're not under the law anymore. We are under God's grace because Romans 6.23 tells us for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank goodness. But Peter explains the blood of Christ in our lives after salvation, how we are to live a life after we're saved. Again, we're saved to serve. Turn to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 13. My little subtitle says it best in my Bible. You know what it says about us after we're saved? It says an appeal for a holy life. Not self-righteous, not to be that we look down on others. No. A holy life means that you are set apart. To be holy means to be set apart from the world. I try to tell the church a lot, especially young kids, if you got friends that are running wickedly, doing terrible things and keeping you further from God, guess what? Find new friends. Find new friends. Be separate, separate from that. And that's what Peter is telling us to live a holy life, separate from the world. He says, wherefore gird up the loins of your mind. What'd he say? Go clean your house and all. He says, get your mind right. Make up your mind. I could scream this from the mountaintops. Make up your you belong to God. You say you're saved. Make up your mind who you're going to serve, as Joshua said that day. Choose you this day, who you will serve. What's wrong with our churches today? People won't serve God. They won't make up their mind to serve Him with all holiness and righteousness, seeking God's will for their life. They want to dabble in it. Be just half-hearted. Be lukewarm like a Delta Sin church. Be on fire for God. And having to be on fire for God. Be separate from the world. It ain't being some crazy person doing crazy things. It's living a life where people can see Jesus Christ in your life. That's it. You want to be peculiar? Come to church regularly. Do the things that God would have you do. Be a good person. Be a nice person. Represent Christ. Think about how Christ was. He was forgiven. He was compassionate. But guess what? He always told the truth. He held people accountable. Do those things. And that's what Peter is saying. Gird up the loins of your mind. Make up your mind who you're going to serve. And he says, be sober. That means be clear thinking. And hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And he says, What do we do? Well, as obedient children. You ever think about that? Being a child of God? We all are. I have kids that are, man, makes me 35, 34, 31, 26, and all the time me and 10 talk about the kids. The kids. Guess what? They're adults. But guess what? We'll always see them as kids. They're kids. Guess what? Peter is saying that's about us. What? As obedient children. We are always going to be children of God. We're going to belong to Him. And guess what? We may be grown. You may be doing your own thing, but guess what? There's still, we still who we represent. Who do we represent? We represent Christ. We represent the Father. He says, not fashion yourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance. But he says, but as ye which are called you as holy, which has called you as holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation. What we're going to say today is, be holy in all, be separate in all the way you live your life. Is basically what he's saying. The way you live your life. Be separate from the world. If it's a terrible TV show, you don't know anything about it, but it begins to be terrible, and you're like, okay, I'm turning it off. You read a book, you're like, ah, it's a terrible book. Throw the book away. The conversation, and the way you live your life. The way you live your life. People you hang out with, all of a sudden they got a terrible, terrible mouth, this, that, and the other. Okay, I'm not hanging out with that person. I mean, I just, you have to, you have to be separate. You have to be separate. And he says, because it is written. Written where? In God's word. It's ain't my idea. Guess what? It's God's will for us. It's the best life. Because it's written, be holy, for I am holy. And he says, if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. We shouldn't fear that we would disappoint God. We don't want to disappoint God. We want to live a life to glorify him. And he says, For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things of silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition of your father. And that's what Peter is going to build up to. What's he saying? Remember who you represent and remember what it cost him. He says, You weren't redeemed with the blood of bulls and goats. We might say today are puppies and kittens. But what? We are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. It cost God everything to set us free. It cost him his son. Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in his last times. Look what it says. For you. I pray you read that. Because that's what it says. He was redeemed this last time for you. That's the personalness of God and the personalness of his word. That he died for you. You've heard it said, I'm sure. If Jesus Christ was only going to come into a land of billions of people, and you were the only ones going to be saved, guess what? He would still do it. Now think about that. Of all the people in this world, and you were the only ones going to accept him, Jesus Christ would still yet come and die for you. That's how much he loves you. Think about it. We can't comprehend it, but he would do it. But guess what? He's done it. So that others might be saved. Others might be saved. It's amazing. He says in verse 21, who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. So seeing that you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brother. What that word means? Means to be real. Unfeigned love means to not be fake or phony. That your yes be yes, your no be no. You tell somebody you love them, guess what? It means you love them. You tell them the truth, that you're real. For who? A love of the brethren. You say you love the church, truly mean you love the church. You say you love the Lord, let your life reflect those words, that you love the Lord. And see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. Then he says, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. And he talks about God's word. He says, For all flesh is as grass, and the glory of man is a flower of grass. The grass witherth and flower thereof falleth away. But I love this verse. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. How amazing is that! That we have the completed word today that will never go away. Will never go away. So I pray we understand the plan had to be followed. I pray and help you understand that it's the faith in the blood of the Lamb. And then lastly, the Passover of the day. You might say, well, Brother Ronnie ain't no Passover today. You're right. It was all done when Jesus Christ died. But I want you to look in Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. Because as we just looked at in Exodus, Jesus was a Jew. And guess what he had to do his entire life? Take part in the Passover. He did. Even when he started his church, Jesus is that bridge from the Old Testament to the New, and things were changing. And he was, as a Jew, to fulfill the law, guess what? He had to partake of the Passover. And so the Jews or his disciples come to him in Luke 22. Look in verse 5. Now, verse 7, I'm sorry. And he says, They came the day of unleavened bread, and the Passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat. And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare? And he said unto them, Behold, verse 10, when you enter to the city, there shall be a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him unto the house where he has entered in. And ye shall say unto the good men of the house, the master saith unto thee, Where is a guest chamber where I may shall eat? Look what it says again, the Passover with my disciples. So Jesus is telling them to go prepare a place that they can have the Passover. And ye shall show you a large upper room furnished and make ready. Look in verse 13. And they went and found as he had said unto them, they made ready, there it is again, the Passover. So we see everything's going on. And when the hour was come, he sat down with the twelve apostles with them. And he said unto them, With desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Jesus, as you look at the other gospel writers, they give an account of Judas being there. And Jesus basically said, One of you here is going to betray me. And Judas leaves after the supper, which is after the Passover. They've had the Passover. And so after the Passover meal, Judas leaves. That's why we believe in closed communion. The church. And so what happens is he institutes the Lord's Supper immediately after that. And he says, For I say unto you, I will not more, in verse 16, for I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Well, the Passover is over. But he's saying, This time he says, Then he took a cup and gave thanks, saying, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread and gave thanks. Look what he says. And break it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. He's talking about dying on the cross, his blood and his body being broken. And watch Jesus say, This do in remembrance of me. Why did the Jews always celebrate the Passover every year? To remember that God had set them free by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus is saying, the Passover is done. There's no more need for a Passover lamb. Why? Because he is the final Passover lamb. He fulfilled the law. He went to the cross and died. It would mean no more need for a Passover lamb to be slain. His sacrifice, as we read in Hebrews, was sufficient for all of our sins. But what did he do? He fulfilled the first covenant to establish the second. And what's the second covenant with? The church. The first covenant with the Jews, the second covenant is with the New Testament church today. And he says, likewise, also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the New Testament in what? What's it say? I hope you're reading. This is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you. Jesus Christ died so that we could be saved. So there's no more need for the sacrificial system anymore. So we come today bringing an offering and doing what? Worshiping God in spirit and in truth. But always remember the Passover, it was very important at a time to point and lead people to Christ dying on the cross. And I hope you've applied that blood to your heart and to your life. Look at Romans. Romans chapter 3. The Apostle Paul is trying to get them to understand they're not under the law anymore, that they're under God's grace. He says in verse 23, he says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's all of us. He says, For all have sinned to come short of the glory of God. He says now being justified freely by his grace. How? How is God's grace? Through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. He says, whom God has sent to be the propitiation through faith, what's it say? In his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remissions of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. And he says, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that it might be just and the justifier of them which believe in Jesus. That's it. That's the gospel. Do you believe that Jesus Christ died in your place? That he died for your sins. And if you believe that and you realize and understand that, yes, I'm a sinner. I am separated from God. But I believe that Jesus Christ paid my sin debt. And you say, Lord, forgive me for being a sinner. But I believe that Jesus Christ died in my place. I believe in his blood being shed. As those Jews believed in the blood of the Passover, they believed Moses' word that it came from God said, I believe in this so much. I'm going to kill that lamb. I'm going to take this blood and put it on the doorpost where God will pass over and not judge me. We do it the same thing today. We say, Lord, I believe in the cross. I believe that Jesus was that perfect sacrifice. I believe he died in my place. I want you to take that blood and apply it to my heart and pass over me. And guess what? He will. He will. It's an amazing plan that God has given us to be, to be, have eternal life in Him. That's what Paul is saying. But I want you to always remember and understand, we look back at the Passover and what's it say? God said, When I see the blood, I will pass over you. And that's my prayer for everybody here this morning that you've applied the blood of Jesus Christ to your heart. So if you would please stand. Miss Michelle, Miss Ferrari will come forward. Really think about your life. And ask yourself, if you've never been saved, will God pass over you? I'm here to tell you, He wants. If He doesn't see the blood, the Bible says today is the day of salvation. So if you've never been saved, don't believe the lies of the devil saying, well, maybe next week or maybe a month from now, or maybe when I get my life cleaned up, then I'll be saved. You won't do it. You can't do it. But you have to be led by the Holy Spirit of God to be saved. And if you're not yielding to the Holy Spirit, you won't be. We can't clean ourselves up, but God can if you'll be yielding to the Holy Spirit. He's with us today. He's among us today. He is that small still voice speaking to every heart, speaking to the laws first to be saved, to apply the blood to the heart to be saved, and to be the saved to be doing what? To be in his will, to live a life to glorify him. As we sing.