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And Phil's Pastor Anderson. And Jesus told him to give thanks. Amen. Man, Exodus chapter 12, the Bible reads in verse number 1, And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house, take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. So of course we're on to the tenth and final plague in Egypt, where the LORD is going to send his destroying angel to kill every firstborn in the land of Egypt. And there's only one way to be saved from this doom. They have to take this lamb and they have to kill it, put the blood on the doorpost, and that's all going to be laid out in these instructions here in Exodus 12, what they have to do in order to be spared this horrible plague. But he starts out by saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. Now, there's a lot of really heavy symbolism in this chapter. This is one of the most powerful chapters in the book of Exodus, because we think about 1 Corinthians 5 that tells us that Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. So when we read this story about the Passover, we should be thinking about the spiritual application, not just reading it as, OK, this happened in Egypt and this is the plague of the firstborn, but rather we should be thinking about what this teaches us about the Lord Jesus Christ, about being saved, the blood of Jesus Christ, and so forth. So there's a lot of imagery and symbolism here. Now, look, we can learn a lot from the Bible based on its symbols and allegories, but we should always make sure that we base our beliefs ultimately on clear statements. But what I'm going to do tonight is I'm going to interpret this story using the clear statements that we have in the New Testament. Like, for example, when the Bible says Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us, then we know 100% for a fact that God intended us to view this Passover lamb as a picture of Jesus Christ. So we use other clear statements from elsewhere in the Bible to help us to understand the symbolism of what's going on here in Exodus chapter 12. So when it says, this month shall be unto you the beginning of months, and then he repeats it. It shall be the first month of the year to you. Anything that is repeated unnecessarily is done for emphasis, you know, when God repeats things. Like, for example, Joseph interpreted the dream of Pharaoh, and everything was doubled. You know, there was the seven cows, the seven ears of corn. And Joseph told Pharaoh the reason that it was doubled is because it was so certain, it's sure to come to pass, and so, you know, God is emphasizing it by doubling it. And so we see here, it's the first month. And what this pictures is that when you get saved, it's a new start. It's a new beginning. That's when time starts counting forward. This month is the first month unto you. Because when you're saved, it's called being born again. So it's like a spiritual birthday. It's like this is the first month of your life as a Christian, as a saved, born again child of God. And so this month shall be the first month of the year to you. This picture is the new start when you believe on Christ. The Bible says if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. So that's why it's the first month. And he says in the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. And then at the end of verse four, he says, the lamb. And I like this progression. Verse three is a lamb. Verse four is the lamb. And then verse five is your lamb. So Jesus Christ is a savior, but he's the savior, and he needs to be your savior. So that's the progression there as you read this passage. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. Ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats. And so this, of course, pictures the fact that Christ is sinless. The Bible says he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. And so that's the without blemish aspect of the lamb. And then it says in verse six, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. Now, of course, Jesus Christ fulfilled this so perfectly that he actually died on the Passover. That's actually when he was killed. If you remember, they had to take his body down so that it would not be hanging on the cross during their festivities. And if you remember, even the people that were coming to accuse Jesus Christ, the people who arrested him and wanted to see him die, they couldn't enter into the judgment hall because they said, well, we don't want to make ourselves unclean. Then we're not going to be able to eat the Passover. It's like, hey, idiot, this is the Passover. They're worried about not making themselves unclean, that they might eat the Passover of a physical meal when they don't realize that the Lamb of God is sitting right there. They're trying to condemn him, and they did condemn him. And if you remember, it was the congregation of the Israelites who were there before Pontius Pilate who screamed out, crucify him, crucify him. Why? What evil hath he done? Crucify him, right? Oh, I'm free from the blood of this just person, Pilate said. His blood be on us and on our children. So what does the Bible say? At the end of verse 6, the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. You see, that is a picture of the fact that the congregation or assembly of the children of Israel condemned Christ and killed Jesus. That's why throughout the Book of Acts, the blame on killing Jesus is consistently pinned on them. Even though it was a Roman soldier that actually drove the nail into his hand, the blame is placed upon the Jews. It says in 1 Thessalonians 2 of the Jews who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets. So it clearly states in 1 Thessalonians 2 verses 13 and 14 that the Jews killed Jesus. Now, in some countries, it's illegal even to say the Jews killed Jesus. You know, the blood libel, it's called. How dare you accuse the Jews of doing what they actually did? Well, here's the thing. They did kill Jesus and if you read in the Book of Acts, whenever he's preaching to the Jews, he says, hey, men of Israel, you slew him and hanged him on a tree. You with wicked hands. You crucified the Prince of Life. You know, over and over again, the blame is placed on them. And you say, well, but that wasn't today's Jews, though. You know, that was thousands of years ago. Yeah, but here's the thing about that, though. You know, the Bible says, though, that Jesus preached to the Jews of his day and he said all the blood from Abel to Zacharias is going to be required of this generation. So he actually literally held the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees, the wicked Christ-rejecting Jews of his generation. He said, you're responsible for the blood of Abel, Zacharias. You say, how does that work? What did the Jews have to do with the killing of Abel? You know, wasn't that Cain that did that? Well, I didn't write the Bible. That's what Jesus said because it's the same spirit that was in Cain that's the spirit of the Jews, the spirit of Antichrist. Because remember, Cain is the elder brother. And remember that elder brother motif all throughout Genesis, all throughout the Old Testament, where the elder brother represents the Jews and the younger brother represents Christianity, right? Ishmael is the Jews. Isaac is Christianity. Esau represents the Jews. Israel represents Christianity, ironically, because of the fact that we are, as Jacob was, the children of promise. We are, as Isaac was, the children of promise. And the Jews, according to the flesh, yeah, they're the sons of Abraham, but according to Romans 9 and according to Galatians 4, spiritually, they're seen as like a spiritual Esau, Israel today. Israel, according to the flesh, is seen as a spiritual Esau, spiritual Ishmael. Okay, they're not the children of promise whereas we, as Christians, are spiritually looked at by God as Isaac, as the true Israel. You say, that sounds like replacement theology. You got it right, all right? You know, yeah. It's called God replacing the physical nation of Israel with a spiritual nation made up of all believers, whether they be red, yellow, black, or white. And you say, well, where does that leave Jews? Well, all they have to do is believe on Jesus Christ and then they're accepted and the beloved. So, you know, there's nothing against Jews. All they have to do is just get saved. But if they don't get saved, you know where it leaves them? Outer darkness. He said, the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. Theirs shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. See, all they have to do is acknowledge the son and then they'll have the father also. But if they deny the son, they don't have the father. If they don't believe on Jesus Christ, they have nothing. Everything is through Jesus. So the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. That's a picture of the Jews as a nation rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ and killing him. Obviously, not everyone was involved in that. There were many among the Jews who believed on him. But just in general, the nation rejected him. He came unto his own, his own received him not in general, okay? It says, they shall take of the blood, verse 7, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the house wherein they shall eat it. And of course, if you put blood at the top and on the two side posts, if you connect the dots, you basically get the cross symbolized there with the blood here, blood here, connect the dots, and you have the cross symbolized there. It says, and they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire and unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. And again, notice the repetition always for emphasis. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water. Sodden means boiled. Nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire, his head with his legs and the pertinence thereof. So it's very important that they eat it, roast with fire, verse 8. Roast with fire, verse 9. Not raw, not sodden with water. Now this is because of the fact that even though Jesus Christ's body was buried in the tomb, his soul descended into hell for three days and three nights. And he was there for three days and three nights, and he arose from the dead, okay? Not just the physical death of his body being in the tomb, but actually the death of being in the place of the dead, hell, okay? Jesus said, I was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore, amen, and have the keys of hell and of death. Now, a lot of people don't believe that Jesus went to hell for three days and three nights. They believe that he went to a good place, that he went to paradise or Abraham's bosom. Here's the problem with that. Okay, Abraham's bosom is named after whom? Abraham. Abraham, okay. So what did Jesus say about Abraham? He said, I'm the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God's not the God of the dead, but of the living. So he stated that Abraham was alive, okay? That's because in the place where Abraham is located, paradise, he's alive there. See, the people that are up in heaven right now, the saved people who've gone on to be with the Lord, they're not dead. Their bodies are dead, but they're alive and well up in heaven. Because Jesus said, whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. So spiritually speaking, we're never going to die. So Abraham rejoiced to see my day and was glad, Jesus said. So if you're going to say, okay, well, Jesus died on the cross, and then boom, he immediately went to paradise or immediately went to heaven, you know, then he wasn't really dead in that sense, was he? But I believe that he was dead. Now, that's an interesting argument, but how about the fact that the Bible just says that he went to hell? Isn't that enough? Because Acts 2 31 says, this spake he of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption. How can your soul not be left in hell if you've never been there? Can somebody explain that to me? I mean, in order to not be left somewhere, you'd have to be there, and then you didn't get left there. You know, and if we get to context, if we go to Psalm 16, he says, that's why my soul is resting in hope. Why does he have hope? His hope is, my soul is not going to be left in hell, neither will it suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Acts chapter 2, the hope is that his soul is not going to be left in hell. So let me ask you this, if Jesus was in a place called paradise, why is he so anxious to get out of there? Why is his only hope that he's getting out? Because he's in a bad place, okay. Now, it's kind of sad that I have to get up here and explain to you that hell is a bad place. But there are people that say, well, it's the good side of hell. There's no good side. Well, there's a different compartment, you know, it's a good compartment. No, wrong. And you know what? The Bible says hell. Now, I believe that the King James Bible is the word of God without error. I believe that it's a perfectly accurate translation, and I wouldn't give you a nickel for the ESV, or the NIV, or the New King James, or any of these other modern Bibles that are coming out. They're filled with junk. Even as I just demonstrated on Sunday morning, the junk that they have in them. I mean, we could literally do that every service until Jesus comes, just showing you the junk that's in modern versions. So look, if the King James Bible is the preserved word of God that's been passed down to us, this is the traditional text of the word of God that got us saved, and that has been preached, and believed, and used by God more than any other book in the world. Unlike the Bible of the Month Club, making all these changes. You know, if we're going to trust the King James as our final authority, then you have to believe that hell means hell. No, it's mentioned 54 times, and it's always a bad place of fiery judgment, amen? So hell is hell is hell. And look, you say, well, but no, it's actually a good place. Then why is he so anxious to get out of there? He descended into hell, the Bible says, in Ephesians 4. He descended into the lower parts of the earth. He said, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Okay, there's so much scripture on this, and how about the fact that every single sacrifice in the Bible is a burnt offering? They're all burned on the altar. The passage was roast with fire. This is a picture of Christ's soul going to hell for three days and three nights. Look, I don't care how many people criticize me or attack me or call me a heretic for preaching what the Bible says, okay? The Bible says that Jesus went to hell for three days and three nights. That's what I believe. That's what I'm going to preach until I die. Now, here's what's funny. A lot of these Protestants that are criticizing us for believing that Jesus went to hell for three days and three nights, they chant something called the Apostle's Creed. And you know what it says in the Apostle's Creed? That Jesus descended into hell. So they chant that over and over again. Who's been in a church where they chant that every Sunday? It says, descended into hell. So, why, and then they act like this is some radical, well, but, you know. Now, here's what's so dumb. Okay, let me just go off for a minute here on this, okay? So, you know, six years ago, I sat down and interviewed James White for our film, New World Order Bible Versions. Who knows what I'm talking about, that interview where I did that. So I interviewed James White for New World Order Bible Versions. And at the end of the interview, we got to talking about hell. And he just started just taking this hard line of, like, the place in the center of the earth where there's fire and people go after their dying to be punished. That's not hell. That's not hell. He kept saying, only Gehenna is hell. He just kept saying, over and over again. Only the lake of fire, you know, because obviously there are two places in the Bible that we in English call hell, okay? So there are two places called hell. There's the current location of hell, which is in the center of the earth, the lowest parts of the earth. And if someone dies without Christ, their soul instantly goes to hell. Their body doesn't go there, but their soul goes there, amen, right? Their body stays here. We bury it or do whatever with it. Their soul goes to hell. That fiery place of punishment in our English Bible and in our English language is called hell, okay? But then there's another place that's also called hell, okay? And that place is known as outer darkness. It's not in the center of the earth. It's the lake of fire. And if you remember, eventually death and hell are cast into the lake of fire. And whosoever is not found written in the book of life is cast in the lake of fire. So when you read Jesus talking about destroying both soul and body in hell, he's not talking about the current place in the center of the earth because that's a place where only souls go. It's the future abode of hell. Now James White and other modern scholars of his ilk make this big deal that because it's two places, they need two different names. Now that doesn't make any sense because sometimes you could have two names that refer, or I'm sorry, excuse me. You could have one name referring to two places or two things. And I can see why the English language developed the same word for both of these because let's see. The place down below us in the center of the earth where souls go when they die is a place of fiery torment and punishment for the unsaved after they die. And what's the lake of fire? Well, it's a place of fiery punishment and torment after people die to be punished there. So wouldn't it be appropriate to call them both hell? I mean that's a word that people understand. But he's like, no, no, no, no, it's hell and Hades. So they want to rename the place in the middle of the earth Hades, which is basically what they're doing is they're taking a Greek word and instead of translating it in English, they're just throwing a Greek word at us, Hades. Here's the problem with doing that. It doesn't mean the same thing in English that it means in Greek. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? In English, when we hear the word Hades, when Joe Blow off the street hears the word Hades, he's thinking, oh, that's the Greek mythology. You know, that's the place you go after you die in Greek mythology or something like that. It's not understood typically as a Christian concept. Or they'll want to just leave Gehenna as Gehenna instead of translating it into English, hell. So James White's trying to make this huge deal about hell. Every time I referred to the place where people go when they die that's in the center of the earth as hell, he kept saying, that's not hell, that's not hell. Okay, then explain this, James White. Explain your apostles' creed that Jesus descended into hell. Did he go to the lake of fire? See, that doesn't make any sense, does it? He descended into hell. So that shows me that historically people have used the English language and when they talked about the place in the center of the earth where souls go to be punished after they die, that's always been known as hell, friend. Who translated the apostles' creed into English? Everybody who translated it, they didn't say, we believe in the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost and he descended into Hades. That's not what they said. All these hundreds and hundreds of years they've been saying in English, descended into hell, descended into hell, descended into hell. And then we have all these Bibles. We got the King James Version, we got other Bibles in other languages translating this word as hell over and over again. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? But then these bozos come along and all of a sudden just, well, that's not hell. Says who? What gives James Wright the right to rename the place in the center of the earth where souls go to burn after they die? He just gets to come along and just rename it? And just, that's not hell. Okay, so everybody's been wrong, the whole English language has been wrong, the King James Version's been wrong, every version's wrong in other languages and stuff that says hell there. The Apostles' Creed, the people who translated it, it's like, hello, that's called hell, it's always been called hell. And really, if you were going to rename something, you'd rename the other place and call it the Lake of Fire or something. But I believe that the King James is perfectly right to call them both hell because they're both places of fiery punishment. In fact, and sorry I'm spending so much time on this, but this is important to defend our Bible and not let these bozos come along and try to turn the sword into a butter knife and turn down hell a few degrees and start calling it heck or Hades or something. You know what I mean? So basically, you know, you can't just come along and just change the language like that. If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Okay? Now think about how perfect the word hell is a perfect translation of Hades and let me tell you why. Because of the fact that the word hell comes from Scandinavian mythology. That's their underworld bad place. And, you know, so it's like the perfect parallel. You know, Jesus Christ took that word and used it to refer to hell, you know, to explain where people go when they die. That's the Greek word that he chose to use. And so the English word hell is literally a perfect parallel. It even has the same etymology as the word Hades does. So it's just ridiculous to sit there and say, oh no, no, that's not hell, that's Hades. No, it's hell, okay? And so, you know, when the Bible says in Acts 2-31 that Jesus went to hell, he went to hell. You know, I mean, I don't know what else to say. Let's move on. But it's just crazy how people can just turn our language on its head like that. And just that someone can just convince himself that 99.9% of people are using the language wrong. And let me just explain this to you in English. Did you know that if everybody in the whole world started using a word differently, then that would become the definition of that word. That's how words change. Look up the word nice. You know, the word nice used to be a bad thing. And nice is one of the most common words in our modern vernacular. We use the word nice like every day. Look up, like, only 300 years ago, being nice was a bad thing. If you called someone nice, it means that they're bad, okay? It is literally switched to the opposite meaning, okay? So you can't just sit there and just say, well, everybody's wrong except me. Don't you dare call that place people go after they die hell. It's actually Hades and hell is only the Gehenna Lake of Fire. That's bogus, okay? Hell is hell is hell. And in fact, the fact that it says that death and hell are cast into the Lake of Fire, to me that shows that hell didn't stop existing. Hell just got relocated to the Lake of Fire. So hell has a current location in the center of the earth and hell gets a new location in the Lake of Fire. That's why it's totally appropriate to call both places hell. And by the way, the New Testament uses three different Greek words for hell. So is there some third place? I've heard some people try to say, well, there's a third place. You know, it's a what? So, you know, it's just called synonyms, folks. Okay, let's get back into the text here. So when the Bible says, roast with fire, that's a picture of hell. That's what's being symbolized there. It says, eat not of it raw, nor sod it all with water, but roast with fire. Verse 9, his head with his legs and with the pertinence thereof. And you shall let nothing of it remain until the morning. And that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And ye shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. So what does that mean when he says, I'm going to execute judgment on all the gods of Egypt? You say, well, I thought there is only but one God. Of course, the Bible is clear that there is only one God. But the Bible teaches that there are many who are called gods, as there be gods many and lords many. But to us, there's only one God. So there are those that are called gods. I've studied this in the Bible, and I've consistently come to the conclusion that any time we have gods mentioned plural in the Bible, when we talk about gods, we are referring to false gods. So we are referring to demons. False gods are not just figments of people's imaginations, but they're actually demons. They're actually devils. In fact, if you're interested in that, I did a whole sermon called, There's Only One God. That was the title of the sermon a few years ago, There's Only One God. And in that sermon, I went through and I looked at instances where the Bible talks about multiple gods, like in the Psalm, what is it? Psalm 82, where he says, I've said ye are gods, but ye shall die like men, and so forth. And I went through and proved all that. When the Bible says gods, it's talking about devils. It's talking about demons. So when God says here that he is going to execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, what he's talking about is basically punishing those spirits, punishing those devils, punishing those demons. That's what he's going to do in addition to killing the firstborn. He's also going to do a spiritual warfare and punish those devils. These are devils who get punished even now. Remember how they begged Jesus to be cast into the swine and said, torment us not before the time. Permit us to go into the swine. And the Bible talks about the angels, which kept not the first state. He cast them down into hell. So what it's saying here is that God punished devils as well. He punished demons at the same time. So he says in verse 13, and the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And 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. So this is where we get the song. When I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Here's the thing. This pictures salvation. It's such a perfect picture of salvation because he didn't see when I see your good life. When I see that you've been really sorry and turned from all your sins and started living a clean life. Is that what he's looking for? No. When he sees the blood, he'll pass over. And again, this is what he's looking for when it comes to salvation. If he sees the blood, you're saved. If he doesn't see the blood, you're doomed. Now, notice in the instructions here, all they have to do is put the blood on the doorpost and be in the house. And everyone in that house is going to survive, right? And if they're not in the house, they're not going to survive. So what if somebody's a really godly Egyptian but they don't put the blood on the doorpost? What if they're a really nice person and they help people and they love? If they don't have the blood on the doorpost, they're going to die. Or their firstborn son's going to die, right? They're going to be judged. Okay, what about this? What if a rotten person puts the blood on the doorpost? They're saved. He didn't go through and say, well, I see the blood, but... You know, I see the blood, but have you repented of your sins? I see the blood, but, you know, are you following my commandments? Now, wouldn't this... I guess according to the people who believe in a workspace salvation, this would have been a great time to roll out the Ten Commandments. Right? I mean, chapter 12. It's like, all right, you guys are about to be saved. We're going to put the blood on the doorpost. So, all right, let's roll out the Ten Commandments because this is what you're going to be keeping in order to maintain your salvation. Or this is what you're going to... You have to sign on this dotted line because remember it's like, well, you don't have to be sinlessly perfect, but you just have to be willing to do it. You just have to... I mean, then wouldn't it at this point be when God pulls out the Ten Commandments and says, okay, this is what you're committing to? Sign right here on the dotted line, right? This is what you're committing to. If you're going to get saved, you've got to be willing to follow these rules. You've got to follow these commandments. Notice there's no mention of the Ten Commandments. In fact, Ten Commandments aren't coming for eight more chapters. Okay? And what is this picture? This picture's salvation. The blood applied. You're saved. It's not based on how good you are. No one is worthy. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, right? Propitiation through faith in His blood. Faith in His blood is what saves us. Okay? Then after they get saved, the picture of crossing the Red Sea is baptism. Right? In 1 Corinthians 10, it says they were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. That's baptism. Right? And then they all ate the same spiritual meat. And they drank the same spiritual drink. And they were in the wilderness. And then God brings them to Mount Sinai where they receive the law of God. So when do they get the law of God? When are they told, hey, you've got to keep these commandments. This is what you need to do. These are the ordinances and statutes and judgments and laws that you need to follow. That's after salvation, after baptism. Right? Did they have to agree to all that in order to get baptized? Well, sorry, you need a six-week baptism class. Isn't that what a lot of churches will say? And they want to go through the whole statement of faith. They want to go through all the doctrines of the church. They want to tell you how to live the Christian life. And then you've got to go through all that. And then, okay, now you're ready to be baptized. No, what we see in the Bible is salvation's easy. It's the blood. You apply the blood. You're saved. Baptism, you just go forward. Right? That's what he said to Moses. Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward. Right? So you just go forward. You just get baptized. Simple, right? Then after you get baptized is when the hard part begins. After salvation, after baptism, then you get out into the wilderness of the Christian life. And it's like, okay, here's how you need to live. Here's what you need to do. There are going to be testings. There are going to be trials. There are going to be battles to enter the promised land. You're going to have to war a good warfare. You're going to have to fight a good fight. But you don't have to fight a good fight and war a good warfare to get saved. Getting saved is just as simple as putting the blood on the door. Because, see, the lamb has already died. We don't have to kill the lamb. The lamb's dead. Actually, he's alive because he was dead for three days and three nights and then now he lives. So the lamb has been killed. He shed his blood. He sprinkled it on the mercy seat in heaven seven times. The blood in heaven speaketh better things than that of Abel. We're justified. We're saved. We're redeemed by the blood of Christ. And it's just as simple as applying the blood to the door post of your heart. And here's the thing. It's not automatic. It's not like, okay, the lamb's killed. Every Israelite's saved. They still had to do a personal thing, didn't they, where they put the blood on their door. Well, I was there with the congregation. We all killed the lamb. Yeah. We all killed the lamb. We did it. Great. No, they had to do what? They had to put that blood on the door post. They had to eat that meat. They had to ingest that meat. Showing the picture of receiving Christ, receiving the lamb. The blood is applied. They're saved. Not based on any merit of their own. They're total sinners, just like everyone else. But because they believed the word of God and applied the blood, they're saved. Isn't that a perfect picture of salvation? And it's not like they could lose their salvation. Like, two months later, when they start messing up out in the wilderness, all of a sudden, firstborn children start dying. Did that happen? No. That did not happen. This salvation of the firstborn was a permanent salvation of the firstborn, meaning that there was never any danger in the future of God coming through and smiting all their firstborn. That was already done. It's like, we're through that. We put the blood on. It's one night. You get through that one night, and boom, you're saved. Now, obviously, there are other hazards and perils and so forth, but that issue was settled. It's the same thing with being saved. Once you believe on Jesus Christ and the blood is applied, that issue is settled. Nothing can change that. Now, there are other pitfalls and issues in the Christian life. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. There are going to be chastenings and scourgings and problems. You could even get so backslidden and do wicked things to where God would even just kill you, just like he did to King Saul or something. But you'll never lose your salvation because that's a one-time deal through the blood of Christ. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. It's a perfect picture of salvation right there. He says, the blood is the token. When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And this day, verse 14, shall be unto you for a memorial. It's kind of cool that that's verse 14 because the 14th day of the month is the day that is the memorial, right? And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. Ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread. Even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses, for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day. That soul shall be cut off from Israel, and in the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation to you. No manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat. That only may be done of you, and ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. For in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, ye shall observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever. And he goes on to explain more about the first month, the fourteenth day, seven days, and he explains all the protocols of this and so forth. Now, it says in verse number 14, this day shall be unto you for a memorial. Ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. Ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. Now, you say, well, Pastor Anderson, if this is ordained forever, why aren't we still doing this? I mean, we've got to do it forever. And so the Judaizers and the Hebrew roots, they're going to roll out a calendar for you and do a little chakflem and tell you about, you know, the Shabbat and how we have to set aside this day. We've got to blow the trumpet for the new moon and figure out when this is. And, you know, we've got to keep the Passover. Here's the thing about that. There is no way that God expects us to go kill a lamb in 2019 when Jesus already died on the cross for our sins. Well, you know, I'm not talking about killing a lamb. You know, I just want to sit around, eat some herbs and, you know, some unleavened bread. I want to put on a prayer shawl, sing some songs in Yiddish, a little star of ram fan trivet in the middle of the table. Folks, if you're going to do it the way that it's described here, you've got to have a lamb. You better kill that lamb, right? You better eat that lamb. Folks, you'd have to do an animal sacrifice. Anybody really think that God wants us doing animal sacrifices in the New Testament? That's preposterous. That's absurd. That's nonsense. And you know what's even more absurd is that the Jews today claim to be celebrating the Passover and they don't kill the lamb. Where's their lamb? Guess what? They already killed the lamb 2,000 years ago. That's their lamb. They just forgot to apply the blood, okay, to the doorposts and they're doomed unless they do. So this is so ridiculous to try to say, oh, well, we've got to follow the dates and the months and the year of this thing. Oh, but we're just going to skip that animal sacrifice part. Really? Well, here's the thing. If you're going to skip the animal sacrifice part, you must have a reason. Well, yeah, because the Bible says Christ our Passover is a sacrifice for us. Okay, well, the same Bible, in fact, the same author, the Apostle Paul, also tells you not to observe times and days and months and years. I'm afraid of you lest I bestow upon you labor in vain. He's the same Apostle Paul who said not to let any man trouble you in regard to Sabbath days, holy days, meats, drinks, all these different things. Folks, he laid this out repeatedly that parts of the law have been changed. The Bible says the priesthood being changed, there's made of necessity a change also in the law, Hebrews chapter 9. And so we see over and over again that there are changes in the New Testament. So the way that we celebrate the Passover, the way that we keep the feast, is with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Okay, go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 5. So we do not keep this literal feast. We don't get out the Hebrew calendar and figure out what day this is and look for the new moon and blow the trumpet and the 14th day we're going to do this. That's not what we do in the New Testament. We don't do an animal sacrifice. What we do is what the Bible tells us to do. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 6. It says your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leavened leaveneth the whole lump? Now what's the leaven referred to in 1 Corinthians 5, 6? If you know the context, it's the fornication that was in the church. So when you have fornication in the church, drunkenness in the church, extortion in the church, when you have wicked sin in the church, that is called leaven. Right? So when the Bible says purge out the old leaven, he's saying you have to get these heinous sins out of the church. Get the fornication out, get the drunkenness out, etc. Purge out there for the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened. So in the New Testament, we're not being told, hey, remove all the leaven from your house. You know that sourdough starter that grandma gave you? It's sorry, it's got to go. I know it's been passed down for decades. It's got to go. No, God does not expect us to remove all the leaven from our house once per year. God does not expect us to kill that lamb. What he expects us to do is to get the sin out of our church. That's what it means to celebrate the feast, to celebrate the Passover. He says purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as ye are unleavened. So are we talking about unleavened bread or are we talking about unleavened people? So he's saying purge out the leaven that ye may be unleavened. For even Christ our Passover sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast. Alright everybody, break out the unleavened bread. Break out the grape juice. Break out the herbs. You know, break out the prayer shawl. No, he says let's keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So what's the unleavened bread for our Passover feast right now in 2019? The unleavened bread is sincerity. It's the unleavened bread of truth. Oh, you're spiritualizing everybody. Well, sorry you're so carnal. Excuse me for preaching a spiritual sermon. And last time I checked, this is what the Bible said. The Bible says with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And then in verse 9 he switches to another topic. You know, I wrote an epistle. Now it's company with fornicators. Now not only that, but we also have another New Testament parallel to the Passover which is communion or the Lord's Supper. Right? The breaking bread and where Jesus said this is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Right? Breaking bread in remembrance of Christ. And he took the cup of the fruit of the vine and he gave them of the fruit of the vine and he said take this and divide it among yourselves. He said this, as often as you drink it, he said drink this in remembrance of me. Right? And so we have the Lord's Supper. We have communion which also is a way of us celebrating the Passover quote unquote. But I think we should be careful not to make communion too much like the Passover. OK? Because we need to understand that yes, communion is the spiritual New Testament equivalent of the Passover. So in that sense, it's a spiritual continuation of the Passover. Right? And guess what? So is just being sincere and telling the truth and getting the malice and wickedness out of your life. That's a way to celebrate the Passover too. OK. So we don't want to conflate the Old Testament Passover with the New Testament institution of the Lord's Supper or communion. Right? Because these are not exactly the same. Now obviously the Passover was a foreshadowing of the communion. And the communion is also a remembrance of Christ celebrating the Passover with his disciples on the eve of his death. So what are we remembering when we break that bread? We're remembering Christ celebrating the Passover on the eve of his death. So basically the communion is not exactly the Passover. It is pointing us to that. It is a spiritual continuation of that. But 1 Corinthians 5 says that we're spiritually, just by getting the sin out of our life, we're being unleavened. Right? And just by celebrating the feast with sincerity and truth, that is an unleavened bread for us. That's our feast of unleavened bread. So it's a spiritual fulfillment. OK? Now, that's why when it comes to communion, and look, different people observe communion in a different way as far as the frequency. OK? The Bible doesn't tell us how often to do communion or the Lord's Supper. It just says, as oft as you do this, do it in remembrance of me. Right? He didn't say, do this every week, do this every month, do this four times a year, do this once a year. Now, there are some churches that do this every single week. OK? There are other churches that do this four times a year, one per season. There are other churches that do this, you know, in alignment with the Passover. You know, like they would actually go to that part of the calendar, and they would just use Easter as a reference point, because Easter and Passover are happening the same week every single time. Just Google both for the last 20 years, and you'll see that Easter goes all over the place, doesn't it? Sometimes, like, late in April or early March. Well, it coincides with Passover. So a lot of people say, hey, well, the week of Easter, let's do the Lord's Supper, let's do communion. You know, I personally don't buy into that, because I don't want it to become conflated with an Old Testament feast. You know what I mean? So I want to make sure that it remains distinct in people's minds from observing days or months or years and trying to say, hey, this is an Old Testament feast that we need to keep at this time of year. Now, obviously, look, the people who do it around Easter, they're not saying it's an Old Testament feast that we have to keep at that time of year. So don't say that I'm maligning them or criticizing them. I'm just telling you why we don't do it that way, because I've had people say, like, you know, why don't we all observe it at that point? And I tell them, you know, I'd rather observe it at any other point than that, because lest I be seen as a Judaizer. You know, lest I be seen at, you know, and I'm always in danger of that. But, you know, just lest I be seen, I just don't want people to get the wrong message there. And I'm not against those who do it that way. I'm just saying that's not the way that I think it should be done. Now, I've been in churches where they do it four times a year, where they do it, you know, once a month, every week, whatever. I don't think that the frequency is mandated. I think that it's a Christian liberty thing of just as off as you drink it, drink it in remembrance of me. Now, here's the other thing. We do not observe the Lord's Supper here as a church all gathered together. Now, I don't think that there would be anything wrong for a church to do that if it's a small church. You know, if you have a small church and everybody knows each other and comes together, you could actually have a good, intimate remembrance of the Lord's Supper in a small church. But when you have hundreds of people in the church, then it just becomes like an assembly line thing. And you lose the essence of what the Lord's Supper is even supposed to be about. And that's why when the Apostle Paul wrote to a massive church in Corinth, because remember, God told... Oh, I guess we haven't gotten there yet because my sermon didn't finish on Sunday morning. But, you know, he's going to... Or did he tell him? No, no, no, we're going to get to it. Spoiler alert, you know, this Sunday morning, he's going to tell him, hey, I have much people in this city. So he tells Paul in Corinth, tons of people are going to get saved, Paul. And he tells him, nobody's going to hurt you. I have much people in this city. And so Paul's there a year and a half. He wins a ton of people to Christ. So the Corinthian church is a huge church. And that's when he tells them, when you all therefore come together into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. So I don't believe it's appropriate for the church all to be gathered together into one place to observe the Lord's Supper. Now, here's the thing about that. The Bible doesn't have a whole lot of teaching in the New Testament on the Lord's Supper. There's not... Really, the biggest chapter on it is 1 Corinthians 11, and it's a rebuke of people who are doing it wrong. So we don't really have a chapter about, hey, you guys are doing it right. Good job. We only have a chapter of, hey, here's all the ways that you're ruining it. So therefore, if Paul never gives us any clear instruction besides the one where he's rebuking them, then we would look to Jesus, and we see when Jesus instituted it, right? And we could look at how Jesus instituted it. And when we look at how Jesus instituted it, we see that the whole church is not there. How is Jesus with his 12 disciples the whole church? Where are the women? Where are the children? I mean, the early church, even the backbone of the church, the diehards, numbered 120 people. And yet we don't see Jesus on the Last Supper bringing 120 people together for the Lord's Supper, did he? What we actually see is him just with 12 people. Now, when we think of this as celebrating the Passover, look at the Old Testament, because Jesus was celebrating the Passover. We're not. We're celebrating, you know, the Lord's Supper. So we're celebrating the celebration of the Passover. So we're like one step removed, right? We're celebrating the celebration. We're remembering the remembrance, all right? But when Jesus celebrated it, okay, he's with 12 people. Now, what did the instructions say in Exodus Chapter 12? We'll close on this point if you want to go back to Exodus Chapter 12. There's no way I could get through this whole chapter. It's packed with a lot of great stuff. I've already preached all of it at different times. It's a great chapter, but I'm just trying to focus on the important parts of the beginning that I feel are the most relevant right now. So in the instructions at the beginning, he said in verse 3 at the end, let them take every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house, and if the house will be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. So when they celebrated the Passover, did they all eat it together as a nation? No. What they did was they did it as a household. And if the household was too small, then they would pool households. It was basically a group the size that it would take to eat one lamb. So they looked at a lamb and they figure, OK, how many people does this lamb feed? Now, now, in my case, nobody's coming over. It's just us, you know, because I got my 12 disciples right there and boom, you know, we're good. We have enough people. We will put that lamb away. We will eat it all. We will finish it, OK? Now, other households, maybe you have, you know, two people in your family, three people, five people. You know, in that situation, then they would get together with other families. They'd bring over another household so that they could round out that lamb basically. So the point is, did they have 300 people come together to observe this? No, they didn't. Did Jesus have 300 people come together to observe it? Did the First Corinthians, did the Church of Corinth have? Yeah, they did. And they got rebuked and told that it wasn't working. OK. The whole point of the Lord's Supper is a time of ponderance, a time of remembrance, and a time of communion or fellowship. And it should be a small, intimate gathering. So, and a lot of people, they think that that's crazy or radical. You know what? This is not some new doctrine that I made up or something like that, like I've been accused of. People have already done it this way forever, OK? Because in addition to people doing communion at church, you know, didn't the guy, correct me if I'm wrong, kids, didn't the guy on Little House on the Prairie, wasn't he taking communion on the road in Little House on the Prairie, or am I just making that up? OK, I made that up. But anyway, all right. Forget, forget, forget stupid Little House on the, no, I'm just kidding. No. Reverend Alden was so liberal anyway. That guy's the most watered down preacher of all time. Anyway, throughout history though, people have brought communion to shut-ins. People have brought communion to people's houses. They couldn't get out. Or people who lived in remote areas, they would take it to the mission field and observe communion on the mission field. OK, this has been done throughout history. And here's the thing. Most independent fundamental Baptist churches don't just have this free-for-all communion policy. They'll talk about having closed communion or closed communion. And I've been to independent fundamental Baptist churches where communion was invitation only. In the afternoon on a Sunday, they'd get together, you know, they didn't do it in a public service, but they would get together in the afternoon, and at the evening they would do communion. It was invitation only. It was like they had to know, you know, you had to be like a saved member of the church that they had fellowship with. You know, so that's, that's a thing, folks. So, and I don't really care if people criticize this because at the end of the day, there's no scripture in the Bible that says, get 300 people together and have communion as the whole church. And there is a verse that says, when you all come together into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. And then when we look at Exodus, it's a household thing. And then when we look with Jesus and the 12 disciples, it's a small intimate gathering. And I think that part of the reason why people really don't like this doctrine, and by the way, there are tons of other non-denom churches and Baptist churches that teach that you do this at home, okay? Here's why I think a lot of people are not comfortable with this, is because we live in kind of a spectator society where nobody wants to get involved and do anything. People just kind of want to show up. It's just so easy to just show up and be issued a cracker. Right? Isn't it easy? You just, you just show up, you sit down, and you get this little prepackaged cracker. They don't even break the bread. The whole point is you break the bread and, you know, and it's a broken piece of bread, it represents a broken body of Christ. You get like a perfect little square. Who's been issued the little square? Or a round one? Okay, you know, you get this little square, and you get your little cup of juice, and then now the ushers will collect all the cups, and they like to just show up, not have to do anything, not have to participate, just kind of show up and just do it, spectator, get it done, easy. Assembly line, mass produced, factory produced. You know, sorry, the way we do it's better. You know, I've gotten way more out of it doing it the way that it is biblical, and actually just getting together in small groups and observing the Lord's Supper in the home. I've gotten more out of it personally. I feel like the people that were present got more out of it, took it more seriously. You can actually look people in the eye and talk to them about the seriousness of it, the gravity of it. You can read the scripture together and explain it, and it's not just a mass produced thing. Now, here's the thing. Honestly, you know, you want to be taught, and so not everybody's just comfortable saying, all right, boom, let's go do the Lord's Supper, which is why we have this white mailbox over there on the wall. Right over there, there's a white mailbox that's labeled the Lord's Supper, and all you have to do if you want to observe the Lord's Supper with one of our staff to come and observe the Lord's Supper with you and teach you about this and train you in this is you just write your name, address, phone number, contact info, email, whatever. Just put your contact info in there, and basically we will contact you and observe the Lord's Supper with you, or you can just get together with other believers in the church and observe the Lord's Supper. If you're a mature Christian and you understand the doctrine of the Lord's Supper and everything, then yeah, then just go for it, right? You can do it just with your own family if you have a big family. You can get together with another family, and so I think part of the reason why some people don't like this doctrine is because we live in a spectator society, it's just easier the other way. Well, but easy doesn't mean that it's biblical, okay? And then number two, I think the other reason is that some churches, they're really nervous or scared about laymen in the church, you know, officiating this, like they're going to screw it up or something, you know? It's not really that complicated. You know, you break the unleavened bread, you drink the juice, you remember the broken body of Christ, the blood of Christ, and look, that's where the teaching comes in, that's where the sermons come in, that's where, you know, us observing the Lord's Supper with you comes in, or they're just afraid of factions developing, but you know what? I don't want factions to develop, but I do want people to make friends and have meaningful experiences with their brothers and sisters in Christ, and you know, what better way to bond than to, you know, observe the Lord's Supper together. So, we can't just be afraid all the time of factions and everything. Yeah, there are going to be factions, but that doesn't mean that, you know, we stop taking people out to dinner and having people over to our house and praying together and observing the Lord's Supper. You know, these are all things that are, things that we need to be doing, fellowshipping, okay? So anyway, I'm out of time. I did a whole sermon on this not too long ago. You can look it up and listen to the recording if you're more interested in that subject. But I just thought I'd touch on that while we're in this chapter, noting the small, intimate nature of the meal in Exodus 12, and when Jesus instituted it, and the rebuke of the gigantic, mass-produced Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11. Let's pray. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you for salvation. Boy, without salvation, we'd be doomed. Without the blood of Jesus, we'd all be doomed. Lord, we're sinners. We're unrighteous. Christ is our only hope. And so thank you so much for sending Jesus to be the Savior of the world, Lord, and thank you that through faith in his blood, we're saved and on our way to heaven. What good news that is, Lord. Help us to share it with other people. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.