Love Worth Finding

Guest (Male): There is a river of blood that flows all throughout scripture. Listen to Adrian Rogers.

Adrian Rogers: Let me tell you, friend, you take the Bible and cut it anywhere and it will bleed. It tells us about the blood redemption all the way from Genesis right on through to the Book of the Revelation. And so in Passover, we see Calvary's sacrifice in anticipation.

Now, many Christians don't know that, but you are in for a great blessing because in Passover, we see a picture prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are going to help you to understand something of the power of faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring the profound truth of the gospel, presented in the insightful lessons of Adrian Rogers. The Passover is a Jewish tradition that should be interwoven with our celebration of Easter. The Passover was first introduced in the Book of Exodus. The Israelites sacrificed a lamb and painted its blood on their doorposts.

The sacrificial lamb had to be spotless in order to cause the death angel to pass over their homes. We as Christians have reason to celebrate Passover because it prophesies our redeeming faith in Jesus Christ.

If you have your Bible, turn to Hebrews chapter 11. Look at verse 28 as Adrian Rogers shares part one of Redeeming Faith.

Adrian Rogers: Would you open the Word of God to Hebrews chapter 11. We are going to spend some time together enjoying the Word of God. We are in a series of Bible studies entitled Champions of Faith. How is your faith doing?

We meet one another today. We say, how are you feeling? Why don't you say, how are you faithing? Feelings are fickle. Faith keeps us steady. You are no stronger than your faith. The Bible says, "According to your faith, be it unto you." I want you to be a champion of faith.

Today, we are talking about the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ. We are going to help you to understand something of the power of faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look if you will here in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 28. It speaks of Moses and it says, "Through faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them."

Now, that's just a verse of scripture unless you get it in context. Let me give you the context. The children of Israel are in bondage. They are down in Egypt. They had gone down into Egypt in a time of famine. They stayed down there and now, old Pharaoh has them as his slaves. They are making bricks without straw day after day under the cruel taskmaster and under the lash of the lictor.

They are working night and day in bondage. God is going to deliver them. God is going to bring them out, and God brings them out in a night called the night of the Passover. Now, what is the Passover? God had told the children of Israel, the Jews, that he is going to send an angel through the land of Egypt.

That angel would be a death angel. The firstborn in every family would be slain that night. A terrible, horrible thing, but there was an exception. God said to his people, "If you will take a lamb, a spotless lamb, take the blood of that lamb and put it upon the doorpost of your house and upon the lintel of that house. When the death angel comes through the land, he is going to be looking for the blood."

God says, "When he sees the blood, he will pass over you." Hence, Passover. That's what Passover is all about. Did you know that Christians are to celebrate Passover? Did you know that? Did you know that the Bible commands us to celebrate Passover? Did you know that Easter and Passover are linked together? That they are inextricably interwoven?

Now, many Christians don't know that, but you're in for a great blessing because in Passover, we see a picture prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me tell you, friend, you take the Bible and cut it anywhere and it will bleed. It is a book of blood. It tells us about the blood redemption all the way from Genesis right on through to the Book of the Revelation.

So in Passover, we see Calvary's sacrifice in anticipation. And then at Calvary, we see the sacrifice in consummation. Then in the Lord's Supper, we see the sacrifice in celebration. Now that's what we are going to look at today, so just take your Bibles and be ready to study with us. Look again if you will please in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 28, speaking of Moses, "Through faith, he kept the Passover."

Now, Passover is all about a lamb. A little lamb was slain. A little lamb seems to say, "Are you hungry? Kill me and eat me." "Are you cold? Then shear me and make some wool. Keep yourself warm." If you kill a lamb, the lamb will hardly make a sound. The lamb seems to be defenseless. It can't butt. It can hardly run on its wobbly little legs. It has no claws to fight with. It has no incisor teeth to bite with. He's just a little lamb. Almost presents itself to death.

Now, God, listen. God is going to use a lamb to deliver his people. Now, where are they? They are in the land of Egypt. In the Bible, Egypt stands for bondage. It stands for the world, the flesh, and the devil. Pharaoh himself is a type, a picture, an illustration of the devil. Pharaoh, of course, the king of Egypt.

Old Pharaoh had a crown, and on his crown was a serpent. Right there on his crown is a serpent. You look at some of those ancient Egyptian pictures and look and you will see a serpent coiled up there. That's the symbol of Egypt. Here you have the serpent. Over here you have the lamb. Now, it's the lamb who is going to defeat the serpent. That's what Passover is all about. God is going to bring his people from the land of bondage, from the land of wickedness, from the land of sin, from the land of cruelty.

God is going to deliver them, and God is going to do it with a lamb, a Passover lamb. Now, keep all of that in mind and let's look at the first point. Here's the first thing. We are going to see the prophetic, the prophetic anticipation of Calvary's sacrifice. Calvary is not an afterthought. It is not an emergency matter. Calvary in anticipation was in the heart and mind of Almighty God.

Now, we are in Hebrews chapter 11, but it's writing about the Old Testament, so we are going to find that in Exodus chapter 12. So just go back to Exodus chapter 12 if you will, and we'll spend most of the rest of our time in Exodus 12. So you can feel free to turn to it. Now, let's see what he says here in Exodus chapter 12, beginning in verse one. "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 a house. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbors next to his house take it according to the number of the souls, every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. 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 ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.'"

Then he says in verse 11, "And ye shall eat it with your loins girded," that is, have your robe on, "your shoes on your feet, your staff in your hand, and ye shall eat it in haste, and here it is, it is the Lord's Passover." The lamb, the lamb, the lamb, the lamb, the lamb, it is the Lord's Passover.

Now, I want you to notice some things about this lamb that anticipates the Lord Jesus Christ in prophecy. Number one, it was a spotless lamb. Look again if you will in verse 5, "And your lamb shall be without blemish." That spotless lamb is a picture, a prophecy of the sinless Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

They took this lamb on the tenth day of April, and they kept it for three days, and the lamb was not to be killed until the fourteenth day. They keep this little lamb together. They examine this lamb very, very carefully from its little tail, its ears, its eyes, its nose, every inch of the skin. Any blur, any blot, any blemish, any scar, any scab, any malformation, that lamb was no good. These little lambs, they had to be without blemish, a spotless lamb.

Now, they take a spotless lamb, and they make the spotless lamb a sacrificial lamb. Look if you will now in verse 6, "And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening." Now, wait a minute. A spotless lamb? That little lamb has done no one any harm. But you are going to kill the lamb. This lamb is sacrificed. The father would take the neck of that little lamb and take a lethal knife and pull it across the lamb's throat, and the rich, red blood would spurt out into a basin. The blood caught in a basin.

What is God teaching? Already here by anticipation, without shedding of blood is no remission. Now, here it is, a spotless lamb, a sacrificial lamb, and then the lamb becomes a saving lamb. Look if you will in verse 7, "And they shall take the blood of the lamb and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper post of the houses wherein ye shall eat it."

Then look if you will in verse 12. God says what's going to happen that night is this: "For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and I 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." Now, watch. "And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you."

Now you know why it's called Passover. "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." Now, this lamb, this spotless lamb, this sacrificial lamb, is therefore the saving lamb. They would take the blood of the lamb, put it upon the doorpost of their house, and when the death angel that night, that comes through the land of Egypt, sees the blood, he passes over them and does not bring the judgment.

Now, they were to take a little shrub called hyssop, and the father takes that basin of blood, and he comes to the doorpost of the house, and he strikes the blood on this side, and he strikes the blood on that side, and he strikes the blood up here. If you would look at it, what he's done is to make a cross. There's the blood of the lamb, applied openly and publicly and unashamedly.

"Here is a house that believes in the blood." No ifs ands and buts about it, openly, clearly, plainly, publicly the blood there upon the doorpost. They could not put it in a back room. It would have done no good. Had to be upon the doorpost. Had they taken silver and gold and encrusted the lintels, it would have done no good. Had they put rubies and diamonds there around that door, it would have done no good.

Had they put a spotless live lamb there, it would have done no good. Salvation, I've told you, is not learning lessons from the life of Christ, it's receiving life from the death of Christ. Without the shedding of blood is no remission. "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." A spotless lamb is a sacrificial lamb, is a saving lamb. It is when the blood is put there upon the doorpost of the house that the death angel passes over.

Now, watch. This lamb is also a shared lamb. Look if you will in verses 8 and 9, "And they shall eat the flesh that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread, with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water," that is, don't boil it in water, "but roast it with fire, roast with fire, his head with his legs and the purtenance thereof." The whole lamb is to be roasted with fire.

Now, we are talking here about a shared lamb. Can you imagine what it must have smelled like in the land of Egypt, a quarter of a million lambs being roasted that night? What must it have smelled like? They had to take this lamb and they had to feast on this lamb. Why? Listen, a group of slaves are now becoming a nation. A group of people are having fellowship around a lamb. They now feed on the lamb.

They were to eat all of the lamb. That means when you receive Jesus Christ, you receive all there is of him. He's master, mediator and Messiah. You don't say, "Well, I'll have a little Saviorhood today but no Lordship thing." No, no, no. They were to eat all of the lamb, and they were to eat the lamb with bitter herbs and unleavened bread.

Now, bitterness speaks of brokenness. Have you wept over your sins? You see, you cannot feed on the Lord Jesus Christ apart from bitter herbs. Godly sorrow works repentance. With bitter herbs and unleavened bread. Leaven in the Bible is an illustration, a type, an emblem of sin. It works quietly in lukewarm conditions. It's yeast, ladies. It's what you put in cake and bread and cookies and these things that causes it to be inflated and puffed up.

Passover was not with leaven. So, as they feed on the lamb, they are to eat the lamb with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. That tells us that we are to be broken over our sins and broken from our sins. Now, they eat this lamb, all of this lamb, this lamb that has been roasted. Why was it roasted? Because the fires of God's wrath would burn themselves out on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he has become our sacrifice.

When they had this celebration, no work was to be done. Exodus 12 verse 16. "And in the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done in them save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you." The only work could be done was to prepare the lamb. That's all.

No other work. What is God teaching? It is not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. And so God says now when you feed upon this lamb, don't do it with any kind of work. Then he says, "You eat it." Look if you will in chapter 12 and verse 11, "And thus shall ye eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, your staff in your hand, and ye shall eat it in haste, it is the Lord's Passover."

That is, this day is not the end, it is the beginning. I performed a wedding for a boy and he was frightened to death. After they said, "I do," he said, "Pastor, is it all over?" I said, "No, son, it's just beginning." When you give your heart to Jesus and you feed on the lamb, then you have your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, your staff in your hand. You are getting ready to serve the Lord, and then you become a new creature.

Look if you will in chapter 12 verse 2, "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you." When you give your heart to Jesus, it's a brand new day. You're all tomorrows. You have no yesterdays. It's the first day of the rest of your life when you get saved and feed upon the lamb.

Now, what have we said? This Passover lamb, a spotless lamb, a sacrificial lamb, a saving lamb, a shared lamb. That's the Passover lamb. That, friend, is Calvary in anticipation, in anticipation. Isn't the Bible a wonderful book?

Now, let's see the promised consummation of Calvary's sacrifice. That lamb only prophesied that Jesus would come and die for us upon the cross. Jesus is the Lamb of God. John the Baptist, who was the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ, saw Jesus coming. When John was standing there by Jordan baptizing the people, he saw Jesus coming, and John said, "Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."

You know, Moses knew, he understood that all of this was only prophecy. John the Baptist knew and understood that all of the Old Testament was only prophecy concerning Jesus who would come. Now, let's see how Jesus compares to the Passover lamb. The Passover lamb was a spotless lamb. Jesus was a spotless lamb. First Peter 1 verses 18 and 19. "For as much as ye know ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ," now listen to this very carefully, "as a lamb without blemish and without spot."

Do you see how it ties together? God said to Moses, "Moses, take a lamb." That's Moses' lamb. This is Mary's lamb. Mary had a little lamb. His fleece was white as snow, as a lamb without spot and without blemish. Jesus was a spotless lamb. Now, you remember that they took that little Passover lamb, and they kept that Passover lamb up for three days.

Why did they have that Passover lamb for three days? So he could be examined. If there was any flaw, anything wrong with him, they would find it within three days. Have you ever wondered why so much of the gospels is given to the last week of Jesus' life? At least a third of the Gospels is given to the last week. Most of it to the last three days. Why? Because this little lamb is being examined, God's lamb.

In the Old Testament, they began to breed Passover lambs because to find a perfect lamb was difficult. So they had a special group of shepherds who would breed lambs, and these lambs were Passover lambs, and they would be bred, do you know where, in Bethlehem, in the fields of Bethlehem. That's where they bred these Passover lambs, perfect lambs.

Those little lambs in Bethlehem were not ordinary lambs, they were born to die. They were Passover lambs. I believe it was to those kind of shepherds that the angel appeared and told about Mary's lamb, and they went on Christmas to go see Mary's little lamb, that baby that was born there in the stable. These shepherds had these Passover lambs, these little lambs. Then came Passover week.

They would bring the lambs from Bethlehem where Jesus was born down about five miles to Jerusalem, and they would bring them in through the sheep gate up to the Temple Mount, and there the priest would examine those lambs to make certain that they were absolutely without blemish. Now, the same time that those shepherds were bringing those Passover lambs to the Temple Mount, Jesus was coming into the Temple Mount.

We call it Palm Sunday. You remember that? They were saying, "Hosanna, Hosanna," and they were throwing down their clothes and palm branches, and Jesus is riding a donkey, and Jesus comes through the Eastern gate up to the Temple Mount, and those lambs are coming in. Now, they are examining the lambs, and Jesus is being examined. Those last three days, he's being examined by the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the Herodians and the priests, and they're carping at him, and they're criticizing him, and the civil authorities are looking at Jesus Christ trying to find some fault in him.

But old Pilate said, "I find no fault in him. I find no fault in him." Everything that they said about him was a lie. Jesus Christ could say to them, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" He was a perfect lamb. He's being examined there because he was going to die. This sacrificial lamb is going to die for their sins.

Guest (Male): Coming up tomorrow, we'll hear part two of this important message. But maybe today you have questions about who Jesus is or what he means to you. Go to our website to our Find God's Love page. There you'll discover resources and materials that will answer questions you may have about your faith.

Here's our website: LWF.org/radio and click the tab that says, "Find God's Love." Hi, this is Kerry Vaughn, and this program has been brought to you by Love Worth Finding, a non-profit ministry showcasing the powerful preaching and teaching of Pastor Adrian Rogers. We operate solely through the generous gifts of individual supporters just like you.

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