Series:
Exodus
Title:
Let Us Keep the Feast
Text: Ex
12: 14-20
Date: May
13, 2018
Place:
SGBC, NJ
Exodus 12: 14: 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 for ever. 15:
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. 16: And in the first day there
shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an 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. 17: 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
shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever. 18: In the first month, on the
fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the
one and twentieth day of the month at even. 19: Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for
whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from
the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. 20: Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in
all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.
1 Corinthians 5: 7: Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as
ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8: Therefore let us keep the feast,
not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Subject: Let
Us Keep the Feast
We no
longer keep the feast of the Passover. Christ
fulfilled all that was pictured in the Passover. He has given us the ordinance of his Table—so
we keep the feast of our Lord’s Table. But
the feast I want to speak about today is the feast we partake of each time we
gather together to feast on Christ our
Bread from heaven through the preaching of the gospel.
Isaiah 25: 6: And in this mountain shall the LORD of
hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees,
of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
By the
grace of God you and I who believe have been given a new heart to believe on
Christ who is our complete Acceptance with God our Father—that is a merry heart.
Proverbs 15: 15: All the days of the afflicted are
evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.
Proposition: God’s
saints keep the feast by continually assembling together to feast upon Christ
our Passover, who is sacrificed for us, through the preaching of his gospel.
YE ARE UNLEAVENED
1 Corinthians 5: 7: Purge out therefore the
old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye ARE unleavened. For even Christ
our passover is sacrificed for us:
In order
to partake of the gospel feast we must be unleavened. Leaven is a type of sin: the sin of self-righteousness
and the sin of an impure heart of guile. But he says—“ye are unleavened.” Those sanctified by God are without sin—righteous
and holy—in the new man in Christ. We
are only sin in our flesh. But in that part of us which partakes of the gospel
feast we are holy and righteous.
How do
sinners become unleavened, righteous and holy?
We saw this last week. But we covered a large passage last week. So I
want to review two verses in particular. I even put an article in the bulletin
because this is such a beautiful picture.
Christ’s Blood Applied
We begin
to experience of God’s grace, when the Holy Spirit, through Christ our Head,
applies his blood creating in us a new heart—Exodus 12: 7: And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the
two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat
it.
The paschal
lamb was both slain, and its blood applied, by the elder who was head of
his house.
Exodus 12: 21:
Then 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. 22: And ye shall take a bunch of
hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike
the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason;
and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.
Christ is
the Elder who is Head of his house—his church.
Hebrews 3: 5 And Moses verily was faithful in all
his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be
spoken after; 6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose
house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm
unto the end.
The head
of the house killed the lamb—Christ is the Head of his house and Christ is the Lamb who laid down his
life for his people shedding his own blood.
Then the head of the house applied the blood. Christ is risen and is
Head over all things to the church. He filleth all in all. He sprinkles the
hearts of his people with his own blood.
Titus 3: 5:
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he
saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6
Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
Hebrews 9:14: How much more shall the BLOOD OF CHRIST,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, PURGE YOUR
CONSCIENCE from dead works to serve the living God?
The elder
entered the house and stayed there until morning with his children. In the new birth, Christ enters the new man
within us and abides in his house—in his child, in his church—until resurrection
morning.
The Effect of the Blood
Exodus 12: 8: They shall eat the flesh in
that night—After Christ applies his blood to our hearts,
the effectual result he creates in us is a new man, with faith and repentance—Exodus 12: 8: They shall eat the flesh in
that night. In the same night that
the elder applied the blood to the doorpost of his house, his children within
the house ate the flesh of the paschal lamb. As soon as Christ applies
his blood to our hearts, his child is made willing to eat Christ’s body and
drink his blood believing on him.
John 6: 54:
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will
raise him up at the last day. 55:
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56: He that eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. 57: As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father:
so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
Exodus 12: 8: Roast with fire—they did not make the lamb to be roasted with fire by
eating it. They ate the lamb that had
already borne the fire in their place, in type.
We do not make Christ’s blood effectual by believing on him. I believe on Christ who has already borne the fire of God’s justice
on my behalf, I believe on Christ, confessing, “I AM crucified with Christ” (Gal 2: 20), “our old man IS crucified with him, that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Rom 6: 5)
Exodus 12: 8: And unleavened bread. Paul said, “Ye are unleaven.” Leaven typifies sin. Christ
made us righteous by his work for his
people on the cross—Ps 32: 2: Blessed is
the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity—before God’s bar of
justice “ye ARE unleavened.” And Christ makes us holy by his work in his people in regeneration—Ps 32: 2: “And in whose spirit there is no guile.” (Ps 32: 2) By Christ our
Sanctification, in our new man, “Ye ARE
unleavened.” So the apostle Paul says, 1 Corinthians 5: 8, “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with
old leaven—not attempting to add old covenant, sinful,
self-righteous works “neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness”—not attempting to add
sinful, self-sanctifying works of our flesh,
“but with the unleavened bread of sincerity”—worshipping God with a holy
heart in which is no guile by Christ our Sanctification dwelling in us “and truth”—resting by faith in Christ
our Righteousness. Do you see the opposites?—“not with old leaven”—not with old covenant, self-righteous
works—“but with the unleavned bread of
truth”—with faith in Christ our Righteousness. “Not
with the leaven of malice and wickedness”—not with a heart of guile, deceit, pretending to be holy—“but with the unleavened bread of sincerity”—we
worship Christ in the new, holy heart in which is no guile by Christ our
Sanctification. “When of God Christ is made unto us Righteousness and Sanctification”
then “ye are unleavened.” Christ declared, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in SPIRIT”—from
a God-given spirit wherein is no guile by Christ our Sanctification—“and in TRUTH.”—through faith in Christ
our Righteousness. (Jn 4: 24)
Exodus 12: 8: And with bitter herbs they
shall eat it—Where God-gives faith
in Christ, also God gives repentance from our sin and our dead works.
Zechariah 12: 10: I will pour upon the house of David,
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of
supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they
shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in BITTERNESS
for him, as one that is in BITTERNESS for his firstborn.
So this
is how God’s elect are made unleavened—we are created anew by Christ our
Righteousness work on the cross and by Christ our Sanctification’s work of
applying his blood within us—Believer, “Ye
are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”
LET US KEEP THE FEAST REMEMBERING
Exodus 12: 14: And this day shall be unto you
for a memorial;
All who
are made to be unleavened by Christ are now able to keep the feast, worshipping
Christ in sincerity and truth. The
apostle Paul says, “Therefore, let us
keep the feast in sincereity and truth.”
We keep
this gospel feast by continually remembering Christ—“And this day shall be unto you for a memorial.”
Indeed,
when we keep the feast of our Lord’s Table—we
do this in remembrance of him—but also every time we gather to this gospel
feast we remember Christ and his great sacrifice for us.
1 Timothy 4: 6: If thou put the brethren in remembrance of
these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in
the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
Each time
we gather together, I want to always put you remembrance of Christ and him
crucified so that you never cease looking to him alone for All! ‘Ye are complete in him!”
LET US KEEP THE FEAST NOT WITH OLD LEAVEN NOR
WITH MALICE
Exodus 12: 16…no manner of work shall be
done…
We keep
the gospel feast “not with old leaven.” The Passover feast was a Sabbath Feast,
meaning they were to rest from all their work.
So, too, the gospel feast is a sabbath feast. We enter into Christ our Rest by faith and
cease from all our works of trying to find acceptance with God by our doing. When Christ by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Father
because all the works of perfecting his people forever were finished! Likewise, when we believe on Christ we cease
from our works and rest in Christ our Sabbath.
Hebrews 4: 3: we which have believed do enter into rest,…9: There remaineth therefore a rest to
the people of God. 10: For he
that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did
from his.
We do not
begin with Christ then go back to the old covenant law for righteousness—“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that
believeth.” (Ro 10:4)
Nor do we
go to the law for sanctification. In Gal 3, Paul declared, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect
by the flesh?” (Gal 3:3) The Galatians
were being lied to by false preachers saying, having been justified by grace,
they must now sanctify themselves by their own works. While Paul declared that
we are sanctified by Christ, he said,
Galatians 3: 10:
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is
written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are
written in the book of the law to do them. 11: But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it
is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 12: And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them
shall live in them.
Was Paul confusing justification and
sanctification? No, he declares that both are by Christ by God’s grace
through faith. He is saying that the same as you
cannot justify yourselves by your
works, you cannot sanctify yourself by
your works. Those who are sanctified by Christ are
justified by Christ and “the just shall live by faith!”, not by the works of the law. We keep the feast of the gospel by resting in
Christ from all our works.
Nor let
us keep this feast “with the leaven of malice and wickedness.” Just as our flesh is full of self-righteous leaven, it is also full
of antinomian leaven. Some who profess Christ say things like, “But
I am saved by grace, I am not under the law, that means it doesn’t matter how I
live?”—that is “the flesh flattering him
before his own eyes.” (Ps 36: 2)
Romans 6: 1: 1:
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2: God forbid. How shall we, that are
dead to sin, live any longer therein?...15:
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God
forbid. 16: Know ye not, that to
whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey;
whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17: But God be thanked, that ye were
the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you. 18: Being
then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”
When we
go back to the law for righteousness or holiness and when we live as though we
are not under the rule of Christ then we are living unto our flesh. Let us keep this feast living, not to our
flesh, but unto our gracious God. When
they kept the Passover feast, God said, “ye
shall keep it a feast to the LORD.” (Ex 12: 14)
Likewise, we keep the gospel feast living unto God our Father and
his Son Jesus Christ our Redeemer.
Christ removed the law of Moses and its curse against us, made us holy
and righteous, so that we can live unto God.
Galatians 2:19: For I through the law am dead to the law,
that I might live unto God.
How do we
live unto God? What is the rule of life
we are under? Faith which works by love. We believe on Christ and we love one another.
Galatians 5:6: For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
LET US KEEP THE FEAST LOVING AS THE FAMILY OF
GOD
Exodus 12 :43: And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the
ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof: 44: But every man’s servant that is bought
for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof…47: All
the congregation of Israel shall keep it.
No one
could keep the Passover feast but the family of Israel. A stranger had to be circumcised, a picture
of circumcision of the heart. The only
ones who can keep this gospel feast are those who have been redeemed by the
blood and circumcised in heart in regeneration.
Only they are the family of God.
Ephesians 3: 14:
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15: Of whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named, 16: That he
would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with
might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17:
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and
grounded in love, 18: May be
able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and
depth, and height; 19: And to
know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with
all the fulness of God.
Ephesians 4: 1…I beseech you therefore, that you walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called 2: With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing
one another in love; 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4: 32: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. 5: 1: Be
ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2: And walk in love, as Christ
also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to
God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Amen!