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[0:00] Now as we continue then with our progress through this next section of our series on chapters 11 to 20 of the book of Exodus, we're coming now to chapter 12.

[0:12] And the first thing we need to recognise is that this chapter 12, at least as far as the verse 28, at least all this passage through to verse 28, needs must be in the nature of a flashback.

[0:27] It has to be that which is being presented to us in narrative at a certain point, in other words after Moses has stormed out, if we may say that, from the presence of Pharaoh.

[0:41] And in order not to break the narrative, it is being presented as though happening at that stage, after the parting of the ways between Moses and Pharaoh.

[0:53] But in fact, what we are reading needs, must be a flashback, as it were, to, if we can take it bluntly, back to chapter 10, between verses 20 and 21.

[1:07] That is the stage in the narrative when this must be taking place, the giving of this instruction. If we are to compare, for example, chapter 12 here, verse 3 and verse 6, you know, Speak ye unto the congregation of Israel, say, 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.

[1:29] And in verse 6, 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. So, if they are only getting the instructions now, and the tenth day, then they can't now possibly keep it for four days, if God is going to go out that night and strike the first war of the children of Egypt.

[1:54] And that is certainly the implication of verse 3 of chapter 11. The Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, and so on. And that Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, verse 4, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die.

[2:11] And also, if we read of what the Lord says, when he says, I will pass through, verse 12, the land of Egypt, this night. Now, if it's this night, the night of which it's happening, then it cannot be the same occasion when he is giving them the instruction.

[2:29] They must be getting the instruction at least, at least four or five days before the final plague upon the firstborn happens.

[2:41] Because they've got to have time to spread this throughout all the children of Israel, all the knowledge of them, and throughout all the families. They've each got to find a lamb, or a kid of the goats, if they can't get hold of a lamb.

[2:53] They've got to be able to make sure it's without blemish of the first year. Everybody bring it into their homes, and everybody make sure they keep it for the next four days. Remember then, we've got three days of the plague of darkness that then follows, verse 23 and so on of chapter 10.

[3:13] And we said that that plague of darkness must have a definite end. If it's going to be precisely pronounced as being three days long, then it's got to have a definite ending.

[3:25] When the sunlight comes through and the darkness lifts, so they can say, okay, that was the three days of it. And also, if the plague upon the firstborn is going to strike at midnight, we said that doesn't actually make any sense if it's just an ongoing pitch dark night that's been going on for three, four days.

[3:45] So the plague of darkness would have to end at the end of its three days. Then you've got a whole new day that begins. And that is the day which, when it comes to nighttime, at midnight, the firstborn in Egypt all die.

[4:01] So for the Israelites to be prepared for this, and to be killing the Lamb of the Passover on that evening, and that would be between three and six o'clock, they would do it.

[4:11] Because the time of the evening sacrifice traditionally was when the sun first began to go down in the sky about three o'clock. And before it would actually set, roughly about six o'clock, that's when it was taken as being.

[4:24] So at that point, you'd have to kill the Lamb. You'd have to dog the blood on the doorpost. You'd have to roast it, which would have taken some time, because it's got to be roasted whole, its head with its legs and everything, rather than butchered as such.

[4:39] So it's all got to be done. That's all going to take time. And that's all going to be done in that evening. So it's got to have been kept up for four days before that happens.

[4:49] So this has to be a flashback. It has to be, if you like, the Lord giving this narrative, but which must have taken place earlier.

[5:00] The instructions issued, as we said, somewhere between verse 20 and verse 21 in chapter 10. In other words, at the end of the plague of locusts and before the plague of darkness kicks in.

[5:15] So we see that what this indicates to us, of course, is that what seems to be just happening right then and there. The Lord is, in fact, way ahead of us.

[5:26] The Lord has been making his preparations, knowing exactly what he was going to do and giving his people their instructions before the actual event occurs.

[5:37] He knows exactly what he has in place. He knows what he's going to do. He hasn't even given the instruction to Moses about the killing of the firstborn yet.

[5:48] It's been warned about way back at the beginning, but all the other plagues have followed in between. And at the time when this instruction is given, we've only had the eight plagues.

[5:59] We've had the plague of locusts. We haven't had the plague of darkness yet. And we haven't had the plague upon the firstborn. Because the killing of the Passover, the eating of the Passover, and the midnight killing of all the firstborn, all happens on the same night.

[6:15] Which means that preparation must be in place. So the Lord is way ahead of us. What seems to be happening to us just in a moment or just on a day, God has already been preparing.

[6:28] Now that should give us encouragement for our lives. Because it should enable us to see that things that seem to be spontaneous or things that seem to be just accidental to us, the Lord, in fact, has as part of his complete providence.

[6:44] The Lord is in complete and sovereign control of all things. And some of these things will be very, very hard for us to deal with.

[6:54] And some of them will be extremely painful. And some of them will be great blessing and joy to us. And we may sometimes think, oh, wouldn't it be wonderful to know the future? But in practice, you know, who would want to know if something bad or disastrous is going to happen to you in three days' time?

[7:13] Who wants to be carrying that around with them for three days? Or six months? Or whatever? To know that no matter what you do, this bad thing is going to happen. And you take all manner of steps to avoid it.

[7:24] And it still happens. Because in the Lord's unfolding providence, we cannot stop what he himself has planned and prepared.

[7:35] So it is better for us not to know what the future holds. But, without wishing to be cliched, it is sufficient for us to know who holds the future.

[7:46] God does not show us what all lies in the path ahead of us. But we are unable to see the path behind us and the way by which he has brought us.

[7:56] And to draw from that sufficient confidence as to God's consistency of his love and his provision for us. We know he is in control.

[8:08] We have found by experience that he has always brought us through. And we don't need to be afraid if we are trusting in him. Because he will have his plan.

[8:19] And he will have his providence. And we are but ingrained upon the paths of his hand. So he is in control. And that should encourage us.

[8:31] This lamb, then, that the Israelites are to choose, it is to be without blemish. It is to be a male of the first year. In other words, not just too sickly fresh from its mother.

[8:45] And not beginning to get a bit old and tough or whatever. It is the prime of its life. The lamb. It is without blemish. Spotless. And everything in scripture, of course, we know, is ultimately pointing to its fulfillment in Christ.

[9:00] So this spotless lamb points us, denoting the purity of the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. A lamb without spot.

[9:12] Hebrews chapter 7, we read in verse 26. For such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.

[9:27] That's the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God. Spotless, holy, harmless, undefiled. And as Peter says, you know, that we are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold in our vain conversations.

[9:39] But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. A lamb without blemish and without spot.

[9:50] Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. Just listen to what Peter says there in verse 20, chapter 1 in 1 Peter.

[10:02] Now, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. The Lord is way ahead of us. He has prepared this well in advance before time even began.

[10:13] But was manifest in these last times for you. What happens to us seems as though it is happening only now. Only this moment. And it is fresh and it's new.

[10:23] But God, in fact, has had the preparation of his plan from all eternity. We embrace Christ. Let's say we come to Christ tonight. And we close him with Christ tonight.

[10:34] We receive him as our saviour tonight. We think, hey, this is something new. It's something different. It's only happening to me now. It may only be happening to us now. But the Lord has known from all eternity what would happen this night.

[10:49] It is in his perfect providence. God is in sovereign control. And this is something I really want us to grasp out of this.

[11:00] God's preparation and God's control sovereignly over all things. And that should be encouragement to us. It should be comfort to us.

[11:10] Because he is then a saviour who is pure, spotless, undefiled. Even if you think about how the lambs that had to be used, not only for the Passover, but also for the later on, for the sacrifices in the temple, they had to be spotless and without blemish.

[11:29] And the priests and the temple establishment who were the first to condemn Jesus and who didn't believe in him. They nevertheless didn't realize that all the lambs they were examining and all the sacrificial beasts that they were making sure were without blemish and got their stamp or seal of approval.

[11:48] The reason they were going through all that was to point all the practices of religion from the Old Testament toward their fulfillment in the ultimate Lamb of God.

[12:01] Who at his trial, if you remember, whilst all the chief priests and everybody condemned them, when he was actually brought before Pilate three times, four times, Pilate kept on saying, Look, I've examined it.

[12:14] I find no fault in him. And he sent him to Herod, who found no fault in him. And he kept on trying to get him set free because he found no fault or spot or blemish of any kind in him.

[12:28] He was not deserving of death. And yet his very unblemished nature, his complete and total innocence, pronounced upon by his judges, indicated that he was in fact just right.

[12:46] He was in fact fit to die. Fit to be the ultimate sacrifice. The Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. He was fit to be sacrificed for a lost mankind and for sinners.

[13:03] So he was a savior then, both in the purpose, the intention of God, and in the promise. When God put it into practice with his beloved son Jesus Christ, that is the purpose.

[13:16] But the promise goes way back to the beginning. God has always been intended to do this. He holds all these things in the palm of his hand. And this sacrificial lamb, this Passover lamb, is pointing us forward to the spotless lamb of God in Jesus Christ.

[13:36] So it was not enough, however, that the lamb simply be slaughtered. As we read here, so in the tenth month, tenth day of the month, thank you, pardon.

[13:46] In the first month, the tenth day of the month, they shall take to them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers. A lamb from house. Lamb shall be without blemish. Ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month.

[14:00] So it's got to be kept for four days. Now, the Jewish rabbis used to say traditionally it was kept tied to the bedpost of the house.

[14:11] Tethered to the bedpost. Now, it's questionable whether Hebrew slaves in those days and in that culture would have had bedsteads and bedposts. So let's not get hung up on that.

[14:22] But certainly, it would have to be kept within the house. Wherever it was tethered, wherever it was kept, And most of the Hebrews, in that day and time, they would have like a one-room house.

[14:34] And you'd probably cook in one corner, you'd sleep in another corner, but it would be mats unrolled onto the floor. So wherever you kept the animals, if you had them, wherever you kept the lamb, it would have to be in the house with the family, perhaps in a different part of the house, you know, maybe lower down level or whatever, but it would be in the house with you.

[14:56] Now, this would mean that every day for four days, you are seeing it. When you get up in the morning, you see the lamb there. Maybe you've got other lives, don't do it, but you see it.

[15:07] And you'd have to feed it, of course. You'd have to look after it. You'd have to make sure it was cared for and maintained and kept for that four days. You can't just tie it up and leave it for four days.

[15:17] You've got to feed it. You've got to make sure it's got water. You've got to make sure it's got everything you need. You've got to clean up after it and so on. You've got to keep it and take care of it for four days. If you've got children in the house, and most of them would do, then they would probably become, without wanting to be sentimental about it, they'd probably become a wee bit attached to the lamb as well, and looking after it or feeding it or whatever, even in four days' work.

[15:44] You'd begin to form a wee bit of an attachment to the lamb. So it is kept there. You're looking upon it every day. You see it when you get up in the morning. You see it before you go to bed at night.

[15:56] You see it as you go in and come out. It's there. It's always there for that four days. So it is to be looked upon. It is being seen every day.

[16:07] So the frequent and daily contemplation of the lamb in the house was a sum approved by God of their approaching deliverance.

[16:19] Every time you set your eyes on that lamb, you'd be reminded that God is going to do something. God is going to do something major by which, using that lamb, we're going to be delivered.

[16:31] They wouldn't know exactly how God was going to do it. They have their instructions from Moses, and they just have to follow the instructions. They know that that lamb is bound up somehow, and its death and its blood is bound up with their deliverance.

[16:47] They know what they have to do, but they couldn't really envisage how God was going to bring them out. But they know the means by which he is going to do it, and they are looking on that lamb day after day after day, seeing it in the house.

[17:03] This frequent, daily contemplation of the lamb in the house as a sign approved, used by God of their approaching deliverance was intended to indicate to them that this is something which God has prepared.

[17:21] God has made preparation for it, and also, as we said, probably form a wee bit of an attachment to the lamb. So, if you've formed a bit of an attachment to a creature, it's going to be that much harder to slaughter it when the time comes.

[17:37] But you've got to do it. And this is, no doubt, also going to be part of the heightening of the painful cost of their deliverance.

[17:48] Right? Oh, that's not very nice. And all the wee kids in the house get attached to it, and then it has to be slaughtered, and so on. Two things to remember here. One is that the butchering of animals, the slaughtering of animals, would be very much more an everyday occurrence for people in that time and country than it would be for us.

[18:09] We have our animals slaughtered out of sight by professionals in abattoirs and butchers and so on. We don't see it until it appears in our supermarkets as a little slab of meat in a plastic wrapper or whatever.

[18:23] We don't make the connection, really, between the living creature and the meat upon our plate. But they would. They would see. They would know exactly where the meat came from.

[18:34] They would know exactly which creature had been slaughtered and butchered in order to have this particular meal. And so the reality was far more present for them. That's the first thing.

[18:45] The second thing, though, is that it is not wrong in God's scheme of things, it is not wrong that there be a heightened sense of the painful reality of the cost of the killing of this lamb.

[19:02] If they formed an attachment to it, how much more painful it is to see it butchered, to see it slaughtered at the end of the four days. It is heightening the painful cost of their deliverance.

[19:16] And friends, there is a painful cost to our deliverance. The better we know the Lord Jesus, the greater the pain is to us when we consider his cross and all that we went through.

[19:31] You can only imagine, or maybe we can't really imagine, the agony that Mary must have gone through at the foot of the cross, looking at her beloved son, her firstborn, up there upon the cross, dying, breathing out his last and the most horrendous agony and cruelty and humiliation.

[19:51] And what that must have done to her. Remember what Simeon said to her, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also. And so it did. Nobody would have known him better than she did.

[20:03] And so nobody would have felt that cost, that pain more than she did. The more we know Christ, the more painful are our thoughts of the cross.

[20:15] But at the same time, the more thankful we should be that he was willing to die for us. So a sense of the heightening of the painful cost of our deliverance is also necessary.

[20:29] But it's also necessary necessary to make us recognise the need for preparation. It is not enough if somebody's going to knock on your door at half past ten at night and say, look, it's nearly midnight, you know, the angel of death's going to be here soon, better go and find a lamb quick now and bring it in the house.

[20:50] Too late then. You've got to keep it up for four days before you slaughter it. In fact, everybody else will already have slaughtered their lamb and be eating it by then. They'll have the blood already on the doorpost by then.

[21:02] It's no use then to say, better do something about it. The need for preparation is paramount in this. It is essential to the fulfilment of that which God is undertaking.

[21:16] And likewise, the need for preparation for us is likewise essential. Although, yes, there are those who are converted on their deathbeds.

[21:29] We all know the instance also on the cross of the thief who is saved almost with his dying breath. But in all the thousands of years of the history of humanity, such instances are rare.

[21:47] Such instances are few. And it would be just plain folly of us to make these exceptions into the rule.

[21:59] They are exceptional. And they are given to us and recorded for us in order that none may lose heart entirely. But it is just plain stupidity to make it, oh, that was okay for him.

[22:13] He managed at the last minute. So, I've got plenty of time. How do you know you've got plenty of time? Preparation is of the essence both for the Passover and for their deliverance from Egypt and for our deliverance from sin and death and hell.

[22:31] They are required to bring the lamb into the midst of their home and have him there as a living presence until the time comes for the sacrifice.

[22:41] And we are required to bring Christ, as it were, not only into our hearts but into our homes that he may dwell there, that he may rule in our homes and in our hearts.

[22:56] So, the time comes for us to leave this world. We don't have to do so in fear but in the knowledge that when we are visited by death we are covered by the blood of the lamb because we have had him already in our homes, already in our hearts, because we have prepared, because we have taken the opportunity and the advantage to make preparation beforehand.

[23:25] How necessary a thing is preparation in the matter of one's salvation. It is essential for the Passover.

[23:37] It is essential also for the sinner who will be saved by Christ. He must bring it into his or her home through all the long days of darkness and you know we have many days of darkness in our lives.

[23:52] Many bitter tears that must be wept just as Jesus wept also in his life. But think about when this is being done. If this instruction is being given, as we say, chapter 10 between verse 20 and 21, we've just had the plague of locusts and then we've got after the lamb is brought into the Israelite homes then you've got three days of such intensity of darkness, even such darkness as may be felt, verse 21 of chapter 10.

[24:24] And yet the Israelites had light in their lives. They had light in their dwellings at the same time as they had the lambs in their dwellings. I'm not saying oh the lambs were luminous and all that kind of nonsense but rather as they obeyed and as they followed the instructions of their God through Moses so likewise the Lord gave them the ability to have light.

[24:49] Their lambs were not quenched by the closeness, the intensity of the darkness that closed around them like a blanket everywhere else in the country.

[25:01] it doesn't say that the Israelites were not affected by the darkness. It says rather that the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. But there was still darkness all around them for three days.

[25:13] And for those three days all that time the lamb is with them tethered in their house. The sacrifice that is coming is already prepared for.

[25:23] When the darkness falls they already have the lamb secured to them. They have already made their choice. They have already followed their instructions. It is essential to make preparation because the darkness is coming.

[25:41] And for those who depart this life without Christ we are told by Jesus himself in the New Testament that what awaits them is outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

[25:55] A darkness in other words that never lifts. That never ends. Where we're not surrounded by oh lots of fellow condemned sinners all having a jolly party and reveling in our saying no just complete total isolation.

[26:10] Because to be without God is to be desolate indeed. In this world God is at work. In this world we are surrounded by and sprinkled by the presence of his people each of whom if they are truly his have his spirit dwelling within them.

[26:27] Each of whom brings a little bit of light wherever they go. In this world the church of Jesus Christ is at work. In this world some of his laws still have the remnants of obedience.

[26:39] There are still little shafts of light of good admixed with the evil of light admixed with the darkness in this world. But in that lost eternity there are no shafts of light.

[26:53] There are no believing Christians. There is no revelry and no conviviality. There is utter desolate isolation. Complete loneliness.

[27:04] Complete lostness. Outer darkness. Without hope and without God. Because to be without God is to be without relationship.

[27:15] Is to be without hope. is to be without any kind of light at all. Jesus said I am the light of the world. If we turn our backs on the light there is only darkness.

[27:28] Outer darkness. As opposed to being within the light of the Lamb. So all through these days of darkness the Israelites have the Lamb already in their home.

[27:39] But the Lamb of course is not merely to be looked upon. Not merely to be observed for those four days. But ultimately when the time came the Lamb was to be fed upon by everyone in the household.

[27:54] And that sacrifice once it had been roasted and partaken of it was to be eaten immediately there and then that night in a state of readiness to be offed.

[28:05] Verse 11 we read Thus shall you eat it with your loins girded your shoes on your feet your staff in your hand and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover because that night they were going to be all but chased out of Egypt.

[28:22] They were going to be run out of Egypt by the Egyptians urging them on hastening them on to be gone and to go away. So they had to be in that state of readiness.

[28:33] They didn't know exactly when midnight was going to come. They didn't know exactly when the cry was going to go up through all the land of Egypt. They didn't know exactly when Moses or the other leaders were going to come and say right okay come out now bring all your belongings bring all your people quick time to go.

[28:52] They didn't know when but they were ready for it. And this is how you eat the Passover he says with your loins girded your shoes on your feet your staff in your hand you shall eat it in haste it is the Lord's Passover.

[29:05] It was to be eaten immediately that night. It was to be eaten in a state of readiness to be off for we know not the exact doubt of our departure or deliverance any more than they do.

[29:18] So as we come to Christ and as we partake of his deliverance and I'm not talking here about the physical fact of sitting at the Lord's table that is an outward sign of an inward reality but I'm talking about feeding upon Christ about coming to him by faith taking him for our personal savior.

[29:37] That must be done in haste. It must be done quickly. It must be done soon because we know not the hour of our departure. We know not when that final knock will come as it were upon the door of our hearts.

[29:52] We know that it is coming. We know that there is going to be death for all who are not in life in the savior. As we feed upon Christ we do so with haste.

[30:04] We do so as it were suddenly. We do it immediately. It is not to be deferred until the morning. It says, Eat not of it raw nor sodden it all with water nor roast with fire.

[30:15] His legs with his pertinence thereof he shall let nothing of it remain until the morning. That which remaineth of it until the morning he shall burn with fire. So whatever doesn't get eaten gets burned.

[30:27] Whether it's the innards or whether it's the head, whether it's the legs, whatever, anything that isn't eaten all gets burnt in the fire. There's not going to be anything to pick over in the morning. Maybe by the morning they will be gone anyway.

[30:41] So it must be eaten that night. There will be nothing for the next day. Tonight, there and then the lamb must be partaken of. Today Christ is offered.

[30:53] Of tomorrow we have no promise. And for their tomorrow, by then they will already be on the road out of Egypt. And for us, there is the offer of Christ tonight.

[31:06] There is the offer of Christ today. There is the lamb of God upon whom we may feed now. And if we say, oh, well, we'll wait until another day. We'll wait until tomorrow.

[31:18] Don't leave it until tomorrow because tomorrow might not leave you alone. Tomorrow may not be something upon which we open our eyes. And although that is something we can say as a cliche, the number of times souls have seen the darkness fall in one evening, but they never actually see the sunrise of the next day because something or other happens of which we have no warning, of which we have no knowledge.

[31:47] But we do have knowledge that Christ is freely offered to sinners and he is freely offered now. He is freely offered tonight. As Paul writes to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 2, Behold, now is the accepted time.

[32:04] Behold, now is the day of salvation. But we see also that it's not enough simply that the lamb's blood be shed and that the lamb be eaten and partaken of, but the lamb's blood must also be applied.

[32:20] It must be sprinkled and visibly mark the doorposts of each house. Verse 7, they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and the upper doorpost of the houses wherein they shall eat it.

[32:35] Now of course it doesn't say on the threshold. The blood isn't to be sprinkled on the threshold because it's not to be trampled underfoot. It's to be either side post and on the post across the top, the lintel across the top.

[32:47] Everyone that goes in or out of that house will see the blood. The angel of death will see the blood. It will be that which marks and guides and protects them. Jesus said in John chapter 10 and verse 9, I am the door.

[33:02] By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. He is the door into our heart, into our home.

[33:14] That door is a door marked with blood. It is marked with the door, with the blood of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

[33:26] Again, Paul went to the Corinthians. Verse Corinthians 5. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the face. That blood must be applied.

[33:39] It must be sprinkled. It must visibly mark the doorposts of each house. Partaking of the Passover must be accompanied by the outward and visible demonstration of doing so.

[33:52] And it is not enough then simply to say, well that's okay, because I've taken Christ as my saviour, but I'm not going to tell anyone. I'm not going to let anyone know, yes, I believe and I believe with all my heart, so that's okay, I'm saved if I happen to die tonight.

[34:09] But then I'm not going to tell anyone. I'm just going to keep it a secret and I'm just going to carry on as though I were not a believer. If Christ is truly in your heart, it will be as Jeremiah said, as a fire within your bones, such as it's got to have an outlet, such as you have to make that public expression, that visible outward statement of where that blood is applied.

[34:37] Sooner or later it must be visible to the world, just as it is visible to God and known to you. the blood must be not only shed, the blood must be applied and it must be visibly seen so that all will know whether in this house, whether in this heart are those covered by the blood.

[35:03] It is that which must be lifted up, just as in the side doorpost and on the lintel across the top, not the threshold, but it can be trampled underfoot, just as Christ is lifted up upon the cross.

[35:14] Remember he said, I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men up to me. So the blood of Christ is visible at the sides and above that all who pass through those doors do so covered on either side and above by the blood protected by that once and for all sacrifice.

[35:35] And yet as we come, and yet as we are covered, there is, as we read here, this partaking of it with bitter herbs, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

[35:49] Now notice if you have the authorised version, the word herbs is in italics. That means it's not part of the original text. So it is simply with bitter, they shall eat it, which could be translated with bitterness.

[36:02] In other words, this deliverance is also at the same time to be a reminder of what we are delivered from. It is to be a reminder of the bitter herbs or to be a reminder of the bitterness of their slavery.

[36:18] And the 400 years in Egypt when they were ground down, when they were oppressed, when they were slaves, when they groaned to be free of that burden, and yet how quickly we forget.

[36:31] So it was to remind them of the bitterness of slavery that sin and idolatry is. It's because they were infected by the idolatry of Egypt. We are all infected by the idolatry of our lives.

[36:43] We said this morning that really all of humanity boils down into two categories. That which is God-centred, Christ-centred and honourable, and that which is man-serving.

[36:55] False religion and the lack of religion and lack of faith, it's all man-centred, man-serving. And all false religion is ultimately man-serving.

[37:05] Whereas Christ-centred, God-honouring faith puts him at the heart and centre and soul of all these things. And it's ultimately about him rather than about ourselves.

[37:17] So the bitterness with which they were to remember their slavery is a reminder of the bitterness of our sin. And sin is bitter to us. We know what we are delivered from when we are saved by Christ.

[37:31] Christ. We are reminded of the bitterness of our sin and our lives without him. And what it would have been had he not saved and redeemed us.

[37:42] And so this land they partake of, it is the whole land. It is all of it that is available for them, given for roasting and eating. Nothing is kept back in the sacrifice of this ordinance.

[37:54] For it signifies that we must have the whole Christ. Or nothing at all. Christ does not keep back any part of himself. When he gives himself completely upon the cross.

[38:08] Every drop of blood. Every last breath. It is finished. And then he said, Father, into my hands I commend my spirit. And he breathed his last.

[38:19] Christ. Every last breath. Given for the redemption of sinners. It is a whole Christ that we must have. Or not at all.

[38:29] You can't have Christ a little bit. Or one day but not another. Or partially but not totally. Anything less than a whole Christ. A whole redemption. Is not a redemption at all.

[38:42] It is like going to sea in a ship. And saying, well all of the hull is watertight. Except this little bit here. Except this little gash in the side. Where the water is coming in a wee bit. But you know, we can bail that out a wee bit.

[38:54] But all the rest of it is fine. Just this little bit here. That little bit will be the sinking of the ship. That little bit will be the death of all who sail in hand.

[39:04] That little bit that is not given to Christ will be the death of your soul. It is a whole Christ that we must have. Or not at all. It is the whole land that is given and roasted in the fire.

[39:17] and given to be partaken of. It is not only his blood shed for the forgiveness of our sin. It is his spirit to sanctify us and to rule us.

[39:28] As well as his blood to save us. All of us. Within and without must be given to Christ. So we have this deliverance. Yes, we have the unleavened bread as well.

[39:40] Of which there is mention. Now some people just in closing. Some people would say as we look ahead to verse 34 say the people took their dough before it was leavened. Their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders as though it was almost accidental that the bread wasn't leavened.

[39:57] And the instructions given to the Israelite elders from verse 21 onward don't explicitly make mention of the unleavened bread. It is almost like it is accidental. But what God is giving here in the early part of chapter 12 is instructions about how this Passover is to be commemorated hereafter.

[40:17] It is a fact that they didn't have time to leaven any of the bread because it was in haste. But that very unleavened state of their bread was indicative not only of the comparative bitterness of their state before but also of the haste with which they left Egypt.

[40:36] And that was to be commemorated. There's also the sense in which leaven has a certain corruption about it. It is the dough gone sour which it would have been in those days and in that culture.

[40:49] Jesus made reference to the leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees which is hypocrisy. There is a sense in which leaven points us to the corruption to the imperfection of our own sin and human nature.

[41:03] And none of that is to be there in that sacrifice. It is all to be perfected. There is no contradiction between the fact that the absence of leaven is partly simply a providence of them having to run away from Egypt in the night.

[41:18] But it is also that for which God has prepared. God is way ahead of us. Planning and purpose and preparation is all the work of God.

[41:33] so you can leave these things with God. The deep questions and eternal issues about your soul and what will happen and how will this be done and how will that be done.

[41:46] You and I we don't have to worry about that. We just follow his instructions. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It's like as we've used this illustration before you get up the gangplank onto the ferry and you go and get your cup of coffee and you sit down in the lounge you don't worry about how are the engines going to turn the propellers what will the engineers do to make sure everything runs smoothly how will the captain know about his navigation I wonder if all the all the instruments will work okay on the bridge.

[42:16] It's not your worry. Somebody else is in charge of that. You get yourself up and onto the vessel and then you let the pilot the captain the engineers the crew worry about getting you for made to be.

[42:29] You get yourself on the vessel of salvation. You get yourself on the Lord Jesus Christ and let him worry about all the whys and wherefores and eternal destiny and how this came to be.

[42:42] He is way ahead of you. All that we have to do is respond to the preparation that he has made to the plans that he has laid and to the invitation that he issues to sinners to bring the Lamb of God within your heart within your home and to do it now and to do it soon because our salvation will not depend upon our intention or good wishes or best efforts.

[43:14]  It will depend upon the shed blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world a whole Christ or nothing at all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.