From His Heart

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Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. He continues his study from the book of Exodus and the meaning and power of the Passover Lamb.

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This is a picture of salvation. There's only one way to escape death and that is by taking the blood that Jesus shed on the cross and applying it to your sin stained heart. And if you've never done that, you're not ready to meet the Lord.

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He can heal every scar.

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The Lord was going to bring death to the firstborn of Egypt from Pharaoh on down through each family. Many were going to die in this last plague. And it was a picture of a much greater truth.

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Thank you for joining us today for a message that will teach us about the heart of God, the power of God, and the plan of God to send His Son to redeem us when He did. The lesson is entitled "The Passover Lamb" and will air part two today. It is from Pastor Jeff's eight-message study of the book of Exodus called "Faithful and Introducing the One and Only God."

You can get the entire series in the format of your choice when you go to fromhisheart.org and make your gift today of any amount through the ongoing support of From His Heart.

But first, open your Bible to Exodus, chapter 11, as Pastor Jeff explores the ultimate meaning for all mankind about the blessing of the Passover lamb.

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Here's my question to you to consider. Do you understand the significance of the final plague and the Passover lamb? Because those fit together, two very simple yet important truths that we want to look at today. Discoveries from the Scripture.

Discovery number one, the Lord was going to bring death to the firstborn. That is the final plague. Death to the firstborn. About midnight, he says again in verse four, I'm going into the midst of Egypt. And it says in Exodus, chapter 12, verse 29. Now, it came about at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon and all the firstborn of cattle, just like God said. That's how it happened.

Now some people, they get upset at this and they say, well, God has no right to do that. Who is God to think that he can do that? Why in the world would God do that? Take the lives of all these people? You need to remember this about God. God is the giver of life. God doesn't really have to take life. He just has to stop giving life. Life is a gift from God. It's not something we are owed.

And here's the thing. Why did God bring death to the firstborn? Because this plague was justly delivered as payback. Now, Pharaoh had been mistreating the Israelites through slavery, killing the Hebrew boys. This is what the Lord says in Exodus chapter 4. This is before Moses had ever gone to Pharaoh. This is the introductory conversations that God is having with Moses. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord. Thus says Yahweh. Israel is my son, my firstborn. Pharaoh abusing God's firstborn. God is going to come after his firstborn. Death to the firstborn.

But now he makes a distinction. Because death is coming to the Egyptians, but no death is coming to the Israelites. God makes a distinction between those who belong to him and those who don't.

Discovery number two. The Lord was going to provide escape through the Passover lamb. So the last plague sets up this beautiful picture of what was going to come in the New Testament. It's a beautiful picture of salvation. It's a beautiful picture of God's son, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Hey, certain death is coming. Cause God is coming with his band of destroying angels. They're gonna kill all the firstborn. But there is a way of escape and it's through the blood of the lamb. The Bible says in First Corinthians 5, 7, Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. As we read in Exodus chapter 12. All about the Passover. All about the Passover lamb. That's a picture of Jesus Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Let's look at some things about this lamb. First of all, the Passover lamb was chosen on the 10th of the month, the 10th of Nisan. And what do they do with that lamb on the 14th of the month? They kill that lamb. Verse 6. And you shall keep it, the lamb, until the 14th day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it. Twilight. Twilight between the evenings is what is referred to there in the Hebrew understanding. And that was 3:00 to 5:00.

When did they start killing the Passover lambs? 3:00. When did Jesus breathe his last on the cross? 3:00. And when Jesus came on the scene, John the Baptist said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Hey. This is the year 1446 B.C. the very first Passover. And you pick a lamb on the 10th, and you inspect that lamb and then you kill that lamb at twilight, at 3pm on the 14th. Now that creates a problem for us in our understanding of Palm Sunday and Good Friday, because if you do the math here, we have the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th. Pick the lamb on the 10th, you slay the lamb on the 14th. If Palm Sunday is the 10th, then you'd have Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Jesus would die on Thursday. Some people believe that. I don't believe that.

But if you see Palm Sunday as really Palm Monday, which really messes it up for us, doesn't it? Cause you guys aren't coming back on Monday. But if it's Palm Monday, that would be the 10th of Nisan. And then it's 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, Friday, 14th, 3pm Good Friday. And that's what Harold Honer, the scholar, says. Jesus was crucified on Nisan 14 in the year 33 AD which corresponds to our calendar, April 3, 33 AD.

Jesus, after he presented himself to the people on that day when he came into the city and they were saying hosanna to the son of David, what happened then? He cleansed the temple. What happened after that? He dealt with the religious leaders as they scrutinized him, as they asked him all these questions, as they came at him from every angle. He was being examined during that time.

You know what's difficult for people when you start talking about Palm Sunday to get to Good Friday. There's a day in there called Silent Wednesday, because the Bible doesn't say anything that happened to Jesus on Wednesday. So that's kind of weird that in the last week of his life he takes a day off. So it makes more sense that it would be Palm Monday, because then everything is chock full until his crucifixion on Friday.

The Lord is keeping with this picture of the Passover lamb. So the lamb was chosen on the 10th of Nisan. The lamb was slain at Twilight on the 14th. And then the lamb was eaten in haste with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. Look at verse 8. And they shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire. And they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs, along with its entrails.

And you shall not leave any of it over until morning. But whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. Now you shall eat it in this manner with your loins, girded with your sandals on your feet, with your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. This is the Lord's Passover. That's how they were to eat it.

Why, this is the last night in Egypt. Cause God is coming in with his band of destroying angels and there's going to be death and Pharaoh's gonna let you go. And so you eat it in haste. And you eat it with bitter herbs. Why bitter herbs? Because it reminds you of the bitterness of your life as a slave in Egypt.

Isn't it interesting when you read in Numbers especially how the people started to. They forgot how bitter their lives were in Egypt. And when things would be difficult in the wilderness, they'd say, oh, we wish we were back in Egypt. Oh, Egypt was so great. We sat by pots of meat and we had leeks and onions and it was wonderful. And now all we have to eat is manna. Yuck.

Hey, manna tasted good. But anything can start to taste a little stale after 40 years of eating it. I mean, manna for breakfast, manna for lunch, manna for suppertime. You got manna waffles, manna bagels. I mean, it's just banana bread. I mean, you got all that stuff. And they just got sick of it and they remembered how wonderful it was in Egypt.

You were slaves in Egypt. You were making bricks without straw. Don't forget how bitter it was. And you ate it with unleavened bread. Unleavened bread leaven is a picture of sin in the Bible. And so when you ate the Passover, you made sure to get the leaven out.

And Passover is on Nisan 14. Unleavened bread starts at that evening on Nisan 15. Remember, they did the way they did days. It's 6pm to 6pm is a day. It's not midnight to midnight like we do 6pm to 6pm so Passover, the Passover lamb is killed on the 14th of Nisan at twilight, at 3 o'clock, at 6 o'clock, it's the next day.

And the next day is the feast of unleavened bread. And you don't eat anything with yeast in it for seven days. You make sure the yeast is all out of your home. It's a picture of sin. And it's a picture of Jesus who was crucified on Good Friday. Jesus, who is completely without sin. He is completely pure.

And when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, very important that you make sure your heart is right with him and that there's no sin lurking in the shadows. Hey, they ate the lamb. Do we do that with the Lord Jesus? Yes, we feed on him and feast on Him. He's not only our Savior and our sacrifice, he's our sustenance and he's our sufficiency.

And we have this relationship with him. He, as it says in Colossians, chapter three, he is our life. He's your connection to life. You have no life outside of Jesus. And so the Passover lamb, and it's eaten in haste, you say. How does that figure in anything eaten in haste? I'll tell you how it figures.

1 Corinthians 11. The Bible says, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Let me tell you something. Jesus is coming soon. He's coming soon. So we eat it in haste, so to speak. Cause we know not only did he die for us, not only did he rise again from the dead on the feast of first fruits. That's that Sunday when they would wave the firstfruits of the harvest. He is the firstfruits.

The Bible says in First Corinthians, chapter 15, and he is coming again in power and great glory. We don't know when that's going to be. The Bible just says in James, chapter five, the coming of the Lord is near. And so when we partake of the Lord's Supper, we just know. We proclaim his death until he comes. And he is coming soon, soon and very soon. We're going to see the king. We don't know when that is, but we have that anticipation that the King is coming. Praise God. He's coming for me.

And the people, or the Passover was eaten in haste with bitter herbs, unleavened bread, and the people were spared through the blood of the lamb. That is the key, key component of the Passover. Why is it called Passover? Let's look. Verse 7. Moreover, they're to kill the Passover lamb at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

And then it says in verse 12, for I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment against I am the Lord. And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

That's what God told Moses. Here's what Moses tells the people in verse 22. He says, and you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and to the two doorposts. And none of you shall go outside of the door of his house until morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians.

And when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you. And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. Forever. Don't ever forget this.

Why? Because this is so important? Why? Just because it's God's deliverance of his people from Egypt? No, because it's a bigger picture of what God is going to do when he sends his son, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and he is going to die. And when you take his blood and by faith apply it to your sin stained heart, then you are forgiven.

And you tell your children and you tell the world that Jesus Christ will save anybody who will put his faith and trust in him. Hey, the death angel's coming in and he's going to kill. And there's one thing that the Lord was looking for, one thing on the door, one thing. The blood of the lamb. One thing.

You didn't have a choice of what you wanted to put on there. You know, as Harry Emerson Fosdick, the liberal theologian from the early 1900s in New York, he would talk about the blood in the Gospels and he said, I just, we gotta get away from this slaughterhouse religion talking about the blood. Let's quit talking about the blood. Let's just talk about the life of Jesus and not the death of Jesus.

Listen, you're not saved by learning lessons from the life of Jesus. You're saved by receiving life from the death of Jesus. That's how a person is saved. The blood is the only thing that washes white as snow. So suppose you had been there and you said, well, I don't want to do this blood thing. I'm not into that. I mean, I agree with Harry Emerson Fosdick. I don't like this slaughterhouse religion.

So I'm just going to write some poems to the Lord. I'm going to tack those on the door, on the sides of the door, the door posts and on the lintel, the top part of the door. I just put that on there. Well, what would happen to you? The death angel would have come in at midnight and killed your firstborn. Death was coming to your door.

What if you had said, well, I got my church membership, I got my baptism certificate, I got Sunday school ribbons, I'm going to put those on the door because surely God is really pleased with those. If you had done that, the death angel would have come in and killed your firstborn.

Suppose you had said, well, I'm going to put some money in a sack. I have some silver coins and gold coins. I'm going to put those, I'll tack those up on the door and on the lintel. And if you had done that, the death angel would come in and would kill your firstborn.

There's one thing and one thing only that God was looking for and that was the blood of the Lamb. You can't get saved any other way. This is a picture of salvation. There's only one way to escape death and that is by taking the blood that Jesus shed on the cross and applying it to your sin stained heart.

And if you've never done that, you're not ready to meet the Lord. You are going to fall to this plague that befalls all of us. I was talking to somebody not too long ago and I told him, I said, hey, you have a disease. The disease is called sin. And I said, there is only one remedy for your sin and that's the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

And he said, well, why does it have to be that? I said, cause it is that. I mean it is. You can't change that. Why is the sky blue? I don't know, but it just is. That's the way God set it up. There's only one way of salvation and that is through Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through him. And you can't change that.

And I said, the Lord provided the way of escape for you at a tremendous cost, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your feudal way of life, inherited from your forefathers, with precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. And God offers that to anyone who will repent and believe.

Hey, the Lamb was slain and the people were spared through the blood of the Lamb. And then the people went out from Egypt, loaded down with blessings. The Death angel came, just like God said. Around midnight, every home had somebody die. Pharaoh calls for Moses and says, go out. You can leave. Go.

And the people, they wanted them to leave so badly. They said, here are articles of gold and silver and here's our wealth. And the Israelites had favor in the sight of the Egyptians, because the Egyptians said, we're going to all be dead if these people stay here. And so they went out, a great multitude, the Bible says, a mixed multitude.

So it wasn't just all the children of Israel, it was some Egyptians too, that went out, that believed the Lord and went out. And they went out loaded down with the spoils of Egypt. Hey, this is a picture. Exodus, chapter 12. It's a picture of the Christian life. See?

Because the Bible says that this month, Nisan was the beginning of months for the Israelites. Salvation is the beginning for you and for me. When we apply the blood of the Lamb to our hearts, we have a brand new life. We're born again. As Iris Blue said the prostitute in Houston, when she heard the Gospel and responded to the Gospel, she said, I got down on my knees a tramp and I arose a lady.

That's the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a new beginning for you. And what happens then? We have this relationship with Jesus. The blood has washed all our sins away. And he lives in our hearts through the person of the Holy Spirit. And we feed on him and we grow as we spend time with him.

And he loads us down with blessings and he leads us out to go to the promised land to live a life where we're filled with the Spirit. Escape through the Lamb.

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You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve today, and the lesson is the Passover Lamb. It's from his educational and motivating series, Faithful and True: Introducing the One and Only God. This series explores the book of Exodus, focusing on God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.

This eight-message series emphasizes God's faithfulness, his unique identity as the one true God, and his miraculous intervention in human history. This includes God's powerful response to Pharaoh's challenge, the revelation of God's character through the Exodus events, God's faithfulness in keeping his promises, and more.

This exciting series is also our gift to you for your support of From His Heart this month of any amount. Pastor Jeff is a volunteer for the ministry and receives no income from it. To get your copy, either on a USB Flash Drive, immediate MP3 download, or CDs or DVDs—your choice—you can make your gift when you go to fromhisheart.org or by calling 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE). Just request the series Faithful and True when you make your gift, and we trust you will, so you can better understand the one true God who is always faithful and true.

Well, we've completed part two of this lesson, the Passover Lamb. Today, you can listen to part one online, and you can listen to or download any of the broadcasts that we've already aired this month on this series when you go to fromhisheart.org. We'll have the seventh message from this series beginning tomorrow. Here's part of what's to come then.

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We have so many people today who are so afraid, just living in fear. Maybe you're facing some fears today. Maybe you're facing some obstacles. God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and discipline.

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Join us for the lesson Fear, Faith and the Power of God. That's on Wednesday when we'll open up God's word and share real truth, love and hope from his heart.

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There is tree, there is bless, There is hope that you always dream of. He can heal every scar with real truth, real love, real hope from his heart.

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From his heart is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out about that. Go to fromisheart.org.