Shadows to Substance Conference (Day 2 Michael Schultz) CHRIST OUR PASSOVER

Well, thank you, and in order to maintain neutrality today,

I'm going to be reading out of the elect standard version, the ESV, and hope that that's not offensive to anybody.

Consider it a healthy middle ground between the King James and the LSB. We'll hold the center, all right?

Again, my name is Michael Schultz. I'm honored to be here. I do pastor Antioch Baptist Church in Lewisburg, Kentucky.

It's a pleasure to speak. I am speaking in place of Brother Brandon Scalf. He was meant to be speaking here, but he is planting a church in Heritage, excuse me, a church called

Heritage in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And so it's week three now of their church, and he thought it imprudent, wisely, to leave the church and come to a conference when they are in such an important part of their planting.

So we pray for Brother Brandon and his church there, that they would be fruitful and multiply. And also, before we begin,

I want to thank Brother Jeff Rice for giving me the opportunity to step in and for organizing this conference and doing such a wonderful job of it.

It's very hard to organize a conference. If you've never tried to do it, you wouldn't understand. It's rather difficult.

So thank him for doing that. And finally, the people of Covenant Reform Baptist Church for providing a wonderful host venue and for being so kind and courteous.

All of you. Really appreciate you. At this point, you've already heard how that the

Lord was prefigured in the day of the atonement. Brother Greg did a fantastic job with that. You've heard how that Christ is the light of the world.

Brother Kevin did fantastic with that. You have heard how that Christ is our true king.

Brother Claude really ran through the Bible on that one. I thought you were going to read the whole book. But he just ran right through the

Bible with that one, man. Fantastic work. And this morning, you have heard how that Christ is our greater ark.

And I thank Brother John for doing such a fantastic job for that. Now I am entrusted with the lofty responsibility of presenting to you

Christ our Passover. And this is probably one of the most direct forms of typology in the

Bible. It's very easy because in a great example of Scripture interpreting Scripture, Paul literally says

Christ is our Passover in 1 Corinthians 5 -7. So I have almost no work to do.

I'm tempted to sit down. With that said, I am going to endeavor to present to you

Christ our Passover. I'm glad to present it. And so if you'd like to turn in your Bibles, I'm going to be in Exodus chapter 12.

Once you've found Exodus 12, I trust you can find that pretty quickly. If your Bible has a ribbon, you can also turn to Romans 3 and put your ribbon there.

We're going to be embarking from Exodus 12, and we'll find our port at the end of this journey in Romans 3.

I'm not going to preach everything between, but we will be finalizing the sermon in Romans 3 and beginning in Exodus 12.

I don't know any other way to preach other than to just do it expositionally. So you'll find that this is probably going to be somewhat like what you experience at your home church every week, as we are in our home church right now, aren't we?

There's no such thing as just a local church. We are all the church of God gathered together.

And so I don't feel like I'm in any different church than my own right now. You're my family and my people as much as the people back in Lewisburg.

Thank you for being here. A little bit of context on Exodus 12 before we begin reading. Hopefully you're familiar with the story, but in Exodus 12, we're going to read verses 1 through 11 in a moment.

At this point, the Israelites have been enslaved for over 400 years. God has called Moses out of the desert to deliver them, and he in Exodus 7 began to tell

Moses what his plan was. He began in Exodus 7 too, saying, You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother

Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden his heart. Though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you.

Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment, and the

Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And so the plan ensued, and everything went exactly as God had said it would go.

There was bloody water and gnats and flies and frogs and pestilence and boils and hail and locusts and darkness, and then we got to chapter 11.

In chapter 11, God promised a final plague. In verses 4 through 7, he says, I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle.

And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been nor ever will be again. But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the

Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. And if that had been where God stopped talking, the

Israelites might have gone home and said, well, praise God! How wonderful that we are the children of Abraham, that Jacob is our ancestor.

Thank God we can sit back and relax and just wait for God to pour out judgment on the heathen and allow us to be delivered.

But that was not where God stopped speaking. He went on and continued into chapter 12, which reveals a very sobering reality, which is that the

Israelites are not about to be delivered by the very nature of their being Israelites. They're not going to be delivered because they are the children of Abraham and Jacob.

On this night, they will be delivered by the blood of a slaughtered lamb. And that lamb will stand either as their representative or perhaps even as their substitute.

On this night, their salvation will come by the slaughter of a lamb.

So with that contextual background set, in honor and reverence for the reading of God's word, would you stand with me as we read

Exodus chapter 12, verses 1 through 11. Again, Exodus chapter 12, verses 1 through 11.

The word of God says, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month shall be for you the beginning of months.

It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household.

And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons.

According to what each of you can eat, you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old.

You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the full assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lentil of the houses in which they speak. They shall eat the flesh that night, roast it on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

They shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roast it, its head with its legs and its inner parts.

And you shall let none of it remain until the morning. Anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it, with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand.

And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. You can be seated as we pray together.

God in heaven, we thank you for allowing us to come back to your house today. We thank you for the freedom that we have to worship you.

We don't have to do this under the cloak of darkness, but we can gather together openly and even invite our friends. God thank you for such a time as this.

We pray now that you would speak and that you would help us to rightly divide your word of truth.

God I pray that you would be with me, that you would speak through such a lowly vessel that I blush at the idea of you saying a good and faithful servant.

But that you might say to me, as I hope that you would say to others, he did what he could. God be with us now, in Jesus' holy name, amen.

From the outset of this passage, we see that this plague is different. In the previous plagues, they fell on the

Egyptians. The Israelites were almost always exempted altogether. For example, in the fifth plague, chapter 9 and verse 6, all the livestock of the

Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. The seventh plague, hail, chapter 9 and verse 26.

Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, was there no hail. The ninth plague, chapter 10, verse 23, the darkness spread across Egypt, and there was

But all the people of Israel had light where they lived. But something's different now. Back then,

God had said in chapter 9 and verse 4 that he would do that for the purpose of making a distinction between Israel and Egypt.

And it's the same verbiage he uses in chapter 11 and verse 7. He's going to make a distinction between Israel and Egypt, but now, for the first time, the distinction that's being made is not ethnic or national.

The distinction that's being made here does not appear to be on the basis of their lineage.

This judgment is coming on everybody. I'll say that again. This judgment is coming on everybody,

Israelite and Egyptian alike. Why? There must be a reason. Well, I would argue that the reason is that this judgment is not purely on the

Egyptian enslavement of the Israelites. This judgment is on sin. And while there may have been a distinction between Egypt and Israel as far as their relationship to enslavement, there was no distinction between Egypt and Israel on the basis of sin.

When God looked down on Israel, he saw sinners, just like he saw in Egypt. And the judgment on sin, the punishment for sin, or the

King James Version would render it, the wages for sin is death. And so God must bring judgment on sin.

And that sin has a wage of death. Because sin is throughout every household,

Egyptian and Israelite alike, in every single household Israelite and Egyptian alike, there will be death. There must be death.

Even religiously, they were not distinct from one another in a great way. Ezekiel 20 in verse 8 tells us that when the

Israelites came out of Egypt, here's the quote, they did not forsake the idols of Egypt.

They walked out in the Exodus holding the idols of the Egyptians. They were no better.

When God looked down, he was bringing judgment, a righteous and holy God bringing judgment on sin.

And as far as sin was concerned, there was no distinction. They were all sinners. It strikes me that we begin in verse 1 with the

Lord saying to Moses, Moses was not distinct. Moses had to keep the

Passover. Hebrews 11, 28 says, by faith, Moses kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

Moses needed to be delivered from the judgment of God by the blood of the Lamb. I want to emphasize that.

This is Moses. Now, I know we live in a reformed Christian world where we say, oh, we're all sinners, and duh -duh -duh.

And we don't make any distinction, except for when Steve Lawson or John MacArthur or R .C.

Sproul walks in the room, suddenly, everybody gravitates that way because we know, ooh, that's a special guy, right?

We're all sinners, but they're just a little less, right? We would like to act like we wouldn't think that way if Moses was here, but the truth of the matter is we would.

Moses witnessed the burning bush. Moses was the one that stretched out his staff and split the

Red Sea. Moses was the one that went up on the mountain, talked to God, brought the law down, his face shining with the glory of God.

Moses was on the mountain with Christ. This is Moses.

And Moses needed to be delivered from the judgment of God by the blood of the Lamb. If Moses had not covered himself with the blood of the

Lamb, God would have treated Moses no different from Pharaoh, because he was no different.

He was a sinner. And it was not just Moses. It goes on. Moses and Aaron.

This is Aaron. We don't care as much about Aaron because he's the brother, right?

I have an older sister who was a fantastic athlete, and I know what that's like, to be the brother of the one that's important.

Aaron was no scrub. Brother Greg mentioned yesterday Exodus 28, talking about the wardrobe change of the high priest.

If you read the first verse of Exodus 28, it prescribes for us that the high priests of Israel were to be the sons of Aaron.

All the Levites were to be temple servants, but the sons of Aaron specifically were to be the high priests.

He is the progenitor of the high priests. You'll see that if you read Ezra and Nehemiah.

Brother Kevin talked about the revival that happens in Nehemiah yesterday. Read what they did. They go back to the word of God and they say, we need to do what

God said to do, and one of the things that they do is they say the sons of Aaron have to be the high priests. This is

Aaron. Aaron needs to be delivered from the judgment of God by the blood of the Lamb.

If Aaron had not come under the blood of the Lamb, God would have treated Aaron no different from the magicians of Egypt, because he was no different.

He's a sinner. I would have liked to have been there that night on the 14th day when all the men come out to their houses and they're painting, they've got their hyssop branches and the bowl of blood and they're painting, and I would have liked to have seen

Moses and Aaron, these great godly men that everyone trusted in humble obedience, recognizing their complete dependence on God to deliver them that day.

This is a reality that we're prone to forget. There are no great men of God, as Paul Washer would say.

They're just humble people. I met Paul Washer once and I said the very worst thing that you could possibly say to Paul Washer.

He was walking in the door and I said, he was knocking, it was a locked door, he was going to the back where the important people are, and he was knocking on the door and I said,

Brother Washer, would you like me to tell them that the star has arrived? I don't know why

I said that. The last person that you ever say that to. He turned, and he said two words, he goes, this is so Paul Washer, he goes, just flesh.

Just like a, you know, I'm walking away like, oh God, why did I say that,

I text my wife, I'm so stupid, you've married an idiot. But we're prone to do that, to look at these men that we really respect and think, oh there's a great man.

No, no, no, there's just sinners, there's just sinners.

Moses and Aaron couldn't save themselves from judgment that night, they couldn't save their people from judgment that night because sinners can't save sinners from the judgment of God on sin.

There are two categories of people. Those that have sinned and those who have not.

And in one category you have every person ever save one, and in the other category you've got the one.

Sinners can't save sinners from the judgment of God on sin. Moses and Aaron needed the blood of the Lamb.

Verses two through four give us a description that's even more leveling. It's not just that Moses and Aaron can't deliver themselves, they can't even do this on behalf of their people.

This is not the kind of thing that Moses and Aaron do for the Israelites. Every single person in the congregation of Israel, every man must personally apply the covering of the blood of the

Lamb. Every one. I have two little daughters, myself a three year old and a five month old, and I love being a hashtag girl dad, it's the best ever.

If you have boys, just pity you, you're missing out. But I find myself increasingly and more fervently praying with my three year old that God would save her, because I'm confronted with a very uncomfortable reality.

I can protect her from a lot of things in this world, but when it comes to the judgment of God on sin, I can't save my little girl.

I can't do a thing for her. Presbyterians would say, you could baptize her.

Nope. There's not a thing in the world I can do for my little baby. Because sinners can't save sinners from the judgment of God on sin.

And so with that in mind, I find myself imagining this passage where the fathers are coming out and they're painting their doors with the hyssop branches and the blood, and I imagine as a father myself,

I'd be peeking down the road, did the Hendersons do three coats or four? How many, you know, is theirs darker than mine?

Are we doing every square inch, or do you just do the top and let it run down? What are we doing? What are we doing? Let's make sure that I'm not the guy on the block that didn't do enough.

And I imagine in that moment, my little girl standing beside me, and some of you that have kids, you know, they start listening to conversations that they really oughtn't be listening to, and maybe start saying words that they're not meant to say, and they're hearing things that you didn't intend for them to hear.

And I imagine the children on this week, these four days heading up, you imagine mom is suddenly hugging and kissing you a lot, and dad's rather anxious and he's a bit irritable, and your aunts and uncles have taken your cousins in the house, and everybody's whispering when you come around, and you're starting to get the idea something bad is about to happen, and I think it might have something to do with me.

And so you're standing there next to your dad, and he's standing there painting the thing, and he's as anxious as you are, I mean, you have to imagine, am

I doing this right? And suddenly he turns around and looks at you, and you're looking at him, and he's looking at you, and you're looking at him, and he looks at the door, and you look at the door, and he looks at the door, and you look at the door, and finally you break the silence, and you say, daddy, you're going to take care of me, right?

It's going to be okay? I'm going to be all right? And as a father, I see my little girl asking that, daddy, it's going to be okay, right?

And I know in my heart of hearts on that day I had nothing to say to her. Honey, I can't protect you from what's coming tonight.

It's God. If God wills to do this, I can't stop him. But in that moment, a greater revelation comes over me, that I might say to my little girl, honey,

God's word is sure, and he has said that he will have mercy on everyone who is distinguished by the blood of the

Lamb. You see, on this night, in this situation, the distinction was not purely

Israel and Egypt. The distinction was the people of faith and the people with none.

That's right. The people who humbled themselves in the sight of God and the people who blasphemed

God, the people who bowed and trembled at God's word and the people who scoffed at God's word. That is the distinction on this night.

With that in mind, I would argue that if an Egyptian happened to do what God had told them to do, that he would have passed over their house as well.

In Exodus chapter 9, verse 20, it says that there were some who feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh, and they did what

God had said to do, to be delivered from the plagues. In Exodus 12, 38, later in this same chapter, it says when they came out of Egypt, they came out a mixed multitude.

John Gill comments on that passage. He says some of these were Egyptians, some of them from other nations, likely other slaves who chose to go along with the children of Israel, some through intermarriages, and note this, others on account of religion becoming proselytes of righteousness.

On this day, the distinction is not your ethnicity or your nationality. On this day, the distinction is faith or no faith.

You're protected by the blood of the Lamb or you are not. A great reality to realize on this night is that it is not that in some households there will be death and in others there will not.

In every single household, someone dies. It's either your son or the

Lamb. I thank God that He gave His Son that I might not have to give my daughter.

He gave His Son, the Lamb, to deliver our sons and daughters. Notice also that the blood is effectual even when shared.

It says that if you don't have enough people, go to your neighbor's house. Neighbors are to come together, huddling inside these doors marked by the blood of the

Lamb, knowing that the blood is sufficient to cover as many or as few are huddled within its protection.

The salvation that was provided by the blood of the Lamb is entirely sufficient for every single person that comes under it, all of them, without distinction.

The effectuality of the blood of the Lamb to deliver does not run out. Even if an

Egyptian neighbor, somebody that would have previously been considered unworthy, came under the coverage of the blood of the Lamb, they too would be delivered.

The mercy and the grace of God, just like His judgment and His wrath, are bottomless. If you press into the wrath and judgment of God, you'll find it endless.

But if you press into the grace and mercy of God, you'll find it likewise, endless. So you'll see in verses 5 -7,

Moses and Aaron, they come to the realization they can't save their people. The fathers come to the realization they can't save themselves or their people.

But it's not just that. Not just any sacrifice could save the people. You couldn't just present whatever you wanted to and say, well

God will accept my best efforts. God will take what I give Him. No He won't.

God will take what He said was a sufficient sacrifice. That's it. Nothing else can be offered.

You'll take a lamb, a lamb without blemish. It must be a year's old. It must be a male.

It must be of full strength. You take that lamb, you bring it into your house on the tenth day, you keep it until the fourteenth day.

My wife has a tendency of picking up stray and feral animals. I can't stand that.

We live in the country where people just let their dogs run wild. If you're that person that does that, I hate you. I don't hate you, but I really, you know,

I pray for you. And because the reason that I can't stand those people is because your dogs are now our dogs, and your cats are now our cats.

I am not an animal lover. I do good to like human beings. That's the work of the spirit in me that I like people.

But I do good to like them. But I found something to be the case that when my wife has one of these mangy things hanging around,

I become strangely bonded to it the longer it lingers. I find myself petting this wild cat as I walk into my own house, calling it names.

Hey, Snickers. You're a stray cat. Why do I like you?

But I find myself imagining also in this event that my wife would have been the one carrying this lamb in on the tenth day, and this spotless cute little cuddly thing, and I would probably be initially hesitant to like it, but as it lingered in the house,

I might kind of come to like this thing as it's mying and baying all over the house and playing with the kids and climbing the furniture,

I might come to love this little thing, which would make it all the more difficult on the fourteenth day. Now bear in mind,

God did not tell them to bring the lamb into their house so that they would fall in love with it. He told them to bring the lamb into their house and watch it for four days to examine it and make sure this is the lamb that's fit to serve as the sacrifice.

It must be sure. No other sacrifice will be accepted.

You must be positive this lamb is able to serve as the lamb that God has chosen to protect you on the night of judgment.

But nevertheless, I would have fallen in love with it. And on the fourteenth day, when God said, you shall kill the lambs at twilight,

I'm going to sacrifice on my beloved ESV, the LSB has it right. The word was not simply kill, the word was slaughter.

You will slaughter the lamb on the fourteenth day. You'll take this innocent, spotless little lamb that they've come to love and care for deeply and you slaughter it.

Notice by the way, you don't take the sacrifice to somebody else and have them slaughter it. This isn't like any of the other sacrifices in the

Old Testament. There is no holy place. There's no tabernacle, no temple, no altar. Every man in Israel takes the knife in his own hands and in his own house slaughters the lamb.

Talk about the priesthood of the believer. There is no intervening person between the one who slaughtered the lamb and the one who is covered by its blood.

No difference. They're the same person. Every man is his own high priest this day.

One last thing that you must note which is of utmost importance before we get into verses 8 -10, just because the lamb was slaughtered did not secure for you at all that you were delivered by it.

Just because you slaughtered the lamb did not at all secure that you were delivered by it.

All that did was just get blood on your hands. The blood of the lamb had to be applied to you or it was not effectual in saving you at all.

All it meant was you had slaughtered an innocent lamb. Okay, well we have a perfect lamb selected.

We brought it in on the 10th day. We have kept it till the 14th day. We slaughtered the lamb. We've gone out even into the house and we've painted the doorpost.

Surely we've done everything God commanded us to do. We'll be delivered now. Incorrect. You slaughter the lamb, you paint the door, you go inside and go to sleep, guess what happens that night?

Your firstborn still dies. Why? It was not just the outward application of the blood that delivered.

It was required that the blood be seen outwardly applied. Everyone needed to know that you were covered by the blood of the lamb.

That was required. But that was not all. You then went inside and personally inwardly applied the blood of the lamb.

You must consume the lamb. It's a great thing for other people to know that you're covered by the lamb, but if you go inside and you don't consume him yourself, you are not delivered.

They shall eat the flesh that night. They were expected to personally partake of the lamb.

Verse 10 gives us an interesting detail about the sacrifice. At the end of it, none of it's wasted. Not one drop of blood, not one inch of flesh would go to waste.

It would be put to the appropriate purpose that God had that sacrifice made for according to his command.

Nothing wasted. That gives us a bit of a rabbit trail here, but that gives us a key insight back into verse 4.

If your household's too small, go to your neighbor's house. What if you couldn't afford a lamb? You consider that.

What if you couldn't afford one? What if you didn't have one? What happens? My son just dies now?

No, you go to your neighbor's house and you partake with them. What if we can't afford a lamb, but our household is really small and we can't consume all of it?

Everything that's edible has to be consumed. What if we can't? They're not Baptists. They can't eat a whole lamb in one sitting.

What are we to do then? God had made a provision for the poorest, and the loneliest, and the least able to keep his commands that they too may be delivered.

He didn't overlook anybody. There's an important note in that I want to bring up.

I missed it in my notes. Did you notice you have to provide the lamb for yourself? You've got to provide the lamb, and you have to slaughter it, and then you have to apply the blood yourself.

We'll get back to that. Verse 11. When you've done all these things,

God expects you to be ready to follow him into the wilderness. You have not been delivered so that you can sit and glory in your deliverance, and lord it over those who were not.

You've not been delivered so that you can shout to the ones who have endured this great punishment and say, look at what we did.

And look at what you had to go through. No, you've been delivered for the purpose of being delivered.

God says when I deliver you, you get up and walk, and be delivered. Okay. You can turn to Romans 3 now.

Now, we have our picture. We have a picture of judgment coming.

Judgment's coming on everybody. It's coming on everyone without distinction.

But God has provided the opportunity for the people to secure their own deliverance. They must provide a lamb for themselves, and they must slaughter it, and they must apply the blood of the lamb to themselves and personally partake of this perfect lamb that they've slaughtered, making sure to do everything just right, and in the event that they do all that,

God will accept the provision of the lamb and pass over their sins. And for many people, they believe that that is a perfect description of New Testament soteriology.

Wrong. Wrong. Many people, unaware of their sinfully depraved state, believe that they can produce of themselves some lamb that God will accept.

Some self -sacrifice or some good works, if I just do this, God will accept my lamb. Wrong. Some people, unaware of their complete inability to apply the sacrifice of God to themselves, believe that they can just apply it themselves.

I'll just decide to get saved. I'll just decide and make a decision and say a prayer and raise a hand. I will be in control of applying the blood to myself.

Wrong. The reality is there are some aspects of this story in Exodus 12 that do not measure up to Christ, and that is not a point to minimize.

That's a point to maximize. Emphasize it. The shadow does not measure up to the substance.

I listened to something. I'm commuting back and forth. I live in Kentucky, and so it's not that long of a drive, and I was commuting and listening to Eddie Murphy, of all people.

I know I'm spiritually edifying myself, of course. But Eddie Murphy was talking about how he owns a painting that he bought from someone's estate, and he paid $50 ,000 for it.

And recently, a duplicate of the painting sold for $16 million. And the man that was interviewing him said, so you're rich.

And he said, as long as I have the painting, yeah. I've got the original. A duplicate is never worth as much as the original.

The Passover narrative in Exodus is the duplicate. The Passover narrative in Exodus is the shadow.

It never measures up to the substance. The substance that we have in Christ.

The Old Testament Passover doesn't hold a candle. It's nothing. Romans 3, the context,

I'm sure you know. I've scarcely seen a Reformed church where the pastor is not currently preaching through Romans.

You people. Nevertheless, the context,

I'll supply as if you don't know. Paul has explained that there is none righteous, not even one.

We're going to begin reading in verse 21, by the way, if you have to turn another page. He begins explaining that there's nobody righteous, not even one person.

Not one person is seeking God. Not one person is doing good. In verse 12, he even says, you've all become worthless.

I suppose he was maybe listening to a Paul Washer sermon or something, but he really went on and on about how worthless we are.

The reason he did that was because I believe Paul, as a thoroughgoing Jew, was more familiar with the Old Testament than any of us.

He understood the Passover narrative, and here in a few minutes, we're going to see that he begins using the very words that God uses in the

Passover. He knew we are all worthless.

What is worse, if anything could be worse, is verse 19. We're all accountable. We're still accountable to God despite our worthlessness.

Despite our complete inability to deliver ourselves, we are still accountable, and we can't do anything about that.

The author of Hebrews actually says that there is not a lamb, nor any collection of lambs that can ever take away our sins.

Not a single lamb. And Paul lays out here that there is not an innocent person that could be provided as a representative or a substitute from among us.

Not one. He comes to the realization that John heard in Revelation 5. It was proclaimed with a loud voice, who is worthy?

The answer comes back, no one. No one on earth or heaven or under the earth was found worthy.

No one. God's perfect command had gone out from Christ. Matthew 5 .48,

you must be perfect. Your father in heaven is perfect. But nobody did it.

Isaiah 59 .16, the Lord saw it and it displeased him. Why did it displease him? Ezekiel 33 .11,

I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God is required by his own justice to bring slaughter to sinners.

Everything sinful must be slaughtered. It doesn't please him to do that. It requires it.

So Paul, innately aware of all of that, has laid that out in Romans 3.

And he picks up in verse 21. There's some great words. But now.

As if something has radically changed in the recent past. As if something new has happened that you should be aware of.

But now. The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

God has shown that he's righteous. Not by overlooking our sins and acting like they didn't happen.

When his justice demanded that he judge it with extreme severity. No, verses 22 and 3, he has manifested his righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For what? For there is no distinction. There's that Passover language again.

He reveals to us what's not explicitly spelled out in the Passover narrative. There is no distinction between you people,

God says. Why is there no distinction?

Verse 23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of us.

Just as there was no distinction on the night of the Passover between Israel and Egypt. Between Pharaoh and Moses. Between the magicians and Aaron.

There is no distinction between the most holy and the most heathen of us. No distinction.

But, gloriously, where we might have put a period, God put a comma.

And he goes on. Verses 24 and 5. Let me read 23 again with you.

Just so you don't miss the important part here. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. There is no distinction.

We stand before God without distinction. All deserving the destroyer to come and slaughter us. But God has put forward as a propitiation

Jesus Christ who by his blood delivers us. God knew they can't provide their own lambs.

They can't provide one. Isaiah 59, 16 puts it this way.

He saw that there was no man. He wondered that there was no intercessor. So he himself stepped in to save us. God also knew something else.

Just by providing a lamb that wouldn't save us. The lamb must be slaughtered. But our slaughtering the lamb wouldn't save us either.

Our slaughtering of the lamb would simply bring damnation on us for slaughtering the lamb. So he himself slaughtered the lamb.

Still not enough. Even with the lamb provided. Even with the lamb slaughtered.

It's not enough. Because they can't apply the blood of the lamb to themselves.

Even with the lamb provided and slaughtered we could not apply the blood ourselves. And therefore his blood being shed would not be effectual in saving us.

It must be applied. So he as a gift.

A gift purely of his own grace has justified us by the blood of Jesus received by faith.

He didn't just put forward the lamb. He didn't just slaughter the lamb. He went further. He gave us as a gift justification applying the blood of the lamb to us.

Why did he do that? For the propitiation of our sins. He provided the lamb.

He slaughtered the lamb. And he applies the blood propitiating our sin debt. And I have to emphasize that it was not an expiation.

That's a theology word. Expiation could literally be described as wiping away as if it never happened.

Like you wipe away something on a white board like it wasn't there. That's not what God did. God didn't just simply wipe away our sins and act like they didn't happen.

Lest his perfect name be tarnished. No, instead we get the rest of the passage.

Verse 25. This was to show God's righteousness. Because in his divine forbearance he's passed over our former sins.

He couldn't simply crush Jesus to save us, although he certainly did that. He crushed

Jesus to save us in a way that manifested his righteousness.

That's what he did. He crushed his son to forgive us in a way that showed how righteous he is.

The testimony couldn't be that he simply looked over our sins and acted like they didn't happen. The testimony had to be that God judged sin.

And so we get verse 26. He did this to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Jesus Christ was crushed by his father. The perfect lamb of God slaughtered.

He crushed him to do two things. First of all, and note the priority.

So that he may be just. That was priority.

God must be shown to be righteous. And so he crushed his son with the full undiluted wrath of God poured out on sin in Christ on the cross.

And second. Note that it's second.

This is second. He crushed his son that we may be justified. Through the outpoured wrath of God, Christ absorbed the wrath and the hatred and the anger of God and has so in doing turned

God's disposition towards us into grace and mercy and peace forever. God provided the lamb that we could not provide.

God slaughtered the lamb. God accepted the sacrifice and applies the blood of the lamb and through it forgives our sins.

I wouldn't be a good Baptist if I didn't quote Spurgeon. Spurgeon commenting on Exodus 12.

The Pascal lamb was not killed in order to be looked at only, but to be eaten. And the

Lord Jesus Christ was not slain merely that we hear about him or talk about him or think about him, but that we may feed upon him.

So I call you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, with the words of Paul in 1

Corinthians 5 -7. Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. The lamb is provided, the lamb is sacrificed, the blood is applied.

We now sit inside under the coverage, the protection of the blood of the lamb. What do we now do? Consume the lamb.

Consume it to the uttermost. Leave nothing remaining. Consume all 66 books of him.

Leave nothing remaining. And as Paul says again in 1 Corinthians 5, the same passage,

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. What an interesting statement.

Be unleavened because you're unleavened. Be delivered because you're delivered.

Be delivered because you're delivered. Not by your actions, not by your ethnicity or your nationality, but by the blood of the lamb.

John saw in Revelation 5, they said, who is worthy? The call came back, no one is worthy. Later in the chapter, they sang a new song saying,

Worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our

God, and they shall reign on the earth. Christ our

Passover is the victor. Amen. Let's pray together. Our God in heaven,

I say as a barbarian, you are awesome. We bow before you as we will through all eternity because of how great you are.

Thank you for the lamb. Thank you for slaughtering the lamb.

Thank you for applying the lamb. May the lamb that was slain receive the reward for his sacrifice.