Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleLet Us Keep the Feast
Bible TextExodus 12:14-20; 1 Corinthians 5:7-8
Synopsis God’s saints keep the feast by continually assembling together to feast upon Christ our Passover, who is sacrificed for us, through the preaching of his gospel. Listen
Date13-May-2018
Series Exodus 2016
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: Let Us Keep the Feast (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: Let Us Keep the Feast (128 kbps)
Length 39 min.
 

Series: Exodus

Title: Let Us Keep the Feast

Text: Ex 12: 14-20

Date: May 13, 2018

Place: SGBC, NJ

 

Exodus 12: 14: And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. 15: Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. 16: And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you. 17: And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever. 18: In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. 19: Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. 20: Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.

 

1 Corinthians 5: 7: Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

 

Subject: Let Us Keep the Feast

 

We no longer keep the feast of the Passover.  Christ fulfilled all that was pictured in the Passover.  He has given us the ordinance of his Table—so we keep the feast of our Lord’s Table.  But the feast I want to speak about today is the feast we partake of each time we gather together to feast on Christ our Bread from heaven through the preaching of the gospel.

 

Isaiah 25: 6: And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.

 

By the grace of God you and I who believe have been given a new heart to believe on Christ who is our complete Acceptance with God our Father—that is a merry heart.

 

Proverbs 15: 15: All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.

 

Proposition: God’s saints keep the feast by continually assembling together to feast upon Christ our Passover, who is sacrificed for us, through the preaching of his gospel.

 

YE ARE UNLEAVENED

 

1 Corinthians 5: 7: Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye ARE unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

 

In order to partake of the gospel feast we must be unleavened.  Leaven is a type of sin: the sin of self-righteousness and the sin of an impure heart of guile. But he says—“ye are unleavened.” Those sanctified by God are without sin—righteous and holy—in the new man in Christ.  We are only sin in our flesh. But in that part of us which partakes of the gospel feast we are holy and righteous.

 

How do sinners become unleavened, righteous and holy?  We saw this last week. But we covered a large passage last week. So I want to review two verses in particular. I even put an article in the bulletin because this is such a beautiful picture.

 

Christ’s Blood Applied

 

We begin to experience of God’s grace, when the Holy Spirit, through Christ our Head, applies his blood creating in us a new heart—Exodus 12: 7: And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

 

The paschal lamb was both slain, and its blood applied, by the elder who was head of his house.

 

Exodus 12: 21: Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. 22: And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.

 

Christ is the Elder who is Head of his house—his church.

 

Hebrews 3: 5  And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 6  But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

 

The head of the house killed the lamb—Christ is the Head of his house and Christ is the Lamb who laid down his life for his people shedding his own blood.  Then the head of the house applied the blood. Christ is risen and is Head over all things to the church. He filleth all in all. He sprinkles the hearts of his people with his own blood.

 

Titus 3: 5: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

 

Hebrews 9:14: How much more shall the BLOOD OF CHRIST, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, PURGE YOUR CONSCIENCE from dead works to serve the living God?

 

The elder entered the house and stayed there until morning with his children.  In the new birth, Christ enters the new man within us and abides in his house—in his child, in his church—until resurrection morning.

 

The Effect of the Blood

 

Exodus 12: 8: They shall eat the flesh in that night—After Christ applies his blood to our hearts, the effectual result he creates in us is a new man, with faith and repentance—Exodus 12: 8: They shall eat the flesh in that night.  In the same night that the elder applied the blood to the doorpost of his house, his children within the house ate the flesh of the paschal lamb.  As soon as Christ applies his blood to our hearts, his child is made willing to eat Christ’s body and drink his blood believing on him.

 

John 6: 54: Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 55: For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56: He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. 57: As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

 

Exodus 12: 8: Roast with fire—they did not make the lamb to be roasted with fire by eating it.  They ate the lamb that had already borne the fire in their place, in type.  We do not make Christ’s blood effectual by believing on him.  I believe on Christ who has already borne the fire of God’s justice on my behalf, I believe on Christ, confessing, “I AM crucified with Christ” (Gal 2: 20), “our old man IS crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Rom 6: 5)

 

Exodus 12: 8: And unleavened bread.  Paul said, “Ye are unleaven.” Leaven typifies sin. Christ made us righteous by his work for his people on the cross—Ps 32: 2: Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity—before God’s bar of justice “ye ARE unleavened.” And Christ makes us holy by his work in his people in regenerationPs 32: 2: “And in whose spirit there is no guile.” (Ps 32: 2) By Christ our Sanctification, in our new man, “Ye ARE unleavened.” So the apostle Paul says, 1 Corinthians 5: 8, “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leavennot attempting to add old covenant, sinful, self-righteous works “neither with the leaven of malice and wickednessnot attempting to add sinful, self-sanctifying works of our flesh, “but with the unleavened bread of sincerity”—worshipping God with a holy heart in which is no guile by Christ our Sanctification dwelling in us “and truth”—resting by faith in Christ our Righteousness. Do you see the opposites?—“not with old leaven”not with old covenant, self-righteous works—“but with the unleavned bread of truth”—with faith in Christ our Righteousness.  “Not with the leaven of malice and wickedness”not with a heart of guile, deceit, pretending to be holy—“but with the unleavened bread of sincerity”—we worship Christ in the new, holy heart in which is no guile by Christ our Sanctification.  When of God Christ is made unto us Righteousness and Sanctification” then “ye are unleavened.”  Christ declared, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in SPIRIT”—from a God-given spirit wherein is no guile by Christ our Sanctification—“and in TRUTH.”—through faith in Christ our Righteousness. (Jn 4: 24)   

 

Exodus 12: 8: And with bitter herbs they shall eat itWhere God-gives faith in Christ, also God gives repentance from our sin and our dead works.

 

Zechariah 12: 10: I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in BITTERNESS for him, as one that is in BITTERNESS for his firstborn.

 

So this is how God’s elect are made unleavened—we are created anew by Christ our Righteousness work on the cross and by Christ our Sanctification’s work of applying his blood within us—Believer, “Ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”

 

LET US KEEP THE FEAST REMEMBERING

 

Exodus 12: 14: And this day shall be unto you for a memorial;

 

All who are made to be unleavened by Christ are now able to keep the feast, worshipping Christ in sincerity and truth.  The apostle Paul says, “Therefore, let us keep the feast in sincereity and truth.”

 

We keep this gospel feast by continually remembering Christ—“And this day shall be unto you for a memorial.”

 

Indeed, when we keep the feast of our Lord’s Table—we do this in remembrance of him—but also every time we gather to this gospel feast we remember Christ and his great sacrifice for us.

 

1 Timothy 4: 6: If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

Each time we gather together, I want to always put you remembrance of Christ and him crucified so that you never cease looking to him alone for All! ‘Ye are complete in him!”

 

LET US KEEP THE FEAST NOT WITH OLD LEAVEN NOR WITH MALICE

 

Exodus 12: 16…no manner of work shall be done…

 

We keep the gospel feast “not with old leaven.”   The Passover feast was a Sabbath Feast, meaning they were to rest from all their work.  So, too, the gospel feast is a sabbath feast.  We enter into Christ our Rest by faith and cease from all our works of trying to find acceptance with God by our doing.  When Christ by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Father because all the works of perfecting his people forever were finished!  Likewise, when we believe on Christ we cease from our works and rest in Christ our Sabbath.

 

Hebrews 4: 3: we which have believed do enter into rest,…9: There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10: For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

 

We do not begin with Christ then go back to the old covenant law for righteousness—“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (Ro 10:4)

 

Nor do we go to the law for sanctification. In Gal 3, Paul declared, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal 3:3)  The Galatians were being lied to by false preachers saying, having been justified by grace, they must now sanctify themselves by their own works. While Paul declared that we are sanctified by Christ, he said,

 

Galatians 3: 10: For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11: But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 12: And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.


Was Paul confusing justification and sanctification? No, he declares that both are by Christ by God’s grace through faith.  He is saying that the same as you cannot justify yourselves by your works, you cannot sanctify yourself by your works.  Those who are sanctified by Christ are justified by Christ and “the just shall live by faith!”, not by the works of the law.  We keep the feast of the gospel by resting in Christ from all our works.

 

Nor let us keep this feast “with the leaven of malice and wickedness.”  Just as our flesh is full of self-righteous leaven, it is also full of antinomian leaven. Some who profess Christ say things like, “But I am saved by grace, I am not under the law, that means it doesn’t matter how I live?”—that is “the flesh flattering him before his own eyes.”  (Ps 36: 2)

 

Romans 6: 1: 1: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2: God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?...15: What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16: Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17: But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18: Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”

 

When we go back to the law for righteousness or holiness and when we live as though we are not under the rule of Christ then we are living unto our flesh.  Let us keep this feast living, not to our flesh, but unto our gracious God.  When they kept the Passover feast, God said, “ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD.” (Ex 12: 14)  Likewise, we keep the gospel feast living unto God our Father and his Son Jesus Christ our Redeemer.  Christ removed the law of Moses and its curse against us, made us holy and righteous, so that we can live unto God.

 

Galatians 2:19: For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

 

How do we live unto God?  What is the rule of life we are under?  Faith which works by love.  We believe on Christ and we love one another.

 

Galatians 5:6: For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

 

LET US KEEP THE FEAST LOVING AS THE FAMILY OF GOD

 

Exodus 12 :43: And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof: 44: But every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof…47: All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.

 

No one could keep the Passover feast but the family of Israel.  A stranger had to be circumcised, a picture of circumcision of the heart.  The only ones who can keep this gospel feast are those who have been redeemed by the blood and circumcised in heart in regeneration.  Only they are the family of God.

 

Ephesians 3: 14: For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15: Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16: That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18: May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19: And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

 

Ephesians 4: 1…I beseech you therefore, that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called 2: With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3  Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

 

Ephesians 4: 32: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. 5: 1: Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2: And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

 

Amen!