CHARLES SPURGEON CHRIST OUR PASSOVER
“For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” 1 Corinthians 5:7
THE more you read the Bible, and the more you meditate upon it, the more
you will be astonished with it. He who is but a casual reader of the Bible,
does not know the height, the depth, the length, and breadth of the mighty
meanings contained in its pages. There are certain time” when I discover a
new vein of thought, and I put my hand to my head and say in
astonishment, “Oh, it is wonderful I never saw this before in the
Scriptures.” You will find the Scriptures enlarge as you enter them; the
more you study them the less you will appear to know of them, for they
widen out as we approach them. Especially will you find this the case with
the typical parts of God’s Word. Most of the historical books were
intended to be types either of dispensations, or experiences, or offices of
Jesus Christ. Study the Bible with this as a key, and you will not blame
Herbert when he calls it “not only the book of God, but the God of books.”
One of the most interesting points of the Scriptures is their constant
tendency to display Christ; and perhaps one of the most beautiful figures
under which Jesus Christ is ever exhibited in sacred writ, is the Passover
Paschal Lamb. It is Christ of whom we are about to speak to-night.
Israel was in Egypt in extreme bondage; the severity of their slavery had
continually increased till it was so oppressive that their incessant groans
went up to heaven. God who avenges his own elect, though they cry day
and night unto him, at last determined that he would direct a fearful blow
against Egypt’s king and Egypt’s nation, and deliver his own people. We
can picture the anxieties and the anticipations of Israel, but we can scarcely
sympathize with them, unless we as Christians have had the same
deliverance from spiritual Egypt. Let us, brethren, go back to the day in
our experience, when we abode in the land of Egypt, working in the brickkilns
of sin, toiling to make ourselves better, and finding it to be of no
avail; let us recall that memorable night, the beginning of months, the
commencement of a new life in our spirit, and the beginning of an
altogether new era in our soul. The Word of God struck the blow at our
sin; he gave us Jesus Christ our sacrifice; and in that night we went out of
Egypt. Though we have passed through the wilderness since then, and have
fought the Amalekites, have trodden on the fiery serpent, have been
scorched by the heat and frozen by the snows, yet we have never since that
time gone back to Egypt: although our hearts may sometimes have desired
the leeks, the onions, and the flesh-pots of Egypt, yet we have never been
brought into slavery since then. Come, let us keep the Passover this night,
and think of the night when the Lord delivered us out of Egypt. Let us
behold our Savior Jesus as the Paschal Lamb on which we feed; yea, let us
not only look at him as such, but let us sit down to-night at his table, let us
eat of his flesh and drink of his blood; for his flesh is meat indeed, and his
blood is drink indeed. In holy solemnity let our hearts approach that
ancient supper; let us go back to Egypt’s darkness, and by holy
contemplation behold, instead of the destroying angel, the angel of the
covenant, at the head of the feast,-”the Lamb of God which taketh away
the sins of the world.”
I shall not have time to-night to enter into the whole history and mystery of
the Passover; you will not understand me to be to-night preaching
concerning the whole of it; but a few prominent points therein as a part of
them. It would require a dozen sermons to do so: in fact a book as large as
Caryl upon Job-if we could find a divine equally prolix and equally sensible.
But we shall first of all look at the Lord Jesus Christ, and show how he
corresponds with the Paschal Lamb, and endeavor to bring you to the two
points-of having his blood sprinkled on you, and having fed on him.
First, then, JESUS CHRIST IS TYPIFIED HERE UNDER THE PASCHAL LAMB;
and should there be one of the seed of Abraham here who has never seen
Christ to be the Messiah, I beg his special attention to that which I am to
advance when I speak of the Lord Jesus as none other than the Lamb of
God slain for the deliverance of his chosen people. Follow me with your
Bibles, and open first at the 12th chapter of Exodus.
We commence, first of all with the victim-the lamb. How fine a picture of
Christ. No other creature could so well have typified him who was holy,
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. Being also the emblem of
sacrifice, it most sweetly portrayed our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Search natural history through, and though you will find other emblems
which set forth different characteristics of his nature, and admirably display
him to our souls, yet there is none which seems so appropriate to the
person of our beloved Lord as that of the Lamb. A child would at once
perceive the likeness between a lamb and Jesus Christ, so gentle and
innocent, so mild and harmless, neither hurting others, nor seeming to have
the power to resent an injury.
“A humble man before his foes, a weary man and full of woes.”
What tortures the sheepish race have received from us! how are they,
though innocent, continually slaughtered for our food! Their skin is
dragged from their backs, their wool is shorn to give us a garment; and so
the Lord Jesus Christ, our glorious Master, doth give us his garments that
we may be clothed with them; he is rent in sunder for us; his very blood is
poured out for our sins; harmless and holy, a glorious sacrifice for the sins
of all his children. Thus the Paschal Lamb might well convey to the pious
Hebrew the person of a suffering, silent, patient, harmless Messiah.
Look further down. It was a lamb without blemish. A blemished lamb, if it
had the smallest speck of disease, the least wound, would not have been
allowed for a Passover. The priest would not have suffered it to be
slaughtered, nor would God have accepted the sacrifice at his hands. It
must be a lamb without blemish; and was not Jesus Christ even such from
his birth? Unblemished, born of the pure virgin Mary, begotten of the Holy
Ghost, without a taint of sin; his soul was pure, and spotless as the driven
snow, white, clear, perfect; and his life was the same. In him was no sin.
He took our infirmities and bore our sorrows on the cross. He was in all
points tempted as we are, but there was that sweet exception, “yet without
sin.” A lamb without blemish. Ye who have known the Lord, who have
tasted of his grace, who have held fellowship with him, doth not your heart
acknowledge that he is a lamb without blemish? Can ye find any fault with
your Savior? Have you aught to lay to his charge? Hath his truthfulness
departed? Have his words been broken? Have his promises failed? Has he
forgotten his engagements? And, in any respect, can you find in him any
blemish? Ah, no! he is the unblemished lamb, the pure, the spotless, the
immaculate, “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world;” and
in him there is no sin.
Go on further down the chapter.; Your lamb shall be without blemish, a
male of the first year.” I need not stop to consider the reason why the male
was chosen; we only note that it was to be a male of the first year. Then it
was in its prime, then its strength was unexhausted, then its power was just
ripened into maturity and perfection, God would not have an untimely
fruit. God would not have that offered which had not come to maturity;
and so our Lord Jesus Christ had just come to the ripeness of manhood
when he was offered. At 34 years of age was he sacrificed for our sins; he
was then hale and strong, although his body may have been emaciated by
suffering, and his face more marred than that of any other man yet was he
then in the perfection of manhood. Methinks I see him then. His goodly
beard flowing down upon his breast, I see him with his eyes full of genius,
his form erect, his mien majestic, his energy entire, his whole frame in full
development,-a real man, a magnificent man-fairer than the sons of men, a
lamb not only without blemish, but with his powers fully brought out. Such
was Jesus Christ–a Lamb of the first year-not a boy, not a lad, not a young
man, but a full man, that he might give his soul unto us. He did not give
himself to die for us when he was a youth, for he would not then have
given all he was to be, he did not give himself to die for us when he was in
old age, for then would he have given himself when he was in decay; but
just in his maturity, in his very prime, then Jesus Christ our Passover was
sacrificed for us; and, moreover, at the time of his death, Christ was full of
life, for we are informed by one of the evangelists that “he cried with loud
voice and gave up the ghost.” This is a sign that Jesus did not die through
weakness, nor through decay of nature. His soul was strong within him; he
was still the Lamb of the first year. Still was he mighty; he could, if he
pleased, even on the cross, have unlocked his hands from their iron bolts;
and descending from the tree of infamy, have driven his astonished foes
before him, like deer scattered by a lion, yet did he meekly yield obedience
unto death. My soul; canst thou not see thy Jesus here, the unblemished
Lamb of the first year, strong and mighty? And, O my heart! does not the
thought rise up-if Jesus consecrated himself to thee when he was thus in all
his strength and vigor, should not I in youth dedicate myself to him? And if
I am in manhood, how am I doubly bound to give my strength to him? And
if I am in old age, still should I seek while the little remains, to consecrate
that little to him. If he gave his all to me, which was much, should I not
give my little all to him? Should I not feel bound to consecrate myself
entirely to his service, to lay body, soul, and spirit, time, talents, all upon
his altar; and though I am not an unblemished lamb, yet I am happy that as
the leavened cake was accepted with the sacrifice, though never burned
with it- I, though a leavened cake, may be offered on the altar with my
Lord and Savior, the Lord’s- burnt offering, and so, though impure, and
full of leaven, I may be accepted in the beloved, an offering of a sweet
savor, acceptable unto the Lord my God. Here is Jesus, beloved, a Lamb
without blemish, a Lamb of the first year!
The subject now expands and the interest deepens. Let me have your very
serious consideration to the next point, which has much gratified me in its
discovery, and which will instruct you in the relation. In the 6th verse of
the 12th chapter of Exodus we are told that this lamb which should be
offered at the Passover was to be selected four days before it, sacrifice,
and to be kept apart:-”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: and if the household be too little for the lamb let him and his
neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls.
every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.” The
6th verse says, “And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same
month.” For four days this lamb, chosen to be offered, was taken away
from the rest of the flock and kept alone by itself; for two reasons: partly
that by its constant bleatings they might be put in remembrance of the
solemn feast which was to be celebrated; and moreover, that during the
four days they might be quite assured that it had no blemish, for during that
time it was subject to constant inspection in order that they might be
certain that it had no hurt or injury that would render it unacceptable to the
Lord; and now, brethren, a remarkable fact flashes before you-just as this
lamb was separated four days, the ancient allegories used to say that Christ
was separated four years. Four years after he left his father’s house he went
into the wilderness, and was tempted of the devil. Four years after his
baptism he was sacrificed for us. But there is another, better than that:-
About four days before his crucifixion Jesus Christ rode in triumph through
the streets of Jerusalem. He was thus openly set apart as being distinct
from mankind. He, on the ass, rode up to the temple, that all might see him
to be Judah’s Lamb, chosen of God, and ordained from the foundation of
the world; and what is more remarkable still, during those four days, you
will see, if you turn to the Evangelists, at your leisure; that as much is
recorded of what he did and said as through all the other part of his life.
During those four days, he upbraided the fig tree, and straightway it
withered; it was then that he drove the buyers and sellers from the temple;
it was then that he rebuked the priests and elders, by telling them the
similitude of the two sons one of whom said he would go, and did not, and
the other who said he would not go, and went; it was then that he narrated
the parable of the husbandmen, who knew those who were sent to them;
afterwards he gave the parable of the marriage of the king’s son. Then
comes his parable concerning the man who went unto the feast, not having
on a wedding garment; and then also, the parable concerning the ten
virgins, five of whom were wise, and five of whom were foolish, then
comes the chapter of very striking denunciations against the Pharisees:-
“Woe unto you O ye blind Pharisees! cleanse first that which is within the
cup and platter;” and then also comes that long chapter of prophecy
concerning what should happen at the siege of Jerusalem, and an account
of the dissolution of the world: “learn a parable of the fig-tree: when his
branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is
nigh.” But I will not trouble you by telling you here that at the same time
he gave them that splendid description of the day of judgment when the
sheep shall be divided from the goats. In fact, the most splendid utterances
of Jesus were recorded as having taken place within these four days. Just
as the lamb separated from its fellows did bleat more than ever during the
four days, so did Jesus during those four days speak more; and if you want
to find a choice saying of Jesus, turn to the account of the last four days’
ministry to find it. There you will find that chapter, “Let not your hearts be
troubled,” there also, his great prayer, “Father, I will;” and so on. The
greatest things he did, he did in the last four days, when he was set apart.
And there is one more thing to which I beg your particular attention, and
that is, that during those four days I told you that the lamb was subject to
the closest scrutiny, so, also, during those four days, it is singular to relate,
that Jesus Christ was examined by all classes of persons. It was during
those four days that the lawyer asked him which was the greatest
commandment? and he said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy might, and thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself.” It was then that the Herodians came and questioned
him about the tribute money, it was then that the Pharisees tempted him; it
was then, also, the Sadducees tried him upon the subject of the
resurrection. He was tried by all classes and grades-Herodians, Pharisees
Sadducees, lawyers, and the common people. It was during these four days
that he was examined: but how did he come forth! An immaculate Lamb!
The officers said, “never man spake like this man.” His foes found none
who could even bear false witness against him such as agreed together; and
Pilate declared, “I find no fault in him.” He would not have been fit for the
Paschal Lamb had a single blemish have been discovered, but “I find no
fault in him,” was the utterance of the great chief magistrate who thereby
declared that the Lamb might be eaten at God’s Passover, the symbol and
the means of the deliverance of God’s people. O beloved! you have only to
study the Scriptures to find out wondrous things in them; you have only to
search deeply, and you stand amazed at their richness. You will find God’s
Word to be a very precious word; the more you live by it and study it, the
more will it be endeared to your minds.
But the next thing we must mark is the place where this lamb was to be
killed, which peculiarly sets forth that it must be Jesus Christ. The first
Passover was held in Egypt, the second Passover was held in the
wilderness, but we do not read that there were more than these two
Passovers celebrated until the Israelites came to Canaan; and then, if you
turn to a passage in Deuteronomy, the 16th chapter you will find that God
no longer allowed them to slay the Lamb in their own houses but appointed
a place for its celebration. In the wilderness, they brought their offerings to
the tabernacle where the lamb was slaughtered; but at its first appointment
in Egypt, of course they had no special place to which they took the lamb
to be sacrificed. Afterwards, we read in the 16th of Deuteronomy, and the
5th verse; Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates,
which the Lord thy God giveth thee; but at the place which the Lord thy
God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the
Passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou
camest forth out of Egypt.” It was in Jerusalem that men ought to worship,
for salvation was of the Jews; there was God’s palace, there his altar
smoked, and there only might the Paschal Lamb be killed. So was our
blessed Lord led to Jerusalem. The infuriated throng dragged him along the
city. In Jerusalem our Lamb was sacrificed for us; it was at the precise spot
were God had ordained that it should be. Oh! if that mob who gathered
round him at Nazareth had been able to push him headlong down the hill,
then Christ could not have died at Jerusalem; but as he said, “a prophet
cannot perish out of Jerusalem,” so was it true that the King of all prophets
could not do otherwise,-the prophecies concerning him would not have
been fulfilled. “Thou shalt kill the lamb in the place the Lord thy God shall
appoint.” He was sacrificed in the very place. Thus, again you have an
incidental proof that Jesus Christ was the Paschal Lamb for his people.
The next point is the manner of his death. I think the manner in which the
lamb was to be offered so peculiarly sets forth the crucifixion of Christ,
that no other kind of death could by any means have answered all the
particulars set down here.
First, the lamb was to be slaughtered, and its blood caught in a basin.
Usually the priest stood at the altar; the Levites, or the people, slaughtered
the lamb, and the blood was caught in a golden basin. Then, as soon as it
was taken, the priest standing by the altar on which the fat was burning,
threw the blood on the fire or cast it at the foot of the altar. You may guess
what a scene it was. Ten thousand lambs sacrificed, and the blood poured
out in a purple river. Next, the lamb was to be roasted but it was not to
have a bone of its body broken. Now I do say there is nothing but
crucifixion which can answer all these three things. Crucifixion has in it the
shedding of blood-the hands and feet were pierced. It has in it the idea of
roasting, for roasting signifies a long torment; and as the lamb was for a
long time before the fire, so Christ, in crucifixion, was for a long time
exposed to a broiling sun, and all the other pains which crucifixion
engenders. Moreover not a bone was broken; which could not have been
the case with any other punishment. Suppose it had been possible to put
Christ to death in any other way. Sometimes the Romans put criminals to
death by decapitation; but by a such death the neck is broken. Many
martyrs were put to death by having a sword pierced through them; but,
while that would have been a bloody death, and not a bone broken
necessarily, the torment would not have been long enough to have been
pictured by the roasting. So that, take whatever punishment you will-take
hanging, which sometimes the Romans practiced in the form of strangling,
that mode of punishment does not involve shedding of blood, and
consequently the requirements would not have been answered; and I do
think any intelligent Jew, reading through this account of the Passover, and
then looking at the crucifixion must be struck by the fact that the penalty
and death of the cross by which Christ suffered, must have taken in all
these three things. There was blood-shedding; the long continued sufferingthe
roasting of torture and then added to that, singularly enough, by God’s
providence not a bone was broken; but the body was taken down from the
cross intact Some may say that burning might have answered the matter
but there would not have been a shedding of blood in that case, and the
bones would have been virtually broken in the fire. Besides the body would
not have been preserved entire. Crucifixion was the only death which could
answer all of these three requirements. And my faith receives great strength
from the fact, that I see my Savior not only as a fulfillment of the type, but
the only one. My heart rejoices to look on him whom I have pierced, and
see his blood, as the lamb’s blood, sprinkled on my lintel and my doorpost,
and see his bones unbroken, and to believe that not a bone of his
spiritual body shall be broken hereafter; and rejoice, also, to see him
roasted in the fire, because thereby I see that he satisfied God for that
roasting which I ought to have suffered in the torment of hell for ever and
ever.
Christian! I would that I had words to depict in better language; but, as it
is, I give thee the undigested thoughts, which thou mayest take home and
live upon during the week; for thou wilt find this Paschal Lamb to be an
hourly feast, as well as supper, and thou mayest feed upon it continually,
till thou comest to the mount of God, where thou shalt see him as he is,
and worship him in the Lamb in the midst thereof.
II. HOW WE DERIVE BENEFIT FROM THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. Christ our
Passover is slain for us. The Jew could not say that; he could say, a lamb,
but “the Lamb,” even “Christ our Passover,” was not yet become a victim;
and there are some of my hearers within these walls to-night who cannot
say “Christ our Passover is slain for us.” But glory be to God! some of us
can. There are not a few here who have laid their hands upon the glorious
Scapegoat, and now they can put their hands upon the Lamb also, and they
can say, “Yes; it is true, he is not only slain, but Christ our Passover is slain
for us.” We derive benefit from the death of Christ in two modes: first, by
having his blood sprinkled on us for our redemption; secondly, by our
eating his flesh for food, regeneration and sanctification. The first aspect
in which a sinner views Jesus is that of a lamb slain, whose blood is
sprinkled on the door-post and on the lintel. Note the fact, that the blood
was never sprinkled on the threshold. It was sprinkled on the lintel, the top
of the door, on the bed-pest, but never on the threshold, for woe unto him
who trampleth near foot the blood of the Son of God! Even the priest of
Dagon trod not on the threshold of his god, much less will the Christian
trample under foot the blood of the Paschal Lamb. But his blood must be
on our right hand to be our constant guard, and on our left to be our
continual support. We want to have Jesus Christ sprinkled on us. As I told
you before, it is not alone the blood of Christ poured out on Calvary that
saves a sinner; it is the blood of Christ sprinkled on the heart. Let us turn
to the land of Zoan. Do you not think you behold the scene to-night! It is
evening. The Egyptians are going homeward-little thinking of what is
coming. But just as soon as the sun is set, a lamb is brought into every
house. The Egyptian strangers passing by, say, “These Hebrews are about
to keep a feast to night,” and they retire to their houses utterly careless
about it. The father of the Hebrew house takes his lamb, and examining it
once more with anxious curiosity looks it over from head to foot, to see if
it has a blemish. He findeth none. “My son,” he says to one of them, “Bring
hither the bason.” It is held. He stabs the lamb, and the blood flows into the
bason. Do you not think you see the sire, as he commands his matronly
wife to roast the lamb before the fire! “Take heed,” he says, “that not a
bone be broken.” Do you see her intense anxiety, as she puts it down to
roast, lest a bone should be broken? Now, says the father, “bring a bunch
of hyssop.” A child brings it. The father dips it into the blood. “Come here,
my children, wife and all, and see what I am about to do.” He takes the
hyssop in his hands, dips it in the blood, and sprinkles it across the lintel
and the door-post. His children say, “What mean you by this ordinance?”
He answers, “This night the Lord God will pass through to smite the
Egyptians, and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel and on the two side
posts; the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to
come into your houses to smite you.” The thing is done; the lamb is
cooked; the guests are set down to it, the father of the family has
supplicated a blessing; they are sitting down to feast upon it; and mark how
the old man carefully divides joint from joint, lest a bone should be broken;
and he is particular that the smallest child of the family should have some
of it to eat, for so the Lord hath commanded. Do you not think you see
him as he tells them “it is a solemn night-make haste-in another hour we
shall all go out of Egypt.” He looks at his hands, they are rough with labor,
and clapping them, he cries, “I am not to be a slave any longer.” His eldest
son, perhaps, has been smarting under the lash, and he says, “Son, you
have had the task-master’s lash upon you this afternoon; but it is the last
time you shall feel it.” He looks at them all, with tears in his eyes-”This is
the night the Lord God will deliver you.” Do you see them with their hats
on their heads with their loins girt, and their staves in their hands? It is the
dead of the night. Suddenly they hear a shriek! The father says, “Keep
within doors, my children; you will know what it is in a moment.” Now
another shriek-another shriek-shriek succeeds shriek: they hear perpetual
wailing and lamentation. “Remain within,” says he, “the angel of death is
flying abroad.” A solemn silence is in the room and they can almost hear
the wings of the angel flap in the air as he passes their blood-marked door.
“Be calm,” says the sire, “that blood will save you.” The shrieking
increases. Eat quickly, my children,” he says again, and in a moment the
Egyptians coming, say, “Get thee hence! Get thee hence! We care not for
the jewels that you have borrowed. You have brought death into our
houses.” “Oh!” says a mother, “Go! for God’s sake! go. My eldest son lies
dead!” “Go!” says a father “Go! and peace go with you. It were an ill day
when your people came into Egypt, and our king began to slay your firstborn,
for God is punishing us for our cruelty.” Ah! see them leaving the
land; the shrieks are still heard; the people are busy about their dead. As
they go out, a son of Pharoah is taken away unembalmed, to be buried in
one of the pyramids. Presently they see one of their task-master’s sons
taken away. A happy night for them-when they escape! And do you see,
my hearers, a glorious parallel? They had to sprinkle the blood, and also to
eat the lamb. Ah! my soul, hast thou e’er had the blood sprinkled on thee?
Canst thou say that Jesus Christ is thine? It is not enough to say “he loved
the world, and gave his Son,” you must say, “He loved me, and gave
himself for me.” There is another hour coming, dear friends, when we shall
all stand before God’s bar; and then God will say, “Angel of death, thou
once didst smite Egypt’s first born; thou knowest thy prey. Unsheath thy
sword.” I behold the great gathering, you and I are standing amongst them.
It is a solemn moment. All men stand in suspense. There is neither hum nor
murmur. The very stars cease to shine lest the light should disturb the air
by its motion. All is still. God says, “Hast thou scaled those that are mine?”
“I have,” says Gabriel; “they are sealed by blood every one of them.” Then
saith he next, “Sweep with thy sword of slaughter! Sweep the Earth! and
send the unclothed, the unpurchased, the unwashed ones to the pit.” Oh!
how shall we feel beloved when for a moment we see that angel flap his
wings? He is just about to fly “But,” will the doubt cross our minds
“perhaps he will come to me?” Oh! no; we shall stand and look the angel
full in his face.
“Bold shall I stand in that great day!
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
While through thy blood absolved I am
From sin’s tremendous curse and shame.”
If we have the blood on us, we shall see the angel coming, we shall smile at
him; we shall dare to come even to God’s face and say,
“Great God! I’m clean! Through Jesus’ blood, I’m clean!”
But if, my hearer, thine unwashen spirit shall stand unshriven before its
maker, it thy guilty soul shall appear with all its black spots upon it,
unsprinkled with the purple tide, how wilt thou speak when thou seest flash
from the scabbard the angel’s sword swift for death, and winged for
destruction, and when it shall cleave thee asunder? Methinks I see thee
standing now. The angel is sweeping away a thousand there. There is one
of thy pot companions. There one with whom thou didst dance and swear.
There another, who after attending the same chapel, like thee, was a
despiser of religion. Now death comes nearer to thee. Just as when the
reaper sweeps the field and the next ear trembles because its turn shall
come next, I see a brother and a sister swept into the pit. Have I no blood
upon me? Then, O rocks! it were kind of you to hide me. Ye have no
benevolence in your arms. Mountains! let me find in your caverns some
little shelter. But it is all in vain, for vengeance shall cleave the mountains
and split the rocks open to find me out. Have I no blood? Have I no hope?
Ah! no! he smites me. Eternal damnation is my horrible portion. The depth
of the darkness of Egypt for thee, and the horrible torments of the pit from
which none can escaper Ah! my dear hearers, could I preach as I could
wish, could I speak to you without my lips and with my heart, then would I
bid you seek that sprinkled blood, and urge you by the love of your own
soul, by everything that is sacred and eternal, to labor to get this blood of
Jesus sprinkled on your souls. It is the blood sprinkled that saves a sinner.
But when the Christian gets the blood sprinkled, that is not all he wants.
He wants something to feed upon; and, O sweet thought! Jesus Christ is
not only a Savior for sinners, but he is food for them after they are saved.
The Paschal Lamb by faith we eat. We live on it. You may tell, my hearers,
whether you have the blood sprinkled on the door by this: do you eat the
Lamb? Suppose for a moment that one of the old Jews had said in his
heart, “I do not see the use of this feasting. It is quite right to sprinkle the
blood on the lintel or else the door will not be known; but what good is all
this inside? We will have the lamb prepared, and we will not break his
bones, but we will not eat of it.” And suppose he went and stored the lamb
away. What would have been the consequence? Why, the angel of death
would have smitten him as well as the rest, even if the blood had been upon
him; and if moreover, that old Jew had said, “there, we will have a little
piece of it; but we will have something else to eat, we will have some
unleavened bread; we will not turn the leaven out of our houses, but we
will have some leavened bread.” If they had not consumed the lamb, but
had reserved some of it, then the sword of the angel would have found the
heart out as well as that of any other man. Oh! dear hearer, you may think
you have the blood sprinkled, you may think you are just, but if you do not
live on Christ as well as by Christ, you will never be saved by the Paschal
Lamb. “Ah!” say some, “we know nothing of this.” Of course you don’t.
When Jesus Christ said, “except ye eat my flesh, and drink my blood, ye
have no life in you,” there were some that said, “this is a hard saying who
can bear it?” and many from that time went back-and walked no more with
him. They could not understand him; but, Christian, dost thou not
understand it? Is not Jesus Christ thy daily food? And even with the bitter
herbs, is he not sweet food? Some of you, my friends, who are true
Christians, live too much on your changing frames and feelings, on your
experiences and evidences. Now, that is all wrong. That is just as if a
worshipper had gone to the tabernacle and began eating one of the coats
that were worn by the priest. When a man lives on Christ’s righteousness it
is the same as eating Christ’s dress. When a man lives on his frames and
feelings, that is as much as if the child of God should live on some tokens
that he received in the sanctuary that never were meant for food, but only
to comfort him a little. What the Christian lives on is not Christ’s
righteousness, but Christ; he does not live on Christ’s pardon, but on
Christ and on Christ he lives daily on nearness to Christ. Oh! I do love
Christ-preaching. It is not the doctrine of justification that does my heart
good, it is Christ, the justifier; it is not pardon that so much makes the
Christian’s heart rejoice, it is Christ the pardoner; it is not election that I
love half so much as my being chosen in Christ ere worlds began; ay! it is
not final perseverance that I love so much as the thought that in Christ my
life is hid, and that since he gives unto his sheep eternal life, they shall
never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of his hand. Take care,
Christian, to eat the Paschal Lamb and nothing else. I tell thee man, if thou
eatest that alone, it will be like bread to thee-thy soul’s best food. If thou
livest on aught else but the Savior, thou art like one who seeks to live on
some weed that grows in the desert, instead of eating the manna that
comes down from heaven. Jesus is the manna. In Jesus as well as by Jesus
we live. How, dear friends, in coming to this table, we will keep the
Paschal Supper. Once more, by faith, we will eat the Lamb, by holy trust
we will come to a crucified Savior, and feed on his blood, and
righteousness, and atonement.
And now, in concluding, let me ask you, are you hoping to be saved my
friends? One says, “Well, I don’t hardly know; I hope to be saved, but I do
not know how.” Do you know, you imagine I tell you a fiction, when I tell
you that people are hoping to be saved by works, but it is not so, it is a
reality. In travelling through the country I meet with all sorts of characters,
but most frequently with self-righteous persons. How often do I meet with
a man who thinks himself quite godly because he attends the church once
on a Sunday, and who thinks himself quite righteous because he belongs to
the Establishment; as a churchman said to me the other day, “I am a rigid
churchman.” “I am glad of that,” I said to him, “because then you are a
Calvinist, if you hold the ‘Articles’.” “He replied “I don’t know about the
‘Articles,’ I go more by the ‘Rubric’.” “And so I thought he was more of a
formalist than a Christian. There are many persons like that in the world.
Another says, “I believe I shall be saved. I don’t owe anybody anything; I
have never been a bankrupt; I pay everybody twenty shillings in the pound;
I never get drunk; and if I wrong anybody at any time, I try to make up for
it by giving a pound a year to such-and-such a society; I am as religious as
most people; and I believe I shall be saved.” That will not do. It is as if
some old Jew had said, “We don’t want the blood on the lintel, we have
got a mahogany lintel; we don’t want the blood on the door-post, we have
a mahogany door-post. Ah! whatever it was, the angel would have smitten
it if it had not had the blood upon it. You may be as righteous as you like:
if you have not the blood sprinkled, all the goodness of your door-posts
and lintels will be of no avail whatever. “Yes,” says another, “I am not
trusting exactly there. I believe it is my duty to be as good as I can; but
then I think Jesus Christ’s mercy will make up the rest. I try to be as
righteous as circumstances will allow and I believe that whatever
deficiencies there may be, Christ will make them up.” That is as if a Jew
had said, “Child, bring me the blood,” and then, when that was brought, he
had said, “bring me a ewer of water;” and then he had taken it and mixed it
together, and sprinkled the door-post with it. Why the angel would have
smitten him as well as anyone else, for it is blood, blood, blood; blood!
that saves. It is not blood mixed with the water of our poor works; it is
blood, blood, blood, blood! and nothing else; and the only way of salvation
is by blood. For, without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.
Have precious blood sprinkled upon you, my hearers; trust in precious
blood; let your hope be in a salvation sealed with an atonement of precious
blood, and you are saved. But having no blood, or having blood mixed
with anything else, thou art damned as thou art alive-for the angel shall slay
thee, however good and righteous thou mayest be. Go home, then, and
think of this: “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”