Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2937
“They shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their father, a lamb for an house: and if the household is 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.” Exodus 12:3, 4.
THE paschal lamb was not killed in order to be looked at only, but to be eaten. And our Lord Jesus Christ has not been slain merely that we may hear about Him and talk about Him, and think about Him, but that we may feed upon Him. Everything that has to do with Christ’s work is of real, practical, vital consequence to Believers. He is to be the food for our souls. Faith is to receive Him. Love is to embrace Him. Hope is to rejoice in Him!
The lamb of the Passover was not to be eaten in part, some of it to be left and some of it to be divided at the feast— the whole lamb was to be eaten. And, in like manner, the whole of Christ is to be spiritually received by us, whether He is made of God unto us wisdom, or righteous, or sanctification, or redemption. All that He is and all that He does should be received by us with an open and grateful heart. There must not be any picking and choosing among the good things of Christ but all must be accepted alike. We are all sinners and we all need a Savior—and we need the whole of that Savior.
So, too, as the whole of the paschal lamb was to be eaten, I think I may say that all the power to save which is in Christ is meant be exercised. He is able to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God by Him—and that uttermost power of His was not intended to lie idle. He is able to save those who are at the very ends of the earth—and that power to save the outcasts and the offscourings was not intended to be left unused. It is our business to stir up the Divine strength and to pray the Lord to come and save even the vilest of the vile—and great multitudes of them!
Further, the whole of the lamb was meant to be eaten at once. None of it was to be kept till morning. As with the manna, there was to be no laying of it up in store for future use. They were to eat it then and there and it will be well if the members of Christ’s Church will always look to the present using of Christ and of all that is in Him. I think we may lawfully delight ourselves in the anticipation of those happier days of His Millennial Glory which are yet to dawn upon this sin-cursed earth, but, as a matter of fact, we had better concern ourselves principally with the needs of the present age—with the soul-hunger of those among whom we live—the dire necessities of those who are perishing for lack of the knowledge of Christ. Christ is meant for present use. Whatever He may do a thousand years hence, it is of more concern to us to see what He can do today. The principal business of the Christian is to proclaim Christ today—with this as part of the proclamation—“Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” Even now He is mighty to save, mighty by His blood to deliver His people now from the avenging angel and, by His flesh, to be the continual food of their souls. And we are to see to it that we do not so project ourselves into a future age as to be negligent of the present use of the ever-present Savior who is with us always, even to the end of the age!
The paschal lamb was meant to be eaten, to be all eaten and to be all eaten then and there—and Christ is meant to be used, meant to be altogether used and to be used now. May each Believer here be impressed with these thoughts!
I. Now, coming to our text, it appears to me that IT REMINDS US OF A PRIMARY PRIVILEGE. The third verse speaks of that privilege in so many words—“They shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house.”
The place for all true religion to begin is at home. Wherever charity ought or ought not to begin, certainly true religion must begin at home. It should be a cause of great joy to us if we have Jesus Christ as our own, according to the paschal ordinance. “They shall take to them every man a lamb.” Are you, dear Friend, searching your heart to know whether you have to do with Christ, personally, in your own individuality? It will be a fatal delusion if you fancy that you will get into Heaven as people sometimes get into this Tabernacle—by being carried along by the force of the numbers who are pressing to get in! You must come to Christ personally, by personal repentance and personal faith, and there must be a personal feeding upon Him if He is to be of any service to you. It is idle to talk about the neighbor who is next to you until, first of all, you have seen to it that you, yourself, are a partaker of the Lord Jesus Christ. I put the question now from the depths of my soul to my own heart, “Preacher, have you the blood sprinkled on the lintel and on the side posts of your house? Have you fed upon Christ?” And when I have answered that question for myself, I would beseech each one of you to answer it, too. I am not asking about your parentage, or about your church membership, or about the pious relations whom you have in your house, but about yourself! How is it with you, Brothers and Sisters? Even old professors have need to ask the question, for an old imposture may long be kept up—I fear it may be preserved throughout life—and perhaps nothing will pull the mask off some men’s eyes until the skeleton hand of death reveals the terrible truth to them! It is an unspeakable mercy that the Lamb of God is provided for our Passover and that for the very worst of us—for those of us who are most conscious that we deserve to perish—there is still the precious Gospel message, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” May it be a fact, known to us beyond all question by the witness of the Holy Spirit within us that Jesus Christ has been slain for us and fed upon by us!