Sermon Tone Analysis

Behold The Lamb Series - Sermon #2

The Preparation

Intro:

As we draw near the day that we celebrate as the day of the birth of our Lord and Savior, we are reminded that His birth was something that had been promised thousands of years earlier in Gen.3.

We saw this last week.

We saw the promised Lambs personality, his power and his portrait.

We saw the reason God was going to send His Lamb and What that Lamb would fulfil when he did come.

But what I would like to focus on today as we behold the Lamb of God, is the preparation that took place for that promise to be fulfilled.

Not just the preparation from the heavenly side but also the preparation that had to take place here on earth.

I want to preach on this thought: Behold The Lamb: The Preparation.

I will be taking a little different approach to the message then I usually do.

I don’t really have one specific text this morning, we will be looking at two text in particular this morning, but we will looking at a few others to help us get to where I want to be today.

For the sake of time I will just read the text as we get to them.

I will have you turning alot this morning.

Ex.12:1-5; Luke 1:26-38

So, with that said, I want you to keep this thought in your mind as we work our way through this message.

Question: If Jesus was to come back this very day, are you prepared for His soon coming arrival?

These first two main points are really an introduction to where I really want to get to.

The first thing I want us to see is...

I.

The Selection of the Lamb in Preparation for His Arrival

Lets turn to Ex.12:1-5

A. The Lamb had to be Sufficient

Ex.12:1-4

In Ex.12 we see that God told Moses that the lamb they chose was to be sufficient enough for all that were in the house.

When God selected His Son to be the the Lamb that would take away the sin of the world, He selected the Lamb that would be enough for all those that would come to Him.

If we look at how God provided a lamb we can see a steady progression with the lamb serving as a representative for larger and larger groups of people.

At first God provided one lamb for one person.

Thus Abraham offered a ram in place of his son Isaac.

Next God provided one lamb for one household.

This happened at the first Passover, when every family in the covenant community offered its own lamb to God.

Then God provided one sacrifice for the whole nation.

On the Day of Atonement, a single animal atoned for the sins of all Israel.

Finally the day came when John the Baptist “saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

(John 1:29)

God was planning this all along: one Lamb to die for one world.

By his grace he has provided a lamb—

B. The Lamb had to be Spotless

They could not chose just any Lamb that would be big enough for the household, They had to select a lamb that was perfect.

God gave specific commands regarding the lamb.

It had to be sufficient

It had to be spotless

Then they would kill it and they had to apply its blood exactly where God said.

The consistent message of the Bible is that anyone who wants to meet God must come on the basis of the lamb.

There is no other way!

So we see the selection of the Lamb in preparation for His Arrival.

Now we come to the...

II.

The Location of the Lamb in Preparation for His Arrival

hold your place there in Ex.12, and turn now to 1 Peter 1,

1Peter 1:20, Isa.

7:14.

If for just a moment we look back at Ex.12 we see that Once the Lamb was selected, He was taken into the house to be prepared.

There was a Location for the Lamb to be prepared, just like there was a place that the Lamb of God was to be prepared.

We see two locations this preparation took place.

The first location of the lamb for the preparation is back in the first epistle of Peter chapter 1 and verse 20..We see..

A. The Foundation of the World

God had already began preparation for sending His Son way back before He created anything.

You may ask why? because God is all knowing and therefore He already knew what Adam would do and He already knew what man would need.

In many other places we find the phrase, “before the foundation of the world” or some form of those words.

We know that we were chosen before the foundation of the world.

Eph.

1:4

we know that the works of God were finished from the foundations of the world.

Heb.4:3

We know that it was since the foundations of the world that Christ must suffer Heb.

9:26

we know that Jesus was loved of His Father before the foundations of the world John 17:24

and

We know that Jesus was foreordained before the foundations of the world to be a Lamb without blemish or spot.

1Pet.1:19-20

God had already had the Lamb at the right location and was even preparing the Lamb before the foundations of the World.

The first location of the lamb, was before the foundations of the World

The second location of the lamb for the preparation to come into the world to take away the sin of the world is found in the seventh chapter of Isaiah down in verse 14.

B. The Female Womb

Isaiah 7:14 (KJV 1900)

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, And shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah told it hundreds of years earlier, that the location of the lamb in preparation of His entrance into the world would be the virgin womb.

The Lamb was not to come by some magical show

The Lamb was not to come by some science experiment

The Lamb was to come via a virgin female womb .

Pure and innocent, Not innocent from sin but innocent from having been defiled.

A pure lady is not praised like she once was.

A pure woman use to hold a place of respect and honor in society.

Now a days they are ridiculed and in movies they are depicted as someone that no one wants to be with.

Can I tell you, a pure lady is just as precious to God today as it was in Luke 1.

Young ladies, never allow anyone to tell you are any thing less then a gift from God. Remain pure and just watch what God will do with you.

So why did God use a virgin womb?

In Gen. 2 we are told that God “made” the woman from man.

If you were to study that word made you find that it means to build.

Why did God take to a special job and task in hand building the woman?

I will tell you why.

He had to construct the woman in such a way that when she gave birth to a child, the blood-stream of the child did not come from or be contaminated by the woman.

The blood-stream owes its origin to the contribution of the male.

God constructed woman the way He did because He knew there was a day coming that there would need to be a Virgin Birth; there was a day when God was going to do a biological miracle, and a woman was going to bear a Son and she was not going to bear Him in a natural manner, but in a supernatural manner.

The Blood-stream owes its origin not to Mary but to the Holy Ghost.

Conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost!

Every person in this auditorium has a blood-stream poisoned with the cancer of sin.

But, thank God, there is no sin in the Blood-stream of Jesus.

So, God had selected the Lamb for Preparation to send into the world, He prepared the selected Lamb before the foundations of the world and by way of a pure young woman.

But how did God chose the womb that He would place His Lamb for preparation to come into the world?

I Think He chose her because of one simple thing, she was dedicated.

III.