LivePrayerSermon 2937. Too Little for the Lamb
(No. 2937)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1905.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 8, 1875.
"They shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their father, a lamb for an house: and if the householdis too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; everyman 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 slainmerely that we may hear about Him and talk about Him, and think about Him, but that we may feed upon Him. Everything thathas to do with Christ's work is of real, practical, vital consequence to Believers. He is to be the food for our souls. Faithis 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- thewhole lamb was to be eaten. And, in like manner, the whole of Christ is to be spiritually received by us, whether He is madeof God unto us wisdom, or righteous, or sanctification, or redemption. All that He is and all that He does should be receivedby us with an open and grateful heart. There must not be any picking and choosing among the good things of Christ but allmust 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 Christis meant be exercised. He is able to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God by Him-and that uttermost power ofHis 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 theoutcasts and the offscourings was not intended to be left unused. It is our business to stir up the Divine strength and topray 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, therewas 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 membersof Christ's Church will always look to the present using of Christ and of all that is in Him. I think we may lawfully delightourselves 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-hungerof those among whom we live-the dire necessities of those who are perishing for lack of the knowledge of Christ. Christ ismeant 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 willhear His voice, harden not your hearts." Even now He is mighty to save, mighty by His blood to deliver His people now fromthe 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 projectourselves into a future age as to be negligent of the present use of the ever-present Savior who is with us always, even tothe 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 privilegein 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 religionmust 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 withChrist, personally, in your own individuality? It will be a fatal delusion if you fancy that you will get into Heaven as peoplesometimes get into this Tabernacle-by being carried along by the force of the numbers who are pressing to get in! You mustcome to Christ personally, by personal repentance and personal faith, and there must be a personal feeding upon Him if Heis 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 seento it that you, yourself, are a partaker of the Lord Jesus Christ. I put the question now from the depths of my soul to myown 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 aboutyour 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 longbe kept up-I fear it may be preserved throughout life-and perhaps nothing will pull the mask off some men's eyes until theskeleton hand of death reveals the terrible truth to them! It is an unspeakable mercy that the Lamb of God is provided forour Passover and that for the very worst of us-for those of us who are most conscious that we deserve to perish-there is stillthe precious Gospel message, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." May it be a fact, known to us beyondall question by the witness of the Holy Spirit within us that Jesus Christ has been slain for us and fed upon by us!
Then, the next part of this primary privilege is that we should have Christ for our whole family. There was to be a paschallamb for all the members of the Israelite family-"a lamb for an house." They were all to share in the blessings which thatlamb brought. Oh, privileged beyond compare is that man who has a partner in life who, with himself, rejoices in Christ andwho sees all his children following in his steps, equally rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ! And happier still is he if allhis servants are in the same blessed condition. How is it with you, Brothers and Sisters? Have you this blessing? I know thatsome of you have. Your house ought to be a little Heaven, for you have a church in your house! Keep the bells always ringing,"Holiness unto the Lord," and let your hearts be so many harps from which there shall constantly pour forth floods of musicto the praise of Him who has so highly favored you!
Perhaps your children are as yet only little ones and you are looking forward with the hope that the Lamb of God may yet beavailable for your whole household. In what way can you promote this? There are rules given you in Scripture. You cannot convertyour children-to regenerate them is altogether beyond your power. It is a Divine work and must be done by the Holy Spirit.But you have that ancient exhortation, "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart fromit." For the most part, the training of children does affect their manhood and womanhood. There are some who seem as if wecould not train them-they are like wild vines that will not be trained and their later life reveals the force of the willfulnesswhich resisted the training which parents would gladly have given them. Unhappy are we if we have such children and how sincerelywe ought to sympathize with any who are in such a sad case. But how happy ought we to be if our children take kindly to thetraining which, by the Grace of God, we seek to give them, so that they are like vines fastened up upon the walls of our housesand do not to tear themselves away from the fastenings which are for their support and safety. May they bring forth fruitto God's Glory and to our own comfort in years to come!
We must, however, add something to our training to make it effectual. There must be constant prayer where training appearsto fail, for we can pray even for those of our children who are past the age in which we can exercise the influence of trainingupon them. I do not think that we shall long plead for our sons and daughters without seeing a prayer-hearing God stretchingout His hand to save them. Or if we do, we must look upon the delay as a further trial of our faith and we must intensifyour prayer until it becomes an agony-and in that agony we lay hold upon the Covenant Angel and cry, "I will not let You gounless You bless me and my seed also." So choice a gift as this may be reserved for something more earnest than the prayerto which we have yet attained. And when the Lord shall have flung us upon our faces-shall have brought us to despair-shallhave made us see, in the rebellious character of our children, a picture of our own rebelliousness-and made us see, in ourown agony, a reflection of the agony of the heart of Jesus over our
wanderings, then, perhaps He will speedily listen to us, and our children shall, with us, be sheltered beneath the blood ofthe Lamb!
With both the training and the prayer we should take care that we mingle much gracious teaching. Our children should not beleft ignorant concerning the things that make for their peace. I have been surprised to find how many young people appearto know little or nothing about Holy Scripture-yet most, if not all of them, had been to a Sunday school. It is singular howquickly children will forget what they learn! And that which is merely learned by rote and has not been taught affectionatelyis very readily brushed off from the memory. I think that a boy very seldom forgets the teaching which has been moistenedwith a mother's tears. There is, somehow, a wonderful power about a mother's voice when she talks to her children about Jesusand His love which stamps itself upon the heart-and the heart it a far better place for the custody of the Truth of God thanever the brain can become! We may forget what we only learn with the head, but we shall not forget what we learn with theheart. Therefore, Christian parents, teach your children thus-let them, from their youth, know the Holy Scriptures which areable to make them wise unto salvation-let them be early acquainted with the precious things of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
But, above all things, my Brothers and Sisters, if we would have our household feeding upon Christ we must set them a godlyexample. I have known families-I think I know some now-where the training is certainly severe enough, perhaps too much so,and where the teaching is as clear as it is cold-but where the example set before the children is not good. Now, if you prayin one way with your lips and in another way with your lives, your lives will win the day and your children will rather belike what you are than what you ask them to be. It is a great pity when men who seem good at the Prayer Meeting are reallybad at home-when those who show much kindness to their Christian friends seem to have given away all their honey to comparativestrangers outside the walls of their own house-and have no sweetness left for their own children! Let us, dear Friends, endeavoralways to set such an example as it will be safe for our sons and daughters to follow. And then I think there will very rarelybe found any instance where training, teaching, prayer and a good example have gone together, where the blessing of God hasfailed to come! God grant to you, Brothers and Sisters, at any rate, the Grace to attend carefully to all these matters. Andthen if, perhaps, you should prove to be the father of an Ishmael, or the mother of an Ishmael, you will not have to say,"I kept the vineyards of others, but my own vineyard have I not kept." And then you will feel that you did use such meansas were within your reach, even though the blessing of God did not come to your children. I pray, Beloved, that it may theprivilege of every one of you to have the Lamb of God for your whole household and that each member of your family, from theyoungest to the oldest, may joyfully partake of all the benefits of the common Sacrifice which is provided for all the chosen.
That will suffice for our first point which is that the text reminds us of a primary privilege.
II. Now, secondly, THE TEXT IS SILENT ABOUT A CERTAIN CONTINGENCY WHICH WOULD SEEM TO HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE.
You observe that it speaks about what was to be done when the household was not large enough to eat the lamb, but it saysnothing about what was to occur if the lamb was not sufficiently large to feed the household. We can often learn much fromthe silence of Scripture. We know that it is so in the case of Melchizedek. Since his parentage is not mentioned, the silenceis significant. And so here, the silence concerning such a contingency as the insufficiency of the paschal lamb for the householdis, I think, meant to teach us an important lesson. It is probable that the lamb was, literally speaking, never too littlefor the household for this reason-the Jews say that the Passover was not intended to be eaten with a view to feasting, butthat frequently only a small portion was eaten. There were, doubtless, large families, but there was enough for each one tohave a small portion of the lamb-just as we do not come to the Lord's Supper merely to eat and drink, but we come there fora religious observance-and a single portion of bread and a sip of wine suffice us. There may have been as many as 20 personsin one house who would partake of the lamb and, in our Lord's case, we know that at the Last Supper, He sat down to the Passoverwith the twelve, making 13 with Himself. But the contingency is not supposed that there should be an insufficient provisionin the lamb for the proper observance of the feast.
And now, using the type spiritually, let us rest assured that it never can happen that there should not be enough of JesusChrist to feed all our families. "Well," says one father, "we are a very numerous household. Our children need a very largetable and when they all sit down together they make a tribe equal to that of good old Jacob." Yes, and no doubt some of thoseJewish families were as large as that, yet they all fed upon the paschal lamb. And there is enough in Christ for all yourfamily-and there would be enough even if it consisted of 25 persons-of even twenty-five thousand! If any of them perished,it would not be because Christ was not sufficient for them, but because they had not received Him, had not believed on Him.Do not let the number in your household restrain your praying or working for them- and rest not until, by God's good Grace,the whole of them shall know and trust in Jesus!
"But," says another, "our family is more peculiar than that, for we are a family of sinners." It happens, sometimes, thata man who in former times, was a very great offender, is converted, but he is like a speckled bird to all the rest of hisfamily. His brother is a drunk, his sister is godless, his father and mother despise religion and as he looks round upon them,he can only wonder how it was that Sovereign Grace should ever have selected one out of such a family as his. He does notremember any of his relations who ever made a profession of religion. They have been "the devil's own" as far back as he cantrace. Well, beloved Friends, if it is so with any of your families, do not hesitate for a single moment in your prayers orin your efforts for them under such a wicked, dishonoring notion as, perhaps, your family is too bad for Christ to save, theirsins too many for His blood to wash away and their necessities too great for Him to relieve! That cannot be! You have an All-SufficientSavior to talk of, to rely upon and to bring before them! Go to Him in prayer for all your family, beseeching that all themembers of your ungodly family may yet participate in the blessings procured by the Lamb of God! I do not know anything inthe Bible that ought to check our prayers for our whole households. The Doctrine of Election may suggest to some ignorantpersons the idea that they cannot pray for all, but let us always remember that the Doctrine of Election which is a most blessedTruth of God-is never used in Scripture as a damper to our prayers!
The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, "I exhort therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions and givingof thanks be made for all men," meaning all ranks and conditions of men and all sorts of men! We are not told concerning anybodythat we may not pray for them-with the one exception that if we knew a man to have committed the unpardonable sin-which wedo not and cannot know-it is written, "I do not say that he shall pray for it." But, in any other case we may pray hopefullyand I know of nothing in the Scriptures that should hinder earnest effort for the salvation of our whole households. Neverought we to look any child of ours in the face and feel, "Well, I never will speak to that child about Christ, it would beuseless-he cannot be saved." It would be antagonistic to the whole current of Sacred Scripture for us to imbibe any such notionas that, so may we never imbibe it! Neither do I know of anything in Scripture that should lead us to give up hope concerningany who belong to a household in which some have already been saved. If Christ has saved me, I gather from that fact, thisinference, that He can save anybody! I have never doubted the possibility of the salvation of anybody since Jesus Christ savedme, for I feel that He went about as far as He could go then, and all other sinners must come within the reach of His mercifulpower!
So plead on, work on, train on, teach on and do not relax your efforts, or allow your hopes to be dampened till the wholehousehold shall have been brought to feed upon Jesus Christ, for, rest assured that at the King's banquet of mercy there wasnever a failure of food yet! Behold how the tables groan with the weight of the oxen and the fatlings for the great GospelSupper-and the wine and milk are poured out with unstinted hand! There shall be enough to satisfy the hunger and thirst ofall who shall ever come to that Table as long as time shall last! And if, as indeed it shall yet be, thousands and tens ofthousands and millions should come flocking to the house of bread, there will always be found enough and to spare for allwho come!
III. But now, thirdly, I come to the very heart of the text where it mentions, in so many words, A PROBABILITY FOR WHICH ITPROVIDES-"If the household is too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to thenumber of the souls."
Brethren, that which was a possibility in Egypt is not only common but universal with us. My household and my father's household-wecan rejoice to know that they feed upon the Lamb of God, but our households alone are much too little for the Lamb. If I knowthat I and my sons are saved, I cannot feel that we alone would be sufficient to reward our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ forthe travail of His soul. You, my Friend, said that you had a large family, but you could not call your sons and daughterstogether and say, "My dear children, now that I see you saved, I feel that Christ is quite sufficiently rewarded for all thatHe has done." Oh, no! It is a very great proof of His Grace and mercy that He has
saved your children, yet you look upon it almost as a little thing in comparison with what His Infinite Sacrifice must havebought and His work and death must deserve as their crown!
Our household is also too little to sing the praises of Jesus, the Lamb of God. Suppose that in us and in our children allthe attributes of Jesus Christ should be revealed in a very remarkable degree. That will be something for which to praiseHim throughout eternity, but, dear Friends, merely to have those attributes revealed in father, mother and five or six childrenor grandchildren will not suffice-we want Christ to be revealed in thousands, and tens of thousands, and unnumbered millionsof saved souls! Our household is, indeed, too little to sing the praises of this blessed Lamb and we do well often to cry-
"Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer's praise!"
We long to hear ten thousand times ten thousand tongues singing-
"Worthy the Lamb."
Our household is also too little to do all the work that is to be done for Jesus in proclaiming Him as the Lamb of God. Itwould be a great mercy if God gave us the privilege of having many sons who all preached the Gospel and many daughters whowere all eminent in the Church as teachers, deaconesses, missionaries and the like. It would be a great privilege to havea whole family all diligently employed in the service of the Savior. But if a man had 20 sons and they were all preachers,would he say, "There are now quite enough to do Christ's work"? Oh, dear no! Our household is too little for the Lamb in allthe senses that I have mentioned-we need more to feed upon Jesus, more to praise Jesus and more to proclaim Jesus!
There are some Brothers and Sisters who meet in a little building in an out-of-the-way street who seem to feel that theirhousehold is quite big enough. The new Jerusalem, according to them, was intended to comprise some little miserable hamlet,bounded on the North and East by a ditch of strict communion and on the South and West by a rampart of Hyper-Calvinistic Doctrine.But I like to think of Jesus Christ's Kingdom as very widely extended, His Throne as high and lifted up and the loyal subjectsover whom He reigns as an enormous multitude whom no man can number, who shall be given to Him as the reward of the travailof His soul! This Tabernacle Church, numbering five thousand souls, is much too little for the Lamb! If we could have theAgricultural Hall crowded and all there should say that they were converted-and if they all were really converted-it wouldstill be too little for the Lamb! And if we had the Agricultural Hall multiplied 20 times over and all of them full of savedsouls, it would still be too little for the Lamb! And if all in England, Scotland, America and France-and in every countrywhere Christ is preached, were converted- it would still be too little for the Lamb! And if we were to have all the inhabitantsof Europe and Asia brought to Jesus, I would still say that it was too little for the Lamb-and if we could add all in Africaand Australasia, as long as there was an island of the sea in which the people were not converted to Christ, our hearts wouldstill cry, "The household is too
little for the Lamb!"-
"Ah, reign wherever man is found, Our Spouse, Beloved and Divine! Then are we rich, and we abound, When every human heartis Thine!"
But not till then-till over the whole earth the knowledge of the Lord shall be spread as the waters cover the sea! Until then,we shall still feel that the household is too little for the Lamb.
What was the Israelite to do to meet the contingency of the household being too little for the lamb? The provision was, "Lethim and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls." And the Christian whose householdis certainly too little for the Lamb of God is to call in his neighbor to share the blessing with him! Brother, if you andall your household are saved, call your neighbor to the great Gospel feast! I do not mean merely the person who lives nextdoor to you, for, in London it often happens that there is nobody further off than the person who lives next door to us. Butyour neighbor may be the person sitting next to you in the pew, or the man who works at the next bench to yours in the shop,or someone with whom you meet in trade or in the order of God's Providence. Any one of those people may be the neighbor tojoin with you in feeding upon the lamb! God has put him in your way for some reason or other and, certainly, not that youmay be an injury to him! It must be, at least, that you may endeavor to be of
service to him. We are all more or less dependent upon one another. One of the obligations of near neighborhood should bethat we should seek our neighbor's good, even as the Commandment says, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." And althoughthat relates to all mankind, it must refer in a very eminent and emphatic sense to the man who is literally our neighbor.
Look, then, after the man who is near to you. And if you do this, you will not have so far to go as if you looked after anybodyelse. God is a God of economy, so He did not say to the Israelite, "You are to bring into your house, to make up your companyat the Passover, the man who lives at the furthermost end of Goshen." He saved His people as much trouble as possible by sayingthat the man "and his neighbor next unto his house" were to unite in the celebration. You who live in the South of Londonare not commanded to go and tramp six or seven miles in order to find someone in the North of London to whom you may be useful.You are first to look after those who live in the street in which you live, or with whom you come into contact in your dailylife. There is a very good regulation concerning the clearance of snow- that each householder shall clear the pavement infront of his own house-if that rule could always be carried out, London would be cleaner than it is now after a fall of snow!Let us all try to act like that with regard to the moral and spiritual snow that lies on the pavement opposite to us. Allwho live in London will soon be evangelized if each Christian seeks to win for Christ, "his neighbor next unto his house."And then if that neighbor seeks to win his next door neighbor, and that one his neighbor and so on. It will not only be asaving of effort, but it will be an orderly regulation by which it will be guaranteed that the Truth of God shall be broughtto the notice of all who need it.
Besides, your neighbor is the person who is most likely to be influenced by you. A total stranger would need more time tointroduce himself, but your neighbor already knows something of you. And if he sees that you are a consistent Christian, thatwill materially assist you in delivering your message to him. If you are living as you ought to live, your neighbor knowssomething about the effect which the Gospel has had upon your life. For you to speak to him, therefore, will be most fitting,for you are the man who can give the living example as well as the spoken Word!
Above all, he is the person whom you are especially bid to seek. We are to go into all the world and preach the Gospel toevery creature-but there is a special obligation upon us to preach that Gospel to the one who is nearest to us. Dear Brothersand Sisters, do you always attend to this matter? Do you talk of Jesus Christ to those who live near you, or with whom youare brought into contact? Some Sundays ago, at the East London Tabernacle, Mr. Archibald Brown spoke to his people about thisduty and then he stopped and said, "Now we will put into practice what I have been urging upon you-will every Christian inthe Tabernacle speak to the person who is next to him?" And everybody in the building was spoken to, then and there, aboutChrist! It was a good plan and it resulted in the conversion of a great number of persons, while there were many others whowere brought under conviction of sin and who will, it is hoped, be led to the Savior through that striking personal appeal.
I will not stop my sermon and ask you to do that, but I will ask you to do it every time you come together into this placeand as often as you have a proper opportunity of doing it in your daily calling. Be wise and prudent as to the time when youmake your appeal. Religion is not to be rammed down people's throats, but watch for a suitable opportunity of speaking forChrist and that opportunity will come to you sooner or later. You may do harm if you do not take care to speak at the righttime. The wise man tells us that "to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the Heaven," so watchfor the occasion of bearing testimony to Christ and then, feeling that your household is too little for the Lamb of God, tryto introduce Him to others.
I fancy I hear somebody say, "Ah, but they only brought in Israelites to feed on the paschal lamb. They did not call in theEgyptians." Quite so, nor will you, so you need not be frightened about that matter. None but God's elect ones will spirituallyfeed upon Christ. Some people seem to be afraid lest we should be the means of saving some of the non-elect- but that is afear which never troubles either my head or my heart, for I know that with all the effort and preaching in the world, we shallnever bring more to Christ than Christ has had given to Him by His Father! You will never fall into that trouble. Our Saviorhas bid us preach the Gospel to every creature. He has not said, "Preach it only to the elect." And though that might seemto be the most logical thing for us to do, yet, since He has not been pleased to stamp the elect on their foreheads, or toput any distinctive mark upon them, it would be an impossible task for us to perform! Therefore when we preach the Gospelto every creature, the Gospel makes its own division and Christ's sheep hear His voice and follow Him. It is unnecessary tostop the ears of other sheep, or to try to prevent your voice from travelling where other
sheep are found-only the true sheep of Christ will recognize His voice in the Gospel message, or be obedient to it. Therefore,let not your zeal be repressed by any doctrinal views, however sound, for, depend upon it, sound Doctrine is never inconsistentwith obedience to the command to preach the Gospel to every creature. Sound precept and sound Doctrine must agree!
IV. The last thing upon which I have to speak is not in my text, yet THE WHOLE SUBJECT SUGGESTS
THOUGHTS UPON NEIGHBORLY FELLOWSHIP IN THE GOSPEL.
Here is a man whose household is too little for the lamb and he has called in his next door neighbor to share the feast withhim. "Come in, Friend," he says, "I have a wife and two children, and our household is too little for the lamb. You have awife and one child-come in and we will keep the Passover together."
I know what the result of that invitation would be. First, there would be sweet fellowship. They would feed upon the samelamb and, in doing so, they would come to know each other as they had never done before. They would talk together most gratefullyconcerning the Divine plan of sacrifice by which they were being saved while Egypt was being destroyed. They would talk toeach other about that remarkable day when there was darkness over all the land of Egypt except in the houses of the Israelites,for they had light in their dwellings. They would talk about those flies and frogs that came up in swarms over the land andhow the mighty arm of Jehovah had been outstretched on their behalf. I think that the members of both families would be allthe happier after meeting under one roof and feeding together upon the paschal lamb. It would be a pleasant time for all ofthem and I can assure you that if you are the means of bringing any souls to Jesus Christ, you will find that those whom youbring to Him, by the power of the Holy Spirit, are the very best companions you have ever had! You will talk together verysweetly of all that the Lord has done for you and you will thus warm each other's hearts. Like two firebrands that might onlyhave smoldered alone, you will burn and blaze when you are put together!
Then, after the feast was over, there would be pleasant relations established between those two families. Surely after theyhad been together that night, sheltering under the same sprinkled blood, feasting on the same paschal lamb, partaking of thesame bitter herbs and each one standing with his loins girt and with his staff in his hand, the members of those familieswould never be at enmity against one another. They must always have felt that they were very near akin to one another andit is a still more blessed kinship that is established and cemented at the Cross of Christ! Where we love each other for Christ'ssake and love Christ as we see Him revealed in one another, such love as that will outlast our earthly life and will reachon into eternity-and be sweet even in Heaven!
I should say, dear Friends, that both those families would have very pleasant memories of that Passover and out of those memorieswould grow future communion. The master of one household, when he met the other, years afterwards in the wilderness, wouldsay to him, "Do you remember, Jacob, coming to my house on the Passover night" "Yes, Ephraim," the other would reply, "I rememberit well. Your family was too little for the lamb, so we joined together for the feast." One would ask, "Will you ever forgetthat night?" "No," the other would say, "it was very solemn, but it was very sweet and I think I liked it all the better becauseit was in your house." And the first one would say, "And I am sure that I enjoyed it all the more because I had you to comein and share it with me."
So those memories, you see, would beget new communion and they would be ready to help each other and to cheer each other inthe future. They would often make interchanges of experience-and interchange of experience is like profitable bracing-it enrichesall concerned. They that fear the Lord, when they speak often, one to another concerning Him, are sure to be mutually helpfulto one another! And I think that this bringing in of others to increase the family for the observance of the Passover wouldbe certain to lay the foundation of much mutual communion and much mutual benefit in the future. And, surely, Brothers andSisters, in proportion as, by the Grace of God, we labor successfully to bring others to Christ and so Christ's family isincreased, we shall be anticipating the joy of Heaven! It will never be said in Heaven that the household is too little forthe Lamb. When Christ comes in all His Glory and all His redeemed ones come with Him-when He gathers all who have been redeemedwith His precious blood about Him at the marriage supper of the Lamb-and He Himself drinks the new wine in the Kingdom ofHis Father, it will not be said, then, that the household is too little for the Lamb, for the whole spiritual household ofIsrael shall then be gathered together! The complete company redeemed by blood shall muster at that one "general assemblyand church of the first-born which are
written in Heaven," and Christ shall then "see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." Until that glorious gatheringshall take place, Brothers and Sisters, keep on inviting others to the Lamb of God!
And as for you who have never yet trusted in the blood of Jesus, or tasted of His Grace, may the Lord, in His Infinite Mercy,bring you to Him this very hour! And then this shall be the beginning of months for you-you will reckon your true life asdating from this hour! The Lord grant it, for Christ's sake! Amen.