The Two Great Passovers of the Bible

Old Testament Abraham & New Testament Christ

Fred R. Coulter—March 8, 2025

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Before we get into the message and study today, I want to announce some booklets {truthofGod.org}

• The Folly of the Fools, and Wisdom of the Wise: A Scriptural Study compiled by Mark Vest and Hiedi Vogele

When you open it up, there's right there, bold print:

Daniel 12:10: "…none of the wicked… [fools] …shall understand, but the wise shall understand."

Who are the wise? Those who love God, believe Him and obey Him!

So you get this. I think you'll find it very interesting. It's a Scriptural study compiled by Mark Vest and Heidi Vogele. Now, Heidi Vogele is the one who compiles all of our Scriptural things and books and booklets and so forth. The Vogeles worked for me for well over 25 years before John died, and she has continued on since that time.

• The Temples That Jerusalem Forgot by Robert Martin (a summary)

Here's one which helps you not have to read the whole book by Ernest Martin. I don't think Robert Martin was really a relative of Ernest, but nevertheless, here it is. We have seen that. We have gone over that, and that's important for the Jews to come to understand today where to build the temple, because if they try and build it where the Mosque of Omar is. That will be the worst war that the world will have ever suffered.

• Which is the True Calendar of God?

Now, this year is one of these years where everything comes together over the same timeframe, and that is:

• Passover on the 14th
• the Jews' Passover on the 15th
• the first day of Unleavened Bread, Night to be Remembered, Unleavened Bread
• Easter
• the resurrection of Christ

All of those in the world today that profess to be Christian are actually pagans, because they keep pagan celebrations. They will keep pagan Easter and laud that as the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but it wasn't His resurrection on the first day of the week. It was His ascension to heaven!

He was raised from the dead just before the Sabbath ended in the week He was crucified, and He was crucified in the middle of the week exactly as it was prophesied.

We have a good number of new people following, and they know nothing about the Calendar of God, and that's because they have been out there in the world and have understood things that the world has taught, but the world does not follow the Calendar of God.

Only occasionally it coincides somewhat with the timing of God's Plan, but God's Plan does not revolved around pagan holidays.

God's Plan revolves around the Sabbath, Passover, and Holy Days. That's God's Plan! Now, anyone, anywhere, anytime:

• Do you have the right to change what God has commanded? No!
• Can you add to it? No!
• Can you take away from it? No!

You may attempt to do both, but that puts you in quite a different category before God. So you need to understand the Calculated Hebrew Calendar. Now, I have to say this much for the Jews; two things they did:

• they preserved the knowledge of the Sabbath as the seventh day of the week
• they preserved the Calculated Hebrew Calendar

Everything that God does is based upon the Calculated Hebrew Calendar. The reason that the days on the Roman calendar change from year to year is because the difference on how the Calculated Hebrew Calendar is determined, because it's based on the movement of the moon and the sun and the earth. All three of those are combined to keep everything in proper time according to the creation of God. You need this booklet.

Now, we have online {truthofGod.org} a digital version of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar, and I have found this over 60 years in the Church.

Two things I always watch for with the moon:

• the 15th day of the 1st month is to be a full moon
• the 15th day of the 7th month is to be a full moon

Both of those have to do with the timing of the keeping of God's Feast days!

The Calculated Hebrew Calendar is the beginning of the civil calendar for calculating the year. The first day of the first month they count back 177 days. And every year—now that's over 60 years—I've observed, is there a full moon on the night of the 15th of the 1st month and the 7th month? The answer is yes! Always has been. What does that tell us? That the Calculated Hebrew Calendar of God is correct!

4. Count to Pentecost

Now, I bring up because this booklet is very important. This was even brought up during our elders conference that we had. This also becomes very interesting, because the first day of counting to Pentecost this year is:

• the same day the Jews have; normally, they have it later or earlier
• the date that Easter is
• the first day of the 50 days to Pentecost

Remember, on the first day of the week—after He was raised from the dead on the Sabbath—Jesus ascended to the Father and came back!  So, we'll talk about that when we get to it.

Now, I want to mention something else because I had the occasion of looking at some older books that I had, and I had one going back to 2010. Frank Barna is a man who does statistical studies on Protestantism.

• How many go to church?
• How many are there on Sunday?
• How many are there on the holidays?

and so forth

He wrote in 2010, 'pagan Christians.' Now, I had that book I gave some sermons on way back then. So, that's 15 years ago. I'll look at that book again and go through it and see that even the Protestants themselves understand they are pagans!

So, I think I'll do some on Church at Home. And I'm going to ask the question:

• Are you a good Christian?

OR

• Are you a good pagan Christian?

Now remember, Jesus said that 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God.' When did He say that? Right at the beginning of his ministry, before anything was ever written in the New Testament.

What does that mean? He said that right at the first, and that means that the Laws of God are always in force, just like the law of gravity!

I want to mention about this book—A Harmony of the Gospels. This book is the third edition of A Harmony of the Gospels. The first edition was written and published under much duress while I was in Worldwide Church of God in 1973-74. First edition. I have one or two copies at home and I have one copy of the second edition. This is the third edition.

Now, this is one that every one of you who like larger print, this has larger print in it.

Now, one thing about a book, especially the books that we produce. We have them also online. But remember this, and it is true. Those who input into the digital things that are used today are basically Protestants and Catholics and Jews. So, you will find that they fudge and put in their verification of things the way that they want them! I'll give you one example. You can look it up.

I also want to mention that we have The Greek-English Interlinear with A Faithful Version. It has large print, all the Greek in bold and the Faithful Version on the outer margin.

Now, even if you don't know anything about Greek, there is a Greek translation there that is right underneath the Greek. You can see that various words can only be translated in certain ways. If you get into studying a little more about it, you will see that the spelling of Greek actually gives you the interpretation of its usage in a single word.

A verb contains the subject, masculine, feminine, or neuter, singular, or plural, and masculine, feminine, or neuter. In a single word! you don't have that in English. The spelling is different.

Now then, here in Matt. 16, let me show you one that was shown to me by a man when he brought up to me that this was right in the computer edition, but wrong in what we had! Now, I don't know if that was truly his motive or not, but that's what turned out to be.

Matthew 16:14: "And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist; and others Elijah; and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.' He said to them, 'But you, whom do you declare Me to be?' Then Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus answered and said to him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona… [Bar means son] …for flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but My Father, Who is in heaven'" (vs 14-17).

Was there a bolt of lightning that struck Peter? No! God can do it. He can put anything into anyone's mind that He wants to do. All you have to do is remember the blessing of Balaam, who was paid to curse. Balaam took the money and told Balak, 'I'll curse.'

Good for you. Get up there and curse, but God made him bless. So, Balak had a fit. He said:

I've given you all this money, and you're up there blessing Israel, when I want you to curse Israel. Now, go do it.'

So guess how many times he tried it? Seven times! Didn't work!

Could God put it in the mind of even a dedicated pagan high priest to speak the Truth whenever He wants him to? Yes! So God put it in the mind of Peter.

Verse 18: "And I say also to you that you are Peter…"

Now, here's where the Catholic Church says that the Church was founded on Peter.

Why is it called the Church of Jesus Christ if it was founded on Peter? It wasn't founded on Peter!  The meaning of Peter in Aramaic and Greek is stone or pebble.

Have you ever built a house on a pebble? No! He became part of the Church, but he was not the foundation! Christ was!

"…but upon this Rock… [here it is 'Petra, that's Christ Himself] …I will build My Church… [if He builds it, He's building it on Himself] …and the gates of the grave shall not prevail against it" (v 18).

It may get small; it may get few. It may get down to like it was with Elijah who thought, 'O Lord, I'm the only one left.' God had to answer him in a small, still voice: 'No, you're not, Elijah.' And he ran off to a place where he couldn't get any food, so God had ravens bring food to him so he could gain a little strength.

Then God said, 'Now get up, Elijah, and you go do what I tell you to do.'

Verse 19: "And I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven…"

Now that's interesting; that is the understanding of the Gospel. Now what do the popes have? Keys! They say that this symbolizes the key of Peter. Well, the truth of the matter is Peter never got to Rome.

Remember when Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans? Did he say, 'Hello to all the brethren,  beginning with Peter the apostle who was there before me?'

Well, Paul said he didn't preach in any other man's territory. Peter never went to Rome.

We've got nine 30-minute segments on Church at Home {churchathome.org} Was Peter Ever in Rome?

Peter never went to Rome. That's a big lie! And when you understand it, Catholicism is paganism through and through attaching the names of Jesus! You can't do that.

Now, I'm looking at Robert. And if I go up to Robert and I put a little sign on his chest that says Fred, Is he now Fred? No! Same thing here.

You can't take all the pagan things and claim them to now be Christian just because the pope has 'blessed' them. Magnificent, isn't it?

Sorry I'm going a little over time on this segment, but I've got to finish this because this is important for what we're going to be covering today. The whole world is all going to be wrapped up on the true Passover and the first day of Unleavened Bread weekend, as we could put it, and that will bury the Truth of the Bible in the world, every bit of it!

"…and whatever you may bind… [subjunctive, meaning there are conditions] …on the earth…"

All other translations say, 'shall be bound in heaven.'

And if you look it up in a Google word search, you will probably find this saying that this is future tense. But it's not in the Greek! Future tense is a changing of the meaning of the Greek to suit Catholic doctrine!

In other words, they have to lie to support their lie because the truth of this is—and this is the correct translation:

"…and whatever you may bind on the earth will have already been bound in heaven…" (v 19)—past tense, perfect, completed! Already spoken of in heaven before Peter ever existed!

And God never gave to any man the license, the authority, the ability to change His Word!

Dan. 10—we're going to see something very interesting indeed. Spoken by the angel Gabriel, who came to Daniel. Here's where Gabriel brings out about the kingdom of Persia, and he explains to Daniel:

• Does a righteous angel always speak the Word of God? Yes!
• Does a true minister of God always bound to speak the Word of God? Yes!
• Is a prophet of God, like Daniel, bound to write what he was told to write and write it correctly? Yes!

Daniel 10:19: "And said, 'O man greatly beloved, do not fear. Peace be unto you; be strong; yea, be strong.' And when he had spoken to me, I was made stronger, and I said, 'Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.'"

Why? Because he was fastening and flat on his belly and could hardly even move.

Verse 20: "Then he said, 'Do you know why I come to you? And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia. And when I go forth, lo, the prince of Greece shall come."

Now, that took 200 years. That one sentence right there, the finishing and completing of that took 200 years.

Verse 21: "But I will show you that which is written in the Scripture of Truth…."—which is the Scroll of Truth; where? In heaven! (Rev. 5 & 6, starting with the six seals; seven altogether).

They were in a scroll and in the hand of God the Father, meaning that what was going to happen in the book of Revelation was coming directly from God the Father! In the Scripture of Truth!

That's why it says back here in Matt. 16 that it was already determined beforehand that there would be a Church and how it would be run.

Matthew 16:19: "…and whatever you may bind on the earth will have already been bound in heaven…"—meaning you must do it according to the Word of God, because it's already been determined in heaven above!

Recorded already in the Scripture of Truth. Now that's an amazing thing to understand. So, this is important as we come to this time in this year with everything all colliding on the same Friday, Sabbath, and Sunday.

"…and whatever you may loose on the earth will have already been loosed in heaven" (v 19)

Now, you change that to the future tense, you put it into all of the digital assets that we have online: artificial intelligence, websites and all of this thing, and it comes out future tense, and you look at that and you accept it as authoritative, and you say that the pope must be the right man.

How subtle does Satan work? That's why do not believe everything that men have done!

Now, they have done it with the Word of God, these translating committees,

• they're so important
• they're the scholars
• they're the wise ones of this world
• we need them because they have such deep minds, and they understand the language

No! They may have some of it, but they have allegiance to their boss, and that is whatever denomination they belong to.

They have taken the spurious New Testaments from Egypt, and have used that to eliminate—even in the printed word—3,000 words, which are very important to have.

Every single one of them for Mark 7 where it talks about food that goes into the belly and goes out into the draught, as the King James says. What is the draught? That's the sewer! That's the way it's translated in the Faithful Version, because that's what it means.

So when you eat food, Christ is saying that doesn't enter into your mind, 'because out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts: adultery, fornication, murders, and sexual immorality.' All of that from the mind. It doesn't proceed from eating a Big Mac!

Now, 25 of the 26 New Testament Translation Comparisons that Joseph Ackerman did—and it took him years to do it—says like the New International Version, 'thus Jesus declared all meats clean.' Just that one place.

Now, when that was announced in the compromised Worldwide Church of God on their way back to paganism, when the minister announced that at Sabbath services out of the New International Version of the Bible—which was a lie—right after Sabbath services, a huge throng of people went down to the Red Lobster and ordered all the unclean food.

A test!

• Do you really believe?

A test!

• Will you accept lies instead of Truth?

A test!

• Do you love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and being?

That's the battle we are in today!

There are even battles within the Church of God that can only be settled with the Church of God. They can't be settled by a council of men who have a predetermined conclusion to come to.

(break@33:14)

What Are the Two Great Passovers of the Bible?

There are two! What do you think it is?

• the Passover of Josiah?
• the Passover of Hezekiah?
• the Passover of Egypt when the firstborn were killed, man and beast?

No, that was not; that was the first great Passover for the children of Israel. But that was not the first great Passover by God, and God alone.

There was one man involved, and he acted as what later became the high priest. And that man was Abraham, whose name when he was called was Abram.

• Why did Paul write in Rom. 4 in particularly and other places secondarily about Abraham?
• Why did he do it in two chapters of the book of Galatians?
• What did he refer to? He referred to Abraham and then the first great Passover by God!

It wasn't called the Passover at that time. Let's begin with the calling of Abraham—who was Abram—and he had to get out of Babylon.

What does it say in Rev. 18 about Babylon and the people of God? Come out of her my people! You have to come out of the world spiritually!

So it's the same thing here; Genesis 12:1: "And the LORD said to Abram, 'Get out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house into a land that I will show you.'"

What did Jesus say in Matt. 13 & 10 ? You're to love God more than father, mother, brother, sister, lands and everything! Same requirement!

Now Abraham was quite a wealthy man, quite an accomplished man. His whole entourage, with all of his servants and everything with him, was around 200 people. When he traveled he had this great tent and so forth. So, God told him to get out.

Verse Genesis 12:2: "And I will make of you a great nation…."

Now, Abraham in the Kingdom is going to have a great place, but he didn't know that. God didn't tell him it would be in the Kingdom of God 5,000 years later.

"…And I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those that bless you and curse the one who curses you. And in you shall all families of the earth be blessed" (vs 2-3). The Jews turn there and say, 'that's us!'

• Why have you been killed all day long?
• Are the Jews in the Middle East a blessing to all nations today? No!

Their fate was sealed, as I've said many times, when they refused Jesus Christ! Not all Jews did. A lot in the time of the apostles accepted Him, repented and they were baptized; and for the first 12 years all the converts were Jews, until Cornelius—uncircumcised! Oh, for the Jews that was a nasty, nasty thing to not be circumcised.

Well, Abraham wasn't circumcised here. What are you going to do with that, Jews?

"…And in you shall all families of the earth be blessed" (v 3).

What does all mean? Everyone! As we know with the Plan of God that means past, present and future! Think about that!

Verse 4: "Then Abram departed, even as the LORD had spoken to him…." And he obeyed God! Abraham had his faults, but:

Gen' 15 is actually the proto or first Passover. We will see that it contains with it two aspects.

• physical seed; that came through Isaac
• spiritual seed

It also shows something else, which is very clear.

The Passover with Abraham

Genesis 15:1: "After these things the Word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, 'Fear not, Abram, I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward.' And Abram said, 'Lord GOD, what will You give me since I go childless, and the heir of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?'" (vs 1-2).

If you had no children and you could select a leading slave, that was legal. So, that's what he brought up. Now remember, when this took place, he was 85-years-old.

Verse 3: "And Abram said, 'Behold, You have given no seed to me; and lo, one born in my house is my heir.' And behold, the Word of the LORD came to him saying, 'This man shall not be your heir; but he that shall come forth out of your own loins shall be your heir'" (vs 3-4).

Now, that did not take place until 15 years later. Now, the first lesson we have here is your own ideas are not God's, even though they may appear to be good or, in fact, even legal.

So, the first blessing is physical seed by impregnating his wife, and she delivered at 90-years-old: Isaac. God showed through that that He does things that are impossible!

We shouldn't limit God. After all, He's created the heavens and the earth!

• Is there any limitation to that? No!
• Have they even found the ends and the bounds of space? No!

Verse 5: "And He brought him outside and said…"

Object lesson to Abram. There was no smog, it was nice and dark.

"…'Look now toward the heavens and number the stars—if you are able to count them'…." (v 5).

Well, think of it today. Even with the best telescope, they can't count them. They know there are billions, if not trillions of what you would call stars. Stop and think of that for a minute!

• How great is God?
• How fantastic is He?

We'll see as we go along how important that is for us and our growth as Christians and how we live our lives. That's an amazing thing!

"…And He said to him, 'So shall your seed be'" (v 5)—that is physical and spiritual!

What did Paul say about those who were baptized? If you are Christ's, you are Abraham's seed, according to promise, where there is neither:

• Jew or Gentile
• male or female
• free or bond

You are all one in Christ! That's quite a statement, and that ties right in with this.

Verse 6: "And he believed in the LORD…."—meaning he believed what He said.

What is the first thing we are to do as Christians? Believe God! Believe Christ! We don't come to Christ and say:

I read this in there and I'm a good Christian, but all these people out there keep all of these wonderful days, and they are happy and do wonderful things in Halloween and Christmas and Easter and all of these things. And isn't it a wonderful thing that the pope has blessed them and now they're Christian? Oh, hooray!

• How about the Church of the Sodomites? They think God has blessed them!
• Who is their God? Satan the devil!
• Does he want them to feel good? Yes!
• Does he want them to be staunch in their rebellion? Yes!

They don't know it, but that's the path to death!

Verse 6: "And he believed in the LORD. And He accounted it to him for righteousness."

Believing God is more important than anything else, because all of your actions that you do come from how you think. IF you believe and believe God and have His Spirit and you are led by the Spirit of God, that's the most important thing in life! That's what the coming Passover is all about, as we will see.

Verse 7: "And He said to him, 'I am the LORD that brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.'"

When is he going to inherit it? In the Kingdom of God, 5,000 years down the road!

Verse 8: "And he said, 'Lord GOD, by what shall I know that I shall inherit it?'

Now here's where Abram acts as a high priest; he assists in doing it. Human effort to do this. We'll see that applied to Abraham; he assists in doing it. Human effort to do this. We'll see that applies to the next great Passover.

Verse 9: "And He said to him, 'Take Me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.' And he took all these to himself, and divided them in the middle, and laid each piece opposite the other; but he did not divide the birds" (vs 9-10).

Spread them out because this was his special sacrifice. This is what is called a maledictory oath sacrifice!

Note Jer. 34; that's when the children of Israel believed Jeremiah a little bit. So, they decided that they would free their slaves and they did a covenant sacrifice, a maledictory sacrifice, which is this: If you go through those, you are pledging that if you don't do what you say, you die!

You'll see that's what happened to the Jews at that time in Jerusalem because they didn't do what they said.

Verse 10: And he took all these to himself, and divided them in the middle, and laid each piece opposite the other…" Made a path between them!

All the blood, guts and gores, all laying on the ground. No altar to sprinkle anything on. Just the ground.

"…but he did not divide the birds. And when the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away" (vs 11-12).

Look at the setting. We want to go back to the first of the chapter. The Lord God came to him at night, because He said, look at the stars. Do you see stars in the daytime? No! So that's day one!

Now then, look what happened in the morning. How long it took to get all those sacrifices together, we don't know.

Verse 12: "And it came to pass, as the sun was going down…"

Now we don't know exactly how far down it was, we're not told. But it wasn't quite ready to set.

We'll jump ahead to the sacrifice of Christ, when did He die? Ninth hour—3 o'clock in the afternoon! Could this be about the same time? Could be!

Verse 12: "And it came to pass, as the sun was going down, that a deep sleep fell upon Abram. And, behold, a horror of great darkness fell upon him!"

Almost like death! That was a phenomenal thing for him to go through. I don't think any of us have been in that kind of deep sub consciousness.

Verse 13: "And He said to Abram, 'You must surely know that your seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs (and shall serve them and they shall afflict them) four hundred years.

Now we have a chart that shows the whole thing. That's a difficult Scripture. We won't explain it here.

Verse 14: "And also I will judge that nation whom they shall serve…. [keep that in mind] …And afterward they shall come out with great substance. And you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." (vs 14-16).

Verse "17: And it came to pass—when the sun went down and it was dark—behold, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram…" (vs 17-18).

Now remember, a covenant requires the sacrifice first! That sacrifice is maledictory and cannot be broken. The only thing that will change it is death! Keep that in mind.

Verse 17: "And it came to pass—when the sun went down and it was dark—behold, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between those pieces."

What happened then? You've got these three animals, all the blood, guts and gore, everything there, and the two birds, turtle dove and a pigeon, and the smoking furnace.

What would a smoking furnace do to that? Burn them all up! So, there would be nothing but left but ashes.

Verse 18: "In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'I have given this land to your seed, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaim, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites'" (vs 18-21).

That covenant was the first great Passover! Now, how do we know that that was on the Passover? We know that from Gen. 12, because God told the children of Israel, now this is secondary so we're not going to get into it in detail. I'll cover that in a message a little bit later.

But it says about The Night to be Much Observed that in that very night, 430 years later, the children of Israel began to leave Egypt. That very night was the night it's talking about here.

That means that the sacrifice took place on what became the Passover Day. So, the Passover is the Covenant Day of God!

That's how God began His Covenant with the children of Israel in the land of Egypt. There was a sacrifice! They had the sacrifice of the lamb so they could take the blood and put it on the doorpost and on the lentil above the doorpost, and the destroyer wouldn't come and destroy their firstborn of man and animal. But killed all of those of Egypt after all of the other plagues. So, there was that sacrifice on the Passover Day. We'll see that carried through a little bit later.

Then there's something else that took place which was an additional verification that what God told him and the experience of the sacrifice of Gen. 15 was sure.

That's when there was another thing that Abraham did to take his one and only son Isaac, who was apparently about 15 at that time, and offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of Moriah. So, Abraham did!

You know the whole account there that after they arrived for the mountain, he took Isaac, put the wood on him. He had a pan with fire in it, and they went up to the mountain wherever it was that God said to offer him. Abraham made an altar to God taking 12 stones. Then he bound up Isaac, laid him on there, ready for the sacrifice.

All the wood that Isaac had brought up and carried on his back was now underneath him for the burnt offering. Abraham reached down to take his knife and he had it in his hand to then sacrifice him.

Genesis 22:11: "And the angel of the LORD called to him from the heavens…"

Let's see how important that this is. This was an added verification of the sacrifice and also a prophecy of:

• Jesus Christ, Who was the firstborn of Mary
• Isaac was the firstborn of Sarah

Do you see the parallel? In your seed shall all the nations be blessed physically, and in your seed shall all nations be blessed spiritually, because you have done this! So here it is verified.

Genesis 22:11: ""And the angel of the LORD called to him from the heavens and said, 'Abraham! Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' And He said, 'Do not lay your hand upon the lad, nor do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me'" (vs 11-12).

• How much does God require of us?
• What do we take as a covenant vow to God? Baptism!
• What is that? That is a symbolic death showing that when you come out of that watery grave and receive the Spirit of God, you will overcome the sin within and the sin without!

And that God will give you the power of His Spirit to overcome the law of sin and death that works within every human being.

That power can only come from God. Only God can do that! Just like right here. Only God could spare Abraham's son, because he had to have offspring to fulfill His promise to Abraham. But this was a type then of the coming sacrifice of Jesus.

Verse 13: "And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram was entangled in a thicket by its horns…." I've often wondered:

• How did that get there?
• Did it just wander there?
• Did God just make it go there?

Or

• Did God create it and put it there?

I have no idea!

But it may be that God did create it and put it there for that special sacrifice, because that would become the type of Jesus Christ.

Verse 15: "And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, 'By Myself…'" (vs 15-16).

Think about this. The One Who has made the heavens and the earth and everything that there is, if He's going to give a promise, His Word is always sure, because God cannot lie!

How does He verify the fact that He Himself is going to do it as He has said? He swears by Himself. God:

• Who is eternal
• Who is love
• Who is almighty
• Who has all power

swore to Abraham on His own existence, which is greater than the existence of heaven and earth!

So you see how important this is. I don't know if this was done on the Passover Day or not, we're not told. But it could be very likely that it did happen that way.

"…'By Myself have I sworn,' says the LORD, 'because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son'" (v 16). That's what God the Father did!

Verse 17: "That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens, and as the sand, which is upon the seashore…." Two things.

• Stars=spiritual seed
• Sand=physical seed

That's what we have going back to Gen. 12 and 15!

Verse 18: "And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."

You heard me say this how many times, those three words obey my voice!

Everything that God wants us to obey has been written down! He has inspired it to be written down so that we know, so that no one at any time can ever say, 'God, I never heard You. You never spoke to me.'  His answer will be:

• Did you have a Bible in your house? Oh yeah, we have a couple of them!
• Did you ever read them? Oh, I looked at them!
• Did you ever believe them? 'Oh, I can't say that I did.'

• but I sent it to you so you would know
• that's how important you were to Me
• you had a Bible, but you need to respond to Me

Look at how this blessing comes.

Here's the blessing that He gave to Isaac! Genesis 26:2: "And the LORD appeared to him [Isaac] and said, 'Do not go down into Egypt. Live in the land, which I shall tell you of.

• we're not to go back into this world—Egypt/Sodom
• we are to dwell in the land which God tells us of

What is that land? Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness! That's why we are called strangers and sojourners on the earth, because we don't fit into the world! We don't go back to Egypt, so He says:

Verse  3: "Stay in this land, and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your seed, I will give all these lands; and I will establish the oath, which I swore to Abraham your father…. [a physical seed] And I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens…" (vs 3-4).

Paul makes the comparison between the Church and Isaac for spiritual seed (Gal. 4).

"…all the nations of the earth be blessed, because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My Laws' (vs 4-5).

All of you ignoramuses out there who believe there was no Law until the giving of the Commandments to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, are liars!  You are all of your father the devil!

Oh, but you're such a nice person. Well, Satan can be sweet and nice, whatever he desires to be. And he can give you benefits if he wants to.

Now let's come to the second great Passover, which is:

The Passover of Christ

It took 24 hours, because there are always some of those who say, and even some practiced it, and we did it for years, did we not? We took the Passover in the evening, and then the next day we had our last hamburger at McDonald's, because we assumed that the Passover Day was not an unleavened bread day.

How can it not be an unleavened bread day when the sacrifice of Christ—the greatest Passover of all—took place on that day, and His sacrifice is for the sins of the whole world.

To say that's not an unleavened bread day is not Scriptural. Now remember this: In order to know Truth, in many cases it takes one Scripture! Just one!

Now the world doesn't understand this because they don't understand the Sabbath and the Passover and Holy Days of God.

That's why I want to cover this and emphasize this, that this is the greatest Passover. The first one was with Abraham (Gen. 15) then verified by Gen. 22.

Then we have the great Passover of God, the sacrifice of His Firstborn Son! We know that He was God before He became flesh. And He alone kept this Passover Day from sunset to sunset, all 24 hours!

Mark 14:12—A lot of people will say, well that's only one verse. That's all it takes.

Someone asked me the question here recently: Can you prove that John of Revelation was the apostle? Well some scholar thought that up so he could do away with things in it he didn't like.

Do you suppose that Christ would have given it to another John who was not his personal disciple—whom He loved—more than the other 11. Remember he said, referring to Peter who was political, 'What's going to happen to him, Lord?'

Jesus said, 'What's that to you, if I desire that he remain until I come. Go do what I said.'

John did see it! You think he would give it to any other John who would come into the Church later on? Or that would come from a pagan church? That's how scholars think. They never repent of the carnality and the superiority of what they think their brains are to come to the knowledge of God.

That's why it says in 1-Cor. 1 as Lyall said, call the foolish the weak! That's us! Why? Because we will believe and we will obey! That's what it's all about. What did it say back there in Genesis 26:5? Because Abraham obeyed my voice.

Mark 14:12: "And on the first day of the unleaveneds…"

People read that and they think that's the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Then they come up with the argument that there are only seven days of Unleavened Bread. That's true for the Feast of Unleavened Bread!

But we have to answer the next question which tells us that this is a separate day of unleavened bread, which was the first of the year.

"…when they were killing the Passover lambs…" (v 12).

In the Greek that is present tense active, meaning when they asked: 'Where will we prepare the Passover?' It was on the first day of the unleaveneds and they were killing the Passover lambs.

Are not the Passover lambs to be eaten on the Passover Day? Yes! So, this cannot be the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because the Passover was just beginning and the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread was three days later. But none of the scholars can figure it out.

I remember when I first really understood that, and the Greek really was present tense happening right while they were speaking. I don't know if it was one of those occasions I was reading in bed—there were several occasions I was reading and studying in bed—and I popped up out of bed so excited! That this answered the question that the Church argued about over and over and over again; which ended up being a whole lot of nonsense by men who do not know how to put the Word of God together.

So this is the second great Passover of the Bible! It is the greatest! The death of God manifested in the flesh, whose blood as Lyall brought out, is the blood that forgives the sin of the world, and it started that night!

So I'll just summarize and pick it up here next week. What did it start out with after they found the place and the lamb was killed and it was ready to go and Jesus arrived? It started out with foot-washing!

Amazing thing! That signifies you'll always walk in the way of God! Then they ate of the broken unleavened bread when He said, 'Take eat, this is My body, which is broken for you.' And His body was beaten and slashed and disfigured. During that night, that was part of keeping the Passover for Christ.

Giving the instruction first of all to the apostles and then going out and praying for three hours in the Garden of Gethsemane, because he knew the agony and everything that was going to take place.

Then He was crucified, spit upon, mocked, and died at the ninth hour, and put into the tomb as the Passover Day ended.

So, from sunset, 24 hours to sunset, Jesus kept the greatest Passover ever in the whole history of the universe! This is why the Passover is so important for us!

Scriptural References:

• Daniel 12:10
• Matthew 16:14-19
• Daniel 10:19-20
• Matthew 16:19

• Genesis 12:1-4
• Genesis 15:1-21
• Genesis 22:11-13, 15
• Genesis 26:2-5
• Mark 14:12

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Revelation 5; 6

• Revelation 18
• Matthew 13; 10
• Jeremiah 34
• Galatians 4
• 1-Corinthians 1

Also referenced:

Booklets:

• The Folly of the Fools, and Wisdom of the Wise: A Scriptural Study compiled by Mark Vest and Hiedi Vogele
• The Temples That Jerusalem Forgot by Robert Martin (a summary)
• Which is the True Calendar of God?
• Count to Pentecost
• 26 New Testament Translation Comparisons by Joseph Ackerman

Books:

• The Greek-English Interlinear with A Faithful Version
• A Harmony of the Gospels

Church at Home {churchathome.org} Was Peter Ever in Rome?

Message: The Precious Blood of the Lamb of God by Lyall Johnston

FRC:bo/po
Transcribed: 3/12/25

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