Word of Salvation – Vol.13 No.07 – February 1967
God’s People Saved Through The Blood
Sermon by Rev. M. Schwarz on Exodus 12:13
Scripture Reading: Exodus 12:1-14
Psalter Hymnal: 297:1,2,9,10; 420:6,7,10; 261:1-4; 260:1-4; 354:1-4; 468
Beloved Congregation,
It was not gold or silver that kept death from the doors. No one could argue with the angel of death and say: Don’t kill, it’s so cruel, immoral or uncivilized. The only way to be saved was by the blood. “When I see the blood, I will pass over you”. The blood kept a terrible judgment away. Where the blood was not applied and sprinkled on the doorposts, the Lord struck death into both Israelite and Egyptian families. It was an awful judgment! Universal! It came upon all families, rich and poor, good and bad. Unexpected!
Vs.30: “And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house, where there was not one death”. It was a judgment, which struck death into the families.
This is a picture of the last judgment to come. Where the blood of Jesus Christ has not been applied to hearts and heads, the judgment of God will strike the millions of this world and the billions that ever lived since the creation of the world. But as it was in the days of Noah, or in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, or in the days of the Egyptians, in an hour when they think not, the Son of Man shall appear like a lightning, like a thief in the night, so sudden, so unexpected, so deadly. While people are busy buying and selling, building and trading; while we boast of our present civilization, prosperity and success, all the time there is a cloud of calamity and judgment over the world, darker than the cloud that ever hung over Egypt.
This last judgment will begin with the House of God. The angel of death started with the house of Israel. Israel was as sinful as the Egyptians. If any Israelite disbelieved the power of the blood, the Lord most certainly killed the first-born in that family and treated him as He did the Egyptians.
This is proof again from Scripture, that there is no salvation apart from the blood of Christ. The Lord did not say: “Line up in front of your houses and when I see your Jewish noses and faces then I will pass over.” Even with Israel, only the blood could avert the judgment.
Let us notice, that salvation came to the Israelites through a Substitute. The father of the house had to kill the Lamb himself. By doing this, he confessed his sinfulness and need of deliverance, and he believed that God does accept the life of a substitute instead of his own life.
God himself appointed the victim. It had to be spotless and faultless. This was a type of Christ, who is The Lamb of God, who became our substitute. He was spotless and faultless. There was never a single sin in His heart or mind. The resurrection is proof to us that God also accepted His death instead of our death, the atonement for sin, which He offered to God.
All spiritual blessings, therefore, come to us from the Cross. There are no blessings, which are not given to us from the Crucified One. Let us remember this, dear Christians, because we sometimes seem to expect more from the Holy Spirit than we do from the Christ on the Cross, that we pray more to the Holy Spirit for help and guidance, for wisdom, knowledge and revelations than we expect to get from the blood of the Cross. We should keep in mind that all blessings come from the Cross, where Jesus Christ secured them for The Holy Spirit only takes from Christ and gives it to us. Our position is not in the Spirit, but in Christ; we are not a Pentecostal Church, we are not the Church of the Spirit, but we are the Church of Jesus Christ.
All spiritual blessings come exclusively from the blood of the Cross. Gold, silver, Mary with all her saints, our upbringing in a Christian School or our good behaviour cannot be the reason for God to pass over us with His judgment. Even Israel, God’s own people, the people of election, could not be saved from sin apart from the blood.
Our trust cannot be in our election or predestination either. If one should boast and say: “I am predestined, nothing can happen to me” he will surely go to hell. The Lord did not say: “When I see your conviction about election”, but, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you.”
You may say: “I would like to hope in the blood, but I don’t think that I feel sorry enough for my sins”. My dear friend, it is not your feelings about repentance, your feelings about faith or your spiritual experiences, God is looking for. Trust exclusively in the blood of the Saviour, and not in your own good works. First you need Christ and then you can work as much as you like. First you must trust in Christ for salvation, and then the doctrine of election will become wonderfully comforting to you. First you must come under the power of the blood, and then the feelings and experiences will come by themselves.
There is this one condition before the blessings come to us personally. “When I see the blood.” It was not enough to kill the victim in the house and to eat it in the prescribed manner. The Lord wanted to see it on the door-posts of the house. The blood had to be applied, and to be sprinkled on the door-posts. Only then the family was safe. The family did not see the blood from inside, but the Lord saw it.
Do we really believe in the power of the blood of Jesus Christ? The offer is universal. Whosoever of you applies the blood to the door-posts of his house, he shall be safe, entirely and completely. That is why the Gospel is preached all over the world. But this salvation is ours only in the obedience of faith. We have to believe it. This is God’s will for our lives, that believing in the name of Jesus we should not perish, but have everlasting life.
If some of the Israelites ridiculed this way of being saved, if they disbelieved the blood of the substitute, they had to see to it themselves. They did not heed the warning and they did not obey. If they died and were condemned it was their own fault. This is also the stern warning of the New Testament: If any one hears of the salvation through the blood of Christ and does not personally apply the blood to himself, and if he then is condemned in the last judgment, it is his own fault. Nowhere does the Bible find an excuse for the sinner, who does not believe in the blood and as a result of his unbelief goes to hell. Neither should we find an excuse for him. It is ignorance to blame the devil for it; it is blasphemy to blame God for it. It could not be God’s fault, for God gave up His own Son for the world, that through Him the world might be saved.
Our salvation and all spiritual blessing come exclusively from the blood of our Saviour. What are these blessings: The text before us suggests some three or four blessings that come to us, if the power of the blood avails for us:
- Personal assurance of being exempted from the coming Judgment. Having sprinkled the blood to the door posts, the Father of the house and his whole family could be absolutely sure that death would not come to them. They could be certain that they were exempted from the coming judgment. They could be sure about it, because God’s Word told them so.
The first thing about saving faith in Jesus is that we are sure about our salvation, that we know that Jesus is ours and we are His, and that He is the Saviour who saved us.
Some people say that you can be a Christian, even if you are not sure whether you are saved. We will not pronounce a person a heathen, if he at times of weakness has moments of doubts and certainty. But underneath it all, there will be that sure knowledge in the Christian’s heart, that Jesus is my Saviour. If that assurance of salvation is not there at all, it is likely that we are no true believers and not converted. The Catechism tells us that true faith is a sure knowledge and a firm confidence, by which I believe that also to me “forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness and salvation are freely given by God”. So, there is nothing to argue about. The first thing about saving faith in Jesus is that we have a personal assurance of salvation.
- Beginning of a New Life. As soon as the blood was applied, the Israelites had to eat unleavened bread. Throughout the Bible, leaven stands for the old, the evil; it speaks of disintegration and corruption. God’s people had to eat unleavened bread to signify that this is a new beginning. We are no more slaves of the Egyptians, even if we are still in their land, but we have the shoes on already and the staff is in the hand. Now we are slaves to God.
When one becomes a Christian, he realizes that something new has begun. The old things cannot be continued as they were, everything is seen in a different light and everything seems to stand in need of a thorough clean out. This is the enthusiasm of the first love to Jesus, the joy of having found the Saviour from sin. It becomes true what the Apostle Paul writes: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new Creature. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new”. No doubt, if the blood of Christ is sprinkled upon our hearts and consciences, it’s at the beginning of a new life.
- Assurance of Guidance of God. Having applied the blood to the doorposts, the Israelites could be sure that what God had begun with them, He would also finish. Pharaoh chasing them to the Red Sea, the wilderness, the entering into the Promised Land, all that was still future. They did not know how things would develop, they could only be sure that God would most certainly take care of them. From now on, God would be responsible for them for any material and spiritual needs the future may hold.
I am quite sure, dear Christians, that we far too often belittle God. We make Him small as the dust under our shoes, as if God were less powerful than a fly. Do we believe that God saved us from all guilt and depravity and that He will get us out of the grave and into heaven, and we don’t believe that He can help us to pay our bills? Do we believe that God was in perfect control of all the plagues of Egypt and that He led the people of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground, and should we do not also believe that He is perfectly able to take care of our little lives? How often do we grieve our Saviour in this! But surely, He is the same today as He was yesterday and as He will be tomorrow. His promises stand forever. As we look into the next week, let us all the more trust in His love and guidance, and let us be a bit more sure about it.
- Hope of eternal salvation. Should God go into all the troubles of sending Moses to Pharaoh, of showing His victory over the gods and magicians of Egypt, of providing the blood as the rescue from sin and death – and then let the people perish in the wilderness? Moses once prayed: “Lord, don’t destroy this people, don’t do it for Thy Name’s sake, for the nations will say: The Lord brought them out, but He is not able to bring them in”. For His own Name’s sake He will see them through. Should God give to us the blood of Jesus Christ and yet let us fall away from grace? What say the Scriptures: He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” This does not only mean that we can be sure about God’s love and guidance every moment of our daily life, but it also means that we can be sure about that final salvation. As yet, we see through a glass darkly but we may be sure that this will change one day. As yet, we do not know what we shall be, but “we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”
The great subject not only of this text before us, but of the whole Bible is that God’s people are saved through the blood. They are saved exclusively and only by the blood. Nothing but the blood of Jesus will do to cleanse from sin and guilt. It is the blood of Christ that brings to us and secures to us all spiritual blessings we have mentioned: the absolute assurance of salvation, the new life under God’s guidance, the hope of eternal salvation. This blood of Christ has to be applied to our hearts and lives, this is the condition, for the Lord said: “When I see the blood I will pass over you”. But whosoever believes shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
“Would you be free from the guilt of your sins?
There is power in the blood,
Would you over evil a victory win?
There is power in the precious blood of the Lamb.”
Amen.