Water and Blood, Blood and Water

Q: What does the Bible say about the plagues in Egypt?

The Bible recounts ten plagues sent by God upon Egypt to demonstrate His power and sovereignty. The ten plagues in Egypt, detailed in Exodus chapters 7 through 11, serve as significant demonstrations of God's authority over Pharaoh and the Egyptian gods. Each plague was a direct affront to the deities worshiped by the Egyptians, illustrating God's power to liberate His people from bondage. The plagues also reveal God's purpose in choosing to bring His people out of oppression into the Promised Land, emphasizing themes of redemption and sovereignty in His plan.

Q: How do we know Jesus Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for our sins?

Jesus' sacrifice is sufficient because it fulfilled the law's demands and achieved eternal redemption for His people. The sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice is rooted in its perfect compliance with divine justice. As stated in Hebrews 9:12, Christ's own blood entered the holy place once for all, securing eternal redemption. Unlike the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were temporary and symbolic, Christ's sacrifice was once offered and perfected forever those who are sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). This conveys that through faith in Christ, the penalty for sin—eternal death—has been fully satisfied, thus granting believers assurance of their salvation.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to understand the significance of blood and water from Jesus' side?

Understanding the blood and water signifies the cleansing and life-giving power of Christ's sacrifice for believers. The blood and water that flowed from Jesus' side upon His death symbolize the dual aspects of salvation and the new birth in the Christian faith. Blood represents the atonement for sin, establishing the price paid for redemption, as mandated in Leviticus 17:11. Water represents the Holy Spirit, the agent of regeneration and sanctification that applies the benefits of Christ's redemptive work to believers' lives. Together, they underscore how through Christ's death, believers are cleansed from sin and made alive, marking a significant theological underpinning of the gospel.

Q: What does Romans 9:17 tell us about God's sovereignty?

Romans 9:17 illustrates God's sovereignty in raising up leaders to accomplish His purposes, even using hardened hearts. Romans 9:17 declares that God raised Pharaoh for the purpose of showing His power and proclaiming His name throughout the earth. This verse emphasizes the doctrine of God's sovereignty, asserting that He orchestrates events and individuals, including those who oppose His will, to fulfill His divine purposes. Such understanding encourages believers to trust in God's ultimate authority over history and personal circumstances, affirming that nothing happens outside of His sovereign plan.

Q: How does the message of grace and truth in Christ relate to the plagues of Egypt?

The message of grace and truth reveals how God uses judgment to bring His people to salvation, as seen through the plagues. The connection between the plagues of Egypt and the message of grace and truth in Christ is profound. Each plague highlighted God's sovereignty and judgment, ultimately leading to the freedom of Israel from slavery. This parallels the gospel, wherein judgment upon sin is met with grace through the person of Jesus Christ. Just as the Israelites were delivered from physical bondage, believers are spiritually liberated from sin and death through faith in Christ—demonstrating God's commitment to redeem His elect through acts of both justice and mercy.

Well, we come back to Exodus, Exodus chapter 7, and we're coming to the start of the sequence down to end of chapter 11, the plagues, the plagues upon Egypt. There were 10 plagues that God sent upon Egypt. There were plagues of blood, of frogs, of lice, of flies, of moraine, which is a disease in the cattle that killed the cattle, of boils, you know, very, very sore, infected lumps on everybody, they were in agony with the boils, of hail from heaven, hail that was so big that it would kill you if you were out in the field and it hit you, with locusts that stripped the land completely, with darkness that was so dark that it could be felt, and then finally with death, the death of the firstborn. Ten plagues. Some people might think that we're talking about fiction in a childhood story, you know, a bit like a Harry Potter kind of story or something like that.

But no, actually, this is God revealing his curse on the world of Satan and his purpose of taking his people, his people by sovereign grace, by salvation out of it. If he is pleased to reveal its truth in you, and notice I didn't say to you, it needs to be revealed in you. That's what Paul said, when God revealed his son, not to me, but in me, in me. If he's pleased to reveal the truth of his gospel in you, and give you faith to believe it, it will confirm that you have that life of God in your soul.

I've said before, God put Israel into Egypt so that he could bring them out of Egypt. And likewise, he put his elect, his beloved multitude that no man can number, of every tribe and tongue and kindred, he put them He put us in this world for one reason, that he might redeem us out of this world of sin into his glorious kingdom. He didn't offer Israel the chance of the promised land, he took them there in spite of themselves.

And it's the same with the elect multitude. Let me say a bit about ancient Egypt and the world. in general. You see, I don't want anybody to get the idea that I'm decrying modern Egypt. The modern land of Egypt in northeast Africa, with the River Nile flowing through it, it's just another country of the world. It's no different to France, or Japan, or Australia. It's just another country of the world. But three and a half thousand years ago, or thereabouts, It was a great empire. It was the first of the great empires after the flood.

The flood of Noah's time destroyed Satan's empire of godless humanity. But out of it, God saved Noah plus seven souls. Why? Because he had to preserve a godly line. God had promised that the seed of the woman would come to redeem his people from the curse of the law, to undo that which Satan had accomplished in the fall. He had to preserve a godly line, and so Noah... Noah didn't make a decision. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And so he preserved a godly line from which the promised seed would come.

But nevertheless, sin still abounded. Nimrod soon arose. Nimrod, that rebellious panther. Why was he a rebellious panther? That's what his name means. He rebelled against God. He rebelled against the message of gospel grace. He built Babel with its tower. Whatever it was in truth, The symbolism is clear. He built that which was reaching to an eternal utopia without satisfaction of divine justice. And in that world where rapidly, again, it was overrun with sin, God called one man out of Ur of the Chaldees.

God called Abraham. For God's kingdom to be populated with people who are qualified to be there, they must be redeemed from the curse of sin, because all of us by nature are not qualified to be there. We must be redeemed from the curse of sin to be qualified to enter that kingdom. God's Son must come, God in the person of his Son, God in human flesh, the God-man must come in the fullness of God's time. When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. God's Son must come in the fullness of God's time, in the middle of God's time.

But Satan always sought, always strove, to destroy the line from Abraham. How did he strive to do it, above all? By seeking to subsume them into conformity with his worldly empires. By seeking to make them part of the world in general as it is, without the belief of God.

As I said, Egypt was the first of those great empires. Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, those were the great empires of the Old Testament days. Egypt was the world without God. That's what it represented. Ancient Egypt, three and a half thousand years ago, what was it? It was the world without the true God.

It had, as it does still today, that enormous great river, the River Nile. I know they debate which is the longest, the Amazon or the Nile, and as many people say the Nile is as say the Amazon is, but there it was. one of the two biggest rivers in the world flows through that country of Egypt. The Nile brought fertility to the land of Egypt.

It brought the silt down in the floods that overflowed the banks and made the fields fertile with all of the minerals that it brought down from the mountains up in Ethiopia and further south. It brought fertility. It brought water. It brought life. It was the God that the Egyptians worshipped in truth. It was their God. It was their life source. For, you see, unlike most other places, the water of life doesn't fall as rain from heaven. In Egypt, the water of life flowed down this great big river from high up in the African mountains. They believed in eternal life, these Egyptians, but without God.

You know, you can see it today. They built their pyramids. They built their pyramids for their pharaohs to be buried there by the River Nile in Egypt. And they filled their pyramids with what they thought was necessary for eternal life in the world to come. It's there, you can see it now. I'm not making this up.

But the people of God's promise, the people from whom the promised seed of the woman must come, were slaves there. They were in a hopeless condition. They were suffering cruelty and oppression and bondage. And God had sent Moses to say to Pharaoh, as we read in chapter seven and verse 16, the Lord, you shall say to him, God said to Moses, you should say to Pharaoh, the Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me unto you saying, let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness. Let my people go. But God had hardened Pharaoh's heart. God had hardened Pharaoh's heart. He didn't harden his own heart. God had hardened Pharaoh's heart. Why?

He tells us in Romans 9, 17, so that God would show by signs and by wonders who it is that truly rules in the affairs of men. There's a verse in, well, there are several, but here's one in Daniel. In Daniel chapter four, which is the chapter about that other great emperor, Nebuchadnezzar, who is being taught that he isn't the supreme one, that the God of heaven is the supreme one. And in verse 17, This matter is by the decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones to the intent that the living may know, listen, this is it, that the living may know, that's you and me, that all of us may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and setteth up over it the basest of men.

Isn't that interesting? Look at the political situation in the country that we're in at the moment. Look at the turmoil. Look at the basest of men appearing to be those who are in charge. But look, he who is God, he, the most high rules in the kingdom of men, he's the one who's given it to whomsoever he will, and set it, and setteth up over it, the basest of men.

Isn't that interesting? Now, there it was. It wasn't just one or two plagues that God sent to persuade, to force, to show Pharaoh that he must let the people go. It was ten. Ten is the number of completeness in the economy of God. Ten is the number of completeness. There were ten commandments given in Exodus 20. Ten commandments. The first plague of these ten, of this complete number, to accomplish his purposes, the first one, when Pharaoh refuses to release the Hebrews again, curse Egypt's river god, is what the first plague is about. Curse Egypt's river god.

They trust in the River Nile. Curse it. Curse it. Make it death to them. So, the next point is this. The water of life was made the blood of death. You might wonder about the title I've given it. Water and blood, blood and water. Hang in there with me, we'll see it shortly. But the water of life was made the blood of death. Look in chapter 7 verse 20 where we read earlier.

And Moses and Aaron did what God had said, which was to stretch out that rod which had become a serpent over the river and over all the waters, And he smoked the waters that were in the river in the sight of Pharaoh. He was down there because he said, meet him by the river. And Pharaoh was there, and in the sight of his servants, and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. and the fish that was in the river died, and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river, but there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. And you'll notice the magicians of Egypt did the same thing with their enchantments, and Pharaoh's heart was hardened. He said, my magicians can turn water to blood. How did they turn water to blood?

I haven't a clue, but I might suggest that by the power of Satan in this world, you know, he has, He has his spirits, he has his forces. He can do things that it either appeared as though water was turning to blood or they really did turn water to blood. I think it doesn't really matter which, but the fact of the matter is that Satan is powerful. Satan is powerful.

So all the water of Egypt was cursed. The essential of life in the world of Egypt, the essential thing of life in the world of Egypt was made a curse of death. That which they relied on, you know how you rely on water, you know how I rely on water, for that to be made a curse of death. So this world, which sustains life without God, is cursed by him and will ultimately be destroyed.

We're not just talking about fiction from three and a half thousand years ago. The Word of God reveals that this world, this kingdom of Satan, because that's what it is, is under the curse of God. We're not going to turn to it now, but I'll remind you.

In Revelation chapter 6, we see a book with seven seals. And the seals are opened by the only one who has the power, the ability, the qualities needed, and that is Christ, the Son of God. And the first four of those seals are four horses that God sends forth into this world. The first one is white, which is the gospel, which is the truth of God. But the second one that God sends into this world A note, God sends the second one into this world, is the red horse of war between nations. It's God that sends it.

Religion that calls itself Christianity all over the world, but especially in this country, portrays God as sitting in heaven wringing his hands in grief and inability at the stupidity of man always fighting with one another. And why don't they get on with one another? And then wouldn't it be a lovely place? We could create the kingdom of God on earth.

No, God sent forth the red horse to frustrate the kingdom of Satan. He sent forth the black horse, the black horse of massive difference in prosperity from those who are obscenely rich, right the way down to those who've got nothing to live on. And the pale horse, which is the universal one, the pale horse which is the horse of death for all of us in this flesh, are subject to death. And those horses were sent into the world by God to frustrate Satan's empire. And then we see seven trumpets that call forth all sorts of things, but a lot of it is environmental harm, to make this world a less suitable place for life. And finally, seven vials of the wrath of God are poured out. And in Revelation 16 verses 2 and 3, and again we won't turn to it now, but you can look at it later, Revelation 16 verses 2 and 3, Guess what happens when one vial is poured out?

The waters of the sea and the fresh waters of the river become blood. Exactly this plague. Exactly this plague. The waters of earth life are made the blood of death. As Satan's empire of Egypt without God had its life water cursed with death, so Satan's kingdom of this present world is having its water cursed with death and it will ultimately be when things come to an end.

You and I cannot avoid it. We're all as guilty sinners before God's holiness. There's not one of us. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Psalmist asks in Psalm 130 and verse three, if thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, and he does, O Lord, who shall stand? Nobody shall stand, for we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

But hold on, read the next verse, verse four. But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. God is a God of forgiveness. There is forgiveness. God will bring Israel out of Egypt, and his church will be brought out of this world to eternal bliss.

Here's the question. Will you be part of it? Will I be part of it? This plague, which I'm just going to leave as that, as the account in the scripture, it was there to curse Egypt's god, which was its river. This plague, what's it there for? It must point to Christ. You say, oh, you're going to over-spiritualize this, you're going places where the scripture doesn't go. Oh, it does. It does. What did Jesus say? These scriptures are they which speak of me. All of them. He didn't say except the plagues in Egypt, they don't speak of it. No, he said all the scriptures speak of me. And beginning at Moses and the prophets, he expounded to them in all the word of God the things concerning himself.

So we must look for Christ. We must get on the road that points us to Christ from here. We must find, as if we're searching for that fictional holy grail thing, we must find the road that leads us to Christ. Because grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. In John 1 verse 17, It says this of the word who was made flesh and dwelt among us. It says this of the Christ of God.

It says that the law was given by Moses. And what did the law do? It condemned people to death, for we're all sinners. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And the soul that sins, it shall die. It says the law was given by Moses. The condemning law was given by Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Moses turned the water of life in Egypt to blood. Well, God did, but he used Moses to do it. Moses turned water to blood. Jesus Christ turned water to wine.

In John chapter two, his first miracle recorded in John chapter two, verses seven to 10, we read of him that he's at a wedding at Cana of Galilee, and they've run out of wine. And they say to Mary, the mother of Jesus who was there, They've run out of wine.

And she says, do whatever he tells you to do. And he says, go and fill four big stone pots with water. And they filled them to the brim. Now draw out the water and take it to the master of ceremonies, if I can put it that way. And the master of ceremonies says, where did you get that from? Normally you keep, you use the best wine first, and then when people have drunk a bit, then you give them the worst stuff. You've kept the best till last. He made water to wine. He made water, it's a symbol. Wine, Psalm 104 verse 15. Wine that maketh glad the heart of man.

Zechariah speaks of the people of God. In Zechariah chapter 10, Zechariah chapter 10 and verse three. I've got the right That's it. Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats, for the Lord of hosts hath visited his flock, the house of Judah. He's visited his flock, the house of Judah.

And then in verse six, he says, I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them, for I have mercy upon them, and they shall be as though I had not cast them off, for I am the Lord their God and will hear them. and they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as though through wine. Their children shall see it and be glad. God promises happiness to his people. Their heart shall rejoice as through wine.

A curse, condemnation, eternal death turned into blessing and life and heaven. You know we all live in flesh. which is cursed. We know it's appointed to man to die once and then the judgment and we get bereavement and we've said that we've marked the passing recently of our dear brother George and we were some of us were at the memorial service last Tuesday. And yes, it's sad for loss here and now, but oh, what an occasion of rejoicing in the full assurance of faith that George is enjoying that eternal life which is promised to all the people of God. So, before we dig deeper into all the other plagues, the frogs, the lice, the flies, etc., before we dig deeper into the other plagues, let's pause and think for the rest of the time we have more about water, blood, death, life, curse, blessing. You see, Pointing to Christ, when Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, and when he was dead, a soldier pierced his side. Why did he do that? They normally broke the legs to finish them off. They came and broke the legs of the thieves. But when they came to Jesus, he was dead already. So a soldier pierced his side. Turn with me to John chapter 19. John chapter 19. When they came, well, verse 33. When they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs. They didn't break his legs.

But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came there out blood and water. Blood and water. It says in Zechariah again, 400 and odd years before Jesus died, in chapter 12 and verse 10 of chapter 12 of Zechariah, there as a prophecy, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. It wasn't the custom amongst the Jews for felons to be nailed to a cross. They were stoned to death, but Jesus wasn't stoned to death.

He was lifted up upon a cross as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. He was lifted up upon a cross in the form, in the picture of a serpent. That was what it was. And they stood around and they looked and they observed. And 400 years before, Zechariah, by the Spirit of God, prophesied, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.

You see, as I said, they didn't normally crucify people. They didn't normally finish them off by other than breaking their legs, but not him. They broke not a bone of his body. It says that in the prophecies about his death. But they did pierce him with a spear. They pierced him, and blood and water came out. Once he was dead, blood and water, it's highly symbolical. It's rich with spiritual meaning.

You see, Look at this, the life is in the blood. You don't need to turn to it, because I will, and read it to you, but Leviticus chapter 17 and verse 11 says this, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for your soul. And then verse 14, for it is the life of all flesh, the blood of it is for the life thereof. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, ye shall not eat the blood of no manner of flesh, for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof.

Whosoever eateth it shall be cut off. When blood is poured out of a body, it dies. And death is the penalty for sin against God. The soul that sins, it shall die. God said to Adam and Eve, when he set the mark that they could eat anything in the Garden of Eden, apart from the tree that was in the midst of the Garden of Eden, of that fruit you shall not eat. In the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.

Sin, sin was what entered. Sin is what is everywhere, infects all of us. But to be rid of sin, there must be bloodshed. For as Hebrews 9.22 tells us, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. There is no taking away of sin. What blood could pay the price for the sin debt of a multitude of people?

Certainly not their own. Certainly not my blood, nor your blood, if we're amongst them. How do we know? Psalm 49, verse 7. None, no one, can by any means redeem his brother. I can't redeem you any more than you can redeem me. nor give to God a ransom, pay the price of release from sin for him. We can't do it, why? Because it's precious, it's costly, it's beyond anything that we can do, it's unattainable, it ceaseth forever, it's unattainable. It's only the blood of God's lamb that can do this.

Turn with me to Hebrews chapter nine, and just look at some verses here. Hebrews chapter nine. And verse 14, I'll dot around to one or two verses. How much more? He's been comparing the blood of the Old Testament sacrifices, which were just symbolical and just pictured the truth of the death of Christ. Blood of bulls and goats, they do a certain thing, but they cannot do that which the blood of Christ does. Verse 14, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Look at verse 12, go back a couple of verses. Neither by the blood of goats or calves, but by his own blood, Christ's own blood, he entered in once into the holy place. Not into the holy place of the temple on earth, but into the holy place of God's heaven. having obtained eternal redemption for us. Having obtained it, not having made it possible, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Who's the us? I know it's there in italics, but it's for his people. It's for his people that he loved. In verse 23, In verse 23, it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these. What's he talking about?

He's talking about the temple worship, the temple sacrifices, which were just patterns of spiritual reality, and they were purified with the blood of bulls and goats, just symbolically. but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. The blood of bulls and goats is no good for that.

And look, Christ is not entered, verse 24, into the holy places made with hands, the temple, which are figures of the true pictures, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Verse 26, for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And verse 28, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and bear the sins of many many and unto them that look for him he shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation you see the power of these words here go on for a few more verses into chapter 10 verse 4 it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats animal sacrifices should take away the sins of people it's not possible verses 12 to 14 but this man God in human flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. After he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, not repeatedly, once on the cross of Calvary, he sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering He has perfected forever.

What do you need to be to get into heaven? You need to be perfect. By one offering, He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Sanctified, set apart. Verse 17, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. This blood, of Christ that he shed for the sins of his people. This is the blood of God. The blood of God. Acts 20 verse 28, Paul said, look after the church which he purchased with his own blood. How did God purchase the church with his own blood? I know I repeat it often. He became man with blood like us, in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet without sin. Jehovah, Jesus. Jehovah, Jesus. Jesus, Joshua. Joshua, Jehushua, or something like that. God saves. The God who saves His people. The life of God in the person of His Son. That is what paid. the sin debt of his beloved multitude. He didn't just make it possible to offer it, he achieved it, he accomplished it.

It is precious blood, as we saw, Psalm 49, none can redeem his brother. It's precious, it's too costly, but his is precious blood, as Peter tells us in his first epistle. that you're not redeemed, you're not bought, the ransom isn't paid with corruptible things like silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. It's precious. It's not only precious, it's the only precious currency. It's the only valid currency of eternal life.

If you have not been washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, you do not have eternal life. It has satisfied offended divine justice. It has washed away sin, for as John says, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. Not sin in general, but the sin of God's elect. I want you to look somewhere else. I want you to look in Ephesians. If I can find where I've put my reference. Ephesians 5, that's it. Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5.

What is it that was cleansed? It's his church is what Christ cleansed. Look there in verse 25. Husbands. love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Why did he give himself for it? That he might sanctify, make holy, and cleanse it, cleanse it from its sin, with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself in eternal glory, a glorious church. How? Not having spot or wrinkle or sin of any sort, nor any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Christ has cleansed and fitted for heaven his church. Did this man really shed precious blood? Did he really? Yes.

John 19, we read it. He bled from his hands and his feet, from the nails in the cross, from the crown of thorns on his head. But when, in verse 33 there in John 19, it said he was dead already, his side was pierced and blood and water came out. In Egypt, in God's first plague, He cursed the world of Egypt's godless life source, Nile water. With death, he made that water blood.

This world is likewise under God's just judgment. It is cursed. It will be swept away. And you and me, all in our flesh, if that's where we remain, will be swept away with it into a lost eternity of hell. But the blood of God in Christ has cleansed his church for glory, has cleansed the people he loved from before the beginning of time, that multitude that no man can number. There it is declared. God has decreed it. Can you see it? Precious blood has paid the ransom price for the liberty of God's people. Is it yours? Is it yours? Is it yours? What makes it yours?

What was it that came out when the spear pierced the side of the Lord Jesus Christ? Blood and water. Blood and water. That which cursed ancient Egypt and symbolized the curse on Satan's world, the water turned to blood. That which cursed that. In the gospel of Christ, that blood declares redemption and life for the multitude God loved from eternity.

That's the world that God so loved in John 3.16. It's not the world of everybody without exception. God so loved the world of his elect people, the multitude God loved from eternity. The blood objectively paid the price.

What about the water then? What about the water? The water is the spirit of God who applies it to the hearts of his people, who cleanses his people with the washing of water in sanctifying truth in the gospel of grace. In John chapter seven and verse 37, In that great feast, it says here, in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood in Jerusalem and cried saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. What's he talking about? Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

This he spake of the spirit. which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. This is the Holy Spirit who applies in the experience the power of that objectively cleansing blood of Christ. God's sheep were purchased by precious blood. The sheep are the people he loved from eternity. He calls them that. His elect, his church, they're all the same thing.

But Christ's death also secured the Spirit. When he died, when he was already dead, it secured the Spirit to give life and faith in the new birth. You see, you must be born again. You must have the Spirit of God. That death secured the Spirit for the people of God, to reveal the blood's power in the experience, that it might be a felt experience, that you are forgiven of your sins, that when I stand before that throne, I know that my sins will be gone, for the Word of God assures us, and the Spirit of God speaks that in the heart. Are you one of that innumerable multitude of Christ's sheep, for whom His blood fitted them for His kingdom? then by the water that flowed from Christ's death, i.e., by his spirit, you will believe him. Because he says, I will make my people willing in the day of my power. And it's to the saving of your immortal soul, as we read at the start in Titus, verse five of chapter three. not by works of righteousness, which we have done, which is according to the vast majority of the world's religion, even that which calls itself Christianity, that by works of righteousness, you'll earn favor with God, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us.

How? By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. It's that that applies, the power of the blood in the soul, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. I make no offer. I make no gospel offer. I make no offer of salvation for you to accept or reject. I just simply declare what God has said. And if you're one of his sheep, if you're one of those, as it says in Acts 13, 48, ordained to eternal life, God will make you willing to believe it and to rejoice in it.

Water and Blood, Blood and Water

What does the Bible say about the plagues in Egypt?

How do we know Jesus Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for our sins?

Why is it important for Christians to understand the significance of blood and water from Jesus' side?

What does Romans 9:17 tell us about God's sovereignty?

How does the message of grace and truth in Christ relate to the plagues of Egypt?

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Water and Blood, Blood and Water

What does the Bible say about the plagues in Egypt?

How do we know Jesus Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for our sins?

Why is it important for Christians to understand the significance of blood and water from Jesus' side?

What does Romans 9:17 tell us about God's sovereignty?

How does the message of grace and truth in Christ relate to the plagues of Egypt?

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