Okay, well, I... Hold on, let
me do something with this. Inadvertently, a few weeks ago,
I started what seems to have become a series, which was beginning
with the blessings of salvation, the salvation that God declares
in his word. And we saw in, which one was
it? Psalm 16, I think, wasn't it? It was pleasures and something
forevermore. It was peace, pleasures and peace
forevermore, is the promise of God's word to his people concerning
heaven, and how is it appreciated in this life, how is it sensed,
how is it apprehended? It's apprehended by that gift,
that gift from God which is the gift of faith, the sight of the
soul, the sense that, as we've been seeing in Hebrews chapter
11 on Wednesday nights, it's that sense which is beyond the
other physical senses that we have, it's a spiritual sense,
it's the sense that Man naturally, we naturally, as we're born,
do not have. You know, it says that the people
that believe God were children of wrath even as others, just
like everybody else, until God gave that light, that light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
So it's apprehended by faith. And then we went on last week
to see that those who are the people of God with a good hope
are those who love the Lord Jesus Christ. They love the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we saw last week the title
was My Beloved from Song of Solomon. My Beloved. They love the Lord
Jesus Christ. But you know, Yes, the true people
of God love the Lord Jesus Christ, but love is something which is
prone to human fluctuation. You know, in human experience,
love is variable and fluctuating, hot and cool. I mean, a really
good textbook good marriage is based on love which is solid,
but you know, the other feelings, I mean, the feelings of liking,
you know, I absolutely love this lady here, She hates it when
I start saying this. I love this lady here, but there
are some days when, boy, she annoys me and I annoy her. There
are some days when I really don't like the things she does and
she doesn't like the things I... It fluctuates. I mean, the love
stays constant, but it fluctuates. And that's why marriage is such
a good thing, because there's an objective fact of marriage,
you know, you make a public promise in front of witnesses, and it
stays constant. And with us, it's been constant
for nearly 50 years. 50 years next month, isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ said to
Peter, Peter, do you love me? This was when he's risen from
the dead and he's cooked them breakfast. They'd been fishing
and caught nothing. And he says, put your net on
the other side and it nearly sunk the boat with fish. And
he's cooked breakfast and he says, Peter, Peter, the one who
betrayed him, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know that
I love you. You know that I'm very fond of you. You know that
my feelings fluctuate and I try as I might in the flesh, I try
my best to love you. Feed my sheep, feed my lambs.
Do you love me? Three times he asked him. Is
your depth of love an indicator of the certainty of your salvation,
of your possession of heaven? that when it comes to the day
that you leave this life, you have a good hope of eternal glory,
a good hope of peace in the presence of God and fellowship with God
forever. Is your depth of your love that
indicator? And the answer is an emphatic
no. God's salvation of his people, what the Bible throughout calls
his elect, God's salvation of his people is unchanging. It's
based on objective facts. It's not based on your feelings,
hot or cold, whatever they are. Think of Abraham. What do we
read about Abraham? We read that Abraham believed
God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now, Abraham's
feelings fluctuated, hot and cold. There were times, do you
think he was wholeheartedly believing God when he lied about Sarah
being his sister? I don't think so. They were fluctuating.
His feelings fluctuated, but what he believed in stayed absolutely
constant. It was certain. What was it that
Abraham believed in? We read in Revelation 13 verse
8, what he believed in was the Lamb slain from before the foundation
of the world. The Lamb slain then. The Lamb
of God. The Passover Lamb of God. for
the redemption of his people. Whilst God's people love Christ,
that is not their measure, that's not the measure of their justification
before God. Now last Wednesday when we were
in Hebrews chapter 11 at verse 28, we read, Moses, by faith,
kept the Passover. And that set me thinking about
the objective certainty of salvation, being not dependent on my variable
feelings. What has accomplished my release
from the just condemnation of God on my sin? What is it that
has done that? John the Apostle tells us, 1
John 1, verse 7, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, the Son
of God, God made manifest, God made flesh, the blood of Jesus
Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. It is that objective
fact that accomplishes it. It isn't my faith that accomplishes
it. however strong or weak that might
be. It's not my works of goodness, however good I think they are,
tinged with hypocrisy. It's not my love, it's not the
strength of my love. Oh I had a very good repentance,
oh I was so emotionally heartbroken and repentant. No it's not that,
that doesn't give the measure. of the certainty of salvation. It's not how much knowledge,
it's not how much I know. You can imagine after 50 odd
years I know quite a lot more of this Bible than maybe some
of you do. But it's not that, it doesn't
make any difference. It's not any Christian gifts that I might
have. The Scripture tells us it's this, it's the blood of
Christ. It's the blood of Christ. Why
the blood? Why the blood? Because God said in the beginning
to Adam and Eve, in the day you sin, in the day you eat thereof,
you shall surely die. He says again in Ezekiel, the
soul that sins, it shall die. It shall forfeit its life. The
book of Deuteronomy tells us that the life is in the blood. and the blood must be shed, but
only the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God. And that blood of
Christ was literally, literally, historically, truly poured out
at Calvary nearly 2,000 years ago. But it was pictured throughout
the Old Testament in the Passover, in that Passover that we read
about in Exodus chapter 12. Israel had been in bondage in
Egypt from the time of Joseph, 430 years or thereabouts, and
initially it had been very good, but then they were treated by
the Egyptians as their slaves to build the pyramids and these
other things. And Moses was sent by God to go and tell Pharaoh,
let my people go, and he would not. So plagues were threatened,
and nine plagues came. The river Nile was turned to
blood, and he would not let the people go. There was a plague
of frogs. We sometimes think we have a
plague of frogs in our garden because the pond is absolutely
full of them and our neighbour hates them and she goes weeding
in her moist borders and a frog jumps out so you hear a scream
every now and then and it's our next door neighbour because of
frogs there. It's almost like there's a plague of frogs here
but I'm talking about a plague of frogs on a colossal scale.
There was a plague of lice, there were flies, The cattle of the
Egyptians died. There was a plague of boils.
There was hail. There was hail that was so heavy
and big, you see about it occasionally in freak storms in other parts
of the world, damaging hail that killed people. There were locusts
that stripped the earth bare. There was darkness that was so
dark that it could be felt. Nine plagues, all in the face
of Pharaoh's rejection of the decrees of God. and then a tenth
one was threatened. And we read about it in Exodus
11, just before the passage Stephen read to us. In verse 4, Moses
said, thus, he's speaking to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord,
about midnight, Will I go out? God says, I will go out. Odd,
odd, God dwells in it, yes, but you know, figurative language.
About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt and all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. shall die. The soul that sins, it shall
die. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God. From the firstborn of Pharaoh
that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the
maidservant that is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of
the beasts, and there shall be a great cry throughout all the
land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be
like it any more. But against any of the children
of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast,
that ye may know how that the Lord put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel. See there, he threatened it.
But in verse 10, it says in verse 10, They said that to Pharaoh,
and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let
the children of Israel go. And then we have the Passover
account of it actually happening that Stephen read to us earlier
on. And we get down to verse 12, and God says this, I, God,
will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and I will
smite All the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast,
and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am
the Lord. And the blood shall be to you
for a token upon the houses where ye are. And when I see the blood,
when God sees the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague
of death shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the
land of Egypt. So that's the Passover account,
and the key is, and this is the title of the message, when I
see the blood. This is what God says, when I
see the blood, I will pass over you. Now they might have said,
sorry I don't understand, how does this work? What you mean,
he sees blood and that means I'm alright, but where he doesn't
see blood, they're not alright. Yeah, that's exactly what God
says. That's exactly what he says. Let's think of another
account. You know, a few chapters on,
in Numbers 21, around there, the people were being bitten
by serpents in their wilderness wanderings, and they were dying
of these deadly serpent bites. And God said to Moses, make for
yourself a brass image of the thing that's doing the killing,
a serpent, and put it on a pole and hold it up, and tell the
people Whoever looks at it, believing, whoever looks at it, because
I've said it, whoever looks at it, believing, will recover.
And they did. And the ones that refused, didn't.
And they died of their snakebites. It's exactly the same. I don't
understand how it works, but God had spoken. And theirs, the
children of Israel, theirs was to believe what God had said.
to trust God, to not call God a liar, God who upholds all things
by the word of His power, God who created all things and sustains
all things, God who is the righteous judge who will end all things.
God has spoken. And if you hear, the thing to
do is to believe what he says. So first of all, I want to ask
the question, whose blood is this? When I see the blood, I
will pass over you. And the answer is, it's not just
any blood. Not just any blood. It had to
be exactly as God had appointed. He had appointed that there was
to be brought a lamb. without blemish and without spot.
Now you think, what a cruel thing, you see the little lambs frolicking
around in the fields in the spring months with their lovely white
fluffy fur and you think, what a dreadful thing. This is a picture
of the Lamb of God. This is a picture of the Lamb
of God. It had to be exactly as God had appointed. The lamb,
the animal, pictured the Lamb of God the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. John the Baptist said to his
disciples when he saw the Lord Jesus Christ at the start of
his ministry walking towards him, he said to them, behold,
the Lamb of God. Here he is. This is the one who
is the Lamb of God. the one of whom Paul wrote later
to the Corinthians, Christ our Passover. Not these little lambs
the Passover celebrated yearly, but Christ our Passover, who
died once, not every year, who died once. Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. He is the divinely appointed
victim. These lambs, in their pattern
year by year, these pictures of the true Lamb of God were
the divinely appointed victim that the wrath of God against
sin might pass over, might pass by. God has decreed him and him
alone. It's God's decree. God has decreed
that the Lamb, the Christ of God, can bear the sins of others
and can pay the law's penalty for the commission of those sins.
He can do this on their behalf. Do I understand it? No, I must
say I don't. But God gives faith to believe
it because it satisfies the justice of God. That's why He, God, as
He says repeatedly through the scripture, is the saviour of
sinners. He is the Redeemer. He is the
Merciful One. That's how He can save from sin. And so He says, in Hebrews 10
verse 7, Paul writes there, quoting Psalm 40, Verse 7, he quotes
this, lo I come, who's I? It's the Lamb of God, lo I come,
it's the second person of the Trinity, it's the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Messiah, the messenger of the covenant, lo I come, in
the volume of the book it is written of me, which book? These
scriptures, said Jesus to the Pharisees, these are they which
speak of me. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book it is written of me. To do what? To do thy will, O
God. What is the will of God? They
asked him that. What is the will of God? He said, this is the
will of him that sent me, that of all that he gave me, all the
people that he gave me, in the covenant of grace, I should lose
nothing. but should raise it up at the
last day. I'm not going to lose one of them, they're all coming
to heaven to be with me. This is my will, he prayed in
John 17, that they may be with me where I am and that they may
behold my glory. This is not just any lamb, but
a spotless lamb. This one had to be taken and
observed, that it had to be shown to be spotless and without blemish.
And so that's picturing this, that the blood that would cause
God to pass over, pass by, had to be the blood of an innocent
victim, of a sinless victim, because he couldn't have sins
of his own. In the Levitical priesthood, the priests themselves
were sinners, and the first sacrifice they had to do was for their
own sins before they could sacrifice as high priest for the sins of
the people. But he had to be an innocent
victim, and the Lord Jesus Christ was without sin. tempted in all
points as we are, yet without sin. He came in the likeness
of sinful flesh, but without sin. For sins not his own he
died to atone, we read. For sins not his own. If he had
sins of his own, he couldn't die to atone for the sins of
others. It says that Christ died the
just for the unjust, the one who was just with no charge against
him, with no sin. He said, which of you convinceth
me of sin? Not one of these Pharisees could
convict him, could bring a charge that was stick for sin, because
he was sinless, the just for the unjust. He was the spotless
victim as decreed by God. But not only this, the Lamb who
shed the only acceptable blood is God, and God alone. Reading
about him in Romans chapter 9 and verse 5, Paul writes this, speaking
of Christ. He says, Christ, who is over
all God, blessed forever. The Lord Jesus Christ, this Lamb
of God, who was sent by God, is God. You say, this doesn't
make sense. No, it doesn't make logical sense
to the human mind, because our minds are weak. But again and
again in the scriptures, you read, in the Psalms, you read
God speaking to God. Thy throne, O God, is for ever
and ever. God says that. God says that. The Father calls the Son God
because He is God. Christ, who is over all, God,
blessed forever. The angels are intrigued. Angels,
sinless beings that we read about. They're intrigued that God should
die. God in His spiritual essence
cannot die, but God must die if He is to redeem a people from
the curse of the law, if He is to redeem man. They're so intrigued
with it that Peter writes in his epistle which things the
angels desire to look into. They're intrigued by it. I think
intrigued is nowhere near a strong enough word. The only innocent
victim whose blood has the capacity, the capacity, the ability to
deal with many, many, many, whose blood has the capacity to quench
the wrath of God for his people's sins, is his own blood, the blood
of God as a man. The blood of God as a man. Why
did God become man? You know, God contracted to a
span. When Jesus was born of Mary in
Bethlehem, in the days of Herod the King, you know, all you know
the stories from the starts of the Gospels. God was, as that
hymn says, God contracted. Infinite God contracted to the
span of a little baby. God contracted to a span, and
He grew as a man, and there was no comeliness that we should
desire Him. He didn't stand out as a highly good-looking person
as the artists paint with a halo around His head. He looked like
an ordinary man, for the Jews said to him, when he said, before
Abraham was, I am, he said, they said to him, you're not yet 50
years old and have you seen Abraham? And at that time he was only
just 30 years old. He looked older than his years.
And they said, who can this possibly be? This was God become man. And we know that because Paul,
the apostle, tells the elders of the church at Ephesus on the
beach at Miletus, he talks about them taking care for the church
of God, the believers of God, under their care. He says, this
church, God has purchased with his, God's, own blood. It's as plain as you can see.
It's as plain as you can see. The only blood that does this
is the blood of God himself when he became man, the man Christ
Jesus. For there is one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He is the God-man. He is the
anointed one of God who came. God couldn't die for the sins
of his people. God has not a body that can shed
blood, but that was what was necessary for justice to be satisfied,
for the law of God to be appeased, for propitiation, for the turning
away of anger to take place. What can wash away my sin, says
that hymn? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
It's in the bulletin. The Passover lamb pictured the
Lamb of God, and its blood every year repeatedly pictured propitiation,
the turning away of anger. But Christ's blood was once for
all. Just turn with me to Hebrews
10. Hebrews 10 and verse 10. Hebrews 10 and verse 10. By the witch will, the will of
God, we are sanctified, we are made holy, set apart. How? Through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once. It says in italics, for all,
but it's not there in the original. It's just a once thing, not a
repeated yearly or daily thing as in the temple sacrifices.
And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. Why? Because
they were only pictures. Like I've told you before, you
can't live in the plans for a house. You can see what the house is
going to look like, but you can't live in the plans for a house.
You live in the house, you live in the reality. But this man,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever, only one,
This is why the Mass is such a contradiction of the Word of
God, because it's a repeated sacrifice. It's one sacrifice
for sins forever. And when he'd done it, he sat
down. What does that signify? The finish of the work. It's
done. from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." That was the thing, the one offering
of Christ. He finished redemption. There
was nothing to be added. There were no filthy rags, as
Isaiah tells us. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. No filthy rags of our own righteousnesses
sewn onto the seamless robe of the righteousness of God which
is his peoples in Christ. For he, Christ, who knew no sin,
was made sin for us, his people, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. What must we have? To see God,
we must have holiness, righteousness, follow after holiness, without
which no man shall see the Lord. Where do you get that holiness?
You never get it by your own efforts. You only get it by faith
in Jesus Christ, on the basis of what He has accomplished.
And this blood of Christ God accepts as payment, as redemption's
price, as the ransom price, cancelling His people's sin debt. It pays
His people's sin debt. Do I understand? No, I don't.
Do I believe it? Yes, I do, because God has declared
it. How do I know? He delivered Him up for our transgressions
on the cross, when He was lifted up on the cross for the transgressions
of His people. For the transgressions of my
people was he stricken, says Isaiah 53. He was lifted up on
the cross for the transgressions of his people, but he was raised
from the dead for their justification, because the resurrection from
the dead proves that the payment did the trick. It paid the debt.
It was accepted by God in the justice of God, in the nature
of the infinite God. That was accepted as payment
for the sins of His people, that His people might be counted the
righteousness of God in Him. Let me ask you, has God made
you willing to believe this? Because it says in Psalm 110
verse 3 that He, God, makes His people willing. in the day of
His power. Willing to do what? Willing to
believe what He has declared. If you are among the innumerable
multitude, the innumerable multi-ethnic multitude, which is those people
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and whose sin-debt
is paid by the once for all time shed blood of Christ, then God
will make you willing to believe it. And believing it, you plead
it in the courts of God's justice. That's your plea in the courts
of God's justice. You think about going to court
charged with some heinous crime. What are you going to plea? You're
going to try and wriggle and have a smart lawyer get you out
of it. But this is the thing to plead in the courts of God's
justice. You plead the blood of Christ
was shed for me. Christ paid my sin debt. There
is no charge to bring now because he's paid it. And if you plead
that in the courts of God's justice, God cannot reject a sinner who
pleads the blood of Christ. Why? Because if he did reject
it, he would reject himself. He would deny himself, and he
cannot do that. Think for a few more minutes
about the unique efficacy of this blood. There are only two
acceptable responses in the economy of God to the sin of people. There are only two, not more. God is holy and dwells in unapproachable
light. He's infinitely holy. And God
cannot tolerate sin. He says He is of purer eyes than
to behold iniquity, and cannot tolerate sin, cannot bear it. He must punish it. He must exact
a payment for it. For to rebel against the God,
the sovereign of the universe, is sin. And there are only two
acceptable responses to it. One is the blood of Christ for
the people of God. And number two is the unending
wrath of God on the sinner. It's described when Christ on
the cross said, it is finished. It is finished. It is finished
was the cry. What was finished? The payment
of the debt for the sins of his people. The other one is in Revelation
16 and verse 17 where we read about the final judgment and
the seventh angel pours out the vial of wrath and the word is,
it is done. It is done. God's justice is
satisfied. It is finished. It is done. It's
the same thing. Without the blood of Christ, God must extract full
payment from the sinner. Nothing else will suffice. The
Israelites might have thought, I'll tell you what, we don't
fancy killing this lamb and smearing its blood on the doorpost. I'll
tell you what, the Egyptians have lent us, if you read the
account, the Egyptians, God made them willing to lend them jewellery
and give them money and all sorts of things that would see them
through the next few years as they wandered in the wilderness.
And you might think that they could have hung some of that
jewellery on the doorposts, and that that would have acted pretty
well. God might have said, yeah, that's alright, we'll have that.
No, they couldn't have hung jewellery or anything else on their doors.
It had to be the blood of the Lamb, which pictured the blood
of the Lamb, the blood of the Lamb. For other foundation, says
Paul to the Corinthians, other foundation can no man lay than
that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Other foundation? He's that rock. He's that cornerstone,
the chief cornerstone. And the whole temple of God is
built on that chief cornerstone of which his believing people
are living stones. Surely there are other ways.
No, says Peter to the crowds in Jerusalem. There is none other
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Oh, surely, come on, other religions
have got some validity, haven't they? Jesus said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. No offering of man is good enough. Do you want to know that? Look
at Psalm 49. Let me read it to you. Psalm
49 and verse 7. None of them, no people, No people. Can by any means redeem his brother,
nor give to God a ransom for him. No other person can do it. God will not accept payment from
anybody other than his own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. For you
see, the redemption of their soul, the paying of the sin debt
for their soul, is valuable, it's precious, it's costly. It
ceases forever, meaning you'll never do it, you'll never accomplish
it. You'll never accomplish it. No
man can redeem his brother, only the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
be tempted to trust anything else. If you believe, don't be
tempted to trust your baptism. Yes, it's right to be baptized,
but don't trust it. Communion, we haven't had communion
for quite some time because of this lockdown and we'll start
again in the autumn, but if you take communion, don't lean on
it, don't trust it. Oh, repentance, my repentance
was especially good. No, don't trust it, don't trust
it. Could my zeal no respite? No,
could my tears forever flow? None of it can atone for sin.
Not my works, don't trust that. My feelings, which are up and
down, don't trust them. It's not your feelings about
the blood of Christ, but the blood of Christ alone. God didn't
say, when I see how you value the blood on your doorposts,
I will... He said, when I see the blood,
not what you think about it, nor is it your strength of faith,
nor is it your depth of love. but the objective fact of Christ's
blood, that He died to redeem His people from the curse of
the law. Cursed is everyone who continues
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
Galatians 3 verse 10, then verse 13. But Christ has redeemed His
people from the curse of the law. That curse. He's redeemed
His people from the curse of the law. How? By He Himself being
made that curse for them. His blood is the only acceptable
response to offended divine justice. It's not your hold of Christ
that saves your soul, but His hold of you. And to add anything
else is, as Paul tells the Galatians, to add anything to it is anathema. It's like adding one drop of
cyanide to a glass of water. I take my glass of water and
I'll drink it knowing it's water, but if somebody has put one drop
of cyanide in it and says, now drink it, it's still 99.99% water
and only 0.001% cyanide, do you think I'm going to drink it? Of course not. It's like that with adding anything
to the salvation of Christ. He says in chapter 5 of Galatians
to them, he says, if you add anything to the salvation Christ
has accomplished, he said, Christ will profit you nothing. Christ
will be of no value to you in the salvation of your soul. And
this blood of the Lamb, this blood of Christ, deals with every
sin. You think, oh, there are some
sins that are just too great. Can I remind you about Manasseh,
the son of Hezekiah, who was without doubt the most evil king
Israel ever had, or Judah ever had. He really was. The things
he did were dreadful. But you know, in the end, God
saved him. He was a converted man at the
end. And you think, well, how on earth can a sinner that great?
Well, do you know why he's in the Bible? Do you know why he's
there? To show us. To show us. There's
no sin. Do you know the only sin that
Christ says is the unforgivable sin? There's only one, and that
is unbelief. It's the sin of rejecting. It's
the sin of calling God a liar. The blood of the Passover lamb
ensured the salvation of the Israelites in their houses. They
were confident they would be passed over. In exactly the same
way, we hear the words of Jesus. He said this, this is probably
the best-known verse in the Bible, John 3, 16, Whosoever believeth
in him, in Christ the Lamb of God, should not perish but have
everlasting life. No possibility, absolutely certain. John 10 verse 28, he said again,
I give unto them, those who believe him, I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father is greater than all."
Nobody's going to defeat God's purposes. God does exactly what
He has decreed, whether you understand how it works or not. All He says
to you is this, believe. This is salvation to the uttermost,
in no way dependent on you. Not a hair of the heads of any
of the Israelites was in any way damaged that night of death
in Egypt, not one. There is no condemnation, we
read, to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh but after the Spirit. No condemnation. No condemnation,
because of Him. Who shall bring any charge? It
says later in that chapter of Romans 8. Who shall bring any
charge on the day of judgment? Who shall bring any charge of
sin against the people of God? Answer, nobody will be able to.
Why? Because Christ has dealt with
it all. Let's think of its application to the saved sinner. It's not
when you see the blood that God's wrath is propitiated, but when
He sees it. Right? It wasn't when the Israelites
saw the blood on the doorposts, but God said, when I see the
blood, I will pass by. The Israelites were inside the
houses, they didn't see it at all. God saw it. This is the
objective fact of accomplished salvation. God looks on His Son
shedding His blood on the cross of Calvary for the sins of His
people, and God's justice is perfectly satisfied. This is
the solid rock on which we believe. This is the basis. This is the
anchor. We have an anchor which keeps
the soul steadfast and sure as the billows roll. This is the
anchor for the soul. It's moved by nothing, because
it's anchored to the rock. And that rock, Scripture again
tells us, that rock was Christ. Christ is the rock. Christ was
the rock in the wilderness. Christ was the rock that gave
the people water. Christ was the rock. He is the
chief cornerstone. What are we to do? What does
God say? Look and trust. You say, I don't
have much faith, how can I? Jesus said this, even if your
faith is as tiny as the tiniest of all seeds, the mustard seed,
the tiniest little seed, even if it's as little as that, if
it's real, don't be concerned. Even if it's as tiny as that,
if it's real, don't be concerned because it will grow. He says,
it grows into a tree so big the birds of the air nest in it.
Even when faith is weak, When the body is tired, when the mind
is diminishing, ah, as we get older, some of us, you know,
there's always the threat of the mind becoming weaker. I love,
do you remember, probably 25 years ago now, once or twice,
Maurice Montgomery came, when Bill and Evelyn were with us,
and Bill had all his friends in America, and Maurice Montgomery
came, and used to, lovely old man, And in his last five years
or so, he got dementia quite badly. He lost his mind completely.
But one thing he said in a moment of lucidity was, he said, I'm
so glad that it's God that knows me and not me that has to know
God, because God kept hold of him. Even though his mind was
diminishing and he couldn't think straight, God saw the blood,
and that blood covered Maurice Montgomery. God sees the blood
for his saints. It's not your understanding,
but God seeing. What must I do to be saved? You've
heard that once or twice before, haven't you? The Philippian jailer
asking the Apostle Paul, what must I do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And anybody
else in your household, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe
what God has declared. Nothing in my hand I bring. We
don't bring anything. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all sin. Who is included in the us, cleanses
us from all sin? Answer, even you, if you feel
your need of Him to save you. And you cry, God be merciful
to me, the sinner. Amen.