TITLE: I KNOW IT WAS THE BLOOD
SCRIPTURE: EXODUS 11:4-7
VS. 7 – is really powerful and significant. The text says “…THE LORD DOTH PUT A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EGYPTIANS AND ISRAEL.” I have been thinking much the past few days about the fact that RELIGION has changed and taken the focus from God and placed all the attention on man.
• Hearing too many shallow sermons about us instead of God
• Money seems to be all Powerful instead of the Powerful Anointing of God
• Sermons and Gospel songs about us Living On Top The World and How We Should Smile
• We are moving more and more away from the Truth of the Gospel
• We want to be entertained just like the world
• We no longer call it Worship, now we want to be “In The Flow”
• I don’t even hear churches talking about people being saved and baptized
• Talk more about who flew in and cocnducted their Worship
• We have forgotten that “The Lord has Put A Difference”
Let’s identify this – DIFFERENCE – this morning At this point in our text for examination - Israel has been held in slavery for 430years in Egypt. God has heard and responded to the cry of his children and raised up Moses to go to Pharaoh with a very simple message, so simple that he COULD NOT MISINTERPRET ITS MEANING – LET MY PEOPLE GO.
• Pharaoh hardened his heart over and over
• The land lay in ruins after 9 massive plagues devastated everything and everyone except for Israel
• Still Pharaoh hardened his heart
• The thought of God our Creator should melt our hearts
• But for some the devil has his way and they view God differently
• They actually allow their heart to be hardened at the same
• Ever talk to someone about the Lord and they grow Angry with You?
• Ever talk to someone about the Lord and they are ready to Cuss you Out?
• Ever talk to someone about the Lord and they tell you don’t bring that Mess to them?
• Their heart has been hardened
• Imagine a Frozen River with Clay Banks
• The same sun that melts the ice also hardens the clay
• Because there is a “Difference”
At this point in our text, there was ONE PLAGUE TO GO – a terrible plague, that here we are thousands of years removed, still brings tears to my eyes. Of course, I am talking about - THE DEATH OF THE FIRSTBORN.
• God will show the plan of salvation in a beautiful picture painted in broad strokes of blood!
• The Plague and the Protection
This was the Final Plague. It was a spiritual illustration of the finality of death, if you’ve not been saved. The New Testament says we are all under either the LOVE of God, or the WRATH of God, all are SAVED or LOST.
• There is no Gray area
• You are either Redeemed, or Doomed
• And all of us will one day face the final plague—death!
During this final plague the DEATH ANGEL would visit every household, from – SMALLEST HUT TO GRANDEST OF PALACES – POOREST OF THE POOR, RICHEST OF THE RICH – HIGHLY EDUCATED to UNEDUCATED. No one would escape this final plague. I am reminded of HEBREWS 9:27 “AND AS IT IS APPOINTED UNTO MEN ONCE TO DIE, BUT AFTER THIS THE JUDGMENT.” None of us are getting out of this world alive. In spite of all medical science has come up with, the DEATH RATE IS STILL ONE PER PERSON!
• Are you saved?
• You may have hardened your heart 9 times, but there’s a final plague
• A final test coming
• This is where the Difference is really critical
In this midst of this Final Plague – the Bible says that the “LORD PUT A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EGYPTIANS AND THE ISRAELITES.” What was the Difference, what was this Protection? The death angel stopped at most of the homes, but not all - what made the difference? Why were some spared?
• Were they better people? -- No!
• Israelites had some real issues along the way
• Crossed red sea and built Gold Calf
• Sexual sins were now prevalent
• Ran out of food and water and cursed God
• It wasn’t their morality that made the difference!
• You say, I know, their priests did ceremonies and performed rituals!
• Empty, repetitive formalities bring nothing but drowsiness!
This is why we have so many problems in the Church today. We have a lot of SPIRITUAL DROWSINESS. We don’t see a DIFFERENCE any more. God said He placed a Difference between His Children and those that are yet in the World.
• We no longer know where the Church Ends and the World Begins
• We no longer can tell a Gospel Song from a Rhythm and Blues Song
• We no longer know where Worship Ends and Entertainment Begins
• We no longer know the difference that exists between a Saint and a Sinner
• We no longer know if the Pastor is a Preacher/Teacher or a Singer/Musician
• We no longer know if Truth and God are all Powerful or do we settle in Court
• We no longer know if Pastors are to strive for Holiness or are they men and women just like everybody else
• We no longer know that What God Has Joined Together is honored or is it just a good Catch Phrase
No ritual - no morality could make the difference - only one thing could make the difference: THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB! - I don’t know about you, but – I Know it was the Blood! In out text this was the “PASS OVER” it is where we understand the word PASSOVER.
• Here is the theme of the entire Bible
• It is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!
• Adam and Eve sinned
• Their boys inherited that sin nature
• Both were told to bring a sacrifice for their sins
• Abel brought a lamb
• Cain brought fruits and vegetables
• Abel’s offering was accepted
• Cain’s rejected
• What made the difference?
• The Difference was in The Blood!
Remember with me how God told every family to take one lamb, sacrifice it, and apply its blood to the top of the doorpost and the sides - what were they forming? -- A CROSS! At this point it was a Lamb for each family - LEVITICUS 16 - God told the high priest to kill a lamb for the sins of the whole nation - this was done once a year for hundreds of years - A lamb for the whole land. The Bible during Passover, says that each man is to take a lamb for his own household.
• It couldn’t be a bull or a dove, which were sometimes used in other Old Testament sacrifices
• God was very particular
• It was to be a lamb and only a lamb
• Nothing else would do
• God was establishing the Difference
In the Old Testament, the DIFFERENCE was still a little cloudy. Oh but we are able to see the difference in Clear View in the New Testament. ST. JOHN 1 - Jesus is introduced “BEHOLD, THE LAMB OF GOD, WHICH TAKETH AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD!” All the other lambs were leading up to this - they were just pictures of the Difference – which would be found in the perfect Lamb to come.
• The Lamb to span all eternity
• All 4 of the lambs identified in OT required for sacrifice do have something in common
• All had to be spotless
• Can you see the Difference?
This final plague in Egypt as the Death Angel began to visit each house - We read there WAS A DEATH IN EVERY HOUSE. Listen, listen, - If the death angel passed over and didn’t take the firstborn, it was because there had ALREADY BEEN A DEATH THERE - death of the lamb! The blood of each sacrificed lamb had to be applied as directed! We see this same Difference in the New Testament - HEBREWS 9:22 “AND ALMOST ALL THINGS ARE BY THE LAW PURGED WITH BLOOD; AND WITHOUT SHEDDING OF BLOOD IS NO REMISSION.”
LEVITICUS 17:11 “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 THE SOUL.”
• Can’t you imagine on Passover night, a little Jewish family in their Israeli slave hut, eating their roasted lamb and bitter herbs
• Their bags are packed
• Sandals are on their feet, they’re ready to go
• One by one they can hear screams throughout the land of Egypt
• A painful sound
• Dad tries to explain what is happening to the firstborn
• Little Jewish boy realizes he’s the oldest and asks, “daddy, am I gonna die tonite?”
• “No son, you’ll not die”
• Why not?
• Because (pointing at door) - the blood makes the difference!
• Their Jewish firstborns are all safe
• As this father looks at his son – I believe all he could say was – I Know it was the Blood
God puts a difference between His people and the world! My brothers and sisters there is a Difference today.
• That difference is the Blood
• The only difference between us and the world is the Blood
• The only difference between somebody that is saved and on their way to heaven and a lost reprobate is the Blood!
• That’s the only difference!
• And I don’t know what you think about it, but I Know it was the Blood
There ought to be a Difference. There's a difference -- you don't talk like them if you love God. Your own vocabulary and your NOMENCLATURE is different, because of the Blood. You're not like them. Your lifestyle is altogether different, because of the Blood.
I marvel at some of my neighbors out where we live. It never occurs to them that Sunday is a sacred day. Not a day for cutting the grass and taking care of the lawn. I, all of my life, have got up in the morning on Sunday and dressed and gone to church. I would be lost without it. They never think of it. I cannot understand. IT’S A DIFFERENCE -- God makes a difference in your life when you are a child of God.
Let me try to close this morning. I read that blood is the most powerful cleansing agent in the world. In your body, blood takes OXYGEN and other supplies to cells and removes waste and impurities from those same cells. Blood literally cleans out the IMPURITIES from your body from the MOLECULAR LEVEL on out. That is one of it’s major responsibilities. There is NO OTHER CLEANSING AGENT known to man that can purify our bodily system as well as the blood that courses through our veins.
• You can take all the Vitaman ‘C’ you want
• You can take all the Geritol you want
• You can Detox all you want
• But there is nothing better, more effective, than the Blood
• And...in an infinitely better way, there is no other cleansing agent known to man that can rid your soul of its filth and shame than the blood of Jesus, the Christ
You and I came to Calvary. God saved us. We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son and the shedding of His blood, but that same precious blood that saved us once and for all-that same precious blood from that fountain-keeps on saving us because we come in contact with the world. We sin, but that blood keeps on cleansing us from all sin. So we who were reconciled to God by His death shall be saved by His life - a life that caused Him to become the Lamb and then to rise (after three days) as the High Priest and take the blood to the mercy seat and become our passover, our atonement so that He could fulfill the righteous and holy demands of a just God! That's why we sing-
There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains;
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
That’s why we sing:
I know it was the blood – that saved me
One Day when I was lost He died on the Cross
I know it was the blood – that saved me
