Transcription
We're sinners, and the penalty of our rebellion in our sin is death.
Now, you come to the Old Testament, and you find it all the way through. Go back to Adam and Eve. Remember, Adam and Eve were in a perfect paradise. They were created in the image of God. God never meant that they would ever see death. He never meant we would die; He never meant that anybody would get sick. He never meant anybody had ever been murdered. He never meant that anybody would ever have to fight in a war. Everything was perfect.
God gave men the freedom of choice and said, "If you obey me, love me, and serve me, you'll live forever, and we'll build a wonderful world. But if you disobey me and rebel against me, you're going to die."
Man thought about it one day, and man rebelled against God. He broke God's law, and God kept His word. Man has been dying ever since.
So, God wanted to do something about it. God set about to redeem and to save man. The Bible says God came to the Garden of Eden and said, "Adam, where are you?" Adam was hiding. He was naked; he had gone and gotten some fig leaves, sewn them together, and clothed himself, trying to hide his nakedness and his sin and his rebellion from God. But he couldn't do it.
That's like a lot of people today. We're doing everything in the world to try to hide from God. We go on trips of alcohol, sex, and dope. Actually, we are trying to run away from reality. We're trying to run away from God. We're trying to hide somewhere, but the Hound of Heaven is there, always disturbing, always bothering.
We try to escape; we become slaves of sin and habit, trying to get away from God. But Adam and Eve could not hide from God. The Bible says that God went out, slew some animals, took their skins, and clothed Adam. Sin is what brought about the necessity for clothes. We have abuse by sin of God's great gift of sex, and God clothed our first parents after they'd sinned. They were originally in a state of innocence, and as long as they were innocent, they were not conscious of the fact they were naked.
God told them, but blood had to be shed. From the very beginning, God was saying, "Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness." Cain and Abel brought a sacrifice to God. Cain was very religious, but his offering was unacceptable to God. Why? Because it was nothing but vegetables. Abel, his brother, came and brought a blood sacrifice, and God accepted it. God was saying right in the beginning, "You have to come by blood."
Now, I know Abel built an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast and every clean fowl and offered an offering on the altar.
Remember the story of Abraham taking Isaac to Mount Moriah, where Jerusalem now stands? God had told Abraham to take his son and offer him as an offering. Abraham, in complete obedience to God and loyalty to what God said, was about to slay his own son. As the knife was descending, the angel of the Lord caught his hand and stopped him. Sometimes God will test us almost to that point to see if we really mean our commitment to Jesus Christ.
Abraham was willing to give his son, and the son said, "Father, where is the sacrifice?" He didn't know he was the sacrifice. A ram was caught in the bushes, and the ram became the substitute. Blood was shed.
I'll remember that night in Egypt. The Jews, till this day, still celebrate the Passover and remember that God said, "I'm going to destroy the firstborn in all of Egypt, and I want you to go out and slay a lamb. Take the blood and put it on the doorpost, and when I see the blood, I'll pass over."
Not when I see your good resolutions, not when I see your tears, not when I see your agonies, not when I see your good works. When I see the blood sprinkled, by faith, God took blood—which is something ugly, something that's repulsive, something we don't like to see—to show us how grimy, dirty, and terrible our sins are in His sight. It becomes a symbol of the cleansing from sin.
"When I see the blood, I will pass."
There are many people that join a church, and they think that's enough. Many people get baptized and think that's enough. Many people try to live by the golden rule and say that's enough. Many people try to give money. That's all fine; all of these things are good, but it's not enough. The blood has to be sprinkled there by faith.
"When I see the blood, I will pass."
When I stand at the entrance to the kingdom of heaven and they ask me for the password, do you know what I'm going to answer? I'm going to say, "Lord, I plead the blood."