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[0:00] The blood. The blood of Jesus. Blood poured out. It's something graphic isn't it? The thought of it. It is the life. And we read that in Leviticus 17 verse 11. It says, For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I've given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.

[0:20] For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. 2,000 years ago the life blood of a man was poured out. And it was a deliberate act on his part to be an offering for mankind.

[0:34] And it was intentional. We see that in Ephesians 5 verse 2. It reads, And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for an offering, a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.

[0:50] This man willfully loved us and he gave himself for us. He gave himself an offering. It was a must. Nothing else would do. And nothing but the blood can save. Still true now. Every day.

[1:05] As it was 3,000 years ago. Some 3,500 years ago. A nation was in bondage. Held captive as slaves. Egypt made the lives of the children of Israel bitter with hard bondage.

[1:18] And they sighed by reason of the bondage. And they cried. And their cry came up unto God. That's Exodus 1 verse 14 and Exodus 2 verse 23.

[1:29] Their lives were bitter, it says, with hard bondage. What a picture of despair, of heaviness, of the bitterness of sin's captivity. And then we see ultimately in Exodus 12 that it came to that dreadful night of the Passover.

[1:45] Verse 3. They were to take a lamb for a house. Exodus 12 verse 3. A lamb without blemish. And they were to kill it at Passover.

[1:56] It reads Exodus 12 verse 7. And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses wherein they shall eat it.

[2:08] So on the sides, the door sides and the lintel on the top. Some have reflected as they shook it from the hyssop.

[2:18] They shook it on the top and then on the sides. And then it dripped down. It would form the shape of a cross, wouldn't it? And as Spurgeon put it, What if some foolish Israelite had despised the command of God and had thought, I will sprinkle something else upon the doorposts?

[2:38] I will adorn the lintel with jewels or gold and silver. He must have perished. Nothing could save his household but the sprinkled blood.

[2:49] It had to be the blood on the lintel and on the doorposts. Nothing else would do. Exodus 12 verse 11.

[3:01] It reads, Get ready to go, the Lord says.

[3:16] The blood is your escape plan. It's God's escape plan. Your salvation. The blood of Jesus. And the blood alone saves. It was not the blood plus something that we add to it that was the plan.

[3:33] The blood alone. The blood alone. The blood saves us from the wrath of God. Our trust in God's promise that he will save through the blood. And only the blood is acceptable.

[3:45] Abel's sacrifice was blood. Cain's was not acceptable. The blood saves completely. And we can be certain of its efficacy.

[3:55] But it has that power today. That soul saving power. Nothing can be of more value. There is no greater price he could pay. Acts 20, 28.

[4:06] It reads, Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

[4:20] The church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. As the Hebrews applied the blood, it was the blood that gave them safety.

[4:32] And the Lord passed over. So we get the word passed over. The Lord passed over. Judgment didn't fall upon them. It passed over them. And by the blood we're given entry.

[4:44] We see that Hebrews tells us of that entry that we have through the blood of Jesus. We've got an entrance made, an entry. Having therefore boldness, brethren boldness, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.

[4:58] We're brought close to God. And that great gulf, that great gap between God and man. He bridges by the blood, doesn't he? Only by the blood. And as we knock on doors and share the gospel with some, we know that some think it's something that they do.

[5:14] It's something that they bring. It's something that is about their works. But no, it's all about the blood of Jesus. It still is. It only has been. The blood has been the only way and it is the only way to be saved.

[5:27] The blood brings peace. The blood gave them freedom. It set them free through God's deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. God set them free from all that bondage, that hard, bitter bondage.

[5:40] Set them free to the liberty and the blessing of the promised land. And it's the same spiritually wise for you that trust Christ because of his blood shed for your sin, that you can be set free from the bondage, from the slave master, from Egypt, which you could say represents the devil or the world, Egypt.

[6:02] Even the flesh, the world, flesh and the devil, the whole lot is kind of Egypt, isn't it? God sets us free from that and gives us the glorious liberty of the children of God. Romans 8, 21.

[6:13] So the blood gave them freedom. And we have victory today because of the blood of Jesus. Amen? Only by the blood. Ephesians 2, 13. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who are sometimes where afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

[6:28] And it reads further that we've got the victory through the blood. As it speaks of these in Revelation 12, it says, They overcame him, the devil, by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.

[6:43] So we today, like the children of Israel, we are no longer slaves. We've got liberty today in Christ. Glorious liberty. It was a battle zone in that time back then.

[6:57] We are also in a fight too, in the sense that struggle within the flesh versus the spirit. But the blood brings us victory. And we are free.

[7:08] Free from Egypt. Free from that domain of the world. Free from bondage. Set free by the virtue of God. By his precious blood. And so therefore, stand fast therefore, it says, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you.

[7:23] Free. Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Some would try to bring themselves under the bondage of this or that, of works, of laws, of obedience, of their own keeping of things as if it depends upon them, rather than knowing that God has set us free from all of that domain of constriction, of bondage.

[7:47] We've got a liberty. And that doesn't mean a liberty to sin, but a liberty to praise him. A liberty to serve. A liberty to rejoice. A liberty that our salvation gives to us as the true children of God.

[8:00] And so we've got victory this morning. And so don't go back to Egypt's bondage. You've been set free. We don't belong to Egypt anymore. That's one of the problems, as I've talked lately, about the children of Israel in their wanderings.

[8:15] They still hankered after Egypt. But we've been set free. That doesn't draw us anymore. We've got Christ now. We've got a higher affection, a greater blessing.

[8:26] And the blood brings pardon to you, that belief. There's forgiveness because of the blood. Almost all things are by the law purged with blood. And without shedding of blood is no remission.

[8:37] So there's forgiveness today. Remission talks about forgiveness. The blood has an ongoing effect. So believers today, we can have that picture as the Israelites had.

[8:48] We're out of Egypt. And we're headed to the Promised Land. We're in that walk of the Christian life now. The walking by faith. The walking in the light. The walking with our Lord. And so there's a journey for us that we've yet to walk.

[9:02] And he keeps us clean in that journey. So the blood sets the children of Israel free in the Passover deliverance. And there's a sense where the blood keeps on sanctifying, keeps on in our walk with him, our journey of faith.

[9:19] We've got that cleansing by the blood. As we read 1 John 1 verse 7. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin.

[9:33] So there's a continual cleansing in the blood, by the blood. And Revelation 1 verse 5 likewise reads how they say, He is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth.

[9:48] And they praise him unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. We've got reason for praise. We have his washing. That spiritual stain on the soul has been taken by the most powerful stain remover, the blood of Jesus.

[10:04] The blood has awesome power. And friends today, if you've yet to trust Christ as your Lord and Saviour, then this is that moment when you can say, Yes, Lord, I praise you that you died on the cross for my sin.

[10:16] And I trust your blood that was shed for me. Do you know his saving? His safety. Not only his saving, but his safety. It's ongoing. By the shelter of his blood.

[10:28] Only by the blood. I know in perilous times, some are thinking that they need to protect themselves for some coming onslaught. And perhaps there is some truth to that.

[10:40] But I've heard of some that are actually building little bomb shelters in their homes or underneath their homes. But friends, I want to tell you this morning, we don't need a bomb shelter, but we do need the blood shelter.

[10:53] We need the blood shelter. Amen. That's what we need. Because the blood is your only reliable shelter. Your only reliable shelter. Whatever happens, we have to trust the blood, don't we?

[11:05]  The blood of Jesus. Just trust him. And be thankful for the blood.