Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing: a biblical, faith-filled vision for your life. Child of God, the blood of Jesus has been shed for you. The work. is finished. And I bless you to believe it, and I bless you to apply it.
You're like the Hebrew fathers in Egypt who were told to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts in the lintel, Exodus 12:7. The sacrifice has been made. The promise is sure. Wherever there is the blood, the destroyer shall not be allowed in. When I see the blood, I'll pass over you.
Exodus 12, 13. That's what the Lord assured. It wasn't about the Hebrews' righteousness. It wasn't about the Father's merit. It was about the blood.
Yeah. May you walk and live and love with confidence and joy. Because you know the blood of Jesus has been painted Over your life. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. If you let any little part of your gospel get tainted by some of your own moralistic behavior, Then you'll disqualify yourself from the greatest blessings that God has to offer.
And He wants you to have a faith that's ready to receive from God like a little child receiving from the daddy that loves him and wants to bless him and bless him and bless him. You're there by the blood. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I am Daniel Britton.
Excited for you to hear the teaching today in our series, Empowered, as presented at Renolda Church in North Carolina. Um If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org.
or call 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Pastor Alan Wright. Uh Exodus 12:1, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, This month shall be for you the beginning of months.
first month of the year. This is the month that was called Nisan. It became for the Jewish, the old Jewish calendar, their first month of the year. It correlates roughly to April for us. It's a spring month.
And this is going to be the month of new beginnings for you. This will be your new year. And so in ancient Israel, that's the way they would always think of Passover. and Passover would take place during that month of Nisan. Verse 3, tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month of Nisan, every man shall take a lamb according to their father's household.
a lamb for each household. And jump to verse 5, your lamb shall be without blemish. A male a year old, you can take it from the sheep or the goats.
So every household. They have a lamb. and is to be without blemish.
So they would inspect the lamb. Make sure there's no defects, no marred places. no birthmarks, no limp, no broken bones. Note this well, this is really important to the story. God did not ask them the people to be without blemish.
He asked that the Lamb be without blemish. The spotlessness of the Lamb is the focus. Take the lamb into the home. It's a very personal thing. They bring this lamb in on the 10th, and then.
They would keep it for four days. And I imagine that's hard on the kids. They get used to having this little lamb like a pet around, but it's there for the purpose. It's going to be slaughtered. And that's going to become lamb chops.
But this is, I think, part of the meaning of this. And verse six, you shall keep it. until the 14th day of this month. They're taken in on the tenth, and then on the fourteenth day, when the whole assembly of the congregation shall kill their lambs at twilight. It really the the the actual language here says something that's more like in the afternoon.
So it's like it's it's sort of like between you could think like between the hours of 3 and 6.
So the blood of an unblemished land. Is going to be gathered. Verse 7: They shall take some of the blood, put it on the two doorposts and the lentil, the part above the door. in which they eat it. unblemished land gathered in a basin.
And the father is to go out and take some hyssop, it's just a leafy plant. and dip into the basin. and put it over the top and over the sides. It was our Uncle Stanley who told me he was. preaching on this one time and acting it out and realized that as he did it he was drawing a cross.
Verse 12: I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I'll strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. both man and beast, And on all the gods of Egypt I'll execute judgments. If we had time, we go back and look at all the plagues. All the plagues in one way or another are really. Judgments against Egypt's false gods.
And This is the final judgment against the gods. Your gods have no power. Is what he's saying. I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are, verse 13.
So The blood for the Hebrew people was a sign of comfort to them. Right. a symbol to them. But this is where it gets really important. He says, and when I see the blood, I'll pass over you.
And no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Just note that really strongly right there. That's what needs to be underlined. When I see The blood. There's one other really clear instruction here, verse 21.
The Moses called the elders, said, you know, go select the lambs, as we've seen, take a hyssop, verse 22. And then at the end of verse 22, it says, none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
So there's another thing to note. That Whatever you do, stay under the blood. Don't try another way. Don't get worried about it and. Try your own way.
Stay under the blood.
Some years ago, I was thinking about this story, and I was imagining, what if I had been there? What would it have been like to be an observer that night? Maybe you'd been observing over the last 10 months that there have been all these plagues, the most recent of which have been darkness over all the land. If you had been there on that day on the 14th of Nisan, you Might have seen Egyptians going about their normal activities in the marketplaces as if there's nothing to be worried about, but you would have known. that with all of these happenings there was some kind of Deep awareness, a foreboding sense of judgment in the air and.
stirrings about whether they should be letting the Hebrew slaves go and and something building of expectancy. And all the Hebrew slaves, you could sense that in the atmosphere. And maybe you just watch the activities that day. On the one hand, it's an ordinary day, on the other hand, There's never been a day like this. And you might have seen some of the Egyptians.
Let's imagine that you saw some doing some pretty noble things. Maybe there's a good man and you saw him show kindness to someone. He seemed to be a moral man. Maybe you saw an Egyptian scholar who. was teaching people and was helping them become better people and maybe you saw someone who was very wealthy and benevolent and gave away some of his money to the poor.
Maybe you saw good things there and maybe you observed some bad things in the Hebrew homes. Maybe. Maybe you'd been close enough to overhear some conversations. and seeing a Hebrew dad who'd lost his cool that day. Slavery had been tough.
Times were hard. They're now having to work harder than ever. He comes back from making his bricks and he's tired and He loses his temper with his child and yells at the child and Maybe in another Hebrew home, there's someone who you overhear talking to God in an angry way. Speaking what's virtual blasphemy to God. Maybe you see some of these things going on in the Hebrew homes.
I don't know what you might observe. But somewhere in the late afternoon, you notice this very odd thing. That all of the Hebrew homes that The father It's getting everybody inside the house. And he's taking This plant and he's or painting something over the doors. And you sneak up later to feel of it, to see what kind of paint is when you realize.
It's blood. Mm. Why? You know something odd's happening. And every Hebrew home.
You can smell the lamb chops. It's a luxury. It's a what's happening? Thousands and thousands and thousands of these. lambs that are being roasted and Egyptians going about Wrapping up their day, and you're watching all of this, and you just decide to see what will happen, and find your place in an alleyway.
around a corner. And you wait. And as it nears midnight, you can sense it. You could feel this. Heavy presence-like.
If judgment had a color, this is what it would be if it If there was something darker than night, this would be it.
Something heavier than all the weight of the world, you would be able to feel it. It was the judgment that was coming. Imagine it like a Like a power that's moving through Egypt and you can hear the wails and the moans and the shrieks from Egypt's homes And I like to imagine that maybe you see that good man, that Egyptian who. Comes out of his house and he speaks to this presence, reaching out his hand, pleading not to come upon my household. He says, I'm a good man, I'm a moral man.
I've advocated for the Hebrews. To be set free, or at least have better working conditions. I'm a good person. Please do not come upon my house in this. Power just keeps coming down.
And uh Imagine that man saying, if not my moral standing, if not my own inherent goodness, then what could spare me and my household? And finally, there's a voice that comes down out of that heavy presence down. through the corridors of all of time. It says nothing. Nothing.
Nothing. can spare you. Nothing. But the blood. And maybe you watch.
Maybe Household after household, an educated man comes out and speaks to the darkness and says, but I have such a depository of knowledge I want to share, I like to teach and impart. If not my intelligence, then what? could spare me and my household. Nothing. Nothing.
Nothing but the blood. In every Egyptian home. There's a dead firstborn. And then you watch the Hebrews. You'd been close enough that day to hear some of the Sin in the Hebrew Households How much more so are they going to be?
In trouble tonight. And you watch. You watch as this presence comes to that household where the father had lost his temper with his own kids. You watch this presence come that had brought about judgment against the Egyptians and it comes and instead It passes by. And it's like a cool light that just comes in.
And I d think that maybe. I would have drawn near to that house to see what happened. And to listen inside, and maybe what you would have heard is a little boy saying, Abba, Daddy. What what happened? The dad said, we've been saved.
And we said, why? What did we have? What did we do? What do we have? His father sent me We are nothing.
We have nothing. We did nothing. But the blood. In Hebrew home after Hebrew home, the answer's the same. What makes us so special?
Nothing. But the blood. of the lamb on our door posts. Because to say nothing but the blood can save is to say. There's absolutely nothing in addition to the blood that is needed.
for all blessedness, salvation, deliverance, hope, and power in your life. And it's just the greatest news because the temptation, even as Christians, is to in some way think that our Blessedness is found somewhere other than just the blood of Jesus, as if it's Jesus' sacrifice plus. a little bit of my own righteousness. or even Jesus' sacrifice, plus my mental capacity to convince myself day in and day out that I'm absolutely mentally sure that I'll be healed. But what this shows is the picture that God's painting for us is that the Christian life.
is one that begins With the saving news that Jesus has died for you as the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world, and that when you accepted, you're washed as white as snow. And it means, therefore, that you are not saved by any of your merits, but not just there, but all of the Christian life and all of the blessedness in the Christian life comes because of the gift of Christ and the shed blood of Jesus Christ. There's nothing in addition to the blood of Jesus that qualifies you to draw near to God or to receive from God. And this is such good news because what it means is the whole attention and center point and genesis of our faith all shifts away from ourselves and shifts to Jesus. This is why he's the author and the finisher of our faith.
It's all in him. It's not Jesus plus a little bit of your devotional life. That makes you blessed. It's not Jesus plus a little bit of your own righteousness that makes you blessed. It's not Jesus plus your generosity that makes you blessed.
All of these things are important: our devotional life, our prayer life, our generosity, all of these things are important, but none of those things save you. None of those things deliver you. It is nothing, nothing, nothing but the blood. And it's just something to rejoice in every single day and to build the whole entirety of your faith upon it. I have some powerful conclusions I would like us to take away from this.
And the first is this. The focal point of the story of Passover is pointing us to our focal point. And that is, it's not on the people. Who were under the blood, but on the lamb that shed its blood and the blood itself. When I see the blood.
God said. Not when I see The people. Not when I see your acts of righteousness. Not when I see that you had a good day. Not when I see that you're really standing in faith.
Now all those things are wonderful. All right? But that's not what moves God. When I see the blood. I love that.
Because not only my days are good days.
Some days I feel like I'm just totally full of faith, and other days I feel like I'm shaking like a leaf. But it doesn't have anything to do with that. God's not moved by that. God's moved by the blood. Charles Spurgeon preached on this.
I'm going to just have to read you some of Charles Spurgeon. He said this: Remember, it is God's seeing the blood, which is the true reason for our being spared. Here is comfort for us when the eye of faith is dim. For God's eye is still the same. I love that.
Just please remember that on the day of your worst doubts, God's not doubting the power of the blood. The Israelites, Burgess and preached, could not see the blood. He was inside the house. He could not see what was on the lentil and the doorpost, but God could see it. And this is the only condition of the sinner's salvation.
God seeing the blood, not your seeing it. Pastor Alan Wright, our good news message: applying the power of the blood from the series Empowered. Please stay with us. Pastor Alan is back joining me in the studio, sharing his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Unlock the power of blessing your life.
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Call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back here now in the studio with Pastor Alan and the teaching today, applying the power of the blood. I've heard so many preachers talk about application.
Here's the application part of the message. Here's how you apply this to your life.
Well, when you're talking about the wonderworking power of the blood, you don't have to ask me twice if I want to apply it. Yes, yes. Whatever you do, put that blood there, which is part of the picture of the Passover. The takeaway from this is that Those slaves in the Hebrew homes, they were spared not because they were a better people than the Egyptian. The whole point was, we don't know about any of those individual Hebrew homes.
whether there were godly people inside or Whether there are people inside who have been blaspheming God, I don't know. What we know is the difference was they had a revelation God had told them. that if they would apply the blood, and put it over their door posts. That is faith and obedience. then the destroyer would not enter in.
Well, similarly, Daniel, I think that that's the picture for the Christian life. The blood of Jesus for us, it's not something we're applying literally, physically, but we're taking it spiritually, mystically, and we're taking it symbolically. And saying that's the covering over my life. That's the difference in my life. My merits, but what Jesus has done, and I take that blood and I place it in faith.
Over my life, over my household. It's a good part of your daily prayer: Lord, and faith, I take the blood of Jesus and the fullness of what He's secured for me, and all of the forgiveness, and the way that His blood has opened up the path of mercy and that made you. Favorable towards me, and I apply that blood. I'm not applying my own merits, but the blood of Jesus. You see, that kind of prayer life.
And so that's what we're talking about, is learning how to apply the blood of Jesus. Um Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free.
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