Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1251
“And the blood shall be to you for a token.” Exodus 12:13.
You remember that last Lord’s-Day morning we spoke upon the witness within the child of God. We tried to show that Believers did not need any man to assure them that they are forgiven, that they could get on exceedingly well without absolution from a priest and could know their salvation altogether apart from the ghostly father, seeing that they have the evidence of it in their own souls by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. We shall not think or speak much of that miserable impostor, the priest, this morning, for he really is not worth thinking of. But we shall continue our consideration of the witness which the Lord has given to His believing people concerning their safety in Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit help us while we meditate upon the most vital of all subjects, which lies at the very heart of true religion.
There are some, as we have said, who desire a token of their safety from man—a poor thing when they get it and not worth asking for! And there are others who desire it from God in the form of a sign or a wonder, or else they will not believe. “Show me a token for good” is a prayer which is often used in a very mistaken sense. They desire some special transaction of Providence, or remarkable dream, or singular feeling. But God says to all those who desire a token for good, “The blood shall be to you for a token.” What more can we desire? All the squadrons of the angelic host could not better assure us if each one brought a message from Heaven. The best of all evidences of Divine Love is the Cross!
The strongest of all assurances of safety, the surest of all pledges of favor, the best token of Grace that a man can possibly behold is the sprinkled blood by which he is cleansed from sin. “The blood shall be to you for a token.” Before we dive into this subject, let us notice that the blood which was a token to God’s people was not merely that which had been shed by the sacrifice of all unblemished lambs, but blood which had been caught in a basin, had been taken by the person at the head of the household in his own hands and recognized as shed for him.
Then a bunch of hyssop was laid to soak in a basin and afterwards the blood was sprinkled upon the lintel and the doorposts—this blood, thus appropriated, was the token. By an appropriating faith we must take Christ to be ours. We must, in a word, believe in the Atonement which He has made, for an Atonement which is not believed in is no Atonement to us. Our Lord Jesus laid down His life for us, but He that believes not in Him shall by no means partake of any of the blessings of His death. The sprinkled blood preserved the houses of the Israelites and it is the blood of Jesus accepted by us, relied upon and applied to our consciences which delivers us from death.
This sprinkling, moreover, was done in a very public manner. They stained the lintel and the two side posts, so that every passerby might see it, yes, and must see it. So salvation is promised, not alone, to believing, but to confession with the mouth. “He that with his heart believes, and with his mouth makes confession of Him shall be saved.” And so the grand commission at the end of the Gospel by Mark puts it, not, “he that believes shall be saved,” but “he that believes and is baptized shall be saved.” For if we believe in Christ we must not be ashamed of Him! Shame about faith would argue insincerity of faith. True faith in the Savior is so potent a principle of our lives that it must be seen whether we publish it or not—and we must be willing that it should be seen!
Yes, this should be the most visible point in our lives—our glory and our delight—that we do, indeed, believe in the Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, that every one of you, my dear Hearers, used the Cross for its proper purpose! I grieve that any among you should need to have it asked of you—
“Is it nothing to you, oh you that pass by, Is it nothing to you that Jesus should die?” The Lamb is slain but you have never caught the blood, you have never sprinkled it with the hyssop of faith and, consequently, you are not saved! Oh that each one of you could say, “My faith is resting in the substitutionary work of Jesus.”
1 could, indeed, sing that blessed hymn just now, and I drank it in with all my heart! And I heartily wish you could all sing it, too—
“Complete Atonement You ha ve made
And to the utmost farthing paid
Whatever Your people owed:
Nor can His wrath on me take place,
If sheltered in Your righteousness,
And sprinkled with Your blood!” Now, to the text. The blood of Jesus Christ is to Christians a token and in order to bring out the whole sense we must have five words—it is a distinguishing token, an assuring token, a significant token, a love-token, and a recognition token.