It was five minutes until midnight in the sin-darkened land of Egypt. It was a tense, exciting time and a solemn soul-searching time. In the land of Goshen there was prayer and watching. It was almost time to go. The death angel was passing over, and in other parts of Egypt the cries of anguish were rising into the midnight air. Only where the blood showed on the door was there safety for the people. This was the night God would lead out His people and take them to the land of Promise.
You know, friends, something very, very terrible happened in the land of Egypt that night. Probation ended for an entire nation. The mercy of God had been violated by this stubborn, obstinate people for the last time. God had tried to reason with the King, the proud monarch of Egypt. He had said, "Let my people go," and Pharoah said, "No, I'll not let them go."
God did everything He could to convince this man that He was in dead-earnest about this matter. It was a matter of life or death for the king as it was for all the people. God worked miracles in front of him to show how urgent it was. He brought plagues down to cover the whole land to show that this was it. In fact, the very dust of Egypt turned into lice. Flies came up and filled the air. Frogs came and coated the landscape everywhere.
God said, "I mean what I say, Pharoah, let my people go." Even the people seemed to be impressed that they were dealing with the God of the universe. But friends, listen, the attractive pagan religion of Egypt was much dearer to the hearts of those people than obedience to the true God. And from the king right down to the smallest peasant out in the field, they turned away from the commandments of God and decided to follow their own will.
Don't ever think for a moment Egypt didn't have a beautiful form of religion. The temples of those sun worshippers were magnificent. The beautiful robes of the singers and priests were also attractive. Everything about this religion was intended to appeal to the carnal impulses of the people. In fact, those rituals and ceremonies held no restraint whatsoever. They were immoral and licentious to the very deepest degree.
But friends, God even pleaded with the Egyptians too. He was willing to save them along with the Israelites, if they were willing to obey His commandments and let the people go and leave themselves. But they steeled themselves and hardened themselves against the Holy Spirit, until finally they committed the unpardonable sin. God said, "This is it now, I'll speak no more. The last judgment is going to come. This will be the night that shall take my people out of the land."
What does this all mean for us today? In first Corinthians 10, verse 11, we read that everything happened for our learning. Notice this text. "Now all these things happened unto them for examples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come."
Now there's something in this story for us, friends. What is there for us to learn in this experience? Well, first of all, let me say there are some remarkable parallels between the days of Egypt and the times in which we live.
For example, the religions of that day and some of the forms of Godliness are very, very close in resemblance. We have a great form of Godliness today all over the world, but little power. God says it Himself in the Scriptures. And I think many of these empty shells must be much like the pleasure-loving religion of the Egyptians. Many great religious institutions are turned into secular, social activities. A lot of visiting, a lot of feasting, a lot of dancing even taking place, and all in the name of religion.
Now I don't want you to misunderstand me, friends, because we don't want to be harsh and judge wrongly, but the Scriptures and prophecy tell us the time comes when men will choose easy, smooth ways that are convenient. They will not want to hear the truth, because it's too sharp, too cutting and too restrictive. Today some of the greatest religious denominations have actually denied the virgin birth of Jesus, the deity of Christ, and the blood atonement in the plan of salvation. Isn't that strange? Some of the largest seminaries in the country, some of the leading theologians of the time have said that Jesus was just a good man; that He was not the Son of God; that His blood sacrifice does not really cleanse anybody of their sin.
Now lest you should doubt what I say let me tell of a little experience that happened a few years ago. I was driving through a little town of Calhoun, Georgia from Florida on up north. We passed a nice, clean-cut young man, well dressed, beside the road. He had his thumb out, hitch-hiking. We passed on by, and as we did he flashed one of the warmest, friendliest smiles to me. All of us felt that we had made a mistake, so we turned around and went back to pick up this young man. Well, he happened to be the principal of the local high school at Calhoun, Georgia; a friendly, fine young man.
He found out I was a minister and he said, "You know once I started to be a minister. I attended Emory University down here, this large seminary, this theological school in Atlanta, Georgia. But now I don't believe in anything. I don't believe in God. I'm an atheist."
I said, "My that's strange. You're an atheist and yet you intended to be a preacher? What happened?"
He said, "Well, I went to this seminary and they taught us there that Jesus was just a good man, that the Bible had much legend and falsehood in it, that there is no such thing as a miracle, that prayer is just a psychological comfort to the mind. I lost my faith. After one year I went down to Stetson University and took up education. I decided to change my profession."
Well, I couldn't believe my ears, dear friend, because that school of theology at Emory University is one of the largest seminaries in the south.
I said, "Now listen, all the professors didn't teach these things. You're just talking about one man who was a little misguided and mixed up."
"Oh, no," he said, "every professor in that school taught the same thing. They did not believe the Bible. They did not believe that Jesus was more than just a good man."
Now, friends, that's just one small example. There are multitudes of seminaries all over the land that are teaching the same thing.
I think most of you have heard of the Riverside Church in New York. It's quite a famous religious body. Several years ago when this church first began it was located on Fifth Avenue and was called the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church of New York City. They wanted to expand so they moved over to Park Avenue and built a very large sanctuary and it was called the Park Avenue Baptist Church.
But they wanted to grow some more and so they moved over to Riverside Drive and this time John D. Rockefeller put four million dollars into building one of the finest and most expensive churches in the city, and they dropped the name of Baptist. It was no longer called the Riverside Baptists Church, but just the Riverside Church.
When they put up on the front of this building a large, massive, stone plaque, it was filled with carvings of people. It had these forms carved right into the stone itself over the entrance- the main door. One of those forms was Jesus Christ. The other forms were Einstein, Darwin, Confuscius, Buddha, and Emmerson. Dr. Harry Emmerson Fosdic, the pastor of this church was trying to tell the world that Darwin, the great agnostic, was just as deserving of recognition by the church as Jesus Christ. He was trying to say that Einstein, who completely rejected Jesus, and Emmerson, who thought that religion was all fable, these men deserved to be recognized by that church.
So there they are, all up there together, and Jesus standing right along with these men. I'll tell you friends, I protest against that sort of thing in the name of religion. I protest against bringing Jesus down to a level with those men, who do not even believe in a Supreme Being. Yet this is the kind of world in which we now live.
Lift up Jesus to the cross where He belongs, but let His blood remain as the cleansing, sanctifying, saving factor in religion, dear friends. There is no salvation without it. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Put Jesus into the tomb, yes, but remember that three days later He came up in triumph and went back to Heaven. Yes, think of Him up there in heaven, but He's the mediator and our high priest. He's the only means by which men can be reconciled to God the Father. Oh, what a terrible day of unbelief we now live in.
You know, a layman in a very high-class and wealthy church accosted the pastor after a Sunday morning sermon. He said, "Preacher, I don't want you to talk about that gruesome blood anymore. I don't like to hear about that and lots of other people in this church don't like to hear about it. If you're going to talk about Jesus, tell us about His beautiful example. We're ready to take Him as an example, we believe He was the best man who ever lived, but don't talk about the blood anymore. We don't want to hear that."
The pastor looked at him and said, "Listen, you want to take Him as an example. I'll read you a text. He turned over to 1 Peter where the scripture says that He's our pattern and example in all things "who did no sin."
"Now," he said, "will you follow the example of Jesus in doing no sin?"
The man said, "Why no, no. I can't do that. Nobody can do that."
Then the pastor said, "That's exactly why the cross is in the picture. That's why the blood has to be there, because we can't follow Jesus without that. We will never be able to overcome sin and live as He lived unless we have the cross at the very heart of it."
Friends, that's true today. Very, very true as far as we are concerned. There is a very unholy trend of rationalization today and materialization. You have got to prove everything to this scientific minded age. Even religion-some people won't believe it if they can't understand it. Unless they can analyze it completely they will reject the truth of God concerning the great plan of salvation. We might as well mark it down right now, you will never be able to demonstrate in a laboratory the truths of Christianity. You will never do it. Somethings you can, some facts are so beautiful and logical and demonstrable that you can actually go into a laboratory and prove it. But some of the basic points of Christianity-you can't do it.
For example, Jesus was born of a virgin. It had never happened before and it has never happened again. And you can't prove it. It isn't even logical -it isn't even possible from a human standpoint. Yet it happened. I believe it, don't you? You try to explain how Jesus came down to this world to be born as the son of man. You try to explain how the divine nature of the Godhead could be incorporated into the form of a man, who could move around over this earth as Jesus did. You can't do it. Yet it's fact, it's true, and we do believe it by simple faith.
Oh, may God help us, dear friends, to leave the blood in the picture, because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Don't ever get away from the beautiful, simple facts as given to us in this Bible. Believe it because it's there and because God says it's so. In the midst of all this false religion, the cleansing, saving blood of Christ must remain.