Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Mar 12th, 2022 Nothing But The Blood – The Saturday Morning Post

Today’s Passage – Joshua 1 – 4 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read – 1 Thessalonians 1 – 5; Proverbs 12; Psalms 56 – 60)

Read the “0312 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

“Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token: And that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. And the men answered her, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be, when the LORD hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. Then she let them down by a cord through the window: for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall. And she said unto them, Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned: and afterward may ye go your way. And the men said unto her, We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee.” (Joshua 2:12-18)

Good morning. Scarlet, the color of blood. It was around 80 years ago, before our Bible passage takes place, that God passed over a nation because they believed Him, and had painted the scarlet blood of a lamb on the door post of their homes. All who did not have the blood, the first-born of that house would die. God seeing the scarlet blood allowed them to live. He saved the nation of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. Eighty years later God would use a thread dyed scarlet to save a family. The woman who allowed the Israeli spies to escape Jericho, knew who God was…

“And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.” (Joshua 2:9-11)

And she believed God’s people when they told her what to do. How do I know this? Because she did what the spies told her…

“But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot’s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her. And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel. And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.” (Joshua 6:22-25)

“By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.” (Hebrews 11:31)

“Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2:25-26)

From the beginning, the blood of two animals was spilled when Adam and Eve sinned, and gave their skins to cover up their nakedness. The Bible says…

“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22)

The final sacrifice for sin came by our Lord Jesus Christ. He shed His blood so that you and I could be in Heaven one day…

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)

Whether it was a scarlet thread that was the color of blood, or real blood, only the precious blood of Jesus can wash away your sin.

“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb 9:12-14)

Did you ever hear the phrase: holding on by a thread? If that thread is the blood of Jesus, nothing can loosen your grip or break the scarlet thread. What can wash away your sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Peace.