Bloody Love

There was an incident that took place during a cruel and bloody war. Commander took an oath in the presence of his troops that he would slaughter the entire population of a certain town. When the soldiers invaded that particular town, they began to slaughter every one they could lay their hands on.

There was a man hiding in a bush, watching in horror as his fellow townspeople were put to death. He watched as a number of soldiers broke into a house, the inmates of which were put to the sword. On leaving it, one of the soldiers dipped a cloth into a pool of blood and splashed it on the door as a sign to any who might follow of what had taken place inside.

Well, as quick as his feet would carry him, the man in the bush ran, as fast as he could, to a large house in the center of town, where a number of his friends were hidden. Breathlessly, he told them what he'd just seen. At once they realized what to do.

A goat was in the yard and immediately was killed and its blood splashed on the door. Scarcely had they closed the door when a band of soldiers rushed into their street, but when they came to the blood-marked door, they made no attempt to enter. The sword, so they thought, had already entered therein and performed its work.

Even though many other innocent people were butchered in that town that night, all within the blood-marked door were saved. That story, friends, brings to mind the biblical account from Exodus in chapter 12, where it says, They shall take to them every man a lamb. A lamb shall be without blemish, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lentil and the two sideposts with the blood. Well, friends, the children of Israel were safe in the shelter of the blood because that perfect safety was therefore the Lord had said, When I see the blood, I will pass over you. When I see the blood is God's message to the world today.

Because if you want pardon from sin, friends, you better be sure that you get under the blood of Christ for forgiveness of sin. Christ is the only substitute for sin. He bore the curse so we won't have to.

But the way to the cross is along two narrow roads of repentance and faith. And if you want salvation, friend, then you must get to that bloodstained Savior. That cross was a cross of bloody love because it had the Savior's blood running down all over it.

Every drop of blood that fell to the earth from the slain Christ echoed from heaven 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. At Calvary, on one side of that cross, we see God's love toward mankind. And on the other side of that cross, we see God's justice against sin.

Because in the middle of that cross hung the Savior with his outstretched arms every stroke of the Roman hammer was an exclamation point that God must punish sin. God must punish sin. God must punish sin.

But the bloodless gospel we preach today has no saving power, friends. It has no power in it to save. No power at all.

Because the bloodless gospel is a politically correct gospel. We preachers have drained all the blood out of the gospel to where it can't save a flea. We've gotten out our mop buckets and have cleaned up all the blood and gore around Calvary.

We've made it so attractive that you can sit and have your lunch there. But the cross of Christ was a scandal, a bloody public scandal. It was a spectacle where crowds came to mock the blessed Jesus.

He saved others. Let him save himself. Come down from the cross and then we will believe.

They reviled him and cursed him and ridiculed the bloodstained lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. But the gospel of the Son of God has a cross smack dab in the middle of it. And that cross is blood red.

God's love and Christ's love was a bloody love of sacrifice. Jesus suffered and agonized and squirmed on that cross as his heart and lungs stopped working, as blood drained from his wounds. Jesus died on that cross as a substitute for sin.

He was buried and he rose again. And he ascended back into heaven where he now sits at the right hand of the Father. And he earned that right by a way of that bloody cross.

But listen, friends, like those men in that town and like the children of Israel were safe inside that blood-marked door, we too can find safety and refuge in the blood redemption in Christ Jesus. But we must get under the shelter of his blood for forgiveness of sin. Let me ask you, friend, are you washed in the blood and born from above? If not, you must get to Christ.

He is the only remedy and refuge for sin. His love is a bloody love.