The Scarlet Thread
Listen with your head as well as with your heart.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you
upon the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that
maketh atonement for the soul. [Leviticus 17:11]
Back yonder in the millennial years of along
ago, years beyond number, the Lord God in heaven created the heavens and the
earth [Genesis 1:1].
And if God did it, He did it beautifully, perfectly,
gloriously. And in the creation, not only the material heaven above us and this
planet beneath us, but God also created the myriads—that is the word in the
Bible —the myriads, the uncounted throngs and multitudes of angels, those
heavenly hosts that surround the throne of Almighty God [Psalm 148:1-5].
And in
that creation was Lucifer; that means “the son of the morning” [Isaiah 14:12].
He is called in the Bible “the covering cherub” [Ezekiel 28:14, 16].
In that
creation of those myriads of angels in glory, He had created Lucifer, beautiful
beyond description and gifted as only God could bestow heavenly remembrances
upon him. Wonderful!
Everything is just unthinkably glorious, except that when
Lucifer became conscious of his exalted position, and his personal beauty, and
the illimitable power that had been bequeathed to him, he became vain, and
glorious, and falsely ambitious, and covetous [Ezekiel 28:12-17], and Lucifer
thought to be God [Isaiah 14:14].
Of all of the things that could have
developed, that sin entered into his heart and life. And wherever sin enters,
it always brings disaster, destruction.
So according to the twelfth chapter of
the Book of the Revelation there was war in heaven. Satan—Lucifer—and his
angels, who became minions, warred against the Almighty God and His Son, who
became known to us as Christ Jesus.
And one-third of all of those angels in
glory followed Lucifer [Revelation 12:4]. And because they lost that
confrontation, they were cast out, Lucifer and his angels [Revelation 12:7-9].
And when Lucifer fell the entire universe fell. It fell into ruin.
And the
second verse of the first chapter of Genesis describes this planet, this world
in which we live, as without form, and darkness upon the face of the deep
[Genesis 1:2].
Then God chose to do another miraculous thing. The Lord chose to
recreate this world, and He did so in that first chapter of Genesis. In six
days He made everything beautiful again; perfect [Genesis 1:3-25].
And at the
end of the sixth day, having looked at His marvelous creation and calling it
good, the Lord said to Himself in His heart, “These rocks and these mountains
and these seas cannot talk to Me. They cannot think My thoughts. They cannot
respond in love to Me. I will create a somebody like Me, in My image; and they
can be with Me as friends and companions and associates.”
So the Lord created
the man in His own image, and in the image of God He created both of them, male
and female [Genesis 1:26-27], in order that they might walk with Him, and talk
with Him, and love Him, and be a companion by His side. Wonderful! Beautiful!
But in the middle of the garden there was a tree.
And the Lord interdicted the
fruit of that tree lest they be like Lucifer had been, wise in their own eyes
and covetous [Genesis 2:17]. So Satan came into the garden of Eden where the
Lord had placed the man and his wife, beautiful.
In the cursing of Satan he
became a serpent, but he was beautiful to begin with. And he could talk to the
woman, and he enticed her to take of the forbidden fruit.
And when Adam saw
that his wife had partaken of the forbidden fruit, rather than live by himself
he also ate of that tree, that he might die with his wife rather than live
without her [Genesis 3:1-6].
And when the two had partaken of the interdicted
fruit they looked at themselves, and their eyes were opened, and they were
naked, and they were conscious of their sin and of their shame.
So they took
fig leaves and sewed them together to cover their sin and their shame and their
nakedness [Genesis 3:7]. The Lord God came walking into the garden in the cool
of the day to associate with His sweet likenesses, and He could not find them.
And He lifted up His voice and said, “Adam? Adam? Adam, where art thou?”
[Genesis 3:8-9]. And Adam replied, “We are here, but we are naked and ashamed!
And we have hid ourselves” [Genesis 3:10]. And the Lord said, “Have you eaten
of the forbidden fruit?” [Genesis 3:11]. “Yes” [Genesis 3:12].
And when the
Lord looked upon them, He looked upon those fig leaves to cover their shame and
sin and nakedness, and the Lord said, “Not enough.”
And God took one of the
innocent animals He had created in the garden, and He slew that animal and
poured out its blood on the ground, and the earth drank it up. And with a coat
of skins He covered the nakedness and shame of our first parents [Genesis 3:21]
And that is the beginning of the nakedness and shame of our first parents
[Genesis 3:21].
And that is the beginning of the scarlet thread through the
Bible; the pouring out of blood of atonement, of covering.
So the Lord sent and
expelled our first parents from that beautiful garden. And at the gate of the
garden He placed cherubim with swords that flashed every way to keep the tree
of life [Genesis 3:22-24].
And at an altar there, Abel came to the presence of
God; and to that altar he brought a lamb in sacrifice—the scarlet thread
through the Bible—and poured out its blood upon the earth.
And Cain hated him
for what he had done that so pleased God. And Cain slew Abel his brother, and
the earth drank it up; the scarlet thread through the Bible [Genesis 4:1-9].
So
the continuation of the generations, and we come finally to Noah. And God
looked down on the earth, and God looked at those generations. And the Lord
said, “It is enough. I will judge and destroy this earth.”
But Noah, righteous
Noah, found grace in His sight [Genesis 6:5-8]. And the Lord God said to Noah,
“Make you an ark [Genesis 6:14], and make it big enough to contain two of the
unclean and seven of the clean animals of the earth. And you and your family enter
the ark, for I am going to destroy this earth by water” [Genesis 6:19-22,
7:1-4].
And God did an unbelievable thing. This earth had a canopy over it, and
the whole earth was like a tropical garden. Geology, all of those things that
pertain to fossils and rocks, you look at them in the north. Look at them in
the south. Look at them in the Arctic. Look at them in the Antarctic, all over
this earth it was just the same. It was beautiful.
And there was a canopy over
this globe, and the earth was watered by dew—by dew, by dew that fell down from
that beautiful canopy [Genesis 2:5-6]. They had never seen rain. It had never
rained in this earth. And the Lord punctured that canopy. He tore it apart, and
it fell down upon the earth in rain. And the earth was covered in a vast,
illimitable flood, and all of living life was drowned except Noah in the ark
[Genesis 7:10-8:19].
And when Noah came out of the ark he built an altar and
shed the blood of one of those innocent animals; the scarlet thread through the
Bible [Genesis 8:20].
So God said to Abraham, “The three-day journey to Mt.
Moriah, a mount I will show thee of, you make the journey; and there you
sacrifice on the altar your son Isaac, the boy that you love. Offer him on the
altar on that mount as a sacrifice to Me” [Genesis 22:1-2].
So Abraham took his
boy Isaac, a teenager then, and they made the three-day journey and saw the
mount Moriah. And on that mount Abraham built an altar, and bound his boy, and
laid him on the altar, and raised that dagger to plunge it into his heart
[Genesis 22:3-10].
And when he raised his arm to take the life of the boy, an
angel called out and stopped his arm. “Wait. Wait. Wait.” And the angel pointed
out a ram with his horns caught in the thicket. And the angel said, “Offer that
in place of your boy” [Genesis 22:11-13].
And Abraham took that ram and slew it
and poured out his blood; the scarlet thread through the Bible, and poured out
its blood and saved the life of his boy [Genesis 22:13].
And God said to Abraham, “I was just testing to see whether you love Me more than you love
anything else in this earth” [Genesis 22:15-16]; the scarlet thread through the
Bible.
And God said to Moses: Let each of the families take a lamb and pour out
its blood in a basin. And take the blood and place it—in the form of a cross—on
the lintel and on the doorpost on each side.
For this night the angel of death
will pass over, and when he sees the blood he will spare the home and the house
where the blood in the cross is seen. And all the other homes will experience a
tragic entrance of death. [Exodus 12:3-7, 22]
So Moses that night and all the
families of Israel took an innocent lamb and poured out its blood—the scarlet
thread through the Bible—and took that blood and placed it on the doorposts and
on the lintel in the form of a cross; there and there. And when the death angel
passed over that night, when he saw the blood he passed over [Exodus 12:23].
And thereafter that holy day, called the Day of Atonement, was sacred in the
life of Israel, even today called Yom Kippur; the scarlet thread through the
Bible.
So Joshua said to Rahab: In the city of Jericho the Lord will make the
walls of the city fall down; and the people are under the judgment of God. But
if you will put a scarlet thread in the window, when the earthquakes destroy
the walls of the city, and God commands the army of Israel to annihilate the
wicked inhabitants—when they see the scarlet thread, you will be saved. [Joshua
2:18-19]
So Rahab placed the scarlet thread in the window [Joshua 2:21]. And
when the judgment of God fell upon the walls of the city, and the angel
directed the army to destroy the wicked inhabitants, they saw the scarlet
thread, and Rahab and her family were marvelously, beautifully saved [Joshua
6:17-25].
Thus it is that the day came when God said to David, “Because of your
sin of disobedience I will judge the kingdom of Israel.” And from Beersheba
clear altar of atonement and intercession, that the people might be saved. And
Araunah said to his king “O king!
Not so; I give it to you. I give you the oxen
for sacrifice, and I give you the instruments of wood for the fire. You take it
as a gift from me” [2 Samuel 24:21-23].
And David replied saying, “Not so. I
will not offer unto God that which doth cost me nothing; I will buy it from
thee for a price.” And David bought it and built there the altar and offered
the sacrifice unto God [2 Samuel 24:24-25].
Sweet people, I can’t forget that.
That has stayed in my soul for the years and the years. I could not come to church
without an offering. I can’t do it. We have church here three times a Sunday.
And one time, wouldn’t that be enough?
No, not for me. Anytime we come to
church I bring an offering! And compared to the whole year, I make it a
sacrificial offering. “I will not offer unto God that which doth cost me
nothing.”
And I think God will bless a people, as He has blessed me if you will
remember what you offer to God, let it be at a cost. Bless you in it. So having
built that altar on Mt. Moriah, God said to David, “There you erect the temple
of sacrifice and of atonement.”
Then David the king gathered the material from
the ends of the earth, all in abundance and abounding, in order to erect a
tabernacle, a sanctuary, a temple for the Lord God [1 Chronicles 22:1-4]. But
the Lord said to David, “David, you are a man of blood yourself. You are a man
of murder. You can’t build the temple, but your son is called to do so” [1
Chronicles 28:2-6].
So David gathered all of the material, and his son Solomon
erected that glorious, incomparable house of the Lord [2 Chronicles 3:1]. And
there the people were commanded to bring their sacrifice of blood; and that is
the one place in the earth that God said you are to bring the sacrifice, there
on Mt. Moriah in the temple of the Lord [Deuteronomy 12:5-7].
Then thereafter
through all of those years that followed, the prophets, called of the Lord God
to deliver the message of heaven itself, the prophet lifted up his voice and
from one side of that prophetic Book to the other, they raise their voices in
glorious anticipation and prophecy of the coming of the glorious Messiah.
And
I tell you, I have the hardest time realizing such truth as I find in the
Book. For example, seven hundred fifty years before Christ, seven hundred fifty
years before the Lord, you would have thought Isaiah was standing by the cross
as he speaks of the atoning death of our Lord:
He was wounded for our
transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our
peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have
gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid
upon Him the iniquity of us all. [Isaiah 53:5 6]
Seven hundred
fifty years before Calvary. And the prophet Zechariah: What are these wounds in
Your hands? And where did they come from? And the Lord replied, These are the
wounds that I have received in the house of My people. [Zechariah 13:6]
Ah!
Hundreds and hundreds of years before Calvary, the prophecies of the coming of our
Savior; the scarlet thread through the Bible.
Then finally, and upon a day, the
Lord from heaven came down to assume flesh, and body, and life that we share in
this earth. There is a famous book, most famous, called The Quest for the
Historical Jesus, written by Albert Schweitzer, about the most brilliant of all
the higher critics in Germany.
The thesis of the book is very simply stated.
Albert Schweitzer said Jesus came into this earth to build the kingdom of God,
the physical kingdom of God, and when He failed in achieving it He died in
disappointment and despair and dejection.
Now that’s possibly the most
brilliant book of the higher critical school. It could not be further from the
truth!
Jesus came into this world for one purpose only, and that was to die for
our sins according to the Scriptures, to make atonement for our souls [1
Timothy 1:15]. And the scarlet thread through the Bible; when our Lord came
into this earth, He came in blood.
Herod slew all of the babies two years old
and under [Matthew 2:16], and our Lord began His ministry in blood.
Dear me,
dear me, dear me! When He stood at the tomb of Lazarus He said, “And I, if I be
lifted up, if I be raised on a cross, I will draw all men unto Me” [John
12:32].
And when beautiful and precious Mary anointed His feet with the
ointment, the apostles found fault, criticized, “Why was it not sold for a
great amount of money?” And the Lord said, “Leave her alone. She hath anointed
Me for My death and for My burial” [Matthew 26:6-12].
And when the apostles ascended
into the upper room and sat down, our Lord after humbling Himself took bread
and broke it. “Take, eat; this is My body, which is broken for you” [1
Corinthians 11:24]. And the Lord took the cup, and they all shared it. And the
Lord said, “This is My blood which is shed for you” [Matthew 26:28]; the
scarlet thread through the Bible.
And that night, that night the soldiers came
and arrested our Savior. And they subjected Him to indescribable contempt. They
spit upon Him. They tore out His beard [Isaiah 50:6]. They slapped Him with
their hands. They took off His clothes. They beat Him until He became like a
bloody pulp [Matthew 27:27-31]. And last of all they nailed Him to a tree
[Matthew 27:32-50]. Great God in heaven!
The scarlet thread through the Bible,
the atoning death of our Lord. And He wears those scars in heaven today. When
you see the Lord you will see the wound where the Roman soldier thrust that
spear into His heart [John 19:34].
And you will see the prints of the
nails in His hands. Did not Thomas say, “I do not believe that He is raised
from the dead, nor will I believe until I put my hand into the wound in His
side and put my fingers into the nail prints in His hands” [John 20:24-25]?
And
the following Sunday night the Lord appeared to the apostles in that upper
room. And He turned to Thomas and said, “Thomas, come hither, and put your hand
in My side, and put your fingers in the wounds in My hands, and be not
faithless, but believing.” And Thomas, “O my Lord and my God” [John 20:26-28].
That is the precious Savior that the disciples saw and the wonderful Lord we’re
going to see in heaven. We’ll recognize Him by His wounds; the scarlet thread
through the Bible. And after the glorious cross [Matthew 27:32-50], and the
resurrection [Matthew 28:5-7], and the Great Commission [Matthew 28:18-20], the
apostles of Christ and the disciples of the Lord preached the gospel to the
world.
And they sealed it in their blood; every apostle was slain, every one of
them. And it began with Stephen: standing before those people who had slain the
Lord, he lifted up the glorious atoning grace of God in that sacrifice.
And
they took Stephen in fury and stoned him to death! And his blood was poured out
on the ground [Acts 7:54-60]. That is the beginning of the gospel of the Son of
God.
And Simon Peter, after the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost said,
“You with wicked hands have taken the Son of God and have slain Him and
crucified Him” [Acts 2:23]. “But there is none other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved” [Acts 4:12].
And the gospel message, blessed of
the Holy Spirit of God, began to change the hearts of men by the thousands. One
of the most remarkable things in the brethren, I make known unto you, I declare
unto you, I describe for you the gospel wherein ye are saved; how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures” [1 Corinthians 15:1- 3].
And the
next one, the Book of Galatians, the last chapter, chapter 6: “God forbid that
I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world
is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” [Galatians 6:14].
And the next one,
the Book of Ephesians: “My brethren, we who sometimes were far off are now made
nigh by the blood of the cross” [Ephesians 2:13]; the scarlet thread through
the Bible. T
hen Hebrews, out of which you read this morning, I think written by
Apollos, that Greek scholar and dedicated convert to the faith. Apollos writes,
“Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins” [Hebrews 9:22].
Our hope for glory lies in the forgiveness of our sins because of the atoning
death of our Savior in our behalf. Then the Book of James, prayerfully in the
faith, pleading for those to be saved in the gracious atoning death of our
Lord, and the healing of our broken bodies through Him [James 5:14-15].
Then
Peter, 1 and 2 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1: “We are saved not by corruptible
things such as silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ our
Lord” [1 Peter 1:18-19].
And his second chapter in that first epistle: “He
assumed in His body our sins and He nailed them, paid for them on the tree” [1
Peter 2:24]. Then we come to the Book of John’s epistles; 1 John chapter 2, “He
is the expiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but for the sins of the
whole world” [1 John 2:2]. Expiation: to make friendly, to overlook, to
forgive.
We don’t stand in the presence of God now under the judgment of the
Almighty, bound for damnation and hell. We stand now in the presence of God as
He intended in the garden of Eden: “My friend, My companion, My sweet and
devoted convert.” Acceptable to the Lord; He is the great expiation of all of
the wrong that we’ve ever done. We stand now in the presence of God forgiven.
And that is the theme of the great Apocalypse.
What is the text? Revelation 1
chapter and verse 5: “Unto Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His
blood; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” [Revelation 1:5-6].
And in the fifth chapter of that Apocalypse: And I saw the throne of God in
heaven and the Lord God. And in His hand was a book sealed with seven seals.
And a great and mighty angel lifted up his voice and said, Who is worthy to
break the seals and to open the book and to look thereon? And not in heaven
above or in the earth around or in the earth beneath was there one found who
was able and worthy to break the seals, and to look upon the book. [Revelation
5:1-3]
Your name is in that book. That book is the Book of Life, and it has in
it the names of all of the saved, the saints of God [Revelation 3:5]. Not one
could be found to break the seals or to open the book. And John bowed and wept
[Revelation 5:4], “Great God, what shall we do? All of us, lost and damned
forever.”
And an angel put his hand on John and said, “Weep not: behold the
Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David hath prevailed to break the
seals, and to open the book, and to read thereof” [Revelation 5:5].
And John
lifts up his eyes to look. And what does he see? Does he see a King in all of
His glory, the Lion of the tribe of Judah? No. What he sees is “a Lamb as it
had been slain.” He sees a Lamb. And the Lamb takes the book and breaks the
seals, the seven seals, and opens the pages and looks thereon [Revelation
5:6-8].
And when He does, the great throng of those who are saved, whose names
are written in the Book of Life, they cry and say, Worthy art Thou to take the
book, and to break the seals, and to look thereon; for Thou wast slain, and
hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every nation, and tribe, and
language under sun; And hast made us kings and priests of the Lord, and we
shall reign with Him forever. [Revelation 5:9-10]
And I turn the page to
chapter 7, and there I see “a vast multitude that no man could number. And I
asked the angel, Who are these and whence do they come? And the angel replies,
These are they who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb” [Revelation 7:9-14]. I am in that book.
My name is in that book, and
I am one of those standing in the multitude whose garments have been washed and
made white in the blood of the Lamb. And you are in that book. And you are in
that multitude washed in the blood of the Lamb. O God, and what shall I say?
And what shall I do?
The atoning death of our dear Lord has made it possible
for me to be with Him and you in heaven some glorious and triumphant day, saved
by the blood of the Crucified One. All praise to the Father. All praise to the
Son. All praise to the Spirit the great Three in One. Praise God saved by the
blood of the Crucified One. All glory to God. All glory to God.
My sins are
forgiven and my guilt is all gone Saved by the blood of the Crucified One.
[adapted from, “Saved By the Blood,” S.J. Henderson] The scarlet thread through
the Bible. And I have time to close with a personal testimony.
So being reared
in a little town of about three hundred people, in a little white cracker box
of a church house, the preacher holding the revival meeting stayed in our home.
And at night around the table he would talk to me about the Lord. I asked the
teacher at the school if I could be dismissed to attend the morning service.
She acquiesced.
And it just happened to be that, when I went to the church
house, I sat right back of my sainted mother. And when the preacher had
preached his sermon and made appeal, they were singing:
There is a fountain
filled with blood Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see that
fountain in his day And there may I though vile as he, Wash all my sins away.
[“There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood,” William Cowper]
And my mother, while
they were singing that song, turned around and said to me, “Son, today would
you give your heart to the Lord Jesus? Would you let Jesus come into your
heart?” And I said, with many tears, “Yes, mother. Yes.”
And I stepped out in
the aisle and couldn’t even see the preacher for crying. You know, that’s one
of the strangest things, from that day until this, the gospel message, the
atoning grace of the Lord, brings tears to my eyes.
I cannot preach the Lord
Jesus without crying. I cannot do it. I prayed to God,
“Lord, take these tears
away from me.” And the Lord has said “No. No, that’s you. That’s you.” So I
just cry and praise the Lord, how good He is and will be unto me. So may I
close? I come to the end of the Apocalypse, and how gloriously does it close!
Revelation 22, verses 17 and [20]:
And the Spirit and bride say, Come. And let
him who hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will,
let him take the water of life freely. . .
He which testifieth these things
saith, Surely, surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
[Revelation 22:17, 20] If I know in my heart, I’m ready. Any day any time, so
come, blessed Jesus; the scarlet thread through the Bible. Now sweet choir; you
want to come up here, Jed?
I want you all sing that song “There Is a Fountain
Filled with Blood.” I want you to sing it. And while the choir sings that song
and the orchestra and organ play, a somebody you, to give your heart to the
Lord Jesus, to open your heart and invite Him to be your Savior,
I want you
leave your seat wherever you are, in the balcony, on this lower floor, and come
down here and kneel with me.
A somebody you, to put your life in our dear
church, “Preacher, I want to be baptized in obedience to that Great Commission
and command” [Matthew 28:19]. Or, “I want to put my letter here.” Or, “I want
to be just added to the congregation.”
Wherever you are, come and kneel here at
this altar. Or to answer a call of the Holy Spirit in your heart, just leave
your seat, maybe you and your family, and come and kneel down here, and I want
to pray with you.
As the choir sings its hymn, “There Is a Fountain Filled with
Blood,” anybody you, answering the call of God in your heart, come and kneel
here at the altar, and we’ll pray together. Come, and welcome—anyone.
W.A. Criswell, First Baptist Church Dallas, Texas.
https://www.wacriswell.com/sermons/1995/the-scarlet-thread-through-the-bible/
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