Description
In this sermon, Derek is teaching on how to get the full effects of the sacrifice of Jesus working in your life.
The key Bible verse in his teaching comes from Revelation 12:11: They [the believers in Jesus Christ] overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death.
What does it mean to overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony?
Derek takes an example from the Old Testament first: the Passover ceremonies recorded in Exodus 12. Through the sacrifice of a Passover lamb, God provided total protection for all the people of Israel. But they had to do certain things with the lamb and with its blood to ensure that protection.
Once the lamb was slain and the blood was in the basin, it was the means of protection. But in the basin, it didn't protect a single person. They were required to transfer the blood from the basin to the doors of their homes and to smear it or sprinkle it on the lentil and on the two sideposts. They had to take a little bunch of hyssop and sprinkle the blood over the door. Hyssop is almost a kind of a weed that grows everywhere in the Middle East. So hyssop, which was a very humble and, in a sense, unimportant thing, nevertheless became essential to the salvation of Israel.
And then God required one more thing. He said when the blood has been sprinkled on the door you've got to stay inside your house. Once they would go outside the blood, they wouldn't be protected.
In 1 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul says: . . . Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. In other words, the Old Testament Passover in Egypt was just a prophetic picture, a preview of what was to be accomplished by the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. It is His blood, not the blood of the Passover lamb, that finally assures us eternal redemption. However, the way that Israel was instructed to apply the blood of the lamb is a wonderful pattern for us.
We've got to get the blood from the basin to the place where we live. Then we're protected-provided we're obedient. So, the question is how do we get the blood of Jesus to the place where we live?
By our testimony. We overcome Satan when we testify personally to what the word of God says the blood of Jesus does for us! Testimony is a very simple thing, it's just saying a few words according to the Scripture. It's like the little hyssop but it saves us. It's our protection. I cannot overemphasise for you here the importance of your testimony.