The Token.

William Branham.

Read the full account in... Token.

Exodus 12:12.
"For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the house where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt."

A token, "The blood shall be to you a token." Now, what is, first, a token? It is a word that's commonly used among we English speaking people, especially here in America. A token is a--really, the dictionary says that a "token" is a "sign." It is a sign of a fare price paid (See?), that the fare or--or a--or a price (a required price) that's been paid, like a fare on a railroad or a fare on a bus line. You go in and purchase your--your fare, and then they give you a token; and that token cannot be spent for nothing else but to that railroad line. And it is a token to the railroad company that you have paid your fare. It's a token, and you can't spend it for nothing else. It doesn't work on any other line. It just works on that line only, and it's a--it's a token.

Now, down here, that we're speaking of, where we're starting in, is God saying to Israel, "The blood of the lamb is a token for you." Israel's lamb slain was Jehovah's required token. It must be the blood. God made a token and give it to Israel, and no other token will work. See? It cannot be recognized.

To the world, it's a bunch of foolishness, but to God it's the only way; the only thing that He requires is that token. It must be there, and you cannot have the token until the fare is paid. Then you are a possessor of the token which gives you the privilege of a free pass: "I'll see the Blood; I'll pass over you." What a time that--what a privilege to know that you pack within you the pass. "When I see the Blood, I'll pass over you." It's the only thing that He'll recognize. Nothing else that can take its place: no substitute, no denomination, no nothing else; it takes that. God said, "That alone will I see." No matter how righteous they was, how good they was, how much education they had, how they dressed, the Token was the only thing. "When I see the token, I'll pass over you." The Blood was a Token that the requirement of Jehovah had been met, that it had been done. The Blood stood for the Token. The Blood was the Token. See?

The Life that God had said, "That the day you eat thereof, that day you die," and there'd been a substitutionary life taken for the life of the believer. God in mercy accepted a substitute for the life of the defiled person. When His child had defiled himself with sin of disbelieving the Word, then God, rich in mercy, made a substitute, and that was something had to die in its place. Nothing else could work.

That's why Cain's apples, and peaches, and so forth didn't work. It had to be a life that had blood in it. And the life was gone from the sacrifice. And now, the blood was a token that God's order had been carried out.

Now, what did God require? The life. And the blood showed that there had to be a life gone, so the blood was the token that the life had been given, that something had died, God's requirement that a life had been given, and the blood had been shed; and the blood stood for the token that the life was gone. The life of the animal that God had spoke should be taken was--the blood stood for the token. See, the--the--the believing worshipper was identified with his sacrifice by the token.

I don't wish to stay too long on these little quotations--but (which you could take the entire service on one of them), but I want to stop here a moment to express that the--the--the believer had to be identified with his sacrifice. See? If it--just the sacrifice and--and made somewhere out there, he give it; but had to be identified in it. Frankly, he had to place his hands on it first, to identify himself with his sacrifice. And then the blood was placed to where he could stand under the blood. The blood must be over him, and that was a token that he had identified himself, guilty, and had proven that an innocent substitute had taken his place.

What a beautiful picture. Oh. A redeemed... See? Justice had been met, and the requirement of God's holy justice had been met, and God said, "Now, I require your life." And then when the--the--the life had sinned, then an innocent substitute took its place. And it was a blood beast, not apple, peach. That ought to absolutely make the serpent's seed so plain to everybody, that it was blood, and this blood which could not come out of fruit, come out of an innocent substitute. And the life had gone out to--to--in his place, and the blood was a symbol that the beast had died, and the blood was gone out.

And the worshipper, applying the blood over himself, showed that he was identified in the redemption, because he has identified himself with the--at the sacrifice, connecting himself to the sacrifice, and the blood stood for the token. How wonderful. What a picture it is. It's a perfect type of Christ. Just exactly.

The believer, today, standing under the shed Blood, identified with the Sacrifice--just as perfect as it can be. And how that Christ, not being an animal... You see, the animal died, but it was the most innocent thing that we have, I suppose, would be the--the animal, the lamb. When God wanted to identify Jesus Christ, He identified Him as a lamb. And when He wanted to identify Himself, He identified Himself as a bird, a dove. And the dove is the most innocent and cleanest of all the bird life, and the lamb is the most innocent and pure of all the animal life. So, you see, when... Jesus was baptized by John, and the Bible said, "And he saw the Spirit of God like a dove coming down upon Him." Therefore, if it had been a--if it would've been a--a wolf, or if it had been any other animal, the nature of the dove could not have blended with the nature of the wolf. Neither could the--the nature of the dove blend with any other animal but the lamb. And those two natures came together. Then they could agree with each other.

Now, do you see predestination? It was a Lamb when He come there. See? See, it was a lamb when it--when it was brought it was a lamb. It was borned a lamb. It was raised up a lamb. See? Therefore, that's the only kind of a true Spirit that can receive the Word, that can receive Christ. Rest of them try. They try to get it, and put the Spirit of God upon a wolf (See?), angered, ill, mean. It won't stay there. The Holy Spirit just flies right away. It will not do it.

What if that Dove had come down, and instead of it being a Lamb there, would been some other animal? It would've quickly took its flight and went back. See? But when It found that nature that It could blend into, It just become One. And then, the Dove led the Lamb; and notice, It led the Lamb to slaughter. Now, the Lamb was obedient to the Dove. See? No matter where it led, it was willing to go.

I wonder today, when God leads us to a--a life of complete surrender and service to Him, I wonder if our spirits then sometimes don't rebel, kinda showing that: wonder if we are lambs. See, see? A lamb is obedient. A lamb is self-sacrificial; it doesn't take-- claim its own. You can lay it right down and shear the wool off of it (That's the only thing it's got.), it never says anything about it, just sacrifices everything it's got. That's a lamb. It gives everything to its--gives everything away--itself and all it is. And that's the way a real Christian is. If they're--self-sacrifice themselves, caring nothing for this world, but giving all they got to God. See?

And now, this was a perfect Lamb: Christ was. And then through the shed of this lamb, the natural lamb in Egypt, the blood was applied. And when it was, it stood for a token. Then what would the Blood of this Lamb stand for? See? The Token that we are dead to ourselves and identified with our Sacrifice. See? Then the lamb and the--and the--the Blood and the person becomes identified together: the Sacrifice and the believer. See? You are identified in your life by your Sacrifice. See? That makes you what you are.

Then the blood was a token of our identification. The blood identified that the worshipper had slain the lamb, and accepted the lamb, and applied the token to himself, that he was not ashamed. He didn't care who saw it. He wanted everybody to see it. And it was placed in such a position, that everybody passing by could see that token. See, many people wants to be Christians, and they like to do it secretly, so nobody would know that they were Christians. Or the associates they run around with, some of them would think, "Well now look, I want to be a Christian, but I don't want so-and-so to know about it." See? Well now, you see, that's not Christianity. Christianity has to display its Token (See?) publicly, in public life, at the office, on the street, when trouble is around, anything, in church, everywhere else. The Blood is the Token, and the Token must be applied (See?), or it's not--or even the covenant is not in effect. The blood was a token or an identification, identifying this person has been redeemed.

Now, why notice, they were redeemed before there was anything had ever happened. By faith they applied the blood. See? Before it actually happened, the blood was applied by faith, believing that it was going to happen. See? Before the--the wrath of God passed through the land, the blood had to be applied first. It was too late after the wrath had done fallen. Now, we have a lesson there that we could really, maybe bring it to your thought, just a moment. Look: before it happened. For there's coming a time that when you'll not be able to have any blood applied.

The lamb was killed in the evening time after being kept up for fourteen days. And then the lamb was killed, and the blood was applied in the evening time. You get it? The token never come into existence until the evening time. And this is the evening time of the age that we live in. This is the evening time for the church. This is the evening time for me. This is the evening time of my message. I'm dying; I'm going; I'm moving out in the evening time of the Gospel.

And we've come up through justification and so forth, but this is the time that the Token has to be applied. I told you last Sunday, I had something I wanted to talk to you about; this is it. The time that when you just can't play with it. It's got to be done. If it's ever going to be done, it's got to be done now; because we can see that the wrath is about ready to pass through the land, and everything from under that Token will perish. The Blood has identified you.

Read the full account in... Token.

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 2:2