The following message was delivered
on Sunday evening, March 1st, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist
Church in Montville, New Jersey. May I urge you to follow with
me in your Bibles as I read from two portions of the Word of God
in setting the framework for our communion meditation this
evening. The first is found in the book
of Genesis, chapter 4, I shall read in your hearing
the first 13 verses, Genesis chapter 4, and then we'll turn
over to Hebrews chapter 12. Referring to Adam, Moses writes,
And the man knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain,
and said, I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah. And
again she bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep,
but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time
it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an
offering unto Jehovah. And Abel he also brought of the
firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And Jehovah
had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and
to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and
his countenance fell. And Jehovah said unto Cain, Why
art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest
well, shall it not be lifted up? And if thou doest not well,
sin coucheth at the door, and unto thee shall be its desire,
but do thou rule over it. And Cain told Abel his brother,
and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain
rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. And Jehovah said
unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know
not, am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood
crieth unto me from the ground. And now cursed art thou from
the ground, which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's
blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground,
it shall not henceforth yield unto thee its strength. A fugitive
and a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto
Jehovah, My punishment is greater than I can bear. And now over
to chapter 12 of the book of Hebrews. And in this marvelous
section in which the writer to the Hebrews is contrasting that
to which the people of God come in the new covenant with that
to which God's ancient people came in the circumstances of
ratifying the old covenant. And he says in verse 18 of Hebrews
12, you are not come. And then he mentions many of
the circumstances surrounding the ratification of the old covenant. And then in the transition, verse
22, but ye are come. And then he lists, according
to the reckoning of whether or not one or two of these things
are joined, seven or possibly eight things to which we come
in the New Covenant. And so the verb, ye are come,
carries right down through, and we want to pick up the reading
at verse 24. But ye are come to Jesus, the
mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that
speaketh better than that of Abel." Now, when I announced
on Wednesday night that we would be taking up the first of our
Old Testament character studies this evening, and that our subject
would be an initial study in the lives of Cain and Abel, I
had on that occasion overlooked the fact that this would be a
communion service and that a communion meditation would be in order.
However, while we are totally bypassing some of the things
to be expounded in subsequent messages, I do want us to focus
our attention on what in many ways is probably, if not the,
it is one of the two most central and most well-known incidents
in the lives of these first two human beings born upon the earth,
Cain and Abel. And the incident to which I refer
is the slaying of Abel by his older brother Cain, and the subsequent
inquisition of God, coupled with the Spirit-inspired reference
to that very incident that I have read from the book of Hebrews. And the title of our communion
meditation, focusing upon that single incident and the Holy
Spirit's comment upon it, is The Voice of Blood That Speaks. The Voice of Blood That Speaks. You are come to Jesus, the mediator
of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh,
Better than that of Abel. Strange language. Blood that
speaks. We've heard of blood that soaked
a man's garment. Blood spattered upon walls or
upon concrete in gang-style murders. But here we have something utterly
unique. It is blood that speaks. blood that has a voice, blood
that speaks to God, and blood that speaks to man. And I want you to consider with
me, first of all, Abel's blood speaking, and then secondly,
Christ's blood speaking. And under those two simple headings,
we're going to ask three very straightforward questions. Abel's
blood speaks. Verse 24. We come to Jesus, mediator
of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks
better than that of Abel. But Abel's blood does indeed
speak. Question one. What was the blood
of Abel? Well, according to the passage
which we read in Genesis chapter 4, it was the blood of an unjustly,
brutally murdered, innocent man. Abel had done nothing to provoke
his brother Cain. He did not taunt him. He did
not defraud him. He did nothing to provoke even
a frown from his brother, let alone being slain in cold blood. According to the scriptures,
particularly Hebrews 11, 4, this man Abel was not only innocent
of any specific provocation of his brother, he was a righteous,
believing man. We would say he was a godly Christian
man. For by faith he offered unto
God a more acceptable sacrifice than his brother. And he is called
in a passage in 1 John, a righteous man whose pattern of life was
that of practical godliness. But for all that he was but a
man, a son of Adam and of Eve, and brother to the man who slew
him. So in answer to the question,
what was the blood of Abel? The scripture is clear. It was
the blood of an unjustly, brutally murdered, righteous, believing
man, son of Adam and Eve, and brother to Cain. Question two,
what was the message of Abel's blood? If Abel's blood speaks
What is its message? Well, when we turn to Genesis
chapter 4, the answer to that question is clear. For God Himself
both hears and interprets the message that Abel's blood speaks. When God comes as the heavenly
inquisitor, verse 10, He speaks to Cain and says, What have you
done? And he comes on this inquisition because God has heard a voice. And the voice he has heard is
not the voice of the corpse of Abel, but the voice of the blood
that, having been shed, left him a corpse. What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood
cries unto me. from the ground. This is very
graphic imagery because later on in verse 11 he says, Cursed
art thou from the ground which hath opened its mouth to receive
thy brother's blood from thy hand. Here the ground is likened
to that which has a mouth. And when the blood of Abel is
spilled, the mouth is opened to swallow it. And now God says
the mouth is open again not to swallow anything but to speak.
And when it speaks it cries. And when it cries it cries with
a voice that pierces the eye of the ear of God in heaven and
brings God down to earth to make inquisition of Cain. What have
you done? The message of Abel's blood was
nothing more or less than a cry to God for vengeance, for retribution,
and for judgment. For he had wantonly taken away
the life of a fellow human being made in the image of God, And
those stained with sin, one in whom that image was being restored
by grace as a righteous, believing man. So in a very real sense,
he was attacking the thing most like God that he could get his
hands on. And the message that cried to
heaven was one which requested of God that there be vengeance
and retribution upon this murderer, Cain. Third question, what was
the effect of the message? Well, according to verse 11 in
verse 14, the effect of that message is that God does indeed
bring retribution and vengeance, the first words from the mouth
of God, verse 11, and now cursed art thou. A curse is pronounced
upon the man Cain, and then he is banished from the special
presence of God, laden with his guilt. Cursed art thou, and then
verse 12, a fugitive and a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth. Verse 16, and Cain went out from
the presence of Jehovah. The voice of Abel's blood spoke. It spoke eloquently and powerfully
and persuasively in the ear of God, and it spoke efficaciously. And the effect of its voice was
that God brought a curse and banishment to Cain the murderer. Why he did not inflict capital
punishment is a discussion that is not germane to our study tonight. I probably will address that
issue when we come to our more detailed study. But suffice it
to say that when the blood of Abel cried to heaven, heaven
responded. And the response was an efficacious
administration of curse and banishment. upon Cain. Abel's blood speaks. What was the blood of Abel? We've answered the question.
What was the message of Abel's blood? What was the effect of
the message? Now we ask the three same questions
of Christ's blood that speaks. When we read in Hebrews 12 that
We are come unto Jesus, mediator of a new covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling that speaketh. We have a present participle.
It is blood that continues to speak. And then that key word
in the book of Hebrews, better. And in this form, and in its
sister form, used thirteen times in the book of Hebrews, of the
better sacrifice, and the better covenant, and the better priesthood,
and the better inheritance. And here it is, a voice that
speaks better than that of Abel. But now, Christ's blood speaks. Question one, what is His blood? The blood of Abel was the blood
of an unjustly, brutally murdered, innocent, righteous, believing
man. Well, at that point there is
a strict parallel. The blood of Christ also was
the blood of an unjustly, brutally murdered, innocent man. But there the parallel stops.
For he was more than righteous by faith. He was the sinless
incarnate son of the living God. In this very epistle to the Hebrews,
he is called the one who is holy, harmless, undefiled, higher than
the heavens. Moreover, he was not murdered
as a private person. But in this text we are told
we come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and to the
blood of sprinkling that speaketh. Abel was murdered as a private
person. He sustained no unique relationship
other than those natural blood ties to his mother and father
and to his brother Cain. But when Jesus' blood was spilt
in all of the pristine innocence of His person, it was not blood
spilt as a private person, but in His official capacity as the
mediator of a new covenant. That is, an arrangement instituted
by God for the intervention of grace and pardon for sinners,
in which Jesus stands as the party between the offended deity
and the offending creature, man. 1 Timothy 2.5, there is one God
and one mediator between God and man, himself man, Christ
Jesus. So when we ask the question,
what is his blood? It is not merely the blood of
one unjustly, brutally murdered in an innocence that goes far
beyond that of Abel's innocence. But he was slain in his capacity
as the go-between between God and man. effecting, administering,
ratifying, bringing into being a new covenant. Hence, his blood
is called blood of sprinkling. Now, what in the world does that
mean? Well, if you just turn back to
Hebrews 9, I believe you'll see, at least in principle, the answer. Hebrews 9, Verse 18, wherefore
even the first covenant hath not been dedicated without blood. For when every commandment had
been spoken by Moses unto all the people according to the law,
he took the blood of the calves and the goats with water and
scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself
and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant
which God commanded to you." When that blood was sprinkled
upon the book that contained the terms of the covenant, upon
the people who are entering into covenant, the blood of sprinkling
binds God officially to His people in covenant engagement, and it
binds them to God in covenant commitment, and gives them the
right of access into the presence of God. It gives them right of
participation in the institutions of God, to be considered part
of the covenant nation of God. So when we ask the question concerning
Christ's blood speaking, what is His blood? It is more than
the blood of one unjustly and brutally murdered. It is not
only the blood of the innocent, pure, holy Son of God, but it
is His blood shed in His capacity as the go-between between the
offended deity and man, the offending sinner. But it is blood of sprinkling,
blood which was shed not simply to make salvation possible, but
that real-life sinners might be sprinkled with that blood
and therefore bound to God under the blessings of the New Covenant. And so it is called then the
blood of sprinkling. Now the second question, what
is the message then of Jesus' blood? Well, if the message of
Abel's blood is a cry for vengeance, as we've often sung in hymn number
190, Abel's blood for vengeance pleaded to the skies, the second
line of that stanza is, but the blood of Jesus for our pardon
cries. Jesus' blood also cries to God,
but not for vengeance. but for expiation, for pardon,
for reconciliation, for acceptance. It speaks now in the ears of
God, saying, justice is satisfied, sin has been punished, wrath
has been exhausted upon the sin of the people of God. All who are sprinkled in that
blood, That blood cries that all that it provided and secured
be made theirs in an eternal possession. So the message of
Jesus' blood, His blood that speaks better than that of Abel,
is the contrast between blood crying from the ground for vengeance
and blood that cries for just pardon. righteous forgiveness,
equitable acceptance of the sinner before God. Question three, what
is the effect of its message? We saw that Abel's blood gave
an efficacious cry from the ground, brought God, as it were, out
of heaven to take vengeance upon Cain. Do you have any question
that the blood of Jesus would be less efficacious than the
blood of Abel, a mere man? The speaking blood of Jesus is
efficacious, and it is efficacious to bring all the blessings of
the new covenant to every man, woman, boy or girl who by faith
is sprinkled by that blood. Everyone who was sprinkled by
that blood in the ratification of the old covenant, sprinkled
upon the book of the law and upon all the people entered into
all the blessings of that covenant engagement by God. So under the
new covenant, all who by faith are sprinkled by the blood of
Christ are effectively and truly made the benefactors of all the
blessings of the new covenant. And what are those blessings?
If you just turn over to chapter 8 in this very chapter, yes,
chapter 8 in the book of Hebrews, beginning with verse 8, you find
a quotation from Jeremiah 31, And very quickly notice what
the major blessings of that covenant are in terms of this passage.
For finding fault with them, he saith, behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make anew covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took
them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt.
For they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them
not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord." Blessing number one, I will put my laws into their
mind and on their heart also I will write them. Under this
covenant ratified in the blood of Jesus that speaks better than
that of Abel, that blood, wherever it is sprinkled, calls for God's
law to be written upon the heart of all of the participants in
the covenant blessing. And what does that mean? It means
that God will graciously grant an internal disposition towards
and an inclination to a life of joyful obedience to God Himself. From the state of being those
possessed with a carnal mind enmity towards God. Now there is an inward disposition
and powerful inclination to a life of joyful obedience. What is the second great blessing
of this covenant? Ten B and on their hearts will
I write them and I will be to them of God and they shall be
to me a people." You see the mutual engagements? They will
have the right to claim me as their possession and wonder of
wonders. I will gladly own them as my
possession. That's the language. I will be
to them a God. I will be to them one whom they
will have every right to call my God and my Father. and engage me in terms of what
I've committed myself to do, to perfect in them all that I've
promised, not because of any merit in them, but because of
the work of the Mediator of the New Covenant and His infallible
securing of those blessings by His own life and death. I will be their God. They shall
be to me a people. It's a marvelous doctrine in
the New Testament that we have an inheritance in Christ, but
there's an equally marvelous doctrine that we are God's inheritance. Think of it, God's inheritance,
an inheritance that he acquired at such a price, at such a price. Third great blessing of the covenant
is they will have a heart, knowledge, of and communion with the living
God. Verse 11, And they shall not
teach every man his fellow citizen, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord. In other words, they will not
be bound together in a covenant community, tied together by common
external religious rituals, but devoid of internal saving knowledge
of God. They shall not teach every man
his fellow citizen, every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord. For all upon whom the blood of this covenant are sprinkled,
they shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them."
What is it that binds the most mature, white-haired, ripened
saint in this building? To the youngest child who may
by faith have laid hold of Christ and has a minimal knowledge of
truth, a minimal experience of grace, what binds them together
and puts them on common ground? They both have experimental heart
knowledge of God. To that old saint, God is more
than a name upon his lips. to that ripened saint, God is
more than an abstract notion with which he or she interacts
from time to time in a place called church. God is that known,
loved companion throughout all of the hours of the day. In days
of darkness, days of heaviness, days of joy, days of dullness,
days of alertness, And to that little child, in the simplicity
of its present development of mind and psyche and its limited
knowledge, God is more than a word in the catechism questions. Who
made you? God made me. What else did God
make? God made all things. That's how
God begins to be introduced, a word in the catechism, a word
in the Bible, in the beginning God created. But if that child
has come to faith in Christ, that child, the least in this
covenantal community, has an experiential knowledge of God. And that's why that little child
loves to pray. doesn't simply obediently fold
its hands and bow its heads when daddy says time to give thanks.
Mom and dad are surprised to come in and find the child praying
when no one told him to. Find him weeping over his sins
when no one's rebuked him. You parents say, what do you
look for in a child that's surrounded with the knowledge of God and
the truth of the gospel from infancy? What are the indications
that it's been internalized? Here is the great indication.
The knowledge of God is internalized and becomes real to that child
according to his capacity, yes. But from the least to the greatest,
they will all know me. They'll know me. That's what
God says. And then the fourth blessing
of that covenant is they will be completely forgiven of all
their sins, for I will be merciful to their iniquities and their
sins will I remember no more. God has a self-imposed area of
amnesia. Self-imposed! Their sins and
iniquities I'll remember no more." Now, I'm speaking in figurative
language, of course. God cannot forget anything from
any sphere at any point in all of eternity, for His mind is
infinitely perfect. But He wills to forget our sins
and iniquities when they have been righteously dealt with through
the blood of the cross of His dear Son. sins and iniquities,
I'll remember no more. So when the text says that you
have come to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant and to the
blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel, and
we ask the question, what is the effect of his blood speaking? The effect is nothing less. in
all of these blessings of the new covenant granted by God to
all and to each one upon whom that blood is sprinkled. And if we may again speak in
material, physical terms, it's not literally sprinkled upon
it, but if we can envision it as such, it speaks to God. And what does it say? It says,
God, you have bound yourself. to give that blood-sprinkled,
hell-deserving sinner a heart to love you. You have bound yourself
to give to that wretched, hell-deserving sinner your very self as his
great possession, and to take him as your great possession.
You are bound by the speaking of the voice of the blood of
your son to give to that sinner who is natively ignorant of you
and devoid of your life and communion with you. You are bound to give
him heart acquaintance with yourself and forever to blot out and never
to bring to remembrance all of his sins and his iniquities.
What a wonderful thing to have Jesus' blood speaking such things
for me. to have the blood of Jesus speaking
that for me. And dear people, that's what
we're doing when we're coming to the table. This do in remembrance
of me, that is to have communion with him who is the mediator
of the new covenant. But you see, you cannot separate
him at the table from what he did, for he said this cup is
the new covenant in my blood. And as you hold the cup tonight,
May I urge you to put your spiritual ear close to the cup and hear
its voice as it represents the blood of Christ. What is it saying? It is not crying out, Oh, father,
righteous father, vent vengeance on that guilty sinner. No, that's
what Abel's blood said to God from the ground. But this is
a cup of blessing. This represents blood that says,
Holy Father, I spilt my blood for that believing sinner. I've
sprinkled that blood upon his conscience. Holy Father, you
have pledged that your law would be written upon the heart. You've
pledged that you would be their possession, that they would know
you. that you would completely forgive
them of all their sins and joyfully thank God that that blood is
efficacious and then plead for greater dimensions of the blessings
which it secured. But in the remaining two to three
minutes I have, I want you to look at the next verse in Hebrews
12. Yes, the blood of Jesus speaks
better than that of Abel. But verse 25 says, See that you
refuse not him that speaketh. Behind the blood of Jesus is
the speaking voice of God in this context, referring to all
that God has spoken in the last days in His Son. And there is
the frightening possibility More than that, the horrible reality
that some can sit in a place like this tonight and hear of
Abel's blood that cried for vengeance and know that God isn't playing
games when he says the soul that sins it shall die. When that
innocent blood was swallowed up by the earth and the earth
spoke its voice into heaven and God came down and that voice
was efficacious and curse and banishment came to cane. My friends,
don't you refuse him who speaks It is God who speaks in these
great realities and he says to every one of you in your sin,
in your guilt, in your uncleanness, in your defilement, in your ignorance
of and rebellion to God, in my son I have made an adequate provision
for all and any and every sinner who will come and be sprinkled
in the blood of my son. God graciously invites everyone,
boys, girls, men and women, and says, here is my son. And though
his blood has been sprinkled upon millions, and the mighty
power of his spirit has brought to pass these wonderful blessings
of the new covenant in the heart of millions, he has not even
increased his heartbeat a half a beat a minute. expending any
energy that would ever exhaust him. He is as fresh in the dew
of his saving power as though he had never exerted it upon
one. The plenitude of grace is in
Christ. Don't refuse him that speaks.
Why would anyone refuse him who speaks, saying, Come, come into
the orbit of all the blessings secured for sinners by my blood. Your sins will be pardoned. I'll
take out your stubborn, proud, rebellious heart of stone and
give you a heart of flesh that will delight to walk in obedience
and humility before the living God. God will be your possession
and you will be His and you will know Him and you will have all
your sins blotted out. What's the alternative? It's
to go on with a rebellious heart that will one day land you in
God's junk heap of rebel hearts. That's called hell. To go on
having bewirled and men's applause and acceptance of peers as your
possession, but to have God not claim you as his possession and
in the day of judgment say, depart from me, I never knew you, you're
not part of my possession. Hell is God's rejection heap.
Is that what you want? Outer darkness, weeping, wailing,
gnashing of teeth? Are you so foolish as to sit
here and say, yeah, I'll take that. I'll take God's place of
banishment for stubborn rebels. I'll take God's place of rejection
rather than be his possession. No desire to know the God who
made you. No desire to go home tonight
and pillow your head, knowing all your sins are pardoned. What
madness sin is. Oh, dear men and women, boys
and girls, see that you refuse not Him who speaks. If you refuse
Him, what will your backup system be? What will it be? Think! Think!
Boys, girls, men and women, think! What will your backup system
be? There is none. Therefore, hearing the blood
of Abel that spoke for vengeance, the efficacious voice that brought
God down to take vengeance, having considered the blood of Christ
that speaks, that voice that speaks efficaciously, and confers
all the blessings of the new covenant upon all who are sprinkled
by that blood. Run to the Lord Jesus with the
feet of your heart by repentance and faith. Go to him and say,
Oh, Lord Jesus, sprinkle me in your precious blood. Bind me
to yourself and all the blessings of that covenant. I want God
to be my God, and I want him to claim me. as my own. Oh, what better place to come
to Christ than when He's been set forth in the Word, and then
as He's set forth in the symbols of His body and His blood. Christ,
preach to your ears. Christ, preach to your eyes.
Oh, come to Him. You'll never find a better hour
than this. Let us pray. Our Father, how we thank you
for the blood of Jesus that speaks, and how we thank you that it
speaks better than that of Abel. Oh, we thank you for all the
blessings which it secures for everyone who is sprinkled by
that blood. Give us great joy as we come
to your table, and oh, may the joy of heaven be triggered As
you, O God, see that while we come to the table, others for
the first time are coming to Jesus, mediator of the new covenant. Oh, set heaven's joy loose tonight,
for you have said there is joy in the presence of the angels
of God over one sinner that repents. Oh, Father, do it for the honor
of your name. that your son may have the fuller
reward of his sufferings, we ask in his worthy name. Amen.