If you'd like to turn we'll be
in Hebrews chapter 12 again. In the first hour we looked at
the first part of verse 24 really and to Jesus the mediator of
the New Covenant. The second hour we're gonna look
at the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than that
of Abel. And I've titled this message The Blood's Cry. The Blood's Cry. What did the
blood cry? If it speaks better things, What
did it cry? My hope is that we're able to
look at. Able. And Cain and what happened there. And see some of the correlation
between our Lord and his suffering. And then see what the blood cried
of able and then what the blood of our Lord cried and if. The
Lord will be pleased to. Be our teacher. I trust we will
see the Lord's face. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22 says, but you are come, you are
come to under Mount Zion and into the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels
to the general assembly and church, the firstborn, which are written
in heaven and to God, the judge of all into the spirits of just
men made perfect. and to Jesus, the mediator of
the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better
things than that of Abel. For our first hour, we heard
of our Lord Jesus Christ being the mediator, being the executor,
being the advocate, being the propitiation for his people under
the father. We saw him as the author and
the finisher of the Old Covenant, the one that established the
New Covenant. We saw him establish the New
Covenant and how he purged his people's sin. But there's something
that I want us to look at this morning that I've never considered
before and it's actually what the blood cries. We know what it did, what it
accomplished. It accomplished redemption and
successfully redeemed his people by his own blood. He saved us. When he had purged our sin by
his own blood, he sat down. We know what the blood accomplished.
What does it speak? What does it speak? I've never preached on this before, I don't
think. But anyways, first thing we have to look at is what Abel's
blood spoke, because it says that the blood of sprinkling
of Christ speaketh better things than that of Abel. So what did
Abel's blood speak? Why is Christ's blood better? Well, we know that Abel believed
God and God had respect unto Abel and his sacrifice. Whenever
he came to offer the sacrifice unto the Lord, what did he bring?
He brought a lamb. And the Lord was pleased with
that sacrifice, pleased with the blood. And we know why in the
New Testament, it tells us without the shedding of blood, there
is no remission of sin. So we see why God was pleased with
Abel's sacrifice. But into Cain says he had no
respect unto Cain or his sacrifice. Cain was a tiller of the ground
and Abel was a keeper of the sheep, keeper of the herds. And
you know the story, when Cain was rejected of God, he murdered
his brother. He killed his brother. And this
is no doubt a picture of the flesh wanting glory for self. He said, no, I did a good job.
I want the glory. And it's a picture of the flesh wanting all the
glory for themselves being good enough on my own. That's the
picture here. Some men say, I will not have
this man reign over us when they hear about the gospel, when they
hear the truth. I won't, I won't have this man reign over us.
I will not bow. He already reigns over us, whether
we like it or not. And we like it, but I'm just
saying he reigns over the fullness of the earth and the inhabitants
thereof and in heaven and under the earth. He already reigns
whether I like it or not. They say, we're not going to
have this man reign over us. It's not your choice. He's God. He's going to do it whether you
like it or not. He's going to do it. Now, turn with me to Genesis
chapter four, and we'll look at this. I want you to notice the wording
used here, because, well, let's just read this. Genesis
four, verse one, Adam knew his wife, and she conceived him bear
Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she
again, rather, Abel, and Abel was a keeper of the sheep, but
came to the tiller of the ground. I want to stop right there just
for a moment to point out something to you. If you were to look at
what Eve said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. That translates
also, I've gotten the man. the man from the Lord. She thought
that Cain was Jesus Christ. I mean, really, that's what she
thought. She thought this is the Messiah, this is the Savior,
not understanding that it would be a miraculous virgin birth,
because that hadn't been written yet or foretold yet, just that
the Savior would come to redeem. The Lord had told them that.
So she thought Cain was the Savior that was going to fix their sin
problem that they had created. Cain was not of God. Cain was
of Cain's own righteousness. Cain was of Satan. How do we
know? Because he lied to God. Where's
your brother, Adam? I'm my brother's keeper. He didn't
own up to what he had done. He tried to hide it. And he was
a murderer. And doesn't the scripture say
that that's Satan? He's a liar and a murderer from
the beginning. That's who he is. And so we see that he was
influenced obviously by Satan. Now let's keep on reading here.
Verse three, and in the process of time it came to pass that
Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the
Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstling of his flock,
and the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and
to his offering. But unto Cain and his offering he had no respect,
and Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the
Lord said to Cain, why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance
fallen? If thou doest well, shalt not
thou be accepted? And if thou doest not will sin
life at the door and to thee shall be his desire and thou
shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with 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. Then he says, and
the Lord said unto Cain, where is thy brother Abel? 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 art thou cursed from
the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's
blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground,
it shall not henceforth yield it unto thee. Her strength, a
fugitive and a vagabond shall thou be in the earth. And Cain
said unto the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. My
punishment is greater than I can bear. Notice this, I never noticed
this before, but it tells us here in verse eight, and Cain
talked with Abel. That's the first thing I want
to point out to us. Cain talked with Abel. What do you think
that conversation was about? This is after Cain was rejected
and Abel was accepted, or God had respect unto Abel. What do
you think their conversation was? Was it not that Cain would
have justified himself and said, well, I'm good enough. I did,
I gave my best. I don't understand the problem.
And you have to have some idea that it's the same as false religion. So it'd be the same thing being
said today, that God loves everybody. Jesus died for everybody. It
was that kind of justification of himself. He was justifying
himself. He said, I am good enough in what I did. God's a God of
love. We've heard that before, haven't
we? And he is. But you know what Abel would have told him? Because
Abel believed God. Abel would have said, God's a
God of judgment also. God's a God of justice who will
not acquit the guilty. God is a God of vengeance. Scripture says, vengeance is
mine, sayeth the Lord, I will repay. And Abel was slain by
Cain because of those words. Because of those words. Cain
said, I'm not a sinner. I did a good job. You ever heard
anybody say that? I'm not a sinner. I heard somebody
tell me recently, I used to be a sinner. And I was like, well,
how did you stop? And they said, well, I just cleaned
up my life. And I said, that's a scary thought. If I can clean
up my life and not sin anymore, thankfully, we know the truth.
It's not true, is it? It's just not true. Abel would have told
Cain, you have to offer what God requires, not what you think.
See, what I think and what you think is completely irrelevant
when it comes to things pertaining to God. It's what thus said the
Lord. It's what God requires. It's what God says. I can have
an opinion. but that doesn't change the truth.
The truth is forever settled. So if I disagree with something
that God says, I'm the one that's wrong, this is the ultimate authority,
the word of God. So if the Lord says, I want a
blood sacrifice, then he has to have a blood sacrifice or
he will not be satisfied. And this is what was told to
Abel and Cain by their father, Adam. It has to be that Cain
and Abel knew what to bring. But Abel wanted the glory for
him, Cain wanted the glory for himself. Cain wanted the praise
for himself. Cain wanted to be good enough
himself. Look what I have done. Look what I have made. Look what
I have grown. Look how good this is. And the
opposite of that, Abel had flocks and he brought a firstling. He
brought what the Lord, innocent lamb. And the Lord was satisfied
with that because it was not a picture of what he had done. It wasn't works to offer up the
sheep. Cain had to work in order to
create all of the vegetables, or help to try to grow all the
vegetables. You have to till the ground,
you have to, that's what he says, a tiller of the ground. You have to till
the ground, you have to water, you have to, you know how to do it. You know what
I'm talking about, food. Sometimes it's tough. And all that Abel
was doing was just protecting the sheep, looking after them,
tending to them. And he brought a lamb. The Lord was satisfied
with that lamb, because it's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
and his blood alone. Cain said in his heart, if you're
dead, thinking of Abel, probably said something like this. If
you're dead, then God will have to accept me. Think about that. If you're dead, then that means
I'll have to be accepted because you won't be here anymore. I'm
gonna obligate God. You ever heard that before? I'm
gonna do something to obligate God to accept me the way that
I am. But all he did was sin more. All that he did was make
a charge that was longer on what the judge would read to him. It's the same as Christ. What'd they say? Once it crucified
the Lord, give us Barabbas. Give us the murderer. Chose a
murderer over the son of God. Why? Because of the truth. Because
of the truth. And they gave Barabbas back.
And they said, well, what about this man? He said, well, away
with him. Let his blood be upon us and on our children. That's
the way that it is. Get rid of him. Get rid of the
truth. We don't want the truth. We don't want the truth. And
by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, they took
the king of glory. And with wicked hands, they crucified
and slayed him. You can read that in Acts 2,
23. And you know, they're no different than we are. If left
to ourself, we would do the same thing. We would have done the
same thing if we were there. Now, Cain would not have just
left Abel out in the open after killing him. He would have tried
to hide him. That's a natural response whenever
you do something wrong. If you don't want to be caught,
is you try to hide it. Is that not true? So he would have covered
up the blood. He would have covered up the
corpse and tried to hide the sin, wasn't he? He was trying
to hide the sin. But the sin was not put away. It was still
in plain sight of God. The sin didn't disappear. because
Abel was covered up with dirt or the blood was, and it said
in another place that the earth drank up the blood, meaning it
just went into the ground. And so it didn't have any evidence
that the crime had been committed to natural man. They wouldn't
have known to look for that or they didn't know anything had
happened, but God did. That's the point. God knew that
the crime had been committed. God knew that Abel had been murdered. And he says, your brother's blood
crieth to me from the ground. The murder of Abel was aimed
at his acceptance to God. It was aimed at his acceptance.
It wasn't his person. It wasn't just that he was the younger
brother. Abel was murdered, not because he was more attractive
than Cain, or he was stronger than Cain, or he was a threat.
No, it stripped Cain of his righteousness. Abel's truth that God gave him
stripped Cain of his righteousness, and therefore he was killed because
of that truth. And what does the Lord tell us?
He says, you shall be hated for my namesake. Anytime you have
a situation where somebody hates you or despises you or is ugly
to you and you know that it's over the gospel, don't be surprised.
The Lord said, it's not you they hate, it's me. They hated me
before they hated you. He said, be of good cheer. I've
overcome the world. I've overcome the world. Cain
represents all those who don't know the Lord, that offer themselves
unto the Lord, that try to take matters into their own hands
to fix the situation so the Lord will accept them. And then at
the very end of it, they end up worse than they were at the
beginning, aren't they? Weren't they? You see his, he shed innocent blood. That
being said, that innocent blood was not enough to put away Cain's
sin. Abel wasn't a perfect man. He was righteous in Christ alone,
but he was not a perfect man, so that bloodshed did not put
away the sin of Cain, nor did it put away the sin of Abel,
even though it was an innocent, innocent blood was shed. His blood didn't cry justified. His blood didn't cry mercy. His
blood didn't cry grace. His blood didn't cry love. His
blood cried for vengeance. His blood cried for vengeance,
didn't it? Under the Lord, it cried for vengeance, saying,
avenge me, Lord. I was killed wrongfully. I was killed wrongfully. Abel's blood didn't cry hope,
but justice. I want you to notice something
else I've never seen before. Look in verse 11 with me. And now
art thou, this is the judgment, this is the punishment, God speaking
to Cain. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which have opened
her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou
tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee
her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shall
thou be in the earth. Cain says, my punishment is greater
than I can bear. Now, do you understand what the
Lord just did? What was his righteousness that he brought to God? No, was
it not the fruit of his hands? Was it not the vegetables that
he had? Was it not what he grew from the ground? That was his
righteousness, wasn't it? That's what he presented to God
as his righteousness. God just took that away. He said,
you're not going to grow anything anymore. The earth is not going
to yield her help. Why? Because the Lord is going
to strip every person of their righteousness if it's not in
Christ. And meaning if you come to a knowledge of the truth,
you're not going to have any righteousness outside of Christ
at all. And if he doesn't do it in this lifetime in mercy,
then it'll be in judgment when you stand before him or I stand
before him. If I'm not in Christ, then I'm going to be found naked
without any hope of righteousness. My righteousness will be filthy
rags, but they're still going to be stripped off of me. God's
going to get all the glory and every knee is going to bow and
every tongue is going to confess. That's what this is a picture of. He
took away his righteousness, what he held onto, what he was
looking to as his righteousness, his own self. He made him confess
that God's God and Cain is not. That's what the Lord does. That's
what the Lord does. And notice the self-justification
of each sinner. And this is what a picture of
this is. My punishment is greater than I can bear. My punishment is greater than
I can bear. That's not fair. That's what
he said. That's not fair. I deserve Better. That's what he was saying. That's
what he was saying. I'm good enough myself. I was
doing just fine. Everything was going great. And
now this happened. I deserve better. I deserve better. You ask a believer, someone the
Lord's called, someone that's seen Christ, what do you deserve? And they'll never say I deserve
better. They'll say, I deserve eternal separation from God.
I deserve hell. I deserve hell. I deserve to
be in eternal darkness without him, without hope. I deserve
that. Not because of what I've done.
I mean, yes, because of what I've done, but just because of
what I am. But for the grace of God, there
go I. But for the grace of God, there
go I. Have mercy on me, the sinner. That's the hope. That's the hope,
not justification of self, not saying that's not fair, not saying
I deserve better, but saying, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. There's our only hope is that
the Lord would choose to be merciful. Though Abel was counted among
the faithful in Hebrews 11, his offering did not put away sin,
but Christ's blood did. Christ's blood did. His work
put away the sin of his people. His blood speaks better things
than that of Abel. Now let's go back to our text
in Hebrews chapter 12. Look at verse 24. Ye are come to Jesus,
the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of shrinkling
that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Abel's blood cried
for vengeance. Cried for justice, judgment.
Cried guilty. He's guilty. What does the blood
of Christ cry? What does the blood of Christ
cry for? What does his blood plead for?
Mercy. Mercy for the Lord's people.
Mercy for the elect. Grace for the Lord's people. That's what it cries. Grace.
Forgiveness. Reconciliation, that's what it
cries. Perfect righteousness, true holiness,
that's what his blood cries. What did the father say about
that blood? And it's interesting that we're gonna be taking the
Lord's table this morning. This is because we're talking about the
blood. What did the father say about the blood? When I see the
blood, I'll pass by you. Not when I see your works, not
when I see your good deeds, not when I see your good thoughts,
not when I see you're trying harder. When I see the blood,
when I see the blood, why? Because it cries for grace and
for mercy. It cries, it is finished. That's
what it cries, it is finished. Sinai says guilty. The law says
guilty. Zion says forgiven. Forgiven,
grace says forgiven. Sinai says judgment, wrath, justice. The Lord Jesus Christ has satisfied
Sinai. He satisfied all the demands
of the law, he satisfied it. He endured the full fury of God's
wrath, his holy judgment, he did that. He's fulfilled all
the requirements for salvation. And all the justice of God was
poured out The fire of God's wrath has been extinguished.
He absorbed it into himself and put it away with the sin. There
is no more judgment, no more wrath any longer. Therefore,
God is now both the just, he's just and the justifier of his
people. The law says unclean. The law
says unclean. But the blood cries, perfectly
righteous, perfectly clean. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be whiter than snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. You've been cleaned, you've been
sanctified, you've been washed thoroughly. That's what the blood
cries. The law says death. Anyone that
transgresses, death. What does the blood cry? Eternal,
everlasting life in Christ Jesus alone. The law says eternal separation. The blood cries perfect oneness
with the Father forever. Perfect oneness, perfect oneness. This is why he came, to save
his people from their sin, to unite us with him in God. We're united with him. One, bone
of my bone, flesh of my flesh. I mentioned at the first hour,
that's what he did. Was he successful? Yes. Yes, he was successful. When he by himself purged our
sin, he sat down. I quote this about every time
that I stand, I think, but there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. I love that. I hope I never stop
loving that and I hope you never get tired of hearing it. There
is therefore now, no, right now, there's no condemnation. If you're
in Christ, there's no, why? Because the blood pleads for
you. The blood of Christ still pleads
mercy and grace, peace and joy. Now the blood cries, on behalf of everyone Christ
died for alone. He doesn't cry out for everybody.
The blood's not crying, let me save you. That's not what happened.
The blood was shed on purpose and was for a purpose and it
successfully accomplished everything that it was purposed to do. But
for those who say away with this man, their sin and punishment
still remain, still remains. Our only hope is that the Lord
takes us and washes us in his precious blood So I ask you in
closing, are you looking to do good to
cover up your sin? Are you trying to sweep your
sin underneath the rug or bury it like cane because you feel
like you're good enough? Or are you looking to what the
blood of Christ cries out? Has God made you, has he ever
made you need the blood? Has he ever made you need the
blood? Somebody told me recently that
God is number one in their life. And I guess they wanted to impress
me. I don't really know what their
purpose of telling me that was. But I looked at him and I said, Well,
he's my everything. He's more than just number one.
You know, everybody says you got to have God put God first
and family second and church third and all that stuff. And
Look to Christ. He's everything. He's everything. And if you're looking to him,
you'll take care of your family. You'll take care of the church.
If you're looking to him, why? Because you've been redeemed.
You've been bought. I'm my beloved. He is mine. It's
not just that God's number one. He's everything. He's everything. Do you desire? Do you desire
vengeance? Or are you resting in the finished
work of Christ? If you desire mercy and grace
and peace, if so, flee to Christ. Flee to Christ. Don't move a
muscle and flee to Christ. Look to Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved from Mount Sinai and from sin and
from Satan and from self. And if the Lord saved us, we'll
be brought to the city of Zion where the blood still pleads
for all the elect of God. It'll never be silent. It's been
finished, it's accomplished. He says, when I see the blood,
I'll pass by you. He's satisfied with that offering. He gets all
the glory in Zion and we love it that way. This is what the
precious blood of the lamb cries. It is finished. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would
bless your word. To our understanding for your glory. And Lord, as
we are about to partake in your table. We ask that you would. Calls us to remember you. Calls us to look to your blood
and your body as our only acceptance before you. Calls us to believe. In Christ name. Amen. flask.