I'd like to ask you to turn with
me to two different places this morning. First, Hebrews chapter
nine, and also Leviticus chapter 17. We'll look at the Hebrews
passage first. Hebrews chapter nine, we'll look
at verse 22, and Leviticus chapter 17, we'll look at verse 11. Give you a moment to find those
two passages. There are many in our day that
speak irreverently concerning the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me just say this so
that you understand what I'm saying. The blood of Christ is
the most sacred thing in all the world. The blood of Christ
is the blood of God. And it took that precious blood,
the very blood of God to save sinners from their sin. Men and
women today plead the blood of Jesus over everything, over their
money, over their homes, over their children, over their health.
Sadly, men and women have made Christ's blood nothing more than
just a mystical phrase, the blood of Jesus, kind of like hocus
pocus or abracadabra, to be honest with you. I hear men say, take
the power of the blood and apply it to any situation. Someone
says my son's on drugs and in jail, and these religionists
plead the blood of Jesus as a claim of faith that he'll be okay.
So-and-so are having marital problems, and these religious
hucksters, they name it and claim it to go away by pleading the
blood of Jesus as a heal-all cure. Religion today pleads the
precious blood of Christ on anything and everything, believing that
if they combine that with their mystical, supernatural, self-imagined
faith, that the blood of Christ becomes like a lucky charm or
a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, that it miraculously
makes the problems and difficulties that we have go away. It's just
not so. And it's blasphemous really to
speak that way concerning the precious blood of Christ. Christ's
blood, as I said, is the only thing that can cleanse and put
away the sin of God's elect forever. The sooner we realize that it
took God's blood to do that, the better off we'll be if we
trust in it and in the law. All through the Bible, we meet
with the word blood. The word blood's found 447 times
in 375 verses. I'd say that it's important.
There's never been a true gospel message preached that did not
faithfully proclaim the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
never been a true gospel message declared that did not contain
the subject of Christ and Him crucified. Because without the
shedding of blood, there is no remission, no forgiveness of
sins. You're in Hebrews chapter 9,
look at verse 22. and almost all things are by
the law purged with blood." Now in the law, some things were
cleansed by water and some things were purged by fire, but without
shedding of blood, there is no remission. Now that word remission
means no forgiveness, no freedom, no pardon, no liberty. Now let me quickly interject
that the shedding of our blood does nothing. Absolutely nothing. I love that old song, I Should
Have Been Crucified, but to be honest with you, that wouldn't
have done any good. I should have been, but for me
to be crucified, for my blood to have been shed, wouldn't prosper
me in any way spiritually. It wouldn't justly put away the
first sin if I shed my blood. Because our blood is polluted.
It's polluted with evil and polluted with sin. But it's here that
we see the necessity of the blood of Christ being shed that gives
remission or forgiveness for sin. If your sin and my sin is
to be forgiven, Christ's precious blood is going to have to cover
us. Without the shedding of the blood of Christ, no remission,
no forgiveness, no pardon, no liberty, No freedom, none. There is such a thing as remission,
but it comes with the shedding of blood, but not just any blood,
only by the blood of God, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
the blood of Jesus Christ that maketh atonement for the soul.
That's what I want you to see this morning. Do you remember
the first mention of blood in the Bible? Well, the first time
that the word blood is mentioned is in Genesis chapter four, when
it talks about Abel's blood being on the hands of his brother Cain
that killed him. But that's not the first time
that bloodshedding or bloodshed is mentioned in the scripture.
Actually, the first time it's mentioned is in Genesis chapter
three, verse 21, where it says, unto Adam also and to his wife
did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. Where
did these coats of skins come from? Well, no doubt from the
skins of an animal, and I believe from the skins of a lamb. Though
we're not told, it just had to be a lamb. No doubt God would
stay with the type that He preaches all through the scriptures. It
was the Lord Himself that shed this blood, and we know that
God is able to provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
And He did. He Himself is the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. Now this was the first
blood that was ever shed on earth, and it pictures the shedding
of the blood of the spotless Lamb of God. This blood is that
scarlet thread that runs throughout the pages of scripture. It's
everywhere. It's the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's son, that cleanses us from all sin, 1 John 1, 7. So in order
for a sinner to be reconciled to God, blood must be shed for
the remission or the forgiveness of sin. Do we agree upon that? As a matter of fact, all the
sacrifices of the Old Testament picture just that. They pictured
the shedding of the precious blood of Jesus Christ, who is
the Lamb of God. We just read, for it is the blood
that maketh atonement for the soul. Isn't that what God said
to Israel? Do you remember what God said
on the night of the Passover? He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. It's that blood that makes atonement. The apostle Peter said the same
thing. Peter wrote, you know this, you
weren't redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold.
You weren't redeemed by the law. You weren't redeemed by your
works. You weren't redeemed by your deeds or your traditions
or your ceremonies and your ordinances and your rituals. All those things
are corruptible. You were redeemed with the incorruptible,
the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and
without spot. Now that's how we're redeemed.
Without the shedding of blood, no remission. The apostle John
said this, he said, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses
us of what? All sin, every single one. If you study the Bible, you're
gonna read about the blood. And those who endeavor to take
the blood out of their hymn books and out of their pulpits have
for themselves stripped the gospel of its glory. There's power in
the blood. Where there's no blood, there's
no power. And if there's no blood, there's no rebission. And then
there's no forgiveness of sin. If there's no blood atonement,
there's no mercy seat. And if there's no mercy seat,
there's no mercy. God's mercy is found where and
when He sees the blood. Our message, Christ and Him crucified. That's what we preach. And let
me remind you that the crucifixion of our Lord was a bloody one.
What a bloody scene this was. When our Lord was scourged with
that cat of nine tails, they took chips of bone and tied them
into that cat of nine tails. And when that bone met the back
of our Lord Jesus, it just shredded His body, His back to pieces
and blood came flowing from those wounds. Is that too graphic for
you? Well, I'd say it's not graphic
enough. His temple, His temples, his forehead were pierced and
lacerated with a crown of thorns. I don't know if you've ever been
pricked by the thorn of a rose or not. Ouch. That hurts. Can you imagine a whole crown
of thorns pushed and dug into your head? as the blood flowed
down into his eyes. Oh my. His hands and his feet
were nailed with iron spikes to a pole. I'm pretty convinced
myself, though I won't condemn you for believing another way,
but I'm convinced that the cross was a single pole. That's what
the word cross means, a pole. And I believe our Lord died on
a single pole where his hands were pulled up over his head
and these long railroad-like spikes were driven through both
of his hands at once. The same with his feet, they
overlapped one over the other and the long nails of steel pierced
through both of his feet and blood was shed. Oh, what a bloody
scene this was. Our Lord's side was opened by
a soldier's spear, and we're told that out flowed from it
was blood and water, just as the scripture had prophesied.
This was a bloody scene. There was never a bloodshedding
at a crucifixion like this one. from Pilate's judgment hall all
the way to the cross. You could clearly see the blood
mark path of enmity and hatred and hostility that mankind had
against God, his maker. They hated the Lord Jesus without
a cause. They said, we will not have this
man to rule over us. We're going to be our own boss.
We're going to do our own thing. It's still going on today. But
I'm here to declare to you this morning in no uncertain terms
that had Christ not shed his blood, there would be no remission. There would be no forgiveness
for sin, none. The wages of sin is death and
the shedding of blood in the scriptures represents the suffering
of death. Paul said that the children of
God are determined to know nothing else. That's right. Just Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, that's it. That's all that matters,
really. We have redemption only in Him,
in whom we have redemption through His blood. We oftentimes just
read over those words. Forgiveness of sin is found only
in Christ's blood. Now I want you to look over at
Leviticus chapter 17, one verse here. Verse 11, Leviticus 17. The Lord says to Moses here,
for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given
it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.
For it is the blood, it is the blood, underline that, it's the
blood that maketh atonement for the soul. Now, did you notice
in this verse that this is the blood that God has given? This
is the blood that Christ has shed. This is the blood that
Christ, our high priest, has sprinkled upon the altar to make
atonement for his people's soul. Look back a few pages to Leviticus
chapter four. Leviticus chapter four. You know,
the offering of the Old Testament sacrifices in the tabernacle
in the wilderness were always before the Lord. Our Lord is
the only one who can accept our offering and our sacrifice. He's
the one that we've offended. He's the one with whom we have
to do. He's the one who must be appeased. And God is the one
that's gotta be satisfied. Leviticus four, look at verse
four. Speaking of Aaron, the high priest,
it says, he shall bring the bullock into the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation before the Lord. and shall lay his hand
upon the bullock's head and kill the bullock before the Lord."
Now we've seen this same thing in our study on Wednesday night
in the book of Exodus. And I'm convinced now after doing
this study that when you study the book of Exodus, you're going
to be studying the book of Hebrews and the book of Leviticus too.
They just go hand in hand. Now look at verse six here. "'And
the priest shall dip his finger in the blood "'and sprinkle of
the blood seven times.'" You know what seven represents. You're
gonna sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lord. But look at verse seven. And
the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the
altar of sweet incense before the Lord. It was always before
the Lord. You picture, if you can, Aaron
the high priest in that solemn, sacred hour as he took the blood
of that sacrifice and he went into the holy place and he makes
his way under the veil into the holy of holies. That place where
God met with the high priest for the atonement of sins. My,
this is a sacred, sacred thing. You're talking about holy ground.
And it was in the holiest of holies that God would either
accept or reject the offering that the high priest made for
the one who was offering the sacrifice. And it was there on
that golden mercy seat found on the top of the Ark of the
Covenant, which by the way, covered the broken law. Now there's a
picture there, picture in our breaking of the law. And it was
there that the high priest placed that blood. No human being saw
it, but God did. It was put there before the Lord. The Lord saw it, and that's all
that mattered. If the Lord accepted that offering,
that was all that mattered. And that's all that matters now,
if the Lord accepts our offering. But our offering has to be perfect
without blemish. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ,
who by His own blood entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. The blood of the Passover
lamb was put on the outside of the door. It was not put on the
inside of the door for the children of Israel to see, but it was
put on the outside of the door for the Lord to see. It was put
before the Lord. And God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. It doesn't have anything to do
with you and I seeing it, but everything to do with God seeing
it. You see, our salvation is found in God seeing the blood. In the Old Testament, every sin
offering and every sacrifice ever made for the atonement of
God's people were types and pictures of Christ's sacrifice for His
people. They were always sacrificed and
offered before the Lord. And these sacrifice and offerings
always had to do with making peace toward God. God is angry
with the wicked every day. They've offended His law. The
blood has to do with God's acceptance of us, not our acceptance of
Him. The shedding of blood has to
do with reconciling us to an angry God whose wrath and judgment
is upon sinners because of their sin. The Holy Bible is about
how God can remain just and at the same time justify the unjust
and make the ungodly godly. Now that's what this book is
about. If you don't see how God saves sinners, then you've missed
the meaning of the Bible. This Bible is about who justly
saved his people from their sin. It's about how Christ justly
saves them. It's about what Christ did to
pay the full payment, the full debt to the law, and at the same
time satisfy God's holy justice. That's what it's about. And it's
all about Christ crucified. It's all about the blood. There
is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty
stains. That's how we get rid of it.
That's how our sin is put away, by the blood. When a sinner finds
out who Christ is and what he's done for them, he'll find the
difference between him and a lost man is the blood. That's what
God said in Exodus, that you may know how that the Lord put
a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And he did, he did. Only those in the house with
the blood on the door did God pass over. It has everything
to do with the blood. I'm convinced that the blood
won't mean much to a man or a woman that God doesn't mean much to.
You see, God's blood won't mean much if you don't know who God
is. So the first thing for us to understand the effectiveness
of this precious blood of Christ, we're gonna have to understand
something about who he is. The Bible begins this way. were
told from the very beginning. This is in the beginning, God. You see, it was God in the beginning.
All things were made by Him and all things were made for His
glory. That's talking about Christ. That's talking about God the
Son. By Him was not anything made that was made. The Bible
declares, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. That's
talking about Christ. He's holy and you're not. How
are we going to be reconciled to him? That's the issue. He's
everything God is in a person. God says, I am the Lord, I change
not. That's the Lord Jesus talking.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Christ is immutable. He's unchangeable. Christ is
eternal. He's without beginning or end.
Boy, I remember as a small child, I used to sit out underneath
the tree and look up at the clouds and all, and I'm like, who made
God? Boy, that'll bother your mind,
won't it? He always was. He always was. He's eternal. God is sovereign.
He can do anything. Christ is omnipotent. He can
do everything. God is omnipresent. He's everywhere
all the time. Christ is omniscient. He knows
everything about everybody and everything. You and I don't know
much, do we? Especially about God. All we
think we do. but we really don't. And if you
and I are to ever understand anything about this holy book
and how God saves sinners, let me add that, because that's what
it's about. We're going to have to understand
some basic truths about God. And the first one is that He
is God and we are not. Now that's a good lesson to learn
right there. You know, Satan's been trying
to convince men and women alike since the fall in the garden
that men and women shall be as God. For the majority of my early
years, the preachers that I heard made way too little of God and
way too much of men. They said God was trying. They
said that God wanted to do. I heard a preacher just recently
say that God wants to do this and God wants to do that in your
life. No, he does not. He's never wanted
to do anything. He's never tried to do anything.
He does what He wants to. He said time and time again,
as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. As I have purposed,
so shall it stand. Our Lord does what He wills in
the army of heaven, among the inhabitants of the earth, and
none can stay His hand or say unto Him, what doest thou? Now you and I are limited to
what we can do. We're limited by our abilities.
We're limited by our capabilities. We're limited by our will. Men
say, oh, we got a free will. No, we don't. Your will is in
bondage to your nature. You're dead and trespasses in
sin. And I've never seen a dead man do much. Never seen a dead
man do anything because he's dead. We're so affected and infected
by our sin that without Christ, we can do nothing. Like sheep,
we're prone to wonder, and like sheep, we're personally defenseless. Be a good time to ask you, do
you find that offensive? When I say that without Christ
you can do nothing, does that offend you? You tell men and
women that their God is in the heavens and that He's done whatsoever
He's pleased. You tell sinners that whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven and in earth and in
all deep places. And you go on to tell them that
that same God saves whom He wills and forgives whom He wants to. And they'll disagree and they'll
usually say something like, well, now I believe that He made salvation
possible, that He made all these things possible so that we could
be involved. Have you ever heard that? So
that we could do something ourselves, that we could have a choice in
the matter, that we could have a part in our salvation. No, sir. Not true. God will not
share His glory with another. If you read this book and you
study it, you're going to encounter the character and the attributes
of the living God. You're going to see that the
God of the Bible is the God with whom you have to do. You're going
to have to deal with the God that this book declares, and
it'll be on His terms and not on yours. If you refuse, you'll
perish. You're going to see neither is
there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all
things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we
have to do." Now it's appointed unto men once to die. And after
this, the judgment, we're all going to give an account to this
God. And all things are naked and
open before him. You're not going to hoodoo God.
You're not. He knows all things. The God
that wrote this book sees everything. He sees through our hypocrisy. He sees through our pride. He
knows that our righteousness is filthy rags. Well, preacher,
what makes you think your way's the right way? I've been asked
that a few times. Because my way's God's way. That's
the only way I know to answer. God has made my way His way,
and He's made His way my way. My way is the way that the Bible
says is the way. And then folks are going to say,
well, isn't that according to your interpretation? This book,
friends, it says that Jesus Christ is the way. It says that He's
the truth and the life. Now, He says that no man can
come to Him except the Father which sent Him draw Him. Does
that need interpretation? How do you interpret that? This
book says that a sinner that has Christ, God's Son, has life,
and he that has not the Son of God has not life. How do you
interpret that? just as it reads. That's pretty
plain and simple. If you have Christ, you have
life. If you don't have Christ, you don't have life. Does that
need interpretation? You can't be saved apart from
Jesus Christ. This book says that we love him
because he first loved us. Now we're gonna discuss that
and come up with several different points how that means something
other than what it means. We love him because he first
loved us, period. How do we interpret it? Just
as it stands, he loved me before I loved him and I love him because
he loved me first. The Lord Jesus said, you've not
chosen me, but I've chosen you. How are you gonna interpret that?
The only way you can. He chose me first and that's
why I chose him. Another thing you're gonna come
face to face with in the scriptures, it's inevitable. It's the sinfulness
and the depravity of man. You're gonna have to see who
and what you are. You're gonna have to see who
and what this Bible declares you to be. There's no other way
for you to see your need of Christ and truly desire the shedding
of His blood. God's gonna have to show you
what you are. And it's painful. You know these verses all too
well. There's none good, no, not one. That's what God said. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that seeketh after
God. How many? None. The Lord looked down from
heaven upon the children of men to see if there was any that
did understand, to see if there were any that did seek after
God. And what did he find? Every single one of them, he
says, gone back. They've gone their own way. Not
God's way, their way. They are altogether become filthy. They have altogether become unprofitable. What makes man think that he's
good? All men and women have gone out of the way, out of God's
way. Every imagination of every man
and woman's heart is only evil continually. You say, well, now
I have a good thought every now and then. Not compared to God. Not that's in line with his holiness. No, sir. Our best thought, our
best prayer, our best is all filthy rags in the sight of God.
And that's what God says about you. Do you disagree? Do you
find it to be offensive? Do you want to explain to God
that it isn't so? Do you want to argue your righteousness?
You want to debate your goodness? God says you don't have any goodness.
God says you don't have any righteousness. I remember I used to just as
a habit, and we all got them. I used to go all the time, somebody
would say something, I'd say, my goodness. Old believer one
time said, son, you don't have any. I said, what? He said, goodness.
My goodness, no sir, you don't have any. We don't. No sir, we
don't have any. God, this is what God says. God's
not a man that he should lie. Let God be true and every man
a liar. God's not a liar. The holy God
of creation says of us, from the sole of the foot, even into
the head, there is no soundness, none, no soundness in it. Just wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores that have not been closed up. They're just open wounds.
They haven't been doctored, neither mollified with ointment, Isaiah
1.6. And folks find that offensive.
All through the scriptures, we're taught about man's fall into
sin and what sin did to man by nature. The gospel is the good
news as to how a wretched, depraved sinner like you and me can be
reconciled and brought back into holy communion and fellowship
with a thrice holy God. Are you interested as to how? It has to do with the blood.
Most are not interested because most don't believe, first of
all, that they're in the condition they're in. Most are not interested
because they don't really believe that they're dead in trespasses
and sin, and that it's the blood that gives them life. And that's
why God's gonna have to show you, if you belong to Him, He's
gonna show you who He is, and He's gonna show you who and what
you are. And then He's gonna show you
who and what you need. So if you've seen who he is and
you've seen what and who you are, listen, I got good news
for you. Now he's gonna show you what you need and who you
need. There's always been only one way to justly save a sinner
and that's through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God
has provided a sacrifice and it's a perfect sacrifice. It
has to be to be accepted. This sacrifice only has to be
offered once because of who it was that offered it. Christ had
once suffered for sin. Just once. He's God. That's all it took. For by one
offering, and that being the sacrifice of Himself, Christ
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. alone through
the shedding of his precious and perfect blood, he can make
the comers thereunto perfect." Why? Because in Christ Jesus,
you who were sometimes afar off are made nigh. How are you made
nigh? By the blood of Christ. Ephesians
2.13. You can now come yourself into
the Holy of Holies. Isn't that a glorious thought?
That's talking about the throne of heaven. We can come boldly
into the throne of God's grace. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest, how? By the blood of Jesus. It's all
about the blood. unto him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in his own blood." It's everywhere, friends, all
through the scripture. Why do we doubt God's love when
the precious blood of his precious son was shed that we might live? Why should we doubt God's love
and God's certainty of salvation when the precious blood of His
only begotten Son was shed in our room instead that we might
have life and have it more abundantly? Why do we doubt our salvation
when God killed His own Son? That's what he did. Killed his
own son when our sin was found upon him so that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. It sounds to me like
the God's out to do us good. Why should we fear anyone or
anything when God determined to preserve us forever? And he
preserves us in Christ, our sacrificial lamb. Without the shedding of
blood, there is no remission. But with the shedding of Christ's
blood, the very blood of God himself, there's forgiveness
of sin forever. Forever. That's something I never
have to worry about again. It's finished. The only way that
God can remain just to his law and yet forgive the guilty was
for Christ to come and offer his life in the place of ours.
He had to shed his blood in the place of our blood and his blood
was accepted because of the dignity of his person. His blood was
accepted because of the vast value of him being both a perfect
God and a perfect man. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law. How? By being made a curse for
us. For curse is everyone that hangeth
on a tree that sheds his blood as our Lord did. who his own
self bear our sins and his own body on the tree. And it was
by the shedding of his blood that he suffered the stripes
by which we were healed. So I ask you from the scriptures,
is it nothing to you? Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by, behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto
my sorrow, which is done unto me. How has it done to you, Lord? Wherefore the Lord hath afflicted
me in the day of his fierce anger. Now I know I don't have to tell
you that that fierce anger, God's judgment and wrath should have
been against me. That's what I deserve. Can't
we see how precious the blood of Christ is? It's the only thing
that can save us from our sins. May God be pleased to cause and
convince you and me that we must have the precious blood of God
shed for our sake. And the only way God will forgive
you is when he sees the blood and calls it to be so, and that's
only for Christ's sake. God forgives us for Christ's
sake. And he does so by the shedding
of his blood.