If you would, turn your Bibles
with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 12. As you're turning,
let me express again my thanksgiving for, thank you for inviting me,
for having me, how much I've enjoyed our time together worshiping
our Lord. Gabe, I thank you for inviting
me. I thank you for putting us up in a five-star hotel. The
Moody Hotel is going to get a five-star rating from Travelocity from
me and Janet. You all have treated us far better
than we deserve, and we're very thankful. Hebrews chapter 12,
the title of the message this morning is Christ's Blood Speaks.
Now we who have been redeemed, we make much of the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We make much of the blood because
we've been redeemed by the blood. We who preach, we make much of
the blood of Christ in preaching. There's no gospel without the
blood. Forgiveness of our sin is found in the blood. Justification
is in the blood. We can only come to the Father
through the blood. It's the blood. And if we will
listen, the blood of Christ speaks and has a message for us that's
worth hearing. The writer to the Hebrews says
here in verse 24 that the blood of Christ speaks, speaks better
things than that of Abel. What is it that the blood of
Christ speaks? Well, first of all, the blood
of Christ says that the believer has no relationship with the
law whatsoever. None. None. You got that? None. If you want to be saved,
if you desire salvation, don't look to the law, look to Christ. To the believer, I say, do you
seek a rule of life? Don't you look to the law. You've
got no relationship with the law. Our rule of life is the
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to him. And that's what
the writer begins to tell us here in verse 18 of Hebrews chapter
12. He says, for you're not coming to the mount that might be touched
and that burned with fire, nor into blackness and darkness and
tempest. He's speaking here of Mount Sinai,
which represents the covenant of the law. And you know the
story how when God gave the law, that mountain was covered in
darkness and thundering and lightning. And that's just like the law.
The law is so dark, threatening and thundering. The law is so
frustrating. The law requires us to be righteous,
doesn't it? The law requires obedience from
us, but the law doesn't show us how to be righteous. The law
doesn't tell us how we may be made righteous. The only thing
the law can say to you and me is guilty. We've broken the law. That's all the law can tell us.
The law can't tell us how to find forgiveness, how to find
mercy, how to find grace. All the law can do is in darkness
and It's such a frustrating message to hear over and over and over
again, guilty, guilty, guilty. All but Christ, he gives light
to his people. There's no darkness in him at
all. He doesn't just give us light to tell us how to be righteous. He reveals himself to us as our
righteousness. I tell our folks this at home
frequently, and let me tell you the same thing. Don't think of
righteousness as a thing. Righteousness is a person. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, he gives light and reveals himself as the righteousness
of his people. And I'm so glad, I am so thankful,
a believer has nothing to do with the law. Look at verse 19.
And the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, which voice
they that heard, Entreated that the word should not be spoken
to them anymore. They heard what the law said and they said Moses
We don't want to hear that anymore Because you know what the law
tells us the law tells us things We don't want to hear the law
speaks to us with threats and judgment All but Christ through
his blood Speaks to us of things a sinner longs to hear His blood
speaks to us of the forgiveness of sins His blood speaks to us
of peace with God through his blood. He speaks to us of mercy
and grace through the blood of his sacrifice. Verse 20, for
they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much
as a beast touched the mountain, it should be stoned or thrust
through with a dart. The law can only speak of death
because of who we are. The broken law demands death.
But Christ speaks to his people of life. because of who he is. The law tells us of death because
of who we are. Christ tells us of life, eternal
life, because of who he is. In verse 21, so terrible was
the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. The law, if we
ever hear what it really says, scares people to death. It's so frightening and dark,
but Christ speaks to his people never threatening, never scaring
them to death, always speaking to them of peace. I can speak
to you of peace. Christ gives his people peace.
He puts peace in the hearts of his people. So God's people,
they're not come to the bondage of the law to try to find righteousness.
No, we come to Christ. He is our righteousness. We come
to Christ and find acceptance with God in him. God's elect
come to Christ. Now let me make this plain to
you. Are you listening? We come to Christ. We don't come
to the right doctrine, we don't come to the law, we don't come
to the ceremonies, we come to Christ. Because Christ has fulfilled
all those things. Look here at verse 22. You're
not come to that mountain of the law, but you're come unto
Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem. and to an innumerable company of angels, to the General
Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men
made perfect." Now, Mount Zion represents the covenant of grace.
That's what the Apostle Paul told us in Galatians 4. Mount
Zion is the covenant of grace. But you don't have to go over
there across the ocean or wherever it is, I don't know. But you
don't have to go to that place because believers aren't come
to an earthly place. We're come to a person. We're
come to a spiritual kingdom, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And we come, a believer in Christ,
comes before God Almighty, the judge of all. We come to him
in Christ with no fear whatsoever. I used to have a job that I would
have to collect bad debt for the company, and we would have
to take people to court. And we'd come before the judge.
Never one time was I afraid. Never. I hadn't done anything
wrong, at least as far as his law was concerned. Believers
come before the judge of all with no fear because Christ,
our substitute, has already been judged for us. He's already satisfied.
That's what the blood tells us. Justice has been satisfied. We
come, not through our obedience, but through the obedience of
Christ. Christ, our representative. We don't come to God through
the law. And we got that point settled,
right? The believer has no relationship with the law. We come to God. through the blood of the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 24, and to Jesus, the mediator
of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh
better things than that of Abel. Now this blood of sprinkling
is the blood of Christ that the Holy Spirit applies to the hearts
of his people in the new birth. And the picture he speaks of
there is the Passover. You know the Passover. The father
would take that lamb, he'd set it up and watch it for the appropriate
number of days, make sure that lamb was without spot, without
blemish. And at the appointed hour, he'd
take that lamb, he'd slit his throat, he'd catch his blood
in the basin. He'd roast the body of that lamb,
the whole lamb, he'd roast it with fire. And he put that blood
on the doorpost. He'd take that lamb, he'd go
and eat it with his family. Shut the door and sit down and
eat that Passover lamb without fear, no fear, because the blood
was applied. The blood was shed and the blood
was applied. God said, I'm gonna come through
the land. And when I see the blood, I'm
gonna pass over you. Your firstborn's gonna live when
I see the blood, because I know there's already been death in
this house. The lamb has died as a substitute, the representative
of your firstborn. And God tells his people, when
I see the blood, when I see the blood of my darling son applied
to your heart, I'll pass over you. You'll live eternally, because
Christ, the lamb of God, has died in your place as your substitute. That's how we come to God. But
now the writer here says that the blood of Christ speaks better
things than that of Abel's. Now what does that mean? Let's
look back at Genesis chapter four. Let's look at this story
of Abel and his lamb and see if the spirit may be pleased
to show us. What does this mean? The blood
of Christ speaks better things than that of Abel's. Genesis
chapter four. Verse 1. And Adam knew Eve his wife, and
she conceived and bare Cain and said, I've gotten a man from
the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was
a keeper of the sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And
in process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought her the
fruit of the ground and offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also
brought her the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.
And the Lord 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 the Lord said unto
Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen?
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou
doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto 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, Decain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain,
where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am I
my brother's keeper? And he said, God said, what hast
thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood
crieth unto me from the ground. Now here's two of Adam's sons. They come on the appointed day
to worship the Lord. And they knew to come and worship
through sacrifice. Their father Abraham had taught
them that. God must be worshipped through a sacrifice. And you
know the same thing's true today. God must be worshipped through
a sacrifice. But here's the key. The key is
the same today as it was then. The sacrifice must be a blood
sacrifice. See, man's got a sin problem.
Our sin has separated us from our God. God cannot. God's holy. God cannot and he
will not accept us as we are in our sin. So if God will accept
you and me, something's got to be done with our sin. It's got
to be removed completely if God will accept us. And here's the
$100,000 question. How? How is sin removed? Well, I promise you, sin cannot
be removed by anything we sacrifice. Can't be. Sin can't be removed
by anything we do. Everything we do just adds sin
on top of our sin. Sin can't be removed by anything
we sacrifice. If you give up, I don't even
know what time of the year it is, 40 days, you give up something
you enjoy, you give up chocolate, or you give up watching a TV
show, I pray not. God's not pleased
with you. He's not pleased with anything
we sacrifice. There's one sacrifice God's pleased
with. It's the blood sacrifice. Leviticus
17, 11 says, it is the blood that maketh an atonement for
the soul. It's the blood. But now wait a minute, whose
blood? Now we better find that out, whose blood? Not my blood,
not your blood. Not animal blood. Animal blood
can't take away sin. It's the blood of Christ. Only
the perfect, pure, sinless blood of Christ can take away sin.
But for thousands of years, God commanded, just what Abel did
right here, he commanded men bring an animal sacrifice and
worship him through that animal sacrifice, which was a picture
That animal blood never removed sin, it was always a picture.
Letting those who had worshiped the Lord worship Him in a picture. Seeing Christ, the one who would
come to offer the sacrifice that would take away sin. And they
kept offering those animal sacrifices until Christ came. And when He
was sacrificed, when He shed His blood, took it before the
Father and to the holiest of all, that was the end of the
animal sacrifices. There was no more need for them.
Now we don't look forward like Abraham and Abel and Adam. Now
we look back to that sacrifice of Christ by faith, the same
faith Abel had. And Abel, when he brought a lamb
to the sacrifice, this is what he was saying. He was saying,
my only hope that my sin will be forgiven is in the blood of
Christ, that this lamb pictures. And his lamb was a picture of
Christ. Abel had a flock. He brought the firstlings of
his flock. He took the very best lamb he
could find out of his flock. It had to be the best one he
had because only the best lamb that he had could be a picture
of Christ, the lamb of God. God's lamb is the best lamb. When God picked a lamb for the
sacrifice, he picked the best that he had. His own son. His own son to be the sacrifice
for the sin of his people. Abel checked that lamb out. That
lamb didn't have any flaws. It wasn't sick. It wasn't diseased.
It didn't limp. It was healthy, strong lamb.
It had to be to be a picture of Christ. He's the perfect lamb. He's the only perfect man who
ever lived. He had no sin. He knew no sin. Perfect. And Abel took that perfect
lamb and he killed it. He shed its blood on the altar
before the Lord. Abel killed that lamb saying
this, I deserve to die because of my sin. And the only way I'll
live is if God accepts this lamb, the death of this lamb, the blood
of this lamb in my place. The only way I can ever live
is if Christ, the lamb of God, comes and dies in my place. And
that's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The lamb of God
was perfect. And at the appointed hour, he
was killed. He was crucified, bearing the
curse of the sin of his people. And when he suffered, he took
his blood into the holiest of all. He took his blood before
the father. And the father saw that blood.
And he said, it's enough. I'm well pleased. It's enough.
The blood of Christ is enough. to satisfy the wrath of God against
our sin. It's enough. God accepts His
people in Christ, in His blood, just like He accepted Abel in
the sacrifice that pictured Christ, who was to come. That's Abel. That's how he came to worship
the Lord. But his brother Cain had a different idea, didn't
he? Cain was a farmer, and he's a hardworking man. He went out
and he worked hard to clear the field. He worked hard to Boy,
those thorns and thistles started growing. He worked hard to get
those thorns and thistles out of his field. He tilled the land,
he worked hard to plant the seed, he worked hard to keep it weeded
so his vegetables and fruit would grow. And Cain was proud of his
work. He's proud of the produce that
he grew. I mean, can you imagine how the
earth gave forth an abundance at that time? Oh, he grew tomatoes
like we just dream of. He's proud of them. And Cain
came to worship, but Cain had no faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not know Christ. He didn't
see him at all. I know that so because of how
he came to worship God. You see, both these men, they
thought God deserves the best. And both of them brought the
best they knew of to worship God. They brought the best thing
they could think of in hopes of being accepted by the Father.
Abel brought the best he knew of. He brought a lamb that God
commanded him to bring. That was the best he knew of. He brought the best thing he
knew of. He brought his own works. He
brought fruits and vegetables that he grew from a ground that
God had cursed. It's obvious. Cain didn't have
faith in Christ. He didn't know him. And before
we're too hard on old Cain, Now, we've got Cain's nature. We're
born with Cain's nature. Men do the exact same thing today
when we bring our own works, our own obedience to the law.
God help us if the best thing we can think of is our obedience
to the law. If we bring that to God, hoping
to be accepted of him, we're no better off than Cain bringing
a tomato he grew from the ground. Cain brought a tomato that grew
from the ground God had cursed, and if we try to bring our works
before God, we're bringing our works that grew from a cursed
body of flesh, a cursed body of sin, and God won't accept
us anymore, and he accepted Cain. Same thing's true of our religious
activity. Think God's happy with you, you
gave up this weekend so you'd come to worship service, you
gave up some hours, If we think our religious activity is going
to make God accept us, we missed it now. If that's the best thing
we know of, if it's our church attendance, our giving, our faithful,
I'm glad you're faithful. I'm thankful. But those things,
if we're relying on them, are our works. They're things about
us that come from this cursed body of flesh. It's not the righteousness
of Christ alone. It's something we think we need
to add to it. Even if we say, oh yes, salvation's in Christ. But you know, we can help God
out a little bit. You know, if we act better than somebody else,
and we've got less sin to wash away than somebody else, you
know. If we think that, we're no better
than Cain. All that is, it's self-righteousness. And God's not gonna have respect
to our offering. God didn't accept that offering. And later on,
Cain and Abel, they came together somehow, and they talked about
this day they came to worship the Lord. Abel might have noticed
Cain was pouting. He said his countenance fell.
He might have said, Cain, what's wrong? Why are you pouting? What's
wrong with you? I can tell something's wrong.
And Cain told him, I brought an offering to the Lord. I brought
a sacrifice, and God didn't accept it. He didn't accept me. And
Abel said, oh. Brother, let me tell you, let
me tell you, God can't be worshipped with our hands. God can only
be worshipped in the way God's appointed to be worshipped. God
can only be worshipped through the blood of the Lamb, through
a blood sacrifice. God can't accept anything we
produce. All we produce is sin. We can only be accepted in Christ. That's what this Lamb is a picture
of. Cain, we can only be accepted
in Christ because we're too sinful to be accepted any other way.
That's a good gospel message, isn't it? And Cain heard that
and oh, he got mad. He got mad just as mad as people
do today when they hear the gospel. You mean to tell me you're taking
away my works, these things that I've done? If God's gonna accept
us, that's what I'm saying. Cain got so angry, he killed
his own brother. He whacked him on the head with
something probably, and he watched his brother's blood go out in
a big pool on the ground. He watched his brother, his own
brother, lay there. He watched life go from his body.
Now, who knows how Cain felt about that? I don't know. Scripture
doesn't say. But here's another reason I know Cain did not know
Christ. He did not know God. Cain just
went about his business. Maybe he went about and he went
back out to his fields and he tried to grow bigger tomatoes
and better tomatoes. He thought he was going to do
something else to make up for this killing his brother. But
Cain didn't know God. Paul, he never asked for forgiveness,
did he? He's got a Father Adam's nature. He never begged for mercy.
When God came to Adam, he said, Adam, where are you? Adam never
begged for mercy, did he? Cain's got his father's nature,
the same nature you and I have. He didn't see Christ. Now, who
knows how long it was, but after a while, God spoke to Cain. And he told Cain, your brother's
blood crieth to me from the ground. Well, what did Abel's blood cry?
What did it cry to God? Let me give you about three things.
Number one, the blood of Abel cries the nature of man. Abel's blood cries sin. Abel's
blood cries guilt. Abel's blood cries out sin against
God and sin against man. Abel's blood cries guilty, guilty
of Every imaginable sin, we're guilty. We're guilty of self-righteousness,
we're guilty of rebellion against God, guilty of murder, guilty
of lying. God came to Cain and said, where's
your brother? He said, I don't know, what a liar, guilty. Abel's blood cries the nature
of man. Man's so hateful, his blood cries
hatred. His blood cries hatred for God. Man hates God's way to come to
him. We want our own way. I want to
come in some of my own goodness, some of my own merit. I don't
want to be relying completely on the merit of Christ. Man hates
that way. Man hates God. God has told us
this is the way to come to me and be accepted. And man says,
I hate that way. I won't come that way because
man hates God. That's what Abel's blood says.
Abel's blood also cries out hatred for our fellow man. Cain hated
God so much, he hated his own brother enough to kill him. That's
our nature, his own brother. All but the writers of the Hebrews
reminded us that the blood of Christ speaks of better things
than that of Abel's. What does the blood of Christ
speak? Abel's blood cried the nature of man. Christ's blood
cries the nature of God. Abel's blood spoke of sin. The
blood of Christ speaks of the forgiveness of sin. Abel's blood
spoke of the filth and the blackness and the awfulness of sin. Christ's
blood says, I'll wash you white as snow. Abel's blood spoke of
guilt. The blood of Christ speaks of
justification. Now justification does not mean
just as if I'd never sinned. No, justification means I have
never sinned. There's a new man born who has
never sinned and never will sin because of the blood of Christ.
We're justified, made not guilty in the blood of Christ. Abel's
blood spoke of hatred. The blood of Christ speaks of
God's love for sinners. God must love sinners. He must. Look what he did to
his son to save him. That's what the blood of Christ
cries, the love of God for sinners. Christ's blood speaks of grace,
not man's merit, not what we can earn from God, but the blood
of Christ speaks of the free gift of salvation through the
sacrifice, through the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ. Abel's
blood spoke of separation because of sin. The blood of Christ speaks
of reconciliation. because Christ's blood has taken
sin away. Abel's blood cried that man's a sinner. The blood
of Christ cries righteousness in Christ. Second, the blood
of Abel cries death. You know, death is always, wherever
you find it, death is always the result of man's sin. Human
death, animal death, plant death is always the result of man's
sin. That's what Abel's blood cries
out, death. And more than that, Abel's blood cries out, man deserves
to die. Sin deserves death. We're all
sinners, and that's exactly what we deserve, eternal death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Brethren, the end of this flesh
is death. And I don't know about you, speaking
of myself, speaking of somebody knows the end of flesh is death,
the end of this flesh is nothing, how often, somehow I forget,
I don't understand, I guess it's the flesh is dead, that's the
only reason I can explain it. But aren't we reminded of that
every time we stand beside a casket at a funeral home, sooner or
later, that's gonna be me. Now, the end of this flesh is
death, that's what we deserve. Oh, but the blood of Christ speaks
better things than that of Abel's. Abel's blood cries death. The
blood of Christ cries life, eternal life. The blood of Christ says
Christ has already died in the place, in the room, in the stead
of his people. So they could never die. They've
already died in Christ. There's life in the blood of
Christ. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Well, the blood
of Christ removes the sin of his people that causes death
in the first place. Once sin's removed, we can never
die. The blood of Christ cries eternal
life in him. Thirdly, the blood of Christ,
or the blood of Abel, cries for vengeance. Abel's blood cried
the murderer must be punished. There's a demand for justice.
And I want to tell you, that cry reaches the ear of God. His
ear's not heavy, it cannot hear. I don't know if it was Clay or
if it was Cody. One of them said this weekend,
man sins and thinks they got away with it. No, they didn't.
Now, there's a cry for justice. God's ear hears it. He'll deal
with it in justice, eventually. Those who've sinned against him,
he'll deal with that sin. Those who have sinned against
and oppressed and taken advantage of poor, helpless people, God
will deal with it. Abel's blood cries out for justice
against sin. His blood says sin must be punished. Oh, but the blood of Christ speaks
better things than that of Abel. The blood of Christ cries out,
justice has already been satisfied. The Lord Jesus Christ was the
only perfect man to ever live. He did no sin. He wasn't even
acquainted with any sin. Yet this perfect man died the
most horrible death of any man who ever lived. Now can you explain
that? I can. Why did he die the most
horrible death of any man who ever lived? Because the sin of
God's elect was charged to him. His father made him sin for his
people. And the Lord Jesus Christ died
under the strict justice of Almighty God. At the cross, the innocent
did not die and the guilty did not go free. No, the guilty died. Now I can't explain that. I don't
understand that. But the Father made him guilty. The Father made him sin for his
people. And the father at Calvary gave
his son exactly what he deserved. He punished him fully for the
sin that was laid on him, for the sin of his people. And the
death of Christ satisfied God's justice. Like I said earlier,
God said, it's enough. I'm well pleased. The blood of
Christ removed the sin of his people and made his people the
righteousness of God in him. Christ died the death that his
people deserve for our sin. And if Christ died for you, you
can never die. That would be unjust, wouldn't
it? If Christ died for you and then God sent you to hell anyway,
that'd be unjust. That'd be killing somebody twice
for the same sin. And God's never unjust. Everything
he does is just and right. If Christ died for us, we can
never die. The blood of Christ cries eternal
life. A few weeks ago, Brother Eric
Floyd, he teaches our Sunday school class for some of our
older children, and he asked them, what does it mean that
Cain brought the fruit and vegetables, he grew. What does that mean
when he brought that as an offering to the Lord? One of the girls
raised her hand. She said, I know what that means.
He said, what does it mean? She said, it means he didn't think
Christ was enough. Because he had to bring something
else. Eric said, that's it. You teach, you understand how
excited he was. You got it. Every one of us can understand
what that story, what that means. We can understand that if we
bring something of our own works, what we're saying is Christ is
not enough. How insulting that is to God.
I know you understand that. How I pray God the Holy Spirit
would give us faith to believe it. Believe it. God help us to
believe what the blood of Abel says. and what the blood of Christ
says. The blood of Abel says, I need
a sacrifice. The blood of Christ says, Christ
is all you need. He's all. The blood of Christ
says Christ has already put away the sin of his people. He made
them righteous in him. The blood of Christ says our
sin is forgiven through his blood, paid for through his blood. There's
peace with God through the blood of Christ. There's reconciliation
with God through that blood. Isn't that a far better cry than
the cry of Abel? Oh, it's a far better cry. Let's
look back, one more verse I want to read you. Back in Hebrews
chapter 12, verse 25. God give us the faith to believe
this. I don't want you to just believe
me. I don't want you to just believe me. I want you to believe
God. I want you to hear him speak
and believe him. Verse 25. See that you refuse not him that
speaketh. For if they escape not who refused
him to speak on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn
away from him that speaketh from heaven. God give us faith to
hear him, ears to hear him, and a heart that would believe him.
Lord bless you.