This is kind of the third part,
I guess, of Cain and Abel. I didn't expect to have this
many parts to this, but I can't pass over these things. There's
no reason to hurry up. If the Lord returns before we
get to the end of the Bible, so be it. So we're going to take it one
step at a time here. I'm thankful that the Lord has given us the
same truth from the beginning to the end of Scripture. And
so whether we're looking in Genesis or Revelation or anywhere in
between, we're going to find what God has said about His people
and about His Son and about His rule in this world. And that's
just the way it is. And it's a glorious thing to
see it there. I delight in finding that to
be the case, because that's what a sinner needs, and I'm a sinner. So we're thankful that the Lord
has given us His word. Let's ask Him for grace right
now. Dear Lord, we pray. that you
would do your will and magnify your son in our hearts, that
you would be merciful to us for his sake and lead us through
your word, cause us to see wonderful things out of it, the wonderful
things of your salvation in Christ Jesus, our Lord and our Savior.
Bless us now for his sake, in his name we pray, amen. I'm going to read in Genesis
chapter 4. Last week we covered basically
verse 7. Let me just give you a summary
of verse 7 because I know that can be a complicated verse. This
is the way I understand it. God told Cain, if you bring Christ,
which he couldn't bring, but if you look to Christ and come
by Him, then you will be accepted. That's the way Abel came. That's
the only way a sinner can be accepted with God. But if you
don't, if you reject Christ and bring your own works, or attempt
to bring your works for acceptance before God, then sin will crouch
and lie there at the door, and it will have the mastery over
you. But if you are accepted by God, then you will have the
dominion over sin. That's the way I understand verse
7. I tried to give that explanation last week, so I hope that that's
clear now. But when we read on in verse 8, it says, And Cain
talked with Abel his brother. So God warned Cain. God warned
him, didn't He? You come as a sinner to Christ,
and if you come to God by Him, then God will give you grace.
You will have discovered that God has given you grace. Because
no one can come except the Lord himself. Draw them. But here
we see what happened. 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 killed him. Slew him, it says. He killed
his brother. He murdered him. It was premeditated,
wasn't it? And the Lord said unto Cain,
Where is Abel thy brother? That's interesting, isn't it? God asks him, where's your brother?
And he said, I know not. That was a lie. Am I my brother's
keeper? A denial that that was his place,
to love his brother and to care for him. We're supposed to love
one another as Christ has loved us, aren't we? So you are your
brother's keeper. You're supposed to look out for
him. And the Lord said, What hast
thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood
crieth unto me from the ground. 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 unto thee her strength. A fugitive
and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said to
the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou
hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from
thy face shall I be hid. And I shall be a fugitive and
a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass that everyone
that finds me shall kill me, shall slay me. And the Lord said
to him, therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall
be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon
Cain, lest any finding him should kill him." That's a terrible
thing to be a fugitive. You know what a fugitive is?
A fugitive is someone who's running from the law, who's always looking
behind them. looking to be caught for what
they're guilty of doing, and fearing for their life all the
time, and a vagabond, not a certain place to stay. He would be a
fugitive and a vagabond. That was the punishment God put
upon Cain. And so we see that here, this
judgment that God gave to him. But I want you to consider back
for a moment what happened here. It's pretty clear what happened,
isn't it? Cain killed his brother Abel. And Cain felt the sting
of his conscience and probably hoped the entire matter would
be buried with his dead brother. buried out of mind, but though
he tried to suppress the guilt of what he did in his mind, and
tried to hide it, God would not suppress it. God would not suppress
it because God is holy. What Cain did was not right. And God is judge of all the earth,
therefore Abel's blood cried out to God from the ground. We
wouldn't think that blood would cry out. Could blood cry? But God says that Abel's blood
cried out to Him. Though Abel was dead, his blood
cried out to God because God is judge of all the earth and
He will do right. Therefore, his blood cried. One
way or another, God is going to set things right. In Psalm 17.1, turn to this scripture
with me. This is one of those little phrases.
I just want to read this one part of this one verse in Psalm
17.1. Because it fits the entire sermon. It says in three words in Psalm
17.1, Hear the right, O Lord. Hear the right. Hear the right,
O Lord. And so God will hear the right.
God will be glorified. God will have justice. He will be satisfied. He will
set things right. Now, the murder of Abel was cruel. So cruel that even now as we
think back upon it, doesn't it raise our anger against Cain? Yet we must understand this,
that everything, everything that is done, is done according to
God's sovereign good will. God even arranged for Abel's
death. I know that statement might concern
you because you naturally have an aversion to laying the blame
for Cain's murder at God's feet. But God is sovereign and man
is accountable for his wickedness. Those are two things that you
have to take from scripture. That's what God says. God will
hold men accountable. And God himself is sovereign
over all. Though Cain did all that was
in his heart because he was a slave to his own sinful heart, God
arranged the entire matter. Think of what the world would
be like if God was not sovereign. If God is not sovereign, then
Cain and all wicked men could act outside of His will. And
think about that. What would that be? That would
be frightening, wouldn't it? Very frightening indeed. Because
something could happen that God didn't anticipate, that God didn't
control, and that God couldn't make to work for our good. But
God does determine, and God does know and control all things.
And this is true for the lowest of men, and it's true for the
greatest of men. Proverbs 21, verse 1 says, The
king's heart, not just the poor man's heart, but the king's heart
is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turns
it whithersoever he will. God controlled Pharaoh in Egypt,
that proud man with all the power of Egypt. And God brought him
to his knees and ultimately to his death to free his people
from that man. We can be certain that even Cain's
murder of Abel was according to God's will. How can you know
that? Well, turn to Acts chapter 2.
You'll see it here. God arranged for it, even though
we see in our lives, we can't explain why things happen, especially
bad things. We don't think about it when
good things happen. We think that that's somehow just part
of what we should be getting. But when bad things happen, we
can't explain it, and so we become all confused and frustrated. But in Acts 2, Verse 22, Peter,
preaching in his sermon, said, You men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by him in the midst of you as you yourselves also know.
Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
Christ was only right. He was only good and true. And
He only did good to these men. And they took Him and crucified
Him. And yet, it was God's determinate counsel that that happened. And He knew it because He determined
it beforehand. God only knows what will be because
He determined what will be beforehand. And then if you flip over to
Acts chapter 4, Peter and John were taken into
custody by the rulers because they had healed a lame man and
had preached that his healing was by the name of Jesus. And
so they were interrogated by these men who wanted to silence
anyone who spoke about Christ because they had just killed
him. And so they warned them and threatened them not to speak
in Jesus' name. And Peter told them whether it
be right to hearken to you, to listen to you or to God, you
judge. But as for us, we cannot but
speak the things we've seen and heard. And so they went back
to the people, the believers, and reported to them all that
happened. And everyone joined together with one accord and
they raised their voice to God. In verse 24, when they heard
what Peter said, they lifted up their voice to God with one
accord and said, Thou art God, which has made heaven and earth
and the sea and all that in them is." Notice how they start their
prayer out. You are sovereign over all things. "...who by the mouth of Thy servant
David..." Now they're ascribing to the Lord His prophecy, His
purpose in all of this. "...who by the mouth of Thy servant
David said, Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine
vain things?" The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers
were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. For of a truth against Thy holy
child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together.
For to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before
to be done. And so we see there that God's
will is in all things, whether it seems to us at the time to
be good or not, it is good because God determines it. Joseph said
it this way to his brothers in Genesis 50-20. Remember what
they did to them, their brother? the youngest of those 11, and
then later Benjamin was the last of the sons born to Jacob. And
they said, let's take him, let's kill him. But they decided later
to throw him in a pit and sold him into slavery into Egypt.
And he went down to Egypt and he became the governor over all
of Egypt. And they appeared before him
as the judge and he saved their lives. And he told them later
in the end of Genesis, he says, you meant it for evil. God meant
it for good, to save, to give life, to save your lives. Isn't
that grace? Isn't that good? What a mercy
of God, the murder that they intended. And the hatred and
cruelty toward their own brother became the cause of their salvation.
And so we saw that good worked out in the death of Christ. And
so we see it also in Abel's death. What good came from Abel's death?
God was glorified by his faith. God gave him that faith. And
Abel's death anticipated the death of Christ, didn't it? Why
did Cain kill Abel? Wasn't it for envy? Why did the
men kill Christ? Wasn't it for envy? It was for
envy. And though Abel died in his body,
it was gain to Abel, wasn't it? Philippians 1.21, Paul says,
For me to live is Christ, but to die is gain. Therefore, though
as he was taken like a sheep and slaughtered by this wicked
man, this God-hating brother, Cain, Abel was the winner. He was the one who was more than
a conqueror through Christ who loved him. Whereas Cain was the
loser in all of this, even though that was not Cain's intent in
it all. Cain did all that God's hand
and counsel determined before to be done. And Abel gained much
when he died, but more importantly, God gained honor Though God can't
really gain anything, He made known His honor and glory through
Abel's death. And He does so in the death of
all of His saints. And this is a wondrous thing.
That the Lord, our God, would bring glory to Himself even in
the suffering and death of His people. Some might ask, but if I believe
that way, won't it cause me to sin more? Because if God's going
to get glory out of my life, no matter what I do, then what
if I just do what I want to do? God's gonna get the glory anyway.
He will, he will, but he will still hold you accountable like
Cain. And never presume on God's mercy, because that's just not
the way God does it. God does get, He does cause everything
that happens to work together for the good of His people in
His own glory. But He still holds us accountable, doesn't He? Besides
that, faith doesn't work that way. When we believe on the Lord,
He doesn't cause us to want to disobey Him. It causes us to
want to do all for Him. But I want you to consider for
a little bit this envy that Cain had. It was premeditated. He did it when God had warned
him not to do it. But he felt this envy. And think
about what envy is. What is envy? Have you ever thought
about envy? Remember it was for envy that
they crucified the Lord Jesus. Envy is a feeling inside of us
that causes us to hate someone because they receive good. That's a bad thing, isn't it?
Someone else receives good and we hate them for that. In 1 Corinthians
13 verse 4 it says, "...charity envieth not." Or, in other words,
love does not envy. Love does not envy. If you love
someone, you want good to come to them, don't you? But when
good comes to someone else, maybe someone you work with, someone
in your family, like in Cain's case, he saw that God honored
Abel because of the offering. The offering that was more excellent.
And he envied him in his heart. So remember that. Remember, don't do what you do to gain
attention and praise for yourself from others. But do what you
do to please God. And I'd like to put it this way.
Live as if God is your only audience. And Christ is your only answer.
When we live that way, then we're going to trust the Lord Jesus
Christ as all of our acceptance before God. And we're going to
come to God by Him. And when we live to the glory
of God, we don't live for the praise of others. And we seek
God's glory, not our own benefits, but what seems good to Him. So remember that. Envy. It's a very bad thing. That's what the cause was that
put Christ to death. Now Solomon was the wisest man
that ever lived except the Lord Jesus Christ. But he was also,
Solomon was also a preacher. And he spoke these words by the
Holy Spirit. He said this in Proverbs chapter
14 verse 30. He said, A sound heart is the
life of the flesh, but envy the rottenness of the bones. Now,
a sound heart is a heart that knows I am a sinner, like Abel's
heart was. And knows that Christ is the
great savior of sinners and comes to God to be accepted by God
for Christ's sake, not for anything from me. That's a sound heart.
But when we want glory for ourselves, when we want honor and attention
for ourselves by what we do, as Cain did, then we try to hold
on to things. And we can't stand it when someone
else gets glory. That's what envy is. And envy,
according to Solomon, is rottenness in our bones. It always eats
away at us and causes us to only hate. And Solomon also said this
about envy in Proverbs 27.4. He said, Wrath is cruel, and
anger outrageous. But who is able to stand before
envy? And so envy is worse. It's worse
than wrath and anger because it's a secret wrath inside of
us that crouches like a lion planning how to destroy and take
away from someone else the good that they have, even their own
life. When we envy someone, we secretly wish bad things to come
to them because they have something that we want. Or maybe it's just
attention. Maybe they were recognized for
something that they did that was right. And we envy that.
You can see how envy is a great evil. It caused Cain to kill
his brother. I want you to think about what
Abel did when he brought that sacrifice as a sinner. He brought this sacrifice to
the Lord. because he knew by the Lord Jesus Christ only he
could be accepted. And in doing that, in bringing
that sacrifice, he brought honor to Christ by showing that, in
this pictorial way, honor to Christ because Abel, in his heart,
wanted Christ to have all the glory in his salvation. And that's
the opposite of envy. The people in Israel envied Christ
and put Him to death because they wanted the honor that people
gave to Him. The rulers and chief priests
envied Him because people honored Christ when He did miracles or
spoke with the wisdom with which He spoke or showed the kindness
and grace that He did. And they were attracted to Him. The rulers of Israel envied Him
because they saw God favored Him. Just like Cain did. But Abel, like every believer,
wants Christ to have all the glory. That's the opposite of
envy. But it was for that honor that Abel paid to Christ. And
as a sinner, the only reason he could come to God was through
Christ. It drove him to God, through
Christ alone. And Cain saw that God received
Abel for Christ's sake, and that bothered him tremendously. Because
Cain didn't want to give honor to Christ. And he didn't like
it that there would be this wimpy sinner, Abel, whose name meant
vanity, that God would honor him. Because Cain wanted to be
first. He was the firstborn, and he
wanted to be first. But that's not the way it was.
And so he envied and he hated his brother. Now I want you to
think about what... I want you to think about these
things because I've entitled this message, actually, The Blood
That Speaks Better Things, or The Blood That Speaks Better.
So turn with me now to Hebrews chapter 12. I want you to look
at Hebrews chapter 12 with me. There's a beginning at verse...
We'll read actually from verse 18. Hebrews chapter 12. The book
of Hebrews, let me give you a summary of what the book of Hebrews is
about. The book of Hebrews is about the consummation. The consummation,
the completion, the fulfillment of all of the will of God in
all of Scripture by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so over and
over again in the book of Hebrews you see this word perfection
or made perfect. That's the subject of the book
of Hebrews. It's the completion of what God
prophesied both by Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms,
of all that Jesus would do. And here, He's laying all that
out. And so He uses this word over
and over in Hebrews, perfect, being made perfect or perfection,
meaning that Christ has completed and brought to fulfillment and
brought to the purpose, the end purpose for which God gave His
word, His law. Christ did that. He's the end
of the law for righteousness. And He made perfect His people
by that one offering of Himself. That's what the book of Hebrews
is about. So in that book, the word better is used many times. Better. A better. Christ was
better. He was a better high priest.
He was better than the angels. He was better than Moses. He
was better than Aaron. He was better than all the sacrifices.
He's the better tabernacle. He's the better offering. He's
the better altar. His blood is better. Everything's
better. The better testament. And so here, in verse 18, in
Hebrews chapter 12, it says, "...for you are not come." The
writer to the Hebrews is trying to detach them from their dependence
upon the things that pointed to Christ to get them to rely
on the substance, the fulfillment of it, who is Christ Himself.
And so he says, "...you are not come." You are not common to
the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor
into blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 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 any more." He's describing
what happened when God gave the law to Moses and then to Israel. The mountain quaked. There was
fire. The people were trembled. It says in verse 20, For they
could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as
a beast touched the mount, it shall be stoned or thrust through
with a dart. And so terrible was the sight
that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake." That's what
the law does. The law exposes our guilt and
holds before us a requirement we cannot fill. And then holds
before us the curse that comes upon all who don't fulfill it.
It's bondage and it's fear and it's trembling. That's the law.
And the Lord is writing to these people and to us saying, do not,
you have not come to that. What have we come to then? He
says in verse 22, But you are come unto Mount Zion, the kingdom
of God, and the city of the living God, the church of Christ, the
heavenly Jerusalem. Not the earthly, but the heavenly
Jerusalem. That city where the temple in
that city is the Lord God Himself. That city, the stones of that
city are the people, living stones. And the foundation is Christ
and Him crucified. built upon the foundation of
Christ and the apostles' doctrine of the gospel. That's the city
we've come to, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to an innumerable company of angels. And you can see, as
he writes this here, that it's like concentric circular rings
as we're approaching the inner circle, rising as we go up ascending
to the highest peak in this inner circle where God is. He says,
you've not come to this, but you've come to Mount Zion, to
the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. And to an
innumerable company of angels. And to the General Assembly.
Not just the Jews. The General Assembly. That's
what the Church is. And to the Church of the Firstborn.
Christ is the Firstborn. And all of His people are the
Firstborn, because they were saved from that wrath that came
upon them, like the Firstborn were saved in Egypt through the
blood of the Lamb. And these, the church of the
firstborn, which are written in heaven, God wrote them there
before the foundation of the world, and no one can erase their
names. And to God, the judge of all,
and to the spirits of just men, made perfect, and to Jesus, the
mediator of the new covenant, and listen to the last thing,
and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than
that of Abel, In Genesis chapter 4, the Lord told Cain, He says,
What have you done? The voice of thy brother's blood
crieth unto me from the ground. What have you done? Your brother's
blood cries to me from the ground. And then we read in Hebrews chapter
12, That the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ speaks better things
than that of Abel. That's why I've entitled this
message, The Blood That Speaks Better Things. Abel's blood cried
out to the Lord. That's an amazing thing, isn't
it? I'm sure that Cain wished that he could silence that voice.
But what did the blood cry? What did Abel's blood cry? Didn't
it cry for judgment? It cried for justice. Cain was
Abel's brother and Cain killed him. And Abel's blood was the
evidence of Cain's guilt. And so Abel's blood cried to
God the judge for justice against Cain, his own brother. Jesus
is the one mediator between God and men. Wicked men killed the
Lord Jesus Christ with wicked hands out of a wicked heart.
And Christ's blood also cries to the Lord. But what does the
blood of Jesus cry? What does it say? First, I want
you to know that the Lord Jesus, it says in Hebrews chapter 12,
24, the blood that speaketh better things than that of Abel's. Abel's
blood cried. Christ's blood cries. It's the
blood that cries. Isn't that amazing? The blood
cries. And I want you to also see this.
Though Abel's blood cried for his brother's condemnation, And
Abel's blood cried for Cain to be sent out as a fugitive and
a vagabond to be separated from the Lord, sent out from the presence
of the Lord. Think about this. The blood of
Jesus Christ cries something. It cries for the justification
of the ungodly. Now that is something, isn't
it? How can Christ's blood cry for the justification of the
ungodly? Isn't that what it says? Look
at Romans chapter 5. The blood cries. God hears the
blood. Because God is the judge. Everything has to come before
Him. Everything will come before Him.
He will set it right. Hear the right, O Lord. Remember Psalm 17. In Romans
chapter 5, He says this. He said, in verse 6, For when
we were yet without strength, In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. The ungodly? It was ungodly,
wicked men who put him to death. Yes, but he died for the ungodly.
Remember what he says? He says, go first to Jerusalem. and then to Judea, and then to
the uttermost parts of the world, first to Jerusalem. Why? Because,
he says in Acts 3, verse 26, unto you first Jesus Christ has
been sent to turn you away from your wickedness, your iniquities. That's mercy, isn't it? The one
whose blood they shed is the one who sent his messengers to
tell what his blood says to God for ungodly sinners. His blood
cries, just like Joseph said to his brothers, you meant it
for evil, God meant it for good, to save much people alive. Here
he says in due time Christ died for the ungodly That is amazing, isn't it? We
should just pause there and think about that. The Lord Jesus Christ's
blood cries for the ungodly. God hears the blood, doesn't
He? That blood cries, and when it cries, God hears that blood. Christ's blood cries for justification
for sinners. And Christ's blood doesn't cry
to send away sinners. Look at Ephesians chapter 2.
And verse 13. In verse 12 it says, Ephesians
2, At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope, and without God in the world. That describes
Cain's situation, doesn't it? Sent out from the presence of
the Lord. No hope, without God in the world. But now, in Christ
Jesus, you who sometimes were afar off, are made nigh. by the
blood of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ in His shed blood cries
for justification and cries for reconciliation to bring near
to God. It speaks peace. It speaks peace. Abel's blood cried for justice,
to be satisfied in the punishment of the murderer. But Christ's
blood cries for justice, that justice has been satisfied, and
righteousness fulfilled in his own death." Understand this,
Abel's blood, all blood cries for justice. Abel's blood cried
for justice against Cain, to be fulfilled in Cain's punishment. But Christ's blood cries for
justice, as having been satisfied, and therefore justifies the sinner,
and cries for God to remit the sins of all those for whom he
shed his blood That is a mercy, isn't it? The blood of Christ
speaks better things than that of Abel. God's own law justifies
those for whom Christ died. His blood calls for justification
because God's justice has been satisfied for His elect. Look
at Romans, chapter 8, verse 31. Romans, chapter 8. The blood of Jesus Christ speaks
better things than that of Abel. In verse 31 of Romans chapter
8, what shall we say then to these things? If God be for us,
who can be against us? When the self-righteous Pharisees
brought the woman taken in adultery to Jesus in John chapter 8, they
accused her to Jesus. But the Lord Jesus stood up for
her. If God be for us, who can be against us? If God is for
us, He hears the right, doesn't He? What right does He hear? He hears the justice, satisfied,
the answer of justice because of the answer Christ gave God's
justice in His own death. In verse 32, He that spared not
His own Son, But delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him freely also freely give us all things? If God shed His
Son's blood for you, He will give you all things with Him.
That's the truth of scripture right here. If God did not spare
His Son for you, but deliver Him up to wrath in substitutionary
curse-bearing, sin-bearing, curse-bearing for you, then God will give you
all things through Him. In verse 33, Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Who's going to accuse those God
has chosen? It is God that justifieth. The
judge of all the earth has justified them. And not on the basis of
some kind of a lesser satisfaction to His justice. but on the basis
of justice so satisfied that He not only clears their debt,
not only is the debt fully paid and cancelled in full remission
of their sins, but God's justice has been so satisfied that He
has made them His sons and gives them all things with Christ.
exalts them, raises them up to the place of honor with Him.
That's why God had respect to Abel, because he had respect
to Abel's offering to Christ. But look at verse 34 of Romans
8. It is Christ that died. That's
the same phrase there as we're reading in Hebrews 12, 24. The
blood of Jesus Christ speaks better things than that of Abel.
His blood cries. It is Christ that died. If Christ
died, if it is Christ that died, then who can lay anything to
the charge of those for whom Christ died? Who can condemn
them? And it's even greater than that.
Yea, rather! that is risen again. If he's
risen again, then God has received his answer and has testified
to his answer by raising his son from the dead. He has discharged
every Every accusation, every cause for condemnation, Christ
has discharged it with His death. He's paid to the uttermost farthing. The ransom price has been paid.
Therefore, Christ's blood calls for liberty, for redemption. He says, he's risen again, who
is even at the right hand of God. Not only did he fully meet
the demands of justice, but he so magnified God's law and honored
his justice that God set him at his own right hand, far above
all principality and powers. But not only that, look at this,
who also maketh intercession for us. His blood speaks. What does it speak? Out of the
person who shed his blood, his blood speaks. For them, Father,
receive these for my sake. He pleads his blood. He pleads
his father's appointment of him to be the surety of his people. It's the blood that speaks. God
hears the blood. Look at Exodus chapter 12. The
blood spoke again in Exodus chapter 12. God commanded Moses. He says, I'm going to pass through
Egypt tonight. And when I pass through, I'm
going to smite all the firstborn of Egypt. And all the firstborn
in Egypt will die in Exodus chapter 12. And the Lord appointed to Moses
to take a lamb. All of Israel were to take a
lamb. Everyone was to take a lamb. One lamb for the house. And they
were to kill the lamb that night. And they were to take the blood
and sprinkle the lamb's blood over the doorpost of that house.
And then they were to go inside the house. And they were to roast
that lamb with fire. And eat the lamb. All of them
were to eat that lamb. And God says this, In verse 11
he says, They were to get ready to leave because when that blood was shed, they were redeemed
from the bondage of Egypt and from Pharaoh's cruel bondage. In verse 12 he
says, "...for I will pass through the land of Egypt this night,
and I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man
and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, all the idols
of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord." In verse 13,
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where
you are. And when I see the blood, I will
pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy
you when I smite the land of Egypt." Why? Because God saw
the blood. God heard the rite. He heard
the blood. The blood speaks. Abel's blood
called for justice to be satisfied, and Christ's blood calls for
justice to have been satisfied. It has already been satisfied
in His blood, and therefore it calls for the release. Not the
imprisonment. Not the sending away. It calls
for peace. It calls for reconciliation.
Remission has been made. Forgiveness is now granted. Every
debt has been paid. And every offense has been, every
wrong has been removed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's an amazing thing, isn't it? God has shed his son's blood. He was the one who was offended.
He was the one we wronged. We were his enemies in our mind
and by wicked works. He took it upon himself to remove
the offense and the wrong. And he did it at the cost of
his own blood, the blood of his own son, when we were yet Without
strength, Christ died for the ungodly. If, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, those words
should reverberate. We should hear the voice of Christ's
blood. You see, where does the blood
of Christ speak? Where did the blood of Abel speak?
It spoke in heaven, didn't it? In the court of heaven. It cried
out from the earth to heaven. Where does the blood of Christ
speak? In Heaven itself. Christ's blood answered God in
Heaven for His people. And when God received that answer,
the payment of His blood, then the answer was completely given.
and God forgives His people. By His own blood, our sins are
purged. There's a fountain in Zechariah
13.1 that's open for cleansing from all sin. It's the blood
of Christ. And it's an amazing thing, isn't
it? That the blood of Jesus Christ calls for peace, and remission,
and redemption, and justification. And His blood speaks in heaven. But where else does it speak?
Look at Hebrews chapter 9. I want you to see this. God's
blood not only speaks in heaven, But God's blood has been made
to speak in our own hearts, too, by the Spirit of the Living God.
He says in Hebrews chapter 9, He says, in verse, I'm trying to
see where to start here, in verse 7, He's spoken before in the
first verses of Hebrews 9 of how the priest would always go
in once a year and offer the blood of the animals. He says,
"...but into the second, behind that second veil, into the holiest
of all, went the high priest alone once every year, not without
blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people."
He'd do it once, but he did it every year, repeatedly. The Holy
Ghost is signifying, by that repetition, that the way into
the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first
tabernacle was yet standing. The veil remained there. It was
not opened. It stayed there. He couldn't
get through it. He had to bring blood, and it
only happened once every year, but it happened repeatedly, so
the way was not clear. How it was that the way to God
could be made available to sinners. Access could be granted sinners.
Verse 9, which was a figure for the time then present. In other
words, it just represented something in which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service
perfect as pertaining to the conscience. Which stood only
in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances
imposed on them until the time of reformation. There was only
one reformation. It was the Reformation when Christ
shed his blood. But Christ, here's the Reformation,
being come and high priest of good things to come, by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, his own
body that is, that is to say not of this building, neither
by the blood of goats and calves, But by His own blood, He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. One entrance, one time, and He
obtained redemption for eternity for His people. What is redemption? When you're under debt, you're
put in prison. When you can't pay your debt,
you're made to be a slave. And these things require the
payment of that debt be made so that you can be freed from
slavery or that you can be released from debtor's prison. When Christ
shed his blood, he said it was a ransom. He's going to give,
I'm going to give my blood a ransom, my life a ransom for many. So
when He paid His blood, He paid the ransom. And when the ransom
was paid, then the slave or the debtor in prison was let go,
was set free. That's redemption. Christ paid
with His blood. He was the Redeemer. His blood
was the redemption price. And at the payment of that price,
eternal redemption for us was obtained. He obtained it then,
at that time, on that day, atonement was made. We were cleaned before
the Lord because the full payment was made. All of our sins were
remitted by God. We were made holy in His sight.
We were perfected by that one offering. But look at verse 13.
Here's where the blood also speaks. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, back
in those Old Testament times, sanctifyeth to the purifying
of the flesh, so they could do that service, they had to do
those things then, in order to be clean, physically, outwardly,
ceremonially, to perform that service, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God." There it is. That's where the blood
also speaks in our conscience. God convinces us. What is faith? What is this? It's the convincing
by God. God gives us a persuasion. He
persuades us the truth about ourselves, as He did to Abel,
and about Christ, as He did to Abel. And He persuades Abel and
us, every believer, that Christ is enough. He's everything in
coming to God. And so we come to Him with a
glad reception. So faith is the understanding
and the persuasion that Christ is all, and gladly therefore
receives Him as all, and takes from Him in eating and drinking,
living, being satisfied with Him and His death for us, and
coming to God with His joy and peace in our heart. Look at Romans
15. Romans 15, this is what that faith does. God speaks to us
in our conscience about what Christ has done. He persuades
us, this is all your salvation. This is all your coming. And
God hears this blood. God receives sinners for his
sake. God justifies the ungodly on the grounds of Christ's blood. And so in Romans 15 verse 13
he says, Now the God of hope That hope that we have that one
day we'll stand before Christ, dressed in His righteousness,
accepted by God in the day of judgment, we will be cleared
and justified. No condemnation for Christ's
sake. Now the God of hope, fill you, not right now, with all
joy and peace. in believing that you may abound
in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." Right now, we
are to believe. We are to hear the blood that
God shed. God's the one who ordained it.
He purposed it. Even though wicked men by wicked
hands took Him and crucified Him, it was done according to
God's eternal purpose to save much people alive. Hear the rite,
O Lord. Hear the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And may God give us grace to
hear His blood, because only if we hear His blood and come
to God by Him do we show that the Lord has had mercy upon us
and God has made that division in our hearts by the cross of
His Son. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we pray
that you would give us this grace to see and hear the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ as our all before God. He gave his life,
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is high, came in humiliation
and gave himself for sinners, that he might bring them to God,
his blood bringing us to God. Lord, we thank you for his blood.
We thank you that we can be redeemed by his blood, remitted of all
of our sins, forgiven, pardoned, set free, and have access, made
sons of God, even by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
pray, Lord, you'd give to us your Holy Spirit, that we might
know the things that are freely given to us by God. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen.