The Apostle Peter says in verse 19
of 1 Peter 1 that we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. While placing the elements on
the table this afternoon, it kind of brought back many, many
memories. I recall as a child, growing
up as a child, seeing these things sitting on the table in front
of the church house many, many times, many times. And I kind of remember thinking
this. I'll be very candid with you.
I remember thinking it's going to be one of those real solemn
and serious services. It kind of made me a little uneasy.
It appeared to be something special, something mystical, and I didn't,
it just made me feel uneasy. I don't know if anybody here
knows what I'm talking about, but this evening I got a special
joy out of seeing that. there this evening. I thought
that's grace, that's mercy, that's regeneration. I thought what
a privilege it is to have that sitting there on that table and
to be able to partake of it and far from being a dreaded time
of solemn and serious sober service. It's a privilege and a pleasure,
and I look forward to doing it now. I look forward, as Christ
said, with desire. I've desired to eat this with
you. There's an old saying that familiarity breeds contempt. familiarity breeds contempt. Or in other words, we tend to
take lightly those things which we are too well acquainted with,
or at least take for granted things we constantly use, and
we do that with nearly everything and most everyone. After becoming
very familiar with something or someone, particularly people,
becoming very familiar with them, we get to know them too well
and we tend to take them for granted and don't esteem them
as highly as we may have at first. It's sad to say that that is
the case with this ordinance and with our subject tonight. It's so sad and indicative of our depraved nature
that we can speak of the blood of Christ without a shudder,
the blood of God's Son without too much of a reaction. We ought
to shudder every time we hear it. Scripture says the blood
is the life of the flesh. I'll illustrate. We can bump
our heads, we can fall down, we can stump our toes, nearly
bruise ourselves and not be too alarmed. But if we do anything
to bring blood, then we take careful steps, don't we? Then
we pay careful attention to the wound. Why? Because our blood
is very precious to us. Our limited medical knowledge,
we at least know that much, even our little children, that blood
is something rare and valuable and precious, and we depend upon
it. We need it, and we don't want
to lose it, this blood within our veins. Well, the scripture
before us says, you are redeemed. you are redeemed, your soul,
your very soul's safety depends upon the blood of God's Son,
precious blood, precious blood. Well, we looked over in 1 Peter
chapter 2 once before, verse 7, it says, unto you therefore which believe,
he is precious." We looked at that, and one of the things we
brought out of that study in that he is precious is that when
something is precious to us, it's precious because of its
extreme value. It's very valuable. As something very needful, something
very necessary, something of great worth and necessary. And many things can be called
needful, things in this life, many things we could esteem somewhat
precious to us in this life because we need them to sustain us. such
as the air we breathe, it's precious to these bodies, and the food
that we eat is precious to the nourishment of these bodies,
and the water that we drink is absolutely necessary to the sustaining
of this life upon this earth. But when we stand before God
Almighty, that holy triune God, there's only going to be one
thing needful in that time. one thing needful, only one thing
will matter then, only one thing will be really precious to us
then. because the scripture said it
is the blood that makes atonement, covering for the soul, for that
naked sinful soul. It's the blood that makes remission,
that takes away our sins. It's the blood. Very briefly,
let me point out several things in regards to this precious blood
of Christ. It's called the blood of the
atonement, the atonement. Now, the high priest of old You
know the Old Testament types, somewhat of the Old Testament
types, how the high priest of old would take a spotless lamb. They would take a lamb and observe
it for seven days, I believe it was, to see, to make sure
it was spotless, without blemish, that it was a perfect lamb, a
lamb of the firstling of the flock, of the first year, a male.
They would take that lamb, and then the high priest would take
it. would lay hold upon it, and slit that lamb's throat, and
pour out that blood into a basin." It was a gory sight. It was a bloody sight, and in
the Hebrews it says that he would take that blood and sprinkle
all things with that blood, even the people. He would splash the
people with that blood and everything in sight with that blood to cover
everything with the blood. And then the priest would take
that basin of blood and go into the place called the Holy of
Holies, that's the inner sanctuary of the tabernacle. He would go in that Holy of Holies
where God would meet with him, and he would offer that blood
unto God of that Lamb without spot, without blemish, and take
that blood. And in that Holy of Holies was
the Ark of the Covenant wherein was the broken law and Aaron's
rod that budded, and a pot of manna, but the broken law. And
he would take that bowl, that basin of blood, and hold it up
before God, and then pour it out over that mercy seat and
cover that broken law. He made a sacrifice for the sins
of the people. Once a year he would go in. And
he wouldn't go in without blood. He dared not go into that holy
of holy place. without the blood, because God
demanded blood, blood. Without the blood there is no
remission, no remission. Why? Because God is holy, God
is perfectly holy and pure, of two pure eyes to look upon iniquity. And he said, the soul that sinneth,
it must surely die. And that's every one of us, every
one of us by nature, naturally speaking, have sinned against
God. We've rebelled against him. And bloodshed, there's bloodshed
in dying. The soul that sinneth, it must
surely die. And dying generally indicates
some blood has been shed. Now, either ours will be shed,
or our sacrifice. Our sacrifice. Because God will
not acquit the guilty. He will by no means clear the
guilty. And Christ, our High Priest, He went in, just like
the high priest of old, he went into the Holy of Holies, into
heaven itself, with blood, not the blood of bulls and of goats,
but with his own precious blood. He went in with his own precious
blood because he was that Lamb, God's Lamb, without spot, without
blemish, observed while upon this earth for thirty-three and
a third years to be without sin, holy, blameless, unapprovable
before God and men. And God himself slew that Lamb
of his, that Son of his. And Christ himself went into
the Holy of Holies, heaven, the place not made with hands, but
in heaven itself, and took that basin of blood, his own blood,
and poured it out on that mercy seat before God Almighty. poured
it over those names. He had the names upon his breastplate
like the high priest of old, and poured that blood out upon
that altar before God. He became our high priest, and
he offered unto God that sin-atoning sacrifice, which was his blood,
his blood, his own precious blood. It's precious because The blood
of bulls and goats could never take away sin, because they continually
offered them year after year, and it could never put away sin,
because it was the blood of mere animals. But this man, after
he offered one sacrifice for sin, forever, sat down at the
right hand of God, having remitted our sins before God. The blood
of Jesus Christ justifies us before God. It covers our sinful
souls. It's a sweet-smelling savor.
God calls it a sweet-smelling savor. It's the perfect blood,
the sinless blood of his Son. Now let me illustrate. If we
were dying of a disease, and we knew that only one person,
only one person had the blood type that we needed for that
transfusion to save our very lives. If we knew only one person
had that blood, how we'd cry out for a pint of that blood. How we'd cry out. It'd be precious
to us, wouldn't it? If we had an old positive or
whatever, some rare type, and only one person we knew of that
had that blood, oh, we'd beg them, give me your blood. Would
you give it to me? I'm gonna die without it. It'd be precious
to us, wouldn't it? We're dying from sin. We're dead
in sin, trespassing sin. Only one person has the blood
that we need, a transfusion of, the precious blood of Christ.
And if you see your need of it, it'll make you cry to him, Lord.
Apply that blood to my sinful soul. Please do so, Lord. Lord,
save me or I perish. And when you come to stand before
God, before this holy triune God, and he asks you, what right
have you got to come in here? Why are you in my presence? What
do you bring me? We better be looking for that
high priest. Where is he? Where is he? I'm sure we won't
have to look long, though, because he'll come up as soon as we get
there and say, I've got what he needs. I've got the blood
right here, precious blood. Precious blood. And God said,
that's sweet-smelling, sweet-smelling. Enter into the blessedness of
the saints. It's proof of our depravity that
blood is so repulsive to us. Most people are very weak in
the stomach when it comes to blood, to see blood, and that's
just a proof of our depravity because blood is so repulsive
to us. When you think about it, I remember
cutting myself not too long ago, and a pretty good wound, and
the blood came up and it was deep, dark crimson, deep, dark
red, and You know, it's really one of
the prettiest colors. It really is. It's deep and it's
dark and it's pure all the way through, that blood is. It's
a beautiful color of red. I don't know of any color that's
any prettier. The pure, all things are pure. But if you realize
the value of it, that makes it that much more beautiful, doesn't
it? The life of the flesh is in the blood. It's beautiful
and it's vital, especially the one who needs it. to somebody
who needs it. And yet, it's further proof of
religion, just how far religion has gone away from the truth
in that they don't dwell on the bloody sacrifice because it's
too gory, you know, it's too gory. Well, the blood of Christ
is a precious sight to the believer. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful sight. And not
only does the blood cover us, but secondly, the blood is cleansing
blood. The scripture says the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all our sin. Cleanses us from all our sin.
There'd be nothing more precious to a man who's deep in debt than
to hear somebody say, your debts are paid, paid in full. And there'd
be nothing more precious to a cancerous patient than to hear the doctor
finally say, We find no cancer. You're healed. There's no spot
there. And it'd be nothing more precious
to one who's been accused of all manner of crimes to stand
before the judge and jury only to have them say, we find the
defendant not guilty. Nothing more precious. Nothing
will make that person's heart leap any higher. Nothing more
precious. And there's nothing more precious
to a guilty, vile, hell-deserving sinner than to hear somebody
say, And that somebody is Christ. Your sins are taken away. Why? Because of this precious blood.
Because of what we're remembering tonight. And the scripture says
to the debtor, the glory that you owe God, you owe God glory,
Terry, and you haven't given it to him. Oh yeah, you've come
short of his glory. You've sinned and come short
of glorifying and thanking God as you should, haven't you? The love you owe God, the love
you ought to owe your Heavenly Father for all that he's done
for you, all of your lives, has been paid. You don't owe it. It's been paid. And you're sick
with sin. We're all sick desperately. We've
got a deadly disease, much worse than AIDS. It's a spiritual disease.
It's going to kill us and send our souls to hell. And somebody,
Christ says, it's gone. You're healed. You're healed.
You're healed. And we're accused before God.
We're a prisoner before God, accused at the bar of his justice. And he says unto us, though,
when we go before him, I don't find any fault in me. No fault. No fault. Not guilty. Innocent
of all charges. All charges. What can wash away
my sins? Nothing. but the blood of Jesus
Christ, nothing but the blood of Christ, the precious blood
of Christ. And thirdly, it's redeeming blood, redeeming blood. Now, if your little child was
being held ransom, if someone had kidnapped your child and
they were holding them ransom for say an exorbitant amount
of money, a million dollars or whatever, if you could come up
with that money, If somebody would donate that money to you,
oh, you'd be forever indebted to them, wouldn't you? Yeah,
you would. You'd love that child. You'd
be forever indebted to them. And if you'd lost everything
you own in a lawsuit or something of the sort, how sweet would
be your benefactor, somebody that came along and said, I'll
buy everything back for you? Well, we hear the same thing
in our great Boaz, our kinsman-redeemer. We lost everything in the fall,
in Adam, in the garden. We lost everything in him. But our great Boaz, our kinsman-redeemer,
Christ, took upon him the form of a man and came down and bought
back for us everything we lost in the fall. And we're being
held ransom. We're being held ransom. We're held captive by
sin, by Satan, by the world. We're bound by sin. We're bound
by tradition. We're bound by guilt within us,
by shame, by ignorance. But the cry comes, deliver him
from going down into the pit. Deliver him from going down into
hell itself, because I've found a ransom. I've found a ransom. What is it? It's the blood of
God's Son, a precious blood. Let's make it precious blood.
Precious blood. Christ's blood. Christ's blood
pays the price that God demands. That price is holiness. Holiness. He paid the price because his
blood was sinless, perfect, spotless blood. God's blood. God's blood. Christ paid the price that we
owe God of obedience. Obedience. Obedient unto death,
the death of the cross. Christ paid the price we owe
of love to the Father. The Father, Christ said, loves
me because I lay down my life. I lay down my life. And the price
we owe, last of all, is death. But justice has been served.
Justice has been served by the death of God's Son. Fourthly,
the blood of Christ is interceding blood. interceding blood. Christ eternally, as I said in
that time, he eternally pours his blood upon the mercy seat,
and it ensures our safety forever. As long as that blood is before
the mercy seat, the people's sins were atoned for. And as
long as Christ sits at the right hand of God with his blood, pleading
his wounds in that blood, and he eternally pours that blood
upon that altar for us, as long as he does that, we're safe and
secure. We were saved. Somebody asked
the man, are you saved? And he said, well, is Christ
still at the right hand of God? Yeah, he is. Well, I'm saved.
As long as he's at the right hand of God, I am safe. He pleads that blood. You know,
in the Old Testament type, once again, the old, the high priest
would, he had bells upon his garments. And he was always moving
about. always moving about, and those
bells would be ringing, and the people would be listening for
those bells to ring. And as long as those bells would
be ringing, they knew that everything was okay. God had not rejected
the sacrifice yet. God had not rejected. If the
bells stopped ringing, something was wrong. Something was wrong. And they'd go in, back up in
there, pull him out by his feet, he'd be dead. The bells would
be ringing on his And the bells on our high priest's garment
are going to ring eternally, because the Father is well pleased
for his blood and his righteousness sake. He will always accept that
precious blood of his Son. And several other things, very
briefly. This precious blood of Christ
is sanctifying blood. It sets apart God's people. sets
them apart as God's people, like the Jews of old, who were the
only ones that had the Ark and the types, the Ark of the Covenant
and all the types concerning salvation. That set them apart
as being God's people. And the blood of Christ is what
sets us apart. It sanctifies us before the Father. And the Holy Spirit is the one
that applies that blood. We'll see that more clearly Wednesday.
It's nourishing blood. It's nourishing. These bodies,
have to have a certain amount of protein in them to live. And red meat, is it mere coincidence
that red meat is the highest source of protein? Well, Christ
is our meat and our drink. We feast upon Him. We feed upon
Christ and Him alone. This blood is comforting blood,
comforting blood, as the picture I showed of a dying man watching
this transfusion. If you were laying there in a
hospital bed and you were being given a life-giving and saving
blood transfusion, that bag of red blood flowing into your vein,
to someone it may look gory, it may look repulsive, I mean,
not like the sight of it, but to that man lying there, and
that blood pumping in his veins, and he feels the life coming
back into his body. That blood looks mighty good
to him, mighty good, mighty precious to him, precious, it's comforting.
And Christ said, be of good cheer. Be of good cheer, because His
blood gives life. It's uniting blood. We're blood
brothers. We're blood brothers and sisters.
Yeah, we are. Flesh and blood, brothers and
sisters, in Christ. We eat the same spiritual food
and drink the same spiritual drink. And we've been bound by
an oath. You remember, did you ever take
the oath of blood brothers when you're a boy or a girl? I don't
know if you girls did it, but us boys did. We'd cut ourselves,
not very deep, you know, but just a little bit, maybe a little
scratch, and that'd suffice, a little scratch, and we'd put
them together, you know, blood brothers, like the old Indian
ritual, blood brothers. And then you'd have an oath,
I'll be your buddy from now on, I'll be yours too, and then break
it next week, you know. But we're blood brothers with
Christ. He poured out his blood, his
soul unto death, and there was an oath. made an oath between
God the Father and God the Son. We weren't even there. We weren't
in on that. But they got in on it together,
this oath. And they said, God the Father
said, I'll love them if you'll shed your blood for them and
pay that awful price that my holiness demands. And God the
Son said, I'll do it. And they sealed it with blood.
Christ shed his blood and he gave it to the Father. And the
Father accepted and said, I'll accept them. I'll accept everybody
that you died for, everybody you shed your precious blood
for." It's the precious blood of God's Son. It's precious to the Father because
it's his Son, his only begotten well-beloved Son. And it's precious
to us because it's the price of our redemption. price of our
eternal salvation, precious, precious blood. You know, while
filling these cups up with the wine for the table, I neglected earlier to check
the wine to see how much there was. And I was a little bit fearful
of there being enough to go around. But there is. There is. There's
plenty. But I'm glad that it happened
that way because it made me think that there's no need to worry
about the blood of Christ. There's plenty to go around.
Plenty. Just enough. Not too much. Not
too little. Just enough. If I could have
known everybody that would be here, I would have poured that
number of cups. If I could have known. I could
have known. I could have called you all up. I could have called
you. I said, you come in. I'll be there. And poured the
exact number of cups that we needed. That's what God did in
his infinite wisdom, didn't he? He called you up. Said, you're
going to be there, aren't you? Yes, I'll come. Made willing
in the day of your power. He poured just enough of Christ's
blood for you, and for you, and for you. No danger of there not
being enough of Christ's blood. Precious blood of Christ. Precious blood of Christ. You four men come up and serve
the bread and the wine.