And they that heard, entreated
that the word should not be spoken to them any more. For they could
not endure that which was commanded." They couldn't endure that long.
That holiness, that righteousness. And God said, "...so much as
a beast toucheth the mountain, it shall be stoned, and thrust
through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight,
the thunder and the lightning and the quaking, as Moses said,
I exceedingly fear and quake. But instead of coming to that
mount, this is the mount we come unto. Ye are come unto the mount
of 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, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
Abel. See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh, for if they escape not who refused him that spake
on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from
him that speaketh from heaven. whose voice then shook the earth,
but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the
earth only, but I'll shake heaven also. And this word, this promise
that God made, yet once more signifies the removing of those
things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those
things which cannot be shaken may remain. And the only thing
that won't be shaken is those that are in Christ, those that
believe Him. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is
a consuming fire." Hebrews 12, and notice there's two places
we come to. There's two mountains and two people, blood, that speaketh
better things. There's the Mount Zion where
the law was given that nobody could stand there. Nobody could
stand there. Scared them to death to stand
there. As God thundered forth, he's lost. And the law says, That you've got to be perfect.
I mean, you can't leave one part of it off and keep another part.
You can't. You know, if you break the law
on one point, if you say, if you tell a lie and say you kept
the other nine, then you're just guilty of the whole thing. And
so if you break, you know, the law demands perfection. It will
not amend and make anything different for you if you break it in any
one point. So we need somebody else, another
place to come. We need somewhere else to come
besides Sinai. We need someplace else to come
besides the law. We need a place to come where
people are made perfect. Look what it says there in verse
22. You're come unto the Mount Zion, and the city of the living God. God lives right now. That's where
he's living right now, in glory. And the heavenly Jerusalem, that's
the Lord's people, heavenly people. And to an innumerable company
of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn.
Christ was the firstborn, and we're the church of that blessed
Son of God, the firstborn from the dead. And this general assembly
and this city of the living God and these men that he's talking
about, this church of the firstborn. They're written in heaven. Names
already down there. To God, the judge of all, and
to the spirits of just men, made perfect. Made perfect. How was they made perfect? Look
at Hebrews 10, 14, and I'll show you. I'll show you where they're
made perfect. And he said in Colossians 2,
10, that you are complete in Christ. And that word complete
there means made perfect in Christ. Look what he said in Hebrews
10, 14. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified. So you're made perfect here before
you get up there. And back over in our text. So
we come to the spirit of just men made perfect and to Jesus,
the mediator of the new covenant. Gary gave me a message the other
day about Jesus the Mediator, outstanding. And to Jesus the
Mediator of the New Covenant, the New Testament, and the blood
of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. You remember Sunday Wednesday
night I talk about the voice of blood, and that blood cries
out. Now blood in the Scriptures,
its purpose and its application is prominent throughout the Bible.
prominent. Leviticus 17 and 11 says that
it's the blood that maketh atonement for your sin. It's the blood
that cleanses you from all sin. It's the blood that does it.
Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.
Now, peace with God, even, was made with blood. You know, it
was by the shedding and offering of the blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ that sinners are reconciled to God. He made peace through
the blood of His cross. Now, why is it that there must
be bloodshed? Well, because man is a sinner,
born a sinner, lives a sinner, and dies a sinner. So there has
to be someone to atone for your sin. Someone has to pay for your
sin. And if you're guilty, But then
how's that guilt going to be removed? How's that sin going
to be taken care of? How's that sin going to be paid
for? Well, that's why the innocent,
God requires blood. And the Scripture says the life
of the flesh is in the blood. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. And so sin is in this nature, is in this blood. And
so where sin has been committed, then there has to be a shedding
of blood to atone for the sins Because the life of your flesh
is in your blood. And that's why Christ offered
his blood. The life of his flesh was his
blood that made an atonement for our sin. You see, somebody's
got to pay for it. Either you don't pay for it eternally,
and it'll never be paid off, or Christ pays for it, and it's
paid for once and for all. So peace with God was made with
the blood. It was by the shedding and offering
of the blood of Christ that all sinners, that our sinners are
reconciled to God. He made peace through the blood
of his cross. And Ephesians 2.12 says this
is by blood That we who sometimes were afar
off, remember you sometimes were afar off, what? But now are made
nigh, brought near, how? By the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, it's the blood that
make an atonement for the sin. And in this verse of scripture,
verse 24 here, we have the blood mentioned as speaking. Speaking
blood. Blood that says something to
say. Blood that actually speaks. It has a voice to it. And there's
the blood of two men are mentioned here. There's the blood of Abel
and the blood of Christ. We've come to Jesus, the mediator
of the new covenant, and the blood of Sprinkly, the blood
of Christ. And that speaketh better things
than that of Abel. So you have two men's blood mentioned. You have the blood of murdered
Abel that continues to speak. And you have the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ who was offered for his people. And you also,
not only that, but you have the blood not only of two men, but
the blood of two sacrifices. There's the sacrifice that Abel
offered, and then there's the blood and the sacrifice of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Two men, the blood speaks, two
men and their sacrifices. And God's people, God's people
are mentioned as coming to the blood of sprinkling. And that
blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that blood
of Abel. Now I want to try to talk about the difference, first
of all, between the offering of Abel and the offering of our
Lord Jesus Christ as they were presented to God. There's a difference
between the blood of Abel, the offering of Abel, and the offering
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Great difference as they were
presented to God. Look in Hebrews 11.4, just a
minute. This is talking about a description
of Abel's offering. Abel had an offering. He made
an offering to God. And it said in Hebrews 11, for
by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain, by which he obtained witness, who witnessed to it? God did,
the Holy Ghost did, that he was righteous. God testifying of
His gifts, and by it, by that offering, by that blood that
He offered, that blood that was shed, that offering, by it, He
being dead, yet speaks by that very offering. Now, let's look
at that in Genesis chapter 4. Let's look at His offering. Genesis chapter 4 and verse 3. And I'll tell you, beloved, we're
able to offer Him, then we'll look at Christ's offering. Great
difference between the two. They came to pass, it says here
in Genesis 4, 3, and in the process of time it came to pass that
Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the
Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings
of his flock, and of the fat thereof, and the Lord had respect
unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and his offering
he had not respect, and Cain was very angry, and his countenance
failed. What in the world happened here?
You got two brothers. They both come to make an offering
to the Lord. They both come to give something
to God. Come with an offering that God will accept. That God
will say, yes, I have respect to that. I'll accept that. I'll
receive that. And I'll count you righteous
in my sight by what you do. Well, Cain and Abel both offered
a sacrifice. What was the difference between
that that Abel accepted and Cain was rejected? Well, Cain, he
came with the offering of his own hands. He came with the fruit
of the ground. He came with his own words. Cain,
Cain, do you remember what he said here? Cain brought in the
fruit of the ground, an offering unto the Lord. You can bring me watermelons
and great watermelons and apples and green beans. Don't put away sin. That's worse. He worked that
off with the sweat of his brow. He wanted to think, well, I've
got all mine. And he started bringing all of
his stuff, put it in a big old basket, probably, and brought
it there and set it down before the Lord and said, Lord, look
at this. Look at all these cucumbers. Look at this squash. Look at
these green beans. Oh, have you ever seen such a
tomato, Lord? That's what I'm going to give you. God said,
I ain't going to have that. I don't want anything you've
got to offer. I don't want you. I don't want
to prove the ground. I don't want anything that you
do with your own hands. And look what Abel brought. Abel,
he also brought the firstlings of his flock. He brought a lamb. He brought a lamb without spot.
He brought a lamb without blemish. He brought the firstlings of
the flock. The first did he have. And the
fact thereof that the Lord had respect unto his offering. Why?
Because, see, he wasn't a sinner. So he didn't bring a blood offering.
He didn't bring an offering acceptable to God. He wasn't a sinner. But
Abel's was a blood offering. He slit that lamb's throat. put
that blood on that altar, and he offered that lamb, he offered
that blood because he knew he was a sinner. He knew that he
deserved to die. He knew that God would require
his own sin at his hands. If he didn't offer what God requires.
And God required the shedding of blood, and he offered that
lamb, and God looked at that and said, Oh, Abel's was a blood offering.
It was a life offering. He was a sinner. He believed
the gospel. He believed that God would send
a man into this world, that he himself would bruise the serpent's
head, and the serpent would bruise his heel. That the Son of God
would come. And Abel's sacrifice is the first
sacrifice you find in the Scriptures. First one offered in the Scriptures.
But boy, when you look at it as compared to the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it just goes into, sinks into
insignificance. And I'll tell you, in bringing
his sacrifice, Abel was coming with faith and confidence in
the One that would come and put away sin once and for all. That's
what he was doing. He was looking at the One who
would come and put away sin once and for all. That's why, you
know, we... People, the hardest thing you've
ever done in preaching, and the hardest thing you've ever done
in witnessing, is to make folks, and well, you can't do it, but
you've got to keep telling them, that what you bring of your own
is totally, absolutely unacceptable to God. Any good thing you say, any good
thing you do, there's nothing that you can bring to God that
will cause God to accept it. The only thing that made Cain
unacceptable was he brought the works of his own hands, the fruit
of the earth. The only thing that made Abel
acceptable was that he offered a lamb of blood because he was
a sinner and he was the guilty one. He put his sins on the innocent
one. He was the one that was a sinner
and he transferred his sins to that blood offering. And God
accepted him and declared that he was righteous on account of
that. He brought a sacrifice which
showed the necessity of bloodshedding, but our Lord Jesus Christ, He
brought the bloodshedding itself. taught the world by his sacrifice
that he looked for an atoning sacrifice that would come. And
our Lord Jesus Christ was that one who did come, who by faith
in his blood, being justified free through faith in his blood,
he's our propitiation, he's our atoning victim, he's the one
who put his blood in the presence of God himself for us. And Abel,
I tell you what he did, he just brought the type He just brought
the figure. He just brought the picture.
The Lamb that he offered was nothing but a type. It was nothing
but a picture of the Lamb of God. The Lord Jesus Christ, who
was God's Lamb. You remember when Abraham took
Isaac up on the mountain. They started up that mountain.
And I tell you, all the way through the Scriptures, you have a Lamb.
It started with Abel's Lamb. And then you go, and Abraham
went up on the mountain with his son Isaac. And Isaac said,
Father, here we are. We've got fire for the sacrifice. We've got the knife to slay it
with. We've got the wood. But where in the world is the
lamb? Abraham looked at his son and said, Son, God will provide
himself a lamb. not only will he provide himself
a lamb, but he himself would be the lamb. And then when they brought the
children of Israel up out of Egypt, they sent, they had a
lamb, a lamb to a house, but he considered it all one lamb.
And he says, and you take that blood of that lamb, put it up
and watch it for 14 days and make sure there ain't no spot,
no blemish in it. And he said, and you offer that
blood, and you set that blood, put it in a basin, and you put
it on the outside of that door. You put it on this little, put
it on that little, this side post, and then rub it across
the top up here. And then he said, I want you
to put that thing in a pan, and I want you to roast it with fire.
The blood was shed, the Lamb of God was roasted under the
wrath of God. And God says, now I'm coming
through there at midnight, And everywhere there's blood, I'll
pass over you. Why? Because they, beloved, had
already died in the Lamb. But God said, I'll pass over
you. Everywhere the blood was. And
that's the way it is right now. God says, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. If he don't see no blood, he
gonna sit right down on you hard. And oh, that's why John said
he saw the Lord Jesus Christ coming down through that one
den. They said, Are you the Christ? He says, No, I'm not. There's
one coming after me. I'm not worthy to unlatch a shoelace. And here comes the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Peter and Andrew was with him. He says, Behold,
the Lamb of God. And boy, Andrew and Peter said,
Is that the Christ that is? I'm going to follow Him then. Oh, and I'll tell you something,
Abel's sacrifice had no merit in it. That sacrifice that he
offered, it had no merit in it. The blood of bulls and goats
cannot take away sin. But it was set apart by faith
in the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would come when he
presented it. But our Lord Jesus, His sacrifice
had merit in it. It had worth in it. It had value
to it. It had so much value to it, so
much merit to it, that it could put away the sin of a multitude
that no man could number. There is a fountain filled with
blood, we sing it, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, God with us
veins, and sinners plunged beneath that blood lose all their guilty
stains. Do you know how many sinners
have been washed in the blood of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, because it's got merit in it? Who set the prize? God did. How valuable is the
blood of Christ? I tell you what, it's the only
thing that God will accept. It's the only thing that can
wash the sins away. It's the only thing that God will
It's the only offering that God ever accepted for all time and
all eternity for all of his people from the beginning, from Abel
to the last soul that will ever be saved by him. And what was
the blood of Abel's lamb compared to the blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ's sacrifice? Oh, don't even compare it. Oh my, the difference between
the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ sprinkling and the blood of Abel
sprinkling. Oh, they're just worlds and worlds and worlds
apart. He did his by faith in Christ
that would come. Christ was the one who was to
come. His soft sacrifice never put
away sin. Christ's sacrifice put away sin.
His spoke for vengeance. Christ speaks for forgiveness.
I'll get to that in a minute. But the meaning goes much, much
different. Look again here, Genesis 4 with
me, just a moment. Oh, let's look at the voice of
this blood and how it speaks. This blood speaks. Let's look
at how it speaks. Oh, let's first look at how Abel's
blood speaks. He was murdered. First murder
on the earth was over religion. It was over faith. Over faith. And look what he said here in
Genesis 4, in verse 10. We'll look in verse 8. And Cain
talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass, while they
were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother,
and slew him. Now listen to it. Now here's
the voice of the blood. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is
Abel thy brother? He said, I know not. Well, he
knew exactly where he was. Lied. Lied. Lied. And he said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? Am
I the one supposed to keep up with him? Am I the one supposed
to know where he's at and what he's doing? Watch out for him
all the time? And God spoke to him, the Lord
Jesus Christ. This one here is talking. He
said, What hast thou done? The voice of our brother's blood
cries unto me from the ground. That blood is speaking to me.
You just killed your brother. You just shewed your blood, just
slayed your brother. That blood that's laying in that
ground where you murdered him. He said, That voice is speaking
to me, crying out to me. God said, I can hear the Lord
Jesus, I can hear that blood speaking out on the ground. And look what he told Cain. He
says, Now you are cursed upon the earth, which hath opened
her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. And I tell
you what, and I listen, that blood spoke Then I tell you,
the speaking of the blood of this, the blood of Abel speaking,
then we have the speaking blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
our Lord's blood wasn't to say that in Hebrews 12, 24, it speaketh
better things than that of Abel? And oh, what's the difference
between these two voices of blood that spoke? Abel's blood spoke. God said, I hear it crying unto
me from the voice of the ground. Christ's blood spoke. It speaks
better things than that of Abel. And it speaks in a threefold
way, and I'm going to go through these one at a time. First of
all, Abel's blood spoke in heaven. God heard it. Christ heard it. And it cried
for vengeance. Cried for vengeance. It cried
out for revenge. And it cried out for revenge
on only one man, that's his brother Cain. And then it spoke to man. It spoke to man. It speaks to
every man. Don't you kill nobody. Don't
murder nobody. Don't kill people. It spoke to
man. It tells us, beloved, that you
are your brother's keeper and you do not kill a man. And thirdly, it spoke to Cain's
conscience. Cain says, my punishment is greater
than I can bear. And God put a mark on him and
says, nobody's going to touch you. He said, men will kill me
for what I've done. God said, I'm going to put a
mark on you, and you're going to suffer all the days of your life,
and nobody's going to lay a hand on you. Everywhere you go, they're
going to know you killed your brother. You committed the first
murder on the face of the earth, and everybody's going to know
it wherever you go. But I won't let nobody get vengeance on you.
I'm going to get the one to get the vengeance on you. And the
blood of Abel speaks in a threefold blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It speaks in threefold way, too. But it speaks better things.
It speaks much better things. First of all, this speaks in
heaven, too. But instead of crying out for vengeance, you know what
it cries out for? Mercy. Grace. Peace. It's like that publican. He went to the temple and he
cried his feet on his breast and says, Lord, be merciful to
me, the sinner. And that's what that blood of
Christ does. He cries out for mercy, cries
out for peace. Blood hath a voice to pierce
the skies, reveals the blood of able Christ, but the rich
blood of Jesus slain speaks peace as loud from ever made. And our
Lord's blood cries for mercy for a multitude, a multitude
of men that nobody can number. You reckon it speaks for you?
Do you hear the voice of the blood of Christ speaking to your
conscience? It speaks in heaven. God hears it. Here and there
it wants Him in the holy place. Why did it do it in there? With
His own blood. And He came back out, and He
came out with eternal redemption. And oh beloved, our Lord's blood,
Christ's blood, and I'll tell you what, Abel's blood was just
for one man, but Christ's blood is for many offenses, many, many,
many sins that we've committed. But His blood is of many offenses
under justification. All that multitude that gathered
around Him on the cross, Even those who crucified Him, gathered
around Him there, and He says, Father, forgive them. They know
not what to do. They don't know what they're
doing. They don't know they're killing the Son of God. They
don't know they're fulfilling Your purpose. They don't know
that You're fulfilling what You purposed for them to do. And
so, Father, forgive them. And His blood cries peace. Peace
between God and man. Peace to the conscience. It cries
out pardon. It cries out forgiveness. It
cries out mercy. It cries out acceptance. It cries
out access. We come to the Father by Him.
It cries out cleansing. The blood of Christ cleanses
from all sin. Oh, my eyes speaks better things
than that of Abel. And as Abel's blood spoke to
men, Christ's blood speaks to men. Not only to men, but it
speaks to the whole world. You know, God's prophets, they
speak by their words and their actions while they were yet alive.
You look at David, the other ones, Isaiah, they spoke by their
words and their actions while they were alive. And then they
speak by their example after they're dead. It's just like
Noah. Noah prepared an ark to the saving of his house. He spoke
by that, by his actions, by his faith, when he was alive. When
they was building that ark, he kept telling them that there's
a flood coming, there's a rain coming, judgment's going to come,
judgment's going to fall. They said, what in the world?
He said, there ain't no water around here. What in the world
are you building a boat for? There ain't no water where you're
going to put it. There ain't no ocean around here where you
can get to it. Why in the world are you building a boat for?
You're the dumbest fellow I've ever seen. What kind of sense
does it make you building a boat down here in the middle of these
mountains, and there ain't an ocean nowhere? How are you going
to get it over there? He said, God told me to build
it. And it took him 120 years to
build that. And every hammer that was nailed, every bit of
pitch that was put inside of it, every board that was sawed,
every one of them kept saying, judgment's coming, judgment's
coming. And hell, By that, he testified that he was a righteous
man. He spoke. Paul, the apostle,
oh my, while he was alive, oh, by his actions, by his words,
what a witness he was. And then look how he speaks by
his death. He still speaks. Got 13 books with his name behind
it. And I tell you what, when I read
Romans this morning, and then I read Hebrews here, Paul's writing
those words down. And we're quoting him, what he
says. And I tell you, so Christ's blood speaks to me, and it spoke
to me one day. Oh, bless God, it spoke to my
conscience. Well, it spoke to me one day.
I mean, it spoke to me. It spoke to my... I mean, beloved,
it just spoke to me. And what I mean is that it told
me that there was a remedy for my sin. Mary read to me a thing
from Martin Luther this morning and said, The law reveals our
disease. The gospel reveals our remedy. The law shows us how far off
we are. The blood of Christ brings us
right up to God Himself. Right into His presence. And
Abel ratified his testimony with his blood. You know, he testified
that he believed he was a sinner, that God will only accept him
and put his sin away through that blood offering as he looked
to the Christ that should come. You know, he died for his faith.
He's the first martyr. He died for his faith. He died
for his profession. He professed that I'm a sinner.
He professed that he had faith in Christ who would come. And
beloved, his brother came to him. He died for his profession. He did not back up from his profession. I'm going to kill you for that.
I can't help that. I mean, he ratified his testimony
with his blood. And our Lord's blood speaks better
things than Abel's. His testimony was greater than
Abel's. And what did our Lord's blood
testify of? First of all, look over in Hebrews
with me, 13. Hebrews 13. Look over there with me just
a moment. He testified of the covenant
of God's blessed grace. The New Testament. Hebrews 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ
testified of the covenant of God's blessed grace. God, look what he said here,
God who has sundry times, all kinds of different times and
in different ways, daughters' manners, all kinds of ways, faking
time passed under the fathers by the prophets, faking dreams
and visions and signs, but hath in these last days spoken unto
us, Thy Son, the Lord Jesus, he has capitalized, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, Christ. God said, I'm giving
everything into your hands. And he says, by Christ whom also
he made the worlds, the Lord Jesus made these worlds. Now
listen to this, who being the brightness of God's glory and
the express image of God's person, if you see God, you're going
to see him in Christ. If you ever know God, you're
going to only see him in Christ. And upholding all things by the
word of his power, now listen to it, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of God. He came
here. What did He speak about? He spoke
about the New Testament. He spoke about His blood, which
would be shed for the remission of sins. He spoke about His death,
about His hour. And then, beloved, as God's prophet,
He came to reveal God's will, to tell us of God's purpose.
You know what He said God's purpose was? He says, I'll lay down my
life for the sheep. No man takes it from me. I have
the power to lay it down. I have the power to take it up
again. This commandment have I received of my father. That's
the father's will. The purpose was for him to die
for his sheep. And then, beloved, you know what
he said when he cried from the cross? It's finished. God's purpose is finished. I've
laid down my life for the sheep, and I'm going to take it up again.
And he prayed to his father, and he says, Father, I finished
the work that God gave us me to do. Now, give me the glory
that I had with you, for the world ever was. And when I see
Abel die, I know his testimony is true. He sealed it with his
own blood. When I see Christ die, I know
the covenant is true. I know the covenant is true.
I know that He entered once into that holy place
that He, God raised Him again from the dead through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. And that's why, beloved, the
covenant, Daniel said it like this. I think one of the men
in the conference, I forget which one did it, turned to Daniel
9.24 that time and he says that Christ came and He made an end
of sin. Finished the transgression and
brought in an everlasting righteousness. Finished it. Finished it. And
the third voice is like Abel's voice. It spoke to heaven, it
spoke to men, and then it speaks to the conscience. That third
voice of our Lord Jesus Christ, that third voice spoke to the
conscience of Cain. And God came, the Lord Jesus
Christ came and says, you killed your own brother. Your own mother's
son. Your own mother's son. What did
he do to make you so angry and enrage you? What did he do to
offend you that made you kill him? He wasn't a thief. He wasn't a mean man. He wasn't
overbearing. He wasn't mean. So why in the world did you kill
him? Look over in John 3. Hold right
over to your right, 1 John 3. I'll show you. 1 John 3. Oh, he wasn't a thief. He never
done anything to you. What did he do to make you so
angry? The question is in verse 11.
For this is the message that you heard from the beginning,
that you should love one another. Now listen to what I said. Don't
be like Cain. You love one another. Don't be
like Cain. Not as Cain, who didn't love
his brother. Didn't love another. Who was
of that wicked one. And slew his brother. And why
did he slay him? Because his own works were evil,
and his brother's were righteous. He understood now that my works
are evil. That's why, if you bring the
works of your hand, you're bringing something evil, unacceptable
to God. And oh, Cain was always afraid that someone would kill
him. Why? Because he kept a guilty conscience all the days of his
life. And the blood of Abel said, you may be spared now, but after
death, there'll be no hope for you. God never, never Abel, over
his sacrifice, made him acceptable to God. God testified of it.
That Abel was a righteous man. But Cain, right now, has been
in eternal torment for all of these thousands of years. God said, I'm going to get you. I'm not going to let nobody else
touch you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get it. Vengeance
is mine, saith the Lord. And I'll tell you, I don't know
how to say this, but I'll say it as compassionate and from
the heart as I can, that you don't want to go out of this
world without Christ. You don't want to do that. You
don't want to go out of this world and face your own sins.
You don't want to do that. I tried to witness to my brothers,
my dad, my children, my grandchildren, and they always got an excuse.
Always got somewhere else to go, something else to believe.
Always got something else to believe. My dad said, oh, don't
worry about D.B. Me and Jesus got it figured out.
And I said, you ain't got nothing figured out. You ain't got nothing. God don't do things like that.
You don't negotiate with Christ. You're going to come on His terms.
Our Lord said, except you believe that I'm He, you'll die in your
sins. I don't want to go back dying in your sins. I can't imagine
what it's like. And this is a mercy that God
puts in our brain. What a mercy He puts in our brain.
That we know that our parents and know that some of our kinfolks,
if they died without Christ. I talked to my brother who died
just a few weeks ago at 57 years old, just dropped dead. And I
talked to him, and we was in boat fishing one time, and I
kind of talked to him about Christ and his need of Christ. He said,
I believe in a higher power, but I don't need the God you're
talking about. I said, I believe in a higher
power. And he was on the 12 steps or whatever that is. But there's
no steps. There's no steps to get to Christ.
There's no steps to get to God. Christ did it all. That's what
we're trying to tell you. Christ did it all. And how do
you get to Christ? You can come to Christ without
moving a muscle. You can come to Christ in your
heart, right where you sit. But God put it in our brain that
we know about our loved ones that went off into eternity without
God, without Christ, and without hope, and will live in their
sin throughout all eternity. If they went to hell wanting
alcohol, they'll stay in hell all their lives wanting alcohol
and never get a drop. If they went to hell as an adulterer
and a whoremonger, they're going all the way off to eternity wanting
to be a whoremonger and never, the nature don't change when
they die. And God put it in our brain that we cannot comprehend
what it'd be like for that to be. And that's why the blood of Christ,
it speaks. It spoke to me. It spoke to my
conscience. Told me that I was guilty. Told
me that it would wash away my sins. Told me that that's the
only way in the world, as a red and God's blessed book and herded
priest, that I could be acceptable to God, was through the blood
of Christ, which cleanses us of all sin. Oh, you don't want to face God,
believe me. You don't want to go into this
world, out of this world and face God for yourself. You don't want to do that. Please
don't do that. I beg you, for Christ's sake,
don't do that. For Christ's sake, right now,
if God will help you and enable you to run to Christ, Run to
Him in your mind. Run to Him in your heart. Run
to Him in your soul. If you have any inkling of what
you are as a sinner, right now, run to Christ. And as Abel's blood spoke to
the conscience of Cain, the blood of Christ speaks to the conscience
too. But oh, what a sweet, sweet change in the voice. When Christ's
voice speaks to the conscience, His voice spoke to the conscience
and His speech to the conscience. And beloved, His voice, you know
what it says to us? Look at the cross where I was
crucified. Look at that place where I bore
your sins. Look at that place where my blood
was shed. Look at that place where I satisfied
justice. Look at that place where I endured
the wrath of God. Look what I did! And the voice
speaks as it says there, it says, you hated, but I love. You're cruel and mean, but I'm
full of mercy. You're guilty, but I took your
guilt upon myself that you may be forgiven. You're far off,
but by the shedding of my blood, I'll bring you near to me. You're without strength and ungodly,
and that's why right now I'm dying for you. You're on the earth, but that
man that believes on me, I'll take you from earth to glory,
and I'll carry you there myself. I told you that I'm going away
to prepare a place for you, and if I prepare that place, I'll
come again, and I'll receive you unto myself that way. Oh! You be there with me. Once my soul was astray from
the heavenly way, I was wretched and vile as could be, but my
Savior in love gave me peace from above. When He reached down
His hand for me, He reached down for me. I was near to despair when He
came to me there and He showed me I could be free. Then He lifted my feet gave me
gladness complete when he reached out his hand for me." And you
know when he reached and got me, he ain't never letting me
go. Said, hold on to the hand of the Lord. No, no, no, no.
Lord, you hold me. You hold me in your hand. And
oh, let me hurry. Three ways, three ways in which
the blood of Abel and the blood of Christ are comparable. Well,
they speak the same thing. The blood of Abel cried for justice.
He cried for justice. He cried that a murder has to
be punished for his murder. And it spoke justly when he cried
out for revenge. When he was murdered, his blood
cried out for revenge. And our Lord's blood speaks justly
when he cries out for mercy and forgiveness. God's blood, Christ's
blood speaks justly. When God accepted his blood and
accepted his offer, God can justly now forgive every sinner who
comes to God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Abel's
blood cried affectionately and effectively. I mean, it wasn't
in vain. It cried for revenge and revenge
what it got. It cried for punishment, punishes
what it got. And Christ's blood, it cried
for mercy, and mercy is what it got. It cried effectively,
too. It cried for salvation, and salvation is what it got.
And then let me hurry. I'm taking too long. I'm sorry.
The difference between the offering of Abel and the offering as they
were presented to God. Well, that's where I started.
Where am I at here? Oh, there we go. What was I talking about? I was
talking about the blood, how they both were comparable. Christ's
blood spoke effectively. Christ's blood was not in vain.
It said, pardon, pardoning God. It says acceptance, and acceptance
is done. It says redemption, and redemption
is accomplished. It says justification, and all
for whom it was shed will be justified. And Abel's blood cries
continually. Ain't that what it said, he'd
been dead, yet speaking? Still crying, still speaking.
Christ's blood cries continually, too. It cries continually, too. Oh,
it does. It's a fountain filled with blood. The blood speaks. Our Lord does
not have to say a word. When He offered that blood and
put it on God's altar in glory, God accepted it right there,
and that man who comes to Christ, that blood's already been accepted,
that blood's already been set there on God's arm. The blood
speaks. The blood speaks to God. It speaks to acceptance and justification. And the blood speaks. When your
conscience cries out and calls you to be afraid, this is that
blood that speaks from heaven. How many times have I pled the
blood? How many times have I said, O Lord? How many times have I
done that? And I tell you, in this world,
it's where it is that believers come and God's people are brought.
This is where we come. We come to that fountain. Jesus
paid it all, all to Him alone. Sin had lifted a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. See,
we come to the blood of sprinkling. Ain't that what it says? We've
come to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than
that of anger. And that blood, the Holy Spirit
takes that blood and sprinkles it on your conscience. I can't,
but that's what happens when a man's, when that blood speaks
to your conscience. The Holy Spirit comes and He
takes the blood of Christ and He applies it to your conscience,
applies it to your heart. And your guilt is gone. Just
the minute that blood's put there, the guilt's gone. I mean, he
goes away just that quick. That don't mean he won't come
back, but what do you do? You cry out to the blood again.
Cry out to the Lord Jesus again. And I know that if you have come,
if you've come to this blood of strength and that speaks better
things than that of Abel, if you come to it, you know what
you'll do for the rest of your life? You'll just keep coming.
Keep coming. To whom? Coming. You'll just keep coming. You'll just keep coming. That's
why we love to sing, all three, all of that song you sung this
morning, had the blood, the atonement in it. I love that, don't you? That
blood spoke to me, cleansed me from all sins.