Let's turn to Revelation chapter
12. Revelation chapter 12, and we're going to look at a little
portion here after Satan's thrown down to earth. Let's stand up,
beloved, and read verses 7 to 12 in Revelation chapter 12. Verses 7 to 12. Let's read it
together. And there was war in heaven,
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon
fought against his angels. And prevailed not, neither was
their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon
was cast out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan which
deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth,
and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud
voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength in
the kingdom of God, in the power of his Christ, for the accuser
of the brethren is cast down, which accused them before our
God day and night. And here's our verse, too. And
they overcame him by the blood of the lamb, by the word of their
testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death. Therefore
rejoice, ye heavens, And ye that dwell in them, woe to the inhabitants
of the earth and of the sea, for the devil has come down unto
you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a
short time. The name of the message is The
Blood of the Lamb. Look at verses 10 and 11 here
again. Our text will see this. And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation
and strength in the kingdom of God and the power of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brother, and that's Satan, is cast down,
which accursed them before our God day and night. And they,
that's the saints, how do we overcome the evil one? And they
overcame him by the blood of the lamb, beloved, and by the
word of their testimony. And they loved not their lives
unto the death. Now a preacher of old once said,
imagine a man's drowning in the middle of a lake. If I go out
to him and give him a book on swimming and nothing more, that
doesn't save him, does it? If I tell him to swim harder,
he still isn't saved. If I drag him within two feet
of dry land, he's still not rescued, is he? But when I get into the
water and lift him out and place him safely onto the shore, then
and only then is he safe. Well, beloved of God, So it is
in the gospel. We are saved, rescued, and delivered
by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, redeemed by the precious
blood of the Lamb. And again, that's how we overcome,
is by the blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our salvation
is in, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other
way. And through his shed blood, his blood was shed to redeem
our eternal souls. The price that God demanded for
the ransom of our souls is the life of Christ, and his shed
precious blood as a ransom. Remember, without the shed and
the blood, there's no remission of sin, right? Well, he's the
sinless one, so he's dying for sinners though, isn't he? He
must shed his blood. The blood must be shed. That's
why it's so criminal, people taking the blood, taking the
blood out of hymns, taking the blood out of things, and not
talking about the blood of Christ. There's no salvation outside
of the blood of Christ. We're not half saved or partially
redeemed by anything we do. No, we're saved utterly and entirely
and eternally by the doing and dying and the rising again of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all Him, isn't it, brother?
It's all Him. Nothing to do with what we do
at all. Oh my. There's no such thing as us squirming
along behind the rowboat of salvation, as some might say, and choosing
to get on the rowboat. No, Christ must save us. He must
reach in and save us out of the depths of those waters. And you
know what the waters are? It's the waters of sin. We're
swimming in an ocean of sin, beloved. And Christ rescues us. He rescues us from that. Puts
our feet on firm ground, which is Him. And to be saved means to be rescued
and delivered. That's what it means. Have you
been rescued and delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ? If you
have, praise his mighty name, because he did it all. Oh my,
so to be saved means to be rescued and delivered from all harm and
danger. All harm and danger. We're delivered
from all our sins. We're delivered from the punishment
of our sins. We're delivered from the wrath
of God. We're delivered from the law of God by the precious,
precious blood of the Lamb, the Passover Lamb, God's Passover
Lamb. His name's the Lord Jesus Christ,
God incarnate in the flesh. Oh. And if we're still in actual
danger, then we're not saved, are we? No. If there's the slightest
danger that we can lose our salvation, then either we're not saved or
Christ didn't accomplish anything. Oh, my. That can't be. That can't be. Amen, brother
Dick. He accomplished our salvation, didn't he? He sure. He finished. He cried, it is finished. And
that means it's finished. By the doing and dying of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we are saved by his precious, precious blood
and by his precious works. Oh my. We're saved. Saved by the blood of the Lamb.
Saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what? God has made
us safe in Christ. Secure. Eternally secure. I mean, no man can pluck us out
of the Father's hands. No one. That's how secure we
are. No one can pluck us out of the
Christ's hands, and no one can pluck us out of our Father's
hands. And you know, no one even includes us! Not that we'd ever
want to get out of his hands. No! My, oh my, say it's not so. My, oh my. My, oh my. We are his sheep,
and he's our shepherd, therefore Satan cannot destroy us. And
the only way we overcome Satan is by the blood of the lamb,
by the word of our testimony. And we love not our lives unto
the death. We're his sheep. Scripture says we're the sheep
of his hand. Therefore, God himself is our
shepherd. God himself. God himself is our
shepherd. God who controls everything and
orders everything all at the same time. Do you ever think
of that? Ever think of that? There's things going on right
here and now, man. And not only is he in control of all the things
going on here, he's in control of all the things in all the
known universe and everything you can see and you can't see,
visible and invisible. Now, our finite minds can't fully
grasp that, but it's true. It's true. Oh, my. It's wonderful. Now, we're his
sheep, and Christ is our shepherd. Therefore, Satan can't destroy
us. Now, in Scripture, we discover terms such as false brethren,
false prophets, false witnesses, false accusers, false Christ,
false apostles, and false teachers. But we do not encounter false
sheep. We do not encounter false sheep.
Sheep are sheep. They're 100% genuine. Wasn't it Levi's used to put
genuine Levi's jeans on their stamp? One of those guys did.
We're genuine sheep by the grace of God. By God's choosing, by
God's redemption, by God's amazing act of regeneration. My oh my. Isn't that wonderful? God's sheep were always sheep.
Now we were enemies in our minds as we saw last week by wicked
works. But we were always his sheep. He'd known us from eternity. He loved us from eternity. God
the Father, think of this too. God the Father's loved us from
eternity. God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, loved us from eternity.
God the Holy Spirit loved us from eternity. All according
to their plan and purpose. That's amazing. That's too much for my little
finite brain to take in, but it's true. And by God-given grace
and faith, we believe it, don't we? We didn't believe that before
we were saved. But now, oh my, let me tell everyone. I'm saved by God. You know, God
saved me. God saved you, David. God saved
us, man. God himself, in the flesh. Woo, there's no other salvation
except for Him. No other way, God Himself left
heaven, sent by the Father to redeem us, beloved. Oh my, it's
wonderful, to shed His blood, to redeem our souls. And all
that time, His love set upon us, we weren't even a twinkle,
we weren't even, our mom and dads, they weren't even a twinkle.
That was 2,000 years ago. And yet he shed his blood to
redeem our eternal souls. This is good news for sinners,
I'm telling you. It's wonderful news. There's salvation in the blood
of the lamb. There's salvation only in the
Lord Jesus Christ for sinners. And I mean real sinners. I don't
mean pretend sinners. I mean real dead dog sinners
like us. Yeah, I always laugh when people
say, well, you think you're holy. Now, you do not know. You have
no idea about how much I know I'm a sinner. I remember hearing
somebody say one time, they said this. They said, well, you don't
have to tell people they're sinners. They already know it. I said,
well, we need to hear it, don't we? Because God in Christ saves
sinners. Of whom I'm chief, Paul said.
Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners. Dave, you're chief of sinners,
aren't you? I'm the chief of sinners. A person in line. A person in line. Amen. I'm right
there with you, brother. We're all sharing the same line,
aren't we? But see, that's God showing us
our sinfulness. That's God showing. And I need
to hear that God saves sinners, because I'm a sinner saved by
the grace of God. What's that song, I'm only a
sinner saved by grace? Man. This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm only
a sinner, saved by grace. That's it. We don't graduate
from there, do we? That's our footing right there. Our footing's on the firm ground
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who's the only foundation of our faith.
My, oh, my. Listen to this. This is how we
can tell, too, that God's sheep are 100% genuine. Listen to this.
My sheep, he says. Christ says, my sheep. Well,
who's those my sheep? Who's those? Who's those my sheep? Some people say, well, God loves
everyone, and he died for everyone. Well, he says, my sheep. He didn't say, everyone's my
sheep. He said, my sheep. And we know from scripture, studying
scripture with scripture, that there's some who are goats who
are going to be on the left side, and some who are sheep who can
be on the right side. And the only reason those sheep
can be on the right side, and the only reason they're sheep,
is because the grace of God, God's distinguishing grace. That's
the only difference. Both groups are a bunch of sinners.
Both groups are sinners, sinners by birth, nature, and choice.
But oh, there's distinguishing grace that happened on the right
side with those folks. They're born again by God's Holy
Spirit, by His almighty power. My, oh my, listen to this, my
sheep, what do they do? They hear my voice. And I know
them, that's gnoske in the Greek, that's an intimate knowledge
of them. And they follow me. There's no, well, they might
if they make a decision. That's not even in the text,
is it? They follow me. You know why? Because we're made
willing in the day of God's power. And we run to Christ. And then listen to this. And
I give unto them eternal life. Well, does that mean it's not
of our choosing, right? If he gives it to us, does that mean
we chose it? Now, we willingly run to Christ
after we're born again. But he's the one who says to
the Holy Spirit, go fetch them sheep. Go fetch them sheep. And you
know, one can be sitting, two people can be sitting, and one,
the Lord will come and save, and the other one, the Holy Spirit
just passes them right by. One will be rejoicing, and one
will be mad. I remember Henry said, one leaves
glad, and one leaves mad. Right? Amen. Look at this. And I give unto
them eternal life. Christ has all the power. We
saw that in John 17 study. He's got all power. And here
we go, Dave, here's this word again. And they shall never perish. That's the words of God in the
flesh. They shall never perish. It will never happen. "'cause
they were redeemed by the blood of Christ. "'Neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand.'" That's amazing. "'My Father which
gave them me is greater than all, "'and no man is able to
pluck them out of my Father's hand.'" And he says, "'I and
my Father are one.'" God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit are one. Three personalities, one God,
one God. And God's sheep are purchased
by the Good Shepherd. They're purchased by the Good
Shepherd who gave his life for the sheep, who again was sent
by the Father. To redeem. That's just amazing. Dave, I know we marvel at that.
Sent by the Father. Sent. To redeem us. To purchase
our eternal souls that we might be with God forever. My, oh my. And the shepherd's sheep are
chosen from all eternity. Think of this too, okay. So Christ
is sent. Christ is sent. And he gives
life to his sheep. And God's sheep, then, are born
again by the Holy Spirit, who is what? Sent by the Lord Jesus
Christ. You ever think of this? Sent
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Comforter. And then
the shepherd's sheep are chosen from all eternity, given to the
Son by the Father, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and safe
forever, eternally, in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's it. But you know what happens though?
Satan attacks us, doesn't he? He attacks the sheep. How does
he do that? By sending false preachers, or sending false teachers,
or sending false brethren, or causing division within the church.
All his goal is, is to lead God's sheep astray. to get our minds,
and I'll tell you what, most of the time when we get in trouble,
it's our own flesh. I'm telling you that right off
the bat. It's us. It's us, yeah. Oh my. But our text here proclaims
that they overcame They overcame him, look at this again, and
they overcame him, that's Satan, by the blood of the lamb and
by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives
unto the death. In John, 1 John 2, 13 and 14,
the scripture says this, I write unto you fathers because you
have known him, that is from the beginning. I write unto you
young men because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto
you, little children, because ye have known the Father. So
how do they overcome the wicked one? By the blood of the Lamb.
Not by our own strength. We're no match for the enemy. But we can overcome by the blood
of the Lamb. In Christ Jesus our Lord. See, it all goes back
to our King, doesn't it? He gets all the glory. He gets
all the honor. Oh my, and then he goes on to
write this, I have written unto you fathers because you have
known him that is from the beginning. That's God the son. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God
and the word was God. He says I have written unto you
young men because you are strong and the word of God abideth in
you and you have overcome the wicked one. My, oh, my. And yet we read false teachers
will lead many astray. And if it were possible, see,
it's not possible because God keeps us. And remember that part
I read where my sheep hear my voice through the preaching of
the gospel, right? And God's sheep, when they're
listening to someone who's preaching another message, you go, no,
that's not true. I don't recognize that voice. That's not my shepherd. He's not talking about my shepherd.
And see, God gives us, isn't that amazing? God gives us that
discernment. It's incredible. Mark 13, 22,
it says this, for false Christs and false prophets shall rise
and show signs and wonders to seduce. If it were possible,
even the elect is not possible. But we can get in a heap of trouble,
let me tell you that. Too much wandering, brother. And the sheep learn, however,
to weigh and judge each teaching by the gospel. So am I up here
talking about Christ or am I up here talking about what you have
to do? Right? And that's how you measure preaching.
Measure it by who gets the glory. Well, Christ gets it all. He's
done, man, enough for us to do, but we just look and live. Even
the ability to look is given to us by God. My, oh my. And false apostles pay lip service
to the blood and mention the blood, but not the finished work. Not the finished work, because
Gospel-centered teachings not in their hearts and minds. False
teachers will always say they believe the gospel, but their
man-centered doctrine usually reverts to them doing, reverts
to them teaching doing and performance for salvation, which we know
is false. The sheep, however, overcome
such nonsense, because that's all it is. It's just nonsense. How do we overcome that? By holding
firmly to the truths of Christ crucified. He overcame them by
the blood of the lamb and by the word of the testimony. What's
the word of our testimony? Christ Jesus saved my soul by
the shedding of his blood. Right? That's the only thing we testify
about, right? Christ saved my soul. I have no other way. I
couldn't save myself. And Christ saved me, hallelujah,
by the shedding of his precious blood, by the doing and dying
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what do we say? I need no
other argument. I need no other plea. It isn't
up that Jesus died and that he died for me. Amen. And Satan knows that if he can
cause us to be occupied more with our failures than with the
gospel, he can destroy our peace. Yeah. Not salvation though, no. No. The Lord, however, wants us to
know that those old sins of ours, those sins so black, Those sins that cast long shadows,
you got some sins that cast long shadows? Particular, shameful,
embarrassing sins that loom up in the rearview mirror of life? Oh my. Rear up in the rearview
mirror of life? and condemn us. Let me tell you,
they're all done away by the precious, precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They are done away. Those long
shadows are gone. Don't let them haunt you, beloved.
If you're saved, they're washed in the blood. They're bought
and paid for. And it's critical that we grasp
this truth, beloved. It's crucial. and let it soak
into our thinking. We must continually remember
that God has dealt graciously and justly with all our failures
and with all our sins, how? Through the blood of the Lamb,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how he's dealt with our
sins. Isn't that wonderful? My, oh my, I'll tell you what. That's good news. They're bought
and paid for, beloved. My oh my. But how do we make
this knowledge work practically in our lives? Let's say you're
a believer in Christ and you've just sinned, which we do all
the time, but it's a grievous sin. We disobey the clear commandment
in God's word. Maybe it was anger, or lust,
or swearing, or stealing, or whatever, and the Holy Spirit
immediately convicts us of that sin. You ever heard that happen?
Immediately they get convicted. Immediately. What are we supposed
to do? Well, we repent and confess our
sin before God. Listen to this. If we confess
our sins, he, being Christ, is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Repent and move on. Repent and
move on. But then the enemy comes, or
a thought comes into our minds and whispers, a fine Christian
you are. Do you really think all your
sins can be forgiven? You ever heard that happen? Oh
yeah. Oh yeah. We've all heard that. I've heard
it happen. You ever heard that? Little voice. How can you be
a Christian and act like that and do those things? You're not even saved. You ever
hear that little whisper? You're not even saved. You're
guilty. And you know it. My. How do we answer that thought?
Amen. We admit we're guilty. We admit
we're guilty. Oh yeah, I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I've deliberately sinned and
knowingly sinned against God. Yeah, I'm guilty. And then that devil comes and
says, how can you even be saved? Well,
what do we say? We tell Satan, yeah, I sinned.
You're right. I did. I did. I did. Nevertheless, my
salvation doesn't rest upon my performance, but on the perfect
performance, the perfect sin-atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ
in his shed precious blood that's redeemed my eternal soul. My
hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Right? Oh my. Turn if you would,
turn if you would to Zachariah chapter 3. Oh my. One commentator said, say, I'm
trusting in the blood of Christ, I rebuke you, say. Oh my. It's the blood that cleanses
us, beloved. No, it's the blood. Look at this,
Zachariah chapter 3. These are wonderful verses. I
remember preaching on this a long time ago and this is just amazing.
Look at this. Zechariah chapter 3 verses 1
to 5. This is just beautiful. We're
trusting in the shed blood of Christ, right? Christ redeemed
our eternal souls. Look at this. And he showed me
Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord
and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. Well, we
saw in our text originally, opening up, that Satan is, he's the accuser
of the brethren. And the Lord said unto Satan,
The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Even the Lord, that's Jehovah
there, that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee. Is not this a brand
plucked out of the fire? Are God's people called brands
plucked out of the fire? Yes, they are. Now, Joshua, look
at this. Now this is a picture of us being
clothed in our self-righteousness. The rags of our own righteousness. Look at this. Now Joshua was
clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel. That's
a picture of us. Just with our own sin and everything. Remember our righteousness is
like filthy rags in the eyes of the Lord? Look at this. And the answer can speak unto
those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy
garments from him. Take them away. Look at this. This is just incredible. And
unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass
from thee. Oh my goodness! I've caused thine iniquity to
pass from thee! Beloved, that's a picture of
us being cleansed in the precious blood of Christ. And I will clothe
thee, well look at this, with a change of raiment. That's the
righteousness of Christ, beloved. And I said, let them set a fair
miter upon his head. We're priests before God, beloved,
and kings. So they set a fair miter upon
his head and clothed him with garments, and the angel of the
Lord stood by. Woo, my goodness, beloved, what
a picture. Our filthy rags of our own self-righteousness
taken off and clothed in the precious righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. My, and what's the Lord called?
He called the Lord our righteousness, isn't he? This wonderful beloved. Oh my, let's go back to Revelation
chapter 12 now. Or read verse 11 again. Oh my. And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and
they loved not their lives unto the death. So we see here, they
didn't overcome him by ceaseless incantations, did they? Like
some do, they make all these noise, and all these prayers,
and all this stuff. No. Was it by the casting out
of demons? Nope. Charismatics are big on
that, aren't they? But what formula did they use
to overcome? None. They didn't have a certain
thing you had to do and fall and repeat after them to be saved. Nope. Did they overcome them by binding
and elucidating? Now these charismatics out there,
they're binding. They say, we're binding and elucidating
Satan and demons. No, you're not doing nothing.
You don't got that power. No, they didn't do anything.
How'd they overcome, Dave? By the blood of the Lamb! That's
how they overcame. That's how they overcame Satan.
By the blood of the Lamb and making their testimony all about
what the blood had done. What had the blood done for us,
brother? Cleansed us from all our sins. My goodness gracious. Giving us the ability to stand
in the presence of God. All because of what Christ did!
See, without that righteousness, that code of righteousness, We
wouldn't even be able to stand in God's presence. No, can't
look on sin, no. Now we're clothed in the spotless
righteousness of the sinless one. Oh my, oh my, my oh my. They overcame him by the blood
of the lamb. They made their testimony what the blood had
done before them, or for them. And they testified that their
sins had been taken away by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lamb of God. I mean gone. Gone. And you know what? No accusation
can be brought against them. None. We can stand as God's people
before the throne of God and no accusation can be brought
before us or against us. No blemish. No spot. My, my oh my. The accusations fall upon deaf
ears. They fall upon deaf ears in heaven,
and that's the power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
guilty. Like we said earlier, we're guilty
of sinning. We're sinners. Even now, we're sinners saved
by grace. But the accusations against us fall upon deaf ears
in heaven. because the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ has cleansed us. My, this is the best news
for sinners, isn't it? Salvation in Christ and Him alone. Forgiveness of all our sins,
beloved. The blood of the Lamb is sufficient
for our victory over Satan. Christ overcame Satan, we didn't,
did he? He did, he overcame Satan. My, throughout all the ages,
think of this, for all the believers throughout all the ages, the
blood is sufficient to have victory over Satan. That's
all. We don't have no victory in ourselves,
do we? Nope, not at all, but oh my, we're more than conquerors
through Christ Jesus our Lord. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the sacrificial lamb, has been the refuge and fortress to those
who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for ages, beloved. For ages. And by faith we know and claim
that the blood of Christ is entirely effective to put
away our sins. There's nothing else that can
put away our sins but by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And all our sins have been bought and paid for in full. I mean, there's no demand by
God for any of our sins. He's fully satisfied with the
doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ and the rising from the
grave of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's fully satisfied. The devil loves to attack, and
this is something the devil does, he loves to attack the integrity
and effectiveness of the blood. Oh, yeah. Oh, he does. And his false preachers insinuate
that when Christ died on the cross, he didn't complete the
work. There's still something for you
have to do. There ain't nothing we have to do. They overcame
by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.
That blood saved me. I'm saved and redeemed by the
precious blood of Christ and not alone. My oh my. And how the enemy loves to cast
slurs on the Lord Jesus Christ by evil men and trying to get
believers to lose their confidence in the blood of the Lamb, but
I'll tell you what, that's our only hope. The only
hope for our salvation is that Christ shed his blood to redeem
our eternal souls. Outside of Christ, we don't have
no hope, do we? But praise God. Praise God. They overcame him
by the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony,
and they loved not their lives until the death. My, oh my. In the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ is a conquering weapon, beloved. It's a conquering weapon. Had he not poured out his own
soul unto death, had he not been numbered with the transgressors,
we should have no weapon with which to overcome the evil one.
Because we're no match for him. Hebrews says this, wherefore
Jesus, that he might sanctify us, make us holy, sanctify the
people with his own blood, suffered without, outside the gate, with
his own blood, And scripture says in Acts that God himself
purchased the church with his own blood. That's the Lord Jesus
Christ that's talking about. God incarnated in the flesh.
The blood of Christ is so pure that it's purged every one of
our sins and set us apart, beloved. Not only has it cleansed all
our sins, but it's set us apart. This is that verse again, Hebrews
13, 12. Wherefore Jesus, also that he might sanctify, set us
apart, make us holy, the people, with his own blood, suffered
without the gate, or outside the gate. My, oh my, the all-seeing,
all-piercing eye of Yahweh can discover no flaw in Christ's
blood. You ever think of that? God can't
see no flaw in the blood of Christ. And what are we covered in, Brother
Dave? The blood. Huh? When I see the blood, I'll
pass on it. There's no flaw. Oh my, that's
just wonderful. No flaw, no blemish. Perfect. And here we are, yet sinners,
but saved right now. Right now, secure in Christ,
right now. because it's not based upon our
performance. It's based upon the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we're born again, because
you must be born again, the scripture says. And when you're born again
and given, that only comes by the power of God, the Holy Spirit,
who again, sent by Christ, right? What a gift. Gives us faith to
believe, repentance too before God. Does it all. And here we
are now, we sin now, and then we go, Lord, please forgive me. But we never did that before.
But it's already, yeah, it's already forgiven, but we still
go to the Lord, don't we? Forgive me, Lord, I'm such a
sinner. And he knows, he knows. And he's the one mediator between
God and man. There ain't no other person on
this earth who's a mediator between God and man. The only one is
the Lord Jesus Christ. My, oh, my. Turn, if you would,
to 1 Peter. 1 Peter, look at this. There's no flaw in Christ's blood. It contained no tinge of sin.
It's precious blood. It's perfect blood. It's the
blood of the lamb. It's the blood of lamb. Do you
know it's without spot and blemish. My, see, we have a terminal disease
we're born into this world with. And I'll tell you what, you know,
we had that pandemic, that's nothing compared to the pandemic
of sin. There's only one cure for the pandemic of sin. What
is it? Yeah, the blood of the lamb!
The blood of the lamb! Oh my! Have you trusted Christ? Is he your savior? Oh! I encourage
you to cast yourself upon him. He's the only hope for sinners.
He's the only hope for sinners. Look at this, 1 Peter chapter
1. 1 Peter chapter 1. Look at this, verses 18 to 21. Forasmuch, now Peter's writing
to saints who've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And
he says this, forasmuch as you know, this is something God's
people know. This is something we've been
taught. We don't know it naturally. We've been taught after we're
born again. That ye were not redeemed with corruptible things.
So you can't buy your way into heaven. Look at this. As silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers. So we can't buy our way into heaven and we can't
get to heaven because of tradition either. No. Look at this. But with what? But with the precious. And I
mean it's so precious. To God's people it's the most
precious thing. Right? But with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
See, there's no tinge of sin in Christ at all. His blood's
perfect blood. His blood's redeeming blood.
God himself shed his blood to save his church. Oh, my. Oh, look at this. Now, it gets
even better for us. Who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last
times for who? You put your name in there. Put
your name in there. Isn't that wonderful? Manifest for you. Who by Him,
now look at this, who by Him do believe in God. We only believe
in God through Christ. Remember, He gives eternal life.
See, he gets all the glory. Who by him did believe in God,
that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your
faith and hope might be in who? God alone. The blood of the Lamb is the
blood of God, right? The God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my. Fully God and fully man. I'll tell you what. And who's
our hope? Who's our hope in? Our hope's in God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. God incarnated in the flesh.
He's the only hope for sinners. If you're hoping in yourself,
cast that hope away, because it'll just lead you to hell.
Christ Jesus said, come unto me, all ye that labor. Are you
laboring with works, trying to get into heaven by your works?
Oh, it's never good enough. Never! Come unto me, all you
that labor in the heavy laden. Ah! It works! Weeping works!
It's heavy! Man, that religion just weighs
you down! Oh my gosh! Do this! Do that! It's more rocks
than the bag! Yeah! It just weighs you down!
See, but when you get to the cross, that bag full of rocks
of our sins, it slides right off, doesn't it brother? We're
unencumbered now, right? Oh my, praise his mighty name.
Oh my, run a race without a bag of rocks on you. Oh, it's wonderful. Oh, it's wonderful. And our hope
and our faith is in God. He's our hope. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our hope. And Jesus Christ, our Lord, who
is the Lamb of God, shed his blood to redeem our eternal souls.
And the Lamb's blood, again, was unpolluted, untainted, and
can cleanse all his people's sins away. It's exclusively suitable to
sanctify us. You ever think of that? It's
exclusively suitable to sanctify us and to redeem we who are his
people. My oh my. And when Jesus Christ
went to heaven in the ascension, he took us with him. Do you know
that? Oh my. Positionally, we're positionally
already seated in the heavens with him. There's another fizz, there's
a fizz break there, right? Okay, I don't understand it,
but I believe it. I believe it. Because God's word
says we're seated in the heavens already with him. Oh my. And we're ransomed, we're redeemed,
and we're sanctified in Christ, beloved. And from that point on, the Father
could never see sin in us. And our growth and grace, as
we learn more about this, As we learn more how Christ's blood
has cleansed us from all sin, as we learn more about the power
of God and the power of the blood of Christ, we'll become more
and more secure just resting in Christ and Him alone. It'll
give us peace while we're here on this earth, peace for our
souls. Now the big question that should
occupy our mind is not what we can do, but rather what has Christ
done for us. What has Christ done for us?
Our lives, you ever think this day of our lives, are now hidden.
Hidden in Christ. Hidden in God. And you know what? We're complete in Him, brother.
Complete. Paid in full. Our sins are all
paid for. We're complete in Christ. He'll
never reckon our sins against us. Never! Never! My! We are washed and sanctified
by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of
God. And if we sin, and we will, we
have the privilege of instantly bringing our wretchedness to
our high priest, the only mediator between God and man. And what
do we plead? We plead his blood, don't we?
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. And our sins may cause us to
cower in alarm as we think of God's potential sore displeasure,
but it's the blood that tells us what the Father really thinks
of us. And he sees us. Think of this. Let this just soak into your
heart, beloved. If you're in Christ, he sees
us set apart. He sees us already sanctified
in Christ because we're washed in the precious blood of the
Lamb. and we cannot be taken away from
Christ. We cannot be taken away from
Christ. Listen to this quote from Spurgeon. Marvel at this
precious truth that the apostle says that we who are the priests
of God have a right as priests to go to God's mercy seat that
is within the veil, but it were to our death to go in there unless
we were perfect. But we are perfect for the blood
of Christ has been sprinkled on us, and therefore our standing
before God is the standing of perfection, and that's in Christ
only. We're sinners. But God sees us in Christ, doesn't
he? Isn't that wonderful? Scripture says we're qualified
for heaven. We're made meat, it says, and that's qualified
in the Greek. We're qualified for heaven, how? By the blood
of the Lamb. by in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, my. Now, does this give us a license
to sin? Paul says, God forbid. God forbid. Don't give us a license.
And the true believer thrives on fellowship with the Father.
But if we sin and grieve the Holy Spirit, we'll lose our joy is what happens. Therefore, as we grow in grace,
the Spirit of God begins to teach us. And what He teaches us? A hatred
of sin in ourselves more than anywhere else. Doesn't He teach
us that, beloved? My, oh, my. You think of this. I'm going to leave us with this,
too. The blood's already bought us to God. The blood of the Lamb's
already bought us to God, beloved. We're saved and sanctified in
Christ Jesus our Lord. The blood's already made us fit
for heaven. My oh my. We're sanctified believers and
we have continual access to the throne of God in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can come with all our
needs, no matter how small it is, no matter how big it is,
no matter if it's a little or a little big or a little small.
It's all small in God's eyes, isn't it? Oh my. So rejoice, beloved of God. We
are redeemed all because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we are qualified to come to his throne. all because of the blood of the
Lamb. Praise the Lord Jesus Christ for His precious, precious blood
that was shed to redeem the souls of His people. Brother Dave,
can you close us in prayer?