If you would open your Bibles
with me to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews, the 9th chapter, and
as you're turning, let me tell you, I just found out a little
bit ago that Sandy Holbrook's sister, Lauren, passed away in
her sleep this morning. They found her this morning.
She passed away, so we remember Sandy and that family in prayer.
Hebrews chapter 9, we'll read just a few verses beginning in
verse 11. But Christ, being come in a high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. For the blood of bulls and of
goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctified
to the purifying of the flesh, How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? We'll end our reading there.
All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn to song
number 258. He hideth my soul. A wonderful
Savior is Jesus my Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, And covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up, and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, And covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. With numberless blessings each
moment He crowns, And filled with His fullness divine. I sing in my rapture, O glory
to God, For such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a drunken, thirsty lamb. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. When clothed in His brightness,
transformed to meet Him in clouds of the
sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful
I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. Okay, if you would now turn to
song number 129, At the Cross. so Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight, And now I am happy
all the day. Was it for crimes that I have
done He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity, grace unknown,
and love beyond degree. At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, And now I am happy all the day. Well might the sun
in darkness hide, And shut his glories in, When Christ, the
mighty Maker, died, for man the creature sinned. At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, And now I am happy all the day. The drops of grief
can ne'er repay The debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself
away, Tis all that I can do. At the cross, at the cross where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Open your Bibles with me now
to Genesis chapter 9. I have been especially looking
forward to the service tonight. And based on how much y'all enjoyed
singing, I suspect you have too been looking forward to it. I
trust the Lord will bless us. Genesis chapter 9, we'll read
the first seven verses. And God blessed Noah and his
sons, And said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth. And the fear of you, and the
dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon
every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and
upon all the fishes of the sea. Into your hand are they delivered.
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as
the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the
life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat? And
surely, your blood of your lives will I require. At the hand of
every beast will I require it. And at the hand of man, at the
hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of man.
Whoso shedeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.
For the image of God made him man. And you, be fruitful and
multiply. Bring forth abundantly in the
earth and multiply therein. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
that in your goodness to your people that you have given us
yet one more opportunity to meet together, to hear your gospel
preached, to open your word, and by thy grace, by thy mercy,
by thy spirit, being able to see Christ our Savior, to worship
thee. Father, I pray that you would
give us a special hour of worship We've gathered here together
in the middle of the week out of the cares and responsibilities
and pressures of this life to come together to hear word from
thee and to worship. And Father, I pray that you would
give us that heart of true worship that we might worship Christ
our Savior as he ought to be worshiped. Father, bless us. Bless us as we look into your
word. Bless us as we attempt to praise your name. Bless us
as we attempt to worship. Father, I thank you for this
place that you've provided for us and this family of believers
that you've called together. I thank you for the peace and
the love and the unity in which we can meet together with the
one heartfelt desire to worship Thee. That you've given us a
spirit whereby Christ is King, He's preeminent, that His cause
is first and foremost. Father, I pray that you would
protect it, that you give us the wisdom to earnestly protect
this a place of worship, a place where your gospels preach, that
this might be a place where for many years, if it could be thy
will to you return, that this would be a place where poor sinners
can come and hear of the Savior, that your sheep can come and
be fed and edified and refreshed as we go through our journey
here below. Father, we pray for those who are hurting, who are
sick. We pray that you'd be with your
people. Pray for Sandy Holbrook and her family at this time of
sorrow that you'd comfort their hearts. Others who are recovering
and facing surgery, we pray for Novi that you'd be with her and
give her a kidney soon, that you'd be with Joyce and Barb
as they recover, and that you'd enable us all to come back together
again soon and to worship your precious name. All these things
that we ask, and that name which is above every name, In the name
of Christ our Savior, amen. All right, I've titled the message
this evening, The Blood is for the Lord. And I want us to look
at just a few of the blessings that God's given his people.
We obviously don't have time to look at them all. David said
if I'd count them, they're more than the hairs of my head. But
just a few that are given to us in picture in our text tonight.
And then I want us to look at this. Why God has blessed his
people. What is the basis for all the
blessings that God gives his people? And after we see that,
I hope then we can observe the Lord's table. Remember our savior,
his sacrifice for his people. Here's the first thing I want
us to see. God blesses his people with spiritual life, with the
new birth. Verse one, Genesis nine, and
God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, Be fruitful,
multiply and replenish the earth. In verse seven, he said, and
you be fruitful, multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth
and multiply therein. I touched on this last week. God commanded Noah and his sons
to do something they had absolutely no power to do. They could not give life. They
cannot try as they might. They cannot make children be
born so that the earth would be populated. Only God could
give life. It's a tall order. It puts a
lot of pressure on Noah and his sons to tell them, be fruitful,
multiply and replenish the earth, to command something that you
don't have the ability to do. That puts a lot of burden on
you. But with the command from God came the power from God to
be able to do what he commands. Noah and his sons were able to
produce children. They did repopulate the earth
with people because God blessed them. to be able to do it. And
that's how the chapter starts, and God blessed Noah. God's blessing,
that's how they were able to do what God commanded them to
do. And the picture here is the blessing of the new birth. It's
the blessing of faith in Christ. God commands us, commands us
to repent of what those things that we used to trust in, that
we think recommended to God, and to turn from those things.
and to turn Christ, to trust Him to be our all, to trust Him
to be all of our salvation. This is a commandment from God.
It's not a good idea, it's not something to make your life happier,
you know, if you do it. This is a commandment from God
Almighty to trust His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust Him
as our righteousness, to trust Him as our holiness, to trust
Him as our redemption, as all of our redemption. We're not
to trust our obedience to the law. Live moral, upright lives. Hope you're, you know, honest
people, good neighbors, and all this. But we're not to trust
our obedience to the law. We're not to trust our observance
of the right ceremonies of religion. I mean, it's just so. We have the right doctrine here.
We have the right doctrine. God has showed us how God saves
sinners. He showed us who he is from Israel.
We have the right doctrine. But don't trust having the right
doctrine. Don't trust being a Calvinist or having, we're commanded to
trust Christ and Christ alone. And if you trust him, your doctrine
will be straight. If you trust him, your walk will
be straight. But our problem is this, we're
born dead in sin and we can't do anything spiritual. God's
commanded us to trust Christ and we can't do it. God's commanded
us to believe Christ and we can't make ourselves do it because
we're dead. And the only thing dead men can do is stink. We can't do anything. We don't
even have, not only do we not have the ability to believe God,
we don't have the desire to believe God. We don't even have the desire
to trust Christ. We don't have the desire to believe
him because we're dead. We just can't have any spiritual
desire or feeling whatsoever. Yet God still commands us to
believe on the name of his son. And when he talks about the name
of his son, that tells us who Christ is. It's not just the
Jesus of our imagination. It's not the God of our imagination.
We're to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Savior who's described in this book. Now you trust him, trust
him. But it's impossible for us to do it. It's impossible.
Until God blesses us and gives us the ability to believe. Until
he blesses us and gives us the life to believe. This ability
to believe God, this ability to trust Christ and rest in him
comes when there's a new man born of God. And that new man
believes God. He can't believe anything else.
He trusts Christ. He can't trust anything else.
He loves Christ. He can't trust anything else.
He's going to have no confidence in the flesh. Oh, but he's got
confidence in Christ. That's where all of his confidence
and trust is. Now, you and I don't have the
power to give life. We can't give life physically,
and we can't give spiritual life. We can teach our children, I
can preach to people, but we can't give life. We can't make
somebody believe it. Only God can give life. And God
blesses his people and gives them spiritual life in the new
birth. And God gives that life through
the preaching of the word. When we preach the gospel, what
we're doing right now is planting the seed, sowing the seed, It
could be God will cause it to grow to life. This is how he
does it. This is how he gives life in
the hearts of his people. It's through the preaching of
the word. And I tell you the reason that God hadn't burned
this whole creation up and started a new one yet. He's going to
someday, but I can tell you why he hasn't done it yet. Because
God's still populating his kingdom. The kingdom's not full yet. He's
still populating it. And when all of God's elect,
have been born again, and God's kingdom is populated, it's filled
with all the people that he foreordained that they would be there. All
those people that God chose to save, they're all there. Then
Christ is gonna come again. He's gonna gather them to himself,
but he's not gonna come until his kingdom is populated with
the people who've been given life. And if they have life,
God's the one that gave it. All right, here's the second
thing. God preserves. the life of his
people. He gives them life and he preserves
it. Verse two, and the fear of you
and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth
and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the
earth and upon all the fishes of the sea into your hand are
they delivered. In verse five, and surely your
blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will
I require it. At the hand of man, at the hand of every man's
brother, Well, I require the life of man. Whoso shed man's
blood, by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of
God made he man. Now this is right after the ark
was emptied. It was emptied of the eight souls
that were in it, emptied of all the animals that were in it.
And at that time, there were way more animals than people
weren't there. There were way more predators
than there were people. And you just wonder, do you ever
wonder this? Why didn't some lion or tiger or bear come kill
Noah or one of his family? I mean, you know, they were hungry.
Why didn't they do that? Wonder why some poisonous snake didn't
come up and bite Noah, bite one of his, and kill him. Wonder
why that didn't happen. It's because God put a fear in
the animals to harm a human being so that human life would be preserved.
The animals wouldn't kill any humans until the earth was repopulated. Have you wondered why? I mean,
can you imagine being just in that little confined space for
a year and they got off the ark? I mean, you reckon they ever
got on one another's nerves? I mean, why didn't they just get off
that ark and finally just be tired of one another? Why didn't
one of Noah's sons kill one of his other sons like Cain did
Abel? Why didn't Noah's wife kill him while he was sleeping
or something? She's just, I'm tired of this guy. Why didn't she do
that? because God put fear in their heart. So they wouldn't
kill one another until the earth was repopulated. That's how God
protected the human race till the earth was filled again. Now
here's the picture. This is how God preserves the
souls of his people. Before time began, God chose
the people. He chose to save those people.
He put those people in his son. He chose to save them by the
obedience. by the sacrifice of his son in
the flesh. And then time began. God created
Adam. Adam fell, brought sin and death
into the world. But in God's appointed time,
Christ came. He came. He fulfilled the law. He offered
the sacrifice that had been long promised to put away the sin
of his people. And from the time God created Adam until now, roughly
6,000 years has passed. A lot of water under the bridge
is 6,000 years. 6,000 years. In all that time, 6,000 years,
wonder why none of those people God chose to save died before
they were brought to faith in Christ. Wonder why? And I know
we firmly believe that babies who die go be with the Lord.
And we believe that not because they're just cute little babies
you've never seen. We believe that because the father
chose them, the son died for them. I'm talking about people
who become adults, who become the members of God's church,
believers here on earth. Why did some of those people
die before they ever heard the gospel? I was 16 or 17 years
old, and driving down the road with some of my friends, and
I flipped a car down a hill. Flipped it front to back, side
to side, flipped it two or three times. Walked away without a
scratch. Wonder why? Wonder why? God's people are absolutely indestructible. They cannot die. And to God's
appointed time comes for them to hear the gospel and believe
it. They must. Gotta move heaven and earth to
be sure that it happens. They all will. God preserves
the life of his people with the same power that he used to protect
Noah and his family. Those people have to believe
on Christ. And after they believe him, after
they come to him, they're still going to live until God's appointed
time. Nothing can take their life to
God's appointed time because they've got a purpose to fulfill
in God's kingdom as long as God allows them to live. And I'll
tell you, that gives great encouragement to me. That gives great encouragement
to me to pray for the lost. It gives great encouragement
for me to preach to the lost. There's some that I've known
over the course of the years, it's shocking really to me, and
it ought not be, but it just kind of surprised me. I was thinking
about this the other day. How many people I remember from
the time I was a little feller till now left the gospel? It ought not be baffling, because
we know our nature. But you know what? Could be. Could be the Lord will bring
them back. Could be. It gives me encouragement to
pray for them. It gives me encouragement to pray for our lost loved one. It gives me encouragement to
preach to the lost. It gives me encouragement. You
know, if one of your loved ones doesn't know the Lord, I mean,
they don't want to hear it from you. Well, that's all right. If they're still living, could
be they're still gonna be an object of God's mercy and God's
grace. And pray for them, pray for them.
It could be, right now they're a rebel. I was one day, you were
too. They're a rebel, right? But it
could be God's just preserving them until the time is His appointed
time for them to hear the gospel, to give them faith in Christ,
That encourages me to keep praying for him. Doesn't it you? Doesn't
it you? And then after God saves his people, after he's pleased
to reveal Christ to them and in them, God still preserves
and protects his people. He keeps his people safe in the
palm of his hand. He said, they're in my hand.
No man can pluck them out of my hand. And I tell you, it's
a good thing he keeps us there. If he didn't, we perish in a
heartbeat. And I'm not just talking about
enemies and dangers from without, although in his hand we're safe
from them too. But you know when he's holding us in his hand,
what else we're safe from? I'm safe from myself. I can't
jump out. I can't leave. He's holding me.
He protected me from myself. Kept me safe. He preserves his
people in the palm of his hand. And God's elect do not fall away
from the gospel. They do not quit trusting Christ. Their faith, their strength,
their commitment may not always be on the rise, but they're not,
it wanes, it goes up and down, you know how it is, but they're
not gonna quit. They're not gonna quit trusting
Christ. Trials and temptations are gonna come their way, they're
gonna hurt. I mean, it's gonna rock them,
it's gonna hurt. But those things which drive the unbeliever away,
make the unbeliever mad at God, drives them away from God, you
know what that does for God's children? I try, I'm even the
one that hurts now. You know what it does? It draws them closer
to the Savior. It makes them hug up to Him closer.
You know, they may not like some personality traits of the preacher.
They may not like some personalities of some folks, you know, in the
congregation. But I tell you, they're just gonna find a way
to overlook those things. They're going to overlook him
because they still trust Christ. And they have to worship him.
They have to be where he's preached. And love for Christ. Love for
Christ. I tell you, that's going to cover
a multitude. Not only a multitude of sin, it's going to cover a
multitude of personality differences. We can get by it if we both love
Christ. And Satan will attack. Satan
will try to deceive God's elect and he's going to try hard. I
mean, he's going to try hard. And I can tell you why he's going
to try so hard. If Satan can steal just one of God's elect
away from Christ and cause them to perish, he's won the whole
shooting match. I mean, he's going to try hard,
but he's going to fail. He's going to fail. God's elect
will not be deceived. God will protect them. And I'll
tell you one big way he protects the minds and the hearts of his
people is through the preaching of the gospel. You can't be deceived
if you know and believe and love the truth, can you? You can't
be deceived. Oh, Satan will sift them, but their faith won't fail
any more than Peter's faith failed. You know why? Because the Lord
preserves them. Because the Savior prayed for
them the same way he prayed for Peter. And the point I'm making
of all this is this. God gives his people life, and
he will preserve them. Every last one of them, he's
going to preserve them. till they're all safe in glory. Then
here's the third thing. God provides for his people.
He gives them life, he protects their life, and he provides for
them. Verse three, the Lord says, every moving thing that liveth
shall be meat for you, even as the green herb have I given you
all things. Now here they've, all the animals
and people, they've all come off the ark, and God's gonna
bless the animals. He's gonna cause them to just
be fruitful and multiply and repopulate the whole earth with
animals, all the different kinds of animals. And during, I don't
know how long this time lasted, until it got to reach a certain
point, no lion ate any lamb. No wolf came and attacked any
lamb until there was plenty of lambs on the earth. Now here's
something good for us to remember. God rules everything in his creation. Everything. animal, plants, the
weather, political powers, whoever they might be, God rules them
all. Everything they're doing, everything
they're doing, is all according to God's direct purpose and will,
everything. That'd be a good thing for us
to remember, wouldn't it? God rules everything in creation. And it's not just that he rules
it arbitrarily, he rules it for a purpose. He rules it for his
purpose, for his glory, for the glory of his son. That's why
God does everything so that his son would be glorified. And you
know what brings glory to God's son? The salvation of God's people. God's ruling all of this. I mean,
it just seems awful to us. You just, you can't imagine how
all these different events are working together, but that's
all right. God's working it together. That's all we need to know. God's
working it to accomplish the salvation of his elect. That's
true of every event in history. They all had to happen just the
way they happened so that God's people would be saved. And God's
not done. He's gonna keep doing that until
all of his people are brought to faith in Christ. And then,
when they all have been brought to faith, they've all been brought
to Christ, then God's gonna be finished with his creation. Christ
is gonna come, he's gonna gather his people, he's gonna burn it
up, and he's gonna create a new one. We're in wealth righteousness. We're not going to deal with
this matter of sin anymore. But till then, everything that
happens, God's working together to accomplish the salvation of
his people. And that ought to just give us
peace. That'll just give us peace. And after the flood, I'm just
sure of this, God caused the animal population to just explode
so that the earth would start being filled again. I've had
plants and vegetables and Fruit trees, I mean, I bet those things
hadn't grown so well since the Garden of Eden. I mean, just
fruitful, just everywhere. And you know why God did all
that? To give his people something to eat. There were lots of plants
and things growing, the animal population. They had something
to eat. God said, all these animals,
Noah, they're given to you for meat to eat. Now, let me tell
you something. You don't have to be a vegetarian
because you think it's wrong to kill animals, that you're
taking a life or something. God said that's why animals exist. Noah given them to you for meat. Now, we ought to treat animals
humanely, you know, but they exist to be meat for man. I mean that's just all there
is to it. It seems to me It must be good for us to eat some meat,
or else God wouldn't have told us to eat it. It just seems that
way to me. And maybe you're healthier. People say, oh, you're healthier
if you don't eat meat. I don't know. You might be healthier,
but you're not going to be as happy. I don't know. I'll tell this
funny story. Our son Doug has a friend who's
a vegetarian. And we're going to have Thanksgiving
dinner together. And Doug asks his mamaw. She's
lived on a farm. She's run a farm. She's a farm
wife. He said, ma'am, could you make some green beans without
some bacon grease in them? Because they're vegetarian. She
said, no, I won't. They won't be fit for eating.
I mean, no, I'm not going to. I mean, maybe you're healthier.
I don't know. But you're not as happy. Maybe
I shouldn't have said that, but that's true. If you want to do
it for health's sake, that's fine. But for moral, religious
reasons, God gave animals to exist. for man's use. I mean,
it's just the way God made it, so it's all right. Now I say
all that, now where's the gospel in that? Where's the gospel in
that? Well, here it is. God has protected
his word through these thousands of years, 6,000 years. God created
the world. God created Adam. Nadine from
Adam. And Adam's children knew all
this. Then people, you know, coming
out these generations from Adam, they all knew the story. Then
came the flood and they all died, but Noah. The story of God's
creation didn't die, did it? That story was still handed down.
The story of the flood, that didn't die with Noah. The story
of the world before the flood, that didn't die with Noah. God
protected it until it came time for Moses to write it all down.
And Moses didn't write it all down, just for your information,
from just a bunch of old, a series of a bunch of old wives' tales.
The spirit moved him to write it, to write it in this way,
to give us a picture of Christ. And that, that word, God's word
was preserved. And all throughout the Old Testament
history, you know the history of the Jews, how many times did
different rulers come and just decide they're going to stamp
the Jews out? You know, they're going to take all their gold
and they're burning their city and take all their, the stuff
that they had in the temple and just, you know, they're just
going to just stamp them out. And if they had been successful
and they come in and burn that city, wonder how come they didn't
burn down all those scrolls that contained the word of God? Why
were they preserved? I wonder why. God preserved the Jews, not for
their sake, not for their sake. He told him, he said, I'm gonna
preserve you, I'm gonna deliver you from Babylon. Not for your
sake, for my namesake, I'm gonna do it. You deserve to be wiped
out because of your sin, your rebellion, but God said, I'm
gonna preserve you for my namesake. I'm gonna preserve you for my
covenant's sake, for my promise. This is gonna come through my
word. I'm preserving the stiff-necked
people for my word's sake, to preserve my word. Then in New
Testament times, only God could do this. Different rulers and
religious people, boy, they did everything they could to stamp
out the name of Jesus, didn't they? I mean, they did everything
they could. I mean, wow. I mean, you think
what would have been lost if all those people had been destroyed?
They just killed anybody that preached Christ. They wanted
to stamp his name out. They didn't want the four gospels
to be preserved. They didn't want these epistles
going back and forth from the apostles, you know, to be preserved.
They wanted to stamp this name out. And they failed. They failed. Because God was
preserving his word. So his word could be preached
to coming generations. Matter of fact, the fella who
was at the very top of the food chain, who was determined to
stamp out the name of Jesus of Nazareth, was a fellow named
Saul of Tarsus. God used him to write the lion's
share of the New Testament. He used that very fellow that
was determined to stamp that name out to write the lion's
share of the New Testament. The Catholic Church, they didn't
want the common people to ever be able to read the word of God,
you know. They only wanted it kept in languages
that the masses could never read. And you know what God did? God
revealed himself to a Catholic priest and used that Catholic
priest to translate the Bible into the language of the common
people. So just people barely literate could read the word
of God and see Christ and believe him. God preserved his word. God preserved his word so his
people would have something to eat spiritually. He preserved
those animals and caused the animal population you know, so
people would have something to eat. God preserved his word so
his people would have something to eat spiritually. See, this
is the seed, this book, preaching this book, the reading of this,
hearing this book preached, that's the seed that God uses to give
life to his people. And it's also the children's
bread. It gives life, it sustains life. God uses his word to feed
and to comfort to instruct His people so that they grow in grace.
And just like Noah could take those animals and eat them, God's
given this book as meat for you to believe. And you come eat
all you want. Just come eat all you want. Just like you can have all the
meat you want physically, take this book, take this bread, the
children's bread, and have all you want. That's why God's preserved
it. The very reason God's preserved
it. To give His people life and to sustain their life. All right, here's the fourth
thing, and this is where I began as I was studying. The thing
I wanted to preach on is this. Here is the basis of all of God's
blessings to his people. It's the blood. It's the blood. It's the blood of Christ. Verse
four. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof,
shall ye not eat? Now why did the Lord command
Noah, you have all the meat you want, take these animals and
they're meat for you, but don't eat the blood of animals. Why
do they say eat the meat but not the blood? Well, it's for
this reason. The blood is not for man. The
blood is for God. The blood is offered to God as
a sacrifice for sin. The animal is to be sacrificed,
the blood, is to be offered to God. It's
offered to the Lord as payment for sin. The blood is not offered
to you and me to see if we'll accept it. The blood is offered
to God. God's the offended party. God's
the one that we've sinned against. The blood is offered to pay a
debt to God. It's not offered to see if it
will accept it. The blood is offered to appease
God's holy character. It's to appease his justice.
Without the shedding of blood is no remission. The only way
sin can be atoned for is blood. And it's not animal blood. It's
not the blood of bulls and the blood of goats. Those things
are just pictures. The blood that the Lord told Noah not to
eat is just animal blood, but it's what it pictures that makes
it important. The only blood that God will
accept is payment for the sin that's against Him, is the precious,
sinless blood of His Son. Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice
for the sins of His people. He took the blood into the holiest
of all. He took the blood into the presence
of His Father. He wasn't suffering, saying,
oh, look how much I'm suffering, look how much pain I'm in. The blood is offered to God. Let me show you that one scripture,
Leviticus chapter 17. There are many, many times you
read about the blood before the Lord, the blood before the Lord.
Leviticus 17, here's why all that is. Leviticus 17 verse 10. And whatsoever man there be of
the house of Israel or the strangers that sojourn among you, that
eateth any manner of blood, I will even set my face against that
soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood. And I have given
it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls,
for it's the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." It's
the blood on the altar offered to God that makes atonement for
sin, to give life to sinners. The blood's for the Lord. Now,
eight times in scripture, scripture talks about the blood before
the Lord, the blood before the Lord, the blood before the Lord.
If you read about the day of atonement, you see that often,
it's the blood before the Lord. But also you read this, everything
that was done on that day, from the burning of the incense, the
sprinkling of the blood, the different things that the priest
did, was all done before the Lord. None of it was a religious
show to impress the Israelites. All this was done before the
Lord, before the Lord. That theme is all through scripture. You know, we're going to observe
the Lord's table and you're probably like me when you think about
observing the Lord's table. One of the things you probably
think about is the first Passover. You ever think we observed Lord's
table? We think about that. We on the night of the first
Passover in Egypt, what did God say? When I see the blood, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Not when you see the blood.
When I see the blood, the blood was for the Lord. After you're,
you know, you're the father of that family. You've, you've killed
the lamb. You roasted his body with, with a fire. You took the,
you caught the blood in the basin. You took the hyssop and you sprinkle
it on your doorpost and you went inside and shut the door. And
there you sit eating that Passover lamb. You can't see the blood
anymore, can you? Blood's on the door on the outside.
You can't see the blood, but that's all right, because the
blood's not for you. The blood's for God. God said, when I pass
through the land of Egypt this night and I see the blood, I'll
pass over you. I'll pass over you because when
I see the blood, this is what I'll know. There's already been
death in this home tonight. The death of the substitute.
I'll pass over. When I see the blood applied
to the doorpost, I'll know this. There's faith in this home. faith
in Christ, and I'll pass over because Christ has already suffered
for sin. The blood is offered to the Lord. I'm not sure how this started
in man's history, but I'm telling you, my friend, it's not up to
you and me whether we'll accept or reject Jesus now. The blood
is offered to the Father, to the Father. This is what I read
to open the service, Hebrews 9, verse 12. Neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once
into the holy place. He may enter not into that place
made with hands, not in that little room separated by linen
curtains and so forth. He entered into heaven itself,
in the holy presence of the father with his own blood. And what happened when he did?
He obtained eternal redemption. He obtained eternal redemption
for his people. And that blood is so precious,
it redeemed all of his people and the sacrifice never had to
be offered again. The great transaction was done.
The blood of Christ is not offered to you and me. But what I want
to tell you, sinners sure are blessed by the blood, aren't
we? You know, the only reason God blesses his people, any spiritual
blessing, forgiveness, righteousness, eternal life, whatever, acceptance
with God. It's all because of the blood
of Christ. The blood of Christ is the basis
for every blessing God gives his people. It's the blood of
Christ that cleanses us from all sin. It's the blood of Christ
that redeems us from our sin. It's the blood of Christ that
atones for our sin, covers our sin, and not just covers it and
hides it, but makes it to not exist anymore. Atonement's been
made. It's the blood of Christ that
justifies us. It's the blood of Christ that gives sinful men
and women like you and me boldness, confidence to enter in prayer
before the throne of God. You can have confidence if you
come in Christ's name. Through his blood, you'll always
be accepted. The magnitude of that blessing
cannot be overstated. That a sinner like me and you
can come into the presence of the Holy God, God Almighty, with
confidence, knowing you'll be accepted because of the blood. Because of the blood. Now, we
don't eat the blood physically. It's not offered to us. But we
take the blood by faith, don't we? They even talk about taking
the cup of salvation. Here in a minute, the men are
gonna pass out the wine. And God's people take that. We
take that wine. The wine of the Lord's table
confessing this. When we take, it's not just a
ceremony, this is confessing something. Confessing something
before God, before my friends, before my family. I am so sinful. I'm so vile, I'm so rotten. The
only hope that I ever have being saved is the blood of Christ.
That when he shed his blood, he shed it for me. And I take
it as a confession. He's all of my hope. The only
hope that I have and the only hope that I want is the blood
of Christ. It's the only hope I want. The
Father will always accept that. That's the blessing that we have
from the blood. And we observe the Lord's table.
That's what we're going to confess. This is all of our hope and all
of our plea. It's not just the only one, the
only hope that I have. It's the only one I want. It's
the only one I want. All right, Wayne, if you would,
you men distribute the bread. In Luke chapter 22, our Lord
is observing the very last Passover as he's instituting the Lord's
table. And he said unto them with desire, I have desired to
eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you,
I will not eat any more thereof until it be fulfilled in the
kingdom of God. And he took the cup and gave
thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For
I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until
the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread and gave thanks
and break it and gave unto them saying, this is my body, which
is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. Eric, would you give thanks for
the bread? Thank you, Father, for this opportunity
to gather and worship you. Thank you for this opportunity
to gather and entertain you. Lord, for this prayer, we pray
you bless this, this prayer, this wish. The pictures are born
of the same. Lord, we body you. We prove you. We prove you. Lord, we sacrifice
you. Lord, we give it to God. We take
this, we defense what I, I told you this on this. I need this. But we must have
compassion. Lord, again, we ask you to bless
this for him, all of us. Take off what I say, too, from
his body and throw it away. Thank you, Lord. Bless us this
time over for Christ's sake. Amen. Likewise, also the cup
after supper, saying, this cup is the New Testament of my blood,
which is shed for you. Wayne, would you give thanks
for the blood? Our great God, holy Father, Please, thank you
for bringing us to this service this evening. Show us more of what it is that
we need to know. It is our life. Thankful for
this gentle, gracious, wondrous, and skilled, and done person. He gave his life so that through
his death and resurrection we may have a life, a spiritual
life. Thank you for this. First of all, he's still with
us. He's not taken for granted. You know, he said, at his level,
he needed to see me. You know, the same way that he's
taken me. To come to this place, and for
the first time in two years, to make my voice heard. Broken
bones, for the first time in two years. It's been an amazing
experience for me. Well, it's always a special time
to be able to remember our Lord and to remember his sacrifice. You can't remember what you don't
know. And the Lord has revealed himself to you how thankful we
are for his blood. All right, let's sing about it.
Shawn's got a song for us and we'll be dismissed after that. Okay, if you would stand and
we'll sing song number 212, Nothing But the Blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. All precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon this I seek, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. for my cleansing this life clean. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other clouds I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can pour sin atone. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. No, no other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. O precious is the flow that makes
me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus.