Alright, let's open our Bibles
now to Hebrews chapter 9. I titled the message this morning,
The Blood of the Covenant. Now this is a very, very important
subject, the blood of Christ. I suppose a sinful man could
find a way to do it, but I think it would be hard for us to overemphasize
the importance of the blood. I say that because there's no
good news for sinners without the blood of Christ. There's
no hope of the forgiveness of our sin without the blood of
Christ. There's no hope of eternal life
without the blood of Christ. And God has filled his word. He filled his word with the blood. The blood of Christ is the common
thread that runs all the way through the word of God. It's
the blood of Christ that holds all 66 books of the Bible together,
binds them together. The blood of Christ is represented
by Rahab's scarlet thread that she hung out the window. And
Joshua said, now you destroy that city, except Rahab's house,
where that scarlet line hangs. She must be preserved safe under
the symbol of the blood. But she's kept safe under the
symbol of the blood. How much more are we who are
under the blood? All of salvation hangs upon that thread, the blood
of Christ, all of it. All of God's mercy and grace
hangs upon the blood. God cannot be merciful without
the blood. All of God's glory and salvation
hangs upon the blood of Christ. All of our hope hangs upon the
blood. And rather than go through this
passage verse by verse as I normally do, I want us to look at five
words in our text this morning which describe the blood of Christ.
We may come back and look at some of these other verses in
more detail in the next week or two, but this morning I want
us to look at these five words that describe to us the blood
of Christ, the importance of the blood. And number one is
this, shedding. Verse 22, let me get on the right
page. It says, and almost all things
are by the law purged with blood and without shedding of blood
is no remission. Now there can be no salvation
without the shedding of the blood of Christ. That's why he came.
The reason he was born as a baby in a manger is to be a representative
in our flesh so that he could grow to a man and be sacrificed. That's why he came to shed his
blood. Now the shedding of blood tells
us something very important about the nature of man. And I want
us to be very careful. When we talk about the nature
of man, I'm not talking about everybody out there in the world.
I'm talking about you and me. The shedding of the blood of
Christ tells us something very important about your nature and
mine. This is what the shedding of the blood tells us, is that
you and I are completely sinful. Completely sinful. is a whole
lot more evil than you and I imagine that it is. You know, we are
sinners. We have a sin nature. We don't
have anything to compare it to. All we know is sin. I promise
you this, it's a whole lot more evil than we think it is. Sin
is a violation of God's holy law. Now, that's bad enough. But sin is a willful rebellion
against God. It's a willful breaking of God's
law. I tell you what sin is. It's
thumbing our nose at Almighty God. It's thumbing our nose at
His right to rule over us. That's what it is. That's exactly
what Adam did in the garden. Original sin. The first sin.
Adam knew exactly what he was doing. He wasn't deceived. He
took that fruit willfully rebelling against God. He wanted to be
God. He wanted to have the right to
make the rules. And all sin since then has come
from that motive and that nature. It's the nature that we have
today. And our sin, the sin that we are, such a vile and wretched
thing, the only thing that can put it away is the blood of Christ. The blood of God's Son must be
shed. That says something about you
and me, doesn't it? And the shedding of the blood, the blood of Christ,
tells us something very important about the nature of God. is holy
and just, and everything he does is holy and is just. You know,
we think that God can do anything because he's God. Well, not exactly. God can't lie, can he? Scripture
says he can't lie. God can do anything that agrees
with his holy character. God can do anything that's holy
and just and right. Even Almighty God cannot forgive
sin. out the shedding of the blood
of Christ. Because God is holy and just,
that's his character. God's law demands death or sin. God said, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. God can't lie, can he? So the
soul that sinneth, it shall die. God's justice must be satisfied. God can't do anything without
satisfying his justice, his holiness, must be satisfied. And the only
way that's possible for you and me is the perfect sin atoning
blood of Christ. It must be shed as a sacrifice
for sin. Only the blood of Christ can
get the job done. See, the only way God can be holy and still
forgive sin, the only way God can forgive sin and be just and
holy is by punishing our sin through the death of Christ,
the substitute. Now when we talk about the shedding of blood,
what we're talking about is death. We're not talking about going
down and giving a pint of blood. We're not talking about being
out somewhere and cutting our hand and losing some blood so
we feel a little woozy or something. We're talking about the shedding
of blood. We're talking about death. Blood must be fully poured out
so that the body of the Lord Jesus Christ died. Life is in
the blood. And Christ shed his blood and
he died to satisfy God's justice against the sin of his people.
Now this is very important, the shedding of the blood. The blood
was shed before the Lord. Christ did not shed his blood
as an offer to you and me to see if we decide to accept it
or not. No, Christ shed his blood before the Lord, before the Father. He shed his blood and he offered
his blood to the one against whom we've sinned. You remember
the Old Testament priest, and we won't take time to read it,
if you care to this afternoon, you can. But go back and look
at the sacrifices, just on the day of atonement. How many times
does the Scripture say, the blood before the Lord? Before the Lord,
before the Lord, before the Lord. That blood wasn't offered before
the people. The blood was shed and sprinkled before the Lord.
That priest took the blood where no man could see it, into the
Holy of Holies. It was offered. before the Lord,
because he's the one we've sinned against. Well, Christ the Savior
did that, too. He shed his blood before the
Lord, not ceremonially, but actually in the presence of the father.
Verse 23 says it was therefore necessary that the patterns of
things in the heavens should be purified with these with these
animal sacrifices and animal blood, but the heavenly things
themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not
entered into the holy places made with hands, which are figures
of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God for us. Christ offered his blood before
the father as a sacrifice for the sin of his people. Now at
this time of year, many people are just consumed with the birth
of Christ. And I, uh, I thought about, you
know, not tilting at windmills and bringing a message this morning
on the on the birth of Christ. I felt led to to this passage. I've done that in the past couple
of years and a few weeks ago in our study of Matthew. So if
you care to listen to a message on that, you go find it on sermon
audio. And Janet was teaching terrorist
class this morning and she prepared a lesson on the birth of Christ. She was telling me about it.
And I nearly stole your outline to preach this morning, but I
thought Now, this is the message on the blood, but we're all consumed. We can't help it. It's just thrust
upon you, thinking about the birth of Christ at this time
of year, even though we know December 25th is not the day
of His birth. But at any rate, I told you this
last week. I don't mean to sound like I'm
ungrateful for the birth of Christ. I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled that
Christ was born as a man. What a miracle. Isn't that a
miracle? That God, the eternal God, could
become a man. That He would or could become
a man. That He'd become a babe. A baby
held in His mother's arms. And He did it so that He could
be the representative of His people who are in the flesh.
People like you and me. Sinful men and women. But I'm
telling you, I'm thankful for it. But you mark this down. There's no salvation in that
baby. None whatsoever. The only greater miracle than
the birth of Christ has to be the death of Christ, doesn't
it? That God would die? That life could die? And that why he died. He died
for sin. Who did he die for? For sinners.
He died for the ungodly. Scripture says that God died
for the likes of you and me. And the only way he could die
was if he's made sin. God didn't put an Ismael in death.
He had made sin and suffered under God's justice. That's a
miracle. That's a miracle. And while we
are very thankful for the birth of Christ, nowhere in scripture,
nowhere, you search it, nowhere in scripture are we told to remember
or to celebrate the birth of Christ. Nowhere. Tell you what
we're told to remember, the death of Christ. Look over Matthew
chapter 26. We're told to remember the death
of Christ. We're told to remember His sacrifice
for sin. In Matthew chapter 26, this is
our Lord instituting the Lord's table after they observed the
last Passover. Now He institutes the Lord's
table. He says in verse 27, And he took the cup and gave
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for
this is the blood, this is my blood of the New Testament, which
is shed for many for the remission of sins. And he said in another
place, This do. This do, why? In remembrance
of me. Christ shed his blood for the
remission of many, for the innumerable host of his elect. and we use
wine at the Lord's table. First of all, because that's
what the Lord commanded us to do. I mean, it's pretty simple. He
said this too. All right, I think I can do that. And second, we
use wine at the Lord's table because wine, a whole lot better
than grape juice, represents the sinless blood of Christ that
was shed as a sacrifice for the sin of his people. So the first
word was shedding. The blood must be shed. But here's
the second word, and all these words are equally important.
The second word is sprinkled. Back in our text, verse 19, for
when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to
the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats with water
and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book and all
the people saying, this is the blood of the Testament, which
God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover, he sprinkled with blood,
both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. Now
the blood must be shed to atone for sin. The only way God's wrath
against sin can be satisfied is the shedding of blood. But
this is equally important. There is no salvation without
the sprinkling of the blood. And the best example I can think
of is Passover. You know the Passover. They must
select a perfect, spotless lamb. There can be no blemish in it.
They must watch that lamb for however many days that were appointed
for them to watch it, to make sure there's no blemish in it.
They must take that lamb at the appointed time, they've got to
kill it. The father's got to slit the throat of that lamb,
catch its blood in the basin. He's got to roast all of its
body with fire. They've got to take it in the
house and eat it with the bitter herbs and the things that they
ate it with, the unleavened bread. They've got to eat it with the
shoes on their feet, their staff in their hand, their loins girded.
This is the Lord's Passover. But I'll tell you what, unless
that blood's applied to the door, the firstborn's going to die.
The blood must be applied. This is true in the salvation
of God's people. The blood of Christ, it must be shed for the
sin of His people. He's got to die in our room,
in our place, in our stead as our substitute. But the blood
of Christ has got to be applied to the hearts of God's people.
There's no salvation until the blood of Christ is applied to
the heart. And Moses gave us a picture of this. When he sprinkled
the blood on everything that was related to the worship of
God. He just sprinkled blood everywhere. It says here he sprinkled
the book of the law. Now that strike you? Why would
God have Moses sprinkle blood on the written law of God? Nothing
wrong with the law, is it? The law is perfect. The law doesn't
need to be purged. There's no sin in the law. I'll
tell you why the law was sprinkled with the blood. Because you and
I can't keep it. We can't keep it. The law cannot
save us by our obedience to it. We can't keep it perfectly and
God won't accept us. We can't keep any of it. We can't
keep the most minute commandment of the law. But even if we could,
that wouldn't save us. God won't accept the best we
can do. It's got to be perfect. The law has been broken and the
only thing that can cover the broken law is the blood of Christ.
The only way salvation is possible for lawbreakers like us is the
blood of Christ. It's got to cover the broken
law. See, the law speaks to lawbreakers like you and me. It speaks cursing
and condemnation. Well, it's got to be sprinkled
with the blood. The only way God can speak peace
to the heart is through the blood of Christ, the blood that he
shed to make peace with God for us. So Moses sprinkled the law,
the law's got to be covered with the blood of Christ. And second,
Moses sprinkled blood on the tabernacle and all the vessels
of the tabernacle. I mean, you think about it, you
know, I think of the, we've got a model of the tabernacle, don't
we? It's got the, the white fence
and the linen and all these things. But you know, it says here, Moses
sprinkled all that blood. There's blood on that. And this
was just a ceremony, but that ceremony taught us that God is
pure and God's holy. Sinners can only come into God's
presence through the blood of Christ. All those vessels of
the service of the worship of God in the tabernacle, the only
way they could be vessels of mercy and grace is through the
blood of Christ. See, otherwise, you know what
they have? They've got a religious ceremony with a bunch of trinkets.
And the Lord says what? They'll become a snare to them. Without the blood of Christ.
The only way we can come to God is not through form and ceremony
of religion, it's through the blood of Christ. And then Moses
sprinkled blood on all the people. Now I bet that was a sight, don't
you? I don't know, I'm just imagining
this. That I would think that the folks
came there to the worship of God like we do. in our Sunday
best. Can you imagine if I came up
and just sprinkled blood all over your nice new dress? I mean,
and then you go home with blood on your clothes and blood in
your hair, but you've been sprinkled with blood. That was a sight,
wasn't it? I believe I know why he did that. Because we need
a stark reminder that even our Sunday best has got to be sprinkled
with blood. Our very best. We clean up. I
mean, I would imagine in the past few hours, everybody take
a shower, taking a bath. Even our cleaned up flesh is
not holy and God decides it's got to be sprinkled with the
blood. We need a stark reminder that the blood of Christ must
be applied to us or we can't worship. I mean, we can't even
begin to come to God until we're sprinkled with the blood. And
the nation Israel represents all of God's elect. The nation
Israel is given to us as a picture of spiritual Israel. They're
not all Israel, which are of Israel. And all of God's elect,
every last one of them, is sprinkled with the blood, with the blood
of Christ. Look at 1 Peter 1. When the Holy
Spirit applies the blood of Christ to the hearts of God's elect,
that's the new birth. 1 Peter 1. Verse 2. elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit and obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace
be multiplied. This elect according to the foreknowledge
of God through sanctification of the Spirit. Now what's that
sanctification of the Spirit? It's the new birth. It's when
God gives you a new holy nature. And when the Holy Spirit sprinkles
the blood of Christ, He's giving a new heart. A new heart that's
holy and pure and sinless. And that new heart has faith
in Christ. It's through obedience. That
new heart has faith in Christ. It's in His obedience. Not our
obedience. His obedience. You know what
the obedience of faith is? The obedience of faith is to
quit doing stuff to make God happy with you. Just quit it.
And believe Christ. Rest in Christ. That's the obedience.
And that can only come from a new heart that God's given you. He
must apply the blood to the heart or we'll never have this new
heart. And that's why I said this earlier. It's just the blood
must be shed. But it's just important the blood's
got to be sprinkled because there's no salvation without the new
birth. And God's people have both. Both
shedding and sprinkling in the blood of Christ. Here's the third word. It's purged. Verse 22 says, And almost all
things are by the law purged with blood. For without shedding
of blood is no remission. Now this word purged, it means
clean. Something that's made clean.
We talked about sin a minute ago. It's violating. It's not
keeping God's holy law. But we somehow think of sin as
just breaking the rules, you know. But sin is a whole lot
more than breaking the rules. Sin is uncleanness. A sinner,
scripture says, is an unclean thing. You and I are defiled
by sin. Through and through, defiled
by sin. We're unclean. The wall of the
leper. Remember when a leper, the priest
said, you got leprosy. He had to get out of the camp.
He had to get away from people. And if anybody got anywhere near
him, he had to shout, unclean. Don't come near me. I'm unclean.
Everything I touch becomes unclean. Everything I touch becomes defiled
by sin. So the only way we can be made
clean, the only way we can be purged of our sin is in the blood
of Christ. And only the blood of Christ
can cleanse us from our sin. Don't think you can clean yourself
up and God will accept you. Cleansing is not possible any
other way other than the blood of Christ. Now, in the Old Testament
law, some things were ceremonially purged with fire or with water,
but never sin. Sin was only ever purged by blood,
because that's given to us as a picture. The only place our
sin can be forgiven, the only way our sin can be purged is
by being washed in the blood of Christ. And what a miracle
that the blood of Christ has purged His people and made them
white as snow. without any sin. Look at Psalm 51. You and David's
sin with Bathsheba was exposed. He confessed his sin, didn't
he? But look what he says here in Psalm 51, verse 7. David confessed his sin. There's
no denying it. It's my sin. It's my fault. But Psalm 51, verse 7, he says,
but if you purge me with hyssop, I'll be clean. If you wash me,
I'll be whiter than the snow." And that is exactly what Christ
has done for all of his people. Look back a few pages, Hebrews
1. Hebrews 1 verse 2, God hath in
these last days spoken unto us by son. whom he hath appointed
heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being
the brightness of his glory, and expressed the exact image
of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down
on the right hand of the majesty on high." Now that's quite some
job, isn't it? To purge a number of people no
man can number, to purge them from all of their sin. That's
a job. By himself. Without any help
from you and me. Without any help from anybody.
He purged the sins of his people. He sat down. You know why he
sat down? The job's done. Nothing left
to do. He sat down in complete satisfaction. Purged his people from their
sin. The songwriter said, what can wash away my sin? but the
blood of Jesus, nothing. Oh, how precious is that flow
that makes me white as snow, purged from all sin. You just
cannot say how precious the blood of Christ is. It's the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's son, that does what? Cleanses us, purges
us from all sin, all sin. All original sin in Adam. Every
sin that we've committed. Every sin of omission. Every
sin of commission. Every sin of thought, word and
deed. Everything that we are is purged
in the blood of Christ. So that there is no sin left
in anyone that's been purged in the blood. Now, I bet you're
thinking what I thought when I was making up my notes. When
I look in me, I see a whole lot of sin. And you know why I see
a whole lot of sin? Because all I am is sin. Same thing is true of you. When you look at yourself, you
see sin because that's all this flesh is. There's not one clean
spot on us. You can't put the end of your
pinky on one clean spot. We're completely defiled by sin. I don't see anything good in
me. Do you? Not one. I've never done one righteous
thing Not one. I've never done anything out
of a pure motive. I might have done something that
somebody thought was kind, and maybe my heart really went out
to him. I really wanted to help him. But I'll tell you what was
in me. A motive of self. I'm just telling
you. That's so, isn't it? So how can
we say that there is no sin left in any of God's people? It's
because of how God sees things. God sees his people as pure and
clean without sin. That's all that matters. How
God sees things is all that matters. Now that's comfort for our hearts
as long as we're in this body of sin. That's all I see about
myself is sin. But the only thing that matters
is how God sees me. And here's the second thing that
will comfort your heart. God's justice demands our salvation,
despite all the sin that we see in ourselves. And whatever sin
we see in ourselves is just a fraction of what's there. But if Christ
died for us, if his blood was shed for us, if his blood purged
us from our sins, God's justice demands our salvation. And he'll accept everyone who's
pure and clean. All right, here's the fourth
word. Purified. Verse 18 says, Whereupon neither
the First Testament was dedicated without blood. Now that word
dedicated is purified. Now animal blood ceremonially
purified things that were used in the worship of God. They had
all these vessels that they made up, you know, to be used in the
tabernacle and the temple, but they couldn't be used in the
worship of God until they're sprinkled with the blood. Once
they're sprinkled with the blood, they're purified. They would
be used in the worship of God. It was a ceremony, wasn't it?
To teach us this important lesson, that the blood of Christ purifies
the souls of His people. Not a ceremonial thing, but He
purifies the souls of His people. He made His people pure. He made
them without any sin, without any guilt of sin. How wonderful
is it to go through your life guilt of sin. Christ paid for
it. His blood purified, made his
people without any spot of sin. And this purification was necessary.
Verse 23, it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in
heaven should be purified with these, but it was necessary that
the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
See, the purification by the blood of Christ is necessary. because all we are is sin. We cannot hope to be made clean
by anything that we do, because all of our works are defiled
by sin. We can't hope to be made pure
by the best that we can do, because the best that we have, our best
righteousness, quote unquote, is a filthy right, defiled with
sin. But don't be deceived into thinking
that you can wash yourself and make yourself clean in your filthy
works. You can't wash yourself clean
in muddy water. You know, a surgeon, I watch
them. They wash and they keep their hands out and, you know,
keep away from everything. And you know what they always do?
They always wash those hands. They scrub all the way up there
in clean water. I've never seen a surgeon wash
his hands, get ready to do a surgery in muddy water, have you? Not
once. We can't make ourselves clean
in dirty water. We can't make ourselves clean
by our filthy works. But thank God there's a way to
be made pure. It's the blood of Christ. We're not just talking religious
theory here. How pure is a believer who's
been washed in the blood of Christ? Now how pure are they? I'm telling
you scripture says they're perfectly pure, spotless. Christ did not
die to make redemption possible. Christ didn't die to make the
forgiveness of sins possible. He didn't die to make righteousness,
cleanliness. He didn't die to make that possible.
He died to accomplish it. He died to accomplish redemption.
He died to forgive sin. He died to bring in everlasting
righteousness. So if Christ died for you, brother,
you're redeemed. If Christ died for you, your
sin's forgiven. And if Christ died for you, He
made you righteous. Perfectly clean. Look at Psalm
103. If Christ died for you, your
sin's not there. It doesn't exist anymore. Psalm 103, verse 10. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward
them that fear him. Now there's only one way that
God cannot deal with us after our sins, but just one way. There's
only one way that God can be so merciful to us, that His mercy
is higher than the heavens. There's just one way. It's if
our sin's not there. Because He dealt with our sin
in the person of our substitute. And the sin of God's elect is
not there. Because the blood of Christ purified Him. Verse
12. As far as the East is from the
West, so far hath He removed our transgression from us. Now I love that David didn't
say, that the Lord removed my sin from me as far as the north
is from the south. He said east and west. I'll tell
you why he said that. Because if you go north, if you
go north long enough, you know what? Eventually you're going
to be going south. You're finally going to reach the pole and you're
going to start going south. And if you go south long enough,
eventually you're going to start going north because you're going
to reach the south pole. North and south touching two
spots. But east and west never touch.
Just go east. Look at your compass and go east.
You'll never be going west. You'll always be going east.
And if you go west, I don't care how long you go, you'll never
go east. East and west never touch. That's why I got to be put for
my sins. If my sin touches me in one spot, I'm damned. But
he's removed my sin as far as the east is from the west. So
it can never touch me again. It can never defile me again.
It can never condemn me again. Christ has made me pure. In His
blood. In His blood. So that it's not
there. God said, I've forgotten it.
I've forgotten it. Because it's not there. Now that's
impossible for us. We can't grasp that concept,
can we? If somebody does something to
us and we say, well, I forgive. I'll forgive and forget. And
for a human being, until we get Alzheimer's, we don't forget
it. We just don't bring it up again. But when God forgives
sin, He forgets it. You know why He forgets it? He
said, there's sins and iniquities, why remember no more. You know
why He forgot it? Because the blood of Christ has
purified it, made it to not exist. Now I'm telling you, that's good
doctrine. But this is a whole lot more than good doctrine.
It's the hope of eternal life. It's the only hope of eternal
life a sinner has. The only place to find this good
hope is in the blood of Christ. Now, the last word is once. Once. Verse 25, Hebrews chapter
9. For Christ has not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are figures of the truth,
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God
for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high
priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood
of others. For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now, once, in the end of
the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him.
Shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation? Now the Old Testament priest
had to offer many sacrifices. They had daily sacrifices, weekly
sacrifices, yearly sacrifices. And they had to keep offering
those sacrifices over and over and over again. Because animal
sacrifices are just pictures. But animal blood could never
take away sin. The only benefit to those animal
sacrifices, there's just one benefit, is they pointed to Christ. They kept telling us, somebody's
coming. Somebody's coming. Somebody's
coming with the sacrifice that's going to get the job done. Those
animal sacrifices offered over and over and over again was just
like a hammer, just a hammer, constantly hammering home this
point. We need the blood of Christ.
We need Christ to come and make an end of our sin. And finally,
God's time, He came. Finally, He appeared. And when
His hour was come, He went to Calvary and offered one sacrifice
for sins forever. He didn't have to do it again.
He didn't have to do it again because of the nature of His
sacrifice. He didn't offer anything. He
offered Himself. He offered everything that He
is. put away the sin of His people.
He just had to offer one sacrifice because of the blood that He
offered. It wasn't animal blood. It was His precious blood. It
was the blood of God. Get a hold of that, if you will.
Christ just had to offer one sacrifice for sin. His sacrifice purified His people. And they can never defile it.
They could never defile it. He just had to do it. If we could
defile it, he had to do it again. We had to be washed and washed
and washed and washed. I remember when our girls were little, we
had to bathe them kids every day. I mean, it was bath time
and oh my goodness, you know, my back hurts. You got to wash
them every day. Every day. You got to wash them
every day. You couldn't keep them clean. The blood of Christ
made his people clean forever by one sacrifice, Hebrews 10. Verse 11. And every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which could
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting to his enemies be made his footstool.
For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. World, the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us. For after that, he said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord. I'll put my laws into their hearts. In their minds
will I write them and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. The blood of Christ. Hard to
overemphasize its importance, isn't it? The blood of Christ
is all we need. There's salvation in the bloodshed,
in the bloodstream. There's salvation in the blood
that purifies from sin, that purges us from all of our sin.
And we have that complete salvation in the one sacrifice of our sin. Aren't you thankful for the blood
of Christ? Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, How can human language express
our thanksgiving for the precious blood of your son? But Father,
we thank you. How we thank you for the blood.
And I pray that you would wash us in your blood. That you'd
cause each soul to leave here this morning trusting in Christ. Trusting in him who shed his
precious blood and put away all the sin of His people. Father,
we thank You. I ask that You bless Your Word
to Your glory and bless it to the hearts of Your people. Cause
Your Word to take root in our hearts and bring it back to our
remembrance as we so often need it to remind us our sin has been
put away in the blood of Christ. It's in His precious name we
pray and give thanks. Amen. I wish all of y'all a Merry Christmas. I thank you for your generosity,
your faithfulness. I just can't imagine being anywhere
else with any other people than y'all. I hope you have the best
Christmas ever with your families. Mike's going to lead us here
in a moment in what has to be my very favorite hymn, There
is a Fountain. They're not just a little bit
of this precious, sin-atoning blood. There's a fountain. Oh, a fountain of it. There's
no shortage of it. No shortage. No shortage of its
power to save. I believe the songwriter had this verse in
Zachariah mind when he wrote this song. In Zachariah 13, verse
1. In that day, there should be
a fountain open to the house of David and to the habitants
of Jerusalem for sin. and for uncleanness. And it's
in that fountain of blood that all of our sin, all of our uncleanness
is forgiven and washed away. So Mike comes and leads us in
singing it. Let's let her bring it out. Sing that from the heart.
There you go. Fountain filled with blood. All right.