We come in our study through
the different books of the Bible to the book of Hebrews, one of
our very favorites. And you know very well that the
theme of the book of Hebrews is that Christ is better. Christ
is better than the angels. Christ is better than Moses. Christ gives us a better rest
than the Sabbath day. Christ is a better high priest
than Aaron. Christ has a sacrifice that's better than all the sacrifices
offered by the law. Christ and grace in him is better
than the law. And that's what the writer of
Hebrews begins to show us in verse 18 of Hebrews chapter 12. You know, we're not, a believer
has not come to the law. We're not come to something inferior
is the law and inferior is the ceremonies of the law. We're
come to God in Christ. We're not come through the blood
of animal sacrifices and ceremonies. We're come to God through Christ,
which is far better. He says in verse 18, for you're
not come to the mount that might be touched, that burned with
fire, nor into blackness and darkness and tempest. Now that's
the law. The law is represented by Mount
Sinai. Christ is better than the law.
Mount Sinai represents the covenant of the law. Mount Sinai, when
God was on that mountain and He's giving the law, was covered
with darkness and thunder and lightning. That's the law. You read the law, the demands
of the law. And what happens if you break
the law? The law is dark and scary. And the law is dark. In the law, we cannot see how
to be righteous. The law doesn't tell us how to
be righteous. The law just demands that we be righteous and will
kill us if we're not. But Christ, he gives his people
light. He's better than the law. In
Christ, not only do we see how to be righteous, Christ makes
his people righteous. Christ, the light, reveals himself
to be the righteousness of his people. They don't have to be
obedient. He is their obedience. Verse 19, he says, in the sound
of trumpet and the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated
that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. The law spoke
of things that scared people to death. The law spoke things
people don't want to hear. The law spoke of demands that
we can't meet. The law spoke of threats and
judgment and punishment when we don't keep the law. But Christ
is better than the law. Christ speaks things to his people
that they long to hear. Christ speaks to his people,
not of their obedience, but of his obedience. Christ speaks
to his people, not of judgment, but forgiveness for their sin
in him. Christ speaks to his people, not of threats of death
and judgment. He speaks to his people of grace,
things they long to hear. In verse 20, he says, for they
could not endure that which was commanded. They couldn't do it.
And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it should be stoned
or thrust through with a dart. That's what the law always speaks
to men. It's death. The law speaks to
us of death because of who we are. But Christ is far better. Christ speaks to his people of
life because of who he is. Verse 21, so terrible was the
sight, so terrible was the sight of that mountain and the sound
and the thunder and the threatenings that even Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake. The law makes people scared to
death. Even a man like Moses, the friend
of God, The law frightened him to death because of who we are.
But Christ, he speaks of things far better than law. Christ brings
peace to the hearts of his people. So God's people, they're not
come to the bondage of the law. God's people, they're not come
to the bondage of the law to try to keep the law to make themselves
righteous. They're not come to the bondage
of the law and the fear of the law to try to find some way to
be accepted of God. God's elect come to God in Christ. It's far better than the law.
We come to Christ. Now that's the theme of the book
of Hebrews. We don't come to the law. We don't come to the
ceremonies, not coming to religion. We come to Christ because Christ
has already fulfilled all the law. He's fulfilled all the ceremonies.
He's fulfilled everything that God requires. That's what he
says here in verse 22. But you're come to Mount Zion,
under the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men
made perfect. Now, Mount Zion represents the
church. Mount Zion represents the covenant
of grace. That's what Paul told us in Galatians
chapter four. Mount Sinai represents the law,
the covenant of the law. Mount Zion represents the covenant
of grace. So believers are come to Christ.
We're not come to an earthly place. We're not come to a place
on earth. We're come to a spiritual city, a spiritual kingdom, the
kingdom of Christ. And believers come to God, the
judge of all. You think that believers are
afraid to come to the judge. God is the judge of all. Why
isn't a believer afraid to come before the judge of all? Because
we come to him in Christ and he's satisfied with Christ. We
come to the judge without fear because Christ has already been
judged for us as our substitute. We come before the judge, not
in our obedience, but in the obedience of Christ. So we come
without fear. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. You don't fear
the judge. You come before Him without fear because we come
to Him in Christ. Believers come to Christ to be
made perfect. We don't come to the law to try
to find a way for us to be obedient to the law to be perfect. No,
we come through the obedience of Christ. We come to be made
perfect in Christ. And we come to God through the
blood of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is
really where I wanted to get to this morning. Verse 24. through
the blood, not the blood of an animal, but the blood of the
sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 24. And to Jesus, the mediator
of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh
better things than that of Abel. Now this blood of sprinkling,
it's the blood of Christ that the Holy Spirit applies to the
hearts of his people. Just like that Jewish father
on the day of the Passover, he took that Passover lamb It was
perfect. He watched it. He looked at it
very carefully, made sure it was perfect. He took that lamb. At the appointed time, he killed
that lamb. He caught its blood in a bowl. He put the blood,
he took hyssop, dipped the hyssop in the blood and put it on the
doorpost. He sprinkled the blood on that doorpost. Why did he
do that? He loved his firstborn. He cared
that his firstborn lived. God said, when I see the blood,
when I see that blood sprinkled, when I see the blood applied,
I'll pass over you. I won't kill your firstborn because
I see the blood. The lamb's already died at his
place. And when God, the judge of all, sees the blood of Christ
applied to the hearts of his people, God says, I'll pass over
you. I'm not going to put you to eternal
death because Christ, the lamb of God, has already died in your
place as your substitute. And the writer of Hebrews says
the blood of Christ speaks. It speaks better things than
what the blood of Abel speaks. What does he mean by that? Well,
let's look back at Genesis chapter 4. If we're going to find out
how the blood of Christ speaks better things than that of Abel,
we've got to find out what does Abel's blood say. Genesis chapter
4. This is the story, very familiar
story of Cain and his brother Abel. Genesis 4 verse 1. And Adam knew Eve, his wife,
and she conceived and bear Cain. And she said, I've gotten a man
from the Lord. She thought this could be the Messiah. This is
the promised one. She was wrong. He wouldn't come
for quite a while, would he? Verse two, and she again bear
his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep,
but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time,
it came to pass that Cain brought the fruit of the ground and offering
unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of
the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord
had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and
his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and
his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain,
Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? Why are
you pouting? If thou doest well, shalt thou
not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin
lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou
shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his
brother, and it came to pass, when they were in the field,
that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. And
the Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother? And he said,
I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? And
he said, God said, what hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's
blood crieth unto me, from the ground. Now here's two of Adam's
sons. We don't know how many children
Adam and Eve had at this time, but we know these two sons. And
they came to worship God. And they came to worship through
a sacrifice. And I know why they did that
because their father, Abraham, or their father, Adam, taught
them God has to be worshiped through a sacrifice. And you
know that's still true today. Even though Christ has come and
he's put away the ceremonies and the laws, God still is to
be worshipped through a sacrifice. But here's the key. The key is
the same today as it was 6,000 years ago. The sacrifice has
got to be a blood sacrifice. Blood sacrifice. You see, man
has a sin problem. Our sin has separated us from
our God. God cannot. He's holy, so He
cannot and He will not accept us in our sin. So if we're going
to be accepted, Something's got to be done with our sin, doesn't
it? It's got to be removed. And here's the million dollar
question. How? How is our sin removed? Well,
it can't be removed by anything that we do. Our sin can't be
removed because of anything we sacrifice or anything we give
up and quit doing. No, sin can only be removed by
the blood of Christ. It's the blood that maketh an
atonement for the soul. The only way our sin can be removed
is through the blood of the perfect sacrifice. Now, animal blood. For thousands of years, men offered
animal blood on an altar before God. They worshiped through the
blood of an animal sacrifice. But the blood of an animal can
never take away sin, can it? Only the blood of Christ can
take away a man's sin. Well, then why do they offer
all those animal sacrifices? Why do they kill all those animals
and offer all that animal blood before the Lord? Because God
commanded that's the way he's to be worshiped. He gave those
animal sacrifices as a picture of the sacrifice of Christ that
would come, that would take away sin. And men kept offering those
animal sacrifices until Christ came and he offered the sacrifice
for sin. Then we put the picture away.
And we looked at Christ our sacrifice. And when our brother Abel brought
that lamb as a sacrifice, I'll tell you what Abel was saying.
Abel was saying, I'm a sinner. I need my sin to be forgiven.
And the only way my sin can be forgiven is in the blood of Christ
that this lamb represents. Abel's lamb was a picture of
Christ. Abel kept sheep. And he knew
he was going to be worshiping the Lord. On set day, he was
going to be worshiping the Lord. And he looked out over his flock
and he found the first lamb. He found the best lamb that he
had in all of his flock. And he took that best lamb because
it had to be his best lamb if he's going to be a picture of
God's son, of the lamb of God. When God gave His Son, when He
gave a lamb to be the sacrifice for sin, God gave His best. He gave the very best that He
has. He gave His own Son. And if Abel's
lamb is going to be a picture of Christ, it's got to be the
first sling of the flock. It's got to be the best lamb.
Abel's lamb didn't have any flaws. It wasn't sick. It wasn't lame.
It wasn't bruised. It was a healthy, strong lamb
in the prime of life. Just like our Lord Jesus Christ.
He was perfect. He had no sin. He did no sin. Scriptures say he wasn't even
acquainted with sin. He's the perfect sinless lamb of God. And Abel took that perfect lamb. That's going to be a picture
of his Savior. He took it and he killed it.
He slit its throat. He caught its blood. He probably
burned the body on the altar, you know, and he had the blood
on the altar. He shed that blood before the Lord. That's how God's
going to be working. He's going to come through the blood of
the lamb. And when Abel killed that lamb, you know what he was
saying? He was confessing before everyone, his family, anyone
who would ever read this story. Abel was confessing, I'm a sinner
who deserves to die. My sin demands death. And the
only way I can live is by this lamb dying in my blood. That's
the only way I can approach God. That's a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ. You and I are sinners. We deserve
to die. And the only way we cannot die
is if Christ the Lamb dies in our place. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the perfect Lamb of God, had no sin, never did anything wrong.
One day was killed. He was crucified, sacrificed,
bearing the curse of the sin of his people. And when he was
sacrificed, he took his blood into the holiest of all. He took
His blood into heaven itself and He offered His blood. The
blood of Christ was not offered to you and me. He didn't offer
His blood before us. He took His blood and He offered
it before the Father. The blood was before the Lord.
He offered His blood as payment for the sin of His people. And
the Father saw that perfect, sinless blood of His Son. And
He smiled and said, that's enough. That's enough. The blood of Christ
is enough to take away the father's wrath against the sin of his
people. And God accepts his people in Christ. He accepts them washed
in that blood, just like Abel was accepted in his land, which
was just a picture of Christ. That's Cain's or Abel's sacrifice. But his brother Cain had a different
idea. Cain was a farmer. He's a hard
worker. I know he was a hard working
man. He worked hard to till the land
and fertilize it and weed it, you know, whatever, however it
was they grew, you know, plants and things in those days. He
worked hard at it. He was good at it. And Cain was right proud
of his produce. He did a good job. He produced
a good crop. I mean, can you imagine the way
the earth gave forth in abundance in those days? I mean, the way
it produced. And Cain, oh, he had a good farm.
But Cain didn't have any faith in Christ. That's the difference
between Cain and Abel. Cain didn't see Christ at all. And I know that because of how
Cain came to worship God. Both of these brothers, when
they came to worship God, they had some respect of who God is. Even Cain did. They both brought
the best they could find. Both of them brought the best
thing they could think of to come before God. If their sins
are going to be put away, if they're going to be accepted
of God, they knew they had to have the best. Abel brought the
best thing he could think of. He brought a lamb that pictured
the Lord Jesus Christ. He came just like God commanded
him, bringing a blood sacrifice that was a picture of his Redeemer.
Cain, on the other hand, he brought the best thing he could think
of, too. He brought his own works. He brought his fruits and vegetables
that grew from a ground that God had cursed. It's obvious. Cain didn't see Christ. Cain
had no faith in Christ because he brought vegetables that grew
from a cursed ground. That's the best he could think
of. He didn't know Christ. He didn't see Christ. And men
today have the exact same nature. as our father Adam, the same
nature he gave to his son Cain. Same nature. We do the same thing
Cain did when we try to bring our works before God. We bring
the best thing we can think of. The best man can think of is
the best I can do. God, I'll give you my best effort
to keep the law. It's not perfect, but it's the
best obedience I can give you. I'll bring that to you to be
accepted. That's no better than Cain bringing
a tomato. It really is. That tomato grew from a cursed
ground, and our works, our obedience, they come out of a fallen, sinful,
rotten flesh. Same thing is true about all
of our religious activity. You know, Cain came, I'm sure
he was, he had some ceremony about this thing, you know, it
might have looked somehow impressive to us. He arranged all that fruit
and vegetables very carefully. It's the same thing with all
of our religious activity. Men love to look religious. I don't care what it is we're
trusting in, what it is that we think we can bring before
God, if it's our faithful church attendance, if it's our faithfulness
in giving, our faithfulness to be kind and loving, if it's our
knowledge of spiritual things, whatever it may be. All those
things come from us. There are works, there are our
own self-righteousness, something we produced ourself. It's not
Christ alone. It's something we've added to
Christ. Exactly what Cain did, bringing his fruits and vegetables.
Even if we believe, now I know salvation's in Christ, but I
think I can add to this. I can help God out a little bit.
make myself easier to save by acting better than somebody else.
I can act better than my neighbor. My neighbor, I mean, he's a reprobate.
Well, I can act a little better than him, make myself easier
to save. Is that like somehow we've got
less sin to wash away? If we think that, we're no better
than Cain. We've got, we have to come to
God in our own self-righteousness. When we do that, God will have
no respect to our offer. Just like Cain, no respect to
it whatsoever. And Cain didn't like it. He pouted.
He was sad. You know, God didn't accept his
offering. Now, later on, however long it was, I don't know. Cain
and Abel talked about this day. They came to worship the Lord.
Maybe Abel noticed his brother Cain was pouting. His countenance
was falling. Maybe he asked him, Cain, what's
wrong with you? Why are you pouting? Cain told
him. God had no respect. my sacrifice. God didn't accept me. I worked
hard on those fruits and vegetables. God didn't accept me. And Abel
reminded Cain, he said, well, Cain, you know better than that.
You know better. God can't be worshipped with
our own hands. God can't be worshipped with
anything we produce. God's got to be worshipped with the blood
sacrifice, the lamb. God can't accept us in our own
works, our own self-righteousness. He can't accept anything we produce.
We can only be accepted in Christ because we're too sinful to be
saved any other way. Oh, Cain heard that, he got mad.
You want to make somebody mad, you take away everything they've
got. You take away all their works,
everything about them they're trusting in, they'll get mad.
Oh, Cain got mad. He got so mad, he rose up and
killed his own brother. And then he, I don't know what
he did. He smashed him on the head with a rock. I mean, I don't
know what he did. And he watched his brother. He lay there on
the ground. Cain smote him. His blood started
gushing out of his body. Pouring a big pool of blood on
the ground. And Cain stood there and watched. He watched life
slip away from his brother. I'm sure that's the first human
he'd ever seen die. And who knows how Cain felt about
that? Scripture doesn't say. We don't know how he felt about
it. But here's another reason I know Cain didn't see Christ.
He doesn't know God. He doesn't have any faith in
Christ. Cain killed his brother. He just went about his business. Maybe he tried to grow better
fruits and vegetables. Maybe he tried to act better
and do better to make up for his sin. But Cain never one time
begged for mercy. Cain never one time asked God
for forgiveness. He's just like his father Adam. He got Adam's nature. When Adam
sinned, Adam never asked for forgiveness either. He blamed
it on his wife. He blamed it on God. He never asked for mercy. Adam gave that nature to his
son Cain. Cain never one time asked for mercy because he didn't
see Christ. If he ever saw Christ by faith,
he'd ask for mercy. He'd ask for cleansing and that
sacrifice, but he didn't do it. And then how long it was later
after Cain killed his brother? I don't know. God waited a while
probably. And then God spoke to Cain. He
said, Cain, where's your brother? Your brother's blood crieth to
me from the ground. Well, what was Abel's blood crying?
What does the blood of Abel say? Let me give you about three things.
Show you how what the blood of Christ speaks better things than
what the blood of Abel speaks. Number one, the blood of Abel
cries the nature of man. The blood of Abel cries sin. The blood of Abel cries guilt. The blood of Abel cries both
sin against God and sin against man. The blood of Abel cries
guilty. I'm guilty of every sin. I'm guilty of self-righteousness.
I'm guilty of trying to come before God on what I can do.
I'm guilty of rebellion against God. I refuse to come to God,
God's way. God says there's a way to come
to Him and be accepted and I refuse to do it. That's open rebellion
against God. I'm guilty of every sin. The
blood of Abel cries murder. Somebody bashed me in the head
and shed my blood and took my life away from me. It cries I'm
guilty of murder. The blood of Abel cries I'm guilty
of lying. God comes to Cain. He said, Cain,
where's your brother? Cain said, I don't know. What
a liar. That's what Abel's blood cries
about our nature. We're guilty of every sin. Abel's
blood cries hatred. Abel's blood cries hatred against
God. Man hates God's way to come to
him. We've got to come to him naked.
We've got to come to him with nothing good about ourselves,
wholly and totally, completely relying on Christ alone to save
us. Man by nature hates that way. We don't want that way to
come to God. We want some of my own merit,
not all of Christ. And you know why man hates that
way? Because man by nature hates God. Cain, his greatest anger
really wasn't at Abel. His greatest anger was at God.
He just took it out on Abel. The blood of Abel cries, man
by nature hates God. And the blood of Abel cries,
man's hatred for our fellow man, even our own brother. We hate him so much we'll kill
him if we're trying to take away our self-righteousness. That's
what the blood of Abel cries. But the writer to the Hebrews
tells us that the blood of Christ speaks of better things than
that of Abel. What does the blood of Christ
speak? Blood of Christ speaks the nature of God. Abel, his
blood speaks the nature of man. The blood of Christ speaks the
nature of God. Abel's blood spoke of sin. The
blood of Christ speaks of the forgiveness of sin. Oh yes, we're
full of sin, black with sin, polluted with sin, but we're
washed white as snow in the blood of Christ. Abel's blood speaks
of guilt. The blood of Christ speaks of
justification. not guilty, made not guilty in
his blood. Abel's blood spoke of hatred.
The blood of Christ speaks of love. The blood of Christ speaks
of God's love for sinners. You know how I know for sure
God loves sinners. He sacrificed his own son to
save him. He shed the blood of his own
son to save him. Oh, yes. God loves sinners. The
blood of Christ speaks of grace. Not man's merit, not what he
can earn, but grace, salvations and a free gift of God's grace
through the blood of Christ. The blood of Abel speaks of separation
from God because of our sin. The blood of Christ speaks of
reconciliation with God because he took away the sin of his people.
Abel, his blood cried that man's a sinner. The blood of Christ
cries he's made his people righteous in him, washed them from their
sin in his blood. Second, the blood of Abel cries
death. Wherever you see death, it's
always the result of man's sin. I don't care if it's a human
death, if it's animal death, if it's plant death. Anything
that dies on this earth dies because of man's sin. By man
came death. By man's sin came death on the
whole creation. And Abel's blood cries out, man
deserves to die. I deserve to die. All mankind
deserves to die because we're sinners. We're all sinners who
deserve to die because scripture says, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. That's what Abel's blood cries.
We deserve to die. The end of all flesh is death. Death because of sin. And you
just don't have to go very far to be reminded of that time and
time and time again. I stood this week beside a dear
woman who's heartbroken, because in that casket lie the body of
her husband. The end of all flesh is death. You just don't have to go very
far to be reminded of it. That's what ables blood cries.
All but the blood of Christ speaks better things than that of Abel.
The blood of Christ cries life. There's life in Christ. The blood
of Christ says, Christ has already died for his people. Then they
can never die. He said if the blood separated
from the body, there's death. Christ has died. Then Luke, his
people can never die. Your substitutes already died.
You can never die. Oh, that's much better than Abel,
isn't it? There's life in the blood because the blood of Christ
removes the sin that causes death. If sin's gone, The reason for
death is gone. There can't be any death if sin
has been taken away. That's what the blood of Christ
cries. Sin's been removed. There's life
in Christ. And third, the blood of Abel
cries for vengeance. There's been a murder and the
murderer must be punished. And I'm here to tell you that
cry reaches the ear of God. God's ear is not heavy that it
can't hear. There's nothing that goes on
in this creation if God doesn't know about it. He hears. And
God will deal with it. Now He's gonna deal with it.
He'll deal with sin and judgment. He may not deal with somebody
in this life, but He's gonna deal with it in the next. Those
who've sinned against God, He's gonna deal with them. He may
let them prosper in this life, but He'll deal with them. Those
who've sinned against poor, helpless people who have abused them and
mistreated them and take advantage of them, Seems like God never
deals with them in this life, but he will. In the next life,
he'll deal with them. Abel's blood cries out for justice
against sin. Sin must be punished. He cries out for justice. The
blood of Christ, though, speaks better things than that of Abel.
The blood of Christ cries, justice has already been satisfied. Lord
Jesus Christ was the only perfect man to ever live. He did no sin. He didn't even know sin. Yet
he died the most horrible death any of us know anything about.
Why? If he had no sin, why did he
die? Because the sin of God's elect was charged to him. The
father made him sin for his people. And Christ died under the wrath
of God against sin. If you listen to me, Christ died
in justice. Justice demanded he die because
he was made guilty of the sin of his people. At Calvary, an
innocent man did not die. At Calvary, we seek justice.
The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, got exactly what he deserved
because he died bearing the sin of his people. And his death
satisfied God's justice for his people. The blood of Christ removed
the sin of his people. He was made sin for us who knew
no sin, that he might make us the righteousness of God in him.
Christ died the death. Justice demanded that we die.
So if we believe on Christ, we can never die. If Christ died
for you, you can never die because that would be unjust. Would it
be unjust for God to kill both Christ and you for the same sin?
God's just. He'll never do something so unjust.
If Christ died for you, you can never die because justice has
already been satisfied. That's what the blood of Christ
speaks. Now, I'll tell you what brought me to this text. A week
or two ago, Brother Eric Floyd was telling me he taught a lesson
to his class over here in the study about Cain and Abel. And he asked his class, he said,
what did it mean? when Cain brought those vegetables before the Lord.
He brought his own works to the Lord. Do you know what that means?
One of those children raised their hand and said, I know what
it means. It means Cain didn't think Christ was enough. He had
to bring something else. And Eric said, that's it. That's
what he's been teaching. And that's what I've been trying
to teach us this morning. The blood of Abel says, I need a
sacrifice to pay for my sin. I need a substitute to die for
me. because my sin demands I die.
The blood of Christ says Christ is all you need. Christ is all
you need. Don't bring anything else to
it now. He's all you need. The blood of Christ says His
blood, His sacrifice has put away the sin of His people. He's
made them righteous. Sin has been forgiven. under
the blood of Christ. There's peace and reconciliation
with God through the blood of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, that's a good cry, isn't
it? Isn't that a wonderful gospel? What a better cry than that of
Abel. What a better sacrifice than
anything we could bring. The blood of Christ speaks. I
pray God will give us an ear to hear it, don't you? All right,
Lord bless you.