That last congregational song
we sung there is a fountain. That's my favorite hymn. And
that's what I hope to speak to you about tonight, that fountain
of blood. If you would, look at Hebrews
chapter 12. As you're turning, let me tell you what a delight
it is for me to be back here with you, sitting here As we
were saying, thinking, now y'all are spoiling me. I got to see
you two weeks in a row, and I'm getting kind of used to it, getting
spoiled. And I'm very thankful to be able to be with you. Pray
God to give us a word from Him and enable us to see our Savior. I've titled the message this
evening, The Blood Speaks. Let's begin looking at Hebrews
12 in verse 22. But you come unto Mount Zion,
and unto the city of the living God, to 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 the God, the judge of all, and to the saints of just
men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel. And here the writer to the Hebrews
tells us about the blood of two men, Abel and the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that blood speaks. That blood
tells us something, some very important things. Abel's blood
tells us some very important things about mankind, about you
and me by nature. And the blood of Christ tells
us some very important truths about salvation that's found
in him. And if you will, turn back to
Genesis chapter four. We're gonna read here what the
writer to the Hebrews is speaking about, the blood of Abel. Let's
see what happened that made Abel's blood cry out to God from the
ground. Verse 10, you know the story.
We'll go back and read it here. This is God speaking to Cain
and he says, what hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood
crieth unto me from the ground. I want us to see what it is that
blood cried. Why was it crying? Verse one,
chapter four. And Adam knew Eve, his wife,
and she conceived and bear came and said, I've gotten a man from
the Lord. Now I would imagine Adam and
Eve are very much like you and me. They understood God's promise. God promised them the seed of
woman is coming. They understood that that seed
of woman, a man, a child born of woman would come and crush
the serpent's head, deliver them from the curse of sin and from
the power of Satan. Adam and Eve understood what
God told them. And here's where they're a lot
like you and me. They wanted God to fulfill his promise right
now. Right now. Isn't that what we want? I want
God to fulfill his promise right now. I can understand why they
didn't want to wait 4,000 years. Can't you? Poor old Adam. I just, I feel for Adam. He lived 900 years after his
rebellion against God. I mean, I feel for him. He wanted
God to fulfill his promise now. He was looking, Adam and Eve
already, they were looking for the redeemer. And Eve thought
her firstborn son was the man. Thought he was the one come to
redeem them, who would deliver them. And sadly he was not. But they were looking for the
Redeemer. And I point that out. We know they were looking for
the Redeemer. So they were earnestly looking for him. And to this
I know, they're teaching their children. They taught their children
to look for the Messiah too. They taught their children how
were to worship God. were to worship God through a
blood sacrifice, just like God had taught Adam. And I'm sure
these boys, they saw their father, Adam, offer sacrifices to God
many times. That was how God was to be worshiped.
They taught their children that, because this was very important
to them, the Messiah coming to deliver them. Verse two, and
she again bear his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of the
sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process
of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of
the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought
of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the
Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering. But unto Cain and
his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and
his countenance fell." Now Cain and Abel Unlike the pictures
we see in children's picture books, these are not the two
boys. They're full-grown men who are head of their own homes.
Otherwise, if they were boys, Adam would have been offering
the sacrifice for the home. They're two full-grown men offering
the sacrifices for their home, and they bring their sacrifices
to God. And here's the first thing that
the blood of Abel speaks. The blood of Abel speaks of man's
sin nature. Now, man is a sinner. All of
us were made sinners in Adam, and that's all we can do, is
sin. That's the only nature Adam had
to pass on to us, a nature of sin. And our sin nature is seen
most clearly, not in what we think of outward sins. You know,
Henry used to talk about the honky-tonks, and that's not where
our sin's most clearly seen. Our sin nature is most clearly
seen in our self-righteousness. trying to earn God's favor, trying
to earn our way to God, trying to come to God our own way by
our own works instead of coming the way that God has commanded
us to come. And you know why we do that? Because we're natural
born rebels. We say, no, I'm going to do it
my way. No, I am so self-righteous. I think I'm good enough. to come
to God by my own works. God's gonna be happy with me
by what I do. And that's exactly what Cain
did. He came to God by his own works, the fruits and vegetables
of his garden. And when he did that, you know
what he did? He was denied he's a sinner. He didn't bring a blood
sacrifice. It's the blood, the blood, the
blood, the blood, the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
It's the fountain. We're talking about the fountain
of blood. It's the blood and nothing else. And Cain brought
the fruits and vegetables that he grew. And when he did that,
he denied he needed a substitute to die in his place. He didn't
bring a lamb to be killed as his substitute. He brought the
fruit of the ground that he grew himself. Now, I have no doubt
about this. Cain brought the very best fruits
and the very, very best vegetables. That's harder saying what you
might think. that he had. You and I have never seen vegetables
like this. I mean, we've never seen tomatoes and watermelons
and squash. I mean, we've never, you think
how the earth brought forth at this time. We've never seen vegetables
like this, but God wouldn't accept them. because God will never
accept our works. Our works are sinful. Our works
flow from a sinful heart, from a sinful nature. Think about
what Cain did here. I mean, this just shows you the
deadness and self-righteousness of our nature. Cain brought vegetables
that he grew from the ground that God cursed. That's self-righteousness,
isn't it? And that's the works that we
produce. They come forth from a cursed nature of sin. And God's
never going to accept all of our religious works. We think,
oh, I do all these religious things and God's going to be
so happy with me. No, sir. God will never accept our religious
works any more than he accepted Cain's vegetables. Now, our works,
we're not bringing from our garden. But our works are preaching in
Christ's name, casting out devils, doing many wonderful works, going
to a lot of religious service, living so righteously and morally
better than all the rest of society, you know? And all those works
are evil works if they're done without faith in Christ. Those
are good things to do, but they're evil works if they're done trying
to earn God's favor rather than resting in Christ. And the only
reason that we insist on bringing our works and thinking God will
accept them is we're so self-righteous. We're just like Cain. We don't
think we need Christ to die as a substitute for us. It's our
sin nature. That's why he did that. And I'll
tell you, there are a lot of things in our society that promote
sin and violence. It's just unbelievable to me.
And it would be wise for us to keep our children from as much
of that as we can. Too much screen time and violent
video games and hanging around with the wrong crowd, you know?
Do that as much as you can. But listen to me, that's not
gonna stop them from sinning. That's not gonna stop them from
being a sinner, because sin's in the heart. They got that nature
from their daddy. Abel's blood cries from the ground
and testifies, you and I have sin nature. We must have a sacrifice. Number two, Abel's blood speaks
of anger. Verse five says that Cain was
very wroth and his countenance fell. God did not have respect
to Cain's offering. And that word means to look to,
to regard. In one place, the word is translated
to spare. God would not look at Cain's
sacrifice with any respect. He would not spare Cain because
of that sacrifice. Because Cain's sacrifice is based
upon his own personal worthiness, rather than the worthiness of
God's Son. And Cain got mad. I mean, he got mad at God. And
no surprise, that's man's nature. You and I are born mad at God.
We've declared war on God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's not subject to the law of
God. Neither, indeed, can it be. We're born angry with God. I ask you, how many of you, when
you were little and heard this story, how many of you felt bad
for Cain? Thinking, well, he brought the
best that he had. I mean, he did his very best. Why couldn't
he? That's our nature. Our nature is to be mad at God.
And I'm telling you, that's a... And you know what's more? God's
angry with the wicked every day. Yes. Now we've entered into a
battle that we cannot win and our angry nature still won't
submit and never submit unless God gives us a new nature. Here's
the third thing. Abel's blood speaks of hatred
and murder. Verse eight, 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. Now again, we've got kind of
a picture in our mind of this sacrifice from children's Bible
storybooks, but Cain and Abel were not offering these sacrifices
on the same altar, side by side. They were worshiping God and
offering their sacrifice as the heads of homes. And later on,
they got together, just like we do. If I call Fred on a Monday,
you know, the first thing I ask him, how are your services yesterday?
That's what Cain asked Abel, and Abel asked him, how was your
services? How did your sacrifice go? Just the same as we do. And
Cain told Abel, oh, he's angry. He's angry with God. God had
not accepted his sacrifice. He told his brother, I worked,
and worked, and worked, and worked on those vegetables, and grew
them, and cared for them. I brought the best ones. They
didn't have any bruises on them. They're perfect. And Abel must
have been bold. He would not compromise the truth.
He reminded Cain, oh, this is what our daddy taught us. This
is what God taught our daddy. God must be worshiped with a
blood sacrifice. There's got to be the blood.
Sinners can only be saved through the obedience and through the
death of Christ our substitute. And God will never accept our
works. Because when our daddy sinned, we all sinned in him.
We all became sinful and all of our works are sinful. Sinners
can never be saved by our sinful works. Now that ought to be obvious
to us, but it's not because of our dead nature. Sinners can
never be saved by our sinful works. Sinners can only be saved
by grace. Got to be through the blood of
Christ. And now Cain's filled with so much anger for God and
his brother, he killed his own brother. He killed his own brother. The first murder to ever happen
on this earth happened in an argument over grace and works.
Murders proceed from a sinful heart of hatred. Hatred for God
and hatred for other men. That's what Abel's blood says.
Fourth Abel's blood speaks of being a liar. Verse nine, and
the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel, thy brother? And he
said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? Now
Cain knew good and well where his brother was. He hid the body,
and he just lied to God's face. Cain showed us here he's under
the influence of Satan, the father of lies. Satan's the one who
told the first lie to Eve. He said, oh, God lied. Thou shalt
not surely die. and now Cain's acting just like
him. See, man's nature is incapable of loving the truth and incapable
of telling the truth. Abel's blood speaks of man being
a liar, a liar on God, a liar on himself, a liar on everybody
else. All right, here's the fifth thing. Abel's blood speaks of
death. Man must die because of sin. Now, Abel's blood crying out
from the ground meant there had been death. There'd been death,
there's blood on the ground. Abel was murdered. Abel was murdered. That's why his flesh, or his
blood was crying out from the ground. But listen, you know
what that blood says? All flesh must die because of
sin. All flesh. Abel's blood cried
out and said he had died, but I tell you what's more, Abel's
blood cried out from the ground and said, we must die. We must
die because of sin. Six, Abel's blood speaks of guilt.
Abel's blood was crying out from the ground that Cain was guilty. He was guilty of murder. But
again, Abel's blood is not just crying out Cain's guilty. Abel's
blood is also crying out all men. You and me, we're guilty. Guilty before God. Seventh, Abel's blood speaks
of the need for justice. Justice must be satisfied. Abel's
blood was crying out to God, begging God for justice for this
murder. It's kind of like we see on the news often, a family,
their loved one has been murdered. You see them down at the police
station every day, don't you? They catch the murderer. They
put them on trial. There that family sits, front
row, every day. There they sit, listening to
every word of testimony, staring down that defense attorney, staring
down that, looking over there at the jury. They just sit there
stone-faced. What are they doing? What are
they doing sitting there? they're demanding justice for their loved
one. That's what Abel's blood was
doing, crying out to God until God dealt with this murderer
in justice. But again, Abel's blood cries
out in a warning to you and me, telling us God must give us justice
because of our sin. Eighth, Abel's blood speaks of
the curse of sin. Look at verse 11. God says in
verse 11, now art thou cursed from the earth. which hath opened
her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou
tellest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee
her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the
earth. Now God here seems to give Cain
an even worse curse than Adam. He'd already cursed the ground
for Adam's sin, and now brought forth thorns and thistles, but
he tells Cain it's gonna bring forth less bounty now to you,
because of your sin. And here's my question to you
and me. You think your works are good enough to get God to
accept you? Huh? God's gonna make those works
to become more and more and more sinful. More and more and more
of a curse to you instead of a blessing. Just like the earth
brought forth less bounty, if you're one of God's own, this
is where he's gonna bring you. Till you see those works of yours
are producing less and less and less bounty. They're becoming
more and more and more of a curse to you. Then ninth, Abel's blood
speaks of punishment. Verse 13, Cain said unto the
Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Now sin must
be punished, must be. God's holy, he must punish sin. And this is our nature. Cain did the same things you
and me do. He didn't feel bad about what he'd done until God
punished him for it. Didn't seem like Cain felt all
that bad. He must have picked up a rock and smashed his brother's
head. Didn't feel too bad about him when he was doing that, did
he? He's angry. He didn't feel too bad. He stood there, his
brother laying on the ground after he whacked him on the head
and watched life slip from his brother's body. He watched that
blood spread on the ground. Didn't feel too bad about it.
He went and drug that body somewhere and tried to hide it. Never did
tell his family where Abel was. But he sure felt bad about it
when God punished him, didn't he? But it's too late. It's too late. And Abel's blood
cries out to you and me, telling us this, there must be a day
of reckoning. There's got to be a day of judgment.
Our sin must be punished. It must be. Either in us or in
our substitute. We'll get to him in just a minute.
But our sin's gonna be punished one way or another. one way or
another, us or our substitute. And if we don't hate our sin
until God throws us in hell, it'll be too late. If we keep
trying to come to God by our own works, we'll never find mercy
and grace from God. There must be punishment for
sin. 10th, Abel's blood speaks of separation from God. Verse
14, God says, behold, or Cain said, my punishment is greater
than I can bear. Behold, that has driven me out this day, from
the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid, and
I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come
to pass that everyone that findeth me shall slay me." Now here,
Adam had already been thrust out of God's presence because
of his sin. Now Cain is thrust out. He's thrust out from society,
he's thrust away from God's face, and that's what our sin demands.
Our sin demands separation from God, again. It's either in us
or our substitute, but somebody's got to be separated from holy
God because of this matter of sin. Now that's what Abel's blood
speaks. It speaks of sin and warning
to us about our, that tell us the truth about our nature, doesn't
it? Now, let's look at what the blood of Christ speaks. The writer
to the Hebrews says the blood of Christ speaks something far
better, much better. The blood of Christ speaks of
the opposite of everything that Abel's blood speaks, because
the blood of Christ speaks of redemption, salvation in him. Remember, Abel's blood, first
of all, spoke of sin. The blood of Christ speaks of
righteousness. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us
from all sin, from all sin. The blood of Christ washes his
people white as snow and makes them righteous. And the blood
of Christ does more than wash away the sin that's already there.
The writers of the Hebrews said the blood of Christ is the blood
of sprinkling. You know what he's talking about there? He's
talking about the Passover, when the blood, the hyssop was dipped
in the blood and sprinkled on the door. When the blood of Christ
is sprinkled on our hearts by God the Holy Spirit, we receive
a new heart. Our sins washed away, but now
we're given a new nature, a new nature that's sinless, that will
never sin again. They'll never add more of this
debt. If that nature is righteous, it can never sin. So the blood
of Christ guarantees the salvation of his people by making them
righteous. There's no reason for God to
damn them. They're righteous. Second, Abel's blood, remember,
speaks of anger. The blood of Christ speaks of
peace. Look at Colossians chapter one.
Abel's blood spoke of man being angry. Anger that we cannot come
to God by our works, by our self-righteous way, speaks of anger. But the
blood of Christ speaks of peace. Peace with God. You see, the
blood of Christ takes away the sin that makes God angry. So
he's at peace. If the sin's gone, God's at peace.
and the blood of Christ sprinkled on the hearts of God's people
that gives them that new nature, that makes them surrender. That
makes them surrender to God. They stack their arms and surrender
to God, and they're at peace. Colossians chapter one, verse
19. This is what Paul tells us. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell, and having made peace. This is
not something you have to do now. You don't have to make a
decision. Make your peace with God. I never was a real great English
student, but I understand this is in the past tense. Having
made peace. Christ already made peace. How?
Through the blood of his cross. By him, to reconcile all things
unto himself. By him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you, even you, even
me, there were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled. in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unapprovable
in his sight." See, now there's peace. If you're holy and unblameable
and unapprovable in God's sight, you're holy, you're unblameable,
and you're unapprovable. And there's peace. There's peace.
Fourthly, or thirdly, Abel's blood spoke of hatred. But the
blood of Christ speaks of love. Love. Abel's blood spoke of man's
hatred of God and hatred for other men. But look at 1 John
chapter four. The blood of Christ speaks of
love. 1 John chapter four. Verse nine. In this was manifested
love of God toward us, because the God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us. And here's how he
showed his love. He sent his son to be the propitiation,
the covering for our sin. The blood of Christ shed as a
sacrifice for the sin of God's elect, that speaks of God's love
for sinners. See, God doesn't love sinners
because Christ shed His blood for them. Christ shed His blood
because God loves sinners. And those sinners that God loved,
when Christ shed His blood, He was the propitiation for their
sin. It makes them where they have no more sin. I tell our folks at home, it's
a true statement. I love them. I love y'all. I
do, I love you. I'm just checking you all out,
making sure I got everybody. There's not one of you here I'd
sacrifice one of my daughters for. God's got one son. One son. He's perfect. He's the delight
of his father. And it pleased the father to
bruising. It pleased the father to sacrifice
him. It pleased the father to pour
out all of his holy anger on sin on his son because he loved
the people. As a songwriter said, if that
isn't love, the ocean's dry, isn't it? Oh, it speaks of God's
great love for his people. Forth Abel's blood spoke of man's
lies, but the blood of Christ speaks of truth. Men, they tell
lies, they love lies. They'll perish because they will
not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. They
love a lie, they preach a lie. They believe it, swallow it whole. But the blood of Christ speaks
of truth, truth. The blood of Christ enables God
to save sinners and still be true, true to his holy character,
to truly put sin away so God can accept his people in truth.
God saved sinners in such a way that he made it right for him
to show mercy to sinners, because he punished their substitute.
He gave their substitute everything that they deserve. That's how
God can be both just and justifier. That salvation is done in truth,
not by God ignoring sin, pretending it doesn't exist, by putting
it away by the blood of his son. That's what the blood of Christ
says. Fifth, Abel's blood speaks of death. But the blood of Christ
speaks of life. Abel's blood cried out there
had been death, hadn't there? All men must die because of sin.
But the blood of Christ speaks of life. All men must die because
of sin. That's what Abel's blood said.
Christ's blood says all my people must live. They must live because
of my sacrifice for them. The blood of Christ took away
the sin that causes death in the first place. So everybody
for whom he died, they must be given eternal life. They can
never die. Sixth, Abel's blood members spoke
of guilt. The blood of Christ speaks of
innocence. Abel's blood cried out the king was guilty of murder.
The blood of Christ cries out, all his people are innocent. When the Savior, who at this
very moment is seated at the Father's right hand, ever living,
making intercession for His people, He's pleading His blood. His
blood took away the sin of His people. So they're not guilty. They're innocent. They're holy
and righteous and accepted of the Father. Seventh, Abel's blood,
remember, spoke of the need of justice. Christ's blood cries
out, justice is satisfied. Abel's blood cried out for God
to punish Cain for his crime, and that blood would not stop
crying until God came to Cain and said, your brother's blood
called to me from the ground. Justice must be satisfied. The blood of Christ cries out
that his death has already satisfied God's justice. And the blood
of Christ cries out for mercy. Mercy for God's elect. Life for
God's elect. And the blood of Christ is gonna
keep crying out. Keep crying out. Keep crying
out for mercy until all of God's elect appear in glory. It speaks
of mercy. Justice is satisfied. Abel's blood spoke about the
curse of sin. Christ's blood cries out for
blessing. Abel's blood demanded there must
be separation. There must be a curse, separation
from God. There must be death. But the
blood of Christ took away that sin. The blood of Christ took
away the sin that caused the curse in the first place. So
the blood of Christ cries out for blessing. That all God's
people be blessed. I was going to say we live in
a crazy world, and we do, but that's not really the point.
Every believer, as I'm sure felt this way, you go through, you
who know Christ, you believe Christ. You go through every
minute of every day feeling just so blessed. I saw a picture of
a woman today, she had a t-shirt on that said blessed. It was
a mug shot, interestingly enough, I mean, I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't have said that.
That just stuck out. But do you go through, I mean,
really? I mean, I'm not even talking about losing a loved
one, something that's really tragic in your life. I mean,
you just feel like it's just all against you some days? I
mean, do you feel blessed every second of every day? Do you?
Listen to me. If you believe Christ, you are,
whether we feel it or not, blessed of God, because the blood of
Christ demands it. The Bible begins with creation. And that creation story, I'm
going through this at home, that creation story is a picture of
Christ, redemption in Christ. Then God, next page, he creates
Adam. Very next page, it just takes
three pages in the Bible before Adam sinned and ruined it all,
fell into sin. God cast him out of the garden.
God cursed the ground. God gave women a monthly curse,
a curse of childbearing. Everything's cursed everywhere.
And then God gives a promise of the Redeemer coming. That's
on this page. All these other pages tell us,
give us Christ. He's promised. He's prophesied. He's come. Here he is. Look at
him walking the earth, establishing righteousness for his people.
Watch him suffer and die, put their sin away. Here's his apostles
going through the whole world. 12 men, except for Paul, relatively
uneducated, turn the world upside down, preaching this man. Then
they write epistles, great epistles, telling us what Christ has done.
And yet they also always remind us he's coming again. He's coming
again. And all these pages telling us
of Christ. Here's my question. I said all
that to get here. Did he get the job done? We got the promise
he's coming to crush Satan's head and to deliver. Did he get
the job done? Look at the last page. I flipped
over to the last page and read, so I knew the answer to this.
All the pages of the Bible speak of Christ coming to put that
curse of sin away. Let's see if he did it. Revelations
22 verse three. And there shall be no more curse. The blood of Christ took that
sin away and there's no more curse. And his blood that took
that sin away cries out to God demanding eternal blessing for
his people. And here's the last thing. Abel's
blood spoke of separation. The blood of Christ speaks of
union and fellowship with God. Now both Adam and Cain's sin
caused them to be thrust out from the presence of God. And
the whole Bible is written to tell us this story, how it is
that Christ came to restore fellowship with God for his people. How
it is he's gonna bring his people back to God. to bring his people
back to God to have fellowship with him, to have acceptance
with God. Well, again, here's my question,
did he get the job done? That's what he came to do, did
he do it? Well, let's keep looking at the end of the verse, verse
four. And they shall see his face, and his name shall be in
their foreheads. Yeah, he got the job done. Not only will God's elect see
Christ face to face eternally, but they'll have face-to-face
fellowship with him, and they'll be made just like him. They're
not gonna have his name written in their foreheads. What that
means is they're gonna be made just like Christ. I don't know about you, but I
sure do like what the blood of Christ has to say, don't you? Maybe God be pleased to give
us faith to believe it, to believe what we hear, to believe what
we hear that blood cry. To look to Christ and to rest.
As I was preparing this message, I thought about y'all coming
here and leaving out, it's dark and driving home. And I want
you to leave here. Resting, resting in Christ. I pray God will make it so. Thank
you.