Turning there, we're going to
observe the Lord's table together tonight, and Luke Coffey is going
to preach for us. Romans chapter five, verse nine. much more than being now justified
by his blood. We shall be saved from wrath
through him. For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, the blood
shedding of his son, much more being reconciled, we should be
saved by his life. You'll notice the phrase in verse
nine, his blood. That is what I want to speak
upon. His blood. Now, if we could see Old Testament
worship, divinely instituted, inspired by God, we would be
struck with the amount of blood that was shed. Right after the fall, what did
our first parents witness? God slaying an animal. and they saw blood being shed. How did they feel? They weren't
real sure what this meant. What is this thing of blood shedding? The first story after the fall,
Cain and Abel. One man brought up blood sacrifice,
Abel. The other man brought a bloodless
sacrifice, Cain. Cain was rejected by God. God refused to regard him. He had no respect for him, but
under Abel and his offering, that bloody sacrifice, the scripture
says God had respect. Under the Old Testament economy,
millions Millions of animals were sacrificed through the centuries. There was the morning and the
evening sacrifice every single day. There was the sin sacrifice.
There was the trespass offering. There was the great day of atonement
when the high priest went in once into the holy place. And
the scriptures points this out, not without blood. Not without blood. The Passover. An act of judgment
against Israel. And against Egypt. Israel was
punished in the Passover. You see, all sin must be punished.
It was an act of judgment. Israel was punished in the Passover. The substitutionary lamb. God
said, this is God's speech. This is what God said. He said,
when I see the blood, he didn't say when I see your faith, he
didn't say when I see your repentance, he didn't say when I see your
reformation or your effort to doing better. He said, when I
see the blood, there's one thing he's looking for. One. When I
see the blood, I will pass over you. All of this blood shedding, is
this primitive? Is this barbaric? Is it violent? What is all of this blood shedding
about? Because you read the scriptures,
there's a lot of emphasis on the shedding of blood. Why? Leviticus chapter 17, verse 11,
we just read, it is the blood that maketh atonement. for your
soul. Do you see your need of atonement?
Your need of God to do something for you to make you acceptable?
And there's nothing that you can do to make atonement for
your sin. There's nothing you can be to
make atonement for your sin. You're in need of Him to do something
for you. It's the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul. Hebrews 9.22 says, without the
shedding of blood, There is no remission of sins. Now what I'm getting ready to
say, when you hear it, your conscience will verify that this is so. God is just. Does your conscience agree with
that? God is just. He's absolutely impartially just. He will neither condemn the innocent
nor clear the guilty. God is just. Proverbs 17, 15 says, he that
justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just, even
they both are an abomination to the Lord. God is just. In Exodus 34 verse seven, he
said regarding himself, I will by no means clear the guilty. God is just and your conscience
verifies right now that that's so. God is just. Genesis 18, 25, shall not the
judge of the earth do right? God is just and he imposes his
righteous law. There is such a thing as right,
absolute right. And there is such a thing as
wrong. And the reason that is true is
because God is If there is no God, there's no right and wrong. Survival of the fittest. That's
what evolution teaches, the survival of the fittest. You can't really
prove there's a right or there's a wrong about anything, but if
God is, there are moral absolutes, there are rights and there are
wrong, and God rewards the righteous and he punishes the wicked. Notwithstanding all the apparent
inequalities and injustices that happen daily, notwithstanding
the prosperity of evil men and the afflictions of the righteous,
God is just in all his ways and holy in all his works, and he
will make every wrong right. Now, God's justice is seen in
the punishment of sin. Now, please stay with me. God's
justice is seen in the punishment of sin. There is such a thing
as sin and God's justice demands that he punish it. Understand
the primary reason for his punishment of sin is not reform. You know, we call prisons reformatories,
where we're wanting people to reform and to do better. God's
reason for the punishment of sin is not to reform. When someone commits a grievous
crime against humanity, in our hearts, we know that crime must
be punished. Not for reform, but because It's
the right thing to do. Sin must be punished. We know this naturally. God's reason for punishment is
not reform. I remember one time I was talking
to a preacher and I asked him about a member in his congregation. that I knew, and he said, he's
under discipline right now. What happened? He said, but understand
this, it's not punitive, it's reformatory. I said, oh, OK. Makes me feel better. But God's
punishment is never for reform. It is punitive. It's the right
thing to do. And your conscience owns this.
The prevention of crime is not the primary reason for punishment,
the punishment of sin. Their rights and their wrongs,
because God is, their moral absolutes and sin must be punished. Do
you believe that? Let's take a severe case. Let's
say there's a cold, unfeeling, cold-blooded, unremorseful pedophile
who commits atrocious acts against children, should he be punished? Yes. Yes, he should be. Sin produces misery. Holiness
produces happiness. But if ever, you know, I said
this in the Bible study class this morning, can you imagine
what a paradise on earth this would be if everybody kept the
Ten Commandments? There wouldn't be misery, would there? There must, we're talking about
the shedding of blood. There must be a satisfaction
to justice before sin can be forgiven. What would you think of a judge
who just arbitrarily, somebody committed a crime says, ah, you're
forgiven. Go back out in society. Well, we couldn't have a judge
like that, could we? It would be wrong. It would be against
justice. It would be sinful. It would
be evil, sin, crime, must be punished. It would be contrary
to the justice of God to merely forgive sins without the punishment
of the offender. Now, if a man commits a crime,
you know, the reason men have a hard time with this, and they
really don't think sin against God is all that bad, and they
don't see why God would be so severe as to send men to hell
and punishing bloodshedding and so on, because they don't really
see sin to be the infinite evil as it is. But even in our human
systems, if a man commits a crime, we don't just up and arbitrarily
indiscriminately say, you're forgiven. Go back. No. There
must be punishment to the crime. Now, I'm so thankful for our
texts in Romans chapter 5 verse 9 when it says being now justified
by his blood. He doesn't merely say we're forgiven
by his blood or shown mercy through his blood, but it says we're
actually justified by his blood. Now the Lord Jesus Christ came
to shed his blood. I want you to think about that.
He came to die. Now, if he merely lived a perfect
life and then went back to heaven, what good would that do me or
you? You know it wouldn't do any good
at all. As a matter of fact, all it would do is condemn us
all the more. If he simply came here and lived
this perfect, glorious life and went back to heaven without the
shedding of his blood, it would do no good for us at all. But in Gethsemane's garden, when
he cried out, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me, and
he began to sweat great drops of blood, his blood shedding
had begun. When they beat him with the cat
of nine tails, ripping the flesh off of his back, When they ripped
the beard out of his face and pressed the crown of thorns upon
his head, blood was being shed. When they nailed him to a cross,
his hand and his feet, blood was being shed. When they took
the spear and thrust it through his side, blood was being shed. He died. The Lord Jesus Christ
shed his precious blood and he died. And right before this took
place in the last supper with his disciples, he said, when
he was instituting the Lord's table, he said, this is the blood
of the New Testament, which was shed for many for the remission
of sins. The blood of the New Testament.
I love thinking about this. Do you know the New Testament's
a whole lot older than the Old Testament is? Whole lot older. You see, Christ is called the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He came to die. What shall I
say? Father saved me from this hour,
but for this cause came I into this hour. His blood is called
the blood of the everlasting covenant in Hebrews chapter 13
verse 20. Now I want you to think of that.
The blood of the everlasting covenant. It's a covenant that
never began and will never know any ending. It's an everlasting
covenant. It's a covenant, a promise, that
God made with Christ. He said, I'm going to give you
these people. And you're going to shed your precious blood to
pay for their sins. And they're going to be your
spotless bride forever. And Christ said, I'll do it. I agree to be surety for them. I agree to save them from their
sins. And all this was done before
any creation. That's impossible to get hold
of. But it's so, the blood of the
everlasting covenant, the covenant of grace sealed by his blood. Listen to this scripture, Hebrews
9, 12 says, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his
own blood, he entered once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. That's what his blood did. I think of him presenting his
own blood to his father. And what he did in doing that,
he obtained. That means he got it. That means
he got it. That means he got the job done.
Whatever it was he came to do, he did it with his own blood. He saved his people from their
sins. The Lamb slain from all eternity
was slain in time. And by the shedding of his blood,
he obtained. Don't you love that word? He didn't make redemption available. He didn't make a provision for
redemption. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. Now, what I'd like to do, I'm
going to quote a number of scriptures. You can write them down. I'm
not going to have you look them up. You can write them down, but that
lets us know what his blood actually did. The first thing is in our
text in Romans chapter 5 verse 9, being now justified by his
blood. Justified. Now what a glorious
thought that everybody he died for are justified. You know what that means? That
means if I'm justified that means I never sinned. It means I have
no guilt. I've always done that which is
right, and I've never done that which is wrong. You say, but
that's not so. Yes, it is, because His blood
washed away my sin. I have no sin. Therefore, I stand
before God justified, without guilt. Perfectly righteous right
now. And this isn't some kind of paper
that says I'm justified. I am justified in the very sight
of God. That's who I am. Being now justified
by His blood. You see Hebrews 1.3 says He by
Himself purged our sins. My sin is God. I have nothing
but perfect righteousness before God. That's what he did by his
blood. Don't you love that? Now, when
I think of my sin becoming his sin and him bearing the guilt
and the shame of it, it makes me feel bad. I mean, it does. It makes me to think that the
things that go on in me are placed in him and he bore the guilt
and shame of it. But I sure am thankful. By the shedding of his blood,
there's complete justification. Look in Romans chapter five,
verse 10. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to
God by the death of his son, the shedding of his blood, complete
reconciliation. God is reconciled. He doesn't
have a reason to be mad at me. That's what the Lord's blood
did. In Hebrews chapter 13, verse 12, we read, Wherefore, Jesus,
that he might sanctify the people. You know what sanctify means?
Means make holy. Therefore, Jesus, that he might
sanctify the people by his own blood, suffered without the gate. without the camp. Hebrews 10
10 says by the witch will by God's will we are sanctified
holy by his blood once for all through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ. Now here's what his blood has
done. His blood made everybody he shed
it for holy. You know, I used to read that
song where David said, but I am holy. And I thought, can I really
say that? Honestly, can I say that? Yes,
I can. Because his blood made me so. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. By that offering, he sanctified,
he made holy all of his people. When Christ said, it is finished,
God declared concerning Todd Norbert, he's holy. He's holy. He's sanctified. He's sanctified
to me. In Acts chapter 20, verse 28,
we read, feed where Paul said to the Ephesian elders, feed
the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. I've been
purchased. You know, I love this thought.
I'm not my own. I belong to him. I've been bought
with a price and I am his. He purchased me. I am his. He bought me with a price. Ephesians chapter one verse seven
says, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. All of my sins because of his
precious blood, all of my sins, including the ones I've not yet
committed are forgiven sins. because of the redemption that
I have, the deliverance I have through the shedding of his blood. All sins are forgiven. Colossians 1 20 says, having
made peace through the blood of his cross. You know, I have peace. A lot of things that trouble
me. But I have peace and my peace is this, He made my peace. God's at peace with me through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has no reason to be angry
with me. He's perfectly satisfied with
me. He's at peace with me. He has no reason for anger. Why? the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That blood washed away sin. Having made peace through the
blood of his cross. Revelation 1 5 says he washed
us from our sins in his own blood. They're not on us anymore. They've
been washed away. He washed us from our sins in
his own blood. Revelation 7 14 speaks of those
who wash their garments and made them white in the blood of the
lamb. Now, what's that mean? I was passive in this thing of
him washing me. He washed me from my sins before
I was even born. But you know what I do in time?
I wash my garments white in the blood of the Lamb. Right now,
I look, the only way my garments are white is through the blood
of the Lamb. And this is the only place I'm looking. We plead
the blood, don't we? Do you ever plead the blood?
Lord save me because of the blood of your son. That's washing our
garments and making them white in the blood of the lamb. First
John 1 7 says the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son cleanses us
from all sin. purged, purified is the word,
Hebrews 1, 3, when he had by himself, I love the way it says
by himself. That means with no help from
me. No help from anybody. He did this all by himself when
he had by himself purged our sins. Cleansed him, purged him away,
made purification. He sat down at the right hand
of God. Ephesians 2, 4 says we are made
nigh by the blood of Christ. Made near, a people near to him. I love that him near, so near
to God. nearer I cannot be for in the
person of his dear son I'm as near to God as he dear so dear
to God dear I cannot be For in the person of his dear son, I'm
as dear to God as he. However dear Christ is to God,
that's how dear everybody he died for is to God, because he
shed his precious blood for them. Oh, don't you understand why
Peter spoke of the precious blood of Christ? Hebrews 10 19 says we have boldness to enter the holiest by the blood
of Jesus. It's not boldness because of
something I think about myself. That boldness we have to enter
into God's presence into the holiness is how? By the blood
of Jesus, by a new and a living way. That word new means freshly
slaughtered. The blood of Christ is never
old. It's always powerful to the Father. It always speaks
peace. It's not something that happened
a long time ago. It's always fresh. By a new and
a living way. His sacrifice is the living way,
not bringing a dead animal. We have boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Now I'd like you to turn with
me to this scripture. Turn to Revelation 12. Verse nine. And the great dragon was cast
out. That old serpent called the devil
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out
into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation
and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his
Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down. which accuse them before God,
our God, day and night. Now, I think, Satan, what a,
oh, may the Lord deliver me from him. I don't want to have anything
to do with him. But I know this, according to
the scripture, he accuses me. He accuses me to God. He says, he did this. He did
that. I saw it. He thought these accusations
he brings to God. He did this. This one who says
he's your servant, he did this and he did that. And do you know
that every accusation he makes are in false? Does he have to
lie? Does he have to make up things?
No. The word devil means the accuser. That's his office. He's the accuser
of the brethren. He makes these accusations, but
look what it says in verse 11. And they overcame him. How? By the blood of the lamb. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Now let me remind you, when we
talk about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, we don't believe
for a second that he shed his blood for all men without exception.
Bible doesn't teach it, but here's the point. His blood is successful
blood. If he shed his blood for you,
you must be saved. He cannot fail. That's the point. That's the
point behind particular redemption. It's redemption. He didn't have
a redemption that made redemption available. He redeemed by his
own precious blood. and we overcome by the blood
of the Lamb. Now, I want to give four scriptures
regarding His blood to conclude all of this. Would you turn with
me to Romans 3? 24, being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom
God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Do you have faith in his blood? Now, right now, I'm not asking
you if you believe you're a Christian. I'm not asking you if you know
all your sins are forgiven. I'm not asking you if you've
been born again. I'm asking you this question.
Do you, you, not somebody else, do you have faith in his blood? Do you believe that His blood
is all that's needed to make you holy before God? Do you have faith in His blood? Would you turn with me to John
chapter 6? Verse 53, then Jesus said unto them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the son
of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Now, eating the flesh and drinking
the blood of the son of man is a reference to his blood shedding. You live only by what you eat
and drink. Is his flesh and blood what you
live by? Now, remember, if you don't eat
and drink, you'll die. Eating and drinking is what sustains
life. Is his blood shedding, his flesh
and his blood the only thing that sustains your life? You can answer that with a yes
or no. What can wash away my sin? Nothing. but the blood of Jesus. What
can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I say. Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this I plea. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone. Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done.
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.
Oh, precious is that flow that makes me white as snow. No other
fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Except you eat the flesh of the
son of man and drink his blood. You have no life in you. Now
would you turn to Hebrews chapter 9? I've already quoted the first
part of this, but I want to go on reading. Verse 12, Hebrews chapter 9. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once to never leave
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
under the unclean sanctify through the purifying of the flesh, How
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
spirit offered himself without spot to God. Now you purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living and the true
God. Hebrews 1018 says, where the
remission of these is, talking about his blood actually
putting away sin, where the remission of these is, there is no more
offering for sin. Don't you dare try to bring one.
Don't you dare try to bring an offering for your sin. That has
been accomplished. Don't try to bring your repentance
and your sorrow and your tears and all the and your promises
to never do it again. Don't bring an offering for sin. Purge your conscience from these
dead works to serve the living and the true God. Hebrews 10, verse 28. He that despised Moses'
law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how
much sorer punishment, suppose ye. Shall he be thought worthy
who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted,
hath regarded, this is how he's viewed, the blood of the covenant,
wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing. Now that word unholy is the word
that's generally translated common, general. That which is general
to all as opposed to that which is special, peculiar. To despise Moses law is a horrible
thing, but this is worse. To have this view of the blood
of the covenant where I look at it as common. Common. One final scripture, turn to
Matthew 27. You know, one of the most powerful things that
you read in the Gospels, particularly regarding the death of Christ,
are the things the Lord's enemies said. They said things like,
making fun of him. They said he saved others himself. He cannot save. Truer words have
never been spoken for him to save others. He could not save
himself. But this is a prayer of his enemies
in Matthew chapter 27, beginning in verse 19. When he was set down on the judgment
seat, speaking of Pilate, his wife sent it to him saying, have
thou nothing to do with that just man? For I've suffered many
things this day in a dream because of him. But. Chief priests and elders persuaded
the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus.
The governor answered and said unto him, whether of the two
were you that I release of you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith
unto them, what shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ?
They all say unto him, let him be crucified. And the governor
said, why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the
more saying, let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could
prevail nothing but that rather a tumult was made, he took water
and washed his hands before the multitude saying, I am innocent
of the blood of this just person, see you to it. Then answered
all the people and said, his blood be on us and on our children. Here's my prayer to God for me
and for you. They meant it maliciously. But here's my prayer. Let his
blood be upon me. Cover me. His blood be on us and our children. Do you know If God gives you
the grace to pray that prayer, oh, may your precious blood be
upon me. Do you know God put that prayer
in your heart? And he's answered it already.
His blood is upon you. His blood. I love what Charles
Spurgeon said. He said, if we limited our speaking
and our subject matter to nothing but the blood of the cross, it
would be a widening rather than a narrowing of our ministry. Let's pray.