Each Sunday morning, our announcer
says that the 13th Street Baptist Church invites you to listen
to a sermon by their pastor. I've been pastor of the 13th
Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky for over 30 years. And
last Wednesday night, I brought a message to that congregation
on the subject, the blood before the Lord. The blood before the
Lord. And I had several people come
to me after the service and say, we wish you would put that message
on television. So I plan today to bring you
that message or a brief part of that message on the subject,
the blood before the Lord. I spent much time praying about
this message and thinking about this message and realizing the
importance of this message. And I'd like very much for you
to give me your undivided attention for the next 26 or 27 minutes. And let me speak to you on the
subject, the blood before the Lord. Now I've chosen for my
text a passage from the book of Leviticus. If you have your
Bibles and you'd like to read this portion of scripture, I
wish you would turn to Leviticus chapter 4. And really you ought
to read the first seven verses, but I'm not going to read that
lengthy passage of scripture. I'm only going to read two verses.
From Leviticus chapter 4, verse 6 and 7. Now listen carefully.
And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle
the blood seven times before the Lord, before the veil of
the sanctuary. And then the priest shall put
some of the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense
before the Lord." Now you notice in those two verses that I mentioned
the blood, the blood, the blood, three times, the blood. Well
from Genesis to Revelation, in nearly every chapter of God's
Word, we meet the blood. We meet the blood of Christ promised,
We meet the blood of Christ prophesied, we meet the blood of Christ pictured,
we meet the blood of Christ shared from his own body on the tree,
and then we meet the apostles who were sent to preach the blood
of Christ. In Leviticus 17 verse 11, Moses
wrote, for the life of the flesh is in the blood. And God said,
I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for
your souls. It is the blood, it is the blood
that maketh atonement for the soul. It is the blood. If you hear nothing else I say
today, will you hear that? It is the blood that maketh atonement,
atonement, reconciliation. It is the blood that maketh reconciliation
for the soul. And then in Hebrews 9.22, the
Apostle Paul said, And almost all things, nearly everything,
under the law was purged with blood. Nearly everything, the
book, the people, the tabernacle, the altar, the mercy seat, nearly
everything was purged with blood. And without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. There is no forgiveness. And then in 1 John 1, 7, the
Apostle John wrote, if we walk in the light, as he is in the
light, we have fellowship one with another. and the blood,
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And then Peter writing in 1 Peter
1 18 says, For as much as you know that you were not redeemed
with corruptible things such as silver and gold from your
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but you were redeemed, you were redeemed with the precious blood
of Christ. So all the way from Genesis to
Revelations, we meet with the blood, the blood atonement, the
blood redemption, the blood sin offering, and the blood sacrifice.
And as I told our congregation, if I have any apologies to make
in reference to preaching about the blood of Christ, you know
what it would be? My apologies would be that I don't preach
it as often as I should, because it's the blood, it's the blood
that maketh atonement for the soul. Now here's my first question,
and I want you to listen carefully. Let's see if I can be a teacher,
if God the Holy Spirit will enable me to be a teacher and help you
to understand the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ
through the shedding of his blood. Now, why does the blood, why
does the blood occupy such a prominent place in the Word of God? Now,
it's there. I just read you a few passages.
It's the blood, the blood, the blood, the blood, the blood,
all the way through the book. Well, why does the blood occupy
such a prominent place in the Word of God, and what does the
shedding of blood mean? What does it mean all the way
through the Scripture? the trail of blood that started
in the Garden of Eden, the trail of blood that was consummated
on Calvary's cross, all the rivers of blood of animals, bulls and
goats and bullocks and heifers that were shed, and finally the
blood of the Son of God himself. For Peter, or rather Paul said
to the elders of the church, he said, feed the church of God
which God purchased with his own blood. What does the shedding
of blood mean in reference to God and men, in reference to
sin and salvation? What does the shedding of blood
mean? Well, in plain words, and that's what I try to use on this
telecast, plain everyday words that you can understand. In plain
words, the shedding of blood before the Lord in the scriptures
as a sin offering and sacrifice means three things. And you can
remember these three things if you listen carefully. What does
the shedding of blood in the scriptures mean in reference
to God and men, in reference to sin and salvation? First of
all, it means this. It means that sin deserves death. Sin deserves death. Now that's
a fact. The scripture says the wages
of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. And sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death. So the shedding of blood is not
just pain, not just discomfort, but the shedding of blood in
scripture. When the lamb was shed its blood,
it was slain. The bullock was slain. The turtledove
was slain. Our Lord Jesus Christ shed his
blood unto death. He suffered unto death. And God
is plainly saying this, that sin deserves death. And sin,
when it's finished, bringeth forth death. The soul that sinneth,
it shall surely die. All right. Secondly, what does
the shedding of blood in Scripture, what does it mean in reference
to God and men, sin and salvation? It means this, secondly, the
only way, the only way that a holy, righteous, just God can pardon
and forgive and justify a sinner is for that sinner's sins to
be punished through suffering unto death. Now that's a fact.
The only way that a holy God, a holy, just, and righteous God
Now some other kind of God may forgive men on the basis of their
deeds, on the basis of their religious works, on the basis
of their religious profession, on the basis of an ordinance
or a ceremony, or a religious ritual, but not the God of creation,
not the God of heaven. Because he's a holy God, he's
a righteous God, he's a just God, and he must, must, must
punish sin. Abraham said, shall not the judge
of the earth do right, he will do right. And he will do justly,
and he will do righteously, and he will act in a holy fashion
in keeping with his perfect character. And without the shedding of blood,
there is no forgiveness, absolutely no forgiveness. In order to justify
sinners, God has still got to be God. He's got to be a just
and a holy and a righteous God. He can do no other. There's none
other name unto heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. Peter said this, 1 Peter 3.18, For Christ also hath suffered
for sins, suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God, in order that he might bring us
to God. There's no other way to bring us to God. Sin demands
death. Sin deserves death. Sin must
be punished by death. And so Christ suffered the just
for the unjust that he might bring us to God. That he might
bring us to God. Being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened and raised by the Spirit. Romans 3.25. Have you
ever read this? Listen. God set forth, foreordained
his Son to be a propitiation. That's a sin offering. That's
a mercy seat. Through faith in his blood. Through
faith in his blood. His son took a body of flesh
and blood and bones and died and shed that blood, that through
faith in his blood. God might be just and the justifier
of them that believe in Christ. So there's two reasons why the
scripture refers often to the blood and the shedding of blood.
And there's two things that the scripture shows you where the
blood has reference to sin and salvation. Sin deserves death. A holy God cannot forgive sin
without sin being punished. And thirdly, The blood of the
lambs in the Old Testament could not take away sin. Could not
take away sin. This blood of the Old Testament,
and you know a lot of people have this idea, I don't know
where they get it, that in the Old Testament people were saved
by bringing those sacrifices, those blood sacrifices, those
animal sacrifices. And now we're saved by looking
to the blood of Christ. That's not so. It's just not
so. Listen to Paul in Hebrews 10
forward. if Paul's the writer of the book
of Hebrews, but listen to what the writer of the book of Hebrews
said. It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats
should take away sin. That plainly said, it's not possible.
For if these sacrifices had put away sin, they would have ceased
to have been offered. The person who brought the sacrifice,
if that animal blood could put away sin, he wouldn't have any
more conscience of sin. He wouldn't have any more awareness
of sin. Sin being put away would need no other sacrifices. But
all of these sacrifices were made one right after the other,
one right after the other. Thousands upon thousands upon
thousands of animals were slain, blood was shed. Why? All of these
sacrifices and this blood was shed as a picture, as a pattern,
as a type of the blood of Christ, of the death of the Lamb of God.
blessed be the fountain of blood, to a world of sinners revealed,
blessed be the dear Son of God, only by his stripes we're healed. I'm saying, my friend, that this
trail of blood that you can trace through the Word of God began
in the Garden of Eden and it came to a close on Calvary's
cross. God shed the blood of an animal
in the Garden of Eden to cover the nakedness of a fallen man
and his wife. When they sinned against God
and fell into sin, the Lord slew an animal and made coats of skin
to cover their nakedness, and blood was shed because of sin.
And then Abel, instructed by his father Adam, brought a blood
sacrifice when he came to worship the Lord God. Right out of the
Garden of The first sacrifice we meet with is the blood of
the Lamb. Blood of the Lamb. And then Abraham slew a lamb
and put it on an altar in the place of his son. And every year
the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies with the blood
and put that blood on the mercy seat. And all of these sacrifices
and all of these sin offerings stood as a picture and a pattern
until the blessed Lamb of God came. And one day John the Baptist
said, As he pointed toward Jesus of Nazareth, behold the Lamb
of God. Behold the Lamb of God. There's
the promised Lamb. There's the prophesied Lamb.
There's the Lamb we've been talking about all these centuries. There's
the Lamb that God said would come and bruise the serpent's
head. There's the Lamb that will fulfill every promise, every
prophecy, every picture, every type. There's the Lamb of God.
Behold the Lamb of God. And I'll tell you this, let's
don't get so modern and so refined and so religious that we're ashamed
to preach and teach and talk about the blood of the Son of
God. For I'm telling you, it's the
blood that makes atonement for the soul. Without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission of sin. Let's sing those old
songs. There's power in the blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. There's a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath
that blood lose all their guilty stains. Dear dying lamb, thy
precious blood shall never lose its power. till all the ransomed
church of God be saved to sin no more. If there's no blood,
there's no gospel. I don't care how you spell it.
If there's no blood, there's no gospel. If there's no blood,
there's no access to God. No access to God. We have opened
for us into the presence of God a new and living way by the blood
of Jesus Christ. If there's no blood, there's
no salvation. There's no forgiveness. There's
no atonement, there's no reconciliation, there's no forgiveness for sin,
no pardon without the shedding of blood. Now then, I want you
to remember three things that I'm going to give you now, three
things. If you'd like to, write them down. But I'm going back
and read the text again from Leviticus chapter 4, verse 6
and 7. And I want you to remember these
three things. Now, these three things are rarely preached today.
I was brought up in a church, went to church most all of my
life. I went to a preacher school and even pastored a church for
a little while, and I didn't hear these things preached. Here
are three things that need to be preached, and you need to
think about them. You need to consider them. The first of which
is this, the blood atonement, the blood atonement was always
made before the Lord and unto the Lord. Now that's true. Here in Leviticus 4, look how
many times we read that. In verse 3, the priest shall
bring the bullock before the Lord. Verse 4, he shall slay
the bullock before the Lord. In verse 6, he shall sprinkle
the blood before the Lord. In verse 7, he shall put the
blood on the altar before the Lord. In other words, when these
people brought the lamb, slew the lamb, burned its carcass,
and took the blood and put it on the altar, on the mercy seat.
It was always not before the people, not as a show, not as
a ritual, but they brought the blood before the Lord. They slew
the lamb before the Lord, they burned the carcass before the
Lord, they put the blood before the Lord, and they put their
hands on the head of the scapegoat and confessed their sins before
the Lord. Now, about the only way that we hear the death of
Christ preached today is as an example. An example. Well, Christ here is our example,
no question about that. Or we hear the death of Christ
preached as an offer. An offer to sinners. He did this
for you, now will you do something for Him? Jesus Christ came and
died for you, and did this for you, and did this toward you.
Won't you now do something for Him? But my friend, listen to
me. And you've missed it if you've missed this. The blood of Jesus
Christ is a blood atonement and a sacrifice and a sin offering
before the Lord. Before the Lord. It was made
unto the Lord. It was made before the Lord.
He died unto the Lord. He died for us and in reference
to us and in our stead. But His death was before the
Lord. in order that God Almighty might deal in mercy and grace
with us, and not in justice. The blood of Christ was the blood
of a substitute. He took our place before God's
wrath. He took our place before God's
justice, which must be satisfied. He took our place before God
Almighty's throne of righteousness and holiness, and all of the
judgment and wrath of God fell upon Him. He paid the death that
we owe. The blood of Christ was the blood
of atonement. It was the blood of reconciliation.
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Unto
Himself. You see what I'm saying? When
God came through the land of Egypt, He said, at midnight,
I'll pass through the land of Egypt. And I'll slay the firstborn
in every home. Now, He said, Moses, instruct
the people. to kill a lamb, and to burn its
carcass and eat it, and to take the blood of the lamb, which
is typical of Christ, which is a picture of Christ, I've been
showing you that all the way through the scriptures, take
that blood and put it where? On the outside of the door, not
on the inside, not the blood for the people to look at, be
encouraged by, for the people to be satisfied with, put the
blood on the outside of the door, and all of you go inside the
house and stay there. And when I see the blood, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. And I tell you throughout
the whole Old Testament, when these sacrifices and sin offerings,
when they were made, they were made before the Lord, they were
made unto God. And I say over and over to you,
To understand the gospel, you must get acquainted with two
words. The first word is substitute. Substitute. Christ was our substitute
before God. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. By His stripes
we are healed. He took our sins in His body
on the tree. He literally became flesh. He
became numbered with the transgressors. He became identified with us.
He was one with us in flesh and bones. Our Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world as our substitute before God's holy throne, before
God's righteous love, before God's holy justice. He was our
substitute. And when God poured out his wrath
on us, it fell on Christ. It fell on Christ. And God's
law was honored in the obedience of Christ, and God's justice
was satisfied in the death of Christ. And the second word is
satisfaction. Our substitute made satisfaction
to God. Now, if I owe a big debt down
at a store, say I owe seven or eight thousand dollars at a store,
I owe that store. That store has a claim on me.
That store has a claim on me personally because I owe a debt.
And if you pay that debt, to whom do you pay it? You don't
pay me. You don't pay me. You don't go around in front
of me waving the money and say, here's the money. Go down and
pay the proprietor, pay the owner of the store. He's the one to
whom I'm indebted. He's the one holding the paper.
He's the one that's angry. He's the one that's been sinned
against. And you pay him. Don't pay me. And I'm saying
to you that the death of Jesus Christ, God's substitute and
God's son and my representative and Savior was before the Lord.
It wasn't to get a bunch of people to feel sorry for him. Paul the
Apostle said in Romans 8, there's no condemnation to them who are
in Christ. Why? The condemnation fell on him.
Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Why not? They
charged him. Who can condemn us? What's the
answer to that? Christ has died. There's no condemnation
anymore because Christ died. All right, secondly, now watch
this. The blood atonement in the Old Testament and the blood
atonement of Christ gives power to his intercession, the intercession
of Christ. Now you know what intercession
is, don't you? That's one person pleading for another, an advocate,
a mediator. Well, there's one God and one
mediator between God and men, and that's the man Christ Jesus.
But the man Christ Jesus, according to Hebrews, must have somewhat
to offer. Listen to Hebrews 8, 3. Every
high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices. Therefore
it's necessary that Christ, that this man, Jesus Christ, our high
priest, have somewhat to offer. And he does. What does he have?
His blood. Now look at Leviticus 4, verse
7. And the priest shall slay the bullock before the Lord,
shed the blood before the Lord. And the priest shall put the
blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord. What is the incense in the Old
Testament tabernacle? What is the altar of incense?
It was kept burning all the time, the smoke ascended to heaven
all the time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. What did that,
what was that a picture of? The intercession of Christ, the
prayers of Christ on behalf of his people. What are the horns
of the altar? Well, anyone who knows much about
the scripture knows that the horns is power. Power, that's
what the horns stand for, power. And so the priest would take
the blood and not put it directly on the on the altar of sweet
incense, but on the horns. Meaning this, that the power
of intercession is in the blood. Christ Jesus, our Lord, by his
blood showed his oneness with us. The children partaking of
flesh and blood, then their Redeemer must also partake of flesh and
blood. His blood shows this, payment
for sins. Where is it? In his veins, no
shed on that cross. and paid for our sins. His blood
shows the fulfillment of all the covenant, all the Old Testament.
He died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. He was buried
and rose again, according to the Scriptures. And His blood
forcefully gives power to His intercession. This man, our great
high priest, has somewhat to offer. He has somewhat to offer. What does he have? He entered
not into the holy place made with hands, but into heaven itself. not with the blood of bulls and
goats, but with his own precious blood, to make an effectual offering,
an effectual atonement, an effectual sin offering that put an end
to all sin offerings and all sacrifices and all bloodshedding
for the blood of the Son of God, has fulfilled it all, paid every
debt, and satisfied perfectly the justice and holiness of his
Father. Now thirdly, and I'll quit, the
blood of Christ gives acceptance to our worship and enables us
to come before God. You can pray our Father. Why?
Because Christ died, because He shed His blood. Listen, seeing
then that we have a great high priest, not in Rome and not downtown
Ashland or Huntington or Charleston. He's at the right hand of God.
We have a high priest that is passed into the heavens. Who
is it? Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Therefore, let us come
boldly. before the throne of grace, that
we may find mercy and grace to help in time of need. Having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest," listen,
this is a fit note on which to close this message, having boldness
to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus Christ, without
which there is no forgiveness. Praise God for His blood. Now
have this message, the blood before the Lord, on a cassette
tape. And on the other side, I'm going
to bring a message next week on something better than miracles. You need these two messages.
Send a $2 donation. We'll mail it to you by return
mail until next week. God bless you, everyone.