If you will, open your Bibles
with me to the book of Leviticus. The book of Leviticus. Now, all through the Bible, all
through the Word of God, you encounter the blood atonement,
the blood sacrifice, and the blood offering. Abel brought
a slain lamb. Abel killed the lamb, poured
its blood upon the altar, and then burned the carcass. When
Israel slew the lamb in Egypt, that night rivers of blood flowed. Many thousands of lambs were
slain, thousands of lambs, because there were, some people estimate,
two or three million people of Israel in Egypt. And they slew
a lamb for each house. If the house was too large, too
small for one lamb, then two houses went together. But there
were thousands of lambs slain. There were rivers of blood. That
night, and blood was put on the lintel and doorposts of every
home. And then the service of the tabernacle consisted of countless
numbers of blood sacrifices. We'll read about that in a few
moments. But look at Leviticus 4, beginning with verse 1. Leviticus
4, verse 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul
shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the
Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall
do against any of them, If the priest that is anointed do sin
according to the sin of the people, then let him bring for his sin,
which he had sinned, a young bullock, without blemish, unto
the Lord for a sin offering. And he shall bring the bullock
unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the
Lord, and shall lay his hand upon the bullock's head and kill
the bullock before the Lord. And the priest that is anointed
shall take of the bullock's blood and bring it to the tabernacle
of the congregation. And the priest shall dip his
finger in the blood and sprinkle of the blood seven times before
the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest
shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet
incense before the Lord. which is in the tabernacle of
the congregation, and shall pour all the blood of the bullock
at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is
at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." Now turn
to Leviticus 17. Leviticus 17, verse 11. If I have any apologies to make
in reference to preaching about the blood of Christ, It would
be that I have not preached it as often as I should. It's one subject so prominent
in the Scriptures, so prominent. Let me show you a few more Scriptures.
Now, Leviticus 17, verse 11. For the life of the flesh is
in the blood, is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon
the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the
blood. It is the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul. Turn to Hebrews 9.22, the scripture
which Brother Yates read a moment ago. Hebrews chapter 9. Let me
just point out several things here, beginning here at verse
7. Hebrews 9.7, listen. But into
the second went the high priest alone once every year, and you
know that Hap paused right there and said, not without blood,
which he offered for himself and for the heirs of the people.
Now verse 11, But Christ being come, a high priest of good things
to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made
with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkle in the unclean sanctified
to the purifying of the flesh in promise in type, how much
more shall the blood of Christ, shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Now, if you will, turn with me
to I John 1, 7. I John 1, 7. If we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood.
What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood. What can
make me whole within and again? Nothing but the blood. Nothing
but the blood. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. My friends, primarily
and principally, what does the shedding of blood? Now, I've
read you just a few scriptures. I looked at the concordance today.
And the blood is mentioned literally hundreds of times in the scriptures.
And primarily, now listen to me, primarily and principally,
what does the shedding of blood in Scripture mean? We talked
about, go back to the Garden of Eden when God slew the first
animal and made coats, not of wool now, but of skin for Adam
and Eve. And then outside the Garden,
when Abel brought his blood sacrifice, and then start there and follow
that trail of blood all the way through the Bible, till God's
own Son hung on Calvary's cross, and blood, His blood, flowed
out from His hands, from His head, from His back, from His
feet, and from the wound in His side. Out came blood and water
just streaming and pouring down upon the sands of Golgotha's
hill. What does the blood, all the
way through the Bible now, what does all of this blood mean?
What does it mean in reference to God? in reference to men,
in reference to sin, and in reference to salvation. Well, I know this. The shedding of blood means suffering
because blood cannot be shed without some kind of suffering.
I know it means suffering. I know it means suffering. You
can't get blood. I got thinking about this the
other day. You cannot get blood without pain. I don't care if
they just prick your finger to get a sample or put that thing
in your arm or however anybody sheds blood, there's pain and
suffering involved. The shedding of blood denotes
suffering. But in reference to God and sin,
in reference to man, in reference to salvation, the shedding of
blood does not just mean suffering, it means suffering unto death.
Why? Well, I'll tell you why. Because
sin deserves death. Sin does not just deserve discomfort
or even disgrace or pain, but sin deserves suffering unto death. The Scripture says the wages
of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it must
die. Sin, when it's finished, bringeth
forth death. So all the way, when you see
the first, here stands Adam and Eve in the garden, guilty before
God. trying to cover their nakedness
with fig leaves. And God ripped them off. He said,
the fig leaves won't do. The fig leaves are temporary.
The fig leaves are beyond design. And God took that animal, the
first time blood ever was shed upon the face of this earth.
And God slew that animal, and its blood streamed out, that
blood from that very moment, all the way to Calvary, every
drop of the Rivers of blood that shed upon this earth is saying
sin deserves death. Sin deserves death. And it's
saying something else. It's saying the only way, now
listen to me, the only way that a holy righteous God can fulfill
His righteous sentence against sin is for the guilty to die. The guilty must die. Now, nice
preachers and nice religionists, they can talk about doing the
best you can. They can talk about serving your
fellow man. They can talk about being moral
and doing good works and pleasing God. But I'm saying to you, as
strongly as I can say it, without the shedding of blood, there's
no remission of sin. And we're not talking about just
being religious. We're not talking about just being moral. We're
talking about God. We're talking about sin. We're
talking about God's holiness and God's righteousness and God's
justice. Sin brings death. Sin, when it's
finished, bringeth death. The soul that sinneth shall,
isn't that what it says, shall surely die. There's got to be
suffering unto death if God's holiness and God's righteousness
is satisfied. Now turn to two scriptures. Hebrews,
or rather 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. This is why
Christ our substitute died. This is why it wasn't enough
for Jesus Christ just to be born in a manger. This is why it wasn't
just enough for Jesus Christ to be born of a virgin. This
is why it wasn't just enough for Jesus Christ to live on the
earth a perfect life. Christ Jesus, our substitute,
our sacrifice, our representative, must bleed, and He must bleed
unto death. He must suffer, and He must suffer
unto death. I'm going to show you basically
why in a moment, but the first reason is because sin deserves
death. Sin deserves death. Now look at 1 Peter 3, verse
18. 1 Peter 3, 18. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins. That's why he suffered for sin.
The angel said to Joseph, call his name Jesus, he shall save
his people from their sin. This is his task. This is his
mission. This is his work. This is why
he came into the world, to save us from our sins. And he suffered
for sin. Watch it now. 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, being put to death
in the flesh. Now, all of this blood of the
Old Testament is not effectual blood. It is typical blood. It's not effectual blood. We
read that a moment ago. The blood of bulls and goats
cannot take away sin. Christ didn't offer the blood
of an animal. He offered His own precious blood. The blood
of bulls and goats cannot effectually put away sin, but the blood of
Christ can. The hymn writer wrote it this
way, See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow,
mingle down. Did e'er such love and sorrow
meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown? 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. Though I've wandered far from
the foe, bring into my heart pain and woe, wash me in the
blood of the Lamb, wash me and I'll be whiter than the snow.
Our Lord Jesus Christ stood after eating the Passover feast with
His disciples and He took the cup filled with wine and He said,
ìThis is My blood shed for the remission of sins. This is My
blood.î When our Lord left that table and went out into the Garden
of Gethsemane and fell on His face and prayed to the Father,
the Scripture said, ìHis sweat came from His pores as great
drops of blood. When our Lord went there into
the soldiers' hall and they stripped His garment from Him and tied
Him to a post and took that scourge and tore His back, blood flowed
down. And when they sat Him down with
that mocking robe on His back and plaited a crown of thorns,
they jammed it down on His head and blood spurted forth from
His precious brow. When they took him out there
to Calvary's Hill and laid him on that cross and drove the nails
into his hands and into his feet, blood came forth. And he hung
on that cross till all of his blood poured from his veins. And that soldier came with the
spear and put it under his ribs and pierced his side and the
rest of it flowed out. Blood, blood. I'll tell you,
let's don't ever get so delicate that we quit preaching and teaching
the blood. Let's don't ever get so refined,
so religiously refined that we shy away from preaching and singing
and testifying to the efficacious effect or healing of the blood. I'll tell you this, a gospel
with no blood is a gospel with no salvation. A message with
no blood is a message with no hope. It's the blood that maketh
atonement for the soul. Now I want you to turn back to
the text. Let me point out three or four things of great importance. And things, let me tell you this
now. These are things, I grew up in church. I grew up in church. And when I grew up in church
and went away to service, tried to do a little preaching, and
came back to church and then went to the church school and
pastored. And the things I'm going to bring
out for you tonight regarding the blood of Christ, I never
heard. I never heard these things. I never heard. And I've never
in my life ever listened to a preacher on the radio or television preach these things except these
men whom I know and whom you know. and a few others scattered
here and there. Now listen to them, they're three
or four vital, important things. And I'm saying this, the blood's
all the way through this book. And the blood has reference,
as far as God and sin and salvation is concerned, the blood has reference
to suffering unto death. And our Lord Jesus Christ, in
order to redeem us, He came down here and shed His blood. And
when he left his disciples that blessed ordinance to remember
his death, one of the elements in it was blood. This is my blood. Blood. All right, listen, number
one, if you notice when I was reading this a while ago, the
bullock, the lamb, the sacrifice was slain Before the Lord. Did you notice that? You notice
how we read that? Before the Lord. The blood was
sprinkled before the Lord. Now, let me read it. And you
count the references here in these seven verses to before
the Lord. Look at verse 3. Now listen carefully.
If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of
the people, then let him bring for his sin which he hath sinned
a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering.
Bring it to whom? Bring it before the people, let
them watch him kill it. No sir. If there wasn't any people
there, let him bring it before the Lord. All right, read the
next verse. And he shall bring the bullock
unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, read it
with me, before the Lord, and shall lay his hand upon the bullock's
head, and kill the bullock, where? Before the Lord. Look at verse
7, verse 6. And the priest shall dip his
finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times." Where?
Before the Lord. Verse 7, "...and the priest shall
put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense."
Where? Before the Lord. What's that
mean? Now I know this. I'm going to
get as plain as I can. That's what these little old
Hebrew books are all about, getting as plain as you can. Just plain
as you can. That's what I've tried to do.
And listen to me. I know the average preacher And
the average church member looks upon the death of Christ as an
example, as an example. Now let me tell you something.
His death is an example. It is, without question. Paul
said in Philippians, let this mind be in you, which was also
in Christ. Let this attitude be your attitude, which was the
attitude of Christ, who thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, but made himself of no reputation. and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross." When you go to Calvary, you learn
submission to the will of God Almighty. You learn humility. You learn how to love. He said,
you love each other like I love you. You love each other like
I love you. He loved us to the end, even
to the death of the cross. You learn how to forgive. We
forgive one another as Christ forgave us. But that's not why
He died. That's not why he died. And other
preachers preached the death of Christ as an offer. I'm saying
this to you primarily and principally, the death of Christ was not an
example and it was not an offer. It was a sacrifice and an offering. And that's what this is saying
here. The blood atonement was before the Lord when these people
who had sinned brought the Lamb. and killed the lamb and shed
its blood. They didn't hold it up before
the people. They held it up before the Lord. They slew the lamb. They brought the bullet before
the Lord. They slew the bullet before the Lord. They poured
out the blood before the Lord. They dipped His finger in the
blood and sprinkled it before the Lord. Always, it was something
that took place in reference to God. The death of Christ is
something that took place because God needed it. Is that wrong
to say? God needed it. God had to have
it in order to save you. The holiness of God needed it.
The justice of God needed it. The righteousness of God needed
it. The law of God needed it. God had to have a sin offering
in order to forgive sinners. That's what I'm saying. Christ
died unto the Lord. He died before the Lord. He didn't
die to get people to feel sorry for Him. He didn't die as an
example, as a reformer, as an offer. He died unto the Lord. And that's what this is saying
all the way through here. Turn to Romans. Keep that account
right there. Now let's go to Romans 3 for
a moment. Romans chapter 3. You know, I wish there was some
way that I could get this message out to more people all over this
world because I think they've got the wrong idea about the
death of Christ. I believe they've got the wrong
idea about the death of Christ. It says here in Romans 3, talking
about Christ our Lord, look at verse 24, being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom
God hath ordained foreordained to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood to declare His righteousness. He's declaring
His righteousness for the remission of sins of the past. That's the
Old Testament saints, their sins, through the forbearance, through
the long-suffering of God. He has sent Him forth to declare,
I say at this time, His righteousness in order that He might be just,
in order that He might be the justifier of him that believes
in Jesus. My friends, the man said right
here in Ashford, when I left the Pollard Baptist Church in
1955, they brought a man in as an interim pastor, and he so
disliked what I'd been trying to preach and what that you were
believing, you who were over there with me. that he got on
the radio, they put him on the radio here in town to offset
our message. We were on the radio too. And
he got on the radio one Sunday, and this is what he said. He
said, if you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross, was
buried and rose again, you are saved, don't you let anybody
tell you you're not. You think that's true? Has there
ever been a day in your life that you didn't believe Jesus
Christ died on the cross and was buried and rose again? Is
there a devil in hell that doesn't believe Jesus Christ died on
the cross and was buried and rose again? Everybody knows that. The devil
himself knows that. I'll tell you, let me tell you
this. The death of Christ, the blood of Christ, whether any
man sees it or saw it, Whether any man honors it is a small
account. His death was unto the Lord.
That's exactly right. It was before the Lord. It was
the great, supreme, eternal sacrifice unto God. I'm telling you that. When Israel put the blood on
the door in Egypt, where was that blood? On the inside? It was on the outside. But the
people on the inside, But the people need to see the blood
so they can have some assurance. Oh, no, no. Their assurance is
in a person, not in something on the outside. God said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. When I see the... Who sees it? When I see it. When
I see the blood in reference to sin. When I see the blood,
which is typical of my son's death. When I see the blood that's
on that door, an offering, a sacrifice for sin. When I see it, then
suffering under death has been accomplished. When I see that
blood, my justice and holiness is fully satisfied because it's
the blood of Christ that I see. That's what satisfies God. Now then, where does faith come
in? Faith is in the person. That's
the reason back here before there was a cross, back here, Abraham
and Moses and David and Isaiah, they knew nothing of a cross.
This is what they knew. They knew Jehovah. They believed
Jehovah. And that word Jehovah is God
my Savior. And they knew that Jehovah in
His righteousness and mercy would save them by redemption. And that that blood was typical
of a lamb. They talked about the lamb slain. They talked about the prophet
that would come. They talked about the priest that would come
and the king that would come. And they had faith in Him who
was to come. And when they brought that blood,
as God had instructed them, they were saying by bringing that
blood that their faith was in that person. Their faith was
not in this material blood. Their faith was in Him. You see
what I'm saying? And even now when we come believing
on Christ, and I have to say this so carefully, our faith
is not in the work, it's in the person who did the work. Is that
clear what I'm saying? Our faith is not in the blood. Our faith is in Him who shed
the blood. The blood was shed to God. Not prove anything to
you. He does prove by His death that
He loves us. He proves by His death He's merciful. He proves by His death that He's
gracious to us. But His death is unto the Father,
because God's justice and righteousness and holiness said the soul that's
in it has got to die. And in order to be our Redeemer,
Christ Jesus had to die. Do you see that? All right, here's
the second thing now. Now that's so important, so important. It's so difficult to preach.
It's so difficult to make clear. That's what I mean. And the reason
it's difficult to make clear is people go out and say, well,
you know, you're making light of the blood in reference to
us. No, I'm not. What I'm doing is I'm trying
to emphasize that the death of Christ was unto the Father. The
blood of Christ was shed before the Lord. His death was in reference
to God. You see, that brings me to the
second thing. The blood of Christ was shed in reference to us,
but it didn't change God. God's unchanging. God never changes. He said, I'm the Lord, I change
not. He's the same yesterday and forever. He's unchangeable
in His nature. The death of Christ didn't make God love us. The
death of Christ did not change God. Christ's death was not the
cause of God's love. It was because of God's love.
Listen to what this old writer wrote. It was not to make Jehovah's
love toward the center flame that Jesus from his throne above
a suffering man became. It was not the death that he
endured, nor all the pain he bore that God's eternal love
procured. God was loved before. You get
that? God was loved before. God loved
us and gave His Son. You see, our redemption was born
in the love of God that sent the Son of God. You see what
I'm saying? And the Son of God came. The
Lord Jesus Christ. God's purpose to save. He ordained
to save, God chose us in love, and God predestinated us in love
to be redeemed, and then God sent His Son into the world in
order that His holiness and His justice and His righteousness
might be honored and satisfied in the life, obedience, and death
of His Son. And Christ came and did for us
what we could not do. He justified God. and enable
God to look with upon us in grace and mercy and deal with us in
that fashion. Jesus Christ is not a way, He's
the way. Turn to John 17, 4 and 5. Listen to this. John 17, verse
4 and 5. John 17, 4 and 5. Listen to this. The Lord Jesus in that prayer
that I read Sunday morning and Sunday night. My Father, I have
glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work, You
gave me this work to do, and I finished it. And now, O Father,
glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory which I
had with Thee before the world was." Jesus Christ's death was
because God loved us. Jesus Christ's death is the result
of God's love. The claims of divine justice
must be met. The judge of all the earth must
do right. sin will and shall be punished,
and if God saves sinners in agreement with His holiness, righteousness,
and justice, Christ must die." When Jesus Christ died, now watch
this, Barabbas went free. Why? Because the law had no further
claim on Barabbas. Justice had no further claim
on Barabbas. Whose law? Barabbas' law? Barabbas
is justice? Oh, no. He knew he was guilty.
But the laws of Rome and the justice of Rome were satisfied
in the death of a substitute. And when Jesus Christ died, Barabbas
went free. And I'm saying this to you, that
God Almighty, according to this book, before the world began,
in love, purposed to redeem a people, populate heaven, and have a people
like his son. His justice wouldn't let Him
do that for Adam's race. His righteousness would not permit
God to be just, holy, and righteous, and do that for Adam's race,
because they were guilty. God sent His Son down here into
this world, and all these pictures in the Old Testament were pictures
of when He would come, how He would come, to whom He would
come, and what He would do. All of these lambs and all of
these sacrifices. And He fulfilled all of that
in His death, And now God can be just and justifier. God can
be holy and be gracious to us. Our sins are all put away by
the death of our substitute and we go free. God's justice has
no claim on us. Paul said in Romans 8, who can
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Why not? Well, there's
no charge there. It's already been paid. Who is
he that condemns? Christ died. He was buried and
rose again. And now leave it to make intercession
for us. So these two points are so vital. Number one, the Lord
Jesus Christ died before God. And His death did not... He didn't come dying and God
decided to save. God was going to save before
He came. The Lord Jesus didn't make God fall in love with you.
God was already in love with you in Christ. And Christ died
to fulfill God's covenant of mercy and love. Now here's the
third thing. Verse 7, let's look back at Leviticus
4. Leviticus 4. And do you see what
I'm saying is not being declared? What's being declared today is
Jesus came down and He made a way. He made a way. And if you'll
just feel sorry enough for Him and take Him into your life and
accept Him as your substitute or something, you know, Then
God looked down to have mercy on him. Christ came because God
did have mercy. Christ is the gift of mercy and
the gift of love. All right, Leviticus 4, now verse
7. Now watch this. And the priest shall put some
of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before
the Lord. Now, the altar of incense in
the tabernacle, do you know what it has reference to? I know most
of you do. The altar of incense, sweet incense
in the tabernacle, there was an altar of incense right before
the veil. And it burned 24 hours a day,
7 days a week, 365 days a year. Never, when that tabernacle was
up, that altar of incense was burning, sweet incense. When
the priest went under the veil to take the blood atonement and
put on the mercy seat, he took a censer of incense, burning
the smoke filled that place. That incense, an altar of incense,
is intercession. It's a type of the prayers of
Christ, the intercession of Christ. All right, this priest brought
the blood, and he sprinkled some of that blood where? On the horns
of that altar of incense. Do you see that? The horns of
the altar of incense. What does the word horn have
reference to in the Bible, Tom? Power. Exactly. Power. When you see the word horns,
it's power. So when that priest took that
blood and put it on the horns of the altar of incense, there's
that sweet-smelling smoke going up to heaven, and the horns of
the altar, the blood covered it, here's what it's saying.
The blood on the horns of the altar of incense shows that the
power of intercession is where? It's in the blood. That's exactly it. The power
of Christ's intercession is in His blood. Now let me tell you
something. Turn to Hebrews 8, 1-3. Let me show you something. And oh, I tell you, this is something
that needs to be heard. Hebrews 8, 1-3. Listen to me. Hebrews 8, 1-3. Anybody's coming
before the awesome, holy, immutable, infinite, awesome, awful, reverent,
Almighty God, he'd better have a sacrifice. He'd better have
a sacrifice. I don't care what he's coming
for. I don't care what he's... Even if he's coming to pray,
he'd better have a sacrifice. If he's coming to intercede,
oh, here's a fellow that, you know, he's never prayed, he's
never had any use for Christ, and his baby's sick, and he comes
to God and prays for his baby. I don't care how emotional you
are. I don't care how emotional you
are. Help read a while ago, that priest,
even that designated priest, that high priest, that only priest,
that representative priest, that priest of Israel didn't come
before God without blood, now I'm telling you. And even Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, the Mediator, does not come in His priestly
office without something to offer. Now I'll read it to you. Verse
1 through 3, Now of the things which we have spoken, this is
the sum. We have such a high priest who is set on the right
hand of the throne of the majesty in the heaven. He is a minister
of the sanctuary of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched,
and not man. For every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices. Wherefore it is of necessity
that this man, who is this man? But this man, after he offered
one sacrifice for sin, but this man has something also to offer. What's he got? Don, he's got
his blood. He represents me. He represents
me, you see. His blood, let me show you something.
His blood shows his oneness with us, the fact that he's got blood.
In fact, a body thou hast prepared me when Christ came down here
and was born of David and took on Himself flesh and blood, He
was being identified with us, numbered with us, that shows
His oneness with us. Turn to Hebrews 2 verse 14. Now listen to this, Hebrews 2
verse 14. These things are essential. Hebrews
2 verse 14, For as much then as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same.
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is, the devil. His blood shows his oneness with
us. That we got flesh and blood to
be one with us, he had to have flesh and blood. All right, secondly,
his blood being shed shows that the payment for sin has been
made. Where is his blood? In his veins?
No, sir. It's on the altar. It's been
shed. It's poured out unto death. He
suffered unto death. His blood's not in his veins.
His blood remaining in His veins, He's no Savior. To save others,
Himself He could not save. His blood's on the altar. And
look at Hebrews 10, now verse 17. Let me show you something
here. Hebrews 10, 17. Hebrews 10, 17. Listen. And their
sins and iniquities, well, I remember it no more. Now, where remission
of these is, where remission of what? Sins and iniquities.
There's no more offering for sin. No more. The one offering
has been made. The payment's been made. When
it's paid for, you don't collect again. No more offering. All right, now here's the third
thing. I half read this while ago in Hebrews 9. Turn over there
a minute. Hebrews 9. His blood shows the fulfillment
of the Testament. The fulfillment of the Testament. Now the point I'm on is this.
When that high priest brought the blood, and put it on the
horns of the altar. That altar of incense is intercession
before the Father, Christ's intercession. The horns, the power, the blood
is on the horn. The power of His intercession
is in His blood because His blood shows His oneness with us. He's
one with the Father and one with us. He's the God-Man. He's the Son of God. He's the
Son of Man. His blood was poured out unto
death. He paid the debt. The debt is paid. And where remission
is, there's no more offering, no more sacrifice, no more payment. Somebody's died. He died. It paid. Now here's the third
part. And His blood shows the full
film of the Testament. Hebrews 9, verse 14. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without
fault, without sin, without spot to God, purged your conscience
from dead work to serve the living God. And for this cause, what
cause? His death, his sacrifice, his
identification. He's the mediator of the New
Testament, covenant testament, that by means of death for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament,
they which are called, might receive the promise of eternal
inheritance. It's because of Christ. Now watch
this. Where a testament is, where a last will and testament is,
where you know, you call it a will, God calls it a testament. It's
the last will and testament. It's a covenant. And where the
testament is, there must of necessity be what? Death, bloodshed of
the testator. For a testament is a force only
after me in a day. Otherwise, it is of no strength
at all while the testator lives. Here's a man who makes a will.
A will's a covenant. A will's a testament. Last will
and testament. You make a testament of last
will. It's of no effect at all. For what? Till you die. Till
you die. God made a covenant, a testament. You see, the first testament,
the first covenant, The Old Testament was a picture, was a type of
that original, eternal covenant of grace. And he made a testament. And he left an inheritance, he's
talking about an eternal inheritance, to a people. I'm one of those
people. You're one of those people. And
in order for that promise, you see, in order for that promise
to be secured, that promise to be carried out, and that testament
to be in effect, Christ has got to die. He's got to die before
the Lord. He's got to satisfy the justice
and righteousness of God, which this covenant is based upon. And when he died, this becomes
mine. Nobody can take it away from
me. Now Spurgeon gave this illustration about this Testament right here
from this Scripture. One man promised. He promised,
but he never accorded it. He kept telling his wife, he
said, Honey, I'm going to leave everything to you and the kids.
But he never wrote it down. He never wrote it down. And therefore
the state came in, the country, the nation where it was, and
messed the whole thing up. Well, another man wrote it down.
He promised. He said, I'm going to leave you
this, thus and thus. And he wrote it down. He wrote
it down. And then he died. But the will
was contested and overthrown. So he didn't give anything to
the man. But our Lord Jesus Christ promised eternal life. Eternal
inheritance. He wrote it down with an oath. That's right. His will, his testament,
his covenant, he promised with two immutable things. His oath,
his blood, he cannot lie. He wrote it down. And then he
died and it went into effect. But he arose again and went to
the throne and sat down and nobody's going to overthrow it and nobody's
going to contest it. You see what I'm saying? So His
blood gives power and authority to His intercession. Now one
more thing, one more thing, and I'll never preach a more important
message than I'm preaching right now. Never will. I need to go
over it again and again and again. But fourthly, His blood, the
blood of Christ, gives acceptance to our worship to our worship
and our approach to God. Look at Hebrews 10 again, verse
19. Now verse 18 says, where there's forgiveness, remission,
there's no more offering. Therefore, brethren, having therefore
boldness, boldness, to enter into the holiest, how? By the
blood of Jesus. I'll tell you this, we can come
directly into the presence of God, but only because Christ
shed His blood. only because he died. And I'll
tell you two things. His blood removes sin from our
worship, from our person, from our souls, from us. You know,
the best prayer we ever prayed is full of self and sin. The
most solemn worship is full of flesh. The best works are filthy
rags. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. How can he be clean as born of
a woman, Job said? Man at his best state, he remembers
our frame that we're dust, and the blood of Christ completely
removes from us all sin. So that we dare, right now, come
into the presence of a holy God. The blood of Christ cleanseth
us from all sin. But not only that, not only does
His blood remove our sins, but it's His blood that presents
us literally holy before God. Turn to Colossians 1, 20. Colossians
1, verse 20. Colossians 1, verse 20. Now listen.
In Colossians 1, 20, and having made peace, peace with God, having
satisfied a holy God, a God of whose wrath was against sin,
through the blood of His cross, by Him, to reconcile all things
to God. By Him, I say, whether there
be things on earth or things in heaven. that were sometimes
alienated enemies in your mind by wicked work, yet now hath
he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present
you how holy, unblameable, unreprovable in God's sight." I tell you,
my friend, this thing of worship, as we come before God in the
least whispered prayer, or in the least casting of our eyes
toward heaven, or the least lifting of our thoughts toward God, or
the least feeling of need of God, or desiring His mercy. It's all so full of sin. God
would spew it out of His mouth. God would reject it and resent
our intrusion if it wasn't that the blood of Christ cleansed
us from sin and lets us come holy, boldly before God's holiness.
And not only that. But we come not only with our
sins pardoned and paid for and put away, we come holy before
God in Christ. Actually holy. He is holy Joseph. He is holy son. Now I hope you
remember those four things and go back and look at them again,
because I think they're so important, so important. I'll give them
to you just in closing that you might say, now the bullock back
at Leviticus 4, was shed before the Lord. The blood was shed
before the Lord. It's under God. That's under God. That Christ
died that God might be just and justifier. Secondly, that blood
of Christ in reference to us, it had a reference to us, but
that reference to us was in order to cleanse us and purify us and
redeem us and we believe in Him. And thirdly, that blood of Christ
even now gives His intercession, power and acceptance before the
Father. And then last of all, that blood of Christ makes us
holy and without blame and enables us to come before His presence
boldly, confidently, knowing that in Christ we will be received. Tell me the old, old story, number
229, of Jesus and His love. Why don't we stand while we sing
this?