Now if you read the Bible, and you read it in a serious
fashion, you're going to encounter several prominent, persistent
things. You're going to encounter this,
I say if you read it seriously, and if you read it with a desire
to learn, you're going to encounter, first of all, over and over again,
They are permanently, persistently God's glory and greatness and
holiness. Now this is contrary to modern
religion. Today we've somehow brought God
down. God is now our buddy, or God
is our co-pilot, or God is our partner. We brought him down
from his majestic and holy and sovereign and great throne. Cecil began his prayer, our Father
in heaven, hallowed holy be thy name. Scripture throughout the
Bible declares God is in his holy temple, that all the earth
be silent before him. He said, be still, be still and
know that I'm God. I'm God. So if you read the Bible,
you're going to encounter his greatness, his majesty, his holiness. He holdeth the nations as a drop
in the bucket. He considereth the inhabitants
thereof as grasshoppers. He said, I am the Lord. None
can stay my hand or say unto me, what doest thou? The Lord
is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he pleased.
He ruleth in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
this earth, and he giveth it to whomsoever he will. A man's
never known God or learned to worship God or to preach the
grace of God seen the glory of God. Moses said, O Lord, show
me thy glory. Show me thy glory. And then secondly,
you're going to encounter this. If you read the Bible rightly,
if you read it as it's written by the Holy Spirit, you're going
to encounter God's greatness and glory. And you can't exalt
him like he ought to be exalted. There's no way. There's no way
that you can over-exalt God. That you can give him too much
glory. You just can't do it. Our sin is giving him too little
glory. That's our problem. That's our
failure is being able to just tell people how great God is.
How great thou art. Then the second thing you're
going to encounter on every page is man's weakness, and failure,
and foolishness, and sin, and evil, and man's terrible condition
by nature. God looked down from heaven to
see if there was any that did do good, any that did understand,
and he said they all together become unprofitable. There's
none good, no not one. God said every imagination of
man's heart is only evil continually. Light came into this world, but
men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are
evil. He said the best man, man at his best state, is altogether
vanity. Isaiah said, from the sole of
our feet to the top of our heads, there's no soundness, no goodness,
no holiness, no righteousness, nothing but open, running ulcers
that have not been bound up, that have not been treated with
ointment. We're just a sinful creature. In the flesh dwelleth
no good thing. And what we've done today, we've
bragged on man and brought God down, and that's tragic. God
is high and holy. You can't attain unto it, his
glory, his greatness, his majesty. And man is so wretched and unclean
and vile and sinful and separated by his sins from a holy God.
If we could just see how great God is and how wretched we are
by nature. But what we've attempted in our
religion, in our preaching, is to lift this creature and bring
God down and get him together somehow, you know. by taking
away from his glory and adding a little bit to ours and making
the two to meet. But it can't be done. It can't
be done. Oh, the failure, the foolishness,
the sinfulness, the evil of human nature. Our hands are swift to
shed blood. The poison of snakes is under
our tongue. Our eyes are full of sin and
our tongues are set on fire with hell, James said. And then the
third thing you're going to meet, if you read the word rightly,
you're going to meet someone else. There's another force,
there's another power, there's someone else at work, and that
is you're going to meet Satan in his subtlety, in his craftiness,
in his deception, and in his lies. You can't, there's no way
that you can imagine how subtle he is. I hear these preachers
all the time on television and and radio talking about binding
Satan and telling Satan to go on back to hell where he belongs
and scoffing and mocking and making fun of Satan. They don't
know who he is. I tell you this about Satan. I don't know a great deal about
him either. I don't want to know a great deal. But I know he's
everything I think he's not. He's where I think he's not.
You think you've got him figured out and he's over here somewhere,
he's subtle, he's crackedy, he's filled with deception and lies.
He'll bless you to damn you. He'll do whatever he has to do.
He knows more about human nature than anybody but God. He's been
in the business of deceiving human nature for 6,000 years. And he knows more about it than
anybody except God. And we just don't want to have
any dealings with him, even the angel of God. Was it Gabriel
or Michael, one of the angels of God? when he disputed over
the body of Moses, he wouldn't challenge Satan. He wouldn't
challenge him. He said, the Lord rebuked thee,
Satan. God will deal with you. You're not mine to deal with.
I don't want to tackle you. God will deal with you. And our
Lord taught us to pray. He taught us in the disciples'
prayer, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
that prayer Deliver us from evil. You know what? That's the evil
one. Deliver us from the evil one. He attacks. He troubles. Paul said, I'm concerned, lest
Satan, like he deceived our mother Eve, lest he deceive you. And with his subtlety, take you
away from the simplicity of the gospel. I have sought tonight
to preach on this very important theme, the heart of the gospel,
the heart of the gospel, the heart of the gospel, the blood
of Christ. There's nothing Satan hates like the blood of Christ.
Did you know that, Hal? Nothing. Nothing. He's not an
enemy of good works. He'll use good works to accomplish
his purpose. Yes, he will. It says over there
in the writings of Paul, he said Satan changes himself, Charlie,
into an angel of light. His messengers are ministers
of righteousness. He's a crafty, subtle character.
And I felt attacks from him even while I was trying to get ready
to bring this message on the blood of Christ, on the heart
of the gospel. He's not going to be still. He'll
make you feel dry. He'll make you feel empty. He'll
make you change your message. He'll do anything making you
think. that God is not in this matter,
that God is not directing you. He's a subtle creature, he's
a crafted creature. Peter stood before our Lord when
Christ talked about going to Jerusalem and bleeding and suffering
and dying. Peter said, don't do that. And
our Lord turned to Peter, his trusted Loving disciple. And he said, you get behind me,
Satan. I know who's saying that. I know Peter didn't say that.
I know that wasn't motivated by Peter's thoughts. That's the
devil. You get behind me. You savers,
not the things of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ didn't
say, Peter, you shouldn't have said that. Peter, you don't understand.
He said, Satan, you keep your mouth shut. Get thee behind me. So you're going to encounter
him. And what you want to do in this thing of demons or Satan
or anything else, principality. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood. We wrestle against principalities and powers and
rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places. High
places. High ecclesiastical places. High
spiritual places. Satan and his demons are in the
area of spirit, the spirit. That's where they are. Your enemy
is not some individual in human flesh. It's the craftiness and
deception and subtlety of the power of evil in darkness. And you encounter that through
the Word. And this battle's not done. You're not done with it
till you leave here. You leave here, and then you're
going to encounter something else in this book. If you read
it, if you read it seriously and persistently, you're going
to run into God's purpose. God has designed in his eternal
wisdom to have a people like Christ. That's all the way through
this book. He's going to have a people.
He has a covenant. God's a covenant God. You run
into the word covenant. I read that a while ago. Testament
is covenant. God made a covenant with Adam, and that covenant
was broken, but he made that covenant with Adam. He said,
do this and live. Live under my law, live under
my rules, live under my orders and statutes, and you live. But
Adam broke that covenant and fell. God made a covenant with
Noah. That rainbow was the sign of
a covenant. He said, I will not destroy the
world again. He made a covenant with Noah in building of the
ark. He said, eight souls shall be saved. God made a covenant
with Abraham. We hear a lot about that now,
that land over there, given to Abraham and his seed, given to
Abraham and his people. And he made a covenant with that
nation. That's a covenant that God made. God's a covenant God.
He made a covenant with David. He made a covenant. But he made
all of these covenants. You have the covenant of works
and the covenant with Noah and Abraham and David and other covenants
through the scripture. But the covenant we're thinking
about is the everlasting covenant, which he made with his son. The
eternal covenant, the first covenant, called the second covenant because
it's revealed secondly. The first covenant revealed was
the covenant of works, but the first covenant of works was not
the first covenant. is the first one revealed. But
before the foundation of the world, God gave his Son a people.
Before the foundation of the world, the Father said, I'll
have a people. They'll be like Christ. They
shall fall. They shall be sinful. They must
be redeemed. Christ Jesus will die for them.
He'll be their surety, the surety of the everlasting covenant.
His blood will be the blood of the everlasting covenant. He
was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And God's calling
out those people. Abraham was one of them. But
David was one of them. Noah was one of them. In going
through the Scriptures, and one time our Lord walked under a
tree, and there was a man up that tree, Zacchaeus, a tax collector,
who had climbed up that tree to see the Lord. And our Lord
walked under that tree, and he said, Zacchaeus, come down. I'm
going to your house. This day, salvation has come
to this house. What is the next line? For he also is a son of
Abraham. He also is a son of Abraham.
The Lord said, my sheep, hear my voice, I give them eternal
life, they shall never perish. They said, well, how long will
you make us doubt? If you're the Christ, tell us
plainly. He said, I told you, you didn't believe me. You didn't
believe me because you're not of my sheep. My sheep, hear my
voice. You run into this purpose all the way through the scripture,
that our Lord has purpose to save a people, that he has a
book of life in which their names are inscribed. That his Son came
as the surety of that covenant, his blood is the blood of that
covenant, his spirit is the spirit of that covenant, and that covenant
cannot be broken. All that my Father giveth me,
Christ said, shall come to me. And him that cometh shall I know
as Christ. Covenant mercies. And then another
thing, prominently through this Bible, you'll run into Christ. Christ in promise. In the first
part of this book, it's Christ in promise. Genesis 3.15, the
woman's seed. You find Him in the Lamb. You
find Him promised. You find Moses talking about
the prophet. You'll find God talking about
the priest. You'll find Christ in promise. You get on here into
the law and you see Christ in picture. Christ in picture. He's pictured here in the law,
in the tabernacle, in the sacrifices, in the different furniture in
the tabernacle, everything, in the rock, in the brazen serpent,
all these are pictures of Christ. And then you get on a little
further and you find Christ in prophecy. He's called the Branch. He's called the Messenger of
the Covenant. He's called Mount Eilat. He's prophetically written
throughout the major and minor prophets. And then you get over
here in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you have
Christ in person. He's come. He's come to fulfill
the covenant. He's come to redeem the people.
He's come to set us free. He's come to ransom us. He's
come to redeem us. He's come to save us. Thou shalt
call His name Jesus. He'll save His people from their
sin. But also, as you read this book,
And this is something so little preaching is done on this subject
today. But this is all the way through
this book. Barnard said one time, I remember
years ago when I heard him preach, he said, get your Bible that
you don't mind marring a little bit or messing up, get your Bible
and drill your hole right through it. Just start right here and
just get your electric drill and drill a hole right through
it, all the way through the other side. And then take a red string,
about so long, and put it through there and tie a knot in this
end and a knot in this end, and then every time you open that
Bible, from here to here will be a red thread. And it will
remind you that the blood of Christ is on that page somewhere.
The blood of Christ. It's all the way through this
book. The blood, the blood, the blood. We meet the blood on every
page. In Leviticus 17, 11 it says,
the life of the flesh is in the blood, the blood. I have given
it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your soul, the
blood. Make it the atonement for the
soul. Exodus 12, 13, God says take the blood and strike it
on the lintel and the doorpost. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over here. The blood. Hebrews 9, 22, I read
this, all things, almost everything under the law, he'll sprinkle
the book and sprinkle the people and sprinkle the tabernacle and
sprinkle the furniture and sprinkle the vessels and sprinkle everything
with blood. Almost all things under the law
are purged with blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission for sin, no remission without blood. 1
Peter 1.18 says, for as much as you know, you know this, you
were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold
from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and spot. 1 John 1.7, the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin, the blood of Christ
most precious. the sinners perfectly. If I have any apology to make
in reference to preaching about the blood, and I know it's not
a popular subject today. You're supposed to preach on
positive thinking, the power of positive thinking. You're
supposed to preach on different things of this nature, you know,
that appeal to men, the dignity of men, the dignity of worship,
the dignity of everything having to do with the flesh. But if
I have any apology in reference to preaching about the blood
of Christ, it's this. I apologize that I don't preach
it more. That's my apology. Paul said
we preach Christ and him crucified. And you can't imagine a crucifixion
without blood. Lots of it. Lots of it. I am determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. The blood flowing
from his hands and from his feet and from his brow, from his back
and from his side, all of these wounds of Christ pouring out
that precious blood. I tell you this, if we're successful,
if this modern religious generation is successful in removing the
blood from their preaching, they've taken the heart out of it. It
no longer has a heart. They've taken the life out of
it. They no longer have a gospel. They no longer have a redemption.
They no longer have any hope. There's one thing that's clear
in the Old Testament. Throughout the Old Testament,
there's one message that's declared loud and clear, no atonement,
no approach to God. Now that's a clear message. If
this Bible says anything at all, if it says anything in words
that can be understood, it's clear that no atonement, no approach
to God. Turn with me, I want you to see
this, Hebrews 9, 7. No atonement, no approach to
God. Now this bothers me that so many
preachers, I know some churches that have removed, this is a
fact, they've removed the songs from the hymn books that tell
about the blood. They don't want to sin. They
call it first century gospel. No, that's not first century.
That's older than that. This gospel's from the beginning.
It's the blood that maketh atonement. They call it a slaughterhouse
religion. They call it all kinds of names like that. But in Hebrews
9, look at verse 7. Into the second with the high
priest alone once every year. Not without blood, not without
blood, which he offered for himself and the sins of the people, but
never without blood, never. Cain and Abel showed that. You
know, there's a rule, I don't know a whole lot about it, I've
heard of it for a long time, I've heard people mention it,
it's called the law of first mention. the law of first mention
in reference to the Bible. In other words, you see what
something, you see what it refers to when it's first mentioned
in the scripture. Back here, wherever it's first mentioned,
grace or sin or love or whatever, and that's the general meaning
through the Bible. Well, that's how it's dealt with first. And
how is an approach to God dealt with first back in Genesis? Cain
and Abel. That's the first, that's the
first, John, that's the first illustration we have of men coming
to God in worship. And that, can you think of any
others before that? I cannot. Not after the fall. But the first
approach to God. And God accepted one man and
turned down the other. On what basis? No blood. He turned down the man who didn't
have the blood sacrifice. He had respect to Abel's offering. Abel's offering was blood. And
that's the reason I said last Sunday, I challenge the Jewish
people. I'm not, as far as I know, I
have no ill feelings whatsoever about Jewish people. In fact,
I love Jewish people. And anything I might say from
this pulpit, it seems like you mention blacks or Jews or Chinese
or somebody, you're racist. I'm no racist. Not at all. I don't feel that I am at all.
I love Jewish people. But I'm saying this about them.
I'm saying that they don't believe their Bibles. You say, well,
they don't believe the New Testament. I know that. That's not what
I'm talking about. Take the New Testament and tear it out of
here. They say they believe this part, Genesis to Malachi. That's
what they say they believe. They say that's their God. Moses.
They believe Moses. They believe all these things.
Now wait a minute. You say they reject Christ as
the Messiah. Okay. Let's reject Christ as
the Messiah. Alright. That's not the problem.
The problem is this. Where is their lamb? Where is
the blood? Where is their atonement today?
I know the Jews back before Malachi, they offered a sacrifice, they
offered a lamb, they offered blood. They came to God with
the blood. And God says, not without blood, not without blood,
not without blood. And modern Jews say they worship,
not without blood. So if they're going to turn down
Jesus Christ, they've got to get them a lamb, John. I insist
on it, I insist. That every Jew who says he worships
God, bring him a sacrifice every year in atonement. He better
go back to every one of these feasts and every one of these
atonements, every one of these sacrifices, every one of these
special days. He better bring some blood. God
says, not without blood. That goes all the way through
the Bible. Look at Hebrews 10, verse 19. Let's turn over there
a minute. Hebrews 10, verse 19. Listen to this. Hebrews 10 verse
19, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest
house by the blood, by the blood. That's the only way you can come.
God's not going to receive you except through the blood. No matter whether you're Abel
or Cain or Abraham or Moses or who you are, you're not coming
without the blood. It's just not so. No atonement, no approach
to God. No atonement, no forgiveness.
No atonement, no ransom. No atonement, no fellowship. No atonement, no acceptance.
God will receive no one. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 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, and I'll be
whiter than the snow." Our Lord sat one evening with his disciples
around a table. They were sitting there around
that time. Now up to this time, from back here in Exodus chapter
12, from Exodus 12, to the time our Lord came to this earth,
how many hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years it was,
many centuries, the Jews every year brought a lamb, they brought
a sacrifice, they brought a blood offering. Our Lord sat down with
his disciples before he went to the cross and he ate the Passover. He ate the Passover, the roasted
lamb, and the blood was shed. He said, we observed the Passover.
That's what they did up to that time. Our Lord sat around the
table here to eat the Passover with his disciples. And instead
of the lamb and the blood, he took the bread and the wine.
And he broke that bread, and he said, this is my body broken
for you. You eat it. He took the cup of
wine, and he blessed it, and said, this is my blood. This
is the Passover. From now on, you don't sacrifice
a lamb. From now on, you don't eat the
roasted lamb. From now on, you don't put the blood on the mercy
seat. Why? Because the Lamb of God has died.
You see, his body's been broken. And his blood has been shed.
So we can approach God. Look back at Hebrews 10. Now
watch this. Hebrews chapter 10. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest, not with a roasted lamb, not with
blood, but with the blood of Jesus by a new and living way
which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is
to say, his flesh. Now, if you're not coming this
way, you've got to come the old way. And God Almighty has done
away with that way. He's taken away the first and
established the second. But what I'm saying, if you're
consistent, if you reject this way, if you reject the blood
of Christ and the way of his flesh, you've got to, if you're
consistent, you've got to go back and take that old way. And
if you don't have either way, I'm saying to you, you're foolish
to think you're coming into God's presence, because he will not
receive you. Look at verse 21, "...and having
a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with
a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."
Now then, turn back to Leviticus 4. I'm going to show you something
in closing. Leviticus chapter 4. I'm going to make two or three
comments here that I think are important. Leviticus chapter
4. Now this is established through
the Word. There is no remission without
shedding of blood. And up to this time, from Abel
up to this time, it's the Lamb. It's the sacrifice that pointed
to Christ, pointed to Calvary, the Lamb of God. John the Baptist
said of Him, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world by His blood. And when our Lord sat down with
His disciples around that table, this wasn't just a fellowship
supper. This wasn't just an impressive religious ceremony. This was
a Passover. This was Christ teaching his
disciples the way to God, the way to the Father. And it's no
longer about putting blood on a mercy seat in a tabernacle,
but Christ went into heaven itself, not with the blood of animals,
but with his own precious blood. And we eat the bread and drink
the wine, symbolically now, showing forth his death till he comes.
And that's our way to God, through the blood of Christ. Now look
at this, the four or five things I want you to see. First of all,
Leviticus 4, the blood was offered, watch these three words, before
the Lord, before the Lord. And look at verse 4, verse 4.
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. Look at verse 6, And the priest
shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven
times before the Lord. And verse 7, And the priest shall
put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense
before the Lord. You see that? All the way through
this chapter. You read it when you get home.
Before the Lord. Now here's what I'm saying. About
the only way we hear the death of Christ preached today is as
an example They preach Christ's death as an example. You take
up your cross like he took up his. You die to the world like
he died to the world. The death of Christ is presented
as some sort of example or some sort of good deed or some sort
of effort or offering. It's presented to the sinner. And there's no question but the
death of Christ is an example. Believe me, I'm not belittling
the death of our Lord as an example, because if we go to the cross,
we learn humility. Let this mind be in you which
was in Christ, who thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, but made himself of no reputation, took upon himself the form of
a servant, was obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. And we learn love at the cross. Greater love hath no man
than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. We learn
giving at the cross, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. We learn to forgive at the cross. He said, Father, forgive
them. But let me tell you something. The sacrifice on Calvary, the
shedding of the blood on Calvary, the sin offering on Calvary,
the atonement on Calvary was before the Lord. Christ did something
on that cross before God. It was unto God. It was an offering
unto God. It was a sin offering unto God.
It was an atonement unto God. And you read that all the way
through here. They took the lamb before the Lord. They didn't
take it out before the people and say, look, we're going to
kill a poor little lamb in your place. Aren't you ashamed to
be such wicked sinners? And a poor little lamb has to
die in your place. And this poor little lamb would
live if you do so and so. And you ought to be like this
poor little lamb. They brought that lamb before the Lord. And
they killed that lamb and put its blood before the Lord. And
the high priest went into the Holy of Holies and took that
blood. Nobody there but him and God. He put that blood before
the Lord. It wasn't an impressive ceremony
to impress anybody. It didn't matter whether anybody
saw it or not. God had to see it. God had to see it. When I see the blood, He said,
I'll pass over you. I don't care what you think about
it. I don't care what your opinion
is about it. I don't care what your attitude is about it. I
don't care whether you see it or not. You know something? When
these people down in Egypt killed a lamb, where did they put the
blood? outside the door. That's right, Cecil, they were
inside. They were inside. It didn't matter
whether they saw it or not. It wasn't for their benefit.
That's right. You see what I'm trying to say?
And this is vital here. It's so vital that you understand
what this keeps in before the Lord, before the Lord. The death
of our Lord Jesus Christ was in order that God, in order that
God might look with favor upon you, not in order that you might
look with favor upon God. In order for you to look with
favor upon God, nobody needs to die. Because you ought to
look with favor upon God. You ought to love God. You ought
to worship God. You ought to give your life to
God. You ought to give Him your heart. You ought to. But in order
for a holy God, to be reconciled to you, and to look with favor
upon you, and to forgive your sins, and to be just and justify
you. His law had to be honored. His
justice had to be honored. The wages of sin is death, and
the soul that sinneth shall die. And somebody had to die in order
that God might be reconciled. I know what I'm making this up.
I know what I'm trying to say. And I know what this is all about.
I know that Christ didn't come down here to impress anybody.
That's right, Bill. He didn't come down here to do
anything toward you, to get on the good side of you. He came
down here to reconcile God. He had a mission before the law. He had a mission before justice. He had a mission before the Father. God was in Christ reconciling
the world to himself. You see, a holy God, this is
what I want to start it out with, God is so holy, righteous, pure,
and without sin. And we're so sinful. No way he'd
have anything to do with us. No way he can look with favor
upon us. No way he can be attracted to us. God has to be reconciled,
the debt has to be paid, the ransom has to be offered, the
redemption has to be accomplished, the law has to be honored, justice
has to be satisfied. In order for God to redeem a
people out of this cesspool of maggots, He had to send Christ
down here to justify them before Him. And that's what His blood
was under God. And when those people in Egypt,
when they killed that lamb, they put the blood outside. And they
went inside. And they sat inside and they
didn't see anything. They didn't see any blood. They
didn't see anything. They didn't have a cross in their hands,
you know, rubbing it. They didn't have blood on their
hands, you know, I put the blood out there. I put it out there.
I see it right there. No, it was out there by faith.
But God saw the blood. God saw the blood. And when he
saw that blood, he saw his son dying for those people. He saw
his son sacrificed, his son sent off, and his son's atonement,
his son's suffering, his son's death in the place of the believer,
and he passed over in mercy. He passed over. You see what
I'm saying? When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. The atonement,
my friends, didn't change the nature of God from wrath to love. It didn't change. God's unchangeable. Jesus Christ didn't come down
here to get God in the notion of saving anybody. Christ's death
is not the cause of God's love, it's the result of it. The scripture
says, For God so loved the world that he gave his Son. His love
preceded his gift. You follow me? God is love. God is wrath, judgment,
righteousness, holiness. I wouldn't say God is wrath,
I'd say God is holy. And his holiness must bring his
wrath and judgment upon sin. God is not wrath, God is love.
But God is righteous and holy. And therefore his holiness and
righteousness necessarily bring his judgment and wrath upon sin.
But God's love must be manifested. He must love. And his love must
be evidenced and manifested. And therefore, because he loved
and he purposed to redeem the people, he sent his Son to do
for them toward himself what needed to be done. Who shall
stand in his presence? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart. And that's what Christ did for that old reprobate.
He cleansed him and atoned for him, made him righteous before
God. That's what the publican in the
temple really prayed. He stood there and he prayed,
you know this prayer, God be merciful to me, a sinner? You
know what that prayer is? I think this is true. Lord, let
thy blood be propitiation for me on the mercy seat. And my
friend, that better be your plea. Now you just take upon yourself
sin and take upon yourself the natural condition as a result
of Adam's sin, you're guilty before God, God's holy, I tell
you only plea, let thy blood be propitiation for me on the
mercy seat. It's the blood of Christ, it's not the water of
baptism or the works of the flesh, it's the blood of Christ. Before
the Lord, before the Lord, on behalf of the sinner. Not in
reference to the sinner. And I'm not asking you to do
anything about the blood of Christ. I'm telling you to believe God,
to believe God. God, Christ's offering was to
God. All right, here's the last thing. Turn back to Hebrews chapter
18. The blood of Christ, the blood of Christ was before the
Lord. The blood of Christ was in reference to his people whom
he purposed to save. But the blood of Christ, Hebrews
chapter 10. The blood of Christ enables you and me to worship. Somebody said this, I jotted
this down some time ago, how faint our best praise, how wandering,
wandering our best prayer. When we feel so near to God,
how far off we are. When we feel we're most like
God, how unlike God we are. But it's the blood that makes
its atonement. And our worship is accepted of
God in proportion as it's offered through the blood of Christ.
I believe that's right. Our worship is accepted by God
in proportion as it's offered in the blood of Christ. In Hebrews,
this is what I read a while ago. In Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19,
we have therefore, brethren, boldness. Confidence, liberty,
liberty, the right to enter into the holiness, that's the presence
of God by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way which
he had consecrated for us, for us. Before whom? Before God. For us. Not toward us, but for
us, toward God, before the Lord. Through the veil, that is to
say, his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God.
The high priest comes before God. What's that I read a while
ago? Not without blood. Not without blood. But our high
priest has a blood sacrifice of his own. I'll tell you something
else I saw in Leviticus 4. That priest was to take that
blood and put it on the horns of the altar of incense. And
do you know what the altar of incense is in the Old Testament?
It's the intercession of Christ. That incense burned in front
of that veil 24 hours a day Seven days a week, 365 days a year. It never stopped burning. The odor of that incense, the
sweet smell of that incense ascended up before the presence of the
Lord. That's Christ's praise. Now the
horns on that altar indicate its power. You know all the way
through the Bible, horns is power, power. All right, he took that
blood and put it on the horns of the altar of incense. The
incense, the prayers of Christ. And the blood gives the power
to the prayers of Christ. That's right, child, that blood
makes Christ's prayers on our behalf acceptable. and effectual,
without the shedding of blood. No remission. I tell you, don't
turn up your nose when some preacher, poor old ignorant preacher comes
preaching on the blood. If he preaches it right, that
man's anointed of God. The fellow you want to watch
is that dignified, intellectual, high-toned, modern preacher that
never mentions the blood. Because the Bible says, not without
blood. Not without blood. Not without
blood. The blood of Christ. And I tell
you this about blood. You know, there's a lot of precious
blood being shed to preserve the freedom that we have this
evening. We come here to worship. Well,
Revolutionary War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II,
there's been a lot of blood shed for this privilege, hasn't there?
A lot of blood. And I'll tell you this, one of
your loved ones gets hurt out here in a car wreck tonight,
gets their arm cut real bad, and that precious liquid flows
out on the ground. You rush him to the hospital,
and that doctor brings that blood in there, you know, and starts
pumping it back in the body. You'll be thankful. That blood's precious.
Beautiful, isn't it? It's beautiful. As you see that
blood flow into that that broken body of your loved one having
survived that wreck, and the color comes back to his cheeks.
The blood is the life of the flesh. And I'll tell you this,
old boy, the blood is the life of the soul, the blood of Christ. And I'm not squeamish about it
at all. The blood cleanses, purifies,
atones, reconciles, redeems the blood of Christ. Our Father in
heaven, Thank you for the precious, cleansing, redeeming blood of
thy dear son. It puts away our filth, washes
away our guilt, makes us acceptable in thy sight, gives us this privilege
right now of calling your name and daring to approach your presence
and even having any idea that you hear us. We plead the merits
of his blood, the power of his blood, the efficacy of his blood,
the sufficiency, O Lord God, of his precious blood. We have
no other plea than the blood of Christ Jesus. Teach that to
every person here. Be especially merciful to our
young people who hear so little today about this most important
subject, the blood of Christ. For his sake we pray, amen.