The Blood Before the Lord

The message that I'm going to
bring to you on the broadcast today is, I feel, one of the
most important messages that you will ever hear. I hope you'll
just sit back and listen carefully for the next 26 or 27 minutes. And if you have a Bible, I wish
you'd turn in your Bibles to the book of Leviticus, chapter
4. I'm going to speak on the subject, the blood before the
Lord. The blood before the Lord. In
Leviticus 4 verse 6, Moses writes, 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 the priest
shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet
incense before the Lord. Now my friends, all through the
Bible you meet with the word blood. Hebrews 9 verse 22 says,
and almost all things by the law are purged with blood. Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission. There is no forgiveness. Now
that's as plain as language can be. Without the shedding of blood
there's no forgiveness. Then in 1 John 1 verse 7, John
says, if we walk in the light as he, Christ, is in the light,
we have fellowship with Christ, and the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. The blood cleanseth
us from sin. Then 1 Peter chapter 1 verse
18, Peter said, 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 a lamb without blemish
and without spot. You know this, you were not redeemed
with corruptible things, you know this, you were redeemed
with the blood of Christ. And then in Leviticus 17.11,
the scripture plainly declares, The life of the flesh is in the
blood, and I have given the blood upon the altar to make an atonement
for your souls. It is the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul." Now, if I have any apology to make in reference
to preaching about the blood of Christ, if I have any apology
to make at all, it is that I do not preach it often enough. It's
certainly not apologizing for preaching the blood of Christ,
I apologize that I haven't preached it more. Paul said, I'm determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
We preach Christ and him crucified. That's my message, Paul said.
That's my gospel. That's the whole thing. Christ
and his blood. Christ and him crucified. Now
what does the word blood mean in the scriptures? When we see
the blood, so many, many, many, many, many times, the word blood
in the scriptures, what does it mean? Well, it does not only
mean suffering. Now, suffering surely can be
typified by blood, because any time you shed blood, you suffer.
But the blood in the Bible means suffering unto death. Suffering
unto death. Now, my friends, sin deserves
death. Sin does not only deserve discomfort,
and disgrace, but the scripture says sin deserves death. It says
that all the way through the Bible. God's word says the soul
that sinneth, it shall surely die. It says sin, when it is
finished, bringeth forth death. The Bible says the wages of sin
is death. Sin deserves death. All sin, every sin, deserves
death. the only way that God can fulfill
his righteous sentence against sin. Now, sin deserves death.
God has sentenced it to death. God said, I will in no wise clear
the guilty, the soul that sinneth it shall die. That's his sentence.
God has pronounced sentence upon sin. And sin, when it's finished,
bringeth forth death. The wages, the results of sin
is death. Now, God has pronounced that
sentence. And the only way that he can
fulfill his righteous sentence against sin and yet forgive us
and set us free and justify us and reconcile us is for somebody,
some suitable person, someone who can do it, to come down here
into this world and to shed his blood unto death to die for our
sins. And that's what Christ did. Jesus
Christ came into the world, the God-man, the one who was without
sin. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. He who knew no sin
was numbered with the transgressors, and he gave his life. He suffered
unto death. Listen to 1 Peter 3.18. For Christ
also hath suffered, once suffered, for sins, the just for the unjust,
the sinless for the sinful. the righteous for the unrighteous.
He had suffered for sins, suffered unto death, that he might bring
us to God. Being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit. Isaiah 53 verse 5 says, he was
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities,
sins. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. Sin deserves death. God has pronounced sentence upon
sin. It's death. And the only way
God can execute that righteous sentence, that just sentence,
and yet set us free, is for death to be accomplished, not in us,
but in somebody else. All of the blood sacrifices under
the law of Moses were tithes. The blood of these animals, bulls
and bullocks and heifers, could not put away sin. Paul says that
emphatically, enthusiastically. He says the blood of bulls and
goats cannot take away sin. Cannot. Impossible. I know there
are people today who believe that back in the Old Testament
days they were saved by the law, they were saved by sacrifices,
they were saved by ceremonies, they were made perfect in God's
eyes by obedience to these ceremonies, but that's not true. They were
redeemed by Christ. Abraham saw my day, Christ said,
and was glad. He rejoiced to see my day. Moses
wrote of me. He said to the Pharisees, you
search the scriptures, in them you think you have life, there
they which testify of me. God never has had but one way
of saving sinners. And these sacrifices, all of
these Old Testament sacrifices, all of this blood that was shed
upon altars and offered down at the tabernacle and out in
the wilderness and in the homes and everywhere, All of this blood
that was shed was typical blood. It was a picture of Christ. It was a type of Christ, a symbol
until Christ should come and shed his own blood. The only
effectual sacrifice is that of Christ. And when he shed his
blood, it fulfilled every type, it put away every sin, It was
the supreme, complete, effectual sacrifice that God Almighty intended
from the foundation of the world. His back was scourged, and the
blood flowed. His head was pierced with the
crown of thorns, and the blood flowed. His hands were riven
with nails, and so were his feet, and the blood flowed. And the
spear pierced his side. It was opened, and the blood
flowed. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Blessed be the fountain of blood.
I'm not ashamed of it. Blessed be that fountain of blood. To a world of sinners revealed,
blessed be the dear Son of God. Only by His stripes we are healed. Though I've wandered far from
God's fold, bring into my heart pain and woe, Savior, wash me
in the blood of the Lamb, and I shall be whiter than the snow."
Before our Lord went to that cross, He sat around a table
with His disciples. Now here's another type, here's
another picture. Before He ever went to Calvary,
He sat around the table with His disciples, and He poured
the wine in a cup, and He broke the bread and put it in a plate,
and He blessed And he gave it to his disciples. And he said,
you take this bread and eat it. It is symbolic. It is a picture. It is my body broken for you.
And he passed the cup around to them. He said, this wine is
the blood of the New Testament. It is the New Testament in my
blood, which is shed for you. This is a picture. This is a
title. drink ye all of it in remembrance of me." As often
as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord's
death till he comes. It's the blood that makes the
atonement for the soul. When Paul was leaving the church
down there at Antioch, wasn't it, and he gathered all of the
elders together to instruct them before he left, he said, now
you men, be faithful and feed the church of God, which he purchased
with his own blood. You can't preach the gospel and
ignore the blood. You can't preach salvation to
sinners and ignore the blood. And the more you preach it, the
more you preach the gospel. For it's the blood that maketh
atonement for the soul. I want to show you two or three
things now in the latter part of this message. First of all,
take your Bibles there again and look at Leviticus chapter
4 one more time. The blood atonement was made,
now this is important, It was made before the Lord. Now, he
says, sprinkle the blood before the Lord, slay the bullock before
the Lord, put the blood on the altar before the Lord. About
the only way that we hear the blood of Christ and the death
of Christ presented today is as an example to us, as an offer
unto us. And there's no question that
the death of Christ accomplished something in relation to us.
It has much bearing upon us and much in relationship to us. For example, we learn to love
at the cross of Christ. Christ certainly is an example. He died leaving us an example. And if you want to learn to really
love somebody, you go to Calvary and you learn how to love. Christ
said, if he so loved us enough to die for us, We ought to love
one another enough to die for one another. And we learn how
to give at the cross. When Paul is writing over there
in Corinthians to the church about giving, you know where
he takes them for an example of giving? He takes them to Calvary. And he said, Christ who was rich
for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might
be rich. He gave everything. He didn't give ten percent, he
gave everything. He gave himself. Thanks be to
God for his unspeakable gift. That's where you learn how to
give. You want to learn how to forgive? You go to the cross. And you see Christ looking down
at the very men who nailed his hands to the tree. And he says,
Father, forgive them. You wonder how you can forgive
somebody who said something ill about you, or did something cross
to you, or maybe hindered you in your progress a little bit.
Christ forgave those that drove nails in his hand, and spit in
his face. You want to learn how to forgive,
you go to Calvary. You want to learn humility? You
don't learn it from a human being, you learn it from Christ. Let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, yet made himself of no reputation,
took upon himself the form of a servant, and submitted himself
to death, yea, even the death of the cross." That's humility. For an angel to come down here
and become a worm would be humility, but nothing like the Son of God
coming down here and becoming a man. Yes, we learn how to through
these things at Calvary. And I say a man who doesn't know
how to love, and doesn't know how to give, and doesn't know
how to forgive, and doesn't know anything about humility, hasn't
been to Calvary. So the death of Christ certainly has a reference
to us, but the blood atonement. Now you take your pencil and
you look through the fourth chapter of Leviticus there, and everywhere
you see before the Lord, you underline it. And you'll find
it occurring again, and again, and again. the blood atonement
was before the Lord. The blood was put before the
Lord. The blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat before the
Lord. It didn't matter whether anybody else saw it or not. It
was really of no great consequence whether man saw it or not. It
was made, the offering was made before the Lord. It says that
again and again and again. When Israel was down there in
Egypt and God told them he was going to deliver them That night
he would come through Egypt, and the firstborn in every home
would be destroyed, even the cattle on the side of the hill.
And God came through and destroyed the firstborn. But he told Israel,
he said, Now you kill a lamb, and you put the blood where?
Put it in a house where you can sit and look at it so it can
impress you and break your heart and cause you to do things? Put
it in there on the shelf in a basin? No, sir. He said, Put it outside
on the door. All the people were on the inside.
They weren't looking at the blood. They were sitting in there trusting
in the Lord. Who looked at the blood? Who saw the blood? God
said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. That's the reason
here in Leviticus 4 it goes on and on saying that the priest
is to sprinkle the blood before the Lord. The priest is to put
the blood on the horns of their altar of incense before the Lord.
The priest is to offer the atonement before the Lord. Now then, the
blood was also put before the Lord in reference to us, that
God might be just and justify the ungodly. Now, the blood atonement
didn't change the nature of God. Christ's death didn't change
the nature of God. God's unchangeable. God's unchangeable
in his nature, and God's unchangeable in his purpose. The death of
Christ didn't make God love us. The death of Christ is not the
cause of God's love, it's the result of God's love. For God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Christ
didn't come down here to get God in a good humor toward us. He came down here because God
was already favorable toward us. A hymn writer wrote these
words, "'Twas not to make Jehovah's love toward the sinner flame,
that Jesus Christ 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, for God was loved before. So the death of Christ is not
the cause of God's love, it's the results of God's love. And
the claims of God's love, and the claims of God Almighty's
justice, And the claims of God Almighty's righteousness must
be met. And it had to be met by the death
of his son. The judge of the earth must do
right, my friend. When God sentences men, sinners,
to death, death has got to be accomplished. The only way that
God Almighty could save us was to punish our sins in the person
of Christ. God gave his son to be a sacrifice
so that his justice might be honored. so that his law might
be glorified, so that his redemptive purposes might be accomplished,
so the debt of sin might be fully paid. Jesus paid it all, all
the debt I owe. Sin left a crimson stain, but
he washed it as white as snow. The death of Jesus Christ, now
listen to me, brought delight to the Heavenly Father. It brought
delight to the Heavenly Father. It brought glory to the Heavenly
Father. For when the Heavenly Father
looked down upon the death of his Son, he saw his holy law
vindicated and honored. He saw his holy justice completely
satisfied. He saw his redemptive purposes
accomplished. He saw the debt of sin fully
paid. He saw every one of his attributes
glorified. For he is righteous, and he is
merciful. He is holy, and he is love. And it's all at the cross. That
cross, that blood was shed toward God. That atonement was made
before the Lord. Jesus Christ was doing business
with God at Calvary. He wasn't doing business with
Satan. He said, no man takes my life from me. I lay it down. All the demons in hell didn't
have power to crucify him. nail him that cross or keep him
there. When they said, come down from the cross and we'll believe
you, could he have come down as easily as I can step away
from this platform right now? What held him to the cross? It
wasn't those nails, I'll guarantee you that. It wasn't the power
of Satan, I'll guarantee you. It wasn't the authority of the
Roman Empire. Why, he said, I could call on
my father and he'd send legions of angels down here. I could
step off this cross. What held him to that cross?
His submission to his father's will. His love for his father's
love. His love for his father's justice. His determination and submission
to fulfill his father's will. And his love for his people.
And his determination to pay their debt and set them free.
And that's what held him to that cross. It didn't have anything
to do with what you did or what anybody else did. It had to do
with God Almighty. That's right. It was before the
Lord. Christ did Calvary, doing business
with heaven. Satisfying law and justice and
righteousness and setting the people free. And he won't fail. He didn't come down here to fail.
His blood wasn't shed in vain. It wasn't a miscarriage of justice.
What he did was done. What he came to accomplish was
accomplished. The purpose he set out to fulfill
was fulfilled. When he cried, it is finished,
loud enough to be heard in heaven, earth, and hell, it was finished.
Everything God sent him to do was finished. The task God gave
him to perform was finished. The work he came down here to
accomplish was finished. He did it. And he died not in
vain. There won't be a vacancy in heaven,
but there will be plenty of room. There's room for you if you want
to come. Now notice the second thing,
the blood atonement gives power to the intercession of Christ.
Look down at verse 7, Leviticus chapter 4. And the priest shall
put the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense before
the Lord. The altar of sweet incense, you
know what incense is, you put it in a little plate and you
set it on fire and it smells good. You can smell it all through
the house. The incense burns, and you can
smell it all through the house. And there in the tabernacle,
before the veil, was the altar of incense. And they burned incense
on it. And it was a sweet savor, a sweet
perfume of rest. Now, what is that altar of incense? What does it picture? Well, it
pictures Christ's intercession. Christ's prayers going to the
Father. Christ praying for us. That's
what the altar of sweet incense is. Now, the horns. This altar
of sweet incense had horns. And if you know anything about
the Bible, you know that horns in the Bible mean power. Power. Now, when the priest brought
the blood, he was to put the blood on the horns of the altar
of sweet incense, which signifies that the power of Christ's intercession
is in the blood. Now, when our great advocate
goes before the Father to plead for our forgiveness, to ask the
Father, now, Father, forgive this man, forgive this woman,
forgive this child. He's got to have something to
plead. He can't just say, forgive them. He's got to have something
to plead. So what does he plead? He pleads
his blood. He says, forgive them. I died
for them. Put away their sin. I paid for
it. Put away their penalty. I've
already suffered it. He can plead that the debt is
paid. He can bring to the father the
counsel receipt, set him free the debts paid. Open the prison
for the captive. Open the prison for the prisoner,
because I've paid his debt. I've satisfied the sentence.
I've endured all that the law demands, so set him free. There's
no reason to hold him. The blood says all that. How
does it say that? Well, first of all, his blood
shows his oneness with me. Listen to Hebrews 2 verse 14.
For as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
and we are, we are flesh and blood, he also, himself, that's
Christ, took part of the same. He took flesh and blood, that
through death he might destroy him that hath the power of death.
Now God can't die, and Jesus Christ is God. But when Christ
came down here into the world and took a body, he could die.
God became a man. God can't die. Man can't satisfy. God can satisfy. So God in the
flesh, as a man, can die and satisfy all that the law demands. His blood shows not only his
oneness with us, but his blood shows the payment of the sin
there. Where is his blood? It's not in his veins. He has
shed his blood. His blood is on the altar. His
blood is right out there having been shed unto death, so the
dead is paid. Sin demands death, he dies. Sin
demands suffering unto death, he suffered to death. Sin demands
that the blood be shed, he shed it. There it is. It's paid. And
then his blood shows fulfillment of a covenant. If you'll read
Hebrews 13.20, it talks about the blood of an everlasting covenant.
A covenant is a testament. Now, let me talk to you just
a minute. Suppose I was a wealthy person, and I said to you, I'm
going to put you in my will. My last will and testament, I'm
going to give you half of everything I have. Now, in order for you
to have it, what's got to happen? You know what's got to happen.
I've got to die. You'll never get it till I die. If I put you
in my last will and testament and give you half of all I've
got, you'll never get it till I die. But when I die, it's yours. And Christ Jesus said that the
blood, the blood is the testament. The last will and testament of
our Lord was sealed, it became ours when he shed his blood,
when he died. Now last of all, I'll have to
close with this. The blood atonement gives acceptance to our worship. It says in Hebrews 10.19 that
we have boldness to come into the holiest. We're not high priests,
are we? Christ is the high priest, but
we're all priests. He hath died and made us kings
and priests unto our God. And you know I have the right.
I'm not a perfect man, neither are you. I'm not without sin,
but I have a right to come boldly right into the holiest of all.
right into the presence of God. And you know how? It tells you
here in Hebrews 10, 19, by the blood of Jesus. By the blood
of Jesus. The blood removes all sin from
us and from our prayers and from our worship. The best worship
that we can render, well, it's far from perfect, isn't it? And
the best prayer that we can pray is full of self and sin, isn't
it? And the best works that we can perform are filthy rags,
aren't they? But we can come into his presence
boldly. through the blood of Jesus Christ
our Lord. So the blood in the scripture
is offered before the Lord, and it gives power to the intercession
of our Advocate, our Mediator, Jesus Christ. And it cleanses
us in such a way that we can come into the presence of God
with worship, praise and prayer by the blood of Christ. If you
will, join us next week at this time over this station. Until
then, Henry Mahan, bidding you a very pleasant, good day.

The Blood Before the Lord

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

The Blood Before the Lord

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

More from Henry Mahan

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Henry Mahan

Books by Henry Mahan

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book