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00:00 The life of the flesh is in the blood. Uh today I hope to take you on a bit of
00:07 a tour of Hebrews chapter 9 and maybe a few other verses. I won't be extremely
00:13 detailed. There's just too much here. And the subject matter of the blood of Christ runs throughout the Bible. It has
00:21 been said that if you cut the Bible anywhere, it will bleed the blood of
00:27 Jesus Christ. And I think that's an appropriate statement. But first, I want to just uh satisfy your intellectual
00:35 curiosity with some facts about the blood. And uh I I found these to be pretty
00:42 fascinating. First, uh blood is about 7% of the weight of the human body. And
00:49 there is approximately 1.35 gallons. I'm sorry I didn't convert that into cc's or
00:54 something that uh you'd be better uh to understand but I think you get the picture. So not a great lot of it
01:01 actually uh in the body. Blood is about uh 45% of sales cells uh 55% of plasma
01:10 of which all of it together is 83 83% water.
01:17 A newborn baby has just about one cup of blood in his body. Isn't that fascinating? Such a small amount for
01:24 such a small little person. Uh a drop of blood contains about 250
01:31 million cells. Uh again, quite interesting.
01:37 Uh the capillaries in your body are so small that it takes 10 to equal the
01:42 width of a human hair. And blood in the body travels a total of
01:47 12,000 miles a day. Uh, that's just fascinating. Uh, who knew?
01:55 Four times the width of the United States from New York to Los Angeles. So that's how much the blood moves in your
02:02 body. Your body has 60 million miles or 100,000 kilometers of blood vessels,
02:11 enough to excuse me, to circle the earth two and a half times.
02:16 And the blood passes through each of your kidneys 400 times per day.
02:24 And this one I think will take you all by surprise. There is approximately 0.2 milligrams of gold in your blood. Uh
02:33 gang fai again. Uh
02:39 some of us thought we were worthless. Not really. you know, uh, we were created in the image of God and that's
02:46 where our worth comes from. But that's interesting. Normal blood sugar is about a teaspoon in your entire body.
02:54 And one pint of donated blood can typically save three lives. Now, some people need more than others. So, on
03:00 average, one pint of blood. So, is blood donation popular here in China? I think
03:06 some cultures kind of shy away from that and others uh aggressively endorse that.
03:12 Uh I did read in my studies that one man who had a very specific antigen uh was
03:19 operated on when he was 13 years old and he required 13 lers of blood. So he
03:25 evidently was bleeding profusely. But he committed that if he survived that operation that he would donate blood for
03:32 the rest of his life. and he donated more than 1,000 times from the time he
03:39 was 18 till the time of his passing saving approximately
03:44 200,000 people in the process because of that particular antigen. Uh another
03:50 fascinating uh development the US presidential limousine figure uh uh
03:57 features among other things uh a blood bank of the president's blood in the trunk in case you know, the worst thing
04:05 should happen. So, I found all of those quite quite intriguing and hope to
04:10 satisfy your intellectual curiosity. Now, I ask you here, what do you see?
04:17 Look at the picture closely. I don't know if this thing has a pointer or not,
04:23 but uh if you look at the picture, you're going to see one of two things.
04:31 Somebody tell me what do you see? Yeah. Famous one. So you you know it's
04:38 an it's an old lady. Most most people see that. And you can see the uh the
04:43 rather prominent nose and the eye that's set back and and you see the uh the mouth, the lipstick
04:50 and uh but you know what? Actually, if you look closely, it's a young lady with
04:55 her head slightly turned and you're looking at one eye and the other eye is
05:01 on the other side. And the red lips are actually a necklace. Do you see it?
05:08 Yeah. Pretty interesting, huh? Okay, let's try it one more time. What do you
05:13 see? Okay. Some of you, I can tell this
05:19 before. All right. So you either see a rabbit or a duck or perhaps alternatively you see both. Okay. So
05:27 what is the point? The point is that your perspective really matters. How you
05:33 see things really matters. My hope today is that as we conclude the service that
05:40 you will see the matter of the blood of Christ differently. This is often called a paradigm shift. Uh what we see here
05:48 and how it radically changes. about that one the previous uh previous slides but
05:53 before we proceed any further I'd just like to offer a prayer so will you pray with me please
06:02 father I just want to lift up our friends Roy and Lena who
06:07 are burdened because of a surgery and a mass in uh in his liver and so Lord we
06:13 pray uh that the surgery on the 20th uh just a couple of days now will be
06:18 successful essful. Lord, I pray that you'll give them peace uh as they uh
06:24 face this difficult circumstance. And now today, Father, I pray that you
06:30 would help me to love the people in front of you just as you love them.
06:37 Don't let me get distracted by their presence, but rather let me live for you
06:44 and to see only your presence. I want to be faithful to your word and
06:50 your heart above all else. Lord, help us to realize that even our
06:57 righteous deeds are as filthy rags compared to your holiness and your character.
07:04 Lord, I don't simply desire to be a notable character, but rather to reflect your character in humility
07:12 and in service. help me to see and to preach to an
07:18 audience of one in Jesus name. Amen.
07:24 I don't claim to be an expert on uh a lot of things of the Bible. Uh one of
07:30 the most difficult aspects for me to understand is how God does certain things. Uh but I am more certain of a
07:38 few things uh regarding what God does. So, the how a little difficult, the what
07:45 a little more clear. And uh so I'm going to try to uh walk
07:52 you through some of what God does today with respect to the shed blood of Christ
07:58 and the offering and and the Old Testament temple sacrifice. Now, it's going to be a highlevel view. I'm not
08:05 going to go into all the types and and foreshadowings that are in the uh in the
08:10 Old Testament and the New Testament. Uh suffice it to say that Hebrews 9 is closely aligned with Leviticus 16 and 17
08:18 and many other uh prophecies of scripture. So uh I'm going to leave the deeper
08:25 things of God, some of the mysteries of God to those who are much smarter than myself like Peter and Arnold and Yian
08:35 uh who I think are fantastic men of God and have a passion to serve our Lord.
08:42 I want to share with you a story going back to this issue of the paradigm. There was a rather elegant, refined lady
08:50 who was taking the train home and she just wanted to rest after a very
08:57 uh exhilarating yet tiring day of shopping. And she took her seat on the train and
09:04 just kind of laid her head back and was just thinking and kind of had her eyes
09:09 closed. And at the very next stop, a man got on the train with two small children, not infants, but maybe even
09:17 above toddlers. What comes after toddlers? I don't don't remember. It's been so long. But these kids were, you
09:24 know, like 8 to 12 or something like that. And uh as they continued on their journey, the kids got more and more
09:32 rowdy. They were full of energy and uh excitement. And uh this lady began to
09:38 get annoyed uh because she was thinking to herself, why doesn't this man make
09:44 his kids behave? They're running around. They're loud. They're bothering everybody, not just me. And the more she
09:51 thought about it, the more her anger started increasing
09:56 almost to the point where she felt like she had to say something. But she she held her tongue until one of the kids
10:03 came over and started crawling on her, you know, or you know uh invading her
10:09 space. And she finally blurted out, "Sir,
10:14 why don't you control your children?" he'd been resting with his hands in his head or yeah, his head in his hands
10:22 and uh he uh he you know started uh to realize what was going on and he said,
10:28 "Oh, I I do apologize." He said, "Normally, they're they're very good and I'm a much more attentive
10:34 father. We've just left the hospital and their mother has just died
10:39 and uh I was caught up in my own emotions and didn't realize that they
10:45 were out of control." So again, my apologies. Well, that lady felt so
10:50 small. That's a good example of a paradigm shift. When you see something one way
10:57 and you get a little additional information or insight and you see something a different way.
11:03 And so that's really what we want to talk about today is uh how we see the
11:08 blood of Christ. Title of the sermon is there's power in the blood, but there's so much more. And we'll go over some of
11:15 that in just a moment. First of all, the book of Hebrews is actually a very
11:21 complex book, but the central focus of the book is the superiority of Christ
11:26 and the new covenant and the priesthood of Christ being superior to the aonic
11:33 priesthood of the Old Testament and temple sacrifice and temple worship. Now, we're right here in chapter 9 and a
11:41 little bit of uh chapter 10 where we're talking about the ministry of Christ. But really, it's the ministry that shows
11:49 that the sacrifice of Christ is a better sacrifice compared to that of the Old
11:55 Testament. And so, it was written roughly around 64 to 68 AD. Most people
12:01 think the Apostle Paul is the author. There are some uh dissenters to that opinion, but we can see that throughout
12:09 the entire book, it speaks to the superiority of the new covenant. And so
12:15 uh let's just take a a look in uh a few earlier chapters in uh chapter 6 verse
12:23 19 through 20 and and chapter 7. It talks about me Melkisedc who was the
12:30 king and high priest of Jerusalem at the time. And uh uh MelkiseDC had a special
12:37 ministry to Abraham. And he actually received a tithe on behalf of God from
12:43 Abraham because of his role as the high priest. If Melisedc can be God's chosen priest,
12:52 how much more can God's son Jesus Christ be our great high priest? I think the
12:59 answer to that's rather obvious. If you just look at uh chapter 9 itself though,
13:05 it goes through the old sanctuary and its rituals uh from verses 1-10 and then
13:11 talks about the blood of Christ from 11 through verse 14. The mediator of the
13:16 new covenant is found in verses 15- 22 where Christ actually fulfills the old
13:24 testament, the old covenant and initiates a new covenant uh through his
13:29 blood. And we see in verse 23- 28 the perfect sacrifice uh the shedding of
13:36 Jesus blood were was sufficient for all time to satisfy God's character and
13:42 holiness. And so this priest uh had his service in
13:47 the uh in the tabernacle. Jesus is our new priest and he's needed because the
13:54 Aryionic priesthood could not uh bring perfection to the people that it
13:60 represented. His right to this office depends on his
14:05 indestructible sinless life and not on his human ancestry. And all these are
14:11 taken from uh chapter 7 here or excuse me uh chapter 7 and and chapter 9. His
14:20 ordination was by the sworn testimony of God. Uh verses 20- 22
14:26 and his priesthood is eternal. And so the
14:31 effect of his work is perfect and complete and eternal. verses 23-2.
14:40 His personal holiness means he has no sins of his own. Uh so he can first
14:46 cleanse or doesn't require a cleansing before he cleanses our sins. So he is a
14:52 perfect high priest. He serves not in the sanctuary in Jerusalem but in the actual presence of
14:59 God in heaven. And that's in verse 11. He's the only high priest who has sat
15:06 down having truly finished the work that God set out for him to do. And he's
15:12 seated at the right hand of God on the throne. The high priest of the Old Testament never finished his work. You
15:19 know, he sacrificed once a year and he had to do it continuously and he did so
15:24 until he died. Christ when he finished his work, when he shed his blood on the
15:30 cross, in the beating before, in the garden before, he shed his blood for our
15:37 remission of sins and he was finished. You know, the first occasion that we see
15:42 of blood in the Bible are when Adam and Eve need to be covered uh because of
15:49 their sin. And they had sewn fig leaves together, but God killed an animal and
15:55 uh shed his blood to create a fur uh clothing for them. And then the second
16:01 time we see the blood is when he pronounces the curse as he casts them out of Eden. And it says that uh the the
16:09 the son of man really Jesus here that Satan will bruise his heel. And what is
16:14 a bruise but the shedding of blood internally. So we see that the blood has
16:20 been God's design and purpose for man's redemption from the very beginning from
16:28 the very beginning of time. And then on Calvar's cross his last words were it is
16:33 finished. The work is complete. I've given my blood. I've secured man's uh
16:40 salvation. I have secured his access to heaven both now in the form of prayer
16:47 and uh in the future uh for his eternal residence. And so he sat down at the
16:54 right hand of God on the throne in heaven.
16:60 The superior tabernacle Jesus entered to was heaven itself. The first tabernacle
17:05 effectively was out of bounds. You know, there was an outer court for the Gentiles. There was an inner court for
17:10 the Jews. And then I've got a couple of pictures I want to show you of what the temple looked like. But not just anybody
17:16 could go into the temple. And and certainly not the further in you went, the more limited it became. But it all
17:23 represents a picture of the work of Christ and what he did by gaining entrance into the Holy of Holies. The
17:30 first tabernacle was man-made and physical. But where Christ entered, he
17:36 entered into the real place which was not created by man but created by God
17:41 and was eternal. And that is heaven itself. So here's a an example or a picture of
17:48 the the tabernacle as it was given to Abraham and how they exercised it. And
17:53 you can see the building at the back. Uh in the front center on the lower right,
17:59 you have an altar where they uh uh did the burnt offering and they took the
18:05 blood from the animal that was killed and they carried it into the temple and
18:11 then onto in the very back there. I think it's number three perhaps. No,
18:17 number three is the veil and number four is the altar of incense. And then you
18:22 have the holy place and ultimately the ark of the covenant. Uh interesting to
18:28 note in the ark of the covenant there were two uh stone tablets from Moses and
18:33 there was the uh budding rod of Aaron and there was a jar containing mana from
18:40 heaven. Now eventually the jar of mana and the budding rod of Aaron got
18:46 displaced or lost somewhere in first kings and uh was no longer there. uh later on, but that's the original. You
18:54 can see in the upper right, it's about half the size of an American football field. So, it gives you some idea of the
19:00 scope. And then there's a little schematic of uh the actual uh temple design.
19:07 So, that was later replaced by Solomon's temple and and a series of uh other
19:14 temples are in the past and future history of the of the temple and the temple mount. And so this was I wish I
19:21 had that pointer. You can see up here the curtain is number four I believe it is. And then you see the ark of the uh
19:28 covenant and the altar. Uh number three uh this whole area in the back being
19:34 separated by a curtain is the holy of holies. This is the place that the high
19:39 priest could only enter once a year to atone for the sins of the people. And uh
19:47 we'll go on quickly. This is what it may have looked like in the Old Testament times. But there were some things uh in
19:53 the temple that were interesting. Uh there was the uh the manora or the uh
19:59 the candle. There was the table of the showbread. Uh there was another offering table. There was a basin you can see in
20:06 the lower picture for washing, ritual washing. And then the uh the altar of uh
20:12 burnt offerings. This back part of it called the Holy of Holies. Perhaps this slide should have been in front of the
20:18 other, but uh here's just a rough representation of the ark of the covenant where the veritable presence of
20:25 God rested on uh and in the temple. And
20:30 it was in this ark of the covenant, behind the most holy place, behind the veil that the uh the priest entered once
20:37 a year. And he even had a uh uh bells on his robe and he had a rope tied in
20:43 there. In the event that he should die while he was making an atoning sacrifice
20:48 for himself and for the nation, he could be drugg out so no one else would have to go in. No one else was permitted in.
20:55 So uh God is very s uh precise in his uh
21:02 ritual. We see that throughout the Old Testament. And uh you weren't supposed to mess up on keeping the rituals
21:08 exactly as they were given by him. And so that became a real focus, the ritual
21:16 rather than the reality of what the ritual represented. They wanted to get it right. And we're often guilty of
21:22 doing the same thing. So uh on that day of atonement, the priest
21:28 had some duties. Uh as I've said before, he could only enter once per year. And
21:34 he was his job was to sprinkle the blood from the burnt offering on the mercy seat on top of the ark of the covenant.
21:41 There was a ridge on the top of the ark that I suppose contained the blood. Some
21:47 pictures show a little uh a little bowl or something that was sitting up there to hold the blood. Uh but certainly the
21:54 ridge did. Uh if you take a big animal and you slay it, there's a lot of blood. I don't know how much blood they used. I
22:00 think that would be pure conjecture. But he did sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat on the top of the ark of the
22:07 covenant. And on that day of atonement, he had to go in twice. The first time he
22:12 went in for himself, for his own sin, and he made an offering of a bull. And
22:18 the second time he went in, he made an offering of a goat and that was for the sins of the people. But he had two
22:25 goats. And the second goat was not slain. Uh his blood was not sacrificed.
22:31 The second goat was called the scapegoat. You've heard that phrase, I think. And so he turned it out into the
22:37 wilderness as a type of Christ being our scapegoat. He was dead and yet he lives.
22:46 And so we're forgiven of our sins. And the Day of Atonement had some blood
22:54 sacrifices. The first was the bull. Again, the offering for the priest. The
22:59 first goat was an offering for the uh sins of the people for uh Israel. And
23:05 then the scapegoat was the uh the second goat. And here's just a picture of how that works. You see the uh the yellow
23:11 goat being bled or sacrificed. And then uh uh his blood being put on the mercy
23:17 seat and the other goat number five and six is turned out into the wilderness. So just a a visual rep representation of
23:24 the lamb. The uh the older or old order, the old covenant of sin offerings and
23:31 sacrifices involved obviously the blood of animals from verse 12 which make only
23:37 an outward cleansing an appearance of cleansing uh symbolic cleansing if you
23:43 will sufficient for the earthly but not for the heavenly tabernacle. This was
23:49 again all ritual. It was impossible to make men perfect or to remove sin. They
23:55 were simply a reminder of what sin is and what sin does.
24:03 Uh the second part of it is a new and once for all sacrifice and that is Jesus
24:09 by shedding his own blood. The Bible tells us without the shedding of blood. Uh there is no forgiveness of sins in
24:16 verse 22 chapter 9. Uh and he offered his own life. He offered his body and he
24:22 did so once for all. Whereas the Old Testament priest had to go in and continuously make sacrifices,
24:30 Christ's blood was sufficiently different from the priesthood. And it
24:36 was God who said that it was his blood that would be required for our salvation, but only once. There's an
24:45 interesting uh verse in chapter 10 which talks about if we continue to sin I
24:51 believe it's verse 26 willfully after we've come to the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin.
24:58 Some of our friends teach that that is actually a a point that enforces the idea that you can lose your salvation. I
25:06 think it means something different. I think it means that uh Christ has died once for all for all time to pay the sin
25:13 debt. If we come to the knowledge of the truth and then reject that or walk away
25:19 from it, he's not dying a second time for new forgiveness. Okay? It's once for
25:24 all. And I think that's the the real heart of the meaning of that particular scripture. So we get eternal uh
25:32 redemption. Here's maybe a philosophical semantic or just a logical question. If
25:39 eternal life ever stops ever, is it eternal?
25:46 One would think probably not. So when Christ uh has forgiven you of
25:52 your sins through the shedding of his blood, you inherit eternal life. You
25:57 inherit the character and nature of God. And when you do, then you never have to
26:03 be accountable for your sin with respect to God's view ever again. And that's why
26:11 some people use the phrase once saved always saved. I don't particularly like it, but I think it is descriptive in
26:17 that salvation is a work of God. It is not a work of man. If it is a work of
26:23 God and not of man, then men cannot take that which God has given him.
26:29 I think that probably makes sense to to many of you. I'm not sure what happened
26:34 there. Okay. So, it also cleanses our conscience in verse 14. It removes the
26:41 inner guilt of sin. We'll come back to that in a moment. And it sets us free
26:46 from sins singular or plural rather. And uh we see in scripture two two
26:53 frequently used words. We see sins as the individual acts of rebellion that uh
26:60 are in violation of God's law and God's character. And then we see sin as a
27:05 principle that works in us that causes us to continue to commit sins and
27:12 disobedience. And God has made provision for both. I'm actually going to uh share
27:17 with you again in March on John 3:16. I I don't know if it's another holiday or
27:23 not. Uh I thank you all for being here today and hope God blesses your heart,
27:28 but uh so we're free not only from the individual sins that we commit, but also
27:35 from sin as a principle. Do we as Christians because of the shed blood of
27:41 Christ have to live in slavery to sin? I think the answer to that is no.
27:46 But how do we appropriate the faith to live above that? There is in theology
27:55 what we call a positional uh uh aspect to our relationship with
28:00 God. And there is a practical aspect uh in our relationship to God. And so uh
28:07 somehow or another we have to find a way to marry those together through the power of the Holy Spirit to live the
28:14 life that God is pleased with. the life that uh satisfies him.
28:20 So uh he also makes us holy and he makes us perfect forever in these other select
28:26 verses from chapter 10. So the first thing I want to look at today uh and I'll try to be quick is the
28:34 primacy of the blood. There's about six or seven pwords here that may help you
28:40 uh remember this uh but the primacy of the blood. The blood is primarily for
28:47 God. It's not primarily for us. You remember at the Passover, he asked them as the judgment was being
28:54 passed over Egypt, he asked them to take the blood of the lamb and wipe the
29:00 doorposts, I guess those are the horizontal members, and the lentil, which I guess
29:06 is the top mantle. Uh, we have an architect sitting here, so you can tell me if those are proper terms or I got it
29:12 right. What's interesting, he didn't say anything about wiping the floor.
29:19 You know how why didn't he? I think he didn't want mankind walking on the
29:24 blood. If you see that uh in verse 10, chapter
29:30 10 26 or so, it talks about trotting underfoot
29:35 the blood of the son of man. And that is uh bad news if you're guilty of doing
29:41 that. It's disregarding the sacrifice of Christ. And so when God saw the blood,
29:48 where were the people? They were inside the house. They were eating the meat from the sacrifice. They
29:54 didn't get to see the blood on the outside. The blood that he asked them to put on the doorpost and lentil was for
30:02 him to see so that he would know these people are covered or protected. And
30:07 when he saw the blood, he would pass over them. very descriptive of what the work of
30:13 Christ in the uh the New Testament in his sacrifice. It's again why the
30:19 ultimate judgment and damnation of uh rejecting Christ means death just like
30:27 it did in Egypt. It's a spiritual death. And so if you want spiritual life, you
30:32 have to have the blood applied to your life and your account. So the blood is
30:39 primarily for God. And here's an important thing. I believe God is satisfied with the blood of Christ for
30:46 our atonement. Do you know there are all kinds of religions who teach different ways to try to reach heaven to appease
30:53 God. And so they ultimately do a lot of works and rituals and things of that
30:59 sort. But none of that pleases God. You know, even as Christians, we try to
31:05 please God by keeping a certain list of dues that we have. They may be formalized in the form of rituals or
31:12 church uh uh what is the term the Catholic brothers use that uh sacraments might be in the
31:21 form of sacraments or rituals and we try to keep those and we think if we keep those good enough just like the old
31:28 testament uh practice of uh the priesthood and the offerings if we do
31:33 that just right enough God will be pleased with us. We really do live like
31:39 that. And so, uh, God said that he would be
31:45 satisfied with the blood and he would pass over you. And so, because God is
31:51 God, he gets to say and dictate what the requirements are to have a relationship
31:57 with him. You know, I'm an observer of human nature and I've thought many, many times about
32:05 the relationship between two entities and I've thought to myself, who really
32:11 is in control of the relationship? Now, this is human wisdom and it's
32:16 jeffology, so it could be wrong. But the answer to that question, I've struggled
32:22 with it many times from the time I was in school and later Bible college and then in employment and then a father.
32:30 First I was a son. Who leads in any given relationship?
32:35 The answer is ultimately the one who needs the other the least.
32:42 The person that's in the power equation. You might you might find an exception to that. I've shared this with people for
32:49 the last 30 years, mostly in a secular environment. So, if you find the exception to that, I'd love to hear it.
32:56 But God needs us a lot less than we need him. And so, God dictates the terms of
33:02 the relationship. Our parents need us a lot less than we need them. My batteries
33:09 have come out. Our parents dictate the terms of the relationship. They tell us what is
33:16 right. How about husband and wife? Boy, that's an interesting one.
33:22 Who needs the other the least? Usually that person is in the power
33:28 position. And when it comes to intimacy and closeness of the relationship,
33:34 fellowship, whether it's with God or man or husband and wife, usually the one
33:39 that's calling the shots is the one who has the lesser need. And so that's why so many men gravel uh
33:47 to their No, sorry. Uh you get the picture. How about
33:53 employer employee? The employer typically dictates the terms under which the employee works.
34:02 He's in the power position because he doesn't need an individual employee. He can always go and hire another.
34:09 So you kind of get the picture. God gets to determine what satisfies his holy
34:15 character and his righteousness for justice. His character is his uh his
34:22 desire to have justice. And so mankind is universally condemned
34:28 so they can universally be saved through the shed blood of Christ.
34:34 So God is satisfied with the blood and the blood guarantees our access into heaven. Just as Christ our high priest
34:41 walked into the holy of holies uh in heaven and presented the blood to God.
34:48 That's all the types of the Old Testament and what he actually did in his death on the cross. When he
34:54 presented that it guaranteed our access into heaven. A lot of us when we pray we
34:59 don't feel like praying. It's an interesting word. We don't feel like praying because we're living in the
35:06 flesh. Flesh doesn't like to pray. Spirit loves to pray. That's why he
35:12 says, you know, pray without ceasing. If you live in the spirit, you can do that. If you live in the flesh, you can't do
35:19 that. By the way, you can't please God if you live in the flesh. The flesh is condemned. The only way you can please
35:26 God is by living in the spirit. And ultimately the only thing that pleases God is Jesus.
35:33 Jesus was perfect. Jesus satisfies God's uh need for holiness and righteousness.
35:39 We do not. But an interesting hap thing happens when we get saved. When we are
35:45 born again, God's Holy Spirit comes into us and dwells us and he gives us the
35:51 character of Christ. He gives us the blood of Christ to cover our sins. When we pray, sometimes we're bringing our
35:58 sin to God in confession and we have a sense of guilt and we want
36:04 to do just what Adam and Eve did in the garden. We want to run. We want to hide.
36:09 We want to cover things up. We don't want to come clean. We don't want to be exposed. It's natural for the natural
36:17 man. It's natural for the Christian who lives in the flesh, the carnal
36:22 Christian. It's not natural for the Christian that lives in the spirit. The spirit of God
36:28 residing in you wants to pray, wants to have intimacy with God. The problem is
36:33 we're still here on earth and we still have this sin principle that's at work within us that tries to foil our
36:41 attempts at intimacy and closeness with God, walking in fellowship with God.
36:47 Interesting thing to note is when you're walking in the spirit, you don't commit
36:52 sin. I know that sounds radical, but if you look at first John, I think
36:58 you can probably come to that term. I think in point of fact, what happens is as we're walking in the spirit in vital
37:05 union with Christ, when we do sin, when we do miss the mark or willfully uh do
37:12 something outside the law of God, it's at that point that we lose this closeness and intimacy with God, not the
37:18 relationship, the intimacy. And we're back in the flesh and we're walking in
37:24 the flesh. And you know, I've said this before from this uh stage, from this pullpit. It doesn't matter what kind of
37:30 flesh you have. Beautiful flesh, fat flesh, old flesh, new flesh, intelligent
37:37 flesh, car charismatic flesh, it's all flesh. God is not pleased. You know, you
37:44 can be intelligent, you can be rich, you can be benevolent. We had uh a number of years ago uh a massive musical uh uh
37:54 thing by a lot of the uh the secular artists called farm aid. I'm going back ways probably the 1980s where they were
38:01 trying to help the American farmer. And a lot of people talked about how benevolent and how good that was for
38:07 them to do that, how noble and how decent. Well, if God says our
38:12 righteousness is as a filthy rag, what do you think he thinks about something like that? An offering from people
38:22 that's kind of like the offering of Cain. It's the uh the effects of their own work and labor.
38:29 So, God rejects all of that. He's only pleased with his son. And as we live in
38:34 surrender to the spirit of God and walk in obedience because the spirit of God
38:39 uh resides in us, we can have the victory. I have to hurry on. Finally,
38:45 the primacy of the blood. The blood gives us the ability to overcome the accuser, Satan, both in the here and now
38:52 and in eternity. And I'll try to demonstrate that a little later. The
38:57 second P is the preciousness of the blood. 1 Peter 1:18-20 says, "Knowing that you were ransomed from the uh
39:04 feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things
39:09 such as silver or gold, which we would consider quite valuable and quite important, not to God,
39:16 but we were ransomed with the precious blood of Jesus, of Christ, like that of
39:22 a lamb without a spot or blemish, which again was the Old Testament reference of the one of the offerings.
39:30 It's clear then says Charles Haden Spurgeon that the blood was ever precious in
39:36 God's sight and he and that probably is not quite right. Uh so should it ever be
39:43 even in our own lives. We ought to take God's view of the blood. Remember when I said God is satisfied with the blood.
39:50 Sometimes we're not satisfied with the blood. We don't think for instance that we can uh be forgiven and made right
39:58 with God and walk in fellowship just due to the blood. It goes back to those rituals and sacraments and and the
40:05 self-effort of humanity to try to please God through our own effort.
40:11 And so uh we need to take God's view on the blood. The uh the Passover
40:17 provision, we talked about this briefly. Exodus 12:13, "The blood shall be given as a sign for you on the houses where
40:24 you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will def uh befall you or destroy you when I
40:32 strike the land of Egypt." So God said, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." I want to thank the group today
40:38 for singing that particular song. There is a fountain filled with blood uh drawn
40:43 from Emanuel's veins. And sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all all their
40:49 guilty stains. They lose the dark sins. They lose the moral sins. They lose
40:57 every sin past, present, and future because of the shed blood of Christ.
41:04 He passes over. Uh 1 Corinthians 5:6 and 7, your boasting is not good. Uh do you
41:12 not know that a little levan, a little sin, this is the picture, a little sin
41:18 affects the whole loaf or lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new
41:24 loaf or lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been
41:32 sacrificed. Why are we unleavened? Why is sin removed from our life? Because
41:38 Christ is the Passover lamb that has sacrificed his blood for us. We're
41:44 purchased by the blood. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Do you not know that your body
41:49 is the temple of uh the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God. You're not your own. You were bought
41:55 with a price. So glorify God in your body. If we were bought with a price,
42:01 what price was that? It was Christ's blood shed on Calvar's
42:07 cross. In a few weeks, I'll be speaking to you about John 3:16. Do you know
42:12 nowhere in the Bible does it say the cross gives you your salvation?
42:18 It's certainly part of God's plan. What guarantees your salvation? What
42:24 buys you from the slave market of sin? It's the shed blood of Christ. And
42:30 Christ, God God paid for us through the shed blood of Christ. If God paid for
42:36 us, I don't think you can lose your salvation. You can live like it but
42:41 positionally once you become a Christian once you uh accept the sacrifice of
42:47 Christ in your life and that's a whole theological discussion I know but once
42:53 that event takes place and the blood is applied in your life on your account God
42:58 passes over you and so he says glorify God in your body in your flesh glorify
43:06 God. I submit to you the only way that you can do that is to live in the spirit.
43:12 1 Peter 1:18 and 19, knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not
43:19 with perishable things as silver or gold. We've looked at this before, but with the precious blood of Christ
43:27 that like a the lamb without blemish or spot. That's the price for us to have a
43:33 relationship with God. So there is a place on Galatha on the crucifixion.
43:39 There is a place and a purpose for the cross. There is a place and a purpose for the blood. The blood redeems us. The
43:46 blood uh makes us right with God. The cross keeps us right with God. We'll
43:52 look at that in a couple of weeks. So the next one is the purification by
43:58 the blood or the purging to to get it out to remove any of the uh dross or
44:04 that which is worthless in our lives. Kind of goes back to the idea of sin, uncleanness, the leaven in the uh in the
44:11 loaf of bread. How much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish
44:18 to God purify our conscience from the dead works to serve a living God? This
44:23 dead works again is the work of the flesh, the rituals, the sacraments. And
44:28 and I'm not just taking a shot at the sacraments. You can take those sincerely,
44:34 right? And they they kind of like the Old Testament uh uh form of worship.
44:40 They do have some value, but in and of themselves, they do not provide you with
44:46 salvation. So verse uh chapter 10 verse 22, let us
44:52 draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience
44:58 and our bodies washed with washed with pure water. Okay. What this is saying is
45:04 that we have access to God in our conscience. That conscience which is
45:10 defiled by sin is never the basis to approach God in prayer. There is no uh
45:18 confidence that we should have in the flesh whatsoever. The confidence that we have for our access to heaven whether
45:26 it's through prayer or through our eternal destiny is on the basis of the shed blood of Christ. So you get
45:32 entrance into heaven. God hears and answers your prayers because of the shed
45:38 blood of Christ. Did you know in Proverbs, I believe it is,
45:43 the scripture says, "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even
45:48 his prayer is an abomination." Isn't that a curious verse?
45:55 Somebody that has not accepted Christ, somebody that is uh living in rebellion
45:60 or open rebellion in defiance of God, even his prayer is an abomination. I go
46:07 back to the farmade concerts of the 1980s in the US where they were trying to save the small farmer from the
46:13 corporate farms that were buying up everything. Very noble from a humanly standpoint. Is it something that uh
46:20 merited God's uh favor and attention? I don't think it pleased him
46:26 necessarily. Okay, you did some good works and you probably helped some people. They probably helped more people
46:32 that were putting on the concert and the the venues than they helped actual farmers, but that's that's another
46:38 point. So, we have access to God because the blood purifies us. And we can
46:44 approach God with a clear conscience. If you approach God on any other basis,
46:50 your conscience may not be clear. So, I can pray to God. I can enter the
46:56 throne room of God through my prayers, not because of my merit, not because of what I've done, but because what Christ
47:01 has done by shedding his blood. There's power in the blood. If we walk in the
47:07 light, first John 7 says, "As he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus his son,
47:13 the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin."
47:19 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, these are the
47:26 individual acts of obedience. You see sin and sins here. This is the individual acts of obedience or
47:32 disobedience rather that require us to confess to maintain intimacy with God. He is
47:39 faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
47:46 Ephesians 2:12 and 13. Remember that you were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of
47:52 Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God
47:57 in the world. But now in Jesus Christ, you who were once far off have been
48:04 brought near by the blood of Christ. Again, our access is through the blood of Christ. Last, the permanence of the
48:11 blood. This should say Revelations chapter Revelation chapter uh 12 verse 10 uh I
48:19 think through verse 11. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now the salvation and the power of the kingdom
48:25 of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser of the brethren, that's Satan, the accuser of
48:33 the brethren. He's the one that gets to your conscience and says, "You're not worthy. You're useless. You blew it. You
48:39 have sin in your life. So God's not going to approve you. That's his role to accuse us. Not only
48:46 here in our conscience, but in heaven, he accuses us before the father. He's been thrown down who accuses us day and
48:53 night before our God. Where is Satan? A lot of people think he's in hell.
49:00 This verse says he's in heaven accusing us before God.
49:07 And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb. That's the very first
49:13 requirement for overcoming Satan, the blood of the lamb. And then it says uh
49:19 by the word of their testimony, their faithfulness to the Lord. And they love not their lives even until the death.
49:27 How do you overcome Satan? The blood of the lamb is applied to your life. You keep your testimony and your
49:34 life right before God. and you love not your life until the
49:40 death. You know, death does not scare me. Some people are very afraid of it. I
49:45 remember I had one of these paradigm shifts when I was in my 20s living in Memphis, Tennessee. I hadn't thought
49:52 about the blood a lot, but one night on the news, they showed a picture of a a man that
49:58 had been murdered on the street. They didn't show the body.
50:04 you knew what they show or did you know what they showed that night was a big
50:09 area of blood pulled on the street and I looked at that and I thought
50:15 that's somebody's life. We're just very cavalerely looking at
50:20 someone who's lost their life. Their blood is on the street. They're now dead.
50:26 And from that point forward, I never looked at the blood of mankind in quite
50:32 the same way. You know, the scripture tells us that if we shed man's blood by man, shall our
50:38 own blood be shed. That's God's justice. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, so on.
50:44 But because of the sacrifice of Christ and his blood being shed on Calvar's cross for us, we can have intimacy with
50:52 God. And last, Hebrews uh 10:11-13.
50:57 And every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away
51:04 sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down
51:12 at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies shall be
51:18 made a foottool for his feet. that'll happen when he returns.
51:24 I want to ask you if your what your view of the blood is. How much
51:30 value do you put on the blood? Do you rely on the blood of Christ to maintain
51:36 your intimacy with God or are you relying on your own works, your own deeds? It's a very important question. I
51:44 hope today that you'll never look at the blood of Christ in the same way. I want
51:50 to close with this story. A pastor's son had begun dating a lady who had recently
51:57 committed her life to Christ. She realized what God had done for her. But
52:02 her past, she was very immoral, very loose. And when the people of the church, the
52:10 good brothers and sisters saw this pastor's son dating this woman who had
52:17 been loose morally. They thought this was well beneath him
52:23 and his status and that he should not date her. and they began talking among
52:29 themselves and they eventually brought it before the church because they thought this was inappropriate and it
52:35 would bring bad uh uh testimony on the cause of Christ.
52:42 And the pastor's son listened to this and he listened and listened over weeks and months until they called a meeting
52:49 to try to get him to leave her. And he said to the congregation in his
52:55 righteous indignation, if she cannot be forgiven by the blood
53:01 of the Christ for the things which she has done in her past, you should have no confidence that you're forgiven either.
53:08 And what you're actually doing is you're slandering the value of the blood of Christ to purify her from her sins.
53:18 It's a very dangerous thing to do. You know, sometimes as Christians, we get proud spiritually
53:26 and we kind of think, you know, well, we really are better than that guy or that
53:31 lady. And I want to tell you, God hates a proudful heart.
53:36 God wants to live wants you and me to live in humility in uh in obedience to
53:43 him through the power of the Holy Spirit. So, I think that is the sermon for
53:49 today. I've got a lot of illustrations. One of my problems is I always overprepare. I have so much content I
53:55 can't deliver it all. I hope I haven't taken too much of your time. So, let's
54:00 go to the Lord in a word of prayer.
54:11 Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you in humility
54:17 because there is no righteousness in us. There is no hope aside from what you did
54:24 on Calvar's cross and shedding your blood and paying the sin debt that we
54:30 all owe. A debt that we ourselves cannot pay.
54:35 So, Father, I pray that your presence here today would convict of sin just as
54:41 you tell us in the New Testament. Lord, that you would rebuke us where our
54:49 spirit and attitude isaughty or proudful,
54:54 prideful. Father, I just pray that you would uh have glory because of the work
54:59 that you're doing in hearts and minds right now. and that Lord we would have a new view of the value of the blood
55:08 being applied to our own lives. Lord, help us to have humble and thankful spirits for what you did on Calvar's
55:14 cross for us. We ask you, dear God, to forgive us of the sins that we do commit
55:20 from time to time. And we know, we have confidence that you will because of the
55:26 work of Christ in shedding his blood on our behalf. These things we ask you in Jesus name. Amen.
