Appropriating The Power Of The Cross,
Part 1 - How To Apply The Blood Generally speaking in my ministry
I like to deal with a theme, not just one topic in one message. I believe that is part of the gifts that God
has given me to deal with the truths of the Bible thematically
and systematically. And so I was asking God what theme He
would want me to deal with here in Christchurch. And I felt that the Lord showed me that
He wanted me to focus my teaching on the cross. And in one way or another
that is what I will be doing. When I speak about the cross, I need to make it clear to you
I'm not talking about a piece of metal or wood that people hang around their necks
or on the wall of churches. I have nothing against those. But I just need to explain
that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about what was
accomplished for us by the death of Jesus Christ as
the sacrifice for sin, on the cross. So I just use that simple phrase
'the cross' to cover all of that. Last night I had the privilege
of being, not for the first time, in Christchurch Town Hall. Just let me have a little check:
How many of you were there last night? That's wonderful.
That's a good representation. We are sorry for those of you who
missed it, we had a wonderful time. Isn't that true? Not so much because of the preacher,
but because of the Lord. Because the Lord came in
and really visited us. We ended - I think it is reverent to say -
on cloud nine last night. I tell people: Don't talk about the
seventh heaven, because that's not scriptural. But if you want to say you are really happy,
it's alright to say you are on cloud nine, because there are lots of
clouds up in heaven. I talked about the love of God
revealed in the price that He was willing to pay
to redeem each one of us. The price was the precious
blood of Jesus. And I showed from the Old Testament scriptures,
that God had foreshown the shedding of the blood of Jesus. And in the ceremony of the day of atonement,
recorded in Leviticus 16, God had foreshown that there
would be a sevenfold sprinkling of the precious blood of Jesus. And last night we traced this
through the gospels. And I just want to recapitulate
briefly what we said. Those that have listened to my radio teaching
know that I'm strong on recapitulation. I don't believe in saying a thing once
and just believing everybody got it all. Because most times they didn't. For five years in East-Africa, I was a
trainer of teachers for the schools of Africa. And one thing we used to
impress upon our teachers, was that recapitulation
is a part of good teaching. So I'm going to very, very briefly
go through the successive sevenfold sprinkling of the blood of Jesus,
as recorded in the gospels. First of all in the garden of Gethsemane. As He prayed in agony, His sweat fell down
like great drops of blood on the ground. Then when they took Him to the house
of the high priest and began to abuse Him. They struck Him across the face with rods. It brought out the blood. At some point in their mistreatment
of Him they began to pull out the hair of His beard in tufts. And of course the blood came out. Then He was handed over
by Pontius Pilate to be scourged. And a Roman scourge was a whip
with many thongs in which were embedded
pieces of bone and metal. And so as the thongs fell across a man's back
they literally tore open the flesh. And then in mockery,
because He claimed to be a King, they planted a crown of thorns. If you go to Israel,
you can see the same thorns today. They are long and extremely hard
and tremendously sharp. And they put this on His head and then
they beat Him on the head, pressing the thorns down into His scalp
causing the blood to well up and run down His face
and coagulate in His beard. And prophetically, in Isaiah 52,
Isaiah was predicting that. He said that His visage was
marred more than any man. One of the modern translations says
that He lost even the appearance of a human being. And then they nailed
Him to the cross. And put the nails through
His hands and His feet. And finally, after He was dead,
a soldier thrust a spear into His side in the area of the heart
and blood and water gushed out. So that's the sevenfold sprinkling
that was predicted in the ceremony of the day of atonement. And then I pointed out that in
Leviticus 17:11 the Lord says the life or the soul
of all flesh is in the blood. And He says: I have given it
to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. That's another of the amazing
prophecies of the Old Testament. It wasn't just a regulation for whether
the Israelites should eat food with blood or without,
but it was a prediction of the cross. The life or a soul of all flesh is in the
blood and I have given it to you upon the altar of Calvary
to make an atonement for your souls. And then in Isaiah 53:12, in the great
prophetic picture of the atonement, Isaiah says that He poured out
his soul unto death. How did He do that? In His blood. The soul is in the blood. And Jesus poured out His soul as the sin
offering for the whole of the human race. His soul took the place
of your soul and my soul. He became the final sin offering. This morning I'm going to deal with
something that's extremely practical. What I have described to you is true. It's wonderful. But in a certain sense
you don't necessarily know how to make it real in your life
and your experience. This morning I’m going to teach on how
to appropriate the blood of Jesus. How to get the full effects of the blood
of Jesus working in your life. And by way of introduction
I want to turn to Revelation 12. And verse 11. Revelation 12:11. This is speaking about what I believe
to be a great end-time conflict, that lies ahead at the close
of the present age. A conflict in which heaven
and earth are involved. The angels of God are involved.
Satan and His angels are involved. And God’s believing people
on earth are involved. Thank God that the victory
goes to God and to His people. And this passage describes
how the people of God on earth, God’s believing people on this earth, play their part in obtaining that victory. It’s a statement made by the angels. But it’s made about
the believers on earth. And it says, we’re in Revelation 12:11: They overcame him. Who is they? They is people like you and me,
believers in Jesus Christ. Who is him? Satan, that’s right.
That’s very important and you see: That shows very clearly that there
can be direct conflict between us and Satan. There’s no one else in between. They overcame him. And then it tells us
how they overcame him. By the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony. And it also adds
what kind of people they were. They loved not their lives
unto the death. To say it in one word: they were
committed, totally committed. And that’s the only kind
of Christian that frightens Satan. Totally committed Christians. When it says they loved not their lives
unto the death, what does it mean? Well, it means for them staying alive
was not priority number one. Priority number one was to do the will of
God, whether they stayed alive or not. Staying alive wasn’t
the most important thing for them. The most important thing was to be
faithful to the Lord and to do His will. See, we talk about being soldiers in the
Lord’s army, but I think a lot of us really have got a very vague and rather sentimental
idea about what it is to be a soldier. I, by no choice of my own, was a soldier
in the British Army in World War II for five and a half years. And let me tell you one thing. I didn’t enlist, I was conscripted. But anyhow,
when I got into this situation, I didn’t get a nice little certificate from
the commanding officer saying: We guarantee you
you’ll never have to lose your life. No soldier has ever joined an army on
the condition that he will not be killed. In fact, in a certain sense,
any time a soldier joins an army one of his commitments is:
I may be killed. It may cost me my life. And it’s just the same
in the Lord’s army. You’ve got no guarantee that you
will not have to lay down your life. The people that Satan fears are those
who are not afraid to lay down their life. After all, life is
comparatively brief anyhow. It’s not going to go on forever
and it’s not all a bed of roses, is it? It would be foolish to miss eternal glory
for the sake of a few brief years on earth. I believe this is enlightened self interest. To have a proper sense of value
what is more important. I believe that we should say:
For me the most important thing in life is to do the will of God. There’s a wonderful statement
in 1 John 2:17: The world passes away
and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God
abideth forever. When you unite your will with
the will of God in total commitment, you become unsinkable. You’re undefeatable.
You’re unshakable. You’re as totally sure as God’s will
when you identify yourself with God's will. Whether you live or die is of secondary importance,
but you cannot be defeated. I want to consider what it means
to overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. This is one of the precious treasures of truth
that God has given me over the years. There’s no way you could
put a price on this. You could offer millions of dollars,
but it wouldn’t be sufficient. There is no monetary value
equal to the value of this truth. I want to say it very simply
and I trust I’ll make it clear. Listen carefully. We overcome Satan
when we testify personally to what the word of God says
the blood of Jesus does for us. I’m going to say that again. We overcome Satan
when we testify personally to what the word of God says
the blood of Jesus does for us. Rather than just leave you trying to
remember that, I’m going to ask you, invite you to say it after me. To fix it in your minds. Don’t try to say it with me. I’ll say it phrase by phrase,
you say it afterwards. All right? Are you ready? We overcome Satan when we testify personally to what the word of God says the blood of Jesus does for us. Now I’m going to show you
just exactly how to do that. But I want to take an example
from the Old Testament first. I want to take an example
from the Passover ceremonies recorded in the 12th chapter of Exodus. In that ceremony God,
through the sacrifice of a Passover lamb, provided total protection
for all the people of Israel. But they had to do certain things
with the lamb and with its blood to insure that protection. Before we turn to Exodus 12, let me just read
a sentence from 1 Corinthians 5. I’m only going to read the last
part of the verse. It says this: Christ our passover
was sacrificed for us. In other words,
what Paul is saying there is: the Old Testament Passover in Egypt
was just a prophetic picture, a preview, of what was to be accomplished
by the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. Christ is the true Passover. It is His blood, not the blood
of the Passover lamb that finally assures us
eternal redemption. However, the way Israel was instructed
to apply the blood of the lamb is a wonderful pattern for us. Now let’s go to Exodus 12. Exodus 12, and we’ll read
from verses 21-23. I’d like to point out to you also
,by the way, that this ordinance of the Passover is
one of many illustrations in the Bible of the tremendous responsibility
of being a father. Because the only persons
in Israel who could obtain safety and salvation for their people,
were the fathers of Israel. If the fathers of Israel
had been delinquent Israel would have not been
protected by the Passover. And I personally think today, the greatest
single social problem that confronts us is delinquent fathers. I’ve said many times in counseling parents
who have problem children: There are no delinquent children. There are only delinquent parents. All the problems that we are
concerned about: abortion, drugs the breakup of the family,
and many, many other social evils. I believe if you trace them
to their source: delinquent fathers. I point out to you here in this context
that if the fathers had failed Israel would never have been redeemed. God didn’t have Plan B. Plan A was His plan. And it depended on the fathers.
Now let’s look. Exodus 12:21: Then Moses called for
all the elders of Israel and said to them: Pick out and take lambs for yourselves
according to your families and kill the passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop,
dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts
with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the
door of his house until morning. For the Lord will pass through
to strike the Egyptians. And when He sees the blood on the lintel
and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the Destroyer
to come into your houses to strike you. That’s why it’s called the Passover;
because the Lord said He would pass over the door that was protected
by the blood of the lamb. Now let’s consider what they had to do:
At a certain given moment each father had to choose a lamb
of appropriate size for his family. And then they had to sacrifice the lamb
and they had to catch its blood in a basin. It’s blood was very precious;
none of it was to be spilled on the ground. Now, the lamb was slain,
the blood was in the basin. it was the means of protection, but in the basin
it didn’t protect a single person. They were required to transfer the blood
from the basin to the doors of their homes. And to smear it or sprinkle it on the lentil
and on the two sideposts. But never on the threshold;
no one was ever to walk over the blood. The whole destiny of Israel depended on
getting the blood from the basin to the door. How were they to do it? Very simple: God said, you’ll
take a little bunch of hyssop. Hyssop is a kind of a weed that grows
everywhere in the Middle East. Pluck this bunch of hyssop. Dip the hyssop in the blood in the basin. And sprinkle the blood
over the door with the hyssop. So hyssop, which was a very humble
and, in a sense, unimportant thing nevertheless became essential
to the salvation of Israel. And then God required one
more thing, He said: When this blood has been sprinkled on the door,
you’ve got to stay inside your house. Don’t go outside, because once you go
outside the blood you’re not protected. Keep your finger in Exodus 12
if you’re there. Let’s look in 1 Peter for a moment. 1 Peter 1:1-2. This is the greeting of Peter. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Now here’s how he describes them: Elect (or chosen) according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. Notice what comes before sprinkling? Obedience. The blood is not sprinkled
on the disobedient. It did not avail anybody who disobeyed
and went outside of his house. So bear in mind: Although there’s perfect protection
in the blood; it is only for the obedient. Now, let’s go back
to the Passover ceremony. The blood was in the basin,
it had to be transferred to the house. They plucked a little bunch of hyssop,
dipped it in the blood. And then sprinkled it on the door.
They were safe. Paul says Christ is our Passover,
who was sacrificed for us. In other words, Christ has been
slain nineteen centuries ago. To use the terms of the analogy,
the blood is in the basin. But the blood in the basin
doesn’t protect anybody. We have the same situation as Israel. We’ve got to get the blood from the basin
to the place where we live. Then we’re protected,
provided we’re obedient. So, the question is: How do we get the blood from the basin,
the blood of Jesus, to the place where we live? Now we go back to Revelation 12:11: They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony. You remember what we said? We overcome Satan
when we testify personally to what the word of God says
the blood of Jesus does for us. What is it that gets the blood
from the basin to where we live? Our testimony, that’s right.
Testimony is a very simple thing. It’s just saying a few words
according to the Scripture. It’s like the little hyssop,
but it saves us. It’s our protection. I cannot overemphasize for you here
the importance of your testimony. There’s another Scripture that we could
take with it that is very closely related, in Hebrews 3:1. Therefore holy brethren,
partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest
of our confession, Christ Jesus. The writer of Hebrews calls Jesus
the high priest of our confession. You know what confession is? Confession means literally
saying the same as. So for us as believers in the Bible
and in Jesus Christ, confession means we say the same with our mouth
as God says in His word. We make the words of our mouth
agree with the word of God. And Jesus is the high priest
of our confession. Brothers and sisters:
no confession, no high priest. He can only advocate on your behalf
when you make the right confession. So whether you call it testimony
or whether you call it confession, it is absolutely indispensable
for you to receive the salvation of God. Jesus said by your words
you will be justified. And by your words
you will be condemned. You settle your destiny
by the words you speak. James said: The tongue is like
the rudder on a ship. It’s a very small part of the ship,
but it determines exactly where the ship will go. And we determine the course of our
lives by the way we use our tongues. You can say the right thing and make the words
of your mouth agree with the word of God. Or you can say the wrong thing
and cause your life to go off course. And you’ll either come safely to harbor
or end in shipwreck, according to the use that you’ve
made of your tongue. Many, many of us as Christians
are very careless and delinquent in the use of our tongues. People say:
I’m dying to see you. Don’t ever say that. Americans say:
I was tickled to death. Don’t say that; it’s not
a laughing matter. I can understand you can laugh. But never say anything about yourself
that you wouldn’t want Jesus to make happen. Don’t underestimate yourself,
because God thinks you’re precious. He invested the blood of Jesus in you. When you are, quote, humble
and criticize yourself what you’re really doing
is criticizing God’s handiwork. Because the Bible says
we are His workmanship. How dare you criticize
the workmanship of God. Pride is a tremendous problem with
Christians but another problem that’s just as great
is underestimating ourselves. Not for what we are
but for what God has made us. So now I’m going to give you
a practical demonstration of how to transfer the blood
of Jesus from the basin to the place where you live,
to your life. Obviously you cannot testify
as to what the word of God says about the blood of Jesus unless you
know what the word of God says. So one essential requirement
is knowing what the Bible teaches about the blood of Jesus. I pointed out already that
the New Testament indicates there was a seven-fold sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus. This morning I’m going to consider
with you a seven-fold application of the blood of Jesus in our lives. There are seven major ways in which the New Testament reveals
the blood of Jesus works for us. The first is redemption. We’ll turn to a couple of Scriptures. Ephesians 1:7. In Him, that’s Jesus,
we have redemption through His blood. Redemption means being bought back. We were in the hands of the devil,
Jesus bought us back with His blood. And then in 1 Peter 1:18-19: 1 Peter 1:18-19: Knowing you were not redeemed with
corruptible things like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. And notice the word lamb, again takes us
back to the Passover, the Passover lamb. Jesus was without blemish,
He was without original sin. He was without spot,
He was without personal sin. And we have been redeemed
by His blood. Now in that context I’d like also
to turn to Psalm 107. And just verse 2. Psalm 107:2: Let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom He has redeemed
out of the hand of the enemy. Who’s the enemy?
Satan, that’s right. But if we are redeemed,
what do we have to do about it? We have to say so. No say so, no redemption.
You understand? It’s your confession, it’s your testimony
that makes it work for you. Otherwise the blood
remains in the basin. Let’s think of what we can say. I’ll give you a little example. This is not the only way
it could be said. But my testimony is
through the blood of Jesus I have been redeemed
out of the hand of the devil. I have no doubt about
where I was when Jesus met me. I was in the hand of the devil, there
is no question in my mind about that. But I’m not there today
because I have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus
out of the hand of the devil. Now, I want to invite you to have
the blessing of saying that with me. This is going to be a very
practical message. I’m going to show you
how to do a whole lot of things. And you’ll only get as much blessing
as you actively cooperate with. So I’ll say it first phrase by phrase
say it after me, not with me. Through the blood of Jesus I have been redeemed out of the hand of the devil. That was good, now let’s see
if we can say it together. Through the blood of Jesus, I have
been redeemed, out of the hand of the devil. That’s wonderful,
you’re looking so intelligent at me, but it’s really very important
to say it to somebody else. So I want to suggest that each of
you turn to your neighbor somewhere. Look them right between the eyes -
don’t be embarrassed - don’t be religious - and say: Through the blood of Jesus
I have been redeemed. Now don’t miss out,
find somebody to say it to. That’s right, okay. All right. Some of you are free in a way you’ve
never been before because of that. Something’s happened to you. We’ll go on to the second provision of
the blood of Jesus which is cleansing. And we’ll turn now to 1 John 1:7. 1 John 1:7: But if we walk in the light as He
is in the light, He is Jesus, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now, in the original language
all the verbs in that verse are in the continuing present tense.
It’s important to see that. If we continue walking in the light we
continue to have fellowship one with another. Please note that: The evidence that you’re walking
in the light is that you have fellowship. And if you get out of fellowship,
you get out of the light. And if you get out of the light,
the blood doesn’t cleanse in the dark. That's a tremendously important fact:
The blood does not cleanse in the dark. If we continue walking in the light
we continue having fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus His son
continually cleanses us from all sin. It’s a continuing provision. No matter where we are, if we’re in the light,
we may be in the most defiling circumstances, we may be
amongst the most wicked people. There may be countless evil
pressures against us. But as long as we are
walking in the light, the blood is continually
cleansing us from all sin. Let me show you
another beautiful picture. Keep your finger in 1 John,
we’ll come back. Turn to Psalm 51 for a moment. Psalm 51. This is the great penitent
psalm of David. After he had been convicted of his two
terrible sins: of adultery and murder, he turned to God with his tremendous cry
of repentance and plea for mercy. We can’t go into it all but let’s just
look at what he says in verse 7: Purge me with hyssop
and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall
be whiter than snow. And you notice the use
of the word hyssop? What did he have in mind? The Passover.
What was he thinking of? The blood, that’s right. Purge me with hyssop
and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall
be whiter than snow. What a privilege it is to know
where to go when you’re guilty. I suppose every one of us
in this room has that privilege. Brothers and sisters, stop for a moment
and think about the billions of people who are guilty and don’t
know where to go. Can you imagine what it’d be like
to have a guilty conscience to be tormented with
the reality of your sin and not know where to go
to find forgiveness and peace? That’s the condition
of half of humanity today. What are we going to say?
We’ll go back to 1 John 1:7. And I’ll give you a little pattern. I don’t have all this worked out in advance,
it’s more or less impromptu. I’ve done it several times before. But let me say it this way:
While I walk in the light the blood of Jesus cleanses me now
and continually from all sin. See why I say now? Because I want to make it very
here and now, right at this moment. But not only at this moment, from this moment
on as long as I’m walking in the light. Would you like to say that after me? While I walk in the light the blood of Jesus cleanses me now and continually from all sin. All right, let’s see if we
can say that together now. While I walk in the light the blood
of Jesus cleanses me now and continually from all sin. The next great provision is justification. Justification is a theological word
which upsets some people. But it’s not really that bad. The Greek word in its basic
form means: to make righteous. But it has a lot of different
shades of meaning. Let’s go to the Scripture first,
that’s Romans 5:9: Much more then, having now been justified
by His blood, the blood of Jesus, we shall be saved from
wrath through Him. So we have been justified by His blood. Let me try and convey it to you this way. You’re on trial in a court of law
for a capital offense. Your life is at stake. And then the verdict comes out:
not guilty. That’s justification. You’ve been acquitted. It means more:
You’ve been reckoned righteous. With the righteousness of Jesus Christ,
not with your own. But with the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. But it also means you’ve
been made righteous. It has all those meanings: acquitted, not guilty,
reckoned righteous, made righteous. And then this is a little way
that we have to fix it in your mind. I’m justified means: Just-as-if-I’d
never sinned. Because I’ve been made righteous with
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And He never sinned.
He had no guilt. He had no past to be covered up. See, your own righteousness
will never get you to heaven. Isaiah says all our righteousness
are as filthy rags. But let those filthy rags go and
let the blood of Jesus impart to you the
righteousness of Jesus. Then the devil has no way
to accuse you. There’s a Scripture in - keep your finger
in Romans, we may come back. People tell me I expect them to have
too many fingers. In Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61:10: I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God for He has clothed me with
the garments of salvation, He has covered me with
the robe of righteousness. There’s two things you get:
Salvation and righteousness. When you trust in Jesus Christ
and His sacrifice on your behalf, you’ll be clothed with a garment of
salvation, but it doesn’t stop there. You’ll be covered with
the robe of righteousness. One translation says: He has wrapped me
around with the robe of righteousness. You’re totally covered with the
righteousness of Jesus Christ. The devil has got nothing
he can say against you. If he tells you you’ve done a
whole lot of things wrong. You know what to do?
Agree with him. Say: You’re quite right, Satan. But all that’s in the past. And I am clothed with
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. See if you can find
anything wrong with that. Let’s go back to Romans 5:9
and let’s see. I’ll do a run through and then
we’ll see where we get to. Listen to me now carefully:
Through the blood of Jesus, now don't say it yet, I'll do it once,
because I'm not quite sure where I'm going at. Through the blood of Jesus
I am justified, acquitted, not guilty, reckoned righteous, made righteous,
just as if I’d never sinned. Don’t try and say it with me the
first time, say it after me. Through the blood of Jesus I am justified acquitted not guilty reckoned righteous made righteous just as if I’d never sinned. Take a deep breath and say:
Thank you, God. All right, we’ll go on.
The next is sanctification. Sanctification. We’ll turn to Hebrews 13:12. Hebrews 13:12: Therefore Jesus also, that He might
sanctify the people with His own blood suffered outside the gate. Now, to sanctify in the original is directly
related to the word for holiness. Actually, 'sanct' is the same word
we have in English, saint. So to sanctify is to make saintly
or to make holy. It’s got two aspects, one is negative. We’re set apart from sin
and from everything that defiles. And then we’re made holy
with God’s own holiness. In the 12th chapter of Hebrews, well,
we might read that for a moment. Talking about God’s chastisement. It says in Hebrews 12:10
our human fathers chastised us for a short period of our lives
according to their best judgment. But God does it in a different way.
Hebrews 12:10: For they indeed, that’s human parents,
for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them,
but He for our profit that we may be partakers
of His holiness. Notice not our holiness anymore than
our righteousness, but His holiness. How do we partake of His holiness? Through the blood of Jesus. So Jesus, that He might sanctify
the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Let me try to show you how you
apply that operation of the blood. Through the blood of Jesus
I am sanctified, separated from sin, set apart to God,
made holy with God’s holiness. I’m not sure if I can
remember that but I’ll try. This time you follow me. Through the blood of Jesus I am sanctified made holy set apart to God separated from sin made holy with God’s holiness. You can change the words a little
as long as you get the facts. That’s what matters, all right? Now, what we’ve been doing every time
so far is dipping the hyssop in the basin. And sprinkling it over us,
you understand? Now we’re going to go on. We’ve so far dealt with redemption,
cleansing, justification and sanctification. Now we’re going to go to life. I once heard a preacher say that
all the provisions of the blood of Jesus were only negative, they
only saved us from something. I think that’s a very
dangerous statement and I can’t think of anything
more positive than life. Let’s look for a moment in Leviticus 17:11,
which is the passage I quoted earlier. Leviticus 17:11: For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar
to make atonement for your souls. It is the blood that makes
atonement for the soul. So the life of God
is in the blood of Jesus. God’s own life, the life of the Creator. Our human minds have no way to calculate
the potential of that statement. Because the Creator is infinitely greater
than all that He’s created. The entire created universe
is just a snap of His fingers. You see, if we could grasp
what’s in the blood of Jesus. I’ve said there’s more power
in one drop of the blood of Jesus, than there is in
the whole kingdom of Satan. Because we’ve got the eternal, uncreated,
measureless life of God Himself. A life that existed before anything was
ever created in the blood of Jesus. With that in mind let’s turn to John 6. John 6. And we’re going to read from
verse 53 through verse 57. John 6:53. Then Jesus said to them
most assuredly, I say to you. There are two levels of emphasis
in the teaching of Jesus. If you have the old authorized version,
sometimes He said verily. And sometimes He said verily, verily. Verily means it’s important. Verily, verily means it’s super important. Now in this translation they say
assuredly and most assuredly. So this is one of the super
important statements. I think I’ll go back to verily, verily. Verily, verily, I say to you, unless you
eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood,
you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks
my blood has eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed
and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks
my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me,
and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me
will live because of me. Now, I’m sure there are
various ways to apply that. But I began my
Christian ministry in 1946 in an Arab town called Ramallah
just north of Jerusalem. It’s no longer a town,
it’s a much bigger city today. And at that time, with my
first wife and the children, the language of our home was Arabic. And there are certain things that you get into you
that you never get out of you. Whenever I think of the communion service
or taking the Lord’s supper or the Eucharist or whatever you want to say,
I always think of what the Arabs said: Let us drink the blood of Jesus. That was not some strange
super-spiritual phrase. That was their way
of talking about the communion. And there may be many ways
to apply this but for me, when I take the communion,
I eat His flesh and I drink His blood. Now that’s a stumbling
block for some people. How can I help that? We have been taught, some of us,
that we do it just as a memorial. That’s not what Jesus said. He said: You’re eating my flesh
and you’re drinking my blood. We do it in memorial too,
sure we do but that’s not all. We are actually partaking of the body
and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s no reason to
change those words. There are a lot of different opinions as to
how it becomes the body and the blood. The Catholics and the liturgical churches
believe it’s through consecration by a priest.
Frankly, that’s not what I believe. I believe it comes through faith. When I receive it in faith,
believing what Jesus said in His word, it becomes to me precisely
what He said it would be. Please don’t argue with
me because I’m happy. Let’s look for a moment
in 1 Corinthians 10. I believe we have here
both Baptists and Brethren. That’s probably divine providence. Well, brothers.. I remember a Brethren preacher saying
once to some of his fellow Christians: Jesus said as often as you do it,
but you do it as seldom. Let’s look in 1 Corinthians 10
for a moment, verse 16: The cup of blessing which we bless,
is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? Communion, sharing in
the blood of Christ. The bread which we break, is it not the communion,
the sharing, in the body of Christ? And then he goes on in chapter 11. And he reminds them of the way
the Lord’s supper was instituted in verses 23 and following. He says: For I received from the Lord
that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night
in which He was betrayed took bread: and when He had given thanks He broke
it and said: Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you
or which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. It’s perfectly true we do it
in remembrance of Him. But what do we do
in remembrance of Him? We take His body. In the same manner also He took
the cup after supper, saying: This cup is the new
covenant in my blood. This do as oft as you drink it
in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread
and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. I want to say very emphatically:
I don’t recommend everybody to be like Ruth and me. There’s wonderful liberty
in the Body of Christ. We can do within certain limits
what God leads us to do. But this has become
so important to me. And I so tremendously
feel my need of the life of God. Let me say, I think I can say it
with humility, I think I’m something of an advertisement for the life of God. Most of you wouldn’t guess
I’m 71 years old. And I think part of that is living
on the body and the blood of Jesus. For me this is no doctrine or theory. This is a living reality.
So, this is the way we do it. And please, I’m not suggesting that
anybody should do what we do. But we take communion together
as husband and wife every morning. And every morning
I say the same things. Lord Jesus, now what do I say?
Remind me. Yes, that’s right, I break the bread. I break the bread and I say: Lord Jesus,
we receive this bread as Your flesh. And we eat it. And then we share a tiny little cup. And I say: Lord Jesus,
we receive this cup as Your blood. And I say: As we do this, we proclaim
Your death until You come. You see, we do it mainly
maybe in Jerusalem, where Christians are less than
one percent of the population. What a privilege to proclaim the Lord’s death
every day in the city where He died. A great Bible expositor of
the last century commented on this. You do show or proclaim
the Lord’s death until He comes. He said: When we come to this
ordinance, whatever you want to call it, we’re out of the whole context
of immediate time. We have no past but the cross,
no future but the coming. We proclaim His death until He comes. And every time we do that, we remind
ourselves He’s coming again. Now, let’s just..
How are we going to confess this? Let’s just do it by faith. We’re not going to take
any communion service. And I'm not ever recommending that
to any of you, let’s just say: Lord Jesus, when we receive your blood,
in it we receive your life, the life of God, divine,
eternal, endless life. All right, if I can remember that,
say it after me. Lord Jesus when we receive Your blood in it we receive Your life the life of God divine eternal endless life. Thank you, Lord. Let’s take a moment to
worship Him, shall we? Just receive it right now. Let the sense of divine life fill you, your heart, your mind,
even your physical body. Paul said in due course:
death will be swallowed up by life. But I think there’s a process of
ongoing death in our bodies, sickness, decay and so on, which can be
swallowed up by the life of God day by day. Paul said: though our outward man perishes,
our inward man is renewed day by day. There’s enough life in the inward man
to keep the outward man going until our task is finished. We want to talk about just two more
effects of the blood of Jesus. The sixth one is intercession. We’ll turn to Hebrews 12
and we’ll read verses 22-24. Hebrews 12:22.
I want you to notice the tense. It begins with the words:
we have come. We’re not going to come. In the Spirit, not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit we have come. We have come to Mount Zion,
that’s number one. Number two, the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem. Not the earthly Jerusalem,
but the heavenly Jerusalem. Number three,
an innumerable company of angels. And I prefer the translation
which says: in festal array. I can’t go into all the reasons
why you can translate it either way. But I think the NIV says: an innumerable
company of angels in festal array. They’ve put on their best
clothes for our benefit. I mean, seeing an innumerable company of
angels in any guise would be wonderful, but in festal array! Ruth and I were in Belfast three years ago now
and we were in a little group of leaders meeting in a home. And the presence of God moved in
amongst us, as we humbled ourselves before the Lord and before one another. And for about ten minutes, Ruth saw
an innumerable company of angels, just passing, passing,
passing all the time. Then one of them came into the room. And after that, she closed her eyes. This is all within the bounds
of our possible experience today. We’re no different from
the people in the New Testament. They were no different from us. We have come to Mount Zion,
the heavenly Jerusalem, an innumerable company
of angels in festal array. The church of the firstborn
who are registered in heaven. Those who’ve been born again,
whose names are written in heaven. Number five, God, the Judge of all. Thank God there’s more than God
the Judge there, brothers and sisters. Otherwise we’d never make it. Number six, to the spirits
of just men made perfect. I believe that’s the Old Testament saints,
who through a lifetime walk of faith, achieved what we achieve
through the new birth. What we don’t achieve through the new birth,
what is given to us through the new birth. Number seven, to Jesus
the mediator of the New Covenant. That’s why we can be there. If it were only God the Judge,
we’d never get there. But with God the Judge there is also Jesus,
the mediator of the New Covenant. And finally, the blood of sprinkling
that speaks better things than that of Abel. The sprinkled blood of Jesus
that speaks on our behalf in heaven, contrasted with the blood of Abel. There are three main points of contrast. Abel’s blood was shed against his will. Jesus willingly gave His blood. Abel’s blood was sprinkled on earth. Jesus’ blood is sprinkled
in the holiest of all. Abel’s blood called out for vengeance. Jesus’ blood pleads for mercy. This is such a beautiful revelation,
I wouldn’t want any of you to be deprived of it. There are times when we are weak, when
we’re under pressure, we just can’t pray. We just wonder if we’re going
to be able to draw the next breath. It’s good to know at those times
that the blood of Jesus sprinkled in the immediate presence of God
is always speaking on our behalf. Calling out for mercy. Let’s make a little confession
just to appropriate this truth. I’ll do it, I haven’t thought this out
in advance, but Thank you, Lord, that even when I cannot pray, the blood
of Jesus is pleading for me in heaven. All right, are you ready to say that? Thank you, Lord,
that even when I cannot pray.. I thought you were going to say
it after me, you are ahead of me. We say it together then. Thank you, Lord,
that even when I cannot pray, the blood of Jesus is
pleading for me in heaven. Let's say that once again,
we weren't very certain. Thank you, Lord, that
even when I cannot pray, the blood of Jesus is pleading
for me in heaven. Amen. And finally we have access
through the blood of Jesus. These last two provisions of the blood
take us out of the realm of time and into the heavenly
and eternal realms. Which is where we want
to end up anyhow. Turn back to Hebrews 10
verse 19 and following. Significantly, this verse has already
been quoted in the worship this morning. I think that was part of God’s provision. Hebrews 10, beginning at verse 19:
Therefore brethren, having boldness or confidence. The Greek word means
freedom of speech. It’s very important that our boldness
gives us freedom of speech. In other words,
let’s remember it’s our testimony. If we don’t testify we don’t have it. Therefore brethren, having boldness to
enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He
consecrated for us through the veil, that is His flesh, and having
a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near, that's into the holiest of all,
with a true heart and full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and
our bodies washed with pure water. Note the next words: Let us hold fast
the confession of our hope without wavering. Hebrews 3:1 says Jesus is the
high priest of our confession. Hebrews 4:14 says hold fast your confession. But Hebrews 10:23 says
hold it fast without wavering. What does that tell you? When you’re in an airplane and they say:
Buckle your seatbelts, what do you expect? Turbulence, that’s right. When the word of God says: Make the
confession, hold fast the confession and hold it fast without wavering,
that’s like God saying: Buckle your seatbelts,
because there will be turbulence. Don’t let it cause you
to unbuckle your seatbelt. Keep on making the right confession. Even when it seems totally contrary
to everything around you, God’s word is true. You’ll notice that we have access into
the holiest by a new and living way. Go back for a moment to the
scene in Leviticus 16 where the high priest entered
once every year and what did he do? He entered with a
censer full of incense that cast a fragrant cloud and
covered the mercy seat - that’s worship. But he also entered with
the blood of the sacrifice and he sprinkled it seven times
between the veil and the mercy seat. Once, twice, three times, four times
five times, six times, seven times. And then he smeared it on the east side,
the front side of the mercy seat. And when the writer of Hebrews
says we have boldness through the blood of Jesus
by a new and living way, he’s thinking about that seven-fold
sprinkling of the blood and the blood on the mercy seat. We can approach the throne of Almighty God
and the holiest place in the universe with boldness, because of the
blood of Jesus. We have access. What are we going
to say about ourselves? Let’s say this. Thank you, Lord. I’ll say it first because I don’t even
know what I’m going to say yet. Thank you, Lord, that through
the sprinkled blood of Jesus I have access into the presence of Almighty God, into the holiest place in the universe. Do you think I can say that again?
Let’s try. Thank you, God that through the sprinkled
blood of Jesus I have access into your presence into the holiest place in the universe. Let me just close by
recapitulating the seven provisions. It could be possible to give
them in a different order. Although I think this is a logical order. Redemption, cleansing, justification, sanctification, life, intercession and access. Sprinkled seven times, works
in us in seven different ways. But remember, we overcome Satan by
the blood of the Lamb and by what? The word of our testimony.
Let’s say that together and we’ll close. But don’t forget to add: and we
love not our lives unto the death. Are you with me? We overcome
Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony,
and we love not our lives unto the death. There’s only one logical
thing we can do now. In the light of all that is to praise God.
