Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. As surely as the ancient high priest sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies seven times, You, child of God, has been covered seven times over with the atoning blood of Christ Jesus. He shall take some of the blood of the bull, and he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times, Leviticus 16, 14. Seven. The Hebrew number of perfection, completion.
That's how many times. Jesus blood for you. the droplets of blood from his sweat glands in the garden, the blood beaten out by the rod, the blood torn out by the whip, the blood from the brow by the thorns of the crown, the blood from his nail-pierced hands, and his nail-pierced feet, and the gushing From his impaled side. The blood, the atoning, redeeming, all-forgiving blood of Jesus has been shed, not in part, but in full.
So you can be sure of his grace. May you walk today covered. under the sevenfold blood. Of the Lamb. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright.
Every time we diminish another human being, we take some life from them. Might not have been their blood. Yes. But Abel's blood still cries out. Justice It's the plight of every guilty conscience.
It's the problem of every sinner in the world. And if you don't know the saving love and mercies of Jesus yet, it's your problem. What do you do with a guilty conscience? That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light.
I am Daniel Britt. Excited for you to hear the teaching today in our series, Empowered, as presented at Renolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastorallen.org.
That's pastorallen.org. or call 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Pastor Alan Wright.
He was talking about brain health and he was talking about the relationship of brain health and spirituality. And in the course of that, I was talking some about all that we're learning about how the brain works. And you have a lower brain, a system called the limbic system. And uh the right hemisphere of your brain and the amygdala. this almond clustered shaped part of your brain that has this amazing ability to respond quicker than you can think really logically.
So you're walking down a path and you see what looks to be a snake and this quick part of your brain, this limbic system, it just immediately goes in and the heart starts beating and you freeze. you're ready to either fight or run or do something. Because there's a snake and you freeze. and you're on high alert. It's a wonderful thing that God gave us so that when we need to be on high alert, we can be on high alert.
But then you also have a prefrontal cortex, you have a logical part of your brain, you have a left hemisphere that thinks and reasons, and you can look and go, let me make sure it is a snake before I just panic here. And then you can look closer and go, Oh, it was just a twisted stick that looked like a snake. And you go. No real alarm. Heart rate comes back down and you continue your hike.
And so, to be an emotionally healthy human being, you have to have both. Working, all parts of your brain have to be working, and you can't be just ruled by the lower part of your brain. You have to be able to also think about it. We were talking about this and relating to spirituality, and he told a funny story. He said, this is the way it is.
He said, you got a part of your brain that's just, you know. Just thoughts will come. And it's part of your brain that then you quickly go, oh no, that's ridiculous, right? We all have that. And he said he has this dog that he really loves.
He loves his dog. And the dog loves him. Except he said the dog loves his wife more. And this really bothers him. Because it's like if the two of them together He said the dog shows way more affection to his wife.
He said, They're alone. The dog is all over him, loves him. He said, But when they're together, the dog gives the attention to the wife. And he said he was with his wife and the dog not too long ago. And he said, the dog's paying all this attention to his wife.
And he said, literally, a thought came up in his brain. He said, you know, if I murdered my wife, I'd have the dog to myself. I mean, you know, I appreciated him admitting he had the thought, you know. He said, but, you know, within about a second, he's going, well, no, wait a minute. I love my wife.
I love my wife more than the dog. I'm not going to kill my wife for the sake of the affection of the dog. But the thought was there for a second, you know? I mean, it's like a snake. It's like, you know, it's like you got a part of your brain that's alerting you with some of that stuff.
But see, as you mature, right, you go, oh, that's ridiculous. You're not regulated by that. You regulate those thoughts.
Well This is the expression of the ultimate immaturity. and the first big brother of humanity. My problem. Is that Abel's getting the attention? If I killed him, then I'll get the attention.
It wasn't just an amygdala response, it was the deep ravages of human sin. They're so confused. To think in the first place That by bringing a great evil, that somehow you would bring into your own life a good. That's the lie of sin, all sin. Is it by enacting evil, you're going to bring good into your life?
And the great lie that accompanied it was: I must do this. in order to be loved. As if God had a limit to his love. It's if there wasn't enough blessing in the triune Godhead to bless both boys. And so he rose up.
And in the twisted Reasoning of a sin-ravaged heart. All of heaven shook in horror. His holy creation was shattered. And man took man's life. Cain spoke to Abel, his brother.
Verse 8 says, And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. And the LORD said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? He said, I don't know, my brothers keep. What's happened? I want you to To not rush past this, and I want you to hear the heartache of God.
What has happened? Where is your brother? The Lord of creation who's omniscient. Moaned. Not because he needed information, but because he was hurting in his own being.
Cain, what have you done? What have you done? Oh, what dread disease is this? What woeful breach? of attachment and fellowship has happened.
That this cancer of iniquity on earth would work its way into a heart and become murder. Oh Cain, what have you done? Where is your brother? This is the heart. of a loving father?
And then he added, The voice of your brother's blood. is crying to me from the ground. The blood of Abel had a voice. And it was calling to God. I imagine the Creator would have stopped his ears if he could have.
He would have silenced that awful, woeful voice of that blood. That was crying up. Making an appeal. Calling to the Creator. I believe the blood of Abel was placing a demand upon God.
The word it was crying had to be Justice. Justice must be done. And our just God, holy and righteous, who made this world on the principle of justice and righteousness, could not turn a deaf ear to the cry. Justice must be done. I've been cursed by my brother, so he must be cursed.
I've been hurt by my brother, so he must be hurt. I've been killed wrongfully. He deserves death. It's the cry of all justice. It's the only way justice makes sense.
And we all know that voice. Everywhere throughout history, people have had a basic sense of this. You don't even need to have a Revelation of Ten Commandments: for thou shalt not kill. Every culture throughout history that we've chronicled and know of forbids. the taking of human life.
It's in the codes of Hammurabi and Mesopotamia. It's in the Egyptian laws. It's in all Greek and Roman laws. It's in intra-tribe forbidding of killings in primitive cultures. It's everywhere.
The blood knows killing is wrong, and the one who kills must pay. Every drop of Abel's blood was calling out to a just creator who'd made a holy world. Sin can't just have its way. There can't just be no reaction or recourse. Cain must suffer.
Cain must not be blessed. Cain must be cursed. Cain must lose something. Cain must die. And Abel's voice was joined by a voice deep in our own hearts.
something in us wants to always strike back.
Something in the sin nature, when we're cursed, wants to return it with curse. When we're hurt, wants to hurt. When life's taken from us, we want to take something from someone else. And we've all done it. Thankfully, have we lifted up the knife and taken a brother's blood, but We've all done it.
Every sinful act against another. Every time we stepped on someone to get a little higher, Every word of gossip. that puts somebody else down takes a little bit of their life. Every time we diminish another human being, we take some life from them. Might not have been their blood.
Yeah. But Abel's blood still cries out. Justice. It's the plight of every guilty conscience. It's the problem of every center in the world.
Okay. And if you don't know the saving love and mercies of Jesus yet, it's your problem. What do you do with a guilty conscience? What do you do with the fact that you know that you've diminished others' lives. And it's a justice issue.
And that voice of Abel's blood has a strong ally, does it not? His name is the accuser. Satan. and all his minions are well trained in the dialect of Abel's blood. It's the cry of Abel's blood by which Satan accuses believers even.
To say, look at his sin, look at his unrighteous deeds, look at his wrongdoings, he deserves condemnation. That's the voice that rises from the blood of Abel, joined by the voices of hell that tries to reach into the heavenly courtroom. And apart from Christ, we are plagued by its guilt, condemned by its appeal to justice, and relegated to shame because of its validity. The voice of Abel cries to God, not just against Cain. But against us.
Let there be justice, let there be payment for sin, let there be no blessedness for murderers, for life takers, and generation after generation, the voice of Abel's blood has made its cry, and God. has always had an answer. It's shown in a million Passover lambs offered every year. to save the people from the destroyer who was coming through. As the firstborn in Egypt were slain, Everywhere that there was blood over the door of a Hebrew slave hut, the life inside was spared because of the blood.
So the picture was being painted over and over, but always Abel's blood comes and tries to raise its voice even against all the sacrifices that have been offered, all of the bloods of the goats and the rams and the lambs. Until one day. John the Baptizer looked. and saw the Nazarene Jesus. and said, Behold, The Lamb of God.
who takes away the sin of the world. From the moment that Abel's blood was pooling in the dirt, East of Eden. The Lord knew there would be a day. A glorious day. and just which there would be a brother.
this time an older brother. who would not take the blood of his younger brother. Mm. but instead would die for him. and shed his blood.
that the firstborn of all creation would one day come. And he would bleed. Seven times he would bleed. The high priest who had sprinkled the blood seven times on the mercy seat, and Jesus came, the Lamb of God, and he would bleed at Gethsemane as he sweat blood, and he would bleed under the rod, and he would bleed under the whip. He would bleed under the crown of thorns.
He would bleed on his hands and at his feet. And then his side would be pierced and he would pour out blood. It wasn't pretty. It was heinous. It was gruesome.
It wasn't what you want on the front sign of your church or on your branded images. It's what we needed, though. We needed a different blood, a better blood crying up from the ground. We needed a voice other than the blood of Abel's voice. We needed Jesus' blood, which was like Abel's in this, that they were both innocent blood.
It was tragic blood. It was a brother's blood. It was blood that was shed unjustly. And it was blood that was crying out with its own voice. But we needed a different, a different, different kind of blood.
We needed Jesus because Christ is not like Abel. He wasn't killed. He laid down his life. Christ wasn't like Abel. Christ was perfect and sinless.
He was a son of God. His blood was human, but it was divine. That life that flowed from Jesus' blood had all of the nefesh of God in it. It had life in it. Oh my, one drop of Jesus' blood had more power in it than all the power of hell.
And so now in Christ, a new voice reaches into the inner recesses of the heavenly courtroom. If Abel's blood cried out, let justice be done, then the blood of Jesus now cries out, is done. It is finished. Justice is done. The payment is complete.
Righteousness is restored. The law is fulfilled. If Abel's blood cried out, there must be more bloodshed, more sacrifice. Jesus' blood cries out, no more. No more is needed.
The perfect sacrifice of the perfect blood of the perfect Son has been shed once and for all, and he has shed it and sprinkled it figuratively into the heavenlies on our behalf, upon the mercy seat of heaven, where once and for all the veil has been torn, the way has been opened, and we who are in Christ, anyone who trusts in him, anyone who drinks of his blood figuratively, who takes in the life of Jesus, anyone has forgiveness of sins and redemption of their lives. And we join into a song of the heavens. Worthy is the Lamb who's been slain for us. There's a new voice that's calling out to the Creator, the voice of a better blood. It's Jesus' blood.
Jesus' blood is speaking to God the Father for you. That's what it means when you hold that little cup today. The blood is speaking on your behalf. Wow. Hear that voice.
Take in its full benefits. Since, therefore, we've now been justified by his blood, Paul says. In Ephesians, in him, we have redemption through his blood. And the writer of Hebrews chapter 9 says, We are cleansed in our conscience by that blood. Seven sprinklings of the high priest, seven times Jesus' bled, and seven unshakable benefits of the blood, forgiveness of sins, cleansing the conscience, justification, redemption, sanctification, peace, and victory over evil.
For the Bible says they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Every single day, you can tune in to the cry of the blood of Jesus, the better blood, the blood of the Savior. He cries out from the ground, his blood, to the heavenly courtroom, and says, Of every single Christian, you are forgiven. You are redeemed. You are forever reconnected with God.
There is power. Power. Wonder working power. In this blood. And that's the gospel.
Pastor Alan Wright. Our good news message, The Power of Better Blood. It's in the series Empowered, and Pastor Alan will be back here in the studio sharing a parting good news thought for you and me in just a moment. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing.
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That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back here in the studio with Pastor Alan at the conclusion of this teaching, and as the hymn writer Robert Lowry wrote, There's nothing but the blood of Jesus, the wonder-working power. And this teaching here, the power of better blood, certainly has. giving us something to think about.
The phrase, the power of the blood, we can just say it and sing it, but when you begin to really look in the scripture and see right from the beginning, from the Very moment that the first blood is shed, and it's God who's shedding the blood of an innocent animal to make better clothing for Adam and Eve. And You begin to watch that th stream of blood that flows through all of the covenants and then into the temple worship where Thousand, thousand sacrifices are offered. Till finally you see the blood of Jesus streaming down so freely from Calvary, from his brow, from his side, from his hands, his feet. The blood is so significant and when you come full circle to Hebrews to realize that In saying that the blood of Jesus speaks a better word than Abel, you realize why the blood is so powerful. There's forgiveness in the blood.
whereas Abel's blood was crying out, Revenge. I've been murdered and it deserves justice. What's happened in Jesus is the opposite. the wrath against sin and the debt of payment all landed on Christ himself. who loved us.
and therefore we who are in Christ no longer have a blood that's crying out, Justice should be brought against us, but instead mercy. kindness and blessing. The blood of Jesus is powerful. Uh Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860.
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