Christ’s Blood (Part C)

People from other churches will come here and passively demand that we honor their views even though when we find their views repulsive. Because they go against scripture. And you know, there are a lot of people that think that pastors are, you know, pin cushions. I ain't one of them.

And there's some others out there too. And nor should they be. And nor should Christians see them that way. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Hebrews chapter 9 with his message called, Christ's Blood. Satan is the sovereignty that Adam had in the garden. Now Satan has that sovereignty.

He stole it. He's the God of this age in that sense. He's certainly not God over God. He is not a God. He's a creepy created thing by his own choice. And yet he is a, he's evil. And he is powerful. And we are no match for him.

But he's no match for Christ. And again, if you're a victim to unclean thoughts or spooky thoughts or things that junk that comes into your head involuntarily, as all human beings to some degree are, the Christians I have found the best defense is instant prayer. For someone else, it's so easy to pray for yourself, right? God, can you make me even better looking?

No, I don't think you can. I mean, that's not prayer. But prayer for others, especially lost souls. So anytime he messes with your head, you become an intercessor. You begin to pray for a lost soul.

They could be on the other side of the planet. No, not general prayer. Pray for all the people in Tibet. That's not prayer. But to have a name, a life, a face on the heart, to pray for them at those instances, you might find it to be a sword, a weapon, and a shield.

And a sword can be used as a shield, incidentally. That is to the glory of Christ. Well, anyway, this Adam, the wrong kingdom, sovereignty given up, subject to Satan and his influence, Christ redeems us from all of that if we will have him, if we will accept him. Verse 13. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer are sprinkling, the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh. Verse 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

We go back up to verse 13. All the ceremonies associated with the Jewish temple, they had to do with ceremonial purity, not moral purity. They couldn't make you clean. They couldn't stop you from being a liar or a thief or whatever else you might have struggled with. They just were ceremonial exercises.

They're meaningful. They were true, but they didn't have that power, as we know the Holy Spirit gives. Now, the Holy Spirit does not give as much power as we would like in this life. What would happen to you as a person with a dual nature? You have a spiritual nature if you're born again, and you have a sinful nature. Still, it will be with you until you leave this life. What would happen if with those two natures, God came along and took away every temptation that ever bothered you, and you no longer were tempted to sin, and you no longer sinned?

What would happen? Well, your dual nature would be quick to break out the trumpets and the red carpet for you. You are a glorious one. Remember, remember how good you are wherever you go. You're better than everybody else. They do the stuff you don't do. You're better than everyone else. So, God, knowing that, has left us to grapple with the flesh.

It keeps us humble. Could you imagine as a pastor, someone coming in and saying, pastor, I have sinned. This is what I've done. I don't know what to do now. Could you imagine if I didn't sin, I would say, you know what? You're a loser. You need to be like me, but you can't.

Can you imagine how messed up the whole world would be? So, God in His wisdom, and there's more to it than that, more than I could ever express or even know, but I know a little bit about it. I know that what helps me be patient with others is when you point at them, you've got the fingers pointing back at you. And so, understanding that may help you knock the devil away when the devil says you're miserable and you're no good. And you can respond and say, yeah, Jesus knows that about me and a lot more, and He loves me nonetheless. And so, those rituals, they stopped at the outer man, but the New Testament targets and centers itself on the inner man.

So you don't bring the offerings to the church as you did in the Old Testament, you bring you. And hopefully, one whom the inner man is being worked upon, not a self-righteous, you know self-righteous Christians, you just want to spray him with a fire extinguisher, just for the fun of it. It's just like, come on. But in all fairness, because I know how messed up I am, I have to be patient with them still. I can't be overbearing in my judgment and intolerance of them.

I cannot be self-righteous against their self-righteousness, which is quite irritating. Because you're the one that's messed up at this moment, and I've got to be perfect with you. But I don't want to be perfect with you.

I want you in handcuffs. Doesn't work that way. So, Romans chapter 12, verse 2, talking about the inner man. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And so, animal blood.

You know, it was instrumental in saving Israel from Egypt. It just cannot save anyone from hell. For that, you need blood that is worthy. That is Christ's blood. And so, people cannot afford to die in their sins.

And if they do not accept the gospel, and they've listened to the gospel, they have no one to blame but themselves. Now, this red heifer that he mentions up here, the red heifer had to do with purification, purification of the priest, purification of those who have touched a dead body. It would probably be very helpful in times of war to make them purified to be able to come to the temple again. In that sense, they were ceremonially unclean. They couldn't go to church until they got this corrected through the steps, and the red heifer was part of that. So don't read too much into that.

It'd be very easy to and maybe not so wise. But there's no need for such a red heifer, for cleansing, for purification, because we've got Christ. John's gospel, chapter 13.

This is when Jesus is washing the feet of the disciples. Now, blood and water. The blood speaks of, of course, the washing away of sin.

Justification. Justification from sin. The water speaks of sanctification, that continuous cleansing through the processes of this life because we are sinners, because we are not yet glorified. The day is coming when we will be in heaven, we will be glorified. We won't have a dual nature.

We'll have a single nature, and it will be singular, set on God. John's gospel 13. Jesus said, when Peter said, don't, you're not washing my feet. That's the work of a slave, and I'm not letting you, my master, wash my feet. And Jesus says, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me. So we're talking about that heifer representing purification, but Christ going beyond that.

Not ceremonially, but morally, and eternally, and spiritually. He continues, Jesus said to him, he was bathed, needs only to wash his feet. He says, walk in Christ, but is completely clean, and you are clean.

And then he adds, but not all of you. You see, Judas was in the room. Judas was not the one, he was the one that was not clean, and it is up to us to make sure we're not Judas. And that's not hard to do. Don't go, but what if I become Judas? Well, don't.

It's not hard. Verse 14, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. How much more shall the blood of Christ, in other words, all the other stuff, again, symbols, but, symbols must be weaker than the realities they represent.

Those symbols were weaker than the fact of Christ doing the job. He says, without spot to God. Jesus, that's what makes him worthy. He's sinless. He's eternally self-existent.

All the attributes of God are his because he is God, equal with the Father. He said of no other in scripture, not anyone from Adam to Mary and then on to the millennial kingdom, that no one is without sin except the Christ. Now, you say, well, I am a Roman Catholic and I don't believe that. Well, then you should be in a Roman Catholic church right now. We don't believe that. And a whole bunch of other things, we do not share it and are not sorry that we disagree. We don't mean to be rude, but we are very firm.

And just as the New York pope announces anathemas on those who are not baptized in his system, we announce anathemas back on those who reject the scripture, which would be him. You say, now you're offending me. As Martin Luther said, I do not know how not to offend guilty people.

It's no attitude in this. You say, well, you're not saying it in love. Well, how do you say it in love?

Ixnay, uxnay, lovesnay. How do you, I mean, you know, where does it end appeasing people? You got one or two to say, man, I got it. Then you got another one, I don't like how you said it. Well, maybe you'll like this.

No, you're getting the flash. And why do I say that? Because people from other churches will come here and passively demand that we honor their views even though when we find their views repulsive because they go against scripture. And, you know, there are a lot of people that think that pastors are, you know, pin cushions. I ain't one of them.

And there's some others out there, too. And nor should they be. And nor should Christians see them that way. If you are in a church and you see your pastor is spineless, you better be praying for him before finding another church.

Those are your options, but you're not there to go ahead and torture him. We hold up the arms of the servants of God to win the victories, not tear them down. Well, without spot to God, that is Christ. No sin in him. Cleanse your conscience.

Well, humans are guilty. And what we think matters. What we think about Christ matters most. What we think about Christ in relation to mankind, my sins. He will cleanse your conscience. He will deal with the dirt that is in our heads, the evil, the sin, the guilt. We are guilty as sinners.

Revelation 1 5, Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth, to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. The blood that acts. You know, blood stains everything. Put some meat tenderizer on it. You get blood shaving, Nick, and it gets on your collar.

Put some meat tenderizer on it. Or something. Well, the blood of Christ does not stain.

It removes the stains. There's nothing like this. And we need to live as though we believe it. Men are groping without Christ for relief from sin, and they won't find it. They hide themselves in substances and alcohol and whatever they can cover it up with. Too many suppose that they can deal with sin without Christ. You can't.

Is it impossible? He says from dead works, those seeking to earn their salvation. Oh, look at me. How good I am. Well, you know, that works with other humans, maybe, but not with God because you cannot be that good. What a waste of energy and effort.

Just submit. Come to him. Let him work in your heart and take your life. It said God has a plan for everyone that is a believer. And I'm not going to argue that, but I am going to say, Well, how do you find out what that plan is? We sit at home, watch TV with cheese doodles. Yeah, you'll find the plan out that way.

The one you missed. What is the plan? You know, if that is true, shouldn't we be asking God? What do you want from me? I don't mean an attitude. What do you want from me? I don't mean that, but I mean, Lord, what do you want? I've been serving the Lord over 30 years now, and I'm still asking him. What do you want from me?

What can I do? Am I doing what you want me to do? I don't ever want to have the time when I I'm a professional step back.

Where's that pulpit? I don't ever want that attitude. And so what I'm saying is we all together.

It is a good thing. Lord, who are you? Always learning and progressing in our knowledge of Christ. What do you want me to do? The two questions Paul asked at his conversion. Who are you? What do you want me to do? They are ongoing in there. They are life changing, not extreme makeover kind of change.

You know, new hairdo and stuff, which I would challenge. Anyway, back to this, from dead works, cleanse us, our conscience and our lives from dead works, efforts to earn salvation rather than receive it. That just dooms the one trying to do it. To serve the living God, bottom of verse 14. That is worship according to God.

To work in worship. Verse 15. And for this reason he is mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant that those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

And so, again, he alone has taken our sin and guilt away on the cross and has brought about redemption. Verse 16. For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of a testator. A word we don't use, but next time you serve tater tarts, you might think of a testator. Now, if the Lord has blessed me with a little humor this morning, I hope you remember the spiritual points, not so much the humor.

And if sometimes, you know, it's okay, laughter does the heart good like medicine. Verse 17. For a testament is enforced after men are dead since it has no power at all while the testator lives. Well, the testator is the person who dies leaving the will. And a will is useless while that person is, practically speaking, while the person is alive. They can change it even or lose it.

Or it can be changed by a crook. But anyway, the point is, Christ, His will is enforced by His death. The blood of Christ is central to what we're talking about this morning. And it is the death of Christ that has brought the force behind the redemption, the forgiveness that we receive. And anyone who tells you that they are a Christian and Christ did not have to die is not a Christian. They may be confused, but they're not a Christian.

A Christian understands that they are blood bought and nothing else. And without the death of Christ, let's go over that again. The birth of Christ could save no one. That He was born of a virgin was wonderful, miraculous, but it could not save you. The words of Christ cannot save you directly. They lead to that salvation and they stir your heart, but they cannot. If you get the words of Christ and He didn't die on a cross and you don't receive it, you're not saved. The life of Christ could not save you. As righteous, as good as He is, is not enough. This is His system, not mine. I am just sharing what He has told us.

Only His death. Matthew 26, verse 39, He went a little farther, fell on His face and prayed, saying, Oh Father, my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Well, it wasn't possible.

That's the point. 1 Corinthians 1, Paul, boasting that he was not sent to the people to be a theologian, to give clever Bible studies. That would be part of what he did for sure, but that was not it.

And so he says, And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, Him crucified. Why was Billy Graham so difficult to block out when he spoke? I don't know, but you, when I was a little boy, I would have to switch between Mets baseball and back to Billy when he was on. Actually, I think I had to watch Yankee baseball because he came on the Met channel, which was irritating, but I couldn't, I couldn't stay away.

I was a little kid. I turned back and I'd hear him preach. He always preached the blood of Christ.

He always preached the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the return. And that is what we are to occupy ourselves with when we preach Christ. We don't need people to accept it. We want them to accept it because it is true. 1 Corinthians 2, And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or the wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God.

Oh, I read that, did I not? It's verse 17 I wanted. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect, the cross of Christ, the blood of Christ, the death of Jesus Christ. Verse 18, Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. Blood is something you never miss. A person can have a little nick on their cheek from shaving.

You got a nick. You could be working with someone and you see a little blood, just a little bit. Are you bleeding? Blood is never something we just dismiss.

In the medical or healthcare profession, it is a biohazard. Whether it is on the battlefield, slaughterhouse, in a kitchen, anywhere, blood is not missed. The cross, when you see the cross of Christ, it is the blood. It is not something to miss.

The history, the story, the fact, the realities behind it are much greater than the symbol itself. They are eternal. And so God delights on a contrite, penitent heart that comes to him and admits that their sin is worthy of death and the only way they can be forgiven is by coming to the one who is willing to die and did die for them. Revelation 19, 13, speaking of Christ, he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God.

Glorious. Verse 19, When Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water, scarlet wool, hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you. And so this was a big occasion at the giving of the law. Blood was present and he cast the blood as he was giving, as he was going through the scriptures and telling them about this arrangement with God now.

This testament, this covenant with God, not a new one, it's what we call the old one. Verse 21, Then likewise he sprinkled the blood on both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. The blood was everywhere.

In the wake of the old covenant, blood was everywhere. A slaughtered animal, innocent. The animal did nothing to have its throat slit and to be bled and to be butchered and to be burned.

It did nothing to deserve that. And so Christ did not deserve to be crucified. He spat upon, his beard pulled from his face, portions thereof to be scourged. Exodus 24, 7 is where he's quoting. Matthew 26, 28, though, develops it. Jesus said, For this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins. It's about the sin. Focused on the sin. Anyone who trivializes sin doesn't get it. Thinks the cross is a joke, they might not say it that way, they might not have thought it out that way. But the final analysis will show that they do not take the cross of Christ seriously.

Because they don't understand blood, someone else's blood for them. So the nature of sin. What sin? And I'm almost done on whatever time it is.

Thank you for being patient if I'm over. And if I'm under, we'll have to make up for it next week. The nature of sin. It destroys the capacity to identify sin.

That's what it does. You have people out there sinning and it's not a problem. It's not sin.

It's okay. They put a lot of energy into hiding sin, to redefining it, to ignoring it, to excusing it. This is the way of the world. It must not be the way of the Christian. Whether it is practice or preached, humans are trying to take the shame out of sin.

They're trying to redefine it. They're trying to blame the Puritans. Or it's only sin because the Puritans brought that stuff over.

Well, where'd they get it from? They got it from the Lord, from his word. Well, it's really not God's word. To you it's not.

But that won't set you free. The judgment still abides. And so we must be very careful when we see people trying to downsize sin.

Don't worry about it. You know, a lot of Christians will be fierce against sin until one of their family members is guilty of that sin. Then all of a sudden they want to downsize the sin. Well, it's really not that serious. I'll just find a church where they accept it.

May that never ever be our thinking or our approach. So the blood sounds the alarm. And God says, no, this is serious. I woke somebody up.

Five heads popped up. The blood said, the cross, the blood says it is serious. It is the most serious thing you have to deal with in your existence. Verse 22, and according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Each sacrifice demonstrated the penalty was death.

And it was messy business. G. Campbell Morgan writes, bloodshed is not life lived, but life laid down. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply log on to CrossReferenceRadio.com. That's CrossReferenceRadio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at CrossReferenceRadio.com or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Hebrews right here on Cross Reference Radio.