WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Next week we will begin a new series on the attributes of God. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:13.000 So I'm looking forward to that. Hope you guys are excited about that as well. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:22.000 Let's open up our Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 5 as we begin our time together. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:31.000 Luke chapter 5. We're considering the cross of Christ and the blood of Jesus this morning. 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:59.000 Richard Phillips has said, "At the very heart of Christian faith is a precious red substance, the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ." As we continue our study this morning, I would like for us to eventually look at this precious red substance as it is found in Scripture. 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:13.000 But to orient ourselves, let's take a look at Luke chapter 5 as we consider the passion predictions that Christ gave of Himself and His crucifixion. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:19.000 Notice in Luke chapter 5 verse 35. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:30.000 Jesus says the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast in those days. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:36.000 Jesus talks about a day where He will be taken. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:50.000 He's talking here about His crucifixion. Just so that we can see that there are many times that Jesus gives these predictions, turn to the ninth chapter looking at verse 22. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:02:14.000 Again, the Savior is talking to His disciples and He says to them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, by the chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:19.000 Jesus is predicting that which is about to occur in His life. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:28.000 Then we find an interesting scenario in the Transfiguration narrative in verse 31 of this same chapter. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:34.000 Here we have Moses and Elijah. These two men are talking with Jesus. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:46.000 They appear in His glory and notice what it says in verse 31. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:50.000 And what is this talking about? This is talking about His crucifixion. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:03:04.000 In verse 44, same chapter, Jesus is talking to them, telling them that these words need to sink into your ears. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:11.000 The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:19.000 Jesus was talking about His death. He was wanting His disciples to know beforehand what was going to take place. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:31.000 And of course, you guys know that the Holy Spirit, after His resurrection, brought many of these things to their mind that didn't make sense to them when Jesus first spoke of it. 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:54.000 Luke 9 verse 51, "When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face towards Jerusalem." This was Jesus' passion that He was going to set His face, His direction. His whole life was going towards this to redeem a people, to redeem us. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:59.000 Chapter 12, if you're still in Luke, verse 50. 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:27.000 Here, Jesus is talking once again. He says, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished." Chapter 13 verse 32, Jesus is having great passion, great lament, great sorrow for those that would reject Him. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:05:08.000 And in verse 32, He said, "Go tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons, and perform cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my horse.' Nevertheless, I must go my way today and tomorrow, and the following day, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem." And then He cries out, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it." And Jesus would long to gather those folks, but they would not have Him. 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:23.000 Now, in chapter 16 verse 31, I'm not for sure what you make of this verse, but Jesus is giving a parable, a story, and then it's about the rich man and Lazarus. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:26.000 You remember that wonderful story. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:42.000 And the rich man is in this great division in the afterlife where he sees Lazarus, this poor beggar that is at Abraham's side, and he wants some relief. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:06:19.000 And then he says, "Finally, why don't you send somebody to my brothers? They'll believe somebody if someone's sent to them." And notice these words here that are in the parable in verse 31. "And he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced of if someone should rise from the dead.'" And I just kind of wonder if that's just foreshadowing that Jesus had even of His own ministry. If you don't believe in the Son incarnate preaching the good news, will you even believe it when He rises from the dead? 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:43.000 Is your sinfulness, your hard-heartedness that bad? Chapter 17 verse 25. "But first he," that is the Christ, "must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation." I'm just trying to show you guys that Christ predicted His death and also His resurrection. 00:06:43.000 --> 00:07:05.000 You can look at chapter 18 verse 31, "And taking the twelve, Jesus said to them, 'See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished, for He will be delivered over to the Gentiles, and He will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:16.000 And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise.'" Jesus is talking about His death. He's talking about His resurrection. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:26.000 And of course, you know, after the resurrection in Luke 24, He speaks to them and He tells them, He rebukes them. Isn't this what the prophets were talking about? 00:07:26.000 --> 00:08:04.000 Luke 24, looking at verse 25, "And Jesus said to them, 'O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter His glory?'" Well, of course. And then in verse 46, Jesus says to them, "This is written that the Christ should suffer, and on the third day rise from the death." Christ repeatedly talks about His death and then His resurrection. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:13.000 And of course, we know that this death was not a clean death. It was a bloody death. And we actually sing about this. 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:46.000 You remember Augustus Toplady, who writes in Rock of Ages, "Cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee, let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, save me from its guilt and power." Richard Phillips said that there's this precious red substance that is the heart of the Christian faith. And even Augustus Toplady pens words about it. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:53.000 But we need to see it from Scripture that there is biblical significance to the blood of Christ. 00:08:53.000 --> 00:09:03.000 And I would like for you guys to write down at least 10 ways that Scripture talks about the blood of Christ and how it relates to His people. 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:18.000 First of all, we see it in Acts 20 with redemption. Would you guys turn to Acts chapter 20 and we're looking for a connection between the blood of Christ and what it does? 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:36.000 It redeems, it purchase, it will secure those people that Christ has come for. In Acts chapter 20 and verse 28, we read, and of course this is Paul speaking to the elders at Ephesus. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:10:09.000 He says, "Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which He obtained by His own blood." He purchased or He redeemed them with His own blood. Maybe we could look at Ephesians chapter 1 in that marvelous doxology or prayer that Paul has writing to the Ephesians. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:15.000 He recounts all the blessings that are found in our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:23.000 He says that we've been blessed by God the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in verse 3. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:36.000 And in verse 7, we now see that it's in Christ we have redemption. How do we receive this redemption? This marvelous blessing? It's through the blood. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:42.000 It is through the blood we have this redemption. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:50.000 Well, it's not just written in Acts by Luke. It's not just Paul and Ephesians, but it's also in 1 Peter. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:59.000 Peter gets in the action talking about the blood and the redemption, picking up the reading in chapter 1 verse 18. 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:26.000 He says, "Knowing that you were ransomed, you were redeemed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus." How are we ransomed? Peter says it's by the precious blood. It's the precious blood of Christ like a lamb without blemish or without spot. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:32.000 But we also see this in the revelation that John gives us of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:42.000 In the opening verses of the revelation, we see once again a relationship between the blood and redemption. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:12:03.000 It says that Jesus is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings on earth, to him who loved us, who has freed us, who has ransomed us, who has purchased us from our sins by his blood. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:13.000 The blood redeems us. The blood ransoms us. He has paid the purchase for us. 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:17.000 But the next word that I'd like for us to consider is propitiation. 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:28.000 So let's turn to Romans chapter 3 so we can look at verse 25 and we can see how the blood and propitiation relate to one another. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:39.000 Some of you guys are like, "What?" Propitiation, yes, and let me define that for you with the help of Jerry Bridges who says propitiation addresses the wrath of God. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:48.000 It is the work of Christ saving us from God's wrath by absorbing it in his own person as our substitute. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:13:00.000 Expiation, which basically means removal, accompanies propitiation and speaks of the work of Christ in removing or putting away our sin. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:07.000 Such is the symbolism of the two goats used on the day of atonement. 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:18.000 Continuing on, he says, "The first goat represents Christ's work for propitiation as it was killed and its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:27.000 The second goat represents Christ's work of expiation in removing or blotting out the sin that were against us. 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:53.000 The object of propitiation is the wrath of God. The object of expiation is the sin which must be removed from his presence." In Romans chapter 3 verse 25 we read that God put forth as a propitiation by his blood, that is Christ's blood, to be received with faith. 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:59.000 And this was to show God's righteousness and his forbearance of us. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:06.000 So we see that propitiation is accomplished through the blood of Christ. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:09.000 John Stott helps us by saying this. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:17.000 It would be hard to exaggerate the difference between the pagan and the Christian views of propitiation. 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:27.000 In the pagan perspective, human beings try to placate their bad tempered deities with their own poultry offendings. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:52.000 According to the Christian revelation, God's own great love propitiated his own holy wrath through the gift of his own dear son, who took our place, bore our sin, and died our death. Thus God himself gave himself to us for himself. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:58.000 Do you see how God is doing all of this? And he's doing it through the blood of Christ. 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:01.000 Next we have cleansing. 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:05.000 The blood of Christ cleanses us. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:20.000 And this is wonderful to know that not only are we redeemed, not only is the wrath of God taken away, but if we were to look at Hebrews chapter 9 verse 14, we'll see this cleansing at work. 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:43.000 Which says, "How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" The blood of Christ cleanses our conscience. Isn't that wonderful? 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:50.000 But not only that, we also see it in 1 John 1, 7. Some of you guys know this verse well. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:16:10.000 It says, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son, cleanses us from all sin." We need this cleansing work. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:24.000 But we also see it once again in Revelation chapter 7, where you have John the Revelator asking questions about who this great company is and how they came to be there. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:34.000 And the angel says to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to John, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:41.000 They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:51.000 There is a cleansing that comes from the blood of the Lamb." So there's redemption, number one. There's propitiation, number two. 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:55.000 There's cleansing, number three. Number four, there's forgiveness. 00:16:55.000 --> 00:17:00.000 The cross of Christ through the blood of Christ gives us forgiveness. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:14.000 As Oswald Chambers says, "Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace." It costs God the cross of Jesus Christ before he could forgive sin and remain a holy God. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:25.000 Once you realize all that it costs God to forgive you, you will be held in a vice, constrained by the loves of God. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:31.000 You guys remember that passage from Ephesians chapter 1, where it recounts all the blessings? 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:44.000 Yes, in fact, we read this verse. It says, "In Christ, in Him, we have redemption, and it's through His blood." And then he adds the parenthetical thought so that you can understand what that means. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:56.000 He says, "It is the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the richness of His grace." He gives us forgiveness. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:03.000 Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22, once again, helps us to see this forgiveness. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:18.000 You know the verse well. It says, "For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness." And of course, all of this should come to mind that there are these Old Testament symbols. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:27.000 These are the Old Testament rituals that we see fulfilled in Christ that He accomplished with His blood. 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:32.000 Revelation gets in on the action again and it says He's released us. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:38.000 He has cleansed us from our sin by His blood. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:43.000 The blood's very, very important. It provides forgiveness. 00:18:43.000 --> 00:19:09.000 Sinclair Ferguson chimes in by saying, "When Paul preaches the cross, he preached a message which explained that this instrument of rejection had been used by God as His instrument of reconciliation." Man means to bring death to Jesus. Was God's mean to bring life to the world? 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:17.000 Man's symbol of rejecting Christ was God's symbol of forgiveness for man. 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:22.000 This is why Paul boasted in the cross. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:29.000 And may I say, this is why we should boast in the blood of Christ because it brings forgiveness. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:35.000 Not only does it bring forgiveness, but number five, it brings us access. 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.000 It brings us access to God. 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:43.000 Let's take a look at Ephesians chapter 2 verse 13. 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:54.000 Of course, we know that as soon as we say Ephesians 2, we're thinking about that we were once dead in our sins, but we are brought to newness of life and that's done through faith. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:56.000 It's not of any works that we have done. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:04.000 And then after all of that is accomplished, he tells us that we're going to walk in these good works that were prepared for us beforehand. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:10.000 And then Paul talks about this oneness that is in Christ. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:32.000 Verse 13, it says, "But now in Christ, you who once were afar off, those who were Gentiles, those who weren't part of the covenant," he says,"those of you who were far off were brought near by the blood of Christ." How marvelous is that? 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:47.000 Those of us who were estranged from all the goodness that God has now have been drawn close to Him because of Christ's blood. 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:57.000 So we see it not only in Ephesians chapter 2, but we can also see it in Hebrews that we have access to God. 00:20:57.000 --> 00:20:59.000 Hebrews has so much to say. 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:03.000 He says that we have confidence to enter into the Holy Place. 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:09.000 And why do we have this confidence? Because of the blood of Jesus. 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:12.000 Hebrews 10, 19. 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:17.000 We have redemption. We have propitiation. We have cleansing. We have forgiveness. 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:22.000 We have access to God. And there is reconciliation. 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:29.000 God reconciles those that were at enmity with Him and that He was at enmity with. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:32.000 And He does all of this through the cross of Christ. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:42.000 Colossians 1, 20 states this, that He reconciled. He made peace through the blood of the cross. 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:53.000 The only way that we could be brought back into the presence of God is through the cross and the blood of Christ. 00:21:53.000 --> 00:22:05.000 Now if we have that access, if we have that reconciliation, then we know that we have now been declared justified before God. 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.000 And that's our next one that we'll see in Romans 5, 19. 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:13.000 But our confession says this about justification. 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:52.000 Yet their justification is based entirely on free grace because He was given by the Father for them and His obedience and satisfaction were accepted in their place. 00:22:52.000 --> 00:23:06.000 These things were done freely, not because of anything in them, so that both the exact justice and the rich grace of God would be glorified in the justification of sinners. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:19.000 And this is exactly what we see in Romans 5, 9, where He says, "Having been justified by His blood." Justified. 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:28.000 Well, of course, you know as soon as we talk about justification, we know something flows out of justification and that is our sanctification. 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:41.000 J.C. Riles says the following. "Sanctification is that inward work which the Lord Jesus Christ worked in a man by the Holy Ghost when He calls Him to be a true believer. 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:58.000 He was not only washed from His sins in His own blood, but He also separates Him from His natural love of sin in the world and puts a new principle in His heart and makes Him practically godly in life. 00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:05.000 The instrument by which the Spirit affects this work is generally the Word of God. 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:13.000 The subject of the work of Christ by His Holy Spirit is called in Scripture a sanctified man. 00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:29.000 Hebrews chapter 13 says this, "That He, Christ, might sanctify the people through His blood." And of course, we are sanctified in two ways. 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:32.000 One is positionally and the other one is progressively. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:40.000 Hokemah says it this way. "Sanctification therefore must be understood as being both definitive and progressive. 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:51.000 In its definitive sense, it means that the work of the Spirit whereby He causes us to die to sin, to be raised with Christ and to be made new creatures. 00:24:51.000 --> 00:25:21.000 In its progressive sense, it must be understood as that work of the Spirit whereby He continually renews and transforms us into the likeness of Christ, enabling us to keep on growing in the grace and to keep on perfecting our holiness." So there is justification, there is sanctification, and then we also see another element where there is conquest of evil. 00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:27.000 The blood of Christ conquers that evilness that is around us. 00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:37.000 In Revelation 12, 11 it says, "He overcame because of the blood of the Lamb." It conquers evil. 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:42.000 And it's the basis of the new covenant. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:44.000 The basis of a new covenant. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:53.000 Going back to Hebrews 13, verse 20, it says, "Through the blood of the eternal covenant." Isn't this wonderful? 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:56.000 The blood of Christ covers so much more. 00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:02.000 You guys have been so good just enduring all ten of these that I have decided to give you a bonus. 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:14.000 Number 11, an eleventh element which I hope will help us even as we anticipate the Lord's table today. 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:23.000 Number 11, it is through the blood that we understand the Lord's Supper, the table that He sets before us. 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:29.000 Remember all that it has represented? It takes us back to the Passover Lamb. 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:41.000 And that Passover Lamb's blood was shed for those people in that house, and that blood was placed upon the door lentil, the frame of the house. 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:51.000 And when the angel of death came by, it saw the blood and was satisfied and passed over them. 00:26:51.000 --> 00:26:56.000 And of course, Christ was sacrificed on that great day. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:01.000 He is our great Passover Lamb. 00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:11.000 And when Passover was taken, you remember they ate the bitter herbs, and they were remembering all the hardship, the bondage that they had. 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:18.000 And as New Testament believers, we remember the hardship, the bondage to sin. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:27.000 But because of the blood of Christ, we have been delivered out of that bond, and we now have newness of life. 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:52.000 Jesus, in celebrating the Passover, in Matthew 26, verse 28, He says,"This is the new covenant in my blood the night before He gave His life for His people." And of course, you remember how Paul talks about that same blood and that same cup in 1 Corinthians 10, 16. 00:27:52.000 --> 00:28:00.000 He says about the cup of blessing and the sharing in the blood of Christ. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:07.000 All of these things tell us about the biblical significance of the blood of Christ. 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:15.000 Yes, there is redemption, propitiation, cleansing, forgiveness of sins because of Christ's blood. 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:20.000 And because of that, we have access to God. We've been reconciled to God. 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.000 We've been justified. We've been sanctified because of the blood. 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:27.000 Evil has been conquered because of the blood. 00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:31.000 We're in the new covenant because of the blood. 00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:36.000 We can be invited to His table and sup with Him. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:41.000 And of course, we know that it's not just something that represents what happened in the past. 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:50.000 No, that table also represents a present communion that we have with Christ and with all of His believers. 00:28:50.000 --> 00:29:00.000 And it points to a future time where we'll all sit down at the marriage feast of the Lamb and we will celebrate with Him once again. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:03.000 Isn't this glorious? 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:07.000 This is why we sing songs about the blood. 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:25.000 Maybe you remember the song, "There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from a manual's veins, where sinners plunge beneath its flood, lose all their guilty stains." Praise God for that blood. 00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:33.000 It is not just poetry. It's not just theology. It is the clear teaching of God's Word. 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:36.000 And we need to thank Him for it. Let's pray. 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:43.000 Almighty God, we do thank You for the blood of Christ and for all that it has accomplished. 00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:47.000 Lord, may it be one of those things that encourages us in our faith. 00:29:47.000 --> 00:30:03.000 And may it also cause those that are outside of Christ to long to be a part of this body where they could be cleansed of every evil deed and be brought into right relationship with You. 00:30:03.000 --> 00:30:05.000 In Christ's name we pray. Amen. 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:05.839 Amen. 00:30:05.839 --> 00:30:09.319 [ Silence ]