Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family" podcast with Steve Demme.  I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today. Good morning, Steve. How  are you today? 

Steve: I'm warming up. 

Scott: Yeah. It's freezing out there. 

Steve: Today we're going to do part two on the blood of Jesus. Before we pray, I just  felt this in my spirit as I was preparing this last night and coming into this morning  that the blood of Jesus is not...How do I put it? 

It's not like a magic potion. It's not a magic wand or something that you use to get  your way. The blood represents the ultimate sacrifice. It represents life for us from  the death of Jesus. It's perfect love. 

I'm failing with words, but when we think of the blood, we need to think that this is  blood from the person of Jesus. This is blood that He shed for us, and that helps us to  keep the proper perspective. Let's pray. 

"Father, thank You. Words don't do justice to the efficacy and the power and all that's  invested in Your Son's blood that was shed for us. We know that one drop is just  beyond estimation of its value and all that it supplies to us as believers on Earth  today." 

"As we explore it, give us open minds so we don't just think of the blood in a little  box or something that we learned in a little study, but help us to grasp the impact  and the power and the full scope of the blood of Jesus this morning." In Jesus' name,  amen. 

Scott: Amen. 

Steve: I'm going to start with words that are derived from sanctify or sanctified or  sanctifies. Sanctify means to make holy or to consecrate, to set apart. It's the same  word that's used when Jesus teaches us to pray. He says, hallowed or set apart or holy  is Your name. 

Hebrews 10:10, "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus  Christ once for all." We've been sanctified through this offering of the body of Jesus.  We've been set apart. We've been made holy. We have been consecrated.  Hebrews 10:11-14, ”Every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the  same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all  time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from  that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet. For by a single  offering, He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." 

This offering, this blood of Jesus has perfected us for all time. Meditate on that for a  while and think about what the blood of Jesus does for us when we ask Jesus to wash  our robes in the blood of Jesus, when we ask Him to take away our sins by the blood  

of Jesus. It's all part of that single offering one time, and He's perfected us. At the same time, I like the verb tenses here. It says those who are “being sanctified.”  We just read a couple verses before that we have been sanctified, and we link on to  that by faith, but we also know that we haven't arrived yet. And yet, God says we're  perfected while we're being sanctified. 

I embrace this truth. I don't try to figure it out and say, well, what happens when and  all that. I just say, yes, Lord. Amen. Sanctified by the blood of Jesus. Being sanctified.  You're working in our lives. You're setting us apart. You're consecrating us. You're  making us holy. At the same time, in Your sight, we've been perfected, past tense. Hebrews 13:12. "Jesus suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people  through His own blood." That was His purpose, to sanctify us.  

1 Corinthians 6:9-11. "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the  kingdom of God?" Then it talks about us. "You were washed. You were sanctified. You  were justified in the name of the lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God." We know from the context that the Corinthians were an interesting group of people,  and Paul was making them know that even these people that have significant issues,  were washed, and sanctified, and justified. Hallelujah. 

Hebrews 12:24, we're going to introduce a new word, sprinkling. "Jesus, the mediator  of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the  blood of Abel." This is one of the first passages we mentioned in the last podcast. I  want to focus on the sprinkled blood. 

1 Peter 1 says, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect exiles of the  dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the  foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the spirit, for obedience to  Jesus Christ, and for sprinkling with His blood." Sprinkled with His blood, sanctified  by His spirit. 

I'm reading Leviticus in my bible reading right now. As you read Leviticus, you'll read  a lot about how the blood was sprinkled. On the priests, the altar, and it made them  holy. And anything that touched the altar would become holy. The blood is powerful.  

We, like the priests, like the altar, have been sprinkled with this blood. We've been  sanctified. We've made holy. We've been set apart by this blood. 

A new word, ransom, which we know is a financial transaction that takes place. “God  paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. The  ransom He paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the  

sinless, spotless lamb of God. God chose Him as your ransom long before the world  began, but He has now revealed them to you in these last days.” (1 Peter 1:18-20) He bought us. He paid for us. There was a song I learned a long time ago. "He paid a  debt he did not owe. We owed a debt we could not pay. We needed someone to wash  our sins away. And now I sing a brand new song Amazing Grace, Christ Jesus paid the  debt that I could never pay.” 

We could not pay our own ransom. There's nothing we could do to pay for ourselves.  He paid the ransom, and the ransom He paid was not money. It was the precious  blood of Christ. 

Revelation 5:6-9. "Between the throne and the four living creatures and among the  elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and with  seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. They sang a  new song saying, worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were  slaughtered, and Your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and  language and people and nation." 

Wow. His blood has purchased us. His blood has paid our ransom. He's made us His.  He's bought us. Acts 20:28, "Pay careful 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 with His own blood." 

Ephesians 1:7. "He is rich in kindness and grace. He purchased our freedom with the  blood of His Son." This is another aspect of the blood. It not only sanctifies us. It not  only purifies us and makes us holy, but it purchased us. It made us His own, which  leads into one of my favorite words, propitiation. 

Propitiation appears four times in the New Testament. It means two things. It  assuages the wrath of God. It pays the price. Somebody had to die. When somebody  sinned, someone needed to die. He died in our place. He paid the ransom.  He also reconciled us to God at the same time. He restored us to fellowship. Both of  these things are present in that word propitiation. He paid the debt. He took care of  God's wrath. At the same time, He just didn't leave us standing there. He then  restored us and made us His own. He adopted us into His family. 

Hebrews 2:17. "He had to be made like His brothers in every respect so that He might  become a kind and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for  the sins of the people."  

1 John 2, "He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the  sins of the whole world." 

1 John 4,"This is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to  be the propitiation for our sins."  

Romans 3:23, is frequently read, but let me just see if I can go a little further. "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a  gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a  propitiation by His blood to be received by faith." Then Paul goes on, and he brings in  these aspects of propitiation. 

“This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had  passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that  He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans  3:23-26) 

If a man sins, he dies. It's over. God is righteous. He has to stick to that. Jesus  received our just penalty, but then He justified us by our faith in Jesus' blood.  Romans 5:8-9, "God shows His love for us and that while we were sinners, Christ died  for our sins, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall  we be saved by Him from the wrath of God?" We've been justified just as if we hadn't  sinned. 

Revelation 1:5-6. "To Him Who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood." This is what we've been talking about. This is what He's done for us. Not only has He  freed us from our sins by His blood, He's commissioned us, it says, and He made us a  kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and dominion forever  and ever. Amen. 

Not only has He freed us from our sins by His blood, He then has given us a job to do.  You're part of My kingdom. You're priests. You are representing God to people and  people to God. 

There are three verses that reveal another aspect to the blood of Jesus. This is what  we're looking at, this multi-faceted diamond. 

Hebrews 2:14-15, "Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He himself  also in like manner did take part of the same, that through death He might destroy or  bring to naught the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all  those who through fear of death throughout their life were subject to bondage." He didn't just die for us. He died to destroy the devil. Perfect. We have a great enemy,  sin. We also have another enemy, the devil. He took care of both with His blood on  the cross. 

Revelation 12:10-11. "I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and  the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. For  the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our  God day and night." (This is the devil. He's the accuser) 

“They overcame him because of the blood of the lamb and because of the word of  their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. “It's the  blood of Jesus that spells the downfall of the devil. That's how we overcome the devil. In Revelation 19, we read about Jesus coming back. He's clothed in a robe dipped in  blood. We know there is warfare in heaven. I'm telling you, the devil fears the blood of  Jesus. And sometimes when I'm resisting the devil, I resist him in the name of Jesus. Then I bind him. When you bind something, you bind it in cords. I think of cords that  are soaked in the blood of Jesus, cords where Calvary's blood speaks the end of the  devil and his minions. All right. I've got a benediction to wrap us up, but before I do,  comments, questions? 

Scott: I don't know if we can completely grasp this. It's so powerful. I've read the Old  Testament but I can't even grasp what it would be like to be a priest in the Old  Testament. It's such a visceral image. You read through what the priest said to do  with all the blood and the slaughtering of the animals and everything. It's so physical  and practical to them, but it's also so spiritual and so beyond. 

The only thing I can possibly think of I mean, maybe if you were in a bad car accident  or something and needed a blood transfusion, and you could actually feel your life  slipping away and then the restoration of it by the blood transfusion or something.  But that doesn't even come close to touching the spiritual reality of Him putting to  death our sin and death itself through His blood. 

It's just so huge. You could study this for the rest of your life and still not get all of it,  I don't think. 

Steve: I agree. That's the beauty of it though. Don't you feel like we've gotten a better  handle than we did two podcasts ago when we began this study 

Scott: Sure. Yeah. 

Steve: As in-depth as this one is, it's not conclusive. It doesn't cover everything. I  hope that when people read their Bible, they'll have a little marker there or underliner.  Every time you come to something about the blood of Jesus, make a note of it  because God's going to continue to give us all revelation about the power and scope  of the blood of Jesus. 

Here's a passage that has caused me a lot of thought and study. 1 John 5. "Jesus is  the Son of God. This is He that came by water and blood." When I read that, I think  about the picture of Jesus hanging from the cross and the soldier stuck in his spear  and out came water and blood. Then it says, even Jesus Christ, not with the water  only, but with the water and the blood. 

That's my first image. But then the verse continues, “and the Spirit is the one who  testifies because the spirit is the truth. There are three that testify, the spirit and the  water and the blood and these three agree.” 

Now that one, to quote my friend, bakes my noodle a bit. I not only look at the water  as just the physical water that came out of Him, but I look at the water of the word. I  look at the spirit not just as the Spirit of Jesus, but as the Spirit of God. Steve: The Spirit of God and the Water of the Word and the blood, which I think of as  Jesus in the flesh. This is the real man. All of these agree, and it's made me look at  the water differently. It's made me try to get my mind around the fact that this is a  threefold cord, you might say, that testifies the spirit and the water and the blood. I thought I knew a little bit about these things, and now I'm looking at the water in a  whole different way. Yeah, the word of God is deep and we continue to mine its  riches. As we go through it, and sometimes I come to a passage and I say, God, what  does that mean? 

It's amazing. When I ask, He often answers and He shows me things, things I hadn't  seen before. So, we keep learning, we keep growing, and we keep believing, and we  keep mixing it with faith. That's our job. I shouldn't say that's our job. Calling,  privilege. Amen. 

Here's our benediction from. Hebrews 13:20-21. But before we do, let's thank God.  "Thank you, Father, for opening up the riches of your word. Help us to appreciate and  mix with faith and apply what we've been learning about the blood of Jesus." “Now, may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the  great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with  every good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight  through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." 

Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the  Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the  show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.