Applied Blood of Christ
By: Pastor Donny Granberry
Today is the first Sunday of the month and we reserve this Sunday to remember the Lord’s Table, or better known to some as Holy Communion.
After the message, we will be partaking of Holy Communion.
Our Communion service is an open communion, meaning that you do not need to be a member of this church to participate with us.
As a Christian, it is not only our privilege to observe Holy Communion, but it is also an obligation.
The Lord himself said, “This do in remembrance of Me.”
Let’s take our bible and make our profession together, this is my bible, God’s Holy Word, it is a lamp …
Being Communion Sunday, I want to stay with that thought as we observe the word of God together.
My thought this morning is “The Applied Blood of Christ.”
Apply – means to put to use, especially for some practical purpose, to bring into action, or to lay or spread on. Apply.
Today, I submit to you that it is not enough to know about the blood of Christ, but it must be applied, put to use, brought into action, or covered by or laid on for a practical purpose.
Exodus 12:1-13
1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire--head, legs and inner parts. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover. 12 "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn--both men and animals--and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
There are a few things that I want to highlight from this passage of scripture this morning.
I. Every Man A Lamb
v. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.
That was a whole lot of lambs.
We know that when Israel left Egypt there was over two million adults, plus children.
That means that on the night of the Passover, there was between 1-2 million lambs sacrificed that night.
Some might ask, “Why so many?”
Why couldn’t they sacrifice a lamb, or a few lambs, why a lamb for every man.
One very important reason, that’s what God specifically, told them to do.
To understand this, we must understand the bible, also called the Gospel.
The gospel is considered a testament.
We have the Old Testament, and the New Testament.
The New Testament is as the last will and testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It is observable that the solemn transactions that pass between God and man are sometimes called a covenant, here a testament.
A covenant is an agreement between two or more parties about things that are in their own power, or may be so, and this either with or without a mediator; this agreement takes effect at such time and in such manner as therein declared.
A testament is a voluntary act and deed of a single person, duly executed and witnessed, bestowing legacies on such legatees as are described and characterized by the testator, and which can only take effect upon his death.
Now that being said, observe, Christ is the Mediator of a New Testament (v. 15); and he is so for several ends and purposes here mentioned.
To make this New Testament effectual, it became necessary that Christ, the mediator between God and man should die.
New Testament – New Sacrifice.
The Testament, or covenant, was sealed with the shedding of blood.
Hebrews 9:22 NIV
… and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
There had to be a lamb for every man.
II. Share The Lamb
v. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor
This Lamb of God, who John declares, “takes away the sin’s of the world,”
Now, this was a new and very unusual statement.
In the Passover, there had to be a lamb for every man, and now, they do not see the customary sacrificial lamb, but they see a man.
This was no ordinary lamb, for this lamb was not from man, but from God, because this Lamb did not take away the sins of just a man, but the sins of the world.
You see the lamb in the book of Exodus, could be partaken of by a single family.
Yet if it were too much for your family it was to be shared with your neighbors.
The Lamb of God is far too much for one family.
As a matter of fact, He has been continually shared for over 2,000 years now, and He is still more than enough.
When that first drop of blood flowed from the Lamb of God, slain from the foundations of the world for sinners such as I dropped down that Old Rugged Cross, it was more than enough.
Hebrews 10:12-13 NIV
But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
Why did He sit down at the right hand of God, one reason was declared on the cross, “It Is Finished.”
1 Peter 1:18-20 NIV
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.
We sing the song: I’m thankful for the blood of Jesus, It washes white as snow.
Aren’t you thankful for the blood of Jesus?
III. The Applied Blood Of The Lamb
Christ’s blood has been shed, but we must receive it, or we must apply it for it to become effective in our lives.
Apply – means to put to use, especially for some practical purpose, to bring into action, or to lay or spread on. Apply.
Romans 10:9
If you will confess with our mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
The Bible tells us that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
ILLUSTRATION
A man is in the barber shop getting a haircut.
As he is leaving, the barber points out a man who is homeless, filthy, dirty, unkept and says, do you see that man?
He replied yes, I see him.
The barber said, there is not a God, because if there was he would not allow him to live so despairingly.
The man told the barber, according to your observation, with his long un-kept hair and beard; I must surmise that there are no barbers.
The barber said, yes there is, but he must allow me to give him a haircut and a shave.
The man said exactly.
The price has been paid, the blood has been shed, but we must open our hearts and receive Christ.
v. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. V. 12 "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn--both men and animals--and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
The blood is still the sign; the blood is still the covering.
That night in Egypt, the blood was more precious that gold.
SONG:
There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged, beneath that flood, loose all their guilt and stains.
A Lamb for every man,
The Lamb is to be shared,
The Blood of the Lamb must be applied.
