THE SPRINKLED BLOOD
Heb. 12:18-25
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. One of my pet-peeves is Christians with Christian bumper stickers driving discourteously or dangerously – it’s a bad testimony.
2. One guy had a bumper sticker, “Jesus is my Co-Pilot.” He got in a bad wreck. A policeman came along and said, “You’re lucky!” The man replied, “Naw, I had Jesus riding with me!”
3. The policeman said, “Well, you better let Him ride with someone else or you’re going to get Him killed!” That’s funny, but the truth is, that’s exactly what happened. Jesus did decide to ride with us and it cost Him His life.
B. TEXT
18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them....21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? Heb. 12:18-25
C. THESIS
1. Verse 18 begins with a scene from the Old Testament, the founding of the first Covenant. The Apostle reminds us that we are NOT come to Mt. Sinai (as the Israelites were):
a. a solemn, desolate mountain in the wilderness
b. surrounded w darkness/storm, the top all ablaze with fire
c. the ground trembling, shaking with earthquakes
d. the gigantic, fearful sound of God’s voice, blasting.
2. The Israelites felt – dread, terror, fainting, alarm and threatened judgment. The Hebrew worshipper, apart from his sacrifices, lived continually beneath the shadow of the darkness of a broken Covenant!
3. The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ lives in quite a different atmosphere:
NOT ON A......................................BUT
Desolate Mountain.......................An Inhabited City
In the Wilderness..........................A Land flowing w/ Milk & Honey
Not Cherubs w Swords.................Company of Ministering Angels
Not Trembling...............................Joyous Liberty
4. NOTICE ONE THING MORE WE COME TO, in Vs. 24, “To Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood...” This passage tells of the ETERNAL GLORY OF THE BLOOD OF JESUS. The Mercy Seat in Heaven is the only location of the Blood of Jesus. Why?
5. The resurrection body of Jesus has no blood in it. In Lk. 24:39, He said it was "flesh & bone." Lev. 17:11 tells us the life of the earthly creature is in the blood; it requires food & drink. "Flesh & blood can't inherit the kingdom of God" 1 Cor. 15:50. The resurrection body is a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44); and its life is derived from the Holy Spirit, not from blood.
6. So this means that Jesus' current body has no blood in it, thus, the only blood of Jesus still existing from His former life is found on the mercy seat in Heaven (Rev. 11:19; Heb. 10:19). Wow! That's why this topic is so important; "The Sprinkled Blood."
I. WHAT IS THIS “SPRINKLED BLOOD?”
A. REPRESENTS THE PAINS, SUFFERING, HUMILIATION & DEATH OF JESUS
1. Not simply His blood physically...but it’s mention points to His pain, suffering, humiliation, and death.
2. To all the Griefs of:
a. GETHSEMANE – bloody sweat, His arrest, and misuse
b. GABBATHA (Jn. 19:13)– “Stone Payment” – Judgment Seat of the Romans: slapping, spitting, scourging, humiliation
c. GOLGOTHA – Crucifixion, ridicule, forsaken by the Father. “He shall make His soul an offering for sin” Isa. 53:10.
B. NO NATURAL REASON WHY HE SHOULD SUFFER
1. He had no sin; He was immortal & would never die. Why should He go to Calvary?
2. He wanted to, in love, buy us back. He wanted to demonstrate God’s wondrous love. He would rather go to Hell for us than to miss us in Heaven!
3. We’re bought with a price! Jesus paid our debt of sin. Question: IS JESUS GETTING WHAT HE PAID FOR? Have you really surrendered to Him?
II. WHAT IS THE POWER OF THE BLOOD?
In the O.T. the Sprinkled Blood was connected to many things:
A. PRESERVATION from JUDGMENT
1. In Ex. 12, the sprinkled blood meant preservation.
2. The Israelites were told to put the blood on the top & side posts of their front door. When the destroyer went through Egypt killing the firstborn, it “passed over” their houses.
3. Today, many people must have blood transfusions if they have certain diseases. In the spiritual realm, we ALL must have a blood transfusion; we all have a disease called “sin.” Whose blood must we have? The only blood that can save is the blood of Christ.
B. IT CONFIRMS COVENANTS
1. In Exodus 24, the Israelite nation entered a covenant to be God’s people. To enjoin them in it, they were all sprinkled with the blood of the covenant sacrifice.
2. In the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:25) Jesus said of the Cup, “This Cup is the New Covenant in My blood....” Jesus’ blood has enjoined us in the New Covenant!
C. PURIFICATION from SIN
1. There were things that could happen that could make a person ceremonially unclean – like being exposed to an infectious disease. This required purification.
2. People had to be sprinkled with special water which had ashes of a Red Heifer & blood of the sacrifice. This removed ceremonial uncleanness.
3. Under the New Covenant, the Blood of Christ makes us pure. “The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” 1 Jn. 1:7.
4. Q – Have you come to the Sprinkled Blood? Are you still impure?
D. SANCTIFICATION
1. Before a man could enter the priesthood, blood was placed on his right ear, big toe, and thumb – signifying all his powers were consecrated to God.
2. In our consecration to holy service, the blood of Jesus plays a part: it sets us apart for the work as special vessels.
E. ACCESS/ACCEPTANCE
1. The High Priest could not enter the Holy of Holies without first sprinkling the blood on the Mercy Seat. All approaches to God were made by blood.
2. Today, the only way to God is by the precious blood of Christ. “Since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new & living way....”
3. The only Hope of Salvation, success of Prayers, Praises, & Holy Works, is through the merits of the Blood of Christ!
III. HOW IMPORTANT IS THE BLOOD?
A. THE APOSTLE’S WORD PICTURE
1. You are privileged to come to Mt. Zion, to climb its steeps, and to enter the city of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem. In those golden streets you behold an innumerable company of angels. What a vision of glory! But you must not rest here, for the great general assembly, the festal gathering is being held and all are there in glad attire.
2. Press on to the throne itself where sits the Judge of all, surrounded by the holy spirits who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Are you not admitted into the very center of the whole revelation? Not yet! A step further lands you where stands your Savior, the Mediator, with the New Covenant.
3. Now your joy is complete, but you have a further object to behold. What is hidden away in the Holy of Holies? What is the most precious and costly thing of all? The precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without spot or blemish – the Blood of Sprinkling!
B. THINK OF ITS BENEFITS:
1. “made peace with God through the blood of His cross” Col. 1:20.
2. “Redeemed with the precious blood of Christ” 1 Pet. 1:19.
3. “He freed us from our sins by His own blood” Rev. 1:5.
4. If the blood of a sheep could stop the death angel, what can the blood of Christ do? Alter history & the destinies of lives!
IV. THE BLOOD STILL SPEAKING
It is said that the blood of Abel was still speaking to God after his death – most likely of vengeance. Christ’s blood also still speaks; but it’s crying to God for mercy for us! This also indicates of two other concepts:
A. THE HORROR OF SIN
1. Sin is a terrible thing, a deadly thing, if the only remedy for it is death. “The wages of sin is death.”
2. An animal must be really beyond hope before they kill it – like a dog with rabies. But that’s how deadly sin is; the only solution is the death of the sinner, they can’t be reformed.
B. THE LOVE OF GOD
1. For a man to send his own son to die for someone would be almost unheard of – a great sacrifice & require great love.
2. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” John 3:16. If there had been any other way God would never have sacrificed His Son.
3. It’s impossible for us to escape the punishment of hell, except by the blood of Jesus
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Max Walsh was staying at a lodge in the Austrian Alps. On a beautiful winter day with the blue sky, he told the owner he was going out for a walk by himself.
2. He was about a mile and a half from the lodge when suddenly the weather changed. A tremendous snowstorm descended on the area. He was blinded by the snow, became disoriented, and finally stumbled, fell, and passed out in the snow.
3. The owner of the lodge, worried about him, sent one of his rescue dogs out to look for him. He located Walsh's body in the snow and latched onto it and started to drag him out of the snow.
4. Max Walsh became semiconscious and awoke to a big dog ripping at his clothing. He assumed it was a wolf and so seized his hunting knife and mortally stabbed the dog, which returned to his master and fell dead at his feet.
5. The owner of the lodge, realizing what it happened, followed the trail of blood through the snow until he found Max Walsh and took him back to safety.
6. Years later Max Walsh became a Christian. He would retell that story, adding the spiritual application, "When I realized that I was lost and headed for hell, I realized the only way that I could find life was to follow the trail of blood back to the cross of Jesus, where I found the Jesus who died for me!"
B. THE CALL
1. The blood is speaking to you today. God wants you to allow Jesus to sprinkle you with it. Either YOU will die for your sin, or you will accept the sacrifice that JESUS made for you. Which will it be?
2. PRAYER.
[This is a rewrite of Charles Spurgeon's sermon, "The Blood of Sprinkling."]
