Tape 3 - Reconciliation Through the Blood

The Blood of Christ and the Need for Reconciliation

Please, to Romans, the third chapter, for those of you that are visiting with us and were not with us last evening, we are just simply looking into God's Word and we're studying about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many people talk about the blood, many people sing about it, and a lot of people throw it around quite loosely today. And there are a lot of misapprehensions and misconceptions about the blood of Christ.

And just to name one, I heard a pastor not too long ago, I happened to be in a revival meeting in the state of Georgia, and he just said, Lord, we take every person here in this congregation today and put them under the blood of Christ, and we claim the blood of Christ over this entire congregation.

That's an impossibility. You can't do that. The blood of Christ only applies to a Christian. It only applies to a believer. You can't put the blood of Christ on a lost person. You can't claim anything to that lost person on the blood of Christ.

Until that person meets Jesus Christ, then the blood of Christ has no effect upon that person whatsoever, until they reach that point of conviction under the power of the Holy Spirit, who, of course, is the only one who can convict of sin.

So there are many people who are throwing the blood of Christ around loosely, but what we're trying to do this week is just talk about the blood of Christ, what the Bible says about it, what's it mean to you and myself as a Christian.

If you are not a Christian, then we have to go back to last night's message and say to you that the Bible plainly teaches, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. You can never have forgiveness of sin until the blood of Christ is applied to your life spiritually, as it was applied to the lintel and the doorpost of the people of Israel as they came out of Egypt.

So it must be applied to the lintel and the doorpost of your heart by faith in order for God to pass over the sins of your life and my life. And so we're talking about that. Now tonight I want to talk to you briefly about reconciliation through the blood of Christ, and that's a long word, it's a theological word, and although it is a biblical word, being reconciled unto God.

By that I mean, and tonight we will only deal, tomorrow night we'll deal with a second portion of it, but tonight I want to just deal with the topic of removal of guilt, getting rid of your guilt before God, and there's no question that we're guilty before God.

There's no question that every person has guilt before God, and something has to be done about that guilt. Tomorrow night I want to talk to you about the cleansing power of the blood, how the blood cleanses you from the pollution of sin and the defilement of sin and guilt.

It's something entirely different than being reconciled to God. You can be reconciled to God, and if it was not for the cleansing of the blood of Christ, you would still have the pollution of sin upon your life and your being.

Justification by Grace Through Faith in Christ

And so you'll be with us, we'll be talking about the victory through the blood, how to be victorious through the blood, how to have fellowship with God, how you have power through the blood of Christ.

You don't need anything else, all you need to recognize is what has been done for you through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have all the power you'll ever dream about. You'll have more spiritual power, you'll know what to do about if you'll just acknowledge and appropriate what Christ has done through the precious blood and what God has accomplished through the blood of his dear son.

In Romans the third chapter, beginning with around verse 22 -23, let's just read verse 23. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Now I want you to pick these words out carefully.

You don't have to work for your salvation. If you do, how much work are you going to do? And when are you going to know you've done enough? And when are you going to know you haven't done enough? When are you going to know you got it, and when are you going to know you lost it?

Watch it. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. And that word believe means, of course, and you know it as well as I, and I've preached it to you before in revival meetings, dear people, the word believe means to those that adhere to, commit yourself to, place your trust in, put your dependence upon.

That's what the word believe means in the Greek language, and it's translated into English here, believe. For there is no difference. For all have sinned. Now you'll notice this, for there is no difference.

There's no difference unto all and upon all, in all, on all, around all, surrounding all, and there's no difference. God is no respecter of persons. If you're saved, you're just as saved as I am, and if I'm saved, I'm just as saved as you are.

There is no difference, for all have sinned. And come short of the glory of God. Here's what I like, being justified freely by his grace. Not baptism, not the Lord's Supper, not any sacrament, not any work that you can do or I can do, being justified freely by his grace.

Grace is unmerited favor. Grace means something we do not deserve, but it is given by grace. It's show me a little grace. That's what we always say. Show me a little grace. Get on the golf course and say, oh, give me that putt.

Show me a little grace. Give it to me. I mean, don't make me have to make it because I might miss it. Oh, I'd make that one anyway. You know I can. Give it to me. No, God does. God knew that if he tried to make us make it, we couldn't make it, so he gave it to us.

Watch it. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. So now it tells you what you got to have faith in.

Faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus.

In Jesus. Just put your faith in Christ and you have so, so many things. Let's pray for just a moment. Father, once again we lift our hearts to thee, thanking you that you always hear us and you always answer us because we're Christians.

Father, as we try to talk about something of which we know so very little, our minds fail us, the English language will collapse under us, we do not have the vocabulary, the capability, we do not have the mentality, we do not have that within the human body that would allow us to fully comprehend and fully apply all the things that this word of God tells us about the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So we must depend upon the great teacher himself. We ask that the Holy Spirit of God, Father, would come and open our minds and our ears and our eyes that we may see and understand and perceive and that we may be able to take the truths that we see from God's word and apply them to our daily life.

And Lord, that we'll be grateful to you for what you've so freely given us. Help us to walk in it and if we ever receive it, then Father, we know that it'll change our lives to such a degree that we'll no longer want the past life, we'll no longer desire the past life, we won't even wonder about what's happened to the past life, we'll just rejoice that it's gone.

Father, bless every member and every visitor as we look into your word and we thank you for it because we believe it and ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ until he returns. Amen. Now there are several distinct blessings that are given to us through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that have been bought for us by the blood of Christ as we've looked in this passage of scripture and we'll be looking at those from tonight on through the rest of the week.

Reconciliation, cleansing, victory, fellowship, power, and all these things that we'll see that have been bought. Now they all come under one word. Everything that a Christian has in the blood of Christ or in the Lord Jesus comes under one word and that word is redemption.

Redemption, we just read about it here in this passage of scripture, it says through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That one word incorporates everything that a Christian has in Christ. Everything that Christ has done for you, everything that he does do for you, everything that he will do for you tomorrow and on days throughout all eternity on into the everlasting future is wrapped up in the one word redemption.

Now among these of course is this word that we talk about, reconciliation. It takes place first. Reconciliation always comes first. Reconciliation means that there has been a separation. If there's been a separation before two can become one, there must be reconciliation.

Those things must come back. That which is separated must be brought back to its unity in order for it to be the effective whole that God wants it to be. Now if the power of the blood is redemption and it is rooted in reconciliation then we must have a fuller knowledge and a fuller understanding of what reconciliation is and that is necessary to do so we must go into the fact that reconciliation by the blood means we must understand what sin is because sin is the separator.

Sin, the Holy Spirit, and the Meaning of Reconciliation

The only thing that stops you from being filled with the Holy Spirit of God is sin. You don't have to go out here looking for another experience. You don't have to go out here and get some gift that people tell you you've got to have.

All you've got to do is get the sin out of your life and you'll be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. The only alternative to being having sin out of your life is that the Holy Spirit. My Bible says that he that has not the Spirit has not Christ.

He that hath Christ hath the Spirit. If you are a Christian you have the Holy Spirit. Now he is the third person of the Trinity. He's a real spiritual person and you don't get part now and part later.

You know that as well as I do that you get all of him you're ever going to get but sin quenches and grease him to the point that he doesn't have total control of us and when that ever happens to you when you confess all your secret sins and confess all the sins you know about that is such a traumatic and dynamic thing in itself that most people confuse it with a quote second working of grace when all that has happened is that you die to yourself you release yourself to the control of the Spirit of God.

You do not become passive. No sir God will use your personality he'll use your arms and your hands he'll use your legs and your feet he will use your body but it will be dominated by the Spirit of God.

And how do you know it is you know it is because your life will come into conjunction with the Word of God and your life will live according to the precepts of the Word of God anytime you do anything outside the Word of God anytime I do something that's contradicted to the Word of God you just mark it down that that's not the Spirit of the Lord leading you.

He'll never lead you in contradiction to the written Word of God always and ever. It's written Word of God now. So let's just look quickly at sin which has made reconciliation necessary. It's sin way back there trace it all the way back to the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden.

In all the work of Christ God's one object is the removal and the destruction of sin. And all that Christ does for the Christian the one object of God is to remove sin from your life. And to destroy sin in your life.

To remove it from it and to destroy it in it. Just get rid of sin in your life. That doesn't mean you're going to be perfect. But sin can be defeated. And you can have power over sin and dominion over sin instead of it having dominion over you and you still not be perfect.

And that is what has taken place in the Christian realm sin. You have to have a knowledge of sin in order to have a knowledge of reconciliation. What is there. I ask you a question. What is there in sin that needs reconciliation.

And how does reconciliation render sin powerless. Well it's obvious sin had two effects. We only know of one sin had an effect on God as well as man. Now all you hear emphasized in churches in preaching in teaching and in singing is what sin has done to man.

That man's been separated from God. That man has been degraded. That man has been contaminated. That man has been cast away. That man has broken that communication with God. That man has become selfish and greedy and egotistical.

That man goes his own way. That man walks away from God. And man has become sinful and unholy. And all these things. But what about the effect of sin on God. That is far more serious and it's far more terrible the effect that sin had on God that it ever has been the effect it had on man.

But all we do is emphasize the humanly the material the earthly. Because that's where we live. That's where we are oriented. We are oriented materially and earthly. But all listen the effect that it had.

Listen. We need to emphasize the effect that had. Well you say well what effect did it have on God. Very simple in his divine nature God is unchangeable. God never changes in his nature his nature his essence his character never changes it always and ever is the same.

But in his relationship to man his entire attitude has changed. God's entire attitude towards men has changed completely. And in the hebrew it's the word nacham and in the greek it's the word metanoia.

And it means a change of mind. God changed in his attitude toward man because of the blood of Christ. Now sin is disobedience. Listen to me carefully. Your character is the factory that produces sin. Uh-huh.

You sin because of what is down in here out of the heart out of your being out of your character comes sin. Sin is disobedience to God. It is open rebellion against God's authority. It is open opposition to God.

It is a man or a woman or a teenager standing and shaking their fist at the God of the universe and say I know what you say do. But this is what I'm going to do. And like it or not. And that's what every sin is.

Every sin in thought word or deed. That's exactly what it is. Open rebellion against God's authority. And it comes out of your heart. Sin is a matter of conduct a matter of conduct. But dear people rebellion comes out of the heart heart.

Rebellion against God brings sin. Anytime you sin in your life anytime I sin in my life you can just check it out in your heart there has rebellion. Rebellion produces sin. It's just that way. Now sin is determined opposition to a holy God.

It cannot only but it must awaken his wrath. The moment God does not become wrathful and angry. The moment God God does not rise up in his holy wrath against sin. The moment he lets one sin pass by he ceases to be a holy God.

He loses his holiness. And that is an impossibility. That is an impossibility. Sin has compelled God to become an opponent of man because of your sin in mind. Because of our rebellion and disobedience we have forced God into being an opponent.

He didn't want to be. God didn't desire to be. But we have forced God to be an opponent. And I know the verse of scripture says. If God be for us who can be against us. I just like to just kind of paraphrase another one and add it.

And it's not in the scripture. But if God be against you who can be a foil you. If you ever get God against you you in bad shape. Oh I hear all these people school teachers and some little old 17 18 year old kid running down the street and their nose running their eyes watering their sunglasses on living their own life go off near some university and all that stuff.

And like some little ant standing on the planet earth shaking their fist at the God of the universe. You're not gonna get me. You're not gonna get me. If God be against you who could be for you. Nothing could help you.

If God ever turns his wrath loose upon a human being. And there have been those in history that God has dealt with in such a way. But listen to me carefully. God's love has never changed towards mankind God's love not one time has God's love changed towards people.

His love remains unchanged. But sin has made it impossible for God to admit you or me mankind any person into fellowship with him without something happening. It has made it impossible for a person to go into the presence of God.

Sin has caused that much of an effect on God. That's the effect it's had on God. God's love is there. God wants to. God wants you. God loves you. God wants you to go to be with him. God wants you to come to heaven.

God wants you to be happy. He wants you to be blessed. But sin won't let it. Sin stops God. It causes him to rebel against it. God cannot tolerate sin. And it causes him to be unable to admit a person with that sin in their life into his blessed presence.

So the question of the ages that has always been how can we be delivered from the guilt of sin. How can we get the guilt which has caused us to stand before God in such a condition. How can we get it out of their life.

Can the effect of sin on God be removed. Can sin be blotted out before God. And if that can be done then the power of sin in your life can be broken. If we can get sin removed and the guilt removed before a holy God it can be removed from your life.

Most people are dominated by sin. Do you know that most Christians live a defeated Christian life. Most Christians are defeated and discouraged their Christian life. Most Christians not happy. Many of you people here not you're not happy.

Church is a drag to you. You're miserable. Most people that way in any church you go to they just go. They just like go through life. And they think that's it. Oh but listen to me when you find out what the bible really says about what you've got and who you are.

And yes there are responsibilities that come with it. But the word reconciliation dear people it simply means. And i told you a little bit about the word passover last night. Well the word reconciliation means cover.

And that's all it means. And don't read anything into it. It only means to cover. Reconciliation means to cover up to cover up. Just put a covering over it a covering over so that you don't see it. If you don't want to see anything.

The old saying was you sweep the dust under the rug right. Just drop the rug underneath and you just drop. You can't see it. A covering up so that you don't have to look upon it anymore. And in israel of the nation of israel god revealed a reconciliation which could so thoroughly cover and remove the guilt of sin that the original relationship between god and man can be entirely restored.

It must so remove the guilt of sin. That is the effect of sin on god. And that's what the guilt of sin is. It's the effect that sin had on god. It must so remove that that man can come to god with the complete assurance that not the least bit of guilt rests on him to keep him away.

And it astounds people when i tell them that i do not have any guilt before god. And if you're a christian you don't either. You say well i don't know i don't care what you think. You don't i don't care what you believe it or not.

You don't change it. The book says you don't have any guilt before god. Now you argue with the book don't argue with the jew. Well of course the jew won't happen too. But that'd be all right. But i've never met so many people.

They say well i just can't. They just won't accept what god wants to give them. They got a foot. Man's pride. Man's got to do something. He wants to work in it. He wants to have a part in it. God doesn't need you.

He doesn't need your part. What could you do to save yourself. You can't do anything to save yourself. Get yourself right with god. You've come because a person who's lost isn't wounded. They're dead.

They're not sick. They are dead and trespasses in sin. And a dead man can't do anything help himself. You've seen a dead man help himself. That's why they take him to a mortician. If he'd help himself you wouldn't have to save all that money.

He's letting him stay home. Do it himself and put him in the ground. Dead people don't have themselves. And dead people spiritually don't help themselves. It's all of the lord. It's all of the lord. So let me just talk to you quickly about the holiness of god which caused reconciliation to be set in place that caused it to start the wheels of reconciliation began to turn way back out into the the history.

Long before the world was ever hurled into space. Long before the universe was cast into being. Long before god ever spoke the words that put this vast universe that we know where the trillions and trillions of galaxies larger than our own.

Long before god ever spoke all of that into place. The great council of redemption met with god the father the son and the holy spirit and the created beings of god. They met and decided that the wheels of reconciliation would be set in place.

And they began to turn. They began to turn and they began to turn faster when the lord jesus made that great missionary journey. Now what do we mean by god's holiness. Very simply this perfect perfection that's all holiness of god means that he is perfect.

God is perfect gloriously infinitely perfect. It is infinite glorious perfection. That is the holiness of god. Now don't forget that word perfection. Dear people it is most important. It is god who bestows bestows upon and works out what is good in other people.

And it is god who works with the good. And it is god who abhors hates and condemns all that is bad. And he does it perfectly. And that's the holiness of god. He always works with the good and god always condemns and hates the bad.

And that is the perfection of god. And that's the holiness of god. Now listen to me carefully in his holiness there are two sides most people only know one about all christians know about god is the love of god.

That's oh but you see there's more. Because if god loves the good and he doesn't love evil then there's another side. And that's the wrath of god. He has holy love and holy wrath. And 1974 this world today in our generation there has never been a generation on the face of the earth that has hated to hear about the wrath of god.

And about a coming judgment where people are going to have to stand up and with all their intellect it'll mean nothing with all their education. It'll mean nothing with all their material gain it'll mean nothing with all the wealth they can amass it'll mean nothing.

They're gonna have to stand before god and be judged. And this generation hates and detests the thought that they gotta answer to anyone but they will. It's appointed unto man once to die. And after this the judgment the judgment it has been appointed a time a place in future a particular time a particular place with a particular person.

And the lord jesus will rule and reign. And it all comes from the holiness of god. But you see the love of god and the wrath of god are united. I talked to you last night about the tabernacle at mount sinai when moses got the law at the same time god told him about the law within the same context the same time span the same chronological era uh area of time.

Dear people god also told him how to build a tabernacle which opens up the avenue to god's love. The law said wrath judgment. And the tabernacle said love and approach come to god. And there you have the holy love and the holy wrath of god.

Love which bestows itself upon man and wrath which casts out and consumes all evil. And it is as the holy one that god ordained reconciliation with the nation of israel he took up his abode in the holy of holies there with that ark of the covenant between the cherubim.

And we talked about that again last night. And it is as the holy one that he in expectation of new testament times he said so many times i am thy redeemer the holy one of israel. And it is as the holy one that god wrote out his counsel of reconciliation in christ.

The demons themselves said we know who thou art thou holy one. They called him by the name of holy one. And they knew now the wonder of this council is that both the holy love and the holy wrath of god find satisfaction in the blood of christ.

The blood of christ opens the door to satisfying god's wrath and opens door to satisfying the love of god. And it's all in the blood of christ. Holy love. God wouldn't let you go. God wouldn't let us go.

And i thank god for that god. The holy love of god said i won't let man go. Adam you did it. And not only have you done it everybody through the years. And if god looks down on us today as he does this evening 1974 on this beautiful evening in elgin illinois he says i'm not gonna let you go.

I'm not going to give up on you. I'm going to love you. My love is here here it is. God's holy love was unwilling to let man go. But his holy wrath said no sir i will not surrender my demands. God must be upright.

God must be perfect. And so here's god torn between these two things. The love wanting to go out to mankind wanting to bless and to love. And to pour his unwilling love out on man. Let's turn it loose and let it go.

Man unwilling to accept. And god's wrath said no. There's got to be payment sin. He's sinful. You can't can't love that sin. God can't love that sin. God cannot tolerate it. And so this is what we have.

God's right must be upheld. And the effect of sin on god it must be counteracted. The guilt has to be removed. And the only salvation possible of course was reconciliation the bringing the two back together.

And this can take place only by satisfaction and satisfaction through a substitute. And what was the word that i told you to remember. Perfect god is perfect. He has perfect love perfect wrath. And in order for perfect love and perfect wrath to be satisfied it has to be satisfied by someone who is perfect.

You cannot satisfy perfection with imperfection. You can't satisfy god with your imperfect life. You can't satisfy god with the little imperfect things that you do every day. And you can't come in with this little pure thing.

Well you can't even sing songs of praise to god in a service like tonight. Half of you don't even sing knowing that every song is a spiritual sacrifice. No. Most of when people pray i look out and i look at people.

They're not even praying talk whisper past notes and do everything else and desecrate the house of the lord. And you think you're going to please god. With that you better thank the lord. He doesn't demand all your little imperfections in mind.

Dear people. He doesn't. It takes perfection to appease a perfect god. And that's where the lord jesus christ comes in the perfect one left the heavenly pinnacles of glory and came to this earthly plane to live a perfect life.

And to offer that perfect life in perfect payment for perfect wrath and perfect love by shedding perfect blood. And there it is the lord jesus christ. And that's how it was satisfied. Now listen to me carefully.

God's holiness could be glorified. His demands could be met. Christ could say well pour out all the sin on me. I mean instead of judging the world put it on me and let me do because i'm perfect as you are.

He thought it not robbery to be equal with god. In the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god. And the word became flesh and dwelt among me. He was god. Jesus is god seen.

And so he could say take it all on me and let me pay for all of it. And then that would satisfy your holy wrath. And it would open the avenue to your holy love going out to all mankind. And so that's what christ came for.

Now we know how this took place in the old testament. They took the blood. We talked about again not to repeat myself too much like about last evening. But i have to refer back to it because so many weren't here but the blood or the life of the.

Beast that took the punishment upon him. What the wages of sin is. What death. Spiritual death but.

Death is in three realms. There is spiritual death before there's ever physical death. You die spiritually before you ever die physically spiritual death then physical death. And then eternal death spiritual physical eternal.

And so this is what we have here now. Instead of that they took an animal and we talked about last night how the animal is sinless animal doesn't sin. And so he took a sinless animal and it paid the price for the one he was offering it.

It became the substitute looking forward to the time when the great substitute the lord jesus would die on the cross and into god said pass over i'll pass over i'll cover. And that's all passover means god just covered them they being a shadow of the true.

It was not reality. For the blood of bulls or goats cannot take away sin. The bible plainly states that as we read in the scripture uh last evening again uh how it's not by the blood of bull and goats by more perfect sacrifice a picture of the great reconciliation.

And according to the counsel of god nothing less than the blood of god's own son could satisfy god. That's what he demanded. Dear people not your little petty righteousness not all the little petty prayers that we offer up to god our feeble praise.

But i thank the lord that it is not by my words it is not by my actions. It is not by anything within myself that i'm justified before the lord. It's just by the precious blood of christ that is always and ever 24 hours of every day of your life it's being constantly applied.

That's why once saved always saved. That's why i believe once saved always saved because my bible says that we are constantly being sprinkled with the blood of christ by the holy spirit spiritually. And as long as the blood is applied to your life and as long as jesus stands in the right hand of god the father then you are always saved.

And the moment he leaves heaven then you are lost and he shall never lose his position or his place. The blood. And the reason people don't believe in once saved always saved is because they have a complete misunderstanding and they live in almost total ignorance of what the has actually done.

It has been applied to your life. You are born again and i challenge you to get anything unborn. You just don't do it. Born of the spirit of god and the blood is applied and it's constantly being applied day by day moment by moment.

Righteousness demanded christ death. Righteousness demanded it and love offered it. Love offered it. God's righteousness demanded death. And the love of god offered the same payment for that which he demanded being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in christ jesus whom god hath set forth for reconciliation through faith in his blood.

Christ the Second Adam and the Representative Work of the Cross

All right. Let me just mention a little a couple more thoughts about the blood that brought about that reconciliation. Reconciliation must be the satisfaction of the demands of god's holy law. The lord jesus accomplished that we know he fulfilled the law under which he had placed himself voluntarily he bore the curse which the law had pronounced against sin.

The wages of sin is dead. Law was perfectly satisfied in christ. He kept it perfectly it was satisfied in him. Now how can this fulfilling of the demands of the law reconciliation be for anybody else.

Christ did it. But how is it applied to you and me here it is because in creation in creation and the covenant of grace jesus christ is recognized by god the father as the head of the human race. Jesus christ is called the second adam in the scripture.

And the bible says as by one man sin entered into the world through the first adam so by one man shall sin be taken care of. The second adam is the lord jesus christ. And because god considered him to be so because of this he was able by becoming flesh to become the second adam.

And when he became flesh he assumed the responsibility for all sin had done in the flesh against god as he satisfied the demands of the law by shedding his blood. This was the reconciliation the covering of our sin.

I mentioned that we're talking about these old testament studies that we're going to be producing here and be mailing out and those visitors. If you're interested you get my edits from the pastor or the church.

We send them to you. No charge. Uh unique things in in the old testament. You know. I just run your mind back to david and goliath. I'll just pick out one. You know. Well goliath was the representative of the philistines.

And he said you pick out one man out of your army of israel. And you let him be your representative. And what he was saying was this. Whatever happens to me happens to all the people of the philistines.

Whatever happens to the one you pick out then that'll happen to all the rest of you. He'll be your representative. Whatever happened to goliath he lost. And so the philistines were disbanded. Never get.