WHAT CAN WASH AWAY MY SINS

            By: Richard Kirkland

        For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered?  For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.  But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.  Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no please.  The I said, ‘Behold, I have come-- In the volume of the book it is written of Me -- To do Your will, O God.’” Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), the He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second.  By that we will have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.  And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.  But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till Him enemies are made His footstool. (Hebrews 10:1-13)

Introduction:

                        A.        Blood is precious.  It is synonymous with life.  “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, (Leviticus 17:11)

                        B.         Blood has purchased our national freedoms.  Our history is replete with examples.  Also, still today, our freedom is vouched safe by the blood of our military people.

                        C.        But only the blood of Christ can wash away our sins.

                        1.         Hebrews 10:1-13.

                        2.         “What can wash away my sins, nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

I.          BLOOD HAS BEEN PRECIOUS TO GOD FROM THE BEGINNING.

                        A.        Blood is sometimes repulsive to us, or at least considered inappropriate or coarse to discuss, but not with God.  Murder and massacre, the shedding of innocent blood, represent the lowest and basest behaviors of humankind.  But blood has always been precious to God.

                        B.         The first mention of blood.

                        1.         The first time is an inference.  The Bible says, “Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21).

                        2.         The first mention of the word is in the story of Cain and Abel.  “And He said, ‘What have you done?’ The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10).

                        3.         The seriousness of the crime of shedding innocent blood is apparent from the sever penalty God imposes upon those who do so. (Genesis 9:4-6)

C.        And from the beginning of time, God required the offering of animal sacrifices and the shedding of their blood of those who would approach him in worship (Genesis 4:4).  Thus, Noah, Abraham and all the patriarchs worshiped God with animal sacrifices.  (Genesis 8:20; 22:2, 5)

II.        GOD USED THE BLOOD OF THE PASSOVER TO REPRESENT THE BLOOD OF CHRIST.

                        A.        The Passover.  “Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.  And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy your when I strike the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:13).

                        B.         The Passover was to become an annual memorial feast celebrating God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt.  “So this day shall be to you a memorial and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations.  You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance” (Exodus 12:14).

                        C.        Today the Passover of the Old Testament is no longer observed because the shadow has been replaced by the real thing.

                        1.         “ ....For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

                        2.         We sing: Christ our Redeemer died on the cross/died for the sinner paid all his due/All who receive Him need never fear/Yes, He will pass, will pass over you.

III.       GOD USED THE BLOOD OF THE TABERNACLE WORSHIP UNDER THE LAW TO FORESHADOW THE BLOOD OF CHRIST.

                        A.        God said to Moses, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11).

                                                1.         With the giving of the law of Moses, the ground literally ran red with the multiplied blood offerings which the priest offered on behalf of the people.

                                                2.         The tabernacle worship consisted of meats and drinks and various washings and carnal ordinances in which were gifts and sacrifices performed by the priests, were a figure for the time then present of the work of Jesus in obtaining the complete and final redemption for us.

                                                3.         But the blood of animals atoned only in a temporary manner because it was not possible for that blood to give absolute remission (Hebrews 10:1-4).

                                                4.         Here is a fact that we need to understand — there was never one sin absolutely removed until Christ died and shed his precious blood (Hebrews 9:27-28).

                        B.         The writer of the Hebrew letter alludes to work of the priest, especially the high priest as he made the yearly blood offering in the Holiest of All, as a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Christ.  “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.  For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:12-14).

IV.       IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, THE BLOOD OF CHRIST IS VIEWED AS THE ONLY CLEANSING AGENT TO WASH AWAY OUR SINS.

                        A.        There are at least forty-three references to the blood of Christ in the New Testament.

                        B.         The first reference to the blood of Christ, in the New Testament, is Matthew 26:28.

                        C.        The last reference is Revelation 12:11.  “And they overcame him (Satan, R.K.) By the blood of the Lamb and by the word or their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

                        D.        Paul’s evaluation of the blood of Christ:

                                                1.         Justifies (Romans 5:9)

                                                2.         Redeems (Ephesians 1:7; Col. 1:14)

                                                3.         Reconciles (Col. 1:20)

                                                4.         Valuable (purchases) (Acts 20:28).

                        E.         John’s view of the blood is as the cleansing agent to wash away our sins.

                        1.         Acts 22:16

                        2.         The sinner.  “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Revelation 1:5).

                        3.         The Christian.  “If we walk in the light as He is in the light...” (1 John 1:7).

V.        FROM WHAT DOES IT DERIVE ITS CLEANSING POWER?

                        A.        Aside from its power to wash away our sins, it has no significance at all!  It was pure human blood, just like the blood which flows through your veins and mine.

                        B.         Its power is derived from His character.

                        1.         “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

                        2.         Jesus was like a “lamb without spot and without blemish” (1 Peter 1:18)

                        3.         The blood that atoned for our sins had to be the blood of someone who lived a sinlessly perfect life in a fleshly blood.

                        c.         “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin”(Hebrews 4:15).

                        d.         “For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests (under the law, R.K.), to off up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself” (Hebrews 7:26-27).

                        e.         Judas described his terrible sin of betrayal as having betrayed “innocent blood” (Matthew 27:4).

C.        Jesus was born under the law that demanded sinless perfect and lived perfectly the life that the law demanded.  Jesus took the nature of man, lived the life that the law demanded, and died innocently under that law.  Therefore, since His blood had no sins of His own for which to atone, it could atone for our sins!

VI.       WHEN DOES THE BLOOD WASH AWAY OUR SINS?

                        A.        The alien sinner must come into contact with that blood.

                        1.         In the New Testament (Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 9:15-16).

                        2.         We must obey the New Testament (Romans 16:17-18; 1 Peter 1:22; Acts 22:16).

B.         We contact the blood through that for which the blood was shed.

                        1.         An illustration — If I buy a meal in a restaurant for ten dollars, the only way I will benefit from that ten dollars is if I eat the meal.

                        2.         The blood of Christ purchased the church (Acts 20:28).  The only way I will receive the benefits of that blood is through my relationship with Christ in His church.

                                                a.         Added to the church by baptism (Acts 2:38; 47).

                                                b.         As I live a faithful life, walking in the light, the blood continues to cleanse me from my sins (1 John 1:7).

Conclusion:

                        A.        What can wash away my sins?

                        B.         Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?