This sermon delves into the profound significance of the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, emphasizing the various provisions and effects of His sacrifice. It covers themes of redemption, cleansing, justification, sanctification, life, intercession, and access to God's presence through the blood of Jesus. The importance of testifying to the power of the blood and surrendering fully to God's will is highlighted as key in overcoming Satan and experiencing the full benefits of Christ's sacrifice.

Generally speaking, in my ministry I like to deal with a theme, not just one topic in one message. I believe that as part of the gift that God has given me to deal with the truths of the Bible thematically and systematically. And so I was asking God what theme he would want me to deal with here in Christ Church. And I felt the Lord showed me that he wanted me to focus my teaching on the cross. And in one way or another that is what I will be doing. Now when I speak about the cross I need to make it clear to you I'm not talking about a piece of metal or wood that people hang around their necks or hang on the walls of churches. I have nothing against those but I just need to explain that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about what was accomplished for us by the death of Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for sin on the cross. So I just use that simple phrase, the cross, to cover all of that. Now last night I had the privilege of being, not for the first time, in Christ Church Town Hall. Just let me have a little check. How many of you were there last night? Well that's wonderful. That's a good representation. We're sorry for those of you who missed it. We had a wonderful time. Isn't that true? Not so much because of the preacher but because of the Lord. Because the Lord came in and really visited us. We ended, I think it's reverent to say, on cloud nine last night. I tell people don't talk about the seventh heaven because that's not scriptural. But if you want to say you're really happy it's all right to say you're on cloud nine because there are lots of clouds up in heaven. I talked about the love of God revealed in the price that he was willing to pay to redeem each one of us. The price was the precious blood of Jesus. And I showed from the Old Testament Scriptures that God had foreshown the shedding of the blood of Jesus. And in the ceremony of the day of atonement recorded in Leviticus 16, God had foreshown that there would be a sevenfold sprinkling of the precious blood of Jesus. And last night we traced this through the Gospels. And I just want to recapitulate briefly what we said. Those of you that have listened to my radio teaching will know that I'm strong on recapitulation. I don't believe in saying thing, saying a thing once and just believing everybody got it all. Because most times they didn't. For five years in East Africa I was a trainer of teachers for the schools of Africa. And one thing we used to impress upon our teachers was that recapitulation is a part of good teaching. So I'm going to very, very briefly go through the successive sevenfold sprinkling of the blood of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels. First of all in the garden of Gethsemane as he prayed in agony his sweat fell down like great drops of blood on the ground. Then when they took him to the house of the high priest and began to abuse him they struck him across the face with rods, brought out the blood. At some point in their mistreatment of him they began to pull out the hair of his beard in tufts. And of course the blood came out. Then he was handed over by Pontius Pilate to be scourged. And a Roman scourge was a whip with many thongs in which were embedded pieces of bone and metal. And so as the thongs fell across a man's back they literally tore open the flesh. And then in mockery because he claimed to be a king they planted a crown of thorns. And if you go to Israel you can see the same thorns today. They're long and extremely hard and tremendously sharp. And they put this on his head and then they beat him on the head. Pressing the crown, the thorns down into his scalp. Causing the blood to well up and run down his face and coagulate in his beard. And prophetically in the 52nd chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah predicting that said his visage was so marred more than a man's. And one of the modern translations says he lost even the appearance of a human being. And then they nailed him to the cross and put the nails through his hands and his feet. And finally after he was dead a soldier thrust a spear into his side in the area of the heart. And blood and water gushed out. So that's the sevenfold sprinkling that was predicted in the ceremony of the day of atonement. And then I pointed out that in Leviticus 17 verse 11 the Lord says the life or the soul of all flesh is in the blood. And he says I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. That's another of the amazing prophecies of the Old Testament. It wasn't just a regulation for whether the Israelites should eat food with blood or without. But it was a prediction of the cross. The life or the soul of all flesh is in the blood. And I have given it to you upon the altar of Calvary to make an atonement for your souls. And then in Isaiah 53 12 in the great prophetic picture of the atonement. Isaiah says he poured out his soul unto death. How did he do that? In his blood. The soul is in the blood. And Jesus poured out his soul as the sin offering for the whole of the human race. His soul took the place of your soul and my soul. He became the final sin offering. Now this morning I'm going to deal with something that's extremely practical. What I've described to you is true. It's wonderful. But in a certain sense you don't necessarily know how to make it real in your life and your experience. So this morning I'm going to teach on how to appropriate the blood of Jesus. How to get the full effects of the blood of Jesus working in your life. And by way of introduction I want to turn to Revelation chapter 12 and verse 11. Revelation the twelfth chapter the eleventh verse. This is speaking about what I believe to be a great end time conflict that lies ahead at the close of the present age. A conflict in which heaven and earth are involved. The angels of God are involved. Satan and his angels are involved. And God's believing people on earth are involved. And thank God that the victory goes to God and to his people. And this passage describes how the people of God on earth. God's believing people on this earth played their part in obtaining that victory. It's a statement made by the angels. But it's made about the believers on earth. And it says where in Revelation 12 11 they overcame him. Who is they? They is people like you and me. Believers in Jesus Christ. Now who is him? Satan that's right. That's very important. And you see that shows very clearly that there can be direct conflict between us and Satan. There's no one else in between. They overcame him. And then it tells us how they overcame him. By the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And it also adds what kind of people they were. They loved not their lives unto the death. To say it in one word they were committed. Totally committed. And that's the only kind of Christian that frightens Satan. Totally committed Christians. When it says they loved not their lives unto the death. What does it mean? Well it means for them staying alive was not priority number one. Priority number one was to do the will of God. Whether they stayed alive or not. Staying alive wasn't the most important thing for them. The most important thing was to be faithful to the Lord and do his will. See we talk about being soldiers in the Lord's army. But I think a lot of us really I've got a very vague and rather sentimental idea about what it is to be a soldier. I by no choice of my own was a soldier in the British Army in World War two for five and a half years. And let me tell you one thing. When I, I didn't enlist I was conscripted. But anyhow when I got into this situation. I didn't get a nice little certificate from the commanding officer saying we guarantee you you'll never have to live, lose your life. No soldiers ever joined an army on the condition that he will not be killed. In fact in a certain sense anytime a soldier joins an army one of his commitments is I may be killed. It may cost me my life. And it's just the same in the Lord's army. You've got no guarantee that you will not have to lay down your life. The people that Satan fears are those who are not afraid to lay down their lives. After all life is comparatively brief anyhow. It's not going to go on forever. And it's not all a bed of roses is it? It would be foolish to miss eternal glory for the sake of a few brief years on earth. You see I believe this is enlightened self-interest. To have a proper sense of values. What is more important. I believe that we should say for me the most important thing in life is to do the will of God. There's a wonderful statement in 1st John chapter 2 verse 17. The world passes away and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. When you unite your will with the will of God in total commitment. You become unsinkable. You're undefeatable. You're unshakable. You're just as totally sure as God's will. When you identify yourself with the will of God. Whether you live or whether you die is of secondary importance. But you cannot be defeated. Now I want to consider what it means to overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. This is one of the precious treasures of truth that God has given me over the years. There's no way you could put a price on this. You could offer millions of dollars. But it wouldn't be sufficient. There is no monetary value equal to the value of this truth. I want to say it very simply and I trust I'll make it clear. Listen carefully. We overcome Satan when we testify personally to what the Word of God says the blood of Jesus does for us. I'm going to say that again. We overcome Satan when we testify personally to what the Word of God says the blood of Jesus does for us. Now rather than just leave you trying to remember that. I'm going to ask you, invite you to say it after me. All right. To fix it in your minds. Don't try to say it with me. I'll say it phrase by phrase. You say it afterwards. All right. Are you ready? We overcome Satan when we testify personally to what the Word of God says the blood of Jesus does for us. Now I'm going to show you just exactly how to do that. But I want to take an example from the Old Testament first. I want to take an example from the Passover ceremonies recorded in the twelfth chapter of Exodus. You'll remember that in that ceremony God through the sacrifice of a Passover lamb provided total protection for all the people of Israel. But they had to do certain things with the lamb and with its blood to ensure that protection. Before we turn to Exodus 12 let me just read a sentence from first Corinthians chapter 5. I'm In other words what Paul is saying there is the Old Testament Passover in Egypt was just a prophetic picture. A preview of what was to be accomplished by the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. Christ is the true Passover. It is his blood not the blood of the Passover lamb that finally assures us eternal redemption. However the way that Israel was instructed to apply the blood of the lamb is a wonderful pattern for us. Now let's go to Exodus the twelfth chapter. Exodus chapter 12 and we'll read from verses 21 through 23. I'd like to point out to you also by the way that this ordinance of the Passover is one of many illustrations in the Bible of the tremendous responsibility of being a father. Because the only persons in Israel who could obtain safety and salvation for their people were the fathers of Israel. If the fathers of Israel had been delinquent Israel would have not been protected by the Passover. And I personally think today the greatest single social problem that confronts us is delinquent fathers. I've said many times in counseling parents who have problem children. There are no delinquent children. There are only delinquent parents. All the problems that we are concerned about. Abortion, drugs, the breakup of the family, and many, many other social evils. I believe if you trace them to their source, their source is delinquent fathers. And I point out to you here in this context that if the fathers had failed Israel would never have been redeemed. God didn't have plan B. Plan A was his plan and it depended on the fathers. Now let's look Exodus 12 21. Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families and kill the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop dip it in the blood that is in the basin and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. That's why it's called the Passover because the Lord said he would pass over the door that was protected by the blood of the lamb. Now let's consider what they had to do. At a certain given moment each father had to choose a lamb of appropriate size for his family. And then they had to sacrifice the lamb and they had to catch its blood in a basin. Its blood was very precious. None of it was to be spilled on the ground. Now the lamb was slain. The blood was in the basin. It was the means of protection but in the basin it didn't protect a single person. They were required to transfer the blood from the basin to the doors of their homes. And to smear it or sprinkle it on the lintel and on the two side posts. But never on the threshold. No one was ever to walk over the blood. Now so everything, the whole destiny of Israel depended on getting the blood from the basin to the door. How were they to do it? Very simple. God said you take a little bunch of hyssop. Now hyssop is a kind of almost a weed that grows everywhere in the Middle East. Pluck this bunch of hyssop. Dip the hyssop in the blood in the basin and sprinkle their blood over the door with the hyssop. So hyssop which was a very humble and in a sense unimportant thing. Nevertheless became essential to the salvation of Israel. And then God required one more thing. He said when the blood has been sprinkled on the door you've got to stay inside your house. Don't you go outside. Because once you get outside the blood you're not protected. And Peter says maybe we should just keep your finger in Exodus 12 if you dare. Let's look in first Peter for a moment. First Peter chapter 1 verses 1 & 2. This is the greeting of Peter. Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. Now here's how he describes them. Elect or chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Notice what comes before sprinkling. Obedience. The blood is not sprinkled on the disobedient. It did not avail anybody who disobeyed and went outside of his house. So bear in mind although there's perfect protection in the blood it is only for the obedient. Now let's go back to the Passover ceremony. The blood was in the basin. It had to be transferred to the house. They plucked a little bunch of hyssop, dipped it in the blood and then sprinkled it on the door. They were safe. Now Paul says Christ is our Passover who was sacrificed for us. In other words Christ has been slain 19 centuries ago. To use the terms of the analogy the blood is in the basin. But the blood in the basin doesn't protect anybody. We have the same situation as Israel. We've got to get the blood from the basin to the place where we live. Then we're protected provided we're obedient. So the question is how do we get the blood from the basin, the blood of Jesus, to the place where we live? Now we go back to Revelation 12 11. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. You remember what we said? We overcome Satan when we testify personally to what the Word of God says. The blood of Jesus does for us. What is it that gets the blood from the basin to where we live? Our testimony. That's right. Testimony is a very simple thing. It's just saying a few words according to the Scripture. It's like the little hyssop, but it saves us. It's our protection. I cannot overemphasize for you here the importance of your testimony. There's another Scripture that we could take with it that is very closely related in Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 1. Therefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession Christ Jesus. The writer of Hebrews calls Jesus the High Priest of our confession. You know what confession is? Confession means literally saying the same as. So for us as believers in the Bible and in Jesus Christ, confession means we say the same with our mouth as God says in his Word. We make the words of our mouth agree with the Word of God. And Jesus is the High Priest of our confession. Brothers and sisters, no confession, no High Priest. He can only advocate on your behalf when you make the right confession. So whether you call it testimony or whether you call it confession, it is absolutely indispensable for you to receive the salvation of God. Jesus said by your words you will be justified. And by your words you will be condemned. You settle your destiny by the words you speak. James said the tongue is like the rudder on a ship. It's a very small part of the ship, but it determines exactly where the ship will go. And we determine the course of our lives by the way we use our tongues. You can say the right thing and make the words of your mouth agree with the Word of God. Or you can say the wrong thing and cause your life to go off course. And you'll either come safely to harbor or end in shipwreck according to the use that you've made of your tongue. Many, many of us as Christians are very careless and delinquent in the use of our tongues. People say I'm dying to see you. Don't ever say that. Americans say I was tickled to death. Don't say that. No, it's not a laughing matter. I can understand you can laugh. But never say anything about yourself that you wouldn't want Jesus to make happen. Don't underestimate yourself. Because God thinks you're precious. He invested the blood of Jesus in you. When you are quote humble and criticize yourself, what you're really doing is criticizing God's handiwork. Because the Bible says we are his workmanship. How dare you criticize the workmanship of God. Pride is a tremendous problem with Christians. But another problem that's just as great is underestimating ourselves. Not for what we are, but for what God has made us. So now I'm going to give you a practical demonstration of how to transfer the blood of Jesus from the basin to the place where you live, to your life. Obviously you cannot testify as to what the Word of God says about the blood of Jesus, unless you know what the Word of God says. So one essential requirement is knowing what the Bible teaches about the blood of Jesus. Now I've pointed out already that the New Testament indicates there was a sevenfold sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. This morning I'm going to consider with you a sevenfold application of the blood of Jesus in our lives. There are seven major ways in which the New Testament reveals the blood of Jesus works for us. The first is redemption. We return to a couple of scriptures. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 7. Ephesians 1 7. In him, that's Jesus, we have redemption through his blood. Redemption means being bought back. We were in the hands of the devil. Jesus bought us back with his blood. And then in 1st Peter chapter 1 verses 18 and 19. 1st Peter 1 18 and 19. Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible or perishable things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers. But with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. And notice the word lamb again takes us back to the Passover. The Passover lamb. Jesus was without blemish. He was without original sin. He was without spot. He was without personal sin. And we have been redeemed by his blood. Now in that context I like also to turn to Psalm 107 and just verse 2. Psalm 107 verse 2. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Whom he has redeemed out of the hand of the enemy. Who's the enemy? Satan. That's right. But if we are redeemed what do we have to do about it? We have to say so. No say so, no redemption. You understand? It's your confession. It's your testimony that makes it work for you. Otherwise the blood remains in the basin. Now let's think of what we can say. I'll give you a little example. This is not the only way it could be said. But my personal testimony is through the blood of Jesus I have been redeemed out of the hand of the devil. Brothers and sisters I have no doubt about where I was when Jesus met me. I was in the hand of the devil. There's no question in my mind about that. But I'm not there today because I have been redeemed by the hand of the devil. Now I want to invite you to have the blessing of saying that with me. This is going to be a very practical message. I'm going to show you how to do a whole lot of things. And you'll only get as much blessing as you actively cooperate with. So I'll say it first phrase by phrase. Say it after me not with me. Okay. Through the blood of Jesus I have been redeemed out of the hand of the devil. Well that was good. Now let's see if we can say it together. Okay. Through the blood of Jesus I have been redeemed out of the hand of the devil. Now that's wonderful. You're looking so intelligent at me. But it's really very important to say it to somebody else. So I want to suggest that each of you turn to your neighbor somewhere. Look them right between the eyes. Don't be embarrassed. Don't be religious. And say through the blood of Jesus I have been redeemed. Now don't miss out. Find somebody to say it to. That's right. Okay. All right. Now some of you are free in a way you've never been before. Because of that. Something's happened to you. All right we'll go on to the second provision of the blood of Jesus. Which is cleansing. And we'll turn now to first John chapter 1 and verse 7. First John chapter 1 verse 7. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light. That's he is Jesus. We have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. Now in the original language. All the verbs in that verse are in the continuing present tense. It's important to see that. If we continue walking in the light. We continue to have fellowship one with another. And please note that the evidence that you're walking in the light. Is that you have fellowship. And if you get out of fellowship. You get out of the light. And if you get out of the light. The blood doesn't cleanse in the dark. That's a tremendously important fact. The blood does not cleanse in the dark. All right. If we continue walking in the light. We continually continue having fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus his Son continually cleanses us from all sin. It's a continuing provision. No matter where we are. If we're in the light. We may be in the most defiling circumstances. We may be amongst the most wicked people. There may be countless evil pressures against us. But as long as we are walking in the light. The blood is continually cleansing us from all sin. Let me show you another beautiful picture. Keep your finger in one John. We'll come back. Turn to Psalm 51 for a moment. Psalm 51. This is the great penitent Psalm of David. After he'd been convicted of his two terrible sins of adultery and murder. He came. He turned to God with this tremendous cry of repentance and plea for mercy. We can't go into it all. But let's just look at what he says in verse 7. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. And you notice the use of the word hyssop. What did he have in mind? The Passover. What was he thinking on? The blood. That's right. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. What a privilege it is to know where to go when you're guilty. I suppose every one of us in this room has that privilege. Brothers and sisters stop for a moment and think about the billions of people who are guilty and don't know where to go. Can you imagine what it'd be like to have a guilty conscience. To be tormented with the reality of your sin and not know where to go to find forgiveness and peace. That's the condition of half humanity today. All right what are we going to say? We'll go back to 1 John 1 7 and I'll give you a little pattern. I don't have all this worked out in advance. It's more or less impromptu. I've done it several times before. But let me think. Let me say it this way. While I walk in the light the blood of Jesus cleanses me now and continually from all sin. See why I say now. Because I want to make it very here and now. Right at this moment. But not only at this moment. From this moment on as long as I'm walking in the light. All right. You like to say that after me. While I walk in the light the blood of Jesus cleanses me now and continually from all sin. All right. Let's see if we can say that together now. While I walk in the light the blood of Jesus cleanses me now and continually from all sin. All right. The next great provision is justification. Now justification is a theological word which upsets some people. But it's not really that bad. The Greek word in its basic form means to make righteous. But it has a lot of different shades of meaning. Let's go to the scripture first. That's Romans 5 9. Much more than having now been justified by his blood. The blood of Jesus. We shall be saved from wrath through him. So we have been justified by his blood. Let me try and convey it to you this way. You're on trial in a court of law for a capital offense. Your life is at stake. And then the verdict comes out not guilty. That's justification. You've been acquitted. Okay. It means more. You've been reckoned righteous with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Not with your own. But with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But it also means you've been made righteous. It has all those meanings. Acquitted. Not guilty. Reckoned righteous. Made righteous. And then this is a little way that we have to fix it in your mind. I'm justified means I'm just as if I'd never sinned. Why? Because I've been made righteous with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And he never sinned. He had no guilt. He had no past to be covered up. See your own righteousness will never get you to heaven brothers and sisters. Isaiah says all our righteousness is our filthy rags. But let those filthy rags go and let the blood of Jesus impart to you the righteousness of Jesus. Then the devil has no way to accuse you. There's a beautiful scripture in, just keep your finger in Romans we may come back. People tell me I expect them to have too many fingers. In Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61 verse 10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God. For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. There's two things you get. Salvation and righteousness. When you trust in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on your behalf. You'll be clothed with a garment of salvation. But don't stop there. You'll be covered with a robe of righteousness. One of the translations says he has wrapped me around with a robe of righteousness. You are totally covered with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The devil has got nothing he can say against you. If he tells you you've done a whole lot of things wrong. You know what to do. Agree with him. So you're quite right Satan. But all that's in the past. And I am clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. See if you can find anything wrong with that. All right let's go back to Romans 5 9 and let's see. I'll do a run-through and then we'll see where we get to. Listen to me now carefully. Through the blood of Jesus. No don't say it yet. I'll do it once. Because I'm not quite sure where I'm going yet. Through the blood of Jesus I am justified, acquitted, not guilty, reckoned righteous, made righteous, just as if I'd never sinned. All right. Now don't try and say it with me the first time. Say it after me. Through the blood of Jesus I am justified, acquitted, not guilty, reckoned righteous, made righteous, just as if I'd never sinned. Now take a deep breath and say thank you God. All right we'll go on. The next is sanctification. Sanctification. We'll turn to Hebrews 13 and verse 12. Hebrews 13 12. Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Now to sanctify in the original is directly related to the word for holiness. Actually sanct is the same word that we have in English saint. So to sanctify is to make saintly or to make holy. It's got two aspects. One is negative. We're set apart from sin and everything that defiles. And then we're made holy with God's own holiness. In the twelfth chapter of Hebrews. Well we might read that for a moment. Talking about God's chastisement. It says in Hebrews 12 verse 10. Our human fathers chastised us for a short period of our lives according to their best judgment. But God does it in a different way. Hebrews 12 10. For they indeed, that's human parents, for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them. But he for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness. Notice not our holiness any more than our righteousness. But his holiness. How do we partake of his holiness? Through the blood of Jesus. All right. So Jesus that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let me try to show you how you apply that operation of the blood. Through the blood of Jesus I am sanctified, separated from sin, set apart to God, made holy with God's holiness. I'm not sure if I can remember that. But I'll try. This time you follow me. Through the blood of Jesus I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God, separated from sin, made holy with God's holiness. Understand you can change the words a little as long as you get the facts. That's what matters. All right. Now what we've been doing every time so far. Dipping the hyssop in the basin and sprinkling it over us. You understand? Okay. Now we're going to go on. We've so far dealt with redemption, cleansing, justification, and sanctification. Now we're going to go to life. I once heard a preacher say that all the provisions of the blood of Jesus were only negative. They only saved us from something. I think that's a very dangerous statement. And I can't think of anything more positive than life. Let's look for a moment in Leviticus 17 11. Which is the passage I quoted earlier. Leviticus chapter 17 and verse 11. 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. It is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. So the life of God is in the blood of Jesus. God's own life. The life of the Creator. Our human minds have no way to calculate the potential of that statement. Because the Creator is infinitely greater than all that he's created. The entire created universe is just a snap of his fingers. You see, if we could grasp what's in the blood of Jesus. I've said there's more power in one drop of the blood of Jesus than there is in the whole kingdom of Satan. Because we've got the eternal, uncreated, measureless, life of God himself. A life that existed before anything was ever created. In the blood of Jesus. With that in mind, let's turn to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. And we're going to read from verse 53 through verse 57. John 6 beginning at verse 53. Then Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you, there are two levels of emphasis in the teaching of Jesus. If you have the old authorized version, sometimes he said verily and sometimes he said verily, verily. Verily means it's important. Verily, verily means it's super important. Now in this translation they say assuredly and most assuredly. So this is one of the super important statements. I like, I think I'll go back to verily, verily. Verily, verily I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the Living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. Now I'm sure there are various ways to apply that. But I began my Christian ministry in 1946 in an Arab town called Ramallah, just north of Jerusalem. It's no longer a town, it's a big, it's a much bigger city today. And at that time with my first wife and the children the language of our home was Arabic. And there's certain things that you get into you that you never get out of you. And I always, whenever I think of the communion service or taking the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist, whatever you want to say, I always think of what the Arabs said, Halina Nishrib Dam Yisra. Let us drink the blood of Jesus. That was not some strange, super spiritual phrase. That was their way of talking about the communion. And there may be many ways to apply this. But for me, when I take the communion, I eat his flesh and I drink his blood. Now that's a stumbling block for some people. How can I help that? We have been taught, some of us, that we do it just as a memorial. That's not what Jesus said. He said, you're eating my flesh and you're drinking my blood. We do it in memorial too. Sure we do. But that's not all. We are actually partaking of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no reason to change those words. Now there's a lot of different opinions as to how it becomes the body and the blood. The Catholics and the liturgical churches believe it's through consecration by a priest. Frankly, that's not what I believe. I believe it becomes through faith. When I receive it in faith, believing what Jesus said in his word, it becomes to me precisely what he said it would be. Please don't argue with me because I'm happy. Let's look for a moment in first Corinthians chapter 10. I believe we have here both Baptists and brethren. That's probably divine providence. Well brothers, I remember a brethren preacher saying once to some of his fellow Christians. He said, Jesus said as often as you drew it, but you do it as seldom. All right, let's look in first Corinthians chapter 10 for a moment. Verse 16. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ. Communion, sharing in the blood of Christ. The bread which we break, is it not the communion or the sharing in the body of Christ. And then he goes on in chapter 11 and he reminds them of the way the Lord's Supper was instituted in verses 23 and following. He says, for I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed, took brain. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take eat this is my body. Which is broken for you or which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Now it's perfectly true we do it in remembrance of him. But do we do in remembrance of him? We take his body. In the same manner also he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Now I want to say very emphatically, that I don't recommend everybody to be like Ruth and me. There's a wonderful liberty in the body of Christ. We can do within certain limits what God leads us to do. But this has become so important to me. And I so tremendously feel my need of the life of God. And let me say, I think I can say it with humility. I think I'm something of an advertisement for the life of God. Most of you wouldn't guess I'm 71 years old. And I think part of that is living on the body and the blood of Jesus. For me this is no doctrine, theory. This is a living reality. So this is the way we do it. And please I'm not suggesting that anybody should do what we do. But we take communion together as husband and wife every morning. And every morning I say the same things. Lord Jesus. Now what do I say every morning? Yes that's right. I break the bread. Yes I break the bread and I say Lord Jesus we receive this bread as your flesh. We eat it. And then we share a tiny little cup. And I say Lord Jesus we receive this cup as your blood. And I say as we do this we proclaim your death until you come. You see we do it mainly maybe in Jerusalem where Christians are less than one percent of the population. What a privilege to proclaim the Lord's death every day in the city where he died. Some, a great Bible expositor of the last century commented on this. You do show or proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. He said when we come to this ordinance, whatever you want to call it. He said we're out of the whole context of immediate time. We have no past but the cross. No future but the coming. We proclaim his death until he comes. And every time we do that we remind ourselves he's coming again. Now let's just, how are we going to confess this? Let's just do it by faith. We're not going to take any communion service and I'm not ever recommending that to any of you. Let's just say, let me think how we'll say it. Lord Jesus when we receive your blood, in it we receive your life. The life of God. Divine, eternal, endless life. All right? If I can remember that, say it after me. Lord Jesus when we receive your blood, in it we receive your life. The life of God. Divine, eternal, endless life. Thank you Lord. Let's take a moment to worship him, shall we? Just receive it right now. Let the sense of divine light fill you. Your heart, your mind, even your physical body. Paul said in due course death will be swallowed up by life. But I think there's a process of ongoing death in our bodies. Sickness, decay and so on. Which can be swallowed up by the life of God day by day. Paul said though our outward man perishes, our inward man is renewed day by day. And there's enough life in the inward man to keep the outward man going until our task is finished. Amen. All right we want to talk about just two more effects of the blood of Jesus. The sixth one is intercession. We'll turn to Hebrews chapter 12. And we'll read verses 22 through 24. Hebrews 12, 22. I want you to notice the tense. It begins with the words we have come. We're not going to come in the spirit, not in the flesh. But in the spirit we have come. We have come to Mount Zion. That's number one. Number two the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Not the earthly Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem. Number three an innumerable company of angels. And I prefer the translation which says infestal array. I can't go into all the reasons why you can translate it either way. But I think the NIV says an innumerable company of angels infestal array. They've put on their best clothes for our benefit. I mean seeing an innumerable company of angels in any guise would be wonderful. But infestal array. Ruth and I were in Belfast about what three years ago now. We were in a little group of El Abledas meeting in a home. And the presence of God moved in amongst us as we humbled ourselves before the Lord and before one another. And for about ten minutes Ruth saw an innumerable company of angels just passing, passing, passing all the time. And then one of them came into the room. And after that she closed her eyes. This is not, you know, this is all within the bounds of our possible experience today. We are no different from the people in the New Testament. They were no different from us. All right. We have come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. An innumerable company of angels infestal array. The church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven. Those who've been born again whose names are written in heaven. Number five, God the judge of all. Thank God there's more than God the judge there. Brothers and sisters otherwise we'd never make it. Number six to the spirits of just men made perfect. I believe that's the Old Testament saints who through a lifetime walk of faith achieved what we achieve through the new birth. Or what we don't achieve through the new birth. What is given to us through the new birth. Number seven to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. That's why we can be there. If it were only God the judge we'd never get there. But when God the judge there is also meet Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. And finally the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. The sprinkled blood of Jesus that speaks on our behalf in heaven. Contrasted with the blood of Abel. There are three main points of contrast. Abel's blood was shed against his will. Jesus willingly gave his blood. Abel's blood was sprinkled on earth. Jesus' blood is sprinkled in the holiest of all. Abel's blood called out for vengeance. Jesus' blood pleads for mercy. This is such a beautiful revelation. I wouldn't want any of you to be deprived of it. There are times when we are weak. When we're under pressure. We just can't pray. We just wonder if we're going to be able to draw the next breath. It's good to know that those times that the blood of Jesus sprinkled in the immediate presence of God. He's always speaking on our behalf. Calling out for mercy. Let's make a little confession just to appropriate this truth. I'll do it. I mean I haven't thought this out in advance. But thank you Lord that even when I cannot pray. The blood of Jesus is pleading for me in heaven. All right are you ready to say that? Thank you Lord that even when I cannot pray. All right I thought you were going to say it after me. You're ahead of me. All right we'll go back. We'll say it together then. All right. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Lord that even when I cannot pray. The blood of Jesus is pleading for me in heaven. I'd say that once again. We weren't very certain I was the one that was. Thank you Lord that even when I cannot pray. The blood of Jesus is pleading for me in heaven. Amen. And finally we have access through the blood of Jesus. These last two provisions of the blood take us out of the realm of time and into the heavenly and eternal realms. Which is where we want to end up anyhow. Turn back to Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19 and following. Significantly this verse has already been quoted in the worship here this morning. I think that was part of God's provision. Hebrews 10 beginning at verse 19. Therefore brethren having boldness or confidence. The Greek word means freedom of speech. It's very important that our boldness gives us freedom of speech. In other words let's remember it's our testimony. If we don't testify we don't have it. Therefore brethren having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the flail. That is his flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God. Let us draw near that's into the holiest of all. With a true heart in full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. And our bodies washed with pure water. And let it note the next words. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. Hebrews 3.1 says Jesus is the high priest of our confession. Hebrews 4.14 says hold fast your confession. But Hebrews 10.23 says hold it fast without wavering. What does that tell you? Well then you're in an airplane and they say buckle your seatbelts. What do you expect? Turbulence. That's right. When the Word of God says make the confession. Hold fast the confession. And hold it fast without wavering. That's like God saying buckle your seatbelts. Because there'll be turbulence. But don't let the turbulence cause you to unbuckle your seatbelt. Keep on making the right confession. Even when it seems totally contrary to everything around you. God's Word is true. All right. You notice that we have access into the bowl, into the Holy Spirit. A new and living way. Go back for a moment to the scene in Leviticus 16. Where the high priest entered once every year. And what did he do? He entered with a censer full of incense. That cast a fragrant cloud and covered the mercy seat. That's worship. But he also entered with the blood of the sacrifice. And he sprinkled it seven times between the veil and the mercy seat. Once, twice, three times, four times, five times, six times, seven times. And then he smeared it on the east side, the front side of the mercy seat. And when the writer of Hebrew says we have boldness through the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way. He's thinking about that seven fold sprinkling of the blood. And the blood on the mercy seat. And we can approach the throne of Almighty God. And the holiest place in the universe. With boldness. Because of the blood of Jesus. We have access. What are we going to say about ourselves? Let's say this. Thank you Lord. That through. And I'll say it first because I don't even know what I'm going to say yet. Thank you Lord. That through the sprinkled blood of Jesus. I have access. Into the presence of Almighty God. Into the holiest place in the universe. You think I can say that again? Let's try. Thank you God. That through the sprinkled blood of Jesus. I have access. Into your presence. Into the holiest place in the universe. All right. Let me just close by recapitulating the seven provisions. It could be possible to give them in a different order. Although I think this is a logical order. Redemption. Cleansing. Justification. Sanctification. Life. Intercession. And access. Sprinkled seven times. Works in us in seven different ways. But remember. We overcome Satan. By the blood of the Lamb. And by what? A word of our testimony. Let's say that together and we'll close. But don't forget to add. And we love not our lives unto the death. All right. Are you with me? We overcome Satan. By the blood of the Lamb. And by the word of our testimony. And we love not our lives unto the death. Now there's only one logical thing we can do now. In the light of all that. Is to praise God. If you would like information about further teaching resources available from Derek Prince Ministries UK, please call us and request a copy of our latest resource guide on 01462 492 100. You may also visit our website at www.dpmuk.org Or write to us at DPM UK, Kingsfield, Hadrian Way, Bulldock, SG76AM