The Sevenfold Power Of The Blood

The Sevenfold Power of the Blood

We will return now to the scripture that we were looking at the end of the last session which is Revelation 12:11.

“They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they did not love their lives [their souls] to the death.”

I suggested to you that we can make a practical application out of that statement in this way: We overcome Satan when we testify personally to what the word says the blood does for us. There are three elements therefore in that. The word, the blood and our testimony. Our testimony is the hyssop that transfers the blood from the basin to the place where we live.

It’s very clear if we’re going to testify to what the word says the blood does, we have to know what the word says the blood does. So we’re going to devote this closing session to a brief study on what the word of God says the blood of Jesus does for us. I think we’ll probably try to do it to involve you a little bit in it. I think it’s just wonderful the way you’ve sat patiently and just listened day after day. But, it’s much better if you can get involved so we’ll see if we can make a little class involvement in this session.

If you look at the bottom of Page 7 of your outline you’ll find a list of seven things the blood does either for us or in us. I personally believe these seven are definitive. In a way, when you have them you have the central truth about the blood. So not merely was the blood sprinkled seven times but it works seven ways.

The first one is redemption. To redeem means to buy back. We had sold ourselves by our sin to Satan, we were exposed for sale in Satan’s slave market. Jesus walked into the market and paid the price to buy us back out of the hand of Satan. That’s redemption. We’ll look in Ephesians 1:7. This is one of Paul’s immensely long sentences but we will not involve ourselves in all of it.

“In him [that is Jesus] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace...”

So we have redemption through the blood of Jesus—when we are in Christ. Do you understand? We have to be in Christ to have the redemption.

Then again, a passage we’ve looked at several times and it won’t do us any harm to look at it again. 1Peter 1:18–19.

“Knowing...”

And of course, it’s important that you do know. And I have to say, multitudes of professing Christians don’t know.

“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...”

The perfect, all sufficient, final sacrifice whose blood redeems us.

Now side by side with those scriptures I like to set Psalm 107:2. Not everybody would do this but I like it. Psalm 107:2 says:

“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy.”

Who is the enemy? Satan. What do we have to do if we’re redeemed? We have to say so. That’s our testimony. So let’s say it. This time I’m going to let you make it very personal. I’ll say it the first time and then you can say it the second time. My personal testimony is this:

“Through the blood of Jesus I have been redeemed out of the hand of Satan.”

I was in the hand of Satan; no longer am I in his hand. I’ve been redeemed out of his hand. Say it once after me and the second time you can say it with me. Don’t do this just as a class exercise, you’re doing something of tremendous spiritual significance. It can affect the rest of your life. You’re not merely being witnessed by a few people here but you are being witnessed by hosts in heaven. I’ll say it and you say it after me. “Through the blood of Jesus I have been redeemed out of the hand of the devil.” Now we’ll say it altogether this time. “Through the blood of Jesus I have been redeemed out of the hand of the devil.” That was the hyssop that got the blood where you are.

Second is cleansing. We’ll look, first of all, at 1John 1:7.

“But if we walk in the light, as he [Jesus] is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

In that verse there are three verbs in the continuing present tense. It’s important to see that. If we continue walking in the light, we continue having fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus continues to cleanse us. It’s very important to see that this is conditional, there’s a condition. If we continue walking in the light of God’s word in obedience, then the first result is we have fellowship one with another. So if we are not walking in the light we won’t have fellowship. And if we don’t have fellowship we’re not walking in the light. But, if we walk in the light and have fellowship, then the blood of Jesus continually keeps us clean. They’re all continuing present tenses.

It’s not fair to present to you that statement without the condition. So this would be my personal testimony. “While I walk in the light, the blood of Jesus is cleansing me now and continually from all sin.” I say it’s cleansing me now because I always believe in a here and now statement, not just something general. It’s me here now, but it’s also continual. So to get the two together I do it that way.

The Swahili language which I kind of got involved in [I won’t say I learned] in East Africa has got a special tense which describes something which is complete and permanent. And in that well known song The Blood of Jesus Cleanses Us From All Sin, they say ?damu ya yesu?. And if you know Arabic, that’s the blood of Jesus. ?Who sa fisha?. ?Sa fisha? is to cleanse. ?Who? means it does it completely, totally. ?Damu ya yesu who sa fisha kabesa? which means totally, absolutely. And it’s always stuck with me because it says it so perfectly.

So you need to think of something that’s continual and complete. Now I’ll say the testimony and then you can join me the second time around. “While I walk in the light, the blood of Jesus is cleansing me now and continually from all sin.” I think it’s better to say while I’m walking in the light. I can improve on that. Okay? Now you’re going to say it after me. “While I’m walking in the light, the blood of Jesus is cleansing me now [point to yourself] and continually from all sin.” Okay, now we’ll say it together. You won’t find it altogether easy but just follow with me. “While I’m walking in the light, the blood of Jesus is cleansing me now and continually from all sin.”

There’s a beautiful sort of commentary on this in Psalm 51 which is the great penitent psalm of David after he had been convicted of his sins of adultery and murder. We don’t have time to read all this, it’s one of the most beautiful psalms. I think it’s a psalm that every one of us does well to read from time to time as our own prayer. I believe in making the psalms my prayers. I just don’t read them, I read them as my prayers. But he comes down to verse 7 and he says:

“Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”

You’ll notice that he introduces the hyssop. What is the implication of the hyssop? That’s the thing that brings the blood where I am. So it’s a prophetic preview of being cleansed with the blood. I think it would be good if we read that together, and let’s make it a prayer and not just say it as an exercise. Psalm 51:7. “Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.” Isn’t that beautiful!

The next one is justification. Now the word justification is a kind of tiresome theological term which often obscures its true meaning. We’ll look at it first and then I’ll try and tell you how I understand justification. We’re looking in Romans 5:9. The real theme of Romans, which is an epistle that excites me, is righteousness. Many, many centuries before, Job had asked the question: How can a man be righteous before God? And Romans is God’s answer. The central theme of Romans is righteousness. If you’re interested in righteousness you’ll be interested in Romans. If you’re not interested in Romans you’re not interested in righteousness. Jesus said blessed are they who hunger and thirst after what? Righteousness. Not blessings, not healings, not prosperity. You can hunger and thirst after all those things without being blessed. But when you get hungry and thirsty for righteousness, then you get blessed. And if you’re hungry and thirsty for righteousness, brothers and sisters, sometime or other you’ve got to come to grips with Romans.

Romans 5:9:

“Much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

Notice we have been justified by what? His blood.

Now in both Hebrew and Greek there is one word which is either translated just or righteous. In Hebrew, if you want to know what it is it’s ?tsadeek? and in Greek it’s ?deekayos?. But whether it’s translated just or righteous, it’s the same word. We have this problem that in English we have a kind of difference between just and righteous. Just: we tend to think in terms of legality and law. Righteousness is in terms of character and conduct. But there is no such division in the language of the Bible. So having been justified by his blood means having been made righteous by his blood.

The word that’s translated justified has a whole slew of related meanings and I think I’ll try and put them up. First of all, it has a legal meaning. So you are justified, you are acquitted. You are under trial but you’ve been acquitted. That’s good news. Think of what a person feels when he’s being tried for murder and he’s acquitted. Just try and imagine. You should feel that happy.

Second, you’re not guilty.

Third, you’re reckoned righteous. Now a lot of people stop there. But I assure you that the full meaning of the word is more than that. It’s “you’re made righteous.” The blood of Jesus not merely causes you to be reckoned righteous, it makes you righteous.

Then we have justified, which is another way of saying all that and you’ve got it there in your outline. Justified means “I’m just-as-if-I’d never sinned.” Because I’ve been made righteous with Christ righteousness which has no evil past, which has no shadow of guilt against which Satan can find nothing whatever to say. You remember the exchange we looked at in the early sessions? “Jesus was made sin with our sinfulness that we might be made righteous with his righteousness.” Being made righteous with his righteousness you are justified. You can say just as if I’d never sinned. There’s no guilt, there’s no problem with the past; it’s all erased.

So, here’s my testimony and I think I’ll do the whole thing while I’m about it. The more I do, the better I feel. “Through the blood of Jesus, I am justified, acquitted, not guilty, reckoned righteous, made righteous, just as if I’d never sinned.” That’s my testimony. That gets the blood to my life. I’ll do that once more and then I’m going to invite you to do it with me. “Through the blood of Jesus, I am justified, acquitted, not guilty, reckoned righteous, made righteous, just as if I’d never sinned.”

Okay? Say that after me once and the second time we’ll do it altogether. “Through the blood of Jesus, I am justified, acquitted, not guilty, reckoned righteous, made righteous, just as if I’d never sinned.” Let’s say it altogether. “Through the blood of Jesus, I am justified, acquitted, not guilty, reckoned righteous, made righteous, just as if I’d never sinned.” Praise God. I hope you feel better now.

The next one is sanctification. Hebrews 13:12. Sanctification is another one of these long words. To sanctify is directly related in the original languages with the word for holy. So to sanctify is to make holy. In the English word sanctify, it’s related with the word saint. So to sanctify is to make saintly or holy. Hebrews 13:12 says:

“Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.”

He went outside the city as a sin offering which could not be offered in the compound of God’s people. To make myself holy I have to offer the right testimony. “Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, set apart to God, made holy, separated from all that is evil.” Sanctification always includes separation. All right? I’m not sure that I remember what I said but I’ll try to say it again. You listen because you’re going to be asked to say it the next time. “Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, set apart to God, made holy, separated from all that is evil.” Between all evil and me there is the blood of Jesus. Okay? Are you ready, you say it after me the first time. “Through the blood of Jesus, I am made holy, set apart to God, separated from all that is evil.” This time we’ll say it together. “Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God, separated from all evil.” Amen, thank you Lord.

Now we come to the next which is life. You’ll remember the life of all flesh is where? In the blood. When Jesus poured out his soul, he poured out his life. As I understand it, through that the life of God was released into the universe. I don’t believe any mind will really comprehend the fullness of what that means. Let’s look in John 6:53 and following.

“Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly...”

And remember I said to you it’s either assuredly or most assuredly? Or verily or verily, verily? So the most emphatic statements are verily, verily, or most assuredly. This is one of those. It’s the top level of priority.

“...most assuredly 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.”

Four times in this chapter John says “I will raise him up.” Bear in mind that our redemption is not complete until the resurrection. It’s only completed at the resurrection.

In Philippians 3 Paul said that “I press toward the mark that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not as though I had already attained or were already perfect.” It’s very important to see because we’ve been given the impression that our bodies are not very important. That’s not God’s estimate. God says our bodies are very important. They’re temples for the Holy Spirit, they’re wonderfully and fearfully made; and God is not going to leave our bodies in the state of decay. He’s going to resurrect them with glory like that of Jesus. And redemption is the full outworking and is consummated by the resurrection.

Keep your finger in John 6 and turn for a moment to Romans 8. I think this is very important because I find a lot of Christians just don’t seem to grasp the importance of the resurrection. Romans 8:18 and following. I feel so free with you people, we’ve gotten to really know one another now, I can hop about the Bible without apology.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us [at the resurrection]. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.”

When will the sons of God be revealed? At the resurrection. The whole creation is waiting for it. Creation is on the tip toe of expectancy. The trees, the seas, the rivers, the mountains are all waiting. It’s an extraordinary thing that creation is so exciting and so much of the church is so little excited. Verse 20:

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.”

You see, the whole creation suffered because of man’s sin. There were no thorns and no thistles before man sinned. Nothing ever died, nothing ever corrupted. Verse 21:

“Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

Not only are we going to come into it gloriously but the creation is going to come. But God has assigned this priority that creation doesn’t come in until we come in. So creation says why are you people so slow? Why aren’t you excited, why aren’t you doing what’s necessary to bring the close of the age? Verse 22:

“For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.”

Almost every time Paul says “we know,” most contemporary Christians don’t know. I’ll guarantee some of you didn’t know that before. Did you know that the whole creation is in labor pains waiting for what? The revelation of the sons of God, the birth of a new age, deliverance from corruption.

Then Paul goes on to say—and again, it’s not true of many Charismatics:

“Not only they, but we also, who have the firstfriuts of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves [that’s intercession], eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”

See the closing phrase? All that Paul is writing about there in Romans 8 is connected with the redemption of the body, the resurrection. None of that will happen until the resurrection.

Going back to John 6. Four times in this 6th chapter Jesus says about the believer, “I will raise him up at the last day.” It is part of salvation. We’re back where we were in John 6:54.

“Whoever eats my flesh, and drinks by blood, has eternal life...”

Not will have, but has.

“...and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed [or true food], and my blood is drink indeed [or true drink]. He who eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, abides in me, and I in him.”

Again, I think those are continuing present tense. “He who continually feeds on my flesh, and continually drinks my blood, continually abides in me and I in him.” Now, it’s very clear that the Lord there attaches tremendous importance to feeding on his flesh and drinking his blood. I am not the final authority, but I really believe that he’s talking about the communion.

When I have Nedra in front of me I think Arabic. I lived in an Arab town with Arab Christians for awhile and when they wanted to have the Lord’s supper they said, [spoken in Arabic — unintelligible] let us drink the blood of Jesus.

Anyhow, what I’m saying is I believe those Arab Christians got the right picture. Drinking the blood of Jesus is communion. There’s something in our whole attitude that says I don’t like the thought of drinking blood. I remember it took me years to come to grips with this statement. To have eternal life we have to drink his blood and feed on his flesh.

You see, the life is where? In the blood. If you want the life you have to appropriate the blood. I’m not saying that that’s the only way you can appropriate the blood because I’ve taught you how you can appropriate it by your testimony. But to me personally this has become very important. The Plymouth brethren make fun of other denominations because of what Paul said in 1Corinthians 11, “This do, as often as you do it in remembrance of me...” concerning the communion. He says most churches say “as seldom as you do it.” Now that’s not true of the liturgical churches: the Episcopal church, the Lutheran church and others. I appreciate that tremendously. Some of the most beautiful services I’ve ever been in are liturgical communion services because they have held on to that fact.

I just want to say again, Ruth and I do not want everybody else to become like us. If I tell you things we do it’s not saying you ought to do the same. Please don’t understand it that way. We came to the conclusion some years ago that we didn’t have communion nearly often enough. So I felt free as the priest of our home to say we’ll have communion every day. We do in our early morning time with the Lord. We always close by taking the bread and the wine. I’m not saying every Christian should do that, I’m just saying I’m thankful we do it. I think both Ruth and I would feel that something had dropped out of our life if we omitted that.

I’ll tell you something psychologically interesting. I say every day when we do it “we receive this bread as your flesh Lord, and this wine as your blood.” For a long while I had the hardest time not to say “your precious blood.” I believe the blood of Jesus is precious but you see my problem? I wanted to make it religious. See what I’m trying to say? I believe we need to get away from being religious. I like to do it in a very simple way and I like to be very specific. “Lord, we’re doing this in the remembrance of you, we’re proclaiming your death.” And oh, it is so wonderful in a place like Jerusalem to proclaim the Lord’s death when 98% of the people don’t believe in his death. Then I say, “We receive this bread as your flesh and this wine as your blood.” I’m not recommending that to anybody here specifically but I’m just suggesting to you that we do not avail ourselves of the life that’s in the blood nearly as much as we need to.

Ruth pointed out something very important to me because I do it according to what Paul says. “We proclaim your death until you come.” See, every morning we remind ourselves of two things: the cross and the coming. We never have a day that we haven’t started by reminding ourselves of those things. Somebody said about the communion service, it lifts you out of time. In the communion you have no past but the cross, no future but the coming. You do it in remembrance of the cross until he comes. That’s not intended to change anybody’s way of doing things but it is intended to stimulate you to thinking whether you are really availing yourself of the life that’s in the blood.

We have to go on. The next provision may surprise you. It’s intercession. This is very clearly stated in Hebrews 12:24.

We missed out the application. The lady in the front here reminded me we didn’t make the personal application. The truth of the matter is, I’ve never taught this particular application in conjunction with Revelation 12:11. It’s experimental. Let’s try and think what we would say. “Lord Jesus, by faith we feed upon your flesh as real food, and we receive your blood as real drink.” Are you able to say that? I’ve never said that exactly that way before but... I’ll say it once more. We’ll make this very personal. This time we’re talking to the Lord. “Lord Jesus, by faith we feed upon your flesh as real food, and we receive your blood as real drink. And in them your divine, eternal life.” Is that okay? I want you to turn your mind to Jesus. Don’t let me get in between you and the Lord. “Lord Jesus, by faith we receive your flesh as real food, and we receive your blood as real drink. And in them we receive your life: divine, eternal, endless life.”

All right. I wonder if we can do that again. I’m not sure I can do it but we’ll try. You can do it with me this time if you feel able. But please remember we’re talking to the Lord and let’s be reverent. “Lord Jesus, we receive your flesh as real food, and we receive your blood as real drink. And in them we receive your life: divine, eternal, endless life. Amen.” Thank you for reminding me.

We’ve just got two more to look at. Intercession. Hebrews 12 and we must read from verse 22 which begins with a perfect tense, notice that. It’s not “you’re going to come” but “you have come.” In the Spirit that’s where you’ve arrived. In your flesh you’re sitting in Kona, but in your spirit you’re in a different realm.

“But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, [that’s the born again ones who are registered in heaven] to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, [which I believe are the saints of the Old Testament] to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.”

So the last thing in the list is the blood of sprinkling, or the sprinkled blood of Jesus that speaks better for us than Abel’s blood. Now where was that blood sprinkled? I suggest to you this is the fulfillment of the type of the high priest. He sprinkled the blood seven times on the way and then he sprinkled it on the mercy seat. I believe there is a mercy seat in heaven. I believe the blood of Jesus is sprinkled on it and I believe that it does precisely what the writer of Hebrews says: it speaks on our behalf.

It’s contrasted with the blood of Abel in three ways. Number one, Abel’s blood was shed against his will. Jesus gave his willingly.

Number two, Abel’s blood was sprinkled on earth. Number two, Jesus’ blood was sprinkled where? In heaven.

Number three, Abel’s blood called for vengeance. The blood of Jesus calls for forgiveness.

Now God said to Cain, “The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground on which you shed it.” But, just as really as the blood of Abel cries for vengeance, the blood of Jesus Christ for forgiveness and mercy. I think it’s very important that we grasp this fact that we have intercession going on for us day and night continually in the presence of God through the blood of Jesus.

In l958 I was in a car accident which nearly cost me my life in Kenya. It was through no fault of mine because a gasoline lorry had gone on the road and left oil on it and the car went over a 9 foot bank at 55 miles an hour. I’ve convinced myself the car turned a complete somersault in the air and ended up on its wheels with its engine still running. And actually, it could be driven away which is amazing. Now there were three persons in the car at this time. My first wife Lydia who was beside me in the driver’s seat. Myself the driver and our little African baby Jesika who was just under a year old and was in a baby basket on the lower half of the back seat that had been made flat in this station wagon. I found myself there and I knew something terrible had happened. Your first instinct invariably is to open the door. So I opened the door and I wondered why the ground was much higher than usual. I discovered later that when I came down in that car, I pushed the driver’s seat right down onto the floor of the car. In doing so, I broke three vertebrae in my spine which I didn’t discover for quite awhile.

The most amazing thing that happened was this little African baby was thrown forward out of the baby basket and ended up on the gear lever and didn’t hurt herself at all. The most incredible thing. It’s a little ?Morris? traveler, there’s not more than that much {indicating} between your head and the roof. My first wife was thrown backwards out of the seat beside me and ended up in the baby basket completely jammed. I mean, her head was right against her knees. Apart from a few scratches she was unhurt. I was the only one who was seriously injured.

Here’s this 9 foot bank and I started to climb up it. I had the most agonizing pain in my back but I got to the top. A car that had been following us didn’t even stop because we disappeared so totally they didn’t even know we disappeared. The next car came along, they stopped and it was a man and his wife and they were Italian. They didn’t seem to speak any English. I picked up a little Italian when I was working with Italian prisoners of war. The woman got out of the car, wrung her hands and said, “?disente malas, disente malas?”—feeling bad. Well that was absolutely true but it didn’t help. I got no help from that couple and then another couple came along and basically they helped us out and a car came and took us into the town.

After that I was in the hospital for quite awhile. It was like my spirit had been pushed into the wrong place. I don’t know whether you can understand it. It wasn’t there to pray. I lay in the hospital knowing I needed prayer and unable to pray. In that situation it became so real to me that even when I can’t pray, the blood of Jesus is speaking on my behalf. Day and night, unceasingly whether we’re weak or whether we’re strong. Whether we’re right or whether we’re wrong, the blood always speaks on our behalf and calls for mercy and forgiveness.

And with the blood speaking on our behalf we come to the final application of the blood but we better make our testimony. Understand, I’ve not done this before with a public group, I’ve moved a little further than I’ve moved before. Let’s make a testimony about the blood of Jesus speaking on our behalf. I think I’m going to keep this personal. “Lord, I thank you that whether I pray or not, your blood is sprinkled in heaven and speaks on my behalf for mercy and forgiveness.” Does that sound good? It’s good to say it here but you wait until the next time you’re in a really tough situation. You’ll find it will be extremely meaningful for you. You say it after me. I don’t have this memorized but I’ll do my best. “Lord, I thank you that your blood is sprinkled in heaven, and whether I pray or don’t pray your blood is speaking for me for mercy and forgiveness.” Let’s do that once more together. I’m not very well organized, you help me. “Lord, I thank you that your blood is sprinkled in heaven, and whether I pray or don’t pray your blood is speaking on my behalf for mercy and forgiveness.”

We come to the final, the seventh application which again is found in Hebrews. Hebrews 10:19–22.

“Therefore brethren, having boldness...”

The Greek word means freedom of speech. I think most modern translations say confidence. We have total confidence. We do not need to be ashamed, we do not need to be timid; we have to be extremely reverent. Through the blood of Jesus we have total confidence.

“...having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus...”

Where was the blood sprinkled? On the mercy seat in the holiest, in the most sacred place in the universe.

“...by a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is his flesh...”

So we have the blood sprinkled way into the holiest.

“...and having a high priest over the house of God; let us draw near [draw near to the holiest of all, to the mercy seat] with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Those are the four requirements of the true worshipper. Verse 22: a true heart, full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, our bodies washed with pure water. The pure water, I believe, of the word of God. I also do believe actually it has an application to water baptism but we’ll not go into that.

So we have boldness to enter into the immediate presence of God, the most holy place in the universe, through the blood of Jesus. It is speaking on our behalf.

We also have a high priest over the house of God who represents us in the presence of God, and that is Jesus. If you turn back for a moment in Hebrews 6:19, talking about the hope we have in Christ, the writer says:

“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence beyond the veil [that’s the second veil]; whither the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become high priest for ever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”

So we have there in the holiest the sprinkled blood of Jesus that speaks on our behalf. We have a blood sprinkled way in and we have a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, king and priest in the immediate presence of God. But all that centers around the blood.

If you were to take away the blood of Jesus we would have no redemption, no cleansing, no justification, no sanctification, no life, no intercession and no access. Everything hinges around the blood of Jesus. Let us never belittle the blood, let us never underestimate the blood.

I’ll say again what I said in the last session. If you want to know the difference between the soulish and the spiritual, any person who professes faith in Christ and does not honor the blood is soulish. The soulish man doesn’t believe in the blood. In fact, it offends him. Maybe that’s why you are a little uncertain. The soulish nature just doesn’t like that statement “unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you.” But it’s the truth.

Let’s make a confession for the final statement: access. I’m suggesting this. “Through the blood of Jesus sprinkled in heaven, I have access with confidence into the presence of God, into the Holy of Holies.” I don’t know whether our minds can grasp what we’re saying when we say that. The most sacred place in the universe. Let’s try and say it together. “Through the blood of Jesus, I have access into the presence of God, into the most holy place.” I left out confidence. Let’s do it again. “Through the blood of Jesus, I have access with confidence into the presence of God, the most holy place. Amen.”

Your assignment to do out of class is to go through this list and make your own personal confession for each thing in it. I suggest you do it in a time of prayer. Hopefully you take time each day in prayer so take this list with you and make the right confession in the presence of the Lord. By that, apply the blood to your life. You will do well if this will become habitual with you, if you learn in every situation to apply the blood.