Chapter 9:16-22

“¹⁶ For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. ¹⁷ For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. ¹⁸ Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. ¹⁹ For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, ²⁰ saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.’ ²¹ Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. ²² And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.”

The New Testament churches are responsible for the purity and sharing of the Gospel. We must be careful to share the Gospel in its Biblical purity and with all the parts that are involved. There are several parts to the pure Gospel, and one of those parts is the importance of a Blood sacrifice. In the passage that we are exploring today, there is a reference to the consecration of the Old Testament Tabernacle and the priests that served in it. Moses performed a ceremony that dedicated the Law and the men that oversaw the execution thereof.

• The Old Covenant, Leviticus 8

I encourage you to read the whole chapter if you get the chance to do so. But we will focus on the dedication of the high priest and his sons, who became the future priests. Moses writes for us in Leviticus 8: 18-24,

“Then he brought the ram as the burnt offering. And Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram, and Moses killed it. Then he sprinkled the blood all around on the altar. And he cut the ram into pieces; and Moses burned the head, the pieces, and the fat. Then he washed the entrails and the legs in water. And Moses burned the whole ram on the altar. It was a burnt sacrifice for a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he brought the second ram, the ram of consecration.

“Then Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram, and Moses killed it. Also, he took some of its blood and put it on the tip of Aaron’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. Then he brought Aaron’s sons. And Moses put some of the blood on the tips of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. And Moses sprinkled the blood all around on the altar” (NKJV).

These men were consecrated to the Lord with blood. This blood was the temporary covering for their sins as they were men who were fallible. God established the blood sacrifice in Genesis when He made ‘coats of skin’ to cover Adam and Eve. God also established with Abraham the need for blood to secure a promise in Genesis 15 when He entered into a covenant with Abraham using an old ritual of the area where two warring kings would sever an animal and walk through the pool of blood between the two pieces to make a covenant of peace. In this particular chapter, you will see that Abraham falls to sleep, and God makes the covenant with Himself.

From the very beginning, there has been blood required to cover our sins and blood required to secure the covenants that we have in the Lord. Now we have a new generation that wants to take the blood out of the Gospel. Out of the Covenants that we have in Christ with God. They want to sanitize the Gospel to make it more palatable, but the Gospel is designed to be offensive. It tells man he is hopeless and rotten to the core. It strips away any kind of self-reliance and places all men at the foot of the cross, all on even ground, lost, and going to eternal separation from God in Hell.

• The New Covenant, Hebrews 9:22

Without bloodshed, there is no remission or removal of our sins. If our sins are not removed, then we are not saved, and there is no hope for you and me. Jesus shed His blood for us, for the eternal removal of our sins, yours and mine. See Revelation 1:5:

“And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood” (ESV).

Romans 5:9, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (ESV).

Ephesians 2:13, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (ESV).

We can go on and on, but one cannot separate the salvation we have in Jesus from bloodshed. There is no need to sanitize the Gospel. All men need to know that it took bloodshed; it took the brutal and painful death of Jesus to save them. They need to know that their sin was and is repulsive to God, and when God places our sins on Jesus, it repulsed Him, and He struck Jesus as He would us, with His wrath.

Matthew 26:28, “For this, is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (ESV).

Matthew 27:46, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'” (ESV).

God forsook Jesus and allowed His wrath to fall on Him so that when you put your faith in Jesus’ death, God will never forsake you and me nor pour His wrath out on us. Jesus’ bloodshed protects us from God’s wrath; more accurately, it removes us from being under God’s wrath at all. We have nothing to fear from God, our Heavenly Father. You and I are justified by Jesus’ blood, we are washed clean by Jesus’ blood, and we are at eternal peace with God because of Jesus’ blood. Nothing else was enough to pacify the wrath of God.

It is important that we keep the Gospel pure; men are sinners, and God is Holy. Stop trying to sanitize the Gospel. Salvation comes via bloodshed, Jesus’ bloodshed. There are no other means of salvation.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
Online: https://mmbchurch.ca/
Email: seangooding@mmbchurch.ca; support@mmbchurch.ca

Chapter 9:11-15

“¹¹ But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. ¹² 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. ¹³ For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, ¹⁴ 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? ¹⁵ And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”

Last week, we made the point that the Law, the Old Testament Law, was not enough to save anyone. In Hebrews 9:9, we are told that sacrifices and gifts could not make the giver perfect. Perfection is what is required by God so that He can fellowship with us. Since we are born with a sin nature, it is impossible for us to be perfect and please God. A few pastor friends of mine and I are in the process of reading through the entire Bible in 90 days. Right now, we are reading in the Torah, and not too long ago, I read through the Torah myself. When one takes the time to tally the number of sacrifices that were required by God to cover man’s sins, and that cover was just for Israel, it is astonishing. If you will take the time to read through Numbers 28, you will see the requirements for the sacrifices. Just for an example, here is Numbers 28:1-8 (CEV):

The Lord told Moses to say to the people of Israel: Offer sacrifices to me at the appointed times of worship, so that I will smell the smoke and be pleased. Each day offer two rams a year old as sacrifices to please me. The animals must have nothing wrong with them; one will be sacrificed in the morning, and the other in the evening. Along with each of them, one kilogram of your finest flour mixed with a liter of olive oil must be offered as a grain sacrifice. This sacrifice to please me was first offered at Mount Sinai. Finally, along with each of these two sacrifices, a liter of wine must be poured on the altar as a drink offering. The second ram will be sacrificed that evening, along with the other offerings, just like the one sacrificed that morning. The smell of the smoke from these sacrifices will please me.”

Now, if we take just the required daily sacrifices, they were 2 per day; one at 9 am and one at 3 pm, called the morning and evening sacrifices. From the time that the Torah was given to the time of Jesus was about 1,500 years. The Jews operated on a 360 calendar, so 720 animals per year over the course of 1,500 years was 1,000,000 animals just for this one required sacrifice. Then there was the Passover, the Day of Atonement, the Wedding Feast, the Feast of Trumpets, then individual people had to offer sacrifices for their own sins. You can see the amount of bloodshed that was required to satisfy God’s perfection.

• Jesus offered His Own Blood, verse 12

Jesus came and put a stop to the need for millions of animals to die by offering His own blood as a payment for our sins. As our High Priest, He would have offered His blood to God as the full payment for our sins and stopped the ritual killing of millions of innocent animals. Jesus’ blood was enough because He, like God His Father, was perfect. So God the Father took the offering of perfect blood as enough to completely wipe out the sin debt of ALL people who put their faith and trust in Jesus as Savior. His perfection is transferred to us forever, and it cannot ever be revoked. You and I, children of God, are justified, declared righteous (Romans 5:1), and then we are no longer under condemnation or judgment, according to Romans 8:1.

• Now we can Serve God, verse 14

Now that we are truly washed in the blood of Jesus, we can serve God. There is a sect of ‘Christians’ that deny the need for a blood sacrifice. They claim that this kind of requirement is too base and too cruel for a loving God. They are lost, not saved, and in need of redemption. If one does not trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, that person is not saved.

Romans 10: 9-10, (MEV)

“that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Notice that one has to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. Thus, Jesus had to die to be raised from the dead. People keep trying to change the Gospel, but Paul tells us not to listen, not even if it looks like an angel. Only the Gospel we have about Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection is true. All else are lies from Hell. See Galatians 1:8 (NKJV):

“But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”

• Eternal Life, verse 15

We have an eternal inheritance in Jesus. Just a few minutes ago, I heard a man online trying to show why we cannot have ‘once saved, always saved.’ These folks think we can get our salvation by faith but keep it by works. What rubbish. We are saved and preserved by Jesus. When Jesus talked about losing Judas in John 17:12, called the ‘son of perdition’, the understanding is that Judas was never saved. He is called a devil in John 6: 70-71:

“Jesus answered them, ‘Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!’ He was speaking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. For although Judas was one of the Twelve, he was later to betray Jesus” (Berean Study Bible).

Judas was selected to show us that one can do all the things like saved people and not be saved. You can attend meetings, even perform miracles and hold office (Judas was the Treasurer), but without faith and trust in Jesus as the Messiah, you are lost. I mentioned last week that one of the primary jobs of the true New Testament churches is to protect and proclaim the Gospel. The purity of the Gospel is essential. Without it, people who think they are saved go to Hell.

Lord, please have mercy on us. The end is near; make sure that you are saved and that those you love hear the true, pure, unadulterated Gospel. Jesus is the ONLY WAY, TRUTH, and LIFE.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
Online: https://mmbchurch.ca
Email: seangooding@mmbchurch.ca; support@mmbchurch.ca