THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS
John Speirs
John 19: 33-35
1 Peter 1: 18-20 (to “world”)
Matthew 26: 28
Acts 20: 28
Hebrews 10: 19-25
I would like to speak, dear hearers, about the blood of Jesus. If I am going to speak about the blood of Jesus, I must first speak about Jesus Himself. Who is He? And why, where we read in John’s gospel, is He seen crucified on a cross at Calvary? The Lord Jesus in His Person is God, and will always remain that, but He became a Man, He came into manhood's form to draw near to men, women and children like you and me. In His life here, the Lord Jesus always did what was good, delighting God with every step, never thinking a wrong thought, never taking a wrong step, never offending anyone, never hurting anyone. How different to me, the sinner! Think of heaven's delight in His whole life, always doing the things that pleased God. Why then, where we have read, is He on the cross? Why have men put Him there? Beloved, my sins put Him there. Can you say that for yourself that your sins put Him there? The only part I had at the cross of Jesus was my sins, J N Darby vol 16 p79. He had to go that way because God loved His creature; His love is towards man; His love is towards you. He does not want you to remain at a distance from Him because of your sins. We are all sinners, everyone here, and everyone in this town, and everyone in the world; we are all sinners, and I think we know that if we are honest. We are sinners, but God wants us to become saved sinners, and faith in the blood of Jesus is the only way by which you can become a saved sinner and have peace with God. So it says, “but coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead ...”. The Lord Jesus is the One who, because of who He is in His Person, had originated life itself; He created the universe; He gave life to creatures; yet it says, “when they saw that he was already dead”. How can it be,
The Lord of Glory crucified -
The Lord of Life Himself has died!
(Hymn 40)?
Beloved, such was the righteous requirement of God that if there was to be forgiveness for you and for me there had to be a sacrifice. There had been sacrifices before. Remember in the Old Testament the volume of blood which had been shed; it was not sufficient. The blood of Jesus is sufficient. It is sufficient to cover you and me and everyone else who puts their trust in it. You can have peace with God on this basis and on this basis alone.
It says, “they did not break his legs”. You see, the scripture must be fulfilled:
He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken, (Ps 34: 20);
God sees to that, “but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water”. Jesus was already dead; He had already endured sufferings at the hands of man, the unthinkable cruelty of man against the spotless Victim, “he was led as a lamb to the slaughter”, Isa 53: 7. But think, too, of His sufferings from God, when there was darkness over the whole land for three hours. The scripture says that He made Him to be sin for us (2 Cor 5: 21). You can hardly imagine this but it was required if there was to be any hope for you and me, and God allowed that. God forsook Him there in those hours of darkness. The wrath of God was poured upon Him, He had taken that cup from the Father. And then He died, He gave up His spirit, and then His blood was shed. Peter tells us what kind of blood it is. This is incomparable blood, friend, “blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot”. Jesus did no sin; He knew no sin, “in Him sin is not” (1 John 3: 5); He is the absolutely sinless One, the only Man who was ever so: that is the One whose blood had to be shed. So Peter speaks of it here, “by precious blood, as a lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ, foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world”. Beloved, Peter could call it “precious blood”. How about you? Is it precious to you? Can you -
… point to the atoning blood
And say, This made my peace with God
(Hymn 357)?
That would make it precious to you, would it not, to know that your eternal peace with God has been secured by it? How precious! May it become ever more precious to each one of us! Do not become hardened, do not become like the world, do not become disaffected or dissatisfied. Have your hearts softened afresh tonight by the contemplation that, as we sang in our hymn, the blood of Jesus was “Shed for me” (Hymn 167).
That is why I read in Matthew, because it speaks there about sins. We are all sinners, and our sins are offensive to God. Those sins prevent us from enjoying God's company if they are not covered. The Lord Jesus speaks in relation to the cup, “For this is my blood, that of the new covenant, that shed for many for remission of sins”: “remission of sins”. Well, you have sins that you have accumulated in your life. You have stacked them up and you have probably come to the sad realisation that you are unable to do anything about them. You cannot remove even one of them from the sight of God for yourself or for your brother: none can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him, Ps 49: 7. No friend: only by this blood, “that shed for many for remission of sins”, can they be cleared from before the sight of God for ever. “That shed for many”: are you among the many? You can be. There is nothing to prevent you, save perhaps your own will. Beloved, do not put it off, just believe that this precious blood was shed for you. It is available to you tonight. God gives you faith to be able to believe it. It is a wonderful Saviour God that we have to do with, who has provided everything that we might have peace with Him, and not only that, but so much more too, which is why I read these other passages.
I read in Acts, “the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. Do you realise that the blood with which God purchased the assembly, is the same blood that was shed for you? Does that make it more precious to you? Not only the fact that it has given you peace with God, but that it has secured a substantial, real result in this vessel, the assembly, for God's eternal pleasure? Do you realise that? Do you realise that that was the purchase price, the blood of Jesus, “purchased with the blood of his own”? Where we read in Matthew it says, “my blood”. Here it says, “the blood of His own”. How intensely personal this is. How God felt it when the blood of Jesus was shed, but think, too, of His delight! Think of the Old Testament verse where God says, “and when I see the blood”, Exod 12: 13. God saw the blood of Jesus, speaking reverently and carefully. He saw it and His delight was in it because He saw not only that there could now be peace between His creature and Himself, the basis for reconciliation secured, but His eternal praise and glory was established on a righteous basis. There will be glory to God in the assembly, “which he has purchased with the blood of his own”, to the age of ages, Eph 3: 21. May that blood and the One whose blood it is become more precious to each one of us!
Hebrews tells us another thing that the blood allows, “entering into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus, the new and living way”. Beloved, if you are a saved sinner God does not want you to go back to the place where you were a sinner. He wants you to go into His presence, into the holy of holies, and it is the blood of Jesus that lets you go in there. Does not that make it more precious to you again, not only that it has established peace, not only that it has secured a result for God eternally, but that it has secured our present access to Him by this new and living way? In the Old Testament, the blood was sprinkled before the ark seven times, Lev 16: 14. There is free access to the presence of God because of the blood of Jesus, “the new and living way which he has dedicated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh”. Jesus, having died and having shed His blood, was buried to remove vicariously from God's sight the man who had offended God, the man according to the flesh, removed from God's sight for ever.
He did not remain in the grave though: He rose and He ascended; He is at God's right hand now, having entered in there for us. Do you realise that? He has not only gone there Himself, but He has gone there for you. Why? So that you might be there with Him. You may say, 'Yes, when I am in heaven'; that is true, but now, are you going into the holy of holies now? Do you realise that the way that has been opened up there is because of the blood of Jesus, and now He is there as a great High Priest for us? You might say you are finding things difficult. You have been a believer for a little while now and it is not easy. People say things against you; people treat you differently in the world; it seems difficult being a believer. Well, in Jesus you have a great High Priest, and He is not bounded by the things that limit you and me; He is in glory; He is in the “power of indissoluble life”, Heb 7:16. Death has no access there. The things that we are going through, the sorrows, the exercises, the burdens on our spirits, the Lord Jesus is above these things, but He is available to us in them. We can be saved in the power of His life: that is, His present life. What an opportunity then that there might be this free access into God’s presence. Will you not take advantage of it? Will you not go there? How would God feel if you had no desire to go into His presence? He wants you there; that is why He gave His Son. So “let us approach with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, sprinkled as to our hearts from a wicked conscience, and washed as to our body with pure water”.
God provides everything that we need in the present time so that our state might be such that we can go there. He gives the blessed Holy Spirit. Do you know the Holy Spirit, friend? Have you received Him? If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, God desires that you should receive the Holy Spirit so that you might be able to stand in this world where everything is opposed to the believer as it was opposed to Christ, that you might overcome, that you might go forward; and not only that, but that you might have the experience of going into God's presence with Christ at the present time - because then you will become a worshipper, and that is what God is seeking. It is amazing to me that in John 4 virtually the first thing that the Lord speaks to that woman about is the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus was considering for God. He sees in the woman a worshipper that can be secured for God. If we are going to be worshippers we need the Holy Spirit, and God would give that freely, an “unspeakable free gift”, 2 Cor 9: 15.
Beloved, the day is drawing near when we will see Jesus face to face. You will see the One whose blood was shed for you; you will actually see Him. Are you looking forward to it? I trust there is no one here who has not yet put their trust in Jesus, who has not yet accepted in faith that the blood was shed for them that their sins might be washed away and that they might have peace with God. I trust there is no one here in that state but, if there is, I plead with you now, have to do with Jesus, put your faith in His blood now before it is too late, because I do not know if you will have another opportunity. You will never regret it and, in the meantime, as you see the day drawing near, you can be here pleasing to God, be here frequenting His presence in the power of the Holy Spirit, and increasing in your appreciation, like Peter did, of the preciousness of the blood of Jesus.
May the Lord bless the word.
Kirkcaldy
5th November 2017