Sermon Central
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Blood, Sweat, And Tears
Contributed by Chris Smith on Jul 22, 2003 (message contributor)
Summary: If Abel’s sacrifice was simply offering God his best, then Jesus Christ died for nothing except as a good example. Then we must agree with the world in saying that there are many sincere ways to God. Many people are sincere, but are sincerely wrong
Why must it be only through the Blood that we can be saved?
We are told today that mankind is naturally good at heart. What we need to fix is the environment; through our social policies, our education, and our laws.
The Bible clearly tells us this is not the case.
Mankind is “Desperately wicked” as Jeremiah puts it.
Paul says that all of mankind that “THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE." "THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING," "THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS"; "WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS"; "THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN." "THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES."
The Bible tells us that God, in the beginning, created everything good. Including giving his creation a choice. A choice to obey. A choice to love.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they ran from God. God has been chasing us with His mercy and grace ever since. Unfortunately, people have been trying to fix things on their own ever since, ignoring Gods pleadings to the contrary.
The sin of Adam and Eve plunged the world into an avalanche. The relationships bxn man and woman were broken… The relationships bxn God and man were broken. The relationship bxn man and creation were broken. A war broke out in the garden of Eden. A religious war. In chapter three, we saw God showing Adam and Eve, the only way to cover sin is through death. By the shedding of blood. Adam and Eve had only to trust God that the shedding of blood of an innocent substitute would satisfy Him.
God’s heart is always after his people. God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son…
People don’t like to hear about the blood of Jesus Christ. People don’t like to hear about a bloody religion… many have assumed the teachings of evolutionary based anthropology must somehow fit into the Bible. The bloody practices of the ancient Incas, Babylonians, etc., were a perversion of God’s intention. The ancient Hebrews did not get their sacrificial system from the surrounding nations. The surrounding nations had perverted God’s original intention from the beginning. Stop allowing the assumption of evolution to work it’s way into the only history book that has never been shown to be wrong. Every time an archeologist puts a spade into the ground, he discovers that the Bible has been right all along. Anyway, enough philosophy of History… you know me by now…
God always comes to man first. Man was simply to trust God by faith, come to an appointed place of worship, and believe that God would forgive their sins by the shedding of blood of a spotless, innocent substitute – which always pointed to Jesus Christ shedding His blood for us – and we would be saved.
The book of Hebrews shows us this… “But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. Jesus Christ is that High Priest. The sacrifices were intended to be a picture of the coming Messiah. From the beginning, the promised seed was to be a sacrificial substitute. The Messiah was to be a Lamb before He was to be a Lion.
Here, in the beginning, we see the importance of paying attention to the context, and the gradual unfolding of God’s Word. If the Israelite’s from Moses’ time had paid attention to what we will learn today, maybe they would have understood the grace and mercy of God… and that forgiveness of sins was more important to God than their living conditions.
Here, in the beginning, we see a contrast. Two clear choices between God’s way, and mans way. One represents true worship, the other, false. The Bible tells us that there is a right way to worship God, and a wrong way.
This passage of scripture has great application for us today, because there are still many people who are sincere in their religion, but are sincerely wrong. And as Cain found out the hard way, unless a person repents, sin will crouch at your door, bitterness and hatred will build up in your hearts, and death will result.
Today’s message is a warning to everybody, There is only one way to approach God. Through the blood. That’s it. And anything else is false worship. Today’s message is a warning of the results of this false worship. First, we will see the basis of false worship, then the consequences of false worship, and then the final outcome of false worship…
