Twenty first Century Truth and Testimony Sermon Archive

Charles Weigel

The Message of the Blood
by Charles Weigel

Charles Weigel was for many years an evangelist out of the Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is best known as the author of the hymn, "No one ever cared for me like Jesus".

I remember when but a child how the story of Cain and Abel mystified me. There was an illustration in the old family Bible showing the two brothers each before an altar in an attitude of worship. On each altar burned a fire, from which rose a column of smoke. But the smoke acted so queerly, for while it roe from the one altar in a straight column into the sky, it was scattered after rising a short distance form the other altar. When I inquired of mother what made it act that way, she said that it was an indication that while God was pleased with the worship of Abel, He was displeased with the worship of Cain. Then of course I asked her why God was displeased with Cain’s worship? Now my mother was the best woman I have ever met. Some of the greatest and most important lessons of my life I learned from mother. But mother was not a profound theologian, so it is not surprising that I had her in deep water when I asked her that question. She told me that when I grew to be a man maybe I would understand and be able to comprehend the significance of Cain’s rejection.

Long years after I learned that God rejected the worship of Cain because if was not in harmony with His will and plan. Abel’s attitude reveals to us what true worship consists. As he stands at the altar with his bleeding lamb, in confession, faith, adoration and praise, he gives us the true idea of Christian worship. And the Bible tells us that God testified of his gifts that they were righteous.

How and where did Abel learn to worship God right? I think it was in this manner—you remember how his mother, Eve, after she had sinned, received the promise that her seed should some day bruise the serpent’s head, and this hope sustained her as she left the garden dejected and sorrowful. Outside of the garden, amid the thorns and thistles, she was to pass her life; yet the promise was hers that One should come who would open its gates, restore the flowers, crush the thistles under His feet, defeat the plans of the devil and send joy throughout the whole world.

I can see Eve telling her sons of this glorious promise.  She told them obedience was worship that disobedience had closed the gates of Eden against them; that the only way to get back to fellowship with God; the only hope of restoration was through observance of God’s word.  In addition they in some way learned that God required a sacrifice to be offered whose blood should be typical of the blood of the Saviour, which was to be shed for the remission of sins.

But Cain decided to substitute a method of his own.  The though of a religion with blood in it was disgusting to him.   He would worship God, but instead of blood he would bring flowers and fruits.  He would have no bleeding lamb on his altar.  So he brought his offering from the field and decorated his altar with it.  Certainly it may have been beautiful, and perhaps more costly than Abel’s offering.  It lacked first o fall a confession of personal sin and guilt.  Naturally, in second place it lacked a faith in a Redeemer to come.  Hence his offering was defective, for it was not what God had commanded.  In substituting his own judgment for God’s he was shutting himself off from God’s mercy, and from God’s forgiveness.

My friends, let me beg of you not to make the same mistake.  If you reject God’s plan, sneer at the blood of Jesus, and substitute a mode of worship that may appeal to an unregenerate nature; if you think that by bringing of your means, and your labor, and engaging in some beautiful form of religious worship, instead of turning your hearty to Calvary and trusting in the merit of the bleeding Lamb, your attitude is acceptable to God, you are mistaken, and are in peril of losing your soul.

God purposes to save you and me in the only way we can be saved.  If it had been possible to save us without the terrible tragedy of Calvary, don’t you suppose God would have done it?  Do you think for one minute that God would have permitted the sacrifice of Hs only Son if there had been any other way of salvation for us?

                        “Just as I am without one plea,

                        But that Thy blood was shed for me,

                        And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,

                        O Lamb of God, I come.”

Take a look at the two altars.  Cain’s altar is ornamented with wreaths of flowers, and covered with fruit gathered from the ground.  Cain stands before it in his pride and self-sufficiency.  His head is up; there is no confession of having sinned, no indication of repentance; and consequently there is no response from heaven to his appeal.  The heavens are as brass to his prayer.  The smoke of his own fire surrounds him like a fog-bank and his worship becomes weariness to the flesh.

At the other altar stand Abel. He has slain his victim, and the blood has flown in a crimson stream. He has sipped his fingers in the blood and applied it to himself, and so stands before his altar with bowed head. He reviews his past life, and remembers how he has sinned against God. He confesses the same to God, and asks forgiveness. Suddenly there comes to him a strange vision. Looking down through the centuries of time he sees a mountain, and on that mountain a cross, and on that cross a bleeding victim. Then it dawns on him that the bleeding lamb on the altar before him is but a type of the bleeding Lamb he sees on the cross, and that this Lamb is slain as an atonement for his sins. His faith reaches out and takes hold of the cross; he believes, and as he does so he receives a testimony that God is pleased and that his sin is taken away. In some way God let Abel know that He approved of his worship.

And when the Divine conditions are met with, God always witnesses to our hearts. He seems to delight in letting us know that He is pleased with our worship. We remember that when Moses set up the tabernacle in the wilderness; when he had made everything according to God’s plans and specifications, then God came down and filled the place with the glory of His presence. He witnessed His approval.

Again, when Elijah restored the altar on Mt. Carmel, placed the sacrifice upon it, as God had commanded, and then prayed for the fire, the fire came down from heaven and proved to a backslidden nation the supremacy of God over Baal. It was God witnessing.

And when Jesus submitted Himself to be baptized by John the Baptist at Jordan, the Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and a voice out of heaven was heard saying, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” It was God witnessing to the submission of His Son.

Hear it, my friends, God always witnesses His approval to our surrender and faith. The heavens are not opened, there is no descent of a dove in visible form; no sound of voice from the glory world; no flashing of light from the shekinah; no, there may be none of these, but there is evidence of God’s approval and acceptance that is so sweet and real that the seeking heart knows the Spirit has answered to the blood. Where man comes to God in the right manner, trusting only in the blood of Jesus for his salvation, God answers, and there comes into the heart peace and love and joy in the Holy Spirit.

But what about Cain? When he saw the look of joy on the face of his brother Abel, and realized that God had accepted his worship and witnessed to him of the fact, he was filled with a most jealous rage. He added to his other sins the sin of hatred. Strange that he should hate his brother for doing right, but that has been the spirit of the world more or less. It seems as if a right deed shames a wrong. Men hate the light as they are walking in the darkness. That is why right has been persecuted down through the ages. The martyr spirits have been hurried out of the world. Even Christ Himself, with all the sweetness and loveliness of heaven’s own glory resting upon Him, was the object of Human hatred. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” And when about to leave His disciples he said, “If they have hated Me, they will hate you also.”

God saw that Cain was angry with his brother and said to him, “Cain, why are you angry? If you do as well as your brother has done, you will be accepted also. See, at the door is a beast, slay it and bring the blood. Come to me in an acceptable manner and you shall also obtain forgiveness. If you fail to do this it is because you love your sin more than you love your God. Sin lies at the door and keeps God out of your heart.”

But Cain was blind with a jealous rage; his pride was hurt, for his self-sufficiency had received a severe jolt. He refused to heed God’s counsel. He allowed sin to remain and it rushed him to his ruin. With murder in his heart he leaped upon his brother and slaughtered him.

As the body of Abel lay in the field, with the face turned up to the sun, as if in mute appeal to the God he had worshipped his blood ran out of the open wounds and seeped into the soil. It was the first human blood to stain the soil of this ground. And that blood cried to God from the ground. It demanded that a just God punish the red-handed murderer. It cried for vengeance, and made an appeal for justice.

We will turn away from the scene of Abel’s death, and after the lapse of four thousand years witness the death of another man at the hands of those He loved.  I refer to the Lamb of God, the one typified by Abel's sacrifice.  When He came to earth angels heralded His advent by singing, "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good-will towards men."  For years He lived among men and did nothing but good.  For three years He traveled t through the land healing the sick and teaching the poor.  He stood in the streets of Jerusalem and proclaimed glad tidings to dying men.  There was hardly a family in all that land that had not had some member helped through His ministry of healing.  And yet, men with hearts full of hatred and murder, spiked Him to a cross, and in the hour of His dying agony, mocked at Him, saying derisively, "He saved others, Himself He cannot save."  To the human mind such an act of cruelty deserves damnation; let hell open its jaws and swallow up the perpetrators of so infamous an outrage!  Let the sword of justice fall and destroy them forever!  Such might have been the demand of Abel's blood, in the language of reason and of justice.  But Christ from His cross of suffering looks down upon His murderers with eyes of love and infinite pity, and then turning them upward toward heaven, cries, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

Oh, what wonderful, infinite love!  "Forgive them."  That is the message of the cross.  And now we understand the meaning in the words of the test.  We are not come to Sinai, we are come to Calvary.  We are not come to the mount that burned with fire, we are come to the mount that burned with love.  We are not come to the place of blackness, and tempest, but to the place of light, and glory and peace.  And, blessed by God, "we have come to Jesus, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel."  Abel's voice was the language of the law, while Christ's voice was the language of love and mercy.  The blood of Abel cried for justice, the blood of Christ asked for mercy.

And now let us look at some of the "better things" the blood speaks of.  In the first place as I read my Bible I note that the "blood" speaks of forgiveness.  In the first chapter of Colossians we read of the Son of God, in whom we have redemption through His blood," even the forgiveness of sins."

When man transgressed the law of God, the law said, "Let him die."  But God yearned over us as a father would over a prodigal son.  He longed to save us from the penalty of violated law.  He could not bear the thought of our eternal ruin.  But there seemed to be no way of saving us.  We could not save ourselves, for we were moral bankrupts.  Angels could not save us, for they had not the power; and archangels could not save us, they lacked the ability.  What was to be do me?  Christ answered the question by rising from His throne of glory and laying aside His scepter and crown, He left the glory-world and descended to a world of sin and shame.  The Father loved you and me so much that He gave His only Son to save us.  Heaven exhausts itself of love to save fallen man.  Christ came to take our place; He pays the penalty for our sin; and then He could stand in such a position as to have a right to ask of God the salvation of every repentant soul.  In the presence of the Father He pleads for me; His wounds intercede; His death intercedes; His resurrection intercedes.

           

                        "Five bleeding woulds He bears,

                        Received on Calvary,

                        They pour effectual prayers,

                        They strongly plead for me.

                        Forgive him!  O Forgive!  they cry,

                        Nor let that ransomed sinner die."

 

And now, God, the Father, gladly responds to the plea of God, the Son.  Justice is satisfied, and mercy rejoices.  The Spirit answers to the blood and tells me I am forgiven.  My burden of guilt and condemnation is lifted.  Hallelujah!  I am free!  Free from the law; free from sin's condemnation; so much as that I can joyfully sing:

 

                        "My God is reconciled,

                        His pardoning voice hear,

                        He owns me for His child;

                        I can no longer fear.

                        With confidence I now draw nigh,

                        And Father, Abba, Father, cry."

 

The "blood of Christ" brings us a message of peace.  We read in the second chapter of Ephesians that we who "were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."  The cross  was God's way of reconciliation.  Some men imagine that God is angry with them, and in order to make peace with Him they must do something to appease His wrath.  Does it look as if God is angry with the sinner when He came ninety-nine hundredths of the way to meet and make up with him?  Didn't the Saviour come all the way from heaven to embosom himself in humanity?  And He did this partly to give you the consciousness that God is near you.

God is not far from you now, my friends.  He says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If any man will hear My voice, and open unto Me, I will come in and sup with him and he with Me."  Why do you hold yourself aloof from God?  Why do you not open the door to him?  He desire to make peace with you and you treat Him with indifference, perhaps with scorn.  If you were to yield yourself and trust in the power of the blood of Christ, it would speak the message of peace and reconciliation with God.

The blood of Christ speaks of cleansing.  In I John 1:7 we read, "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin."  The sins of the past have left their stain on the soul.  Every sins has left its polluting mark until the heart is black.  How can this stain be removed?  Water cannot remove it.  The purest water that ever gushed from mountain spring or dropped from mossy rock cannot wash this stain away.  Tears of repentance, though as pure as those which trickled down the Saviour's face when He wept over Jerusalem, cannot wash away sin.  Then what can be done to remove this black stain?  Thank God--

 

            "There is a fountain filled with blood,

            Drawn from Emanuel's veins;

            And sinners plunged beneath this flood

            Lose all their guilty stains."

 

In the 9th chapter of Hebrews we read that "if the blood of bulls and of goats, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot unto God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God."

The apostle is here referring to the ceremony in connection with the ancient Day of Atonement, the most impressive day in the Jewish calendar.  On that day the High Priest entered the holy of holies to make an atonement for the sins and pollution's of the people.  An important part of the ceremony was, to take the blood of a bullock on his finger and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat in the holy of holies.  Likewise he was to enter and sprinkle the blood of the goat which had been sacrificed as a sin offering.  This was done to cleanse away the uncleanness of Israel.

The inspired writer to the Hebrews tells us, "If the blood of bulls and of goats" could purify the people back young, how much more the blood of Christ, who is made an High Priest forever, and has entered within the veil-- passed into the heavens-- not in the holy place made with hands, which is but a figure of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us-- "how much more shall His blood purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God."

Suppose we were to take a few drops of blood from a goat, and a few drops of blood from a man, and ask a chemist to analyze them each and tell us if there is any difference is their value.  After examination he tells us that as far as he can discover one is worth as much as the other.  But when we tell him that the one is from a goat and the other from a human being he immediately says the blood of the man is wroth much more than that of a goat.  Now we will lift the illustration and take a few drops of blood from the heart of the thief on the cross, and a few drops of blood from the heart of the Christ, the Son of Go.  We again ask the chemist to apply his tests and see if there is any difference in their value.  Now knowing where and from whom the blood came from, he comes back to us and says there appears to be no difference in the blood, one is worth as much as the other.  But, when we tell him that the one came from the heart of a being who was a thief, and the other came from the heart of a being Who was the Son of God, he reverently bows his head and says, "There is a vast difference; the blood of Jesus Christ is of priceless value, there is no other like it."

And now we understand what the apostle means when he says, "How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God."  The blood of Christ not only purchases our pardon, it also provides for our cleansing.  We may not only be delivered from sin's condemnation, but also from sin's pollution.

The blood of Christ speaks of victory.  In the 12th chapter of Revelation, John tells us of the redeemed in heaven who overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.  It is the power of the blood on our souls that makes us overcomers.  Faith in the blood of the Lamb gives us victory over sin and Satan.  Child of God, when pressed by the foe, look to the blood.  When wounded by sin, flee to the blood.  Trust in the blood always.

Whenever the church has exalted the power of Christ's blood she has had victory.  Sermons on the saving power of the blood have crowded the altars with weeping penitents, and songs of redemption through the blood have quickened the step of God's marching hosts.

In conclusion let me say that the blood of Christ speaks to us of eternal redemption.  "Thou was slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests."

John said he saw a door opened in heaven, and One sitting upon a throne.  Before the throne was a sea of glass and about the throne was a rainbow.  Round about the throne were twenty-four elders sitting clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.  In the hand of Him that sat on the throne was a book written within and on the back side, sealed with seven seals.  A strong angel cried out, "Who is worthy to open the book and loose the seals thereof?"  And they could find no man in heaven or earth who was able to open the seals.  John began to weep, for he wanted to know what was in the book  And one of the elders said to him, "Weep not, John, for the Lion of the tribe of Judah can open the book and break the seals."  John looked up and lo, in the midst of the throne stood a Lamb as it had been slain, and He took the book out of the hand of Him that sat upon the throne.  Then the company began to sing and play with their harps and said, "Thou art worthy to take the book and open the seals thereof; for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people and nation, and hast made us kings and priests unto God."

Those twenty-four elders John saw represent the church that Christ has purchased with His own blood.  Every redeemed soul will join in that song of redemption.  Throughout the eternities we will laud the name of our Blessed Redeemer.  He will be the object of our adoration and praise.  There will be sublime, celestial heights for the risen soul to climb in eternity; there will be rapturous visions for the soul to marvel at; there will be transporting melodies to fill the soul with ecstatic delight; but there is One who gathers in Himself all highest heights, and fairest sights and sweetest songs.  At the mention of His name, and the touch of His hand, the redeemed of God will press up and on along the glory heights.  His name is Jesus, and he shall be exalted forever.

On some glad eternal morning the redeemed of earth, gathered from among the nations, will sing while the angels stand in silent awe and listen:

                        "Look, ye saints, the sight is glorious,

                        See the Man of Sorrows now,

                        For knee to Him shall bow.

                        Crown Him!  Crown Him!

                        Crown become the Victor's brow.

                        Crown the Saviour, angels crown Him;

                        Rich the trophies Jesus brings.

                        In the seat of power enthrone Him,

                        While the vault of heaven sings;

                        Crown Him!  Crown Him!

                        Crown the Saviour King of Kings."

It was the night of the passover in Egypt, the night when the angel of death was coming to destroy the first-born of every home where no blood was on the door.  A little Hebrew lad tossed restlessly on his bed of straw in one corner of a hut.

"Father, what did that man Moses say about slaying a lamb?" the boy inquired of a man sitting nearby.

"He said we were to slay a lamb without blemish," replied the parent.

After  an interval of silence, the boy sat up in bed and with anxiety showing on his face, said, "Father, didn't Moses say the blood of that lamb should be sprinkled on the door-post?'

And the father, as if reminded of something he had forgotten, sprang to his feet, and hurried outside.  He sprinkled the blood of the lamb on the door-post and then re-entered the hut.  To the eager, questioning look of the son he said, "You may rest easy now, my boy, for the blood is on the door."  In a few moments the lad was sound asleep, and when the angel of death came by that dreadful night, he passed by the humble dwelling of the Hebrew slave, for he saw the blood on the door.

As I close this message-- may I ask you this one great question, my friends, are you under the blood today?  What if the death angel should come now?

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