“THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT”
SELECTED SCRIPTURES

I. Introduction
The most fundamental and essential function of the church is to worship God. Whether it’s the Hebrew word “shâchâh” (shaw-khaw´) in the OT, or the Greek word “prŏskunĕō” (pros-koo-neh´-o) in the NT, they mean the same thing. God is to be worshipped.

In a broad sense true spirit-filled worship consists of the honor that is given to God in our individual and corporate service to and for Him. In another more narrow sense true God-honoring worship can be seen in our love and adoration for Him.

Jesus said, “…those who worship (God) must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).
What does that mean? It means that true worship is neither legalistic nor ritualistic. Con-trary to popular opinion, true worship has nothing to do with those things. True worship is a matter of the heart. It is not dependent upon one’s surroundings, but upon the condi-tion of one’s heart. As such, true worship is sincere worship.

True worship is also scriptural worship. That is to say, it is never done in the way we want to do it, but it is done in the manner in which God directs us to do it. In other words, we must not worship Him the way we choose to worship Him, we must worship Him as He chooses to be worshipped.

A communion service is one of those ways in which we worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We do so by bringing honor and glory to Him. And in the process we worship God in spirit and in truth. Jesus made that abundantly clear when He said that if we did not honor Him we were not honoring God.
John 5:23b
23b “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”

In the communion service we remember Jesus and His shed blood. But the question that is often raised is, “Why does it have to be blood? Couldn’t God have designed a plan that didn’t include blood?” The short answer is, “Of course, He could.” But the point is that He chose not to do it some other way. He chose blood. And true worship is about what He chooses, isn’t it?
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II. Text
I want to begin this morning by looking at two examples of worship. The first example is worship man’s way. The second example is worship God’s way. The first example is accompanied by a heart bent on pleasing itself. The second example is accompanied by a heart bent on pleasing God. As you might suspect, the outcome of the two is dramati-cally different.

In Genesis 1-2 God created the heavens and the earth and all that there is. In Genesis 3 man sinned, God judged, and Adam and Eve were driven from God’s presence in Eden.
*Genesis 4:1-7
1 Now the man (Adam) had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD.”
2 And again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground.
4 And Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering;
5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.
6 Then the LORD said to him, “Cain, Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
7 “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Look again at v. 2. The younger brother, Abel, was a shepherd. The older brother, Cain, was a farmer. We are not told how they knew that they were to bring an offering to God, to worship Him, but they did know. At some point God had made it clear to both of them. That much is obvious in vv. 3-4. Cain worshipped by bringing some portion of what he had to offer to God. So did Abel.

But then there is something that, at least at first, doesn’t seem to make sense. In v. 4 it says, “…the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering…” However, in v. 5 it says, “…for Cain and his offering He had no regard.” Why?

Although Cain’s offering of grain or fruit, or whatever it was, was not in itself unaccep-table, it did not meet God’s requirement for a blood sacrifice. Just as both men knew that God required an offering, so too both men would have known what it was. Again, the fact that both Cain and Abel made offerings tells you that they knew.

There is one school of thought that says Cain’s offering was unacceptable primarily because it was not blood. The other school of thought says it was unacceptable primarily because of Cain’s attitude when it wasn’t accepted. I think both are true. Actually, I don’t see how you can completely separate the two.

God made it known that He expected worship in the form of a blood sacrifice. But it seems that Cain rationalized and said something like this: “Yes, but I would rather wor-ship You in my own way. So here is some of my grain.” (Or his fruit or whatever it was.)
This is sin, plain and simple. God tells us something we may not want to hear or do and we think we have a better idea. “I know what you have told me to give you, Lord, but I really don’t want to do that. Here, take this instead?” This is essentially what Cain did.

But Abel, on the other hand, worshipped by presenting Him an offering that was exactly what God had called for. I think you can readily see that while the offerings themselves were an issue, the bigger issue was the condition of the hearts of the two brothers.

Cain’s heart was turned toward himself. He wanted to do what he wanted to do. But Abel’s heart was turned toward God. He wanted to do what God wanted him to do. And so, “…the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering,” but “…for Cain and his offering He had no regard.”

How should Cain have responded? He should have admitted his sin and sought God’s forgiveness, but instead he became angry. You could say that, like Judas, Cain was more sorry he had been caught in his sin than he was sorry for the sin itself. So there was no repentance; there was only rage.
*Genesis 4:8-11
8 And Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 And (the LORD) said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground.
11 “And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.”

What is the point this morning? It’s simply this. True God-honoring worship demands that we worship God’s way. Abel did. Cain did not. When Cain was challenged about his sin of false worship he refused to repent. Instead, he sinned, and he did so grievously. In those few verses in Genesis 4 we see that Cain did at least seven things that God hates.
*Proverbs 6:16-19
16 There are six things which the LORD hates, yes, seven which are an abomi-nation to Him:
17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil,
19 a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among bro-thers.

Of course this list is not exhaustive. There are other things God hates. For example, Proverbs goes on to speak of adultery. But you can see Cain in every one of those seven things, can’t you. Well, Cain, the murderer, was in desperate need of a Savior. So a merciful God would send the One who would provide the blood of the covenant.
Kelly and Sharon read from Matthew 26 this morning. When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, he said, “…this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

What is a covenant? A covenant is an agreement between two parties with mutually binding obligations. You might think of it as a contract. “If you’ll promise do this, I’ll promise to do that.” Back in Genesis God required that innocent blood must be shed to cover the sins of the people. He established this covenant with Abraham.
*Genesis 17:7, 11
7 “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descen-dants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.”

Abraham’s contribution to the covenant is defined in v. 11.
11 “And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.”

I believe that this would have been sufficient had Abraham been without sin. The blood he shed when he was circumcised may well have covered our sin. But there was a prob-lem with Abraham’s blood. It was no more “innocent” than is yours or mine. Further-more, he only shed some of his blood. He didn’t shed it all or he would have died.

That’s because human life is sustained by blood. You can lose arms. You can lose legs. You can live with parts of organs, or in some cases entire organs, damaged or even removed. But you cannot live without blood. As little as two hundred years ago medical science was still trying to cure various illnesses by “bleeding” people, by draining away the very substance that gives and sustains physical life. But listen to God in Leviticus.
*Leviticus 17:11, 14a
11 “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life (that is in it) that makes atonement.”

14a “…as for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life.”

Abraham’s shedding of blood at his circumcision left two problems. He only shed some of his blood, and as a result, he retained his life. But even if he had shed it all and died, it would have helped neither him nor you nor me because it was not innocent blood.

So in the OT God called for animal sacrifices to illustrate His truth. An animal’s blood served to cover sin because an animal’s is innocent blood. It’s “innocent” in the sense that an animal does not commit sin. Therefore, the blood of sacrificed animals tempora-rily covered sin. That’s why David could take comfort in the sacrifices of the OT.
Psalm 32:1
1 How blessed (how happy) is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!
But we need something more than a temporary covering over of our sins. We need some-thing more than the innocent blood of sacrificial lambs to symbolically hide our sins from view. We need innocent blood that can permanently and completely and eternally dis-pose of our sins. We need permanent and complete and eternal forgiveness. The blood of bulls and goats pictured it, but it didn’t remove it.
*Hebrews 10:4
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

That is not a contradiction of what David said in Psalm 32:1. He didn’t say sin was permanently taken away by the animal sacrifices. He only said it was temporarily hidden from view. However, we need our sin removed and taken away. That is why you and I need the blood of the Lamb of God. That is why only Jesus can be God’s perfect Lamb. That is why John the Baptist said what he did when he saw Jesus coming down to the Jordan River to be baptized.
John 1:29b
29b “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

Listen, Jesus is our Lord and Savior because no one else could be. No one!
*Hebrews 9:11-22
11 …when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;
12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, if that sanctifies for the cleansing of the flesh,
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
15 And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
16 For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be a death of the one who made it.
17 For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives.
18 Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood.
19 For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and 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 commanded you.”
21 And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.
22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

It was Jesus who did that. He willingly shed His own perfect and innocent blood and He did it once. It will never have to be done again. It never could be done again.
*Hebrews 10:10-18
10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;
12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,
13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.
14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put My laws in their heart, and upon their mind I will write them.” He then says,
17 “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

There is nothing else that can be done. There is nothing else that will suffice. If innocent blood is not shed, there is no hope. This is why no one can ever have their sins forgiven and be saved unless and until they place themselves “under the blood of Christ.”
John 14:6
6 Jesus said… “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”

When Jesus hung on the cross, having personally fulfilled every last detail of every OT prophecy about God’s plan of redemption, He spoke these words: “It is finished.” What He meant was this. All that the Father had given Him to do was completed. There was nothing left undone. And so His life on earth was over. And so He gave up His Spirit.

It is that life, that death, that body, and that blood of the covenant that we remember here this morning. We are here to worship as did Abel. We need to turn our hearts toward God and away from ourselves. We need to prepare our hearts and our minds and ask God to reveal to us whatever we need to confess so that we may come to the table with pure hearts.
An honest self-examination is never more appropriate than when we approach this table.
The following passage speaks to Christians who aren’t taking Communion seriously. It is a solemn warning of great magnitude. To put it in the vernacular, “You just don’t mess with this!”
*1 Corinthians 11:27-30
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly.
30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.

Paul is saying that some of the Corinthian Christians who took this lightly had become physically ill. Some had even died. That’s a pretty strong warning about treating lightly these elements and the memory of Jesus and His shed blood, the blood of the covenant.

But this is also a warning to those who are not Christians, those who are not saved. If you have not repented of your sin, placed your faith in Jesus Christ, and trusted Him alone for your salvation, then please do not participate. This just isn’t for you. Instead, turn from your sin, ask God’s forgiveness, and it will be for you…and eternal life as well.

But now I speak to Christians…
• Are you indifferent about this today?
• Are you planning to partake of the elements this morning solely because it’s “what we are doing this morning?”
• Are you carrying a spirit of bitterness about a brother or a sister in Christ?
• Are you harboring a sin you just can’t seem to turn from and confess?
• Are you in open rebellion against God in some area of your life?

If any of those things are true in your life this morning, then I urge you to let the elements pass by. I promise you that no one here will judge you. That is because there isn’t one of us here who hasn’t had to let them pass at one time or another…or should have.

Remember that repentance is more than just being sorry for something. A person can be sorrowful without repenting. Being sorry you got caught is not the same as being sorry you did it. Being sorry you got caught may lead you to repentance, but just being sorry isn’t repenting. Paul speaks to this principle…
2 Corinthians 7:9-10
9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God in order that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.
10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

If you are out of fellowship this morning and are uncomfortable with participation, use this time for confession and repentance. Then you’ll be prepared for the next time.
1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

One final word – if someone chooses not to participate, remember that we are here to examine ourselves, not each other. This is between you and your Lord and Savior.
Listen, we bring glory to God when we humbly approach His table. And sometimes – sometimes – I believe we bring glory to God when we don’t.

So please let me implore you to do the right thing this morning, and to do it for the right reason. May you all be richly blessed in whatever the Lord leads you to do.

~ Pray ~