1. Whole hearted for Christ– a commitment to grow in faith for every person who is a part of this family.  We preached through this during the first couple of months of 2007, with poarticular focus on stewardship– where your treasure is your heart will be...

2. Worship in Spirit and Truth– we believe that Trinity is to be a family of God who embraces the worship of God, because we know that intellectually understanding the truths of the gospel is not enough.  We need to encounter the Living God, and be transformed by being in His presence.  There is a call on every church to worship, for that is why we have been created.  But there is a unique call on Trinity, to be a place where people are touched by God.  This is our prayer every time we gather, that the Lord would be present with us by the power of His Holy Spirit, and that He would inhabit the praises of His people and use our worship to transform us into His people.

To begin this series on worship, we want to talk about blood– the importance of blood in God’s economy and the power of the blood of Jesus in our lives.  That will lead us to the Lord’s table this morning, to receive by faith what Christ has accomplished for us at the cross.  The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin and frees us from all bondage to become His righteous children.

I. The place of the blood of animals in the O.T. sacrificial system.

This will be a reminder for some of you, but we need to start in the O.T., because that is the context for the book of Hebrews.  The author is speaking about the O.T. sacrificial system and the inadequacy of this series of sacrifices to ultimately atone for sin.  Is the O.T. law and sacrificial system wrong or bad?  No, it was good because it was ordained by God as a covering for sin, and as a teaching tool to help the people of God learn and embrace what God would do to redeem His people.

Let me share with you a couple of key biblical principles which relate to the sacrificial system, so you fully understand both what it was about and how it was a foreshadowing to what Jesus would do.  We need to start with the character of God.  God is holy– he is perfectly pure and set apart from His creation.  He is not capable of sinning, nor will there ever be sin in His presence, because God is a holy God.  For this reason, God made a way for His people, those He created for an eternal relationship with Himself, to be holy so they could be in a right relationship with Him.  This had to be done in a way which would not compromise His holiness, because God is not able to compromise His holiness– this is who He is in His very being.  Moses was given very specific instructions as to how to set up the tabernacle– the tent of meeting, and David was given very specific instructions about how to set up the temple which would bear the Lord’s Name.  The tent of meeting itself was a holy place, because the Lord was present there, but the Most holy place, or the holy of holies, was behind the curtain– where the tabernacle itself was set.  In order to be able to enter the presence of God, the high priest first had to sacrifice a bull for his own sin and for the sin of his family.  He had to be holy before he could enter God’s presence to make the sacrifice for the people.  I guarantee you that the weight of sin would have been evident as Aaron, or the priest descended from Aaron, sacrificed a bull, because he would have been ankle deep in blood.  It was a messy procedure, and I believe was set up this way by God as a vivid reminder about the seriousness of sin.  After a sacrifice had been made for the sin of the priest, then a sacrifice would be made for the sin of the people– a goat.  The blood from this goat would be sprinkled on top of the mercy seat– the top of the tabernacle, for the sins of the people of God.  A second goat, called a scapegoat, would have been brought to the priest and the priest would lay his hands on the head of this goat, symbolic of the transfer of sin to its head and it would be released into the desert, a picture of the removal of sin from the presence of God.

We are told in verse 13 that this outwardly cleansed them, sanctified them so they were outwardly clean in God’s sight.  Why was the shedding of all this blood necessary?  Life was in the blood.  If blood was shed, it meant life was taken.  The wages of sin is death, which means the shedding of your blood, or someone else’s blood to atone for sin.  It says in verse 22 that nearly everything had to be cleansed with blood and apart from the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin.  Sin requires that the blood of someone be shed– that is the price of sin, and nothing can change this truth.  Either your blood is required for the sin you commit, or someone else’s blood is required.  God set up the O.T. sacrifice, not to completely take away sin, because the blood of an animal can never atone for a human who is made in the image of God.  The animal blood was shed to cover sin until the ultimate sacrifice would be made by Jesus to remove the sin forever.

We are given several pictures in the O.T. to help us, as the people of God, understand atonement and what took place to atone for our sin.  Remember when the Lord established the Passover– the angel of death had been sent to kill the firstborn of every household in Egypt as a judgement over them.  The only households which would be spared were those where the blood of the lamb had been spread over the top and both sides of the doorframe.  The blood covered those inside the house from death.  This is a vivid picture of what we need to be spared from the angel of death– to be covered by blood.
The way we respond to this truth this morning is by reaffirming the seriousness of sin.  Since we do not have the frequent reminder of blood up to our ankles, we often forget about the holiness of God, His requirements upon us to be holy as He is holy and the seriousness of sin.  Jesus isn’t some credit card you plug into a machine to take away your debt whenever it is convenient.   His blood is sufficient to cover all your sin, but this truth does not minimize the power of sin and its effect on our lives.  Sin is debilitating.  There is and was a tremendous cost to sin– someone’s blood.  We cannot be flippant about sin and please God.  When we come into the presence of God, we become more aware of our own sinfulness, and our own need for the blood of Jesus to cover us. 

Maybe this analogy will help you process what we are talking about.  The growth of the Mexican food industry in the USA is incredible.  It is interesting to note that there are no Mexicans on the board of the large companies who make most products labeled Mexican.  Most Mexicans can’t stand watered down versions of so-called Mexican food.  This may be okay, depending on your tastes for food, but it is not okay when it comes to the gospel.  Just as there is an inauthentic gringo style of Mexican food, there is an inauthentic gringo gospel that is simply not the real thing.  The hot, offensive themes in the Bible– the cross and the blood sacrifice which is required being the most offensive– are often taken out and a comfortable, people-pleasing substitute is found.  This false gospel may be more soothing to some peoples’ taste, but it is powerless to save.  Blood sacrifice is required by God to deal with and atone for sin. This brings us to the second point this morning, the blood of Jesus.

II. The blood of Christ that cleanses our consciences and sets us free.

What we have just talked about is the context for Jesus coming to earth as the sacrificial Lamb of God.  The author of Hebrews is making the argument that the new covenant brought to us by Christ is far superior to the old covenant, just as Jesus, the high priest of the new covenant is far superior to the old covenant priests.  In this passage this morning, the author is telling us why the new covenant is better.  First, Christ did not go into the earthly tabernacle that was made by human hands, but He went into the heavenly tabernacle– into heaven itself in the presence of Almighty God, His Father.  Sacrifices made in this earthly temple will never fully atone for sin, but the one made in the real, the ultimate tabernacle, by which he means heaven, will completely atone for our sin.  Second, Christ became the mediator of this better covenant.  A mediator is one who stands between 2 parties who are enemies or at odds with one another.  Jesus Christ came and stood between a holy God, His Father, and an unholy people, as a person.  He identified with us in every way, was tempted in every way we are tempted, but did not sin as we sin.  This is an amazing thought, but it is what God has done for us in Christ. 
Third, Jesus died as a ransom for our sins.  Sin placed the death sentence upon our heads.  No one could change the death sentence, unless that One was sinless– which rules out every human being– and eternal, because if Jesus was only a man, He could only die to save one of us as a perfect Man.  Jesus, the Son of God is able to die for all people, for any who place their faith in Him for their salvation.  And, there had to be a shedding of blood– the life blood had to be given for this ransom price, so we could be set free.  The full price has been paid in the ultimate sanctuary– God’s presence in heaven, of which the earthly temple was simply a shadow, without power to take a way sin. 

What is the result for each of us?  Our consciences are completely cleansed, not just the outward, but the inward part of our being.  God has fully forgiven us of every sin.  He has bought us so we belong to Him, and at the same time called us His sons and daughters.  He has placed His Holy Spirit inside of us both to mark us as His own and to enable us to live a life that reflects who we are now, those who are identified with Jesus Christ.  Listen to this!  The power for us who believe to overcome Satan, sin and the world is in the blood of Jesus which was shed to accomplish all of this.  We do not use the blood like a magic formula, which is false and won’t work; but we combine our faith with what Christ has done so that His victory is worked out in our lives.  Do not listen to the liar– I know that each of you has heard lies from the father of lies, Satan and his demonic hoard.  “You are no good at all...because you keep falling into the same sin, God cannot use you...you have nothing to offer anyone else...”  I don’t know what he feeds you, but you now have power, Christian, to win every battle which comes your way.  The only power or influence Satan has in my life now is the power I give to him by my sinful choices and by believing the lies.  I am convinced that if the 350 people who are gathered here this morning would believe the Word of God, and appropriate the power available to you by the blood of Jesus, would pray in faith according to the Word of God, and then would live according to the truth of who you are in Christ, we would see this city changed for Christ.  I love what Dwight L Moody declared one day, “The world has yet to see what the Spirit of God will do through a man who has completely sold out to Jesus Christ and completely given his life over to Christ, covered by His blood.  I aim to be that man.”  God used him mightily!!  There are more stories about what God did through Moody than almost anyone else who has lived.

There is a legend of Martin Luther, the great reformer.  It goes like this: during a serious illness, the evil one entered his sick room, and looking at him with a triumphant smile, unrolled a big scroll which he carried in his arms.  As the fiend threw one end of it on the floor, it unwound by itself.  Luther’s eyes read the long, fearful record of his own sins, one by one.  His stout heart quailed before the ghastly list.  Suddenly it flashed into Luther’s mind that there was one thing not written there.  He cried aloud: “One thing you have forgotten.  The rest is all true, but one thing you have forgotten: ‘The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.’” And as he said this, the Accuser of the brethren and his heavy roll disappeared!

As you appropriate by faith, the blood of Jesus which covers you, Christian, you too will walk in victory!

III.  We are set free to serve the Living God!