The Church at Pergamos - Part 1

Temple Baptist Church - 12-15-2019

Revelation 2:12-17

Introduction:

A.  As with the Church at Smyrna, Pergamos is mentioned only twice by name in the Bible: chapters 1 and 2.  Therefore, our history of Pergamos must come from sources of Church History and Tradition.  Once again, we must be careful at this point because history is normally written by the survivors and can be biased.

B.  The 4 Interpretations of the Church at Pergamos.

1.  The Practical Interpretation – “The Wedded Church” – The “church” becomes wedded to the state.

2.  The Perennial Interpretation – “The Clerical Church” – The “church” becomes more structured and ritualistic.

3.  The Parabolic Interpretation – “The Mustard Seed” (Matthew 13:31-32) – The “church” grows into a state that God never intended for it to become.

4.  The Prophetical Interpretation – “The Patronizing Church” (313-606 A.D.) – The “church” provided aid and support to the state.

C.  At the time of the writing of The Book of Revelation, the city of Pergamum (Pergamos) had been the capital of the Roman province of Asia for two centuries.  Pergamum was the chief center of cultural and intellectual life of the "Hellenistic" world. Christ says to the church that He knows where they dwell, "where Satan's seat is". Pergamum had distinguished itself in 29 B.C. by becoming the site of the first cult of a living Roman emperor. A temple was built and dedicated to the joint worship of the goddess Roma (a personification of the spirit of the empire) and the emperor Augustus. At the very time John wrote these words, Christians were suffering persecution for refusing to worship the emperor Domitian (A.D. 81-96), who insisted on being worshiped as "lord and god." Pergamum was also the religious capital of Asia Minor. It was a center of Hellenistic thought and emperor worship and had many pagan temples. Its designation as the place "where Satan's seat is" was appropriate!  The Pergamos period of church history is thought to begin about the time of Constantine's acceptance of the Christian cause, in A.D. 313.   It was during this time that the papacy began to win religious and political leadership of Western Europe and that Satan established his "seat" within the church. The papacy (Roman Catholic Church) was a skillful and deceitful blend of paganism with Christianity, truth and error.

D.   Christians in the second and third centuries had to fight what every strategist tries to avoid—a war on two fronts.

1.  While the church was fighting to preserve its existence in the face of attempts by the Roman state to abolish it, it was also fighting to preserve purity of doctrine within the church as heretics could now join local churches and infiltration was much easier.

2.  Around 230 A.D., local churches were opened to the public, an unbiblical principle as the church (ecclesia) was meant to be a “called assembly” of saints for worship and teaching.  It was never meant to be a public assembly where anyone could come.

3.  Converts to the Christian faith either came from a Jewish background of salvation by works or from the intellectual environment of Greek philosophy. Many of these converts, until the church could instruct them properly, tended to carry their old ideas into their new environment. Others tried to make Christianity appear intellectually respectable to the

E.  Historical Timeline.

1.  100-312 A.D., Persecution went from sporadic and aimed more at individuals to blanket persecution against anyone or anything that rejected the worship of Roman “gods.”  The persecution became so great that “traditores” were common among professing believers.  Euseibius, wrote that Christians were punished by loss of property, exile, imprisonment, or execution by the sword or wild beasts.

During the second and third centuries the church expressed its emerging self-consciousness in a new literary output—the writings of the apologists and the polemicists.

a.  Apologists - Justin Martyr was the greatest of the former group; Irenaeus was the outstanding man of the latter group. The apologists faced a hostile government, which they tried to win with the arguments of their literary productions. They tried to convince the leaders of the state that the Christians had done nothing to deserve the persecutions being inflicted on them. Apologists used the pagan literary form of the dialogue and the legal form of the apologia.

b.  Polemicists - The polemicists, such as Irenaeus, tried to meet the challenge of heretical movements. Whereas the apostolic fathers wrote only to and for Christians, these writers wrote to and for the leaders of the Roman state or to heretics to win them back to the truth of the Scriptures by literary argument.

2.  306-337 A.D., Constantine the Great was Emperor of Rome.  Constantine is said to have seen a cross in the sky with the Latin words for “in this sign conquer” before the battle at Milvian Bridge near Rome in 312. He won the battle. The next year he granted freedom of worship, ending the persecution of the Christians.

3.  313 A.D. – The Edict of Milan.  After other periods of persecution, Galerius issued an edict from his deathbed in 311 that gave toleration to Christianity, provided the Christians did not violate the peace of the empire. Persecution did not cease completely until Licinius and Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313. This edict brought freedom of worship, not only to Christianity but to all religions until 381 A.D.  Constantine and Licinius then rebuilt the destroyed church buildings of the early church and restored all possessions confiscated during the persecution.  With persecution suspended, the “church” no longer wanted to do or say anything that would bring persecution back.

4.  325 A.D. – The Council of Nicaea.    Almost as important as the council itself is the fact that Constantine sat as a moderator. This intimate interaction between emperor and early churches would carry on into the middle ages without cessation.  The official beginning of the Roman Catholic Church took place.

5.  331 A.D. – Constantine the Great had 50 copies of the Alexandrian Text (also called the Neutral or Egyptian Text) made.  The Westcott and Hort Text, the Codex Vaticanus (known to scholars since the 15th century), and the Codex Sinaiticus (discovered in 1859), upon which the new versions of the Bible are bases are dated as 4th-century (300-400 A.D.) manuscripts,

C. I. Scofield, as most Westcott-Hort Text followers, did not do his “homework” when inserting his note on Mark 16:9-20 - The passage from Mar 16:9 to the end is not found in the two most ancient manuscripts, the Sinaitic and Vatican, and others have it with partial omissions and variations. But it is quoted by Irenaeus and Hippolytus in the second or third century.

Polycarp (69 – 155 A.D.)) was a 2nd-century Christian bishop of Smyrna.Both Irenaeus, who as a young man heard Polycarp speak, and Tertullian[3] record that Polycarp had been a disciple of John the Apostle.[4] Jerome writes that Polycarp was a disciple of John and that John had ordained him bishop of Smyrna.[citation needed]

Irenaeus (125-202 A.D.) was bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, which is now Lyons, France. Irenaeus was born in Smyrna in Asia Minor, where he studied under bishop Polycarp, who in turn had been a disciple of the Apostle John.

Hippolytus (170—235 A.D), Hippolytus, a Greek, was a pupil of Irenaeus, who was a disciple of Polycarp, who was disciple of John the beloved disciple of Jesus.  The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome was composed in approximately 215 in Rome. It apparently preserved older second century practices which were in danger of falling to disuse or innovation.

These two men quoted these verses prior to the age of the so-called “two most ancient manuscripts” because they knew the Word of God that came from John the Beloved to Irenaeus to Hippolytus!  The King James Bible is correct and the Wescott-Hort Text is in error.

6.  313-606 A.D. – The establishment of the Roman Church continued to permeate the empire.  The “church” is “wedded to the state” and the Whore is now riding the Beast!

Revelation 17:1-9  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:  (2)  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.  (3)  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.  (4)  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:  (5)  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.  (6)  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.  (7)  And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.  (8)  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.  (9)  And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

7.  The true churches in this period of history had to keep a low profile and biblical separation from the Roman Church to maintain their integrity.

Christ The Lord

Temple Baptist Church - 12-15-2019

Luke 2:1-14 (vs. 11)

Introduction: 

A.  This morning, I want to look at the Person of Incarnation.  In Matthew 16:13-16, Jesus asked his disciples a question concerning His Person and Peter gave one of the most quoted statements in the Bible. 

Matthew 16:13  When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?  And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.  He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?  And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Christ – “The Anointed One”  The Christ, not a Christ!  There were many anointed men in both the Old and New Testaments, but this verse is in reference to “The Anointed One,” One of a kind, the very Son of God!

B.  Who was that Babe that was born in a manger so long ago?  The world is certainly confused concerning His Person. 

2 Corinthians 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 

C.  The world is blinded to the “glorious gospel of Christ” which pictures the incarnation, life, death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

1.  Religion tries to change Him.

2.  The world tries to ignore Him.

3.  The atheist tries to do away with Him.

4.  As S. M. Lockridge so eloquently said, “You can't get Him out of your mind.  You can't get Him off your hands.  You can't outlive Him, and you can't live without Him.”

D.  What does the Bible say about Him?

1.  The Bible declares that He is God!  He is not angel; He is not a son of the gods; He is not a son of God; He is the only begotten Son of God; He is Almighty Jehovah God!

John 1:1-4  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

John 10:30  I and my Father are one.

John 14:9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

2.  The Bible declares that He is the eternal God!  He did not begin at the creation as He was not created; He was the Creator; He did not begin in the womb of Mary as He created both Mary and the womb that bore Him; He always was and always will be Almighty God!

Psalms 90:2  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Micah 5:2  But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Revelation 1:8  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

3.  The Bible declares that He is the unchanging God!  He does not change in His Person; He does not change in His Performance; He does not change in His Purpose; He does not change in His Promises; He is and forever will be the same for He is the immutable God!

Hebrews 13:8  Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Psalms 102:27  But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.

Malachi 3:6  For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

4.  The Bible declares that He is the Only Saviour!  He is not a Savior; He is not a Way; He is the Saviour and the only Way to Heaven!

Isaiah 43:11  I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

5.  The Bible declares that He is the sovereign LORD!  He does as He wills and asks counsel of no man!  He knows the end from the beginning and, therefore, needs no advice or guidance!  His purposes and promises are always fulfilled because He is a sovereign LORD!

Romans 11:33-36  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

6.  The Bible declares that He is One of a kind!  There has never been a God before Him; there is no God with Him; there will never be a God after Him!  He is self-existing and He is eternal!

Isaiah 45:5-6  I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:  That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.

Isaiah 45:18  For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

7.  The Bible declares that He is everything that this world needs!  For without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5); but with Him, we can do all things (Philippians 4:13)!

Isaiah 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

a.  He is the Reason of my Praise – “Wonderful”

b.  He is the Remedy of my Problems – “Counselor”

c.  He is the Resource of my Power – “The Mighty God”

d.  He is the Righteousness of my Permanence – “The Everlasting Father”

e.  He is the Reality of my Peace – “The Prince Of Peace”

A More Excellent Sacrifice

Temple Baptist Church - 12-11-2019

Hebrews 11:4

Introduction:

A.  Last week, we looked at Abel’s Last Sermon.  Though no words were spoken by Abel, his message was clear!  He offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain and his offering did several things.

1.  It established Abel’s righteousness.

2.  It condemned Cain eternally.

3.  It cost Abel his life temporally.

B.  God, from the beginning of man’s sinful condition, COMMANDED that death be the “wages of sin” and blood be the price of redemption.  These two things have never changed. 

C.  Abel, in obedience to God’s command, brought a sacrificial lamb to God and was accepted by which he was declared righteous. 

Matthew 23:35  That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

D. Concerning the shedding of blood for both atonement and salvation, God established two covenants. 

Hebrews 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.  (This verse contrasts the “new covenant” with “that of Abel” or the “old covenant.”)

E.  In Hebrews 11:4, the Bible says, "Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain."  (Both Cain and Abel offered sacrifices, but Abel offered a “more excellent sacrifice.”  He offered what God commanded and demanded.)

1.  This sacrifice was made "by faith."

2.  This faith rested in God as the great Redeemer.

3.  This offering was by the divine institution.

4.  This offering was offered from the days of Adam downward.

F.  I have heard false statements over the years that demean the blood of Christ.  We must find our answers in the Bible, not in the thinking and teaching of fallible man.  Man’s theology is like the shifting sands of the Sahara Desert, ever changing and never coming to the knowledge of the Truth.

G.  I am not here to give an opinion concerning the blood of Christ because His blood lies outside of the bounds of both natural science and human reason.  If you try to make the conception, birth, body, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ fall into the realm of nature, you will make terrible theological mistakes. 

1.  His conception and birth was not like our conception and birth.  He was Holy Ghost conceived and virgin born. 

Matthew 1:18  Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

2.  His body was not like our body.  He lived in a prepared body without Adamic sin or a sin nature. 

Hebrews 10:5  Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

3.  His life was not like our life.  He was the sinlessly perfect Son of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

4.  His death was not like our death.  We have no power over death, but Christ dismissed spirit and gave up the ghost. 

Luke 23:46  And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

5.  His burial and resurrection was not like our burial and resurrection.  He saw no corruption and His resurrection was bodily whereas our initial one is spiritual with the body to follow. 

Acts 2:31  He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

H.  The blood of Christ was not like our sinful Adamic blood. It was the blood of God. 

Acts 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

I.  Abel’s sacrifice typified the shedding of the blood of Christ for the redemption of man.

1.  The Blood Of Christ Was Sacred Blood.  Acts 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

While Christ's blood was physical blood, real blood and genuine blood, it was uniquely different from all other blood in human history; without the defilement of the curse of sin, death or disease in its composition.  No one can explain Christ's Virgin Birth! It was a divine miracle. The transmission of Christ's blood to his body cannot be adequately explained via any medical process. The miraculous work of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:22-23) is the only answer.  Christ's blood was perfect, priceless and pure! His blood was declared to be the blood of God. 

2.  The Blood Of Christ Was Sinless Blood.  1 Peter 1:18-19  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;  (19)  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

As our Lord Jesus Christ was the sinless Son of God, the sinless blood of God flowed through his physical veins.  Judas Iscariot did not fully realize the implications of his statement, “I have betrayed the innocent blood.”  (Matthew 27:4)  His blood was not tainted by the blood of fallen Adam.  Since His blood had no adamic sin, His blood could neither coagulate nor die.  Once the flow of His blood began, it would not be stanched. 

3.  The Blood Of Christ Was Substitutionary Blood.  Isaiah 53:5-6  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.  (6)  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The blood of Christ was offered in our stead.  Since our redemption required a perfect sacrifice, a perfect Saviour (Hebrews 4:15) took the place of sinful man (Romans 5:8). 

4.  The Blood Of Christ Was Sacrificial.  John 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

It cost God the Father the death of His only begotten Son!  Our sin, placed upon Christ at Calvary, separated God the Father from God the Son.  How precious is the thought that God the Father would separate from His darling Son in order that we might never be separated from Him (John 10:28).  The most expensive gift ever bought and given is that of our Lord Jesus Christ!

5.  The Blood Of Christ Was Sufficient Blood.  Romans 3:24-25  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:  (25)  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

The word “propitiation,” found in 1 John 2:2, means appeasement.  It means satisfaction as the sole and complete payment for the sin that separates man from God.  At Calvary, righteousness and peace truly kissed each other (Psalms 88:10).  Many songs have been written concerning our salvation and one such said, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”

6.  The Blood Of Christ Is Shielding Blood.  Revelation 12:10-11  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.  (11)  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

The blood of Christ is our “safeguard!”  “When He sees me, He sees the blood of the Lamb.  He sees me as worthy and not as I am!”  When the old Accuser slanders me in the presence of God, it is the blood of Christ that He sees.  There is eternal victory through the shed blood of Christ!  It shields us from Satan’s accusatory attacks.  We are victorious and Satan is a defeated foe!

7.  The Blood Of Christ Is Often Slighted Blood.  Hebrews 10:29  Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

Those who reject the blood of Christ are guilty of slighting it.  To count it as an “unholy thing” is beyond my comprehension.  Not only does the unsaved slight the blood of Christ, the sinful saint does the same.  That precious blood was shed for our sin and God forbid that we continue in it.  Before we sin, we should consider the immeasurable price paid.  We would never buy a shiny new car and then walk around “keying” it.  We protect it because of its value.  The blood of Christ is far more valuable than the most expensive automobile.

The Application Of The Blood

1.  The Place - Leviticus 17:11  For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

2.  The Priest - Hebrews 9:11-12  But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;  (12)  Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

3.  The Preparation - John 14:2-3  In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  (3)  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.  (The preparation was the presentation of the blood.)

Hebrews 9:7  But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:

4.  The People - Exodus 12:7  And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

Exodus 12:13  And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

The Impact Of The Blood:

1.  The Blood Of Christ Brought Redemption.  Ephesians 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Redeemed – To be bought back.  The freedom of a former slave purchased off the slave block.  The believer has been bought off the slave block of Satan.  Purchased and “made free” by the blood of Christ.  Loosed and set at liberty: free praise the Lord, free at last!

2.  The Blood Of Christ Brought Righteousness.  Romans 3:25  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

The believer is judiciously declared righteous solely upon the merit of the blood of Christ.  He is justified—just as if I had never sinned!  Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne!  (Jude 24)  “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”  (2 Corinthians 5:21)  Made Him what He was not that we might be made what we are not!

3.  The Blood Of Christ Brought Remission.  Hebrews 9:22  And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

The complete, eternal purging of all sin!  Once for ever is our purchase in Christ Jesus.  “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;”  (Hebrews 1:3)  Our slate has been wiped clear, never to be remembered again.

4.  The Blood Of Christ Brought Reconciliation.  1 Corinthians 1:30  But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

Man’s relationship with God was severed by sin in the Garden of Eden.  The Lord made an immediate effort to reconcile Adam and Eve.  The Lord went to them when they would not come to Him.  They chose to hide while He chose to reconcile.  “ And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.”  (Colossians 1:20)  By faith, regeneration , and adoption—man is back in fellowship with God.

5.  The Blood Of Christ Brought Reception.  Ephesians 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

The believer is not only forgiven, he or she belongs!  Welcomed into the greatest family on the face of the earth.  The Body of Christ.  “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”  ( Romans 5:2)

6.  The Blood Of Christ Brought Rejoicing.  Romans 5:10-11  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.  (11)  And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Oh what joy the cross of Christ brings to the believer!  Though nothing, we have been made nigh by the blood of Christ.  Our life is saved, our soul is saved, eternity is secured, and joy floods our souls!

7.  The Blood Of Christ Brought Responsibility.  Matthew 27:25 - Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.  (It is both foolish and fatal to reject the precious blood of Christ.  That blood that brings about eternal life also brings about eternal damnation.)