For a program that will help you with making life-changing decisions, listen now to Chapel Echoes. Today's message was preached by the Executive Vice President of Bob Jones University, Dr. Bob Wood, during a recent chapel service held on the university campus. To have your Bibles this morning, turn with me to the book of Hebrews, Chapter 9, one of the most fascinating books in the New Testament. A book that tells us about better things to come under the new covenant, the New Testament. Hebrews chapter 9, I'd like to read verse 11 through verse 15. Christ being come a 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. 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. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself Without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve a living God. And for this cause, he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament, they which are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. That passage of scripture is explaining to us the importance of the once and for all sacrifice of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're taught even in the Old Testament in Leviticus 17, 11, for the life of the flesh is in the blood. And I have given it to you upon the altar, for it is the blood which maketh an atonement for the soul. As we think about God's sacrifice of his son, the Lord Jesus, we must think about the blood of Christ. This is a great mystery to me, a mystery which I enjoy very much thinking about and meditating on, because God's told us in Acts 20, 28, take heed, therefore, to yourselves and the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood." I've read in some of the later medical journals and books on physiology about the formation of the blood and the great mysteries in the formation of the blood in the human body seems to be triggered in the embryo sac by Some red cells that have been transmitted in the testosterone, which means the father, seems to furnish the agent that creates the beginning of the production of blood within a human fetus. I'm told in Guyton's textbook of medical physiology it's a rare thing and an anomaly if the cells of the mother or the cells of the baby are intermingled during pregnancy, that they're completely separate. As I think about all those technical things, I find often in these medical research books statements like, we don't understand this or this process has not yet been identified. We cannot explain it. Now, if the brightest minds in medicine have the courage to say there are those things beyond human comprehension. Certainly, the theologians who study the God that made the laws of science should be able to say there are some things that are totally beyond our human comprehension. I have a tendency to believe very strongly that the literal blood of Christ was the blood of God and that there is efficacy in the literal blood of Christ. I am concerned. Because the scripture teaches us that there literally is a curse from God upon those who would minimize the efficacy of the blood of Christ. And though I don't understand all the mysteries of the virgin birth, I believe it. And though I don't understand all the mysteries of the blood of Christ, I believe in its efficacy and that it is the completion of the acts of God toward man in the sacrifice of that blood on Calvary. But let me tell you what I do understand this morning and what I want to spend a few minutes showing you that the Scripture teaches us clearly, undeniably, and without argument. I know that the blood of Christ purchases us. It is the price that God paid for our souls. Those of us who are born again are twice gods, we're gods by creation. He made us. And therefore, we're his, but then we're his by purchase through the shed blood of the son. First Peter 1, 18 and 19, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed are purchased back with corruptible things as silver or gold from your vain conversation received from your fathers, but. You were redeemed or purchased back by the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. Think of the price God placed upon your soul. Any item has its value established by what a person is willing to pay for it. I've watched some of these foolish auctions that are taking place of memorabilia from movie stars and that sort of thing. And you take a $9 pair of shoes and they bring $90,000 because somebody wants to buy the shoes that belong to a movie star like Marilyn Monroe. Well, they have set a value on that item, however inflated it might be. But the value is in the eyes of the person willing to write that check and make that purchase. When God looked upon a human soul, His creation, the highest entity of His creation, mankind. He set the highest value possible on it in giving the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, for us. That is an overwhelming mystery to me, why an infinite God would love a finite person and place that kind of value on us. But that's the choice of God. And I'm overwhelmed that he chose to purchase my redemption through this wonderful price. It not only purchases us for God, it pardons us. Ephesians 1, 7, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. It is the blood of Christ that causes us to have the imputed righteousness of God in our life so that God looks upon us as without sin positionally in the shed blood of Christ. Listen, a pardon as if we'd never sinned. This is an overwhelming thought that God would take a creature who by his very nature is sinful and that's mankind and we don't have to go too far to prove that point. and would provide for us the complete pardon, our forgiveness of our sins through the shed blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus. That is very significant. Why? Because God's forgiveness is not like man's forgiveness. God's forgiveness is perfect. In total, it's absolutely perfect. And it's complete. How do we handle people who've offended us? We can say to them, well, you've asked for forgiveness and I forgive you. But every time we see that person, is there not kind of a check in our spirit and is it not a strained relationship? Do we not remember the offense that was against us? God not only forgives our sins, he forgets our sins, an act of deity, something that God can do. And it's a mystery to me how he does that, but something that man does not do. Our forgiveness is not perfect. It's rarely complete and it's never forever because those things keep coming back to haunt us. But the forgiveness or pardon that's been bought for us through the shed blood of Christ, is perfect, complete, and forever. Young people, we need to recognize what we have in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It would make you think more highly of your salvation. It would make you more grateful for what God has done for us in the shedding of the blood of His Son. Not only that, it gives us peace. Hebrews 9.14. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve a living God? The entity which allows us to go on in life with a cleansed conscience. This thing of conscience is just very mysterious to us. And yet every person God created, he created with a conscience. Lost people have a conscience. It's trainable. Parents train it. It should be trained by scripture as we make the divisions of that which is right and wrong. This still small voice inside of us that helps us reason morality, that helps us reason what's correct and what's incorrect, helps us understand The difference in holy things and profane things, it's an overwhelming thought to me that God has allowed us to train the consciences of our children. But it's a necessary responsibility. And in cleansing that conscience, we can go on to serve a living God because we can have a relationship with a perfect God, with a cleansed conscience. I exercise myself to have a clear conscience with God and with man. It's part of my everyday life. And the ability to cleanse or clear our conscience comes to us in our salvation through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. I ask you about your conscience. Is it clear? You can't really serve the living God nor worship the living God without a conscience cleared. But the ability to do that is given to us by God. The other thing it does, the blood of Christ justifies us. Romans 5, 9. Much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. The Scripture teaches us we are justified through His blood. The books are added up. And an accounting reconciliation has been done and God has paid our debt and brought our account balance up to zero. And in that, there should be gratitude that causes us not only to love him, but to work for him, to give our lives to him. He should be the central, most important thing in our lives. The doctrine of justification is another one of those big doctrines that in human reasoning is very difficult for us to grasp all of the wonderful insights to this thing we call justification. The old Puritans used to say it's God's way of making us just as if we'd never sinned. That might be a stretch on the theology of it, but the idea is still close. to the fact that he has justified our weights and balances. What does this do to the religions that believe man is saved by his good works? That somehow or another, God's got this giant set of balances up there in heaven. And all day long, he's assigned angels to take our good deeds and put them on one side and our bad deeds and put them on the other side. Well, I'm glad the Scripture doesn't teach that. I'm glad that's not the way it really is. I'm glad that God has balanced those scales through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and I'm justified by Him. That's exciting and important. It sanctifies Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 12, wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify His people with His own blood, suffered without the gate." Sanctification, another great big Bible doctrine. Really not as complicated as we try to make it. It's the act whereby we're drawn closer and closer to God and further and further from the world. That's a simple statement you can all understand. Sanctification is the process where we leave worldly things, we get out of our lives, These things that would encumber our relationship with God, and we're being cleansed and set apart for a holy calling. Now, another overwhelming thought to me in theology is the fact that God can and does use men to do his work. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was in a place where I had an opportunity to sit for a while and just meditate and think. I was thinking about God, the nature and character of God. And I thought about all the ways God could have presented His plan of salvation. He could have put on a great display in the heavens, meteorites. He could have put on great displays of natural phenomena on earth and had a booming voice from heaven come and say, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. All the methods that he could use to tell men about himself. But you know what God did? He chose to take redeemed men and make them a mouthpiece for deity. Is that not an overwhelming thought to you? That a perfect God will use us to teach His Word? will use us to tell other people about Him. Why? Because the whole truth of the gospel is wrapped up in the fact that it is a relationship. It's relational. It's our relationship with our God. Who better can testify to our relationship to God than we? Just think about it for a minute. It's established through the shed blood of Christ, this relationship whereby we're adopted into the family of God and receive all the benefits of the Lord. And we ought to testify to that, we should be excited about that. And God not only allows us, but challenges us to be his spokesman. He uses us. And that's another of the entities which should cause us to want to have a cleansed life, to want to be drawn further and further from the world and closer and closer to the Lord. You know, Satan is the second most intelligent being in the universe. How he hates sanctification, how he hates our ability through the blood of Christ to be drawn closer to God. and further from this system. And how many Christians are fooled? How many of you are still involved in all these worldly things in your life at the same time you're trying to serve God? How many of you haven't grasped this concept of sanctification? It's not the kind of thing you do in anger and hostility and judgment. It's the kind of thing you do in love. Because God loved you so much, He purchased you with the blood of His Son. He has allowed you to be His witness, to testify for Him. You should love Him so much that you want to get this worldly system away from you. You want to be a testimony as to what it means to serve a living God, to have a relationship with a living God. My young friends, This is a wonderful book with great truth in it. And peace and joy will come to your life when you understand how wonderful it really is. And you understand these great Bible doctrines and the truth of these great Bible doctrines. Not only sanctifies and satisfies us, the blood of Christ gives us a holy place. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 19, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. A process by which the individual believer is allowed direct access to God. You look at the images in the Old Testament, you study the temple, you see this place, holy of holies. Everyone was overwhelmed in awe and reverence and fear of the Holy of Holies. This great veil was stretched across the Holy of Holies and only the high priest went in just once a year. He wore bells on the hem of his garment so the people outside could tell that he was still alive, that he went in with a heart cleansed and a clear conscience and he made intercession for people and he offered prayers. Sacrifices before the mercy seat. What a wonderful picture. But something happened on the day that the blood of Christ was shed on the cross of Calvary. When that great once and for all sacrifice was given for your sins and for my sins, God reached down over the battlements of heaven and the darkness of the night that covered the crucifixion And he rent the veil and twain from the top to the bottom, and the Holy of Holies was opened up to man, and God no longer said, Stay out. Now he said, Come in. You're welcome. Not one special priest. Everyone that accepts the blood of Christ is a priest. Every believer, a priest, every believer, an access to the Holy of Holies. Come and present your own petition. Come and offer your own prayers. Come and have a personal relationship with your God. Talk to Him. Allow Him to talk to you. Wow! This is an overwhelming fault that I've been invited as a finite man to enter the very presence in the throne room of my God, and I can boldly, not by anything I've done or anybody that I am, but by the shed blood of Christ, I am a child of the King. I can offer my petition directly to God through Christ, my Mediator." Do you know what that means, young people? Do you know the awesome wonder of being invited into the presence of the God that simply spoke the universe into existence? What an overwhelming thought. It is the blood of Jesus Christ that ultimately gives the Christian victory. Revelation chapter 12, verse 10 and 11. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now has come salvation and strength, and the King of our God and the power of His Christ. For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused," or that word in the Greek can literally mean nagged, them before our God day and night. They overcame Him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of His testimony. And they loved not their lives unto death. Ultimate victory. will come through the shed blood of Christ and because of the shed blood of Christ. God will be victorious. God's plans will be accomplished. We will have eternity with him. The Lord tells us. As he left his earthly ministry, Jesus Christ said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, surely I will come again to receive you unto myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. A place of complete peace, no sorrow, no death, for the former things that we know here in this sin-cursed world will all be gone. There'll be no presence of sin, no power of sin in eternity. Can you imagine a life with the total absence of sin, selfishness, or self-centeredness? That's what's reserved for all of us for eternity, that know and love Christ. No, young people, I don't understand all the technicalities of the blood of Christ, but I do know the power that's in it. I do know that these seven things are given to me through the shed blood of Christ. And I do know God purchased me not with something corruptible that just washed away, but with something perfect. I hope you'll try to live your life in light of the wonderful gifts that come to you through the shed blood of the land without spot and without blemish. I'm I'm a queen and watch, I'm great, I will be thine all the hour, all the hour. Jesus, praise thy God, all the way, my God. In the land of dreams and faith, we watch thee, white as snow. For nothing good have I, Whereby thy grace should fail. There was my garments white, In the blood of your red lamb, so I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, I'll stand before the Lord, Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain in me, O Spirit, now I have no The chapel message you've just heard was preached recently at the summer session on the campus of Bob Jones University by the Executive Vice President, Dr. Bob Wood. Today there seems to be much confusion concerning the Holy Spirit. He is often referred to as an influence and is blamed for various experiences and revelations. But what does the Bible teach concerning the Holy Spirit? In the message entitled, The Holy Spirit, the founder of Bob Jones University, Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., discusses the biblical teaching concerning the work and ministry of the Holy Write today for your free copy of the booklet, The Holy Spirit. Write to Chapel Echoes, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina, 29614. Listen again next week when Dr. Wood brings us another message from God's Word. Chapel Echoes comes to you from the campus of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.