with me this morning to Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27, this is Palm Sunday, the week before Easter Sunday. And normally during Palm Sunday we talk about the death of Christ. I'd like to speak to you this morning about the cost at the cross, the cost at the cross. And we'll be reading verses, beginning in verse 11 of Matthew chapter 27. And Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him, Never a word. Insomuch that the governor marveled greatly. Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. And when he was set down at the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Hath thou nothing to do with that just man? For I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, Whither of the twain will ye that I release unto you? And they said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that they could prevail nothing but that rather a tumult was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to it. Then answered all the people and said, His blood be on us and on our children. Then released he Barabbas unto them. And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall. and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put upon his head, and a reed in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after they had mocked him, they took the robe from off him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. As they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they were coming to a place called Golgotha, that is to say a place of the skull, they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall. And when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him and parted his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down, they watched him there. And they set up over his head his accusation written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then were the two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests, mocking him with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Now from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly, this was the Son of God. And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him, among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Joseph the mother of Zebedee's children. When the evening was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple. He went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher and departed." Let's pray. Father, this reading of the account of the crucifixion of Jesus is a sobering account. And Lord, we are brought back to the foot of the cross thinking about what Jesus did for us. And we want to thank you, Lord, for his sacrifice for us there on the cross of Calvary. I pray today that you might Take this message and help us to realize that there was a great cost to the Lord Jesus for our salvation. And if there's anybody here today who has never trusted Jesus as their Savior, I pray that they would do that before it's too late. And maybe there are some, Lord, who have made profession, but in their heart they know that it's not real, that they've never truly put their trust in Jesus. I pray that you'd bring them to conviction, and may they come to know you today. Help us as Christians to live for you because you loved us. May we love you, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Salvation is a free gift to all who believe the gospel and trust Jesus as their Savior. Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 says, For by grace are ye saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. This is pictured in the book of Isaiah, chapter 55, where we read this, "'Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come ye, buy without money and without price.'" In other words, it's free. Such great news. You do not have to be a certain social class or you do not have to be on a certain financial standing to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior to accept His salvation and His eternal life. Salvation from sin and eternal life is totally free to us who will believe on the Lord Jesus and put our trust in what He did for us on the cross. But for Jesus, the cost at the cross was great. It cost him a whole lot. Our salvation was not free to him. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 12 says it like this, that when Jesus began His high priestly ministry for us in heaven, it says this, by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. by His own blood. I don't believe it reads with His own blood. Some believe that Jesus carried His blood up into heaven. I believe His blood flowed from the cross and went down into the ground. And the sacrifice was paid. And He obtained eternal redemption for us there. He paid the price there. And it was on the basis of what He did there that He could ascend up into heaven and represent us based on the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our redemption came at a cost, and the cost was not to us, it was to Him. So we cannot work for it, we cannot earn it, we cannot pay for it. It is already paid for. Jesus paid the cost on the cross of Calvary. This morning, I want us to consider that. I want us to consider the cost at the cross, and I also want us to consider the gifts for us that Jesus purchased because of the cost He paid at the cross. So the cost at the cross and the gifts that come to us because of that cost. First of all, let's look at the cost at the cross. What did it cost Jesus? But I believe we can begin by first of all saying that Jesus suffered at the hand of men. He suffered at the hand of men. It cost Him something. It cost Him this suffering at the hand of men. That's what we normally think about when we think about the cross. It's what happened to Jesus there, how He suffered at the hands of men. Isaiah 53 verse 3 says it like this, He is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. So men despised him. Men rejected him. John chapter 1 verse 10 says, He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not. He came into his own and his own received him not. So his own people, they rejected him. He suffered at the hand of men. Now this began by what we're told in the scripture in Matthew chapter 26 verse 67. They spit in his face, they buffered him and they smote him with the palms of their hands. Look at chapter 26 verse 67. It says, And they did spit in his face, and they buffeted him, and others smote him with the palms of their hands. So, spitting in his face. buffeted him. Buffeting meant they took their fist and hit him and so they were probably hitting him in the face. There were many, many soldiers there that day and so all of them were probably in some way participating and so they buffeted him and then others slapped him in the face with the palms of their hands. So Jesus suffered there for us at the hand of men. Isaiah 50 verse 6 says, I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Spitting in someone's face is a shameful thing. We'd be very disgusted if somebody came up and spit in our face. Terrible thing that happened to Jesus for us. Another thing, they scourged Jesus. In our text, chapter 27, verse 26, it says this, They released Brabus unto them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. It just says he was scourged. What does that mean? Well, we all have heard before, I've preached it many times, that scourging was a way of whipping him, flogging him. And they would take what was called the cat of nine tails and it was a whip made of leather and they had leather strands so it had many strands of leather from this whip. And in the end of those strands of leather were embedded pieces of bone or pieces of metal. So that when they scourged Jesus they would rip open the flesh and they scourged his back. He gave his back to the smiters. And we're told that many times that scourging whip would whip around the back, and it would come around the side, and it would rip out the flesh, and sometimes even the ribcage would be exposed because of the whipping. They were allowed to give 40 stripes, but sometimes they would give 39 lest they go over the legal amount. And so Jesus was flogged that day. I mean, it was a terrible thing that happened to Him. They scourged Him. The hand of men. And then the Bible says the soldiers stripped him off his clothes and they put on him a scarlet robe. So they stripped off his clothes. I don't know if he still had the shirt on his back or not. Maybe they'd taken it off and they took the rest of his clothes off. And they stripped him of his clothes and they put a scarlet robe mocking him as a robe of a king. And they put that scarlet robe on his back. You can imagine the blood that was seeping from his back and seeping into that scarlet robe. And then they placed a crown of thorns on his head. They manufactured a crown from the thorns of that day, and they shoved that down upon his head. Your head bleeds profusely when it's cut, and so that crown of thorns was put on his head. And then the Bible says that they mocked him. So he has a scarlet robe, kingly robe, crown like a king and they mocked him as the king and made fun of him. And then the scripture tells us in Isaiah 50 verse 6, I gave my backs to the smiters and my cheeks to them that pluck off the hair. So his beard was plucked out by the roots. And so his head's bleeding, his beard's been plucked out by the roots, his back is whipped and just a mass of shredded flesh on his back and his beard plucked out. And then the Bible says in verse 30, they spit upon him again. They spit upon him and smote him on the head and took off the robe. They took off the robe. I imagine that caused a lot of pain as well because the blood from the back was seeping into that robe. And then they took off the robe and they put his old clothes back on him. And then scripture says, then they gave him something to drink. In verse 34 it describes it. It says, and they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall. This is a remedy in that day for pain. And so they were giving him something for pain. He tasted it and then he rejected it. In other words, he refused anything to deaden the pain that he was experiencing for us. Remember, he said, I will take the cup. Last week we looked at the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus said, I will drink the cup. The cup expressed mostly, I believe, the wrath of God. But included in that wrath of God was this suffering at the hand of men. And Jesus said, I will take that. I will take that cup. And he refused the medicinal help for his pain. And then the Bible says they crucified him. This is all before the crucifixion we've mentioned. But then they crucify him, verse 35. They crucified him. They took a cross made out of wood. an upright pole and then a cross member on it. And they took and laid it down on the ground. And they took Jesus and nailed Him to the cross. And they put nails in His hands and His feet. There would be three nails. One would go in the left hand, one in the right hand. And authorities tell us that because if you put the nail in the palm itself, it would rip out from the weight of the body hanging down on the cross. And so they say that back in those days they actually put the nail at the base of His hand right in the wrist, and how painful that would have been. So they nailed those big nails in his hands. And then his feet rested upon a place on the cross where he can rest his feet, and they put one foot over the other, and they put one large nail through his feet. and they nail him to the cross. His body is in a flexed motion or in other words, it's not stretched out. He has some ways to get up, lift himself up on that block that's under his feet to relieve the pain. So there was that seesaw motion of getting off of your hands, putting the pressure on the feet, and taking off the hands, and then couldn't stand that much longer, so you go back down on the hands, and it was back and forth. It was a terrible way to die, and they crucified him. And then the Bible says in verse 39, he was mocked by the passersby. Those who passed by the cross laughed at him, made fun of him. Remember, he was up there between two thieves. So bystanders would think, these are people that deserve to die. These are murderers. These are people that are thieves. These are bad people. They deserve to die. And they grouped Jesus with those other two, and they walked by and they mocked. Many of these people didn't know. They didn't know who Jesus was, but some of them did. Most of them did, I believe. By that time, after three years of ministry, I imagine that most of them knew who Jesus was, and many of them rejected Him, but they passed by and they mocked Him. And then it says, the priest and the scribes and the elders. That was the religious leaders of the Jews. They mocked Him and they railed upon Him. And then verse 44 says the thieves did too. Those hanging on each side of Him, they also mocked Him. They made fun of Him. Now later one of them repents and changes his mind. But at first both of them did that and they mocked the Lord. So all of this is suffering at the hand of men, the cost of the cross. But then there's the suffering at the hand of God. Let me say before we go to that, the Bible says in Isaiah chapter 52 verse 14, that when they got through, when the men got through with Jesus, It was a terrible scene. Now probably some of you watched on TV, maybe some in person, you've seen a fight, a boxing fight, where a guy is battered, you know, and his face is all swollen, and his eyes maybe bleeding, and he's been beat up. The Bible says it was much worse than that for Jesus. Because the scripture says in Isaiah 52 verse 14, this is suffering at the hand of men. After men got through with him, it says this, his visage was so marred more than any man, through all history, more than any man. His visage was so marred and His form more than the sons of men. So of all the people that have been beat up throughout the ages, Jesus, the Bible says, His visage was marred more than any man. I mean, it was terrible what happened to Him at the hands of men. But then the cost was also at the hand of God. suffering at the hand of God. Look at it in verse 45 of our passage. It says, now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land to the ninth hour. This is from 12 o'clock noon to 3 o'clock in the afternoon. There was darkness over all the land, supernatural darkness caused by God because of what was going on. You see, he was not only suffering at the hand of men, he was suffering at the hand of God as well. Because you remember last week we talked in Gethsemane that Jesus said, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. And that cup represented the wrath of God that he would drink for mankind, that he would suffer for us, he would pay for our sins. And so there was darkness from 12 o'clock till 3 o'clock as God's way of saying something supernatural is going on here. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, which is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And he was letting it known audibly. to people who were walking by, that there was something going on between this man and God, and God was forsaking him. In other words, God was turning His back, you might say, against His Son, but maybe more than that, turning His face toward His Son, and turning His face of wrath toward His Son, and judging Jesus for us. He suffered for us on the cross of Calvary. 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says, for He hath made Him to be sin for us. Now notice, He hath made Him. That's God. This is suffering at the hand of God. He hath made him to be sin for us. God made Jesus the sacrifice, the substitute for us. He suffered for us. In verse 46, Jesus said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Not men, but God. So he's suffering at the hand of God. He was experiencing the wrath of God that we deserve. Isaiah 53 verse 6 says, The Lord hath laid on him, not men, but the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He suffered at the hand of men, yes, but he suffered even more at the hand of God as he was taking the sin of the world and it was being applied to him or put on him and God was taking his wrath that we deserve for all of man's sin and pouring it down on Jesus. As I've said many times, I don't understand that. There's no way we can comprehend that. How can you comprehend all the sin of the world in a matter of time on an individual person? But because Jesus is God, He was able to do that, and God the Father was turning in wrath toward God the Son and judging Him in our place. Now, that's the cup that's referred to in Gethsemane, I believe, what's happening there to Jesus. But then let's add to that. He suffered at the hand of men. He suffered at the hand of God. But as a result of that, He did something that's very important, and that is He paid the price. He suffered the cost. It cost Him at the cross, and that cost was His blood. A very necessary part, and that is His blood. Redemption is released by the payment of a price. Release from the bondage and the penalty of sin by the payment of a price. What Jesus is doing on the cross of Calvary, He was providing redemption for us. He was providing release for us so that we don't have to experience the result of our sin. He was wanting to release us from the bondage and the penalty of sin, but He had to pay a price, and that price is called the ransom in 1 Timothy 2. It says it's the ransom of Matthew 20 verse 28 called the ransom the ransom price and the ransom price was the blood of Jesus Now some people pass it off and say well the blood is not really that important All it means is that he gave up his life. Well, that's true He did give up his life and the life of the flesh is in the blood and so he had to shed his blood but the Bible makes a big deal about the blood and And so the blood was very necessary. And some people don't like Christianity because it's a bloody religion, they say. Yes, it is a bloody religion, in a sense, because Jesus had to shed His blood. And the Bible makes it clear in Leviticus chapter 17, verse 11. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, for it is the blood that maketh atonement for sin. You remember Cain brought a sacrifice to the Lord. But it was the fruit of his hands and God rejected it. Abel brought the blood sacrifice and God accepted it because God says there must be blood shed. And so Jesus at the cross, his cost was he shed his own blood for us. He suffered and died and shed his blood for us on the cross. And Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22 says, Without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 18. I've read it many times. And it says this in 1 Peter 1 verse 18. For as much as you know that you're not redeemed with the corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish, and without spot. Do you remember all those pictures in the Old Testament? It took a sacrificial lamb. The blood had to be shed. And at the Passover, the blood had to be shed. But it had to be shed from a lamb of a particular kind. And that was one without blemish and without spot. In fact, that lamb was set aside for a period of time. so that they could examine that lamb, so they could scrutinize that lamb, making sure there was no problems with that lamb. And it had to be a spotless lamb without blemish. And that spotless, blemishless lamb pictured the Lord Jesus because he had no sin. And so the blood came from a person without any sin whatsoever. And Jesus shed his precious blood for us. Let's think for a minute where that blood came from. I believe there were seven places in his body that shed that blood. First of all, there were the thorns put on his head, and the scalp bleeds when it's injured, and so the blood began to flow. There was the beard plucked out by its roots, and the blood flowed from his face. There was the whip back, that they mangled with this cat of nine tails and the blood flowed from the back. There was the nail in the left hand and there was the nail in the right hand and the blood flowed from each of those wounds. And then the Bible says that there was also the pierced side. And so the pierced side was the final one. And so that wound that Jesus received, and that was after he died. And you remember when the soldier pierced the side of Jesus, the Bible says out of that pierced side came blood and water. So the blood of Jesus Christ was shed on the cross of Calvary. Why is that? Because the Lord says without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. And so Jesus paid the cost and he shed his blood. But I want us to close by looking at something else that's very important. And that is the gifts that were purchased because of the blood. Now before you dismiss the blood and say, well, the blood's not really that important. It's just the fact that he died. Let me remind you of something. The Lord ties a whole lot of things to the blood. And we should not be ashamed to say that we believe in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We trust the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the songs say the blood will never lose its power, that's true, because it was shed many years ago. And that blood was shed many years ago, but there's power in that shed blood, because God reckons that is something that was done for the sins of the world. And the Lord says there's power in that blood. And let's look at the things that the Bible says. There are 10 things that are listed in the scripture. First of all, there's redemption by the blood. Ephesians 1 says, in whom we have redemption through his blood. Colossians 1 verse 14 says, in whom we have redemption through his blood. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 12, by His own blood having obtained eternal redemption for us. And so release by the payment of the price. The price was the ransom and that's the shed blood. So there's a release by the payment of price. You'll never be released from the power and penalty of sin unless you accept Jesus Christ and His shed blood for you on the cross of Calvary. There's redemption by the blood. Acts 20 verse 28 says, He paid the price of His own blood. So there's redemption. There's forgiveness by the blood. Ephesians 1, 7, redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Through His blood there's forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1, 14 says the same thing. Forgiveness of sin. So you will never have any forgiveness of sins apart from the blood of Jesus. So you better trust what Jesus did. You better trust His shed blood for you on the cross if you want forgiveness of sins. Also there's cleansing by the blood. Revelation 1 5 says, And to him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. The song says we're washed in the blood. What's that mean? Does that mean some gory-like thing that God soaks us in blood? No, it means our sin is washed away because of the blood that was shed at the cross of Calvary, and we're washed because of the blood. You don't have any cleansing apart from blood. You think you're going to appear before God and be accepted, and you say, well, I'm as good as other people. I'm better than somebody else. The Lord says that won't do. The only thing that'll wash away your sin is the blood of the Lamb, the blood. and we're cleansed by the blood. We have propitiation through the blood. The Bible says in Romans 3, 25, whom God has set forth to be the propitiation through faith in His blood. Propitiation means satisfied. What satisfies God? Some people have the idea, you know, I'm going to live a good life and when I die, I'll meet God and He'll say, you've been pretty good. I'm going to let you in. I'm satisfied with you. God's never satisfied with anybody. He's not satisfied with me, and He's not satisfied with you, and He'll never be satisfied with somebody and their accomplishment. He's satisfied with one thing, and that is what Jesus did for you. And the thing that brings satisfaction to God is the shed blood of Jesus. It satisfies His wrath. You deserve to die, and I deserve to die. But the only thing that satisfies that just demand of God is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have propitiation. We have satisfaction through the blood. And so... We can add to that justification by the blood. Romans 5 verse 9 says, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Justified, you people who go to this church should know beyond any doubt what justification means. I won't ask you, I don't want to embarrass you, but you should be able to say, oh, I know what that means, pastor, because I've said it 100 plus times. Justification means declared righteous. The judge stands and says, I declare you righteous. Your husband or wife might say to God, but Lord, he's not righteous. I mean, there's problems with him or her. Now the Lord says, I declare them to be righteous. I make a declaration that they are righteous. Why? Because their sin has all been paid for. How was it paid for? The blood was shed, and they accepted that, and they trusted that, and they're justified. They're declared righteous. So I'm going to go to heaven someday because the Bible says I've been declared righteous by Jesus because I put my faith in him. And so justification is by the blood. And then sanctification is by the blood. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 12 says, Sanctified the people. I know Jesus as my Savior. I've been sanctified. He took me apart from the world of sinful men who deserve to go to hell. Everybody does. And He set me apart and said, This one belongs to me. Earl McGuffey is mine, and I'm going to treat him like mine. He's my child. He has been sanctified, set apart unto me. And because I love him, I'm going to continue to work with him. I set him apart. I put him on my wheel, so to speak, as a piece of pottery, and I begin to work with him. And if there's an imperfection, I throw it out. And that's daily sanctification. He's all the time working with me. But it started with positional sanctification, and that is he set me apart unto himself. Why did he do that? It's because of the blood. And if you've never been set apart unto God and He says, this one's mine, you'll never make it to heaven and you'll never be set apart unless you've accepted the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sanctified by the blood. We're reconciled by the blood. Ephesians 2 verse 13 says, But now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. You're made nigh by the blood of Christ. You're brought close to God. You were set apart from God, separated from God, but you're made nigh. And Colossians 1.20 says it like this, And having made peace through the blood of the cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself. The only way you'll be reconciled to God is through the blood. And so the Bible makes it clear we're enemies. We're enemies of God because of our sin. And if you're going to become a friend of God, if you're going to be reconciled to God, you won't do it by being religious. You won't do it by having good works. You won't do it by any of those things. You won't do it by paying a price. You'll do it by trusting what Jesus did for you on the cross at Calvary, and you'll be reconciled by the blood. The Bible also says we have fellowship by the blood. I don't know if you realize this, but do you know the only reason that we Christians can fellowship with one another is because of the blood? What if you knew everything about me and I knew everything about you that God knows? You know, we wouldn't look near as good, would we? We wouldn't look near as good. And we all know that. We all know that to be true. We all know that we're imperfect. And I can go up to a brother here and shake his hand and have fellowship with him, or sister in the Lord, and have fellowship with them. And I can treat them like brothers and sisters in the Lord, not because I think they're perfect, not because I think that they don't have any sin in their life, they've never had any sin in their life, there's no problems. No, it's not because of that. It's because the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed them of their sins, and we can have fellowship with one with another. The Bible says it like this, 1 John 1, 7, Aren't you glad we can go to the Lord and say, Lord, I failed you today, and I'm sorry. And the Lord's faithful and He's just, and He'll forgive us of our sins. And we can come to church that next Sunday. And it's not because we had a perfect week. Oh, we messed up some during the week. But we can come to church and we know that all is forgiven. The Lord's brought fellowship between us and him. And we can help fellowship one with another because sin is taken care of. And it's all because of the blood. You can't have any forgiveness, friend, apart from the blood. And fellowship is made possible by blood. Then there's another thing. access to God in prayer is by the blood Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19 says having therefore bread brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus The only way I can have access to God in prayer is because of the blood. I can't pray to God apart from the blood. If I don't trust the blood, I can't have any communion with God. I can't pray to Him. And so blood made it possible, the blood of Jesus made it possible to open up that avenue of access to God and we can pray to Him. And anytime and during the day I can say, Lord, please help me. Lord, I need you. And the Lord hears me. Why? Because the blood was shed. On the cross of Calvary it was shed. And then finally there's victory by the blood. Revelation 12 verse 11 says, and they overcame him. That's the accuser of the brethren, the devil. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. By the blood of the Lamb. We can have victory over the devil. We can have victory over his demons, all that. Why? Because of the blood of the Lamb. Because of the blood of the Lamb. You see, the devil is not afraid of you. He's not afraid of you. I don't care how smart you are, how experienced you are, how good you think you are. The devil's not afraid of you, but I'll tell you something he's afraid of. And that is he's afraid of the blood. And he's afraid of Jesus. And we rebuke him in the Lord Jesus' name. And we claim the victory because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you only have victory because of the blood. You see, the cross of the cross was the blood of Christ. The cost to obtain salvation for us and all of its benefits that we've just mentioned. Blood has been shed, the price has been paid, but we must believe in that and we must trust the Lord Jesus as our Savior. I ask you today, are you trusting what Jesus did for you on the cross? Are you trusting the shed blood of Jesus? Are you trusting His finished work on the cross and the fact that after He paid that price, it was proved that it was sufficient when three days later He arose from the grave victorious? And we'll talk about that next week. But he arose from the graves victorious as proof as that God said, I am satisfied with the blood that was shed. I'm satisfied with the sacrifice that was made. Jesus shed his blood. My friend, judgment is coming. Judgment is coming. But if the blood has been applied by faith, if you have trusted the Lord Jesus and believed on what he did for you on the cross of Calvary and believed on his resurrection, the Bible says judgment's coming, but you don't have to worry about judgment because of the blood. I take you back to the story, the true story, in the book of Exodus, chapter 12. It's the Passover. And the Lord said, I'm going to be ready to go through the land of Egypt for the last plague. And the last plague is going to be the destruction of the firstborn. And the firstborn is going to die in every family. That could be a little boy. It could be someone small. Or it could be someone older. Let's say it's an older couple. You're in your 80s. And your firstborn is now 50-some years old. And that one would die. Not just children, the firstborn. And so the firstborn was gonna die. But the Lord told the Jews, the Israelites, He said this, He said, you take the Passover lamb, you make sure it's a spotless lamb, and you shed the blood of that Passover lamb, and you put the blood on the doorpost, and over top of the door. And He says this, you get inside that building where the blood has been shed, and you'll be safe. And when I come through to judge, I will pass over you when I see the blood. When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. When Jesus looks at you, does He say, I see the blood? He's accepted my blood. He's accepted Jesus as my Savior. And when God passes by, does He see the blood? If He does, He'd say, I'll pass by you. There won't be judgment to come. That's why the Bible says, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Now if you were a Jew that day, and you had applied the blood, you could get inside that house, and you know you wouldn't have to worry at all. Because the Word of God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And you know you'll see the blood because it's been applied. And so we who know Christ as Savior, we can face death and not be afraid. And we can say, I'm not worried. I'm not worried about it because I'm going to go to heaven when I die, because the Lord's going to see the blood's been applied, and I go because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and I'll go because of that. When He sees the blood, He'll pass over me, and He will, and He'll take you to heaven, and judgment will not come. But I remind you today, it doesn't matter, friend, if your name is on the church roll. It doesn't matter if you're a good person and you do good things and you give money and all of that, and you think, I'm a pretty good person. If you've not trusted the blood, when the judgment comes, the Lord will not pass over. You'll be judged for your sin because you rejected the judgment that was done on the cross of Calvary. The cost of the cross is the blood. of the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope you've accepted him as your Savior. Let's pray. Father, thank you today for reminding us of what happened on the cross. Thank you, Lord, for helping us to single our attention upon that very important thing that took place there, and that is Jesus shed his blood, and he died for us. I thank you, Lord, that many of us today know for sure that we've put our faith in what Jesus did and we're trusting in the blood. If there's somebody here who has not done that, I pray that they would flee to Christ for refuge today and say, Lord, I'm sorry I haven't yet put my trust in you, but I want to today. And may they be saved today by trusting Jesus. Help us who know the Lord never to be ashamed of the blood. Help us never to be shamed of Jesus, our Savior. We pray in His name. Amen.