I intend, this evening, to come back to these verses and preach them under title: “The Progression of Election.” But in an attempt to be more evangelical this morning, let’s consider the last two points of that upcoming message: “obedience” and “the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” I’ve given this morning’s message the title: “Shedding, Sprinkling and Smearing.”
Let me take you back to a message I preached fifteen months ago: “Hands, Eyes and Hearts upon the Sacrifice.” I don’t expect you to remember, but I concluded that message asking, “Why am I preaching like this?” I answered, “Because you must look into the eyes of this sacrifice, and you must put your hands on His head before there can be any imputation of your sin to the Saviour and transfer of His righteousness to you. You must understand that Jesus’ death was truly a sacrifice of the highest order. It was a vicarious – a substitutionary sacrifice. But it wasn’t to make your salvation merely possible; it was to actually and directly save your sinful soul. Until you become identified with Christ by faith, you will remain in your sins – lost and condemned to hell. If you will not make God’s Passover Lamb your own, you will never escape the condemnation of your sins.” That theme is so important it needs to be constantly repeated, and I am doing that today but in a little different fashion.
Notice that Peter speaks of the “SPRINKLING of the blood of Jesus Christ.” There are scriptures which speak about the “shedding” of Jesus’ blood, but we are speaking of “sprinkling.” The dictionary tells us there is a subtle difference between the words “sprinkling” and “shedding.” But there is an explosion of difference between those words practically and theologically. They are both important; they are both Biblical; and they both must be seized by faith.
Before returning to our text, let’s consider the SHEDDING of the blood of Jesus Christ.
It is a historical fact that Jesus of Nazareth died two thousand years ago in a very bloody fashion. It is very likely by the end of that Passover day, He had lost every drop of blood in His veins. I’m not medically savvy enough to tell you how much blood there was remaining in His various organs. And there was blood in the bruises and contusions caused by the beatings He endured. But I believe it is likely that Jesus’ circulatory system was completely drained. He wasn’t poisoned; He wasn’t strangled; He didn’t die of a stoke or heart attack. He died as it was prophesied: viciously slain, yet without a bone broken. His body was riddle with wounds causing a fatal loss of blood.
Flavius Josephus, published a 20-volume history in the year 94 AD, and in it he talked about Jesus. He probably had spoken with people who had known or heard the testimony of witnesses to the crucifixion. Josephus was not a Christian and had no bias toward Christ, so his words are accepted as accurate. Publius Tacitus, another Roman historian, talks about Jesus’ crucifixion outside of Jerusalem. I read recently that there are fifty-one statements from first and second century Christians which speak about Christ Jesus. But more importantly, there are ninety-two statements by NON-CHRISTIANS about Christ and His death. They reiterate the claims of the New Testament long before Christianity became popular or it became the religion of the empire. The death of Christ is a historical fact. He SHED his blood on a Roman cross.
As I was reading through all the scriptures which use the word “shed” no matter what the context, it occurred to me that the majority use the word in a negative sort of way. “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” “The feet (of the wicked) run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.” God hates “A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood.” Isaiah says that the wicked ”run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.” Paul quotes Isaiah in Romans 3, when speaking about all of us, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to SHED blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.” I won’t say that every time the Bible uses the word “shed” in regard to blood, it is describing a murder, but it is pretty common nevertheless. And in that sense, the blood of Christ was shed on the cross.
It is important; in fact, it is essential to your salvation from sin that you believe Christ Jesus shed His blood. And He did so willingly. The Lord Himself, at the Last Supper took the cup and told everyone to drink it, saying, “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is SHED for many for the remission of sins.” The writer to the Hebrews reminded his Jewish friends, “Almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without SHEDDING of blood is no remission.” But he goes on to say that it’s not just ANY blood, like the blood of goats and calves. No, it is only by the blood shed by Christ Jesus that there is remission for sin.
Now, in the midst of a very serious subject, lt me poke a little fun at some of you. I’m not criticizing anyone or demanding that you agree with me. I’m only having a little fun at your expense. When we sing hymn number 345: “Grace Greater than All our Sins,” I hear some of you change one of the words. You know who you are. As it is written, some of us sing, “Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our GUILT, Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured, There where the blood of the Lamb was SPILT. Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within; Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin.” Mixed across the congregation, I hear both words, ”where the blood of the Lamb was SPILT, and “where the blood of the Lamb was SHED.” I am not asking you to change your convictions or even your words. But just for your information here is Mr. Webster’s second definition of “to spill:” “To suffer to be shed; as a man spills his own blood.” In other words, it is perfectly acceptable English to say that Christ spilt His blood for our sins, and there is no suggestion, necessarily, that it was an accident.
“Marvelous Greater” may be the only song in our hymnal to use the word “spilt” in regard to the blood of Christ. But my research has pulled up other hymns which have been popular over the years. I mention them, not to correct you, but to bring to your minds the sacrifice of Christ. Listen to the intent. “The Saviour’s blood for sin was spilt, to wash away man’s awful guilt. No other flow can purify; no other stream brings pardon nigh.” How about, “Jesus, my Lord, to Thee I cry; Unless Thou save me, I must die: Oh, bring Thy free salvation nigh, And take me as I am! Helpless I am, and full of guilt; But yet for me Thy blood was spilt, And Thou canst make me what Thou wilt, And take me as I am.” Another old hymn says, “For us His flesh with nails was torn, He bore the scourge, He felt the thorn; And justice poured upon His head, its heavy vengeance in our stead. For us His vital blood was spilt, To buy the pardon of our guilt, When, for black crimes of biggest size, He gave His soul a sacrifice.” And one more: “Jesus for me, thy blood was spilt upon the accursed tree. Redeem and cleanse my soul from guilt. Lord remember me.”
It is a historical fact that Christ died on the cross in a very bloody fashion. That blood ran out of the wounds from the thorns around His head, before it clotted and dried on His face. That blood oozed down His back soaking into the rough wooden post of the cross. It drained from around the nails in His feet, until there was a large pool of it at the foot of cross. In order for any sinner to kneel at Jesus’ cross, he must put his knees into that blood.
But whether or not it was on purpose, Peter said “SPRINKLED” instead of “shed.”
I am currently reading an interesting book called “Person of Interest.” It was written by a homicide detective, who was for a long time a religious skeptic; an atheist in fact. The author’s name is: J. Warner Wallace, and he is described as “America’s foremost cold-case detective.” The purpose of the book is to show how a detective came to trust Christ – by examining the evidence. But I mention it to show you the interesting cover. See the reflective red ink sprinkled across the front page? If I hold it correctly you might see it flashing. There is a difference between blood which has been poured out and that which has been sprinkled. The printer of this book went to a lot of trouble to “sprinkle” the “blood” on this cover.
Again I quote Noah Webster: To sprinkle is “to SCATTER; to disperse; as a liquid or a dry substance composed of separable particles. To scatter on; to disperse on in small drops or particles.” Webster tells us what we already know, and what we see in the printing of this book cover. To sprinkle requires the deliberate action of an administrator. It is different from the “blood spatter” a crime scene investigator might find. And the blood of Christ, in addition to being poured out, must be deliberately sprinkled to reach its purpose. These people to whom Peter was writing, were “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and the SPRINKLING of the blood of Jesus Christ.” As he does, over and over again in his dictionary, Mr. Webster quotes scripture to illustrate his definitions. He says, “As Moses sprinkled handfuls of ashes towards heaven. Ex. 9. “And the priest shall sprinkle of the oil with his fingers. Lev. 14.”
More important than the sprinkling of ashes and oil, Moses was required to sprinkle blood. Turn to Exodus 24:3: “And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do. And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.”
Why did Moses sprinkle that gooey, smelly, sticky blood onto the leadership of the people of Israel? Because the blood of the sacrifice is not sufficient in itself; it must be applied. As I said in that earlier message, Aaron and his sons were not ready to serve the Lord until the blood of the sacrifice was applied to each of them. And even though, the word “sprinkle” isn’t mentioned, on the evening of the Passover, the blood of the lamb had to be deliberately daubed on the door posts of the Israelite homes. Paul, in his great chapter on the heros of faith, speaks of Moses, who “through faith … kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them” (Hebrews 11:28). It wasn’t enough to kill, roast and eat the Passover Lamb. If its blood was not applied to the door, the death angel carried out the wrath of God on the family inside.
The people to whom Peter was writing were not just interested witnesses to the death of Christ. They didn’t just talk about the blood, delving into the theology of the blood. They didn’t simply sing hymns about the blood of the Saviour. “He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the priser free; His blood can make the foulest clean…” No, if they sang our hymn they would have concluded with, “His blood can make the foulest clean; His blood AVAILED for me.” It avails for sinners when it is applied; when it is sprinkled by the Holy Spirit.
Unless you have accepted the blood of Jesus Christ as a fact; the blood which He shed on Calvary… Unless you have deliberately put your faith in the blood-drenched death of the Son of God… Unless you are kneeling in that blood and feeling the Holy Spirit sprinkle it on your soul… You are not a Christian, and you have no true hope of forgiveness of sin. “It is the blood which maketh an atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11).
Now, let me take you now to another word, but one which isn’t to be found in the Bible – “SMEARED.”
Webster defines “smearing” as “to overspread with any thing unctuous, viscous or adhesive; to besmear; to daub; as to smear anything with oil, butter, pitch, etc.” It might be argued that some people and items were at times smeared with blood in the Bible, such as Aaron at his ordination ceremony, and even the doorposts on the day of the Passover. But that is not where I’d like us to go at this point. It’s Webster’s second definition in which I am interested: “To soil; to contaminate; to pollute, as smeared with infamy.”
There are an almost innumerable company of churches in this country, many bearing the title “Christian,” which are ready to besmirch and smear the Biblical doctrine of the blood atonement. They deliberately down-play or make light of the idea that Christ’s literal blood is a part of salvation. They preach a false gospel of human works, ignoring the ultimate work of Christ Jesus on the Cross. They preach a false gospel of ordinances, but not what the ordinances depict: the death of our Saviour. They preach a gospel of self-worth, whereas the Bible teaches human worthlessness, requiring the application of Jesus’ blood. So many churches preach psychology, education, human government and societal improvement, but not God’s Word about the blood atonement.
To quote a well-known Baptist pastor from a hundred years ago: “There are some preachers who cannot, or do not, preach about the blood of Jesus Christ, and I have one thing to say to you concerning them: Never go to hear them! Never listen to them! A ministry that has not the blood in it is lifeless, and a dead ministry is no good to anybody.” That man said, “The chief aim of the enemy’s assaults is to get rid of Christ, to get rid of the atonement, to get rid of his suffering in the place of men. Some say they can embrace the rest of the gospel. But what ‘rest’ is there? What is there left? A bloodless, Christless gospel is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill. It neither honours God nor converts men.” He said, “If the atoning sufferings of Christ are left out of a ministry, that ministry is worthless. ‘The blood is the life thereof ’ is as true about sermons as it is about animals and sacrifices. A bloodless gospel, a gospel without the atonement, is a gospel of devils.” C.H. Spurgeon may have first said these things, but I say unto you, “Amen.”
You may not be able to stop someone from smearing the blood of Christ, but you don’t have to listen to him. If it’s in a book you are reading, throw that book down and throw it away. You must not encourage a bloodless gospel, because it really IS of the devil. And if you ever even think about smearing the blood of Christ, get a big bar of soap and wash out your mouth, even if you didn’t actually speak the words.
I have read that more and more hymnals are being printed without Christianity’s blood hymns. “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” “Saved by the blood of the Crucified One.” “There is power in the Blood.” “There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins.” “Are you washed in the blood?” More and more churches, hiding under the umbrella of “Christendom,” never emphasize, or even speak of the blood of Christ. Some will even try to smear that blood. But those are not Christian churches.
Rather that smearing the blood, what we need to do is SEIZE that doctrine and that blood.
How do we do that? Well, as Peter puts it here, we do it through OBEDIENCE. But it’s not the obedience which first comes to mind. It is not the obedience of ordinances or rules of law. It is not cutting short our disobedience, and it is not beginning to study and obey God’s laws. Peter is referring to the obedience of the gospel.
The Philippian jailer, with a broken heart and great fear, said to Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And the answer, the encouragement, the exhortation; the command was: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” And the man obeyed. The Scriptures in several places speak of “the obedience of faith.” The obedience to which Peter referred is that of humbly submitting to God and putting faith in what Christ Jesus did on the cross.
And what was it that Jesus did? He shed His sinless blood as a righteous offering to God the Father. He poured out His blood as an atonement: a covering of the sins the people He was saving. He presented that sacrificial blood to the Father, who in turn passed it on to God, the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who sprinkles that blood upon the repenting believer, the sinner who is trusting the finished work of Christ on the cross.
Are you one of those believers? Do you trust and can you sense the application of Jesus’ blood to your sinful soul? Leviticus 17:11 says, “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.” And if I might say, “ETERNAL life is in the blood of Jesus Christ: and He has given it to us upon the altar of the Cross to make an atonement for your souls: for it is His blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” But that atonement is available only to those who obey the gospel of Christ through repentance and faith. Will you trust Christ this morning?