12 11 10 09 08 26 25 24 23 22 21 The Precious Blood of Jesus ISBN-13: 978-0-89276-263-7 ISBN-10: 0-89276-263-2 Copyright © 1984 RHEMA Bible Church AKA Kenneth Hagin Ministries, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in USA. In the U.S. Write: Kenneth Hagin Ministries P. O. Box 50126 Tulsa, OK 74150-0126 1-888-28-FAITH www.rhema.org In Canada write: Kenneth Hagin Ministries P. O. Box 335, Station D Etobicoke, Ontario Canada, M9A 4X3 1-866-70-RHEMA www.rhemacanada.org The Faith Shield is a trademark of RHEMA Bible Church, AKA Kenneth Hagin Ministries, Inc., registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and therefore may not be duplicated. The Precious Blood of Jesus Kenneth E. Hagin Contents 1 The Cleansing Blood..................................5 2 Come to God by the Blood.......................19 3 Pleading the Blood...................................33 A Sinner's Prayer to Receive Jesus as Savior...................................................39 Chapter 1 1 The Cleansing Blood Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation [your manner of life or conduct] received by tradition from your fathers; But with THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, as of a lamb without blemish and without s p o t . . . . —1 Peter 1:18,19 Circumstances make things precious. I don't know whether or not you can realize how precious health is until you get sick. I don't know whether or not you can realize how precious it is to live without pain until you suffer pain. I don't know whether or not you can realize how precious food is until you suffer hunger. Hunger makes food precious; thirst 6 makes water precious; and poverty makes riches precious. Sin makes the blood of Jesus Christ precious. The blood of Jesus Christ is precious because of its REDEEMING power. The Bible teaches that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Heb. 9:22). As we saw in our text, the Word of God teaches that the blood of Christ is precious. It is precious because of its redeeming power. We were not redeemed with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Paul, in giving his farewell message to the elders (or pastors) of the Church at Ephesus, said: ACTS 20:28 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 7 PURCHASED WITH HIS OWN BLOOD. The blood of Jesus Christ is precious because of its CLEANSING power. First John 1:7 says, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST HIS SON CLEANSETH US FROM ALL SIN. " We used to sing songs about the blood— and we need to sing them again. One went, "What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus." Notice that the verse from First John said the blood "CLEANSETH us from all sin." In Revelation 1:5 we read, "... Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." The Word of God teaches us that we have a better covenant, established on better promises (Heb. 8:6). Under the Old 8 Testament law, the blood of innocent animals was shed. These animals were a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, for our text speaks of Him as being "a lamb without blemish and without spot. " However, the blood of these sacrificial animals only covered the people's sins; it didn't cleanse the sins. That's why the Jews had to repeat these sacrifices at regularly stated intervals: Their sins were merely covered, not cleansed. For example, if I were to spill some black ink on a black leather Bible cover, the ink might blend in so well you couldn't see it, yet the spot still would be there. So it was under the Old Covenant: The sin nature was still in man. Their sins were only covered! Thank God, one thing that makes our New Covenant so much better than the Old is that He has washed us—cleansed us—from all sin in His own blood! We will look at this again, but let us go 9 next to the Book of Hebrews. HEBREWS 8:7-9 7For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 8For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 9Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. Now skip back to the seventh chapter and notice something the Lord said about that covenant: HEBREWS 7:25-27 25 Wherefore he is able [He is talking about Jesus under the New Covenant who has shed His blood and become our High Priest] also to 10 save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. 26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests [under the Old Covenant], to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: FOR THIS HE DID ONCE, when he offered up himself. As Hebrews 8:6 says, Jesus obtained "a more excellent ministry." Now let's go over to the ninth chapter of Hebrews and see something further about Jesus' redemption of us: HEBREWS 9:11-14 11 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; 11 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. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 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 the living God? Notice again that the blood of Jesus Christ is precious because of its cleansing power. 1 JOHN 1:7 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son CLEANSETH us from all sin. John isn't writing to sinners here. We 12 often quote this verse to sinners, but it belongs to Christians. John didn't write this letter to the world; he wrote it to the Church, because he said, "If we walk in the light.... " Sinners are not walking in the light. That's the reason they need to come to Jesus, be born again, and get in the light. I want to emphasize that if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. If you're out of fellowship with your brother, you're not walking in the light. (And the Lord infers in Scripture that there is no cleansing of your sin until you get back to walking in the light!) Don't get off into one of those little "bless me" groups that don't fellowship with anybody else. Their leaders say, "No, we forbid you—we forbid you—to fellowship." Think about that! My God! Some pastor is forbidding Christians to fellowship with fellow Christians—their brothers and sisters! A lot of that is going on right now in the church world. What would you think of a father or a 13 mother who told one of their children, "Don't have anything to do with your brother or sister"? It's exactly the same thing when these leaders say, "Don't have anything to do with them. Don't you fellowship with any other Christians. There's nobody but us. You just stay with us!" They're out of fellowship with the Body of Christ! They claim everybody else is out of fellowship, but they're the ones who are out of fellowship. They need to get right with God. Because I pastored intelligent, spiritual people for nearly 12 years, I never forbade them to go to other services. During World War II, I was pastoring a Full Gospel church in East Texas. Three miles on either side of my church were churches of the same denomination. All three churches were on the same highway that went through that town. A fellow who wasn't of our persuasion 14 came along and put up a tent between me and one of the other churches. (I think he had an ulterior motive, but that's between him and God; I'm not a judge.) One of the pastors asked me, "What are you going to do about it?" I said, "Not a thing in the world." "Well, I'm going to forbid my people to go," he said. I replied, "You're foolish. Just as sure as you tell them not to go, they'll go." That pastor said, "I think that fellow is wrong, and I'm going to forbid my people to go." I said, "I agree he's wrong in some of his teachings, but he's right in much of them, too." (I knew you could be wrong in your head and right in your heart.) "I'm not going to mention the meeting," I said. "I'm not even going to mention he's there." The pastor replied, "Well, he's just as 15 close to you as he is to me. I think he's going to start a church." I said, "He probably is—I don't know whether or not he is—but there are plenty of people around here, praise God." "Yeah, but he's liable to get some of our members!" I said, "He's no threat to me. What threat is a mule barn to a grocery store?" (That's exactly what I said to him.) I added, "I'm feeding my people, glory to God!" Well, that pastor forbade his people to go to the tent meeting, and he lost seven of the best families in his church. In fact, he almost lost his church property as well, because he no longer had the support of the most prosperous members. I didn't mention that the tent preacher was there at first. Then people kept after me until I finally decided I had to make a public announcement. So one Sunday morning I said, "I'm going to make one statement, and that's all