The Blood Covenant

Introduction: Last week we introduced you to The Power of Covenant. The Hebrew word Berit, translated covenant is found 272 times in the Old Testament. The Greek word diatcheke, translated covenant is 33 times in the New Testament. Covenant must be very important to God.

Hebrews 6:13 - 20 (NKJV) ¹³For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,
¹⁴saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you."
¹⁵And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. ¹⁶For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. ¹⁷Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, ¹⁸that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
¹⁹This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, ²⁰where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

The Covenant is a matter of life and death

Hebrews 13:20 - 21 (NKJV) ²⁰Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
²¹make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

The Penalty of sin is death
Genesis 2:15 - 17 (NKJV) ¹⁵Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. ¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; ¹⁷but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

Romans 6:20 - 23 (NKJV) ²⁰For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²²But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Life is in the blood
Leviticus 17:13 - 14 (NKJV) ¹³"Whatever man of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who hunts and catches any animal or bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust; ¹⁴for it is the life of all flesh. Its blood sustains its life. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, 'You shall not eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.'
Anthologists have found that blood sacrifice was universal
The Beginnings

Man knew that he needed a covering
Genesis 3:6 - 12 (NKJV) ⁶So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. ⁷Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
⁸And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
⁹Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"

¹⁰So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."
¹¹And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?"
¹²Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."
The covering of fig leaves was the religious covering
Mark 11:12 - 22 (NKJV) ¹²Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. ¹³And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again."
And His disciples heard it.
¹⁵So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. ¹⁶And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.

¹⁷Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"
¹⁸And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching. ¹⁹When evening had come, He went out of the city.
²⁰Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. ²¹And Peter, remembering, said to Him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away."
²²So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God.
Nothing man does can cover sin – only faith in God's grace.
God provided a covering
Genesis 3:21 (NKJV) ²¹Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
ILL: Do not miss this – an animal had to die in order for God to make them "tunics of skin." The first blood is shed!
Cain's unacceptable offering
Genesis 4:1 - 7 (NKJV) ¹Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have acquired a man from the Lord." ²Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. ³And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. ⁴Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, ⁵but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.
⁶So the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? ⁷If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."
- Cain's offering is the product of his work - "fig leaves"
- Abel's offering is a lamb whose blood has been shed – "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin"
  1 John 3:10 - 12 (NKJV) ¹⁰In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. ¹¹For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, ¹²not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous.
  ILL: The religious always want to destroy the righteous!

The day of atonement

Leviticus 16:7 - 10 (NKJV) ⁷He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. ⁸Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. ⁹And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord'S lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. ¹⁰But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.

Leviticus 16:15 - 23 (NKJV) ¹⁵"Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. ¹⁶So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. ¹⁷There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel. ¹⁸And he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord, and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around.

¹⁹Then he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, cleanse it, and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.
²⁰"And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. ²¹Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. ²²The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.
²³"Then Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of meeting, shall take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the Holy Place, and shall leave them there.

The high priest was to take two goats, one he laid his hands upon and recited the sins of the people. The other he killed. Dressed in the robe of the High Priest, over his heart twelve stones each reprehensive of one of the twelve tribes, he went behind the veil and sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat of the ark. The other living goat was taken to the wilderness and let loose, showing that the sins were taken away.
The blood of animal life could not take away human sin but only cover it
Hebrews 10:1 - 18 (NKJV) ¹For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. ²For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. ³But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. ⁴For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

⁵Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:
"Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
⁶In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
⁷Then I said, 'Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.'"
⁸Previously saying, "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the law), ⁹then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first that He may establish the second.

¹⁰By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
¹¹And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹²But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. ¹⁴For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
¹⁵But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
¹⁶"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,"
¹⁷then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
¹⁸Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

The New Covenant Prophesied

Jeremiah 31:31 - 35 (NKJV) ³¹"Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—
³²not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. ³³But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
³⁵ Thus says the Lord,
Who gives the sun for a light by day,
The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,
Who disturbs the sea,
And its waves roar
(The Lord of hosts is His name):

Ezekiel 36:25 - 27 (NKJV) ²⁵Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
²⁶I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.