father's firstborn son, with the angel of death soon passing through. It was hard to fall asleep, then one little lamb stood in his mind as he lay there down to sleep. He thought of why the young lamb had to die, why his blood was on the door. in the rain, would it still remain? He wanted to be sure, so he called out to his father with a trembling voice, so scared, crying, Father, please, will you look and see if the blood is still there? He said, son, now don't you worry, for the blood is there to stay. The winds may blow and the rains may fall, but it just won't wash away. The blood will stand the raging storm. It's been applied with loving care. Safe, secure, you can rest assured that the blood is still there. Looking over. The storm had left behind A flood of endless questions Doubts had filled my mind But the fear that gripped my troubled soul Brought me to my knees in prayer Crying, Father, please will you and see if the blood is still there. And he said, son, now don't you worry, for the blood is there to stay. The winds may blow and the rains may fall, but it just won't wash The blood will stand the raging storm. It's been applied with love and care. Safe, secure, you can rest secure that the blood is still there. safe, secure, I can rest assured that the blood is still there. Praise the Lord. Let's go ahead and stand again. And before I forget, if you have your cell phone on you, would you please silence it or turn it off? We just want to try to keep the distractions down while the preacher is preaching. Page 378. Stand up. Stand up for Jesus. Sing it out. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. Lift high his royal banner, it must not suffer loss. Victory unto victory, his army shall he lead, till every foe is vanquished. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the trumpet call obey. For through the mighty conflict and this his glorious day, ye that are men now say, ♪ Against the number 12 ♪ Let courage rise, let faith be made ♪ And strength, through strength of heart Number four. ♪ Stand up, stand up for Jesus ♪ The strife will not be long ♪ This day the noise of battle Amen, amen. You may be seated now. We can go ahead and dismiss for, uh, dismiss for nursery. Amen. Come ahead, pastor. Amen. Amen. This whole weekend has been a real blessing. I know me and my family have gotten a lot out of it, and I sure appreciate everybody who's come. I appreciate all the hard work that's gone into it, all the planning that's gone into it, all the prayer that's gone into it. It's just been real sweet. And I appreciate all the folks who've come out from West Liberty here this morning. You don't know what that means to me, just to see you all here. I love you folks. And it's an interesting thing when you're in both places. But boy, I don't know that it's done anything more than just make me love the brethren that much more. And I appreciate you all. I just appreciate the brethren. and the effort that you all show. And the fact that some of you all got up real early, just, I mean, we used to, you know, we talk about how on a Friday night, how strange it is, or how much of a fanatic you have to be to come to a prayer meeting on a Friday night. And you know what? In the world that you live in today, you have to be a little bit of a fanatic to come to church on a Sunday morning anymore. The world offers so much stuff all the time. There's a NASCAR race, or a ball game, or a PGA tour. You know all this kind of stuff that wrecks or you know your your morning television programs always, you know Some bass tournaments on TV or I got to watch that can't miss that. There's always something for you to do I appreciate that you that you made the effort to be here this morning. I pray that you get something from the Lord Brother Drake's gonna preach here in just a minute. He's been a real blessing to me. He's blessing last night You know, I mean, I wish you know if you didn't get to be here last night I wish you'd been here, but you can catch it. You can catch it later, but He's been just a real blessing. He's been a good friend to me and we've shared some, you know we've shared some some smiles and some tears over the years and He'll be a blessing to you here this morning. So I pray that you kind of Keep your ears open, you know to what the Lord has to say through this man here this morning. All right, brother Drake Won't you come ahead? Thank you very much Well, good morning. Good to be here once again. This church just means more and more to me every time we come back here. I just really enjoy being here, enjoy the fellowship, of course enjoy the food. I want to thank you all ladies for all the work you do. I know I know ladies tend to enjoy that kind of thing and, you know, it's kind of a background type work and all that, but I sort of appreciate it. I haven't had any breakfast. I'm trying not to eat breakfast. If I were to eat a cinnamon roll and try to come here and preach, It wouldn't work out. I'd be up here just hacking the whole time. But boy, I love me some cinnamon rolls. But anyway, it's been a blessing. Thank you very much. I know there's a lot of effort. I've not really put any meetings together in the past. Just one thing over in Papua New Guinea, but it wasn't that, I mean, that's pretty easy. So I know there's a lot of effort that comes and goes with all this stuff, and we do appreciate it, really. I know we say it, but we do mean that. I get up in the morning, come in here about 5.30, and there's already music playing, and the smell's already starting to waft through the halls. So I know you're up early and doing that work, and it doesn't go unnoticed or unappreciated. Just thankful for that and thankful for all the fellowship and all that good stuff open your Bible this morning to Genesis chapter 4 Genesis chapter 4 it's been a blessing For me personally just Catching up with some old friends. I haven't seen some and quite some time and I was just thinking about it, you know, some Some of the memories that I have, you know Brother Dar, I remember him one time preaching that at Pea Ridge, and I just got there. I was brand new. I mean, I had just gotten into town basically. I think my first time going out to that little place, and he was telling story after story of soul winning things that he's done, and real, some funny, some exciting, and some bring you to tears. And he told a bunch of stories, and he said, now go out and get your own. And boy, that floored me I mean that really that was a blessing I'll never forget that that stuck with me all through the years so that's a just and I have a lot of other memories with brother dar and there were brother Joe fall at a kid Jeffrey's house we're all preaching at each other we put right down a verse they just pick out that verse and you have like a minute or two to prepare and then you got a preach like five minutes or something I can't remember exactly what it was I put that passage where it says Faint yet pursuing them and he drew that and read that he said I don't need time to repair that if you can't preach this and you can't preach at all and he preached a really good I was like five or six. I don't know what it was. I just remember that it stood out to me. I remember brother Caleb darling and his graduation, and he gets up there and sings a song I never heard before called There Go I. And man, I heard that song, and I'm like, that's me. And boy, I came out of my skin when I heard that song. And I'll never forget that. That was probably the best graduation I've ever been to. And so just some memories like that. And so it's been a real blessing. And I've gotten to know Brother Barney over the past few years. My wife has his wife's friend, and so come out here and getting to meet him and know him, just a real good fellowship and some really good men. You know, Brother Wilcox, I met him that first time coming out here and just getting to know some people and befriending them, and it's been real good for me and my family. I wish I could have brought my family with me, but just, you know, things going on and stuff like that. But I was planning on staying till tonight and leaving after the evening service. But I'm already exhausted, and I don't do well at night anyway. So if I were to try to drive a couple hours in the night, you'd be hearing about me in the news. So I didn't want to do it. Well, I was thinking about it, and then I looked at the schedule, and I realized Barney's preaching tonight. So I thought, well, it's not that big a deal. get one more dig. Oh, man. But it's been good. It's been a real blessing. I've been helped. Anyway, Genesis chapter 4, when I started thinking about what to preach about a week ago, a week and a half ago, whatever it was, this came to mind instantly. You know, I just kind of put it in the back burner there. This is an old message. I want to preach something new Something that's what I would consider fresh, you know, I have preached this actually a peerage years ago but um The Lord kept bringing it back and bring it back and then actually on my drive up here. I was thinking about what? about that again. And for whatever reason, like out of the blue, I mean it was kind of silent in the car, listening to music. And my son, John, he just looked at me and said, he asked me a question about this message, like out of the blue just asked me a question. I'm like, whoa, okay. So, I answered the question, and then a few minutes later he asked me another question that wasn't really related, but it actually tied in. I'm like, okay, Lord, I'm done fussing about it, I'll preach this. So, Genesis chapter 4, verse 8, And Cain talked with Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not, am I my brother's keeper? And this is my text, verse 10. And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. It's an interesting passage. I told you yesterday that If you want to you know, you know it if you want to study a word you look at the first mention and you'll find Usually the definition or the way that words use or some insight into that word and this is one of those messages I told you last time I've got several just by studying the first mention of a word and this is the first time the word blood shows up in your Bible and bloodshed of Abel being slain by Cain. And righteous Abel was killed by his brother and his blood was spilt out of envy because God had respect to Cain's sacrifice. And so Cain was bitter about that and he killed him. He shot his blood and that blood went to the ground. And that ground absorbed that blood and it cries out from the ground. And so I want to preach on that here in a little bit. Let's pray. Father, I come before You in the name of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the name that is above every other name, the only name by which we have salvation. Lord, what a wonderful name that is. And God, I'm thankful for that name. I'm thankful for salvation. I'm thankful, Lord, for the book. Thank you Lord for giving us some instructions in this life. I'm thankful for Preaching for teaching. I'm thankful for the comfort of the Holy Spirit of God that that Comforts and convicts and leads and guides and well, I'm thankful for truth. I'm thankful Lord for the brethren Thankful Lord for this place and God. I praise you. Please meet with us. We need you God. I need you Lord Please father. I don't I don't want to trust my own flesh or there's not much to trust in there anyway So God, I pray that you please meet with us this morning God I pray that every heart here you would minister to through the Word of God Lord I'm trusting in your words to do what it needs to do Lord and God God my tongue Withhold me from saying the things I ought not to say and what emboldened me where I need the boldness father God and I pray Lord that your people would respond in humility obedience to the Word of God, to your conviction, if there is conviction, or encouragement if they need that, whatever it is, Lord I pray that You'd be the doer of it here today, that You receive all the glory, praise, and honor. I love You Lord. And we ask all these things in Christ's holy name, amen. Years ago, I joined the United States Army back in about 2005, and I went out to basic training. And I remember there in basic training, you know, and it was, you know, 2000s. It's not very rough anymore these days. It's gotten even worse now. I'm glad I got out when I did. I heard that they now have a stress card, literally. So if they're being stressed, they can pull a card and say, Drill Sergeant, I'm being stressed. And they go have a 15 minute break. That blows my mind. But anyway, it was pretty weak when I was in there. But they had some good training. And one training, it was just one day of it, was bayonet training. And I'll never forget that. That was pretty exciting. Bayonet training, they had, they would have these rubber tires, you know, car tires, and then in the middle they have some rubber flap, the rubber flap for the head, rubber flaps for the arms, and then you would fix bayonets. And the drill sergeant He's out on a platform about this size, and of course, they had a big old shade above them. And we're out on the field, open sun, and it's hot. I mean, it is blazing hot in the middle of summer. But you got, I mean, two, three hundred young soldiers just ready to go and fight. And General Sargent's out there with a bullhorn, and he would instruct us on how to on how to strike and the stab and butt stroke and all that kind of stuff and teaching us all these different maneuvers and blocking and all that stuff and it's exciting. I mean we're out there, we're sweating and we just had a canteen of water and every once in a while we'd stop and they'd say drink, yeah, hydrate or die. You know, so we'd hydrate, drink our water, and we'd drink through a canteen. And after that's done, we'd take the salts, you know, the mineral salts, and put that in there and down that nasty stuff, you know. But anyway, we're out there on the field, and he's calling out all these different commands. And we would say, yes, Joe Sergeant, and butt stroke. Yes, Joe Sergeant, and slash and stab. And then after a while, it got really exciting. But after a few hours out there, baking in the sun, sweating everything out, you get kind of wore out. Well, the drill sergeants, they knew how to get us stirred up. And after a while, several times throughout that training course, the drill sergeant gave us one command, and he said, he had this saying, and once he said, we had something to repeat. So, he instructed us, he said, when I say, what makes the green grass grow, and he said it just like that, just big old burly drill sergeant, I can't remember his name, he wasn't one of my direct drill sergeants, but he would say it like that, just a gruff old voice, and he'd say, What makes the green grass grove private? And if you can imagine, two, three hundred soldiers out there, when he said that, our response was, Blood, blood, bright red blood, drill sergeant. Man, it would stir us up, even today. I want to put my gear back on. I want to go back over there and fight. And boy, that was our battle cry for the day. Blood, blood, bright red blood. And what makes the green grass grow? And it is blood, he was saying. Another couple other things about why does God love the infantry? Or why is the sky blue? Because God loves the infantry. what I want to preach to you all this morning, blood, blood, and bright red blood. And there is a universal fascination with blood. There really is. You know whether you faint at the sight of blood, or whether you want to stare at there and have some kind of a weird fascination or love for that thing, there is a universal fascination for it. I remember going to do a blood draw in the Army, and I sat next to a buddy of mine, a big old burly black guy named Buteau, we called him Boots. And he was a muscle upon muscle, big old guy. And he sat in the chair next to me, and I'm pumping my hand, I put the thing around there, taking my blood. And I look over next to Buteau, to old specialist Boots, looking at him, and he's, He's staring at that thing and just waiting. The needle's not even in his arm. They haven't even put the band around him yet, and he's just sitting there. Veins just popping everywhere, you know. And that nurse comes, and I'm starting to make fun of him. The nurse comes over, puts that band around him, and he's just hyperventilating. They put that needle. As soon as the blood came out, oh, that's it. It was funny, man. We made fun of him. We raked him for that all the time. But there's something about that blood. You know, you go down the road and there's an accident on the highway and people are rubbernecking and they're looking over at that scene. They're trying to look for some blood. there is just something about it. And I believe it is because in Leviticus 17.11 the Bible tells you the life of the flesh is in the blood. And people know that innately. They just know that. Whether they know the Scripture or not they know that life, your life is bound up in blood. And something about that red fluid that catches the eye, it'll affect you one way or another. Whether it's a little cut or a gushing wound, you know you gotta keep that blood in as much as possible. Gotta keep it in. When I was in PBI, my first year there, boy, I was struggling financially, and I did what a few guys did. It was pretty dumb. Went and did the plasma thing, you know, and that's... I tell my wife she's got a blood diamond, because I bought half of it with that plasma money. But given you know, you give you you go there they take your blood out and they go through a centrifuge and separate the plasma and put it back in you but You know, there's a something about that. It's your lifeline and Well, you don't want to lose your blood you got to keep it in and there's many cultures out there that have some really wild beliefs about blood and You know, even in Papua New Guinea, and I know it's still, it's modernized for the most part, you know, but they still have some wild beliefs about blood, and they have some rituals about it, especially with women, and that thing that they have with the blood, and they have some really crazy rituals and really weird beliefs in some other cultures. And one of the stupidest things I ever did as a young boy, me and my friends in the neighborhood, we wanted to become blood brothers. So I cut my finger. He cut his finger. And then we put our fingers together like that. That's a dumb thing to do. But, you know, there's a lot about about blood in this book. And this book is a bloody book from beginning right here in Genesis all the way to the end. Another question my son asked on the way up here, just out of the blue. There was no I was trying to say, where's the content? Why do you ask the question? But like, Daddy, what's a what's a Passover? So I start explaining the Passover and start talking about the lamb, and boy, actually, you know, talking about it with my son, he's got a little bit emotional there just thinking about that stuff. And then he sang the song, just more confirmation for me, I guess. But that lamb being sacrificed, that blood that goes on on the post there. And when Christ, when God sees that blood, he passes over. And it's a bloody book, man. That word blood is mentioned over 460 times in your Bible. That's a lot. 460 mentions at least of the word blood. And that's not counting other words like bloodthirsty, or things like that. And sometimes the Bible can be gruesome. Think about a mesa. It says that He wallowed in His own blood in the highway. What a thing, man. think about Jezebel. And Jehu comes and he says, who's on my side? And these priests put their head out the window. I am. He says, okay, throw her out. They throw her out the window. And so they trampled her on her feet, the blood sprinkled on the wall. They go inside, they eat breakfast. They come out and they're looking at her. Oh, well, there's her palms, her hand, her skull, that's all that's left. I think about over there in Isaiah, it says God's going to tread out his enemies. All that blood, mountains soaked with blood, it says. Think about Isaiah 34, mountains melt with blood, swords bathed in blood. I think about over there, Solomon dedicating the temple. I don't have the figures in front of me, but hundreds of thousands of sheep and oxen are slain. That's a lot. They slit those throats. Folks, that's a lot of blood. It's a bloody book. I mean from beginning to end this book is full of blood and blood is directly connected to life and death And you know that as that heart beats and boy you started out hard and how the vows move and they beat perfectly and and The heart beats it pumps. It's pumping blood and it pulls blood up from your feet and it pumps it out and it goes to your liver it goes to your lungs and It goes up to your brain and oxygenates your brain and provides nutrients so your brain can function, the mind can function, and send those signals and receive the signals. And as long as your heart is beating, listen, as long as the blood is going through your veins and is circulating, you have life. But once the blood ceases to circulate in your body, that's it. Life is done. That's all you got. That's it. And that thought ought to terrify you if you're lost. If you're here this morning without Jesus Christ, you're not saved. That thought of your blood ceasing to pump through your veins ought to send chills down your spine. It should. If you're here this morning and you're backslidden, Bible says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord will persuade men. That thought ought to terrify you. I felt that bullet go right right there. I felt the heat wave. And I thought, boy, that bullet right there. I catch that thing in my face and I'd be standing right before my maker. Never read the Bible. Never had a prayer life. No fish on the stringer. No soul saved. That terrified me. Might still harden myself for a while and it took God breaking my back. Like I mentioned you last night It scared me And it ought to terrify if you're backslidden And blood has a voice, folks. The first mention here says, the voice of our brother's blood crieth to me from the ground. And you'll lend your ears to me for a while this morning, and if you'll put your ear to the ground and listen as we talk about some blood in the Bible, you'll hear the voice of blood crying to you from the ground. It's got a message for you this morning. And the first thing I want to say is go to 1 Peter chapter 1. Obviously, we're gonna start here with the blood of Jesus Christ 1st Peter chapter 1 1st Peter chapter 1 and verse 19 starting verse 18 of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1 verse 18, "'Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, this the blood of God. This is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just any old blood. And you're not redeemed, folks, if you're saved. You're not redeemed with something as cheap and just fading as gold, and silver, and precious things like that. And how many people spend their lives chasing gold? How many people came to America trying to find gold, and they died in the pursuit of gold so they can have all the wealth they could possibly imagine. But gold is cheap, folks. It's corruptible the Bible says. Gold, and silver, and all those precious things, they're going to corrupt. But you're not redeemed with gold. You've got religions that their whole image is gold, and silver, and rubies, and fancy things. They can't redeem you. But the precious blood of Jesus Christ is redeems a soul. He is our Redeemer folks. And it is precious. It is precious. That verse right there says it is precious. And that is why we sing songs about the blood. That is why we like that hymn book that you have. If you will pay attention there is hymn, after hymn, after hymn about the blood. many songs because you sing about what you love. That's why the world sings about dope and about alcohol and fornication and all kinds of wickedness, because they love it. Why do you sing about the blood? Because you love it. Well, I hope you're singing because you love it. I'm not sure why you sing when you're here on a Sunday. I really don't know why you sing. Do you sit did you sing those songs this morning? Did you put any thought at all? We're saying what three or four hymns and you heard that song that song move you Did you look at those words? Just okay. Let's Let's get through the song how from a foundation? Okay. Yeah saying it a thousand times before that blood means something, and it's precious, it's precious blood. It's not just any blood, it's God's blood, it's the only blood that can clean something up. It's the only blood that can make something that's dirty clean. If I were to take a knife in my hand and to cut my wrist and have my blood spill on this carpet, what you would do, immediately you would call out the carpet cleaners and you would steam that. You might even rip the carpet up and put new carpet in there. because my blood and your blood make something clean, filthy. But the blood of God makes something filthy, clean. You know I've come home sometimes from different jobs that I've had, and sometimes working on something I'm the dirtiest worker there is I don't know what it is. I try I like Organization my wife. I mean she she's just or she is organized and it frustrates me She just everything she does is organized me. I'm just a I'm a mess if I'm gonna paint something Half the paint is going to end up on me. I don't care how slow I do it. I mean, I can cut in just nicely and the wall will look okay, but I'm going to look just like the wall. If I'm working on something, I'm going to get, whatever I'm working on is going to get on me. And I'll come home sometimes and I'm dirty and I'll throw my clothes into the dirty clothes hamper. My wife can take the, I mean the top shelf detergent. or whatever, I don't know, pour some bleach in there and, you know, do whatever she can and sometimes put my clothes in there and try to clean those things up, scrub it sometimes, you know. And a lot of times she might get them mostly clean, get most of the stains out, but not all of them. I've got clothes that are just, they're stained from different, different things, grease and paint and caulking and all kinds of stuff. But you know what? I don't care how deep this stain of sin goes. I'm talking from experience, folks. That stain of sin might go to your very soul. It might have corrupt, like we talked about, your bones and eroded you from inside. That stain of sin might have a hold on you. but I'm telling you just one drop of the blood of Christ will wash it away. Not just make it a little bit less, not just make you mostly clean, but I'm talking take away that sin completely and it's gone. Folks, it's precious. That blood of Christ is precious. And I'm thankful for that blood. But how blasphemous it is for a lost sinner to view the cross of Jesus Christ. Look at all that blood coming from his hands and his head and his chest and his back and his thighs and his feet. Look at all that blood. And then take their filthy rags and just throw it on them. Take my filthy rags. What that is, your righteousness. Religious folks out there Go to church every Sunday go to your mask or whatever get to charity and what that is. It's filthy putrid rags And they're taking their filthy rags and throwing them on open wounds of Jesus Christ That's blasphemy You're not gonna earn what he did Becomes very clear when you understand something physical person giving their life for you You can't earn that you can't earn salvation It's precious blood. He shed that for you His blood is available to all That blood is made available. It's free. It's Christ got on that cross and allowed his hands to have nails driven into them. He allowed every last drop of his blood to pour out of his body. And he did that for you and for me. And that blood has not lost its power, like he sung about. It's still there. It's not washed away. Boy, that that does something for me because I have availed myself of that blood many, many times, even this morning. Every day that blood is there and as long as I come humble and I claim 1 John 1, 9 and think of that in verse 7 the context is the blood. That blood cleanses every single time. I don't care how many times I've committed the same Lord here I am again. I did it again. I thought that again. I said that again. That blood is still there. It is faithful. It is powerful. It cleanses. He offers the perfect offering is that lamb, pure, sinless blood. What can you do better than that? Salvation comes by receiving a free gift, by faith in that blood. That's the only thing that can take away sin. Now, Christian, you need to be reminded daily of the blood of Jesus Christ, daily. You need to remind yourself of the blood. And it's easy to forget it sometimes. Sometimes life just goes on and you're just working. You know, you're just, you're going to your job, you're faithful, you're taking care of your family, and you have other things to think about. You gotta fix the car, you gotta, you know, you gotta fix the leaking toilets, you gotta, you know, your wife's pregnant, you gotta take care of these and that stuff and this stuff. you're studying your Bible, you're trying to learn something new, you're trying to feed the flock, or you're trying to get fed. There's all kinds of things that just come into your mind and your heart, and it really captivates you, and sometimes you just stray from the cross. And there's an old saying, it's a really good one, it says, don't stray too far from the cross. That's good instruction. Don't forget about the cross. You know if you get if you allow yourself to forget about that blood Eventually, it just becomes another doctrinal Theological thing that you believe that's all it is just some doctrinal statement The folks is something that's personal And it's real and you need it to cleanse you every single day. It's the blood that purchased you It's the blood that justify you. It's the blood that draws you and I it's the blood that cleanses you and and His blood will cleanse away any sin and restore fellowship. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for the fellowship that I can have because of the blood. And I'll say this, Christian, if you have confessed your sin, if you have repented and you've asked the Lord to forgive us, you need to trust in the blood. Trust in the cleansing power. A lot of Christians just stay down. They stay in a back-sitting condition. They won't get up. They won't get back in the fight because Well, my sin was just too bad. I just did I've done way too much. I've gone way too far No, folks, that blood will wash any sin That blood will cleanse any sin in a newer story fellowship to any Christian. I don't care how far you've gone I've sat there with a creation. I've talked with them. I've wept with them And he just says I'm I'm just too far gone. I You're not trusting in the blood. We sing all those songs about the blood because it's precious to us. Boy, I can I remember that that training course out there and Fort Leonard would call it Fort lost in the woods. And it was it was blazing hot. And I remember being out there on the parade ground, that old drill sergeant. And man, that voice. I wish I could have that gruff voice like he did many. What makes to bring rascal privates? And we all yell out blood, blood, bright red blood. But I like to think about sometime, hopefully in the near future, I just imagine the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on His throne, and boy all the sainted million just gathered around that throne in Heaven. I mean all of you with no sin, no pain, no sickness, no sorrow, and we're clothed in white raiment, and we're just looking at, I mean with our eyes, not through the glass, the dark glass. When our faith becomes sighted, we're all up there in Heaven, and it's perfect. Everything is perfect. And we're all gathered, just like we are here, but up on stage is not some man, it's the Lord Himself. And you're sitting there, and I'm standing there. We're all going to be next to each other. And there comes a stir as Michael, the archangel, steps up there, and he pulls up his bullhorn, that old milted angel. And he cries out, what has washed away your sins? And you and me are going to cry out, it's the blood! It's the blood! It's the bright red blood of Jesus Christ! And we're going to shout, and we're going to praise the Lord for eons, because of the precious blood of Christ. I'm thankful for the blood today. And it makes me mad when a Christian won't get right, because all it takes is a drop of the blood. It breaks my heart that some Christians go out the doors and never come back. Their pride keeps them out. They're despising the blood of Christ. over you get well in visitation and knock on the door and you try to give them the gospel. Well, I'm this and I'm that and I do this and do that. They despise the blood of Jesus Christ. And if you're here today and you're not saved and somebody's witness to you and you've claimed your own righteousness and you presented your church to them, then you're despising the blood of Christ. You know, that's why it's so hard to lead a lost sinner to Christ that's been in their religion for so many years. Just like Cain tilled the ground all that time. There's something that hardens you. You begin to trust in your own good. I mean, Cain dug into that ground. He planted and he watered and he probably prayed for the harvest. I'm sure he prayed I'm sure he begged God to bless it and God blessed it in and came with his hands brought forth some crop And boy you witness to an old religious Christian person that's lost and you show them the gospel what they do They show you the fruit of the ground And they just show what look what I've done just like cane And then they get bitter at you and they want to they're out for your own you for your blood the blood of Christ is precious and Boy, if you could just close your eyes and imagine that cross. Imagine that scene with him hanging there in that cool night. A cool night and that warm blood touching the air and the steam just rising off of his body as the blood pours out. His flesh literally ripped open with just ribbons of flesh hanging off of his body. That last drop of blood just falls to the ground and that last, that blood pools around the foot of that cross. And if you could just close your eyes and imagine being there for a moment and listen quietly. Just listen to the blood. It's crying from the ground and it's telling you, come, come unto me all you that labor. Come, let's reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as snow." Can you hear it? It's crying. Lost person is telling you that you can be saved. You can have your sins taken care of. Christian is telling you, it's alright, just confess it. Plead the blood. I'll take care of that sin. I'll take care of that habit. I'll take care of the guilt. I'll take care of your fears and your doubts and all that all of it. The blood is precious and immediately can cleanse you but you have to come to the blood and listen to it and obey it. Secondly, I want to talk about the blood of the Saints go to Revelation chapter 7 Revelation or 17 rather Revelation 17. Revelation 17 verse 5, and upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon. It was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. And that's obviously the Roman Catholic Church. And you don't have time to go into it but read the previous verses and it's pretty evident who the great whore is. especially this verse right here, verse 6, "'And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her I wondered with great admiration.'" The blood of the saints. That religion, that Roman religion is the bloodiest religion of them all. than Islam. That's a bloody, bloody religion. If you know anything about Church history you know that is a bloody religion. That verse, the Lord ain't kidding. She is drunken with the blood of the saints. Dr. Ruckman has that drawing with that whore and that chalice there and there is blood dripping down her cheeks. She is drunken with the blood of the saints. If you've never read Fox's Book of Martyrs or Martyr's Mirror, I'd encourage you to. Well, that'll give you some insight into what your forefathers went through. The blood of the saints, thousands and millions of your brothers and sisters died at the hands of religious people. says over there in Hebrews chapter 11, an amazing verse. This is the Lord's testimony. He says, the world was not worthy. They were destitute and despised. They walked about in sheepskins and they were torn asunder. They were eaten by lions and ripped apart and whipped. Why? Because of the precious blood of Christ. Because of the Word of God. And the world was not worthy of them. They were tortured. They had babies ripped open in front of them. And I've heard this illustration many times before, but it's and it's a true one. You have a woman out there and she's holding her baby in her arm and has, I think, like seven other children. And that old, you know, Roman priest comes out there to deny Christ, deny your your Lord, deny your Bible. We're going to throw your babies over the cliff. And she's holding that baby in her hand. I can't. And one by one takes a child and threw that child headlong and dashed against the rocks and the blood just splattered all over the place. All right. Deny him or here goes another one. Takes number six and throws that child over the cliff and all and down it goes and crashes against the rocks and the blood just spilled. And on and on down until they, she's holding, clenching that little infant in her arms. Just holding and shaking and begging and pleading. And they tear that infant out of her arms and deny you're God or else this baby's going. Take that little baby and throw it over the cliff and that little baby falls down and his blood is spilt. And last of all, the mother. Think of women watching their husbands having their tongues ripped out. And I'm not, listen, I am not being gruesome just to shock you. And you watch enough on your television anyway, I can't shock you. So don't be a hypocrite and just say now I'm just trying to be gruesome and mean don't be a hypocrite This is this is truth. This is history is your brothers your bones your body What they went through for their Savior Because I loved him and they believed him enough to suffer for And their blood was spilled Martin's Mirror says there on the first few pages it says, their blood flowed through the streets with a heavy flow. Not just a little trickle but a heavy flow. That's how much blood was being spilled. They were faithful to death and they received that crown of life. And you know their faith pleased God and I believe that Yes, we hold those Saints up to very high esteem for good for good reason their example is what we ought to strive to be But make no mistake about it. God gave them the grace to bear they can't just nobody can bear those things Nobody can go into a fire and let their fingers lit like candles and sing amazing grace You can't do that of your own strength God gave them the grace because they had faith. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. So, they had faith and God was pleased, and God gave them the ability to go through all that. Now, Christian, today we are not being persecuted like they were. not. I mean there is no way you can say, especially in America that we are being persecuted. You might get laughed at. I get so frustrated with myself. I was at work the other day and there was another preacher, he was a missionary Baptist preacher and doesn't know much Bible, but he knows enough to carry on a conversation sometimes. We're at the break table with some other people around and he's talking about something about the Bible and I'm kind of getting nervous about it. And we were talking about this right here, Revelation 17. Well, he was talking about something about the great whore, and he didn't know what that was. So, I was talking about Revelation 17, trying to explain some things. And I find myself being embarrassed because people are walking around. I'm thinking they might be Catholic, not like what they're hearing. But I'm getting all nervous. What are they going to do? They're not going to put me in the lion's den. What a shame! What an awful shame for a Christian in America to be afraid to open their mouth for their Savior, when these people watched their babies killed in front of them. You know, God gave them the grace to bear it. We're not being persecuted right now, but I'm going to tell you, Christian, God will give you the grace to bear it when the time comes. Listen, there's a big old if. Listen, God's not going to obligate himself to give you the grace to bear that if you can't bear some reproach now. If you can't go outside those doors, sing a song. If you can't go outside those doors and say, praise the Lord when no other Christians are around. If you can't go outside those doors, outside the comfort zone and open up your mouth for the Lord and have somebody laugh at you, have family say, I don't want anything to do with you, God's not going to give you the strength to. See we like that, that kind of, I'll stand for the Lord when the lions come. I'll sing Amazing Grace while I'm being burned at the stake. Really? When's the last time you sang his praises at work? I put some scripture stickers on my motorcycle helmet and I bring it into work and I kind of like just sometimes throw it on the hanger and hope nobody sees it. It's little things like that. I have to force myself sometimes just to give out a gospel tract. What a shame. I'm embarrassed of myself. I'm ashamed of myself with that kind of stuff. And if you can't be faithful in the least, you're not gonna be faithful in much, Christian. That's just a fact. You want the glory of being a martyr, but you won't take the reproach when everything's easy. And boy, if you'll just close your eyes and if you can imagine the smells of the Coliseum, if you can close your eyes and listen to the roar of the thousands of people gathered around him, to watch as a Christian is tore to shreds by a lion. If you could close your eyes for a moment and transport yourself back to that time when the martyrs were being killed every single day in the streets. whip, his rear back like that, and that thing comes crashing down on the back, and a man just grunts in pain, and his ankles begin to shake, and his knees buckle under the pain, and his flesh begins to get tore open, and he is grunting his teeth trying not to scream because his children is right there, and he doesn't want his children to be too scared, and he just bears it, and ha! And that whip comes back up again and wraps around that body and the blood begins to pour out of every vessel in his body. And if you just close your eyes for a moment and sit there in the coliseum just quietly and listen to the guys next to you foaming at the mouth and screaming and, send the lions, send the lions. There's a Christian chained in the middle of the Colosseum and a lion comes out there and begins to maul that Christian to death. If you could transport yourself to that moment in time and watch the blood pour out of their bodies and it soaks into the ground. And if you'll just listen for a moment as the crowd dies down as they wait for the next event, just put your ear to the ground and listen, that blood begins to curve. And that blood begins to cry out from the ground, and it's got a message for you folks, for you Christian that wants to quit, for you Christian that won't come to church, for you Christian that's almost ready to go out into a far distant land. That blood has a voice that's telling you, stay the course, stay faithful. He is worth it. Stay to the end, Christian. Yes, it's hard now. It hurts and you're grunting under the pain now. But I'm telling you, you're going to look back on your life five years down the road, ten years down the road, and you will say it's worth it. You'll go to Heaven and you'll get around that throne and you're going to sing the song, it will be worth it all. Although you won't be singing it as in the future, you'll be saying it was worth it all. The voice of the martyrs cries out from the ground, just stay faithful. You can go through it. You're not being whipped right now, but your family's turned their back on you. You can bear it. You've lost your job, and now you want to take a job somewhere else where there's no church. Maybe Rethink your plans, because you can bury. Your loved ones about to pass away, or they did, or whatever it is. Somebody in the church has hurt you. Whatever the thing is, I don't know what you're going through. But that blood is crying. It's just boiling from the ground. And it's telling you, if you'll listen, stay faithful. Don't go out those doors. Don't quit, teenager. You may not believe it, but I'm telling you, it's worth it. It's worth being a man at a young age. Young kids, it's worth it. I've wanted to quit. I'm ashamed to say it, I wanted to quit. I got mad. What's it worth? It's worth the blood. It's worth their blood. It's worth the blood of Christ. The fact is today, today's Christianity, you know, they, they were whipped, they were sawn asunder and their blood was spilt and they stayed faithful. The truth is we barely get a paper cut. We're wanting to go and do something else. Let's go to Revelation chapter 14. Let's get the blood of the damned, the blood of the damned. You say, why do you use that language? Why do you have to say damned, the blood of the damned? Because it's the most offensive word I can come up with. And it's a Bible word. Just because the world uses it the wrong way, doesn't mean it's not a Bible word that needs to be used. hope it gets to your attention, especially if you are one of these. Revelation 14 look at verse 19, "'And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles by the spades of a thousand and six hundred furlongs." Go to 19 verse 12, His eyes were as a flameless fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God." And so on and so forth. Folks, there's the blood of the dam that's going to be spilt someday. And that word is it's an awful word. That's not just some cuss word. People throw that around. It's like, damn this and damn that. And I think it was Dr. Ruckman say when he gets on a plane, he's praying God to take all the dams off the plane. And I do the same thing now because you never know who's saying GD this and all that kind of stuff. That's not just some word. It's a throw around. Could a soul that's damned soul that's going to hell. And at that second Advent, folks, God's going to take his vengeance like a wine press. And all that image there, if you can imagine all those grapes and that vat and somebody out there stomping the grapes down, all that, the juice is coming up there. And that's what it's going to be like. His vesture is dipped in blood and he's going to be stomping out the life of some lost soul. You say, who? Well, probably some of your family members, your neighbors, your friends, your blood's gonna be stamped, trampled out, and it's gonna run around that River Jordan for miles. And their blood is damned. They're going to meet Jesus Christ, not as a baby. I was talking about that at work the other day. I'm not sure how it came up, but people like to see Jesus as some harmless, helpless person, either a baby or a dead man on a cross. They're not going to see Him on a crucifix. They're not going to see Him in a nativity scene. Boy, they're going to see that man they've mocked, that name they've blasphemed. They're going to see Him off in the distance. And what's that? It sounds like horses. And they're going to hear that trodden coming along down there, like Brother Peacock described it so great. He's going to come down there through that valley there, and he's going to take that sword from his mouth, and he's going to stamp out their blood. And they're damned. And once the blood of the damned stops flowing, that's it. That's all they have is death. They have cursed blood. And once their temporal life ends, Revelation 21.8, eternal death begins. Die forever in a lake of fire. Moments after their pulse the last pulse, I mean it hurts to think about it But you have to I have to force myself to think about a soul in hell Trying to think of their first moments in hell and I try to think about their five senses being awakened just one at a time Kind of like it being in a car accident. Just everything slows down and boy you see it, but you just don't believe it and this really happened and Was I really just in a helicopter crash? Was I really just in a motorcycle or a car accident? Is this really going on all around me? You see everything. It's like you see every little tiny piece of the car just crumpling around you. Then your sense of hearing starts to kick in, and off in the distance you hear the sound of a scream. It gets louder and louder and louder, and then billions of souls just screaming in chaos. Then you can taste it in your mouth with that sulfur. Boy, your heart begins to pound and beat harder and harder. And then all of a sudden, you begin to feel it from the bottom of your foot to the top of your head. And it gets hotter and hotter and hotter that you can't even imagine the heat. And just before you about lose your mind, that last sense awakens into that sense of smell, and the Bible says in Revelation 14, one of the awfulest verses in the Bible says, the smoke of their torment ascended forever, and you begin to smell the stench of your burning soul for eternity. Can you imagine that? The blood of the dam stops flowing, and that's where they go. You're supposed to be a faithful watchman that brings me to my last point here Ezekiel 33 go there Ezekiel 33 blood on your hands blood on your hands Listen Christian your family's headed there if they're not saved Your friends your co-workers your neighbor that's where they're going blood on your hands if you're not being a watchman. Look at verse chapter 33, I'm not going to read it all for the sake of time. I'm just going to go ahead and read verse 6 and you know the verses. But if a watchman see the sword come and blow, not the trumpet, and the people be not warned. If the sword come and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. Those poor lost souls are dying. I read a, back when I put the sermon together back in Bible school, 2000 something. And I remember the study was done in the 90s, but he was saying about 1.7 soul people die every minute or every second. That's two every second. Can you imagine that? Two, four, six, eight, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, and on and on they go. They're dying, two a second, at least now. Two souls every second go off in eternity. As we sit here, every minute that passes, 120 souls, every minute. That's 7,200 an hour, 172,000 a day, 1.2 million a week, 4.8 million a month, and 58 million souls every year back in the 90s. Every single year, every month, week, day, hour, second, souls are dying. And most of them brought us away. Most of them are going to hell. What are you doing about it? Is there blood on your hands? Have you lost your vision? Where there is no vision, the people perish. Can you not see him anymore? Are your eyes dried up? Psalm 126.6. He that goeth forth bearing precious seed, weeping So doubtless come again. Do you wait for? Or your eyes dry. You have no vision for. Consider those souls. If you're if you're saying you're without excuse folks. If you fail to warn them, their their blood is on your hands in a sense, I know everything is going to be straighten out the judgment seat of Christ, but for sake of illustration, their blood is on your hands. And you're a watchman. You're supposed to be standing out and watching for those souls. And the instruction comes, whether or not you warn them, they're gonna die. Whether or not you tell them. And some of you have worked with somebody for five, 10, 15, 20, 30 years and never opened your mouth. You've lived next to them, they're your family, and you've never warned them. If you don't sound the alarm, the blood is on your hands. That's the most awful thought. I've got blood on my hands. I mean, I hold my hands out there, and I just see blood dripping off of them. I can imagine myself going to the judgment seat of Christ and just hiding my hands, and the Lord says, let's see them. Boy, I tremble and shake, and just blood's pouring off of those hands. Here's Captain Whitten, Daniel Whitten. Blood just pouring off my hands. Here's Christopher Gaykey. His blood just cries as it pours off my hands. Here's Zachary Lovejoy. I can remember a time being in a tent in Afghanistan, and Christopher Gaykey was our platoon leader, and he went to have a Bible study, lost. And he sits up there in the tent, the ammo dump and all that stuff, and we're sitting around, He's up there reading some NIV or something, Song of Solomon, and he's talking about how wonderful it is that God gave us provision to have fornication, basically. And he's talking about how great that is, and using the Bible to justify it and all that. And the Lord, I could feel it. The Lord took His finger and fell on my chest and said, you better open your mouth, boy. And I just sat there. And God said, you better open your mouth. You know the truth. You better, you better say something. And I just sat there. I was a Sergeant E5 team leader in the 82nd Airborne Infantry. Jumped out of airplanes. I took my men, kicked in doors and all that stuff. I was a spiritual coward. Just yell up and down my back. And just a couple of weeks after that, IED comes, rips through his guts, and he went down straight beneath me into hell. For 13 years, he's been screaming out, Zeke, you never warned me. Same thing with Daniel Whitten, Zachary Lovejoy. They've been beneath my feet for 13 years, running around, trying to shed the fire, trying to get out of there, crying for mercy and saying, I'm sorry, and then turning to me and saying, you fool, you never warned me. Blood just stains my hands. God forbid you go to the judgment seat of Christ and you got mama's blood on your hand, your wife's blood, your friends. You say you have friends. You're not their friend. If you won't give them the gospel, you're not their friend. Their blood's on your hands. That's the only, that's one of them. One of the only things that keeps me up at night sometimes is hear their voices. If you could close your eyes and listen, go to the grave site. You might hear the voice of their blood crying out from the grave. You never warned me. You never told me how to stay out of this place. Now I'm lost forever. I'm burning. Can you hear it? And then I'm not gonna really go to this last point. You can study it for yourself. Leviticus 8 talks about blood on the altar. And there was a sacrifice that they had to make. Now we're obviously, no, we're not there, but there's some sacrifices that you might be able to make, Christian, for the Lord. There's something in your life, maybe, that God wants you to get rid of. Cut it. Spill that blood. Maybe it's something you're watching. Maybe it's some friends that you shouldn't be hanging around, teenagers. You just need to cut that cord Whatever it is. I don't know but there's a sacrifice And there's nothing boy. I've made a couple sacrifices for the Lord and well, it's been a blessing There's been some things I've been hard to get rid of but after you do it, maybe you dump that thing and the weights gone It's a lot easier to move around without that weight The blood cries from the ground and I hope you can hear it today. I It's got a message for you. The blood of Jesus Christ cries out from the ground. If you're lost, if you'll just come and avail yourself of the blood, you can be clean. You can have your sins taken away in an instant. If you're saved and you're not living right, that blood can wash away that sin. That blood can restore fellowship with the one that I know you love. If you're saved, I know you love the Lord. and you want fellowship, the only thing standing between you and your fellowship is your sin and how easy it is to apply the blood and have that fellowship restored. And it's crying from the ground. The blood of the saints cries out to you, Christian, to stay faithful. Don't give up. It might be hard right now, but don't quit. Please don't quit. Stay with it. The blood of the damned, it cries out, lost forever. That's it. It's only got they're trying to warn just like the rich man in Luke 16 war my brethren The blood on your hands cries out you have a part in this it's your fault I know it's there for they made the choice, but Are you a helper? I'm gonna preach a message someday. I'm gonna put it together called hell's henchmen And Christians can be one of those henchmen Are you helping a soul to hell to heaven? I'd help us to listen to the blood that cries from the ground. May it stir us up to love him more and serve him better. Preach it. Amen. You say, well, that was pretty straightforward. You know what, though? I mean, he's absolutely right. There's so much of the time where we've just become desensitized. We become just immune. Nothing shocks us anymore. You know what you need to hear this morning? You need to hear something to wake you up. The Bible says, Awake thou that sleepest. You need to wake up. You need to wake up to some realities. And that reality is a brutal reality. There's a young man that I know sat in a classroom of mine, was one of my track athletes. I spent hours and hours around this kid. He went home one day and took his own life. I was around this kid every day. Sat right there in front of me. Was there with me after school. I had opportunity after opportunity after opportunity for something like four years now. He's been burning. burning in hell. Think about him all the time. You know what you need to do? You got a little bit of time here. Don't worry about the time. There's more important things than the time. You got an altar. You got a pew right there. This invitation song plays. You know somebody who's lost. Maybe you're sitting in here and you're lost. You know somebody who's lost. You know somebody who's out there that you care for, that you love, that you work with. then you know that they don't have Christ as their Savior. Why don't you take some time this morning to pray for them? Pray that the Lord touch their heart. Pray that the Lord give you an opportunity. Pray that you take the opportunity. Pray that the Lord give you some guts. Give you a backbone to give them the gospel and say, you know what? It's worth it. Whatever it costs, it's worth it to just get that gospel, to just get that blood off my hands. Father Barney, will you come? And then let's all stand, take our handbook. We'll turn over to page one. Twenty five. As the pastor said, the altar is open here this morning. Why don't you come spend some time with your Lord and Brother Rod? Would you close in prayer after the him? Page one, twenty five. Jesus paid it all. I hear the Savior say, thy strength indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and pray. Find in me thine all in all. ♪ All to Him I owe ♪ ♪ Simply as a prison stain ♪ ♪ He washed it white as snow ♪ ♪ Lord, now indeed I find ♪ ♪ Thy power in Thine alone ♪ ♪ Can change the the heart of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. Jesus made it All to Thee my hope. Sin hath left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow, And went before Thy throne. I stand in Him complete. Jesus died, my soul to save. My will shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Father God, we thank you for the ability to be here together in your group of creation. Lord, I pray that each and every one here today both examines themselves and sees where they can be a better witness for each other. Please give us the desire to study your book. Amen. We'll take a brief break and be back about 10 after