238 – WHAT ABRAHAM FOUND OUTDecember 17, 1961
Henry F. Kulp
Romans 3: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
We have been talking about justification by faith plus no human works. The book of Galatians is very clear on that. And this morning I want to show you that Paul taught the same thing in the book of Romans. In the first three chapters of Romans, Paul is acting as prosecuting attorney. He brings before God’s bar of justice and righteousness, all of mankind from the uncivilized pagans to the civilized pagans, and these are Gentiles, and then to the religious Jew who had all the advantages. And then, in the 23rd verse. Paul says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
1/ But then he says in the 24th verse Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
We are justified freely without cause by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. All this is in Christ Jesus, whom God has sent forth to be a propitiation. We told you that was the mercy seat where God communed and fellowshipped with the nation Israel. So Jesus Christ is the meeting place between sinners and God. He makes them righteous. Notice, He is the propitiation, He is the mercy seat through faith in His blood.
You will remember that in Galatians 3: 14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Paul said he gloried in the cross—not in the flesh, not in what a man could do, and he says it is through faith in His blood that Jesus Christ becomes a propitiation for us. The meeting place between God and man.
2/ It is necessary for you to see faith in anything other than the blood of Jesus Christ as a starting point is all wrong. Faith can be the most dangerous thing in the world. but you must have faith that starts with the blood of Jesus Christ.
3/ Somebody has said that the Bible is a bloody book and that is all true. There were times when Solomon, who typifies of the fullness of Christ in His finished work, offered a thousand bullocks at one time, and thousands of sheep. Think of that, all that flowing blood. Yes, there absolutely is blood in the Bible. Blood is the beginning.
4/ This morning I thought it would be good for us just to strengthen ourselves in the great doctrine of the blood, to see what God says about the blood. You say, but Pastor Kulp, I believe in the blood. Yes, I believe you do, but you don’t know all that God says about it. There may be a lot that you didn’t even know, that I didn’t even know, so it is a good idea sometimes to take the whole book and start at the beginning and find out everything God says about a certain subject.
5/ There is much God says about the blood, And I thought that this morning we would take our Bibles and search out some great Scriptures on the blood, and I thought the best place to start would be in Exodus 12 the Passover. This was the last of the great plagues and then Israel was to be delivered. God said to Moses—tell the people to take a lamb—every man a lamb, and he is to kill the lamb, and when he kills the lamb, let him catch the blood in a basin. The death angel will pass over tonight, and if he would save his family, let every man take the blood and sprinkle it upon the side-posts of the door, and on the upper lintel of the door, and behind the blood everybody will be saved.
Exodus 12: 13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
6/ I think the first emphasis is the one we want to see.When I see the blood, and the emphasis is on “I”, the first personal pronoun, “I”. And it shows you what God is looking for. He was not looking for good people in those houses down there. When God looked at the great cloud of Jews down there in Egypt, He wasn’t looking for Rabbis, for good people, God was looking for blood. God said, when I see the blood.
7/ The same thing is true today according to Romans 3: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
You need the blood because God is still looking for it. Don’t try to get into Heaven without it, because you’ll miss Heaven.
8/ Down in Egypt in those Jewish homes, there could be great peace in the homes where the father had obeyed God. Where he took the blood and put it on the sides-posts and then on the lintel of the door. The death angel was to pass over at 12 o’clock midnight, and you know, I would again like to use my sanctified imagination with you. I would like to think about these portions of Scripture as I read them, and the angel was to pass over at midnight, and as the hour approached, I think I see the homes of some of the Israelites, children talking that about the death angel was coming—they had heard about these plagues, they knew about them, and they had heard that every house in Egypt that had the blood on the doorposts was safe. And one little boy might say to his sister—did you see daddy put the blood on the door? Have you been out to look at it? Did you see him do it? Do you know whether we are safe? Perhaps the girl would be the oldest child, and she would take a candle, because it was getting near midnight, it was dark. She would go outside the house to examine the doorposts, and to see the upper lintel to see if the blood was there. Then she would come rushing back into the house, and I think I could hear her cry, “Yes,” daddy took care of it—the blood is there, it is all settled. We don’t have to worry, the death angel is going to pass over our house, and then these children sing and rejoice because they had peace in their hearts—they were safe—they knew what God had demanded had been done, and they knew that God would keep his word. It is the same way here—do you have peace in your heart because you trusted in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that was shed on Calvary?
9/ Now let us turn to the next book—the book of Exodus—Exodus 17: 11 And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
The life of the flesh is in the blood, but it was not the blood in the animal that saved them. Let us read it for you, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you, now notice, apart from the altar. Blood on the altar is not in the animals. Blood on the altar is not in the animal’s body. Blood on the altar is blood that has been poured out from the animal that has been killed. It is the poured out blood that saves.
10/ This same thing is brought home to us in Hebrews 9: 22 Without the shedding of blood is no remission.
You see, blood must be poured out, blood must be shed—it is not the blood in the body. It was not the blood of Christ when He was born as Bethlehem. It was not the blood in His body on that glorious day when He was transfigured, it is not even the blood that was poured in the bloody sweat of the garden. It was the blood that was shed when He died on Calvary. I want to show you that God makes a point of this.
Notice, Colossians 1: 20 And having made peace through the blood of His cross.
Mark that—not the blood of the transfiguration, not the blood of His birth, not the blood of the garden, but the blood when the Lord Jesus Christ gave up His life. You see, it is the blood, it is the offering of Jesus Christ that saves—faith in the blood.
11/ But man does not want this. Man despises this—he wants no part of it, and so we come to the 4th chapter of Romans, and here God gives an example to us.
Romans 4: 1 What shall we say then, that Abraham our father, as pertained to the flesh has found.
That is, the great man, Abraham, didn’t he have anything naturally to do to be justified with God? Let us see. What did Abraham find out pertaining to the flesh?
I would like you to turn to Genesis 12: 2, 3 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
It was in this chapter that God begins with Abraham. God is speaking to Abraham for the first time. He told him to go out of the land into the land that God would show him. And God says to Abraham, You are going to be a blessing to the whole world. Was that to be because Abraham was a good man? What do you think? If you are saved by how you live—if you can show people you are saved by the way you live, then Abraham was a good man, and he was a blessing to the world, because he was a pretty good fellow. But in the same chapter, beginning with verse 10 And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
There was a famine and Abraham went down to Egypt, and he was afraid. He was afraid of the king of Egypt, who he thought would want Sarah, his wife, because she was just so beautiful and glamorous.
Genesis12: 13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
And so he said to his wife, tell them that you are my sister, and it will be well for me for thy sake, and my soul shall live because of thee. And you know the trouble that caused.
Genesis 12: 17, 18 And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, and Pharaoh called Abraham and said, what is this that thou hast done unto me?
Now instead of Abraham being a blessing you’ll have to admit that he was a curse to the Gentiles—he wasn’t a blessing to them at all. God had said—Abraham, I will make you a blessing. Instead of being a blessing to Pharaoh and his family, Pharaoh said to Abraham, What have you done to us? You have been a curse to us.
Genesis 12: 18, 20 And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
And they said, Abraham we don’t want you.
12/ So you can see, Abraham found he was a sinner, and although God said, Abraham you will be a blessing, Abraham in the flesh is not a blessing, and neither are we. It is not our goodness—it is what the Lord has done through us and because we have believed in Him, In His shed blood, the blood of the cross.
13/ Notice, Romans 4: 3 For what sayeth the Scriptures? Abraham believed God, and was counted unto him for righteousness.
14/ Notice in the 4th verse. Now, to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
That is the truth—and if God lets you do anything, it wouldn’t be of grace, God would be in debt to you. Heaven would be a strange place—every man would be telling how good he was. He would tell you how he got there—he would be able to boast. Whenever we have a testimony meeting—don’t like to hear people get up and brag how much he is able to do for the Lord, or how much he has accomplished. In a real testimony meeting we like to hear how much the Lord has done for the individual. That is a true testimony meeting, and you know, heaven is going to be like that. No one in Heaven is ever going boast. All he is ever going to do is praise God for what God has done for him.
15/ Then we come to the 5th verse. But to him that worketh not.
So you recognize something this morning? I am sure I would never have the courage to stand in the pulpit and tell folks not to do anything at all except it were for such a verse as this. I am sure in the flesh I would never have nerve to say, don’t do anything, just believe in Jesus Christ, because I recognize, right off the bat, that I just wouldn’t believe it myself, and neither would you. This is what makes Christianity different from all the religions of the world. Man would never dream up anything like this. This is God’s Word.
16/ You will notice in Romans 4: 5 But to him that worketh not. Let me show you how particular God is about this matter of not working.
Turn with me to Leviticus 23: 28 And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God.
And here we have depicted for us the day of atonement. Verse 28 tell us that this was the observance of the Day of Atonement. That was the day when the high priest, and it was only once a year, having killed an offering, took the blood and brushed aside that wonderful veil that hid the presence of God from man, and dared to walk into God’s presence. One man, once a year, with blood, and on that day God settled the account of Israel for their sins —that marvelous Day of Atonement.
17/ Now let me read, Leviticus 23: 28 And ye shall do no work in that day, for it is a day of atonement.
Notice, God said, don’t do anything don’t do any work—and then He emphasizes it again in verse 30 And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day—that is the day of atonement, that same soul shall be destroyed from among the people.
That is pretty pointed, isn’t it? When God was dealing with sin, God forbid any man to do any work of any kind. When the high priest, with blood on his hands went in to the presence of God for the sins of the people, if any man should dare to chop up sticks—if a man should dare to do anything the curse of God was upon him. That is emphasized through all the Scriptures. When God is putting away your sin, don’t dare do anything. He either did it all, or it is nothing.
18/ Notice in Romans 4: 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, now notice, his faith is counted for righteousness.
His faith in what? His faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ—the blood of the cross. No wonder Paul says in Galatians 6: 14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
Paul glories in the cross.
19/ Let us turn to one last Scripture that will tie together all we have said today.
Acts 20: 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 purchased with his own blood.
Here Paul tells the Ephesian elders—take heed therefore unto yourselves and all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers—to feed the church of God, which He—and, of course, that means God—hath purchased with His own blood.
It was God, the Son of God, it was the Lord Jesus Christ who shed His blood, and it says it was God’s blood. First of all we get from this an assurance that Jesus Christ is God, and the church was purchased, bought from the slave market of sin by His blood, so you see it was divine blood. It wasn’t just common blood that purchased our salvation it was not common blood that made us children of God—it was divine blood, it was the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
20/ But how man hates this—this is all through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ who shed His blood.
Men do not want to face these facts, they want to turn their backs upon them, they want to ignore them, and they want to offer to God their filthy, foul, corrupt works.
AMEN
Ref: 12/17/1961 / 238 - WHAT ABRAHAM FOUND OUT / 04/11/2021
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