Matt Hagee - Oh The Blood
We're going to be discussing the topic of the most powerful substance in all of the earth, and all of the heavens above, and the worlds beneath. This is not a matter of question or debate. This is an indisputable fact, because this one substance has changed countless lives for eternity. It has turned the hearts of kings like streams in the desert. It has revived nations that were on a path to destruction. And it has resurrected generations who have forgotten God. The substance that we're talking about is none other than the blood of Jesus Christ. Let's read Revelation 1:5 and 6. If you're there, say, amen. "And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth, to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen".
Heavenly Father, today we echo the words of this text, "To you be all the glory, to you be all the honor forever", because of what you have done through Christ your son, redeeming us, washing us, setting us free by the blood of the lamb. Let us never forget the power that we possess because of it. Let us never forget the gifts that we have received from it. In Jesus' name, we pray. And all of God's children said, praise the Lord.
You may be seated. The blood of Jesus Christ is so powerful that not only does it bless our lives today, but it transcends time. It works into your past, because the Bible says, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they're now white as snow". Today, you can receive the blood of Jesus Christ. And because he is the God of yesterday, today, and forever, he starts working through your history to expunge what you've done in offense to him. The blood of Jesus Christ is so powerful that you can present it to your present circumstances and your needs, and suddenly, every demon in hell is put on notice that whatever they were trying to torment you with, whatever they were trying to plague you with, whatever chain they were trying to bind you with: it's broken, in the mighty name of Jesus.
Church folk call it, "Pleading the blood," because when you stand before a judge, he wants to know how do you plead. And typically it's guilty or innocent. But when you're a child of God, what you say is, "I plead the blood". I plead the blood, because what I did not deserve, I received when it was applied. And what I need, it can accomplish when I proclaim it, in Jesus' name. You can plead the blood over your children, and angels are dispatched from heavenly places to guard them, to protect them, to guide them. It doesn't matter if they're sitting next to you or they're far off in another country. God's hand is upon them when you plead the blood. You plead the blood over your house, and suddenly your address is no longer on the street where you live, but your address is now the embassy of the kingdom of heaven here on earth. The rules of this book are the law of the land in your living room. And the joy of the Lord that makes rich and adds no sorrow is your portion.
If you're in business today, and you're searching for a business partner, you plead the blood over your business. And suddenly the hand of God goes to work with you. Divine and supernatural favor is upon you. His power goes before you. It opens doors that no man could open. It makes a way where you could make no way. Why? Because of the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. If I came to tell you anything today, if you're watching in a foreign nation, and you're wondering where your strength comes from, what I want you to know is what a difference the blood of Jesus Christ makes. It makes you more than a conqueror. It gives you victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. Oh, what a difference the blood makes. It gives you access to places you could never go without it, because now with the blood on your life, you can go into heavenly courts before the throne of grace. You don't need an appointment to see God our father in heaven. You just have to mention the mighty and matchless name of Jesus, and suddenly, you're standing before the throne of grace to receive mercy in your hour of need.
Oh, the blood. It erases every accusation that is against you. Satan, the accuser of the brethren, is before the throne of God night and day. And he's accusing you, and he's accusing you. He's not making things up. He's telling people what you've done. Because of the blood, the accusation is silenced, because the Bible says, "The blood speaks better things". The blood says that you're purchased according to the grace of God. The blood said that you have been washed white as snow. Revelation 12:11 put it this way: "They overcame him", him is Satan, "By the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony". Is there anyone who can testify that when you were lost and you were on your way to hell, the blood of Jesus reached down and it rescued you, it saved you, it redeemed you?
When you were bound in chains of addiction that no man could break, the blood shattered every shackle. It spoke up that by his stripes, you are healed. Oh, do you remember what the blood did when your house was a home of torment, but the blood brought joy unspeakable? When your life was being destroyed by the enemy, but the blood resurrected it from the grave? When you were left for dead and nothing, the blood brought you back and made you something? Is there anybody who's got something to say about what the blood of Jesus Christ can do? The Bible says, in the book of Romans, that while we were yet sinners, Christ demonstrated his love towards us: that he died for us. That means that he knows the worst about you and he loved you anyway. What you need to understand today is that God didn't need you: God wanted you. God wanted you. God didn't need to redeem Adam and Eve. He wanted them. He could have walked into the Garden of Eden and said, "You broke the rules: you're powder". Poof! Instead he came into the Garden of Eden with animal skins so that they could be covered from their sin. It's the first picture that we get that something must be sacrificed in order to pay for the price of sin.
When it came to you, God didn't sacrifice random animals. He sacrificed his only begotten son. And freely receiving this gift that he has given, the precious blood of the lamb, he wants to be near to you today. He wants you to call him by name. He loved you. He washed you. And it's no ordinary washing. The Bible says, "He washed you in his own blood". And I assure you, when he does, it leaves a permanent stain. How do you know? Continue reading. It says, "To him who loved us, who washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us". Say that with me. "And has made us". This washing makes you something. It doesn't just cleanse you: it creates you. "He has made us kings and priests to his God and father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen". Not only did he love you, not only did he wash you, but you need to know he made you. He made you royalty. The Bible says, "He made you a king".
Now understand that royalty is always traced through bloodline. And if you are not in the right bloodline, it doesn't matter what you do. You may be recognized by royalty. You may be honored by royalty. You may be welcomed in the presence of royalty. But unless you have that blood in your veins, you'll never be royalty. What God the Father did when he sent his son Jesus Christ to the cross is he made you a king. How did he do that? He gave you a divine transfusion. Now in my limited understanding of medical knowledge, I know this much about blood transfusions: if you're going to receive a transfusion of blood, the blood that you receive has to be a matched type to yours. You cannot accept a transfusion from the wrong type of blood, which means it has to line up. So who was Jesus Christ? The Bible says he was fully God and fully man.
In John 1, it says, "The word became flesh and it dwelt among us". Why did he become flesh? Because when he became flesh, his blood type matched yours. And when he went to the cross, and he said, "It is finished," what he was announcing is that a divine transfusion had taken place. And the royal blood of heaven that came to earth in the form of flesh was now flowing through the veins of every individual who received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. And now you have the right blood type. You do not live beneath the circumstances. But you're above the circumstances, because you can open your mouth and declare it on earth, and God your father in heaven, he will do it! Give the Lord a handclap of praise! The last few years have brought unprecedented challenges for all of us. We have carried burdens we were never intended to carry.
Not only did this divine transfusion make you a king, but it made you a priest. What does it mean to be a priest? If every father in this church and those of you watching over television would understand what it means to be the priest of your household, we could change this nation in a weekend. Because in the Old Testament, the only person who was fit to take issues before God on behalf of the people was the priest. In the Old Testament, there was one order of priests and that was from the line of Levi. And when you understood what it meant to be Levite: you recognize that it was a great burden on you to go before the throne of God on behalf of the people. In the Old Testament, if the priest did not come in the proper way, if he did not come at the proper time, if he did not have the right cleansing, if he wasn't wearing the right clothes, if he did anything out of line, God killed him. They would wrap a rope around his ankle with a bell on it. And if he went into the presence of God and God didn't accept him, and the bell quit ringing, they drug him out and sent the next guy in.
What was the point of all of this? It was to recognize that an impure and imperfect person has the privilege of standing before holy and Almighty God. So what does it mean that you're now a king and you're now a priest? As a priest, you don't have to go through all of the pain staking process that they went through in the Old Testament, because the Bible tells us that we have a better covenant through Jesus Christ and his blood. Romans 5:9 says, "We were justified by his blood," which means that because you have been justified by his blood, you can now go boldly into the throne room of God your father in heaven. You can go stand before his throne in your hour of need. And the Bible says, "You receive grace and you receive mercy". Grace is what gives you what you don't deserve. And mercy is what spares you from what you do deserve.
I don't know about you, but today I am thankful to God that whenever I have a need, I can go before the throne of God, and say, "In the mighty name of Jesus, father, I need your grace. I need your grace to heal me in my hour of sickness. I need your grace to provide for me in my moment of need. I need your grace to comfort me in my day of anguish. I need your grace to lead me. I need your grace to guide me. I need your mercy to spare me". And because of what Jesus Christ did, because of his shed blood, all of that is mine! Thank the Lord above! The Bible is a book of blood. It begins in Genesis and it goes all the way through to Revelation. Everything that God consecrated, he did so with blood. I told you how he covered Adam and Eve with animal skins. That was the first type and shadow of the sacrifice that was required for sin. Something had to die so that sinful man could live. After the flood, God consecrated the earth with blood in the sacrifices that he commanded Noah to make. When he made a covenant with Abraham, he did so in blood.
Later, when Abraham needed a sacrifice and there was none, God required the innocent life of his son, Isaac, to be tied to the altar, only to replace him with a ram. Why? Because without the shedding of blood, there is no remission or redemption from sin. Fast forward, centuries after Abraham to the children of Israel, who are now in Egypt, they're slaves to sin. It is the type and shadow of what you and I were when we were lost in our sin. Just as Israel had a cruel task master under Pharaoh, you and I had a cruel task master under sin. Satan bound us with addiction. Satan bound us with shame. Satan bound us with lies. And everything that we didn't want to do, sin made us do. Just as the children of Israel marched in brick pits and had to do work that they didn't wish to be a part of, you and I, lost in our sin, could not escape. But then came a redeemer. The Bible tells us of Moses, who walked into Pharaoh's brick pits and he demanded, "Let my people go".
When you understand what happened in the lives of those who were in Egypt, you recognize that everything God did through Moses, dismantled every God that Egypt had. I want you to see this sacrifice for just a moment from the perspective of the Egyptian. The greatest of the Egyptian Gods was a God by the name of Amun-Ra. Amun-Ra was symbolized in Egyptian culture with a man's body and a ram's head. You can still see him in ancient artwork in the Egyptian culture. And Amun-Ra was the God who created everything, according to the Egyptians. The symbol of his strength on earth was a male lamb. This is why in Genesis 46:34, Joseph tells Jacob to tell Pharaoh that his children watch after sheep. The Bible there says, "Because every shepherd was an abomination to an Egyptian".
Why was it easy for Egypt to enslave Israel? Because when they saw them taking care of sheep, they already thought they were slaves to Amun-Ra. They're watching after lambs. He is the ram God: therefore, he has enslaved them for us. So Moses comes to town and he takes on every one of the Egyptian Gods, from the cobra to the Nile, to the crocodile, to the sun, the moon, and the stars. And then in Exodus 12, God tells Moses to tell the children of Israel, "Pick a male lamb". Pick the symbol of Amun-Ra. Pick the most powerful thing that the Egyptians think they serve and go tie it to your door. Whenever those Israelites tied that male lamb to the door, the Egyptians thought they've gone way too far. These people are out of control. Amun-Ra is going to rise up and he is going to thrash these slaves. The Egyptians saw what was happening, and they thought sooner or later justice would be served. But then suddenly, on the 14th day of that month, God told the fathers in Israel, "I want you to go to that lamb and I want you to slit his throat".
Here in front of all of Egypt, the most powerful symbol of deity they had, these Israelites slit his throat. And not only did they slit the throat, they took the blood and they put it over the door. And then they took the lamb inside and they ate it. Every Egyptian saw that male lamb as a powerful form of deity, and now they're watching it be decimated before their eyes. That night, the Egyptians laid in their beds, and they thought to themselves these Israelites have gone too far. Amun-Ra is going to judge them. And the same night, the Israelites laid in their beds and they said, "The blood of the lamb is over our door. And when the death angel comes through, he'll have to pass by".
That night, it was not an Egyptian God that was turned loose in the streets of Egypt. But that night, it was the death angel himself that had been turned loose by the hand of God. That night, there were no innocent and there were no guilty in Egypt. There were only those who were covered and those who were not. Right here in this sanctuary right now, there are no guilty and there are no innocent, because the Bible says, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". The only two types of people that are here today are those who are covered and those who are not. Now fast forward 4.000 years from Egypt. Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, the lamb slain from the foundations of the earth, he's tied to an altar of sacrifice, a Roman cross, just outside the city walls of Jerusalem. There, his blood is being shed so that you and I might be covered. For the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is life everlasting.
Satan and every demon in hell thought that if they could kill this Christ, if they could kill this anointed one, if they could take his life, they would stop this kingdom of heaven from coming to earth. But what they didn't know is that he was using that cross as a way to go from life unto death. And to spend the next two days walking through the chasms and caverns of hell with the keys to the kingdom in his hands and his blood-soaked robe in the other hand, declaring that any time one of his children came into the mighty name of Jesus, that every demon in hell had to back up, because there was victory in the power of the blood of the lamb: that every promise that was found in this word belonged to us: and that they had to take their hands off of us: that no weapon formed would prosper: that what we bound on earth, it was bound in heaven: and what we loosed on earth is loosed in heaven.
Now, child of God, because of the blood, what was impossible is now possible. Chains of addiction are broken. Ruined lives are mended. Shattered dreams are restored. What the enemy tried to take has got to be restored. We are more than conquerors through Christ because of the blood! Give the Lord a handclap of praise!
This blood leaves a permanent stain. It's something that once you apply it, it never goes away. But you have to make the conscious decision to apply it to your life. It's not enough that the blood was shed. It's that you have to submit to living under it. Just as God told the fathers in Israel in the book of Exodus, "Take the blood and put it over your door," he's telling each and every person in this room today and those of you who are watching, take this blood, this precious blood, and let it wash you, and let it make you royalty, and let it make you a priest unto God. Apply it to your life: that you would know what the Bible means when it says, "Whom the son sets free is free indeed". All of the work has been done. All you have to do is say, "Today, father, I need that precious blood".
Would you stand to your feet? If you're in this place today and you can say, pastor, I've never received Christ as my Savior, I've never received this precious blood. But today I don't want to leave this place without applying it to my life. Today I need this blood over my family. Today I need this blood over my health. Today I need this blood over my business. Wherever you need it today and you want to apply it, I want you to lift your hand in faith believing that what we're about to do is going to change everything for you. Now with that one hand in faith believing, I want you to lift your other hand that you may receive. And I want everyone in this place to repeat this prayer with me:
Lord Jesus Christ, today I need your blood to cover my life afresh and anew. I need your blood over my family. I need your blood over my health. I need your blood over my finances. I need your blood to do for me what no one else can do. Cleanse me. Make me whole. Redeem me. Wash me. Make me royalty, a priest in heavenly places. Today Heavenly Father, in the authority of Jesus' name, because the royal blood of heaven is mine, I come into heavenly places. And I declare...
Now I want you to begin speaking to the father for just a few moments before his throne. Whatever you need today, declare it, in Jesus' name. If you need a breakthrough in your business, declare that that breakthrough is coming by the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony. If you need healing and restoration in your marriage, I want you to speak to that marriage today, in the mighty name of Jesus. If you need healing in your physical body, I want you to receive it by the blood of the lamb and the word of the Lord that we've heard today: that by his stripes, we are healed.
Heavenly Father, there are people on this earth here sitting in the sanctuary, watching over television that are pleading the blood of the lamb today. And I pray that you would hear their heart's cry, as they come before your throne in the mighty name of Jesus. Move mountains of impossibility. Part Red Seas that keep them from their Promised Land. Bring down walls and barriers that keep them from receiving the goodness of God. Let them rule and reign in this life, according to your word, because that's what your blood has promised. We receive this today, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name.