Open Heavens 2012-27 October-LET GIFT REFLECT OCCASION

Pst. E.A. Adeboye 27 October

LET GIFT REFLECT OCCASION

Memorise: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrew 9:14

Read: Hebrews 9:11-22

You need to understand one important fact about giving; which is that your gift must agree with the particular occasion for which it is meant. In Genesis 4:1 -7, when two brothers came to offer to God, one was accepted and the other was rejected. Hebrews 11:4 says;

By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

After the fall of Adam and Eve, God introduced them to receiving forgiveness through the shedding of blood. He demonstrated it to them and thereafter used the animal hide to clothe them (Genesis 3:21). They must have passed this information to their children. Cain and Abel would have been told of what to sacrifice to obtain forgiveness but Cain decided to do something else. He offered the fruit of the ground to God for the atonement of his sins. Ordinarily, if it were to be a regular offering, it would have been received but for sin, tubers of yam, fruit and other farm produce cannot atone. Moreover, the earth had been cursed and so tendering produce from a cursed earth equally made his offering unacceptable.

Just as Cains offering was rejected because it failed to satisfy the requirement for the atonement of sin, the offerings of many across the world today are still being rejected. If you give God money or material things or you sacrifice goat, ram, your body or any human being for the washing away of your sins, that offering will be rejected, Hebrews 9:22 says blood must be shed for sins to be forgiven, so Abel's sacrifice and those done under the Mosaic covenant were accepted for the covering of sins only (Psalms 85:2, Psalms 32:1); that was why there was need to do them over and over again. But such shedding of blood could not wash away or take away sins (Hebrews 1 0:4); only the blood of Jesus can wash away sins (Revelations 1:5). He has brought a better covenant which He sealed with His righteous blood (Matthew 26:28). In some religions today, when someone sins and desires forgiveness, he or she will be served some penance - punishment No penance can take away your sins! When such an individual dies, he will find that all the sins he was told had been cleansed were still intact. Only the blood of Jesus can save a soul. No ram's blood can cleanse you from the slightest of sins.

KEY POINT

The blood of animals cannot truly erase sins. Without appropriating the blood of Jesus, sinners will remain in their sins.