"Just Present the Blood" By Pastor Carl Stevens
Carl H. Stevens Jr. was pastor of Greater Grace
World Outreach located in Baltimore, Maryland.
Pastor Stevens was also chancellor of Maryland Bible
College & Seminary and host of the international
Christian radio program “The Grace Hour.” This
booklet was created from a message preached by
Pastor Stevens.
Pastor Stevens can be seen weekly on cable
television stations throughout the United States.
Call us for information regarding programming in
your area.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from
the King James Version. Italics for emphasis are ours.
GRACE PUBLICATIONS
P.O. BOX 18715
BALTIMORE, MD 21206
Printed in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.
Copyright © 1996
In Hallmarks from the Heart, Vol. 1
Reprinted 2005
Grace Publications is a ministry of
Greater Grace World Outreach, Inc.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
THE KEY TO VICTORY
Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
AS HE IS, SO ARE WE
Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
COME BEFORE THE LORD
CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
INTRODUCTION
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
For every Old Testament chapter, a chapter
or verse in the New Testament reveals its fullness
under the new covenant. Jesus Christ shed
His Blood and became sin for us, according to
this New Testament verse. It is a commentary on
Leviticus 4.
Leviticus 4 is not dealing with sins. It is important
that you remember this throughout this
message. The chapter does not deal with what
we have done or what we do. Instead, it deals
with what we are. The difference between what
we have done and what we are is found in the
analogy of the root and the fruit.
Let’s say that my life is not manufacturing
any particular sins. The fact would still remain
that I have a sin nature. “If we say that we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not
in us (1 John 1:8). This doesn’t say, “if we say we
have no sins,” because, by the grace of God, we
should not be sinning. But it does say, “if we say
we have no sin” (sin nature), which produces
sins, then we are lying. There will never be a
time on earth when we will be without our sin
nature. Until we get our new, glorified bodies in
heaven, the sin nature will never be eradicated.
If you have had an honest experience with
God, you will notice that it did not eradicate
your sin nature. That experience, however, can
give you power through the Finished Work and
through the Cross so that you can go on to enjoy
the revelation of all the spiritual blessings God
has given (Ephesians 1:3). And, when anything
interrupts your communion with God, there is
one thing powerful enough to overcome the
accusations from hell: Just present the Blood.
Chapter One
THE KEY TO VICTORY
The blood offering of Leviticus 4 was to take
care of any sin that was committed through ignorance.
Many people always worry about
whether or not they are doing okay. “Have I
done enough good?” “Have I witnessed
enough?” “Have I prayed enough?” “Have I
given enough?” They are always worrying
about these things.
When Jesus Christ died on the Cross, His
Blood took care of all the sins that God has not
revealed to us yet. You never have to ask God if
there is anything wrong in your life. He will be
faithful to tell you. 1 Corinthians 1:9 says,
“God is faithful, by whom you were called unto
the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The Holy Spirit’s job is to “reprove the world of
sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment”
(John 16:8).
Whatever is wrong in me, the Holy Spirit
will do the convicting. I don’t have to go
through an hour or a moment or a day worrying.
He will do the convicting. If He doesn’t convict
and I’m walking in the light that’s been
revealed to me, then I can be sure that the Blood
of Christ has taken care of my sins of ignorance.
Furthermore, He has taken care of all the sins
that I have already confessed.
The Blood of Jesus Christ is the key to the
believer’s victory. Therefore, we must understand
more and more about the Blood. Consider
the different phases of the application of the
Blood.
First, there is the Blood of the new covenant
(Matthew 26:28). The importance of the Blood of
the new covenant is explained in Hebrews 9-10.
Second, we have the Blood of new life (John 6:53-54).
Third, there is the Blood of redemption
(Hebrews 9:12,14). And last, we read of the
Blood of atonement (Hebrews 10:10,14).
The Blood of the New Covenant
When Jesus Christ died and shed His Blood,
He took care of our sin with that Blood. We are
talking about sin, in the singular, meaning the
old sin nature. His Blood completely blotted out
our sin nature and covered our sins by casting
them into the sea of God’s forgetfulness (Micah 7:19).
“Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin”
(Romans 4:7-8). What happens when the Blood
takes care of the sin nature? We still have the nature,
but we are blessed.
Put some of these thoughts together. He who
knew no sin became sin that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. If we say we
have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and
truth is not in us. But, blessed be the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Jesus Christ has forever taken care of the sin
nature of man by becoming sin and paying the
penalty for it with His death on the Cross. Jesus
the man became sin so that we don’t need to
have our sin nature imputed to us, though we
still have it.
This is where dear people misunderstand
and speak of the eradication of the sin nature .
They have no concept of the difference between
positional truth and experiential truth. He that
is born of God cannot commit sin (1 John 3:9; 5:9).
This sounds contradictory. First we say we
have a sin nature, then we say he that is born of
God does not commit sin. What does it all
mean? It means that in God’s eyes, believers
cannot commit sin because God the Father never
sees the sin that they commit. Why is this true?
Because of the Blood of the new covenant.
What happens if any one sins in his experience?
If any man enters into his sin nature and
sins experientially, he has an advocate with God
the Father, and it is Jesus Christ the righteous,
the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1-2). Now,
if a man knows that God will not impute sin to
him and he chooses to practice sin and does not
go to the Advocate, there are consequences.
First, he grieves the Spirit and breaks his fellowship
with God. Second, he leaves himself open
to chastisement and to the problems the sins
themselves bring back. But, God the Father does
not impute those sins to him. Notice I said “God
the Father,” because Jesus Christ the Son satisfied
God the Father.
The sin grieves the Holy Spirit, who is God
within him (Acts 5:3-4), but God the Father, who
is above him, doesn’t see the sin. The sin breaks
fellowship, but it doesn’t change the believer’ s
relationship to the Father. Chastisement is done
in love to correct him, but because of the new
covenant between God the Father and God the
Son, the Father never sees it.
Seated Above
God cannot look upon sin (Habakkuk 1:13),
and because that is true, there would be no way
for us to be accepted in heaven unless God the
Father could see us as completely perfect. When
Jesus Christ went to heaven, He took us with
Him, and positionally we were seated there with
Him as born-again believers (Ephesians 2:6).
From that point on, the Father could never again
see us in sin.
We are seated (perfect tense) with Christ in
heavenly places. It is a finished work, and we
are hid with Christ in God in heaven. Never
again will He impute sin to us, because we are
washed in the Blood and saved. If we sin on
earth, and we confess it, we are immediately restored
in our experience. If we don’t confess it,
then we reap what the sin produces, judicially,
and what the Holy Spirit of God in us must do
to chastise us.
When the precious Blood of Jesus Christ
brings us into the new covenant, we receive His
new life (John 6:53). We are redeemed by the
Blood (Titus 2:14; Mark 10:45); we were bought
back from the world, from the devil, and from
the flesh. We were bought back through the
Cross, empowered by the Resurrection, and totally
purchased—paid in full—by the One who
created us.
There’s more. Not only are we bought back,
but we have also entered into atonement with
the One who bought us back, both in heaven
and on earth.
Follow this carefully. The Holy Spirit is
grieved if we sin. He sees us, convicts us, and
chastises us. The Father doesn’t see our sin because
He is the Planner, and according to His
plan, He has to accept us through the new
covenant of the Son. Furthermore, the Son does
not see our sin either, because He has made us
one with Him for eternity by His Blood. The
only Person of the Trinity dealing with us in
time is the Holy Spirit, whose dispensation pertains
to the Church.
The Son has redeemed us forever; and the
Father has accepted forever whoever the Son
has redeemed. The Father only sees the Son, and
every believer is in the Son (Colossians 3:3). And
the Son of God is one with us, so He sees us as
nothing less than His own body, flesh, and
bones (Ephesians 5:30). He sees no spot in us
(Song of Solomon 4:7). We are without a wrinkle
in the eyes of Christ (Ephesians 5:27). Jesus has
accepted us in His organism, His body, as one.
Only the Holy Spirit sees the sins we commit.
This is why the Bible says, “And grieve not
the holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:30). The
Word of God doesn’t speak of grieving the Father
or the Son. It speaks of grieving the Holy
Spirit. But it is also the Spirit who bears witness
in my heart that I am seen as perfect in heaven
and on earth. It is true that the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit are one, but the One God operates
in redemption, according to His plan.
Chapter Two
AS HE IS, SO ARE WE
“ H e rein is our love made perfect, that we
may have boldness in the day of judgment: because
as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).
Does this give me a license to sin? Absolutely
not. I want to be able to fellowship with
the Father, and I want to be able to operate in the
victory of the Son in my experience. But if I am
grieving the Holy Spirit, there is no way I can
enjoy fellowship in the plan of God. There is no
way I can enter into the implementation of the
Son’s execution of the plan. Therefore, I don’t
want to sin. God forbid!
Usually, in this type of revelation, when we
get to the first point, people will say we are
teaching that anyone can sin and get away with
it. I am not teaching that at all. What I am teaching
is this: Thanks be to God, we are in atonement
with the Son. We are one with the Son. We
are redeemed, purchased completely, never
again to be resold into the slavery of sin.
Satan cannot take back what God has redeemed.
We have entered into eternal redemption
(Hebrews 9:12). “For by one offering he
hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified ”
( Hebrews 10:14). By the grace of God, we are redeemed.
We have entered into atonement. We are part of a
new covenant. Glory to God, we have new life.
Anyone who gets this straight won’t need to
have a nervous breakdown. And to top that off,
the Blood covers every single sin of ignorance,
because it has made us perfect in the sight of
God. The reason those sins are ever revealed to
us is so that they won’t hinder our fellowship
with the Father.
Present the Offering
“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If
a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of
the commandments of the LORD concerning
things which ought not to be done, and shall do
against any of them:
“If the priest that is anointed do sin according
to the sin of the people; then let him bring
for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock
without blemish unto the LORD for a sin offering”
(Leviticus 4:2-3).
If a priest of Israel sinned, he did not start
seeking something. He did not say, “Now, wait a
minute, I am not sanctified. I need to do more.”
He did not look back, he didn’t look within, he
didn’t look forward—he didn’t do a thing. He
just brought the bullock.
When a man sins—and God forbid that he
does—he only needs to bring the offering. And
that offering is Jesus Christ: “By the which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the
body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).
There is no need for rationalization. This man
doesn’t have to worry or fret. He just brings the
offering, and brings it fast, to appropriate the
application of the offering by faith through the
Holy Spirit’s power. Immediately, he can go on
in the victory of the Blood and the atonement.
You don’t go on in the aspect of the Blood of
redemption. You have already been purchased
forever. Rather, you go on in the Blood of the
atonement, because you are nothing less than
one with Jesus Christ.
The children of Israel just brought the offerings.
What happens when a person gets weary
and tired and does not bring the offering, even
though it is available? He is always defeated and
unhappy. But the moment the Blood is presented
to God, it’s over; and once again this person
is totally perfect in his experience. It takes less
than a second. It is simply a response of His
faith through the promise of His Word. It doesn’t
even take my faith. It takes a response to His
Word. And when I believe His Word, His Word
produces His faith in me. I just agree with it
and all I have to say is, “Yes, Lord. I am in
agreement with You that I only have to present
the Blood. Thank you! Amen!”
The Blood Is Everything
I will tell you why people have so many
problems: It is because we trample the Blood
under our feet and we walk by sight. We have to
trample the Blood under our feet in order to be
miserable. We have to trample the Blood under
our feet to be discouraged. Christ’s Blood has
more than just redeeming value. It has made us
one, complete, accepted, perfect, cleansed, and
purged. It is a peace offering, a burnt offering, a
meal offering, and a sin offering. It is everything.
The Blood was put on the horns of the altar by
our High Priest, Jesus Christ, the One who is ever
living to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25).
The horns speak of power. Believers are to put on
the power of the altar. The Holy Spirit is the power
of the altar. His eternal Spirit reveals the Blood of the Cross.
When we go to the Cross by faith, we automatically
have the horns and the Blood that is upon them.
The Cross is where I died with Him. His Blood is
what covers my sins and buries them, and the
Holy Spirit is the power that takes over my life.
Now, put it all together. The Cross took care of me
and my sin nature, forever, in the eyes of God.
The Blood took care of what I have done. Now, the
horns speak of the power of the Holy Spirit in me,
with the Blood applied, which takes care of my present life.
I do have a sin nature, but God will not impute it
to me. I don’t have to experience the old sin nature’s
terrible effects, because I have the Holy Spirit
and the Blood on the horns of the altar. I have
the Cross, the Spirit, the Blood, and I am free.
Chapter Three
COME BEFORE THE LORD
Leviticus 4 doesn’t tell the one who has
sinned that he must do penance and be miserable
for twenty-five days to get over it. He is not
told to be depressed for three weeks in order to
pay his debt. He is not told to take his head and
rap it against the wall and go into a fast to pay
for what he did. No, the sinner is simply told to
bring the “bullock without blemish.”
Is he told to bring the bullock before the congregation?
No, he is told to bring it before the Lord. The Lord isn’t
interested in a penance program; He is interested in Christ.
No matter who you are, what you are, or what you have done,
you just simply bring Christ back to the Father,
and that restores your fellowship through the Holy Spirit.
It is a shame to take Christ for granted. It’s a
shame to think that He is anything less than all
in all (Colossians 3:11). He is all, and in all. No
matter how you feel, present Christ. When you
get on your knees, do you present yourself? No.
You present Christ, and then you will present
yourself to the Holy Spirit. Then, as the Holy
Spirit reveals Christ, you can reveal the Spirit of
Christ in you. As you present Christ, you can be
certain that you are absolutely in perfect fellowship
with Him.
The tabernacle of the congregation is a representation
of the Corporate Body. By bringing the Blood,
which has cleansed you, you are restored perfectly
into the Body of Christ. What does the Blood give
you? God’s experiential living Body, completely
cleansed and purged, without spot or wrinkle.
It completely cleanses and makes you new in
the freshness of Christ.
The Word of God says the priest shall dip his
finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times
before the Lord (Leviticus 4:6). “Seven” speaks
of perfection and completion. Jesus Christ has
finished the work for us. When He took our sin
upon Himself, He completed the work before
God the Father and before the veil of the sanctuary.
This veil speaks of the flesh of His body.
Where was the Blood brought? Before the flesh
of the body. Why? When the Father sees our
flesh, he only sees the Blood of Christ. The Blood
is in front of the veil. We have this veil and we won’t
lose it until the Rapture, or until we are absent
from the body and present with the Lord
(2 Corinthians 5:8). Our high priest, Jesus Christ,
put His Blood before the veil of our flesh by
finishing the work of redemption.
The Blood at the Root of the Altar
“And the priest shall put some of the blood
upon the horns of the altar of sweet
incense…and shall pour all the blood of the bullock
at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering,
which is at the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation” (Leviticus 4:7).
The reason that this blood is poured out at
the bottom of the altar is because the bottom is
the root of your death. The altar speaks of death,
sacrifice, and offering. When we come to the
altar, the Blood is at the root of it.
In other words, we present His offering and
we reckon ourselves to be dead indeed to sin
(Romans 6:11). Every time we present our bodies
as a living sacrifice, the Blood has to be at the
root of the altar. Everything about sacrifice,
everything about offering, and everything about
death must have the Blood at the root of the altar.
Many times people serve God without the
Blood. They talk without the Blood at the altar.
They preach sermons on the Cross and preach
without the Blood as the foundation of their experience.
The Holy Spirit wrote the book of Leviticus in a
unique and significant way, because He knows
that hundreds talk about the Cross and talk
about the sacrifice and offering, but they do it
without the Blood being at the root of the altar.
The Blood must be at the root to cleanse and redeem.
The Blood must be at the root of every sacrifice,
every reckoning. And every time that we present
our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, it must be
the Blood—completely His sacrifice, His life, His
offering, His Cross, and His Holy Spirit.
When the Blood is at the root, our lives go on
without spot or wrinkle, spiritually speaking.
There are no spots of sin, no wrinkles, and no
scars. We are complete and we know it. It is all
Christ. It is all what He did. It is all in who He is.
It is all in trusting in Him and in what He did at
Calvary. It is all about the Blood.
CONCLUSION
Christ finished the work at Calvary. As a result,
we go forward in the most glorious way as
a glorious church, a glorious tabernacle of the
congregation. The Blood is in front of us. The
Blood is on our conscience. At the altar is the
Blood. Behind our singing is the Blood.
When we fail, we just present the Blood.
When we look to the past, we see the Blood.
When we think of the present, we see the Blood.
When we think of the future, we see the Blood.
Everything is the Blood! The Blood! The Blood!
“…When I see the blood, I will pass over you”
(Exodus 12:13). There are no other conditions.
God only sees the Blood upon us.
When you have an evil thought, present the
Blood. When you haven’t done something that
you should have done, present the Blood. When
someone offends you, present the Blood. When
you don’t like someone, present the Blood.
The Blood wipes out “you” with the cleansing.
No matter what the accuser says to you, just
believe in the Blood. And what about this: “They
overcame him by the blood of the Lamb!”
(Revelation 12:11a). Satan was overcome by the
Blood of the Lamb and the word of His testimony.
This is the tremendous way to victory.
The Blood—it is the only way to overcome.
