The Precious Blood* Romans 5:8-11
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I received an e-mail from a missionary named Sonny Dix, with Voice of Hope Baptist Missions, in Salisbury, NC. He and his wife Debbie are working on the Philippines on Palawan Island. I read several of his newsletters and wanted to share this with you.
Sonny wrote: I had just finished teaching in the Bible College one Monday night when I got news that there was a request for me to go to our Mission Church in the mountains. I was tired of a weekend of preaching and the ministry but I felt the need to go and visit.
Early Tuesday morning I set out for the mountains and promised Miss Debbie that I would try to get home early that evening. I visited the tribal church, checked on the tribal kinder school and finished my afternoon talking with some of the tribesmen. I received some special offerings from the tribal people which was banana, and fresh octopus.
As I was preparing to leave, they brought a tribal man and his little girl to my jeep and asked if I could help them get to the hospital. I looked at the child and could tell that she was suffering from high fever and lung congestion. Her name was "Lorena" a native girl 3 years old. We put Lorena in the jeep and her daddy came with us to the hospital.
After arriving at the hospital, we found out that the man had no money and no way of getting any. At our hospitals here in the Philippines, you pay first, then get the services. We paid to have the child's blood exam (which was 2 dollars US money) and the doctor admitted the child right away. They found out that Lorena had two-kinds of Malaria, Pneumonia, a Kidney Infection, and was highly Anemic. I purchased some prescriptions that had been prescribed and prayed over the child, left and went home to gather some food and bed mats for the child's bed. Our hospitals do not furnish those luxuries either.
The next morning, I went to the hospital to take food to the daddy when I learned that Lorena had gotten worse during the night. Her condition had become serious because of the kind of Malaria that she had contacted. I asked one of the nurses if she was going to make it and the nurse dropped her head and said, "if she does not get any Fresh Blood today, she will die".
They said that her daddy could not donate blood because he had malaria in his bloodstream too. I asked what kind of blood and where do you get it? She said that it had to be "A Special Kind of Blood", it had to be "Fresh Blood."
I went to the city Red Cross Center and handed them the request. The lady looked at me and said we have no "fresh blood" of this kind. I asked "what kind of Blood does she need?" They said that she needed "B-Type Fresh Blood". I looked at the nurse and said, I have "B" blood, take mine and give it to her. She looked at me and said "will you give your blood for this tribal kid?" It seems that we still have a culture problem with putting people into classes and it shocked her that I, and American would give my blood to a "Tribal kid".
When she asked me that question, something surged in my soul. Tears began to swell up in my eyes and I just could not hold it back. Later the nurse began to draw blood from my arm and noticed the tears in my eyes. She stopped and asked me if I was all right? I said, "you see, I was once a sick child with many sin sick diseases. Death was on the way and my daddy could not save me because he also was a sinner. I needed a blood transfusion of a "Special Kind of Blood". I needed "fresh blood" from the spotless Lamb of God. The transfusion was made at the Cross of Calvary. He saved my soul, healed my disease, and gave me a new life. That blood is still "fresh" on the Mind of God and still saving sin sick children all around the world!
I delivered that blood to the hospital and held that little child in my arms the rest of the evening. The transfusion was made and immediately she began to recover. She stayed one week in the hospital and was ready to go back to her tribe.
I took Lorena and her daddy back to the mountains the following Tuesday. We went up the mountain trail until I got almost to her house. We stopped at the Church where they removed their belongings out of the jeep. Lorena's mother came and hugged her along with the rest of the family. As the daddy began to walk away, little Lorena came up to me, reached out with small hand and said "Salamat Po" which simply means Thank You.
I only wished that my arms could reach 10 thousand miles across the ocean into America and personally shake each of your hands and say "Thank-You, Thank-You, Thank-You. That little girl is Alive, her mom and daddy are Saved, and the family have a good Bible Preaching Church to go to, all because of you. Without you there would be no children hearing the Gospel, Churches going up, and Souls Saved by the Blood of Jesus. We say Thank-You for All you do for Missions. Pray for the Philippines. THE DIX FAMILY
I. The Shedding of the Blood of Jesus Christ was necessary for our salvation.
The greatest act of love that ever happened in the world, was the day the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate in man, allowed Himself to be crucified on that old rugged Cross. In doing so, God was showing His love for His creation. We as Rom. 5:8 says the world was in sin, which means in rebellion against God, yet Christ because of His grace, or unmerited favor toward us, died in our place, shed His blood that we might have everlasting life and total forgiveness for sin.
A. Take the blood from the body and you have nothing left but a corpse. Take the blood of Christ from Christianity and you have a lifeless creed instead of a living faith. God says clearly in Leviticus 17:11,14:
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul...For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof."
B. This is not one of those points on which men may disagree or a doctrine that is no great importance. A man must be right on this subject or he is lost forever.
1. How one believers determines where one goes to Heaven or Hell, happiness or misery, life or death, blessing or cursing, all hinge on whether or not the blood of Christ has been applied to your life by faith.
2. You may know a great deal about the Bible. You may teach Sunday school or preach in the pulpit. You may know the outline of the history of the Bible just as a man may know the history of his country. You may know the names of Bible characters just as a man knows about Caesar, or Napoleon, or Abraham Lincoln. You may know the precepts of the Bible and admire them as man admires Plato or Shakespeare. But if you do not personally know the power of the blood of Christ in your life there is no reality to your faith.
3. Without the blood of Christ we are like those mentioned in 2 Timothy 3:5, "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." Your faith is a heaven without a sun, an arch without a keystone, a compass without a needle, a clock without a spring, a lamp without oil. There is no reality and no personal comfort and no hope of Heaven apart form the blood.
4. Beware of a church or denomination that is without the blood! Such a warning is sadly needed today. Hundreds of places of worship have everything except the blood.
ILLUS: Several Protestant denominations (Baptists are not Protestants) have either changed or removed the mention of blood from the hymns there church sings. Their people and preachers are greatly offended at the mention of the blood of Christ and therefore they do not mention it .
Man's religion have impressive building, carved oak and sculptured stone and stained glass and brilliant paintings. They are solemn services and dignified ordinances. But without the blood there is no life. O, there may be splendid ceremonies, beautiful music, learned ministers, crowded communion tables, large offerings; but there can be no life.
Without the blood a church is no more than a barren fig tree, a dead carcass, a well without water, a sleeping watchman, and a dumb witness.
Without the Blood a church is as a lighthouse without the light. A church without the Blood is a stumbling block to weak believers, comfortable for infidels, a hot-bed for formalism, a joy to the Devil, and an offense to God.
II. The Gospel of this Bible is the gospel of the blood of the Cross from which flows the salvation power of God. The Bible is a blood-stained Book. The Church is a blood-stained Church. The pathway to Heaven is a blood-stained pathway.
A. The only way to Heaven is through Christ who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (John 14:6).
1. Let us think for a moment of the teaching of the words found in Hebrews 9:7, "not without blood." In the Old Testament the High Priest went once a year into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled the blood of a pure lamb between the Cherhim on the Altar.
"Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.
But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people."
God will not pardon but without blood (Hebrews 9:22).
Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no redemption.
2. Men can be redeemed but not without blood (Hebrews 10:19,20).
3. Peace can be enjoyed but not without blood (Colossians 1:20).
4. Justification can be obtained but not without blood (Romans 5:9).
5. Sanctification can be experienced but not without blood (Hebrews 13:12).
6. Glorification can be ours but not without blood (Revelations 5:9).
B. Why do we need the blood? The simple Bible answer is that we are all sinners and we all face the reality of death. Death means separation. Death is separation. Physical death is separation of the body and spirit which is temporal death.
1. Genesis 2:17, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
2. In Genesis 3:6, says that Eve disobeyed God and then Adam followed and the whole of the human race was plunged into sin.
3. Romans 3:10, proclaims that "There is none righteous no not one and there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God."
4. Romans 6:23 in a very matter of factually way God said, "For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God."
5. Sin brings death. "For the wages of sin is death; fur the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).
C. Some might say, "This does not apply to me for I have never disobeyed God as Adam did. I live uprightly and am basically honest. I do the best I can. Surely you cannot say that I am so guilty of sin that I must live forever in Hell."
1. Friend, all we can do is point you to the Bible and to the Word of God Himself on the matter.. Read 1 John 1:8,10, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us...If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."
2. All peoples of the earth share in Adam's transgression according to Romans 5:!2, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."
3. Sin is universal. Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Therefore, the need of a remedy from sin and death is universal.
D. Yet our loving God has provided deliverance from the consequences of sin through the cleansing power of the blood shed on Calvary's Cross.
1. Hebrews 9:22 says, "Without shedding of blood is no remission."
2. Why does it take the shedding of blood? Leviticus 17:11 makes it plain, "For the life of the flesh is in the flood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."
3. Life is in the blood. The penalty of sin is death (Romans 6:23) which is the giving up of life. The remedy must therefore include the paying of the penalty - the giving up of life - the shedding of blood.
4. This means that every effort to enter Heaven some other way will fail. No preacher or priest or church or sacrament or Mary or Mass or ritual or confirmation or baptism or christening or good works has shed blood on your behalf.
5. No blood except the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can avail for you and me.
Poem based on Heb. 10:4, "Not all the blood of beasts, On Jewish altars slain could give the guilty conscience peace Or wash away the stain. But Christ the heavenly Lamb Takes all our sin away. A sacrifice of nobler Name And richer blood than they.
III. Blood To Cleanse.
A. The Bible speaks of the blood of the lord Jesus Christ as precious, "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 Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:18,19).
B. The blood of Christ is precious because it is royal blood. In some mystical sense it was the blood of God (Acts 20:28; John 1:1,14).
1. It is the blood of the divine-human One (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 1 John 3:5).
2. Since God places such value upon the precious blood, it is of vital importance to the Christian life. Indeed, without it there can be no life. The one who rejects the blood rejects salvation.
Through the blood we have redemption:
"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation" (Revelation 5:9).
C. Through the blood of Christ we have propitiation: "And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2).
1. Through the blood of Christ we have forgiveness and loosing from sin: "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace"
(Ephesians 1:7).
2. Through the blood of Christ we have peace with God: "And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven" (Colossians 1:20).
3. Through the blood of Christ we have nearness to God, "But now is Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13).
4. Through the blood of Christ we are sanctified, "Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate" (Hebrews 13:12).
5. Through the blood of Christ we have cleansing from sin as we walk in the light as He is in the light. "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John
1:7).
6. Through the blood of Christ we shall have victory over Satan in the last and final conflict: "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death" (Revelation 12:11).
D. The Bible points out how necessary the application of the blood of Christ is to our hearts to bring forth spiritual and eternal life out of death. Physical death is the separation of body and spirit as taught in James 2:26, "For as the body without the spirit is dead." This is temporal death. Spiritual death is separation from God.
1. Ephesians 2:1, " And you hath He quickened (made alive) who were dead in trespasses and sins." Everyone of us in our natural state is spiritually dead - separated from God. Paul says we "were by NATURE the children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3).
2. You see the lost man can be accurately called the "walking dead." Is has physically life, but not spiritual life. He is a body, but spiritually he is an empty shell.
3. This is what the Bible means when it speaks of the fact that we are all sinners. "Sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4)
4. "All unrighteousness is sin" (1 John 5:17). "For whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Romans 14:23). As the breaking of the law of the land brings a penalty, so there is a penalty for the sin of every individual before God, "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans
6:23). "The souls that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4,20).
E. One might try to brush aside any personal responsibility for sin in their life, but the Bible declares that you are a sinner and must pay the death penalty, either personally or in the person of a substitute:
1. Sin is a spiritual failure. Adam and Eve and you and all men know what is right....yet they willing chose to do wrong in defiance of God.
2. The penalty must be a spiritual one as well. God, Almighty, came to the earth incarnate in Jesus Christ. His who is spirit took the body of a man and in that body which joined spirit and the flesh...He God, suffered for our sins and paid with the shedding of his own blood for us and give of His life, that we might live.
3. Jesus Christ died to sin and let death do all it could. You see sin brought the death, and Christ had to deal with it. Because He was God He overcame sin for us. We being sinners cannot redeem ourselves...yet He did it for us that we by faith could be saved.
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12).
4. Every person is subject to physical death and every day men and women are dying. Likewise, in our natural state, we are in a condition of spiritual death and separation from God. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). The word "all" includes you and me.
F. In the garden Adams and Eve's effort to cover up their sin failed. There making of leaves to cover themselves did not restore their lost fellowship with God, nor the removal of his sin and shame.
1. We read that when Adam and Eve now heard the voice of the Lord God they "hid themselves."
2. Most people today do not read the Bible nor do
they want to listen to the plain teaching of God's Word, for sinful
man does not want to come face to face with a holy God.
3. God gave them an opportunity to confess sin: "Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest
not eat?" (Genesis 3:11). What was the reply? Each excused his
own sin by blaming the other person.
F. Phil. 2:10-11, says "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . ." Christ Jesus shed His blood that our we could in faith, bow before Him now and in repentance for sin, believe and be forgiven for all our sin.
1. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of work lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8).
2. The Lord Jesus Christ went to the Cross as our Substitute. The precious blood He shed there becomes the covering for all our sin and shame. Live is in the blood. That life can be yours today if you will but confess your sin and receive Christ as your own personal Saviour. "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).
Conclusion:
Because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ no one in this room need die in their sins to spend an eternity in the fires of Hell.
The shed blood of the Precious Lamb of God, has paid the penalty for our sins.....but it is only applied to our sins, when we believe and accept it.
Romans 5:8-9 says, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."
*Note: I found this message in my files and do not know where it came from or to whom to give credit. I modified it in a few places, but it is essentially as I copied it.)