Gospel—Jim Hyland
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Well, we want to welcome everyone to the Gospel Meeting. The Gospel Meeting is a meeting of good news, and it's a joy and thrill to our souls to be able to proclaim once again that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Some years ago, two young people were heard to be speaking together just before a meeting like this at a conference. And they said, well, it's just another Gospel Meeting. It'll probably end around 8:00.
You know, this gospel meeting probably will end around 8:00, but no meeting is just another gospel meeting. It's a an opportunity to hear the glad tidings of God's love and grace, the story of salvation. And I trust that if there's someone here who's not saved tonight, that they will be saved. And I trust that every one of us who know Christ as our Savior, whether we've known him for years or for a short time, we'll have our souls refreshed and thrilled.
As we speak of the precious things of Christ together once again like to begin with hymn #3 on the gospel hymn sheet, my hope on nothing less is built than Jesus and the blood he spilled. Let's stand up to sing this number three and if someone will please start it.
I hope for nothing.
Nsnoise.
Christmas.
All over the crowd, there is waking Sun.
And on his hands.
Don't forget everybody. He's still alive. My life's been flaring.
All the Christmas, Always.
Said Oh, I've been crowned and they drink sand.
All over the ground, Many things that.
By way of introduction to what is on my heart tonight, I'd like to read a verse in the Old Testament back in the book of Leviticus, Leviticus, chapter 17.
3rd Book in the Bible, Leviticus, chapter 17.
Verse 11 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. Tonight we are going to stress as we seek by the grace of God.
To present the gospel ever so simply, we're going to stress the remedy for sin, and that is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. When I was growing up, I grew up under the preaching of an evangelist by the name of Ernie Wakefield. And he used to often tell us that when you preach the gospel, preach Christ and make much of the blood, because that really is the gospel message we have a glorious person to present to you.
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Who performed A glorious work long ago on Calvary's cross. And it is a thrill to my soul tonight to be able to open the word of God. And not to present something new or even try to give some different slant or flourish to it, but to present simply the glorious gospel in its simplicity, the gospel that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
But as I say, tonight we're going to look at some scriptures and stress the remedy, the cure for sin.
Because we're going to see that God has only one way of blessing.
And God has taught from the very beginning of man's history of sin.
That's a way of blessing is based on the death and the shedding of blood.
Of an innocent victim. It was brought before us last night, but we'll go back a little bit. We find when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden. When they took. When Adam took in disobedience.
The forbidden fruit sin entered the world. It tells us sin entered in death by sin. So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And if God was going to be able to bless, it had to be on the basis of the death of an innocent victim or victim. I realized that the blood is not mentioned there. I realize that it doesn't have the word sacrifice. The first mention of sacrifice as such is later on in connection with Abel, but we, I think, very quickly realize.
That to provide coats of skin for Adam and Eve. There had to be the death of a victim or victim. And then we find later on that Abel. It says he brought a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Cain brought the fruit of a cursed earth. Abel brought out something from the flock. There was again death and the shedding of blood. No doubt he knew the story from his parents and what had happened the day they had sinned, and how they had to be driven out of that beautiful garden, and how sin had entered into the world.
But that God had provided through shedding of blood, those coats of skin for them.
And then we come through the Old Testament and all those sacrifices.
One after another, they all speak in some way or another of the Lord Jesus. God was looking forward in his thoughts and in his heart to that time when his son would go to the altar.
Go to Calvary's cross, and there be offered as that supreme sacrifice, and shed his His precious blood. And yet it tells us of those sacrifices in the Old Testament that they never put away sin.
And the Levites and the children of Israel, the priests, as those sacrifices were offered from day-to-day.
They understood this very clearly that that sacrifice only atoned for that one sin.
And then they had to bring another and another and another. And it tells us in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, that every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which could never take away sin. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God. And so we find here where we began. It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. And so in the Old Testament.
Things were put, so to speak, on account as there was sin, and they brought those sacrifices. And I say God could accept those sacrifices when they were offered in the proper way, because as I say, he was looking forward to his Son offering himself as that supreme sacrifice. And so we're going to go to some scriptures in the New Testament as time permits, and we're going to see different aspects of the blood of Christ.
And the effect that it has when it is applied to in our in our lives. Personally, and I want to stress that the gospel tonight is for you personally, for a few moments. Don't worry about the person beside you. Don't worry if some of the other young people are listening or not. I want you to focus for a moment on what God is saying to you through His word, because it is the word of God that is going to have its power tonight.
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We didn't have time in the reading meetings to take it up at any length, but at the end of the chapter First Peter One, it tells us we're born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the word of God that liveth and abideth forever. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing. By the word of God He that hath ears to hear, let him hear, because it is tonight the word of God in all its living power, that is going to have blessing in your life.
It's the word of God applied in the power of the Spirit, and open your ears to hear what God has to say.
That's why when we present the gospel, we open this living book, we quote, we read from the word of God. Our presentation tonight is not going to save a soul, but it's a living word in all its power that God can use to impart divine life and to further give you assurance as to your salvation. And so the verses we turn to tonight are very familiar verses, verses that perhaps most of us in this room have heard.
From the very early days of our youth. But, you know, I'm burdened tonight. Sometimes I have opportunity to present the gospel to an audience where I feel perhaps most have never heard it before, or at least have never heard a clear gospel from the word of God. And that is a tremendous burden and challenge. But I sometimes wonder if it isn't a greater challenge to present the gospel.
To those who have heard it many times, because we can hear something so often that we become dull of hearing, we close our ears to the message. But thank God. The word of God is as a hammer that breaks the rock in twain, and the Spirit of God can reach you tonight. And that's our prayer that the Spirit of God would so work that you will realize first of all that you are a Sinner.
Secondly, that there's a great Savior and that there is a cure, a remedy for sin through his death and the shedding of his blood. Let's go first of all to the first epistle of John.
First John chapter one.
First John chapter one.
And verse 7. 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 cleanses us from all sin. If we were to back up leading of the believer, it tells us earlier in this same chapter that our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, and as a result we are brought into fellowship one with another. I'm Speaking of believers now.
And what is the basis for it? The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Because sin separates as we had last night. When Adam and Eve sinned and they received a conscience, it separated from God. They hid themselves behind the trees of the garden. And it tells us later on your iniquities have separated between you and your God. Sin separates, and if we are going to be brought back into fellowship with God, there must be the shedding of blood.
There is only one basis. And so when you remember the story of the prodigal son. When the prodigal son returned in Luke's gospel, he was brought into a place of fellowship and relationship to his father.
That he had never enjoyed before. But what was the basis of it? They fed on the fatted calf. Their fellowship was based on the death of an innocent victim. There was no fellowship with the Father for one who had gone astray, except to sit down at the table and to feed on the fatted calf. And tonight you can be brought into fellowship with God the Father. You can be brought into fellowship with the Lord Jesus.
And with the family of God. But it is only on the basis of the fact that the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.
I remember reading of a young man who went to a gospel meeting very similar to this.
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And the preacher was stressing that it's the blood of Jesus, and the blood of Jesus alone that cleanses from sin, that washes away sin. We sometimes sing that hymn What can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And finally this young man stood up and he said to the preacher, he said, I don't understand.
He said how can blood wash sins away? How can blood cleanse sin?
Well, the preacher thought for a moment. But there was some water on the table for the preacher, just as there is on the podium tonight. And he picked up the water and he said to the young man, I will ask you a question too, how does water quench thirst? The young man thought him, and he said, I don't know, but I know it does. Just so said the preacher. I cannot tell you exactly how blood cleanses sin, but I know it does.
And I know there are just so many here tonight who will give testimony to this. We know our sins are gone. They're washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus. And notice what it says here. The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses from sin. That's true. But there's another little word inserted here. All sin, every stain of sin, is gone from my, from my, from my soul. I'm not afraid of one charge of sin being brought up against me.
Because it's been all taken care of in the blood of Christ, let's just in our minds. I go for a moment to Calvary, and I'm sure many of us have pictured this scene many a time, where they took the Lord Jesus out to Calvary, the place of a skull, and there they nailed him to a Roman cross, and there he hung as a spectacle for men and angels. There there were those who passed by and reviled him.
Others sat down and watched him in his agony.
There were ladies there that had affection for him that came, and how it must have pierced their soul to see the Lord Jesus there on that cross, his mother there at the foot of the cross, the Apostle John. And he's the only one of the apostles, we read that was at the foot of the cross, But there they were, and there the Lord Jesus hung. There are they heaped upon him.
One thing after another. Not only had they spit in his face.
Not only had they buffeted him at his trial, scourged him, giving him every kind of torture imaginable, but there he hung in his agony and suffering. They gave him vinegar to drink, they mocked him and and and so on.
And then there came a moment. There came a moment in the history of this world when God said that's enough.
God shrouded the scene in darkness.
And there, in those hours of darkness, I stand to tell you on the authority of God's Word.
And the assurance in my soul that he bore my sins in his own body on the tree there he took the punishment for me. And I trust you can say the same for your yourself. As I say, it's very, very personal. And then after that was over.
Time went on, and the soldiers were sent to hasten the death of those that were there on Calvary. The soldier came to one of the malefactors and broke his legs. He came to the other malefactor on the other side of the Lord Jesus and he broke his legs as well. But when he came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, he break not his legs. Why? Because it had been prophesied.
A bone of him shall not be broken. And so it says With a spear, with a soldier, with a spear pierced his side. And I love this expression. Forthwith came throughout blood and water. You know, if it just said there came out blood and water, that would be enough. But to my own soul that little word forthwith is so very precious. And I'll tell you why. To me it's just as if God was in a hurry to bless. It's just as if God said, this is the moment I've been waiting for.
And forthwith came throughout blood and water. And here we read the blood of Jesus Christ.
His son cleanseth us from all sin.
Yes, this world is full of sin and sorrow tonight, isn't it? And I have no doubt if we could get a glimpse into the hearts of those in this audience, we turn away and say we can't stand it.
Their sin and sorrow on every hand and even in the believers life, their sorrow and burdens and cares. The only difference is we have the Lord Jesus.
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Who carries those burdens and cares for us and with us, and we have the assurance of a wonderful eternity ahead. But there are sorrows and cares as the result of sin.
But all tonight there's a remedy for all that, and that is the blood of Jesus. As far as sin, if it's still hasn't been taken care of and dealt with in your life, the remedy is there.
And it's all sin, I say again. I'm not afraid in my own life of one charge being brought up against me, because it's all been taken care of.
All sin again. The story has been often told, but I've often thought of it in this connection. Some years ago in one of the towns here in the United States of America, there were two businessmen walking down the street together, and one was a believer, One was an atheist. The atheist was also a soap manufacturer. He had a large plant in the town where they manufactured.
And different kinds of soap. And as they walked along, the atheist said to the Christian he said, You know, you talk about.
The blood of Jesus being able to Washington away sins and to clean sins and he said.
Look at the corruption in this world. Look at all the the the sin. And that's rampant in this world and it's getting worse and worse and worse.
Well, the believer didn't answer for a time and they came to a corner and there was a little boy in the in the ditch and he was playing in the mud and he was absolutely filthy. And of the Christian turned to his friend who was a soap manufacturer and he said look at this, he said you tell me you advertise your soap is so good.
And that your soap is the best and that it will clean up any mess. And look at raiding your own town. There's a little guy here and he's absolutely filthy and you tell me you're so, so good. Oh, the atheist said. Don't you realize if he went home to his mother and she took our soap brand and used it, applied it, Why, he'd be sick and span in no time. He'd be as clean as ever. Oh, just so, said the believer. Just so it is with the blood of Christ, why is sin so rampant today?
Why are men going on in open rebellion against God? Why is violence and corruption filling the earth today? It's because they haven't applied the blood of Christ. It has nothing to do with the efficacy of the value of the blood of Christ or its ability to cleanse from sin. And I want to tell you tonight, if you come to know the Lord Jesus as your savior, if you accept God's remedy for sin tonight, you'll find out that the blood of Jesus.
Is as able to wash sins away as it has ever been.
And so it's the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, that cleanses from all sin. But let's turn to another scripture now in the book of Ephesians for a little different aspect.
Ephesians chapter One.
And verse 7.
In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. I want to talk for a few moments about the forgiveness of sins. Are you a forgiving Sinner?
Let that question sink into your soul. We're all sinners, but you're either a lost Sinner or a save Sinner. You're either a forgiven Sinner.
Or you're going on in your sins and the blood of Jesus has had no effect as of yet. Are you a forgiving Sinner? I know we repeat our illustrations, but I am reminded of a Doctor Who years ago practice medicine in one of the small towns in in Scotland. And in those days, and I'm still old, I'm old enough to to remember when doctors made house calls. But in those days doctors made house calls and this doctor would take his bag and he would go from house to house in the village where he.
Practiced medicine and he would see his patients.
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In their own homes.
But this village was not a very wealthy village. There were a lot of poor people in this village, and there were often times when there were those who had been in the care of the doctor, who could not pay the doctor for his services. And as the story goes, the doctor had on his desk in his office at home a large Ledger. And in that Ledger he kept the names of those that he had.
Are treated over the years, and there was a column to the right with the amount of money that the patient owed the doctor for his services. But the doctor also had something else on his desk. He had a large red pen, and there were times when the doctor would realize that there had been certain patients in his care who would never be able to pay the debt they owed him. And when he came to this conclusion, he would take his pen and he would write across their name and the amount of money they owed one word.
Forgiven And they say as the years passed, there was hardly a page in that Ledger where there wasn't at least one person with the word forgiven in red ink across their name and debt. Well, the doctor in Time passed away and as often happens, the airs flocked around to see how they were going to benefit from the doctor's estate. And as they were going through his things, they came upon this Ledger.
And they began to look through it, and they determined as they saw these names with the red ink. Forgiven, forgiven, forgiven.
They determined that if this Ledger was taken to a court of law, perhaps at least some of these debts could be paid and they would benefit as a result. And so a court date was set and you can just picture the scene. There was the judge sitting on the bench, the family members in front of him. They present him with the Ledger. He opened it up. He ran his fingers up and down those columns. He flipped the pages. Slowly. He saw that red ink. Forgiven, forgiven, forgiven.
He looked at those air, standing expectantly before him.
He slowly closed the Ledger. He handed it back. He said there isn't a court in this land that would uphold or enforce payment of those debts. You know, those people were not afraid of someone knocking on the door and trying to extract money for them that perhaps they themselves had even forgotten about. No, the fact that they had the word forgiven in red ink, written across their name and death, meant that no one could ever collect that debt.
And all that is what it is to be to be forgiven of my sins. I have the word forgiven written across my sins. They're gone. It says as far as the East is from the West.
So far hath he removed our transgressions from us. I'm glad it doesn't save as far as the South is from the north. You can measure that. But you know you can't measure how Far East is from West. You start going east, you'll still be going east. No matter how many times you circumvent the globe. You go West, you'll still be going West. No matter how many times you go around this planet. You can't measure how far the East is from the West. And God says our sins are removed. They're they're gone. He's blotted them out as a thick cloud.
I love that little expression too. In Hebrews, Thy sins and iniquities, I will remember no more. You know, God doesn't forget. We sing a little song about that in Sunday School, and that's OK. But God never forgets. That's human weakness. You know the things I want to remember, I forget. And the things I want to forget, I remember. My grandmother had an expression. I forgive and forget, but I always remember. Isn't that the way it is, humanly speaking?
God doesn't forget, but there are things He chooses not to remember.
Only a divine person can do that. The things I choose not to remember are the things I'm going to remember, perhaps even more keenly than before. And so thy sins and iniquities I will remember.
No more little boy came home from Sunday school very excited one Sunday afternoon. And he said to his mother, he said, you know, mother, they taught me in Sunday school today that there's something God doesn't see well, His mother, who was a believer, she was a little bit distressed because she had always taught her young son that God sees everything. In fact, she had used that many times to curtail some of his activities and antics.
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Now remember, Son, the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good.
Remember, Son, the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. Thou, God, seest me. And so she was distressed at this. And she quoted some of these verses. And he said, yes, mother, but there is one thing that God cannot see. And after several attempts to convince him otherwise, she said to him, What did they tell you at Sunday school that God cannot see? He said, Mother, it's my sins when they're washed in the blood of Jesus.
I thought that was so good. It's simple. We wanna make this very clear tonight. The gospel is not complicated. Sometimes we complicate it. But it's not complicated. It's the fact that the Lord Jesus came into this world as a man. He went to Calvary's cross, he laid down his life, He shed his precious blood. He rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures and he's back in heaven.
Tonight, as the savior of sinners, I've never been there myself, but there is a large cemetery outside of New York City called Evergreen Cemetery. And there they tell me that there is a large tombstone with one word on it. No name, no dates, nothing else. Just the word forgiven. Isn't that all that's needed? Just the word forgiven if you were to die tonight. If you were to draw your last breath tonight.
Would they be able to write on your tombstone forgiven?
I'm thankful to say that they could write that on my tombstone by the grace of God.
You know, some of us in this room have had a little brush with eternity. Recently. We've learned how short life really is and the uncertainty of tomorrow.
How wonderful it is to be ready for what is ahead.
One time my wife and girls and I were driving and we saw bumper sticker in front of us and it said this those who wait till the 11Th hour to be saved.
Searching, isn't it? You know we have no lease on life. We can take a breath one moment and step into eternity the next. There is a step between me and death. It tells us in the word of God, our life is as a shadow. Our life is as grass. We had that in the meetings today. You know, it comes up, it puts on a display, but there's nothing abiding. You run the lawnmower over it.
The frost comes and it's it's gone. It's only there for a for a moment. What is your life? Is it? It is even as a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. You ever watch the tea kettle when it's boiling on the stove? You watch that vapor come up, and what happens? It comes up a little way, and then it's gone. It vanishes away. It only lasts a little time. I thought of it in connection with the clouds, too.
You know, when I was a boy, we like to go out on a cloudy day and lie on our backs in the backyard and watch the clouds as they passed over. And we were, we often like to pick out different patterns and designs in the cloud. We'd say, well, that looks like the head of a bear, or that looks like a horse, or that looks like someone's face. But, you know, you watch that cloud and it didn't last very long. It moved on. It broke up. It changed shape. God says your life is like that. It's like a vapor. It's like a cloud.
It's only there for a little time. And I know sometimes when we're young we think we have a lot of a lot ahead of us. Sometimes when we're young, life seems to drag. You know, when I was a boy, I thought, oh, it'll be great to be a teenager. Oh that, that'll be wonderful to be thirteen. And then when I got to be thirteen, I thought, oh, if I could only drive a car, if I was only 16, I could drive a car. And then when I got to be 16, I thought if I could only be 18, I could do certain things and 21.
But you know, you blink and it's gone. It's like a vapor. It's like the Weaver shuttle. It goes back and forth. It's like that shadow that appears and then it declines. Not only that, but I want to just digress for a moment and stress something that I believe is vital and that is that there is an event going to take place, a momentous event, and it's going to take place at any moment, and it may well take place before I step down from this podium.
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Before this gospel meeting is completed, the Lord Jesus may come on the cloud and give a shout and summon every person who's washed in the blood of Jesus home to heaven.
I wonder if that happened in the next 20 minutes or so, if you would look around and realize that it was too late. Because Scripture is very clear that once the Lord Jesus comes and takes those who are washed in his blood to heaven, there's no more opportunity.
You know, those who are in heaven, they're going to sing, as Revelation 5 tells us, of the blood of Jesus for eternity, the blood of the lamb, and they're going to be redeemed out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. But when you come over to the 20th chapter of Revelation, it's quite a different story. There's people resurrected there, and they're resurrected to stand at a great white throne. They're they're going to stand, and there's no mention of the blood there.
The opportunities are now, not then and there. They stand to be judged.
To be judged in their sins and they're going to be taken and cast into the lake of fire for all eternity. How awful it's going to be. And I believe that there will be many who heard the gospel, many who perhaps sat in meetings like this and they neglected or rejected.
In the Old Testament, there was a man who went to heaven without dying. His name was Elijah.
And when Elijah was caught away to heaven, who was it that missed him?
You know, it wasn't the general populace in Israel that missed him. It says it was the sons of the prophets.
And I often wonder when the Lord Jesus comes if it isn't going to be the sons and daughters of Christian parents and grandparents.
That are going to at at first understand what's taking place, who say, oh, I realize what's happened, but the searching and solemn thing about it is that very quickly Satan will launch out with a lie and he will deceive because they receive not the love of the truth. You know it's not the heathen that are going to believe the strong delusion after the after the Christians are gone. Not the heathen, it's those that heard the truth and didn't receive it.
Who rejected or neglected it, you say? How can that be? How will they be so deceived? How Will Young people that heard the gospel be so deceived that they believe something that is completely false but so strong? Will not delusion be so strong? Will God allow that lie of Satan to be that they will believe something else?
But they're going to go in the end, to a lost eternity. Oh, it's solemn, it's real. Someone was asked at the end of a gospel meeting as they left the room, What did you think of the gospel meeting? Well, they said the preacher was passionate about what he what he preached. And we are tonight. We are passionate about it because this is real, this is reality. And this is not just something that affects us for time, just for this little flash of life that we've spoken about.
This is something that affects us in a real way for all eternity. You know, we talk about spending eternity, and I understand what we mean when we say that, but, you know, we can spend a bank account, we can spend an inheritance. But I'm not sure we can really, in this true sense, spend eternity. How do you spend or use up something that has no ending? And what is very searching is to realize that those who end up in hell.
Lost eternity will be there for as long as we who are in heaven are with the Lord Jesus, and there'll be nothing to measure time with. It'll just be, it'll be eternity. You can't explain it, nothing to measure time with. And you know, it's very solemn when you think about the man in Luke's gospel that the Lord told about who went to a lost eternity. You know it says He lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torment.
You know, that was a real story, not a parable.
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And that man, I'm not sure how long he'd been in a lost eternity when the Lord told the story, but he's been in the a lost eternity for 2000 years plus since, and he will be in the lost eternity for eternity. Is that where you want to end up? That's not where God wants you to end up. That's not where the Lord Jesus wants you to end up. God loves you. The very fact that you're here tonight, that the Lord Jesus hasn't come, and that we have the word of God before us and we're Speaking of these precious things.
Is a proof that God loves us, that Jesus loves us, and that he desires our blessing. It tells us that God's desire is that all men would be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. The Lord Jesus said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come unto me and drink. The Lord Jesus said he wants to bless you. He wants to give you eternal life.
Which is the gift of God. He wants to wash away your sins. He wants to forgive you.
Of your sins. And now I want to turn to the verse we ha verses we had this afternoon in First Peter chapter one. We've spoken of the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. We've spoken of forgiveness. And before we read these verses, I want us to turn to our hymn sheet. And we're gonna take a moment to sing another hymn here this this evening. It's hymn #34 on the hymn sheet.
Hymn #34 if someone will please start it.
Permission, right?
Now.
It is always.
Making.
The World Party Spring gone, Red, White Friends and different stars.
First Peter chapter one and verse 18.
For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.
Oh, what tremendous truth. These verses contain. The Lord Jesus in the aspect of the Lamb of God, that one that John the Baptist saw walking here in this world and proclaimed, behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And those of us who were here in the reading meeting this afternoon will forgive me, but I'm going to repeat what we said in connection with these verses, because it is a thrill to my soul tonight to realize.
That my redemption does not depend on something that changes in value. Suppose our redemption depended on the value of gold and silver or other precious commodities. As we said this afternoon when the markets closed on Friday, gold and silver and money was was at a certain value. But when they open on Monday, there's going to be changes and by next Friday.
There might be very different value placed on those commodities.
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Traveling the world, we deal in all kinds of money and it's always a bit of a shock to us sometimes when we go to change pounds and euro and American money into Canadian money and and Guyanese money into uh E Eastern Caribbean currency and so on, to see how much there can be a change even from one day to the next. You know, in Guyana, South America, the money changes on a daily or even an hourly basis.
And what you paid for that money this morning may not be what it's worth this afternoon. Sometimes it's worth 200 to one, sometimes it's worth 2000 to one. You never know, It changes in value. Sometimes you basically need a suitcase of it just to get through the day or to get a accommodation. Remember the time. Hence, Buchanan and I were down on the South American coast and we were staying in a in a guest house. Just what I would call a cold water.
West Indian style guest house with a shower down the hall and so on and we were paying $80,000 a night for a call accommodation.
I think we figured out in the end it was about $23 in in US funds. But isn't it wonderful that we don't base our salvation or our redemption on something that changes in value? And isn't it wonderful as we said earlier today?
But when it says the precious blood of Christ, it's not man's estimation of it. It's not our estimation of it. It's God's value of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that value hasn't changed.
The blood of Jesus is as precious to the heart of God as when it was shed on Calvary's cross.
And I believe when those of us who are saved get to heaven, it's going to be precious and fresh to our souls for all eternity.
But again, that's not what I'm basing my redemption, my salvation on. Because my appreciation of the person and work of Christ might be very feeble at best. My value of the blood of Christ might change with my state of soul from day-to-day or year to year. But oh, I say I rest on the fact that I am redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, and to be redeemed, as we said earlier today, is to be not only bought, but to be bought back, to be set free.
Like those slaves back in the days of slavery, sometimes there were merciful masters who would purchase them to to set them free. How wonderful. Oh, this is, I say, the precious blood of Christ. And I do trust that it's precious to every heart here that we place some value, at least on our souls, on the blood of the Lord Jesus. And if you don't tonight, then I question whether you've ever felt experienced it's cleansing power.
Again, I'm going to tell you about a little girl who lived back in the days when Dwight Eisenhower was the President of the United States of America. Her name was Carol Ann Miller and Carol Ann Miller was a 12 year old girl who lived in Oxenhead, Maryland And Carol Ann Miller was born with a very serious heart defect. Now I realize in the day in which we live, there are two wonderful surgeries that they do at the Heart Institute of.
America and other countries.
But she was born with a hole in her heart and it was a very serious problem back in those days. But there was something that compounded the problem.
Carol Ann Miller was also born with B negative blood, a very rare blood type, and as Carol Ann Miller got a little older, she realized the seriousness of her situation.
And at 12 years of age, she sat down at her death because they had told her parents that they would not perform surgery unless they had at least 20 pints of B negative blood in the Red Cross blood bank for transfusions if necessary during that surgery. And Carol Ann Miller One day, realizing the seriousness of her situation, she sat down at her desk in her bedroom.
And she wrote a letter to the president of the United States. And that letter, in essence, said the doctors need 20 pints of B negative blood to perform surgery to close up a hole in my heart. It's very serious. If you know anybody with this kind of blood, please contact my mother right away. She put that letter in an envelope and she addressed it to the White House in Washington, DC.
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And somehow that letter reached the desk of Dwight Eisenhower, the president of the United States of America. And he read that letter and he picked up the telephone himself. And he called the Red Cross and he told them that this was on the authority of the President of the United States, their number one priority, that this trumped everything else, that they must find 20 pints.
Of B negative blood and it wasn't long till that blood was collected.
And Carol Ann Miller had that surgery, and it did save her life and she lived for many years after. But all tonight, we're not talking about be negative blood or some special blood type that the Red Cross or some Heart Institute needs to perform some delicate surgery. No, we are talking about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're talking about the most precious, the most valuable blood that was ever shed here on planet Earth.
On the 14th of April.
1865 was it.
Might have the date wrong. Abraham Lincoln and his wife and a friend of their theirs, Clara Harris, sat in the presidential box at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC.
And as the production went on, we know the story. The president of the United States was shocked.
At close range, it was just a few days after the emancipation of the slaves.
Just after the Civil War had ended.
And the story goes that as the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln stumbled forward.
Clara Harris, who was sitting there in that box with a white silk dress, took the head of the President and cradled it in her lap until the confusion subsided enough so that they could transport him across the street, where a few hours later he died. But when Clara Harris returned home that evening, she realized that this very expensive white silk dress.
Had the stains of the blood of the President of the United States?
Her first thought was to send the dress out and see if it could be laundered and the stains removed and the dress spared. But on second thought, she decided against it. She took the scissors and she cut out an 18 inch square around the blood of the of the President of the United States and she sent it off to Springfield, IL and the the city fathers of Springfield, IL.
Which was the home of President Lincoln for some years. They were more than happy to receive this white silk with the stain, with the blood of the great emancipator of the slaves.
And for years, it was displayed in a museum in Springfield, IL. As I understand from my research, it's now under lock and key at the Smithsonian in Washington.
But that's what the the city fathers thought of the blood of Abraham Lincoln. That's what the United States thinks of the blood of that great president who was used in a mighty way. But what about the blood of the Lord Jesus?
What is your appreciation? What value do you put on the blood of the one who gave himself at Calvary's Cross?
Our time is almost gone, but let's just go to one more verse in Ephesians Chapter 2.
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 13.
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Oh, here it tells us that we are made nigh or near by the blood of Christ.
As we mentioned at the beginning of this meeting, sin separates, and sin brought a distance between God and man. Adam hid himself behind the trees of the garden and even throughout the Old Testament.
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When there were those sacrifices, and under the Levitical order there were those who could come so far and no further. There was always a distance, denoted both in the Tabernacle, in the wilderness, in the temple that was built, in the in the in the land of promise. When they entered there, the temple that was built at Jerusalem, there was always a distance, but now we can be brought, if we sometimes sing a hymn so near.
So very near to God I cannot nearer be. Isn't that wonderful? For in the person of his Son I am as near as he the it's the blood of Jesus that gives us access, brings us into the presence of God and the presence of the Lord Jesus. And it is the blood of Jesus that is our title to heaven. Every person that will be with the Lord Jesus in heaven will realize.
In a marvelous way that it was only the blood of Jesus, that's why the Song of the Redeemed.
As we mentioned earlier, is the blood of the Lamb that was slain redeemed by that precious blood brought near by that precious blood? All this Gospel meeting is about to conclude.
But I trust that there will be no one get up off their seats tonight who's still on the Broad Rd. that leads to destruction. Secure. The remedy for sin has been provided. Are you going to take that remedy? If you leave that remedy behind as you go out of this room, God will have no choice but in a future day.
To send you to a lost eternity where you will be completely separated from God forever.
Jesus, that brings us nigh to God now.
That can bring us near and into His very presence and be comfortable in His presence. But all the rejection of that remedy will separate you in a place where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. But all the wonderful gospel is tonight. That's the blood of Jesus. Cleanse us from all sin. The remedy is still being offered. It's the blood of Jesus that is secure. God has provided it through His Son, the Lord Jesus. He's offering it to you tonight and as I pray.
If there's someone here and you're not saved, it's as simple as this. You can talk to him in your heart because he hears what you say, whether you utter one word aloud or not, and it's the sincerity of your heart.
You can talk to him, confess that you're a Sinner, but receive his wonderful salvation.
And receive the forgiveness of sins and it tells us that you'll be justified.
Through the blood of Christ brought into a position before God in Christ, where you are going to be perfectly comfortable in His presence now and for all eternity.