Gospel—Jim Hyland
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I'd like to begin the Gospel Meeting this evening with hymn #14 on the Gospel hymn sheet. Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? He's going to stand to sing this hymn #14, and if someone will, please start it.
Have you been?
What are you thinking about?
It ain't no.
Problem.
For your heart and I pledge allegiance.
No, I didn't watch in the blood of the light.
When the grind was causing the mirror frozen, being one in the red light in my life.
Whoever's only.
What? I'm crying, finally watching the one on the fire.
Let's ask God's health and blessings, our blessed God and Father, how thankful we are this evening for the Lord Jesus Christ, and how thankful we are that He came into this world, went to Calvary's cross there, laid down His life, and shed His precious blood. We're thankful, too, to know that he has a risen Savior, that He lives at Thy right hand, does that Savior of sinners. We're thankful for the gospel message.
We're thankful for the fact that it is going out around this world in many ways today.
But oh, how thankful we are too, that we can present it once again right here in this building. We thank thee that, uh, we can hear the good, good news that Christ is indeed that wonderful Savior. And so our God, we pray that if there's someone here tonight who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, that their ears might be open to listen to the message, and that thou at work by thy Spirit and draw them to thyself, we pray that there might be.
Simplicity, that there might be clarity, and that thou work mightily in this room. Tonight we pray that none might go out of this room still lost and in their sins. So we ask for help and blessing we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory. Amen.
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Before we go to the New Testament this evening, I'd like to, by way of introduction to what I have on my heart in seeking to present the Gospel read. A verse in the Old Testament is found in the book of Leviticus.
Leviticus, chapter 17.
Leviticus, chapter 17 and 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 in the presentation of the gospel. Tonight we're going to seek by the grace of God, by turning from one scripture to another to speak much of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because tonight we have sung that question over and over again. Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? And really that's what it boils down to the this evening.
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? I'm not going to ask you any other question tonight.
I'm not going to question you as to your social standing. I'm not going to question you as to your church attendance. I'm not going to question you as to your upbringing or how good you feel you are on the scale of humanity and where you fit into society. Because those things tonight are irrelevant in connection with the gospel tonight. It boils down to are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
But before we speak of that, I want to mention something else, because a few minutes ago I was talking to a 7 year old boy.
Who just purchased a Bible from one of the shelves at the back of this room?
And he was pretty excited about that purchase. And I was thankful that he was excited about the purchase of a Bible. And he pointed out that it had two markers in it that could be used during a meeting to mark a place so you wouldn't have to hold your finger and so on. And I was really interested. But you know, it made me think of an experience that we had a few weeks ago, Brother Han Buchanan and Garvin Seymour and I had the opportunity to go for the first time.
To Guyana, South America, it's a little country right on the South American coast. It's bordered by the sea on one side, the north. It's also bordered by Suriname, Venezuela and Brazil. It is probably one of the poorest countries that I have ever visited. And if you look on the world scale of things, it's right up there as to poor countries. And you know, I was impressed and almost overwhelmed as we went from place to place.
And met with many believers, zealous believers, believers who really have a desire to get the gospel out, to learn the truth, and to get good solid material into the hands of their fellow Guyanese. But you know, it was almost overwhelming because there really isn't the Bible to buy hardly in Guyana, even if you had the money. In fact, I wouldn't have believed it if we hadn't seen it for ourselves. But I searched through Georgetown, Guyana, which is the capital.
And it was confirmed what had been previously told me that there isn't a bookstore of any kind in that city.
Now there were we saw a few little shelves of books here and there in other shops and so on. But secular or Christian, there isn't a bookstore. Very, very difficult to get a Bible even if you had the money. And we had so many believers tell us that there was a real need for the word of God and saying that they would even pay what they could if we would just get them Bibles and Christian material.
I only say that because I don't think we often realize the privilege we have of sitting.
In a room like this, with a Bible in our hands, and many of us, thank God, going to the back shelf.
Earlier today in purchasing an A Bible and if we were to go home to our homes and we were to go through the bookshelves, I think we'd be surprised how many copies of the Word of God there are on our bookshelves. Do we really value it? Do we appreciate the privilege tonight of sitting here with the Word of God open to be able to take up the story of the gospel and to present from the pages of this living book?
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This book that lives and abides forever the glorious story of God sending his son.
And the Lord Jesus coming into this world and going to Calvary's cross, laying down his life and shedding his precious blood. It is a great privilege. And I know I look into the faces of many children and young people who've grown up with a stack of Bibles by the kitchen table and a Bible in a Bible case handed to you as you go out the door by mom or dad to make sure you have that Bible when you get to meeting. But you know, there are many people in this world.
Yes, there are. Believe it or not, there are many people in this world that would just love to hold a copy of the word of God in their hands. And so tonight we're going to go to the Bible, we're going to go to the word of God, and we are going to speak, as I say, particularly concerning the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I began back here in the book of Leviticus, because we learn all through the Scriptures from the Old Testament to the New Testament.
That if there is blessing for sinful fallen man, it is always on the basis.
Of the death and the shedding of blood of an innocent victim, I know it's not mentioned specifically. That is the blood in the Garden of Eden when man first sinned, when Adam reached out in disobedience and took the forbidden fruit, and he and Eve ate of it. And we know the sad consequences. The New Testament tells us by one man's disobedience, sin entered, and death by sin. So death passed upon all, for that all have sinned.
And I know it's not mentioned specifically, but if you read that story carefully, we find that immediately God took and clothed Adam and Eve with coats of skin. And if you're going to be clothed with coats of skin, it necessitates the death of an animal. It necessitates the death of an innocent victim or victims.
And God announced there, too, that the woman's seed would bruise the head of the serpent. He was looking ahead to the time when his son.
Would come into this world as that supreme sacrifice and offer himself. At Calvary's cross. We just come over a page or two in the word of God, and we find Cain and Abel, the first two brothers. And we find that Cain brought a sacrifice from a cursed earth. He brought the fruit of the ground. But God didn't accept that no Abel had a better sacrifice than that of Cain.
Because Abel understood by faith very clearly that if he was going to bring a sacrifice and approach God, it again must be on the basis of death and the shedding of blood. And we find then, as we come over through the pages of Genesis, there are sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. And then we find that God looks down in the book of Exodus and he sees the children of Israel.
Under the ******* of Pharaoh and Egypt, a picture to us of Satan and his hosts.
And God said he was gonna deliver his people. But again, if God was going to deliver his people, it must be in a way that made them realize two things, their guilt and his provision for them. And God provided the Passover lamb. And God said very clearly, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And most, if not all of us in this room have heard the story of the Passover lamb in Exodus 12 from the very early days of our youth.
And then we find a redeemed people, and God in the book of Leviticus gives them these various sacrifices. And these various sacrifices speak in different ways of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross. But here we find he speaks specifically of the blood. You know, we often speak of the different gifts that God has given. We speak of the gift of his Son.
The Apostle Paul could say thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
We speak of the gift of eternal life. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We often quote that verse in James chapter One. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. But you know from this verse I take it too, that one of the wonderful gifts that God has given to us is the blood now, not the blood.
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Of a sacrifice in the Old Testament, like we have here, but the blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I say that because there's a hymn we sometimes sing, not all the blood of beasts.
On Jewish altar slain could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away its stain. But Christ the Heavenly Lamb took all our guilt away, a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they. And so we're going to go to the New Testament and we're going to read a number of scriptures that bring before us the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because I want to stress again before we do that, that the great question tonight is.
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Going to tell a little story before we turn to the New Testament that perhaps illustrates the importance of being washed in the blood of the lamb and as a result having your name written in the Lamb's book of life.
Ruthanna Mitzler is a well known singer and composer in some circles and she has written a great deal of Christian music and lyrics and so on, and she is often called upon.
To sing at various functions and as the story goes, Ruthanna and her husband Roy were invited to attend a wedding and she was invited to sing at this wedding in Seattle. This was the wedding of a very, very wealthy man, and the wedding invitation indicated that the wedding and the reception would be held on the top two floors of the Columbia Tower.
In Seattle, I think it's the tallest building in the Northwest.
And Ruthanna and her husband were rather excited about attending this function. They knew that it would be a great deal of pomp and ceremony, and that nothing would be spared for the comfort of the guests and the family and guests. And so the day approached and they did indeed attend the wedding. And Ruthanna did indeed sing at the wedding ceremony.
And then came the reception, and the stairs to the top floor of the Columbia Towers was cordoned off by a ribbon of silk. And as the bride and groom approached that stairs and the guests filed in behind them, someone ceremoniously with the scissors cut that silk ribbon, indicating that the reception was about to begin. The bride and groom ascended that ornate stairs to the top.
And that's the top of the stairs. There was a maitre-d' with a bound book, and as the guests filed up that stairs, he would ask them for their name and he would check in that book to make sure their name was registered there as guests at the wedding feast.
And as Ruthanna and Roy approached, he asked them their name and Ruthanna told him, I'm Ruthanna Metzger and this is my husband Roy.
He checked under the Ms. He ran his finger up and down the column. He said. I'm not finding it here. Could you spell it? She very slowly and carefully spelled her name. He checked again, he said. Your name is not here, she said. But I'm the singer, I sang at the wedding.
Surely there must be some mistake. My name must be here.
The maitre-d' looked at her and he said, Ma'am, it doesn't matter who you are or what you've done, if your name is not in this book, I cannot allow you to to attend the reception of this wedding.
Ruth Ann and her husband looked around. They could see tables loaded with luscious hors, d'oeuvres.
Waiters and waitresses and tuxedos were moving about the crowd, offering drinks and other sweets and so on and.
Appetizers. The tables had beautifully carved ice sculptures. The orchestra, in dazzling white tuxedos, was tuning their instruments, getting ready to play and the maitre-d' motion to one of the waiters. And he said, will you escort this couple out?
And without further ado, the waiter motioned to Ruthanna and Roy to follow him. They followed him to the service elevator. He pushed G for garage. They were ushered inside, swept down to the garage level to pick up their vehicle.
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They rode in silence for several miles.
Finally, Roy reached over for his wife's hand. He said. Sweetheart, what happened?
Tears filled her eyes, she said. When the wedding invitation came, there was an RSVP card, but I was busy and besides, I was the singer. I didn't think I needed to return the card and so I set it aside and I never did return the RSVP.
I've thought about that story since I first heard it. You know, there are so many in this room tonight.
Who heard the gospel? You know what you need to do. You need to.
I want to speak ever so carefully and reverently. You need to RSVP. God is inviting you to the marriage of His Son. Everything has been provided, The blood has been shed to cleanse your sins away. God, as it were, is waiting with His pen to record you in the Lamb's book of life tonight.
It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done.
You must, you must respond.
To God's invitation and accept it by faith.
And then, when the marriage supper of the Lamb takes place another day in heaven itself, there will be no question as to your acceptance there. But let's go now, first of all to the book of first 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 cleanseth us from all sin. I want to notice first of all the cleansing power of the blood of the Lord Jesus.
I'm sure we've all gone in our mind's eye to that scene at Calvary's Cross where, after the Lord Jesus for so many hours, had been treated so cruelly.
Being on trial and shuffled back and forth from one to another.
And they finally take him, and they lead him out to Calvary. And we read he bearing his cross went forth. Yes he did. He went forth, no hesitation there. He went forth for you. He went forth for me. And there they took him, and they nailed his hands and his feet to that cross. And there he hung on that cross at that crossroad and.
There after man had treated him cruelly once more.
Even giving him vinegar to drink. And there were those who passed by and reviled him. Others sat down and watched him suffer. There had been the conversation between the two thieves.
And then God is at worst said that's enough. And the sun was darkened at noon for three hours.
Three hours in which I believe with all my heart that the Lord Jesus bore my sins in his own body on the tree.
Afterwards he cried at his finish. He laid down his life, you know, he said of his, could say of his life. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received to my father. Nobody took his life from him. He was the only one that had power to lay it down in that way.
And then we read in John's Gospel, and it's the only gospel we read of it.
A soldier with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
I love that word forthwith. To me it's just as if God was in a hurry to bless, and shall I say, the crowning act of man against the dead body of the Lord Jesus and all the hatred of man. He pierced his side and immediately forthwith came throughout blood and water. And as I say, it's only John's Gospel that records that. And then we turn to 1St John.
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And the Apostle John further declares the blood of Jesus Christ his Son.
Cleanses us from all sin.
You know, if we had turned back just a few chapters in the book of Leviticus, we would find there what we often refer to as the law of the leper or the cleansing of the leper. You know, it's interesting because leprosy is used invariably in Scripture as a very graphic picture or type of sin and man's condition without God and without something brought in by grace.
And it's remarkable to me that it is the only.
Disease in scripture that is referred to as being cleansed. You know when the Lord Jesus was here, he healed the sick. He gave sight to the blind, He gave hearing to the death, He healed the sick, but he cleansed the leper. You remember with Naaman. What were the instructions given to Naaman when he came to the prophet's door? Go wash.
If we were to reduce the gospel to two words tonight, those are perhaps the two best words that sum up man's responsibility in connection with the gospel and his sinful condition. Go wash now. For Naaman, of course it was to go wash in the river Jordan, his nephew needed to be cleansed because it is a picture of sin. It needed to be cleansed. And we're not going to tell you tonight to go wash in some river.
No, it's go wash in the blood of the Lord Jesus. I suppose all most of the children here have sung from the very early days of their childhood.
That beautiful Sunday School song. Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb?
And what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood.
Of the of Jesus. Are you washed? Are you washed? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb and the Lord Jesus. He cleansed the leper, and it's cleansing that you need tonight. It's cleansing in the blood of the Lord Jesus. There was a young man one time and he attended a gospel meeting very similar to this, and the preacher was seeking to impress upon the audience the need of being washed in the blood of Christ and the cleansing power that there is in the blood that was shed at Calvary's cross.
And as the meeting progressed, this young man stood up and he interrupted the preacher, He said. Sir, I don't understand.
He said How can blood cleanse sin? I don't understand that.
Well, the preacher had never had a question like this asked to him before, and so he paused a moment, sent up a swift little prayer, and then he said, I'll ask you a question in return.
There was a glass of water on the podium, as there is here tonight. The preacher held up the glass of water and he said to the young man, how does water quench thirst?
The young man was a little bit taken aback and he said.
I don't know, but I know it does.
Just so, said the preacher. I cannot tell you how blood cleanses sin, but I know it does.
And I know there are just so many here this evening who will attest to the fact that the blood of Jesus has cleansed them from all sin. But I want to make this as simple and plain as possible, because there's a little word in this verse that we have often enjoyed again and again, and that is the word all. If it said the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from sin, that would be wonderful.
But the Spirit of God has added another little word all, all sin, you know, That removes any doubt, doesn't it? I've been washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus for some 46 years, and I have no doubt in my mind that it's taken care of once and for all that every stain, I'm not afraid, thank God of one charge of sin ever being brought up before me because of that word all.
Going to use again a simple little illustration that we sometimes used for the boys and girls. Do you know when my girls were little, they like to go out and play and sometimes they get pretty dirty.
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We had a little expression in our house, clean dirt. But my girls would go out and play and they would come in and those T-shirts and those white socks, they'd be pretty dirty mud and grass stains ground right in.
And so my wife would take those shirts and other laundry and put them in the washing machine.
And then add a generous portion of Tide or Cheer or whatever happened to be on sale that week.
She would run it through the cycle, pull them out, and that's when we talked about clean dirt.
Not every stain was removed, No, some of those stains were ground in, and no matter how many cycles and how much detergent you used, you couldn't get those stains out. But, you know, those were just plain clothes, and the girls would wear them again because it really didn't matter. But you know, when it comes to the blood of the Lord Jesus and one who is washed in that precious blood, oh, I say there's not one stain.
Of sin left, but you know it has to be applied. I remember one time a brother was trying to illustrate this to some Sunday school children and he brought in with him a basin of water and I was there on that occasion. But he brought in a basin of water and he had some soap. Fact he had two or three different kinds of soap there on the table.
And he had a bag, a zip lock bag, and in that bag he had some mud.
And he read this verse. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanses us from all sin. And then he opened the zip lock bag and he took his hands and he rolled them around in that mud and he got them very dirty. And then he held them up. And he said to the boys and girls, he said, I really believe that this soap and water on this table.
Can wash my hands and get them clean.
And he waited a few minutes and he looked at his hands and he said, I can't understand why my hands are still dirty. I I really believe that this water and this soap is what is needed to get rid of this mud on my hands. Well, you can just imagine the boys and girls and the consternation on their faces thinking, well, he's an adult. He should know a little better than this. And so some of them started to put up their hand. And Mr. You need to use the soap and water.
It's not gonna do you any good just sitting on the table.
And you know, eventually he did. He took a generous portion of that soap. He dipped his hands in the water with that soap, and he swished them around and held them up. And sure enough, his hands were clean. And you know, that's really the point tonight, isn't it? The blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin, but it must be applied. You'll never get your hands clean of mud if you don't apply soap and water, and you'll never remove your stains of sin if the blood of the Lord Jesus.
Isn't applied, but oh, make no mistake about it when you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior.
He has promised to cleanse you not just from your sins, but to cleanse you from every stain. Every stain is gone. It's all sin. And now I'd like to turn to the book of Ephesians, Ephesians, Chapter One.
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. We have spoken of the cleansing power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now we want to speak for a moment or two in connection with forgiveness, because it's through the blood of the Lord Jesus that we have forgiveness. Are your sins forgiven tonight?
You know, I was interested in some tombstones in various places here in the United States. Tombstones in certain graveyards that have no name on them, no date, no information about the person who was buried there, except one word I was reading about a tombstone in a certain cemetery that simply has the word saved on it, You know, That's great, isn't it? That's wonderful.
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Would they be able to put that on your tombstone? And there were several others I came up with, but one rather impressed me. Somewhere, I think near New York City, there is a large cemetery called Evergreen Cemetery, and there is a tombstone in that cemetery that has one word on it, forgiven.
Would they be able to put that on your tombstone apart from any other information?
Would you be able to have that as an epitaph on your tombstone? The words simply the word forgiven.
If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, then your sins are forgiven. And you know it's only on the basis of the blood of Christ that sins can be forgiven. That is the only righteous basis. You know God doesn't forgive us, forgive us without the matter being taken care of in a righteous way. You know, I'm afraid sometimes I have forgiven.
My children or others, and it hasn't always been on a righteous basis.
But you know God Forgives because the Lord Jesus took up the question of sin at Calvary's cross and shed His precious blood. And so God has, if I can put it this way, every right to forgive someone who comes realizing.
That it's on that basis. But again, this is very, very personal, isn't it? You know, it's easy really to say Christ died for all. It's easy to say God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. But what we want to try to impress upon your soul tonight is the fact that it must be personal again with the children of Israel back in Egypt, the night that the.
First born was going to be slain. It was very personal. Every house had to have a lamb. Every house had to have the blood on the door. It wasn't enough to know that somebody down the street or next door had killed the lamb and taken the blood and sprinkled it around the door. No, it was a very, very personal thing. And so there's forgiveness tonight.
There is forgiveness, and not only is there forgiveness, but it tells us in the book of Hebrews.
That thy sins and iniquities I will remember no more.
You know God doesn't forget.
That's human weakness. But there are things he chooses not to remember. Only a divine person can do that. Because the things I want to remember, I forget. And the things I want to forget I remember. That's human weakness. My grandmother had an expression. I forgive and forget, but I always remember. And isn't that often true that it's there? You can't get rid of it. But so far has he removed, He's removed our transgressions as far as the East is from the West.
They're gone. God has set them aside, blotted them out. They're gone. He'll remember them no more when we're forgiven on the basis of the blood of his Son, the Lord Jesus. Let's go to First Peter now.
First Peter chapter one.
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 for ordained before the foundation of the world.
But was manifest in these last times for you. We've spoken of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ. We've spoken how there's forgiveness through the blood of the Lord Jesus. But now we're going to stress for a few moments, redemption. We often say that to be redeemed is to be bought back, but it's far, far more than that. To be purchased is to be bought. To be redeemed is to be bought.
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To be set free. Not wonderful. Do you realize tonight that if you do not know the Lord Jesus as your savior?
You are in *******. You are like the children of Israel when they were in Egypt under those cruel taskmasters directed by Pharaoh. It tells us in the Book of Proverbs that we're holding with the cords of our sin. Satan is not your friend. Satan is not going to set you at liberty. No, it's the Lord Jesus through the blood, His blood that will set you at liberty. The blood has been shed to buy you back, to set you free.
Redeemed.
Not with corruptible things as silver and gold. This was driven home to us recently as well.
Because aren't we thankful those of us who know, Christ, that our redemption isn't based on something that changes in value? You know, if we were to go on Monday morning and check the stock market and the opening of the of the the world markets and if we were to compare the US dollar and the euro and the Japanese yen?
Compared to how the markets closed on Friday or how they opened last Monday, we might find that those things have changed in value and precious commodities, silver and gold. If they change in value sometimes from day-to-day and hour to hour, depending on the stability that there is in on the world stage at anyone given time. Again, we were just in Guyana.
Diana has a currency that doesn't trade on the world market. It's a currency that is very devalued. It's really worthless. In fact, they knock a few zeros off the end of it every once in a while and I think they had done that not long ago. And so when we were there, it was a Guyanese dollar was worth half a cent US.
Pretty worthless. Trouble is, the largest bill they print is $1000 bill.
You stay in a guest house or something and it adds up pretty quickly. You've got to have a stack of money to pay. It's not worth very much, and it is so worthless and so much. Does it change in value sometimes, several times a day, that no other bank or institution will take it outside of Guyana? Absolutely worthless. But, you know, there was a time when Guyana was a very prosperous country.
When their money was worth something. Guyana has some of the richest bauxite resources in the world. They have veins of gold, they have diamonds, they have very fertile soil in the north, they have huge cattle ranges. It was at one time a rather prosperous country, but through corruption it has become what it is today. But I thought of this verse and I thank God that I'm not redeemed with something that changes in value from day-to-day or year to year.
I'm redeemed, and many here rejoice, to know that we're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, something that is as precious to the heart of God tonight as when it was shed at Calvary's Cross. Because when it says precious here, it's not so much our estimation of the blood of Christ. And thank God again. Our redemption is not based on our value or appreciation of the blood of Christ. Because that.
Could be very limited at best, and sometimes our appreciation of the blood of Christ may change too.
Some days we may have more appreciation of it than others, but it is God's appreciation.
Of the blood of Christ on which we rest our redemption and God says.
It's precious. It's precious to the heart of God. Is it precious to your soul tonight?
We've all studied in history, I suppose, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the great Emancipator of the slaves.
You know, he was assassinated just five days after the South surrendered.
There on April 14th, 1865 at Ford's Theater.
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Shot at point blank range and carried across the street, and a few hours later he expired.
But the story goes and.
Some of us have traced this out.
The story goes that there was a lady, actually her name was Clara Harris. She was, I believe, the daughter of Senator Harris and they were invited to join the.
Lincolns in their presidential box at the theater that night for the production, and they responded to the invitation. There were others that have been invited who couldn't make it for one another, but they responded and Clara head on a white silk evening gown.
On that occasion and before, they were able to carefully move Abraham Lincoln across the street.
To more comfortable quarters.
Clara took the head of the dying President in her lap to make him a little more comfortable until they could get him moved, and things calmed down. When she returned home later that evening, she found that her very, very expensive silk dress had been stained with some drops of the blood of the dying President. Her first thought was to have the dress laundered and see if those blood stains.
Could be removed. On second thought, she decided against it and she took a scissors and clipped out of that dress an 18 inch square of white silk with the blood of President Abraham Lincoln. She boxed it up very carefully and sent it off to the city fathers of Springfield, IL and they were very, very thankful to get that piece of silk, and for many years it was displayed under a glass Dome.
In a museum in Springfield that was dedicated to that president, President Lincoln. As far as I can tell from research, that silk cloth is now carefully put away and preserved in the archives of the Smithsonian Institute.
And I have thought a great deal about that because that is the value.
That the United States people and the city fathers of Springfield, IL.
Placed on the blood of Abraham Lincoln, the emancipator of the slave. But oh, tonight we're not talking about someone who shed their blood in the service of humanity, or someone who was assassinated for one reason or another. Oh no. We're talking about the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, if the blood of Abraham Lincoln was of that importance and value.
To the people of the United States, how much more? The blood of Christ. You know, for the most part this world is trampling under foot the blood of Christ. No value for it, no appreciation of it. But our prayer is tonight that there is no one in this room who has no appreciation for the blood of Christ. Our prayer is that it is precious to every heart here.
And that you have availed yourself of it, and that you are redeemed.
By that blood.
But now let's go back to the book of Ephesians, this time to the second chapter.
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 12. That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
You know sin separates.
When Adam sinned and acted in disobedience, it separated, didn't it? Adam received a conscience, and when God walked in the garden in the cool of the day, Adam with that conscience, he and Eve hid themselves behind the trees of the garden. A separation had come in the leper of whom we spoke of earlier, when that spot of leprosy was diagnosed in the leper.
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He was to go outside the camp, away from brethren and family and friends.
Resigned to a dreary life of solitude and to hold his hand over his upper lip and to cry unclean, unclean.
But you know, God has made a way so that man can be brought back into his presence.
How is it that so many of us here tonight look forward to being in the presence of the Lord Jesus in the Father's house? How can that be the blood of Christ? You know when you turn over to the fifth chapter of Revelation, the song of the Redeemed is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blood of the Lamb, because that is the only way of blessing for man.
That is the only way that man can be brought back.
Into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ is through.
That precious blood.
Are you far off from God tonight? Are you at a distance? Are you a little uncomfortable? And as this hour is drawing to a close, are you squirming and saying, well, I wish he'd just wind it up and we could get out of here and we wouldn't have to speak about it anymore. You're uncomfortable in the presence of God and His word tonight.
If you are, you need to examine yourself as to whether you're really washed in the blood of Jesus or not, because it is through that blood that we are made nigh no other way. At this juncture, I'm going to tell another little story.
The story that really brought tears to my eyes and I don't know if I can recount it the way I read it, but I will give you at least some of the details as they come to mind.
The story about a man named Robert Halbert. And Robert Halbert was studying to be a physician and he was very interested in being a surgeon.
And on his 21St birthday, he received in the mail by registered mail a small package.
And he opened that package, defined carefully wrapped in tissue paper, a surgeon's scalpel.
And though he could see at a glance that it wasn't brand new, it was in very good condition and it was evident to his trained eye that it was an expensive surgeon scalpel.
And there was a note with it.
From a family friend and physician.
A Doctor Who had cared for he.
And his brother and his sister, all of whom had no mother.
And this doctor had cared for their medical needs all their lives, as well as being a very close friend of the family.
And the note was from this doctor, who was himself a skilled surgeon.
And this note began by telling him that this scalpel had been saved for him.
For his 21St birthday, and that this doctor had been waiting to send it to him.
And that this knife had been used in surgery.
21 years before.
On a patient of the doctors described by the doctor as a beautiful young woman, the mother of a six year old boy and a three-year old son who was anticipating the birth of her third child.
And this knife had been used and as a result of the surgery.
This woman had died.
Robert didn't know if he really wanted this.
Knife or not, kind of put it back in the box. He didn't know what to do with it. A knife sent to him on his 21St birthday that had been used in surgery that had taken a young woman's life.
But he decided to read on in that letter, and that letter went on to explain.
That, that young woman.
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Was very, very excited about the birth of her third child.
But that she realized, too, her condition was very serious, and that as she went into surgery, she realized that it may be either her or the child, and that she had made it very, very clear to the doctor that all was to be done to save the child's life.
Even if it meant her own life.
And the doctor went on to explain that everything had been done, that the utmost care and skill and all that was available at the time had been put at this woman's disposal, but she had died.
And he had been born.
I just can't imagine the emotions that must have gone through this young man's mind as the truth of what was taking place swept over his soul, realizing that his mother had died in childbirth and that she had requested of the doctor.
That if it was a question of her life or the child, that the child was to be spared.
And that this was the very knife that has taken his own mother's life he had never known.
Why he had no mother. As he grew up, he had never known how she died. But you know, this young man too. Further than that began to think about his soul, and he heard the gospel many times, But he was not saved.
And he realized that while his mother had given her life to save his body, another had given his life.
To save his soul.
And he got down on his knees.
Right there with that knife in his hand that had taken his mother's life.
And he came to know the Lord Jesus as his Savior. He availed himself of the death and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That knife took on a little different aspect of things. The knife that halfway through the notes seemed so repulsive to him and that he wanted to castaway became very precious to him. But more than that, the cross of Christ that he had spurned so long.
Became precious to him. The blood of Jesus became precious to him.
And this gospel meeting is over tonight.
And there's one who desires your soul salvation far more than anybody else in this room.
The Blood of Jesus is available to you tonight.
It's as precious as when it was shed at Calvary's Cross. It's as powerful as it was in the days when the apostles recorded these beautiful statements by inspiration, and it is as available as it has ever been. But oh, I would be less than faithful at the end of this meeting if I didn't warn you.
That if you refuse the blood of Christ tonight, there's a day coming when you will stand.
In a place where there will be no blood available.
Called the Great White Throne. No blood there, no mercy there, no salvation, no forgiveness or redemption offered them.
And no opportunity to draw nigh to God or to the Lord Jesus, but to be taken and cast out of his presence into the lake of fire for all eternity. But oh, tonight the blood of Jesus cleanse us from all sin.
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Let's pray our God and Father our souls are stirred at the end of this meeting to think that there may be someone here who's still not washed in the blood of Jesus.