The Blood, the Blood, the Blood!

How much are you worth? NO, I am not asking how much money or treasures you may have in the Bank or in your Investment or Pension plans, instead I am asking what is the value of your soul? How much are you worth? Most of us have been to an Auction, or watched the auction process on television, and have seen how the auction house has placed reserves or estimated values on many items, that have remained unsold, because no one was willing to match the reserve. You see the real value of any item can be measured simply on how much one is willing to pay for it, not on any pre-auction estimate. Furthermore, what may be valuable to you, may be

of no value whatsoever to me, because the thing may be only

of a sentimental value.

My sermon today entitled, The Blood, the Blood, the Blood!

is about showing you that we are all of immense value, that’s the value that was paid for our souls by the blood of Jesus! Jesus was willing to pay for you and me with his blood, that’s how much we are worth, that’s how precious we are to God.

Now Blood has a very short life span. The average person has about ten pints of blood in his or her body. Over half of it is liquid, called plasma and most of the rest of it is made up of red cells, which die after 120 days and are constantly being replaced.

In contrast, the most durable thing on earth is probably gold.

Not even salt water affects it – even if it lies in it for centuries.

These facts make a comment by Peter, one of our Lords Apostles, seem very strange – for Peter says;- …

“It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that

you were redeemed … but with the precious blood of Christ,

a lamb without blemish or defect.” 1 Peter 1:18-19

Gold is not perishable, whereas, blood certainly is? But, Peter knew what he was talking about and meant to startle us into seeing a tremendous truth. The world thinks money is everything, but Peter intended us to see that it has no spiritual or eternal value what-so-ever. There are no spiritual benefits that can be bought for cash! In real terms, only the Blood of Jesus has lasting value and eternal worth. When the present heaven and earth pass away and change, the redeeming power

of Christ’s Blood will continue unchanged.

Consider first of all that “The Blood does what Money cannot do”

We talk about “precious metals” such as silver and gold and so on, but Peter would rather talk about “the precious blood of Christ.” It does what money cannot do – it cleanses sinners. The greatest sin is to say we have no sin. That is plain self-deception. John says: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” 1 John 1:8.

The first Christian witnesses all talked about Christ’s Blood

as unique and vital.

Someone has counted 290 references to the love of God in the New Testament, but 1,300 allusions to salvation through the Blood of Christ. The word “blood” occurs some 450 times in the Bible, of which 99 are in the New Testament. Usually, the word is connected with people’s violent deaths. However, the death of Jesus was an “atonement” for all such evil.

The Bible shows us clearly that Jesus Blood is Redeeming Blood. Gold is precious, only because it is rare, it has only power to trade. Yet, there is a wonder-working power in the Blood of Jesus Christ. The apostle John was as close to Jesus as anybody and He said, “The blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] son cleanses us from all sin” 1 John 1:7. Matthew records Christ’s own words: “He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins’” Matthew 26:27-28. The Book of the Revelation depicts millions upon millions all singing to Christ the Lord, “You were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God … You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” Revelation 5:9-10

The Hymns in today’s service have all reminded us of the Crucifixion of our Blessed Lord Jesus, when 2000 years ago, drop by drop, the value of Christ’s life ebbed out of His heart.

It stained Calvary’s hill, spelling out ( as it were) in crimson letters the story of the love that surpasses all love. Today, hundreds of millions around the whole world – the simple and the wise, those who live in jungles and those who live in concrete apartment blocks, factory workers and academics – take that message as the truth above all truths. It shows us the concerns of God’s heart and a wisdom, which soars far above our limited minds. Yet great intellects have bowed to it. Saul of Tarsus, once full of a biting hatred, came to see the Cross as the logic of God. He said it was a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks – but the power of God to all that believe.

1 Corinthians 1:23-24

Consider then the Blood as the Logo of Love

Christ’s death was His greatest achievement and God’s greatest act. The power of love conquered the love of power.

It was no mistake, no misfortune, and no accident. Christ was not a martyred victim, but a mighty victor, our champion and God’s hero. The Father in Heaven sent Him to hunt out and destroy the devil and evil. It was as if a greater David faced

a greater Goliath. The Son of God overthrew our greatest

enemy – sin, and our final foe – death.

The world ran true to form when it crucified Christ. But God also ran true to form in what He did about it. He turned red blood into royal redemption. Men took a lovely tree, stripped it, and twisted it into the stark beams of the cross. It was their logo of hate. Christ picked it up, stained it with His life’s blood, and gave it back to us – His logo of love. He invested that tree with

a glory it never had before. Its wood (transformed by a carpenters boy) became a door of hope and made us worth all that we cost him.

But like everything ever believed, this Gospel has its critics. People scorn it as a “Gospel of gore,” “a slaughterhouse religion.” But, twisting and abusing it does not change its truth. If we preach Christ at all, there is only One we can preach – and that’s the crucified Christ. The great fact about Him is that He died for us. We are worth nothing except what we cost God. People are seeking truth, and here it is – the Son of God loved us and gave Himself for us. That love is not a theory, but a fact of history. It is the ultimate truth the philosophers seek. Love is beyond reason; it “passes understanding.” God’s heart made up His mind. His love story has a never ending happy ending?

But as I’ve said, this message has its critics. Yet what do those who want Christianity without Christ’s blood have to offer us

instead? Blood is the only currency in the Kingdom of God, and Jesus Blood paid for it all. A bloodless faith is an anaemic faith – just nice words and sentiment. The hymns that speak of His blood may well have been taken out of our hymnbooks, but the Blood remains still in our Bibles. The only faith the Bible knows is concerned with what Jesus did. He threw Himself headlong into the battle with death – and not for His benefit, but for ours. Is His blood now unmentionable? How can we be so offended? The earth around us still reeks with the blood of the 200 million people who have been slaughtered in the wars of the last century. Should God distance Himself from that? How could He? Must He speak in bloodless terms? What could He do without blood in such a world that is anything but bloodless? Our kind of world needs that kind of Saviour! Only a wounded Christ can come to a wounded world.

Then Christ’s Blood Speaks of “Redemption”

The blood of Jesus speaks the truth about God. Christian truth is not a delicate bloom, cultivated in a convent like a lily in a hot house. Wickedness is an awful smell in the nostrils of God and cannot be disguised by perfumed poetry. God did not deal with sin from a cushioned pulpit, but from a nailed Roman Cross. He invaded the devil’s own territory and hunted him down, tackling death and hell head on. No such encounter could be bloodless.

When Abel was murdered, God said to Cain, “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground” Genesis 4:10 But, instead of “revenge,” Christ’s blood cries “redemption.” Abel was robbed of his life, but Christ gave His life for us. As Hebrews 12:24 says, “[Jesus Christ’s] blood of sprinkling … speaks better things than that of Abel.”

It declares Divine forgiveness. God declared His mind, will, and right to shed innocent blood in order to cleanse guilty blood. Cain suffered for the slaying of Abel. He was afraid of avengers. Terrible blood feuds have been waged for centuries, with one family seeking vengeance against another. But, all feuds end at Calvary. In Christ we are all avenged. Abel’s blood spoke of death; while Christ’s blood speaks of life.

Peter told the first Europeans who received the Gospel that “Jesus of Nazareth … went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil” Acts 10:38. Confronted with such damage to His activities, the Devil, the author of every evil, raged, plotted, and finally inspired wicked men to nail Jesus hands and feet to a cross. The enemy of our souls stood by and gloated. Those feet would no longer carry Jesus around, nor His hands touch the afflicted. Yet, by the greatest turning of the tables in all of history, the very blood that evil spilled

became its cure.

Consider too that The Price is Paid.

All the world’s great religions show that people expect to pay for their sins. Some do penance, while tens of millions believe they will suffer in some future life by reincarnation. Most expect some awful judge to pass sentence on judgment day and pronounce their eternal destiny, while some mistakenly expect

to suffer cleansing agonies in the flames of Purgatory. Yet

the Biblical Gospel has a different message! It says: “JESUS HAS PAID FOR IT ALL.” That is the startling good news of the Gospel, the Gospel Paul and Peter preached. They took that message into a world laden with guilt. “My brothers,” Paul said, “I want you to know that through Jesus, the forgiveness

of sins is proclaimed to you” Acts 13:38 If the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin, if He has paid the price for all, as the Scripture clearly declares, what need is there for us to pay again or suffer again for sins for which Christ suffered in our place? Isn’t what He did good enough?

Before the world heard that message, ancient Israel offered animal sacrifices to God. The blood of these animals was not a cleansing blood? Those sacrifices only “covered” the sins of the people. If you have a table with a bad stain on it, you cover it with a nice cloth so nobody will notice. But, the stain is still there and needs removing. Those people going to the Temple to make sacrifices, longed for sin to be taken away. Then, the last

of the great prophets, John the Baptist, saw Jesus, realized who He was, and cried out, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” John 1:29. The blood of Jesus works “under the tablecloth,” removes the stain, the deep-rooted sin, for men, women, boys and girls, people of all ages and all conditions. – Praise God!

Now it is one thing to appreciate the Blood of Jesus, but entirely a different matter when it comes to appropriating that Blood.

Turn with me if you will again to the prophesy of Zechariah and the 9th Chapter at verse 11 … Lets read:

“As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.

Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even today

do I declare that I will render double unto thee; “

Here (in these scriptures) under the anointing of the Holy Spirit the Prophet is speaking of those who he sees as being imprisoned in a “pit” a waterless well, ever trying to get out, trying to be free, but are unable to help themselves.

It may be today that this is where you find yourself. Your Sins have imprisoned you in a pit, and you cannot get out. For you, your pit may be an alcoholic pit, or a pornographic pit, or a gambling pit, or a pit of oppressive poverty, a pit of nightmares,

a pit of sicknesses, a pit of cancer, a pit of worry and fear …

whatever holds you down and keeps you bound is your pit where there is no water, no help, and seemingly no way out. Maybe you are still in a pit or plagued by those things that were once your pit? Or maybe you are halfway out, but not fully free. Your pit is that demonic bondage that no one knows about only You, God and the Devil? It may have held you for 30 or 40 years but I am here today to show you that the Blood of Jesus can deliver you out of that pit.

Deliverance can be yours today, NOW!

Notice what the Prophet says again in verse 12. “Turn you to the strong hold you prisoners of hope” Most of us see Hope in the positive sense, but a prisoner of hope is always hoping,

and never achieving, – all they do is hope, – forever hoping for freedom, searching for deliverance, fighting for liberation, waiting to be free and trying to figure it all out. The prisoner

of hope sees themselves still doing what they want out of,

but hearing the enemy say that there is NO WAY OUT.

They are forever hoping for deliverance and not able to get free. So the Prophet says “Turn to the stronghold”. Usually when we use the term “stronghold” we are speaking negatively about the strongholds of Satan, the grip or control that he holds over many lives, – but here the Prophet is speaking under the anointing and is referring to the Blood of Jesus as the stronghold, the Liberation, the Ransom. Here He is speaking

of the “strength” and the “power” that is in the Blood!

You see – nothing that we can do will get us out of the pit ourselves; but by faith we can receive our liberation from the pit, and that faith must be in the blood of Jesus . God has ordained the blood of Jesus for your freedom, to effect you internally, externally and eternally. If you are not free then the blood has been ordained by God to free you from your pit, and no matter what that pit represents – it cannot withstand the blood.

I can testify today that the Blood has delivered and set me free, but I had to claim its covering, its cleansing and its freedom. My Faith for Victory is in the Blood of Jesus. My Faith for Salvation is in the blood of Jesus. My Faith for Healing is in the Blood of Jesus. My Faith for Deliverance is in the Blood of Jesus. My Faith for a Happy Home is in the Blood of Jesus.

My Faith for that Promotion or Job is in the Blood of Jesus.

My Faith for Freedom from Debt is in the Blood of Jesus.

My Faith for Peace is in the Blood of Jesus.

My Faith for Answered Prayer is in the Blood of Jesus.

My Faith for Forgiving others is in the Blood of Jesus.

My Faith for Victory over every evil is in the Blood of Jesus.

Have you applied the Blood?

No matter what is happening in your life or mine, the Blood has dealt to Satan an Eternal Defeat and there is no way out for him, – Satan cannot ever turn it around. He is eternally defeated, and everything he can ever do, every thing he has ever done to you, is eternally defeated by the blood. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world, but faith must have a focus, and that focus must be in the Blood of Jesus. The most powerful substance on earth is not “Nitro Glycerine” it is not “Nuclear Fusion” it is not “Dynamite” – Jesus Blood is the most powerful

thing on Earth, in Hell and in Heaven. Praise God today for The Blood the Blood the Blood. Now I hope you understand what it means to be Blood bought and Blood taught!

NOW THIS FINAL WORD.

I know from my mail-bag, that many people struggle with unanswered prayer. They have been praying for a long time about all kinds of things and have seen no response from God. You may be amongst them? What we need to understand is that without the Blood, coming to God without blood is a waste of time. God does not, cannot listen to you and me, we are by ourselves unworthy to stand before him. Unless you come to God through Jesus (who said himself that HE was the only way) then every prayer you say, reaches no farther than the ceiling.

But when we come through the blood, claiming the covering and cleansing of Jesus, then Jesus (our great high priest) takes our prayers, every prayer, and once He asks for us, its as good as done, for God never refuses his son anything. Be assured that if we know “He hears us” (that is God hears us through Jesus) “…then we have the petition”, the prayer we ask! The Bible says so in 1 John 5:15. Check it out!

So may God help us all to live and love under the blood of Jesus

every single day. God Bless You.

Amen.