The Blood Of Holiness Series

OPEN: As I was working on today’s sermon I was looking at some old Gospel hymns and I was pleasantly surprised at the # of hymns that - mentioned the blood of Christ. So I thought we’d do this this morning is sing just a few of them:

• Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bid’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

• Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine; Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. (CHORUS) This is my story, this is my song – praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song – praising my Savior all the day long

• Would you be free from your burden of sin– there’s power in the blood, power in the blood. Would you o’er evil a victory win – there’s wonderful power in the blood. (CHORUS) There is power, power, wonder working power, in the blood of the lamb. There is power, power, wonder working power, in the precious blood of the lamb.

• Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing pow’r? 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? (CHORUS) Are you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Isn’t That Cool!? All that emphasis in all those hymns as well as contemporary Christian songs and other praise songs… and there are 100s more. But, why do these songs put so much emphasis on the blood of Jesus? Well, because the Bible puts a lot of emphasis on that BLOOD of Jesus.

One man put together a collection of what the Bible says about the Blood of Jesus

• Acts 20:28 = We were bought with blood.

• Romans 3:25 = We are forgiven through the blood.

• Romans 5:9 = We are justified by the blood.

• Ephesians 1:7 = We have redemption through His blood.

• Ephesians 2:12-15 = Peace was made through His blood.

• Hebrews 9:14 = We are cleansed by the blood.

• Hebrews 13:11-12 = We are made holy through His blood.

• I John 1:7 = We are purified from all sin through His blood.

• Revelation 12:11 = We overcome Satan through His blood. (Allen Webster)

The blood of Jesus is a powerful and effective force in our lives.

Now, this weekend is known around the world as Easter weekend. Even many non-Christians know that Bible tells us that Jesus died on Friday and rose on Sunday, and that He shed HIS BLOOD on that cross.

But now the question is… WHY? Why was His blood shed the cross? And why is that so important to us as Christians? What difference does it make that He died on the Cross?

Well, our passage this morning tells us why. 1 Peter says: “you were RANSOMED from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” I Peter 1:18-19

Do you know what “ransomed” means? Ransom is when you’re kidnapped by “bad guy” and held against your will. The people that love you might pay a RANSOM to get you back. The more important are to them… the higher the ransom can be.

John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Jesus came as a ransom for us. We were so important to God that Jesus paid for us with His blood. He died to buy us back from (pause) something. But what did He buy us back FROM?

The ESV (the version we use here in church) says we were ransomed from the “Futile ways inherited from our forefathers.” Futile means “empty.” That’s why another version says that we were bought back from “our EMPTY way of life” (I Peter 1:18 HCSB)

Now, WHAT would make our lives “empty”? The answer: The emptiness in our lives is there because we’ve been cut off from our God.

ILLUS: There was a famous psychologist named Carl Jung who wrote: “Those psychiatrists who are not superficial have come to the conclusion that the vast neurotic misery of the world could be termed a neurosis of EMPTINESS. Men cut themselves off from the root of their being, from God, and then life turns empty, inane, meaningless, without purpose. So when God goes, goal goes. When goal goes, meaning goes. When meaning goes, value goes, and life turns dead on our hands.” (Ray C. Stedman in his sermon “Darkness of Mind” quoting Jung’s letter to E. Stanley Jones).