Blood Test
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
By Pastor Jim May
Yesterday I went in to the doctor’s office for a blood test. I wanted to know that I still had some, and that what I had was in good shape. The usual cholesterol, sugar levels, etc. are being checked. It was all in an effort to try to maintain a healthy body for as long as I can. I’m sure that all of you have had blood tests from time to time. Blood tests for the sake of a healthy body are a necessity.
But there is a far more important blood test that we need to submit ourselves to. We can get that test anytime we need it, and we surely get it every time we come to church.
Blood is mentioned over 300 times in the Bible and is essential to the doctrine of Jesus’ blood as an atonement for our sin. The shed blood of the Son of God is the heart of the Gospel, for it is through "that blood that we have hope today. If we quit preaching the blood; if we fail to talk about the blood; or if we take the blood of Jesus for granted then we have lost the true purpose of the church and we have become nothing more than sounding brass or a tinkling symbol.
Some years ago a terrible railroad accident occurred, killing a lot of people. A commuter train had stalled on the tracks just a few minutes before a fast freight train was due to arrive. The conductor was quickly sent to flag down the approaching train.
Those on board the commuter train weren’t concerned. After all, the railroad workers had everything under control. They just sat quietly, some even took a nap, while others sipped coffee and read the newspapers.
Then the unthinkable happened. The fast freight was seen just yards away and still traveling fast. It smashed into the rear of the commuter train, sending wreckage in ever direction and screams from dying passengers. Train cars were stacked and thrown around like toys, but under them and around them were dismembered bodies and corpses everywhere.
The engineer on the freight train had survived by jumping out of the cab of the locomotive just moments before the impact. He was brought to court in the investigation of the accident to explain why he had not stopped when he saw the conductor flagging him down.
Listen to his answer, “I saw the man waving a flag, but it wasn’t red, it was yellow and yellow flags mean slow down, not stop. I slowed down, but continued forward until I saw the back of the commuter train, but it was too late to stop before we could reach the train in front of us. I could do nothing at all, so I jumped.”
The warning flag was then introduced as evidence and it truly was no longer bright red. It had been red at one time, but because of long exposure to the sun and weather it had become a dirty yellow. Neglect and abuse had turned a powerful warning into a deadly mistake.
My friends we need to have a blood test every time we come to church to make sure that we aren’t preaching a “false gospel” where the power of the blood of Jesus has faded away. A “yellow, weak, faded gospel, void of the red blood of Jesus Christ, cannot save a lost soul. If we don’t preach the truth, that only through the blood of Jesus can men be saved, then we are doing nothing more than waving a yellow flag and sending souls to their eternal doom.
Only Jesus and His blood, sacrificed on the cross can redeem a soul from hell. Don’t let yourself be deceived by an anemic "yellow gospel" of works that is powerless to save you from everlasting destruction. That’s the kind of gospel that most churches preach in our times.
It’s like the old song says, “There is a fountain filled with blood; Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood; Lose all their guilty stains.
When we come to church, or get alone with God, we need to do a check up from the neck up sometimes, and make sure that the arteries of blessing that come only through the blood of Jesus are open wide and not blocking the flow of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
The precious blood of Christ is a wonderful thing. It does so much for our lives that we can’t even begin to fathom all that His blood does in us and for us.
His blood allows us to enter into the very presence of God just as the High Priest was able to enter the Holy of Holies only by the blood of the sacrificial lamb. It consecrates us, cleanses us and makes us worthy to stand before God.
Hebrews 10:19-22, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."
The cleansing power of the blood of Jesus is limitless. There is no sin too great, a life too evil or a cry for mercy that God will not hear, and the blood of Jesus can meet every need. God says that “whosoever will” may come and drink of that living water, and that means allowing the blood of Jesus to wash over them. Whether it’s a murderer on death row, or a traffic violator; whether it’s an alcoholic in the gutter or a wealthy merchant on Wall Street; Jesus’ blood is sufficient for all sin.
1 John 1:7, "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."
The blood of Jesus is our bridge to Heaven. We are made close to God by the blood of God’s Son. His blood bridged the gap and now we can commune with God just as Adam did in the beginning. That wall of sin that separates us from God is broken down, flattened by the power of the blood.
Ephesians 2:13-14, "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;"
In the Old Testament economy, there were daily sacrifices in the temple as well special sacrifices at the times of the great feasts. Animals were slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands, yet the scriptures tell us that all of the blood shed by those sacrificial animals could only serve to purify the flesh so that the priests could stand before God and not face certain and immediate death.
God’s holiness and glory requires perfection and nothing less than perfection can stand before him. That perfect sacrifice could only be found in the shed blood of the perfect Lamb of God. It is by the blood of Jesus that we are made perfect in the sight of God. It cleanses the heart and the soul, something that the blood of an animal could never do.
Hebrews 9:13-14, "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
The price of our salvation is paid in full by the blood of Jesus. We are bought with a price, the price of perfect blood sacrificed for our sin.
1 Peter 1:18-19, "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:"
Only by that blood will we stand in Heaven one day. No good works of the flesh, no blood of sacrificial animals will get us there; only the blood of Jesus Christ. Through his blood he washes our sin away and makes us white as snow.
Revelation 7:14, "And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
In our times the world doesn’t want to hear of the blood of Jesus. When most people look a the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross, if they even notice it at all, it doesn’t have the impact that it should. Violence in our world, either real or depicted on the screens in theaters and in our homes, has desensitized people to the suffering of Jesus Christ. They seed the pain, listen to the story of his death and burial and think, “So what. I’ve watched thousands die on the news and in the movies. Death doesn’t mean a thing.”
But what they never see is the “Resurrection”. Jesus is the only one to come back from the grave. And what they miss is the meaning behind it all. It’s not enough to see a suffering Jesus, a buried Jesus, or even a Resurrected Christ, if we cannot get them to understand that it was all done for the sake of one lost sinner – them!
It has to be made a personal thing. The Holy Spirit must help them to understand that Jesus took their place so that they would not have to suffer pain and death forever. Until they catch that vision, and that message gets into their heart, then the suffering of Jesus is nothing more than any other man who dies.
Through the foolishness of preaching the cross, the shed blood of Jesus, his death, burial and resurrection all for the sake of redeeming lost souls to God, we can see men come to Christ, but it has to be revealed in their hearts by the Holy Ghost.
If we can get people to have a “blood test”; to see the real purpose of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, then we can see them ready to be a part of that great crowd of people who stand before the throne of God and become a part of that loud voice of praise for what God has done.
Revelation 12:10-11, "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death."
We come to church to have a blood test. We want to make sure that our sin is cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We want to make sure that the blood still flows in our heart and life and makes us into a new creation in Christ. It’s only by the blood that we live today, and it’s only by the precious blood of Jesus that we shall live eternally.
Have you had your blood test today? Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb? To the world, the sight of the cross is a terrible thing, but to those who are washed in that blood, it is a wonder to behold. Come to Jesus today and let his blood cleanse you from all sin.
