THE BLOOD – THE CLEANSING WAVE
Isaiah 1:18, Heb. 9:13-14
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: Politician Joke
1. A man was walking down a beach in California when his toe caught on something in the loose sand. Bending down, he tugged out of the sand an ancient oil lamp.
2. As he rubbed the dust off its beautiful exterior, a genie suddenly appeared and bowed to him; “You may ask me for anything and it shall be yours.”
3. The man said, “I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii but I’m afraid of flying and ships scare me. Could you make me a bridge reaching from California to Hawaii?”
4. The Genie looked perplexed; “Do you know how deep the Pacific Ocean is? Or how many 1,000s of miles it is to Hawaii? Or how many trillion of tons of concrete it would take to build such a bridge? Isn’t there anything else you can ask for?”
5. The man thought a moment and then said, “Okay, then explain to me how a politician’s mind works.” The Genie stood speechless for a minute and then said, “How many lanes did you say you wanted on that bridge?”
B. TEXT
“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as [white as] wool” Isa. 1:18. “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” Heb. 9:13-14.
C. THESIS: TITANIC
1. The Titanic definitely catered to people according to their wealth. There were different decks people could stay on.
a. Some for the Rich – Executive Suites or 1st Class.
b. Some for the Middle Class – 2nd Class rooms.
c. Some for the Ordinary People – Steerage.
2. But when the Titanic went down, their offices at New York only listed two classifications: the Saved and the Lost! That’s the same way it’s going to be in eternity.
3. Some of you may be going to Hell in first class, but on the Day of Judgment the only thing that will matter is whether you are Saved or Lost!
4. Today we’re looking at the power of the Blood of Christ – how it is the Cleansing Wave washing the sins of entire world!
I. THE TERRIBLE PRICE OF SIN
A. THE NEED FOR SALVATION
1. All of us want the best out of life, but there’s a major problem: SIN. We think of some people as “bad” and other people as “good,” yet the Bible tells us that “Everyone has sinned.”
2. That Original Sin didn’t just separate us from God, but it put into us a sinful nature. Every person is infected with the “germ” of sin and has a “bent” toward evil. It began a domino effect touching every man, woman, boy, and girl ever born.
3. The Lord Jesus said, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:21-23.
4. The Bible asks, “Can...the leopard change its spots? [NO!] Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil” Jer. 13:23.
5. WE’RE ALL INFECTED WITH THE PLAGUE OF SIN! “There is no one righteous, no, not one.” “For ALL HAVE SINNED and fall short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:10, 23.
6. In the old days, people hung their washed clothes in their back yards on clotheslines to dry. One lady took special pride in the fact that her laundry was whiter than everyone else’s. Then one day it snowed. Next to that brilliant white, her clothes looked off-white and dingy. That’s just what it’s like when our best righteousness is compared to God’s perfect holiness!
7. Most folks think they’re pretty good people. Let’s assume we only sins 3 times a day. Sounds pretty good! But if we live to 80 years old (even taking off the 1st 5 years of innocence) we will still commit 82,125 sins in our lifetime! Imagine standing before God to account for over 80,000 sins!
B. THREE THINGS SIN DOES TO US
1. ENSLAVES US, Rom. 7:19,23
2. CONTAMINATES US/ defiles us
3. ALIENATES US, separates us from God now, and in the future, it will take us to Hell!
C. THE SOLUTION OF SIN?
1. Is there a solution? Yes! Someone must pay the price of sin – either YOU have to die for your sin, or A SUBSTITUTE FOR MUST DIE FOR YOU.
2. But you say:
a. “If we serve others, won’t that pay for sin?” No!
b. “If we give money to the needy, won’t that pay for our sin?” No!
c. “If we lost our lives in a worthy cause, won’t that pay for our sin?” NO!
d. “What if we follow the life & teaching of a great spiritual leader, won’t that pay for our sin?” NO!
3. WHAT’S THE ANSWER? In Lev. 17:11, God tells us the He gave blood for the atonement of our sins & Heb. 9:22 tells us that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Heb. 9:22.
II. THE PRICE OF OUR REDEMPTION?
“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” 1 Pet. 1:18-19.
A. ILLUS: “DOES YOUR GOD BLEED?”
1. A boy went up to a missionary in another country. The boy said, "I like what you say about the God of the Bible but I can’t see him. But if I go to my temple, I can see my God."
2. The missionary said, "Son, may I ask you a question? Does your God bleed?" The boy said, "I don’t know." The missionary gave him a pin and said, "Next time you go to the temple, when no one else is watching, prick him and see what happens."
3. The following week the boy returned and said to the missionary, "I did it, I did it! I pricked the idol!" The missionary said, "And what happened?" The boy replied, "Nothing, my god doesn’t bleed."
4. Then the missionary said, "Nor does he care about you. But MY GOD DOES! He bled for my sins and your sins, too! He loves us that much!" [Larry Petton]
5. What makes the blood of Jesus so valuable that it could atone for the sins of the whole world?
B. WHAT MAKES THE BLOOD OF JESUS SO PRECIOUS?
1. IT’S THE BLOOD OF GOD
a. In Acts 20:28, Paul referred to the blood of Christ as the “blood of God.”
b. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit! The Virgin Mary supplied the human/female side of the DNA, but the Holy Spirit miraculously created the male side to be the genes of God.
c. This quality, gave His blood its infinite efficacy and power to atone for the sins of the countless billions of humans, at one stroke. Thank God for the marvelous blood of Jesus!
2. HIS WAS INNOCENT BLOOD
a. 5X the Bible declares that Jesus lived a sinless life during his earthly life. Even Pilate and the traitor Judas said His was innocent blood.
b. This means that when Jesus suffered for us on the cross, His blood was untainted by sin. He was capable, since without sin Himself, to take on Himself the sin of others. This would not have been possible without his innocence.
3. HE WAS A WILLING SACRIFICE
a. Jesus stated that He willingly gave His life. Normal animal sacrifices struggled to get away, but not Jesus.
b. Jesus said in John 10:17-18, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”
4. ACCEPTABLE BECAUSE APPOINTED BY GOD
a. Isaiah 53:11 says that when God the Father saw “the travail” of His Son, that He was “satisfied.” Praise God!
b. Peter said, “There’s no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” – but the name of JESUS!
c. A Calcutta paper carried the story of how a Hindu came to the house of a missionary and said: "I find many things in Christianity which I also find in Hinduism; but there’s one thing Christianity has that Hinduism does not." "What is that?" the missionary asked. His reply was, "A Savior!"
d. That’s why Buddha can’t save you, nor Islam, nor Hinduism, nor Confucianism – because God made HIS SON JESUS the Savior of the World! “No one comes to the Father except through Me” Jesus said, in John 14:6.
5. OUR SALVATION WAS NOT AN AFTER-THOUGHT OF GOD
a. Peter said (1 Pet. 1:20), “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”
b. The Book of Revelation tells us that Jesus is the Lamb “slain from the creation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). God wasn’t playing catch-up with our sins. When God decided to create us, He knew that our free wills would give us the ability to fall, and so Jesus, out of love, volunteered to die to redeem us. What love!
c. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command” John 15:13-14. God would rather die than to live in Heaven without you!
III. THE CLEANSING WAVE
A. NECESSITY OF A NEW NATURE
1. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned....15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.” Rom. 5:12, 15.
2. Don’t try to count the number of your sins – they are greater than the number of hairs on your head or grains of sand on the seashore. Our sins have gone over our heads. Who can rescue us from this situation? Jesus did!
3. Not only does He forgive us and wash us white, BUT HE PUTS A NEW NATURE INSIDE OF US – the precious Holy Spirit! And He transforms us from the inside out into the image of Jesus!
B. SIN THROUGH ONE; GRACE THROUGH ONE
1. Paul in Rom. 5:12-15 said that Adam’s sin had infected the whole human race. But then he tells us the good news: the human race has been started over again in Jesus Christ.
2. It’s a new race of every color, nation, and language who’ve been forgiven and given the new nature of the Holy Spirit, and have been made part of God’s family – children of God!
3. So the Blood of Christ has become a CLEANSING WAVE of GRACE, washing away the old and bringing in the new!
4. God’s GRACE is greater than all our sins!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: WHEN THE TRAIL WAS BROKEN: Robert Bruce of Scotland
1. In the 14th century, Robert Bruce of Scotland was leading his men in a battle to gain independence from England. Near the end of the conflict, the English wanted to capture Bruce to keep him from the Scottish crown. So they put his own bloodhounds on his trail. When the bloodhounds got close, Bruce could hear their baying. His attendant said, “We are done for. Your own dogs can trail you better than any other!”
2. Bruce replied, “It’s all right.” Then he headed for a stream that flowed through the forest. He plunged in and waded upstream for some distance. When he came out on the other bank, he was in the depths of the forest.
3. Within minutes, the hounds came to the bank. They went no farther. The English soldiers urged them on, but the trail was broken. The stream had carried the scent away. A short time later, the crown of Scotland rested on the head of Robert Bruce.
4. Satan pursues us with our sins, like those baying dogs—but a stream flows, red with the blood of God’s own Son. If we pass through it by faith in Christ, we’re safe. The scent of our sin is washed away! Trust in the precious blood of Christ! [Putting Your Past Behind You, E. Lutzer, Here’s Life, 1990, p. 42]
B. THE CALL
1. How many of you need to be washed in the crimson stream and have your sins washed away? Let’s pray for Christ’s forgiveness & new nature.
2. LORD’S SUPPER
