The Blood of Christ

In this sermon the speaker traces the theme of blood throughout Scripture, beginning with the first animal skins that covered Adam and Eve and the need for bloodshed to atone for sin. He points to the consistent thread of redemption that runs from Genesis through Revelation, emphasizing that the Bible is fundamentally a story of salvation by the blood of Christ. By quoting key passages such as Leviticus 17:11, Romans 5:8‑9, Hebrews 9:22 and Hebrews 6:4, he explains that blood is the means by which God makes atonement, justifies believers, and permanently removes sin. The preacher then moves from theological exposition to practical application, urging listeners to experience the cleansing power of Christ’s blood by faith. He warns that modern, affluent attitudes often reject the “gory gospel,” yet affirms that without the perfect, sinless blood of the Lamb there can be no forgiveness. The sermon concludes with a heartfelt invitation to receive the blood of Jesus, a prayer for cleansing, and a call for believers to live daily under its saving, sufficient, and special power.

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Houston's First Baptist Church is a relevant biblical community where we gather our hearts, grow our souls and give our lives as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). This podcast provides weekly messages from Pastor Gregg Matte and others. Visit us at HoustonsFirst.org to learn more about HFBC, and visit us in person the next time you're in Houston!

The Bible tells us in the 21st verse, which Brother Ingram read a moment ago, And to Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothe them. These skins were the skins of animals. They were God's way to cover man's loss of the presence of God. These skins could not be obtained without the shedding of blood. And hence, the very first picture of bloodshed in the Bible is presented to cover the sins of mankind. The last mention of blood in the Bible, in the book of Revelation, They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, Also speaks of the covering of sins of the world by the shedding of blood. And all between, from Genesis to Revelation. As the old country preachers used to say, from generations to revolutions. They believed the Bible from kiver to kiver, and believed the kiver too. There is a solid thread of redemption, of salvation by blood, Which goes from Genesis, through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, And all through the 66 books of the Bible. The Bible is a bloody book. And it is a book about blood. It is a book of salvation through the blood of Christ. All of the blood of the beast and all of the offerings of the animals shed in the Old Testament Was a foreshadow of the final, ultimate shedding of blood That would be rendered from God's final sacrifice, The Lamb of God, presented to us in the New Testament. And whether looking backward in faith, or forward through telescopic faith, It was always through what the blood typified that the Bible promised That the sins of the world would be remitted. Over and over again, man is attempted to atone for his sins. The shedding of blood is not very tasteful for an affluent society. Many churches, many theologians, many preachers and philosophers, Many affluent and astute people these days, Disdain the concept of the shedding of the blood by which sins would be remitted. But the Bible says, without the shedding of blood, There is no remission of sin. It might not be the most intelligent way. It might not appease the appetites of the affluent. It might not be the most tasteful way for the educated. But the Bible says it is the only way. It is the way that God ordained. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Three things I would remind you this morning Of the blood that was shed for your sins and mine. Number one, it is saving blood. It is special blood. And it is all sufficient blood. First of all, the Bible tells us it is saving blood. The death of the innocent for the guilty Has always been God's exclusive way of salvation. Our God is a perfect God. He is a holy God. He is a righteous God. And the only substitute that he will accept for the sins of unrighteous men Is by the death of the innocent for the guilty. The perfect for the imperfect. The righteous for the unrighteous. It is God's exclusive unalterable way of salvation. Listen, if you will. So, in Leviticus 17 .11, I want you to turn to three verses in your Bible. I have not marked mine ahead of time. I'll have to try to take the time to find it as you do. So, let's look them up together. Leviticus chapter 17, verse number 11. Foreshadowing in the Old Testament. Leviticus 17 .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 soul. For it is blood, the blood, that maketh an atonement for the soul. It is the blood that he hath given to make an atonement for the soul. When you take a very black object such as a Bible and hold it up against the whiteness of the noonday sun, it appears exceeding dark and black. But if you cover that Bible with a red cellophane paper and look through the red, the black turns glistening white. In the same way, when our God looks by faith through the shed blood of Christ, which we accept in faith as covering the blackness of our guilty soul, the Bible says it is through that medium that God sees us in a state of innocence. Justified, righteous, united, saved, cleansed, forgiven. There is power in the blood to save, to forgive, to keep. The Bible says he casteth our sins behind his back as far as the east is from the west, and remembereth them against us no more. And it is by the power of the perfection of the cleansing of blood that justification between the guilty sinner and the guiltless God is ordained. God planned blood. God prepared blood. God provided blood. God has ordained that by the blood men would be saved. Turn with me, if you will, to Romans 5, 8 and 9. Over in the New Testament, the sixth book of the New Testament, Romans chapter 5, verses 8 and 9. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Justified by his blood. Now turn with me, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 9, verse 22, further midway into our New Testament, Hebrews chapter 9, verse 22. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission. Without shedding of blood blood is no remission. Now I realize that for modern man to accept this, for the average American in his super affluency and his high degree of education, to accept the fact that I can only be justified before God. I can only be a candidate for church membership. I can only be right before my God. I can only be a contributing part of society. I can only be a whole person. I can only experience all that God created me to be, not by my own striving, not by my struggling to make myself righteous, not by attempting to pull myself up by my moral bootstraps, but by what Christ did for me in shedding his blood on the cross runs absolutely cross grain to our pride. Surely there is something we can do. Jesus died, and on the cross his last words were, it is finished. He shed his blood, he provided and completed the only exclusive way of salvation. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. There are those who call us preachers of a gory gospel. They say it is a slaughterhouse religion. One denomination has gone through their songbook and removed every song that has the mention of blood therein. A young friend of mine stood up to preach in a great northern city, and before he did, he said, may we all stand and sing, what can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus. At this, the pastor walked to his side and said, wait a minute, there'll be no singing of songs about the blood in this church. We do not believe in slaughterhouse religion. Well, my dear friend, the Bible does. I was preaching in Oklahoma Baptist University. I went to preach at First Baptist Church of Shawnee, and some of the students after I had preached on the cross on Sunday night in philosophy class the next day were criticizing me, and they said, brother, the blood really flowed off the pulpit at old First Baptist Church last night. I bowed my head and said, thank you, Lord. I've never had a higher compliment to my preaching than that, than that men came into a visual and vivid reality of relationship with the presence and the power of the blood of Christ. Without his shed blood, we're out of business. Without his shed blood, we have no gospel. Without his shed blood, we have no message. Without his shed blood, we have nothing to offer the world except some little rose water gilly -dally positive thinking and glorified book reviews and weather reports at best. They tell us that there are something like approximately five quarts of blood in the body. And to the degree that blood is unable to circulate, to come in contact with a membrane or a cell, a portion of the brain, a portion of the hand or the foot, to that degree death enters that part of the body. I say to you in the very same way that to the degree that the blood fails to come in contact with any preacher or any message or any church or any denomination. To that degree, that part of the bride of Christ and the body of Christ is dead, is impotent. I care not what a man preaches. If the preaching of the blood of Christ, the atonement on the altar for our sins, is not at the cleansing ancient heart of the message, he does not preach a gospel that will set men free. There's power in the blood. There's cleansing in the blood. There's salvation in the blood and in no other way. Now the Bible says there is a way that seemeth right unto man, a very intellectual, a very affluent way, but the end thereof are the ways of death. The Bible says he hath not revealed these things to the wise and to the prudent. Listen. For he hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. There are some things the wise cannot figure out. I cannot comprehend all that there is therein that a man died on the cross and shed his blood and gave his life for my sins 2 ,000 years ago. How that removes the guilt complex and the burden of sin and sets me free. I don't know it, but I know I have experienced it. I know it is a living reality. Say about A, there's power in the blood. There's wonder working power in the blood of the Lamb. Through the cleansing of the blood and only that are men made right before God. Now listen very closely. You might have gone to catechism. You might count your beads. You might be confirmed. You might be in this very church wearing a 10 -year perfect attendance pin. You may be Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian. You may have been baptized, homogenized, and pasteurized, and sanforized. But unless there has been a definite experience in your life, in time, in place, where in faith you put your guilt and your sin and yourself under the blood of Christ, the Bible says, he that is not partaker in him is none of his. Then you have no claim to eternal life. You have no righteousness within yourself. You must be watched in the blood by faith of the Lamb, the Lamb of God. For in him alone, in his cleansing agency alone, has God placed the inherent power to forgive sin and guilt and make men justified before God. Now the second word is this. It is not only saving blood, but I am so happy to say to you that it is special blood that is required. Very special blood. I read until my blood runs cold of the stories in Fox's Book of Martyrs of how those early -day Christians stood for the faith, were persecuted, were told to deny their faith in Christ or die. And they were used as living torches to light Nero's courts, gourd to death by wild beasts, until the sands of Rome ran red with the blood of their Christian faith. Oh, what a far cry from a family I visited this week who hadn't been in church in 16 years because 16 years ago somebody said something they didn't like and offended them and they hadn't been back. Well, what a difference. Those people died for their faith. They lived for their faith and healed it with their blood. I say to you that was precious blood, precious blood. That blood would not wash away sin. When all the male babies under two by Herod's men were slain, that likewise was precious blood, precious blood for precious in the sight of the Lord or the death of his saints is the death of his saints. But that blood would not wash away one single sin. In 1969, more than 50 ,000 Americans, 65 percent of them caused by drunken drivers. That's why we're voting no to increase, not increase, alcoholic consumption died on the highways of America. 50 ,000 innocent people. That was precious blood. All of that blood would not wash away one single sin. In Del City, in two Sundays, in one week, we had two funerals on Monday and Thursday of a 19 and a 20 year old boy, recent graduate six blocks down the street of Del City High School that had lost their lives in Vietnam. And they, with scores of thousands of other boys on both sides, have fought and bled and died for what they believed. Right? That was precious blood. But that blood could not wash away sin. It must be, you see, perfect blood. Sinless blood. Righteous blood. Spotless blood. That blood only was traced to God himself. Now follow. Follow very closely. There are those who disagree with what I'm going to say. But I am going to quote to you from some medical textbooks, if I can get all these high -sounding names pronounced right, which I probably will not. Our Lord, you agree, was conceived of the Holy Spirit of God. The Bible says before they came together, she, Mary, was found with child of the Holy Ghost. She said upon discovery of the pregnancy, how can these things be? Seeing I know not a man. And the angel said, fear not. That that is conceived in thee is of the Holy Ghost. She provided the womb. She provided the body. But it was the spiritual deposit of the Spirit of God that brought life into her body and produced Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God. Our Lord was himself the Father. And I am saying to you that the blood that flowed in his veins was royal blood. Now I do not understand all of the medical mechanics of the mingling of the two and the tracing of the blood that produces life. But I say to you that many of the best medical authorities say that the contribution of the blood, the life -giving blood, that that initiates life, is of the Father. Listen. Howell's textbook on physiology, second edition, pages 855 and 885 and 886. For the purpose of understanding its general functions, it is sufficient to recall that the placenta consists essentially of vascular chorionic papillae, papillae for the, from the fetus, unborn child, bathed in the large blood spaces of the dissensual membrane of the mother. How am I doing? The fetal and maternal blood do not come, you listening? The fetal and maternal blood do not come into actual contact. They are separated from each other by the walls of the fetal blood vessels and by the epithelial layers of the chorionic villi. From Williams' Practice of Obstetrics, third edition, page 133. The fetal blood in the vessels of the chorionic villi at no time gains access to the maternal blood, but separated in the inner villi spaces, one from the other. There is no communication between the fetal blood and maternal blood. The Nurses' Handbook of Obstetrics for Nurses by Zabritsky, page 75 of the fifth edition. When the circulation of the blood begins in the embryo, it remains separated and distinct from that of the mother. There is no association between the two. And so it appears, to whatever degree they might mix later, that the original contribution of life -giving blood comes from the father, comes from the father's side. In the very same way, an unfertilized egg of a chicken, left of itself, will within 21 days die and rot and decay. But within that same period of time can produce life when fertilization by the father has been implanted. Now, within six hours of fertilization, red streaks will appear and can be seen under high powered candlelight from the egg, denoting the presence of the father's fertilization. In other words, the life -giving originating power of the blood that pumps blood and life is the contribution of the father. I am suggesting to you, therefore, that it was his heavenly father as well. Our God's blood that flowed in the veins of Jesus Christ. That's why it was special blood. You see, Adam's seed contributed and passed the tendency for physical death and spiritual sin through the race, through the medium of blood. When Abraham Lincoln was dying after he had been shot, they grained his blood. They used to do that until 100 years ago. But the Bible said 4 ,000 years ago, the life of the flesh is in the blood. You see, men don't need the blood grained. They need a blood transfusion. They need new blood. And royal blood that flowed in his veins, in the veins of Christ from his father, is the same blood that cleanses us of our sin. And that perfect blood, and there is no other blood, but that special perfect blood, which can cleanse from sin, can be applied to our hearts by faith. It must be that special blood under which we get in faith before our sin can be forgiven. In Argentina years ago, the Argentine people had much to offer the markets of the world with their contribution of some of the world's most perfect wool. But they could not do so because it could not be cleansed. There were no waters in Argentina sufficiently pure to cleanse it, to bring it to the standards of the world. And now they have found, to this day, that there is one fount, one scream, one river that is only pure enough to cleanse the wool, to make it acceptable to the world's financiers. In the very same way, there is but one scream, one fount, which, drawn from Immanuel's veins, is a ceaseless, endless flow beneath which sinners plunge with all their sin, lose all their sin and guilt beneath that crimson flow. Only beneath that blood, that special blood, can sin be forgiven. Now the third and last word is this. It is sufficient blood. It is sufficient blood. It will do. It is efficient. And it is sufficient. And it is enough. And nothing but nothing need be added. Over in the book of Hebrews. Turn again, if you will, please, to the sixth chapter, verse number four. Hebrews chapter six, and verse number four. In Hebrews the sixth chapter, the fourth verse, it is impossible, and it is my belief that this is a theoretical, hypothetical case, saying it couldn't be this way, but if it were, here's why. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gifts, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the good word of God, with the powers of the world to come. It is impossible for a man, once enlightened, that is, if they should fall away, if they shall fall away, to renew them again under repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open chain. Now, what does that mean? There are many people who believe that one's sin can so enslave him that he will lose his salvation. Baptists do not believe that. We believe the cleansing power of the blood of Christ keeps men eternally saved. But they believe there are some sins which can supersede the cleansing power of the blood. So if one is saved and then gets lost, what does he have to do again to be saved? Well, they just come bouncing down the aisle, and repent all over again, and get saved all over again. Not so. Not so. That's not what the book says. The book says it is impossible, it would be impossible to renew a man again, if he could fall away, because you would have to crucify the Son of God afresh and put him to an open chain. Now what does that mean? That means that Christ prophesied 700 years, born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, shed his blood, that perfect, holy, finished, prophesied blood, atoned for sin. Now if any sin could ever undo the finished work of the efficacy of the blood of Christ, then what would have to happen? Jesus would have to be prophesied again, born of a virgin again, live a perfect life again, die again, and save that man all over again. You would have to crucify him afresh. Now what is sin? To him that doeth good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. How many of you have done everything good you know to do today? Well, how many Christians are there in the world? 500 million? I suppose we sin 20 times a day, at least, by omission, if not omission. What are they, 10 billion sins committed every day? That means that 10 billion times a day Christ has to come from heaven, be born of a virgin, prophesied 700 years, live a perfect life, die on the cross, because his blood was not sufficient to cleanse all sin once and for all. That here is not what the book says. Listen. Again, when he hath made atonement for the sins of the world, he forever sat down on the right hands of the Father. It's finished. That word cleanse means applied at point action. It begins to cleanse and keeps on cleansing. And the earliest tense of the verb means it is impossible to ever stop cleansing. And if I ever quit saying and keeps on cleansing and keeps on cleansing and keeps on cleansing, I would not convey into English what the grammar, the Greek grammar was saying. I cannot say it. There's no way to do it. It just means it never stops. That's why we sing, once for all, all Christian believers, once for all, all sinners, receive it. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, once for all. It's sufficient blood. There be no sin, no deception, no pride, no guilt, nor immorality, no broken life. That under the blood of Christ cannot be guilt -free, forgiven, cleansed. You made white as the new driven snow and started again. For behold, though your sins be as calleth, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as the wall. Every once in a while, we have to put out an appeal, a special plea for people to give a contribution of their blood to the local blood banks. Do you know that that blood, less of itself, will eventually disintegrate in its makeup so as to be ineffective? And so they must prepare certain kinds of additives to add to the blood, to add to it, to preserve it. Not so in his blood. 1900 and some years ago, God opened up a blood bank on Calvary. There is nothing that needs to be added. No work, no baptistry, no Lord's Supper, no goodness, no righteousness. Sufficient blood, special blood. It's saving blood. Have you, by faith, gotten yourself neath that blood? God, can you say, have you an answer to the song? Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Oh, yes, Lord, I am. I am. There was a time when I trusted him, when I received him in faith. Now as a Christian, daily my sins are being purged, daily put into the blood of Christ, so that I dwell in oneness with him, I abide in unity with him. Christ, my Savior, cleansed, perpetuated, kept by the saving power of the blood. In Uncle Tom's cabin, the little girl, little Eva, had run away. Little slave girl, running for life, running for freedom. Oh, Simon LeGree set the bloodhounds after her. She heard them closing in a half mile, a quarter mile, a tenth mile away. They were baying and howling and talking almost at her heels. She came yonder to that north river. Her heart gasped within her. She discovered that the ice was beginning to break up. she could not run as she had thought by safely coursing that ice into the safety of Northern Territory. What would she do? There were but a few pieces of ice left, the bloodhounds were closing in on her, she had but one chance and she took it by faith, she stepped on the first broken piece and found to her thrill that it supported her frail body and she went to the next, the next, the next, slipping and tumbling to the best of ability, frantically flinging herself across the river. She made it to safety on the other side, the bloodhounds were stopped in silence on the border of the river. There was a time in my life when the bloodhounds of guilt and sin and hell and death and the grave and memory and failure and yesterday were closing in on me. Then by faith I saw a stream filled with blood and I threw myself by faith into it, yonder on Canaan's other shore of silence and safety and peace and forgiveness, the bloodhounds appear and guilt were silenced on the other shore by the blood of Christ. Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power, are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you living daily by His saving power, are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow, no other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that blood lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. May I, their bottle vile as he, there wash all my sins away. Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. And that of, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. You must come that way. You can come no other way, no other way. There is cleansing, saving, sufficient, keeping power in the blood to forgive sins, to bear out the past, to reinstate, to start life again. But you must accept it and receive it, experience this guilt -cleansing power by faith, by faith. A moment of submission and surrender to the Lamb of God. May we pray. As heads are bowed and every eye is closed, just as I am without one plea, O God, but that thy blood was shed for me. Does it not mean more to us now? What does it say? Lord, my goodness, my righteousness, as well as my sinfulness, I bring nothing to thee, Lord, a poor, guilty sinner. I acknowledge my need of thee, just as I am. Lord, I come, my only hope, my only plea, Lord, is your blood, that thy blood was shed for me. Let that crimson flow in faith fall on you. Just say, Lord Jesus, come into my life, forgive my sin, cleanse my sin. Wash my guilt. And he shall, by faith, apply the blood -cleansing power to your heart, and it shall cleanse forever and forever and forever. Will you do it? As we pray, as heads are bowed, O God, may that one that needs thee, that guilty girl or boy or man or woman, the burden of whose sin has brought them the fresh to a realization of the need of Christ, God. For the Christian who has not learned daily to appropriate the cleansing grace of thy blood to their lives, may they come as well to the fount and there find salvation and forgiveness. Lord, we pray in his name as heads are bowed. If you belong to another church... If you're at our church... ...