The Necessity

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Welcome to this weekend’s In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley. Experience the profound truth of Christ’s suffering and its vital role in our salvation. As we prepare for Easter, let’s reflect on the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice and the hope it brings to us all.

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If somebody were to walk up to you and say, just tell me why you Christians talk and sing about blood. Could you tell them why? Well, I want you to turn, if you will, to John chapter 1. John the Beloved is writing about John the Baptist. So, I want to be sure we understand who this John is. In the 19th verse of the first chapter, the Scripture says, “‘And this is the witness of John,’ that is, John the Baptist, “‘when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “‘Who are you?’ And he confessed and did not deny, and he confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, No. They said to him, Who are you? So that we may give an answer to those who sin us. What do you say about yourself? So he said, I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said. Now, they had been sent from the Pharisees trying to find out what’s going on. Now, here’s a man out here in the wilderness preaching and baptizing and people repenting of their sins. And like a revival is breaking loose in the Pharisees, they send somebody out to find out who he is because they don’t want to be seen out there. So they asked him and said to him in verse 25, John answered them saying, I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you do not know. It is he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing. Then the next day, he, that is John the Baptist, saw Jesus coming to him and he said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now, when John identifies Jesus here as the Lamb of God, There are three things that He reveals about Jesus. First of all, He says that He’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and that is He is the Son of God. Now let me show you why. All through the Old Testament, the idea of a Messiah coming, the Lamb of God, all of this is all through the Old Testament. But not until you get to the 53rd chapter of Isaiah is this Lamb identified as a person. And now when John the Baptist identifies him, he identifies this Lamb of God as just that, the Lamb of God, that is the Son of God, who has come to take away the sin of the world. And so he says that is who he really is, and his purpose for coming is to take away the sin of the world, that is to deal with the sin issue that separates man from God. So he said, “‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'” That is, his coming was not for the purpose just to be king or prophet or teacher or healer. He came for a redemptive purpose. He came to deal with the issue of sin, which has separated his nation from him and separates men from him today. He said, “‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'” But in that answer also gives the plan by which he was to do that. When he says he takes away the sin of the world, that was his purpose for coming. But when he said he’s the Lamb of God, in that simple title, he told how he would carry out the task that the Father had sent him for. Now, I want you to think about something for a moment. When you look back in the Old Testament and you think about how many times the blood was shed and sacrifices were offered, if you go back to Genesis chapter 4, here a sacrifice is being offered. Blood is being shed for an individual. That is, Abel is offering a sacrifice for himself. Then you come to the 12th chapter of Exodus and you see the blood being shed for a family or for the family. That is when the death angel was coming through Egypt and God told the nation of Israel, you put blood on the doorpost, the lintels of your house, the death angel pass over you, then blood was shed for the family. In Leviticus 16, when the high priest comes to take the blood to the mercy seat, once a year on the day of atonement, the blood was shed for a whole nation. So now watch this, how God operates. Genesis 4, the blood shed for a person. Exodus 12, the bloodshed for the household. Leviticus 16, for the whole nation. But in John chapter 1, he says, Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the what? Of the world. And so that all that had been pictured throughout the Old Testament, now Jesus is the one who comes, not as a lamb as they thought in terms of lambs, but here is the Son of God who is coming to deal with the issue of sin, the critical issue in life, and he’s coming as the Lamb of God, that is a person, the Son of God, to lay down his life for mankind. So when we come to this passage and he says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, let’s ask ourselves this question, what is this blood business all about? Why is the blood essential? The blood of Jesus Christ, first of all, is essential to our forgiveness. Ephesians chapter 1, look in verse 7. The Apostle Paul made it very clear, very simply. He says, in Christ, that is in Him, in Christ we have redemption. That is, our salvation has been purchased through His blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace. Therefore, he says, first of all, our forgiveness comes through the blood of Jesus Christ. And we’ll explain that in just a moment. To forgive, or the word forgiveness means to take away. That is, as a result of the blood of Christ, our sin has been taken away. You and I have become the saints of God. And while we do sin against him at times, we are saints. Our sin, our guilt has been taken away. We have been forgiven. We have been redeemed. And in Hebrews chapter 9, he says, “…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” So all through the Old Testament, and you recall when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, what is it that God placed on them to cover their nakedness? Skin. So to have skins, you’ve got to have what? You’ve got to have animals that have been killed. So it appears that God made the first sacrifice symbolical of all the sacrifices up to the time of the death of Jesus Christ. He said… And He taught through the law of Moses and the whole Mosaic law of sacrifices. All of this was a foreshadowing, a picture of that which was to come. Jesus is the living Son of God who fulfilled all of the prophecies of the sacrifices and all the message and the symbol of those sacrifices. So he says in Ephesians chapter 1 that your forgiveness in mind comes through the shedding of Christ’s blood. That is, unless Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, sinless person, had died for your sins in mind and taken upon himself the guilt and the penalty of our sin, there’d be no forgiveness. That means that you and I today would be unsaved. And between us and God, there would be this awful barrier of sin which separates men from God. So the question is, what is so important about the blood? Well, first of all, there’d be no forgiveness. There would be no redemption by God. All right, let’s look at something else. Romans chapter 5. Not only are we forgiven, but the Bible says that by the blood of Jesus Christ, something else has happened. Romans chapter 5, and look, if you will, in verse 9. He says, much more than having now been justified by his blood. Listen, not just by his death, by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. So he says, first of all, our forgiveness comes through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he says, our justification. Our justification comes through the blood of Christ. That means to be justified means, now watch this, that God has declared every single person No longer guilty. That is, every single person who has received Christ as their Savior, who has accepted Jesus’ sinless death as the Lamb at the cross, everyone who accepts that and receives Him personally by faith, we have been declared no longer guilty. Listen, not only have we been declared not guilty, but we have been declared righteous in the eyes of God. Look, if you will, in verse 17. Look at this. He says, for if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, that is through Adam, much more those who receive the abundance of grace, all of us who are saved, and of the gift of righteousness, we will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. So you and I have been declared righteous. That is God who said, in the day that you eat of the fruit of the tree, ye shall surely die. God who said, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. How can God… declare every single person who sins to be eternally separated from him, and then turn right around and declare him righteous. Only because somebody was willing to pay the penalty. The penalty is death. Who could have paid it? Only one sinless person. And you’ll recall, as they describe in the Old Testament sacrifices, that the lamb had to be spotless and without blemish. And in Malachi, he says, you’re bringing me sick sheep to sacrifice, and I do not accept it. So, he had to be a spotless lamb. The only person who’s ever lived who was spotless spiritually, eternally, and every other fashion is Jesus Christ. He came for the purpose of dying. Now, in order for God to say to you and to me, I declare you righteous in my sight. I declare, I give you the gift of righteousness. You are right in my eyes. Somebody had to pay that penalty. Somebody was the substitute. Jesus Christ was the sacrificial, all-sufficient, atoning substitute in your place and my place so that now between God and us, there is no barrier. There’s nothing to separate us from him because the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed us from our sin and we have been declared by him righteous. So when somebody says, well, Now, tell me about this blood. There’s no forgiveness without the blood. There’s no justification. God, without the shedding of blood, could not have remained God and said, it’s okay. Sins are forgiven. Don’t worry about it. He couldn’t do it without violating his own principles and his own laws. So… The second reason is we would not be justified. The third reason is our reconciliation. I want you to turn to Colossians chapter one, verse 19. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him that is in Christ and through him that is Christ to reconcile, to bring back into harmony that which was out of harmony, to bring back into a right relationship, to make things harmonious once again. For he says, “…and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven, and although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him.” holy and blameless beyond reproach. Look at that. Somebody says, well, what’s the importance of all this blood? Here’s the importance of it. That because Jesus Christ died on the cross, it made it possible for you and me to stand in the presence of Almighty God on that day and be spotless and without blemish and holy in the presence of God. Otherwise, you and I will not be in harmony with Him. The only reason that you and I have a harmonious relationship with God the Father is through His Son, Jesus Christ, because Christ shed His blood at Calvary and made it possible, as He says here, that all of us who were alienated from Him, separated from Him by our sin, now He says He has brought us back into fellowship. And we can pray and know that He’s listening. We can talk to Him and know that He’s listening and that He’s interested in what’s going on. And we can lie down at night with a clear conscience, a clean conscience. Why? Because we have been declared righteous. Our sins have been forgiven. We have been redeemed. And we are living now in a harmonious relationship with Him. Harmonious in the fact that we have been reconciled to God through His Son. Now, not only have we been reconciled, but the scripture says that you and I have been sanctified by his blood. Turn, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 13. In Hebrews 13 and the 12th verse. He says, therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffer outside the gate. Now, all of these words have to do with our redemption. All of these words are important in the whole scheme of things in the eyes of God. Think about your theology. If you have a theology that’s biblical, then you have to think in terms of redemption and sanctification and reconciliation and justification and forgiveness of sin. Sanctification is God cleansing us and setting us apart for Himself, unto Himself, for His purposes and not our own. So that every single one of us who is a believer has been sanctified. We were forgiven of our sins, set apart, cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, set apart for the purpose of God. We’re not even to live for our purposes. We don’t even belong to ourselves. We gave up our rights to ourselves the moment we surrendered our life to Christ. When we were saved, we became, listen, His blood bought possession. purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, we became His possession. We have been sanctified. Now, sanctification is not only a one-time act. Sanctification is an ongoing process. The continuous cleansing of the Spirit of God in our life by the blood of Jesus Christ. So, sanctification. There would be no sanctification. Could not be were we not a part of the blood of Jesus Christ. Then I want to give you one more in 1 John 1, verse 7. It is by the blood of Jesus Christ that you and I can live our lives day by day and be continually being cleansed. Look at this. He says in verse 7, Now, It is the blood that takes care of my cleansing. It is my confession and repentance that takes care of my fellowship with Him. Since you have been saved by the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His substitutionary, atoning, sacrificial death, your sins have been atoned for past, present, and future. There is not a single thing you could possibly do that could make you die and go to hell. And so often people ask me, you know, what about the unpardonable sin? And I want you to listen carefully. There isn’t any such thing as an unpardonable sin today other than dying without Christ. As long as you live, you can be saved unless you reach the point where your heart is so hard. and that you absolutely have no desire, not one single solitary desire do you have for the things of God, then you can die and be lost. But any sin you and I commit can be forgiven. In Matthew chapter 12, when he talks about the unpardonable sin, that was something that happened in those days. Jesus Christ was there. They were looking at him. They were watching him do what he was doing. But that situation can no longer exist, and you can’t think of anything God won’t forgive you for. Name one. There isn’t any such thing. If we walk in the light, and every single one of us who is saved is in the light, we may deal with darkness, but we are in the light. Because, listen, the Spirit of God is living on the inside of us. Christ is our light. He isn’t somebody up in heaven looking down on us. Christ is our light. The Spirit of God has indwelt us, sealed us. We’re the children of God. It is the blood of Jesus Christ that is continually cleansing us. We’ve been declared righteous. We’ve been given the gift of righteousness. We’re the children of God. So think about this. Every single aspect of your life and mine is affected by the blood of Jesus Christ. Every day that we live is affected by it. So when somebody says, what’s this blood business? Here’s what the business is. There is no such thing as Christianity without the blood of Jesus Christ. There’s no such thing as forgiveness apart from the blood. There’s no such thing as access to God apart from the blood. There’s no such thing as being accepted by Him apart from the blood. There’s no such thing as eternal life apart from the blood. There’s no such thing as a relationship with God apart from the blood. And let me ask you a question. Has there ever been a time in your life when you asked God to save you and your trust was not in an invisible God, but in His Son, Jesus Christ. Did you really and truly understand what it meant for Jesus Christ to die for your sins? Unless you have trusted Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin, because He is the only sin bearer, you have never been saved apart from Christ. There had to be Christ in that salvation experience, not just God. A lot of folks who believe in God, lots of different groups have all kind of gods. There’s only one God, and the only one way to get to Him is through His Son, Jesus. And I’m simply asking you, are you sure that you’re saved? And if somebody were to ask you tomorrow, now think about this. If somebody were to ask you tomorrow, well, if you’re saved, what do you base your salvation on? What would you say? Here’s the answer. I base my salvation on the fact that I have trusted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, and when He went to the cross, He took care of my sin debt in full forever. I’m a child of God. There is no other basis of salvation but Christ and His shed blood. That’s why it is important.

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Thank you for listening to The Blood of Christ, The Necessity. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.