Why Is the Blood of Jesus Necessary for Salvation?

Let's turn once more to Colossians chapter 1, and for those of you joining us on television again we like to thank you for your letters, your prayers, your help, and above all we appreciate the fact that you're searching the Scriptures, you're studying and sharing it with others. After all this is what turned the Roman Empire upside down, and this is what made Paul's apostleship so unique, is that he got those new believers into the Word, even though they didn't have the printed Word as we have, yet it made such an impact on society that the world around them knew that those ex-pagans were a different breed of people once they came to know salvation. I always like to remind folks that we're not associated with any one group. I am a member of a local church, so don't worry about that, but I don't wear a denominational patch on my sleeve, and I know not everybody agrees with me, and they don't have to. I can always tell people, well if you disagree that's fine, if you're comfortable with that, that's your privilege, but all I want you to do is be sure you disagree scripturally. Well anyway, all the past programs are available on videotape and the printed page as well as the audio cassettes, so if you're interested in any of those you let us know, and if you'd like to get our quarterly newsletter, and you're not on our mailing list, let us know your name and address, and we'll get that out to you as well. Alright, we've got a lot to cover, goodness I thought I was going to have a hard time filling four programs with the little book of Colossians, and here we aren't even on a chapter 1 verse 12. I'm always amazed myself. Colossians 1 verse 12, "...giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life." Giving thanks to the Father. Now that reminds me, I've had several questions lately, it's funny how they sort of come in groups where, is it appropriate to pray to the Father in this age of grace? Well, I taught it, and I'd forgotten when I taught it, but I found it the other day, and I'm going to have you turn back with me to Ephesians chapter 5, because maybe even some of you or some of the listening audience have wondered, since we're in the age of grace, do we still pray to the Father? As the Lord's Prayer, as the model prayer, instructed our Father which art in heaven. Yes, that has not changed. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 20, and I think this is as clear cut an answer as you can get. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 20, plain and simple, "...giving thanks always for all things unto God, and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Isn't that exactly how we do it? And so it's still appropriate. Yes, we do pray to the Father, and we do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're going to see that relationship in the Trinity in a little later verses, but for now come back to Colossians chapter 1. So Paul as he prays to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he has thanked God the Father that He took these Colossians out of paganism, out of darkness, under the chains of the satanic powers, and translated them into the Heavenly Kingdom. Now what happened to the Colossians has happened to us. We too have been translated from a position in darkness, and we are now citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom. Now Paul does not make a big ado about our Kingdom relationship, because after all that's primarily associated with the nation of Israel. But when Christ came to the nation of Israel, and John the Baptist announced to him, and he said, "...the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Well what was he talking about? The King was in their midst. The King literally physically in the person of Jesus of Nazareth was in their midst, and he was offering them the opportunity to have the Kingdom over which Christ would rule and reign. And so that was the whole concept as it came to the nation of Israel. Now we're not associated with the nation of Israel in that kind of a Kingdom relationship, but since Israel's King is our Savior, and is the head of the body, here again we do have a relationship, and for some reason or other the Holy Spirit has caused Paul to put this in here, that we have been made citizens of the Kingdom in Heaven. And that I can agree with 100%, but I still maintain that Paul never calls Christ our King. We are not in a King subject relationship. We are in the head of the body, and members of the body, which makes us heirs with Christ, joint heirs as we just saw in our last program, married to Christ in a spiritual relationship. But nevertheless we are now citizens of this Heavenly Kingdom, because God the Father has delivered us from the power of darkness. Now let's go back and compare Scripture with Scripture, and again we'll even go outside of Paul's realm, and go all the way back to Matthew chapter 16. Those of you who have been under my teaching very long may have heard this more than once, because this is Peter's confession of his saving faith during Christ's earthly ministry. Matthew 16, and remember this is just at the end of his ministry, from here they're going to go on up to Jerusalem, and he will be crucified. They're up in northern Israel, in the area that's in the news lately, just west of the Golan Heights. They were up there at Caesarea Philippi, which of course is at the northern border of Israel, right at the foot of Mount Hermon, and at the headwaters of the Jordan River. Whenever we go to Israel periodically, we try to go up there. We were there 2 years ago at Caesarea Philippi, so I know it's up there in northern Israel. So from there they're going to make their way down to Jerusalem, and the crucifixion. But here they are, up at Caesarea Philippi, and he asked his disciples, saying, "...whom do men say that I the Son of Man am?" Verse 14, they said, "...some say you're John the Baptist, some you're Elijah, others think you're Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. But he Jesus saith unto them, But whom say you that I am?" And Simon Peter answered and said, "...thou art the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God." That's as much as he said. Was it enough? Yes it was enough. And so look what Jesus answered, "...blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah, flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven." Now reconstruct, do you all remember the account of how Jesus was walking down the shores of Galilee, and He came across these fellows, probably mending their nets, and did He spend an hour or two telling them who He was, and what He was going to do? Not from what I understand in Scripture. What did He tell them? He said, "...follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men." And what did those men do? They dropped their tools, they dropped their nets, and they followed. Now have you ever asked, why? Why? Well here's the reason why. Because you see God opened the eyes of these fishermen, that here was the promised Messiah, and nothing more needs to be said. And that's what Jesus said. Peter, somebody didn't twist your arm to believe who I am. Somebody hasn't spent three years trying to tell you who I am. The Father opened your understanding. And so He said, "...blessed..." And it's because He was a believer now, but He said, "...no flesh and blood hath revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven." In other words it had to be a supernatural opening of even Peter's understanding. Has anything changed? No. The only thing is now we refer to it as the Spirit opening it, rather than the Father, but nevertheless they're all part of the Godhead, so that becomes irrelevant. Now let's take another one that I've used over and over, and whenever I tell people I pray almost every day for Lydias, I'm not talking about anything with regard to the feminine gender, I'm talking about the circumstance. Acts chapter 16, and I do almost every morning, I'll say, "...Lord now today as those programs go out, give me Lydias." By the hundreds, yes by the thousands, and what am I talking about? I used this expression to a pastor out in Carolina last summer, and he knew exactly what I was talking about. He said, you know I had never thought of it that way, but he said, God had to open the heart. I said that's exactly right. Now look at what it says, verse 13. They are up in Philippi, Paul and Silas, and they've come outside the city, and on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was wont to be made. In other words, these ladies were probably just having a devotional, and I think they were Jewish. And we sat down and spoke unto the women who resorted thither, and a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, who worshipped God. So she was a good Jew, and they heard us. Now here's the part I pray for, whether it's man or woman, boy or girl, that's irrelevant. Whose heart the Lord opened, and when the Lord opened her heart, what happened? She attended, or listened to the things spoken by Paul. And what do you suppose Paul told her? Christ died for your sins, and He arose from the dead. And she attended to that, and believed it, but would it have done Paul any good, had the Lord not opened her heart? No. And that has not changed. The Lord still has to open the heart of that lost person, so that they will listen, and come to the place of believing it. Now let's go to II Corinthians chapter 4, and this is along the same line of thinking. Now remember what we just saw, Peter, blessed art thou, for the Father hath revealed it unto thee. Lydia was the one whose heart the Lord opened. Now remember both of these people were in the same circumstance that these people are in II Corinthians chapter 4. Every human being is. Verse 3. If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. And that's every human being until they're saved, they're lost. Verse 4. In whom? That is in these lost people, good people, as well as the bad. Oh there's going to be millions of good people that are going to miss heaven. You know I always have to think when I say something like that, the old Negro spiritual. You remember? There's going to be a lot of people that think they're going, and they're not going to get there. You've heard it. Again that's not the exact word, but that's the thought. There's a lot of people that think they're going there, and they're not going to be there. Alright, here's the reason. Verse 4. In whom? That is in these lost people, the God of this world has blinded the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image, or the visible aspect of God, should shine unto them. Who is fighting constantly to keep people in the dark? Satan is. That's his job, and as soon as a person becomes a believer, then his job becomes one of throwing doubt in their way, and throwing all kinds of problems into the life of the believer. That's Satan's joy and desire. But first he's going to keep the minds of them who believe not, blinded, lest the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them. But now then, verse 6. By the power of God, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now how do you and I come to realize that first and foremost, who Jesus was? How do we get to realize that He died for my sin, and rose from the dead? God has to reveal it. God has to open our understanding. And I could stand here and teach until I'm blue in the face, and if God doesn't open the hearts, I'm wasting my breath. And that's the way it is all through Scripture. So now then as you come back to Colossians, this is the whole idea again. Paul is thanking God the Father, for having opened the hearts and the minds of these Colossi believers, and has delivered them from the power of darkness, the chains of Satan. But for these people, darkness was paganism, which is even far darker than our western civilization. And so the Lord opened their eyes, and delivered them from the power of darkness, and at the same moment, He transplanted, I guess in an area like eastern Oklahoma where everybody has flowers and gardens. When you transplant, you take a plant from that particular place, and you replant it over here. Well that's what God did with us. He took us out of darkness, and He literally transplanted us into the Kingdom of Heaven, and our eternal abode, and our position. Now a verse that we studied just several weeks ago in Philippians, so it won't hurt to review it. Let's go back up a page or two to Philippians chapter 3, and drop down to verse 20. Now the King James still uses the word, conversation. If you've got a new translation, let's say citizenship. For our citizenship is in Heaven. Then how did our citizenship get transplanted from the earthly domain to Heaven? Colossians 1. God the Father has transplanted us from darkness, into the Kingdom of His dear Son. Now isn't that something? That's not so deep, and yet very few people have this concept. Very few people understand that when they were saved, they were literally made a citizen of a Heavenly Kingdom, which of course will tie us then to when Christ returns, and yet sets up His Kingdom on earth, and we'll be part of that. So our citizenship is in Heaven, and lest you think it's a play on words, Paul by inspiration tells us exactly what Heaven he's talking about. The abode of God, from whence we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So that is what God has done by virtue of our faith in the Gospel. He has opened our eyes, He has broken those chains of darkness, and He has transplanted us into the Kingdom of His dear Son. Now on the 6 minutes we have left, I want to take the next verse, and it's going to take 6 minutes believe me. The next verse is verse 14, and the first thing you're going to notice is that in a lot of your new translations the word blood isn't in there. For whatever reason I'm not going to make comment on it, but my good old King James still has it. And here it is, verse 14, Colossians 1, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sin. Now we're probably going to have to move a little quicker. Go all the way back to Hebrews, a verse that we haven't used for a long time. We certainly have in the past, but it hasn't been a while. Hebrews chapter 8, verse 22, I'm giving you time, like I said before, the people will write and say, don't go so fast, give me time to find it. Almost all things are by the law, that is back in the sacrificial economy, were purged with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. Now I call that an absolute. They are trying to tell us today that there are no absolutes, but I beg to differ. There are absolutes, and this is one of them. That without the shedding of blood there has never been a forgiveness of any sin. You go right back to the Garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve had sinned and were expelled. What's the first thing that God does to restore them? Kills the animals. It was a blood sacrifice. Now it's amazing how that Satan counterfeits everything that is perfect in God's economy, and adulterates it in the process. Now if you know anything about paganism, if you've ever had missionaries come home especially years back, come home from some of these almost uncivilized areas, what were they constantly doing in their tribal rituals? Killing animals, or roosters, or birds, sprinkling the blood, or just smattering it all over? Why? Well that was Satan's counterfeit, and so almost every culture up through human history has had a constant bath of sacrificial blood. But that was the counterfeit, that was the adulteration. The true system of blood sacrifice was what God instituted with Adam and Eve, and then brought it up, and perfected it with the Law, and the temple worship, and it all was centered on the animal sacrifices. You know that, the Passover lamb, and I've showed you from Scripture that when Israel would sin a particular sin, there was a particular sacrifice that they would have to bring. It could be a turtle dove, it could be a goat, or whatever, but it was always a blood sacrifice. Because without the shedding of blood, there has never been forgiveness. Now I know today we don't hear anything anymore about the blood concept, but listen, it's the way the Sovereign God ordained it, that without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin. And of course I feel that the reason for that is that back in Genesis 9, it tells us that life is in the blood, and you cannot get new life without death happening first, and death is signified by shed blood. So you follow this all the way through God's whole dealing with the human race, leading up to His own supreme sacrifice, which had to be a shedding of blood. That's why He could never have been hung. He could have never died a death by hanging, which was a typical capital punishment way of putting people to death. But it wouldn't have worked, because then there wouldn't have been the shed blood. And it had to be a death where there would be that shedding of blood, because that's the way the Sovereign God ordained it. And who are we to say that the shed blood is no longer of consequence? Well anyone who does is in danger of hell fire, because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Now let's see how Paul enlarges on it. Come back with me again to Romans chapter 3, starting at verse 23. For all, every single human being, all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. But it doesn't stop there. Being justified freely by His grace, that unmerited favor, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now you all know what the word redemption means, it's a process of paying the price and gaining something back. So we have been redeemed. Verse 25. "...Christ Jesus of 24, God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood." You can't take that out. We have to maintain that it was His shed blood, which was in accordance with His whole divine plan for the ages, beginning with Adam and Eve's sin just outside the Garden, all the way up through the Old Testament economy of Law and Temple worship, all bringing us up to the supreme sacrifice of all time, the death of Christ Himself. And that's of course when sacrificing stopped. Biblically there was no more need for sacrifice once Christ died. Now the pagans kept it on, but biblically there was no more need for sacrifice. But never forget, without the shedding of blood there is no remission.