Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Nothing But The Blood - God Provides
Nothing But The Blood - God Provides
Hymn Series / Blood of Christ; Sanctification; Forgiveness; Salvation / Hebrews 9:22; Genesis
22:1–19; Leviticus 17:11
A message highlighting the Hymn Nothing But the Blood that describes how Christ's blood
sacrifice on the Cross is our only hope for forgiveness and Salvation.
Notes
Filling in for Pastor Jordan
Good morning New Beginnings! I am so glad that you chose to worship here
with us this morning! There is something special, something energizing about
being in the House of the Lord on a Sunday morning. If you are joining us live
online, we are glad that you are here as well! Although, we do hope you will be
able to join us in person soon. We miss seeing you!
He has asked me to finish up the series he has been doing on Hymns. So, this
morning I will be wrapping up the series by looking at the Hymn “Nothing but
the Blood,” written by Robert Lowry.
This Hymn was published in 1876, yes that was 145 years ago!
To place his hymn historically, here are a few things that happened in 1876,
John Hopkins University was founded, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a
patent for an invention known as the telephone, Thomas Edison was granted a
patent for a mimeograph machine, Wyatt Earp started work in Dodge City, “The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer” was published in the USA, The USA celebrated her
100th Birthday, George Custer died at the battle of Little Big Horn, and Heinz
Ketchup was introduced to the world! It was a busy year.
Robert Lowry was born in the North East and was a popular pastor of several
churches in PA, NY, and NJ. In was in his later years that he started writing
“Nothing But the Blood” is an amazing hymn based on amazing truths! These
truths are simple and profound, much like the hymn itself. The text, which we
will review in just a moment is structurally simple and communicates the very
essence of the Truth that is the Gospel message. These truths are beautifully
carried by a melody made up of only 5 notes and 2 chords! I would dare say that
Dr. Lowry did not want the music to get in the way of the message!
As I said, the lyrics are quite simple. The first stanza is made up of two simple
questions, both with the same answer.
› “What can wash away my sin?” “What came make me whole again?” “Nothing
but the Blood of Jesus.”
While simple, Lowry has touched on THE most profound truth in the entirety of
Scripture. He is tapping directly into the very scarlet thread that runs though
the Bible, Genesis to Revelation. That Thread is the promise, fulfillment, and
realization of the offer of Salvation through Jesus Christ. This Truth must be
dealt with eventually by all of us. That is my first point this morning.
This truth that I want to bring to our attention this morning is clearly presented
to us by the author of Hebrews.
If you read the Bible much, if you are at all familiar with the Old Testament in
This is because they did not understand something that is clear in Scripture. Le
17:11 says, very clearly might I add.....“For the life of a creature is in the blood...”
If you drain out the blood, you are draining the very life out of a person!
Today we understand this. We even have blood drives and blood banks, and
even blood buses! We hear slogans like, “Why wait to save a life? Donate Blood
today!”
Blood really is amazing, it is full of fascinating stuff that is so small that you
need a microscope to begin studying it. I will not go into all the details but
here are just a few things the cells in your blood do for you. They carry oxygen
to your organs and muscles, even to your brain. They help dispose of harmful
substances in your body like CO2 and Lactic Acid. Your blood carries around
an army of tiny white cells that fight off disease and infection. That is just to
name a few things we understand about the biology of blood.
That same passage in Leviticus tells us another thing that blood does for
mankind. And it is this purpose that our Hymn writer was proclaiming in our
hymn this week.
Le 17:11
God established very early, in fact right after Adam and Eve first sinned, that
only a blood sacrifice, the shedding and offering of blood, could atone for the
sin of a man or a woman. “It is the lifeblood that makes atonement” for sin. In
the Bible, both the old and new testament explain that God will not forgive sin
unless there has been lifeblood spilt to pay for that sin.
You must Realize that your sin has run up a debt that you cannot
pay.
We all have trespassed against God’s law. We all have went against His plan for
our lives, and that deviation started shortly after we drew our first breath on this
planet! No one had to teach me how to lie. No one taught me how to steal. No
one taught me how to be disrespectful. No one taught me how to lose my
temper. All of those things are natural talents!
Natural and sinful. These sins, each and every one of them, and all the others
that I drag around are enough to condemn me. I need redemption, I need
forgiveness, I need atonement, I need a blood sacrifice in order for my debt to
God to be made right, for it to be paid.
In the old testament, God made a work around. He allowed for a sacrifice, for
the shedding of the lifeblood of goats, sheep, and calves to be offered in
payment for personal sins.
All of this bloodshed was a foreshadowing, pointing toward the blood that
would eventually be shed by the perfect sacrifice that would be sufficient to pay
for, atone for, the sins of any who repents.
What can wash away my sin? What can make me whole again? Nothing but
the Blood of Jesus!
For my Pardon this I see! For my Cleansing, this my plea! Nothing but the
Blood of Jesus.
Today, we can only be pardoned, we can only be cleansed of sin, by the by the
Blood of Christ.
Mt 26:28
Eph 1:7
I am praising God this morning for the Blood of Jesus Christ! That perfect
sinless blood sacrifice poured out at the base of the Cross for me and for you. I
am praising God that He cared enough for me to send His son to donate His
lifeblood so that I could be be made whole again, that my relationship with my
creator could be reestablished, that my dead sinful self could be be made alive
again in Christ Jesus.
You know, it really is amazing. God has done all the work. He, the Creator of the
entire universe, came to earth as a humble helpless baby, lived a difficult life, in
constant danger, did it without breaking any of the rules that He had set up for
us to live by, and then willingly gave up that life, shedding His blood for us, so
that he could have a relationship with us! That is love!
john 3:16
Romans 5:8
You know what else amazes me? Even though God did all that for you and for
me, and for the rest of the world.... Many choose to ignore it! Many choose to
try to do what Cain did in Genesis and try to please God their own way, ignoring
the Sacrifice that Jesus made. Jesus is pouring his blood on the altar for us, and
It has always been popular to try to find your own way to God. Cain did it, the
Children of Israel did it, The Romans, the Greeks, and Americans do it today.
Today people seek to find God through many avenues including man made
religions and rituals. The most common though is for us humans to try to earn
our way to Him. We try to do a lot of Good, or we try to be really good. We try to
make a lot of money and give away a bit of it to good causes. Sure God will see
what I have done, what I have given to the causes that He things are important.
Perhaps that will pay my sin debt. We try to make ourselves important. If I am
important, rich enough, God will have to have a relationship with me, He will
have to let me into Heaven. We try to have our good deeds and actions out
weigh our bad, like God has some kind of grand cosmic scale and he is going to
weight all our actions and the outcome will decide out eternal fate. Bad news!!!
One tiny white lie, one lustful look, one burst of anger, outweighs all the good
we could ever do on this earth.
The Good News, or the Gospel is, that those things will never, can never
outweigh the sacrifice at the Cross.
Morality may keep you out of jail, but it takes the blood of Jesus Christ to keep
you out of hell.
—Spurgeon
People in the day of our hymn writer were seeking alternate ways, other than
repentance, to God too. I believe that is why Robert Lowry wrote the words of
the 3rd verse.
› “Nothing can for sin atone, Naught of good that I have done! Nothing but the
Ge 22:2-14
“Take your son,” He said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land
of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will
tell you about.” So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey,
and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a
burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. On the
third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. Then Abraham
said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over
there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” Abraham took the wood for
the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. In his hand he took the fire and
the sacrificial knife, and the two of them walked on together. Then Isaac spoke
to his father Abraham and said, “My father.” And he replied, “Here I am, my
son.” Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the
burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God Himself will provide the lamb for
the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together. When
they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar
there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the
altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to
slaughter his son. But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and
said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He replied, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Do not lay
a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God,
since you have not withheld your only son from Me.” Abraham looked up and
saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the
ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. And Abraham named
that place The LORD Will Provide...
› “This is all my Hope and Peace, This is all my righteousness, Nothing but the
Blood of Jesus.”
Let me close with a current and true story and a few questions.
My son, William, likes to give blood. I believe he has donated twice now in the
past year. It is pretty cool and is something that I have never done.
We have already talked about how according to modern science and according
to Scripture, blood is the source of life.
Just the other day, William received an email and I asked him if I could share it
with you today. He said yes! :)
William, We are pleased to share that you have received a heartfelt message
from a patient who received your 2 Units RBC donation. Your message was sent
to OneBlood through our NEW Message My Donor program.
Mankind also needs a permanent solution, and Jesus Christ has offered it. His
Blood has permanently concurred death, forever forgiven sin, and stands with
nail pierced hands outstretched waiting on your to call out to Him in order to
have that Holy Blood Donation, that Perfect Blood Sacrifice applied to your sin
debt, so that it can be paid in full.
› “O Precious is the flow, That makes me white as snow; No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
I promised a couple of questions for you. What are you going to do with the
precious life giving flow of the Blood of Jesus? Are you going to embrace it? Or
are you going to reject it?
You must Receive the Blood of Jesus as payment for your sins.
1 JN 1:5-10
Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is
light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him. If we say, “We have
fellowship with Him,” yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not
practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we
have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us
from all sin. If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive
What will it be today? Will you choose to continue to walk in darkness? Or will
you choose to walk in the Light? Will you choose to deceive yourself, or Will you
choose to confess your sins? If you will, He Will forgive them. He and only He
has the power and the right to do so. He has paid the impossibly high price the
only way possible, with His Precious Blood.